MEXICO;
AZTEC, SPANISH AND REPUBLICAN:

A HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND SOCIAL
ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY FROM THE PERIOD OF THE INVASION
BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME;
WITH A VIEW OF THE
ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE AND CIVILIZATION;
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE WAR;
AND NOTICES OF
N E W M E X I C O A N D C A L I F O R N I A.
BY
B R A N T Z M A Y E R,
FORMERLY SECRETARY OF LEGATION TO MEXICO.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II.
HARTFORD:
S. DRAKE AND COMPANY.
MDCCCLIII.

CONTENTS.

B O O K I V.
GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF
MEXICO—POLITICAL DIVISIONS—POPULATION;
PRODUCTIONS—MINES—AGRICULTURE;
MANUFACTURES—COMMERCE—FINANCES—ARMY;
NAVY—CHURCH—CONSTITUTION AND LAWS;
NATIONAL CONDITION.

CHAPTER I.
Geological and Geographical Structure of Mexico—Extent.

ABSENCE OF ACCURACY—HUMBOLDT.—SUPERFICIAL EXTENT OF MEXICAN TERRITORY.—PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF MEXICO—VOLCANIC MOUNTAINS—CLIMATES—TIERRAS TEMPLADAS, CALIENTES, FRIAS.—POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF MEXICO.—OLD SPANISH DIVISIONS—PROVINCES—INTENDENCIES—STATES—DEPARTMENTS.—NORTH BOUNDARY—PRESENT STATES AND TERRITORIES.—RIVERS OF MEXICO.—RIVERS AND LAKES OF MEXICO.

IT is unfortunate that, notwithstanding the rich mineralogical and agricultural character of Mexico, no thoroughly accurate survey or geological examination has ever been made of the whole country. There is no complete map of the territory which may be confidently relied on. The enterprise of developing Mexico, since the foundation of the colonial government by Spain has been almost entirely abandoned to private enterprise, and, consequently the valuable information, collected by individuals, either perished in their hands after it had been used for their own benefit, or, if imparted to the government, has never been united and collated with other accounts and reconnoissances which were in the hands of national authorities. A great deal was done by Baron Alexander Humboldt, during his visit to New Spain early in this century, towards gathering the geographical, geological and statistical information which was then in existence, though scattered, far and wide, over the viceroyalty, in a thousand different hands. His voluminous work is an enduring monument to his industry and talent; but there is necessarily a great deal of it that was altogether transitory in its character both on account of the political and social revolution which has since occurred, and in consequence of the opening, by the republic, of Mexican ports to the commerce of the world.

Nevertheless, at the period of Humboldt's visit, the main bold geographical and geological features of Mexico were sufficiently well known for practical purposes, and as his descriptions have, in most cases, stood the test of criticism during near half a century, we may still safely appeal to him, and to his industrious countryman, Muhlenpfordt,[1] as the most reliable authorities upon these topics.

According to Humboldt, Mexico presented a surface of one hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight square leagues, of twenty-five to the degree, yet this calculation did not include the space between the northern extremity of New Mexico and Sonora, and the American boundary of 1819. Thirty-six thousand five hundred square leagues, comprising the States of Zacatecas, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Oajaca, Tabasco, Yucatan, Chiapas, were within the torrid zone; while New Mexico, Durango, New and Old California, Sonora and a great part of the old Intendancy of San Luis Potosi, containing in all eighty-six thousand square leagues, were under the temperate zone.[2]

A more recent, and, generally, an accurate writer,[3] has estimated the boundaries of Mexico, prior to the treaty of 1848, at Guadalupe, between the United States and Mexico, to have embraced an area of one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, including Texas. By the treaty just mentioned we acquired an undisputed title to Texas, and a territorial cession of New Mexico and Upper California.

If we, therefore, deduct from the preceding estimate of one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, the sum of eight hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight square miles, we shall have, as the best approximate calculation, that we can now make, seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand four hundred and two square miles, for the total superficial extent of the Republic of Mexico, as at present bounded since the ratification of our recent international treaty. By that negotiation it consequently appears that we have obtained one half the former territory of Mexico and twenty-six thousand five hundred and ninety-eight square miles besides.

The geological structure or physiognomy of Mexico is peculiar. The great Cordillera of the Andes, which traverses the whole of South America, from its southernmost limit, is exceedingly depressed at the Isthmus of Panama, where its gentle swells serve merely to form a barrier between the union of the Pacific and Atlantic. But, as soon as this massive chain enters the broader portion of North America, it divides into two gigantic arms, to the east and west along the shores of the Gulf and of the Pacific, which support between them a continuous lofty platform, or series of table lands, crossed, broken, and intersected by innumerable and abrupt sierras, some of which rise to the height of seventeen thousand feet above the level of the sea. This geological structure prevails throughout the whole of Mexico, as now bounded; for, at the Rio Grande, the southern limit of Texas, the land sinks to comparative levels, and affords channels for the numerous and important streams with which, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are abundantly irrigated. Whilst this is the case on the northern and eastern confines of Mexico, the western portion is still traversed by the main body of the gigantic Cordillera, which, penetrating California with its icy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, passes onward to the north until its rocky walls are lost, beyond Oregon, in the wilderness that bounds the Frozen Sea.[5]

The reader who pictures to himself such a country will easily understand that all temperatures are gained in Mexico on the same parallel of latitude,—or that eternal heat and eternal frost are encountered in crossing the country in a straight line from Vera Cruz to the Pacific coast. It is a country hanging on the two slopes of a mountain, one of which descends to the Gulf and the other to the Western Ocean; and the traveller, in penetrating it, even by the road usually traversed by public conveyances, must attain a height of ten thousand six hundred and sixty feet, before he begins to descend into the valley of Mexico, which is, still, seven thousand five hundred and forty-eight feet above the level of the sea! Thus it is, that throughout the table lands, the geographical position, as far as latitude is concerned, is entirely neutralized by the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere obtained by ascending through loftier regions. Humboldt graphically declares that climates succeed each other in strata or layers, as we pass from Vera Cruz to the capital, or from the capital, descend to Acapulco or San Blas on the west coast,—beholding in our varied journey, the whole scale of vegetable life. The wild abundance of vegetation on the shore of the Gulf,—its beautiful palms whose stems are wreathed by a myriad of impenetrable parasites which grow with such rank luxuriance in the hot and humid air of the tropics,—are exchanged, as we begin to rise from the level of the sea, for hardier forest trees. At Jalapa the air is milder, though the vapors from the Gulf which concentrate and condense at about this height on the sides of the mountains, sustain the perpetual freshness of the verdure. Further on, the oak and the orange give place to the fir and pine. Here the rarefied air becomes pure, thin and perfectly transparent; but as it necessarily lacks moisture, which condenses below this region, the vegetation is neither so luxuriant nor so constantly vigorous. Great plains or basins, spread out in silent and melancholy vistas before the traveller,—many of them, cold, bleak and lonely moors, whose dreary levels sadden the heart of the spectator. The sun which comes down through the cloudless medium of an atmosphere unscreened by the usual curtain of vapor, parches and crisps the thirsty soil, whilst the winds that sweep uninterruptedly over the unbroken expanse, fill the air, during the dry season, with sand and dust. These high barren plains occupy a large portion of the centre of the country between Zacatecas, Durango and Saltillo; and such is in fact the character of large portions of the whole of Mexico, except when the comparatively level nature of the soil permits the small rivulets that filter from the Cordillera through the narrow vallies, to form themselves into rivers which may be used for irrigation. Wherever this is the case nature at once recovers her vigor under the influence of heat and moisture.

These physical features, and consequent diversities of temperature, have caused the division of Mexico, as it rises from the two Oceans, into three regions, or superficial strata, which are called, the tierras calientes, or hot lands; the tierras templadas, or temperate lands; and the tierras frias or cold lands. The tierra caliente covers chiefly that portion of the territory which lies on the borders of the Atlantic and Pacific; yet it is not confined exclusively to the coast, inasmuch as all those parts of Mexico in which there is heat and moisture enough to produce the fruits and maladies of the tropics, are classed under this head. The tierra fria comprises the mountainous districts rising above the level of the capital up to the limit of constant snow; while the tierra templada embraces those milder middle regions not comprehended in the two other sections. Classing them by elevation in feet, we may suppose that the tierras calientes extend to between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; the tierras templadas to between 4 and 8,000 feet; and that the tierras frias embrace all the remaining portions up to the region of eternal ice.

Political Divisions and Boundaries of Mexico.

It is, perhaps, more of historical or antiquarian interest, than of actual present value, to recur to the ancient divisions of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, there are readers who are naturally anxious to trace the territorial aggrandizement as well as the recent curtailment of Mexico, and we have, therefore, thought it proper to present a picture of the limits and apportionment of the country at several periods.

The territorial limits of that region generally called New Spain, were comprised between the degrees of 15° 58´ and 42° of north latitude; and between 89° 4´ and 126° 48´ 45´´ west longitude from Paris,—calculating from the easternmost point of Cape Catoché, in Yucatan, to the extreme western limit of the land at Cape Mendocino, in California. The Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean Sea bounded this country on the east and south-east; the Pacific Ocean on the west; Guatemala on the south; and the United States, on the north. There was a multitude of islands comprehended under this territorial dominion. On the east coast of Yucatan were the isles of Holvas, Comboy, Mugeres, Cancun, Cozumel and Ubero;—in the Gulf of Mexico, the island of Bermejos and several smaller ones;—in the Pacific, the isles of Revilla-gigedo, of Maria, Cedros, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, San Bernardo, San Miguel;—and in the Gulf of California, or Cortéz, the isles of Cerralvo, Espiritu Santo, San José, Santa Cruz, Carmen, Tortugas, Tiburon, Santa Iñez, and numerous insignificant islets or keys.

The limit between the United States and New Spain was defined by a treaty negotiated between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister at Washington, and John Quincy Adams, American Secretary of State, after long and learned historical as well as legal discussions of territorial rights and limits, which the student will find, at large, in the second and fourth volumes of "American State Papers," published by the government of the United States. This treaty was signed on the 22d of February, 1819, and, according to its third article, the boundary between Mexico and Louisiana, which was then ceded to the Union, commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico, at about latitude 29°, west longitude 94°, and followed its course as far as its juncture with the Red river of Natchitoches, which then served to mark the frontier up to the 100th degree of west longitude, whence the line ran directly north to the river Arkansas, which it followed to its source at the 42d° of north latitude,—whence another straight line was drawn upon the said 42d parallel, to the coast of the Pacific Ocean.

This line, it was supposed, would interpose a perpetual barrier of wilderness, tenanted only by Indians and wild animals, between the republic of the north and the treasured colonies of the Spanish crown. But subsequent events have shown in the course of little more than the quarter of a century, how rapidly the population of the old world and the new has swelled beyond the limits prescribed by statesmen, until the savage and the beast have been made to yield their hunting grounds and forests for the use of civilized man.

At the earliest period of which we have any authentic information, this territory of Spain was divided into the kingdoms of Mexico, New Galicia, and New Leon; the colony of New Santander; and the provinces of Coahuila, Texas, New Biscay, Sonora, New Mexico and the two Californias. This arrangement was extremely indefinite; but, in 1776, the country was divided into twelve intendancies: Merida, Oajaca, Vera Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Valladolid, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi, New Biscay, and Sonora; and the three provinces of New Mexico, and Alta and Nueva California. The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, included New Leon, New Santander, Coahuila and Texas, and San Luis Potosi, proper;—the intendancy of New Biscay embraced the provinces of Durango and Chihuahua; and the intendancy of Sonora took in the provinces of Sinaloa, Ostimuri, and Sonora. Each intendancy was subdivided into subdelegaciones. Another division cut off New Spain, proper, from the Provincias Internas. These last named provinces included all the territory lying north and northwesterly of the intendancies of Zacatecas and Guadalajara, or the kingdom of Nueva Gallicia. The "Provincias Internas del Vireynato," must be distinguished from the "Provincias Internas de la Commandancia de Chihuahua," which, in 1779, were comprised in a General-Captaincy. The two intendancies New Biscay and Sonora, then part of San Luis Potosi, belonged to the provinces of Coahuila and Texas. The interior provinces of the viceroyalty were the intendancy of San Luis Potosi, including the provinces of New Leon and New Santander. The actual kingdom of New Spain was composed of the intendancies of Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Guadalajara, Valladolid, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Oajaca, Merida, and San Luis, proper, and the two Californias. In the year 1807, the "Provincias Internas" were divided into western and eastern, and two general commandancies created.

1st. The Provincias Internas Occidentales, or Western, were the intendancies of Sonora, Durango, with Chihuahua (new Biscay); the province of New Mexico, and the two Californias.

2d. The Provincias Internas Orientales, or Eastern, were, Coahuila, Texas, New Santander and New Leon.

