:aNTA anna
 
 (2 
 
 MEXICO 
 
 AND ITS RELIGION; 
 
 WITH 
 
 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN THAT COUNTRY DURING 
 PARTS OF THE YEARS 1851-52-53-54, 
 
 HISTORICAL NOTICES OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH 
 PLACES VISITED. 
 
 BY ROBERT A. WILSON. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
 
 1855.
 
 Entered, accorJing to Act of Congress, in the year one thou- 
 sand eight hundred and fifty-five, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of Xew York.
 
 Ic 
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The custom of mingling together historical events 
 with the incidents of travel, of amusement with instruc- 
 tion, is rather a Spanish than American practice ; and in 
 adopting it, I must crave the indulgence of those of my 
 readers who read only for instruction, as well as of those 
 who read only for amusement. 
 
 The evidence that I have adduced to prove that the 
 yellow fever is not an American, but an African disease, 
 imported in slave-ships, and periodically renewed from 
 those cargoes of human rottenness and putrefaction, I 
 .hope will be duly considered. 
 
 The picture of inner convent life, and the inimitable 
 gambling scene in the convent of San Francis, I have 
 not dared to present on my own responsibility, nor even 
 that of the old English black-letter edition of Friar 
 Thomas, but I have reproduced it from the expurgated 
 Spanish edition, which has passed the censors, and must 
 therefore be considered official. 
 
 I have presumed to follow the great Las Casas, who 
 called all the historians of the Conquest of Mexico liars ; 
 and though his labored refutation of their fictions has 
 disappeared, yet, fortunately, the natural evidences of 
 their untruth still remain. Having before me the sur- 
 veys and the levels of our own engineers, I have pre- 
 sumed to doubt that water ever ran up hill, that naviga- 
 ble canals were ever fed by "back water," that pyramids
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 {teocalli) could rest on a foundation of soft earth, that 
 a canal twelve feet broad by twelve feet deep, mostly be- 
 low the water level, was ever dug by Indians with their 
 rude implements, that gardens ever floated in mud, or 
 that brigantines ever sailed in a salt marsh, or even that 
 100,000 men ever entered the mud-built city of Mexico 
 by a narrow causeway in the morning, and after fight- 
 ing all day returned by the same path at night to their 
 camp, or that so large a besieging army as 150,000 men 
 could be supported in a salt-marsh valley, surrounded 
 by high mountains. 
 
 In answer to the question why such fables have so 
 long passed for history, I have the ready answer, that 
 the Inquisition controlled every printing-office in Spain 
 and her colonies, and its censors took good care that 
 nothing should be printed against the fan* &me of so 
 good a Clu-istian as Cortez, who had painted upon his 
 banner an image of the Immaculate Virgin, and had be- 
 stowed upon her a large portion of his robbery ; who had 
 gratified the national taste for holy wars by writing one 
 of the finest of Spanish romances of history ; who had 
 induced the Emperor to overlook his crime of levying war 
 without a royal hcense by the bestowal of rich presents 
 and rich provinces ; so that, by the favor of the Empe- 
 ror and the favor of the Inquisition, ^ filibuster o, whose 
 atrocities surpassed those of every other on record, has 
 come down to us as a Cliristian hero. 
 
 The innumerable little things about their Indian 
 mounds force the conviction on the experienced eye of 
 an American traveler that the Aztecs were a horde of 
 North American savages, who had precipitated them- 
 selves first upon the table-land, and afterward, like the
 
 PKEFACE. V 
 
 Goths from the table-lands of Spain, extended their con- 
 quests over the expiring civilization of the coast coun- 
 try ; and this idea is confirmed by the fact that the mag- 
 nificent Toltec monuments of a remote antiquity, discov- 
 ered in the tropical forests, were apparently unknown to 
 the Aztecs. The conquest of Mexico, like our conquest 
 of California, was in itself a small affair ; but both being 
 immediately followed by extensive discoveries of the 
 precious metals, Mexico rose as rapidly into opulence 
 as San Francisco has in our day. 
 
 The evidence that I have presented of the inexhaust- 
 ible supplies of silver in Northern Mexico, near the route 
 of our proposed Pacific Eaihroad, may be interesting to 
 legislators. These masses of silver lie as undisturbed 
 by their present owners as did the Mexican discoveries 
 of gold in California before the American conquest, from 
 the inertness of the local population, and the want of fa- 
 cilities of communication with the city of Mexico. 
 
 The notion that the Mormons are destined to overrun 
 Mexico is, of course, only an inference drawn from the 
 exact parallel that exists between the circumstances un- 
 der which this delusion has arisen and propagated itself 
 and the history of Mohammedanism from its rise until it 
 overran the degenerated Christians of the Eastern empire. 
 
 From want of space, I have been oj^liged to omit 
 much valuable original matter procured for me by offi- 
 cers of government at the palace of Mexico, to whom, 
 for the kind attention that I have upon all occasions re- 
 ceived from them, I heartily return my most sincere 
 thanks. 
 
 R. A. WILSON. 
 
 Rochester, Sebtember 1st, 1855.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Arrival at Vera Cruz. — Its appearance from the Steamer. — Getting 
 Ashore. — Within the City. — Throwing Stones at an Image. — An- 
 tiquity of Vera Cruz. — Its Commerce. — The great Norther of 1852. 
 — A little Steamer rides out the Tempest. — The Vomito, or Yellow 
 Fever. — Ravages of the Vomito. — The Vomito brought from Africa 
 in Slave-ships. — A curious old Book. — Our iMonk arrives at Vera 
 Cruz, and what befalls him there. — Life in a Convent. — A nice 
 young Prior. — Our Monk finds himself in another World... Page 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 An historical Sketch. — Truth seldom spoken of Santa Anna. — Santa 
 Anna's early Life. — Causes of the Revolution. — The Virgin Mary's 
 Approval of King Ferdinand. — The Inquisition imprisons the Vice- 
 King. — Santa Anna enters the King's Army. — The plan of Iguala. 
 — The War of the two Virgins. — Santa Anna pronounces for Inde- 
 pendence 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Incidents of Travel. — The Great Road to the Interior. — Mexican Dili- 
 gences. — The Priest was tlie first Passenger robbed. — The National 
 Bridge. — A Conducta of Silver. — Our Monk visits Old Vera Cruz. — 
 They grant to the Indians forty Years of Indulgence in return for 
 their Hospitality. — The Artist among Robbers. — Mexican Scholars 
 in the United States. — Encerro 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Jalapa. — The extraordinary Beauty and Fertility of this Spot. — Jalap, 
 Sarsaparilla, Myrtle, Vanilla, Cochineal, and Wood of Tobasco. — 
 The charming Situation of Jalapa. — Its Flowers and its Fruits. — Mag- 
 nificent Views. — The tradition that Jalapa was Paradise. — A speck 
 of War. — The Marriage of a Heretic. — A gambling Scene in a 
 Convent 52
 
 >111 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The "War of the Secret Political Societies of Mexico. — The Scotch and 
 the York Free-Masons. — Anti-Masons. — Kival Classes compose iicotch 
 Lodges. — The Yorkinos. — Men desert from the Scotch to the York 
 Lodges. — Law to snppress Secret Societies. — The Escoces, or Scotch 
 Masons, take up arms. — The Battle. — Their total Defeat... Page 68 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ^Mexico becomes an Empire. — Santa Anna deposes the Emperor. — He 
 proclaims a Republic. — He pronounces against the Election of Ped- 
 raza, the second President. — His Situation in the Convent at Oajaca. 
 — He captures the Spanish Armada. — And is made General of 
 Division 73 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 In the Stage and out of the Stage. — Still climbing. — A moment's View 
 of all the Kingdoms of the World. — Again in Obscrrity. — The Ma- 
 guey, or Century Plant. — The many uses of the Maguey. — The in- 
 toxicating juice of the Maguey. — Pulque. — Immense Consumption 
 of Pulque. — City of Perote. — Castle of San Carlos de Perote. — Star- 
 light upon the Table-land. — Tequisquita. — " The Bad Land." — A 
 vers- old Beggar. — Arrive at Puebla 79 
 
 CHAPTER VUl. 
 
 Puebla. — The ^Miracle of the Angels. — A City of Priests. — ^Marianna 
 
 in Bronze. — The Vega of Puebla. — First View of the Pyramid of 
 
 Cholula. — Modem Additions to it. — The View from its Top. — Quet- 
 
 \ zalcoatl. — Cholula and Tlascala. — Cholula without the Poetry. — 
 
 Indian Relics * 88 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A Ride to Popocatapetl. — The Village of Atlizco. — The old Man of 
 Atlizco and the Inquisition. — A novel Mode of Escape. — An aveng- 
 ing Ghost. — The Vice-King Ravillagigedo. — The Court of the Vice- 
 King and the Inquisition. — Ascent of Popocatapetl. — How a Par- 
 ty perished by Night. — The Crater and the House in it. — Descent 
 into the Crater. — The Interior. — The "Workmen in the Volcano. — 
 The View from Popocatapetl. — The first "White that climbed Popo- 
 catapetl. — The Stor\- of Corchado. — Corchado converts the Volcano 
 into a Sulphur-mine 101 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Texas. — Battle of Madina. — First Introduction of Americans into Tex- 
 as. — Usurpation of Bustamente. — Texas owed no Allegiance to the
 
 CONTENTS. IX 
 
 Usurper. — The good Faith of the United States in tlie Acquisition of 
 Louisiana and Texas. — Santa Anna pronounces against Bustamente. 
 — Santa Anna in Texas. — A Mexican's Denunciation of the Texan 
 War. — His Idea of our Revolution. — He complains of our grasp- 
 ing Spirit. — The right of the United States to occupy unsettled Ter- 
 ritory. — A few more Pronunciamientos of Santa Anna. — The Ad- 
 ventures of Santa Anna to the present Date Page 113 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 From Puebla to Mexico. — The Dread of Robbers. — The Escort. — Tlas- 
 cala. — The Exaggerations of Cortez and Bernal Diaz. — The Truth 
 about Tlascala. — The Advantages of Tlascala to Cortez. — Who was 
 Bernal Diaz. — Who Avrote his History. — First View of Mexico. 122 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Acapulco. — The Advantages of a Western Voyage to India. — The great 
 annual Fair of Acapulco. — The Village and Harbor of Acapulco. — ■ 
 The War of Santa Anna and Alvarez. — The Retreat. — Traveling 
 alone and unarmed. — The Peregrino Pass. — Quiricua and Cretinism. 
 — Chilpanzingo. — An ill-clad Judge. — Iguala. — Alpayaca. — Cuarna- 
 vaca ' 132 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 California. — Pearl Fisheries. — Missions. — Indian Marriages. — Villages. 
 — Precious Metals. — The Conquest of California compared with that 
 of Mexico. — Upper California under the Spaniards. — Mexican Con- 
 quest of California in 1825. — The March. — The Conquest. — Califor- 
 nia under the Mexicans. — American Conquest. — Sinews of foreign 
 Wars. — A Protestant and religious War. — Early Settlers compared. 
 — Mexico in the Heyday of Prosperity. — Rich Costume of the Wom- 
 en. — Superstitious Worship. — When I first saw California. — Lawj-ers 
 without Laws. — A primitive Court. — A Territorial Judge in San 
 Francisco. — Mistaken Pliilanthropy. — Mexican Side of the Picture. 
 — Great Alms. — City of Mexico ovenvhelmed by a Water-spout. — 
 The Superiority of Californians 142 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 First Sight of the Valley of Mexico. — A Venice in a mountain Valley. 
 — An Emperor waiting his Mui-derers. — Cortez mowing down un- 
 armed Indians. — A new kind of Piety. — Capture of an Emperor. — 
 Torturing an Emperor to Death. — The Children paying the Penalty 
 of their Fathers' Crimes. — The Aztecs and other Indians. — The Dif- 
 ference is in the Historians. — The Superstitions of the Indians. — 
 The Valley of Mexico. — An American Survey of the Valley. — A 
 topographical View. — The Ponds Chalco, Xochimulco, and Tezcuco 
 were never Lakes 167
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Two Valleys. — The Lake with a leakv Bottom. — The Water could 
 not hax^ been higher. — Nor could the Lagunas or Ponds have been 
 much deeper. — The Brigantines only flat-bottomed Boats. — The 
 Causeway Canals fix the size of the Brigantines. — The Street Ca- 
 nals. — Stagnant "Water unfit for Canals. — The probable Dimensions 
 of the City Canals. — Difl!iculties of disproving a Fiction. — A Dike or 
 Levee. — The Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Map of Cortez. — Wise 
 Provision of Providence. — The Fiction about the numerous Cities 
 in and about the Lake Page 176 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The Chinampas or Water Gardens. — Laws of Nature not set aside. — 
 Mud will not float. — The present Chinampas. — They never could 
 have been floating Gardens. — Relations of the Chinampas to the an- 
 cient State of the Lake in the Valley 186 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 The gambling Festival of San Augustine. — Suppressed by Government. 
 — The Losses of the Saint by the Suppression of Gambling. — How 
 Travelers live in the Interior. — A Visit to the Palace 192 
 
 CHAPTER XVIU. 
 
 Visit to Contreras and San Angel. — The End of a brave Soldier. — A 
 Place of Skulls. — A New England Dinner. — An Adventure with Rob- 
 bers — doubtful. — Reasons for revisiting Mexico. — The Battle at the 
 Mountain of Crosses. — A peculiar Variety of the Cactus. — Three Men 
 gibbeted for robbing a Bishop. — A Court upon Horseback. — The re- 
 treat of Cortez to Otnmba. — A venerable Cypress Grove. — Unexpect- 
 edly comfortable Quarters. — An English Dinner atTezcuco. — Pleas- 
 ures unknown to the Kings of Tezcuco. — Relics of Tezcuco. — The 
 Appearance of the Virgin Mary at Tezcuco. — The Causeways of 
 Mexico 196 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Streets of Tacuba. — The Spaniards and the Indian Women. — The 
 Retreat of Cortez. — The Aqueducts of Mexico. — The English and 
 American Burying-grounds. — The Protestant President. — The rival 
 Virgins. — An Image out of Favor. — The Aztecs and the Span- 
 iards 208 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Pase'o at Evening. — Ride to Chapultepec. — The old Cypresses of 
 Chapultepec. — ^The Capture of Chapultepec— Molina del Eey. —
 
 CONTENTS. XI 
 
 Tacubaya.— Don Manuel Escandon. — The Tobacco Monopoly. — The 
 Palace of Escandon. — The "Desierto." — Hermits. — Monks in the 
 Conflict with Satan. — Our Lady of Carmel Page 219 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Walk to Guadalupe. — Our Embassador kneeling to the Host. — An Em- 
 bassador with, and one without Lace. — First sight of Santa Anna. — 
 Indian Dance in Church. — Juan Diego not Saint Thomas. — The Mir- 
 acle proved at Rome. — The Story of Juan Diego. — The holy Well of 
 Guadalupe. — The Temple of the Virgin. — Public Worship interdict- 
 ed by the Archbishop. — Refuses to revoke his Interdict. — He fled to 
 Guadalupe and took Sanctuary. — Refused to leave the Altai'. — The 
 Arrest at the Altar 229 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 The old Indian City of Mexico. — The Mosques. — Probable Extent of 
 Civilization. — Aztecs acquired Arts of the Toltecs. — Toltec Civiliza- 
 tion, ancient and original. — The Pyramid of Papantla. — The Plun- 
 der of Civilization. — Mexico as described by Corte'z. — Montezuma's 
 Court. — The eight Months that Cortez held Montezuma. — What hap- 
 pened for the next ten Months. — The Siege of Mexico by Cortez. — 
 Aztecs conquered by Famine and Thirst. — Heroes on Paper and 
 Victories without Bloodshed. — Cortez and Morgan 242 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The new City of Mexico. — The Discoveries of Gold. — Ruins at Mexi- 
 co. — The Monks, and what Cortez gained by his Piety. — The City of 
 Mexico again rebuilt. — The City under Ravillagigedo. — The Nation- 
 al Palace. — The Cathedral. — A whole Museum turned Saints. — All 
 kneel together. — The San Carlos Academy of Arts. — Reign of Car- 
 los III.— The Mineria 259 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 The National Museum. — Marianna and Corte'z. — The small Value of 
 this Collection. — The Botanic Garden. — The Market of Santa Anna. 
 — The Acordada Prison. — The unfortunate Prisoner. — The Causes 
 of that Night of Terror.— The Sacking of the City.— The Parian.— 
 The Causes of the Ruin of the Parian. — Change in the Standard of 
 Color.— The Ashes of Cortez 271 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Priests gainers by the Independence. — Improved Condition of the 
 Peons. — Mexican Mechanics. — The Oppression they suffer. — Low 
 state of the Mechanic Arts. — The Story of the Portress. — Charity 
 of the Poor. — The Whites not superior to Meztizos. — License and 
 Woman's Rights at Mexico. — The probable Future of Mexico. — Mor-
 
 Xll (X>NTENTS. 
 
 monism impending over Mexico. — Mormonism and Mohammedan- 
 ism Page 280 
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 The Plaza of the Inquisition. — The two Modes of human Sacrifice, the 
 Aztec and the Spanish. — Threefold Power of the Inquisition. — Visit 
 to the House of the Inquisition. — The Prison and Place of Torture. 
 — The Story of William Lamport. — The little and the. big Auto da 
 Fe. — The Inquisition the real Goverment. — Ruin of Spanish Nation- 
 ality. — The political Uses of the Inquisition. — Political Causes of 
 the Bigotry of Philip II. — His eldest Son dies mysteriously. — The 
 Dominion of Priests continues till the French Invasion 292 
 
 CHAPTER XX^^I. 
 
 Miracles and Earthquakes. — The Saints in Times of Ignorance. — The 
 Eruption of Jorullo. — The Curse of the Capuchins. — The Conse- 
 quences of the Curse. — The unfulfilled Curse. — The Population of 
 the Republic. — Depopulation from 1810 to 1840. — The ^lixture of 
 "Whites and Indians not prolific. — The pure Indians. — The Mez- 
 tizos. — The White Population. — Negroes and Zambos. — The Jew 
 and the Law of Generation. — The same Law applies to Cattle. — It 
 governs the Generation of Plants. — Intemperance and Generation. 
 — Meztizo Plants short-lived. — Mexico can not be resuscitated. — She 
 can not recover her Xorthem Provinces 304 
 
 V 
 
 CHAPTER XX^^n. 
 
 he Church of ^lexico. — It? present Condition and Power. — The Num- 
 ber of the '• Religios." — The Wealth of the Church. — The Money- 
 power of the Church. — The Power of Assassination. — Educating the 
 People robs the Priest. — Making and adoring Images. — The Prog- 
 ress downward 319 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 Causes that have diminished the Religios. — The Provincials and Supe- 
 riors of Convents. — The perfect Organization. — The Monks. — San 
 Franciscans. — Dominicans. — Carmelites. — The well-reputed Orders. 
 — The Jesuits. — The Nuns. — How Novices are procured. — Contrast- 
 ed with a Quaker Prison. — The poor deluded Nun. — A good old 
 Quaker Woman not a Saint. — Protestantism felt in Mexico 330 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The Necessity of large Capitals in Mexico. — The Finances and Reve- 
 nue. — The impoverished Creditors of the State. — Princely Wealth 
 of Individuals '. 348
 
 CONTENTS. xui 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Visit to Pachuca and Real del Monte. — Otumba and Tulanzingo. — The 
 grand Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Silver Mines of Pachuca. — Hakal 
 Silver Mines. — Real del Monte Mines. — The Anglo-Mexican Mining 
 Fever. — My Equipment to descend a Mine. — The great Steam-pump. 
 — Descending the great Shaft. — Galleries and Veins of Ore. — Among 
 the Miners one thousand Feet under Ground. — The Barrel Process 
 of refining Silver. — Another refining Establishment Page 352 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 A Visit to the Refining-mills. — The Falls and basaltic Columns of Reg- 
 la. — How a Title is acquired to Silver Mines. — The Story of Peter 
 Terreros, Count of Regla. — The most successful of Miners. — Silver 
 obtained by fusing the Ore. — Silver "benefited" upon the Patio. — 
 The Tester of the Patio. — The chemical Processes employed. — The 
 Heirs of the Count of Regla. — The Ruin caused by Civil War. — The 
 History of the English Company 362 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Toluca. — Queretaro, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas. — Fresnillo. — "Ro- 
 mancing." — A lucky Priest. — San Luis Potosi. — The Valenciana at 
 Guanajuato. — Under-mining. — A Name of Blasphemy. — The Los 
 Rayas. — Immense Sums taken from Los Rayas. — Warlike Indians in 
 Zacatecas 372 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Sonora and Sonora Land Speculators seeking Annexation. — Sonera 
 and its Attractions. — The Abundance and Purity of Silver in Sono- 
 ra. — Silver found in large Masses. — The Jesus Maria, Refugio, and 
 Eulalia Mines. — A Creation of Silver at Arizpa. — The Pacific Rail- 
 road. — Sonora now valueless for want of personal Security. — The 
 Hopes of replenishing the Spanish Finances from Sonora blasted by 
 War. — Report of the Mineria. — Sonora. — Chihuahua 382 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. Mineria Report on the Mineral Riches of Sonora 391 
 
 B. Report on the Mineral Riches of Chihuahua 398 
 
 C. Report on the Mineral Riches of Coahuila 400 
 
 D. Report on the Mineral Riches of Lower California 402 
 
 E. The Remains of Corte'z 405
 
 MEXICO AID ITS RELIGIOI, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Arrival at Vera Cniz. — Its appearance from the Steamer. — Getting 
 Ashore. — Within the City. — Throwing Stones at an Image. — An- 
 tiquity of Vera Cruz. — Its Commerce. — The great Norther of 1852. 
 • — A little Steamer rides out the Tempest. — The Vomito, or Yellow 
 Fever. — Ravages of the Vomito. — The Vomito brought from Africa 
 in Slave-shi})s. — A curious old Book. — Our jVIonk arrives at Vera 
 Cruz, and Avhat befalls him there. — Life in a Convent. — ^A nice 
 young Prior. — Our Monk finds himself in another World. 
 
 It was a stormy evening in the month of Xovember, 
 1853, when the noble steamship Texas cast anchor in 
 the open roadstead of Vera Cruz, under the lee of the 
 low island on which stands the famous fortress of San 
 Juan de Ulua. Hard by lay a British vessel ready to 
 steam out into the teeth of the storm, as soon as the offi- 
 cers should receive from us a budget of newspapers. 
 We were too late to obtain a permit to land that even- 
 ing, so that we lay tossing at our anchors all night, and 
 until the sun and the shore-boats appeared together on 
 the morning following. 
 
 The finest view of Vera Cruz is from the harbor ; and 
 the best time to look upon it is when a bright sun, just 
 risen above a watery horizon, is reflected back from the 
 antiquated domes and houses, which are visible above the 
 old massive city wall. 
 
 Soon we were in one of the canoes alongside, and
 
 16 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 were quickly transported to the mole, on which we land- 
 ed, among bales of cotton and bundles of freight that 
 encumbered it. The iron gate of the city was now 
 opened, and we passed through it, mixed up in the 
 crowd of bare-footed "cargadores" or porters, who were 
 canying upon their backs bales of cotton, and deposit- 
 ing them in various piles in front of the custom-house. 
 How quietly and quickly these cargadores do their work ! 
 and what gTeat power of muscle they have acquired by 
 long application at this laborious calling ! 
 
 What a contrast does this city present to Xew Or- 
 leans, which we had left only four days before I Instead 
 of the noise and bustle of a commercial emporium, all 
 here is as quiet and as cleanly as a church-yard. Even 
 the chiming of bells for the dying and the dead, which 
 so incessantly disturbs the living by night and day in 
 the season of the " vomito" or yellow fever, is no longer 
 .heard, for it is the healthy season — the season of 
 "Northers." The only noise is the little bells upon the 
 necks of the donkeys, that are carrying about kegs of 
 water for family use. The chain-gang have completed 
 their morning task of cleansing the streets and gutters, 
 and as they are led away to their breakfast, a clank 
 now and then of their chain reminds the traveler that 
 crime has been as busy here as in more bustling cities. 
 Morning mass is over, and bonnetless women of low 
 and high degree are returning to their homes ; some 
 wearing mantillas of satin, black and shining as their 
 raven hair, which are pinned by a jeweled pin upon the 
 top of their lieads ; others, more modern in their tastes, 
 sport India shawls ; while the common class still cling 
 to the "rebosa," which they so ingeniously twirl around 
 their heads and chests as to include in its naiTow folds 
 their arms, and all above the waist except the face. 
 Priests appear in black gowns, and fur hats with such
 
 VERA CRUZ. 17 
 
 VERA CRUZ. 
 
 ample brims that they lap and are fastened together upon 
 the top of their heads. The armed patrol, in dirty cotton 
 uniforms, and soldiers in broadcloth, are returning from 
 morning muster ; for in this hot climate the burden of the 
 day's duties is discharged before breakfast. Under the 
 arches {j)ortales), and in the open market-place, men and 
 women are driving a brisk trade, in the most quiet 
 way, in meats, and vegetables, and huxter's wares. 
 Nature has denied to the butcher of hot climates the 
 privilege of salting meat, but he makes amends for this 
 defect by cutting his tough beef into strips, which he 
 rubs over with salt, and offers to sell to you by the 
 yard. Vera Cruz is now as venerable a looking town 
 as when I was here before, although the houses, and 
 the plastered walls, and tops of the stone churches seem 
 to have had a new coating of Spanish white within a 
 few months. But the malaria fi'om the swamps in the 
 time of the vomito, or the salt atmosphere driven upon 
 it by the Northers, soon replaces the familiar dingy hue. 
 The battered face of the stone image, at the side of the
 
 18 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 deserted church, has received a few more bruises since 
 I was last here ; for the marriageable young misses stiU 
 most religiously believe that a stone thrown by a fair 
 hand that shall hit the image full in the face, will ob- 
 tain for the thrower a husband, and an advantageous 
 settlement for life. This is a small city, or the poor 
 image could not have endured this kind of bruising for 
 two hundred years. 
 
 The first Spaniard that landed here was Grijalva,* in 
 1518, in a trading expedition fitted out by Valasquez, 
 Governor of Cuba. He was so successful in his traffic 
 with the natives, as to obtain, in exchange for a few 
 trinkets, $14,000 worth of gold dust. His success so 
 encouraged Yalasquez, that he fitted out a much larger 
 expedition the following year, the command of which he 
 gave to Hernando Cortez, of whom we shall have occa- 
 sion to speak more at large hereafter. Cortez, at first, 
 landed on the island of Ulua, in front of the site of the 
 present city. But when he commenced his conquest he 
 transported his boats to the mouth of the river Antigua, 
 where he founded his intended city, a little way below 
 the place where the national bridge now stands, and 
 gave it the name of the Rich City of the True Cross 
 (YiUa Rica de Yera Cruz) ; and there it was where he 
 destroyed his little vessels. Ninety years after the con- 
 quest of ^lexico, the Marquis De ]\Ionterey removed the 
 port back to Ulua, and founded the present city of Vera 
 Cruz. It was at first built of wood, but having been 
 several times burned down, it was at length built of its 
 present material — a porous stone full of animal remains, 
 obtained fi-om the bottom of the harbor. This stone, 
 when laid in and covered over w^ith cement, forms a very 
 durable building-material. The castle, which stands 
 upon the island of Ulua, is now fast going to decay. 
 * Apimtes Historicos de Vera Cruz, p. 102.
 
 COatMERCE OF VERA CRUZ. 19 
 
 As a fortification it is no longer of great value,* althougli 
 it is computed that more than $16,000,000 was expend- 
 ed in its erection. In fact, its only present practical 
 advantage is derived from the light-house which stands 
 upon one of its towers. 
 
 This town, although it has been the terror of sea- 
 faring men for the last three hundred years, has, for a 
 like period of time, enjoyed an enviable commerce. 
 Nearly three-fourths of all the silver that has been 
 shipped to Europe from America during that long pe- 
 riod has been sent from this port, besides the other 
 productions of the country, such as cochineal, vanilla, 
 wood of Tobasco, sarsaparilla, and jalap. To all this 
 we must add that all the trade of Spain with Japan, 
 China, and the Philipine Islands, was carried across 
 Mexico from Acapulco, on the Pacific, to be shipped 
 from Vera Cruz to Spain. During the long period we 
 have named, this was the only port on the Atlantic side 
 where foreign commerce was allowed ; and this was 
 restricted to Spain alone, and to a single fieet of mer- 
 chant ships that came and went annually, until about 
 fifty years before the Mexican independence, when firee 
 commerce was allowed with all the Spanish world. 
 From a history of the commerce of Vera Cruz, just pub- 
 lished at Mexico, I find that its annual average did not 
 vary greatly from $12,000,000 importations against 
 $18,000,000 exportations. The extra $6,000,000 being 
 about the annual average of the royal revenue derived 
 from New Spain, as this country was then called. Sil- 
 ver constituted the bulk of this $18,000,000, both in 
 weight and in value. During the last fifty years of 
 Spanish dominion, this commerce, extended, as we have 
 said, to all Spanish possessions, was monopolized by a 
 
 * Esterior Comercio de Mexico. M. M. Lerdo de Tegido. Mex- 
 ico, 1853.
 
 20 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 company of merchants styled the Consulado of Vera 
 Cruz. Under the management of this company it aver- 
 aged as high as $22,000,000. The revolution broke up 
 this monopoly, and almost annihilated the commerce of 
 this port, but it rapidly revived after the Spaniards were 
 driven out of the castle, and from this time it has gone 
 on increasing, until now it amounts to $26,000,000 ; 
 the imports and exports being equal, as there is now no 
 King's revenue. This commerce is now carried on prin- 
 cipally with the United States, since the establishment 
 of a line of steamers to New Orleans. The most im- 
 portant article of importation is raw cotton, for the sup- 
 ply of the gi-eat manufactories in the interior of Mexico. 
 The silver goes principally to England, and is drawn 
 again in favor of tJie cotton purchaser. There is also a 
 large import trade in agricultural implements, steam- 
 machinery for the sugar-mills and the silver mines, be- 
 sides heavy importation of silks and wines from France 
 and Spain. "With this hasty notice we are compelled 
 to quit a subject which is the theme of a most interest- 
 ing volume. 
 
 The iirst time T saw Vera Cruz was during the great 
 Xorther of 1852. I was then returning homeward from 
 the city of ^lexico. A fierce Xorther was blowing, and 
 the harbor was filled with shipping that could not bear 
 up against such a tornado. I stood among the anxious 
 multitude, watching the symptoms of the rising storm. 
 We looked intently at the heavens as they gathered 
 blackness, and saw far off toward the horizon the clouds 
 and the waves mingling together into one great vapor- 
 ous mass. Now and then we were tantalized by brief 
 intervals of bright skies ; but they were again quickly 
 overcast and shrouded in by more intense darkness, 
 while the temperature fell to a degTee of chilliness un- 
 usual in this latitude. The howling of the wind was
 
 I 
 
 A NORTHER. 21 
 
 terrific. Where we stood we were near enough to see, 
 or at least to catch glimpses "of what was taking place 
 on board the shipping. All extra anchors that could be 
 got out were soon tin-own into the sea. But to little 
 purpose ; for a coral bottom is but a poor holding-ground 
 in a Norther. One after another the vessels began to 
 drag toward the shore ; and even the castle itself seemed 
 at times as though it would be torn from its rocky 
 foundations and dashed upon the town, so violent was 
 the tempest. The ten-or of those on land was hardly 
 describable as they saw the shipping dragging around 
 toward apparent destruction to both vessels and crews. 
 Now and then a vessel held a little by some new obsta- 
 cle that the anchor had caught hold of, but soon the 
 resistance gave way, and then it moved on again, ap- 
 proaching the shore, whither all now were tending, ex- 
 cept a few that occupied a good holding-ground in the 
 lee of the castle and island. All did not drag at once, 
 or drag together ; but one by one their power of endm- 
 ance gave out, and one by one they came dragging on, 
 when they had no longer any help, and little hope, if 
 the stoiTn continued. " It can not last long," the spec- 
 tators would mutter, rather in hope than expectation, for 
 the only chance for the safety of tlie vessels was in the 
 lulling of the tempest. Yet it did continue against the 
 constant predictions of all, and momentarily increased 
 in violence. Hope seemed to give way to despair as 
 vessel after vessel approached the land ; and as they 
 were dashed into pieces men held their breath, while 
 the hardy seamen were struggling in the waves toward 
 the beach. One staunch vessel, without cargo, was car- 
 ried broadside on, and her crew leaped out of her, and 
 ran off in safety. ^lany single shipwrecks have caused 
 greater destruction of property, and immensely greater 
 loss of life ; but here was the individual struggle of each
 
 22 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 separate mariner, made in the rerv sight of those who 
 could render no assistance, but must stand idle specta- 
 tors. Here strong swimmers were rendered powerless 
 by the tempest, and were perishing from exhaustion in 
 vain efforts to swim ashore. 
 
 From this scene of disaster we turned to look back 
 upon a more equal contest going on between two of the 
 elements : a small steamer — a little crazy thing, it 
 seemed, almost ready to be blown to pieces ; but it was 
 gallantly facing the tempest, and riding out bravely 
 against the combined force of wind and waves. But 
 she mounted the waves, one after another, without any 
 difficulty, though held by but a single anchor, as the 
 strain on her cable was eased away by the action of her 
 paddle-wheels, which were kept in motion by an engine 
 of the smallest class ever put into a river boat. This 
 was said to be the most violent Xorther that had visited 
 Vera Cruz in a century. It destroyed sixteen vessels, 
 and caused the loss of thirteen lives ; and yet so small 
 an amount of steam-power was fully able to bear up 
 against the dreaded fur}' of a Xorther, and to insure the 
 safety of the vessel. 
 
 Vera Cruz, like almost every other Spanish American 
 seaport town, has its traditional tales of the horrors 
 committed by the buccaneers, or filibusters. The his- 
 tory of the buccaneers, their origin, their fearful exploits 
 of blood, the terror that their name even now inspires 
 in the minds of all Spanish Americans, are too weU 
 known to demand a repetition here, though we may give 
 the substance of their story, by saying that they had 
 their origin in a laudable effort to avenge the gross 
 wrongs inflicted by the Spaniards upon the honest tra- 
 ders of other nations, while trafficking with the native 
 inhabitants of America, within the region which the 
 Pope, as the representative of the Almighty, had be-
 
 THE BUCCANEERS. 23 
 
 stowed upon the King of Spain, to conquer and subdue 
 for the benefit of the Church. Elizabeth of England 
 raised the question of the validity of the title of the King 
 of Spain derived from so questionable a source, and in- 
 sisted that he had no rights in America beyond those 
 acquired by discovery, followed up by possession. But 
 the King of Spain was too good a Catholic to have his 
 right called in question, and when a heretic ship was 
 caught among the West Indies, the avarice of priests 
 and officials, and their holy horror at the approach of 
 heresy to these regions, were exhibited in their deal- 
 ings with the cargo and the unhappy crew. The in- 
 human treatment that the Spaniards inflicted upon hon- 
 est traders aroused men to reprisals ; and all ships ven- 
 turing into these seas went fully armed. Private war 
 was the natural consequence of Spanish cruelty and in- 
 justice ; and the superior prowess of the Dutch and En- 
 glish soon made sad havoc with the plunder which the 
 Spaniards had wrung from the natives for a hundred 
 years and more. 
 
 The filibusters finally degenerated into pirates and 
 robbers, and the treasure ships (" galleons") of Spain, 
 and the towns upon her American coasts, were the vic- 
 tims of their depredations. The fury of the buccaneers 
 was mainly directed against the monks, and when they 
 sacked a town, they never failed to pay an especial vis- 
 itation to the convents. When Vera Cruz was sacked 
 they showed their contempt for the clergy by compelling 
 the monks and nuns to cany the plunder of the town 
 to their private boats ; thereby grieving these '' holy 
 men" most of all, if we may believe the old chronicles, 
 because they could have no share in the rich plunder 
 loaded upon their own backs. 
 
 The second day after our arrival in Vera Cruz a fel- 
 low-passenger, who had been sick all the voyage, died
 
 1^4 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 of the yellow fever, which he had contracted at New 
 Orleans, or on the Mississippi ; which was probably 
 the first time that a person ever died in Vera Cruz of 
 vomito that had been contracted in the United States. 
 
 This is a fitting place to speak of this disease and of 
 its ravages, which we witnessed before lea^4ng Xew Or- 
 leans. It was the time for the frosts to make their ap- 
 pearance when I left Xew York, and with the expecta- 
 tion of seeing the ground covered with this antidote to 
 the fever, crowds were returning from the north, though 
 the marks of the pestilence were still visible along our 
 route. It had followed the main stream of travel far 
 northward, and now, as we ventured upon its track, it 
 seemed like traversing the valley of the shadow of death. 
 Terror had committed greater ravages than the pesti- 
 lence ; the villages and cities on our route were half 
 deserted; stagnation was visible in all commercial 
 places ; and when we reached Xew Orleans this strange 
 state of things was doubly intensified : it looked more 
 like a city of the dead, or a city depopulated, than the 
 emporium of the ^Mississippi valley. A stranger might 
 have supposed that a great funeral service had just been 
 performed, in which all of the inhabitants remaining in 
 town had acted the part of mourners. The city itself 
 had been so thoroughly cleansed, that it might challenge 
 comparison with one of the most cleanly villages of 
 Holland, wliile its footways seemed almost too pure 
 to be trod upon. Nothing appears half so gloomy as 
 such a place when deserted of its principal inhabit- 
 ants. 
 
 This disease was unknown in America until the open- 
 ing of the African slave-trade. It is an African disease, 
 intensified and aggravated by the rottenness and filthy 
 habits of the human cargoes that brought it to America. 
 It was entirely unknown at Vera Cruz irntil brought
 
 THE VOMITO. 25 
 
 there in the slave-ship of 1699.* In like manner it 
 was carried to all the West India islands. When the 
 negro insurrection in San Domingo drove the white pop- 
 ulation into exile, the disease was carried by the immi- 
 grants to all the cities of the United States, and even to 
 the most healthy localities in the interior of Massachu- 
 setts. Old people still remember when New York was 
 so completely deserted that its principal streets were 
 boarded up, and watchmen went their rounds of silent 
 streets by day as well as by night. The fever of the 
 present year can be traced directly to this accursed traf- 
 fic. Slaves had been smuggled into Rio Janeiro, who 
 brought the disease in its most virulent form from 
 Africa. In that city it was carrying its hundreds to 
 the grave, when a vessel cleared for New Orleans, hav- 
 ing the disease on board. This vessel disseminated it 
 in the upper wards of the city, while at the same time 
 there arrived from Cuba another vessel which, fr*om a 
 like cause, had caught the vomito at Havana, and 
 from this second vessel the disease was disseminated 
 in the lower wards of New Orleans. It was the meet- 
 ing of these two independent currents of the fever in 
 the centre of the city, on Canal Street, that caused 
 that fatal day on which three hundred victims went to 
 their long homes. Such were the fruits of this offspring 
 of an inhuman trade in a single city, in a single day. 
 
 I learn from the preface of a book in the Spanish lan- 
 guage, which I purchased at Mexico, entitled " Tlie 
 Voyages of Thomas Page," that a Dominican monk of 
 that name, the brother of the Royalist Governor of 
 Oxford under Charles I., was smuggled into Mexico by 
 his Dominican brethren, against the King's order, which 
 prohibited the entry of Englishmen into that country. 
 As a missionary monk he resided in Mexico, or New 
 * Apuntes Historicos de Vera Cruz, p. 129. 
 
 B
 
 26 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Spain, as it was then called, eighteen years. On his 
 return to England he published an account of the coun- 
 try which he visited, under the title of "A Survey 
 of the West Indies." This being the first and last 
 book ever wi'itten by a resident of New Spain that had 
 not been submitted to the most rigid censorship by 
 the Inquisition, it produced so profound a sensation, 
 that, by order of the great Colbert, French ^Minister of 
 State, it was expurgated and translated into French by 
 an Irish Catholic of the name of O'Xeil. From this 
 expurgated French edition the Spanish copy now be- 
 fore me was translated. From this Spanish edition I 
 had made the several translations that are found in this, 
 and the following chapters. I have since found a black 
 letter copy of the original, printed at London, in 1677 ; 
 but I have concluded to use the translations, as furnish- 
 ing a more official character to the pictui*e therein drawn 
 of the grossly immoral state of the clergy, and of the 
 religious orders. As it is firom actual observation, and 
 has the sanction of the censorship, it must be of more 
 value to my readers than any account of personal ob- 
 servations that I might write. This is my apology 
 for copying the most interesting portions of a long for- 
 gotten book. 
 
 "When we came to land," says our author, "we saw 
 all the inhabitants of the city (Vera Cruz) had congre- 
 gated in the Plaza (public square) to receive us. The 
 communities of monks were also there, each one pre- 
 ceded by a large crucifix. The* Dominicans, the San 
 Franciscans, the Mercedarios, and the Jesuits, in order 
 to conduct the Yirey (the Viceroy) of ^lexico as far as 
 the Cathedral. The Jesuits and friars from the ships 
 leaped upon the shore more expeditiously than did the 
 Yirey, the ^larquis Seralvo, and his wife. Many of 
 them (the monks) on stepping on shore kissed it, con-
 
 FRIAR PAGE. 27 
 
 sidering that it was a holy cause that brought them 
 here — the conversion of the Indians, who had before 
 adored and sacrificed to demons ; others kneeled down 
 and gave thanks to the Virgin Mary and other saints 
 of their devotion, and then all the monks hastened to 
 incorporate themselves with their respective orders in 
 the place in which they severally stood. The proces- 
 sion, as soon as formed, directed itself to the Cathedral, 
 where the consecrated wafer* was exposed upon the high 
 
 altar, and to which all kneeled as they entered 
 
 The services ended, the Virey was conducted to his 
 lodgings by the first Alcalde, the magistrates of the town, 
 and judges, who had descended fi:om the capitol to re- 
 ceive him, besides the soldiers of the garrison and the 
 ships. Those of the religious orders who had just ar- 
 rived were conducted to their respective convents, cross- 
 es, as before, being carried at the head of each com- 
 munity. Friar John presented (us) his missionaries to 
 the Prior of the Convent of San Domingo, who received 
 us kindly, and directed sweetmeats to be given to us, 
 and also there was given to each of us a cup of that In- 
 dian beverage which the Indians call chocolate. 
 
 " This first little act of kindness was only a prelude 
 to a greater one. That is to say, it was the introduc- 
 tion to a sumptuous dinner, composed of flesh and fish 
 of every description, in which there was no lack of tur- 
 keys and capons. All set out with the intent of mani- 
 festing to us the abundance of the country, and not for 
 the purpose of worldly ostentation. 
 
 " The Prior of Vera Cruz was neither old nor severe, 
 as the men selected to govern communities of youthful 
 religious are accustomed to be. On the contrary, he 
 was in the flower of his age, and had all the manner of 
 
 * Called, in the Spanish translation, " The most holy Sacrament ;" 
 but in the English original, " The bread God."
 
 28 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 a joyful and diverting youth. His fathership, as they 
 told us, had acquired the priory by means of a gift of 
 a thousand ducats, which he had sent to the Father 
 Provincial. After dinner he invited some of us to visit 
 his cell, and there it was we came to know the levity 
 of liis life. It exhibited little of the appearance of a 
 lile of penance and self-mortification. We expected to 
 find in the habitation of a prelate of such an establish- 
 ment a most magnificent library, which would furnish 
 an index of his leai'ning and of his taste for letters. But 
 we saw nothing more than a dozen old books lying in a 
 corner, and covered with dust and cobwebs, as if they 
 had hid themselves for shame at the neglect with which 
 the treasures they contained had been treated, and that 
 a guitar should be preferred to them. 
 
 " The cell of the Prior was richly tapestried and 
 adorned with feathers of birds of !Michoacan ; the walls 
 were hung with various pictures of merit ; rich rugs of 
 silk covered the tables ; porcelain of China filled the 
 cupboards and sideboards ; and there were vases and 
 bowls containing preserved fruits and most delicate 
 sweetmeats. Oui- enthusiastic companions did not fail 
 to be scandalized at such an exhibition, which they 
 looked upon as a manifestation of worldly vanity, so 
 foreign to the poverty of a begging firiar. But those 
 among us that had sailed from Spain with the intent 
 of living at their ease, and of enjoying the pleasures 
 which riches would produce, exulted at the sight of such 
 great opulence, and they desired to establish themselves 
 in a countr}^ where they could so quickly win fortunes 
 so secure and abundant.* The holy Prior talked to us 
 only of his ancestiy, of his good parts, of the influence 
 which he had with the Father Provincial, of the love 
 
 * These missionary monks were on their way to Manilla and the 
 Spanish East Indies by the road across Mexico.
 
 A NICE YOUNG PEIOE. 29 
 
 which the principal ladies and the wives of the richest 
 merchants manifested to him, of his beautiful voice, of 
 his consummate skill in music. In fact, that we might 
 not doubt him in this last particular, he took the guitar 
 and sung a sonnet which he had composed to a certain 
 Amaryllis. This was a new scandal to our newly-ar- 
 rived religious^ which afflicted some of them to see such 
 libertinage in a prelate, who ought, on the contrary, to 
 have set an example of penance and self-mortification, 
 and should shine like a mirror in his conduct and words. 
 "When we had satiated our ears with the delicacy of 
 music, our eyes with the beauty of such rich stuffs of 
 cotton, of silk, and of feathers, then our reverend Prior 
 directed us to take from his dispensaries a prodigious 
 quantity of every species of dainties to allure the taste 
 or satisfy the appetite. Truly we seemed in another 
 world, by being transported firom Europe to America. 
 Our senses had been changed from what they had been 
 the night and day before, while listening to the hoarse 
 sounds of the mariners, when the abyss of the sea was 
 at our feet, and when we drank fetid water, and inhaled 
 the stench of pitch. In the Prior's cell of the Convent 
 of Vera Cruz, we listened to a melodious voice accom- 
 panied with an harmonious instrument, we saw treas- 
 ures and riches, we ate exquisite confectioneries, we 
 breathed amber and musk, with which he had perfumed 
 his sirups and conserves. O, that dehcious Prior!"
 
 CHAPTEE, II. 
 
 An historical Sketch. — Truth seldom spoken of Santa Anna. — Santa 
 Anna's early Life. — Causes of the Kevolution. — The Virgin Mary's 
 Approval of Iving Ferdinand. — The Inquisition imprisons the Vice- 
 King. — Santa Anna enters the King's Army. — The plan of Iguala. 
 — The War of the two Virgins. — Santa Anna pronounces for Inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 Before commencing our journey to tlie interior, we 
 must break the thread of our narrative by a brief bio- 
 graphical sketch : for this town is the birth-place, and 
 here began the pubHc career of that man whose life has 
 become the history of his country. AVith him the 
 ]\Iexican Repubhc began, and ■v\'ith him it has been 
 terminated. In 1822 he was first to proclaim a Eepub- 
 lic in the Plaza of Vera Cruz ; and when I stood in the 
 Plaza of the city of 3Iexico, in the winter of 1854, I 
 heard him proclaimed absolute ruler of a state which 
 had already ceased to be a Republic. This was not the 
 first time that he had been raised to absolute authority 
 in IMexico, but the third time that this had occurred in 
 his checkered career — a career that resembles more the 
 ■vicissitudes in the life of a hero of Spanisli romance than 
 the memoirs of a living politician. 
 
 Santa Anna is a man of whom the truth has seldom 
 been spoken ; for no man can raise himself from a hum- 
 ble position to be the embodiment of all the powers of 
 the state without creating a host of enemies ; nor can 
 a man be long in possession of absolute authority with- 
 out raising up a tribe of flatterers. To the one, he is 
 every thing that is shocking to humanity ; while to the
 
 SANTA ANNA. 31 
 
 Other he is the perfection of all the moral qualities. 
 This scurrilous manner in which all political discussions 
 are carried on in ^Mexico, has always furnished a ready 
 apology for the suppression of liberty of speech, and for 
 the enforcement of the Mexican law of ostracism in turn 
 by every party in power. 
 
 As we Americans have nothing to hope from his 
 friendship, and nothing to fear from the displeasure of 
 Santa Anna, we are able to take a correct view of his 
 character from the records, and to affirm that he is 
 neither a saint, as represented by one party, nor a mon- 
 ster, as represented by the other ; and as greatness is a 
 comparative term, and goodness is often used in a com- 
 parative sense, we may also add that he is the first of 
 Mexican statesmen, and as good as the best of his rivals. 
 He has suffered unnumbered and overwhelming defeats, 
 which have so exhibited his recuperative talents as to 
 attract the admiration of foreigners. Other aspirants 
 have risen to popular favor, and then fallen, one after the 
 other, and have disappeared. But Santa Anna's falls 
 have ever been a prelude to his rising again to a greater 
 elevation ; and there is no point of elevation to which 
 he has risen from which he has not been ignominiously 
 hurled. He is a politician whose course reminds us of 
 a skillful swimmer in the breakers ; half the time he 
 rides the waves and half the time he is submerged, yet 
 never sinks so deep but that he rises again to the sur- 
 face. When Santa Anna is in authority the fickle 
 multitude cry out against him, and when he is in exile 
 no suffering innocent can compare with him ; and the 
 books that at such times sell best in Mexico are those 
 that vindicate his past career. Of such a man some- 
 thing must be said, and to render that something intel- 
 ligible, a brief account of the social and political changes 
 of his times must be rendered.
 
 32 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Santa Anna was bom at Vera Cruz, in the year 1796, 
 in the most prosperous era of the colonial government 
 of the vice-kingdom of New Spain, while Kavillagi- 
 gedo was Yirej. The new and liberal code, regulating 
 mines and mining, was yielding its legitimate firuits in 
 the immensely increased production of silver and gold, 
 while the newly-granted privilege of unrestricted trade 
 with Spain and her other colonies was followed by con- 
 siderable shipments of grain from the table-lands of 
 Mexico to the West India Islands. The profound peace 
 that had reigned iminterruptedly for two hundred and 
 seventy-five years was still unbroken. Not a word 
 of disloyalty was breathed ; whUe the Inquisition of 
 Mexico watched with the utmost care for the least ap- 
 pearance of rebellion against God or the king. Such 
 was the religious and political stagnation at the time 
 Santa Anna was born ; and so it continued for the first 
 twelve years of his life. But his youth was not to be 
 passed in a period of national repose. 
 
 It was the year 1808 that the news arrived in j\Iexico 
 of the imprisonment of Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII., 
 the dotard and simpleton who then disputed the Span- 
 ish throne, and who had rendered themselves the laugh- 
 ing stock of all Europe by going, each one in person, 
 to advocate his side of a family quarrel before a common 
 enemy, the French Emperor, by whom both had thus 
 been caught like mice in a cage, and compelled to abdi- 
 cate. At this news a feeling of indignation ran thi'ough 
 the vice-kingdom, while aU Eui'ope laughed at the 
 strange combination of knave and fool exliibited in the 
 characters of the two Spanish kings. The people of 
 New Spain saw in them only the guardians of the 
 Church in the power of the infidels, and at once forgot 
 the unnatural crimes of their two kings. They thought 
 only of their piety, and with joy the news was carried
 
 THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION. 33 
 
 throughout New Spain, that one of their previous kings 
 had consecrated his imprisonment to embroidering a pet- 
 ticoat for the Virgin Mary ; and when this announcement 
 was followed by another, a little more apocryphal, that 
 the most holy image had, by a nod, signified her ac- 
 ceptance of the present, there could no longer be a doubt 
 of his title of Most Catholic King, which might from 
 that time onward be interpreted Most Catholic Mantua- 
 maker. The world might now laugh at him, and hold 
 him up to ridicule. All its ridicule mattered nothing 
 to the Mexicans. It made no difference to them. To 
 revere the king and render him a blind obedience was 
 at all times a part of their religion. Whether either of 
 the two were fit to be kings was not a question for the 
 people to determine ; and if the Virgin Mary had not 
 nodded her approval, the solution of this question of 
 competency would still be reserved for the tribunals of 
 God and the Inquisition. It was sufficient for the peo- 
 ple to know that both father and son had been com- 
 pelled to abdicate, and that they no longer were kings 
 of Spain, and that the brother of the French Emperor 
 occupied the vacant throne, which the Inquisition had 
 associated, in their superstition, with the throne of God 
 itself. God and the king were inseparable words in 
 the mouth of a citizen of New Spain, and he that dared 
 to separate them was thought worthy of Inquisitorial 
 fires. They owed the same reverence which the Aztecs 
 rendered to their emperor before the conquest. 
 
 Next to God and the king was the vice-king. Yet 
 they had seen their beloved viceroy, Iturrigaray, deposed 
 by a conspiracy of Spanish shop-keepers, which had 
 organized itself in that focus of Mexican trade, the 
 Parian. All this was bewildering to the nation. All 
 New Spain was astonished to see a power sufficiently 
 potent to arrest the vice-king emanate from such a 
 
 B*
 
 34 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 quarter. And not onlj had they witnessed this, but 
 they had also seen this same officer, whose person was 
 so sacred in their eyes, cast into the prison of the In- 
 quisition among "heretics, and accm*sed of God, and 
 despised of Christian men,'' because he had not discrim- 
 inated in favor of the Spanish-born in his appeal to the 
 patriotism of the people. 
 
 Before they had escaped from this bewildering of all 
 their ideas of government, they were suddenly called 
 upon to take sides in a war of races that had sprung up 
 in determining the question, who constituted the people, 
 among the divers races that composed the population 
 of ^lexico ? The Cortes of Spain had just proclaimed 
 the sovereignty of the people. But who were the peo- 
 ple ? The solution of this question excited one of the 
 most cruel and envenomed wars on record. The hand- 
 ful of whites who had been bom in Spain, and who 
 enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative offices in Church 
 and in State, as well as a monopoly in trade, claimed it 
 as their exclusive pri^olege to be considered the people, 
 and they it was who imprisoned the vice-king, because 
 he appeared to have more enlarged views than them- 
 selves. The Creoles, as those of pure white blood bom 
 in America are called, who were excluded from all 
 places of honor or profit, held the balance of power, 
 and it was doubtftd for a long time to which side the 
 Creole soldiers would incline. But they were not long 
 in suspense ; for when fii-ed upon by an undisciplined 
 rabble, rather than an army, of Indians, they returned 
 the fire, and there, in sight of the city of ^lexico, settled 
 the character of a contest which was, fi-om that time 
 forward, to shake the whole social organization of the 
 vice-kingdom — in which plantations were destroyed, and 
 villages and cities sacked and burned, and the most un- 
 heard-of cruelties practiced by one party or tlie other
 
 RISE OF SANTA ANNA. 35 
 
 on the defenseless, until the final triumph of the Creole, 
 or white troops, in the time of the viceroy, Apaduer, 
 over the insurgents, composed chiefly of Indians and 
 those of mixed blood. 
 
 While this war was raging in all its fury, Santa 
 Anna arrived at an age to choose an occupation for life ; 
 and with the ardor of youth he entered the king's serv- 
 ice as a Creole officer, a cadet in the Fijo de Vera 
 Cruz. In this fratricidal war he soon distinguished 
 himself by that activity in the performance of the duties 
 of a subaltern which, in more mature years, distinguished 
 him as a leader and a politician. He was at that time 
 in the unhappy dilemma of every man born in Spanish 
 America ; he was compelled to choose between two evils 
 — either to join the king's cause, and fight for the Span- 
 iards who oppressed his country, or* to run the hazard 
 of seeing re-enacted in Mexico the bloody tragedy of 
 San Domingo, if the colored races should conquer in a 
 contest with the Spaniards. A few Creoles had chosen 
 the side of the insurgents ; but they were few ; as the 
 Spanish cause could not have been sustained for a day, 
 if it had not been for the want of confidence in the lead- 
 ers of the insurrection. But it was not in contests with 
 his own countrymen that Santa Anna first won dis- 
 tinction ; it was in a battle with the filibustering in- 
 vaders while yet ^lexico was a colony of Spain : it was 
 in the bloody battle of the river Madina, in Texas, 
 where an army of three thousand men (according to 
 Mexican accounts), on their way to join the Mexican in- 
 surgents, were totally routed by Aridondo. 
 
 The zeal which Santa Anna continually exhibited in 
 almost daily contests with guerillas outside of the walls 
 of Vera Cruz, so long as the contest was confined to a 
 war of races, soon won him distinction. But now he 
 is called to play the part of a military politician ; for
 
 36 AIEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 wlien the news arrived in Mexico of the new constitu- 
 tional revolution of 1820 in Spain itself, aU the higher 
 classes of society in the vice-kingdom were in terror. 
 Ten years of bloodshed and civil disorder had been the 
 fi-uits to ^Mexico of the first revolution of Spain — an in- 
 surrection that had not been efiectually put down until 
 Spain herself had returned to despotism, and now tlie 
 newly-restored peace was threatened witli a more bloody 
 insurrection than the former, unless there was an entire 
 separation of the two coimtries. Experience had ftdly 
 demonstrated that the Spanish colonial system was com- 
 patible only with Spanish despotism. AU native-bom 
 races desired to be free from the political disorders con- 
 sequent upon the military revolutions of Spain herself. 
 In this desire they were joined by that class who then 
 ruled over the consciences of all men in Mexico, the 
 clergy ; for that powerful body preferred to sacrifice the 
 allegiance they owed to the king, from whom they had 
 received their preferments, rather than run the risk of 
 losing their privileges. 
 
 That which was the thought of all Mexicans capable 
 of thinking, was not long in receiving a definite shape 
 and form. The proJiunciaraiento of Colonel Iturbide, 
 at the city of Iguala, on the 24th of February 1821, 
 united all the conflicting elements of Mexican society; 
 for all could agree upon a plan that proposed a separa- 
 tion from Spain, while it gave guarantees to property, to 
 the army, and to the church. ^len who had been edu- 
 cated under the fatherly care of the Inquisition, had no 
 idea of reHgious toleration ; toleration for heresy was no 
 part of their creed ; nor had their long civil wars pro- 
 duced that alienation from the priesthood which had 
 arisen from tliis cause in the other Spanish American 
 states. One reason for this was that the first insurrec- 
 tion was headed by the parish priest, Hidalgo ; and be-
 
 THE PLAN OF IGUALA. 37 
 
 cause the most prominent leaders in it were priests; 
 while the watchword of the insurgents was, " Viva Our 
 Lady of Guadalupe!" who is the patron saint of the 
 colored races of Mexico. The insurrection of Iguala 
 was entirely distinct in its character from the popular 
 insuiTcction of 1810 ; for that was an insurrection of the 
 oppressed races against the despotism that was grinding 
 them in the dust. It was a peasant war; but the cry 
 of Iguala rose from the soldiers of the government. It 
 was the first of that long list of military insurrections 
 that have afflicted Mexico. It was an insurrection of 
 the Creole supporters of the government, and rendered 
 the government powerless at once. Colonel Iturbide 
 had distinguished himself, as a Creole soldier, by his 
 courage, and by the cruelty which he exercised toward 
 the first insurgents. 
 
 When an officer in the service of the king in the first 
 insurrection obtained a victory, he went to make his 
 offering, not at the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, 
 but at the shrine of the Virgin of Remedies, so that as 
 long as the Spanish cause prospered, the shrine of Gua- 
 dalupe remained in obscurity; but as soon, however, as 
 Iturbide and the Creoles deserted the cause of the king 
 and joined the national standard, the Lady of Guada- 
 lupe was made the national patroness, and the order of 
 Guadalupe was established as the first and only order 
 of the empire, while Our Lady of Remedies sank into 
 obscurity. This gave occasion to an unbelieving j\Iex- 
 ican to remark that the revolution was a war between 
 the Blessed Virgins, and that she of Guadalupe had tri- 
 umphed over her that had taken shelter in the plant. 
 
 As soon as the tidings of the plan of Iguala reached 
 Vera Cruz, Santa Anna hastened to give in his ad- 
 hesion to the cause now truly national, which guaran- 
 teed equal rights to all under the united leadership of
 
 38 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Itorbide and of General Guerrero, the only remaining 
 Creole leader of the first insurrection still in arms. On 
 the 18th day of March, 1821, he was the first to pro- 
 claim the plan of Igaiala in the Plaza of Vera Cruz. 
 This promptness of Santa Anna in proclaiming the in- 
 dependence determined many who were hesitating in 
 dread of a bombardment from Spanish forces in the 
 Castle of San Juan de Ulua ; and this important step 
 it was which first brought him prominently into notice. 
 As a consequence of this political movement, Santa 
 Anna was appointed second in command in Vera Cruz.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Incidents of Travel. — The Great Road to the Interior. — Mexican Dili- 
 gences. — The Priest -was tlie first Passenger robbed. — Tlie National 
 Bridge. — A Conducta of Silver. — Our JNIonk visits Old Vera Cruz. — 
 They grant to the Indians Forty Years of Indulgence in return for 
 their Hosijitality. — The Artist among Robbers. — Mexican Scholars 
 in the United States. — Encerro. 
 
 A EAILROAD eleven miles in length, crossing the mo- 
 rass, connects Yera Cruz with the great National Eoad 
 to the table-land of the interior. The coach in which 
 the journey to Mexico is made is placed on a railroad 
 track and pushed on before a crazy locomotive, while 
 behind the engine is a long line of freight wagons. At 
 every cow-path that crossed our track stood a flagman 
 waving his little red flag to the train as it passed, ap- 
 parently in burlesque imitation of a regular road. 
 
 The famous National Bridge carries the National Eoad 
 over the river Antigua, at the mouth of which, a little 
 way below, Cortez built his Vera Cruz (Villa Eica de 
 Vera Cruz), and where he caused his vessels to be 
 sunk before commencing his expedition to the interior. 
 Little has ever been known in our country of that mag- 
 nificent whole, of which this and other bridges of solid 
 masonry are but parts. The National Eoad of Mexico 
 was conceived and executed by a company of merchants 
 known as the Consulado of Vera Cruz. It is about 
 ninety miles in length, and cost $3, 000, 000. From Vera 
 Cruz it runs northward, often within sight of the Gulf, 
 till it nearly reaches the Cerro Gordo, where it turns 
 inland, and passing upward through that celebrated
 
 40 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 gorge to Jalapa, a distance of sixty miles from Vera 
 Cruz, and at an elevation of 4264 feet above the sea; 
 thence, for the remaining thirty miles, it is carried over 
 the famous mountain, Perote, to the great table-land of 
 Mexico. It is a work of extraordinary character for 
 the period in which it was built, and the method of its 
 construction ; and reminds the traveler of a Roman road 
 of antiquity, though no Roman road ever passed over a 
 mountain 10,000 feet in height. The ruin into which 
 it has fallen in many places during the last thirty years 
 of civil war, serves to keep up the illusion, though it 
 falls far short of those ancient roads in the material of 
 which it is constructed, being of small rough stones, 
 covered over with a durable cement. 
 
 The system of stage-coaches between Vera Cruz and 
 Mexico is as nearly perfect as any system of traveling 
 dependent on weather can be. Comfortable hotels are 
 established at convenient distances along the road ; and 
 if the passenger desires it, he can have endorsed upon 
 his ticket a permission to tarry upon the road as long 
 as he may desire. Six, and sometimes eight horses 
 drag the coach along at a hazardous speed. Twice, out 
 of three times that I have passed over this road, I have 
 been overturned. Once, while riding on the top, a 
 heavy iron axle broke like a pipe-stem, throwing me 
 off upon the rough stones, with the additional misfor- 
 tune of having a heavy Frenchman fall upon me. But 
 no bones were broken, and I still live to tell the story. 
 
 The neighborhood of the National Bridge is a favorite 
 haunt of the knights of the road. TJiough very pious 
 in their way, they have no scruples in relieving any 
 priest who may fall into their hands of such worldly 
 possessions as he happens to have about him. In fact, 
 they seem to take a special delight in plundering these 
 holy men, giving them the precedence in relieving their
 
 THE NATIONAL BRIDGE. 43 
 
 wants. Out of respect to the cloth, they omit the cere- 
 mony of searching, to which the other passengers are 
 subjected ; nor do they compel him to lie down like the 
 others. But with mock solemnity a robber approaches 
 the sacred personage, and dropping on one knee, pre- 
 sents his hat for alms, which the priest understands to 
 be a reverential mode of demanding all the valuables 
 that he carries about him : his reverence having been dis- 
 posed of, the women are searched ; afterward the men, 
 one by one, are ordered to rise up to undergo a like 
 ceremony ; and, lastly, the baggage is ransacked, and 
 then all are suffered to go on their way in peace, if no 
 shots have been fired from the stage. In former times 
 the robbers used to divide their plunder with the Virgin 
 Mary, but now things are altered ; the robber takes 
 all, and even visits the churches occasionally, not to 
 worship, but for plunder. If two or three priests take 
 passage in a single coach, people shake their heads and 
 say, "That coach will certainly be robbed;*' and so it 
 often happens. 
 
 The stage ordinarily passes this bridge in the night, 
 when there is no opportunity to look at the magnificent 
 scenery around. I saw it once by daylight ; and long- 
 shall I remember the impression produced. I lingered 
 about the spot to the last moment that "Jim," or as 
 he is here called " San Diego," the driver, would per- 
 mit. We reluctantly took our places in the coach, and 
 when the hostler let slip the rope that held the heads of 
 the leaders, our eight wild horses dashed off at a furious 
 rate over a roughly paved road, to the no small dis- 
 tm'bance of the reflections which such a spot awakens. 
 
 We tried to think of the stirring events that had 
 here so often taken place in times of civil war, when 
 Gomez practiced such cruelties in the name of liberty ; 
 when robberies and murders were committed here in
 
 44 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 broad daylight ; when the frowning battery that crowns 
 the cliff, stopped the passage of armies. But it was of 
 no use to try to think; the wheels would strike fire 
 upon the boulders l}"ing in the road, tumbling us about 
 until all romance and recollection were pounded out 
 of us. 
 
 Gladly we halted at Plan del Rio to take a little 
 chocolate and look at the ruins of a stone bridge blown 
 up by gunpowder, while new horses were being brought 
 out to drag us up the Cerro Gordo pass. 
 
 Here we met a small body of soldiers conducting 
 eight freight wagons that carried loads of coined silver, 
 and were drawn by twelve horses each, on their way to 
 the coast — a common sight to the people of these parts, 
 as was evident from the indiflerence with which they 
 regarded such cargoes of money ; yet it was calculated 
 to make an ^Ajnerican stare, though he had been accus- 
 tomed to look upon treasures of CaHfornia in her palm- 
 iest days. But a few millions in silver make a most 
 imposing show. 
 
 Our monk, on his journey to this point, had kept 
 along the shore, crossing the Antigua near its mouth, 
 visiting old Vera Cruz. He thus describes what he 
 there saw: 
 
 " The first Indians whom we encountered in our jour- 
 ney were at old Vera Cruz, which is on the sea-sliorc, 
 where, as we have akeady said, the Spaniards first de- 
 signed to establish themselves on undertaking the con- 
 quest of the country, but which they had to abandon 
 on account of the little protection it afforded against the 
 north winds. Here we began to note the jDower which 
 the clergy and fi-iars have among the poor Indians ; how 
 they ride them, and the respect and veneration which 
 are paid them. The Prior of Vera Cruz having written, 
 the morning of our departui'e, advertising them of the
 
 FRIAK PAGE AT VERA CRUZ. 45 
 
 day of our arrival, he commanded them to come and 
 receive us, and to serve us during our transit through 
 their temtory. The poor Indians obeyed with the 
 gi'eatest promptitude the orders of the Prior, and at a 
 league from their village twenty of their principal men 
 encountered us upon horseback, and handed a wreath 
 of flowers to each one of us. Then they set out on 
 their return in front of our caravan, and at a bow-shot 
 distance, and in this manner we proceeded until we 
 came up with others on foot, with trumpets and flutes, 
 which were played very agi-eeably before our whole cav- 
 alcade. Those who had come out were the employees 
 of the churches and the chiefs of the fraternities, all of 
 whom presented us a garland of flowers. Then fol- 
 lowed others — the priests' assistants, acolitos, and the 
 young people of the choir, who went singing a Te Deum 
 laudamus, until we arrived at the market-place. There 
 is always a Plaza in the midst of the village, and here 
 it was adorned by two great and most beautiful elms : 
 between these there had been constructed an immense 
 arbor, in which was a table covered with jars and dishes 
 of conserves, and other kinds of sweetmeats and biscuits 
 for eating with the chocolate. While they were pre- 
 paring the chocolate, heating the water, and adding the 
 sugar, the principal Indians and the authorities of the 
 village came and knelt down, and kissed our hands, and 
 gave us their address, saying that our arrival was a 
 happy event for their country, and that they gave us a 
 thousand thanks because we had left our native country, 
 our parents, and our firesides, in order to go to regions 
 so remote to labor for the salvation of souls ; and that 
 they honored us as gods upon earth, and as the apostles 
 of Jesus Christ ; and they said so many, many things, 
 that only the chocolate put an end to their eloquence. 
 We remained an hour, and manifested our gratification
 
 46 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 
 
 for the demonstration of afiection and bounty with which 
 thej had favored us, assuring them that there was not 
 any thing in the world more dear to us than their sal- 
 vation, and that to prociu-e it we had not feared to ex- 
 pose ourselves to all the perils with which we were 
 threatened by sea and land ; nor even the barbarous 
 cruelty of other Indians who did not know the true 
 God, in whose service we had resolved to sacrifice even 
 life. 
 
 "With this we departed from them, making gifts to 
 the chiefs of rosaries, medals, little metal crosses, 'the 
 Lamb of God' (Agnus Dei), relics which we brought 
 firom Spain; and we conceded to each one forty years 
 of indulgence, in virtue of the powers which we had 
 received from the Pope for distributing them, where, 
 when, and to whom we pleased. On our going out firom 
 the shade of the arbor for mounting our mules, we saw 
 the market-place full of men and women on their knees, 
 almost adoring us, and asking us to give them our 
 blessing. AYe raised the hand on passing, and gave it 
 to them by making the sign of the cross. The submis- 
 sion of the poor Indians, and the vanity excited by a 
 reception so ceremonious, and with such pubHc homage, 
 turned the heads of our young firiars, who began to be- 
 lieve themselves superior to the bishops of Europe ; and 
 even oiu: illustrious superiors were not far firom pride, 
 but exhibited excessive haughtiness, now that they had 
 seen their vanity flattered with such great acclamations 
 in their sight as were lavished upon us that day, al- 
 though we were only some simple fi'iars. The flutes and 
 the trumpets began to resound again at the head of our 
 procession, and the chiefs of the people accompanied us 
 as far as half a league, and afterward they retired to 
 their homes." 
 
 Slowly has the stage been moving up the pass. The
 
 .THE ARTIST AMONG THE ROBBEES. 47 
 
 rattle of the wheels has ceased, the sun has made his 
 appearance, and the awakened passengers are disposed 
 to listen to tales of wild adventures. The loquacious 
 are ready with an abundant supply. The best of these 
 is the tale of "The Artist among the Robbers." 
 
