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Title: Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, v. 2-2
       A Historical, Geographical, Political, Statistical and
              Social Account of that Country from the Period of the
              Invasion by the Spaniards to the Present Time.

Author: Brantz Mayer

Release Date: July 28, 2015 [EBook #49538]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

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MEXICO;

AZTEC, SPANISH AND REPUBLICAN:

A HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND SOCIAL
ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY FROM THE PERIOD OF THE INVASION
BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME;

WITH A VIEW OF THE

ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE AND CIVILIZATION;

A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE WAR;

AND NOTICES OF

N E W   M E X I C O   A N D   C A L I F O R N I A.

BY
B R A N T Z   M A Y E R,
FORMERLY SECRETARY OF LEGATION TO MEXICO.

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME II.

HARTFORD:
S. DRAKE AND COMPANY.
MDCCCLIII.

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CONTENTS.

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B O O K   I V.

GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF
MEXICO—POLITICAL DIVISIONS—POPULATION;
PRODUCTIONS—MINES—AGRICULTURE;
MANUFACTURES—COMMERCE—FINANCES—ARMY;
NAVY—CHURCH—CONSTITUTION AND LAWS;
NATIONAL CONDITION.

CHAPTER I.

Geological and Geographical Structure of Mexico—Extent.

IT is unfortunate that, notwithstanding the rich mineralogical and agricultural character of Mexico, no thoroughly accurate survey or geological examination has ever been made of the whole country. There is no complete map of the territory which may be confidently relied on. The enterprise of developing Mexico, since the foundation of the colonial government by Spain has been almost entirely abandoned to private enterprise, and, consequently the valuable information, collected by individuals, either perished in their hands after it had been used for their own benefit, or, if imparted to the government, has never been united and collated with other accounts and reconnoissances which were in the hands of national authorities. A great deal was done by Baron Alexander Humboldt, during his visit to New Spain early in this century, towards gathering the geographical, geological and statistical information which was then in existence, though scattered, far and wide, over the viceroyalty, in a thousand different hands. His voluminous work is an enduring monument to his industry and talent; but there is necessarily a great deal of it that was altogether transitory in its character both on account of the political and social revolution which has since occurred, and in consequence of the opening, by the republic, of Mexican ports to the commerce of the world.

Nevertheless, at the period of Humboldt's visit, the main bold geographical and geological features of Mexico were sufficiently well known for practical purposes, and as his descriptions have, in{10} most cases, stood the test of criticism during near half a century, we may still safely appeal to him, and to his industrious countryman, Muhlenpfordt,[1] as the most reliable authorities upon these topics.

According to Humboldt, Mexico presented a surface of one hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight square leagues, of twenty-five to the degree, yet this calculation did not include the space between the northern extremity of New Mexico and Sonora, and the American boundary of 1819. Thirty-six thousand five hundred square leagues, comprising the States of Zacatecas, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Oajaca, Tabasco, Yucatan, Chiapas, were within the torrid zone; while New Mexico, Durango, New and Old California, Sonora and a great part of the old Intendancy of San Luis Potosi, containing in all eighty-six thousand square leagues, were under the temperate zone.[2]

A more recent, and, generally, an accurate writer,[3] has estimated the boundaries of Mexico, prior to the treaty of 1848, at Guadalupe, between the United States and Mexico, to have embraced an area of one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, including Texas. By the treaty just mentioned we acquired an undisputed title to Texas, and a territorial cession of New Mexico and Upper California.

If we, therefore, deduct from the preceding estimate of one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, the sum of eight hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight square miles, we shall have, as the best approximate calculation, that we can now make, seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand four hundred and two square miles, for the total superficial extent of the Republic of Mexico, as at present bounded since the ratification of our recent international treaty. By that negotiation it consequently appears that we have obtained one half the former territory of Mexico and twenty-six thousand five hundred and ninety-eight square miles besides.{11}

The geological structure or physiognomy of Mexico is peculiar. The great Cordillera of the Andes, which traverses the whole of South America, from its southernmost limit, is exceedingly depressed at the Isthmus of Panama, where its gentle swells serve merely to form a barrier between the union of the Pacific and Atlantic. But, as soon as this massive chain enters the broader portion of North America, it divides into two gigantic arms, to the east and west along the shores of the Gulf and of the Pacific, which support between them a continuous lofty platform, or series of table lands, crossed, broken, and intersected by innumerable and abrupt sierras, some of which rise to the height of seventeen thousand feet above the level of the sea. This geological structure prevails throughout the whole of Mexico, as now bounded; for, at the Rio Grande, the southern limit of Texas, the land sinks to comparative levels, and affords channels for the numerous and important streams with which, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are abundantly irrigated. Whilst this is the case on the northern and eastern confines of Mexico, the western portion is still traversed by the main body of the gigantic Cordillera, which, penetrating California with its icy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, passes onward to the north until its rocky walls are lost, beyond Oregon, in the wilderness that bounds the Frozen Sea.[5]

The reader who pictures to himself such a country will easily understand that all temperatures are gained in Mexico on the same parallel of latitude,—or that eternal heat and eternal frost are encountered in crossing the country in a straight line from Vera Cruz to the Pacific coast. It is a country hanging on the two slopes of a mountain, one of which descends to the Gulf and the other to the Western Ocean; and the traveller, in penetrating it, even by the road usually traversed by public conveyances, must attain a height of ten thousand six hundred and sixty feet, before he begins to descend into the valley of Mexico, which is, still, seven thousand five hundred and forty-eight feet above the level of the sea! Thus{12} it is, that throughout the table lands, the geographical position, as far as latitude is concerned, is entirely neutralized by the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere obtained by ascending through loftier regions. Humboldt graphically declares that climates succeed each other in strata or layers, as we pass from Vera Cruz to the capital, or from the capital, descend to Acapulco or San Blas on the west coast,—beholding in our varied journey, the whole scale of vegetable life. The wild abundance of vegetation on the shore of the Gulf,—its beautiful palms whose stems are wreathed by a myriad of impenetrable parasites which grow with such rank luxuriance in the hot and humid air of the tropics,—are exchanged, as we begin to rise from the level of the sea, for hardier forest trees. At Jalapa the air is milder, though the vapors from the Gulf which concentrate and condense at about this height on the sides of the mountains, sustain the perpetual freshness of the verdure. Further on, the oak and the orange give place to the fir and pine. Here the rarefied air becomes pure, thin and perfectly transparent; but as it necessarily lacks moisture, which condenses below this region, the vegetation is neither so luxuriant nor so constantly vigorous. Great plains or basins, spread out in silent and melancholy vistas before the traveller,—many of them, cold, bleak and lonely moors, whose dreary levels sadden the heart of the spectator. The sun which comes down through the cloudless medium of an atmosphere unscreened by the usual curtain of vapor, parches and crisps the thirsty soil, whilst the winds that sweep uninterruptedly over the unbroken expanse, fill the air, during the dry season, with sand and dust. These high barren plains occupy a large portion of the centre of the country between Zacatecas, Durango and Saltillo; and such is in fact the character of large portions of the whole of Mexico, except when the comparatively level nature of the soil permits the small rivulets that filter from the Cordillera through the narrow vallies, to form themselves into rivers which may be used for irrigation. Wherever this is the case nature at once recovers her vigor under the influence of heat and moisture.

These physical features, and consequent diversities of temperature, have caused the division of Mexico, as it rises from the two Oceans, into three regions, or superficial strata, which are called, the tierras calientes, or hot lands; the tierras templadas, or temperate lands; and the tierras frias or cold lands. The tierra caliente covers chiefly that portion of the territory which lies on the borders of the Atlantic and Pacific; yet it is not confined exclusively to the coast, inasmuch as all those parts of Mexico in which there is heat and moisture enough to produce the fruits{13} and maladies of the tropics, are classed under this head. The tierra fria comprises the mountainous districts rising above the level of the capital up to the limit of constant snow; while the tierra templada embraces those milder middle regions not comprehended in the two other sections. Classing them by elevation in feet, we may suppose that the tierras calientes extend to between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; the tierras templadas to between 4 and 8,000 feet; and that the tierras frias embrace all the remaining portions up to the region of eternal ice.

Political Divisions and Boundaries of Mexico.

It is, perhaps, more of historical or antiquarian interest, than of actual present value, to recur to the ancient divisions of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, there are readers who are naturally anxious to trace the territorial aggrandizement as well as the recent curtailment of Mexico, and we have, therefore, thought it proper to present a picture of the limits and apportionment of the country at several periods.

The territorial limits of that region generally called New Spain, were comprised between the degrees of 15° 58´ and 42° of north latitude; and between 89° 4´ and 126° 48´ 45´´ west longitude from Paris,—calculating from the easternmost point of Cape Catoché, in Yucatan, to the extreme western limit of the land at Cape Mendocino, in California. The Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea bounded this country on the east and south-east; the Pacific Ocean on the west; Guatemala on the south; and the United States, on the north. There was a multitude of islands comprehended under this territorial dominion. On the east coast of Yucatan were the isles of Holvas, Comboy, Mugeres, Cancun, Cozumel and Ubero;—in the Gulf of Mexico, the island of Bermejos and several smaller ones;—in the Pacific, the isles of Revilla-gigedo, of Maria, Cedros, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Bernardo, San Miguel;—and in the Gulf of California, or Cortéz, the isles of Cerralvo, Espiritu Santo, San José, Santa Cruz, Carmen, Tortugas, Tiburon, Santa Iñez, and numerous insignificant islets or keys.

The limit between the United States and New Spain was defined by a treaty negotiated between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, and John Quincy Adams, American Secretary of State, after long and learned historical as well as legal discussions of territorial rights and limits, which the student will find,{14} at large, in the second and fourth volumes of "American State Papers," published by the government of the United States. This treaty was signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and, according to its third article, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, which was then ceded to the Union, commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, at about latitude 29°, west longitude 94°, and followed its course as far as its juncture with the Red river of Natchitoches, which then served to mark the frontier up to the 100th degree of west longitude, whence the line ran directly north to the river Arkansas, which it followed to its source at the 42d° of north latitude,—whence another straight line was drawn upon the said 42d parallel, to the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

This line, it was supposed, would interpose a perpetual barrier of wilderness, tenanted only by Indians and wild animals, between the republic of the north and the treasured colonies of the Spanish crown. But subsequent events have shown in the course of little more than the quarter of a century, how rapidly the population of the old world and the new has swelled beyond the limits prescribed by statesmen, until the savage and the beast have been made to yield their hunting grounds and forests for the use of civilized man.

At the earliest period of which we have any authentic information, this territory of Spain was divided into the kingdoms of Mexico, New Galicia, and New Leon; the colony of New Santander; and the provinces of Coahuila, Texas, New Biscay, Sonora, New Mexico and the two Californias. This arrangement was extremely indefinite; but, in 1776, the country was divided into twelve intendancies: Merida, Oajaca, Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, New Biscay, and Sonora; and the three provinces of New Mexico, and Alta and Nueva California. The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, included New Leon, New Santander, Coahuila and Texas, and San Luis Potosi, proper;—the intendancy of New Biscay embraced the provinces of Durango and Chihuahua; and the intendancy of Sonora took in the provinces of Sinaloa, Ostimuri, and Sonora. Each intendancy was subdivided into subdelegaciones. Another division cut off New Spain, proper, from the Provincias Internas. These last named provinces included all the territory lying north and northwesterly of the intendancies of Zacatecas and Guadalajara, or the kingdom of Nueva Gallicia. The "Provincias Internas del Vireynato," must be distinguished from the "Provincias{15} Internas de la Commandancia de Chihuahua," which, in 1779, were comprised in a General-Captaincy. The two intendancies New Biscay and Sonora, then part of San Luis Potosi, belonged to the provinces of Coahuila and Texas. The interior provinces of the viceroyalty were the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, including the provinces of New Leon and New Santander. The actual kingdom of New Spain was composed of the intendancies of Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Guadalajara, Valladolid, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Oajaca, Merida, and San Luis, proper, and the two Californias. In the year 1807, the "Provincias Internas" were divided into western and eastern, and two general commandancies created.

1st. The Provincias Internas Occidentales, or Western, were the intendancies of Sonora, Durango, with Chihuahua (new Biscay); the province of New Mexico, and the two Californias.

2d. The Provincias Internas Orientales, or Eastern, were, Coahuila, Texas, New Santander and New Leon.

Such were the main territorial divisions of New Spain during the concluding years of the Spanish government,—whilst the revolution was in progress,—and until the nineteen provinces of the empire of Iturbide were erected by the federal constitution of 1824 into the nineteen States of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Texas, Durango, Guanajuato, Mexico, Michoacan (Valladolid), New Leon, Oajaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Jalisco (Guadalajara,) Yucatan, and Zacatecas,—and the Territories of Old and New California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala. In 1830 the State of Sinaloa and Sonora, separated into its natural divisions, since which each has been a distinct, independent State. In 1836, the revolution which destroyed this federal constitution, changed these States into Departments; by which name they were recognized until the month of May, 1847, when the old federal constitution of 1824, with some amendments, was reenacted, and the departments once more converted into states; whilst provision was made for the creation of the new state of Guerrero, to be composed of the districts of Acapulco, Chilapa, Tasco and Talpa, and the municipality of Coyucan—the three first of which pertain to the state of Mexico, the fourth to Puebla, and the fifth to Michoacan,—provided these three states gave their consent within three months from the 21st of May, 1847, at which period the act reforming the constitution of 1824 was passed.

The war between Mexico and the United States was happily{16} terminated by the treaty negotiated at the town of Guadalupe, by Mr. Trist, on the 2d of February, 1848; and, by this compact, the limit between our respective territories was greatly changed from that which had been fixed by the treaty with Spain in 1819. According to the convention of Mr. Trist, the boundary between the republics commences in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence it passes up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, when it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico, thence, westerly, along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico, which runs north of the town of El Paso, to its western termination;—thence northward, along the western line of New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila, or, if it does not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and then in a direct line to the same;—thence down the middle of the said branch and of said river, until it empties into the Rio Colorado;—thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean.

It will be perceived by inspecting the map that this new boundary cuts off a large portion of northern Mexico, and gives us the valuable territories of New Mexico and Upper California, together with an undisputed right to the enjoyment of Texas, which had previously been united to the North American confederacy by international contract, after the independence of Texas had been recognized by foreign nations and maintained by its own people.

The states of the Mexican Republic and its territories are, consequently, under the existing constitution, the following:

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Rivers and Lakes of Mexico.

I. On the Eastern Coasts.

1st. The Rio Grande del Norte, or Rio Bravo, which is the largest of all Mexican streams, and rises, in about 40¹/₂° north latitude, and 100° west longitude, from Paris, in the lofty sierras which are a continuation of the gigantic chain that forms the spine of our continent. It pursues a southeasterly direction towards the Gulf of Mexico, and traverses a distance of nearly eighteen hundred miles.

2d. The Rio del Tigre, rises in the state of Coahuila, and passes, in a southward and easterly direction, through the states of New Leon and Tamaulipas, and finally, after traversing about three hundred miles, debouches in the Gulf of Mexico.

3d. The Rio de Borbon, or Rio Blanco. The sources of this stream are in New Leon, whence it runs towards the east, and, crossing the state of Tamaulipas, falls in the Laguna Madre.

4th. The Rio de Santander, rises in the state of Zacatecas, crosses the state of San Luis Potosi, passes by Tamaulipas, winds to the north, and falls, near the bar of Santander, into the Gulf.

5th. The Rio de Tampico, is formed by the union of the rivers Panuco and Tula. The upper source of the Panuco is in the neighborhood of the city of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state of that name. Near half a league north north-east of this city, in the valley de la Pila, rises a spring which is protected by a basin of fine masonry, and conveyed by an aqueduct to town. Several other streams, coming from the south-west, unite with this source and form the Panuco. West of the first of these streams, swells up the mountainous ridge which divides the waters of Mexico between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Panuco courses eastwardly,—and, passing rapidly through the Laguna Chairél, unites with the Tula. This latter stream mingles the waters of the rivulets Tepexi, Tequisquiac, and Tlantla, in the northern part of the state of Mexico; and receiving, by the canal of Huehuetoca, the water of the Rio Quautitlan, it winds onward through the valley of Tula, and near the limits of the states of Queretaro and Vera Cruz, until it joins the Panuco. These united rivers receive in the state of Tamaulipas, the name of the Rio de Tampico, which debouches, finally, in the Gulf of Mexico.

6th. The Rio Blanco rises in the state of Vera Cruz, near Aculzingo, at the foot of Citlaltepetl, or the mountain of Orizaba.{18} It courses onward through a varying and rough channel among the mountains and plains, until it is lost in the lagunes near Alvarado.

7th. The Rio de San Juan. The sources of this river lie partly in the metallic mountains of Ixtlan, in the state of Oajaca, and partly in the neighborhood of Tehuacan de las Granadas. Many large, but wild streams, spring up in these mountain regions, and form the broad but shallow Rio Grande de Quiotepec. This river, after winding through the valley of Cuicatlan, receives, from the south, the large stream of Las Vueltas; and all these unite to form the Rio de San Juan, which pursues its eastern course until it approaches the coast near Alvarado, when it divides into two arms. One of these, named Tecomate, joining the Cosomaloapan and Paso, form the large lagunes of Tequiapa and Embarcadéro,—whilst the other arm, by a different course, also debouches in the same lagunes.

8th. The Rio de Guasacualco, rises at about 16° 58´ of north latitude, and 96° 19´ west longitude, from Paris, in the mountains of Tarifa, and pours onward towards the east, receiving accessions from a great number of small mountain streams and rivulets, until it falls into the Gulf of Mexico.

9th. The Rio de Tabasco, or Rio de Grijalva, or Rio Guichula, rises in the mountains of Cuchumatlanes towards the centre of Guatemala, and falls into the gulf at the port of Tabasco.

10th. The Rio de Usumasinta, rises also in Guatemala, and debouches in the Laguna de Terminos.

II. Small Eastern Coast Streams.

Many of these streams are, in fact, not entitled to the name of rivers, though a few of them are important, whilst all are valuable to some extent for agriculture, transportation, irrigation, or occasional water power.

III. Rivers on the West and South Coast of Mexico.

1st. Rio de Chimalapa, sometimes called also, Rio de Chicapa, rises in the forests and mountains of Tarifa in about 16° 43´ north, 96° 33´ west from Paris, and debouches in the Pacific, after passing the village of Tehuantepec. The rivers Obstula, Niltepec or Estepec,—de los Perros or Juchuitan, Arenas, Lagartero, Otates, are small coast streams falling into the lagunes that border the ocean.

2d. The Rio de Tehuantepec is formed by the union of two streams, one of which rises about fifty leagues west north-west of Tehuantepec, near the village of San Dionisio, whilst the other springs from the mountains of Lyapi and Quiégolani, in the lands of the Chontales. The two unite seven leagues north-west of Tehuantepec; and, passing by the village of that name, this river finally pours into the Pacific, near the small port of Las Ventosas.

3d. The Rio Verde rises in the Upper Misteca, eight leagues north of Oajaca, and falls west of the Cerro de la Plata and of the Lagunas of Chacahua, into the Pacific. On the coast of Oajaca there are many smaller streams and rivulets, such as the Chacalapa, the Manialtepec, the Colotepec, the Santa Helena, the Caputita, the Comun, the Ayutla, the Chicometepec and the Tecoyama,—the last of which is the boundary between the states of Oajaca and Puebla.

4th. The Rio de Tlascala, or Rio de Papagallo, has its source in the vicinity of the town of Tlascala, in the mountain Atlancatepetl; passes through the state of Puebla, receives the Rio Mezcala, out of the state of Mexico, and enters the Pacific south of the village of Ayulta.

5th. The Rio de Zacatula, or Rio Balsas, originates in the valley of Istla, in the state of Mexico, and after winding west south-westerly, it receives the Rios Zitacuaro, de Churumuco, and del Marquez out of the state of Michoacan, and passes into the Pacific.

6th. Rio de Aztala rises two leagues south-west of the village{20} of Coalcoman, receives the Agamilco, Maruato and Chichucua, and flows into the sea between Cachan and Chocóla.

7th. Rio de Tolotlan, Rio Grande de Santiago. This is one of the longest and most important of Mexican rivers, formed by the junction of the Laxa and Lerma, near Salamanca, in the state of Guanajuato, and falls into the Pacific near San Blas after a course of about two hundred leagues. The Rio Bayóna or Cañas is an important stream on the coast near the boundary between Jalisco and Sinaloa.

8th. The Rio de Culiacan rises in the north of the state of Durango, where it is called Rio Sanzeda, thence it takes its course towards the north-west, receiving some smaller streams, and then passing by the town of Culiacan, falls into the Gulf of California. The Rio de Rosario, Rio de Mazatlan, debouche in the same gulf. The rivers Piastla, Elota, Tavala, Emaya, Mocorito, Sinaloa or Ocroni, Ahome, are small streams on the coast of Sinaloa.

9th. The Rio del Fuerte has its source in the metalliferous mountains of Batopilas and Uruachi, in the state of Chihuahua, where it is known as the river Batopilas. It takes a westerly course across the state of Sinaloa about 27° north;—it receives a number of other streams, on the western slope of a range of the Cordilleras, and finally flows into the California Gulf.

10th. The Rio Mayo is the boundary stream between the states of Sinaloa and Sonora; at its mouth in the Gulf of California is the small port of Santa Cruz de Mayo, or Guitivis.

11th. The Rio Hiaqui, or Yaqui, rises on the west slope of the Sierra Madre, near the village Matatiche in the state of Chihuahua, whence its course is west south-west, across the state of Sonora; it receives the Rio Grande de Bavispe which rises in the state of Chihuahua, and also the Rios Oposura and Chico, and, finally, is lost in the Gulf of California, at about 27° 37´ north latitude.

12th. Rio de Guayamas. This river rises at San José de Pimas, in latitude 28° 26´ north, its course is west south-west, and its mouth in the Californian Gulf, at the fine and favorite harbor of San-Jose de Guayamas in latitude 27° 40´.

13th. The Rio de la Ascension rises at about 31° 40´ north and 112° 37´ west longitude. On its south-westerly course it receives the tributary waters of the Rio de San Ignacio and falls at about 30° 20´ north into the Gulf of California.

14th. Rio de Colorado. This important stream is formed of the river Rafael in about 40° 15´ north, and 110° 50´ west longitude from Paris, on the western declivity of the Sierra de las Grullas,{21} whence it takes a south-west course and receives, at the foot of the Monte de Sal Gemme, the Rio de Nuestra Señora de Dolores, which springs about 1° 30´ west of the Rafael, in the Cerro de la Plata; and, thus, receiving the accretions of a number of other streams, it courses onward until it is lost at the head of the Gulf of California. The whole length of the Colorado is estimated at about two hundred and fifty leagues. For about fifty leagues it is navigable by small sea going vessels; and, for about a hundred leagues higher, it may be traversed by large boats. The sea is said to ebb and flow between thirty-five and forty leagues beyond the mouth of this river. The sources of the Arkansas and of the Rio Grande del Norte lie very near those of the Colorado; so that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Gulf of California are nearly united by these streams across our continent.

15th. The Rio Gila rises in the Sierra de los Mimbres, and descends to the south, through a small and mountain bound valley until it unites with the Colorado.

IV. Lakes, Lagunes, &c.

1. Timpanogos and Teyugo or Salado.

2. Lagunas de Bavispe, San Martin, de Guzman, de Patos, de Encinillas and de Castilla in the state of Chihuahua.

3. The Laguna de Cayman in the Bolson de Mapimi.

4. The Lakes of Parras and Agua Verde on the west boundary of Coahuila.

5. The Lakes of Charcas, Chairel and Chila in the state of San Luis Potosi.

6. Nine small Soda Lakes in Zacatecas.

7. The large and important Lake of Chapala and others in Jalisco.

8. Pazcuaro, Cuizco, Araron, Huango, Tanguato, and Huaniquo in Michoacan.

9. The five large Lakes of Tezcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, San Cristoval and Zumpango in the valley of Mexico.

10. The Lakes of Atenco, Coatetilco, and Tenancingo in the valley of Toluca.

11. A number of small ones in Oajaca.

12. The Lakes of Tampico, Catemaco, Alijoyuca, Tenango, Chiapa on the gulf coast or near it.

13. The Lake of Yurirapundaro in Guanajuato.{22}

CHAPTER II.

MEXICAN CLASSES.

AN adequate and proper classification of the Mexican population, for descriptive purposes, may be made under the general heads of: Whites, Indians, Africans, and the mixed breeds, who are socially sub-divided into—1st, the educated and respectable Mexicans dwelling in towns, villages or on estates; 2d, the Leperos; and 3d, the Rancheros.

The whites are still classed in Mexico as creoles, or, natives of the country; and gachupines and chapetones, who are Spaniards born in the Peninsula. The Spanish population yet remaining in the country, its immediate descendants, and the emigrants from Spain, form a numerous and important body. Her Catholic Majesty's Consul General in Mexico derives a lucrative revenue from supplying this large class of his countrymen with annual "protections," or "cartas de seguridad," granted by the Mexican government, but procured from it through the instrumentality of this functionary.

The Spaniard no longer holds his former rank in the social scale of the ancient colony. There are many wealthy mercantile families in the republic, who owe allegiance to the crown; but among the mechanical classes there are numbers of poor Castilians whose fate would be melancholy in Mexico, were they not succored and protected by their wealthier countrymen.

The Mexican native, in whose veins there is almost always a few drops of indigenous blood, is commonly indolent and often vicious. The bland climate and his natural temperament predispose him for an indulgent, easy and voluptuous life; yet the many{23}

RANCHEROS.

faults of his character may be fairly attributed to the want of education, early self-restraint and the disordered political state of his country which has produced a bad effect upon social life. With quick and often solid talents, the Mexican citizen is not devoted, early in his career, by thoughtful parents, either to intellectual pursuits or to that mental discipline which would regulate an impulsive temperament or fit him for the domestic, scientific, or political position he might attain in other countries, under a different social régime. He recollects that in the best days of the colony his family had been distinguished, powerful and rich, and he finds it difficult, in his present impoverished state, to forget this traditionary position. Accordingly, he acts upon the memorial basis of the past, as if it were still within his grasp or control. This renders him thriftlessly improvident. Mexicans still speak of the epoch when they or their parents "swam in gold," or dispensed ducats to the dependants on whom they now reluctantly bestow coppers. Besides this, their indolent indifference, which almost amounts to Arab fatalism, makes them not only subservient to the past, but idolaters of a hope which is quite as fallacious. According to their belief, better times are continually approaching. Something, they imagine, will shortly occur to improve their broken or periled fortunes. "Paciencia y barajar,"—"patience and shuffle the cards," is a maxim on the lips of every one who is overthrown by a revolution, loses his friends, incurs censure, or finds himself starving for want of a dollar. If you enquire as to their prospects, their friends, their interests, or, indeed, in regard to almost any subject that requires some reflection for a reasonable reply,—they answer with the habitual—"Quien Sabe!"—"who can tell!" which in the vocabulary of a common Mexican is the—"quod erat demonstrandum" of any social or political problem.

Such qualities and habits do not prepare a nation for resolute action upon progressive principles. We consequently find, throughout Mexico, an universal predisposition to dependence upon others, or to a blind reliance upon chance. The drum and the bell which ring forever in our ears in Mexico, apprise us that immense numbers who possess sufficient influence to introduce them into the army or the church, repose comfortably under the protection of those two eleemosynary institutions. Such is, moreover, the case in all the administrative departments of the government. Indeed, the state seems only to be constitutionally organized in order to supply the wants of those it employs, or to found a genteel hospital in which intriguing idlers are supported either at the expense of industrious{24} men or by contracting national loans which may finally overwhelm the republic.

The church, the army, and the government, are thus three permanent resources for young persons who are too indolent to engage in mercantile pursuits, or too proud to stoop from their hereditary family rank either into trade or the workshop.

Bad as are these social features, there is another which may be reckoned still worse. There are thousands in the republic whose daily reliance is exclusively on fortune, and for whom the turn of a card decides whether they are to return to their comfortless families with a plentiful dinner, or without a cent upon which they may, to-morrow, recommence their contest with luck at the gambling table. This is a dreadful vice when it becomes habitual among a naturally susceptible, thriftless and procrastinating people like the Mexicans. Prodigal not only of their gold but of their time, they squander the latter without ever reflecting that it is the capital of industrious men. They regard business as a burden, and put off, whenever they are permitted, a debt, an engagement, or a duty, "hasta manana"—until to-morrow!

We are perhaps wrong in alleging that every duty is procrastinated, and life given up exclusively to pleasure; for the genuine Mexican is strict and punctual in the performance of, at least, the externals of religion. The pious observances of the church, are, however, even more generally rigorous among the women than the men.

The Mexican females in the upper ranks are badly, if at all, educated. Few foreign modern improvements have been engrafted on the old Spanish system of teaching, whilst the subjects taught, and the text-books used, are quite as primitive. At home, the Mexican lady is obsequiously served by devoted domestics, but is brought up without a personal knowledge of a housewife's thrifty duties. The evil influence of such vacant minds upon the male sex must, necessarily, be very great. If the intellect does not suggest topics for conversation, it is natural that the instincts will supply the deficiency. Thus it is that the life of large numbers of Mexican men is summed up in devotion to their horses, their queridas, and their favorite gambling tables; whilst the existence of Mexican women is as easily divided between mass, meals, dress, driving, and the theatre.

Yet we will not be tempted by an epigrammatic sentence, into condemnation of the whole of Mexican society. It would be unjust{25} to convey an unqualified idea that such are the characteristics of the entire white race whose birth or rank entitle it to an exalted social position. Nevertheless, it is a true picture of perhaps the most numerous class. The Mexican revolution—its struggles, endurance and success,—disclose many manly features of national character, and prepare us to appreciate that patriotic and cultivated body of men and women who form the national heart and hope of the republic.

The Mexicans have been so harshly dealt with in the descriptions of foreigners, that they are not always disposed to welcome them beyond their thresholds. This arises neither from fear nor jealousy, but from the natural distrust of persons whom they imagine visit their country with but little sympathy for its institutions and less consideration for their personal habits. Nor is this repulsiveness to strangers exhibited so much in the fashionable circles of society as it is among that loftier description of persons we have already referred to. Yet there are occasions upon which the houses and hearts of this very class are cordially opened to intelligent and discreet foreigners, and it is then that an opportunity is afforded of seeing the best phases of Mexican character. The fine benevolence of ancient friendship, the universal respect for genius, a competent knowledge of the laws and institutions of other countries, a perfect acquaintance with the causes of Mexican decadence, and a charming regard and care for all those domestic rites which cement the affections of a home circle, may all be observed and admired within the walls of a Mexican dwelling.

When a stranger is thus received in the confidential intimacy of a household, there is no longer any restraint put upon the inmates in his presence. The courteous expressions which are ordinarily used in the commerce of society, and whose formal but excessive politeness have induced careless men to imagine the Mexicans insincere, are now only expressive of the most cordial devotion to your interests and wants. "Mi casa esta á su disposition," "my house is at your disposal," means exactly what it says. You are at home.

As the Mexicans are not a people addicted to the same mode or extent of informal social intercourse among themselves as the Germans, the English, or the Americans, it is not strange that they should guard their doors so carefully against foreigners who visit their country for the purpose of acquiring fortunes rapidly, in order to enjoy them in the society of their native land. The reception of a stranger upon an intimate footing is therefore the greatest{26} compliment he can receive from the meritorious classes. It is not alone with public affairs or purely intellectual discussions that we are entertained in such re-unions of cultivated society. In the free conversation of the intimate circle there is always a cordial display of sincere interest for the welfare of each other. The aspirations of the rich or the hopes of the poor, are always tenderly discussed. There is abundant evidence of heart; and, even after years have elapsed, and the sojourner in Mexico has returned to his home, he will find by his correspondence that he is still remembered by the intelligent friends, who made him forget that he was "a stranger in a strange land."

The Mexicans have generally supposed that it was impossible to entertain their friends without an extravagant expenditure which was perhaps the standard that measured the value of their guests. They have still to learn that a simple style and a cordial welcome together with the refined conversational intercourse are more valued than imported champagne and "pâté de foie gras." As soon as their society becomes less old fashioned and formal, they will find themselves more comfortable in the presence of strangers. In Mexico, as in all countries, there are notorious specimens of egotism, haughtiness, ill-breeding, and loose morals, both among men and women; and although we find these worthless elements floating like bubbles on the surface of society, they must not be regarded as exclusive national characteristics. "A nation, in which revolutions and counter-revolutions are events of almost daily occurrence, is naturally prolific in desperate and crafty political adventurers;" but the evils that have been begotten by the past, must not be considered as permanent.

The Lepero is a variety of the Indian, and combines in himself most of the bad qualities of the two classes from whose union he derives his being. He is the inhabitant of cities, towns or villages, and, is in Mexico, what the lazzaroni are in Naples. Neither white, black nor copper colored; neither savage nor civilized; neither an agriculturist nor a mechanic, the lepero occupies an equivocal position upon the boundaries of all these characters. His existence is altogether a matter of chance. He has scarcely ever a permanent home. His wife and children, or his amiga, are lodged on the ground floor of a hovel in the outskirts of the town, from which he is often expelled in consequence either of his poverty, intemperance, or quarrelsome behavior. If unmarried, he finds a resting place, in these delicious climates, on a mat beneath the sky, or within the friendly shelter of a wall{27}

FANDANGO.

or portico. He is devoted to pulque and music; for, whilst he drains his social glass in the pulqueria amid a crowd of companion leperos, he is ever ready to sing a stave or make a verse in which a spice of wit or satire is certainly found. When he has earned a dollar by toil, he quits his labor even before it is completed, in order to spend his enormous gain. His wants are so small that he may be liberal in his vices. He regards work as an odious imposition upon human nature; and, created merely to live, he takes care only of to-day leaving to-morrow to take care of itself. Prudence, he thinks, would be a manifest distrust of Providence. His food, purchased at the corner of a street from one of the peripatetic cooks, consists of a few tortillas or corncakes, steeped in a pan of Chili peppers compounded with lard. A fragment of beef or fowl sometimes gives zest to the frugal mess. His dress, of narrow cotton or leather trowsers, and a blanket which is at once, bed, bedding, coat and cloak,—is worn season after season without washing, except during the providential ablutions of rain, until the mingled attrition of dirt and time entirely destroy the materials. An occasional crime, or quarrel, which is terminated by a resort to knives and copious phlebotomy, sends him several times every year to the public prison, where he is faithfully visited, fed and consoled by his spouse or amiga. As he passes along the streets with the manacled chain-gang to sweep the town, he begs a claco with such bewitching impudence that the man who refuses the demanded alms must be insensible to humor. Like the Indian, he is remarkably skilful in imitation, and makes figures of wax or rags, which are not only singularly faithful as portraits, but possess a certain degree of grace that is worthy of an artist. Some of the tribe read and write with ease and even elegance. Among this class are to be found the evangelistas or letter writers, who, seated around the portales and side walks of the plaza, are ready, at a moment's notice, to indite a sonnet to a mistress, a petition to government, a letter to an absent husband, or a wrathful effusion to a faithless lover. Another branch of this nomadic horde is engaged in the profitable occupation of "thieving," which requires no capital in trade save nimble fingers, rapid action, and a bold look with which detection may be defied. The narrow streets and lanes of towns are the theatres in which these accomplished rogues perform. No man in Mexico dares indulge in the luxury of carrying a handkerchief in his pocket. The attempt would be useless, for a lepero would appropriate it before the stranger had walked a square. Upon one occasion a hat was actually taken off an Englishman's{28} head by a lepero in a dense crowd; but the act was so adroitly done, that the jolly foreigner joined in the shout of laughter with which the hero was hailed as he vanished among the masses. Should the priest pass at such a moment with the host, on his way to the chamber of a dying citizen, the lepero would fall on his knees with the rest of the townspeople, yet whilst he beat his breast with one hand, he might be seen to keep the other tenaciously in his victim's pocket. If caught in the felonious act, which rarely happens, the lepero takes the inflicted blows or choking with craven humility, and, whilst he shouts—"ya esta, Senor amo,—ya esta!" "enough, my master, oh enough!" he is seeking for another opportunity to pilfer his punisher's watch or purse, during the conflict.

Such is the Mexican lepero. The sketch may seem broad or even caricatured to those who are unacquainted with the country, but its accuracy will be acknowledged by all who have resided in Mexico and been haunted by the filthy tribe.

The Ranchero comes next in our classification of the Mexicans. He is a small farmer, or vaquero, who owns or hires a few acres on which he cultivates his corn or grazes his cattle. He is not an Indian, a white man, an African, or a lepero, yet he mixes the qualities of all in his motly character. He is a person of lofty thoughts and aspirations;—a devoted patriot;—a staunch fighter in all the revolutions whenever guerillas are required;—a hard rider and capital boon companion over a bottle or in a journey among the mountains.

On his small estate he devotes himself to the cultivation of the ground, or leaves this menial occupation to his family whilst he goes off to the wars or to carousals and fandangos in the neighboring village pulquerias. He is an Arab in his habits, and especially in his love and management of the horse. Dressed in his leather trowsers and jerkin; with his serape over his shoulders, his broad brimed and silver corded sombrero on his head; his heels armed with spurs whose three-inch rowels gleam like the blades of daggers; his sword strapped to the saddle beneath his armas de agua, and, grasping his gun in his hand,—the Ranchero is ready, as soon as he mounts, to follow you for months over the republic. He is the nomade of the country, as the lepero is of the town. His devotion to his animal is unbounded. The faithful quadruped is his best friend and surest reliance. His lazo lies curved gracefully in festoons around the pommel of his saddle. Thus, with his trusty{29} weapons and his horse, the mounted ranchero is at home in the forest or in the open field; on hill side or in valley. Few riders, elsewhere, can equal him in speed or horsemanship; and few can excel him as a herdsman, a robber, an enemy, or even a friend whenever you hit his fancy or are willing to understand his character and pardon his sins.

Indian Race of Mexico.

