were enveloped in clouds, all but their snowy summits, which seemed like
marble domes towering into the sky. But as we strained our eyes to look
into the valley, it all appeared to me rather like a vision of the Past
than the actual breathing Present. The curtain of Time seemed to roll back,
and to discover to us the great panorama that burst upon the eye of Cortes
when he first looked down upon the table-land; the king-loving, God-fearing
conqueror, his loyalty and religion so blended after the fashion of ancient
Spain, that it were hard to say which sentiment exercised over him the
greater sway. The city of Tenochtitlan, standing in the midst of the five
great lakes, upon verdant and flower-covered islands, a western Venice,
with thousands of boats gliding swiftly along its streets, long lines of
low houses, diversified by the multitudes of pyramidal temples, the
Teocalli, or houses of God--canoes covering the mirrored lakes--the lofty
trees, the flowers, and the profusion of water now wanting to the
landscape--the whole fertile valley enclosed by its eternal hills and
snow-crowned volcanoes--what scenes of wonder and of beauty to burst upon
the eyes of these wayfaring men!

Then the beautiful gardens surrounding the city, the profusion of flowers,
and fruit, and birds--the mild bronze-coloured Emperor himself advancing in
the midst of his Indian nobility, with rich dress and unshod feet, to
receive his unbidden and unwelcome guest--the slaves and the gold and the
rich plumes, all to be laid at the feet of "His most sacred Majesty"--what
pictures are called up by the recollection of the simple narrative of
Cortes, and how forcibly they return to the mind now, when, after a lapse
of three centuries, we behold for the first time the city of palaces raised
upon the ruins of the Indian capital. It seemed scarcely possible that we
were indeed so near the conclusion of our journey, and in the midst of so
different a scene, only two months minus two days since leaving New York
and stepping aboard the Norma. How much land and sea we had passed over