[CHAPTER XXII.]
OVERLAND TO ACAPULCO.—SCENES OF LONG AGO.—PRESENT MODE OF TRAVEL.—TEN DAYS ON HORSEBACK.—WAY-SIDE ACCOMMODATIONS.—ACAPULCO'S HARBOR.—RETURN TO THE CAPITAL.—EXCURSION TO GUADALAJARA.—DOCTOR BRONSON LEFT BEHIND.—OLD BRIDGES AND THEIR HISTORY.—BATTLE BETWEEN HIDALGO AND THE SPANIARDS.—STORIES ABOUT BRIGANDS.—SLAUGHTER BY PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.—HOW SEÑOR PEREZ SECURED PEACE.—ATTRACTIONS OF GUADALAJARA.—THE CATHEDRAL AND OTHER CHURCHES.—THE GREAT HOSPICIO.—WHAT THE EARTHQUAKE DID.—PUBLIC SCHOOLS.—A DAY ON A CATTLE HACIENDA.—A RODEO.—RETURN TO THE CAPITAL.
A WAY-SIDE SHRINE.
At Cuernavaca our friends learned that they were on the road from Vera Cruz and Mexico to Acapulco, and the youths greatly wished to continue to the Pacific Ocean. It is the old route of commerce between Spain and Asia, and was travelled for hundreds of years by long trains of pack-mules laden with the products of the Orient on their way to Europe, and with those of Mexico and Europe destined for Asia. It seems incredible that such a route should have been so long maintained across the continent, with no track for wheeled vehicles, over mountains and through deep gorges, with the dangers of robbers, pestilence, and the hundred accidents that are liable to occur in such a country and such a time; but so it was. Over this route were carried the cargoes of many richly freighted galleons; along these dangerous path-ways thousands of soldiers marched to glory or the grave, and hundreds if not thousands of civilians went in search of new lands from which they could gather the wealth they coveted.
ON THE ROAD TO ACAPULCO.
It is eighty leagues, or 240 miles, from Cuernavaca to Acapulco, the port which once enjoyed a profitable commerce but is to-day of comparatively little moment. Spasmodic efforts have been made at different times for the construction of a wagon-road, but they have never been carried far. There is a wagon-road between Cuernavaca and Mexico City, a distance of about forty-five miles, and over this a diligence runs three times a week each way, and wagons laden with merchandise pass in fair number. But the business of the route is less than it was two hundred years ago; the Mexicans hope for a revival when the railway is completed from Vera Cruz to Acapulco, and a line of steamers between Acapulco and China is under consideration.