THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN

MEXICO

ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUTHS IN A JOURNEY TO

NORTHERN AND CENTRAL MEXICO, CAMPEACHEY, AND YUCATAN, WITH A

DESCRIPTION OF THE REPUBLICS OF CENTRAL AMERICA

AND OF THE NICARAGUA CANAL

BY

THOMAS W. KNOX

AUTHOR OF

"THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST" "IN SOUTH AMERICA" "IN RUSSIA"

"ON THE CONGO" AND "IN AUSTRALASIA" "THE YOUNG NIMRODS"

"THE VOYAGE OF THE 'VIVIAN'" ETC.

Illustrated

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE

1890

By THOMAS W. KNOX.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE FAR EAST. Five Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00 each. The volumes sold separately. Each volume complete in itself.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN SOUTH AMERICA. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentine Republic, and Chili; with Descriptions of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and Voyages upon the Amazon and La Plata Rivers. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with Accounts of a Tour across Siberia, Voyages on the Amoor, Volga, and other Rivers, a Visit to Central Asia, Travels among the Exiles, and a Historical Sketch of the Empire from its Foundation to the Present Time. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS ON THE CONGO. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey with Henry M. Stanley "Through the Dark Continent." Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN AUSTRALASIA. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to the Sandwich, Marquesas, Society, Samoan, and Feejee Islands, and through the Colonies of New Zealand, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS IN MEXICO. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Northern and Central Mexico, Campeachey, and Yucatan, with a Description of the Republics of Central America, and of the Nicaragua Canal. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $3.00.

THE VOYAGE OF THE "VIVIAN" TO THE NORTH POLE AND BEYOND. Adventures of Two Youths in the Open Polar Sea. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50.

HUNTING ADVENTURES ON LAND AND SEA. Two Volumes. Copiously Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, $2.50 each. The volumes sold separately. Each volume complete in itself.

Published by HARPER & BROTHERS, New York.

☞ Any of the above volumes sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States or Canada, on receipt of the price.

Copyright, 1889, by Harper & Brothers.—All rights reserved.

PREFACE.

Until within the past few years, Mexico was a country not easily reached from the principal cities of the United States, and our relations with it were by no means intimate. Since the completion of the railway from the frontier of Texas to the heart of the most northerly of the Spanish-American republics, there has been a rapid development of commercial and social relations between Mexico and the United States, and the tide of travel from one country to the other is steadily increasing year by year. These circumstances have led the author of "The Boy Travellers" to believe that his young friends everywhere would welcome a book describing the land of the Aztecs, its history and resources, the manners and customs of its people, and the many curious things to be seen, and adventures passed through, in a journey from one end of that country to the other.

In this belief he sought the aid of his and their friends, Frank and Fred, immediately after their return from Australasia. Ever ready to be of service, the youths assented to his request to make a tour of the Mexican republic, in company with their guide and mentor, Doctor Bronson, and the result of their journey is set forth in the following pages. It is confidently hoped that the narrative will be found in every particular fully equal to any of its predecessors in the series to which it belongs.

The methods on which the Boy Travellers have hitherto performed their work have been adhered to in the present volume. In addition to his personal acquaintance with Mexico and travels in that country, the author has drawn upon the observations of those who have preceded and followed him there. He has consulted books of history, travel, and statistics in great number, has sought the best and most accurate maps, and while his work was in progress he consulted many persons familiar with Mexico, and was in frequent correspondence with gentlemen now residing there. He has sought to bring the social, political, and commercial history of the country down to the latest date, and to present a truthful picture of the present status of our sister republic. The result of his efforts he submits herewith to the judgment of his readers.

Many of the works that have been consulted are named in the text, but it has not been convenient to refer to all. Among those to which the author is indebted may be mentioned the following: Bishop's "Old Mexico and her Lost Provinces," Griffin's "Mexico of To-day," Haven's "Our Next-door Neighbor," Charnay's "Ancient Cities of the New World," Squier's "Nicaragua" and "Central America," Wells's "Honduras," Stephens's "Travels in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan," Baldwin's "Ancient America," Wilson's "Mexico and its Religions," Abbott's "Hernando Cortez," Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico," Ober's "Travels in Mexico," Geiger's "Peep at Mexico," Gooch's "Face to Face with the Mexicans," Chevalier's "Mexique Ancien et Moderne," and the hand-books of Janvier, Conkling, and Hamilton.

As in the other "Boy Traveller" volumes, the author is indebted to the liberality of his publishers, Messrs. Harper & Brothers, for the use of engravings that have appeared in previous publications relative to Mexico and Central America, in addition to those specially prepared for this book. As a result of their generosity, he has been enabled to add greatly to the interest of the work, particularly to the younger portion of his readers, for whom illustrations always have an especial charm.

T. W. K.
New York, June, 1889.

CONTENTS.

ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE BOY TRAVELLERS

IN

MEXICO.

[CHAPTER I.]

PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE.—PLANS FOR THE JOURNEY.—TO MEXICO BY RAIL.—BAGGAGE, AND BOOKS ON THE COUNTRY.—BRUSHING UP THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF SPANISH.—WESTWARD FROM NEW YORK.—A HALT AT ST. LOUIS.—SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.—VISIT TO THE ALAMO.—REMINISCENCES OF THE FALL OF THE ALAMO.—BATTLE OF SAN JACINTO AND INDEPENDENCE OF TEXAS.—NOTES ON THE RAILWAYS OF NORTHERN MEXICO.—OLD TEXAS AND MODERN CHANGES.—"G. T. T."—PRESENT WEALTH OF THE STATE.—ARRIVAL ON THE FRONTIER OF MEXICO.

"I've news for you, Frank!"

"Well, what is it?"

"We're going to Mexico next week," answered Fred; "at any rate, that is uncle's plan, and he will tell us all about it this evening."

A NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR.

"The news is good news," was the reply; "for Mexico is one of the countries that just now I want very much to see. We have heard a great deal about it since the railway was completed to the capital; and then, you know, the Mexicans are our neighbors."

"That is true," said Fred; "here we've been going all over the rest of the world, and haven't yet called on our neighbors, and next-door neighbors too. But we're not alone in this, as it is probable that for every inhabitant of the Northern States who has visited Mexico, a hundred have been across the Atlantic."

This conversation occurred between Frank Bassett and Fred Bronson shortly after returning from their tour among the islands of the Pacific Ocean and through New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia. The accounts of their journeys have appeared in several volumes, with which our readers are or should be familiar.[1]

The youths waited with some impatience until evening, when they were to hear from Doctor Bronson the details of the proposed trip. In the mean time they devoted themselves to their Spanish grammars and dictionaries, which they had not seen for months, owing to their occupation with other matters. And we may here add that until their departure and while they were on the road, every moment that could be applied to the study of the language of the country whither they were bound was industriously employed. By the time they crossed the border they were able to speak Spanish very well, and had very little need of interpreters.

"We shall go to Mexico by rail," said the Doctor, "and return by sea; at any rate, that is my plan at present, but circumstances may change it. It is my intention to visit the principal cities and other places of interest, and also to give some attention to the antiquities of the country and of Central America; exactly what places we shall see I cannot say at this moment, nor how long we shall be absent."

"What shall we need in the way of baggage?" one of the youths asked.

"About what you need for a long journey north and south in the United States," was the reply. "You will need clothing for hot weather as well as for cold. We shall find it quite chilly in certain parts of the tierra fria, or highlands, and warm enough in the tierra caliente, or lowlands along the coast. You must have outer and under clothing adapted to warm and cool climates, and your ulsters may be placed for convenience in the same bundle with your linen dusters. Have a good supply of under-clothing, as the facilities for laundry-work are not the best, even in the large cities; but do not load yourselves with anything not absolutely necessary, as the Mexican railways allow only thirty-three pounds of baggage to a local passenger, and the charges for extra weight are high. Passengers with through tickets from the United States are entitled to one hundred and fifty pounds of baggage free.

"Of course," continued the Doctor, "you will want some books on Mexico, partly for historical research and partly for description. There is an excellent guide-book which was written by Mr. Janvier, and there is another by Mr. Conkling; get them both, and also 'Old Mexico and her Lost Provinces,' by Mr. Bishop, 'Mexico of To-day,' by Mr. Griffin, and 'Our Next-door Neighbor,' by Bishop Haven. Don't forget Charnay's 'Ancient Cities of the New World,' and Prescott's 'Conquest of Mexico.' You can read the latter book before we go; it is inconveniently large for travelling purposes, and so we will leave it behind us, as we can easily find it in the City of Mexico, in case we wish to refer to it again. Abbott's 'Life of Hernando Cortez' is a more portable work, and will serve to refresh your memory concerning what you read in Prescott's volumes."

THE MEXICAN FRONTIER.

The conversation lasted an hour or more, and by the time it ended the boys almost felt that they were already in the land of the Aztecs. Their dreams through the night were of ancient temples and modern palaces, Aztec and Spanish warriors, snowy mountains and palm-covered plains, mines of silver and other metals, fortresses, cathedrals, haciendas and hovels, and of many races and tribes of men that dwell in the land they were about to see. Fred declared in the morning that he had dreamed of Montezuma and Maximilian walking arm in arm, and Frank professed to have had a similar vision concerning Cortez and General Scott.

For the next few days the youths had no spare time on their hands, and when the start was made for the proposed journey they were well prepared for it both mentally and materially. They had followed Doctor Bronson's directions as to their outfit of clothing and other things, had procured the books which he named, and, as we have already seen, had made a vigorous overhauling of their Spanish grammars and phrase-books.

SCENE ON THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD.

From New York there are several routes westward, as our readers are pretty well aware, and the youths were a little puzzled to know which one would be chosen. The mystery was solved by the Doctor on the day before their departure. He announced that they would go to St. Louis by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and from there to the frontier of Mexico by the Missouri Pacific and Southern Pacific lines. "And now," said he, "I will leave you to choose the route to the capital city, and you need not decide until we reach St. Louis."

The Doctor's suggestion compelled a study of the maps and a careful reading of the guide-books and other literature pertaining to the journey. The result of their study may be summed up as follows from an entry which Frank made in his note-book:

STREET IN EL PASO.

"The first railway which was opened from the United States to the City of Mexico was the Mexican Central, which runs from El Paso, Texas, or rather from Paso del Norte, Mexico, which is opposite to El Paso, on the other side of the Rio Grande. Its length is 1224 miles, and it was completed March 8, 1884, at the station of Fresnillo, 750 miles from Paso del Norte, the line having been built from both ends at the same time. Three years and six months were required for its construction, and the line is said to have cost more than thirty-two millions of dollars; eight miles of track were laid during the last day of the work before the two ends of the line were brought together; and considering all the disadvantages of the enterprise, it reflects great credit upon those who managed it.

"For more than four years the Mexican Central was the only all-rail route for travellers from the United States to the City of Mexico, and it had a practical monopoly of business. In 1888 two other lines were opened; or perhaps we might say, another line and half of a third. These are the Mexican National Railway, from Laredo, Texas, to Mexico City, a distance of 825 miles, and the International Railway, from Piedras Negras, Mexico, opposite Eagle Pass, Texas, to a point on the Mexican Central, about half-way between El Paso and Mexico. The International is the one which we call half a line, as it makes a new route into Mexico, and from all we can learn a very good one too.

"The Central is a standard-gauge road, four feet eight and one-half inches wide, while the National is a narrow-gauge line, three feet between the rails; the advantage of the National line is that it is much shorter than the Central, as I will proceed to show.

"From St. Louis to Mexico City, by way of Laredo, the distance is 1823 miles, while by the Central line it is 2584 miles; there is thus a saving of 761 miles, or about thirty hours in time. But the Central will take us through five or six interesting cities, while the National only goes near Monterey, San Luis Potosi, and Toluca.

"Fred and I have decided to ask uncle to go by neither one route nor the other, but to travel by both of them, and the International line in addition; and this is the way we propose to do it:

"We'll go from St. Louis to Laredo because of the saving of time and distance, and then we'll go to Monterey, which is an interesting city, by the National Railway. After we've done Monterey we'll go farther on, to Saltillo, and there we can cross over to Jaral, about forty miles, and find ourselves on the main line of the International Railway. There the train will pick us up and carry us to Torreon, on the Mexican Central Railway, and from there we can continue to the capital, seeing the best part of the Central line, or rather of the country through which it runs. The northern part of the route of the Central is said to be dreary and uninteresting, and so we shall be able to avoid it by the plan we have made."

The scheme was duly unfolded to the Doctor, who promptly gave his approval and commended the youths for the careful study they had made of the railway system of northern Mexico. "Later on," said he, "we will consider the subject of railways in other parts of Mexico, and I'm sure you will be able to make some interesting notes about it for your friends at home. Mexico was for a long time very backward in railway enterprises, but in the past few years she has gone ahead very rapidly. Ten years ago there were not five hundred miles of railway in the country; now there are nearly, if not quite, five thousand miles, and in ten years from this time there will be double that number. The Mexico of to-day is very different from the Mexico of a quarter of a century ago."

BRIDGE OVER THE MISSISSIPPI AT ST. LOUIS.

Our friends stopped a day in St. Louis, and another at San Antonio, Texas, partly for sight-seeing purposes and partly for rest. At the former city the great bridge over the Mississippi excited the wonder and admiration of the youths, who heard with much interest the story of its construction and the difficulties which the engineers encountered in laying the foundations. At San Antonio they had their first glimpse of Mexican life, as the city is quite Mexican in character, and at one time was almost wholly so. Doctor Bronson told them that about one-third of the inhabitants are of Mexican origin, and they could easily believe it as they saw the Mexican features all about them on the streets, and heard the Spanish language quite as often as any other.

THE ALAMO MISSION, SAN ANTONIO.

The object of greatest interest to them was the Alamo, the old fort which, in 1836, the Texans, who were fighting for independence, so heroically but unsuccessfully defended. They were disappointed to find that there is not much remaining of the fort, which originally consisted of an oblong enclosure, about an acre in extent, with walls three feet thick, and eight or ten feet high. "There were 144 men in the Alamo, and they were besieged by 4000 Mexican troops under General Santa Anna," said a gentleman who accompanied them to the spot. "The Mexicans had artillery, and the Texans had none, and against such odds it was hopeless to resist. Santa Anna sent a summons for them to surrender, and throw themselves upon Mexican mercy, but they refused to do so, and defied him and his army."

As he paused a moment, Fred asked why they refused to surrender when the odds were so much against them.

"They knew what Mexican mercy was," said the gentleman. "It was illustrated not long afterwards at Goliad, where Colonel Fannin surrendered with 412 men as prisoners of war. They were promised to be released under the rules of war, and one Sunday morning, when they were singing 'Home, sweet home,' they were marched out and massacred, every man of them. The slaughter lasted from six till eight, and then the bodies of the slain were burned by orders of the general. It is proper to say that the Mexican officers were generally disgusted with the terrible business, but they were obliged to obey the orders of Santa Anna, or be themselves shot down. His policy was one of extermination, and he could have said on his death-bed that he left no enemies behind him, as he had killed them all.

"Well," continued their informant, "the siege of the Alamo began on the 23d of February, 1836, and lasted for thirteen days. Over 200 shells were thrown into the fort in the first twenty-four hours, but not a man was injured by them, while the Texan sharp-shooters picked off a great number of the Mexicans. Santa Anna made several assaults, but was driven back each time, and it is believed that he lost fully 1500 men in the siege. On the morning of the 6th of March a final assault was made, and the fort was captured; every man was killed in the fighting excepting six who surrendered, and among the six was the famous Col. David Crockett. Santa Anna ordered all of them to be cut to pieces, and Crockett fell with a dozen sword-wounds after his own weapons had been given up. Colonel Travis, who commanded the fort, was also killed, and so was Colonel Bowie, who was ill in bed at the time, and was shot where he lay. He was the inventor of the bowie-knife, which has been famous through the West and South-west for a good many years. Only three persons were spared from death, a woman, a child, and a servant."

"How long was that before the battle of San Jacinto?" one of the youths asked.

GEN. SAM HOUSTON, THE LIBERATOR OF TEXAS.

"Less than seven weeks," was the reply, "and never was there a more complete victory than at that battle. Gen. Sam Houston retreated slowly, and was followed by the Mexican army. He burned a bridge behind his enemies, and suddenly attacking them on the afternoon of April 21st, he killed half their number and captured nearly all the rest. The war-cry of the Texans was 'Remember the Alamo! remember Goliad!' and maddened by the recollection of the cruelties of the Mexicans, they fought like tigers, and carried everything before them. Santa Anna, disguised as a soldier, was captured the next day; Houston had hard work to save him from the fury of the Texans, but he was saved, and lived to fight again ten years later. But the battle of San Jacinto ended the war, and made Texas independent of Mexico."

A ride of a hundred and fifty miles to the south-west from San Antonio brought our friends to Laredo, on the banks of the Rio Grande, the dividing line between the United States and Mexico. The ride was through a thinly settled country, devoted principally to grazing, and there were few objects of interest along the route. The time was varied with looking from the windows of the car, with the perusal of books, and by conversation concerning the Texan war for independence, to which the thoughts of the party had naturally turned through their visit to the Alamo at San Antonio.

"Texas was a province of Mexico," said the Doctor, "in the early part of the present century, the Spaniards having established missions and stations there at the same time that the French established missions and military posts in Louisiana. The territorial boundaries between France and Spain were never very clearly defined; the two countries were in a constant quarrel about their rights, and when we purchased the Louisiana territory from France we inherited the dispute about the boundaries. Adventurers from various parts of the United States poured into the country, and the population was more American than Mexican; there were many respectable men among the American settlers, but there was also a considerable proportion of what might be called 'a bad lot.'"

"I have read somewhere," said Frank, "a couplet which is said to have been composed by a resident of the country fifty years ago, and to have given the State its name.

"'When every other land rejects us,
This is the land that freely takes us.'"

"G. T. T."

"And I," said Fred, "have read somewhere that when a man ran away to cheat his creditors, or for any more serious reason, it was commonly said that he had 'gone to Texas.' When the sheriffs looked for somebody whom they wished to arrest and were unable to find him, they indorsed the warrant with the initial letters 'G. T. T.' before returning it to the authorities who issued it. Sometimes an absconding debtor saved his friends the trouble of looking for him by leaving on his door a card bearing these interesting letters."

"Undoubtedly," continued the Doctor, "there was a rough population in Texas in those days, but the men composing it were not deficient in bravery, and they had the spirit of independence in the fullest degree. While the United States and Mexico were disputing about the boundaries, the Texans set up a claim for independence, and the war which was ended by the battle of San Jacinto was like our Revolutionary War a hundred and more years ago. After Texas had secured her independence, she set up a government of her own; she had a president and all the other officials pertaining to a republic, and was recognized by England, France, and other European countries. This did not last long, as her finances fell into a deplorable condition, and the preponderance of Americans among the population naturally led to a movement for annexation to the United States. Annexation was followed by war with Mexico, and it grew out of the old dispute about the boundaries. Mexico claimed all land west of the Nueces River, while Texas claimed to own as far west as the Rio Grande. Each country believed it was right, and our war with Mexico resulted in the defeat of the Mexican armies, the occupation of their capital, and the establishment of the right of the United States to all territory east of the Rio Grande."

"Texas is therefore one of the lost provinces of Mexico," said Frank.

"Yes," was the reply; "it is one of them, and a very large one, as it has an area of nearly three hundred thousand square miles, and is a country of great future possibilities. But Texas was by no means the greatest of the losses of Mexico by the war, as California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico were taken by us as compensation for our trouble, and you know what they are to-day. About the time that the treaty of peace was signed and the cession of territory made, gold was discovered in California, and the wonderful wealth of the Pacific coast and the Rocky Mountain region was rapidly developed. Look on the map in Mr. Bishop's book and see what Mexico was before and after the war."

The boys made a careful inspection of the map, and as it will be interesting to their friends at home, we here reproduce it.

"The Mexicans were severely punished for their cruelty to the Texans," said Fred, "and were probably sorry for their butcheries at Goliad and the Alamo when they sat down to think of the war and how it turned out.

A GROUP OF TEXAN HUNTERS.

"The responsibility for those butcheries rests rather upon General Santa Anna than on the officers and soldiers who executed his orders. He started out in a war of extermination, and there is abundant evidence that his officers loathed the work they had to perform. One of them, writing from Goliad at the time of the massacre of Colonel Fannin and his men, said, 'This day, Palm Sunday, has been to me a day of heart-felt sorrow. What an awful scene did the field present when the prisoners were executed and fell in heaps, and what spectator could view it without horror!' It has been said that the feeble resistance that Santa Anna's men made at the battle of San Jacinto was in consequence of the willingness of officers and soldiers to be captured so that the terrible war could come to an end."

"Texas is now a very prosperous State," continued the Doctor; "the value of its taxable property is nearly seven hundred millions of dollars, and some authorities say it is more, and it has seven millions of cattle, ten millions of sheep, and horses and mules in proportion. By the census of 1880 it had a population of more than one and a half millions, and it is probable that 1890 will give it more than two millions. Its area would make five States as large as New York, thirty-three as large as Massachusetts, and two hundred and twelve of the size of Rhode Island. That it has changed greatly from the days before the annexation, and is favorable to peace and good order, is shown by its liberal appropriation for schools, its laws relative to the sale of intoxicating drinks, the fines it imposes for carrying pistols and bowie-knives, and its penalties for using them."

There was further conversation about the south-west and its peculiarities, when the train reached the frontier and attention was turned to Mexico and the new land that they were about to visit.

VIEW IN SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS.

[CHAPTER II.]

HOTELS ON THE FRONTIER.—ACCOMMODATIONS AT LAREDO.—SMUGGLING OVER THE BORDER.—LAREDO AS A RAILWAY CENTRE.—THE RIO GRANDE AND ITS PECULIARITIES.—RIVERS BENEATH THE SANDS.—ENTERING MEXICAN TERRITORY.—EXAMINATIONS AT THE CUSTOM-HOUSE.—MEXICAN TARIFFS.—BRIBERY AMONG OFFICIALS.—LEAVING NUEVO LAREDO.—A DREARY PLAIN.—FELLOW-PASSENGERS WITH OUR FRIENDS.—A MEXICAN IRISHMAN.—PEOPLE AT THE STATIONS.—ADOBE HOUSES; HOW THEY ARE MADE.—THE LAND OF MAÑANA.—POCO TIEMPO AND QUIEN SABE.—LAMPASAS.—MESA DE LOS CARTUJANOS.—PRODUCTS OF NUEVO LEON.—SADDLE AND MITRE MOUNTAINS.—MONTEREY.

It was nine o'clock in the evening when the train reached Laredo from San Antonio, and our friends found that they would have to pass the night in the town. They had been recommended to patronize the Commercial Hotel; their informant said he could not speak loudly in its praise. "It is the least bad of the hotels in the place," said he, "and a great deal better than sleeping on the ground in the open air, as you would have been obliged to do here only a few years ago. In the language of the far West, it beats nothing all out of sight."

There was a sign of civilization in the shape of an omnibus, rather a rickety and weak-springed affair, it is true, but still an omnibus, and it carried them safely to the hotel, whither their baggage followed in a wagon. The crowd around the station when the train arrived was a mixture of American and Mexican, with a few Indians by way of variety. The population of the frontier is quite a puzzle to the ethnologist at times, and the work of classification is by no means easy. Some of the patrons of the hotel were Mexicans of the better sort, and they mingled freely with the Americans who had lived long enough in Texas to feel at home. The Texas towns along the border contain a goodly number of residents who are engaged in defrauding the revenue of Mexico by engaging in the business of smuggling goods into that country; there is also a fair amount of smuggling from Mexico into the United States, and the customs officials on both sides are kept reasonably busy in seeing that the rights of their respective nations are defended. The peculiarity of revenue laws all the world over is that every country considers it quite proper to violate those of any other, but is very indignant if its own regulations are not respected.

Supper at the hotel was endurable by hungry travellers, but would have failed to meet the desires of the epicure; and the same may be said of breakfast on the following morning. As the train for Mexico started at eight o'clock,[2] there was not much time for sight-seeing after breakfast, though sufficient to discover that Laredo was a comparatively new town, whose existence was mainly due to the railways that lead to it. There was a town there in the early days of the Spanish colonization, but it was completely destroyed in the frontier troubles, and the site was deserted until Texas became one of the United States. The International and Great Northern Railway runs to San Antonio and beyond: one division of the Mexican National Railway, known as the Texas-Mexican, connects Laredo with Corpus Christi, on the Gulf of Mexico, 160 miles away; and the next, called the Northern Division, unites it with the City of Mexico. Other railways are projected, and those who have corner or other lots in Laredo predict a great future for the city.

ON THE BANKS OF THE RIO GRANDE.

The Rio Grande is not an imposing river at Laredo, and our young friends were disappointed when they saw it. They had looked for a stream of magnitude, as implied by the name, and were not prepared for one that could be forded without much danger, and was so diminutive as to remind them of those rivers of the Western States where it is necessary to use a sprinkling-pot at certain seasons of the year to let strangers know where the stream is. The Doctor told them that the Rio Grande was known as the Rio Bravo in the lower part of its course, and Frank suggested that it was because the river was very brave to come so far with such poor encouragement.

INDIAN WATER-CARRIERS.

