p singular reflections to look upon a living thing that has
existed for a thousand years, though it be only a tree. Though so many
centuries have rolled over the venerable cypresses of Chapultepec, yet
they still are sound and vigorous. The extensive springs of pure water
that issue from beneath this immense rock have kept them flourishing in
the midst of a _tequisquite_ valley. Long gray threads of Spanish moss
hang pendent from the extremity of their limbs and cover the lower
leaves. These trees are the only living links that unite modern and
ancient American civilization; for they were in being while that
mysterious race, the Toltecs, were still upon the table-lands of
Mexico--a race that has left behind, not only at Teotihuacan, but in
the hot country, the imperishable memorials of a civilization like that
of Egypt; and from them the Aztecs acquired an imperfect knowledge of a
few simple arts.[38]

These trees had long been standing, when a body of Aztecs, wandering
away from their tribe in search of game, fixed themselves upon the
islands of this marsh, first about the rock of Chapultepec, then at
Mexicalzingo and Iztapalapan, and finally at Mexico. These trees were
undisturbed by the Spaniards when Cortez took the city, and the
Americans respected their great antiquity, so that during all the wars
and battles that have taken place around and above them, they have
passed unharmed.

Not only unnumbered generations, but whole races have appeared and
disappeared, while these trees have quietly flourished amid the strife
of the elements and the contentions of men, taking no heed of the
passing events of which they were spectators. The Toltecs, of whom we
must speak more fully hereafter, were the first of these races that
disappeared from the table-land--the victims of wars, and of that
plague of the Indian races, the _matlazhuatl_. As the Aztecs rose
into importance by their success in war and by the multitude of their
captives, Indian princes made the springs near Chapultepec their
favorite bathing-place, and spread their mats under these trees, and in
their shadow enjoyed their noontide slumbers. Then the pale-faces came,
and peopled the valley with a race of mixed blood, and vice-kings
occupied the place that had been the sacred retreat of the Aztec
chiefs.

These trees had added many rings to their already enlarged
circumference before the vice-kings disappeared, and an emperor sat in
the shade which had been t