In quite a different direction is the city of Puebla, one of the foremost of the State capitals, lying within a short distance by rail from the City of Mexico. This city has acquired a considerable commercial and industrial importance of recent years, largely due to the local cotton-manufacturing industries and general flourishing agricultural resources. The city is not, however, spoilt by the manufacturing element as regards its character and appearance, and the cleanliness of its streets and general beauty and severity, in their various fields, of its church and domestic architecture charm the traveller, and elicit admiration from those who had expected a less advanced community. The cathedral is one of those handsome colonial structures for which Mexico is famous. The elevation of the city is slightly over 7,000 feet above sea-level, with a corresponding excellence of climatic conditions, whilst the general environment and azure tropic sky form a whole which remains pleasingly upon the memory. A busy population of more than 93,000 people is supported in the city, mainly by the natural products and manufactures of its environment. Overlooked by the picturesque hills where the struggle for independence was raged in the historic years of last century, and sentinelled to the north-west by the two volcanic peaks of snow-crowned altitude, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, the city of Puebla is of much interest.
To the north, and of a somewhat different character as regards their environment and population, are the cities along the Great Plateau, especially those upon the mineral belt, although they bear the inseparable stamp of the Spanish-American people and their life. Some of these cities sprang to being upon the very flanks of the mountains which give them their source of life—silver—centuries ago. Among these great towns of the plateau, especially those whose wealth and population have accrued from or depend upon the business of delving into the earth for minerals, is Guanajuato, picturesquely situated among the foothills of a mountain range known as the Sierra of Santa Rosa. Its elevation above sea-level is 6,850 feet, and the dry, clear atmosphere, bright hues of buildings and churches, sloping hills with houses and gardens perforce terraced thereon, with the brilliant sunlight overhead, form a characteristic Mexican centre of industry. The houses of Guanajuato are built of a species of freestone, which as a fine-grained tufa caps the Sierra in places here, and is known as cantera. It is easily worked and hardens on weathering, and its use gives a well-constructed appearance to the streets. I have noted the same aspect in other Spanish-American countries, notably the Peruvian city of Arequipa. According to the calculation of Humboldt, the great veta madre, or "mother lode," of Guanajuato, had yielded, up to his time, silver to the value of fifty-eight million pounds sterling; and, indeed, it is to be recollected that, a century ago, Guanajuato was a larger city than New York!
Of Zacatecas, Durango, San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes, and others of the numerous important cities and towns, linked together by the great trunk lines of railway along the vast reaches of the mesa central, we cannot speak save by name. Each has its peculiar circumstance and interest, and the different States of which they form the political and industrial centres are described in the chapter devoted thereto. We will, however, take a momentary flight to the fine city of Chihuahua, far to the north, situated among its great plains and mineral-bearing mountain ranges. Among these vast deserts, now slowly yielding to reclamation by the hand of civilised man, scorched by a merciless sun by day and bitterly cold by night, which form this part of Mexico, the savage Apaches formerly roamed—the abominable Apaches: the cruellest and most treacherous race the world has ever known. Well might these savages have been hunted to the death by the invaders of the white race, both here and on the great American deserts north of the Rio Grande, and well might their scalpings and torturings form the theme for those adventurous novels which made our flesh creep as we perused them in boyhood's days! Now the degenerate descendants of these once formidable Redskins seek a living in desultory cultivation of the soil, although bands of them and of other tribes still cause trouble to soldiery of the Mexican Republic at times. But the capital city of Chihuahua is an example of man rising superior to savagery and Nature, and this splendid centre of modern life and industry is far removed from the condition of its natural surroundings. It stands at an elevation of nearly 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. The climate is a healthy one, eminently suitable for the white race and its activities; and the population of 30,000 inhabitants forms the centre of a great growing region whose natural resources are manifold. Upon the river Conchos, and upon the Casas Grandes, affluents of the Rio Grande or Bravo, are some of the ruins which are amongst the oldest and most interesting of Mexico, from an archæological point of view.
