bably these bags were filled with the coccus cacti, the famous
cochineal insect, then unknown to the Spaniards, who might easily have
mistaken them in a dried state for lice. (p. 231.)

[55] This weapon, called by the Mexicans maquahuitl, was much dreaded by
the Spaniards; and the historian Acosta relates that the Mexicans would
cut off the head of a horse with it at one blow. (p. 231.)

[56] Alonso Berruguete, a Spanish artist, who rose to great eminence in
painting, architecture, and sculpture. He received great protection from
Charles the Fifth, who employed him in considerable works in the
Alhambra of Granada and elsewhere. (p. 233.)

[57] Bernal Diaz, unfortunately, gives no description of Motecusuma's
palace; we will therefore give Torquemada's account of this remarkable
building. He himself, however, never saw it, but chiefly gained his
information from the Mexicans themselves, who may have exaggerated a
little: Motecusuma's palace had twenty doors, which either opened into
the large square or into the principal streets of the city; it had three
large courts, and in one of them was a tank, supplied with water by the
aqueduct of Chapultepec. The palace contained a number of halls, and a
hundred rooms twenty-five feet long and as many broad, each provided
with a bath. Everything was built of stone and lime. The walls were
covered with beautiful stones, marble, jasper, porphyry, and a block
stone, which is so highly polished that you might use it for a
looking-glass; besides these, there was a white stone, almost
transparent. All the woodwork was made of white cedar, palm, cypress,
pine, and other fine woods, adorned with beautiful carved-work. In one
of the apartments, which was one hundred and fifty feet long and fifty
broad, was Motecusuma's chapel, which was covered with plates of gold
and silver almost the thickness of a finger, besides that it was
decorated with innumerable emeralds, rubies, topaz, and other precious
stones. (p. 235.)

CHAPTER XCII.

_Our general takes a walk through Mexico, and views the Tlatelulco,
(the great square,) and the chief temple of Huitzilopochtli._

We had already been four days in the city of Mexico, and neither our
commander nor any of us had, during that time, left our quarters,
excepting to visit the gardens and buildings adjoining the palace.
Cortes now, therefore, determined to view the city, and visit the great
market, and the chief temple of Huitzilop