The most important company operating is the one known as the Ward Line, which conducts a weekly service between several Mexican ports, Havana and New York. This company has some very good boats, and does a large business between all of those ports. The Mallory Line, the Mexican-American Line and the Munson Line have regular service between Mexican ports, Galveston and New Orleans. There are also several companies that make regular trips between Vera Cruz, Tampico and European ports. On the Pacific coast the Kosmos Line, operated by the Hamburg American Company, have a regular service from Seattle down the west coast of the United States, Mexico, Central America and South America to Europe by the way of the Straits of Magellan. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company operate about three boats a month from San Francisco to Panama, where connections are made for New York and West Coast ports of South America. The American-Hawaiian Company have boats which sail between Hawaii and Salina Cruz. There are also, in addition to these mentioned, a number of coast lines on both the Pacific and Atlantic side, which do a considerable traffic between the various ports. The Canadian-Mexican Pacific Steamship Company recently began to operate boats between Victoria, British Columbia and Salina Cruz, and gives a monthly service between those ports. In order to develop and facilitate this coast traffic the Mexican government has spent a great deal of money in providing harbours and docks at a number of the smaller ports, in addition to the larger enterprises that have heretofore been described.
Mexico has not a great number of navigable rivers. On the Pacific side the Mayo, the Yaqui, the Balsas, the Rio Grande de Santiago and one or two others are classed as navigable streams, but because of bars and other obstructions they can be used only by boats of comparatively light draft. On the Atlantic side, just below the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, is the Grigalva River, which is a broad and imposing stream. Large boats ply regularly up this stream to San Juan Bautista, a distance of about seventy-five miles. Small boats go up still farther, the boat traffic extending clear to the mountains. The Usumasinta River is an affluent of this stream, and is navigable for small boats even beyond the Guatemala border. The Coatzacoalcos River, which flows into the Gulf at the town of the same name, is quite an important stream, and furnishes an outlet to a considerable territory. The Papaloapan River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico near Vera Cruz, has been dredged and made navigable for a considerable distance into the interior. It has proved a great benefit to many small towns and plantations there situated.
North of Vera Cruz are the Soto La Marina, the Tuxpan and the Panuco Rivers, all of which are navigable for a hundred miles or more. As an adjunct to the navigable streams and the deep water ports the government is now building an intercoastal canal, which is similar to the one proposed along the Gulf coast of Louisiana and Texas to connect the Mississippi and Rio Grande Rivers. There are a series of lagoons and small lakes that lie just a short distance within the coast line, and which can be connected and deepened. They will then form a convenient and safe waterway for navigation. The government is spending several million dollars on the first link of this system, which will connect the ports of Tampico and Tuxpan, a distance of about a hundred miles. Half of this section is already finished and in operation, and it is estimated that in three or four years more this part of the canal will be finished. This waterway has a width of seventy-five feet and a uniform depth of ten and one-half feet, and will connect the mouths of the Panuco and the Tuxpan Rivers. The Panuco, near Tampico, is fifty feet deep, and the deepest draft ocean vessels can come in and unload at the docks of Tampico. The section of the canal already opened is constantly filled with long and narrow boats, manned by natives, which are propelled by means of long poles when the wind fails.
The opening of this section of the canal has worked wonders in the development of this part of the coast land, because it places the products of the plantations and ranches within easy reach of the markets. It has also served to drain thousands of acres of land, which were formerly considered to be of no use whatever. On this route the canal passes through Lake Tamiahua, which is seventy-nine miles long and from five to twenty miles wide. Lake Tampamachoco, a much smaller lake, will also be traversed by this canal. The water in these lakes is comparatively shallow, and it has been necessary to deepen them considerably in order to make the canal of uniform depth with the other portion. The distance between Tampico and the mouth of the Rio Grande is about three hundred miles, but a number of salt water lagoons, which lie near the coast, can be utilized as a portion of the canal. If this project, and the similar one planned by the United States, are completed, it will furnish a very long inland waterway for the coast region. It will serve the double purpose of draining and making more healthful that portion of the country, and likewise giving an outlet for the development that will surely follow. The land when once drained has been proved to be of unusual fertility.
