Euetzin came back from Tezcuco toward evening, and found the twain still lingering under the oak tree near the fountain. The mother came from the house, too, and a half hour was passed in listening to an account of his visit to the city and what it revealed, at the conclusion of which they went in for refreshments. The day ended, and night followed, bringing the morning, when Euetzin, with his newly acquired friend and comrade, set out to continue the prosecution of his patriotic mission. CHAPTER XIII. Tenochtitlan, later the city of Mexico, was founded by the primitive Mexicans (Aztecs), early in the fourteenth century, about two hundred years prior to the advent of the Spaniards on the Anahuac. The city was situated, originally, on a group of small islands in the southwestern portion of lake Tezcuco, nearly one league from the shore, and was, for more than a century, a very frail and peculiarly constructed place. Its houses were built chiefly of wood, reeds, and rushes, with the exception, perhaps, of the principal structures and _teacollis_ (temples), which were, doubtless, of sun-dried blocks of clay. Many of the houses, for want of space, were built over the water, supported by driven piles, upright posts, and were approachable in many instances only by canoe. A canoe was therefore an indispensable possession to an inhabitant of the island city. The absence of stone in the construction of buildings in the first century of the city's existence was, no doubt, attributable to the fact that it was reached by canoe, only, previous to the construction of causeways; after which followed a rapid transformation in its composition and appearance, until, at the time of the conquest, it had become a wonderful city of stone palaces and temples, with grand squares and broad avenues. Notwithstanding Tenochtitlan, at the time of which we write, was greatly inferior in its construction to the other large cities of the valley, it was a veritable beehive in the animation and density of its population. It was the capital of a fierce and aggressive people, who were not only brave, but cunning, in their aggression, which led to their complete supremacy under the last Montezuma. The question as to why the Aztecs chose so inconvenient a location on which to build their capital will naturally present itself to the mind of the reader. We have only space to say the idea was of miraculous origin, the result of a priestly superstition.[8] [8] NOTE.--See Hale's Mexico. There was a feeling of deep respect for the rights of nations maintained among the Anahuacans, and any violation of them engendered a general hostility toward the violator. Sympathy hardly ever led a tribe to take sides between other tribes at war. Only when the grievances were common did they unite their forces.