sions. "Those of Milan, Genoa, and Rome,' says Mr Bullock, are built in better taste, but, in expensive interior decorations, the quantity and value of the ornaments of the altar, and the richness of the vestments, they are far surpassed by the churches of Puebla and Mexico.' The city occupies a well chosen spot; it is compactly and uniformly built on the side of a hill, and commands a wide and interesting prospect over a fertile and cultivated country, which is bounded by lofty chains of mountains and the volcanoes of Puebla. The streets are well paved, the houses large, commodious, and constructed chiefly of stone, the markets profusely supplied, backney coaches stand in public parts of the city, private equipages are numerous, and all the common sources of human enjoyment seem to be as abundant and accessible in Puebla as can be desired. The bishop of this province receives an income of one hundred and ten thousand dollars a year.

A few miles from Puebla, and a little to the left of the main road to Mexico, stands the once famed city of Cholula, which is now remarkable only for its Teocalli, or artificial hill, built before the conquest, and probably devoted to purposes of idolatrous worship. It is ranked as one of the most curious and extraordinary antiquities of the country, and is thus an object of attraction to the traveller. As the author left Puebla for Mexico, he turned aside from the direct route to visit this structure, and enjoy the magnificent prospect seen from its summit. On approaching this Teocalli, its appearance is that of a natural hill rising out of a plain, having a pyramidal form, and being covered with shrubs and trees. When examined, however, it is found to consist of distinct and alternate layers of unburnt bricks and clay. The ascent is by a rugged flight of stone steps reaching to the area at top, which spreads itself over a space of 3500 square yards. On this level platform stands a church with two towers and a dome, embosomed in a wood of evergreen cypress.' This enormous pile is an effort of human labor little inferior to that, which raised the pyramids of Egypt; and, indeed, the structure itself is considerably larger in its mass, though less in its elevation, than the largest of the Egyptian pyramids. According to the measurement of Humboldt, the Teocalli of Cholula is 162 feet high, and 1301 feet on each side of its

base, whereas the pyramid of Cheops is only 693 feet square at the base, thus occupying hardly more than one quarter as much space as the pyramid of Cholula. A road has been cut through a portion of this pyramid, by which a cavity was opened containing two skeletons, and several ornamented vases. The view from the top is grand and beautiful, embracing, in addition to the city and surrounding fertile plains, the volcanoes of Puebla, the mountains of Thlascala on the north, and the detached peaks of Popocatapetl, Iztocihuatl, and Orizaba, each of which rises to a higher elevation than Mont Blanc in Europe.*

The modern town of Cholula stands on a plain at the foot of the Teocalli, and is said to contain about six thousand inhabitants. The change has been great since the days of Cortes, when it was a city of large extent and population, remarkable for its manufacture of a beautiful kind of earthen ware, its trade, and particularly for its temples, idols, and religious ceremonies. Clavigero says that in respect to religion, Cholula was the Rome of Anahuac.† After forming an alliance with the Thlascalans, Cortes and his six hundred Spaniards entered this city with marked demonstrations of respect and kindness from the inhabitants, but within three days he found that this show of civility was a feint to entice him into a fatal snare. Ambassadors from the great Montezuma had wrought upon the minds of the Cholulans, and persuaded them, by a scheme of deep treachery, to cut off the whole body of these intruding strangers at a blow. The plot was discovered, however, before the time appointed to put it in execution arrived, and by his usual firmness and presence of mind Cortes averted the danger. He called a certain number of the chiefs and magistrates before him, charged them with their treacherous designs, and reproached them with the infamy of being deceivers and traitors. They did not deny the charge, but said they were instigated by emissaries from Montezuma. With this apology the conqueror was not satisfied; he determined to make his authority felt in a summa

* We suppose the author mistakes in calling Popocatapetl the loftiest mountain in North America.' It is estimated at 17,716 feet above the level of the sea; but Mount St Elias, on the North West Coast, is stated to be 18,090 feet.

+ Per ciò che riguarda la religione può dirsi che Chololla era la Roma d'Anahuac. Stor. Ant. del. Mess. Lib. VIII. § 26.

ry way, and accordingly gave orders to his men to attack the people, and pursue them with an indiscriminate slaughter. Bernal Diaz, who was a soldier under Cortes and present on the occasion, and who afterwards wrote a history of the conquest esteemed for its fidelity, says that many were killed, and others burnt alive, contrary to the promises of their false idols.*

This was a stain on the character of Cortes, which has never been wiped off. The renowned and virtuous Las Casas wrote with great indignation and feeling on the subject, in the lifetime of the conqueror, and accused him of excessive and unjustifiable cruelty. Diaz complains of the severity of Las Casas' censures, and defends the conduct of his general. He moreover adds, that the first missionaries sent to New Spain, not long after the event, visited Cholula on purpose to inquire into the subject, and that they were satisfied the punishment was such as the treachery of the inhabitants deserved, and as would alone secure the safety of the Spaniards. But it must be remembered, that Diaz and the missionaries put the thing chiefly on the ground of religion, arguing that if this massacre had not been committed, the lives of the Spaniards would have been in jeopardy, the natives would not have been conquered, and thus they would have remained forever in idolatry. This is a very specious mode of reasoning, and is enough to show that the warmth of Las Casas was not without good cause; and this, notwithstanding Clavigero's assertion, that he does not adduce sufficient proofs to merit our confidence,-nè adduce prove sufficienti a meritar la nostra fede. We know not what better proof is wanted, than the confession of Cortes himself, and of the accredited historian who was on the spot.†

* Matamos muchos dellos, i otros se quemaron vivos, que no les aprovecho las plomessas de sus falsos idolos. Hist. Verdad. de la Conquist. de la Neuv. Esp. Cap. 83.

