Lake Texcoco

“ The Canal, adjoining the Paseo de la Viga, presents a busy scene in the early morning. The Indians bring their fruits and vegetables to market, and the canal is crowded with their rafts and canoes. The tourist should hire a canoe and visit either Lake Texcoco, about three miles distant, or the "vegetable" gardens, a mile and a half from the terminus of the "Viga" horse-car track. A party of three or four persons may employ an Indian to paddle them to the gardens for the sum of one dollar. There is no tariff of charges, and a bargain must be made. ”

“ With its handsome institutions and public buildings, and extensive boulevards and parks, and characteristic social, literary, and commercial life, the City of Mexico may be described as Americo-Parisian, and it is rapidly becoming a centre of attraction for United States tourists, who, avid of historical and foreign colour, descend thither in Pullman-car loads from the north. The city lies some three miles from the shore of Lake Texcoco, which, with that of Chalco and others, forms a group of salt- and fresh-water lagoons in the strange Valley of Mexico. ”

“ A considerable part of the cargoes was the fine large red earthen jars and dishes we saw at Mexico, which are made at Texcoco. The piled-up bales and pottery, the strange figures, and the flashing poles of one of these craft, coming on, make it a highly original and spirited subject.
Then we fell in with one of the curiosities of the lake—disbelieved in by some—swarms of the mosca, a little water-fly, so thickly settled on the water that we took them for flats and reefs. They resemble mosquitoes, but neither sting nor even alight on the boat. ”

“ It is true this road would have brought troops in by Guadalupe—a town, church and detached spur of mountain about two miles north of the capital, all bearing the same general name—and at this point Lake Texcoco comes near to the mountain, which was fortified both at the base and on the sides: but troops could have passed north of the mountain and come in only a few miles to the north-west, and so flanked the position, as they actually did on the south. ”

“ The lakes of Mexico are small and few in number. They may be divided into two classes; those of the plateau region which occupy lacustrine depressions and receive the drainage of the surrounding country; and the tide-water lagoons of the coast formed by the building up of new sand beaches across the indentations in the coast-line. Of the former, the best known are the lakes of the Valley of Mexico—Texcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, Zumpango, Xaltocán and San Cristobal—which are probably the remains of a lake once occupying the whole valley. ”

“ They say it was grand and had cages and other attractive furniture all from the United States. I always mean to go to the penitentiary by proxy.
Across the lake is the city of Texcoco, that was once the Athens of the valley as Tenochtitlan was the Rome. Here are many ancient remains of buildings built when this was the most bitter rival the Aztec capital had. Were it not for the help of the Texcocoans, Cortez never would have conquered the Island City. Beyond here are the Arcos de Zempoala, an aqueduct 37 miles long, supported by arches nearly a hundred feet high. ”

“ We started about seven o'clock in the morning from the garita of La Viga, an old Spanish water-gate, at which toll is taken from the market boats. The current was against us. The canal of La Viga, a stretch of about sixteen miles, is the outlet of Lake Xochimilco into Texcoco. Chalco and Xochimilco are practically the same lake, being separated only by a narrow causeway of ancient date, which is open at the centre and spanned by a little bridge. ”

“ They walked up an inclined plane, carrying the poles over their heads, and came down, pushing, with them supported against their shoulders, in a bold and striking motion. It was eight o'clock when we set out, and four when we reached the mouth of the short branch canal which makes up to Texcoco. The distance must be about thirty miles. A cross arose out of the lake half way over, and our polemen stopped at it and shouted three times, with startling effect, "Alabo al gran poder de Dios! ”

“ MY next journey was by lake across Texcoco to the old capital of that name. I had hoped to take El Nezhualcoyotl, which lay in the mud by the Garita of San Lazaro, when I went to make preliminary inquiries. There would have been a certain fitness in approaching the ancient capital in a boat named after the sovereign who made it illustrious ”

