/:i>' V>l/v,;-'l>'' ,* •■ r.^ Book_'_''A4X ^ - ^ 7 ^^ < c PIKAMID OF PAFANTLA, MEXICO, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS: BY BRANTZ MAYER, SECKKTABY OF THE UNITED STATES LEGATION TO THAT COUNTRY IN 1841 AND 1842. THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED, WITH THE HISTORICAL PORTION BROUGHT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME. PHILADELPHIA : G. B. ZIEBER & COMPANY. 1847. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by G. B. ZIEBER & COMPANY, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. F!215 r> f^ HONORABLE POWHATAN ELLIS, ENVOY EXTMORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENmRY TO MEXICO, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BT HIS SINCERE FRIEND, BRANTZ MAYER. PHEFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. The public was kind enough to purchase the two first editions of this book within a few months after their publication. The work has, conse- quently, been out of print for more than a year, and I would not have ven- tured to offer a third edition, if the relations between Mexico and our Union had not seemed to indicate that a new interest has been aroused as to the condition and destiny of that distracted Republic. Since the year 1843, several revolts against the existing government have taken place in Mexico, and the diplomatic intercourse between us has been of increasing importance, not only on account of the Texan dis- pute, but in consequence of a growing anxiety as to what is likely to be hereaftei* our Southern boundary, and along what parallel of latitude it is to run westwardly towards the Pacific. These considerations have induced m^ to revise a work, which, three years ago, I prepared for the press in the brief space of thirty days ; and, — whilst I crave pardon for that act of indiscretion, and am thankful for the favor with which it, nevertheless, was welcomed — I must frankly declare that I have found no cause to alter the statement of a single fact or opinion. My aim was to present an unprejudiced picture of Mexico, and 1 hope I may be permitted to declare without vanity, that I have the satisfaction to know from Mexicans whose good esteem is worthy of all respect, that my views of their country and their character were received as the most just and favorable that had been published. The kind feelings with which I left Mexico in the winter of 1842 [ remain unchanged towards her true patriots, and towards the magnificent ' country which has been so convulsed and torn by the broils, the ambition . and the avarice of contending factionists. AVith Religious Toleration, XII PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. General Education, and entire Doniestic Tranquillity, what might not Mexico become, in a few years under the hand of a strong and virtuous Government ! During my residence there and my travels throughout the Republic, I had often to recognize fine talents, good personal qualities, and vast natural resources, but all, generally neglected or denied the opportunity of advancement, I never saw a modern plough on a Mexi- can farm, a rake in a husbandman's hand, a wheelbarrow in a labor- er's grasp, a cart bearing the ordinary burthens of trade, or a Bible in a Mexican house ! That strange race of antique men in which Celti- Gallic, Celt-Iberian, Carthagenian, Roman, Vandalic,Visigothic and Moor- ish blood had mingled, was, again, crossed in Mexico by the Indian, and even dashed, in some instances, with the African, It is a mosaic blood and furnishes a curious matter for the study of physiologists. It is a race striving for new things, yet regretting to quit its grasp on the old. In speculation it looks forward ; yet, in the Superstitions of Religion and in the crude primitiveness of Art and Trade, it cleaves to the past. Mexico is a graft rather of the wild Arab on the base Indian, than of the Spanish Don on the noble Aztec. From the bondage of superstitious custom Mexico requires disenthralment. But, to effect this delivery she must have TEACE imposed on her by a firm hand. Since 1823, no less than seventeen revolutions have succeeded her rejection of the Spanish yoke. Can it be said that such a nation is competent to govern itself? Has it ever governed itself? Nay, has it done so, peacefully, even for a single year ? Can such a miscalled democracy have an effective public opinion ? With rulers shifting like the winds, what permanent policy can such a government pursue. Indeed, in all her vicissitudes, in what has Mexico exhibited the slightest symptom of constancy, save in her deep, immedi- cable hostility to our Union ? If this were a mere abstract, sapless dislike, — a sort of hereditary hatred like that between France and England or between the Genoese, the Tus- cans and the Neapolitans — we might pass it over and trust to Time to make us better friends ; but this animosity is growing into an active, un- tiring, energetic, agent of annoyance, until we see no possible termina- tion to our difficulties but such authoritative interposition as will convince Mexico that this Union means to maintain its station as head of the Ameri- can governments, and is resolved to put an end forever to the idea of European interference in the affairs of our Continent, This is a policy that should be adopted, and, if successfully pursued, would unquestionably terminate in a firm alliance between the two Republics and the formation of a treaty, offensive and defensive, which would secure our perpetual amity. In regard to the domestic peace of Mexico, I have great hesitation in speaking with any certainty as to a mode by which it might be secured. The notion, broached in European and American papers, that Mexico is willing to establish a monarchy and receive a royal scion of some Euro- pean house to grace her throne, is only one of the thousand ridiculous surmises thai are hazarded by blundering paragraphists. Nothing can be PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. xni more unpopular in Mexioo with all classes than the hint of monarchy, save perhaps, a suggestion to fill the throne with a French or Spanish Prince. No one would venture on so perilous an eminence. The Church and the Military would oppose the scheme as inimical to their present power ; — the People would oppose it as at variance with the spirit of their Revolu- tion. The throne would soon be hewn to a block Despotism in Mexico must be masked, as it is wherever it exists in this century. I may be told that this is surely a very bad state of things and that humanity must mourn over the misfortunes of the race, but, that the peo- pie of the United States have no more right to interfere in the matter than they have to settle the domestic differences in the family of a neighbor who lives unhappily with his wife. I beg leave, however, to dissent from this opinion. Mexico is not merely a social neighbor whose rights are , guarded and whose offences are punished by municipal laws, but she is j one of the great family of nations on this Continent, striving to free her- self from the tutelage under which she groaned for three centuries, while the Spanish yoke hung round her neck. She is bound by international ties, pledged in international treaties, burthened with international con- tracts, and, above all, loaded with debts to foreigners, growing not only out of regular loans, but forced from individuals by exactions, wrongs, personal injury and enormous injustice. The whole foreign world, is therefore, directly interested in this distracted realm independently of the concern that all Christian men must feel in the progress of nations ; — but, of all parts of Christendom, none has so deep a stake in it as these United States. If, as in France, since the fearful revolution of '98, each popular out- break had been but a feebler swing of the great democratic pendulum, bringing it nearer and nearer to repose and tranquillity, we should bid these people " God speed," and hail them heartily on their way to republi- can greatness. But, instead of approaches to peace and happiness, the pendulum of Mexican revolutions has swung, with each vibration, further and further from the centre of gravity ; so that, instead of poising at length like a plummet above the Truth and the Right, it is now converted into a vast weapon, whose terrific gyrations threaten with ruin everything within the scope of its tremendous whirl. There is, however, another view of the matter, which should have weight in the consideration of Mexican affairs. A recent letter from Yucatan, received at New Orleans, by way of Mexico, says: / " The people of Yucatan are in daily expectation of declaring the in- dependence of that province. Offences on the part of the Mexican Congress towards Yucatan have dictated this step. Two assemblies, composed of the most distinguished personages, have already met to dis- cuss the measure of separation, and much is said of seeking assistance, should it be necessary, from the cabinet at Washington." XIV PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. Nearly four years ago, I took occasion, in a private interview with a distinguished statesman then in power, to indicate the probable disruption of the soi-disani Republic, of which this seems to be the premonitory symptom. The people of the Mexican Provinces will no longer consent to be the prey of the central chiefs, who make a Paris of the city of Mex- ico, and control the nation when they hold the key of the capital. Dis- tracted, dissatisfied, divided, fragmentary, each one will, perhaps, set up for itself — Zacetecas, Durango, Coahuila, California, and the rest, going off in separate discontent and establishing themselves as petty principal- ities. Each of these, in the course of a few years, will grow into little Mexicos. The concentrated venom of the whole Republic will be diffu- sed in weakened virus among the lopped members. Every clipped head of the original hydra will sprout into mimic serpenthood, and, although the hiss of the rattlesnake may not be as dangerous as the fang of the monster, yet the ultimate task of the Eagle, in controlling the dangerous brood, will be infinitely multiplied. I beg leave in writing thus of Mexican matters to be distinctly under- stood as not encouraging the conquest of that country or endeavouring to cherish the war and plunder spirit that would eagerly prey on the fair do- main of the invaded Republic. No such idea is seriously mine for a mo- ment ; but it is time that Mexico should be aroused to a sense of her own position, and it is still more important to have her future policy distinctly defined in relation to the affairs of this Continent and Europe. It has recently been asserted by an American writer that the Province of Rio de la Plata has been decimated during the administration of the celt' hrated Rosas, and the allegation is enforced by an extract from the " Tables of Blood," of which the following resume is given by Don Jose Rivera Indarte • Poisoned, 4 Throats cut, 3,765 Shot, r 1,393 Assassinated, 722 Slain in battle, 14,920 Killed in skirmishes, Military punishments, &c., &c., 1,600 22,404 "During the frightful massacres of October, 1840, and April, 1842, the heads of well known citizens were paraded through the streets in carts, accompanied by indecent music and followed bv the cries of 'who'll huy f caches ? Who'll huy oranges ?' The bodies of other victims were exposed, naked, in the public market place, the severed heads adorned with blue ribbons — labeled, ' Beef with the hide on — Came con cuero !' One of the ornaments of the drawing-room of Rosas, which has been seen again and again by foreigners visiting at his house, is a glass case contain- PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. xv ing the salted ears of Colonel Borda, which were sent to the daughter of Rosas."* These and similar outrages are alleged as the cause of the recent in- tervention of England and France. The interference is said to be one of merciful humanity, and we trust that the continued succession of mobs and revolutions with which Mexico has been scourged for the last twenty years will not reduce her to the sway of some tyrant like Rosas who will deluge her with native blood and compel us to be no longer indifferent spectators of her misrule. In such a juncture the course of this country will be perfectly clear. True statesmanship looks steadily to the advancement of mankind — to the eradication of all brutality from our race — to the assertion of the omnip- otence of Peace and Reason in modern government. If it be the will of God that Christian civilization and refinement are to be spread over this world, I shall hail the day as a blessed one for the Mexican people when perfect peace and perfect alliance shall be established between us as In- dependent Nations. But if it be the Divine fiat that we are to interfere in j Mexican politics, and that the various bloods of the Mexican race are ' finally to mingle with the mighty stream of the Anglo-Saxon, which seems destined to fill every vein and artery of this mighty Continent, then, as- suredly, will our distracted neighbors, at length, secure to their country tranquillity, progress, and glory. Baltimore, 1846. * " Buenos Ayres and the Republic of the Banda Oriental," by Mrs. S. P. JenKins— in the American Review, vol. 3d, pp. 161, 163. CONTENTS. LETTER I. : Voyage out, .--- - ..--«- LETTER n. Vera Cruz, ...-.----•- - 3 LETTER in. Ride to Xalapa, and the Robbers on the road, .----.-9 LETTER IV. Xalapa and Perote, .---- .....15 LETTER V. Puebla, 23 LETTER VI. Pyramid of Cholula, ..-.--.--.. 26 LETTER VIL Last day's ride to Mexico, -------.--33 LETTER Vm. The City of Mexico, .-.- 38 LETTER IX. The City of Mexico, 48 LETTER X. The City of Mexico, -,, -w-.--. 54 LETTER XL ABuU-Fight, --' 1-58 X CONTENTS. LETTER Xn. Virgin of Guadalupe, and Festival, ...---.. 63 LETTER Xm. Court Ceremonies — General Santa Anna — Diplomatic Dinner, .... 70 LETTER XIV. San Augustin de las Cuevas, and the Feast of San Augustin — Gambling and Cock-fighting, 76 LETTER XV. Revolution — ^Wax-figures — Museum — Antiquities, ... - - 81 LETTER XVL Museum and Antiquities, ..........90 LETTER XVn. Teoyaomiqui— Mexican Mythology, ........ 109 LETTER XVin. Priests — Temples — Sacrifices, .......... 115 LETTER XIX. Mexican Calendar, . ......... 126 LETTER XX. City of Mexico as it was at the Conquest, ....... 131 LETTER XXL Murders — Tacuba — Festival of Remedios, ....... 140 LETTER XXII. Carnival — Lent — Holy-Week, .....^.... 149 LETTER XXIII. Neighborhood of Mexico — Chapultepec — Tacubaya, and the murder of Mr. Eger- ton — St. Angel — Desierto, ......... 156 JOLUNAL Of a Journey in the Tierra-Caliente, being an account of a Visit to Cuemavaca, the Ruins of Xochicalco, Cavern of Cacahuawamilpa, Cuautla de Amilpas, and Mexican Haciendas, ......... 161 CONTENTS. XI LETTER XXrV. Ascent to the summit of the Volcano of Popocatepetl, ..... 208 JOURNAL Of a Journey to Tezcoco — the Pyramids of Teotihuacan — the Hill of Tezcosingo, &c. &c., and Account of American Antiquities, . - - . . 217 LETTER XXV. Whence came the ancient Population ? Who built the Ancient Cities ? Who worshipped the Idols ? 254 LETTER XXVI. ,. City of Mexico — Public Institutions — Prisons, and Prison Statistics — ^Academy- Private Collections, .......... 265 LETTER XXVn. Desagua — Carriages — Mules — Troops — Music — Opera — Recruits — Theatres — Mexican Thieves — The Judge and Turkey, 282 LETTER XXVIII. Mexican Character, .-....---.- 292 LETTER XXIX. Territory — Population and Departments — Rates of Castes and Education — Schools and Colleges — Periodicals, ..-..-.- 299 LETTER XXX. Commerce and Manufactures of Mexico, ....-..- 305 LETTER XXXL Revenue and Resources of Mexico — Army — Navy — Produce of Mines — Total amount of Coinage — The Church — Its Wealth and Influence, . . - 317 LETTER XXXIL Political History, - --..- 328 LETTER XXXm. Political Prospects of Mexico, .......... 350 Conclusion, ........•.-•« 355 XII CONTENTS. APPENDIX NO. I. A Supplementary Letter on the Sandwich Islands, the Californias, and the foreign policy of the United States, in regard to the encroachments of England, 357 APPENDIX NO. II. Letters from H. R. Colcraft, Esq., on American Antiquities, .... 379 APPENDIX NO. III. Letter from Horatio Hale, Esq., on the Origin of the Mexican Tribes, . . 382 APPENDIX NO. rV. Meteorological Observations in the City of Mexico, •-.... 384 APPENDIX NO. V. Prices of Provisions, &c., &c. ......... 385 MEXICO AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS LETTER I. VOYAGE TO VERA CKUZ. I LEFT New-York on the 27th of October', 1841, with a fair wind, and on the twelfth day after, at sunrise, saw the lofty peak of Orizaba^ towering above the distant line of the western horizon. I have rarely beheld a more beautiful sight than this was. The mar- itime Alps, as seen from the Gulf of Lyons, present a spectacle of great majesty and beauty. But this grand and solitar)' peak, lifting its head more than 17,000 feet above the ocean, the sentinel, as it were, of a land toward which you may still sail for days before you arrive, has struck every traveller with wonder since the daj'^s when Cortez first hailed it on his adventurous voyage for the conquest of Mexico. ****** Our vessel has been quite full ^f passengers in cabin and steerage ; rnjerchants, going out to gather in their fortunes in this country ; manu- facturers, keen and thrifty, with their machinery, ready to take advantage of the ample profits to be reaped in the " cotton line" from the protection of national industry in Mexico; a German student, fresh from his alma mater, adventuring for fortune in Vera Cruz, in spite of all competition and the vomito; a gentle maiden, sighing for somebody at the end of the voyage; a staunch Scotch operative, with a wife and two children, the latter of whom made up in their little private volunteer squalls for the sea squalls we missed ' and last of all, a worthy old Italian fighter, who 1 2 MEXICO. had gone with Napoleon through all his campaigns, and, at length, deter- mining that war was not a thriving occupation, had pitched upon a way of making his fortune by taking a dapper little Mexican body, for his wife, and the "hatting business," as a trade. In fact, we had on board specimens of all that active industry and fearless enterprise, which push the fortunes of our native and adopted citizens all over the world, and make our country known as much by the resistless energy of her children, as by the political liberty they enjoy at home, or which is extended to them by the protection of her flag abroad. I commenced this voyage in low spirits, and with but a slight desire to partake of the pleasures of the cabin ; but, what with charming weather and good companionship, I was soon drawn forth from my state-room, to the social table, and rarely have I passed a more agreeable time in a voyage at sea. The variety of character thus blended together, was both amusing and instructive. There were tempers to suit the grave and the gay ; and when the hour came for separation, we met for the last time around the board with saddened hearts, at the contemplation of the certainty that by far the larger portion of us would meet no more, and that all were about to encounter the uncertainties of fortune in a strange country, amid prejudices, disease, and revolutions. LETTER II. VERA CRTJZ. YoTJ left me in sight of land-on soundings-with the Peak of Orizaba in full view, and although we presumed it highly probable that we would make our harbor before evening, yet were we disappomted. The wind became baffling toward noon, and notwithstandmg our captain was a brave man and stanch seaman, he determined, at nightfall, to avoid running close in with the shore, and therefore "lay to until day- light. Nothing could be more provoking ; the city was not more than en iniles distant, and the lights in the houses were distinctly visible over the ^ WitTthe first streak of dawn, however, all was bustle on deck, and the topsails spread to the morning breeze. Day broke gloriously over the sea ; our colors were run up ; the ship headed for the harbor ; and when within a mile or two of -the castle, a pilot came on board. Our_ first m- quiry was as to the yellow fever-our next, as to the revolution. Of the first disease there were no remains, and the latter had termmated m ihe political death of Bustamante. . o. t At eicrht o'clock we moored under the walls of the Castle of St. Juan de Ulloa ; and in an hour afterward, with umbrellas spread to protect us from the scorching Novemler sun, we landed_ on the quay which has for so many years poured out the wealth of Mexico. Vera Cruz lies on a low, sandy shore, extending for miles along the coast I will not trouble you with the details of this city's history, famous as the spot where thousands have come to die of the vomito-ov, to make their fortunes (if they survi^ the certain attack of that disease,) and return with shattered constitutions to colder climates, to ache in memory of the heat they endured in Mammon's service. Landing at the Moletta, the first thing that struck me was a gang of more than a hundred galley-slaves, chained, and at work mthe broil- ing sun, cutting and carrying stone to repair the broken pier. i_ne second was the roofs of the churches, which seemed to be covered with mourning, as I supposed for some deceased prelate. The mourning turned out, however, to be nothing more than thousands of zopilotes or turkey-buzzards, the chief of which is usually perched on the peak ot the cross of the loftiest church-a sentinel for prey ! These two classes of folks, to wit : the galley-slaves and zopilotes, constitute a large part 1* 4 MEXICO. of the most useful population of Vera Cruz — the former being the city authorities' laborers, the latter the city authorities' scavengers. It is a high crime to kill a zopilote. He is under the protection of the laws, and walks the streets with as much nonchalance and as " devil-may-care " a look as other " gentlemen in black," who pick the sins from our souls as these creatures pick impurities from the streets. The Mole, or quay, is of good masonry and furnished with stairs and cranes for the landing of goods, though from the great violence of the ocean during the Northers, and the great neglect of proper repairs, it is likely to be entirely ruined. In heavy weather the sea makes a clear breach over it ; yet this, and the Castle of San Juan on a land-spit near a mile off, are the only protections for the shipping of all nations and the commerce of moi'e than half the Republic ! Passing from the Mole you enter the city by an unfinished gateway, near which Santa Anna lost his leg during the attack of the French in 1838. Beyond this portal is a large square, which will be surrounded with custom-house buildings — though there is now scarce a symptom of them except in the granite stones, most of which have been imported from the United States. From this spot, a short walk to the left leads you to the arcade of a street, and you soon find yourself in the public square of the city, which, though small in its dimensions, is neat and substantial. On the east, north, and west, 'it is bounded by noble ranges of edifices, built over light arches — ^the one to the eastward, with its back to the sea, being the former Governor's residence, and still appropriated to the civil and military purposes of the State. On the south of the square is the parish church, with its walls blackened with sea-damps and zopilotes. The streets of Vera Cruz, crossing each other at right angles, are well paved with smooth pebbles, and the side-walks are covered with a cement resembling irescia. The houses, in general, are exceedingly well con- structed to suit the climate, and though not of very imposing architecture, yet with their flat roofs, parti-colored awnings and display of women and flowers from their balconied windows, make the city both cool and pic- turesque. Upon the whole, I must confess that I have seen worse look- ing cities than Vera Cruz, even in the " picture-land " of Italy ; and when, from the roofs of the dwellings, I look at the open sea in front, the exceed- ingly clean streets, and the desolate coast of sand and stunted shrubbery, which extends north and south as far as the eye can reach, I am at a loss to know why it is so cursed with disease. St. Augustine, St. Mary's, and a hundred places along our southern sea-coast, have infinitely more the appearance of nests for malai'ia. It is said, that in the early period of the history of this country. Vera Cruz was not so sickly as of late years, and that, although there were occasional attacks of violent fever, it was not until 1699 that the Black Vomit made its appearance. In that year an English vessel arrived in the port with a cargo of slaves, and with them came this fatal disease. The Spanish chronicles of the town, of that date, give the most fright- VERA CRUZ. 5 ful pictures of its outbreak and of the heroism with which the priests (especially the Jesuits,) devoted themselves to the ill and dying; and the father Francisco Xavier Alegre dwells with pleasure on the self-sacrifice with which his holy brethren met the fell monster and ministered to the wants of the sufferers. . It was entirely too warm, even in this middle of November, to stir out of the house with satisfaction. We therefore dressed ourselves in sum- mer apparel, and took an excellent dinner very quietly, resolved not to expose our persons unnecessarily, as we understood there had been recent cases of vomito. A number of gentlemen called to see us, and I found the Governor and other officers exceedingly anxious to afford us all the protection in their power on the road to Mexico. They say that the coun- try has been lately scoured by troops of dragoons, but that it is still in- fested with robbers ; and, although we are to have a military escort, our friends appear to intimate that Colt's revolving pistols, double-barrelled guns, and a stock of resolution and coolness, will be our best safeguards. We have, therefore, taken the stage which will depart four days hence ; and as we are amply prepared with arms and ammunition, and a number of determined passengers, I trust we shall reach the capital without having our noses stamped in the ground after the most approved fashion of the Ladrones. At sunset, a countryman was so good as to call for us to walk with him to the Alameda. We sallied from the south gate, and took our way into a desolate and melancholy country. On every side were marks ot solitude and misery. The ruins of houses and churches, filled with weeds and creepers ; neglected fields, overgrown with aloes and made still more sad by the long pensile branches of the solitary palm ; and, over all lay the dark shadows of evening, as the last rays of the sun fell aslant on the stagnant pools. A sergeant was drilling a few recruits to the tap of the drum. The music seemed to be a dead march, and the step of the soldiers was slow and solemn. Nothing could be more dreary — more heart-sickening. We loitered on, like the rest of folks, but there was no liveliness — no spirit. The people were not cheerful and joyous as when abroad with us for an evening's promenade, but strolled along in silent pairs, as if oppressed by the sadness of the melancholy wastes on the one side, and the cold, dreary, illimitable sea on the other. The appropriate termination of this walk through the ruined Alameda, was the burying-ground. As we reached it, a funeral had just entered, and in the chapel they were saying some annual service *for the dead ! It may be wrong to indulge in such emotions, but here there really seems x,o be an utter hopelesAiess in death. We love to think, that when it falls 6 MEXICO. to our lot to share the common fate of humanity, we shall, at least, re- pose near our kindred and friends, in some beautiful spot, where those we have loved shall moulder beside us, until the dust we cherished in life shall be as blent as were the spirits that animated it. We love to think that our graves will not be solitary or unvisited. But, on this dismal shore, where the Shadow of Death for ever hangs over the prospect, the grave is not a resting-place, even for tired spirits, and the soul seexns to perish as well as the body I I came home with as capital a " fit of the hlues" as ever was born in London of a gloomy November day and a melancholy temper ; and I must confess that I passed the night somewhat nervously. What with the heat and exercise, our bodies were rather tired ; but what with the vomito, the sad walk, and a little excitability, I do not remember to have slept a wink. In addition to these annoyances, there was a con- tinual hubbub in the square under our windows all night long. First of all, the guard was to be set, and that produced drumming, fifing, braying of trumpets, and bustle of troops ; next, my bed was too short for me ; then, just as I was coaxing myself into a doze, I discovered that the servant had neglected to put down the net, and consequently, came the onset of a colony of thirsty mosquitos, ravenous for the fresh blood of a foreigner, after having dulled their beaks a whole season on Mexi- can skins ; next, the clock on the opposite tower struck every quarter, and that was backed, with equal regularity, by the watchman under the portales, who prefaced his song with an " Ave Maria Purissima" that would have waked the dead. And thus from hour to hour I tossed and tumbled, while the clock struck, the watchmen howled, and the mosqui- tos sucked — occasionally amusing myself by trying to feel some of the symptoms of the vomito ! But day at length broke, and a cold bath and a hearty breakfast perfectly reestablished me. One of my fellow-travellers who was anxious to avoid the risk of wait- ing in Vera Cruz for the diligence, informed me about ten o'clock, that he had made arrangements for a " Zztera" to carry him to Xalapa, there to await the stage and rejoin our party. He was so good as to offer me a part of his couch, which I eagerly accepted, and immediately set to work packing my extra luggage for the Arrieros, as the diligence, and the niuleteei-s who accompany literas, will carry but a limited burden. At four the litera arrived, but the muleteers would, allow but one pas- senger ! There was nothing but submission. Pancho had his bundles strapped on, stepped into his vehicle, or rather stretched, out on its bed, lighted his cigar, tied on a Guayaquil sombrero, and waved us farewell. A litera is an article of rather curious conveyance. Here is a draw, ing of it. The pencil sperks better to the mind t^an any description J VERA CRUZ. 7 can give you of it. It would create a sensation in Broadway, and is de cidedly more picturesque and comfortable than a cab or an omnibus. I send you some interesting tables as to the health and moisture of Vera Cruz, which I have compiled from accurate sources. Baptisms ACCOUNT OF IHE BAPTISMS AND BURIALS IN VERA CRUZ FOR 1841. Males. Fem. Tot. 214 240 454] Marriages T ii -1-1 . Males. Fem, In the rarroqma . 215 271 Hospital of St. Sebastian 254 000 Total DEATHS. Tot. I 486 'Hospital of Loreto 254|Hosp. of S. Carlos Total 37 Males. Fem. Tot. 000 146 146 131 000 131 600 417 1017 From 1 to 7 - " 8 to 15 " 16 to 25 . Vomito ... Small Pox . . . Fevers ... Phthisis and DiarrhcEa Convulsions Apoplexy . . . Dysentery Cholic . . . Pulmonia Pleurisy - - . Asthma . Causas - . . Gangrene Inflammation Cholera (glacial) Total Males. 94- 32 188 120 64 98 151 39 10 7 3 3 3 1 7 3 1 Fem. 135 36 85 Fem, 36 78 44 61 11 7 22 7 5 2 4 2 5 6 .4GES. Tot. I 229 From 26 to 50 68 « 51 to 75 2731 « 76 to 100 DISEASES. Tot. 155 142 142 212 50 17 29 10 Diabetes - Epilepsy Marasmus Leprosy Aneurism Abscess I Dropsy . Ulcers Flow of Blood . Child-birth Drowned Contusions - Wounds . Diseases of children Males. Fem. Tot. 249 132 381 35 23 58 2 6 8 Males. Fem. 1 1 3 10 4 1 7 63 1 1 2 1 9 12 ] .0 99 Tot. 1 1 1 1 2 4 19 4 2 12 ] 1 7 162 600 417 1017 8 MEXICO. Thus, allowing the population of Vera Cruz to be about 6,500 (which I consider quite liberal,) you will perceive that one-sixth of the whole died in the course of the year ; of this, one-sixth — about an equal propor- tion — perished from vomUo. The ex-cess of burials over baptisms is 563. Diarrhoea, dysentery and vomito are the most fatal maladies. In 1842, I am told that near 2000 died of vomito in Vera Cruz. This, however, was owino- to the number of raw troops sent there from the interior, to be embarked for Yucatan. It is to be regretted, that I have no data from which I can inform you what is the relative proportion of the deaths amori"- natives and foreigners, and of those who visit Vera Cruz from the interior. It has struck me, nevertheless, that this document will be inte- resting to medical readers. It will be observed from the following table, that the amount of wa- ter which has fallen in each year, very far exceeds the quantity known to fall annually in any part of the United States. With us it scarcely exceeds four feet. It is not, however, difficult to account for the differ- ence. Vera Cruz, situated at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, backed by a lofty range of mountains rising beyond the limits of perpetual con- gelation, must necessarily be the recipient of the immense body of water held in solution by the hot intertropical air, and which is constantly car- ried along by the trade-winds, to be condensed against the cold moun- tains. This will sufficiently account for the fact ; although we were far from being prepared to expect its nature and extent to be such as is here stated. Feet. Inch. In the year 1822 there fell, 13, 1.5 in the 12 months. 1823 15, 8.9 1824 10, 8.1 « 1825 10, 7.1 1826* 5,4.4 1827 21,2.8 10 ■ 1828 12, 2.0 12 1829 23, 2.3 1830 18, 0.0 « * Tfais year was remarkably dry ; and was moreover characterized by universally severe weatiier npon tne coast, and a great destruction of shipping property. LETTER III. THE PJDE TO XALAPA, AND THE ROBBERS WE MET ON THE ROAD. ^ During the last two days of our stay at Vera Cruz, it blew a Norther. The wind was high, and made it impossible for ships to enter the port. We spent the last afternoon at the water-gate of the city, watching the waves as they spent their fury on the Mole; and the ships, anchored under the lee of the Castle, tugging at their cables like impatient coursers strug- gling to get loose. With these find adjuncts of marine scenery, and the low brooding clouds of the stormy sky, I have never beheld a scene more worthy of the pencil of our countryman, Birch. After supper we made our final preparations for departure. Trunks were strapped on the diligence, old and warmer clothing put on, and, at midnight, nine of us got into the American Coach for our journey to the Capital. The stories of numerous robberies, and the general insecurity of the road, had been dinned into our ears ever since we arrived. Scarcely a diligence came in that did not bring accounts of the levying of contribu- tions. Before we left the United States, many friends who had visited this country, warned me of my danger, and, advising me to prepare myself with a couple of Colt's revolvers, hoped that I might reach the Capital in safety. Now, for my own part, though not disposed to be rash on any occasion, I always received these tales " cum grano.'' But I nevertheless took the precaution to load my double-barrelled gun with large buckshot. S. prepared his double-barrelled rifle and a Colt's pistol with four discharges. J. took his Manton and horse-pistols. Another person had a pair of pocket-irons, and ground an old fashioned dress sword to a very sharp point. John, the servant, loaded a pistol and blunderbuss for the box ; and thus, harnessed and equipped, we sallied at midnight from the court-yard, as resolved as any men who ever went on feudal foray, to kill the first ill- looking miscreant who poked a hostile nose in our coach windows. By way, however, of making ourselves perfectly secure, and of passing the night with additional comfort, I took care, as soon as we were seated, to point my own weapon out of the window, and to see that my companions had their arms in such positions that if they did "go off," there would be no harm done, at least to the passengers. It was very dark when we issued from the gates of the cit}', where our passports were demanded. Accustomed, of late years, to the unmolested travelling of our Union, I had put mine at the bottom of the trunk, and 10 MEXICO. forgot all about the necessity of having it in my pocket. The drowsy guard, however, took my word for the fact that I had one, and j)ermitced us to pass on. A warm, drizzling rain was pattering down, driven in by the Norther which was still raging and dashing the sea in long surges on tiie sandy beach along which our road lay for several miles. We could see nothing ; ihe way soon became almost impassable through the deep sand, though our heavy coach was drawn by eight horses ; and proposing that the cur- tains should be let down, at least on my side. I was soon in a profound sleep, nor did I awake until near sunrise as we were passing the estate of Santa Anna, at Manga de Clavo. His hacienda was in the distance, to the right of the road, and appeared to be a long, low edifice, buried •among forests, but without those signs of improvement and cultivation which make the property of our great landholders so picturesque. He owns an immense body of land in this neighborhood, lying for leagues along the road, but all seemed as barren and unattractive as the wild- ernesses of our far west. During the night, an escort of three troopers had joined us at Bocche- rone. At daylight I caught sight of them, for the first time, in their long yellow cloaks, trotting along behind us on their small but tough and trusty horses. They were three as poor looking wretches as I ever saw : one of them appeared to be just out of a fit of fever; the other a little the worse for an extra cup of aguardiente ; and the third, as though he had just recovered from a month's chattering of the ague. The road thus far had been tolerably good, although much cut up by the recent passage of baggage-wagons and trains of artillery. About seven o'clock we halted at the village of Manantial for breakfast. It is the usual stopping-place for the diligence, and we were of course immedi- ately supplied with chocolate and biscuit. Our servitor was the Padrone's wife ; and I could not help remarking her extreme beauty, and the mu- sical sweetness of her voice, as she attended at the counter of her hut. Her Spanish was almost as liquid as Italian, and as soft as her eyes. The houses in this part of Mexico are mostly built of split bamboos, set upright in the ground, with a steep roof, thatched with palm-leaves, and prepared of course, to admit freely the sun, wind and rain, which, during the season, is sufficiently abundant. Upon the whole, they are very respectable and picturesque chicken-coops. Here our guard quitted us. It seems, notwithstanding the written orders and promise I had from the commandant at Vera Cruz for an escort, that these fellows had received no directions to accompany us, and had only ridden thus far because they thought the new Minister of Finance, Senor Trigueros, was in the stage. But I can scarcely think they were a loss. While my companions were finishing their lunch, I took occasion to examine their arms, not looking, however, at m.ore than one carbine, and that I found had lost the catch of its cock, which ot course always lay against the covering of the pan, pressing it open. I TOXALAPA. 11 mentioned this to the trooper, and asked him where he put the powder ? " There, to be sure," said he, pointing to the pan. " And how do you fire it?" "Pshaw," replied the fellow, staggering off — "'tis letter so." He was half drunk, and as ridiculous as his weapon. If these are the soldiers of Mexico, they hardly rise to the dignity of respectable scare-crows. We were soon called lo coach, and mounting our vehicle with better spirits for the refreshment and morning air, we shortly entered a rolling country, with an occasional ruinous hamlet and plantation. Although the scenery was in spots exceedingly romantic, interspersed with upland and valley, and covered with a profusion of tropical trees and flowers, there was over the whole an air of abandonment which could not fail to strike one painfully. In a new country, as a traveller passes by a soli- tary bridle-path, over the plains and hills, hidden by the primeval forests fresh as they came from Nature's hand, there is matter for agreeable reflection, in fancying what the virgin soil will produce in a few years when visited by industry and taste. But here. Nature instead of being pruned of her luxuriance with judicious care, has been literally sapped and exhausted, and made old even in her youth, until she again begins to renew her empire among ruins. It is true, that traces of old cultivation are yet to be found, and also the remains of a former dense population. The sides of the hills, in many places, as in Chili and Peru, are cut into terraces; but over those plains and slopes is spread a wild growth of mimosas, cactus, and acacias, while a thousand flowering parasite-plants trail their gaudy blossoms among the aloes and shrubbery which fill up the rents of time and neglect in the dilapidated buildings. It is the picture of a beauty, prematurely old, tricked out in all the fanciful finery of youth ! We wound along among these silent hills until about ten o'clock, when a rapid descent brought us to the National Bridge, built by the old Span- ish Government, and enjoying then the sounding title of Puente del Rey. Changed in name, it has not, however, changed in massive strength, or beauty of surrounding scenery. Indeed, the neglect of cultivation, has permitted Nature to regain her power, and the features of the scenery are therefore more like those of some of the romantic ravines of Italy, where the remains of architecture and the luxuriant products of the soil are blent in wild and romantic beauty. The Puente Nacional spans the river Antigua, which passes over a rocky bed in a deep dell of high and perpendicular rocks. The adjacent heights of this mountain pass have been strongly fortified during the wars; among their fastnesses and defiles the revolutionary generals lay con- cealed in Iturbide's time, and finally descended from them to conclude the fight in favor of independence. At Puente, there is a village containing the usual number of comforta- ble cane huts, before which the neighboring Indians had spread out for sale their fruits and wares; while the Mexicans (as it was Sunday) were amusing themselves by gambling at mont6 for clacos. At the inn a break- 12 MEXICO. fast of eggs and frijoles was prepared for us. The eggs, the beans, the bread, and a bottle of tolerable claret went down famously, with the sea- soning of our mountain appetites ; but I cannot say as much for the stew of mutton and fish fresh from the river. What with onions, and lard, and garlic, and chile peppers, I never tasted such a mess. We unanimously resolved to leave it as a precious ionn,e louche for some Spanish succes- sors, to whose bowels such a compound may bo more savory than to North Americans. Having dispatched this collation, we again mounted the diligence. I had seen an officer in command of some cavalry at the door of our inn, and recollecting that the succeeding post is represented to be one of the most dangerous on the route, I told our Yankee driver that I thought he might as well take my order for the escort, and a bundle of cigars, and try their effect upon the military. Whether it was the order or the Prin- cipes I am unable to say, but four dragoons were immediately mounted for our service. If the odor of that offspring of the " Vuelta de Abajo" still floats in the memory of the Lieutenant, and a well-supplied traveller happens hereafter to pass the Puente Nacional while he is in command, let me suggest that a similar gift may be received as thankfully and ef- fectively. When our driver cracked his whip, and the horses sprang off from the lassos of the grooms at full gallop, the " bold dragoon " stood with cap in hand, and I could catch a glimpse of a head bowing most gracefully in the midst of a cloud of fragrant smoke. Our route westward to Plan del Rio was through a mountainous coun- try of short and gradual ascents, in most of its characteristics resembling the one we had passed over during our morning ride. At length, a steep descent over a road as smooth as a bov/ling-green brought us to the village of Plan. The guard trotted after us leisurely ; the day had become cloudy and the scenery dreary, and the fear of robbers among these soli- tary wildernesses again came over us. We felt, indeed, more anxiety than since our departure. Mine host at Plan del Rio received us warmly, though his house was as cold and uninviting as the day. He speedily produced a smoking dinner of fowls and rice, to which I found myself able to do but little justice. But the dinner had been served — we had tasted it — a bottle of claret had been drunk, and though our appetites had been frugal, the nine of us were obliged to pay two dollars each for the service ! The two fowls which made the stew, cost, at the most, a real each ; the rice as muchjthe salad grew for the planting, and the claret stood our host about seventy-five cents the bottle.: so, for what, with service and cooking and original cost, taxed our Padrone not more than three dollars at the extreme, he had the modest assurance to charge our coach-load eighteen ! If this statement will induce any of our enterprising Yankee boys, who are whittling sticks for want of knowing how to turn an honest penny, to come out to Plan del Rio and set up an " Opposition Stage-House," I wish them joy of their under- taking. Jt absolutely requires, as I have shown, no capital worth men- TO XALAPA, 13 tionmg, besides a table, a dozen chairs, knives, plates and forks, a few strings of Weathersfield onions, and flexibility of limbs and countenance to grace the thousand shrugs, apologies, compliments, humbug and grim- aces necessary to make a successful innkeeper in a Spanish country. At Plan our guard left us — as the lieutenant's command extended no farther. Our host of the flexible face and productive cookery, insisted that there was not much danger, besides which there were no troops on the station ; so he bowed us to the coach door, and declared for the fiftieth time that he had been delighted to see us, hoped we would not fail to call again if we returned, and assured us that he only kept a few choice bottles of his claret for such "caballeros " as we were ! What with sour wine, sour spirits, and imposition, I doubt much if there was ever an angrier coach-load on any highway. We were effectually ill-tempered, and we looked to our primings with the full disposition to defend ourselves nobly. It would have fared ill with any one who had ventured to attack us during our first hour's ride. In addition to this, our road, as soon as it left the river, ascended rapidly and passed over a track which would in any other country be called the bed of a mountain stream, so rough and jagged was its surface. Although it is the duty of the Gov- ernment to keep this highway in order, yet as the chief travelling is on horseback, and the principal part of merchandise is transported on mules, no one cares how these animals get along. Sure-footed and slow, they toil patiently am.ong the rents and rocks, and their drivers are too well used to the inconveniences to complain. Besides this, in case of insurrections, it is better for the roads to be in bad condition, as it prevents easy com- munication between the several parts of Mexico, and the disjointed stones serve to form, as they have often done, breastworks and forts for the insur- gents. But over this mass of ruin we were obliged to jolt in the ascent of the mountain, during the whole afternoon, meeting in the course of it fifty wagons laden with heavy machinery for factories near Mexico. I must not forget to mention one redeeming spot in the gloomy even- ing. On looking back as we were near the summit of the mountain, 1 caught a glimpse of the plains and hills over which we had been all day toiling. The view was uninterrupted. Before us lay valley upon val- ley, in one long graceful descending sweep of woodland and meadow, until they dwindled away in the sands to the east, and the whole was blent, near the horizon, with the blue waves of the Gulf of Mexico. Just then the sun broke out from the region of clouds which we were rapidly approaching in our ascent, and gilding, for a moment, the whole lowland prospect, I could almost fancy I saw the sparkle of the wave crests as they broke on the distant and barren shore. At the village on the mountain we could get no guard. This is said to be a very dangerous pass ; but the commanding officer told us he had been stationed here for two weeks, during which he had scoured the moun- tains in every direction, and believed his district to be free from robbers. 14 MEXICO. Cigars would not avail us this time ! His men were tired and he could give no escort. Night soon fell dark and coldly around us. In these elevated regions the air is cold and nipping ; but we dared not put down our coach cur- tains for fear of an attack. We therefore donned our cloaks and over- coats, and laid our guns and pistols on the window-frames. John, the old gray hero, was on the look-out, with his blunderbuss, from the box, and the driver promised to have an eye to windward. ThuskWe jolted on again, at times almost stalled, and, in sudden smooth descents, swinging along with a rapidity in the dark and moonless night, that seemed to threaten our destruction among the rocks. Six, seven, eight, and half-past eight o'clock passed, and no robbers appeared, though there had been several false alarms. The road became worse and worse, the coach heaving over the stones like a ship in a head sea, and the dri- ver being obliged to descend from his seat and feel for the track. We saw lights passing over the heath in many places, and it was surmised they might be the signal lights of robbers. After due consultation, it was determined that they were ! As we approached them they proved to be fire-flies ! We felt for our percussion-caps and found them all right, and, at that moment, the coach was brought to a dead halt in the blackest looking ravine imaginable. " A mighty bad road, sir," said John, from the box, cocking his blun- derbuss. Its click was ominous, and we were at once on the alert. " There is something Mack — on horseback — ^^just ahead of us," added he. A whistle among the bushes. Crack went the whip unmercifully over the mules, and at ten paces in advance', up rose " the something hlack" and away ti'otted three cows ! I confess to a little anxiety as I cocked my gun after John spoke of the " something black.'' It is enough to make one a little nervous, boxed up with nine in a coach, on a dark night, on a bad road, to be shot at by " something black.'' But when the danger turns out to be a peaceful cow, one feels quite as ridiculous as he had before felt nervous. As we had indulged in enough of that sort of excitement, I uncocked my gun, put the muzzle out of the window, and, keeping a finger on the trigger, re- signed myself to a nap in the corner. Jolts, pitches, tosses, nothing, woke me, until a rough voice bellowed in my ear : " There they are !" I was aroused in a moment, and moving my thumb to cock my gun, I found myself disarmed. The coach was at a halt, and strange voices and lights were around it. It was a minute before I could shake off" the oppression of my deep slumber and found that my neighbor had quietly pilfered my gun during my sleep, and that we were waiting while the guard at the garita of Xa- lapa examined our way-bill ! In a few moments we were again en route, and at half-past nine rolled into the court-yard of an excellent inn at Xalapa, where a good meal that served both for dinner and supper, seasoned the joke of my dextrous robbery. LETTER IV. XALAPA AND PEROTE. When the Neapolitans speak to you of their beautiful city, they call it, "a piece of heaven fallen to earth j"* and tell you to "see Naples and die /" It is only because so few travellers extend their journey to Xalapa and describe its scenery, that it has not received something of the same ex- travagant eulogium. I regret exceedingly that my stay was so limited as not to allow an opportunity of beholding the beautiful views around the city, under the influence of a serene sky and brilliant sun. The town has about ten thousand inhabitants, and is, in every respect, the reverse of Vera Cruz ; high, healthy, and built on almost precipitous streets, winding, with curious crookedness, up the steep hill-sides. This perching and bird-like architecture makes a city picturesque — although its highways may be toilsome to those who are not always in search of the romantic. The houses of Xalapa are not so lofty as those of Vera Cruz, and their exteriors are much plainer ; but the inside of the dwellings, I am told, is furnished and decorated in the most tasteful manner. The hotel in which we lodged was an evidence of this ; its walls and ceilings were papered and painted in a style of splendor rarely seen out of Paris. Before breakfast we strolled to the Convent of St. Francisco, an im- mense pile of buildings of massive masonry, and apparently bomb-proof. The church is exceedingly plain, but there is a neat and tasteful garden with a lofty wall. This convent also possesses a court-yard of about one hundred feet square, with an arcade of two stories, the upper part of which contains a series of spacious cells ; but the whole edifice has a ruined appearance, having once been converted into a cavalry barrack, where the bugle as often sounded the morning call as the bell summoned to matins. From the top of this conventual edifice there is a fine view of Xalapa and its vicinity. We could see the town straggling up its steep and irregular streets ; but much of the adjacent scenery, and especially those two grand objects in the descriptions of all travellers, the Peak of Ori- zaba and the Coffre of Perote, were entirely obscured by a cloud of mist which hung around the valley in a silvery ring, inclosing the ver- * " Un petxe de cielo eaduto tn terra.' 16 MEXICO. dure of the glade like an emerald. The vapor, rising from the sea, driven inland by the northern winds, here first strikes the mountains ; and, lodging in rain and mist and dew among the cliffs, preserves that peren- nial green which covers this teeming region with constant freshness and luxuriance. Xalapa is consequently a " damp town," yet it enjoys a great reputation for salubrity. It is now the best season of the year; but scarcely a day passes without rain, while the thermometer ranges from 52° to 76°, according to the state of the clouds and winds. As soon as the mountains have discharged their vapors, the sun blazes forth with a fierceness and intensity, increased by the reflection from every hill, into the town, as to a focus. Yet I saw enough to justify all the praises even of extravagant admirers. Its society is said to be excellent, and its women are the theme of the poets throughout the republic. As I descended from the top of St. Fran- cisco and wended my way to the hotel, I met numbers of the fair doncellas lounging homeward from early mass. The stately step, the liquid eye, the pale yet brilliant cheek, and an indescribable look of tenderness, com- plete a picture of beauty rarely matched in northern climes, and else- where unequalled in Mexico. After dispatching our breakfast, for which we paid (together with our night's lodging and dinner) the sum o^ four dollars, we mounted the dili- gence at 10 o'clock, prepared as usual for the robbers, and set out for Perote. In driving from the town we passed through the public square ; and in the market which is held there I first saw in perfection the profuse quan- tity of tropical fruits (and especially the chirimoya, and granadita,) for which Xalapa is renowned. The market is supplied by the numerous small cultivators from the neighborhood, the females of whom bear a resem- blance to our Northern Indians, which is perhaps even stranger and more remarkable than that of the men. Maiz, the great staff of life for biped and quadruped in our western world, is chiefly used in the tortilla cakes of which we hear so much from Mexican travellers. The sellers of these tough, buckskin victuals, sit in lines along the curb of the side-walks with their fresh cakes in baskets covered with clean napkins to preserve their warmth. There they wait patiently for pur- chasers ; and as tortillas, with a little cMU, or, red pepper boiled in lard, are indispensable at least twice a day for the mass of the people, they are quite sure of a ready sale. With the great mass of Mexicans there is no such thing as domestic cookery. The laborer sallies forth with his clacos in his pocket, and two or three of them will purchase his cakes from an Indian woman. A few steps further on, another Indian woman has a pan boiling over a portable furnace, and containing the required beans or chile. The hungry man squats down beside the seller — makes a breakfast or dinner table of his knees — ^holds out his tortilla spread flat on his hand for a ladle of chil^ MEXICO. 17 MAKING TORTILIAS. and a lump of meat — then doubles up the edges of the cake sandwich fashion, and soon until his appetite is satisfied. He who is better off in the world, or indulges occasionally in a little extravagance, owns a clay flatter. Into this he causes his frijoles, or cliiU and meat, to be thrown, and making a spoon of his tortilia, gradually gets possession of his food, and terminates his repast by eating the spoon itself! There is great economy in this mode of housekeeping, which recommends itself, espe- cially, to the tastes of old bachelors. There are no dishes to be washed — no silver to be cleaned, or cared for. Your Indian — flings down his clacos — stretches himself to his full height — gives a valedictory grunt of satisfaction over a filled stomach — and is off to his labor. Thus wonderful is the frugality not only of the humbler classes, but, indeed, of almost all who have come under my observation in Spanish America. Whether this frugality is a virtue or the result of indalence, it is not necessary for me to stop to enquire. The reader may draw his own conclusions. But all classes are content with less physical comfort than the inhabitants of other countries. .Their diet is poor, their lodging miserable, their clothing coarse, inelegant and inadequate for the climate ; and yet, when the energies and intelligence of the very people who seem so supine are called into action, few men manifest those qualities in a higher degree. Let me, as an illustration, notice the Arrieros, or com- men carriers of the country, by whom almost all the transportation of the 18 MEXICO. most valuable merchandise and precious metals is conducted. They form a very large proportion of the population, yet, by no similar class elsewhere are they exceeded in devoted honesty, punctuality, patient endurance, and skillful execution of duty. Nor is this the less remarka- ble when we recollect the country through which they travel — its disturbed state — and the opportunities consequently 'afforded for transgression. I have never been more struck with the folly of judging of men by mere dress and physiognomy, than in looking at the Arrieros. A man with wild and fierce eyes, tangled hair, slashed trowsers, and greasy jerkin that has breasted many a storm — a person, in fact, to whom you would scarcely trust an old coat when sending it to your tailor for repairs — is frequently in Mexico, the guardian of the fortunes of the wealthiest men for months, on toilsome journies among the mountains and defiles of the inner land. He has a multitude of dangers and difficulties to contend with. He overcomes them all — is never robbed and never robs — and, at the appointed day, comes to your door with a respectful salutation, and tells you that your wares or monies have passed the city gates. Yet this person is often poor, bondless and unsecured — with noth- ing but his fair name and unbroken word. When you ask him if you may rely on his people, he will return your look vvith a surprised glance, and striking his breast, and nodding his head with a proud contempt that his honor should be questioned, exclaim : " Soy Jose Maria, Seiior, por veinte aiios Arriero de Mexico — todo el mundo me conoce .'" " I am Jose Maria, sir, I 'd have you know — an Arriero of Mexico for twenty years — every body knows me !" I regret, that I have been able to give only the faintest pencilling outlinB of Jalapa, which, with all its beauty, has doubtless hitherto been associated most nauseously iu your mind with the drug growing in the neighborhood to which it has given its name.* A beautiful scene, embracing nearly the whole of this little Eden, broke on me as we gained the summit of the last hill above the town. A dell, deep, precipitous, and green as if mossed from the margin of a wood- land spring lay below me, hung on every side with orange trees in bloom and bearing, nodding palms and roses and acacias scenting the air with their fragrance, and peering out among the white walls of dwellings, con- vents, and steeples. In the next quarter of an hour, the mists that had been gathering around the mountains, whirled down on the peaks along which we were travelling, and as the wind occasionally drifted the vapor away, we could see around us nothing but wild plains and mountain spurs covered v/ith volcanic debris, flung into a thousand fantastic forms, among which grew a hardy race of melancholy-looking pines, interspersed * To ?ive you an idea of the profusion of fruit in Jalapa 1 will state a fact. 1 gave a French senant a real 'twelve and a half cents) to purchase me a few oranges, and in a short time he returned vvith a handkerchiei bui-sting under the load— he had received forty for the money. I told the story to a Julapenian with surprise : " They cheated him," said he ; " they should have given him nearly double the number." ARRIEBOS. PLAINOFPEROTE. * 19 with fallen trunks, aloes and agaves. Thus the road gradually as- cended among desolation, until we reached a height where the clouds were lodged on the mountain tops, and a cold, drizzling rain filled the air. In this disagreeable manner, travelling among the clouds, we reached the village of St. Michel, and afterward La Hoya, over a road paved with basalt. From the latter place the scenery is described as magnifi- cent when the day is clear, and the sun is out in its brilliancy. The vapor is said to be then spread out below you like a sea, and the moun- tain tops and little eminences peer above it like so many islands. We passed through the village of " Las Vigas," described by Humboldt, as the highest point on the road to Mexico. The houses in this neighbor- hood are of different construction from those below the mountains, and are built of pine logs, each tree furnishing but one piece of timber of four inches thickness, and the whole width of its diameter ; these are hewn with the axe, and closely fitted. The floors of the dwellings are laid with the same material, and the roofs are shingled. As the houses indicate a colder climate than the one through which we have recently travelled, so does also the appearance of the people, who are hardier and more robust than the inhabitants of the plains skirting the sea. After winding along the edge of the mountain for some hours, we ob- tained an occasional view of the plain of Perote, level as the ocean, and bounded by the distant mountains. The Peak of Orizaba again appeared in the southeast, while the Coffre of Perote towered immediately on our left, and, seemingly in the midst of the plain, rose the Peak of Tepiacualca. Beyond it, on the remotest horizon, was sketched the outline of the snow- capped mountains. All these plains have doubtless been the basins of former lakes ; but they now appear dry and arid, and it is not easy to distinguish how far they are cultivated at the suitable season. During the summer, they present a very different prospect, and, losing the guise of a waste moor, only fit for the sportsman, put on a lively livery of cul- tivation and improvement, far more agreeable than the dark and thorny , maguey and the wilted foliage of dwarfish trees, with which they are now mostly covered. We occasionally see the stubble of last year, but the chief agriculture is evidently carried on upon the slopes and rising ground, where the irrigation is more easy from the adjacent mountains and is not so rapidly absorbed as in the marshy flats. We had not travelled this road without oui usual dread of thieves. Our guns were constantly prepared for attack, and we kept a wary watch, although during nearly the whole day we were accompanied by a party of lancers, who clattered behind us on nimble horses. Some leagues from Perote we approached the " Barranca Seca," a noted haunt of the ladrones ; and as we came within gunshot of the place, a band of horse- men dashed out from the ruins of an old hacienda on our right and gal- loped directly to the carriage. The mist had again come down in heavy wreaths around us, obscuring the prospect at a dozen yards distance; and the guard of troopers had fallen considerably in the rear. What 20 MEXICO. with the fog and the dread of our foes, we were somewhat startled— cocked our weapons — ordered the coach to stop — and were half out of it, when the lancers reined up at full tilt, and after a parley with the new comers, assured us that they were only an additional troop kept here for security. I questioned, and still doubt the truth of this story, as I never saw a more uncouth, or better mounted, armed and equipped set of men. Their pistols, sabres, and carbines were in the best order, and their horses stanch and fleet; but they may have composed a band of old well-known robbers, pensioned off by the Government as a guard ; and willing to take regular pay from the authorities, and gratuities from travellers, as less dangerous than uncertain booty with constant risk of life. Accompanied by these six suspicious rascals and the four lancers, we quickly passed the wild mist-covered moor, and entered the Barranca, a deep fissure worn by time and water into the plain, and overhung, on all sides by lofty trees, while the adjacent parts of the flat country are cut up into similar ravines, embowered with foliage. With all the aids of art, the thieves could not have constructed a more suitable covert ; and, to add to our dismay, soon after entering the Barranca, our coach broke down ! We tramped about in the mud while the accident was repairing, and the guard and its auxiliaries scoured the pass. The quarter of a mile through which the ravine extended was literally lined with crosses, mark- ing the spot of some murder or violent death. These four or five hundred mementos mori, seemed to convert it into a perfect graveyard ; Avhile the broken coach, the dreary day, shrouding mist, approaching night, and savage figures in the scene, made a picture more fit for a Trappist than a quiet traveller fonder of his ease than adventure. We were, however, soon again in our vehicle, and for an hour after- ward the country gradually ascended, until, at sunset, the sky cleared off and we entered Perote by a brilliant starlight. Perote is a small town, containing not more than 2500 people. It is irregularly built ; the houses are only of one low and dark story, erected around large court-yards with the strength of castles. In the middle of the town there is a large square, abundantly supplied by fountains of pure water from the neighboring hills. The Meson is at the further end of the town, and incloses a spacious court-yard, around which on the ground floor (which is the only floor) are a number of brick-paved, windowless stalls, furnished with a bed, a couple of chairs, and a table. No landlord made his appearance to welcome us. We waited a considerable time in the court-yard for his attendance ; but as we received no invitation, S and myself got possession of a consumptive-looking candle, and sallied out to hunt for lodgings. We took possession of one of the dens I have described and sent in our lug- gage ; and carefully locking the door afterward, (as Perote is the head- quarters of villany, and the court-yard was full of unshaved, ill-looking devils wrapped up in blankets,) we left our thin tallow as evidence of our tenure. PEROTE. 21 On one side of the gateway is the fonda, or eating part of the establish- ment, where two or three women were employed cooking sundry strange looking messes. We signified our hunger, and wexe soon called to table. Several officers of the garrison, as well as the stage-load coming from . Mexico, were there before us. The cooking had been done with char- coal, over furnaces, and the color of the cooks, their clothes, the food, and the hearth was identical ; a warning, as in France, never to enter the kitchen before meals. The meats had been good, but were perfectly be- devilled by the culinary imps. Garlic, onions, grease, chile, and God knows what of other nasty compounds, had flavored the food like nothing else in the world but Perote cookery. We tasted, however, of every dish, and that taste answered to allay appetite if not to assuage hunger ; espe- cially as the table-cloth had served many a wayfarer since its last wash- ing, (if it had ever been washed,) and had, besides, doubtless been used for duster, (if they ever dust.) The waiter, too, was a boy, in sooty rao-s, who hardly knew the meaning of a plate, and had never heard of other forks but his fingers. Disgusted, as you may well suppose we were with this supper, I did not remain long at table. We were a set of baulked, hungry men, and withal, tired and peevish. I put my face for a moment outside of the gate, to take a walk, as the night was beautiful ; but S pulled me back again, with a hmt at the notorious reputation of Perote. It was not eight o'clock, but the town was already still as death. Its population had slunk home to their cheerless dwellings, and the streets were as deserted as those of Pompeii, save where a ragged rascal now and then skulked along in the shadow of the houses, buried up in his broad- brimmed som- brero and dirty blanket. We therefore at once retired to our cells ; I threw myself on the bed wrapped in my cloak, in dread of a vigorous attack from the fleas, and slept without^ moving until the driver called us at midnight to start for Puebla. Being already dressed, I required no time for my toilet, and I doubt much if hair-brushes, orris tooth-powder, or the sweet savors of the Rue Vivienne, were ever thought of by a parting guest at Perote ! In half an hour we were once more in the coach galloping out of the town, followed by three dragoons furnished by the officer we had met at supper, who seemed to entertain as poor an opinion as we did of this citadel of vagabondism. Although the sky had been clear and the stars were shining brightly when we retired to bed, a mist was now hanging in low clouds over the plain. The road was, however, smooth and level, and we scampered along nimbly, fear adding stings to our coachman's lash, inasmuch as he was the driver of a diligence that had been robbed last spring, and had received a ball between his shoulders, from the effects of which he had just sufficiently recovered to drive on his first trip since the conflict. We galloped during the whole night, stopping only for a moment to change horses ; nor did we meet a living thing except a pack of jackals, that 22 MEXICO. came bounding beside the coach along the level and almost trackless plain. I never saw half so frightened a man as our coachman, especially when we passed the spot where he had been wounded. Every shrub was a robber — and a maguey of decent size was a whole troop ! The early morning, from the rain which had fallen during the night on this portion of the plain, Avas as cold and raw as November at home ; nor was it until an hour after sunrise that the mists peeled off from the lowlands, and, folding themselves around the distant hills, revealed a prospect as bare and dreary as the Campagna of Rome. LETTER V CITY OF PITEBLA. I SHALL say nothing more of our journey from Perote to Puebla, or of the several uninteresting villages through which we passed. The road led among deep gullies, and was exceedingly dusty on the plains. The towns were usually built of the common adobes, or sun-dried bricks of the country, and neither in their architectural appearance, nor in the character of their inhabitants, offered any attractions for the attention of a traveller. It was, indeed, a tedious and uninteresting drive over the solitary moors, and I have seldom been more gratified at the termination of a day's fatigue than I was when we entered the gateway of our spacious and comfortable inn at Puebla. In addition to the usual discomforts of the road, we had suffered greatly from the heat during the two or three last hours of our ride, and were annoyed by a fine dust, which, heated by a. blazing sun, rolled into our coach from every side, and fell like a parching powder on our skins. A bath was, therefore, indispensable before the dinner, which we found excellent after our fare of the previous night at Perote. In the afternoon I paid a visit to the governor, who promised an escort of dragoons for the rest of the journey to the Capital ; and I then sallied forth, to see as much as possible of this really beautiful city. My recollections of Puebla (comparing it now with Mexico) are far more agreeable than those of the Capital. There is an air of neat- ness and tidiness observable everywhere. The streets are broad, well paved with flat stones, and have a washed and cleanly look. The crowd of people is far less than in the Capital, and they are not so ragged and miserable. House rents are one-half or one-third those of Mexico, and the dwellings are usually inhabited by one family ; but, churches and convents seem rather more plentiful in proportion to the inhabitants. The friars are less numerous, and the secular clergy greater. A small stream skirts the eastern side of Puebla, affording a large water-power for manufacturing purposes. On its banks a public walk has been planted with rows of trees, among which the paths meander, while a neat fountain throws up its waters in the midst of them. The views from this retreat, in the evening, are charmingly picturesque over the eastern plain. On the western side of Puebla lie the extensive piles of buildings belonging to the Convent of St. Francis, situated opposite the entrance of 24 MEXICO. the Alameda — a quiet and retired garden walk to which the cavaliers and donzellas repair before sunset, for a drive in view of the volcanos of Ista- zihuatl and Popocatepetl, which bound the westward prospect with their tops of eternal snow. Near the centre of the city is the great square. It is surrounded on two sides by edifices erected on arches through which the population circulates as at Bologna. On the northern side is the Palace of the Governor, now filled with troops j and directly in front of this is the Cathedral, equal perhaps in size to that of Mexico, but, being eleva- ted upon a platform about ten feet above the level of the square, it is better relieved and stands out from the surrounding buildings with more bold- ness and grandeur. This church is, in all its details and arrangements the most magnifi- cent in the Republic ; and although not desirous to occupy your time with a description of religious edifices, yet, with a view of afFoi'ding some idea of the wealth of this important establishment in a country where the priest- hood is still very powerful, I will venture to remark on a few of those ob- jects that strike the eye of a transient traveller. It is about this Cathedral, I am told, that there is a legend of Puebla, which states that while in process of building, it gained mysteriously in height during the night as much as the masons had wrought during the day. This loas said to he the work of Angels, and hence, the city has ac- quired the holy name of "Puebla de los Angeles." Be this, however, as it may, the church, though neither exactly worthy of divine conception and execution, nor a miracle of art, is extremely tasteful, and one of the best specimens of architecture I saw in Mexico. The material is blue basalt ; the stones are squared by the chisel ; the joints neatly pointed ; and the whole has the appearance of great solidity, being supported by massive buttresses, and terminated at the west by lofty towers filled with bells of sweet and varied tones. Between the towers is the main entrance, over which there is a mass of sculpture of Scripture history in stone and moulded work. Entering by this portal, the edifice, though lofty and extensive, has its efFect greatly marred by the erections over the crypt, altar and choir, which fill the building to near its arched and elevated ceiling. As usual, the church is divided into three parts by rows of massive columns. Out- side of these, under lower arches, are the side aisles, and in the wall the lesser chapels are imbedded, as it were, between columns, and screened from the main edifice by a graceful railing and fanciful gates of wrought iron. A similar rail also incloses the choir and other portions of the build- ing ; and the whole, painted green, is picked out with gilded ornaments. From the centre of the vast dome depends the great chandelier — a weighty mass of gold and silver. It weighs tons. The sum at which it is valued I will not mention ; but you may judge of its extent and price from the fact that, when cleaned thoroughly some years ago, the cost of its purification alone amounted io four thousand dollars ! The great altar, too, is a striking object. It was erected about thirty years ago by one of the bishops of Puebla, and affords the greatest display THE CATHEDRAL. 