Mexico to-day, a country with a great future; and a glance at the prehistoric remains and antiquities of the Montezumas . the annals of his Conquest. Chapter HI. ofPrescotts. fifth book is headed :— Council of war—Spaniardsevacuate the city—Noche Triste, or the melancholy night—Ter-rible slaughter—Halt for the night—Amount of losses. The tree under which Cortes halted to watch the remnant ofhis followers pass by is a fine old cypress, similar to those atChapultepec. It is preserved from depredation by an iron railing,as the tree was once set on fire by the natives, as a mark ofdetestation of t
Mexico to-day, a country with a great future; and a glance at the prehistoric remains and antiquities of the Montezumas . the annals of his Conquest. Chapter HI. ofPrescotts. fifth book is headed :— Council of war—Spaniardsevacuate the city—Noche Triste, or the melancholy night—Ter-rible slaughter—Halt for the night—Amount of losses. The tree under which Cortes halted to watch the remnant ofhis followers pass by is a fine old cypress, similar to those atChapultepec. It is preserved from depredation by an iron railing,as the tree was once set on fire by the natives, as a mark ofdetestation of their Spanish rulers. Prescott, in the chapter justreferred to, gives a graphic description of this, the most notedepisode of the Conquest. I again regret that the learned historianhad never the opportunity of visiting and seeing the places hedescribes. It is so dijfficult, under the present changed aspect ofthe famous causeway, to find the spots where the greatest featsor most terrible sufferings took place. There were three tem-porary bridges on the causeway to be crossed, or rather the gaps PLATE THE TREE OF THE NOCHE TRISTE. ^cuie 86. CHAP. xr. ALVABADO. 87 where the bridges should have been; that over which Alvaradomade the almost incredible leap is still commemorated by hisname, though it is now merely a gutter or drain under the and other famous places in the locality now take hours ofresearch to find, whereas a note or two given by Prescott mighthave clearly indicated them. From this tree Cortes went on amile farther to Tacuba, or Tlacopam, as it was then called, wherehe endeavoured to reform his disorganised battalion, and bringthem to something like order. Here is still to be seen a portionof a large pyramid, on the top of which stood probably theteocaUi, or temple, which he used as a refuge for his exhaustedtroops. The pyramid is being rapidly destroyed by brickmakers,who are working up the old material into new bricks. A Sir John Lubbocks
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectmexicod, bookyear1883
