so that the houses are mostly large and good, and Your Sacred Majesty may believe that, within five years, this will be the most nobly populated city which exists in
all the civilised world, and will have the finest buildings. The town where the Spaniards have settled is distinct from that of the natives, for an arm of water separates us, although there are bridges of wood which connect them. There are two great native markets, one in their quarter and one in the Spanish quarter,[1] where every sort of provisions can be bought; for the people come from all over the country to sell, and there is no scarcity as sometimes happened in the days of its prosperity. It is true that now there are no jewels of gold, silver, or feather work and other rich things, as there used to be, although some small miserable pieces of gold and silver appear, but not as formerly.
Owing to Diego Velasquez's ill-will towards me, and that of Don Juan de Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, who is influenced by him, and in consequence of the orders of the officials of the Casa de la Contratacion of Seville, particularly Juan Lopez de Recalde, accountant of it, on whom everything in the time of the Bishop used to depend, I have not been provided with the artillery nor the arms which I needed, though I have many times sent the money for them. However, as nothing exercises a man's ingenuity like necessity, and as I laboured under
- ↑ The Indian market remained where it had been in Tlatelolco; the Spanish one was on the square before the Viceroy's palace.
The Indians either speedily forgot their arts and handicrafts, or concealed them: unwise laws were enacted which tended also to suppress them.
Archbishop Lorenzana relates an incident illustrating the extraordinary ability of the Indians in executing the most delicate work with primitive tools. A native counterfeiter was arrested and his whole outfit was found to consist of nothing but some thorns from the maguey or cactus plant. The Viceroy was so amazed that he offered the man his life if he would show how he worked, but the Indian preferred to die.
