fusely adorned with fantastic carved work. The pavements of the courts and halls were executed with much skill, and often chequered with marble and other precious stones. The ceiling and roofs of the better sort of buildings were made of cedar, fir, cypress and other kinds of wood peculiar to Mexico.

The religion of the Mexicans was a sanguinary superstition, under the influence of which they sacrificed on their altars the prisoners taken in war. They also exhibited gladiatorial spectacles, in which the most distinguished prisoners might save their lives by killing their antagonists. There were regular orders of priesthood, and convents of men and women. Sacrifices were made to the sun, and incense was burned before their idols.

The Mexicans were remarkable for their active commercial habits. All the various branches of trade were pursued with the greatest industry. In the great square of Tlatelolco, which may be called the Royal Exchange of Mexico, and which was double the size of any place of the same kind in Spain, more than fifty thousand merchants were to be seen every day. It was surrounded by porticoes and arcades, in which the various articles of merchandise were arranged in a regular system, so that all commercial dealings were transacted in perfect order. This was the great emporium of Mexican trade, where all the productions of agriculture, manufactures and the fine arts, were sold or exchanged. To this spot resorted the jewellers and potters of Cholula, the goldsmiths of Azcapozalco, the sculptors of Tenajocan, the painters of Tezcuco, the mat-weavers and chair-makers of

Quauhtitlan, the hunters of Xilotepec, the fish-dealers of Cuitlahuac, the florists of Xochimilco, the gardeners and fruit-sellers of the whole neighborhood. Bits of tin and copper circulated for small change, but the chief medium of exchange consisted of cocoa, cotton cloths, maize and gold-dust in quills. There were commissioners of the market, and a tribunal of commerce, which regulated the whole system of trade.

Poetry and rhetoric were successfully cultivated by the Mexicans; but, as they had only picture-writing and oral tradition to preserve their literature, these memorials of their genius have mostly perished. Dramatic poetry was in high repute. Mexico had a theatre, and two of their dramatic compositions are still extant, which resemble, to a certain degree, the European "mysteries" of the middle ages. The fanaticism of the Spanish priests destroyed almost the whole body of Mexican literature in the pictured volumes which they found in abundance throughout the country. These paintings were executed upon cloth, parchment, and paper made of the maguey, aloe and palm. The art of picture-writing they received from the Toltecs. The Mexican painters were innumerable, and there was hardly a subject that was not illustrated by their art. Mythology, history, astronomy, astrology, &c., were largely treated in the Mexican volumes. Regular codes of law and reports of trials filled the public archives. After the Spanish conquest, many of these volumes were written in the European alphabet, and had the religious zeal of the conquerors spared the Mexican libraries for a short time, the substance of their literature might have

been reproduced in a shape accessible to European readers, by which means a most important acquisition would have been made to the history of the western world.

DONNA MARINA.

THIS remarkable Mexican female, who is the only one of her sex that has acquired a place in the history of her country, was born in Painalla, a village of the Mexican province of Guazacoalco. She was of noble birth, her father having been a feudatory of the crown of Mexico, and lord of several domains. Her mother, being left a widow, married another Mexican noble, by whom she had a son. Donna Marina was yet an infant, and the affections of her mother appear to have been entirely engrossed by her son. She had so little feeling for her daughter, that she consented to a scheme of her husband for securing the succession to his offspring, by getting rid of the older heir. Accordingly, taking advantage of the death of a girl about the age of Donna Marina, the child of one of their own slaves, they announced that their daughter had died. The funeral and mourning were conducted with every appearance of sincere grief, and the public fell into the deception.

Donna Marina was privately sold by her unnatural parents to some traders of Xicalango, a town on the frontier of the territory of Tabasco. These people sold her again to some persons of the city of Tabasco, where she lived many years as a slave. As she grew up, she became distinguished for her beauty and talents. She was gifted with a noble figure, and a frank, amiable and winning address. Having lived

among various nations of the Mexican empire, and possessing great discernment and quickness of understanding, she acquired a knowledge of their various. dialects, which gave her a vast influence and consequence in the war between the Spaniards and the Mexicans. When Cortez arrived on the coast of Mexico, he possessed no means of communicating by speech with the natives. Not a man of all his expedition knew anything of the language spoken in the great and powerful empire he was about to invade. Two fortunate accidents removed this obstacle. On touching at the island of Cozumel, he found there a Spaniard, named Jerome de Aguilar, who had been eight years a prisoner among the Indians of that part of the coast, and had become perfectly acquainted with their language. This Spaniard he ransomed, and carried along with him as an interpreter.

Aguilar made his services available to the Spaniards, in conversing with the natives, till the arrival of the expedition at the place where Vera Cruz was afterwards built. When Cortez entered the harbor, a large canoe, full of people, among whom were two who seemed to be persons of distinction, approached his ship in a friendly manner, making signs for a parley. They came on board without fear or distrust, and addressed him in a respectful manner; but Cortez was thrown into the greatest embarrassment, on perceiving that Aguilar was totally unacquainted with their language. His disappointment was most distressing and mortifying, as he had imagined his interpreter familiar with the speech of the whole empire. He instantly foresaw the formidable difficulties