“Et tot templa deûm Romæ, quot in urbe sepulcra
Heroum numerare licet: quos fabula manes
Nobilitat, noster populus veneratus adorat.”
Prudentius, Contra Sym., lib. 1.
[209] The dimensions are given by Bullock (Six Months in Mexico, vol. ii. chap. 26), who has sometimes seen what has eluded the optics of other travellers.
[210] Such is the account given by the cavalier Boturini. Idea, pp. 42, 43.
[211] “Both Ixtlilxochitl and Boturini, who visited these monuments, one early in the seventeenth, the other in the first part of the eighteenth century, testify to their having seen the remains of this statue. They had entirely disappeared by 1757, when Veytia examined the pyramid. Hist. antig., tom. i. cap. 26.
“Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,
Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila,” etc.
Georg., lib. i.
[213] “Y como iban vestidos de blanco, parecia el campo nevado.” Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 10, cap. 13.
[214] “Vistosa confusion,” says Solís, “de armas y penachos, en que tenian su hermosura los horrores.” (Conquista, lib. 4, cap. 20.) His painting shows the hand of a great artist,—which he certainly was. But he should not have put fire-arms into the hands of his countrymen on this occasion.
[215] “Y cierto creímos ser aquel el último de nuestros dias.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 148.