"But the stream which now looks so insignificant," Doctor Bronson explained, "is subject to periodical floods, owing to the melting of the snows in the mountains where it takes its rise. They begin in April, reach their greatest height in May, and subside in June, and while they last they fill the whole bed of the stream, and overflow the banks wherever they are low. Some of its tributaries at such times are roaring floods, while ordinarily they are only dry beds, where not a drop of water can be seen for many miles. But if you dig a few feet into the sandy bed of these streams you will find water; emigrants travelling through this country carry an empty barrel from which both heads are removed, and by sinking this barrel into the sand they obtain a plentiful supply of water. A knowledge of this fact has saved many lives, and ignorance of it has caused deaths by thirst when suffering might easily have been avoided."

The first bridge erected by the railway company at Laredo was of wood; it served its purpose until the first flood, when it was torn from its foundations and carried away. The present bridge is a substantial one of iron, and promises to last a long time.

From Laredo the train moved slowly across the river, along a bridge whose height was intended to make it secure against the severest floods, until it reached the station of Nuevo Laredo, on the Mexican side, two or three miles from Texan Laredo. Here there was an examination of baggage by the Mexican customs officials; they were polite, and our friends had learned from long experience in custom-houses to be polite in return. The result was that the examination of their belongings was very slight, while that of some of the passengers who displayed ill manners was much more severe. The Doctor and the youths produced the keys of their trunks and opened them before being asked to do so, and promptly announced the contents of the receptacles. They had nothing dutiable, and in a very few minutes the ordeal was ended.

Frank made the following note about the Mexican custom-house:

"Mexico is a land of high tariffs, and pretty nearly everything that can be imported is taxed. Machinery was formerly imported free, but it is now subject to duty, and so is almost everything except agricultural and scientific instruments and books. There is also a duty on packages apart from their contents, and there is a heavy duty on all kinds of carriages. Baggage for personal use is admitted free of duty, unless there is reason to suspect that the owner has an intention to sell; two or three suits of clothing will pass without question, but ten or twelve would be liable to detention and duty. The laws require that the examination of baggage shall be conducted 'liberally, and with prudence and moderation,' and certainly we have no occasion to complain of discourtesy. In addition to clothing 'not excessive in quantity,' a traveller may have two watches with their chains, a cane, an umbrella, one or two pistols with equipments and cartridges, one hundred cigars, forty small packages of cigarettes, a rifle or fowling-piece, one pound of smoking tobacco or snuff, and any musical instruments in actual use except pianos and organs. When a resident of the United States crosses the Rio Grande into Mexican territory with his own carriage he must pay the duties on the vehicle, or give a bond for their payment in case he does not return to the United States.

AN OLD MEXICAN CHAPEL BY MOONLIGHT.

"As the relations of the United States and Mexico increase in intimacy, it is probable that there will be a reciprocity treaty; negotiations to that end have been going on for some time, but are delayed by the usual 'hitches' that arise in such matters. At the entrance of Mexican cities there is an examination something like the octroi of European cities, but so far as tourists are concerned it is very slight. They merely declare that they have nothing dutiable, and are allowed to pass on. There is an examination on leaving Mexico, as there is an export duty of five per cent. on bullion, and a prohibition against taking antiquities from the country. As a matter of fact, a good many antiquities are carried away, but as the greater part of them are fictitious the restriction is not rigidly enforced.

VIEW IN NUEVO LAREDO.

"We have heard several stories about how the Mexican custom-house is defrauded by the bribery of officials, but have no means of knowing if they are true or false. Certainly we did not offer any money to the men at the custom-house, and none of them intimated that he desired to be bribed. If a quarter of the stories have any truth at all, there must be a great deal of dishonesty along the frontier, but it is not confined to the Mexicans.

"Pack-trains loaded with dutiable goods start openly from the frontier towns of Texas, ford the river, and make their way into the interior of Mexico. The trade is so large that it could hardly be carried on without official connivance. The author of 'Mexico of To-day' says in regard to this subject: 'Those well informed with regard to trade interests agree that a great deal of smuggling exists, owing to the high tariff and the great frontier stretch that invites law-breakers. It is said that millions more of American goods find their way into Mexico than show in the statistics prepared by either Government.'

"Another writer says: 'The traveller is permitted to enter all his personal apparel free of duty; in fact everything that he really needs. A great many things he does not need may be taken in also, for the official's pay is meagre and he loves to gaze on the portraits of American worthies as depicted on our national currency. It is well to caution the traveller that he must, if requested, state to the proper authorities his name and profession.'"

In due time the train rolled out of Nuevo Laredo, and our friends were contemplating the scenery of northern Mexico. For the first fifty or sixty miles there was not much to contemplate, as the country consists of a plain covered with chaparral, and one mile of it is very much like any other. "A little of it goes a great ways," said Frank to Fred; and after a brief study of the cactus and mesquite landscape, the youths turned to their books or to observations upon the train and the passengers accompanying them.

As stated elsewhere, the National Railway is of three feet gauge, and therefore it was to be expected that the cars would be narrow and possibly inconvenient. But our friends found them roomy and comfortable; there was a parlor-car with reclining-chairs, for which an extra price was charged, and sleeping-cars all the way from Laredo to the City of Mexico, just as sleeping-cars are run on other lines.

WATCHING THE FRONTIER.

The passengers included several tourists like themselves, a few railway agents, some mysterious characters who could not be "placed," and six or eight men of business who cared nothing for scenery, politics, or anything else pertaining to Mexico, except the facilities for commerce and the duties upon imported goods. One of these individuals loudly denounced the protective duties in the Mexican tariff system, and declared that the country would never amount to anything until it abolished its restrictions upon importations and opened its markets to the world. In the discussion that followed, the fact was revealed that he was a citizen of the United States, and interested in manufactures; concerning the tariff system of his own country, he favored protection, as it encouraged American industries and was the only system under which the people who worked with their hands could make a living. Frank wanted to ask him why he favored one system for Mexico and another for the United States, but he modestly refrained from so doing; another passenger asked the question, but it remained unanswered; and to this day the youth has not been enlightened on the subject.

LANDSCAPE NEAR THE BORDER.

Among the passengers were several Mexicans, whose nationality was readily shown by their swarthy complexions and the peculiarities of their dress. They wore the sombrero, or wide-brimmed hat of the country, but it may here be remarked that of late years the American hat has come somewhat into fashion and is less unpopular than of yore. Some of them proved to be naturalized Mexicans rather than native born; one in particular was a jolly Irishman who had been thirty years in Mexico, spoke its language fluently, and had been so browned by the sun that his complexion was fully up to the national standard. He joined Doctor Bronson and the youths in conversation, and cordially invited them to make a break in their journey and visit his hacienda.

A MEXICAN MULETEER.

He had a Mexican wife, and was the owner of a large area of land, on which he had so many cattle that he was unable to give their number within two or three hundred. He said he came from Ireland to the United States, drifted down to the frontier of Mexico just before the American Civil War, and in order to avoid being mixed up in the troubles, he crossed the boundary and sought shelter under a neutral flag. There he had remained and prospered to such an extent that he had no wish to return either to the United States or his native land.

A SOLID SILVER SPUR.

Fred made note of the dress of a haciendado, or ranch-owner, who was seated near him and might fairly be taken as the type of the dandy horseman of Mexico. The man wore a suit of dark blue or blue-black cloth, the suit consisting of two garments, a jacket and trousers. The jacket was short and well fitted, and it was ornamented with large buttons of silver; the trousers were close-fitting, and on the outer seams were rows of silver buttons smaller than those that decorated the jacket. The feet were incased in top-boots with high heels, and each boot carried a large spur of solid silver; the spur is a cruel weapon, with long rowels upon wheels as large as a half-dollar. The man's jacket was open in front, displaying a frilled or ruffled shirt, white as snow, and connected to the trousers at the waist by a faja, or sash, whose predominating color was red. The Mexicans are fond of gaudy colors, and the taste for them runs through all classes of the population. Though it was not worn in the railway-train, we must not forget the serape, or Mexican blanket, which is carried over the shoulders or on the arm, or in the case of a mounted horseman, is thrown across the front of the saddle.

The sombrero of this haciendado was of a light gray color; the head-covering may be of almost any color under the sun, but the preference is nearly always for something bright. The crown may be rounded off like the large end of an egg, or form a truncated cone, like the crown of the hat worn by the Puritans, and it is encircled by three or four turns of silver or gold cord. Gold or silver trimming around the brim completes the ornamentation; altogether there is considerable weight to the Mexican sombrero, but nobody seems to mind it.

At the stations where the train halted from time to time, the travellers obtained glimpses of men and things peculiar to the country. Horsemen were in goodly proportion, as no Mexican who can afford a horse will be without one; and sometimes when he cannot afford it, he manages to possess the steed of his desires by the simple process of stealing it. Wagons and pack-trains were not infrequent; and one of the picturesque spectacles in connection with them was the muleteers, or mule-drivers, who were almost invariably barefooted, wore but little clothing, and carried the ropes and other apparatus needed for their professions in bags slung over their shoulders or hung at their sides. Some of the stations were frail buildings of wood, while others were of the adobe, or sun-dried brick, the favorite construction material of Mexico and the countries that once belonged to her.

Fred was interested in the adobe, and learned on inquiry that its use is a matter of great antiquity. The Mexican Indians made sun-dried bricks long before Columbus discovered America, and it should be borne in mind that some of the pyramids of Egypt, which have stood for thousands of years, were of the same material. The bricks that the Egyptians compelled the Israelites to make without straw were dried in the sun, and therefore identical with the Mexican adobe.

Fred asked his Irish-Mexican acquaintance how an adobe house was made, and the gentleman kindly explained.

A GROUP OF ADOBE HOUSES.

"An adobe house," said he, "costs very little, and it is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than either wood or brick. It will last as long as anybody can want it to. I know some adobe houses that are said to be a hundred years old, and many that have stood twenty or thirty years without any sign of decaying.

"Adobe bricks are made of one-third clay-dust and two-thirds fine sand, and it takes four men to form a brick-making team. One mixes the mass with a little water so as to form it into a heavy mortar, two men carry it in a hand-barrow to the place where the bricks are to be spread out and dried, and the fourth man shapes the bricks in the mould. After drying somewhat while flat on the ground, which has been previously levelled and made smooth as a floor, the adobes are set up edgewise, and stay so until the sun finishes them completely. They are laid in mortar made from mud; and when a wall is two feet high, the work stops for a week, to allow the mortar to be firmly set before putting more pressure on it. When a week has passed, another height of two feet may be laid, and so the work goes on until the building is finished. Then it must wait a week before the roof is put on. You see, it takes time for building an adobe house; but time is of no consequence in the land of mañana."

THE LAND OF MAÑANA.

"What is the meaning of mañana?" one of the youths asked.

"It means 'to-morrow,'" was the reply; "and as you go through Mexico you will hear the word in constant use. Ask a Mexican when he will do anything—pay a bill, return the horse he borrowed, build a sheep-pen or a corral for his cattle, get married, buy a new saddle, in fact do anything that can be done—his answer is, 'Mañana.' Mexico is the land of mañana, and the habit of procrastination is exasperating to a man of any other nationality. You'll get used to it in time, but it takes a long while to do so. It wouldn't be so bad if the man literally meant what he said, and when to-morrow comes would do as he promised. The word is used like the 'coming, sir' of the English waiter, or the 'tout de suite' of the French one, and means 'next week,' or 'next year,' or more properly an indefinite time in the future."

"There's another word, or rather two words, where the meaning is identical with mañana, and the use the same. You'll hear them often in Mexico, but more frequently in Central America and farther south."

"What are they?"

"Poco tiempo," was the reply; "the literal meaning is 'in a little while,' but the practical usage is the same as that of mañana. Then there's another lesson in language you may have gratis; ask a man any question for which he does not know the answer, and his response will be, 'Quien sabe?' (who knows?). It is less exasperating than the other words I've told you of, as it is simply a form of saying 'I don't know.'"

The youths made proper acknowledgment for the instruction they had received, and took good care to remember it.

The dreary plain ceased at length, and the mountains began to be visible. About seventy-five miles from Laredo Frank's attention was called to a mesa, or high table-land, a little beyond the station of Lampasas. It is a mountain which spreads out flat like a table, and the area on the top is said to be not far from 80,000 acres; its sides are 1400 feet high, and so nearly perpendicular that it is impossible to ascend them, except in a few places. There is a path three miles long leading to the summit; it is impassable for wheeled vehicles, and can only be traversed by sure-footed quadrupeds or men. It is called the Meza de los Cartujanos (Carthusians), a tribe of Indians who probably derived their name from a Benedictine monastery which was once established there. The mesa is well watered, and its surface is divided between forest and grass-land in such proportion as to make it an excellent pasture. No fences are needed beyond a single gate at the top of the path to keep the cattle from straying into the country below, unless we include the division fences for the separation of herds.

THE THRESHING-FLOOR.

From Lampasas to Monterey the country improved greatly, and for a hundred miles or so the train wound through a valley where the scenery was almost constantly picturesque, and the land showed signs of agriculture and stock-raising. Near one of the stations the boys caught sight of a threshing-floor, where horses were driven around in a circle to tread out the grain with their hoofs. This is the primitive mode of threshing, to which reference is made in the Bible; it is still in use in various parts of southern Europe and also in Asia and northern Africa. The American invasion of Mexico will doubtless introduce the threshing-machine; in fact the machine has already been introduced, and many of the raisers of wheat on a large scale have adopted it.

In the cultivated districts many fruit-trees were seen, and Fred made note of the fact that the orchards produced figs, pomegranates, lemons, oranges, aguacates, and chirimoyas, in addition to most of the fruits of the temperate zones. He learned that the State of Nuevo Leon, which they were then traversing, produced tobacco, sugar, Indian-corn, wheat, Mexican hemp, and similar things, and contained a million dollars' worth of cattle and horses. It elevation is from 1000 to 2300 feet above the level of the sea, and its climate ranks as temperate or semi-tropical.

Lampasas is said to be a great resort for smugglers, who carry on a regular business, with comparatively little disturbance by the authorities. Probably the railway has interfered with them, and they can hardly be expected to look upon it with a kindly eye. About thirty miles beyond Lampasas is Bustamente, a town founded two hundred years ago by the Spaniards as a frontier post against the Indians of the north, and now the seat of a manufacturing interest that promises to increase. The cloth of Bustamente has a high reputation throughout Mexico, and the town contains a tribe of Indians descended from the Tlascalans, who helped Cortez to conquer the Aztecs and make Guatemozin a prisoner.

SADDLE MOUNTAIN, MONTEREY.

As the train approached Monterey, about four o'clock in the afternoon, a mountain shaped like a saddle was pointed out on the left of the line. "What do you suppose is the name of that mountain?" said the gentleman who called attention to it, while the eyes of Frank and Fred were turned in its direction.

"I don't know, I'm sure," said Fred; "perhaps they named it for its shape, and call it Saddle Mountain."

"That's exactly what it is," was the reply; "it is called La Silla, or The Saddle, and is a prominent landmark around Monterey."

VIEW OF THE SIERRAS.

Then the gentleman pointed to a mountain on the right which he said was called Cerro de la Mitra (Mountain of the Mitre), from its resemblance to the mitre worn by a bishop. Then between them, and farther away, he pointed out the chain of the Sierras, and the youths realized that they were in a region of mountains.

The train wound through a cleft in the hills, and came to a halt at the station of Monterey, a mile and a half from the city. It is proper to remark that most of the towns and cities of Mexico require the railways to stop outside the walls or limits, but for what especial reason, unless to give occupation to the inhabitants in transporting passengers, baggage, and freight, our young friends were unable to ascertain. The custom is Spanish as well as Mexican, as the traveller in Spain will vividly remember.

There is a good supply of cabs and omnibuses at the station, and there is a horse-railway connecting the city and the railway-station, so that travellers have a choice of conveyances. The horse-railway was built by an American, who obtained a concession from the Government and thought he was making a wonderfully profitable investment. But the local authorities hampered him with many restrictions; they compelled him to carry a policeman on every car, and the policeman generally took the side of those who did not pay their fare. It was fashionable to ride in the cars, but not fashionable to pay, or, at any rate, it was optional to pay or not.

A good many foreigners who have settled in Mexico complain that their enterprises are seriously interfered with by the authorities, national, State, and local. Every town and village, according to the old Spanish law and custom, has the right to levy tolls or taxes on everything that passes through it, and on all business conducted within its limits. Then the State or district can levy a tax, and the national government comes in for a levy of its own in addition. The result is that every enterprise is liable to be "taxed to death," and many a man who has carried money to Mexico to engage in what promised to be a profitable business has left it behind him in the hands of the various authorities. Taxes, forced loans, and various expenses that can never be foreseen swallow up all the profits and altogether too often the original investment. Very few silver-mines in Mexico pay dividends to their stockholders, and the few that are worth owning have no stock for sale. The American saying that "it takes a gold-mine to work a silver-mine" is as true of Mexico as of any other country.

Our friends went to the Hotel Hidalgo, and found it endurable; it had been recommended by one of their fellow-passengers on the train, who showed his good faith in his recommendation by accompanying them thither. Immediately after securing rooms and completing arrangements for their stay, the party started for a drive around the city, which boasts an age of more than three hundred years, having been founded in 1560, though it did not receive its present name until 1596.

Monterey means "king mountain," or "mountain of the king," and the name of the city was given in honor of Don Gaspar de Zuñiga, Conde de Monterey, who was Viceroy of Mexico in 1596. The name given to the settlement in 1560 was Santa Lucia; a little stream which crosses the city from west to east preserves the original appellation, but comparatively few of the inhabitants are aware of its origin.

[CHAPTER III.]

THE AMERICAN INVASION OF TO-DAY.—MONTEREY AS A HEALTH RESORT; ITS SITE AND SURROUNDINGS.—THE CATHEDRAL AND OTHER PUBLIC BUILDINGS.—CAPTURE OF MONTEREY BY GENERAL TAYLOR.—SHORT HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN WAR.—FROM CORPUS CHRISTI TO MONTEREY.—THE ATTACK ON THE CITY.—CAPTURE OF THE FORTS AND THE BISHOP'S PALACE.—FRANK RECITES A POEM.—LIEUT. U. S. GRANT AND WHAT HE DID AT MONTEREY.—A STORY ABOUT JEFFERSON DAVIS.—HOW JOHN PHENIX ESCAPED CASHIERING—SIGHTS OF THE CITY.—THE MARKET-PLACE AND WHAT WAS SEEN THERE.—FRUITS, BIRDS, POTTERY, ETC.—IN A MONTEREY HOUSE.—A PALATIAL RESIDENCE.

VIEW OF MONTEREY.

The first opportunity to see a Mexican city was afforded to our friends at Monterey, and they fully enjoyed it. Every walk along the streets and every drive in the city and its vicinity was full of interest, and there was little that escaped their observation. Being the most northern city of Mexico, Monterey has been much invaded by Americans during the last decade, and many citizens of the United States are established there in various lines of business.

The city has been extensively advertised as a health resort, and considerable numbers of invalids have gone there; a fair proportion of them have breathed their last in Monterey or its neighborhood, but the same may be said of many other health resorts in different parts of the world. For the present, invalids would do well to think twice before going to Monterey or any other part of Mexico in the hope of recovering their health, as the accommodations for them are hardly such as they require. A Mexican hotel may do well enough for a vigorous man, but it is ill-suited to one who should be shielded from draughts, needs to sit in front of a comfortable fire, and has a dread of damp walls and similar adversities. The cooking is suited to robust stomachs rather than to delicate ones, and the attendance leaves much to be desired.

THE PLAZA DE ZARAGOZA.

Monterey is built in a plain surrounded by mountains, and the ground on which it stands is somewhat broken or undulating in places. It has a population of about forty thousand, and is said to be increasing every year, in consequence of the impulse which the opening of the railway has given it. Our friends visited the Ojo de Agua, a great spring that opens in the centre of the city, and furnishes a copious supply of water; then they went to the Plaza Mayor, a pretty garden, with an interesting fountain in its centre; then to the Plaza de Zaragoza; and then to the cathedral, which looks upon it, and has the Church of San Francisco as a near neighbor. The church is the oldest religious edifice in the city. It is said to have been founded in 1560, and though there is some obscurity about the exact date, it is pretty certain to owe its beginning to the sixteenth century. But of the old structure only the foundations remain, the present building having been erected about 1730, and it has undergone alterations at various periods since that time.

GENERAL TAYLOR'S ATTACK ON MONTEREY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1846.

The cathedral is quite modern. It was dedicated in 1833, and at the time of its dedication had been about thirty years in process of erection. The walls are very thick, and its constructors must have possessed the gift of foresight, and had in mind its possible uses for war purposes, as it was converted into a powder-magazine at the time of General Taylor's attack in 1846. Shot and shell fell thickly around it, but the massive walls preserved it from destruction or serious injury, and saved its contents from being blown up. The original site selected for the cathedral was at the north of the city, and work was begun upon it, but the place was abandoned for the present one. A fort was erected on the abandoned site, and it was one of the chief obstacles to the capture of the city by the Americans.

Frank and Fred were especially interested in the war history of Monterey; and as soon as the inspection of the Plaza Mayor and the edifices around it had been completed, they asked to be taken to the scene of the fighting between the American and Mexican armies. Their guide took them first to the bridge of the Purisima, in the north-eastern quarter of the city, where there was a sharp battle, in which the Mexicans successfully resisted the Americans, and then to the old citadel—the fort already mentioned. It is now in a ruinous condition, and is generally spoken of as "the Black Fort."

On the way to the citadel, Doctor Bronson tested the knowledge of the youths concerning the events which made Monterey's name so well known in the United States. In reply to his questions, Frank and Fred alternated with each other in telling the following, Frank being the first to speak:

"General Taylor's army landed at Corpus Christi, in Texas, and marched from there to Matamoras, on the Rio Grande, early in 1846. Before crossing the Rio Grande they fought two battles—that of Palo Alto on the 8th of May, and the battle of Resaca de la Palma on the following day. General Taylor defeated the Mexicans in both battles, though his army was much smaller than theirs, the Mexicans having about 6000 men and the Americans 3000. After capturing Matamoras he advanced into northern Mexico. On the Rio Grande he had been joined by a reinforcement of troops, and when he came in front of Monterey he had between six and seven thousand men."

"Yes," said Fred, "the historians say he had 6645 officers and men altogether, and that the Mexican army at Monterey under General Ampudia contained fully 10,000 men."

THE BISHOP'S PALACE.

"You have evidently been studying the History of the Mexican War very carefully," the Doctor remarked, as the youths paused.

"We've tried to, certainly," responded Fred, "as we believe we ought to know what the relations have been between this country and ours, in order to understand intelligently what we see. If we study to-day the peaceful invasion of Mexico, we ought to know about the warlike one."

Doctor Bronson nodded assent to this view, and the story of the war was resumed.

"General Taylor came in sight of Monterey on September 20th," said Frank, "and immediately rode forward till he was within range of one of the forts. A cannon was fired upon the group of officers that surrounded the general, and immediately the army was ordered to advance and form a camp opposite the city, but far enough away from the forts to be out of range of the cannon.

"The battle began the next morning, the 21st, the city being attacked on the west by a division commanded by General Worth, whose monument stands in front of Madison Square, in New York, and on the west by the rest of the army under General Taylor. The Americans had no artillery heavier than six-pounders, while the Mexicans had their forts filled with large cannon; and they had a strong force of cavalry, while the Americans had a very small one. The forts were attacked first, and one after the other they were taken, till the only remaining one outside the city was the Bishop's Palace, as it was called, though it was really a fort, as we shall see when we get to it.

"Partly by means of a cannon that was dragged up a hill which commanded the Bishop's Palace, and partly by an attack of the infantry, the place was captured, and our flag was over all the heights that overlooked the city. It had taken two days to accomplish this, and a great many of our soldiers had fallen, but the army had no idea of giving up the attack; and when they had possession of the heights, they felt as sure of the victory as though it was already won.

"On the morning of the 23d of September, the third day of the battle, a fire was opened on the city from the Bishop's Palace on the west, and from two forts on the east, and at the same time the troops on each side of the city began to force their way inside towards the Gran Plaza, in the centre. The Mexicans fought desperately, and swept the streets with such a fire of musketry that our men had to take shelter in the houses and cut their way from house to house towards the Gran Plaza. It was slow work, and when night came the troops had still two blocks to cut through before getting to the plaza. They were getting ready for work early the next morning when a flag of truce came from General Ampudia, and the city was surrendered."

"What was the loss of the Americans in the battle?" queried Doctor Bronson, as Frank paused.

"They lost 158 killed, and 368 wounded," answered Fred, "and the Mexican loss was said to be fully one thousand."

"And to what was the disparity of the losses attributed?"

"It was thought," said Fred, "at least so I read in the account published at that time, that the Western and South-western men who fought under General Taylor were better marksmen than the Mexicans. The Texas riflemen in particular were famous for their skill in shooting, and their weapons were better than those of their enemies."

"You've made a very good short history of the capture of Monterey," said the Doctor, "and must write it down for the benefit of your friends at home."

The youths followed this bit of practical advice, and we are permitted to publish their story.