Notwithstanding the brilliant pages which Aztec history contributed to the annals of America and the civilization which prevailed, not only in the valley of Mexico, but also in other portions of the territory now within the limits of the republic, we find that the indigenous descendants of these heroic and intelligent ancestors have degenerated to such a degree that they are at present in general, fitted only for the servile toils to which they are commonly and habitually devoted. Three hundred years of oppression may have done much to produce this sad result. Without union among the tribes; without community of feeling, language or nationality; the Indians became an easy prey to the Spaniards after the conquest of the great central power. Old prophecies were accomplished, according to the Aztec belief, by the arrival of the Spaniards. "It is long since we knew from our ancestors,"—said Montezuma to Cortéz,—"that neither I nor all who inhabit these lands were originally of them, but that we are strangers, and came hither from distant places. It was said that a great lord conveyed our race to these regions and returned to the land of his birth, and yet, came back once more to us. But, in the meantime, those whom he first brought had intermarried with the women of the country; and when he desired them to return again to the land of their fathers they refused to go. He went alone; and ever since have we believed, that from among those who were the descendants of that mighty lord, one shall come to subdue this land, and make us his vassals! According to what you declare of the place whence you come, which is toward the rising sun, and of the great lord who is your King, we must surely believe that he is our natural lord."

Such were the superstitious opinions amongst the most civilized of all the Indian nations at the period of the conquest. It is not surprising therefore to find the other nomadic, predatory hordes,—whose ferocity was not so keen as that of their northern kindred, but had been tempered and softened in some degree by the genial climate of the tropics,—soon yielding to the superior will of a{30} masculine race, eager, not only for gold, but for the establishment of estates which were in fact principalities, and whose beneficial improvement required the employment of large bodies of continual and compulsory laborers. The Indians afforded the staple of this stock at once. The conquest rooted out all their old institutions by violence. Their government and laws were overthrown by force; their religion was changed by power; their graven idols, the material emblems of their gods, were ground to dust; their social system was completely overturned; and thus, perfectly annihiliated as a nation, in politics, theology, and domestic life or habits, they were, in the end, but wretched outcasts in their own land.

The Indians may therefore be regarded as somewhat prepared by degradation for the system of repartimientos, which, as we have already seen in the historical part of this work, was instituted immediately after the conquest.

The aborigines throughout Mexico have been devoted as a class to agricultural labors. Immediately after the conquest the Spaniards forced them to toil in the mines as well as in the fields; but as soon as a race of mixed blood was found to replace these original laborers in the bowels of the earth, the native Indian escaped to wilder districts where there were no mines, or where his services were required on the surface of the earth. Besides this, since the revolution, labor has been somewhat more free than before that epoch. The Indian, if not bound to the estate, by the slavery of debt, as we shall see hereafter, has the right to do what he pleases, and consequently he selects that labor which will give him support with least fatigue in a country whose soil is almost spontaneously productive.

The Mexican Indian, may therefore be generally designated as an agriculturist. A few of them engage in the manufacture of certain elegant fabrics of wool and cotton; in some of the imitative arts, in which they greatly excel; and in the formation of utensils for domestic use.

In the field, the Indian executes all the labor,—sometimes in the midst of the great plantations of sugar, cotton, coffee, corn, tobacco, wheat, and barley—or, at others, in the midst of the beautiful gardens for which some parts of the republic are celebrated. In all these positions his labor is faithfully performed;—but he is the enemy of all changes in the modes or utensils of his work. He prefers the old system of drawing water for irrigation; the old system of rooting the earth with the Arab stake instead of the American plough; the old system of carrying offal, stones, or whatever{31} is to be removed from his fields, in bags, instead of in barrows or carts; and the old system of bearing every burden, no matter how onerous, on his shoulders instead of a dray or a wagon. It offends him to speak of changes, which he regards as unrighteous innovations. His character, like that of the Chinese, is one of excessive tenacity for old customs. After three centuries of constant intercourse with strange races, he still segregates himself from the foreigner, and, nestling in his native village, keeps aloof from the Spaniard. He speaks his hereditary language; clings to his old habits; and,—according to the report of reliable travellers,—worships, occasionally in private, his ancestral idols. In the capital, garlands which have been secretly suspended on the images by Indians, are still sometimes found around the hideous Aztec divinities preserved in the court yard of the University. "You gave us three very good gods"—said an Indian once to a respectable Catholic curate,—"yet you might as well have left us a few of our own!"

Grave, taciturn and distrustful,—types, in manners, of a crushed and conquered race,—the Indians of Mexico, wear a sombre look and demeanor, accompanied by an air of evident submissiveness. It is rare to find them merry, except at the end of harvest on the large estates, when an annual festival is prepared, in which they are accustomed to unite with great zest. They have other periods of cessation from toil, such as the Sabbath day, the feasts of the patron saints of their village or parish church. Upon these occasions their devotion to the externals of religion is exhibited by a lavish expense in articles which they imagine may contribute to the honor or glory of their spiritual protector in heaven. In order to celebrate the occasion with due decorum, according to their simple ideas, they not only spend whatever money they happen to possess at the moment, but pledge themselves, in advance, at the haciendas, for the loan of sums which they must repay by future labor. The result is that these superstitious frivolities consume a large share of the Indian's substance; and, notwithstanding his economy and frugality, he and his family are obliged to spend the greater part of the year in misery, in recompense for the rockets, fire crackers, music, wax candles, and flowers, which he purchased on the Festival of his Santo. In addition to these ecclesiastical costs, we must not omit his personal expenses, for the Indian does not forget his bodily condition whilst he pays attention to his spiritual wants. Liquor and gambling, fill up the occasional pauses in the pious ceremonials, so that after the Indian has finished his religious services{32} and his dinner for the day, it is quite likely that he is prepared to creep into a hovel or shelter with his family, where they may sleep off the debauch that universally finishes these ecclesiastical functions. Similar wild indulgences are permitted among them at marriages, baptisms and interments, and in consequence of this thriftlessness, these miserable wretches are never able either to leave property to their offspring or to afford them an education by which they may improve their lot in life.

The Indian woman is the true and faithful companion of her husband's fortunes. She works incessantly at her appropriate tasks. She grinds the corn for the tortillias and atolé of the family, and carries them to her husband wherever he is at work; she weaves, in her rude manner, all the materials of cotton or wool that are worn by her household; she makes the garments of her spouse and children; she keeps the domestic premises in order without an assistant; nor does she cease, for a moment, to nourish and watch her offspring during their infancy. If her husband departs to another district, or is enlisted as a soldier, she straps her pack and her youngest child on her back, and accompanies her liege lord, whilst a train of their mutual descendants, "small by degrees and beautifully less," follows in their rear.

We have said that the Indians are frugal in their food and economical in their dress, for in reality, their meals commonly consist only of cereal products, and, especially, of corn. Atolé, tortillias, Chili peppers and frijoles, are sufficient to support them. They do not eat flesh habitually, and yet they are healthy and robust, nor is it extraordinary to see individuals among them who attain the advanced age of more than of ninety years.

Their occasional indulgence in drunkenness, disgusting and injurious as it is at the moment, does not generally destroy the constitutions of these hardy laborers, whose subsequent compulsory temperance, not only in drink but in food, soon repairs the momentary inroads of a day's debauch.

The dress of both men and women is the simplest and the cheapest possible. In the state of ignorance and abjection in which this race has been so long held, it is not easy to conceive whether their intellectual faculties might be again aroused. In some of the colleges of Mexico, individuals have applied themselves with great care, have received classical educations, and made remarkable progress even in the sciences, in some of which they excelled. But generally speaking, these instances may be regarded as remarkable exceptions. The Indian, as we have{33}

INDIAN'S OF THE SIERRA.

HACIENDADO.

before observed, when he quits the agricultural field, exhibits most talent in the imitative arts. The instruments and materials he uses are of the simplest and rudest kind, and, although the imitations produced by him are wonderfully accurate, yet they want that lively variety which is only produced by vivid imaginations.

Upon the plantations the Indians are in reality slaves, notwithstanding the Mexican laws prohibit slavery. This condition is produced chiefly by two causes. The Mexican Indian who cherishes, as we have seen, a remarkable devotion to his old habits, customs, utensils and implements, is gifted with an equal tenacity or adhesiveness for the place of his birth. Nomadic as were his ancestors, the modern Mexican Indian is no wanderer. The idea of emigration, even to another state or district, never originates in his brain, or is tolerated if proposed to him as a voluntary act. So helpless is his condition if placed beyond the limits of his habitual neighborhood or hereditary haunts, that he feels himself perfectly lost, abandoned and cast off, if compelled to change either his residence or his occupation. He has no variety of resources. He knows nothing of alternatives. The operations of his mind, as well as of his hand, are perfectly mechanical. The utter helplessness of such an individual, if suddenly transferred from the midst of his companions and all the scenes of his life-long associations or duties, may be easily conceived, and consequently the greatest punishment that a haciendado, or Mexican planter, can inflict upon his Indian serf is to expel him from the estate upon which he and his ancestors have worked from time immemorial. When other punishments, which elsewhere would be thought severe, fail to produce reform or amendment in the Indian's conduct, it usually happens, that the serious threat of expulsion from the estate, made by the owner himself, or his authorised representative, to the native, reduces the refractory individual to subjection. Thus it is, that this peculiar territorial and local adhesiveness contributes to making the Indian's condition not only menial but servile.

The second cause may be found in the habits of wild and extravagant indulgence which we have already described. These licentious outbursts of recklessness create a pecuniary bond between the proprietor and his laborer. The Indian becomes his debtor. It is the policy of the landholder to establish this relation between himself and the Indian, and consequently he affords him every facility to sell himself in advance, even for life, to his estate. The Indian, is thus at least completely mortgaged to the landed proprietor,{34} and as that personage usually possesses considerable influence in his neighborhood, the laborer finds it extremely difficult or nearly impossible to enforce his freedom even by appeals to the legal authorities. Such is the origin and system of peonage, which still curses Mexico although the repartimientos and slavery have been abolished by fundamental laws.

We have observed that there are other punishments of the Indians resorted to on Mexican plantations for trifling faults or misdemeanors, besides the great and final calamity of expulsion. They are fined and they are flogged. "Looking into the corridor," says Mr. Stephens, in his work on Yucatan, "we saw a poor Indian on his knees, on the pavement, with his arms clasped around the knees of another Indian, so as to present his back fairly to the lash. At every blow he rose on one knee and sent forth a piercing cry, he seemed struggling to retain it, but it burst forth in spite of all his efforts. His whole bearing showed the subdued character of the present Indians, and with the last stripe the expression of his face seemed that of thankfulness for not getting more. Without uttering a word, he crept to the major-domo, took his hand, kissed it, and walked away. No sense of degradation crossed his mind. Indeed, so humbled is this once fierce people that they have a proverb of their own: "Los Indios no oyien sino por las nalgas,"—"The Indians only hear through their backs."

This hereditary condition or relation between the Indian and the original Spanish races has acted and re-acted for their mutual degradation. With a large population under his control, for all purposes of labor and menial toil, the Spaniard, of whatever class, found himself entirely free from the necessity of manual labor or mechanical pursuits. Notwithstanding this immunity from bodily toil, the native of Castile did not devote the leisure he enjoyed, whilst the Indians were working for him, either to the improvement of his mind, or the preparation of philanthropic plans for the amelioration of his servant's lot. A mere physical life of personal indulgence, or an avaricious devotion to the rapid acquisition of fortune, absorbed the whole time of these planters, who lived in almost utter seclusion amid the lonely wastes of their large territorial possessions. The planter who resides in a populous nation, or who is enabled to visit easily the capitals of commerce, literature, and art, is a man, who, from his personal independence, culture, and wealth, is usually in our own country to be envied for the peculiar privileges which his station affords him. But in Mexico, the position{35} and education of the planter, if he lives constantly on his estate,—which is not universally the case,—are altogether different from those of the North American land-holder. The Mexican possesses few or none of those social and intellectual qualities that have been cultivated by the North American in the best colleges and circles of his country; nor does he enjoy equal facilities of intercommunication between the cities or rural districts of Mexico. The immense size of his plantation which sometimes extends several leagues in length and breadth, necessarily disperses instead of congregating a populous neighborhood. "He is master of all he surveys,—he is lord of the fowl and the brute," but his dominion is a solitary and cheerless one. Few, and irregular posts rarely bring him the news of what occurs in the great world. Visits are seldom and ceremoniously paid. He must find within himself the constant springing source of vivacity and of an ambitious desire for progress, or he must subside into mere animal existence. The latter is unfortunately in most instances the natural result, and it is therefore not at all astonishing to find Mexican planters or their mayordomos devoting all their energies to the maintenance of the servile system we have described, whilst their statute-book and constitution profess to have abolished slavery.

Whilst such is the effect upon the character of the master or his representative, it is natural to suppose that the character of the servant will be equally degraded by the want of those new ideas with which the constant refreshing intercourse of society ventilates the mind. The Indian knows no world but that bounded by his horizon. Slavery, when involuntary, may even be respected in the sufferer, but the Indian who becomes a slave in spite of law, by religious superstition, loathsome vices, and time-hallowed servility, sinks far below the level of the African, who is sober, careful, faithful to his master and his family, and either from imitation, or a degree of natural dignity, seeks to acquire respectability among his fellow slaves.

"It is hardly possible," says Mühlenpfordt, "to judge of the true character and intellectual capacity of the Indian at a time when he has but just partially recovered his rights as man, and has had little opportunity of giving independent culture to his mental faculties. Though the civic oppression under which the Spaniards and Creoles held all the copper colored race and the colored people generally before the revolution, has, for the most part disappeared, yet their emancipation has, as yet, only nominally taken place. Hierarchial oppression has yet hardly decreased, and the clergy, both{36} the inferior secular priests and the monks who have the greatest influence over the Indians, find their account in declining to promote, if they do not positively retard, their intellectual development. Time only can inform us what advantages will accrue to the Indians from the new order of things. Up to this period the introduction of the boasted civilization of Europe, as well as of the Catholic religion, has been of but trifling benefit to them, and only a trace here and there of progress to an amelioration of their condition is to be remarked.

"The Mexican Indian of the present day is generally grave and taciturn, and almost sullen, when not excited by music and intoxicating drinks to loquacity and pleasure. This serious character may be remarked even in the children, who appear more knowing at the age of five or six, than those of northern Europeans at that of nine or ten. But this appearance of steadiness is by no means consequent on a quicker development of mind, and the looks of these young people, dejected and void of all the cheerfulness and confidence of children, have nothing that gladdens the observer. Gruffness and reserve appear to be essential features of the Indian character, and it cannot, I think, be assumed that these qualities were implanted in them only by the long oppression that weighed down the Mexican race, first under their native rulers, and afterwards under the Spaniards; inasmuch as they occur among the aborigines almost universally throughout America, even when these have never suffered any curtailment of political liberty. To that cause may be rather attributed the stubbornness and selfishness which constitute a striking trait in the character of the present Indians. It is almost impossible to move any Indian to do a thing which they have resolved not to do. Vehemence, threats, even corporal punishment, are of as little avail as the offer of gold or reward; persuasion, coaxing, entreaties help as little. The Mexican Indian loves to give an appearance of mystery and importance to his most indifferent actions. If stirred up by weighty interests, he breaks his accustomed silence, and speaks with energy but never with fire. Jokes are as rare with him as raillery and laughter. I never heard an Indian laugh heartily, even when excited by spirituous liquors. His uncommon hardness of character allows him long to conceal the passions of indignation and vengeance. No sign betrays externally the fire that rages within until it suddenly breaks out with uncontrollable violence. In this condition the Indian is most likely inclined to commit the most dreadful cruelties and the most fearful crimes. The Mexican aborigines bear with{37} the greatest patience the torments which the whites were formerly and are still inclined to indulge against them. They oppose to these a cunning which they dexterously hide under a semblance of indifference and stupidity. Despite their long slavery; despite every effort which has been employed to rob them of their historical recollections, they have by no means forgotten their former greatness. They know right well that they were once sole lords of the land, and that those Creoles who are so fond of calling themselves Americans, are but the sons and heirs of their oppressors. I have myself frequently heard Indians, when their ordinary reserve has been overcome by spirituous liquors, declare that they were the true masters of the country, that all others were mere foreign intruders, and that if the Creoles could expel the Spaniards they had a far better right to expel the Creoles. May the latter be taught by their own acuteness to grant the Indians, while it is yet time, the practical exercise of these civic rights theoretically conceded to them, for the revolt of the copper colored race would indeed present a fearful spectacle!"

INDIAN TRIBES OR RACES IN MEXICO

The following table exhibits, in separate groups, the varieties of parentage and blood, forming the castes in Mexico and throughout Spanish America:

TABLE OF CASTES

Besides these specified castes there are several others not distinguished by particular names; such, for instance, as the produce of unions between the Mexican Indians or Spaniards and the people of the East Indian continent or Philipines, numbers of whom came over during the old viceroyal government. The best criterion for judging of the purity of blood, is the hair of the women, which is much less deceiving than their complexion. The short woolly hair, or coarse Indian locks, may always be detected on the head or on the back of the neck. This tabular statement exhibits at a glance the mongrel corruptions of the human race in Mexico, and presents an interesting subject for students of physiology and ethnology.[6]

{41}

CHAPTER III.

Population.

IT is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has ever been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been persistently pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens and collect such statistical data as may always be easily gathered by persons engaged in this important task. The irregularity of the central or executive power; the instability of all governments since the establishment of independence; the intestine quarrels, not only in the capital but in the departments or states, have all contributed to, and even partially compelled, this neglect of a great national duty.

In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we are obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the partial enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experienced statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall exhibit all the most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexican works or in the writings of reliable authors:—

Variances between the different Calculations and Censuses of the Population of Mexico.

{42}

In the year 1838, Señor Jose Gomez de la Cortina,—ex-Conde de la Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, published a carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, in the 1st No. of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics of the Mexican Republic; and his opinion was that the number of inhabitants greatly exceeded any of the above amounts. By observing the increase of population in different periods of five years, he considered it satisfactorily proved by the Tablas Geographico-politicas, of 1803, that the augmentation, in favorable years, was at the rate 1⁴/₅ per cent. By applying this ratio to the census of the Tablas, which gave in 1803, 5,764,731 inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about 105,000 yearly; and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the 46 intervening years, we find in 1850 an increase of 4,830,000, or a grand total of 10,594,731.

In the year 1842, however, when an estimate was made of a basis of population, upon which to found a call for a Congress to form a new constitution under the plan of Tacubaya, in 23 Departments or States and Territories, exclusive of Texas, the government calculated that there were 7,015,509 inhabitants.

Table of Population in 1842.

This population may be relatively classed among races and castes as follows:

As Mexico, since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, possesses 798,402 square miles, this will give nine inhabitants and a fraction, to the square mile.

From these calculations we deduce some very important facts as to the physical and intellectual condition of Mexico, which are very significant in the illustration of history. It appears that the total number of pure whites in the republic, is, in all probability, not more than 1,100,000; while the Indians, Negroes, Zambos, Mulattoes, Meztizos, and all the mixed bloods, amount to 6,526,831. During our residence in Mexico we ascertained from reliable authority that among the Indians and negroes but two per cent. could{44} read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty per cent. were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have:

or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a half millions. These are startling statistics in regard to the citizens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule; and, when considered in connexion with the historical details presented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the distracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of her intellectual darkness.[7]

One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the tierras calientes—or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess of births in the warm regions or tierras calientes was 1⁵/₁₀ per 100, over the tierras frias.

He gives the following actual statistics in evidence:

1st. Result of the general census of the department of Zacatecas since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes:—

RESULTS.

Of not less importance are the investigations upon the excess observed in one sex over the other. Before the appearance of Humboldt's work it was the opinion that in the New World nature did not follow the same law of equilibrium in the difference between the sexes as in Europe, and especially that in the tropical regions, the number of females exceeded greatly that of the males. Baron Humboldt combated this notion and demonstrated its error. He presents in his political essay upon New Spain a table of the population of eight Intendencies, in which it appears that out of 1,352,835 inhabitants there were 687,935 males and 664,900 females, which establishes a relative proportion of 100 to 95. In the Tablas Geografico politicas, already cited, it is expressly said that in New Spain, in the Intendencies of the tierras frias, or cold regions, as well as in those of the tierras calientes, or hot regions, the population inclines to a preponderance of males. Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega gives in his tables of population 71,642 more males than females; and, in the account of the taxes made by order of the government in 1781, it appears that the excess is still in favor of males, though in a much less proportion than assigned by Baron Humboldt. We present the following table, prepared in Mexico for the purpose of throwing more light on the subject:{46}

Table of Population in various Departments in different years—Relative exceses—Births and deaths.

It may, generally, be said that the excess of one sex over the other is in inverse proportion to the latitude; or, in other words, that, as we advance from the equator, the excess of females over{47} males decreases, until the reverse occurs as the degrees of latitude augment. We must, however, except from this rule the department or state of Tamaulipas, in which the constancy with which nature sustains the excess of males, is somewhat extraordinary. The most ancient document possessed upon the subject, relative to this State, is of the year 1793, and from this we discover that, from that year until 1807, 124 more males than females were born therein, and that 30 more females than men died during the period—

INDIANS OF THE TIERRA CALIENTE.

{48}

CHAPTER IV.

Agriculture—Agricultural Products

SUN, seasons, temperature, soils and moisture are the chief elements of agricultural success or failure, according as they are beneficially harmonized or unfortunately disunited. In our geological and geographical descriptions we have already indicated the rapid changes of temperature in Mexico experienced by rising gradually from the sea shore to the summit of the table land, and passing through the tierras calientes, templadas and frias. This is the origin of the variety of Mexican productions and the reason why the pine and the palm are encountered upon the same parallel of latitude; but the fertility of Mexico is very much governed by the moisture with which it is annually favored, and for which it is obliged to rely chiefly on the clouds. The Mexicans are not accustomed to separate the year as we do into the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, for the variation of temperature scarcely authorizes such marked distinctions of climate; yet they divide the twelve months into two grand divisions of El Estio—or the dry season, and La Estacion de las aguas, or the rainy season. The latter commences about May and lasts usually four months, whilst the dry season comprises the remainder of the year.

The curving shores of Mexico along the gulf and interior highlands gather and hem in an immense body of vapor, which is carried on by the trade winds and condensed against the cold and lofty inland mountain peaks which rise above the limit of perpetual congealation. This occurs during the dry season whilst the sun is at the south. But when the power of that luminary increases as it advances northward, and until it has long turned back again on its southern course, these vapors are dissolved by the hot intertropical air and descend, almost daily, in fertilizing showers. The{49}

GROUP OF PLANTS.

formation of rain clouds and the precipitation of their moisture usually begin on the coast near Vera Cruz, and the course of the rain storms advances from east to west, inundating the tierra caliente along the eastern coast fifteen or twenty days before the table lands are moistened. There have been seasons in which it did not begin to rain until a month or two after the usual period. In 1802 such an event occurred; and, again in 1826, the vapors did not begin to form and descend until the end of July, in consequence of which the corn was totally lost. If the rains are withheld beyond the middle of June, all the cereal products are either destroyed or suffer greatly from the drought. The power of the sun, by that time, becomes so great that the ground is scorched and the air filled with clouds of dust which seem to gather and concentrate the blazing rays, until the falling particles surround or fall upon the traveller over the plains as if he were passing through a shower of heated cinders. The heat, and the masses of burning dust, are almost overpowering not only to vegetable but almost to animal life.

The agricultural prosperity of Mexico, accordingly, depends either largely upon the relative duration of these two seasons, or on the power of the landed proprietors to supply the loss of water from the clouds, by IRRIGATION derived from the rivers or slender streams that meander through the interior of Mexico. Seldom, indeed, is the Mexican planter or farmer obliged to complain of too much moisture. Between the parallels of 24° and 30° the rains are of shorter duration, and the intervals between the showers greater. But, fortunately, beyond the 26th°, a copious supply of snow, during the winter, compensates for the want of rain at the regular season. Irrigation, therefore, is universally resorted to, wherever there is an adequate supply of water, and large sums are expended by the possessors of the principal estates, in the construction of acequias, or canals; presas, dams or reservoirs; and norias, or water wheels, by which the refreshing element is forced up and distributed over the thirsty fields.

Such is a brief review and summary of the soil and seasons of Mexico. The average annual yield of the corn lands throughout Mexico is estimated at twenty-five bushels for one. In portions of the country, during favorable years, and where the irrigation is good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one have been produced. At Cholula, near Puebla, the increase is stated at forty for one, while at Zelaya, Salamanca, and Santiago, further north, from thirty-five to forty are produced on an average of years. In the valley of{50} Mexico, proper, the yield is from eighteen to twenty; and even in the old possessions of California, it is set down at from fifteen to seventeen. The best writers consider, however, that notwithstanding the extraordinary fertility of their soil, the Mexicans do not produce in ratio of quantity, superior crops to the best agricultural portions of the United States.

The agricultural advantages of New Spain were early pointed out by some of the colonial authorities to the Spanish Home government; but the very fact of their existence seems to have alarmed the Court and to have originated those restrictive laws which, as we have shown in our historical narrative, so long ensured the dependence of the colony. The King, the Cabinets and the Council of the Indies united in believing that if the internal resources of the nation were developed, fostered, and placed upon a firm basis, the political as well as the industrial independence of America might naturally ensue; and accordingly, these authorities resolved at once to adopt the narrow system of restrictions which retained the essentially productive power in the hands of Spain. Zumarraga, the first bishop and second archbishop of Mexico, addressed urgent letters to the Emperor Charles V., exhibiting the agricultural value of the country, and solicited laborers, plants, seeds, cattle, and all the usual means for the development of Mexican resources. The Bandos published in the year 1524, by Cortéz, which are yet preserved in the Hospital of Jesus, in the capital, contain wise decrees for the encouragement of industry, and prove that the military life of the Conqueror had not made him forgetful of his early agricultural labors in the West Indies when he first emigrated from Spain. But the policy of Spain was constantly declared to be adverse to this wholesome and reasonable encouragement. When Luis de Velasco, the second of that name who was viceroy in New Spain, passed thence to the viceroyalty of Peru, he was instructed by the King and Council of the Indies to be careful not to "foster manufactures, nor to allow the cultivation of vines, inasmuch as there was already ample provision of these things and the commerce of the kingdom should not be impaired by such colonial products." At the same epoch, his successor in Mexico, the Conde de Monterey, was also required to be equally vigilant and restrictive in the region confided to his government. These orders, however, were not always faithfully complied with throughout such extended and sparse jurisdictions as those of Mexico or Peru; and accordingly in 1610, through the Marques de Montesclaros, who replaced the{51} Conde de Monterey in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were repeated, with the addition of the following emphatic language:—"Inasmuch as you understand perfectly, how much the observance of these rules is necessary for the dependence of the colonies upon the parent state, we charge and command you to see to their faithful execution." Wine and oil, two of the most important products of Spain, and two of the absolute necessaries of a Spaniard's life, wherever he may happen to live, where thus protected from competition, and formed the means of preserving the colonial vassalage. Nothing was left to the New World, therefore, either to manufacture extensively, or to cultivate, except some of the coarser cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a sufficiency of the cerealia for domestic consumption. It was necessary to preserve an equilibrium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of food and the production of the mines; and thus the common agricultural and horticultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone left unencumbered for the Mexicans.

We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was absolutely demanded for political ends, a system of internal improvement by national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding together all parts of the country. Highways were opened and horses and mules imported. But these were only suitable for the internal transportation of the country; and, even to the present day, the whole of Mexico is traversed by miserable roads, whose channels are often cut up into deep ravines by the unceasing attrition of caravans. The stubborn but useful mules, moving about the country in large bodies, under the guidance of Arrieros, follow each other in single file over the same path for centuries, and there is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by their footsteps to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal restrictions, and the want of transportation except by mules, all combined to impede rural industry, waste the people's time, destroy internal intercourse, and to force the consumption of agricultural products either upon the spot where they grew or in its immediate neighborhood. The independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course relieved the nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce; but the agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a constitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes of transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern republicans. Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action among the people in the different states through which the new highways would pass, at the same time that they have impaired{52} the unity of system or policy upon which the national government might have acted for the general improvement of internal communication or development of agricultural resources. Some of the best citizens have written and labored in behalf of national industry in all its usual or possible manifestations; but we fear that many years of profound peace must be ensured to Mexico before the farmer will be able to share in the blessings of commerce by means of exportation.

ARRIEROS AND MULES.

The great CORN LANDS of Mexico are those of Puebla;—the Bajio, which comprises portions of the state of Guanajuato, Queretero, Valladolid, Zacatecas, and Guadalajara, in the vicinity of the Rio Santiago;—the valley of Mexico, in the state of Mexico;—the valley of Poañas, in Durango;—and it is calculated that the cleared ground in these districts is capable of producing cerealia for a population five times greater than that of Mexico at present. Corn, in the states of Mexico and Puebla is worth two dollars the fanega of one hundred and fifty pounds; in Oajaca about one dollar for the same quantity. Its value is every where irregular, and{53} no general tariff of prices can be assigned to Mexican breadstuffs until some great national market shall be established or Mexico becomes an exporting country. Neighborhoods, at present establish prices.

Maize or CORN, is a gift from the New World to the Old, and is unquestionably the favorite food of the great mass of the inhabitants of our continent. In Mexico, every household is furnished with it abundantly, and all classes use it habitually.

Although this plant is a native of America it is never found growing wild in the republic. Single stocks may be occasionally seen in remote or uninhabited districts, but they are rarely met, and, in all likelihood, have been sown by the flocks of robber birds who ravage the Mexican milpas or corn fields during the ripening season.

The best cultivated varieties in Mexico, are:

1st. Maiz de padus; with small ears, of eight rows, and the most unimportant of all the varieties raised in the country.

2d. Maiz manchado, or chiniesco; a productive species with white, yellow and red grains;—sometimes also entirely blue, in which case, it is called pinto.

3d. Maiz blanco; a very productive kind, yielding a fine sweet meal.

4th. Maiz amarillo; this is sub-divided into:—1st, maiz amarillo grueso, which is very generally cultivated and rarely yields less than two or three ears each, with from three to six hundred kernels or grains. 2d, maiz amarillo pequeno, is smaller and less stout; but in a fruitful soil its yield weighs from ten to fifteen hundred weight, more than the grueso.

5th. Maiz cuarentino; or quarentine corn; better known in Mexico under the name of maiz tremes, or, olote colorado, which ripens quickly and may be planted in the coldest parts of Mexico.

6th. Maiz tardio, or, de riego; the most productive of all varieties, and that which is cultivated around the city of Mexico, and in many moist regions. It sometimes yields five hundred per cent. on the quantity planted.

Maize succeeds best in Mexico in moist and warm climates; but it has the great advantage over the other cereal grains that it may be as successfully cultivated in this country in the tierras calientes, as in the tierras frias. Its highest limits here are from two to eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, and consequently the time required for ripening is different at different elevations. It varies from seven months to six weeks.{54}

The diseases which sometimes affect or destroy this vegetable in Mexico, as well the animals that assail it, may be summed up as follows:

1. La requitte, a wasting blight which affects the maize where it is sown upon poor soil and is subjected to damp, cold weather soon after planting.

2. El carbon—a vegetable fungus growth, resembling carbon or coal, which appears in the ears and destroys them. This abortion in the fruit is believed to be produced by an insect.

3. El hanjo—a species of uredo, which forms itself in the ear and ruins it. The disease is generally known as los Cuervos.

The animals and birds that attack corn are:

1. A sort of mole—talpa—which undermines the fields and destroy the young plants.

2. The larvæ of melolontha, which not only seize the roots, but often destroy the stalks and ears.

3. Flocks of pilfering birds, with which the corn-fields are covered, if they are not carefully watched during the approach of harvest. Neither day nor night are the ears safe from the attacks of these pilferers; and, in order to protect the crop, watchmen are placed on high stages, overlooking the acres, whence the traveller constantly hears their shouts, during the day, or the crack of the warning whips, during the night.

Maize may be planted in Mexico at different periods of the year, especially in those districts in which, for nine months, there is always sufficient moisture. In the tierra caliente, the rancheros, cultivate, in this grain, the best spots lying near their dwellings. In the cooler districts they have two kinds of culture—one by irrigation, and another upon a dry soil. The latter mode is subdivided, by the Mexicans, into three kinds—the humido, aventureso, and temporal.

In the first mode of cultivation the Maiz tardio, is sown, and it is usually found to be the most productive. A seeding made in a soil capable of preserving the winter's moisture and the humidity of the first spring rains, is called siembra de aventureso. In the temporal, a quickly ripening species of corn is planted—such as the maiz cuarentino—which may be cultivated either before or during the rainy season, from May to November.

It is rare that the common Mexican ranchero is sufficiently provident to select the soil for his corn crop, with due care; and accordingly we find that maize is often planted in the midst of fields abounding in stiff ungenial clay.{55}

The present corn production of Mexico is not accurately determined, but it is estimated that it is the chief subsistence of at least five millions of persons, whilst it supplies the only fodder for all kinds of domestic animals. Its average product must therefore be not far from at least twenty millions of bushels.

Corn is a varied article of diet among all classes. The ancient Mexicans made a species of sugar from the juice of the stalk—while the modern Mexicans brew from it a fermented drink, called pulque de maiz, or omayo. The extremely saccharine pith of this plant is often devoured raw by the Indians, and it has been also frequently used in the manufacture of brandy. The unripe ears are boiled or baked, and sold in the towns and villages to the poorer classes, forming their sole subsistence; while the leaves and stems afford a capital food for beasts. Sometimes these portions of the plant are devoted to architectural purposes, and a neat rustic hut is built of the cornlike stalks, interwoven and thatched with their broad and graceful leaves.

A kind of beer, called chicha, is sometimes prepared from the kernels of ripened maize, and is found, by natives and strangers, to be an agreeable as well as wholesome beverage. When the meal is boiled in water, and mixed with some farinacious roots, a favorite and exceedingly grateful gruel, known as atolé, is formed by the process. In the tierra caliente, the kernels are often roasted and ground into pinole;—but the most ordinary consumption of this precious vegetable is in the tortillas, for which Mexico is so celebrated, and in the preparation of which it is estimated that more than two hundred thousand females, in the republic, spend four or five hours of every day. In order to make tortillas, the grains of corn are soaked in water, to which a small quantity of lime has been added, until they are relieved of their shells. The pure and softened pulp is then laid on a flat stone or metate, one end of which is slightly raised from the ground. A Mexican woman kneels in the rear of the metate, and with another round stone, rolls, macerates, and amalgamates the crushed corn until it is formed into a rich succulent paste. Hard by, a thin metallic griddle is set over ignited coals, which is constantly supplied by another female, who pats the dough into extremely thin and delicate cakes. They are eaten hot from the griddle, but, even when carefully prepared, are deemed insipid and unsavory by foreigners.

Nor are these the only purposes to which this delightful plant and its offal are devoted by the Mexicans. They have discovered, within a few years, that a capital paper, for ordinary purposes, can be{56} made of its leaves; and they have long ago used them as wrappers for the cigarritos, which no loyal native fails to indulge in hourly.

Man and beast—dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and cigars—are thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian corn as one of the greatest elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury.

The extraordinarily productive Banana is to the inhabitants of the tierra caliente what maize is to those who dwell in the loftier and cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply the wants of three men, but an acre of Bananas, or plantains, says Humboldt, will support fifty.

The Mainoc, cassava bread, jatropha manihot, the Juca or Yuca, as it is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the tierra caliente, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts of Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state is poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the residuum is a farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose consumption, however, is not likely to increase in Mexico.

The cultivation of Rice is not extensive. On the east coast between Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between Jamiltepic and Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots; but it does not appear to please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to enter largely into the list of national productions either for export or home consumption.

The Olive was one of the banned and forbidden products of the Spanish colonies; but notwithstanding the inhibitions we have already cited in this section, the tree was planted in various portions of the country both previous to the revolution, and during intervals of repose whilst the war of liberation was waging. The archbishop of Mexico was one of the first to cultivate a plantation of it at Tacubaya near the capital. At the beginning of this century, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios, commenced the culture at his hacienda de Sarabia, within the district of Salamanca, in Guanajuato, and succeeded admirably; but his trees were destroyed entirely during the revolution. At present some large plantations have been made, in the same state, at several haciendas, and, especially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set out, in 1849.

The Vine, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican agriculturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout the colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they{57}

TORTILLERAS.

were attempted; and this rule seems to have been enforced very generally, except, at Tehuacan, in the state of Puebla and at some points in the Misteca in Oajaca. The value of Spanish wines imported annually before Mexican independence, reached the ample sum of $700,000; and as the French and Germans have, since the opening of the ports, availed themselves of the benefit for their own trade, it is very questionable whether the vine will ever become an article of extreme produce as long as the present race occupies the soil of Mexico. In 1843, the vine was still chiefly cultivated at Tehuacan and at Parras. Plantations had been made in the neighborhood of Zelaya, but the actual production of the region about Parras may be estimated from the returns of the interior custom house of that district through which 616 barrels of native brandy weighing 2,693 arrobas of 25 lbs. each and 323 barrels of wine of 1,035 arrobas, together with 204 tierces of raisins, had passed during the previous year.

Chile PEPPERS or capsicum, are extensively cultivated on the table lands. This pungent vegetable is not only used upon the table or in the food of all classes as an occasional agreeable stimulant, but has become one of the regular necessaries of life. It is either ground and mixed with the various sauces and stews that always form part of a Spanish meal, or is stuffed with pleasant condiments and eaten as other products of the garden. No Mexican will pass a day without a dish of the genuine article, and even foreigners who wince under its excoriation upon their arrival in the country, soon become as fond of it as the natives.

Mexico produces nearly all the garden stuffs which are either natural to or have been introduced into the United States, but either in consequence of the climate, or of a careless mode of cultivation, they do not generally equal our own in quality or flavor. The tomato is very fine, lucious and plentiful; and, next to corn, Chili and frijoles, is probably most extensively consumed.

The frijol, a rich, nutritive, brown bean, altogether different, however, from the ordinary Garrabanzos, is universally found on the tables of Mexican gentlefolks and in the humble platters of the Indians or Mestizos. Various kinds of this valuable esculent are raised in the republic; but the dark bean of Vera Cruz is always sought as a delicacy in the houses of the upper classes throughout the republic. It is both wholesome and nourishing. Mixed with the stimulating gravy formed of chile, and eaten with a tortilla or corn cake, it soon becomes a necessary of life to a stranger who resides for any length of time in Mexico. Some of our country{58} men have become so fond of the food, that they have brought the bean with them upon their return to the United States, and now supply their table with it instead of hominy. From the frijol, the tortilla, and the Chile pepper we pass to the great national liquor, which requires generally longer time to win the favor of foreigners.