Such were the main territorial divisions of New Spain during the concluding years of the Spanish government,—whilst the revolution was in progress,—and until the nineteen provinces of the empire of Iturbide were erected by the federal constitution of 1824 into the nineteen States of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Texas, Durango, Guanajuato, Mexico, Michoacan (Valladolid), New Leon, Oajaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Sonora and Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Jalisco (Guadalajara,) Yucatan, and Zacatecas,—and the Territories of Old and New California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala. In 1830 the State of Sinaloa and Sonora, separated into its natural divisions, since which each has been a distinct, independent State. In 1836, the revolution which destroyed this federal constitution, changed these States into Departments; by which name they were recognized until the month of May, 1847, when the old federal constitution of 1824, with some amendments, was reenacted, and the departments once more converted into states; whilst provision was made for the creation of the new state of Guerrero, to be composed of the districts of Acapulco, Chilapa, Tasco and Talpa, and the municipality of Coyucan—the three first of which pertain to the state of Mexico, the fourth to Puebla, and the fifth to Michoacan,—provided these three states gave their consent within three months from the 21st of May, 1847, at which period the act reforming the constitution of 1824 was passed.

The war between Mexico and the United States was happily terminated by the treaty negotiated at the town of Guadalupe, by Mr. Trist, on the 2d of February, 1848; and, by this compact, the limit between our respective territories was greatly changed from that which had been fixed by the treaty with Spain in 1819. According to the convention of Mr. Trist, the boundary between the republics commences in the Gulf of Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence it passes up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, when it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico, thence, westerly, along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico, which runs north of the town of El Paso, to its western termination;—thence northward, along the western line of New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of the river Gila, or, if it does not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and then in a direct line to the same;—thence down the middle of the said branch and of said river, until it empties into the Rio Colorado;—thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean.

It will be perceived by inspecting the map that this new boundary cuts off a large portion of northern Mexico, and gives us the valuable territories of New Mexico and Upper California, together with an undisputed right to the enjoyment of Texas, which had previously been united to the North American confederacy by international contract, after the independence of Texas had been recognized by foreign nations and maintained by its own people.

The states of the Mexican Republic and its territories are, consequently, under the existing constitution, the following:

Rivers and Lakes of Mexico.

I. On the Eastern Coasts.

1st. The Rio Grande del Norte, or Rio Bravo, which is the largest of all Mexican streams, and rises, in about 40¹/₂° north latitude, and 100° west longitude, from Paris, in the lofty sierras which are a continuation of the gigantic chain that forms the spine of our continent. It pursues a southeasterly direction towards the Gulf of Mexico, and traverses a distance of nearly eighteen hundred miles.

2d. The Rio del Tigre, rises in the state of Coahuila, and passes, in a southward and easterly direction, through the states of New Leon and Tamaulipas, and finally, after traversing about three hundred miles, debouches in the Gulf of Mexico.

3d. The Rio de Borbon, or Rio Blanco. The sources of this stream are in New Leon, whence it runs towards the east, and, crossing the state of Tamaulipas, falls in the Laguna Madre.

4th. The Rio de Santander, rises in the state of Zacatecas, crosses the state of San Luis Potosi, passes by Tamaulipas, winds to the north, and falls, near the bar of Santander, into the Gulf.

5th. The Rio de Tampico, is formed by the union of the rivers Panuco and Tula. The upper source of the Panuco is in the neighborhood of the city of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state of that name. Near half a league north north-east of this city, in the valley de la Pila, rises a spring which is protected by a basin of fine masonry, and conveyed by an aqueduct to town. Several other streams, coming from the south-west, unite with this source and form the Panuco. West of the first of these streams, swells up the mountainous ridge which divides the waters of Mexico between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Panuco courses eastwardly,—and, passing rapidly through the Laguna Chairél, unites with the Tula. This latter stream mingles the waters of the rivulets Tepexi, Tequisquiac, and Tlantla, in the northern part of the state of Mexico; and receiving, by the canal of Huehuetoca, the water of the Rio Quautitlan, it winds onward through the valley of Tula, and near the limits of the states of Queretaro and Vera Cruz, until it joins the Panuco. These united rivers receive in the state of Tamaulipas, the name of the Rio de Tampico, which debouches, finally, in the Gulf of Mexico.

6th. The Rio Blanco rises in the state of Vera Cruz, near Aculzingo, at the foot of Citlaltepetl, or the mountain of Orizaba. It courses onward through a varying and rough channel among the mountains and plains, until it is lost in the lagunes near Alvarado.

7th. The Rio de San Juan. The sources of this river lie partly in the metallic mountains of Ixtlan, in the state of Oajaca, and partly in the neighborhood of Tehuacan de las Granadas. Many large, but wild streams, spring up in these mountain regions, and form the broad but shallow Rio Grande de Quiotepec. This river, after winding through the valley of Cuicatlan, receives, from the south, the large stream of Las Vueltas; and all these unite to form the Rio de San Juan, which pursues its eastern course until it approaches the coast near Alvarado, when it divides into two arms. One of these, named Tecomate, joining the Cosomaloapan and Paso, form the large lagunes of Tequiapa and Embarcadéro,—whilst the other arm, by a different course, also debouches in the same lagunes.

8th. The Rio de Guasacualco, rises at about 16° 58´ of north latitude, and 96° 19´ west longitude, from Paris, in the mountains of Tarifa, and pours onward towards the east, receiving accessions from a great number of small mountain streams and rivulets, until it falls into the Gulf of Mexico.

9th. The Rio de Tabasco, or Rio de Grijalva, or Rio Guichula, rises in the mountains of Cuchumatlanes towards the centre of Guatemala, and falls into the gulf at the port of Tabasco.

10th. The Rio de Usumasinta, rises also in Guatemala, and debouches in the Laguna de Terminos.

II. Small Eastern Coast Streams.

Many of these streams are, in fact, not entitled to the name of rivers, though a few of them are important, whilst all are valuable to some extent for agriculture, transportation, irrigation, or occasional water power.

III. Rivers on the West and South Coast of Mexico.

1st. Rio de Chimalapa, sometimes called also, Rio de Chicapa, rises in the forests and mountains of Tarifa in about 16° 43´ north, 96° 33´ west from Paris, and debouches in the Pacific, after passing the village of Tehuantepec. The rivers Obstula, Niltepec or Estepec,—de los Perros or Juchuitan, Arenas, Lagartero, Otates, are small coast streams falling into the lagunes that border the ocean.

2d. The Rio de Tehuantepec is formed by the union of two streams, one of which rises about fifty leagues west north-west of Tehuantepec, near the village of San Dionisio, whilst the other springs from the mountains of Lyapi and Quiégolani, in the lands of the Chontales. The two unite seven leagues north-west of Tehuantepec; and, passing by the village of that name, this river finally pours into the Pacific, near the small port of Las Ventosas.

3d. The Rio Verde rises in the Upper Misteca, eight leagues north of Oajaca, and falls west of the Cerro de la Plata and of the Lagunas of Chacahua, into the Pacific. On the coast of Oajaca there are many smaller streams and rivulets, such as the Chacalapa, the Manialtepec, the Colotepec, the Santa Helena, the Caputita, the Comun, the Ayutla, the Chicometepec and the Tecoyama,—the last of which is the boundary between the states of Oajaca and Puebla.

4th. The Rio de Tlascala, or Rio de Papagallo, has its source in the vicinity of the town of Tlascala, in the mountain Atlancatepetl; passes through the state of Puebla, receives the Rio Mezcala, out of the state of Mexico, and enters the Pacific south of the village of Ayulta.

5th. The Rio de Zacatula, or Rio Balsas, originates in the valley of Istla, in the state of Mexico, and after winding west south-westerly, it receives the Rios Zitacuaro, de Churumuco, and del Marquez out of the state of Michoacan, and passes into the Pacific.

6th. Rio de Aztala rises two leagues south-west of the village of Coalcoman, receives the Agamilco, Maruato and Chichucua, and flows into the sea between Cachan and Chocóla.

7th. Rio de Tolotlan, Rio Grande de Santiago. This is one of the longest and most important of Mexican rivers, formed by the junction of the Laxa and Lerma, near Salamanca, in the state of Guanajuato, and falls into the Pacific near San Blas after a course of about two hundred leagues. The Rio Bayóna or Cañas is an important stream on the coast near the boundary between Jalisco and Sinaloa.

8th. The Rio de Culiacan rises in the north of the state of Durango, where it is called Rio Sanzeda, thence it takes its course towards the north-west, receiving some smaller streams, and then passing by the town of Culiacan, falls into the Gulf of California. The Rio de Rosario, Rio de Mazatlan, debouche in the same gulf. The rivers Piastla, Elota, Tavala, Emaya, Mocorito, Sinaloa or Ocroni, Ahome, are small streams on the coast of Sinaloa.

9th. The Rio del Fuerte has its source in the metalliferous mountains of Batopilas and Uruachi, in the state of Chihuahua, where it is known as the river Batopilas. It takes a westerly course across the state of Sinaloa about 27° north;—it receives a number of other streams, on the western slope of a range of the Cordilleras, and finally flows into the California Gulf.

10th. The Rio Mayo is the boundary stream between the states of Sinaloa and Sonora; at its mouth in the Gulf of California is the small port of Santa Cruz de Mayo, or Guitivis.

11th. The Rio Hiaqui, or Yaqui, rises on the west slope of the Sierra Madre, near the village Matatiche in the state of Chihuahua, whence its course is west south-west, across the state of Sonora; it receives the Rio Grande de Bavispe which rises in the state of Chihuahua, and also the Rios Oposura and Chico, and, finally, is lost in the Gulf of California, at about 27° 37´ north latitude.

12th. Rio de Guayamas. This river rises at San José de Pimas, in latitude 28° 26´ north, its course is west south-west, and its mouth in the Californian Gulf, at the fine and favorite harbor of San-Jose de Guayamas in latitude 27° 40´.

13th. The Rio de la Ascension rises at about 31° 40´ north and 112° 37´ west longitude. On its south-westerly course it receives the tributary waters of the Rio de San Ignacio and falls at about 30° 20´ north into the Gulf of California.

14th. Rio de Colorado. This important stream is formed of the river Rafael in about 40° 15´ north, and 110° 50´ west longitude from Paris, on the western declivity of the Sierra de las Grullas, whence it takes a south-west course and receives, at the foot of the Monte de Sal Gemme, the Rio de Nuestra Señora de Dolores, which springs about 1° 30´ west of the Rafael, in the Cerro de la Plata; and, thus, receiving the accretions of a number of other streams, it courses onward until it is lost at the head of the Gulf of California. The whole length of the Colorado is estimated at about two hundred and fifty leagues. For about fifty leagues it is navigable by small sea going vessels; and, for about a hundred leagues higher, it may be traversed by large boats. The sea is said to ebb and flow between thirty-five and forty leagues beyond the mouth of this river. The sources of the Arkansas and of the Rio Grande del Norte lie very near those of the Colorado; so that the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Gulf of California are nearly united by these streams across our continent.

15th. The Rio Gila rises in the Sierra de los Mimbres, and descends to the south, through a small and mountain bound valley until it unites with the Colorado.

IV. Lakes, Lagunes, &c.

1. Timpanogos and Teyugo or Salado.

2. Lagunas de Bavispe, San Martin, de Guzman, de Patos, de Encinillas and de Castilla in the state of Chihuahua.

3. The Laguna de Cayman in the Bolson de Mapimi.

4. The Lakes of Parras and Agua Verde on the west boundary of Coahuila.

5. The Lakes of Charcas, Chairel and Chila in the state of San Luis Potosi.

6. Nine small Soda Lakes in Zacatecas.

7. The large and important Lake of Chapala and others in Jalisco.

8. Pazcuaro, Cuizco, Araron, Huango, Tanguato, and Huaniquo in Michoacan.

9. The five large Lakes of Tezcoco, Chalco, Xochimilco, San Cristoval and Zumpango in the valley of Mexico.

10. The Lakes of Atenco, Coatetilco, and Tenancingo in the valley of Toluca.

11. A number of small ones in Oajaca.

12. The Lakes of Tampico, Catemaco, Alijoyuca, Tenango, Chiapa on the gulf coast or near it.

13. The Lake of Yurirapundaro in Guanajuato.

CHAPTER II.
MEXICAN CLASSES.

DIVISION OF POPULATION—WHITES—INDIANS—AFRICANS—LEPEROS—RANCHEROS—CHARACTERISTICS—INDIFFERENCE—PROCRASTINATION.—FEMALES—BETTER CLASSES—THEIR SOCIAL HABITS—ENTERTAINMENTS.—LEPEROS—THEIR HABITS—EVANGELISTAS—THIEVING.—THE RANCHERO—HIS CHARACTER AND HABITS.—THE INDIAN RACE—AGRICULTURISTS—TRADITIONARY HABITS ADHERED TO—IMPROVIDENCE—SUPERSTITION—DRUNKENNESS—INDIAN WOMEN—SERVILE CONDITION—LOCAL ADHESIVENESS—PEONAGE—WHIPPING.—PLANTER-LIFE—ITS SOLITUDE AND RESULTS.—MUHLENPFORDT'S CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.—INDIAN TRIBES AND RACES IN MEXICO.—TABLE OF CASTES IN MEXICO.