 "Four years ago," began the artist who made some 
 sketches for this work, "while I was making a pedes- 
 trian journey over this road, I seated myself, weak and 
 hungry, upon a stone by the roadside, not a little tired 
 of life and evil fortune. The remains of the yellow fever 
 were still upon me, and- only a single dollar burdened 
 my pocket ; for I did not learn, until too late, how poor 
 a place for an artist from abroad is this country, where 
 the San Carlos is creating the native article by scores. 
 I had not sat long in my gloomy mood before I had 
 company enough ; for as I looked up I saw, trooping 
 down the side of the hill, a band of men, who I thought 
 would soon put an end to my troubles. I took the 
 thing coolly, for I cared little for the result ; and had I 
 cared, there was no helping it now. So I patiently 
 waited their arrival. To the questions of the only one 
 who could talk English I answered briefly, as I sup- 
 posed they would soon end my troubles. When I told 
 him that I cared little if he did kill me, the whole party 
 laughed uproariously. The leader now came up, and 
 having searched me, found my story to be true. I then 
 drew an outline of a picture with my pencil, and gave it 
 to him. This so pleased him that he wrote me a memo- 
 randum, and with verbal directions as to the way I was 
 to go if I wished for lodgings for the night, he bade me 
 adieu, and the party disappeared up the side of the 
 woody hill, and I set out on my journey." 
 
 The leagues were very long, but the landmarks 
 were unmistakable; and without difficulty the artist 
 reached the house and presented his paper to the old
 
 48 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 woman that appeared at the door. This paper procured 
 him a good supper, and comfortable quarters for the 
 night ; for his fine open countenance and yellow hair 
 seemed to have touched the heart of this old Mexican 
 matron — a class of persons, by-the-way, who are the 
 kindest mortals in the world. The good cheer disposed 
 of, he gathered up his feet upon his mat for the night, 
 and slept as men do who have nothing to fear from rob- 
 bers. When in the morning he awoke, he found the old 
 dame astir, preparing for him an early breakfast, which 
 was of a quahty unexpected in so unpretending a man- 
 sion. "When breakfast was prepared, and after he had 
 finished eating it, the old woman made him understand 
 by signs that he was to go into the adjoining room and 
 there replenish his dilapidated wardrobe. She supplied 
 him with a new suit from head to heel, and then urged 
 him to tie around his waist a small sheep's entrail filled 
 with brandy, according to the custom of Mexican Indi- 
 ans. Thus had our transient friend had his inner and 
 outer man supplied in this out-of-the-way hut, at the 
 robbers' charges, after which, being shown the direction 
 in which to reach the Jalapa road, he bade the kind old 
 matron adios, and traveled on to Encerro with a lighter 
 heart than he had borne the day before. 
 
 At Encerro we left four of our fellow-passengers. 
 They were the son and three daughters of the widow who 
 kept the inn. They had been through a full course of 
 studies in one of the Roman Catholic boarding-schools in 
 the United States, and were now returned, having fiilly 
 mastered the English language — the great desideratum 
 of the Spanish-American people, and one of the sources 
 from which the Catholic schools and colleges in the 
 United States derive their support. 
 
 What a beautiful spot is Encerro, the country resi- 
 dence of Santa Anna ! It may not be as productive as
 
 ENCEKRO. 4y 
 
 his estate of Manga de Clavo, in the hot country, near 
 Vera Cruz ; but it is more salubrious and delightful. 
 In the civil wars he had often made a stand here, and 
 had learned to appreciate the beauty of the spot long be- 
 fore he was rich enough to make the purchase — for the 
 pay received by officers of the highest rank in Mexico, 
 is not sufficient to enable them to accumulate a fortune 
 till far advanced in life. Politicians in Mexico, as in 
 all other countries, are not unwilling to hazard their 
 private fortunes in their political contests, and though 
 the estates of the unsuccessful parties are not confiscated 
 in a revolution, one reason may be that they are not or- 
 dinarily of great value. 
 
 The stage-coach has been forgotten in story-telling 
 while slowly climbing up the pass, but as soon as we 
 had overcome this impediment we started off again 
 upon an unrepaired road, at our former neck-breaking 
 speed, which we kept up until we reached Encerro, 
 where for a little way we had an earthen road. Yet it 
 was only a short breathing before we were upon the 
 rough stones again. We had been gradually passing 
 through different strata of atmosphere in our journey 
 upward, the changes in the character of the vegetation 
 kept pace with the change of the climate. 
 
 " Whose is that estate inclosed by such an antiquated 
 looking stone wall ?" I inquired, of a fellow-traveler, 
 
 " That belongs to Don Isidoro ; and it extends some 
 thirty leagues," was the reply. "You see that ridge of 
 hills. That is its northern boundary. This wall sepa- 
 rates it from the estate of Santa Anna. In fact it is 
 surrounded by a continuous and substantial stone-wall, 
 sufficient to keep in cattle. This spot of land sufficiently 
 large for a county, with a soil the richest in the world, 
 and a climate like that of Jalapa, is given up to be a 
 range for thousands of cattle." 
 
 c
 
 50 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 We must liasten to our journey's end, which, for the 
 present, is Jalapa. While here, we can sum up the 
 story of our eighteen hours' ride. From Vera Cruz we 
 passed through a tropical marsh, presenting a striking 
 contrast to what we had witnessed about that town. In 
 place of being surrounded by hot, shifting hillocks of 
 sand, we were in the midst of tropical vegetation. 
 Trees not only bore their own natural burdens, but 
 were borne down Avith creepers, vines, and parasitic 
 plants ; forming one strange mass of foliage of very 
 many distinct kinds matted together and mingled into 
 one. Plantations of vanilla, of coffee, of cocoa, or of 
 sugar-cane, nowhere approached our road ; nor were 
 the cocoa-nut, the banana, and the plantain, so familiar 
 in all tropical climates, often visible. Upon the whole 
 route there were little evidences of labor, except those 
 furnished by the road itself. It was all wilderness. 
 Yet the graceful features of the creepers, hanging from 
 branch to branch of the sycamores, and the shady arbors 
 formed by their dense foliage, looked as though a gar- 
 dener's hand could be traced in so much regularity; 
 yet it was only Nature's own gardening, where the wild 
 birds might build their nests, and breed, and sing with- 
 out fear of disturbance. How often have I dismounted, 
 w^liile riding along such a forest, by the side of some 
 running brook, and while my horse was feeding I have 
 almost fallen asleep under the soothing influence which 
 such an atmosphere produces upon a traveler, heated by 
 fast riding under a vertical sun. It is one of those hap- 
 py sensations that can not well be described, nor can it 
 be appreciated by those who have not experienced it. 
 Poets have exhausted their power in painting the beau- 
 ties of scenes where all the senses are satiated with en- 
 joyment. Yet this voluptuous gratification is soon 
 alloyed by the evils that remind us that Paradise is not
 
 A TKOnCAL FOKEST. 51 
 
 to be found upon this earth. Here is seen the whole 
 animal kingdom busily laboring for the destruction of 
 its kind. Eeptiles prey upon each other; parasitic 
 plants fix themselves upon trees and suck up the sap 
 of their existence ; and man, while he enjoys to a surfeit 
 these bounties of nature, must watch narrowly against 
 the venom and the poison that comes to mar his pleas- 
 ure, and teach him the wholesome lesson that true hap- 
 piness is only found in Heaven. We are now at our 
 journey's end.
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 Jalapa. — The extraordinary Beauty and Fertility of this Spot. — Jalap, 
 Sarsaparilla, Myrtle, Vanilla, Cochineal, and Wood of Tobaseo. — 
 The charming Situation of Jalapa. — Its Flowers and its Fruits. — Mag- 
 nificent Views. — The tradition that Jalapa was Paradise. — A speck 
 of "War. — The Marriage of a Heretic, — A gambling Scene in a 
 Convent. 
 
 Byeon's lines, in tlie opening of "TAe Bride of 
 Ahydos,'''' are gorgeous enough : 
 
 " Know ye the land of the cedar and Anne, 
 "Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine ; 
 "Where the light ^vings of Zephyr, oppress'd with perfume, 
 "Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gull in their bloom ; 
 "Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit, 
 And the voice of the nightingale never is mute.'* 
 
 But the poet would have given them a still more lux- 
 uriant coloring had he ever ascended the table-land of 
 the tropics, and visited Jalapa, the spot which the na- 
 tives insist was the site of the original Paradise. Para- 
 dise, jalapa, and myrtle, sound well enough together, 
 and do not clash with the native tradition in relation to 
 this delightful spot. 
 
 We were now more than four thousand feet above 
 the sea, on an extensive plateau, half-way up the 
 mountain. The beautiful convolvulus jalapa does not 
 flourish here, but is brought from the Indian villages 
 of Colipa and ]\Iaqautla, situated in the valleys that 
 run among the hills. The myrtle^ whose grain is the 
 spice of Tobaseo, is produced in the forests by the river 
 Boriderus; the sinilax, whose root is the true sarsa- 
 parilla, grows deep down in the humid and umbra-
 
 niODUCTIONS OF THE VALLEYS. 00 
 
 geous ravines of the Cordilleras ; and cocoa comes from 
 Acayucan. From the ever-green forests of Papantla 
 and Nantla comes the epideyidriim va7iilla, whose odor- 
 iferous fruit is used as a perfume. Thus these charac- 
 teristic productions of the country come from the mys- 
 terious valleys of the neighboring mountain, where, 
 nearly a thousand years before any of the present gen- 
 eration was born, flourished an unknown race of men 
 as civilized as were the people of Palmyra or of Egypt, 
 as vast ruins in the forests of ]\Iisantla and Papantla 
 clearly indicate : a race unknown to the degenerate In- 
 dians, who now wander about the ruined edifices and 
 isolated pyramids of these cities, lost in the forest, as 
 they are to us. A thousand years have passed away — 
 their history has perished forever. The old books say 
 that the delicate little scarlet insect, cochineal, was 
 once a product of this district, and Jalapa was its prop- 
 er market, and the mart of all the other peculiar pro- 
 ductions of the neighboring region, because it was the 
 town on the high land nearest to the sea-port. 
 
 Jalapa early became an important position to which 
 foreign goods were brought to be exchanged for silver 
 and gold, jalap, sarsaparilla, vanilla, spice of Tobasco, 
 cocoa, cochineal, and woods of various colors. 
 
 It is the beauty of the place itself, and the unsur- 
 passed magnificence of its mountain-sceneiy, that tlu'ows 
 such a charm around Jalapa. The transparency of its 
 atmosphere makes the snow-crowned Orizaba and Perote, 
 in the coast range of mountains, appear close at hand, 
 with their dense forests of pei*petual foliage, moistened 
 incessantly by the clouds driven upon them from the 
 ocean. High up in the region of perpetual moisture, 
 Jalapa has a soil intensely luxuriant, and is beyond 
 the reach of those parasitic plants of the low lands, that 
 fix themselves upon other plants and trees, and eat out
 
 56 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 their very life, as the malarias do that of the human be- 
 ing. Roses of the most choice varieties grow spontane- 
 ously by the roadside, or creep over the walls. Nature, 
 the parent of architects, has here shaped all her trees 
 upon the most exquisite models. The very twig plant- 
 ed in a hedge, if left to itself, grows up into a tree 
 which gracefully inclines its head like a weeping wil- 
 low; while a mammoth white bell, or trumpet flower, 
 hangs pendent firom the extremity of every limb, each 
 flower larger and more beautifiil than our favorite house 
 lily, and giving forth a richer odor thap the rose. From 
 the exquisite delicacy and richness of the fruit which 
 this plant (the chirimoya) bears, and the danger arising 
 from eating of it too freely, it is not unfrequently called 
 the tree of the forbidden fruit ; sometimes also it is 
 called the custard plant. 
 
 Among the pleasing sights which we beheld was an 
 orange orchard, in which I did not see a single tree that 
 was not delicately and gracefully formed. In this pro- 
 ftision of nature I saw our own favorite flowers. A tiny 
 crimson rose was creeping about in every place, while 
 the large pink rose, which grew so rank, was clmging to 
 an old wall and in ftdl blossom ; and many other vari- 
 eties of crimson, white, yellow, and scarlet roses grow 
 here without care ; the morning-glory and honey-suckle 
 are wild flowers here ; the sweet-william, the lady-slip- 
 per, and all the flowers that we cultivate in summer, 
 appear here to be spontaneous productions of nature. 
 Even that sweetest and most beautiful of flowers, the 
 passion-flower, with its mystical cross and five protrud- 
 ing seeds, was running over a frame, and yielding a 
 proftision of blossoms, and a fruit — the granada — which 
 almost equals in richness and delicacy the fruit of the 
 chirimoya. But all the natural wonders of this town 
 are not vet enumerated ; for the friiits as well as the
 
 THE PARADISE OF JALAPA, 57 
 
 flowers of every climate flourish in Jalapa. There are 
 strawberries, of the largest size, growing beside a coffee- 
 tree, the tree being filled with coffee-berries. Peach- 
 trees were in full blossom in November, beside apricots 
 and chirimoyas, while potatoes flourish among the bul- 
 bous productions of a tropical climate. The people of 
 the town take a pride in its natural beauty ; and there 
 are no filthy alleys, no squalid poverty, or unclean- 
 ly hovels. Every house appears to be of stone ; the 
 walls neatly whitewashed, and bordered with pink, red, 
 blue, green, or yellow ; and the streets are fashioned to 
 suit the grounds, without regard to checker-board reg- 
 ularity. 
 
 I stood in an upper story of the house of a j\Ir. Todd, 
 on the opposite side of the little stream that runs in front 
 of the town, and looked out fi:om that favored position. 
 The sun had just escaped from the folds of an imprison- 
 ing cloud, and was shining full upon the beautiful town 
 and hill. The unabsorbed moisture on the leaves gave 
 them an additional lustre. The green peering up every 
 where amidst the whitened walls ; the graceful form of 
 the trees, where their outline could be traced ; the curi- 
 ously shaped roofs of the old stone churches, with but- 
 tresses and towers ; the college of San Francisco, a 
 curiously fashioned pfle of buildings, standing out above 
 all others ; the hill behind the town, the lofty mountain 
 of Perote, on its left flank, on whose top the sky seemed 
 to rest — all combined to give credibility to that which 
 has been said of the beauty of Jalapa by an old Span- 
 ish author — that Jalapa was "a piece of heaven let 
 down to earth." This figure was afterward applied to 
 Naples, and the remark was added — " See Naples, and 
 die." But the Jalapanos say, " See Jalapa, and pray 
 for immortality, that you may enjoy it forever." It is 
 the boast of the Indian, that "Jalapa is Paradise."
 
 58 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGIOX. 
 
 One is almost tempted to agree with them ; for here 
 grow all plants that are pleasant to the eye, or good for 
 food. Adam and Eve were not placed in the garden 
 to plant and to sow, but to prune and dress the plants 
 that grew of themselves. Here grow an abundance of 
 broad-leaved plants, and for thread there is the fibre of 
 the inaguey^ or century plant ; while the thorns of the 
 cactus are the needles used among the natives ; so that 
 all the materials were at ready hand for making their 
 garments, as soon as our first parents had their eyes 
 opened — by taking Jalap, I suppose — and so discover- 
 ing that they were naked. It is a curious conceit, that 
 the sin of Adam, in introducing a parasite into Eden, 
 entailed a curse on this medicinal plant, which from that 
 day, the story goes, has for very shame hid its face by 
 day, and only by night opened its pretty scarlet flowers, 
 which close again as the morning light appears. 
 
 In favor of the notion that Jalapa was the ancient 
 Paradise, the argument is, that Pai-adise must have been 
 in the tropics, in a region elevated far above the baleful 
 heat and malaria of the low lands, in a climate where 
 plants could grow to the utmost perfection. xVnd there 
 is no such place in the world except Jalapa. Here, 
 too, when the daily shower, which is requisite to bring 
 all vegetable nature to perfection, rendered garments 
 of wool necessary to protect humanity fi'om rheumatism, 
 nature had provided the needles and thread needed to 
 fashion them. So that, taken all together, tliis Indian 
 theory is more probable than many of the unnumbered 
 traditions of this country, where traditions and mii-acles 
 appear to grow as spontaneously as wild flowers. 
 
 In such a spot as this, where all the powers of nature 
 seem to have combined to form an earthly Paradise, 
 and where the surrounding mountain-scenery is unsur- 
 passed on the earth's surface, we might look for en-
 
 A KE VOLUTION. 59 
 
 larged notions of the power, the majesty, and wisdom 
 of that God who created it all. But images, like dolls, 
 tricked out in the tawdry finery, are the objects which 
 this people adore, and to whom they attribute more mi- 
 raculous powers than were ever ascribed to the gods of 
 their heathen ancestors. Humboldt says, " This people 
 have changed their ceremonies, but not tlieu' religious 
 dogmas. "* 
 
 But let us take a look at the interior of this town. 
 It is a little disturbed now, as there was a revolution 
 yesterday — a revolution and a counter-revolution in 
 fact, all in one day. 
 
 The Governor and Legislature of the State of ^"cra 
 Cruz, which meets in this place, were taken prisoners 
 in the forenoon, for imposing a tax upon the retail trade ; 
 but in the afternoon their friends rallied, and the Gov- 
 ernor and Legislature were released, and the rebels 
 driven from the town. Li this double battle one man, 
 at least, lost his life, for the funeral took place as we 
 entered. War is a terrible calamity at any time; but 
 when it is carried to that foolish extent of shedding 
 blood, it becomes an intolerable evil, and prudent men 
 show their wisdom by running from it : at least they 
 did so at Jalapa. 
 
 Jalapa, it may be here remarked, is built on the site 
 of an old Indian village, which was one of the first to 
 enter into alliance with Cortez. For the benefit of the 
 original inhabitants, that Franciscan Convent was built 
 by the conqueror. It is now converted into a college. 
 Its steeple is worth a visit, and well rewards the labor 
 of climbing; for from it another view, even more splen- 
 did than that I have described, is to be obtained. From 
 this point the snow-covered Orizaba is added to the al- 
 ready imposing prospect ; both it and Perote, with the 
 
 * Kssai Politiqno.
 
 60 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 intersrening mountain and valleys, can all be embraced 
 at a single glance. The position of the valleys, which 
 produce the different plants that have been enumerated, 
 are here pointed out ; and from tliis spot, they show the 
 place where the mountain has been pierced in search of 
 the precious metals, while a little way off is the road: 
 to the extensive copper-mines. 
 
 There is a curious story about the first marriage that 
 took place between a heretic and a Jalapina. The hero 
 held the important position of agent of the EngHsh 
 Real del Monte Company at Jalapa. In one of the 
 families that had been greatly reduced in their worldly 
 circumstances by the ruin of the Consulado of Vera 
 Cruz, was a dark beauty with whom he became deeply 
 enamored. But how to make her his wife was the dif- 
 ficulty. The lady was willing — was more than willing ; 
 "for when the fires of Spanish love are kindled, they 
 burn unextinguishably," says the proverb. Or, in the 
 poetical language of the Indians, " it burns as did the 
 fires of Mount Orizaba in its youth — fii-es that only 
 went out when its head was coated with silver gi*ay." 
 The mother was willing ; and no one but the Chiu'ch 
 had aught to say why they should not be united. How 
 could the holy sacrament of matrimony be profaned by 
 administering it to a heretic? It ^ never had been, it 
 never must be, in the Republic. He might take the 
 woman if he chose, and live with her ; but to maiTy 
 them would be a sin. So said the Padre of the parish, 
 and so said every dignitary of the Church up to the 
 Bishop of Puebla, then tlie only remaining bishop in 
 the Republic. The intercession of political authorities 
 was invoked. The matter became serious, and a coun- 
 cil was held at Puebla to dispose of the case. From 
 this holy council came the intimation to the lover that 
 a bribe of .^2000 might be of service. But John Bull
 
 THE HERETIC AND THE JALAPINA. 61 
 
 by this time had become stubborn. He had spent 
 money enough ; he would spend no more ; he -would 
 get a chaplain from a man-of-war then at Yera Cruz ; 
 or, better still, he would take his intended bride to New 
 Orleans ; for he would be married and not mated, as is 
 the case of those who can not raise the fee claimed by 
 the priest. He would not be ranked with that poverty- 
 stricken set that are unmarried, or, as the phrase is, 
 are "married behind the Church." He was wq jpeon. 
 It was contrary to an Englishman's ideas to have a 
 wife unmarried ; and as no English chaplain came along, 
 he wrote to the Roman Catholic Bishop of New Orleans, 
 giving an account of his difficulties, and inquired if he 
 would marry him under the circumstances. With a 
 liberality that ever distinguishes Catholic functionaries 
 in Protestant countries, he promptly replied that he 
 would marry them personally, if the parties would come 
 to New Orleans, or, if he should chance to be unavoid- 
 ably engaged, then his chaplain should perform the cere- 
 mony. Whereupon our hero and his lady-love started 
 for New Orleans ; and being there united in holy mat- 
 rimony by the bishop, spent the happy month, so long 
 deferred, in festivities, and then returned home, suppos- 
 ing that their troubles were now all at an end. 
 
 But this foreign marriage proved to be only the be- 
 ginning of evil to them. They had committed an un- 
 pardonable sin ; they had defrauded the priest of his 
 fee, and had set a bad example, which others might 
 follow for the very economy of the thing. 
 
 Hardly had our newly -wedded pair found them- 
 selves located in their own house, and finished receiving 
 the usual round of congratulations, when the wife was 
 summoned to appear before the priest. She at once 
 complied, accompanied by her husband. The priest in- 
 quired why the husband came, as he had not been sent
 
 62 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 for ; lie had onlj sent for the \^fe. The husband gave 
 him an EngHshman's answer — that she was his wile, 
 and where she went, there it was his place to go. The 
 priest's reply to this opened the cause. The marriage 
 was not lawful, and he must detain her, and send her 
 on to Puebla, and have her placed in a convent. Such 
 was the order he had received, and which he exliibited ; 
 and tlie two soldiers at the door were stationed there to 
 carry the order into execution. 
 
 At this point in the affair the Englishman drew two 
 arsruments from under his coat, and leveling one of 
 them at the head of the padi*e, suggested to him the 
 propriety of not interposing any obstacle to the return 
 of himself and wife to their home. This was a poser ; 
 an act of open impiety ; a Kentucky argument. But 
 there was no remedy. The Inquisition was not now 
 in authority ; its instruments of torture had been de- 
 stroyed ; its fires had been extinguished ; and so the 
 Englishman got the best of the argument, and retired 
 peaceably to his own home. 
 
 At his house the Englishman was waited upon by 
 the Alcalde, who informed liim that he had been ordered 
 to take the wife, and that he dared not disobey. But 
 he suggested a method by which the order might be 
 evaded. This was to send the wife every day, at a cer- 
 tain hour, into a neighbor's house, and at that hour the 
 officers would come and search his dwelling, and would 
 accordingly report " Xot found.*' This farce continued 
 to be enacted daily for nearly tliree months, when the 
 husband, becoming tired of it, wrote to the Bisho}) 
 of Xew Orleans an account of the manner in which 
 his house had been besieged, and in due time re- 
 ceived a reply from that excellent ecclesiastic, stat- 
 ing that he would satisfactorily arrange the busi- 
 ness ; at the same time expressing his regrets that
 
 THE MONK AT JALAPA. 63 
 
 he had not before been informed of the condition of 
 affairs. 
 
 In the mean time, another priest in the town chanced 
 to be discussing the all-absorbing question of the day, 
 the heretic marriage, and unfortunately happened to 
 remark that a marriage by an American priest was not 
 a lawful mamage. This was too much for our English- 
 man, and he answered it — as an Englishman is accus- 
 tomed to answer insulting remarks in relation to the 
 affairs of his household — not by a single blow, but by 
 such a pommeling as never a priest had sustained since 
 the Conquest. Yet there was no earthquake on the 
 occasion, and Orizaba was not discomposed at witness- 
 ing such a shocking act of impiety. 
 
 Time moved on, and with it came the parish priest to 
 validate the marriage. But our Englishman would not be 
 validated, !No, not he ; and Avlien the priest began to 
 mutter and to move his hands, the Englishman's blood 
 was up, and so was his foot, and this ceremony was 
 ■terminated according to a formula not laid down in any 
 prayer-book now extant. This was the end of the war. 
 The pair had passed through many tribulations in order 
 to consummate their union ; yet botli declare tliat the 
 prize was worth the contest. 
 
 Our good monk, with whom we parted at Vera Cruz, 
 visited the convent at Jalapa, on his journey, and thus 
 records what he saw : 
 
 " The night of our arrival at Jalapa wx were enter- 
 tained at the convent of San Francisco, where we passed 
 the day following, as it was Sunday. The income of 
 this convent is great, notwithstanding the community 
 is composed of only six religios, though it might 
 well maintain more than a score of them. The guard- 
 ian of Jalapa is no less vain than the prior of Vera 
 Cruz ; but he received us with much kindness, and
 
 64 IkLEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 treated us magnificently, although we were of another 
 order. 
 
 " In this town, as in all others, we observed that the 
 lives and customs of the clergy, both geculars and regu- 
 lars (monks), were greatly relaxed, and that their con- 
 duct completely gave the lie to their vows and their 
 professions. The order of San Francisco, besides the 
 vows common to the other orders ; that is to say, 
 chastity and obedience, exacts tliat the vow of poverty 
 shall be observed more scrupulously than the other 
 mendicants enforce it. Their dress should be of coarse 
 cloth, and of a color to which they have given a name 
 [monk's gray] ; their g-irdles, or cordons, of rope, and 
 their shirts of wool, if they can bear them. They are 
 to go without stockings ; and, finally, it is not lawful 
 for them to use shoes, but to wear sandals. Not only 
 are they prohibited having money, but they ought not 
 even to touch it ; neither to possess any thing as their 
 own. In their journeys it is forbidden them to mount 
 a horse, although they should faU by the way fi:om 
 fatigue. It is necessary that they should go afoot with 
 sorrow and fatigue ; esteeming the infi*action of any of 
 these precepts a mortal sin, which merits excommunica- 
 tion and hell. But they neglect all the obligations 
 which the rigorous observance of these rules imposes 
 upon them — to the neglect of all discipline, and to the 
 disregard of the penalties. Those that have been trans- 
 ported to this country five in a manner which does not 
 in any thing show that they have made a vow to God 
 of even trifling privations. Their lives are so free and 
 immodest that it might be suspected, with reason, that 
 tliey had renounced only that wliich they could not, or 
 were unable to attain. 
 
 " We were surprised and even scandalized at the ex- 
 traordinary sight of a San Franciscan of Jalapa, riding
 
 MONKISH GAMBLING. 65 
 
 a most beautiful mule, with a groom, or rather lackey, 
 behind him, while only going to the end of the village 
 to confess a sick man. His reverence, as he went along, 
 had his garments tucked up from beneath, which exhib- 
 ited a stocking of orange-color ; a shoe of the most ex- 
 quisite morocco ; small clothes of Holland linen ; with 
 knots and braids of four fingers in width. Such a spec- 
 tacle made us observe with more attention the conduct 
 of that friar, and that of others beneath whose broad 
 sleeves were exhibited a jacket embroidered with sjik. 
 They also wore shirts of Holland ; and liand-ruiFs in- 
 closed their hands. But we did not discover, either in 
 their garments or in their table, any thing that indi- 
 cated mortification ; on the contrary, every thing exhib- 
 ited the same vanity which was noted in the peoj^le of 
 the world. 
 
 "After supper some of them began to speak of cards 
 and dice, and they invited us to play, in order to contrib- 
 ute to the entertainment of their guests, one hand at a 
 rubber. Almost all of our party excused themselves ; 
 some for want of money, others from not knowing the 
 play. At length they found two of our religious that 
 would place themselves hand to hand with other two 
 Franciscans. The party being aiTanged, they com- 
 menced playing with admirable dexterity. A little was 
 put down at first ; it was doubled. The loss vexed the 
 one, the gain stimulated the other. At the end of a 
 quarter of an hour the convent of the Angelic Order* of 
 our father of San Francisco had converted itself into a 
 gaming house, and the poor religious (friars) into pro- 
 fane worldlings. We, who were simply spectators, had 
 occasion to observe what passed in the play, and to ac- 
 quire matter for reflection upon such a life. As the 
 game went on engrossing in interest, the scandal con- 
 * This is the title of this order of friars.
 
 66 
 
 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 tinued to increase. The draughts of liquor were re- 
 peated with much frequency; the tongue unloosed it- 
 self; oaths mingled themselves with jests, while loud 
 laughter made the edifice to tremble. The vow of pov- 
 erty did not escape from the sacrilegious mirth. One 
 of the San Franciscans, who had often touched money 
 with his fingers and placed it on the table, when he 
 gained any considerable sum, in order to divert the com- 
 pany, opened his broad sleeve, and with the hem he 
 swept the table of all the stakes, amounting sometimes 
 to more than twenty gold ounces, into his other sleeve ; 
 saying, at the same time, " Take care of it thou that 
 canst, I have made a vow not to touch it." It was im- 
 possible for me to listen to such imprecations, and to 
 Avitness such scandalous lives, without being moved; 
 
 GAMBLING IN A CONVKNT.
 
 MORALS OF THE MONKS. 67 
 
 more than once I was on the point of reproving them, 
 but I considered that I was a stranger, a passing guest, 
 and besides, what I should say to them would be like 
 preaching to the desert. I therefore rose up without 
 making any noise and went to my sleeping-place, leav- 
 ing the profane crowd, who continued with their diver- 
 sions until the dawn. The next day the friar who had 
 played his part with so much facetiousness, with more 
 of the manner of a brigand than a religious^ more suit- 
 able for the school of Sardanapalus or of Epicurus than 
 for the life of a cloister, said that he had lost more than 
 eighty doubloons, or gold ounces — it appearing that his 
 sleeve refused to protect that which he had made a vow 
 of never possessing. 
 
 "This was the first lesson which the Franciscans gave 
 us of the New World. It clearly appeared that the 
 cause of so many friars and Jesuits passing from Spain 
 to regions so distant, was libertinage rather than love 
 of preaching the gospel, or zeal for the conversion of 
 souls. If that love, if that zeal, were the motives of 
 their conduct, they might offer their own depravity as 
 an argument in favor of the truths of the gospel. Wan- 
 tonness, licentiousness, avarice, and the other vices 
 which stained their conduct, discovered their secret in- 
 tentions. Their anxiety for enriching themselves, their 
 vanity, the authority which they exercised over the 
 poor Indians, are the motives which actuate them, and 
 not the love of God or the propagating of the faith."
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The "War of the Secret Political Societies of Mexico. — The Scotch and 
 the York Free-^Iasons. — Anti-Masons. — Rival classes compose Scotch 
 Lodges. — The Yorkinos. — Men desert from the Scotch to the York 
 Lodges. — Law to suppress Secret Societies. — The Escoce's, or Scotch 
 Masons, take up arms. — The Battle. — Their total Defeat. 
 
 As Jalapa is a pleasant resting-place in a journey to 
 tlie interior, we will stop here to discuss national affairs 
 for a little while. The first political subject in order is 
 the furious contest that for ten years was carried on 
 between two political societies, known as the Escoces 
 and Yorkinos — or, as we should call them, Scotch 
 Free-^Iasons and York Free-^Iasons — whose secret or- 
 ganizations were employed for pohtical purposes by 
 two rival pohtical parties. 
 
 At the time of the restoration of the Constitutional 
 Government of Spain in 1820, Free-Masonry was intro- 
 duced into ^lexico ; and as it was derived from the 
 Scotch branch of that order, it was called, after the 
 name of the people of Scotland, Escoces. Into this 
 institution were initiated many of the old Spaniards 
 still remaining in the country, the Creole aristocracy, 
 and the privileged classes — parties that could ill endure 
 the elevation of a Creole colonel, Iturbide, to the Im- 
 perial throne. "When 3Lr. Poinsett was sent out as 
 Embassador to ^Mexico, he earned with him the charter 
 for a Grand Lodge from the American, or York order 
 of Free-Masons in the United States. Into this new 
 order the leaders of the Democratic party were initiated. 
 The bitter rivalry that sprung up between these two
 
 MASONS AND ANTI-MASONS. 69 
 
 branches of the Masonic body, kept the couutry in a 
 
 ferment for ten years, and resulted finally in the forma- 
 tion of a party wliose motto was opposition to all secret 
 societies, and who derived their name of Anti-Masons 
 from the party of the same name then flourishing in the 
 United States. 
 
 When the Escoces had so far lost ground in popular 
 favor, as to be in the greatest apprehension from their 
 prosperous but imbittered rivals, the Yorkinos, as a last 
 resort, to save themselves, and to ruin the hated or- 
 ganization, they j?ro7iou7iced against all secret societies. 
 Suerez y Navarro, in his " Life of Santa Anna," thus 
 relates the history of these Secret Political Societies : 
 
 "After the lodges had been established, crowds ran 
 to initiate themselves into the mysteries of Free-Ma- 
 sonry ; persons of all conditions, from the opulent mag- 
 nates down to the humblest artisans. In the Scotch 
 lodges were the Spaniards who were disaffected toward 
 the independence ; Mexicans who had taken up arms 
 against the original insurgents through error or ignor- 
 ance ; those who obstinately declared themselves in fa- 
 vor of calling the Spanish Bourbons to the Imperial 
 throne of Mexico ; those who disliked the Federal sys- 
 tem ; the partisans of the ancient regime ; the enemies 
 of all reform, even when reforms were necessary, as the 
 consequence of the independence. To this party (after 
 the overthrow of the Empire) also belonged the parti- 
 sans of Iturbide ; those who were passionately devoted 
 to monarchy ; and the privileged classes. 
 
 " In the assemblages of the Yorkinos were united all 
 who were republicans fi'om conviction, and those who 
 followed the popular current — the mass of the people 
 having devoted themselves to this organization. It is 
 enough to say, in order to mark the position of both 
 parties, that among the Yorkinos figured, in great num-
 
 70 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 bers, those that believed the name of republican was not 
 a mere imagination. 
 
 "Some individuals of both associations had the same 
 object and the same identical end, and only differed in 
 the modes of making their principles triumphant. A 
 great number of persons, who co-operated in the crea- 
 tion of the new order, had belonged to the Scotch order, 
 and had labored for the overthrow of Iturbide. They 
 knew the secrets of the Scotch party, their projects, 
 their tendencies ; and the desertion of such furnished 
 a thousand elements to the new order to make war upon 
 the party they had abandoned. T7hen parties were 
 fully organized and assailing each other, the contest be- 
 came terrible, and its consequences fearfully disastrous. 
 Actions the most harmless, and questions purely per- 
 sonal, were matters for the contests of parties. The 
 press was the organ of mutual accusations — now against 
 particular individuals, and now against parties in con- 
 junction. The Escoces multiplied their attacks until 
 thev lost all influence in affairs. Generals, Senators, 
 Deputies, and Ministers abandoned their standard, as 
 time increased the power of their rival with every class 
 of individuals that embraced the new order. In the 
 nature of things there was desertion and fear, because, 
 as a writer, who was initiated into both orders, remarks : 
 'A general enthusiasm had taken possession of men's 
 minds, who thought they saw in the new order the es- 
 tablishment of future prosperity.' " 
 
 " The seekers for office found ready access in these 
 lodges to those who had office to dispense. The liberal 
 found in the York lodges the strong support of liberty 
 and Hberal institutions. The high functionaries of gov- 
 ernment found aid and support in the strength of opin- 
 ions ; and the people, ever in search of novelty, united 
 themselves to this association, in order to form one mass
 
 INTRIGUES. 71 
 
 which sooner or later would suppress the privileged 
 classes. 
 
 "No intrigue, nor any effort, was able to check the 
 progress of the York lodges. This induced their ene- 
 mies to present the project of a law in the Senate, where 
 the Escoces had a majority, to suppress secret societies 
 by severe penalties against those who adhered to such 
 associations. For the better insuring of success, the 
 Escoces assumed the language of morality ; and, con- 
 founding their own affair with that of their native coun- 
 try, clamored hypocritically against the pernicious influ- 
 ence which clandestine meetings exercised in public 
 affairs. According to them the cry of the nation was 
 against secret societies. The bill passed the Senate 
 after prolonged discussion, being supported by those 
 persons who knew it was intended to satisfy an offend- 
 ed party, whose prestige diminished day by day. If 
 the factions had not originated in secret societies, they 
 might have extirpated the evil by proscribing masonry. 
 When have the ravages of the hurricane been foimd to 
 content themselves with logical and pleasant words ? 
 At what time, and in what country, has a law been en- 
 forced, where those who were to execute it found an 
 insuperable obstacle in their own sentiments ? Indeed, 
 it was impossible to destroy the political fanaticism of 
 the day by the mere dasli of a pen ! The evil had gone 
 to its utmost limit, and could not be cured by rigor or 
 persecution. 
 
 " The demoralization was so great that it extended 
 to the armed force, because the greater part of the chiefs 
 and officers had joined one or the other of the societies. 
 Besides the seductive influences of the lodges, two gen- 
 erals, distinguished for their services in the first insur- 
 rectionary war, brought with them a number of soldiers 
 to the party to which each severally belonged. General
 
 72 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Nicholas Bravo was the head of the Escoces, and Don 
 Yincente Guerrero was the leader of the Yorkinos. Both 
 derived support from the names and prestige of these 
 two personages, and fr'om the popularity which each en- 
 joyed with his companions-in-anns. The Scotch party 
 feared the day would come, in which the deputies — the 
 majority of whom were their enemies — would decree the 
 total proscription of all those persons who were hostile, 
 or suspected of being hostile, to the Yorkinos, as the 
 Chambers had fallen into the practice of submitting to 
 the caprices of the dominant order. They therefore ap- 
 pealed to arms, having exhausted the right of petition. 
 
 "General Bravo, Yice-President of Mexico, and leader 
 of the Escoces, having issued his proclamation, declaring 
 that, as a last resort, he appealed to arms to rid the re- 
 public of that pest — secret societies, and that he would 
 not give up the contest until he had rooted them out, 
 root and branch, took up his position at Tulansingo — a 
 village about thirty miles north of the City of Mexico. 
 Here, at about daylight on the morning of the Tth Jan- 
 uary, 1828, he was assailed by General Guerrero, the 
 leader of the Yorkinos, and commander of the forces of 
 government." 
 
 After a slight skirmish, in which eight men were 
 killed and six wounded. General Bravo and his party 
 were made prisoners ; and thus perished forever the 
 party of the Escoces. Tliis victory was so complete as 
 to prove a real disaster to the Yorkinos. The want of 
 outside pressure led to internal dissensions ; so that 
 when two of its own members, Guerrero and Pedraza, 
 became rival candidates for the presidency, the election 
 was determined by a resort to arms, which brought 
 about the terrible insurrection of the Acordada.
 
 CHxiPTEE, VI. 
 
 Mexico becomes an Empire. — Santa Anna deposes the Emperor. — lie 
 proclaims a Keimblic. — He pronounces against the Election of Ped- 
 raza, the second President. — His situation in the Convent at Oajaca. 
 — He captures the Spanish Armada. — And is made General of 
 Division. 
 
 We left Santa Anna at Vera Cruz, having just com- 
 pleted the first of those politico-military insurrections 
 which fill up the history of his times. He had added 
 the city of Vera Cruz to the national cause, by a timely 
 insurrection. Iturbide had rewarded him for this im- 
 portant service by bestowing upon him the ribbon of the 
 order of Guadalupe, making him second in command at 
 Vera Cruz. The chief command of the department was 
 bestowed upon an old insurrectionary leader, who was 
 known by the assumed name of Guadalupe Victoria. 
 He was a good-natured, honest, inefficient old man, 
 whose great merit consisted in having lived for two 
 years in a dense forest, far beyond the habitations of 
 men. While thus hiding himself from a host of pur- 
 suers, he acquired that habit, supposed to be peculiar 
 to wild beasts, of passing several days without food, 
 and then eating inordinate quantities — a habit whicli he 
 found impossible to change in after-life, when he had 
 become President of Mexico. The story of this man's 
 sojourn among wild beasts had been told all over Mexico, 
 and had given him a great popularity, which he brought 
 to the support of the national cause. 
 
 In 1822 the Mexican nation was still in its swaddling 
 clothes. Its birth had hardly cost a pang ; but its in- 
 
 D
 
 74 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 fancy, its childhood, and its youth, were to be attended 
 with a series of convulsions, the fruits of the vicious 
 seeds sown in the conception of the new State. By the 
 pronunciamiento of a part of a regiment of the King's 
 Creole troops the connection between Spain and ^lexico 
 was severed forever, and the colonel of these troops be- 
 came the Emperor of Mexico. In this revolution the 
 nation acquiesced, and thus discovered to the soldiery 
 their unlimited power when their arms are turned 
 against their own government. From that time onward 
 Mexico, like every other countr}^ where the Spanish lan- 
 guage is spoken, became the victim of her own soldiery. 
 This liberation of Mexico was by no means the result of 
 the outburst of national patriotism, but the consequence 
 of the utter incapacity of Spain longer to hold the reins 
 of her colonial governments. She indeed sent out a new 
 vice-king to ^Mexico after the breaking out of the insur- 
 rection; but the best that he could do was to sanction 
 what had been done by a treaty at Cordova, in which 
 it was stipulated that Iturbide and the new viceroy, 
 O'Donoghue, should be associated with others in a re- 
 gency, until Spain should send out one of the Spanish 
 Bourbon princes to occupy the imperial throne of Mexico. 
 The Spanish parliament refused to sanction the treaty 
 of Cordova ; O'Donoghue died, and Iturbide was left in 
 possession of executive power, without a defined office, 
 while an insane opposition sprung up against him in the 
 new Congress which he had called together. Tliis un- 
 looked-for opposition soon convinced him that the tearing 
 away of a nation from its traditional ideas was like the 
 letting out of waters, and that he must either ride upon 
 the wave or be overborne by the tempest. A resolution 
 of Congress, to take from him the command of the army, 
 brought matters to a crisis. Accordingly, on the night 
 of the 18th of March, 1821, he caused himself to be pro-
 
 ITURBIDE DEPOSED. 75 
 
 claimed Emperor by his partisans ; and the next day 
 this new revolutionary act was confirmed by Congress, 
 under the intimidation of military force, and the nation 
 again acquiesced. 
 
 The revolution had caused a stagnation in all the de- 
 partments of commerce and of revenue. Iturbide had 
 inaugurated his insurrection by seizing, at Iguala, a 
 million of dollars belonging to the Manilla Company, on 
 its way to Acapulco. He made another like seizure at 
 Perote ; but these high-handed measures, while they 
 proved but a drop in the bucket toward sustaining his 
 government, increased his emban*assments, by destroy- 
 ing all confidence ; so that his new authority had 
 stamped upon it the unmistakable marks of dissolution. 
 He was an emperor without traditional associations ; he 
 had an empire without a revenue ; a large standing army 
 without pay. The fickle multitude, who supposed that 
 independence was to prove an antidote for every evil, 
 began to murmur ; while a host of demagogues, who en- 
 vied the good fortune of Iturbide, were all beginning to 
 clamor for a republic. The blow, however, came from 
 an unexpected quarter. Santa Anna had quarreled with 
 a superior officer, General Echevarri, and Iturbide had 
 recalled him from his command. But Santa Anna 
 thought it most advisable to disobey the Emperor ; and 
 in the Plaza of Vera Cruz, surrounded by the garrison, 
 he proclaimed a republic, on the 2d of December, 1822. 
 He joined in his insurrection the name and the influence 
 of Victoria, yet both were insufficient to save him fi'om a 
 complete route at the hands of Echevarri. At the crit- 
 ical moment in the affairs of Santa Anna, the Grand 
 Lodge of the Ecosces decreed the overthrow of Iturbide, 
 and sent orders to General Echevan-i, who was a mem- 
 ber of the order, to unite his forces to those of Santa 
 Anna in overturning the empire. This was a bitter pill
 
 76 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 for that general to swallow, but he swallowed it ; and 
 the two leaders together swallowed the empire. 
 
 Iturbide, being unable to stem the toiTent of insur- 
 rection, had abdicated ; a Republic had been established 
 upon the ruins of the empire, and Victoria, the " wild 
 man of the woods," was elected first President. He 
 served out his time ; but the last year of his govern- 
 ment was disturbed by the terrible insurrection of the 
 Acordada, which had arisen out of the election of Pe- 
 draza as his successor. Santa Anna was, at the time 
 of this election, at Jalapa, discharging the duties of Yice- 
 Govemor of Vera Cruz, when the people of the town 
 surrounded his house and called upon him to pronounce 
 against thje election. Thus becoming implicated, he was 
 forced to make a new insurrection. This third ^?'c>nwn- 
 ciamieiito of Santa Anna, was on the 5th of September, 
 1828. 
 
 He made his first stand at the Castle of Perote ; but 
 finding this too isolated a position, he marched to Oajaca, 
 in the extreme southwest of the Eepublic, and took up 
 his quarters in the Dominican convent of that city. As 
 he was closely hemmed in by an active enemy, provis- 
 ions grew scarce, and he was forced to resort to a novel 
 method of supplying himself. On a feast-day, at the 
 San Franciscan church, he dressed a party of his sol- 
 diers in the garb of monks, and, having placed them in 
 a convenient position, he made prisoners of the whole 
 assembled congregation, and then proceeded to divest 
 them of all ready cash on hand, and then emptied the 
 contribution-box of the money destined for the poor 
 saints* at Jerusalem, and retired and ended the war; 
 for the successful termination of the insurrection of the 
 Acordada in the city of Mexico accomplished the object 
 for which Santa Anna took up arms — the declaration 
 * Breva Resena Histdrica, p. 280.
 
 CAPTURE OF THE ARMADA. 77 
 
 by Congress, that General Guerrero, a man of mixed 
 blood, was the real President elect, instead of Pedraza, 
 a white man, and the candidate of the aristocracy. 
 
 When King Ferdinand had regained his despotic au- 
 thority, in 1825, by the aid of French bayonets, he be- 
 thought himself of Mexico, the most productive of his 
 lost colonial possessions in America, which had yielded, 
 to his predecessors, the total sum of $2,040,048,426,* 
 or rather an annual revenue in silver dollars of $6,800,000 
 during a period of three hundred years. He was also 
 incited by his impoverished noblesse, who could no lon- 
 ger obtain colonial appointments for their sons. The 
 Spanish merchants also complained of the loss of their 
 monopolies. But what at last aroused him to activity 
 was the expulsion of the Spaniards from ^Mexico, in 
 consequence of the ascendency of the democratic party. 
 Those of mixed and Indian blood were now truly en- 
 franchised ; and they were heard to utter strange voices, 
 which had until then been suppressed by the combined 
 power of a spiritual and temporal despotism : so that 
 the bones of Cortez, the benefactor of the Kings of 
 Spain, were no longer safe in the convent of San Fran- 
 cisco, where they had lain for three hundred years, t They 
 were in such imminent danger of being dragged out and 
 scattered to the winds by the mob, as those of "the 
 accursed" enslaver of their race, that they were removed 
 by stealth, and for a time deposited in the most sacred 
 shrine in Mexico : afterward they were secretly re- 
 moved to Europe, where they cried to the Spanish king 
 for vengeance, on the sacrilegious nation. An Armada 
 was at last fitted out, and landed at Tampico ; and now 
 all Mexicans, from the President down to the humblest 
 peon, watched the result witli the deepest anxiety, as 
 
 ♦ See King's Proclamation, printed at Havana, Gth September, 1831. 
 t See note 1.
 
 <S MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 they saw Santa Anna undertaking the defense of the 
 countrv- with untried soldiers. For on the issue of the 
 struggle depended the question whether the whole na- 
 tion should be again reduced to servitude, or whether 
 they should be left in the enjoyment of their newly-ac- 
 quired liberty. The contest was one of several days' 
 continuance: when at last it was terminated by a capit- 
 ulation, all Mexico rang with rejoicing ; and Santa Anna, 
 then not tliirty-five years of age, received the military 
 rank which he now holds — Greneral of Division.
 
 CHAPTER YII. 
 
 In the Stage and out of the Stajje. — Still climbing. — A moment's View 
 of all the Kingdoms of the World. — Again in obscurity. — The Ma- 
 guey, or Century Plant. — The many uses of the Maguey. — The in- 
 toxicating juice of the Maguey. — Pulque. — Immense Consumption 
 of Pulque. — City of Perote. — Castle of San Carlos de Perote. — Star- 
 light upon the Table-land. — Tequisquita. — " The Bad Land." — A 
 very old Beggar. — Arrive at Puebla. 
 
 The time allotted for my visit to Jalapa had come to 
 a close. I took out tlie ticket, endorsed Escala donde 
 le convengo, which I translated — " Let him stop when, 
 where, and as long as he pleases," and once more took 
 my seat in the stage, which, on a fine afternoon, was 
 starting for Perote upon the table-land. This short 
 journey lay across the mountain of Perote, passing 
 over an elevation of 10,400 feet, the highest elevation 
 that a stage-coach has yet reached, and one from which 
 the traveler can oftentimes enjoy a view of all the veg- 
 etable "kingdoms of the world in a moment of time." 
 I took my seat upon the top of the coach, above the 
 driver, that I might enjoy a last lingering look at this 
 Nature's paradise, before the mountain -ridge should 
 intervene between the world I had left behind, and the 
 great salt desert that we were soon to traverse. 
 
 The prospect from the coach -top, as we traveled 
 onward, was even more beautiful than that I have 
 already described. For several miles beyond Jalapa 
 we were descending and passing through one of those 
 valleys of which the Spanish poets so often sing, where 
 the roadside is covered with a profusion of the flowers 
 and vegetation that flourish only in the most luxuriant
 
 80 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 soil. The valley was soon passed, and we began to 
 ascend so rapidly, that before an hour had passed we 
 could mark the changing vegetation, and observe the 
 products of a colder climate ; for this changing vegetation 
 is a barometer, which, in ]\Iexico, marks the ascent and 
 descent as regTilarly as the most nicely- adjusted arti- 
 ficial instrument. So accurately are the stratas of vege- 
 tation adjusted to the stratas of the atmosphere which 
 they inhabit, as to lead the traveler to imagine that a 
 gardener's hand had laid out the different fields which 
 here rise one above another upon the side of the mount- 
 ain that constitutes the eastern inclosure of the table- 
 land. The fertility of the soil did not seem to dimin- 
 ish ; it was only the character of the vegetation that 
 changed step by step, as we wound our way up toward 
 the summit of the Perote. 
 
 We changed horses at La Hoya, a place memorable 
 in the annals of civil war, as the spot where General 
 E-incon blocked up the pass when Santa Anna was 
 retiring in 1845, a fugitive firom the country. Here 
 the road becomes so steep as to induce the traveler to 
 walk a little, for the better opportunities he can thus 
 have of surveying the novel sights that present them- 
 selves at eveiy turn of the road. When he is fatigued 
 with climbing, and breathing the peculiar air of this 
 altitude, he can seat himself by the roadside to wait 
 the arrival of the coach, and to catch momentary 
 glimpses, among floating clouds, of the country through 
 which he has passed in his ascent from the coast. He 
 can see a long distance through such a rarified atmos- 
 phere ; but it is only a bird's-eye view, as the mass 
 that is heaped together is more than his vision can 
 fully take in, before a cloud, ragged and torn, has 
 passed across the picture. The eye is delighted more 
 with the details of a scene, than with this mass of all
 
 MOUNTAIN VIEW. 81 
 
 the excellences of all the climates. Still he has time 
 to divide into sections the world below him ; and as he 
 thus contemplates in part, he at length realizes as a 
 whole the scene that is presented. The art of man 
 never has, and never can, produce such a combination 
 in the arrangement of the courses of vegetation. As 
 the traveler stands at an elevation where pine-trees 
 grow in the tropics, where a post-and-board fence in- 
 closes a field of grain, and where a storm of snow and 
 sleet had fallen only a few hours before, he can look 
 down upon hills and plains, one below another, each 
 one, in the descending scale, exhibiting more and more 
 of tropical productions, rn.'il the regions of cocoa-nuts, 
 and bananas, and sarsaparilla, and palms, and jalap, 
 and vanilla, are reached in his perspective. This is a 
 specimen chart, where all the climates and productions 
 of the world are embraced within the scope of a single 
 glance. 
 
 It is time to re-enter the coach, and close all open- 
 ings, for a dense fog is coming up from the sea, and has 
 thrown so thick a curtain over the prospect, that the eye 
 can not penetrate it. The long line of freight-wagons, 
 that have served to mark the route that we have come, 
 disappear, one after another : we ourselves are soon en- 
 veloped in darkness. With the fog has come a chill 
 and piercing air, and the pleasure of our mountain ride 
 is now over. Still we move on and up with little hin- 
 drance, as the road on this side of the " divide" is in 
 good repair. But as we go down on the other side, we 
 are impeded by freight-wagons held fast in the mud, 
 and unable to move down-hill — it being easier to drag 
 a wagon up an ascent than to draw it down-hill through 
 stiff mud. An entirely different world now presents 
 itself. We are in a fine grain-growing country. Well- 
 cultivated fields stretch out as far as the eye can reach,
 
 88 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 with farm-houses scattered here and there, that strik- 
 ingly remind the traveler of his northern home at this 
 season of the year. 
 
 The fences here are chiefly formed by rows of the 
 maguey or century plant, growing at the side of a 
 ditch. Here it reaches its greatest perfection, and adds 
 materially to the fine appearance of the fields, and is 
 seen every where upon the table-land. It grows wild 
 upon the mountains, and springs up in uncultivated 
 places, as a weed. It is cultivated, as a domestic plant, 
 in little patches, and is also planted in fields of leagues 
 in extent. It grows luxm'iantly in the richest soils, 
 and shows itself in those desert plains, where nothing 
 else, except a few spears of stinted gi-ass and chaparral 
 can exist. 
 
 The uses to which the maguey is applied are more 
 numerous than the methods of its cultivation. When 
 its immense leaf is pounded into a pulp, it forms a sub- 
 stitute for both cloth and paper. The fibre of the leaf, 
 when beaten and spun, forms a beautiful thread, resem- 
 bling silk in its glossy texture, but which, when woven 
 into a fabric, more resembles linen than silk. This 
 thread is now, and ever has been, the sewing thread of 
 the countr}^. The leaf of the maguey, when crudely 
 dressed and spun into a coarse thread, is woven into 
 sail-cloth and sacking ; and firom it is made the bagging 
 in common use. The ropes made from it are of that 
 kind called JManiUa hemp. It is the best material in 
 use for wrapping paper. When cut into coarse straws, 
 it forms the brooms and whitewash-brushes of the coun- 
 try ; and, as a substitute for bristles, it is made into 
 scrub-brushes; and, finally, it supplies the place of hair- 
 combs among the common people. 
 
 The great value of the maguey plant arises from the 
 amount of intoxicating liquid which it produces, which
 
 THE MAGUEY. PULQUE. 83 
 
 is the chief source of intoxication among the common 
 people of the table-land. There are two species of this 
 plant cultivated. One of them flourishes in the desert 
 portions of the country, from which an abominable liq- 
 uor is distilled, called mescal^ or mejical. The other 
 is the flowering maguey, or century plant, of which so 
 many fabulous stories are told in the United States. 
 This is one of the wonders of the vegetable world. Un- 
 til the plant has reached its tenth year, or thereabouts, 
 there is no trace of a flower. In its fifteenth year, or 
 thereabout, there are certain appearances which indicate 
 that the central stem, or hamjpe^ which sustains the 
 flower, is about to form in the centre of the plant. If 
 persons are not on the watch to cut out the heart at the 
 proper time, the hampe shoots out, and grows to about 
 the height of a telegraph post — for which I have often 
 mistaken it — -absorbing in its development tlie sap, 
 which, when fermented, forms the intoxicating drink 
 called, pulque. The sprouting of the stalk takes place 
 in November or December; but the beautiful cluster 
 of flowers, for w^liich it is so much admired, does not 
 form at its top till February. In this last montli, the 
 monster leaf that envelops the hampe begins gradually 
 to unfold itself, exposing to view a slender stalk, higher 
 than a man on horseback, with arms extended. On 
 this stalk grow the flowers. Such is the century plant 
 — in botanical language, the Agava Americana, 
 
 The juice of the maguey, in its unfermented state, is 
 called honey-water. It is gathered from the central 
 basin by cutting off a side-leaf and cutting out the 
 heart, just before the sprouting of the hampe^ for whose 
 sustenance this juice is destined. The basin, thus 
 formed, yields every day from four to seven quarts — 
 according to the size and thriftiness of the plant — for a 
 period of two or three months. The process of taking
 
 84 »IEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 it out of the plant is a little curious. Into tlie end of a 
 long gourd is inserted a cow's horn, bored at the point ; 
 througli this horn and into the gourd the juice is sucked 
 up by applying the mouth to a hole in the opposite side 
 of the gourd. From the gourd-shell the juice is emptied 
 into a bottle formed from the skin of a hog, which still 
 retains much of the form of the animal. To form this 
 bottle of honey-water into pulque^ all that is necessary 
 is to put into it a little of the same material which has 
 been laid aside till it became sour, which operates like 
 yeast, causing the honey-water to ferment. 
 
 As soon as the maguey juice in the hog-skin has fer- 
 mented, it is jpxdque ; and is readily sold for eight, and 
 sometimes as high as twenty-five cents a quart, pro- 
 ducing a very large revenue upon the cost of the plant. 
 It is not ordinarily sold at wholesale ; but each maguey 
 estate has its retail shops in town, from which the whole 
 product of the estate is retailed out. One man, who has 
 five of these shops in the city of Mexico, keeps his car- 
 riage ; and is reckoned, among the magnates of the land, 
 deriving from this source alone, it is said, $25,000 a 
 year. The excise which Government derives from the 
 sale of this liquor, which, in taste, resembles sour but- 
 ter-milk, amounted to $817,739 in the year 1793. 
 
 The traveler from the coast always arrives at Perote 
 at a late hour; and as he leaves it again at an early 
 hour next morning, he recollects nothing of it but its 
 chilly night air, and the good supper which he was too 
 cold to enjoy. But on his return from Mexico, he usu- 
 ally has an hour of daylight, which he can improve in 
 a survey of this small and cleanly towTi. Here the 
 freight-wagons, with their twenty horses apiece, stop 
 to recruit ; and the cargo-mules, that take this route, 
 are gathered in the immense stable-yards, which give 
 to the place the appearance of a collection of caravan-
 
 PEROTE. 85 
 
 saries. The wliitewasli-brusli has been industriously 
 applied to the outside of the houses ; and though they 
 are chiefly built of that frail material, dried mud, they 
 present a very neat and tidy appearance, giving one a 
 very correct idea of what may have been the appearance 
 of one of the first class of Indian towns in the times of 
 Cortez. 
 
 A few rods to the north of the town stands the castle 
 of San Carlos — a square fort, with a moat and glacis. 
 It is built in the best style of fortifications of the last 
 century, having been designed as a depository for silver, 
 when, in consequence of the wars of Spain with mari- 
 time nations, it was not deemed prudent to send it for- 
 ward to the coast: it was much used for this purpose 
 when the road below was blocked up, in the times of the 
 insurrection, that began in the year 1810. At one time 
 the accumulation here was so great that it is said to have 
 amounted to 40,000,000 of silver dollars ; weighing 
 about 1300 tons, or a little short of the whole silver ex- 
 port of two years. This castle is now in a fine state 
 of repair. It has a large garrison of lancers, and at the 
 time of my visit was daily in expectation of the arrival 
 of Santa Anna. From this castle Santa Anna, in 1828, 
 issued his jpronunciainiento against Pedraza. In this 
 castle he was imprisoned by Rincon, in 1845, after his 
 capture at Xico. From this castle he was banished by 
 decree of the Mexican Congress ; and to it he was now 
 returning to hold the supreme power in the State. 
 
 At two o'clock in the morning we were aroused from 
 our comfortable beds to take our places in the stage; 
 and soon we were again upon the road. There is some- 
 thing exceedingly attractive in the appearance of the 
 skies upon this elevated table-land, 7692 feet above the 
 ocean. The morning star-light is very beautiiul. It is 
 so much clearer, and the stars are therefore so much
 
 86 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 brighter here than in the dense atmosphere where we 
 inhabit, that the traveler, half chilled and sleeping, rouses 
 himself to contemplate the brilliant sights above him. 
 The brightest stars that he has watched from childhood 
 Tip, are brighter now than ever. New stars have filled 
 the voids in his celestial chart, and satellites are danc- 
 ing round well-known planets. The North Star is still 
 visible, now IQ'' above the horizon. The Dipper has 
 dipped far down to the northward. The Southern Cross 
 — that mysterious combination of five stars, that em- 
 blem of the faith of Southern i\.merica, which only reaches 
 full meridian at midnight prayers — is here 25° above 
 the horizon, shining brilliantly. And then there are 
 so many unknown southern stars, and so many unfamiliar 
 constellations, that the short hours of night are w^ell 
 spent upon the driver's box. 
 
 We have been gradually descending into what ap- 
 pears to have once been the bottom of a salt lake. The 
 ground is partially incrusted with a compound salt 
 called tequisqiiita, is composed of equal proportions of 
 muriate of soda, carbonate of soda, and insoluble metal 
 (common earth) : this compound is used by the Mexi- 
 can bakers and soap-boilers as a substitute for salt and 
 soda. A stinted grass is here and tliere scattered in 
 patches over the had land^ as these barren plains are 
 called ; but the dry earth, which is rarely moistened for 
 six months together, is covered with drifting sand, which 
 is di-iven about by the hot winds of this desert. 
 
 How great was the change from what we had passed ! 
 The celestial chart, that we had been admiring with so 
 much rapture, had gi-adually rolled itself up, and as the 
 sun came out, we had a view of the dreariness around 
 us. It was truly a had land — a land of evil — even a land 
 for wolves to prowl in, and where vultures watch for the 
 carcasses of dying mules, and where robbers ply their
 
 AGED BEGGAR. 87 
 
 calling with little fear of detection. Here, in the midst 
 of all this dreariness, we saw a pretty lake, and beau- 
 tiful scenery around it, that looked for a little while 
 like an enchanted scene, and then vanished into air. 
 We passed the hostehy of Tepeyagualco, where water 
 is drawn from a fabulous depth, and soon came to that 
 most celebrated spring of fresh water, situated upon the 
 the boundary-line of the two departments of Vera Cruz 
 and Puebla, and bearing the poetical name of " The 
 Eye of Waters." But we were followed by a driving 
 storm of sand all the way to Nopaluca, where we break- 
 fasted at twelve o'clock. 
 
 As we came out from breakfast we encountered an 
 old beggar, whom I had often seen before at this 
 place. He was so old that Time seemed to have forgot- 
 ten him, and he too had forgotten Time. He could 
 only reach his age by approximation : he recollected that 
 his third son was earning day-wages when the decree 
 came (in 1767) for the expulsion of the Jesuits. This 
 would make the old beggar 130 years of age, if we call 
 the son eighteen, and the father twenty-five at the time 
 of his birth. Poor old man ! how much he has suffered 
 from outliving his own kindred. One after another he 
 has followed to the grave his children and his children's 
 children, to the third and fourth generation, till now 
 the lad that leads him by the hand, the only link that 
 binds him to the race of the living, is of the sixth gen- 
 eration. 
 
 Toward evening, after we had passed the storm of 
 dust, we came to the large village of Amosoque, which 
 is the only town of any magnitude between Perote and 
 Puebla. It is noted for its excellent spurs ; and was 
 formerly much more noted as a haunt of robbers. From 
 this village we were driven in a little more than an hour 
 to the city of Puebla.
 
 CILIPTER ^TCI. 
 
 Puebla — The Miracle of the Angels. — A City of Priests. — Marianna 
 in Bronze. — The Vega of Puebla. — First View of the P}Tamid of 
 Cholula. — Modern Additions to it. — The View from its Top. — Quet- 
 zalcoatl. — Cholvda and Tlascala. — Cholula without the Poetry. — 
 Indian Relics. 
 
 JPuehlo de los Angelas — the "Village of the Angels" 
 — derives its name from a miracle that occurred during 
 the building of its celebrated Cathedral. While its 
 walls were going up, angels are said to have come 
 down from heaven nightly, and laid on the walls the 
 same amount of stone and mortar that the masons laid 
 the day previous. It is, of course, a sacred city. Its 
 people, particularly the women, are the most devout in 
 all 3Iexico ; and, of course, the most profligate, as we 
 shall show presently. It is a city of priests, and monks, 
 and nuns, and friars, of every order, white and gray, 
 black and greasy. As in all Spanish-American towns, 
 the fronts of the houses are plastered and painted in 
 fresco ; but the fresco painting has gone too long \vith- 
 out renewing, and the town looks now, as it did two 
 years ago, gray, streaked, and inhospitable. The un- 
 washed houses are filled with unwashed people ; and 
 the streets swarm with filthy beggars, and monks ask- 
 ing for alms in the name of the most blessed Virgin. 
 The streets, thanks to the male and female chain-gangs, 
 are kept quite clean. But all else is dirty. If the 
 angels, when they finished their work on the Cathedral, 
 had left a whitewash brush behind them, they would 
 have done the city a real service. The houses, inside
 
 CHARACTER OF THE POBLANAS. 91 
 
 and out, and occupants too, and the reputation of its 
 women from olden time, all need whitewashing. 
 
 Perhaps I could not present a more deplorable picture 
 of the moral condition of the ladies of Puebla, who are 
 celebrated for being so very devout, "but not very vir- 
 tuous," than by copying the following from Madame Cal- 
 deron de la Barca's "Life in Mexico:" 
 
 "Yesterday (Sunday), a great day here for visiting 
 after mass is over. We had a concourse of Spaniards, 
 all of whom seemed anxious to know whether or not I 
 intended to wear a Poblana dress at the fancy ball, and 
 seemed wonderfully interested about it. Two young 
 
 ladies or women of Puebla, introduced by Seiior , 
 
 came to proffer their services in giving me all the neces- 
 sary particulars, and dressed the hair of Josefa, a little 
 Mexican girl, to show me how it should be arranged; 
 mentioned several things still Avanting, and told me that 
 every one was much pleased at the idea of my going in 
 a Poblana dress. I was rather sui-prised that every one 
 should trouble themselves about it. About twelve 
 o'clock the President, in full uniform, attended by his 
 aids-de-camp, paid me a visit, and sat about half an 
 hour, very amiable as usual. Shortly after came more 
 visits, and just as we had supposed they were all con- 
 cluded, and we were going to dinner, we were told that 
 the Secretary of State, the IMinisters of War and of the 
 Interior, and others, were in the drawing-room. And 
 what do you think was the purport of their visit ? To 
 adjure me by all that was most alarming, to discard 
 the idea of making my appearance in a Poblana dress ! 
 They assured us that Poblanas generally -wQve, femmes 
 de rien, that they wore no stockings, and that the wife 
 of the Spanish Minister should by no means assume, 
 even for one evening, such a costume. I brought in 
 my dresses, showed their length and their propriety.
 
 92 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 but in vain ; and, in fact, as to tlieir being in the right, 
 there could be no doubt, and nothing but a kind motive 
 could have induced them to take this trouble ; so I 
 yielded with a good grace, and thanked the cabinet 
 council for their timely warning, though fearing that, in 
 this land of procrastination, it would be difficult to pro- 
 cure another dress for the fancy ball. 
 
 " They had scarcely gone, when Senor brought 
 
 a message from several of the principal ladies here, 
 whom we do not even know, and who had requested 
 that, as a stranger, I should be informed of the reasons 
 which rendered the Poblana dress objectionable in this 
 country, especially on any public occasion like this ball. 
 I was really thankful for my escape. 
 
 " Just as I was dressing for dinner, a note was 
 brought, marked reservada (private), the contents of 
 which appeared to me more odd than pleasant. I have 
 since heard, however, that the writer, Don Jose Arnaiz, 
 is an old man, and a sort of privileged character, who 
 interferes in every thing, whether it concerns him or 
 not. I translate it for your benefit : 
 
 " The dress of a Poblana is that of a woman of no 
 character. The lady of the Spanish minister is a lady 
 in every sense of the word. However much she may 
 have compromised herself, she ought neither to go as a 
 Poblana, nor in any other character but her own. So 
 
 says to the Senor de C n, Jos^ Arnaiz, who esteems 
 
 him as much as possible." 
 
 If priests were angels, the town would be rightly 
 named, for it is a city of priests and religious ,' men 
 who have consecrated their lives to begging, and count 
 it a merit with God to live on charity. Convents of 
 male and female religious abound, and, as the books 
 tell us, 840,000,000, in the form of mortgages upon the 
 fairest lands of the Vega of Puebla, is consecrated to
 
 MARIANNA IN BKONZE. 93 
 
 their support, under the supervision of the bishop. That 
 smoking mountain, that outlet to infernal fires, is so 
 close at hand as to suggest the idea that this whole 
 mass of impurity and moral rottenness may have been 
 vomited up from the bottomless pit, or that the fallen 
 angels, in their way thitherward, tarried here to found 
 a sacred city, see its Cathedral finished, and then led 
 the way down the inclined plane to that brimstone con- 
 vent where friars "most do congregate." 
 
 In this city of dirty houses and dirty faces there is, 
 nevertheless, some public spirit. Since I was last here 
 a bronze equestrian statue has been set up in the Grand 
 Plaza. It is a bronze woman, sitting quietly and easily 
 upon a furious bronze horse. The horse is in a teiTi- 
 ble state of excitement, but the woman is not alarmed 
 in the least ; for she seems to be well aware that it is 
 only make-believe passion, badly executed in bronze. 
 Who could this woman be but ]\Ialinche, or Marianna, 
 the Indian mistress of Cortez — a fit patroness of the 
 women of Puebla. She was the first convert that Cor- 
 tez ever made to Christianity ; and her sort of Chris- 
 tianity is not unusual in Mexico. That beautiful cone 
 that rises so majestically out of the plain between Puebla 
 and Tlascala bears the name of Malinche ; but as this 
 name was applied to her paramoui* as well as to herself, 
 an additional testimonial, in the form of a bronze statue, 
 was deemed requisite ; for she is considered here as al- 
 most a saint, and would be altogether such if she had 
 not been the mother of children, and ended lier career 
 by getting married. That act of getting married — not 
 her former life — rendered her unfit for a saint ; for how 
 could an honest housewife be a saint ? She mi2:ht have 
 been the best of mothers and the best of wives, and 
 have performed scrupulously the duties that God had 
 assigned to her upon earth ; but she was lacking in ro-
 
 94 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 mance, in those aerial materials from which saints are 
 made. Saints are made in damp, cold prison-cells, 
 where, in the midst of self-inflicted misery, they see 
 visions, dream dreams, and perform cures upon crowds 
 as deluded as themselves. 
 
