[363] Zuazo, who seems to have been nice in these matters, concludes a paragraph of dainties with the following tribute to the Aztec _cuisine_: “Vendense huebos asados, crudos, en tortilla, é diversidad de guisados que se suelen guisar, con otras cazuelas y pasteles, que en el mal cocinado de Medina, ni en otros lugares de Tlamencos dicen que hai ni se pueden hallar tales trujamanes.” Carta, MS. [364] Ample details--many more than I have thought it necessary to give--of the Aztec market of Tlatelolco may be found in the writings of all the old Spaniards who visited the capital. Among others, see Rel. Seg. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 103-105.--Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7.--Carta del Lic. Zuazo, MS.--Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 92. [365] Zuazo raises it to 80,000! (Carta, MS.) Cortés to 60,000. (Rel. Seg., ubi supra.) The most modest computation is that of the “Anonymous Conqueror,” who says from 40,000 to 50,000. “Et il giorno del mercato, che si fa di cinque in cinque giorni, vi, sono da quaranta ò cinquanta mila persone” (Rel. d’un gentil’ huomo, ap. Ramusio, tom. iii. fol. 309); a confirmation, by the by, of the supposition that the estimated population of the capital, found in the Italian version of this author, is a misprint. (See the preceding chapter, note 13.) He would hardly have crowded an amount equal to the whole of it into the market.{*} {*} [And yet, even now, the number of “persone,” _i.e._, shoppers or transient visitors, in a Mexican or Peruvian plaza on a great fair day, not infrequently equals the number of “habitatori,” or permanent inhabitants of the city.--M.] [366] [From the description of the coin, Ramirez infers that it was not stamped, but cut, in the form mentioned in the text. This is confirmed by one or two specimens of the kind still preserved in the National Museum at Mexico. Ramirez, Notas y Esclarecimientos, p. 102.] [367] _Ante_, vol. i. p. 161. [368] Toribio, Hist. de los Indios, MS., Parte 3, cap. 7.--Rel. Seg., ap. Lorenzana, p. 104.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 10.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, loc. cit. [369] “There were amongst us,” says Diaz, “soldiers who had been in many parts of the world,--in Constantinople and in Rome and through all Italy,--and who said that a market-place so large, so well ordered and regulated, and so filled with people, they had never seen.” Hist. de la Conquista, loc. cit. [370] Clavigero, Stor. del Messico, tom. ii. p. 27. [371] _Ante_, vol. i. p. 94.--[A minute account of the site and extent of the ground covered by the great temple is given by Alaman (Disertaciones históricas, tom. ii. pp. 246-248). The Mexicans are largely indebted to this eminent scholar for his elaborate researches into the topography and antiquities of the Aztec capital.]