There are some discrepances in the accounts of the number killed in this massacre. Cortes, in his letters to the king, states it at more than three thousand. En dos horas murieron mas de tres mil hombres. Historia de Neuv Esp. escrita por Hernan Cories, cap. xv.-Clavigero makes it more than six thousand. His words are, Con questa orribile strage nella quale perirono più di sei mila Chololesi, &c. Lib. viii. §27. Other writers have enlarged the number, and it has even been carried up to seventy thousand, which is doubtless an extravagant exaggeration.

Clavigero also makes a strange mistake in citing Cortes respecting the population of the city. Cortes says there were twenty thousand houses in the

On the next morning after visiting Cholula the travellers ascended a ridge of mountains, from which they had a magnificent prospect of the great valley of Mexico, with its lakes, insulated hills, snowy mountains, and cultivated fields, interspersed with haciendas and villages.' A few hours ride brought them to the lake of Tezcuco, where they entered on a paved causeway eighty feet broad, extending along the margin of the lake. Distant spires and churches had already warned them of their approach to the city, and they soon found themselves within its walls.

At the time of the conquest it is well known, that Mexico was a city of great extent and splendor. The arts of civilisation were carried to a much higher degree of perfection in this place, than in any other part of the new world. The city then stood on an island in the lake of Tezcuco, and was connected with the main land by three causeways, one of which was seven, another three, and the last two miles in length. Each was so broad, that ten men could pass abreast on horseback. The city itself, exclusive of the suburbs, measured ten miles in circumference, and according to Clavigero contained sixty thousand houses. There were numerous palaces and temples ornamented with costly decorations of gold and silver, and the private dwellings were many of them spacious, containing balconies and parapets, which served at the same time for the convenience and pleasure of the inhabitants, and as a ready defence against an enemy. The market places were large, and crowded with people and merchandise; and vast numbers of boats and canoes were constantly plying from every part of the lake to the city. Such were the show of wealth, the multitudes of people, the activity and bustle of business, the ex

city, and as many in the suburbs. Esta ciudad tiene hasta veinte mit casas dentro de el cuerpo de la ciudad, e tiene de arrabales otras tantas. Cap. 15. Clavigero says the number of houses within the city was forty thousand, and the same number in the suburbs, adding-secondo che afferma Cortes Lib. VIII. § 26.

There is also a disagreement between Cortes and Diaz respecting the number of temples and towers in the city. Cortes tells the king, that from the top of one temple he counted four hundred others, and as many towers,-mezquitas quatrocientas i tantas torres. Diaz speals only of one hundred,-sobre cien torres mui altas. This difference may be reconciled, however, by supposing that Diaz refers only to the more conspicuous, mui altas, whereas Cortes embraces all he could see from an elevated position.

cellence of the police, and the regularity with which everything was conducted, that the Spanish officers in Cortes' army, who had travelled over all parts of Europe, confessed, as Bernal Diaz affirms, that they had seen no city, which in these respects surpassed Mexico.

In Mr Bullock's volume of travels, referred to above, we find a curious extract from the account of an English Dominican friar, by the name of Thomas Gage, who went to Mexico in the year 1625, and resided there twelve years. After his return to England, he wrote a work entitled, The English American, his Travels by Sea and Land, in which he described Mexico as he saw it a century after the Spanish conquest. We quote the author in his own quaint language.

It

'The streets are very broad, in the narrowest three coaches may goe, and in the broader six may goe in the breadth of them, which makes the city seem a great deal bigger than it is. In my time it was thought to bee of between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, Spaniards, who are so proud and rich, that half the city was judged to keep coaches, for it was a most credible report, that in Mexico, in my time, there was above fifteen thousand coaches. is a by-word, that in Mexico there are foure things faire, that is to say, the women, the apparel, the horses, and the streets. But to this I may add the beauty of some of the coaches of the gentry. which doe exceed in cost the best of the court of Madrid and other parts of Christendome, for there they spare no silver nor gold, nor pretious stones, nor cloath of gold, nor the best silks of China, to enrich them. And to the gallantry of their horses, the pride of some adde the cost of bridles and shooes of silver. The streets of Christendome must not compare with those in breadth and cleannesse, but especially in the riches of the shops, which doe adorn them. Above all, the goldsmiths' shops and workes are to be admired. The Indians, and the people of China that have been made Christians, and every yeere come thither, have now perfected the Spaniards in those trades. The viceroye, who went thither in the yeere 1625, caused a popingay to be made of silver, gold, and pretious stones, with the perfect colour of the popingay's feathers, (a bird bigger than a pheasant,) with such exquisite art and perfection, to present unto the king of Spain, that it was prized to be in riches and workmanship halfe a million of duckats. There is in the cloyster of the Dominicans a lampe hanging in the church, with ⚫ three hundred branches wrought in silver, to hold so many candles, besydes a hundred little lampes for oyle set in it, every one being VOL. XX.-No. 46.

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