 It was a delightful afternoon when I mounted my 
 horse for a ride to Cholula. The wind of the day be- 
 fore had driven away every vapor from this exceedingly 
 transparent atmosphere, excepting only the cloud that 
 was resting upon Popocatapetl, a little below its snow- 
 covered summit. It was such weather as we have at 
 " harvest home," and it was truly a " harvest home" 
 tliroughout the whole Yega. jMen were working in 
 gangs in the different fields, gathering stalks, or husk- 
 ing com, or cutting grain, or plowing with a dozen 
 plows in company, or haiTowing, or putting in seed. 
 It was harvest-time and seed-time together. The full 
 green blade and the ripened grain stood in adjoining 
 fields in this region of perpetual sunshine. As I rode 
 along between carefully cultivated estates, I did not fail 
 to catch the enthusiasm whicli groups of cheerful field- 
 laborers always inspire in one whose happiest recollec- 
 tions run back to the labors of the farm. Such are the 
 varieties this country affords : three days ago I was 
 enjoying the most delicate tropical fruits, which I 
 plucked fresh from the trees ; yesterday I was travers- 
 ing a salt desert covered with clouds of drifting sand; 
 and I was now among gi-ain-farms of a cold climate. 
 
 Right before me, as I rode along, was a mass of trees, 
 of ever-green foliage, presenting indistinctly the outline 
 of a pyramid, which ran up to the height of about two 
 hundred feet, and was crowned by an old stone church, 
 and surmounted by a tall steeple. It was the most at- 
 tractive object in the plain; it had such a look of uncul- 
 tivated nature in the midst of grain-fields. It would
 
 PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 95 
 
 have lost half its attractiveness had it been the stiff and 
 clumsy thing which the pictures represent it to be. I 
 had admired it in pictures from my childhood for what 
 it was not; but I now admired it for what it really was 
 — the finest Indian mound on this continent ; where the 
 Indians buried the bravest of their braves, with bows 
 and arrows, and a drinking cup, that they might not be 
 unprovided for when they should arrive at the hunting- 
 grounds of the Great Spirit. A little digging, a few 
 years ago,* has furnished the evidence on which I base 
 this assertion. This digging has destroyed the old 
 monkish fiction to reinstate the truly Indian idea of the 
 dead, and of the necessity of mounds for their burial. 
 
 PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 
 
 By going round to the north side, I obtained a fine 
 view of the modern improvements which have been con- 
 
 * The living witnesses of the result of this excavation are still at 
 Cholula, and the fact is mentioned in several American works ; my in- 
 ference from the fact is the only novelty in the matter.
 
 96 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 
 
 structed upon this Indian mound. I rode up a paved 
 carriage-way into the church-yard that now occupies the 
 top, and giving my liorse to a squahd Indian imp who 
 came out of the vestry, I went in and took a survey of 
 tlie tawdiy images through which God is now worshiped 
 by the baptized descendants of the builders of this 
 mound. My curiosity was soon gratified, and I re- 
 turned to my place in the saddle. 
 
 I followed the wall around the church-yard, stopping 
 from point to point to look upon the vast map spread 
 around on every side. Orizaba, which I first saw when 
 150 miles out at sea as a mammoth sugar-loaf sitting 
 upon a cloud, had at Jalapa, and at " the eye of wa- 
 ters," different forms, while here it appeared to be joined 
 with the Perote, forming the limit of the horizon toward 
 the east. On the west were Popocatapetl, Iztaccihuatl, 
 and MaHnche ; while smaller mountains and hills seemed 
 to complete the line of circumvaUation, which gave to 
 the elevated plain of Puebla the aspect of the bed of an 
 exhausted lake, and to the isolated hills, rising here and 
 there upon its surface, the appearance of having been 
 islands when the waters covered the face of the land.. 
 
 The cloud was still resting upon Popocatapetl ; but 
 its crest, far above the clouds, was in that region where, 
 in the tropics, ice and snow lie undisturbed forever. 
 The marks which it bore of having once been the smoke- 
 pipe of one of Nature's fiimaces, furnished us with the 
 translation of its name — "The mountain with a smoking 
 mouth.*' But that lake of fire has long since ceased to 
 bum, and when the mountain had last emitted smoke 
 was unknown to the oldest inhabitant. And that other 
 mountain, Iztaccihuatl, or the "White Woman," lying 
 so quietly and snug, in her covering of perpetual snow, 
 at the side of the volcano, called up in the minds of the 
 Indians the strange conceit of man and "vvife. There
 
 CHOLULA. 97 
 
 were forests on the mountain sides and trees along the 
 rivers covered with green, but all else looked dry and 
 parched. Seldom, indeed, has the eye of man ever rest- 
 ed on a finer farming country tlian the great plain of 
 Puebla, and seldom are lands seen better cultivated. 
 
 Cholula was of old sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the " God 
 of the Air," who, during his abode upon earth, taught 
 mankind the use of metals, the practice of agriculture, 
 and the arts of government. Translating myth into 
 history, we may call him the great Aztec reformer. He 
 is represented as a man of fair complexion with curling 
 hair and flowing beard, very different from tlie type of 
 the Aztecs. On his way from Mexico to the coast he 
 remained for a while at Cholula, where a mound and 
 temple was raised to his honor. 
 
 This tradition made Cholula the Mecca of the Indian 
 world; and with the merchants who came to attend the 
 annual fair held at the base of the mound came also 
 hosts of pilgrims, to offer sacrifice to the memory of that 
 god who introduced flowers into the native worship, and 
 discouraged cruelties and human sacrifices. 
 
 At Cholula I was so fortunate as to procure one of the 
 images of Quetzalcoatl, cut in stone, with curled hair and 
 Caucasian features. I afterward verified the same by 
 comparison with the great image found at Mexico, not 
 without strong suspicions that both were counterfeits ; 
 for in this country even the most sacred records are 
 open to suspicion. Popular tradition and the most ap- 
 proved authors will have it, that some stray white man 
 had found his way among the Mexicans, and taught 
 them empirically the calculations and divisions of time, 
 and a very few of the arts of civilized life unknown to 
 our Indians, and they venerated him as a god. But the 
 probabilities are that the whole story is a myth, and for 
 once the Inquisition was right in suppressing specula- 
 
 E
 
 98 MEXICO AND ITS EEUGION. 
 
 tion in relation to him, whether he was Saint Thomas 
 or not. 
 
 At the base of this pyramid, tliree hundred years ago, 
 flourished the rich and opulent city of Cholula, which, 
 according to Cortez,* contained 40,000 houses. He says 
 that he counted from this spot 400 mosques, f and 400 
 towers of other mosques — that the " exterior of this city 
 is more beautiful than any in Spain." That is, as he 
 and all other historians of the Conquest agree in repre- 
 senting it, it was at the same time not only the Mecca 
 and the commercial centre, but the centre of learning 
 and refinement of ^Mexico. Here Indian philosophers 
 met upon a common footing with Indian merchants. Its 
 government, too, was republican ; and upon these very 
 plains, tlu-ee hundred years ago and more, flourished 
 two powerful republics, Tlascala and Cholula. The fii'st 
 was the Laceda^mon, the second the Athens of the In- 
 dian world, and when united they had successfully re- 
 sisted the armies of ^lontezuma and his Aztecs. But 
 Aztec intrigue was too powerful for the American Athens, 
 and the polished city of Cholula having been subdued 
 by the same arts by which Philip of i\Iacedon had won 
 the sovereignty of Athens — a combination of intrigue 
 and of arms — Tlascala was left alone to resist the whole 
 force of the Aztec empire, now aided by the faithless 
 Cholulans. Yet Tlascala was undismayed by the new 
 combination brought to bear against her, and did not 
 readily listen to the proposed alliance of Cortez. It 
 was only after three terrible battles with Cortez, that 
 Tlascala learned to appreciate the value of his aUiance 
 — an aUiance which has conferred upon her perpetual 
 
 * Cortez's " Letters," Folsom's translation, p. 71. 
 t This word mosques Cortez constantly makes use of, apparently to 
 keep before the people of Spain the idea that he was conducting a holy
 
 CHOLULA. 99 
 
 freedom and a distinct political organization to the pres- 
 ent time. 
 
 This is the poetry of the thing. Let us give it a lit- 
 tle matter-of-fact examination. 
 
 The spot on which I stand, instead of being what it 
 has often been represented to be, is but a shapeless mass 
 of earth 205 feet high, occupying a village square of 
 1310 feet. It is sufficiently wasted by time to give full 
 scope to the imagination to fill out or restore it to al- 
 most any form. One hundred years ago, some rich citi- 
 zen constructed steps up its side, and protected the sides 
 of his steps from falling earth by walls of adobe, or mud- 
 brick ; and on the west side some adobe buttresses have 
 been placed to keep the loose earth out of the village 
 street. This is all of man's labor that is visible, except 
 the work of the Indians in shaving away the hill which 
 constitutes this pyramid. As for the great city of Cho- 
 lula, it never had an existence ; for if there had been, 
 only three hundred years ago, such a city here, com- 
 posed of 40,000 houses, with 400 towers, besides the 
 400 mosques, then some vestige or fragment of a fallen 
 wall or a ruined tower would still be visible. But I 
 searched in vain for the slightest evidence of former 
 magnificence, and was driven to the unwelcome conclu- 
 sion that the whole city was fabricated out of some 
 miserable Indian village, inferior, perhaps, to the pres- 
 ent town of one-story, whitewashed mud huts. 
 
 My contemplations were broken in upon by a swarm 
 of squalid women and children from the church vestry, 
 importuning me to buy relics in clay, which might an- 
 swer the double purpose of images of saints or of hea- 
 then gods, according to the taste of the purchaser. But 
 when they found me impracticable, they brought out 
 their greatest curiosity — a flint arrow-head, such as used 
 to be plowed up in scores near the place where I was
 
 100 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 bom. Thoroughly disgusted with the sight of this 
 AcropoHs, with this ancient Athens of mud, I turned 
 my horse's head toward Puebla; and as I rode on, I 
 met scores of these modern Athenians trotting home- 
 ward, bareheaded and barefooted, carrying "papooses" 
 on their backs, while their faces, forms, and hair, and 
 ragged dress, were the very counterpart of the Indians 
 of Xorth America. 
 
 The Indians of Puebla have long enjoyed the distin- 
 guished honor of being the governing men, while the 
 white inhabitants were ineligible to a seat in the city 
 councils. This city was formerly an Indian village, 
 bearing the indigestible name of Cuetlaxcapen, or 
 " Snake in the Water ;" but, in 1530, the Yice-King 
 Mendoza established here a Spanish colony, but left 
 the original government unchanged ; so that, down to 
 the independence, the city administration was conducted 
 by an Indian alcalde, assisted by a council of four In- 
 dians. Notwithstanding the anomalous form of its gov- 
 ernment, Puebla has ever been a great manufacturing 
 town, and at this day consumes a quantity of cotton 
 equal to some of our large manufacturing cities.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A Ride to Popocatapetl. — The Village of Atlizco. — The old Man of 
 Atlizco and the Inquisition. — A novel Mode of Escape. — An aveng- 
 ing Ghost. — The Vice-King Ravillagigedo. — The Court of the Vice- 
 King and the Inquisition, — Ascent of Popocatapetl. — How a Par- 
 ty perished by Night. — The Crater and the House in it. — Descent 
 into the Crater. — The Interior. — The Workmen in the Volcano. — 
 The View from Popocatapetl. — The first White that climbed Popo- 
 catapetl. — The Story of Corchado. — Corchado converts the Volcano 
 into a Sulphur-mine. 
 
 One of the first objects of interest in Mexico is the 
 volcano of Popocatapetl. A stage runs from Puebla to 
 Atlizco, but beyond that village the visitor must travel 
 upon horseback. Atlizco is worthy of a special notice 
 from its situation in a most fertile valley, and its pecul- 
 iar location at the base of a conical hill. This hill, like 
 every attractive locality in Mexico, is the scene of ro- 
 mantic traditions of the common people. From many, 
 I select one illustration of the state of society in the 
 times of the vice-kings. 
 
 There once was, the tradition runs in this village, an 
 old hidalgo who possessed a plantation in the immediate 
 neighborhood of the town. His family consisted of him- 
 self and two daugliters ; and he was rich. Upon a cer- 
 tain time, one of those strolling monks, with whom the 
 country abounds, chanced to offer an indignity to one of 
 the daughters, and the old man chanced to return the in- 
 dignity by inflicting upon the monk such a beating as 
 never poor friar had yet received in the vice-kingdom — 
 such a one as the feelings of an outraged father alone 
 could justify. This was not the end of the matter ; it
 
 102 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 was only the beginning of evil to the old man, as he 
 well knew, for he had laid his hands upon one of the 
 consecrated — one who had received the sacrament of 
 " Holy Orders ;" and, above all, he was rich enough to 
 tempt the cupidity of the Inquisition, which always 
 watched with jealous care over the orthodoxy of those 
 whose estates, when confiscated, would add to "the 
 greater glory of God," that is, to the treasury of the 
 "Holy Office." 
 
 Guilty or not guilty, the old man had but one mode 
 of escape, and tliat was by avoiding an arrest. To ef- 
 fect this object he resorted to a novel expedient. As 
 soon as he heard that his accuser had started for !Mexi- 
 co, it was given out that the old man had suddenly died. 
 A circumstance by no means thought remarkable, when it 
 became known that he had assaulted a priest. As he had 
 not yet been accused, his neighbors ventured to come to 
 his funeral ; and a coffin, with his name and age marked 
 upon it, was decently buried in holy ground. The fune- 
 ral fees, too, were secured before the estate was pounced 
 upon by the familiars of the Inquisition. The daugh- 
 ters put on the deepest mourning, and hid themselves 
 from the public gaze, among their relatives ; for they had 
 not only to endure the loss of home and estates, but 
 were to be shunned as the accursed of God — the children 
 of one dying while under the accusation of sacrilege. As 
 for the Inquisition, its officials did not care to investigate 
 the question of the decease, for it had reaped all the ben- 
 efit it miglit hope for from his conviction — " The Holy 
 Office" had become his heir. 
 
 Strange appearances and stranger noises after a time 
 were heard about the cave that is said to be in the top 
 of the hill of Atlizco, and sometimes a gliost had been 
 seen wandering about the hill by certain benighted vil- 
 lagers ; and one time, when the accusing monk was re-
 
 THE OLD MAN OF ATLIZCO. 103 
 
 turning ratlier later than usual from a drunken revel, this 
 ghost, who had now become the town-talk, chanced to 
 fall in with him, and to give him such a beating as few 
 living men could inflict, and then disappeared. Still 
 there was no earthquake, and the sun rose and set as 
 though no injury had been done to a priest. 
 
 Time wore its slow course along, without any impor- 
 tant incident occurring in this matter, until the reputation 
 of the newYirey, Ravillagigedo, reached Atlizco. Short- 
 ly thereafter there appeared at the vice-royal palace in 
 the city of Mexico an old man, who related in a private 
 audience the story of his griefs and of his misfortunes, 
 and insisted that, in striking " the Lord's priest," he had 
 no intention of committing an act of impiety, but that 
 the feelings of a father had overcome him in an unguard- 
 ed moment, and induced him to avenge an attempt made 
 to dishonor his daughter. The story of the old man 
 touched the Virey, who had a manly heart wrapped up 
 in a forbidding exterior. But it was a delicate under- 
 taking even for a vice-king to attempt to wrest a rich 
 estate out of the clutches of the " Holy Office" without 
 himself being suspected of heresy, or of disloyalty to the 
 Church. Yet Ravillagigedo was never at a loss for ex- 
 pedients when justice was to be done or the oppressed 
 relieved. The best advice, however, that he could give 
 the old man was to hide himself again, and to send his 
 daughters to Mexico to accuse the monk. 
 
 Upon a set day, the vice-king was found arrayed in 
 state, surrounded by a council of Inquisitors, before 
 whom the daughters, in the deepest mourning, presented 
 themselves as the accusers of the profligate monk. They 
 stated, with an artless simplicity which could not fail to 
 convince, the story of the wrongs the monk had done 
 them. The Inquisitors, sitting in the presence of the 
 incorruptible Yirey, could not, for very shame, do other-
 
 104 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 wise than declare unanimously that the monk, and not 
 tlie old man, was worthy of the censure of the Church. 
 
 " Then let us wipe away the stain that rests upon the 
 fair fame of these ladies as daughters of one dying sus- 
 pected, by decreeing their father's innocence," said the 
 Virey. 
 
 This being assented to, the record of the old man's in- 
 nocence was made up, and, when duly attested by the 
 Inquisitors, was handed to the daughters. A door was 
 at this moment opened, and there entered into the august 
 presence a gi'ay-headed old man, to whom the daugliters 
 presented the record. The old man, when he had re- 
 ceived the record, advanced, and, bowing humbly, made 
 confession of his fault. It was a bitter pill for the "Holy 
 Office" thus to be tricked into the performance of a com- 
 mon act of justice, and in this way to lose a valuable 
 estate. From this time onward, it is said that Inquisi- 
 tors were never known to hold court with a Virey. 
 
 At Atlizco horses must be procured for the journey 
 up the mountain, for beyond this point there is no car- 
 riage-road. I here foUow the verbal narrative of jMr. 
 Frank Kellott, the artist of whom I have already made 
 mention, as I dared not venture where bleeding of the 
 lungs is produced by the rarity of the atmosphere and 
 by the fatigue. 
 
 " The company consisted of Mr. Corchado, the pro- 
 prietor, Mr. Munez, a neighboring gentleman, three la- 
 dies, and myself, all on horseback. Sixteen Indians 
 had been sent forward on foot early in the morning, w^ith 
 all the conveniences to make the trip a safe and agree- 
 able one. The party went clieerfully up the mule-road 
 that leads to the mountain rancho of Zacopalco, one of 
 the highest inhabited points upon our globe. The soil 
 upon the mountain, composed of volcanic mud, yields 
 such rich grasses, that almost at the upper edge of the
 
 ASCENT OF POPOCATAPETL. 105 
 
 timber there is a milk-house {lecheria)^ where a cattle- 
 herd, if cauglit out at night, may find a shelter. Tlie 
 inner man being well cared for at the rancho, we jour- 
 neyed on, following the path that led us through a tan- 
 gled mass of trees and plants, and among barrancas 
 whose sides were covered with pines. The timber grew 
 shorter and more stunted as we proceeded, until, at the 
 height of 12,544 feet, the pines entirely disappeared. A 
 little farther on, at an elevation of 12,692 feet, we were 
 at the limit of vegetation. After journeying a league or 
 so over the yielding sand mixed with sharp stones, twelve 
 of our Indians and our horses gave out. From this 
 point for a little way farther, our party proceeded on 
 foot, with the four remaining servants. 
 
 " We had gone only a little way farther when two 
 of our fair companions also gave out, and we sent them 
 back to the rancho with the returning horses and the 
 fatigued servants, for there was now no time for delay, 
 if we intended to reach the summit that day. The third 
 lady went bravely on, and would probably have enjoyed 
 the honor of being the first woman that had ever ascend- 
 ed Popocatapetl, had it not been for the unfortunate ar- 
 rangement she had made in her wardrobe. Instead of 
 putting on the pantaloons, or bloomers^ she had added 
 extra skirts by way of precaution against the cold ; so 
 that when she had climbed about 3000 feet over volcanic 
 sand and loose stones, she gave out from fatigue and the 
 bruises she had received in her numerous falls. It was 
 a painful effort even for those of us who had no skirts 
 to impede us to get on ; and it was imprudent for her 
 to proceed farther, for the icicles would be in her way 
 as much as the sand and stones ; for these icicles were 
 like spikes projecting upward from the rocks, and be- 
 tween which we should have to place our feet and pick 
 our way as best we could without falling upon them. 
 
 E*
 
 106 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 In this state of things there was no alternative, and we 
 were reluctantly obliged to dissuade her from farther ef- 
 fort, and to consign her over to the kind attentions of 
 three more of our Indians, who had given out, to con- 
 duct her down the mountain. 
 
 " Unfortunately, one of the last tlrree Indians sent 
 back had in his pocket all the chocolate, an article al- 
 most indispensable to the comfort of a party climbing a 
 high mountain, and, unconscious of our loss, we contin- 
 ued our way until it was too late to remedy this loss. 
 The basaltic rock which we had now reached was cover- 
 ed with the icicles which I have described, and we found 
 no little difficulty in placing our feet between them, and 
 guiding ourselves with the u'on-pointed sticks which liad 
 been furnished us ; while the dizziness caused by look- 
 ing back upon the world we had left behind added to 
 our troubles. 
 
 "^Ir. Corcliado, to draw off our attention from our 
 own hardships, related to us the story of the death of 
 six of his workmen, who undertook to make tlie journey 
 down the mountain by night. Each of them had a load 
 of stolen brimstone on his head. The day after this 
 rash and criminal attempt, their dead bodies were found 
 in such a situation as to indicate plainly the manner of 
 their death. Stiffened vdih the intense cold, and im- 
 peded by their heavy burdens, they had stumbled in the 
 darkness, and had fallen upon the sharp ice. One had 
 his cheek pierced, and the others had divers wounds and 
 bruises marked upon them as they lay frozen in death. 
 The story of these unfortunates was not calculated to 
 inspire us with very pleasant reflections, in case the 
 weather should change while we were on the mountain. 
 I "We climbed on, having reached the basaltic rock 
 at an elevation of 16,805 feet, and with exhausting la- 
 bor we traveled upon it until toward evening, when we
 
 A NIGHT UPON THE SUMAUT. 107 
 
 came to that immense yawning abyss, the crater. The 
 mouth was about three miles in circumference, of a very 
 irregular form. Into this we entered, and soon arrived 
 at the house which was to be our lodging for the night. 
 This house was a curiosity in its way ; as it was not 
 built like any other house, and could not be, on account 
 of the rarity of the atmosphere at this elevation of 17,125 
 feet, and the impossibility of obtaining sufficient oxygen, 
 in a closed room, to feed combustion. It was therefore 
 built in the form of a miniature volcano. There was an 
 outside and an inside wall, of a circular form, the out- 
 side wall sloping inwardly, and the inside wall, which 
 rested on pillars, sloping outwardly, until it met the out- 
 side wall. The tire was built in the open court, in the 
 centre of the building, and the party sat under the arches 
 and warmed themselves. The night that we were there, 
 the perverse smoke took the same direction as the heat- 
 ed air, and filled the whole inside to suffocation, so tliat 
 our condition was most disagreeable, notwithstanding 
 the arrangements that ]\Ir. Corchado had made in his 
 own apartment for the comfort of his guests, for the re- 
 flection of the sun on the snow had thrown a film over 
 our eyes, in spite of our green vails. Our stomachs were 
 nauseated at this giddy height, and, though we had al- 
 most every other kind of eatable and drinkable, our ap- 
 petites craved only chocolate, which we could not obtain. 
 Our heads were dizzy, and our limbs were weary, and 
 we lay down in a dense smoke to try to sleep. 
 
 " Morning came to our relief, and with it the film had 
 passed from our eyes. We looked up to the top of the 
 mountain above us, and then down into tliat fearful abyss 
 into which we were soon to descend. We could cat no 
 breakfast, and could drink no coffee, and so we were 
 soon ready for our day's journey. We followed a nar- 
 row footpath until we reached a shelf, where we were
 
 108 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 seated in a skid, and let down bj a windlass 500 feet or 
 so, to a landing-place, from which we clambered down- 
 ward to a second windlass and a second skid, which was 
 the most fearful of all, because we were dangling about 
 without any thing to steady ourselves, as we descended 
 before the mouth of one of those yawning caverns, which 
 are called the ' breathing-holes' of the crater. They are 
 so called from the fresh air and horrid sounds that con- 
 tinually issue from them. But we shut our eyes and 
 clung fast to the rope, as we whirled round and round 
 in mid air, until we reached another landing-place about 
 500 feet lower. From this point we clambered down, as 
 best we could, until we came among the men digging up 
 cinders, from which sidphur, in the form of brimstone, 
 is made. 
 
 "We took no measurements within the crater, and 
 beights and distances here can only be given by approxi- 
 mation. We only know that all things are on a scale 
 so vast that old Pluto might here have forged new thun- 
 der-bolts, and Milton's Satan might have here found the 
 material for his sulphurous bed. All was strange, and 
 wild, and frightful. 
 
 "We crawled into several of the * breathing holes,' but 
 nothing was there except darkness visible. The sides 
 and bottom were, for the most part, polished by the molten 
 mass, which had cooled in passing through them ; and 
 if it had not been for the ropes around our waist, we 
 should have slipped and fallen we knew not whither. 
 We almost fancied that, in the moving cuiTcnts of air, 
 we heard the wailings of the lost in the great sulphurous 
 lake below. The stones we threw in were lost to sound 
 unless they hit upon a projecting rock, and fell from shelf 
 to shelf. The deep darkness was fearful to contemplate. 
 The abyss looked as though it might be the mouth of 
 the bottomless pit. What must have been the effect
 
 DESCENT INTO THE CRATER. 109 
 
 when each one of these ' breathing holes' was vomiting 
 up liquid fire and sulphur into the basin in which we 
 stood? How immeasurable must be that lake whose 
 overflowings fill such cavities as this ! It is when stand- 
 ing in such a place that we get the fall force of the fig- 
 ures used by the Scriptures in illustrating the condition 
 of the souls that have perished forever. 
 
 "Let us turn from great to smaller things — to wit- 
 ness the labors of the men who work, and eat, and often 
 sleep in the volcano. Some are digging sulphur and 
 placing it in baskets, while others are waiting to carry it 
 upon their heads up the side of the crater. Others, 
 again, out of our sight far up the mountain, are working 
 at the oven, vrhen the weather is clear, and there is no 
 cloud between them and the sun, as it is only in the 
 finest weather that men can work upon the top, or carry 
 burdens to the hacienda. When the weather is fine, all 
 the works are in full operation, and good profits are re- 
 alized by furnishing brimstone for the manufacture of 
 sulphuric acid. 
 
 " We are at the top once more ; and now that our eye- 
 sight, which we lost in climbing the mountain, is restored 
 to us, we will take a view of the lower world. Looking 
 toward the west, every object glows in the briglitness 
 of the rising sun, except where the mountain casts its 
 vast shadow even across the valley of Toluca. How 
 strangely diminished now are all familiar objects that 
 are visible ! The pureness of the medium through which 
 things are seen presents distant objects with gTcat dis- 
 tinctness, but it will not present them in their natural 
 size, for it can not change the angle of vision. The vil- 
 lages upon the table-land were apparently pigmy vil- 
 lages, inhabited by pigmy men and pigmy women, sur- 
 rounded with pigmy cattle, and garrisoned by pigmy 
 soldiery. It is, by an optical illusion, Liliput in real
 
 110 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 life. Had the English satirist placed himself where we 
 now stood, he would have more than realized the picture 
 which his fancy painted. He might have seen the mar- 
 shaled hosts of Liliput marching to the beat of drum, in 
 the proud an-ay of war. 
 
 "If you wish to see all the sights, you must walk 
 around the mountam, and look down its steepest side, 
 where there is no table-land, into the ' hot countr}-.' 
 The distance is so vast, the descent so steep, that an 
 mexperienced climber suffers fi'om dizziness. If you 
 climb to the very summit, 250 feet above the mouth of 
 the crater, you will find more surface about you. But 
 it is a point where few can desire to remain long, or to 
 visit it a second time."' 
 
 In Cortez's letters to the Emperor we read as follows : 
 " As for sulphur, I have already made mention to your 
 ^Majesty of a mountain in this province from which 
 smoke issues ; out of it sulphur has been taken by a 
 Spaniard, who descended seventy or eighty fathoms by 
 means of a rope attached to his body below liis arms; 
 from which source we have been enabled to obtain suf- 
 ficient suppKes, although it is attended with danger. It 
 is hoped that it will not be necessary for us to resort 
 [again] to this means of procuring it." .... "As the 
 Indians told us that it was dangerous to ascend, and 
 fatal to those who made the attempt, I caused several 
 Spaniards to undertake it, and examine the character of 
 the summit. At the time they went up, so much smoke 
 proceeded from it, accompanied by noises, that they 
 were either unable or afraid to reach its mouth. After- 
 ward I sent up some other Spaniards, who made two 
 attempts, and finally reached the aperture of the mount- 
 ain whence the smoke issued, which was two bow-shots 
 wide, and about three fourths of a league in circumfer- 
 ence, where they discovered some sulphur which the
 
 THE SULPHUR MINE. Ill 
 
 smoke deposited."* (Bernal Diaz says that the crater 
 was perfectly round, a mile in diameter. — Vol. i. p. 186.) 
 During one of their visits they heard a tremendous noise, 
 followed by smoke, when they made haste to descend; 
 but before they reached the middle of the mountain there 
 fell around them a heavy shower of stones, from which 
 they were in no little danger. 
 
 In or about the year 1850, Corchado, an active and 
 enterprising wliite man, had become a favorite with the 
 Indians at the foot of the mountain, who proposed to 
 him that he should accompany them when they again 
 undertook one of their expeditions into the volcano, 
 which of late had been very frequent. This was a 
 proposition that exactly accorded with his adventurous 
 character. Accordingly, on an appointed day, he ap- 
 peared at the rendezvous, with a rope, a piece of sail- 
 cloth, and an iron bar. Thus provided, the party, which 
 was a large one, started up the mountain, but one by 
 one they gave out, until only Corchado and a single 
 Indian arrived at the mouth of the crater. Here, un- 
 fortunately, Corchado fainted from the loss of blood and 
 fatigue ; and the Indian, not knowing what better to 
 do, covered him with the sail-cloth, and then started 
 down the moimtain for assistance. In a short time he 
 revived under the sail-cloth, and from his dangerous po- 
 sition he drew himself into the volcano, that he might 
 not perish from cold outside. He descended as far as 
 the shelf, and, looking over into the abyss, he found 
 himself so refreshed by the atmosphere of the volcano 
 that he brought down the bar, sail-cloth, and rope, de- 
 termining to pass the approaching night at the bottom 
 of the volcano. When he had fixed his bar and rope, 
 
 * This must have been the great fissure, and not the crater. I see 
 no objection to this statement; for in this Cortez had no motive to 
 falsify, and it is the ordinary appearance of an active volcano.
 
 112 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 the relieving party arrived, and all descended, one by 
 one, upon the rope to a point where they passed the 
 night in safety. 
 
 Corchado, on his return, gathered up some of the sco- 
 ria and carried it to Puebla, when it was found to con- 
 tain so large a percentage of sulphur as to warrant its 
 ' denouncement' as a sulphur-mine. Capital was pro- 
 cured at Puebla sufficient to set up the rude apparatus 
 we have already described, by means of which a very 
 handsome profit on the adventure was realized. But, 
 owing to a lawsuit, in which the affair was at that time 
 (1852) involved, no effort had yet been made to pierce 
 the mountain, or to explore a passage through some 
 vent or fissure. A good path had been made up the 
 mountain, and in the month of May it was considered 
 quite a safe undertaking to visit these sulphur-works.
 
 CHAPTEH X. 
 
 Texas. — Battle of Madina. — First Introduction of Americans into Tex- 
 as. — Usurpation of Bustamente. — Texas owed no Allegiance to the 
 Usurper. — The good Faith of the United States in the Acquisition of 
 Louisiana and Texas. — Santa Anna pronounces against Bustamente. 
 — Santa Anna in Texas. — A Mexican's Denunciation of the Texan 
 War. — His Idea of our Revolution. — He complains of our grasp- 
 ing Spirit. — The right of the United States to occupy unsettled Ter- 
 ritoiy. — A few more Pronunciamientos of Santa Anna. — The Ad- 
 ventures of Santa Anna to the present Date. 
 
 We must resume again the narrative of historical 
 events, in order "better to set forth the condition of the 
 country through which we are traveling. 
 
 Texas is a turning-point in the history of Mexico. 
 Captain Don Alonzo de Leon, in the year 1689,* by com- 
 mand of the Yice-King of New Spain, took formal pos- 
 session of Texas, in the name of His Most Catholic Ma- 
 jesty of Spain. Afterward a few military and mission- 
 ary settlements were commenced, with indifferent suc- 
 cess, as the Indians were of a less docile character than 
 those of the southern provinces. They were ever res- 
 tive under the yoke of spiritual taskmasters, so that the 
 feeble missions and presidios had only a sickly existence 
 down to the time of the breaking out of the civil wars 
 of Mexico. 
 
 We have already noticed the statement tliat, in the 
 year 1819, a Mexican general routed at the E-iver Madi- 
 na a party of 3000 men, who were on their way to join 
 the Mexican insurgents. The above number is some- 
 what improbable ; say there were 500, which would be 
 
 ♦ Breva Resena Histdrica, by Gen. Tomel. Mexico, 1852. P. 135.
 
 114 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 about as many as could weU be mustered at that early 
 period for a filibustering expedition at New Orleans. 
 
 In 1820 Moses Austin applied to the Spanish authori- 
 ties, and obtained from them the right to settle a certain, 
 number of families in Texas. He died soon after, and 
 liis son Stephen obtained a confiiTnation of the grant, or, 
 rather, a new gi-ant, from the authorities estabHshed at 
 ^Mexico under the Federal Constitution of 1824. Under 
 that constitution Texas was annexed to Coahuila, and, 
 together with it, was formed into the united state of Co- 
 ahuila and Texas. From the authorities of this state 
 divers other Americans obtained grants of land under 
 the provisions of the colonization law of the ^lexican 
 Congress of the year 1824. From tliis time all tilings 
 went smoothly on, and the grantees were busily engaged 
 in introducing the number of families which were stipu- 
 lated for in the said law, and in the grants made under 
 it, when the Spanish armada landed at Tampico. 
 
 In consequence of the gi'cat dangers tlireatening the 
 country, Congress had conferred dictatorial powers upon 
 the President of the Eepublic, Yincente Guerrero. By 
 virtue of his dictatorship, he had invested the Vice-pres- 
 ident of the Republic, Bustamente, with the command 
 of an army of reserve, which he established at Jalapa. 
 As soon as the Spanish army had capitulated to Santa 
 Anna, Bustamente put forth a jpronunciamiento^ and, 
 marching to the city of Mexico, he deposed the Presi- 
 dent, whom lie aftenvard caused to be cruelly put to 
 death. Having now, by means of a successful military 
 insurrection, possessed himself of the executive power, 
 he proceeded by violent means to overturn, one by one, 
 the governments of the individual states. In this war 
 against the states he was also successful, except in the 
 most distant one, that of Coahuila and Texas. 
 
 Texas clearly owed no allegiance to the usurper Bus-
 
 DOWNFALL OF BUSTAMENTE. 115 
 
 tamente. It was an independent state in all respects, 
 excepting those powers it had conceded to the general 
 government hy adopting the Federal Constitution. The 
 subversion of this Constitution reinstated Texas as an 
 independent republic. It owed no farther allegiance to 
 Mexico. Texas might at once have applied for admis- 
 sion into our Union, or have asked to be annexed to any- 
 other foreign state, pleading not only her inherent right 
 to do so, but tlie excessive cruelties that Bustamente in- 
 flicted on those state authorities that opposed his usur- 
 pations. 
 
 The learned and eloquent General Tornel, distinguish- 
 ed alike as a statesman and a soldier, from whose popu- 
 lar history we have below made a brief extract, in plead- 
 ing the cause of his country, charges bad faith against 
 the United States in the acquisition of both Louisianjf 
 and Texas, but in both arguments he fails to make out 
 a case. By the treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, France 
 acquired an imperfect title to Louisiana ; by the treaty 
 of Paris in 1803, she conveyed all her title to the United 
 States. But, before the United States would pay over 
 any money on account of the treaty of 1803, she required 
 Spain to confirm the treaty of San Ildefonso by putting 
 France into the actual possession of Louisiana. This 
 being done, and not till it was done, did the United 
 States pay over the $15,000,000 stipulated as the pur- 
 chase money. Tlie dispute with Spain about boundaries 
 was settled by the treaty for the acquisition of Florida, in 
 1819, which established boundaries that were confirmed 
 in a subsequent treaty with Mexico. Thus far, certain- 
 ly, there was no breach of faith. 
 
 On the night of January 3d, 1832, the garrison of 
 Vera Cruz pronounced against the usurping government 
 of Bustamente, wliich was then sufifering dreadfully from 
 the want of funds. A delegation was sent the same
 
 116 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 night to Santa Anna, who had been in retirement at his 
 estate oiMaiiga de Clavo since the murder of his friend. 
 President GueiTero. This fourth insurrection was pros- 
 ecuted with varying success for several months, but was 
 finally teiTninated by the capitulation of Bustamente at 
 Puebla, and the recalling of Pedraza from banishment in 
 the United States, to serve out the few months that re- 
 mained of liis term of office as President. 
 
 In 1832 Santa Anna was elected successor to Pedra- 
 za as President of the Federal Republic of Mexico. Tex- 
 as had now of right the option of returning into the fam- 
 ily of ^Mexican States, or of maintaining her separate 
 existence ; but she was under no obligation to return, 
 for, the confederacy having been once broken up, it was 
 optional with the only member that had not submitted 
 to the usurper to re-enter tliis unreliable family, or to 
 continue outside. This election was not long open ; for, 
 by the j)?v?nmciamie?ito of Toluca (1835), the Federal 
 Constitution was again abolished, and Santa Anna be- 
 came dictator in fact, if not in name. The clergy were 
 at the bottom of this last revolution, and they demand- 
 ed, as the price of their support, the extirpation of her- 
 esy from the tenitory of the Republic. Tliis meant the 
 indiscriminate slaughter of all Texans. Santa Anna, 
 who, in all his previous wars, had never sliown a dispo- 
 sition to be cruel to the vanquished, was so dazzled with 
 the prospects before him as to be willing to make the 
 slaughter of the Alamo and of Fannin's division an offer- 
 ing to a priesthood wlio were plotting for the restoration 
 of the Inquisition. The battle of San Jacinto was, in 
 its consequences, more disastrous to the designs of the 
 ecclesiastical party than even to Santa Anna himself. 
 
 Let me stop in my narrative of events to translate a 
 Mexican's eloquent denunciation of the Anglo-Saxon 
 race. It is from the pen of General Tornel, a most un-
 
 MEXICAN VIEW OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 117 
 
 compromising enemy of that race and of its religion. 
 Thus he opens his account of the Texan difficulty : 
 
 "In order to understand what we to-day (1852) are, 
 and what we to-day value, it is indispensable to discover, 
 and to perpetuate the history of one of the greatest scan- 
 dals of the age — all of its antecedents, all of its conse- 
 quences, all that can aid in coming to knowledge of this 
 greatest act of injustice of which the Mexican nation has 
 been the victim. 
 
 " Tliose who cross the sea change their skies, but not 
 their nature. The Anglo-Saxons abandoned their coun- 
 try from physical and moral necessities, and on account 
 of their political and religious quarrels. Transporting 
 themselves to the virgin forests of America, they brought 
 with them the characteristics of Northmen ; they were 
 distinguished for sobriety, laboriousness, and industry ; 
 for ardor in their enterprises ; for constancy, and for that 
 spirit of adventure which subjugates all by the riglit of 
 conquest. They leveled all obstacles by the vigor of 
 their arm and tlie sweat of their brow, and from their 
 successes has arisen the hope of acquiring every thing 
 by the inspiration of their talents and the force of their 
 genius. 
 
 "The English, of whom John Cabot was a compatriot, 
 came by the northern route [to America], and discovered 
 an immense country, whose rivers are the grandest, whose 
 forests appear to be antediluvian, whose lakes would be 
 called seas in Europe ; with harbors on an extensive 
 coast which rival the greatest in the world. It has a 
 soil suited to every purpose of agriculture. In short, it 
 has facilities for all enterprises, and for raising the ma- 
 terial of a productive commerce sufficient to establish 
 advantageous relations with the Old World, and for cre- 
 ating an independent society ; for supplying its necessi- 
 ties ; for making its condition enviable ; for rivaling the
 
 118 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 power, the influence, and the destinies of its parent 
 country. 
 
 "The country which they discovered they found 
 scarcely inhabited, although here and there wandered 
 some tribes without social organization, without gov- 
 ernment, without the power of concentration, even to the 
 extent which numbers give to savages. They [the col- 
 onists] early learned that they could estabhsh their do- 
 minion without resistance, and that they could extend 
 it as far as they could oj'^en the countr^^ with the ax of 
 the active colonist, who considered himself the heir of 
 undiscovered wealtli, which would result from an inevit- 
 able destiny. The colonies which were established along 
 the coast, and those which were formed in the interior, 
 increased, as increases the gentle rill in its onward course 
 by uniting with other rills and with rivers, until, becom- 
 ing one vast torrent, it precipitates itself into the ocean. 
 Tlie colonies of Tyre, of Carthage, or Rome were never 
 comparable with the Anglo-American colonies, who ap- 
 propriated to themselves, in less than a century, regions 
 more extended than the half of Europe. 
 
 " The observer of the providential destiny of the An- 
 glo-Saxon race in America notices that the emancipation 
 of the tliirteen American colonies, which constituted so 
 many states and an independent nation, instead of being 
 the result of the alleged political grievances, was rather 
 the impulsive force of expansion, which encountered in- 
 superable obstacles while the states were colonies sub- 
 ordinate to a European nation. They were retarded in 
 their advances by relations and compromises with other 
 nations. The Anglo-Saxon, when translated to the wilds 
 of America, needed only a stopping-place in order to 
 found a peculiar and exclusive polity, which should en- 
 able him to march ever onward in his aggressions and 
 usurping institutions.
 
 WEAKNESS OF THE SPANISH TITLE. 119 
 
 "The United States of America lost no time in mak- 
 ing themselves powerful ; a nation rich in its industiy, 
 enviable in its commerce, respectable in its social organi- 
 zation, which are so favorable to the advancement of the 
 condition of man. AVhen tlie government had regulated, 
 with great prudence and wisdom, the interior system of 
 the states, it placed itself upon the watch for the com- 
 promised circumstances of embarrassed Kuropean states 
 that possessed colonies on the American continent. Some 
 of these colonies were contiguous to tlie limits wliich the 
 United States had acquired definitely by the treaty of 
 peace of 1783. In order to augment, at the expense of 
 her neighbors, lier 2)ossessions, already immense, and not 
 yet well populated, she set about acquiring territory by 
 astuteness, by cunning, by violence, and also by justifi- 
 able means, when such were available. Spain first, and 
 Mexico afterward, have been her victims ; and to-day 
 these rich and powerful states display the spoils, for such 
 they are in reality, which they have wrested from us. 
 Such are the people that already rival those nations of 
 Europe whose ten-itories are the most extensive, and 
 whose commerce is spread over all the seas." 
 
 My limits will not permit me to follow General Tomel 
 through his statement of the manner in which Louis- 
 iana, Florida, and Texas were acquired, and to notice 
 his complaints of the injustice committed by the Amer- 
 icans in all these acquisitions. He loses sight of the 
 fact that Spain had no title to her possessions in Amer- 
 ica but that of discovery, and that very doubtful claim 
 had not, in a period of 300 years, been strengthened by 
 actual settlement. Three or four dilapidated mud forts, 
 and as many more feeble missions, constituted the sum 
 total of the Spanish possession of Texas ; and settle- 
 ments scarcely worthy of the name in the other northern 
 departments constituted all the title that Spain could
 
 120 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 put forth to those countries ; while the right of Mexico 
 was as much weaker, as ^lexico was a weaker power 
 than Spain, and morally incapable of settling the disput- 
 ed territory. The claim of the United States was the 
 necessity for land in which to settle her population, which 
 was so rapidly augmenting by foreign immigration. 
 Once in ten years she requires a portion of the wild land 
 nominally belonging to ^Mexico, and once in ten years 
 she must take it. 
 
 In 1836, while Santa Anna was a prisoner in Texas, 
 Bustamente, then in banishment in Europe, was elected 
 President by the same party that had chosen Santa 
 Anna as Dictator. In 1838, the government having in- 
 curred the hostility of France, Yera Cruz was blockaded 
 for several months, dm-ing which time a niglit foray was 
 made into the town by a party of French sailors, headed 
 by the Prince de Joinville. On their return, they were 
 pursued by Santa Anna to the 3Iole, where tliey stopped 
 farther pursuit by discharging a cannon, which deprived 
 Santa Anna of one of his legs, and effectually wiped out 
 the recollections of his unfortunate Texan campaign. In 
 1841, the government being no longer able to raise 
 funds at two per cent, a month, the ^linister of War, Va- 
 lencia, pronounced against Bustamente in the citadel of 
 Mexico. The result was, that Santa ^Ajina was again 
 elevated to supreme power, according to the plan of Ta- 
 cubaya, and the interpretation he put on that plan. In 
 1 843 a slight change was made in the Constitution, but 
 he remained in power until 1845, when, having left the 
 capital to put down the insurrection of Paredes, Con- 
 gress declared against him. Herrera was appointed Pres- 
 ident, and Santa Anna was imprisoned for a while in 
 the castle of Perote, and finally banished from the coun- 
 try. In 1847 he was recalled by the Federal party, 
 with tlie consent of President Polk, and became the
 
 SANTA ANNA. 121 
 
 chief support of the war, notwithstanding his totally in- 
 adequate means for organizing a successful defense. 
 When the defense could no longer be protracted, he left 
 the city by night, and retired to the West Indies, and 
 afterward to Carthagena, where he remained until he 
 was recalled in 1852, and again restored to supreme au- 
 thority. 
 
 We may sum up the politico-military life of Santa 
 Anna by saying that he has been engaged in eight jjiro- 
 nunciainientos. Five of these have been made by him- 
 self; three by others, for his benefit. Twice he has 
 been chosen President by the Federal party of the Fed- 
 eral Republic of Mexico. Three times he has been 
 made President by the Central, or Ecclesiastical party. 
 lie has been twice banished from Ilexico, and each time 
 recalled again and placed at the head of affairs. lie has 
 twice been taken prisoner, when his captors held long 
 consultations upon the propriety of putting him to death. 
 He has, in turn, been the candidate of all parties, and has 
 served all parties faithfully in turn, but most faithfully 
 of all he has served Iiimself. Actively engaged through 
 life as a politician and a soldier, he has found time to re- 
 adjust the whole complicated system of j\lexican laws, 
 and, in a series of volumes of autocratic decrees, he has 
 drawn from that chaotic mass a new system of jurispru- 
 dence, that will stand as a monument of his genius as 
 long as the Mexican nation shall continue. 
 
 F
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 From Puebla to ^Mexico. — The Dread of Robbers. — The Escort. — Tlas- 
 cala. — The Exaggerations of Corte'z and Bernal Diaz. — The Truth 
 about Tlascala. — The Advantages of Tlascala to Cortez. — "Who was 
 Bernal Diaz. — AVho "wrote his History. — First View of jNIexico. 
 
 At early twilight, two stage-loads of passengers, drawn 
 rapidly by twelve wild liorses tlu-ougli the now deserted 
 streets of Puebla, approached the gate that opened out 
 upon the road to Mexico. The rattle of the wheels and 
 the clatter of so many hoofs had awakened the gate- 
 keeper, and at our approach the ponderous portals that 
 inclosed the city by night flew open, and away we whirl- 
 ed out into the beautiful ye2:a of Puebla. 
 
 In times of civil disorder, this is a fine field for rob- 
 bers to ply their vocation in ; and even now, when all 
 was quiet, there was no little apprehension of a visit from 
 these sovereigns of the road. The passengers had no- 
 ticed my unmistakable Anglo-Saxon name, as it was 
 called at the stage-door, and, when I had taken my seat, 
 an elegant, long Colt's revolver was passed to me by a 
 passenger in full uniform. Such is one of the advant- 
 ages that a traveler enjoys who belongs to a race of men 
 of acknowledged courage — an advantage that enabled me 
 to travel alone across the continent without encumber- 
 ing myself with a weapon ; for, Avhere all supposed me 
 fully armed, and skilled in the use of weapons by in- 
 stinct, I found it convenient to go unarmed. Upon the 
 present occasion, I did not w^ish to raise a smile of in- 
 credulity by protesting tliat I had never fired a pistol in 
 my life, so I quietly consented to play the part of hero.
 
 REPUBLIC OF TLASCALA. 123 
 
 By displaying my weapon carelessly in my hand when 
 we stopped to take coffee at Saint Martin's, I procured 
 a seat upon the outside, which had been refused me at 
 Puebla. 
 
 Our escort consisted of a body of six lancers, who, 
 standing at the roadside, saluted us as we passed, and 
 then rode after us at the top of their speed. Poor fel- 
 lows ! they found it hard riding to keep up with the 
 coach. It was some consolation for them to see a man 
 seated on the top of the stage with a Colt's pistol, even 
 if he did not know how to use it, and for once they rode 
 out their beat without getting frightened at their shad- 
 ows. As the robbers were as great cowards as them- 
 selves, whether the man on the box was really a fire-eater 
 or not, it answered the same purpose. These stage- 
 guards are heroes in their way ; they always come when 
 the road appears the safest, and never fail to ask for 
 charity, but invariably leave you just as the coach ap- 
 proaches a thicket. A few days ago, this guard caught 
 a fellow on the road whom they believed to be a robber, 
 and hung him with a pocket-handkerchief. 
 
 We are now passing the borders of that famous In- 
 dian republic, of the high table-land, which shut out des- 
 potism by a lofty wall,* and was so completely isolated 
 in the times of ^lontezuma that its people could obtain 
 no foreign products, not even cotton or salt ;t whose food 
 was the maize which they cultivated, and the game which 
 they caught upon the snow-capped mountains ; wliose 
 clothing was made from the maguey, and from skins of 
 animals taken in the chase ; a people whose government 
 was a council of elders, which was presided over by an 
 hereditary chief; whose political institutions have been 
 
 * Folsom's Letterit of Cortez, p. 49. 
 
 t Be7-nal Diaz. Lockhart's translation. London, 1844. Vol. i. 
 p. 157.
 
 124 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 the study and admiration of the learned of many lands. 
 That is, in plain English, they were an ordinary tribe 
 of North American savages, obtaining their living, as 
 other Indians did then and do now, by the cultivation 
 of Indian com and hunting, having the same crude form 
 of government that is common to all the savage tribes 
 of North America. They gloried in their savage no- 
 tions of independence, and submitted only to the merest 
 shadow of authority. They had not yet reached that 
 point of social organization at which the loose govern- 
 ment of savages gives way to the despotism of the next 
 stage of advancement, which we shall call barbarism. 
 The difference between the Tlascalans and the Aztecs 
 was the same difference that exists between the North 
 American savages, who live in underground wig^vams,* 
 and the barbarous tribes of the interior of Africa, that 
 live in cities of mud huts above the ground, and who 
 yield a slavish obedience to a half-naked emperor, who 
 sits or squats upon an ox-hide in a mud palace, exercis- 
 ing the power of life and death, according to his moment- 
 ary caprice, upon thousands of trembling slaves. The 
 concentrated power and wealth of a whole tribe is in 
 single hands, and is made available for conquest and for 
 the sensual enjoyment of a single individual. Savages 
 can only act in concert when aU are agreed, lience coun- 
 cils are their governing power, and the orator has as 
 much influence among them as the successftd warrior; 
 but when they have advanced a step, and power has be- 
 come concentrated, the orator becomes silent, and the 
 war-chief is the government. 
 
 I had read with avidity the histories of ^lexico, and 
 gave to them implicit credence, until I stood upon the 
 Indian mound of Cholula, and searched in vain for the 
 
 * "We buried onr dead in one of the subterranean dwellings." — 
 Diaz, vol. i. p. 152.
 
 CORTEZ AND BEKNAL DIAZ. 125 
 
 least vestige of that magnificent city of 40,000 houses, 
 which, only 300 years ago, was in the height of its pros- 
 perity ; and though it is not in the power of man, in the 
 space of a thousand years, wholly to obliterate the traces 
 of a great city, yet not a vestige of the Cholula of Cor- 
 tez can now be found. As I followed up the investi- 
 gation, I soon discovered that not a vestige of any of 
 the cities that entered into the alliance with Cortez can 
 now be found. Not a vestige exists even of the old city 
 of Mexico, except the calendar and sacrificial stones, of 
 which I shall speak hereafter. 
 
 Cortez says that a dry stone wall, nine feet high, in- 
 closed Tlascala from mountain to mountain, through 
 which he entered between overlapping semicircles of the 
 wall. He says that he was attacked first by an army 
 of 6000 Indians, then by an army of 100,000 on one 
 day, and on the next by 149,000. He says farther, " I 
 attacked another place, which was so large that it con- 
 tained, according to an examination I caused to be made, 
 more than 20,000 houses." Of the capital of Tlascala, 
 he says, " It is larger than Granada, and much stronger, 
 and contains as many fine houses and a much larger 
 population than that city did at the time of its capture." 
 
 A comparison of the statements of Bemal Diaz and 
 those of Cortez will cast some discredit upon the narra- 
 tive of the former. The stout old chronicler cuts dowTi 
 the 100,000 Iivdians in the second battle to 50,000, and 
 makes no mention of the third great action, in which 
 149,000 Indians were said by Cortez to have been en- 
 gaged. Here is another comparison : 
 
 "There is," says Cortez, "in this city [Tlascala], a 
 market, in which every day 30,000 people are engaged 
 in buying and selling, besides many other merchants 
 who are scattered about the city. The market contains 
 a great variety of articles, both of food and clothing, and
 
 126 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGIOX. 
 
 all kinds of shoes for the feet, jewels of gold, and silver, 
 and precious stones, and ornaments of feathers ; all as 
 well arranged as they possibly can be found in any pub- 
 lic square in the world."* 
 
 Kow see tlie difference between this great Munchau- 
 sen and his professed apologist and companion, the writer 
 of Bernal Diaz, who was familiar with the suppressed 
 manuscript of Las Casas, and makes quotations tirom it. 
 "The elder Xicotencotl,*' says Bernal Diaz, "now in- 
 foiTued Cortez that it was the general wish of the in- 
 habitants to make him a present, if agreeable to him. 
 Cortez answered that he should at all times be most 
 happy to receive one ; they accordingly spread some 
 mats on the floor, and over them a few cloaks, upon 
 which they arranged five or six pieces of gold, a few 
 articles of trifling value, and several parcels of manufac- 
 tured nequen — altogether a poor present, and not worth 
 twenty pesos (dollars). The caziques, on presenting 
 tliese things to Cortez, said to him, ' Malinche ! we can 
 easily imagine tliat you will not exactly experience much 
 jov on receiving a present of such wretched things as 
 these ; but we liave told you before that we are poor — 
 possessing neither gold nor other riches, as the deceitful 
 ^Mexicans, with their present monarch, 3Iontezuma, liave, 
 by degrees, despoiled us of every thing we had. Do 
 not look to the small value of tliese things, but accept 
 them in aU kindness, and as coming from your faithful 
 fi-iends and sers'ants.' These presents were, at the same 
 time, accompanied by a quantity of provisions."! ' 
 
 Thus, according to Cortez, the Tlascalans dwelt in 
 cities rivaling the most polished and commercial cities 
 of Europe ; according to Diaz, they were so poor that 
 they were unable to make a present worth twenty dol- 
 lars I Corte'z gives a view of " a large wall of dry stone, 
 
 * Letters, p. 61. t Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 17!).
 
 THE TRUTH. ABOUT TLASCALA. 127 
 
 about nine feet in height, which extends across the val- 
 ley from one mountain to tlie other : it was twenty feet 
 in thickness, surmounted throughout its whole extent by 
 a breastwork a foot and a half thick, to enable them to 
 fight from the top of the waU." Diaz says, "We came 
 to an enormous intrenchment, built so strongly of stone, 
 lime, and a kind of hard bitumen, that it would only 
 have been possible to break it down by means of pick- 
 axes.''* Such a wall, or the vestiges of it, would last for 
 thousands of years ; for it is not in the destructive pow- 
 er of man wholly to obliterate it, and yet I have been ut- 
 terly unable to find even a ruin, and I verily believe the 
 whole of this Chinese wall is a fiction. 
 
 Tlascala is an Indian reservation of an oval shape, 
 sixty-nine miles long by forty-two miles wide. Its cli- 
 mate is cold. Its soil is not remarkably good. It has 
 had its independent government since the time of Cortez. 
 Its means of subsistence have been increased, and ex- 
 tensive manufactories have been established. The only 
 enumeration ever made of its inhabitants was in 1793, 
 wdien it was found to contain 51,177 souls. In the ex- 
 travagant official estimate of last year, its population is 
 set down at 80,171.t Cortez says that Tlascala con- 
 tained a population of 500,000 inhabitants, according to 
 a report made by his orders. AYe have here our his- 
 torians witliin metes and bounds, between mountains and 
 stone walls ; a perfect non-intercourse established with 
 all the world ; all foreign means of supply cut off, and 
 the Indians dependent for subsistence upon their own 
 rude cultivation of maize. My readers may call me ex- 
 travagant if I should say that Tlascala probably con- 
 tained about 10,000 inhabitants in the time of Cortez, 
 and could therefore, in an emergency, produce 1000 war- 
 riors. A greater number than this would be contrary 
 
 * Vol. i. p. U4. " t Collcca'on de JJyes, 18r..% p. 184.
 
 128 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 to the laws of population. I might here stop and call 
 hard names, but it is not my purpose to "bring a rail- 
 ing accusation" against anj. 'Mj only duty is to place 
 evidence before the reader, and then let him judge how 
 much reliance is to be placed upon any historical state- 
 ments that have been trimmed and modified to suit the 
 pui-poses of the Spanish Inquisition. 
 
 The quick wit of Cortez early discovered that Tlascala 
 was a great natural fortress, and that he could make it 
 the centre and base of his operations in the wars he was 
 contemplating against the different Indian tribes of the 
 table-land. The hatred borne, against the ^Mexicans by 
 the Tlascalans assured him of their co-operation against 
 !BIontezuma. Hence the Tlascalans were especially fa- 
 vored. They shared with him in all the perils of his en- 
 terprise, and in the plunder gathered from the conquered 
 tribes ; for with them rested the question whether he 
 should succeed, and be hailed as the hero of a holy war, 
 or should be branded as a buccaneer, robber, and en- 
 slaver. And when, in coui'se of time, the Indian ele- 
 ment became the ruling power, curses loud and deep were 
 muttered against the enslaver of the Indians, and the 
 Tlascalans came in for their share of imprecations. 
 
 But who was Bemal Diaz ? This would be a strange 
 question to ask in a country where there was liberty of 
 speech and liberty of the press, but in Spain the censor- 
 ship was not only repressive, but it was " suggestive. '* 
 It not only suppressed the writings of authors, but com- 
 pelled them to father productions that were the very op- 
 posite of those they wished to publish. Take the case 
 of poor Sahagun, who wrote a refutation of the historian 
 of the conquest, under the pretense of giving the Indian 
 account of that event : when his book was finally allow- 
 ed to see the light, after a delay of many years, it was 
 found that his own account of the conquest had been sup- 
 pressed, and the regular Spanish account had been sub-
 
 CENSORSHIP OF HISTORICAL BOOKS. 129 
 
 stituted. Of Las Casas's "Apology for the Indians,"* 
 which had occupied thirty-two years of his life, that part 
 only was allowed to appear which treated of Saint Do- 
 mingo. But his refutation of the histories of the con- 
 quest of Mexico is wholly suppressed. To have proved 
 the Conquistadors a gang of unprincipled buccaneers 
 would have spoiled a Holy War, ^vhich was just what 
 the Inquisition would not allow to go before the world. 
 To the little work of Boturini on ^lexico there are ap- 
 pended, 1. The declaration of his faith in the Roman 
 Catholic Church in the most unequivocal terms. 2. Tlie 
 license of the Jesuit father. 3. The license of an In- 
 <|uisitor. 4. The license of the Judge of the Supreme 
 Council of the Indias, 5. The license of the Royal 
 Council of the Indias. 6. The approbation of the "qual- 
 ificator" of the Inquisition, who was a barefooted Car- 
 melite monk. 7. The license of the Royal Council of 
 Castile. Beyond all this, the writer must be a person 
 in holy orders, and be a person of sufficient influence to 
 obtain the favorable notice of all these bodies, who were 
 instinctively hostile to the diffusion of all information, 
 particularly in regard to the New World. Nor was tliis 
 the end of the difficulty ; the license of any one of these 
 officials could be revoked at pleasure, and, when rejDub- 
 lished, the work had to be re-" vised.''' Even as late as 
 the year 1825, a Spanish standard author could not be 
 republished without expurgation. f With such facts be- 
 fore us, it is safe to declare that not a single statement of 
 fact that affected either the interests of the kino; or the 
 Church was ever published in Spain or her colonies 
 during the three hundred years of the existence of the 
 Inquisition ; but every thing published was moditled to 
 suit tlie wislies of the censors, without any regard to the 
 sentiments of the putative author. 
 
 * T^rd KinQshorotigh,yol, vi. p. 265. f A Year in Spain, by an American.
 
 130 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 But who was Bemal Diaz ? How came he to be fa- 
 mihar with the writings of Las Casas that never saw the 
 lio-ht ? Had he access to the secret archives of the con- 
 
 o 
 vent ? He refers to the account of Las Casas as follows : 
 
 " These [the slaughters at Cholula] are, among others, 
 those abominable monstrosities which the Bishop of Chi- 
 apas, Las Casas, can find no end in enumerating. But 
 he is wrong: when he asserts that we 2:ave the Cholulans 
 the above-mentioned chastisement without any provoca- 
 tion, and merely for pastime."* The history of Diaz is 
 among the standard literary productions of that age, and 
 is a very picture of candor and simplicity. On every 
 page there are such evident efforts at truthftdness as to 
 raise a suspicion that something more than a simple 
 naiTative was the object of writing this book fifty years 
 after the conquest. By supposing the author to be only 
 sixteen years old wl>en he came to America, Lockhart 
 makes him only seventy years of age when he wrote the 
 work. But if we suppose him to have been of a reason- 
 able age when he began his adventures, he must have 
 been between eighty and ninety' years old when this book 
 is alleged to have been written. Gomara had overdone 
 the matter in the superhuman achievements which he 
 had ascribed to Cortez, while Las Casas had proved the 
 conqueror and his party to have been a gang of cruel 
 monsters. Now, something had to be done to avert the 
 odium that was beginning to attach to this crusade 
 against the enemies of the Church. In Spain, where a 
 padlock was upon ever}' man's mouth, and where each 
 one buried his suspicions in the most secret recesses of 
 his heart, and trembled lest, even in his dreams, a 
 thought of impiety might reach the ear of a familiar, his- 
 iory could always be made to conform to the interests of 
 the Church. 
 
 * Jif>7-nnl J>laz. vol. i. ]). 207.
 
 WHO WROTE Bf:KNAL DIAZ V 131 
 
 Since the records of the Spanish Inquisition have he- 
 come the property of the public, and the manner in 
 which the facts of history were trifled with is now un- 
 derstood, it is a question more easily asked than an- 
 swered. Who wrote such and such a book ? 
 
 Who, then, wrote the history of Bernal Diaz ? We 
 have seen that it cuts down the monstrous exaG:2;crations 
 of Cortez more than a half, yet we shall see that the 
 statements of Diaz are still incredible. It is a very relig- 
 ious book, as the Spaniards understand the word relig- 
 ion, and reflects great credit on the Church. But, witli 
 the sliglit evidence we have presented, no one would 
 charge the work with being altogether a fiction, and Ber- 
 nal Diaz a myth. All that can be said -is, that we are 
 left in that state of uncertainty in which every one finds 
 himself who looks into a record that was Avithin the con- 
 trol of tlie Inquisitorial censors. 
 
 Our stage-ride has been forgotten in discussing his- 
 torical questions ; and while we have been dwelling 
 upon Cortez and Bernal Diaz, we have crossed the plain, 
 and been climbing the heiglits of Hio Frio, and now we 
 begin to catcli glances of the valley and of the city of ]\Iexi- 
 00 — a city and valley so renowned in history and tradition, 
 that it seems more like a city of the Old World than a 
 town in the interior of the continent that Columbus dis- 
 covered. Truly it is an old city. It was an old city 
 before Columbus was born — an old city in a new world. 
 It is one of the links that binds the present age to ages 
 long past and almost forgotten — a city where the pres- 
 ent and the past are strangely mingled together. In its 
 streets are " penitents," wandering, in sackcloth and san- 
 dals, with a downcast look and a rope for self-cast igation, 
 among soldiers in new French uniforms and ladies in 
 the latest Paris fashions. This is not the time for a 
 favorable view of the valley from this point. To see it 
 in its full glory, we must look upon it at sunrise.
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Acapulco. — The Advantages of a Western Voyage to India. — The great 
 annual Fair of Acapulco. — The Village and Harbor of Acapulco. — 
 The War of Santa Anna and Alvarez. — The Retreat. — Traveling 
 alone and unarmed. — The Peregrino Pass. — Quiricua and Cretinism. 
 — Chilpanzingo. — An ill-clad Judge. — Iguala. — Alpayaca. — Cuarna- 
 vaca. 
 
 Let us now make a journey in another direction — from 
 Acapulco northward to the city of ^lexico — the route 
 that the East India trade used to follow. But, first of 
 all, let us discourse a little time about this port of Aca- 
 j^ulco, once so famous upon the South Seas. It was not 
 discovered when Cortez built, in Colima, the vessels that 
 went to search for a northwest passage; but when 
 they had returned from their fruitless search, they an- 
 chored in the mountain-girt harbor of Acapulco. The 
 discoveries of the celebrated navigator, ^lagellan, fixed 
 the commercial character and importance of this sea-port. 
 He had sailed through the straits that bear his name, 
 and coasted northwardly as far as the trades. From this 
 port he bore away to the Spice Islands, discovering on 
 the voyage the Philippine Islands, where the city of ^la- 
 nilla was founded. By this voyage he demonstrated 
 that the advantages of a route across the Pacific were so 
 superior to a voyage around Cape Horn, as to justify tlie 
 expense of a land transit from Acapulco to Vera Cruz, 
 and reshipment to Spain. Now that the Panama Bail- 
 road is made, this demonstration may prove advanta- 
 geous to other nations. 
 
 The practical advantage of this discovery was the es-
 
 ^'
 
 ACAPULCO. 135 
 
 tablishment of the annual ]\Ianilla gaUeon, in which was 
 sent out 1,000,000 silver dollars to purchase Oriental 
 products for tlie consumption of Spain and all her Amer- 
 ican colonies. In this galleon sailed the friars that went 
 forth to the spiritual conquest of India. In it sailed 
 Spanish soldiers, who followed hard after the priests, to 
 add the temporal to the spiritual subjugation of Oriental 
 empires. To this harbor the galleon returned, freighted 
 with the rich merchandise of China, Japan, and the Spice 
 Islands. When the arrival of the galleon was announced, 
 traders hastened from every quarter of New Spain to at- 
 tend the annual fair. Little vessels from down the coast 
 came to get their share of the mammoth cargo. The 
 king's officers came to look after the royal revenue ; and 
 caravans of mules were summoned to transport the Span- 
 ish portion of the freight to Yera Cruz. Thus, for a 
 short time, the population of this village was swollen, 
 from 4000 to 9000, which fell off again when the galleon 
 took her departure. 
 
 Such was the commercial condition of the town of 
 Acapulco down to the time of the independence. From 
 this time it was lost to commerce, until it was made a 
 half-way house on the voyage to California. Tlie town 
 lies upon the narrow intervale between the hiUs and the 
 harbor. It is built of the frailest material, and is de- 
 stroyed about once in ten years by an earthquake. 
 
 The castle of San Diego stands upon the high bank, 
 and, though commanding the entrance to the harbor, is 
 itself commanded by the surrounding high lands, and has 
 so often been taken by assault during the last thirty 
 years as to be considered untenable. The harbor ap- 
 pears like a nest scooped out of the mountains, into and 
 out of which the tide ebbs and flows througli a double 
 channel riven by an earthquake in the solid rock. Tra- 
 dition says it once had another entrance, but that an
 
 136 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 earthquake closed it up and opened the present channel. 
 There is still another opening in the sharp mountain 
 ridge that incloses it from the sea, but this opening, dug 
 by the labor of man, at a point opposite the entrance 
 of the harbor, was to let the cool sea-breeze in upon one 
 of the hottest and most unhealthy places upon the con- 
 tinent. Such, in substance, is and was the little city of 
 Acapulco, the seat and focus of the Oriental commerce 
 of New Sj)ain and of all the Spanish empire. 
 
 Santa Anna and Alvarez are the only remaining in- 
 suiTcctionary chiefs in Mexico. When I was last in the 
 capital, Santa Anna was reigning supreme in the vice- 
 royal palace, and Alvarez was supreme at Iztla, the cap- 
 ital of the Department of GueiTcro, of which Acapulco is 
 the sea-port town. The two chiefs had been long hos- 
 tile to each other, but a gold mine, discovered upon the 
 bank of the River IMescala, was " the straw that broke 
 the camel's back." Alvarez had not been consulted in 
 the disposition made of it. Santa Anna felt himself 
 powerful in his newly-equipped army of 23,000 men, the 
 finest army that had ever been seen in JMexico — an aimy 
 which he was maintaining at a daily cost of $23,000. 
 Alvarez was equally strong in his mountain fastnesses, 
 in the affections oi iliQ Pint os, or " Spotted People," and, 
 above all, in the poverty of his countiy. Santa Anna 
 took the initiative by sending 2000 men to ganison Ac- 
 apulco, and Alvarez committed the first open hostility, 
 by closing the passes against them. Then the cam- 
 paign began. Santa Anna traveled at the head of his 
 grand army. During his unobstructed march to Aca- 
 pulco there occurred a great many victories, for victories 
 are indigenous products of ^lexico. The siege of the 
 castle of San Diego de Acapulco was the first of the 
 long Hst of unsuccessful sieges that distinguished the 
 year 1854. The besiegers dared not risk an assault,
 
 WAR OF SANTA ANNA AND ALVAREZ. 137 
 
 and they had not sufficient material for conducting a 
 regular siege. For some weeks the opposing forces re- 
 mained looking at each other, while almost the only blood 
 spilled was by the clouds of musquitoes that hovered over 
 the camp of the grand army, and by the swarms of fleas 
 that infested the castle. It might well be called a 
 bloody war, for few escaped without bearing the scars of 
 wounds and bloodletting. 
 
 While the besieging army was itself thus almost de- 
 voured, and had devoured all the eatables of the Pintos, 
 symptoms of rebellion showed themselves at Mexico, to 
 suppress which required the presence of Santa Anna. 
 The generals of his army thought that they also might 
 render more important services to the country in the 
 streets of Mexico than in this inglorious war with 
 bloody insects ! A retreat was therefore sounded, and 
 the country of the Pintos was evacuated. Thereupon 
 rushed forth the little garrison from the clutches of the 
 devouring insects, and issued a heroic proclamation, 
 which was enough to frighten a whole army. 
 
 It is time to commence my itinerary across the mount- 
 ains northward to the city of Mexico. ^ly journey was 
 by the same mule-path that Oriental merchants have 
 climbed for centuries, as is shown by the vestiges of 
 that strange race of which Humboldt speaks — an inter- 
 mixture of Manillamen and Chinamen with the native 
 race. 
 
 My traveling companion, who had a pistol, left me 
 and went back at the first venta, or station-house, four 
 leagues from Acapulco. At Lemones, the second sta- 
 tion-house, four leagues farther, I passed the night sleep- 
 ing upon a table on the veranda. This is the common 
 lodging-place for solitary travelers in [Mexico. Here I 
 formed my first acquaintance with the venta pig, who 
 considers himself the peculiar friend of the traveHng
 
 138 IVLEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 public. All the advances made by my new acquaint- 
 ance at this first interview were occasional tugs at the 
 blanket durino; the nisrht, and divers unsuccessful at- 
 tempts to turn the table over. At Alta, two stages far- 
 ther on, the pig ensconced himself on a mat with the 
 children, while he gave me no farther annoyance than 
 an occasional visit, and tlirusting of his nose into the 
 hammock where I slept. 
 
