[336] Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 6.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ubi supra.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 11. [337] [It is used at the present day for a military school. Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. i. p. 370.] [338] Gomara, a competent critic, who saw them just before their destruction, praises their execution. Gama, Descripcion, Parte 2, pp. 81-83.--Also, _ante_, vol. i. p. 157. [339] [Yet the whole of this beautiful grove was not spared. The axes of the Conquerors levelled such of the trees as grew round the fountain of Chapoltepec and dropped their decayed leaves into its waters. The order of the municipality, dated February 28, 1527, is quoted by Alaman, Disertaciones históricas, tom. ii. p. 290.] [340] No less than one thousand, if we believe Gomara; who adds the edifying intelligence, “que huvo vez, que tuvo ciento i cincuenta preñadas á un tiempo!” [341] “Vestíase todos los dias quatro maneras de vestiduras todas nuevas, y nunca mas se las vestia otra vez.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 114. [342] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91.--Gomara, Crónica, cap. 67, 71, 76.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 113, 114.--Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7.--“Á la puerta de la sala estaba vn patio mui grande en que habia cien aposentos de 25 ó 30 pies de largo cada vno sobre sí en torno de dicho patio, é allí estaban los Señores principales aposentados como guardas del palacio ordinarias, y estos tales aposentos se llaman galpones, los quales á la contina ocupan mas de 600 hombres, que jamas se quitaban de allí, é cada vno de aquellos tenian mas de 30 servidores de manera que á lo menos nunca faltaban 3000 hombres de guerra en esta guarda cotediana del palacio.” (Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 46.) A very curious and full account of Montezuma’s household is given by this author, as he gathered it from the Spaniards who saw it in its splendor. As Oviedo’s history still remains in manuscript, I have transferred the chapter in the original Castilian to Appendix, No. 10. [343] Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 91.--Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ubi supra. [344] “Y porque la Tierra es fria trahian debaxo de cada plato y escudilla de manjar un braserico con brasa, porque no se enfriasse.” Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, p. 113. [345] Bernal Diaz has given us a few items of the royal _carte_. The first cover is rather a startling one, being a fricassee or stew of little children! “_carnes de muchachos de poca edad_.”{*} He admits, however, that this is somewhat apocryphal. Ibid., ubi supra.