itnesses of the result of this excavation are
still at Cholula, and the fact is mentioned in several American
works; my inference from the fact is the only novelty in the
matter.

[12] Cortez's "Letters," Folsom's translation, p. 71.

[13] This word mosques Cortez constantly makes use of, apparently
to keep before the people of Spain the idea that he Was
conducting a holy war.

CHAPTER IX.

A Ride to Popocatapetl.--The Village of Atlizco.--The old Man of
Atlizco and the Inquisition.--A novel Mode of Escape.--An avenging
Ghost.--The Vice-King Ravillagigedo.--The Court of the Vice-King
and the Inquisition.--Ascent of Popocatapetl.--How a Party perished
by Night.--The Crater and the House in it.--Descent into the
Crater.--The Interior.--The Workmen in the Volcano.--The View from
Popocatapetl.--The first White that climbed Popocatapetl.--The Story
of Corchado.--Corchado converts the Volcano into a Sulphur-mine.

One of the first objects of interest in Mexico is the volcano of
Popocatapetl. A stage runs from Puebla to Atlizco, but beyond that
village the visitor must travel upon horseback. Atlizco is worthy of a
special notice from its situation in a most fertile valley, and its
peculiar location at the base of a conical hill. This hill, like every
attractive locality in Mexico, is the scene of romantic traditions of
the common people. From many, I select one illustration of the state of
society in the times of the vice-kings.

There once was, the tradition runs in this village, an old _hidalgo_
who possessed a plantation in the immediate neighborhood of the town.
His family consisted of himself and two daughters; and he was rich.
Upon a certain time, one of those strolling monks, with whom the
country abounds, chanced to offer an indignity to one of the daughters,
and the old man chanced to return the indignity by inflicting upon the
monk such a beating as never poor friar had yet received in the
vice-kingdom--such a one as the feelings of an outraged father alone
could justify. This was not the end of the matter; it was only the
beginning of evil to the old man, as he well knew, for he had laid his
hands upon one of the consecrated--one who had received the sacrament
of "Holy Orders;" and, above all, he was rich enough to tempt the
cupidity of the Inquisition, which always watched with jealous care
over the orthodoxy of those whose estates, when confiscated, would ad