AN adequate and proper classification of the Mexican population, for descriptive purposes, may be made under the general heads of: Whites, Indians, Africans, and the mixed breeds, who are socially sub-divided into—1st, the educated and respectable Mexicans dwelling in towns, villages or on estates; 2d, the Leperos; and 3d, the Rancheros.

The whites are still classed in Mexico as creoles, or, natives of the country; and gachupines and chapetones, who are Spaniards born in the Peninsula. The Spanish population yet remaining in the country, its immediate descendants, and the emigrants from Spain, form a numerous and important body. Her Catholic Majesty's Consul General in Mexico derives a lucrative revenue from supplying this large class of his countrymen with annual "protections," or "cartas de seguridad," granted by the Mexican government, but procured from it through the instrumentality of this functionary.

The Spaniard no longer holds his former rank in the social scale of the ancient colony. There are many wealthy mercantile families in the republic, who owe allegiance to the crown; but among the mechanical classes there are numbers of poor Castilians whose fate would be melancholy in Mexico, were they not succored and protected by their wealthier countrymen.

The Mexican native, in whose veins there is almost always a few drops of indigenous blood, is commonly indolent and often vicious. The bland climate and his natural temperament predispose him for an indulgent, easy and voluptuous life; yet the many

faults of his character may be fairly attributed to the want of education, early self-restraint and the disordered political state of his country which has produced a bad effect upon social life. With quick and often solid talents, the Mexican citizen is not devoted, early in his career, by thoughtful parents, either to intellectual pursuits or to that mental discipline which would regulate an impulsive temperament or fit him for the domestic, scientific, or political position he might attain in other countries, under a different social régime. He recollects that in the best days of the colony his family had been distinguished, powerful and rich, and he finds it difficult, in his present impoverished state, to forget this traditionary position. Accordingly, he acts upon the memorial basis of the past, as if it were still within his grasp or control. This renders him thriftlessly improvident. Mexicans still speak of the epoch when they or their parents "swam in gold," or dispensed ducats to the dependants on whom they now reluctantly bestow coppers. Besides this, their indolent indifference, which almost amounts to Arab fatalism, makes them not only subservient to the past, but idolaters of a hope which is quite as fallacious. According to their belief, better times are continually approaching. Something, they imagine, will shortly occur to improve their broken or periled fortunes. "Paciencia y barajar,"—"patience and shuffle the cards," is a maxim on the lips of every one who is overthrown by a revolution, loses his friends, incurs censure, or finds himself starving for want of a dollar. If you enquire as to their prospects, their friends, their interests, or, indeed, in regard to almost any subject that requires some reflection for a reasonable reply,—they answer with the habitual—"Quien Sabe!"—"who can tell!" which in the vocabulary of a common Mexican is the—"quod erat demonstrandum" of any social or political problem.

Such qualities and habits do not prepare a nation for resolute action upon progressive principles. We consequently find, throughout Mexico, an universal predisposition to dependence upon others, or to a blind reliance upon chance. The drum and the bell which ring forever in our ears in Mexico, apprise us that immense numbers who possess sufficient influence to introduce them into the army or the church, repose comfortably under the protection of those two eleemosynary institutions. Such is, moreover, the case in all the administrative departments of the government. Indeed, the state seems only to be constitutionally organized in order to supply the wants of those it employs, or to found a genteel hospital in which intriguing idlers are supported either at the expense of industrious men or by contracting national loans which may finally overwhelm the republic.

The church, the army, and the government, are thus three permanent resources for young persons who are too indolent to engage in mercantile pursuits, or too proud to stoop from their hereditary family rank either into trade or the workshop.

Bad as are these social features, there is another which may be reckoned still worse. There are thousands in the republic whose daily reliance is exclusively on fortune, and for whom the turn of a card decides whether they are to return to their comfortless families with a plentiful dinner, or without a cent upon which they may, to-morrow, recommence their contest with luck at the gambling table. This is a dreadful vice when it becomes habitual among a naturally susceptible, thriftless and procrastinating people like the Mexicans. Prodigal not only of their gold but of their time, they squander the latter without ever reflecting that it is the capital of industrious men. They regard business as a burden, and put off, whenever they are permitted, a debt, an engagement, or a duty, "hasta manana"—until to-morrow!

We are perhaps wrong in alleging that every duty is procrastinated, and life given up exclusively to pleasure; for the genuine Mexican is strict and punctual in the performance of, at least, the externals of religion. The pious observances of the church, are, however, even more generally rigorous among the women than the men.

The Mexican females in the upper ranks are badly, if at all, educated. Few foreign modern improvements have been engrafted on the old Spanish system of teaching, whilst the subjects taught, and the text-books used, are quite as primitive. At home, the Mexican lady is obsequiously served by devoted domestics, but is brought up without a personal knowledge of a housewife's thrifty duties. The evil influence of such vacant minds upon the male sex must, necessarily, be very great. If the intellect does not suggest topics for conversation, it is natural that the instincts will supply the deficiency. Thus it is that the life of large numbers of Mexican men is summed up in devotion to their horses, their queridas, and their favorite gambling tables; whilst the existence of Mexican women is as easily divided between mass, meals, dress, driving, and the theatre.

Yet we will not be tempted by an epigrammatic sentence, into condemnation of the whole of Mexican society. It would be unjust to convey an unqualified idea that such are the characteristics of the entire white race whose birth or rank entitle it to an exalted social position. Nevertheless, it is a true picture of perhaps the most numerous class. The Mexican revolution—its struggles, endurance and success,—disclose many manly features of national character, and prepare us to appreciate that patriotic and cultivated body of men and women who form the national heart and hope of the republic.

The Mexicans have been so harshly dealt with in the descriptions of foreigners, that they are not always disposed to welcome them beyond their thresholds. This arises neither from fear nor jealousy, but from the natural distrust of persons whom they imagine visit their country with but little sympathy for its institutions and less consideration for their personal habits. Nor is this repulsiveness to strangers exhibited so much in the fashionable circles of society as it is among that loftier description of persons we have already referred to. Yet there are occasions upon which the houses and hearts of this very class are cordially opened to intelligent and discreet foreigners, and it is then that an opportunity is afforded of seeing the best phases of Mexican character. The fine benevolence of ancient friendship, the universal respect for genius, a competent knowledge of the laws and institutions of other countries, a perfect acquaintance with the causes of Mexican decadence, and a charming regard and care for all those domestic rites which cement the affections of a home circle, may all be observed and admired within the walls of a Mexican dwelling.

When a stranger is thus received in the confidential intimacy of a household, there is no longer any restraint put upon the inmates in his presence. The courteous expressions which are ordinarily used in the commerce of society, and whose formal but excessive politeness have induced careless men to imagine the Mexicans insincere, are now only expressive of the most cordial devotion to your interests and wants. "Mi casa esta á su disposition," "my house is at your disposal," means exactly what it says. You are at home.

As the Mexicans are not a people addicted to the same mode or extent of informal social intercourse among themselves as the Germans, the English, or the Americans, it is not strange that they should guard their doors so carefully against foreigners who visit their country for the purpose of acquiring fortunes rapidly, in order to enjoy them in the society of their native land. The reception of a stranger upon an intimate footing is therefore the greatest compliment he can receive from the meritorious classes. It is not alone with public affairs or purely intellectual discussions that we are entertained in such re-unions of cultivated society. In the free conversation of the intimate circle there is always a cordial display of sincere interest for the welfare of each other. The aspirations of the rich or the hopes of the poor, are always tenderly discussed. There is abundant evidence of heart; and, even after years have elapsed, and the sojourner in Mexico has returned to his home, he will find by his correspondence that he is still remembered by the intelligent friends, who made him forget that he was "a stranger in a strange land."

The Mexicans have generally supposed that it was impossible to entertain their friends without an extravagant expenditure which was perhaps the standard that measured the value of their guests. They have still to learn that a simple style and a cordial welcome together with the refined conversational intercourse are more valued than imported champagne and "pâté de foie gras." As soon as their society becomes less old fashioned and formal, they will find themselves more comfortable in the presence of strangers. In Mexico, as in all countries, there are notorious specimens of egotism, haughtiness, ill-breeding, and loose morals, both among men and women; and although we find these worthless elements floating like bubbles on the surface of society, they must not be regarded as exclusive national characteristics. "A nation, in which revolutions and counter-revolutions are events of almost daily occurrence, is naturally prolific in desperate and crafty political adventurers;" but the evils that have been begotten by the past, must not be considered as permanent.

The Lepero is a variety of the Indian, and combines in himself most of the bad qualities of the two classes from whose union he derives his being. He is the inhabitant of cities, towns or villages, and, is in Mexico, what the lazzaroni are in Naples. Neither white, black nor copper colored; neither savage nor civilized; neither an agriculturist nor a mechanic, the lepero occupies an equivocal position upon the boundaries of all these characters. His existence is altogether a matter of chance. He has scarcely ever a permanent home. His wife and children, or his amiga, are lodged on the ground floor of a hovel in the outskirts of the town, from which he is often expelled in consequence either of his poverty, intemperance, or quarrelsome behavior. If unmarried, he finds a resting place, in these delicious climates, on a mat beneath the sky, or within the friendly shelter of a wall

or portico. He is devoted to pulque and music; for, whilst he drains his social glass in the pulqueria amid a crowd of companion leperos, he is ever ready to sing a stave or make a verse in which a spice of wit or satire is certainly found. When he has earned a dollar by toil, he quits his labor even before it is completed, in order to spend his enormous gain. His wants are so small that he may be liberal in his vices. He regards work as an odious imposition upon human nature; and, created merely to live, he takes care only of to-day leaving to-morrow to take care of itself. Prudence, he thinks, would be a manifest distrust of Providence. His food, purchased at the corner of a street from one of the peripatetic cooks, consists of a few tortillas or corncakes, steeped in a pan of Chili peppers compounded with lard. A fragment of beef or fowl sometimes gives zest to the frugal mess. His dress, of narrow cotton or leather trowsers, and a blanket which is at once, bed, bedding, coat and cloak,—is worn season after season without washing, except during the providential ablutions of rain, until the mingled attrition of dirt and time entirely destroy the materials. An occasional crime, or quarrel, which is terminated by a resort to knives and copious phlebotomy, sends him several times every year to the public prison, where he is faithfully visited, fed and consoled by his spouse or amiga. As he passes along the streets with the manacled chain-gang to sweep the town, he begs a claco with such bewitching impudence that the man who refuses the demanded alms must be insensible to humor. Like the Indian, he is remarkably skilful in imitation, and makes figures of wax or rags, which are not only singularly faithful as portraits, but possess a certain degree of grace that is worthy of an artist. Some of the tribe read and write with ease and even elegance. Among this class are to be found the evangelistas or letter writers, who, seated around the portales and side walks of the plaza, are ready, at a moment's notice, to indite a sonnet to a mistress, a petition to government, a letter to an absent husband, or a wrathful effusion to a faithless lover. Another branch of this nomadic horde is engaged in the profitable occupation of "thieving," which requires no capital in trade save nimble fingers, rapid action, and a bold look with which detection may be defied. The narrow streets and lanes of towns are the theatres in which these accomplished rogues perform. No man in Mexico dares indulge in the luxury of carrying a handkerchief in his pocket. The attempt would be useless, for a lepero would appropriate it before the stranger had walked a square. Upon one occasion a hat was actually taken off an Englishman's head by a lepero in a dense crowd; but the act was so adroitly done, that the jolly foreigner joined in the shout of laughter with which the hero was hailed as he vanished among the masses. Should the priest pass at such a moment with the host, on his way to the chamber of a dying citizen, the lepero would fall on his knees with the rest of the townspeople, yet whilst he beat his breast with one hand, he might be seen to keep the other tenaciously in his victim's pocket. If caught in the felonious act, which rarely happens, the lepero takes the inflicted blows or choking with craven humility, and, whilst he shouts—"ya esta, Senor amo,—ya esta!" "enough, my master, oh enough!" he is seeking for another opportunity to pilfer his punisher's watch or purse, during the conflict.

Such is the Mexican lepero. The sketch may seem broad or even caricatured to those who are unacquainted with the country, but its accuracy will be acknowledged by all who have resided in Mexico and been haunted by the filthy tribe.

The Ranchero comes next in our classification of the Mexicans. He is a small farmer, or vaquero, who owns or hires a few acres on which he cultivates his corn or grazes his cattle. He is not an Indian, a white man, an African, or a lepero, yet he mixes the qualities of all in his motly character. He is a person of lofty thoughts and aspirations;—a devoted patriot;—a staunch fighter in all the revolutions whenever guerillas are required;—a hard rider and capital boon companion over a bottle or in a journey among the mountains.