 It was still dark when I left Alta in order to clear 
 the Peregrino Pass and reach Tierra Colorado that day. 
 In a few hours I gained the top of the pass, and sat 
 down to take a survey of the zigzag way up which my 
 old horse had climbed, and of the extensive region of 
 hill and mountain country before me. It is difficult to 
 believe that over this slight mule-path all the Spanish 
 commerce of India has passed, and cargoes of silver 
 dollars, amounting to hundreds of millions, during a 
 period of three hundred years. Over this pass armies 
 have continued to advance and to retreat with one uni- 
 form result : if the army is a large one, it is starved out 
 of the country; if it is a small one, it is destroyed. 
 Hunger devoiu's the large armies ; the Pintos devour 
 the little ones. All around was now as quiet and soli- 
 tary as the grave. There were no signs to indicate that 
 this spot had been the scene of so much life and conten- 
 tion. The prospect was a delightful one, and I could 
 have enjoyed it much longer had I not been assailed 
 by that common enemy, that has assailed every general 
 and colonel that has crossed this pass — an empty stom- 
 ach ; so that I and my old horse did our very best to 
 reach the ford of the Papagalla, where there was a pre- 
 sumptive possibility that eatables might be found. I 
 found entertainment for beast at the ford, but no food 
 for his rider until we reached Tierra Colorado. 
 
 Here prevails not only that hai'mless cutaneous afFec-
 
 AN ILL-CLAD JUDGE. 139 
 
 tion, the Quiricua, which causes people to appear spot- 
 ted or painted {Pintos), but also Creti7iism, the much 
 more formidable disease so prevalent among the mount- 
 ains of Switzerland. 
 
 This town is also remembered as the scene of a bloody 
 battle. General Garay, who had lost his way the day 
 before, had here come up, and we jogged along together; 
 but as a Mexican general and escort are a doubtful pro- 
 tection to an unarmed man, if there is any real danger 
 on the road, a prudent traveler will shake them off and 
 travel on alone. 
 
 We passed Buena Vista, the fine sugar estate of M. 
 Comonfort, and Aquaguisotla, and slept at IMazatlan, and 
 the next day arrived at the famous city of Chilpanzingo, 
 or City of the Bravos, the centre and focus of the insur- 
 rection in the southern provinces. Here, in tlie pubhc 
 square or plaza, in front of a churclr built by Cortez, 
 there was a grand bull-fight, or rather ox-fight, in which 
 great efi'orts were made to infuse some life into a dozen 
 stupid cattle. These efforts were attended with very 
 indifferent success. A deep harranca extends to the 
 ]\Iescala, the largest river in Southern ^lexico, across 
 which we passed on a raft of goui'ds, propelled by two 
 naked Indians, who swam across, each holding in his 
 right hand a corner of the raft. 
 
 The next night, after dark, I arrived at a little village, 
 and turned into an open caravansary. The old man of 
 the establishment was very kind, and offered me a mat 
 to lie on, but he had no corn for my horse. After 
 making some inquiries that were a little unpleasant for 
 a man who was traveling without a passport to answer, 
 he said he would procure for me some corn from the 
 alcalde. This village magistrate, who, in the absence 
 of the "Judge of First Instance," is ex officio a judge, 
 was an enormous negro, over six feet in height, whose
 
 140 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 dignity was not certainly dependent upon his official 
 robes, for a single napkin constituted his whole apparel. 
 He sat upon an ox-skin, which did duty for the wool- 
 sack — the very personification of the majesty of the law, 
 with curled wig, and hide as black as the gown of the 
 Lord Chief Justice, with the advantage that both were 
 natural. This was the second negro I had yet seen in 
 the country. The other held a commission as captain 
 in the army, and was in the escort of General Garay. 
 
 I had a hard day's ride to reach the city of Iguala in 
 time to witness the celebration of the independence, 
 which was proclaimed here in 1821. The celebration, 
 for the most part, consisted in eating and drinking from 
 booths placed around the central square of the town. 
 As I had little time to spare, I humed on, and soon 
 came to the Puente de Iztla, the carriage-road, that is 
 finished thus far southward from the city of Mexico. 
 
 I started early next morning upon my journey. Dur- 
 ing the greater part of the day the road led through a 
 continuous corn-field, and toward evening we came to 
 the pretty Indian village of Alpayuca, so neat and well- 
 ordered that it might have passed for one of the mis- 
 sionary Indian villages of our northern Indians, were it 
 not for the fine old Catholic church, which must have 
 cost in its construction, centuries ago, fifty times the 
 value of the present village, without including the cost 
 of the bronze railing, brought from China in the pros- 
 perous days of the Manilla Company. 
 
 Not stopping to examine the ruins of great antiquity 
 near this place, I rode on six leagues farther, when I ar- 
 rived at the venerable city of Cuarnavaca, the place se- 
 lected by Cortez as the finest spot in all New Spain. 
 This was bestowed upon him, at his own request, by 
 the Emperor Charles V. as a residence. It merits to 
 this day the distinction that has been given to it as one
 
 CUARNAYACA. 141 
 
 of the finest spots on earth. It stands close under the 
 shadow of the huge mountains that shield it from the 
 northern blast, and it is at the same time protected from 
 the extreme heat of the tropics by its elevation of 3000 
 feet. The immense church edifices here proclaim the 
 munificence of Cortez, while the garden of Laborde, open 
 to the world, shows with what elegant taste he squan- 
 dered his three several fortunes accumulated in mining;. 
 The combination of a fine day in a voluptuous climate, 
 the beautiful scenery, and the happy faces of the people 
 celebrating New Year's day in the shade of the orange- 
 trees, made an impression upon a traveler not easily for- 
 gotten. 
 
 I was too near the city of Mexico to remain long here, 
 and I rode on, up the zigzag way that leads over the 
 mountain rim of the Valley of Mexico. I was not for- 
 tunate enough to accomplish the journey from city to 
 city in a single day, and, from necessity, had to pass the 
 night at the half-way house, upon the summit of the 
 mountain, 10,000 feet above the sea. A poor Hunga- 
 rian, who had been detained here like myself, came and 
 laid his blankets with mine, and then we lay down, and 
 chattered and shivered tosiether until the mornino-. Such 
 a night as this detracts somewliat from the enjoyments 
 of this otherwise pleasant journey ; but when I got a 
 morning view of the valley and city of ]Mexico from the 
 Cross of the "Marquis of the Valley," the sufferings of 
 the chilly night were soon forgotten.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 California. — Pearl Fisheries. — Missions. — Indian Marriages. — ^Villages. 
 — Precious Metals. — The Conquest of California compared with that 
 of Mexico. — Upper California under the Spaniards. — Mexican Con- 
 quest of California in 1825. — The March. — The Conquest. — Califor- 
 nia under the Mexicans. — American Conquest. — Sinews of foreign 
 "Wars. — A Protestant and religious "War. — Early Settlers compared. 
 — Mexico in the Heyday of Prosperity. — Rich Costume of the "\Vom- 
 en. — Superstitious "Worship. — "When I first saw California. — Lawyers 
 •VN-ithout Laws. — A primitive Court. — A Territorial Judge in San 
 Francisco. — Mistaken Philanthropy. — Mexican Side of the Picture. 
 — Great Alms. — City of ^Mexico overwhelmed by a "Water-spout. — 
 The Superiority of Calif ornians. 
 
 I CAN not enter the valley of ^lexico, and there dis- 
 cuss the various subjects that present themselves, with- 
 out first gathering from California the data that will elu- 
 cidate the condition of a country abounding in precious 
 metals. 
 
 There is a striking dissimilarity between the two Cali- 
 fornias. The American State of California is as cele- 
 brated for its fertility as for its mineral wealth. Penin- 
 sular California, on the other hand, is not distinguislied 
 for its minerals, nor remarkable for its fertility. With 
 the sea washing it on either side, it is a country of drought 
 and barrenness. It is like a neutral gi'ound between the 
 two rainy seasons. To the north of it, the winter is the 
 season of abundant rains, with dry summers. To the 
 south of it, the summer rains are heavy and continuous, 
 without any showers in winter. Thus, lying between 
 the opposite climates, it rarely enjoys the refreshing rains 
 of eiflier. Its back-bone is not a continuation of the 
 rich Sierra Nevada, but of the coast range, which is
 
 MEXICAN CALIFORNIA. 143 
 
 poor in minerals. The Mexican estimates set down the 
 population as amounting to 12,000,* but an American, 
 who has carefully examined the country, going down the 
 whole length of the peninsula on the one side, and re- 
 turning by the other, fixes it at 4000. The inhabitants 
 are an imbecile race of mixed bloods and Indians, dwell- 
 ing in the few small villages which the country contains, 
 and upon the ranchos and haciendas. 
 
 Cattle thrive where water is to be found, and many 
 of the natives are excellent herdsmen. Fish are abund- 
 ant, but the Californians lack the necessary energy to 
 become successful fishermen upon a large scale. The 
 pearl fisheries have for centuries brought strangers to 
 this shore of the Gulf, and many of the inhabitants have 
 served as divers with success. The production of pearls 
 in the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California, has been so 
 great during the last three centuries, that ^lexico has be- 
 come the greatest country for pearls yet known. Every 
 female above tlie rank of a peasant must have at least 
 one pearl to ornament the pin that fastens her shawl or 
 mantilla upon the top of her head. jMost of these pearls 
 are of small value, on account of their imperfection in 
 shape or color ; but their abundance is one of the first 
 things that strike a stranger on entering Mexico. With 
 a change of fashions, the foreign demand for pearls fell 
 off so much that, for the last half century, these fisher- 
 ies have been almost discontinued; but with the revivins: 
 demand for pearls, the fisheries have again risen to im- 
 portance. For a more detailed account of these pearl- 
 fisheries, I must refer to the following note.j 
 
 * Colbccidn de Lci/es, p. 180. 
 
 t " The whole PaciHc coast produces pearls, but the most extensive 
 pearl-fisheries, at the i)resent time, are in the Gulf of California, where, 
 among an inexhaustible supply of little pearls, there are i)roduced some 
 of the very finest quality. The pearls of the Countess de Regla, those 
 of the Marquesa de Gaudalupe, and Madame Velasco, are from these
 
 144 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 In the year 1600 the Jesuits first undertook the es- 
 tablishment of a mission at Loretto, on the Gulf coast, 
 
 fisheries, and are remarkable for their great size and value. The great 
 pearl presented to General Victoria, wlule he Avas President, was from 
 the same locality." (Ward, vol. ii. p. 293.) 
 
 "The pearls of this gulf are considered of excellent -water, but their 
 rather irregular figure somewhat reduces their value. "The manner of 
 obtaining pearls is not without interest. The vessels employed in the 
 fisheries are from fifteen to thirty tons burden. They are usually fit- 
 ted out by private individuals. The armador or owner commands them. 
 Crews are shipped to work, them, and from forty to fifty Indians, called 
 Busos, to dive for the oyster. A stock of provisions and spirits, a small 
 sum of money to advance the people during the cruise, a limited sup- 
 ply of calaboose furniture, a sufficient number of hammocks to sleep 
 in, and a quantity of ballast, constitute nearly all the cargo outward 
 bound. 
 
 "Thus arranged, they sail into the Gulf; and, having ai-rived at the 
 oyster banks, cast anchor and commence business. The divers are first 
 called to duty. They plunge to the bottom in four or five fathom wa- 
 ter, dig up with sharpened sticks as many oysters as they are able, rise 
 to the surface, and deposit them in sacks hung to receive them at the 
 vessel's side. And thus they continue to do till the sacks are filled, or 
 the hours allotted to this part of the labor are ended. 
 
 " When the diving of the day is done, all come on board and place 
 themselves in a circle around the armador, who divides what they have 
 obtained in the following manner : two oysters for himself, the same 
 number for the Busos, or divers, and one for the government. This 
 division having been concluded, they next proceed, without moving 
 from their places, to open the oysters which have fallen to the lot of 
 the armador. During this operation, that dignitary has to watch the 
 Busos with the greatest scrutiny, to prevent them from swallowing the 
 pearls with the oysters, a trick which they perform with so much dex- 
 terity as to almost defy detection, and by means of which they often 
 manage to secrete the most valuable pearls. 
 
 " The government portion is next opened with the same precautions, 
 and taken into possession by the armador. And, last of all, the Busos 
 open theirs, and sell them to the armador in liquidation of debts incur- 
 red for their outfits, or of moneys advanced during the voyage. They 
 usually reserve a few to sell to dealers on shore, who always accompany 
 these expeditions with spirituous liquors, chocolate, sugar, cigars, and 
 other articles of which Indian divers are especially fond. Since the 
 Mexicans obtained their independence, another mode of division has 
 been adopted. 'Every time the Busos come up, the largest oyster which 
 he has obtained is taken by the armador, and laid aside for the use of 
 the Virgin JMary. The rest are thrown in a pile ; and, when the day's 
 diving is ended, eight oysters are laid out for the armador, eight for 
 the Busos, and two for the government.
 
 CALIFORNIAN PEARL-FISHERY. 145 
 
 which has ever since "been the capital of the Peninsula. 
 From the time of their iirst establishment here down to 
 the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the do- 
 minions of Spain, in 1767, they continued to cultivate 
 this field, though it proved more than a match for their 
 wonted perseverance. In a few places, the soil was 
 made to yield its increase by the skillful application of 
 the waters that sprung up among the mountains and 
 rocks. Wherever irrigation was possible at small ex- 
 pense, there an oasis made its appearance, which was in 
 striking contrast to the general barrenness that prevailed. 
 The manner in which conversions were effected by the 
 Spanish priests may seem a little strange to the " volun- 
 taries" of our day. The idea of running down a convert 
 with dogs may seem to be rather an original metliod of 
 proselyting, and has been severely commented upon by 
 Forbes, and other Americans Avho have visited the Mis- 
 sions. But then such men should bear in mind that 
 Catholics are not voluntaries, and never rely upon per- 
 suasion to make converts when they have the power to 
 use a stronger argument. If this same class of mission- 
 aries used dogs to convert the Waldenses in Italy, there 
 is a greater reason for using them among the half-brutish 
 Indians of California. With such a race, moral suasion 
 has no force ; and to adduce arguments to convince a 
 man whose only rule of action is the gratification of his 
 sensual appetites, would be labor thrown away. 
 
 "In the year 1831, one vessel with seventy Busos, another with fifty, 
 and two witli thirty each, and two boats with ten each, from the coast 
 of Sonora, engaged in this fishery. The one brought in forty ounces of 
 pearls, valued at $G500 ; another, twenty-one ounces, valued at $3000 ; 
 another, twelve ounces, valued at $2000, and the two boats a propor- 
 tionate quantity. There were, in the same season, ten or twelve other 
 vessels, from other parts, employed in the same trade, which, if equally 
 successful, swelled the value of pearls taken in that year to the sum of 
 more than forty thousand dollars." — Fakkhajvi's Scenes in the Pacific^ 
 p. 307. 
 
 G
 
 146 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 The good fathers took a more sensible view of the 
 case. Having once obtained the consent of an Indian 
 to receive Christian baptism, they took good care that he 
 should not fall back ii-om his profession, but retained 
 him a prisoner of the cross. Thej used as much mild- 
 ness as is compatible with their system, and onlj compell- 
 ed their converts to labor as much as was necessary to the 
 success of the mission, the rest of the time being devoted 
 to their spiritual edification ; that is, they were employed 
 in repeating Latin prayers and a Spanish catechism, 
 after an old Indian who acted as prompter. Sometimes 
 it was necessary to allow the Indians to go abroad for a 
 time, but then their return was provided for by retaining 
 the squaws and papooses as hostas^es, in the same man- 
 ner as they provided for the return of the plantation 
 bulls, by shutting up the cows and calves in the corral. 
 
 The system pursued by the Jesuits, and, after their 
 expulsion, by the Dominicans, was to treat the Indians 
 as though they were half human and the other half bes- 
 tial. Abstractly considered, this was very wrong ; but 
 it was practically the only system of treatment that gave 
 any promise of improving then* condition. Though in 
 many respects they were treated as slaves, yet the mis- 
 sionaries had generally at heart the best interests of the 
 Indians. With them it was a settled rule, that when an 
 Indian was to be maiTied, his kindred should be care- 
 fully inquired after, and that among them he was to mar- 
 r}', or not at all ; for long experience had taught the fa- 
 thers that certain diseases, hereditary among them, were 
 checked by each marrying into his own clan, while they 
 were aggravated by intermarriage with a stranger. 
 
 We may sum up the whole story of the combined 
 missionary and governmental efforts at colonization in 
 Lower Peninsular California, during a period of two hund- 
 red and fifty years, by saying that they jointly succeeded
 
 MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 147 
 
 in establishing a poverty-stricken village of mud huts, 
 called San Josef, at Cape San Lucas, where the IVIanilla 
 galleon, on its voyage to Acapulco, could procure a sup- 
 ply of fresh vegetables to stay the ravages of the scurvy 
 among its crew. They also established a less import- 
 ant village at La Paz, which, with Loretto, and divers 
 small hamlets and ranchos, constitutes all there is of this 
 parched peninsula. 
 
 Upper California comes to my aid in illustration of 
 ilie early condition of Mexico, for, without this assist- 
 ance, many phenomena that are witnessed in Mexico 
 would be inexplicable. The effects of sudden wealth, 
 the great accumulations of precious metals in few hands, 
 the gross immoralities to which such a state of things 
 gives rise, the almost fabulous state of society that arises 
 ivhen, by delays in its export, the accumulations become 
 burdensome to the possessors, are no longer novelties in 
 our day, and they now serve to illustrate the romance of 
 the history of other times. 
 
 AVhen, in the year 1847, a party of American settlers 
 and trappers hoisted the bear-flag in Upper California, 
 their situation was strikingly similar to that of Cortez 
 and his party. Numbers were about equal in each case. 
 Tlie Territory of California was equal to the whole em- 
 pire of Montezuma. The hunters and trappers had a 
 more formidable enemy to contend with than Cortez had ; 
 but they proved themselves more than a match for all 
 antagonists. Like Cortez, they found numerous villages 
 of mud huts and a country governed by priests, but im- 
 mensely superior in civilization and in arms to the Aztecs. 
 
 In 1776, the monks of the angelic order of San Fran- 
 cis had established missions along the coast. Adopting 
 in this fertile country the practice of enforcing the labor 
 of the Indians, the missions became vast grazing farms, 
 where the priest, like the patriarchs of old, was the spir-
 
 148 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 itual and temporal head of the establishment, and had 
 flocks and herds innumerable. Villages {pueblos) had 
 been established by the aid of the royal government, and 
 mud forts {^presidios) were founded as a protection to 
 both mission and pueblo ; and ranges {raiichos) for cattle 
 were granted to indii-iduals. 
 
 Such was California when it submitted to the " Plan 
 of Iguala." It was reported to have had 75,000 In- 
 dians in connection with its missions, and a large white 
 and mixed population. But, according to our custom, 
 we must deduct two thirds from all Spanish enumera- 
 tions, and estimate the population of every class at only 
 25,000 at most. 
 
 The priests of the missions had quietly acquiesced in 
 the usurpation of Iturbide, and acknowledged his empire ; 
 but when Santa Anna proclaimed a republic, they were 
 struck with horror. The idea of conferring civil rights 
 upon Indians was monstrous. The very existence of 
 the missions depended on keeping these poor creatures 
 in servitude. And as for repubHcanism, that was in- 
 compatible with the government of the Church ; and, 
 as good Catholics and priests, they solemnly protested 
 against it. Had these missionaries been as poor as the 
 apostles, they probably would not have been disturbed 
 for their want of republicanism. But their wealth 
 proved their ruin, and the ruin of Upper California. 
 
 The new republic was at peace, and the surplus sol- 
 diery had to be got rid of. It was not safe to disband 
 them at home, where they might take to the roads and 
 become successful robbers ; but 1500 of the worst were 
 selected for a distant expedition — the conquest of the 
 far-off territory of California. And then a general was 
 found who was in all respects worthy of his soldiery. 
 He was pre-eminently the greatest coward in the Mexi- 
 can anny — so great a coward, that he subsequently, with-
 
 MEXICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 149 
 
 out striking a blow, surrendered a fort, with a garrison 
 of 500 men, unconditionally, to a party of 50 foreigners. 
 
 Such was the great General Echandrea, the Mexican 
 conqueror of California ; and such was the army that he 
 led to the conquest of unarmed priests and an unarmed 
 province. It was a perilous expedition — perilous, not 
 to the soldiers, but to the villagers upon their route. 
 All dreaded their approach and rejoiced at their depart- 
 ure, for their march through their own country was a 
 continued triumph, if one may judge from the amount of 
 plunder they took from their friends upon the road. It 
 was an expedition that FalstafF would have rejoiced to 
 command, and his regiment would have distinguished 
 themselves in such a war. Dry and dusty were the des- 
 ert plains over which they marched, and dry and dusty 
 were the throats of the army, for cigaritos were scarce, 
 and inuscal could seldom be found. But the toils of the 
 long marches were relieved by ix^o^^Yii fa7idangoes^ for 
 the wives that followed the expedition equaled the men 
 in numbers and courage. 
 
 This long journey, and these days of perilous march- 
 ing and nights of dancing, at length came to an end by 
 their arrival at the enemy's frontier — the frontier of Cal- 
 ifornia, which, to their joy, they found unguarded ; nor 
 was there any found to dispute their passage or "to 
 make them afraid ;" for, had there been fifty resolute 
 persons to oppose them, this valiant army would have 
 absconded, and California would have remained an ap- 
 panage of the crown of Spain. But Providence had or- 
 dered it otherwise ; and this horde of vagabonds {leperos) 
 came rushing on, with their wives and children, until 
 they reached the cattle-yards {corrals)^ and then was dis- 
 played their valor and their capacity for beef, and in 
 the name of" God and Liberty" they gratified their ap- 
 petite for plunder. The priests, on their part, stood up
 
 150 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 manfully, and witnessed a good confession. They re- 
 fused to accept this phantom of liberty wliich a party 
 of vagabonds brought to them. The conquerors, how- 
 ever, could afford to be magnanimous in the midst of so 
 mucli good eating, and no vengeance was inflicted upon 
 unarmed men. But when the prefect of the missions 
 was shipped off to ^lanilla, the war was at an end, for 
 there was no means of defense, or, rather, it was changed 
 from a war against priests to one against the cattle. 
 
 Thus was Cahfornia conquered and annexed to the 
 United States of ^Mexico in the year 1825, and the 
 laws and constitution of that republic extended over it. 
 But it is an abuse of words to say that any law existed 
 from that time onward. The confusion produced by 
 the inniption of this horde of vagabonds continued un- 
 interrupted, and it involved, in one chaotic mass, law, 
 order, and every public and private right. The history 
 of the country is inexplicable, and its public archives 
 are a mass of such gross irregularities, and show such a 
 total disregard of all law, that they are little better than 
 the Sibylhne leaves. 
 
 The party that raised the "bear flag" met with no 
 opposition. The party that landed from the sliipping, 
 and took possession of Monterey and San Francisco, 
 were alike successful. But when a small party of Amer- 
 ican soldiers, under General Iveamey, entered the coun- 
 try from the west, the rancheros took the alarm, and rush- 
 ed forth on their fleet horses to defend their private prop- 
 erty from spoliation, for tliey liad no idea of regular sol- 
 diers disconnected from robbery and cattle-stealing I The 
 Californians fought bravely, and liemmed in the little 
 army of Americans until they were in a suffering con- 
 dition for provisions, and until the dreaded hunters and 
 trappers, and draughts from the sliipping, routed the 
 herdsmen and released the beleaguered force. This is
 
 AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 151 
 
 all there was that looked like war in the American ac- 
 quisition of this most valuable territory, 
 
 Not only was there this similarity in respect to the 
 inadequate means by w^iicli ]\Iexico and California were 
 acquired, but tliere is also a striking similarity in the 
 fact of the immediate discovery of inexhaustible mines 
 of precious metals, that gave importance to an otherwise 
 comparatively insignificant conquest. Though so many 
 centuries apart, each produced the same effect upon the 
 political affairs of nations by suddenly furnishing the 
 world with an abundant supply of the precious metals. 
 The mines of ^lexico, with some small supplies from 
 South America, furnished the sinews of those religious 
 wars that desolated Europe after the Heformation, and 
 enabled Spain to maintain her vast armaments in the 
 Spanish peninsula, and in her Italian kingdoms and 
 principalities, and in her Belgian provinces. Spain was 
 able to subsidize the armies of the Catholic League in 
 France, and the forces of the Catholic Princes of Ger- 
 many, and to turn back the tide of the Protestant Ref- 
 ormation after it had entered Italy, overrun Navarre, and 
 reached her own frontier. The gold of California and 
 Australia has furnished England the sinews by which 
 she has set on foot armies, and subsidized nations in the 
 present crusade against Russia. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation, all the precious metals 
 were poured into the lap of a fanatical Catholic govern- 
 ment ; now they are in Protestant hands, and all, at last, 
 find their resting-place, even those of Mexico, in the Lon- 
 don market; while out of English Protestantism has our 
 republic arisen, which is still united to her by a com- 
 mon language, a common religion, and commercial rela- 
 tions, so that the London market regulates the value of 
 our stocks and the price of the food we eat. But our 
 common Protestantism is not the Protestantism of the
 
 152 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Reformation : that was the Protestantism of princes, and 
 every where rested for support upon state patronage, the 
 people, in that epoch, having no political existence. Prot- 
 estantism was then a state institution, and soon lost its 
 vitality in such an unnatural alliance. The Protestant- 
 ism of our day is the Protestantism of dissent, which re- 
 jects state support, yet has shown itself more powerful 
 than governments. It has restored peace to Ireland, and 
 made its proselytes there by tens of thousands after the 
 last British regiment was withdrawn. It has rent in 
 twain the Church of Scotland, and is fast revolutionizing 
 the Church of England, by driving to Rome those who 
 prefer superstition to democracy, while it draws the re- 
 mainder of the nation to itself In the United States 
 it is the ruling power, though it has here no political 
 authority. It has penetrated the most obscure hamlets 
 of France and Spain, and made thousands of converts 
 in Italy itself And where its preacliers could not pen- 
 etrate, tliere the written Word has found its way. 
 
 The letters of Cortez show that he, like his master, 
 was above the superstitions of the Spanish race ; yet 
 both, skillful diplomatists, knew well how to avail them- 
 selves of the superstitions of others. The early Spanish 
 adventurers to Mexico were a good illustration of the 
 doctrine of total depravity, and the priests, that held them 
 in leading-strings, were as depraved as tliemselves. 
 "Like priests, like people." Our first settlers in Cali- 
 fornia had learned self-government and self-control in 
 the school of Protestantism ; and when they took posses- 
 sion of that part of the country beyond the limit of Span- 
 ish settlements, where there were no laws and no writ- 
 ten code, they were a law unto themselves, and the 
 Spanish Americans that gathered about them found 
 more perfect protection to life and property than they 
 had ever before enjoyed. The Spanish adventurer)^^. at
 
 MEXICO TWO CENTUKIES AGO. 153 
 
 Mexico lavished the wealth which they had acquired by 
 the forced labor of tlie Indians in the mines upon priests 
 and monks, who amused them with lying miracles. 
 They also gave money as an atonement for the criminal 
 lives they led, and to shield themselves from the ven- 
 geance of the Inquisition, where they were suspected of 
 being rich. The religion of the Californians was a sim- 
 ple veneration for the truths of Scripture. In some it 
 amounted to devotion, but it was devotion sanctioned by 
 reason and the understanding. They all alike despised 
 superstition and abhorred despotism. In conclusion, I 
 may add, that, had such a race of men as I saw in the 
 mountains and villages of California at an early period 
 of its settlement existed at the time of the conquest of 
 Mexico, they would have revolutionized the world. 
 
 We have heard much of the immorality, excessive ex- 
 travagance and luxury of the cities of California ; but 
 the following picture of the state of the city of ]\Iexico 
 in the heyday of its prosperity, five years before it was 
 destroyed by an inundation, is from the black-letter vol- 
 ume of Thomas Gage, of which I have already availed 
 myself. 
 
 "Almost all ^Mexico is now built with very fair and 
 spacious houses, with gardens of recreation. The streets 
 are very broad ; in the narrowest of them three coaches 
 may go, and in the broadest of them six may go in the 
 breadth of them, which makes the city seem a great deal 
 bigger than it is. In my time it was thought to be of 
 between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, Spaniards, 
 who are so proud and rich, that half the city was judged 
 to keep coaches ; for it was a most credible report that 
 in Mexico there were about 15,000 coaches." 
 
 "It is a by-word that at Mexico there are four things 
 fair ; that is to say, the women, the apparel, the horses, 
 and the streets. But to this I may add the beauty of 
 
 G2
 
 164 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 some of the coaches of the gentry, which do exceed in 
 cost the Lest of the court of Madrid, and other parts of 
 Christendom, for they spare no silver, nor gold, nor pre- 
 cious stones, nor cloth of gold, nor the best silks from 
 China, to enrich them ; and to the gallantry of their 
 horses the pride of some doth add the cost of bridles and 
 shoes of silver. The streets of Christendom must not 
 compare with those in breadth and cleanness, but espe- 
 cially in the riches of the shops which do adorn them. 
 Above all, the goldsmith's shops and works are to be 
 admired. The [East] Indians, and the people of China, 
 that have been made Christians, and every year come 
 thither, have perfected the Spaniards in that trade. 
 There is in the cloister of the Dominicans a lamp hang- 
 ing in the Church, with three hundred branches wrought 
 in silver, to hold so many candles, besides a hundred 
 little lamps for oil set in it, every one being made with 
 several workmanship so exquisitely that it is valued to 
 be worth four hundred thousand ducats ; and with such 
 like curious works are many streets made more rich and 
 beautiful from the shops of goldsmiths. 
 
 " To the by-word touching the beauty of the women 
 I must add the liberty they enjoy for gaming, which is 
 such that the day and night is too short for them to end 
 a prhnera when once it is begun ; nay, gaming is so 
 common to them, that they invite gentlemen to their 
 houses for no other end. To myself it happened that, 
 passing along the streets in company with a friar that 
 came with me the year before from Spain, a gentlewom- 
 an of great birth, knowing us to be new-comers, from 
 her window called unto us, and, after two or three slight 
 questions concerning Spain, asked us if we would come 
 in and play with her a game atj?ri7)iera. Both men and 
 women are excessive in their apparel, using more silks 
 than stuffs and cloth. Precious stones and pearls farther
 
 MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO. 157 
 
 much this vain ostentation. A hatband and rose made 
 of diamonds in a gentleman's hat is common, and a hat- 
 band of pearls is ordinary in a tradesman ; nay, a black- 
 amore, or tawney young maid and slave, will make hard 
 shift but she will be in fashion with her neck-chain and 
 bracelets of pearls, and her ear-bobs of considerable 
 jewels. 
 
 " Their clothing is a petticoat of silk or cloth, with 
 many silver or golden laces, with a very double rib- 
 bon of some light color, with long silver or golden tags 
 hanging down in front the whole length of their petticoat 
 to the ground, and the like behind ; their waistcoats 
 made like bodies, with skirts, laced likewise with gold 
 and silver, without sleeves, and a girdle about their waist 
 of great price, stuck with pearls and knobs of gold. 
 Their sleeves are broad and open at the end, of Holland 
 or fine China linen, wrought, some with colored silks, 
 some with silk and gold, some with silk and silver, hang- 
 ing down almost to the ground ; the locks of their heads 
 are covered with some wrought quoif, and over it an- 
 other of net-work of silk, bound with a fair silk, or sil- 
 ver, or golden ribbon, which crosses the upper part of 
 their foreheads, and hath commonly worked out in let- 
 ters some light and foolish love posie ; their bare, black, 
 and tawney breasts, are covered with bobs hanging from 
 their chains of pearls. And when they go abroad, they 
 use a white mantle of lawn or cambric, rounded with a 
 broad lace, which some put over their heads, the breadth 
 reaching only to their middles behind, that their girdle 
 and ribbons may be seen, and the two ends before reach- 
 ing to the ground almost ; others cast their mantles only 
 upon their shoulders ; and swaggerers like to cast the one 
 end over the left shoulder, while with their right arm 
 they support the lower part of it, more like roaring boys 
 than honest civil maids. Their shoes are high and of
 
 158 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 many soles, the outside whereof of the profaner sort are 
 plated over with a lift of silver, which is fastened with 
 small nails with broad silver heads. Most of these are or 
 have been slaves, though love have set them loose at lib- 
 erty to enslave souls to sin and Satan ; and for the 
 looseness of their lives, and public scandals committed 
 by them and the better sort of the Spaniards, I have 
 heard them say often, who possessed more religion and 
 fear of God, they verily thought God would destroy that 
 city, and give up the country into the power of some 
 other nation. 
 
 "And I doubt not but the flourishing of ^Mexico in 
 coaches, horses, streets, women, and apparel, is very slip- 
 perv, and will make those proud inhabitants slip and 
 fall into the power and dominion of some other prince of 
 this world, and hereafter, in the world to come, into the 
 powerful hands of an angr}' Judge, who is the King of 
 kings and Lord of lords, which Paul saith (Heb. x. 31) 
 is a fearful thing. For tliis city doth not only flourish 
 in the ways aforesaid, but also in the superstitious wor- 
 shiping of God and the saints they exceed Eome itself, 
 and all other places of Christendom. And it is a thing 
 which I have very much and carefully observed in all 
 my travels, both in Europe and America, that in those 
 cities wherein there is most lewd licentiousness of life, 
 there is also most cost in the temples, and most public 
 superstitious worship of God and the saints." 
 
 So much for worthy Thomas Gage, and his estimate 
 of the Mexicans of his day. 
 
 I arrived at San Francisco in the midst of the gold 
 excitement. The town was crowded with rough-looking 
 muscular men in red shirts, slouch hats, and trowsers 
 over which were drawn high-topped boots. A Colt's re- 
 volver, a belt filled with gold, and an unshaven visage 
 completed the tout ensemble of a crowd who were pur-
 
 AMERICANS IN CALIFORNIA, 159 
 
 chasing supplies for their companions in the mines. 
 They strode along, conscious that they belonged to the 
 Anglo-Saxon race and the aristocracy of labor. As they 
 turned into the temporary houses or booths which then 
 constituted the town, or threaded their way among the 
 piles of merchandise that encumbered the streets, the 
 effeminate natives instinctively shrunk back, conscious 
 of their own imbecility ; the Spanish Americans were 
 overawed by their presence ; and even Sidney convicts 
 thought it most profitable to turn their thoughts to hon- 
 est labor. 
 
 The miner had his vices too as well as his virtues. 
 If you will follow him as he opens right and left a crowd 
 that surrounds a table heaped with lumps of gold and 
 silver coin, you will see how carelessly he throws down 
 a piece of metal, looking sharply into the eye of the cun- 
 ning dealer of the monte cards. If he detects a false 
 move, he cocks his weapon, and draws the gold back into 
 his bag and strides away. 
 
 Such were the men who knew no fear, and dreaded 
 no labor or fatigue, and who have made California in 
 five short years a state more powerful than the Republic 
 of Mexico. 
 
 In an interior town I was called to practice as an at- 
 torney. My first client was the driver of an ox-team, 
 who was suing for extra services in addition to his reg- 
 ular wages of five hundred dollars a month and board 
 (Doe vs. Pickett). My office was a space of four feet by 
 six, partitioned off by two cotton sheets, in the corner of 
 a canvas store. The ground was for a while the floor ; 
 yet I paid in advance the monthly rent of two ounces of 
 gold, and never had occasion to regret the outlay. The 
 heavy winter rains at length compelled my landlord to 
 lay a floor of rough boards, which cost him seven hund- 
 red dollars for a thousand feet.
 
 160 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Before the establishment of the state government, 
 there was a judiciary created by an autocratical edict of 
 General Riley ; and a pamphlet, extracted and translated 
 from the ^^lexican Constitutional laws of 1836, constitu- 
 ted the Corjnts Juris Civilis of the Territory of Califor- 
 nia. The remainder of the law was made up of the 
 judge's ideas of equity, and of the law he had read be- 
 fore leaving home. Inartificial and rude as was this sys- 
 tem, still it was wonderfully efficient ; and it was well 
 for the people of California that it was so, for an unpar- 
 alleled immigration had brought with it an unparalleled 
 amount of litigation. 
 
 With the daily occurring causes of litigation, crowds 
 assembled at the school-house on the Plaza, where from 
 morning to night sat a judge dispensing off-hand justice. 
 In front of him sat three or four clerks conducting the 
 business. The crowds of lawyers, litigants, and wit- 
 nesses that surrounded the court were not idle specta- 
 tors, but represented the ordinary accumulation of busi- 
 ness for the day, which was to be disposed of before the 
 adjournment of the court. Speedy justice was more de- 
 sirable than exact justice, where labor was valued at a 
 gold ounce a day ; and none were more desirous of speed 
 than the lawyers, whose prospects of compensation de- 
 pended much upon the promptitude with which judg- 
 ment was rendered. 
 
 The moving spirit of the whole scene. Judge A , 
 
 watched from behind the desk all that was said or done, 
 seldom withdrawing his attention unless to administer 
 an oath for the consideration of one dollar, or to sign an 
 order for the consideration of two dollars. Sometimes 
 he would change his position ; but, whether warming 
 his uncovered feet at the fire-place, or drawing on his 
 boots, or replenishing his stock of tobacco, there was the 
 same unalterable attention on his part. As soon as he
 
 CALIFORNIAN COURTS. 161 
 
 comprehended a case, liis authoritative voice was heard, 
 closing the discussion, and dictating to a clerk the exact 
 number of dollars and cents for which he should enter 
 up a judgment. And then another, and another case 
 was called up, and submitted to this summary process, 
 until about nine o'clock at night, wdien the day's work 
 terminated. All orders asked for by a responsible at- 
 torney were granted ex j^^arte, the judge remarking that 
 if the order was not a proper one, the other party would 
 soon appear, and then he could ascertain the real merits 
 of the case. The grand feature of this court was the fa- 
 cility with which an injunction could be obtained, and 
 the rapidity with which it could be set aside. 
 
 Crime was almost unknown until we got a state gov- 
 ernment and a code of laws, which, with misplaced phi- 
 lanthropy, had made the legal practice so easy upon crim- 
 inals that a conviction was next to impossible. Then 
 it was that crime stalked abroad in the face of day, and 
 Sidney convicts plied their trade in San Francisco after 
 it had become a city. Shops were entered and robbed 
 in business hours ; and by night, men were murdered in 
 the streets ; and thefts escaped punishment. Then it 
 was that men, caught in the commission of crime, were 
 hanged in the open streets, and combinations were form- 
 ed for self-defense. But when a new Legislature gave 
 efficiency to the laws, the community yielded a willing 
 obedience to the magistrate. From an early day there 
 had been "miners' courts," wliich, with their alcaldes, 
 had conciliated differences. But when magistrates were 
 elected, these courts disappeared. This was a change 
 from bad to worse, for no condition is so deplorable as 
 that of a people whose magistracy are powerless. 
 
 Such is a fair picture of California in its worst estate, 
 when the worst and the best of all nations were tliere 
 congregated, and kept in subjection by the law-abiding
 
 162 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 spirit of an Anglo-Saxon immigration — a state of society 
 in the first year of its existence, yet infinitely superior 
 to that existing in the city of Mexico a hundred years 
 after the discovery of the mines of Haxal and Pachuca. 
 But we may complete the contrast by adding the more 
 deplorable part of the picture which Friar Thomas Gage 
 has drawn. 
 
 "It seems," says he, "that religion teaches that all 
 wickedness is allowable, so that the churches and cler- 
 gy flourish. Xay, while the purse is open to lascivious- 
 ness, if it be likewise open to enrich the temple walls 
 and roofs, this is better than any holy water, or water to 
 wash away the filth of the other. Rome is held to be 
 the head of superstition ; and what stately churches, 
 chapels, and cloisters are in it I What fastings, what 
 processions, what appearances of devotion I And, on the 
 other side, what liberty, what profaneness, what whore- 
 doms, nay, wliat sins of Sodom are committed in it, in- 
 somuch that it could be the saying of a friar to myself, 
 while I was in it, that he verily thought there was no 
 one city in the world wherein were more Atheists than in 
 Rome. I might show tliis much in Madrid, Seville, "\'al- 
 ladolid, and other famous cities in Spain and in Italy ; 
 in Milan, Genoa, and Naples ; relating many instances 
 of scandals committed in those places, and yet the tem- 
 ples are mightily enriched by those who have thought 
 their alms a sufficient warrant to firee them from hell 
 and purgatoiy. But I must return to Mexico, which 
 furnishes a thousand witnesses of this truth — sin and 
 wickedness abounding in it — and yet no such people in 
 the world toward the Church and clergy. In their life- 
 time they strive to excel one another in their gifts to the 
 cloisters of nuns and friars, some erecting altars to their 
 best-devoted saints, worth many thousand ducats, others 
 presenting crowns of gold to the pictures of Mary, others
 
 MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO. 163 
 
 lamps, others golden chains, others building cloisters at 
 their own charge, others repairing them, otliers, at their 
 death, leaving to them two or three thousand ducats for 
 an annual stipend. 
 
 "Among these great benefactors to the churches of 
 that city, I should wrong my history if I sliould forget 
 one that lived in my time, called Alonzo Cuellar, who 
 was reported to have a closet in his house laid with bars 
 of gold instead of brick ; tliough indeed it was not so, 
 but only reported for his abundant riches and store of 
 bars of gold, wliich he had in one chest, standing in a 
 closet distant from another, where he had a chest full of 
 wedges of silver. Tliis man alone built a nunnery for 
 Franciscan nuns, which stood him in above 30,000 du- 
 cats, and left unto it, for the maintenance of tlie nuns, 
 2000 ducats yearly, with obligation of some masses to be 
 said in the church every year for his soul after his decease. 
 And yet this man's life was so scandalous, that common- 
 ly, in the night, with two servants, he would go round 
 tlie city visiting such scandalous persons, whose attire 
 before hath been described, carrying his beads in his 
 hands, and at every liouse letting fall a bead, and tying 
 a false knot, that when he came home in the morning, 
 toward break of the day, he might number by his beads 
 the uncivil stations he had walked and visited that nio;ht. 
 
 " Great alms and liberality toward religious houses in 
 that city commonly are coupled with great and scanda- 
 lous wickedness. They wallow in the bed of riches and 
 wealth, and make their alms the coverlet to cover their 
 loose and lascivious lives. From hence are the churches 
 so fairly built and adorned. There are not above fii\y 
 churches and chapels, cloisters and nunneries, and parish 
 churches in the city ; but those that are there are the fair- 
 est that ever my eyes beheld, the roofs and beams being, 
 in many of them, aU daubed with gold, and many altars
 
 164 MEXICO AND ITS BELIGION. 
 
 with sundry marble pillars, and others with Brazil-wood 
 
 stays standing one above another, with tabernacles for 
 several saints, richly wrought with golden colors, so that 
 twenty thousand ducats is a common price of many of 
 them. These cause admiration in the common sort of 
 people, and admiration brings on daily adoration in them 
 to those glorious spectacles and images of saints ; so 
 Satan shows Christ all tlie glory of the kmgdoms to en- 
 tice him to admiration, and then he said, ''All these 
 tilings will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and wor- 
 ship nne' (Matthew, iv. 8, 9). The devil will give all 
 the world to be adored. 
 
 "Besides these beautiftil biiildings, the inward riches 
 belonging to the altars are infinite in price and value, 
 such as copes, canopies, hangings, altar-cloths, candle- 
 sticks, jewels belonging to the saints, and crowns of gold 
 and silver, and tabernacles of gold and crystal to carry 
 about their sacrament [the Saviour of the world in the 
 form of a wafer] in procession, all of which would mount 
 to the worth of a reasonable mine of silver, and would be 
 a rich prey for any nation that could make better use of 
 wealtli and riches. I will not speak much of the lives 
 of the friars and nuns of this city, but only that they 
 there enjoy more liberty than in Europe — where they 
 have too much — and that surely the scandals committed 
 by them do ciy up to Heaven for vengeance, judgment, 
 destruction. 
 
 "It is ordinary for the friars to visit their devoted 
 nuns, and to spend whole days with them, hearing their 
 music, feeding on their sweetmeats ; and for this purpose 
 they have many chambers, Avhicli they call loquato-ries, 
 to talk in, with wooden bars between tlie nuns and them ; 
 and in these chambers are tables for the friars to dine at, 
 and while they dine the nuns recreate them with their 
 voices. Gentlemen and citizens give their daughters to
 
 MEXICO TWO CENTUKIES AGO. 165 
 
 be brought up in these nunneries, where they are taught 
 to make all sorts of conserves and preserves, all sorts of 
 music, wliich is so exquisite in that city that I dare be 
 bold to say that the people are drawn to churches more 
 for the delight of the music than for any delight in the 
 service of God. More, they teach these young children 
 to act like players ; and, to entice the people to the 
 churches, they make these children act short dialogues 
 in their choirs, richly attiring them with men and wom- 
 en's apparel, especially upon Midsummer's day and the 
 eight days before their Christmas, which is so gallantly 
 performed that many factious strifes and single combats 
 have been, and some were in ray time, for defending 
 which of these nunneries most excelled in music and in 
 the training up of children." 
 
 Su-ch is a picture drawn by a candid writer of one of 
 the most devout Catholic cities in the world, where licen- 
 tiousness and papacy went hand in hand until they 
 reached that extreme point of corruption, that, as in the 
 case of Sodom, God overthrew the city by a judgment 
 from heaven ; not by fire and brimstone, but by a wa- 
 ter-spout, which, in the space of the five years that it 
 lay upon the town three feet deep, loosened the founda- 
 tions of all buildings and impoverished the inhabitants. 
 And when at length the earth opened and swallowed up 
 these waters, the city had to be rebuilt. The misery 
 and distress that this flood inflicted upon the lower or- 
 ders of the inhabitants was great in the extreme. 
 
 It was on Sunday morning that the cause of the mor- 
 al superiority of the American miners over those of Mex- 
 ico was visible. Then the noise and bustle about my 
 residence was hushed. The most immoral seemed to be 
 overawed by a sense of respect for the religious opinions 
 of others ; and when the sound of a ship-bell, hung on 
 the hmb of a tree, was heard, all except the baser sort
 
 166 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 repaired to the shade of an oak, so large and venerable 
 that it might have shielded the whole household of Abra- 
 ham while engaged in family worship. A portable ser- 
 aphine gave forth a famiUar tune, in which all joined 
 in singing with a zest which is only realized by those 
 whom it carries back in recollection to distant home. 
 Then llie voice of the preacher was heard invoking the 
 blessing of God upon the assembled worshipers, and his 
 pardon of their offenses ; and then followed his exhorta- 
 tion to seek from God the pardon of their many sins ; 
 and as he, with heartfelt earnestness, " reasoned of right- 
 eousness, temperance, and a judgment to come," many a 
 stern-visaged miner trembled for his condition, and went 
 away a better and a more honest man — ten thousand 
 times more improved than if he had presented a crown 
 of gold to the Virgin ^lary. 
 
 We are now prepared to enter the valley of Mexico, 
 and examine the objects that tliere present themselves.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 First Sight of the Valley of Mexico. — A Venice in a mountain Valley. 
 — An Emperor Availing his Murderers. — Cortez mowing down un- 
 armed Indians. — A new kind of Piety. — Capture of an Emperor. — 
 Torturing an Emperor to Death. — The Children paying the Penalty 
 of their Fathers' Crimes. — The Aztecs and other Indians. — The Dif- 
 ference is in the Histoi-ians. — The Superstitions of the Indians. — 
 The Valley of Mexico. — An American Survey of the Valley. — A 
 topographical View. — The Ponds Chalco, Xochimulco, and Tezcuco 
 were never Lakes. 
 
 My first view of the Valley of ^Mexico was from the 
 point wliere the Acapulco road passes the Cross of the 
 "Marquis of the Valley." I had read with eagerness 
 the History of the Conquest, and of the adventures of 
 the noble Conquistador, Not a shadow of a doubt had 
 then crossed my mind in regard to the truth of all that 
 had been so elegantly written. Beautiful composition 
 had supplied the place of evidence, and that practice of 
 writing romances of history which the Spaniards had in- 
 herited from tlie Moors had completely captivated me, as 
 it had thousands of others. The aspect of the valley 
 was all that my fancy had painted it. The sun was in 
 the right quarter to produce the greatest possible effect. 
 The unnumbered pools of surface-water that abound in 
 the valley appeared at that distance like so many lake- 
 lets supplied by crystal fountains, as each one reflected 
 the bright sun from its mirror-like surface ; these all 
 were inclosed in the richest setting of nature's green. 
 
 It was such a scene as would justify the extravagant 
 language which Spaniards have employed in describing 
 it. While I recalled its traditional history, I was tempt- 
 ed to exclaim as a native would have done, and to give
 
 168 MEXICO AND ITS KELiaiON. 
 
 credence to the fables of wliicli tliis valley has been the 
 scene. Here, as the story ran, amid floating gardens of 
 rarest flowers and richest fruits, lay, in olden time, an- 
 other Venice — a Venice in an inland mountain valley — 
 a Venice upon whose Rialto never walked a Shylock 
 with his money-bags ; for in this market-place the most 
 delicious fruits the world produces, the loveliest flow- 
 ers, rich stuiFs resplendent with Tyrian dyes, and prince- 
 ly mantles of feather-work, were bought with pretty 
 shells, and such money as the sea produces. It was 
 a Venice with its street of waters and its central basin, 
 where jostled the gondolas of the Aztec nobles and the 
 light canoes of bircli bark among the vessels of commerce 
 which came laden with slaves and other merchandise 
 from the surrounding villages — a basin that disappeared 
 the same day that the Indian empire fell. 
 
 This basin was the last vestige of Aztec dominion ; 
 and when there no longer was any safe shelter upon the 
 land, Guatemozin retired to his canoe and took shelter 
 here, and cailmly waited till his time should come to be 
 murdered. He could not flee. He could not capitulate, 
 for he was an emperor. x\s he sat here waiting for 
 death, what must have been his reflections ! What 
 thoughts did not the very boat he occupied call up! 
 How often had it can-ied him out upon the lake to the 
 floating gardens and volcanic islands, where he had wit- 
 nessed so many times the gorgeous reflections of an 
 evening sun upon the snow-capped Popocatapetl, in whose 
 bowels "the god of fire" had his dwelling! And then 
 the lake itself, how much it had perplexed his thoughts, 
 that in one part its waters should be fresh, with islands 
 teeming with the richest vegetation, and in another part 
 salt and bitter, with utter barrenness resting upon its 
 shores ! How he used to meet his brother of Tezcuco 
 in the after part of the day, to exchange congratulations
 
 GUATEMOZIN. 169 
 
 and talk over aiFairs of interest to both the royal families I 
 Now all these pleasures were terminated forever. His 
 brother of Tezcuco was in the ranks of his enemies, seek- 
 ing his destruction. 
 
 Thus sat the emperor, surrounded by a numerous 
 fleet of canoes, whose occupants were without hope of 
 escape or strength to fight; but, with Indian stoicism, all 
 sat waiting their inevitable doom from freebooters whom 
 they had disappointed of their prey. As the emperor 
 and his nobles sat here witnessing the destruction of 
 their pumice-stone palaces and mud-built huts, and the 
 filling up of their canals, they consoled themselves with 
 the reflection that their gold and their wealth were all at 
 the bottom of these canals, and that the Spaniards, in 
 their hot haste to enjoy the spoils of the city, were un- 
 wittingly burying forever the prize for which they were 
 contending. Such were the thoughts of these Aztecs as 
 they sat in their canoes, longing for death to relieve them 
 from agony of suspense, enduring all the torments of the 
 extremest thirst, which they vainly sought to quench by 
 draughts of the brackish water of the lake. They had 
 not long to wait ; for, by the express commands of Cor- 
 tez, his followers were mowing down unresisting citizens, 
 because the emperor, over whom they had no control, 
 would not surrender himself. 
 
 Who can stand for the first time upon the mountain 
 rim that incloses this valley, and not have his thoughts 
 carried back to some such scene as this ? The recollec- 
 tion is not easily eradicated that the remnant of a once 
 powerful tribe of Indians, partially emerged from barba- 
 rism, here received their death, in cold blood, at the hands 
 of a party of white murderers. The good Archbishop 
 Loranzana commends the piety of Cortez in never neg- 
 lecting to attend mass before going out to his daily work 
 of slaughter. It was a pious act, no doubt, that on the 
 
 H
 
 170 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 last morning of the siege he stopped and listened to a 
 mass — that pantomime which set forth the death of the 
 Redeemer of the world — preparatory to consummating 
 the butchery of Indians incapable of resistance. 
 
 Garci Ilolguin, the master of a brigantine, or rather 
 flat-boat, bolder than the rest, drove through the fleet of 
 canoes that occupied the basin, until he encountered in 
 the centre a canoe containing the person of the emperor, 
 whom he made prisoner and brought to Cortez, where- 
 upon the slaughter ceased. 
 
 Neither the horrid sight which the city presented, nor 
 the fallen fortunes of a brave enemy, could move the 
 soul of Cortez. A brigand knows no remorse and feels 
 no pity. Gold had been the object of his pious mission, 
 and when he found not gold enough to satisfy the crav- 
 ings of his gang, he soaked the fallen emperor's feet in 
 oil, and then burned them at a slow fire, to extort from 
 him a confession of the place of concealment of his sup- 
 posed treasure ; and when, in after years, he was tired of 
 the burden of such a prisoner, he wantonly hanged him 
 up by the heels to die in a distant forest. 
 
 In this very city where Cortez tortured Guatemozin 
 was a son of Cortez, who inherited the spoils of his fa- 
 ther's atrocities, jnit to the torture by one of the Yice- 
 kings, while the children's children of the Conquistadors 
 paid for the wealth they inherited in the terrible penal- 
 ties inflicted upon them by the buccaneers, that ravaged 
 their coasts for two hundred years. Have not the sins 
 of the fathers been visited upon the children ? 
 
 The Aztecs, their empire, and their city, have long since 
 disappeared ; their crimes, and the despotism which they 
 exercised over the tribes they had conquered, are all for- 
 gotten in the terrible catastrophe that extinguished their 
 national existence. Three hundred years of servitude 
 in the indiscriminate mass of Indian serfs has blotted out
 
 THE AZTECS AND THEIK HISTORIANS. 171 
 
 every feeling of nationality. A few vagabonds among 
 them still claim royal descent, and, by virtue of their 
 blood or their imposture, pretend to exercise, in obscure 
 villages, an undefined jurisdiction over Indians as op- 
 pressed as themselves. But the characteristics of the 
 Nortli American Indians are still visible ; they still ex- 
 hibit the contradictory traits of Indian character — cruel- 
 ty and kindness, shyness and self-possession ; enduring 
 the greatest trials without a murmur, and suffering op- 
 jDression without complaint ; delighting as much as their 
 northern brethren in tawdry exhibitions, in traditions 
 of the marvelous, they seem to carry hidden in their in- 
 most soul an idea that the time will come when they 
 may take vengeance of the despoilers of their race. 
 They have the Indian's love of adventure and want of 
 courage. They delight rather in a successful stratagem 
 than in open hostility, and deem no act of treachery dis- 
 honorable by which they can gain an advantage. Still, 
 they have less romance in their composition than the un- 
 enslaved northern Indians, into whose souls the iron of 
 despotism has never entered. 
 
 The great difference between what is recorded of the 
 North American Indian and the Aztec is owing less to 
 any difference in themselves than to the character of the 
 historians who have written of them. The northern 
 writers were not carried away by the romance of Indian 
 life ; they were matter-of-fact men, and they drew only 
 matter-of-fact pictures. Spanish historians, and all ear- 
 ly Spanish writers upon New Spain, except the two brig- 
 ands, Cortez and Diaz, were priests. With them, truth 
 was not an essential part of history. By the law of all 
 countries, the Conquistadors had outlawed themselves by 
 levying unlicensed war ; but as they bore a painting of 
 the Virgin Mary on one of their standards and the cross 
 on the other, it would be impiety to place their conduct
 
 172 MEXICO ANJ) ITS RELIGION. 
 
 in its tiTie light. Las Casas was an exception, and en- 
 dui'ed persecution for speaking the truth. "He had 
 powerful enemies,*' was all that his apologist dare say, 
 "because he spake the truth.*' And if we add to this 
 the sevenfold censorship already described, my reader 
 will agree witli me that it is absurd to place confidence 
 in records over which the Inquisition exercised a sur- 
 veillance. 
 
 The fabled Aztec empire has almost passed from the 
 traditions of the Mexican Indians. The name of only 
 one of their chiefs, Montezuma, remains among them, and 
 this name is affixed to almost every thing that has an 
 ancient look and is in a dilapidated condition. In my 
 wanderings among them, I never rejected their proffers 
 of rude hospitality, and I have listened with pleasure to 
 their wild traditions. I soon found that, like otlier In- 
 dians, they draw from a supernatural " dream-world" the 
 fortitude that enables them to bear without a murmur 
 then- hard lot in the present. They readily embraced 
 the superstitions of the Spaniards, and rendered to the 
 virgin of Gaudalupe the adoration they had formerly be- 
 stowed upon their own gods. Their conversion may be 
 summed up in the words of Humboldt : " Dogma has 
 not succeeded to dogma, but ceremony to ceremony. 
 The natives know nothing of religion but the external 
 forms of worship. Fond of whatever is connected. -with 
 a prescribed order of ceremonies, they find in the Chris- 
 tian religion particular enjoyment. The festivals of the 
 Church, the fire-works with w^hich they are accompanied, 
 the processions mingled with whimsical disguises, are a 
 most fertile source of amusement to the lower Indians." 
 
 There has been a great deal of poetry and veiy little 
 plain prose written about the valley of ^lexico. At an 
 early morning hour I stood upon tlie heights of Rio Frio ; 
 at another morning, as already said, at tlie Cross of the
 
 THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 173 
 
 Marquis ; again, upon the highest peak of tlie Tepeyaca, 
 behind Guadalupe, I saw a tropical morning sun disen- 
 gage itself from the snowy mountains. From tliese three 
 favored spots I have looked upon the valley, where dry 
 land and pools of water seemed equally to compose the 
 magnificent panorama. Immense mirrors of every con- 
 ceivable shape and form were reflecting back the rays of 
 the sun, while the green shores in which they were set 
 enhanced the effect. The white walls, and domes, and 
 spires of the distant city heiglitened the effect of a picture 
 that can only be fully appreciated by those who have 
 looked downward through the pure atmosphere of such 
 a lofty position ; but when I came down to the common 
 level, the charm was broken. Instead of lakelets and crys- 
 tal springs, I found only pools of surface-water which 
 the rains had left ; and the canals were but the ditches 
 from which, on either side, the dirt had been taken to 
 build the causeway through the marsh, and were now 
 covered with a coat of green. These lakes have no out- 
 let, and as evaporation only takes up pure water, all the 
 animal, vegetable, and mineral matter that is carried in 
 is left to stagnate and putrefy in the ponds and ditches. 
 A practical "man of the times," with more common 
 sense than poetry in his composition, must grieve as he 
 looks at the great advantages here possessed for drainage 
 and in-igation which are unimproved. There is not a 
 spot in the whole valley that is not capable of the most 
 perfect drainage,* while basins have been formed by na- 
 ture in tlie highest points, from which irrigation could be 
 supplied to the whole valley ; but decay and neglect — fit- 
 ting types of the social condition of the people — every 
 where exhibit themselves. Water stands in all the nar- 
 row canals or ditches that occupy the middle of the 
 
 ♦ Report of M. L. Smith, Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, 
 United States Arm v.
 
 174 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 streets, for the want simply of a sewer to draw it down 
 to the level of the Tczcuco. Once a year the flags are 
 taken off from the covered ditches, and the mud is dip- 
 ped out, while a Lundle of hay, tied to the tail of a dirt- 
 cart, is daily dragged through the open ones. 
 
 I have spoken only of the lower division of this val- 
 ley — the valley in which the city stands. If we consider 
 the two partly separated valleys as one, the whole will 
 constitute an oval Lasin 75 miles long from north to 
 south, with an average width from east to west of 20 
 miles. Two thirds of the southern valley is a marsh, 
 and might well be called the " !Montezuma Marsh," it so 
 strikincrly resembles the marsh of that name in the State 
 of New York, tliough the whole body of ponds and 
 marshes of this valley contains much less water than its 
 northern namesake. The stage-road from Vera Cruz 
 crosses tliis marsh for fourteen miles, and has a great 
 number of small stone bridges, beneath which the water 
 runs with considerable current toward the north, on ac- 
 count of the diflerence of level between the southern 
 fresh-water ponds and the lower salt-water ponds, as in 
 the days of Cortez. There arc occasional dry spots, and 
 now and then there is open water ; but the greater por- 
 tion is filled with marsh grass, and furnishes good feed- 
 ing for the droves of cattle that daily frequent it for that 
 purpose. The ancient village of ^Mexicalzingo, or " Lit- 
 tle ^Mexico," the traditional home of the Aztecs before 
 they built ^Mexico, is situated on one of the dry spots, 
 slightly elevated above the level of the fresh water; 
 and on another dry spot or island, six miles distant, 
 stands the famous city of ^Mexico itself, resting on piles 
 driven into a foundation of soft earth. The canal of 
 Chalco commences at the northerly extremity of the 
 Xocliimulco, and, passing by ^Mexicalzingo and the float- 
 ing gardens, continues along the eastern front of the city.
 
 THE LAKES OF THE VALLEY. I t U 
 
 and empties itself into the salt {tequisquitc) pond of 
 Tezcuco, having received as a tributary the canal of Ta- 
 cubaya, which passes along the southern boundary of 
 the city. 
 
 The highest water of the valley of the city of ^lexico 
 is the pond of Chalco, in the extreme southeast, being 
 4^ feet above the level of the Grand Plaza of the 
 city, and 20 miles distant therefrom, and 11^ feet 
 above Tezcuco ;* but its volume being small for the last 
 400 years, the slight impediments of long grass and a few 
 Indian dikes have prevented any injury to the city by a 
 too rapid flow to the northward. Xochimulco is the 
 pond, or open space in the marsh, that extends from the 
 Chalco to near Mexicalzingo. Tezcuco is the lowest 
 water in the valley, being G-J feet below the Grand 
 Plaza of the city.f It receives the surplus of the waters 
 that have not already been evaporated in the other ponds. 
 At this great elevation, 7500 feet, evaporation does its 
 work rapidly all over the valley, but it is in Tezcuco 
 that the residuum of the waters is deposited. 
 
 * Lieut. Smith's Repoit. f Ibid.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The two Vnlleys. — The Lake with a leaky Bottom. — The "Water could 
 not have beeu Iiigher. — Nor could the Lagnnas or Ponds have been 
 much deeper. — The Brigantines only flat-bottomed Boats. — The 
 Causeway Canals fix the size of the Brigantines. — The Street Ca- 
 nals. — Stagnant Water unfit for Canals. — The probable Dimensions 
 of the City Canals. — Difficulties of disproving a Fiction. — A Dike or 
 Levee. — The Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Map of Cortez. — Wise 
 Provision of Providence. — The Fiction about the numerous Cities 
 in and about the Lake. 
 
 It may be well here to repeat that, strictly speaking, 
 there are two valleys of ^lexico — the upper northern val- 
 ley, and the valley of the city of 3Iexico ; the first ex- 
 tends in an oval form to the north of the hills of Tepe- 
 yaca, some sixty miles, and communicates with the plains 
 of Otumba and Apam. In this valley are the two ponds, 
 or lagunas, of Zumpango and San Cristobal, the high- 
 est waters of Mexico ; and in it also is the half of the 
 Tezcuco, which is the lowest laguna of the valleys. It 
 is a country of fine farming lands, and was probably in- 
 habited long before the time of the arrival of the Aztecs 
 in the lower valley, as I infer from its proximity to the 
 extensive ruins of Teotihuican, that have come down 
 from a remote and highly-civilized antiquity. 
 
 The valley of the city of ^Mexico, w^iich lies to the 
 south of these hills, is also of an oval shape, but is not 
 more than twenty miles in extent. The surface-water 
 with which it is saturated is in part fresh, and in other 
 parts tequisquite ; that is, where the waters have a cur- 
 rent, they are fresh ; but where they remain from year to 
 year discharging their volume only by evaporation, then
 
 THE ANCIENT LAKES. 177 
 
 they become infused with the' saline properties of the 
 soil,* and all about them is marked with barrenness. If 
 the process of evaporation was less intense than it is,t 
 all vegetation would die from the extreme humidity 
 of the soil; as the gardener's phrase is, it would rot. 
 ICven in the city of ^lexico itself, a couple of feet of dig- 
 ging in its alluvial foundation brings you to the water- 
 level in the dry season, and seventy or eighty yards of 
 boring does not carry you beyond the perceptible influ- 
 ence of teqidsqtdte.X The effects of this law of evapora- 
 tion puzzled the Aztecs, who were, of course, ignorant 
 of all philosophical principles, and could only account 
 for the disappearance of the immense mass of water that 
 fell in the valley in the wet season, upon the hypothesis 
 that the Tezcuco had a leaky bottom, or that there was 
 a hole in the lake — an idea that thousands in ^lexico 
 credit to the present day. This was the origin of that 
 absurd story which Cortez repeats in his letters, that 
 this lake communicated with the sea, and had its daily 
 tides. 
 
 There could not have been a much greater volume of 
 water in this marshy valley in the time of Cortez than 
 at present, if the wliole accumulations of each year were 
 to be carried off by evaporation alone from so small a 
 surface as is here presented for the sun to act upon. 
 But as the volume of water is the turning-point in the 
 
 * There has been much speculation in regard to the origin of the 
 saline properties of this water ; but the Artesian borings going on Avhile 
 I was in Mexico, I think, sufficiently demonstrate that the earthy bot- 
 tom of the valley, for hundreds of feet, contains an infusion of carbon- 
 ate and muriate of soda. 
 
 t The atmosphei-e of Mexico is so intensely dry, that the hygrometer 
 of Deluc frequently descends to 15°. — Humboldt's Essai Politique, vol. 
 
 ii. p. no. 
 
 X When the Artesian well, in process of construction near my res- 
 idence, had reached a de])th of seventy yards, the water that came up 
 was slightly impregnated with this salt. 
 
 IT 2
 
 178 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 history or fable of tlie conquest, I must adduce the 
 proofs and arguments that are at hand to establish this 
 statement. The level of the water could not have been 
 higher, it is clear, for in that case neither ^lexico, ]\Iexi- 
 calzingo, or Iztapalapan could have been inhabited. 
 
 Cortez's account of deep waters has often been made 
 plausible by adding tlie hypothesis that the accumulat- 
 ing mud of centuries has filled up the lakes, so that they 
 now are only shallow ponds. But this by no means re- 
 moves the difficulty, for then, as now, the waters of the 
 southern laguna flowed into Tezcuco, conveying with 
 them the infinitesimal infusion of tequisquite that had 
 instilled itself into the Chalco. Had the volume of 
 Chalco and Xochimulco been increased several feet, 
 then the slight Indian barriers and the long grass Avould 
 no longer have been able to retard the progress of the 
 water till evaporation had diminished its quantity, but, 
 precipitating itself in a mass into the Tezcuco, it would 
 have overwhelmed the town of Tezcuco and all other vil- 
 lages upon the shores, and established an equilibrium 
 of surface in the two ponds. 
 
 All the lagunas, canals, and ditches that have been 
 described are navigated by small scows that draw but a 
 few inches of Avater, which are the medium of an exten- 
 sive internal commerce. Throu2:h the lao;unas and ca- 
 nal of Clialco come from Cuatla all the supplies of the 
 products of tlie hot country for the city and surrounding 
 region. This commerce exceeds the whole foreign trade 
 of the republic* This kind of boat was probably in- 
 troduced by Cortez, and in this convenient form his thir- 
 teen brigantines were probably made ; for, had his brig- 
 antines been of a larger draught of water, they could not 
 have navigated canals intended only for Indian canoes. 
 One of these vessels, when supplied with a sail, a can- 
 
 * Comercio de Mexico, 1852.
 
 THE CAUSEWAYS AND CANALS. 179 
 
 non, and a movable keel or side-board, would be a formi- 
 dable auxiliary in an assault upon the city at the pres- 
 ent day. And if one such scow was placed in the ditch 
 on each side of the southern causeway, as Cortez al- 
 leges, it would enable an assailing enemy to present just 
 so much more front as the additional width of two boats 
 would give him. 
 
 Writers have expressed their surprise at the exist- 
 ence of two navigable canals to each causeway, one on 
 either side, as an immense expenditure of unnecessary 
 labor. The explanation of this is found in the fact that 
 in the construction of a pathway (for Cortez says that it 
 was only 30 feet in width) through wet and marshy 
 ground, a broad ditch is ordinarily made on either side 
 to obtain earth for the embankment, and to keep the wa- 
 ter-level permanently below the top of the pathway. 
 So it is, and so it must always have been at ^lexico, in 
 order to keep these foot-paths in traveling condition. 
 In the dry season, which is the winter, these broad ditch- 
 es are covered with floating islands of green " scum ;" 
 but in the rainy season, which is the summer, they may 
 be navigated by the shallow ]Mexican scows. A path- 
 way of earth thirty feet in width could not endure the 
 winds and waves of a navigable lake, or the wear and 
 *' swash" of a canal twelve feet deep on either side ; and 
 the fact that Cortez navigated the ditches in the rainy 
 season establishes the insignificant size of his famous 
 brigantines. 
 
 As the level of the surface of the land and the surface 
 of the water at ^Mexicalzingo, at ^Mexico, and at the vil- 
 lage Tezcuco, does not materially vary now from what 
 it was in the time of Cortez, if we can take for data 
 the foundations of the church built by the Conquistadors 
 at these several places, we shall have to look to another 
 quarter for a supply of water for the city canals, which
 
 180 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 were sufficiently capacious for canoe nayigation. This 
 supply we readily obtain by allowing the waters of the 
 canals Tacubaya and Chalco to pass through the streets 
 of the city in ditches sufficiently large for canoes, instead 
 of passing along the south and east fronts outside. By 
 this hypothesis we obtain a current, a prerequisite to the 
 very idea of a canal, particularly in the streets of a city. 
 
 The sava7is of Europe have shown their profound ig- 
 norance of the first principles of canal navigation in tak- 
 ing it for granted that the canals of ^Mexico were filled 
 with stagnant water, that had " set back" from the stag- 
 nant pond of Tezcuco ; and that the level of the pond 
 must at all times have been so liigh as to fill the canals, 
 thus keeping the city in constant danger from any sud- 
 den rise in the laguna. But, aside from the rules of 
 canal construction, there is an important sanitar\" ques- 
 tion involved. The present ditches in the middle of the 
 streets, though they have a perceptible current, and a 
 slight infusion oitequisquite^ are an intolerable nuisance, 
 and have a deleterious eftect upon the public health. 
 How much more so must they have been when, from the 
 uncleanly habits of the Indians, they were the common 
 receptacle of all kinds of filth, and were constantly stin-ed 
 up to their very bottoms by the setting-poles of the nav- 
 igators ? The system of canalling is a system of slack- 
 water navifi^ation, but abhors stagnant water. 
 