The influence of the Anglo-Saxon in Mexico has been very marked. What the English have done in Argentina and many parts of the world, the Americans have done in our neighbouring republic. It is a significant fact that the Spanish influences have been perceptibly disappearing, while that of the Anglo-Saxon has been in the ascendency. This change can be noted in a great many ways, both in thought, customs and foreign relations. This transition has not been promptly recognized, and in some quarters it has been strongly objected to by the extreme conservative elements; but, nevertheless, it has been steadily marching on. Many of the Mexicans prominent in the political and business life recognize this trend and encourage it, for they feel that Mexico needs Anglo-Saxon methods and ideas in order to develop the country, and give it the prestige that its importance deserves. There are perhaps twenty or twenty-five thousand Americans who permanently reside in Mexico, and, in addition, there is the effect of the many millions of American money invested in the country, and the thousands of tourists and business men who annually cross the borders.
There is, doubtless, a strong prejudice against the American and his methods in many parts of Mexico, and this feeling seems to have been somewhat intensified in the recent revolution. It is not to be wondered at that such a feeling exists. From first to last Mexico has ceded to the United States almost one million square miles of territory, which is almost one-third more than the present size of the republic. First came the separation of Texas, which was undoubtedly due to the intriguing of Americans who had crossed over into that section of Mexico. These pioneers and adventurers brought about the declaration of independence by the Lone Star State. A few years later that territory was admitted into the United States as one of its integral parts. Then came the Mexican War, which most of us admit was an unjust war, and which resulted in the cession of more than half a million of square miles of territory. A few years later, by the Gadsden Purchase, which was due to disputes over the boundary line, another block of territory, as large as the state of Ohio, was added to the domain of the United States.
In the revolution of 1910 many Americans crossed the border, joined the forces of the revolutionists, and aided in the troubles of the then existing government. Furthermore, very many American tourists who visit Mexico make themselves disagreeable by their actions and their criticisms, which also add to the anti-American feeling. So many include all Mexicans under the general title of “greasers,” and can see no good in anything that is not American. It is a fortunate thing that the good people of Mexico understand very little English; otherwise they would frequently be excited to anger, if they could hear the remarks that are made by Americans in visiting their churches, battle fields and other places surrounded by sacred associations. They are not fools, however, and even if they do not understand the words they can catch the trend of remarks by the gesture and laugh that accompanies them. As the Spanish race are exceedingly sensitive this lack of sympathy and almost open contempt cannot result otherwise than do injury to a general good feeling. Some Americans grumble at everything, get mad because all the waiters and porters do not understand English, complain about the hotels because they cannot obtain everything just like they would in a Fifth Avenue hotel, and, in fact, find fault with everything that they see. As a contrast to this one might consider the attitude of Mexicans. It is difficult to do justice to the innate courtesy of officials and people when Americans show them so little. You can murder his beloved Spanish in attempting to address a Mexican, and he will listen with infinite patience and never a smile of amusement or expression of vexation on his face. The Mexican is polite not only to his superiors and equals, but to his servants as well.
The republic of Mexico has passed through dark days. It has suffered from the evil government of foreigners and from the reckless ambitions of its own rulers. The burdens of former mistakes still remain, and there is a lingering distrust of the powerful republic to the north in many places. This distrust has been fanned into greater intensity by recent political agitators. The good sense of the leaders will quickly reassert itself, however, and a more perfect understanding will surely result. American intelligence and capital have done too much in bringing about the material prosperity of the country for such conditions to exist permanently. Mexico needs capital for the development of her resources, and American capital is most available for that purpose. Americans will even be interested in the moral and material advancement of their neighbours across the Rio Grande.
To the reader who has followed this narrative to the end, I give my valediction, a la Mexicana:
Adios! Vaya usted con Dios.