FIRST CHRISTIAN PULPIT IN AMERICA.
"The object of greatest interest to us was the first Christian church and the first Christian pulpit erected on American soil. They told us that the structure now standing is the original one built by order of Cortez; it is in good preservation, and evidently has been well cared for. On the pulpit is an inscription which relates that the church was the first erected in 'New Spain.' Not far from the pulpit is the font in which the four chiefs of Tlascala were baptized in 1520; it is cut from a single block of black lava, resembles a huge bowl, and is of very creditable workmanship. The portraits of these four chiefs are preserved in the Legislative building, and each of them has 'Señor Don' prefixed to his Indian name; other portraits are in the same building, and there are many paintings in the church, but few that we saw possess any merit beyond that of an ordinary tavern-sign.
OLD BAPTISMAL PONT, TLASCALA.
"While we were strolling about the town," continued Fred, "we saw some Indians coming in from the mountains with logs of wood which were to be cut into planks, and beams already shaped and finished. We judged that these timbers weighed not less than 400 pounds apiece, and some of them little, if any, below 500 pounds. They carried these timbers as they carry most other burdens, slung over their backs and supported by straps crossing their foreheads. These are the descendants of the people that carried over the mountains the timber for the brigantines of Cortez which he launched on Lake Tezcoco and used for the reduction of Tenochtitlan. We examined a beam that one of the carriers had placed on the ground, and found it to be of hard pine, twenty feet long, ten inches wide, and six inches thick. You may make your own calculation as to its weight if you think our estimates too high.
