[668] Motolinia, Hist. Indios, in Icazbalceta, Col. de Doc., tom. i., p. 63; Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 201.
[669] 'With their Copper Hatchets, and Axes cunnyngly tempered, they fell those trees, and hewe them smooth ... and boaring a hole in one of the edges of the beame, they fasten the rope, then sette their slaues vnto it ... putting round blocks vnder the timber.' Peter Martyr, dec. v., lib. x.; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., tom. i., lib. ii., p. 141.
[670] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 205; Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 318.
[671] Peter Martyr, dec. v., lib. x., states that they bored holes in beams. They may therefore have known the use of wooden bolts, but this is doubtful.
[672] 'Le Tetzontli (pierre de cheveux), espèce d'amygdaloïde poreuse, fort dure, est une lave refroidie. On la trouve en grande quantité auprès de la petite ville de San-Agostin Tlalpan, ou de las Cuevas, à 4 l. S. de Mexico.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 381.
[673] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 202; Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., pp. 663-4.
[674] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iv., p. 8.
[675] Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 205. Cortés mentions a 'suelo ladrillado' at Iztapalapan, Cartas, p. 83, and Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vi., cap. xii., both adobes and ladrillos in speaking of building-material.
[676] Dávila Padilla, Hist. Fvnd. Mex., p. 75; Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., tom. i., p. 665. 'L'ignorante Ricercatore nega a' Messicani la cognizione, e l'uso della calcina; ma consta per la testimonianza di tutti gli Storici del Messico, per la matricola de' tributi, e sopratutto per gli edifizj antichi finora sussistenti, che tutte quelle Nacioni faceano della calcina il medecimo uso, che fanno gli Europei.' Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., p. 205, tom. iv., pp. 212-13. Both Cortés, Cartas, p. 60, and Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vi., cap. iv., mention walls of dry stone, which would show that mortar was sometimes dispensed with, in heavy structures; but Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 43, contradicts this instance.
[677] At Sienchimalen. Cortés, Cartas, p. 57.