of burthen, or an antiquated clumsy Mexican coach, were the only means of travelling. Of these, the litera, a species of palanquin in which the traveller reclined at ease upon his mattress and cushions, was by far the most comfortable, and the use of this convenient vehicle is still continued especially in the warmer parts of the country where exposure to the sun is dangerous, and into which the modern diligence or stage coach has not been introduced from the factories of the United States. In many portions of Mexico, where the transportation has been for centuries carried on by Arrieros with their mules and jackasses, scarcely any thing of the original road remains, while the path that has been so long trodden by the single file Atajos of these useful beasts has been worn so deeply by their feet in the yielding soil or rock, that the animals themselves are often concealed by the steep sides of the gully. Thousands of sturdy Mexicans have for years been employed as Arrieros in this business of mule-carriage. The "Conducta" is recognized as one of the traditionary, time honored, and almost constitutional institutions of the Republic, and it may easily be conceived that with so powerful a body of honest, industrious men opposed to any new scheme of transportation, it will require a long time for the enlightened requirements of extended commerce to displace it. The fidelity of this class has been already, elsewhere, alluded to; and whilst it is personally reliable and responsible, its members are scarcely ever attacked by the bands of robbers infesting the recesses of the mountains, and laying in wait for less numerous, resolute or organized way-farers. Millions were, and still are, often entrusted to them with perfect confidence by the government and the people.
Nevertheless, within the last fifteen years the growing manufactures of Mexico required a stouter means of transportation of heavy machinery than the limbs of a mule, and the consequence was that intelligent foreigners availing themselves of this want in the first instance, gradually introduced heavy wagons like those of the European roulage system, into which, by degrees, they forced a large portion of the bulky commercial freight which was to be borne from the coast into the interior. Simultaneously with this encroachment on the mule, the arriero, and the litera, appeared the American stage coach, built in New York; and together with the coach and its spirited horses, came the "Yankee driver," whose accommodating and daring character soon made him a favorite with those whose trade he in some measure injured, though it did not serve to protect him or his passengers from the attacks of robbers. The line of diligences or coaches established from Vera Cruz to the capital, passing through Jalapa, Peroté and Puebla, was gradually extended northwards from the capital through the principal mining and commercial cities of the north, and thus the means of swift and comfortable travel was at length, though only recently, supplied to a small part of Mexico.
The danger of robbers, the wretchedness of the roads, the discomfort of inns and the old fashioned Mexican habit of staying at home, have, therefore, hitherto prevented the masses of the people from going abroad. A journey of two or three hundred miles, for any purpose but business or emigration, is still regarded as an important undertaking. When families depart on such an expedition the preparations embrace almost every comfort and luxury required at home, except a cow and a piano. Until very lately nothing but shelter or the commonest food was to be had at the miserable mesones or taverns along the roads. In most of the less frequented regions this is still the case. It was necessary therefore that travellers should be accompanied by a full complement of servants, that they should carry with them an ample supply of bedding and table furniture, that their long and numerous train should be fully armed and equipped to fight its way if necessary, and that they should be content to halt frequently, journey slowly, and linger on the road. Inconveniences like these necessarily localized and confined all classes of Mexicans except the very rich or those whose business imperatively required them to encounter a life of expensive adventure. Nor was Mexico a country of watering places and sea-side fashion, in which it was customary, at certain seasons, for all whose means permitted, to fly from the city to the fields or the shore for recreation and health. Invalids, occasionally, under the stringent orders of physicians, crawled to the warm baths or mineral waters which are abundant in a volcanic country, but they were not followed by the idle crowds who frequent similar places in Europe and the United States. Tens of thousands are now living in the city of Mexico who have not even crossed the lake to Tezcoco; while the fashionable or the wealthy are perfectly satisfied if they make an annual peregrination in the month of May of twelve miles to San Agustin de las Cuevas, where they spend three days of frivolity, gambling, cockfighting, and dancing. The journeys of the rest of the year are confined, as they are elsewhere in the Republic, to an evening drive or ride on the Passeos and Alameda, or a more extended excursion of a few miles to Tacubaya or San Angel. It was not the usage, in the early days of Mexico or during the viceroyal government, to travel for pleasure in a country conquered from the Indians, and still ravaged by them or made insecure. The custom of the Spaniard has become a habit of the Mexican. It may, in truth, be said that the spirit of travel does not rule in Mexico, and that her people are stationary. Railways do not traverse her valleys and plains, nor do electric telegraphs convey the thoughts of her people thousands of miles in a minute. Even the mail system is expensive, incomplete and inadequate. Neither a steamboat nor a locomotive belongs to the nation.
In addition to all these habitual, accidental and geographical difficulties of travelling over and exploring this mountain country, its constant revolutionary state since the rebellion against Spain has tended to retain people as much as possible either in the neighborhood of their families or of their business and interests. Nor has scientific education been extended sufficiently to form a large or enthusiastic class of engineers who would have traversed the land and combined the results of their observations. A few scattered students have, indeed, published detached essays upon portions of the Republic, and the Comision de Estadistica Militar is now engaged in gathering statistical and geographical reports of the several States. But the elements from which these bulletins are constructed do not seem to be collected upon any uniform system of very responsible scientific inquiry. The local authorities from whom much of the numerical information is necessarily obtained, if they are connected with any of the branches of taxation, or revenue collection, are generally unreliable or corrupt, for, in consequence of the system of peculation which has been carried on during the late disorganized epoch of Mexican history, it was their interest to conceal rather than to disclose facts, especially when those facts manifested the great value or production of the region over which they presided.
Nevertheless, amid all these sad excuses for insufficiency or inaccuracy, we may congratulate Mexico upon the effort which she is now making to redeem herself from the past opprobrium. The war with the United States has taught her many things, social as well as political. Education is beginning to be more valued and extended. Periodicals and newspapers are more freely published and diffused. Their leading articles and scientific communications show that new classes of writers as well as politicians are coming readily into the field in a period of assured peace and order. These two elements of national progress will enable Mexico to become acquainted with herself, and when her students disclose the result of their discoveries, we shall be glad to see our imperfect but honest efforts superseded by a work that will confer honor upon Spanish science and literature.
APPENDIX NO. 1.
PROFILE OF THE PLATEAU—MEXICO TO SANTA FÉ—SANTA FÉ TO THE GULF.