On his small estate he devotes himself to the cultivation of the ground, or leaves this menial occupation to his family whilst he goes off to the wars or to carousals and fandangos in the neighboring village pulquerias. He is an Arab in his habits, and especially in his love and management of the horse. Dressed in his leather trowsers and jerkin; with his serape over his shoulders, his broad brimed and silver corded sombrero on his head; his heels armed with spurs whose three-inch rowels gleam like the blades of daggers; his sword strapped to the saddle beneath his armas de agua, and, grasping his gun in his hand,—the Ranchero is ready, as soon as he mounts, to follow you for months over the republic. He is the nomade of the country, as the lepero is of the town. His devotion to his animal is unbounded. The faithful quadruped is his best friend and surest reliance. His lazo lies curved gracefully in festoons around the pommel of his saddle. Thus, with his trusty weapons and his horse, the mounted ranchero is at home in the forest or in the open field; on hill side or in valley. Few riders, elsewhere, can equal him in speed or horsemanship; and few can excel him as a herdsman, a robber, an enemy, or even a friend whenever you hit his fancy or are willing to understand his character and pardon his sins.

Indian Race of Mexico.

Notwithstanding the brilliant pages which Aztec history contributed to the annals of America and the civilization which prevailed, not only in the valley of Mexico, but also in other portions of the territory now within the limits of the republic, we find that the indigenous descendants of these heroic and intelligent ancestors have degenerated to such a degree that they are at present in general, fitted only for the servile toils to which they are commonly and habitually devoted. Three hundred years of oppression may have done much to produce this sad result. Without union among the tribes; without community of feeling, language or nationality; the Indians became an easy prey to the Spaniards after the conquest of the great central power. Old prophecies were accomplished, according to the Aztec belief, by the arrival of the Spaniards. "It is long since we knew from our ancestors,"—said Montezuma to Cortéz,—"that neither I nor all who inhabit these lands were originally of them, but that we are strangers, and came hither from distant places. It was said that a great lord conveyed our race to these regions and returned to the land of his birth, and yet, came back once more to us. But, in the meantime, those whom he first brought had intermarried with the women of the country; and when he desired them to return again to the land of their fathers they refused to go. He went alone; and ever since have we believed, that from among those who were the descendants of that mighty lord, one shall come to subdue this land, and make us his vassals! According to what you declare of the place whence you come, which is toward the rising sun, and of the great lord who is your King, we must surely believe that he is our natural lord."

Such were the superstitious opinions amongst the most civilized of all the Indian nations at the period of the conquest. It is not surprising therefore to find the other nomadic, predatory hordes,—whose ferocity was not so keen as that of their northern kindred, but had been tempered and softened in some degree by the genial climate of the tropics,—soon yielding to the superior will of a masculine race, eager, not only for gold, but for the establishment of estates which were in fact principalities, and whose beneficial improvement required the employment of large bodies of continual and compulsory laborers. The Indians afforded the staple of this stock at once. The conquest rooted out all their old institutions by violence. Their government and laws were overthrown by force; their religion was changed by power; their graven idols, the material emblems of their gods, were ground to dust; their social system was completely overturned; and thus, perfectly annihiliated as a nation, in politics, theology, and domestic life or habits, they were, in the end, but wretched outcasts in their own land.

The Indians may therefore be regarded as somewhat prepared by degradation for the system of repartimientos, which, as we have already seen in the historical part of this work, was instituted immediately after the conquest.

The aborigines throughout Mexico have been devoted as a class to agricultural labors. Immediately after the conquest the Spaniards forced them to toil in the mines as well as in the fields; but as soon as a race of mixed blood was found to replace these original laborers in the bowels of the earth, the native Indian escaped to wilder districts where there were no mines, or where his services were required on the surface of the earth. Besides this, since the revolution, labor has been somewhat more free than before that epoch. The Indian, if not bound to the estate, by the slavery of debt, as we shall see hereafter, has the right to do what he pleases, and consequently he selects that labor which will give him support with least fatigue in a country whose soil is almost spontaneously productive.

The Mexican Indian, may therefore be generally designated as an agriculturist. A few of them engage in the manufacture of certain elegant fabrics of wool and cotton; in some of the imitative arts, in which they greatly excel; and in the formation of utensils for domestic use.

In the field, the Indian executes all the labor,—sometimes in the midst of the great plantations of sugar, cotton, coffee, corn, tobacco, wheat, and barley—or, at others, in the midst of the beautiful gardens for which some parts of the republic are celebrated. In all these positions his labor is faithfully performed;—but he is the enemy of all changes in the modes or utensils of his work. He prefers the old system of drawing water for irrigation; the old system of rooting the earth with the Arab stake instead of the American plough; the old system of carrying offal, stones, or whatever is to be removed from his fields, in bags, instead of in barrows or carts; and the old system of bearing every burden, no matter how onerous, on his shoulders instead of a dray or a wagon. It offends him to speak of changes, which he regards as unrighteous innovations. His character, like that of the Chinese, is one of excessive tenacity for old customs. After three centuries of constant intercourse with strange races, he still segregates himself from the foreigner, and, nestling in his native village, keeps aloof from the Spaniard. He speaks his hereditary language; clings to his old habits; and,—according to the report of reliable travellers,—worships, occasionally in private, his ancestral idols. In the capital, garlands which have been secretly suspended on the images by Indians, are still sometimes found around the hideous Aztec divinities preserved in the court yard of the University. "You gave us three very good gods"—said an Indian once to a respectable Catholic curate,—"yet you might as well have left us a few of our own!"

Grave, taciturn and distrustful,—types, in manners, of a crushed and conquered race,—the Indians of Mexico, wear a sombre look and demeanor, accompanied by an air of evident submissiveness. It is rare to find them merry, except at the end of harvest on the large estates, when an annual festival is prepared, in which they are accustomed to unite with great zest. They have other periods of cessation from toil, such as the Sabbath day, the feasts of the patron saints of their village or parish church. Upon these occasions their devotion to the externals of religion is exhibited by a lavish expense in articles which they imagine may contribute to the honor or glory of their spiritual protector in heaven. In order to celebrate the occasion with due decorum, according to their simple ideas, they not only spend whatever money they happen to possess at the moment, but pledge themselves, in advance, at the haciendas, for the loan of sums which they must repay by future labor. The result is that these superstitious frivolities consume a large share of the Indian's substance; and, notwithstanding his economy and frugality, he and his family are obliged to spend the greater part of the year in misery, in recompense for the rockets, fire crackers, music, wax candles, and flowers, which he purchased on the Festival of his Santo. In addition to these ecclesiastical costs, we must not omit his personal expenses, for the Indian does not forget his bodily condition whilst he pays attention to his spiritual wants. Liquor and gambling, fill up the occasional pauses in the pious ceremonials, so that after the Indian has finished his religious services and his dinner for the day, it is quite likely that he is prepared to creep into a hovel or shelter with his family, where they may sleep off the debauch that universally finishes these ecclesiastical functions. Similar wild indulgences are permitted among them at marriages, baptisms and interments, and in consequence of this thriftlessness, these miserable wretches are never able either to leave property to their offspring or to afford them an education by which they may improve their lot in life.

The Indian woman is the true and faithful companion of her husband's fortunes. She works incessantly at her appropriate tasks. She grinds the corn for the tortillias and atolé of the family, and carries them to her husband wherever he is at work; she weaves, in her rude manner, all the materials of cotton or wool that are worn by her household; she makes the garments of her spouse and children; she keeps the domestic premises in order without an assistant; nor does she cease, for a moment, to nourish and watch her offspring during their infancy. If her husband departs to another district, or is enlisted as a soldier, she straps her pack and her youngest child on her back, and accompanies her liege lord, whilst a train of their mutual descendants, "small by degrees and beautifully less," follows in their rear.

We have said that the Indians are frugal in their food and economical in their dress, for in reality, their meals commonly consist only of cereal products, and, especially, of corn. Atolé, tortillias, Chili peppers and frijoles, are sufficient to support them. They do not eat flesh habitually, and yet they are healthy and robust, nor is it extraordinary to see individuals among them who attain the advanced age of more than of ninety years.

Their occasional indulgence in drunkenness, disgusting and injurious as it is at the moment, does not generally destroy the constitutions of these hardy laborers, whose subsequent compulsory temperance, not only in drink but in food, soon repairs the momentary inroads of a day's debauch.

The dress of both men and women is the simplest and the cheapest possible. In the state of ignorance and abjection in which this race has been so long held, it is not easy to conceive whether their intellectual faculties might be again aroused. In some of the colleges of Mexico, individuals have applied themselves with great care, have received classical educations, and made remarkable progress even in the sciences, in some of which they excelled. But generally speaking, these instances may be regarded as remarkable exceptions. The Indian, as we have

before observed, when he quits the agricultural field, exhibits most talent in the imitative arts. The instruments and materials he uses are of the simplest and rudest kind, and, although the imitations produced by him are wonderfully accurate, yet they want that lively variety which is only produced by vivid imaginations.

Upon the plantations the Indians are in reality slaves, notwithstanding the Mexican laws prohibit slavery. This condition is produced chiefly by two causes. The Mexican Indian who cherishes, as we have seen, a remarkable devotion to his old habits, customs, utensils and implements, is gifted with an equal tenacity or adhesiveness for the place of his birth. Nomadic as were his ancestors, the modern Mexican Indian is no wanderer. The idea of emigration, even to another state or district, never originates in his brain, or is tolerated if proposed to him as a voluntary act. So helpless is his condition if placed beyond the limits of his habitual neighborhood or hereditary haunts, that he feels himself perfectly lost, abandoned and cast off, if compelled to change either his residence or his occupation. He has no variety of resources. He knows nothing of alternatives. The operations of his mind, as well as of his hand, are perfectly mechanical. The utter helplessness of such an individual, if suddenly transferred from the midst of his companions and all the scenes of his life-long associations or duties, may be easily conceived, and consequently the greatest punishment that a haciendado, or Mexican planter, can inflict upon his Indian serf is to expel him from the estate upon which he and his ancestors have worked from time immemorial. When other punishments, which elsewhere would be thought severe, fail to produce reform or amendment in the Indian's conduct, it usually happens, that the serious threat of expulsion from the estate, made by the owner himself, or his authorised representative, to the native, reduces the refractory individual to subjection. Thus it is, that this peculiar territorial and local adhesiveness contributes to making the Indian's condition not only menial but servile.

The second cause may be found in the habits of wild and extravagant indulgence which we have already described. These licentious outbursts of recklessness create a pecuniary bond between the proprietor and his laborer. The Indian becomes his debtor. It is the policy of the landholder to establish this relation between himself and the Indian, and consequently he affords him every facility to sell himself in advance, even for life, to his estate. The Indian, is thus at least completely mortgaged to the landed proprietor, and as that personage usually possesses considerable influence in his neighborhood, the laborer finds it extremely difficult or nearly impossible to enforce his freedom even by appeals to the legal authorities. Such is the origin and system of peonage, which still curses Mexico although the repartimientos and slavery have been abolished by fundamental laws.

We have observed that there are other punishments of the Indians resorted to on Mexican plantations for trifling faults or misdemeanors, besides the great and final calamity of expulsion. They are fined and they are flogged. "Looking into the corridor," says Mr. Stephens, in his work on Yucatan, "we saw a poor Indian on his knees, on the pavement, with his arms clasped around the knees of another Indian, so as to present his back fairly to the lash. At every blow he rose on one knee and sent forth a piercing cry, he seemed struggling to retain it, but it burst forth in spite of all his efforts. His whole bearing showed the subdued character of the present Indians, and with the last stripe the expression of his face seemed that of thankfulness for not getting more. Without uttering a word, he crept to the major-domo, took his hand, kissed it, and walked away. No sense of degradation crossed his mind. Indeed, so humbled is this once fierce people that they have a proverb of their own: "Los Indios no oyien sino por las nalgas,"—"The Indians only hear through their backs."

This hereditary condition or relation between the Indian and the original Spanish races has acted and re-acted for their mutual degradation. With a large population under his control, for all purposes of labor and menial toil, the Spaniard, of whatever class, found himself entirely free from the necessity of manual labor or mechanical pursuits. Notwithstanding this immunity from bodily toil, the native of Castile did not devote the leisure he enjoyed, whilst the Indians were working for him, either to the improvement of his mind, or the preparation of philanthropic plans for the amelioration of his servant's lot. A mere physical life of personal indulgence, or an avaricious devotion to the rapid acquisition of fortune, absorbed the whole time of these planters, who lived in almost utter seclusion amid the lonely wastes of their large territorial possessions. The planter who resides in a populous nation, or who is enabled to visit easily the capitals of commerce, literature, and art, is a man, who, from his personal independence, culture, and wealth, is usually in our own country to be envied for the peculiar privileges which his station affords him. But in Mexico, the position and education of the planter, if he lives constantly on his estate,—which is not universally the case,—are altogether different from those of the North American land-holder. The Mexican possesses few or none of those social and intellectual qualities that have been cultivated by the North American in the best colleges and circles of his country; nor does he enjoy equal facilities of intercommunication between the cities or rural districts of Mexico. The immense size of his plantation which sometimes extends several leagues in length and breadth, necessarily disperses instead of congregating a populous neighborhood. "He is master of all he surveys,—he is lord of the fowl and the brute," but his dominion is a solitary and cheerless one. Few, and irregular posts rarely bring him the news of what occurs in the great world. Visits are seldom and ceremoniously paid. He must find within himself the constant springing source of vivacity and of an ambitious desire for progress, or he must subside into mere animal existence. The latter is unfortunately in most instances the natural result, and it is therefore not at all astonishing to find Mexican planters or their mayordomos devoting all their energies to the maintenance of the servile system we have described, whilst their statute-book and constitution profess to have abolished slavery.

