Note 31 — Chapter IV · PALACES AND HOUSEHOLDS OF THE NAHUA KINGS.

Gage's New Survey, p. 99. Concerning this oratory, see Las Casas, Hist. Apologética, MS., tom. i., cap. l. Torquemada, Monarq. Ind., tom. i., p. 296, asserts that the gold and silver plates with which the walls and roof were coated, were almost as thick as a finger, and that the first conquerors did not see this chapel or oratory, because Montezuma always went to the temple to pray, and probably, as the natives declared, knowing the covetousness of the Spaniards, he purposely concealed all this wealth from them; it is also said that when Mexico was taken the natives destroyed this chapel, and threw its treasures into the lake.