" It is probably one of these fountains that now supplies the Hospital de Naturales ; its pipesare buried under the earth, and cannot be traced, and, as in the time of the Peruvian historian, its sources are unknown. At Lanasca, there is also a fountain supplied through subterranean conduits, the source of which has never been traced. Many of these great works became useless after the conquest, from their very magnificence, for their pipes being made of gold, excited the cupidity of the avaricious Spaniards, and * others were destroyed from mere wantonness."

In the same volume we find these additional notices of the Mexican aqueducts, and of the Vandal destruction of them by the Spaniards. " The aqueduct of Chapoltepec, consisted of two conduits, formed of solid masonwork, each five feet high and two paces broad, by which the water was introduced into

the city for the supply of various fountains. Olid and Alvarado commenced the siege of Mexico, by attempting to cut off this supply of water, an enterprise which the Mexicans endeavored to prevent. " There appeared on that side," says De Solis, " two or three rows of pipes, made of trees hollowed, supported by an aqueduct of lime and stone, and the enemy had cast up some trenches to cover the avenue to it. But the two Captains marched out of Tacuba with most of their troops, and though they met with a very

obstinate resistance, they drove the enemy from their post, and broke the pipes and aqueduct in two or three places, and the water took its natural course into the lake." t