Merida, the capital, is about thirty miles from Progreso, and connected with it by railway. The train rolled slowly along, taking nearly three hours for the journey; but as it has no competition it has no occasion to hurry. Passengers sometimes complain of the snail-like speed, and are told that they can possibly do better by getting out and walking. Our friends made no complaint, as they realized that even at a pace not exceeding ten miles an hour it was much better than no railway at all. The engine and cars were of American make, and the conductor was a New Yorker who had become so bronzed by the sun as to be readily taken for a Mexican.
"This railway was built like a good many other lines in Mexico," said a passenger on the train who fell into conversation with Doctor Bronson and the youths. "All the material was brought from foreign countries and landed at Progreso; it was then hauled in carts to Merida, and the line was built from Merida towards the sea. The same ideas prevailed as in the case of the line between Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico; the peace of the country would be endangered if the railway should be constructed from the sea-coast inland.
"The story goes that the contractor received a liberal subsidy from the Government only on condition that he built from Merida, and as he began to use the line as soon as he had five or six miles completed, he made money by the operation. There is another story, that he was allowed to charge a high price for passengers while the road was under construction, but must come down to a low figure when it was completed.
"The result was that the contractor stopped work before reaching the coast, and did not resume for a long time; there was a mile or so of unfinished road, and this gave him an excuse for exorbitant rates for passengers. Complaints were so numerous that the Government was obliged to interfere and compel him to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of his contract."
FLOCK OF PELICANS.
Frank watched from one side of the train while Fred kept a sharp eye out on the other. Soon after starting, the train passed a lagoon which abounded in aquatic birds—duck, teal, egrets, herons, curlews, snipe, pelicans, and the like. Were it not for the liability to fevers, owing to the unhealthy miasmas rising from the lagoon, the region would be an attractive one for sportsmen. Even with its drawbacks a fair number of hunters find their way there, and some of them praise the locality in glowing terms. After passing the lagoon the road reaches the coral rock which is the foundation of Yucatan and supports a thin and rather dry soil.
The youths thought they were again among fields of the maguey plant and haciendas for pulque-making as soon as the solid ground was reached, but their new acquaintance undeceived them.