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was occupied by the royal palace, which was surrounded by the houses of the nobility; the extremities were inhabited by the plebeians. The streets were very narrow, but the place was so populous as to enable the king to draw from it alone, no less than 72,000 combatants, to oppose the Spaniards. It contained many very sumptuous edifices. The most superb of them was a seminary, where between five and six thousand children were educated; these were all maintained and provided for, at the expense of the royal treasury, and their instruction was superintended by seventy masters, and professors.” The grand palace surpassed every other edifice, and in the opinion of Torquemada, it could compete in opulence with that of Montezuma, or of the Incas. According to his account, it contained distinct apartments and divisions for troops, for the king, for the queen and concubines, and for the royal family with saloons, baths, gardens and menageries, all in a shape of sumptuous magnificence. From him we learn that their traditions extended during a line of twenty monarchs, before the arrival of the Spaniards; that the crown was hereditary; that a council existed of twenty four grandees; that the principal towns were governed by lieutenents, and that every office was filled by nobles, the greatest care being taken to preserve noble blood unsullied; to pre-