mages occurred in the _place_ or great square of
Mexico--the Aztec forum--and similar spots. Ever since the Spanish
invasion the destruction of the native objects of art has been ceaseless
and ruthless. "Two celebrated bas-reliefs of the last Montezuma and his
father," says Prescott, "cut in the solid rock, in the beautiful groves
of Chapoltepec, were deliberately destroyed, as late as the last century
[i. e., the eighteenth], by order of the government." He further
remarks:

This wantonness of destruction provokes the bitter animadversion of
the Spanish writer Martyr, whose enlightened mind respected the
vestiges of civilization wherever found. "The conquerors," says he,
"seldom repaired the buildings that they defaced; they would rather
sack twenty stately cities than erect one good edifice."

The pre-Columbian Mexicans inherited a practical knowledge of mechanics
and engineering. The Calendar Stone, for example (spoken of in the
preceding chapter), a mass of dark porphyry estimated at fifty tons
weight, was carried for a distance of many leagues from the mountains
beyond Lake Chalco, through a rough country crossed by rivers and
canals. In the passage its weight broke down a bridge over a canal, and
the heavy rock had to be raised from the water beneath. With such
obstacles, without the draft assistance of horses or cattle, how was it
possible to effect such a transport? Perhaps the mechanical skill of
their builders and engineers had contrived some tramway or other
machinery. An English traveler had a curious suggestion:

Latrobe accommodates the wonders of nature and art very well to
each other, by suggesting that these great masses of stone were
transported by means of the mastodon, whose remains are
occasionally disinterred in the Mexican Valley.

The Mexicans wove many kinds of cotton cloth, sometimes using as a dye
the rich crimson of the cochineal insect. They made a more expensive
fabric by interweaving the cotton with the fine hair of rabbits, and
other animals; sometimes embroidering with pretty designs of flowers and
birds, etc. The special art of the Aztec weaver was in feather-work,
which when brought to Europe produced the highest admiration:

With feathers they could produce all the effect of a beautiful
mosaic. The gorgeous plumage of the tropical birds, especially of
the parrot tribe, afforded every variety of color; and the fine
d