Whilst such is the effect upon the character of the master or his representative, it is natural to suppose that the character of the servant will be equally degraded by the want of those new ideas with which the constant refreshing intercourse of society ventilates the mind. The Indian knows no world but that bounded by his horizon. Slavery, when involuntary, may even be respected in the sufferer, but the Indian who becomes a slave in spite of law, by religious superstition, loathsome vices, and time-hallowed servility, sinks far below the level of the African, who is sober, careful, faithful to his master and his family, and either from imitation, or a degree of natural dignity, seeks to acquire respectability among his fellow slaves.

"It is hardly possible," says Mühlenpfordt, "to judge of the true character and intellectual capacity of the Indian at a time when he has but just partially recovered his rights as man, and has had little opportunity of giving independent culture to his mental faculties. Though the civic oppression under which the Spaniards and Creoles held all the copper colored race and the colored people generally before the revolution, has, for the most part disappeared, yet their emancipation has, as yet, only nominally taken place. Hierarchial oppression has yet hardly decreased, and the clergy, both the inferior secular priests and the monks who have the greatest influence over the Indians, find their account in declining to promote, if they do not positively retard, their intellectual development. Time only can inform us what advantages will accrue to the Indians from the new order of things. Up to this period the introduction of the boasted civilization of Europe, as well as of the Catholic religion, has been of but trifling benefit to them, and only a trace here and there of progress to an amelioration of their condition is to be remarked.

"The Mexican Indian of the present day is generally grave and taciturn, and almost sullen, when not excited by music and intoxicating drinks to loquacity and pleasure. This serious character may be remarked even in the children, who appear more knowing at the age of five or six, than those of northern Europeans at that of nine or ten. But this appearance of steadiness is by no means consequent on a quicker development of mind, and the looks of these young people, dejected and void of all the cheerfulness and confidence of children, have nothing that gladdens the observer. Gruffness and reserve appear to be essential features of the Indian character, and it cannot, I think, be assumed that these qualities were implanted in them only by the long oppression that weighed down the Mexican race, first under their native rulers, and afterwards under the Spaniards; inasmuch as they occur among the aborigines almost universally throughout America, even when these have never suffered any curtailment of political liberty. To that cause may be rather attributed the stubbornness and selfishness which constitute a striking trait in the character of the present Indians. It is almost impossible to move any Indian to do a thing which they have resolved not to do. Vehemence, threats, even corporal punishment, are of as little avail as the offer of gold or reward; persuasion, coaxing, entreaties help as little. The Mexican Indian loves to give an appearance of mystery and importance to his most indifferent actions. If stirred up by weighty interests, he breaks his accustomed silence, and speaks with energy but never with fire. Jokes are as rare with him as raillery and laughter. I never heard an Indian laugh heartily, even when excited by spirituous liquors. His uncommon hardness of character allows him long to conceal the passions of indignation and vengeance. No sign betrays externally the fire that rages within until it suddenly breaks out with uncontrollable violence. In this condition the Indian is most likely inclined to commit the most dreadful cruelties and the most fearful crimes. The Mexican aborigines bear with the greatest patience the torments which the whites were formerly and are still inclined to indulge against them. They oppose to these a cunning which they dexterously hide under a semblance of indifference and stupidity. Despite their long slavery; despite every effort which has been employed to rob them of their historical recollections, they have by no means forgotten their former greatness. They know right well that they were once sole lords of the land, and that those Creoles who are so fond of calling themselves Americans, are but the sons and heirs of their oppressors. I have myself frequently heard Indians, when their ordinary reserve has been overcome by spirituous liquors, declare that they were the true masters of the country, that all others were mere foreign intruders, and that if the Creoles could expel the Spaniards they had a far better right to expel the Creoles. May the latter be taught by their own acuteness to grant the Indians, while it is yet time, the practical exercise of these civic rights theoretically conceded to them, for the revolt of the copper colored race would indeed present a fearful spectacle!"

INDIAN TRIBES OR RACES IN MEXICO

The following table exhibits, in separate groups, the varieties of parentage and blood, forming the castes in Mexico and throughout Spanish America:

TABLE OF CASTES

Besides these specified castes there are several others not distinguished by particular names; such, for instance, as the produce of unions between the Mexican Indians or Spaniards and the people of the East Indian continent or Philipines, numbers of whom came over during the old viceroyal government. The best criterion for judging of the purity of blood, is the hair of the women, which is much less deceiving than their complexion. The short woolly hair, or coarse Indian locks, may always be detected on the head or on the back of the neck. This tabular statement exhibits at a glance the mongrel corruptions of the human race in Mexico, and presents an interesting subject for students of physiology and ethnology.[6]

CHAPTER III.
Population.

POPULATION.—CENSUS.—TABLES OF POPULATION.—RELATIVE DIVISION OF RACES.—RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION.—RELATIVE POPULATION IN HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS.

IT is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has ever been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been persistently pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens and collect such statistical data as may always be easily gathered by persons engaged in this important task. The irregularity of the central or executive power; the instability of all governments since the establishment of independence; the intestine quarrels, not only in the capital but in the departments or states, have all contributed to, and even partially compelled, this neglect of a great national duty.

In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we are obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the partial enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experienced statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall exhibit all the most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexican works or in the writings of reliable authors:—

Variances between the different Calculations and Censuses of the Population of Mexico.

In the year 1838, Señor Jose Gomez de la Cortina,—ex-Conde de la Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, published a carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, in the 1st No. of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics of the Mexican Republic; and his opinion was that the number of inhabitants greatly exceeded any of the above amounts. By observing the increase of population in different periods of five years, he considered it satisfactorily proved by the Tablas Geographico-politicas, of 1803, that the augmentation, in favorable years, was at the rate 1⁴/₅ per cent. By applying this ratio to the census of the Tablas, which gave in 1803, 5,764,731 inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about 105,000 yearly; and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the 46 intervening years, we find in 1850 an increase of 4,830,000, or a grand total of 10,594,731.

In the year 1842, however, when an estimate was made of a basis of population, upon which to found a call for a Congress to form a new constitution under the plan of Tacubaya, in 23 Departments or States and Territories, exclusive of Texas, the government calculated that there were 7,015,509 inhabitants.

Table of Population in 1842.

This population may be relatively classed among races and castes as follows:

As Mexico, since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, possesses 798,402 square miles, this will give nine inhabitants and a fraction, to the square mile.

From these calculations we deduce some very important facts as to the physical and intellectual condition of Mexico, which are very significant in the illustration of history. It appears that the total number of pure whites in the republic, is, in all probability, not more than 1,100,000; while the Indians, Negroes, Zambos, Mulattoes, Meztizos, and all the mixed bloods, amount to 6,526,831. During our residence in Mexico we ascertained from reliable authority that among the Indians and negroes but two per cent. could read and write, while among the whites, and castes, but twenty per cent. were estimated to enjoy those benefits. Thus we have:

or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the simplest rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a half millions. These are startling statistics in regard to the citizens of a nation whose government is theoretically and practically based on the culture of the people or their capacity for self-rule; and, when considered in connexion with the historical details presented in the first volume of this work, they will show that the distracted condition of Mexico is a mingled cause and consequence of her intellectual darkness.[7]

One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics would be to compare the number of births in the regions called the tierras calientes—or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or cold region. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from data derived from nine departments, he concluded that the excess of births in the warm regions or tierras calientes was 1⁵/₁₀ per 100, over the tierras frias.

He gives the following actual statistics in evidence:

1st. Result of the general census of the department of Zacatecas since the year 1824, and progressive increase of population therein before the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes:—

RESULTS.

Of not less importance are the investigations upon the excess observed in one sex over the other. Before the appearance of Humboldt's work it was the opinion that in the New World nature did not follow the same law of equilibrium in the difference between the sexes as in Europe, and especially that in the tropical regions, the number of females exceeded greatly that of the males. Baron Humboldt combated this notion and demonstrated its error. He presents in his political essay upon New Spain a table of the population of eight Intendencies, in which it appears that out of 1,352,835 inhabitants there were 687,935 males and 664,900 females, which establishes a relative proportion of 100 to 95. In the Tablas Geografico politicas, already cited, it is expressly said that in New Spain, in the Intendencies of the tierras frias, or cold regions, as well as in those of the tierras calientes, or hot regions, the population inclines to a preponderance of males. Don Fernando Navarro y Noriega gives in his tables of population 71,642 more males than females; and, in the account of the taxes made by order of the government in 1781, it appears that the excess is still in favor of males, though in a much less proportion than assigned by Baron Humboldt. We present the following table, prepared in Mexico for the purpose of throwing more light on the subject:

Table of Population in various Departments in different years—Relative exceses—Births and deaths.

It may, generally, be said that the excess of one sex over the other is in inverse proportion to the latitude; or, in other words, that, as we advance from the equator, the excess of females over males decreases, until the reverse occurs as the degrees of latitude augment. We must, however, except from this rule the department or state of Tamaulipas, in which the constancy with which nature sustains the excess of males, is somewhat extraordinary. The most ancient document possessed upon the subject, relative to this State, is of the year 1793, and from this we discover that, from that year until 1807, 124 more males than females were born therein, and that 30 more females than men died during the period—

CHAPTER IV.
Agriculture—Agricultural Products

AGRICULTURE—DRY AND RAINY SEASONS.—IRRIGATION—YIELD OF CORN LANDS.—COLONIAL RESTRICTIONS.—COLONIAL DEPENDENCE—BAD INTERCOMMUNICATION—ARRIEROS.—CORN LANDS—DIFFERENT KINDS OF CORN IN MEXICO—MODE OF CULTIVATION—PRODUCTION—VARIOUS USES OF CORN.—BANANA—MAINOC—RICE.—THE OLIVE—VINE—CHILE PEPPER—TOMATO—FRIJOL—MAGUEY.—MAGUEY ESTATES.—MAKING PULQUE.—ALOES—CACTI.

SUN, seasons, temperature, soils and moisture are the chief elements of agricultural success or failure, according as they are beneficially harmonized or unfortunately disunited. In our geological and geographical descriptions we have already indicated the rapid changes of temperature in Mexico experienced by rising gradually from the sea shore to the summit of the table land, and passing through the tierras calientes, templadas and frias. This is the origin of the variety of Mexican productions and the reason why the pine and the palm are encountered upon the same parallel of latitude; but the fertility of Mexico is very much governed by the moisture with which it is annually favored, and for which it is obliged to rely chiefly on the clouds. The Mexicans are not accustomed to separate the year as we do into the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, for the variation of temperature scarcely authorizes such marked distinctions of climate; yet they divide the twelve months into two grand divisions of El Estio—or the dry season, and La Estacion de las aguas, or the rainy season. The latter commences about May and lasts usually four months, whilst the dry season comprises the remainder of the year.

The curving shores of Mexico along the gulf and interior highlands gather and hem in an immense body of vapor, which is carried on by the trade winds and condensed against the cold and lofty inland mountain peaks which rise above the limit of perpetual congealation. This occurs during the dry season whilst the sun is at the south. But when the power of that luminary increases as it advances northward, and until it has long turned back again on its southern course, these vapors are dissolved by the hot intertropical air and descend, almost daily, in fertilizing showers. The

formation of rain clouds and the precipitation of their moisture usually begin on the coast near Vera Cruz, and the course of the rain storms advances from east to west, inundating the tierra caliente along the eastern coast fifteen or twenty days before the table lands are moistened. There have been seasons in which it did not begin to rain until a month or two after the usual period. In 1802 such an event occurred; and, again in 1826, the vapors did not begin to form and descend until the end of July, in consequence of which the corn was totally lost. If the rains are withheld beyond the middle of June, all the cereal products are either destroyed or suffer greatly from the drought. The power of the sun, by that time, becomes so great that the ground is scorched and the air filled with clouds of dust which seem to gather and concentrate the blazing rays, until the falling particles surround or fall upon the traveller over the plains as if he were passing through a shower of heated cinders. The heat, and the masses of burning dust, are almost overpowering not only to vegetable but almost to animal life.

