LETTER THE SEVENTH


Debut in Mexico--Cathedral--Temple of the Aztecs--Congregation--Stone of
Sacrifices--Palace--Importunate Leperos--Visit to the President--Countess
C---a--Street-cries--Tortilleras--_Sartor Resartus_.


I made my _debut_ in Mexico by going to mass in the cathedral. We drove
through the Alameda, near which we live, and admired its noble trees,
flowers, and fountains, all sparkling in the sun. We met but few carriages
there, an occasional gentleman on horseback, and a few solitary-looking
people resting on the stone benches, also plenty of beggars, and the
_forcats_ in chains, watering the avenues. We passed through the Calle San
Francisco, the handsomest street in Mexico, both as to shops and houses
(containing, amongst others, the richly-carved but now half-ruined palace
of Yturbide), and which terminates in the great square where stand the
cathedral and the palace. The streets were crowded, it being a holiday; and
the purity of the atmosphere, with the sun pouring down upon the
bright-coloured groups, and these groups so picturesque, whether of
soldiers or monks, peasants or veiled ladies; the very irregularity of the
buildings, the number of fine churches and old convents, and everything on
so grand a scale, even though touched by the finger of time, or crushed by
the iron heel of revolution, that the attention is constantly kept alive,
and the interest excited.

The carriage drew up in front of the cathedral, built upon the site of part
of the ruins of the great temple of the Aztecs; of that pyramidal temple,
constructed by _Ahuitzotli_, the sanctuary so celebrated by the Spaniards,