The Maguey—Metl, or Agave Americana, is a species of Ananas, or Aloe, from which is made octli or pulque, the favorite beverage of the lower and middle classes of Mexicans, especially in the central parts of the table land.

This plant grows wild in almost every part of Mexico, yet the people do not extract a liquid from it, except in the neighborhood of Puebla and the capital, where its consumption is enormous. The principal plantations are in the States of Puebla, Mexico, Guanajuato, and a small portion of Valladolid. The districts most celebrated for the excellence of their liquor, are in the vicinity of Cholula and the Plains of Apam. So great was the consumption of this favorite national drink, that the small municipal tax upon it, at the gates of the cities, amounted, before the revolution, to $600,000—and, in the year 1793, to upwards of $800,000.

Pulque is so little known in Europe, or in the United States, that some account of the process, by which it is made, may be acceptable.

MAKING PULQUE.

{59}

"The Maguey, or aloe, from which it is extracted, differs but little, in appearance, from those which abound in the south of Spain, and are known—though of a much smaller size—in England. Its growth is slow, but when arrived at maturity, its leaves are usually from five to eight feet in length, although some considerably exceed these dimensions.

"In the Maguey estates, the plants are arranged in lines, with an interval of three yards between each. If the soil be good, they require no attention on the part of the proprietor until the period of flowering arrives, at which time the plant first commences to be productive. This period is very uncertain; ten years, however, may be taken as a fair average, for, in a plantation of one thousand aloes, it is calculated that one hundred are in flower every year. The Indians, know, by infallible signs, almost the very hour at which the stem, or central shoot, destined to produce the flower, is about to appear, and they anticipate it, by making a deep incision and extracting the whole heart, or central portion of the stem, as a surgeon would take an arm out of the socket, leaving nothing but the thick outside rind, thus forming a natural basin or well, about two feet in depth and one and a half in diameter. Into this the sap, which nature intended for the support of the gigantic central shoot continually oozes, in such quantities that it is found necessary to remove it twice, and even three times, during the day. In order to facilitate this operation, the leaves on one side are cut off, so as to admit a free approach. An Indian then inserts a long gourd, (called acojité,) the thinner end of which is terminated by a horn, while at the opposite extremity a small square hole is left, to which he applies his lips, and extracts the sap by suction. This sap, before it ferments, is called Aguamiel, (honey water,) and merits the appellation, as it is extremely sweet, and does not possess that disagreeable smell which is afterwards so offensive.

"A small portion of this aguamiel is transferred from the plant to a building prepared for the purpose, where it is allowed to ferment for ten or fifteen days, when it becomes what is termed Madre Pulque, (the mother of Pulque,) which is distributed, in very small quantities, amongst the different skins or troughs, intended for the daily reception of the Aguamiel. Upon this it acts as a sort of leaven; fermentation is excited instantly, and in twenty-four hours it becomes Pulque in the very best state for drinking. The quantity drawn off each day is replaced by a fresh supply of Aguamiel, so that the process may continue during the whole year without interruption, and is limited only by the extent of the plantation.{60} A good maguey yields from eight to fifteen quartillos or pints, of Aguamiel in a day, the value of which may be taken at about one real, or twelve and a half cents;—and this supply of sap continues during two, and often three months. The plant, therefore, when about to flower, is worth ten dollars to the farmer; although, in the transfer of an estate, the Magueyes de corte, ready for cutting, are seldom valued, one with another, at more than five. But, in this estimate, an allowance is made for the failure of some, which is unavoidable, as the operation of cutting the heart of the plant, if performed either too soon, or too late, is equally unsuccessful and entirely destroys the plant. The cultivation of the Maguey, where a market is at hand, has many advantages, as it is a plant, which, though it succeeds best in a good soil, is not easily affected either by heat or cold, and requires little or no water. It is propagated, too, with great facility; for, although the mother plant withers away as soon as the sap is exhausted, it is replaced by a multitude of suckers from the old root. There is but one drawback on its culture, and that is the period that must elapse before a new plantation can be rendered productive, and the uncertainty with regard to the time of flowering, which varies from eight to eighteen years. But the Maguey grounds, when once established, are of great value, many producing a revenue of ten and twelve thousand dollars per annum.

"The natives ascribe to Pulque as many good qualities as whiskey is said to possess in Scotland. They call it stomachie,—a great promoter of digestion and sleep, and an excellent remedy in many diseases. It requires a knowledge of all these good qualities to reconcile the stranger to that smell of sour milk or slightly tainted meat, by which the young Pulque drinker is usually disgusted; but if this can be surmounted, the liquor will be found both refreshing and wholesome, for its intoxicating qualities are very slight, and as it is drunk always in a state of fermentation, it possesses, even in the hottest weather, an agreeable coolness. It is found, too, where water is not to be obtained; and even the most fastidious, when travelling under a vertical sun, are then forced to admit its merits.

"It is only to be met with in perfection near the places where it is grown; as it is conveyed to the great towns in hog-skins on mules or asses. During this tedious process the disagreeable odor increases and the freshness of the liquor is lost. A strong sort of brandy, called Mexical, Mescal, or aguardiente, is likewise prepared from the aloe, of which there is a great consumption in the country.{61} Nor is the utility of the plant confined to this; the Aztecs prepared from its leaves the paper on which their hieroglyphics were written, pieces of which, of various thickness, may be found at the present day. The more fibrous parts supply the country with pita, a strong thread or twine, which is made up into ropes and used not only in the interior, but on the western coast as cordage for vessels. It is not so pliable as hemp, and is more liable to be affected by the weather; but it is extremely tough and durable, and consequently of very general utility. The preceding plate contains an aloe in full produce, with the leaves cut, the central cup displayed, and the skin, gourd, and scraper used in extracting the sap."[10]

Mexico is filled with varieties of Aloes and Cacti. A species known as the Organos—whose tall, erect and fluted columns shoot up to a height of ten, fifteen or twenty feet, is used in many parts of the table land for fences. Planted in close rows, its fine spines and firm limbs afford an impervious wall against intruders, whilst the tops of these evergreen and growing barriers are almost always covered with the most beautiful blossoms. In many districts of Mexico these cacti form one of the most picturesque as well as useful features in the landscape.{62}

CHAPTER V.

COLONIAL PRODUCTS.

Agricultural Products continued.—Colonial Products.

Sugar.

It is generally admitted that the cultivation of Sugar commenced in China. The cane became first known, through Marco Polo, in the middle of the thirteenth century; and it was soon after introduced into Nubia, Egypt and Ethiopia; whence, about the 15th century, it reached Europe. It was first planted in Sicily, and carried to Spain, Madeira, and the Canary Isles; and, twenty-eight years after the discovery by Columbus, it was introduced into Hayti, by Pedro Atienza, and speedily spread over the West Indies and other parts of America.

The Sugar Cane is one of the most valuable agricultural products of Mexico, and we are convinced from personal observation that the estates in the tierra caliente, where it is chiefly raised, are the richest, as well as most beautiful, in the republic. There is scarcely a lovelier prospect in Mexico than that which spreads before the traveller as he descends from the northern mountains into the valley or Cuernavaca, which lies south of the valley of Mexico, and may be reached easily in the course of a day. On every side, as far as the eye can reach, fields of the freshest verdure are spread out, dotted with the white walls and towers of the magnificent haciendas, which have been founded in this valley ever since the conquest. Screened from the cold winds of the upper table land by the protecting barrier of mountains which hem in the vales of Mexico and Puebla, the valley of Cuernavaca basks, on their southern slopes and feet, in a tropical climate. Winter never destroys the foliage in this sheltered region. Pleasant streams gurgle through its midst and afford sufficient supplies for irrigation. On the plain the tender green of the young cane, waves in the sun-light like a mass of purest velvet; whilst the palm and the plantain mingle their{63}

MEXICAN FOREST SCENE.

pensile and massive foliage amid the densest groves of oranges, aloes, and forest trees. The valley of Cuernavaca is one of those picturesque regions which are so well calculated to bring back a fanciful beholder to the scenes he has conjured up in youth whilst perusing the story of Paul and Virginia, or the glowing descriptions of the Arabian Nights.

It is in this charming region that some of the opulent citizens of the republic, have succeeded the wealthy Spaniards in the princely domains and haciendas of the tierra caliente. In the neighborhood of Cuernavaca we find the estates of Temisco, San Gabriel, Trenta Pesos, El Puente, Meacatlan, San Gaspar, San Vicento Chiconcuac, and Atlajomulco. The valley of Cuautla unites with that of Cuernavaca, on the east, and contains, among others, the prominent estates of San Nicolas, Atlihuyan, San Carlos, Acotesalco, Pantitlan, Cocoyöe, Calderon, Casasana, Santa Iñez, Coahuistla, Mapastlan, and Tenestepango.

In the state of Oajaca there are the fine haciendas of Guendolein, Arragon, Chicomastlahuaca and Ayotla, besides smaller plantations; and, in the state of Vera Cruz there are many valuable estates in the neighborhood of Orizaba and Cordova. The last mentioned establishments produce annually from 40,000 to 50,000 arrobas of sugar; whilst those in the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla de Amilpas, (calculated in all, at forty-eight, in number,) yield about 800,000 arrobas of sugar and syrup—besides 50,000 barrels of rum. These products, together with some indigo and coffee, raised in these two last named valleys, swell the value of agriculture in these branches to two millions and a half annually. On the estate of Guendolein, in Oajaca, 40,000 arrobas of sugar were yielded every year, which sold in the federal capital at about $160,000. At Atlajomulco, in Cuernavaca, 880,000 square yards of land were cultivated in cane, which produced 4,600 cwt. of refined sugar, 7,800 cwt. of molasses, and 300 cwt. of syrup. From the syrup is distilled the common chinguerito, or a superior species of beverage known as aguardiente de cana. At the estate of Santa Iñez, near Cuautla, 4,000 barrels of this spirit are annually distilled and sold in Mexico at $32 each, which, with a deduction of eight dollars for transportation and duties, will leave a return for the planter of 24 dollars per barrel. In addition to this production of ardent spirits, the estate produces annually about 40,000 loaves, of twenty-three pounds each, or 920,000 pounds of refined sugar; and here, as elsewhere throughout the planting districts, it is calculated that the molasses, syrup, and in some places, the aguardiente, pay all{64} the expenses of the estate. The chief difficulty encountered by the proprietors, and their administradors, is in the worthlessness of the Indian laborers, whose character as agriculturists we have noticed in the section of this work treating of the classes of Mexican society. Three hundred hands are employed at the hacienda, who are paid a per diem of two and a half or three reals, according to their qualifications or work.

The hacienda of Temisco, in the valley of Cuernavaca, is one of the oldest establishments in the republic, and, within a few years, has passed into the possession of its present owners for the sum of $300,000. The extensive buildings, consisting of a commodious dwelling, constructed in the old Spanish style, and a large chapel, were erected soon after the conquest. The domain extends over eleven leagues of land in length, and three in width. Two hundred and fifty laborers produce yearly about fifty thousand loaves of sugar, of an average weight of 23 pounds. The annual expenses of the farming and management amount to thirty thousand dollars, which are repaid by the molasses, syrup, and spirits, as at Santa Iñez, while, in addition to the crop, about four thousand cattle are raised on the premises. On all these large estates a store is kept by the owner, at which nearly the whole amount of the Indian laborer's wages is received back in the course of the year. The planters, in many parts of the country, are no longer contented with the old system of extracting and preparing sugar; but, notwithstanding the enormous cost of transporting such large masses of heavy machinery, they have introduced all the modern improved engines used in the United States and the West Indies. The profits must be large that will warrant so extravagant an expenditure. The great haciendas disburse, in wages and other current charges, from 800 to 1,200 dollars weekly. The establishment of a Trapiche, or all the works required for a sugar estate, is so costly an enterprise, that it is not likely the cultivation of the article will become greatly extended by the opening of new estates in the most productive regions. Labor, as well as engines, will be required for this purpose, and it is quite improbable that the few indolent Indians in the neighborhood will be prevailed on to abandon their life of laziness for the toils of a sugar plantation. Besides this, the present production fully supplies the home market, and although the revenues and profits are extraordinarily tempting, it is doubtful whether the Mexicans are sufficiently enterprising in agriculture to adventure such enormous sums as are necessarily expended before a single cane is planted or a pound of sugar manufactured. As long as the{65}

HACIENDA.

rate of interest is high, the roads bad, transportation costly and unchanged, and the condition of the country unsettled, these vast and valuable rural districts will, in all likelihood, remain untenanted and unwrought.

Baron Humboldt, whose analytical mind always strives to classify, systematize and tabularize his investigations, has endeavored to ascertain and limit the maximum height at which the cane may be cultivated; but it is probably true that all such attempts, are altogether visionary, in a country of great inequalities of elevation, shelter and exposure. Many local causes, altogether independent of relative elevation may produce the degree of heat requisite to bring cane to perfection, yet it is generally conceded that the produce of a plantation in the table land would not equal that of an estate near the coast. The valley of Cuautla, for instance, is bounded on the north by the lofty peak of Popocatepetl, against whose snows the fresh verdure of the cane, and the graceful branches of the palm are constantly relieved. In an hour or two after leaving the plantation of Santa Iñez, the traveller who passes thence towards the valley of Mexico, finds himself obliged to put on his cloak or serape, after having suffered from tropical heat during the preceding day. It might reasonably be supposed that the vicinity of such immense masses of ice and snow would naturally affect the temperature of the adjacent valley; but the frosty peak of Popocatepetl only serves to condense the vapors that drift inland from the sea and to set them free over the low and warm valleys which border its southern base, whilst its broad shoulders protect the plains from the cold blasts of the north wind.

Coffee.

The soil of Mexico has been found adapted for the cultivation of coffee as well as sugar; but under the old Spanish dominion it never formed one of the articles of export, although it did not interfere with the productions of the mother country. In 1818 and '19 extensive plantations were commenced near Orizaba and Cordova, to which additions have since been frequently made. The plant was likewise introduced into the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla by Antonio Velasco and the administrador of the estates of the Duke of Monteleone. The large hacienda of Atlajomulco, in the immediate neighborhood of Cuernavaca still pertains to the descendants of Cortéz; and here the experiment of coffee culture has been long and successfully tried. The average produce of each{66} plant is estimated at about two and a half pounds throughout all parts of the republic where the berry is cultivated; though there are districts of Mexico in which it is said that three or four pounds are yielded. This probably depends very much on the size, age, or quality of the tree. Mr. Ward states that he knew of a single tree, in the garden of Don Pablo de la Llave, at Cordova, which produced twenty-eight pounds! The slope of the eastern Cordillera is supposed to be best calculated for coffee estates, and it is believed that Yucatan and Tabasco will ultimately, under favorable circumstances, become the centres of a lucrative trade in this article, if the Indian population can ever be trained to agricultural labors, or made productively industrious in a land where the wants of nature are so few and so easily supplied. The plantations in the interior must long be excluded from foreign markets for the same reason that we have assigned in regard to sugar. Roads and improved transportation are the fundamental and primary elements of commercial civilization, and until these are obtained permanently, Mexico must look chiefly to her domestic market for agricultural recompense.

Tobacco.

In a country in which all the men, and nearly all the women are habitual and even constant smokers, tobacco, must necessarily be an article of national importance. So valuable is its production that the government has continued to maintain the monopoly of its sale, and, previous to the revolution, managed to obtain an annual clear revenue of from one to two millions and a half of dollars, with a gross income, occasionally, of over seven millions and a half. In the cigar factories of Oajaca five millions of packets of paper cigarritos of thirty in each were prepared, besides sixty thousand packets each containing seven puros or ordinary cigars.

Tobacco grows well in a small district near Orizaba and Cordova, but the best article produced in the republic, comes from Simojovel in the state of Chiapas and from some districts of Oajaca. In Yucatan and Tabasco, the plant is also cultivated successfully, and produces a mild and fragrant leaf which is not included in the national monopoly. A large portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is contraband; for the ridiculous and greedy restrictions and exactions with which a plant of such universal consumption is surrounded, necessarily dispose the people to violate laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights of production and trade under a constitution professing to be free.{67}

Indigo.

Indigo was cultivated and used by the Mexicans previous to the conquest. The plant was known by them under the name of Xiuhquilipitzahuac, and the particles from which the dye stuff was made, as Mohuitli or Tlacohuilli. At the close of the seventeenth century the production of this article had already greatly decreased. The chief part of it, required for dyeing the cotton cloths which are generally used for home consumption by the Indians and lower classes of Mestizos, has been brought from Guatemala. It is found in Yucatan, Chiapas and about Tehuantepec in the state of Oajaca, and grows wild in some very warm localities in Tabasco. In this last named region there is every reason to believe that it may be profitably cultivated, inasmuch as the indigo plantations of San Salvador, in the neighborhood of Guatemala have been known to produce one million eight hundred thousand pounds of the article, valued at two millions of dollars.

The production of Wax, according to the Memoria Sobre el Estado de la Agricultura y Industria, of Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, is gradually augmenting in the republic. Attempts have also been made to cultivate Flax and Hemp. The first of which has been successfully raised by Mariano Aillou in the neighborhood of Tenancingo, and the latter, in the southern districts of the state of Michoacan, where it grows even spontaneously and is known under the name of guinary. The product is very large, the extent of territory covered by it very great,—and the thousands of pounds annually raised in that district, are made up into garments whose quality is highly approved throughout the republic.

Cotton.

In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to restrictive tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a number of intelligent persons began some years ago to establish factories for cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic factories it was supposed would naturally increase the culture of the raw materials, and, accordingly, the national industry was aided from the beginning by prohibitions or excessive duties, which either excluded the foreign raw material altogether, or fostered the contraband introduction of cotton twist and woollen thread.

Cotton was among the indigenous products of Mexico at the time of the conquest; and the early adventurers not only found it to constitute the common vesture of the masses of the people, but also{68} that the most delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made of it. The Aztecs possessed the art of spinning it to an extreme degree of fineness and of imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for which they were celebrated; but both these mysteries were entirely lost in the general destruction of aboriginal arts and records by the Spaniards. Notwithstanding the natural anxiety of Spain to furnish her colonists with her manufactures, she could never prevent the people from weaving and wearing this spontaneous product of their soil. And, although the cultivation of the raw material was neglected or not pursued with the ingenious industry that would have made it a great staple product, it is nevertheless estimated that the annual value of the domestic manufacture in Mexico amounted to about $5,000,000. After the consummation of national independence, foreign nations hastened to seize the trade of Mexico and to fill the markets with an abundant but costly supply of European and American stuffs. The drain of the precious metals which this caused from a country that possessed no other article of export to pay for the imported merchandize by exchanges, soon alarmed the financiers of Mexico, and accordingly a higher scale of duties was adopted for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. This, for a long time, served only to augment the cost of apparel to the Mexican consumer, whilst it had no other material effect upon the fabrics of the country except to seduce a number of wealthy landholders into the erection of factories, which have cost them, at least, ten if not twelve millions of dollars. Unluckily, however, this amounted merely to the creation of vast establishments which could not rely upon the resources of the country for their supply, for the factories were built before the farms were opened by which they were to be furnished with the staple!

It is a fact, therefore, not very generally known, that Mexico has become a manufacturing country. The water power which is abundant in many parts of a mountainous region like that of Mexico, affords great facilities for such establishments.

In 1843 there were 53 cotton factories in the republic with a total of 131,280 spindles, and it was estimated that,—looking to Mexico alone for the supply,—there would be an annual deficiency of a large quantity of the raw material. This calculation, it must be remembered, does not include the consumption of cotton by hand looms, an immense number of which are in constant use through the republic.

In consequence of this evident deficiency, and the prospect of{69} the firm establishment of a manufacturing system, many persons were induced to commence the cultivation of cotton. But their failure was signal. It is true that in Mexico the proportion of small farmers and rural tenants is small, and that the great majority of the owners of the soil are large landholders who might sometimes change the character of their cultivation. But these men belong to the pastoral rather than the agricultural age, and delight in the easier tending of their flocks and herds. In addition to this we must take into consideration the well known characteristics of the southern races enervated still more by the genial climate of Mexico. Those races are governed by traditions. As their fathers wrought—so they work. Their antipathy to change is proverbial, and it is by no means uncommon to see the spirit of an anecdote related by Bazil Montague, realized every day in Mexico.

"In a particular district of Italy," says he, "the peasants loaded their panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier by filling it with stones, and when a traveller pointed out the advantages to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was answered that their forefathers, from time immemorial, had so carried their produce to market; that they were wise and good men, and that a stranger showed very little understanding or decency who interfered in the established customs of a country." Such are the difficulties to be encountered in the habits and prejudices of all old nations, and the embarrassment, in the present instance, would not be so much in creating a body of gentlemen planters, as in finding laborers to work the plantations when they had been acquired.

Brought up as most of the Indians are, on small pieces of land, or in little villages among the mountains, they find that the fruitful soil produces, almost spontaneously, enough for their frugal support. A skin or two, together with a few yards of cotton or woollen cloth, suffice, every few years, for their requisite covering. The broad leaves of a plantain, or, a palm with its matted vines, afford them shelter during the day, whilst a kennel on the ground, keeps off the rains or night dews. And thus, a servile contentment with traditionary occupations or idleness, roots them to the soil where they were born, and makes them, in fact though not in name, the hereditary slaves of the estates on which their ancestors have worked for centuries. These men are, of course, not to be suddenly diverted from their tastes; and the worthy persons who have commenced the cultivation of cotton in suitable districts of the country where the Indians are numerous and unemployed, have{70} been obliged to abandon their enterprises from the fact that their laborers speedily deserted under the plea that they were not used to such occupations, and, with less toil, had ample food and raiment in their goats and gardens at home. The reasoning of the Indians is quite natural and even wise under the peculiar circumstances of their actual life. Money is no object to them, for they have no object upon which to expend it, and their isolated existence affords them no comparative scale of society in which they might advance to a higher degree of civilization by the possession of wealth. Why then should they toil to acquire that which to them has not even the value of a counter? Possessing without labor all that is needed for mere existence, their toil can only be beneficial to their employers. In this, they perceive by their native sagacity, that there is no recompense and no equality of interests.

Whilst such are the reasons why a new agricultural population cannot be created in Mexico, the reverse is precisely the case with regard to a new manufacturing population. Factories are generally erected in the neighborhood of large towns, or in populous districts where the surplus of females is continually in the greatest indigence. These people have neither pieces of land, nor gardens, nor goats, nor means of livelihood except beggary or the prison, and consequently they flock with eagerness to every factory that affords the hope of employment and support. Thus, whilst the tendency of the agriculture of Mexico is to produce servitude, that of its manufactures is to create a feeling of honest independence.

These speculations seem to indicate clearly, first, that the fixed policy of Mexico is to establish a national system of manufactures; and, secondly, that the cultivation of the staple which is to supply these factories will not be largely increased; or if it be increased at all, its augmentation will not be proportionate to the number and demand of the factories.

The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is so close that we have been unable in the preceding passages to avoid anticipating some statements which will be more amply set forth in our section on Mexican manufactures. We shall now turn our attention to the cultivation and annual production in the republic.

Throughout the cotton growing districts of the United States the cotton plant is of annual growth. Frost destroys it, and the planter is obliged to renew the seed for every crop. But, in the tierra{71} caliente of Mexico, this is not requisite, as the tree propagates itself, and the laborers are only required to keep the fields clear of extraneous plants which spring up so rapidly and luxuriantly in tropical climates.

Notwithstanding the advantages offered by the erection of the factories in Mexico, the best data obtained by Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, presented only the following meagre returns of the proximate quantity of cotton raised in some of the states of the republic, excluding, of course, the small parcels raised by Mestizos and Indians for their private consumption:

In this estimate the cleaned and uncleaned, or ginned and un-ginned cotton are averaged together. It is generally considered, however, that the whole country really produces at present about seventy thousand quintals or seven millions of pounds.

The quantity, and consequently the value of the Mexican cotton crop has been very variable. At Tepic on the west coast, in whose vicinity there are many valuable factories, it has been sold as low as fifteen dollars per quintal; while at Vera Cruz on the east coast it has risen to twenty-two and twenty-four dollars, and, in Puebla and the city of Mexico it has reached even to forty and forty-eight dollars. Cotton gins have been established at Alvarado, at Cosamaloapan, and Tuxtla on the northern and eastern coasts, and at Tepic, on the west; but they are not sufficiently numerous throughout the country to supply even the present limited production.

Vainilla.

Mexico is generally considered the native country of the delicious vainilla bean, which grows wild along the eastern coast amid the endless variety of parasitic plants with which the forests are filled. It is a native of Vera Cruz, Oajaca and Tabasco. On the wooded mountain or hill slopes of the latter it has been discovered in great quantities; but throughout Mexico this pleasant{72} and valuable product has been left almost entirely to the care of Indians. Its cultivation is exceedingly simple. A shoot of the plant is inserted in the ground at the foot of a tree intended to support the future vine, which, if properly freed from the encumbrance of other parasites, soon embraces the trunk, and yields beans during the third year. This hardy and fruitful plant lasts from a quarter to half a century, according to the attention that is bestowed on it; and it is remarkable that its cultivation has not engaged the attention of foreigners who might safely reside in the beautiful and healthy regions of Jalapa.

Jalap.

Jalap, like vainilla, is a parasitic plant; but its root instead of its fruit is used for medicinal purposes. Its leaves resemble the ivy and its beautiful red flowers open only at night. Growing plentifully in the neighborhood of Jalapa, whence it takes its name, it is usually sent abroad through Vera Cruz, where the commercial returns show that more than three thousand quintals are rarely exported.

Cacao.

The use of chocolate is so universal in Mexico and throughout Spanish countries, that it might naturally be supposed the cultivation of cacao was largely and carefully attended to in the republic. Such, however, is not the case. The cacao of Soconusco, and of the low grounds of Caraccas, Guatemala and Guyaquil, was found to be so superior to the Mexican article, that its production has been almost abandoned except in the neighborhood of Colima, or on the Isthmus and in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas.

Cochineal.

The Opuntia, or Indian fig, a species of cactus is the food in Mexico which supports an insect from whose body the dye known as Cochineal is made. It is found also in Brazil where it nourishes the grana sylvestre which affords a dye that is greatly inferior in color as well as durability to that produced by the grana fina of Mexico.

The grana fina resembles a small bug in size and color, covered with a whitish mealy powder, through which the rings or cross stripes on the back of the insect are distinctly visible; the female alone produces the dye; the males are smaller, and one is found sufficient to impregnate three hundred females.{73}

The cochineal bug feeds only on the leaf of the opuntia. The process of rearing is complicated and attended with much difficulty. The leaves of the nopal upon which the seed is deposited, must be kept free from all foreign substances, and, in the cochineal districts the Indian women constantly tend the plants, brushing them lightly with a squirrel's tail.

In a good year one pound of seed deposited upon the plant in October, will yield in December, twelve pounds of cochineal, leaving a sufficient quantity of seed behind for a second crop in May. The plantations of the cochineal cactus are confined to the district of the Misteca, in the state of Oajaca and in the valley of Oajaca at Ocotlan.

Some of the Haciendas de Nopales contain from fifty to sixty thousand plants, arranged in lines like the aloes in the Maguey plantations already described, and cut down to a certain height, in order to enable the Nopaleros to clean them more easily.

In the year 1758, a government registry-office was established in Oajaca, in consequence of the complaints of British merchants, who had received cargoes of adulterated cochineal. This bureau kept an accurate account of the production and value of the article, within its jurisdiction, and a tabular statement of the result has since been published in the Memoria Estadistica de Oajaca, &c. &c., of Don J. M. Murgnia y Galardi, who was a deputy to the Cortes from that province. By this document, and subsequent returns, it appears that from 1758 to 1832, inclusive,—or in 75 years,—44,195,750 pounds of cochineal were produced in the state of Oajaca alone, which were worth $106,170,671 at the market price.

Silk.

After the independence of Mexico was secured the Mexicans in the neighborhood of Zelaya, and in a few other places, attempted the cultivation of the mulberry tree, for the purpose of feeding silk worms. But this agricultural speculation failed. The planters did not possess the Chinese mulberry, which is universally adopted as the best in all silk producing countries.

In 1841 an association under the style of the "Michoacan Company," was organized, in the capital of Michoacan, for the encouragement of silk culture. The members of this body labored diligently to introduce the Chinese tree, and spread it far and wide through the states of Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Michoacan. These labors were performed by thirty-six Juntas de fomento, or committees{74} of encouragement, and although the trees have most generally grown well, it is to be feared that the enterprise resembled the wild speculations in that species of mulberry which, about the same period, both made and lost so many fortunes in the United States. The cultivation of silk has been warmly urged by Don Lucas Alaman, as exceedingly suitable for the state of Oajaca, where, in the course of time, it may replace the cochineal whose product it is said is beginning to fail in that district.

Fruits.

The finest fruits of Mexico are commonly found in the tierra caliente. The orange, lemon, lime, pine apple, banana, chirimoya, sapote, ahuacate, tuna, granadita, are produced in great perfection. The apples, peaches, cherries, grapes and gooseberries do not possess the high flavor, nor are they found in the same varieties, as in the United States; but the pears, especially those known as Gamboa pears, are exceedingly delicious. Nearly all these fruits are consumed in their natural state, yet immense quantities are preserved and form the extraordinary varieties of dulces without which no Mexican table is considered properly set forth. It is very probable that if horticulture and agriculture were scientifically studied by Mexicans, or if North American and European gardeners were to emigrate to the country, even the fruits which are now inferior to ours, would improve in quality, size and flavor under their skilful management.

Agricultural Prospects.

From all that we have already stated in regard to the Indian or laboring population of Mexico, the nature of the seasons, and the want of irrigation in many districts, except by artificial means, it will be perceived that the agricultural progress of the country is extremely doubtful. In addition to this, the land belongs to a few proprietors, many of whom own estates of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even a hundred leagues square, which are chiefly devoted to herds instead of agriculture. Mexico is thus rather in the pastoral than the commercial age, and must pass through the transition state of independent sub-divided labor before she can stand, naturally, upon the same platform with northern and European nations.

The early Spanish settlers were eager monopolists of mines and land. Their object was to realize fortunes speedily; and by a liberal repartimiento of Indians they were enabled to found large estates upon which those Indians either toiled as husbandmen or{75} tended uncounted herds. The prolific soil soon yielded, with little labor, the required quantity of vegetables and cereal products; domestic markets were wanted for the sale of the surplus, and the Spanish government did not open its harbors for exportation. Agriculture was thus early limited to the mere animal wants of the glebœ adscripti and emigrant Spaniards, and as the Indian never labors except when compelled by force or necessity, he soon preferred the idle and wandering life of a herdsman to that of a farmer. Many of these estates now number from ten to twenty thousand head of cattle. Besides this the Spanish laws presented the Indian no prospects of independent agricultural rights. The foreign landholder enjoyed the exclusive ownership of the vast freehold. There was no encouragement or hope given to small farmers who might emerge from the servile race, and the consequence is that Mexico, until she becomes an exporting country, receives an augmented population by immigration, and sub-divides her immense territorial manors, under the demands of trade, will, in all likelihood remain stationary in every thing pertaining to agriculture. It is the multiplication of freeholders under the stimulus of commerce, that promotes freedom, industry, and personal independence. Competition is continually excited by the wants of a numerous nation, or by the prospect of selling the results of our labor to others abroad who are not so well supplied or do not produce the articles we cultivate and manufacture. But Mexico, as at present constituted, is an exceedingly small white civilized nation, if we exclude her four and a half millions of Indians. She is not increased annually by immigration from the crowded countries of the Old World, nor does she encourage the advent of strangers. Her population therefore is substantially confined within the narrow limits of natural increase by birth alone. These singular facts exhibit the anomalous condition of all the Spanish settlements upon the virgin and inviting soil of America; and until the Chinese exclusiveness of these various western nations is abandoned as an absurdity in the nineteenth century, we do not believe that the Arab plough will be replaced by the civilized implements of North American agriculture, or that the Mexican shepherd will turn into an enlightened farmer. We have seen that even the stimulus of domestic demand for cotton, has been unable to produce a new agricultural class among those who were devoted to other traditionary toils. What hope, then, can there be of an improvement in cereal cultivation, when the country is already supplied, and owns neither a navy nor merchantmen?{76}

CHAPTER VI.

Mexican Mines, Mineral Wealth and Coinage.

It is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was one of the most powerful stimulants of the Spanish conquest and subsequent emigration; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect the manner in which the Castilian power was founded on this continent and the colonial policy it originated. It will be seen by the tables annexed to this section, that the results have largely fulfilled the hopes of the European adventurers, and that the wealth of the world has been immensely augmented and sustained, by the discovery of our Continent. In the order of the earth's gradual development, under the intellectual enterprise or bodily labor of man, we find the most beautiful system of accommodation to the growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is required for the crowded population of the Old World, and a new continent is suddenly opened, into which the cramped and burdened millions may find room for industry and independent existence. The political institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the encroachments of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust or unwise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws, and a virgin country is forthwith assigned to man in which the principle of self government may be tried without the necessity of casting off by violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing industry or invention of the largely augmented populations of the earth, exacts either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the precious metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and forests of a far off continent, in which the fable of the golden sands of Pactolus is realized. The labor of men and the flight of time{77} strip commercial countries of their trees, yet, in order to support the required supply of fuel, not only for the comfort and preservation but also for the industry of the race, the heart of the earth beneath the soil which is required for cultivation, is found to be veined with inexhaustible supplies of mineral coal.

The bounty and the protective forethought of God for his creatures is not only intimated but proved by these benevolent storehouses of treasure, comfort and freedom; and whilst we acknowledge them with proper gratitude, we should not forget that their acquirement and enduring possession are only to be paid for by labor, economy, and social as well as political forbearance.

We do not think these observations out of place in a chapter devoted to the mineral wealth of Mexico. The subject of property and its representative metals, should be approached in a reflective and christian spirit, in an age in which the political and personal misery of the overcrowded masses of Europe, is forcing them to regard all who are better provided for, or more fortunate by thrift or the accident of birth, as enemies of the poor. The demagogue leaders of these wretched classes, pushing the principle of just equalization to a ridiculous and hideous extreme, have not hesitated to declare in France, since the revolution of February, 1848, that "property is robbery."[11] We shall not pause to examine or refute the false dogma of a dangerous incendiary. The common sense as well as the common feeling of mankind revolts at it. Property, as the world is constituted by God, is the source of new industry, because it is, under the laws of all civilized nations, the original result of industry. "It makes the meat it feeds on." Without it there would be no duty of labor, no exercise of human ingenuity or talent, no responsibility, no reward. The mind and body would stagnate under such a monstrous contradiction of all our physical and intellectual laws. The race would degenerate into its former savage condition; and force, instead of its antagonists, industry and honest competition, would usurp the dominion of the world and end this vicious circle of bastard civilization.

And yet it is the duty of an American,—who, from his superior position, both in regard to space in which he can find employment and equal political laws by which that employment is protected, stands on a vantage ground above the confined and badly governed masses of Europe,—to regard the present position of the European masses not only with humane compassion, but to sympathize with that natural feeling that revolts against a state of society{78} which it seems impossible to ameliorate, and yet whose wants or luxuries do not afford them support. It is hard to suffer hunger and to see our dependants die of starvation, when we are both able and willing to work for wages but can obtain no work upon which to exercise our ingenuity or our hands. It is frightful to reflect, says Mr. Carlyle, in one of his admirable essays, that there is hardly an English horse, in a condition to labor for his owner, that is deprived of food and lodging, whilst thousands of human beings rise daily from their obscure and comfortless dens in the British isles, who do not know how they shall obtain employment for the day by which they may purchase a meal.

To this dismal account of European suffering, the condition of the American continent affords the best reply. The answer and the remedy are both displayed in the social and political institutions, as well as in the boundless unoccupied and prolific tracts of our country. Labor cries out for work and recompense from the Old World, whilst the New displays her soil, her mines, her commerce and her trades, as the best alms that one nation can bestow on another, because they come direct from God and are the reward of meritorious industry. Before such a tribunal the modern demagogue of continental Europe shrinks into insignificance, and the laws of labor are effectually vindicated.

The Mines of Mexico have been wrought from the earliest periods. Long before the advent of the Spaniards, the natives of Mexico, like those of Peru, were acquainted with the use of metals. Nor were they contented with such specimens as they found scattered at random on the surface of the earth or in the ravines of mountain torrents, but had already learned to dig shafts, pierce galleries, form needful implements, and trace the metallic veins in the hearts of mountains. We know that they possessed gold, silver, lead, tin, copper and cinnabar. Beautiful samples of jewelry were wrought by them, and gold and silver vases, constructed in Mexico, were sent to Spain by the conquerors, as testimonials of the mineral wealth of the country. The dependant tribes paid their tributes to the sovereign in a species of metallic currency, which though not stamped by royal order, was yet the representative of a standard value. The exact position of all the mines from which these treasures were derived by the Aztecs is not certainly known at the present day, but as the natives were often compelled to indicate some of the sources of their riches to the conquerors there is little doubt that the present mineral district of the republic is that from which they procured their chief supplies.{79}

The mines of Mexico may be classed in eight groups, nearly all of which are placed on the top or on the western slope of the great Cordillera.

The first of these groups has been the most productive, and embraces the districts contiguous to Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Charcas, Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo and Sombrerete.

The second comprises the mines situated west of the city of Durango as well as those in Sinaloa, for the labors of engineers have brought them so close to each other by their works that they may be united in the same geological division.

The third group is the northernmost in Mexico, and is that which embraces the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It extends from the 27th° to the 29th° of north latitude.

The fourth and fifth clusters are found north-east of Mexico, and are formed by the mines of Real del Monte or Pachuca, and Zimapan, or, El Doctor.

Bolaños, in Guadalajara, and Tasco in Oajaca, are the central points of the sixth, seventh and eighth.[12]

The reader who will cast his eye over the map of Mexico, will at once perceive that the geographical space covered by this metalliferous region, is small when compared with the great extent of the whole country. The eight groups into which the mining districts are divided occupy a space of twelve thousand square leagues, or one tenth only of the whole extent of the Mexican republic as it existed previous to the treaty of 1848 and before the mineral wealth of California and probably of New Mexico was known to the world. But as that treaty confirmed and ceded to the United States more than one half of the ancient territory of Mexico, we may estimate the mining region as covering fully one fifth of the remainder.

