CHAPTER III.
CITY OF MEXICO.
[Illustration: VIEW OF PART OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO.] Some thirty years ago, Don Agustin Yturbide, the first and last Emperor of Mexico, found that he wanted a palace wherein to house his newly-fledged dignity; and began to build one accordingly, in the high street of Mexico, close to the great convent of San Francisco.

It could not have been nearly finished when its founder was shot: and it became the _Hotel d'Yturbide_.

We are now settled in it, in very comfortable quarters.

There is a restaurant down below, where the son of the late Yturbide dines daily, and everybody points him out to us, and moralises over him.
Mr.Christy's drawer-roll of letters of introduction has produced an immediate crop of pleasant acquaintances, whose hospitality is boundless.

We are not idle, far from it; and a long day's work is generally followed by a social dinner, and an evening spent in noting down the results of our investigations.
Prescott's _Conquest of Mexico_ has been more read in England than most historical works; and the Mexico of Montezuma has a well-defined idea attached to it.