The great miracle of all was the deliverance of Mexico from the great inundation of 1626, and the fact is established thus.

The city was under water, the inhabitants in despair.

The picture was brought to the Cathedral in a canoe, through the streets of Mexico; and between one and two years afterwards the inundation subsided.

_Ergo_, it was the picture that saved the city! For centuries a fierce rivalry existed between the Spanish Virgin, called "de Remedios," and Our Lady of Guadalupe; the Spaniards supporting the first, and the native Mexicans the second.

A note of Humboldt's illustrates this feeling perfectly.