25 of Mexican marbles in the Republic. The variety of colors is very great, among which is one of a pure and brilliant white, as transparent as ala' baster. The rail and steps, which, of course, are of fine marble, lead to a circular platform eight or ten feet above the floor, beneath which is the sepulchre of the bishops, (constructed entirely of the most precious mate- rials,) divided into niches and panels, and covered with a depressed dome of marble, relieved by bronze and gold circles, from the centre of which depends a silver lamp, for ever burning in the habitation of the dead. To the right of the altar is the gem of the building. It is a fio-ure of the Virgin Mary, nigh the size of life. Dressed in the richest embroi- dered satin, she displays strings of the largest pearls hanging from her neck below her knees. Around her brow is clasped a crown of gold, inlaid with emeralds of a size I had never seen before ; and her waist is bound with a zone of diamonds, from the centre of which blaze num- bers of enormous brilliants ! But this is not all. The candelabras surrounding the platform before the altar, are of silver and gold, and so ponderous that a strong man could neither move nor lifl them. Immediately above the altar, and within the columns of the large temple erected there, is a smaller one, the interior of which is displayed or concealed by secret machinery. From this the Host, amid a blaze of priceless and innumerable jewels, is exhibited to the kneeling multitude. ^ The principal dome is, of course, in the centre of the church ; and oppo- site the front of the altar is the choir, remarkable, principally, for the workmanship and preservation of the richly carved woodwork of its stalls for the canons and clergy. Above the seat of the bishop is a pic- ture of St. Peter, formed by the inlaying of different woods ; yet so skil- fully is this work of art executed, that at a. short distance it has all the effect and gracefulness of a painting in oil. It is to be regretted that the organ is rather too small for so large a building, and that the rich tone of the noble instrument is therefore greatly lost in the services of a church where the effect of the Catholic rite, amid so many other magnificent adjuncts, would be greatly enhanced in pomp by the perfection of solemn music. It was too obscure to see the pictures which are said to be worthy of notice, or the three sets of valuable jewels of the bishop; and we there- fore departed at dusk from this mine of wealth and splendor. As I went out of the door in the dim twilight, and found a miserable and ragged woman kneeling before the image of a saint, and heard the hollow sounding of her breast as she beat it with penitential fervor; I could not help askmg myself, if the church that subsisted upon alms, in order to be the greatest almoner of the nation, had fulfilled its sacred charge while there was one diamond in the zone of the Virgin, or one homeless or foodless wretch in the whole Republic. LETTER VI. THE PYRAMID OF CHOLTTLA. Three leagues westwardly from the city of Puebia lie the remains of the ancient Indian Pyramid of Cholula, and you reach them by a pleas- ant morning ride over the plain. This is one of the most remarkable relics of the Aborigines on the Con- tinent ; for, although it was constructed only of the adobes, or common sun-dried bricks, it still remains in sufficient distinctness to strike every observer with wonder at the enterprise of its Indian builders. What it was intended for, whether tomb or temple, no one has determined with certainty, though the wisest antiquarians nave been guessing since the conquest. In the midst of a plain the Indians erected a mountain. The base still remains to give us its dimensions ; but what was its original height 1 Was it the tomb of some mighty lord, or sovereign prince ; or was it alone a place of sacrifice ? Many years ago, in cutting a new road toward Puebia from Mexico, it became necessary to cross a portion of the base of this pyramid. The excavation laid bare a square chamber, built of stone, the roof of which was sustained by cypress beams. In it were found some idols of basalt, a number of painted vases, and the remains of two bodies. No care was taken of these relics by the discoverers, and they are lost to us for ever. Approaching the pyramid from the east, it appears so broken and overgrown with trees that it is difficult to make out any outline distinctly. The view from the west, however, which I have given on the opposite page, will convey to you some idea of this massive monument as it rises in solitary grandeur from the midst of the wide-spreading plain. A well- paved road, cut by the old Spaniards, ascends from the northwest corner, with steps at regular intervals, obliquing first on the west side to the upper bench of the terrace, and thence returning toward the same side until it is met by a steep flight rising to the front of the small, dome-crowned chapel, surrounded with its grove of cypress, and dedicated to the Virgin of Remedios. The summit is perfectly level and protected by a parapet wall, whence a magnificent view extends on every side over the level valley. What- ever this edifice may have been, the idea of thus attaining permanently an elevation to which the people might resort for prayer — or even for parade or amusement — was a sublime conception, and entitles the men who centuries ago patiently erected the lofty pyramid, to the respect of m PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 27 posterity. If his ancestor celebrated, here, a bloody sacrifice of victims taken in battle, the modern Indian may purify the hill from the crime by the celebration of a peaceful mass, and the sermon of a worthy padre! There remain at present but four stories of the Pyramid of Cholula., risincr above each other and connected by terraces. These stories are formed, as I before said, of sun-dried bricks, interspersed with occasional layers of plaster and stone work. And this is all that is to be told or described. Old as it is — interestincr as it is — examined as it has been by ^ antiquaries of all countries — the result has ever been the same. The y-V Indians tell you that it was a place of sepulture, and the Mexicans give ^^y^ vou the universal reply of ignorance in this country: " Qulen SaheV — 'J'' HAf- who knows — who can tell ! For those who are interested particularly in Mexican antiquities since the recent publications of Mr. Stephens, and the beautiful drawings of Mr. Catherwood, have greatly familiarized almost all classes with the monuments of ancient American grandeur, I will translate some of the descriptive remarks of the Baron Humboldt, who visited these ruins near the beginning of our century. " The Pyi'amid of Cholula," says he, " is exactly of the same height as that of Tonatiuh Ytxaqual, at Teotihuacan," (which I shall describe hereafter.) " It is 3 metres higher than that of Mycerinus, or the third of the great Egyptian pyramids of the group of Djizeh. Its base, how- ever, is larger than that of any pyramid hitherto discovered by travellers in the old world, and is double of that known as the Pyramid of Cheops. " Those who wish to form an idea of the immense mass of this Mexican monument by the comparison of objects best known to them, may imagine a square, ybwr times greater than that of the Place Vendome in Paris, cov- ered with layers of bricks rising to twice the elevation of the Louvre ! Some persons imagine that the whole of the edifice is not artificial ; but as far as explorations have been made, there is no reason to doubt that it is en- tirely a work of art. In its present state (and we are ignoi'ant of its per- feet original height,) its perpendicular proportion is to its base as S to 1, while in the three great pyramids of Djizeh, the proportion is found to be 1^ to 1^^ to 1 ; or, nearly, as 8 to 5." May not this have been but the base of some mighty temple destroyed long before the conquest, and of which even the tradition no longer lin- gers among the neighboring Indians ! In order to afford you additional means of comparison, I annex the fol- lowing table, also from Humboldt, of the relative proportions of several well known pyramids. The feet are jpieds du roi : PYRAMIDS BUILT OF STONE. PYRAMIDS OF BRICK. Cheops. Cephren. Mycerinus. Height 448 feet. 303 feet. 162 feet Base. 72a 655 580 1 of5 stones in Egypt <— of4 stories in Mexico—- near Sakharah. Teotihuacan. Cholula 150 feet. 171 feet. 172 f 210 645 1355 28 MEXICO. In continuation, Humboldt observes, that "the inhabitants of Analiuac apparently designed giving the Pyramid of Cholula the same height, and double the base of the Pyramid at Teotihuacan, and that the Pyramid of Asychis, the largest known of the Egyptians, has a base of 800 feet; and is like that of Cholula, built of brick. The cathedral of Strasburg is 8 feet, and the cross of St. Peters, at Rome, 41 feet, lower than the top of the Pyramid of Cheops. Pyramids exist throughout Mexico ; In the for- ests of Papantla at a short distance above the level of the sea ; on the plains of Cholula and of Teotihuacan, at the elevations Avhich exceed those of the passes of the Alps. In the most widely distant nations, in climates the most ditferent, man seems to have adopted the same style of construction ; the same ornaments, the same customs ; and to have placed himself under the government of the same political institutions !" Is this an argument that all men have sprung only from one stock ? or that the human mind is the same everywhere, and, affected by similar interests or necessities invariably comes to the same result, whether in pomting a pyramid, or an arrow ; in making a law, or a ladle ? Much as I distrust all the dark and groping efforts of antiquarians, I will nevertheless offer you some sketches and legends, which may serve, at least, to base a conjecture upon as to the divinity to whom this pyra- mid was erected ; and to prove, perhaps, that it was intended as the foundation of a temple, and not the covering of a tomb. A tradition which has been recorded by a Dominican monk who visited Cholula in 1566, is thus related from his work, by the traveller to whom I have already referred : " Before the great inundation, which took place 4800 years after the creation of the world, the country of Auahuac was inhabited by giants, all of whom either perished m the inundation, or were transformed into fishes, save seven who fled into caverns. " When the waters subsided, one of the giants, called Xelhua, surnamed "the Architect," went to Cholula, where, as a memorial of the Tlaloc* which had served for an asylum to himself and his six brethren, he built an artificial hill in the form of a pyramid. He ordered bricks to be made in the province of Tlalmanalco, at the foot of the Sierra of Cocotl, and in order to convey them to Cholula, he placed a file of men who passed them from hand to hand. The gods beheld, with wrath, an edifice the top of which was to reach the clouds. Irritated at the daring attempt of Xelhua, they hurled fire on the pyramid ! Numbers of the workmen perished. The work was discontinued, and the monument was after- ward dedicated to Qtjetzalcoatl." * Tlie mountain of Tlaloc lies in a westerly direction from the Pyramid of Cholula, about thirty miles. It was visited last year, and ascended with much diificulty by Mr. Ward and Mr. Jamieson, who found, upon the very summit, the remains of extensive walls, the sides of which were due north and south. The day was ex- ceedingly cold, and. suffering from the keen mountain air, they were unable to extend their explorations, espe- cially as they were not prepared either with the necessary tooU, or to tpend some Ume on tlie summit. They dug, however, with the blades of their swords among the ruins, and found a number of small images and headj of clay, similar to those which will be hereafter described. CHOLULAN MYTHOLOGY. 29 Now of this god Quetzalcoatl, we have the following story, which is given by Dr. M'Culloh, the most learned and laborious of writers upon American antiquities. " Quetzalcoatl, or the ' Feathered Serpent,' was among the Mexi- cans, and all other nations of Auahuac, ' god of the air.' He was said to have been once high priest of Tula. They figured him tall, huge, of a fair complexion, broad forehead, large eyes, long black hair and flowing beard. From a love of decency he wore always a long robe, which was repre:sented to have been spotted all over with red crosses. He was so rich that he had palaces of gold, silver, and precious stones. He was thought to possess the greatest industry, and to have invented the art of melting metals, and cutting gems. He was supposed to have had the most profound vvdsdom, which he displayed in the laws he left to man- kind, and, above all, the most rigid and exemplary manners. Whenever he intended promulgating a law to his kingdom, he ordei'ed a crier to the top of the mountain Tzatzitepec, or ' Mil of shouting ;' near the city of Tula, from whence his voice teas heard for three hundred miles. In his time the corn grew so strong that a single ear was a load for a man. Gourds were as long as a man's body. It was unnecessary to dye cotton, for it grew of all colors ; all their fruits were in the same abund- ance, and of an extraordinary size. There was also at that period, an incredible number of beautiful and sweet-singing birds. In a word, the Mexicans imagined as much happiness under the priesthood of Quetzal- coatl, as the Greeks did under the reign of Saturn, whom this Mexican god also resembled in the exile he suffered. " Amid all this prosperity Tezcatlipoca, their supi'eme but visible god, (we know not for what reason,) wishing to drive him from Tula, appeared to him in the form of an aged man, and told him it was the will of the gods that he should be taken to the kingdom of Tlapalla. At the same time he offered him a beverage, which was readily accepted, in hopes of obtaining that immortality after which he aspired. He no sooner drank it than he felt himself so strongly tempted to go to Tlapalla, that he set out at once, accompanied by many of his faithful subjects. Near the city of Quauhtitlan, he i»jlled a ti'ee with stones, which remained fixed in the trunk ; and at Tlalnepautla he laid his hand upon a stone and left an impression which the Mexicans showed to the Spaniards. Upon his arrival at Cholula the citizens detained him, and made him take the government of their city. He showed much aversion to cruelty, and could not bear the mention of war. To him, the Cholulans say, they owe their knowledge of melting metals, the laws by which they were afterward governed, the rites and ceremonies of their religion, and, as some say, the arrangement of their seasons and calendar. After resi- ding for 20 years in Cholula, he resolved to pursue his journey to his imaginary kingdom of Tlapalla, carrying along M'ith him four noble and virtuous youths ; but, on arriving at the maritime province of Coatzaco- alcO; he dismissed them, and desired them to assure the Cholulans that ~ 3 30 MEXICO. he would return to comfort and direct them. Some said that he suddenly disappeared, others that he died on tlie sea-shore ; but however that may be, Quetzalcoatl teas consecrated as a god by the Toltecas of Cholula, and made chief guardian of their city, in the centre of which, in honor of him, they raised a great eminence on which they built a temple. Another eminence, surmounted by a temple, was afterward erected to him in Tula. From Cholula his worship was spread over the country, where he was adored as ' the god of the air.' He had temples in Mexico and elsewhere, and some nations, even the enemies of the Cholulans, had temples and priests dedicated to his worship in the city of Cholula, whither persons came from all parts of the land to pay their devotions and fulfil their vows. His festivals were great and extraordinary, espe- cially in Cholula. "In every fourth, or divine year, they were preceded by a rigid fast of eighty days, and by dreadful austerities practiced by the priests conse- crated to his worship. The Mexicans said, that Quetzalcoatl cleared the way for the ' god of the water,' because in these countries rain is gen- erally preceded by wind." The following singular story in relation to this divinity and certain services of his temple, is to be found in the Nat. and Mor. Hist, of Acosta, book v. chap. 30. " There was at this temple of Quetzalcoatl at Cholula, a court of rea- sonable greatness, in which they made great dances and pastimes with games and comedies, on the festival days of this idol ; for which purpose there was in the midst of this court a theatre of thirty feet square, very finely decked and trimmed — the which they decked with flowers that day — with all the art and invention that might be, being environed around with arches of divers flowers and feathers, and in some places there were tied many small birds, conies, and other tame beasts. After din- ner all the people assembled in this place, and the players presented themselves and played comedies. Some counterfeited the deaf and rheumatic ; others the lame ; some the blind and crippled which came to seek for cure from the idol. The deaf answered confusedly; the rheumatic coughed ; the lame halted, telling their miseries and griefs, wherewith they made the people to laugh. Others came tbrth in the form of little beasts, some attired like snails, others like toads, and some like lizards ; then meeting together they told their offices, and every one re- tirino- to his place, they sounded on small flutes, which was pleasant to hear. They likewise counterfeited butterflies and small birds of divers colors, which were represented by the children who Avere sent to the tem- ple for education. Then they went into a little forest, planted there for the purpose, whence the priests of the temple drew them forth with instru- ments of music. In the mean time they used many pleasant 'speeches, some in propounding, others in defending, wherewith the assistants were pleasantly entertained. This done, they made a masque, or mummery with all these personages, and so the feast ended." CHOLULAN MYTHOLOGY. 31 From these traditions, we derive several important facts. First, that QtTETZALCOATL, was " god of the air :" Second, that he was represented as a " feathered serpent :" Third, that he was the great divinity of the Cho- lulans : and, Fourth, that a hill was raised by them upon which they erected a temple to his glory, where they celebrated his festivals with pomp and splendor. Combining all these, is it unreasonable to believe that the Pyramid of Cholula was the base of this temple, and that he was there worshipped as the Great Spirit of the air — or of the seasons ; the God who produced the fruitfulness of the earth, regulated the sun, the wind and the shower, and thus spread plenty over the land ? I have thought, too, that the serpent might not improbably typify lightning, and the feathers, swiftness ; thus denoting one of the attributes of *^e air — and that the most speedy and destructive. In a worship of propitiation, it would be most proper and reasonable that that destructive element should be personified and supplicated. In the city of Mexico I constantly saw serpents, carved in stone, in the various collections of antiquities. One was presented to me by the Conde del PeBiasco, and the drawings below represent the figures of two "feathered serpents," which, after considerable labor I disinterred (I may say,) from a heap of dirt and rubbish, old boxes, chicken- coops and de- caved fruit, in the court-yard of the University. 32 ]\I E X I C , These masses of stone are not only interesting on ac- count of their connection with the Mexican Mythology, but they are beautiful specimens of Azteck art. The carv- ing with which they are cov- ered is executed with a neat- ness and gracefulness that would make them, as mere ornaments, worthy of the chisel of an ancient sculptor. The present town of Cho- lula is scarcely more than a village, and seems gradually still more decaying. At the conquest it was a city of much splendor, as we gather from the accounts of Cortez, who, in his letters to the Emperor speaks of it thus : " This-city of Churultecal* is situated on a plain, and contains twenty thousand houses within the body of the town, and as many in the suburl. Its people are well dressed, and its neighboring field.vare exceedingly fertile ; and I certify to your ma- jesty, that, from one of the temples I have counted more than four hundred towers, and they are all the toioers of temples /" Such was Cholula when it fell under the Spanish sway, and there seems to be no reason to doubt, that, " sacred city" as it was held to be by the Indians of the period, the account of Cortez was indeed correct. But the temple is year after year crumbling, more and more, to decay ; its outlines are becoming more and more indistinct ; and of the race that worshipped on that pyramid, there now remains nothing but a few servile Indians who till the adjacent fields, and the women who throng the market-place with their fruits and flowers. I wanted some relics of the spot, and commissioning a proud-looking fellow, who may have been, for aught I know, a great great-great-great-grandson of some of the lords of Cholula, to hunt uf a few antiquities ; he brought me, after an hour's search among the ruins a quantity of pottery, heads of animals, fragments of vases, and a smal idol sculptured in white marble. These are my souvenirs of Cholula. * The ancient name of Cholula. LETTER VII. LAST DAY'S RIDE TO MEXICO. Soon after our departure from Puebla,* we crossed a small stream spanned by a fine bridge, and commenced ascending by a very gradually inclined plain toward the Sierra Nevada. The mountains on our left are a stupendous range, standing out sharply against the bright blue sky, in the clear early light and pure atmosphere, their lower portions covered with dark pine forests, from which the conic peak of Popocatepetl, with its eternal snow, emerges majestically ; while, further north, towers its gigantic rival, Iztaccihijatl. Between us and the mountains is the Pyeamid of Cholitla. As we approach this elevated region, the countiy becomes well watered, and the plain is just sufficiently inclined for irri- gation ; the soil rich, the estates extensive, and cultivated with the greatest care. Immense herds of cattle are spread over the fields, and the land, now preparing for the winter crops, is divided into extensive tracts of a thousand acres, along which the furrows are drawn with mathematical accuracy. Among these noble farms a multitude of habitations are scattered, which, inclosing the numerous population necessary for labor, with the requisite chapels, churches, and surrounding offices, gleam out brightly with their white walls from among the dark foliage of the groves, and impress one as favorably as the multitude of tasteful villages that dot the windings of our beautiful Connecticut. We breakfasted hastily at San Martin, and for the next league our ascent was almost imperceptible. At length we crossed several fine streams, and the road, rising rapidly, struck more into the mountain. There was no longer any sign of cultivation, even in the dells, but the * It is nut over two or three hundred yards ftom the gates of Puebla, where most of the robberies of which I aftenvard heard during my residence in 3Iesico, occurred. A band of some fire, ten, ox a dozen men, armed, witli their faces covered with crape, usually stood waiting in the early dawn, for the dOigence. If there were armed foreigners in the coach, they would look in, consult a moment, and then ride oif. If the passengers were unarmed, and the boot of the vehicle looked heavy and temptmg, the result was the perfect sacking of the whole company. Their persons were first robbed and partially stripped as they descended from the door ; they were then made to lie down with their mouths on the ground— and their trunks were rifled. One lady (the present prima donna of the opera in Mexico) lost S6000 in doubloons and jewels, at this very spot— notwith- standing a guard had been promised by the authorities, and paid for. The instances, however, were innu- merable and unpardonable, while regiments of cavalry dozed, within a quarter of a mile, in a city almost under Martial Law. While I resided in the Capital, during Santa Anna's vigorous administration, he had some 65 or 70 garrotted. Two or three every week. This for a time struck terror to the band ; but 1 learn that lately they have again .aken to the road with renewed vigor. 34 MEXICO. dense forest spread, out on every side its sea of foliage. The road was as smooth as a bowling-green, and we swung along over the levels, up hill and down, until we passed the Puente de Tesmeluca, over a stream dashino- from a mountain ravine like a shower of silver from among the verdure. After again ascending another mountain, and following its de- scent on the other side, we reached the village of Rio Frio, a collection of the miserable huts of coal-burners, and the nest and nursery of as fierce a brood of robbers as haunt the forests. In proof of this, and, moreover, that the Cross, in this land, is no " sign of redemption,'' the sacred emblem was again spread out on every side, as yesterday in the Barranca Secca, marking the grave of some murdered traveller. We were once more in the fields of romance and robbery; yet, well guarded to-day by a vigilant troop, and in good spirits at the near termination of our trials, we again launched forth for our final ride. Leaving this narrow and desolate ravine among the hills, the road once more ascends by a series of short windings through the pine woods, among which the wind whistled cold and shrill as over our winter plains ; and, thus grad- ually scaling the last mountain on our route, while the increased guard scoured the recesses of the forest, we reached the lofty summit in about an hour, and rolled for some distance along a level table land, catching glimpses, occasionally, of a distant horizon to the west, apparently as illimitable as the sea. The edge of the mountain was soon turned, and as the coach dipped forward on the descent of the western slope, a sudden clearing in the forest disclosed the magnificent Valley, of Mexico. The sight of land to the sea-worn sailor — the sight of home to the wan- derer, who has not beheld for years the scene of his boyhood — are not hailed with more thrilling delight than was the exclamation from one of our passengers as he announced this prospect. I am really afraid to describe this valley to you, as I dislike to deal in hyperboles. I have seen the Simplon — the Spleugen — the view from Rhigi — the " wide and winding Rhine " — and the prospect from Vesuvius over the lovely bay of Naples, its indolent waves sleeping in the warm sunshine on their purple bed — but none of these scenes compare with the Valley of Mexico. They want some one of the elements of grandeur, all of M^hich are gathered here. Although the highest triumphs of human genius and art may disappoint you, Nature never does. The conceptions of Him who laid the foundations of the mountains, and poured the waters of the seas from his open palm, can never be reached by the fancies of men. And if, after all the exaggerated descriptions of St. Peter's and the Pyramids, we feel sick with disappointment when we stand before them, it is never so with the sublime creations of the Almighty. You would, therefore, no doubt, most readily spare my attempting to give by the pen a description of what even the more graphic pencil has ever failed faithfully to convey. But I feel in some measure bound to make for you a catalogue of this valley's features, though I am confident I must fail to describe or paint them. VALLEY OF MEXICO. 35 Conceive yourself placed on a mountain nearly two thousand feet above the valley,andnine thousand above the level of the sea. A sky above you of the most perfect azure, without a cloud, and an atmosphere so trans- parently pure, that the remotest objects at the distance of many leagues are as distinctly visible as if at hand. The gigantic scale of everything first strikes you — you seem to be looking down upon a world. No other mountain and valley view has such an assemblage of features, because nowhere else are the mountains at the same time so high, the valley so wide, or filled with such variety of land and water. The plain beneath is exceedingly level, and for two hundred miles around it extends a barrier of stupendous mountains, most of which have been active volcanos, and are now covered, some with snow, and some with forests. It is laced with large bodies of water looking more like seas than lakes — it is dotted with innumerable villages, and estates and plantations ; eminences rise from it which, elsewhere, would be called mountains, yet there, at your feet, they seem but ant-hills on the plain ; and now, letting your eye fol- low the rise of the mountains to the west, (near fifty miles distant,) you look over the immediate summits that wall the valley, to another and more distant range — and to range beyond range, with valleys between each, until the whole melts into a vapory distance, blue as the cloudless sky above you. I could have gazed for hours at this little world while the sun and passing vapor chequered the fields, and sailing off" again, left the whole one bright mass of verdure and water — bringing out clearly the domes of the village churches studding the plain or leaning against the first slopes of the mountains, with the huge lakes looming larger in the rarified at- mosphere. Yet one thing was wanting. Over the immense expanse there seemed scarce an evidence of life. There were no figures in the picture. It lay torpid in tlie sunlight, like some deserted region where Nature was again beginning to assert her empire — vast, solitary and melancholy. There were no sails — no steamers on the lakes, no smoke over the villages, no people at labor in the fields, no horsemen, coaches, or travellers but ourselves. The silence was almost supernatural ; one expects to hear the echo of the national strife that filled these plains with discord, yet lingering among the hills. It was a picture of " still life " inanimate in every feature, save where, on the distant mountain sides, the fire of some poor coal-burner, mingled its blue wreath with the bluer sky, or the tinkle of the bell of a solitary muleteer was heard from among the dark and solemn pines. What a theatre for the great drama that has been performed within the limits of this valley ! When Cortez first stood upon these mountains, and looked down on the lovely scene, peaceful then and rich under the cultivation of its Indian children ; the hills and plains covered with for- ests, and much of what is now dry land hidden by the extensive lake, in the midst of which rose the proud city of the Aztec kings filled with pal- aces and temples ; in site, another Venice on its inland sea \ in art, the 36 MEXICO. Indian Attica — when he beheld, 1 say, this tranquil scene at his feet, wha'i must have been the avarice and the relentlessness of an unknightly heart that urged him onward to the destruction and enslavement of a civilized and unoffending people, whose only crime was, the possession of a coun- try rich enough to be plundered to minister to the luxury of a bigoted race beyond the sea ! ******* Our descent commenced from the eminence where we had halted awhile to survey the valley. Our coachman was an honest Yankee, fearless as the wild horses he drove, and they scoured along under his lash as if we had the level roads of New England beneath us. But, alas ! we had not. I question whether there are any such roads elsewhere — in the world — nor can you conceive them, because your experience among the wilds of the Aroostook or the marshes of the Mississippi, can furnish no symptoms of such highways. They were gullies, washed into the mountain side by the rains; filled, here and there, with stones and branches ; dammed up, to turn the water, by mounds a couple of fee*, high — and thus, gradually serpentining to the foot of the declivity. Yol, may readily imagine that there was no such thing as rolling down with our rapid motion over such a ravine. We literallj jumped from dam to dam, and rock to rock, and in many places where the steep is certainly at an angle of 45°, I must confess that I quailed at the impending dange? while the horses bounded along as fiercely as if they bore Mazeppa. But the driver knew what he was about, and in an hour drew up at the Venta de Cordova, where, when I alighted, I found myself deaf and giddy from the heat, dust, and irregular motion. In a few moments, however, the blood poured from my head and I was relieved, though I felt ill and un- comfortable the rest of the day. Two of the other passengers suffered in the same manner.* The succeeding distance of about thirty miles lies along the level, and skirts a detached range of volcanic hills between the lakes of Tezcoco and Chalco, the same which I described, some time ago, as rising like ant-heaps from the plain. We passed the village of Ayotla, and through a number of collections of mud-walled huts and desolate hovels, buried up among palm-trees and fields of barley and maguey, (resembling the streets of ruined tombs near Rome ;) but nowhere did I see any evidence of neat or careful cultivation, or of comfort and thriftiness. In this the valley of Mexico is, markedly, different from that of Puebla. Misery and neglect reigned absolute. Squalid Indians in rags exhibiting almost entirely their dirty bodies, thronged the road ; miserable devils corning * Almost all travellers suffer from giddiness and flow of blood to the head on their arrival on the Vallej of Mexico. This arisee from the great rarefaction of the atmosphere, 7500 feet above the level of the se&. APPROACHING THE CAPITAL. 37 from market ; children, half-starved and naked, and women, whose wiry and uncombed hair gave them the mien of porcupines. At length, as we gained the top of a little eminence our driver pointed out the "City of Mexico :" — a long line of turrets, and domes, and spires, lying in the lap of beautiful meadows, and screened, partially, by inter- vening trees, planted along the numerous avenues leading to the Capital. About two leagues from the city we came to the ancient border of the lake of Tezcoco, now a marshy flat from which the waters have receded. Here we mounted the Calzada, or causeway, raised about six feet above the surrounding waters. This road is not one of the ancient avenues by which the city was ap- proached, across the lake, during the reign of the Indians, but was con- structed at great expense by the old Spanish Government. Although the land to the north of it is covered with saline particles that are perfectly visible as you ride along, yet the southern flats, being watered by the fresher stream from Chalco which flows through several apertures of the dike, are in no manner discolored. The northern marsh was covered with myriads of ducks, and looked as if it had been literally peppered with wild fowl. These birds are murdered in immense quantities with a sort of infernal machine, formed by the union of a great number of aun- barrels, and they furnish the chief food of the poor of Mexico. Thus, about four o'clock, we passed this unprepossessing approach to the Capital, driving by the body of a man who had just been murdered, lying on the road side, with the blood flowing from his recent wound. Hundreds passed, but no one noticed him. At the gates we were detained only a moment for examination, and we entered the city by the Puerta de San Lazaro. A saint who suffered from impure blood, and presides over sores, may well be the patron of .that portal and portion of the suburbs through which we jolted over disjoined pavements, while the water lay green and putrid in the stagnant gutter, festering in the middle of close streets, swarmed with ragged thousands. As I looked at them from our window, they seemed more like a population of witches, freshly dismounted from their broomsticks, than anything else to which, in fancy, I can readily compare them. But the journey ended as we drove to the hotel Vergara, where a dirty court-yard, filled with sheep, chickens, horses, bath-houses, and a black- smith's shop, received our jaded crew. I found that a kind friend had already prepared rooms for me, where, after a bath and dinner, 1 was made as comfortable as possible, by the attentions of a hospitable land- lady. LETTER VIII. THE CITY OF MEXICO. You left me retiring to rest at my hotel in Mexico, and- soundly did I repose after my last fatiguing ride from the mountains and over the plain to the city. I was roused, however, betimes by the clang of the church bells for early mass. This sound I had not heard since my visit to Italy many years ago, and it brought back to me many pleasant memo- ries, as I lay half awake and half dreaming, during the early hours. When I arose other recollections of Italy were excited. The wmdows, descending to the ground, of the brick-paved room, thrown open, let in an air worthy of Naples the beautiful ! It was the middle of November, but there was a May-mildness in the atmosphere. The sky was of that deep ultra-marine blue peculiar to elevated regions. As I ranged my eye down the street from my balcony, the town was alive with a teeming population ; the windows of the houses stood open ; fair women strolled homeward from mass ; old monks shuffled along in their cowled robes ; the butcher urged along his ass with its peripatetic stall hung around with various meats ; freshly-leaved flowers and trees stood in the court- yards, of which I caught glimpses through the opened portals ; and in the balconies lounged the early risers, enjoying a cigar after their cup of chocolate. It was a lively and beautiful scene, worthy of the pencil of that master painter of cities — Cannaletli, who would have delighted in the remarkable transparency and purity of the atmosphere through which the distant hills, som.e twenty miles ofi", seemed but a barrier at the end of the street ! The plan of the city of Mexico is precisely that of a checquer-board with a greater number of squares. Straight streets cross each other at right-angles and at regular intervals. The houses are painted with gay colors — light blue, fawn, and green, interspersed with a pure white, that remains long unstained in the dry atmosphere. The view of all these from the elevated tower of the cathedral, (to which I soon repaired after my arrival in the capital,) presents a mass of domes, steeples, and flat-roofed dwellings, frequently covered, like hang ing gardens, with flowers and foliage. Beyond the gates, (which you would scarcely think bounded a population of 200,000,) the vast plain stretches out on every side to the mountains, traversed in some places by PLAZA AND PARIAN. 39 long lines of aqueducts sweeping to the city from the hills, and in others, studded with lakes, cultivation, and beautiful groves, until the distant view is closed by the volcanoes, whose snows rest against the blue sky, uncovered, at this season, by a single cloud. Below is the great square or Plaza ; a large paved area, fronted on the north, by the Cathedral ; on the east, by the National Palace, (the resi- dence of the President ;) to the south of which, again, are the museum, and a stone edifice recently built in tasteful style, for a market. The corner-stone* of this was laid after I arrived in Mexico, and before I left, the building was nearly completed. Until that time the fruits, flow- ers, vegetables, and most of the necessaries of the table, had been sold on that spot, in shambles and booths built of lamboos and reeds, sheltered from the rain and sun hy thatched roofs ! In the southwestern corner of the square is the Parian, an unsightly building (erected, I believe, since the revolution,) which greatly mars the effect of the Plaza. It is a useful establishment, however, as it affords a large revenue to the municipality, and is the great bazaar where every article requisite for the dress of Mexicans, male or female, may be pur- chased at reasonable prices. On the pavement which runs round it, sit numbers of coachmen whose stand is in the neighborhood, and crowds of women with ready-made shoes. Not the least curious, however, among the multitude, with which this side-walk is generally thronged, are about a dozen " evangelistas,'" or " letter-writers," whose post is always on the curb-stones of the eastern front of the Parian. A huge jug of ink is placed beside them; a board rests across their knees; a pile of different colored paper (most of which is either cut, valentine fashion, or flourished over and adorned with pen-and-ink ornaments,) is placed on it, and, on a stool before them, sits some disconsolate looking damsel or heart-broken * A medal was struck iq commemoration of this event, the legend on which I give for the sake of those who are curious in inscriptions of " modern" latin. The medal is perfectly plain, and of silver. PEECEARViS MILITIE EEIPVBLICE QVEDTJX ANTOKIOPEZ MDCCCXLI. 40 MEXICO lover, pouring out a passion which the scribe puts into becoming phrase- ology. It is an important trade ; and more money is earned in Mexico by this proxy-malfing love^ than perhaps anywhere else. You can have a "declaration^' for one rial; a scolding letter for a medio; and an up- braiding epistle, full of daggers, jealousy, love, and tenderness, (leaving the unfortunate recipient in a very distracted state of mind,) done upon azure paper be-sprinkled with hearts and doves, for the ridiculous price ■ of twenty-five cents ! West of the Parian, and all around the southern and western sides of the Plaza, or those portions of it which are not directly occupied by the Cathedral and National Palace, run the arched Portales, similar to the arcades of Bologna. These are filled with gay shops, peddlers, caffes, old clothes, toys, flower-venders, sweetmeats, bookstalls, cutlers, curiosity- hunters, antiquities, (veritable and doubtful,) and the usual crowd of loungers and quidnuncs. Here the last revolution, or the probability of a new one, is in continual discussion, by knots of idlers. Above stairs, in some of the dwellings, are gambling-houses, as formerly in the Palais Royal, with which the scene here presented does not, of course, vie in taste or splendor. Opposite to the southern end of the Parian is the Casa Municipal, or town-hall, in the lower story of which is the Lonja, (the Exchange of the merchants of Mexico,) a noble room, filled with all the gazettes of the Republic, of Europe, and the United States, and adjoined by an apart- ment in which readers may occasionally amuse themselves with a game of billiards. Descending from the tower of the Cathedral, let us enter the doors of the sacred edifice. Its floor is of loose disjointed boards, filled with dirt and filth — the cov- ering of the many dead who lie mouldering beneath. But with this, all meanness ends ; and whether we contemplate the dimensions of the edifice, or the millions that have been spent upon its decoration, the mind is lost in wonder. It is impossible for me to describe the whole of this building to you — a book would not suffice for the immense and minute detail with which its walls and altars are embellished. In order to afford you some idea of the wealth of the church, generally — and passing over plate glass and crystal, silver frames, lamps, carving and gilding enough to make an ordinary metropolitan church blaze with splendor — I will only mention one object in the body of the building : the altar and its accessories. The Cathedral occupies a space of 500 feet by 420 front. The main altar is not erected against the wall, but near the centre of the edifice, beneath the dome. From this, extending around the choir probably two THELEPEROS. 41 hundred feet, there is a rail between four and five feet high, and of propor- tionable thickness, composed of gold, silver, and a small alloy of Irasn. This is surmounted with silver statues for candles. In front of the altar is the choir, itself a church, built of dark woods of the rarest antique carving. The altar (placed upon a marble platform, elevating it from the floor of the building, and covered with gold and silver ornaments, candlesticks and crosses,) is of wrought and polished silver; and the whole is sur- mounted by a small temple, in which rests the figure of the Virgin of Remedies, who enjoys the exclusive right to three petticoats ; one emhroi- dered witli f earls, another with emeralds, and a third with diamonds, the value of which, I am credilly informed, is not less than three millions of dollars ! This, you will recollect, is onXj one part of one church in Mexico, and that one said not to be the richest ! Around this splendid mine of wealth are half-naked Indians, gaping with surprise, or kneeling to the figure of some favorite saint — the misery of the man a painful contrast with the splendor of the shrine ! Passing from the Cathedral door to the south-eastern portion of the city, you reach the outskirts, crossing, in your way, the canals from the lake. I have rarely seen such miserable suburbs ; they are filled with hovels built of sun-dried bricks, often worn with the weather to the shape of holes in the mud, while on their earthen floors crawl, cook, live and multiply, the wretched-looking population of Uperos. This word, I believe, is not pure Spanish, but is derived originally, it is said, from the Castilian lepra, or leper ; and although they do not suffer from that loathsome malady, they are quite as disgusting. Blacken a man in the sun ; let his hair grow long and tangled, or be- come filled with vermin ; let him plod about the streets in all kinds of dirt for years, and never know the use of brush, or towel, or water even, except in storms ; let him put on a pair of leather breeches at twenty, and wear them until forty, without change or ablution ; and, over all, place a torn and blackened hat, and a tattered blanket begrimed with abomi- nations ; let him have wild eyes, and shining teeth, and features pinched by famine into sharpness ; breasts bared and browned, and (if females) with two or three miniatures of the same species trotting after her, and another certainly strapped to her back : combine all these in your ima- gination, and you have a recipe for a Mexican lepero. There, on the canals, around the markets and pulque shops, the Indians and these miserable outcasts hang all day long ; feeding on fragments, quarrelling, drinking, stealing and lying drunk about the pavements, with their children crying with hunger around them. At night they slink off to these suburbs and coil themselves up on the damp floors of their lairs, to sleep off the effects of liquor, and to awake to another day of misery 42 MEXICO.' and crime. Is it wonderful, in a city with an immense proportion of its inhabitants of such a class, (hopeless in the present and the future,) that there are murderers and robbers ? In the Indian population which pours into the Capital from the lakes, 1 must say that there is apparently more worth and character. You see them lolling about in their boats on the canals, and passing and repassing in their canoes, plying between the city and Chalco and Tezcoco. It is abeautiful sight to behold these tiny vessels skim like floating gardens to the quays in the morning, laden to the water's edge with the fruits, flow- ers and vegetables, that hide the skiflfthat bears them. The old houses in this neighborhood, rising out of the canals, the slug- gish waters, and the dark multitude of the better classes in fanciful dresses, remind one strongly of Venice. Skirting the canal, and leading to the plain which adjoins the Chenampas, or former floating gardens, is the Paseo de la Viga, a public drive fre- quented by the heau monde, both in coach and on horseback, during the season of Lent. Scarcely an afternoon passes, at that period of the year, that the observer will not find the canal covered with gay boat-loads of Indians, passing homeward from market, dancing, singing, laughing, strumming the guitar, and crowned with wreaths of poppies. I do not know the origin of the custom of wearing this forgetful flower ; but it is both a healthier and more poetic oblivion than that resorted to by many folks in other lands, after a day of toil. Turning once more westward, we again reach the great square. As we pass the front of the National Palace, from out of its main portal dash fifty gayly-caparisoned huzzars, followed by a coach richly decked with crimson velvet and gold, drawn by four white horses and driven by a Yankee coachman. Behind this dash fifty more huzzars, while at the side of the coach, six aid-de-camps rein in their mettlesome chargers. There is but one person in the vehicle. His dress is that of a General of division, with red facings and gold embroideries. He wears a number of decorations around his neck, while a medal blazing with diamonds, voted to him by the nation, rests on his bosom. His sword-handle is studded with diamonds, and his hand rests on a diamond-headed cane. He is uncovered, and, as he passes and bows gracefully to your saluta- tion, you recognize the President of the Republic ! The departure of the President from the Palace has attracted a crowd. The adjoining market, ever filled with people, pours forth its multitudes into the square. First, there is the Aguador or water-carrier, with his two earthen jars— o'ne suspended by a leathern belt thrown around his forehead and THE AGUADOR. 43 THE AGUADOR. resting on his back, and the other suspended from the back of his head In front of him, preserving the equilibrium.* Next, there is the Indian with a huge coop of chickens and turkies or a crate of earthenware, or a pannier of oranges, borne on his back, like the aquador's jar. Then a woman, with peas, or ducks, or fish from the lake ; another with potatoes ; another drives along a poor stunted ass, laden with radishes and onions; and all the members of this motley crowd, are crying their wares and merchandise at the top of their voices. It is a Babel ! Amid the throng treads onward, with step majestic, the queenly Spanish woman ; by her side is a friar, and hard by a couple of priests in their graceful black cloaks and shovel hats. • An Englishman passing an aguador in the street, struck tlie jar on the fellow's back with his cane. It broke-and the weight of the other jar immediately brought tlie poor carrier on his nose. He arose in a rage. The oifender. however, immediately calmed him with a couple of dollars. " I only wanted to see wheUier yon were exacUn balanced, my dear fellow, and the experiment is worth the money /" 44 MEXICO, FRIAR AND PRIESTS. In the shadow of a pillar of the Portales sneaks a miserable looking wretch, wrapped in his tattered blanket — a lepero, porter, beggar, thief, as the occasion offers ; and he takes the advantage of the latter. employment in this moment of excitement, to ease an unsuspicious stranger of his handkerchief! A tinkle of a bell at the door of the Cathedral sacristy, and a roll of drums calling out the guard of honor at the palace gate, give warning of a change of scene. Slowly issues a gayly-painted coach with glass windows on all sides, drawn by spotted mules ; a priest in his vestments sits within ; a band of boys walk on each side, chanting a hymn ; and in a moment, a deathlike stillness pervades the whole square. From the tradesman, sel- ling his tapes under the Portales, to the thief, who has barely time to conceal the handkerchief in his dirty blanket, the whole crowd is un- covered and kneeling : the Host is passing to the house of some dying Catholic ! The carriage turns a corner, and the square is alive again ; the trades- man to sell, the lepero to steal, and the lesson of death is forgotten for ever ! THE ALAMEDA. 45 Turning westward from the square we reach the Alameda, by a very short walk through the Calle Plateros, a street filled with the shops of goldsmiths, watchmakers, French hairdressers, French cooks, French milliners, French carvers and gilders, and French print-sellers ; and we pass on our way the rich Convent of the Professa or ex-Jesuits — and the more splendid one of the blue-robed Monks of St. Francis. The Ala- meda is a beautiful grove of forest-trees, planted on about ten acres of moist and luxuriant soil. The wood, which is walled and protected by gates closed every evening as the bells toll for Oracion, is intersected with walks and surrounded by a carriage road. Fountains fling up their waters where the paths cross each other, and the ground beneath the full- grown trees is filled with flowers and shrubbery. The great centre fountain is surmounted by a gilded figure of Liberty, and gilded lions spout forth the water at its feet. This, and the other smaller jets, in pleasanter and more secluded nooks, are circled with stone seats. It is the fashion to come here in carriages and on horseback every evening, (except during Lent,) and to drive round and round the inclosure, on the soft roads in the dense shade, until the vesper bell — or, to draw up in line on the side of one of the highways, while the cavaliers pass up and down in review, or prattle av/ay half an hour at the coach-window of some renowned belle. But there can be nothing more delightful than a walk here during the early morning. There is a freshness then in the air, a quiet and peace- fulness, that are found at no other time of the day. The student comes with his book ; the priest, from his early mass ; the nurse, with her baby ; the sentimental miss, to sigh for her lover, (and perhaps to see him ;) the dyspeptic, to earn an appetite for his breakfast ; the monk, the lounger, and even the laborer, stop for a moment beneath the refreshing shades, to take breath for the coming day. It is almost druidical in the solemn stillness of its groves, placed in the midst of a population of two hundred thousand. Even the birds seem to have been made sacred; scared from the plains, they are here in sanctuary, and no profane hand dares touch them. They have consequently planted, as if by consent of each other, distinct colonies in different parts of the wood ; the owl, sitting on her branch, in one place ; the doves, making love the business of their lives in another ; the mocking-birds, making a third spot a perfect choir ; and in- numerable sparrows and wrens, like so many Paul Prys, chattering and pottering about with an intrusive pertness through the dominions of all the rest. Directly west of the Alameda, and on the same street, is the Passeo Nuevo, another delightful drive of a mile in length, bordered with paths and trees, and divided by fountains adorned with statuary and sculpture. Passing out of the western gate of the Alameda, the fashionables every evening take a turn or two along this d'i'ive. On festivals it is crowded. All the equipages of the city must ie there, and it is the mode for every person of consideration, or who desires consideration, to 4 46 MEXICO possess an equipage. It is not thought " exactly proper"" for a lady ever to walk, except to mass — or, sometimes, when she goes shopping. The coach, therefore, on all gala days, is sure to appear on the Passeo with its fair burden, dressed in the French style, as^ for a dinner party or a ball. When I first arrived in Mexico, it was rare to see a bonnet on such occasions; but that awkward appendage of fashionable costume was becoming gradually in vogue before I left. For an hour, or more, it is the custom to pass up and down the sides of the Passeo, nodding and smiling at the cavaliers, who show off their horsemanship along the centre of the road. Here the utmost luxury and style are exhibited in the equipment of carriage and animals. Gold em- broidery, silver plating, and every ornament that can add splendor to harness and livery are brought forth. To such an extent is the taste for these exhibitions carried, that one of the millionaires of Mexico appears occasionally at the Paseo, on a saddle which (without counting the value of the rest of his caparison,) cost the sum of five thousand dollars. It was the chef d'ceuvre of an honest German saddler, who made it, and — retired from trade to his beloved " father land." On approaching this charming drive, the whole plain of the Valley of Mexico is at once revealed to you, without passing a dirty suburb. On your right, is the cypress-covered and castle-crowned hill of Chapulte- pec, formerly the site, it is alleged, of one of Montezuma's palaces ; before you and behind, stretch two immense aqueducts — the one coming from the hills, the other from a greater distance, near Tacubaya, and screening that village as it leans against the first slopes of the western mountains. On your left tower the volcanoes, on whose summits the last rosy rays of sunset are resting. The gay throng disperses, as the moon rises from behind the moun- tains, pouring a flood of clear light, bright as the day in other lands, over the tranquil landscape. The moonlight of Mexico is marvellously beautiful. That city, you remember, is 7,500 feet above the level of the sea, and nearly that number of feet closer to the stars than we are ; the atmosphere, conse- quently, is more rarefied, and the light comes, as it were, pure, and pel- lucid from heaven : you seem able to touch the stars, so brilliantly near do they stand out relieved against the back-ground of an intensely blue sky. Strolling on such nights in Mexico, when 1 saw the sharp lines of tower and temple come boldly out with shape and even color, almost as bright, yet softer than at noon-day, 1 have often been tempted to say that the moonlight you get at home (much as it is the theme of poets and lovers,) is but second-hand stuff, compared with that of Mexico. And so with the climates. Between the sea-shore at Vera Cruz and the volcanoes, whose eternal snows hang over Mexico, you have every climate of the world. In the Valley there is a perpetual spring. For six months in the year (the winter months, as they are called,) rain never falls ; during CLIMATE, 47 the other six months showers occur almost daily. It is never hot — never very cool, and you may wear your cloak or your summer dress the whole year according to the temper of your nervous system. One side of the street is always too warm at noon. Cold and sleeting as it is here in January, the roses are already blooming freshly in the gardens of Mexico. Nor is there perceptible change of foliage on the forest trees ; tlie new leaves push off the old ones with a " gentle force," and the regeneration of the seasons is effected without the process of fading, wilt- ing, withering and dying, which makes with us the melancholy days of autumn " the saddest of the year." To look at the external world, you would say there was no such thing as death in Mexico. The rose and the leaf you admire to-day, are replaced to-morrow, by fresh buds and renewed verdure. LETTER IX. . 1&E CITY OP MEXICO. When a traveller arrives in an European city, nothing is easier than to find at once every species of accommodation for his comfort. Indeed, it is not necessary to seek them. He can scarcely walk a square in any of the capitals without being attracted by inviting labels, which promise splendid apartments and every luxury requisite in this age of elegance and ease.. Not so in Mexico. The Hotel Vergara, at which I first descended, though kept by a most courteous lady, who does all in her power to render her guests comfortable, is but a miserable establishment compared even with our most ordinary inns. It is but a small remove from the Fondas and Mesones of the olden time in Mexico. This arises from the fact that travelling is only of a recent date ; a new invention as it were, in Mexico. In former times, articles of merchandise were sent under the care of Ar- rieros, who were satisfied with the accommodation of the ordinary tavern, to wit: four walls, covered with a roof, in which they might stretch their mats, pile their saddles, and sleep — living, the while, on tortillias, onions, pulque and jerked meats. Whenever the better classes found it needful to visit the Capital, the house of some friend was open to them, and thus, hospitality prevented the creation of an honest race of Boni- faces to welcome the weary wayfarer. I soon became tired of my comfortless apartment, for which an extrava- gant price was charged, and betook myself to furnished rooms in a French Hotel, called the " Gran Sociedau," where, for about seventy dollars a naonth, I got a flea-haunted bed — space enough for my books and papers — a broad balcony shielded from the sun by a fanciful curtain — and two Frenchified meals per day, from a restaurateur kept in the same building. Here I tarried six months, until, tired in turn of the discomforts and expense, I went to housekeeping in a set of apartments with the American Consul. We took a portion of the first floor of a dwelling in the Calle Vergara, belonging to an ex-Marquesa, to whom, and to her worthy son, I must bear the testimony of a grateful heart for unwearied kindness m sickness and in health. The residence was one of the pleasantest, for its size, I know in Mexico. The entrance is into a paved yard, around which the house is built, with its apartments loolung into the court from I17TEBI0B OP A MEXICAir HOUSX. SOCIAL FEATURES. 4» all sides, perfectly screened from the street and sun. On the second floor, (on which we lodged,) a corridor runs round the walls, covered with a roof to protect it from the weather, and filled with orange and lemon trees, and a variety of flowering shrubs, planted in vases of rare old India china, that would delight the heart of a London fancier. Here my days were passed in the fulfillment of my official duties, and my evenings, when not at the theatre, (which I found a great aid in acquiring the language,) in the midst of this pleasant family. The ex- cellent lady at the head of it had once belonged to one of the wealthiest establishments in the Republic. The revolutions, and a series of mishaps, had broken her fortunes ; yet they could not deprive her of her talents, her accomplishments, her vivacity, or the kindness of her heart and tern- per. Qualities like these were sure to endear the friends of her better days, and, in truth, they had not deserted her. It was thus, that in her apartments, over- a quiet game of monte, where a thousand nuts were the highest stake ; I made many of my pleasantest acquaintances, both male and female, in Mexico. Here too I saw the better phases of Mexican character, in private life. The respect for age — the sincerity of friend- ship — the results of reading and education — and the honest, unpretending naturalness of character for which, over all other people I have ever met with, I think the best of them are remarkable. It has been taxed upon people who live in fine climates — where the warm sun and the teeming fields woo constantly to the open air — that they want the social virtues. They possess no fireside — that focus into which the family affections are gathered and cherished. I will not pretend that the Mexicans are a home people, like the Germans, the English, and, per- haps, ourselves ; but it is equally certain, that they are not without those social tastes and reunions, which make their dwellings a favorite re- sort. It is true, that much time is devoted by fashionable society to the morning mass, the evening drive, and to the theatre ; but, in a population of 200,000, these should not be regarded as the characteristics of the whole people. It is this partial examination of a class, and an identifica- tion of its peculiarities, habits or tastes, with those of the whole nation, that is the error of English tourists in their descriptions of our own country. It is neither by the most fashionable society — which is always the most corrupt, deceitful and unsubstantial ; nor by the very lowest class, which is always the most vicious — that we are to characterize nations. In the sober, patient, patriotic, toilsome, well taught, frugal, middle ranks of life — the true virtues, and noblest features of a people are most evi- dent ; and, although these characteristics may be found both among the very highest and the very lowest, yet it is alone in this class that they may be sought with certainty. ****** The houses of the Mexicans are usually built of the strongest materials, either brick or stone, and without much architectural pretension. They are erected around patios, or court-yards, and are from 30 to 40 feet front 50 MEXICO. on the street — the grand saloon being generally the length of the whole house. On the ground-floor are the porter's lodge, offices and carriage- house. From this, a flight of steps leads to an entresol, devoted to the domestics, while the upper story is universally the fashionable and best one. Here the family dwells in perfect seclusion from the street and neighbors, and the arcade which fronts their doors is filled with the choi- cest fruit and flower-trees in constant bloom. Above all this is the azotea, or flat, paved roof, a delightful retreat on summer nights. The front windows of the houses are all guarded by balconies covered with gayly- colored awnings ; and on days of festival, when filled with the gay throng of Mexican women, and hung with tapestry and velvet, they present a most brilliant appearance. The carriage, and ever-harnessed mules, stand constantly in the court- yard below ; and the postillion is ready to mount and sally forth at a moments' notice until after dark, when the large front gate is closed, locked and barred ; and the house becomes as quiet and secure as a castle, with which no communication from without is permitted, until you tell your name, or signify to the porter the object of your visit. Until this cere- mony has passed, no bolt is drawn in the wicket or latch raised to admit you ; and the caution is extremely necessary, on account of the frequent robberies that have been committed by allowing unknown persons to enter after dark. It has been said that " cleanliness is a virtue," and I think that polite- ness should be classed next to it. Cleanliness does not always proceed from the mere love of personal or domestic purity, but is often a mere evidence of respect for the opinion of the world. The same, perhaps, may be said of politeness. Be it what it may, however, it is one of the most agreeable sacrifices of social intercourse. The " old school " seems to have taken refuge among the Mexicans. They are formally, and I think, substantially, the politest people I have met with. Bowing and shaking hands are common all the world over, and in our country we do it stiffly, and often gruffly enough. Savages salute one another with a grunt, and the Chinese touch noses. But, in Mexico, there is something more than mere nonchalant nods of recognition and farewell. If you enter a Mexi- can's house, there is no rest among the inmates until you are made per- fectly at ease, and your hat and cane taken from you. The lady does not sit on the sofa — nod when you come in as if it were painful to bend or rise — talk with you about the weather as if your rheumatisms made you a species of walking barometer — and then expect you to nod again, and take yourself off as a bore ; but a frankness and a warmth are im- mediately thrown into the manner of the whole household as soon as you appear. No matter what they may be engaged in, or how much occu- pied; all is forgotten in a moment, and they are entirely at your service. Here, in the United States, I have paid fifteen or twenty visits on a morn- ing with a fashionable lady. To do so in Mexico — a man would be set down as an oddity. A visit is a visit — it is intended to be something. MANNERS 51 People feel that they can see, look at, and pass, each other in the street ; and they think a stare of five minutes from a chair, as meaningless as a stare on one s legs in the highway. In the saloon, they regard it proper to devote much time to the interchange of opinions sociably ; and they look upon indifference or a distrait air, or what would elsewhere be called fashionable ease, as little better than rudeness. Upon entermg a room, after any unusual absence, if well known to all the members of a family, you go through the process of an embrace, and the health and occupations of every member of your family are minutely and affectionately inquired for. After a while, if there are girls in the house, a little music will be given, or their drawings, embroidery, or other pretty works displayed, as you are supposed to have an interest in such things. And if you are a particular favorite^ the lady of the man- sion, who indulges in a cigarrito, will take a delicate one from her golden etui, light it, touch it to tier lips, and present it to you. At parting, the ceremony is very formal. You bid good-bye with an embrace, or, if less acquainted, with a profound bow to each individual ; you turn at the door of the saloon, and bow again ; the master of the house accompanies you to the head of the stairs, where you shake hands and bow again ; you look up from the landing of the first flight of stairs, and find him ready with another ; and as you pass through the court-yard below, (if he like you, or you happen to be a person of consideration,) you find him gazing from among the flowers over the balustrade, and still gracefully nodding farewell ! Before this^waZe it is not very safe to put on your hat. LAOr QOINQ TO MASI. 52 MEXICO. There are few things more beautiful than the salutation of a Mexican lady. Among themselves they never meet without embracing. But to men and strangers, on the street, they lift the right hand to near the lips, gently inclining the head toward it, and gracefully fluttering their fingers, send forth their recognition with an arch-beaming of the eye that is almost as bewitching as a kiss. The universal conclusion of the day with a fashionable lady in Mexico, is the theatre. She begins with mass, to which she walks in the morning with her mantilla gracefully draped around her head, and falling in folds of splendid lace over her breast and shoulders. But the night must end in full dress at the opei-a or theatre. It is as regular and as much a matter of course as her meals. It is then you may behold the Mexican woman in perfection. And yet, to confess the truth, I cannot say that they are beautiful according to our ideas of beauty in the United States. You do not see those charming skins and rosy complexions, nor do you observe that variety of tint ^hich springs from the mingling of many nations on our soil ; but there is, nevertheless, something in Mexican women, be they fair or dark, that bewitches while you look at them : it is, perhaps, a universal expression of sweetness and confiding gentleness. There is not much regularity of features ; no " Attic foreheads and Phidian noses;" no "rose-bud lips whose kisses pout to leave their nest;" no majestic symmetry to compel admiration ; but their large, magnificent eyes, where, the very soul of tenderness seems. to dwell, and their natural grace, conquer every one. Their gait is slow, stately, majestic. The commonest woman of the middle ranks you encounter on the streets, with but a fanciful petticoat, and her shawl or reboso, struts a queen — her feet small almost to deformity. Her figure, though full to embonpoint, you never think too fat ; her lively enthusiasm always seems tempered and delicately subdued by the softness of her eye, and you feel that her complexion, sallow or dark as it often is, is yet no more than ■ " The embrowning of the fruit that tells How rich within the soul of sweetness dwells." I give opposite, sketches of the costume of the lower class of females, as you see them constantly in the house and on the street, with and without the shawl, or reboso. Without it the dress is scarcely any dress at all : one garment — besides a petticoat — braced with a sash around the waist, while the hair falls in a long plait down the back. With it — their cos- tume is made up. Flung gracefully over the left shoulder and passed across the mouth — you see nothing but the eyes, which are her greatest charm, and she never attempts to conceal them or neglect their power. In speaking of the fine eyes, the beautiful feet, and the queenly tread of the Mexican ladies, and their costume, I should not forget to mention that an embroidered India crape shawl, blazing with all the colors of the MEXICAN BELLES, 53 WITH AND W I T H tl T THE K E B S . rainbow, and a painted fan, are indispensable portions of a complete dress. Theyan is none of your new-fangled inventions of feather and finery, but the old-fashioned reed and paper instruments used by our grandmothers. The opening and shutting — the waving and folding of these is an especial language. They touch them to their lips — flirt them "wide open — close them — let their bright eyes peep over the rim — display their jewelled hands and witching eyes, and, in fact, carry on a warfare of graceful coquetry from behind these pasteboard fortresses, that has forced, ere now, many a stout heart to cry for quarter ! LETTER X. THE CITY OF MEXICO. SENTIMENTAL BUTCHER AND PKOFESSIONAL BEGGARS. It is the custom for most of the small dealers to hawk their wares about the streets, and indeed, you may thus be supplied with all the necessaries of life. The aguador brings you water. The butcher sends his ass with meat. The Indians bring butter, eggs, fruit, and vegetables ; the boat- men, fresh fish from the lake ; and cakes and sweetmeats are carried daily in travs to your door. There are, nevertheless, a market and stalls, or small shops in the streets. In a large and poor population like this the compethion must necessarily be very great. One of the butchers in the Calle Taenia always amused me. His shop is about the size of a stall, the whole front being open to the street, with a fine game-cock, tied by the leg on the sill. Suspended from the ceil- ing, and but two or three feet from the doorway, hangs the entire carcass of 1 beef; at a short distance behind is the counter ; and, in the rear of this aaain, is a row of kids and delicate morsels, festooned with gilt pa- per and yards of sausages, hung in the most tasteful lines and curves. In the centre of this carnal show rests an image of the " Holy Virgm of Guadalupe," under whose protection he thus places his larder and his " custom." ■ . V v. The most interesting figure, however, in the picture, is the butcher himself; a sentimental-looking fellow, with black eyes, curhng locks, and altogether a most captivating personage, barring a sort of oily lustre that polishes his skin. I invariably find him lounging romantically over his saw and cleaver, strumming his guitar to half-a-dozen housemaids, who, doubtless, are attracted to his steaks by his amorous staves. It is rare to see such a mixture of meat and music. What would be said with us at home, to see the celebrated Jones or Smith, in the Fulton market, mounted on his block, with a blue ribbon about his neck, and a dozen damsels grouped around him, listening, with rapt air, to the pet morceau of the last opera! Yet the suggestion might be useful m these days, when invention is taxed to the utmost for new modes of attracting the people. la Mexico at any rate it is characteristic, and I have, therefore, note i it. * ♦ • ♦ * * HEAD OF BEGGFAB. BEGGARS. 