The Boy Travellers in Mexico / Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Northern and Central Mexico, Campeachey, and Yucatan, With a Description of the Republics of Central America and of the Nicaragua Canal

by Thomas Wallace Knox

THE CALESA.—ENTRANCE OF A MERIDA HOUSE.

The carriages in waiting were of various kinds. That which first caught the eyes of the youths was a calesa, a sort of chaise carrying two persons, the driver being seated on the horse; the shafts were of unusual length, and the weight was so placed that fully one-third of it rested on the animal, in addition to that of the driver. The wood-work was bright with paint and gilding, and over the frame was drawn a cover of white linen to ward off rain and dust together with the heat of the sun, which is by no means light in Yucatan. Fred suggested that it was a wise provision of nature to seat the driver on the horse, as he could not conveniently go to sleep there.

A somewhat rickety carriage to hold four persons was secured, and in this conveyance the travellers proceeded to the only hotel of which Merida can boast. Until recently the place had no hotel whatever, and strangers were obliged to hunt lodgings for themselves or apply to their consular representative or a foreign merchant. Even as it is, a letter of introduction to a resident is a very useful document. Few travellers go to Merida, and the universal testimony of those who have been there is that the residents are hospitable. The same may be said generally of the inhabitants of the towns, villages, and haciendas throughout Yucatan.

The streets of Merida are broader than those of many other Mexican cities, but their pavement does not attract attention by its excellence. The houses are of stone, and mostly but a single story in height. The entrance is generally through an arched door-way into a court-yard, and the windows that face the street are invariably grated and nearly all without glass. The construction of the houses suggests Moorish and Spanish architecture, together with some features peculiar to the dwellings of the natives.

Merida stands on the site of a native city, where a great and decisive battle was fought in 1540. According to the Spanish historians, there were 200 Spaniards against 40,000 Indians. Doubtless the figures are not exact, but it is quite likely that the defeated army was vastly superior in numbers to the invaders. The Spaniards had, of course, the advantage of fire-arms, as they had in the conquest of Mexico, and we have seen in previous pages what a great advantage it was. The Indians had only spears, swords, and bows and arrows, and their bodily defences were tunics of wadded cotton. These tunics were efficient against their own kind of weapons, but of little use to repel a musket-ball. The cannon of the Spaniards created terrible havoc among them, and one chronicler says that when the Indians were heavily massed the cannon-balls tore through them and mowed down hundreds at every discharge.

Where is now the Plaza Mayor was a mound of stone and earth at the time of the Conquest. On the top of the mound was an altar, on which sacrifices were made; but the natives were not as much addicted to them as were the people of Mexico. This very circumstance had much to do with the success of Cortez in his conquest. The Aztecs sought to take their enemies alive in order to sacrifice them on their altars; and it is said that Cortez himself was in their hands on two occasions. They might easily have killed him, but while they were leading him away uninjured, in order that he should be kept for sacrifice, he was rescued by his followers.

The mound referred to was torn down for the sake of the building material it contained; and the same was the case with many other mounds and pyramids in its neighborhood. Very much of the material of which Merida is constructed was obtained from these edifices.

The streets cross each other at right angles, and Frank observed something which he thought quite original in the naming of the streets. Here is his memorandum on the subject:

"For the convenience of the Indians who could not read or write Spanish, or anything else, in fact, the streets were named after birds and beasts. In addition to the Spanish name in letters there was the figure of the creature after which the street was called. The Street of the Ox had the figure of an ox in stone or plaster, or painted on the wall; the Street of the Flamingo presented a tall flamingo with a beak of fiery red, and the Street of the Elephant had a well-moulded figure of that animal with enormous trunk and tusks. The idea is a capital one, and I'm surprised it has been so little utilized."