Before the discovery and conquest of the West Indies and the American continent, Europe had looked to the east for her chief supplies of treasure. America was discovered by Columbus, not as was so long imagined, because he foresaw the existence of another continent, but because he sought a shorter route to the rich and golden Zipangou, and to the spice regions of eastern Asia. Columbus and Vespuccius both died believing that they had reached eastern Asia, and thus a geographical mistake led to the greatest discovery that has ever been made. In proof of these assertions we may state that Columbus designed delivering at Cuba, the missives of the Spanish king to the great Kahn of the Mongols,{80} and that he imagined himself in Mangi the capital of the southern region of Cathay or China! "The Island of Hispaniola," (Hayti) he declares to Pope Alexander VI., in a letter found in the archives of the Duke of Varaguas,—"is Tarshish, Ophir, and Zipangou. In my second voyage, I have discovered fourteen hundred islands, and a shore of three hundred and thirty-three miles, belonging to the continent of Asia." This West Indian Zipangou produced golden fragments or spangles, weighing eight, ten and even twenty pounds.[13]

Before the discovery of the silver mines of Tasco, on the western slope of the Mexican Cordillera, in the year 1522, America supplied only gold to the Old World, and consequently, Isabella of Castile was obliged, already in 1497, to modify greatly, the relative value of the two precious metals used for currency. This was doubtless the origin of the Medina edict—which changes the old legal ratio of 1:10.7. Yet Humboldt has shown that, from 1492 to 1500, the quantity of gold drawn from the parts of the New World then known, did not amount, annually, to more than about one thousand pounds avoirdupois;—and the Pope Alexander VI., who, by his famous Bull, bestowed one half the earth upon the Spanish kings, only received in return, from Ferdinand the Catholic, some small fragments of gold from Hayti, to gild a portion of the dome of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore;—a gift that was suitably acknowledged in a Latin inscription in which the offering is set forth as the first that had been received by the Catholic sovereigns from India.

Although the income of treasure must have increased somewhat, yet the working of the American mines did not yield three millions of dollars yearly until 1545. The ransom of Atahualpa amounted, according to Gomara, to about four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of our standard, or fifty-two thousand marks of silver, whilst, the pillage of the Temples at Cuzco, if Herrera is to be credited, did not produce more than twenty-five thousand seven hundred marks, or a little more than a quarter of a million of our currency.[14]

It has been generally imagined that the wealth of the New World immediately and largely enriched the Spanish kings or their people; and that the sovereigns, under whose auspices the discovery was{81} made, participated, at once, in the treasures that were found in the possession of the Indian rulers. Such, however, was not the case. The historian Ranke, in his essay on the Spanish finances, has shown, by new documents and official vouchers, the small quantity of the precious metals which the American mines, and the supposed treasures of the Incas yielded.[15] It is probable that the conquerors did not make exact returns to the court of their acquisitions, or that the revenue officers, appointed at an early period of American history, were not remarkable for the fidelity with which they transmitted the sums that came into their possession as servants of the crown; and thus it happened that neither the king of Spain nor his kingdom, was speedily enriched by the New World. Baron Humboldt, in one of his late publications, gives an interesting extract from a letter written by a friend of Ferdinand the Catholic a few days after his death, which exhibits the finances of that king in a different light from that in which they have been hitherto viewed. In an epistle to the bishop of Tuy, Peter Martyr says, that this "Lord of many realms,—this wearer of so many laurels,—this diffuser of the Christian faith and vanquisher of its enemies,—died poor, in a rustic hut. Whilst he lived no one imagined that after his death it would be discovered that he possessed scarcely money enough either to defray the ceremony of his sepulture, or to furnish his few retainers with suitable mourning!"[16] The adventurers in America, were doubtless enriched, and duly reported their gains to friends at home; but Spain itself was not speedily improved by their acquisitions.

The rise in the prices of grain and other products of agriculture or human industry, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and especially from 1570 to 1595, indicates the true beginning of the plentiful flow of the precious metals to the Old World, in consequence of which their value diminished and the results of European industry increased in price. This is accounted for by the commencement of the beneficial working of the American mines about that period. The real opening of the mines of Potosi, by the Spanish conquerors, dates from the year 1545; and it was between this epoch and 1595, that the splendid masses of silver from Tasco, Zacatecas, and Pachuca, in New Spain; and from Potosi, Porco and Oruro, in the chain of Peruvian Andes, began to be distributed more uniformly over Europe, and to affect the price of its productions.{82} From the period of the administration of Cortéz to the year 1552, when the celebrated mines of Zacatecas were just opened, the export from Mexico, rarely reached in value, annually, 100,000 pesos de oro, or nearly $1,165,000. But from that date it rose rapidly, and in the years 1569, 1578 and 1587, it was already, respectively—

During the last peaceful epoch of the Spanish domination, Baron Humboldt calculates the annual yield of the mines of Mexico at not more than $23,000,000, or nearly 1,184,000 pounds, avoirdupois, of silver, and 3,500 pounds, avoirdupois, of gold. From 1690 to 1803—$1,330,772,093 were coined in the only mint of Mexico; while, from the discovery of New Spain until its independence, about $2,028,000,000, or two-fifths of all the precious metals which the whole of the New World has supplied during the same period, were furnished by Mexico alone.[18]

It appears from these data that the exhaustion of the mines of Mexico is contradicted by the geognostic facts of the country, and as we shall hereafter show, by the recent issues of Mexican mints. The mint of Zacatecas, alone, during the revolutionary epoch, from 1811 to 1833, struck more than $66,332,766, and, in the eleven last years of this period, from four to five millions of dollars were coined by it every year uninterruptedly.

The general metallic production of the country,—which was of course impeded by the revolutionary state of New Spain between 1809 and 1826,—has arisen refreshed from its slumber, so that, according to the best accounts it has ascended to perhaps twenty millions annually in total production, in consequence of the prolific yield of the workings at Fresnillo, Chihuahua, and Sonora, independent of the abundant production at Zacatecas.{83}

The Mexican mines were eagerly and even madly seized by the English, and even by the people of the United States, as objects of splendid speculation, as soon as the country became settled; but, in consequence of bad management, or the wild spirit of gambling which assumed the place of prudent commercial enterprise, the holders of stock were either disappointed or sometimes ruined. Subsequently, however, the proprietors have learned that prudence and the experience of old Mexican miners was better than the theoretical principles upon which they designed producing larger revenues than had ever been obtained by the original Spanish workmen. Their imported modern machinery and engines for voiding water from the shafts and galleries is the chief beneficial improvement introduced since the revolution; but the enormous cost of transporting the heavy materials, in a country where there are no navigable rivers extending into the heart of the land, and where the usual mode of carriage is on the backs of mules, by wretched roads over mountains and through ravines, has often absorbed large portions of the original capital before the proprietors even began to employ laborers to set up their foreign engines. Many of the first British and American adventurers or speculators have, thus, been ruined by unskilful enterprises in Mexican mines. Their successors, however, are beginning to reap the beneficial results of this expenditure, and, throughout the republic steam engines, together with the best kinds of hydraulic apparatus, have superseded the Spanish malacates.

"Whenever these superb countries which are so greatly favored by nature," says Humboldt, in his essay on gold and silver, in the Journal des Economistes, "shall enjoy perfect peace after their deep and prolonged internal agitations, new metallic deposites will necessarily be opened and developed. In what region of the globe, except America, can be cited such abundant examples of wealth, in silver? Let it not be forgotten that near Sombrerete, where mines were opened as far back as 1555, the family of Fagoaga,—Marquesses de Apartado,—derived, in the short space of five months, from a front of one hundred and two feet in the outcropping of a silver mine, a net profit of $4,000,000; while, in the mining district of Catorce, in the space of two years and a half, between 1781 and the end of 1783, an ecclesiastic, named Juan Flores, gained $3,500,000, on ground full of chloride of silver and of colorados!"

One of the most flourishing establishments in 1842, was the Zacatecano-Mejicano Mining Company of Fresnillo. Its 120{84} shares, which originally cost $22,800, were still held by Spaniards and Mexicans. These mines were originally wrought by the state of Zacatecas; but, in 1836, Santa Anna took possession, by an alleged right of conquest, and rented them for twelve years, to the successful company. In the first half year of 1841, they produced $1,025,113, at a cost of $761,800, or a clear profit of $263,313.

Mexico, under the colonial system with the immense product of her mines, and notwithstanding the richness of her soil for agricultural purposes, became almost entirely a silver producing country. The policy of Spain was, as we have already often stated, to be the workshop of the New World, while Mexico and Peru were the treasures of the Old. The consequence of this was natural. Mexico, one of the finest agricultural and grazing lands in the world, but with no temptations to export her natural products, as she had no markets for them elsewhere, and no roads, canals, or rivers to convey her products to seaports for shipment even if she had possessed consumers in Europe, at once devoted herself to her mines which were to be both wealth and the representatives of wealth. Her agriculture, accordingly, assumed the standard of the mere national home consumption, while the pastoral and horticultural interests followed the same line, except perhaps, within late years in California, where a profitable trade was carried on by the missions in hides and tallow. From this restrictive law of exportation we of course except vainilla, cochineal and a few other minor articles.

The sources of the wealth of the principal families of Mexico will consequently be found in her mines, and an interesting summary of this aristocracy is given by Mr. Ward in his "Mexico in 1827," to prove the fact. The family of Regla, which possessed large estates in various parts of the country, purchased the whole of them with the proceeds of the mines of Real del Monte. The wealth of the Fagoagas was derived from the great Bonanza of the Pavellon at Sombrerete. The mines of Balaños founded the Vibancos. Valenciana, Ruhl, Perez-Galvez, and Otero, are all indebted for their possessions to the mines of Valenciana and Villalpando, at Guanajuato. The family of Sardaneta,—formerly Marqueses de Rayas,—took its rise from the mine of that name. Cata and Mellado enriched their original proprietor, Don Francisco Matias de Busto, Marquis of San Clemente. The three successive fortunes of the celebrated Laborde, of whom we shall speak hereafter when we describe Cuernavaca, were derived from the mines of{85} Quebradilla, and San Acasio at Zacatecas, and from the Cañada which bore his name at Tlalpujahua. The beautiful estates of the Obregones, near Leon, were purchased with the revenues of the mines of La Purisima and Concepcion, at Catorce; as was also the estate of Malpasso acquired by the Gordoas from the products of La Luz. The Zambranos,—discoverers of Guarisamey,—owned many of the finest properties in Durango; while Batopillas gave the Bustamantes the opportunity to purchase a title and to enjoy an immense unencumbered income.[19]

Nevertheless, some of the large fortunes of Mexico were made either by trade or the possession of vast agricultural and cattle estates in sections of the country where there were either no mines, or where mining was unprofitable. The Agredas were enriched by commerce, while the descendants of Cortéz who received a royal grant of the valley of Oajaca, together with some Spanish merchants in Jalapa and Vera Cruz, derived the chief part of their fortunes from landed estates, cultivated carefully during the period when the Indians were under better agricultural subjection than at present.

Thus the mines, and the mining districts, by aggregating a large laboring population, in a country in which there were, until recently, but few manufactures, and in which the main body of the people engaged either in trades or in tending cattle, became the centre of some of the most active agricultural districts. "The most fertile portions of the table land are the Baxio, which is immediately contiguous to Guanajuato, and comprises a portion of Valladolid, Guadalajara, Queretaro, and Guanajuato. The valley of Toluca, and the southern part of the state of Valladolid, both supply the capital and the mining districts of Tlalpujahua, El Oro, Temascaltepec and Angangeo;—the plains of Pachuca and Appam, which extend on either side to the foot of the mountains upon which the mines of Real del Monte Chico are situated;—Itzmiquilpan, which owes its existence to Zimapan;—Aguas Calientes, by which the great mining town of Zacatecas is supplied;—a considerable circle in the vicinity of Sombrerete and Fresnillo;—the valley of Jarral and the plains about San Luis Potosi, which town again derives its name from the mines of the Cerro de San Pedro, about four leagues from the gates, the supposed superiority of which to the celebrated mines of Potosi in Peru gave rise to the appellation of Potosi. A little farther north we find the district of Matehuala, now a thriving town with more{86} than seven thousand inhabitants, created by the discovery of Catorce, while about the same time, in the latter part of the last century, Durango rose into importance from the impulse given to the surrounding country by the labors of Zambrano at San Dimas and Guarisamey. Its population increased in twelve years from eight to twenty thousand; while whole streets and squares were added to its extent by the munificence of that fortunate miner. To the extreme north, Santa Eulalia gave rise to the town of Chihuahua; Batopilas and El Parral became each the centre of a little circle of cultivation; Jesus Maria produced a similar effect; Mapimi, Cuencame, and Inde, a little more to the southward, served to develope the natural fertility of the banks of the river Nazas; while in the low hot regions of Sonora and Sinaloa, on the western coast, almost every place designated on the map as a town, was originally and generally is still a Real, or district for mines."[20]

Such is the case with a multitude of other mines which have formed the nucleii of population in Mexico. They created a market. The men who were at work in the vein, required the labor of men on the surface, for their support and maintenance. Nor was it food alone, that these laborers demanded. All kinds of artizans were wanted, and consequently, towns as well as farms grew upon every side. When these mining dependencies are once formed, as Baron Humboldt justly says, they often survive the mines that gave them birth; and turn to agricultural labors for the supply of other districts that industry which was formerly devoted solely to their own region.

Such are some of the internal advantages to be derived from mining in Mexico, especially when the mines are well and scientifically wrought, and when the miners are kept in proper order, well paid, and consequently enabled to purchase the best supplies in the neighboring markets. The mines are, in fact, to Mexico, what the manufacturing districts are to England and the United States; and they must be considered the great support of the national agricultural interests until Mexico becomes a commercial power, and sends abroad other articles besides silver, cochineal and vainilla,—the two last of which may be regarded as her monopolies. The operation of this tempting character of mines or of the money they create as well as circulate, is exhibited very remarkably in the rapidity with which the shores of California have been covered with towns and filled with industrious population.{87}

The tabular statement on the next page manifests the relative production, and improving or decreasing productiveness, of the several silver districts of Mexico, during the comparatively pacific period of ten years antecedent to the war with the United States which commenced in 1846. Whilst that contest lasted the agricultural and mineral interests and industry of the country of course suffered, and, consequently, it would be unfair to calculate the metallic yield of Mexico upon the basis of that epoch or of the years immediately succeeding.

From the table it will be seen—omitting the fractions of dollars and of marks of silver—that the whole tax collected during these ten years from 1835 to 1844, amounted to $1,988,799, imposed on 15,911,194 marks of silver, the value of which was $131,267,354;—the mean yield of tax being $198,889, and of the silver, 1,591,119, in marks, which, estimated at the rate of eight dollars and a quarter, per mark, amounts to $13,126,735 annually.

Comparing the first and second periods of five years, we find a difference in the tax in favor of the latter, of $113,130, on 905,042 marks of silver; showing that in the latter period $7,466,596 more were extracted from the Mexican mines than during the former.

If we adopt the decimal basis of calculation the returns show, approximately, the following results for relative productiveness:

These statements do not include the precious metals produced in Mexico, which were either clandestinely disposed of or used in the manufacture of articles of luxury.[21]

{88}

TABLE exhibiting the places and the amount of Tax collected at each, on every mark of silver, during the ten years from 1835 to 1844, designed to show the relative productiveness of the various silver districts throughout the Mexican Republic.

{89}

MINT OF MEXICO

MINT OF CHIHUAHUA

{90}

MINT OF DURANGO

MINT OF GUADALAJARA

MINT OF GUADALUPE Y CALVO

MINT OF GUANAJUATO

MINT OF SOMBRERETE.

MINT OF SAN LUIS POTOSI

MINT OF TLALPAM.

MINT OF ZACATECAS

TABLE of the Gold and Silver coined in the eight Mints of the Mexican Republic from 1st January, 1844, to 1st January, 1845, according to official reports.

{92}

COINAGE of Mexico from 1535 to 1849, inclusive, omitting the fractions of a dollar.

RESUME.

{93}

CHAPTER VII.

Financial and Productive Condition of Mexico or New Spain before her Revolution, and at the Present Day.

In order to exhibit a connected and comparative view of the financial and commercial condition of Mexico, we have assembled in this section a number of tables which exhibit, at a glance, the state of New Spain in relation to her mines, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and the income and expenses of the viceroyalty in 1809.

1st. Income.

2d. Expenses in the year 1809.

{95}

This was then the clear income of Mexico in the year 1809. The same amount may be considered as the usual yearly revenue from the close of the eighteenth century, and if we deduct a half of this sum as being afterwards expended on this side of the Atlantic, it may be calculated that about four millions of dollars were transmitted to Spain annually.

3d. Mineral Productions.

In order to judge what regions of New Spain were most productive in mineral wealth and their relative productiveness, we will insert the value of the royal dues upon silver, amounting in all to the rate of 10¹/₂ per cent. in 1795, in which year $24,593,481 were coined in gold and silver at the Mexican mint.

All the mines in the Spanish possessions consumed annually 30,000 quintals of quicksilver, which, at the rate of $50, (at which they might be calculated, on an average of years,) amounts to a million and a half.

When fifteen millions were annually coined the king received 6 per ct. upon that sum; and when the amount exceeded 18 millions, scarcely 7. This difference was owing to the rules and system of the mint, in which there were the same expenses in coining from{96} twenty to twenty-four millions that were incurred in coining fifteen millions. In 1809 $26,172,982 were issued, in gold and silver, from the Mexican mint, and this, with the exception of 1804 and 1805, is the largest amount of coinage either under the Viceroyal or Republican government.

4th. Military Force before the Revolution.

5th. Agriculture.

This branch of industry produced a sum equal to the mines; that is to say—from twenty-two to twenty-four millions. The following calculation is founded upon the basis of the diezmos or tithes of the several bishoprics, which may be regarded as the best territorial measure.

6th. Manufactures.

The cotton and woollen factories, of the most important and extensive character, were those of Puebla and of Queretaro. In the latter place, in twenty factories, and 300 small establishments, 46,000 arrobas of wool were consumed, out of which 6,000 pieces of cloth, or, 226,000 varas (yards);—280 pieces of jerguetilla or 39,000 yards (varas);—200 pieces of baize, or, 15,000 varas; 161 pieces of baizes and coarse woollens, or, 18,000 varas; the{97} value of all which manufactures exceeded $600,000. In Queretaro there were moreover consumed 200,000 lbs. of cotton in the manufacture of cotton stuffs and rebosos, or shawls usually worn by the women throughout Mexico. The factories in the Intendency of Puebla, comprehended in that city, Cholula, Tlascala and Guejocingo, produced fabrics, in peaceful times, to the value of a million and a half of dollars. Besides these there were other factories in various parts of the country.

7th. Commerce.

Classification of Exports.

{98}

Classification of Imports.

From a statement published by the Consulado of Vera Cruz it appears that the Importation from Spain in 1802 was as follows:—

From this view of the anti-revolutionary condition of Mexican commerce and financial interests, we pass properly to the examination of the same affairs at the present day. In order to judge this subject fairly, however, we have adopted the commercial standard of the year preceding the war with the United States. During and since that period, the commercial results of the country must naturally have been so greatly disturbed as to afford altogether inadequate tests.{99}

Commerce at the Present Day.

Imports and exports of the Mexican republic for the year ending on the 1st of January, 1845, calculated on the duties collected at the maritime and frontier custom houses.

1st. Imports.

2d. Exports.

Resumé No. 1.

{100}

Comparative Resumé No. 2.

Comparative Resumé No. 3.

Comparative Resumé No. 4.

As the commercial relations of the United States with Mexico, of course concern us most intimately, and are those in which we take the deepest interest, we have formed from official data in the reports of our Secretaries of the Treasury the following table of our mercantile intercourse from 1829 to 1849:

Commerce between Mexico and the United States from 1829 TO 1849.

By this table, covering the commerce between the United States and Mexico for nineteen years, we observe that from having a trade worth, in imports and exports, about nineteen millions and a half, in 1835, it is now reduced, in years undisturbed by war or the results of war, to not more than two millions and a half or three millions. As commerce usually regulates itself, in spite of personal or national prejudices, this fact is doubtless attributable to the lower rates at which European manufacturers and producers are enabled to afford their merchandise in the Mexican market. Nevertheless, we doubt not that the trade might be improved considerably by certain modifications of the tariff, especially upon the article of cotton, which as will be seen in our notices of the manufacturing establishments of Mexico is largely demanded from abroad in consequence of the failure from personal causes to produce an adequate supply within that republic.

The Imports of Mexico consist chiefly of the following articles:

Linens; five-eighths of which are received from Germany, while three-eighths are of Irish, Dutch, French and North American manufacture. The German linens are chiefly obtained from Silesia, and the finest kinds are in great demand.

Cotton goods are imported largely from England, the United States and France.

The importation of the best qualities of SILKS reaches annually about one million of dollars in value, and they are the productions of France and Germany; about three-fourths of the trade, in this article, belonging exclusively to France.

For her Woollen fabrics Mexico relies upon England and France, though Germany participates in the importation of some qualities.

Ornamental Wares, Millinery or articles of personal and fashionable luxury are obtained from France.{102}

Genoa and Bordeaux furnish Paper;—Glassware, window glass and looking glasses are imported from the United States, England and France, but the finer kinds are exceedingly rare and costly, in consequence of the risk of transportation through the country by the present imperfect modes of carriage over bad roads. Iron ware, of all kinds, and iron machinery for manufacturing or mining purposes, are imported from the United States, England, France, Germany and Spain.

Quicksilver, one of the most important articles for the miners, is brought in French and Italian ships from Idria and Almaden. Wine, Brandy and Gin are consumed from France, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Holland; while fine liqueurs are largely imported from France and the Dutch West Indies.

Cacao is imported from several of the Southern American nations;—Oil from France, Gibraltar and Genoa;—and Wax, of which about 700,000 dollars worth is annually consumed, is received from the United States or Cuba. Salted and dried Fish or Flesh is chiefly monopolized by our traders.

The principal Exports from Mexico have always been and still are, Cochineal, and the Precious Metals in bars and coined. Of the latter of these native products it is estimated by reliable authorities that one half is remitted to England and that the balance is divided between the United States and the continental states of Europe. The greater portion of silver is exported from Tampico, which is the nearest vent for the mineral wealth of Guanajuato, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, and the principal mining districts of northern Mexico. Large sums are also sent from Vera Cruz and from Mazatlan on the western coast, as will be seen by reference to our tabular statement of the value of exports. In 1845, before the war with the United States broke out, and when Mexican trade was in its ordinary condition, ten millions nine hundred and thirty-two thousand four hundred and sixteen dollars worth of the precious metals, coined and uncoined, left these several ports through the regular channels. But as we have no means of exactly estimating the contraband exportation, which is very large, we may safely calculate that at least five millions more found their way clandestinely to Europe and the United States. Of the regular and lawful exportation, eight millions seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand two hundred and twenty dollars were coined; two millions one hundred and eighty-three thousand four hundred and fifty, in uncoined gold and silver; and nine thousand seven hundred and forty-five, in wrought silver and gold.{103}

The exportation of Cochineal is estimated to range from seven hundred thousand to one million of dollars worth;—and, when we add to these articles, Dye wood, Vainilla, Sarsaparilla, Jalap, Hides, horns, and a small quantity of Pepper, Indigo, and Coffee, together with an occasional invoice of sugar sent from the west coast to Columbia and Peru, we may consider the list of merchantable Mexican exports as completely ended.

In all the Mexican towns and cities, and in many of the large villages there are weekly markets held at which a considerable trade for the neighborhood is carried on; and, in addition to these, there are nine great Fairs at which immense quantities of foreign manufactures are disposed of. These are held at the following places and times:

1. The Fair at Aguas Calientes—begins on the 20th of November and lasts 10 days.

2. The Fair at Allende in Chihuahua—begins on the 4th of October, and lasts 8 days.

3. The Fair at Chilapa in Mexico—begins on the 2d of January, and lasts 8 days.

4. The Fair at Chilpanzingo—begins on the 21st of December, and lasts 8 days.

5. The Fair at Huejutla—begins on the 24th of December, and lasts 4 days.

6. The Fair at Ciudad Guerrero—begins on the 12th of December, and lasts 6 days.

7. The Fair at Saltillo—begins on the 29th of September, and lasts 8 days.

8. The Fair at San Juan de los Lagos—begins on the 5th of December, and lasts 8 days.

9. The Fair at Tenancingo—begins on the 6th of February, and lasts 10 days.

It will not be considered singular when we recollect the colonial and subsequent revolutionary history of Mexico, that she has not fostered her shipping and become a commercial country. The original emigration to New Spain was not maritime in its character. The Spanish trade was carried on by the mother country in Spanish vessels exclusively, and these ships were not owned by or permitted to become the permanent property of the colonists. The settlers who emigrated retired from the coasts to the interior where their interests either in the soil, cities, or mines, immediately absorbed their attention. It was not to be expected that the Indians,{104} who could scarcely be converted into agriculturists, would engage in the more dangerous life of sailors. The whole industry of the foreign population was thus diverted at once from the sea board, and the consequence was, that notwithstanding the territory of New Spain is bounded on the east and west by the two great oceans of the world, those oceans never became the nurses of a hardy race of mariners whose labors would, in time, have fostered the internal productiveness of their country by creating a commerce. We are not astonished, therefore, to find that the whole marine of Mexico, on the shores of the Gulf, is confined to a petty coasting trade from port to port, and that her sea-going people are rather fishermen than sailors. On the west coast, however, the maritime character of the people has somewhat improved, and a very considerable trade has been carried on by Mexican vessels, in native productions, not only with Central America, Columbia, Peru and Chili, but even with the Sandwich Islands.

The geographical position of Mexico, when considered in connexion with its agricultural riches and metallic wealth, is perhaps the most remarkable in the world. A comparatively narrow strip of land, possessing all the climates of the world, is placed midway between the two great bodies of the northern and southern continents of America, and midway, also, between the continents of Europe and Asia. In its central region it extends only five or six hundred miles from the Atlantic to the Pacific, while, at its southern end, it is swiftly crossed by means of its rivers or by railways, which, it is alleged, may be easily constructed. In the midst of this unrivalled territory, in the lap of the great plateau or table land, and far removed from unhealthy coasts, lies the beautiful city of Mexico, a natural focus of commerce, wealth and civilization. Such a picture of natural advantages cannot but strike us with admiration and hope. If ever there was a capital destined by nature to form the centre of a great nation, if not to grasp at least a large share of the North American, European, South American and Oriental trade, it unquestionably is the city of Mexico. Raised as she is far above the level of the sea and inaccessible by rivers, the development of her destiny may be postponed until genius shall inlay her valleys and ravines with railways, and thus connect her forever with the two coasts. But can we doubt that this mechanical miracle will be performed? It is not for us to say whether it shall be the work of the present generation, or of the present race in Mexico. It seems to be the law of nature that nations, like men, must advance or be trodden under foot. The vast army of{105} industrious mankind is ever marching. Nor can we doubt that unless Mexico learns wisdom from the past, and, abandoning the paltry political strife which has hitherto crushed her industrial energy, follows in the footsteps of modern civilization, her fate will be sure and speedy. The attention of the world is now riveted upon this region as the natural mistress of the Atlantic and Pacific. If Mexico covers the eastern and western slopes of her Cordillera with an intelligent, progressive and peaceful population, invited from abroad to amalgamate with her own races under the operation of permanent laws and wholesome government, the change may be slow and her power may be preserved. But if she will persist in the mad career of folly which has characterized her since her independence, she will not be able to resist the gradual and inevitable encroachments from the north, from Europe, and from the new establishments which are rapidly growing up on the Isthmus of Panama. These new foundations, based on the incalculable wealth of California will be fostered by means hitherto undreamed of in the wildest commerce of the world, and unless Mexico shall avail herself of their salutary monitions they will finally absorb both her people and her nationality.

P. O. HÉBERT,   
Lieut. Col. 14th Infantry"

{107}

CHAPTER VIII.

MEXICAN FINANCES.

THE distracted political condition of Mexico since 1809, has contributed largely to the proverbial impoverishment and financial discredit of a country, which, nevertheless, has during the whole intervening period, been engaged in furnishing an important share of the world's circulating medium. The revolutionary and factious state of parties; the unrestrained ambition of leaders; the violence with which they displaced rivals; their short tenure of office when they attained power and the consequent impossibility of maturing any permanent scheme of finance; the ordinary reliance of statesmen upon a large army, and the immense cost of its support; the continual and habitual recourse to loans at ruinous rates of usury; the comparative ignorance of domestic resources and their failure of development in consequence either of intestine broils or the ignorance and slothfulness of the population, together with the plunder of the treasury by unprincipled demagogues and despots, may all be regarded as the basis of Mexican misrule and pecuniary misfortune. For nearly forty years every minister of finance has been taxed to discover means for daily support. Let us illustrate the system commonly pursued.

On the 20th of September, fifteen days before the treaty of Estansuela, the administration of president Bustamante offered the following terms for a loan of $1,200,000. It proposed to receive the sum of $200,000 in cash, and $1,000,000 represented in the paper or credits of the government. These credits or paper were worth, in the market, nine per cent. About one-half of the loan was taken, and the parties obtained orders on the several maritime custom houses, receivable in payment of duties.

The revenues of the custom house of Matamoros, had been always appropriated to pay the army on the northern frontier of the republic, but during the administration of General Bustamante, the commandant of Matamoros issued bonds or drafts against that custom{108} house for $150,000, receivable for all kinds of duties as cash. He disposed of these bonds to the merchants of that port for $100,000—and, in addition to the bonus of $50,000, allowed them interest on the $100,000, at the rate of three per cent. per month, until they had duties to pay which they could extinguish by the drafts.

Another transaction, of a singular nature, developes the character of the government's negotiations, and can only be accounted for by the receipt of some advantages which the act itself does not disclose to the public.

The mint at Guanajuato, or the right to coin at that place, was contracted for, in 1842, by a most respectable foreign house in Mexico, for $71,000 cash, for the term of fourteen years, at the same time that another offer was before the government, stipulating for the payment of $400,000 for the same period, payable in annual instalments of $25,000 each. The $71,000 in hand, were, however, deemed of more value than the prospective four hundred thousand. This mint yielded a net annual income of $60,000.

These are a few examples presented in illustration of the spendthrift abandonment of the real resources of the country; and the character of the transactions at once discloses the true origin and continuance of national discredit. The demand of the hour was irresistible, and if the minister or the president was unable to comply with it, his political fate was sealed, perhaps forever. The isolated good or evil measures adopted by financiers, have only tended to augment the confusion. Each government, of the thirty or more which have swayed Mexico since her independence, has been forced to contend not only with its own errors but with those of its predecessors; and hence the public has naturally lost faith and hope in politicians as soon as they assumed the helm of state. No matter what the personal character, or what the financial talents of ministers might be, the people believed them to be immediately compromised or paralized by circumstances and political necessity.

We will present the reader a view of Mexican national expenses, according to ministerial estimates during a series of years between the establishment of the federal constitution in 1824 and the war with the United States. This statement, in regard to a country which has been stationary in population and industry, with an augmenting outlay of money, is somewhat remarkable:

{109}

These dates, it will be observed comprehend epochs in which the country has been governed by the federal system as well as those in which extraordinary powers were conferred on national magistrates. In the preceding yearly amounts, it should be recollected, that a few of them comprise occasional sums paid on account of the foreign and domestic debt; but, on an average, thirteen millions of dollars may be considered as the annual outlay.

In consequence of this costly government of so small a nation, a large foreign and domestic debt has been created, in addition to the liabilities of New Spain prior to independence, which are calculated at nearly forty-two millions.

In considering this interesting subject we have taken pains to obtain the best authorities from Mexico, and, from the reports of the ministers of finance, we reach the following results in regard to that republic's financial condition in the year 1850. Her foreign debt amounts to $58,889,487; her home-debt to $48,934,610; and her debt, prior to independence, to $41,983,096, making a total of pecuniary liabilities, with interest, to the 1st of July, 1849, of one hundred and forty-nine millions, eight hundred and seven thousand, one hundred and ninety-three dollars;—the annual interest on which, alone, amounts to nearly nine millions of dollars.

Inasmuch as the clear income of Mexico in 1849, was not calculated at more than five millions five hundred and forty thousand one hundred and twelve dollars, while the expenses were rated at thirteen millions seven hundred and sixty-five thousand four hundred and thirty-five dollars, there would necessarily be an annual deficit, in the mere current finances, of eight millions two hundred and twenty-five thousand three hundred and twenty-three dollars. This sum, added to the actual interest on the national debt, shows the total yearly deficit in Mexico, of seventeen millions two hundred and thirteen thousand seven hundred and fifty-four dollars;—a sum larger than the present yield of all the mints in the republic.

This frightful picture of national finances is now absorbing the attention of the Mexican people and congress; and it is to be hoped that some wise plan may be devised to extricate the nation from{110} ruin and that the government may be sufficiently strong and enduring to carry it into effect.

Analysis of National Debt and Resources, 1850.

1st. The Foreign Debt.

2d. Home Debt.

3d. Debt Before National Independence.

National debt anterior to independence, interest to}
1st July, 1849,                                  }        $41,983,096

Summary.

{111}

Estimate of the Income of Mexico from the 1st July, 1848, to 1st July, 1849, according to the calculation of the Mexican minister of Finance.

Expenses of the Government From 1st July, 1848 To 1st July, 1849.

Summary.

{112} 

CHAPTER IX.

MANUFACTURES.

From this summary it appears that the total number of spindles in operation and in course of erection in the republic in the year 1844,—anterior to the war and during a period of comparative progress,—amounted to 125,362, together with 2609 looms in the fifty-nine factories of cotton stuffs and twist. These factories consumed, weekly, 2038 quintals of cotton, and gave, according to the table, a weekly product of 161,654 lbs. of cotton twist, a portion of which they converted into 6535 pieces of cotton cloth, the remainder being sold for the consumption of private and scattered hand looms throughout the country. An intelligent and experienced manufacturer, acquainted with Mexican factories, and at present residing in this country, calculates with apparent justice, that 2038{113} quintals of cotton, allowing fairly for waste, will yield, 183,420 lbs. of twist and filling, and that the weekly product of cotton cloth will be 8479 pieces of 32 varas each, from 2609 looms, each loom averaging about three and one quarter pieces per week. But allowing this correction of the above table of the Junta de Fomento, and adhering to its data in other respects in which it appears to be entirely faithful, we attain some important results. By comparing the number of spindles actually in Mexico at that epoch, with the number known to be there in 1842, viz: 131,280, and adding to the number now stated 8050 which are in the various factories closed in the interval but whose machinery is still in existence, we show an increase of 2132 according to the most accurate accessible information. Since the war the number has been no doubt largely augmented if we may judge by the numerous shipments of machinery to Mexico from Europe and North America.

In order to show the importance to Mexico of allowing the liberal importation of cotton from the United States, inasmuch as it is not likely she will become a cotton growing country in proportion to the increase of her manufacturing population, we have prepared the following comparative estimates. In our chapters on the agriculture of the republic we have endeavored, and we hope successfully, to demonstrate the impracticability of inducing the Indians to produce sufficient for present purposes, or to devote themselves to the labor of extensive cotton plantations for the benefit of the future.

Working by day alone the Mexican factories consume yearly 105,976 quintals, or 10,597,600 lbs. of raw cotton, whilst the whole cotton crop of the republic according to recent estimates, is not more than 60,000, or, 70,000 quintals, equal to 7,000,000 lbs.; but if they worked by day and night, they would use 18,545,800 lbs. of the raw material, allowing three-fourths of the day consumption for night work. From these calculations we derive the following imtant results, as to deficiency:

{114}

Cotton varies, as we have seen in price according to demand, at Tepic, Mazatlan, Vera Cruz, Tampico, Puebla, Durango, the valley of Mexico, &c., from fifteen dollars, per quintal, to forty-eight. If we rate it, on an average, at twenty-five dollars per quintal, the value of the deficit on day consumption will be $899,400, and on day and night consumption, $2,886,450, all of which must necessarily, be made up by importation.

We have prepared the preceding table in order to attract the attention of cotton producing countries, and to demonstrate the fact that Mexico, in all likelihood, may become a manufacturing nation, inasmuch as the surplus population of towns, the women and children, may be successfully employed in this branch of human industry, when they have no agricultural district from which they may easily derive support with the least labor. There is reason to believe that water power, for the use of factories is abundant all over the republic. The natural drainage of a mountain country will at once prove this fact. Innumerable small streams, falling from the crests and sides of the sierras, pour through the ravines and barrancas; but in consequence of the scarcity of wood and the costliness of its transportation, it is not probable that steam power can be advantageously used. Factories of paper near the capital, at Puebla and in Guadalajara are working with success, but they do not produce enough for the consumption of the republic. At Puebla and Mexico there are several factories of the ordinary kinds of glass and tumblers, whilst woollen blankets, baizes, and, at present, fine cloths, are yielded by several establishments erected before and{115} since the war. The well known Mexican serape, or poncho,—an oblong garment, pierced in the centre to allow the passage of the head, and which falls in graceful folds from the shoulders of a horseman over his person—is one of the most generally demanded fabrics from native looms. These blankets are often of beautiful texture, composed of the richest materials and colors, and, according to the fineness of their wool and weaving, vary in cost from twenty-five to five hundred dollars. The serape is an indispensable article, both for use and luxury, for the lepero as well as the caballero, and being as much needed by men as the reboso, or long cotton shawl, is by the women, it may readily be conceived how great is the consumption of these two articles of domestic manufacture alone. There are between five and six thousand hand looms throughout the several states, and these are continually engaged in the fabrication of rebosos and serapes, the latter of which are most exquisitely dyed and woven in tasteful patterns in the neighborhood of Saltillo.[26]

INDIAN HUT IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE.

{116}

CHAPTER X.

THE ARMY AND NAVY OF MEXICO.

WE have already alluded, in the historical portion of this work to some of the fostering sources of the Mexican army and to the evil results its importance has produced in the country. The colonial forces designed for the maintenance of order and due subjection in New Spain, were chiefly sent from the old world until the wars in Europe required the mother country to hoard its military resources. These foreign stipendiaries for a long time sufficed to secure the loyalty of the emigrants; but as the country grew in importance and numbers, and as the Indians revolted against their task-masters, it became necessary from time to time to call out reinforcements from the colonists; and when foreign invasion was dreaded, these levies, as we have seen, were largely augmented from all parts of the viceroyalty.