55 Go where you will in this city, you are haunted by beggars. Beg- gary is a profession ; but it is not carried to quite the extent that it is in some of the Italian States, and especially the Sicilian dominions. The capital employed in this business is blindness, a sore leg, a de- crepit father or mother, or a helpless child ; in the latter case, a stout hearty boy usually strapi= the feeble one on his back, and runs after ev- ery passer beseeching succor. With such a stock in trade, and a good sunny corner, or wall of a church door, the petitioner is set up for life. Placed in so eligible a situation, their cry is incessant from morning to night: "Seilores amigos, por el amor de dios ;" "for the love of the blessed Virgin !" "by the precious blood of Christ !" "by the holy mys- tery of the Trinity !" repeated with many variations between their eter- nal scratchings, winking of lids over sightless balls, and the display of maimed limbs and every species of personal deformity. There is no " poor-house" in Mexico, to which such vagrant wretches are forced to go. One blind beggar, remarkably well dressed, and a person who has evi- dently enjoyed better fortunes, takes up his place on the seat around the chief fountain of the Alameda, every day at noon, and is attended ly a couple of servants ; his respectful demeanor is, doubtless, a valuable capital. Another beggar has a burlp porter to carry him seated in a chair on his back. Then there are silent beggars — "poveri vergognosi," — as you see in Italy ; men who make no oral demand for charity, but crook their bodies, and bow their concealed faces, in such a shape of interrogative supplica- tion, that the heart must be hard that could resist them. One of this spe- cies particularly arrested my notice. I never met him by daylight, and he may not have been what he appeared to be ; but often at midnight, when returning from the theatre, I have encountered him, cold and shiv- ering under the portales. He seemed to be at least 80 years of age ; was bent almost double, had a shocking bad cough, and squeaked out in the most piping treble you ever heard, that " he was just waiting for some (me to take him home." He had been waiting thus for many a- year ! They all have different voices according to the length of time they have been employed. There are your old sturdy beggars who bellow out their ritual ; then the modest novice ; then an old fellow who never utters a distinct word, but rolls on the ground and howls, as if with pain ; the while his eyes glance from right to left to see how it operates f Near my dwel- ling, at a church door, always sat a gray-headed blind man, who was as much a fixture as one of the pillars of the edifice. The oldest neighbors could not remember when he first came there. He usually arrived about noon, as soon as the shadow of the church fell over his wonted seat and afforded shade. He begged stoutly for an hour or so, when a daughter brought him an excellent warm dinner. This dispatched, he went. to work again with the " por el amor de dios," until he literally sang himself into a siesta. Yet the ruling passion never deserted him even in sleep. His 56 MEXICO. head nodded, but his open and outstretched palm rested on his knee — a permanent money-box ! Although exhibitions like this are enough to shut the heart in a coun- try where the earth yields almost for the asking, yet there are cases of misery that do not appeal in vain. A poor little beggar-boy attracted my attention by haunting the door of the Gran Sociedad. We noticed him first by seeing something coiled up in the corner of the portal, which looked like a dirty puppy dog, shiver- ing with the cold. Slowly, however, at our approach, it unwound itself from the lair, and a poor little boy- tottered toward us with the most wan and wretched look I ever beheld, and the most beautiful black eyes that ever appealed for charity. He was a personification of poor Oli- ver Twist — a perfect little atomy. We gave him a real, and he trotted off delighted: yet his feeble limbs, around which there was scarcely any clothing, refused to carry him twenty steps : he tottered and fell against the wall to which he clung for support. I went to him again : " Muero de Ids frios, senor," — I am dying of the chills, said he, in his little piping voice, rendered almost inarticulate from pain, accompanied by that slow motion of the head from side to side indicative of suffering. We put a small blanket over him, gave him shoes and food, and thus strengthened and warmed, he gradually reached home. The next day he made his appearance again, without shoes, shirt, or blanket, and with no covering but his ragged trowsers of cotton, tied across his shoulder with a piece of twine, and an old handkerchief about his neck. It was decided that he was a professional beggar, and his pains were but capital acting. ] did r^ot think so, however ; and while others speedily rejected him, 1 determined to satisfy myself that a human being would voluntarily starve himself until the bones peered through his shrunken skin, before I would deny the suflTerer the comfort of a daily morsel. Upon inquiry, I found that his story was true : that he was the only child of a bed-ridden mother, who, confined with rheumatism to a mat stretched on the earthen floor of a hovel in the suburb, had been unable to provide food for herself or her son for more than a month. Besides this, the urchin had sold the shoes and blanket we had given him to buy bread for his parent. He was a regular pensioner afterward, and his mother recovered. The last time I saw him was in the Alameda, to which he had crawled, saying that the "sunshine felt so comfortable, and that in its broad walks he did not suffer so much from the 'frios.' " For a long period, after this, I missed the urchin, and knew not what had become of him ; until one afternoon passing the wall of the convent of Santa Clara, I saw a man trotting along at ihe usual Indian gait, with a tray on his head which appeared to be covered with roses. Behind him was a ragged Upera, in teai s, with her long black hair hanging over her shoulders. As the man passed me, I looked into the tray and found it contained a corpse. It was that of a child who had died of consump- THEDEADBOY. 57 tion. The flesh, worn to the utmost emaciation, was stretched tightly over the prominent bones ; his little hands were bound over his breast, with a single thread of gold, in the attitude of prayer ; the body was sprin- kled with faded artificials, and its mouth was perked up, and its lips parted, as if the sufferer had died with a wail of pain. It was my little beggar-boy. The "frios^' had been too much for him. LETTER XI. A BULL FIGHT. I WAS told after my arrival in Mexico, that unless I remained some time I was likely to lose the three great " amusements " of Mexico, to wit : a Revolution — an Earthquake — and a Bull Fight. The two former I would gladly have dispensed with ; and as to the latter, civilization had recently introduced the Ope^a, and the cadenzas of Italian vocalists had been substituted for the roars of the dying bull. But I was to be gratified by the sight of at least one of these recrea- tions. A fight came off rather unexpectedly in the Plaza de Toros, an im- mense circus, erected when this sport was in its palmy days in Mexico. It was Sunday, and the people were unoccupied. The idlers had a few spare medios, picked up by toil, beggary or pilfering, during the week, and, as to the rich, it was expected that of course they would be gratified by the sight of an exhibition from which they had been long debarred. I have a great objection to all these brutal displays, but I hold it to be a man's duty to see a specimen of everything in the course of his life. In Europe I went to see dissections and the guillotine, and on that princi - pie, in Mexico I went to a bull fight. The expectations of the projectors of the day's sport were not disap- pointed. The two tiers of boxes and the circle below of this immense theatre, were filled to the very brim of the arena with not less than eight thousand men, women and children. The hour of opening was four o'clock — the day warm and cloudless — and the sun shone brightly over the motley assemblage in their gay and varied costumes. The sunny side of the edifice was devoted to the plebs — the other half to the patri- cians, or half-a-dollar payers, who thereby enjoyed the luxury of shade. We arrived too late to see the entrance of the first bull — he was already in the arena, and the picadors were goading him with their long lances, while the six gayly-dressed, lithe and active matadors teased him with red cloaks, which they flirted within a few feet of his horns, and enabled them, as he sprung to gore the garment, to display their agility in avoid- ing the deadly blow of his horns. ABULLFIGHr. 59 After annoying him thus with cloaks and lances for about ten minutes, a trumpet was sounded ; and immediately a dozen banderillos, or small lances, covered with gilt and flowered paper, were stuck in his neck, making him bound with rage at the assailant as he felt every new sting of the cruel weapons. This done, the crowd circled around, and he stood in the midst, snort- ing, pawing the earth, veering h's head from one portion of the ring to the other, beholding everywhere an armed foe pointing at him with a lance, and howling as if to dare them to attack. But he was effectually tamed. Another blast from the trumpet, and two of the matadors approached stealthily from the rear, and plunged lances surrounded with fireworks, into the skin of his neck. Snorting, roaring, blazing, cracking, he bounded over the arena lashing himself with his tail, and dashing, with- out purpose, at everything. At the third blast of the trumpet, the chief matador, who now made his first appearance, stepped forth, and proceeded to the judge's gallery for the sword, to dispatch the animal. By this time the fireworks had burned out, and the bull had been teased toward the southern barricade of the theatre. Panting with fatigue, rage and exhaustion, he stood at bay. The matador (an Andalusian, in pumps, silk stockings, and a tight-fitting purple dress, embroidered with bugles,) was a person of herculean frame, and his manly form, in the perfection of human beauty and strength, contrasted finely with the huge mass of bone and muscle in the beast. He wound his red cloak around the short staff" which he held in his left hand, and approached the bull, grasping in his right his well-poised sword. The bull, worried by the red cloak, bounded at him. As the animal stooped to gore, the matador leapt to the left with the bound of a" deer, and receiving the beast with the whole shock of his weight and spring on the point of his weapon, passed it through his heart, and laid him dead without a struggle at his feet. The circus rang with applause at the successful stroke. Drawing out his blade, black with blood, the matador wiped it on the cloak, and bowing to the multitude, restored it to the judge. The trumpet sounded again : a rope was noosed around the beast's horns, three gayly-caparisoned horses were led in, the carcass was hitched to them, and, at another blast of the trumpet they dragged the body, at full gallop, out of the circus. A shovel-full of fresh earth was thrown over the pool of blood ; the trumpet was again sounded ; the eastern bar- ricade thrown open, and in bounded the second bull. Almost blinded by his sudden plunge into daylight from the utter dark- ness of his den, and astounded by the shouts and jeers of the spectators, he rushed to the centre of the arena, and paused. His head wandered from side to side, as if seeking for something at which to tilt. He pawed the earth, la?hed his back with his tail, and was evidently "game." 5 60 MEXICO. In a moment, the three picadors were at him with their long lances; and, in the next, two of them were rolling in the dust, and trampled by the savage beast. This brought applause from the multitude ; and an honest Irishman near me shouted, at the top of his lungs, " Iravo, bull !" The matadors, however, were instantly at him with their red cloaks, and distracting his attention from the fallen picadors, gave them time to rise and mount — at least one of them, I should say, for the horse of the other had been gored in the stomach, and as he rose, his entrails trailed along the ground ! The usual routine was gone through with this bull as with the first; and at length the trumpet sounded for the chief matador to receive the sword. But this was evidently not an animal to be trifled with ; and the courageous Andalusian approached him warily. As he came up with the bull, the beast was near the edge of the barricade, and foaming with rage. His hair was yet blazing from the explosion of the crackers. The Andalusian flirted the red cloak in his eyes, and, turning as usual to the right to give the blow as the animal sprang, he lucklessly missed his aim, and was caught at a yard's distance between the palisade and the beast. A bound over the inclosure saved him, while the bull's horns were driven against the boards, with a force that made the theatre ring and the strong timbers quiver. Directly, however, was the stout-hearted fighter again on the sands and taunting his foe. Another spring — another wave of the cloak in the beast's eyes — and his sword was plunged up to the hilt in his neck, the point penetrating the skin and hair and shining out on his other side, just above the right shoulder. Yet the wound was not fatal, and the beast bounded on madder than ever. A picador came at him, and was tram- pled in the dust. Another came on, and his horse, too, was tossed in the air; yet, preserving his balance, he alighted on his feet, and as his horse rose from his fall, he rose with him, seated on his saddle ; at the same time, with admirable presence of mind, slinging his lasso, which caught on one horn but unfortunately slipped off. Unsuccessful as was this act, the self-command, the horsemanship, and the graceful skill of the picador, brought down a storm of applause. Meantime, the Andalusian had recovered his wind, and was ready for another assault on his unconquered foe ; but this time he made the attack unarmed. Mad as the animal was, and goaded by the lances sticking in his back, his skin scorched, and the weapon thrust through his body, yet the matador approached bravely ; he threw his cloak once more on the beast's eyes, and, with a leap over his horns as he stooped, caught the handle of the sword and drew it out streaming with blood. What with annoyance, and exhaustion from the loss of blood, the bull's strength was by this time well nigh spent. He made for the door in the barricade whence he had been admitted to the arena. He paused at the gate — the blood pouring from his wound. It was evident he was dying, ABULLFIGHT. 61 and all attacks were at once abandoned. He had fought so bravely that picadors, matadors, coleadors, and all the troop of the arena drew round him in a circle, as if to look on the death-struggle of a heio. All seemed struck with admiration ! the leperos in the galleries, even, were hushed to profound silence. The bull stood a moment as if uncertain what to do. I confess that the poor wretch seemed to me to possess intellect — an intellect, stung by the reproach of strength foiled by an inferior and despised foe. He felt his limbs grow feebler. He attempted to run, but his legs re- fused to move. He lifted his feet convulsivly — waved his tail — opened his eyes as if alarmed by a sudden nervous fear, and fixed them with a fierce stare on the blood which was pouring in a stream before him. He tried to run ; reeled twice, but recovered his balance. A matador then came again before him with his cloak and a short dagger, to put an end to the painful scene ; but as he approached, the beast swayed himself forward with his lips drawn Tip, and the foam covering his teeth — drew himself up still and stiff as a statue, for a dying effort of power — then suddenly bending his head to the earth, sprang at the matador and fell dead — " Foiled, breathless, bleeding, furious — to the last !" * ** * * * * * This was the best fight of the evening. Five more bulls were brought out, but nearly all proved craven. None, however, were killed by the matador at the first blow, which rather lowered the mob's opinion of his skill. Some of the animals were caught by the tail, which, twisted around the high pommel of the saddles of the coleadors, while their horses were brought to a sudden halt, threw the bulls on their sides. These, however, were the utter cowards. Others were caught with the lasso around the horns or heels, and I »had thus the first opportunity of seeing the perfection obtained by most Mexican horsemen in the use of this useful instrument. One of the bulls bounded over the palisade, among the spectators, within a few feet of me ; but he was so contemptible a beast, that he seemed more pleased to get rid of the crowd than the crowd was to get rid of him. He was of course sacrificed in some very ignoble manner. As the evening sports ended, and even before sunset, the moon rose in her calm majesty, casting her mild light on the multitude in that bloody circus. The towers and dome of a church overlook the walls of the arena on the east, and the bells called the crowd from that scene of carnage on the Sabbath evening, to the adjacent retreat of peacefulness and religion ! As I went home, I could not help asking myself, if I had spent those hours profitably ? It is true that there are " sermons in stones, and good in everj'-thing ;" and the contrast of life and death — the passage of a crea- ture from robust and active health, and the full enjoyment of every phys- . ical power, to death and utter oblivion — was, it is equally true, a sermon and a lesson. But to how many ? Was there a lepero there, who went away taught, thoughtful or moralizing ? 62 MEXICO. I must confess, that I can regard these festivals but with a feeling of unqualified disgust, both at the scene, itself, and at the gradual destruc- tion of the finer sentiments which such exhibitions, frequently repeated before all classes, must inevitably produce. When the Romans had exhausted the whole round of natural amuse- ments, they invented those of the circus ; and, not contented with the civi- lized butchery of the brute creation, in process of time they matched man against beast, and man against man. It was the extreme of refinement — the height of expensive luxury — the termination of that vicious circle of society, where civilization merges into barbarism. It was an omen of the speedy decline of that mighty empire. The exhibition of the slaughter-house, as a sport, can tend alone to foster a brutal passion for blood. Death becomes familiarized as a play- thing to the multitude. They make a clown of the grim monster. They put him as a joker on the arena for Sabbath sports ; and the day that is assigned as a period of repose, thankfulness, love, and remembrance of the blessed God, is converted into a school-time of the worst passions that can afflict and excite the human heart. It may be said, that this is not true of all classes. I grant it, and reply that although all classes visit the circus, yet the majority of the spec- tators is doubtless composed of the lowest ranks, requiring most moral in- struction, and least addicted to reasoning. With such a population as that of the leperos of Mexico, (men scarcely a remove from the beasts whose slaughter they gloat on,) these scenes of murder, in which bulls, matadors and picadors, are often indiscriminately slain, can only serve to nourish the most wicked passions, and to nerve the ignorant and vile to deeds of most daring criminality. It will be a matter of sincere congratulation for Mexican patriots, when this remnant of barbarism is abolished in their country, and the thousands which are annually expended in bull-fights throughout the Republic, are devoted to the education or rational amusement of the people. LETTER XII. THE VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE AND HEE FESTIVAL. The 12th of December is the Festival of the "Virgin of Guadalupe," (the Patron Saint of Mexico ;) and as the history of this personage, and The ceremonies in her honor are rather singular ; and the shrine where she is worshipped is one of the most magnificent in the Republic, I will give you some account of them. The church lies about three miles from the city, at the foot of the Sierra that rises from the plain on the north. The great Collegiate edifice is built on the level ground ; but the ancient, and I believe the original chapel, is on the top of an adjacent hill. The collection of buildings, devoted to this saint, form a little village of themselves, in- dependently of the small town, Avhich has grown up in the process of time from the pickings and pilgrimages to the sacred shrine. On the day in question, thousands went out to the church from the city of Mexico. From early in the morning, the magnificent paved road, built to this spot, in the palmy days of the Spanish Empire, was cov- ered with foot-passengers, horsemen, leperos, Indians, grandees in their sumptuous coaches, and in fact by all the population of the town, who could either walk, or afford to ride at their own or others' cost. Not a vehicle was to be had in the Capital for love or money, unless begged or hired on the preceding day. I went rather late, and found the churches crammed to suflx)cation, while the Archbishop recited mass, and the President and the high officers of state, seated under a canopy of crimson velvet, in the main body of the building, assisted in the service. A large portion of the crowd was composed of leperos, in their greasy blankets ; and from far and wide in the Department of Mexico, and even from some others, thousands of Indians had come to the festival, with their wives and children. In such a crowd, on a rather warm day, and ir. a church of ordinary size, you will readily agree with me that the. odor was not exactly that of attar of roses — consequently I left them to their devotions ; and, with a friend, betook myself to the open air and a sur- vey of the premises. 64 MEXICO. Yet this could scarcely be called an escape : the crowd without seemed quite as great as that within. In the Plaza, over part of which an awning was spread for a procession at the close of the ceremonies, the Indians had erected booths where they displayed their wares, and were driving a profitable trade in trinkets, pictures of saints, &c. ; a mode of speculation which they imitated from the priesthood, who, at the doors of the churches, likewise carried on a brisk business in selling to the faithful slips of crim- son ribbon, about two feet long, with a pious inscription, and medals of the Holy Virgin, for sixpence a-piece. I bought one, and passed on. In the shops around the square were all the unoccupied Mexicans. The church was too small to contain them, and they were necessarily forced to retire to these establishments ; where, with their donzellas of the reboso, they luxuriated on lemonade, oranges, and sweet biscuits, varying ;heir food and flirtations with a choice cigarrito. At the distance of about two hundred yards from the main edifice, an- other chapel is erected over a spring of mineral water. This is regarded as a " holy well ;" and part of the ceremonial, upon this occasion, is to dip the fingers in the sacred stream, and to make with it a sign of the cross on brow and breast. In all such seasons, none are of course more devout and more conscientious in the performance of this duty than the Indians. They believe that the Virgin herself has specially consecrated the wa- ter ; and the consequence is, that a simple dip is by no means sufficient. I suppose there could not have been less than three thousand of these In- dians in the village, half of whom were constantly pressing, squeezing, shouting, with their women by their sides, and their children, in full squall, strapped to their backs ; all struggling, either to approach or leave the well. Not satisfied, however, with a dip in the water, they felt it to be a religious duty to wash ; and as so many thousands were paddling in maudlin devotion, the well became necessarily fouled, notwithstand- ing its sacredness. In addition to this, as all could not reach the foun- tain itself, multitudes were obliged to content themselves with the refuse that drained along the gutters, after having served for the ablutions of the more fortunate. The consequence was. that a more besmeared set of wretches was never displayed, than when the Indians completed their pious lustrations toward evening. But even this did not exhaust their craving appetites for the sacred water ; and every one who could buy, borrow, steal, or own a vessel, capable of containing liquids, bore it with him to his distant home full of the turbid flood. It was a panacea for many an ill, and perhaps superior in efficacy to a " blessed candle !" From the door of the edifice over the well, a steep stairway strikes up the hill side of Tepeyac, to a church on the summit ; and to this, it is the duty of all to perform a pilgrimage in the course of the day. I followed the steps of the multitude ; but as the church was crowded even more densely with natives than the edifice below, I refrained from entering, and sat down on a pile of stones to enjoy a charming view of the Valley LEGEND OF THE VIRGIN. 65 and lakes, slumbering in the misty sunshine, as beautiful as the days of our Indian summer. The steps and walls that led to this shrine were once in perfect order ; but the mountain chapel has been neglected, and suffered to decay since the holy picture was placed in the edifice on the plain, where the padres are more comfortably nestled than on the spot of the miraculous gift. As I gazed down from this elevation, I was struck with the appearance of a curious towering mass of brick and mortar, half way up the hill, that looked in the distance like a sail. Upon inquiry, I learned the fol- lowing story of its erection. Many years ago, while a wealthy Mexican was at sea, returning from Old Spain, a violent storm arose, which threatened his vessel with im- minent danger. The gale grew gradually stronger ; the vessel leaked ; every sail was lost, and hope herself seemed to have deserted the ill-starred bark, when the Mexican bethought him of the patron Virgin of his native land. In a moment he was on his knees, with a prayer and a vow to Guadalupe — a vow, that if she listened and saved, he would build in Mexico another temple to her glory ! The wind lulled — the sea became calm — -a friendly vessel hove in sight — and the drowning crew was rescued. But with the calm, the worshipper's fervor also relaxed ; and on his re- turn, instead of bestowing thousands in the adornment of at least a costly altar to the Virgin, he compromised the matter, by the erection of the semblance of a sail in brick and mortar on the ascending wall side ! Whether he ever trusted himself at sea again after such faithlessness, the legend does not tell ! While recounting the stories of this spot, it would be improper to omit the legend of the Virgin herself; and in order that it may come with due authority, and not rest alone upon hearsay, I translate the anecdote from a sermon of the Illustrious Cardinal de Lorenzano, Archbishop of Mex- ico, preached by him in the Collegiate church in 1760. " In the year 1531, ten years and four months after the conquest of Mexico, the Holy Virgin of Guadalupe appeared on the mountain of Te- peyac. The matter occurred thus: On the 9th of December of that year the adventurous Indian, Juan Diego, a native of Quatititlan, went to Tlaltelolco to study the Christian doctrine, inasmuch as it was there taught by certain holy Franciscan monks. Passing by the mountain, the Most Holy Virgin appeared, and told him to go, in her name, to the Illustrious Bishop Don Francisco Juan de Zummarraga, and say that she desired him to come and worship on that spot. On the 10th of the same month Juan Diego returned to the mountain, and the Holy Virgin again ap- peared, asking him the result of his commission. Diego replied, that notwithstanding his efforts, he could not obtain admission to the Bishop. Then, the Virgin answered, « Return, and tell him that I, Mary' the Mother of God, have sent you !' Juan Diego carefully executed the 66 MEXICO. order, but the Senor Zummarraga refused him credence : his only re- ply being, that he must have some token to satisfy him of the verity of the annunciation. Again Juan Diego returned to the mountain with this message of the Bishop, and delivered it to the Holy Virgin, who appeared to him on the 12th of December for the third time. She ordered him then to ascend the mountain of Tepeyac, cut roses and bring them to her. The humble and happy messenger went, notwithstanding he knew full well that on the mountain there were not only no roses, but no vegetation of any kind. Nevertheless, he found the flowers and brought them to Mary ! She threw them in the tilma (a part of Indian dress) and said to him, ' Return once more to the Bishop and tell him that these flowers are the credentials of your mission.' Accordingly, Juan Diego immediately departed for the episcopal residence, which, it is said, was then in the house called the Hospital del Amor de Dios ; and when he found himself in the presence of the prelate, he unfolded his tilma to present the roses, when, lo ! there appeared on the rude garment that Messed picture of the Virgin, which now after centuries still exists, without having suffered the slightest injury ! Then the illustrious Bishop took the image, and placed it in his oratory. It is now in this Collegiate church. The Virgin ap- peared again, a fourth time, to the Indian. She then restored to health his uncle, named Juan Bernardino, and told Diego — ' The image on thy tilma I wish called the Virgin of Guadalupe !' " Such is the story given of the sacred portrait, the original of which presides over the destinies of Mexico ; whose name — " Maria de Guada- lupe" — is given to one half the females of the Republic, and whose shrine is one of the wealthiest in the world. A copy of this picture is hung in every dwelling in Mexico, a household god, as dearly cherished as the little clay images were by the ancient Indians. The motto beneath, " Non fecit taliter omni Nationi,'' is full of pride and consolation. Toward the close of the services in the church the crowd became less dense, and I ventured within. For the last half hour I obtained a good stand directly in front of the position occupied by General Santa Anna, and an opportunity was thus afforded me of seeing him at his devotions. The same refinement of manner, easy grace, and perfect decorum which characterize the well-bred Mexicans in their dwellings, adhere to them in church ; and the President and his little military court fully sustained upon that occasion the reputation of their countrymen. That night I saw him again at a ball given by General Valencia, in honor of his wife; who, being named '■^ Maria de Guadalupe," enjoys this as her festal day as well as the saint. The ball, the music, the style, and the supper were all excellent ; and although I went with a headache at ten, I did not leave the cheerful walls of the General until the " small hours" of next morning. This ball and supper, I was told by those who prepared it, cost our host the sum of near four thousand dollars , and from this, you may form an opinion of the extravagance of living and IMAGEOFTHEVIRGIN. 67 luxuries in Mexico. A similar entertainment could have been given m the United States for less than five hundred. Some time after the visit to Guadalupe, of w'nich the above is a sketch, T drove out again on a quiet day when there was no ceremonial, to see the establishment undisturbed and at leisure. The capellan politely offered to show us over the edifice, and point out the various objects ot interest. He took us first to the sacristy, where are found some badly painted pictures and tinsel figures ; and thence to the main body of the church, which, in architectural proportion and chasteness of adornment, is the neatest I have seen in Mexico. The ornaments are all green and gold, on a white polish'ed surface, and have just been renewed. Candles wefe lighted in front of the miraculous portrait of the Virgin ; the capellan knelt for a moment before it, and then drawing aside a curtain, displayed the picture itself. THE VIRGIN OF GUADALTIPK, The altar at the north end, and the canopy and pillars around it, are of the finest marbles. Above it, in a frame of solid gold, covered with a crystal plate, is the figure of the Virgin painted on the Indian's tilma, as represented in the preceding cut. On each side of the image, within the frame and extending its whole length, are strips of gold literally crusted with emeralds, diamonds and pearls. At the feet of the figure there are again large clusters of the same costly gems. From each side of the frame 68 MEXICO. issues a circle of golden rays, while above it, as if floating in the air, hangs the figure of a dove, of solid silver, as large as an eagle ! Descending from the altar, you lean on a rail of gilded silver. The massive candlesticks, and all the stands and reading-desks are of sil- ver, as is also a score of figures, some three feet high, for lamps and torches. From the front of the altar to the body of the church, in which are placed the choir and organ, there is another silver hand-rail and balustrade on both sides of the central aisle. The choir is of a dark rich wood, covered with the most exquisite carvings, in high relief, of passages in the life of our Saviour, and its gates are beautifully inlaid with silver. The seats of the clergymen rise above each other in a double row, and in the centre stands a massive reading-desk, most gorgeously wrought of the precious metal. To the left of the altar, a chapel, containing a collection of sacred relics, branches off from the main edifice. The whole eastern end of this is a blaze of crystal and gilded carvings, piled 'up to the lofty arched roofj while on the steps are two tall India jars, that would make in Europe the fortune of a china hunter. As I left the door of this apartment, I noticed a recently painted pic- ture, or rather frame of pictures. It represented a series of miracles wrought by the Virgin M'ithin the last ten years. First, a husband had stabbed his wife, and yet, by a prayer to the Saint, she was healed : Second, a child, who had fallen from a window, was miraculously pre- served by her intervention: Third, a woman, passing through a wood, encountered a robber, who attempted to force her ; yet, an opportune ejaculation to Guadalupe winged her feet, and she escaped: Fourth, a man was thrown from his horse, and saved : Fifth, a carriage passed over another harmlessly : And Sixth, the Virgin saved a woman from being gored by a bull. As I passed around the church, I saw a variety of similar mementoes hung upon the walls — little pictures of sick women — of others praying- silver arms and legs, and even little waxen ones. In one place I noticed two braids of hair ; the vow, doubtless of some poor Indian, and perhaps her most precious gift. I was told in Mexico, by a person who has seen it, that the native Indians at times come to this shrine, and play before the Virgin's image on their drums and flageolets. As I passed through the door, I encountered a lepero-looking fellow, who, on one side, offered me a ticket in the " Lottery of the Virgin," while on the other, a servitor of the church held out a stock of red ribbons " with the measure of the Virgin's hands," and metal medals of Guada- lupe. The latter I thought a better investment than the lottery ; and buying one, which I dipped in the blessed well, I keep it as a memento of the visit and the spot. For the curious in such matters, I give the original of a Sonnet and Verses — and the promise of Indulgences, in honor of the Virgin : SONNET — INDULGENCES. 69 A MARIA SANTISIMA BE GUADALUPE. SONETO. Ea isa GUADALUPANA encantadora, Madre del Hombre Dios y tambien mia, Baj6 del cielo al Tepeyac un dia Para ser nuestra insigne Bienhechora. A la presencia de tan Gran Senora Fug6 la sanguinaria Idolatria, Como la pavorosa Noche humbria A los primeros rasgos de la Aurora. Al Dios Huitzilopostli destrozaron ; Los demiis Idolillos demolieron ; Y d, Jescs en sus templos colocaron : Los Pueblos d su voz se convirtieron ; Y cuanto en la Conquista les quitaron : En tres centurias por MARL4 obtu^ieron. En tres siglos cuintas cosas El tiempo cruel devor6 !.... Los montes ; los altos montes Mudaron de situacion. Solo esa copia divina Cual el dia en que se form<5 Pemianece en un Ayate; Como que es obra de Dios. A su Madre, Esposa e Hija Por si mismo la pint6, Dondndola a los Indianos En prueba fiel de su ainor. Esto ciertamente no hizo Con ninguna otra nacion : Bendito sea una y mil veces Por tan insigne favor. D^mosle todos las gracias, Y sea la iluminacion, Las salvas y los repiques, Y los ecos del tambor : La prueba de nuestro afecto ; Y un indicio de que en nos Nunca entibiard el impio La pristina devocion. Se suplica el adomo e iluminacion en el Novenario ; y se advierte a los fieles queloa Illmos. Sres. Obispos de Puebla y Tarazona, concedieron 80 dias de indulgencia en cada cuarto de hora en que dichas Imd,genes se espongan ; y por cada Ave Maria que se rezare delante de cualquiera de ellas 500 dias : lo mismo se gana diciendo Ave Ma- ria, 6 solicitando devotos.=Ultimamente, el Elmo. Sr. D. Fr. Jose Maria de Jesus Be. launzaran por si, y los Elmos. Sres. Obispos actuales de Puebla, Michoacan, Jalisco y Durango concedi6 200 dias de indulgencia por cada palabra de los devocionarios de la Sma. Sra. ; por cada paso que se diere en su obsequio ; por cada una de las reverencias que se le hagan ; y por cada palabra de la misa que en su obsequio el sacerdote y los oyentes digeren. Otros tantos dias concede por cada cuarto de hora en que se espongan las Efigies ea los balcones, ventanas e puertas para la adorac:on ptkblJca. LETTER XIII. COURT CEREMONIES. GENERAL SANTA ANNA. DIPLOMATIC DINNER. For some time after the installation of General Santa Anna as Pro- visional President of Mexico, under the system known in the political history of that country as the " Plan of Tacubaya,"* a difficulty existed between the Government, and Ministers of foreign nations, as to the eti- quette which was to be observed on public occasions when it became neces- sary for them to meet ceremoniously. To such an extent had this variance of established rules been carried, that upon the consecration of the present Archbishop, the Envoy from France deemed it proper to mark his disap- probation, by retiring with his legation from the Cathedral. These matters, which to us republicans seemed of no very great mo- ment except as they had been rendered so by the Mexicans themselves, were, however, at length satisfactorily arranged ; and on the first of Jan- uary, 1842, the members of the different missions were invited to meet the President in the morning, for the purpose of exchanging the usual courtesies of the day, and to partake of a dinner in the evening. This invitation was sent with all due form through his Excellency, Mr. De ' Bocanegra, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. As the system of entertain- ment at table is quite a novelty in Mexican diplomacy, the invitation was entirely unexpected ; and it was hailed by the whole corps as indicative of an agreeable change in our future intercourse. Accordingly at noon on the first of January, the diplomatic body, in full uniform, met at the apartments of the Minister of Foreign Relations in the Palace. Here again, some trifling question of etiquette was started relative to the precedence of the Archbishop, which being arranged, the corps, as soon as it had been joined by the Ministers of State, was ush- ered to the hall of audience by an aid-de-camp of the President. Passing * The revolution of 1841, after several fniitless battles, in which victory seems to have crowned neither side, and several as fruitless interviews of tlie Chiefs and messengers of the different parlies, was at length terminated by a meeting of commanding officers at Tacubaya on the 28th of September, when a plan was agreed upon aud signed by 191 persons, by means of which the existing Constitution of Mexico was superseded. By this system, or " Plan of Tacdbaya," consisting of 13 articles, a general amnesty was proclaimed— a call of a new Con- gress to form a Constitution agreed upon— and a Junta created, to be named by the General in Chief of the Army. The Junta was to elect the Provisional President, who, by the 7th article, was clothed " with all the powers necessary to reorganize the nation and all the branches of administration ;" or, in other words, with supreme power. That General was Santa Anna. He selected the Junta, and the Junta returned the compli- ment by selecting him ! AUDIENCE OF THE PRESIDENT. 71 along several balconies hung against the wall of the inner court-yard, we soon reached an antechamber filled with all the chief personages, both military and civil, of the Republic, and we were at once conducted to the reception-room. This is a large and newly furnished apartment, plainly painted in fresco ; its walls are hung with ordinary oil pictures of the history of Napoleon, and the floor is covered with a rather common carpet. At the south end of the rooiri. a Chair of State, with the flags and arms of Mexico richly embroidered in gold and colors on its velvet cushions, was placed for the President, under a canopy of crimson edged with gold. On either side of this, against the wall, .were chairs for the four Ministers, and, immediately in front of the President's seat, running the kngth of the room, beneath the great chandelier, were ranged two rows of chairs facing each other, for the diplomatic corps. Here we took our stand, according to the rank and length of residence of the respective Envoys in the country. In a few moments, the Ministers of State (who had retired after we were placed,) entered from a room behind the audience-chamber, and were directly followed by General Santa Anna, in the full uniform of the Chief of the Army — blue and red, richly embroidered with gold. You are aware, that at the battle of Vera Cruz with the French, in the year 1838, one of his legs was shattered by a cannon-ball, as he pursued the enemy on their retreat to their boats. The limb was badly amputated, and of course he limps along on a wooden substitute, with the aid of a cane. But the defect does not take from the dignity and manliness of his air and carriage. He advanced to his chair under the canopy ; his Mmisters placed them- selves on either side of him, and the room, which had hitherto been only occupied by ourselves, was, at a signal to the aid-de-camp in waiting, filled with a brilliant cortege of ofiicers in full dress uniforms. As soon as silence and order were obtained, the President bowed grace- fully to us, and received an obeisance in return. Mr. Pakenham, the British Envoy, as the oldest resident Minister, then advanced, and in the name of the diplomatic body, made an address of congratulation in Spanish. The General listened with attention and interest, and when the Minister had concluded, replied briefly, but with considerable hesitation of manner and an awkward twisting of his cane and chapeau, showing that he was, at least on that occasion, more of the soMier than the speaker. As he seated himself after concluding his reply, he motioned us to our chairs, while the rest of the spectators still remained standing. A short conver- sation then followed between him, Mr. Pakenham, and Mr. Oliver, the Spanish Envoy, who were immediately in front of him; and at the first pause we rose, advanced to him singly and bowed; walking slowly to the door at the north end of the apartment, we turned on its s°ill and bowed again, both of the salutations being gracefully returned by him: and thus ended txhe morning visit of ceremonious congratulation. 72 MEXICO. I have been so minute in repeating to you the details of this cere- mony, not because I deem any account of bows and formal speeches interesting to a reader ; but because such a scene has occurred in a Repuil/c, before the President of a Republic, and in a National Palace surrounded with soldiery, amid the beating of drumsj the braying of trum- pets, and all the paraphernalia of a court. Such a detail sounds oddly to one wlio — entering a door often opened without a porter — passing through no lines of grim guards — amid no military pomp or parade — approaches the President of our own more favored land, and finds him seated in his plain parlor, by a comfortable grate, habited in neat but homely dress ; and ready, without ceremony, to grasp your hand and welcome you to his fireside.* We left the Palace at one o'clock, and entering our carriage, proceeded to pay the customary visits of form to all our friends, on the first of Jan- uary. We found numbers of people at home, and left a corresponding quantity of cards for those who were engaged in the same duty as our- selves. It was a pleasure to reach home once more, and to get rid of the stiff uni- form in which my limbs had been cased for several hours. Accustomed all my life to the plain and easy coat of civil life, and donning gold lace that day for the first time, I felt, I suppose, very much the sensations of "the hog in armor;" and I was glad after that essay, to find but few occasions on which full dress was requisite. As the bell tolled for Oracion, Mr. Ellis and myself mounted the car- riage once more, and soon reached the Palace. In the anteroom, two aids-de-camp of the President met and conducted us to the audience-room, now brilliantly lighted with lamps and chande- liers. The saloon was sprinkled over with a gay company of officers and diplomats in full dress. Santa Anna soon entered from his private apartments, and taking a seat near the upper end of the room, his friends gathered sociably around him. As soon as all were seated, Mr. Ellis presented me privately to him. He took my hand in both of his, and with an air of great cordiality and a winning smile, addressed me some complimentary words, inviting us to take seats near him. The total repose and quietness of the company was precisely what 1 desired. It afforded me an opportunity to take a sort of mind portrait of the Warrior President ; and seated for an hour within the sound of his voice, at the distance of a few feet, I had an excellent opportunity to do so. His demeanor in conversation is mild, earnest and gentlemanly. He uses much gentle gesture as soon as he becomes animated, and seems to speak with all his soul, without losing command over himself and his feelings. I have since seen Santa Anna in his coach, surrounded with guards and all the pomp of the military, at the review of 8000 troops ; in church SANTA ANNA. 73 at prayer ; in the ball-room ; in the cock-pit, betting ; in the audience- room ; at the banquet ; and in private interviews of delicate diplomacy, when the political interests of the two nations were at stake. No one can easily forget him ; and I have delayed describing him until now be- cause I have been unwilling to deceive myself or others. According to public opinion, he is a riddle in character ; he surely is not so in appear. ance, and if his person and his manners are not, as with others, to be taken as a fair index of the man, he is either an arch-hypocrite, or a capital actor. In person, General Santa Anna is about six feet high, well made, and of graceful bearing, though he stumps along on an old-fashioned wooden peg, rejecting, as uncomfortable, all the "mock legs" with patent springs and self-moving inventions, which have been presented to him by his flat- terers from all parts of the world. His dress, as I have said before, is on all public occasions that of a high officer of the army ; and his breast is covered with richly-gemmed decorations. His brow, shaded with black hair somev/hat sprinkled with gray, is by no means lofty, but narrow and smooth. Although his whole head is rather small, and perhaps rather too long for its breadth, it has, how- ever, a marked and boldly-defined outline, indicating talent and resolu- tion. His nose is straight and well shaped, and his brows knit in a line over close and brilliant eyes, Avhich are said to flash with fire when aroused to passion. His complexion is dark and sallow, and his temper- ament evidently bilious. His mouth is the most remarkable feature. Its pron:iinent expression, when at rest, is that of mingled pain and anxiety. In perfect repose, you would think him looking on a dying friend, with whose sufferings he was deeply but helplessly sympathizing. His head and face are those of an attentive, thoughtful, melancholy but determined character. There is no ferocity, vindictiveness, or ill-temper in his expression ; and when his countenance is lighted up by pleasant conversation, in which he appears to enter eagerly though with a timid and subdued voice ; and when he puts on a sweetly wooing smile, which seems too tranquil ever to ripen into a laugh; you feel that you have before you a man. who would be singled from a thousand for his quiet refinement and serious temper ; one who would at once command your sympathy and your respect ; a well- bred gentleman, and a resolute soldier, who can win by the solicitation of an insinuating address, or rule by the authority of an imperious spirit. Such is a portrait of the man who, since the outbreak of the IMexican Revolution, has played a chief part in the drama of the time, and has fought and forced his way to eminence from the humblest rank. The destroyer and builder up of many systems and men, he has not always been on the side of republicanism, according to the liberal and enlight- ened notions of the North ; but it is sincerely to be hoped, that he is too deeply pledged as an old soldier and brave fightei in the cause of liberty, now to shrink back into the folly of despotism. 74 MEXICO. While the hour passed in which I sat looking at and listening to this re- markable person, the company in the saloon gradually thickened. Here a newly made Colonel, the child of the new revolution, in as new and bright a uniform ; there a veteran General, in the time-stained dress, tarnished trappings, and old cut coat of the ancient regime. Here a knot of European diplomatists, blazing with their stars ; and there the old Archbishop, with his venerable gray locks falling on his violet robes, while another dignitary of the church stood by him in velvet and lace, with a . cross of large diamonds and topazes hung round his priestly throat by a collar of gems, and " ever and anon " taking snuff, in a manner that dis- played a finger which almost blinded by the flash of its diamonds. The dress of every person in the room, in fact, was rich and tasteful, except that of one distinguished citizen of Mexico, and a priest in attendance on the Archbishop — who adhered, amid all the show, to humble and respect- able black. After an hour's delay, which added to the sharpness of our poorly stayed appetites, dinner was announced. Santa Anna led the way, and in the dining-room we found our places indicated by cards on the soup-plates. The table-service was tolerably good, although there was no such dis- play either of silver, porcelain, or cut-glass, as we see on hundreds of less courtly tables in the North ; nor were there any " gold spoons " for Con- gressmen to cavil with. The cookery (French and English,) was capital, and the courses innumerable.* The wines and the conversation went off with spirit ; and, indeed, the whole entertainment was most agreeable, except, that during the repast six of the President'' s aids-de-camp stood he- kind his chair. Their position was, I feel confident, most painful, (at least to all the foreigners;) and although they performed no menial offices, yet the act was inelegant, unrepublican, unnecessary, and in excessively bad taste. I hope never again to be forced to witness such a scene, nor to sit at table while such men stand. Thus passed two hours and a half, enlivened by the military bands of the Palace, playing gay airs with remarkable taste and skill in the pauses. Near ten we all retired (without the universal cigar) to the reception-room, where tea and coffee were handed before we departed. As we passed the windows of the dining-room, we saw the aids-de-camp at dinner in our lately deserted places ; and I sincerely trust as they had so long but feasted on the fumes of our earlier dinner, that they had something more substantial than the cold and broken remains of our splendid repast. In the palace yard below, hundreds of soldiers were lolling drowsily on the stone seats, or bundled up in their blankets stretched on the pave- ment within the gateways ; and as we left the portal, the band in the balconies above sent over the still square the parting strains of its beau- tiful music. ♦This entertainment was prepared by a celebrated French cook in Mexico, who charged the modeiate sum of S^ a head for forty persons, exclusive of the wines. AUTOGRAPHS. 75 I made several efforts while in Mexico, to procure a portrait of General Santa Anna for the purpose of presenting it to you ; but I could find no engraving or lithograph, and the oil pictures were most wretchedly exe- cuted, without doing justice to his very characteristic face. In this age of autographs, however, when all persons collect, and some few even under- take to read a man's mind in his signature ; I have thought that those of the President and of the late Emperor Iturbide, might not be uninteresting, and I therefore subjoin them. That of Santa Anna is a firm, clear, and distinct one ; while Iturbide's, though strong and decided enough in its lines, has still a straggling manner, which indicates perhaps too much the weakness of manj parts of that hero's character. i^-tcjc , yy^- V ^j-^-^A ^!^cu.^ LETTER XIV. ST. AUGUSTIN DE LAS CTJEVAS, AND THE FEAST OF SAN AUGUSTIN. JAM- BLING AND COCK-FIGHTING. San Augitstin is one of the most charming villages in the neighborhood of Mexico. It lies, like most of the other villages, at the foot of the mountain's, south of the city, and is reached by a level road about tvs^elve miles long, leading through some of the most beautiful farms in the Val- ley. Here, not only are immense herds of cattle grazed and large quan- tities of grain cultivated, but you see extensive plantations of the maguey aloe, or Agave Americana, from which the favorite drink of the natives is made, in the valleys of Puebla and Mexico.* When the plant reaches the age of seven years, it is usually ready to bloom. Upon the appearance of the first symptoms of a bud, the centre stalk is cut out, and a bowl hollowed in the middle of the large leaves ; into this, for several days, the juice of the plant exudes plentifully ; and as the bowl fills at certain periods during the day, it is sucked into a long gourd by the Indian laborers, who transfer it from this to hog-skins. In these it is taken to the haciendas, slightly fermented in large vats lined with bull-hides, whence it is again transferred to skins, and so carried to the city or the shops and sold. It is really amusing, thus to behold the skin of a stout porker injected with the heady liquid — his legs stick- ing out, and even the remnant of his tail twisting with its wonted curve ! The cultivation of the maguey is one of the most profitable in tiie Val- ley ; the outlay is calculated generally at about two dollars per plant, and the return is from seven to ten, according to the size of it. I cannot say that the flavor is pleasant, though it varies greatly in diflerent parts of the country. I have tasted some in Mexico that had been sent as a present from a hacienda near Puebla, which was delicious ; but the ordi- nary liquid sold in the shops, seemed to me very like sour lemonade improved by the addition of cream-of-tartar. It was like the famous wine of one of the vallies that pours its stream into the Rhine, with which the old women of that neighborhood darn their stockings. One drop, it is said, put on any ordinary hole, draws it up for ever and securely like a purse-string ! *This plant is one of the most useful in Mexico. It makes an excellent fence while it is growing ■ after it arrives at perfection, pulque is extracted from its stalk : the leaves are then either cut up as food for animals, oi ate manufactured inte rope, twine, coarse Indian cloth, or wrapping-paper of unecualled tougluiess GAMBLING. 77 The road to St. Augustin is remarkably insecure from robbers ; many- persons have been attacked, and there are still several suspicious spots where the rascals are supposed to hover on the watch. I therefore never ventured out except with a large company, or on days when some public amusement was likely to fill the country with strangers. The 16th of May is set down in the cafendar as the day of the year dedicated to St. Augustin, and this village is appropriated by the Mexi- cans to the celebration of his festival. Yet, unlike most other festivals, this one appears to have little or nothing to do, either with religion or the saint, unless they have a version of his story unknown to other nations. As on the occasion of the Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the road was filled, after daylight, with passengers in coaches, on horseback, in diligences, and even on foot. This is a frolic, chiefly for the great, the wealthy and the fashionable, (as those of Los Remedies and the Vir- gin, are for the mass of the people,) and gambling is the chief bait and attraction. The square in the centre of the village was fitted up with temporary booths, and devoted to all sorts of festivity, play and music, for the lower classes, while many of the adjoining dwellings were adorned in magnifi- cent style for the upper ranks who sported nothing but gold and silver. Indeed, a chance is offered to all upon this occasion. Every man who has anything to lose, or the hope of winning, has the opportunity pre- sented. There is no lack of temptation. First, there are the humblest booths in the square where small sums of copper alone are played; next, there are others where copper and reals, or medios, are permitted ; next, those for copper and dollars ; then roulette, for all stakers ; then banks of silver alone ; then banks of silver and gold ; and lastly, banks where nothing but gold, and that usually in doubloons, is ever ventured. You thus perceive, that the opportunity is liberally presented for every man's purse to become " small by degrees and beautifully less." It is estimated that 25,000 doubloons or $400,000, are annually placed in these banks, and, as at least half that sum is brought on the ground to bet against them, the amount of money lost and won is enormous. This year all the banks lost except one, and its owners were exceedingly dissatisfied because their winnings, during the three days of the festival, amounted to only 25 per cent. ; yet you will imagine how great must have been their gains, when this very bank had at one time lost near two thousand doubloons/ The saloons where gold is played are most tastefully fitted up in cool and airy situations. A long table, covered with green cloth, is placed in the centre, and in the middle of this lie the shining heaps, rolls, and piles of gold. Around, sit the patient and silent players. You do not see, as in France, the iron lip, frowning brow, pale visage, and clenched hand — indicative of anxiety, remorse, and the lust of greedy gain. The 78 MEXICO. Spaniard takes it with the noncJialance of eastern fatalism. Nothing dis- concerts, disturbs, or forces him to utter an exclamation of pleasure or a sigh of pain — but he sits in stoic silence receiving his ounces, if he win, without eagerness, or seeing them swell the bank without sorrow, if he lose. The game of 7nont6 has become part of the very nature of the inhabit- ants of Southern America. Accustomed in the olden times under the Colonial Government, to immense wealth, " wealth (as the old people describe it,) in which they literally swam," gold lost its value and be- came but a counter, by means of which they passed their idle hours in an agreeable excitement that never ruffled or elated them. This habit- ual regard for the game has descended from sire to son, and the keeping of a table, or its ownership, is not esteemed disreputable, as in other countries. On the contrary, the largest sums are avowedly furnished by most respectable bankers, and the sport is held to be a species of legitimate trade. Yet, great is the distress produced in Mexico by gambling. While a hundred establishments are opened in St. Augustin for three days, there are not less than huiidreds, in the city of Mexico, open daily during the whole year ! The consequence is, that although the wealthiest and bold- est betters, who venture their 200, 400, or even 1000 doubloons on a sin- gle card at St. Augustin, play only there, or but once or twice a year, yet the constant drain on the small gamblers is kept up day after day and night after night in the Capital. Is it to be wondered then, amid a nation of such habits — so prodigal, proud, and easily ruined, that persons who venture and lose their all on a single stake, or habitually live by the risks of fortune, betake themselves at last to the road, and rob with the pistol instead of the cards ? Both are short cuts to fortune or the gallows. We adjourned, at two o'clock, from the gambling-houses to the Cock-Pit. The President, General Santa Anna, and General Bravo, with their suites, occupied one of the centre boxes of the theatre, while the rest were filled with the beauty and fashion of Mexico. It is the vogue for women of family and respectability to attend these festivals, their great object being to outshine each other in the splendor and variety of their garments. The rage is to have one dress for mass at ten o'clock, one for the cock-pit, another for the ball at the Calvario, and a fourth for the ball in the evening. These again must be different on each succeeding day of the festival f The cocks were brought into the centre of the pit within the ring, the President's fowls being generally those first put on the earth. They were then thrown off for a spring at each other, and taken up again before the betting began. Brokers went round, proclaiming the amount placed in their hands to bet on any particular fowl. Whenever a bet was offered THE COCK-PIT. 79 against Santa Anna's bird, the broker was called to his box and an aid- de-camp covered it. Besides these bets, the General usually had some standing ones agreed on beforehand with the owners of other cocks ; and in this manner five or six thousand dollars were lost or won by him in the pit daily. Seven mains of cocks were fought each day — the Presi- dent seeming to relish the sport vastly, while his aids were highly ex- ited, and the ladies looked on with evident gusto. Nothing can be more grossly mean than a passion for cock fighting. A bull fight, brutal and bloody as it is, has still something noble in the contest between the man and the animal ; there is a trial of skill, and often a trial for life. Horse racing is a beautiful sport, it is both exciting and useful ; and the breed of a noble animal is cherished and improved by it. But to see grown men, and among them the chiefs of a nation, sit down quietly to watch two birds kick each other to death with slashers and spurs, in order to make money out of the victory of one of them, is too contemptible to be sanctioned or apologized for in any way, except by old traditionary customs. Such were the old customs of Mexico. Their fathers gambled — they gamble. Their fathers fought fowls — they fight fowls ; and if you speak to them of it, they shrug their shoulders, with a ^' pues que .?" — " what will you ?" It is with pleasure, however, that I record one pleasant scene at least in this festival of St. Augustin. On the second day I did not go out early in the morning, but took a place in the diligence at half-past two p. m., reaching the village in a couple of hours. Disgusted with the gambling scenes and the cock-pit, I went only to see the Calvario, or ball given every afternoon at the Calvary, which adjoins the village on the west. We walked to this spot through beautiful lanes of Oriental-looking houses, bowered among groves of orange and jasmine, and arrived about six o'clock. As the people were just assembling we strolled up the green hills, traversed by streams of crystal water, until we reached an eminence above the village, bosomed in an eternal shade, from which peeped out the white walls of the houses and azoteas, covered with the most beautiful and fragrant flowers. Across the valley, the eye rested on the silvery line of Tezcoco, and as the slanting rays of the sun fell over the soft midland-view, and athwart the hills through the gaps of the western mountains, lighting the ravines, and throwing the bold peaks in shadow, I thought I had never beheld a more perfect picture drawn from fancy of the peace and beauty of a " Happy Valley." It was soon en- livened by figures, and became a scene worthy of the fairy fancy of Watteau. From the top of Calvary, the hill-side sloped down amphitheatrically to a level meadow, a bow-shot in width, closed on the east and west by trees in their freshest foliage, and terminated at the north by a garden and azotea just peeping over the leaves of an orange grove. On the side of 80 MEXICO. the hill, seats had been placed for ladies, which were speedily filled by them attired in full dress for the evening. The fine military band of ihe garrison struck up directly in the centre of the sward, and in a moment the dancers were on foot. Galopades, waltzes, cotillons, Spanish dances succeeded each other rapidly. It was difficult to say which was the more beautiful display*— tha* cf Mexican beau'.y tripping it with gay cava- lier " to music on the green," or that of Mexican beauty lining the hill- side, and watching the festive scene with its pensive gaze. The dance continued until tAvilight, when the crowd moved olT to town, in carriages and on foot. In a moment all was bustle, and as I gained the road, I was a little astonished to see the hosts of beggars who were there to meet the returning mass of roystering lads, and gleesome fair ones. Nor were these, alone, the beggars of St. Augustin — the city had poured out its complement ; all my well-known acquaintances were present, anxious to pick up the "crumbs from the rich man's table," and, for ought I know, to venture some of them slyly in the booths of the square. As this tide of joyous life swept home, I could not help noticing one of these wretches, who threw himself actually in the pathway of the returning multitude, and rolled along the road in such a manner that it became im- possible to pass without treading on or over him. It was the old howling beggar of the Alameda : kicks, cuffs, stumbles availed nothing ; still he rolled, and still he howled. Such is the contrast presented continually between enormous wealth; and squalid misery in the Republic of Mexico ! LETTER XV. IJEVOLUTION. WAX-FIGUKES. VISIT TO THE MTTSEUM. ANTIQUITIES. It was just after the conclusion of the Revolution of 1841, which re- sulted in placing General Santa Anna at the head of the Government, that I arrived in the city of Mexico, and found the marks of the struggle that took place on that memorable occasion, yet visible in the streets. For a month the city had been in a state of siege ; General Bustamante, the Constitutional President, occupying the National Palace, and holding possession of portions of the town with his troops, while General Valencia controlled the citadel, from which he cannonaded and threw shells into the city. During all this time the work of slaughter went on ; but the chief injury was inflicted on harmless non-combatants, who happened at times to pass exposed places, or to cross streets which were raked by the artil- lery. Numbers of poor laborers, and laborers' wives, bringing them food, were thus destroyed ; and during the whole of the period I remained in the Capital, the scars and indentations made by the balls and bullets in the walls of the Calle Refugio, were never repaired. From the tops of houses, too, death was dealt by the insurgents. Screening themselves behind the parapet walls of azoteas, and frequently in church-towers, they shot down, indiscriminately, all who passed, and made the sureness of aim a matter of boast and joke. In the Revolution or ^meute of the pre- vious year. General Valencia had thus well nigh fallen victim to some reckless marksman. As he passed along one of the streets, at the head of his troops — at a moment, too, when no attack was meditated — a solitary rifleman sent a ball from a steeple through his chapeau. The General keeps the hat as a sort of military trophy. Upon the azotea of the house occupied by the Prussian Charge d'Affaires, a man was slain early one morning, by a shot from the azotea of the op- posite convent of the Profesa ; yet, so incessant was the firing, that the family was prevented from coming to his succor or removing the body for several hours. Thus did that fearful struggle degenerate into murder within the city walls, while the horrors of civil war were enhanced by a bombardment and cannonade from the citadel, under a commander who, until within a few days, had enjoyed the highest confidence of the Constitutional Gov. ernment. It is sincerely to be hoped, that the lesson taught at this epoch has dis- gusted the nation with these bloody turmoils. There appears among the 82 MEXICO. peuplo a general desire for peace ; and the wise, just, and thoughtful of all parties, can surely agree upon some plan to satisfy the common interests, to quell the inordinate passions of military chieftains, and, in fine, to terminate for ever these dreadful scenes. In treating hereafter of the political condition of Mexico, I shall have occasion to refer again to this subject, and shall then do so more fully. These ideas struck me as I went for the first time to the University, and saw even the front of that edifice, which should naturally be sacred to learning and peace, pierced with cannon balls and bullets. The walls only, 1 believe, were injured. Indeed, from the appearance of the houses throughout the city, I am inclined to think that the Mexicans were either exceedingly bad marksmen, or, that they aimed high, if they aimed at all, to prevent carnage. The plaster and stones, and the poor non-combat- ants were evidently the greatest sufferers, while the soldiers seem to have had an amiable compassion for each other ! The University is a fine old monastic building, erected around a court- yard of large dimensions, in the centre of which is now placed the colos- sal bronze statue of Charles IV. cast in the city of Mexico by Tolsa, a Mexican artist. This really beautiful work formerly stood in the great square fronting the Cathedral, where its huge mass was more in proportion to the surrounding space and objects. STATUE OF CHARLES IV. MEXICANARTISTS. 