[198] “Hay mucha gente pobre, y que piden entre los Ricos por las Calles, y por las Casas, y Mercados, como hacen los Pobres en España, y en otras partes que hay _Gente de razon_.” Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, pp. 67, 68. [199] Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. 3, cap. 19.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 61.--Camargo, Hist. de Tlascala, MS. [200] Herrera, Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 2.--Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., ubi supra. [201] “E certifico á Vuestra Alteza, que yo conté desde una Mezquita quatrocientas, y tantas Torres en la dicha Ciudad, y todas son de Mezquitas.” Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 67. [202] The city of Puebla de los Angeles was founded by the Spaniards soon after the Conquest, on the site of an insignificant village in the territory of Cholula, a few miles to the east of that capital. It is, perhaps, the most considerable city in New Spain, after Mexico itself, which it rivals in beauty. It seems to have inherited the religious preëminence of the ancient Cholula, being distinguished, like her, for the number and splendor of its churches, the multitude of its clergy, and the magnificence of its ceremonies and festivals. These are fully displayed in the pages of travellers who have passed through the place on the usual route from Vera Cruz to the capital. (See, in particular, Bullock’s Mexico, vol. i. chap. 6.) The environs of Cholula, still irrigated as in the days of the Aztecs, are equally remarkable for the fruitfulness of the soil. The best wheat-lands, according to a very respectable authority, yield in the proportion of eighty for one. Ward’s Mexico, vol. ii. p. 270.--See, also, Humboldt, Essai politique, tom. ii. p. 158; tom. iv. p. 330. [203] According to Cortés, a hundred thousand men offered their services on this occasion! “And although I forbade it, and requested that they would not go, since there was no necessity for it, yet I was followed by as many as a hundred thousand men well fitted for war, who came with me to the distance of nearly two leagues from the city, and then through my pressing importunities were induced to return, with the exception of five or six thousand, who continued in my company.” (Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 64.) This, which must have been nearly the whole fighting force of the republic, does not startle Oviedo (Hist. de las Ind., MS., cap. 4) nor Gomara, Crónica, cap. 58. [204] The words of the _Conquistador_ are yet stronger. “There is not a _hand’s-breadth_ of land that is not cultivated.” Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 67. [205] “All the inhabitants of rank wear, besides their other clothing, _albornoces_, differing from those of Africa inasmuch as they have pockets, but very similar in form, in material, and in the bordering.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 67.