The agricultural prosperity of Mexico, accordingly, depends either largely upon the relative duration of these two seasons, or on the power of the landed proprietors to supply the loss of water from the clouds, by IRRIGATION derived from the rivers or slender streams that meander through the interior of Mexico. Seldom, indeed, is the Mexican planter or farmer obliged to complain of too much moisture. Between the parallels of 24° and 30° the rains are of shorter duration, and the intervals between the showers greater. But, fortunately, beyond the 26th°, a copious supply of snow, during the winter, compensates for the want of rain at the regular season. Irrigation, therefore, is universally resorted to, wherever there is an adequate supply of water, and large sums are expended by the possessors of the principal estates, in the construction of acequias, or canals; presas, dams or reservoirs; and norias, or water wheels, by which the refreshing element is forced up and distributed over the thirsty fields.

Such is a brief review and summary of the soil and seasons of Mexico. The average annual yield of the corn lands throughout Mexico is estimated at twenty-five bushels for one. In portions of the country, during favorable years, and where the irrigation is good, from sixty to eighty bushels for one have been produced. At Cholula, near Puebla, the increase is stated at forty for one, while at Zelaya, Salamanca, and Santiago, further north, from thirty-five to forty are produced on an average of years. In the valley of Mexico, proper, the yield is from eighteen to twenty; and even in the old possessions of California, it is set down at from fifteen to seventeen. The best writers consider, however, that notwithstanding the extraordinary fertility of their soil, the Mexicans do not produce in ratio of quantity, superior crops to the best agricultural portions of the United States.

The agricultural advantages of New Spain were early pointed out by some of the colonial authorities to the Spanish Home government; but the very fact of their existence seems to have alarmed the Court and to have originated those restrictive laws which, as we have shown in our historical narrative, so long ensured the dependence of the colony. The King, the Cabinets and the Council of the Indies united in believing that if the internal resources of the nation were developed, fostered, and placed upon a firm basis, the political as well as the industrial independence of America might naturally ensue; and accordingly, these authorities resolved at once to adopt the narrow system of restrictions which retained the essentially productive power in the hands of Spain. Zumarraga, the first bishop and second archbishop of Mexico, addressed urgent letters to the Emperor Charles V., exhibiting the agricultural value of the country, and solicited laborers, plants, seeds, cattle, and all the usual means for the development of Mexican resources. The Bandos published in the year 1524, by Cortéz, which are yet preserved in the Hospital of Jesus, in the capital, contain wise decrees for the encouragement of industry, and prove that the military life of the Conqueror had not made him forgetful of his early agricultural labors in the West Indies when he first emigrated from Spain. But the policy of Spain was constantly declared to be adverse to this wholesome and reasonable encouragement. When Luis de Velasco, the second of that name who was viceroy in New Spain, passed thence to the viceroyalty of Peru, he was instructed by the King and Council of the Indies to be careful not to "foster manufactures, nor to allow the cultivation of vines, inasmuch as there was already ample provision of these things and the commerce of the kingdom should not be impaired by such colonial products." At the same epoch, his successor in Mexico, the Conde de Monterey, was also required to be equally vigilant and restrictive in the region confided to his government. These orders, however, were not always faithfully complied with throughout such extended and sparse jurisdictions as those of Mexico or Peru; and accordingly in 1610, through the Marques de Montesclaros, who replaced the Conde de Monterey in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were repeated, with the addition of the following emphatic language:—"Inasmuch as you understand perfectly, how much the observance of these rules is necessary for the dependence of the colonies upon the parent state, we charge and command you to see to their faithful execution." Wine and oil, two of the most important products of Spain, and two of the absolute necessaries of a Spaniard's life, wherever he may happen to live, where thus protected from competition, and formed the means of preserving the colonial vassalage. Nothing was left to the New World, therefore, either to manufacture extensively, or to cultivate, except some of the coarser cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a sufficiency of the cerealia for domestic consumption. It was necessary to preserve an equilibrium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of food and the production of the mines; and thus the common agricultural and horticultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone left unencumbered for the Mexicans.

We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was absolutely demanded for political ends, a system of internal improvement by national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding together all parts of the country. Highways were opened and horses and mules imported. But these were only suitable for the internal transportation of the country; and, even to the present day, the whole of Mexico is traversed by miserable roads, whose channels are often cut up into deep ravines by the unceasing attrition of caravans. The stubborn but useful mules, moving about the country in large bodies, under the guidance of Arrieros, follow each other in single file over the same path for centuries, and there is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by their footsteps to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal restrictions, and the want of transportation except by mules, all combined to impede rural industry, waste the people's time, destroy internal intercourse, and to force the consumption of agricultural products either upon the spot where they grew or in its immediate neighborhood. The independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course relieved the nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce; but the agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a constitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes of transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern republicans. Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action among the people in the different states through which the new highways would pass, at the same time that they have impaired the unity of system or policy upon which the national government might have acted for the general improvement of internal communication or development of agricultural resources. Some of the best citizens have written and labored in behalf of national industry in all its usual or possible manifestations; but we fear that many years of profound peace must be ensured to Mexico before the farmer will be able to share in the blessings of commerce by means of exportation.

The great CORN LANDS of Mexico are those of Puebla;—the Bajio, which comprises portions of the state of Guanajuato, Queretero, Valladolid, Zacatecas, and Guadalajara, in the vicinity of the Rio Santiago;—the valley of Mexico, in the state of Mexico;—the valley of Poañas, in Durango;—and it is calculated that the cleared ground in these districts is capable of producing cerealia for a population five times greater than that of Mexico at present. Corn, in the states of Mexico and Puebla is worth two dollars the fanega of one hundred and fifty pounds; in Oajaca about one dollar for the same quantity. Its value is every where irregular, and no general tariff of prices can be assigned to Mexican breadstuffs until some great national market shall be established or Mexico becomes an exporting country. Neighborhoods, at present establish prices.

Maize or CORN, is a gift from the New World to the Old, and is unquestionably the favorite food of the great mass of the inhabitants of our continent. In Mexico, every household is furnished with it abundantly, and all classes use it habitually.

Although this plant is a native of America it is never found growing wild in the republic. Single stocks may be occasionally seen in remote or uninhabited districts, but they are rarely met, and, in all likelihood, have been sown by the flocks of robber birds who ravage the Mexican milpas or corn fields during the ripening season.

The best cultivated varieties in Mexico, are:

1st. Maiz de padus; with small ears, of eight rows, and the most unimportant of all the varieties raised in the country.

2d. Maiz manchado, or chiniesco; a productive species with white, yellow and red grains;—sometimes also entirely blue, in which case, it is called pinto.

3d. Maiz blanco; a very productive kind, yielding a fine sweet meal.

4th. Maiz amarillo; this is sub-divided into:—1st, maiz amarillo grueso, which is very generally cultivated and rarely yields less than two or three ears each, with from three to six hundred kernels or grains. 2d, maiz amarillo pequeno, is smaller and less stout; but in a fruitful soil its yield weighs from ten to fifteen hundred weight, more than the grueso.

5th. Maiz cuarentino; or quarentine corn; better known in Mexico under the name of maiz tremes, or, olote colorado, which ripens quickly and may be planted in the coldest parts of Mexico.

6th. Maiz tardio, or, de riego; the most productive of all varieties, and that which is cultivated around the city of Mexico, and in many moist regions. It sometimes yields five hundred per cent. on the quantity planted.

Maize succeeds best in Mexico in moist and warm climates; but it has the great advantage over the other cereal grains that it may be as successfully cultivated in this country in the tierras calientes, as in the tierras frias. Its highest limits here are from two to eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, and consequently the time required for ripening is different at different elevations. It varies from seven months to six weeks.

The diseases which sometimes affect or destroy this vegetable in Mexico, as well the animals that assail it, may be summed up as follows:

1. La requitte, a wasting blight which affects the maize where it is sown upon poor soil and is subjected to damp, cold weather soon after planting.

2. El carbon—a vegetable fungus growth, resembling carbon or coal, which appears in the ears and destroys them. This abortion in the fruit is believed to be produced by an insect.

3. El hanjo—a species of uredo, which forms itself in the ear and ruins it. The disease is generally known as los Cuervos.

The animals and birds that attack corn are:

1. A sort of mole—talpa—which undermines the fields and destroy the young plants.

2. The larvæ of melolontha, which not only seize the roots, but often destroy the stalks and ears.

3. Flocks of pilfering birds, with which the corn-fields are covered, if they are not carefully watched during the approach of harvest. Neither day nor night are the ears safe from the attacks of these pilferers; and, in order to protect the crop, watchmen are placed on high stages, overlooking the acres, whence the traveller constantly hears their shouts, during the day, or the crack of the warning whips, during the night.

Maize may be planted in Mexico at different periods of the year, especially in those districts in which, for nine months, there is always sufficient moisture. In the tierra caliente, the rancheros, cultivate, in this grain, the best spots lying near their dwellings. In the cooler districts they have two kinds of culture—one by irrigation, and another upon a dry soil. The latter mode is subdivided, by the Mexicans, into three kinds—the humido, aventureso, and temporal.

In the first mode of cultivation the Maiz tardio, is sown, and it is usually found to be the most productive. A seeding made in a soil capable of preserving the winter's moisture and the humidity of the first spring rains, is called siembra de aventureso. In the temporal, a quickly ripening species of corn is planted—such as the maiz cuarentino—which may be cultivated either before or during the rainy season, from May to November.

It is rare that the common Mexican ranchero is sufficiently provident to select the soil for his corn crop, with due care; and accordingly we find that maize is often planted in the midst of fields abounding in stiff ungenial clay.

The present corn production of Mexico is not accurately determined, but it is estimated that it is the chief subsistence of at least five millions of persons, whilst it supplies the only fodder for all kinds of domestic animals. Its average product must therefore be not far from at least twenty millions of bushels.

Corn is a varied article of diet among all classes. The ancient Mexicans made a species of sugar from the juice of the stalk—while the modern Mexicans brew from it a fermented drink, called pulque de maiz, or omayo. The extremely saccharine pith of this plant is often devoured raw by the Indians, and it has been also frequently used in the manufacture of brandy. The unripe ears are boiled or baked, and sold in the towns and villages to the poorer classes, forming their sole subsistence; while the leaves and stems afford a capital food for beasts. Sometimes these portions of the plant are devoted to architectural purposes, and a neat rustic hut is built of the cornlike stalks, interwoven and thatched with their broad and graceful leaves.

A kind of beer, called chicha, is sometimes prepared from the kernels of ripened maize, and is found, by natives and strangers, to be an agreeable as well as wholesome beverage. When the meal is boiled in water, and mixed with some farinacious roots, a favorite and exceedingly grateful gruel, known as atolé, is formed by the process. In the tierra caliente, the kernels are often roasted and ground into pinole;—but the most ordinary consumption of this precious vegetable is in the tortillas, for which Mexico is so celebrated, and in the preparation of which it is estimated that more than two hundred thousand females, in the republic, spend four or five hours of every day. In order to make tortillas, the grains of corn are soaked in water, to which a small quantity of lime has been added, until they are relieved of their shells. The pure and softened pulp is then laid on a flat stone or metate, one end of which is slightly raised from the ground. A Mexican woman kneels in the rear of the metate, and with another round stone, rolls, macerates, and amalgamates the crushed corn until it is formed into a rich succulent paste. Hard by, a thin metallic griddle is set over ignited coals, which is constantly supplied by another female, who pats the dough into extremely thin and delicate cakes. They are eaten hot from the griddle, but, even when carefully prepared, are deemed insipid and unsavory by foreigners.

Nor are these the only purposes to which this delightful plant and its offal are devoted by the Mexicans. They have discovered, within a few years, that a capital paper, for ordinary purposes, can be made of its leaves; and they have long ago used them as wrappers for the cigarritos, which no loyal native fails to indulge in hourly.

Man and beast—dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and cigars—are thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian corn as one of the greatest elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury.

The extraordinarily productive Banana is to the inhabitants of the tierra caliente what maize is to those who dwell in the loftier and cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply the wants of three men, but an acre of Bananas, or plantains, says Humboldt, will support fifty.

The Mainoc, cassava bread, jatropha manihot, the Juca or Yuca, as it is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the tierra caliente, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts of Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state is poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the residuum is a farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose consumption, however, is not likely to increase in Mexico.

The cultivation of Rice is not extensive. On the east coast between Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between Jamiltepic and Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots; but it does not appear to please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to enter largely into the list of national productions either for export or home consumption.

The Olive was one of the banned and forbidden products of the Spanish colonies; but notwithstanding the inhibitions we have already cited in this section, the tree was planted in various portions of the country both previous to the revolution, and during intervals of repose whilst the war of liberation was waging. The archbishop of Mexico was one of the first to cultivate a plantation of it at Tacubaya near the capital. At the beginning of this century, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios, commenced the culture at his hacienda de Sarabia, within the district of Salamanca, in Guanajuato, and succeeded admirably; but his trees were destroyed entirely during the revolution. At present some large plantations have been made, in the same state, at several haciendas, and, especially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set out, in 1849.