83 The statue is Equestrian. The monarch is represented in Roman cos- tume, his brow bound with a wreath of laurel, and in the act of curb- ing his horse with his left hand, while his right extends a truncheon. An antique sword rests on his thigh, and an imperial robe flows in easy folds from his shoulders covering the haunches of the horse, who is mov- ing forward, and trampling on a quiver of arrows. The face of Charles was not remarkable for dignity or command, so that, in order to preserve the resemblance, the artist has been obliged to throw all the power of his work into the figure. But the result has been a statue of great ma- jesty, and worthy of the most judicious praise. Although the model of the horse is certainly good, and the dimensions well preserved in the colossal size, yet it is quite evident that the artist had only {he Mexican animal in his mind's eye when he moulded his masterpiece. The chief defects, as well as I was able to judge in its present unfavorable position, were disproportions in the neck and haunches ; the former being entirely too thick and large, while the latter are too heavy and small, both for the legs of the animal and the figure they support. The drapery of the sovereign, the saddle-cloth, sword, bridle, a Medusa head on the mar- tingale, and all the accessories, are admirably finished in the highest style of art. One of the most severe and tasteful critics who ever saw itj compares this work of the native Mexican with the famous statue of Marcus Aurelius at Rome, which has so frequently been the theme of praise by the most learned sculptors of the Old World. Indeed, the art of imitating nature in statuary, is a talent perhaps no- where more common than in Mexico. I do not mean by this, that fine sculpture is common there ; but I know of few places where there is more talent to produce it. The moment a stranger arrives in Mexico he is besieged by a host of wax-figure makers, with small statues of the costumes and trades of the country. These, it is true, are cast in moulds, but the talent is not the less remarkable. They are admirably executed. Dress, feature, de- meanor, action, are all caught and faithfully depicted to the very life, and no collection can be more worthily adorned than by a series of these figures. You can obtain them of any size, or any subject ; and although the materials are frail, they may be safely transported from the Capital to the coast. If these statuettes are wonderful, their makers are not less so. You would be astonished to see the artist, who produces a gem of a figure which in Europe would command a couple of doubloons. A little room up two pairs of ricketty stairs, just large enough to turn in, where his wife cooks and sleeps with two or three children in one corner; while he, with his lump of wax and his portable furnace, stands working, mould- ing and dressing his figures in another. Such is the atelier, while the man himself, is scarcely distinguishable from the commonest Uperos. 84 MEXICO. Until recently, there were in the city of Puebla two sisters, remarkable for the manufacture o^ figures from rags. These ladies were of respect- able birth, and always commanded a ready sale for their works, which were sought for even in Europe. They moulded the figures of lumps of beeswax, covered the different parts of the body with cotton cloth of colors suited to the complexion, and, while the wax was yet soft, moulded the features into the required expression, completing the representation with appropriate dresses. I have two of these in my possession, which, in point of character, are worthy of the pencil of Teniers. They repre- sent an old Indian woman, scolding and weeping over her drunken son. The grief and age of the one, and the tipsy leer, roll of the head, and want of command over the limbs of the other, are rendered with indes- cribable faithfulness. One of these remarkable artists died while I was in Mexico, and the other is extremely old and feeble, so that it has now become a matter of great difficulty to obtain a specimen of her works ; nor can they hereafter be as perfect as formerly, as the sister who died was remarkable for her perfection in forming the figures, while the greater talent of finishing and giving expression, was the task of the sur- vivor. Both duties now devolve on her, and what with age and the loss of her companion, her hand seems to have lost much of its cunning. But let us retrace our way to the Museum. Turning from the statue of Charles IV. in the centre of the court-yard, to the left-hand side of the quadrangle, you observe the arcades at that end covered with panels of wood, ten or fifteen feet high, and apparently filled with boxes, old bookcases, old stones, and a quantity of lumber. A real to the porter will, however, admit you to the inclosure, and you will be surprised to find amid that mass of filth, dirt, and refuse furniture, relics of antiquity for which thousands would be gladly paid by the Brit- ish Museum, the Louvre, the Glyptotheca of Munich, or, indeed, by any enlightened Sovereign, who possessed the taste to acquire and the money to purchase. You see a mimic tree, with a stuffed bear climbing up it; a bleached and hairless tiger-skin dangling from the ceiling ; half-a-dozen Indian dresses made of snake-skins, fluttering on the wall ; and, amid all this confusion, towers aloft the grand and hideous Indian idol of Teoyaomi- Qui; the great Stone of Sacrifice, (with a stone cross now erected in the middle to sanctify it;) the celebrated statue of the Indio Teiste, not long since disinterred ; a colossal head of serpentine, in the Egyptian style of sculpture ; the two carvings of the Feathered Serpents, already described in my letter on Cholula ; while, on the benches around the walls, and scat- tered over the floor, are numberless figures of dogs, monkeys, lizards, INDIAN IDOLS 85 birds, serpents, all in seemingly inextricable confusion and utter neg. lect. As you enter the gate of the inclosure, the stone that first strikes your view is represented in the following sketch. It is a huge mass of serpentine, a stone now rarely found in the Re- public. This curious head* was discovered in the year 1837, in the street of St. Teresa, on the site of an old Indian Palace, the tradition of which records it to have been the residence of Montezuma's father. It is a yard broad and twenty-nine inches high. The carving is admirably well executed, and strangers are struck with the strong resemblance it bears, both in its massiveness and demure style, to the statues of ancient Egypt. Bustamante, one of the most learned of the modern antiquarians of Mex- ico, asserts it to be the god of Baths. Gondra, the director of the Na- tional Museum, on the other hand, alleges it to be the god of Night — ^the half shut eyes, and sealed mouth, bearing him out in his. hypothesis. Next to this are the " Sacrificial Stone," and the idol " Teoyaomiqui," of which I shall treat in a separate letter. Beyond them k the following curious figure, * Sometimes called " CenteotI," gometiinei " Temozcalteoi." 66 MEXICO, found en the Hill of Tezcosingo, near the town of Tezcoco, on the eastern side of the lake. The Indians from that portion of the country say that it represents the God of Silence. The mouth, where the lines in the cut mark a square, is painted red on the statue, but Mr. Gondra believes that the color was added by the Indian who discovered it. Next to this is PERRO MUDO INDIAN IDOLS. 81 a figure of the Peero Mudo — or dumb dog. This carving was also found in the Calle de St. Teresa, and was doubtless an Indian idol. Silent dogs, were said to have been plentiful at the period of the Spanish conquest ; and, although they have been destroyed for food, in the south- ern and middle parts of Mexico, they are still found, it is alleged, among the Apache Indians. The figure is of basalt, like the god of Silence, and is one foot and ten inches high. By the side of the " Perro Mudo," on the bench against the wall, is an Indian Mortar ; the edge of the bowl is surrounded, as you perceive, by the figure of a coiled serpent, exquisitely carved in basalt. Next to this is a head, also beautifully cut in the same material. 88 MEXICO 1 was unable to find any one who could explain its signification, or inform me of the place where it was discovered. But of all the figures within this inclosure, none struck me so much ax that of the Indio Triste — or "Sad Indian." This remarkable statue was discovered behind the Palace, beneath the street which now bears its name. It is three feet four inches high, and two feet broad, and was disinterred in the year 1828. It is rather the figure of a surly, than a sad Indian. His brows are drawn together with anger. His eyes are wide and glaring. His tongue is slightly protruded from the mouth. Around his neck is a cape of feathers, and his feet are sandalled. His hands are joined by the points of the fingers, and an aperture is thus left to insert a staff or pole — ;the bottom of which evidently rested in a socket cut in the base of the statue, between the feet, as indi- cated in the engraving. This figure was probably set on the wall, or at the portal of some edifice, and in his hand was erected a banner or in- signia of command. There is a fixed, stony gaze of imperturbable sur- liness and impudence in the face, which always struck me as making it one of the most characteristic remains in the Museum. Although there is ample material around me for further illustration of the curious idolatry of the ancient Indians, I will not trouble you with more sketches at present, and conclude this part of my description of the Museum by simply saying, that the remainder of the idols are chiefly images of dogs, monkeys, lizards, and rabbits— the proportions of whiob INDIAN IDOLS. 89 are greatly exaggerated, so as to make them deformed and hideous. If their worship was a worship of pure propitiation, they seem to have adopted the idea of the Chinese, and prayed rather to the Evil principle of things than to the Good. "God is too good," said a Chinese fo me once — " God is too good to hurt us, but Ki — ^the Devil — will ; I therefore pray to the devil to let me alone !" It may be readily imagined that people, in the dawn of religious ideas, will personify every ill that assails them under the shape in which it becomes most annoying. They imagine when they are assailed by ser- pents, that the Evil principle vexes them in that form ; when their houses are overrun with lizards, that the demon has attacked them in another shape ; and thus, according to their simple reasoning, it was wise to mani- fest their ideas of this wicked Spirit in statues of the disguises he had himself selected, and under those forms to appease him by worship and offerings. It is by imagining a system of this nature, that we can alone account for the extraordinary and fanciful creations of Mexican art which have been preserved until our day and generation. LETTER XVI. THE MUSEUM AND ITS ANTIQUITIES, CONTINUED. Ascending by a broad flight of steps at the eastern end of the court- yard, you reach the second story of the University building, in which are liie National Museum and the halls appropriated to students. On the ground floor, are a rather shabby and neglected chapel and the college- hall or recitation- room, the latter of which reminded me of some of the fine monastic chambers of the Old World, with their high ceilings, lofty windows, dark walls, cai'ved pulpit, and oaken seats, brown with the hues of venerable age. On the wall at the end of the first flight, as you ascend to the upper story, there is a huge picture, which covers the whole back of the build- ing. It represents a court ceremony of the time of Charles IV. ; and from the ugliness of the faces, and the characteristic mien of all the figures, there can be no doubt that it is a faithful representation, both of the persons and costume of the period depicted. The first room you enter on your right, is a large hall which, like everything public I have yet seen in this Republic, is neglected and lum- bered. Around the cornice hangs a row of the portraits of the Viceroys, in the stiff and formal guise of their several periods. Some are in mili- tary costume, some in monkish, some in civil, and some in the out- landish frills, furbelows and finery of the last century ; but whether it be of wisdom, or of wickedness, nature has invariably stamped a decided character on every head. In one corner of this apartment stand the remains of a throne, deposited among the rubbish as no longer valuable in a Republic. Near it, how- ever, and in strange -contrast, is placed the incomplete basso-relievo of a trophy of liberty ; and above this, against the wall, in a rude coflSn of rough pine boards, hangs a mummy, dug up not long ago on the fields of Tlaltelolco north of the city. Yet this room is not altogether destitute of interest, if you can induce the keeper to open the shutters. The light then falls upon portraits of. Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the hall, which are worthy of the pencil of Velasquez. Passing to the adjoining sala, we enter the Museum of Mexican Anti- NATIONAL MUSEUM. 01 quities, and odd, indeed, is the jumble of fragments of the past and pres- ent that bursts upon your view. In the centre of the room is a Castle and Fortification, made of wood aitd straw, with mimic guns and all the array of military power. This was the work of a poor prisoner— the labor of years of solitude and misery. To the left is a numismatic cabinet, tolerably rich in Spanish speci- mens and in a collection of Roman coins, which promises, under the care of Mr. Gondra, to become exceedingly rare and valuable. Next, there is a small library of manuscripts of the early missionaries in Mexico ; volumes of their sermons, poems, and records of marriages, births and baptisms soon after the conquest. It is astonishing to see how many took the name of Hernando Cortez. Next to this, again, is another case con- taining (among all sorts of antiquated gimcrackery,) some beautiful spe- cimens of the rag and wax-work, which I described in a former letter. In a corner hard by, covered with dust, lie the original drawings of Palenque and the volumes of Lord Kingsborough's Mexico, presented to this Museum by that munificent antiquarian. They are rarely looked at, except by some foreign traveller who happens to straggle into the Museum. The rest of the collection is valuable. In the adjoining cases are all the smaller Mexican Antiquities, which have been gathered together by the labor of many years, and arranged with some attention to system. In one department you find the hatchets used by the Indians ; the orna- ments of beads of obsidian and stone worn round their necks ; the mir- rors of obsidian ; the masks of the same material, which they hung at different seasons before the faces of their idols ; their bows and arrows and arrow-heads of obsidian, some of them so small and beautifully cut, that the smallest bird might be killed without injuring the plumage. In another department are the smaller idols of the ancient Indians, in clay and stone, specimens of which, together with the small domestic ALTARS and vases for burning incense, are exhibited in the following drawings: 92 MEXICO NATIONALMUSEUM. gg Many of these figures were doubtless worn suspended around the neck, i)r hung on the walls of houses, as several are pierced with holes, through which cords have evidently been passed. In the next case is a collection of Mexican Vases and Cups, most of which were discovered about the year 1827, in subterranean chambers, in the Island of Sacrificios. 04 MEXICO. NATIONAL MUSEUM. m eo MEXICO It is well known to all who have read the history of Mexico, that at the period of the conquest by Cortez, this Island was a spot sacred to sepultura and sacrifice. Owing to the inertness of the Mexican Government, no thorough explo- ration has as yet been made, but it has been left to the enterprise of commanders of vessels, and especially of vessels of war, who, taking advantage of their detention at anchor under the lee of the island, have rummaged the sands in search of Indian remains, which have been car- ried to other lands, and are thus for ever lost to Mexico. In 1841, Monsieur Dumanoir, who commanded the French corvette Ceres, undertook to explore the island. In the centre of it he discovered sepulchres, the bones in which were in admirable preservation ; vases of clay, adorned with paintings and engraved ; arms, idols, collars, bracelets, teeth of dogs and tigers, and a variety of architectural designs. In one place he found a vase of white marhle ; and in the Museum at Mexico there is now preserved another, also found at Sacrificios, of which the following is the classic shape and adornment : I give the form of another vase found in this island, which, though nei- ther beautiful nor classical as the one above represented, is remarkable for the oddness of its outline. NATIONAL MUSEUM, 97 This vessel is also made of a white transparent marble. In a neighboring cabinet is seen a curious little figure, carved in ser- pentine. It appears to have been a charm or talisman, and in many respects resembles the bronze figures which were found at Pompeii, and are preserved in the Secret Museum at Naples. This relic was discovered at St. lago Tlaltelolco, immediately north of the city of Mexico ; but the design appears to me too indelicate to be inserted in a work in- tended for general readers. It struck me as resembling the images used of old in the worship of Isis, and if it does not serve as a link in the sup- posed connection between the Egyptians and the Mexicans, it certainly exhibits as great a disregard for decency as characterized the great " mother of ancient art and civilization." The figures Nos. 1 and 2, on the next page, are drawings of two Indian Axes or Hatchets, of stone, the first of which was discovered in Baltimore County, State of Maryland, and the second near St. Louis Potosi, in Mexico/ I have contrasted them, as singularly alike in shape and 98 MEXICO. material, both being grooved near the top for the purpose of fitting into a handle ; — yet at what a distance from each other were they found !* The next cut represents a couple of Indian Pipes, the larger one of which is finely glazed with red. * Axes of this shape and material have been found in many of our States. For an interesting notice .f them, vide Bellsnap's History of New Hampshire, vol. 3rd, p. 89. " The hatchet," says this writer, " is a hard stone, eight or ten inches in length and three or four in breadth, of an oval form, flatted and rubbed to an edge at one end ; near the other is a groove, in which tlie handle was fastened, and their process to do it was this: When tl'e stone was prepared, they chose a very young sapling, and splitting it near the ground, they forced the hatchet Mto il as far as the groove, and left nature to complete the work by the growth of the wood, so as to fill the groovt and adhere firmly to the stone. They then cut oif the sapling above and below, and the hatchet is fit for use. ' N A T I N A L M U S E U M . Q]^ At the western end of this room are several models of Mines, chiefly- made of the different stones found in the mineral regions of Mexico. The figures are of silver ; and the various parts of the mine, the mode of ob- taining the ore, of freeing them from water, of sinking shafts, the dresses, appearance and labors of the workmen, are most faithfully portrayed. In one of the corners, behind a quantity of rubbish, old desks and benches, is the Armor of Cort^z — a plain unornamented suit of steel, from the size of which, I judge that the Conqueror was not a man of large frame or great bodily strength. Among the portraits of the Viceroys contained in this apartment, there is one of Cortez ; and in it he is depicted in a different manner from that in which we have been accustomed to know him since our boyhood, when we first made his acquaintance in school histories, drawn as a savage-looking hero with slouched hat and feather and fur-caped coat. There is no doubt, I am told, of the genu- ineness of the picture in this Museum; and its history is traced with certainty to the period of the third Viceroy, when the gallery of portraits was commenced. It represents him in armor, highly polished, and in- laid with gold. One hand rests upon his plumed helmet and the other on a truncheon. The figure is slender and graceful. I should say, from the expression of the head alone, that the portrait was accurate. His eyes are raised to heaven — his gray hair curls around a rather narrow and not very lofty brow, and the lower part of his face is covered with a grizzly beard and mustache, through which appears a mouth marked with firmness and dignity. There is a look of the world, and of heaven ; of veneration and authority. It is, in fact, a characteristic picture of the bigoted soldier, who slew thousands in the acquisition of gold, empire, and a new altar for the Holy Cross. Never was the biography of a hero and enthusiast, more fully written in history, than has been done by the unknown painter of this portrait on the canvas which embellished the walls of the Colonial Palace of Mexico. In the same room with this picture, hangs the banner under which he conquered. It is in a large gold frame, covered with glass; and, as well as I could distinguish in the bad light in which it is placed, represents the Virgin Mary, painted on crimson silk, surrounded with stars and an inscription. Just below this is an old Indian painting, made shortly after the con- quest, of which the following engraving is a fac-simile. I copied it very carefully, as an authentic record of some of the cruelties practiced by the Spaniards in subduing the chiefs of the country, and striking terror to the minds of the artless Indians. 100 MEXICO. yi^arraia The two figures in flie left-hand corner are Cortez and Dona Marina, as the mottoes above indicate. Marina holds a rosary in her hand, while the Marquis appears to be in the act of speaking and perhaps giving order for the execution represented beneath, where a Spaniard is seen in the act of loosening a blood-hound, who springs at the throat of an Indian. In the original copy all the colors are given. The hair of the victim is erect with horror, his eyes and mouth are distended, and his throat is spotted with blood, as the fangs and claws of the ferocious beast are driven through his flesh. Aptly placed just below this curious picture is another of the last of the Kings of Tezcoco, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter ; and beneath that again, on a stand, in the midst of a number of hideous idols carved in stone, are two Funeral Vases of baked clay, found some vears since at St. Jago Tlaltelolco. the northern suburb of the citv. FUXEBAI. TASK AITO COTXB. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 101 This is really one of the most beautiful relies in the Museum, and is very accurately represented on the opposite page. It was discovered about nine feet below the surface of the ground ; the upper portion of it was filled with skulls, while thd lower contained fragments of the rest of the human frame. There appears to have been no bottom to the vase, but it was covered with the circular top delineated in the engraving. The whole vessel is one foot ten inches high, by one foot three and a half inches in diameter. This vase, besides being remarkable for the ornaments in relief upon it, presents all the colors with which it was originally painted, in high preservation and brilliancy, immediately below the rim is a winged head, with an Indian dress of plumes. The eyes are wide and fixed, and the mOuth is partly opened, displaying the teeth. The handles are oddly shaped, and depending from the tips of the wings is a collar formed of alternate ears of corn and sunflowers. The colors of the body of this vase are a bright azure ; the upper rim is a brilliant crimson, and the next a light-pink. The head and the ends of the wings, with the stripe in the middle, are painted a light-brown. The circular ornament in the centre is crimson, and the figures on it yellow. The sunflowers are also yel- low, while the two outer ears of corn are red, and the centre one blue. The band below these is brown, similar to the head and wings. The head on this vase is very i-emarkable in its expression. There is a fixed, intense, stony stare in the eyes, and a pinched sharpness about the mouth, which denote its character. It was evidently the idea of an Angel of death, while the full blown sunflower, and the ripe and stripped ears of corn, denote the fullness of years. In one of the cases are a series of interesting objects, of which the fol- lowing designs will give the reader some idea. Tnis is a rattle, made of baked clay, finely tempered, containing a small ball, the size of a pea. 102 MEXICO The next figures are specimens of "household gods;" some of the originals of which are now in my possession. Like the ancient Romans, the Mexicans had their Penates, called by them Tepitoton. The sovereigns, and great lords always had six of them in their dwellings ; the nobles four, and the common people two ; and it is related by Clavigero, that these gods were to be found everywhere in their streets. [Umi [aftlJ [i [0] [H [H [i [I3 [U [i] [si [J NATIONAL MUSEUM. 103 In this manner, the immense number of clay figures and fragments which are constantly dug up in every excavation made in the city of Mexico and its neighborhood, is satisfactorily accounted for. 104 MEXICO, Besides the rattle, given before, there are remains, or traditions, of but few other musical instruments known to the Mexicans. The Teponaztli or Indian drum, is made of hollowed wood, the exterior being covered with tasteful carving, of which the following designs will convey a faith- ful idea. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 105 The sound was produced by striking the pieces of wood which extended, without meeting, over the upper part of the cavity toward the centre of the instrument. These are whistles, made of baked clay, and covered with grotesque figures in relief. 106 MEXICO The last figures represent flageolets, made, like the whistles, of baked clay. They have four stops, and the sound is, of course, very monotonous. I have seen them used, even at the present day, in some religious ceremo- nials of the Indians, as an .accompaniment to a drum which, though not shaped like the ieponazth, produced quite as little music. Around the walls of this chamber of the Museum are hung old Indian paintings of portions of Mexican history ; genealogies of the Mexican monarchs; computations of time; plans of the city before the conquest, and pictures of various battles and skirmishes that occurred between the natives and the invaders. I regret to say that many of these are only copies, the originals having been taken to England shortly after the estab- lishment of Independence, whence they have never been returned. They are placed better there, perhaps, than they would be in Mexico; where the existing remains of antiquity excite no curiosity, and lie, from year to year, covered with dust, and unexplored on the walls and in the closets of a university. With the exception of Don Carlos Bustamante, I know no one who has devoted an hour, of late years, to these interesting studies ; and the curator of the Museum, Don Isidrio Gondra, is so continually oc- cupied with his political duties, in the editing of the Government Gazette, and lacks so greatly the encouragement of the Government, and its dedi- cation of even a thousand dollars a year to archaiological researches, that he does no more than open the doors of these saloons on stated days and smoke his cigar quietly in a corner ; while the ladies, gentlemen, loafers and leperos, wander from case to case, and lift up their hands in astonish- ment at the grotesque forms. What those forms and figures mean ; what was represented by such an idol, or what by another — receives the unfailing Mexican answer : " Quien sale ?'' — " who knows ? who can tell ?" But I must not leave this building, without some remarks on a vase, of which the sketch on the next page is an accurate drawing, represent- ing both its sides. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 107 jQQ MEXICO. This vessel, which is of a beautiful yellowish clay, tempered almost as finely as porcelain, and perfectly smooth and hard, is 9^ inches high^7 in di'ameter, and ^of an inch thick. It was found in the Cerro del Te- soro, or " hill of the treasure," in the prefecture of Tula and Department of Mexico. - . ., I have desired to place it before you for the purpose of comparmg the fieures engraved on it with the style of the figures drawn by Mr. Cather- wood in Mr. Stephens's travels in Yucatan and elsewhere. Although there are no figures to which I can at once and entirely assimilate these, yet there is a general resemblance which cannot fail to strike the most careless observer. • j e It will be recollected that Tula was the head-qu-arters, at one period, ot the tribes which afterward penetrated into the Valley of Mexico, and some of which even continued still farther to the southward. May they not have been the parent stock from which sprang the builders of the nume- rous cities which now lie in ruins in Yucatan ? And may not this vase serve to show a connection between all the people who, at the time of the conquest, dwelt on the narrow land which connects the Northern and the Southern portions of our Continent? ^ , ^ ^. -. r .-u I recollect very well, with how much gusto Mr. Gondra brought it forth for my inspection, after he had seen the designs of Mr. Catherwood, and how perfectly his mind seems to be satisfied of the identity and charac- ter, origin and habits, of the people who formed this vessel and reared the Temples of Palenque. Beyond the room in which we have been so long detained, there is still another apartment, devoted to Natural History. But the Present fares no better than the Past. The birds and beasts are badly stuffed, badly mounted, badly arranged ; and when I hoped to find a collection of miner- als, or, at least some rare specimens of the splendid ores of Mexico, sys- tematically arranged, I regret to say that I met with equal disappoint- "" The last time I visited the Museum, I found on the centre table of the saloon of antiquities, the armor of Alvarado. It was pleasant to know that it had at length reached so appropriate a destination, after havmg been hawked about the Capital by various brokers, who were atone period on the eve of selling it to me, together with the hero's commission, signed by the Emperor, for the sum of one hundred dollars ! The Government gave one hundred and forty dollars for them, or I have no doubt that these relics of one of the bravest of the conquerors, and the next m repute to Cortez, would now adorn the walls of our National Institute. TEOTAOMIQ,TJE. — ^PKOFILi:. TEOTAOMI dVI. — ^FBOKT. LETTER XVII. TEOYAOMiqUI. MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY. The chief antiquities of the Mexicans which have descended to our times, are of a religious character; and their gods, their temples, their pyramids, and their funeral vases, alone remain, after every other im- portant record of a material character has wasted before Time and the bigoted rapacity of the Spaniards. An inquiry in relation to their reli- gion is therefore interesting, as a memorial of the past. Debase a nation as much as you may; crush out its spirit beneath the iron heel of despot- ism; tear from it and destroy every record of its greatness and its ancestry ; yet the miserable remnant which survives the ruin, will still retain, amid changed laws, changed customs, and even a changed faith, the shadow of some of the rites, and the recollection of the gods who were adored by its ancestors. The spirit seems to cling with traditionary fer- vor to the belief of our fathers. Thus, in Mexico, even after three cen- turies of the dominion of a foreign Priesthood, the Indian worship, (as 1 shall have occasion hereafter to show,) still tinges the rites of the Catholic ; and I have been credibly informed, that, even now, the keepers of the University sometimes find garlands and flowers which have been hung around that hideous statue, whose figure has just been exhibited in the preceding engraving. Clavigero, who, with Veytia, is unquestionably the best writer on Mex- ican history, informs us, that the ancients believed there were three places assigned to their departed spirits. The soldiers who died in battle fighting for their country, or, who per- ished in captivity, and the souls of women who died in childbirth, went to the House of the Sun, where they led a life of endless delight. "At morning they hailed the luminary with music and dancing, attended him in his journey to the meridian, where they met the souls of women, and with similar festivities accompanied him to his setting." After years of these pleasures their spirits were transformed into clouds, or birds of beautiful plumage and pleasant song ; but they had power to ascend again, whenever they desired, to heaven. The ridicu 110 MEXICO. lous notion of an aristocracy was carried by them even to the other world ; and while the nobles animated gorgeous birds and dazzling clouds, and floated in the purest air, the souls of the common people were doomed to crawl in weasels, beetles, and the meaner animals. The spirits of those who were drowned, or struck by lightning; of those who died with dropsy, tumors, wounds, or similar diseases ; went, with the souls of children who had either been drowned or sacrificed in honor of Tlaloc, "the god of the Water," to a delicious place named Tlalocan, ■where that god resided, surrounded by everything that could contribute to pleasure and happiness. The third place of departed spirits was Mictlan or Hell. This was a kingdom of w/icr darkness, ruled by a god and goddess, and the gloomy blackness of the realm was the only punishment. Clavigero thinks that the Mexicans placed this hell in the centre of the earth — and it may have been but a type of titter annihilation. They had some imperfect ideas of a Supreme God, whom they feared and adored, yet represented by no external form, because they believed him to be invisible . He was generally spoken of as Teotl — God — but was known, also, by the name of Ipalnemoani, " He by whom we live;" and Tloque Nahuaque, " He who has all in himself." They had also an Evil spirit, inimical to mankind, called Tlaleatecolototl, '•' the Rational Owl." This spirit was said to appear frequently to men, to terrify or injure them ; but there is no distinct history of this wicked power, or of their religious system as applied to it. After Teotl — the Supreme in- visible Beino- — there were thirteen others worshipped in Mexico as prin- cipal gods. Tetzcatlipoca, the " Shining Mirror ;" " the God of providence ; the Soul of the world ; the Creator of heaven and earth ; the Master of all things." Ometeuctli and Omecihtjatl, a god and goddess, who granted mor- tals their wishes. These divinities appear to have presided over new-born children, and reigned in the " celestial paradise." CiHUACOHUATL, or "Woman Serpent;" also called Quilaztli or Toua- cacihua: "woman of our flesh;" was held to be the mother of the human race, and was venerated next to Ometeuctli and Omecihuatl. To^^4TRICLI and Meztli, the sun and moon deified ; of whom I shall have occasion to say something in describing the pyramids of St. Juan Teotihuacan. QuETZALCOATL, concerning whom I have already written in my letter on^holula. Tlaloc, " the god of Water ;" the fertilizer of the soil, the protector of temporal goods. His image was painted blue and green, to represent the hues of water, and in his hand he held an undulating and pointed rod to signify his control over storms and lightning. XiUHTEUCTLi, " master of the year and grass ;" the god of Fire. An oblation of the first morsel and the first draught at dinner, was always MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY. HI given him by the Mexicans ; and at the close of the festival in his honor the fires in the temples and dwellings were extinguished, and rekindled from the one lighted before the idol. Centeotl, the " goddess of the Earth and Corn ;" and known, also, by another word which signifies " she who supports us." This was a god- dess devotedly worshipped by the Totonacos, who believed that in the course of time she would free them from the slavery of the other gods, and abolish the horrors of human sacrifice. To her only were offered doves, quails, leverets, and such harmless animals. She was a Mexican Ceres. MicTLANiEUCTLi, " the god of Hell," and his female companion. Sac- rifices were made to him at night, and his priests were clad in black during their ministrations at the altars. JoALTEUcTLi, " the god of Night ;" was the divinity who gave sleep to children, while Joalticitl was the goddess of cradles, and presided over their infants in the watches of the night. The next deity was the one most honored by the Mexicans, and re- garded as their chief protector — Huitzilipotchtli, or Mexitli, " the god of War," the Mexican Mars. This was the mighty power who became, (according to their tradition,) the protector of the Mexicans ; conducted them through the years of their pilgrimage, and at length, settled them on the spot where they afterward founded the great city of Mexico. " To him they raised that superb Temple so much celebrated by the Spaniards. His statue was of gigantic size, in the posture of a man seated on a blue-colored bench, from the corners of which issued four gigantic snakes. His forehead was blue, and his face and the back of his head were covered with golden masks. He wore a crest shaped like the beak of a bird. On his neck was a collar of ten fgures of the human heart. In his right hand he bore a blue club, huge and twisted — in his left a shield, on which appeared five balls of feathers disposed in the form of a cross, while from the upper part of it rose a golden flag with four arrows, which the Mexicans pretend to have been sent from heaven to perform the glorious actions of his history. His body was girt with a large golden snake, and adorned with various lesser figures of animals, made of gold and silver and precious stones, each of which ornaments had a peculiar meaning."* Whenever war was contemplated by the Mexicans, this god was im- plored for protection, and they offered up to him a greater number of human victims than to any of the other deities. The only figure I found in Mexico upon which the antiquarians seemed agreed as to its represen- tation of this god, (though not with all the splendor described by Clavi- gero,) was the following : it is in bas-relief, and is in the collection of Don Mariano Sanchez y Mora, ex-Conde del Penasco. • Vide Clavigero and McCuIloh. 112 MEXICO, I cannot conclude the account of this god without referring to a tra- dition which is given in relation to him, by Acosta, in his Natural and Moral History, book 4th, chap, xxiv., and is repeated by Clavigero and Dr. McCulloh. , . , . Two days before his festival, an idol representing him was made by the sacred Virgins, of grains of parched corn and seeds of beets, mixed together with honey or the Wood of cMdren. This they clothed with a splendid dress and seated on a litter. _ On the morning of the festal day this figure was borne m solemn pro- cession around the city of Mexico, and then carried to the temple, where they had prepared a great quantity of the same paste of seeds and blood of which the priests also made an idol, called ^^the flesh and hones of Huitzilopotchtli. , .„ , After certain ceremonials and consecration, the image was sacrificed as they sacrificed their human victims, "and his body was broken into small pieces, ^vhich, together with those portions called Ms 'flesh and hones were distributed among the people^ who, according to Acosta, received the same with tears, fear and reverence, as if it was an admirable thmg, saying that they did eat the flesh and hones of God, wherewith they were .rieved. Such as had any sick folks," continues Acosta, "demanded thereof for them, and carried it with great reverence and devotion. MEXICAN MYTHOLOGY. 113 This extraordinary ceremonial was no coinage of the Spanish priests, for Acosta calls it " a communion, which the devil himself, the prince of ■pride, ordained in Mexico, to counterfeit the Holy Sacrament T^* Thus magnificent as was the god of War, he did not disdain, accord- ing to tradition, to take unto himself a very hideous partner, whose mon- strous and horrible figure has been preserved to these times in the statue, drawings of which are given at the commencement of this letter. Teoyaomiqxji, the wife of Huitzilopotchtli, was the goddess who con- ducted the souls of the warriors, who died in defence of their altars, to the Mexican Elysium — the House of the Sun. The figure on the opposite page represents the front of this idol — the breasts denoting the sex. At the sides of these, and beneath, are four hands, displaying the open palms, while above and between the hands are sacks, or purses in the shape of gourds, which, according to Don Fernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, represented "the woven purses,'^ of a blue color, filled with copal, that were offered to the idol containing the sacred incense used at the election and funeral ceremonies of Kings, and burned with the bodies or hearts of the captives slain to accompany the deceased sovereign on his journey to the world of spirits. In front of the waist, a death-head is attached. The strap by which these skulls are held, will be perceived in the second figure, which ex- hibits the statue in profile. The knots of serpents, the feathers, the shells, and the nails or claws forming the lower part of the figure, are said by De Gamaf to be the insignia of other gods connected with Teoyaomiqui or her husband ; while all those above the waist, both in front and behind, are symbols of that deity herself. The top of the statue is represented in the following drawing : * The figure of the Holy Cross has been found in Mexico, and a drawing of one discovered at Palenque, is given by Mr. Stephens in his first volume. It is known that an idolatrous worship was paid it before the con- quest. In Egypt it was venerated from the greatest antiquity as the symbol of matter. Among the Irish it was the symbol of knowledge, and Garcilaso de la Vega informs '!e sultry city to these pleasant shades, which were filled, in his day, witn every luxury that wealth could procure or art devise. It would have been difiicult to select a spot better adapted for a royal residence. From the top of the modern Palace (now a military school) erected by the "Viceroy Galvez, there is a charming prospect over the valley and lakes. Tou sweep your eye around a border of gigantic mountains, while at the bottom of the hill cluster the dense groves of cypress — the genuine an- tiquities of Mexico — old, perhaps already at the period of the conquest. Nor is it the least agreeable association with these venerable relics, that they are unconnected with any of the bloody rites of religion, but are eloquent witnesses of the better portions of Mexican character. • It measnres 41 feet in circumference, and 51, over some excrescences. REVOLTING MURDER.,, 157' By a road leading south- westwardly from Chapultepee, at the distance of about a mile, you reach Tacubaya, a town somewhat celebrated in the history of Spanish diplomacy. It is a quiet country village, containing many delightful residences of the Mexican merchants, and is chiefly re- markable for a palace of the Archbishop surrounded by beautiful gardens and groves, from the azotea of v^^hich there is one of the finest views of the volcano of Popocatepetl and the neighboring mountain of Iztacci- huatl. On the 28th of April, 1842, the city of Mexico was thrown into com- motion by the recital of a dreadful double murder that had been committed on the previous night in this village. Mr. Egerton was an English artist — a landscape painter of great emi- nence — who had resided several years in the Republic, and had just returned again to the country from a visit to England, bringing with him a lovely young woman as his wife. After residing a few months in town, he rented a small establishment at Tacubaya, to which he repaired with his lady, and during the period that he remained there, but seldom visited the Capital. Yet he sometimes came in to see his brother, and on the evening of the day preceding the fatal event, he left the city on his return home. As soon as he reached Tacubaya, he went out accompanied by his wife, to take their usual evening walk ; and this is the last that is known of them with any certainty. In the course of the night, the little dog that usually followed them in their rambles returned to the house alone. On the morning of the 28th, some p^ons, who were going from the vil- lage to work in the fields, discovered Mr. Egerton's body lying on the road. The spot was soon thronged by the villagers, and, after a thorough search in the neighborhood, the body of his wife was found in an adjoining field of aloes. Those who saw the shocking sight, describe it as the most horrible they ever beheld. Egerton had evidently been slain, after a severe struggle j a rattan, which he still held firmly in the grasp of death, was cut and broken ; his body was pierced with eleven wounds, and, though he had been dead near eight hours when discovered, his teeth were still clenched as if in anger, his eyes wide open, and his hair stiff on end ! The poor lady was stripped naked, with the exception of her stockings and shoes ; one wound, as if with a small-sword, penetrated her right breast ; marks of strangulation were around her throat ;. her stomach was bitten, and she had evidently been violated. It is impossible to describe the horror with which all classes in Mexico received this dreadful tale. The British Minister and Consul, and Mr, Egerton's brother, immediately instituted the most diligent search for the perpetrators of these crimes ; but, although several men were arrested, the monsters remain to this day undetected. 158 MEXICO. A small vvooden cross, near a tangled thicket, adjoining a ruined church, marks the fatal spot, and bears an inscription imploring your prayers for the murdered pair. In a nook at the northwest corner of the city of Mexico, as you pass out of the gate of St. Cosme, is the English Burying-ground, bowered among trees and flowers toward the town, and open, with a sweet lowland prospect, toward the setting sun ; and here were deposited, side by side, the unfortunate victims. Few spectacles have ever been more sorrowful, than the group of " strangers in a strange land," who gathered around the grave of their murdered friends on the melancholy evening of their interment. At the distance of a few feet from them, repose the remains of Wil- liam McClure, a countryman, dear to American science. The Acad- emy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, of which he was so long the President and benefactor, erected a small marble monument over his grave, and surrounded it with an iron rail. A short time before I left Mexico, the rail was torn down, the monument upset, and, on the same night, the newly-buried body of a Scotchman was disinterred, stripped of its clothes, and thrown over the wall of the cemetery ! ST. AUGUSTIN— ST. ANGEL— EL DESIERTO. St. Augustin is another village of which I have already spoken ; and St. Angel is one of nearly the same character, except that the views from its azoteas over the valley and city, are perhaps more beautiful. The pleasantest ride, however, about the vale or its adjoining moun- tains, is to the ruins known as " El Desierto," or the Desert ; the remains of an abandoned Carmelite convent, built among the rocky recesses of the western Sierra. It is a fashionable ride of about seven leagues, and parties of gentle- men, and even ladies, make it a resort for agreeable pic-nics. The edi- fices were built between two hills, and are now going rapidly to decay, yet there are some remains of cells which still retain their coverings, while the main buildings are unroofed and almost choked with luxuriant trees and flowering shrubbery. Thomas Gage, a converted mojik, who visited Mexico about the end of the first century after the conquest, gave an account of this convent in 1677, when it was in its days of glory. ELDESIERTO. 159 " The pleasantest place," says he, " of all that are about Mexico, is called La Soledad, and by others El Desierto — the Solitary, or Desert, place. Were all wildernesses like it, to live in a wilderness would be better than to live in a city ! This hath been a device of poor Fryers named discalced, or barefooted Carmelites, who, to make show of their apparent godliness, and that while they may be thought to live like Eremites, retired from the world, they may draw the world unto them, they have built there a stately cloister, which being upon a hill and among rocks makes it more to be admired. About the cloister they have fashioned out many holes and caves, in, under, and among the rocks, like Eremites' lodgings, with a room to lie in, and an oratory to pray in, with pictures and images, and rare devices for mortifications, as disciplines of wire, rods of iron, hair cloths, girdles with sharp wire points to girdle about their bare flesh, and many such like toys which hang about their oratories, to make people admire their mortified and holy lives. " All the eremitical holes and caves (which are some ten in all) are within the bounds and compass of the cloister and among gardens and orchards full of fruits and flowers, which may take up two miles' compass ; and here among the rocks are many springs of water, which, with the shade of the plantains and other trees, are most cool and pleasant to the Eremites ; they have, also, the sweet smell of the rose and jasmine, which is a little flower, but the sweetest of all others ; there is not any other flower to be found that is rare and exquisite in that country which is not in that wilderness, to delight the senses of those mortified Eremites ! " They are weekly changed from the cloister ; and when the week is ended, others are sent, and they return unto their cloister ; they carry with them their bottles of wine, sweetmeats, and other provision; as for fruits, the trees about do drop them into their mouths. " It is wonderful to see the strange devices of fountains of water which are about the gardens ; but much more wonderful to see the resort of coaches, and gallants, and ladies,, and citizens from Mexico thither, to walk and make merry in those desert pleasures, and to see those hypo- crites whom they look upon as living saints, and to think nothing too good for them to cherish them in their desert conflicts with Satan. No one goes to them but carries some sweetmeats or other dainty dish, to nourish and feed them withal ; whose prayers they likewise earnestly solicit, leaving them great alms of money for their masses ; and above all, offering to a picture in their church, called " Our Lady of Cakmel," treasures of diamonds, pearls, golden chains, and crowns, and gowns of cloth of gold and silver. "Before this picture did hang, in my time, twenty lamps of silver; the worst of them being worth a hundred pounds." Of all these cool retreats — these quiet haunts for monkish mortification — the abodes, at once, of humility and pride — nothing now remains but heaps of ruins, marking the former cloisters and hermitages. But time has been unable to destroy the magnificent prospect that bursts upon the 160 MEXICO. traveller as he emerges from between the hills where the buildings are nestled. You stand nearly a thousand feet above the valley, and, in the pure and rarefied air of the mountains, the vision is almost unlimited over a world-like panorama of crag, lake, city, vale, and volcano. I have already described the view from the opposite point of the' moun- tains, as you approach Mexico from the east, and I shall therefore not detain you with what could at best but amount to an amplified cata- logue of picturesque features in the most charming landscape of the world. JOURNAL OF A JOURNEY IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE:, BEING AN ACCOUNT OF A VISIT TO CUERNAVACA, THE RUINS OF XOCHICALCO, THE CAVERN OF CACAHUAWAMILPA, CUAUTLA DE AMILPAS, AND SEVERAL MEXICAN HACIENDAS OR PLANTATIONS. 17th September, 1842. This is still the rainy season in the Valley of Mexico, and the clouds which have hung around the valley for some weeks past, pouring out their daily showers, seem to forbid our depar- ture upon an expedition which I have contemplated making before I leave Mexico ; but as the period of my departure is rapidly approaching, I find it necessary to embrace the opportunity presented by the protection of a party of gentlemen who design visiting, during the next two weeks, some of the most interesting portions of Tierra Caliente, south of the Val- ley of Mexico. It strikes me, too, that as the mountains which surround this valley are the highest in Mexico, it is more probable that the stormy clouds, driven up by the north winds from the sea, gather and are at- tracted by these heights, and consequently expend themselves over the nearest plains ; — the adjoining valleys which are lower than this, are likely, therefore, to be free from the continual deluge of water with which we have been visited for the last two months. Our preparations have accordingly all been made to set out to-day, about four o'clock. 12 162 MEXICO, ST. AUGUSTIN DE LAS CUEVAS. At three o'clock the court-yard of our houses presented the appearance of a cavalry barrack ; — saddles, sabres, pistol-holsters, huge spurs, whips, baggage, horses, and servants. By four o'clock we had all rendezvoused at the dwelling of Mr. G , in the Calle del Seminario. Our party is composed of seven, among whom are Mr. Black the American Consul, and Mr. Goury du Roslan, the Secretary of the French Legation ; the rest are chiefly Scotch gentlemen, engaged in commerce in Mexico. Two mules have been hired and laden with a good store of provant — such as hams, corned- beef, portable soups, sausages, sardines, and wine, and these are put under the charge of an arriero, who, with my servant, and two other servants of our companions, make up a company of eleven, all mustered. Few things can be more complete for all weathers and all seasons, than the outfit of a Mexican horseman. He has everything that can contri- bute to the comfort or necessity of the passing hour, strapped to some part of his horse or his usual equipments. MEXICAN S£BAF£ MEXICAN HORSEMAN 163 First of all, he has his broad-brimmed, steeple-crowned Sombrero, cov- ered with oilskin ; next, his short leathern jacket, fancifully embossed with plated nails, like the old buff-coats of the feudal freebooters ; then, his leather trowsers with rows of buttons at the seam, preventing the chafing of the saddle, and his leggings to protect his feet and ankles ; in front of him are his armas de agua, a large skin cut in two parts, the ends of which on one side are fastened to the saddle-bow, the other two being tied behind him, so that his legs are entirely protected from rain ; before them, again, are strapped his pistols, while, passing beneath his left leg, rests his trusty toledo. From the peak, in front, hangs his lasso, a long running-noose with which he catches his horse in the morning ; and behind him is strapped his serape, or blanket-cloak, with a slit in the middle, which he throws over his head when it rains or is cold, and protects him from the weather as by a perfect thatch. MEXICAN HORSEMAN. Thus mounted on his high-peaked Spanish saddle, with stiff wooden stir- rups, over which are long ears of leather, — and his feet armed with ths 164 MEXICO. huge Spanish spur, to which is attached a small ball of finely-tempered steel, that strikes against the long rowels at every tread of the man or beast, and rings like a fairy bell, MEXICAN SPUR. you have a complete picture of a Mexican horseman, equipped at every point and ready for the road. If he has to fight, he has his weapons ; if to feed, he has his laden mule ; if it rain, he dons his serape and armas de agua, and rides secure from storm and wind ; and if he arrives at an Indian hut, after a long and toilsome journey, and no bed is ready to re- ceive him, he spreads the skins on the earthen floor — his saddle is his pil- low, and his blanket a counterpane. He is the compendium of a perfect travelling household. In this guise were most of us equipped when we mustered in the great square — except, that for leathern jackets, we had substituted blue cloth, and had strapped our scrapes on the pillions behind us. All were punctual to the minute, and the arriero, together with Gomez, and Antonio, the two other servants, were sent on to the Garrita, to pass our carga mules. Gomez was a stanch, wooden-faced old ti'ooper, who had done good service in the troublous times in Mexico ; Ramon, a Spaniard, — a thin, hatchet-visaged, boasting, slashing rogue, — who had fought through many a guerilla party of the Peninsular war ; and Antonio, a sort of weazened supernumerary, with a game leg, a broken nose, a toothless up- per gum, a devilish leering eye, and a pepper-and-salt cur as worthless as his master, who amused himself during the whole of our journey by running bulls, tearing sheep, worrying fowls, and taking twice as much exercise as was necessary. A TROPIC STORM. 165 A party in better spirits never set out. We had the prospect of relax- ation, the sight of something novel, and the hope of propitious skies. As the Cathedral clock struck four we put our animals in motion^ — sed vana spes / A cloud, which had been for some time threatening, opened its bosom. In a moment our serapes were on, the armas de agua tied round our waists, and the storm of wind and rain was upon us. We con- soled ourselves by thinking it was only the baptism of the expedition. At the city gate the guard of Custom-house officers wished to charge an export duty on our wine, but our passes from M. de Bocanegra and the Governor saved us, and we launched forth on the road to St. Augus- tin, with the shower increasing every minute. It is useless to say more of this dreary evening. For three hours the rain was incessant ; and that the rain of a tropical storm, accompanied by wind and lightning. The water flowed from our blankets like spouts. The road over the plain was no longer a highway but a water-course, rushing and gurgling over every descent. The poor Indians returning from market paddled along, shrouded up in their petates. There was no conversation in the company. Every one was sulky, and felt a very strong disposition to return home and start fair with dry skies to-morrow ; but it was decided to push on. Finally, one of our carga mules, with all the provant, tumbled over in the mud, and tried to kick himself clear from his load ; the arriero, however, was directly over him with his long whip, showering blows on head and haunches until he again set him in motion for the village. It was quite dark when our cold, weary, and uncomfortable party en- tered St. Augustin, and knocked at the gate of Mr. M 's country. house, where we were to stay for the night. We hoped to find everything duly prepared for our reception ; and among our hopes, not the least was for a blazing fire to dry our bespattered garments. We came up to the door, one by one, silently and surlily. We were not only angry with the weather, but seemed to be mutually dissatisfied. After a deal of thump, ing, the door was slowly opened, and instead of the salutation of a bril- liant blaze in the midst of the court-yard — one miserable, sickly tallow candle made its appearance ! A colder, damper, or more uncomfortable crew never reunited after a storm ; and we found, notwithstanding the usual protection of Mexican blankets, Mexican saddles, and armas de agua, that the rain had penetrated most of our equipments, and that we were decidedly damp, if not thoroughly drenched. We entered the house after disposing of our accoutrements in a large hall, and found quite comfortable quarters and beds enough for all par- ties. A change of dress, a glass of capital Farintosh, (which was pro- duced from the capacious leathern bottle of Douglas,) and a cut at the ham, with a postscript of cigars, set us all to rights again ; and at eleven o'clock, as I write this memorandum, the party are singing the chorus of a song to Du Roslan's leading. 166 MEXICO. Sunday,l8th. I was asleep last night in five minutes, nor did I awake until aroused at 5 o'clock by the loud pattering of the rain against the shutters. Cold, gray, cheerlessly, the day broke ; and as cold and cheerlessly did we assenmble in the kitchen to take our chocolate. A council was held as to proceeding or waiting for better weather. 1 ad- hered to my theory, that the rain was confined to the Valley of Mexico ; and that when we had passed the mountains in this day's journey, we would find it dry and pleasant travelling in the warmer and lower coun- try. At any rate there was something consolatory in the hope. Tiie horses were accordingly ordered, the damp dresses packed, our scrapes wrung out, and the mules freighted for the day. As the bells were ringing for mass, and the villagers hurrying through the streets to church, we sallied forth, every man trying to discover the symptom, even, of a break among the dreary brownish clouds that hung low from the mountain-tops to the valley. As soon as the road leaves the town of St. Augustin, it strikes directly up the inountain, and runs over crags and ravines which in our country would startle the delicate nerves of a lady. Railroads and McAdam have spoiled us ; but here, where the toilsome mule and the universal horse have converted men almost into centaurs and are the traditionary means of communication, no one thinks of improving the highways. But, of late years, diligences are getting into vogue between the chief cities of the Republic ; and one, built in Troy, has been started on this very road. How it gets along over such ruts and drains, rocks and moun- tain-passes, it is difficult to imagine ! On we went, however, over hill and dale, the misty rain still drifting around us, and becoming finer and mistier as we rose on the mountain. The prospect was dreary enough, but in fine weather, these passes are said to present a series of beautiful landscapes. In front is then beheld the wild mountain scenery, while, to the north, the valley sinks gradually into the plain, mellowed by distance, and traversed by the lakes of Chalco and Tezcoco. Of the former of these we had a distinct view as the wind drifted the mist aside for a moment, when we had nearly attained the summit of the mountain. Here we passed a gang of laborers impressed for the army, and going, tied in pairs, under an escort of soldiers, to serve in the Capital. This was recruiting f Further on, we passed the body of a man lying on the side-path. He had evidently just died, and, perhaps, had been one of the party we had encountered. No one no- ticed him ; his hat was spread over his face, and the rain was pelting on him. We saw no habitations — no symptoms of cultivation ; in fact, nothing except rocks and stunted herbage, and now and then, a muleteer, a mis- erable Indian plodding with a pannier of fruit to Mexico, or an Indian shepherd-boy, in his long thatch-cloak of water-flags, perched on a crag and watching his miserable cattle. We were then travelling among the clouds, near 9000 feet above the level of the sea. COUNTRY HOTEL, 167 INDIAN WITH PANNIER, INDIAN SHEPHEBP After about four hours' journey in this desolation, the clouds suddenly broke to the southward, revealing the blue sky between masses of sullen vapor, and thus we reached our breakfasting house on the top oi the mountain. „ , , r ..u * Imao-ine a mud-hole, (not a regular lake of mud, but a mass of that clayey^ oozey, grayish substance, which sucks your feet at every step,) surrounded by eight huts, built of logs and reeds, stuck into the watery earth and thatched with palm leaves. This was the stage breakfastmg station, on the road from Mexico to Cuernavaca ! We asked for " the house •" and a hut, a little more open than the rest, was pointed out. It was in two divisions, one being closed with reeds, and the other entirely exposed, along one side of which was spread a rough board supported on four sticks covered with a dirty cloth. It was the principal hotel f There was no denying that prospects were most unpromising, but we were too hungry to wait longer for food. We asked for breakfast, bm 168 MEXICO. the answer was the slow movement of the long forefinger from right to left, and a " No hai !" "Any eggs?" "No'hai!" "Any tortillas?" " No hai." " Any pulque ?" " No hai." " Any chile ?" ''No hai." "Any water?" « No hai !" " What have you got then ?" exclaimed we, in a chorus of desperation. "iVacZa.^"— nothing! We tried to coax them, but without effect ; and, at length, we ordered a mule to be unladen, and our own provisions to be unpacked. This pro- duced a stir in the household, as soon as it became evident that there was to be no high bid for food. In a moment a clapping of hands was heard in the adjoining room, and I found a couple of women at work, one grinding corn for tortillias, and the other patting them into shape for the griddle. There were two or three other girls in the apartment, and, taking a seat on a log, and offering a cigarrito to each of them, I began a chat with the prettiest, while the tortillas were cooking. A cigarrito, a-piece, exhausted, and with them, half-a-dozen jokes, I offered another to each of the damsels, and found them getting into better humor. At length, one arose, and af- ter rummaging among the pots in a corner, produced a couple of eggs, which she said should be cooked for me. I thanked her, and by a lit- tle persuasion, induced her to add half a dozen more for the rest of the party. By the time that the eggs were boiled and the tortillas baked, I suggested that a dish of moll^ de guagelote would be delicious with them, and felt sure that a set of such pretty lasses must know how to make it. "Quien sabe ?" said one of them. "Was there not some left from this morning ?" said another ; and they both arose at once and looked again into the pots. The result was the discovery of a pan heaped with the desired turkey and chile, and another quite as full of delicious frijoles. These were placed for five minutes over the coals, and the consequence was, that out of " Nada" I contrived to cater a breakfast that fed our company, servants, and arriero, and which would have doubtless fed the mules also, if mules ever indulged in chiU. I never made a heartier meal, relishing it greatly in spite of the dirty table-cloth, the dirty women, the dirty village, and the fact that my respected tortilla-maker, while en- gaged in her laudable undertakings, had occasionally varied the occu- pation, by bestowing a pat on the cake, and another, with the same hand, on the most delicate portion of the leather-breeches of a brat who annoyed her by his cries and his antics. I shall long remember those girls, and VALE OF CUERNAVACA. 