ed with their armor, and fighting all the time against a superior
force of the Aztecs; and that Alvarado actually leaped across one of
the openings, shows conclusively that the canals could not have more
than equaled in breadth the present canal of Chalco. On the hypothesis
that Cortez used scows that drew no more water than the scows that at
present navigate the canals, his story becomes credible, so far, at
least, as the possibility of making the circuit of the city in large
boats in a season of rains.

TRUTH AGAINST FICTION.

It is an ungracious task to sift truth from fables. One man is
displeased at seeing held up as a fiction a narrative which he has been
accustomed to read with pleasure, and to take for truth, because it was
elegantly written; and he requires an accumulation of proofs and
arguments before he will abandon a belief which he has adopted without
evidence. Another man, who deals only in matters of fact, is easily
convinced, and is annoyed at an accumulation of proofs and arguments
where one is sufficient. The superstitious man can not, of course, be
convinced, for his belief does not rest upon evidence; and he is
indignant that an attempt should be made to detract from the glory
obtained by the Virgin Mary and the Church in this victory over the
infidels. Had I attempted to prove that the feather which is now
preserved with so much care in the Church of _San Juan de Lateran_ at
Rome did not fall from the wing of the angel Gabriel when he came to
announce to Mary her conception, and that the whole history of that
feather was a fable, notwithstanding it has received the attestations
of so many of the Holy Fathers, I should be cursed for my impiety no
more than I shall be for raising the question of the authenticity of
the histories of the Conquest. With all these difficulties before me, I
will venture to add one or two more reasons that have induced me to
doubt the existence of those famous brigantines, which required a depth
of twelve feet of water.

In support of the hypothesis that the street ditches, called canals,
were independent of the Tezcuco for their supply, we have still the
remains of an old Indian dike, which extended from near Iztapalapan,
along the east part of the city, to Guadalupe or Tepeyaca, which must
have been intended to shut off the Tezcuco when the water was high, and
when it receded they probably opened a weir at the northern extremity,
through which the waters of the city