The idea of military service was, accordingly, not altogether unfamiliar to the Mexican mind when the first insurrectionary movements occurred under the lead of Hidalgo; but when the violent outbreak threatened to degenerate into a war of castes, and to array the Indians against all in whose veins circulated Castilian blood, it became the duty of the settlers to cultivate that spirit and discipline which would, at least, preserve them from utter destruction. The succeeding war of independence converted the whole country for eleven years into a camp, and when the strife terminated in success, it was found that a people, whose natural temperament addicted them to military spectacles, had become habituated and enured to a military career.

When the war was over and the power of Spain effectually broken, the contest was transferred from a foreign enemy to domestic{117} foes. Men who had been accustomed for so long a period to military rule did not immediately acquire the habit of self-government. National police required a national army. Officers who had distinguished themselves in an epoch when laws were silent and the only authorities recognized wore the insignia of military life, did not forsake willingly the power they enjoyed. Indeed, they were the only authentic personages capable of enforcing obedience; and their adherents were soon armed against each other in all the contentions for political position which vexed the republic during the dawn of its national existence. Civil wars became habitual. An army was an element of strength and success which no military chieftain thought proper to crush. Rallying his disciplined partizans, as long as his friends or his fortune supplied their support, he was ready at a moment to take the field either for the maintenance of a leader's cause or to secure his own elevation. Nor was this mode of life disagreeable to the body of the army and inferior officers who were lodged and fed at the public expense during a period when it was difficult to find easy or agreeable civil employments in the distracted realm. Each petty subaltern and even every common soldier, clad in the livery of the state and carrying arms, was regarded by the unshod leperos and homeless vagrants as a personage of superior position; and thus, whilst the army became at that epoch popular with the people it had liberated from Spanish bondage, it ripened into a necessity of the aspiring politicians who craved a speedier access to power than by the slow and toilsome process of a republican canvass. The state, itself, perceiving these manifold causes of military favor, utility, and supposed need, preserved the army from all assaults by patriotic congressmen, and thus the greatest curse and burthen of the nation,—the origin and means of all its woes and all its despots,—was, from the first, riveted to the body politic of Mexico.

It must not be supposed, however, that in speaking of the Mexican army we design to compare it, either in detail or as an organized body, with the troops of this country or of Europe. Neither in the mass of its materiel, nor in its officers, does it vie with the trained and disciplined forces of other civilized countries. Soldiers in Mexico are rather actors in a political drama,—dressed and decorated for imposing display,—than efficient warriors whose instruction and power make them irresistible in the field. In all the engagements, or attempts to engage, which occurred in Mexico since the termination of the war of independence, there has been a laudable desire, at least among the troops, to avoid the shedding of{118} blood. Cities have been besieged and bombarded; magnificent arrays of forces have been made on adjacent fields; large camps have been formed and held in readiness; cannons, loaded with cannister and grape, have been discharged along the crowded highways of towns; marksmen have been placed in towers, steeples, and azoteas, to pick off unwary passengers; divisions have been reviewed and manœuvred in sight of each other, but, in all these revolts or pronunciamientos, no pitched battles were fought which actually terminated the contest by the gun and sword. The aspirant chief, or the hero he designed to displace, managed to secure the majority of the neighboring military forces, and as soon as the fact was unequivocally ascertained, the one who was in the minority fled from the scene without provoking a trial by battle. In 1840, 1841, and 1844, during the administrations of Bustamante and Santa Anna, there were various exhibitions of these sham contests; but, in all of them, we have reason to believe that the innocent non-combatant people were the greatest sufferers, and that the army escaped comparatively unscathed.

These observations are not designed to impugn the military nerve or spirit of the Mexicans, for the war with the United States and the war of their revolution, demonstrated that they unite both in quite an eminent degree. Our officers believe that the Mexican possesses the elements of a good soldier, but that he is neither trained, disciplined, nor led, so as to make him a dangerous foe. This is demonstrated by the result of the recent war and of every action fought during it. A brave show and a bold assault were not stubbornly followed up with pertinacious resolution, in spite of all resistance. The Mexicans were fighting on their own soil, for their own country, against a hated foe, yet they failed in every conflict, and with every conceivable disparity of numbers.

The great body of the army is of course composed either of Indians or mixed breeds, and the idea of nationality in its high love of a loveable country, does not in all probability, animate or inspire these classes in the hour of danger. They did not fight with a common or an understood purpose. They were rather forced mercenaries than patriots. It was not a war of enthusiasm. Every effort was made by grandiloquent proclamations and false allegations to rally and nerve them; but whenever they crossed arms with our forces, if they failed in the onset, like lions foiled in their spring, they retreated to their lair. Nevertheless, throughout the contest, there were repeated instances of courage, constancy, endurance, and persistence which satisfied our officers that under a different{119} system of education and command, the Mexicans would make excellent soldiers. Their horsemen, probably the best riders on the continent, paid more attention to the management of their animals than to the use of their horse's force in the charge; while their infantry and artillery avoided those close quarters which make the bayonet so powerful a weapon when directed by intrepid, unquailing arms in the presence and under the lead of unflinching company officers. Their lancers did more damage to dismounted victims than to erect and fighting foes.

With the majority of the rank and file, the army is, in all likelihood, not a profession of choice. Enlistment is now scarcely ever voluntary. When men are required for a new regiment or to fill companies thinned by death or desertion, a sergeant is despatched with his guard to recruit among the Indians and peons of the neighborhood. The subaltern probably finds these individuals laboring in the fields, and without even the formality of a request, selects the best men from the group and orders them into the ranks. If they resist or attempt to escape, they are immediately lazo'd, and, at nightfall the gang is marched, bound in pairs, to the nearest barrack, where the wretched victims of military oppression are pursued by a mournful procession of wives and children who henceforth follow their husbands or parents during the whole period of service. From the hands of the recruiting sergeant the conscript passes into those of the drill sergeant. The chief duty of this personage is to teach him to march, countermarch, and to handle an unserviceable weapon. From the drill sergeant he succeeds to the company officer, and here, perhaps, he encounters the worst foe of his ultimate efficiency.

Officers in Mexico have no thorough military and scientific education. There is a military school at Chapultepec, near the capital, but it has never been carefully and completely organized, nor has it furnished many men who have distinguished themselves in the field. The politicians, relying on the dramatic power of the army, made that army the means of reward and influence in civil life, by selecting its officers of all grades from every employment or occupation. Merchants, tradespeople, professional men, children of wealthy or ambitious families, all attained rank in the army by this unwise means, and the consequence has been that the majority of company, and perhaps even of field officers, was rather fitted to display the magnificent uniforms to which their grades entitle them than to discipline the rank and file when organized in battalions, regiments and divisions.{120}

The picturesque and scenic efficiency of such an army will be easily admitted, and the causes of its failure in the late war will be quite as easily understood. What can be more deplorable in battle, even for the victors, than to behold an undisciplined man badly led or driven into conflict? What can be more disastrous for an officer than to stand in the midst of blood and carnage, without knowing what to do in the moment of trial when knowledge and presence of mind are imperatively needed? Can it be surprising, therefore, to observe that the columns of Mexican gazettes and pages of Mexican pamphlets published during the war, are filled with the basest crimination and recrimination or the lamest attempts at exculpation from disgraceful defeat?

A writer in the Monitor Republicano, speaking of the Mexican army, says, you have nothing to do but to read the writings of its generals from the commencement of the campaign, through the different actions and skirmishes in chronological order, and it will be seen that they have mutually called one another traitors, cowards, and imbeciles. He gives the following list of recriminations:—"Arista accused Torrejon, Ampudia and others; Torrejon Ampudia, while Uraga charged Arista; Jarregui accused Carrasco and various chiefs; Carrasco accused Jarregui and other generals; Mejia brought charges against Ampudia; Ampudia against him and several leaders, as Carrasco, Enciso and others, principal officers of the army. Urrea and others charged Parrodi with cowardice and treason; Parrodi accused Urrea and Romero, and Romero accused the famous Miramon of Mazatlan, the speculator in the goods taken by the troops of Urrea from those of Gen. Taylor.

Requena accused Santa Anna; Santa Anna in his turn, Requena; Torrejon and Juvera recriminate Requena; Requena, in his turn, Torrejon, Juvera and Portilla. Santa Anna accused Miñon; Miñon accused Santa Anna and his confederates. Santa Anna brought charges against Valencia, in Ciudad Victoria; Valencia in his turn, accused Santa Anna. Viscayno accused Heredia and Garcia Conde; these in turn, Viscayno. Santa Anna recriminates against Canalizo, Uraga and others at Cerro Gordo; Canalizo, Uraga, Gaona and others against Santa Anna. Santa Anna again accuses Valencia in Padierna; Valencia accuses Santa Anna, Salas and others, and Salas accuses Valencia, Torrejon and others. Santa Anna, in the first actions in the valley, accuses everybody; he accuses Rincon, Anaya, and the National Guard at Churubusco; in the other actions of September, Terrés, Bravo and others. Bravo, Terrés and others in turn, recriminate Santa Anna, Perdigon and{121} Simeon Ramirez. Perdigon accuses Simeon Ramirez and Terrés himself. Alvarez accuses Don Manuel Andrade, and Andrade in turn accuses him. Alcorta accuses the Andrade of the hussars, while he accuses Alcorta;—and in fine, we have before us the letters and despatches of the whole of them—we have before us their actions and skirmishes, from the battle of San Jacinto up to the ignominious capture of Gaona and Torrejon by the Poblano robber, Dominguez."

We have quoted these passages, to prove, by Mexican authority, that our remarks upon the army are not made in a captious spirit or with a desire to undervalue its officers ungenerously.

Bad as had been the organization and conduct of the army, they were not, of course, improved by the results of the war. The morale and the materiel were both destroyed, so that when our troops withdrew during the summer of 1848, little more than a skeleton of the regiments remained to preserve order. This was, indeed, one of the greatest sources of dread to orderly Mexicans, for they feared that when all foreign restraint was suddenly removed, the country would be given up to anarchy. Without men and without means, the government justly apprehended the uprising of the mob, nor were there demagogues wanting to excite the evil passions of the masses by an outcry against the treaty. At the head of this disgraceful movement was General Paredes, who had returned from exile, but had not been trusted by the government during the conflict. The payment of the first instalment of the sum agreed upon in the treaty, however, enabled the authorities to maintain tranquillity, and as soon as comparative order was enforced by a new administration, the army was reorganized under a law passed on the 4th of November, 1848. By this act, the military establishment was greatly reduced, even on paper, and, in 1849, not more than five thousand two hundred, rank and file, were in actual service.

If there were, in reality, no need of an army in Mexico to oppose a foreign enemy, or, to preserve domestic peace, one would still be required to secure the Northern Frontier against the incursions of Indians. From the earliest periods, the Spaniards were vexed by their savage assaults, and, since the establishment of independence, the Mexicans have every year seen their people and property carried off by the robber tribes, whilst their villages, ranchos and haciendas were totally destroyed or partially ravaged.

Mexican engineers have calculated that the new boundary line, following the course of the Rio Grande and the Gila and including{122} a mathematical line of seventy leagues between these streams, is six hundred and forty-six leagues or about nineteen hundred miles in length. Three-fourths of this line pass through an uninhabited region, and, consequently, the savages have free access across it to the few and small settlements on the border. Such an extent of frontier, though considerably reduced from the former line anterior to the treaty, became at once an object of concern to the government, especially as the people of the United States immediately opened communications through the Indian country with the Pacific, and would probably soon control the important passes through the whole region north of the boundary. Accordingly on the 20th of July, 1848, it was decreed that eighteen Military Colonies should be created, and placed within easy communication, so as to protect the southern settlers in some degree, or to encounter and punish the savages in their forays. The greater portions of the most warlike tribes were transferred by the treaty to the United States, and, by one of its articles, we bound ourselves to aid, at least, in saving the Mexicans from their plunder if we could not totally destroy their inimical power. In the neighborhood of the boundary, from near the mouth of the Gila to the commencement of the mathematical line, before alluded to, we find the tribes known as Coyotes, Mimbreños and Gileños, the former of whom wage war against Sonora, whilst the latter attack Chihuahua. The Apaches and Cumanches spread their numerous hordes from the vicinity of Chihuahua to the sources of the Nueces, twenty-five leagues beyond the Rio Grande. Besides these, there are, throughout this district many savage bands, supporting themselves entirely by the chase, and it is probable, according to the opinion of soldiers and captives, who have been among the tribes, that all these clans can unite thirty thousand warriors, whilst they still leave a sufficient number to protect their wigwams and villages.

Fortunately for the white races, these barbarians are not able to maintain peace among themselves. The Apaches and Cumanches are in continual strife, and never return from the "war path" without serious losses. It is not to be feared, therefore, that they will voluntarily join in a general rising against our pioneers; yet a common danger, or a common attack, might soon cement their hatred against the supposed usurper, and, directed by a man of capacity, produce even a more disastrous war than that with the Seminoles of Florida.

The Cumanches are numerous and active. They are divided{123} into Caihuas, Yamparicas, and Llaneros. The Apaches are braver than the Cumanches, and are known as Meselaros and Lipanes. These barbarians arm themselves with guns, rifles, lances, bows and arrows. They manage their weapons admirably, are agile horsemen, and shoot with unerring aim. Tall and majestic in figure; muscular and capable of enduring fatigue; accustomed to live on the simplest food of the forest and to win it when necessary by the arrow alone; uniting the sagacity of men with the instinct of animals, these knights of the southern wilderness realize perfectly our ideas of the daring aborigines who peopled this continent before it was subdued by the white man. Their hatred of the Mexicans and the savage fury with which they pursue their male captives of adult age, appear to denote even a stronger, if not a worthier motive than robbery in their attacks. At least six hundred women and children are borne off by them every year from the settlements to their mountain fastnesses, and they openly confess that they are not unwilling to improve their race by mingling it with the white.

In order to maintain the southern frontier intact from these savages, Mexico designs the establishment of these military colonies, and will, in all probability, support them by a second or rear line of troops from the regular army as well as by forts and strongholds erected in positions affording easy access from the wilderness to inhabited regions. A frontier so open, and thronged with such barbarous hordes, could not be protected by military colonies alone.

The principal Fortresses and strongholds of Mexico have hitherto been those of Perote, Acapulco, Ulua, and the citadels at Mexico and Monterey. The present government has ordered the citadel of Mexico, situated a short distance out of the town to be abandoned, as it only formed a nucleus for the assemblage of the military factionists who have constantly disturbed the peace of the republic. The citadel of Monterey is to be maintained and suitably supported.

The castle at Acapulco, an extremely important point on the southern or Pacific coast, is greatly impaired, and will require at least a hundred thousand dollars to adapt it for defence. The fortress of Perote was designed originally by the Spanish government as a depot for the treasure intended for shipment from Vera Cruz, in which the gold and silver would be safer than at an exposed sea port during that dangerous period of Castilian history, when all the nations of Europe were anxious to plunder her colonies.{124} Situated far in the interior of the country and in the midst of a wide plain, it does not absolutely command any of the approaches either from the coast to the inner states, or to the coast from the capital. It is, however, well placed as a military arsenal, and demands an expenditure of about thirty thousand dollars to render it useful to the nation.

The Castle of San Juan de Ulua, built on a reef opposite the town of Vera Cruz, is in so ruinous a state that scarcely a million and a half of dollars will suffice to restore it to its ancient splendor and power. The one hundred and twenty-four guns now within its walls are all more or less injured or dismounted. "To garrison this Castle properly," said General Arista in his report as Minister of War in 1849, "two thousand men will be required at a yearly cost of four hundred thousand dollars. If this immense treasure is squandered on the Castle, it will surely be wasted alone to preserve a vain luxury; for, as Mexico has no hope of becoming a maritime power, San Juan de Ulua must always fall into the possession of such a naval nation whenever it makes war upon us. Experienced Spanish officers have recommended the dismantling of San Juan, and they now urge it more strongly than ever, as there is far greater reason to believe that it neither defends the nation nor even the city of Vera Cruz. The French, and recently the Americans, have convinced us of this fact; the first possessed themselves early of the Castle, and the latter took the town without hindrance from the Castle." Such is the opinion of one of the most experienced Mexican generals in regard to a fortress which has hitherto been deemed impregnable, and, although we do not agree with him in regard to its entire worthlessness in the hands of abler engineers, we doubt whether its use is not greater in checking the city of Vera Cruz itself, than in commanding the approaches to it from the sea. It must be remembered that the lee of this very Castle is the only comparatively safe harbor on the gulf at present, and that until a mole or breakwater shall be erected elsewhere, it is only in certain seasons and under favorable circumstances that large bodies of troops may be prudently disembarked on the adjacent shores. The landing of General Scott, in 1847, was singularly fortunate in time and circumstances, for, soon after, a furious norther arose and prevented all communication between the land and the squadron. These violent gales are sudden and terrific in their rise and action at Vera Cruz, and the dreadful havoc they made among the American shipping on the coast during the war, attests the value of a military defence whose protective duties are seconded by the very{125} spirit of the storm. The introduction of steam power into the national marine must of course greatly modify the character of coast defences; but we would deem it not only unwise but imbecile to abandon altogether a work which at least makes, if it does not perfectly protect, an important harbor. The city of Vera Cruz, itself, is a regular fortification, and with some important improvements and repairs, may not ultimately require San Juan de Ulua to defend it from assault. These two strongholds, combined, under the command of skilful generals and garrisoned with efficient soldiers, would offer a churlish welcome to any modern power either maritime or military. Their seizure, during the winter months of tempest, would be almost impossible, and their occupation, during the summer would be as fatal, as was unfortunately proved by our troops in the June, July, and August, after the brilliant siege and inglorious surrender.

The following tabular sketch prepared from Ministerial reports, exhibits the condition of the Mexican forces at this epoch.

{127}

Total number of projectiles, 52,019.

The field artillery consists of 16 batteries.

Navy.

The coast of the republic, now greatly reduced by the treaty of Guadalupe, extends on the Gulf of Mexico, from the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo del Norte, to the port of Bacalar on the east of the peninsula of Yucatan, and comprehends in this distance, about five hundred and eighty-four leagues. The Pacific coast begins one league from San Diego in Lower California, and terminates at the Barra de Ocos in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, a distance of one thousand five hundred and twenty leagues, including the coasts of the Gulf of California, or sea of Cortéz. Consequently the coasts of the republic extend, in all, two thousand one hundred and four leagues, demonstrating the admirable situation of this country for commerce with all the world. The ports which are open for foreign trade in the Mexican Gulf, are Matamoros, Tampico, Vera Cruz Campeché, Sisal, and the island of Carmen; while, on the Pacific, there are the ports of Guayamas, Mazatlan, San Blas, Manzanillo, and Acapulco, the latter of these being the best in the possession of Mexico, on the great western ocean. Its harbor is excellent; its distance from the capital is comparatively short; its population is larger than that of other towns on the coast, and in consequence of the difficulty of landing elsewhere than in the actual port, the government is effectually secured against illicit trade. It is a site{128} which should unquestionably be protected and fostered, not only on account of the advantages we have mentioned, but because it will become a source of riches to the new state of Guerrero, whose government will contribute to cement the peace and tend to establish the permanent dominion of good order in that quarter.

The navy of all countries originates in their commerce, but Mexico, although situated as we have shown most advantageously for trade, has hitherto possessed but few merchantmen and a small marine. The vessels of war owned by the republic, previous to the conflict with the United States, were either sold, or disarmed, dismantled and laid up, when the nation was menaced with an attack. It was evident to the Mexican cabinet, that the navy could not cope with ours, and in order to prevent its total loss, the few vessels were voluntarily withdrawn from the sea. The officers, however, were generally employed in land duties during the contest, and most of them remained in service until the summer of 1848, when the most efficient were permanently confirmed in their employments, whilst the rest were allowed to retire on unlimited leave.

In considering the actual condition of the national trade and treasury, the government did not believe, on the re-establishment of peace, that it would be justified in creating at once an extensive naval establishment, nevertheless it was convinced that the security of the coasts, the protection of its own small trade, and the interest of its maritime custom houses, rendered the creation of a flotilla indispensable. With this view the minister of war and marine recommended in 1849 the naval establishment which is shown in the following table.

Naval Establishment of Mexico, 1849.

The actual naval force consists at present of 1 schooner only; but the secretary of war recommended, in addition, the construction of:

{129}

{130}

CHAPTER XI.

THE MEXICAN CHURCH.

THE relations existing between the Mexican church and the Papal throne were interrupted by the revolution. Spain and her monarchs had ever been distinguished and faithful defenders of the Catholic church, and had maintained its power carefully throughout all their American possessions. The pope therefore regarded the revolution not only as unfavorable to the interest of his allies, but as calculated in all probability to introduce ecclesiastical as well as political liberty into regions of which his ministers possessed the entire dominion. Hence the famous encyclical letter of his Holiness of the 24th of September, 1824, directed to the Heads of the American church, in which he anathematizes the doctrines and principles upon which the revolution was founded. But, yielding in the end to circumstances, and probably reassured by the article in the first constitution of Mexico—not yet promulgated when his letter saw the light—by which the Catholic faith was permanently confirmed as the national religion, to the exclusion of all others, he received the rebellious nation once more into his flock, as soon as the Mexican government sought readmission. This reconciliation was negotiated upon the same terms that existed during the Spanish dominion.

Even from the epoch of Iturbide's rule this delicate subject had engaged the attention of the rulers, and in 1825 an envoy was sent{131} to Rome. The ecclesiastical Junto which met in Mexico, had striven to reinvest the Metropolitan with the ancient right of instituting suffragan bishops; but the canonical right has continued in the Pope, on the presentation of the government. Nevertheless, efforts have been made to extend, substantially the metropolitan powers of the Archbishop of Mexico, of whom it was probably desired to make the true head of the national church, dependent however upon the Roman Pontiff.

There were in Mexico, according to the best accessible official dates, in 1826

Since the epoch of independence the orders of Juaninos, Belemites, and San Lazaro, have been extinguished.{132}

In 1844, when the last accurate summary of the Mexican church, within our reach, was made, the following was the condition:

Summary of Mexican Church in 1844.

In this year the possessions in conventual establishments of the Regular Orders, was estimated as follows:

The actual property of this establishment has been variously estimated since the earliest period in which Mexican institutions have been described by European writers. The church in Mexico is known to be immensely rich, and that its real and personal property has been carefully managed by the large body of intelligent men who control its affairs. They prudently make no public or statistical expositions of their interests.

In 1807, Abad y Quiepo, in a communication to Don Manuel Sexto Espinosa, estimated the wealth of the church as follows:

In 1831, Don José Maria Mora, a Mexican writer, estimated the property of the church at a valuation of at least $75,000,000.[27]

{133}

In 1844,—and we may consider it nearly the same in 1850,—the church property was calculated as follows:

The real estate of the church is estimated by Señor Otero,—from whose work on the social and political condition of Mexico, this calculation is taken,—to have been worth at least 25 per cent. more before the revolution; and, to this increased value must be added about $115,000,000 of capital founded on contribuciones, derechos reales, and other imposts which were laid on the property of the country for the benefit of the clergy.[28]

It is not to be supposed that the 2,000 nuns are of ecclesiastical importance except for charitable and educational purposes;—if we deduct their number, therefore, from the 1,700 monks and 3,500 secular clergy, we shall have only 3,200 men devoted to the spiritual wants of more than seven and a half millions or, 2,383 individuals assigned to the ecclesiastical charge of each priest, monk or curate. And yet, among these men, chiefly, the avails of probably more than $90,000,000 of property are to be annually distributed or consolidated in a country from which they are constantly asking alms instead of bestowing them.

The value of their churches, the extent of their city property, the power they possess as lenders and mortgagees in Mexico, where there are no banks, and the enormous masses of church plate, golden ornaments and jewels, will swell the above statements and estimates of the church's wealth to nearer one hundred millions than ninety, or to about $88,000,000 less than it was before the rebellion against Spain; at which period the number of ecclesiastics was about 10,000; or 13,000, if the lay brethren and subordinates are included in the ecclesiastical census.[29]

{134}

The higher clergy of Mexico which was once the depository of science and general learning, is now only distinguished for its elegant manners and aristocratic tendencies. Notwithstanding some members of the church, in orders and belonging to this class, were engaged in the revolutionary struggle, and essentially aided in making it effective, the spirit of the remainder, as a body, was in reality, antagonistic to the movement. The course of the lower clergy, however, was different. The members of this grade threw themselves early into the rebellion, and sustained it heroically in its most dangerous epochs, until it triumphed in independence.

Although there is in Mexico great religious devotion to the church, regular observance of its feasts, fasts and ceremonies, and obedience to its commands, there prevails, nevertheless, considerable indifference towards its ministers, who, in too many cases have justly forfeited popular respect. The curas have united themselves effectually with the interests and affections of the people in the rural districts where they pass the ordinary, regular life of country folks remote from the dissipating influence of cities. They are amiable men, prudent counsellors of all classes, and the hospitable hosts of every stranger who visits their parishes. But, in many of the towns and cities large numbers of the clergy, both secular and regular, have forfeited the personal esteem of the high and low by their open participation in common social vices. "These vices have augmented in proportion as the bonds of discipline have been loosened by the distracted condition of the country. Gambling and dissipation are rooted in the clergy as well as in other classes of society; but we may specially declare that the convents of friars, with few exceptions, are in Mexico, sewers of corruption."[30] This frail condition of ecclesiastical discipline was satisfactorily proved by the state in which the Catholic church of the United States found the parishes of Texas at the period of annexation; and, it is likely, that many more flagrant instances of laxity will be unveiled in New Mexico and California, to whose distant regions our enlightened and pure Catholic clergymen are already directing their attention with honest and pious zeal.

The Spanish government cherished the church, for state as well as religious reasons. The mayorazos or rights of primogeniture, which bestowed the great bulk of patrimonial estates upon the eldest son, necessarily forced the younger offspring of distinguished houses either into the army or into the church; and, hence the splendid eleemosynary establishments which were erected and endowed{135} all over Mexico, as much for the comfort of these drones of the social hive, as for the worship and glory of God. Most of the lucrative benefices came in this manner into the hands of the Spaniards and their descendants; and by far the greater portion of the higher ecclesiastics were, either influentially allied, or were persons of elevated social rank. Thus it is that even at the present day so many men of distinguished manners and monarchical tendencies, are found among the "high clergy" of Mexico; for the epoch of the revolution is not so distant that the old ecclesiastical stock has entirely departed from earth.

But since the laws of primogeniture have been abolished,—and, with them, the ecclesiastical privilege of enforcing the payment of tithes to the clergy,—the church has been no longer regarded by the best classes as a favorite resort or refuge for their children. The revolution, as we have said, disorganized the establishment and infused inferior men into the sacred ranks. The material of the several brotherhoods degenerated in quality if not in quantity. The irregularities of the friars became proverbial throughout the republic, and respectable families regarded it as a calamity, or, even sometimes, as a degradation, to hear their members pronounce a monastic vow. Thus, whilst the church became unpopular among the upper classes as a means of subsistence,—its numbers were gradually filled and maintained from the humbler ranks, whose ignorance and disorderly habits tend more and more to widen the difference between the secular and the regular clergy of the republic. It is needless to dwell on the baleful influence which such debased and pretended ministers of religion, must exercise among the common classes of a society over which their ecclesiastical authority and the sanctity of their profession gives them control in such a country as Mexico.

We deem it proper to sustain the allegations made especially against a large number of the Mexican clergy by citations from American, English and Spanish authors upon the country, in addition to the quotation already given from Rivero's "Mexico in 1842."

Mr. Norman, in his Rambles in Yucatan, whilst graphically describing certain festivals, and among them those of Christmas and the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, says:—"The people testify their respect for those festal days,—for so they are denominated,—by processions and such amusements as are suited. Notwithstanding the acknowledged debasing effects of their sports and{136} pastimes, which consist wholly of bull baiting, cock fighting and gambling, they are not disgraced by either riotousness or drunkenness. * * * The priests give countenance to these recreations, if they may be so called, both by their presence and participation.[31] * * * The men, women, and children, as soon as they had concluded their ceremonies, started, in a body, with revolting precipitation, to the gaming tables, which had been set forth in the ruins of an old convent adjoining the sanctuary where the procession had just been dissolved. Here we found all classes of society, male and female. The highest ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries were there, hob and nob with the most common of the multitude."[32] * * * Such is the testimony of Mr. Norman as to some of the disgraceful habits of the clergy in Yucatan. Mr. Stephens in his travels in the same Mexican state, remarks that "except at Merda and Campeché, where they are more immediately under the eyes of the bishop, the padres, throughout Yucatan, to relieve the tedium of convent life, have compagneras, or, as they are sometimes called, hermanas politicas, or, sisters in law. * * * * *

"Some look on this arrangement as a little irregular, but, in general, it is regarded only as an amiable weakness, and I am safe in saying that it is considered a recommendation to a village padre, as it is supposed to give him settled habits, as marriage does with laymen; and, to give my own honest opinion, which I did not intend to do, it is less injurious to good morals than the by no means uncommon consequences of celibacy which are found in some other Catholic countries. The padre in Yucatan stands in the position of a married man, and performs all the duties pertaining to the head of a family. Persons of what is considered a respectable standing in a village, do not shun left hand marriages with a padre. Still it was to us always a matter of regret to meet with individuals of worth, and whom we could not help esteeming, standing in what could not but be considered a false position. To return to the case with which I set out;—the padre in question was universally spoken of as a man of good conduct, a sort of pattern padre for correct, steady habits; sedate, grave and middle aged, and apparently the last man to have an eye for such a pretty compagnera."[33]

As the United States is now interested in the history of California, it may not be uninteresting or unprofitable, in illustrating this{137} subject, to exhibit the mode of ecclesiastical operations in regard to proselytes in that region, at a recent period.

"At a particular time of the year," we are told by Captain Beechey and Mr. Forbes, "when the Indians can be spared from the agricultural concerns of the establishment, many of them are permitted to take the launch of the mission and make excursions to the Indian territory. On these occasions the padres desire them to induce as many of their unconverted brethren as possible to accompany them back to the mission, of course implying that this is to be done only by persuasion; but the boat being furnished with a cannon and musketry, and in every respect equipped for war, it too often happens that the neophytes and the gente de razon, who superintend the direction of the boat, avail themselves of their superiority, with the desire of ingratiating themselves with their masters and of receiving a reward. There are, besides, repeated acts of aggression which it is necessary to punish, but all of which furnish proselytes. Women and children are generally the first objects of capture, as their husbands and parents sometimes voluntarily follow them into captivity.

"One of these proselyting expeditions into their Indian territory occurred during the period of Captain Beechey's visit in 1826, which ended in a battle, with the loss, in the first instance, of thirty-four of the converted, and eventually in the gain, by a second expedition sent to avenge the losses of the first, of forty women and children of the invaded tribes. These were immediately enrolled in the list of the mission, and were nearly as immediately converted into Christians. The process by which this was effected is so graphically described by Captain Beechey that it would be doing him injustice to use any words but his own.

"I happened, he says, to visit the mission about this time and saw these unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed in blankets, and arranged in a row before a blind Indian, who understood their dialect, and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them the names of the persons composing the Trinity, and that they were to repeat in Spanish what he dictated. The neophytes being thus arranged, the speaker began: "Santissama Trinidad,—Dios, Jesu Christo, Espiritu Santo"—pausing between each name, to listen if the simple Indians, who had never spoken a Spanish word before, pronounced it correctly or any thing near the mark. After they had repeated these names satisfactorily, their blind tutor, after a pause, added "Santos"—{138}and recapitulated the names of a great many saints, which finished the morning's tuition.

"After a few days, no doubt these promising pupils were christened, and admitted to all the benefits and privileges of Christians and gente de razon. Indeed, I believe that the act of making the cross and kneeling at proper times, and other such like mechanical rites, constitute no small part of the religion of these poor people. The rapidity of the conversion is, however, frequently stimulated by practices much in accordance with the primary kidnapping of the subjects. If, as not unfrequently happens, any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to conversion, it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then allow them to breathe a little fresh air in a walk round the mission, to observe the happy mode of life of their converted countrymen; after which they are again shut up, and thus continue incarcerated until they declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their forefathers.' As might be believed, the ceremonial exercises of the Roman Catholic religion, occupy a considerable share of the time of these people. Mass is performed twice daily, besides high-days and holydays, when the ceremonies are much grander and of longer duration; and at all the performances every Indian is obliged to attend under the penalty of a whipping; and the same method of enforcing proper discipline as in kneeling at proper times, keeping silence, &c., is not excluded from the church service itself. In the aisles and passages of the church, zealous beadles of the converted race are stationed, armed with sundry weapons of potent influence in effecting silence and attention, and which are not sparingly used on the refractory or inattentive. These consist of sticks and whips, long goads, &c., and they are not idle in the hands of the officials that sway them. * * *

"The unmarried of both sexes, as well adults as children, are carefully locked up at night in separate houses, the keys being left in the keeping of the Fathers; and when any breach of this rule is detected, the culprits of both sexes are severely punished by whipping,—the men in public, the women privately.

"It is obvious from all this, that these poor people are in fact slaves under another name; and it is no wonder that La Perouse found the resemblance painfully striking between their condition and that of the negro slaves of the West Indies. Sometimes, although rarely, they attempt to break their bonds and escape into their original haunts. But this is of rare occurrence, as, independently of the difficulty of escaping, they are so simple as to believe{139} that they have hardly the power to do so after being baptised, regarding the ceremony of baptism as a sort of spell which could not be broken. Occasionally, however, they overcome all imaginary and real obstacles and effect their escape. In such cases, the runaway is immediately pursued, and as it is always known to which tribe he belongs, and as, owing to the enmity subsisting among the tribes, he will not be received by another, he is almost always found and surrendered to the pursuers by his pusillanimous countrymen. When brought back to the mission he is always first flogged and then has an iron clog attached to his legs, which has the effect of preventing his running away and marking him out, in terrorem, to others."[34]

Additional testimony in regard to the evil practices of the Mexican padres may be found in the delightful volumes of Madame Calderon de la Barca, entitled "Life in Mexico," and published in 1842. "Alas!"—exclaims this sprightly lady,—speaking of the wholesome reforms introduced by the viceroy Revilla-Gigedo among the Mexican monks,—"alas! could his excellency have lived to these our degenerate days, and beheld certain monks, of a certain order, drinking pulque and otherwise disporting themselves;—nay, seen one, as we but just now did from our window, strolling along the street by lamp-light, with an Indian girl tucked under his arm!"

The author of this slight but significant passage—an American lady of the highest character and wife of the first minister sent by Spain to Mexico,—cannot be flippantly contradicted by critics who would impute to her either prejudice or ignorance.

Zavala, in his History of the Revolutions of Mexico from 1808 to 1830, sketches briefly and forcibly some of the earlier features of ecclesiastical control in his country. As he was a native and a Catholic, he will not be accused of injustice to a church which he endeavored to fasten on the nation by his adherence to the constitution which made the Catholic faith the exclusive religion of the land. "They created missionaries," says he, "who, by the aid of the soldiery, made prodigious proselytes. * * * * * * * They prepared catechisms and small formularies in the language of the natives, not for the perusal of the Indians, who could not read, but in order to repeat them in their pulpits and teach them by rote. There was not a single translation of the sacred volume in any idiom of the country, and there was not an elementary work containing the principles of their faith. But how could such works{140} exist for the Indians when their conquerors were unable to read them? What I desire to prove by this is that religion was neither taught the natives nor were they persuaded of its divine origin by proof and argument; the whole foundation of their faith was the word of their missionaries, and the reason of their belief was the bayonet of their conquerors. * * * * * The dependence of the people was a sort of slavery, a necessary consequence of the ignorance in which they were brought up, of the terror with which the troops and authorities inspired them, of their despotism and pride, and more than all, of an inquisition sustained both by the military and by the religious superstitions of monks and clergymen whose fanaticism was equal to their ignorance. * * * * * The catechism of Padre Ripalda, which contains the maxims of a blind obedience to the king and pope was the ground work of their religion; and their priests, parents and masters inculcated these doctrines incessantly."[35]

Don Vincente Pazos, in his celebrated Letters on the United Provinces of South America, does not even stop at the clergy, in charging a large share of the miseries of his countrymen upon the ecclesiastical establishment, but confounds the creed with its unworthy ministers, and strikes even at the religion itself:

"Among the evils suffered by the Indians which have been a source of unhappiness to them, as well as to all South America, is the Roman Catholic religion, which was introduced among them by the Spaniards. This religion, in countries where it predominates or is connected with the government, is widely different from the same religion as it appears in the United States of North America. Instead of being employed as all religions ought to be, in directing the morals, purifying the hearts and restraining the vices of the people,—it is so prostituted in Spanish countries, that it has become nothing but a mass of superstitious ceremonies, and the instrument of avarice and oppression."

The error of the patriotic writer is so evident that it does not need exposure. The faith and the friar are different things. Yet how deep must be the corruption of a class whose vices force an intelligent man, born and educated in the bosom of the church, to denounce his religion for the sake of its worthless teachers.

We have dwelt upon this subject because the religion—and especially the protected state religion of a country—is always of deep interest when we estimate the resources and character of a nation. Priests of all creeds obtain a sacred character in the opinion{141} of the multitude the moment their vow is pronounced at the altar. The world believes that they part with human nature in assuming the gown, and become in reality, the divines they are called in the fashionable nomenclature of the age.

The priest, whether Protestant, Catholic, Mahomedan or Chinese, is ever an important, and often an omnipotent, member of the social world. And it behooves society in the nineteenth century to cherish Christianity instead of Flamens and Soothsayers.

