and it seems to me {148} but
just to my Prince and Sovereign to declare the truth in the clearest
manner, without saying anything that would detract from it, or add to
it.

Before I begin to describe this great city and the others already
mentioned, it may be well for the better understanding of the subject
to say something of the configuration of Mexico,[1] in which they are
situated, it being the principal seat of Muteczuma's power. This
province is in the form of a circle, surrounded on all sides by lofty
and rugged mountains; its level surface comprises an area of about
seventy leagues in circumference, including two lakes, that overspread
nearly the whole valley, being navigated by boats more than fifty
leagues round. One of these lakes contains fresh, and the other, which
is the larger of the two, salt water. On one side of the lakes, in the
middle of the valley, a range of highlands divides them from one
another, with the exception of a narrow strait which lies between the
highlands and the lofty sierras. This strait is a bow-shot wide, and
connects the two lakes; and by this means a trade is carried on by the
cities and other settlement on the lakes in canoes, without the
necessity of traveling by land. As the salt lake rises and falls with
the tides like the sea, during the time of high water it pours into the
other lake with the rapidity of a powerful stream; and on the other
hand, when the tide has ebbed, the water runs from the fresh into the
salt lake.

This great city of Temixtitan (Mexico) is situated in this salt lake,
and from the main land to the denser parts of it, by which ever route
one choses to enter, {149} the distance is two leagues. There are four
avenues or entrances to the city, all of which are formed by artificial
causeways, two spears' length in width. The city is as large as
Seville or Cordova; its streets, I speak of principal ones, are very
wide and straight; some of these, and all the inferior ones, are half
land and half water, and are navigated by canoes. All the streets at
intervals have openings, through which the water flows, crossing from
one street to another; and at these openings, some of which are very
wide, there are also very wide bridges, composed of large pieces of
lumber, of great strength and well put together; on many of these
bridges ten horses can go abreast. Foreseeing that if the inhabitants
of this city should prove treacherous, they would possess grea