Note 267 — Chapter IX
Reading edition
It is not necessary, however, to adopt Herrera’s account of 50,000 canoes, which, he says, were constantly employed in supplying the capital with provisions! (Hist. general, dec. 2, lib. 7, cap. 14.) The poet-chronicler Saavedra is more modest in his estimate:
“Dos mil y mas canoas cada dia Bastecen el gran pueblo Mexicano De la mas y la menos niñería Que es necesario al alimento humano.” El Peregrino Indiano, canto 11.