 We come next to the question of the dimensions of 
 these street canals. "We know that they were intended 
 only for the navigation of Indian canoes ; that two of 
 them, which intersected the causeway of the night retreat, 
 Cortez crossed with his army, all of them cHmbing down 
 into the canal, wading across, and then chmbing up on 
 the other side while loaded with their armor, and fight- 
 ing all the time against a superior force of the Aztecs ; 
 and that Alvarado actually leaped across one of tlie open-
 
 TRUTH AGAINST FICTION. 181 
 
 ings, sliows conclusively that the canals could not have 
 more than equaled in breadth the present canal of Chal- 
 co. On the hypothesis that Cortez used scows that 
 drew no more water than the scows that at present navi- 
 gate the canals, his story becomes credible, so far, at least, 
 as the possibility of making the circuit of the city in 
 large boats in a season of rains. 
 
 It is an ungracious task to sift truth from fables. 
 One man is disj^leased at seeing held up as a fiction a 
 narrative which he has been accustomed to read with 
 pleasure, and to take for truth, because it was elegantly 
 written ; and he requires an accumulation of proofs and 
 arguments before he will abandon a belief which he has 
 adopted without evidence. Another man, who deals only 
 in matters of fact, is easily convinced, and is annoyed at 
 an accumulation of proofs and arguments where one is 
 sufficient. The superstitious man can not, of course, be 
 convinced, for his belief does not rest upon evidence ; 
 and he is indignant that an attempt should be made to 
 detract from the glory obtained by the Virgin 'Mary and 
 the Church in this victory over the infidels. Had I at- 
 tempted to prove that the feather which is now preserved 
 with so much care in the Church of /Sa7i Juan de Late- 
 ran at E-ome did not fall from the wing of the angel 
 Gabriel when he came to announce to Mary her concep- 
 tion, and that the whole history of that feather was a 
 fable, notwithstanding it has received the attestations of 
 so many of the Holy Fathers, I should be cursed for my 
 impiety no more than I shall be for raising the question 
 of the authenticity of the histories of the Conquest. 
 "With all these difficulties before me, I will venture to 
 add one or two more reasons that have induced me to 
 doubt the existence of those famous brigantines, which 
 required a depth of twelve feet of water. 
 
 In support of the hypothesis that the street ditches,
 
 182 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 called canals, were independent of the Tezcuco for their 
 supply, we have still the remains of an old Indian dike, 
 which extended from near Iztapalapan, along the east 
 part of tlie city, to Guadaluj^e or Tepeyaca, which must 
 have been intended to shut off the Tezcuco when the 
 water was high, and when it receded they probably 
 opened a weir at the northern extremity, through which 
 the waters of the city that had been discharged upon 
 the flats of San Lazaro found an outlet. 
 
 The waters of the valley are now distributed in the 
 best possible manner to favor evaporation ; and yet so 
 completely is this power taxed, that when, in 1629, a 
 water-spout, bursting over the small river Guautitlan, had 
 forced tlie waters of Zumpango over its barriers into the 
 San Cristobal, and that again into the Tezcuco, the 
 city was inundated to the depth of about three feet. 
 Evaporation was unable to remove or materially lessen 
 this new volume of water in a period of five years. This 
 fully demonstrates that the average annual 'fall of water 
 is equal to the full capacity of evaporation. The vaUey 
 of 3Iexico is a very small one over which to dispose of 
 the mass of water that the mountain-torrents in summer 
 and the tropical rains pour into it, and with the small 
 margin of six and a half feet for rising and falling, the 
 city must have been in constant jeopardy. Still the 
 floods have been much less frequent than would have 
 been supposed, fully demonstrating the great uniformity 
 in the fall of water in the Mexican season of rain. AVhen 
 a water-spout occurred in the Chalco in 1446, in the 
 time of the Aztec kings, there was a flood, which prob- 
 ably ran off into the Tezcuco. Under the Spaniards the 
 following floods are enumerated : the first in 1553 ; the 
 second in 15C0 ; the third in 1604 ; the fourth in 1607; 
 the fifth in 1029. 
 
 After the flood of 1607, the tunnel of Huehuetoca was
 
 THE MAP OF CORTEZ. 183 
 
 undertaken, and constructed in eleven months, for the 
 purpose of letting out of the valley the waters of the 
 Itiver Guautitlan, so as to prevent it from falling into 
 Tezcuco or flooding the city. For those times it was a 
 great work, but we should say now that it was poorly 
 engineered and badly managed, and not worthy tlie 
 notice it has received in books on Mexico. Since that 
 time, the great inundation of 1629 occurred while the 
 mouth of the tunnel was closed. After that time, the 
 Spaniards, instead of building inside of the tunnel an 
 elliptical tube, actually, by a hundred years of misap- 
 plied labor, turned the tunnel into an open cut. 
 
 Cortez furnished a map to illustrate his description. 
 This map has the same defect as his narrative ; tliat is, 
 it was untrue at the time he made it. In order to bring 
 Tezcuco about the city, he places the village of t]iat name 
 due east of ]\Iexico, although he well knew that it was 
 nearly north, as the two towns are distinctly in sight, 
 although at a distance of about six leagues. Now, if we 
 carry the village of Tezcuco and the shore of the lake 
 with it to its correct position, we shall have the Laguna 
 of Tezcuco in about its present form and size. The 
 apology for his defeat at Iztapalapan, by the breaking 
 open of the dike and letting in the salt water, is, of course, 
 inadequate, as the dike could not have supported a head 
 of water sufficient to drown his men, nor could so great 
 a head of salt Avater be obtained at that point. 
 
 In this survey of the ponds of jMexico, I have drawn 
 upon the experience which has been acquired in the 
 process of evaporation at the extensive salt manufacto- 
 ries of Syracuse and the surrounding villages in West- 
 ern New York, and also the experience of our engineers 
 upon the l^rie Canal, and the engineers upon the dikes 
 or levees at Sacramento, wlicre the nature of the soil re- 
 sembles that of Mexico. And I may now conclude this
 
 184 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 long sm*vey of the canals and lagunas of ^lexico, by 
 saying that it is a wise provision of Providence that all 
 bodies of water that have no outlet are found to contain 
 a considerable infusion of salt, otherwise their accumu- 
 lations of decaying matter would be such that mankind 
 could not live in their vicinity. This valley is an illus- 
 tration of that ti-uth. Tezcuco, suiTOunded by barren- 
 ness, is not deleterious to life, wliile the fresh-water la- 
 gunas, though continually changing their volume, render 
 Mexico unhealthy in summer by the gases which they 
 exliale from decaying vegetation. 
 
 I have pretty thorouglily described this small valley, 
 and have also stated how large a portion of it is flooded 
 with surface-water, and how large a portion of this Ava- 
 ter is infused with salt. In the vicinity of Tacubaya the 
 land is remarkably fertile, and there is good tillable land 
 as the mountains are approached, especially about Chal- 
 co on the southeast ; but under Indian cultivation, the 
 whole of this valley could have produced sustenance for 
 only an extremely limited population, if the product of 
 the floating gardens and tlie ducks caught upon the pond 
 should be added. It is totally inadequate to feed the 
 population of ^Mexico under the vice-kings, 400,000, or 
 its present population of say 300,000 ; nor could the 
 valley itself be made to sustain one third of this. This 
 valley, it must be recollected, is inclosed on all sides ex- 
 cept the north by mountains that exceed 10,000 feet in 
 height, while the commissariat capacity of barbaric tribes 
 is not such as to provide extensive supplies from a dis- 
 tance. Under such circumstances, we sliould look for an 
 extremely limited population. Yet the most sui-prising 
 part of the story -of the conquest is the enormous popu- 
 lation assigned to the numerous large cities which they al- 
 lege the valley contained. Diaz says, "A series of large 
 towns stretched themselves along the banks of the lake,
 
 ANCIENT POPULATION OF THE VALLEY. 185 
 
 out of which [the lake] still larger ones rose magnifi- 
 cently above the water." Cortez says that Iztapalapan 
 contained " 10,000 families," which would give the town 
 50,000 inhabitants ; " Amaqueruca, 20,000 inhabitants ;" 
 " Mexicalzingo, 3000 families," or 15,000 inhabitants; 
 "Ayciaca more than 6000 families;" " Huchilohuchico, 
 5000 or 6000." The population of Chalco he does not 
 give, nor the population of the very numerous villages 
 whose names he mentions. At the present day there 
 are a few mud huts in nearly every locality named, but 
 not enough in any one instance to merit the name of a 
 village. And this, I am inclined to believe, was the real 
 condition of things in the time of Cortez. The city of 
 Mexico alone would have exhausted the limited resources 
 of the valley. Old Thomas Gage was as much puzzled 
 two hundred years ago to account for this astonishing 
 disappearance of the numerous Indian cities of this val- 
 ley as we are, and also for the supposed filling up of the 
 lakes, never appearing to suspect that the story of Cor- 
 tez was a fiction.
 
 CmVPTER XYI. 
 
 The Chinampas or Water Gardens. — Laws of Nature not set aside. — 
 Mud will not float. — The present Chinampas. — They never could 
 have been floating Gardens. — Relations of the Chinampas to the an- 
 cient State of the Lake in the Valley. 
 
 All the world lias heard of the floating gardens 
 {chmainjpas) of ^lexico, but all the world has not seen 
 them. I have not seen any floating gardens, nor, on dil- 
 igent inquiry, have I been able to find a man, woman, or 
 child that ever has seen them, nor do I believe that such 
 a tiling as a floating garden ever existed at Mexico. 
 Humboldt admits that they do exist ; says that he has 
 seen floating earthy masses of great size in the tropical 
 rivers, and then describes the manner of the construction 
 of the chinampas, but in such a way as to satisfy the 
 careful reader that he does not intend to say that he saw 
 them himself, and evidently makes his statement upon 
 hearsay ; and takes it up as an admitted fact, without 
 having his mind called to the physical impossibilities of 
 floating a mass of earth that was of a greater specific 
 gravity than water. 
 
 When the historians of the Conquest wrote their mar- 
 velous narratives of alleged adventures and of the new 
 empire, it was a question for the Emperer and the Inqui- 
 sition solely, whether their writings should pass for his- 
 tory or be condemned as fabulous. "With this question 
 the people had nothing to do but to believe as it suited 
 those in authority. The question being settled that 
 the publication of the letters of Cortez as a verity would 
 redound to tlie ^orj of the Church and the king, then
 
 FAITH AND TESTIMONY. 187 
 
 it was also settled that there should be no contradiction 
 publislied ; and as these marvelous tales were spread 
 abroad throughout Europe, with the masses of silver from 
 tlie newly-discovered mines, men were prepared to be- 
 lieve almost any thing — even that rich vegetable mould, 
 when saturated with water, could float. 
 
 It not being lawful to promulgate the facts of the Con- 
 quest, the memory of events that really transpired ulti- 
 mately passed from the recollections of men, so that the 
 letters of Cortez were taken for truth, even in their most 
 minute details ; so that, in a subsequent century, we find 
 a vice-king employing an engineer to search for and clean 
 out the hole in the bottom of the Tezcuco ! for, from 
 the vice-king down to the most insignificant official, all 
 assumed that the letters of Cortez gave a correct picture 
 of affairs at that time ; and all showed the greatest em- 
 barrassment in accounting for the magnitude of the 
 changes that are supposed to have occurred without a 
 sufficiently adequate cause. It is a common difficulty 
 in all purely Catholic countries, for there the rule of evi- 
 dence is an unnatural one. The people have been taught 
 to believe from their infancy that tlie laws of nature can 
 be set aside upon every trifling occasion, at the moment- 
 ary caprice of any one of the multitude of saints *' who 
 are to govern the world ;" and on proof that any mortal 
 has set aside the laws of nature or wrought a miracle, he at 
 once becomes a saint. With these "dutiful children of 
 the Church" there can be no fixed laws of evidence ; the 
 only gi-ound of belief is, and ever must be. Has tlie 
 statement been sanctioned by the highest authority ? If 
 so, it is true ; if not, it is to be doubted, however posi- 
 tive the proofs may be. A difficulty that the traveler 
 every where encounters is that he can believe nothing 
 that he hears, even on the most trifling subject, without 
 careful examination and weigliing of testimony. As
 
 188 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 lie can not examine every thing himself, he is constantly 
 liable to be imposed upon by taking for gi'anted that 
 which is every where affirmed. Humboldt for once, with 
 all his caution, seems to have fallen into the common 
 trap, and credited, without examination, the story of the 
 floating gardens. 
 
 The chinampas are formed on the fresh-water mud on 
 each side of the canal of Chalco, from the southeast cor- 
 ner of the city to a point near the ancient village of !Mex- 
 icalzingo, and for a part of the way they are on both 
 sides of that beautiful but now neglected ^^.seo, Las 
 Yegas ; there are also a small number near the cause- 
 way of Tacubaya, and in other parts of the marsh ; their 
 number might be extended without limit if it was not 
 regulated by the demands of the vegetable market of 
 Mexico. Chinampas are fonned by laying upon the soft 
 mud a very thick coating of reeds, or rather rushes, in 
 the form and about the size of one of our lar2:est ca- 
 nal scows. Between two chinampas a space of about 
 half the width of one is left, and from this open space 
 the mud is dipped up and poured upon the bed of dry 
 rushes, where it dries, and forms a rich "muck" soil, 
 which constitutes the garden. As the speciiic gravity 
 of this garden is much greater than that of the water, or 
 of the substratum of mud and water combined, it gradu- 
 ally sinks down into its muddy foundation ; and in a 
 few years it has to be rebuilt by laying upon the top 
 of the garden a new coating of rushes and another cov- 
 ering of mud. Thus they have been going on for cen- 
 turies, one garden being placed upon the top of another, 
 and a third placed over all, so soon as the second gives 
 signs of being swallowed up .in the aU-devouring mud. 
 
 The gardeners na\4gate the open space between their 
 islands with light boats ; and during the short hours of 
 the morning, the market-boat alongside each island is
 
 THE CHINAMPAS. 189 
 
 loaded with a cargo of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, 
 which are to be displayed in the great market of Santa 
 Anna. JMore pleasing than a drive on the paseo is a 
 boat-ride down the canal of Chalco at eventide, when the 
 proprietor of each of these little estates is seen standing 
 in the canal alongside, and throwing npon his thirsty 
 plants a plentiful supply of the tepid canal water, which, 
 from every leaf and flower, reflects back the rays of a 
 setting sun, that have penetrated the long shadows of 
 the trees of Las Vegas. Some of the chinampas have 
 small huts upon them, where a gardener lives, who watch- 
 es over two or three of these little properties. Sometimes 
 also shrubs, and even trees, are planted along the edges, 
 which yield both fruits and flowers, and serve to keep the 
 dry earth from falling into the water. When looking at 
 one of the largest and best cared for chinampas, the be- 
 holder can hardly divest himself of the idea that it is a 
 floating island, and might well have been the residence of 
 Calypso. 
 
 This is the whole of the story of the chinampas, the 
 most fertile and beautiful little gardens upon the face of 
 the earth. A correct picture of them would be poetry 
 enough, without the addition of falsehood ; for whether 
 it is the rainy season or the dry season, it is always the 
 same to them. They know no exclusive seed-time, and 
 have no especial season for harvest ; but blossoms and 
 ripe fruits grow side by side, and flowers flourish at all 
 seasons. As market gardens they are unrivaled, and to 
 them JMexico is indebted for its abundant supplies. 
 
 The evidence that Humboldt* produces in favor of float- 
 ing gardens, viz., that he saw floating islands of some 30 
 feet in length in the midst of the current of rivers, 
 amounts to little in this case ; for every one that has 
 traveled extensively in tropical lowlands has seen veg- 
 
 * Essai Politique, vol. ii. p. GI.
 
 190 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 etation spring up upon floating masses of brush-wood. 
 AVliere earth torn from the river bank is so bound to- 
 gether by living roots as to form a raft, it will always 
 float for a little while upon the current, provided that its 
 specific gravity does not materially exceed that of the 
 •water ; and those grasses that flourish best in water will 
 spring up and grow upon these islands. Peat, too, in 
 bogs, will float and form islands, for the simple reason 
 that it is of less specific gravity than water ; and veg- 
 etation will also spring up on these peat islands. But 
 all this furnishes no evidence that the invariable law of 
 nature, which carries to the bottom the heaviest body, 
 has been suspended at [Mexico. Had the floating gar- 
 dens been built in large boats made water-tiglit, they 
 might have floated. But, unfortunately, the Indians had 
 not the means for constructing such boats. Even tim- 
 ber-rafts would have become saturated in time, and sunk, 
 as rafts of logs do if kept too long in the "mill-pond," 
 w^aiting to be sawed into lumber. 
 
 There is another law of natui*e, which must not be lost 
 sight of, which is at war with the idea of a garden float- 
 ing on a bed of rushes ; and that is capillary attraction, 
 which would raise particles of w^ater, one by one, among 
 the fibres of the rushes until the frail raft on wliich 
 the earth rested was saturated ; and still pressing up- 
 ward, the busy drops w^ould penetrate the superincum- 
 bent earth, moistening and adding to the specific gravity 
 of the garden by filling the porous earth until it became 
 too heavy to float, if it ever had floated. 
 
 Xearly three hundred years had passed away before 
 men ventured to question the truth of the statement 
 that the gardens along the canal of Chalco ever floated, 
 and then it seemed like temerity to raise the question, 
 even if it were only a popular fallacy. It has therefore 
 been treated by all modern writers as a well-established
 
 THE CHINAMPAS. 191 
 
 matter, and one of not sufficient importance to justify its 
 minute investigation. With me the question was a far 
 different one. I had, after careful inquiry and observa- 
 tion, come to the conclusion that the marshes of the val- 
 ley of Mexico were, in the time of Cortez, substantially 
 in the condition in w^hich we find them at the present 
 day; that the filling up they had undergone in that 
 time was counterbalanced by the relief they had gained 
 by the canal of Huehuetoca. The chinampas constitute 
 an important link in the chain of proofs to establish this 
 fact. If I have succeeded in showing that these gar- 
 dens of the Aztecs, instead of floating upon the water, 
 rested upon the muddy bottom, it follows as a matter of 
 course that the depth of the water in the laguna could 
 not, in the day of the Aztecs, have been materially great- 
 er than it now is.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The gambling Festival of San Augustine. — Suppi-essed by GoTernmer.t. 
 — The Losses of the Saint bv the Suppression of Gambling. — How 
 Travelers live in the Interior. — A Visit to the Palace. 
 
 I HAVE already said that my first entry into the val- 
 ley of Mexico was from the south, tlu-ough the suburban 
 city of Tlalpan, where in good old times was held the 
 great gambling festival of San Augustine. The advanc- 
 ing morality of our day has put an extinguisher on this 
 noted festival, which was one of the most noted days in 
 the Mexican calendar. Crowds flocked to it to gamble, 
 to dance, and to adore the most holy Saint Augustine. 
 To a looker-on it was hard to say whether it was the 
 devH or the saint whom the people had come to wor- 
 ship. The chief business of high-bom dames seemed to 
 be to make a display of their taste in dress, and to set 
 off the whole contents of their wardrobe ; for five times 
 in each day was their entire wardrobe changed, and so 
 often did they appear in a new set of jewels. To this 
 festival came also noblemen and highway robbers, to 
 gamble and to rob each other, and to be robbed by the 
 women at the raonte table. In honor of the saint, the 
 city was crowded with monks, and thieves, and Magda- 
 lens, and the dignitaries of the Church and state. The 
 rich and the poor came together to enjoy the saturnalia in 
 honor of the most blessed Saint Augustine. Gambling 
 was here duly sanctified by the participation of the 
 priests, who were here, as they are every where in Mex- 
 ico, the most expert gamblers at the tables. While this 
 festival continued, money changed hands more rapidly
 
 GAMJiLlNG AT TLALPAN. 193 
 
 than in California in her worst days. Five dances a 
 day were the pastime ; but at the monte table was the 
 solid sport. This was the great attraction that had call- 
 ed all the crowd together. It was an exciting scene to 
 see the ounces piled up as men got excited in the game. 
 What is there left of woman's virtue, when the highest 
 ladies of the court stake their ounces at a public gaming- 
 table, and poorer ones eagerly throw do^vn their last 
 piece of silver ? Woman's rights have not yet reached 
 that point with us that she may gamble and get drunk 
 without losing caste ; and God grant they never may. 
 
 It is a consolation to be able to add that the late gov- 
 ernment of the State of Mexico had sufficient firmness 
 to suppress this abominable festival of the Church, much 
 to the pecuniary disadvantage of the saint and his priest- 
 hood. Indeed, there is now no public gambling, not 
 even in the city of Mexico, except the lottery of the Acad- 
 emy of Fine Arts, and the lottery which is monthly drawn 
 to promote the adoration of our Lady of Guadalupe. 
 This last is one of the most corrupting of all lotteries. 
 Tickets for as small a price as a Spanish shilling are 
 hawked about the street, and by the exhibition of a splen- 
 did scheme the poor Indians are tempted to venture their 
 last real in the hopes of winning a rich prize, through 
 the kind interposition of the Virgin, to whom they are 
 taught to pray for that purpose. It is true that a mass 
 is performed for the benefit of all losers, but this mass 
 has never had the power of restoring to the poor Indian 
 his lost shilling. 
 
 Let us now go from this place, where gambling used 
 annually to have its festival, or, rather, harvest of vic- 
 tims, into tlie cathedral chur.ch of San Augustine, to 
 whom the lucky gamblers were accustomed to dedicate 
 a part of their winnings, that thus they might sanctify 
 their unrighteous calling by bringing robbery to the saint 
 
 T
 
 194 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 for an offering. Poor saint I how much he and his priests 
 have suffered bj this wanton interference of the civil 
 government in Church affairs — this prohibition of monte- 
 plapng in honor of the festival of San Augustine 1 
 Tliere was much in tliis church to admire, and much of 
 that gold displayed which gamblers are accustomed to 
 lavish upon their idols. It seemed like another worship 
 and another religion from that wliich I had been accus- 
 tomed to witness in the humble chapels of the Pintos, in 
 whose country I had so long been wandering. 
 
 Again I was in the saddle, and soon upon that noted 
 causeway by which Cortez entered the city of Mex- 
 ico. It has lost none of its attractions in the course of 
 centuries, but has been kept in iine repair as a carriage- 
 road, while the venerable trees that line it on either side 
 look as old as the time of the Conquistadors. This noble 
 carriage-way, through the marshy ground of the valley 
 of ^lexico, is an enlargement of the old causeway of the 
 Indians, or, rather, it has been built over and around it, 
 that ha^ang been less than thirty feet in width. I soon 
 arrived at Churubusco, the scene of one of the bloody 
 battles of the American campaign in this valley. There 
 was little here to look at, and I hurried on and entered 
 the south gate of the city, and soon arrived at the Hotel 
 de Paris^ to which I had been directed. My poor old 
 mustang here ended a twelve days' journey, over mount- 
 ains and plains oi pedregal^ without a shoe to his hoofs. 
 
 A party of Califomians, who had been stopping here 
 for some weeks, had left the day before, and I was ush- 
 ered into French society, in which to form my first im- 
 pressions of ^lexico. Still, there was an exquisite pleas- 
 ure in once more getting clean, and eating food cooked 
 after a civilized manner. Xot that I had in any wise 
 become tired of drinking porridge, extracted from corn, 
 called atola^ or dissatisfied with eating bits of fowl, which
 
 ABODE IN MEXICO. 195 
 
 the maid of honor to General Garay so ingeniously served 
 up with her fingers, after having it weU flavored with 
 Cayenne or Chili pepper! He that does not love Chili 
 must keep out of Spanish America. And he will prove 
 a poor traveler who can not sit down with a good appe- 
 tite to a supper of small black beans {frijoles), and a 
 dozen Indian cakes {tortillas), as thin and as tough as a 
 drum-head, which serve the double purpose of spoon and 
 plate. 
 
 My room was on the roof, and when my inner and 
 outer man was fully in order, I used to walk till a late 
 hour of the day upon the paved house-top, now leaning 
 against the parapet and looking up to the snow-covered 
 mountains, whose shadowy forms could be made out even 
 by moonlight, and upon the shadowy towers and domes 
 of the city. Thus pleasant days and weeks flew on. 
 Sometimes I rode about the valley, carefully searching 
 after the relics of times past, and at other times survey- 
 ing the curiosities of the city. Once this order was 
 broken in upon, in order to accompany that noble-heart- 
 ed man and excellent embassador. Governor Letcher, to 
 the palace, where I had an interview with Arista, then 
 the President of Mexico, who strikingly resembled our 
 own President of that day, ^lillard Fillmore.
 
 CHAPTER XYin. 
 
 Visit to Contreras and San Angel. — The End of a brave Soldier. — A 
 Place of Skulls. — A New England Dinner. — An Adventure with Rob- 
 bers — doubtful. — Eeasons for re-visiting Mexico. — The Battle at the 
 Mountain of Crosses. — A peculiar Variety of the Cactus. — Three Men 
 gibbeted for robbing a Bishop. — A Court upon Horseback. — The re- 
 treat of Cortez to Otumba. — A venerable Cypress Grove. — Unexpect- 
 edly comfortable Quarters. — An English Dinner at Tezcuco. — Pleas- 
 ures unknown to the Kings of Tezcuco. — Relics of Tezcuco. — The 
 Appearance of the Virgin Mary at Tezcuco. — The Causeways of 
 Mexico. 
 
 The ride to San Angel has this advantage over all 
 others out of ^lexico, tliat the road is nearly aU the way 
 upon dry land, thus presenting a pleasant contrast to the 
 gloominess of all the others, except the Tacuha road. 
 There is less of stagnant water, and little appearance of 
 tequisquite. It is lined with fields of com and maguey. 
 Contreras is upon this road — the point where Santa An- 
 na's line of defenses was first broken, and broken in the 
 same way as at CeiTO Gordo, and by the same officer, 
 the late General Eiley. It was the defect of all 3Iexi- 
 can military operations, that they were not sufficiently 
 on the look-out for night attacks. In the night Riley 
 had been allowed to get behind the position of his ad- 
 versary at Cerro Gordo ; and here again he got behind 
 and above him, by crawling up a ra^ane in a foggy night, 
 from which point he charged Valencia in reverse. That 
 successfiil charge of the brave old soldier raised him to 
 the brevet rank of ^lajor General, and sealed the fate of 
 the city. 
 
 What sort of a victory has it proved to the hero of 
 this battle ? He had spent the best portion of his life
 
 A KIDE TO SAN ANGEL. 197 
 
 in the Indian territory, arranging difficulties, appeasing 
 strifes, overawing the turbulent, and restraining the law- 
 lessness of white intruders. And now he had become 
 an old man, with the rank only of ^lajor, as he had 
 no kind friend at court. But the Mexican war opened 
 to him the prospect of winning a " sash" or of being 
 brought home in a coffin. The sash was won, but the 
 coffin was near at hand ; for, while he was gaining his 
 laurels, he contracted a cancer, which in a short time aft- 
 er his return from a distant command, consigned him to 
 the home prepared for all living. Forty long years had 
 he followed the profession of arms, and endured its hard- 
 ships witliout a murmur ; yet, when he laid down his 
 sword to die, he had nothing to leave to his children but 
 the commissions Congress had awarded him on his Cal- 
 ifornia revenues. War is a hard trade for the bravest 
 of the brave, and with very few prizes except to political 
 favorites, who with high-sounding titles, but without mil- 
 itary experience, ride by the side of some brave subal- 
 tern, gather his laurels, and enjoy the fruits of his expe- 
 rience. 
 
 A slight breastwork and a heap of bones and skulls 
 mark the site of this gallant exploit of General Riley. 
 And we fancied that we could select the American skulls 
 from the common mass, as they clearly belonged to two 
 distinct races of men ; one set of skulls being thin and 
 firm, while the other was thick and porous. We rode 
 on, and soon came to San Angel, where were many pleas- 
 ant places for suburban residences, and an immense con- 
 vent garden celebrated for its fruits. But now all was 
 parched and dry, for it was midwinter, which is here the 
 middle of the dry season, and it was not yet the time 
 for the new foliage to appear upon the trees, for that does 
 not take place till February. 
 
 The occasion of our ride was an invitation to dine
 
 198 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 with an American family at the paper-mill of ^Ir. !M'In- 
 tosh, the English banker. This was the greatest treat 
 that I had yet met ^\^th in !Mexico. Though I have had 
 the honor of dining in more distinguished places, both in 
 Mexico and in the United States, I never attended a din- 
 ner-party that I enjoyed so much. It was a thrifty fam- 
 ily, and a charming old-fashioned Xew England house- 
 wife had prepared the dinner. Perhaps this is saying 
 enough to enable the reader to fill out the picture, for he 
 will be sure to guess that pumpkin-pies were not forgot- 
 ten ; for what would a down-east thanksgiving dinner 
 be without this national dish ? The dinner was a charm 
 in itself, while the attendant circumstances gave it a 
 double relish. To complete the pleasure of the visit, we 
 made our way into "the Yankee's" kitchen, and there 
 had the pleasure of seeing a cooking-stove, and cooking- 
 furniture of tin, copper, and iron, displayed after the most 
 approved fashion. Yerily this universal Yankee nation 
 preserves its distinctive characteristics every where ! 
 
 On our way home we must needs have an adventure. 
 But whether the party that overtook us on the road were 
 really robbers, or only pleasure-seekers hunying to es- 
 cape from the rain, I have my doubts to the present day. 
 But my ministerial companion, who was more experi- 
 enced in such matters, having been kept here a long time 
 by our government to look after the unbui'ied American 
 dead, insisted that it was a genuine case of attempted 
 robber}'. All I can say in the premises is, that eight 
 California robbers would not have run off in that style 
 without first ascertaining whether that old revolver had 
 any powder in it or not. When we squared up for a 
 fight, they might have known that it was because my old 
 mustang would not move ; and they could have had all 
 our availables for the asking ; but it was saving time in 
 them to run when they heard us call out in that hated
 
 AN ADVENTURE. 199 
 
 "Yankee language," and they did scamper off most ex- 
 peditiously. 
 
 We got back to the city, without a wetting and with- 
 out a chance of getting frightened, where the faithful old 
 mustang and I parted company forever. Ten Mexican 
 dollars was the market value of horse, saddle, and bridle 
 — less than the cost of his city eating, which he had en- 
 joyed with a gusto ; and we took diverse ways at parting. 
 The faithful old fellow went to the silver mines, and I 
 returned to the United States, after an absence of three 
 years and more, in which I had been through perils by 
 land and perils by water, but not sufficient to satisfy my 
 taste for adventure. 
 
 Up to this time I was a firm believer in the story of 
 Cort^z. But when I had retired from active duties, I 
 began to think of writing a book. I did what no other 
 foreign writer on Mexico has yet done — I made a jour- 
 ney to the country at my ow7i charges. I was not in 
 the employment of any company or any government ; I 
 was under no obligation to praise any man who did not 
 deserve it, and not disposed to speak unnecessary evil of 
 any, whether they deserved it or not. My advantages 
 above most writers upon ^lexico were these : my inde- 
 pendent position, and my intimate knowledge of the char- 
 acter of the North American Indians, acquired before I 
 had gained any preconceived notions from the WTitings 
 of others. My father, who had lived among the Iroquois, 
 or Six Nations, in the family of Joseph Brandt, and went 
 through the usual forms of adoption in place of some In- 
 dian who had died, gave me my first lessons on Indian 
 character ; and a taste so early acquired I followed up 
 in after life. ]\Iy ancestors for several generations dwelt 
 near the Indian agency at Cherry Valley, on " Wilson's 
 Patent," and in a neighboring village was I born, but 
 removed early in life to a part of the country that had
 
 200 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 belonged to the Senecas, where I enjoyed a good oppor- 
 tunity of studying Indian character. 
 
 It was the feast-day of the kings, los Reyes^ when, 
 after my return to Mexico, I was again in the saddle, 
 riding out from ^lexico toward the village of Tezcuco. 
 I had to take a by-way to avoid the Guadalupe road, 
 wliich was blocked up in consequence of the holiday. 
 In doing so, I had to leap a ditch or canal, in which both 
 I and my horse came near closing our pilgrimage in a 
 quagmire ; but in time we were again upon the road. 
 It is a dreary place about the hill of Tepeyaca, or Gua- 
 dalupe, and if the Virgin had not smiled upon the baiTcn 
 hill and made roses grow out of it, it would be as unin- 
 viting as one of the hills of the valley of Sodom. This 
 hill is now called the "Mountain of Crosses,*' for upon 
 it, in 1810, the first insurgent, Hidalgo, the priest of 
 Dolores, won a battle against the royal troops, which 
 should have been followed up by an entry into Mexico ; 
 but Pro\4dence ordered it otherwise, and the forest of 
 crosses that once covered it proclaimed a bloody slaugh- 
 ter without any results. 
 
 The shores of Tezcuco approach the hiU in the wet 
 season, leaving but a narrow margin for the road, but 
 in the dry season this margin is greatly enlarged. I 
 have already explained the composition of tequisqidte, 
 and the manner of its production ; liere it was lying in 
 courses, or spots, as it had been left by the receding and 
 drying up of the water during the present dry season. 
 Little piles of it liad been gathered up here and there to 
 be taken to town for use, probably by the bakers or soap- 
 boilers, who are said to pay foiu'teen shillings an aroha for 
 it. Besides a little stunted grass, tliere was here no 
 sign of vegetable life except a peculiar species of the 
 cactus family, which resembled a mammoth beet with- 
 out leaves, but bearing upon its top an array of vege-
 
 FATE OP ROBBERS. 201 
 
 table knives that surrounded a most exquisite scarlet 
 flower. 
 
 There was another sight by the road side more in keep- 
 ing with the gloomy thoughts which this desert plain ex- 
 cites : it was the dead bodies of three men, who had 
 been condemned by a military commission for robbing a 
 bishop. They were shot, and their bodies were placed 
 on three gibbets as a warning to others. The bishop 
 said he would have pardoned the robbery, but when they 
 went to that extreme limit of depravity of searching with- 
 in his shirt of sackcloth for concealed doubloons, it was 
 more than a bishop could endure. The worthy ecclesi- 
 astic had renounced the world and all its vanities, and 
 had put on the badges of poverty and self-mortification 
 for $50,000 a year, and he wore the disguises that ought 
 to have shielded him from the suspicion of being rich ! 
 
 These military commissions are no new invention in 
 Mexico, for that famous Count de Galvez, the Vice-king 
 who built the castle of Chapultepec and deposed the 
 Archbishop of ]\Iexico, had a traveling military court, 
 with chaplain and all spiritual aids, to accompany the 
 dragoons that scoured the road in search of robbers. 
 When a fellow was caught, court, chaplains, and dra- 
 goons made rapid work in dismissing him to his long rest- 
 ing-place, and saying a cheap mass for the repose of his 
 soul, and then again they were ready for another enter- 
 prise. In this way the roads were made safe in the 
 times of that Viceroy. 
 
 Had I known the real distance to Tezcuco, I ought 
 to have abandoned the journey on account of the lame- 
 ness of my horse. But either the Virgin ]\Iary, or, more 
 probably, the extreme purity of the atmospliere on these 
 elevated plains, had deprived me of the power of measur- 
 ing distance by the eye. This is excessively annoying 
 to a traveler. He sees the object he is attempting to 
 
 12
 
 202 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 approach at an apparently moderate distance, plain in 
 sight, and as lie rides along, hour after hour, there it 
 stands, just where it seemed to be when he first got sight 
 of it. I finally reached my destination in good time for 
 a dinner, and for as good a night's " entertainment for 
 man and beast*' as could be found in all the E-epubHc of 
 Mexico. 
 
 When I turned the head of the lake, I was close upon 
 the track which Cortez and his retreating band followed 
 into the plains of Otumba. Poor wretches ! what a time 
 they must have had of it in this disconsolate retreat — 
 wounded, jaded, like tigers bereft of their prey ! They 
 mourned for their companions slain, but most of all for 
 the booty they had lost. 
 
 " They grieved for those that went down in the cutter, 
 And also for the biscuits and the butter :" 
 
 and hobbled on, as best they could, while the natives 
 pursued them with hootings and volleys of inefficient 
 weapons. Passing this point and turning to the north- 
 east, they entered the plains of Otumba, where they en- 
 countered the whole undisciplined rabble of the Aztecs, 
 and scattered them like chaff before the wind. 
 
 Soon after I had passed the head of the lake and 
 turned southward, I entered a cultivated country between 
 tilled grounds and little mud villages along the road. 
 These were the representatives of the magnificent cities 
 enumerated by Cortez. That fine grove of cypresses 
 which had been a landmark all day was now close at 
 hand, and I could form some idea of its great antiquity. 
 But the day was passing away, and it was still uncer- 
 tain whether I could find safe quarters for the night, 
 where my horse, and the silver plates on my bridle, and 
 the silver mountings of my saddle would be safe. I 
 never own such fancy trifles, but they were on the horse 
 given me at the stable.
 
 A NIGHT AT TEZCUCO. 203 
 
 A good dinner and a clean bed I did not expect to 
 find, nor could I have found them a year earlier. But 
 the new and enterprising company of Escandon and Co., 
 who now have the possession of the Real del Monte sil- 
 ver mines, of which I shall speak hereafter, had just 
 completed the "Grand House" [Casa Grande) in con- 
 nection with the salt manufacture, which they carry on 
 here solely for the use of that single mine. It was a 
 neat, one-story residence of dried mud iadohe)^ and wor- 
 thy the occupancy of the proudest king of Tezcuco. 
 Though the flagging of the interior court was not all 
 completed, yet the managing partner had taken posses- 
 sion, and it was fitted up according to the most approved 
 style of an Anglo-Saxon residence. As horse and rider 
 passed into the outer court, there stood ready a groom 
 to lead the former into the inner court, where were the 
 stables for the horses, and I entered the house to enjoy 
 the unlooked-for pleasures of English hospitality in this 
 out-of-the-way Indian village. 
 
 The resident partner was an Englishman. His con- 
 nection with the Real del Monte Company extended only 
 to the manufacture of salt. But even this was an ex- 
 tensive affair, and had already absorbed an investment 
 of $100,000, in order to provide the salt used in only 
 one brancli of the process of refining silver at that mine. 
 The gentleman was now absent, but his excellent En- 
 glish wife and her brother knew full well how to dis- 
 charge the duties of host even to an unknown stranger. 
 The dinner was of the best, and there was no lack of 
 appetite after a hard day's ride on a trotting horse. So 
 we all had the prime elements of enjoyment. Enter- 
 tainment for man and beast is among the highest luxu- 
 ries to be found by tlie wayside. It was an equal lux- 
 uiy to my hosts in their isolated residence to receive a 
 visit fi'om one whose only recommendation was that the
 
 204 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 English language was his native tongue, so that when 
 we retired from the dining-room we had become old ac- 
 quaintances. 
 
 The King of Tezcuco never knew what it was, on a 
 raw winter's evening, to sit before a bright wood fire, in 
 a fire-place, with feet on fender and tongs in hand, list- 
 ening to an animated conversation so mixed up of two 
 languages that it was hard to tell which predominated. 
 Not all the stateliness to be found in [Mexican palaces, 
 where, in a lordly tapestried halls, men and women sit 
 and shiver over a protracted dinner, can yield pleasures 
 like those grouped around an English fireside. The 
 evening was not half long enough to say all that was to 
 be discussed. As we sat and chatted, and di'ank our tea 
 with a gusto we had never known before, we forgot alto- 
 gether that we were indulging in plebeian enjoyments 
 upon the spot where a king's palace had probably stood. 
 Instead of such plebeian things as a wood floor and 
 Brussels carpet, his half-clad majesty had here squatted 
 upon a mat, and dealt out justice or injustice, according 
 to his caprice, to trembling crowds of dirty Indians, 
 whose royal rags and feathers made them princely. Dig- 
 nity and majesty are truly parts of Indian character, but 
 a good dinner and a clean bed are luxuries that an In- 
 dian, even though he were an emperor, never knew. 
 
 'My business here was to search for relics, and as soon 
 as daylight appeared I was astir. But no rehcs could be 
 found except some stone images so mdely cut as to be 
 a burlesque upon Indian stone-cutting. There was a 
 sacrificial stone and a calendar stone built into the steps 
 of the church of San Francisco, which were so badly 
 done that the use to which they had been applied could 
 just be made out. Here, too, was a rude stone wall, that 
 had been built over the grave of Don Fernando, the first 
 Christian king of Tezcuco, who had been converted to
 
 REMAINS OF TEZCUCO. 205 
 
 Christianity by Cort^z. There is also here one of those 
 little chapels which Cortez built, which indicate extreme- 
 ly limited means in the builder. 
 
 At the distance of a bow-shot from this is the site of 
 the " slip" (canal) which Cortez says he caused to be 
 dug, twelve feet wide and twelve feet deep, in order to 
 float his brigantines. Near by, the Indians were dig- 
 ging a new canal for the little steam-boat which now 
 plies on the laguna. When they reached a point less 
 than three feet from the surface, they were stopped by 
 the water. How could Cortez, under greater disadvan- 
 tages, dig to the depth of twelve feet, without even iron 
 shovels ? 
 
 I returned to the hacienda and inquired if there were 
 no other relics. The proprietor assured me that he had 
 been unable to find any except the Indian mounds which 
 he showed me, and some stone cellar steps that he had 
 found in digging. And this is all that now remains of 
 the great and magnificent city of Tezcuco, w^hich had en- 
 tered into alliance with Cortez, and which, for more than 
 a hundred years after the Conquest, was under the es- 
 pecial care of a Superintendent sent from Spain, as an 
 Indian Heservation. 
 
 There are here eight Franciscan monks and a convent ; 
 seven of these monks I was assured were living at home 
 with their families and children, but the eighth, who hap- 
 pened to be a cripple, lived in the convent. A major in 
 the guard was pointed out to me, who, having commit- 
 ted a murder, took sanctuary in the church, where he 
 remained several days, when — and we have his own word 
 for it — the Virgin Mary appeared to him and freely for- 
 gave him. On this news getting abroad, there was great 
 rejoicing in Tezcuco that the Virgin had at last visited 
 them. From being stigmatized as a murderer, the ob- 
 ject of this visit was almost adored as a saint, and be-
 
 206 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 came one of tlie principal men of the \dUage, and was 
 created a major in the new corps. 
 
 After I had surveyed the salt-works and the glass- 
 works, I turned my horse's head toward ^lexico by the 
 road along the eastern shore, so that I made the complete 
 circuit of Lake Tezcuco. 
 
 Thus far my visit to the royal city of Tezcuco had 
 been perfectly successful, except in tlie attempts made to 
 convince the younor Enorlishman that I was not a dead- 
 shot with the rifle ; and I started home with a slight 
 shade upon my veracity for denying my ability to pierce 
 the centre of the bull's-eye. But otherwise it was a dis- 
 agreeable parting to all of us. As I returned by the 
 east side of the lake, the splendid high faiTning-lands 
 that extend from the shore to the foot of the mountain 
 were strilvingly in contrast with the flatness and barren- 
 ness of the plain on the water-side, which is so slightly 
 elevated above the level of the salt water that a few inch- 
 es of rise in the laguna spreads out an immense sheet of 
 saline water, and yet there is not a solitary evaporating 
 vat where there is an unlimited demand for the evapora- 
 ted article at fourteen shillings the aroba. 
 
 Cortez speaks of the fine fields of com on the east 
 side of the lake. But they could not have been finer in 
 his day than they are at present, though they furnished 
 him with the supplies that supported liis army. I reached 
 the head of Tezcuco at noontide, where the heavy water 
 of the salt lake was driving up toward the fresh water, 
 as described by Cortez, but it was ujider the pressure 
 of a strong north wind. 
 
 Now that I am on the new causeway, broad and spa- 
 cious like all the others, it may be well to conclude the 
 discussion of the physical condition of this valley by de- 
 termining the size of the old Aztec causeways. 
 
 An island embosomed in a marsh has always formed
 
 THE AZTEC CAUSEWAYS. 207 
 
 a favorite retreat for an Indian tribe, whether among the 
 everglades of Florida, or the wild-rice swamps of north- 
 western Canada. Such a retreat is still more desirable 
 when, in addition to the security it affords from an ene- 
 my, it is likewise a resort for wild ducks, as was and is 
 the case with the laguna of the Mexican valley. Hence, 
 probably, the Aztecs selected this place as the site of 
 their village ; and to reach it, it was necessary to make 
 one or more footpaths across the marsh. As the Aztecs 
 had no beasts of burden, this must have been a task of 
 no little magnitude. To have made it thirty feet wide 
 would not only have been a work of immense difficulty, 
 but would have destroyed the defensive character of their 
 position. Still, we can, upon this occasion, afford to be 
 a little liberal w^th the statements of Cortez, as we have 
 had to cut his hundreds of thousands of warriors down to 
 a few thousand of miserably-armed Indians, and reduce 
 his magnificent cities to small Indian villages. In order 
 to make the island of Mexico at all inhabitable, we have 
 had to reduce his lakes from navigable basins of twelve 
 feet or more in depth to mere evaporating ponds. His 
 floating islands have been transformed into garden-beds 
 built upon the mud ; and his canals have sunk to mere 
 ditches. Now I propose to be liberal to the old Con- 
 quistador in the matter of his famous causeways, and will 
 therefore admit that they might have been twelve feet in 
 width — as broad as the tow-path of the Erie Canal.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Street of Tacuba. — The Spaniards and the Indian Women. — The 
 Retreat of Corte'z. — The Aqueducts of Mexico. — The English and 
 American Burving-grounds. — The Protestant President. — The rival 
 Virgins. — An Image out of Favor. — The Aztecs and the Spaniards. 
 
 As I rode along the street to the gate and causeway 
 of Tacuba, over which Cortez retreated on the "sorrow- 
 ful night" {triste noclie)^ I naturally fell into reflections 
 upon the righteous retribution that overtook a portion of 
 the Spanish robbers on that night, and upon the myste- 
 rious ways of Providence in allowing Cortez and a rem- 
 nant to escape being burned alive by the Indians after 
 the infamous lives which, by their own admissions, they 
 had been leading in the city. The Indians had made a 
 feeble resistance when Alvarado murdered theu* chiefs, 
 and had cringed into submission when Cortez returned. 
 But now their -s^Tongs had reached that point where even. 
 Aztecs could endui-e no more. Their cup of iniquity 
 seemed full, when Cortez, who had left a wife in Cuba, 
 sent to the little village of Tacuba, called by Diaz Tla- 
 cupa, to fetch thence some "women of his hoiisehold, 
 among w^hom was the daughter of Montezuma [he had 
 ah'eady one daughter of ^lontezuma in liis power] whom 
 he had given in charge of the King of Tlacupa, her rela- 
 tive, when he marched against Narvaez."* The women 
 being rescued, Cortez afterward sent Ordaz, with four 
 hundred men, which brought on hostilities that ended in 
 tliis night retreat. 
 
 Cortez was worse than the ^lormon governor of Utah, 
 
 * Bemal Diaz^ vol. i. p. 338.
 
 THE HOUSEHOLD OF CORTEZ. 209 
 
 who is said to have thirty-six wives in his household. 
 But they are, at least, voluntary inmates of his harem, 
 while the " household" of Cortez had been taken by vio- 
 lence. It is one of the prominent traits of Indian char- 
 acter that, while they are inhuman to their female cap- 
 tives, they guard with the utmost jealousy the virtue of 
 their wives. Even among the debased Indians of Cali- 
 fornia, female infidelity is punished with death ; and I 
 have seen the whole population of an Indian village on 
 the Upper Sacramento thrown into tlie utmost confusion 
 — the women howling, and the men brandishing their 
 weapons — because a base Indian had sold his wife to a 
 still baser white man. " Such a thing was never," tliey 
 said, "done in the tribe before." And here we have 
 Cortez, in contempt of even Indian notions of virtue, 
 sending to bring to his harem, by violence, another daugh- 
 ter of Montezuma. 
 
 As Bernal Diaz goes more into detail than Cortez, he 
 now and then drops an expression that furnishes a clew 
 to many an enigma otherwise unexplainable. In speak- 
 ing of the avarice of the officers, he lets fall the following 
 confession of his own infamy : 
 
 " This was a good hint to us in future, so that after- 
 ward, when we had captured any beautiful Indian fe- 
 males, we concealed them, and gave out that they had es- 
 caped. As soon as it was come to the marking day, or, 
 if any one of us stood in favor with Cortez, he got them 
 secretly marked [viz., branded with a red-hot iron] dur- 
 ing the night-time, and paid a fifth of their value to him. 
 In a short time we possessed a great number of such 
 slaves."* 
 
 Never was there a band of Anglo-Saxon outlaws, cut- 
 throats, pirates, or buccaneers tliat reached that point of 
 human depravity that they could brand, as cattle are 
 
 * BemallHaz, vol. i. p. 31, 32.
 
 210 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 branded, with a red-hot iron, swarms of women taken hy 
 violence, in order that tliey might not make any mistakes 
 in recognizing their numberless wives I Xone but Span- 
 ish heroes of a " holy war" ever exhibited such a picture 
 of total depravity. 
 
 "Wlien the Aztecs were thus roused to action by the 
 brutal lust of Cortez, they assailed him with phrensy 
 rather than with courage, until his quarters in the city 
 became untenable, and then this night retreat was un- 
 dertaken, in which all the gold, if there really was any, 
 and all other treasures, and two sons and one daughter 
 of 3Iontezuma, were lost in the confused rush of such a 
 multitude over this foot-path. The Indian story is that 
 Cortez slew the children of ^lontezuma when he found 
 himself unable to cany them off. Perhaps he did, but 
 the probability is that they perished by chance, or, rath- 
 er, it seems to have been by chance that Cortez or any 
 of his gang escaped and came safe to Tacuba. 
 
 "We must now give up history to talk of things by the 
 road-side. 
 
 The "hard water" from the springs on the south side 
 of Chapultepec is carried over stone arches upon the 
 causeway of Tacubaya to the gate of Belin. But at 
 Santa Fe, several leagues distant from the city, is a 
 stream of soft water, which is brought to the powder- 
 mill {Jfolina del Hey), where it turns a wheel. Thence 
 the aqueduct, passing by the north side of Chapultepec, 
 is carried along the highway to the causeway of San 
 Cosmo. It passes the gate of San Cosmo, enters the 
 city, and terminates in the street of Tacuba. By these 
 two gates, and by the side of these two parallel aque- 
 ducts, the American army entered the city of ^lexico. 
 
 The objects of interest by tlie road-side, after I had 
 passed the city gate, were, first, tlie French Academy, 
 which is well worthy of a visit for its pretty grounds, if
 
 THE AMERICAN CEMETERY. 211 
 
 nothing more. When we had got farther on, the land 
 rose a little above the water-level of the swamp. Here 
 a branch-road and the aqueduct turned off to Chapulte- 
 pec, and in the angle thus formed by the two roads is 
 the English burying-ground or cemetery. In this rest- 
 ing-place of the dead there is not a spot that can not be 
 irrigated at all seasons of the year, while the art of man 
 has been busy in improving the advantages that nature 
 has so lavishly bestowed. 
 
 Just before my first arrival in Mexico, public attention 
 had been particularly directed to this quiet spot, from its 
 having been chosen as the place for depositing the ashes 
 of the last President of Mexico, at whose burial no holy 
 water had been wasted and no candles had been burned, 
 and for the repose of whose soul no masses had ever been 
 said, or other religious rites performed, and yet he slept 
 as quietly as those who had gone to their burial with the 
 pomp and circumstance of a state funeral. No priest 
 had shrived his soul, his lips had not been touched with 
 the anointing oil, nor was incense burned at his funeral ; 
 yet he died in peace, declaring in his last hours that he 
 had made his confession to God, and trusted in him for 
 the pardon of his sins, and refused all the proffered aid 
 of priests in facilitating his journey to heaven. Thus 
 died, and here was privately buried, the first and last 
 Protestant President of [Mexico, the only really good 
 man that ever occupied that exalted station, and prob- 
 ably the only native 3Iexican who ever had the moral 
 courage to denounce the religion of his fathers upon his 
 dying bed. 
 
 Adjoining the English cemetery on the south side is 
 the American burying-ground, which has been establish- 
 ed since the war, where have been collected the remains 
 of 750 Americans, that died or were killed at ]\lexico, 
 and a neat monument has been erected over tliem. Here
 
 212 
 
 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 MONUMENT TO THE AMERICANS. 
 
 Americans tliat die henceforth in that city can "be liuried. 
 An appropriation of $500 a year would make this more 
 attractive than the English cemetery, but the place has 
 been wholly neglected by Congress since that worthy 
 man, the Ecv. G. G. Goss, completed his labors. There 
 is a pleasure in observing the natural affinities which, in 
 foreign countries, draw close togetlier these two branches 
 of the Anglo-Saxon family. A common language and a 
 common religion overmaster political differences, and the 
 English and American dead are laid side by side to rest 
 until the judgment. At the south of the American cem- 
 etery is a vacant lot, which the King of Prussia should 
 purchase, so that the Germans may no longer be de- 
 pendent on Americans for a buiying-place, and that the
 
 THE YIliaiN OE REMEDIES. 213 
 
 three great Protestant powers of the world may here, as 
 they every where should, be drawn close together. 
 
 Tacnba is a very small village, and is not in any wise 
 noted except for an immense cypress-tree, that must have 
 been a wonder even in the time of Cortez. Tacuba has 
 the historical notoriety of being the place where hostili- 
 ties first broke out between the Aztecs and the Spaniards, 
 and the spot where the night retreat of the latter termi- 
 nated. Here the land is quite fertile, and a little way 
 from the village are several water-mills, where the grain 
 raised in this part of the valley is ground into flour. 
 
 A little way beyond Tacuba is the hill and temple of 
 the Virgin of Remedies. It was upon this hill, within 
 the inclosure of an Indian mound, that the retreating 
 party of Cortez made their first bivouac, and built fires 
 and dressed their wounds. Hence they gave to the hill 
 the name of liemedios^ and the church afterw^ard erected 
 was dedicated to our Lady of Remedies. Diaz tells us 
 that it became very celebrated in jiis time. The story 
 about Cortez finding a broken-nosed image in the knap- 
 sack of one of his soldiers is not mentioned either by 
 himself or Bernal Diaz, and must therefore be an after- 
 thought, to give plausibility to a subsequent imposition. 
 From this point Cortez and his party, without their 
 women or treasures, trudged along to the foot of the hills 
 to Tepeac, or Guadalupe, and thence around the foot of 
 Tezcuco to the plains of Otumba. 
 
 The story is, that while Cortez and his men were rest- 
 ing here, a soldier took from his knapsack an image, 
 with nose broken and an eye wanting, which Cortez 
 made the patron saint of the expedition, and held it up 
 to their adoration, and that this little incident so encour- 
 aged the men that they started off with renewed vigor. 
 The whole of this story is probably a very silly modern 
 invention. The bulk of the forces of Cortez was most
 
 214 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 probably composed of that class of reprobates that to 
 this day can be found about almost any of the ^Yest In- 
 dia sea-ports, ready for any enterprise, however hazard- 
 ous. They have no religion ; they are not even super- 
 stitious, but yield a nominal acquiescence to the forms 
 of the Catholic religion. Cortez speaks often of his ef- 
 forts to eftect the conversion of the Indians, but it is in 
 such a business sort of way as to lead to the impression . 
 that it was all done to make an impression at home, but 
 was really a matter that he did not care much about. 
 The famous image, according to the current story, disap- 
 peared soon after the Conquest, but was found about 150 
 years afterward in a maguey plant, and was as much di- 
 lapidated as if it had been exposed to the weather for the 
 whole of that century and a half. 
 
 Such, in substance, is the tradition of the Virgin of 
 Remedies, who for a century divided with the Virgin of 
 Guadalupe the adoration of the people in the most ami- 
 cable manner. But when the insurrection of 1810 broke 
 out, these two virgins parted company. " Yiva the Vir- 
 gin of Guadalupe !" became the war-cry of the unsuccess- 
 ful rebels, while ''Viva the Lady of Remedies!" was 
 shouted back by the conquering forces of the king. 
 The Lady of Guadalupe became suspected of insurrec- 
 tionary propensities, while aU honors were lavished upon 
 the Lady of Remedies by those who wished to make 
 protestations of their loyalty. Pearls, money, and jew- 
 els were bestowed upon her by the nobility and the Span- 
 ish merchants ; and as one insurrectionary leader after 
 another was totally defeated, the conquering generals re- 
 turned to lay their trophies at tlie feet of the Lady of Re- 
 medies, to whose interposition the victory was ascribed. 
 They carried her in triumphant procession through the 
 streets of Mexico, singing a laudamus. Then it was 
 that the Lady of Remedies was at the zenith of her glo-
 
 KISE AND FALL OF THE VIRGIN. 215 
 
 ry. Her person was refulgent with a blaze of jewels, 
 and her temple was like that of Diana of Ephesus, and all 
 about the hill on which it stood bore marks of the great- 
 est prosperity. 
 
 Her healing powers were then unrivaled, and the list 
 of cures which she is claimed to have effected surpasses 
 that of all the patent medicines of our day. She was an 
 infallible healer, alike of the diseases of the mind and of 
 the body. A glimpse of her broken nose and battered 
 face instantaneously cured men of democracy and unbe- 
 lief. Heretics stood confounded in her presence, while 
 the halt, the lame, and the leprous hung up their crutch- 
 es, their bandages, and their filthy rags, as trophies of 
 her healing power, among the flags and other trophies of 
 her victories over the rebels. Nothing was beyond her 
 skill ; from mending a leaky boat to securing a prize in 
 the lottery ; from giving eyes to the blind, feet to the 
 lame, mending a broken or a paralyzed limb, or a broken 
 heart, to putting the baby to sleep. Her votaries es- 
 teemed her omnipotent, and carried her in procession in 
 times of drought, as the goddess of rain ; and when pes- 
 tilence raged in the city, she was borne through the 
 infected streets. Such was she in the times of her glory. 
 
 Now all is changed. She is still a goddess, but her 
 glory is eclipsed. She, like many a virgin in social life, 
 neglected to make her market while all knees were bow- 
 ing to her, and now, in tlie sear and yellow leaf, she is a 
 virgin still. Her temple is dilapidated, her garlands are 
 faded, her gilding is tarnished, the buildings about her 
 court are falling to decay, while the bleak hill which her 
 temple crowns looks tenfold more uninviting than if it 
 never had been occupied. When I entered this neglect- 
 ed temple of a neglected image, an old, superannuated 
 priest was saying mass, and three or four old crones were 
 kneeling before her altar. Such are the effects that fol-
 
 216 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 lowed the revolution of Iguala. Not only was her hated 
 rival of Guadalupe elevated from her long obscurity to 
 be the national saint, but the animosity against this di- 
 lapidated image of Remedies was carried to that extreme 
 of cruelty that, when the Spaniards were expelled from 
 Mexico, the passports of the " Lady of Remedios" were 
 made out, and she was ordered to leave the country. 
 Poor thing I 
 
 The porter's eye glistened at the now unwonted sight 
 of a silver dollar, and he soon had me through the most 
 secret recesses of the sanctuary. The only things I saw 
 worthy of admiration were some pictures, made from 
 down or the feathers of the humming-bird, by which 
 a richness of color was imparted to the pictures that 
 could not be obtained from paints. 
 
 At last we came to the back of the great altar, and 
 the curtain of damask silk being drawn up by a httle 
 string, we saw sitting in a metallic maguey plant a bright 
 new Paris doll, dressed in the gaudy odds and ends of 
 silk that make such a thing an attractive Christmas 
 present for the nursery. Paste supplied the place of 
 jewels, and a constellation of false pearls were at the 
 back of her shoulders. The man kept his gravity, and 
 did reverence to the poor doll, while I burned vdih in- 
 dignation at being imposed upon by a counterfeit "uni- 
 versal remedy for all diseases." I had often read in the 
 apothecaries' advertisements cautions against counter- 
 feits, and rewards for their detection, and I always no- 
 ticed, from these printed evidences, that the coimterfeits 
 were exactly in proportion to the wortlilessness of the 
 genuine article, and that medicine which was utterly 
 valueless itself suffered most from the abundance of 
 counterfeits. So it was with tlie Lady of Remedios ; 
 after she had fallen below the dignity of a humbug, and 
 no man was found so poor as to do her reverence, she
 
 AZTEC AND KOMISH IMAGES. 217 
 
 was spirited away to the Cathedral of the city of Mexico, 
 in order to save her three jeweled petticoats from being 
 stolen, and a child's doll, covered with paste jewels, now 
 personified the great patron saint of the vice-kingdom of 
 New Spain. 
 
 I again mounted my horse, angry at being cheated. 
 Though the day was a most lovely one, I rode home in 
 fit humor to contrast the system of paganism which 
 Cortez introduced with the more poetical system which 
 preceded it, and to compare these cast-off child's dolls 
 with the allegorical images of the Aztecs. ^ly landlord 
 had two boxes of such images, collected when they were 
 cleaning out one of the old city canals. By way of par- 
 lor ornaments, we had an Aztec god of baked earth. 
 He was sitting in a chair ; around his navel was coiled a 
 serpent ; his right hand rested upon the head of another 
 serpent. This, according to the laws of interpreting al- 
 legories, we should understand to signify that the god 
 had been renowned for his wisdom ; that with the wisdom 
 of the serpent he had executed judgment ; and that his 
 meditations were the profundity of wisdom. And yet 
 this allegorical worship, defective as it may have been, 
 was forcibly superseded by the adoration of a child's 
 doll — one that had very possibly been worn out and 
 thrown from a nursery, and perhaps picked up by some 
 passing monk, was made the goddess of New Spain, and 
 clothed with three petticoats, one adorned with pearls, 
 one with rubies, and one with diamonds, at an estimated 
 cost of $3,000,000. Which was the least objectionable 
 superstition ? 
 
 We have been taught to look upon the worship of the 
 Aztecs as monstrous ; but the witnesses against them 
 were themselves monsters, who were seeking for a pre- 
 tense to excuse their own brutality in reducing the In- 
 dians to the most debasing slavery, while they appropri- 
 
 K
 
 218 MEXICX) AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 ated to their own use the best looking of the squaws, 
 and kept such swarms of supernumerary wives that each 
 Spaniard had to brand them with a red-hot iron in or- 
 der to know his own family. The fathers of the present 
 mixed-breed population of Mexico teU us that the Aztecs 
 offered human sacrifices, and feasted upon human flesh. 
 They hope, by dwelling upon the enormities of the In- 
 dians, to excuse their owti still more detestable crimes. 
 For three centuries their stories were uncontradicted, and 
 they have been received as historical verities. But the 
 character of the witnesses warrants us in recei\*ing their 
 statements with some incredulitv.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Paseo at Evening. — Ride to Chapultepec. — The old Cypresses of 
 Chapultepec. — The Capture of Chapultepec. — Molina del Key. — 
 Tacubaya. — Don Manuel Escandon. — The Tobacco Monopoly. — The 
 Palace of Escandon. — The "Desierto." — Hermits. — Monks in the 
 Conflict with Satan. — Our Lady of Carmel. 
 
 My residence was near the Paseo JSfuevo, and at even- 
 ing, wliile the sun had yet an hour of liis daily task to 
 finish, I habitually sauntered forth for a walk up and 
 down the Paseo, to look at the crowd of coaches, with 
 tops thrown back, so that the bareheaded ladies, in full 
 dress for dinner, might enjoy the evening air, acquire an 
 appetite, and salute their friends by presenting the backs 
 of their hands, while they twirled their fingers at them 
 with a hearty smile. Gentlemen on richly-caparisoned 
 horses dashed along between the rows of advancing and 
 returning carriages, stopping now and then by the side 
 of a well-known carriage to exchange salutations, or, by 
 an exhibition of a well-timed embarrassment, proclaim 
 the favored object of their evening's ride. Crowds of 
 foot-passengers sauntered along the road-side, looking at 
 the rich display made by the aristocracy and nobility of 
 the republic. At the entrance of the Paseo, in front of 
 the amphitheatre, where on Sundays bulls are tortured 
 to death as a popular amusement, is the equestrian 
 bronze statue of Carlos IV., the work of Tolsa, who, as 
 artist and architect, has won for himself undying renown 
 at Mexico. The garden of Tolsa, the College of Mines, 
 and the bronze horse, testify to the greatness of his gen- 
 ius. Half way down the Paseo is a fountain, around 
 which two semicircles of coaches place themselves for a
 
 220 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 little time, to look on the passing current of carriages 
 and liorsemen. They soon disappear as the sun shows 
 sjinploms of descending behind the mountains. On 
 Sundays the scene is more animated, and then the Pres- 
 ident, with his body-guard of lancers, and attendants in 
 scarlet Kvery, is seen to dash into the Paseo, ride down 
 and return through the xAIameda, among whose trees and 
 fountains the Sabbath crowds most do congregate. 
 
 One morning when all was quiet in this place of dis- 
 play, I rode down the street of San Francisco, and turned 
 up the Paseo between the prison of the Acordado and 
 the bronze horse. There was nothing to distui'b the 
 monotony that now reigned but cabs or omnibuses on 
 tlieir way to or returning from Tacubaya. Passing 
 through the open gate of Behn, I rode along at the side 
 of the aqueduct to the rock of Chapultepec. 
 
 It calls up singular reflections to look upon a livmg 
 thing that has existed for a thousand years, though it 
 be only a tree. Though so many centuries have rolled 
 over the venerable cypresses of Chapultepec, yet they 
 still are sound and vigorous. The extensive springs of 
 pure water that issue from beneath this immense rock 
 have kept them flourishing in the midst of a tecjuisquite 
 valley. Long gi*ay threads of Spanish moss hang pend- 
 ent from the extremity of their limbs and cover the lower 
 leaves. These trees are the only living links that unite 
 modern and ancient American civilization ; for they were 
 in being while that mysterious race, the Toltecs, were 
 still upon the table-lands of 3Iexico — a race that has left 
 behind, not only at Teotilmacan, but in the hot country, 
 the imperishable memorials of a civilization like that of 
 Eg^-pt ; and fr'om them the Aztecs acquired an imperfect 
 knowledge of a few simple arts.* 
 
 * " The Toltecs appeared first in the year 648, the Chicimecs in 1 1 70, 
 the Nahiialtecs 1178, the Atolhues and Aztecs in 1196. The Tolteas
 
 CYPRESSES OF CHAPULTEPEC. 221 
 
 These trees had long been standing, when a body of 
 Aztecs, wandering away from their tribe in search of 
 game, fixed themselves upon the islands of this marsh, 
 first about the rock of Chapultepec, then at ]\Iexicalzin- 
 go and Iztapalapan, and finally at Mexico. These trees 
 were undisturbed by the Spaniards when Cortez took 
 the city, and the Americans respected their great antiqui- 
 ty, so that during all the wars and battles that have 
 taken place around and above them, they have passed 
 unharmed. 
 
 Not only unnumbered generations, but whole races 
 have appeared and disappeared, while these trees have 
 quietly flourished amid the strife of the elements and the 
 contentions of men, taking no heed of the passing events 
 of which they were spectators. The Toltecs, of whom 
 we must speak more fully hereafter, were the first of 
 these races that disappeared from the table-land — the 
 victims of wars, and of that plague of the Indian races, 
 the Tnatlazlmatl. As the Aztecs rose into importance 
 by their success in war and by the multitude of their 
 captives, Indian princes made the springs near Chapulte- 
 pec their favorite bathing-place, and spread their mats 
 under these trees, and in their shadow enjoyed their noon- 
 tide slumbers. Then the pale-faces came, and peopled 
 the valley with a race of mixed blood, and vice-kings 
 occupied the place that had been the sacred retreat of 
 the Aztec chiefs. 
 
 introduced the cultivation of maize and cotton ; they built cities, made 
 roads, and constructed those great pyramids which are yet admired, and 
 of which the faces are very accurately laid out. They knew the use 
 of hieroglyphical paintings ; they could work metals, and cut the hard- 
 est stones ; and tliey had a solar year moi-e perfect than that of tlic 
 Greeks and Romans. The form of their government indicated that 
 they were the descendants of a people who had experienced great vi- 
 cissitudes in their social state. But where is the source of that culti- 
 vation ? Where is the country from which the Toltecs and Mexicans 
 issued ?" — Humboldt, Essay Polilique, vol. i. p. 100.
 
 222 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 These trees had added many rings to their abeady en- 
 larged circumference before the vice-kings disappeared, 
 and an emperor sat in the shade which had been their 
 favorite retreat ; and the Aztec eagle floated again upon 
 the standard that waved over Chapultepec ; but it was 
 only the galvanized corpse of that brave bird, and the 
 emperor was only a victim prepared for the sacrifice. 
 Since that time much bad gunpowder has been burned 
 over the heads of the trees, and the roots have been 
 shaken by the discharge of the cannon of the castle at 
 every change of rulers, as one ephemeral government suc- 
 ceeded another, but these cypresses still remain unharm- 
 ed, and may outlive many other dynasties. 
 
 The Americans captured Chapultepec by a coup de 
 onaiii. Having made several breaches through the stone 
 wall behind the cypresses, they rushed through under 
 those trees and up the side of the hill next to them, not 
 allowing themselves to be delayed by the turnings of the 
 road. The general in command, the late General Bravo, 
 was a man of tried courage, and not deficient in military 
 sagacity. He sent most urgent requests to Santa Anna 
 for reinforcements, urging that General Scott was too 
 prudent a soldier to attack the city before caiTying the 
 castle, and that the garrison was inadequate for its de- 
 fense. But Santa Anna was completely paralyzed, as 
 Scott designed he should be, by the large force, under 
 General Smith, which was tlireatening the south front 
 of the city. A\nien it was too late, Santa Anna discov- 
 ered that this was only a feint. 
 
 The King's Mill (2Iolhia del Rey) is an old powder- 
 mill, standing on elevated ground in the rear of Cliapul- 
 tepec. It has nothing about it to give it notoriety ex- 
 cept tlie slaughter of the American troops that here toolc 
 place from a masked battery, manned by a body of vol- 
 unteers fi'om the work-shops of the city. The whole af-
 
 CHAPULTEPEC AND MOLINA DEL KEY. 223 
 
 CHAPULTEPEC. 
 
 fair was a military mistake. Its capture was not neces- 
 sary to insure the capture of Cliapultepec, for, as soon as 
 that fortress, which commanded the mill, should be in our 
 power, the mill would be untenable. But repeated suc- 
 cesses had made the American officers imprudent, so that 
 without first battering down its walls, the division of 
 General Worth rushed up, regardless of a flank fire of 
 the castle, to carry this old building by assault. After 
 the sacrifice of about 700 lives, cannon were brought out 
 and the breach made, and then the difficulty was at an 
 end. 
 
