over roads which connected the distant parts of the empire; and
it is stated that two hundred miles were covered in a day by these
trained messengers, each of which performed the two leagues--the
distance between the post-houses--within an hour. Just as the Inca
Emperor of Peru, at Cuzco, beyond the great Cordillera of the Andes,
was served with fish brought in _fresh_ from the Pacific Ocean, so
Montezuma, the Aztec monarch, also ate it, straight from the Gulf of
Mexico, at his capital of Tenochtitlan beyond the maritime Cordillera
of Anahuac. Striking and of marked interest to the traveller of to-day,
in those vast and rugged regions of Mexico and Peru, is this matter of
the native couriers, who journeyed over mountain roads, swollen rivers,
desert plains, and ice-crowned summits.

The wealthier people lived in houses of stone, finished and furnished
with certain barbaric luxuriance, in which tapestries woven and richly
coloured, and secured with fastenings of gold, had their place. A
remarkable industry and article of clothing of the early Mexicans was
the beautiful feather-work, made of the plumage of the many-coloured
birds, for which Mexico is famous. Surtouts of this feather-work were
worn outside their military dresses, or armour, of padded cotton.

War was the great mainspring of action of the Aztecs. It is true that
they had a long peaceful period after their establishing upon the
lake-girt island of the Eagle and the Serpent, and that they developed
their civilisation in some security within this natural fortification,
but nevertheless, as previously shown, they extended their conquests on
all sides. Fear, not regard, kept the subject-nations of Anahuac under
their sway, however, and this was one of the elements leading to the
downfall of the empire, in the course of time. Military orders were
much esteemed and bestowed. The armies were well equipped and drilled,
and breaches of discipline were rigorously punished. The hospitals,
which were established for the treatment of the sick and wounded,
called forth the praise of the Spanish chroniclers. Captives of war
were made as abundantly as possible, to be reserved for the sacrificial
stone of the war-god, and the Aztecs carried on this appalling practice
of human sacrifice to such an extent as has not been equalled by any
other nation. But the most atrocious part of the ceremony, as practised
on some occasions, was that of the serving up of the body of victims