By the time the talk about the war was ended the party had reached the citadel, which they visited with interest, and then proceeded to the Bishop's Palace, now occupied as a military barrack, and in a bad state of repair. While they stood looking down upon the city and the grassy and bushy slope of the hill, Frank recited the following piece of verse, which was written by Charles Fenno Hoffman shortly after the stirring events commemorated in the lines:

"We were not many—we who stood
Before the iron sleet that day;
Yet many a gallant spirit would
Give half his years, if he but could
Have been with us at Monterey.
"Now here, now there, the shot it hailed
In deadly drifts of fiery spray;
Yet not a single soldier quailed
When wounded comrades round them wailed
Their dying shouts at Monterey.
"And on, still on, our columns kept,
Through walls of flame, its withering way;
Where fell the dead, the living stept,
Still charging on the guns that swept
The slippery streets of Monterey.
"The foe himself recoiled aghast
When, striking where he strongest lay.
We swooped his flanking batteries past,
And, braving full their murderous blast,
Stormed home the towers of Monterey.
"Our banners on those turrets wave,
And there our evening bugles play,
Where orange-boughs above their grave
Keep green the memory of the brave
Who fought and fell at Monterey.
"We were not many—we who pressed
Beside the brave who fell that day;
But who of us hath not confessed
He'd rather share their warrior rest
Than not have been at Monterey?"

"There is one thing we must mention in our account of the battle," said Fred, as they were returning from the Bishop's Palace to the city.

"What is that?" Frank asked.

"Why, we must say that there was a young officer here named U. S. Grant; he was a second lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry, and was one of those who charged up the side of the hill to the Bishop's Palace. He afterwards became General Grant, whom all the world knows of, and whose name will be remembered in America for all time."

"I didn't think of that when I was talking about the battle," Frank answered, "but I remember it all now. And I have read in one of the books on Mexico that he was offered promotion for his conduct in the battle, but declined it because another man was promoted at the same time. In declining the offer he said, 'If Lieutenant —— deserves promotion I do not.'"

OFFICERS' UNIFORMS IN 1860.

"And there's another thing that needs explanation," continued the youth, "and that is the uniform of the officers and soldiers of our army in the pictures of the battles in Mexico. It is quite unlike the uniform worn in the Civil War fifteen years later, and now in use."

"I will explain that," said the Doctor, and he did so in these words:

"After peace had been declared and our army returned from Mexico, the War Department realized that there were certain features of the uniform and equipment of the men that might be changed to advantage. No action was taken in the matter until Jefferson Davis was Secretary of War, between 1853 and 1857; and I will here remark that Jefferson Davis commanded a regiment of Mississippi Volunteers during the Mexican War, and fought in this very battle of Monterey we have just been talking about. Well, Mr. Davis sent a circular letter to the officers of the army, stating that changes were contemplated, and asking for suggestions from them, and the inducement was held out that those who suggested changes which were adopted would be liberally compensated.

"One of the circulars was received by Lieut. George H. Derby, who afterwards obtained considerable literary reputation as 'John Phenix.' Derby was a born humorist, and generally saw the ludicrous side of a subject before anything else. In a short time after receiving the circular he sent a variety of suggestions to the Department which were very funny, to say the least.

"He designed a hat which, in addition to covering the head, could be used as a camp-kettle, a water-bucket, and a feed-bag for a horse, and with the design for the article, which was to be made of sheet-iron, there was a picture representing it applied to each of its proposed uses.

"Instead of the shoulder cross-belts, he proposed that the soldier should have a leather belt around his waist, and to this belt should be attached a stout hook with a shank six inches long, and the point of the hook standing outward from the man's back. On this hook the soldier could hang his knapsack or equipments when on the march. He could be harnessed by means of it so as to drag a wagon or a cannon; and in an assault on a fortress he could be made to drag a scaling-ladder up the walls by means of this hook. Derby also proposed that the officers should be provided with poles like rake-handles, ten or twelve feet long, with rings at one end, and if a soldier should try to run away in battle he could be dragged back to duty by means of the hook.

"Derby was skilful with the pencil, and he sent a sketch of a battle-field in which the various uses of the hook were depicted. To say that Jefferson Davis was angry when he read the letter is to put the case mildly; he turned red and blue with rage, and took the document to a cabinet meeting that was being held on the afternoon of the day he received Derby's communication. The members of the cabinet laughed over the suggestions and pictures, and when Davis declared he would have Derby cashiered for disrespect to the Secretary of War, they advised him to say nothing. 'If the story gets out,' said one of them, 'you'll be the laughingstock of the country from one end to the other, and will never hear the end of it. And, besides, there's some originality about the man, and he may yet send something that will be really useful.'

MOUNTAIN SCENE NEAR MONTEREY.

"Mr. Davis cooled down, and the story didn't come out until years afterwards. The result of the recommendations of various officers of the army was that the old 'bellows-top' cap disappeared, and so did other features of the soldier's uniform and equipment. That is why the picture of the battle of Monterey is so unlike that of any of the battles of the Civil War, so far as the uniforms of officers and men are concerned."

The youths had a hearty laugh over the story of Lieutenant Derby's suggestions. Frank thought they were too good to be lost, and he decided to write them down at the first opportunity.

THE ALAMEDA, MONTEREY.

On their return to the city the party visited the Alameda, which forms a very pretty promenade and is well shaded with trees, though Frank thought it appeared in rather a neglected condition. Then they drove to the hot springs at Topo Chico, about three miles out from the city in a northerly direction, and indulged in the luxury of a hot bath in natural water. The manager of the establishment said that the baths had a temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, and possessed a high reputation for curing nervous, rheumatic, and other diseases. The arrangements for bathing were formerly very poor, but a new bath-house was erected in 1887, and resulted in a great increase of patronage.

Of course a visit was paid to the market-place, and the novelties of the spot received due attention. The most interesting features were the fruit and flower markets. Doctor Bronson told the youths that the Indians of Mexico had a passionate fondness for flowers long before the arrival of their Spanish conquerors, and it continues to the present time. There was a fine display of flowers, and the prices were so low that Frank and Fred regretted that they did not know some fair ones to whom they could send baskets and bouquets. Determined to do something by way of patronizing the flower-sellers, they bought a quantity of flowers and sent them to a hospital which their guide pointed out. "They may serve to cheer some poor invalid," said Frank, "and the market is so attractive that I want to encourage the trade."

The semi-tropical character of Monterey was shown by the fruits, which seemed to comprise the principal products of two zones, the tropical and the temperate. There were all the fruits named in the last chapter as growing in the region near Lampasas, together with three or four others. Monterey is situated 1800 feet above the level of the sea, so that it is cooler than other places in the same latitude but at a lower elevation. Some of the fruits sold in the market of the city were not grown in the immediate neighborhood, but in the lower regions to the eastward.

Fred called Frank's attention to the bird-sellers with their wares in large wooden cages, evidently of home construction. The canary seems to have spread pretty well over the world; his singing powers have made him welcome everywhere he goes, and our young friends were not at all surprised to find him in the market of Monterey. Several other varieties of singing-birds were displayed, and the prices which were asked for them seemed very low; but the Doctor whispered to the youths that if they bought anything in the market they should not offer more than a quarter of what was demanded, and gradually advance their figures to a half or possibly three-fourths. In a country where time is of no value everybody who has anything to sell expects to haggle about the price.

NATIVE POTTERY.

Some of the pottery in the market was so good that the boys consulted Doctor Bronson as to the advisability of sending home a few specimens of it. The Doctor checked their enthusiasm by reminding them that they were just then at the beginning of their journey, and it would be prudent to delay purchases until reaching the capital. A few jars and pots were selected and bargained for, more by way of practice in the language and customs than for any other purpose, and they were left with an American merchant, who undertook to ship them to New York. They were all of Indian workmanship, the best having come, so the dealer said, from Guadalajara. Mexican pottery deserves a higher rank among ceramics than it has hitherto enjoyed, and some of the handiwork of the descendants of the Aztecs would be worthy of admiration in any collection.

A SCENE IN THE MARKET.

There were scores and scores of patient mules standing with drooping ears and waiting for their burdens to be removed. They were laden with everything that an inhabitant of Monterey could want to buy—milk, vegetables, fruits, fuel, hides, sugar, beans, wheat, iron-work, in fact anything and everything that has a place in a market. Donkeys are the beasts of burden at Monterey, and almost in the same category belong the cargadores, or porters, who are licensed and numbered exactly like cabs or drays in an American city. These men are identical with the Turkish hamals; they carry heavy burdens with apparent ease, and it is no uncommon sight to see one of them slowly creeping along with a piano, an iron safe, or a barrel of wine on his back, or a lighter burden on his head in the same way that the negro carries it. A gentleman who was stopping at the hotel said he had known a cargador to transport a safe weighing six hundred pounds without any apparent suffering a distance of half a mile without stopping to rest.

But the donkeys and cargadores do not have a monopoly of the local carrying trade, as there are great numbers of carts drawn by oxen, that have come in from the country with loads of produce seeking a market. These carts are of rude construction, and their axles are rarely, if ever, greased. They creak and groan in a manner that falls unpleasantly on the ear and often suggests that the vehicles are animated beings suffering beneath their burdens and endeavoring to make their grief known. And this reminds us of something which Fred remarked to Frank when the latter was wondering how the Mexicans could endure such a continued complaint of the axles of their carts.

A COURT-YARD IN MONTEREY.

"I've been thinking of the same thing," was the reply, "especially as the Mexicans are opprobriously termed 'greasers' by the people of Texas and the South-west generally. It's a sort of lucus à non lucendo, that appellation of greaser, at least so far as their cart-axles are concerned."

A WINDOW IN MONTEREY.

After seeing the market, they strolled along some of the narrow streets, which appeared gloomy enough, with their long stretches of masonry, broken only here and there with a grated window or a balcony which seemed to be a part of a prison, so heavily was it barred with iron. Some of the larger and finer buildings have handsome windows, whose design was evidently brought from Old Spain, and in turn obtained from the Moors. Our friends were invited to a house which had formerly belonged to one of the wealthy Spanish residents, but is now the property of an American merchant. Fred thus describes it:

"Like all the better class of houses in Monterey, this one is built in the form of a hollow square. This style of architecture was brought from Spain by the conquerors of the country, and it reminded us of houses in Damascus and other cities of the Oriental world. The square encloses a patio, or court-yard, and the rooms of the lower story open on the patio; there is a colonnade surrounding the yard, and it is freely ornamented with tropical plants and flowers, so that you seem at first glance to have entered a conservatory. Vines climb around most of the columns of the colonnade, and in the centre is a well in which hangs, not the 'old oaken bucket' made famous in song, but an equally substantial bucket of leather. The water drawn from the well is cool and sweet, and from the length of the rope it is evident that the excavation goes down to a great depth. Monterey is abundantly supplied with water, and in this respect as well as in the appearance of some of the interiors of the houses, it is entitled to be called the Damascus of Mexico.

"There is one house in Monterey, the residence of Don Patricio Milmo, which has a double-arched court-yard and gallery, and is most liberally supplied with plants and flowers, among which a botanist would enjoy himself for many hours, and an ordinary mortal with no scientific knowledge need not be far behind him. There are some very pretty marbles in the neighborhood of Monterey, and they have been liberally used in the ornamentation of this and other houses. Don Patricio is a wealthy banker, and the owner of an immense area of land in Nuevo Leon, including much of the building-ground in and around Monterey."

VIEW OF SIERRAS FROM BISHOP'S PALACE.

[CHAPTER IV.]

SOUTHWARD TO SALTILLO.—SANTA CATERINA.—REMARKABLE CAVES.—SCENERY OF THE SIERRA MADRE.—WAY-SIDE ATTRACTIONS.—THE CACTUS; ITS FLOWERS AND MANY VARIETIES.—SALTILLO.—THE ALAMEDA.—MEXICAN CURRENCY.—THE BATTLE-FIELD OF BUENA VISTA.—BY CARRIAGE AND SADDLE.—A NIGHT AT A HACIENDA.—MEXICAN COOKERY.—TORTILLAS, PUCHERO, FRIJOLES, TAMALES, AND OTHER EDIBLES.—HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN WAR FROM MONTEREY TO BUENA VISTA.—5,000 AMERICANS DEFEAT 20,000 MEXICANS.—DESCRIPTION OF THE FIELD.—COTTON FACTORY AT SALTILLO.—COTTON MANUFACTURES IN MEXICO.

On resuming their journey through Mexico, Doctor Bronson and his young companions proceeded by the railway southward to Saltillo, sixty-seven miles from Monterey.

SANTA CATERINA, NEAR MONTEREY.

As they passed Santa Caterina, eight or ten miles beyond Monterey, one of their fellow-passengers told them that there were some interesting caves not very far from the station, and also near Garcia, thirteen miles farther on. A remarkable hole in the mountain near Santa Caterina was pointed out by the same gentleman, but in spite of his voluble account of the attractive features of a journey there, they did not consent to stop for the excursion. They also decided to allow the caves of Garcia to take care of themselves, much to the disappointment of their informant.

The beauty of the scenery along the railway, almost from the very moment of leaving Monterey, kept their eyes busy on both sides of the train. The railway for some distance follows the San Juan Valley, which diminishes in width as it ascends. The labored puffing of the locomotive told that the grade was a steep one, and it was evident that the engine was exerting all its powers. On most trains two locomotives are required, and an extra one is always added unless the number of carriages is small and their cargoes are light.

The scenery of the Sierra Madre is remarkably fine, and surpassed by that of very few railway routes in the world. Frank compared it to that of the Brenner or Semmering passes of the Alps, and Fred said he was reminded of the Blue Mountains in Australia, and the route traversed by the railway between Colombo and Kandy, in Ceylon. But they agreed that it differed in some respects from all these routes, and had a beauty and grandeur of its own, just as did each of the places they had mentioned. On each side of the valley the mountains rose very steeply, and in many places they were nearly, if not quite, perpendicular. The rocks were of various shades, in which red had a prominent place, and on the steepest part of the slopes there was no place where vegetation could cling.

The best of the scenery was in the neighborhood of Garcia; beyond that point it became less grand, as the mountains were farther away in the widening valley, and the steep cliffs were less numerous. But the ascent was steady, and brought the train to the plateau and to a much higher elevation than that of Monterey. Monterey, as before stated, is 1800 feet above sea-level; Saltillo is at an elevation of 5200 feet, and consequently the railway ascends 3400 feet in passing from the former to the latter city.

The old route of the diligence before the railway was built afforded an exciting ride from San Gregario to Rinconada, as the descent was very rapid and the coach went down the incline with great rapidity. At one turn in the road there was a point where a misstep would have sent the whole conveyance down a precipitous slope of a thousand feet into the valley below. A thoughtful American who travelled that route years ago regarded the possibilities of such a slide, and estimated that the diligence, passengers and all, would be worth not more than nineteen cents a bushel after making the descent into the yawning gulf.

THE ORGAN CACTUS.

Frank and Fred wished they could gather some of the bright cactus-flowers which abounded along the route. There are many varieties of cactus in Mexico; in fact the country may be said to be the land of the cacti. Botanists have described more than sixty species; they vary in height and size from the little plant hardly larger than a spray of clover up to the gigantic growths that rise more than thirty feet above the ground. The flowers run from pure white to a deep scarlet and purple, and some of the flowers are of great beauty. A peculiarity of the cactus is that it thrives best in poor soils, and on a great part of the ground where it grows few other vegetable products could maintain an existence. The largest of the cactus family is scientifically known as the Candelabrum, but the Mexicans call it the Organo, or organ; it grows in straight hexagonal columns, and when many of these columns are clustered together it bears quite a resemblance to a church organ with its pipes. One variety of cactus nourishes the cochineal insect; another is used for hedges, and owing to the sharp spines for which the plant is noted, it forms an impervious barrier to man or quadruped. The cactus generally has inside its flower a mass of edible substance, and in some localities this cactus-fruit is collected and sold in the markets.

VARIETIES OF CACTUS.

The cactus plant is not wholly inedible, as the donkeys of Mexico feed on some of them, and the goat will also make a meal of the leaves and stalks. But this is not to be wondered at when it is borne in mind that the goat is popularly credited with dining upon tomato-cans, scraps of tin, old boots, newspapers, umbrellas, and other articles not ordinarily included among esculents. Of late years the cactus has been found useful for paper-making, and thousands of tons of it are annually converted into paper fibre.

A little past eight o'clock in the evening the train rolled into Saltillo, a city containing from fifteen to twenty thousand inhabitants, the capital of the State of Cohahuila, and for some years the terminus of the National Railway. There are several cotton factories at Saltillo or in its immediate vicinity, and the place boasts of its serapes. Evidently the boast is justified, as the serapes of Saltillo have a reputation all through northern Mexico. Our friends improved the opportunity to provide themselves with these needed articles of Mexican travel, and through the rest of their journey they carried their souvenirs of Saltillo and were well satisfied with them.

They had been advised to go to the Hotel Tomasichi, but with the condition that they must not expect anything remarkable in the way of a hotel. The Doctor secured a carriage which was so rickety that it threatened dissolution before reaching the Plaza Mayor, where the hotel is situated, but by good-fortune it held together and landed them safely. The proprietor of the hotel told them that there was only one good carriage in the city, and if they wanted it for the next day it would be well to order it at once. It belonged to Señor Sada, the owner of the diligence that would take them to Jaral, where it connected with the trains on the International Railway. The advice was taken, and the one good carriage of Saltillo was ordered for the next day's driving in and around the city. Six reals, or seventy-five cents, an hour was the price of the vehicle, with a gratification to the driver.

IN THE SAN JUAN VALLEY.

By this time Frank and Fred were able to make all their financial calculations in the currency of the country. Here is the list of values which they had noted down and committed to memory:

"The peso, or dollar, is divided into eight reals or reales, of the value of 12½ cents each. A medio real is 6¼ cents, a cuartillo is 3 cents, and a tlaco is 1½ cents; 2 reals make a peseta (25 cents), and 4 reals a toston (50 cents). Values are reckoned in centavos (100 centavos make 1 peso), reals, or pesos until large sums are reached, when they are counted in gold. Of gold coins there are the escudito de oro, $1; escudo de oro, $2; pistola, $4; media onza de oro, $8; and onza de oro (gold ounce), $16."

American currency can be used without difficulty in the large cities, but not elsewhere. Notes of the Banco National and the Bank of London, Mexico, and South America can be carried in place of silver, which is inconveniently heavy; but our friends were advised not to rely upon bank-notes of any kind away from the lines of railway.

A SOLID CITIZEN.

Doctor Bronson told the youths that a metric system of coinage was established some years ago, but the common people were prejudiced against it, and it had made comparatively little progress. Half and quarter dollars are never spoken of as fifty and twenty-five centavos, but as quatro reals or dos reals.

We will return to Saltillo, where we left our friends while we made an excursion among Mexican currency values. Their supper was a composite of Mexican and Italian cookery, Tomasichi being an Italian and his cook a native of Mexico. The chief had instructed the subordinate in the ways of the kitchens of Rome and Naples, but not sufficiently to drive out the ideas of the land of the Aztecs. Stimulated by curiosity and also by a good appetite, the Doctor and his nephews made an excellent meal, or at least it was good enough to make them wish to taste a dinner entirely Mexican in character. We will see later on how they succeeded in their experiment.

The next morning they started in good season to inspect the city and its surroundings. They found the Alameda much prettier than that of Monterey, and some travellers have pronounced it the most attractive one to be found in Mexico. The inhabitants are deservedly proud of it. It is a popular resort at all hours, and especially in the evening, when everybody goes out for a promenade. The Plaza Mayor is also an attractive spot, and the youths wished to make a sketch of it from the side opposite the cathedral, but decided not to take the time to do so, as a photograph would answer their purpose.

The general features of Saltillo are much like those of Monterey, and consequently a detailed description of them is unnecessary.

Before starting on the round of sight-seeing, Doctor Bronson made inquiries concerning a visit to the battle-field of Buena Vista, which is some ten miles south of Saltillo. The inquiries resulted in an arrangement to see the spot made famous in the history of the Mexican War, where 5000 Americans put 20,000 Mexicans to flight.

The battle-field lies two or three miles south of the hacienda of Buena Vista, and the road from Saltillo rises nearly a thousand feet before reaching that place; consequently a journey thither must be done at a slow pace, and it was decided to take two days, or rather a night and part of two days, for the excursion.

ON THE ROAD TO BUENA VISTA.

Early in the afternoon the party started from Saltillo for the hacienda of Buena Vista, which they reached before nightfall. The youths were happy at the prospect of passing a night in a hacienda, and obtaining a glimpse of rural Mexican life.

A SERVANT AT THE HACIENDA.

The building where they were received was in the form of a hollow square, like the houses of Monterey, already described. The entrance was sufficiently broad to permit the admission of vehicles, and the carriage was driven inside before the travellers alighted. According to Mexican custom, a mozo, or servant, had been sent in advance to give notice of the advent of the strangers and have the house in readiness. The visitors were shown to rooms on the lower floor; the Doctor was assigned to a room by himself, while the boys were lodged together in a large room very meagrely furnished. The beds were straw-filled mattresses, laid upon strips of rawhide stretched tightly across a frame, and the boys pronounced it an excellent substitute for some of the "patent spring mattresses" which are sold in American cities. The linen was scrupulously clean, which is not always the case in Mexico, but the supply of blankets was so light that it was evident the travellers were expected to make use of their serapes to keep off the chill of the night air.

They did not stay long inside the room, as they were anxious to see the surroundings of the place. So they wandered about, their first visit being to the stable, which they found commodious enough for the most fastidious horse in the world. "I have heard," said Fred, "that the people of this country are more particular about their horses than about themselves; a Mexican will take good care of his horse, but leave his wife and children to go hungry and half clothed."

"To judge by the difference between the rooms of the hacienda and the stable," responded Frank, "the statement seems to be well founded. The stable is certainly better ventilated, and the horses have no reason to complain of their quarters. A Mexican depends so much on his horse that he ought from very selfishness to be very careful of him."

NEAR THE KITCHEN.

From the stable they wandered to the kitchen, where three or four native women were at work preparing the meal which the strangers were to eat.

The first thing to attract Frank's attention was a woman kneeling on the floor over a flat stone raised at one end, on which she was rolling some dough into very thin sheets. "That must be a tortilla-maker," said Frank; "we have had tortillas several times since we came into the country, but this is the first good chance I've had to see them made."

From his observation at this kitchen, and from subsequent information, the youth made the following note:

MAKING TORTILLAS.

"Tortillas, or cakes, are made from corn-meal, which is ground by hand on a flat stone called a metate, a word of Aztec origin. The corn is soaked in lime-water till the hull can be separated from it, and then it is pounded and rolled upon the metate until it is ground into meal. In this work the woman uses a cylinder of stone something like the American rolling-pin, or very often she uses a flat or slightly rounded stone, with which she pounds and twists for hours. When the meal is sufficiently ground a little water is added, and it is worked into dough; the dough is then rolled or patted in the hand until it is almost as thin as a knife-blade and formed into circular cakes. The cakes are baked on an iron comal, or griddle, which has been previously held over the fire until it is so hot that the cooking is done in a few moments. They are not allowed to brown, and are best when served hot. They are generally without salt or other seasoning, and are very tasteless at first to a stranger; but after one has become accustomed to tortillas he prefers them to any other kind of corn-cake."

The equipment of the kitchen was exceedingly simple, and the youths wondered how a French cook would get along with none but Mexican utensils to get up a meal with. The stove, or cooking range, consisted simply of a wall or bank of solid adobe about two feet high, and of the same width; this bank was built up against one side of the kitchen, which was ten or twelve feet square, and it extended the whole length of that side. There were depressions in the bank, in which small fires of charcoal or wood were burning; on these fires the pots, pans, and griddles were placed, and the process of cooking went on. There was no chimney, the smoke escaping, or being supposed to escape, through an opening in the roof directly over the cooking range.

A PRIMITIVE KITCHEN.

But the kitchen of the common people is less elaborate than this. It consists simply of a mound of clay, perhaps a foot in height and a yard in diameter, and depressed in the centre. Little fires in this depression furnish the heat for cooking the food placed in the pots and kettles, which are of common unglazed earthen-ware. The cook sits or squats on the floor close by this primitive range, while the mistress of the kitchen previously described stands, and can walk about at will without the trouble of rising.

In some parts of Mexico the cooking is done out-of-doors. This is particularly the case in the southern portion, and in the season of rains the weather often reduces culinary operations to a very limited quantity. The more rain the less dinner, unless the food is eaten raw; but as it consists largely of fruits, the inconvenience is less serious than it might be otherwise.

When our young friends went to dinner they found a repast that was entirely Mexican in character. After it was over they made notes of what they had seen and eaten, and this was the result:

"We had tortillas, of course, and very good they were. The dinner began with a soup, which was so good that we asked how it was made, as we thought it might be tried by some of our cooks at home. Here is what they told us:

"'We start this soup with a chicken broth just as chicken broth is made anywhere else. Then we take the meat of the chicken, the white part only, after it has been boiled very tender, and pick it into little bits of shreds. We take some pounded almonds, the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, a little bread which has been soaked in milk, a little spice of some kind, and plenty of pepper, and we mix the whole up together till it forms a hard paste. We make this paste into little balls and drop them into the soup when it is boiling hot and just before it is brought to the table.'

"If you want a good soup and a new one just try this. You may not hit the seasoning the first time, but when you do you'll find you've something worth eating.

"After the soup we had a puchero, which is said to be a very popular dish with the Mexicans, but we were not particularly fond of it. They begin it by boiling mutton to make a broth, and then they throw in every sort of garden vegetable cut in small pieces—apples, pears, squashes, tomatoes, green corn, onions, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, red or green peppers, in fact any and everything from the garden that is edible. There is so much pepper in the mess that it burns your mouth like an East Indian curry, but it is said to be good for the stomach and climate. They tell us we'll like it after a while; and perhaps we shall, but we certainly don't now. It's a good deal like the down East stew, with the addition of the hashed peppers and tree-fruits.