The Vine, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican agriculturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout the colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they

were attempted; and this rule seems to have been enforced very generally, except, at Tehuacan, in the state of Puebla and at some points in the Misteca in Oajaca. The value of Spanish wines imported annually before Mexican independence, reached the ample sum of $700,000; and as the French and Germans have, since the opening of the ports, availed themselves of the benefit for their own trade, it is very questionable whether the vine will ever become an article of extreme produce as long as the present race occupies the soil of Mexico. In 1843, the vine was still chiefly cultivated at Tehuacan and at Parras. Plantations had been made in the neighborhood of Zelaya, but the actual production of the region about Parras may be estimated from the returns of the interior custom house of that district through which 616 barrels of native brandy weighing 2,693 arrobas of 25 lbs. each and 323 barrels of wine of 1,035 arrobas, together with 204 tierces of raisins, had passed during the previous year.

Chile PEPPERS or capsicum, are extensively cultivated on the table lands. This pungent vegetable is not only used upon the table or in the food of all classes as an occasional agreeable stimulant, but has become one of the regular necessaries of life. It is either ground and mixed with the various sauces and stews that always form part of a Spanish meal, or is stuffed with pleasant condiments and eaten as other products of the garden. No Mexican will pass a day without a dish of the genuine article, and even foreigners who wince under its excoriation upon their arrival in the country, soon become as fond of it as the natives.

Mexico produces nearly all the garden stuffs which are either natural to or have been introduced into the United States, but either in consequence of the climate, or of a careless mode of cultivation, they do not generally equal our own in quality or flavor. The tomato is very fine, lucious and plentiful; and, next to corn, Chili and frijoles, is probably most extensively consumed.

The frijol, a rich, nutritive, brown bean, altogether different, however, from the ordinary Garrabanzos, is universally found on the tables of Mexican gentlefolks and in the humble platters of the Indians or Mestizos. Various kinds of this valuable esculent are raised in the republic; but the dark bean of Vera Cruz is always sought as a delicacy in the houses of the upper classes throughout the republic. It is both wholesome and nourishing. Mixed with the stimulating gravy formed of chile, and eaten with a tortilla or corn cake, it soon becomes a necessary of life to a stranger who resides for any length of time in Mexico. Some of our country men have become so fond of the food, that they have brought the bean with them upon their return to the United States, and now supply their table with it instead of hominy. From the frijol, the tortilla, and the Chile pepper we pass to the great national liquor, which requires generally longer time to win the favor of foreigners.

The Maguey—Metl, or Agave Americana, is a species of Ananas, or Aloe, from which is made octli or pulque, the favorite beverage of the lower and middle classes of Mexicans, especially in the central parts of the table land.

This plant grows wild in almost every part of Mexico, yet the people do not extract a liquid from it, except in the neighborhood of Puebla and the capital, where its consumption is enormous. The principal plantations are in the States of Puebla, Mexico, Guanajuato, and a small portion of Valladolid. The districts most celebrated for the excellence of their liquor, are in the vicinity of Cholula and the Plains of Apam. So great was the consumption of this favorite national drink, that the small municipal tax upon it, at the gates of the cities, amounted, before the revolution, to $600,000—and, in the year 1793, to upwards of $800,000.

Pulque is so little known in Europe, or in the United States, that some account of the process, by which it is made, may be acceptable.

"The Maguey, or aloe, from which it is extracted, differs but little, in appearance, from those which abound in the south of Spain, and are known—though of a much smaller size—in England. Its growth is slow, but when arrived at maturity, its leaves are usually from five to eight feet in length, although some considerably exceed these dimensions.

"In the Maguey estates, the plants are arranged in lines, with an interval of three yards between each. If the soil be good, they require no attention on the part of the proprietor until the period of flowering arrives, at which time the plant first commences to be productive. This period is very uncertain; ten years, however, may be taken as a fair average, for, in a plantation of one thousand aloes, it is calculated that one hundred are in flower every year. The Indians, know, by infallible signs, almost the very hour at which the stem, or central shoot, destined to produce the flower, is about to appear, and they anticipate it, by making a deep incision and extracting the whole heart, or central portion of the stem, as a surgeon would take an arm out of the socket, leaving nothing but the thick outside rind, thus forming a natural basin or well, about two feet in depth and one and a half in diameter. Into this the sap, which nature intended for the support of the gigantic central shoot continually oozes, in such quantities that it is found necessary to remove it twice, and even three times, during the day. In order to facilitate this operation, the leaves on one side are cut off, so as to admit a free approach. An Indian then inserts a long gourd, (called acojité,) the thinner end of which is terminated by a horn, while at the opposite extremity a small square hole is left, to which he applies his lips, and extracts the sap by suction. This sap, before it ferments, is called Aguamiel, (honey water,) and merits the appellation, as it is extremely sweet, and does not possess that disagreeable smell which is afterwards so offensive.

"A small portion of this aguamiel is transferred from the plant to a building prepared for the purpose, where it is allowed to ferment for ten or fifteen days, when it becomes what is termed Madre Pulque, (the mother of Pulque,) which is distributed, in very small quantities, amongst the different skins or troughs, intended for the daily reception of the Aguamiel. Upon this it acts as a sort of leaven; fermentation is excited instantly, and in twenty-four hours it becomes Pulque in the very best state for drinking. The quantity drawn off each day is replaced by a fresh supply of Aguamiel, so that the process may continue during the whole year without interruption, and is limited only by the extent of the plantation. A good maguey yields from eight to fifteen quartillos or pints, of Aguamiel in a day, the value of which may be taken at about one real, or twelve and a half cents;—and this supply of sap continues during two, and often three months. The plant, therefore, when about to flower, is worth ten dollars to the farmer; although, in the transfer of an estate, the Magueyes de corte, ready for cutting, are seldom valued, one with another, at more than five. But, in this estimate, an allowance is made for the failure of some, which is unavoidable, as the operation of cutting the heart of the plant, if performed either too soon, or too late, is equally unsuccessful and entirely destroys the plant. The cultivation of the Maguey, where a market is at hand, has many advantages, as it is a plant, which, though it succeeds best in a good soil, is not easily affected either by heat or cold, and requires little or no water. It is propagated, too, with great facility; for, although the mother plant withers away as soon as the sap is exhausted, it is replaced by a multitude of suckers from the old root. There is but one drawback on its culture, and that is the period that must elapse before a new plantation can be rendered productive, and the uncertainty with regard to the time of flowering, which varies from eight to eighteen years. But the Maguey grounds, when once established, are of great value, many producing a revenue of ten and twelve thousand dollars per annum.

"The natives ascribe to Pulque as many good qualities as whiskey is said to possess in Scotland. They call it stomachie,—a great promoter of digestion and sleep, and an excellent remedy in many diseases. It requires a knowledge of all these good qualities to reconcile the stranger to that smell of sour milk or slightly tainted meat, by which the young Pulque drinker is usually disgusted; but if this can be surmounted, the liquor will be found both refreshing and wholesome, for its intoxicating qualities are very slight, and as it is drunk always in a state of fermentation, it possesses, even in the hottest weather, an agreeable coolness. It is found, too, where water is not to be obtained; and even the most fastidious, when travelling under a vertical sun, are then forced to admit its merits.

"It is only to be met with in perfection near the places where it is grown; as it is conveyed to the great towns in hog-skins on mules or asses. During this tedious process the disagreeable odor increases and the freshness of the liquor is lost. A strong sort of brandy, called Mexical, Mescal, or aguardiente, is likewise prepared from the aloe, of which there is a great consumption in the country. Nor is the utility of the plant confined to this; the Aztecs prepared from its leaves the paper on which their hieroglyphics were written, pieces of which, of various thickness, may be found at the present day. The more fibrous parts supply the country with pita, a strong thread or twine, which is made up into ropes and used not only in the interior, but on the western coast as cordage for vessels. It is not so pliable as hemp, and is more liable to be affected by the weather; but it is extremely tough and durable, and consequently of very general utility. The preceding plate contains an aloe in full produce, with the leaves cut, the central cup displayed, and the skin, gourd, and scraper used in extracting the sap."[10]

Mexico is filled with varieties of Aloes and Cacti. A species known as the Organos—whose tall, erect and fluted columns shoot up to a height of ten, fifteen or twenty feet, is used in many parts of the table land for fences. Planted in close rows, its fine spines and firm limbs afford an impervious wall against intruders, whilst the tops of these evergreen and growing barriers are almost always covered with the most beautiful blossoms. In many districts of Mexico these cacti form one of the most picturesque as well as useful features in the landscape.

CHAPTER V.
COLONIAL PRODUCTS.

ESTATES IN THE VALLEYS OF CUERNAVACA AND CUAUTLA—MEXICAN HACIENDAS.—SUGAR REGIONS—COFFEE—ITS YIELD.—TOBACCO—ORIZABA—CHIAPAS, ETC.—INDIGO—COTTON.—MANUFACTURES ENCOURAGED IN MEXICO.—NO NEW AGRICULTURAL POPULATION—NEW MANUFACTURING POPULATION.—PRODUCTION OF COTTON—VAINILLA—JALAP—CACAO—COCHINEAL—ITS PRODUCTION AND QUANTITY.—SILK—FRUITS—AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.—GRAZING, AND NOT AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY.

Agricultural Products continued.—Colonial Products.

Sugar.

It is generally admitted that the cultivation of Sugar commenced in China. The cane became first known, through Marco Polo, in the middle of the thirteenth century; and it was soon after introduced into Nubia, Egypt and Ethiopia; whence, about the 15th century, it reached Europe. It was first planted in Sicily, and carried to Spain, Madeira, and the Canary Isles; and, twenty-eight years after the discovery by Columbus, it was introduced into Hayti, by Pedro Atienza, and speedily spread over the West Indies and other parts of America.

The Sugar Cane is one of the most valuable agricultural products of Mexico, and we are convinced from personal observation that the estates in the tierra caliente, where it is chiefly raised, are the richest, as well as most beautiful, in the republic. There is scarcely a lovelier prospect in Mexico than that which spreads before the traveller as he descends from the northern mountains into the valley or Cuernavaca, which lies south of the valley of Mexico, and may be reached easily in the course of a day. On every side, as far as the eye can reach, fields of the freshest verdure are spread out, dotted with the white walls and towers of the magnificent haciendas, which have been founded in this valley ever since the conquest. Screened from the cold winds of the upper table land by the protecting barrier of mountains which hem in the vales of Mexico and Puebla, the valley of Cuernavaca basks, on their southern slopes and feet, in a tropical climate. Winter never destroys the foliage in this sheltered region. Pleasant streams gurgle through its midst and afford sufficient supplies for irrigation. On the plain the tender green of the young cane, waves in the sun-light like a mass of purest velvet; whilst the palm and the plantain mingle their

pensile and massive foliage amid the densest groves of oranges, aloes, and forest trees. The valley of Cuernavaca is one of those picturesque regions which are so well calculated to bring back a fanciful beholder to the scenes he has conjured up in youth whilst perusing the story of Paul and Virginia, or the glowing descriptions of the Arabian Nights.

It is in this charming region that some of the opulent citizens of the republic, have succeeded the wealthy Spaniards in the princely domains and haciendas of the tierra caliente. In the neighborhood of Cuernavaca we find the estates of Temisco, San Gabriel, Trenta Pesos, El Puente, Meacatlan, San Gaspar, San Vicento Chiconcuac, and Atlajomulco. The valley of Cuautla unites with that of Cuernavaca, on the east, and contains, among others, the prominent estates of San Nicolas, Atlihuyan, San Carlos, Acotesalco, Pantitlan, Cocoyöe, Calderon, Casasana, Santa Iñez, Coahuistla, Mapastlan, and Tenestepango.

In the state of Oajaca there are the fine haciendas of Guendolein, Arragon, Chicomastlahuaca and Ayotla, besides smaller plantations; and, in the state of Vera Cruz there are many valuable estates in the neighborhood of Orizaba and Cordova. The last mentioned establishments produce annually from 40,000 to 50,000 arrobas of sugar; whilst those in the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla de Amilpas, (calculated in all, at forty-eight, in number,) yield about 800,000 arrobas of sugar and syrup—besides 50,000 barrels of rum. These products, together with some indigo and coffee, raised in these two last named valleys, swell the value of agriculture in these branches to two millions and a half annually. On the estate of Guendolein, in Oajaca, 40,000 arrobas of sugar were yielded every year, which sold in the federal capital at about $160,000. At Atlajomulco, in Cuernavaca, 880,000 square yards of land were cultivated in cane, which produced 4,600 cwt. of refined sugar, 7,800 cwt. of molasses, and 300 cwt. of syrup. From the syrup is distilled the common chinguerito, or a superior species of beverage known as aguardiente de cana. At the estate of Santa Iñez, near Cuautla, 4,000 barrels of this spirit are annually distilled and sold in Mexico at $32 each, which, with a deduction of eight dollars for transportation and duties, will leave a return for the planter of 24 dollars per barrel. In addition to this production of ardent spirits, the estate produces annually about 40,000 loaves, of twenty-three pounds each, or 920,000 pounds of refined sugar; and here, as elsewhere throughout the planting districts, it is calculated that the molasses, syrup, and in some places, the aguardiente, pay all the expenses of the estate. The chief difficulty encountered by the proprietors, and their administradors, is in the worthlessness of the Indian laborers, whose character as agriculturists we have noticed in the section of this work treating of the classes of Mexican society. Three hundred hands are employed at the hacienda, who are paid a per diem of two and a half or three reals, according to their qualifications or work.

