[324] A stone of a light green color.
[325] Paper made from the leaves of the maguey or agave-plant.
[326] Cortes conjectured the city contained twenty thousand houses. The temple of Quetzalcoatl was built on a terraced mound about two hundred feet high, and was reached by ascending one hundred and twenty steps.
[327] The name of the city is written Tenustitlan Mexico by Diaz. It is spelled Tenuchtitlan Mexico by some Spanish writers.
“In the spelling of the names of Indian chiefs, the townships, and of the provinces, we have mostly followed Torquemada, who is considered more correct on this point, for he lived fifty years in New Spain.”—The memoirs of the conquistador. Lockhart. Preface. vol. i. p. vi.
[328] This name, says Diaz, was given to Cortes “because our interpreter, Doña Marina, was always near him, particularly when embassadors arrived, and in our negotiations with the different caciques she interpreted for both parties. They therefore called him the captain of Marina, and contracted that appellation into the word Malinche.”
[329] It is said that the slimy substance mentioned by Diaz was called tecuitlatl, the excrement of stone. It was variously fashioned, and dried in the sun.
[330] Xiquipiles, according to Torquemada, expressed the number of 8,000 of any thing.
[331] Cacao-beans were used by the Mexicans in lieu of small coin.
[332] Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España. Diaz. cap. xxxix-clix.—Vide The memoirs of the conquistador. Lockhart. chap. xxxix-clix.