Moreover, we cannot now ascertain the exact spot from which the observation was made nor the distance between the two sanctuaries. If, as Ixtlilxochitl states, it was towards the doorway of the sanctuary of Huitzilopochtli and not between the two sanctuaries as is stated by Duran, then the error would be reduced. RECENT EXCAVATIONS. We have now to consider the position of the Great Teocalli in relation to the excavations made in the Calle de las Escallerillas when pipes were being laid for the drainage of the city in the year 1900. These excavations were watched on behalf of the Government by Señor Don Leopoldo Batres, Inspector General of Archæological Monuments, who published an account of his researches in 1902, with a plan showing the position and depth below the surface at which objects of archæological interest were discovered. Unfortunately Señor Batres was already fully convinced that the Great Teocalli faced the south and occupied more or less the position of the present Cathedral. At a spot marked _a_, in Tracing A_{2}, 38 metres from the east end of the Escalerillas, Señor Batres discovered a stairway of four masonry steps which he states measured each 29 cm. in the rise and 22 cm. in the tread, but unfortunately beyond this statement he gives no information whatever regarding them. However, I presume that the steps followed the same direction as a stairway of nine steps which he had previously described and which will be alluded to immediately. _These three steps I have taken to be the central stairway leading to the forecourt or apetlac of the Great Teocalli._ Señor Batres had already noted a stairway of nine steps, marked _b_ in Tracing A_{2}, each measuring 22 cm. in rise and 26 cm. in tread. This stairway was 2 metres wide and faced the west. The stairway was apparently joined at one or both sides to a sloping wall[11]. Embedded in the débris which covered these steps was found an idol of green stone measuring 75 cms. in height and 61 cms. in diameter. The idol is now preserved in the National Museum. I take the foot of this stairway of nine steps to have been in line with the great stairway of the Teocalli, and it may have been part of the great stairway itself; however, a stairway only two metres wide is not likely to be the beginning of what must have been the principal approach to the Teocalli, and I can only suggest that it may have been a stairway leading to a niche which held the idol of green stone and that the great stairways passed on either side of it. An idol in a somewhat similar position can be seen on the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan. THE ANONYMOUS CONQUEROR. A Description written by a Companion of Hernando Cortés. XIV. _What these Towers are like._