It has been our principle through life to cultivate a genial feeling of toleration towards all the various sects into which the great Christian church is divided. We have resisted bigotry in all its shapes, and in all its manifestations, from whatever source. Trusting in the essential faith and discarding the external form, we have regarded all men who knelt at the altar which was cemented with the blood of the Nazarine, as a great brotherhood devoted to the religious regeneration and consequent civilization of the world. In writing, therefore, of the Catholic church in Mexico we have been pained to speak disparagingly of a part of the priesthood, whose members, in our own country, we had early in life learned to reverence for their virtuous piety, and admire for their profound learning. We know that the great theoretical dogma of that powerful church is its unity, and that its tenets, principles and practices are universally the same throughout the world. For opinions given and examples cited, in another work, we have been severely rebuked, by one of the most learned theologians in the Roman church, who argues our wilful error, upon this assumption of theoretical identity. But we have the satisfaction to know, not only from Mexicans themselves, but from American Catholics who visited the country since that criticism was issued, that our descriptions, in no instance, surpassed the reality, and that if the tenets, be in fact, the same as those entertained by the church at Rome and in the United States, the principles, and, especially, the practices of many of its ministers, vary extraordinarily from the principles and practices of its ministers here. In another portion of this work we may, probably, notice some of those practices more fully.[36]

The facts we have been obliged to state in regard to some of the materiel of the present Mexican ecclesiastical establishment do not touch the dogmas of the Catholic church though they certainly indicate so great a degree of laxity in the administration of a powerful{142} moral, civil and religious engine endowed with immense resources, that they should attract the reforming notice of those pure branches of the Roman fraternity whose proximity will best afford them the occasion to counsel their brethren in an age of progress and competition not only in trade but in religion. Texas has already improved under the auspices of a new ecclesiastical administration since her union with the North American states and her religious alliance with their Roman Catholic Archbishopric. Nor is the importance of these ameliorations less demanded at the hands of republican ecclesiastics when we recollect that the federal constitution adopted in 1847, now the fundamental law of the land, declares in its first title, that the "religion of the Mexican nation is, and will be perpetually, the Catholic, apostolic, Roman. The nation protects it by wise and just laws, and prohibits the exercise of any other!" Men, in Mexico, must not only not pray as they please, but, constitutionally, they must not believe as they please. A priesthood which is thus indissolubly and exclusively welded to the state in a republic, should be, indeed, peculiarly sacred and pure. Sole, despotic ecclesiastical power, based upon numerical strength,—intolerant of all other modes of worship or modifications of Christianity,—is an anomaly in the nineteenth century, nor is it likely that the civil liberty of a nation can ever become secure or worthy, until religious liberty is, at least, permitted if not enjoined by its paramount law. These two elements of human right and progress have ever moved hand in hand. It is a mockery to separate them and tell the people they are free. The indefeisible rights of reason and judgment are sapped and stifled. When conscience, even, must struggle with legal shackles in its intercourse with God, what must be the conflict of the soul in its intercourse with man!

but we have confined our observations in this work, exclusively to those painful exhibitions which cannot fail to strike a stranger as disadvantageous both to intellectual progress and the pure and spiritual adoration of God. The mixture of antique barbaric show and Indian rites, may have served to attract the native population at the first settlement of the country; but their continuance is in keeping neither with the spirit of the age nor the necessities of a republic. While the priesthood has contrived, in the course of centuries, to attract the wealth of multitudes, and to make itself, in various ways, the richest proprietor of the nation, the people have been impoverished and continued ignorant. Not content with the{143} natural influence possessed by a church whose members are spread all over the republic, the hierarchy of Mexico, has exacted a constitutional recognition not only of its permanence, but of its right to exclude all other faiths, and all other religious reunions for worship. It appears, therefore, just that in such a republic it was the duty of the Roman church voluntarily to unfetter its wealth, to reform its priesthood, to sweep into the public coffers the useless jewels that adorn the altars and statues, yet do not glorify the Almighty; and to imitate the virtues, resolution and self-denial of its ministers in our country, who, while blending themselves in politics and public spirit most effectually with the masses, have devoted their lives to the education of people of all creeds and classes for support and independence.

"Far from the goods of the church being exempted because they are consecrated to God," says Vattel in his immortal work, "it is for that very reason that they should be the first taken for the welfare of the state. There is nothing more agreeable to the common Father of men than to preserve a nation from destruction. As God has no need of property, the consecration of goods to him, is their devotion to such purposes as are pleasant to him. Besides,—the property of the church, by the confession of the clergy themselves, is chiefly destined for the poor; and when the state is in want, it is, doubtless, the first pauper, and the worthiest of succor."[37]

{144}

CHAPTER XII.

CONSTITUTIONS AND LAWS.

SINCE the downfall of Iturbide the body politic of Mexico has passed through many stages of revolutionary and factious disease. Four constitutions have been formed and adopted by the people or their temporary rulers independently of the Bases de Tacubaya, under which Santa Anna ruled despotically until the month of June, 1843. These are the Federal Constitution of 1824; the Bases y Leyes Constitutionales, or, Central Constitution of 1836; the Bases Organicas de la Republica Mejicana of 1843, and the restored Federal Constitution, with amendments by an acta de reformas, in 1847. Five great organic changes, in twenty-six years, have thus continually swayed the people between Federation and Centralism; and we may hope that, after all these vital alterations, besides all the minor military pronunciamientos or gritos, which, in the intervals have vexed the public tranquillity, the country has, at length settled down firmly upon the reliable basis of a great but balanced confederacy.

The Constitution of 1847 creates a Federal Republic; and, with the exception of the intolerant articles in regard to religion upon which we have commented in the preceding chapter, it is a document worthy of freemen who desire to avoid consolidation and are anxious to preserve the distinct, responsible activity of their states. This instrument, after indicating the subdivision of the whole territory into the states heretofore enumerated in Chapter 1st, deposes the national legislative power in a Congress formed of a house of representatives and a senate, the representatives being chosen every two years by the citizens of the states, in the ratio of one for every fifty thousand souls or for any fraction beyond twenty-five{145} thousand, while the senate is composed of two members from each state, elected by the legislatures, one-third of that body being renewable every two years. There are now one hundred and forty deputies, each of whom receives a salary of three thousand dollars; and sixty-three senators, whose yearly pay is three thousand five hundred each.

The executive power resides in a president, who is eligible every four years, and cannot be re-elected except after an interval of four years. There is no vice president; and, in case of the death or perpetual incompetency of the president, congress, or in its recess the council of government, shall call upon the state legislatures to fill his place by election. The ordinary and regular election of the chief magistrate, of deputies, senators and ministers of the supreme court of justice, is to be regulated by general laws, and may be either by the people directly or by electoral colleges; but in these indirect elections no one can be named, either as a primary or secondary elector, who holds a political office or exercises civil, ecclesiastical, or military jurisdiction in the district he represents. The salary of the president is thirty-six thousand dollars a year. During the recess of the general congress a council of government is to be constantly in existence, composed of one half of the senate, one member being retained from each state. The duties of this council are confined chiefly to a salutary vigilance over the constitution and laws, and to the convocation of extraordinary sessions of the national legislature, either in conjunction with the president or by its sole act. The cabinet consists of a minister of foreign and domestic affairs; a minister of justice; a minister of finance; a minister of war and marine, each of whom receive an annual salary of six thousand dollars.

Each state government is independent within its local jurisdiction, and, like the federal government has, executive, legislative and judicial powers. The law making power of each of these governments resides in a legislature composed of the number of members which may be determined by its separate constituency, all of whom shall be elected by the people and removable at the time and in the manner they may think proper to decree. The persons to whom the sovereign states confide their executive power, can only exercise it for a time fixed by each respective state constitution. The power and jurisdiction of the national judiciary are amply defined so as to avoid conflict. The state judicial power is to be exercised by the tribunals created or appointed by the state constitutions, and all civil or criminal causes recognized by{146} those courts shall be conducted in them to a final hearing and to the execution of the sentence. Every male person either born in the republic or naturalized, who attains the age of twenty years, possesses the means of honest livelihood, and has not been sentenced by legal process for any infamous crime, is declared to be a citizen of Mexico, and enjoys the right to vote, to petition, to meet others in the discussion of public affairs and to belong to the national guard. The exercise of these rights of citizenship may however be suspended in consequence of confirmed intemperance, professional gambling, a vagabond life, the assumption of religious orders, by legal interdict, in virtue of crimes which cause loss of citizenship, and by inexcusable refusal to serve in public employment when appointed by the people.

Administration of Justice.

The federal constitution of 1824, introduced into Mexico, as we have seen, two general orders of tribunals; those of a federal or national character, and those of the states. The power of these judiciaries was deposited in a supreme court, and in circuit and district courts; and causes were taken from one to the other, by appeals, or in other words, passed by grades from the lowest to the highest, according to the nature of the transactions they involved. The jurisdiction of these courts was of course very extensive; yet it was not paramount or universal over all classes of Mexican society, inasmuch as large numbers of Mexicans were exempted by fueros or special privileged jurisdictions, from the control of the constitutional courts. The fueros were chiefly those of the military and ecclesiastics. There was a common military fuero in civil and criminal matters, which authorized the parties to have their causes tried before the commanding generals, and, on appeals, before the supreme tribunal of War and Marine, whilst there was another right of trial, or jurisdiction for military misdemeanors, before the council of war of general officers. There were, besides these, three special fueros of war;—one of artillery, one of engineers, and another of the active militia. The ecclesiastical fuero, gave an appeal from the bishop to the metropolitan, or from the archbishop to the nearest prelate;—if the metropolitan commenced a cause, an appeal lay to the bishop who was his nearest neighbor; and, on a third trial, to another neighboring episcopate. Notwithstanding these military and ecclesiastical fueros were permitted to exist by special favoritism after the republic was formed, the Mexicans suppressed, after 1824, the fueros of the{147} consulados and of the mineria, or the mercantile and mining tribunals, both of which were sanctioned by experience or convenience, and whose foundations had been laid in the best principles of jurisprudence. To compensate, however, for the destruction of such useful institutions, it was determined that, in the federal districts and territories, suits growing out of mercantile transactions should be decided, in the first instance, by the "Alcaldes" or judges de letras, with whom were associated two colleagues proposed by the parties, and from whom an appeal might be taken to the supreme court. No special tribunal was created for the mining interests. In the federal districts and territories a primary tribunal was constituted for the trial of culprits, before an Alcalde and two Regidores; from whom an appeal lay to another Alcalde or Regidor and two associates, one of whom was named by the Syndic, and the other by the criminal. This correctional police, which has since been somewhat modified, disposed summarily of the greater part of malefactors in Mexico, and was empowered to sentence to the extent of six years imprisonment. The central constitution of 1836 modified this judicial system, and constituted judges de partido,—Jueces Departamentales, and a supreme court. The federal jurisdiction was confined to admirality cases, fiscal transactions, and causes which concerned the public functionaries, while the military and ecclesiastical tribunals were left untouched.

Santa Anna during his last administration suppressed the district and circuit judiciary, and extended the jurisdiction of the common tribunals. But he restored the mercantile and mining "fueros" which were loudly demanded by public opinion. One of the few really good and useful provisions of the Spanish constitution has always been preserved in all the changes of Mexican legislation. This is the judgment of conciliation, by which litigant parties were prohibited from originating an action until they procured a certificate from an Alcalde,—who was not a lawyer,—that a judgment by arbitration or conciliation had failed before him on trial. This is an admirable device and terminates multitudes of law suits in Mexico when men fear to encounter the costs and procrastination of the courts. It might be successfully grafted on our own system of tribunals, where it would doubtless benefit the clients though it might impair the professional revenue of the counsellors.

By the readoption of the federal constitution of 1824, in the year 1847, the judicial system was brought back from the changes of 1836 and 1843 to its former condition. The laws of Mexico, founded upon the old Spanish colonial legislation, and improved,{148} in some measure, by the modification of state and national legislatures under the republic, constitute a vast and chaotic mass of principles, commentaries and decisions, which require a life time of studious toil to master and expound. The mixture of constitutional tribunals and specially privileged jurisdictions, under the system of fueros,—created a complication of judicial functions, which greatly narrowed the chances of a pure administration of law. The Mexican advocates, among whom many are distinguished for their learning and studious habits, are not, when considered as a professional body, comparable, either in information or ability, to their British, French, German or American brethren. The cumbrous formalities of Spanish law form a prolific hot-bed of special pleading, chicanery, and delay. A Mexican law suit is a proverb of procrastination. There are cases in Mexico in which the first paper was filed more than a hundred years ago. The suitor is not only impeded by every device that cunning and exaction can throw in his way, but there is cause to believe that the path of justice is sometimes impeded by the barrier of a bribe. If a Mexican lawyer is unable to force his cause to a final verdict, he is at least always prepared to assign plausible reasons for the tedious delay with which it halts and lingers in the forums. Nor is the value of legal costs unknown in Mexico, either by judges, notaries, or clerks. In proportion as the litigants are wealthy, or as it is necessary that their cause should be speedily decided, so are the greedy officials slow in preparing it for a final hearing and decree. The maxim in Mexico is—"mas vale una mala composicion que un buen pleito,"—a bad compromise is better than a good law suit. "There are men,"—said a member of the Mexican cabinet to congress, in 1830,—"who exercise the right of life and death over their equals, whom the arm of justice does not venture to reach; and, thus, as the bonds of society are effectually dissolved, individuals owe security, rather to their personal power, than to the protection they have a right to expect from the laws." There are many criminals throughout the republic who have long offended with impunity while every species of chicanery has been taken advantage of to secure their life and liberty. Witnesses are sometimes intimidated, false oaths sworn, and terrible menaces whispered in the ears of the timid; nor are these base threats always left unexecuted if the victim is finally condemned and punished.

In the space of six months, during the end of 1841 and beginning of 1842, several horrible assassinations were perpetrated in{149} Mexico. An old Spanish porter was slain and cruelly mutilated in his dwelling, in the capital. So scandalous a deed excited universal indignation. The judicial authorities of the capital ordered rigorous proceedings against the culprit, but, after the case had been tried, and the murderer condemned to lose his life, he was pardoned in consequence of a threat that he would make important or disagreeable revelations if the sentence were executed. Another Spaniard,—a planter of standing in his district,—was murdered by the servants of a neighboring haciendado, with whom he had a dispute in regard to water-rights. The cause was tried, and the instigator and his tools were imprisoned. Yet the arm of justice was withheld by intrigue and corruption. Another Spanish planter, in the south,—a physician by profession, and a man incapable of injuring any one,—was foully killed by a band of Indians, nine of whom were shot for the crime. These miserable wretches had been but the instruments of higher criminals who were well known to the public, nevertheless they were too powerful to be made responsible for their shameful crime. At Tacubaya, in 1842, an English gentleman and his wife, whilst indulging in an evening walk were assassinated and brutally mutilated. But justice was for a long time foiled in its retributive efforts. Nor is it likely that the culprits would ever have expiated their guilt on the scaffold had not the foreign population loudly demanded, and liberally paid for their conviction. In 1839, the Mexican judges gave a striking example of firmness in the execution of a capital sentence, decreed in a case which lasted four years against a colonel of the army and his companions. It was proved that this scoundrel whilst residing in the national palace as one of the aid-de-camps of the president, had been the chief of a band of robbers who committed their offences not only on the highway, but in the metropolis itself. The honorable result in this case was chiefly owing to the firmness of the attorney general, who resisted the threats and the bribes of the criminal's powerful friends. Yet he, probably, paid for his firmness with his life, for he died shortly after the execution, and there is reason to believe, that he perished by foul means. During the administration of Santa Anna in 1842 and 1843, the most energetic efforts were made to free the country and the public roads, from the hordes of robbers that thronged them. The highway from Vera Cruz to Mexico was filled with thieves, whose favorite haunts were in the neighborhoods of Perote and Puebla, within the hearing of whose sentinels they almost daily exercised their vocation upon travellers in the diligence. Santa Anna placed large bodies of{150} cavalry on the route as soon as he came to power, and numerous arrests were made which were followed by the prompt conviction and execution of the bandits. No mercy was shown. The robbers were garroted, in pairs, in the towns along the road and in the capital; and thousands turned out morning after morning to witness the tragic end of these merciless wretches. For a short time the road was free; but, in a few months, new bands replaced the executed robbers, and, since the war with the United States, the main highway of Mexico has become as insecure as of old.

Prisons—Crime.

The prisons of the city of Mexico are in a wretched condition, and, although it has often been proposed to introduce some of the modern penitentiary systems of Europe and the United States, we are not aware that any thing has been done to effect this desirable end. The Accordada is the common prison of Mexico. In front of one of its wings, at a low window protected by stout iron bars, are laid, every morning, the dead bodies that have been found throughout the city during the night. Every day these frightful evidences of murder or violent death are exposed to the gaze of citizens as they pass onward towards the western limits of the city. Sometimes five dead bodies have been seen at one time in this Morgue of Mexico;—and, on days succeeding festivals, the number is sometimes largely augmented. These unfortunate wretches are the victims of quarrels, or sudden fights;—and the front of the deadly window is commonly crowded with women and children—the relatives of the victims who come thither to seek after or to gaze their last on friend, father or husband.

Loathsome as is this exhibition on the exterior of the Accordada, the interior of this edifice is scarcely less frightful. Like all large Spanish edifices it is quadrangular. A strong military guard watches the gate, and a gloomy stairway leads to the second story, whose entrance is guarded by a massive portal. Inside of this, a lofty room is filled with the prison officers and a crowd of subalterns engaged in writing, talking, smoking and walking, whilst the clank of chains, the shouts of prisoners and the constant din of a disorderly establishment, add to the disgusting sounds and demeanor within.

Passing through several iron and wood barred gates, you enter a lofty corridor, running around a quadrangular court-yard, in the centre of which, below, is a fountain of troubled water. The whole of this area is filled with human beings,—the great congress{151} of Mexican crime,—mixed and mingling, like a hill of busy ants swarming from their sandy caverns. Some are stripped and bathing in the fountain;—some are fighting in a corner;—some making baskets in another. In one place a crowd is gathered around a witty story-teller, relating the adventures of his rascally life. In another, a group is engaged in weaving with a handloom. Robbers, murderers, thieves, ravishers, felons of every description, and vagabonds of every grade or aspect, are crammed within this dismal court-yard; and, almost free from discipline or moral restraint, form, perhaps, the most splendid school of misdemeanor and villany on the American continent.

Below,—within the corridor of the second story,—another class of criminals is kept; and yet, even here, men under sentence of death, are pointed out who are still permitted to go about without restraint.

In one corner of the quadrangle is the chapel, where convicts for capital offences are condemned to solitude and penance, during the three last days of their miserable life; and, at a certain hour, it is usual for all the prisoners to gather in front of the door and chant a hymn for the victim of the laws. It is a solemn service of crime for crime.

The women are not generally seen in the Accordada, but their condition is but little better than that of the males. About one hundred of the men, chained in pairs like galley slaves, are driven daily, under a strong guard, into the streets as scavengers; and it seems to be the chief idea of the utility of prisons in Mexico, to support this class of coerced laborers.

There can be no apology, at this period of general enlightenment in the world, for such disgraceful exhibitions of the congregated vice of a country or capital. Punishments, or rather incarceration or labor on the streets, is in reality no sacrifice, because public exhibition deadens the felon's shame, inasmuch as such inflictions cannot become punishments, under any circumstances of a lepero's life. Indeed, what object in existence can the Mexican lepero propose to himself? His day is one of precarious labor and income;—he thieves;—he has no regular home, or if he has, it is some miserable hovel of earth and mud, where his wife and children crawl about with scarce the instinct of beavers. His food and clothing are scant and miserable. He is without education or prospect of social improvement. He belongs to a class that does not rise, for his class is ostracised by hereditary public opinion. He dulls his sense of present misery by intoxicating drinks. His{152} quick temper stimulates him to quarrel. His sleep, after a debauch, is unrefreshing, and he only wakes to encounter another day of uncertainty and wickedness. What, then, is the value of life to him, or one like him? Why toil? Why not steal? What shame has he? Is the prison, with certainty of food, a greater punishment than the free air with uncertainty? On the contrary, he regards it as a lighter punishment, whilst he is altogether insensible to its moral degradation.

Mexico will thus continue to be infested with felons, as long as its prison is a house of refuge, and a comparatively happy home to so large a portion of its outcasts.[38]

Statistics of Crime in the Capital, 1826—1836—1842.

The following table exhibits the condition of the public prisons of Mexico in 1826.

Of these there were

Military Trials and Judgments in 1826.

{153}

A Mexican statistical bulletin, presents the following picture of the criminal condition of the federal district, for the 8 first months of the year 1836. During this period there were 255 arrests; 53 were immediately released and 202 remained in prison. These were divided as follows:

In this statement, fifteen individuals are reported as being imprisoned for counterfeiting coin, yet it is notorious that, at this epoch, all Mexico was converted into a manufactory of false money, for the country was deluged with copper. It is boldly alleged that deputies, generals, and merchants, participated in this scandalous and bold speculation. Santa Anna, in order to check this national evil, decreed that counterfeiting should be considered a military crime, and the offenders made liable to the summary and severe trials which usually take place when soldiers are both judges and jurymen.

The subjoined statistics bring these statements nearer our own period, and afford means of comparison with antecedent dates:

Imprisonments in the City of Mexico for 1842.

We will not swell these tables by specifying each of the crimes for which these 8861 individuals were incarcerated; but will merely note the chief violations of law and the number of the respective offenders:{154}

$4,121 were expended for salaries in the Acordada; and $30,232 for the maintenance of the prisoners. It should be stated, moreover that a large number of the above criminals were committed and punished for throwing vitriol on the dress and faces of persons in the street;—that 113 dead bodies were found;—894 individuals sent to hospitals; and 17 executed by the garrotte. The culprit who is sentenced to this mode of expiating his crime is seated in a chair on the scaffold, whilst his neck is embraced by an iron collar which may be contracted by a screw. A sudden and rapid turn of the lever drives a sharp point through the spinal marrow at the moment that the band closes around the throat and strangles the victim.

{155}

CHAPTER XIII.

REFLECTIONS UPON THE REPUBLIC.

EVERY reader who has accompanied us thus far in studying the history, geography, resources, and character of Mexico, will scarcely require to be told why it is that the nation has continued disorganized and become impoverished in the midst of such abundance as has been lavished upon it by the beneficence of God. At the conclusion of our chapter upon the commerce of Mexico we described the remarkable geographical position of the territory, and have shown that, by the laws of nature, it ought to enjoy a controlling influence in the affairs of the world. And yet almost three centuries and a half have rolled over since Cortéz planted the Spanish banner on the palaces of Tenochtitlan, and still the question may be asked whether the region is more progressive under republican and royal rule than under Aztec sway? The world has advanced in commerce, manufactures, science, literature and arts, but Mexico has remained comparatively fixed in the midst of a stagnant semi-civilization. She has not exhibited a true warlike character either in her domestic broils or in her opposition to a foreign invader, though her soil has been converted into a camp for nearly forty years. She has confessed her manifold errors by her indemnities and her diplomacy, though she has contrived to invite quarrels, discussions and affronts by an aggressive demeanor towards sojourners in her territory. A religious country by the protective sanction of all her constitutions, still she denies the right of conscientious worship to all who come within her borders. With a military police, and an immense array of judicial officers, her cities and highways are thronged with felons while the disputes of her citizens linger undecided for years in her courts. Her domestic markets are dear, and she has but little to spare for foreign commerce, though her soil is extraordinarily fertile and her climate yields{156} the fruits and grains of the temperate and tropical zones. Throned on mines, she is a borrower at exhorbitant usury. Washed by the two great oceans of the globe, her mariners are fishermen and her vessels skiffs. Ready at all times to borrow from every capitalist, she sees her opulent citizens send their wealth abroad for investment in spite of the tempting interest she promises to pay. Boasting of faith, she is without credit. At peace with mankind and fortified by nature, she is forced to maintain an army either to protect her from herself or to bribe the innumerable remnants of her military politicians into peace. Endowed with a constitution and enjoying the name of a republic, she beholds that constitution violated or overthrown by her army without even demanding the consent of the people. Vaunting, in the most grandiloquent language, her intelligence, glory and resources, she exhibits not a single evidence of that patriotic unity and order which would entitle her to domestic confidence and foreign respect. Owning an extensive territory which is attractive not only for its essential qualities but for its magnificent beauty and grandeur, she has drawn to her shores, since the conquest, only a million of white men. Losing Texas, which in her hands had been, for all this time, a howling wilderness possessed by beasts and savages, she sees that state become, under the magic influence of another race, an independent nation, a maritime power, a commercial territory yielding millions annually for the trade of the world. Surrendering California as a boon for peace, she beholds in a single year, the sands that had been trodden by her own people for several centuries, turn to gold in the developing hand of the energetic emigrants to whom it was given up. Impoverished, haughty, uneducated, defiant, bigoted, disputatious, without financial credit, beaten in arms, far behind the age in mechanical progress or social civilization and loaded with debt, Mexico presents a spectacle in the nineteenth century, which moves the compassion of reflective men even if it does not provoke the cupidity of other races to wrest from her weak grasp a region whose value she neither comprehends nor develops. This compassion is the result of a genuine sympathy with the true patriots who really love their country and know its worth, but whose numbers are too few to cope with the scandalous intriguers and ambitious soldiers by whom the nation has hitherto been converted into a gambling table and its money and offices into prizes.

In the introductory chapters upon the viceroyal government and revolution of Mexico, and in our remarks upon the growth of parties at the close of the war of independence, we have endeavored{157} to exhibit fairly the existing causes of trouble at those epochs.[39] There was an apology for incapability of political self-rule when a bad government or a degrading despotism was suddenly removed. But, since then, twenty-six years have elapsed; and, in more than a quarter of a century, mankind is fairly entitled to demand from Mexico a denial of the sarcasm of her oppressive oidor Bataller "that the worst punishment to be inflicted upon the Mexicans is to allow them to govern themselves!"

Dark as is this picture of neighboring republicans, we should have been loth to paint it had not our careful studies of their statistics and the commentaries of their own citizens justified the sombre coloring. "For our own part we believe,"—says Don Francisco Lerdo, in his Considerations upon the Social and Political Condition of the Mexican Republic in 1847,—"that all this may be explained in a few words. In Mexico there neither is nor can there be what is called national spirit, because there is no nation."[40]

This, perhaps, is the key of Mexican decadence. The national spirit is centrifugal, if any thing can strictly be called national when citizen is armed against citizen, and when men in civil life and politicians in public life, are constantly seeking to aggrandize themselves either in wealth or power without a thought of loyalty to the constitution which should perpetuate and consolidate national unity of principle and action in spite of all their personal ambitions or party dominations.

If we recur to our statistics in the third chapter of this volume we shall find that, out of seven millions six hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one inhabitants of the republic, it is calculated that four millions three hundred thousand are Indians, that more than two millions are either mixed bloods or negroes, and only about one million white, while, of the whole population, not many more than seven hundred and forty thousand are to be regarded as either educated or at all instructed! The most numerous class, the large majority of Mexicans,—the Indians,—are not civilized. We make this assertion without qualification. They are tamed and have been comparatively submissive; they are not open idolators and have generally conformed, according to their limited understanding and instruction, to the direction of the Catholic priesthood; but neither this taming nor this conformity, considered relatively to their general demeanor, constitute civilization either under a monarchy or a republic.{158} The Indians, therefore, regarded as a political or social element in a democracy, are not fairly to be valued as integral constituencies of the Mexican republic. We have already delineated the character of this class and will not recapitulate the points of sluggish indifference which forbid the hope of its elevation. Less savage than the North American red man and hunter, the Mexican Indian is only dwarfed in energy and in the expression of passion, by the emasculating influence of the climate. In all other respects he resembles the tenant of our western forests and will neither willingly mingle with us, adopt our habits, nor labor for others upon a soil which spontaneously supplies his wants. In his passive state he is content with imitation; in his aroused anger he rushes blindly and vindictively into danger, and is willing to die rather for revenge than for right. Is it not folly then to ask this class to comprehend the representative system? Nor can we justly expect its comprehension and correspondent adherence or practice from the unenlightened Mixed Races, especially when those races do not derive their origin, exclusively, from pure white stocks, but are formed by a medly mosaic of Indian, African, Oriental and Spanish. The hope of Mexico must, therefore, repose in the whites alone; and, on this class we might confidently rely as the nucleus around which future numbers and civilization would gather, if we found them orderly, free, united and firm in adherence to their constitution modified by the indispensable addition of religious liberty and the speedy as well as inflexible administration of justice. But, in this small class, we have the most serious difficulties to contend with, for, without constitutional recognition, the officers of the army, the hierarchy, and the intriguing politicians, form three distinct powerful bodies who must blend in perfect union for mutual support, or must be content to see the country involved in civil war if they differ.

We have already noticed the origin and continuance of the army's influence, and the natural despotic tendencies of that class. It represents Force. It is, moreover, a historical fact, that the Mexican church does not confine itself to matters of faith, but, as the richest national proprietor and as the comptroller of conscience by virtue of the constitution, has constantly quitted the cloister to fight in the arena of politics. Nor was its weapon weak, for it was armed with Superstition. Wielding the bolts of spiritual thunder in a nation in which no other religion is tolerated or known; possessing the power of discovery by confession, and of control by penance, excommunication, anathemas, and ecclesiastical interdicts; ruling the{159} soul without appeal, and grasping the purse, it will be at once seen what a powerful element of influence such an institution must become when directed by a single head. If the masses would prey upon the church, it was the policy of the church to support the army; if the people desired to destroy the army, it was the interest of the army to support a church which could control by conscience or bribe by money the miscalled representatives of the people.[41] With force and superstition, thus welded together by interest, the representative system can expect but little favor from these two important divisions of the white race.

Is there hopeful reliance, then, upon another power which is controlled by a portion of the educated whites? The Liberty of the Press, in Mexico has disappointed its warmest advocates. An instrument which should ever be used for the enlightenment of the multitude has been employed only to demoralize and deceive it. Instead of attacking bravely all abuses of administration and all international prejudices, or weaknesses; instead of holding the executive departments to strict accountability before the chambers and the people; instead of displaying frankly the vital interests and materials of social reorganization, and thus contributing to the common prosperity and peace of the country, the periodical press of Mexico, with few honorable exceptions, has fostered the meanest passions and hatreds of the ignorant masses and has betrayed public opinion by trafficking with or truckling to the men or the classes who live by public abuses and disorder.[42] Instead of checking and thwarting the interference of the church in civil affairs, it has stood mute or appalled before the ecclesiastical power. If there is no reliance, therefore, on the press, what available trust may be reposed in the pure, civil patriots, men of letters, professional characters, merchants and proprietors? The slender numbers of this class, compared with the army, church, Empleados or government employées, and intriguing civilians connected either with the state in its various departments of finance, or with the press, at once deprive it of equality in influence. In all the turns of fortune in Mexico, these men have, hitherto, never been able to command the country for any length of time so as to give a permanent beneficial direction to public affairs, and we may, therefore, readily agree with Lerdo in believing that his country possesses no elements of nationality. He might have gone further in his analysis, and declared{160} that there was no nationality because there was no People; for who will dignify with that republican name such discordant and heterogeneous materials of races, characters, politics and purposes. A People is not a mere aggregation of human beings. A nation, in the true sense of nationality, is only a great family, for whose strength and power it is necessary that all its individual members should be intimately united by the bonds of interest, sympathy and affection. Such a nation may form a government, but it is difficult for a government to form such a nation. And this was the peculiarly fortunate position of our North American states at the period of Independence, for we had no political and social revolution to effect. Our people and our government grew up together. At the close of the war the United States were poor. The military men had enjoyed no revenue from their services but personal honor. They were badly fed, paid and clothed. There was no rich, ready made prize to be seized by ambitious or avaricious men in the gorged treasury of a nation. All were essentially equal because all were equally forced to work for livelihood. There was no recognized class in government or society. We were all of one blood, and did not fall into the error of amalgamation with Indians and negroes. We were controlled by reason and not governed by passions or instincts. We had nothing but liberty and space; soil and freedom. Our soldiers were rewarded with land; but that land was in the wilderness and exacted toil to make it productive; and thus, compulsory industry diverted the minds of our political founders from those ambitious enterprises, which by the aid of the military have so long degraded Mexico. Conquest and rapid Fruition,—was the maxim of Spain; Occupation and Development,—the policy of England. The eager Iberian was prompt and headlong in the adventurous life of discovery. The cautious Anglo Saxon followed in his steps, ready to glean and replant the fields that had been hardly reaped of their virgin harvests.

We have endeavored to analyze candidly the condition of the Mexican republic, and, in performing the disagreeable task we have been guided not only by our own personal observations in the country, but by the argumentative criticisms of native writers. Having ascertained the disease it is our duty to seek the remedy. The obvious policy of Mexico, under existing circumstances, is to exhibit a firm, constitutional, orderly, peaceful aspect, which, together with her manifold allurements of soil, climate, and geographical situation, will gradually attract to her shores the eager multitudes{161} who are seeking a new home in America. Emigration is the overflowing of a bitter cup. Men do not ordinarily leave the land of their birth, the home of their infancy, their parents, friends and companions, for the untried hazards of a land in which there is no community of laws, habits, and language, unless poverty and bad government force them into the wilderness. They depart to better their lot. They must have the assurance, therefore, of their rights in property and personal liberty guarantied by stable laws promptly administered by incorruptible judges. Such meritorious emigrants will not populate Mexico unless she demonstrates her capacity for order and security; and, without these accessions, we have shown that Mexico never will, as she does not now, possess a republican People. She must cultivate the civil idea; she must abandon her military parade; she must discard her habitual bombast and grandiloquence; she must banish the despots who have debauched and plundered her; she must reform her social life and learn to believe that there are other pleasures worthy the notice of men besides gambling, bull baiting and cock fighting; and, above all, she must establish religious liberty. It is an absurd idea that nationality can be preserved by enforcing Catholicity by virtue of the constitution. The Roman church must consent to share this earth,—the patrimony of mankind,—with other believers and spiritual laborers. It cannot monopolize the soil, even if it can control the faith. The day of monoply is gone,—that of individuality has come, and there can be no good government that is not founded on tolerant Christianity, which is the creed of Love, the enemy of Force, the founder of true Democracy.[43]

When an orderly and firm government shall have been established, Mexico will be refreshed continually by the energizing blood of a hardy, industrious and enterprising white race from beyond the sea. Germany will send her sons and daughters; Ireland, France, England, Italy and Spain will contribute theirs. The various nations, mingling slowly by marriage with the white Mexicans, will amalgamate and neutralize each other into homogeneous nationality. Mexico may thus gradually congregate a People. The language of the country will, in all likelihood, be preserved;{162} for the white natives who now speak Spanish will of course form, for many years, the bulk of the population, and when they die, their offspring and the offspring of the emigrants will know but one tongue. There will thus be no violent extirpation of races; but a slow and genial modification. Modern inventions, arts, tastes, science, emulation, new forms of thought, new modes of development, will be introduced and implanted by these emigrants. The million of white men, and the two millions of mestizos, will become more prosperous under the increased trade and industry of the nation. A good government will be ensured, for the hardy emigrants fly from the political oppression and poverty of the old world to enjoy peaceful liberty in this.

There is nothing in this scheme of progress to which a good man or a republican can object, and if Mexico is sincere in her professions of democracy, and not merely anxious to preserve intact the fragments of a ruined Spanish colony, without a people and without nationality, she will imitate the example of the United States and welcome to her vallies and mountains all who are willing to approach her in the name of order, labor, and liberty. But if she stubbornly adheres to her stupid self-seclusion, and bars the portals of her splendid empire with the revolutionary impediments that are annually scattered over the republic, she will break the beautiful promise given to humanity in the success of her revolution;

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B O O K   V.

THE MEXICAN STATES AND TERRITORIES;
THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, CITIES, TOWNS,
PRODUCTIONS, MINES, GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS,
ANTIQUITIES, Etc.

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CHAPTER I.

IN treating this branch of our subject we have followed the order adopted by Mühlenpfordt in his "Republik Mejico," and acknowledge the important assistance we have derived from the careful, minute and laborious personal researches made by that industrious German author relative to the geography of Mexico. Since the publication of his volumes, in which he had been greatly aided by the previous works of Humboldt, Ward, Burkhardt and other explorers during the present century, the Mexican government has organized a Statistical Commission, whose investigations have been published in a series of Bulletins, and to these we are indebted for recent authentic information about some of the most interesting portions of Mexico. The northern regions, meanwhile, have been illustrated by the explorations of Frémont, Abert, Emory, Wislizenius, Cooke, Simpson, and other officers of the American Government; but as most of the territory examined by them has become the property of the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe, their labors are not of importance in describing the Republic of Mexico as at present bounded. In the last Book of this work, however, which we have devoted to the consideration of California and New Mexico, we shall recur to those brave and scientific explorers of a remote region, so recently a wilderness, but which their labors, and{166} the combined fortune of war and mineral wealth have subdued for the benefit of mankind.

In accordance with the plan proposed in the separate consideration of the several States and Territories of Mexico, we shall divide them into three groups:—those on the eastern or Gulf coast; those on the western or Pacific coast, and those in the interior.

THE STATE OF YUCATAN.

The State of Yucatan, sometimes known by the name of Merida or Campeché, occupies the greater portion of the peninsula which bounds the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico. Its eastern side is washed by the Caribbean Sea, and touched by the settlements at Balize; on the south it is bounded by Guatemala; on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, from which it is separated by the river Paicutun that falls into the Laguna de Terminos. Its northern coast extends from Cape Catoché to the Punta de Piedras, about eighty-six leagues; and the whole area of the State is computed at 3,823 square leagues.

Yucatan possesses very few streams and none of importance that are known or explored. On the west of the peninsula, debouching into the Gulf of Mexico, there are the rivers or rivulets of Escatalto, Chen, Champoton;—the San Francisco falls into the Bay of Campeché; in the north there are the Silan, the Cedros, and the Conil; while the streams of Bolina, the Rio Nuevo, the Bacalar, the Ascension,{167} and the Honda or Rio Grande pour into the Caribbean Sea. In 1841 the population of the State is stated in a census, taken by order of the government, as follows:

This census, although it professes to be accurate, may nevertheless be incomplete, inasmuch as the inhabitants of Yucatan, dreading new contributions and detesting military service, endeavor to reduce as much as possible the number of their families in the lists prepared for government. Besides this, it does not appear to comprehend all the departments according to Mühlenpfordt, who divides the State into fifteen departments.[44] The population has been estimated by some careful writers, acquainted with the people and the country, at 525,000 souls; in our table of population on page 42 of this volume, we have on good authority stated the number to be, in 1842, 508,948, while others have increased the number to 600,000 and even to 630,000, which amount is assigned to Yucatan by a census in 1833! The last mentioned number will give about 165 individuals to each square league.[45]

The character and quality of the productions of Yucatan may be estimated by the following statistical table, which has been translated and published by Mr. Stephens in the first volume of his Incidents of Travel in that State.{168}

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CAMPECHE.

The principal towns of Yucatan, are, 1st: the capital, Merida, in the northern part of the state, about ten leagues from the coast, containing a population of near 15,000 individuals. Its port is the small haven of Sisal, which is in reality nothing but a bleak roadstead, protected by a fort and a sand bank.

