line northward to the heart of the city.[1] They passed several towns, some on the shore, others touching the causeway,[2] and supported to a great extent by the manufacture of salt from the lake water. The causehad been reserved for the passage of the troops, way out of deference to the desire manifested to keep the natives at a respectful distance,[3] but both sides were lined with canoes bearing an eager crowd of sightseers. About half a league from the city the causeway formed a junction with the road from Xochimilco and Coyohuacan, at a spot called Acachinanco,[4] where a stout battlemented wall, fully ten feet in height, and surmounted by two towers, guarded the two gates for entry and exit.
Entering here the Spaniards were met by a procession of over one thousand representative people from the capital,[5] richly arrayed in embroidered robes, and with jewelry of pendent stones and gold.
- ↑ It is still one of the main roads, known under Spanish dominion as Calzada de Iztapalapan, now as S. Antonio Abad.
- ↑ Cortés names the well built Mexicaltzinco, Niciaca, and Huchilohuchico (now Churubusco), to which he gives respectively 3000, 6000, and 4000 to 5000 families. Cartas, 83-4. Gomara, Hist. Mex., 99, names Coioacan instead of Niciaea, and this change is generally accepted, for the latter name is probably a mistake by the copyist or printer. Peter Martyr, dec. v. cap. iii.
- ↑ 'Mandò que vn Indio en lengua Mexicana, fuesse pregonando que nadie se atrauessasse por el camino, sino queria ser luego muerto.' Herrera, dec. ii. lib. vii. cap. v.
- ↑ Also referred to as Fort Xoloc. 'En donde hoy la garita de San Antonio Abaul,' says Ramirez, in Prescott (ed. Mex. 1845), ii. 104.
- ↑ Herrera, who is usually moderate, swells the figure to 4000.
The third volume is entirely devoted to America, and contains all the most valuable documents known up to the time of its first issue, such as the relations of Martyr, Oviedo, Cortés, and his contemporaries in Mexico, Pizarro, Verazzano, Carthier, the Relation di Nvnno di Gvsman, in several parts, and the valuable Relatione per vn gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese. The volume begins with a learned discourse by Ramusio on ancient knowledge of a land to the west, and of causes leading to the discovery. At the end of the 1565 edition is a map of America, showing Lower California as a wide peninsula, and Terra del Fuego joined to the land of the Circolo Antartico. The comparative crudeness of the wood-cuts and maps has not made the work much esteemed by collectors, but its value even now, for reference, is unquestioned. The set was dedicated to Hieronimo Fracastoro, the great poet and physician, born mouthless, yet so eloquent. Scaliger, Arœ Fracastoreæ. At the end of the Discorso sopra Perv, iii. 371, Ramusio says: 'Et questa narratione con breuità habbiamo voluto discorrere per satisfattione de i lettori, laquale piu distintamente legeranno nel quarto volume.' According to Fontanini, Bibl., 274, the material for this volume lay prepared in manuscript, only to perish in the disastrous fire of November, 1557.
