Other Parts Of The Great Square
Were Appropriated For The Sale Of Earthen Ware, Wooden Furniture, Such As
Tables And Benches, Fire-Wood, Paper, Hollow Canes Filled With Tobacco And
Liquid Amber Ready For Smoking, Copper Axes, Working Tools Of Various
Kinds, Wooden Vessels Richly Painted, And The Like.
In another part many
women sold fish, and small loaves of a kind of mud taken out of the lake
resembling cheese.
The makers of stone blades were employed in shaping
them out of the rough materials. The dealers in gold had the native metal
in grains as it comes from the mines, in transparent tubes or quills, so
that it could easily be seen; and the gold was valued at so many mantles,
or so many xiquipils of cocoa nuts, in proportion to the size of the
quills. The great square was enclosed all round by piazas, under which
there were great stores of grain, and shops for various kinds of goods. On
the borders of the adjoining canals there were boats loaded with human
ordure, used in tanning leather, and on all the public roads there were
places built of canes and thatched with straw or grass, for the
convenience of passengers in order to collect this material. In one part
of the square was a court of justice having three judges, and their
inferior officers were employed in perambulating the market, preserving
order, and inspecting the various articles.
After having satisfied our curiosity in the square, we proceeded to the
great temple, where we went through a number of large courts, the smallest
of which seemed to me larger than the great square of Salamanca, the
courts being either paved with large cut white stones, or plastered and
polished, the whole very clean, and inclosed by double walls of stone and
lime. On coming to the gate of the great temple, which was ascended by 114
steps, Montezuma sent six priests and two nobles to carry up Cortes, which
he declined. On ascending to the summit, which consisted of a broad
platform, we observed the large stones on which the victims were placed
for sacrifice, near which was a monstrous figure resembling a dragon, and
much blood appeared to have been recently spilt. Montezuma came out of an
adoratory or recess, in which the accursed idols were kept, and expressed
his apprehension to Cortes that he must be fatigued by the ascent, to
which Cortes answered that we were never fatigued. Montezuma, taking our
general by the hand, pointed out to him the different quarters of the city,
and the towns in the neighbourhood, all of which were distinctly seen from
this commanding eminence. We had a distinct view of the three causeways by
which Mexico communicated with the land, and of the aqueduct of
Chapoltepec, which conveyed an abundant supply of the finest water to the
city. The numbers of canoes which were continually seen passing between
Mexico and all the towns on the borders of the lake, carrying provisions
and merchandise, was really astonishing.
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