"Next we had a tamal de casuella, which was translated into 'corn-meal pot-pie.' As nearly as we could make out, it is made by putting a mixture of scalded meal, flour, eggs, and melted lard into a broth in which chicken and pork have been boiled, so as to make a thin paste. Then make a mixture of the boiled pork and chicken hashed reasonably fine, along with red peppers and tomatoes, and cook them in lard. Next you spread the paste on the bottom and sides of a dish that has been well greased so as to prevent sticking, lay in your meat mixture, cover with more of the paste, and bake it gently but thoroughly. For a hungry man the dish ought to be very satisfying.

"Our dinner ended with frijoles, or beans; and we remark here that beans are the principal food of the Mexicans of the lower ranks of life, and are largely used by the middle and upper classes. The great majority of Mexicans eat them twice a day, and a dinner would be incomplete without them. The annual crop of these beans in Mexico must be something enormous, and its failure would be as bad as that of wheat in our Northern States, potatoes in Ireland, or codfish along the New England coast.

"They cook them in various ways, but the favorite form is in a stew. They are usually considered unwholesome if eaten on the day they are cooked; they are always prepared with pepper, either green or red, and the preparation is so hot with pepper that one seems to be eating melted lead while partaking of frijoles à la Mexican. Peppers enter into nearly all the Mexican cookery; an American who does not like them told us that the proportions for a Mexican stew were one pound of meat, one quart of water, and one pound of hashed peppers. It is a common remark in Texas and Colorado that a wolf will not eat a dead Mexican because he is so impregnated with pepper that even the stomach of that voracious animal can't stand it."

The Mexican dinner proved a digestible one; at all events Frank and Fred slept soundly and were fully refreshed for the visit to the battle-field on the following day. Saddle-horses were in readiness as soon as breakfast was over, and the party made a good start. We will listen to Fred's account of the excursion:

THE GUIDE ON THE BATTLE FIELD.

"After the capture of Monterey, General Taylor remained for a while at that city, and then marched upon Saltillo, which he occupied without opposition. General Scott ordered the divisions of Worth and Twiggs to join him at Vera Cruz for the advance upon the City of Mexico, and this reduced Taylor's force to 5000 men, nearly all of them volunteers. The Mexicans assembled a large army at San Luis Potosi, and advanced upon Saltillo with 20,000 men, expecting to drive the Americans out of the country.

"On the 22d of February, 1847—Washington's birthday—General Taylor met them at Buena Vista, or rather at the pass of La Angostura (the narrows), three miles south of the hacienda which gives the name to the battle. He occupied a position where he had great advantage, as a single battery of artillery protected the entire front, while the flanks were defended by steep gullies and ravines that the Mexicans could not hope to pass, and by the mountains that rose on the east to a height of 2000 feet.

"There is a plateau to the east which Santa Anna, the Mexican commander, tried to reach, as by gaining it he would be able to turn the pass where the Americans were posted. Some of his troops advanced to it during the afternoon of the 22d, but were driven back by the Americans; during the night the Mexican army gained the plateau, and the Americans then changed their position to the plain at the base, but continuing to hold the entrance of the pass.

THE BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA.

"On the morning of the 23d the fighting began in full earnest, the Mexicans attacking in three heavy columns, which were directed on the American left. The American line was broken on that side, but the centre and right held their ground and drove the enemy back. Then the Americans attacked the Mexican infantry on the right and drove it back. As a last move, Santa Anna formed his whole force into a single column, which drove the Americans back for some distance, until the Mexicans were checked by the artillery. In this last part of the battle, when the cause of the Americans seemed lost, General Taylor gave the celebrated order, which has passed into history, 'Give them a little more grape, Captain Bragg.' Captain Bragg's battery of artillery was stationed on one of the little mounds or hillocks at the entrance of the defile, and from that point he threw an iron hail among the advancing Mexicans that drove them into disorder and flight.

"The battle lasted all day, and when night came the two armies occupied very nearly the same positions they held in the morning. The men slept where they were, and General Taylor was uncertain whether the battle would be resumed the next morning or not. When morning came it was seen that the Mexican army had fled, and the whole ground where they were at sunset was deserted. About 20,000 men had been beaten by less than 5000. Their losses were placed at 2000, while that of the Americans was 746, or about one-sixth their entire number. Gen. Lew. Wallace, in writing about the battle, says that by every rule of scientific warfare the Americans were beaten oftener than there were hours in the day, but they did not know it; they rallied and fought, and rallied and fought again, till they finally 'wrung victory from the hands of assured defeat.'

"We spent two or three hours on the battle-field, visiting all the points of interest and listening to the story as it was told by our guide, an intelligent Mexican who was born in the vicinity, and has latterly made it his business to show strangers over the ground. He said there had been very few changes since the battle. The public road runs straight through the battle-field, and it is easy to understand the positions of the opposing armies. One thing we understood, after seeing the ground, which we did not comprehend before: we had wondered why the Mexicans made so little use of their cavalry, of which they had 4000, and the Mexican horsemen are among the best in the world. When we saw how the ground is cut up with barrancas, or deep ravines, making it impossible for companies and regiments of mounted men to preserve their formation, we did not wonder any more.

"We returned to the hacienda in time for the mid-day meal, and in the afternoon went back to Saltillo. The journey to Saltillo was quickly made, as the road descends a good deal, and the horses went along at an excellent pace."

BOLL OF MEXICAN COTTON PLANT.

The rest of the day was spent in sight-seeing about Saltillo, including visits to some of the cotton and other factories, for which the place is famed. The machinery in the cotton factories is of foreign make—some of it from England and some from the United States. The cloth made there is of ordinary quality, and sells for a price that ought to give a fine profit to the owners of the establishment. Frank asked about the wages of the laborers in the mills, and found that they received from thirty to fifty cents a day for twelve or fourteen hours' work, according to their skill and the amount of labor they performed.

It is estimated that about 30,000,000 pounds, or 60,000 bales, of cotton are annually converted into cloth in Mexico. Most of the raw cotton is grown in the country; and what with the cultivation of the product and its manufacture into textiles, it is thought that 50,000 families are supported by the cotton industry. Where the mills are carefully managed they are profitable, and make a liberal return for the investment of capital.

PICKING COTTON.

[CHAPTER V.]

FROM SALTILLO TO JARAL.—A JOURNEY BY DILIGENCE.—PECULIARITIES OF DILIGENCE TRAVEL.—BRIGANDAGE; HOW THE GOVERNMENT SUPPRESSED IT.—ROBBERS TURNED INTO SOLDIERS.—STORIES OF BRIGANDS AND THEIR WORK; THEIR TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.—A CASE OF POLITENESS.—DINNER AT A WAY-SIDE INN.—CHILE CON CARNE.—DESCRIPTION OF CHIHUAHUA.—THE SANTA EULALIA MINES; ROMANTIC STORY OF THEIR DISCOVERY.—TORREON AND LERDO.—COTTON IN TRANSIT.—STATISTICS OF COTTON IN MEXICO.—FRESNILLO.—CALERA.—A BAD BREAKFAST.—ARRIVAL AT ZACATECAS.—LODGED IN AN OLD CONVENT.

Bright and early the next morning our friends were ready for the journey to Jaral, where they were to connect with the train on the International Railway to carry them farther into Mexico. The distance is about forty miles, and was to be made by diligence, as the railway from Jaral to Saltillo was not then completed. They by no means regretted this, as a ride in one of these vehicles would be a novelty. The boys had read and heard a great deal about diligence travel in Mexico, and were more than willing to have an experience of it.

DEPARTURE OF THE DILIGENCE.

The start was made about seven o'clock in the morning, and there was a considerable crowd in the street to see them off. The arrival and departure of the diligence is an event in a Mexican town, though less so than it was before the days of the railway. It is probable that by the time this book is in the hands of the reader, the locomotive will have a finished track between Saltillo and Jaral, and the diligence will be known no more, except as a relic of past days. Those who have been jolted for hours and days in these heavily built carriages and over bad roads will give the heartiest kind of a welcome to the new order of things. The diligence will long continue on many of the side roads in Mexico, where it will not pay to build the railway, just as the stage-coach still exists in parts of the United States; but the great through routes have lost it for all time.

Immediately on their arrival at Saltillo, before going to Buena Vista, Doctor Bronson secured places for the trio in the diligence for Jaral; at the diligence offices all through Mexico, the rule of "first come first served" is followed as in a steamship or a Pullman car, and when the vehicle is full the traveller whose place is unsecured must wait for the next journey, extra carriages being very rarely put on. If the weather is good, an outside seat (el pescante) is decidedly preferable, as it affords a much better view of the scenery along the route. American tourists generally take the chances of the weather, and select outside places; but the native, who does not care for the prospect, and desires nothing beyond making the journey as speedily as possible, is quite content with the inside (el interior).

ON THE ROAD.

Mexican roads are bad, and Mexican carriages are constructed with a view to withstanding all the shaking that a rough road can give. The result is that at the end of a long journey the traveller feels very much as though he had been passed through a patent clothes-wringer or an improved threshing-machine. But no such fear troubled our friends, as the distance to Jaral was but forty-two miles, and the schedule time for the journey seven hours. The road was bad enough, it is true, but the youths heeded the advice of Doctor Bronson, and consoled themselves with the reflection that it might have been a great deal worse than it was.

They had read so much about brigandage in Mexico that the possibilities of an encounter with highwaymen naturally came into their minds. At the first opportunity they asked an American resident of Saltillo about the state of the country through which they were to pass, and the liability to an unpleasant encounter.

FIGHT BETWEEN BRIGANDS AND SOLDIERS.

"There is hardly any danger on this line now," was the reply, "and it is a long time since a robbery was committed. There is less brigandage in Mexico to-day than there was a few years ago, but there is still too much of it to make travelling altogether agreeable. The Government has put down the system of robbery as much as possible, partly by capturing and killing the brigands, and partly by hiring them to quit the business and become respectable citizens."

"That's a curious way to suppress crime," said one of the youths, "to hire a man to be honest, after he has spent a good part of his life in robbery."

"It doesn't harmonize with our ideas of propriety," said the gentleman, "but it had the desired effect at all events. General Diaz, when he became President, induced the robber chiefs to quit the business they were in, and enter the service of the Government; they were pardoned for their misdeeds, commissioned as officers in the army, and appointed to preserve order in certain districts. Their followers were enlisted as soldiers to serve under their old leaders; each soldier receives $40 a month, and furnishes his own horse and equipments. As they know the whole country where they are on duty, they have effectually put down brigandage in their districts; they are the best horsemen in the world, and there's no finer body of cavalry anywhere than the Mexican Rurales—the reformed brigands."

"Doesn't it sometimes happen that they turn robbers temporarily, just to keep themselves in practice?"

"Yes, they have done so in several instances, but on the whole these converted highwaymen have kept faith with the Government very fairly. You must remember that brigandage has been a regular occupation for centuries, and it cannot be broken up in a hurry. In some parts of the country it was organized as a business, and many men who stood well in the community were associated with the robbers, and received a percentage of their earnings."

"Did they take any part in the robberies?"

"Not exactly with their own hands; but they used to notify the brigands when valuable trains were to be on the road, and at what time they would start; they acted as scouts or spies, if you please, and in this way earned their right to a share of the plunder.

"I was once captured and carried into the mountains by a party of brigands who held me for a ransom. In the old times before Maximilian came here, the Mexican brigands simply robbed travellers who made no resistance, and killed those who resisted unsuccessfully. Maximilian imported some Italians, who very soon turned robbers, and affiliated with the Mexican bandits; they taught the Mexicans the Italian trick of holding prisoners for ransom, and it was practised very extensively.

ENCAMPMENT OF BRIGANDS.

"Well, the rascals carried me off to their retreat in the hills, and made me write to my brother demanding five thousand dollars as ransom for me. They threatened that in case it was not paid by a certain day I would be shot, and my friends would receive my head as a proof that the threat had been carried out.

A KING OF THE ROAD.

"The letter was delivered by a respectable citizen, who was on friendly terms with my brother and myself. I had dined at his house and he at mine, and we had had several business transactions. It had been intimated that he was friendly with the brigands, and this circumstance proved it. My brother paid the money to him, and I was released and allowed to come home. They treated me well while I was with them, but kept a guard over me all the time with orders to kill me instantly in case I attempted to escape."

"I suppose they made you promise not to reveal the name of that man to the authorities?"

"Not at all; I could have done so, and he would have been tried and convicted on the evidence of myself and brother. He would have been shot without mercy, but the matter would not have ended there; the brigands would have avenged his death and assassinated both of us within a week, sure.

CAVALRY PURSUING A BAND OF ROBBERS.

"In some respects the brigands were not so bad as they have been painted," the gentleman continued. "The diligence companies have an arrangement whereby a traveller can buy a letter of credit to pay his bills with along the road, instead of carrying money, which would be a temptation to robbers. His expenditures are indorsed on the letter of credit by the company's agents, or he can draw a few dollars every night upon his letter to pay his hotel bill with. But it is necessary to carry some money in your pocket to pay the robbers for the trouble of stopping and examining you; if they find absolutely nothing to reward them for their efforts, you will very likely be killed as a warning to be more considerate the next time you travel. If they should rob you of your letter of credit, you can write or telegraph back to the agency where you obtained it, and a telegraphic transfer will be made for the amount remaining.

"Their usual plan of operations is to rush out suddenly from the road-side, and present pistols and guns in the faces of passengers and drivers, with a suddenness that prevents resistance. The passengers are ordered to alight, hold their hands in the air, then to lie down and place their mouths to the ground, and in this attitude their pockets are searched. The brigands are generally polite but firm, and in the American phrase, 'they won't stand any nonsense.' When the examination of pockets is completed they order the passengers to lie still for five or ten minutes, perhaps for a quarter of an hour, and during that time the fellows disappear from sight. If no resistance is offered no one is harmed, except once in a while when a blood-thirsty brigand kills for the sheer pleasure of it; but such fellows are soon apprehended, and generally they are betrayed by their followers, who do not relish the crimes that may be visited on their heads.

"Sometimes they build a barricade across the road at a place where there is a sharp turn, and in the confusion that follows the arrival of the coach at the barricade they perform their work. In such cases the robbers are concealed in the bushes all along the road-side, and the passengers suddenly discover a dozen or more guns bearing on them at once. Discretion is always advisable under such circumstances, and the traveller who is prudent will surrender his valuables at once.

"A friend of mine tells a story," he continued, "that illustrates the politeness of the Mexican robbers.

"He was travelling on horseback with a friend and a servant, and fell into the hands of a band of brigands whose leader was named Manuel. The fellows took everything of value that the travellers had, and then the chief told the sufferers that he would give them a pass which would save them from further molestation. Perhaps he was not altogether disinterested in so doing, as the exhibition of the pass would save his friends the trouble of searching an array of empty pockets and getting nothing for their trouble.

"Thereupon he wrote on a leaf of my friend's note-book something like the following:

"'Dear Gomez,—This party has been thoroughly examined, and we've left them nothing you want. Please allow them to go on without delay.'

HOTEL BY THE WAY-SIDE.

"Then he told them where they would be stopped, and was about to bid them good-by when my friend suggested that he had nothing with which to pay his expenses on the road. Manuel suggested that the travellers ought not to want for anything, and immediately gave them five dollars, which he placed in a neat pocket-book that he had taken from another traveller the day before. They met the other robbers at the place designated, and on presenting the pass were not interfered with in any way. My friend's horse had become lame, and Gomez generously gave him a fresh horse, stolen, no doubt, from somebody else, and turned the lame steed out by the road-side."

Other stories of the same sort were told, and the interview ended with an account of how the American owner of a line of coaches between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, away back in the forties, before the days of the railway, made a bargain with the chief of the brigands commanding the route, by which, in consideration of an annual subsidy, they were not to molest his coaches or passengers. The subsidy was regularly paid, and the brigands faithfully regarded their side of the bargain. When General Scott was advancing from Vera Cruz upon the capital he made a contract with this same American to supply the army with beef; and through the efficient aid of his friends the brigands, he had no difficulty in carrying out his contract. They stole cattle from all the haciendas within a hundred miles of the route and kept him well supplied.

The road from Saltillo to Jaral follows a picturesque valley, and in the forty-two miles between the two places makes a descent of nearly fourteen hundred feet. Consequently there was more down-hill than up, and the diligence went along in fine style. The driver was an accomplished whip, and managed his team admirably. For a part of the way the vehicle was drawn by horses; at the first station mules were substituted, and our friends were unable to say which were the better for the work. The driver explained that he preferred mules for the reason that in case they ran away they would keep to the middle of the road, while horses were apt to shy and turn to one side, thereby endangering the safety of the diligence and its passengers. This difference between horses and mules has been noted by drivers in other parts of the world, and is said to be correct.

The driver had an assistant, whose duty it was to throw stones at the leading animals to encourage them to their work. He was a skilled marksman and rarely missed his aim. Sometimes he threw the missiles while seated on the box at the driver's side, and at others he ran alongside the team or kept near the wheels of the coach. In either case the result was the same, and the conveyance under his manipulations made good progress.

Crosses at several points on the road showed where travellers had been killed by robbers. On all the roads of Mexico these crosses can be seen, and on some routes they are painfully numerous.

At noon a halt was made at a hacienda sufficiently long to enable the passengers to have something to eat. They were supplied with chile con carne, a stew of meat and peppers, very hot in two ways, and with the ever-present tortillas and frijoles. The jolting over the road, combined with the pure air of the Sierras, gave the travellers a vigorous appetite, and they heartily enjoyed their road-side repast. The service was somewhat primitive in character, and reminded our friends of Delmonico's, in New York, solely by its contrasts.

No brigands came to disturb the progress or the minds of the travellers, and in due time they reached Jaral and were landed in safety. Fred made the following practical note for the information of future travellers:

"The fare between Saltillo and Jaral is $3.75. Twenty-five pounds of baggage may be carried free by each passenger; for all excess he must pay seventy-five cents for each twenty-five pounds. There is a daily departure each way, and sometimes when the business demands it there are two departures."

STREET SCENE AT JARAL.

There was not a great deal to be seen at Jaral, but the youths did not waste their time. They devoted themselves to obtaining information about the country to the northward along the line of the International and Central railways, and here is substantially what they ascertained:

"A hundred miles to the north of where we now are is the city of Monclova, which was for some time the terminus of the International Railway. It was the capital of Texas and Cohahuila when they both formed one State, before the war which gave Texas her independence. It is the centre of a region rich in minerals, and of late years several enterprising Americans have established themselves there, and are developing the resources of the country. Some of the silver ore in the Monclova district is so rich that it is sent to the United States and to Europe to be reduced, and the transportation of this ore furnishes a good business for the railway company.

"About half-way from Monclova to the American frontier is the town of Sabinas, which is the centre of a rich coal region. Mexico is in great need of coal, and it is only recently that it was known that she had a fine supply of it in her borders. It is found in a large part of the Sabinas Valley. There are extensive mines at Hondo and San Felipe, especially at Hondo, whence they are shipping large quantities for the use of the railways in this country and Texas, and for the mines in the interior of Mexico.

"There is an abundance of iron ore near Monclova, not far from the railway, and it is proposed to erect extensive iron-works at Sabinas for its reduction. The railways seem to have waked up this sleepy country, and if some Rip Van Winkle of other days could arise and look around him, he would rub his eyes in astonishment.

"If we had come into Mexico by the Central Railway we would have passed through the State of Chihuahua (pronounced she-waw-waw); but we wouldn't have seen much, as the train leaves El Paso in the evening, runs through a desolate country, and reaches the city of Chihuahua for breakfast in the morning. Mr. Janvier, the author of 'The Mexican Guide,' says there is not much to be seen in the city, and advises travellers not to stop there. According to his account, it is so overrun by Americans that it cannot be called a typical Mexican town. It has about 20,000 inhabitants, and no public buildings of importance, with the exception of the Church of San Francisco, which was built by a tax of one real on each pound of silver taken from the Santa Eulalia mines, which are in the vicinity. Chihuahua was once the centre of a large trade with the United States; and at one time when the road was dangerous, armed caravans were made up periodically, just as they are made up in Central Asia and other parts of the Old World at the present time.

EL REAL DE SANTA EULALIA.

"The silver-mines of Santa Eulalia are about fifteen miles from Chihuahua, and have the reputation of being among the richest silver-mines in the world. The district is fifteen or twenty miles square, and contains, or once contained, a good many silver-mines, which turned out fabulous amounts of the precious metal. Gen. Lew. Wallace has visited and described some of these mines, and judging from his account they must have been very rich. According to tradition, there was a time when the Real de Santa Eulalia had 7000 inhabitants, and the city of Chihuahua 70,000, all living, directly or indirectly, upon the product of the mines. Since the Spaniards left Mexico the mines have not been worked as extensively as before, and the operations now carried on there are upon a limited scale. There is a prospect that some of the old glory of the mines will be restored, now that northern Mexico is becoming accustomed to American ways of mining, and is beginning to adopt them.

THE RAVINE WHERE THE OUTCASTS LIVED.

"There is a romantic story concerning the way the mines were discovered. About the year 1700, three scoundrels who had been driven out of Chihuahua went to find refuge among the mountains of Santa Eulalia; they must have been a very bad lot to be obliged to seek safety in that region, which was infested by the Apache Indians, who were at war with the white people, and would have made quick work of killing these refugees if they had caught them. How they lived nobody knows; they were obliged to shift their locality from time to time to prevent being found by the Indians, and one day they came upon a ravine with precipitous sides, where there was a good supply of water.

"One of the men knew something about silver, and in looking around he found a rich deposit of ore. They sent word by a friendly Indian to the senior priest in Chihuahua that they would show him where he could get enough silver to build the finest cathedral in the world, and would do so on condition that he would absolve them from their sins, and obtain their pardon from the authorities.

"The bad men were absolved and pardoned, and kept their promise by showing the way to the mines, which were immediately opened, and yielded one hundred millions of dollars in eighty-six years. Enormous fortunes were made by the owners; and there is a story that once on the visit of a bishop who was to perform some religious service, the owner of one of the mines entertained the holy man at his house. He laid a path of silver bricks from his house to the door of the church, and when the bishop proceeded to the church he walked all the way upon solid silver. And the story ends by saying that the owner was careful to have the bricks taken up as fast as the bishop lifted his feet from them."

Leaving Jaral a little before noon, our friends proceeded by the south-bound train of the International Railway to Torreon, a distance of 130 miles, which was accomplished in about five hours. At Torreon they waited two hours for the train of the Mexican Central Railway, and while looking about them the youths espied several car-loads of cotton, which were about to leave by a freight train then being made up.

ON THE EDGE OF THE COTTON FIELD.

Naturally, the sight of the cotton led to an inquiry concerning the production of that article in Mexico and the uses made of it. The youths learned that cotton is grown in about half the States of Mexico, the largest quantity being produced in the State of Vera Cruz, while that of Durango ranks next. In the early part of the century about one million pounds of cotton were exported annually. Down to the time of the independence of Mexico from Spain, the royal authorities allowed no manufactures in the colony that would be likely to interfere with those of the mother-country, and consequently the manufacture of cotton goods was prohibited. After independence was secured, factories were built and set in operation, and at present the production of cotton is not sufficient to meet the demands of the manufacturers.

"COTTON IS KING."

The best cotton is grown in the tierra caliente, but the plant thrives in the table-land up to an elevation of 5000 feet. According to a Mexican statistician, the average product is about 2000 pounds to the acre, which is more than double the average of the cotton-growing region of the United States.

Torreon and its near neighbor, Lerdo, are the principal shipping-points for the cotton grown in Durango. It is probable that the opening of the railways will stimulate the growth of cotton in Mexico. The United States and other cotton-growing countries may look for considerable exportations of that product from Mexican seaports at no distant day. The manufacture of cotton cloth in Mexico is encouraged by an import duty on all foreign textiles that does not give much opportunity for competition. German and English manufacturers have labored hard to convince the Mexicans that they would be greatly benefited by allowing other countries to do their manufacturing for them, but thus far the Mexicans have remained obstinately adhesive to their protective tariff.

The train left Torreon a few minutes before seven o'clock in the evening, and consequently but little was seen of the country until the following morning. Soon after daylight it reached Fresnillo, an important mining town which dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. A valuable silver-mine was opened at Fresnillo at that time, but its operation was long ago abandoned. Fresnillo is the point at which the two sections of the Mexican Central Railway were brought together in 1884, and the route was completed for an unobstructed run of the locomotive from the frontier of the United States to the capital of Mexico.

VIEW IN THE MINING REGION.

Our friends made their toilets in the sleeping-car as quickly as possible, and then turned to a contemplation of the scenery through which they were passing. On each side of the railway there was an extensive plain, with a fringe of low mountains forming the horizon. Straight ahead lay a range of mountains, which a friendly fellow-passenger said was rich in silver and had made the fortunes of Zacatecas and other towns.

They stopped for breakfast at a small town bearing the name of Calera, but neither Frank nor Fred could find that it was famous for anything, not even for the quality of the meals supplied by its restaurant. Then they rolled on towards Zacatecas, which they reached in about an hour after leaving Calera. In approaching Zacatecas the train wound among the mountains in numerous curves and bends, forming "mule-shoes" by the dozen, and facing every point of the compass before coming to a halt.