169 the witchcraft that lies in a little good-humor, and a paper of cigarritos. Let no one travel through a Spanish country without them. About one o'clock, we had again mounted, and riding along a level road which winds through the table-land of the mountain-top, we passed the Crtjz del Marqtjez, a large stone cross set up not long after the conquest, to mai'k the boundary of the estate presented by Montezuma to Cortez. At this spot the road is 9,500 feet above the level of the sea, and thence commences the descent of the southern mountain-slope toward the Vale of Cuernavaca. The pine forest in many places is open and arching like a park, and covers a wide sweep of meadow and valley. The air soon became milder, the sun warmer, the vege- tation more varied, the fields less arid — and yet all was forest scenery, apparently untouched by the hand of man. In this respect it presents a marked difference from the mountains around the Valley of Mexico, where the denser population has destroyed the timber and cultivated the land. This road is remarkable for being infested with robbers, but we fortu- nately met none. We were probably too strong for the ordinary gangs — some fifty shots from a company of foreigners, with double-barrel guns and revolving pistols, being dangerous welcome. At the village where we breakfasted, there was an ugly-looking band of scoundrels who hung around our party the whole time we remained there, watching our mo- tions and examining our arms. I cannot conceive a set of figures better suited to the landscape that village presented, than these same human fungi, who had sprung up amid the surrounding physical desolation, and flourished in moral rottenness. Every man looked the rascal, with a beard of a month's growth, slouched hats, from under which they scowled their stealthy side-glances, sneaking, cat-like tread, and muffled cloaks or blankets, that but badly concealed the hilts of knives and machetes. None of these gentlemen, however, pursued or encountered us. After a slow ride during the afternoon, we suddenly changed our climate. We had left the tierras frias, and tierras templadas, (the cold and temperate lands,) and had plunged at once, by a rapid descent of the mountain, into the tierra caliente, where the sun was raging with tropical fervor. The vegetation became entirely different and more luxu- riant, and a break among the hills suddenly disclosed to us the Valley ot Cuernavaca, bending to the east with its easy bow. The features of this valley are entirely different from those of the Valley of Mexico, for, although both possess many of the same elements of grandeur and sublimity, in the lofty and wide-sweeping mountains ; yet there is a southern gentleness, and purple haziness about this, that soften the picture, and are wanting in the Vale of Mexico, in the high and rarefied atmosphere of which every object, even at the greatest distance, stands out with almost microscopic 170 MEXICO. distinctness. Besides this, the foliage is fuller, the forests thicker, the sky milder, and everything betokens the sway of a bland and tropical climate. A bend of the road around a precipice, revealed to us the town of Cuernavaca, lying beyond the forest in the lap of the valley, while far in the east the mountains were lost in the plain, like a distant line of sea. Our company gathered together, on the announcement of the first sight of our port of destination for the night. It was decided, by the novices in Mexican travelling, that it could not be more distant than a couple of leagues at farthest ; but long was the weary ride, descending and descend- mg, with scarcely a perceptible decrease of space, before we reached the city. In the course of this afternoon we passed through several Indian vil- lages, and saw numbers of people at work in the fields by the road side. Two things struck me : first, the miserable hovels in which the Indians are lodged, in comparison with which a decent dog-kennel at home is a comfortable household ; and second, the fact that this, although the Sab- bath, was no day of repose to these ever- working, but poor and thriftless people. Many of the wretched creatures were stowed away under a roof of thatch, stuck on the bare ground, with a hole left at one end to crawl in f What can be the benefit of a Republican form of government to masses of such a population ? Th.ey have no ambition to improve their condi- tion, or in so plenteous a country it would be improved ; they are con- tent to live and lie like the beasts of the field ; they have no qualifications for self-government, and they can have no hope, when a life of such toil avails not to avoid such misery. Is it possible for such men to become Republicans ? It appears to me that the life of a negro, under a good master, in our country, is far better than the beastly degradation of the Indian here. With us, he is at least a man ; but in Mexico, even the instincts of his human nature are scarcely preserved. It is true that these men are/ree, and have the unquestionable liberty, after raising their crop of fruits or vegetables, to trot with it fifty or sixty miles, on foot, to market, where' the produce of their toil is, in a few hours, spent, either at the gambling table or the pulque shop. After this they have the liberty, as soon as they get sober, to trot back again to their kennels in the mountains, if they are not previously lassoed by some re- cruiting sergeant, and forced to " volunteer" in the army. Yet what is the worth of such purposeless liberty or the worth of such purposeless life ? There is not a single ingredient of a noble-spirited and highminded mountain peasantry in them. Mixed in their races, they have been en- slaved and degraded by the conquest; ground into abject servility du- ring the Colonial government ; corrupted in spirit by the superstitious rites of an ignorant priesthood ; and now, without hope, without education, without other interest in their welfare, than that of some good-hearted CITYOFCUERNAVACA. Itl village curate, they drag out a miserable existence of beastiality and crime. Shall such men be expected to govern themselves ? It was long after sunset when we descended the last steep, and passed a neat little village, where the people were sitting in front of their low- j roofed houses, from every one of which issued the tinkle of guitars. I The bright sky reflected a long twilight, and it was just becoming dark when we trotted into Cuernavaca, after a ride of fourteen leagues. Our companions had already reached the inn, and as we dashed into the court-yard, we found them a tort et a travers with the landlord about rooms. We had seen a flaming advertisement of this tavern and its com- forts in the papers of the Capital, and counted largely on splendid apart- ments and savory supper after our tiresome ride and pic-nic breakfast. But, as at the " diligence hotel " in the morning — everything went to the tune of *' No hai !'' No hai beds, rooms, meats, soups, supper — nada ! They had nothing ! We ended by securing two rooms, and I set out to examine them, as well as my legs (stiff from being all day in the hard Mexican stirrups) would let me. The first room I entered was covered with water from the heavy rains. The second adjoined the first; and, although the walls were damp, the floor was dry ; but there was no window or opening except the door ! We had secured the room, and of course wanted ieds ; because, room and bed, and bureau, and wash-stand, and towels, and soap, are not all synonymous here as in other civilized countries. Four of our travellers had fortunately brought cots with them ; but I had trusted to my two blankets and my old habits of foraging. At length the master managed to find a bed for two more of us, and a cot for me, and thus the night was provided for. We had resolved not to go without supper, and my talents in that branch of our adventures having been proved in the morning, I was dispatched to the kitchen. I will not disclose the history of my negotiations on this occasion, but suffice it to say that in an hour's time we had a soup ; a fragment of stewed mutton ; a plate of Lima beans ; a famous dish of turkey and peppers ; and the table was set off by an enor- mous head of lettuce in the centre, garnished with outposts of oranges on either side, while two enormous pine-apples reared their prickly leaves in front and rear. An hour afterward we had all retired to our windowless room, and after piling our baggage against the door to keep out the robbers, I wrap- ped myself in my blanket, on the bare, pillowless, sacking-bottom, and was soon asleep. Monday, \9ih September. The morning was exceedingly fine, the sun was out brightly, and there were no symptoms of the rain that 172 MEXICO, had fallen during the night, except in the freshness it had imparted to the luxuriant vegetation of the valley. Before breakfast I sallied forth for a walk over the town. Cuernavaca lies on a tongue of land jutting out into the lap of the valley. On its western side, a narrow glen has been scooped out by the water which de- scends from the mountains, and its sides are thickly covered with the richest verdure. To the east, the city again slopes rapidly, and then as rapidly rises. I walked down this valley street past the church built by Cortez, (an old picturesque edifice, filled with nooks and corners,) where they were chanting a morning mass. In the yard of the Palace, or Casa Municipal, at the end of the street, a body of dismounted cavalry soldiers was going through the sword exercise. From this I went to the Plaza in front of it, at present nearly covered with a large wooden am- phitheatre, that had been devoted to bull fights during the recent national holydays. Around the edges of this edifice, the Indians and small farm- ers spread out their mats, covered with fine fruits and vegetables of the tierra caliente. I passed up and down a number of the steep and nar row streets, bordered with ranges of one-story houses, open and cool, and fronted usually with balconies and porches screening them from the scorching sun. The softer and gentler appearance of the people, as com- pared with those of the Valley of Mexico, struck me forcibly. The whole has a Neapolitan air. The gardens are numerous and full of flowers. By the street sides, small canals continually pour along the cool and clear waters from the mountains. At nine o'clock I returned to breakfast, and found it rather better than our last night's supper. While this meal was preparing, I strolled out into the garden back of the hotel. The house once belonged to a convent, and was occupied by monks ; but many years since it was purchased by a certain Joseph Laborde, who played a bold part in the mine-gambling which once agitated the Mexi- cans with its speculative excitement. In 1743, Laborde came, as a poor youth, to Mexico, and by a fortunate venture in the mine of the Canada del Real de Tapujahua, he gained immense wealth. After building a church in Tasco which cost him near half a million, he was suddenly reduced to the greatest misery, both by unlucky speculations, and the failure of mines from which he had drawn an annual revenue of between "two and three hundred thousand marks. The Archbishop, however, permitted him to dispose of a golden soleil, en- riched with diamonds, which, in his palmy days, he had presented to his church at Tasco ; and with the produce of the sale, which amounted to nigh one hundred thousand dollars, he returned once more to Zacatecas. This district was at that period nearly abandoned as a mining country, and produced annually but fifty thousand marks of silver. But Laborde immediately undertook the celebrated mine of Quebradilla, and in work- ing it, lost again, nearly all his capital. Yet was he not to be deterred. LABORDE. 173 With the scanty remains of his wealth, he persevered in his labors; struck on the veta grande, or great vein of La Esperanza, and thereby, a second time, replenished his coffers. From that period, the produce of the mines of Zacatecas rose to near five hundred thousand marks a year, and Laborde, at his death, left three millions of livres. In the meantime, however, he had forced his only daughter into a convent, in order that he might bequeath his immense property unembarrassed to his son ; who, in turn, infected like his father with religious bigotry, volunta- rily embraced the monastic life, and ended the family's career of avarice and ambition. During his days of prosperity, Laborde had owned the property on which we are now staying, and embellished it with every adornment that could bring out the beauties of surrounding nature. The dwelling is said to have been magnificent before it was destroyed during the Revolution, but nothing remains now of all the splendor with which the speculator enriched it, except the traces of its beautiful garden. This is situated on the western slope bending toward the glen, and contains near eight acres in its two divisions. These he covered with a succession of gradually descending terraces, filled with the rarest natural and exotic flowers. In the midst of these gardens is still a tank for water-fowl, and over the high western wall rises a mirador or lellevue, from which the eye ranges north, south, and west, to the mountains over the plain, which is cut in its cen- tre by the tangled dell. The northern division of this garden is reached by a flight of steps from the first, and incloses a luxuriant grove of forest trees, broad-leaved plantains, and a few solitary palms waving over all their fan-like branches. In these dense and delicious shades through which the sun, at noon, can scarcely penetrate, a large basin spreads out into a mimic lake. A flight of fifteen steps descend to it from the bank, and were once filled with jars of flowers. In the centre of this sheet two small gardens are still planted, and the flowers bending over their sides and growing to their very edge, seem floating on the waters. At the extreme end of the grounds, a deep summer-house extends nearly the whole width of the field on arches, and its walls are painted in fresco to resemble a beautiful garden filled with flowers and birds of the rarest plumage. Looking at this from the south end of the little lake, the deception is perfect, and you seem beholding the double of the actual prospect, repeated by some witchery of art. I would gladly have spent the day in this garden, but we had arranged our journey so as to devote a portion of this morning to visit the adjacent hacienda of Temisco, a sugar plantation, owned by the Del Barrios, of Mexico. Accordingly, after breakfast we mounted, and passing down the steep descents to the east, we struck off" into the fields in a southwardly direction. The beautiful suburbs of Cuernavaca are chiefly inhabited by Indians, whose houses are built along the narrow lanes ; and in a country where it is a comfort to be all day long in the open air under the shade of trees, 174 MEXICO. and where you require no covering except to shelter you in sleep and showers, you may readily imagine that the dwellings of the people are exceedingly slight. A few canes stuck on end, and a thatch of cane, complete them. But the broad-leaved plantain, the thready pride of China, the feath- ery palm, bending over them, and matted together by lacing vines and creeping plants covered with blossoms — these form the real dwellings. The whole, in fact, would look like a picture from Paul and Virginia — but for the figures ! Unkempt men, indolent and lounging ; begrimed women, surrounded by a set of naked little imps as begrimed as they; and all crawling or rolling over the filth of their earthen floors, or on dirty hides stretched over sticks for a bed. A handful of corn, a bunch of plantains, or a pan of beans picked from the nearest bushes, is their daily food ; and here they burrow, like so many animals, from youth to manhood, from manhood to the grave. After leaving the city, our road lay for some distance along the high table-land, and at length struck into the glen which passes from the west of Cuernavaca, where, for tlie first time in Mexico, I actually lost the high-road. Imagine the channel of a mountain-stream down the side of an Alleghany mountain, with its stones chafed out of all order, and many of them worn into deep clefts by the continual tread of mules fol- lowing each other, over one path, for centuries. This was the main turn- pike of the country to the port of Acapulco, and several of our party managed to continue on horseback while descending the ravine ; but out of respect both for myself and the animal I bestrode, I dismounted, and climbed over the rocks and gullies to the bottom of the glen, where we crossed a swift stream on a bridge. Ascending from this to the ridge on the opposite side, in rather a scrambling manner, we entered the domain of the hacienda* of Temisco, the buildings of which we shortly reached after passing through an Indian village, where most of the laborers on the estate reside. This is one of the oldest establishments of note in the Republic, and passed, not many years since, into the hands of the present owners for the sum of -$300,000. The houses (consisting oi" the main dwelling, a large chapel, and all the requisite out-buildings for grinding the cane and re-> fining the sugar,) were erected shortly after the conquest, and their walls bear yet the marks of the bullets with which the refractory owner was assailed during one of the numerous revolts in Mexico. He stood out stoutly against the enemy, and mustering his faithful Indians within the walls of his court-yard, repulsed the insurgents. * " Hacienda," is the name given fo all estates or plantations in contradistinction to "' Rancho," a farm. IKDIAlf HUT: ISr THE TIEBBA CAlIEIfTE. A HACIENDA. 175 The estate spreads over a tract of eleven leagues in length by three in breadth. It employs about two hundred and fifty laborers, at two and a half and three reals per day, who produce about fifty thousand loaves of sugar, of from twenty-two to twenty-four pounds, per annum. It is calculated that the molasses pays all the expenses of the establish- ment, which amount to near thirty thousand dollars. At the store of the hacienda, (belonging to the proprietor of the estate,) almost the whole of this sum is received back from the Indians, who, I perceived, purchased even their bread. In addition to the revenue from the sugar crop^ about eight thousand head of cattle feed on the premises, half of which are the property of its owner, the other half being strays from adjoining haciendas. We were received by Don Rafael, one of the brothers del Barrio, whom we unexpectedly met on the estate. He conducted us into a long monastic- looking hall, nearly bare of furniture, yet bearing traces of taste and re-* finement, in a well-selected library and valuable piano in one corner, while a hammock, suspended from the unplastered rafters, swung across the airy apartment. Here we were most hospitably entertained, and enjoyed a pleasant chat with the owner, in French, Spanish, English and German, all of which languages the worthy gentleman speaks, — having not only travelled in, but dwelt long and observingly in every country of Europe. It was strange, in these wild portions of Mexico, in the midst of Indians, to drop thus suddenly and unexpectedly by the side of a well-bred man, dressed in his simple costume of a plain country farmer, who could con- verse with you in most of the modern tongues, upon all subjects — from the collections of the Pitti Palace and the Vatican, to the breed and edu- cation of a game cock ! As we looked over the fields of cane, waving their long, delicate green leaves, in the mid-day sunshine to the south, he pointed out to us the site of an Indian village, at the distance of three leagues, the inhabitants of which are almost in their native state. He told us, that they do not permit the visits of white people; and that, numbering more than three thousand, they come out in delegations to work at the haciendas, being governed at home by their own magistrates, administering their own laws, and employing a Cath. olic priest, once a year, to shrive them of their sins. The money they receive in payment of wages, at the haciendas, is taken home and buried ; and as they produce the cotton and skins for their dress, and the corn and beans for their food, they purchase nothing at the stores. They form a good and harmless community of people, rarely committing a depredation upon the neighboring farmers, and only occasionally lassoing a cow or a bull, which they say they " do not steal, but take for food." If they are chased on such occasions, so great is their speed of foot, they are rarely caught even by the swiftest horses ; and if their settlement is ever entered by a white, the transgressor is immediately seized, put under guard in a large hut, and he and his animal are fed and carefully attended to until the follow- 176 MEXICO. ,ng day, when he is dispatched from the village under an escort of Indians, who watch him until far beyond the limits of the primitive settlement. Du Roslan and myself felt a strong desire (notwithstanding the inhibi- tion,) to visit this original community, as one of the most interesting objects of our journey ; but the rest of our party objecting, we were forced to submit to the law of majorities in our wandering tribe. I observed, that on this hacienda the proprietors have introduced all the improvements in the art of making sugar, and obtained their horizontal rollers and boiling-pans from New- York. How they reached their places over the wretched roads, must ever remain a riddle to others but Mexican teamsters ; and yet, after all the immense outlay of capital, in the pur- chase and improvement of this property, the proprietor complains bitterly, this year, of the difficulty of selling its produce, and the general depres- sion of the times. With roads to transport his crop to market, and with ideas heyond the hack of a mule as the only means of transportation, he would not be forced to complain long of stagnant trade and trifling profits. Peace, internal improvement, and native enterprise, unmolested by fiscal legislation, are what Mexico requires ; and, until she obtains them, the planter may vainly expend his fortune in mechanical improvements. We reached Cuernavaca about 3 o'clock, meeting on the way a number of muleteers, and Indians with their wives, returning from market. A gang of thieves, sent under a guard to the town prison, also passed us on the road. We entered the city, through the delightful suburb of groves. The families of many of the better classes of the inhabitants were sitting under the shade of their porches, and it was impossible to avoid remarking the delicate beauty of the females. Indolence is said to be the general characteristic of Cuernavaca ; and, as in all fine climates, it is fatal to enterprise and in'dustry. The tem- perature is too high for these virtues. Man wants but shade, shelter, and a gratified appetite, and there is no inducement to make the interior of dwellings either beautiful or attractive. Working in the open air fatigues — reading, within, makes them drowsy. They rise early, because it is too warm to lie in bed ; they go to mass, for exercise in the cool and balmy morning air ; they go to sleep after their meals, because it is too warm to walk about ; and they go to vespers, to pass the time until the hour arrives for another meal, as preparatory to another nap ! And thus, between sleep, piety, and victuals, life passes aimlessly enough, in this region of eternal summer. A FANDANGO. 177 We lounged for an hour or two in Laborde's beautiful garden, watching the sunset over the western glen, and found it difficult to leave even for the promise of a dinner. While we had been on our morning visit to the hacienda, the diligence arrived from Mexico, and the hungry passengers, who had travelled since three o'clock almost without food, made a deep inroad in the larder. It required some energy to repair this havoc, and as our dinner had been ordered at six o'clock, I took occasion to pay my respect'^ -o the cook-maid. With the aid of a little cash and persuasion, I managed to preserve our own stores untouched until we penetrate far- ther into the country, where, in all likelihood, we will need them more. After dinner, we took a walk by moonlight through the town. The night was as cloudless and serene, as one of our summer evenings by the sea-shore. Antonio, the broken-nosed hero, and owner of the cur, proposed that we should go to see a fandango, at the house of one of the burghers, who was his friend. He led the way, through several streets, to a neat dwelling in the midst of a garden, where we found a row of elderly ladies strung on high-backed chairs against the wall, while a dozen young and pretty ones (by the light of a couple of starved tallow candles,) received ihe compliments of as many of the village beaux. Two or three musi- cians were seated in a corner strumming their handalones, and going through a half hour of preparatory tuning, while the company gathered. At length, when all had assembled, the schoolmaster — a veteran and a bachelor, the briskest and busiest man of the party — constituted himself master of ceremonies for the evening, and insisted on our joining in a contra dance, got up expressly for the strangers. Du Roslan and myself joined the dance, on my principle of "taking people as they are, and doing as they do," besides that I think it always in the worst taste to leave men, no matter how humble or poor they may be, under the im- pression that you have visited them as curiosities. After footing it through, we handed the servants a couple of dollars to bring in refreshments of "Perfect-love" and "Noyau" for the ladies, and something more likely to be relished by the gentlemen. This we understood was not contrary to the rules of " good society ;" — so they sipped and became livelier. A couple took the floor — the lady with castanets, and the man chantino- an air to the guitar. Another pair followed their example, while the re- mainder formed a cotillon, to the twang of the rest of the instruments. The Cuernavacans seemed wide awake, for once at least, and we stole off quietly at midnight, in the midst of an uproar of music and merriment. 2(ith Septemher. At four o'clock, day was just breaking and the moon still shining, when we passed through the suburbs of Cuernavaca. As we reached the highlands of the plateau, where the barranca breaks pre- cipitously, the sun rose. There had been no rain during the niijht ; the sky was perfectly clear, and in the distance lay the mountains of the 178 MEXICO. southern Sierra, with the morning mists resting like lakes among tlieir folds. Passmg over the declivitous road we had traversed yesterday, we soon struck off to the right, near the hacienda of Temisco, and after crossing a deep ravine, rose to a still higher plateau, where we enjoyed a beautiful view of this splendid estate, with its white walls and chapel tower, buried in the middle of bright green cane-fields, waving with the fresh breeze in the early light. From this eminence the guide (who was a half-breed Indian and Ne- gro,) pointed out to me a small mountain, at the extremity of the plain in front, on which was situated the Pyramid of Xochicalco — the subject of our day's explorations. The cerro appears to rise directly out of the levels between two mountains, and the plain continuing to its very foot, might seemingly be traversed in half an hour. Accordingly, I expressed this opinion to the guide, and put my horse directly in motion for it ; but the half-breed turned off to the right. I remonstrated, as the whole pla. teau appeared to be a perfect prairie, smooth and easily crossed ; yet he insisted that in the straight forward direction, and, indeed, in all direc- tions, it was cut by one of those vast barrancas, which, worn by the attri- tion of water for ages, break on you unexpectedly in the most level fields, forcing you frequently to tread back your path or to go miles around for a suitable crossing. The space in a direct line over these gullies may be no more than fifty yards before you strike the same level on the opposite bank — and yet to reach it, you are compelled to descend hundreds of feet and ascend again, among rocks and herbage for the distance of a mile. Such was the account of the barrancas, given by our guide, except that he declared the one in front of us to be at present entirely impassalle. I submitted, therefore, to his advice, and turning off with him to the right, we trotted away at the head of our party, and soon lost sight of our lag- ging friends. In a quarter of an hour we reached one of the barrancas of which he had spoken, and it fully justified his description : — a wide, yawning gulf in the midst of the plain, with precipitous sides tangled with rocks and shrubbery. Although the path was scarcely broad enough for the horse's feet, — with a steep towering on the right, and a precipice of a hundred yards plunging down immediately on his left, — this bold rider never quitted his animal, but pushed right onward. I confess that I paused before I fol- lowed. Two travellers, who passed us half an hour before, had already de- scended, and wei^e thridding their way on the other side of the glen among the rocks. Instead, however, of taking the side of the opposite steep in a right line with the descent, as they ought to have done, they had fol. lowed the downward course of the stream in seeking for an easier rise, and they were forced to halt before a pile of impassable rocks, from which they shouted to our guide for directions. THE BARRANCA. 179 "When I again caught a glimpse of the half-breed, his head was rising and sinking with the motion of his horse, a hundred feet below me, as he slid along the shelving precipices of the barranca. Yet there was no alternative but to follow him ; and as my horse was an old roadster in the tierra caliente, I resolved not to be outdone, and so, giving him his own time and control of the bridle, I trusted to his sagacity, and put him in the path. Nor had I occasion to regret my confidence in the beast ; he did his work bravely, feeling his path, leaning against the upper sides of the dangerous passes, and clambering along with the tenacity of a fly and the activity of a cat. But when we were within fifty feet of the bot- tom of the ravine, a sharp turn to the right disclosed to me an almost headlong wall of rock for the remaining distance, into which steps had been cut that seemed scarcely passable on foot. I looked about me, and found there was room to dismount. Although I had great confidence in the horse, I confess to more in my own feet ; and thus scrambling on ahead, at the length of my lasso, I led the animal to the bottom of the dell, through which ran a broad and rapid stream swollen by the recent rains. Here I found the guide waiting for me. We plunged in at once, and partly swimming the horses and partly scrambling over the huge stones that formed the bed of the torrent, we attained the western bank in safety. Fairly past one difficulty, another confronted us in the ascent of the op- posite side, which seemed steeper and more craggy than the other. De- termined to try my horse's mettle, I now continued on' his back, and prepared him for what he had to expect by leaping a stone-wall at the foot of the declivity. He took at once nimbly to the crags, sprang after the guide from rock to rock and ledge to ledge, almost at a run; neither laid his ears to his neck for a moment, nor faltered for whip, spur, or word of encouragement ; and, in half the time occupied in the descent, placed me on the top of the plateau. But our companions were missing. From our elevated position, we commanded an uninterrupted view over the levels of the opposite prairie, yet they were neither on it, nor winding down the sides of the glen. Mr, Black soon made his appearance, and followed us up the cliffs ; but he was not able to account for the rest of the party. In half an hour, how- ever, they appeared near a mile up the barranca fording the river; and as it was evident that they were in the right direction and saw us, we pushed on. Descending another fold of the ravines, and again crossino- an arm of the same stream, and zig-zagging another hill to its summit, we found ourselves at last on the table-land without the interruption of more barrancas. Here we were rejoined by some of the party, who reported one of the mules to be broken down. The other, however, soon reached us, and it was sent back unladen, for the carga of the useless beast that was de- tained at the foot of the last declivity. 180 MEXICO. In half an hour we were again in motion, after a fruitless effort to shoot a young buck we had started in a neighboring corn-field. The sun was now intensely hot, and from its influence and the exercise of the morn- ing, I was drenched with perspiration, nor was it disagreeable to find the pores of the skin thus relieved, after a residence of eight months in the Valley of Mexico, where the sensation is scarcely known. I put up my umbrella to screen myself as much as possible from the direct rays, but the heat was reflected as scorchingly from the naked plain and shrubless hills. Nevertheless, wearied by the fatigue of six hours in the saddle without food, I soon fell into a doze, which lasted until we entered the bai'e gorge between the hills through which com- mences the ascent to the ruined pyramid. Here, among some scanty bushes which afforded shade and shelter, we dismounted to breakfast; but, unluckily, water had been entirely forgotten by our servants ; there was not a drop in the gourds or can- teens. Our pic-nic feast of sardines, ham, sausage, and corned -beef, con- sequently but added to a parching thirst which there was no hope of allaying but by slow draughts of claret and sherry that had been exposed for hours to a blazing sun on the backs of mules. Nor was this all. Scarcely had we seated ourselves, when clouds of black-flies and mosqui- tos came down from their nests among the ruins, and I write this memo- rial of them with hands inflamed by their inexorable stings. In a bad humor, as you may naturally suppose, for antiquarian re- searches, I nevertheless mounted my horse as soon as breakfast was over, and ascended the hill with Pedro, while my companions, who had less anxiety about such matters, laid down under an awning of scrapes stretched from tree to tree, to finish the nap that had been interrupted at half-past three in the morning. THE RUINS OF THE PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. At the distance of six leagues from the city of Cuernavaca lies a cerro, three hundred feet in height, which, with the ruins that crown it, is known by the name of Xochicalco, or " the Hill of Flowers." The base of this eminence is surrounded by the very distinct remains of a deep and wide ditch ; its summit is attained by five spiral terraces ; the walls that support them are built of stone, joined by cement, and are still quite perfect ; and, at regular distances, as if to buttress these terraces, there are remains of bulwarks shaped like the bastions of a fortification. The summit of the hill is a wide esplanade, on the eastern side of which are still perceptible three truncated cones, resembling the tumuli found among many similar ruins in Mexico. On the other sides there are also large mmi^m, BUIKS OF XOCHICALCO. PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. 181 heaps of loose stones of irregular shape, which seem to have formed por- tions of similar mounds or tumuli, or, perhaps, parts of fortifications in connection with the wall that is alleged by the old writers to have sur- rounded the base of the pyramid, but of which I could discern no traces. The stones forming parts of the conical remains, have evidently been shaped by the hand of art, and are often found covered with an exterior coat of mortar, specimens of which I took away with me as sharp and perfect as the day it was laid on centuries ago. Near the base of the last terrace, on which the pyramid rises, the es- planade is covered with trees and tangled vines, but the body of the plat- form is cultivated as a corn-field. We found the Indian owner at work in it, and were supplied by him with the long-desired comfort of a gourd of water. He pointed out to us the way to the summit of the terrace through the thick brambles ; and rearing our horses up the crumbling stones of the wall, we stood before the ruins of this interesting pyramid, the remains of which, left by the neighboring planters after they had borne away enough to build the walls of their haciendas, now lie buried in a grove of palmettos, bananas, and forest-trees, apparently the growth of many hundred years. Indeed, this pyramid seems to have been (like the Forum and Collis- eum at Rome,) the quarry for all the builders of the vicinity ; and Alzate, who visited it as far back as 1777, relates, that not more than twenty years before, the Jive terraces of which it consisted, were still perfect; and that on the eastern side of the upper platform there had been a magnificent throne carved from porphyry, and covered with hieroglyphics of the most graceful sculpture. Soon after this period, however, the work of de- struction was begun by a certain Estrada, and it is not more than a couple of years since one of the wealthiest planters of the neighborhood ended the line of spoilers by carrying off enormous loads of the squared and sculptured materials, to build a tank in a barranca to bathe his cattle ! All that now remains of the five stories, terraces, or bodies of the pyra- mid, are portions of the first, the whole of which is of dressed porphyry tic rock, covered with singular figures and hieroglyphics executed in a skil- ful manner. The opposite plate presents a general view of the ruins as seen from the westward. The basement is a rectangular building, and its dimensions on the northern front, measured above the plinth, are sixty-four feet in length, by fifty-eight in depth on the western front. The height between the plinth and frieze is nearly ten feet ; the breadth of the frieze is three feet and a half, and of the cornice one foot and five inches. I placed my compass on the wall, and found the lines of the edifice to correspond ex- actly with the cardinal points. The western front is quite clear of bushes and fallen stones, and we had an opportunity to examine minutely the sculpture of the northwest- ern corner, which is very accurately delineated by Nebel* in the sec- ond engraving. * Viaje pintoreso y AiqueoloKico ft la Republioa de Mexico. 182 MEXICO. In the left-hand corner of this sculpture will be perceived the head of a monstrous beast, whose bearded and open jaws are armed with sharp teeth, from between which protrudes a forked tongue. In front of this is a crook or staff, terminated by a plume of feathers, similar to that of the head-dress of the figures that will be subsequently described. Beneath the mouth of the monster is a square, resembling a hieroglyph, or perhaps a Chinese letter • and below this is a rabbit, a figure which will be no- ticed again on the corner stone that formed part of the base of the second story, as well as on the frieze of the first. Nothing of this pyramid remains so uninjured as the northern front; and this, with the exception of parts of the frieze and cornice, is still en- tire. I present, in the plate marked A, a copy of the drawing made of it by Alzate at the period of his visit in 1777. It will be perceived, that although the figures at the corners somewhat resemble those already described on the western front, yet the lines pro- ceeding from the mouths of the monsters' heads fall in a curve ; and it was doubtless from these that the story repeated by Humboldt originated, that " at the Pyramid of Xochicalco there were representations of croco- diles spouting water." They certainly are not crocodiles, but more prob- ably, some fabulous monsters fashioned from the imaginations of the un- known builders, or compounded, perhaps, of various symbols by which they represented their deities. On the frieze are constantly repeated the figures represented by Nebel in the following drawings : ^^ t5^ ^ 2 TTTT HI PYRAMID V F XOCHICALCO, 183 The figures in both of these bassi-relievi are seated cross-legged; plumes depend from a cap of the one, and from an odd head-dress of the other ; and the left hand of the figure in the second drawing rests upon an ornament or symbol. In the figure of the first drawing the right hand is placed on the thigh ; the left holds a sort of crooked daggei*, and a cu- rious bandage, not unlike a pair of s-pectacles, is over the eyes. Four symbols cover the rest of the square — a rabbit, a figure precisely like the letter J, another like the letter V, on its side, and an oval in which there is a cross. These relievos, as I before observed, run round the whole of the remaining frieze, while the cornice above it is sculptured with the tasteful ovals represented in the drawing of the northwestern angle. I could not find any remains of color on the sculpture, which is gene- rally between three and four inches deep. I have represented the outlines of the stones of which the edifice is composed in the design of the north- western angle. They are laid upon each other without cement, and kept in place by their weight alone ; and as the sculpture of a figure is seen to run frequently over several of them, there can be no doubt that the bassi- relievi were cut after the pyramid had been erected. ' Some idea may be formed of the immense labor with wnich this build- ing was constructed, from measurements I made of several of the masses of porphyry that compose it. The whole building occupies a space of three thousand seven hundred and twelve square feet — the middle stone in the first story at the north end, is seven feet eleven inches long, and two feet nine inches broad ; the stone at the northeast corner on the second story, repi'esented in the plate as bearing the figure of a rabbit, is five feet two inches long, and two feet six inches broad ; and the stone at 184 MEXICO. the base of the southwest corner is two feet seven inches high, five feet long, and four feet seven inches broad. When it is recollected that these materials were not found in the neigh- borhood, but were brought from a great distance, and borne up a hill, (more than three hundred feet high,) we cannot fail to be struck with the industry, toil and ingenuity of the builders, especially as the use of beasts of burden was at that time unknown in Mexico, Nor was this edifice on the summit the only portion of the architect's labor. Huge rocks were brought to form the walls supporting the terraces that surrounded the hill a league in circumference, and the whole of that immense mass loas cased in stone. Beyond these terraces again, there was still another immense task in the ditch, of even greater extent, which had to be dug and regularly embanked ! When you combine all these difficulties and all their labors, I think you will agree with me, that there are but few works, not of essential utility, undertaken in the present age by civilized nations, that do not sink into insignificance when contrasted with the hill of Xochicalco, from whose summit towered its lofty pyramid of sculptured porphyry. There appears to be no doubt that a flight of steps rose on the western front from the commencement of the terrace, and terminated before three portals, the remains of which Nebel alleges he discovered ; but since his visit, the edifice has been so much injured, and the vegetation has sprung up so vigorously, that I was unable to perceive any indications of the apertures. It is probable that these led to the interior of the Temple, whence there was a communication with the subterranean vaults that have been explored within a few years by persons acting under orders of the Government. I endeavored to examine tliese underground apart- ments as soon as I found the opening to them, at the foot of the first terrace on the northern side of the hill ; but the guide professed igno- rance of the interior, and the Indian he had engaged to pilot me failed in attending. Indeed, such is the superstition of these simple-minded people, that you find it difficult to investigate anything in which their services are required, among the relics of their ancient race. They believe that the mounds and caverns are haunted by the spirits of their ancestors — that they were places of sepulture or holiness — and few have the hardi- hood to assist in revealing their secrets. In examining various works on the subject of these ruins, the best notice I have found of them is the account of a visit of certain gentlemen in March, 183.5, by order of the Supreme Government.* In making a com- plete examination, both of the pyramid and the hill, this party explored the caverns and vaults. After describing their course through various dark and narrow pas- sages, the walls of which were covered with a hard and varnished gray cement, that preserved its lustre in a remarkable degree, they came to * Published in the Kevista Mejicana of 1835. PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. 185 two enormous pillars, or rather two masses, cleft from the rock of which the hill is composed, affording three entrances, between them, to a saloon near ninety feet in extent. Above them was a cupola of regular shape, supported by cut stones disposed in circles, in the middle of which was an aperture reaching perhaps to the summit of the pyramid. The writer describes the stones that compose the cupola as " diminishing gradually in size as they rise to the top, and forming a beautiful mosaic." It is much to be regretted that these explorers made no drawing of the spot, as it would be most interesting to see the outline of what we are thus led to believe is a regular arch ; and it is equally to be regretted, that the superstitions of the Indians and the fear of wild beasts, scorpions and serpents, that are said to fill these sombre crypts, prevent a more ex- tended examination of the interior of the hill. I was alone deterred by the haste of my companions, from delaying, at least another day, and devoting it to the exploration of these vaults. There is a tradition among the Indians, related by Alzate, that when the pyramid still numbered its five stories, there was on, or near, the hill of Xochicalco, an enormous stone or group, representing a man whose entrails an eagle was tearing ; but of this there are now no vestiges. Nebel states, that there was undoubtedly a communication from the inte- rior of the temple to the vaults below ; and, founding his belief on Indian tradition and on a discovery he made at the top of the first terrace, he alleges, that an aperture extended from the summit of the pyramid to the crypt we have described, and immediately beneath it was placed an altar, on which the sun's rays fell when that luminary became vertical. What his authorities were it is difficult to determine ; but I imagine the tale to be quite as fanciful as many other portions .of his beautiful work. This gentleman has given a drawing of what he terms the " Restora- tion of the Pyramid of Xochicalco,'' as it is supposed to have appeared when its terraces were all complete ; and although I do not believe he has sufficient authority for the figures with which he adorned the upper stories of the edifice, I have adopted his ideas generally in the following drawing, with the exception of adding a frieze and cornice to each of the stories, as will be seen, also, hereafter, in the outlines of the "Pyramid of Papantla." 14 186 MEXICO. RESTORATION OF THE PYRAMID OF XOCHICALCO. Such, in all probability — from the authority of unimpeachable tradi- tions, and the remains now crumbling to ruins and overgrown with the forest at its base — such, was the Pyramid of Xochicalco, when it first rose aloft covered with its curious symbols of mystic rites, and received from the Indian builders its dedication to the gods, or to the glory of some sovereign whose bones were to moulder within. Who those builders and consecrate rs were no one can tell. There is no tradition of them or of the temple. When first discovered, no one knew to what it had been devoted, 'or who had built it. It had outlasted both history and memory ! But no matter who built, or what nation used it as temple or tomb, those who conceived and executed it were persons of taste, refinement and civilization ; and I venture to assert, that no one who examines the figures with which it is covered, can fail to connect the designers with the people who dwelt and worshipped in the palaces and temples of Uxmal and Palenque. Fragmentary fragment as this pyramid is, it may still be deemed in outline, material, carving, design, and execution, one of the most remark- able of the antiquities of America. It denotes, besides, an ancient civili- zation and architectural progress, that may well entitle the inhabitants of our Continent to the character of an Original race. On the other hand, (for those who are fond of tracing resemblances, and believe that whatever there was of art, science, or cultivation among the aborigines, came fron- the " old world,") there is much in the shape, proportions and sculptures of this pyramid, to connect its architects with the Egyptians. CROSSINGARIVER. 187 The day was far advanced, when I stood for the last time on the corner, stone of the upper terrace and looked at the beautiful prospect around me. It was the centre of a mighty plain. Running due north were the re- mains of an ancient paved road, leading over prairie and barranca to the city,* distinctly visible at the foot of the Sierra Madre — and, all around, at the distance of some miles, east, west, and south, rose lofty mountains, among whose valley-folds nestled the white walls of haciendas that owed their strength and massiveness to the spoliation of the very ruins on which I stood. Palace, temple, tomb, fortification, whatever it was, (and to all these uses has it been appropriated by the guessing tribe of antiquarians,) the Pyramid of Xochicalco was nobly situated in its day and generation, and no one will now visit its crumbling remains without a better opinion of the unfortunate races who were pushed aside to make room for the growth and expansion of European power. TETECALA. • It was near three o'clock, when we again took up our line of march under a burning sun ; and, lingering with Pedro until after my compan- ions had departed, I found, on reaching the bottom of the hill, that they were already out of sight, and that all traces of them were lost on the path among the trees and bushes. I shouted — but there was no an- swer. I inquired at the first Indian hut I passed, but no travellers had gone that way ; and, although following a distinct and apparently straight- forward road, I acknowledge that I was lost. To add to my disquietude, I had forgotten the name of the village at which we were to lodge. It was useless, however, to sit down in the forest, and I therefore resolved to push onward with confidence that the path led somewhere. I had not gone more than half a mile when I came up with another straggler of our party — lost, like myself — and we trotted along side by side, occa- sionally shouting for our companions, and then halting a moment to take breath in the close and sultry air filled with clouds of mosquitos and flies that settled on our hands and faces as soon as we drew our bridles. Suddenly, our road terminated at the margin of a wide stream, which was swollen over its banks by the late heavy rains, and was dashing along with the rapidity of a mill-race. On the opposite shore the road again reappeared, and we judged that this was of course the ford. Pedro, who was mounted on a stout, long-legged animal, was sent ahead, and partly swimming his animal and partly wading, he reached the bank in safety. I immediately followed, but my horse was both short limbed, and weary from the exertions he had made in the morning. Scarcely had the water risen above his girth when he was off his legs. I kept his head * Cuernavaca 188 MEXICO. toward tlie opposite shore, and as much against the stream as possible; but with all his efforts he could make no lieadway, and was swept bodily down by the current toward a wreck of broken trees and branches that bent over the water from the bank we had quitted. I spurred, whipped, encouraged him, without avail. He made another effort ; but failing in that, kept his head above water and resigned himself to the tide. I felt my situation to be dangerous, especially as I was rapidly approach- ing the long and sharp branches, by which I knew that I should be severely injured. I resolved, therefore, .to leap off and swim for the bank, which was not more than a dozen paces distant. But, at that moment, Pedro galloped down to the point opposite which I was drifting, and, as I was about executing my purpose, I saw his lasso, flung with great accu- racy, settle around my animal's head. With the end wound round his saddle-bow, Pedro stood firmly on the shore, and, in a minute, the action of the current had swung my horse on soundings. Drenched as I was, I shall ever hereafter feel a debt of gratitude to a lasso — which is rarely felt for anything in the shape of a noose. My companion and myself continued our journey, both wet, (for he had fared not much better than myself,) but both gratified with our drenching, as it had the effect of a bath, while the evaporation of the water from our soaking clothes, cooled and refreshed us. Thus through valley and glade, (rarely meeting an Indian or passing one of their miserable houses,) and without intelligence of our party, we pushed onward until about six o'clock in the evening, when we reached a wide and cultivated plain, traversed by a considerable stream, resembling in its verdant banks and soft meadows set in a frame of lofty mountains, the scenery about the sources of our Potomac. We had not long jour- nied over this plain before we passed the hacienda of Miacatlan. At a short distance, to the right of it, appeared the village of Tetecala. As soon as a passing Indian mentioned the name, we recollected it to be that of our halting-place for the night. We speedily passed an Indian suburb, buried, as usual throughout the tierra caliente, in flowers and foliage, among which lounged the idle and contented population. Here we were met by a guide, who had been sent forward by our courteous entertainers, and we were soon under the shelter of their friendly roof. Our horses were quickly unsaddled and bounding over the wide corral ; and refreshed by a clean suit and a cigarrito, I had strolled over the tasteful village, and visited the market and the church (one of the neatest I have seen, especially in the simple and true taste of its architecture, and the arrangement of the altar and the pulpits,) before our companions made their appearance. It turned out, after all, that they — not we — had mistaken the road, and had wandered much out of their way under the direction of a guide. It is better sometimes to have none. In addition to all our antiquarian researches, to-day we have travelled nearly fifteen leagues, and although I have earned a right to a soft pillow A R A N C H . 189 and bed, yet as there are none of these comforts in the house for me, I wrap myself in my serape on the hard settee, with full expectation of a night of sound repose. 21*^ Septemler — Wednesday. We left Tetecala rather late this morn- ing, without other refreshments than a cup of chocolate and a biscuit, as our intention was to stop at the hacienda of Cocoyotla, where we arrived about 11 o'clock. We had no letter of introduction to Seiior Sylva, the proprietor; but we Were, nevertheless, most kindly received by him. He requested us to dismount, and to amuse ourselves by inspecting his garden and orange- grove while he ordered breakfast. This is a small, but one of the most beautiful estates in the iierra caliente. A handsome chapel-tower has recently been added to the old edifice ; a wing on broad arches has been given to the dwelling, and the garden is kept in tasteful order. Back of the house and bordering the garden, sweeps along a sweet sti'eam, some twenty yards in width, and, by canals from it, the grounds are plentifully supplied with water. But the gem of Cocoyotla is the orangery. It is not only a grove, but a miniature forest, interspersed with broad-leaved plaintains, guyavas, cocos, palms, and mammeis. It was burthened with fruits ; and a multitude of birds, undisturbed by the sportsman, have made their abodes among the shadowy branches. We sauntered about in the delicious and fragrant shade for half an hour, while the gardener supplied us with the finest fruits. We were then summoned to an excellent breakfast of several courses, garnished with capital "wine. When our repast was concluded, Seiior Sylva conducted us over his house ; showed us the interior of the neat church, where he has made pedestals for the figures of various saints out of stalactites from some neighboring cavern ; and finally dismissed us, with sacks of the choicest fruit, which he had ordered to be selected from his grove. RANCHO DE MICHAPAS. P. M. Our journey from this hacienda was toward the Cave of Caca- huawamilpa, which we propose visiting to-morrow, and we have reached, to-night, the rancho of Michapas. This is a new feature in our travels. Hitherto we have been guests at haciendas and comfortable town dwellings, but to-night we are lodged in a rancho — a small farmer's dwelling — an Indian hut. We arrived about five o'clock, after a warm ride over wide and solitary moors, with a back ground of the mountains we passed yesterday. In 190 MEXICO. front another Sierra stretches along the horizon ; and in the foreground of the pictvire, a lake, near a mile in circuit, spreads out its silver sheet in the sunset, margined with wide-spreading trees and covered with water- fowl. The house is built of mud and reed's, matted together ; that is, there are four walls without other aperture but a door, while a thatch, supported on poles, spreads on either side from the roof-tree, forming a porch in front. This thatch is not allowed to touch the tops of the walls, but be- tween them and it, all around the house, a space of five or six feet has been left, by means of which a fi'ee circulation of air is kept up within. The interior (of one room,) is in perfect keeping with this aboriginal sim- plicity. Along the western wall there are a number of wretched engra- vings of saints, with inscriptions and verses beneath them ; next, a huge picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe, with tarnished gilded rays, blazes in the centre ; and near the corner is nailed a massive cross, with the %ure of our Saviour apparently bleeding at every pore. A reed and spear are crossed below it, and large wreaths and festoons of marigolds are hung around. Six tressels, with reeds spread over them, stand ao^ainst the wall ; and in one corner a dilapidated canopy, with a tattered curtain, rears its pretentious head to do the honors of state-bedstead The floor is of earth, and, in a corner, are safely stowed our saddles, bridles, guns, pistols, holsters, swords and spurs ; so that taking a sidelong glance at the whole establishment, you might well doubt whether you were in a stable, church, sleeping-room or chicken-coop ! Don Miguel Benito — the owner and proprietor of this valuable cata- logue of domestic comforts — received us with great cordiality. He is a man some fifty years of age ; delights in a shirt, the sleeves of which have been so long rolled up, that there is no longer anything to roll down , and a pair of those elastic leather-breeches that last one's life-time in Mexico, and grow to any size that may be required, as the fortunate owner happens to fatten with his years. Not the least curious part of Don Miguel's household, is his female establishment. He appears to be a sort of Grand Turk, as not less than a dozen women, of all colors and complexions, hover about his dwellings, while at least an equal number of little urchins, with light hair and dark, (but all with an extraordinary resemblance to the Don,) roll over the mud floors of the neighboring huts, or amuse themselves by lassoing the chickens. Q, J the caterer of our mess, thought it but a due compliment to Don Miguel, who does not disdain to receive your money, to order supper — though we resolved to fall back in case of necessity upon our own stores, and accordingly, unpacked some pots of soup and sardines. In the course of an hour, a board was spread upon four sticks, and in the middle of it M^as placed a massive brown earthen platter, with ^' stew. At the same time, a dirty copper spoon and a hot tortillia w. laid before each of us. Although we had determined to hol>i . urselv^s m reserve for our soups, yet there was but little left of the sa-vory mess. T H E A L C A L D E . 191 Our turtle, flanked with lemons and claret, then came into play ; and the repast was ended by another smoking platter of the universal frijoles. Wild and primitive as was the scene among these simple Indians, I have seldom passed a pleasanter evening, enlivened with song and wit. When we crept to our reed tressels and serapes, at eleven o'clock, I found that the state-bed was already occupied by a smart-looking fellow from the West Coast, (who I take to have been rather deeply engaged in the contraband) and his young wife — a lively looking lass, rather whiter than the rest of the brood — who had spruced herself up on our arrival. Twelve of our party lodged together in that capacious apartment, while Don Miguel betook himself, with the rest of his household, to mats under the porch. 22nd September. It rained heavily last night, but the morning, as usual, was fresh, clear and warm. After a cup of chocolate, we sallied forth toward the Cave of Cacahuawamilpa, having previously dispatched our arrieros with the mules to Tetecala, to await our return on our journey toward Cuautla. Our forces this morning were increased by the addition of some twelve or thirteen Indians, who had been engaged by Don Miguel to accompany us as guides to the cavern. They bore with them the rockets and torches which were to be burned within, and a large quantity of twine for thrid- ding the labyrinth. Leaving the lake, situated on the very edge of the table-land, we struck down a deep barranca, at the bottom of which our horses sunk nearly to their girths at every footstep, in an oozy marsh, that had not been improved by last night's rain. But passing these bogs, we ascended a steep line of hills, whence there was a splendid view of the snow-cap- ped volcanoes of Puebla, and soon reached the Indian village of Totla- wahmilpa, where it was necessary to procure a " license" to visit the cavern, or, in other words, where the authorities extort a sum of money from every passenger, under the plea of keeping the road open, and the entrance safe. As we had special passports from the Mexican Govern- ment to go where we pleased in the tierra caliente, I thought this precaution unnecessary, but our Indians refused to budge a peg without a visit to the Alcalde ; and therefore, while some of the party entered a hut, and set the women to cooking tortillias, others proceeded with the passports to the civic authorities. We found the Alcalde to be a stout old Indian, in bare feet, shirt sleeves, skin trowsers, and nearly as dark as an African. He was enjoying his leisure by a literary conversation with the schoolmaster who was his secretary, and the two were discovered in the midst of a host of ragged oys 'from eight to sixteen years old, seated on benches and learning their . -uters^ Theonoment we appeared, the Alcalde rose to receive us with great dignity,)^nd handing the passport to his secretary, he listened attentively 192 MEXICO. while he heard that Mr. and Mr. , of the Diplomatic Corps, were fully authorized by the Supreme Government to travel wheresoever they pleased wiliiout let, hindrance, or molestation from any of the good citizens of the Mexican Republic. When the secretary had con- cluded the document, and the Alcalde had looked at it — upside down — and they had examined the signature of Yieyra and Bocanegra, and ex- pressed themselves perfectly satisfied of their genuineness, they retired to a corner for consultation. " The Senores," said the Alcalde, turning to me, " wish to see the cav- ern, and they have permission from the Alcaldes and Chiefs in Mexico to go where they please ; — this is true ; but that liberty does not refer to the Cave of Cacahuawamilpa, which is under ground, while the pass- port relates only to what is ahove ! The Seiiores must have a license from the prefect here, and, moreover, they must pay for it." I told him that the Diplomatic Corps never paid for any such permis- sions. He shrugged his shoulders and said that might be, and no doubt was all very true in the city of Mexico, but that it was not the custom here ; " los dvplomaticos must fare like other people and pay for a license." I thought of Stephens and his " broad seal ;" and I produced my pass- port from the Department of State with the coat of arms of the United States, and the signature of Mr. Webster ; but it was all Hebrew to the scribe ; the eagle was not the Mexican eagle, and " Welastair,''^ he had never heard of. He shook his forefinger from right to left, as if inti- mating that it was all a humbug, and that no such man was ever known in Mexico. They were old stagers in the matters of fees, and strangers did not drop down on such visits every day of the year ! While this by-scene was going on, the school exercises were, of course, suspended, and the pupils, with staring eyes and gaping mouths, listened to the discussion. At length, as time was rapidly passing, the Alcalde was asked liow much he wanted, and told that we would give him no ex- travagant sum. He named, I believe, ten dollars as his price, but we compromised for five — ^two of which were for the prefect, two for himself, and one for the secretary. As I was anxious to get the autograph of so distinguished a functionary, I asked him for a written license ; but he re- plied that it was not necessary. " You may go now," said he ; " no one will molest you ;" and turning to our guide : " The Seiiores are muy ca- balleros;" (which may be translated, ''very gentlemen") "take care of them, and at your peril, see that they come back safely." The secretary made a bow — the Alcalde another — our guide led the way, and we rejoined our party at the Indian hut, where they had half a dozen women baking tortillas as fast as they could pat them, for our breakfast at the cave. We lost no time, but mounting at once, pushed over a hill or two until we reached a small path leading through a corn-field, at the foot of which ran a clear and narrow rivulet. There we dismounted, and crossing the hill, the mouth of the cavern was pointed out on the opposite side of the CAVE OF CACAHUAWAMILPA. 193 glen, half way up the mountain. The dell was filled with tangled vines and shrubbery, growing up among lofty trees that sprung amid the rocks and debris of the hill-side. The path to the bottom of it was steep, and so covered with tall grass and bushes that it became necessary to send an Indian with a machete to cut a path. On reaching the stream at the foot of the opposite side, the glen was found to be quite as tangled, and an Indian was again despatched to clear the way. As he cut, we climbed after each other, slowly and painfully over the sharp and rugged rocks. When near the top, however, and in sight of the entrance, a tall shelf of rock, slanting at a sharp angle with the hill, opposed itself to our farther progress. It was about four yards wide — below it the precipice plunged down almost perpendicularly for two hundred feet, while there was nothing to grasp but the bare surface of the rock, and a few threads of vines that grew from the fissures of the impending clifi". A ledge of about three inches had been chipped in this rock, along which it was necessary to pass. The barefooted Indians crossed as nimbly as cats, and those of our party who wore shoes fol- lowed with ease ; but I, in a pair of water-proof, thick-soled boots, and with not the steadiest head over steep places, found the transit exceedingly difficult. I hung on, however, by the vines, and succeeded in crossing in a very lubberly manner. The Indian women with our tortillas, and the detachment we had des- patched in the morning with our cold ham, beef and sardines, had already arrived. There was a huge rock with a flat surface, upon which we spread our viands — fruit, cocoanuts, and pines — and made as picturesque a breakfast table as ever was longed for by a pic-nic party within a hun- dred miles of London. CAVERN OF CACAHUAWAMILPA. I was one of the last to leave the entrance of the cave, which hangs m a huge arch of sixty feet span, fringed with a curtain of vines and trop- ical plants. Our party preceded me for some distance along the road that descends rapidly for the first hundred yards. Each one of the guides, Indians, and travellers, carried a light; and when I saw the swarthy crew, with their savage features, long hair, and outlandish dress, disappearing gradually until nothing was left but the dot-like glimmer of their torches in the distance, it seemed more like some spectacle of witch- craft in melodrama, than an actual scene occurring among folks on earth. I lit my torch and followed. The first hundred yards brings you to the bottom of the cavern, and, if not warned in time, you are likely to plunge at this season of the year, up to your knees in the water. You cross a small lake, and immedi 194 MEXICO. ately before you, unrlcr the vast Gothic vault of the cave, rises a lofty stalagiTiiie pillar with a fringe falling from the top of it, formed of the brightest foam, congealed in a moment. A mimic pulpit springs from the wall, covered w^ith elaborate tracery, — and, hard by, an altar is spread with the fairest napkins, while, above it, depends a crystal curtain hanging in easy folds, each one of which flashes back the light of your torch as if carved from silver. We fastened the end of our twine to a pillar of the altar, and struck out westwardly, in the direction of the cavern. After a short distance we turned slightly to the south, and passing down a pile of rocks that had fallen from the roof, entered the second chamber. In the centre of tliis, a huge stalagmite has been formed. We called it the Tower of Babel. It is a lofty mass, two hundred feet in circum- ference, surrounded, from top to bottom, by rings of fountain-basins hanging from its sides, each wider than the other, and carved by the action of water into as beautiful shapes as if cut by the hand of a sculptor. An Indian climbed to the top of it, and firing a blue-light, illu- minated the whole cavern. By the bright, unearthly blaze, every nook and corner became visible, and the waters and carving of the fountain- tower stood out in wonderful relief. We penetrated to the third chamber. Here there was no centre column, but the effect was produced by the immensity of the vault. It appears as though you might set the whole of St. Peter's beneath it, with dome and cross. It is a magnificent cathedral ; the wall sheeted with stalactites, and the floor meandered by those arabesque troughs of pure white, and antique pattern, which we had seen at the Tower of Babel. An Indian fired a rocket, which exploded as it struck the top of the im- mense dome, and amid the falling stars, the detonation reverberated from side to side of the immense vault with the roar of a cannonade. A sheet of stalactite was struck, and it sounded with the clearness of a bell. Four Roman candles were lighted and placed on rocks midway up the temple sides, and they shed a faint illumination, like the twilight stealing through the fretted windows of an old cathedral. Beyond this chamber was a narrow path between the almost perpen- dicular rocks, and, as we passed, the guide crept through an entrance near the floor, and holding his torch alofl, so that the light fell as from an invisible source, displayed a delicious little cave, arched with snowy stalactites. In the middle rose a centre-table, covered with its fringed folds, and adorned with goblin nicknacks. It was the boudoir of some gnome or coquettish fairy ! Two rocks standing beyond this retreat, are the portals of another cham- ber, groined, like the rest, in Gothic arches with the tracery of purest sta- lactites, while its floor is paved all over with beautiful little globulai stalagmites. In a corner fountain, we found the skeleton head of a serpent, The path beyond this is nearly blocked up by immense masses that have fallen from the roof. Passing over these, you attain another vaulted CAVE OF CACAHUAWAMILPA. 195 cathedral, bright as the rest with flashing stalactites, while its floor is covered knee-deep with water. The dark lake, lit up by the blaze of a dozen blue-lights and Roman candles and reflecting the flashing walls of the cavern, the torches of the party, and the tribe of attendant In- dians — would have made a picture for Martin. We had now penetrated nearly five thousand feet in the interior of the earth, and the guides said that the chambers were still innumerable be- yond. Persons have slept here and gone on the next day, but no termi- nation has yet been discovered. Some years since, in exploring beyond the usual limits, a party of travellers discovered the skeleton of a man ; his bones were white and dry, and the Indian guides, afl;er placing them in a heap, erected a cross on the top of it, with which they consecrated the whole cavern as the grave of the unknown dead. Whether he was a lost traveller, an absconding debtor, a suicidal lover, or a wretched mur- derer seeking concealment from vindictive pui'suers, no one can tell ! From this chamber we returned to the ezitrance by the clew of our twine. I scarcely remember anything so beautiful as the view, when we caught the first glimpse of daylight, shining, like a gray dawn, through the green drapery of vines that mantled the mouth of the cavern and re- flected on the lake-like pool. We returned to the foot of the hills, where we found our servants and horses, and refreshed ourselves from the fatigue produced by the incessant exercise and exertions of the last three hours. Retreating through the glen to Don Miguel's rancho, and paying him liberally for his entertain- ment, we bade farewell to this part of Mexico, and turned our faces eastward. We were obliged to return to-night to the village of Tetecala, and as the afternoon was already far advanced, we obtained a guide who knew a nearer cut over the mountain, than the road by which we reached the rancho on yesterday. Night came upon us before we had half finished our journey, and I know no more of the road from actual observation. It was pitchy dark, and there were a number of ravines and barrancas to pass ; but such is the unerring sure-footedness of animals of Mexico, that I reined my horse as near the guide as I could conveniently get, and followed the lead of his sagacious mule. From the manner in which the beasts climbed and slid over rocks, in the utter darkness, I have no doubt that the path was beset with many perils. After passing the mountain, we had to swim a river near thirty yards wide, which was considerably swollen by the late rains, so that, what with fatigue and danger, I was glad enough to reach our destination ; where the first salute from our entertainers, when they heard 196 MEXICO. that we had made a night-march over the mountain, was, " Thank God, there were no accidents!" A smoking supper was soon on the table, and although our worthy hosts (who had not made a journey that day of near two thousand varas into the bowels of the earth,) were exceedingly anxious to proloDg the chat after our cheerful meal, we slipped off, one by one, to our cots and sofas. We have travelled seven leagues to-day, besides our pedestrian excursion . in the cave. HACIENDA OF SAN NICOLAS. 