eside. The evening was not half long enough to say all that was to
be discussed. As we sat and chatted, and drank our tea with a gusto we
had never known before, we forgot altogether that we were indulging in
plebeian enjoyments upon the spot where a king's palace had probably
stood. Instead of such plebeian things as a wood floor and Brussels
carpet, his half-clad majesty had here squatted upon a mat, and dealt
out justice or injustice, according to his caprice, to trembling crowds
of dirty Indians, whose royal rags and feathers made them princely.
Dignity and majesty are truly parts of Indian character, but a good
dinner and a clean bed are luxuries that an Indian, even though he were
an emperor, never knew.

My business here was to search for relics, and as soon as daylight
appeared I was astir. But no relics could be found except some stone
images so rudely cut as to be a burlesque upon Indian stone-cutting.
There was a sacrificial stone and a calendar stone built into the steps
of the church of San Francisco, which were so badly done that the use
to which they had been applied could just be made out. Here, too, was a
rude stone wall, that had been built over the grave of Don Fernando,
the first Christian king of Tezcuco, who had been converted to
Christianity by Cortez. There is also here one of those little chapels
which Cortez built, which indicate extremely limited means in the
builder.

At the distance of a bow-shot from this is the site of the "slip"
(canal) which Cortez says he caused to be dug, twelve feet wide and
twelve feet deep, in order to float his brigantines. Near by, the
Indians were digging a new canal for the little steam-boat which now
plies on the laguna. When they reached a point less than three feet
from the surface, they were stopped by the water. How could Cortez,
under greater disadvantages, dig to the depth of twelve feet, without
even iron shovels?

I returned to the _hacienda_ and inquired if there were no other
relics. The proprietor assured me that he had been unable to find any
except the Indian mounds which he showed me, and some stone cellar
steps that he had found in digging. And this is all that now remains of
the great and magnificent city of Tezcuco, which had entered into
alliance with Cortez, and which, for more than a hundred years after
the Conquest, was under the especial care of a Superintendent sent from
Spain, as an Indian Reservation.

There are here eight Francisc