Zacatecas affords a good opportunity for studying silver-mining in Mexico, and consequently it had been selected by Doctor Bronson as a convenient stopping-place. By advice of the conductor, our friends rode in the tram-way cars to the hotel, and intrusted their baggage to cargadores, who were more than anxious for employment. The hotel in which they lodged was formerly an Augustinian convent, and all the more interesting for that reason.

CONVENT AND FOUNTAIN.

[CHAPTER VI.]

NAME, POPULATION, AND PECULIARITIES OF ZACATECAS.—THE PILGRIMAGE CHAPEL.—A WEALTHY CATHEDRAL.—STREET SCENES.—MINES OF ZACATECAS.—A DANGEROUS DESCENT.—THE PATIO PROCESS OF REDUCING ORES.—TREADING ORE WITH MULES AND HORSES.—A SORRY SIGHT.—THE MINERS; HOW THEY LIVE AND WORK.—STATISTICS OF SILVER-MINING IN MEXICO.—ASTOUNDING CALCULATIONS.—FROM ZACATECAS TO AGUAS CALIENTES.—FARM SCENES.—FARMING IN MEXICO.—CONDITION OF LABORERS.—MEN AS BEASTS OF BURDEN.—AGUAS CALIENTES.—A BEAUTIFUL CITY.—A PICTURESQUE POPULATION.—WOMEN OF MEXICO.

"What is the meaning of Zacatecas?" Fred asked while the train was bearing them to the city of that name.

Neither the Doctor nor Frank could answer the question, and so the desired information was sought from the guide-book.

A SILVER-PRODUCING VALLEY.

It was found that the name was derived from a tribe of Indians called Zacatecas, and also from a grass that grows there, and is known in Mexico as zacate. It should be remembered that the city is the capital of the State of Zacatecas. As it stands in a ravine, where very little grass of any kind can grow, it is probable that the appellation, so far as the grass is concerned, belongs rather to the State than to the city, which is the centre of the silver-mining district.

The city, which has a population of about 30,000, is anything but attractive, as its position in a deep ravine makes its streets very narrow, and crowds the buildings closely together. Its streets are badly paved, and it is so poorly supplied with water that the drains are not properly washed. Frank thought it averaged a distinct and different smell for each thousand of its inhabitants, and the youths were not surprised to learn that the mortality, especially among the poorer part of the population, is very great. The mountains rise all around and above the city, and the extent of the silver business is shown by the large number of buildings on the mountainsides, which mark the reduction-works and the entrances to the mines.

There is a ridge called the Bufa, or Buffalo, overlooking the city; it is the site of a little church, or chapel, that was built there more than a century and a half ago, and was at one time a favorite place of pilgrimage. Ordinary offenders were required to do penance by ascending on foot to the door of the chapel, and extraordinary ones made the journey on their knees. The custom still prevails, though less so than formerly. Frank and Fred saw several pilgrims making the ascent, but were told that days, and even weeks, might elapse before another scene of the same sort could be witnessed.

The travellers paid a hasty visit to the cathedral of Zacatecas, which was formerly very rich in ornaments; most of them were removed at the time of the confiscation of the property of the Church by the Government, and are not likely to be restored. It is said that the baptismal font was of solid silver, and worth $100,000. The Jesuits have on the side of the mountain a fine church, which presents a very picturesque appearance and contains some interesting and valuable paintings.

The street scenes were much the same as at Monterey and Saltillo, with the addition of groups of miners and men employed about the reduction-works, droves of burros, or donkeys, laden with ore and other things peculiar to the industry of the locality. The youths wished to visit the mines and descend to the scene of operations underground, and consequently were not inclined to devote much time to the public buildings and the streets. They observed that the city had sufficient enterprise to be lighted with electricity, and to have a telephone, an exchange, and a fire department, though the scarcity of wooden buildings seemed to afford very little use for the latter.

CACTUS GROWTHS NEAR ZACATECAS.

They were advised not to go into the mines, as the descent must be made by ladders which are not constructed like ordinary ones, but are nothing more than logs set upright and notched alternately on opposite sides. The miners ascend and descend very nimbly along these rude ladders, and accidents are rare; but strangers find them dangerous.

Frank and Fred were quite willing to take the risk, but the Doctor was more prudent, and suggested that they would defer their visit to the interior of a mine until they reached one with less liability to mishap. But this did not interfere with a visit to one of the reduction-works, for which a permit was readily obtained.

FIELD WITH ADOBE WALLS.

"Before we make the visit," said the Doctor, "I want you to learn what the patio process of reduction is, so that you can see intelligently. The patio process is in use here, as it is throughout Mexico and South America generally."

In the hour they had at their disposal, Frank and Fred informed themselves on the subject, and were able to write as follows:

A MEXICAN ARASTRA.

"The patio process was invented in 1557 by Bartolomé de Medina, and is so called because a patio, or yard, is required for its operation. The ore is crushed and ground fine in arastras. An arastra is a mill where an animal, generally a mule, walks in a circle and turns a millstone that rolls upon a floor, on which the material to be ground is placed. We have seen arastras at work several times since we came into Mexico; and they are not unknown in the south-western part of the United States.

"If there is any gold in the ore, fifty or sixty per cent. of it may be saved by putting silver or copper amalgam into the arastras. Some of the Mexican ores must be roasted to remove certain chemicals which they contain, but this is not the case with all of them. The paste from the arastras is spread in heaps on the floor of the patio; after it has hardened somewhat by the evaporation of a part of the water it contains, it receives a quantity of salt, which is in proportion to the amount of silver in the ore. Then it is mixed by men with shovels and by the tread of horses or mules, and a day or two later a mixture of copper vitriol and salt is added.

"Then follows more treading and mixing; then quicksilver is spread over the mass and trodden in, and the next day there is another mixing and treading. These performances are repeated on alternate days, quicksilver being added one day and the mass being trodden the next, until the treading has been repeated seven or eight times. The quicksilver unites with the silver and forms an amalgam; the formation is carefully watched, and when it has reached the proper condition the amalgam is gathered up into hide or canvas bags. Some of the quicksilver is squeezed out, and the rest is driven off by evaporation and condensed in a pipe that runs into a tub of water."

"There's a good deal more," said Fred, "but I'm afraid if we say too much about the process we shall lead our young friends at home to skip the whole story. So we've made it short."

"You've said quite enough," replied the Doctor, "to give a general idea of what the patio process is. Anybody who wants to know more can look it up in books on mining, or in cyclopædias."

CARRYING ORE TO THE REDUCTION-WORKS.

Armed with the information they had obtained, the youths were able to understand intelligently the operations at the reduction-works that they visited. Frank thought they could find a cheaper way of mixing up the mass of ore than by treading it out with mules. Doctor Bronson told them that methods had been adopted in California and Nevada whereby all this work is done by machinery, but they were not generally approved in Mexico. "The Mexicans," said he, "are slow to change; they have done their work in this way for 300 years, and it is not easy to convince them that there is anything better in the world. The Americans who buy or lease mines in Mexico, and adopt the plans that suit themselves, will afford some instruction by example; the Mexicans may learn by the example, especially if they find that the new process enables their competitors to make money out of a mine they cannot do anything with."

A MEXICAN CRUSHER.

In one patio there were 120 horses at work, in gangs of twelve or sixteen, treading out the ore. "They are sorry-looking brutes," said Fred, "as their tails are shaved, and their bodies splashed with the black mud through which they are walking. To us it looks like ordinary mud, but to the eye of the expert I suppose it is altogether different, as we are told that a mining superintendent can determine almost at a glance how rich the mineral is. Evidently the horses don't know the value of what they are treading, or they wouldn't look so dejected and forlorn. Horses and mules that are old and useless for anything else are bought for this work. The chemicals destroy their hoofs, and they do not last a great while. If there were a Mexican Henry Bergh he would most certainly try to put a stop to this cruelty.[3]

"The men who are working among the horses are about as unprepossessing in appearance as the animals. They wear only a shirt and trousers, and both garments look as though cloth was dear when they were planned. The trousers come only to the knee, and the sleeves of the shirt do not reach the elbow. The men who work in the mines and about the reduction establishments are carefully searched on quitting work, to make sure that they do not carry off anything of value; their garments are without pockets, and thus they have no places for storing away stolen property. But in spite of the absence of pockets, they would manage to steal some of the amalgam if they were not so closely watched and carefully searched.

"In some of the mines, they work with scarcely a thread about them, the heat being so great that clothing cannot be borne with ease. The miners generally work in small teams or gangs, and receive a portion of the ore taken out in addition to their wages, which vary from thirty to fifty cents a day. Sometimes the payment is altogether in ore, which is sold at auction on stated days.

"We asked if the miners ever gave trouble by striking, and were told that they had not yet become sufficiently Americanized to form themselves into labor unions. The people seem to be entirely content with what they receive, and as they have very few wants, and do not try to save anything from one week to another, it is not likely they will change their ways in a hurry."

"While we are on the subject," wrote Frank, in a letter describing the visit to Zacatecas, "we may as well say what we learned about silver-mining in general throughout Mexico.

"Silver was known to the Aztecs before the Spanish Conquest, but they do not seem to have made much use of it. They worked it into ornaments and various small articles, but among the treasures of Montezuma seized by Cortez the amount of silver was very small compared with that of gold. The Spaniards had no idea of the immense value of the country when they conquered it, so far as silver is concerned."

"But they began developing the mines very soon after they captured the country," Fred remarked.

BRINGING ORE FROM THE MINES.

"Yes," responded Frank; "in the expedition commanded by Cortez there were many men who were familiar with the mines of Old Spain, and they were not long in finding the silver deposits of the New World. During the sixteenth century the mines of Mexico were extensively worked, and the working continued steadily down to the war for independence, when it greatly fell off. At the time of Humboldt's visit, in 1803, about 3000 distinct mines were in operation; Humboldt estimated that the product of silver in Mexico from the Conquest, in 1521, down to 1804 amounted to $2,027,952,000, and the estimate since that time brings the grand total up to more than 4,000,000,000!"

"What a lot of money!" exclaimed Fred. "Suppose we had it, and wanted to take it to New York; how could we carry it?"

MEXICAN BELLOWS.

"Wait a moment," was the reply, "and I'll tell you."

Frank made a hasty calculation on a slip of paper, and then answered as follows:

"Roughly estimated, the weight of that value in silver would be 333,000,000 pounds, or 166,000 tons, estimating 2000 pounds to the ton. If we had it in the City of Mexico we would have to engage 416 trains of forty cars each, with ten tons of silver in each car, to take it to Vera Cruz. From Vera Cruz we would need 166 steamships carrying a thousand tons each, to take our precious freight to New York, and I'll let you figure out how many warehouses we would need to store it in, and how many policemen would be required to take care of it."

"Well," said Fred, "there's one thing you've forgotten; remember that the most of this silver has been brought from the mines on the backs of mules or donkeys. Reckoning 100 pounds to a load, how many burros would be needed to transport our fortune, supposing we had it?"

Frank figured again, and found that the silver product of Mexico from the Conquest to the present time would load three and a third million burros; putting them in single file, and allowing each burro ten feet of space, there would be 631 miles of them, and half a mile or so over.

"Let's go into the business of silver-mining," said Fred; "just see what a lot of money has been made by it, and with very crude methods of reducing the ore! With the improved processes of modern times there must be a fortune for everybody."

"I don't know about it," replied his cousin; "anyway, we'll ask Doctor Bronson's advice before we venture."

MEXICAN SMELTING-FURNACE.

The appeal to the Doctor resulted in a good deal of sound information, to the effect that silver-mining is generally unprofitable, and anybody should think twice before venturing into it. "And so far as the Mexican mines are concerned," he said, "there are very few of them that are doing more than paying working expenses, and some do not do that. Fifty or more American companies are engaged in this country at present; a few have made money, but the majority have not yet received back what they put into their enterprises, or any interest upon it. And unless I am misinformed, it is next to impossible to buy a good mine here; if a Mexican has a mine he is willing to sell, you may be pretty sure it isn't worth buying. The same rule holds good in all mining regions the world over, and is hardly necessary to discuss. The mining laws of Mexico require that the owner of a mine must work it for four consecutive months in each year, with four regular miners, under penalty of forfeiture. Unless he complies with this law the mine becomes the property of the Government and is sold at auction.

"The laws of Mexico formerly prohibited foreigners not naturalized, or provided with special licenses, from owning or working mines; but this provision was repealed, and foreigners may now legally acquire mines in any part of the republic, provided one of the partners in each mining company resides in Mexico."

From Zacatecas our friends proceeded in the direction of the capital, their next stopping-place being at Aguas Calientes, 120 miles farther south and nearly 2000 feet lower in elevation. Zacatecas is 8044 feet above sea-level, while Aguas Calientes is 6179.

For the first part of the journey the railway winds among the hills; then it comes out into a rich and comparatively level country, where great quantities of corn, wheat, barley, and wool are produced. The plains and hill-sides were dotted with flocks of sheep, and the numerous fields showed that the land was favorable to farming industries.

AN OLD-FASHIONED PLOUGH.

Farming in Mexico is in a backward condition, the implements being mainly of the primitive type. American ploughs, harrows, mowers, reapers, and other farming implements and machines have been introduced, as already mentioned, since the advent of the railways, but the Mexican laborer does not take kindly to their use.

It is said that on the haciendas where improved farming implements and machinery have been introduced they have been maliciously destroyed or put out of working order by the peons; their hostility to labor-saving inventions is just as great as that of the same class of people in other parts of the world. During the construction of the railways some of the contractors brought a supply of wheelbarrows, to replace the gunny-sacks with which the peons have been from time immemorial accustomed to carry earth on their backs or heads. Being made to understand that they must use the wheelbarrows instead of the sacks, they filled the vehicles with earth and carried them on their heads. The contractors were obliged to return to the use of the gunny-sack, as they found more work was done with it than with the wheelbarrow.

The Indians living in the neighborhood of the cities come down from their homes in the hills, bringing on their backs large baskets filled with garden vegetables, chickens, and other marketable things. The story goes that when an Indian from the hills has sold his burden, he puts a stone weighing fifty pounds or more in his basket, in order to give him a "grip" with his feet on the ascending road which leads to his home.

FARM-LABORER IN A GRASS CLOAK.

The agricultural laborers of Mexico are not an enterprising race, and care nothing beyond supplying their daily wants. They were formerly held in a condition of slavery, both before and after the Spanish Conquest; but slavery was abolished soon after the war of independence, and therefore the agricultural laborers, miners, and all other classes of working-people, for the last fifty years and more, have been free. The miners are said to be better workers than the farm-hands, as they are not migratory in their habits, and generally spend their lifetime in the places where they were born, unless compelled to go elsewhere in search of employment.

HACIENDA NEAR THE CITY.

Before the Conquest beasts of burden were unknown, and everything that had to be transported was moved by human muscle. The priests imported donkeys to take the place of men in carrying burdens, and from the animals thus introduced the present race of burros is descended. Cattle, sheep, horses, and hogs were brought from Spain previous to the importation of donkeys, which did not make their advent until the eighteenth century. Horses, cattle, and mules in great number are raised in Mexico annually, but the stock-growers do not pay much attention to other animals.

The foregoing was learned by Frank and Fred during their ride from Zacatecas to Aguas Calientes, and therefore this is its proper place in the narrative.

"There must be a hot spring where we are going," said Fred, "as aguas calientes means 'hot waters.'"

"You are right," replied the Doctor; "there are hot springs in the city and all through this region, and the baths of the city are famous, like most hot baths, for their beneficial effects in rheumatism and other diseases."

PRISONERS AT WORK IN THE JAIL.

Of course a hot bath was one of the things to be sought, and the travellers found it without difficulty. There was a bathing establishment in the city, but they were advised to shun it and visit the suburban baths, which were easily reached by the tram-way. The temperature of the water is 106° Fahrenheit, and the supply is abundant. The baths, combined with the general beauty of the place, have made Aguas Calientes a popular health resort, and with the improved accommodations that are sure to follow the advent of the railway the popularity will increase.

"It's the prettiest city we have seen since we came into Mexico," wrote Frank in his note-book—"prettier than Monterey, Saltillo, or any other of our halting-places. It abounds in gardens, and the people seem to have a passionate fondness for flowers, if we may judge by the extent to which they cultivate them. Around the city the country is fertile, and there are finely cultivated fields, luxuriant vineyards, rich meadows, and everything to please the eye. It is said that artists have a special liking for this place, and now that I've seen it I'm not at all surprised.

"Whoever laid out this city had an eye to the picturesque, and realized that land was plenty, as he gave it one large plaza and ten smaller ones, and adorned several of the plazas with gardens. Then there are some fine buildings belonging to the Government. There are thirteen churches, a hospital, and a college; and I must not forget that there is a jail, which is well patronized, and is said to be very attractive for a jail. We have been through the market, which is supplied with more fruit than we have seen since we left Monterey, together with several varieties that we have not observed elsewhere.

"They have a population of about twenty-five thousand here, and the chief industry is in manufacturing. They make cloth of various kinds, including some fine woollens, and we have seen handsome work in leather and some very pretty pottery. Everybody we've talked with says that it's a pity it is not the time of the annual fair, which lasts from the 23d of April to the 10th of May, and brings in a large number of people from the surrounding country. There are many curious costumes and customs to be seen during the fair, which is a period of feasting for all who attend it. Mr. Janvier says it resembles our Thanksgiving, as everybody then lives upon cacones, or turkeys. The festival is of very ancient date, and was held before the advent of the Spaniards.

OF SPANISH BLOOD.

"In such a beautiful city we have looked for beautiful inhabitants, but haven't found a great many, though it is proper to say we haven't been able to hold a review of the whole population. While walking in one of the gardens we saw several pretty girls of Spanish blood, accompanied by their duennas; for, according to Spanish custom, no young girl is allowed to walk out alone. They were dressed much after the fashion of Paris or New York, except that they wore the lace veil or mantilla over their heads, instead of the bonnet, which is the fashion with us. Their taste seems inclined to gaudy colors, derived perhaps from the luxuriance of nature around them.

"The lower classes of the people are much more picturesque than the upper, and the women more so than the men. Their skins are dark, and their hair and eyes are invariably black. They keep their teeth white, and are said to do so by a vigorous application of the juice of the soap-plant. A piece of the stalk of this plant is chewed until it forms a sort of brush; it contains a soapy juice that has cleansing properties beneficial to the teeth. Many of the young women are pleasing to look upon, but they are said to lose their good looks before reaching middle life, for the reason, no doubt, that they have to do a great deal of hard work. Their dress is a cheap calico, short in the skirt and generally bright in color, with a loose jacket or waist. If their heads are covered, it is with the rebozo chiquito, a scarf of silk or cotton that is wrapped around the head and shoulders, and has a long fringe, which falls down the back. The rebozo is very convenient for carrying a baby, who is suspended there exactly as babies are carried in Japan."

INDIAN GIRLS AT A SPRING.

[CHAPTER VII.]

SOUTHWARD AGAIN.—CROSSING A BARRANCA.—BARRANCAS IN MEXICO.—LAGOS AND ITS PECULIARITIES.—LEON, THE MANUFACTURING CITY OF MEXICO.—SILAO.—ARRIVAL AT GUANAJUATO.—A SILVER CITY.—THE VALENCIANO MINE.—AN UNHEALTHY PLACE.—BAD DRAINAGE.—A SYSTEM OF RESERVOIRS.—THE CASTILLO DEL GRENADITAS.—AN INDIAN'S ARMOR.—EXPERT THIEVES.—STEALING A GRINDSTONE.—MARKET SCENES.—HEADS OF SHEEP AND GOATS.—SCHOOLS AT GUANAJUATO.—EDUCATION IN MEXICO.—DOWN IN THE RAYAS MINE.—SIGHTS UNDERGROUND.—AN INDIAN WATER-CARRIER.—HOW A SKIN IS TAKEN WHOLE FROM A PIG.—THE REDUCTION HACIENDA.—MR. PARKMAN'S MACHINE.—QUERETARO.—THE HERCULES AND OTHER COTTON-MILLS.

Satisfied with a day at Aguas Calientes, the party took the south-bound trains and did not stop until reaching Silao, after a run of 130 miles. An hour or more after leaving Aguas Calientes, they crossed the barranca, or cañon, through which the Encarnacion River flows; the bridge by which they crossed it is built of iron, and is more than 700 feet long. It is fully 150 feet above the water, and the view as one looks downward from the centre of the bridge is apt to cause dizziness to a nervous traveller.

A DRY BARRANCA.

"Perhaps you don't know what a barranca is," wrote Frank, in his next letter to his mother. "Well, it's a deep channel which the water has worn in its steady flow for thousands of years through the earth or soft rock. The channel of Niagara River from the falls to Lewiston may be called a barranca, and so may any similar cutting made by a stream, whether large or small. Some of the Mexican barrancas are 2000 feet wide, and 1000 or 1500 feet deep; their sides are almost precipitous, and every year the waters wear a deeper way through the rock or earth.

"Did you ever walk through a field, and come suddenly upon a ditch or brook that was not visible a few yards away? Well, that's the case with some of these barrancas. You come upon one without being aware that you are near it; you may be galloping along enjoying the fresh air and the pleasure of a ride, when all at once your horse stops, and as you draw the reins you find yourself on the edge of a precipice, looking down hundreds of feet, perhaps, to the turbid stream struggling along its course. On the other side of the barranca the country is level again, and you could gallop on without trouble but for the yawning chasm that stands in your way.

"The barrancas are crossed by descending to the stream along a sloping road built with great ingenuity and at much expense; the stream is passed by an ordinary bridge, and the high ground is reached again along another sloping road. Barrancas have long been a serious obstacle to the construction of wagon-roads in Mexico, and in recent years they have taxed the ingenuity of railway engineers who sought to pass them."

The first important city on the route was Lagos, which has a population of 25,000 or thereabouts, and is devoted to manufacturing; farther on is Leon, which is four times as large, and five or six times more important, as it is the principal manufacturing city of the republic, and was founded about 1550. Formerly there was a great fair held at Leon annually for the sale of goods; it was similar to the great fairs of Europe before the invention of the railway, but has dwindled in importance as the railways have come in, and will probably be abandoned before many years.

"What do they make at Leon?" one may ask. For answer, Fred or Frank will tell you that they make pretty nearly every kind of article that finds a market in Mexico and can be fashioned by Mexican hands. There are numerous tanneries there, and the leather which they produce is made into boots, saddles, harnesses, leggings, and other things into whose composition leather enters. There are factories for the manufacture of cotton and woollen cloth, serapes, rebozos, and the like; there are large shops where hats are made of every Mexican style and kind, and sent to all parts of the republic; and there are soap factories, iron founderies, cutlery establishments, tool-shops, and so on through a long and possibly tiresome list. And it is safe to say that a popular vote of the inhabitants of Leon would show an overwhelming majority in favor of a protective tariff. Leonites are firm believers in protection to home industries, and look frowningly on any movement to supplant their goods with those of foreign make.

CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO, GUANAJUATO.

About seven o'clock in the evening the train reached Silao, whence there is a branch fifteen miles long to Guanajuato, or rather to Marfil, its suburb. It was nearly nine o'clock when they reached the hotel at Guanajuato; there was not much to be seen in the evening, and so the time was passed mostly at the hotel, and devoted to a consideration of the history of the place. The youths found that the site of Guanajuato (pronounced Gwan-a-what-o) was given by one of the early viceroys to Don Rodrigo Vasquez, who was one of the conquerors who came with Cortez; the gift was a reward for Don Rodrigo's services in assisting to add this valuable possession to the crown of Spain. According to tradition, the discovery of silver was made here by accident some time in 1548, and it immediately brought a crowd of adventurers in search of fortunes. For a long time Guanajuato was one of the most productive silver districts of Mexico; but since the Spanish domination ended, the product has greatly diminished; the yield at present is about $6,000,000 annually, and there are said to be something like 2000 mining claims in the district.

COURT-YARD OF A MEXICAN TENEMENT-HOUSE.

The most famous mine of Guanajuato is that of San José de Valenciano, and it is said to have yielded in the days of its prosperity about $800,000,000 worth of silver. When Humboldt visited it at the beginning of this century he estimated that it produced one-fifth of the silver in the world. It was "in bonanza," as the miners say, for about forty years after it was opened, and paid enormous dividends to its owners in spite of the heavy taxes exacted by the Government. From ten to twenty thousand people were employed in and around the Valenciano mine when it was in full operation. The galleries, chambers, and drifts of the mine are said to be more extensive than all the streets of the city, and the great tiro, or central shaft, is nearly 2000 feet deep. All the lower part of the mine is now filled with water, and it cannot be removed except at a cost so great that nobody is willing to undertake it. The veta madre, or "mother-vein," on which the mine is located is pierced by several other mines, and many persons believe that Guanajuato has "seen its best days."

SUPERINTENDENT'S HOUSE AT SILVER REDUCTION-WORKS.

Doctor Bronson arranged for his party to visit one of the mines where the process of working could be seen; his application to the administrador, or director, of the mine that they wished to see was courteously received, and the desired permission granted at once. Fred will tell the story of the excursion.

A TON OF SILVER.

"While waiting for the pass from the administrador," said Fred, "we took a look at the city, which has a population variously placed at from fifty to seventy thousand, mostly dependent on the mines for their support. The city stands in a ravine, and reminded us of Zacatecas. All the world over, mining towns are almost always in mountain ravines or valleys, and Guanajuato is no exception to the rule.

