of animals. There is every kind of game in this country, and animals, and birds such as are familiar to us, deer, fallow deer, wolves, foxes, quails, doves, and pigeons, and two or three kinds of hares and rabbits, — So that there is no difference between this country and Spain, as regards birds and animals; there are lions and tigers[1] about five leagues from the sea, in some places, and others are very beautiful [word missing] There is, moreover, a great range of very beautiful mountains, some of them very high, amongst which one[2] very greatly exceeds all the others, and from it can be discovered and seen a great part of the sea and land; and it is so high that if the day is not very clear you cannot see or distinguish the summit of it, because one half of it is all covered with clouds; and sometimes when the day is very clear the peak of it can be seen above the said clouds, and it is so white that we judge it to be snow, and the natives even tell us that it is snow, but as we have not seen it well, although we have been very near to it, and because this region is so hot, we do not affirm it to be snow. We will endeavour to know and see it, as well as many other things about which we have information, so as to send a true account to Your Royal Highnesses of the wealth of gold and silver and stones, and we judge that Your Majesties may order it to be examined according to the samples of all which we remit to Your Royal Highnesses. According to our judgment, it is credible that there is everything in this country which existed in that from whence Solomon is said to have brought the gold for the
- ↑ The largest beasts of prey in Mexico were the puma, the jaguar, and the ocelot; lions and tigers there were none.
- ↑ Orizaba; the usual Indian name for the volcano was Citlaltepetl, meaning star-mountain, though they also called it Zenctepatl, and Pojauhtecatl. According to Humboldt, its known period of greatest activity was from 1545 to 1566; he also notes that both this crater, and that of Popocatepetl, incline towards the south-east. His measurement of Orizaba is 5395 metres (Essai Politique, vol. i.). Ferrer's measurement is 5450 metres.