 A mile or so by the road leading south and west from 
 Chapultepec is Tacubaya, where are the suburban resi- 
 dences of the Archbishop, tlie President, and of divers
 
 224 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 city bankers ; and where the Enghsh banker, !Mr. Jim- 
 merson, has introduced Enghsh gardening, and, in a 
 Mexican cHmate, enjoys the pleasure of an Enghsh coun- 
 tiy residence. 
 
 The most attractive estabhshment of Tacubaya is the 
 new palace of Don Manuel Escandon, a native-bom, sell- 
 made Mexican millionaire ; a man whose capital has so 
 enormously accumulated before he has even reached mid- 
 dle life, that he was able to propose to discount a bill for 
 87,000,000 as an ordinary business transaction, though 
 ultimately government divided the bid w4th another 
 house. This most remarkable instance of accumulation 
 of wealth in modem times is deserving of a passing no- 
 tice, which I give on the authority of my landlord, who 
 had a personal knowledge of his history. 
 
 Don ^Manuel enjoyed, in addition to an intimate knowl- 
 edge of his own countr^Tuen, the advantages of a foreign 
 education, wliich had extended to an examination of those 
 arts and improvements that elevate Europeans above 
 the semi-barbarous people of Spanish America. The 
 iirst enterprise that brought him prominently foi'v^^ard 
 was the establishment of that vast and most perfect sys- 
 tem of stage-coaches, of which I have abeady spoken, 
 on an original capital of $250,000. The wretched con- 
 dition of the roads, and the heavy losses that at first al- 
 ways attend entei-prises of that magnitude, disheartened 
 his partners, who were glad to sell out to him $150,000 
 of the capital stock at a discount of 50 per cent. After- 
 ward the late Zurutusa bought into the scheme, and ul- 
 timately became the owner of all the property, having, 
 before his deatli, more than realized the highest anticipa- 
 tions of himself or Escandon. A hundred thousand 
 dollars, or thereabouts, were the profits to Escandon by 
 this establishment of a series of hotels and stages quite 
 across the continent. By the successful running of a
 
 DON MANUEL ESCANDON. 225 
 
 blockade of the coast, he realized nearly another hundred 
 thousand dollars. The numerous enterprises open to men 
 of superior sagacity, who fully understand the wants of a 
 country in a state of chaos, and are familiar with the im- 
 provements of other countries, were readily embraced by 
 him, until he found himself possessed of sufficient capi- 
 tal to become the principal purchaser of the extensive 
 silver mines of Real del Monte^ of which the salt-works 
 of Tezcuco are but an outside appendage. 
 
 The tobacco monopoly had yielded to the King of 
 Spain an average return of nearly a million annually. 
 Under the Eepublic the consumption of the weed had 
 greatly increased, but, from the prevalence of disorder in 
 every branch of the administration, this important branch 
 of the revenue was almost entirely absorbed by the offi- 
 cials through whose hands it passed, so that the sum 
 realized by government in the most unproductive year 
 fell off to $25,000, but finally reached $45,000, the 
 amount "at which it was farmed out by Escandon and 
 Company. Since that time the return to government 
 has gone on increasing, until it was advertised to be let 
 the last year at the round sum of $1,200,000. How 
 much more the partners realized during the years that 
 they held the contract is, of course, known only to them- 
 selves. 
 
 The new house which Don Manuel has built at Tacu- 
 baya is decidedly the finest palace in the republic. The 
 position is w^ell chosen, and the sum of $300,000 has 
 been laid out upon the house and grounds. It is a com- 
 bination of an Italian villa, with the comforts and con- 
 veniences of English life. London, Paris, and New 
 York have alike contributed to its furniture. I was told 
 that $50,000 was invested in pictures alone. When I 
 looked at the perfection to which the house, the grounds, 
 and the ornamental works had been carried, my only, 
 
 K2
 
 226 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 wonder was that $300,000 could have paid for such a 
 combination of elegance and good taste. The family, 
 which consists only of Don Manuel and his ^vddowed sis- 
 ters, had left on account of the cholera then prevailing in 
 Tacuhaya, but the steward readily opened every door to 
 my companion ; and thus, without intruding upon the 
 privacy of a family, or even having the honor of their ac- 
 quaintance, I obtained access to one of the finest private 
 residences that I have ever yet seen, either in tliis coun- 
 try or any other. In this house it was that the Gads- 
 den treaty was proposed, at a dinner-party at which Mr. 
 Gadsden and Santa Anna were present. 
 
 There was nothing to detain me longer at Tacubaya ; 
 but a ride upon the Tacubaya road is not well finished 
 without being extended to the Desierto, a place now as 
 attractive in its ruins as it was in its prosperity. 
 
 A description of what it once was I copy from old 
 Thomas Gage : "But more north [south] westward, 
 three leagues from ^lexico, is the pleasantest place of all 
 that are about ^lexico, called the Solidad^ or Desierto^ 
 'the Solitary Place' or 'Wilderness.' Were all wilder- 
 nesses like it, to live in a wilderness would be better 
 than to live in a city. This hath been a device of bare- 
 footed Carmelites, to make show of their apparent god- 
 Hness, and who would be thought to live like hermits, 
 retired from the Avorld, that they may draw the world 
 unto them. They have built them a stately cloister, 
 which, being upon a hill and among rocks, makes it to 
 be most admired. About the cloister they have fash- 
 ioned out many holes and caves, in, under, and among 
 the rocks, like hermits' lodgings, with a room to lie in, 
 and an oratory to pray in, with pictures, and images, and 
 rare devices for self-mortification, as scourges of wire, 
 rods of iron, haircloth girdles with sharp wire points, to 
 gird about their bare flesh, and many such like toys.
 
 THE DESIERTO. 227 
 
 which hang about their oratories, to make people admire 
 their mortified and holy lives. 
 
 "All these hermits' holes and caves, which are some 
 ten in all, are within the bounds and compass of the 
 cloister, and among orchards and gardens, which are full 
 of fruits and flowers, which may take two miles in com- 
 pass ; and here among the rocks are many springs of 
 water, which, with the shade of the plantain and other 
 trees, are most cool and pleasant to the hermits. They 
 have also the sweet smell of the rose and the jessamine, 
 which is a little flower, but the sweetest of all others ; 
 and there is not any 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 hermits. 
 
 " They are weeldy changed from the cloister, and 
 when their week is ended others are sent, and they re- 
 turn into their cloisters ; they carry with them their 
 bottles of wine, sweetmeats, and other provisions. As 
 for fruits, the trees 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 
 strange and wonderful to see the resort thither of coach- 
 es, and gallants, and ladies, and citizens from ^Mexico, 
 to walk and make merry in those desert pleasures, and 
 to see those hypocrites, whom they look upon as living 
 saints, and so think nothing too good for them to cherish 
 them In their desert conflicts with Satan. 
 
 " None goes to them but carries some sweetmeats or 
 some 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, oflering to a picture in their churcli, called our Lady 
 of Carmel, treasures of diamonds, pearls, golden chains, 
 and crowns, and gowns of cloth of gold and silver. Be- 
 fore this picture did hang, in my time, twenty lamps of
 
 228 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 silver, the poorest of them being worth a hundred pounds. 
 Truly Satan hath given them what he offered unto Christ 
 in the desert. 
 
 "All the dainties and all the riches of America hath 
 he given unto them in that desert, because they daily 
 fall down and worship him. In the way to this place 
 is another town, called Tacubaya, where is a rich cloister 
 of Franciscans, and also many gardens and orchards ; 
 but it is, above all, much resorted to for the music in 
 that church, wherein the friars have made the Indians so 
 skillful that they dare compare with the Cathedral Church 
 of Mexico." ;
 
 CHAPTEE XXL 
 
 Walk to Guadalupe. — Our Embassador kneeling to the Host. — An Em- 
 bassador with, and one without Lace. — Eirst sight of Santa Anna. — 
 Indian Dance in Church. — Juan Diego not Saint Thomas. — The Mir- 
 acle proved at Rome. — The Story of Juan Diego. — The holy Well of 
 Guadalupe. — The Temple of the Virgin. — Public Worship interdict- 
 ed by the Archbishop. — Refuses to revoke his Interdict. — He fled to 
 Guadalupe and took Sanctuary. — Refused to leave the Altar. — The 
 Arrest at the Altar. 
 
 ''^ JPlacuit pinturas i7i ecclesia esse non dehere, ne quod 
 colitur vel adoratur^ in jparietihiis jpingatur — Pictures 
 ought not to be in the churches, nor should any that 
 are reverenced or adored be painted upon the walls." 
 So say the canons of the Council of Toledo. 
 
 I was one of a vast crowd that, on a Sunday of De- 
 cember, 1853, were hurrying out of the city by the old 
 gate and causeway of Tepeac to the suburban village of 
 Guadalupe Hidalgo, once Tepeac, but now consecrated 
 to the Virgin Mary, who, tradition says, appeared there 
 in a bodily form to an Indian jpeon. Juan Diego was 
 the name of the Indian, and 1531 is the date assigned 
 to the incident. I shall hereafter take occasion to relate 
 the story as given by the veracious Juan, and duly at- 
 tested by authority which ought to be competent to set- 
 tle the question, if any thing can do so. I hope that my 
 readers will do their best to believe it. If they honest- 
 ly endeavor to do so, and do not succeed, I trust they 
 will not suffer on account of their lack of faith. 
 
 The occasion that was drawing the multitude together 
 was the consecration of the bishop-elect of Michoican, 
 which was to be celebrated with great pomp at this most
 
 230 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 sacred shrine of the patron goddess of the Eepublic. The 
 State and the Church were duly represented upon the 
 platform by the President, the nuncio, and the archbish- 
 op. Beneath the platform, and within the silver railing, 
 were the official representatives of foreign nations, who 
 were easily distinguished bj a strip of gold or silver 
 lace upon the collars and lapels of their coats. To this 
 uniformity of dress there was a single exception in the 
 person of the new American embassador, Mr. Gadsden, 
 whose plain black di-ess and clerical appearance would 
 have conveyed the impression that he was a Methodist 
 preacher, had he not been engaged, with all the awkward- 
 ness of a no^'ice, upon his knees, in crossing himself. 
 
 This was the first occasion on which I had ever seen 
 Santa Anna. If looks have any weight determining a 
 man's character, then tnily he was entitled to his position, 
 for he was, by all odds, the most imposing in appearance 
 of any person in that assemblage, or any other I have 
 yet seen in ^lexico. His part in the perfoiTnance was 
 that of godfather to the bishop. SuiTOunded by kneel- 
 ing aids-de-camp, he alone stood up, in the rich luiiform 
 of a general of division, seeming the perfection of mili- 
 tary- elegance and dignity. Each badge of prelatical 
 rank, before it was put upon the new bishop, was hand- 
 ed to Santa Anna, who kissed it, and then returned it. 
 He stood without apparent fatigue during the whole of 
 that long ceremony. I have often seen Santa Anna 
 since that time, but never have I seen him appear to 
 such advantage as upon this occasion. 
 
 On the next Sabbath I attended the Indian celebra- 
 tion of the appearance of the most blessed Virgin. Dur- 
 ing the Christmas hoHdays in the country of the Pintos, 
 I had seen Indians dressed up in whimsical attire, enact- 
 ing plays, and singing and dancing ; but this was the 
 first time that I had ever seen, in a house dedicated to
 
 THE BIBLE IX MEXICO. 231 
 
 the worship of God, or, rather, in a temple consecrated 
 to the adoration of the Virgin, fantastic dances j^erform- 
 ed by Indians under the supervision of priests and bish- 
 ops. When I found out what the entertainment was, I 
 was heartily vexed that I should be at such a place on 
 the Sabbath day. The dancing and singing was bad 
 enough, but the climax was reached when the priest came 
 down from the altar, with an array of attendants having 
 immense candles, to the side door, where the procession 
 stopped to witness the discharge, at mid-day, of a large 
 amount of fire-works in honor of the most blessed Virgin 
 Mary. 
 
 I hurried home from this profanation of the Lord's 
 day, and sat down and contemplated the old Aztec 
 god, who had been deified for his wisdom, and could not 
 but regret the change that had been imposed upon these 
 imbecile Indians. The next Sabbath after this was the 
 national anniversary of the miraculous apparition ; but, 
 having seen enough of this sort of thing, I concluded 
 that my Sabbaths would be better spent in staying at 
 home and reading a Spanish Testament, which had been 
 brought into the country in violation of the law. When 
 I was first at the city of ^lexico. Governor Letcher re- 
 lated to me the stratagem by which he contrived to 
 smuggle an American Bible agent out of the country 
 when the police were after him, on an accusation of sell- 
 ing prohibited books ! for in such a country as this, the 
 Word of God is a prohibited book. 
 
 Juan Diego, upon wliose veracity rests the story of 
 the miraculous appearance of the Virgin, was an Indian 
 jpeon ; and though, like the rest of his race, he probably 
 was an habitual liar, yet when he bears testimony to a 
 miracle he is presumed to speak the truth. He lived in 
 a mud hut somewhere about the barren hill now conse- 
 crated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The attempt to make
 
 232 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 out that it was Saint Thomas, or the Wandering Jew, 
 who here had an interview "v^dth the Yirgin IMary, and 
 that the old rag on which the picture is painted is really 
 a part of the cloak of Saint Thomas, is, by a very ver- 
 bose proclamation of the Archbishop of ^Mexico, dated 
 2oth March, 1795, pronounced a damnable heresy. I 
 have in my possession a copy of this precious document, 
 bearing the signature of Don Alonzo Xunez de Haro y 
 Peralto. 
 
 x4.s I learn from the said proclamation that "the ad- 
 oration of this holy image" [picture] exists not only in 
 Mexico, but in South xlmerica and Spain, and that it 
 has propagated itself in Italy, Flanders, Germany, Aus- 
 tria, Bohemia, Poland, Ireland, and Transylvania, I shall 
 be excused for giving the substance of this miraculous 
 apparition, since it is now an article of belief of all good 
 Catholics, having been proved before the Congregation of 
 Hites at Rome to have been a miraculous appearance of 
 the Mother of God upon earth, in the year and at the 
 place aforesaid. And the proclamation farther informs 
 us that his holiness, Benedict XIY., was so fiiUy per- 
 suaded of the truth of the tradition, that he made " cor- 
 dial devotion to our Lady of Guadalupe, and conceded the 
 proper mass and ritual of devotion. He also made men- 
 tion of it in the lesson of the second nocUimal . . . . , 
 declaring from the high throne of the Vatican that Mary, 
 most holy, non fecit taliter omni nationV 
 
 Juan Diego had a sick father, and, like a good and pi- 
 ous son, he started for the medicine-man. He was 
 stopped by the Yirgin at the spot where the round house 
 on the extreme right of the picture is situated. She re- 
 proached him with the slowness of the Indians in em- 
 bracing the new religion, and at the same time she an- 
 nounced to him the important fact that she was to be 
 the patron of the Indians, and also charged him to go
 
 STORY OP JUAN DIEGO. 233 
 
 and report the same to Zumarraga, who then enjoyed 
 the lucrative office of Bishop of ^lexico. Juan obeyed 
 the heavenly messenger, but found himself turned out of 
 doors as a lying Indian. The second time he went for 
 the medicine-man he took aAother path, but was again 
 stopped on the way at the spot where the second round 
 house now stands. She now required him to go a sec- 
 ond time to the bishop, and, in order to convince him of 
 the truth of the story, she directed the Indian to climb 
 to the top of the rock, where he would find a bunch of 
 roses growing out of the smooth porphyry. The Indian 
 did as he was commanded, and finding the roses in the 
 place named, he gathered them in his tilr/ia, and carried 
 them to the bishop. The spot is marked by a small 
 chapel. On opening his tilma before the bishop and a 
 company of gentlemen assembled for that purpose, it was 
 found that the roses had imprinted themselves around a 
 very coarse picture of the Virgin. This is the story of 
 the miraculous appearance of our Lady of Guadalupe. 
 
 The bishop was hard to convince at first, but when he 
 considered that the Indian could not himself paint, and 
 had no money with which to pay an artist, and, above 
 all, as there was a fair chance of making money by the 
 transaction, he finally yielded. to conviction. His ex- 
 ample was soon followed by the whole nation ; and then 
 the several buildings, one after another, began to make 
 their appearance. There was some difficulty at first in 
 identifying the place of the first appearance of the Vir- 
 gin, but this difficulty was removed by tlie Virgin her- 
 self, for she again appeared and stamped her foot upon 
 the spot, whereupon there gushed forth a spring of min- 
 eral water.* This has proved an infallible cure for all 
 diseases of body and mind, and to it the Indians resort 
 
 * This water is impregnated with carbonic acid, sulphate of lime, 
 and soda.
 
 234 MEXICO AND ITS KELUUC>iI. 
 
 to drink, and wash, and drink again, until it would seem 
 that they must soon exhaust the fountain, so great is the 
 multitude that resort to this spring of the Virgin. 
 
 The Collegiate Church — for there can not be two Ca- 
 thedrals in one diocese — is the principal building in the 
 picture. It is not large, but it surpasses any thing I 
 have yet seen for its immense accumulation of treasure, 
 excepting always the Cathedral. A railing formed of 
 plates of pure silver incloses both the choir and the altar 
 of the Virgin. These are joined together by a passage- 
 way, which is inclosed by a portion of the same precious 
 railing. The golden candlesticks, the golden shields, 
 and other ornaments of gold, dazzle the eyes of the be- 
 holder, while the three rows of jewels, one of pearls, one 
 of emeralds, and one of diamonds, encircling "the holy 
 image," produce an impression not easily erased. The 
 contrast that is presented between these hoards of wealth 
 and the extreme poverty of the multitude that here con- 
 gregate is most striking. 
 
 The rehgion of ^lexico is a religion of priestly mir- 
 acles, and when the ordinary rules of evidence are applied 
 to them, they and the religion that rests upon them fall 
 together ; hence the necessity of exacting at the start a 
 blind submission to authority, and an abnegation of the 
 reasoning faculties the moment the subject of religion is 
 approached. We have applied the ordinary rules of ev- 
 idence to the romance of the Conquest, and we find that 
 it will not stand the test of an examination. But if we 
 doubt the history of the Conquest, we must doubt the 
 history of all the miracles of the Church, for all of them 
 rest on the like untenable grounds. I did not wonder 
 at finding the country abounding in unbelief. Now that 
 the fires of the Inquisition have ceased to burn, the 
 priesthood are made the butt and laughing-stock of those 
 Avho are educated. Still, the national mind does not run
 
 AN INTERDICT. 237 
 
 toward the pure Gospel, which is here unknown and pro- 
 hibited, but to infidelity and socialism. A sincere Prot- 
 estant can have no sympathy with either side. 
 
 The following is Thomas Gage's account of an affair 
 that took place in this temple in his time : 
 
 " Don Alonzo de Zerna, the archbishop, who had al- 
 ways opposed Don Pedro Mexia and the Virey, to please 
 the people, granted to them to excommunicate Don Pe- 
 dro, and so sent out bills of excommunication, to be fixed 
 upon all the church doors, against Don Pedro, who, not 
 regarding the excommunication, and keeping close at 
 home, and still selling his wheat at a higher price than 
 before, the archbisliop raised his censure higher against 
 him, by adding to it a bill of cessatio a divi?iis, that is, 
 a cessation of all divine service. This censure is so 
 great with them that it is never used except for some 
 great man's sake, who is contumacious and stubborn in 
 his ways, contemning the power of the Church. Then 
 are all the church doors shut up, let the city be never 
 so great ; no masses are said ; no prayers are used ; no 
 preaching permitted ; no meetings allowed for any pub- 
 lic devotion ; no calling upon God. The Church mourns, 
 as it were, and makes no show of spiritual joy and com- 
 fort, nor of any communion of prayers one with another, 
 so long as the party remains stubborn and rebellious in 
 his sin and scandal, and in not yielding to the Church's 
 censure. 
 
 "And whereas, by this cessation a divi7iis, many 
 churches, especially cloisters, suffer in the means of their 
 livelihood, who live upon what is daily given for the 
 masses they say, and in a cloister where thirty or forty 
 priests say mass, so many pieces of eight [dollars] do 
 daily come in, therefore this censure is inflicted upon the 
 whole Church, that the party offending or scandalizing, 
 for whose sake this curse is laid upon all, is bound to
 
 238 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGIOX. 
 
 satisfy all priests and cloisters, wliich, in the way afore- 
 said, sufier, and to allow them so much out of his means 
 as they might Imve daily got by selling away their 
 masses for so many dollars for their daily livelihood. 
 To this would the archbishop have brought Don Pedro, 
 to have emptied out his purse, nearly a thousand dol- 
 lars daily, toward the maintenance of about a thousand 
 priests, so many there may be in ^lexico, who from the 
 altar sell away their bread god [sacrament*] to satisfy 
 with bread and food their hungr)^ stomachs. And sec- 
 ondly, by the people suffering in their spiritual comfort, 
 and in then* communion of prayers and worship, thought 
 to make Don Pedro odious to the people. Don Pedro, 
 perceiving the spiteful intent of the archbishop, and hear- 
 ing the outcries of the people against him, and their cries 
 for the use of their churches, secretly retired to the pal- 
 ace of the Virey, begging his favor and protection, for 
 whose sake he suffered. 
 
 " The viceroy immediately sent out his orders com- 
 manding the bills of excommunication and cessatio a di- 
 vinis to be pulled down from the chiu'ch doors ; and to 
 all the superiors of the cloisters to set open their church- 
 es, and to celebrate their services and masses as former- 
 ly they had done. But they disobeyed the i-ice-king 
 through blind obedience to their archbishop. The vice- 
 roy commanded the arch-prelate to revoke his censures ; 
 but liis answer was, that what he had done had been 
 justly done against a public offender and great oppressor 
 of the poor, whose cries had moved him to commiserate 
 their suffering condition, and that the offender's contempt 
 of liis first excommunication had deserved the risror of 
 
 o 
 
 * It is diflBcult to convey to Protestant readers the idea which the 
 Spaniards attach to the sacramental bread or wafer after the i)riest has 
 pronounced the words of consecration. They call it both God and Je- 
 sus Christ, and claim for it divine worship.
 
 ARREST OF AN ARCHBISHOP. 239 
 
 the second censure, neither of which he would nor could 
 revoke until Don Pedro Mexia had submitted himself to 
 the Church and to a public absolution, and had satisfied 
 the priests and the cloisters who suffered for him, and 
 had disclaimed that unlawful and unconscionable monop- 
 oly wherewith he wronged the whole commonwealth, 
 and especially the poorer sort therein. 
 
 " The viceroy, not brooking this saucy answer from a 
 priest, commanded him presently to be apprehended, and 
 to be taken under guard to San Juan de Ulua, and then 
 to be shipped to Spain. The archbishop, having notice 
 of this resolution of the viceroy, retired to Guadalupe, 
 with many of his priests and prebends, leaving a bill of 
 excommunication against the viceroy himself upon the 
 church doors, intending privately to fly to Spain, there to 
 give an account of his carriage and behavior. But he 
 could not escape the care and vigilance of the viceroy, 
 who, with his sergeant and officers, pursued him to 
 Guadalupe, which the archbishop understanding, he be- 
 took himself to the sanctuary of the church, and there 
 caused the candles to be lighted upon the altar, and the 
 sacrament of his bread god to be taken out of the taber- 
 nacle, and attiring himself with his pontifical vestments, 
 with his mitre on his head, his crosier in one hand, in 
 the other he took his god of bread, and thus, with his 
 train of priests about him at the altar, he waited for the 
 coming of the sergeant and officers, whom he thought, 
 with his god in his hand, and with a Here I am, to as- 
 tonish and amaze, and to make them, as did Christ the 
 Jews in the garden, to fall backward, and disable them 
 from laying hands on him. 
 
 " The officers, coming into the church, went toward the 
 altar where the bishop stood, and, kneeling down first 
 to worsliip their god^ made short prayers ; which being 
 ended, they propounded unto the bishop, with courteous
 
 240 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 
 
 and fair words, the cause of their coming to that place, 
 requiring him to lay down the sacrament [the consecrated 
 wafer], and to come out of the church, and to hear the 
 notification of what orders they brought unto him in the 
 king's name. To whom the archbishop replied, that 
 whereas their master the viceroy was excommunicated, 
 he looked upon him as one out of the pale of the Church, 
 and one without any power or authority to command liim 
 in the house of God, and so required them, as they re- 
 garded the good of their souls, to depart peaceably, and 
 not to infringe the privileges and immunities of the 
 Chui'ch by exercising in it any legal act of secular pow- 
 er and command ; and that he would not go out of the 
 church unless they durst take him and the sacrament 
 together. "VYith this the head officer, named Tiroll, stood 
 up and notified unto him an order, in the king's name, 
 to apprehend his person in what place soever he should 
 find him, and to guard him to the port of San Juan de 
 Ulua, and there to deliver him to whom by farther order 
 he should be directed thereto, to be shipped to Spain as 
 a traitor to the king's crown, a troubler of the common 
 peace, and an author and mover of sedition in the com- 
 monwealth. 
 
 "The archbishop, smiling to Tiroll, answered him, 
 ' Thy master useth too high terms and words, which do 
 better agree unto himself, for I know no mutiny or sedi- 
 tion like to trouble the commonwealth, unless it be by his 
 and Don Pedro Alexia his oppressing of the poor. And 
 as for thy guarding me to San Juan de Ulua, I conjure 
 thee by Jesus Christ, whom thou knowest I hold in my 
 hands, not to use here any violence in God's house, from 
 whose altar I am resolved not to depart ; take heed God 
 punish you not, as he did Jeroboam for stretching forth 
 his hand at the altar against the prophet ; let his with- 
 ered hand remind thee of thy duty.' But Tiroll suffer-
 
 BANISHMENT OF THE AilCHBlSHOP. 241 
 
 ed him not to squander away the time and ravel it out 
 with farther preaching, but called to the altar a priest, 
 whom he had brought for the purpose, and commanded 
 him, in the king's name, to take the sacrament [wafer] 
 out of the arclibishop's hand ; which the priest doing, the 
 archbishop, unvesting himself of his pontificals, yield- 
 ed himself unto Tiroll ; and, taking his leave of all his 
 prebends, requiring them to be witnesses of what had 
 been done, he went prisoner to San Juan de Ulua, where 
 he was delivered to the custody of the governor of the 
 castle, and, not many days after, was sent in a ship pre- 
 pared for that purpose to Spain, to the king in council, 
 with a full charge of all his carriages and misdemeanors."
 
 CHAPTER XXIL 
 
 The old Indian Citj of Mexico. — The Mosques. — Probable Extent of 
 Civilization. — Aztecs acquired Arts of the Toltecs. — Toltec Civiliza- 
 tion, ancient and original. — The Pyramid of Papantla. — The Plun- 
 der of Civilization. — Mexico as described by Cortez. — Montezuma's 
 Court. — The eight Months that Cortez held Montezuma. — What hap- 
 pened for the next ten Months. — The Siege of Mexico by Corte'z. — 
 Aztecs conquered by Famine and Thirst. — Heroes on Paper and 
 Victories without Bloodshed. — Cortez and Morgan. 
 
 As we have carefully surveyed tlie suburbs, and all 
 the valley of ]Mexico, it is time to take a sm-vey of the 
 city itself, and examine its condition at different periods 
 of its history. 
 
 The Aztec city of Mexico perished with its conquest 
 by the Spaniards. Day by day, as the siege went on, 
 the Indians that followed the soldiers pulled the houses 
 down, when the latter had passed, and threw the rub- 
 bish into the canals ; so that, on the day on which the 
 conquest was effected, the city ceased to exist. ]\Iany 
 times has that old city been restored, in the imagination 
 of enthusiasts, with its forty p3rramids {teocallis) and un- 
 numbered palaces, adorned with all the luxury and mag- 
 nificence of the most refined civilization, united with bar- 
 baric grandeur and inhumanity in so strange a combina- 
 tion as to distract our feelings between hate and admi- 
 ration. 
 
 It was easy to build an Indian city that would pre- 
 sent a most imposing appearance, for the climate was 
 well fitted for drying mud thoroughly. Besides, there 
 was an inexhaustible supply of pumice-stone {tej^etate), 
 and an exceedingly soft, gray quarry stone, for caps and
 
 THE MEXICO OF THE AZTECS. 243 
 
 lintels, with an excellent quality of cement, and material 
 for ^''fresco painting" of the walls, abundant and cheap. 
 All these articles are combined in the building of the 
 modern city, and give it its present appearance of ele- 
 gance and great durability. But in the old city, one- 
 story palaces of dried mud, plastered and frescoed, with 
 large interior courts like that I have described at Tez- 
 cuco, must have been among the most imposing struc- 
 tures. If tejpetate was employed in the construction of 
 the royal palaces, it would not have added materially to 
 the weight resting upon the earthy foundations ; for 
 when the water in the ditches occupied half the street,* 
 the foundations must have been so much softer than at 
 present, that structures of the lightest material only could 
 be borne. 
 
 In his anxiety to keep up a resemblance between his 
 conquests and that of Granada, Cortez calls the teocallis, 
 or Indian mounds which he found, mosques^ and speaks 
 of "forty towers, the largest of Avhich has fifty steps 
 leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower 
 of the principal church in Seville, "f Bernal Diaz says 
 there were "115 steps to the summit. "J I must reduce 
 the size of this great pyramid to the size of the isolated 
 rock that the Cathedral is said to occupy. The difficul- 
 ty of getting rid of the earth that composed these forty 
 artificial mountains does not seem to have troubled his- 
 torians so much as it Avould a contractor. I liave often 
 thought that those hillocks of earth on the north side of 
 the town were once small artificial mounds on which the 
 Indians offered their worship, for in the canal near by 
 was found that collection of clay divinities of which I 
 have aheady spoken. 
 
 The difficulty in the way of forming a coiTect idea of 
 that old city, is owing to the defective character of our 
 
 * Cortez, Letteis^ p. 111. f Ibid. J Diaz, p. 247.
 
 244 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 witnesses. The one confesses to the habitual practice 
 of falsehood for the pui'pose of deceiving the Indians ; 
 the other acknowledges practices that render the char- 
 acter of both infamous, and woidd make their testimony 
 of no weight in a court of justice unless corroborated. 
 We must therefore feel oui* way as best we can. 
 
 With the rude implements of the Indians, houses of 
 the driest blocks of mud, though covered with cement 
 and painted with colored wash, coidd easily have been 
 thrown down ; but gunpowder or iron bars would have 
 been necessary to overtiuii a wall composed either of 
 stone or tejyetate and cement. Villages built of dried 
 mud are often imposing in their appearance, and are yet 
 most perishable ; for the first ovei*flow of waters, that 
 shall cover but a few inches of the walls of the houses, 
 will in a few hours reduce a whole viUage to a mass of 
 ruins. Again, the dry wall that has fallen becomes sat- 
 urated, and dissolves itself into soft mud. My h}^othe- 
 sis is, therefore, not without its difficulty, for at every in- 
 undation of the city in the times of the Aztecs we have to 
 suppose it totally destroyed ; an evil that could not be 
 remedied until the water had entirely subsided, and 
 new mud had been formed into blocks and dried in 
 the sun, and a new village or city built every twenty- 
 five years. 
 
 To sum up my theory of Aztec civilization : they had 
 earthen gods, earthen cooking utensils, and earthen aque- 
 ducts ; their temples were small buildings, upon moder- 
 ately-sized Indian burial mounds, and their palaces and 
 sacred inclosures were of dried mud, and of a single sto- 
 ry in height. 
 
 With this solution, the difficulty that occurred to Hum- 
 boldt is in part removed, viz., that the allotted time — 
 one liundred and seventy years — was too short a period 
 in which to transform a tribe of North American Indians
 
 THE TOLTECS. 245 
 
 into a settled commiinity. The remainder of the diffi- 
 culty is explained by an event taking place in our own 
 days. It is hardly thirty years since the Apache Indians 
 began the systematic plunder of the northern states of 
 ]\Iexico, and now even these nomades begin to show the 
 first glimmerings of civilization. Tlieir captives teach 
 them the use of much of the plunder they have brought 
 to tlieir own villages. Though their treatment of female 
 captives is inhuman, yet it is not an uncommon tiling 
 for a captive to become a wife, and to introduce into her 
 wigwam, and to inculcate upon the minds of her chil- 
 dren, a few of the primary ideas of civilization. It is the 
 commonly received notion that the Toltecs abandoned 
 the table-land about the time of the arrival of the Aztecs, 
 but continued to flourish in the region of the Gulf coast 
 and in other parts of the hot country ; that the vast ru- 
 ins which abound in those regions were inhabited cities 
 till within a few generations of the coming of the Span- 
 iards ; and that in Yucatan, the part most distant from 
 ^Mexico, that civilization continued quite down to that 
 period ; that for a great portion of the one hundred and 
 seventy years of their national existence, the Aztecs 
 kept up predatory excursions into the Toltec region, and 
 out of its dense population derived an inexhaustible sup- 
 ply of slaves and the plunder of civilization, included in 
 which may have been the best wrought of the stone 
 idols that are still preserved. So that the Aztec civili- 
 zation resolves itself into the very ancient civilization of 
 the Toltecs. 
 
 We have removed to a greater antiquity, but have not 
 got rid of the question of the origin of ]\Iexican civiliza- 
 tion. The year 600, named by Humboldt, may be con- 
 sidered as the time of their appearance on the table-land ; 
 but many of the ruins in the hot country might claim a 
 thousand years earlier antiquity. These massive re-
 
 246 
 
 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 mains must have stood, abandoned as they now are, in 
 the midst of the forest, for a long time before the Con- 
 quest, as their very existence was unknoT\^l to the Span- 
 iards until near the close of the last century. The close 
 resemblance between the apparently most ancient of 
 these works, and those of the Egyptians and otlier East- 
 ern civilizations, does not involve the idea of a common 
 origin or of intercourse, but only leads to the suggestion 
 that the human race, in its progress, naturally follows 
 the same path, whether upon the eastern or western con- 
 tinent, and that it is separated by a cycle of thousands 
 cf years from the civilization of our day. As a speci- 
 men of the works of the Toltecs, I insert a sketch of 
 the pyramid of Papantla. 
 
 PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA.
 
 PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA. 247 
 
 "The pyramid of Papantla," says Humboldt,* "is 
 not constructed like tlie pyramids of Cliolula and ]Mex- 
 ico. The only materials employed are immense stones. 
 Mortar is distinguished in the seams. The edifice, how- 
 ever, is not so remarkable for its size as for its sym- 
 metry, the polish of the stones, and the great regularity 
 of their cut. The base of the pyramid is an exact 
 square, each side being eighty-two feet in length. The 
 perpendicular height appears not to be more than from 
 lifty-two to sixty-five feet. This monument, like all the 
 JMexican teocallis, is composed of several stages. Six 
 are still distinguishable, and a seventh appears to be con- 
 cealed by the vegetation with Avhich tlie sides of tlie pyra- 
 mid are covered. A gTcat stairway of fifty-seven steps 
 conducts to the truncated top of the teocalU^ where the 
 human victims were sacrificed. On each side of the 
 great stairs is a flight of small stairs. The facing of the 
 stories is adorned with hieroglyphics, in wliich serpents 
 and crocodiles, carved in relievo, are discernible. Each 
 story contains a great number of square niches, symmet- 
 rically distributed. In the first story we reckon twen- 
 ty-four on each side, in the second twenty, and in the 
 third sixteen. The number of these niches in the body 
 of the pyramid is three hundred and sixty-six, and there 
 are twelve in the stairs toward the east. The xibbe 
 !Marquez supposes that this number of three hundred and 
 seventy-eight niches has some allusion to a calendar of 
 the Mexicans, and he even believes that in each of them 
 one of the twenty figures was repeated, which, in tlie hi- 
 eroglyphical language of the Toltecs, served as a sym- 
 bol for marking the days of the common year, and the 
 intercalated days at the end of the cycles. The year be- 
 ing comj^osed of eighteen months of twenty days, there 
 would then be three hundred and sixty days, to which, 
 
 * Essai I*oUtique^ vol. ii. p. 172.
 
 248 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 agreeable to the Egyptian practice, five complementary 
 
 days were added This pyramid was visited by 
 
 M. Dupe, a captain in the service of the King of Spain. 
 He possesses the bust, in basalt, of a ^lexican, which I 
 employed ^L Massard to engrave, and which bears great 
 resemblance to the calautica of the heads of Isis." 
 
 I prefer in this way to copy from an author of un- 
 questionable authority an important historical fact, rather 
 than to search for less accessible sources of evidence on 
 which I rest the theory, that what of this kind we have 
 seen at the city of ^Mexico are but fragments from the 
 wreck that befell the American ci\'ilization of antiquity, 
 which had succumbed before the inroads of northern sav- 
 ages. This is sufficient inquiry into antiquities till we 
 come to the museum. 
 
 . It is but justice to add the substance of Cortez's ac- 
 count of this ancient city, which is embodied in the fol- 
 lowing paragrajDhs : 
 
 " This noble city contains many line and magnificent 
 houses, w]iich may be accounted for from the fact that 
 all tlie nobility of the country, who are the vassals of 
 ^lontezuma, have houses in the city, in wliich they re- 
 side a certain part of the year ; and, besides, there are 
 numerous wealthy citizens who also possess fine houses. 
 All these persons, in addition to the large and spacious 
 apartments for ordinaiy pui-poses, have others, both U2>- 
 per and lower, that contain conservatories of flowers. 
 Along one of the causeways [tlie Chapultepec] that lead 
 into the city are laid two [water] pipes, constructed of 
 masonry, each of which is two paces in width, and about 
 
 five feet in height Tlic inliabitants of this city 
 
 pay greater regard to the style of their mode of living, 
 and arc more attentive to elegance of dress and polite- 
 ness of manners than those of otlicr provinces and cities, 
 since, as the cacique IMontezuma has liis residence in the
 
 MEXICO ACCOKDING TO CORTEZ. 24^ 
 
 capital, and all the nobility, liis vassals, arc in the con- 
 stant habit of meeting there, a general courtesy of de- 
 meanor necessarily prevails For, as I have al- 
 ready stated, what can be more wonderful than that a 
 barbarous monarch, as he is, should have every object 
 found in his dominions imitated in gold, silver, precious 
 stones, and feathers, the gold and silver being wrought 
 so naturally as not to be surpassed by any smith in the 
 world, the stone-work executed with such perfection that 
 it is difficult to conceive what instruments could have 
 been used, and the feather-work superior to the finest 
 production in wax and embroidery ? . . . . He possess- 
 ed out of the city as well as within numerous villas, each 
 of whicli had its peculiar sources of amusement, and all 
 w^ere constructed in the best possible manner for the use 
 of a great prince or lord. Within the city, his palaces 
 were so wonderful that it is hardly possible to describe 
 their beauty and extent. I can only say that in Spain 
 there is nothing equal to them. There was one palace 
 somewhat inferior to the rest, attached to wliich was a 
 beautiful garden, with balconies extending over it, sup- 
 ported by marble columns, and having a floor formed of 
 jasper elegantly inlaid. There were apartments in this 
 palace sufficient to lodge two princes of the liighest rank 
 
 with their retinues The emperor has another 
 
 beautiful palace, with a large court-yard paved with hand- 
 some flags in the style of a chess-board. 
 
 " Every day, as soon as it was light, six hundred no- 
 bles and men of rank were in attendance at the palace, 
 who either sat or walked about the halls and galleries, 
 and passed their time in conversation, but without enter- 
 ing the apartments where his person was Daily 
 
 his larder and wine-cellar* were open to all who wislied 
 
 * Tliis is a little too strong a statement, considering that there never 
 was and never could be a cellar at Mexico. 
 
 T. 2
 
 250 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 to eat and drink. The meals were served by three hund- 
 red youths, who brought on an infinite variety of dishes ; 
 indeed, whenever he dined or supped, the table was load- 
 ed with eveiy kind of flesh, fish, and vegetables that the 
 country produced. The meals were served in a large 
 hall, in which ^lontezuma was accustomed to eat, and 
 the dishes quite filled the room, which was covered with 
 mats, and kept very clean. He sat on a small cushion 
 curiously wrought of leather.* He is also di'essed four 
 times every day in four different suits entirely new, which 
 he never wears a second time. None of the ca9iques 
 who enter his palace have their feet covered, and when 
 those for whom he sends enter his presence, they incline 
 their heads and look down, bending their bodies ; and 
 when they address him, they do not look him in the 
 face ; this arises fi'om excessive modesty and reverence.t 
 .... No sultan or other infidel lord, of whom any 
 knowledge now exists, ever had so much ceremonial in 
 his court." 
 
 It was in the spring of 1519 that Cortez and his 
 company had landed at Yera Cruz. From that point 
 they had marched toward Mexico without opposition, 
 except the skmnishes with the Tlascalans, and without 
 opposition they had entered the city of ^Mexico on the 
 5th of Xovember, 1519. Here they had been received 
 with every mark of hospitahty and treated with every 
 kindness. But this did not prevent their treacherously 
 seizing the person of their host, and making him a pris- 
 oner in their quarters. In his name they had governed 
 his tribe, and ransacked his dominions in search of the 
 treasures collected by the gold-washers, and had even 
 
 * The naked negro alcalde mentioned in Chapter XII. was also 
 seated on a leather cushion. 
 
 t This is not all fancy. No people in the -svorld show more profound 
 reverence to the aged or deference to their chiefs than the North Amer- 
 ican Indians.
 
 PROCEEDINGS OP THE SPANIARDS. 251 
 
 interfered in the religious worship of a superstitious peo- 
 ple, and murdered, in cold blood, a party of their chiefs 
 celebrating an Indian feast. Still there had been no 
 war, until Ordaz was sent, with his four hundred men, 
 to recapture the concubines of Cortez, who had been res- 
 cued, as already mentioned. This was in July of the 
 following year, eight months after their first entry into 
 ]\Iexico, and on the 10th of July, 1520, the licentious 
 rule of the Spaniards at ]\Iexico was terminated by the 
 events of the ty^iste noche. 
 
 The mere handful that had at first entered the city 
 had been increased by the army of Narvaez, so that 
 when the news reached Cortez that Alvarado and the 
 eighty odd men that had been left with him in the city 
 were threatened with difficulty, he marched a well-a2> 
 pointed army of fourteen hundred men, besides two hun- 
 dred Tlascalans, to his relief. Their retreat to Tlascala 
 has already been described, the character of the brigan- 
 tines has been discussed, as well as the absurd story of 
 his having dug a slip or launching canal at Tezcuco, 
 twelve feet broad and twelve feet deep. We have seen 
 that the towns and villages said to have been built in 
 the lake, and the still greater number of large towns on 
 the main land, could only have been petty Indian ham- 
 lets, and that the central portions of the valley of ]\Iex- 
 ico would not have been habitable if the lakes of JMex- 
 ico had been any thing rhore than evaporation ponds. 
 And, lest I should ventui'e too far, I will conclude this 
 remark by adverting to the testimony of Diaz, which 
 concedes that when his book was written the face of the 
 country was substantially as it now is, and as I have 
 already described it to be. But he endeavors to save 
 the story of the Conquest by the shallow pretense that, 
 during the few years that intervened between that event
 
 252 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 and the date of his history, the whole face of the coun- 
 try had completely changed.* 
 
 The great mystery is why so large a body of Span- 
 iards, if they really amounted to the number claimed by 
 Cortez, should have retreated from the city at all, as 
 tliey do not complain of being short of provisions. They 
 had the great teocalli for a fortress, on which they might 
 have planted their cannon, and leveled the city in a few 
 days, if not in a few hours, and the great Plaza in which 
 to manoeuvre their cavalr}^ and protect the Indians while 
 le^'cling the rubbish of the broken walls. But a panic 
 ha^'ing seized them, and having escaped from the city 
 by a badly-managed night retreat, ten months elapsed 
 before the Spaniards, on the 13th of May, 1521, laid 
 siege to the city. And with vaiying success the siege 
 was continued just three months, until Guatemozin was 
 taken prisoner, on the 13th of August, 1521, so that the 
 siege was carried on in the midst of the rainy season, 
 when the flats must have been covered with water, and 
 the ditches well filled. Xo difficulty was experienced in 
 bringing up his flat-boats to the sides of the muddy 
 causeways, or in cutting oft' the supphes of provisions by 
 water, or in breaking down the earthen aqueduct of 
 Chapultepec, so that the Indians were fiinally subdued 
 by the combined forces of hunger and thirst. When 
 the Aztecs were so enfeebled by want that they could 
 no longer ofter resistance, the Spaniards rushed into the 
 
 * *' Iztapalapan was at that time a town of considerable magnitude, 
 built half in the water and half on dn- land. The spot where it stood 
 is at present all dry land ; and where vessels once sailed up and down, 
 seeds are so^^-n and han-ests gathered. In fact, the whole face of the 
 country' is so completely changed, that he who had not seen these parts 
 previously would scarcely believe that waves had ever rolled over the 
 spot where now fertile corn-plantations extend themselves to all sides, 
 so wonderfully have all things changed here in a short space of time." 
 -:-Bkp>nal Diaz. vol. i. p. 220.
 
 INDIAN WARFARE. 253 
 
 town, seized the unresisting Guatemozin, and sliouted 
 victoiy. 
 
 It requires a familiarity with Spanish character, and 
 the Moorish, Oriental origin of their literature, in order 
 to read Spanish-American military annals understand- 
 ingly, as much so as it does a knowledge of Indian 
 character in order to sift out the truth from accounts 
 of Indian wars. The superstitious dread which the Az- 
 tecs at all times evinced for the Spanish horses and 
 horsemen is common to all savages.* The appearance 
 
 * Moffatt's Southern Africa, page 242, furnishes the following com- 
 plete illustration of the effect pi-oduced by horsemen and fire-aruis upon 
 savage warriors. " The commando approached within 150 yards with 
 a view to beckon some one to come out. On this, the enemy com- 
 menced their terrible howl, and at once discharged their clubs and jav- 
 elins. Their black, dismal appearance and savage fury, with their 
 hoarse and stentorian voices, were calculated to dauut : and the Griquas 
 [horsemen], on their first attack, wisely retreated to a short distance, 
 and then drew up. Waterboer, the chief, commenced firing, and level- 
 ed one of their warriors to the ground ; several more instantly shai-ed 
 the same fate. It was confidently expected that their courage Avould 
 be daunted Avhen they saw their warriors fall by an invisible weapon, 
 and it was hoped they would be humbled and alarmed, that thus fur- 
 ther bloodshed might be preAented. Though they beheld with aston- 
 ishment the dead and the sti-icken warriors writhing in the dust, they 
 looked with lion-like fierceness at the horsemen, and yelled vengeance, 
 violently Avrenching the weapons from the hands of their dying com- 
 panions to supply the place of those they had discharged at their antag- 
 onists. Sufficient intervals were afforded, and every encouragement 
 held out for them to make proposals, but all was ineffectual. They 
 sallied forth with increased vigor, so as to oblige the Griquas to retreat, 
 though only to a sliort distance, for they never attempted to pursue 
 above 200 yards from their camp. The faring, though without any or- 
 der, was very destructive, as each took a steady aim. Many of their 
 chief men fell victims to their own temerity, after manifesting undaunt- 
 ed spirit. Again and again the chiefs and Mr, Melville met to deliber- 
 ate on how to act to prevent bloodshed among a people who determined 
 to die rather than flee, which they could easily have done. 
 
 '' Soon after the battle commenced, theBechuanas came up, and united 
 in playing on the enemy with poisoned arrows, but they Avere soon driven 
 back ; half a dozen of the fierce Mantatces [the enemy] made the whole 
 body scamper off in wild disorder. After two hours and a half's com- 
 bat, the Griquas, finding their ammunition fast diminishing, at the almost 
 rertnin risk of loss of life, began to storm [charge], when the enemy gave
 
 254 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 
 
 of two or tliree horses, kept ready for that purpose, was 
 sufficient to restore the battle after the Spaniards had 
 
 ■wav, taking a westerly direction. The horsemen, however, intercepted 
 them, when they immediately descended toward the ravine, as if determ- 
 ined not to return by the way they came, which they crossed, but were 
 a-^ain intercepted. On turning round they seemed desperate, but were 
 again soon repulsed. Great confusion now prevailed, the ground being 
 very stony, which rendered it difficult to manage the horses. At this 
 moment an awful scene was presented to the view. The undulating 
 country around was covered with warriors all in motion, so that it was 
 difficult to say who were enemies or who were friends. Clouds of dust 
 •were rising from the immense masses, who appeared flying with terror 
 or pursuing with fear. To the alarming confusion was added the bel- 
 lowing of oxen, the vociferations of the yet unvanquished warriors, 
 mingled with the groans of the dying, and the widows' piercing wail, 
 and the cries from infant voices. The enemy again directed their 
 course toward a town which was in possession of a tribe of the same 
 people still more numerous. Here again another desperate struggle 
 ensued, when they appeared determined to inclose the horsemen ^^•i thin 
 the smoke and flames of the houses, through Avhich they were slowly 
 passing, giving the enemy time to escape. At last, seized with despair, 
 they fled precipitately. It had been observ-ed during the fight that 
 some women went backward and fo^•^vard to the town, only about half 
 a mile distant, apparently with the most perfect indifterence to their 
 fearful situation. While the commando was struggling between hope 
 and despair of being able to rout the enemy, information was brought 
 that the half of the enemy, under Choane, were reposing in the to\\Ti, 
 within sound of the guns, perfectly regardless of the fate of the other 
 division, under the command of Karagauye. It was supposed they pos- 
 sessed entire confidence in the yet invincible army of the latter, being 
 the more warlike of the two. Humanly speaking, had both parties been 
 together, the day would have been lost, Avhen they would with perfect 
 ease have carried devastation into the centre of the colony [of the Cape]. 
 When both parties were united, they set fire to all parts of the town, and 
 appeared to be taking their departure, proceeding in an immense body 
 toward the north. If their number may be calculated by the space of 
 ground occupied by the entire body, it must have amounted to upward 
 of 40,000. The Griquas pursued them about eight miles ; and though 
 they continued desperate, they seemed filled with terror at the enemies 
 
 by whom they had been overcome As fighting was not my 
 
 proA-ince, I avoided discharging a single shot, though, at the request of 
 Mr. ^Melville and the chiefs, I remained witJi the commando as the only 
 means of safety. Seeing the ^savage ferocity of the Bechuanas in kill- 
 int^ the inoftensive women and children for the sake of a few paltry 
 rings, or to boast that they had killed some of the Mantatees, I turned 
 my attention to these objects of pity, who were flying in consternation 
 in all directions. By my galloping in among them, many of the Be-
 
 IMPllO]3ABILirY OF CORTEZ's ACCOUNT. 255 
 
 taken to their heels. And while the facts of the siege 
 amount to little -more tlian keeping possession of the nar- 
 row causeways, by aid of superior implements of war, 
 until famine and thirst had done tlieir work, yet the 
 Spanish histories of the Conquest make it to surpass in 
 interest, and in the magnitude of forces engaged, almost 
 any siege on record. And so plausibly is the narrative 
 written, that the reader drinks it in with breathless anx- 
 iety, without once stopping to ask himself how so many 
 hundreds of thousands of Indians could be fed in a salt 
 valley, inclosed by high mountains, without the aid of 
 a regularly organized commissariat department, or how 
 such masses of undisciplined Indians could be manoeu- 
 
 cliuanas were deterred from their barbarous purpose, Sliortly after they 
 began to retreat, the women, seeing that mercy was shown them, instead 
 of flying, generally sat down, and, baring their bosoms, exclaimed, 'I 
 am a woman. I am a woman.' It seemed impossible for the men to 
 yield. There were several instances of wounded men being surround- 
 ed by fifty Bechuanas, but it was not till life was almost extinct that a 
 single one Avould allow himself to be conquered. I saw more than one 
 instance of a man fighting boldly Avith ten or twelve spears or arrows 
 fixed in his body. . . . The men, struggling with death, would raise 
 themselves from the ground, and discharge their weapons at any one of 
 our number within their reach : their hostile and revengeful spirit 
 only ceased when life Avas extinct, Contemfjlating this deadly conflict, 
 we could not but admire the mercy of God that not one of our number 
 Avas killed, and only one slightly Avounded. One Bechuana lost his 
 life while too eagerly seeking for plxmder. The slain of the enemy 
 was betAveen four and five hundred. 
 
 " The Mantatees are a tall, robust people, in features resembling the 
 Bechuanas ; the dress, consisting of prepared ox-hides, hanging doubly 
 over their shoulders. The men, during the engagement, Avere nearly 
 naked, having on their heads a round cockade of black ostrich feathers. 
 Their ornaments Avere large cojijjcr rings, sometimes eight in number, 
 Avorn round their necks, Avith numerous arm, leg, and car rings of the 
 same material. Their Aveapons Avere Avar-axes of various shapes, and 
 clubs. Into many of their knob-sticks Avere inserted pieces of iron re- 
 sembling a sickle, but more curved, sometimes to a circle, and sharp on 
 the outside. They appeared more rude and barbarous than the tribes 
 around us, the natural consequences of the Avarlike life they had led. 
 They were suffering dreadfully from Avant ; eA-en in the heat of battle, 
 the poorest class seized pieces of meat and devoured them raw."
 
 256 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 vred upon a naiTOw causeway, where numbers add no 
 strength, but only tend to augment the confusion — where, 
 as in this case, there had to be a daily advance and re- 
 treat in presence of an active enemy. 
 
 The interesting note which we have copied describes 
 an event within the memory of the present generation. 
 And it is well recollected what trepidation was caused 
 in that colony of the British Empire by the approach to 
 the frontier of a nation of barbarians who despised fear, 
 whose religion was war, and who knew no sin like that 
 of turning the back to any enemy. Yet a hundred 
 horsemen, with iirearms, from a missionary village, un- 
 accustomed to war, were sufficient to turn back this 
 mighty host of brave savages. It can not be claimed 
 that the Aztecs were superior to these [Mantatees, or 
 that the force of Cortez was inferior in equipment to the 
 hundred unwarhke Griquas whose "thunder and light- 
 ning" (as they termed the musketry) drove them back. 
 The missionary was a Protestant, a man of truth, and 
 had no glory to win, and therefore told only the simple 
 truth. Cortez, out of a much inferior affair, has fabri- 
 cated a romance, with such verisimilitude that he has 
 astonished the world by an account of achievements 
 which he never performed. To write well is nine tenths 
 of a hero ; and in the time of Cortez, as it is even now 
 at ^lexico, it was the easiest thing imaginable to manu- 
 facture an astonishing victoiy out of the very smallest 
 amount of material. If no lives were lost in the battle, 
 so much more astounding is the victory. This practice 
 of sacrificing human life is only a modification of canni- 
 balism, and the very mission on which the Sjmniards 
 came to 3Iexico was to extinguish that crime, so that 
 they would jeopardize their title to the country should 
 they presume to shed the blood of each other in their in- 
 terminable wars. And so Ions; as onlv women, and
 
 MORGAN AND CORTEZ. 257 
 
 children, and Indians are the sufferers, they do no vio- 
 lence to the rules of warfare which Cortez and the Con- 
 quistadors introduced. The armies of Mexico have never 
 been deficient in good writers ; a specimen of the capa- 
 city of one of them I have already given in the chapter on 
 Texas ; so that their stately and dignified histories of 
 the national squabbles of the last thirty years are equal 
 to Cortez in gross exaggeration, and not a whit behind 
 him in elegance of composition. 
 
 A hundred years after the conquest of ^lexico, there 
 sailed out of the harbor of Port Eoyal, now Kingston, 
 in Jamaica, an unlawful military enterprise, about equal 
 in force to that with which Cortez first landed at Vera 
 Cruz, but immensely inferior to the panic-stricken host 
 that fled by night from the city of Mexico. Tlie fitting- 
 out of this unlawful expedition, like that of Cortez, had 
 the connivance of the local authorities. Tlie difference 
 between the two was, that Morgan did not understand 
 the Spanish Oriental style of proclaiming his own hero- 
 ism, and furthermore, his expedition Avas not directed 
 against a miserably-armed rabble of Indians, but against 
 the fortified city of Panama, held by a garrison of royal 
 troops. 
 
 ^Mooring his little fleet in the liarbor of Chagres, Mor- 
 gan marched his small force across the Isthmus, which 
 then presented greater difficulties to his passage with can- 
 non and munitions of war than Cortez encountered in 
 his march to Mexico. Like Cortez in his first expedi- 
 tion, Morgan met with no opposition in his first visit to 
 Panama, but, with his men, lived at free quarters in riot- 
 ing and debauchery, committing those atrocities that pi- 
 rates alone can commit, until, their appetites and their 
 passions being satiated, they returned to the Gulf coast, 
 taking with them the plunder of a city which was then 
 tlie depository of the treasures drawn from South Amer-
 
 258 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 ica. They returned a second time to Panama, as Cortez 
 did to Mexico. This time they met with resistance, but 
 they carried the tO'v\Ti by assault, and devoted it to utter 
 destruction. Their efforts were seconded by a terrible 
 earthquake, from which the people fled, and built a new 
 city at a distance of a few miles from the ruins. 
 
 For more than two hundred years the rank vegetation 
 of a tropical forest has been driving its massive roots 
 beneath its foundations, and yet the ruins of Panama 
 still bear the marks of having once been a city of much 
 magnificence. Two massive stone bridges, a pavement, 
 diverse broken walls, and a solid tower standing up above 
 the tops of the tall forest-trees, proclaim the incontrovert- 
 ible fact that the traces of a large city can not be alto- 
 gether blotted out in the course of a few centm'ies. 
 
 ^Morgan has never gratified the world with a narrative 
 of his adventures, nor has any of his gang enlightened 
 us with a history of the conquest of Panama, nor has 
 any Saxon bishop Lorenzana yet been found so lost to 
 all moral sense as to commend the piety of such infa- 
 mous men. And yet, in the boldness of his enterprise, 
 in the courage of its execution, in the amount of plun- 
 der realized, in military talent and prowess, 3Iorgan the 
 pirate was incalculably superior to Cortez the hero.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The new City of Mexico. — The Discoveries of Gold. — Ruins at Mexi- 
 co. — The Monks, and what Corte'z gained by liis Piety. — The City of 
 Mexico again rebuilt. — The City under Kavillagigedo. — The Nation- 
 al Palace. — The Cathedral. — A whole Museum turned Saints. — All 
 kneel togetlicr. — The San Carlos Academy of Arts. — Reigu of Car- 
 los III. — The Mineria. 
 
 The city of Mexico, as rebuilt by Cortez, was but an 
 humble affair. The small amount of plunder realized 
 from the city destroyed ; the necessity for large remit- 
 tances to secure peace at the Spanish court ; the gen- 
 eral poverty and destitution of the Indians inhabiting 
 the surrounding villages, and the narrow limits of the 
 Aztec empire, were great impediments in the way of 
 erecting a magnificent city. On a small scale, he resem- 
 bled Santa Anna in the activity with which he could or- 
 ganize an army after defeat, or resuscitate affairs when 
 apparently irretrievable. He knew how to improve the 
 most slender means to the accomplishment of ulterior 
 purposes. Perseverance is not one of the leading char- 
 acteristics of the Spanish race, yet it is surprising to see 
 how much they Avill often accomplish with what would 
 appear to us totally inadequate means. Such was emi- 
 nently the talent of Cortez. Surrounded by disappoint- 
 ed men, who had been lured to the country by magnifi- 
 cent pictures of its resources, he still went on extending 
 his conquests among the surrounding tribes. 
 
 Fortunately, the most precious of all metals is obtain- 
 ed by the most simple process, and the gold-washings 
 of the Mescala and other parts of the south, which the 
 Indians had but partially wrought, received more atten-
 
 260 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 tion as soon as tliey learned how readily the precious 
 metal could be exchanged for the gewgaws of the Euro- 
 peans. Gold dust was greedily exchanged for its weight 
 in bright silver coins, and an ounce of gold was not un- 
 frequently given for a briglit-colored handkerchief. In 
 a few months the means for the organization of a com- 
 munity were obtained from the gold-diggings. Nothing 
 tends so much to elevate the lowly as the discovery of 
 gold-washings, in which individual effort, and not ma- 
 chinery, is the ruling power, and the producer of wealth. 
 But even a gold country has its evils ; for nowhere have 
 I ever seen so many disappointed men as at the very 
 place where an abundance of gold could be had for sim- 
 ply washing it out of the mud ; and nowhere have I 
 seen so large a proportion of unemployed men as on the 
 spot where the wages of labor were fabulously high. 
 Still, with all these drawbacks, the city of Cortez rapid- 
 ly progressed under the stimulus of gold discoveries, un- 
 til he found the wildest of his dreams falling short of the 
 reality. 
 
 The new city did not occupy the exact position of its 
 Indian predecessor, but was clustered around the still re- 
 maining navigable canals, upon the southern border, 
 wliile the main portion of the old city, which lay toward 
 the northern limits of the island — where to this day such 
 an abundant supply of earthen gods is to be found by 
 digging — was left a mass of ruins. These were not, by 
 any means, the ruins of fallen stone walls, or capitals, 
 or columns, but shapeless masses of earth, which pro- 
 claim most unmistakably the kind of magnificence which 
 distinguished the ancient capital of the Aztec empire. 
 
 The monks, who scented gold as buzzards scent car- 
 rion, began early to discover the growing wealth of this 
 new city, and soon a party of a dozen Franciscans, in 
 sackcloth with do\vncast visages, approaclied the city.
 
 THE MOXKS IN MEXICO. 261 
 
 Thej came, not as religious teachers, but as spiritual 
 scavengers, who had consecrated their lives for gold to 
 clean out the road to heaven for the vilest sinners. 
 Cortez, who had been the greatest sinner, was now the 
 greatest penitent. The whole city was moved at the 
 coming of these holy men, who carried the cross before 
 them, but forgot not the cards and the dice in their pock- 
 ets — who daily, in the mass, consecrated spiritual bread 
 for famishing souls, and at night spent the wages of their 
 piety at the gambling-table. To the surprise of his fel- 
 low-profligates, and to the astonishment of the Indians, 
 Cortez, walking barefooted, led the procession that es- 
 corted the monks from near the spot where his brigan- 
 tines had sailed among the corn-fields of Iztapalapan to 
 the little chapel he had partly finished, and which now 
 stands in the yard of the Franciscans.* He was so zeal- 
 ous in the performance of his devotions and his pen- 
 ances that he won the affections of the holy fathers to 
 such a degree that he ever found faithful supporters in 
 the powerful order of Saint Francis in all his troubles 
 at the Spanish court. The question of his sincerity 
 mattered little to them. It w^as the benefit of his pub- 
 lic example which they, above all things, desired in their 
 search after golden treasures. To get gold and to grat- 
 ify their vices was their pious calling. Though they 
 boast of having baptized some 6000 Indians, this argues 
 nothing, except as it tends to show the numbers of the 
 Indian population of the valley ; for, as a badge of their 
 subjugation, the Indians received Christian baptism ; and 
 truly it has been said of them, "They feared the Lord, 
 but served their graven images." 
 
 We have now a sadder tale to tell ; one that philan- 
 
 * As it is an unimportant question whether Cortez first built a chapel 
 for tho Franciscans back of the Cathedral, or the one in the yard of the 
 Franciscans, I here repeat the popular tradition.
 
 262 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 tliropists have grieved over so often. Gold-wasliing3 
 are soon exhausted, but they frequently lead to the dis- 
 covery of silver mines, which become so profitable as to 
 drive away the very memory of the gold-washings. 
 Thus the fact that gold-washings ever existed in Mex- 
 ico, or even in Brazil, is almost forgotten, and the places 
 where those wasliin2:s were rests in vao;ue tradition. 
 
 But while gold is procured by the most simple process, 
 to extract silver requires science, and an immense expen- 
 diture of labor and machinery, in delving to the very bow- 
 els of the earth, and in separating the slight percentage 
 of pure silver from the mass of ore. In this exhausting 
 labor, which is often assigned to convicts, Indians were 
 employed until they gave up the ghost. The conquer- 
 ors had appropriated to themselves the best-looking of 
 the Indian females, while their husbands — for Indians 
 marry very early in life — were consigned to the mines 
 as laborers and carriers in the bowels of the mountain. 
 From this promiscuous intercourse, so early introduced, 
 has arisen the present mixed-blood population of Mexi- 
 co. The offspring of sin, they are a nation of sinners. 
 The pure Indians are the descendants chiefly of the un- 
 enslaved tribes, like the Tlascalans and Tezcucans, wlio 
 carried on the subsequent wars of Cortez, and the whites 
 are mostly descendants of later immigrations. 
 
 In a former chapter we have seen that the evils which 
 California suffered in the first years of its existence af- 
 flicted Mexico down to the time of the great inundation 
 of 1629 ; and from the pen of an eye-witness we have 
 given a picture of the state of society at that time. But 
 during the five years that the water rested on the city, 
 its superabundant wealth disappeared ; many of the no- 
 bility and gentry withdrew to Puebla, carrying with 
 them their treasures and their vices, while multitudes of 
 the poorer classes perished. So that when the Virgin
 
 THE VICEKOY RAVILLAGIGEDO. 263 
 
 of Guadalupe, in her great mercy to an afflicted people, 
 caused the earth to open and swallow up the great ex- 
 cess of waters, they had become a sobered and a more 
 moral population. It is from this abating of the waters 
 in the year 1634 that we have to date the origin of the 
 present city of ^Mexico ; for the foundations of all the 
 buildings except those about the Cathedral were so much 
 softened by five years of soaking that they could not be 
 relied on ; and a new city grew up upon new foundations. 
 This is the !Mexico of the present day ; a city more ele- 
 gant than substantial, and dependent more upon the plas- 
 ter and colored washings of its walls than solid masonry 
 for its apparent durability. 
 
 It was the great Yice-king Havillagigedo, toward the 
 close of the last century (1789), who gave the fin- 
 ishing strokes to the city, and established its reputation 
 as the finest city on this continent while the vice-king- 
 dom continued. It was then one of the best-lighted cit- 
 ies to be found, while in its paving he expended the large 
 sum of $347,715.* We have seen, in our own day and 
 in our own large cities, the popular applause which fol- 
 lows the rigid enforcement of wholesome ordinances ; 
 and it may be well supposed that in a city like ^lexico, 
 such an unusual proceeding would elevate the fearless 
 magistrate in popular estimation, and make him the sub- 
 ject of all kind of apocryphal anecdotes. 
 
 The best of the anecdotes illustrating his sternness in 
 enforcing city ordinances is the following : A police offi- 
 cer once reported to liim the case of the occupants of a 
 house who had neglected sweeping in front of their 
 premises. He informed him that the family had con- 
 sisted of a widowed mother and two daughters, but that 
 the mother had died during the previous night, and that, 
 instead of sweeping the street as usual, the daughters 
 * Humboldt, Esscii Politique.
 
 264 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 sat at the door weeping, and soliciting money of passers- 
 by to hury tlie dead body. " Return," said the viceroy 
 sternly to the officer, " and stand at the door until there 
 are twelve shillings (a dollar and a half) in the plate, and 
 then take it, and bring it and the offenders to me." The 
 officer did as directed. " Deliver the money to the mu- 
 nicipal treasurer, in payment of the fine for violating the 
 city ordinance," said the A^ice-king to the officer, "and 
 then return to your duty." He then turned to the or- 
 phans : "I hear that your mother is dead, and that you 
 wish to obtain the means of burying her. Here is an 
 order on your parish priest, who will bmy your mother, 
 and here is a trifle for yourselves," he said, handing to 
 each of them a gold ounce. They went their way, bless- 
 ing the man that had succored them in their necessity. 
 This early example of the rigid enforcement of city ordi- 
 nances has never been forgotten in Mexico, where, con- 
 sidering its limited means, for its revenue* does not ex- 
 
 * As my readers may be a little curious to know how the city gov- 
 ernment is sustained, I translate the statement of city revenue of 1851. 
 
 There were in that year 379 licensed ^j/Z-yuc-shops, }-ielding 
 
 a revenue of. $65,297 
 
 538 retail grocer shops in which liquor is sold by the gill 25,609 
 
 8 breweries pay a city tax of 1,697 
 
 132 cafes, fondas, and eating-houses pay 4,418 
 
 Tax on grain and bread consumed in the city 53,762 
 
 Public diversions, $3103 ; permitted plays (not gambling), 
 
 $3221 .'. 6,324 
 
 Tax on canals, $6798; tax on coaches, $20,157; markets, 
 
 $56,130 83,085 
 
 Donation of the proceeds of a bull-tight 830 
 
 Gifts, in bread and meat, to the prisons 4,561 
 
 A tax of one dollar on the slaughtering of 21,984 beef-cattle 21,984 
 
 16,404 calves were slaughtered, paying six shillings tax 12,303 
 
 145,040 sheep, at one shilling and sixpence 27,194 
 
 9394 pigs paid five shillings tax, or 5,870 
 
 42,734 swine, full grown, paid six shillings 32,055 
 
 7750 goats and kids, at one shilling and sixpence 1,453 
 
 Tax on property entering the city gates 1,878 
 
 Licenses to slaughter to individuals 136
 
 THE NATIONAL PALACE. 265 
 
 ceed $400,000, including its landed rents, its govern- 
 ment is well sustained, and its laws better enforced than 
 in many of our own cities. Its police consists of a mil- 
 itary patrol,* wlio, oddly enough, perform the duties of 
 lamplighters. 
 
 The National Palace is an immense structure, which 
 occupies the eastern front of the Grand Plaza, and is 
 sometimes foolishly called the Halls of the Montezumas. 
 It contains within itself aU the offices of government. 
 
 The water rents of $20,000 were consumed in repairs. 
 
 The tax on fish yielded $390 
 
 The balance of the revenue consists of certain city properties. 
 
 Expenditures. 
 
 The hea\'iest items are for the public prisons $69,8G3 
 
 For the hospitals of the insane 48,000 
 
 Lancasterian schools 3,600 
 
 Lights and city patrol 52,422 
 
 Exhibition of floAvcrs and fruits in November last 1,831 
 
 Salaries of school-teachers, and rent of houses for schools 4,8 1 2 
 
 Religious worship in Hospital of San Ilippolito, and for vaccine 
 
 matter 2,282 
 
 Cleaning the streets by night and by day 21,378 
 
 Salaries 31,472 
 
 Dinners and festivals 151 
 
 The city has a debt of $617,978, and has, as a set-ott", a claim against 
 the supreme government for $1,700,000 of its funds seized from time 
 to time, and for keeping prisoners. 
 
 * The arrests in the year 1851 were 212 men and 182 women for 
 infractions of police regulations; 1256 men and 1944 women for ex- 
 cessive drinking; 384 men and 120 women for robbery; 180 men and 
 84 women on suspicion of robbery ; 1 20 men and 25 women for picking 
 packets ; 15 men and 3 women for murder ; 728 men and 246 women 
 for affrays and wounds; 209 men and 85 women for carrying forbidden 
 weapons ; 36 men who had escaped from prison ; 39 men and 17 wom- 
 en for false pretenses ; 354 men and 403 women for incontinence and 
 adultery ; 31 1 men and 318 women for the violation of public decency ; 
 64 delinquent youth for the house of correction — making a total of ar- 
 rests for the year of 3918 men and 3430 women ; besides, they have 
 protected 315 persons apprehensive of assaults from evil-doers. And 
 they have freed the city from theplayue of 6048 docja ! Just as many dogs 
 arrested as human beings. These statistics furnish an inadequate idea 
 of the number of knife-fights that are of so common occurrence among 
 the peons about the pidqn€-sho\ss^ in which women and men show an 
 equal skill at stabbing in the back.
 
