Bernal Diaz in Mexico: Garden View c.1520

Bernal Diaz in recounting the days he spent in the company of the great Motecuhzoma, gives us some of the best most detailed descriptions we have of the man, his court, local practices and what must have been the huge market in the great capital city. Much of it unfortunately has scant contemporary or corroborating accounts. So when Diaz goes on at length it's worth noting, even though he soon grows tired of it and changes the subject.

Diaz gives us a clear description of the man himself, as well as how Moctezuma ate his food, how his servants dealt with him, and even how much cacao was delivered at certain times. He gives us tours of temples and gardens, a zoo and aviaries. One is worth noting for its picturesque quality.

"Let us not forget the gardens of flowers and sweet-smelling trees and the many kinds he had of them, their arrangement and the walkways, the ponds, and reservoir of fresh water, how the water comes in at one end and goes out by the other, the baths he had within, the variety of small birds that nested in the branches. The medicinal and other useful herbs he had there were something to see, and for all of this many gardeners, and everything made of masonry and well whitened with lime, baths as well as walks, and other private rooms and apartments like summer houses and also places where they danced and sang."  [p. 206]

There were so many different kinds of artisans and architects and advisers, Diaz gets tired listing them all. The great market at the plaza of Tlatelolco was another great wonder.
___________________________________________
 quote from ch xci, Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012