A CHURCH GOING TO DECAY.
"The process of making sugar has been described so often that it would be superfluous to give it a place here. Some of the estates date from the time of Cortez, and we were shown a building that was erected about 1540, if the tradition concerning it is correct. Of course the processes for obtaining sugar from the cane have greatly improved since that time, and the sugar-makers of three hundred years ago would be very much astonished if they could wake up and see what is going on here now."
Doctor Bronson and his nephews spent two or three days around Cuautla, and then continued on to Yautepec, where they took horses for a five hours' ride to Cuernavaca. They took the advice of Señor Domingo, and spent the night at Yautepec, so as to make the horseback journey in the early hours of the day, and thus escape the heat of noon.
"We had a rough ride," said Frank, "but were amply repaid for it, not only by the scenery along the way but by the quaint and picturesque position of Cuernavaca. It has a commanding site on a promontory projecting into the Valley of Cuernavaca, several hundred feet above it. The valley is exceedingly fertile, and so is the ground on which the town, with its twelve or fourteen thousand inhabitants, is located. There was a town here when Cortez came to Mexico, and it was captured and converted to Christianity before the siege of Tenochtitlan was begun.
MEXICAN HOUSE WITH TILED ROOF.
"There is a wonderful supply of tropical fruits, and also, we regret to say, of tropical insects, the scorpion having a prominent place among them. The widest street is the Calle Nacional, and the most interesting buildings are the church and the palace of Cortez. The conqueror had a grant of land from the King, which included the Valley of Cuernavaca; he established his private residence here, and had a large estate, where he introduced the cultivation of the sugar-cane and other useful growths of the hot lands. His palace is now used as the public building of the State of Morelos, which has its capital here; it has been changed a good deal since his time, and we had some doubt as to the veracity of the guide, who pointed out the different rooms and told the uses which the great warrior made of them.