2Srd Septemler. We left Tetecala this morning at eight o'clock, with the intention of passing to-night at the hacienda of St. Nicolas, which belongs to the Messrs. J . For the present at least we seem to have done with the mountains, as our road to-day lay entirely over the plain. During the three last days, we have been wandering among gigantic mountains and over wild moors, where the solitude of nature reigns in all its majesty ; but the picture varies in the direction of Cuatttla. The mountains sink into the plain which is extremely fertile, and cultivated with the nicest economy. About twelve o'clock we saw the hacienda lying in the distance, in the lap of the plain, with a small hill or two hard by, just large enough to vary the scenery. As we approached the white walled buildings we could not help remarking the uncommonly neat appearance of everything about the estate. The sugar-fields were in capital order, the roads smooth, the fences had been put up, the cattle were under the care of men. The Indian village, inhabited by many of the laborers on the estate, was tidy and comfortable, and there was a cleanness and decency in the appear- ance of the people, that I had not seen elsewhere. Indeed, the whole view of this plain, hemmed in by the distant summits of the mountains, reminded me strongly of some of the pictures of rural beauty constantly presented to the traveller in New England, and I was the more forcibly struck with this, when I looked from the corridor of the hacienda over the whole ex- panse of country, and saw it dotted here and there with villages and haciendas, the white towers of whose chapels rose up beautifully from an unbroken mass of verdure. We were received at this plantation by the administrador, or steward, who had been expecting us for an hour or more ; and though he had already partaken of his dinner, (believing that we did not intend visiting St. Nicolas to-day,) he immediately ordered another, in the meantime showing us to a large and cool apartment, containing a number of beds, where we made a hasty toilet. We took a siesta after dinner, and then walked with Don A. over the estate. The whole of the fields are planted with cane for a great dis- NATIVE MUSICIANS. ^1^7 tance around the house, which forms, by itself, a very extensive establish- ment. First, there is the dwelling, a large two-story edifice, having in the basement all the offices, and the store where every necessary is sold to the Indians ; above this are the kitchens, parlors, bedrooms, and an im- mense corridor on arches, looking toward the east, filled with caged birds, and hung with hammocks, where the family pass most of the long warm days of summer. In front is the corral, on the west of which are the store-houses and buildings to receive the crop ; while on the east is another huge edifice where the boilers, engines, crushing machines, cooling vats, moulding apartments, &c., constitute the trapiche of the hacienda. It is a little city in itself At sunset, all the Indians employed on the premises assembled under the corridor on the basement floor, to account to the administrador for their day's labor and their presence. As he called their names, each one re- plied with " Alabo a Bios," — " I praise God," and ranged himself against the wall in a line with those who had already responded. When the whole list had been examined, they were dismissed, and departed in a body sing- ing an Indian hymn to the Virgin, the sounds of which died away in the distance as they plodded home over the level fields to their village. At night we heard the sound of a clarionet, bass-drum, and flute, at some distance from the dwelling, and on inquiry, discovered that a band of musicians had been organized in an adjoining village, by the owner of the hacienda. We mustered a company and strolled over. The whole of a large hut had been appropriated for a musical hall, where the per- formers were just assembling; while others, who had already arrived, were engaged in tuning their instruments. The leader was quite a re- spectable-looking Indian, decently dressed, who played the violin ; the clarionet player was fortunate in the possession of cotton drawers and a shirt; the bassoon had a pair of trousers but no shirit ; the serpent was the wildest looking Indian I ever saw, with long dishevelled black hair, and eyes worthy of his instrument; the big drum was a huge portly old negro, who reminded me of many of our performers on it at home ; while the octave flute was an urchin of not more than twelve, the wickedest little devil imaginable, but a fellow of infinite talent and a capital per- former. The night was rather too hot to permit us to remain long in the apart- ment with an Indian crowd ; we therefore took our seats outside, where we were favored by the self-taught amateurs with several airs from re- cent operas, performed in a style that would not have injured the reputa-. tion of many a military band at home. It may reasonably be judged, from a scene like this, that the Indians have talents for one of the arts requiring a high degree of natural deli- cacy and refinement. If it had been the care of all Spanish proprietors gradually to bring forth their latent dispositions, as the Senores J. have done, Mexico would now present a picture very different from that of the 198 MEXICO. degradation which fills its valleys with a slothful, -ignorant, and debased multitude. When we returned to the house, we found that some travellers who passed in the course of the day, had given an account of robbers on the road we are to travel to-morrow. About two weeks since, seven armed and mounted ruffians attacked two Frenchmen and their servants near the hacienda of Trenta. One of the Frenchmen was severely wounded, but the other, aided by the two mozos, succeeded in beating off the rob- bers, who left one of their number dead on the field, and his horse and trappings as spoils for the victor. CUAUTLA DE AMILPAS AND HACIENDA DE STA. INEZ. 24"DS and tumuU covering human relics, have been traced from Wales across the continent, through Russia and Tartary. I have been able to find no account of these works on the western side of the Rocky mountains, or in the direction of Behring's Straits ; but, from the limits of Ouiskonsin, they constantly increase in number and extent.* On the south side of Ontario, one of these remains, not far from Black river, is, I am informed, the farthest that has been discovered in a north- eastern direction. One on the Chenango river, at Oxford, is the farthest south on the eastern side of the AUeghanies, of undoubted and untradi- tional antiquity. In travelling westwardly toward Lake Erie, some are to be found in Genessee County, but they are scarce and small until we arrive at Cat- taraugus Creek, where, according to the late Governor Clinton, a chain of forts commences, extending southwardly upward of fifty miles, at a distance from each other of not more than four or five. South of these again, extensive works were discovered at Circleville, at Chillicothe, at the mouth of the Scioto and Muskingum, at Cincin- nati, at St. Louis, and at numerous points along the Valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi. Among these tumuli and fortifications, a variety of interesting relics have been found by their explorers. Vessels of earthenware, utensils of copper, painted pottery, vases of curious form, copper beads, and cir- cular plates of the same material, carvings in stone, silver and gold orna- ments ; and, at Natchez and near Nashville, idols of stone, which are not unlike those heretofore represented in my letters as existing in Mexico. Drawings of these idols are given in the Archceologia Americana, at pages 211 and 215 of the first volume. • Most intereetin? accounts, accompanied by plates, of the ancient remains in Ouiskonsin Territory, and jj the great war path firom the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, are to be found in the January number of Sillimaa'i Joninal for 1843, and also in the 31lh volume of that valuable work. INDIAN ANTIQUITIES. 239 Extensive mural remains are scattered over the immense plain, from the southern shore of Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico, and may be traced around the Gulf, across Texas into New Mexico, increasing in size and splendor as they advance toward the south. The student who de- sires to examine the subject more minutely, may refer to the before-men- tioned volume of the Archseologia Americana, where he will find a long and interesting treatise by Mr. Attwater ; — the plates of which will illus- trate the size and character of these works more satisfactorily tnan any mere verbal descriptions. I have thus traced a continuous chain of structures, chiefly of earthen mounds, and trifling relics pertaining to the necessaries of life, defence, and worship, throughout the greater portion of our western territory until it joins the soil of Mexico. I will now proceed with the account of such antiquities, of an architectural character, besides those already described by me, as have come to my knowledge in the latter Republic. In the year 1773, the Padre Francisco Garces, accompanied by Padre Font, in the course of their travels in the northern departments of Mex- ico, arrived at a vast and beautiful plain on the south bank of the river Giia, running westwardly from the great chain of the Rocky mountains, and falling into the Gulf of California between the thirty-third and thirty- fourth degrees of north latitude. There the travellers discovered remains of extensive works and ruins, covering a square league of ground, in the midst of which was an edifice, called by them the "Casa Grande." Like most of the Indian works, it was built of unburned bricks, and measured about four hundred and My feet in length, by two hundred and fifty in breadth. Within this edifice they found traces of five apart- ments. A wall, broken at intervals by lofty towers, surrounded the build- ing, and appeared to have been designed for defence. The remains of a canal were still perceptible, by which the waters of the Gila had been conveyed to the ruined town. The neighboring plains were covered (like the ruins I have recently described at Tezcoco and Tezcosingo,) with fragments of obsidian, and glazed and painted pottery ; the Indians of the vicinity were found by the explorers to be mild, civil, and intelligent people, devoted to the cuJU- vation of the soil, and possessing in no degree the ferocity or savage hab- its of the Cumanches or Apaches. Northwestwardly from Chihuahua, and southwestwardlv from these ruins, near the thirtieth degree of latitude, are similar remains ; and in the mountains in the latitude of 2T 28', there is a multitude of caverns excavated from the solid rocks, on the sides and walls of which are painted the figures of various animals, and of men and women, in dresses by no means unlike the habiliments of the ancient Mexicans, as de- picted in drawings and pictures that have been preserved until our day, 240 MEXICO, Some of the caves discovered by Father Joseph Rotea, are described as being thirty feet in length by fifteen in breadth, and are supposed by writers to have been, perhaps, the "seven abodes" from which the Mexi- can tradition describes their ancestors as having issued when they be- gan their emigration. QUEMADA. North of the city of Mexico, in the department of Zacatecas, (a coun" try that is supposed to have been inhabited by the Chicimecas and Otto- mies at the period of the conquest,) situated on the level of a hill top, which rises out of the plain like another Acropolis, are the extensive re- mains of an Indian city, known as the " Ruins of Quebiada."* The northern side of the cerro rises with an easy slope from the plain, and is guarded by bastions and a double wall, while, on the other sides, the steep and precipitous rocks of the hill itself, form natural defences. The whole of this elevation is covered with ruins; but on the southern side, chiefly, may be traced the remains of temples, pyramids, and edi- fices for the priests, cut from the living rock, and rising to the height of from two to four hundred feet above the level of the surrounding country. These rock-built walls are sometimes joined by mortar of no great te- nacity, and the stones (many of which are twenty-two feet in thicJaiess, and of a corresponding height,) are retained in their positions mainly by their own massiveness. The opposite engraving represents the patio, or courtyard of a temple, as drawn by M. Nebel. On the back pE^rt of the square is raised the pyramid, or teocalli, on which was placed the altar and idol. The stairs behind the teocalli conduct to other temples and pyramids beyond, and served, perhaps, as seats for the spectators of the bloody rites that were celebrated by the priests. The most satisfactory account I have seen of these ruins, is given by Captain Lyon in a volume of his travels in Mexico. " We set out," says he, "on our expedition to the Cerro de los Edifi- cios, under the guidance of an old ranchero, and soon arrived at the foot of the abrupt and steep rock on which the buildings are situated. Here we perceived two ruined heaps of stones, flanking the entrance to a causeway ninety-three feet broad, commencing at four hundred feet from the cliff. " A space of about six acres has been inclosed by a broad wall, of which the foundations are still visibla^ running first to the south and after- ward to the east. OfT its southwestern angle stands a high mass of stones, which flanks the causeway. In outward appearance it is of a pyramidal form, owing to the quantities of stones piled against it either by design or by its own ruin ; but on closer examination its figure could * This name has beea given from that of an adjacent hacieirea. RUINSOFQUEMADA. 241 be traced by the remains of solid walls, to have been a square of thirty- one feet by the same height : the heap immediately opposite is lower and more scattered, but in all probability formerly resembled it. Hence the grand causeway runs to the northeast until it reaches the ascent of the cliff, which, as I have already observed, is about four hundred yards dis- tant. Here again are found two masses of ruins, in which may be traced the same construction as that before described ; and it is not improbable that these two towers guarded the inner entrance to the citadel. In the centre of the causeway, which is raised about a foot and has its rough pavement uninjured, is a large heap of stones, as if the remains of some altar ; round which we could trace, notwithstanding the accumulation of earth and vegetation, a paved border, of flat slabs arranged in the figure of a six-rayed star. "We did not enter the city by the principal road, but led our horses with some difficulty up the steep mass formed by the ruins of a defensive wall, inclosing a quadrangle two hundred and forty feet by two hundred, which, to the east, is still sheltered by a strong wall of unhewn stones, eight feet -in thickness and eighteen in height. A raised terrace of twenty feet in width passes round the northern and eastern sides of this space, and on its southeast corner is yet standing a round pillar of rough stones, of the same height as the wall, and nineteen feet in circumference. " There appear to have been five other pillars on the east, and four on the northern terrace ; and as the view of the plain which lies to the south and west is hence very extensive, I am inclined to believe that the square has always been open in these directions. Adjoining to this, we entered by the eastern side to another quadrangle, entirely surrounded by perfect walls of the same height and thickness as the former one, and measurino- one hundred and fifty-four feet by one hundred and thirty-seven. In this were yet standing fourteen very well-constructed pillars, of equal dimen- sions with that in the adjoining inclosure, and arranged, four in length and three in breadth of the quadrangle, from which on every side they separated a space of twenty-three feet in width: probably the pavement of a portico of which they once supported the roof. In their construction, as well as that of all the walls which we saw, a common clay having straw mixed with it has been used, and is yet visible in those places which are sheltered from the rains. Rich grass was growing in the spa- cious court where Aztec monarchs may once have feasted ; and our cat- tle were so delighted with it that we left them to graze while we walked about three hundred yards to the northward, over a very wide parapet, and reached a perfect, square, flat-topped pyramid of large unhewn stones. It was standing unattached to any other buildings, at the foot of the eastern brow of the mountain, which rises abruptly behind it. On the eastern face is a platform of twenty-eight feet in width, faced by a parapet wall of fifteen feet, and from the base of this extends a second platform with a parapet like the former, and one hundred and eighteen feet wide. These form the outer defensive boundary of the mountain, 16 242 MEXICO. whicli from its figure has materially favored their construction. There is evei'y reason to believe that this eastern face must have been of great importance. A slightly raised and paved causeway of about twenty-five feet descends across the valley, in the direction of the rising sun ; and being continued on the opposite side of a stream which flows through it, can be traced up the mountains at two miles distance, until it terminates at the base of an immense stone edifice, which probably may also have been a pyramid. Although a stream (Rio del Partido) runs meandering through the plain from the northward, about midway between the two elevated buildings ; I can scarcely imagine that the causeway should have been formed for the purpose of bringing water to the city, Which is far more easy of access in many other directions much nearer to the river, but must have been constructed for important purposes between the two places in question ; and it is not improbable, that it once formed the street between the frail huts of the poorer inhabitants. The base of the large pyramid measured fifty feet, and I ascertained, by ascending with a line, that its height was precisely the same. Its flat top was covered with earth and a little vegetation ; and our guide asserted, although he knew not whence he received the information, that it was once surmounted by a statue. Off" the southeast corner of this building and at about fifteen yards distant, is to be see-n the edge of a circle of stones about eight feet in diameter, inclosing, as far as we could judge on scraping away the soil, a bowl-shaped pit, in which the action of fire was plainly observable ; and the earth, from which we picked some pieces of pottery, was evi- dently darkened by an admixture of soot or ashes. At the distance of one hundred yards southwest of the large pyramid, is a small one, twelve feet square, and much injured. This is situated on somewhat higher ground, in the steep part of the ascent to the mountain's brow. On its eastern face, which is toward the declivity, the height is eighteen feet ; and apparently there have been steps by which to descend to a quadran- gular space, having a broad terrace round it, and extending east one hun- dred feet by a width of fifty. In the centre of this inclosure is another bowl-shaped pit, somewhat wider than the first. Hence we began our ascent to the upper works, over a well-buttressed yet ruined wall, built to a certain extent, so as to derive advantage from the natural abruptness of the rock. Its height on the steepest side is twenty-one feet, and tha width on the summit, which is level, with an extensive platform, is the same. This is a double wall, one of ten feet having been first constructed and then covered with a very smooth kind of cement, after which the second has been built against it. The platform (which faces to the south, and may to a certain extent be considered as a ledge from the cliffl) is eighty-nine feet by seventy-two ; and on its northern centre stand the ruins of a square building, having within it an open space of ten feet by eight, and of the same depth. In the middle of the quadrangle is to be seen a mound of stones eight feet high. A little farther on, we en- tered by a broad opening between two perfect and massive walls, to a RUINSOFQUEMADA. 243 square of one hundred and fifty feet. This space was surrounded on the south, east, and west, by an elevated terrace of three feet by twelve in breadth, having in the centre of each side steps, by which to descend to the square. Each terrace was backed by a wall of twenty feet by eight or nine. From the south are two broad entrances, and on the east is one of thirty feet, communicating with a perfect inclosed square of two hun- dred feet, while on the west is one small opening, leading to an artificial cave or dungeon, of which I shall presently speak. " To the north, the square is bounded by the steep mountain ; and, in the centre of that side, stands a pyramid with seven ledges or stages, which in many places are quite perfect. It is flat-topped, has four sides, and measures at the base thirty-eight by thirty-five feet, while in height it is nineteen. Immediately behind this, and on all that portion of the hill which presents itself to the square, are numerous tiers of seats, either broken in the rock or built of rough stones. In the centre of the square, and due south of the pyramid, is a small quadrangular building, seven feet by five in height. The summit is imperfect, but it has unquestionably been an altar ; and from the whole character of the space in which it stands, the peculiar form of the pyramid, the surrounding terrace, and the seats or steps on the mountain, there can be little doubt that this has been the grand Hall of Sacrifice or Assembly, or perhaps both. " Passing to the westward, we next saw some narrow inclosed spaces, apparently portions of an aqueduct leading from some tanks on the sum- mit of the mountain; and then were shown the mouth of the cave,-or sub- terraneous passage, of which so many superstitious stories are yet told and believed. One of the principal objects of our expedition had been to enter this mysterious place, which none of the natives had ever ventured to do, and we came provided with torches for the purpose : unfortunately, nowever, the mouth had very recently fallen in, and we could merely see that it was a narrow, well-built entrance, bearing in many places the remains of good smooth plastering. A large beam of cedar once sup- ported the roof, but its removal by the country people had caused the dilapidation which we now observed. Mr. Tindal, in knocking out some pieces of regularly burnt brick, soon brought a ruin upon his head, but escaped without injury ; and his accident caused a thick cloud of yellow dust to fall, which on issuing from the cave assumed a bright appearance under the full glare of the sun ; — an effect not lost upon the natives, who became more than ever persuaded that an immense treasure lay hidden in this mysterious place. The general opinion of those who remember the excavation is, that it was very deep ; and, from many circumstances, there is a probability of its having been a place of confinement for vic- tims. Its vicinity to the great hall, in which there can be little doubt that the sanguinary rites of the Mexicans were once held, is one argument in favor of this supposition ; but there is another equally forcible — its im- mediate proximity to a cliff" of about one hundred and fifty feet, down which the bodies of victims may have been precipitated, as was the cus- 16* 244 MEXICO. torn at the inhuman sacrifices of the Aztecs.* A road or causeway, to be noticed in another place, terminates at the foot of this precipice, ex- actly beneath the cave and overhanging rock ; and conjecture can form no other idea of its intended utility, unless as being in some manner con- nected with the purposes of the dungeon. " Hence we ascend to a variety of buildings, all constructed with the same regard to strength, and inclosing spaces on far too large a scale for the abode of common people. On the extreme ridge of the mountain wei'e several tolerably perfect tanks. " In a subsequent visit to this extraordinary place, I saw some other buildings, which had at first escaped my notice. These were situated on the summit of a rock terminating the ridge, at about half a mile to the N. N.W. of the citadel. " The first is a building originally eighteen feet square, but having the addition of sloping walls to give it a pyramidal form. It is flat-topped, and on the centre of its southern face there have been steps by which to ascend to the summit. The second is a square altar, its height and base being each about sixteen feet. These buildings are surrounded at no great distance by a strong wall, and at a quarter of a mile to the north- ward, advantage is taken of a precipice to construct another wall of twelve feet in width upon its brink. On a small flat space, between this and the pyramid, are the remains of an open square edifice, to the southward of which are two long mounds of stone, each extending about thirty feet ; and to the northeast is another ruin, having large steps up its side. I should conceive the highest wall of the citadel to be three hundred feet above the plain, and the bare rock surmounts it by about thirty feet more. " The whole place in fact, from its isolated situation, the disposition of its defensive walls, and the favorable figure of the rock, must have been impregnable to Indians; and even European troops would have found great difficulty in ascending to those works, which I have ventured to name the Citadel. There is no doubt that the greater mass of the nation which once dwelt here, must have been established upon the plain beneath, since from the summit of the rock we could distinctly trace three straight and very extensive causeways, divei'ging from that over which we first passed. The most remarkable of these runs southwest for two miles, is forty-six feet in width, and, crossing the grand causeway, is continued to the foot of the cliff", immediately beneath the cave which I have described. Its more distant extreme is terminated by a high and long artificial mound, imme- diately beyond the river, toward the hacienda of La Quemada. We could trace the second, south and southwest to a small rancho named Coyote, about four miles distant ; and the third ran southwest by south, still farther, ceasing, as the country people informed us, at a moun- tain six miles distant. All these roads had been slightly raised, were * The writings of Clavigero, Solis, Bernal Diaz, and others, describe this mode of disposing of tlie bodies of those whose hearts had been torn out and offered to the idol. RUINSOFQUEMADA. 245 paved with rough stones, still visible in many places above the grass, and were perfectly straight. '• From the flatness of the fine plain over which they extended, I cannot conceive them to have been constructed as paths, since the people, who walked barefoot and used no animals of burthen, must naturally have preferred the smooth, earthy footways, which presented themselves on every side, to these roughly paved ones. If this be allowed, it is not dif ficult to suppose that they were the centre of streets of huts, which, being in those times constructed of the same kind of frail materials as those of the present day, must long since have disappeared. Many places on the plain are thickly strewed with stones, which may once have formed build- ing materials for the town ; and there are extensive modern walls round the cattle farms, which, not improbably, were constructed from the near- est streets. At all events, whatever end these causeways may have an- swei'ed, the citadel itself still remains, and from its size and strength confii'ms the accounts given by Cortez, Bernal Diaz, and others of the conquerors, of the magnitude and extent of the Mexican edifices, but which have been doubted by Robertson, De Pau, and others. We ob- served also, in some sheltered places, the remains of good plaster, con- firming the accounts above alluded to ; and there can be little doubt that the present rough, yet magnificent buildings, were once encased in wood and whitened, as ancient Mexico, the towns of Yucatan, Tobasco, and many other places are described to have been.* " The Cerro de los Edificios, and the mountains of the surrounding range, are all of gray porphyry, easily fractured into slabs, and this, with comparatively little labor, has furnished building-materials for the edifices which crown its summit. We saw no remnants of obsidian among the ruins or on the plain — which is remarkable, as being the general sub- stance of which the knives and arrow-heads of the Mexicans were formed ;■{■ but a few pieces of a very compact porphyry were lying about, and some appeared to have been chipped to a rude form resembling arrow- heads. " Not a trace of the ancient name of this interesting place, or that of the nation which inhabited it, is now to be found among the people in the neighborhood, who merely distinguished the isolated rock and buildings by one common name, 'Los Edificios.' I had inquired of the best instructed people about these ruins ; but all my researches were unavailing, until I fortunately met with a note in the Abbe Clavigero's History of Mexico, which throws some light on the subject. ' The situation of Chicomoztoc, where the Mexicans sojourned nine years, is not known ; but it appears to be that place, twenty miles distant from Zacatecas, toward the south, where there are still some remains of an immense edifice, which, accord- * See the Voyage of Juan de Grijalva, in 1518 ; also Bernal Diaz. Cortez, ClaviRero. and others. t It is not improbable, however, that this material was unknown to the nation who dwelt here, if, according to the Abbe Clavigero, this city was one of the earliest settlements of the Aztecs, before they estabhshed them- selves in the Valley of Mexico, near which (at Real del Monte urincipally) the obsidian is found in great abun- dance, although I believe that no traces of it are seen in the more northern provinces. 246 MEXICO. ing to the tradition of the Zacatecanos, the ancient inhabitants of that country, was the work of the Aztecs on their migration ; and it certainly cannot be ascribed to any other people, the Zacatecanos themselves being so barbarous as neither to live in houses nor to know how to build them.' ' MAPILCA. ■ Following the course of the river Tecolutla from its mouth near Nautla, and directing himself across the Virgin mountains and plains, Mr. Nebel found, at the distance of a few leagues from Papantla, the ruins of a city, near an Indian rancho called Mapilca. it is impossible, he states, to define precisely the limits of this ancient work, because it is now entirely covered with thick vegetation, and a forest, the silence of which has, perhaps, never been disturbed by an axe. He nevertheless discovered some pyramids, many large sculptured stones, lud some other indications of an extensive city and civilized people. SCTTLPTUKED STONE AT MAPILCA. • Clavigero, vol. :. book ii. p. ISS.-Torquemada says, that the capital city of the Chechemecas was cafled Amaquemacan. He says this place was 600 miles distant from where the city of Guadalaxara now stands. Clavi-ero who quotes this passage and comments upon it in a note, remarlcs that " in more than one thousand two hundrwl miles of inhabited country beyond that city, there is nol the least trace or memory of Amaquemacan. May not tlie <:ity I have described be the capital in question 1 TEMPLE AT T TJ S A P A N . RUINS OF T U S A P A N. 247 The stone, represented in the cut, is twenty-one feet long and of compact granite ; its carving is oddly different from anything else we have seen among Mexican antiquities, and it is supposed, by Nebel, to have formed part of an edifice. He caused an excavation to be made by the Indians in front of this fragment, and, at a short distance below the surface, struck upon a road formed of irregular stones, not unlike the ancient pavements in the neighborhood of Rome. The picturesque traveller (whose book, 1 regret, is too large and expensive for republication in our country,) ex- ceedingly regrets that he was unable to prosecute his inquiries and exam- inations in this neighborhood. He was alone, and unaided in the forests, except by a few idle and ignorant Indians ; yet he has presented his readers with a drawing of this curious fragment, as the sign of a civili- zation that once reigned in a country which was hitherto imagined to have been inhabited alone by wild beasts and reptiles. TUSAPAN. We have now advanced, in the course of this examination, into the tierra caliente, near the eastern coast of Mexico. Fifteen leagues west from Papantla, lie the remains of Tusapan, supposed to have been a city of the Totonacos. They are situated in the lap of a small plain at the foot of the Cordillera, and are relics of a town of but limited extent. Of all these, however, nothing remains in great distinctness but the pyr- amidal monument, or Teocalli, of which the opposite drawing is given by Nebel. This edifice has a base line of thirty feet on every side, and is built of irregular stones. A single stairway leads to the upper part of the first story, on which is erected a quadrangular house or tower, — while, in front of the door, still stands the pedestal of the idol, though- all traces of the figure itself are gone. The interior of this apartment is twelve feet square, and the roof terminates in a point like the exterior. The walls have evidently been painted, but the outlines of the figures are no longer distinguishable. The door and the two friezes are formed of sculptured stones ; but it is evident from the fragments of carving, and a variety of figures of men and animals that lie in heaps about the rest of the city, that this temple was, in point of adornment, by no means the most splendid edifice of Tusapan. Nebel has also presented us with a drawing of the following sino-ular monument, which he found among the ruins of this ancient city. 248 MEXICO. FOUNTAIN AT TUSAPAN. It is a statue, nineteen feet high, cut from the solid rock. The dress clearly indicates the figure to be that of a squatting woinan, with her head inclining on one side. Behind the head, there are remains of a pipe con- veying water to the body, through which it passed somewhat in the style of the celebrated fountain of Antwerp. From this figure, the stream was car- ried by a small canal to the neighboring city, and the whole is supposed, by Monsieur Nebel, to have been dedicated as the idol of some god or goddess of the waters. There is a tradition extant that the people who once inhabited Tusapan, finding their soil comparatively steril, and their springs failing, emigrated to Papantla, — to which we come next in the course of our antiquarian ramble. PAPANTLA. The village of that name lies sixteen leagues from the sea, and fifty- two north from Vera Cruz, at the base of the eastern mountains, in the midst of fertile savannahs, constantly watered by streams from the neigh- PYRAMID OF PAPANTIA. RUINSOFPAPANTLA. 249 boring hills. Although it is the centre of a country rennarkable for fertility,* the Indian village has scarcely a white inhabitant, with the ex- ception of the Curate and some few dealers, who come from the coast to traffic their wares for the products of the soil. The people of the upper country dislike to venture into the heat and disease of the tierra caliente ; and, in turn, its inhabitants dislike an exposure to the chills of the tierras frias. or templadas. Thus the region of Papantla, two leagues from the village, has hitherto remained an unexplored nook, even at the short dis- tance of fifty miles from the coast ; and, although it was alluded to by Baron Humboldt, it had never been correctly drawn, or even accurately described before the visit of M. Nebel. The neighboring Indians, even, had scarcely seen it, and considerable local knowledge was required to trace a path to the relic through the wild and tangled forest. There is no doubt, from the masses of ruins spread over the plain, that this city was more than a mile and a half in circuit. Although there seems good reason to believe that it was abandoned by its builders after the conquest, there has still been time enough, both for the growth of the forest in so warm and prolific a climate, and for the gradual destruction of the buildings by the seasons and other causes. Indeed, huge trees, trailing plants and parasite vines have struck their roots among the cran- nies and joints of the remaining pyramid, and, in a few years more, will consign even that remnant to the common fate of the rest of the city. The opposite plate presents a view of the pyramid, (called by the natives, " El Tajin,") as seen by Nebel, after he had cleared it of trees and foliage. It consists of seven stories, each following the same angle of inclination, and each terminated, as at Xochicalco, by a frieze and cornice. The whole of these bodies are constructed of sand-stone, neatly squared and joined, — and covered, to the depth of three inches, with a strong cement, which appears, from the remains of color in many places, to have been entirely painted. The pyramid measures precisely one huu- dred and twenty feet on every side,f and is ascended, in front, by a stair- way of fifty-seven steps, divided in three places, by small box-like recesses or niches two feet in depth, similar to those which are seen perforating the frieze of each of the bodies. This stairway terminates at the top of the sixth story, the seventh appearing (although in ruins,) to have been unlike the rest, and hollow. Here, most probably, was the shrine of the divinity and the place of sacrifice.:!: * The productions here are vanilla, sarsaparilla, pepper, wax, cotton, coffee, tobacco, a variety of valuable woods, and sugar, produced annually from canes, which it is necessary to plant only every seven or eight years. t Nebel does not give the elevation, but says there are 57 steps to the top of the sixth story— each step meas uring one foot in height. I Vide Humboldt, vol. ii., 345— and Nebel. 250 MEXICO. MISA.NTLA. Passing by the Island of Sacrificios, (of which I have already given some account, when treating of the Museum of Mexico,) I will now de- scribe the ruins that were discovered as recently as 1835, adjacent to MisANTLA, near, the city of Jalapa and not very far from the direct road to the Capital. The work from which I extract my information is the Mosaico Mexi- cano, to which it was contributed, I believe, by Don Isidrio Gondra. On ia lofty ridge of mountains in the Canton of Misantla, there is a hill called Estillero, (distant some thirty miles from Jalapa,) near which lies a mountain covered with a narrow strip of table-land, perfectly isolated from the surrounding country by steep rocks and inaccessible barrancas. Beyond these dells and precipices there is a lofty wall of hills, from the summit of one of which the sea is distinctly visible in the direction of Nautla. The only parts of the country by which this plain is accessi- ble, are the slopes of Estillero ; — on all other sides the solitary mountain seems to have been separated from the neighboring land by some violent earthquake that sunk the earth to an unfathomed depth. On this secluded and isolated eminence, are situated the remains of an ancient city. As you approach the plain by the slopes of Estillero, a broken wall of large stones, united by a weak cement, is first observable. This appears to have served for protection to a circular plaza, in the cen- tre of which is a pyramid eighty feet high, forty-nine feet front, and forty- two in depth. The account does not state positively whether this edifice is constructed of stone, but it is reasonable to suppose that it is so from, the wall found around the plaza, and the remains which will be subsequently mentioned. It is divided into three stories, or rather, there are three still remaining. On the broadest front, a stairway leads to the second body, which, in turn, is ascended at the side, while the top of the third is reached by steps cut in the corner edge of the pyramid. In front of the teocalli, On the second story, are two pilastral columns, which may have formed part of a stair- case ; but this portion of the pyramid, and especially the last body, is so overgrown with trees that its outline is considerably injured. On the very top, (driving its roots into the spot that was doubtless formerly the holy place of the Temple,) there is a gigantic tree, which, from its immense ' size in this comparatively high and temperate region, denotes a long period since the abandonment of the altar where it grows. At the periphery of the circular plaza around this pyramid, commence the remains of a town, extending northerly in a straight line for near a league. Immense square blocks of stone buildings, separated by streets at the distance of about three hundred yards from each other, mark the PTKAMID OF MISA5T1A. RUINS OF M I S A N T L A AND M I T L A . 251 sites of the ancient habitations, fronting upon four parallel highways. In some of the houses the walls are still three or four feet high, but of most of them there is nothing but an outline tracery of the mere founda- tions. On the south, there are tlie remains of a long and narro^v wall, which defended the city in that quarter. North of the town there is a tongue of land, occupied in the centre by a mound, or cemetery. On the left slope of the hill by which the ruins are reached, there are, also, twelve circular sepulchres, two yards and a half in diameter, and as many high ; the walls are all of neatly cut stone, but the cement with which they were once joined has almost en- tirely disappeared. In these sepulchres several bodies were found, parts of which were in tolerable preservation. Two stones — a foot and a half long, by half a foot wide — were discov- ered, bearing hieroglyphics, which are described, in general terms, as " resembling the usual hieroglyphics of the Indians." Another figure was found representing a man standing ; and another, cut out of a firm but porous stone, which was intended to portray a person sitting cross- legged, with the arms also crossed, resting on his knees. This, however, was executed in a very inferior style. Near it, were discovered many domestic utensils, which were carried to Vera Cruz, whence they have •been dispersed, perhaps, to the four quarters of the globe. It is thus, in the neglect of all antiquities in Mexico, in the midst of her political distractions and bloody revolutions, that every vestige of her former hist-ory will gradually pass to foreign countries, instead of enrich- ing the Cabinets of her University, and stimulating the inquisitiveness of her scientific students. MITLA. I will close this notice of Mexican Architectural Remains, with an account of the ruins of Mitla, as described by Mr. Glennie, and Baron Humboldt, from whose great work the sketch of one of the mural frag- ments opposite the next page, has been taken. In the Department of Oaxaca, ten leagues distant from the city of that name, on the road to Tehuantepec, in the midst of a granitic country, surrounded by sombre and gloomy scenery, lie the remains of what have been called, by the general consent of antiquarians, the Sepulchral Palaces of Mitla. According to tradition, they were built by the Zapo- tecs, and intended as the places of sepulture for their Princes. At the death of members of the royal family, their bodies were entombed in the vaults, beneath ; and the sovereign and his relatives retired to mourn over the loss of the departed scion, in the chambers above these solemn abodes, screened by dark and silent groves from the public eye. Another tra- dition devotes the edifices to a sect of priests, whose duty it was to live 252 MEXICO. in perfect seclusion, and offer expiatory sacrifices for the royal dead who reposed in the vaults beneath. The village of Mitla was formerly called Miguitlan, signifying, in the Mexican tongue, "a place of sadness;" and, by the Zapotecs, L^oba, or "The tomb." These palace-tombs formed three edifices, symmetrically placed on a romantic site. The principal building (which is still in the best pres- ervation,) has a length of near one hundred and fifty feet. A stairway leads to a subterranean apartment of about one hundred feet by thirty in width, the walls of which are covered with ornaments, a la grique, simi- lar to those that adorn the exterior walls represented in the drawing. These ornaments are inlaid in a mosaic of porphyritic stones, and resem- ble the figures found on Etruscan vases, and on the frieze of the temple of the god Redicolus, near the Egerian grotto at Rome. The engraved fragment represents a comer of one of the edifices, and you cannot fail to remark a similarity to some of the designs presented to the public by Mr. Catherwood, in his researches farther south. The ruins of Mitla are distinguished, I believe, from all the remains of ancient architecture in Mexico, by six columns of porphyry, placed in the midst of a large saloon, and supporting the ceiling. They have neither bases nor capitals, and are cut, in a gradually tapering shape, from a solid stone rather more than fifteen feet in length. The dimensions of the stones that cover the entrances of the principal halls, are stated by Mr. Glennie to be as follows : 1 Length. 19 feet 6 inches. Breadth. 4 feet 10 inches. Thickness. 3 feet 4 inches. 2 18 " 8 " 4 " 10 " 3 " 6 " 3 19 " 4 " 4 " 10^ " 3 " 9 '•' Mr. De Laguna has discovered, among the ruins, some curious paint- ings of war trophies and sacrifices; and Humboldt remarks, that the distribution of the apartments in the interior of this building presents some striking similarities to the monuments of Upper Egypt, as de- scribed by Mr. Denon, and the savans of the Institute of Cairo. " In comparing the grandeur of these tombs with the meanness of the habita- tions of the former race," says the Baron, " we may exclaim, with Dio- dorus Siculus, that there are people who erect their most sumptuous monuments for their dead alone, regarding existence as too short and transitory to be worth the trouble of erections for the living !"f It was the same in Egypt. The hereafter, and not the present, en- gaged the hearts of its ancient race. In Mexico, the temple to worship in, and the tomb for final repose, seem to have been the chief care of the *The reader will find a ground plan of these remains in Delafield's " Antiquities of America"— page 55, taken from Baron Humboldt's Atlas. t Vide Humboldt, vol. ii, page 322. et seq. Paris edition, 1811. ICALE OF VABAS . K UISS AT MITIA. THEHONESTHUNTER. 253 people. It was a pious and philosophic devotion of time, worthy as well of Christian nations as of those believing in the necessary care of their worthless bodies, until the period of their ultimate reunion with the spirit. I have thus hastily gathered together some sketches of the remains that cover our Continent from the remote north of our own possessions to near the region of Mr. Stephens's discoveries. If they fail to identify the Southern nations with the Northern tribes, or to prove that the rude mound of the savage was but the precursor of the stone pyramid of the civilized southern, they will at least serve to show that at the north, as well as in more genial climates, there have been races who worshipped the Great Spirit, buried their dead, defended themselves from their foes, and possessed, at least, a partial taste for the refinements of life. At all events, it is not probable that the remains so plentifully sprinkled over the Mexican territory, from the Rio Gila to the limits of Oaxaca, were untenanted and unused at the period of the con- quest, while it is known that the cities of Mexico and of Cholula contained within their limits magnificent edifices, devoted to the domestic comfort and public worship of a refined and numerous population. HOME. 14:th October. Returned to Mexico. The last person who bade us fare- well in Tezcoco, was the worthy Tio Ignacio — of whose hunting-bull, deer-call, rough honesty, and wild adventures, I shall long retain a pleas- ing recollection. "I am poor, Caballero," said he, with a grasp of his hard hand, "I am poor, and have led a dog's life of it from the age of five years — fighting, bull-catching, beef-selling, hunting and living with the Indians up in the mountains for weeks, with, no covering but my blanket and a pine tree ; — but I have managed, nevertheless, to raise a large family of boys, all of whom can ride better than I; can catch a bull at full gallop; know how to read and write ; tell the truth ; obey their father without question- ing, and hit the mark at eighty varas! I owe no man a claco. I love my horse, my gun, my pulqui, — and, better than all, I love my old wife, who, with all my wildness, passion, and temper, has never quarrelled with me in a casamiento of twenty years ! Who says as much in Mexico ? Vaya ! " Come to Tezcoco once more, Caballero, and we will go up to Tlaloe together with my people, the Indians, and I'll make that old demonio give UD some of the bones of his ancestors— ^z'caro .' Adios!" LETTER XXV. WHENCE CAME THE ANCIENT POPULATION ? WHO BUILT THE ANCIENT CITIES ? WHO WORSHIPPED THE IDOLS ? After this somewhat extended inspection of the Monuments of Mexi- can antiquity, the question naturally proposes itself to our minds : — Who were the builders of these temples, the worshippers of the idols, and whence did they come ? Separated now by wide and lonely seas from the Continents of the Old World, was there once a period when the lands were united, and the same race spread over both ? Or, are we to doubt the traditional and written histories of ages, and believe that an original race peopled the American wilds, and built and worshipped after the prompt- ings of their own spirits ? These are questions that have puzzled and must conimue to puzzle the antiquarians of both hemispheres. They cannot be solved. The tradi- tions — the habits — the languages — the edifices — of all tribes, races, and nations, have been studied and contrasted without result. Separate theo- ries have been earnestly and ingeniously advanced. First, that the inhabitants came by the north and through Behring's Straits. Second, that they came by the islands of the Pacific, or that in times long past, the Pacific was not all sea, but partly filled, perhaps, with a vast Conti- nent — and Third, that they may have arrived from the Old World by the Atlantic. There are long periods of unwritten and even untraditional history of the world, and learned and pious geologists seem now to be agreed in believing that when it is declared : " In the beginning God cre- ated the heaven and the earth," it is not affirmed that God created the heaven and the earth on the first day, but that "this ' beginning' may have been an epoch, at an unmeasured distance, followed by periods of unde- fined duration, during which all the physical operations disclosed by geol- ogy were going on."* This is certainly satisfactory as to the formation of the earth — a mere fulcrum for the development and powers of a future human race. But, must not the Bible be considered a full historical account of "all the operations of the Creator in times and places with which that human *BuckIand, vol. i, p.26. PEOPLING OF AMERICA. 255 race is concerned ?" Is it daring to question this ? How small is the geographical space covered by the history of the Old Testament ! It is an established fact, that the whole of the animal races are not common to both Continents. A great variety of quadrupeds have been found in America that were unknown in Europe, and the same is true in regard to birds and fish. It is difficult to touch this question, without interfering with the authority of the Pentateuch ; but if we were at liberty to discuss such matters, there are few who would not hold the doctrine, that it is perfectly reconcilable with rational science to believe, that the two Continents existed contempo- raneously from the oldest periods, filled with distinct races, of separate customs, manners, habits and languages ', who, by the simple and natural impulses of humanity arrived at similar results, in religion, science, archi- tecture and government. Animals found in both hemispheres arrive at the same results — why may not man ? It is replied, that they are guided alone hj instincts? Is it not by his zras^'ncis, improved by his reason, that man, too, is led to every operation of his varied life ? By the ruins which are left, of what those instincts and reason once produced on this Continent, we are alone enabled to judge of our ancestors. Defence — pro- tection from the weather — religion — the calculation of time — the necessity of food ; — these are the chief instinctive wants and promptings of man's natui'e. Men suffer from the seasons, from sun and shower, — hence dwel- lings. Men have a natural feeling of adoration, gratitude, dependence, — hence religion, groves, altars, mounds, and even pyramids, as they advance in civilization. Men behold the natural changes of day and night ; the motion of the sun, moon and stars ; they note that there is an equality of time and season, and that these are comparatively of longer or shorter duration at different periods of the year, — and hence a calendar. Men are social, and congregate into societies, and in the process of time their natural passions beget discontent and wars, — hence fortifications and weapons of defence. Men hunger, — and hence the invention of instruments by which they succeed in the sports of the field, or control the chase. And, at length, with all the elements of civilized society around them, in shrines, bulwarks, domestic retreats, arsenals, social love, and national glory — they come to have a history ; and, with the laudable desire of per- petuating the memory of themselves and of their epoch, you find at Pa- lenque, as well as in Egypt and on the Ganges, those figured monuments which tell the tale of the departed great, by symbols, letters, paintino-s or hieroglyphics. Now, separated by thousands of leagues of sea from the Eastern hem- isphere, and with men who had no means, but the frail canoe, of transport- ing themselves over it, you suddenly alight on these shores, in the midst of the sixteenth century ; — and find temples, idols, the remains of dwellings, fortifications, weapons of defence and chase, astronomical calendars, and people, worshipping, living and governing in the midst of every external evidence of ancient civilization. The whole of North America, we have 25G MEXICO. seen, and a large portion of South America, is strewn with these or similar remains, from Canada to far below the equator. Here, in the north, it is supposed that there were three races, succeeding each other, two of which have vanished even from tradition. " The monuments oi" the Jirst, or primitive race," said the late William Wirt, " are regular stone walls, wells stoned up, brick hearths, found in digging the Louisville canal, medals of copper, silver swords, and other implements of iron. Mr. Flint assures us that he has seen these strange ancient swords. He has also examined a small iron shoe, like a horse- shoe, incrusted with the rust of ages, and found far below the soil, and a copper axe, weighing about two pounds, singularly tempered and of pecul- iar construction. " These relics, he thinks, belonged to a race o^ civilized men, who must have disappeared many centuries ago. To this race he attributes the hieroglyphic characters found on the limestone bluffs ; the remains of cities and fortifications in Florida ; the regular banks of ancient live-oaks near them ; and the bricks found at Louisville, nineteen feet helow the surface, in regular hearths, with the coals of the last domestic fire upon them; — these bricks were hard and regular, and longer in proportion to their width than those of the present day. " To the second race of beings are attributed the vast mounds of earth, found throughout the whole western region, from Lake Erie and western Pennsylvania to Florida and the Rocky mountains. Some of them con- tain skeletons of human beings, and display immense labor. Many of them are regtilar mathematical figures, parallelograms and sections of circles, showing the remains of gateways and subterranean passages. Some are eighty feet high, and have trees growing on them, apparently of the age of five hundred years. They are generally of a soil differing from that which surrounds them, and they are most common in situations where it since has been found convenient to build towns and cities. " One of these mounds was levelled in the centre of Chillicothe, and cart-loads of human bones removed from it. Another may be seen in Cin- cinnati, in which a thin circular piece of gold, alloyed with copper, was found last year. Another in St. Louis, named the " Falling Garden," is pointed out to strangers as a great curiosity. " Many fragments of earthenware, some of curious workmanship, have been dug up throughout this vast region ; some represented drinking vessels, some human heads, and some idols ; — they all appear to have been moulded by the hand, and hardened in the sun. These mounds and earthen im- plements indicate a race inferior to \hQ first, which was acquainted with the use of iron. " The third race are the Indians now existing on the Western Terri- tories. In the profound silence and solitude of these regions, and above the bones of a buried world, how must a philosophic traveller meditate upon the transitory state of human existence, when the only traces of the beings of two races of men are these strange me?norials ! On this very spot REMAINS IN PERU, 257 generation after generation has stood, lived, warred, grown old and passed away ; and not only their names, but their nation, their language lias per- ished, and utter oblivion has closed over their once populous abodes ! We call this the New World. It is old ! Age after age, and one physical revo- lution after another has passed over it — but who shall tell its history?'''' Who ? We have seen the memorials of three distinct races — but who can tell the origin of the first two — or even of the last ? And, yet, these are only part of the inhabitants of North America. I have attempted to describe to you the prominent remains that still exist farther south, in' the Valley of Mexico, and in other portions of the Re- public. Following the links of the chain still farther south. Messieurs Stephens and Catherwood have given an account oi forty cities visited by them in their second tour ; and they describe the ruins of others and their monuments, still more southerly, in their former volumes. In South America, we have only the most distinct accounts of Peru ; and although the Government of the Incas possessed no regular city but Cuzco, many interesting specimens have been exhumed from the " Gua- cas," or mounds, with which they covered the bodies of the dead. " Among these," says Dr. Rees, are "mirrors of various dimensions, oi hard shining stones, highly polished ; vessels of earthenware, of different forms ; hatchets and other instruments, some destined for war, and others for labor. Some were of flint, some of copjjer, hardened by an unknown process, to such a degree as to supply the place of iron." To these may be added a variety of curious drinking vessels, made of pottery baked and painted ; many specimens of which embellish the public and private Museums of our country, and are not unlike some that have been found in the Island of Sacrificios., PERUVIAN WATER VESSELS The public roads of the Peruvians were also v.^orthy of all praise ; especially those two magnificent highways traversing the country from Quito to Cuzco for fifteen hundred miles ; — the one passing through the in- 17 258 MEXICO. terior over mountain and valley, and the other by the plains of the sea- coast. But, in the construction of their Temples this remarkable people exhibited their greatest ingenuity, as well as in their edifices designed for the comfort and occupation of their sovereigns. " The Temple of Pacha- camac, together with the Palace of the Inca, and Fortress, were so con- nected together, as to form one great structure above half a league in circuit. Though they had not discovered the use of mortar, or of any other cement in building, the bricks and stones are joined with such nicety that the seams can hardly be discerned. Notwithstanding the inconve- nient arrangement of the apartments, and the want of windows, the archi- tectural works of the Peruvians, which still remain, must be considered as stupendous efforts of a people unacquainted with the use of iron and the mode of applying the mechanical powers. Among the ancient edi- fices of this people, we may mention the Obelisk and Statues of Tiahu- anuca, and Mausoleums of Chachapoyas, which are conical buildings of stone, supporting rude busts of huge and massive dimensions."* Yet all that these remains from north to south, through such a varied extent of latitude and climate, can effect, is to strike us with wonder, and stimulate, though they puzzle our most eager curiosity. The monu- ments, themselves disclose nothing of the origin of the races. Is there, then, a written record ? Are there any volumes or scattered leaves re- maining to tell the story ? The only remnant of this character that I have been able to discover (and it is slightly referred to by Mr. Stephens,) is, what is called an Aztec manuscript, which was purchased in 1739 by Goetz, at Vienna, during a literary tour he made to Italy, and is now preserved, under the name of Codex Mexicanus, in the Royal Collection of Dresden. It is written on metl, or paper undoubtedly made of the leaves of the Agave Americana, similar to others brought from Mexico and preserved at Veletri, Vienna, and in the Vatican. It is described as forming a tabella plicalis, or folding book, which may be shut up like a map; nearly eighty-one yards in length, and covered, on both sides, with paintings and written characters. Each page is about seven inches in length by three inches and a little more in breadth. One side of the page is occupied by painted figures, and the rest by signs or letters placed side by side, and by no means unlike the Chinese, or the hieroglyphic characters delin- eated by Mr. Catherwood, as partly covering the monuments at Palenque and Copan. The opposite plate is a precise copy of one page of this manuscript as given by Baron Humboldt, in his Atlas, except that I have been unable to present you with the brilliant blue, red, green and yellow colors that tint the figures and give to the whole the appearance and -effect of an illuminated missal. A writer in the sixteenth volume of the Edinburgh Review, at page 222 of the American edition, casts doubts on the genuineness of this man- * Rees, vol. xxviii. article, Peru. m:mw[:m felIfi9(lllP(iS<3?iI C3 en? J"®" UEXICAX MAirUSCHIPT. MEXICAN MANUSCRIPT. 259 uscript, as being of Aztec origin ; he thinks '•' it highly improbable thai it is Mexican, as nothing like it has yet been found among the monuments of that people ; while, on the other hand, it seems probable that it is the workmanship of the same race that reared and inhabited Palenque, seeing that similar characters abound among its ruins." One of the strongest circumstantial evidences, in all legal investigations of the au- thenticity of documents, is the material on which they are written. False wills have thus been detected by the date in the "water mark ; and, in this instance, it will be recollected that the material is precisely similar to that which is known to have been brought from Mexico, containing draw- ing, that were undoubtedly made by the Aztecs. In addition to this, it is a work written and painted on paper made of the Agave Americana, or American Aloe, not a single one of which is delineated by Mr. Cather- wood as growing wild among the ruins of Palenque. In fact, it is a plant almost unknown in the level and warmer territories near the coast ; it is peculiar to the elevated plateaus of the Valley of Mexico and the adja- cent country, and I do not remember to have seen it, in the course of my journey through the tierra caliente, even at the short distance of sixty miles south of the Capital in the vale of Cuernavaca. If it be replied to this that the paper or leaf may have been brought to Palenque from Mexico, the answer would at once show a connection of arts between the people, and go far to prove their national identity or close alliance and intercourse. It should be remembered, too, that works like this would very naturally have been the first to be destroyed in Mexico, and the smallness of their number would thus be successfully accounted for. From these facts we may fairly argue that this book of eighty yards in length, covered with written characters and illuminated with pictures, is, in all probability, a Mexican production. The figures of the men or demons are evidently similar, both in physignomy, posture and faces, to those on the monuments and idols I have already described to you. But who shall decipher their meaning, or that of the hieroglyphics ? For years the antiquarians of the Old World were guessing at the signification of Egyptian hieroglyphics, until, in 1799, a French engi- neer, when digging the foundations of Fort St. Julien, on the west bank of the Nile, between Rosetta and the sea, discovered the fragment of a stone which is now deposited in the British Museum. It contained an in- scription in hieroglyphic, Demotic, and Greek — two of which are ancient Egyptian languages. The Greek was deciphered and the translation applied to the Demotic, and both, again, to the hieroglyphic ; and, thus, after years of patient and unceasing toil, a key has been formed by which the present savans of Europe go among the relics of Egypt, and decipher the inscriptions on their tombs as easily as we read the mementoes over the graves of our friends in the cemeteries of Boston or Baltimore. But even if a Rosetta stone. were discovered in Mexico, there is no Indian tongue to supply the key or interpreter. 17* 260 MEXICO. We are thus, in all probability, for ever stopped in our investigations of the origin of these races ; — either from their Monuments or their written Records. We are left to trace national relations by similar buildings, similar dresses, similar traditions, similar worship, similar governments, or similar faith; but all these identities are not inconsistent with the idea arrived at by Mr. Bradford in his Researches on the Origin and History of the Red Race, that the Aborigines of America may have been " a prim- itive branch of the human family."* I confess, when I recollect the Mexican tradition, that the original tribes came to their beautiful valley, after many years and vicissitudes of a dreary pilgrimage from the north, I have not thought it fanciful to be- lieve, that they may have belonged to one of the two races described by Mr. Wirt, as extinct before the origin of the present Red Men of our for- ests and prairies. Wave after wave of the flowing tide of humanity may have beaten gradually along this Continent from north to south, each urg- ing on the preceding. Tired of the hunter life at the inhospitable north, they wandered off to the south. A straggler now and then returned with a tale of the genial climate, shady groves, and prolific soil of the central regions ; — and, thus, family after family, colony after colony, tribe after tribe, was induced to quit its colder homes, and settle in the south. As in the Old World, that south became the centre of civilization. Men were modified by climate. The rude savage, who depended upon the chase for subsistence at the north, and dwelt in caves or sheltered under the forest leaves, awoke to a new idea of life in his newer home. The energy of his character was not yet lost ; — he saw the magical power of agriculture, and a new idea was revealed to him through its mysterious agency. There was no need of excessive toil in the fields or in the for- ests. His spirit became less warlike, and more social, as men congregated in populous neighborhoods. While, in the north, the merest and fewest necessaries — his weapon, his breastwork, his fireplace, his cave for a dwelling, and a mound for a grave — sufficed the Indian, his whole purposes and instincts assumed a diflferent character in the south. The warrior and hunter loved the hardships taught him at the north, by his wandering habits from infancy ; — but, the burning sun and milder climate of the south, while they inclined to peace and longevity, induced him to build tasteful and sheltering edifices for himself and his posterity. The adoration of his gods, became an enthusiasm, under more fervid skies ; * In Mr. Norman's work on Yucatan at page 218, there is a letter from Doctor Morton, the celebrated author of " Crania Americana," in which, after expressing his thankfulness to Mr. N. for the opportunity aiforded him of examining certain bones brought from Yucatan, he observes, that, " dilapidated as they are, theu characters, as far as 1 can ascertain them, correspond with all the esteological remains of that people which have hitherto come under my observation, and go to confirm the position, that all the American tribes (excepting the Esqui- maux, who are obviously of Asiatic origin,) are of the same unmixed race. I have examined the skulls (now in my possession) of four hundred individuals belonging to tribes which have inhabited almost every region ot North and South America, and I find the same type of organization to pervade and chamcterixe them all. " I much regret that we have in this country so few skulls of the Mongolian or Polar tribes of Northern Asia. These are all important in deciding the question whether the Aboriginal American race is peculiar and distinct from all others ; a position which I hhv. always maintained, and which I think will be verified when the requisite means of comparison are procured." EMIGRATION OF THE TRIBES. 261 and the vow or the worship that were once offered in the recesses of groves, in the silence of dark woods, or on the mountain-top, — were here poured forth on the lofty pyramid, built by human hands and fashioned by hu- man art. Although we are left in this mystery as to the peopling of America, 1 think there is not so much doubt in regard to the inhabitants of Uxmal, Palenque, Copan, Chichen-Itza, and the various cities that have been described by Mr. Stephens. According to Clavigero, a tribe, known as the Toltecs, left their home in the north, and, after a journey of emigration that lasted 104 years, (during which time they frequently tarried in certain places for years and months, erecting edifices and partially establishing themselves,) they, at length, reached the vale of Anahuac, a territory that subsequently be- came the seat of the Mexican Empire. At Tollan, or Tula, they founded the Capital of a dynasty, which lasted 384 years ; — celebrated for its wisdom, knowledge, and extensive civilization. About 1051, (the tradition runs,) famine and pestilence nearly desolated the kingdom, and a great por- tion of those who escaped the ravages of disease emigrated immediately to Yucatan and Guatemala, leaving but a scattering remnant of this once flourishing empire in Tula and Cholula. For one hundred years afterwai'd Anahuac was nearly depopulated. Then came an emigration of the Chichimecas, from the north, like the Toltecs, and from a place which they called Amaquemecan. These, too, intermingling with the Toltec remnants, had their reign among the ruins of the former empire, — dwelling, however, in small villages, and lacking all the elements of civilization. Eight years after their advent to Anahuac, six tribes called the Nahu- atlacks arrived, having left, at a short distance, a seventh, called Aztecs. Shortly afterward, they were joined by their missing tribe and by the Acolhuans, who are said to have emigrated from Teoacolhucan, near the original country of the Chichimecas. These were, undoubtedly, the most enlightened of all the wandering tribes who had penetrated these valleys since the days of the Toltecs, and they speedily formed an alliance with their ancient neighbors. Of all these wanderers, however, we have now no traditions, except in relation to the Aztecs, who, departing from Azatlan in the north about the year 1160, continued their singular and weary pilgrimage, with frequent delays, until 1325 ; when, finding on a rock in a lake, the " Eagle on the Prickly Pear," (the omen to which they had been prophetically directed for the foundation of their future Capital,) they gathered together among the marshes of Tezcoco, and built the city of Tenochtitlan, — the Mexico of Cortez. It is believed, both by Clavigero and Humboldt, that all these tribes of the Toltecs, Acolhuans, Chichimecas and Nahuatlacks, spoke the same language, and therefore, in all probability, emigrated from about the same degree of northern latitude. 263 MEXICO. Besides these tribes, there were others in the country at the period of the conquest. The Tarascos who inhabited Michoacan, the barbarous Ottomites, the Ohnecs and Xicalancas, and Miztecas and Zapotecas ; — ^the latter of whom are held, by Humboldt, to have been even superior to the Mexicans in point of civilization, and were probably antecedent, in the date of their emigration, to the Toltecs. In addition to this, you must bear in mind that the ancient Mexican Empire did not cover (as is usually supposed,) the whole of what is now the Republic of M'exico, or formerly New Spain. On the east, it was bounded by the river Coatzacualco ; on the north, it did not extend farther than Tusapan ; on the west, it was washed by the Pacific ; and on the south, it reached, in all probability, to near the limits of what are now the provinces of Chiapas and Tobasco.