"From the flatness of the fine plain over which they extended, I cannot conceive them to have been constructed as paths, since the people who walked barefoot and used no beasts of burden, must naturally have preferred the smooth earthen foot-ways which presented themselves on every side, to these roughly paved roads. If this be admitted, it is not difficult to suppose that they were the centres of streets whose huts constructed of the same kind of frail materials as those of the present day, must long since have disappeared. Many places on the plain are thickly strewn with stones which may once have formed materials for the town; and around the cattle farms there are extensive modern walls which, not improbably, were constructed from the nearest street. At all events, whatever end these causeways answered, the citadel itself still remains, and by its size and strength confirms the accounts given by Cortéz, Bernal Diaz, and others of the conquerors of the magnitude and strength of the Mexican edifices, but which have been doubted by Robertson, De Pau, and others. We observed also in some sheltered places, the remains of good plaster, confirming the accounts above alluded to; and there can be little doubt that the present rough, yet magnificent buildings were once encased in wood, as ancient Mexico, the towns of Yucatan, Tabasco, and many other places are described to have been in the voyage of Juan De Grijalvis in 1518, and also in the writings of Diaz, Cortéz and Clavigero.
"The Cerro de Edificios and the mountains of the surrounding range, are all of gray porphyry, easily fractured into slabs, and this, with comparatively little labor, has furnished materials for the edifices which crown its summit. We saw no remains of obsidian among the ruins or on the plain—which is remarkable, as it is the general substance of which the knives and arrow-heads of the Mexicans were formed; but a few pieces of very compact porphyry were lying about and some appeared to have been chipped into a rude resemblance of arrow-heads.
"Not a trace of the ancient name of this interesting place, or that of the nation which inhabited it, is now to be found among the neighboring people, who merely distinguished the isolated rock and buildings by one common name, 'Los Edificios.' I had inquired of the best instructed people about these ruins; but all my researches were unavailing until I fortunately met with a note in the Abbé Clavigero's history of Mexico which appears to throw some light on the subject. 'The situation of Chico-moztoc, where the Mexicans sojourned nine years is not known, but it appears to be that place, twenty miles distant from Zacatécas, towards the south, where there are still some remains of an immense edifice, which, according to the tradition of the ancient inhabitants of that district was the work of the Aztecs during their migration; and it certainly cannot be ascribed to any other people, the Zacatecanos themselves being so barbarous as neither to live in houses nor to know how to build them.'"
CHAPTER XI.
STATE OF SAN LUIS POTOSI—BOUNDARIES—LAKES—RIVERS—CLIMATE—DEPARTMENTS—PRODUCTS—SAN LUIS—TOWNS—MINING REGION.—NEW LEON—BOUNDARIES—CHARACTER —RIVERS—CLIMATE—DEPARTMENTS—AGRICULTURE—GRAZING, ETC.—MONTEREY.—COAHUILA—BOUNDARY—POSITION —CLIMATE—PRODUCTIONS—TOWNS.—STATE OF DURANGO—BOUNDARY—CHARACTER—DIVISIONS—STREAMS—PRODUCTIONS —CITY OF DURANGO—TOWNS—MINES—IRON—SILVER—INDIAN NECROLOGY—CAVE BURIAL.
STATE OF SAN LUIS POTOSI.
