gradually carried this system of cultivation to perfection, The floating gardens, of which very many were found by the Spaniards, and of which many still exist in the lake of Chalco, were rafts formed of reeds (totora), rushes, roots, and branches of brushwood. The Indians cover these light and well-connected materials with black mould, naturally impregnated with muriate of soda. The soil is gradually purified from this salt by washing it with the water of the lake; and the ground becomes so much the more fertile as this lixiviation is annually repeated. This process succeeds even with the salt water of the lake of Tezcuco, because this water, by no means at the point of its saturation, is still capable of dissolving salt as it filtrates through the mould. The chinampas sometimes contain even the cottage of the Indian who acts as guard for a group of floating gardens. They are towed or pushed with long poles when wished to be removed from one side of the banks to the other.

In proportion as the fresh water lake has be, come more distant from the salt water lake, the moveable chinampas have become fixed. We see this last class all along the canal de la Viga, in the marshy ground between the lake of Chalco and the lake of Tezcuco. Every chinampa forms a parallelogram of 100 metres in length, and from five to six metres in breadth *. Nar

328 by 16 or 19 feet. Trans.

row ditches, communicating symmetrically between them, separate these quares. The mould fit for cultivation, purified from salt by frequent irrigations, rises nearly a metre* above the surface of the surrounding water. On these chinampas are cultivated beans, small pease, pimento (chile, capsicum), potatoes, artichokes, cauliflowers, and a great variety of other vegetables. The edges of these squares are generally ornamented with flowers, and sometimes even with a hedge of rose bushes. The promenade in boats around the chinampas of Istacalco is one of the most agreeable that can be enjoyed in the environs of Mexico. The vegetation is extremely vigorous on a soil continually refreshed with water.

1

The valley of Tenochtitlan offers to the examination of naturalists two sources of mineral water, that of Nuestra Señora de Guadelupe, and that of the Peñon de los Baños. These sources contain carbonic acid, sulfate of lime and soda, and muriate of soda. Baths have been esta blished there in a manner equally salutary and convenient. The Indians manufacture their salt near the Peñon de los Baños. They wash clayey lands full of muriate of soda, and concentrate water which have only 12 or 13 to the 100 of salt. Their caldrons, which are very ill con. structed, have only six square feet of surface,

3.28 feet. Trans.

and from two to three inches of depth. No other combustible is employed but the mules and cow dung. The fire is so ill managed, that to produce twelve pounds of salt, which sells at 35 sous*, they consume 12 sous' worth of combustiblest. This salt pit existed in the time of Motezuma, and no change has taken place in the technical process but the substitution of caldrons of beaten copper to the old earthen

vats.

The hill of Chapoltepec was chosen by the young viceroy Galvez as the site of a villa (Chateau de Plaisance) for himself and his successors. The castle has been finished externally, but the apartments are not yet furnished. This building cost the king nearly a million and a half of livres. The court of Madrid disapproved of the expense, but, as usual, after it was laid out. The plan of this' edifice is very singular. It is fortified on the side of the city of Mexico. We perceive salient walls and parapets adapted for cannon, though these parts have all the appearance of mere architectural ornaments. Towards the north there are fosses and vast vaults capable of containing provisions for several months. The common opinion at Mexico is, that the house of the viceroy at

1s. 54d. Trans.

† 52d. Trans. 62,5051. sterling. Trans.

Chapoltepec is a disguised fortress. Count Bernardo de Galvez was accused of having conceived the project of rendering New Spain independent of the peninsula; and it was supposed that the rock of Chapoltepec was destined for an asylum and defence to him in case of attack from the European troops. I have seen men of respectability in the first situations who entertained this suspicion against the young viceroy. It is the duty of a historian, however, not to yield too easy an acquiescence to accusations of so grave a nature. The Count de Galvez belonged to a family that King Charles the Third had suddenly raised to an extraordinary degree of wealth and power. Young, amiable, and addicted to pleasures and magnificence, he had obtained from the munificence of his sovereign one of the first places to which an individual could be exalted; and, consequently, it could not be becoming in him to break the ties which for three centuries had united the colonies to the mother country. The Count de Galvez, notwithstanding his conduct, was well calculated

* What the intentions of Galvez were is another affair; but can the author seriously believe that these circumstances really do away the suspicions which he has mentioned? No person was so likely to conceive a project of the sort as a man dazzled with the suddenness of his elevation; fond of magnificence, and eager for popularity. Alas! gratitude is but a small obstacle in the way of ambition. Trans.

to gain the favour of the populace of Mexico, and notwithstanding the influence of the Coun tess de Galvez, as beautiful as she was generally beloved, would have experienced the fate of every European viceroy who aims at independence. In a great revolutionary commotion it would never have been forgiven him that he was not born an American.

The castle of Chapoltepec should be sold for the advantage of the government. As in every country it is difficult to find individuals fond of purchasing strong places, several of the ministers of the Real Hacienda have begun, by selling to the highest bidder the glass and sashes of the windows. This vandalism, which passes by the name of economy, has already much contributed to degrade an edifice on an elevation of 2325 metrest, and which, in a climate so rude, is

* Of the fifty viceroys who have governed Mexico from 1535 to 1808, one alone was born in America, the Peruvian Don Juan de Acuna, Marquis de Casa Fuerte (1722-1734,) á disinterested man and good administrator. Some of my readers will, perhaps, be interested in knowing that a descendant of Christopher Columbus and a descendant of King Motezuma were among the viceroys of New Spain. Don Pedro Nuño Colon, Duke de Veraguas, made his entry at Mexico in 1673, and died six days afterwards. The viceroy Don Joseph Sarmiento Valladares, Count de Motezuma, governed from 1697 to 1701.

† 7626 feet. The reader need not be told, that this is to be understood as the elevation above the level of the sea, and not the height of the hill of Chapoltepec. Trans.