Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-29
FLOATING GARDENS.
THE HISTORIC RELICS OF TEE
ANCIENT aZTECS.
A Day On the Viga Canai-Fandan'
going With Poppy-Wreathed
Indians at Santa Anita.

Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNION
CRY OF MEXICO, May 81, 1886.
One Of the most delightful excursions
that can be made anywhere in the world is
up the Viga Canal. A covered boat, with
awnings, movable benches, and two Indi-
ans TO propel it, may be hired for about s.
per diem. But in negotiating with thor
ough-going Mexican it is as necessary to
"dicker as it is with the traders of Jeru-
salem-not that these gentle people are
sharp at driving a bargain, like their Yam
kee neighbors, but that they cling to the
customs Of their Moorish progenitors, ex-
pecting always to "come down at least
half on the original price. For example, if
you are novice here-which fact is evil
dent at glanoe-the first boatman you in
terview will probably ask you an enormous
sum for the days use of his craft Should
you take him up at the offer, he will regard
you as lawful prey and proceed to cheat you
numerically as long as you remain in
his clutches. The proper thing to do is to
shrug your shoulders and turn up your
nose after the manner OF pawnbroker, :"
and contemptuously proffer him about one
tenth of his price. Then his vehement
protests and gesticulations speedily collects
crowd of brother Doatmen, who each puts
in his oar-all Offering at onee-they grad
ually descending in the gamut of charges
and you ascending, till at length golden
mean" is hit upon.
For this excursion it is best to make up
party of congenial spirits (f they can be
l.
generous lunch-baskets and to start at the
first peep of dawn. that there may be
ample time for picnicking among the float
ing gardens at midday and a glimpse of the
evening festivities at Santa Anita. Leaving
THE GARrTA DE La vIGA,
IAN old Spanish water gate, at which toll
is taken from the market-boats), before
sunrise, one meets multitudes of canoes
coming down to the city, each with an
overlooking cargo of fruits, flowers or vege-
tables. Every mummy-like figure,
wrapped to the eyes in rebosa or zarape,
flor the morning air is chilly, murmurs a
musical "Bue,tds dids, SefloreS,' as YOU pass.
generally supplemented by the solicitous
query" Como passe Y. Ia ,soche yellow
did you pass the night?"). The poor
est of these people are wonderfully polite
Among all manner of small craft the ma
used by Cortez's Indian spies more than
three centuries ago-each managed by a
single native, who stands upright in poses
Int for sculptor and plies his long pole
with marvellous dexterity. Not uncom-
monty 1t is an Indian girl alone and a
very pretty figure she makes ensconced
among her market produce. Scores of
tatboats are piled high with fragrant al
falfa, and canoes are laden with tobacco,
EfF.r oil III. 4
with which to decorate the doors of puluue
shops, or loads of peoples and marigold to
strew upon the floors OF some church for a
fiesta or funeral
Gliding along under the bending willows
the scene upon either side is surprisingly
beautiful. The hills which environ the
far-famed Valley of Mexico are still
wrapped in their misty robes de nlit, but
the first rays of the rising sun flush snow
crowned POpocatapetl and his dead twin,
Ixtaccihuatl c'The White Woman"
stretched on her bier beside him. To the
left rise those nights upon which the sig
nal-fires of the Aztecs were kindled during
the early days of Spanish invasion, and a
little farther on is The Hill of the Star"
where the saguinary priests of Montezuma
SACRIFICED a BEAUTIFUL FEMALE
Captive at the end of each cycle of fifty
iltib lilC WOilu MOlllu emu
in total darkness unless their gloomy gods
were thus propitiatcd.
The few houses i'll sight are mostly OF
wild cane, matched with Spanish dagger
leaves while here and there a gray walled
or pink-tinted adobe villa, with private
water-gatcs, is slowly moldering upon the
banks, apparently uninhabited for CEN
turtles, and proper prowling place 70,
spooks. Numerous old churches, most OF
them now ruinous and disused, point their
crumbling towers heavenWard ON both
sides of the way-tor the Catholic law
makers of olden times granted lands and
extraordinary perquisites to pious souls
who erected churches. The shallow salt
marshes stretching for miles along the right
are literal hunters paradise, being
blackened with wild ducks, millions
of which winter and summer here The
lands not diked into gardens are kept sub
merged, kind of duck preserve, and are
leased for happy hunting grounds" The
Indians have singular mode of commit
ting wholesale slaughter, which at least
has the merit of effectiveness Several
hundred musket barrels are planted along
in followed logs, so arranged that half OF
them point horizontally along the water to
sweep the birds that are sailing, while the
rest are elevated at an angle of forty-fiye
degrees to rake those that rise. The guns
are all touched off at once by a fuse OF
electric battery, and the execution is
terrific.
THE FLOATING GARDENS"
Or chinGnpds, as the natives call them. are
generally disappointing at first sight to the
tourist who has read much of Prescott
But though the soil is now mostly solidi.
he'd, time was when it actually fioated, and
IN that condition bore crops. To this day
RNnanSaS fpi1n1 xr-hi oh L.,
by stakes, with four feet of water running
below them, yet are strong enough to sus.
tam grazing cattle. Farther on one meets
many wandering strips of verdure, appro.
prlately called cintds (ribbons), driftinp
about wherever the current carries then.
We are told that in earlier times. these
Heating fields with their growing cargoes
were sometimes wrecked like vessels. bv be-
ing bumped together in gales of wind. or
driven ashore; and that murderers and
political refugees have been known TO defy
pursuit oy diving under the Elusive areas
TO bob up serenely" elsewhere. The gar,
dens OF to-day, which literally supply the
market OF Mexico's capital, are formed by
the DIVISION of what was once all water
out now made earth, with small square
patches, intersected by narrow canals. Sc
tiny are the gardens that the owners. pad.
DING around them in their canoes. can
easily lrrlgate" their estates by tossing on
water with gourd.
But though the celebrated chinc,,oqs nc
longer hoat, they are curious because OF
their origin. No human being knows how
many years, or ages, after the rowing Aztecs
had wandered from their unknown AZ
tan, the country of Herons," they reached
this valley of Mexico and settled first near
Chapultepec, the Grasshopper Hill" 81
their predecessors. the Toltecs. Being per
secuted hereby the Princes of Tlaltoean.
THEY TOOK REFUGE,
About the year 1245, in group of island.
TO the south OF Lake Texcoco. But here
they fell under the grievous yoke of the
Texcocan Kings, and soon fed to Texapan
AT the latter place they assisted the chiefs
IN war against other petty princes. and as
4 reward were set at liberty and allowed to
establish themselves in city which they
called Mexicaleingo. But even here the
Aztecs could not be contented. for their
priests were still searching for that spot
ioretoid by the gods, which their oracle had
announced would be indicated by an eagle
win snake in his beak, perehed upon a
TocS IA the midst of the waves. The long
iooked-for tulfillment of the prophecy aid
not come till 1925. And TODAY oneer ala
monument IN the heart of the modern can
ltal marks the exact spot (then covarad h,
Lake TexcocO) where believing Az.acS he
held the snake-eating bird which now e.,
ureS upon the national eSor,oL - ),