Whether the proportion of water to land had adjusted itself before the country was inhabited, or whether during historical times the lakes were still gradually diminishing by the excess of evaporation over the quantity of water supplied by rain and snow, is an open question.

At any rate the two causes I have mentioned will account for the changes which have taken place since the conquest.
Taking it as a whole, Mexico is a grand city, and, as Cortes truly said, its situation is marvellous.

But as for the buildings, I should be sorry to inflict upon any one who may read these sketches, a detailed description of any one of them.

It is a thousand pities that, just at the time when the Italians and Spaniards were most zealous in church-building, so very questionable an architectural taste should have been prevalent.
The churches and convents in Mexico belong to that kind of renaissance style that began to flourish in southern Europe in the sixteenth century, and has held its ground there ever since.

High facades abound, with pilasters crowned by elaborate Corinthian capitals, forming a curious contrast with the mean little buildings crouched behind the tall front.