human
form. Another picture represents Marianna, the mistress of Cortez, with
her rosary, and Cortez with his fingers in much such a position as boys
place them in when they wish to convey the idea that they have
perpetrated a joke--a very satisfactory method of representing the
piety of Cortez. Close by the pious couple is the representation of a
scene which they seem to have come out to witness. A bloodhound is
represented tearing an Indian to pieces, while a Spaniard is holding on
to the end of the dog's chain.

The banner under which Cortez fought, or rather one of them--for he had
two--is here preserved in a gilt frame. It represents the Virgin Mary
portrayed on crimson silk. In this hall is also a miniature
representation of a silver mine, with the workmen at their several
branches of labor. The remains of the vice-regal throne are here piled
up in a corner.

In the next room there are some paintings of no very great value, which
should have been kept in the Academy; also a miniature fortress and a
small mineral collection, and any quantity of specimens of Indian
idols, so misshapen as to be unfit for use as images of the Virgin and
of the saints.

As a Vice-royal and National Museum, the whole affair is beneath
contempt. If the few articles in it that are valuable were divided
between the Mineria and the San Carlos, and the rest thrown away, it
would be an advantage to all concerned. The Indian relics in this
museum are not only much inferior to the specimens of the art of the
savage islanders of the South Seas, but immensely inferior to many
private collections of Indian curiosities that I have seen, and they go
far to demonstrate the entire absence of civilized arts among the
aboriginal inhabitants of Mexico.

In an interior court of the museum is the Botanic Garden. This, like
the National Museum, is a paltry affair. With the exception of the
_Manolita_, or tree that bears a flower resembling the human hand, of
which there are but two in the Republic, there is nothing deserving of
notice in this garden. In the large interior court of San Francisco a
Frenchman has, as a private speculation, opened a garden and made a
collection of the national plants of Mexico that is well worth a visit.
In this private garden is one of the finest and rarest collections of
the cactus family that I have ever seen, either in Mexico or elsewhere.

The market of Santa Anna is the central market of the city. It adjoins
the pa