2nd: San Francisco de Campeché, with a population of about 9,000;—a port which is considered by navigators one of the best in the state, yet is by no means, a secure or comfortable anchorage.

3rd: Vallodolid, the chief town of the district of that name, with near 4,000 inhabitants.

4th: San Felipé de Bacalar, or Salamanca; a town and military post in the district of that name, containing a garrison and about one hundred and twenty houses.

Besides these, there are the villages of Xampolan, Jequetchacan, Lerma, Champoton, between the rivers Campeché and Champoton on the west coast, and Silan, Santa Clara, Vigia del rio and Chaboána, on the north coast. In the interior there are many Indian villages.

The Island of Cozumel on the east coast of Yucatan—which was the first land discovered by the Spaniards in their voyage to Mexico,—is now almost uninhabited, and contains some ancient remains, which are probably the ruins of the splendid structures that attracted the attention of the adventurers, and satisfied them they had reached a land which was sufficiently civilized to be worthy their exploration and plunder.

It has generally been supposed that Yucatan affords no safe harbors or anchorages, which would either tempt commercial enterprise to her shores, or afford vessels of war sufficient protection so as to render the peninsula valuable in a military point of view. Yet it seems from an official copy of a recent British survey of the coast of Yucatan, which is to be found in the office of our Coast Survey in Washington, that there is a fine harbor for vessels of any size under the island of Mugeres, the easternmost point of Yucatan, where they may ride at anchor in safety, protected from winds in every direction. The harbors of Ascension and Espiritu Bay, are represented as good; the latter being capable of holding a fleet of the heaviest kind of English frigates and war steamers. There is good anchorage, moreover, off the north-east point of the island of Cozumel.[46]

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THE STATE OF CHIAPAS.

This state has been very inadequately examined. It is bounded north by Tabasco; south and south-west by the Republic of Central America, or Guatemala; west by the state of Vera Cruz and by a small part of Oajaca; and on the east partly by Yucatan and partly by Guatemala. Until the year 1833 the territory comprised in this division belonged to Guatemala, when it joined the Mexican confederacy. Comprehending the northern declivities of the Cordilleras and table lands of Central America, Chiapas is, throughout a considerable part of its territory, cut up into successions of ridges and valleys, which are rich in many of the finest tropical productions. Corn, cacao, sugar and garden vegetables are produced readily. Tobacco of good quality grows in the district of Sandoval, and in the neighborhood of Oajaca. In the district of Tonalá, a small quantity of indigo of an extraordinarily fine quality is cultivated; and here, also, pepper and the maguey plant are yielded plentifully. Ananas, sapotes, bananas, figs, apricots and various similar fruits abound in Chiapas, while in its forests, oaks, cedar, mahogany, ebony, and other valuable woods are found in considerable quantities. But the greater part of this fruitful state is still an unknown waste, which the labors of other races must fully explore and develop.

Chiapas is divided into four departments and nine districts, which, together, possess 92 parishes.

1st: The Department of the Centre, with 12 parishes, besides the capital of Ciudad-Real, or San Cristoval de los Llanos and the town of Chamúla.

2nd: The Department of the South, with 10 parishes, in the district of Llanos, 11 in Ocozingo, and 17 in Tuxtla.

3rd: The Department of the West, with the district of Ystocomitan, containing 17 parishes; Tonalá, 3 parishes; and Palenque, 4 parishes.

4th: The Department of the North, with the districts of Tila, containing 6 parishes, and Simojoval, 12 parishes.

The chief towns are, Ciudad-Real, or San Cristoval de los Llanos; a fine town with about 6,000 inhabitants, possessing a cathedral church, four convents for monks, and one for nuns, two chapels, and a hospital. The first bishop of Chiapas, who erected the see of that name in 1538, was the renowned Bartoloméo de las Casas, whose fame is so intimately connected with the early history of the country, by his constant and merciful interference in behalf of the Indians.{171}

The other important towns are San Juan Chamúla, containing 4,000 inhabitants; San Bartoloméo de los Llanos, whose 7,000 people are chiefly engaged in the cultivation of cotton, sugar, tobacco and corn; San Domingo Comitlan; San Jacinto Ocozingo, with 3,000 inhabitants who devote themselves to the care of cattle, and cultivate some cacao and corn; Tuxtla, with 5,000 inhabitants who trade in tobacco and cacao; San Domingo Sinacantan, on the borders of Tabasco in the territory of the Zoques, with 2,500 inhabitants who employ themselves in the culture of silk, of which they weave shawls and other similar fabrics, which are esteemed of a good merchantable quality, and are used in the country or adjacent states; Chiapa de los Indios; Tecpatlan; Ostoacan; Teopixca; Acapala; Capanabastla; Izcuintenango; San Fernando Guadalupe; and Simojovél.

Chiapas is represented to be rich in rivers which rise chiefly in the highlands towards the state of Tabasco and debouche into the Mexican Gulf. The Tabasco river or the Rio de Grijalva; the Usumasinta, the Chicsoi or the Santa Isabella;—the Machaquita, San Pedro, Dolores, Yalchitan, Chacamas, Zeldales, Yeixhihujat, Chatlan, and some others; the Pacaitún or Paicutun; the laguna de Chiapa; some mineral waters; and a valuable salt spring in the vicinity of San Mateo, enrich various portions of this fertile state, whose climate, especially in its higher regions, is said to be delicious and uniform. The number of the population of this state is not officially known. In 1831, a census made by order of the governor Ignacio Gutierrez, which however, did not include fifteen parishes, gave 118,775 inhabitants for the rest of the state. An estimate in a Mexican calendar of 1833 represents the number to be about 96,000, while the government calculation for a basis of representation in Congress in 1842, gives it 141,206, to which about 10 per cent. should be added to give the proximate population in 1850. The Indian tribes of the Zoques, Cendales or Zeldales, Teochiapanécos and Mames are still very numerous, and, of course, form the greater part of the population.

Ancient Remains in Yucatan and Chiapas.

The physical description of these two States, presented in the preceding pages, will have satisfied the reader that they possess a prolific soil and an agreeable climate which would probably attract a large population had they been properly explored and developed by an energetic race. We are sustained in this belief by the fact,{172} that in these States travellers have found the most remarkable remains of an advanced ancient civilization hitherto discovered on our continent. What has existed may exist again under the benignant influence of modern progress; nor is it improbable that as human interests direct the attention of maritime or emigrating nations towards the central portions of the western continent, Yucatan and Chiapas may again become the seat of a population even larger than that which thronged it during the palmy days anterior to the Spanish conquest.

Since the year 1840 three important works have been published in this country relative to these ancient remains of towns, temples, cities, idols and monuments. Two of these are due to the pen and pencil of Mr. John L. Stephens and Mr. Catherwood, while the other and slighter production is the result of a hasty visit paid to Yucatan by Mr. B. M. Norman. These three publications, plentifully illustrated by accurate engravings of the ruins and remains, have been so widely disseminated throughout Europe and America that readers are already familiar with them. In the "long, irregular and devious route" pursued by Stephens and Catherwood, they "discovered the crumbling remains of fifty-four ancient cities, most of them but a short distance apart, though, from the great change that has taken place in the country, and the breaking up of the old roads, having no direct communication with each other. With but few exceptions, all were lost, buried and unknown, never before visited by a stranger, and some of them, perhaps, never looked upon by the eyes of a white man." Leaving Guatemala, the travellers encountered, in Chiapas, remarkable remains at Ocozingo and Palenque; and passing thence into Yucatan, in their second journey to those central regions, they explored and described the architectural and monumental relics at Maxcanu, Uxmal, Sacbey, Xampon, Sanacte, Chunhuhu, Labpahk, Iturbide, Mayapan, San Francisco, Ticul, Nochacab, Xoch, Kabah, Sabatsche, Labna, Kenick, Izamal, Saccacal, Tekax, Akil, Mani, Macoba, Becanchen, Peto, Chichen, in the interior; and at Tuloom, Tancar, and in the Island of Cozumel on the eastern coast.

The simple catalogue of these names, indicating the sites of ancient civilization in the midst of what is at present almost an unexplored wilderness and covering so wide a field of observation, will satisfy the reader that it is impossible to condense a satisfactory review of these architectural remains within the space that we are enabled to appropriate to antiquarian researches. The ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, and of Uxmal and Chichen in Yucatan, are,{173} perhaps, the most wonderful of all that have been explored hitherto in this lonely region; and, while we regret that our duty to the living present will not permit us to dwell longer on the curious past, we shall, nevertheless pause, occasionally, as we pass through the Mexican States, to notice those remains which have either been visited by us personally, or are not described in books as accessible to all classes of enquirers and students as those of Messrs. Stephens, Catherwood and Norman. Mr. Stephens believes, after full investigation, that these towns and cities were occupied by the original builders and their descendants at the period of the Spanish conquest, and our own opinion entirely coincides with his reasoning and judgment. Those who desire a complete and conclusive illustration of this branch of the subject will find an excellent argument thereon in both of his publications.[47]

In the first volume of this work we have given an account of the Mexican or Aztec Calendar; and the proximate identity of the Yucatese or Mayan and Aztec Calendar led Mr. Stephens to the conclusion that both nations had a common origin. This argument is also important in considering the period of the occupation of the Chiapan and Yucatese edifices, inasmuch as we know that the Aztecs of Montezuma's period used the Calendar which we have already illustrated and described.

Yucatan Calendar.

"Our knowledge of the Yucatan Calendar," says Mr. Gallatin,[48] "is derived exclusively from the communications made by Don J. P. Perez to Mr. John L. Stephens, and inserted in the appendix to the first volume of this gentleman's Travels in Yucatan. It is substantially the same with that of the Mexicans, though differing in some important particulars.

"The inhabitants of Yucatan had, like the Mexicans, the two distinct modes of computing time, by months of twenty days, and by periods of thirteen days. They also distinguished the days of the year by a combination of those two series, precisely similar to that of the Mexicans. And their year likewise consisted of 365 days, viz., of eighteen months of twenty days each, to which they added five supplementary days; and also of a corresponding series of twenty-eight periods of thirteen days each, and one day over.{174} The following table exhibits the names of the twenty days of the Yucatan month, with their signification, as far as it has been ascertained by Don J. P. Perez; and also the days of the Chiapa month as given by Boturini; and which, from the similarity of the names of several of the days, appears to have been in its origin nearly identical with that of Yucatan.

"The Calendar of the inhabitants of the independent kingdom of Mechoacan, who spoke the Tarasca language, appears to have been similar to that of the Mexicans; and the names of the days of their month as stated by Veytia, are inserted in the table. The names of the days of an ancient Mexican, or rather Toltec tribe, found in the province of Nicaragua, have also been inserted. This, as far as we know, is the extreme southeastern limit of the Mexican Calendar on the Pacific Ocean. That limit on the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico may be traced as far as the islands opposite Cape Honduras (Herrera); beyond which the shores are still inhabited by the uncivilized Musquito Indians.

"The cycle of fifty-two years was also adopted in Yucatan, and the arrangement of the years was precisely the same as in that of Mexico, substituting only the names Khan, Muluc, Hix and Ca-uac, for Tochtli, Acatl, Tecpatl and Calli, as appears in the following table:{175}

"But there was an essential difference respecting the series of the names and numerical characters of the days, as will appear by the following table, which shows the termination of the first year of the cycle, and the beginning of the next ensuing years.

"Don J. P. Perez positively states, that the fundamental rule is never to interrupt either of the series of names or of days. Thus, inasmuch as the last supplementary day of the first year of the cycle (1 Khan) is 1 Lamat; and as, in the order of the days of the month,{176} the day called "Muluc" immediately follows the day Lamat; the ensuing year 2 Muluc commences with the day 2 Muluc, in the same manner as the year 1 Khan commences with the day 1 Khan. It is the same with the other years; so that the first day of every year has the same name and numerical character as the year itself.

"Don J. P. Perez acknowledges that amongst the few mutilated remains of Indian manuscripts or paintings, he has not been able to discover any trace of an intercalation, either of one day every four years, or of thirteen days at the end of the cycle, though he presumes that they had indubitably either the one or the other.

"The Yucatan cycle of fifty-two years, differed in no other respect from that of the Mexicans. The combination of the two series of twenty and thirteen days is used in the same manner in both calendars for the purpose of distinguishing the days of the year.

"The Yucatecs differed materially from the Mexicans with regard to the time of the solar year, when their year began. Don J. P. Perez informs us, that the first day of the Yucatan year corresponded with the sixteenth day of July; and that this was the day of the transit of the sun by the zenith of a place which he does not mention. But he adds that, for want of proper instruments, the Indians had made a mistake of forty-eight hours. In point of fact, it is in the latitude of about twenty-one degrees and a half that the transit of the sun by the zenith occurs on the 16th of July; and Yucatan lies between the latitudes of about eighteen degrees and a half and twenty-one degrees and a half. To commence the year on the day of the transit of the sun by the zenith, is attended with the great inconvenience, that this commencement must vary from place to place, according to their respective latitudes. As Don J. Pio Perez counts every year as having 365 days, and without regard to the omitted bissextile days, it is clear that the day in the Yucatan calendar, on which the transit of the sun by the zenith of any one place occurs, would vary twenty days, or a whole Indian month, in the course of eighty years. This would create such confusion that, if it be a well ascertained fact, that the Yucatan year began on the zenith day, this renders it highly probable that the calendar was, like that of the Mexicans, corrected by an intercalation of thirteen days at the end of the cycle.

"The names of the eighteen months of the Yucatecos, together with such interpretations as Don Pio Perez has given us, their order and their correspondence with our year, new style, appear in the following table:{177}

TABLE OF YUCATESE MONTHS.

"The Mexicans counted only by cycles; they designated the termination of a cycle by a hieroglyphic representing a bundle of reeds tied up; and they sometimes designated, by an equal number of small circles, the number of cycles which had elapsed, since the beginning of their era corresponding with the year 1091. But the Yucatecos, besides their cycle of 52 years, had another, containing thirteen periods of twenty or twenty-four years each. These last mentioned periods were called Ajau or Ahau."{178}

YUCATESE IDOL.

{179}

YUCATAN EDIFICE.

{180}

YUCATAN ALTAR.

{181}

THE STATE OF TABASCO.

This State, one of the smallest of the confederacy, was, previous to the revolution, a province of the Intendency of Vera Cruz. It bounds eastwardly on the State of Yucatan; south on Chiapas and Oajaca; west on Vera Cruz, and northwardly on the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly the whole of Tabasco slopes gradually towards the sea, and is so extremely flat that it is often subject to inundations, and the communication from village to village and parish to parish cut off altogether, or only practicable in canoes. The State is consequently full of streams, though they are generally short and shallow, whilst their mouths are obstructed by bars and flats. The most remarkable of these streams are—the Pacaitun, or as it is sometimes called, Rio de Banderas; the Usumasinta which also passes through Chiapas; the Tabasco; the Chiltepec; Dos Bocas; Capilco; Rio de Santa Anna; Tonalá or Toneladas; Tancochapa or San Antonio; Uspanapan and the Guachapa or Rio del Paso.

On the eastern boundary of Tabasco lies the Laguna de Terminos, which is fifteen leagues long and ten broad. In this inland sea are locked the beautiful islands of Laguna, Carmen, and Puerto Real; and, in the two passes by which the sea is reached from this lagune, twelve to thirteen feet of water are found in the larger, while but five and a half feet are obtained in the smaller, or pass of Puerto Real.

The climate of this State is excessively hot along the immediate coast of the gulf; nor is it very sensibly changed as the interior is reached, in consequence of the extreme flatness of the soil. During the prevalence of the northers the harbors are exceedingly insecure; but these violent storms somewhat temper the heat and render the towns less sickly.

Tabasco is divided into three departments with nine parishes:

1st. The Department of Villa Hermosa with the districts of Villa Hermosa, Usumasinta, and Nacayuca. 2d. The Department of the Sierra with the districts of Teapa, Tacotalpa and Jalapa. 3d. The Department of Chontalpa with the districts of Macuspana, Cunduacan and Jalpa.

These are subdivided into 49 parishes; (23 of which are in the Department of Villa Hermosa, 10 in la Sierra, and 16 in Chontalpa;) besides these there are 543 haciendas and ranchos, or estates and farms; and, throughout the whole State there are 63 churches. The mass of inhabitants in Tabasco, as elsewhere in these southern{182} states, is formed of Indians: and of the 70,000 people who are estimated to compose the population, it is probable that the majority is formed of the Mijes, Zoques and Cendales.

Cacao, coffee, pepper, sugar, tamarinds, arrow-root, palmetto and some tobacco are cultivated; while indigo and vainilla grow wild in the forests among groves of oaks, cedars, mahogany and ironwood. The extensive wildernesses of Tabasco are filled with game and wild beasts, and the streams are full of excellent fish. Bees abound in the depths of the forests and yield abundant supplies of wild honey and wax.

The capital of Tabasco is Villa Hermosa de Tabasco, or, as it is sometimes called, Villa de San Juan Bautista, which lies on the left bank of the Tabasco river twenty-four leagues from its mouth. It contains about 7,000 inhabitants, and is reached by vessels of light draft from the sea; but its chief commercial intercourse is carried on with adjoining states and with Guatemala. There are some other towns or villages worthy of mention; the principal of which are Usumasinta, Nacayuca, Tacotalpa, Teapa, Jalapa, Chontalpa, Jalpa, Cunduacan, Macuspana, Chiltepec, Santa Anna, Tonala, Acalpa, Chinameca, Tochla, Istapa or Ystapangahoya, San Fernando, Tapichulapa, and Obsolotan.{183}

CHAPTER II.

THE STATE OF VERA CRUZ.

PLAZA OF VERA CRUZ.

The State of Vera Cruz lies under the burning sky of the tropics between 17° 85´ and 22° 17´ of north latitude; and 96° 46´ and 101° 21´ west longitude from Paris. It is comprised within a long but somewhat narrow strip of territory along the Gulf of Mexico, running from the mouth of the Tampico river, in the north, to the{184} Guasacualco and the boundaries of Tabasco, on the south. Its length is 166 leagues; its breadth, from 25 to 28; and it is estimated to contain an area of 5,000 square leagues. It is bounded eastwardly by the Gulf; south by Tabasco; north by Tamaulipas; and west and south-west by Oajaca, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro and San Luis Potosi. The eastern part of the State is generally level, low and sandy; but, further inland, it gradually rises as the traveller leaves the arid and burning wastes of the coast, until the country is broken into an uninterrupted series of lofty mountains and beautiful vallies.

The coasts of this State are rich in rivers, streams, inlets, and lagunes; but, unfortunately, they are either not navigable for any considerable distance, or are obstructed by bars at their mouths. Among these streams the following are chiefly to be noticed as of importance: The Rio Tampico, the Garzes, the Tuspan, the Cazones, the Tenistepec, the Jajalapam or Tecolutla, the Nautla, the Palmar, the Misantla, the Maguilmanapa, the Yeguascalco, the Actopan, the Chuchalaca, the Antigua, the Jamapa, the Rio Blanco, the San Juan or Alvarado, the Aquivilco, and the Gúasacualco which is a boundary stream between the States of Vera Cruz, Oajaca and Tabasco.

The principal lagunes in the State of Vera Cruz are:—The Laguna de Tamiahua, the largest on this coast of Mexico, being ten leagues long and eight leagues broad. It has two mouths in the Gulf;—one at the bar of Tamiahua, and the other, further south near the mouth of the small stream of Tuspan. Between these mouths lies the island of Tuspan; while the two islands of Juan Ramirez and El Toro are found in the lake or lagune itself. The next lagune in importance is that of Tampico, four leagues long and three broad; and besides this, there are—the Lagunas de Mandingo, of Alvarado, (which is subdivided into eight smaller lagunes,) of Catemaico, Alijoyúca, and Tenango.

There are several mineral springs in this State, and at Atotonilco, near Calcahualco, in the district of Cordova, there are warm baths which are celebrated for their efficacy in nervous and rheumatic diseases. There are mineral waters also near the hacienda of Almágros, in the district of Acayucam, and other warm springs near Aloténgo in the district of Jalanzingo, whose qualities have not yet been ascertained by chemical analysis.

The population has been estimated by recent writers at near 251,000; which distributed over the 5,000 square leagues will give about 50 inhabitants to the square league. According to our estimate in the chapter on population, the number may be set down at{185}

JALAPA.

270,000. The milder regions about Jalapa and Orizaba are more thickly peopled, than the comparatively sterile and sickly shores of the gulf. The population is composed of mixed races:—Creoles, Indians, Havanese, Foreigners, and a few Negroes.

The State of Vera Cruz is divided into four Departments and twelve districts, with 103 municipalities and 1,370 village jurisdictions.

1st. The Department of Jalapa, with two districts or cantons, viz:—1st, Jalapa, including the capital of that name,—thirty-one villages, fourteen haciendas and sixteen ranchos;—and 2d, Jalanzingo, with the towns of Perote and Jalanzingo, five villages, seven haciendas and thirty-three ranchos.

2d. The Department of Orizaba, with three districts or cantons: 1st, Orizaba, including the city of that name,—Sougolican, twenty-seven villages, six haciendas and fifty ranchos. 2d, Cordova, including the city of that name, and the towns of Coscomatepec and San Antonio Huatusco,—twenty villages, twenty-eight haciendas 237 ranchos,—and 3d, Cosamaloapan, with eight villages, five haciendas and forty-one ranchos.

3d. The Department of Vera Cruz with four districts or cantons: 1st, Vera Cruz, including the capital of that name, with Alvarado and Medellin, 21 haciendas, 149 estancias, and 600 ranchos. 2d, Misantla, with four villages, two haciendas, and thirty-four ranchos. 3d, Papantla, with thirteen villages, seven ranchos and the hacienda de Norias. 4th, Tampico, with Tampico and Panuco,—seven villages, thirty-nine haciendas and forty-one ranchos.

4th. The Department of Acayucam, with three districts or cantons:—1st, Acayucam, with the adjacent Acayucam and San Juan Olúta, nineteen villages, twelve haciendas, twenty-seven hatos and eleven ranchos. 2d, Huimanguillo, with twenty-one villages, one hacienda and nineteen ranchos. 3d, San Andres Tuxtla, with the adjacent San Andres and Santiago Tuxtla,—two villages, one hacienda, thirty-four hatos, and eight ranchos.

It is impossible in a description of this rich and varied State to sum up with accuracy what it produces either naturally or by introduction from abroad, for its genial climate, changed by the elevation of the interior portions of the State, renders it capable of yielding the fruits, the flowers, the grains, the woods, the vegetables and the animals of the temperate as well as of the torrid zone. Tobacco, coffee, sugar, cotton, corn, barley, wheat, jalap, sarsaparilla, vainilla, mameis, papayas, pine-apples, oranges, citrons, lemons, pomegranates, zapotes, bananas, chirimogas, aguacates,{186} tunas, pears, watermelons, peaches, apricots, guyavas, grapes; mahogony, ebony, cedar, oak, dragon-blood, tamarinds, palms, dyewoods, and a thousand other plants, trees, shrubs, cereals and parasites, spring almost spontaneously from the soil, and render the necessary labor of man almost insignificant. After the strip of sandy sea-shore has been passed, and the country begins gradually to rise, health and rich vegetation follow the traveller's footsteps. He beholds on every side magnificent forests filled with majestic trees and illuminated by the splendid colors of flowers and buds. In the midst of these solitary folds among the mountains, farms and plantations are opened, which gleam with the freshest verdure of cane or corn; while over the levels, innumerable herds of cattle are fed from the mere fulness of the land, and without the necessary tending either of shepherds or vaqueros. An idea of this State's richness in cattle may be formed from the following account of the number it possessed in 1831,—the district of Jalapa being excluded from the list, inasmuch as there were no returns for that year:—

the total value of which, together with the cattle product of the canton of Jalapa, cannot be less than $2,000,000.

The principal cities, towns and villages of the State of Vera Cruz, are 1st, La Villa rica or La Villa Heroica de la Vera Cruz—the capital of the State; 2d, Tampico or Pueblo viejo de Tampico; 3d, Panuco; 4th, Tuspan; 5th, Misantla; 6th, Papantla. [On the road from the port of Vera Cruz to the western limit of the State, lie Paso de Ovejas, Puente del Rey or Puente Nacional, Plan del Rio, and El Encero, but these are small towns or villages of no great consideration.] 7th, Alvarado; 8th, Boca del Rio; 9th, Tlacotalpan; 10th, Cotastla; 11th, Talascoyan; 12th, San Martin Acayucam; 13th, San Andres Tuxtla; 14th, Santiago Tuxtla; 15th, Soconusco; 16th, Jaltipan; 17th, Chinameca; 18th, Orizaba; 19th, Cordova; 20th, Cosamaloapam; 21st, Aculzingo; 22d, Jalapa; 23d, Jalanzingo, and 24th, Perote.

The port of Vera Cruz lies in 19° 11´ 52´´ north latitude, and 98° 29´ 19´´ west longitude, from Paris, on a sandy plain,—interspersed{187} with marshes,—which bound the Gulf of Mexico. Its unhealthiness is proverbial. From the month of May to that of November,—comprising the usual period during which the northers cease blowing,—the vomito prieto, or black vomit, prevails incessantly at Vera Cruz. None but natives of the town, or acclimated foreigners, are free from its attacks, and the frightful inroads it made among our troops, in the year 1847, will long be remembered in the history of our army and country. Time does not appear to have had any effect on this dreadful disease. Increase of population and sanatory precautions do not seem to abate its malignity; and the science of the ablest physicians is entirely at fault in dealing with it. Diarrhœa, dysentery and vomito are the most fatal and prevalent maladies at Vera Cruz; and, the latter disease, is reckoned to cause one-sixth of the whole mortality of the port.{188}

{189}

Table showing the fall of water at Vera Cruz in the years from 1822 to 1830, both inclusive:

The majestic mountain of Orizaba, or Citlaltepetl, the "Mountain of the Star," is found within the limits of the State of Vera Cruz, and as it is somewhat renowned in all geographical descriptions of this continent, we shall insert the first authentic account of its ascent we have ever seen, which was prepared by Lieutenant W. F. Reynolds, of the United States Topographical Engineers, who, with some friends, reached the lofty peak whilst serving with our army in Mexico.

"The Peak of Orizaba," says he, "though situated nearly a hundred miles in the interior, is the first land beheld on approaching Vera Cruz from the gulf. Being visible nearly fifty miles at sea, it is the most important land mark to the sailor in these regions. While the command under General Bankhead, which was the first to march from Vera Cruz to the city of Orizaba, was 'en route,' in February, 1848, the mountain being constantly in view, a trip to its summit was frequently discussed; and after our arrival at that place, the marvellous stories told by the inhabitants only increased our desire to make the attempt. All agreed that the summit had never been reached, though several knew or heard of its being attempted. The difficulties to be encountered were represented as being perfectly insurmountable; craggy precipices were to be climbed; gullies, two thousand feet deep, it was said, were to be crossed; inclined planes of smooth ice were to be ascended; to say nothing of avalanches, under which, we were assured, all the rash party who made the daring attempt would surely find a grave. These extraordinary stories produced quite a different effect from the one anticipated, and the question was not who would go, but{190} who would stay home. It was not, however, till the latter part of April that the weather was thought favorable, and securing, for the proposed expedition, the sanction of the commanding officer, we made our preparations for overcoming all obstacles. Accordingly, long poles were prepared, shod with iron sockets at one end and hooks at the other, to assist in scaling precipices; ropes with iron grapnels were to be thrown over a projecting crag or icy point; rope ladders were made to be used if required; shoes and sandals with sharp projecting points to assist in climbing the icy slopes, were also bespoken;—in short, everything that was thought might be needed or would increase the chances of success, was taken along. The selection of a route presented some difficulty, different ones being recommended—those by San Andres and San Juan de Coscomatepec particularly. In order to decide between them, we endeavored to persuade some of the intelligent citizens who were acquainted with the country, to go with us. At first they consented, but as the time approached one after another declined, till finally, when the party assembled for starting, it was found we were to go alone. Then, as some inclined to one route and others to another, we concluded to reject all their recommendations, and go direct to the mountain, following the path taken by the Indians engaged in bringing down snow to the city, as far as the limits of vegetation, and from that point to go round the peak to the side that would present the best prospect for success.

"We left the city of Orizaba on the morning of the 7th of May, the party consisting of ten officers, including one of the navy, thirty-four soldiers, and two sailors serving with the naval battery, three or four Mexicans and Indians as guides, and enough pack mules to carry our provisions and equipments. Our expedition setting out during the armistice, it was thought advisable to procure a passport from the prefect of Orizaba to provide against exigencies. About six miles from the city of Orizaba we passed through the small Indian village of La Perla; the inhabitants were much frightened at our approach, but our passport soon quieted them, and when they came to know the object of our visit, they seemed to regard us as the greatest set of donkeys they ever saw, telling us very plainly that we could never reach the summit. Nothing daunted, however, we continued on, and immediately after leaving the village commenced a rapid assent, and began to enjoy views which in themselves would have amply repaid us for our trouble. We encamped for the night at an elevation of 7,000 feet above the level of the sea; the night was clear and bracing, but not cold enough to be uncomfortable.{191} The next morning was beautiful and clear, and after an early breakfast, we were again in motion. The scenery was truly sublime, and ascending one mountain after another, valley after valley appeared in view; hills which at first seemed mountains, seemed gradually sinking before our feet, and the range of vision constantly extending, we could not help making frequent halts to admire scenes which cannot be surpassed, and which at every successive turn broke upon our sight with redoubled magnificence and grandeur. We were now in the region of pines and northern plants; the old familiar oak, the birch, and trees unknown to the lower countries, were around us; the heavy undergrowth had disappeared, and we could almost imagine ourselves in our 'dear native land.' Cultivation does not extend up as high as we expected to see it; we passed the upper limit about 8,000 feet elevation. About 12 o'clock, and at an elevation of rather more than 10,000 feet, the guides reported that the mules could go no farther, and not knowing anything of our route beyond, we were compelled to encamp for the night. A brother officer and myself, however, being on horse-back and feeling comparatively fresh, determined to go forward and explore. We concluded that it would not do to stop where we were, but the mules with light loads could go still higher. Accordingly, next morning we again started, four or five of us going in advance to select a good place for encampment, and also to explore the best route for the final ascent. We selected our camp on the verge of vegetation, and went forward by routes far above the line of eternal snow. Under shelter of a rock, and far above that line, some of the party found a rude cross, decorated with paper ornaments and surrounded by tallow candles. Its history we were unable to learn, but it gave rise to many reflections. Who placed it there? when was it erected? and what event did it record? were questions asked, but not answered. During the trip several parties of Indians passed us, who make a regular business of bringing down snow on their backs to the citizens of Orizaba. The cross was probably erected by some of them. On our return, we found all our baggage brought up to the new encampment, notwithstanding it had been pronounced impossible, and on comparing notes, selected the route which seemed most practicable, and prepared for the ascent in the morning. The night was clear and cold, the thermometer falling below the freezing point; a heavy frost and frozen water reminding us forcibly of 'auld lang syne.' While sitting round our camp-fires this evening, it was discovered that there were two flags in the party; the sailors not knowing that one had been brought along, had carried materials{192} and manufactured one in the camp. It was proposed to get up a rivalry as to which flag should be planted first, but we came to the conclusion at last, that should the summit be reached, the honor should be equally shared. As night came on, we enjoyed a most magnificent sight; the clouds gathered round the foot of the mountain so as to entirely obstruct our view, while the distant lightning flash, darting from cloud to cloud, was visible far beneath our feet; the sky overhead being bright and beautiful. We were encamped at an elevation, according to the barometer, of 12,000 feet, about double that of the highest peak of the White Mountains—while the summit still raised its snow-white head above us to a height nearly equal to that of Mount Washington above the sea, and seemed to frown upon the pigmies who dared to attempt to scale its giddy, and, as yet, unascended height. At daylight on the morning of the 10th of May, we were again in motion; many of the party had already given out, so that there were but twenty-four persons to start on the final journey. In a few minutes we were at the foot of the snow, and taking the route over which there seemed to be the least of it, passed for half or three-fourths of a mile over loose volcanic sand. On measuring the slope of this, I found it to be 33°. It was by far the most difficult portion of our ascent;—sinking up to our knees in sand, we seemed to go back about as far as we stepped forward, while the rarefied condition of the atmosphere made exertion painful in the extreme; indeed, during the whole of this day's ascent, it was impossible to advance fifty paces without stopping to take breath. When not exerting ourselves, we could breathe with comparative ease; but the moment we moved, we were reminded of our great elevation. I can only compare the sensation to that felt by a person who, after running at the top of his speed, is ready to sink down from sheer exhaustion.

"At length, however, we reached firm rock, and it was quite a relief to be able once more to climb with our hands and feet. But we were yet far from the point at which we were aiming, and before reaching it were to be many times sorely disappointed. A projecting crag, far above, would be hailed as the summit; step after step the weary body was dragged along, until at length it was reached; but, once there, it was found to be but the base of another still higher;—this, too, being overcome, another was discovered above. Thus, time after time, were our expectations crushed, till hope seemed almost to have forsaken us, and one after another dropped behind in despair. But—'advance'—was our motto, and onward we pushed, until at length the efforts of some of the party were{193} crowned with success, and they dropped exhausted on the brink of the crater.

"The crater is nearly circular and variously estimated by different members of our troop at from 400 to 650 yards in diameter. We all estimated the depth at 300 feet. The sides are nearly vertical, and show strong and unmistakeable signs of fire, looking like the mouth of a gigantic furnace.

"At the foot of this perpendicular wall was quite a bank of sand or débris, which had fallen from the inner surface of the rock, indicating the great length of time since the volcano had been extinct. Indeed its fires were perfectly dead, for the bottom of the crater was covered with snow. Humboldt says its most violent eruptions were in 1545 and 1566,—nor have I seen a record of an eruption since.

"As I desired to test Humboldt's altitude, I had taken the precaution to be as well prepared as circumstances would admit, and accordingly had carried with me the best barometer I could get, which, from previous calculations, I deemed capable of indicating a height of from 300 to 400 feet higher than that given by him. I had, also, provided myself with a spirit-lamp and thermometer, for the purpose of taking the temperature of boiling water; but, on the march, the bottle containing the alcohol was broken and the spirit entirely lost. I therefore determined to test the combustible qualities of whiskey. One of my first objects after reaching the summit was to make observations; but, on preparing the barometer, the mercury sank at once below the graduation.

"I estimated the distance between the lowest line of graduation and the top of the mercury at two-tenths of an inch, which gives,—with corresponding observations in the city of Orizaba at the same hour,—an elevation of 17,907 feet, and makes it the highest point on the North American Continent. I do not think I could have been far wrong in my estimate, as the means of comparison were before me; but, even supposing I was mistaken one-twentieth of an inch, we still have an elevation of 17,819 feet, 98 feet higher than Popocatepetl, which is usually considered the highest point,—5,400 metres, or, 17,721 feet, as given by Humboldt.[51] The temperature was just below freezing point. My attempt to burn whiskey failed. Since my return to the United States, I have observed that Humboldt states that Mr. Ferrar measured Orizaba, eight years before his arrival in Mexico, and gave the mountain an elevation of 5,460 metres or 17,885 feet. Humboldt's measurement, made from a{194} plain near Jalapa, is 155 metres less, or 17,377 feet in all. It will be seen that my determination agrees very nearly with that of Mr. Ferrar.

"We remained on the summit about an hour,—planted our national banner and saluted it with three hearty cheers. The day was clear, but the atmosphere thick and smoky, so that we did not enjoy the views we had hoped for; but as we believed ourselves to have been the first who ever looked into the crater, we were amply repaid for our trouble.

"The descent was by no means so difficult as the ascent; a slide on the snow or sand carried us hundreds of feet down a space which had required many weary steps to ascend. About dark we arrived at our encampment, highly delighted with our trip, though much exhausted. All who made the final attempt were more or less affected either with violent headaches, nausea, and vomiting, or bleeding at the nose. The veils which we provided for our journey did good service, but the face, and particularly the lips, of all who reached the summit, became so extremely swollen and cracked as to confine them to their rooms for several days.

"The difficulty of the undertaking had been greatly magnified;—none of our preparations, excepting veils, were necessary. The sand is the most serious obstacle to be overcome, and by taking a more circuitous route from our last encampment, this might have been avoided. All that is required is patience, perseverance and a physical constitution capable of sustaining fatigue."

Ancient Remains in the State of Vera Cruz.

During the sojourn of Mr. Norman in Mexico, in 1844, as described in his "Rambles by Land and Water," he made an excursion to visit the ancient town of Panuco, where he was received with the greatest kindness and hospitality by the white and half-breed inhabitants. His route lay along the banks of the river, and across the prairies: the common road being only a bridle path through the forest which is never travelled but with the greatest caution and watchfulness. Here, as in the State of Tamaulipas, he visited the Indian huts that lay in his way; but it was quite impossible to convince the credulous children of the wilderness that the acquisition of gold was not the real object of his visit;—and this circumstance may account for the fact that he obtained from them so little information respecting the neighborhood.{195}

Panuco, an old town of the Huestecos, which is subject to occasional inundation during the rainy season, is the only important settlement above Tampico, on the Panuco river, and contains about four thousand inhabitants. It is beautifully seated on the banks of the stream, in the State of Vera Cruz, about thirty leagues from Tampico by water and fifteen by land. In its vicinity, scattered over an area of many miles, are ancient ruins, whose history is not only entirely unknown to the inhabitants, but seems not to excite their interest or curiosity. Mr. Norman could not discover the slightest trace of a tradition on the subject amongst the neighboring people, though he diligently sought it from every reliable source. Several days were employed by him in explorations, and his toil was occasionally rewarded by the discovery of strange and novel objects. Among these was a handsome block or slab, seven feet in length, one foot in thickness, and two and a half in average width. Upon its surface was beautifully wrought, in bold relief, the full length figure of a man in a loose robe, with a girdle about his loins, his arms crossed on his breast, his head encased in a close cap or casque somewhat resembling a helmet without the crest, while his feet and ankles were bound with the thongs of sandals. The edges of this block were ornamented with a plain raised border, about an inch and a half square. The figure is that of a tall athletic man of fine proportions, whose features are of the noblest class of the European or Caucasian race, and the execution of the sculpture was equal to the very best that the traveller found among the wonderful relics of the country. It was found lying on the side of a ravine, resting upon the dilapidated walls of an ancient sepulchre, of which nothing now remains but a loose pile of hewn stones. It was more than four feet beneath the present surface of the ground, and was brought to light in the course of excavating which revealed a corner of the slab, and the loose adjacent stones that had been bared by the rush of waters in the rainy season, while breaking a new and deep channel to the river. The earth that covered the slab and sepulchre had not been heaped by the hand of man; but was the natural accumulation of time, and many years must have been requisite to bury it so deeply.

