Note 686 — Chapter XVIII · ARCHITECTURE AND DWELLINGS OF THE NAHUAS.

The Anonymous Conqueror says two and a half to three leagues in circumference, which is accepted by most authors. Relatione fatta per vn gentil'huomo del Signor Fernando Cortese, in Ramusio, Navigationi, tom. iii., fol. 309. But as the embankment which formed a semi-circle round the town was three leagues in length, the circumference of the city would not have been less. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iv., p. 4. Cortés says that it was as large as Seville or Cordova. Cartas, p. 103. Aylon, in Id., p. 43, places the number of houses as low as 30,000. Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., cap. l., who is usually so extravagant in his descriptions, confines himself to 'mas de cincuenta mil casas.' Gomara, Conq. Mex., fol. 113, 60,000, each of which contained two to ten occupants. Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 291, places the number as high as 120,000, which may include outlying suburbs. The size and business of the markets, the remains of ruins to be seen round modern Mexico, and its fame, sustain the idea of a very large population.