"The streets are narrow, and badly paved with cobble-stones, and locomotion with carriages is not at all easy. The little stream that flows through the city is formed into three reservoirs at the upper end of the ravine, one above the other. When the upper reservoir is filled, the water overflows into the next below, and that in turn fills the lower one. From the water thus collected the city and the mills below it are supplied. When the rainy season begins, the floodgates are open, and the waters rush in a torrent through the ravine and wash it thoroughly. This is the only washing it gets until another year comes around; and you will understand from this that Guanajuato is a very 'smelly' city, and has a large death-rate. There isn't water enough for a good, healthy system of sewerage; but this does not trouble the Mexicans very much.

"In every Mexican town or city we have visited thus far, we have seen women at the plaza and fountains and encountered troops of donkeys carrying water. Water-carriers have no occupation here, as the liquid is supplied through pipes, just as in New York or any other American city. The concession to establish water-works was given to an enterprising citizen, Señor Rocha, and he made a good deal of money by the operation. He built walks and seats all around the reservoirs, and thus gave the inhabitants an agreeable paseo, or promenade.

A MEXICAN BEGGAR.

"Our guide showed us the Castillo del Grenaditas, which is an immense building like a fortress, and now used as a carcel, or prison. It was built in the early part of this century as a storehouse for grain for public use in times of scarcity; its walls are several feet thick, and it has a large court-yard in the centre. It was a place of refuge for the Spaniards when Hidalgo made his pronunciamento in 1810 and set up a revolution. Several hundred Spaniards fled to the Castillo and shut themselves in. They made a vigorous defence, and the attacking force was steadily repelled. Hidalgo tried many times to reach the gates, but every time his men attempted it they were shot down.

"At last an Indian, carrying a flat stone on his back as a shield against the Spanish bullets, reached the gates and set them on fire. The stone which he used in this exploit was shown to us, at least one that purported to be the identical shield. The besiegers rushed in through the gates, and the castle fell. A year or so afterwards Hidalgo was captured and executed in Chihuahua. His head and the heads of three of his companions were brought here and hung on hooks at the four corners of the building. They were taken down and buried with high honors in 1823, but the hooks are still in position; the one on which Hidalgo's head was placed was pointed out to us.

"At almost every step along the streets we were accosted by men who had all sorts of articles for sale. Shoes, clothing, spurs, cutlery, rebozos, serapes, and similar things were offered, and the prices seemed very low; but we were told not to offer more than half what was asked for anything, and unless we really needed it we had better be careful about offering anything at all.

"We were cautioned to be watchful of our pockets, as there are expert thieves in the city who could steal anything for which they set out. We saw some grindstones in one of the shops, and asked our guide why they were chained to the wall and the chains fastened with padlocks. He said it was because there were men around who would steal them on general principles. They had no use for them, nor any idea what they were for, but as they were the heaviest articles to be seen, they were supposed to be the most valuable!

OLD CONVENT NOW USED AS BARRACKS.

"In the market we saw that the poor people of this mining city are compelled to be very economical. When meat is not disposed of fresh, it is dried and sold in that shape. The dried heads of sheep and goats were piled on the ground to be sold as food; dried with the skin and horns on, and the people stood around and haggled for them down to the fraction of a cent. An important article of food here is boiled calabazas, or pumpkins; and another staple of diet is gruel made of coarse corn-meal. The guide said the head of a sheep or goat or the nose of a bullock was added on Sunday to this very meagre diet, and the miners and their families were quite contented with such food. Truly, one half of the world doesn't know how the other half lives.

"We were invited to visit one of the schools, but hadn't time to do so any more than to look at the building as we went past it. A gentleman whom we talked with told us that the State college is in a flourishing condition, and has upwards of three hundred students, many of them of pure Indian blood. Education among the people of Mexico is not very far advanced, but is better than many people suppose. It has made great progress in the last twenty years. Before that time it was very backward, and a considerable part of the population could not read or write.

A LEADING CITIZEN.

"The Government seems to be thoroughly awake to the necessity of having its population intelligent, in order to advance the interests of the country. In all the towns and villages there are free schools supported by the Government or by the local authorities, and in the cities there are advanced schools and colleges and a great number of private schools. Then there are technical and industrial schools, where trades are taught, and military schools for those who desire a military education and intend entering the army. In the cities free night schools for men and women, similar to the night schools of New York and other American cities, have been established. Some of them are well attended, but that is not the case with all.

"All of the Mexican States make liberal appropriations for public primary schools, and they tell us that last year there was an aggregate school attendance of 500,000. There must be an equal number of pupils in the private schools and in schools maintained by churches, missions, and benevolent societies, so that the whole attendance may be set down as an even million. Of course this is not up to the standard of the United States, especially of the northern portion, but it is a great advance for Mexico, where forty years ago not one person in ten could read. It is believed that fully one-half of the Mexican people to-day can read and write, or certainly a large proportion of them.

"Accompanied by our guide we drove to the Rayas Mine, or rather quite near it. The administrador met us at his office near the entrance, and assigned to us a guide who spoke English, though not very well. His English was better than our Spanish, and as he seemed to prefer it, we did not try to talk to him in his own tongue. We expected to descend by a cage in the tiro, but found that the way to the vein was down a stone staircase. The steps were slippery in places, and we had to be careful about placing our feet, as any carelessness might result in a fall. Frank began to quote the old Latin lines about facilis descensus, but our guide said 'chestnoot,' which he said he learned from an American, and Frank had nothing more to say on the subject.

PRISONERS BREAKING ORE.

"We had a long and tiresome walk through the mine, and the dim light of the lantern and candles only served to make the darkness visible until our eyes became accustomed to it. When we reached the vein we were unable to distinguish the rich ore from the worthless rock in which the mineral lay, and soon made up our minds that we were as far as possible from being experts in mining.

"It was well for us that we laid aside our own clothes and put on some garments especially intended for the underground excursion, as we were splashed from head to foot with mud when we came out, and were sorry-looking spectacles for a photograph gallery. Each of us had a candle stuck to the top of his hat by a lump of wet clay. Every little while one of us knocked off his candle, and then there was a halt until it was adjusted.

"We saw many of the peons at work, each with a candle fixed in his hat, the fashion that has prevailed here since the mines were first opened. Sometimes they were in little groups, who put their earnings into a general pool, and sometimes they were working singly on spots allotted to them by the superintendents. The guide told us that the men worked on shares, half the ore taken out being the property of the owners of the mine, and half going to the peon. The ore is placed in heaps. The shares of the miners are sold at auction or private sale, or they may be reduced and the proceeds turned over to the proper claimants after taking out the cost of the reduction. The miners generally prefer the system of direct sales, for the reason that they can more readily obtain their pay in this manner than by waiting for the reduction of the ore and extraction of the silver.

SLOPING LADDERS IN A SILVER MINE.

"The hardest part of the work seemed to be the carrying of the bags of ore up the long flights of slippery steps to the mouth of the mine. From the lower levels the water is removed by pumping, and in some places it is carried in pig-skins on the backs of naked Indians to where the pumps are at work. A pig-skin filled with water on the back of a man climbing up the sloping steps looked at a little distance like some strange animal which has not yet been assigned a place in natural history. These skins have the exact shape of the pig, and are without cut or seam, and we naturally wondered how they were obtained so nearly whole as they seemed to be. We had seen them before in the Mexican towns, as they are in common use by the water-carriers, and one day we asked an American resident how they skinned pigs in Mexico.

"'Why,' said he, 'it's easy enough when you know how. They don't give the pig anything to eat for a couple of days; then they tie him to a tree by his tail, hold an ear of corn about three feet in front of his nose, and so coax him out of his skin.'

"Another man told us that the body of the animal is beaten with a club till the bones are smashed to pieces, and the flesh reduced to a pulpy mass, which is then drawn out through the neck, along with the fragments of bone. This seems more probable than the other process; at any rate, we give it the preference."

OPENING A NEW MINE.

From the mine our friends went to one of the reduction haciendas, where they saw the process of extracting silver from the ore, which has been described on previous pages. There are about fifty reduction-mills at Guanajuato, some worked by horse or mule power, others by water, and others by steam. Three kinds of crushers are in use, the Mexican arastra, the Chilian mill, and the American stamp-mill, all of which have their advocates, who prefer them to the others. The patio process is employed here as well as elsewhere, and hundreds of horses and mules are annually worn out in treading the ores. An American named Parkman made an improvement on this system by rolling a loaded barrel over and through the mixture by means of horses or mules walking in a circle, as in an old-fashioned cider-mill. The barrel mingles the ore and the chemicals as well as the horses' feet could do it, and the injury to the hoofs of the animals is prevented, as they do not come in contact with the mass. Sometimes heavy wheels are used instead of the barrels, and they are arranged on a graduated scale, so that they move slowly from centre to circumference of the torta, or pulp heap, as they revolve, and from circumference back to the centre again. In this way the entire surface is gone over; the reduction of the mass takes from twenty to thirty days, and is thoroughly done.

ENTRANCE OF A MINE NOT IN OPERATION.

From the hacienda they were taken to the mint, where silver coins are made in the same manner as in mints in other parts of the world. The machinery of the mint is of English construction, and several Englishmen are or were connected with the establishment to superintend the more delicate parts of the apparatus. From the mint they went to a hill called the Cerro de San Miguel, which gave them an excellent view of the city and the hills that surround it. The number of elegant residences in sight convinced them that there is yet a great deal of wealth in Guanajuato, notwithstanding the decline in the yield of silver from the mines.

The next stop in the journey towards the capital was made at Queretaro, eighty-five miles from Silao, or one hundred from Guanajuato. It is a city of from fifty to sixty thousand inhabitants; it has no mines on which to base its prosperity, but is devoted to manufacturing, having been famous for 200 years and more for its production of cotton goods. The largest cotton-mill in Mexico is at Queretaro; it is known as the Hercules, and stands in a ravine, about two miles from the city. It was built by Señor Rubio, is enclosed by a high wall loop-holed for musketry, and could stand an ordinary siege very fairly, provided the besiegers brought no cannon. A defensive force of forty soldiers is maintained at the mills, and they are armed with rifles and howitzers.

A COTTON FACTORY, QUERETARO.

The Hercules mill employs about fifteen hundred operatives, all Mexicans, with the exception of a few foreigners to look after the general management of details and keep the machinery in order. Not far from it is a smaller and older mill, which is surrounded with pretty gardens that require a considerable annual expenditure to keep them in order. Frank thought he would commend the plan to American mill-owners, and suggest the addition of gardens to their establishments; Fred was of opinion that the manufacturers of Lawrence and Fall River would not look favorably upon the suggestion, as they were much more interested in making the best possible showing in their bank accounts than in beautifying their surroundings.

The Queretaro mills are chiefly employed in turning out manta, a variety of cheap cotton cloth, out of which the garments of the lower classes of the population are made. The Hercules mill makes 6000 pieces of cloth thirty yards long every week, and it pays the weavers about one cent a yard. The employés make from two and a half to five dollars weekly, and are furnished with lodgings, at very low rentals, close to the mills. They work from 6 a.m. to 9.30 p.m., with half an hour's intermission for breakfast, and an hour for dinner.

[CHAPTER VIII.]

AQUEDUCT AT QUERETARO.—THE RESULT OF A BANTER.—THE HILL OF THE BELLS.—PLACE WHERE MAXIMILIAN WAS SHOT.—REVOLUTIONS IN MEXICO.—FOREIGN INTERVENTION.—MAXIMILIAN BECOMES EMPEROR.—THE "BLACK DECREE."—WITHDRAWAL OF FRENCH TROOPS FROM MEXICO.—MAXIMILIAN'S DEFEAT, CAPTURE, AND DEATH.—HOW A FRENCH NEWSPAPER CIRCUMVENTED THE LAWS.—PRONUNCIAMENTOS.—JUAREZ AS PRESIDENT.—THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN OF MEXICO.—A WONDERFUL PROPHECY.—PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF JUAREZ.—RELIGION IN MEXICO.—FORMER POWER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.—THE LAWS OF THE REFORM.—PROTESTANT CHURCHES AND PROTESTANT WORK.—MISSIONARY MARTYRS.—MURDER OF REV. J. L. STEPHENS.—RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS AT PRESENT.

AQUEDUCT OF QUERETARO.

One of the first things to attract the attention of the youths was the aqueduct by which Queretaro is supplied with water. They learned on inquiry that it was built by one of the citizens at an expense of half a million dollars; the story goes that it was the result of a banter between him and another wealthy Mexican, one offering to supply the city with water if the other would build a shrine and saint of solid silver. The offer was accepted, and the agreement carried out by both parties.

The water comes from a mountain stream five miles from the city, and is brought through a tunnel, and afterwards along a series of arches, some of which are ninety feet high. It was finished in 1738, and has ever since supplied Queretaro with an abundance of water.

Church of the Cross. Hill of the Bells.
QUERETARO.

The most interesting sight of Queretaro is the Cerro de las Campanas, or Hill of the Bells, and thither our friends proceeded as soon as they had partaken of the mid-day meal, which was ready on their arrival at the hotel. There is a fine view from the hill, and they greatly enjoyed it; but they were more interested in the spot where the last Mexican empire came to an end. Three black crosses mark the place where Maximilian and his generals, Miramon and Mejia, were shot on the morning of the 19th of June, 1867. This was the last scene in the drama of the imperial monarchy which Louis Napoleon sought to found in North America at the time of the American Civil-War.

Frank and Fred had already familiarized themselves with the history of Maximilian's career in Mexico. Frank had committed a portion of the story to paper, and with Fred's assistance it was completed during their stay at Queretaro, and mailed homeward with their next batch of letters. Here it is:

"From the time Mexico established her independence of Spain down to 1860, there was a bitter hostility between the two parties into which the influential portion of the population was divided—the Conservative or Church party, and the Liberals. The Conservatives represented the Catholic Church, whose religion was brought to Mexico by the priests that accompanied Cortez and sought to convert the people from paganism. They succeeded in great measure, and as long as the Spaniards were in power the Church was in full control. It possessed a great part of the wealth of the country; the most moderate estimate is that one-fourth of all the property in the country belonged to the Church, and some authorities say that the proportion was far greater.

"When independence was established, the Liberals began active opposition to the Church party, and the country was hardly ever at peace from one end to the other. Revolutions followed each other with great rapidity. Several Presidents were not allowed to enter upon the duties of their office at all, and the first President to complete the full term for which he was elected was Benito Juarez. Historians are not agreed as to the number of revolutions that have taken place in Mexico; but it is safe to say that they were not fewer than thirty-six in the limit of forty years, most of them being accompanied by bloodshed. In that period there were no less than seventy-three rulers, nearly all of them exercising very brief authority, and some none at all.

"As time went on, the hostility of the Church and Liberal parties to each other grew more and more bitter, till it culminated in the War of the Reform, between 1855 and 1858. In 1859 President Juarez proclaimed the famous Laws of the Reform, which forbade priests to appear in public wearing their robes of office, suppressed the monasteries and convents, and gave the property of the Church to the Government. The value of this property is said to have been more than $300,000,000. The Liberal army captured the capital city six months after the proclamation of these laws, and they were immediately put in operation, and with great severity.

"The country was deeply in debt, and in 1861 the Liberal Congress passed a law suspending payment of the interest on its foreign debt. This gave England, France, and Spain an excuse for sending a naval and military force to Mexico; they captured Vera Cruz, and then an arrangement was made which caused the withdrawal of England and Spain; but France remained, and was evidently determined to conquer the country. The French advanced towards the capital, which they captured June 9, 1863. There were 40,000 French troops in Mexico, and they were joined by a Mexican force which was in the interest of the Church party.

"In July a congress of Mexican notables proclaimed that the Government of Mexico should be an hereditary monarchy, under a Catholic prince, and offered the crown to Maximilian, brother of the Emperor of Austria. Maximilian accepted the offer, and came to Mexico with his wife, Carlotta; they arrived in July, 1864, and were crowned Emperor and Empress of Mexico, in the great cathedral of the capital city. The Emperor selected Chapultepec as his imperial residence; a fine avenue was laid out from the castle to the city, trees were planted, streets were improved, and for a short time it seemed as if peace and prosperity were coming to Mexico.

"Juarez was still President of the Republic; he and his army were driven far to the north, but they continued to fight, and in October, 1865, Maximilian signed an order which became known as the 'Black Decree,' condemning all Republican officers captured in battle to be shot as brigands. Many of them, including several generals and colonels, were shot accordingly, and this act exasperated the people.

A MEXICAN CAVALRY SOLDIER.

"The American Civil War had ended; the United States Government put 60,000 troops along the western frontier of Texas, and then intimated that the French forces must be withdrawn from Mexico. The diplomatic correspondence lasted six months, and our Government threatened armed intervention unless the French troops were recalled. They were withdrawn; Maximilian had no foreign support, and his own army could not cope successfully with the Republican forces. Juarez, with his army, advanced towards the south, and the Imperial army marched to meet him, and was defeated. A Republican army, under General Diaz, captured Puebla, and put the Imperialists to flight.

A MEXICAN INFANTRY SOLDIER.

"Carlotta went to France, and vainly besought Louis Napoleon to continue his aid and keep a French army in Mexico. Then she asked the Pope to exercise his influence, and finding that was of no use, she became hopelessly insane. Maximilian started for the coast, intending to leave the country; unwisely for himself, he changed his plans, and joined General Miramon at Queretaro, where there were 5000 Imperial troops. Queretaro was besieged by 20,000 troops, under General Escobedo; the siege lasted two months, and ended on the 15th of May, when the key of the position was captured, and the Emperor and his army surrendered. The Emperor was taken on the Hill of the Bells, the very spot where he was afterwards shot by order of the court-martial which condemned him to death."

LINE OF DEFENCE HELD BY MAXIMILIAN DURING THE SIEGE.

"A very concise history of the events of that time," said Doctor Bronson, when Frank paused in reading their joint production; "have you anything more to add to it?"

"Yes, sir, we have," was the reply. "We have thought that the story of the court-martial, and the last days and hours of Maximilian, would be interesting, and ought to form a part of our narrative."

"That is quite right," the Doctor answered, "and if you have not finished it I will hear it some other time."

On a subsequent occasion Fred presented the following, which was heartily approved by Doctor Bronson as deserving a place in the narrative of their journey through Mexico:

"Maximilian was condemned to death on account of the 'Black Decree,' and the officers who had carried out his orders were sentenced to the same fate. The wife of General Miramon went to San Luis Potosi to intercede with President Juarez for her husband's life. The Princess Salm-Salm went at the same time to do a similar service for Maximilian. The princess, in the account of her interview, says: 'I saw the President was moved; he had tears in his eyes, but he assured me in a low, sad voice, "I am grieved, madame, to see you thus on your knees before me, but if all the kings and queens of Europe were in your place, I could not spare that life. It is not I who take it, it is the people and the law; and if I should not do its will, the people would take it, and mine also."'

"Miramon's wife told a similar story about the wish of the President to be merciful and reprieve her husband. She says he was wavering when his Minister of Foreign Affairs said, 'It is to-day or never that you will consolidate the peace of the republic.' Then the President told her as gently as he could that it was impossible to grant her request.

"The Government of the United States asked that Maximilian's life be spared, and the Emperor of Austria sent a similar request, but all to no purpose. On the morning of the execution Maximilian rode in a coach with his confessor from the prison to the Hill of the Bells, and Miramon and Mejia, with their confessors, followed in another coach. An adobe wall had been built up for the occasion, and the three men were placed in front of it, and about ten paces from the firing party. Maximilian held a crucifix in his hand, and looked intently upon it as the order to fire was given. The President caused the remains of the ill-fated Emperor to be carefully coffined, and they were sent home to Austria for interment in the Imperial vault of the Hapsburgs.

"President Juarez entered the city of Mexico on the 15th of July, less than a month after Maximilian's death, and carried with him a train of provisions for the relief of the suffering inhabitants. Great leniency was shown to all who had served under Maximilian; nineteen of the officers who had committed crimes or deserted from the Republican army were shot, others were imprisoned, and some were ordered to leave the country under pain of imprisonment in case they returned. The rank and file of the soldiery were sent to their homes or incorporated into the national army, and the President did everything in his power to bring peace to the country; and since that time Mexico has been a peaceful land compared with what it had been for the preceding forty years."

When Fred completed the reading of his story Doctor Bronson said he was reminded of an incident that happened at the time of the execution of Maximilian.

"I was in Paris," said he, "when the news came that the execution had taken place. The French papers were not allowed to make any comment upon the affair, except to execrate it and denounce the Mexicans in the bitterest terms. Louis Napoleon would have caused the immediate suspension of any paper that uttered a word in sympathy with the acts of Juarez.

"One of the liberal papers managed very skilfully to get around the prohibition. It printed the telegram announcing that Maximilian had been shot by order of a Mexican court-martial, and directly beneath the telegram it printed the 'Black Decree' of October, 1865, to which you have alluded, and with it two letters written by Maximilian's victims just before they were led to execution. The decree and the letters were copied from the French official newspapers, and therefore they could be printed without risk of interference. There was not a word of editorial comment, nor was any needed."

"We said there had been peace in Mexico since the fall of the Empire," continued Fred, "but our words deserve to be qualified. There have been disturbances at different times and in various parts of the country. In 1871 there was something that almost threatened civil war in the shape of a pronunciamento by General Diaz, and for a while things had a serious aspect. General Diaz did not like the election of Juarez for a third time; he proposed an assembly of notables to reorganize the government, and that he (Diaz) should be commander-in-chief of the army until the assembly had done its work. This would have been practically equivalent to making him President, but the whole scheme was ended by the sudden death of Juarez in July, 1872.

"Lerdo de Tejado then became President, and for three years everything was peaceful. Then came another revolution, which drove Lerdo from the capital and installed Diaz in the Presidential chair. At the end of his term Diaz was succeeded by General Gonzales, who was a poor man when he became President, and a very rich one when he left the office. He left it peaceably, and was succeeded, December 1, 1884, by Diaz, who has shown himself a man of ability, and has managed the affairs of the country very creditably.

"There you have Mexican history boiled down," said Fred. "Perhaps it may be tedious to some of the boys at home, and if it is, they know how to skip."

The conversation that followed this reading naturally turned upon Mexican affairs. Doctor Bronson signified his readiness to answer any questions the youths might ask, or, if he did not know the correct answers, he would try to tell them where the desired information could be obtained.

"President Juarez was a native of Mexico, and not of Spanish descent, was he not?" Frank asked.

FIRST PROTESTANT CHURCH IN MEXICO.

"Yes," said the Doctor; "he was a full-blooded Indian, his parents having been people in very humble circumstances. He has been called the Washington or the Lincoln of Mexico; to him Mexico owes the Laws of the Reform and the concessions that have brought railways into the country and opened it up to commercial relations with the rest of the world. He was the first Protestant President of the country, all his predecessors having been of the Catholic faith. He is described by those who knew him as a man rather below the average height, stoutly built without being corpulent, exceedingly plain in dress, but always fastidiously neat. Ordinarily he wore a dress-coat of black broadcloth, with other garments to match, and on state occasions he substituted white gloves and cravat for the every-day black ones. He used to ride in a plain coach, with no liveried servants, which was quite a contrast to the grand turnout of Maximilian, who had a state carriage like that of Louis XIV.

"His complexion was Indian, and so were his features; his eyes were small and black, and his face, which was always clean-shaven, bore an expression of great firmness. He was not talkative, and was the same determined, silent man in prosperity as in adversity. His faith in the success of the republic was never shaken, even when he was living in an adobe hut on the banks of the Rio Grande, with less than 500 followers, and a reward offered by Maximilian for his head. When he arrived at El Paso del Norte he was accompanied by only twenty-two friends, who have since been called 'the immaculate.'

"I have read somewhere,"[4] continued the Doctor, "a curious story connected with his history. When Mexico was conquered by the Spaniards, a priest of the Aztec temple at Taos, in New Mexico, kindled a fire upon its altar, and planted a tree in front of the edifice. He prophesied that when the tree died a new white race would come from the East and conquer the land, and when the fire went out a new Montezuma would arise and rule Mexico. The tree died in 1846, during our war with Mexico, and the fire went out when the last of the Aztec priests of Taos died, in the year that Juarez became President."

PUEBLO AT TAOS, NEW MEXICO.

"Was he ever imprisoned or banished, like the most of the leading men of Mexico?" Frank asked.

"Yes," was the reply. "He was a native of the State of Oajaca, where he was educated in a seminary and studied law; he graduated with high honors at the college, and for some years held the chair of natural philosophy in that institution. In 1836, when he was thirty years old, he was imprisoned by the Conservatives on account of his Liberal principles. After his release he became Chief-judge of the Republic, and held several other offices until 1853, when he was imprisoned and banished by General Santa Anna, and lived two years in the United States, suffering severe privations. Events brought him into Mexico again, and from that time he did not leave the country until his death. He was imprisoned a third time, in 1857, by Comonfort, but only for a short while."

"We have mentioned the Laws of the Reform, which were proclaimed by President Juarez and caused the appropriation of the property of the Church by the Government. Did the Church have much property besides the convents, cathedrals, and Church buildings generally?"

GARDEN OF A MEXICAN CONVENT.

"A great deal more than those," the Doctor answered. "The Church owned real estate in vast extent both in the cities and the rural districts, and some people say more than half the dwelling-houses in the city of Mexico belonged to it. It had the reputation of being a very generous landlord, as it rented its houses at a lower rate than similar property could be had from private owners. On this subject I will quote from an English writer who spent some time in Mexico a few years ago."

