The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1846-06-13
Number s.

door, which when you have succeeded in
Opening, you enier an apartment enclosed
with high walls on every side bu; open at
the top, and certainly not exceeding eighty
feet square, and this is the botanic garden
Of the palace Of Mexico, few shrubs and
plants and the celebrated msnita tree, are
all that it contains have rarely in my
life seen a more gloomy and desolste look
ing place. /, is much more like prison
than garden. A docrepl, palsied old
man, said 10 be more than hundred years
old, is the superintendent Of The establish
men,, no one could have been selected more
IN keeping with the general delspdaIion
and drearness Of this melancholy sffalr.
But the cathedral, which occupies the
site of the gres. idol temple OF Montezuma
offers striking contrast 1t is five hun.
dred feet long. by four hundred and twenty
wide. 1t would be superfuous 70 add an
other 10 the many descriptions of this fas
nous building which have already been
published. Like all other churches in
Mexico, it is built in the Gothic Style
The walls Of several feet thick ness, and
IN ade Of unhswn slone and lime. Upon en-
terng it, one is apt 10 recall the wild fc-
iions Of the .Arabian Nights i, seems as if
the wealth Of empires was collected there.
The clegy of Mexico do not, for obvious
reasons, desire that their wealth sheuId be
m ade known to i,s full extent, they are,
therefore, no. disposed 10 give full in(orma-
ton u pom the subject, or 10 exhbi. the gold
and silver vessels. vases, precious slonss,
and other forms Of wealth, quite enough is
exhibited 10 strike the beholder with won-
der. The first object that presents itself
on entering the cathedral is the altar, near
The centre ei the building, it is made Of
n'gh'y wrought and highly polished silver,
and covered with proiusion of ornaments
of pure gold. On each side of this altar
runs balustrads, enclosing space about
Ieighl fee! wide and eighty or a hundred feet
ohg. The balusters are about four feet
nigh, and four inches thick in The largest
part, the hand-rail from six 10 eight inches
WIDE. Upon the top of this hsnd.ral at
The distance of six or eight feet apar!. are
uman images, beautifully wrough, and a.
bout Two fee; high All OF these, The baus.
trace. hand-rail. and images, are made of
ompound Of gold, silver, and copper
moro valuable than siIvsr-I was told that
an offer had been made 10 take this baus.
trade, and replace it with another Of exactly
he same size and workmanship Of pure
silver, and to give half million of dollars
besides There il much more of the same
balustrade in other parts of the church |
should think in all of IL not less than three
hundred feet.
Asyou walk through The building, on
either side there are different apartments.
all filled from ,he floor 10 The ceiling, with
paintings, statues, huge candestCks walters
and thousand other articles made Of gold
or silver This TOO is only tho every day
display of articles of least value lhe more
costly are stored away in chests and clo-
SETS. What must it be when all these are
brought out with The immense quantities of
precious stones which the church is known
to possess! And this is only one of the
churches of the city of Mexico where there
are between sixty and eighty others and
some of them possessing lW!e less wealth
han the cathedral and it must also be re-
membered that all the other large cities
such as PuebIs, Guanaiajars, Guanaiunto,
j lZacaiecas, Durango, San Louis Potosi have
each proPorionale number OF equally gor-
geous establishments.
/ RAIN AND ROMANCE.