wished for a mouthful of water, and they give me a whole cataract!" Preserving the same spirit, he ordered public rejoicings for this act of munificence on the part of his friends. Such is one instance of his mistaken clemency.

Xolotl died after a reign of about forty years. He was a man of courage and resolution, yet mild and equitable in his administration. He is, moreover, celebrated for the affectionate disposition which he manifested in private life. His corpse lay in state, for five days, on a bier made of gum copal and aromatic substances, and decked with gold ornaments; after which it was burnt, according to the custom of the Chechemecans, and the ashes were collected in an urn and deposited in a cave.

ACAMAPITZIN,

FIRST KING OF MEXICO.

THE government of Mexico was aristocratical till the year 1352, the supreme authority being exercised by a council composed of persons most eminent for their wisdom and influence. At the foundation of the city, the number of these was twenty, the chief of whom was Tenoch, as appears from the Mexican paintings. The weak and humble state in which the people felt themselves, on account of the trouble their neighbors gave them, and the example of the Chechemecans, the Tepanecans, and the Colhuans, induced them to erect their little state into a monarchy-hoping that the royal authority would throw a degree of splendor on the whole body of the nation, and also flattering themselves that the election of a king would secure to them an able general, to defend them against their enemies. The choice fell by common consent on Acamapitzin.

This individual was one of the most prominent among them for his knowledge and prudence. He was the son of Opochtli, a noble Aztec, and Atozotzli, a princess of the royal family of Colhuacan. Being unmarried, he sought a wife among the first families of Anahuac, and sent successive embassies to. the sovereigns of Tacuba and Azcapozalco; but in both quarters his advances were rejected with disdain.

Aristocratical pride and the scruples of etiquette are not, it seems, confined to the higher degrees of civilization. The new king of Mexico was more successful with the chief of Coatlichan, who gave him his daughter in marriage, and the wedding was celebrated at Mexico with the greatest rejoicings.

The Tlatelolcos, neighbors and rivals of the Mexicans, and who were constantly observing what was going on among them, thought it incumbent upon them to imitate their example, that they might not be surpassed in glory and military power by their competitors. Being unable to make an advantageous selection of a sovereign from their own nation, they requested of the king of Tepaneca, who exercised a sort of feudal sovereignty over the territory of the Mexicans, one of his sons to reign over them. That monarch complied with their request, and Quaquanpitzahuac was crowned first king of Tlatelolco, in 1353. It was judged that the Tlatelolcos, by this movement, had the ultimate design to flatter the king of Tepaneca, and incense him against their rivals. They declaimed against the presumption and insolence of the Mexicans, in creating a king without his permission, and urged so many arguments on this point, that the Tepanecan monarch was soon wrought up to a hostile feeling against the Mexicans, and determined to harass them as Pharaoh did the Israelites, by the imposition of heavy tasks and burthens.

The Mexicans, till that period, had paid only a small tribute of fish and water-fowl. This tribute was now doubled, in addition to which, they were required to transport many thousands of trees, to be set

in the gardens, parks and roads of Tepaneca. They were also ordered to construct a great floating garden on the lake of Mexico.

It appears that gardens of this description were found here by the Spanish conquerors, and were viewed by them with admiration. They were constructed by plaiting and twisting willows, and roots of marsh plants, and other light but strong materials, together, so as to form a secure flooring. On this foundation, they laid the light bushes which float on the lake, and, above these, a layer of mud, drawn from the bottom of the lake. On the top of the whole was placed a stratum of dry soil. On these artificial territories, the Mexicans cultivated all sorts of vegetables for food, and also fields of maize. As the industry of the people increased, these floating gardens became very numerous, and many of them were beautifully ornamented with beds of flowers, odoriferous plants, summer-houses and arbors for the recreation of the nobles. Long after their conquest, the Mexicans continued the use of these floating gardens. Every day of the year, innumerable boats from them, loaded with various kinds of herbs and flowers, were seen arriving by the canal at the great market of Mexico. Some of the gardens even contained trees which afforded a shade to the inhabitants; and all were towed about the lake by boats, according as the owner wished to change his neighborhood.

The Mexicans constructed the garden, and paid the additional tribute demanded by the king of Tepaneca. The next year, an additional burthen was imposed on them. They were too weak to resist their task

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masters, and still submitted. Notwithstanding these oppressions, their state continued to flourish under the administration of Acamapitzin. The population increased, buildings of stone were erected, and the canals, which proved so serviceable to the city, were constructed. Acamapitzin governed Mexico in peace for thirty-seven years. Finding his end approaching, he called his chief officers around him, and, after exhorting them to a continuance of their zeal for the. public good, recommending to their care his wives and children, and declaring the deep pain it gave him to reflect that he left his people tributary to the Tepanecans; he stated that, as he had received the crown from their hands, he surrendered it to them again, in order that it might be bestowed on the most worthy. He died in the year 1389, greatly lamented. by the Mexicans, who celebrated his obsequies with all the magnificence they could exhibit.

Acamapitzin had many wives, though only two of them were honored with the name of queen. Two of his sons, Iluitzithuit and Chimalpopoca, afterwards became kings of Mexico. The subjection of the Mexicans to the Tepanecans lasted for fifty years, during which time Mexico continued to be governed by a line of kings chosen by election, much in the same manner as the sovereigns of Poland were elected by the diet of that kingdom.