Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-07-03

tensiyo that the visitors were too much IA
tigued in wandering through the apartments,
ever to see the whole of it. The palaces were
built of red-stone. ornamented with marble,
the arms of the Montezuma family IAN eagle
bearing a tiger in his talons) being sculptured
over the main entrance. Crystal fountains,
fed by great reservoirs on the neighboring
htlls, played in the vast halls and gardens,
and supplied water to hundreds Of marble
baths in the interior of the palace. Crowds
OF mobiles and tributary chlettlin5 were con-
~tlnualIy sauntering through the halls, or loiter-
ing away their hours in attel lance on the
court. Rich carvings in wood adorned the
ceilings, beautiful mats of palIn-leaf covered
the floors. The walls were hung with cotton
richly stained, the skins of wild animals, or
gorgeous draperics of feather work, wrought
in imitation Of birds, insects, and flowers, in
glowing radiance Of colors. Clouds Of incense
from golden ccnsors diTused intoxicating
odors through splendid apartments occupied
by the nine bundred amt cighiy wives and
five thousand slaves of Montezuma!
lie encouraged science and learning, and
public schools were established throurhout
the greater part Of his empire. The city oil
Mexico, in his day, numbered twice as many
inhabitants as at present, and one thousand
men were daily employed in watering and
sweeping its streets, keeping them so clear
that a man could traverse the whole CITY with
as little danger Of soiling his feet as his hands.
\ careful police guarded the city. Extensive
arsenals, granaries, warehouses, an aviary
for the most beautiful birds, ]menararies, hou.
ses for reptiles and s%erponts, a collection oil
human monsters, iish-ponds built of marble
and museums and public libraries, all on tn,
most extensive scale. added their attractions
to the great city of the Aztecs. Gorgeous
tempIes-in which human victims were sac
rlticed, and their blood baked in bread, or thei
bodies dressed for food to be d~evoured by the
people at religious festivals-reared thei
p|yramldal affairs far above the highest edit
ces. Thousands of their brother men wer,
thus sacrificed annually. The temple of Max
TIL, their war-god, was so constructed tina
its great alarm gong, sounding TO battle, rous
ed the valley tol three leagues around, ant
called three hundred thousand armed Aztec
TO the immediate relief Of their monarch
SO vast was the collection of birds of prev
in a building devoted to them, that 500 tur
keys, the cheapest meat in Mexico, were al
lowed for their daily consumption. SucI
were the Halls of the Monteznmas !" Tn
summer residence Of the monarch, on the hill
of ChapoHcpec, overlooking the city, was sur
sounded by gardens of several miles in eX
tent, and here were preserved until the mid
die of the last century, two statues of tn
Emperor and his father. The great cypres
trees, under which the Aztec sovereign an,
his associates once held their moonlight rev
els, still. shade the royal gardens. Some o
them, fifty feet in circumference, are severa
thousand years old, but are yet as green as il
the days of Montezuma, whose ashes, 0
those Of his ancestors, render sacred, in til,
eyes Of the native MeXicans, the hill of Chap
cltcpec. Naturll decay and waning popula
ton now mark the seat Of power of the grea
MonteZumas.