 266 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 besides the barracks of the President's guard. Besides 
 being the city residence of the President himself, it con- 
 tains the two halls that were formerly occupied by the 
 two legislative bodies, the Senate and the Chamber of 
 Deputies, while such a burlesque of our free institutions 
 existed in Mexico. In this palace also was the Nation- 
 al !Mint, so long as any body would trust the nation 
 with his silver bars to coin ; but, now that the mint is 
 farmed out, it is removed to a private establishment. In 
 this building are all the archives of the vice-kingdom and 
 the republic, and he who would study the history of the 
 past must diligently labor here. 
 
 The Cathedral is upon the northern side of the Grand 
 Plaza, and is said to occupy the site of the great teocalU, 
 and to have a rocky foundation. Whether this last as- 
 sertion is really true, I have no means of verifying, but 
 there must be something unusual about its foundations, 
 as its towers are the only ones that I know of in the 
 city that do not lean a little. Ninety years was this 
 vast edifice, or, rather, pile of edifices, in building, and 
 the amount of treasui*e expended in its construction 
 seems to a stranger to be fabulous. The best of its 
 many fine views, or, rather, the one I admire the most, 
 is the one from the entrance to the National Palace, 
 though the one most commonly given is that from the 
 front of the 3Iunicipality building, which occupies the en- 
 tire south front of the Plaza. 
 
 The interior of the Cathedral is certainly imposing, 
 but I had so early in life attached the idea of the Gothic 
 architecture to eveiy thing magnificent in the way of 
 churches, that this Moro- Spanish style fails to produce 
 an effect commensurate with the merits of the build- 
 ing. Again, images are not associated with my early 
 ideas of divine worship ; and when, passing from side al- 
 tar to side altar, I feci that I am only looking at wax
 
 IMAGES IN THE CATHEDRAL. 267 
 
 figures, they produce no solemnity in me. And when I 
 afterward learned, or thought I learned, that the show- 
 man of the strolling museum got his " wax figures" at 
 the same shop, or from the same moulds in which were 
 cast the images of the saints, they call up the idea of 
 Punch and Judy. 
 
 Before these images I have seen hundreds of worship- 
 ers prostrate, repeating their prayers with the most pro- 
 found reverence, while the sight of the image filled me 
 with boyish glee that I could hardly suppress. The 
 identical image that was labeled Bluebeard in the mu- 
 seum is now Saint Peter. The "Disconsolate Widow" 
 is now "the Weeping Virgin." Charlotte Temple, and 
 the baby that never knew its father, is now Mary and 
 the infant Christ. Macbeth, looking as though he had 
 the toothache, is Saint Francis. Othello is here a saint ; 
 and the sleeping Desdemona is now the sleeping Virgin. 
 The monster that poisoned six husbands, and sits med- 
 itating the death of a seventh, is now dressed in the lat- 
 est Paris finery, and is a saint. The old miser, who 
 laid up such hoards while he starved himself to death, 
 is here placed among saints ; the clothes are different, 
 but there is the same forbidding visage. Here, too, are 
 the Queen of Sheba, the Babes in the Wood, the Belle 
 of the West, the Terrible Brigand, and Sir William 
 Wallace — all transformed into images of saints, before 
 whom the people bow down with the most profound rev- 
 erence, and to whose intercession they commit the salva- 
 tion of their souls. 
 
 I do not know whether the showman or the priests 
 are to blame for my irreverence, or whether it is the fault 
 of the system itself. The argument in favor of the ado- 
 ration of images is that they make impressions on the 
 senses which aid devotion ; but, if the impressions made 
 on my senses are to be considered, the whole tendency
 
 268 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 is to debase the immortal Maker of heaven and earth be- 
 low the level of humanity, " and to change the image of 
 the incorruptible God into an image made like to cor- 
 ruptible man.'' Tliere was abundant proof of this in the 
 tabernacle of our Lady of Remedies above the great al- 
 tar of the Cathedral. There sits enthroned this cast-off 
 bauble of some nursery, emblazoned with jewels enougli 
 to supply the means to educate the whole population of 
 Mexico. To this piece of dilapidated wood and plaster 
 of Paris are conceded attributes of God Almighty : to 
 grant rain in times of drought ; health in times of pes- 
 tilence ; a safe delivery to women in peril of childbirth ; 
 and before it, in times of public calamity, the highest 
 dignitaries walk in solemn procession. 
 
 Nothing disgusts an Anglo-Saxon more than to wit- 
 ness the mental degradation of the descendants of the 
 Castilians, the slaves of superstition, craft, and impos- 
 ture. From generation to generation they have lived in 
 constant fear of the secret agents of the Inquisition, and 
 of the evil spirits that are ever plotting against the peace 
 of good Christians. Tlie permanency of the laws of Na- 
 ture, the very foundation of all self-reliance and courage, 
 is believed to be at the caprice of every one of a legion 
 of saints, each of whom has been canonized on proof of 
 working a miracle. Truth, and honesty, and chastity 
 are subordinate virtues, and only a slavish devotion to 
 his conscience-keeper can sustain a believer in the hour 
 of greatest necessity. 
 
 There are important truths to be learned in ^Mexico, 
 and even in this immense pile of buildings devoted to 
 superstition. Among these is the perfect equality that 
 should exist in a place of worship. Here the rich and 
 the poor meet together upon a level ; the well-dressed 
 lady and the market-woman are here kneeling together 
 before the same image. The distinctions of wealth and
 
 THE SAN CARLOS. 269 
 
 rank are for the moment forgotten. While I was looking 
 on and admiring this state of things, I saw a market- 
 man on his return homeward with an empty hen-coop on 
 his back. He walked boldly up, and knelt among the 
 body of worshipers, told his beads, and then started up 
 and trudged on his homeward journey. This equality 
 is only for an hour, and liardly so long ; yet it is an hour 
 daily, and must liave its effect in this country of inequal- 
 ities in reminding the most humble that this inequality 
 is only for this world, and that at the termination of life 
 all will stand upon a common level. 
 
 Tlie San Carlos, or Academy of Arts,is now in a flour- 
 ishing condition, on account of the success of the lottery 
 that supports it. The number of students here gra- 
 tuitously instructed in different branches of art is quite 
 large. Here, too, it is refreshing to see equality tri- 
 umphant ; the child of the peon and of the prince sit 
 side by side, and on the days of public exliibition, the 
 crowds that throng its halls are admitted gratuitously, 
 and are of as miscellaneous a character as are its pupils. 
 The pictures of Pangre are the present great attraction, 
 and every new production of his genius gains him addi- 
 tional applause. The works that Humboldt so much 
 admired are stiU here, but since his time there have been 
 added several marbles of considerable merit. 
 
 This Academy of San Carlos is one of the many mon- 
 uments of that greatest of the kings of Spain since the 
 Conquest, Don Carlos III., though not brought into full 
 operation until the reign of his imbecile successor, Carlos 
 IV. All the monuments of which Mexico can boast at 
 this day are traceable to the reign of the only enliglitened 
 Spanisli prince of whom Spain can boast in a period of 
 300 years. Xearly a hundred years have elapsed since the 
 foundation of this academy, and it lias not yet produced 
 a man of the first class either in painting or sculpture.
 
 270 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 The College of !Mines, the finest building in this city, 
 is another exhibition of the liberal spirit which governed 
 in the reign of Don Carlos. Under this prince a new 
 code of mining laws had been digested, strikingly resem- 
 bling the present miner's rules in CaHfornia. Their im- 
 mediate effect was almost to double the production of 
 silver, while the !Mineria was both a school to impart 
 scientific knowledge in relation to mining, and a bank to 
 advance money to develop new mineral enterprises. 
 Its support now rests upon the tax it is authorized to 
 levy of one sliilling upon every mark ($8) of silver pro- 
 duced.
 
 CHAPTER XXiy. 
 
 The National Museum. — Marianna and Corte'z. — The small Value of 
 this Collection. — The Botanic Garden. — The Market of Santa Anna. 
 — The Acordada Prison. — The unfortunate Prisoner. — The Causes 
 of tliat Night of Terror. — The Sacking of the City. — The Parian. — 
 The Causes of the Ruin of the Parian. — Change in the Standard of 
 Color. — The Ashes of Corte'z. 
 
 The National Museum has its weekly exhibitions, 
 and attracts as great a crowd of the common people as 
 does the Academy of Arts. Here as perfect equality 
 reigns as in the San Carlos or in the Cathedral. The 
 first object of interest is the large collection of stone 
 idols which have been dug up from time to time in and 
 about the Grand Plaza. There are dog-faced idols, and 
 apish gods, and unearthly things, besides the sacrifi- 
 cial stone, and a rude attempt to represent a goddess. 
 Whether or no this was a sort of Aztec Lady of Reme- 
 dies I did not learn. The Aztecs might easily have pro- 
 duced these works without exhibiting much civilization ; 
 but I have heard it surmised that they must have been 
 among the plunder of more civihzed tribes. 
 
 On the two opposite sides of the first hall we entered, 
 I saw spread out the pictorial chronology of two dynas- 
 ties that had passed away — the vice-regal line of poten- 
 tates standing over against the royal line of Aztec em- 
 perors. The portraits of the vice-kings, from Cortez 
 down to the last of his successors, stretch enthely across 
 one side of the hall, and about the same number of In- 
 dian ca9iques are daubed upon a piece of papyrus that is 
 fastened upon the opposite wall. It requires tlie great- 
 est possible stretch of liberality for one accustomed to
 
 272 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Indian efforts of this kind to dignify such intolerable 
 daubs with the name of paintings. And yet this is the 
 picture-writing of the Aztecs, with w^hich the world has 
 been so edified for centuries. If there is or ever Avas an 
 Iroquois Indian that should undertake to stain so mis- 
 erably, I verily believe he would be expelled from his 
 tribe. To make it manifest that this was intended for a 
 clironological record of the imperial line, black lines were 
 daubed from one of these effigies to another. From a 
 printed label in Spanish affixed to this wonderful relic, 
 I learned that it w^as intended to represent the wander- 
 ings of the Aztecs from California. 
 
 It is usual for North American Indians to store up 
 traditions of the extensive wanderings of their ances- 
 tors, and if one is asked to represent the tradition on 
 bark, he would produce very much such an affair as tliis, 
 though with a somewhat greater resemblance to the hu- 
 man form. Another picture represents ^Marianna, the 
 mistress of Cortez, with her rosary, and Cortez with his 
 fingers in much such a position as boys place them in 
 when they wish to convey the idea that they have per- 
 petrated a joke — a very satisfactory method of repre- 
 senting the piety of Cortez. Close by the pious couple 
 is the representation of a scene which they seem to have 
 come out to witness. A bloodhound is represented tear- 
 ing an Indian to pieces, wdiile a Spaniard is holding on 
 to the end of the dog's chain. 
 
 The banner under which Cortez fought, or rather 
 one of them — for he had two — is here preserved in a 
 gilt frame. It represents the Virgin ^lary portrayed on 
 crimson silk. In this hall is also a miniature represen- 
 tation of a silver mine, with the workmen at their sever- 
 al branches of labor. The remains of the vice-regal 
 tlirone are here piled up in a corner. 
 
 In the next room there are some paintings of no very
 
 MUSEUM. — BOTANIC GARDEN. — MARKET. 273 
 
 great value, which should have been kept in the Acade- 
 my; also a miniature fortress and a small mineral col- 
 lection, and any quantity of specimens of Indian idols, 
 so misshapen as to be unfit for use as images of the 
 Virgin and of the saints. 
 
 As a Vice-royal and National ^Museum, the whole af- 
 fair is beneath contempt. If the few articles in it that are 
 valuable were divided between the Mineria and the San 
 Carlos, and the rest thrown away, it would be an advant- 
 age to all concerned. The Indian relics in this muse- 
 um are not only much inferior to the specimens of the 
 art of the savage islanders of the South Seas, but im- 
 mensely inferior to many private collections of Indian 
 curiosities that I have seen, and they go far to demon- 
 strate the entile absence of civilized arts among the abo- 
 riginal inhabitants of IMexico. 
 
 In an interior court of the museum is the Botanic Gar- 
 den. This, like the National ]\Iuseum, is a paltry affair. 
 With the exception of the Manolita^ or tree that bears 
 a flower resembling the human hand, of which there are 
 but two in the Republic, there is nothing deserving of 
 notice in this garden. In the large interior court of San 
 Francisco a Frenchman has, as a private speculation, 
 opened a garden and made a collection of the national 
 plants of Mexico that is well worth a visit. In tliis pri- 
 vate garden is one of the finest and rarest collections of 
 the cactus family that I have ever seen, either in Mexi- 
 co or elsewhere. 
 
 The market of Santa Anna is the central market of 
 the city. It adjoins the palace, and is close to the canal. 
 The products of the chinampas are here displayed to the 
 best advantage. As Mexico is within easy marketing 
 distance of the hot country, we have here daily present- 
 ed the fresh productions of two zones. This is one of 
 the places where the appetite of a stranger can not only 
 
 M2
 
 274 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 be gratified with the greatest variety of delicacies ever 
 collected in one spot, but the excellency and abundance 
 of the articles presented are perplexing to the person who 
 would venture upon the bold experiment of tasting every 
 new article offered to him. As a vegetable and flower 
 market, it has no equal. 
 
 The Acordada Prison is the principal state as well as 
 city prison. Here are confined men charged with every 
 offense, from rioting to murder. Oftentimes these ex- 
 tremes are found together in the interior court of the 
 prison, where the felon, with his hands steeped in inno- 
 cent blood, is entertaining a crowd of novices in crime 
 with the details of his adventures, and of his many hair- 
 breadth escapes firom the cruel officers of the law. He 
 is as eloquent in giving lessons to novices as his com- 
 peers in our own prisons, and he carefully instructs his 
 hopeful pupils in the best ways of avenging their wrongs 
 upon society. Some in the prison are meny, and enjoy 
 a dance, while others are indulging in obscene jests and 
 ribaldry. StiU, there are those that find means to labor 
 and to work at repairing shoes or clothes in the midst of 
 this babel of sin and timiult. 
 
 The Acordada gave its name to that night insurrec- 
 tion to which I have so often referred. Two regiments 
 of artillery, quartered in the palace of the Inquisition, 
 pronounced against the legality of the election of Pedra- 
 za to the presidency. One night they took possession 
 of the Acordada, where they were joined by the whole 
 body of desperadoes there confined. Among the persons 
 at that time detained in this prison, and on that night 
 wantonly killed, was an Englishman, who had been kept 
 in prison for several years, charged with the singular of- 
 fense of having married the daughter of an ex-marquis. 
 There had been romance in his courtship and romance ir 
 his marriage, but it had not met with the approbation of
 
 THE ACOEDADA. 275 
 
 the father, who unfortunately had influence enough to 
 get the newly-married man into prison, and to keep him 
 there. At last the father had relented, and on the next 
 day the poor Englishman was to have been set at liber- 
 ty. Long and trying had been the sufferings of the un- 
 fortunate man, doomed to pass the best years of his life 
 among robbers and assassins. Though every thing that 
 kindness could do to lighten his sufferings had been done 
 by his own countrymen, yet the weary years of impris- 
 onment, superadded to the sudden blasting of his hopes, 
 had brought premature old age upon him while yet in 
 the prime of life. But now all was forgotten in antici- 
 pation of a to-moiTow that he was never to see. When 
 the attack was made upon the prison, he went to the door 
 of his cell to learn the cause of so unusual a disturbance, 
 and was instantly killed — the first victim of the night of 
 the Acordada. 
 
 On that fearful night the Acordada was unusually full 
 of desperadoes, whom the civil disorders and stagnation 
 of business had driven to crime. A battle in the night 
 in the streets of a large city is a fearful thing, at least 
 when cannon are the chief weapons used ; but when there 
 is added to this cause of alarm that the news had spread 
 through the city that all the murderers and liousebreak- 
 ers in the prison had been let loose, with arms in their 
 hands, to murder and to ravage the city, an idea may be 
 formed of the terror of a population who were cowards 
 by instinct. The contempt with which they had re- 
 garded the lower orders was to be fearfully retaliated. 
 Hate, mingled with avarice, and inflamed hj pulque and 
 bad liquor, was to do its work, and that, too, without 
 pity. Men, untamed by kindness of those above them, 
 were now the masters of the lives and property of all, 
 and there was no remedy. Fear had held the common 
 people in a degraded position, but they feared no longer.
 
 276 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Those who had lorded it over the poor instead of labor- 
 ing to elevate their condition, were now to suffer the con- 
 sequences of that neglect. 
 
 It is a thankless task to labor for the elevation of the 
 degraded, and oftentimes we are stung with the ingrati- 
 tude of those whom we have desired to aid. But God, 
 who has enjoined this unpleasant duty upon us, has 
 borne our daily ingratitude without casting us off, and 
 we but imitate him when Ave continue to minister to the 
 ungrateful, and the unthankful, and even the unmerciful. 
 The people of IMexico had shown more liberality, and 
 given more than we. But they had not given it to edu- 
 cate and to elevate the condition of the poor, but to feed 
 pampered priests, "who walked in long robes, and who 
 loved salutations in the markets," and to women like 
 them, who had placed themselves in an unnatural re- 
 lation to the world. God requires of all men not only 
 contributions of money, for that is but half charity, but 
 personal services in discharge of the duties of good citi- 
 zens, and in relieving the afflicted; and he that disre- 
 gards such duties may suffer as the ]Mexicans did in the 
 night of the Acordada insurrection, which turned young 
 hairs gray, and destroyed forever the happiness of un- 
 numbered families. 
 
 When the common people, brutalized by oppression, 
 found themselves masters of the city, and their oppress- 
 ors powerless, then burst forth the pent-up hatred of ten 
 generations. " They call us lejyei'os and dogs," said 
 some of them ; "let us play the part of dogs — hungry 
 dogs, among these spotted sheep." The palaces of the 
 great were no protection against these infuriated jp^oti^, 
 and women who boasted of titles of nobility were not 
 safe. The wealth that generations of unjust monopo- 
 lists had accumulated was scattered to the winds. Le- 
 peros now rioted on carpets from Brussels and on cush-
 
 THE PARIAN. 2i I 
 
 ions of Oriental stuffs, and quaffed the choice wines of 
 Madeira and Champagne. In the fury of their intoxication 
 they lost all restraint, and indulged in every excess and 
 enormity. Robbery and murder were the order of the 
 day. In carrying away the plunder, disputes arose, and 
 then they murdered each other as readily as they had 
 murdered those who claimed the title of citizens. Fear 
 was the only authority they had learned to respect, and 
 they knew no other government than the hated police ; 
 but now, when the police were powerless, they could 
 amuse themselves according to the instincts of their 
 brutish natures. They had never been taught self-con- 
 trol, and animal indulgence was the utmost of their am- 
 bition, and they found amusement in violating all laws, 
 human and divine. The murders, the ravishings, the 
 wanton destruction of the richest household stuffs, and 
 luxuries, and works of art in that night, can not all be 
 written, nor can they ever be effaced from the memory 
 of those who witnessed them. 
 
 Stretching across the Grand Plaza, opposite the Cathe- 
 dral and in front of the buildings of the Municipality, 
 once stood the noted mart of commerce called the Parian, 
 an ill-looking structure, in which was accumulated the 
 mass of foreign merchandise. In this same pile of build- 
 ings had been concocted the conspiracy which, in the 
 year 1808, had caused the seizure of the Vice-king, Itur- 
 rigaray, and his imprisonment in the Inquisition. The 
 complaint against the Vice-king was that he was about 
 to recognize the political equality of the native-born pop- 
 ulation with the emigrants from Spain. For this of- 
 fense, his reputation and that of his kindred was to be 
 forever blackened by a suspicion of heresy. 
 
 In the night of the Acordada insurrection, the Spanish 
 shop-keepers of the Parian found themselves utterly de- 
 fenseless. They could no longer invoke the aid of the 
 Inquisition in op|)ressing and trampling on the people.
 
 278 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 whom their wantonness, and the wantonness of others 
 like them, had brutalized. The neglect and oppression 
 which had reduced a laboring man to a Itjjero had not 
 made him insensible to the unequal laws which elevated 
 above him a race of beings destitute of that manl j cour- 
 age which oftentimes gives plausibility to oppression. 
 Now the lepero took delight in visiting upon the present 
 occupants of this building a fearful punishment for the 
 crime committed there twenty years before, and among 
 the guilty crowd there was to be found many an innocent 
 sufferer. 
 
 The isolated crowds that had been traversing the 
 streets, and indulging their wantonness on a small scale, 
 at length, as the night wore away, began to concentrate 
 around the Parian, and quickly such devastation of 
 property was made as mighf be expected where the rich 
 and poor had no common interest in its preservation, 
 and where criminal and poor man were almost convert- 
 ible terms. The plunderers had little idea of the value 
 or uses of the property they were scattering to the winds ; 
 and while they wasted millions worth of property, they 
 wantonly shed the blood of the proprietors in the midst 
 of their merchandise. Xor did tlie evil end when day- 
 light appeared ; for among the consequences of this night 
 insurrection was the transfer of all authority to new 
 hands. Those who the day before had been stigmatized 
 with the impurity of their blood, were now the govern- 
 ing power, who, under the forms of law, were to carry 
 into effect the behest of the successful insurgents. Nei- 
 ther the sight of the niins of the night before, nor bales 
 of merchandise strewed about among corpses and spat- 
 tered with blood, could move the new masters of the city 
 to pity the fallen condition of a class of men who liad 
 proved themselves too cowardly to defend their own 
 usui-pations, and too tyrannical to instiU into the lately 
 proscribed races any ideas of compassion.
 
 THE OVERTURN. 279 
 
 For three hundred years pure white blood and Span- 
 ish birth was an indispensable qualification for promo- 
 tion in the vice-kingdom, and the slightest tincture of 
 colored blood was an indelible disgrace. But one night 
 of tumult and rapine changed the popular standard of 
 color. And he who had boasted the day before of his 
 pure white blood and Spanish origin, now sought to hide 
 himself from the officers of the law, who visited with the 
 penalty of banishment the crime of having been born in 
 Spain. Men now, for the first time, boasted of their In- 
 dian origin, and of the slight infusion they were able to 
 discover of colored blood in their veins ; while a man of 
 Indian descent, and who spoke a provincial dialect, was 
 declared elected President of the Republic of ^lexico : 
 so uncertain are all divisions of rank formed on the ar- 
 bitrary distinction of color. 
 
 During the night strange murmurings were heard 
 against "the accursed enslaver of their race." The de- 
 scendants of Cortez were fearful for the safety of his 
 ashes, which liad lain quietly in the convent of San Fran- 
 cisco*so long as the Inquisition possessed the power of 
 compelling men to reverence his memory as the cham- 
 pion of the Cross, the favorite of the Virgin Mary, the 
 hero of a holy war against the infidels. But now that 
 this accursed institution, and the infamous gang connect- 
 ed with its management, had become powerless, the na- 
 tional feeling began to manifest itself so openly that the 
 remains were removed secretly and by night to the sanc- 
 tuary of the most sacred shrine of 3Iexico, that of Santa 
 Teresa, where they remained until a safe opportunity 
 presented itself for shipping them off to the Duke of 
 ]\Iontebello, a Sicilian nobleman, who inherits the titles 
 and also the vast estates of Cortez in the valleys of the 
 Cuarnavaca and Oajaca, upon which none of the revolu- 
 tionary governments have laid violent hands. 
 
 * For a more authentic account, see Appendix E.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 The Priests gainers by the Independence. — Improved Condition of the 
 Peons. — Mexican Mechanics. — The Oppression they suffer. — Low 
 state of the Mechanic Arts. — The Story of the Portress. — Charity 
 of the Poor. — The Whites not superior to Meztizos. — License and 
 Woman's Rights at Mexico. — The probable Future of Mexico. — Mor- 
 monism impending over Mexico. — Mormonism and Mohammedan- 
 ism. 
 
 The clergy and tlie other wliite fomenters of the sep- 
 aration from Spain never contemplated the formation of 
 a republic, or the arming of the leperos. They were 
 alarmed at the bold reforms of the liberal Cortes of Spain, 
 and trembled at the prospect of losing their privileges 
 and monopolies. They judged that the safest course 
 for them was the establishment of an empire upon the 
 subversion of the vice-kingdom, which would be so weak 
 a power that they could overawe it. The priests rea- 
 soned correctly, and have augmented their privileges and 
 their wealth, as we shall presently see. The Spanish 
 monopolists were ruined by the Revolution, as we have 
 seen in the last chapter. But the common people were 
 the gainers ultimately by tlie expulsion of the Spaniards, 
 though the whole country suffered for a time by the 
 withdrawal of the capital of the Spaniards. The benefit 
 derived by the peons from tliis revolution was the polit- 
 ical importance which it gave them. The Parian and 
 the lepero perished together. The latter ceased to exist 
 when the last stone of the former disappeared. The 
 Spaniards had been banished from the country long before 
 the authorities undertook the removal of this obnoxious 
 edifice, and those who wished to avoid a like fate sought
 
 MEXICAN MECHANICS. 281 
 
 security in acts of benevolence ; so that at Mexico char- 
 itable institutions are now so well conducted, that it is 
 one of the few Catholic cities in the world tliat can boast 
 of being free entirely from beggars. Political power gave 
 to the common people an importance in the social scale 
 which they had never before enjoyed. With the cheap- 
 ness of clothing the unclad multitude have disappeared, 
 and the new generation find more employment and bet- 
 ter wages than their ancestors did, when all branches of 
 industry were clogged with monopolies, and they are, 
 consequently, more industrious and temperate. 
 
 Still, the Mexican j)eo?i is immensely below the Amer- 
 ican laborer, and still has to be watched as a thief, for 
 the want of a little morality intermixed with his relig- 
 ious instruction. It is a degrading sight to stand at the 
 door of one of the large coach manufactories at Mexico, 
 and to Avitness th , manner in which they search them, 
 one by one, as they come out. The natives, who have 
 learned the most difficult parts of coach-building from 
 English and French employers, can not for a moment be 
 trusted, lest they should steal their tools or the materials 
 upon which they are employed. I saw even the man 
 who was placing the gorgeous trimmings on the Nun- 
 cio's coach carefully searched, lest he should have con- 
 cealed about his person a scrap of the valuable material. 
 That they are thieves is not to be wondered at when 
 their catechism teaches them " that a theft that does not 
 exceed a certain amount is not a grave offense."* 
 
 * Having lost my memorandum, I am uncertain whether the number 
 of days was one or more, and whether the number of /'nines named was 
 six or eight. The following is my best recollection of the question and 
 answer on theft : 
 
 "Q. Is theft a grave offense? 
 
 "^. A theft that does not exceed in value a day's labor is not a 
 grave offense ; some theologians contend that a theft that does not ex- 
 ceed six francs is not a grave offense."
 
 282 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 With US, a mechanic is associated with the idea of a 
 person occuppng a respectable position in hfe ; but at 
 Mexico he stiQ belongs to a degraded class, as men are 
 there esteemed ; he is dijpeon^ on a footing with a com- 
 mon laborer. The highest wages are three shiQings a 
 day, while at least two days in the week he is kept from 
 his usual employment by " days of obligation," that is, 
 festival days on which it is unlaw4"ul to work. Tortil- 
 las, Indian griddle-cakes, with black beans {fnjoles) and 
 red peppers [chilie), are his daily food ; and his lodgings 
 are a palm-leaf mat upon a stone or earthen floor, while 
 his serapa does duty for a blanket at night. The greasy 
 friar does not forget him as he goes his rounds in search 
 of Peter's pence ; and the priest sets before him the hor- 
 rid consequences of entering Purgatory without first dis- 
 charging the debt he still owes for his baptism. He and 
 his " wife" still remain unmarried ; for how can they 
 ever raise the money to pay the priest? And if by 
 chance he gets involved in debt, or for the debt of one of 
 his kindred, one third part of his daily labor is embar- 
 goed by the creditor. 
 
 When the ]\Iexican mechanic has a small kit of un- 
 couth tools, he works upon his own account, but at the 
 smallest possible profit. When he has finished a pair 
 of shoes, if he be a shoemaker, he or his wife starts out 
 to dispose of them to some passer-by in the street before 
 a new pair is undertaken. When the tinman has finish- 
 ed a sprinkling pot, he or his boy walks the street till it 
 is sold, and then perhaps a tin bath is made ; and if, 
 luckily, from a chance customer he has obtained an extra 
 price, 2^ fiesta is proclaimed to the family connection, and 
 maybe the additional luxury of buying a ticket in the lot- 
 tery of the Yirgin of Guadalupe is indulged in, and a vow 
 is made that if he wins a prize, one half of the profits of 
 the stake shall be deposited as a gift at her shrine. In
 
 LOW STATE OF MECHANIC AKTS. 28o 
 
 this way a week is passed, and it is terminated witli the 
 entire exhaustion of the little fortune of the poor me- 
 chanic. The kindred have had a time ; j^'^^^^^^ ^^^ li- 
 quor have been passed around freely ; the women have 
 enjoyed " equal rights" with the men ; they have drunk 
 their full share, and smoked their little cigars. The tin- 
 man, once more penniless, with an aching head, but with 
 a light heart, returns to his little hammer, and a piece of 
 solder and tin got on the pledge of his future earnings. 
 Such is the condition of native i\Iexican mechanics, and 
 of the mechanic arts at the capital. 
 
 The complicated machinery by which our shoes are 
 made, or the equally complicated machinery by which 
 tin is worked up into culinary vessels, never entered into 
 the dreams of a Mexican mechanic. No ^lexican man 
 of science ever thought of degrading himself so low as 
 to undertake the improvement of the mechanic arts ; 
 yet. it is astonishing to see what Mexican mechanics do 
 accomplish with their imperfect means. I have often 
 stopped to witness the success of a poor old man build- 
 ing a piano, which was both skillfully arranged and 
 well-toned, and yet the tools employed were apparently 
 inadequate for such a purj)Ose. In the same primitive 
 style were coaches built before foreigners came and sub- 
 stituted coaches of modern pattern instead of the old, egg- 
 formed coach-bodies of the vice-kingdom. 
 
 It may seem like trifling to be dwelling thus upon the 
 character of the substratum of Mexican society, but it 
 is from this very substratum that the wealth or poverty 
 of a nation is to be traced. The sense of the dignity of 
 labor is the foundation of American prosperity, while 
 the degradation of the mechanics and laboring class of 
 Mexicans is the cause of the national imbecility. 
 
 Let us look at the common people of ^lexico from an- 
 other point of view. I will reproduce in substance the
 
 286 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 tale of the old Meztizo woman, who opens and shuts the 
 great street door to all well-known inmates, by day and 
 by night, and to such others as can give satisfactory an- 
 swers. She is esteemed a lucky woman because she 
 has the use of a small room on the ground floor for her 
 services, where she and a number of her relatives are 
 often hived together. Her story is very likely not true 
 in every particular, for it can not be denied that she, 
 like all of her class, does not consider falsehood yer se 
 as any other than a venial sin. How should she, con- 
 sidering the teaching she receives ?* But the story is 
 nevertheless, in the main, a pretty fair picture of the hfe 
 of the humbler classes in republican Mexico. 
 
 She will tell you how her husband basely left her with 
 a family of children, and took to another woman, because 
 they were not able to pay the priest to get legally mar- 
 ried. Her eldest son was seized and taken to the wars, 
 where he was compelled to stand up to shoot and be 
 shot at, to settle the question which of two sets of white 
 men should enjoy the right of plundering the people. 
 Whether he should hereafter be discharged honorably, 
 or run away, or be killed in battle, it was the same to 
 her, for the man that recruited the soldiers would know 
 that he had once been a soldier, and would be sure to 
 seize him first when ordered to furnish recruits ; and, let 
 what will be the course of political events, he is certain- 
 ly lost to her forever. 
 
 Her eldest daughter had been a help to her. She 
 ground com for the tortillas, and could guard the house 
 door while the old woman went to the pubHc wash-house 
 to wash a few shirts which gentlemen had occasionally 
 
 * I again quote the Catechism from recollection. 
 
 " Q. What is a venial sin ? 
 
 "^. A lie that does not destroy charity among neighbors is a venial
 
 THE STORY OF THE PORTRESS. 287 
 
 intrusted to her care. But a chance shot in one of the 
 street battles had hit her, and she too was gone. Her 
 second son had stopped too long in front of the puhjue- 
 shop after his day's work was finished, and was involved 
 in a street affray, in which knives were drawn, and a man 
 killed. Whether he was the guilty one or not, it mat- 
 tered little, as he was the first to fall into the hands of 
 the officers. For a long time he had Ibeen kept in the 
 chain-gang, but lately he had been sent to the silver 
 mines, where he would probably end his days carrying 
 ore on his back like a beast of burden, a thousand feet 
 under ground. 
 
 She had a second daughter, old enough to carry food 
 to her son while he was in prison, and to lighten his 
 misery by a daily visit while he belonged to the chain- 
 gang. But since he has been taken from the city, they 
 two are left alone in the world. She has now no money, 
 or she would get her daughter married, as the priest 
 would trust her if she would only pay a small part of 
 the fee. Still she is considered fortunate ; for, having 
 the reputation of an honest women, she has got a por- 
 tress's situation, and little means are thrown in her way 
 by which she obtains a comfortable living. But her 
 relatives, who are poorer than herself, sympathize with 
 her, and come and eat up her tortillas. 
 
 Such is the substance of many a tale of misery, if you 
 will stop and listen to the pictures which the lowly draw 
 of their condition in any of the Mexican cities. Often 
 they are fabricated, but very often they are true. The 
 old woman who tells you a tale to excite your sympa- 
 thies has perhaps only borrowed a tale of misfortune 
 which she has heard her neighbor tell. Those who re- 
 proach these poor unfortunates with being beggars, 
 thieves, and liars, forget that they have been made such 
 by oppression. The greatest amount of suffering caused
 
 288 MEXICO A2sD ITS KELKilUN. 
 
 by the civil wars falls upon the poor; and among the 
 suffering poor, the women are the greatest sufferers. If 
 they are more intemperate than the men, it is their mis- 
 fortunes, too often, that have driven them to seek a tem- 
 porary solace in ^j>wZ<^w^. The slight hold they have on 
 their husbands is the cause of their jealousy, and if they 
 take part in bloody affrays, it is because they are under 
 the influence of intoxication, and not from any inherent 
 inclination to cruelty. 
 
 Xever did a white skin cover a kinder heart than that 
 of the poor Meztizo women of Spanish America. Their 
 primitive hut by the wayside is as much at your ser^e 
 as your own castle, and you are heartily welcome to their 
 humble fare. I never was so unfortunate as to need 
 their assistance, but I have often been astonished at the 
 ready charity of the poor to those poorer than them- 
 selves. I once encountered an Irishman who had begged 
 his way from the Gulf coast almost to the Pacific, and I 
 was greatly surprised at the cheerfulness with which a 
 poor widow woman, keeper of a ve?ita, accepted of a 
 blessing instead of more tangible coin for a night's en- 
 tertainment. In delicate health always, and not with- 
 out a fall share of experience among strangers, I know 
 full well how to appreciate the kind oflices which a wom- 
 an only can render. When death stared me in the face, 
 and she could do nothing for a perishing heretic except 
 to sohcit a passing procession to chant a inisericordia 
 por loi infii^no Ainencano^ that kindly office was not 
 wanting. When, with returning health, I ventured out 
 into the street, leaning upon a staff, a poor Indian wom- 
 an, forgetting her native shyness, begged me to sit down 
 under the shade of her roof while she prepared for me a 
 little orange-water, and when, a little refreshed by her 
 orange-water, I tottered on, I shall never forget the look 
 of sympathy which she bestowed upon an unknown
 
 woman's rights at MEXICO. 289 
 
 stranger. An Indian woman is always kind, but the 
 kindest of her race is the poor despised Indian woman 
 of Spanish America. 
 
 It is too common to look down coldly, and not unfre- 
 quently with contempt, upon those who occupy the hum- 
 bler walks of life, and to speak only of their vices. The 
 jpeon has his vices, and they are glaring enough, but he 
 is certainly not worse than his white neighbor. I had 
 been so long in Cahfomia, and had seen so many exhi- 
 bitions of courage in street-fights and personal encoun- 
 ters, that I had come almost to consider the words white 
 man and brave man as synonymous. But when I found 
 myself in ]\Iexico at the breaking out of a civil war, I 
 soon learned that white men are not always brave, and 
 that they were superior to the Indian in little else ex- 
 cept in the gilding with which they covered their vicious 
 and corrupt lives. They borrow their customs from 
 Paris and their style of living, but their morals are even 
 below the Paris standard of virtue. 
 
 The law, which sinks the civil existence of the wife 
 in the husband, and which charges the husband with ha- 
 bility for the debts and trespasses of the wife, is some- 
 times stigmatized as harsh, unnatural, and tyrannical. 
 If those that consider it so could for a little while enjoy 
 the matrimonial freedom of ]\Iexico, they would soon 
 discover abundant reason for praising the wisdom of our 
 ancestors in hedging about with so many disabilities an 
 institution which is both the safeguard of public mo- 
 rality and of our free government. Family government, 
 self-government, and political freedom dwell together ; 
 while despotism and family license are inseparable. At 
 Mexico, old family relations are not broken up by new 
 marriages. Household family worship is unknown, but, 
 like so many pagans, each one trudges off to say her 
 prayers separately, and at a favorite shrine. The wife; 
 
 N
 
 290 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 has her separate property and interests, which she man- 
 ages with the aid of her "next friend." The husband, 
 too, has his separate interests, and too often his " next 
 friend" is his neighbor's wife. 
 
 After my return from Mexico, I heard a woman in a 
 public assembly advocating, as social reforms, the insti- 
 tutions of a country in a state of moral and political de- 
 composition. I felt like exclaiming, " Cursed be that 
 woman who would introduce into our happy country the 
 social customs of paganism ; and cursed be that people 
 who listen to her infidelity!" May a Hke evil fall upon 
 those legislative tinkers who have deprived the husband 
 of the power of creating a trust for the protection and 
 support of his wife in time of necessity. 
 
 We have examined sufficiently the social condition of 
 Mexico to show that there is no natural sympathy be- 
 tween the whites and the colored races, or the governing 
 and governed races of Mexico. For a brief period, 
 indeed, Guen*ero, a man of Indian descent, occupied 
 the presidency ; but he was deposed and murdered, and 
 the government has ever since been in the hands of the 
 whites. The present Pinto war in the southwest looks 
 toward again reviving the Indian rule. It is carried on 
 too languidly to promise success, as there seems to be 
 no one in the movement possessed of the energy of that 
 Indian drummer, Carrera, who usurped the supreme pow- 
 er in Guatemala. On the other hand, Mexico is like a 
 ripe pear, ready to faU into the lap of any unscrupulous 
 adventurer who chooses to make common plunder of its 
 churches, its church jewels, and the inordinate private 
 fortunes of its priesthood and nobility. 
 
 There is a rising cloud that is gathering blackness in 
 the northwest, and must sooner or later precipitate itself, 
 and with the force of a tempest sweep away — to nse the 
 words of General Tornel — in one mighty flood " the re- 
 ligion, language, and national existence of the IVIexi-
 
 MORMONISM AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 291 
 
 cans." This is Mormonism. I have watched this de- 
 lusion from its rise, near my own residence in Western 
 New York, and followed its advancing progress, until, 
 from a little rill, it has become a mighty toiTcnt — a polit- 
 ical element so potent that its existence in the United 
 States is now scarcely tolerable. Where can it go ex- 
 cept it precipitate itself upon the temtories of imbecile 
 Mexico ? To such a sect of fanatics Mexico can present 
 no opposition. It must suiTcnder to Brigham Young 
 and to his followers their wealth, their images, their 
 wives and their daughters, as the Aztecs surrendered all 
 to Cortez. 
 
 I have often traced the close analogy between the rise 
 of Mormonism and that of Mohammedanism, as well as 
 the striking similarity that exists between these two 
 systems of false religion. Each one is founded, after a 
 fashion, on the Bible, to which" each has supplemented a 
 volume of miserable fables, the one called the Book of 
 Mormon, and the other the Koran. Each has a spuri- 
 ous prophet, who is exalted above the prophets of Scrip- 
 ture. Both systems permit polygamy, and both are most 
 ultra-Protestant in relation to the forms and ceremonies, 
 images and pictures of the Oriental and Latin churches. 
 And as God sent the great Mohammedan imposture to 
 punish the corrupt Christianity of a former age, so in like 
 manner lie may soon commission Mormonism to wipe 
 out of existence the corrupt Christianity of Mexico. 
 Mormonism has not yet developed a military character, 
 because it would be madness to raise an arm against the 
 United States. But when it shall have once passed the 
 frontier and entered the dominions of a feeble state, then 
 we shall see how keen an edge fanaticism can give to 
 the sword in the hands of men naturally courageous, 
 when the double motive is held out of a new supply of 
 wives, and the inexhaustible treasures of the churches 
 to stimulate their fanaticism.
 
 CHAPTER XXYI. 
 
 The Plaza of the Inquisition. — The two Modes of human Sacrifice, the 
 Aztec and the Spanish. — Threefold Power of the Inquisition. — Visit 
 to the House of the Inquisition. — The Prison and Place of Torture. 
 — The Story of William Lamport. — The little and the big Auto da 
 Fe. — The Inquisition the real Goverment. — Ruin of Spanish Nation- 
 ality. — The political Uses of the Inquisition. — Political Causes of 
 the Bigotry of Philip II. — His eldest Son dies mysteriously. — The 
 Dominion of Priests continues till the French Invasion. 
 
 The Plttzuelo or Plazuelito, tlie " Little Plaza" of the 
 Inquisition, is now, as it ever has been, a market-place 
 — the Smithfield of Mexico. On Sundays and all other 
 market-days, there is here an abundant supply of flow- 
 ers, meats, and vegetables. On great holidays, in the 
 times of the idce-kings, the scene was changed. Fruits 
 and vegetables were, for the time, placed in the back- 
 ground, and an act of" faith" {auto dafe)^ or burning of 
 heretics, was offered as a public spectacle. The grand- 
 est of all the bull-lights of Mexico was nothing in com- 
 parison with tliis vice-regal exhibition. As among the 
 Aztecs and the pagan Eomans, the sacrificial victims 
 were kept in resers^e for important occasions, and for oc- 
 casions when a bull-fight would have been a most inad- 
 equate exhibition. The consecration of a new archbish- 
 op, or the aiTival of a new Yice-king from Spain, or the 
 marriage of a member of the royal family, or some sim- 
 ilar important political or religious event, could only call 
 forth this extraordinary show of roasting men alive. 
 
 If we are to believe the statements of Cortez and Ber- 
 nal Diaz,* the Aztecs were accustomed to offer human 
 
 * The defense of the invasion of Mexico by Corte'z in time of peace, 
 and reducing the Aztecs to slaveiy, rests on the ground that the Aztecs 
 were monsters.
 
 AN AUTO DA FE. 293 
 
 sacrifices on festival days upon a large circular stone still 
 preserved. With an obsidian knife, life was instantly- 
 extinguished by opening the heart-case and taking out 
 the heart, which was offered to their god of war. This 
 horrid worship, if indeed it ever existed, was suppressed, 
 and one more horrid and cold-blooded in its atrocities 
 substituted. There was seldom wanting a victim on 
 those great occasions, for prisoners who would otherwise 
 have been let off with confiscation of estates and a long 
 imprisonment were now doomed to the flames, to accom- 
 phsh the double purpose of a spectacle and strike terror 
 into the ranks of the higher classes, who too often fur- 
 nished the victims. But the higher classes were all pres- 
 ent. Suspicion might attach to their absence. And he 
 that dared not breathe aloud in his own bed-chamber, or 
 tell the whole truth at the confessional, from apprehen- 
 sion of an inquisitorial spy, took good heed that no act 
 or look of his on the day of the great fiesta should be- 
 tray him to this secret, but every where present tribunal, 
 lest he himself should be the sacrificial victim at the 
 next entertainment. 
 
 The roasting of a human victim at the auto da fe was 
 a purely democratic institution. The lej^eros, who were 
 beneath the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, felt none of 
 the terrors that haunted the rich even in night visions. 
 Without the least apprehension, they enjoyed the mag- 
 nificence of the spectacle, and their hatred toward the 
 high-born was gratified by the sight of one, and some- 
 times many, respectable persons burned in the fire for 
 their entertainment. They were always ready to mani- 
 fest their gratitude to the holy office by assailing and 
 perhaps murdering any one who had incurrred the dis- 
 pleasure of the priests, but whom it was not politic to 
 arrest. Thus, by a threefold power, did the Inquisition
 
 29-4 fttEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 enforce the discipline of the Church : by the authority 
 of the king and the law, the dread which it inspired ; the 
 sympathies of a rabble, whom it was their interest to 
 keep brutalized ; and the rehgious sentiment of the na- 
 tion, so far as there was any. But this last was a very 
 uncertain reliance, for the same law which makes heresy 
 a crime, legalizes hypocrisy, and the inquisitor cared 
 very little for the thoughts of men so long as they re- 
 main unuttered ; and as no two men think alike, the 
 crime of heresy appears to consist in expressing too 
 frankly the logical deductions of the understanding upon 
 the all-important subject of rehgion. To speak disre- 
 spectfully of the holy office, the Inquisition, was the 
 worst of heresy. 
 
 The north front of the Plazuelo of the Inquisition, 
 now generally called the Plaza of the Dominicans, is oc- 
 cupied by the great yard of the Dominican convent, 
 which is separated by a high wall from the Plaza, and 
 by a street firom the buildings of the Inquisition. With- 
 in this yard there is a large flagstone, with a hole in its 
 centre, which stone, on days of the auto da fe, used to 
 be brought out into the Plaza, and, with iron post, neck- 
 ring, and chain attached, constituted the simple appara- 
 tus for the human sacrifice. The Dominican fathers 
 have carefully laid aside the iron post, with its ring and 
 chain, and perhaps, with them, the most valuable of the 
 instruments of torture, which were removed from the In- 
 quisition building. As there are two classes of bull- 
 fights, the ordinary and the grand bull-fight, so there 
 was the ordinary auto da fe, performed in this Little 
 Plaza, and the grand act of faith, auto da fe general^ 
 wliich ordinarily ought to come off in the Grand Plaza 
 of the city, in firont of the vice-regal palace. 
 
 Seeing the great door open as I was passing, I ven- 
 tured to enter the central court of the Inquisition, from
 
 THE HALLS OF THE INQLltSlTlON. 1'95 
 
 which the halls of the different tribunals and the cham- 
 bers of the inquisitors and officials were entered and 
 lighted. All had now been thorouglily whitewashed and 
 renovated, and bore no marks of the fearful scenes that 
 had been here enacted. When I stood in the hall where 
 its judgments used to be delivered, I had to tax my 
 memory of books to draw a picture of events that here 
 daily transpired in times past. I saw no Bridge of Sighs, 
 yet the whole institution was founded upon the siglis, 
 and groans, and riven hearts of its victims, of many of 
 whom the world was not worthy. The rich were the 
 most profitable game, but a beautiful woman was the 
 most acceptable spectacle to a populace debased from 
 infancy by attendance on bull-fights. A foreigner that 
 had been by special grace licensed to visit Mexico, was 
 considered a fortunate prize, for to offer a foreigner as a 
 human sacrifice was in accordance with the ancient cus- 
 tom of the Aztecs. There was only one foreigner who 
 amassed great wealth, and that was Laborde the miner, 
 who bought his peace by building the Cathedral of To- 
 luca. 
 
 There was nothing to interest a stranger in the empty 
 halls where once these legalized murderers had held 
 their nightly meetings, and I wandered away toward the 
 prison and the place of torture, where, inch by inch, the 
 life had been torn from the victims of priestly vengeance. 
 I shuddered as I entered the prison door-way, though 
 fifty years had passed since the last and most distin- 
 guished of its victims had entered here, the Vice-king 
 Iturrigaray. Here, too, the hand of the white-washer 
 had been busy, and the cells were now made comfort- 
 able rooms for the soldiery. The instruments of tor- 
 ture were all carefully removed from the place of torture, 
 and the room bore no marks of the shocking scenes which 
 had here so often transpired. Here poor Rame, the
 
 296 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 Frenchman, had dragged out his long imprisonment, and 
 here William Lamport, the unfortunate Irish victim, pre- 
 pared himself for death. But Lamport's story is worth 
 giving in full, to illustrate the scenes. 
 
 William Lamport was an Irishman by birth, and 
 must have been a Homan Catholic, or he could not have 
 obtained a license to visit Mexico. He was probably 
 one of that large class of Irish Catholics who emigrated 
 to Spain in order to enjoy their religion more freely than 
 they could at home, under English oppression. It was 
 probably two intercepted letters that cost tliis Irishman 
 his hfe. His accusation sets forth that he was the au- 
 thor of two writings, in one of which " things were said 
 against the Holy Office, its erection, style, mode of pro- 
 cess, &c., in such a manner that, in the whole of it, not 
 a word was to be found that was not deserving of rep- 
 rehension, not only as being injurious, but also insulting 
 to our holy Catholic faith." The Prosecuting Attorney 
 {fiscal) says of the other Avriting "that it contained de- 
 testable bitterness of language, and contumeHes so filled 
 ^ith poison as to manifest the heretical spirit of the au- 
 thor, and his bitter hatred against the Holy Office." Let 
 his fate be a warning to all traveling letter- writers who 
 are disposed to criticise too severely "the erection and 
 style" of a very awkward-looking building, and the mode 
 of process therein used in condemning men to the flames. 
 Probably, before he got through witli his intercourse with 
 the Inquisition, he many times wished himself back un- 
 der the liberal government of the Anglo-Saxon oppress- 
 ors of his country! 
 
 It was a delightful day in the year 1569, when the most 
 splendid auto da fe that ever took place in ]\Iexico was 
 celebrated upon the occasion of the burning of Lamport. 
 A throne had been placed for the Vice-king, and conspic- 
 uous seats were prepared for the aiidienda. All the offi-
 
 STORY OF WILLIAM LAMPORT. 297 
 
 cials of the city and of the department were present to 
 add importance to the grand performance {^'funcion''). 
 Not less brilliant was the display which the whole body 
 of the priesthood made upon the occasion. The Arch- 
 bishop, as spiritual Vice-king, displayed a bearing that 
 dazzled the populace, while his attendant clergy, with the 
 whole body of the monastic orders, added immensely to 
 the grand spectacle. The procession, headed by the 
 Grand Inquisitor and his subordinates, was followed by 
 the officials and familiars, while the poor Irishman walked 
 with his eyes raised to Heaven, for the purpose, said the 
 priests, "of seeing if the devil, his familiar, would come to 
 his assistance."* The sermon and the ordinary exercises, 
 including the oath administered to all the dignitaries 
 present to support the Holy Office, were spun out to an 
 unusual length, so that it proved to be a protracted meet- 
 ing, as well as the greatest festival the Mexicans ever 
 witnessed since tlie time that Montezuma offered human 
 sacrifices. But in the midst of the preliminary exercises 
 Lamport escaped burning alive, for when his neck had 
 been placed in the ring, he let himself faU and broke his 
 neck, so that the crowd were compelled indignantly to 
 put up with burning of the dead body of a heretic. The 
 unbeliever cheated them out of half their expected sport. 
 It may look like wandering from the main topic of 
 discussion to devote a chapter to an institution which 
 has ceased to exist for forty years. But no one can ftdly 
 comprehend the social and political character of the di- 
 verse and conflicting nationaHties and discordant ele- 
 ments that for three hundred years constituted the Span- 
 ish empire without fully understanding the character 
 and workings of the Inquisition, which, from " the Coun- 
 cil of the Supreme" in Spain, extended, with its compli- 
 
 * Though I do not entirely follow Pinblanch, yet I give him as au- 
 thority for this incident. 
 
 N2
 
 298 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 cated ramifications, tlirough all the provinces, and pene- 
 trated every social organization in Europe and America,* 
 and even to the most distant East India possessions, bind- 
 ing all the several parts together as the nei-vous system 
 does the parts of the human body ^ or rather by external 
 
 * Mr. Gay aire, who, nnder a commission from the State of Louisiana, 
 is examining the colonial records at Madrid, has discovered the evi- 
 dence of an attempt made to introduce the Inquisition into New Orleans 
 even after our people had begun to settle there. This is his statement: 
 
 *'It appears," says Gayarre, "that soon after the death of Charles 
 in., an attempt was made to introduce the much-dreaded tribunal of 
 the Inquisition into the colony. The reverend Capuchin, Antonio de 
 Sedella, who had lately arrived in the province, wrote to the Governor 
 to inform him that he, the holy father, had been appointed Commissary 
 of the Inquisition ; that in a letter of the 5th of December last, from 
 the proper authority, this intelligence had been communicated to him, 
 and that he had been requested to discharge his functions with the 
 most exact fidelity and zeal, and in comformity -with the royal will. 
 "Wherefore, after having made his investigations with the utmost secre- 
 sy and precaution, he notified Miro that, in order to carry, as he was 
 commanded, his instructions into perfect execution in all their parts, 
 he might soon, at some late hour of the night, deem it necessary to re- 
 quire some guards to assist him in his operations. 
 
 " Not many hours had elapsed since the reception of this communi- 
 cation by the Governor, when night came, and the representative of the 
 holy Inquisition was quietly reposing in bed, when he was roused from 
 his sleep by a heavy knocking. He started up, and, opening his door, 
 saw standing before him an officer and a file of grenadiers. Thinking 
 that they had come to obey his commands, in consequence of his letter 
 to the Governor, he said, ' My friends, I thank you and his Excellency 
 for the readiness of this compliance with my request. But I have now 
 no use for your senices, and you shall be warned in time when you are 
 wanted. Retire, then, with the blessing of God.' Great was the stu- 
 pefaction of the friar when he was told that he was under arrest. 
 ' What !' exclaimed he, ' will you dare lay your hands on a Commissary 
 of the holy Inquisition ?' ' I dare obey orders,' replied the undaunted 
 officer, and the reverend Father Antonio de Sedella was instantly car- 
 ried on board of a vessel, which sailed the next day for Cadiz. 
 
 '• Rendering an account of this incident to one of the members of the 
 cabinet of Madrid, Governor Miro said, in a dispatch, ' the mere name 
 of the Inquisition uttered in New Orleans would be sufficient not only 
 to check immigration, which is successfuUy progressing, but would also 
 be capable of driving away those who have recently come, and I even 
 fear that in spite of my having sent out of the countiy Father Sedella, 
 the most fatal consequences may ensue from the mere suspicion of the 
 cause of his dismissal* "
 
 THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 299 
 
 folds, as the anaconda does its victim. The Inquisition 
 was emphaticallj the nervous aj^stem of the Spanish 
 monarchy. From the time of Phihp II. to the last of 
 her kings, Spain had but one monarch that could have 
 escaped a lunatic asylum on a commission adinquirendo^ 
 and not a single royal family in all that time that had 
 not at least one judicially declared idiot in the house- 
 hold ; and more than once it was the regular successor to 
 the throne. And yet this ingeniously contrived craft of 
 priests held all most firmly together, and made it capa- 
 ble of resisting every outside pressure until the French 
 imperial armies entered Madrid. 
 
 When French gunpowder was applied to the Holy Of- 
 fice, the Spanish empire lost its nationality, and its dif- 
 ferent parts fell to pieces like a rope of sand, and reveal- 
 ed to the world the sad truth that the Spanish race, 
 whether in the Peninsula or in the colonies, was now in- 
 capable of self-government. The Inquisition had con- 
 sumed its powers of vitality. So long accustomed to 
 submit to and lean upon despotic autliority, its various 
 nationalities had lost the power of self-support. Spain, 
 from the earliest historical periods, had ever been the 
 victim of foreign colonial despotisms or imported ty- 
 rants until Philip II., under whom the Inquisition be- 
 coming firmly established, it thenceforward continued a 
 Catholic province of the Roman Church, until Rome and 
 the Papal Spanish empire fell together by the hands of 
 Napoleon. From that time onward, Spain and all her 
 former provinces have continued the sport of military in- 
 surgents — a melancholy evidence of the mental, physi- 
 cal, and moral ruin that overtakes a country abandoned 
 to the despotism of priests. 
 
 Though the origin of the Inquisition of Spain is fa- 
 miliar to all, yet few are accustomed to look upon it in 
 its political bearings. The "pious" Isabella, or, as she
 
 300 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 is called by the descendants of the Moriscoes, " Isabella 
 the Accursed," is conceded to have been the founder of 
 the modern Inquisition, and yet her great piety did not 
 prevent her from giving a death-blow to the JFuero of Cas- 
 tile, the most liberal government of Europe except that 
 of Aragon. The popularity which she acquired by the 
 conquest of Granada, the religious furor excited by that 
 successful war, and the union with Aragon, enabled her 
 to establish the Inquisition. By means of her priests as- 
 sociated in its gloomy tribunals she was able to suppress 
 popular rights. A shadow of the Fueros of Catalonia, 
 Valencia, and Aragon still remained, but she had sapped 
 the foimdation on which they rested by the establish- 
 ment of the Holy Office. Charles Y. was sufficiently pow- 
 erful to disregard such humble instrumentalities in car- 
 Tying out any pui^ose he deemed to be of advantage to 
 his states. He was not a bigot by education, and we 
 have to look to disappointed ambition as the cause of 
 the "vdrulence with which he persecuted the least indica- 
 tion of heresy. He had been thwarted in his ambitious 
 schemes ; this he attributed to the Eeformation, which 
 he himself had fostered at its beginning, in order to sow 
 discord among the princes of Germany. He had hoped 
 that upon their mutual jealousy he might establish des- 
 potic authority ; but the treason of ^laurice of Saxony 
 had subverted his dai'hng scheme at the moment of its 
 apparent success, and in disgust he retired from public 
 life to spend the remainder of liis days in recruiting his 
 health and cursing the heretics. 
 
 The Inquisition burned with renewed flames under 
 Philip II. from precisely the same cause that had made 
 it tolerable to his father. To the troubles caused by 
 the Eeformation he attributed the election of his uncle 
 Maximilian " King of the Romans," and his own conse- 
 quent loss of the Germanic empire. But, as a compen-
 
 PHILIP II. AND THE INQUISITION. 301 
 
 sation for this loss, he had substantially acquired En- 
 gland by his marriage with Queen Mary, and had the sat- 
 isfaction of having his soldiers mingled with those of En- 
 gland in his war against France, and of seeing his own 
 Archbishop of Toledo preside in the tribunal that con- 
 demned to the flames the Protestant bishops of England. 
 The autos dafe of Smithfield were weeding out heresy 
 and liberty from England, which he already began to 
 look upon as a province of his empire, when his wife 
 died, and the avowed heresy of Elizabeth blasted his 
 hopes in that quarter. The heretic Prince of Nassau 
 had raised insurrection in the Netherlands, which de- 
 prived him of Holland. When the French Catholic 
 League, which he had so long subsidized, was about to 
 declare him, or at least his daughter, sovereign of France, 
 the relapsed heretic, Henry IV., blasted this hope by lay- 
 ing siege to Paris. On the side of the Catholic states 
 of Europe his affairs went on most prosperously. He 
 had acquired Portugal, with all her American and East 
 India provinces. But in these new acquisitions he was 
 not safe from the assaults of the heretics. The Dutch 
 robbed him of Brazil, and of the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and of the islands of Ceylon and Java in the East In- 
 dies. When his missionary emissaries had excited an 
 insurrection by which he might have acquired Japan in 
 a religious war, the Dutch were there with their ships, 
 and, laying them alongside the rebel camp, they cannon- 
 aded it, while the imperial army on the land side utterly 
 destroyed together emissary priests and rebels, and for- 
 ever excluded Spain and her emissaries from the isl- 
 ands, and even England after the negotiation of a Span- 
 ish marriage. Nor were his treasure-ships safe from 
 these audacious Dutch, who prowled about the West In- 
 dies and seized his galleons. The ships from Goa, laden 
 with the treasures of the East, had to take a circuitous
 
 302 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 route to avoid the Dutch, who were continually on the 
 look-out at the Cape of Good Hope. As if this was not 
 enough, the failure of his great armada sent against En- 
 gland, and the ravaging of his own coasts by Essex, in- 
 creased his hatred against the heretics to something like 
 a mania. 
 
 These are sufficient reasons for accounting for the zeal 
 of Philip II. on the subject of religion, and his blindness 
 to the consequences of thus abandoning his empire and 
 his people as common plunder to a merciless horde of 
 plunderers, who bound his empire most firmly together, 
 but it was in the bands of national ruin. This, too, may 
 account for his often-repeated remark that he would not 
 shield his own son if he should incur the censure of the 
 Inquisition. When his eldest son and heir openly 
 avowed his hatred to the Inquisition, we find him dying 
 a mysterious death. It has already been remarked that 
 there can be no such thing as reliance upon historical 
 truth in a country where the Inquisition is in ftdl author- 
 ity. But it does not follow fi'om this that we ought to 
 adopt the popular surmise tliat Philip was privy to the 
 murder of his son, or even that he was actually murdered. 
 It may have been a murder, as the inquisitorial assassins 
 were numerous, or it may have been a natural death, as 
 represented in books that have been published by per- 
 mission of the censors. All that we know is, that his 
 death happened advantageously for the continuance of 
 the Holy Office. 
 
 Philip HI. can hardly be considered an accountable 
 being. The same may be said of his son and of his 
 son's sons, to say notliing of those heirs to the Spanish 
 crown that were legally adjudged idiots. The nominal 
 father of Charles III., though he was King of Spain, must 
 be considered as not merely bordering on idiocy, but as 
 actually a man of unsound mind. Charles IH., though
 
 FATE OF THE INQUISITION. 303 
 
 he had courage to drive from his dominions the Jesuits, 
 dared not undertake a reform of the clergy. We may- 
 conclude this chapter by saying that the Inquisition had 
 its origin in political considerations, or in the revenge- 
 ful feelings of really great sovereigns of Spain, and that 
 its continuance was owing to the weakness or impotency 
 of their successors ; and though it was the terror of all 
 classes above the street rabble, it was too powerful to be 
 suppressed before the emancipation of the people which 
 followed the French invasion. Such is the fate of a race 
 over whom priests have once acquired dominion.
 
 CHAPTER XXVn. 
 
 Miracles and Earthquakes.— The Saints in Times of Ignorance.— The 
 Eruption of Jorullo. — The Curse of the Capuchins. — The Conse- 
 quences of the Curse. — The unfulfilled Curse. — The Population of 
 the Eepublic. — Depopulation from 1810 to 1840. — The :Mixture of 
 "Whites and Indians not prolific. — The pure Indians. — ^The Mez- 
 tizos. — The "SVhite Population. — Negroes and Zambos. — The Jew 
 and the Law of Generation. — The same Law applies to Cattle. — It 
 governs the Generation of Plants. — Intemperance and Generation. 
 — ^ileztizo Plants short-lived. — Mexico can not be resuscitated. — She 
 can not recover her Northern Pro\'inces. 
 
 Earthquakes are, and ever have been, very frequent 
 tkrougli the whole of ^lexico. Yet they have never been 
 very severe, particularly at the city, as is demonstrated 
 by the very existence of a city upon such a mass of soft 
 earth as I have shown in a former chapter constitutes 
 the foundation of Mexico. A reasonable amount of hard 
 shaking would dislocate its muddy basis and engulf the 
 city. Now and then some unusually frail structure is 
 toppled down, and the church steeples are swayed a lit- 
 tle this way or that, but the cement that sustains them 
 has heretofore proved sufficiently cohesive to save them 
 from being shaken to pieces or tumbled down.* Some 
 ten years ago, the convent church, in which was the mi- 
 raculous image of our Sa\dour, was tlirown down, and the 
 image that had annually poured forth its precious blood 
 for the healing of the spiritual and temporal maladies of 
 
 * An attempt was made to explain awar the storv of Cortez getting 
 drowned out at Iztapalapan, a point above the level of the city of Mex- 
 ico, by suggesting that perhaps an earthquake may have changed the 
 face of the valley. But, unfortunately, Iztapalapan was the southern 
 support of the old Indian levee {calzado), built to keep the water off of 
 the city of Mexico in seasons of hea\7 rains.
 
 IGNOKANCE AND MIKACLES. 305 
 
 all pious believers was buried under tbe ruins. But 
 this calamity was only a precursor of a greater miracle ; 
 for, on removing the rubbish, the sacred image was found 
 intact, and as ready as ever to bleed again to order for 
 ready pay. The spmtual interpretation of this astound- 
 ing phenomenon was, that the devil, in his malice, had 
 attempted, as of old, to crush the miraculous power of 
 the Saviour; and now, again, as upon the high mountain, 
 he was foiled, and the flow of blood was not intermitted. 
 Miracles have ever been the most fruitful source of 
 profit that the Church enjoys, for at the annunciation of 
 every new miracle the faithful are quickened to devotion 
 and to contributiohs, which, above all things, is to be de- 
 sired by the " impoverished Church" of Mexico.* An 
 earthquake is always a windfall or a godsend to tlie priest- 
 hood. An outsider is often surprised at the number of 
 miracles that, in old times, were connected with earth- 
 quakes. But rarely do we hear of modem miracles. 
 The spirit of miracles works only in times of most pro- 
 found ignorance ; and experience has convinced the 
 Church that the only prospect of the continuation of mi- 
 raculous visitations of the holy Apostles and of the Vir- 
 gin in Mexico, depends upon the continuation of the peo- 
 ple in the most profound ignorance, and in childlike 
 obedience to their spiritual superiors. So long as this 
 state of things continued, the holy Virgin was ever pres- 
 ent among them, performing the most astounding cures, 
 and even, upon one occasion, causing the ground to open 
 and swallow up the surplus waters of the valley, to the 
 relief of the "most devout people of Mexico," besides per- 
 forming other astounding miracles, that have been duly 
 attested by Pope, prelates, and the Council of Rites. 
 
 * Though the richest ecclesiastical quasi-corporation in the world, 
 your ears are constantly saluted with solicitations for contributions to 
 the impoverished Church.
 
 306 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 But now, since the education of the common people has 
 been attempted, although on a very limited scale, and 
 men are allowed to speak openly, the most holy Virgin 
 of Guadalupe has withdrawn her wonder-working power 
 from an unbelieving people, while the blind, the halt, the 
 lame, the palsied, and the diseased crowd around her 
 shrine, not to obtain her healing mercy, but to solicit 
 charity. The saints, also, have ceased to stir up the 
 elements, so that volcanic fires have ceased tliroughout 
 the whole limits of the republic, and earthquakes have 
 almost forgotten to perform their annual duty of shaking 
 the earth. 
 
 The last volcanic eruption in Mexico was one of the 
 most astounding of which the record has come down to 
 us, whether in ^lexico or in any other country. Fortu- 
 nately, we have reliable evidence in relation to this event, 
 for Humboldt not only surveyed the volcano as it ap- 
 peared in his day, but, from eye-witnesses of the first 
 eruption, learned the incidents that fill out the histor}", 
 and also the miraculous cause which is assigned for this 
 mighty convulsion of nature. His story I shall follow 
 in preference to the popular tradition of the awful conse- 
 quences that succeeded the curse pronounced by two 
 Capuchin friars upon the estate of Jorullo. 
 
 Just one hundred years ago, which was fifty years be- 
 fore the time of the visit of Humboldt, two Capuchin 
 friars came to preach at the estate which occupied the 
 beautiful valley of Jorullo. This valley was situated 
 between two basaltic ridges, and was watered by two 
 small streams of hmpid water, the San Pedro and the 
 Cuitamba. These small parallel rivers furnished an 
 abundant supply of water, which was well employed 
 in irrigating flourishing sugar and indigo plantations. 
 These Capuchins, not having met with a favorable recc])- 
 tion at the estate of San Pedro, poured out the most hor-
 
 ERUPTION OF JORULLO. 307 
 
 rible imprecations against the beautiful and fertile plains, 
 foretelling that, as the iirst consequences of their curse, 
 the plantation would be swallowed up by flames rising 
 out of the earth, and that afterward the neighboring 
 mountains would forever remain covered with snow and 
 ice. After denouncing the curse, the two holy men went 
 on their way. 
 
 On the night of the 28th and 29th of September, 1759, 
 horrible subterraneous noises were heard, which had been 
 preceded by slight shocks of an earthquake since the 
 June preceding. The affrighted Indians fled to the 
 Aquasareo, and soon thereafter a tract of land twelve 
 miles square, which now goes by the name of the "evil 
 land" {mat pais) ^ rose up in the form of a bladder, and 
 boiled, and seethed, and bubbled like a caldron of pud- 
 ding, shooting up columns of fire from ten thousand ori- 
 fices. Sometimes a number of orifices would unite into 
 one vast crater, and vomit forth such a column of fire as 
 was never before seen by human eyes since the time 
 when " the smoke of the country went up as the smoke 
 of a furnace." 
 
 Intelligent witnesses assured Humboldt that flames 
 were seen to issue forth, which, from a surface of more 
 than a mile square, cast up fragments of burning rock 
 to a prodigious height. The two small rivers were 
 swallowed up, and their decomposed waters added fuel 
 to the flames, which burned for many months with a 
 fierceness that is indescribable. 
 
 Such is the origin of the volcano of Jorullo, in the 
 State of Michoican, and such is the pretended consequence 
 of a curse pronounced by Capuchin monks upon one of 
 the most beautiful estates in the country ; and for gen- 
 erations since, the dread of incurring the displeasure of 
 strolling vagabond monks has rested like a blight upon 
 the common people; and yet this is but one of the
 
 308 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 thousand ways by which the Mexican priesthood play 
 upon the credulity of the ignorant in a country where 
 convulsions of nature are matters of almost ordinary oc- 
 currence. Every extraordinary event in nature is as- 
 cribed to the exercise of supernatural power on the part 
 of the clergy or the most boly images of the Church. 
 
 The fires of Jorullo have ceased to bum for half a cen- 
 tury. The central crater that was eventually formed, 
 and the numerous little orifices of fire, have long since 
 become cold, and all the evidences of an active fire have 
 passed away. But to this day the Indians watch the 
 progress of the cooling process ; as they anticipate that, 
 before many years have passed, the unfulfilled portion of 
 the curse will be realized, and that those now live who 
 will see the surrounding mountains covered by perpet- 
 ual snow — an evil which the half-clad Indians of the 
 tropics appear to dread more than perpetual fire. 
 