Three leagues south of Panuco, there are other ancient Indian remains which are known as the ruins of Chacuaco, and are represented as covering an area of three square leagues, all of which were comprised within the bounds of a large city; we should mention also the ruins of San Nicolas, five leagues south-west; and{196}

AZTEC FIGURES IN CLAY.

those of La Trinidad, about six leagues in nearly the same direction. Besides these, there are other ruins of which the traveller was informed, situated at a still greater distance, all of which present the same general features as those already described, and probably belonged to the same period, or were built by the same race. The whole region is alleged to be full of these memorials of the number, power and wealth of the ill-fated nations that once dwelt and worshipped on the eastern slopes of the Mexican Cordilleras.

Domestic utensils made of the ordinary pottery of the country, but skilfully and even artistically formed, have been exhumed from among these ruins of ancient cities; and in the course of Mr. Norman's explorations he unearthed two singular and grotesque images which probably figured in the idolatrous worship of the Indians. Our traveller found that similar images were used by the Indian women of the present day, who suspended them about their necks as talismans, and especially relied on them in seasons of sickness and danger. The images referred to are hollow, with a small aperture near one of the shoulders, and are filled with balls as large as a pea, which are supposed to have been made of the ashes of victims sacrificed in former days to the gods. We have ourselves seen numbers of these earthern figures in the valley of Mexico, where they are vulgarly known as "Mexican's Idols." Travellers have usually classed them among the Dii Penates or household gods of the Aztecs or Toltecs, but we have regarded them either as the ornaments of a primitive people or as the dolls and playthings of their children. In our plates of antiquities discovered in the valley, several figures are to be found which we think belong unquestionably to this class.

Pyramid of Papantla.

Sixteen leagues from the sea and fifty-two north of Vera Cruz, on the eastern slope of the Cordilleras, lies the village of Papantla, in the midst of plains which are constantly fertilized by streams that descend from the mountains. It is the centre of a remarkably rich agricultural district, capable of producing the most luxuriant crops of pepper, coffee, tobacco, cotton, vainilla, sugar and sarsaparilla, and abounding in all varieties of valuable woods; but the heat and maladies of the burning climate prevent the whites from venturing to till so dangerous a district. Accordingly we find that this Indian village has hardly a single Spanish inhabitant or visiter except the priest and the traders who come from the coast to traffic their foreign goods for the products of the aborigines. Two leagues

PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA.

{197}

from this secluded hamlet, lie spread over the plain, the massive ruins of an ancient city, which in its palmy days was more than a mile and a half in circuit. It is a matter of great regret that these relics have never been sufficiently explored, drawn and described. The most satisfactory account that we possess of them is that given in the "Voyage Pittoresque et Archeologique" of Monsieur Nebel, who visited them several years ago, and has sketched the beautiful pyramid represented in the plate, which is unquestionably one of the most perfect and symmetrical relics of antiquity within the present limits of the republic. Time has done its work upon this remarkable remain; and trees, plants and vines, which grow so rapidly in this teeming climate, have sprung among its joints and stories.

The Indians of the neighborhood call this pyramid "El Tajin;" it consists of seven bodies, stages or stories, each of which rises at the same angle of inclination, and is terminated by a frieze and cornice. It is constructed of sand-stone beautifully squared, joined and covered with hard stucco, which appears to have been painted. The pyramid measures one hundred and twenty feet on every side at its base, and is ascended by a stair composed of fifty seven steps, each measuring one foot in height, and terminating at the top of the sixth story. This stairway is divided in three places, by square recesses two feet in depth, resembling those which perforate the friezes on each of the stories. The stair ends at the top of the sixth story, and the seventh, which seems to be in ruins, is hollow, and was probably the shrine wherein sacrifices were offered before the image of the god to whom the pyramid was dedicated. Monsieur Nebel does not state the height of this edifice; but as he gives the elevation of each of the fifty-seven steps, we may calculate that the summit of the shrine is at least sixty-six feet above the base.

ANCIENT HEADS MADE OF CLAY.

{198}

MAPILCA.

A few leagues from Papantla, near an Indian rancho called Mapilca, Mr. Nebel found pyramids, sculptured stones, and the ruins of an extensive city, which it was impossible for him to examine in consequence of the thick vegetation with which they are covered in the dim recesses of the forest. The artist was alone in the wilderness, and unaided except by a few indolent Indians who were indisposed to further his researches. The stone, which is presented in the annexed drawing, is twenty-one feet long, and of a close grained granite; the figures, carved on its surface, differ from the ancient sculptures found on this side of the Cordilleras, and resemble those found in Oajaca, more than any others in Mexico. Mr. Nebel caused an excavation to be made in front of this relic, which he supposed had once formed part of an edifice, and at some distance below the surface he struck upon a road formed of irregular blocks, not unlike the old Roman pavements.{199}

TUSAPAN.

About fifteen leagues west from Papantla, in a small plain at the feet of the eastern Cordillera of Mexico, are the remains of Tusapan, which is supposed to have been a city of the Totonacs. The vestiges of this little Indian city are almost obliterated, and the only very significant relics are the pyramidal edifice exhibited in the annexed plate, and a singular fountain, a drawing of which is given in the work of M. Nebel.

The pyramid, built of stones of unequal size, extends thirty feet on each of its sides at the base, and the summit of its single story is reached by a flight of stairs. Upon the platform of this base a square tower is erected, which is entered by a door whose posts and lintel, as well as the friezes of the edifice, have been elaborately carved. In front of the door, within the tower, stands the pedestal of the ancient divinity, but the idol itself has been destroyed. The interior of this apartment is twelve feet square, and its ceiling, like the external roof, terminates in a point.

Around the pyramid are scattered masses of stones, sculptured into the images of men and various animals; and from the inferior manner in which the carving on these objects is executed, we may judge that this religious temple was not the most celebrated architectural or artistic work of the ancient inhabitants.{200}

The fountain which we have already mentioned is a single female figure in an indecent squatting attitude, nineteen feet high, and cut from the solid rock. The remains of a pipe which conveyed the water to it, are still visible behind the head, and the liquid passed through the body of the gigantic image until it was discharged beneath into the basin or canal, by which it was carried to the neighboring town. The Indian tradition, as recounted by Nebel, states, that the ancient inhabitants of this spot, abandoned it, in consequence of the unfertility of the soil and the failure of the streams, and that they took refuge in, or united themselves with the occupants of Papantla.

ISLAND OF SACRIFICIOS.

At the period of the Conquest of Mexico, this small island, which lies a few miles from the present city and port of Vera Cruz, and under whose lee is found the best anchorage on the Eastern Coast for vessels of war, was unquestionably a spot sacred to sacrifice and burial.

But no one seems to have examined this island, with a truly antiquarian spirit, until it was visited in 1841, by M. Dumanoir, who commanded a French vessel of war which was then anchored at the island. Previous to this time it had been trodden by thousands of idle sailors and landsmen who raked its surface for the Indian relics of pottery and obsidian which lay scattered in every direction; and, consequently there was little of value to be discovered above ground. Accordingly, Monsieur Dumanoir undertook to make suitable excavations, and, in the centre of the islet he discovered various sepulchres, in which the skeletons were found in a state of excellent preservation. Besides this, his trouble was rewarded by the exhumation of large numbers of clay vases, covered with paintings and etchings, together with idols, images, collars, bracelets, arms, teeth of dogs and tigers, and a beautiful urn carved either in white marble or in the alabaster which abounds in the neighborhood of Puebla.

MISANTLA.

About thirty miles from the town of Jalapa, on a ridge of mountains in the canton of Misantla, rises the Cerro or hill of Estillero, near which there is a precipitous mountain on whose narrow strip of table land at the summit, were discovered in 1835, the remains of an extensive ancient city. The site of this town is perfectly isolated. Steep rocks and deep ravines surround the mountain upon which it was built, and beyond these dells and precipices there is a{201}

ANCIENT VASES AND VESSELS.

{202}

lofty wall of hills from whose summit the sea in the neighborhood of Nautla is distinctly visible. The table lands upon which the ruins are found is only approachable by the gentler declivities in the direction of the hill of Estillero; and, at all other points, the lonely eminence appears to have been sundered from the surrounding regions by some volcanic convulsion.

MISANTLA.

As the mountain plain on the summit is approached, the traveller first discovers a broken wall of massive stones, feebly united by cement, which seems to have served for the boundary of a circular plaza or area in whose centre rises a pyramid eighty feet high, forty-nine feet broad, and forty-two deep. It is divided into three stories or stages, and along the sloping sides of the lower and broadest terrace, a stairway leads to the first offset. The second stage is ascended by a stair at the side, and the top of the third is reached by steps niched into the corner of the pyramid. In front of the edifice, on the second story, are two pilastral columns, which it is supposed may have been portions of the stairway; but this part of the teocalli, and its upper story are so wildly overgrown with trees and tropical vegetation that the outline of the structure is greatly obliterated. On the summit, a gigantic tree, has sent its roots deep into the spot which was doubtless once the shrine of the Indian temple.{203}

Beyond the wall of the circular area in which this edifice is placed, are found the remains of the city or town, extending nearly three miles north in a straight line. The foundations of all the houses are still distinctly traceable. They were built of large square stones, and are separated by streets at the distance of about three hundred yards from each other. In some of the blocks of buildings the walls are yet standing, at a height of between three and four feet above the level of the ground. South of the city are seen the relics of a low narrow wall, by which it was defended in that direction;—and north of it there is a tongue of land, jutting out towards the precipitous edges of the mountain, whose centre is occupied by a mound which the explorers have supposed to be the ancient cemetery of the inhabitants. On the left acclivity of the slope by which the town is approached are twelve sepulchres, seven feet in diameter, and as many high, in which several bodies were found, parts of which were in good preservation. The walls of these tombs are constructed of cut stone; but the mortar that probably once joined them, has entirely disappeared. Several erect and sitting figures, carved in stone, were discovered on the site of this city, and two blocks were found, filled with hieroglyphic characters. Numbers of vases and utensils, were also unearthed; but they were carried to Vera Cruz, and all trace of them has been subsequently lost.[52]

REMAINS NEAR PUENTE NACIONAL.

About a league and a half from the Puente Nacional, or National Bridge, to the left of the high road in the midst of a dense forest, and near the banks of the stream known as the Rio del Puente, Don José Maria Esteva found some interesting remains of antiquity in November of 1843. They had been visited in 1819 or '20, by a priest, named Cabeza de Vaca, who was then curate at Puente Nacional, but from that period until 1843, they had been entirely lost sight of. The temple or teocalli, is situated on the top of a small mount, elevated about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the stream, which runs at its feet. In consequence of the inequality of the surface of the soil, the edifice is thirty-three Spanish feet high, on some of its sides, and forty-two on others. It fronts towards the east, and its platform, or upper level, is reached by a stairway of thirty-four steps, so steep as to be almost perpendicular to its base. The platform is forty-eight Spanish feet broad, and seventy long. The semi-circumference of the base is{204} stated to be one hundred and six feet. The edifice is surrounded by six stairways, one foot broad, and the distance between each step or stage of the body of the teocalli, is about seven feet high nearest the base, their height diminishing, however, as you ascend to those nearest the platform. The whole structure is built of lime, sand and large stones taken from the bed of the river, and although shrubs have grown both on the platform and on the stairways, this interesting relic of antiquity has been so completely protected, that its form is still perfectly preserved. At first sight the edifice would seem to be perfectly solid, yet upon examination it has been found to be hollow, and that its ancient entrance was from the west. This entrance, however, is so small that notwithstanding the efforts of laborers who were employed by the explorer to clear the fallen rubbish and open a path, they were unable to penetrate the whole of the interior chambers. The short time they were enabled to devote to this work, and the fear of the Indians to encounter wild beasts and serpents in the interior of the temple, deterred Señor Esteva from further efforts, and thus, perhaps, one of the most perfect remains of antiquity on the east coast of Mexico is still very inadequately described.[53]

PUENTE NACIONAL.

{205}

THE STATE OF TAMAULIPAS.

This State was known, previous to the revolution, as the Itendencia de San Luis Potosi, and included the colony of Nuevo Santander. It is now bounded on the north by the North American State of Texas; on the north-west by the Mexican State of Coahuila; on the west by the States of New Leon and San Luis Potosi; on the south by San Luis Potosi and Vera Cruz; and, on the east, by the Gulf of Mexico. The breadth of the State varies from twelve to fifty-five leagues.

The coast of Tamaulipas is more than three hundred and fifty miles in length, and is fringed with lagunes, varying from four to eighteen miles in width, which are divided from the gulf by barriers and banks of sand. The shallowness of the shores along the whole of this coast, and the dangerous bars which choke the mouths of the rivers, render the navigation difficult and dangerous for vessels of almost all classes. In the northern part of the State, in the neighborhood of the Rio Grande, the country is comparatively level. South of these high plains, however, and some distance in the interior, the land is varied by a succession of mountains, hills and vallies, which gradually slope eastwardly until they are lost in the flats and sands of the sea coast. The Cerro de Martinez, the Cerro de Xeres, the Cerro del Coronel, and the mountain ridges, or sierras, de la Palma and del Carico, are the most remarkable elevations. The land is well watered. Fine vallies extend along the Rio del Norte or Rio Grande, the Tigre, Borbon, Panuco and Dolores. On the coast are found the lagunes of La Madre, Morales and Tampico.

The climate of the interior of Tamaulipas is mild and healthy; but on the coast an intense heat prevails during the greater part of the year, and, combined with the rank vegetation and moisture, produces diseases similar to those which scourge the adjacent shores of Vera Cruz. As soon as the northers begin to blow, all nature—animal and vegetable—is refreshed by the grateful change; but the hot season generally recommences in March, and soon spreads miasma and death throughout the whole of the low lands.

The population of Tamaulipas,—consisting chiefly of Meztizos and Indians,—was estimated by the Mexican Calendar of 1833, at 166,824, who were divided among three departments and eleven districts or cantons. In 1842 the population, as stated in the estimate for a congress, was 100,068; and if to this we add ten per cent. for the estimated increase in seven years, we shall have 110,074 in 1850.{206}

The chief productions and the indigenous plants are similar to those found in the State of Vera Cruz; and considerable trade is carried on with the interior—especially with the States of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, and Queretaro,—in mules, oxen, horses, honey and wax. The coasting and foreign commerce is conducted principally in the ports of Tampico de Tamaulipas and Matamoros. From these places, large quantities of European and North American manufactures, enter the middle and northern States of the republic. Queretaro, San Luis, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Durango, Chihuahua and Sonora are all benefitted by this trade in a greater or less degree; and the Panuco, Rio Grande and other streams are all availed of partially for this interior trade as far as they are navigable. At Soto la Marina an important smuggling business was long and vigorously carried on.

The capital of this State is Victoria, formerly Santander, a town of 12,000 inhabitants. Tampico de Tamaulipas, on the northern bank of the Panuco, which enters the Mexican Gulf five miles below the town, is the principal commercial port of the State. Its bar is dangerous and its harbor considered unsafe. Large vessels cannot approach the town, which is situated among extensive marshes. It is visited almost every year by the yellow fever; yet its foreign commerce is extensive and appears to be increasing.

Soto la Marina is a small village and haven at the mouth of the river Santander, on its left bank. It is composed chiefly of Indian huts, and contains about 3,000 inhabitants.

Matamoros lies on the right bank of the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo del Norte, at the distance of ten leagues from its mouth. It contains about 10,000 inhabitants, who have become well acquainted with the people of the United States during the recent war. The climate of Matamoros is hot and sickly, like that of Tampico or Vera Cruz; but as the river upon which it lies is perhaps the most important in Mexico, and has proved navigable by steamers for a considerable distance in the interior, it is probable that this place will become the depot of a large and valuable commerce destined for the supply of the northern States of the Mexican confederacy. By the treaty of 1848, the Rio Grande became the boundary between large portions of the two republics; and as the intervening country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande is not considered at present attractive for agricultural purposes, it is likely that it will long continue unoccupied and unsettled, thus leaving the whole of our commerce to be conveyed to Matamoros, or to our own neighboring settlements on the opposite shore, for distribution throughout the valley of the Rio Grande.{207}

TAMPICO.

The other towns and villages in Tamaulipas worthy of note, are Altamira, Horcasitas, Coco, Escandon, Llera, Santillana, Padilla, Hoyos, Guadalupe, Reinosa, Camargo, Mier, Revilla, the most important of which lie on the margin of, or near, the Rio Grande.

ANCIENT REMAINS IN TAMAULIPAS.

The only remains of Indian architecture and civilization of whose existence we are aware, are those described in the small work published by Mr. B. M. Norman in 1845, to which we have already alluded, entitled "Rambles by Land and Water or Notes of Travel in Cuba and Mexico." This gentleman's notices of the antiquities in this region are exceedingly brief, sketchy and indefinite, nor are the illustrations with which his text is accompanied, calculated to convey more vivid pictures of the relics he visited or discovered in the course of his investigations along the margins of the Panuco.

Departing from Tampico, in March, 1844, he ascended that river in a canoe, paddled by an Indian, and before nightfall, on the second day of his primitive voyage, reached Topila creek, three miles from the mouth of which he landed at a rancho or cattle farm, belonging to Señor Coss, of Tampico. Five miles from this spot, lying to the eastward of another rancho, he found several considerable mounds, one of which was more than twenty-five feet high and of a circular form. At its sides, a number of layers of small flat well hewn stones were still to be seen; while scattered about were many others of larger size and various shapes. All were perfectly plain or unadorned, and had apparently been used for the door posts and lintels of edifices.

On the following day, the traveller visited the rancho de las Piedras, distant about two leagues and a half in a southerly direction from the bank of the Topila. Passing through a dense wilderness, he reached after much toil, an elevated table land or plateau, near a chain of hills running through this section of country and known as the Cerro de Topila. Here he found more scattered stones which had once formed parts of buildings; while, further on, he discovered several mounds, whose sides were constructed of loose layers of smooth and uniform blocks of concrete sandstone. Most of these layers, had, however, fallen from their places in the tumuli, and were heaped in masses near their base. About twenty of these mounds, lay contiguous to each other, varying in height from six to twenty-five feet, some being circular and others square. The principal elevation in this group of pyramids covers an area of about two acres, and at its base, Mr. Norman discovered a cylindrical{208} stone slab seven inches thick, four feet nine inches in diameter, and pierced through the centre, lying upon the top of a circular wall whose top was level with the ground. On removing this stone he found a well filled up with broken stones and fragments of pottery. The upper portion of the slab bore evidence of having been originally sculptured, but the tracings of the chisel were so much worn by time and seasons that they could not be drawn with accuracy. On the top of the tumulus, in front of which this well was discovered, grew a wild fig tree, whose gigantic height of more than an hundred feet, indicates the great age of the work and the long period of its abandonment.

The walls of the adjacent minor mounds had all fallen inward, from which the traveller concluded that they had been used for sepulture; but he does not seem to have taken the time or trouble to verify this conjecture by personal explorations. The ground, for several miles around, was strewn with loose hewn stones of various shapes, and broken fragments of pottery, which had unquestionably formed parts of domestic utensils. Fragments of obsidian, which had no doubt been the knives and weapons of the former inhabitants of this spot, were also plentifully scattered about, and every indication existed of a dense population in the by gone days. These ruins are placed by Mr. Norman in 98° 31´ west longitude and 22° 9´ north latitude.

But the remains of edifices, pyramids and tombs were not the only relics found by the traveller in these dense forests bordering the Atlantic coast. The Indians who once dwelt in this district, like the Aztecs, Zapotecs and Yucatese had evidently devoted themselves to sculpture; but whether for the purpose of simple adornment or for idolatry, there are no facts to apprise us with certainty. The most remarkable relic found by Norman, was a large head, beautifully cut in fine sandstone, of a dark reddish hue, which abounds in the neighborhood. The face stands out in bold relief from the rough block, as if it had been left unfinished, or as if it was originally designed to occupy a place among the ornamental portions of an edifice. The industrious traveller caused this object to be borne, with others, to Tampico, and has deposited it in the collection of the New York Historical Society. Other stones, of a somewhat similar character, attracted his attention, but the most extraordinary sculpture he has described in his work is that to which he assigns the name of the American Sphynx. It is the image of a gigantic turtle, with the head of a man protruding boldly from beneath its carved and curving case. The back was correctly and{209} artistically wrought, and all the lines of the scales were neatly cut in exact proportions. There were also in many parts fainter lines, shewing that the peculiar and graceful arabesques which are wrought by nature on the shell of this amphibious animal, had not been overlooked by the artist. This huge figure, raised on its four legs, was placed upon a large block of concrete sandstone. All its parts were equally true to nature. It was much mutilated, and the human head had been especially injured, but not sufficiently to obliterate the artistic workmanship with which it had been originally chiselled.

The place where Mr. Norman found these remains had evidently been the site of a large city; and, proceeding with his excavations among huge masses of earth or stones of every size and shape, he was, at length, rewarded by the discovery of another ancient figure. It was merely a human face, in full relief from the block, which was entirely cut away from the top and bottom, but left in two nearly circular projections at the sides. The ornaments on the head are peculiar, and are formed of three balls, with slight indentations, connected together by a band running across the top of the cerebrum and terminating at the sides just above the gigantic ears, which are nearly half the size of the face. The features and contour of the head are described as not resembling those of the American or Mexican Indian in any of their lines. This head is seventeen inches in length, twenty-one in width, including the ears, and ten in thickness. It was found on the side of a large pile of ruins, the remains of dilapidated walls, of which it had unquestionably formed one of the ornaments. It is to be regretted that Mr. Norman was unable to devote more time to the exploration of this region. His antiquarian researches however formed only an episode in his travels through portions of Mexico, and besides this, his labor was exceedingly great in cutting his way through the dense shrubbery which covers the ground amid a wilderness of trees, matted and woven together with thousands of creepers or plants whose thorns pierced or obstructed him at every moment. He had, moreover, to contend with myriads of annoying insects, and he feared the bite of the poisonous alacranes or the spring of the tiger that sometimes started from the thickets. He received no assistance from the stupid Indians dwelling in the neighborhood. They could not conceive that curiosity alone would prompt any one to encounter the toil and danger which must be endured in explorations in the Tierra Caliente of Mexico, and imagined that the search for gold and buried treasure, rather than antiquities, was his real motive for attempting to penetrate the recesses of their lonely wilderness.{210}

CHAPTER III.

WEST COAST OR PACIFIC STATES.

THE STATE OF OAJACA.

This rich and beautiful State lies, for 118 leagues, along the Pacific Ocean. On the north-west, it is bounded by the State of Puebla, on the north by Vera Cruz, and east by the State of Chiapas and the republic of Central America or Guatemala. It extends from east to west about 115 leagues, and from north to south 322 leagues, containing an area of 5,046 square leagues.

We pass now from the hot and sickly sands and marshes of the eastern coast to a region which has been considered by many writers and travellers as the most delightful in Mexico. Beauty of natural scenery and salubrity of climate, fertility of soil and richness of productions, combine to render Oajaca valuable, not only in a commercial aspect, but as a residence in which it would be agreeable to pass a life time. Nor is this the opinion only of the present inhabitants, for the remains of antiquity still found within the limits of the State, prove it to have been the seat of Indian civilization long before the arrival of the Spaniards. The geological structure of this State is different from that of Puebla and Mexico; and the vegetation is quite as vigorous as that of other prolific regions, without the rankness which produces rapid decomposition and miasma. The rains are generally abundant from May to October.

In our general description of the geological and geographical characteristics of Mexico, we have already shown that the great{211} Cordillera, forming the spine of this continent, divides into two arms after leaving the Isthmus, which connects North and South America. One of these mountain ranges with its high vallies and table lands forms the barrier along the Pacific, while the other spreads out its massive veins throughout the middle and eastern portions of Mexico. Between these formations, the Valley of Oajaca lies embosomed; and from this beautiful and fruitful region, which was bestowed by the Spanish crown upon Cortéz, he obtained his Marquisate del Valle de Oajaca, in which his family still possessed, previous to the revolution, 49 villages, with a population of 17,700 persons.

In these two mountain regions, thus sundered by the valley, have dwelt, from the earliest periods, two Indian races known as the Mixtecas and the Zapotecas; the former of which is characterised by activity, intelligence and industry. Besides these tribes, seventeen others are reckoned still to inhabit Oajaca.

The State is divided into eight departments, which are subdivided into districts or cantons.

1st. The Department of the Centre, with the cantons of Oajaca, Partido del Toranéo, Etla, Tlacolula, and Zimatlan.

2d. Department of Ejutla, with the cantons of Octolan, Miahuatlan, and Pochutla.

3d. Department of Jamiltepec, with the cantons of Jamiltepec and Juquila.

4th. Department of Tehuantepec, with the cantons of Tehuantepec, Quechapa and Lachixila.

5th. Department of Teposcolula, with the cantons of Teposcolula, Tlaxiaco and Nocnistlan.

6th. Department of Huajuapam, with the cantons of Huajuapam and Justlahuaca.

7th. Department of Toochila and Villalta, with the cantons of Ixtlan, Yalalag and Chuapam.

8th. The Department of Teutitlan del Camino, with the cantons of Teutitlan and Teutila.

These eight departments and twenty-three cantons,—with nearly 700,000 inhabitants,—contain one city,—the capital, Oajaca;—eight towns; nine hundred and thirteen villages; one hundred and thirty-seven large haciendas; two hundred and thirty-five ranchos; sixty-eight sugar mills or trapiches, and six estancias or cattle estates and grazing farms. Besides these elements of agricultural wealth, Oajaca possesses ten mills, driven by water power, nearly{212} all of which lie in the neighborhood of the capital, and are used chiefly for wheat. Corn is ground or rubbed, for tortillas, on the metate by the Indian women throughout Mexico; and consequently but little of this kind of grain is ever brought to the mills. There are five mines or mineral workings in the State, at Ystepéxi, Taléa, Teojomulco, Peñoles, and Las Péras, with ten smelting and amalgamating establishments.

There are nine sea ports, roadsteads and anchorages in Oajaca, the best of which are Tehuantepec, Huatulco, Escondido, Chacáhua, and Jamiltepec.

Corn, chile, agave, cotton, coffee, sugar, cacao, vainilla, tobacco, cochineal, wax, honey, and a small quantity of indigo, are the staple productions of this State. Nearly all the fruits which we have already described as growing in the State of Vera Cruz, are produced here abundantly, and of excellent quality.

The State is estimated as containing, on an average of years—

The worth of which is calculated, in the home market, at $3,332,757.

Gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, iron, rock salt, limestone, gypsum, &c., are found in Oajaca. In the thirty-nine years between January, 1787, and March, 1826, the official registers show a product in the State of 4,820 marks of gold, and 544,257 marks of silver; and in the five years from March, 1826, to the end of 1830, 95 marks of gold, and 21,701 of silver. But these sums must not be regarded as perfect indications of the absolute product of Oajaca, inasmuch as its proximity to the sea, and the facilities for smuggling in the lonely districts of the west coast have no doubt enabled the trading community to export a large portion of the real avails of the mines, which, of course, never appear in the authentic registers and returns of the State.

The chief towns and villages of this State are: Oajaca, the capital; Guayápa or Huazapa, Talistaca, Santa Maria del Tule, Tlacochahuáya, Teutitlan del Valle, Tlacolula, Mitla, the ancient Leoba;{213} San Dionisio, Totolapa, San Carlos, Villa de Nejapa, Quijechápa, Quiegolani, Tequisistlan, Villa de Jalapa, Tlapalcatepec, Tehauntepec, San Francisco de la Mar, Petapa, Juchuitan, Niltepec Yshuatan, Zanatepec, Tepanatepec, Xoro or Xojocatlan, Cuylapa, Zachila, the ancient Teozapotlan; San Bartolomeo de Zapéche, Zimatlan, Villa de Santa Anna, Chilateca, Santa Cruz Mistepec, San Juan Elotepec, Etla, San Juan del Estado, San Pablo Huizo or Guajolotitlan, Ejutla, Ocotlan, Chichicapa, Ayoquesco, Miahuatlan, Pochutla, Santa Cruz de Huatulco, Juchatengo Tonamaca, Jamiltepec, Acatepec, Juquila, Sacatepéc, Santa Maria Istapa, Teojomulco, Huajuapan, Justláhuaca, Chicahuástla, Achintla, Teita, Villa de Teposcolula, Talaxiaco, Santa Maria Chimalapa, Yanguitlan, Los Pueblos de Almoloyas, San Miguel Chimalapa Nochistlan, Tilantongo, Xaltepec, Teutitlan del Camino, San Antonio de los Cues, Tecomavaca, Quiotepec, Cuicatlan, San Pedro Chiezapotl, Donomingullo, Coyula, Teutila, Villalta, Zoochila, Zolaga, Quetzaltepec, Totontepec, Chuapan, Chinantla, Istlan.

Ancient Remains in Oajaca.

MITLA.

About ten leagues from the capital, on the road leading to Tehuantepec, are the remains of what antiquarians have styled the sepulchral palaces of Mitla, lying in the midst of a rocky granitic region, and surrounded by sad and sombre scenery. According to tradition, these edifices were erected by the Zapotecs, as palaces and sepulchres for their princes. It is asserted that at the death of members of the royal family, their bodies were laid in the vaults beneath, while the sovereign and his relatives retired to mourn the loss of the departed scion in the chambers above these solemn sepulchres, which were screened from the public eye by dark and silent groves.

Another tradition declares that these edifices were the abodes of a sect of priests, whose duty it was to dwell in seclusion and offer expiatory sacrifices for the royal dead who reposed in the vaults beneath.

The village of Mitla was called Miguitlan, signifying, in the Mexican tongue, a place of sadness; while by the Zapotecs it was named Leoba, or "the tomb."

The palaces or tombs of Mitla, form three edifices, symmetrically arranged in an extremely romantic site; the principal and best preserved edifice has a front of nearly one hundred and fifty feet. A{214}

Scale of Varas. RUINS AT MITLA.

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stair-way through a dark shaft leads to a subterranean apartment of one hundred feet in length, by thirty in width, whose walls are covered with Grecian ornaments similar to those on the exterior of the edifice, as shown in the plate. These external walls are said to be decorated with labyrinthine figures, formed by a mosaic of small porphyritic stones, and we recognize in them the same designs which are admired in the ancient vases, falsely called Etruscan, and on the frieze of the old temple usually assigned to the god Redicolus, which lies near the grotto of Egeria at Rome.

But the objects which chiefly distinguish the architectural remains of Mitla from all other Mexican antiquities are six porphyritic columns, which support the ceiling of a vast saloon. These singular columns,—almost the only ones found in the New World,—evince the extreme infancy of art;—they have neither bases nor capitals, and are cut in a gradually tapering shape from a solid stone, more than fifteen feet in length.

The distribution of the apartments in this extraordinary edifice presents some striking analogies with the monuments of Upper Egypt, described by Denon and the savants who composed the institute at Cairo. Don Pedro de Laguna, who examined them carefully many years ago, discovered on their walls some curious paintings of sacrifices and martial trophies. In order to form an idea of the almost Cyclopean style of architecture, we may remark the extraordinary dimensions of the stones above the entrances to the principal halls. Mr. Glennie states that one of these masses is eighteen feet eight inches long, four feet ten inches broad, and three feet six inches thick. A second is nineteen feet four inches long, four feet ten and a half inches broad, and three feet nine inches thick, whilst a third is nineteen feet six inches long, four feet ten inches broad, and three feet four inches thick. The antiquarian will not fail to observe, that there is some similarity between the exterior of these Oajacan remains and those which have been uncovered and described in Yucatan, by Stephens, during his second expedition. It is not improbable that an intercourse existed between the inhabitants of these districts, prior to the Spanish Conquest. We believe that these architectural remains and nearly all of those in Yucatan, Chiapas and Guatemala, were the abodes and temples of the Indians who dwelt in Mexico and the adjacent countries when Grijalva and Cortéz first landed on our continent. The distance from Oajaca, through Chiapas and Tabasco, to Yucatan is not too great to have prevented even a rapid communication from Mitla to Uxmal, or Palenque. The reader will recollect that the{216} realm of Montezuma is alleged to have extended to near the present limits of the Republic of Central America; nor will he forget with what rapidity the well trained Indian couriers of the Emperor passed over the three hundred intervening miles of mountain, plain and valley, between Vera Cruz and the Valley of Mexico, in order to inform their sovereign of the Spaniards' arrival and their leader's determination to visit the Aztec Court. At Cozumel, and elsewhere in Yucatan, the earliest Spanish adventurers were struck by the architecture of the edifices which were inhabited by the Indians. In their letters and narratives they always speak of these "buildings of stone and lime" as indicating civilization. The Indian deities were, at that time, unquestionably, worshipped in them. At Cholula, Tlascala, and Tenochtitlan or Mexico, as well as at Tezcoco,—pyramids, dwellings, palaces, walls, streets, causeways, were all built of stone cemented by mortar, and many of these objects were profusely ornamented. There can be no doubt of these facts, for they were attested at the time by numerous witnesses, while many of the material relics of that age have descended even to the present time, and may still be inspected in the capital of the Republic. Why, then, should we hesitate to believe that a vast chain of civilized, intelligent and affiliated nations, co-existed on the central part of this continent in the sixteenth century, and that the ruined cities, temples and pyramids which are spread from the waters of the Gila as far south as Peru and Chili, and whose wonderful remains are now gradually unearthed by the industry of antiquarians, are the architectural fragments of their national grandeur?

We do not conceive it necessary to throw back the Indian architects into the gloom of antiquity, long anterior to the arrival of the Spaniards. There is a natural yearning in the human mind for the mystery with which a vague, indefinite epoch, surrounds ruins that are accidentally discovered. But this is a poetical sentiment, rather than a fair starting point in archaiological researches; and, in spite of the national vanity which might be gratified by proving that the aboriginal civilization of our continent was as old as that of Egypt, we shall adhere to the belief that Mitla, Palenque, Uxmal and Quemada were inhabited by the builders or their descendants, whilst the thrones of Mexico and Peru were occupied by Montezuma and Atahualpa.{217}

Quiotepec, or Cerro de las Juntas.

In 1844, an examination was made by order of the Governor of Oajaca of the ancient remains situated near the village of Quiotepec, about thirty-two leagues north from the capital of Oajaca. These ruins are found on the Cerro de las Juntas, or Hill of the Union, so called from its vicinity to the junction of the rivers Quiotepec and Salado.

The eminence is covered in almost every direction with remains of military works of a defensive character, calculated to protect the dwellings erected on the hill, and the extensive temple and palace, whose massive ruins still crown the summit. These remains are said to resemble those of Chicocomoc or Quemada, in the State of Zacatécas, which will be fully described in our notice of that portion of Mexico. The similarity consists in the style of the architecture, and the evident mingling of defence and worship. There is no resemblance, however, to the remains found in Yucatan as described by Stephens, Catherwood and Norman, where the designs are all highly ornamental, denoting a higher state of luxury, taste and progress in civilization. The teocalli or temple of Quiotepec and that of Chicocomoc or Quemada are both pyramidal, like most of the Aztec religious structures; but the architectural style, generally, at the former place, is rather more sumptuous than at Quemada.[54]

Besides these remains, there are many others in the State of Oajaca, which are still inadequately known or described, such for instance, as the turmuli and pyramids at Montealban, two leagues south-west from Oajaca;—the relics of many strong-holds;—the turmuli at Zachila;—the ruins at Coyúla and at San Juan de los Cués.

In the museum of the University of Mexico, and in the private collection of the late Ex-Conde del Peñasco, we found some remarkable figures chiselled from a finely grained sand stone, two of which are represented in the succeeding pages. They were found in the State of Oajaca. Their use or their symbolical character have never been accurately detected; but in the last of the two we may observe quite a remarkable resemblance to some of the idols still to be seen in the temples of India.{218}

FIGURE FROM OAJACA.

{219}

FIGURES FROM OAJACA.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE STATE OF PUEBLA.

Nearly all of this State lies in the torrid zone, occupying a portion of the table land, and stretching westwardly down the slopes of the Sierra Madre to the Pacific Ocean, between the parallels of 16° 17´ and 20° 40´ north latitude. From the mouth of the river Tecoyáme to Mextitlan, it is 126 leagues long, and from Tehuacan to Mecameca, 53 leagues broad. It contains an area of 2,700 square leagues. On the north it is bounded by the State of Queretaro, north-easterly by the State of Vera Cruz, easterly by Oajaca, westwardly by Mexico and south-westwardly, for 28 leagues, by the Pacific Ocean. The last enumeration of inhabitants to which we have access, assigned 954,000 individuals to the State of Puebla, in the year 1832; but the estimate made for the basis of a call of congress in 1842, gave it only 661,902.

This State is divided into 25 partidos, or districts, the chief of which are Atlixco, Guauchinango, Ométepéc, Puebla, Tepéaca, Tehuacan de las Granádas, Tlapan, and Zacatlan. It possesses 5 cities and towns, 126 parishes, 590 villages, 412 haciendas or plantations, and 857 large and small ranchos or farms. The surface of this State is divided between mountains, vallies, plains or low lands; and produces corn, wheat, barley, chile, maguey, beans and all the hardier, together with some of the southern fruits and plants. The wheat flour of Puebla is celebrated for its excellence, and has sometimes been exported to Havana and South America.

In the neighborhood of Oajaca cochineal is sometimes produced; and on the low lands towards the western coast, cotton, rice, and small quantities of coffee and sugar are cultivated. The Llanos de Apam, in the neighborhood of the State of Mexico are celebrated for their fertility, and especially renowned for the excellence of the pulque, produced from the maguey or Agave Americana.{221}

Nearly four-fifths of the real property of Puebla either belongs or is hypothecated to the church and to hospitals, and consequently the agriculture of the State is not as well managed as if the land belonged to independent farmers, who derived their wealth directly from the soil. Great poverty prevails among the lower classes, and their sad condition is generally attributed in Mexico to the mismanagement of real estate by the clergy.