“ Between us and them is spread every variety of surface that ever rejoiced the eye of an admirer of nature, in the hills crested with groves, the plains and valleys gemmed with lucent lakes. The great Lake Tezcoco, which formerly surrounded the city, lies now at a distance of three miles from it, sleeping in the sunshine, with the haze of distance enwrapping its farther shore. ”

“ There is not a spot in Lake Tezcoco where a man, standing upright, would have his head under water. It is traversed by market boats of the bread-basket pattern, flat bottomed, and impelled by poling—just the same sort as Cortez found navigating it when he launched his brigantine on its eastern edge, which vessel was doubtless nothing more than a rude raft. The periaguas, and other craft which now ply upon it, bringing produce from Tezcoco, and other lake shore towns to the capital city, are all of the punt species, none of them drawing over eighteen inches of water. ”

“ In the dry seasons it is so drained by evaporation, that the canoes find great difficulty in navigating it; there is also another cause, which operates to decrease this celebrated lake; a cut has been made through the mountains to throw off the superabundant waters of the two upper lakes of Zumpango and San Christoval, which prevents those lakes from nourishing Tezcuco. Lake Tezcuco, covers a space equal to ten square leagues. A strait or channel connects Tezcuco with the lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco to the south of the city, which are not so broad as Tezcuco, but are more interesting ”

“ Four walk on each plank, each man throwing up his pole as he gets to the end, and running back up the middle to begin again at the prow. The dexterity with which they swing the poles about, and keep them out of each other’s way, is wonderful; and, as seen from our end of the canoe, looks like a kind of exaggerated quarter-staff playing, only nobody is ever hit.
The great peculiarity of the lake of Tezcuco is that it is a salt lake, containing much salt and carbonate of soda. The water is quite brackish and undrinkable. How it has come to be so is plain enough. ”

“ The road is good, level, perfectly open and comfortable for ordinary travelling, but the narrow land between the lakes of Chalco and Tezcoco, compressed still more by broken hills and rocks, admits the most perfect military defence. At the end of the first causeway over the arm of Tezcoco which we have just described, is the abrupt oblong volcanic hill styled El Peñon, four hundred and fifty feet above the level of the lake, its top accessible in the direction of Ayotla at only one point, and surrounded by water except on the west towards Mexico. It is a natural fortress ”

“ There are several varieties of fish in the fresh-water lakes of the Valley of Mexico, but in the salt or brackish Lake Tezcoco there is only one kind, and some people think he is not entitled to be called a fish. He is shaped like one, but has four legs and a long, eel-like tail. He belongs more properly to the lizard family than to that of the fishes, and is a disgusting object to contemplate. He grows to about ten inches in length. Frank thought he should go hungry a long time rather than eat of this reptile, who is called axolotl in the Aztec tongue, and ajolote by the Spaniards. ”

“ San Christobal, a small lake north of Tezcoco, and Xaltocan and Zumpango, in the northern end of the valley, at an elevation of twenty-five feet above the city. In order to save the city, it was considered necessary to divert the waters of Lake Zumpango—which flowed into Tezcoco, a lake without an outlet, and were a perpetual menace to the capital—in another direction, through the mountain wall that enclosed the valley, into the River Montezuma, which empties eventually into the Gulf of Mexico. ”

“ Behind us glowed the Mexic valley, green and glossy, where lake and tree met together. It is a magnificent landscape, and naturally set Cortez violently in love with it, as it had the Aztec and the Toltec before him. One does not tire in admiring its wonderful combination of snow range and purple mountains, of broad lake and ever-green foliage, of pretty town and grand city. The lakes here are an important part of the landscape, if landscape it may be called which they make up. Tezcoco, the largest, seems to fill all the outer section of the valley. ”

