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MEXICO 483 work of mortal hands. On their entry into Mexico next day the Spaniards found fresh cause for admiration in the grandeur of the city and the superior style of its architecture. The city was 9 m. in circumference, and the number of its houses was about 60,000, and of inhabitants probably 500,000. Though a few of the streets were wide and of great length, most of them were narrow and lined with mean houses. The large streets were intersected by numerous canals crossed by bridges. The pal- ace of Montezuma^near the centre of the city, was a pile of low irregular stone buildings of vast extent. Another palace, assigned to Cortes on his entrance into* the city, was so large as to accommodate his whole army. But the most remarkable edifice of the city was the great teocalli or temple, completed in 1486. It was encompassed by a stone wall about 8 ft. high, ornamented on the outer side by figures of serpents in basso-rilievo, and pierced on its four sides by gateways opening on the four principal streets. Over each gate was an ar- senal, and barracks near the temple were gar- risoned by 10,000 soldiers. The temple itself was a solid pyramidal structure of earth and pebbles, coated externally with hewn stones. It was square, its sides facing the cardinal points, and was divided into five stories, each of which receded so as to be smaller than that below it. The ascent was by a flight of 114 steps on the outside, so contrived that to reach the top it was necessary to pass four times round the whole edifice; and the base of the temple is supposed to have been 300 ft. square. The summit was a large area paved with broad flat stones. On it were two towers or sanctuaries, and before each was an altar on which a fire was kept continually burning. The top of this remarkable structure commanded a superb view of the city, lake, valley, and surrounding mountains. The po- lice of the city was efficient and vigilant ; and 1,000 men were daily, employed in watering and sweeping the streets. As the lake that surrounded the city was extremely brackish, pure water for the supply of the people was brought by an aqueduct from the neighboring hill of Chapultepec, where Montezuma had a summer palace surrounded by vast and mag- nificent gardens. In the final siege by the Spaniards, Cortes, despairing of otherwise sub- duing a place where every house was a fortress and every street was cut up by canals, reluc- tantly determined to destroy the city, which he calls "the most beautiful thing in the world." "With the aid of his multitudinous Indian allies, whose hatred of the Aztecs led them to work with zeal, in a few weeks seven eighths of the city was levelled to the ground, and the canals filled with the rubbish. Soon after the termi- nation of the siege Cortes began to rebuild the city on its present plan, assembling for the work a host of Indians, estimated by a Mexi- can writer at 400,000. During its occupation by the Spaniards, from 1521 to 1821, the most remarkable events in the local history of Mex- ico were five great inundations in 1553, 1580, 1604, 1607, and 1629, caused by the overflow- ing of the neighboring lakes. To prevent the recurrence of these inundations a great drain was dug through the hill of Nochistango, by which the waters of the river Cuautitlan were led out of the valley instead of falling into the lake of Tezcuco. This work, which was com- pleted in 1789, after more than 100 years of labor, is about 12 m. long, from 100 to 130 ft. deep, and between 200 and 300 ft. wide. Since the establishment of Mexican independence, the city has been the scene of several revolu- tions and insurrections, and a number of im- portant battles have been fought in the vicin- ity, the most noted being those of Contreras and Churubusco, Aug. 20, 1847, and of Chapul- tepec, Sept. 13, fought between the American army under Gen. Scott, and the Mexican army under Gen. Santa Anna. After this battle the Americans occupied the city, and held it un- til the ratification of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in May, 1848. MEXICO, Gulf of, a basin of the Atlantic ocean, enclosed by the United States, the West In- dies, and Mexico, and measuring about 1,000 m. from E. to W. and 800 m. from M". to S. ; area, about 700,000 sq. m. The states of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas border upon it on the north, and the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Ta- basco, Campeachy, and Yucatan on the west and south. Its entrance, between Cape Sable at the extremity of the peninsula of Florida and Cape Catoche at the extremity of the pen- insula of Yucatan, is about 450 m. in width ; but midway across this mouth lies the island of Cuba, leaving a passage on either hand, viz. : the strait of Florida on the northeast, 125 m. wide, communicating with the Atlan- tic, and the channel of Yucatan on the south- west, communicating with the Caribbean sea, 115 m. wide. West of Yucatan extends the broad bay of Campeachy ; on the coast of Texas are the bays of Corpus Christi, Aransas, Mata- gorda, and Galveston; in Louisiana are those of Vermilion, Atchafalaya, Barataria, Black, and Lake Borgne ; in Alabama, Mobile bay ; in Mississippi, Mississippi sound ; and in Florida, Pensacola harbor, Appalachicola, Appalachee, Tampa, and Charlotte bays, and the bay of Ponce de Leon. Besides these, the coasts, be- ing mostly low and marshy or sandy, are lined with numerous lagoons. There are few islands except some small ones belonging to Yucatan, a number near the delta of the Mississippi, and the Florida keys. The most important rivers of the gulf are the Suwanee and Appala- chicola in Florida; the Mobile in Alabama; the Pascagoula and Pearl in Mississippi; the Mississippi in Louisiana; the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, Nueces, and Rio Grande in Texas ; and the Panuco, Coatzacoalcos, Tabas- co, and TJsumasinta in Mexico. These streams are nearly all obstructed by bars at their