The hacienda of Temisco, in the valley of Cuernavaca, is one of the oldest establishments in the republic, and, within a few years, has passed into the possession of its present owners for the sum of $300,000. The extensive buildings, consisting of a commodious dwelling, constructed in the old Spanish style, and a large chapel, were erected soon after the conquest. The domain extends over eleven leagues of land in length, and three in width. Two hundred and fifty laborers produce yearly about fifty thousand loaves of sugar, of an average weight of 23 pounds. The annual expenses of the farming and management amount to thirty thousand dollars, which are repaid by the molasses, syrup, and spirits, as at Santa Iñez, while, in addition to the crop, about four thousand cattle are raised on the premises. On all these large estates a store is kept by the owner, at which nearly the whole amount of the Indian laborer's wages is received back in the course of the year. The planters, in many parts of the country, are no longer contented with the old system of extracting and preparing sugar; but, notwithstanding the enormous cost of transporting such large masses of heavy machinery, they have introduced all the modern improved engines used in the United States and the West Indies. The profits must be large that will warrant so extravagant an expenditure. The great haciendas disburse, in wages and other current charges, from 800 to 1,200 dollars weekly. The establishment of a Trapiche, or all the works required for a sugar estate, is so costly an enterprise, that it is not likely the cultivation of the article will become greatly extended by the opening of new estates in the most productive regions. Labor, as well as engines, will be required for this purpose, and it is quite improbable that the few indolent Indians in the neighborhood will be prevailed on to abandon their life of laziness for the toils of a sugar plantation. Besides this, the present production fully supplies the home market, and although the revenues and profits are extraordinarily tempting, it is doubtful whether the Mexicans are sufficiently enterprising in agriculture to adventure such enormous sums as are necessarily expended before a single cane is planted or a pound of sugar manufactured. As long as the

rate of interest is high, the roads bad, transportation costly and unchanged, and the condition of the country unsettled, these vast and valuable rural districts will, in all likelihood, remain untenanted and unwrought.

Baron Humboldt, whose analytical mind always strives to classify, systematize and tabularize his investigations, has endeavored to ascertain and limit the maximum height at which the cane may be cultivated; but it is probably true that all such attempts, are altogether visionary, in a country of great inequalities of elevation, shelter and exposure. Many local causes, altogether independent of relative elevation may produce the degree of heat requisite to bring cane to perfection, yet it is generally conceded that the produce of a plantation in the table land would not equal that of an estate near the coast. The valley of Cuautla, for instance, is bounded on the north by the lofty peak of Popocatepetl, against whose snows the fresh verdure of the cane, and the graceful branches of the palm are constantly relieved. In an hour or two after leaving the plantation of Santa Iñez, the traveller who passes thence towards the valley of Mexico, finds himself obliged to put on his cloak or serape, after having suffered from tropical heat during the preceding day. It might reasonably be supposed that the vicinity of such immense masses of ice and snow would naturally affect the temperature of the adjacent valley; but the frosty peak of Popocatepetl only serves to condense the vapors that drift inland from the sea and to set them free over the low and warm valleys which border its southern base, whilst its broad shoulders protect the plains from the cold blasts of the north wind.

Coffee.

The soil of Mexico has been found adapted for the cultivation of coffee as well as sugar; but under the old Spanish dominion it never formed one of the articles of export, although it did not interfere with the productions of the mother country. In 1818 and '19 extensive plantations were commenced near Orizaba and Cordova, to which additions have since been frequently made. The plant was likewise introduced into the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla by Antonio Velasco and the administrador of the estates of the Duke of Monteleone. The large hacienda of Atlajomulco, in the immediate neighborhood of Cuernavaca still pertains to the descendants of Cortéz; and here the experiment of coffee culture has been long and successfully tried. The average produce of each plant is estimated at about two and a half pounds throughout all parts of the republic where the berry is cultivated; though there are districts of Mexico in which it is said that three or four pounds are yielded. This probably depends very much on the size, age, or quality of the tree. Mr. Ward states that he knew of a single tree, in the garden of Don Pablo de la Llave, at Cordova, which produced twenty-eight pounds! The slope of the eastern Cordillera is supposed to be best calculated for coffee estates, and it is believed that Yucatan and Tabasco will ultimately, under favorable circumstances, become the centres of a lucrative trade in this article, if the Indian population can ever be trained to agricultural labors, or made productively industrious in a land where the wants of nature are so few and so easily supplied. The plantations in the interior must long be excluded from foreign markets for the same reason that we have assigned in regard to sugar. Roads and improved transportation are the fundamental and primary elements of commercial civilization, and until these are obtained permanently, Mexico must look chiefly to her domestic market for agricultural recompense.

Tobacco.

In a country in which all the men, and nearly all the women are habitual and even constant smokers, tobacco, must necessarily be an article of national importance. So valuable is its production that the government has continued to maintain the monopoly of its sale, and, previous to the revolution, managed to obtain an annual clear revenue of from one to two millions and a half of dollars, with a gross income, occasionally, of over seven millions and a half. In the cigar factories of Oajaca five millions of packets of paper cigarritos of thirty in each were prepared, besides sixty thousand packets each containing seven puros or ordinary cigars.

Tobacco grows well in a small district near Orizaba and Cordova, but the best article produced in the republic, comes from Simojovel in the state of Chiapas and from some districts of Oajaca. In Yucatan and Tabasco, the plant is also cultivated successfully, and produces a mild and fragrant leaf which is not included in the national monopoly. A large portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is contraband; for the ridiculous and greedy restrictions and exactions with which a plant of such universal consumption is surrounded, necessarily dispose the people to violate laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights of production and trade under a constitution professing to be free.

Indigo.

Indigo was cultivated and used by the Mexicans previous to the conquest. The plant was known by them under the name of Xiuhquilipitzahuac, and the particles from which the dye stuff was made, as Mohuitli or Tlacohuilli. At the close of the seventeenth century the production of this article had already greatly decreased. The chief part of it, required for dyeing the cotton cloths which are generally used for home consumption by the Indians and lower classes of Mestizos, has been brought from Guatemala. It is found in Yucatan, Chiapas and about Tehuantepec in the state of Oajaca, and grows wild in some very warm localities in Tabasco. In this last named region there is every reason to believe that it may be profitably cultivated, inasmuch as the indigo plantations of San Salvador, in the neighborhood of Guatemala have been known to produce one million eight hundred thousand pounds of the article, valued at two millions of dollars.

The production of Wax, according to the Memoria Sobre el Estado de la Agricultura y Industria, of Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, is gradually augmenting in the republic. Attempts have also been made to cultivate Flax and Hemp. The first of which has been successfully raised by Mariano Aillou in the neighborhood of Tenancingo, and the latter, in the southern districts of the state of Michoacan, where it grows even spontaneously and is known under the name of guinary. The product is very large, the extent of territory covered by it very great,—and the thousands of pounds annually raised in that district, are made up into garments whose quality is highly approved throughout the republic.

Cotton.

In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to restrictive tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a number of intelligent persons began some years ago to establish factories for cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic factories it was supposed would naturally increase the culture of the raw materials, and, accordingly, the national industry was aided from the beginning by prohibitions or excessive duties, which either excluded the foreign raw material altogether, or fostered the contraband introduction of cotton twist and woollen thread.

Cotton was among the indigenous products of Mexico at the time of the conquest; and the early adventurers not only found it to constitute the common vesture of the masses of the people, but also that the most delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made of it. The Aztecs possessed the art of spinning it to an extreme degree of fineness and of imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for which they were celebrated; but both these mysteries were entirely lost in the general destruction of aboriginal arts and records by the Spaniards. Notwithstanding the natural anxiety of Spain to furnish her colonists with her manufactures, she could never prevent the people from weaving and wearing this spontaneous product of their soil. And, although the cultivation of the raw material was neglected or not pursued with the ingenious industry that would have made it a great staple product, it is nevertheless estimated that the annual value of the domestic manufacture in Mexico amounted to about $5,000,000. After the consummation of national independence, foreign nations hastened to seize the trade of Mexico and to fill the markets with an abundant but costly supply of European and American stuffs. The drain of the precious metals which this caused from a country that possessed no other article of export to pay for the imported merchandize by exchanges, soon alarmed the financiers of Mexico, and accordingly a higher scale of duties was adopted for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. This, for a long time, served only to augment the cost of apparel to the Mexican consumer, whilst it had no other material effect upon the fabrics of the country except to seduce a number of wealthy landholders into the erection of factories, which have cost them, at least, ten if not twelve millions of dollars. Unluckily, however, this amounted merely to the creation of vast establishments which could not rely upon the resources of the country for their supply, for the factories were built before the farms were opened by which they were to be furnished with the staple!

It is a fact, therefore, not very generally known, that Mexico has become a manufacturing country. The water power which is abundant in many parts of a mountainous region like that of Mexico, affords great facilities for such establishments.

In 1843 there were 53 cotton factories in the republic with a total of 131,280 spindles, and it was estimated that,—looking to Mexico alone for the supply,—there would be an annual deficiency of a large quantity of the raw material. This calculation, it must be remembered, does not include the consumption of cotton by hand looms, an immense number of which are in constant use through the republic.

In consequence of this evident deficiency, and the prospect of the firm establishment of a manufacturing system, many persons were induced to commence the cultivation of cotton. But their failure was signal. It is true that in Mexico the proportion of small farmers and rural tenants is small, and that the great majority of the owners of the soil are large landholders who might sometimes change the character of their cultivation. But these men belong to the pastoral rather than the agricultural age, and delight in the easier tending of their flocks and herds. In addition to this we must take into consideration the well known characteristics of the southern races enervated still more by the genial climate of Mexico. Those races are governed by traditions. As their fathers wrought—so they work. Their antipathy to change is proverbial, and it is by no means uncommon to see the spirit of an anecdote related by Bazil Montague, realized every day in Mexico.

"In a particular district of Italy," says he, "the peasants loaded their panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier by filling it with stones, and when a traveller pointed out the advantages to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was answered that their forefathers, from time immemorial, had so carried their produce to market; that they were wise and good men, and that a stranger showed very little understanding or decency who interfered in the established customs of a country." Such are the difficulties to be encountered in the habits and prejudices of all old nations, and the embarrassment, in the present instance, would not be so much in creating a body of gentlemen planters, as in finding laborers to work the plantations when they had been acquired.

Brought up as most of the Indians are, on small pieces of land, or in little villages among the mountains, they find that the fruitful soil produces, almost spontaneously, enough for their frugal support. A skin or two, together with a few yards of cotton or woollen cloth, suffice, every few years, for their requisite covering. The broad leaves of a plantain, or, a palm with its matted vines, afford them shelter during the day, whilst a kennel on the ground, keeps off the rains or night dews. And thus, a servile contentment with traditionary occupations or idleness, roots them to the soil where they were born, and makes them, in fact though not in name, the hereditary slaves of the estates on which their ancestors have worked for centuries. These men are, of course, not to be suddenly diverted from their tastes; and the worthy persons who have commenced the cultivation of cotton in suitable districts of the country where the Indians are numerous and unemployed, have been obliged to abandon their enterprises from the fact that their laborers speedily deserted under the plea that they were not used to such occupations, and, with less toil, had ample food and raiment in their goats and gardens at home. The reasoning of the Indians is quite natural and even wise under the peculiar circumstances of their actual life. Money is no object to them, for they have no object upon which to expend it, and their isolated existence affords them no comparative scale of society in which they might advance to a higher degree of civilization by the possession of wealth. Why then should they toil to acquire that which to them has not even the value of a counter? Possessing without labor all that is needed for mere existence, their toil can only be beneficial to their employers. In this, they perceive by their native sagacity, that there is no recompense and no equality of interests.

Whilst such are the reasons why a new agricultural population cannot be created in Mexico, the reverse is precisely the case with regard to a new manufacturing population. Factories are generally erected in the neighborhood of large towns, or in populous districts where the surplus of females is continually in the greatest indigence. These people have neither pieces of land, nor gardens, nor goats, nor means of livelihood except beggary or the prison, and consequently they flock with eagerness to every factory that affords the hope of employment and support. Thus, whilst the tendency of the agriculture of Mexico is to produce servitude, that of its manufactures is to create a feeling of honest independence.

These speculations seem to indicate clearly, first, that the fixed policy of Mexico is to establish a national system of manufactures; and, secondly, that the cultivation of the staple which is to supply these factories will not be largely increased; or if it be increased at all, its augmentation will not be proportionate to the number and demand of the factories.

The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is so close that we have been unable in the preceding passages to avoid anticipating some statements which will be more amply set forth in our section on Mexican manufactures. We shall now turn our attention to the cultivation and annual production in the republic.