[6] “Y era tanta la multitud,” says Cortés, “que por el Agua, y por la Tierra no viamos sino Gente, y daban tantas gritas, y alaridos, que parecia que se hundia el Mundo.” Rel. Terc., p. 245.--Oviedo, Hist, de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 23.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 95.--Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 32. [7] Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 246, 247.--Bernal Diaz, Hist. de la Conquista, cap. 150.--Herrera, Hist, de las Ind., dec. 3, lib. 1, cap. 17.--Defensa, MS., cap. 28. [8] Así como fué de dia se dixo vna misa de Espíritu Santo, que todos los Christianos oyéron con mucha devocion; é aun los Indios, como simples, é no entendientes de tan alto misterio, con admiracion estaban atentos notando el silencio de los cathólicos y el acatamiento que al altar, y al sacerdote los Christianos toviéron hasta recevir la benedicion.” Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 24. [9] [This street, which is now called the Calle del Rastro, and traverses the whole city from north to south, leading from the Calle del Relox to the causeway of Guadalupe or Tepeyacac, was known at the period immediately following the Conquest as the Calle de Iztapalapa, which name was given to it through its whole extent. In the time of the ancient Mexicans its course was intercepted by the great temple, the principal door of which fronted upon it. After this edifice had been demolished, the street was opened from one end to the other. Conquista de Méjico (trad. de Vega), tom. ii. p. 157.] [10] Sahagun, Hist. de Nueva-España, MS., lib. 12, cap. 32.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 95.--Oviedo, Hist. de las Ind., MS., lib. 33, cap. 23.--Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ap. Lorenzana, pp. 247, 248. [11] Rel. Terc. de Cortés, ubi supra.--Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., MS., cap. 95.--Here terminates the work last cited of the Tezcucan chronicler; who has accompanied us from the earliest period of our narrative down to this point in the final siege of the capital. Whether the concluding pages of the manuscript have been lost, or whether he was interrupted by death, it is impossible to say. But the deficiency is supplied by a brief sketch of the principal events of the siege, which he has left in another of his writings. He had, undoubtedly, uncommon sources of information in his knowledge of the Indian languages and picture-writing, and in the oral testimony which he was at pains to collect from the actors in the scenes he describes. All these advantages are too often counterbalanced by a singular incapacity for discriminating--I will not say, between historic truth and falsehood (for what is truth?)--but between the probable, or rather the possible, and the impossible. One of the generation of primitive converts to the Romish faith, he lived in a state of twilight civilization, when, if miracles were not easily wrought, it was at least easy to believe them.