* You will recollect, that after the " pestilence and famine" that thinned the numbers of the Toltecs, the greater portion of the survivors emi- grated to Yucatan and Guatemala ; these were a highly civilized people, — living in houses, and building temples — to whom, perhaps, the Mexicans were indebted for the germ of their subsequent refinement. Is it not, then, highly probable, that the ancient ruins found by Mr. Stephens, scattered over Guatemala, Yucatan and Chiapas, were the palaces and temples of this wandering race ? It strikes me, that no one can compare the unquestionably Toltec Vase found in the department of Tula, and described at page 108, the sculptures on the Stone of Sacrifice, at page 119 j and in fact the general characteristics of all the sculpture, idols and figures heretofore represented, with those delineated by Mr. Cather- wood, and doubt the identity or close connection between the people. We have every evidence of high civilization among the Mexicans, as you have observed in the preceding pages. They had temples, gods, gardens, magnificent dwellings, and all the paraphernalia of a splendid Empire. This Empire was in full power and glory at the period of the Spanish conquest. Its southern limit nearly bounded on Guatemala and Yucatan, and, with the most distant portion, there was, unquestionably, a com- munication kept up by the Capital. Why, then, may not the palaces of Uxmal, Palenque and Chiapas, have been inhabited, and their altars and temples used, as places of sacrifice in the days of Cortez, as well as the heights of Chapultepec — or the Teocalli of Mexico ? The silence of contemporary historians in regard to the former cities of Yucatan and Guatemala, is no argument against their having been inhab- ited. The two best writers, Cortez and Bernal Diaz, were soldiers, not antiquarians. They came for conquest, not research ; and it is greatly to be regretted that a history of Guatemala, known to have existed a few years ago in that country, in the original manuscript of Diaz, (and which was once in the possession of Mr. Whitehead, of Mexico,) has been utterly lost in the turmoils and confusion of that country. It seems to me impossible to believe that the Valley of Mexica was the only seat of refinement, taste, and luxury on the isthmus, or that so * Vide Humboldt, Clavigero, and JktcCuUoh. EMIGRATION OF THE TRIBES. 263 powerful an Empire existed in all its splendor, while the pyramids, tem- ples, palaces, and edifices which are represented in the plates accompany- ing these letters, were abandoned to the forest and its beasts. I cannot believe, that in so small a geographical space there could be such palpa- ble anachronisms, — so much light in one spot with so much blackness next it; — that people, at the height of social and architectural refinement, should have had neighbors at the distance of 100, 200, or 300 miles, who were utter savages, while, a few degrees farther south, there was another stratum of known civilization in Peru. I do not rely upon all the dates, assigned by Mexican historians, for the rise and fall of the Toltecs and Aztecs. There is doubt among the best writers on these subjects. The period, during which their emigration from the north continued, may be correct ; but I question the accuracy of the time given for the commencement and spread of their respective mon- archies, especially, when we remember the numbers who fell either in battle or under the sacrificial knife. The empires were exceedingly pop- ulous, and it would seem to have required centuries to gather all the pop- ulation that existed in the vale of Anahuac after the ravages that termi- ' nated the Toltec sway. Besides this, the Mexicans rose to great refinement from absolute barbarism, or from the comparative ignorance and bad hab- its they had contracted during a long emigration. This requires time. The growth of nations is gradual. How long did it require to pile up the hill of Xochicalco — to dig its ditch of a league in extent — to quarry its immense stones — to bring them from their distant caves — to bear them to the summit of the mound — to pile them up in the several stories of the pyramid — and, lastly, to cover the whole with elaborate carving ? How long did it require to prepare the mind of a nation, step by step, for the idea and construction of such an edifice ; — which, we must remember, is but one out of thousands ! It is difficult to determine what might have been the extent of our knowledge of all the questions with which I began this letter, if the holy fathers, instead of making bonfires of Mexican records, had studied them with antiquarian zeal. Yet, I have at least satisfied myself, that if we know nothing of the origin of the people of America, we may at least be confident that Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, Mexico, Xochicalco, Teo- tihuacan, Cholula, Papantla, Tusapan, and Mitla, were the dwellings and temples of civilized nations at the period of the Spanish conquest. If ever the city of which Mr. Stephens heard, as existing among the mountains, (unvisited hitherto by white men,) is penetrated by some fu- ture band of adventurous travellers, the mystery may, perhaps, be solved. That such a city exists, I think by no means improbable, when it is re- collected, that near the town of Cuernavaca, not more, perhaps, than seventy miles from the Capital of Mexico, there is a populous and loell governed Indian village, enjoying its native Jiahits, and refusing to hold in- tercourse viith the Spaniards. How much more probable that there should be primitive tribes of which we have not the slightest information flour- 264 MEXICO. ishing with their original laws, customs, towns, and temples, among the folds of the distant mountains in the bosom of our unexplored Continent !* NoTK.— The Mexican Cosmogony has four periods, when, it is alleged, that all mankind, with the exception of two or three individuals, perished. The 1st period was terminated by famine at the end of. 5206 years. " 2nd " " fire " " 4804 " " 3rd '■ " hurricane " " 4010 " " 4th " " deluge " " 4008 " In this deluge all perished, with the exception of Coxcox, and his wife Xochiquetial, who escaped in a canoe. I have already, at page 28, presented you an account of a Toltec legend, showing how one of the giants, called Xelhua, and his six brethren, were saved from the deluge on the mountain of Tlaloc, while all the rest of mankind perished in the waters or were transformed into fish. Josephus, quoting from the 96th book of JVicholas of Damascus, says " there is a great mountain in Armenia, over Mingas, called Baris, upon which, it is reported, that many who fled at the time of the deluge were saved ; and that one who was carried in an ark came on shore on the top of it ; and that the remains of the timber were a great while preserved. This might be the man about whom Moses, the legislator of the Jews, wrote " In the construction, form, and object of the Mexican teocallis, there is a striking analogy to tlie tumuK and pyramids of the old world. According to Herodotus, the temple of Belus was a pyramid, built of brick and asphaltum, solid throughout, (xvpyoi arepos,) and it had eight stories. A temple (vaoj) was erected on its top, and another at its base. In like manner, in the Mexican teocallis, the tower, (voo j) was distinguished from the temple on the platform ; a distinction clearly pomted out in the letters of Corfez. Diodorus Siculus states, that the Babylonian temple served as an observatory to the Chaldeans ; so, the Mexican priests, says Humboldt, made observations on the stars from the summit of the teocallis, and announced to the people, by the sound of the horn, the hour of the night. The pyramid of Belus was at once a temple and a tomb. In like manner, the tumulus (x'^jxa) of Calisto in Arcadia, described by Pausanias as a cone, made by the hands of man, but cov- ered with vegetation, bore on its top the temple of Diana. The teocallis were also both temples and tombs; and tlie plain in which are built the houses of the sun and moon at Teotihuacan, is called the path of the dead. The group of pyramids at Gheeza and Sakkara in Egypt ; the triangular pyramid of the queen of the Scyth- ians, mentioned by Diodorus ; the fourteen Etruscan, pyramids which are said to have been inclosed in the labyrynth of King Porsenna at Clusiura : the tumulus of Alyattes at Lydia {see Modern Traveller, Syria and Asia Minor, vol. ii. p. 153 ;) the sepulchres of the Scandinavian king Gormus and his queen Daneboda ; and the tumuli found in Virginia, Canada, and Peru, in which numerous galleries, built with stone and communicating with each by shafts, fill up the interior of artificial hills;— are referred to by the learned Traveller as sepulchral monuments of a similar character, but differing from the teocallis in not being, at the same time, surmounted with temples. It is perhaps too hastUy assumed, however, that none of these were destined to serve as buses for altars ; and the assertion is much too unqualified, that " the pagodas of Hindostan have nothing in common with the Mexican temples. That of Tanjore, notwithstanding that the altar is not at the top, bears a striking analogy in other respects to the teocallis."— See Humboldt's Researches, vol. i. pp. 81—107 ; Pol. Essay, voL ii. pp. 146—149 ; Mod. Traveller, vol. vi. p. 241. • Vide Appendix No. 3, at page 382, for a very interesting letter ftom Horatio Hale, Esq., on the connection of Indian languages. LETTER XXVI. CITY 01 MEXICO. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. PRISONS. PRISON STATISTICS. ACADEMY. PRIVATE COLLECTIONS. "We will return now from the edifices of Ancient Mexico, to the mod- ern institutions and erections of the Spaniards, who have displaced the Indians. I have already given you some descriptions of the City of Mexico, and the a,ppearance and character of the castle-like dwellings of the people ; but, (with the exception of the Cathedral,) I have as yet said nothing of the public edifices and churches. There are two Palaces in the City of Mexico, one of which is appro- priated to the Archbishop, and the other to the President and Government officers. The Archbishop's Palace fronts the northern end of the President's, and is plain and simple both within and without. The same may be said of the National Palace ; it has no architectural pretensions, and until the year 1842, was a long low pile of unadorned buildings, filled with a mis- erable collection of comfortless rooms. Upon the accession of General Santa Anna, however, a change took place. The Minister of Finance fitted up a suite of apartments for his bureaux, in a tasteful modern style ; and, in the months of August and September, the Grand Sala was en- tirely completed, and opened to the public for the first time on the anni- versary of the crowning victory of Mexican Independence. In this spacious and well-proportioned apartment they have gathered a quantity of gorgeous furniture, and placed, on a platform at the northern end, under a crimson canopy, a magnificently carved and gilded throne. Various flags, alleged to have been taken from the Texans, in battle, are affixed to staffs extending from the cornice. The walls are covered with large French mirrors, and the deep windows are festooned with the most tasteful upholstery of French artistes. I have wandered over the whole of this immense pile of edifices, but I recollect nothing else about it worthy of notice. The private apartments of General Santa Anna are plain, neat, and tasteful, and a full-length portrait of General Washington adorns an obscure chamber. In "an inner court, to the eastward, is the Botanic Garden, surrounded by the lofty walls of adjoining edifices. It is of small extent, and the 266 poor flowers, shut up ful nuns secluded for a Roman — aged, he little of his business, like a hermit, in the and amuses himself curiosity of the place^ MEXICO. in the dreary inclosure, seem like so many beauti- ever from the vulgar gaze. The chief gardener is alleges, more than a century — who either knows or has become useless by extreme age. He lives, shady nooks of his tangled and neglected garden, by pointing out to every visitor the greatest floral — the celebrated Arbol Manita. HAND FLOWER. The almost unpronounceable Indian name is Macpalxoch'quauhitI, the botanic, Chiranthodendron pentadactylon ; — but it is usually known as the " hand flower.'' Two trees only are said to exist in the Republic — one at Toluca and the other in the Capital ; — and it is chiefly remarkable for the brilliancy of its tints, and the claw that protrudes from its thorny cup — a singular mingling of bird and blossom. Behind the Palace are the Senate Chamber, and the Chamber of De- puties — both of them tasteful and comfortable apartments. The latter is of semicircular form, with a throne-like stage for the seat of the Presi- dent on public occasions ; — beneath its canopy are hung the Declara- tion of Independence, and the sword which Iturbide first drew in defence PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 267 of Mexican liberty. The chairs of the members are ranged in two rows, rising one above the other against the walls of the semicircle, without desks ; and above these, again, are lodges, or boxes supported by pil- lars, for the audience. A well executed picture of the Victory of Tam- pico, occupies a panel over the door in front of the throne ; and on the table of the secretaries is placed the omnipresent crucifix. The buildings of the Mint form the back of the palace square, and are filled with the old and cumbrous machinery of the last century. I saw none of the modern improvements which have been inti'oduced both in Europe and in this country ; but I cannot pass over this institution without doing justice to the artistical skill of the artist, who is at pres- ent engaged in making new dies for the future coinage of the Republic. The taste and talent of this young gentleman were discovered by some of the chiefs of Government, and he was immediately dispatched to Rome, whence, after a few years study, he has returned to honor his native Capital with the works of his graver. I will say nothing of the old edifice of the Inquisition, with its vaulted rooms, its inner chambers, and its monastic gloom ; or of the neighboring church of the Dominicans, in the court-yard of which you are still shown the hollow among the stones, wherein the stake was erected that sustained the victims of their former auto's. There is no longer an Inquisition, or a faggot. Near this is the Aditana — or Custom House — which, like the Dipu- tacion, is a stately and commodious edifice. There are fourteen parish churches, six private churches, thirteen convents and seminaries for men, and twenty-two for women; six colleges, one university, and five hos- pitals and poor-houses. , MONTE PIO. The Monte Pig — a species of national pawnbroker establishment — is in the great Square, occupying the building known as the Palace of Cortez, said to be erected on the ruins of the ancient Palace of Monte- zuma. This is one of the most beneficent institutions in the world, and was founded in 1775, by the Conde de Regla, who endowed it with about ^300, 000. Since that period it has been administered faithfully by the Government, and affords succor daily to more than two hundred persons. It is ruled by a general Board of Directors, and receives pledges of clothes, jewels, plate, and every species of valuables. These articles are appraised at a fair valuation, the amount of which (deducting the interest) is paid to the pawner; — ^they are then retained for six months, during which period the owner is at liberty to withdraw them upon repayment of the sum advanced. If the debt is not refunded at the end of that time, the pledges are disposed of at public sale ; and if they bring more under 268 MEXICO the hammer than the valuation, the dijference is given to their original owners. From the foundation of this admirable Institute — which has been the means of preventing so much disgrace and misery during the revolution, ary difficulties of the Capital — 2,232,611 persons had received succor up to the beginning of 1836. During the same period it had distributed $31,674,702, besides giving $134,746 in alms. In the year 1837, it aided 29,629 persons by the distribution of $477, 772, and gave $1,089 for masses to be said daily by three chaplains, whoy received a dollar for each of their services. You may form an idea of the number and variety of persons who derive assistance from the Monte Pio, by a walk through its extensive apartments. You will there find every species of garment, from the tattered reboso of the lepera to the lace mantilla of the noble dame ; every species of dress, from the blanket of the beggar, to the military cloak and jewelled sword of the impoverished officer; and, as to jewels, Aladdin would have had nothing to wish among the blazing caskets of diamonds for which the women of Mexico are proverbial. MINERIA. The MiNERiA — or School of Mines — is one of the most splendid edifices in America. It was planned and built by Tolsa — the sculptor of the statue of Charles IV. — and is an immense pile of stone, with courts, stairways, saloons, and proportions that would adoi'n the most sumptu- ous palaces of Europe. But this is all. The apparatus is miserable; the collection of minerals utterly insignificant ; the pupils few ; and, among the wastes and solitude of the pile, wanders the renowned Del Rio — one of the most learned naturalists of this hemisphere — ejaculating his sor- rows over the departed glory of his favorite schools. An edifice used for the manufacture of tobacco, situated at the north- western corner of the city, and erected by the old Spanish government, has been converted into a citadel. I never visited it, and can give no account of its interior. ACCORDADA, OR PUBLIC PRISON. Passing westward, toward the Paseo Nuevo from the Alameda, you cross the square in front of the Acordada, the common prison of the Capital. In the front of one of its wings a low-barred window is constantly open, and within, on an inclined plane, are laid the dead bodies found daily within the limits of the city. It is almost impossible to take your morning walk to the adjoining fields, without seeing one, and frequently two corpses, stretched bleeding on the stones. These are the victims of some sudden PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 269 quarrel, or unknown murder during the night ; and all who miss a friend, a parent or a brother, resort to these iron bars to seek the lost one. It is painful to behold the scenes to which this melancholy assemblage fre- quently give rise, and hear the wails of sorrow that break from the home- less orphan, whose parent lies murdered on the stones of the dead-house. Yet this is scarcely more shocking than the scenes presented by the livings within the walls of the loathsome prison. A strong guard of mili- tary is stationed at the gate, and you enter, after due permission from the commanding officer. A gloomy stair leads to the second story, the en- trance to which is guarded by a portal massive enough to resist the assault of a powerful force. Within, a lofty apartment is filled with the officers of the prison and a crowd of subalterns, engaged in writing, talking, and walking — amid the hum of the crowd, the clank of chains, the shout of prisoners, and the eternal din of an ill-regulated establishment. Passing through several iron and wood barred gates, you enter a lofty corridor, running around a quadrangular court-yard, in the centre of which, beneath, is a fountain of troubled water. The whole of this area is filled with human beings — the great congress of Mexican crime — mixed and mingling, like a hill of busy ants swarming from their sandy caverns. Some are stripped and bathing in the fountain ; some are fighting in a corner ; some making baskets in another. In one place a crowd is gath- ered around a witty story-teller, relating the adventures of his rascally life. In another, a group is engaged in weaving with a hand-loom. Rob- bers, murderers, thieves, ravishers, felons of every description, and vaga- bonds of every aspect, are crammed within this court-yard ; — and, almost free from discipline or moral restraint, form, perhaps, the most splendid school of misdemeanor and villainy on the American Continent. Below, within the corridor of the second story — from which I have de- scribed the view of this wretched mass of humanity — a rather better sort of criminals are kept ; and yet, even here, many were pointed out to me as being under sentence of death, who still went about entirely without restraint. In one corner of the quadrangle is the chapel, where convicts for capi- tal offences are condemned to solitude and penance, during the three last days of their miserable life; and, at a certain hour, it is usual for all the prisoners to gather in front of the door, and chant a hymn for the victim of the laws. It is a solemn service of crime for crime. I did not see the prison for the women, but I am told it is much the same as the one I have just described. About one hundred of the men, chained in pairs like galley slaves, are driven daily into the streets, under a strong guard, as scavengers ; and it seems to be the chief idea of the utility of prisons in Mexico, to support this class of coerced laborers. There can be no apology, at this period of general enlightenment in the world, for such disgraceful exhibitions of the congregated vice of a coun- try. Punishment, or rather, incarceration, and labor on the streets, in the manner I have described, is, in fact, no sacrifice ; — ^both because public 270 MEXICO. exhibition deadens the felon's shame, and because it cannot become an actual punishment under any circumstances of a lepero's life. Indeed, what object in existence can the lepero propose to himself? His day is one of precarious labor and income ; he thieves ; he has no regular home, or if he has, it is some miserable hovel of earth and mud, where his wife and children crawl about with scarce the instinct of beavers His food and clothing are scant and miserable. He is without education, or pros- pect of improvement. He belongs to a class that does not rise. He dulls his sense of present misery by intoxicating drinks. His quick temper stimulates him to quarrel. His sleep is heavy and unrefreshing, and he only rises to a day of similar uncertainty and wickedness. What, then, is the value of life to him, or to one like him ? Why toil ? Why not steal? What shame has he ? Is the prison, with certainty of food — more punish- ment than the free air, with uncertainty ? On the contrary, it is a lighter punishment; and as for the degradation, he knows not how to estimate it. Mexico will thus continue to be infested with felons, as long as its prison is a house of refuge, and a comparatively happy home to so large a portion of its outcast population.* I have collected some statistical information on these subjects, which I think will be interesting in connection with Mexican prisons, and prove how necessary it is, in the first place, to alter their whole system of coercive discipline ; and, in the second, to strike immediately at the root of the evil, by improving the condition of the people — by educating, and proposing advantages to them, in the cultivation of the extensive tracts of country that now lie barren over their immense territory. IMPRISONMENTS IN MEXICO FOR 1842. During the first six months of 1842, there were imprisoned in the City of Mexico, 3,197 men. 1,427 women. During the second six months, . . - - 2,858 men. 1,379 women. Total of both sexes for 1842, 8,861 Without specifying each of the several crimes, for which these pereons were committed to prison, or being able, from all the accounts furnished me, to state the exact number of those who were finally convicted, I will * As an evidence of the little value these leperos place upon their lives,— an old resident in Mexico told me, that he had once been the witness of a street-fight between two women, which resulted in the use of knives, and the ripping of one's belly, so that her bowels were exposed. The wound was not fatal, and as soon as she had slightly recovered from the loss of blood, while the attendants were preparing a litter, she drew forth a ciffarritt fiom her bosom, obtained a light from a bystander, and was borne oif to the hospital, smoking os conlentedly as if preparing for a siesta ! Women. Total 179 491 470 1,970 1,104 3,233 444 1,056 17 87 21 86 1 8 3 PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 271 present some lists of the numbers imprisoned for the chief crimes, during the whole year. Men. 1 . Prostitution, adultery, bigamy, sodomy, incest, 312 2. Robbery, 1,500 3. Quarreling and wounding, - - - 2,129 4. Quarreling, bearing arms, &c. - - 612 5. Homicide, attempt at do., and robbery and homicide, 70 6. Rape and incontinence, - - - - ^^ 7. Forgery, - "7 8. Gambling, 3 Which, added together, give the frightful amount of - - 6,934 males and females, for the higher crimes and misdemeanors — leaving a tjaiance of 1,927 only, to be divided among the lesser. It should be stated, in addition to the above, that numbers were committed for throwing vitriol on the clothes and faces of persons passing along the street j — that 113 dead bodies were found; — 17 individuals executed* — and 894 sent to the hospital. The sum of $4,121 is expended in salaries of officers for this Institution, and $30,232 for the support of the prisoners. ACADEMY OF ARTS. Let us pass from this examination of vice and immorality in Mexico, to something more agreeable'. My expectations had been greatly excited by the Baron Humboldt's account of the Academy of Fine Arts ; but how greatly was I disap- pointed, in its comparatively miserable condition at present ! It has shared the fate of the University, Museum, Mineria, and other public institutions. The halls are untenanted. The multitudes, described by the Baron as attending the instruction of Professors, and sketching from the splendid collections of antique casts, — have departed. One artist occupies an ill- arranged studio in a dark corner of the buildings, and paints stiff figures of formal officers in gold lace, embroidery and crosses, in a style as dis- agreeable as his manners. * The mode of execution in Mexico, as in Spain, ifs by the garrote- The culprit is seated in a chair, and his neck is placed in an iron collar, which may be contracted by a screw. A sudden turn drives a spike through the ipinal marrow at the same time that the collar closes round the throat of the victim. Life is almost immediately extinct, and the sufferings are consequently but trifling. The crowds, to see those executions, in Mexico, are innu- merable. According to Humboldt, there were in 1790, in all the prisons of Mexico, 770 of both sexes, for all crimes, out af a population of about 113,000. 272 MEXICO. It is to be hoped that with the " regeneration of the Republic," this branch of tasteful science will be properly encouraged, and the remark, ably acute and imilaiive talents of the natives subjected to a discipline, that cannot fail to rank. the Mexicans high in the grade of distinguished art. The old Spanish government supplied this Institution with a revenu* of near twenty-five thousand dollars a year ; and, at an expense of forty thousand dollars, safely transported to Mexico over the rough mountain roads and passes, a beautiful collection of casts of the most renowned sta- tues and groups of antiquity. These, I am glad to say, are altogether uninjured, and still adorn the lonely halls of the neglected Academy, I asked for the pictures of the former scholars, and a few were shown me, bad in coloring and worse in outline. I asked for the drawings; and the answer was, that there were none but a few sketches hung along the walls, bearing the date of long passed years. Among them, how- ever, I could not avoid noticing a drawing in ink by one of the pupils, which, had it been executed on copper, would have ranked him high in the list of the engravers of the period. PRIVATE CABINETS. The private collections of Mexico are not very numerous. Don Jose Gomez, ex-Conde de la Cortina, has a rare collection of offensive and defensive arms, ancient and modern, chronologically arranged. In addi- tion to this, he has gathered a number of interesting memorials of his own country, together with some original pictures, and copies of the most dis- tinguished artists of the Dutch, French, Flemish, Spanish and Italian schools. Among the painters are Murillo, Morales, Julio Romano, Paul Veronese, Salvator, Watteau, Mignard, David, and Laflond. PENASCO'S COLLECTION. The Museum of Don Jose Mariano Sanchez y Mora, ex-Conde del Peiiasco, is comprised in four branches :— Antiquities, natural history, paintings, and instruments of the physical sciences. His collection of coins is extremely valuable, consisung of upward of three thousand speci- mens ; and his mineralogical cabinet is unquestionably the rarest in the Republic. The ores — amethysts, emeralds, and diamonds, would, alone, almost make the fortune of an European collector. Don Jose was kind enough to permit me frequently to examine his Museum of Mexican Antiquities, and to present me with some rare and interesting idols. He possesses several Indian manuscripts in the ancient picture-writing, and a collection of dii penates, talismans, amulets, and musical instruments made of serpentine, basalt and clay. PRIVATE CABINETS, 273 The abeve cuts represent two stamps or seals of baked clay, with which the Indians were accustomed to impress marks upon their cottons. They go far to prove how near these people were to the discovery of the art of printing. 18 274 MEXICO [n the National Museum and in the collection of the Conde, are several masks, made of obsidian, said to have been found in Indian tombs, cover, ing the faces of skeletons, the remains, perhaps, of some of the illustrious dead of the Empire. The one here represented was found in the Depart- ment of Chiapas. When you recollect the exceedingly frail and glass- like material out of which these things are cut, you cannot fail to be struck with the skill and ingenuity of the person who contrived to work it into the semblance of human features, without fracturing the mass, and gave to the whole a polish resemUing that of the finest mirrors. You will be the more surprised at this on looking at the following ring, also made of obsidian, and but one-tenth of an inch in thickness . It is perfectly transparent, beautifully wrought, and apparently so brittle and thin, that the slightest blow would fracture it. The above is also a mask, about a foot long, made, not of obsidian, but of serpentine. There are holes, as you perceive, in the upper part, which were doubtless used to suspend it before the face of some of the idols, according to one of the occasional rites of their worship. This mask is extremely interesting, because it is a perfect profile of the present race of Indians, who frequent the very spot at St. Jago de Tlaltelolco, where the relic was foui^d. MEXICAN IDOLS. 275 This is an idol found at Tula — the ancient capital of the Toltecs. The second figure represents the bottom of the statue, and the whole appears to have been a Toad or Frog — the croaking annoyer of some marshy neighborhood, who was raised to the dignity of a divinity in stone and propitiated by the offer of an occasional sacrifice. And so, perhaps, was the Grasshopper in the following figure, found in the Capital, cut out of red marble and beautifully polished. It is said t3 be the god of Chapultepec — the " hill of the Cicala." 276 MEXICO. The next is a Sacrificial Yoke, similar to the one described at page 121. The two following figures are those of Serpents, ten and nineteen inches in diameter— and carved from basalt. They were no doubt connected with the worship of the god Quetzalcoatl, which I have lieretofore de- scribed to you. MEXICAN IDOLS. 277 278 MEXICO The preceding are four figures of unknown idols. One seems to rep resent a deformed Dwarf; another, a gaping Baboon; the third is ? monkey's or Idiot's head, cut out of white marble, found some years smc€ in the Misteca ; and the fourth is a mutilated body neatly carved m ser. ^^BuTthe finest idol-specimen contained in the Conde's gallery, is the next that I have delineated. It was brought to him from Oajaca the an- cient country of Mitla and the Zapotecs-lying southwestwardly from the Vallev of Mexico-and is beautifully carved from a white sandstone, similar, I think, in material, to those found farther south by Mr. Stephens COMPARISON OF IDOLS. 279 You cannot fail to notice the tasteful arrangement of the head-dress, re- sembling those of our Indians as exhibited in the following designs, taken, for the sake of illustration, from the work of Mr. Catlin. 280 MEXICO. •In the first figure, you will observe feathers depending from the crest and back, similar to iliose on the sculptures of Xochicaico and Palenque; and, in the second, you will perceive that they are arranged in a circle of rays, so as to be, seen in front, as on the statue from Oajaca. Another thing is interesting in these figures of our Northern Indians. On the robe of the first Indian is an open hand. This, too, has been the subject of great speculation by recent writers. Mr. Stephens found it constantly in the temples he explored. It is in several places on the sides of the *• gladiatorial stone," at page 124 of these letters ; and Mr. Schoolcraft (unquestionably the best informed of our Indian scholars,) regards it as emblematic of strength, courage and power. The figure in the collection of the Conde del Peiiasco, is a deity con- nected with the Indian notions of fruition or plenty. The ears of corn in the head-dress indicate this idea, while the whole, perhaps, may be an idol of Centeotl, the "goddess of the Earth and Grain," or, (as she was more confidingly called,) " she who supports us." I had just finished sketching the idols represented in the preceding plates, when I was called to the window by the noise of a crowd below, gathered around a man lying on his back. I presumed it to be one of the numberless street-fights or quarrels with which you are daily an- noyed in this Capital, and was about retiring, when the fellow suddenly raised his legs in the air — balanced himself by his shoulders — and, pitch- ing up a pole horizontally, caught it on his feet. This, too, was a remnant of antiquity, and having sketched the exhib- itor alongside of an idol, I do not think him out of place in this letter. The ancient Mexicans had a variety of similar sports ; — such as bal- ancing on each other's shoulders ; on staves ; and on wheels whirling in the air ; but this exercise, with the pole or beam, was perhaps the most THE MOUNTEBANK. 281 common of all, and ordinarily practiced, in the streets, as a decent mode of begging. The operator is usually stripped to his trowsers, and his capital in trade consists of a pair of stout thighs and muscular calves. The pole once balanced on the soles of his feet, he plays all manner of tricks with it as easily as if it were in his hands ; but I have never seen them sport, as the ancients are said to have done, with men seated on each end of the heavy bar. AOAVE A.KSRICAKA. LETTER XXVII. DESAGUA. CARRIAGES. MULES. TROOPS. MUSIC. OPERA. RECRUITS. THEATRES. MEXICAN THIEVES. THE JUDGE AND TURKEY. Mexico, lying in the lap of a valley, with mountains around it contin- ually pouring their streams into the sandy soil, has been frequently in danger of returning to the " slime from whence she rose." Since the trees have been cut from the plains and the surface exposed to the direct action of the sun, the valley has become drier and the lake has shrunk ; but Mexico has, nevertheless, been several times threatened with inunda- tions. In estimating the dangerous situation of the Metropolis, it is necessary for you to recollect the position and levels of the adjacent lakes. South- eastwardly is the lake of Chalco ; northwestwardly the lake of Tezcoco ; and north of that again, in a continuous chain, are the lakes of San Cris- toval and Zumpango. The latter sheet of water is about eighteen feet higher than San Cristoval, — San Cristoval is twelve feet higher than Tez- coco, — and the level of the great Square of Mexico is not more than three feet above that of Tezcoco. Thus, the head of water which could be easily poured over the Capital is immense, especially as the river Cuautit- ian pours an additional stream constantly into the northern link of the chain at Zumpango. In 1629 the whole city of Mexico, with the ex- ception of the Plaza, was laid waste by inundation. In most of the streets the water continued for upward of three years, and, until 1634, portions of the town were still traversed by canoes. So great was the misery and want caused by this misfortune, that the Court of Spain had issued orders to abandon the Capital and build a new one, between Tacuba and Tacubaya, on upland levels, that had never been reached by the lakes before the conquest. An earthquake, how- ever, rent the earth and freed the city of the accumulated waters ; and the result of this warning was the completion of an immense Desagua or sewer, which thoroughly empties the oi'dinary contents of the valley. But urgent as was the necessity for this work, it was procrastinated by the dilatoriness of Mexican laborers, until the year 1789. " The whole length of the cut," is said by Mr. Ward, " to be, from the sluice called Vertide- ros, to the salto of the river Tula, 67,537 feet ; where the waters are discharged at a spot about 300 feet beneath the level of the lake of Zum- TEKMIKATIOir OF AS A d tT E D IT C T IW SIEXZOOi SPANISH AQUEDUCTS. 283 pango." The estimate of the whole cost of this gigantic enterprise, and its necessary repairs, until the year 1830, is f 8,000,000 ; yet, with all the expenditure and vast labor, it may still prove, in certain cases, only efficacious against a portion of the waters that are collected in the val- ley. South of the Capital are the lakes of Chalco and Xochimilco, and their level is more than a yard- higher than that of the great Square of Mexico. This Desague, and the noble aqueducts by which the city is supplied, are the only very great enterprises, of this character, in the country ; and they are all owing to the energy of the old Spanish government, which emulated the magnificence of the Romans in its public improve- ments, connected with elegance and comfort. ■ During the royal sway the roads, also, were properly made and repaired ; but since the Revo- lution, when most of them were torn up to prevent the passage of troops, or destroyed by the transit of artillery, they have been abandoned to the weather and travel, so that in fact, (with the exception of the high- way to Vera Cruz, which has recently been improved,) there is scarcely a road in the Republic that does not resemble more the deserted bed of a mountain stream, than a work intended to facilitate communication. The idea of " internal improvements" has never entered into the cal- culation of these people ; — though, some years since, a scheme was set on foot to construct a railway from the coast to the Capital, and its practicability proved by a scientific reconnoissance. Adventures of this character will be the first evidences of the growth of mind amono- the masses in Mexico, when they are taught to believe that they have other sources of wealth besides mines, and that riches do not consist alone in gold and silver. Until that period, the patient and toilsome mule will continue to be the means of transportation of the chief burdens from the sea to the interior. If we suppose it to be perfectly practicable to make a railway of about 350 miles in length, with all its sinuosities, from Vera Cruz to the Cap- ital, I think the following estimate may be reasonably made of the profits of such an enterprise ; especially, when it is recollected that the distance will be passed in less than 24 hours, instead oi four days, (as at present in the diligence,) and from eighteen to twenty -five days, by mules and wagons. Cost of Railway, say, - . . . $6,000,000 Motive power, cars, &c 200,000 Contingent expenses, 300,000 $6,500,000 The interest on which, per annum, at 6 per cent, will be $390,000 It may be estimated, that about fifty thousand tons are imported an- nually into Vera Cruz. A ton weight is transported usually on about seven mules, each mule load being worth $25, from Vera Cruz to Mexico. 284 MEXICO. Fifty thousand tons will then cost for transportation $8,750,000. But suppose we take only the half, or twenty-five thousand tons to be trans- ported to the interior, and we shall have for the cost, $4,375,000, for the annual value of mule freight. I think it would be perfectly fair to consider this sum as the income of a railway, (at least, during the first years of the enterprise,) especially when the transportation of passengers and the speed with which merchants will be served with their goods, are taken into consideration as induce- ments. The statement of freights which I have made above, is only of carriage to the Capital ; an equal sum, nearly, may be expected to cover the trans- portation from it, including passengers, and pay for the portage of coin and bullion to the coast. But, if nothing more than $4,375,000, in all, are raised as income, you will perceive that the road must pay for itself in less than two years, or yield (after deducting expenses,) more than thirty per cent, to its shareholders. If the low cost of the railway is objected to, let the estimate be doubled, and still the profits will be pro- portionably great, if we take into account the extension of business that will be created by the increase of facilities. I think it may be safely stated, that two thousand passengers pass over the road every year between Vera Cruz and Mexico, each paying $50 for his seat, or, $100,000 in all. How great would be the increase of travelling — the security of life and property from robbers — the induce- ments to trade — and the general promotion of the prosperity of the Re- public, by an outlay of money at so profitable an interest !* MEXICAN COACHES AND MULES. Not the least singular of the sights of the Metropolis, are the mules harnassed to the antique vehicles still used by some of the old-fashioned , folks of Mexico. The carriage is usually quite globular, or tun-like, with its doors and sides covered with elaborate gilding and painting. This clumsy cavity is suspended on a carved and gaudy-colored frame- work, or square scaffolding, resting on enormous wheels ; and the whole machine has the appearance of a big fly hanging in the midst of a spider-web. A long pole extends in front, to which are attached a pair of mules, almost hidden in a heavy harness studded with brass bosses and shining ornaments, while the tails of the luckless animals are invariably stuck into leathern bags by way of queue ! A postillion, with short jacket, of brown stamped leather, embroidered with green braid ; stout leggings, * Since the above was written, I learn that the Oovemnment has issued orders for the repair and improvement of roads all over the Republic. An enterprise has been actually set on foot by Mexican merchants of great wealth and respectability, to open a communication with the Pacific, across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, partly by railway. The railway from Vera Cruzto the river San Juan, in the direction of Jalapa, has also been commenced, and laborers are already at work on four miles of the twenty-one of which it is to consist. TROOPSOFTHELIXE. 285 spurs with two-inch rowels ; broad-brimmed hat, and whip of sounding thong, bestrides one of the beasts ; and the whole apparatus moves off with a slow lumbering pace, that resembles in motion and appearance nothing that I can now recollect, but one of those old-fashioned wooden houses, that, in times long past, we used to see removed from street to street, until they disappeared in the suburbs. Even the riding horses of the Mexicans are not yet freed from the an- cient lumber and trappings with which their ancestors covered them. At page 163, you will find a picture of a jMexican horseman, and observe that the animal's haunches are covered with a sort of hemisphere of leather terminated by an iron fringe, that jingles with every movement. This cumbrous hide was originally designed, at the period of the conquest, as an armor for the protection of the horse from Indian arrows, while the guard was continued in front of the beast by a similar apron that shielded his neck and throat. But now, although there are no more assailants of the peaceful riders, you may still frequently observe this uncouth cover- ing on the finest animals ; and the apology for the usage is, that bv contin- ually striking on a certain part of his hind legs with the lower fringe of iron, the horse is forced into a short, ambling trot, which is held to be the suvimum lonum of ]\Iexican comfort in the saddle. I confess, that I saw no beauty in the mincing gate which is thus acquired, especially as the animal most celebrated for it in i\Iexico scarcely advanced a dozen yards in a minute, while, from the amount of exercise he appeared to be taking, and the incessant pawing of his feet and chafing of his bit, an observer would be induced to believe he was advancing at a furious pace. It is one of those capricious luxuries to which men resort, when they have exhausted the round of natural and simple tastes. I have forgotten to say anything to you hitherto of the parades of troops, for which this Capital is in some degree famous. As I profess to have no military knowledge, you must not expect a very critical account of their appearance or manoeuvres ; but I have seldom seen better lookino- regiments in Europe than the 11th Infantry, under the command of Lom- bardini. The uniform is white, like the Austrian, and is kept in excel- lent order. The arms are clean and bright, and the ofiicers of division appear to be well trained, and to have imparted their training to the men. On the 13th of June 1842, about eight thousand of these troops were brought together, to be reviewed by General Santa Anna, on the meadows south of the city. In line they had an extremely martial bearing, and. so far as I was able to judge of their skill, the sham-fight that took place after- ward was admirably executed. Excellent and daring riders, as are all the Mexicans, they must ever have a decided advantage in their cavalry; and, although they do not present so splendid an appearance in equip, ments as some of the other regiments, I have no doubt they constitute the most effective arm of the Mexican service. Indeed, almost all the foreigners and even Texans, with whom I have spoken in regard to 286 MEXICO. the qualities of these men, concur in a high estimate of the Mexican soldier, although they do not think so well of the Mexican officer. This, in all probability, arises from the irregular manner in which persons arrive at command and the want of soldierlike education and discipline.- Officers have been, most frequently, taken at once from private life or pursuits by no means warlike, and found themselves suddenly at the head of troops, without a knowledge of their duties, either in the barrack, camp, or field, or a due estimate of the virtues of obedience, and that disciplined courage arising from a perfect self-reliance in every emergency. The result of this unfortunate state of things has been, that, in conflicts with the Texans, while the men have often appeared anxious to fight, they lacked officers who were willing to lead them into the thick of the mil^e. You can fancy nothing more odd, than the manner in which this army is recruited. A number of men are perhaps wanted to complete a new company, and a sergeant with his guard is forthwith dispatched to inspect the neighboring Indians and Meztizos. The subaltern finds a dozen or more at work in the fields; and, without even the formality of a request, immediately picks his men and orders them into the ranks. If they at- tempt to escape or resist, they aje at once lassoed ; and, at nightfall, the whole gang is marched, tied in pairs, into the cuartel of the village or the guardroom of the Palace, with a long and lugubrious procession of wives and children, weeping and howling for the loss of their martial mates. Next day the " volunteers" are handed over to the drill-sergeant ; and I have often laughed most heartily at the singular group presented by these new-caught soldiers, on their first parade under their military tutor. One half of their number are always Indians, and the rest, most likely, leperos. One has a pair of trowsers, but no shirit ; another a shirt and a pair of drawers ; another hides himself, as well as he can, under his blanket and broad-brimmed hat ; another has drawers and a military cap. But the most ridiculous looking object 1 remember to have seen in Mexico, was a fat and greasy lepero, who had managed to possess himself of a pair of trowsers that just reached his hips, and were kept up by a strap around his loins, together with an old uniform coat a great deal too short lor him both in the sleeves and on the front. As he was not lucky enough to own a shirt, a vast continent of brown stomach lay shining in the sun between the unsociable garments ! He held his head, which was supported by a tall stock, higher than any man in the squad, and marched magnificently— especially in " lock step !" The drilling of these men is constant and severe. The sergeant is generally a well-trained soldier, and unsparing in the use of his long hard rod for the slightest symptom of neglect. In a few weeks, after the new troops acquire the ordinary routine of duty, they are put into uniform, paraded through the streets, and you would scarcely believe they ever had MUSIC, OPERA, THEATRES. 287 been the coarse Indians, and scurvy leperos, who robbed you on the road or pilfered your pockets in the streets. Jt >vould be improper, in speaking of the Mexican military, not to notice, especially, their excellent bands of music. The Spaniards transplanted their love and taste for this beautiful science to Mexico. The Indians have caught the spirit from their task-masters ; — and whether it be in the tinkling guitar or the swelling harmonies of a united corps, you can scarce go wrong, in expecting an exhibition of the art from a native. It is the custom for one of the regimental bands to meet after sundown, under the windows of the Palace, in the Plaza, which is filled with an attentive crowd of eager listeners to the choicest airs of modern composers. I have said, that this musical taste pervades all classes ; and it was, therefore, to be hoped, that a regularly established Operatic corps would have readily succeeded in the Capital. But from a variety of causes the experiment failed. The Revolution of 1841, interfered with it at the out- set, in the months of August and September ; and, from the unfavorable location of the house, and other circumstances, the whole enterprise was visited with a series of disastrous losses that left the management, in July, 1842, with a deficit of upward of 32,000 dollars. The singers were good ; the prima donna (Madame Castellan,) and basso, unexceptionable ; but the establishment never became fashionable. Not so, however, with the Theatres ; — three of which were almost con- stantly in operation while I resided in Mexico. The " Principal," the resort of the old aristocracy, was the theatre of staid fashion ; — the " Nuevo Mexico," a haunt of the newer people, who looked down on the " legitimate drama," and tolerated the excitement of innovation and nov- elty ; — and the " Puente Quebrada," a species of San Carlino, where " the people" revelled in the coarser jokes and broader scenes of an ad libitum performance. ^ I frequently visited the Principal, but kept a box with several young friends at the Nuevo Mexico, where I found the greatest advantage in the study of the Spanish language, from the excellent recitations of the " comicos." Most of them were Castillians, who spoke their native tongue with all the distinctive niceties of pronunciation, besides producing all the newest efforts of the Spanish muse. It was singular to observe, how from a small beginning and really excellent performances, the taste and wealth of Mexico was gradually drawn from its old loves at the Principal to the daring upstart. I have elsewhere lold you that the theatre is a Mexican necessary of life. It is the legitimate conclusion of a day, and all go to it ; — the old, because they have been accustomed to do so from their infancy ; the middle aged, be- 288 MEXICO. cause they find it difficult to spend their time otherwise ; and the young for a thousand reasons which the young will most readily understand. The boxes are usually let by the month or year, and are, of course, the resort of families who fill them in full dress every evening, and use them as a receiving-room for the halitu^s of their houses ; although it is not so much the custom to visit in the theatre as in Italy. The pit is the paradise of bachelors. Its seats are arm-chairs, rented by the month, and of course never occupied but by their regular owners. The stage is large, and the scenery well painted; but the whole per- formance becomes rather a sort of mere repetition than acting, as the " comicos" invariably follow the words, uttered in quite a loud tone by a prompter, who sits in front beneath the stage with his head only partially concealed by a wooden hood. A constant reliance on this person, greatly impairs the dramatic effect, and makes the whole little better than bad reading ; but I was glad to perceive that the actors of Nuevo Mexico had evidently studied their parts, and really performed the characters of the best dramas of the Spanish school. I cannot but think this habitual domestication at the theatre, is injurious to the habits of the Mexicans. It makes their women live too much abroad, and cultivates a love of admiration. The dull, dawdling morning at home, is succeeded by an evening drive ; and that, again, by the customary seat at the Opera or Play-house, where they listen to repetitions of the same pieces, flirt with the same cavaliers, or play the graceful with their fans. If the entertainments were of a highly intellectual character, or a development of the loftier passions of the soul, (as in the master-pieces of our English school,) there would be some excuse for an indulgence of this national taste ; but the disposition of the audiences is chiefly directed, either toward comedy, or to a vapid melodrama in the most prurient style of the modern French. Love and murder, — crime and wickedness, — have converted the stage into a dramatic Newgate, where sentimental felons and beautiful females, whose morality is as question- able as the color of their cheeks, are made by turns to excite our wonder and disgust. MEXICAN ROGUERY. When giving you an account, the other day, of Mexican prisons and prisoners, I forgot to relate some anecdotes that are told in the Capital of the adroitness of native thievery. Some time since, an English gentleman was quietly sauntering along the Portales — the rnost crowded thoroughfare of Mexico — his attention IMPUDENT AND ADROIT THIEVES. 289 being occupied with the variety of wares offered for sale by the small dealers ; — when, suddenly, he felt his hat gently lifted from his head. Before he could turn to seize the thief, the rascal was already a dozen yards distant, dodging through the crowd. Upon another occasion, a Mexican was stopped in broad daylight, in a lonely part of the town, by three men, who demanded his cloak. Of course, he very strongly objected to parting with so valuable an article ; when two of them placed themselves on either side of him, and the third, seizing the garment, immediately disappeared, leaving the victim in the grip of his companions. His cloak gone, he naturally imagined that the thieves had no further use for him, and attempted to depart. The vagabonds, however, told him to remain patiently where he was, and he would find the result more agreeable than he expected. In the course of fifteen minutes their accomplice returned, and politely bowing, handed the gentleman a. pawnbroker's ticket/ " We wanted thirty dollars, and not the cloak," said the villain; "here is a ticket, with which you may redeem it for that sum, and as the cloak of such a Cahallero is unquestionably worth at least a hundred dollars, you may consider yourself as having made seventy by the transaction ! Vaya con Dios .'" A third instance of prigging, is worthy the particular attention of the London swell mob ; and I question if it has been surpassed in adroitness, for some time past, in that notorious city, where boys are regularly taught the science of thieving, from the simple pilfer of a handkerchief, to the compound abstraction of a gold watch and guard-chain. A TALE OF A TURKEY. As a certain learned Judge in Mexico, some time since, walked one morning into Court, he thought he would examine whether he was in time for business; and, feeling for his repeater — found it was not in his pocket. "As usual," said |je to a friend who accompanied him, as he passed through the crowd near the door — "As usual, I have again left my watch at home under my pillow." He went on the bench and thought no more of it. The Court adjourned and he returned home. As soon as he was quietly seated in his parlor, he bethought him of his timepiece, and turning to his wife, requested her lo send for it to their chamber. " But, my dear Judge," said she, " I sent it to you three hours ago !" " Sent it to me, my love? Certainly not." " Unquestionably," replied the lady, " and by the person you sent for it!" " The person /sent for it !" echoed the Judge. 19 290 MEXICO. " Precisely, my dear, the very person you sent for it ! You had not left home more than an hour, when a well-dressed man knocked at the door and asked to see me. He brought one of the very finest turkies I ever saw, and said, that on your way to Court you met an Indian with a number of fowls, and having bought this one, quite a bargain, you had given him a couple of reals to bring it home ; with the request that I would have it killed, picked, and put to cool, as you intended to invite your brother judges to a dish of molU with you to-morrow. And, 'Oh ! by the way, Seriora,' said he, ' his Excellency, the Judge, requested me to ask you to give yourself the trouble to go to your chamber and take his watch from under the pillow, where he says he left it, as usual, this morning, and send it to him by me.' And, of course, mi querido, I did so." " You did ?" said the Judge. " Certainly," said the lady. " Well," replied his Honor, " all I can say to you, my dear, is, that you are as great a goose, as the bird is a turkey. You've been robbed, madam ; — the man was a thief; — I never sent for my watch ; — you've been imposed on ; — and, as a necessary consequence, the confounded watch is lost for ever !" The trick was a cunning one ; and after a laugh, and the restoration of the Judge's good-humor by a good meal, it was resolved actually to have the turkey for to-morrow's dinner, and his Honor's brothers of the bench to enjoy so dear a morsel. Accordingly, after the adjournment of Court next day, they all repaired to his dwelling, with appetites sharpened by the expectation of a rare repast. Scarcely had they entered the saJa and exchanged the ordinary salu- tations, when the lady broke forth with congratulations to his Honor upon the recovery of his stolen watch ! " How happy am I," exclaimed she, " that the villain was appre- hended !" " Apprehended !" said the Judge, with surprise. " Yes ; and doubtless convicted, too, by this time," said his wife. " You are always talking riddles," replied he. " Explain yourself, my dear. I know nothing of thief, watch, or conviction." " It can't be possible that I have been again deceived," quoth the lady, " but listen : — "About one o'clock to-day, a pale, and rather interesting young gen- tleman, dressed in a seedy suit of black, came to the house in great haste — almost out of breath. He said that he was just from Court ; — that he was one of the clerks ; — that the great villain who had the audacity to steal your Honor's watch had just been arrested ; — that the evidence was nearly perfect to convict him ; — and all that was required to complete it was 'the turkey,' which must be brought into Court, and for that he had been sent with a porter by your express orders." "And you gave it him !" IMPUDENT AND ADROIT THIEVES 291 "Of course I did — who could have doubted or resisted the order* of a Judge P' " Watch — and turkey— both gone ! pray, what the devil, madam, are we to do for a dinner ?" But the lady had taken care of her guests, notwithstanding her simpli- city, and the party enjoyed both the joke and their viands. 19* LETTER XXVIII. MEXICAN CHARACTER. I HAVE adverted already in previous letters to the private character and domestic customs of the Mexicans, and confess, that I came to the coun- try with opinions anything but favorable to the morals, tastes, or habits of the people. It was alleged, that they entertained a positive antipathy to foreigners, and that the exclusive system of Spain, under which they were educated, had excited in them a distaste for innovation ; an insouciant contentment with the "statu quo;" and, in fact, had created in our New Worl'd a sort of China in miniature. I think it exceedingly reasonable, that the Mexicans should be shy of foreigners. They have been educated in the strict habits of the Catholic creed ,• they know no language but their own ; the customs of their coun- try are different from others ; the strangers who visit them are engaged in the eager contests of commercial strife ; and, besides being of differ- ent religion and language, they are chiefly from those northern nations, whose tastes and feelings have nothing kindred with the impul- sive dispositions of the ardent south. In addition to the selfish spirit of gain that pervades the intercourse of these visitors, and gives them no character of permanency or sympathy with the country, they have been accustomed to look down on the Mexicans with contempt for their obso- lete habits, without reflecting, that they were not justly censurable for traditional usages which they had no opportunity of improving by com- parison with the progress of civilization among other nations. Yet, treating these people with the frankness of a person accustomed to find himself at home wherever he goes, avoiding the egotism of na- tional prejudices, and meeting them in a spirit of benevolence ; I have found them kind, gentle, hospitable, intelligent, benevolent, and brave. Among their better classes, no people see more clearly than they do the vices of an ill-regulated society and the misery of their political condi- tion ; but, when rebuked in the presumptuous and austere spirit of arro- gant strangers, they repel the rudeness by distance and reserve. The consequence is, that these disturbers of social decency are seldom the chosen friends or inmates of their dwellings. The Mexicans are a proud MEXICAN CHARACTER. 293 and sensitive people ; yet, none are more easily subdued by kindness — none more easily won by a ready disposition to mingle in their ranks, and treat them witH a due respect for their habitudes and their prejudices. There may be other reasons, too, why Mexicans have been jealously shy of strangers. It seems impossible for them to get rid of the idea, that European powers are seeking to obtain their wealth and territory, and to reestablish the systems from which they freed themselves by so many years of revolutionary war ; nor can they (since the Texan war,) ilivest themselves of the erroneous notion, that the United States has evei a longing eye on their Capital and country. There are but few entertainments given in Mexico, in comparison with those of other cities abroad, where a lavish expenditure in viands, lights, and amusements for the few hours of a single evening, are mistaken for the elegancies and refinements of genuine hospitality ; — instead, however, of these ostentatious displays, there are frequent reunions at teriuUas, ^vhere an hour or two are most agreeably spent in friendly intercourse, and the unrestrained flow,of pleasant and instructive conversation. I have already alluded to the extreme of fashionable life, and its dispo- sition for the theatre ; and I do not intend to treat again of the propensity of the ultras to living thus constantly in the public eye, without devoting a portion of each day to that domestic intercourse and reunion which make the comfort and beauty of an English or American fireside. I speak, however, of that juste milieu of society, wherein resides the virtue and intellect of a country ; and I had an excellent opportunity of judging of the private life of this class during my stay in the Capital. It was my good fortune to reside for more than half a year in a native family, once rich and titled, but broken in fortunes by the political and commercial vicissitudes of the Republic, and it was there that I con- stantly witnessed the most beautiful evidences of a filial devotion and parental love, amounting almost to passionate attachment. The lady at the head of the establishment, (as I remarked in a preceding letter,) was a person who had been distinguished for her talents and accomplishments in the days when Mexico was adorned with the splendor of a Spanish court. She would have been considered highly cultivated in any coun- try ; her manners were excellent; her bearing graceful and courteous ; and a wide circulation in her youth among distinguished men, (both before and during the Revolution,) and a ready talent for imparting her recol- lections, made her conversation delightful and instructive. Besides this, she possessed a genius for miniature painting and sketching in crayons, rarely attained by a female, and worthy of a distinguished artist. Qual- ities, like these, brought around her constantly a large and intelligent cir- cle of both sexes. The change of fortune had by no means diminished her estimation in society, and the numbers of fast friends who adhered to 294 MEXICO. her in her comparative indigence, proved their admiration of talent, and the constancy of attachment, by the repetition of the most delicate and disinterested assiduities. It was in this Mexican liome, and not . from the unsympathizing dis- tance of the hotel and ball-room, (the scene of most travellers' observa- tion,) that I obtained my insight into the structure of Mexican society and character. (Had I kept myself aloof in my own house or my own inn, as is the habit of foreigners, I should have judged from the theatre, the passeo, the bull-ring, the cock-pit, and the gaming-table ', that the women were but so many painted dolls, without more education or soul than was required to languish over a love-sick play, or to ogle, with idle gaze, a favored cavalier. I might have supposed, too, that the men were supremely blessed by this dalliance with the sex, and considered them- selves in perfect elysium when they could divide their attention be- tween their sirens, their horses, and the card-table ; — but in the privacy of this dwelling] I learned to estimate the love and regard between pa- rents and children ; the beautiful benevolence of ancient friendship ; the universal respect for genius ; and, besides, had frequent occasion to no- tice the expanding spirit, ardent patriotism, desire of cultivation, and quick talent, which embellish the Mexican character. fit must not be said that I am estimating a country by one example ; — I am as far from so partial a judgment, as the opponents of Mexico are from a just one on their side of the question. It is true, that this family afforded me an extensive field of observation, but it chiefly served to stim- ulate my attention and inquiries elsewhere J] and I can frankly declare, that wherever I observed, I invariably found the same qualities of head and heart. Ht is this heart that is in fact the great characteristic of Mex- icans, and especially of their females. There is a noble naturalness, an antique generosity about them, which is the parent of a multitude of vir- tues, and it is by an abandonment of themselves to impulses, that so much irregularity and indiscretion have been frequently manifested, both in politics and society. I have said that the Mexicans are a people of quick talent, and my re- mark is borne out by the observation of all foreigners. They are quick to apprehend, quick of study, and quick in mastering a subject ; but this very facility, joined with their impulsiveness, is often fatal to their en- during application and progress. I came among these people an entire stranger, without especial claims on their attention, and studious to avoid that bill of exchange hospitality, which is the result of introductory letters from former, and, perhaps, for- gotten acquaintances. Yet mingling freely among all classes, and com- paring them now — when gratitude for acts of kindness has been long yielded and the annoyance of petty impertinences forgotten — I have none but kindly recollections of the people, and none but favorable impressions MEXICAN CHARACTER. 295 of the mass of a society, in which I had been taught to believe that I should be held in utter antipathy as a heretical stranger. There are, of course, in Mexico as in all other countries, specimens of egotism, selfishness, haughtiness, ill-breeding, and loose morals, both among the men and the women ; but, although we find these floating-like bubbles on the top of society, they must not therefore be considered the characteristics of the country. You must separate from the multitude the few who sometimes lead and control the masses that do not wish to come in contact or conflict with them. A nation in which " revolutions and coun- ter-revolutions are events of almost daily occui*rence, is naturally prolific in desperate and crafty political adventurers," and dissimulation and strat- agem may, in time, form the chief element of the character of such a people, — yet such, it is hoped, is not to be the corrupting fate of Mexico. The idea that large social entertainments require great magnificence and lavish expense, deprives the Mexicans, in their towns, of many of those agreeable gatherings which fill up so pleasantly our winter nig'hts and autumn evenings ; but it is on their haciendas or plantations,. that their hospitality is most distinguished. As you had occasion to remark in the account of my journey to the tierra caliente, nothing is withheld from you ; — their establishments are placed at your entire control," and the welcome is as sincere as it is hearty and cheerful. That they are brave, none will doubt who read the history of their War of Independence; although the bad discipline (especially of their officers,) has prevented the very eminent exhibition of this quality in their foreign battles. In fact, regard them in any way, and they will be found to pos- sess the elements of a fine people who want but peace and the stimu- lus of foreign emulation, to bring them forward among the nations of the earth with great distinction. Their geographical position, however, is very unfavorable for thig emu- lative stimulus. They are placed among the mountains, on an isthmus con- necting two large Continents, while their teri'itory is washed by two seas. They are cut off by a large belt of savage country from us at the north, and the communication with Europe is both distant and uncertain. They have a small population, spread over an immense territory, and want, therefore, both the constant comparison of the intellect of other nations, and social compacting or aggregation among themselves. I can (from personal experience,) state how disagreeable is this want of intercourse with the rest of the world. There is intelligence from the United States, perhaps, once a month, and about as often from Europe. The informa- tion brought by these arrivals, passes chiefly into the hands of the mer- chants, — and, after a while, is gradually translated in fragments for some of the meagre newspapers, which treat you, months afterward, to a refacciamento of the stories or improvements that you had already for- gotten. In this respect, our community of language with Great Britain is 296 MEXICO. • of vast importance to us. England acts the part of an editor for the United States. She collects the news, the literature, the progressive inven- tions, and the genius of the old world, with unparalleled activity ; — and we are always, at farthest, but twelve days behind her in diffusing these results among the seventeen millions of our own people. But it may be feared, that it will be long before Mexico imitates our example. Spain is not an England, in intellectual energy or advancement ; and the day has not yet arrived in Mexico when a work in two volumes can be printed, bound, and distributed to her chief cities within twenty-four hours after its reception from Europe. I am afraid the tendency of our sister Republic is too much toward the opposite extreme. She has not disenthralled herself from the Spanish big- otry which inculcated the idea that a nation must do all for herself, without a commercial marine of her own to carry on a well-regulated commerce. This seems to me to be a churlish policy, and is as likely to make boors of the people who practice it, as seclusion is calculated to make ascetics of those whorefusetomingle with the world, and improve their spirits by a free interchange of opinions and feelings. It is well to live where you feel the beatings of the great pulse of society ; and it is time that man should remember he is not a mere machine, whose account with time is a balance-sheet between such productive manual powers as God has given him, and certain fearful columns of dollars and cents. In the summary I have endeavored to present you, of the Mexican character, I must not be charged with inconsistency by those who think I am contradicting what I have previously stated, either about supersti- tious customs, or the vices that consign so many to the prison, and make others so reckless of life and fortune. These are evils begotten by the times and want of resources. At present, I treat neither of political nor social gamblers ; neither of female frailties, nor that crafty duplicity which leads to high places in the state ; neither of genteel vagrancy, nor the outcast leperos and ignorant Indians who form so large a por- tion of the population of the country. All these are numerous enough and bad enough. But it has been my task — amid the desolation and ruin of the country — amid the dust and ashes to which a great nation has been reduced by civil war — to seek for some living embers, and to discover sufficient elements of a sound and healthful society, from which the re- generation of the country may be expected. With domestic virtue, genius, and patriotism, no people need despair; and it must be the prayer of every republican that enough of these still remain in Mexico to recon- struct their government and their society. I will not venture, however, upon any conjectures in regard to these matters, until I speak of the political prospects of the country. LETTERS ON THE TERRITORY, POPULATION, COMMERCE, MANUFACTURES, ARMY, NAVY, REVENUES, CHURCH, MINES, COINAGE, EDUCATION, POLITICAL HISTORY, &c. &c. &c. OP MEXICO. LETTER XXIX. TERRITORY. POPTTLATION AND DEPARTMENTS. RATIO OF CASTES AND EDTT- CATION. SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. PERIODICALS. According to the best authorities, the territory of the Mexican Republic contains an area of 1,650,000 square miles, and the United States of ■America, 2,300,000. If we allow, as is calculated, that the square mile will maintain, under ordinary careful cultivation, a population of 200 per- sons, we shall have the sum of 330,000,000 for the total ultimate capa- bility of the Mexican soil, and 460,000,000 for the United States, — or, 130,000,000 less in Mexico than in our Union. It may be well for us to continue this comparative statement somewhat further. In the year — 1753 OUR Population was estimated at ... . 