inable war-god of
the early Mexicans. The edifice stands upon the soft subsoil of which
the city's foundation is composed, softness which has caused the
subsidence of other buildings; but the cathedral, although it has
suffered somewhat from earthquake shocks, stands firm and solid as
ever. Valuable art treasures exist within, among the pictures being a
Murillo, and possibly a Velasquez. So numerous are these old pictures
that they overlap each other upon the walls. The cathedral is nearly
400 feet long, and its interior rises upon twenty splendid Doric
columns for 180 feet, whilst the apices of the great towers are 204
feet above the pavement. But this splendid temple--as is often the case
with the cathedrals of Spanish-American capitals--is not the
fashionable or aristocratic resort of Mexico's religious people.
Nevertheless, its aisles are generally thronged, and the highborn and
expensively attired lady and the poor _peon_ woman, with her modest
_rebosa_, or shawl, may be seen side by side kneeling upon its
knee-worn floor, whilst before the images in the seven chapels of its
aisles there are never wanting supplicating figures, nor the numerous
little written supplications pinned upon their altar rails.

It would be endless to describe the other numerous ecclesiastical
buildings and temples of the City of Mexico. Their number and beauty
are indicative of the strength and rooted persistence of religion and
monastic orders in New Spain. Among the principal of these Orders and
the dates at which their corresponding habitations were erected, were
those of the Franciscans, 1524; Dominicans, 1526; Augustinians, 1533;
Jesuits, 1572; Carmelites, 1585; and various others, with numerous
convents.

The principal commercial and fashionable street of Mexico City is that
of Plateros, somewhat narrow and congested, but full of high-class
shops. Thence it continues along Bucareli[29] and the broad Avenida de
Juarez, which in turn is continued by the famous Paseo de la Reforma, a
splendid drive and promenade of several miles in length, which
terminates at the Castle of Chapultepec. This great road is planted
throughout its length with trees and adorned with a profusion--almost
too great--of statues, and along both sides are private houses of
modern construction. These are less picturesque, but more comfortable,
than the old Spanish-built dwellings before described, although at
times somewhat bizarre in their facades, with a certai