The great streets, which were coated with a hard cement, were intersected by numerous canals. Some of these were flanked by a solid way, which served as a foot-walk for passengers, and as a landing-place where boats might discharge their cargoes. Small buildings were erected at intervals, as stations for the revenue officers who collected the duties on different articles of merchandise. The canals were traversed by numerous bridges, many of which could be raised, affording the means of cutting off communication between different parts of the city.[313]
From the accounts of the ancient capital, one is reminded of those aquatic cities in the Old World, the positions of which have been selected from similar motives of economy and defence; above all, of Venice,[314]--if it be not rash to compare the rude architecture of the American Indian with the marble palaces and temples--alas, how shorn of their splendor!--which crowned the once proud mistress of the Adriatic.[315] The example of the metropolis was soon followed by the other towns in the vicinity. Instead of resting their foundations on _terra firma_, they were seen advancing far into the lake, the shallow waters of which in some parts do not exceed four feet in depth.[316] Thus an easy means of intercommunication was opened, and the surface of this inland “sea,” as Cortés styles it, was darkened by thousands of canoes[317]--an Indian term--industriously engaged in the traffic between these little communities. How gay and picturesque must have been the aspect of the lake in those days, with its shining cities, and flowering islets rocking, as it were, at anchor on the fair bosom of its waters!
The population of Tenochtitlan at the time of the Conquest is variously stated. No contemporary writer estimates it at less than sixty thousand houses, which, by the ordinary rules of reckoning,{ *} would give three hundred thousand souls.[318] If a dwelling often contained, as is asserted, several families, it would swell the amount considerably higher.[319] Nothing is more uncertain than estimates of numbers among barbarous communities, who necessarily live in a more confused and promiscuous manner than civilized, and among whom no regular system is adopted for ascertaining the population. The concurrent testimony of the Conquerors; the extent of the city, which was said to be nearly three leagues in circumference;[320] the immense size of its great market-place; the long lines of edifices, vestiges of whose ruins may still be found in the suburbs, miles from the modern city;[321] the fame of the metropolis throughout Anahuac, which, however, could boast many large and populous places; lastly, the economical husbandry and the ingenious contrivances to extract aliment from the most unpromising sources,[322]--all attest a numerous population, far beyond that of the present capital.[323]