We have said that the Mexicans are an hospitable people, and this is eminently true of the upper class. As to the peones, they are, in the more remote districts, by no means of an untractable or surly character, although the lowest in the scale, and some of the Indian tribes, are excessively stupid and suspicious. The Mexicans of better class divide these people into gente de razon, or "rational" people, and gente intratable, or people with whom it is almost impossible to treat or to comprehend. These people vary much throughout the country, but as a rule they are unaggressive and harmless. Whilst thieving is generally ascribed as a strong vice of the Mexican lower class, this must not be rashly applied. The peon, or Indian, may take articles of small value which are left about, but he does not commit crime in order to rob; and the extraordinary outrages constantly perpetrated in the "Wild West" of the United States, in the shootings, "holding-up" of passenger trains, wrecking of express cars by dynamite, bank robbery, and the like exploits of the Anglo-American desperado, to steal, are unknown to the temperament of the Spanish-American. The latter are creatures of impulse, and lack the "nerve" for a well-planned murderous exploit of the above nature. Nor are they capable of the lynching, burnings of negroes, and race riots which characterise those parts of the United States which bound Mexico on the north, and once formed part of her territory. If, however, their crimes are smaller, so is their power of initiative, sustained effort, and the working for to-morrow characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-American peoples. Yet the police are much in evidence in Mexican travel. A gendarme with sabre and revolver accompanies every car on the trains which cross the great plateau. Indeed, in former years robbery with violence was the chief "incident" of travel in Mexico. Footpads and armed bandidos infested every highway and mountain road twenty years ago, and travel was impossible except with an armed escort. But this was before the work of President Diaz and his rurales. The conditions are now very different, and the traveller may journey almost anywhere, except in a few districts, without danger of molestation, with ordinary precautions such as the characteristic conditions of the country call for. In those places where the peones are distrustful of the white foreigners it is generally due to the influence of these, who have ingrained their own bad habits and vices upon them. A gentleman, if he holds the demeanour covered by the designation, ever carries respect in Mexico.
Incidents of life and travel in remote regions, among the petty authorities and the hacendados, rancheros, and landowners generally, are full of colour and interest for the traveller. Our belongings are securely packed upon a couple of well-appointed mules; we are astride passable Mexican horses, seated on comfortable saddles, with our servant and the arriero in attendance, and we have left the last of the city streets; with our face to the open country the true charm of travel comes upon us—the touch of Nature, solitude, and the far horizon which nothing else can ever supply. Thus accoutred we shall hold real converse with Nature, and with the typical people of the land over which we pass.
Let us therefore turn our attention to the picturesque world of the great bulk of the Mexican population, the class which earns its daily bread by the sweat of its brow. These are the peones, and to their work is due the cultivation of the ground, the working of the mines, and all the manual labour without which the industries of the country would be non-existent. The peon is not necessarily a forced labourer. Nevertheless, the conditions of his life are such that he is not a free agent as the working men of other countries are. His payment is largely received in goods which he is obliged to purchase in the general store of the hacienda, belonging to the proprietor, or by some one licensed thereby. This is a species of "truck" system. High prices and short weight—in accordance with the business principles underlying such systems—generally accompany these dealings. Moreover, as the peon has often been granted supplies in advance, against future wages, he is generally in debt to the store, a condition which, purposely, is not discouraged. The law does not support the system, but as the whole area of land surrounding the hacienda belongs thereto, the proprietor may or may not—generally the latter—permit the establishment of any independent shop in the vicinity. Indeed, such temerity on the part of any would-be merchant would soon call down punishment—if such it may be termed—from the myrmidons of the landowner, to whom the hunting of "contraband" vendors of goods or liquor is fair game.
| A TOBACCO-PRODUCING HACIENDA: STATE OF VERA CRUZ. |
The house of the peon—the single-roomed adobe-built habitation, or the wattle-built jacal in which he dwells, belongs to the estate owner; and if the dweller, through laziness or other similar cause, fails to put in an appearance in the fields, he is soon forced to vacate it, and, supposing him to be free from debt, to leave the hacienda. He toils all day in the fields, drawing a scanty wage, and retires at night to this primitive abode, which he shares with his female consort and her progeny.