1,051,000 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 3,929,827 5,305,925 7,239,814 9,638,131 12,854,880 17,069,453 I regret that there are not equally correct data for the statistics of popu- lation in Mexico. The census has been carelessly made at several peri- ods, and I will endeavor to present j'ou with what are deemed the most accurate estimates. In 1793, according to the report made to the King of Spain by the Conde de Revellagigedo, the population of New Spain, exclusive of the Intend- encies of Vera Cruz and Guadalaxara, was as follows : Indians ... 2,319,74] Europeans, ........ 7 904 White Creoles, ......... 677 458 Different castes, ....... 1,478,426 4,483,529 To which add the population of Vera Cruz and Guadalaxara, according to the estimate of 1803, . - . . 786,500 Total population in 1793, . . - - . 5,270,029 300 MEXICO. The Baron Humboldt estimates it to have been in the year 1803. 5,837,100; and Mr. Poinsett, in 1824, (from the best data of the period,? 6,500,000. In 1830, Mr. Burkhardt, an accurate German traveller, rates the sev- eral classes of Mexicans thus : Indians, - - 4,500,000 Whites, 1,000,000 Negroes, ... 6,000 Mestizos, and other castes, - 2,490,000 Total, 7,996,000 Another estimate in 1839, reduces the sum to 7,065,000, and gives eight inhabitants to the square mile ; but the most complete, and, probably, the most accurate of the recent calculations, is the one which was made by the Government itself, (without special enumeration,) and served as a basis for the call of a Congress to form a new Constitution, under the plan of Tacubaya in 1842. Departments. Population Mexico 1,389,520 Jalisco, 679,311 Puebla, 661,902 Yucatan, 580,948 Guanajuato, ......... 512,606 Oajaca, 500,278 Michoacan, 497,906 San Luis Potosi, 321,840 Zacatecas, - - - - . . • .. 273,575 Vera Cruz, 254,380 Durango, . . .' 162,618 Chihuahua, 147,600 Sinaloa, 147,000 Chiapas 141,206 Souora, 124,000 Queretazo, 120,560 NuevoL6on, 101,108 Tamaulipas, 100,068 Coahuila, - - 75,340 Aguas Calientes, - . - • . - . 69,698 Tabasco, 63,580 Nuevo Mexico, - - 57,026 Californiae, • - . 33,439 Total in 1842, .... 7,015,509 Since the year 1830, the population of the Republic has been dread- fully ravaged by smallpox — measles and cholera. In the Capital alone, it is estimated that about 5000 died of the first named of these diseases, 2000 of the second, and from 15,000 to 20,000, of the third. The mor- tality must have been in a corresponding ratio throughout the territory. POPULATION AND EDUCATION, 301 I am, however, by no means satisfied that the estimates of both Poinsett and Burkhardt are not too high ; yet, assuming the statements of 1842 and of 1793 to be nearly accurate, we find in 49 years an increase of only 1,774,111 in the entire population. Agam, if we assume the popu- lation to have been 6,000,000 in 1824, (the year, m fact, of the establish- ment of the Republic,) we find that in the course of 18 years of liberty and independence, the increase has not been greater than 1,044,140. In the United States of America, with only 650,000 more of square miles of territory now, and not so large a space at the achievement of our independence, the increase of our population during the first twenty years of freedom, cannot have been less than two millions and a half, while, in the course of the last thirty years, it has averaged an increase of rather more than 33 per cent, every ten. The several castes and classes of Mexicans may be rated in the follow- ing manner : Indians, 4,000,000 Whites, • 1,000,000 Negroes, . - - 6,000 All other castes, such as Zambos, Mestizos, Mulattoes, &c., 2,009,509 7,015,509 It appears, therefore, that the Indian and Negroes amount to 4,006,000, and the whites, and all other castes, to 3,009,509. A very respectable and acred resident of Mexico, who is remarkable for the extent and accu- racy of his observations, estimates that of the former (or Negroes and In- dians,) but two per cent, can read and write, while of the latter, at a lib- eral estimate, but about 20 per cent. If we take this computation to be correct, as I believe from my own observation it is, — and using the estimate of the decree of 1842 for the basis of the population, we shall have : Of Indians and Negroes who can read, 80,120 Of Whites and all others, - 607,628 Total able to read and write out of a population of 7,000,000, 687,748 This would appear to be a startling fact in a Republic the basis of whose safety is the capacity of the people for an intellectual self-government. Let us, however, carry this calculation a little further. If we suppose that out of the 1,000,000 of Whites, 500,000, or the half only, are males, and of that half million, but 20 per cent., oi but 100,000 can read and write ; we will no longer be surprised that a population of more than seven millions has been hitherto controlled by a handful of men, or that, with the small means of improvement afforded to the few who can read, the 302 MEXICO. selfish natures of the superior classes, who wield the physical and Intel- lectual forces of the nation, have forced the masses to become little more than the slaves of those whose wit gives them the talent of control. In addition to this, you will observe how little has been done hitherto for the cause of learning by the Government, when you examine a table of the expenses of the nation, by which it will be seen, that in the year 1840, while $180,000 were spent for hospitals, fortresses, and prisons, and $8,000,000 for the army, (without a foreign war) only $110,000 were given to all the institutions of learning in Mexico.* I learn, however, with pleasure, that under the new scheme of national regeneration which has recently been put in action, the subject of Education has engaged the especial attention of the existing powers, and that they design to foster it by every means in their power. In every one of the parishes into which the city is divided, there is estab- lished a school for boys, and another for girls, supported by the Ayunta- miento, or Town Council. In these establishments the pupils are taught; without charge, to read, write, and calculate, and are besides instructed in religious and political catechisms. In the schools for girls, in addition to these branches, they learn sewing and other occupations suitable for their sex. Books and stationery are furnished gratis. There is another establishment called the Normal School, supported by the Government, and devoted to the instruction of the soldiers of the army in the rudiments of learning. Advancement and improvement in this school are suitably rewarded by ranks in the army. Besides this, there is, also, a Lancasterian Company, which, commencing its labors in the Capital, is spreading its branches all over the country. It is devoted to primary instruction, and is protected by all the citizens of the Republic who are remarkable either for their wealth, education, or social posi- tion. The contribution is a dollar monthly. I am glad to learn that, since I left Mexico, the usefulness of this Company has been so apparent to the people, that schools upon its plan have not only been established in the principal cities and towns, but that they are now being founded in almost every village of importance, and even upon extensive haciendas or plantations, where the laboring population is numerous and ignorant. In the city of Mexico, this Company has formed a large number of schools for children of both sexes, upon the same footing as those estab- lished by the Ayuntamiento ; that is to say, the pupils are taught without * The CTnited States Census for 1840, gives the following results- Number of Universities and Colleges, 173 " of Studentsin do 16,233 Academies and Grammar Schools, 3,242 Students in do 164,159 Primary Common Schools, 47,209 Scholars in do 1,845,244 Scholars at public charge, 468,264 Total number of whites in the United States 14,189,108 Total number of whites in tlie United States over the age of 20 who cannot read and write, 519,693 SCHOOLS AND SEMINARIES. 303 charge, and are furnished with the requisite stationery and books. There is a Night School for adults, very fully attended by citizens, whose oc- cupation prevents them from devoting themselves to study during the day. In the women's and men's Prisons, and in the House of Correction for juve- nile delinquents, I also learn that schools have been formed ; and it is by no means a cheerless feature in this picture of dawning improvement, that the ladies of Mexico, most distinguished by talent, wealth, and culti- vation, have gladly availed themselves of the opportunity to devote a portion of their time for the purpose of instructing their unfortunate sisters in the prisons. Besides these establishments, (which you will observe, are all of a free and public character,) it is difficult to give any idea of the number of pri- vate schools for both sexes in the Capital and Departments. Many of them are conducted by foreigners as well as Mexicans, and although they gen- erally instruct in French, English, grammar, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, the rudiments of history, book-keeping, drawing, and music, I have reason to believe that none of them are remarkable for the regu- larity or perfection of their system. In the city of Mexico, there are the collegiate establishments of El Seminario Conciliar, San Ildefonso, San Gregorioy and San Juan Lateran. The fu'st of these is under the immediate supervision of the Archbishop, and supported by a portion of the ecclesiastical revenues. The other three are under the care of the Government. In almost all the Depart- ments of the Republic, there are collegiate Institutes, and in some, even two or three. The course of instruction in these establishments is alleged to be thor- ough and modern. The students who live within the walls, are expected to contribute for their education, while others, who only attend the lec- tures of the Professors, are exempt from all costs and charges, so that about two-thirds of the pupils of every College receive their literary edu- cation gratuitously. If peace be now permitted to reestablish her beneficial sway over the country, and men's minds are allowed, in the general calm, to direct themselves to their own and their children's culture, these institutions cannot fail to afford the most rational hope to the well-wisher of Mex- ican prosperity and happiness. The regeneration of Mexico lies in her schools. Without their success she must not expect to drive Jiperos from the streets, or usurping Dictators from the Palace of her ancient Kings. As an interesting Table connected with the diffusion of information, I insert, in conclusion, the following statement of the number of newspa- pars and periodicals published in the Republic : 304 MEXICO. In Chihuahua, .1 Coahuila, .......... .1 Chiapas, -- . . - - . . . . 1 Colima, ...........1 Durango, -...--..•..2 Guauajuato, ...........2 Guadalaxara, ..........2 Aguascalientes, -•........! Lagos, ...........1 Mexico, .... ..».-. .6 Morelia, .....2 Monterey de N. Leon, .........2 Matamoras, --..,.....2 Oaxaca, . . . . . . . . - .'.2 Puebla, .... 2 Queretaro, ...........1 Tobasco, ...........1 Sonora, ...........l Snialoa, ........... 1 Tampico, ...........2 Ciudad Victoria, ..... ...1 Jalapa, ...........1 Vera Cruz, ..........2 Yucatan, ...........2 Zacatecas, ..........2 San Luis Potosi, ..........2 Total, 44 Note.— I subjoin, for the sake of comparison, the following statistics of the printing in the United States, according to the Census of I&IO : Number of Printing Offices, 1,552 " Binderies, i 447 " Daily Papers, 138 Weekly " , 1,141 " Serai and Tri-WeeKly 125 " Periodicals 227 " Men employed, 11,523 Amount of capital employed , ^,S73,815 LETTER XXX. COMMEECE A^-D aiANTJFACTUEES OF JIEXICO. The Commerce of Mexico has been sensibly diminishing for the last ten years. This is attributable to the continual revolutionary disturbances of the country, the decrease of the wealth of the people, and the pecu- niary embarrassments to which most of the inhabitants have been sub- jected, by the non-payment of Government loans and unfortunate invest- ments. In 1832 and 1833, the products of the Custom House amounted to about twelve millions per annum. In 1839, on account of the French blockade, they fell to near three millions ; in 1840, they rose again to seven millions ; and, in the following year, fell to little more than Jive, which sum may be divided among the different ports as follows, to wit : Vera Cruz, $3,329,802 Tampico, 883,039 Matamoras, 312,403 Marattan - . . 383,159 Guyamas, ....... 55,814 Monterrey, 96,853 Acapulco, ------ 17,182 San Bias, - - - -■ - - - 208,845 $5,287,097 This corresponds to about twelve millions three hundred thousand dol- lars of importation annually, divided (according to an estimate,) in the fo; . lowing manner : From England, $4,500,000 " France, 3,000,000 " Hamburgh, 1,500,000 " China, 1,000,000 « United States, 800,000 " Spain, 500,000 " Genoa, and other ports, . - - - 1,000,000 $12,300,000 20 806 MEXICO. The expense to the Government, for the collection of this revenue, was $348,290. The Exports from the Republic, (chiefly of course of its own pro- ductions,) may be rated at : ;! f Specie, through Vera Cruz, $4,000,000 g^J " " Mazatlan and San Bias, - - - 2,500,000 Is 1 Silver and Gold, through other ports, .... 5,000,000 I (.Silver, through Tampico, 7,000,000 Cochineal, Jalap, Vanilla, Sarsaparilla and Hides, - - 1,000,000 Sundries, 500,000 $20,000,000 From this estimate, you perceive, that about $18,500,000, in the precious metals, are exported annually from Mexico. The mines produce near twenty-two millions of silver, of which, it is calculated, that twelve mill- ions are coined in the seven mints of the Republic, per annum. From the above calculations, it will be observed, that there is a differ, ence of about $8,000,000 between the imports and exports, a large portion of which is estimated to be covered by smuggling. The following comparative estimate of the Exports and Imports of the United States and of Mexico, for the years 1841 and 1842, cannot fail to be interesting in this connection, especiaUy when you take into consideration the comparative extent of territory and population : Exports from Mexico, in 1842, - $20,000,000 Of which, in gold and silver, - - - - - - 18,500,000 ' Balance in other products of industry, .... - $1,500,000 Excess of Imports over the industrial Exports, exclusive of the precious metals, -- $10,500,000 Imports of the United States in 1841-2, .... $99,357,329 Exports from « " " - - - - - 104,117,969 Difference, $4,760,640 Exports of Gold and Silver, « ...... $9,805,235 Of which was the produce of U. S. Mines, - $2,746,486 ■ « « foreign Gold, .... 677,297 " . " foreign Silver, - - - - 6,381,452 Total, $9,805,235 Whole exports from the United States, .... $104,117,961* Deduct exports of the Precious Metals, - - . - 9,805,235 $94,312,734 COMMERCE. 307 Or, in other words, the United States exported $94,312,734 worth, repre- senting her industry, (exclusive of gold and silver,) while Mexico, with a territory nearly as large, exported but $1,500,000. In addition to this, it must be recollected, that but $2,746,846 of the precious metals were the product of our own country, while at least $15,000,000 were the product of the Mexican mines ; leaving an excess of nearly three millions above the total annual coinage of the nation. Whole Exports, for say 8,000,000 people, $20,000,000 " " « 17,000,000 « . . . . . . 104,117,969 This will give us the ratio of about $6 12J for each person in the United States, and $2 50 for each person in Mexico. In order to afford some idea of Mexican commerce more in detail, (so far as the Eastern Coast is concerned,) I have constructed the following Table, the accuracy of which may be confidently relied on. In regard to the Western Coast, it is impossible to state anything with certainty. The chief contraband trade of the Republic has been carried on there with the most unblushing audacity, until very recently ; and, of course, statistical returns will tend rather to deceive than enlighten. COMMERCE OF THE PORT OF VERA CRUZ. ONE TEAR. . SIS MONTHS. Prom 1st January to 3Ist December, 1841. From 1st January, 1842, to 1st July. Entries. Departures. Entries. Departures. American, 39 37 19 19 English, 45 42 26 21 French, 31 33 13 17 Spanish, 36 35 12 15 Hamburgh, 5 5 3 4 Danish, 5 4 1 1 Belgian, 3 3 1 Bremen. 4 4 1 1 Prussian, 2 2 2 Sardinian, 4 5 3 2 Colombian, 5 5 2 3 Mexican, 37 43 20 26 216 218 102 109 Passengers in 1841, - S • M - 1,109 Immigrants, - . 459 Increase of populati on, - - - . 614 20* 308 MEXICO, o <<1 o < P. o. a. B .5 a •S c ro S o-S '"' rH i-H i-H OJ 1-^ SuO S ►• loloi "olN 1 .S" O t^ O o o o o o t^ '^ OJ O to o o o o Oi ,c ~ 00 CO 00 03 o o o to in "s « oT o ^ CO in o CM CO » •• OJ 00 Tj< CM r— ( i-T co_ r-T w > "" ^ >n CM 00 CM o o 03 in t^ H lO ■» OJ 00 1— 1 t^ to rH T— t r-i m S " t~ 1-^ in o< O CO o OJ CO S 00 in 00 to CT3 00 r-< CO 00 o ^„ 03 00 ^ CM_ t- I-H 05 H cf r-H CO o ■§ Ti< C5 00 00 fO o !>• I-H rH rH 1 1 CM t— 1 rH Ol 1 - 05|M co|(M lO m o o o o o O O O o rH OJ_ Eh c^" r-T rH to ° 1 Tf 05 05 00 ^ CO 05 pH IH rH ■aj O M CM rH 03 1> ^ Si ^ g CM < Tl< CM !-( rH o o o >o o o O O o o in 2 00 -* OJ lO o C5 O o o o :3 OT (?{_ 1-1 (M o o o o o >rt_ 1 i lO t-^ 00 o Ift '* CO ^" SS £^ ^ r^ S .1 " 00 rH CM_ S (N CO o > €6= i ■3 i 00 C3 CO 05 C5 r-l ^ e»5 t» o rH 00 ^ 6 £ t-l CO < p £3 !^ (M t^ eo O rH (M co t^ 00 c C5 00 00 CD ^ o CO lO lO o o CD 05 o '^ t-i 1—1 H I-l '^ =- m '3 O! >o o o o o o o o TJH 3 OS 03 o_ o o o o o o CM 1 a m m cT 00 irT C3 lO lO CO (m" Th CO lO o O '^ CM CD 1 « €e= Ci CO r-i (M O 3 €©= 1 Cm d S 1—1 • o 00 05 to ■^ r-l eo CM r-\ CO I-l CO ^ o DO r^ o CO O t^ Tl< CO tr- t^ § t^ i» l>. CO Oi Oi CO «fl CO d m 2 ;S i-H I-H (M CO ro ■«i , » T> J S via Mazatlan 3514 390.30 " " Russian Settlement at rortisodega, < ,. qo^^s qfio " " the British Settlement at J via Mazatlan . 4034 448 Columbia River, } direct, - . - 3570 385.30 " « Behring's Straits, via Columbia River, - - 5970 663 « « Woahoo, Sandwich Islands, ... - 4620 513 " " St. Peter and St. Paul, Kamschatka, via Woahoo, 7380 820 " " Jedo, in Japan, via Woahoo, .... 7950 883 « " Canton, via Woahoo, 9540 1060 In the above table, the distance to Behring's Straits and the ports that follow, is given to satisfy the reader's curiosity, and not with a view to any practical utility, in the way of Steam Navigation, unless greatly improved and cheapened. It is not impossible that chemists may discover some new power, equal to steam, and producible at less expense, or that our engineers may invent some mechanical mode of propulsion for vessels, rendering the Isthmus of Panama the most direct and expeditious route, not only to these ports, but to Manila and the whole Eastern Archipelago. It will be seen from this table, that the British settlement* on the Columbia river might be reached from Panama, by steam, in nineteen days, or say about forty days from England. By the same route, the important ^ort of San Francisco might be reached in sixteen days from Panama, or thirty-six from England ; and the Russsian settlement at La Bodega, in about six hours longer time. What a change in our communications, when the nearest Russian settlement on the west coast of America, will be brought within thirty-six days and six hours steaming, from our own shores ; when even St. Peter and St. Paul, in Kamschatka, will be within fifty days, steaming ; Jedo, within fifty-seven ; Canton, within sixty-four, and Woahoo, in the Sandwich Islands, within forty-two days ! Such are the wonderful results, that sooner or later may he expected from the mere power of steam, (improved and cheapened, as it may be, by fresh discoveries,) and the re- sumption of the old line of communication between Europe and the Pacific, vi4 Chagres and Panama. • I call it British, believing we have not yet relinquished its Mirthem bank. 24* 372 APPENDIX. I here use the word resumption deliberately ; for, from the era of Columbus (1502) down to 1824, that line was the high road between Spain and her colonies, along the West coast, not only for Spanish settlers and merchants, but for whole caro-oes of goods and regiments of soldiers. The famous Vasco Nunes de Balbao, so early as 1513, crossed the isthmus, with troops, from his settlement of Santa Maria del Darien, to the Gulf of San Miguel, S. E. of Panama ; and the latter, eleven years afterward, viz. in 1524, had already become a city of sufRcient im- portance to have a governor, and to furnish to Francisco Pizarro, Diego Almagro, and Fernando Luque, the men, arms, and ships with which they proceeded to the conquest of Peru. Soon afterward, it became the seat of a Royal " Audiencia," and, until the suppression of the Spanish galleons, and the opening of the free trade, was the grand emporium of all the merchandise from Spain, destined for the southern coast of New Granada and Peru, and the northern ports of Guate- mala. During the late war of Independence in Peru, several regiments from Spain were sent up the Chagres to Panama, and from thence, by transports, to Peru ; and it was by the same course, that Cruz Mourgeon — the last Vice-king appointed by Spain for New Granada — passed, with his forces, in 1822. The his- tory of the Buccaneers proves that, as early as the days of Queen Elizabeth, our own piratical countrymen, and other lawless inhabitants of the West Indies, were quite familiar with this route, which they passed and repassed at pleasure ; and until the trade with the Pacific, by Cape Horn, became open to our own merchants, they supplied the wants of the Spanish colonists on the Pacific coasts, through Jamaica, by the same channel. It is therefore clear, that in resuming that old line of communication, without the aid of either Railroad or Canal, (though doubt- less either of these would greatly facilitate the transport of passengers and goods J the Pacific Steam Navigation Company makes no new or dangerous experiment. A British merchant, then sailing on board the vessel whose course is given in the map attached to the present work, so recently as 1824, took on board in Panama and carried to San Bias, a thousand bales of goods, bought and packed in Jamaica, and which had been conveyed across the isthmus, by the way indicated. The expenses on each bale placed in Panama were seven dollars three rials, and con- sisted of the following items, viz. : Freight on each bale from Jamaica to Chagres, - Agency at Chagres, .-.'--- Freight per canoe from Chagres to Cruces, . - - Duty of Deposite in Cruces, . . . . - Agency, Mule-hire from Cruces to Panama (7 leagues), - In all, ... 7 3 on each bale of about 150 lbs. weight. The canoes on the Chagres are large enough to take eighty of these bales at once ; have " Toldos," (a kind of awning, made of cane and palm leaves, impervious to the sun and rain,) are quite safe, and managed, with great adroitness, by negro watermen remarkable for their size and strength. It would require some nicety of calculation, to enable me to institute an exact comparison between these charges, and those on the same goods carried round by Cape Horn. I am inclined to think, that on goods outward the latter would be the cheapest route ; but, on lace, fine linens, silks, and jewelry, the additional ex- pense could not be sensibly felt ; and where the object is to be first in a market ; in the time of war, to save risk ; and at all times, to save interest of money, the lolls. Rials. 2 4 1 5 4 2 2 4 APPENDIX. 373 Panama and Chagres route — even as it was in 1824, and is now — must be the preferable one, both as regards the above description of goods outward, and bullion, specie, cochineal, and indigo homeward. Besides the seven dollars three nals above mentioned, I may state that, in 1824, tne transit duties levied in Panama were three dollars two rials on each bale ; but by a late decree of the government of New Granada, all the transit duties have been abolished, so that, perhaps, at this moment, the whole charges may not exceed six dollars per bale, from Jamaica to Panama. I lately conversed with an intelli- gent Havana merchant, D. R. Clarke, Esq., now in London, who has been six voyages from Jamaica (backward and forward) to Panama : he never incurred the smallest loss or risk either from the river, the road, the natives, or the climate ; but to avoid delay, he thinks that a tram railroad,* either from the junction of the Trinidad v/ith the Chagres to Panama, or from Portobello to Panama, would be of great use, easily made, and cheaply supported. Perhaps the former would be preferable, on account of the dangerous fevers which prevail in Portobello, but not on the Chagres. The above remarks are made, presuming that Her Majesty's government estab- lishes a line of steamers through the West Indies as far as to Chagres, and that the Pacific Steam Navigation Company take the passengers and goods up at Pa- nama, in the Pacific, carrying them thence, on their way south and north, without delay ; for the reader will find that a vessel (a fast-sailing schooner, of the class known under the designation of " Clipper''') took thirty-two days in sailing from Panama to San Bias, a voyage which, by a steamer proceeding direct, might be accomplished in nine days. A dull sailing vessel would have taken perhaps sixty days, or more, to perform the same voyage, from the extreme difficulty of sailing out to the westward from Panama Bay, in consequence of calms, alternating with squalls from all directions, and the struggle she would have to maintain, in pro- ceeding along the coasts of Central America and Mexico, against opposing winds and currents. The same " clipper " (though to go eleven and eleven-and-a-half knots per hour, was not unusual with her,) took twelve days on her voyage from Valparaiso, in sailing from the Equator to Panama. I mention these apparently uninteresting minutiee, to establish the important facts, that even were such a canal made as the author of " California " recommends, without steamers ready at Panama (as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company proposes to have them,) to carry on, at once, goods and passengers northward and southward, little advan- tage would be gained, as regards ports to the southward of Payta, or northward of Manzanillo, on the coast of Mexico. The saving of time would not be very great, and the expense, allowing for tolls on the canal, would, I fear, not be much less, than by the voyage round Cape Horn. I do not think that steamers from Panama northward, would pay the owners farther than San Bias or Mazatlan : were, indeed, the tide of emigration setting strongly to California or the settlements on the Columbia River, occasional trips. might be made so far, profitably ; but as for Woahoo, Jedo, Canton, and other places named in the calculations above given, steamers from Panama to them will never pay, until in the progress of discovery, the expenses of steamers are brought down more nearly to a level with those of sailing vessels. If eve.r this desirable event be realized, the ideas here thrown out will assume a practical importance ; and it will behoove Great Britain, as queen of the sea, to maintain by steam the same naval character which she has earned by canvas. The Isthmus of Panama will then become a point of very great importance. * I mean a road with rails, where the carriages and wagons are dragged by horses and mules, both of which abound and are cheap in the Isthmus. 374 APPENDIX. The author of " California " hints the possibility that the Isthmus might be ceded to some European State : if it ever should be so ceded, the nation hold- ing it will acquire an immense influence and power over the communications of the world, (supposing the above improvements in steam,) with a territory well- wooded, well-watered, fertile in the extreme, rich in gold and pearl fisheries, ca- pable of supporting a numerous population, and not, by any means, generally unhealthy ; while the inhabitants will acquire that wealth and prosperity, which the advantages of their situation secure to them. But even allowing — as is most probable — that New Granada will continue to retain its sovereignty over the Isthmus, there is nothing in the history or character of that Republic which can justify our fears that it will not religiously maintain its stipulations in favor of the route across to Panama. Of all the South American Republics, New Granada has shown the greatest respect to public faith ; and the Hurtados, the Arossamenas, the Gomezes, the Quezadas, the Paredeses, and other respectable inhabitants of Panama, are too much alive to the continuance and improvement of the old over- land intercourse, whereby their city has flourished, not to protest against any inju- rious imposts, or prejudicial interference. I believe that hitherto, no passenger nor merchant travelling across to Panama, can justly complain of any outrage, either to his person or property, from either the local authorities, or from individuals. They are all aware, that nothing short of the resumption of the old line of com- munication between Europe and the Pacific, can restore their former prosperity, and develop the latent resources of their beautiful country ; and they are prepared to make every exertion to secure so desirable an object. Had the line of steamers above suggested been now in operation, it is obvious that the present French blockade of the Atlantic ports of Mexico could have been counteracted, by sending the cargoes of vessels warned off, to Chagres, across to Panama, and thence to the Mexican ports of the Pacific. In conclusion, I may state, that I understand proposals for Steam Navigation on the Atlantic ports have been submitted to the Mexican government, by a firm of great standing in that country and in London, and that a favorable answer is ex- pected by the first packet. PANAMA AND THE PACIFIC. A MEMORANDUM SENT TO THE FOREIGN OFFICE, ON TH£ ADVANTAGE OF USING THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA AS A MORE RAPID MEANS OF COM- MUNICATION BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE PORTS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. BY THE HON. p. CAMPBELL SCARLETT. In passing within the last few months down the coast of South America, on the Pacific side, from Valparaiso, through Lima, to Payta, in the neighborhood of Guayaquil, and to Panama, and from thence to the Atlantic Ocean across the Isthmus of Darien, I had occasion to observe the truth of representations fre- quently made to me by British merchants in those settlements : how much shorter and more certain might be the communication of intelligence from those places to England by that route, than by the passage round Cape Horn. That passage in merchant vessels to and from England direct, averages Days. For Valparaiso, ----....100 " Lima, 110 " Guayaquil, 120 APPENDIX. 375 a length of time, which is not only inconvenient for commercial objects, but which m some degree cuts off the British settler from correspondence with his friends and family, and unnecessarily prolongs the period of receiving such intelligence as the British Consuls in those quarters may find it expedient to convey to the Government. Whereas the passage by Panama might, with ease, be effected in the following periods : Days. From Valparaiso, - -- - . - - - 62 " Lima, ...----..51 " Guayaquil, ..--..--46 as the following details will show : From Valparaiso to Lima, ...--.. 11 " Lima to Payta or Guayaquil, - ... - 5 ^ " Payta to Panama, - - - . - -- 10 Across the Isthmus, ----.--. 1 Thence to England, touching at one of the Windward Islands 35 Making in the whole, . - 62* Taking Lima as a central position, by this calculation, it appears that the differ- ence of time in conveying correspondence from the western coast of South America to England, may be thus stated : Days. From Lima by Cape Horn, ------ 110 " « Panama, 51 Difference of time in favor of the route by the West Indies, 59 The passage from Panama to Chagres is perfectly easy, being only twenty-one miles by land, and the remainder by a river, safe and navigable for boats and ca- noes. This was the route by which the several towns and provinces on the Pacific Ocean made their communications with Europe, before the separation of the Colonies from Spain ; but the frequent revolutions which have taken place in South America, and the consequent poverty and want of enterprise in the Spanish part of the population, seem to have put a stop to the regular and periodical com- munications between these places, which were formerly established by public authority. The following table demonstrates that a vessel, sailing from England, and doubling the Cape of Good Hope, has to sail as follows : I. 1st, for Ceylon, - . . 10,760 miles (geographical.) 2nd, for Calcutta, . . . 12,770 « 3rd, for Port Jackson, . - 16,950 " 4th, for Canton, ... 16,700 " without touching at the Indies. 5th, for Panama, . . . 24,140 « II. That the same sailing from England, and doubling Cape Horn, wiU be : 1st, for Valparaiso, 10,840 miles. 2nd, for Panama, - 15,716 " 3rd, for Canton, - 23,156 " 4th, for Ceylon, - 26,616 " 5th, for Port Jackson, . 20,840 « * This IS unnecessarily long. The journey, by way ef the Isthmus, has been accomplished &oin Lima to Liverpool in 46 days 376 APPENDIX. Ill, That the same vessel, sailing from England, and passing through the canal at the Isthmus of Darien, will have to sail only : 1st, from Europe to Panama, . - . . . 4,171 miles. 2ncl, " Canton ,. 11,612 " 3rd, " Valparaiso, 9,048 " 4th, " Port Jackson, and Hobart-town, 11,530 " 5th, " Ceylon, 15,072 " COMPARATIVE TABLE. By Cape of Go-jd Hope. ^ By Cape Horn. By Panama Canal. To Ceylon, - - 10,760 26,616 15,072 To Port Jackson, - 16,650 10,840 11,536 To Canton, - - 20,970 (touching at Calcutta.) 16,700 23,156 11,612 To Panama, - - 24,140 15,716 4,171 To Valparaiso, - 25,950 10,840 9,048 To Lima, - - 26,200 12,936 6,952 I, Distances, in a right line, of the principal stopping-places for steamships, departing from Falmouth, by the Cape of Good Hope, in India, Sumatra, China, Australasia, Islands of Owhayi and Otaheite, and upon the Western Coast of America : From Falmouth Canary Isles Cape Verd Ascensiou Isles - St. Helena Cape of Good Hope Cape of Aiquilles Isle of France Ceylon Ceylon Madras Ceylon Batavia Swan River Hobart-iown Port Jackson Port Jackson Geographical To miles. Total. Canary Isles, ... 1,860 Cape Verd, . . . 840 Ascension Isles, ... 1,210 St. Helena, ... 720 Cape of Good Hope, - . 1,740 6,400 Cape of Aiquilles, . . 720 Isle of France - . - 1,820 Ceylon, .... 1,820 Bombay, .... 960 Madras, .... 750 Calcutta, .... 1,260 7,330 Batavia, .... 1,680 Swan River (coast of Australasia) 1,630 Hobart-town (Van Dieman's Land) 2,160 Port Jackson, - . - 720 6,190 Sandwich Islands, - - 3,600 Society Islands, Otaheite, . 3,104 6,704 FROM ENGLAND TO CANTON. Geographical miles. Total. 15,410 1,780 17,190 3,960 3,480 ^24,630 From which we see that, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, they sail from- 1st, Falmouth to Calcutta, 13,730 2nd, Falmouth to Canton, .... 17,190 3rd, Canton to Panama, 7,440 38,360 From To Falmouth - Batavia, Batavia Canton, Canton Owhayi, Owhayi Panama, APPENDIX 377 n. Distances, in a right line, of the principal stopping-places, for steamships sailing from Falmouth by way of Cape Horn, for Panama, Australasia, Canton, &c. From Falmouth - Terceira Olinda Rio Janeiro Buenos Ayres Cape Horn - Valparaiso - Lima - Falmouth - Panama Owhayi Falmouth Canton Batavia Falmouth From Falmouth - Terceira Chagres Panama Owhayi Falmouth • Falmouth Panama Lima Panama Otaheite Port Jackson Falmouth, - This communication might he very easily effected by the addition of a few small fast-sailing vessels of war, or steamers, which should make periodical visits to the towns I have mentioned. " The advantages of a direct communication between Panama and the West Indies, has already been felt and obtained by the practice of the admiral on the West India station, who is accustomed to dispatch a sailing vessel of war, at stated periods, to Chagres, in order to bring official and other correspondence, as well as specie, from the Pacific coast of South America. I am the more induced to make these representations, from a conversation I had with Commodore Mason, in which he expressed his concern, that he had not ade- quate force under his control to give protection to British commerce on the South American shore of the Pacific, and his confidence in the opinion, which has been much confirmed by my own observation, as well as by the report of others, more competent than myself, that such commerce has a tendency to increase if duly protected ; and that, if vessels of war were more frequently enabled to visit the Geographical To miles. Total. Terceira, (Azores) - 1,620 Olinda (Pernambuco) - 2,520 Rio Janeiro, - 1,460 Buenos Ayres - 1,400 Cape Horn, - ". 2,040— -9,040 Valparaiso, - - 2,200 Lima, - - 2,096 Panama, . 2,780— -7,076 Panama, . 16,116 Owhayi, . 3,480 Canton, . 3,960— —7,440 Canton, - 23,556 Batavia, . 1,780 Ceylon, - 1,680 Ceylon, - 27,016 jected Canal at Panama : Geographical To miles. TotaL Terceira, . . - 1,620 Chagres, - - - 3,540 Panama, across the Isthmus of Darien, . . - 12- —5,172 Owhayi, . . . 3,480 Canton, . . . 3,960- —7,440 Canton, , . - 12,612 Panama, - . . 5,172 Lima, . . . 2,780 Valparaiso, - . - - 2,096- -10,048 Otaheite, . - - 3,540 Port Jackson, - . - 3,104 Hobart-town, - - - 720- —7,364 Hobart-town, . - - 17,412 378 APPENDIX. ports (111 the coast from Valparaiso to Panama, better security would be afforded to British merchants against the revolutions, to which the property of all persons resident on those sliores is so often exposed, from the feebleness of the Govern- ments, and the successive changes which are the consequence of that weakness. The establishment of steamboats would render the return of correspondence, against the prevailing soutlierly winds, of equal rapidity. The trade-winds are not violent in that sea, and men-of-war, in particular, have generally made the pas- sage down the coast with great dispatch. However, the introduction of Steam Navigation in the West Indies, having already shown that merchant sailing vessels are disposed to carry sufficient coal in ballast, for the supply of fuel ; it is equally obvious that the same facilities might be afforded to carry out coal to the Pacific coast, until such time as, from its raised value and the increased demand for it, the inhabitants of those regions may think it worth their while to work the veins of coal, which are well known to exist at various places on the western coast.* London, Sept. 6, 1833. • South America and Pacific. Lond, 1838. Vol. II. p. 881. APPENDIX, 379 No. 2. Since my return to the United States, I have seen the following interesting letters in the National Intelligencer, on American Antiquities, from Mr. Colcraft. It is to be hoped that he will shortly favor the public with an accurate drawing of the characters on the tablet. Grave Creek Flats, (Va.) August 23, 1843. I have devoted several days to the examination of the antiquities of this place and its vicinity, and find them to be of even more interest than was anticipated. The most prominent object of curiosity is the great tumulus, of which notices have appeared in western papers ; but this heavy structure of earth is not isolated. It is but one of a series of mounds, and other evidences of ancient occupation at this point, of more than ordinary interest. I have visited and examined seven mounds, situated within a short distance of each other. They occupy the summit level of a rich alluvial plain, stretching on the left or Virginia bank of the Ohio, between the junction of Big and Little Green Creeks with that stream. They appear to have been connected by low earthen intrenchments, of which plain traces are still visible on some parts of the commons. They included a well, stoned up in the usual manner, which is now filled with rubbish. The summit of this plain is probably seventy-five feet above the present summer level of the Ohio. It constitutes the second bench or rise of land above the water. It is on this summit, and on one of the most elevated parts of it, that the great tumulus stands. It is in the shape of a broad cone, cut off at the apex, where it is some fifty feet across. This area is quite level, and commands a view of the entire plain, and of the river above and below, and the west shore of the Ohio in front. Any public transaction on this area would be visible to multitudes around it, and it has, in this respect, all the advantages of the Mexican and Yucatanese teocalli. The circumference of the base has been stated at a little under nine hundred feet ; its height is sixty-nine feet. The most interesting object of antiquarian inquiry is a small flat stone, inscribed with antique alphabetic characters, which was disclosed on the opening of the large mound. These characters are in the ancient rock alphabet of sixteen right and acute angled single strokes, used by the Pelasgi and other early Mediterra- nean nations, and which is the parent of the modern Runic as well as the Bardic. It is now some four or five years since the completion of the excavations, so far as they have been made, and the discovery of this relic. Several copies of it soon got abroad, which difiered from each other, and, it was supposed, from the original. This conjecture is true : neither the print published in the Cincinnati Gazette in 1839, nor that in the American Pioneer in 1843, is correct. I have terminated this uncertainty by taking copies by a scientific process, which does not leave the lines and figures to the uncertainty of man's pencil. The existence of this ancient art here could not be admitted, otherwise than as an insulated fact, without some corroborative evidence in habits and customs, which it would be reasonable to look for in the existing ruins of ancient occu- pancy. It is thought some such testimony has been found. I rode out yesterday three miles, back to the range of high hills which encompass this sub-valley, to see a rude tower of stone standing on an elevated point, called Parr's point, which commands a view of the whole plain, and which appears to have been constructed as a watch-tower, or look-out, from which to descry an approaching enemy. It is 380 APPENDIX. much dilapidated. About six or seven feet of the work is still entire. It is cir- cular, and composed of rough stones, without mortar, or the mark of a hammer. A heavy mass of fallen wall lies around, covering an area of some forty feet iu diameter. Two similar points of observation, occupied by dilapidated towers, are represented to exist, one at the prominent summit of the Ohio and Grave Creek hills, and another on the promontory on the opposite side of the Ohio, in Belmont county, Ohio. It is known to all acquainted with the warlike habits of our Indians, that they never evinced the foresight to post a regular sentry, and these rude towers may be regarded as of contemporaneous age with the interment of the inscription. Several polished tubes of stone have been found in one of the lesser mounds, the use of which is not very apparent. One of these, now on my table, is twelve jnches long, one and a quarter wide at one end, and one and a half at the other. It is made of a fine, compact, lead-blue steatite, mottled, and has been constructed by boring, in the manner of a gun-barrel. This boring has been continued to within about three-eighths of an inch of the larger end, through which but a small aper- ture is left. If this small aperture be looked through, objects at a distance are more clearly seen. Whether it had this telescopic use or others, the degree of art evinced in its construction is far from rude. By inserting a wooden rod and valve, this tube would be converted into a powerful syphon or syringe. I have not space to notice one or two additional traits, which serve to awaken new interest at this ancient point of aboriginal and apparently mixed settlement, and must omit them till my next. Yours, truly, HENRY R. COLCRAFT. Geave Creek Flats, August 24 The great mound, at these flats, was opened as a place of public resort about four years ago. For this purpose a horizontal gallery to its centre was dug and bricked up, and provided with a door. The centre was walled round as a rotunda, of about twenty-five feet diameter, and a shaft was sunk from the top to intersect it ; it was in these two excavations that the skeletons and accompanying relics and ornaments were found. All those articles are arranged for exhibition in this rotunda, which is lighted up with candles. The lowermost skeleton is almost entire, and in a good state of preservation, and is put up by means of wires, on the walls. It has been overstretched in the process, so as to measure six feet; it should be about five feet eight inches. It exhibits a noble frame of the human species, bearing a skull with craniological developments of a highly favorable character. The face bones are elongated, with a long chin and symmetrical jaw, in which a full and fine set of teeth, above and below, are present The skeletons in the upper vault, where the inscription stone was found, are nearly all de- stroyed. It is a damp and gloomy repository, and exhibits in the roof and walls of the rotunda one of the most extraordinary sepulchral displays which the world affords. On casting the eye up to the ceiling, and the heads of the pillars supporting it, it is found to be incrusted, or rather festooned, with a white, soft, flaky mass of . matter, which had exuded from the mound above. This, apparently, animal exu- dation is as white as snow. It hangs in pendent masses and globular drops ; the surface is covered with large globules of clear water, which in the reflected light have all the brilliancy of diamonds. These drops of water trickle to the floor, and occasionally the exuded white matter falls. The wooden pillars are furnished APPENDIX. ^ 381 with the appearance of capitals, by this substance. That it is the result of a soil highly charged with particles of matter, arising from the decay or incineration of human bodies, is the only theory by which we m3.y account for the phenomenon. Curious and unique it certainly is, and with the faint light of a few candles, it would not require much imagination to invest the entire rotunda with sylph-like forms of the sheeted dead. An old Cherokee chief, who visitqd this scene recently, with his companions, on his way to the West, was so excited and indignant at the desecration of the tumulus, by this display of bones and relics to the gaze of the white race, that he became furious and unmanageable ; his friends and interpreters had to force him out, to prevent his assassinating the guide ; and soon after he drowned his senses in alcohol. That this spot was a very ancient point of settlement by the hunter race in the Ohio valley, and that it was inhabited by the present red race of North American Indians, on the arrival of whites west of the Alleghanies, are both admitted facts ; nor would the historian and antiquary ever have busied themselves further in the matter had not the inscribed stone come to light, in the year 1839. I was informed, yesterday, that another inscription stone had been found, in one of the smaller mounds on these flats, about five years ago, and have obtained data sufficient as to its present location to put the Ethnological Society on its trace. If, indeed, these inscriptions shall lead us to admit that the Continent was visited by Europeans prior to tlie era of Columbus, it is a question of very high antiquarian interest to determine who the visitors were, and what they have actually left on record in these antique tablets. I have only time to add a single additional fact Among the articles found in this cluster of mounds, the greater part are commonplace, in our Western mounds and town-ruins. I have noticed but one which bears the character of that unique type of architecture, found by Mr. Stephens and Mr. Catherwood, in Central America and Yucatan. With the valuable monumental standards of comparison furnished by these gentlemen before me, it is impossible not to recognize, in an ornamental stone, found in one of the lesser mounds here, a specimen of similar workmanship. It is in the style of the heavy feather-sculptured ornament of Yucatan — the material being a wax yellow sand-stone, darkened by time. I have taken such notes and drawings of the objects above referred to, as will enable me, I trust, in due time, to give a connected account of them to our incipient society. Yours truly, HENRY R. COLCRAFT. I have been favored with a fac-simile of this stone,- by Mr. Bartlett, the learned and indefatigable Secretary of our Ethnological Society, who, in his letter com- municating the drawings, observes : " I must state a curious fact in regard to the characters on this Tablet I have compared them with the old alphabets of Europe, and find they lassimilate strongly with the letters of the old Phcsnician and Anglo-Saxon. Many of the characters maybe found in the ancient Greek, Etruscan, Phoenician, Cimbric or Welsh, Celt-Iberic, Anglo-Saxon, &c. In the Celt-Jberic they predominate, as almost every character is to be found in that ancient alphabet. I have racked my brain not a little in trying to decipher them, and, though their value is easily ascer- tamed, they cannot be combined so as to be rendered into anything intelligible. It is probable that we have not a correct fac-simile ; but this will now be remedied, as Mr. Colcraft will take an impression in wax of the whole tablet" 382 APPENDIX No. 3. Since tliis volume went to press, I have been favored with the following very instructive letter, from Horatio Hale, Esq., the learned philologist who accom- panied the Exploring Expedition, under the command of Captain Wilkes. It is pleasant, when groping backward through the labyrinth of time, to have, now and then, some tangled threads of the lost clue thrown into our hands ; and I liave no doubt that, when the result of this eminent scholar's labors are placed before the public, they will obtain for him a reputation commensurate with his genius and industry. " Philadelphia, October, 1843. " My deak Sir : " It gives me pleasure to learn, that you are still occupied with your work on Mexico, which has been long expected with great interest. There are few countries, so far as I could judge, which contain more that is worthy of being described ; and fewer still, of which so little is accurately known. " As to the inquiries contained in your letter, I am happy to find that we have arrived, by different roads, at the same conclusion, with regard to the origin of the Mexican Tribes, and the direction in which their migration took place. The results of such researches as I have been able to make into the languages of the western coast of America, though not of a positive nature, seem to me strongly to favor the views which you seem to entertain, of the progress of the emigrant tribes from their probable crossing-place at Behring's Straits, along the coast — or rather, be- tween the coast and the Rocky Mountains — to the Mexican plateau. " Very soon after commencing my investigations in Oregon, I was struck by two facts of considerable importance. First ; that the numbers of distinct families of languages, or independent races, was greater than was to be found, in so small a space, in any part of the known world ; and, secondly ; that, in several cases, the different tribes, or subdivisions of a family, were dispersed at great distances from each other, and surrounded by several tribes speaking distinct languages. I ob- served, that these scattered bands were generally disposed in a line from north to south. It seemed, therefore, not an unreasonable supposition, that if the numer- ous hordes which have, at different periods, overrun the Mexican plains, proceeded in this direction, they may have left along their track, from time to time, detached parties, which, from some motive of discontent, would separate from the main body, and allow it to proceed without them. This would account, both for the number of small tribes speaking distinct languages, and for the manner in which those speak- ing the same language, are dispersed through the region. " As an example, I may mention the Athabascan family or race, which occupies the northern part of our Continent, next to the Esquimaux, and which has been found on our northwest coast, within a hundred miles of Behring's Straits. The Carrier Indians, who live north of the Oregon Territory, in about 55'-' latitude, belong to this family. Five hundred miles south of these, not far to the north of the Columbia, I found a small tribe whose language showed them to have had the same origin with the Carriers. Still farther south, on the other bank of the Co- 'umbia, and separated from the last-mentioned by the Chinook tribe, was another APPENDIX. 383 detached band of the same affinity ; and a hundred miles south of these, on the tJraqua river, was the tribe from which it derives its name, speakinsr also a cog- nate language. Here is a single chain, reaching from about latitude 65*^ to 43°, or more than half-way from Behring's Straits to the City of Mexico. It may, perhaps, hereafter, be carried still farther, as my researches did not extend much beyond the last-mentioned point. "I may also observe, that the Shoshonees, or Snake Indians, are found, first, on the head waters of the Columbia — then near the head of the California Gulf; and, again — under the dreaded name of Cumanches, pushing their incursions into the heart of Texas. " In the later history of this tribe — the Shoshonees proper — there is a fact worthy of notice. I was assured by trustworthy persons, long resident in that region, that the Snake Indians had formerly lived considerably north of the present posi- tion — occupying the territory now in the possession of the powerful Blackfeet confederacy — who have expelled them from their ancient hunting-grounds ; and, it was asserted, that there were old men now living among the Shoshonees, who had a better knowledge of the country, at present occupied by the Blackfeet In- dians, than any of the latter themselves, ily informants, (old fur-traders.) gave it as their belief, that all the tribes in that region were gradually advancino- toward the south. In this instance, the movement of the Blackfeet tribes is not wholly voluntary, as they are constantly harassed on the north by hostile bands of Crees and Sioux ; while the Shoshonees, in their southward progress, press before them the Uchis and Apaches, with whose ravages on the northern borders of Mexico you are, of course, well acquainted. " We are famUiar with a similar movement on the old Continent, and understand how it originates in the hardy valor of northern regions, forcing its way toward a more genial clunate and a more bountiful soil. We can also perceive how, among wandering tribes, like our Western Indians — ^by nature migratory, and bound by no ties of cultivation to the land which they occupy — this movement should be comparatively rapid ; and we can thus see how a large body (like the Blackfeet nation, for instance.) might, within a few generations, be urg-ed onward, step by step, from the northern sea to the Mexican plains. It has seemed to me that this fact might be of some importance, as serving to illustrate the history (given by Humboldt,) which the Aztecs had preserved of their migration, and with, which you must be familiar. I refer more particularly to their gradual proarress, (by stages, as it were.) making long halts from time to time, and again taking up their line of march toward the south. I have not this account before me now, but on reading it a few months ago, I thought I could trace in the epithets which they afnxed to their different encampments, (if we may apply this term to their halting-places,) some of the features of the country west of the Rocky Moun; tains. " It is evident that these deductions would be reduced to certainty, if we could discover some resemblance between any of the languages of Oregon and those of Mexico. Thus far. however, the comparison has not been attended with success. Of the ticenty distinct languages, spoken within the limits of Ancient Mexico, which have been reduced to writing by the Catholic Missionaries, I have been able to obtain grammars of only five. The collection which you aided me in ma- king in Mexico, is, indeed, the largest that I know of in this country. In Europe, however, all that has been pubhshed on these subjects, and many valuable manu- scripts, are preserved ; and. at some future day, an opportunity may offer of com- pleting the comparison." APPENDIX No. 4 . LIST OF PRICES, OF RENTS, PEOVISIONS, ETC., TO HOUSEKEEPERS IN THE CITT OF MEXICO. Beef, Mutton Hams, Ducks, Turkeys, Fowls, Pigeons, 12J cents per 20 oz. 12i 50 37i 50 50 25 18 lb. pair, each. (( pair. Pescao-blanco, from the lake, 62J cents per lb. VEGETABLES, TEA, COFFEE, ETC. Onions, Artichokes, Cauliflowers Cabbages, Peas, Corn, Barley, Rice, Radishes, Potatoes, 12^ cents per dozen. 25 12i " each (small) 12^ to 25 cents each. 25 cents per pint. $5 to $6 per carga of 400 lbs. 12^ cents per lb 12i Beans (frigoles) 12^ Chil6 peppers, 31^ Tomatoes, 12^ Bread, 6:i 2^ dozen, quart. « lb. dozen, cents for four small loaves, 16 ounces, in all. 6^ cents per 16 oz :n >( IK Biscuits, Chocolate, Tea, Coffee, Sugar (refined) Sugar (white) Pines, Chirimoyas, Peaches, 50 lb. $2 to $3 per lb. 25 to 37i cents per lb. I8f cents per lb. 12i FRUITS. 12^ cents each. 6| to 12^ cents each. 64 cents for four. 25 Oranges, Plantains, Grapes, Walnuts, Melons, Avocates, Apples, Tunas, Lemons, Guyavas, Granaditas, Milk, Pulqu^, Water, Aguardiente, Mescal, Chicha, Orgeat, Agua de chia, Charcoal, Cook, Coachman, Waiter, Housekeeper, Chambermaid; Scullion, 6i " six. 6i " four. 25 « lb. 6^ " forty. 6^ to 12^ cents each. 6^ cents for four. 12i 6i 6i H 6i dozen. eight, four. 6^ cents per quart. 6i 6i 18J 25 6i 6i H three quarts barrel. quart. (( three pints, quart. FUEL. 6^ cents for six lbs. SERVANTS. $4 to $6 per month. 15 to 20 « 15 « 8 to 10 " 3 to 4 " 3 to 4 « They vary according to situation, bnt they are very high throughout the Capital ; $500— $2500 ; and even higher rates are given for the very best. INDEX. ALA.MBDA 44 Arrierns 18 Aguador 43 Alameda of Mexico 45 Agav6 Americana 76 Ancient vase ftom Tula 107—108 Compared 108 Armor of Alvarado 108 Ancient Mexican sacrifices 120 Ancient Mexican calendar 126 Ancient arms and armor 135 Armas de Agua 163 An Alcalde 191 Alcalde's secretary 193 Acaclanca 204 A country Beauty 204 A caravaggio scene 204 Ayotla 205 Aztuk words 216 Ancient remains on this Continent 237 Ancient remains in the United States 237 Ancient caves 240 Ancient paintings in caverns 239 Antiquities 84 Altars 92 Alvarado's armor 108 Ancient pyramids 264 Archbishop's palace 265 Arbol Mainta 266 Acordada 268 Academy of Arts 271 Ancient Mexican priests 115 Aqueducts, Spanish 283 American Antiquities, letter on 379 BarrancaSeca. 19 Beggars 55—80 Butchers 54 Beggar boy, story of the 57 BuU fight 58 Reflections on 61—62 Barrancas 178-179 Broad seal in Mexico 192 Bnrialof Santa Anna's leg 207 of Vivanco 228 Bloody scenes during the Revolution 230 Beautiful residence 235 BuUSancho 236 Botanic garden 266 Base of Teoyaomiqui 114 Bath of Montezuma 233—234 Builders of ancient cities 254 Bustamante, elected President 340 Coffee of Perote. 15—19 Cholula, Town of. 32 Casa Municipal 40 Canals 41 Chenampas 42 Climate of Mexico 46 Court ceremonies 70—71 Cock-fighting 78 Calvarioball 78 Commission of A Ivarado 108 Crosses found in Mexico, &c 113 Colleges of antiquity 118 Common sacrifice 120 PAOI. City of Mexico, as it was at the Conquest. 131 Cort^z's description of. 131 Splendor of. 131— 13S Conquest of the Capital and destruction of. 137 Chapultepec 1S6 Cruz del Marques 169 Cigarritos (form of) 169 Cuernavaca 171 Hotel at 171 Church at 173 Casa Municipal >172 Situation of. 178 Climate of. 172 Old Conventof 172 Scenery of. 173 Chasms on plains 179 Cocoyotla 189 Comparison of Indians and Negroes 202 Cuautla 208 Valley of. 204 Cortina, collection of. 272 Cacahuawamilpa, cave of. 192 Cuautla de Amilpas 198—203 Contador, the 235 Commerce of the United States and Mexico 310 Cotton factories 313 Crops, value of. 814 Custom House returns for 1841 318 Church, wealth and influence of the 326 Conventual establishments, number and property of. 329 Cortez, sketch of. 332 Conquest of Mexico, character of those who aided in the 332 Calleja, inhumanity of. 335 Coaches and mules, Mexican 284 Character of the Mexicans 292 Commerce and manufactures of Mexico 306 Custom House, products of the . .305 Central Government 339 Constitution of the 339 Constitution of the Republic 3fl Church property, distribution of. 351 California, Lower 362 Pearl fishery of. 362 California, Upper 362 Missions in 362 Description of. 368 Productions of 363 Trade with 364 Diligences 9 Desierto, the.... 158 Duck-shooting in Mexico 219 Domestic altars 92 Del Barrios r75 Doctor Morton's opinion of the American Indians. .260 Evangelistas 39 Equipages • 46 Egerton's murder 157 Earthquakes 214 Excursion to Tezcoco 217 Executions, mode of. 272 Egyptian hieroglyphics 259 Expenses of the government, civil list 322 Army and Navy 324 £dacatioii, estimate of. 301 388 INDEX PAOB. Exports from the Republic 30H Exports and Imports, comparative estimate of. 306 England, encroachments of. 357 Policy and foresiglit of. 369 Frugality of tlie Mexicans 17 Friars and Priests 44 Fire worship 129 Feasts of liuman flesh 122 Features of the Tierra Caliente 169 Funereal rites 227 Fossil bones 231—232 Indian superstition in regard to 231 Funeral vase 101 Fandango 177 Federal Government 337 Constitution of the 337 First Congress of the 337 French fleet in the American seas 367 Girl with reboso 47 Gran Sociedad 48 Gambling 77 Gladiatorial sacrifice 123 Gladiatorial Stone 123 Good Friday 155 Garden at Cuernavaca 172 Grove of the Contador 235 God of Silence 86 Grooves on hatchets 98 Glass factories 315 Government negotiations, character of the 321 Guanajuato, butchery of the iphabitants of the 335 Geographical position of Mexico 295 Guerrero elected President 338 Overthrow and execution of. 338 Housekeeping 48 Euitzilopotchtli 112 House of Mirrore 118 Human sacrifices 121 Mode of 121 Number of victims 125 Ilayden's murder 141 Holy week ceremonials 152 Horseback journies, 162 Hill of Flowers 180 Housekeeping of a Eanchero 190 Hacienda of St. Inez 202 Hospitality of do 202 Hoochietipec 205 Hammocks 205 Hard words 216 Hunting bull 235—237 Houses of the Sun and Moon 223 Hidalgo's trick 230 Huejutla 231 History— Sandwich Islands 358 Hatchets 98 Household gods 1Q2 Holy Week 149 Holy Thui-sday 151 Heretics burned 155 Hacienda of Temisco 174 Hand flower £66 Hacienda of San Nicholas 196 Santa Inez 198 Hawaiian Islands, Americans on the 3C1 Missionaries on the 361 Iztaccihuatl 33 Indian porters 43 Iturbide, autograph of. 75 Indian sacrament ,,., 112 Women 142- PAOK. Indian Hotdi n^ Shepherd 167 With panniers , ig7 Villages 170 Character and Condition 170 Diplomacy ; 193 Degradation 201 Slavery 201—202 And Negroes 203 Words 216 Hatchets 98 Women and infants 143 Villages 175 Alcalde 192 Races within the United States 257 Interior of a Raiicho 190 Interview with an Indian Alcald6 191 Interior of the pyramids of Teotihuacan 223 Indio Triste 88 Idol worshippers, the 254 Inhabitants of Pa!enque,&c 261—263 Imports from the United States 310 Iturbide, accession.dethronement and banishment of.3y6 The return and execution of. 337 Idols found at Tula 275 Figures of unknown Mexican 277—278 Idol found in Oajaca 279 Insurrection of 1841 340 Its causes .341 Inaccessibility of Mexico 347 Isthmus of Panama, advantages of the 374 Jalapa— Journey to 9 Description of. 15 Beautiful women of. 16 Judases 155 Journey to the Tierra Caliente 159 Journies on horseback 162 Juan Gonzales 204 Litera 7 Las Vigas 19 La Hoya 19 Letter writers 39 Lonja 40 Leperos 41 Laborde 172 Licences 192 Lake of Tezcoco 218 Of the valley 218 Qualities of. 218 Lasso , 229 The benefits of 188 La Molina 235 Ladies in church 152 Laborde, history of. 172 Garden of. .173 Lakes near the City of Mexico, position and level of.282 Mexican frugality 17 Soldiei-s< 10 Fruits 16 Medal 39 Politeness 50 Lady going to mass 51 Beauty ,.,. 52 Mythology 109 Heaven 109 Hell 110 Deities lU Serape 162 Horsemen 163 Spur 164 Fleas 204 Hospitality 206 Earthquakes 214 Words 216 INDEX. 389 Mexican Udou ^ Sportsmen -^ Talent for sculpture...... yM Lakes, the character ot the waters, note. .Ho Manuscript ^ Cosmogony '' ^ Teocallis ^ Mexico, Road to ^ Valley of. ^ City of. 36 Approach of. °1 Appearance of. ™ View from the Cathedral 38 Cathedra! of. 40 Alameda of. *^ J-ivingin f° Market inMexico ^ Moonlight of Mexico ^ Monte., Montezuma and his Court 1^3 Style of 134 Miquahuitl |36 Montezuma's presentiments 1^ Murder of the Swiss Consul 1^ Mairet's murder }-^ Murder of H ayden 1^^ Murder of Mr. Egerton ^^ Mules 163 Mountain views i°X Miraculous breakfast •l'~ Molie de Guagelote |^ Michapas 1°^ Miguel Benito 1™ Mr. Webster in Mexico 1^1 Modes of sleeping ^ffi Meztli-ytzagUiil - '''3 Micoatl.... 2^3 Measurements of the ruins of Teotihuaoan 223 Montezuma's inkstand ^ Milperos and blackbirds ^ Madame Santa Anna • 227 Montezuma's bath 234 Museum ^^ Marble vases ^St Mint -^ Monte Pio f^ Mineria -^ Miacatlan 1°° Musical Indians 1^ Mapilca, ruins of. ■ r^ Misantla, ruins of. ■ 230 Milla, ruins of. •■ f'] Manufacturing establishments, value of 3i4 Mines, production of the 32» Mexican Revolution, outline of the 33o Origmofthe 33o Mexico, inundation of the city ^ Mortality in the Capital ^ Mexican tribes, origin of the «» 39-265 ....202 National Palace Negroes and Indians ■ Nanahuatzin ^ JNatividad 231 Nuestra Seilora de Loreto 153 Native musicians 107 National debt 320 Native family, private life of a 233 Newspapers and Periodicals, statement of. 303 Naturalization laws 349 Orange groves 189 Otumba 222 Origin of Mexican lldolatry 89 Peak of Tepiacualca ix-'m Perote 20-21 PAOV. Puebla, description of......... • 23 Alameda 24 Cathedral -24 Precious lamp 24 Virgin Mary in ^ Pyramid of Cholula -"-26 Description of. 26—27 Legend of. 28 Building of. 28 Quetzalcoatl • -^ Feathered serpents of. 31—33 Plaza of Mexico ^ Parian ^ Passeo de la Viga ™ President Santa Anna 42 Passeo Nuevo ^ Pulque -76 Priests of Antiquity jt? Population of the mountains -loj Pyramid of Xochicalco.. o"^, Popocatepetl ^*~?^ Crater of. ^08 Ascent of. 209 Pico del Fraile 213 Measurements of. 215 Geology of. 214 Outline of. 216 Pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan ^ Plan of the ruins of do ^ Priests of the pyramids of do 2ao Perro Mudo •* Palm Sunday ^ Palace of the Archbishop ^ Of the Government •265 r, ■ ^. ...... — 2pS Prison „Tft Statistics ^ PeSasco, collection of. 273 Primitive village 175 Indians i 175 Papantla, pyramid of. 248 Ruins of. -249 Peopling of America .255 Peruvian remains 257 Wat«r vessels 25' Palace of the Incas '»a8 Popocatepetl, flora of. 210 ascent of. 298 Political history 332 Population of New Spain in 1793 290 1803 300 1830 300 1842 300 Pedraza Gomez elected President 337 Political prospects ^ Panama Mission 368 Pacific Ocean, steam navigation on 309 Peak of Orizaba 1—15—19 Puente Nacjonal ^ Puentedel Rey H- Plan del Rio ^ Description of. 23 Puerto de San Lazaro 37 Quetzalcoatl... •■•• ••■29 duemada • 240 Ruins of. -241 Robbers 14-g Rebosos 53 Revolution of 1841 ™ Rancho de Michapas 1^ Rancheros household I™ Remains near the Pyramids of Teotihuacan 224 Revolutionary jugglery 230 Ruins northwest of Chihuahua 239 Revolution • • • • • °1 Ruins of Xochicalco 180 390 I N D E X. PAOE. Revenue and resources 317 Railway, scheme to construct a 283 Recruits, manner of raising 286 Return home 355 Specie imported into the United States from Mexico. 311 Statistics of trade 311 Manufactures 312 Santa F6 Expedition, note 312 Trade 318 Smuggling, extent of. 319 Sinking Fund, creation of the 322 Stamps or Seals 273 Serpents, figures of. 276 Schools and Seminaries 302 Scotch and York Lodges 337 Santa Anna, Alinister of War 338 Spanish power subdued by 338 Revolutionary movements of. 338 Elected President , 339 Proclaimed Dictator 339 Captured by the Texans 339 Cunning of, note 340 Reelected President 341 Power of. 345 Personal appearance of. 73 Presentation to 72 Autograph of. 75 Dinner with 74 Suggestions as to the mode of the regeneration of Mexico 352 Shoshones, or Snake Indians 383 San M ichael 19 San Martin ; 33 Salt Lakes 36 Social features 49 San Agustin 76 Festival at 76—77 Sacrificial knife 122 Sacrificial yoke 121 Saa Cosm6 140 San Augustine de las Cuevas 162 Serape 162 Sombrero 163 Spur 164 Story of Laborde 172 Santa Inez 201 Sefior Vargas 202 Santa Anna's leg 207 Stratagems of a hunter 235 Sculpture 83 Small Idols 91 San Nicolas, Hacienda of. 196 San Inez, do 198 Senor Vargas 202 Tortilas 17 The beggar boy (story of) 57 Teoyaomiqui 109—113 Teocalli of Mexfco 118 Temples in the Capital 118 Tradition in relation to the conquest 139 Tacubaya 157 Tierra Caliente 159 Features of. IfiS Tetecala 188 Tenango 205 Tezcoco, Lake of. 218 Scenery of. • 210 Depth of. 218 Town of 220 Ancient town 220 Pyramids of. 221 Ancient bricks of. 221 Palace of Montezuma 221 Puente de las Brigantinas 221 Ancient group from 221 ^ Tonatiuh Ytzagual ^ Tradition of the pyramids of Teotihiiacan ."!.".'!." !!!223 lezcosingo »» Theatre balls .'...!!.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.*.'.'.'.".' 149 Temisco '.'.'.'.','.'. * 174 Tetecala "| _" jgj Teocallis ' iigllin Teopans .'.'.!!!!'.'.'! ii» Tezcosingo, Hill of. '."!!!!'.! !!!!!233 Tusapan, Temple of .'.'.'.'!!.'.'.'.'247 Statue and fountain at 248 Tio Ignacio '253 'I'emple of Pachacamac , 258 Tabella Plicalis .'.'.".'.'.'.258 Troops, parades and discipline of the 285 Theatres in Mexico .',237 Thieving, impudent and adroit .288 Territory of the Mexican Repubhc 299 Trade with Tampico, American and Foreign.. 308-209 Metamoras 300 Table of distances, and hours steaming from Pana- ma to various parts 37X Use of the Lasso. Voyage to Vera Cru2 1 Vera Cruz 3 Appearance of town of. 4 Alameda of. . , ^....S Diseases of. Jj . . . .7 Baptisms and burials of. 7 Water-fall at 8 Commerce of the port of 307 Blockaded by the French 340 Vomito 8 Vergara, Hotel of 37 Virgin in the Cathedral 41 Virgin of Guadalupe 63 Her festival 63 Her churches 64 Her legends 65 Her picture 67 Her offerings 68' Her sonnet 69 Her indulgences 69 Virgm of Dolores, festival of. 149 Virgin of Remedios 142—146 Festival of. 145 Legend of. ;.145 Description of. 148 View from San Augustin 79 Vale of Cuernavaca 169 Village gamblers 2*^ Viaticum 227 Vases and Cups 93—94—95 From Tula IW Value of sugar estate 174 Victoria elected President 337 Revolutionary movements against 337 Whipping Indians 201 Wax figures 83 Woollen blankets, manufacture of. 315 Xochicalco 180 Reliefs on 182-183 Examination of. 184 Caverns of. 184 Subterranean vaults 185 Tradition of. 185 Restoration of pyramid -ISB Xolotl .2!ffi Sun and Moon, origin of. 225 Zopilote, the dance of,, .331 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 279 143 7 ■^,'lk ■y^ft :.-^;' ' .'■^'■'*,vvi '■ '