CHAPULTEPEC AND ITS GARDENS.
"Chapultepec is a delightful spot," wrote Fred, "whether considered as a public resort, a royal or Presidential residence, or for the panoramic view presented to the visitor as he looks from its top. It is an isolated rock, or hill, rising about 200 feet, and with a length of 1000 or 1200 feet, and the top is crowned with the buildings, which have seen many changes among their occupants as well as in themselves. The sides are steep in some places, but gradual in others, the steep parts predominating. All around the base are cypress-trees, whose age is unknown; but they are certainly very old; and their venerable appearance is increased by the moss that depends from their limbs.
"The tree of the greatest interest to us was that which bears the name of Montezuma. If tradition is correct, the Emperor sat beneath its shade; and it was possibly while resting here that he received the news of the approach of those strange white men who had landed upon the coast, and rode upon animals the like of which were never before known in America. It is a wonderful tree 170 feet high, and forty-six in circumference. Like the other great trees of Chapultepec, it is a cypress; and like the others, too, it is heavily draped with moss, as though in mourning for the aboriginal ruler, whose kingdom was torn away by the invader.
EL SALTO DEL AQUA.
"From the tree of Montezuma we went to his bath, which is not far away, and is the famous spring that fills the aqueduct already mentioned. The water is cool and clear, and supplied the ancient Tenochtitlan, just as in later days it was made to supply the Spanish city which rose on the site of the Aztec one. The aqueduct through which the water flows is exactly on the line of that of the Aztecs. The Spanish aqueduct was begun in 1677, and has 904 arches from its starting-point at Chapultepec to its terminus in the Salto del Agua, or Water-fall, in the city. The water of Chapultepec is called agua delgada, or thin water; while that supplied by the San Cosme aqueduct is agua gorda, or thick water. From time immemorial the spring has been flowing, and it is supposed to be fed by underground channels from the mountains.
"After the tree and the baths we visited the palace, or such part of it as was open to the public. There is not much worth seeing inside the building, the most interesting feature about it being the view from the roof. All the Valley of Mexico, with its girdle of mountains, was before us; it was like the view from the cathedral tower, with the difference that the city formed a part of the horizontal view in one direction, while from the tower it lay beneath and around our feet; and the same view that included the city embraced also the snowy peaks of Popocatepetl and the 'White Woman,' which lay a little to the right of the cluster of domes and roofs standing between us and the silvery sheet of Tezcoco. In the opposite direction was Tacuba, the spot where Cortez thought of rebuilding the city which was to rise in place of the Tenochtitlan he had destroyed. It is to be regretted that he did not do so, as the site is better adapted to a city; it admits of good drainage, which the present one does not, and would undoubtedly be healthier.