nt State of
the Lake in the Valley.

All the world has heard of the floating gardens (_chinampas_) of
Mexico, but all the world has not seen them. I have not seen any
floating gardens, nor, on diligent inquiry, have I been able to find a
man, woman, or child that ever has seen them, nor do I believe that
such a thing as a floating garden ever existed at Mexico. Humboldt
admits that they do exist; says that he has seen floating earthy masses
of great size in the tropical rivers, and then describes the manner of
the construction of the chinampas, but in such a way as to satisfy the
careful reader that he does not intend to say that he saw them himself,
and evidently makes his statement upon hearsay; and takes it up as an
admitted fact, without having his mind called to the physical
impossibilities of floating a mass of earth that was of a greater
specific gravity than water.

FAITH AND TESTIMONY.

When the historians of the Conquest wrote their marvelous narratives of
alleged adventures and of the new empire, it was a question for the
Emperor and the Inquisition solely, whether their writings should pass
for history or be condemned as fabulous. With this question the people
had nothing to do but to believe as it suited those in authority. The
question being settled that the publication of the letters of Cortez as
a verity would redound to the glory of the Church and the king, then it
was also settled that there should be no contradiction published; and
as these marvelous tales were spread abroad throughout Europe, with the
masses of silver from the newly-discovered mines, men were prepared to
believe almost any thing--even that rich vegetable mould, when
saturated with water, could float.

It not being lawful to promulgate the facts of the Conquest, the memory
of events that really transpired ultimately passed from the
recollections of men, so that the letters of Cortez were taken for
truth, even in their most minute details; so that, in a subsequent
century, we find a vice-king employing an engineer to search for and
clean out the hole in the bottom of the Tezcuco! for, from the
vice-king down to the most insignificant official, all assumed that the
letters of Cortez gave a correct picture of affairs at that time; and
all showed the greatest embarrassment in accounting for the magnitude
of the changes that are supposed to have occurred without a
sufficiently adequate cause. It is a common difficulty in all purel