both from the cold, and the extreme impetuosity of the winds, which constantly prevail on this table land. Cortez speaking of this march to the Emperor, expresses himself in the following manner*: "Seeing smoke issue from a very elevated "mountain, and wishing to make to your royal

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excellency a minute report of whatever this "country contains of wonderful, I chose from

among my companions in arms, ten of the "most courageous, and I ordered them to as"cend the summit, and to discover the secret "of the smoke (el secreto de aquel humo), and "to tell me how and whence it issued."

Bernal Diaz affirms that Diego Ordaz was of that expedition, and that that captain attained the very brink of the crater. He may have happened to boast of it afterwards, for it is related by other historians, that the Emperor gave him permission to place a volcano in his arms. Lopez de Gomarat, who composed his history from the accounts of the conquistadores and religious missionaries, does not name Ordaz as the chief of the expedition; but he vaguely asserts that two Spaniards measured with the eye, the size of the crater. However Cortez expressly says, " that his people "ascended very high; that they saw much smoke

* Lorenzana, p. 70. Clavigero, T. iii. p. 68.

+ Gomara. Conquista de Mexico, (Medina del Campo, 553) fol. 38.

"issue out; but that none of them could reach "the summit of the volcano, on account of "the enormous quantity of snow with which "it was covered, the rigour of the cold, and the clouds of ashes which enveloped the travellers." A horrible noise which they heard on approaching the summit, determined them immediately to turn back. We see from the account of Cortez, that the expedition of Ordaz had no view of extracting sulphur from the volcano, and that neither he nor his companions saw the crater in 1519. "They brought "back," says Cortez, " only snow and pieces of ❝ice, the appearance of which astonished us very "much, because this country is under the 20° " of latitude, in the parallel of the island Es"pañola (Saint Domingo), and consequently "according to the opinion of the pilots ought to be very warm."

- We see from the third and fourth letter of Cortez to the Emperor, that that general after the taking of Mexico, ordered other attempts to be made for the discovery of the summit of the volcano, which appeared the more to fix his attention, as the natives assured him that no mortal was permitted to approach that situation of bad spirits. After two unsuccesful attempts, the Spaniards at length succeeded in 1522, in seeing the crater of the Popocatepetl. It appeared to them three fourths of

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a league in circumference, and they found on the brink of the precipice, a small quantity of sulphur, which had been deposited there by the vapours. Speaking of the tin of Tasco, which was used in founding the first cannon, Cortez* relates," that he is in no want of sulphur for the manufacture of powder, be66 cause a Spaniard drew some from a moun"tain which perpetually smokes by descending, "tied to a rope, to the depth of from 70 to "80 fathoms." He adds, that this manner of procuring sulphur was very dangerous, and on that account it would be better to procure it from Seville.

A document preserved in the family of the Montaños, and which Cardinal Lorenzana affirms he once had in his hands, proves that the Spaniard of whom Cortez speaks, was named Francisco Montaño. Did that intrepid man really enter into the crater itself of the Popocatepetl, or did he extract the sulphur as several persons in Mexico suppose, from a lateral crevice of the volcano? We shall discuss this question in another work, when giving the geological description of New Spain. M. Alzate†

* De alli (de la sierra que da humo), entrando un Español setenta y ochenta brazas, atado a la bocca abajo, se ha sacado (el azufre), que hasta ahora nos hemos sustenido, (Loranzana, p. 380.)

† Gazeta de Literatura de Mexico, 1789, p. 52.

with very little foundation affirms that Diego Ordaz, extracted sulphur from the crater of the old volcano of Tuctli, to the east of the lake of Chalco, near the Indian village of Tuliahualco. The makers of contraband powder no doubt procure sulphur there; but Cortez expressly designates the Popocatepetl by the phrase "the "mountain which constantly smokes." However this matter be, it is certain that after the rebuilding of the city of Tenochtitlan, and not during the siege as Solis affirms*, the soldiers of the army of Cortez ascended the summit of the Popocatepetl†, where nobody has since been. Had Condamine known the absolute elevation of this volcano, which I found to be 5400 metres§, he would not have believed himself the first who ascended the ridge of the Cordilleras, to the height of 4800 metres|| above the level of the ocean. The expeditions of Ordaz and Montaño, naturally lead us to mention the intrepidity of Blas de Iñena a Dominican monk, who in an osier basket provided with a spoon and an iron bucket, was let down by a chain to the depth of 140 fa

* Solis, Conquista de Mexico, p. 142.

+ Lorenzana, p. 318.

Bouguer, mesure de la terre, p. 167. La Condamine, Voyage, p. 58.

$ 17,716 feet. Trans.

15,747 feet. Trans

thoms, in the crater of the volcano of Grenada, called the Cerro de Messaya, situated near the lake of Nicaragua, for the purpose of extracting the lava which he believed to be gold. He lost his iron bucket, which was melted with the excessive heat, and he had no small difficulty in saving himself. In 1551, Juan Alvarez, dean of the chapter of the town of Leon, obtained formal permission from the court of Madrid "to open the volcano, and collect "the gold which it contains." It must be allowed that no physical traveller from a zeal for science has engaged in our days in such hazardous enterprizes as those which were attempted in the beginning of the sixteenth century for the purpose of extracting sulphur or gold from the mouth of flaming volcanoes.

We shall conclude the article of the manufactures of New Spain with mentioning the working of gold and the coining of money which considered merely in the relation of industry, and mechanical improvement, are objects every way worthy of attention. There are few countries in which a more considerable number of large pieces of wrought plate, vases and church ornaments are annually executed than in Mexico. The smallest towns have gold and silver smiths in whose shops workmen of

*Gomara, Historia de las Indias, fol. 112.