Thereupon Doctor Bronson read the following from "Mexico To-day," by Thomas U. Brocklehurst:

"'The Church of Mexico has been all-powerful since its commencement; it may be said to be the Government, the magistracy, the army, and the master of the homes. Everything in Mexico has been subservient to its dictatura. The priesthood has been entirely free from the national courts of law, they have had courts of their own, and the fueros, or privileges of the ecclesiastics, placed them entirely beyond the reach of secular power. They levied taxes and tithes of everybody and everything they had a mind to. The extent to which the clergy accumulated wealth is almost incredible; they are said to have possessed three-fourths of the whole property of the country, consisting of lands and other real estate, rents, mortgages, conventual buildings, and church ornaments. Moreover, there were no bankers in Mexico except the clergy, so they had complete power over the estates as well as the souls of the people.

"'In 1850 Señor Lerdo de Tejara, Minister of Public Works, published a statistical account of the revenues and endowments of the Church, with the numbers of the clergy, monks, nuns, and servants connected with the religious establishments. The details he gives, like the evidence of the existing churches, and the remains of the disused ones all over the country, quite support his statement that the Church was possessed of three-fourths of the property of the State.'

"Another writer," continued Doctor Bronson, "says that the property of the Church included about 900 rural estates and 25,000 blocks of city property. When this property was confiscated and sold, the Church authorities warned all good Catholics not to invest in it. The result was that it went at very low prices, and fell into the hands of those who cared nothing for the religion of the former owners. The Church people probably see by this time that they made a mistake. Had they allowed Catholics to buy the confiscated property, they could have got it back again into their own hands with very little trouble, and at a small valuation. Dwelling-houses, shops, and all sorts of ordinary buildings, along with the rural estates and the convents, have been sold for secular purposes, but the church edifices proper are permitted to remain in the hands of their former authorities, and services go on there without interruption. The Laws of the Reform allow freedom of religious worship, and a Catholic has the same protection as the adherent of any other faith."

"Were there any Protestant churches in Mexico before the Laws of the Reform were proclaimed?" Fred asked.

"No," was the reply; "the Catholic Church did not permit them to exist any more than the Puritans allowed a Quaker in their midst in the early days of the Plymouth Colony. Human nature is the same all the world over, and any religious body that has supreme control of a country is pretty certain to exercise its power. You know the old explanation of the difference between religion and superstition?"

"What is that?"

"Religion is what we believe; superstition is what others believe."

The boys laughed, and said they had heard the definition before. Then the Doctor continued:

INTERIOR OF THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, CITY OF MEXICO.

"The Laws of the Reform tolerated all religions, and guaranteed freedom of public worship. During the Mexican War our army was followed by colporteurs, who distributed tracts and did other religious work. They followed the example of the priests who accompanied Cortez, but, unlike them, they did not succeed in converting the population. Missionary work was begun by the American Baptists in 1863, and followed shortly after by the Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians. There was much opposition on the part of some of the priests, and in several instances their ignorant followers were incited to hostility. You must remember that the Mexican priests are not as intelligent, taken as a body, as the Catholic priests of the United States; and understanding this, you will not wonder at the open hostility displayed towards all other forms of religion.

REV. JOHN L. STEPHENS, A MARTYR MISSIONARY.

"In the early days of the Protestant missions the missionaries in Mexico entered upon their duties at the risk of their lives. In 1872 a missionary and his wife settled in Guadalajara. During the first few weeks of their residence in the place they were stoned whenever they appeared on the streets. The Governor came to their aid, and in time the prejudice against them wore away. In November of the same year another missionary, Rev. John L. Stephens, settled in Ahualuco, a town of five thousand inhabitants, ninety miles from Guadalajara, and began his work. On the 2d of the following March, at two o'clock in the morning, his house was attacked, and he was murdered with a brutality which could not have been excelled by Apaches or Sioux. One of his converts was killed at the same time, and others barely escaped with their lives.

IN THE CATHEDRAL.

"There have been other martyrs, and many cases of persecution. Hostility has not ceased, but it is greatly diminished, and the Protestants have obtained a foothold in Mexico. There are not far from 300 Protestant congregations in the country, with 15,000 communicants and 30,000 adherents. There are about 100 foreign missionaries, many of them accompanied by their wives; as many more ordained native ministers; and twice that number of unordained native helpers. There are many day, Sunday, and theological schools, which have been established by the missionaries; and there are printing establishments, which are sending out religious matter for all who are willing to read it. There are more than fifty church edifices, some of them built expressly for the purpose, the others being old structures altered for Protestant use."

MEXICAN PRIESTS.

In closing this talk on religious matters, Doctor Bronson remarked that it would take many years for the quarrels between the Church party and the Liberals to come to an end; but in the mean while Mexico would continue on her progressive way, and all her friends, of whatever creed, would be encouraged to hope for the best results.

[CHAPTER IX.]

FROM QUERETARO TO THE CAPITAL.—PLAIN OF THE CAZADERO.—TULA.—THE GREAT SPANISH DRAINAGE-CUT.—DISASTROUS INUNDATIONS OF MEXICO CITY.—A PUZZLE FOR ENGINEERS.—ARRIVAL AT THE CAPITAL.—HOTEL LIFE.—RESTAURANTS, AND THE MODE OF LIVING.—AMUSING STORIES OF HOTEL MANAGEMENT.—FONDAS AND FONDITAS.—MEN FOR CHAMBER-MAIDS.—ALMUERZO.—A MORNING STROLL ALONG THE STREETS.—WOMEN ON THEIR WAY TO MASS.—THE MANTILLA.—SELLERS OF SACRED THINGS.—DEALERS IN LOTTERY TICKETS.—LOTTERIES RUN BY GOVERNMENT.—ATTENDING A DRAWING.—HOW THE AFFAIR WAS CONDUCTED.—FLOWER-SELLERS.

From Queretaro to the City of Mexico is a distance of 150 miles. The route of the railway lies through a region which is excellent both for agriculture and stock raising. Frank and Fred wished to stop at one of the cattle haciendas, but the Doctor said they would have an opportunity to see one of these establishments at a later date; so they continued to the capital without making a halt after leaving Queretaro.

COMPARATIVE LEVEL OF LAKES.

They crossed the plain of the Cazadero, which obtains its name from an incident of the Conquest. About the year 1540 the Indians organized a great cazadero (hunt) on this plain, to show their good-will towards the first viceroy, Don Antonio de Mendoza. A great number of them assembled, and the game was driven in from all directions and duly slaughtered by the viceroy and his friends. Hunts of this sort are of very ancient date; they are practised by aborigines in all parts of the world, and even civilized man does not disdain them. Of the civilized class are the kangaroo hunts in Australia, elephant hunts in Ceylon and India, and the chase of wolves and other noxious animals in the Western States of North America and in the Siberian provinces of Russia.

At the edge of the plain of the Cazadero the train reached the foot of the mountain chain that surrounds the valley of Mexico. The locomotive breathed heavily as it ascended the slope dragging its burden behind it. The speed was materially reduced from that by which the plain had been traversed, and the reduction showed very plainly that the grade was steep. Every turn in the road gave a picturesque view, and the youths thoroughly enjoyed their ride towards the famous valley.

THE GREAT SPANISH DRAINAGE-CUT.

The top of the ascent was reached at Tula, of which we shall have something to say later on. Then the train entered a gorge, which Frank and Fred specially wished to look at. It was the Tajo de Nochistongo, the great Spanish drainage-cut, which was intended to save the city of Mexico from inundation.

From the windows of the car they shuddered as they looked into the cut, and wondered if never an accident had happened from the falling away of the earth. The cut is twelve and a half miles in length, and is the work of human hands, not of nature. The railway enters the valley of Mexico through this cut, and the track is laid on a shelf or bench along its sides and high above the bottom. Our friends visited it a few days later, and we will here include Frank's account of what he saw and heard.

"The city of Mexico stands in a valley which has no outlet, the water that accumulates from the rains being evaporated by the heat of the sun or absorbed in the volcanic soil. The city is in the lowest part of the valley, and is therefore liable to be overflowed whenever the evaporation and absorption are not sufficient to carry off the water that accumulates. There are several lakes that cover a tenth part of the area of the valley. The lowest of them is salt, as it has no outlet, but the others which discharge into it are fresh. This salt lake is called Tezcoco. It has an area of seventy-seven square miles, and its surface ordinarily is only two feet lower than the level of the Plaza Mayor, or great square of the city. In the days of the Aztecs the lake surrounded the city, but it is now three miles away from it, owing to the recession of the waters. Lake Chalco is three and a half feet higher than Tezcoco; while Zumpango, the most northerly of all the lakes, is twenty-nine feet higher than the Plaza Mayor. The lakes are separated by dikes, some of which were built by the Aztecs before the arrival of the Spaniards, but the greater number are of more recent construction, as we shall presently see.

"Now, it is evident that an unusual flood of water could raise Tezcoco so that it would flood the city, and this is what has happened on five different occasions—in 1553, 1580, 1604, 1607, and 1629. The last inundation continued for five years, and caused an immense amount of suffering and loss. The city was covered to a depth of three feet, and the waters were finally carried off by an earthquake, which allowed them to run away through the crevices that it formed.

"Here's where we come to the history of the great cut of Nochistongo. The Spanish Government consulted all the celebrated engineers of the day, and they presented numerous plans for draining the city and keeping it out of danger from inundations. Enrico Martinez presented the plan which was adopted. It was to drain Lake Zumpango so that its waters would not be poured into Tezcoco, but would run to the Gulf of Mexico by way of Tula. For this purpose he proposed to make a tunnel through Nochistongo, to carry off the superfluous water of Zumpango, or, rather, of the river Cuatitlan, which flows into it.

YOUNG GIRLS OF TULA.

"The tunnel was commenced in November, 1607, but when completed it was found insufficient to drain the lake, and a new plan was needed. A Dutch engineer was then brought in, and he naturally proposed a system of dikes, similar to those of his own country and the dikes already built by the Aztecs. He was allowed to carry out his scheme until the arrival of a new viceroy in 1628. The new viceroy would not believe the accounts which he heard of the floods that had occurred, and he ordered Martinez to stop up the tunnel and allow the waters to take their original course. He was soon convinced of his error, and ordered the tunnel to be reopened. It was reopened and continued in use until the following June, when Martinez found that it was being destroyed by the pressure of the water, and he therefore closed it to save it from ruin. A disastrous flood followed, and this was the one that lasted five years."

"How did the people get around in that time?" Fred asked.

"They were forced to use boats," was the reply; "but the getting about was the least part of the trouble caused by the flood. Most of the houses were of adobe, and these soon crumbled and fell. The loss was so great that the Spanish Government ordered the site of the city to be changed to higher ground, but on representations by the City Council of the value of the permanent structures which would thus be rendered useless, the order was countermanded. The city was restored after the subsidence of the waters. It has been threatened several times since, but though it has been in great danger the cut and the dikes have saved it."

"But how about the making of the tunnel into a cut?"

"They put Martinez in prison as soon as the flood came, and he was kept there for several years. Then it was determined to change the tunnel into a cut, and he was released and put in charge of the work. It took 150 years to make it, and though nominally finished in 1789, it has never been entirely completed. Thousands of Indians died during the work of digging this enormous ditch. It was the greatest earthwork of its time, and in fact the greatest down to the cutting of the Suez and Panama canals. Here are the figures:

"Length of the cut, 67,537 feet; greatest depth, 197 feet; greatest breadth, 361 feet. The original tunnel of Martinez was four miles long, eleven and a half feet wide, and fourteen feet high. Portions of the old tunnel, or rather of its ruins, are visible to-day. There is a monument to the memory of Martinez, which was erected a few years ago in one of the public squares of the capital city; it might possibly console him for his five years in prison if he could only come around and look at it."

ENVIRONS OF MEXICO.

As Frank paused, Doctor Bronson took up the subject and said that even with the waters of Zumpango drained away there was still a liability of the overflow of the lower lakes. He added that numerous projects had been proposed. Some engineers were in favor of drying up Tezcoco altogether by turning away the waters that flow into it; others advised draining the waters into a lower part of the valley, if such could be found; and others again proposed a long and large tunnel through the mountains at so low a level that Tezcoco and the city could be thoroughly drained. To this should be added a canal from the upper lakes to flow through the city and wash out its sewers.

"What will be done about it no one can safely predict," the Doctor remarked. "The city is badly drained, its sewage is only partially carried away, and such of it as the water removes is accumulated in Lake Tezcoco, which is becoming dirtier and more shallow every year. No plan has been proposed that has been pronounced successful, or to which there is not a serious objection. Of course almost anything could be done with unlimited money, but Mexico, like other cities and countries, has a limit to the amount that might be expended for any given purpose."

The smells that greeted the nostrils of the youths on their arrival at the capital convinced them that the drainage of Mexico is little better than no drainage at all. Fred remarked that if it were anywhere else than in the very high region where it is (7602 feet above the sea), it would have no need of drainage, as all the inhabitants would die of pestilence.

Emerging from the famous earth-cutting, our friends had their first view of the snowy peaks of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, the great volcanoes which lie to the east of the city of Mexico. They had read and heard much of these famous mountains, and had formed many mental pictures of them. To the credit of the volcanoes, it is proper to say that they fully came up to the expectations which had been formed of them.

The train sped on over the comparatively level region of the valley. For several miles the Mexican Central Railway lies parallel to the Mexican National line, and as there happened to be a train on the other track, the passengers had the exhilaration of a race as a concluding feature of their journey.

They had left Queretaro a little before noon; it was seven o'clock in the evening when the train rolled into the Buena Vista station outside the city, and the journey over the Mexican Central Railway came to an end.

Doctor Bronson had telegraphed for a courier from the Hotel del Jardin to meet them at the station, and the man was there in accordance with his request. The key of one of the trunks was given up to meet the requirements of the local custom-house, after the manner of the octroi of Paris and other Continental cities. Our friends had found this regulation at all the towns where they had stopped on their route, but the trunks had invariably been passed without being opened, on the assurance that they contained no merchandise.

The Hotel del Jardin proved to be quite satisfactory, so far as the rooms were concerned, but there was not much to be said in favor of the supper to which the travellers sat down, after removing the dust from their garments and making themselves generally presentable. The boys ascertained on inquiry that the hotel was built around the garden of an old convent, and that a portion of it was really the convent edifice. Some of the rooms are the former cells of the monks, and the youths concluded that the monks were very comfortably lodged.

A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH PARTY.

If all stories, or even a quarter of those that are told, are true, the Mexican monks had an easy life of it whenever so inclined. No one doubts that there were many honest and conscientious men among them, but there is also little, if any, room for doubt that a great many men entered the monasteries with hardly a spark of religious feeling about them, solely for the purpose of getting a living without working for it. The number of idlers among them was fully equal to the proportion to be found in the ministry of the Church of England. A union of Church and State, whether Protestant or Catholic, is certain to develop a large number of adherents, who live in idleness at the expense of others, and bring discredit upon honest and zealous workers.

During their stay in the city of Mexico our friends found that it was the better plan not to stipulate to take their meals in the hotel where they had their rooms. They breakfasted, dined, and supped wherever they pleased, and found the arrangement very satisfactory. In this way they tried all the restaurants, from the most pretentious to those of the second and third grades, and found the experiment an interesting one. Here are Fred's notes upon hotel life in the capital:

"We have visited all the hotels, and find them pretty much alike. As far as we can ascertain, we could not improve our condition by changing from the Hotel del Jardin, and so have concluded to stay where we are. We have dropped somewhat into the fashion of the country—you know we always do so when it is at all possible—but not altogether. We rise about six in the morning, and have chocolate and a roll or two at seven, and then we go out sight-seeing, shopping, or write letters until eleven, when we have almuerzo, which is a solid meal corresponding to the French déjeûner à la fourchette. So far we are in the line of the Mexicans; this is their only solid meal, and late in the day they have chocolate and some light refreshment just before going to theatre or opera. We have so long been accustomed to at least two meals a day that we take a second one similar to the almuerzo somewhere about six o'clock. They tell us that it would not have been easy to obtain this second meal ten or fifteen years ago, but so many foreigners have come here of late that the restaurants are accustomed to it, especially those patronized by foreigners.

TRANSCONTINENTAL PROFILE OF MEXICO.

"They tell some funny stories about the hotel customs here. One is that the advance agent of an excursion party went to a hotel and asked the price of rooms.

"'Two dollars a day,' was the reply.

"'I have a party of sixty people,' said the agent; 'what terms will you make?'

"'It will be two dollars and a quarter a day for each one,' said the landlord; 'sixty people will make a great deal of trouble.'

"Another story was told by a gentleman who came to the city some years ago and met a friend who had arrived one day before him. They left together, and when they came to settle their bills the one who came first, and had been there fourteen days, was charged for two weeks, at ten dollars a week, twenty dollars. The other was charged two dollars per day for thirteen days, twenty-six dollars. He protested, and in reply to his protest the landlord explained that when a patron was there fourteen days or more he was allowed weekly terms, but under fourteen days he must pay by the day. 'Stay here another day,' said the landlord, 'and your bill will be twenty dollars.'

"'Very well,' the stranger answered; 'I'll hold my room till to-morrow, but as I have the money in my hand I may as well pay you now.'

"The landlord accepted the money, made out a bill for twenty dollars, and receipted it. But when he found the gentleman was really going away immediately, he protested that the stranger would not be entitled to weekly rates unless he actually occupied his room that night!

INTERIOR COURT-YARD OF A MEXICAN HOTEL.

"All the chamber-maids here are men; we have an Indian mozo to look after our rooms, and have not seen a woman about the house since we came here, either as house-keeper, chamber-maid, or laundress. On each floor there is a muchacho, who takes charge of the keys and is supposed to be responsible for the safety of our belongings; and I'm glad to say we have lost nothing during our stay. The mozo and muchacho both expect a financial remembrance, and so do the waiters in the restaurants. Their expectations are very reasonable, and they receive their gratuities with a quiet dignity that is far preferable to the manner of the attendants of hotels and restaurants in London or Paris.

STREET VIEW IN THE CAPITAL.

"The almuerzo, which I mentioned as the heavy meal of the day, is so important that the business houses and banks close from noon till half-past two or three o'clock,' when everybody is taking breakfast, dinner, and supper all in one. It is necessary to transact in the forenoon any business that you have to do, as it is not at all certain that men will get back to their offices again in the afternoon. The leisurely ways of the Mexicans are not at all satisfactory to the impetuous citizen from the Northern States of the Union.

"The prices of the restaurants seem to us not much, if any, behind those of Europe and of New York and Chicago. The table-d'hôte dinner at the best restaurants is one dollar, and sometimes more; but we have found a restaurant, the Café Anglais, where the head-waiter speaks English, and the manager seems to be specially desirous of attracting American custom. At this restaurant the charge is one real for the seven o'clock breakfast of chocolate and bread, and five reals for the eleven o'clock breakfast; dinner is five reals; and all three of the meals are furnished for thirty dollars a month, or one dollar a day. Of course we do not want board by the month, nor to go among Americans, whom we did not come here to see; we have been eating Mexican dishes at the fondas, and for four reals have had excellent meals. Fonda means restaurant, and fondita means café; fonda also means hotel, and a hotel for travellers only. There is another kind of hotel or inn, for horned cattle and horses as well as for human beings; establishments of this kind are called mesones or posadas."

ON THE WAY TO MORNING MASS.

Bright and early on the morning following their arrival the youths were out to see the sights of the Mexican capital. They did not wait for the early breakfast, but on hearing the bell from a neighboring church tower they sallied forth in time to see the streets filled with people on their way to morning mass. Fred made note of the fact that women seemed to be very much in the majority, and he was not surprised to learn afterwards, in conversation with a gentleman who resided in the city, that religion in Mexico has its greatest hold upon the women. "The men are negligent of, or, as a general thing, indifferent to, religious subjects," said his informant; "and were it not for the women of Mexico the Church would have very little hold upon the population."

A MODERN STREET FRONT.

The ladies were in mantillas, which are the rule of society for morning mass, though not for promenades at later hours of the day. Since the influx of foreigners, in the last decade or so, the fashions of Mexico have undergone a change, and steadily approach the Parisian. But the mantilla still holds its place for morning mass, and will probably do so for a long while. Of course the priests might change it if they desired to do so, but they are opposed to innovations, and were, speaking generally, bitter opponents of the railway and telegraph. The mantilla is a very becoming outside garment for a pretty woman whose brunette complexion harmonizes with what she wears. Frank and Fred carried with them for hours, if not for a longer period, the recollection of some of the faces that came within the range of their vision on that morning walk.

They were frequently accosted by the sellers of crucifixes, rosaries, and other things appertaining to the religion which was represented by the people on their way to mass. Evidently the morning is the best time for these venders to dispose of their wares, and they endeavor to make the most of it. Rather incongruously, these dealers in sacred things were jostled by the sellers of lottery tickets; these gentry pursue their avocations at all hours and in all places and are very persistent. They offer to sell you the ticket that will be sure to draw the highest prize, and in every way possible exercise their ingenuity to persuade you to buy. The tickets are of all prices, and one can invest much or little, according to his means and inclination.

Frank investigated the subject of lotteries in Mexico, and found that they were a regular institution of the country; in fact, they are to be found in pretty nearly all the countries of Spanish America. The Government gives charters to certain associations, and very often runs the lottery itself; the profits are large, and the Government makes a handsome revenue from the business. The sale of tickets amounts to about $3,000,000 a year in Mexico; and after deducting the value of the prizes and the expense of conducting the enterprise, the net revenue to the Government is not far from $800,000.

MEXICAN LOTTERY TICKET.

Frank did not invest in the lottery, but he went to witness one of the drawings. It took place in public, and seemed to be perfectly fair. The numbers were drawn from the boxes by blind boys, who were brought from one of the hospitals for the blind, and were accompanied by the professor in charge of that institution. Sometimes, when a blind boy or man cannot be easily obtained, the drawing is made by an Indian who cannot read; and he is carefully blindfolded, so that there can be no suspicion of fraud.

Judging by the large attendance at the drawing, it is evident that the lottery is very popular in Mexico. Nearly everybody seems to speculate in the tickets, and when the drawing is made and the lucky number announced, there is intense excitement. There is an old adage that lightning does not strike twice in the same place. It would seem as if the proverb should be reversed, as the story goes that Señor Manuel Garcia, the owner of a hacienda near Manzanillo, won the highest prize in the great National Lottery three times in succession.

Flower-sellers were out in goodly number when the youths took their morning walk, and the wares they offered were fresh and attractive. We have already seen the fondness of the Mexicans for flowers, as shown at Monterey and elsewhere in the north. The city offered no exception to the rule, and the size and beauty of the bouquets, combined with their low price, were calculated to astonish the visitors. For twenty-five cents Frank bought a bouquet, which he sent to Doctor Bronson's room. It was about two feet high and the same in diameter, and was composed principally of roses of a dozen varieties. While Frank was paying for his purchase Fred sniffed at it, and was surprised to find that in spite of their beauty the roses had hardly any perfume. On inquiry, he learned that this was the case with nearly all flowers in the Valley of Mexico, and was supposed to be due to the rarity of the air.

"We had some difficulty at first," said Fred, "in finding our way about the city, for the reason that the names of some of the streets change at each block. This plan, which is very annoying to a stranger, and even to a resident, is being given up; and they told us that in a few years they hoped to abandon it altogether. Just think what New York or Boston would be with such a system as this!"

FLOWER-GIRL.

[CHAPTER X.]

THE CATHEDRAL OF MEXICO.—SITE OF THE AZTEC TEOCALLI.—HUMAN SACRIFICES.—PANORAMA OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO.—EXTENT AND COST OF THE CATHEDRAL; CHAPELS AND ALTARS.—TOMB OF ITURBIDE.—THE CAREER AND TRAGIC END OF ITURBIDE.—THE RICHEST ALTAR IN THE WORLD.—GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS A MAN COULD NOT LIFT.—THE AZTEC CALENDAR-STONE; ITS INTERESTING FEATURES; INSCRIPTION ON THE STONE.—BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE AZTECS.—THE TRIBE CALLED MEXICANS.—AZTEC LAWS AND CUSTOMS.—PREVALENCE OF THE DEATH PENALTY.—AZTEC POSTING SYSTEM.—PICTURE-WRITING.—FLOWER-SHOW IN THE ZOCALO.—A FASHIONABLE ASSEMBLAGE.—WONDERFUL WORK IN FEATHERS.

"In Paris," said Frank in his note-book, "the Church of Notre Dame is the first object of interest to the stranger. In Vienna he goes first to St. Stephen's, and in Rome to St. Peter's. So in the capital of Mexico we go first to the cathedral.

"It is a magnificent building, and would do honor to any of the capitals of Europe. The spot where it stands is historic; the Spaniards destroyed the Aztec city that stood here, and built their own upon its ruins, and where now stands the cathedral the Teocalli, or temple of the Aztecs, was formerly to be seen. It is saddening to think of the rivers of blood that flowed here in the sacrifices which the Aztecs deemed necessary to their religious exercises.

"The historical authorities say generally that 60,000 persons were slaughtered in a single year on the altars of the Great Teocalli of Tenochtitlan (the Aztec city that stood here and was destroyed by the Spaniards); most of them were prisoners of war, but when there was not a sufficient supply of prisoners the Aztecs themselves were chosen for sacrifice. The Spaniards may have shown great cruelty in their treatment of the people they conquered, but they did well to put a stop to this terrible shedding of blood in the name of religion.