“ The retreat of the salt waters of Tezcuco has left the present republican city of Mexico a full league west of the lake. In the days of Montezuma, it stood upon an island two miles removed from the western shore, with which it communicated by the dike or calzada of Tlacopan,—now called Tacuba. The causeway of Iztapalapan, coming from the South, seven miles in length, passed over the island and through the city, and was continued in a line three miles further to the northern shore, and to the city Tepejacac, where now stand the church and the miraculous picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. ”

“ There is no hotel in the village, and the market-place is almost always desolate. This town once stood on the borders of the great lake of Chalco, the body of fresh water that poured a volume into Lake Tezcoco, through the lake and canal of Xochimilco. But now the lake is miles away, and only reached by canals cut through the sea of marshes. The inhabitants of the place have commerce with Mexico by canoes, and carry there fruits and flowers, though it is a day's journey distant. Fields of pulque, gardens, and trees surround Chalco on three sides, and in front is the marsh. ”

“ It was a gloomy time, requiring vigilance by day and by night—by land and by water. The brigantines were still secure. They swept the lake continually and cut off supplies designed for the capital. The Spaniards hermetically sealed the causeways with their cannon, and thus, at length, was the city that would not yield to storm given over to starvation.
↑ The writer sounded the lake in the channel from Mexico to Tezcoco in 1842, and did not find more than 21⁄2 feet in the deepest path. The Indians, at present, wade over all parts of the lake. ”

“ The range of secondary hills over which our track lay on our early morning ride to Tecama, an old halting place on the Real del Monte road, gave us frequent glimpses of the lakes in the plain below, and particularly of that of San Cristobal, between which and the marshes of Lake Tezcuco, the old Spaniards have left one of the noblest monuments of their skill and magnificence, in the construction of the celebrated dike and causeway, by which they prevented the surplus waters of the higher from entering the lower. ”

“ In crossing from Arequipa in Peru to La Paz in Bolivia, the road ascends the Andes, makes a slight descent into the barren, desolate valley between the Andes and Cordilleras, crosses Lake Titicaca, and then descends to La Paz. Lake Titicaca, the largest lake of South America, is on a plateau between twelve and thirteen thousand feet in height, the most elevated table land on the globe, excepting Thibet. This lake is surrounded by lofty, snow-clad mountains, the highest of which is Illampa, 22,300 feet in height. ”

“ The lake of Texcuco lay in a large and beautiful valley, called the Vale of Mexico, in the central part of the country of Anahuac. From the shore, three great dykes or causeways, formed of stone and earth, led to the city, the appearance of which [Pg 98] must have been magnificent, even to men of enlightened Europe.
The houses of the common people were mostly low wooden buildings, arranged with the greatest regularity. But the dwellings of the nobility were of stone, and some of them spacious and magnificent. ”

“ In North America, where there are more lakes than in any other part of the world, not one of this kind is known, at least if we except two small collections of water formed by rivulets, the one near Guatimapo, and the other some leagues from Realnuevo, both in Mexico. But in South America, at Peru, there are two contiguous lakes, one of which, lake Titicaca, is very large, and receives a river whose source is not very remote from Cusco, and from which no river issues: there is one smaller in Tucuman, which receives the river Sala ”

“ The inhabitants of Mexico, and all the places round the lake, and those of Tlascala and all the other Indian towns, celebrated his return with festivals. On his arrival at Tescuco, the contador came to wait upon him, and on entering the capital, he was received in great state by all the civil and military officers, and all the inhabitants. The natives in their gayest attire, and armed as warriors, filled the lake in their canoes; dancing and festivity prevailed in every corner of the city during the whole day ”

“ Indians in reed rafts with sails made of rushes dashed past and disappeared among the cattails, and water-fowl of several species—mostly ducks, coots, and grebes—paddled out into the ruffled water left in the wake of the boat.
It is unfortunate that this passage of the lake is made at night. Nearly every one visiting the vast body of water for the first time is eager to see as much of it as possible, both on account of its being the highest great lake in the world (twelve thousand five hundred feet above sea-level) and by reason of its associations with the nation of the Incas. ”