Note 765 — Chapter XVIII · ARCHITECTURE AND DWELLINGS OF THE NAHUAS.

'Cento & cinquanta passi, ò poco piu di lunghezza, & cento quindici, ò cento & venti di larghezza.' Relatione fatta per vn gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 307. This would give the length and breadth of the base in the text, assuming two and a half feet to the pace. With a decrease of two good paces for each of the four ledges which surround the pyramid, the summit measurement is arrived at. The terraces are stated by the same author to be two men's stature in height, but this scarcely agrees with the height indicated by the 120 or 30 steps given. Bernal Diaz, Hist. Conq., fol. 70, counted 114 steps, and as most authors estimate each of these at a span, or nine inches in height, this would give an altitude of 86 feet. Clavigero, Storia Ant. del Messico, tom. ii., pp. 28-9, gives about 50 fathoms (perches, he calls them) by 43 to the base, and, allowing a perch to the ledges, he places the summit dimensions at 43 by 34 fathoms. The height he estimates at 19 fathoms, giving the height of each step as one foot. To prove that he has not over-estimated the summit dimensions, at least, he refers to the statements of Cortés, who affirms that he fought 500 Mexicans on the top platform, and of Diaz, who says that over 4,000 men garrisoned the temple. Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. ii., pp. 144-5, who follows Sahagun, states it to be 360 feet square at the base, and over 70 at the top; the steps he says are 'vna tercia, y mas' in height, which closely approaches a foot. Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. li., says: 'Una torre triangular ó de tres esquinas de tierra y piedra maciza; y ancha de esquina á esquina de ciento y viente pasos ó cuasi ... con un llano ó plaza de obra de setenta pies.' In cap. cxxxii. he calls it 100 men's stature in height. Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 119, says 50 fathoms square at the base and 18 at the top. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., in Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. ix., p. 245, describes a temple which seems to be that of Mexico, and states it to be 80 fathoms square, with a height of 27 men's stature. Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. ii., lib. vii., cap. xvii., places the dimensions as low as 30 varas square at the base and from 12 to 15 at the top. Of modern authors Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iii., p. 659, gives the dimensions at 300 by 250 feet for the base, and 60 feet for the summit, after allowing from 5 to 6 feet for the ledges, a rather extraordinary computation; unless, indeed, we assume that the terraces were sloping, but there is no reliable cut or description to confirm such a supposition. Humboldt, Essai Pol., tom. i., pp. 169-70, has 97 mètres for the square, and 37 for the height. Ortega, in Veytia, Hist. Ant. Mej., tom. iii., pp. 280-82, is positive that the height was certainly no less than 38 varas. Prescott, Mex., vol. ii., p. 144, remarks that there is no authority for describing the temple as oblong, except the contemptible cut of the Anonymous Conqueror. This may be just enough as regards the cut, but if he had examined the description attached to it, he would have found the dimensions of an oblong structure given. We must consider that the Anonymous Conqueror is the only eye-witness who gives any measurement, and, further, that as two chapels were situated at one end of the platform the structure ought to have been oblong to give the space in front a fair outline.