"The Teocalli was a pyramid of earth, faced with stone, and is said to have been 150 feet in height. Steps led around and up its sides, and they were so arranged that in mounting to the top the pedestrian made a complete circuit of the structure. On the summit was the sacrificial altar, and this is supposed to have been very nearly where the centre of the cathedral is at present. The sacrificial stone from the Teocalli is now in the museum; it is shaped like a millstone, is three feet high by nine in diameter, and is elaborately carved on the sides and upper surface. There is a bowl in the centre, and a gutter leading from the bowl to one side to permit the flow of blood from the victims.

THE CATHEDRAL, CITY OF MEXICO.

"But we are wandering from the cathedral in considering what preceded it. The Teocalli was destroyed, and the materials were used for filling up the neighboring canal; then a small church was erected, and followed by a larger one, and this again was removed in 1573 to make room for the present cathedral, which was completed ninety-four years later at an expense of $2,000,000. It stands on the eastern side of the Plaza Mayor, and is a very conspicuous object in the panorama of the city. Like most Catholic cathedrals, it is in the shape of a cross, its greatest length being 426 feet, and its greatest width 200 feet. It is 175 feet high, and its towers rise to a height of 200 feet. We ascended to the top of one of the towers, and advise all visitors to the city to do likewise, as they will have from it one of the finest views in the world.

MOONLIGHT VIEW OF PLAZA AND CATHEDRAL.

"As we looked from the tower we agreed with Bishop Haven that never did a city have such an environment. The whole city lay below us spread out like a map; there are few chimneys in Mexico, and consequently there was no smoke to mar the view, and we readily traced the streets and avenues, stippled with the green of the squares and gardens that abound so numerously. We looked over the plains and down upon the lakes, and then our gaze swept to the mountains that surround the valley in a jagged chain that covers nearly 200 miles of distance in its girdling course. The snow-covered peaks of Popocatepetl and his sister and companion, 'The White Woman,' seemed to rise higher than we had before seen them, and added a solemnity to the picture in addition to that which it already possessed. North of the city rises the hill on which is built the Church of Guadalupe, and on the west is that of Chapultepec. As we looked on the latter we thought of the heroic attack upon the fortress by the American army in our war with Mexico, while the former secured our respect as one of the places which are sacred in the eyes of pious Mexicans.

"The $2,000,000 which I mentioned as the cost of the cathedral were for the walls alone; at one time the wealth of the church, in silver and gold and costly pictures, was something almost beyond calculation, but it has been repeatedly plundered, and the aggregate work of the despoilers has stripped off much of its magnificence, but even now it is very rich, and as long as peace continues is likely to remain so. There are six altars, fourteen chapels, and five naves; there are paintings by famous artists of Spain, and there is a balustrade around the choir which is said to weigh 50,000 pounds, and is so valuable that the church authorities refused an offer to replace it with a balustrade of solid silver of equal weight. The balustrade was made in Macao, China, and is of tumbago, a composite of silver, copper, and gold. It was brought to Acapulco, and transported thence on pack-mules to this city.

"We visited the chapels in which the remains of some of the great men of Mexico are buried, notably the chapel of San Felipe de Jesus, which contains the tomb and monument of the unfortunate Iturbide, the first emperor of Mexico. On the monument he is called 'The Liberator,' and we are told that his birthday is remembered and honored, as it justly deserves to be. We haven't yet told you who Iturbide was.

"He was born in 1783, his parents having come from Spain shortly before his birth, and settled at what is now Morelia, in Mexico. He became a soldier, and fought in the wars against the revolutionary movements in the first fifteen years of the present century. In 1816 he went into private life, having been dismissed from the service in consequence of quarrels with men high in power; then he began to dream of securing the independence of Mexico; and when the revolutionary movement became general in 1820, he joined it. He was soon at the head of the army, the revolution succeeded, independence was acknowledged, and Iturbide was proclaimed Emperor May 18, 1822, and crowned on the 21st of the following July.

AUGUSTIN DE ITURBIDE, GRANDSON OF THE LIBERATOR.

"But peace did not follow his coronation. There was a new revolution, with Santa Anna at its head, and Iturbide was forced to abdicate the throne and leave the country. He went to Italy, and afterwards to England; but in 1824 the desire to regain his crown led him back to Mexican soil, where he had been proclaimed a traitor and an outlaw. He landed at Soto la Marina on the 14th of July, and was arrested. Five days later he was shot by order of the military commander; as he fell he assured the multitude that his intentions were not treasonable, and exhorted them to religion, patriotism, and obedience to the Government. And here his body rests, the judgment upon his conduct having been long ago reversed. His grandson now lives in Washington. Maximilian, being childless, chose young Iturbide, the grandson, to be his heir to the throne of Mexico, but there is little likelihood that he will ever ascend its steps; the atmosphere of Mexico does not seem favorable to imperial plants.

"In the days of its glory the high altar of this cathedral was the richest in the world. There were candlesticks of solid gold upon it; they were so heavy as to make a load for a strong man, and some were so large that the strength of one man was not sufficient to raise them. The other ornaments and appurtenances of the altar were of corresponding richness and value, some of the crosses, pixes, and censers being studded with diamonds, pearls, amethysts, sapphires, emeralds, and rubies. There was a statue of the Assumption, which was of gold set with diamonds, and is said to have cost more than $1,000,000. It is gone; and so is a lamp which was valued at $70,000; and with them many other things of great value have disappeared. Some one says that it cost $1000 to clean that famous lamp, but the revolutionary troops cleaned it out for nothing. The balustrades of tumbago remain undisturbed, possibly because the real value of that metal was unknown at the time of the looting of the cathedral.

GRANTING ABSOLUTION IN THE CATHEDRAL.

"Like Catholic churches everywhere, the cathedral is always open, and men and women come here for prayer whenever opportunity offers, in addition to their attendance at mass. In nearly every chapel we saw one or more kneeling figures. All classes meet here on common ground; and the poor Indian may be seen worshipping side by side with the richly clad and jewelled lady whose family is of the purest blood of Spain. On great festivals the church is crowded, and the mingling is most indiscriminate. At such times pickpockets are said to abound; and they manage to steal handkerchiefs and purses while kneeling devoutly at the side of those whose possessions they covet. Mexican thieves are quite adroit, and some of their performances are, professionally considered, worthy of the highest praise.

"Before leaving the cathedral we inspected the famous calendar-stone of the Aztecs, which is in the base of one of the towers. Fred will tell you about it; my business is now with the churches."

Frank added to his notes that in addition to the cathedral there were forty-six large churches in the city, all of them broad and high, and ornamented with domes or towers. One, the Sagrario, adjoins the cathedral, and is connected with it by a large door; its façade is richly, and, as Frank thought, rather grotesquely carved.

READY FOR MASS.

One of the most fashionable churches is the Profesa, which is crowded during Lent with the ladies of the best society, all arrayed in solemn black, in accordance with the church-going custom already mentioned. Our friends went there, and also to the Church of San Fernando, which is near the cemetery, and is the resting-place of most of the illustrious men of Mexico. Generals Miramon and Mejia, who were shot with Maximilian, are buried there; San Fernando also contains a monument to President Juarez, which is considered one of the best works of modern sculpture. It was made by Manuel Islas, a Mexican sculptor. The monumental group is in a small Greek temple, and represents the dead President lying at full length, with his head resting on the knee of a feminine figure, which represents Mexico.

OLD SPANISH PALACE IN THE CALLE DE JESUS.

Doctor Bronson and the youths paid a visit one morning to the church where the remains of Cortez the Conqueror rested at one time, and by many are supposed to be resting to-day. It was the desire of Cortez, in case of his death in Europe, to have his bones transported to the New World. They were brought to Mexico in 1629, and rested quietly in this church for nearly 200 years, when they were secretly removed, through fear that the tomb would be violated by the Revolutionists, who had a bitter hatred of everything Spanish. They were first placed in another part of the church, and then sent to Italy, where they now are. From present indications, the Mexicans are not likely to ask for their return.

CHURCH BUILT BY CORTEZ.

When we left the cathedral we gave a glance at the Aztec calendar-stone, which Fred was to describe to us. Listen to his account:

"The Aztec calendar-stone," writes Fred, "is exceedingly interesting, both from its historic character and as a work of the sculptor's art. Some say the name is incorrect, and that the stone is not intended for a calendar. We will not enter into the dispute, but accept the name by which the antiquity is best known. It is of circular shape, eleven feet in diameter, and is said to weigh twenty-five tons.

"A great deal has been written about this stone, and there has been a wonderful amount of speculation and theory concerning it. I haven't space or time to consider everybody's story, and will take that of Señor Chavero, who, as we are told, is one of the best authorities, if not the best of all. Señor Chavero says the stone was engraved in honor of the sun, and for this reason it is often called 'The Stone of the Sun.'

"According to this gentleman's account, the stone was made in the reign of King Axayacatl, about 1479 of our era, and was originally placed horizontally in the temple of Mexico. When the temple was destroyed by Cortez after the Conquest, the stone lay for a while in the great square. It was buried about the middle of the sixteenth century, and remained beneath the surface of the plaza until 1790, when it was unearthed and placed where it is now to be seen.

THE AZTEC CALENDAR-STONE.

"Here is what Señor Chavero says of the meaning of the sculpture on the stone:

"'The face in the centre is the god-star throwing his light on the earth, which is represented by the tongue protruding from his lips. He has the pupils of his eyes turned upward, and they are seen through the sacred mask that covers the upper part of his face. The hieroglyphics on the diadem encircling the head represent the division of time and the Mexican method of numbering the years. The civil year, like ours, was 365 days. Each four years had different emblems repeated successively, without reference to other chronological arrangements. The first year was called tochtl, or rabbit; the second, acatl, or reed; the third, tecpatl, or flint; the fourth, calli, or house. In addition to these periods, the years were arranged by the number of thirteen, four of such periods making fifty-two years, or a Mexican age, when the Festival of Fire occurred. This was a most serious event for the Mexicans, as the priests taught the people that the world might come to an end and terrible demons would descend from above and eat up mankind.

"'The two claws on the dial at the sides of the mask represent computations of numbers, for which the hand was used in a sort of deaf-and-dumb alphabet. The large V-shaped ornaments denote four equal divisions of the day, and the smaller ornaments of the same shape indicate the division of the day into eight parts. The ornaments lying between the V's represent eight divisions of the night. The twenty ornaments in panels in the circle inside the V's are symbols of twenty days, or one Mexican month. The rest of the stone is differently interpreted by different writers, but they generally agree that it represents the relations of the months to the year and the years to the Mexican cycle.'

INDIAN PICTURE-WRITING.

"And here is a good place," said Fred, "to make some notes about the Aztecs. Properly speaking, they were only one of the tribes or nations that occupied the plateau of Anahuac, or Mexico, at the time of the Conquest by Cortez. They migrated from the north, the aggregate time consumed in their migrations being nearly 200 years, and finally settled in the Valley of Mexico, at a spot where they saw an eagle sitting on a cactus and with a snake in his beak. This eagle and cactus have been adopted as the symbol of Mexico, and are seen on the national flag and on the coins.

TENOCHTITLAN, A.D. 1517.

"The Aztecs found the valley occupied by the Toltecs, who had been there for several centuries. They made war on the Toltecs, took possession of the country, and proceeded to build a city on the site of the present capital. It was called Tenochtitlan ('cactus on a stone'), and the foundations were laid about a.d. 1324. Lake Tezcoco was then much higher than it is now, and the new city was surrounded by water, and greatly resembled Venice in the abundance of its canals. It could only be approached on narrow causeways, and there was a fleet of boats on the lakes which prevented attack by water. With this stronghold as a base, the Aztecs gradually conquered all the surrounding people, so that they had possession of the entire valley at the time of the arrival of Cortez.

FIRST CAVALRY CHARGE BY CORTEZ.

"One of the tribes of the Aztecs was called Mexicans, from Mexi, their chief. This tribe seems to have become more powerful than the rest, though originally it ranked as the seventh. It gave the name to the whole people, and from the people the name passed to the country.

"If you think the Aztecs, or ancient Mexicans, were a barbarous people, look at some of their laws and customs.

"They had a complete system of laws, and they had courts in all their cities and towns to administer the laws. They had inns along the roads for the free accommodation of travellers, and bridges or boats at the crossings of rivers. Creditors could imprison their debtors; slaves about to be sold might free themselves by seeking refuge in the royal palace; and treason, embezzlement of taxes, and any crime against the person of the sovereign would cause the death of the offender and all his relatives to the fourth degree. Slander was punished by cutting off the lips or ears, and death was the penalty for robbing in the market, altering lawful measures, or removing the legal boundaries of land. Prisoners of war were devoured, enslaved, or offered as sacrifices; and there were two sorts of prisons: one for debtors and others not charged with capital crimes, the other for condemned criminals and prisoners of war.

"They had no beasts of burden; and when Cortez landed with the few horses that he brought on his ships, he struck terror to the hearts of the people, who had never seen such an animal. All burdens were carried on men's backs, and they had towers erected along the principal roads for forwarding the King's despatches. These towers were about six miles apart, and couriers were always standing ready to receive messages which were brought from the last tower or station by a man running at the top of his speed. Letters were carried three hundred miles in a day by this method. This system is almost identical with that of the great Khan of Cathay, as described by Marco Polo, except that the Khan had his post-stations only three miles apart, instead of six.

"I think I hear you ask something about their language and how they wrote. Well, they had no written language like ours, with letters and words, but they had a picture-writing, in which everything was represented by drawings and paintings. They had records of this sort of all their history, and their books and papers would have filled a large library, but they were burned by the Spaniards, who thought it a sin to allow these pagan documents to exist. Only a very few of the picture-writings preceding the Conquest have been preserved. When Cortez landed on the coast of Mexico, a full account and description of his ships and men were sent to the King by means of these pictures. The Aztec picture-writings have a remarkable similarity to the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians, and some writers believe that the Aztecs are the lost tribes of Israel, who wandered to America and brought the Egyptian form of writing with them.

"That will do for the present about the Aztecs," said Fred. "If you want more you must wait a while till I take breath."

Fred made a sudden descent from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, and as he closed his note-book he suggested a stroll to the grand plaza.

A FLOWER-SHOW IN ZOCALO.

Frank assented, and away they went. It was the hour when fashionable people were out for their daily airing, and the display was well worth seeing. There was a flower-show in the Zocalo, a garden in the centre of the plaza. It is not a relic of the Conquest, but of very modern origin, as it was laid out by Maximilian, who had a good eye for the beautiful. Many persons complain of the Zocalo, as it partially obstructs the view of the cathedral.

Frank and Fred found the flower-show very interesting, not only on account of the floral products which they saw, but also because of the artistic arrangement of the bouquets. Some of the bouquets contained strawberries and other small fruits on account of the contrasts of color, and there were many bunches and baskets with little flags, on which were mottoes, patriotic, sentimental, and otherwise, so that all reasonable tastes could be accommodated. There was a band of music playing, and the fashionable population seemed to have assembled in the Zocalo to see and be seen.

HOW THE MANTILLA IS WORN.

Not the least interesting part of the show was the crowd of promenaders. The ladies were in the fashions of Paris, perhaps six months after the date of their issue in the French capital, and every young lady was accompanied by her duenna, an elderly woman, who never for a moment left the side of her charge, and scarcely removed her eyes from her. Fashionable young, middle-aged, and old men were there, but the younger seemed to be in the majority. Some of them wore the national costume, the trousers and short jacket, ornamented with silver buttons, and the broad-rimmed sombrero, covered with silver braid and embroidery; others had adopted the walking costume of Europe; and from the number of these it was evident that the old fashion is dying out. Frank and Fred thought it a pity that such should be the case, as the Mexican dress is picturesque, and certainly distinctive of its wearers. Some of the ladies wore the mantilla in combination with their Parisian dresses, while others had adopted the French bonnet, with all the delicacy of trimming that adapts it for fine weather only.

THE TROGON.

From the Zocalo the youths wandered to the shops along one side of the square, where they lingered for some time among the curiosities which were exposed for sale. The first thing to attract their attention were the famous feather pictures which are made by the Indians, exactly as they were made in the days before the Conquest. The secret of this work has been handed down from father to son, and is known in its perfection to a comparatively small number.

"We saw some feather pictures," said Frank, "that were marvels of beauty and skill. The brilliant plumage of the paroquet, humming-bird, trogon, and other members of the ornithological family of Mexico, is used for this work, and the colors are as skilfully blended as are the pigments of an accomplished painter. Considering the time required for their production, these pictures are wonderfully cheap, and we have bought several to send as curios to our friends at home. The ancestors of the feather artists of to-day made the famous feather cloak of Montezuma, which excited alike the admiration and the cupidity of Cortez and his companions."

NEAR THE PLAZA.

[CHAPTER XI.]

LOST ARTS IN MEXICO.—GOLDSMITHS' WORK IN THE TIME OF CORTEZ.—SILVER FILIGREE.—MODELLING IN WAX AND CLAY.—NATIVE TASTE FOR MUSIC.—NATIONAL CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC.—MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES.—THE SACRIFICIAL STONE.—SACRIFICES AMONG THE ANCIENT MEXICANS.—GLADIATORIAL STONE.—A BRAVE SOLDIER.—OBSIDIAN KNIVES AND RAZORS.—AZTEC METALLURGY.—STATUE OF THE GOD OF WAR.—SHIELD AND CLOAK OF MONTEZUMA.—AZTEC WARFARE AND DOMESTIC LIFE.—RELICS OF HIDALGO AND MAXIMILIAN.—MAX'S STATE COACH.—NATIONAL PALACE.—HALL OF THE AMBASSADORS.—MEXICAN PAINTINGS.—THE MONTE DE PIEDAD.—AN EXTENSIVE PAWN-SHOP.—LOCKING UP MEN AS SECURITY.—FORMALITIES OF THE SALESROOM.

Fine as is the artistic taste of the Indians of Mexico to-day, it is far behind that of the people whom Cortez found there. According to history and tradition, their work in the precious metals surpassed that of any of the goldsmiths of Europe; they fashioned gold and silver into the shape of plants, birds, fishes, and quadrupeds, and their imitations were marvellously correct in all their details. All this art seems to be lost, with the exception of the working of silver filigree, which still holds high rank. Cortez sent to Spain some exquisite specimens of Aztec work in gold and silver; and the cupidity of the King, impelled by the necessities of the Government, put all these precious works of Occidental art into the melting-pot, the resort of the modern burglar when he wishes to remove the trace of his depredations.

WAX MODEL OF WATER-CARRIER.

All through their journey in Mexico the youths had been impressed with the little figures, modelled out of wax or clay, representing the various people of the country and their occupations. These statuettes are made by uneducated savages with hardly any tools, colored with native pigments, and baked in the sun or in primitive ovens. Water-carriers, porters, muleteers, mozos of all names and kinds, flower-sellers, beggars, street peddlers, basket-makers—all and many more are represented. The figures are generally covered with cloth tinted of the appropriate colors; but if not so tinted, the colors are wrought into the plastic material of which the figure is composed. Our young friends bought a goodly supply of these figures, and had them carefully packed for transportation. Fred thought they were fully equal in artistic design and workmanship to any of the figures they had seen in Japan, China, or India representing the trades and occupations of the far East.

ANCIENT INDIAN POTTERY.

Mention has been made of the pottery of the Guadalajara Indians, which is wrought into a great many fantastic forms. These Indians have great ability in portraiture; they will model in a wonderfully short time a statuette of an individual either from life or from a photograph. An enterprising American once planned to take some of these people to the principal cities of the United States and Europe, and open an establishment for the manufacture of statuettes of individuals at ten or twenty dollars each. His project was not carried out, for the reason that the Indians refused to leave their homes. The native Mexican is averse to changing his residence, and it requires a great inducement to take him away from his native soil.

The women show unusual dexterity with the needle, and their embroidery equals that of the natives of India and other Eastern lands. They display great industry and patience, and while seated in the market-place beside the wares they offer for sale their spare moments are generally devoted to stitching.

MEXICAN HOUSE MAID AND CHILDREN.

"In no part of the world where we have been," said Frank, "have we found a more musical people than the natives of Mexico. They 'catch on' to a tune or air with great readiness, and gentlemen who live here tell us they have known Indians to sing a common melody through without a mistake after hearing it only once, and this, too, when they have no scientific knowledge of music, or even of its first principles. They learn readily to play upon musical instruments, and a street band can be organized and trained in less time than a street band in any other part of the world. Some of these bands are composed of boys of about fifteen years of age, and their performances almost invariably excite the admiration of musical strangers.

"We are told that the Government is encouraging the musical tastes of the people by giving free instruction to pupils in the National Conservatory of Music, and supporting them during their studies by small allowances of money. We have heard of pupils that came on foot for hundreds of miles to be musically educated in the capital. In order to secure admission to the Conservatory, they must pass an examination similar to that of musical schools in other parts of the world. Mrs. Gooch, the author of a book on Mexico, mentions two girls who walked from Queretaro to the capital to present themselves as pupils in the Conservatory. She says she heard them sing selections from Italian opera, and the sweetness, strength, and range of their voices were far beyond the average, and produced a profound impression upon the audience."

"Speaking of girls," said Fred, "reminds us that the Mexican children of both the upper and lower classes treat their parents with the greatest respect, and set an example that the children of the United States might do well to follow. They remind us of Japanese and Chinese children more than of any other we have seen, and are very much unlike the little folks of English-speaking countries in this one particular. Since we came into the country, whenever we have seen a badly behaved child we have found that he belonged to a foreign family. Old people are invariably cared for by their children, who would suffer all sorts of privations rather than have their parents want for anything they can possibly provide."

THE SACRIFICIAL STONE.

Having seen and described the Aztec calendar-stone, Frank and Fred were naturally drawn to the National Museum and to the sacrificial stone, which has been mentioned, and is one of the great attractions of the place.

ONE FORM OF SACRIFICIAL STONE.

"It is a block of porphyry," said Fred, "like a huge millstone, three feet high and ten feet across. All around the sides are relief figures representing captives being held by the hair of the head. There are fifteen of these groups, and they are said to represent fifteen victories gained by one of the emperors over as many neighboring States. A symbol in the corner of the panel of each group shows what city or State is represented. The stone was made about the year 1486 of our era, but its complete history is unknown.

SACRIFICIAL COLLAR.

"Tizoc was the emperor whose deeds the stone commemorates, and it is sometimes called Tizoc's Stone in consequence of this fact. The Stone of Sacrifice is sometimes confounded with the Gladiatorial Stone, which was generally placed in the courts of the temples, and was the scene of a gladiatorial combat. Mr. Charnay, in 'Ancient Cities of the New World,' says the captive, if a man of distinction, was tied to this stone and allowed to fight with several opponents in succession; and if he succeeded in defeating them all he was permitted to escape. They took good care not to let this happen very often, as the numbers were against him; and, furthermore, he had only a wooden sword ornamented with feathers, while his enemies had weapons of obsidian, which were sharp as steel. When he was vanquished, as he generally was, he was immediately stretched on the Gladiatorial Stone or on the Stone of Sacrifice. A wooden collar was placed across his neck to prevent his struggling, and five priests held his head and limbs. Then a sixth priest, who wore a scarlet mantle, opened the breast of the victim with a sharp knife of itzli, or obsidian, tore out the heart, held it up to the sun for a moment, and then cast it at the feet of the divinity to whom the temple was dedicated.

THE FORM OF SACRIFICE.

"While this was going on the multitude knelt in adoration of the divinity. The body of the victim was thrown down from the stone to the people, by whom it was divided to be served up at their feasts. The difference between sacrifice on the Gladiatorial Stone and the Stone of Sacrifice was that the latter was on the top of the temple, where everybody could see it, while the former was in the court of the edifice, and only accessible to a select few.

SCULPTURES FROM TIZOC'S STONE.

"The same authority," continued Fred, "tells us that the Mexicans were very punctilious about this ceremony even when they were the victims of it. A soldier when captured was reserved for sacrifice. He would consider himself disgraced, and would rather suffer death than be liberated except after a gladiatorial combat. There is a story of a chief who was captured and taken before Montezuma; he had a high reputation as a warrior, and, on learning his name, the King treated him with honor, spared his life, and offered him his liberty. The chief refused the offer, and demanded that he should be devoted to the gods, according to custom. After trying in vain to have him change his mind, Montezuma ordered that the chief should be tied to the stone and permitted to fight with some of the King's best soldiers, while the King himself, accompanied by his officers, should witness the combat. The chief killed eight men and wounded twenty; but he was finally overpowered, and carried off to be sacrificed to the war-god Huitzilopochtli."

GLADIATORIAL STONE—FROM AN AZTEC DRAWING.

"But you haven't said what these knives were with which the priests killed their victims," Frank remarked, as Fred paused. "What is obsidian?"

"It is a mineral substance," replied Doctor Bronson, to whom the question was referred, "and is formed by the cooling of the lava from a volcano. When lava cools it forms into obsidian and pumice. Everybody knows what pumice-stone is. Obsidian is a substance hard enough to scratch glass, and is capable of taking a high polish and a keen edge. The Mexicans called it itzli, and used it for making knives, razors, arrow-tips, saws, and other implements."

"Did they have a knowledge of any of the metals besides gold and silver?"