 The last and only enumeration of the inhabitants of 
 Mexico or New Spain was made in 1794, by that dis- 
 tinguished Yice-king to whom I have so often referred, 
 Ravillagigedo. This enumeration gave as the actual 
 population 3,865,529, besides the departments of Vera 
 Cruz, Guanajuato, and Cohahuila, which were estimated 
 to contain 518,000 more, making a sum total of4,412,529. 
 Since that time tliere has been a great deal of extensive 
 guessing, until by this simple process the population was 
 brought up to 7,661,520, in 1853.* The process by 
 which this increase is effected is to add one sixth for 
 supposed omissions in the census, and a like number for 
 supposed increase in the subsequent fifteen years till 
 the breaking out of war, and taking for granted that the 
 population has not retrograded during forty-five years 
 of intermittent war. Such conclusions are made in vio-' 
 lation of aU the laws of population. 
 
 * Colleccion de LeyeSy p. 184.
 
 POPULATION OF MEXICO. 309 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to my readers to run over 
 the laws which regulate the decrease of population, al- 
 though it is too much our custom to look only at the 
 other side of the picture. The social and civil wars of 
 Mexico have been of such a character, as we have seen, 
 as to warrant the belief that from this caUse alone popu- 
 lation must have constantly diminished, from their very 
 commencement in 1810 until 1840, when matters were 
 comparatively resuscitated. The employment for labor 
 during the time that the large estates were neglected, 
 and while the canals of irrigation and the silver mines 
 were in ruins, was of the most limited character ; and 
 the very indigent circumstances to which it reduced the 
 majority of those who ranked above the leperos must 
 also have diminished the population of the republic much 
 below that of the vice-kingdom under E-avillagigedo. 
 
 Since 1840, notwithstanding the frequent wars, Mex- 
 ico, in favored localities, may have slightly increased in 
 population ; but this increase is more than balanced by 
 the Indian wars of the northern departments, which have 
 depopulated large tracts of country, sometimes extend- 
 ing across one tier of states even into the heart of Du- 
 rango and Guanajuato ; so that I hazard nothing in af- 
 firming that the population of the whole country must 
 be less to-day than it was in 1794, notwithstanding that 
 Humboldt sets down an estimate of 5,800,000 for the 
 year 1803, and 6,500,000 for the year 1808. I might 
 go farther, and affirm that the constant insecurity of life 
 and property in all but the central parts of the republic 
 is such as to keep down the natural increase of a popu- 
 lation never proHfic, being made up of a combination of 
 uncongenial races — whites and Indians, whose intermix- 
 ture leads to sterility. 
 
 The census shows two fifths of the population to be 
 pure Indians, mostly laborers : this class would have
 
 310 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 been the one most likely to have increased since the Rev- 
 olution, had there remained the same amount of employ- 
 ment and wages as formerly. In consequence of the ab- 
 olition of monopolies, the articles necessary for the com- 
 forts of life became much cheaper and more easy of at- 
 tainment to the laboring classes, which would tend to in- 
 crease the number of this class. These Indians, more- 
 over, had remained to a great extent free from the dele- 
 terious intermixture of white blood. But the pure In- 
 dian, compared with the pure Caucasian, is a race, under 
 the most favorable circumstances, of slow increase. The 
 diseases hereditary among the Indians are aggravated by 
 promiscuous marriages, so that in California the mission- 
 aries used to inquire diligently after a man's family con- 
 nections, and compel a convert to marry into his own 
 clan, or not marry at all. 
 
 The Meztizos, or mixed races, constitute another two 
 fifths of the population. This is a less vigorous race 
 than the pure Indian. They are all the children of sin, 
 mostly the offspring of illicit intercourse, and are for this 
 cause a feebler race than the offspring of the same mix- 
 ture where the man was only blessed with a single wife. 
 As all maiTiage of whites with Indians in New Spain 
 was unlawful, these Meztizos bore the same relation to 
 the law in Xew Spain which the mulattoes do in our 
 Southern States. 
 
 The whites were set down at one million, or about one 
 fifth of the whole population, at the most prosperous pe- 
 riod of the vice-kingdom. I doubt if they now amount 
 to half or even a quarter of that number, and of this pop- 
 ulation there is a very vigorous French immigration, now 
 amounting to five or six thousand, and about as many 
 Germans, a handful of English, and still less Americans. 
 The native white population does not possess the physi- 
 cal energy requisite for rapid increase. They form no
 
 RACES IN MEXICO, 311 
 
 portion of the laboring people ; they live in effeminacy, 
 and their children are not nursed at the healthy breasts 
 of athletic negresses, as are the children of our Southern 
 planters, but are suckled by a more enervated race than 
 themselves, viz., the Meztizos. The emigration from 
 Spain was never an emigration of laboring men. It con- 
 sisted almost entirely of priests, stewards, clerks, and 
 taskmasters, to whom labor was considered as degrading. 
 When the Spaniards lost a monopoly of these employ- 
 ments, and sank to the level of the native races, their num- 
 bers rapidly declined. The slight foreign immigration 
 above mentioned is not one of laborers, for labor is con- 
 sidered an unbecoming employment at Mexico for white 
 men, but an immigration of tradesmen and shop-keepers, 
 who add nothing to the material wealth of the country. 
 Of the Mexican Negro race I never knew but two, 
 and one of them held the post of captain in the army, 
 and the other was the naked alcalde, mentioned in a for- 
 mer chapter, Avho was discharging the functions of "Judge 
 of First Instance." The reasons assigned for the disap- 
 pearance of this race from ^Mexico after so large an im- 
 portation of slaves as that which took place in the last 
 century is the incongeniality of the climate of Mexico, 
 particularly of the table-lands, to the negro constitution. 
 At the breaking out of the Mexican revolution, almost 
 the only negro slaves in the country were in the depart- 
 ment of Vera Cruz. The sugar-planters of the hot coun- 
 try of the interior, finding it impossible to carry on their 
 estates by the use of negro slaves, attempted to reduce 
 the mortality among their working people by raising up 
 a race of those disgusting-looking beings called Zambos, 
 a cross of negroes and Indians ; but it was attended with 
 the usual ill success that has followed every attempt to 
 cross or intermingle different and distinct races of men, 
 animals, or even plants.
 
 312 MEXICO AND ITS EEUGION. 
 
 The advantages arising from transplanting the human 
 race, as well as vegetables and plants, are manifestly 
 great. But transplanting should never be confounded 
 with intermixing races, whether they be human, or of the 
 lower animals, or of plants. AYhen God, in his infinite 
 wisdom, saw fit to choose out a family that he destined 
 to continue for thousands of years. He transplanted it 
 into a new soil and climate, and subjected it to divers 
 migrations. First it went down into Eg}"pt, and then, 
 " with a high hand and an outstretched arm," He brought 
 it up out of Egypt, and after a sojourn of forty years in 
 the wilderness, He re-established it in the land of Canaan. 
 This is the origin of the most perfectly developed race 
 of the present time. "WTiether in the tropics or in the 
 most northern latitudes, the Jew is the same intellectual 
 and physical man, and carries about with liim the indel- 
 ible marks of a descendant of those patriarchs who were 
 commanded not to intermarry with the people among 
 whom they dwelt. The Jew may wander and sojourn 
 in strange lands, but he cherishes with national pride 
 the blood of Abraham, which he insists still flows in his 
 veins, and he is most careful, of all things, to transmit it 
 pure to his children. Though Canaan aboimded with 
 fragments of nationahties, his boast is that his blood is 
 not intermixed viiih. any of them. To the history of the 
 Jews we might add the experience of the Franciscan 
 missionaries of California, that for a healthy offspring a 
 man must marry among his own clan. 
 
 The constant complaints we hear of the deterioration 
 of imported animals of choice breeds is the result of a 
 disregard of this law of propagation. The importations 
 of Merino sheep, and afterward of the Saxon, proved a 
 failure chiefly from this cause. Those engaged in the 
 importation of English cattle begin already to make the 
 same complaint, which they would not have done had
 
 INTERMIXTURE OF RACES. 313 
 
 they taken the precaution to import their foreign stock 
 in families. The Mulatto is an apparent, not a real ex- 
 ception to the rule. He is superior to the Negro, often 
 superior to his white father ; but it is a superiority for a 
 generation only, and carries with it the seeds of its own 
 dissolution. The mule is superior to the donkey, but 
 lasts only for a generation. The Oregon ox, a cross be- 
 tween the Spanish and xlmerican breeds, is superior to 
 either of the pure breeds. But it is the concentration 
 in one animal of what might be the material of divers 
 generations. 
 
 I once asked a Dutchess county farmer the cause of 
 the great superiority of his crops of wheat over those of 
 his neighbors, and his reply was that he always brought 
 his seed from a distance, changed it often, and took good 
 care not to let it intermix with the wheat of that region. 
 The same, or, rather, greater results have attended the 
 transportation of American seeds and plants to Califor- 
 nia, where a new soil and a new climate has produced 
 upon all the staples of agriculture such an improvement 
 as to astonish men who have made this branch of indus- 
 try a study. It is the result of the migration of plants 
 w^here there are no plants of the same character to inter- 
 mix, and so deteriorate the race by crossing the breed. 
 In trees the same law holds unchangeably. We pro- 
 duce fine fruit by inoculation and by grafting ; but ex- 
 perience has taught us never to inoculate upon a graft- 
 ed stem, but always upon a natural branch. As the 
 Conquistadors selected the best-looking Indian women 
 for the mothers of the !Meztizos, so the fruit-raiser se- 
 lects the best natural stems to inoculate with his artifi- 
 cial varieties of fruit. In this way we get better fi'uit 
 by exhausting the root, and a whole race of plants are 
 sometimes worn out by mixture from too close a prox- 
 imity of the different families of the same genus. In 
 
 O
 
 314 MEXICO A^D ITS KELIGION. 
 
 the laws whicli Moses gave to the children of Israel, we 
 find a provision against the evils of intermixtures in the 
 precept : " Thy cattle shall not gender with diverse 
 kind." "Thou shalt not sow the field with divers 
 seeds." In these precepts God has taken care to guard 
 the wholesome generation of plants as well as of animals. 
 
 Tlie successful intermingling of the Protestant Anglo- 
 Saxon immigration with our own people in the second 
 and third generations is not an exception to the law of 
 generation, as both are but branches of the same stock, 
 and are successfully planted together. Nor is the mor- 
 tality which follows the Catholic immigration an excep- 
 tion to the beneficial law of migration, for habits of in- 
 temperance account for the short lives of these immi- 
 grants ; and though their ofi*spring is abundant, yet it is 
 all tainted with an inheritance of disease, and too many 
 of the children suffer the ruinous consequences of having 
 drawn "still slops" firom a mother's breast in infancy. 
 For physically, and in the chain of generation, most tru- 
 ly are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children 
 to the third and fourth generation. 
 
 Our collection of material for an argument will be com- 
 plete when I have added that the trees most prolific of 
 artificial fruit die the earliest, and sufier most from run- 
 ning sores ; that the vines cultivated artificially to pro- 
 duce the choicest wines suffer most from the mildew, 
 and the potatoes of the most artificial varieties are the 
 ones that have suffered most from the rot. When the 
 cholera first visited Mexico, its passage through the coun- 
 try was like the ravages of the Angel of Death among 
 the Meztizos and the fragments of decaying races. And 
 this progress toward depopulation can not be stayed. by 
 the infusion of a vigorous stock. The law of sexuality 
 in plants leads to the intermarriage of the vigorous with 
 the decaying and the intermixture of blossoms ; nor can
 
 PKOSPECTS OF MEXICO. 315 
 
 human plants long vegetate together without intermar- 
 riages, which ingraft the vigorous constitutions with the 
 virus of the old and decaying. 
 
 If, then, I have correctly enunciated the law of migra- 
 tion of men, animals, and plants, and if the law of inter- 
 mixture of distinct races, or distinct species of the race, 
 has been truly stated, the important argument to be 
 drawn from it, which interests all Americans inquiring 
 into the future of Mexico, is, that the present incongru- 
 ous fragments of population which the internal disorders 
 of Spain have set loose in Mexico can never be transform- 
 ed into a homogeneous nationahty, nor can sufficiently 
 permanent elements of strength be found in this political 
 chaos to constitute a permanent government. The de- 
 graded condition to which labor is reduced forbids the 
 idea of an immigration of foreign laborers, while the mis- 
 erable scale of wages — a quarter of a dollar a day upon 
 the estates, payable out of the plantation store, or three 
 shillings in the towns — holds out no inducement for poor 
 men of a healthy race to abandon their own country and 
 migrate to ]\Iexico in sufficient numbers to form a sub- 
 stratum of society which ultimately might rise into a 
 nationality. 
 
 A still more important question is disposed of by the 
 facts stated in this chapter, viz., that there is no possi- 
 bility of the present inhabitants of Mexico ever success- 
 fully driving back the Apaches and reconquering the 
 northern provinces. Her title to the wild regions of the 
 north, which rests on discovery and colonization, is lost 
 by her utter inability to subdue the Indians and to col- 
 onize, after a probation of three hundred years. At this 
 day the whole of the northern provinces lie, like waifs, 
 open to any civilized people to take possession who re- 
 quire an additional territory. But nothing is so absurd 
 as the American process of acquisition by treaty of ter-
 
 316 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 ritories which already are, or soon will be, covered all 
 over by immense land-claims, in districts subjugated by 
 the Indians, instead of acknowledging the title of the 
 Apaches to the lands they have conquered from Mexi- 
 co, and long held in possession, and purchasing of those 
 who are the real sovereigns of Northern ]\Iexico.
 
 CHAPTER XX^T:II. 
 
 The Church of Mexico. — Its present Condition and Power. — The Num- 
 ber of the " Religios." — The Wealth of the Church. — The Money- 
 power of the Church. — The Power of Assassination. — Educating tlie 
 People robs the Priest. — jMaking and adoring Images. — The Prog- 
 ress downward. 
 « 
 
 The Catholic Clmrch of Mexico is a peculiar institu- 
 tion. Its historical antecedents have been considered in 
 previous chapters in connection with other subjects. 
 Men no longer whisper their unbelief with trembling, 
 nor have they any longer to dread inquisitorial fires if 
 they refuse to pay tithes to the bishop, or if they neglect 
 to bestow rich gifts upon the priests. Still the Chui'ch 
 survives the losses of this important engine of piety, and 
 continues unmodified by passing events. In the midst 
 of revolutions it stands unchanged, a relic of the last 
 century. It stands like a great showman's wagon from 
 which the horses have been detached, and children, great 
 and small, are collected around to look at its images. 
 Unfortunately, there is an abundance of full-grown chil- 
 dren in a country where, for centuries, a combination of 
 spiritual and temporal despotisms have dwarfed the in- 
 tellects of men down to the standard of a toy-shop relig- 
 ion, which had long rejoiced in crushing the human in- 
 tellect, while it disdained to enlighten the humblest un- 
 derstanding. 
 
 ^Mexico is the only Catholic country in which the 
 Church has remained unchanged during all the revolu- 
 tions of the last half century.^ The French infidel ar- 
 mies, and the wars and revolutions that followed the
 
 320 MEXICO AND ITS IIKLIGION. 
 
 French invasions, overturned the Church of Spain and 
 Italy, so that the Church organization that now exists in 
 those peninsulas is a new creation. Xot so in Mexico. 
 •Its revolution was for the purpose of saving the privi- 
 leges of the Church from the too sweeping reforms of the 
 Cortes of Spaing And there it now stands, with all the 
 properties and annuities which it enjoyed in the time of 
 the idiot kings. The Inquisition no longer enforces with 
 lire the censures of the Church, and men are no longer 
 compelled by legal process to pay tithes. But for these 
 losses the Church has received a heavy compensation. 
 The priests and inquisitors who ruled the childish court 
 of Spain would allow no independence to the Mexican 
 Church, hut supplied, by royal appointment, all the can- 
 didates for vacant bishoprics and chapters, while the 
 Vice-king was allowed to fill the inferior offices of the 
 Chiu'ch. 
 
 By the partial separation of Church and state which 
 took place in 1833, the Church of Mexico became inde- 
 pendent of the state. The chapters acquired the right 
 of electing their own bishops ; the bishops, by virtue of 
 their spiritual authority, appointing the priests and ex- 
 ercising control over all Church property as quasi cor- 
 porations-sole, at least over aU property not vested in 
 religious communities, if practically there could be said 
 to be any real exception. What that newly-acquired 
 power of the Mexican bishops amounts to, we in the 
 United States, from our own experience of the same au- 
 thority, can judge. 
 
 That the reader may know how extensive is this 
 money-power of the bishops, I subjoin an extract from a 
 statistical chart* published by Senor Lerdo cle Tejado^ 
 
 * Grando Sinoptico de la Rqniblica Mejicana en 1850. Por Miguel M. 
 Lei'do y Tejado ; approved by the Mexican Society of Geography and 
 Statistics.
 
 STATISTICS OP THE CHURCH. 321 
 
 First Official de Ministerio de Fomento^ the following 
 synopsis of the clergy and their incomes : 
 
 " There is one archbishop, the Archbishop of Mexico, 
 and eleven bishops, and one to be created at Vera Cruz. 
 There are 184 prebends and 1229 parishes. The total 
 number of ecclesiastics is 3223.* There are 146 con- 
 vents of monks and 59 convents of nuns, and 8 col- 
 leges for propagating the faith. The convents of monks 
 are inhabited by 1139 persons, and there are 1541 nuns 
 in convents, and with them 740 young girls and 870 
 servants. There are 238 persons in the colleges for 
 propagating the faith." This is less than half the num- 
 ber of the religios under the vice-kings, while the riches 
 of the Church have immensely increased, as we shall 
 presently see. 
 
 I translate from the same author, in a note, statistics 
 upon the much-agitated question of the wealth of the 
 Church of ^lexico,t from which it will be seen that the 
 
 * This number 3223 includes all of the 1139 monks, except the lay 
 brothers. The two classes of priests, those who are not monks and 
 those who are monks, are distinguished in Catholic countries as secu- 
 lars and regulars {derigos and religios). Humboldt says the Mexican 
 clergy are composed of 10,000 individuals (Essai Politique, vol. i. p. 172), 
 and, including the nuns, and lay brothers and sisters, he puts the sum 
 total of the religious at 1 4,000. But in a note he gives the numbers in 
 five of the principal departments out of twelve, which foot up at only 
 5405 for the clergy of both orders. 
 
 t " The general revenue destined for the maintenance of the clergy 
 and of religious services in the republic may be divided into four class- 
 es : first, that which appertains to the bishops and to the canons, Avho 
 form the chapter of the Cathedral ; second, those revenues which apper- 
 tain to particular ecclesiastics and chaplaincies; third, those of curates 
 and vicars ; fourth, those of divers communities of religios, of both sexes. 
 
 " The first class is principally of tithes and first-fruits, the product 
 of which was very considerable in times past, when they included a 
 tenth part of all the first fruits which grew upon the soil of the repub- 
 lic, and the firstlings of the cattle. But lately this revenue has much 
 fallen off, since by the law of the 17th of October, 1833, it is no longer 
 obligatory upon the cultivators to pay this contribution. Nevertheless, 
 there still are many persons who, for conscientious reasons, or for oth- 
 er cause, continue to pay this tax, so that it produces a very consider-
 
 322 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 total amount consumed in the maintenance of these 3223 
 persons, is annually $20,000,000, besides the very large 
 
 able sum. This jiart of the clerg}- also receive considerable sums which 
 have been left by devout persons for the performance of certain annual 
 ceremonies called anniversaries. 
 
 " The collegiate church of our Lady of Guadalupe has, in addition 
 to a monthly lottery, which operates upon a capital of $13,000, certain 
 properties and other capitals of which the government takes no account. 
 
 "Particular ecclesiastics and chaplains are supported on a capital 
 generally of $3000, established by certain pious persons for that object, 
 besides the alms of the faithful, which are given for a certain number 
 of masses to be applied to objects of their devotion. 
 
 "The support of curates consists of parochial rights, viz., fees for 
 baptisms, marriages, funerals, responses, and religious celebrations 
 {funcions') which, in their res])ective churches, they command the faith- 
 ful to make ; and, finally, by the jjrofits which they derive from the sale 
 of novenas. medals, scapularies, ribbons Qnadedas), wax, and other ob- 
 jects which the parishioners employ. 
 
 "The income of convents of monks, besides the alms which they re- 
 ceive for masses, Juncions, and funerals, which they celebrate in the con- 
 vent churches, consists of the rents of great properties which they have 
 accumulated in the course of ages. 
 
 " The convents of nuns are in like manner supported by the income 
 of great estates, with the exception of two or three convents which pos- 
 sess no property, and whose inmates live on charity. 
 
 "Besides the incomes named, which pertain to the personnel of the 
 clerg}', there are, in the cathedrals and other parochial [churches], rev- 
 enues which arise from some properties and foundations created for at- 
 tending to certain dues called '■'J'abrica" which consist of all those ob- 
 jects necessary for the services of this worship (culta). 
 
 "From the want of publicity which is generally observed in the man- 
 agement of the properties and rents [incomes] of the clergy, it is impos- 
 sible to fix exactly the value of one or the other ; but they can be cal- 
 culated approximately by taking for the basis those data which are with- 
 in the reach of the public, which are the total A-alue of the production 
 of the annual return (inovimieyito) of the population for births, mamages, 
 deaths, and, finally, the devout practices which are still customary 
 among the greater part of the population. Observing carefully these 
 data, I assume, without the fear of committing a great error, that the 
 total amount which the clergy to-day realize in the whole extent of the 
 republic, for rents, proceeds of tithes, parochial rights, alms, religious 
 ceremonies {funcions), and for the sale of divers objects of devotion, 
 is between eight and ten millions of dollars. 
 
 " Some writers have estimated the properties belonging to the cler- 
 gy at one half of the productive wealth of the nation ; others at one 
 third part ; but I can not give much credit to such \\Titers, as they are 
 onlv calculations that rest on no certain data. I am sure that the total
 
 REVENUE OF THE CHUKCH 323 
 
 sums expended in tlie repairs and ornaments of an enor- 
 mous number of churches, and in gifts at the shrines of 
 the different images, which can not be appropriated to the 
 maintenance of the clergy. This sum of $20,000,000, 
 if fairly divided among them, would yield an abundant 
 support, though not an extravagant living ; but, unfor- 
 tunately, the greatest portion of this immense sum is 
 absorbed by the bishops, while the priests of the vil- 
 lages contrive to exist by the contributions they Avring 
 out of the peons. At the time of the census, 1793, the 
 twelve bishops had $539,000* appropriated to their sup- 
 port ; but now their revenues are so mixed up with the 
 revenues of the Church, that it is impossible to say how 
 much these twelve successors of the apostles appropriate 
 to their own support. 
 
 In place of the Inquisition which the reformed Span- 
 ish government took away from the Church of Mexico, 
 
 amount of the property of the clergy, for chaplaincies, foundations, and 
 other pious uses, together with rustic and city properties, which belong 
 to the divers religious corporations, amount to an enormous sum, not- 
 withstanding the falling off that is said to have taken place from the 
 amounts of former years. 
 
 "All property in the district of Mexico [federal district] is estimated 
 at $50,000,000, the half of Avhich pertains to the clergy. Uniting the 
 product of this proj)erty to the tithes, parochial rights, etc., I am well 
 assured that the total of the income of the clergy amounts to from 
 eigliteen to twenty millions of dollars." 
 
 * The Archbishop of Mexico $130,000 
 
 Bishop of Pueblo 110,000 
 
 " Valladolid 110,000 
 
 " Guadalajara 90,000 
 
 " Durango 35,000 
 
 " Monterey 30,000 
 
 " Yucatan 20,000 
 
 " Oajaca 18,000 
 
 " Sonora 6,000 
 
 Total individual income of twelve bishops $539,000 
 
 — J'Jssai Politique^ vol. i. p. 173. 
 
 The reason why the Bishop of Sonora was limited to $6000 was that 
 his diocese was so poor that he had that salary paid out of the king's 
 revenue.
 
 324 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 the Church now -vvields the power of wealth, almost fah- 
 uloiis m amount, which is practically in the hands of a 
 close coi'poration-sole. The influence of the Archbishop, 
 as the substantial owner of half the property in the city 
 of ^lexico, gives him a power over his tenants unknown 
 under our system of laws. Besides this,' a large portion 
 of the Church property is in money, and the x\rchbisliop 
 is the great loan and trust company of !Mexico. Kor is 
 this power by any means an insignificant one. A bank- 
 rupt government is overawed by iti Men of intellect 
 are crushed into silence ; and no opposition can success- 
 fully stand against the influence of this Church lord, who 
 carries in his hands the treasures of heaven, and in his 
 money-bags the material that moves the world. To im- 
 derstand the full force of his power of money, it must be 
 borne in mind that ^Mexico is a country proverbial for 
 recklessness in all conditions of life ; for extravagant liv- 
 ing and extravagant equipages ; a country where a man's 
 position in society is determined by the state he main- 
 tains ; a country, the basis of whose wealth is the mines 
 of precious metal ; where princely fortunes are quickly 
 acquired and suddenly lost, and where hired labor has 
 hardly a cash value. In such a country, the power and 
 influence of money has a meaning beyond any idea that 
 we can form. Look at a prominent man making an os- 
 tentatious display of his devotion : his example is of ad- 
 vantage to the Church, and the Church may be of advant- 
 age to him, for it has an abundance of money at 6 per 
 cent, per annum, while the outside money-lenders charge 
 him 2 per cent, per month. The Church, too, may have 
 a mortgage upon his house over-due ; and woe betide 
 him if he should undertake a crusade against the Church. 
 iThis is a string that the Church can pull upon wliich is 
 strong enough to overawe government itself.) 
 
 This money-power of the Chui'ch yet lacks complete-
 
 MONEY-POWER OF THE CHURCH. 325 
 
 ness and concentration to make it even a tolerable sub- 
 stitute for the power lost by the abolition of the Inquisi- 
 tion, as this wealth is distributed among 12 independent 
 bishops. But, having succeeded in establishing the tem- 
 poral power of her bishops in Mexico more firmly than 
 in the United States, the Papal court made another step 
 in advance. In 1852, Mexico was electrified with de- 
 light at the condescension of the Holy Father in sending 
 a 7iuncio to that city. For two full years this represent- 
 ative of the Holy See ^2is, feted and toasted on all hands, 
 as little less than the Pope himself, whom he represented. 
 But last year all these happy feelings were dashed with 
 gall and wormwood by an announcement that as the 
 bishops controlled all this immense property by virtue 
 of their spiritual authority, there was a resulting trust in 
 his favor, or at least in favor of the Pope, whom he rep- 
 resented with full powers. It was Pandora's box opened 
 in the midst of " a happy family." There was no dis- 
 puting the nuncio's law; but to render to him an ac- 
 count of their receipts and disbursements, or to deliver 
 over the bonds and mortgages to this agent of the Pope, 
 was most unpleasant. The old Archbishop keeps fast 
 hold of the money-bags, which, so far, the keys of Saint 
 Peter have been unable to unlock. The battle waxes 
 loud and fierce between the parties and their parti- 
 sans, and Santa Anna stands looking on, dreaming of 
 the happy time when, through the internal dissensions of 
 the Church, these accumulations of 300 years of robbery 
 and false pretenses will fall into the public treasury, and 
 the people as weU as the government w^ill obtain their 
 enfi-anchisement. 
 
 friie money-power of the Church has proved sufficient- 
 ly strong to save it from the hungry maw of a famishing 
 government, and to stand unaffected by the revolutions 
 that surround it | and now and then, when too bitterly
 
 326 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 assailed by some political reformer, it finds relief in the 
 assassination of the assailant, as in the case of the elo- 
 quent member of the last Congress, who, after a violent 
 philippic against the corruptions of the priests, was found 
 murdered in his chamber. And, as in case of the inquis- 
 itorial assassinations, the crime was proved to have been 
 connected with a robbery. The power to overawe courts 
 of justice, proverbially corrupt, and the facilities with 
 which assassinations are procui-ed, are now the most 
 dreaded weapons of the Church, and may account for the 
 nominal conformity of the intelligent classes. 
 
 The unbelievers in ^Mexico, though considerable in 
 numbers, are not organized with a positive creed. Theirs 
 is only a negative existence — ^unbeHef ; and they are gen- 
 erally found conforming outwardly, as a more convenient 
 and prudent course than running a tilt vrith. the well- 
 organized forces of the Church. 
 
 fChere is nothing peculiar in the spiritual powers of 
 the Church of Mexico, as these powers are common to all 
 Catholic countries, and vary only with the ignorance and 
 bnitality of the people ; the more degi-aded the people, 
 the greater is tlie power of the priest and bishop^ The 
 intelligent Catholic, educated among Protestants, looks 
 upon his priest as a religious instructor, and interprets 
 the ego te ahsolvo as rather a matter of form, meaning 
 little more than that he will intercede for him. He has 
 caught and is applying a Protestant idea unwittingly. 
 But with 'the gross multitude who constitute the mass 
 of the Spanish-American population, the priest is the 
 God of the people ; his giving or -s^-ithliolding absolution 
 is a matter of hfe or death ; and, however coiTupt and de- 
 bauched he may be, he still holds jurisdiction over the 
 pains of hell and the bhss of heaven.| For a reasonable 
 consideration in money, he will shut up the one and open 
 the other. The offering in the mass of the bloodless sacri-
 
 WORSHIP OF IMAGES. 327 
 
 r 
 
 fice of Jesus Christ, as it is called, is not sufficient for 
 the Catholic in a Protestant country, but the priest must 
 also preach a sermon every Sabbath, like a Protestant 
 minister, though he still holds to the efficacy of the mass 
 in conferring blessings on the living and the believing 
 dead. The preaching of the priest is a rare thing in an 
 exclusively Catholic country. The mass is his liveli- 
 hood, and if he be the head of a community, or a popular 
 priest, he often makes a profit in taking in masses to say, 
 and letting out the job at a discount. The whole mat- 
 ter may be summed up by saying thatlthe more pro- 
 foundly ignorant the people are, the more devotional do 
 they become, so that the priest has always a pecuniary 
 interest in the ignorance of the people, and if he makes 
 any effort toward their enlightenment, it is an effi^rt 
 made directly against his own pecuniary interests and 
 the income of his officej 
 
 The most ancient anti-Catholic, I might with propri- 
 ety say, Protestant sect, whose form of synagogue wor- 
 ship is congregational, and who are republican at heart, 
 though too often submitting to a despotism, are the Jews. 
 Between these two, the Jew and the Catholic, there ex- 
 ists an unmitigated hostility. The Catholic reviles the 
 Jew with a sin of which, most likely, his own ancestors 
 were not guilty,* and the Jew curses the Nazarene for 
 the idolatry of his worshipers. He will make no allow- 
 ances for the nice distinction between adoration and wor- 
 ship, and insists that the making the likeness of any 
 thing to be set up in a place of worship is idolatry, and 
 that the image of the cross is as much an image as the 
 image of Him who hung thereon. And in all this the 
 
 * Most of the Jews of our day are the descendants of the Babylonian 
 Jews, who did not return to Jerusalem after the Captivity, but remained 
 in the province of Babylon until they were driven out, some four hund- 
 red or more years after Christ ; the Babylonian, not the Jerusalem 
 Talmud, being most commonly in use among them.
 
 328 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 Jew is right, if we are to obey the commandment of God. 
 Yet the Jew forgets that a thousand years of trial were 
 requisite to cure his ancestors of their proneness to idols. 
 After their first mission, accomplished in the birth of 
 Clirist, God has presers^ed them a perpetual witness 
 against paganism. But so subtle is this sin, that we find 
 ourselves setting up sensuous representations, while we 
 point the finger of scorn at the Catholic, who ascribes 
 miraculous power to an image of the Virgin. And 
 what is the difference, the Almighty himself being judge, 
 between setting up a cross in a place of worship or as- 
 cribing miraculous power to an image, or, as is the fash- 
 ion to say, some spirit acting through the image ? Are 
 they not different stages of the same disease, and each 
 equally calculated to provoke the Almighty to jealousy. 
 Image worship has another curious aspect. It is a 
 very tolerable themiometer by which to measure the 
 downward progress of nations. Pagan Rome, in times 
 of comparative purity, had her laws against idolatry ; 
 but as her higher classes advanced in refinement and 
 sensuality, and the plebeians became debased and bru- 
 talized, the whole religious ideas of the nation degenera- 
 ted into idolatry, associated with a despotic miracle-work- 
 ing priesthood, and soon followed by a political despot- 
 ism. It is curious to witness how exactly it takes on 
 the same form in different countries in traveling this 
 downward road. The Buddhist of China, who has reach- 
 ed a thousand-fold lower level than the Catholic, has 
 his unmarried priesthood, his monks, and nuns, and self- 
 imposed penances, and tortures, and holy water, and a 
 ritual in an unknown tongue (Sanscrit), so strikingly 
 resembling the Catholic as to suggest the idea of a com- 
 mon origin, if such an idea were not impossible. Yet 
 in the moral standard they seem to have reached the 
 point of total depravity. Hence we might sum up the
 
 SUMMAEY OF EVILS. 329 
 
 cause that have produced the Mexican of the present day 
 by enumerating the absence of the scriptural idea of fam- 
 ily relation ; the despotism exercised by the priesthood 
 with the aid of an Inquisition, and the unnumbered toll- 
 gates they have placed on the road to heaven ; the effem- 
 inacy of the higher classes and debasement of the peas- 
 antry ; the absorption of half the revenues of the coun- 
 try in superstitious and idolatrous purposes, and the un- 
 cleanly habits superinduced by mental and physical deg- 
 radation for generations, so that the word leper is used 
 to designate a poor man in the city where that loathsome 
 disease has its victims.
 
 CHAPTEE XXIX. 
 
 Causes that have diminished the Religios. — The Provincials and Supe- 
 riors of Convents. — The perfect Organization. — The Monks. — San 
 Franciscans. — Dominicans. — Carmelites. — The well-reputed Orders. 
 — The Jesuits. — The Nuns. — How Novices are procured. — Contrast- 
 ed with a Quaker Prison. — The poor deluded Nun. — A good old 
 Quaker Woman not a Saint. — Protestantism felt in Mexico. 
 
 The monkish orders of ^Mexico have remained un- 
 clianeed from the time of their first establishment. We 
 have seen that they have fallen off immensely in num- 
 bers, but have increased immensely in efficiency, by the 
 termination of those internal controversies between the 
 Spanish-bom and Creoles, and by enfranchisement from 
 state control. Xot only are they now all native-bom, 
 but the ^leztizos seem to be the predominant race in the 
 priesthood. The priesthood is not now so inviting an 
 employment as it was before the suppression of the In- 
 quisition. Miracles have ceased to be a profitable spec- 
 ulation, while the revenue once paid to the monks has 
 been followed by ill-suppressed contempt. The employ- 
 ment once monopolized by the Spaniards being now 
 thrown open to general competition, there is less wiUing- 
 ness to submit to the despotism which ever reigns in re- 
 ligious houses than there was in the times of the vice- 
 kings. Hard fare, cruel treatment, and public contempt 
 have diminished the candidates for monastic orders, until 
 the old proverb — " He that can not do better, let him 
 turn monk*' — is not unknown at ^Mexico. With the in- 
 crease of liberty the number of nuns has diminished, as 
 violence can no longer be used in getting a girl into a 
 convent. For all these reasons the number of the relig-
 
 THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 331 
 
 ios has rapidly diminished, while the wealth and efficien- 
 cy of the Church has increased. 
 
 Having spoken of the bishops, the lords spiritual of 
 Mexico, and the controlling influence they exercise over 
 a feeble government, we come next to the second class 
 of spiritual masters of the country — the heads of orders, 
 the provincials, and the heads of religious houses. These 
 two classes of dignitaries are usually elected for their 
 known severity of discipline, either by the procurement 
 of tlie bishop, or through fanaticism of the monks or 
 nuns, who, having voluntarily made themselves convicts 
 and prisoners for life, now undertake to add to their self- 
 afflicted mortification by choosing for their head a supe- 
 rior the most hateful of their number. The novice is 
 taught that the greatest favor with Heaven is to be ob- 
 tained by implicit obedience under most trying circum- 
 stances, and the more cruel the despotism they unmur- 
 muringly submit to, the greater will be the accumulation 
 of good works. But cursed to the lowest depths of Pur- 
 gatory is that recluse who dares to murmur even in his 
 inmost thoughts ; and if he so far forgets his duty as to 
 murmur aloud, then all the powers of the Church are 
 brought to crush his insubordination. 
 
 We have thus followed spiritual despotism through its 
 various stages, from the Pope to the bishops ; from the 
 bishops to the provincials of religious orders ; and then 
 down to superiors of a community of half a dozen monks 
 or nuns, by whom immorality is pardonable, but who re- 
 gard disobedience or insubordination in the slightest par- 
 ticular "like the sin of witchcraft and idolatry." Sucli 
 is the perfect organization of the papacy in all its parts, 
 which, acting as one great secret, political, social, and re- 
 ligious association, labors continually to concentrate the 
 riches of the nations at Rome as a common centre. 
 
 There is a peculiar feature in the Catholic Church in
 
 382 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Mexico unknown in other Catholic countries: it is the 
 preponderance of the regular clergy (monks) over the 
 secular clergy. This is owing to Cortez, who wrote to 
 the Emperor Charles Y. to send him regulars, for the 
 conversion of the Indians, instead of seculars, assigning 
 as a reason for this request " that the latter display ex- 
 travagant luxury, leave great wealth to their natural 
 cliildren, and give great scandal to the newly-converted 
 Indians." Hence more than one half of the Mexican 
 clergy are monks, and wear the cowl ; for at the time of 
 the census of 1793, as we have seen, there were in the 
 city of Mexico 1646 monks, besides lay brothers, against 
 550 secular priests, while in the fifteen convents for nuns 
 there were 923 of these female monks. 
 
 The reader has already become quite familiar with the 
 Franciscan fathers and their vows of poverty and self- 
 mortification, and their skill at playing for gold ounces. 
 They have pretty w^ell maintained that reputation since 
 the time of Friar Thomas Gage. But there are some 
 honorable exceptions to this rule, though few and far be- 
 tween. We have already noticed how they were favored 
 by Cortez, and. the result has been that they are the rich- 
 est fraternity in the repubHc. These holy men of the 
 Angelic Order of Saint Francis have lately discovered a 
 new source of wealth in renting their large central court 
 to a Frenchman, who occupies it with the best garden 
 of plants in ^lexico ; and as the convent occupies nearly 
 a whole square in the central part of the city, they have 
 pierced tlie convent walls, and rented out shops upon the 
 business streets, while the soldiers of Santa Anna occu- 
 py the vacant cloisters of the convent. In this " happy 
 family," with all the immense wealth of the establish- 
 ment, the donados, and those monks who are so poor as 
 to have no friends, find but a miserable subsistence. 
 
 Of the Dominicans I have already spoken in connec-
 
 UHARACTER OF THE DIFFERENT ORDERS. 333 
 
 tion with the Inquisition. In their yard is the flag-stone 
 which was used by them in offering human sacrifice be- 
 fore the Revolution. There it is kept as a reUc and sym^ 
 bol of the power once enjoyed by the Church. There is 
 yet a lingering hope that there may be restored to these 
 brethren the power of roasting alive human beings. In 
 speaking of depravity of morals, it is hard to say which 
 of the fraternities has reached the lowest level, though 
 common consent concedes the palm to the Dominicans. 
 
 The name of the Carmelites carries us back to the 
 time of the Crusades ; but they are better known in Mex- 
 ico as the former proprietors of the Desierto, which Thom- 
 as Gage so touchingly describes. Their habitual prac- 
 tice of self-denial and mortification, in appearance, while 
 rioting on the luxuries that devotees lavished upon them, 
 has not been forgotten. These holy brothers had a hand 
 in the Inquisition as well as the Dominicans. They were 
 a set of scamps set to watch the purity of other men's 
 lives, while they themselves lived a life of habitual profli- 
 gacy. The ruins of their old convent, the Desierto^ is 
 still one of the most attractive spots about the city. 
 As the traveler wanders among its ruined walls, he will 
 find in the subterraneous cells ring-bolts fastened in the 
 walls, where poor prisoners for their faith endui'ed some- 
 thing more than self-mortification. 
 
 The monks of Santiago, San Augustin, and the Cap- 
 uchins have all fine convents, and are rich ; but the 
 monks of Saint James are the most inveterate beggars. 
 
 The monks of San Fernando enjoy an enviable repu- 
 tation compared with the spotted sheep I have just been 
 considering. They are late comers, and have not learn- 
 ed all the ways of wickedness of the older orders. Next 
 come the " Brethren of the Profession," of whom it is 
 pleasant to speak, after saying so many hard tilings of 
 their neighbors. They stand so high as men of charac-
 
 334 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 ter and learning, tliat I am tempted to tell their story on 
 hearsay, for want of better authority. They were once 
 Jesuits, but wlien the royal cehula of Carlos III. came 
 for their expulsion, these fathers had sustained so good a 
 character for charity and usefulness that they were al- 
 lowed to return, on condition of renouncing the name 
 and peculiarities of that order. I am inclined to believe 
 this strange story to be substantially true, for clearly 
 they are of the Jesuits, and yet they are not Jesuits. 
 The reputation which they enjoyed in 1767 they still 
 retain, and not only command the respect of all classes 
 of society in Mexico, but their chapel is the fashionable 
 church of the city, where genteel people resort to say 
 their prayers. 
 
 " Tlie Brethren of the Holy Places of Jerusalem" — the 
 Hieronomite monks, are not numerous, and are known 
 in the markets as lenders of money, with the interest of 
 which they support themselves and " the poor saints of 
 Jerusalem;" that is, a portion of those lazy, greasy, fight- 
 ing Latin monks at Jerusalem, that have been one of 
 the causes of the present war in Europe. 
 
 " The Hospitalers of Saint John" (Juanos) are better 
 known for their exploits in the time of the Crusaders 
 than for any thing they have done in Mexico. 
 
 It would be a thrice-told tale to repeat the story of the 
 Jesuits ; the world knows that too well already. The de- 
 tails of their proceedings in Mexico till the time of their 
 expulsion have been too often written by their enemies. 
 Their great prosperity and their great wealth made them 
 the envy of the other orders, as corrupt and depraved as 
 themselves, but not so dangerous, because they had 
 reached that point at which depravity ceases to contami- 
 nate. Dirty, greasy monks could not endure an order 
 that wore the garb of gentlemen, and were in favor with 
 the aristocracy, while they themselves were despised.
 
 NUNNERIES. 335 
 
 This envy was all-powerful with them, and led, for a time, 
 to the laying aside of their own private bickerings, and 
 uniting in the crusade against the common enemy, the 
 Jesuits, and acting in harmony with the political power. 
 
 The Church has always made much of the nuns. It 
 has ever been the custom of the priesthood to endeavor 
 to throw a veil of romance over the very unromantic way 
 of life followed by females who have shut themselves up 
 for life in a place hardly equal to a second-class state- 
 prison. Woman has an important place which God has 
 assigned her in the world ; but when she separates her- 
 self from the family circle, and elbows her way to the ros- 
 trum, where, with a semi-masculine attire, and with a 
 voice not intended for oratory, she harangues a tittering 
 crowd upon the rights of women to perform the duties 
 of men ; or goes to the opposite extreme, and shuts her- 
 self up within high stone walls to avoid the society of 
 the other sex, she equally sins against her own nature, 
 and not only brings misery upon herself, but inflicts upon 
 society the evils of a pernicious example, and furnishes 
 a theme for all kinds of scandal. 
 
 Proud families who have portionless daughters ; rela- 
 tives who desire to get rid of heirs to coveted estates ; 
 convents in want of funds and endowments,* or a pretty 
 
 * I have selected three cases of taking the veil, to which I have add- 
 ed captions, which lift the veil from this practice of consecrating young 
 girls to superstitious uses. They are extracted from Madame Calde- 
 ron's Life in Mexico. 
 
 Taking the Veil. 
 
 "I followed the guide back into the sacristy [of the convent], where 
 the future nun was seated beside her grandmother, in the midst of her 
 friends and relations, about thirty in all. 
 
 " She was arrayed in pale blue satin, with diamonds, pearls, and a 
 crown of flowers. She was literally smothered in blonde and jewels ; 
 and her face Avas flushed, as well it might be, for she had passed the day 
 in taking leave of her friends at a fete they had given her, and had then, 
 according to custom, been paraded through the town in all her finery. 
 And now her last hour was at hand. When I came in, she rose and
 
 386 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 
 
 victim for the public entertainment on taking the veil; 
 friends who have unmarriageable women on their hands ; 
 
 embraced me v- ith as much cordiality as if we had known each other 
 for years. Beside her sat the Madrina, also in white satin and jewels; 
 all the relations being likewise decked out in their finest array. The 
 nun kept laughing every now and then in the most unnatural and hys- 
 terical manner, as I thought, apparently to impress us with the convic- 
 tion of her perfect happiness ; for it is a great point of honor among 
 girls similarly situated to look as cheerful and gay as possible — the 
 same feeling, though in a diiferent degree, which induces the gallant 
 highwayman to jest in the presence of the multitude when the hang- 
 man's cord is within an inch of his neck ; the same which makes a gal- 
 lant general, whose life is forfeited, command his men to fire on him ; 
 the same which makes the Hindoo widow mount the funeral pile with- 
 out a tear in her eye or a sigh on her lips. If the robber were to be 
 strangled in the comer of his dungeon — if the general were to be put 
 to death privately in his own apartment — if the widow were to be burned 
 quietly on her own hearth — if the nun were to be secretly smuggled in 
 at the convent gate like a bale of contraband goods, we might hear 
 another tale. This girl was very young, but by no means pretty; on 
 the contrar}', rather disgraciee par la nature ; and perhaps a knowledge 
 of her own want of attractions may have caused the world to have few 
 charms for her. 
 
 " Suddenly the curtain was withdrawn, and the picturesque beauty of 
 the scene within baffles all description. Beside the altar, which was in 
 a blaze of light, was a perfect mass of crimson and gold drapery ; the 
 walls, the antique chairs, the table before which the priests sat, all hung 
 with the same splendid material. The Bishop wore his superb mitre, 
 and robes of crimson and gold, the attendant priests also glittering in 
 crimson and gold embroidery. 
 
 " In contrast to these, five-and-twenty figures, entirely robed in black 
 from head to foot, were ranged on each side of the room, prostrate, their 
 faces touching the ground, and in their hands immense lighted tapei-s. 
 On the foreground was spread a purple carpet bordered round with a 
 garland of freshly-gathered flowers, roses, and carnations, and heliotrope, 
 the only things that looked real and living in the whole scene ; and in 
 the middle of this knelt the novice, still arrayed in her blue satin, white 
 lace veil and jewels, and also with a great lighted taper in her hand. 
 
 " The black nuns then rose and sang a hymn, every now and then 
 falling on their faces and touching the floor with their foreheads. The 
 whole looked like an incantation, or a scene in Robert le Diable. The 
 novice was then raised from the ground and led to the feet of the Bish- 
 op, who examined her as to her vocation, and gave her his blessing, and 
 once more the black curtain fell between us and them. 
 
 " In the second act she was lying prostrate on the floor, disrobed of 
 her profane dress, and covered over with a black cloth, while the black 
 figures kneeling around her chanted a hymn. She was now dead to
 
 NUNNEKIES. dfM 
 
 and romantic young misses, ambitious of playing the 
 queen for a day at the cost of being a prisoner for life, 
 
 the world. The sunbeams had faded away as if they would not look 
 upon the scene, and all the light was concentrated in one great mass 
 upon the convent group. 
 
 " Again she was raised. All the blood had rushed into her face, and 
 her attempt to smile was truly painful. She then knelt down before 
 the Bishop, and received the benediction, with the sign of the cross, from 
 a white hand with the pastoral ring. She then went round alone to em- 
 brace all the dark phantoms as they stood motionless, and as each dark 
 shadow clasped her in its arms, it seemed like the dead welcoming a 
 new arrival to the shades. 
 
 "But I forget the sermon, which was delivered by a fat priest, who 
 elbowed his way with some difficulty through the crowd to the grating, 
 panting and in a prodigious heat, and ensconced himself in a great arm- 
 chair close beside us. He assured her that she ' had chosen the good 
 part, which could not be taken away from her ;' that she was now one 
 of the elect, ' chosen from among the wickedness and dangers of the 
 world' — (picked out like a plum from a pie). He mentioned with pity 
 and contempt those who were 'yet struggling in the great Babylon,' 
 and compared their miserable fate with hers, the Bride of Christ, who, 
 after suffering a few privations here during a short term of years, should 
 be received at once into a kingdom of glory. The whole discourse was 
 well calculated to rally her fainting spirits, if fainting they were, and to 
 inspire us with a great disgust for ourselves. 
 
 "When the sermon was concluded the music again struck up; the 
 heroine of the day came forward, and stood before the gi-ating to take 
 her last look of this wicked world. Down fell the black curtain. Up 
 rose the relations, and I accompanied them into the sacristy. Here 
 they coolly lighted their cigars, and very philosophically discoursed 
 upon the exceeding good fortune of the new-made nun, and on her ev- 
 ident delight and satisfaction with her own situation. As we did not 
 follow her behind the scenes, I could not give my opinion on this point. 
 Shortly after, one of the gentlemen civilly led me to my carriage, and 
 so it was." 
 
 A Victim for her Musical Poioers. 
 
 " In the convent of the Incarnation I saw another girl sacrificed in 
 a similar manner. She was received there without a dowry, on ac- 
 count of the exceeding fineness of her voice. She little thought what 
 a fatal gift it would prove to her. The most cruel part of all was that, 
 wishing to display her fine voice to the public, they made her sing a 
 hymn alone, on her knees, her ai-ms extended in the form of a cross, 
 before all the immense crowd : " Ancilla Christi sum," " The bride of 
 Christ I am.' She was a good-looking girl, fat and comely, who would 
 probably have led a comfortable life in the world, for which she seemed 
 well fitted ; most likely without one touch of romance or enthusiasm \\\ 
 
 V
 
 338 MEXICO AND ITS KELKIION. 
 
 have all contributed to populate the fifteen nunneries of 
 the city of 31exico. In the flourishing times of the In- 
 
 her composition ; but, having the unfortunate honor of being niece to 
 two chanoines, she was thus honorably provided for without expense in 
 her nineteenth year. As might be expected, her voice faltered, and 
 instead of singing, she seemed inclined to cry out. Each note came 
 slowly, heavily, tremblingly ; and at last she nearly fell forward ex- 
 iiaiisted, when two of the sisters caught and supported her." 
 
 A Victim of her Confessor. 
 
 " She was in purple velvet, with diamonds and pearls, and a crown 
 of flowers ; the corsage of her gown was entirely covered with little bows 
 of ribbon of divers colors, which her friends had given her, each add- 
 ing one, like stones thrown on a cairn in memory of the departed. She 
 had also short sleeves and white satin shoes. 
 
 "Being very handsome, with fine black eyes, good teeth, and fresh 
 color, and, above all, with the beauty of youth, for she is but eighteen, 
 she was not disfigured by even this overloaded dress. Her mother, on 
 the contrary, who was to act the part of Madrina, who wore a dress fac- 
 simile, and who was pale and sad, her eyes almost extinguished with 
 wee])ing, looked like a pictui-e of ^Misery in a ball-dress. In the ad- 
 joining room long tables were laid out, on which servants were placing 
 refreshments for the fete about to be given on this joyous occasion. I 
 felt somewhat shocked, and inclined to say with Paul Pry, ' Hope I 
 don't intrude.' 
 
 " , however, was fuiious at the whole affair, which he said was 
 
 entirely against the motlier's consent, though that of the father had 
 been obtained ; and pointed out to me the confessor whose influence 
 had brought it about. The girl herself was now ver}- pale, but evi- 
 dently resolved to conceal her agitation, and the mother seemed as if 
 she could shed no more tears — quite exhausted with weeping. As the 
 hour for the ceremony drew near, the whole party became more grave 
 and sad, all but the priests, who were smiling and talking together in 
 groups. The girl was not still a moment. She kept walking hastily 
 through the house, taking leave of the sen-ants, and naming, probably, 
 her last wishes about every thing. She was followed by her younger 
 sisters, all in tears. 
 
 " But it struck six, and the priests intimated that it was time to move. 
 She and her mother went down stairs alone, and entered the carriage 
 which was to drive them through all the princi])al streets, to show the 
 nun to the public, according to custom, and to let them take their last 
 loolc, they of her and she of them. As they got in, we all crowded to 
 tlie balconies to see her take leave of her house, her aunts saying, 'Yes, 
 iliil.l, despidcte de tu casa, take leave of your house, for you will never 
 see it again !' Then came sobs from the sisters ; and many of the gen- 
 tlemen, asliamed of their emotion, hastily quitted the room. I ho]»e, 
 for the sake of humanity, I did not rightly inteiiiret the look of con-
 
 NUNNEKIES. 339 
 
 quisition, this business of inveigling clioice victims into 
 convents was more profitable, for then murmuring could 
 
 strained anguish which the poor girl threw from the window of the car- 
 riage at the home of her cliildhood. 
 
 " At stated jieriods, indeed, tlie mother may hear her daughter's voice 
 speaking to her as from the depths of the tomb, but she may never 
 fold her in her arms, never more sliare in her joys or in her sorrows, or 
 nurse her in sickness ; and when her own last hour arrives, though but 
 a few streets divide them, she may not give her dying blessing to the 
 child who has been for so many years the pride of her eyes and heart. 
 
 " They gave me an excellent place, quite close to the grating, beside 
 
 the Countess de S o ; that is to say, a place to kneel on. A great 
 
 bustle and much preparation seemed to be going on within the convent, 
 and veiled figures were flitting about, wliispering, arranging, &c. Some- 
 times a skinny old dame would come close to the grating, and, lifting 
 up her veil, bestow ui)on the pensive public a generous view of a very 
 haughty and very wrinkled visage of some seventy years standing, and 
 beckon into the church for the major-domo of the convent (an excellent 
 and profitable situation, by the w^ay), or for padre this or that. Some 
 of the holy ladies recognized and sjjoke to me through the grating. 
 
 "But, at the discharge of fireworks outside the church, the curtain 
 was dropped, for this was the signal that the nun and her mother had 
 arrived. An opening was made in the crowd as they passed into the 
 church, and the girl, kneeling down, was questioned by the bishop, but 
 I could not make out the dialogue, Avhich was carried on in a low voice. 
 She then passed into the convent by a side door, and her mother, quite 
 exhausted and nearly in hysterics, was supported through the crowd to 
 a place beside us, in front of the grating. The music struck up ; the 
 curtain was again drawn aside. The scene was as striking here as in 
 the convent of the Santa Teresa, but not so lugubrious. The nuns, all 
 ranged around, and carrying lighted tapers in their hands, Avere dressed 
 in mantles of bright blue, with a gold i)late on the left shoulder. Their 
 faces, however, were covered Avith deep black veils. The girl, kneeling 
 in front, and also bearing a heavy lighted taper, looked beautiful, with 
 her dark hair and rich dress, and the long black lashes resting on her 
 glowing face. The churchmen near the illuminated and magnificently- 
 decked altar formed, as usual, a brilliant background to the picture. 
 The ceremony was the same as on the former occasion, but there was 
 no sermon. 
 
 "The most terrible thing to witness Avas the last, straining, anxious 
 look Avhich the mother gave her daughter through the grating. She 
 had seen her child pressed to the arms of strangers and Avelcomed to 
 her neAv home. She Avas no longer hers. All the sAveet ties of nature 
 had been rudely severed, and she had been forced to consign her, in 
 the very bloom of youth and beauty, at the very age in Avhich she most 
 required a mother's care, and AA'heu she had but just fulfilled the prom- 
 ise of her childhood, to a living tomb. Still, as long as the ciutain had
 
 340 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 be crushed into silence, and parents dreaded to oppose 
 the wretched pimps of superstition who came to inveigle 
 their daughters into convents. 
 
 The Quaker prison of Philadelphia is a paradise com- 
 pared with such a place as this. If the reader has ever 
 placed his eye at the keeper's eye-hole in that prison, he 
 must have seen in many a cell a cheerful face, and the 
 appearance of as much comfort as is compatible with an 
 imprisoned condition ; for ministering angels have been 
 there — mothers in Israel, who have torn themselves from 
 their domestic duties for a little time to minister conso- 
 lation to the very crimmals in prison ; and, now that the 
 prison-door has separated the poor wretch forever from 
 society, whose laws have been outraged, she, by her kind- 
 ness and teaching, has led the convict to look to Heaven 
 with a hope of forgiveness, and daily to pray for those 
 he has injured, while he reads in the holy book which she 
 
 not fallen, she could gaze upon her as upon one on whom, though dead, 
 the coffin-lid is not yet closed. 
 
 " But while the new-made nun was in a blaze of light and distinct on 
 the foreground, so that we could mark each varying expression of her 
 face, the crowd in the church, and the comparative faintness of the 
 light, probably made it difficult for her to distinguish her mother; for, 
 knowing that the end was at hand, she looked anxiously and hurriedly 
 into the church, without seeming able to fix her eyes on any particular 
 object, while her mother seemed as if her eyes were glazed, so intense- 
 ly were they fixed upon her daughter. 
 
 " Suddenly, and without any preparation, down fell the black curtain 
 like a pall, and the sobs and tears of the family broke forth. One beau- 
 tiful little child was carried out almost in fits. AVater was brought to 
 the poor mother ; and at last, making our way with difficulty through 
 the dense crowd, we got into the sacristy. ' I declare,' said the Count- 
 ess to me, wiping her eyes, ' it is worse than a marriage !' I ex- 
 pressed my honor at the sacrifice of a girl so young that she could not 
 possibly have known her own mind. Almost all the ladies agreed with 
 iv.e, especially all who had daughters, but many of the old gentlemen 
 were of a difterent opinion. The young men were decidedly of my way 
 of thinking, but many young girls who were convei-sing together seemed 
 rather to envy their friend, who had looked so pretty and graceful, and 
 ' so happy,' and whose dress ' suited her so well,' and to have no objec- 
 tion to ' go and do likewise.' "
 
 NUNNERIES AND PRISONS. 341 
 
 gave him, that a repenting thief accompanied the Son of 
 God to Paradise. 
 
 Let us turn from such an unpoetical scene as this, 
 which that cheerful prison presents, to the convent of 
 Santa Teresa, the most celebrated of all the ten or fifteen 
 nunneries now in operation about the city of Mexico. 
 In a cold, damp, comfortless ceU, kneeling upon the pave- 
 ment, we may see a delicate woman mechanically repeat- 
 ing her daily-imposed penance of Latin prayers, before 
 the image of a favorite saint and a basin of holy water. 
 This self-regulating, automaton praying machine, as she 
 counts off the number of allotted prayers by the number 
 of beads upon her rosary, beats into her bosom the sharp 
 edge of an iron cross that rests within her shirt of sacking- 
 cloth, until, nature and her task exhausted, she throws 
 herself down upon a wooden bed, so ingeniously arranged 
 as to make sleep intolerable.* This poor victim of self- 
 
 * " The Santa Teresa, however, has few oraaments. It is not nearly 
 so large as the Encai-nacion, and admits but twenty-one nuns. At pres- 
 ent there are, besides these, but three novices. Its very atmosphere 
 seems holy, and its scrupulous and excessive cleanness makes all pro- 
 fane dwellings seem dirty by comparison. We were accompanied by 
 a bishop, Sefior Madrid, the same who assisted at the archbishop's con- 
 secration — a good-looking man, young and tall, and very splendidly 
 dressed. His robes were of purple satin, covered with fine point-lace, 
 with a large cross of diamonds and amethysts. He also wore a cloak 
 of very fine purple cloth, lined with crimson velvet, crimson stockings, 
 and an immense amethyst ring. 
 
 " When he came in we found that the nuns had permission to put 
 up their veils, rarely allowed in this order in the presence of strangers. 
 They have a small garden and fountain, plenty of flowers, and some 
 fruit ; but all is on a smaller scale, and sadder than in the convent of 
 the Incarnation. The refectory is a large room, with a long, narrow 
 table running all round it — a plain deal table, with wooden benches; 
 before the place of each nun, an earthen bowl, an earthen cup with an 
 apple in it, a wooden plate, and a wooden spoon ; at the top of the ta- 
 ble a grinning skull, to remind them that even these indulgences they 
 shall not long enjoy. 
 
 " In one corner of the room is a reading-desk, a sort of elevated pul- 
 pit, where one reads aloud from some holy book while the others dis- 
 cuss their simple fare. They showed us a crotvn of thorns, which, on
 
 342 >rEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 inflicted daily torture, half crazed from insufficient food, 
 and sleep, and clothing, has endured all this misery to 
 
 certain days, is worn by one of their number by way of penance. It is 
 made of iron, so that the nails, entering inward, run into the head, and 
 make it bleed. While she weai-s this on her head, a sort of wooden bit 
 is put into her mouth, and she lies prostrate on her face till dinner is 
 ended : and while in this condition her food is given her, of which she 
 eats as much as she can. which probably is none. 
 
 '•We visited the ditferent cells, and were horror-struck at the self- 
 inflicted tortures. Each bed consists of a wooden plank raised in the 
 middle, and, on days of penitence, crossed by wooden bars. The pil- 
 low is wooden, with a cross lying on it, which they hold in their hands 
 when they lie do^^■n. The nun lies on this penitential couch, embrac- 
 ing the cross, and her feet hanging out, as the bed is made too short 
 for her, upon principle. Round her waist she occasionally wears a band 
 with iron points turning inward; on her breast a cross with nails, of 
 which the points enter the flesh, of the truth of which I had melancholy 
 ocular demonstration. Then, after having scourged herself with a whip 
 covered with iron nails, she lies down for a few hours on the wooden 
 bars, and rises at four o'clock. All these instruments of discipline, 
 which each nun keeps in a little box beside her bed, look as if their 
 fitting place would be in the dungeons of the Inquisition. They made 
 me try their bed and hoards which I told them would give me a veiy de- 
 cided taste for eariy rising. 
 
 "Yet they all seem as cheerful as possible, though it must be con- 
 fessed that many of them look pale and unhealthy. It is said that, 
 when they are strong enough to stand this mode of life, they live very 
 long ; but it frequently happens that girls who come into this convent 
 are obliged to leave it from sickness long before the expiration of their 
 novitiate. I met vdxh the girl whom I had seen take the veil, and can 
 not say that she looked either well or cheerfid, though she assured me 
 that ' of course, in doing the will of God,' she was both. There was 
 not much beauty among them generally, though one or two had remains 
 
 of gi-eat loveliness. My friend, the Madre A , is handsomer on a 
 
 closer view than I had supposed her, and seems an especial favorite 
 with old and young. But there was one whose face must have been 
 strikingly beautiful. She was as pale as marble, and, though still young, 
 seemed in very delicate health ; but her eyes and eyebrows were as 
 black as jet; the eyes so large and soft, the eyebrows two penciled arch- 
 es, and her smiles so resigned and sweet, would have made her the 
 loveliest model imaginable for a Madonna. 
 
 "Again, as in the Incarnation, they had taken the trouble to prepare 
 an elegant supper for us. The bishop took his place in an antique vel- 
 vet chair; the Senora and I were placed on each side of him. The 
 
 room was very well lighted, and there was as great a profusion of cus- 
 tards, jellies, and ices as if we had been supping at the most profone 
 cafe. The nuns did not sit down, but walked about, pressing us to eat,
 
 NUNNERIES AND PRISONS. 348 
 
 accumulate a stock of good works for the use of less mer- 
 itorious sinners, besides the amount necessary to carry 
 herself to heaven ; for penance, and not repentance, is 
 this poor pagan's password for salvation. 
 
 The old Quakeress is not a fashionable saint, for she 
 never dreamed of this huxter business in spiritual affairs. 
 Out of the overflowing goodness of her heart, she had 
 tried to lighten the miseries of life in her own humble 
 and quiet way, and found her happiness in seeing all 
 about her made comfortable. The money that others 
 expended in buying masses for the repose of their own 
 souls and those of their relatives after death, she expend- 
 ed in ministering to soul and body in this world, leaving 
 to God above the affairs of departed spirits, to deal with 
 them according to His mercy. She never presumed to 
 add to the torments of tliis life, or undertook to lighten 
 the torments of the departed. Her duties lay all in this 
 world, and when her labors were ended, she quietly lay 
 
 the bishop now and then giving them cakes, Avith pemiission to eat 
 them, which they received laughing. 
 
 "After supper a small harp was brought in, which had been sent for 
 by the bishop's permission. It was terribly out of tune, with half the 
 strings broken ; but we were determined to grudge no trouble in putting 
 it in order, and giving these poor recluses what they considered so great 
 a gratification. We got it into some sort of condition at last, and when 
 they heard it played, they were vehement in their expressions of delight. 
 
 The Sefiora , who has a charming voice, afterward sang to them, 
 
 the bishop being very indulgent, and ])ermitting us to select whatever 
 songs we chose, so that, when rather a profone canticle, "The Virgin 
 of the Pillar" (La Virgin del Pilar), was sung, he very kindly turned a 
 deaf ear to it, and seemed busily engaged in conversation with an old 
 madre till it was all over. 
 
 " In these robes they are buried ; and one would think that if any 
 human being can ever leave this world without a feeling of regret, it 
 must be a nun of the Santa Teresa, when, her privations in this world 
 ended, she lays down her blameless life, and joins the pious sisterhood 
 who have gone before her; dying where she lias lived, surrounded by 
 her companions, her last hours soothed by their prayers and tears, sure 
 of their vigils for the repose of her soul, and, above all, sure that nei- 
 ther pleasure nor vanity will ever obliterate her remembrance from 
 their hearts." — Life in Mexico^ vol. ii. p. 9.
 
 344 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 (lo\\Ti in deatli, leaving her future condition to God. She 
 never would pierce her bosom with an iron cross, though 
 it had often been pierced by the trials of life. She has 
 seen enough of real poverty and mortification, but never 
 dreamed of such a thing as poverty and mortification 
 self-imposed, by wearing upon her flesh a garment of 
 sacking-cloth, or the ingenious invention of a bed so con- 
 trived as to deprive herself of wholesome sleep. Images 
 and holy water occupy no place in her creed, though soap 
 and water are almost too prominent. She did her good 
 deeds from a sense of duty which she owed to her kind, 
 and from the pleasure that it gave her to relieve misery 
 while discharging the ordinary duties of life, and never 
 dreamed of the sweet odor her good works left behind 
 her — an odor which followed her to heaven — an odor 
 more acceptable to the Almighty than all the endow- 
 ments she might have left to pay for masses for the re- 
 pose of her soul. 
 
 There is so much that is monotonous in talking over 
 the details of affairs of the different orders of these fe- 
 male monks, firom the Sister of Guadalupe to the Sister- 
 hood of j\Iercy, that it is as well to consider them as one, 
 as divers households of single women, who, to win ex- 
 traordinary favor of God, had separated themselves firom 
 their families, and devoted their lives, some to repeating 
 prayers and acts of self-mortification, some to attending 
 at the hospitals on the sick or the blind, the idiotic, the 
 deformed, the deaf and the dumb, others to educating 
 young ladies according to their peculiar notions of edu- 
 cation, others again consecrating themselves to pauper- 
 ism, and living upon charity ; and when the daily sup- 
 ply of alms has failed, these self-made poor sisters col- 
 lect together, and there wait and pray, and ring their bell, 
 until some benevolent individual shall chance to hear the 
 well-known signal, and come and reUeve them.
 
 SELF-CASTIGATION. 345 
 
 Such is the system of religion of all countries which 
 bear the Christian name, but where freedom does not ex- 
 ist, and where liberty can not thrive. There is a trifling 
 diiference in its phases as exhibited in the Greek and 
 the Latin Churches, but the diiference is too slight for 
 us outsiders to notice. In Mexico it exists in its most 
 unadulterated state, less contaminated than elsewhere 
 with Protestantism or other foreign substances. 
 
 The old farce of self-castigation is here still enacted, 
 as it has been for three hundred years, but in the dark, 
 of course ; and blood, or some substitute for it, is heard 
 to fall upon the floor by the few selected witnesses ;* but 
 
 * "All Mexicans at present, men and women, are engaged in what 
 are called the desagravios, a public penance performed at this season in 
 the churches during thirty-five days. The women attend church in 
 the morning, no men being permitted to enter, and the men in the even- 
 ing, when women are not admitted. Both rules are occasionally bro- 
 ken. The penitence of the men is most severe, their sins being no 
 doubt proportionably greater than those of the women ; though it is one 
 of the few countries where they suffer for this, or seem to act upon the 
 principle, that ' if all men had their deserts, who would escape whip- 
 ping?' 
 
 " To-day we attended the morning penitence at six o'clock, in the 
 church of San Francisco, the hardest part of which was their having 
 to kneel for about ten minutes with their arms extended in the form of 
 a cross, uttering groans, a most painful position for any length of time. 
 It was a pi-ofane thought, but I dare say so many hundreds of beauti- 
 fully-formed arms and hands were seldom seen extended at the same 
 moment before. Gloves not being worn in church, and many of the 
 women having short sleeves, they were very much seen. 
 
 *' But the other night I was present at a much stranger scene, at the 
 discipline performed by the men, admission having been procured for 
 us by certain means, private but poiverjul. Accordingly, when it was 
 dark, enveloped from head to foot in large cloaks, and without the slight- 
 est idea of what it was, we went on foot through the streets to the 
 church of San Agustin. When we arrived, a small side door apparent- 
 ly opened of itself, and we entered, passing through long vaulted pas- 
 sages, and up steep winding stairs, till we found ourselves in a small 
 railed gallery looking down directly upon the church. The scene was 
 curious. About one hundred and fifty men, enveloped in cloaks and 
 sarapes, their faces entirely concealed, were assembled in the body of 
 the church. A monk had just mounted the pulpit, and the church was 
 dimly lighted, except where he stood in bold relief, with his gay robes 
 
 P2
 
 346 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 a party of boys, report says, being somewbat skeptical 
 about the quality of this blood, concealed themselves in 
 
 and cowl thrown back, giving a full view of his high, bald forehead and 
 expressive face. 
 
 " His discourse was a rude but very forcible and eloquent description 
 of the torments prepared in hell for impenitent sinners. The effect of 
 the whole was very solemn. It appeared like a preparation for the ex- 
 ecution of a multitude of condemned criminals. When the discourse 
 was finished, they all joined in prayer -vNith much fervor and enthusi- 
 asm, beating their breasts and falling upon their faces. Then the monk 
 stood up, and in a ver}- distinct voice read several passages of Scrip- 
 ture descriptive of the sufferings of Christ. The organ then struck up 
 the Miserere, and all of a sudden the church was plunged in profound 
 darkness, all but a sculptured representation of the Crucifixion, which 
 seemed to hang in the air illuminated. I felt rather frightened, and 
 would have been glad to leave the church, but it would have been im- 
 possible in the darkness. Suddenly a terrible voice in the dark cried, 
 * My brothers ! when Christ was fastened to the pillar by the Jews, he 
 was scoin-gedP At these words the bright figure disappeared, and the 
 darkness became total. Suddenly we heard the sound of hundreds of 
 scourges descending upon the bare flesh. I can not conceive any thing 
 more horrible. Before ten minutes had passed, the sound became 
 splashing from the blood that was flo\\-ing. 
 
 " I have heard of these penitencies in Italian churches, and also that 
 half of those who go there do not really scourge themselves ; but here, 
 where there is such perfect concealment, there seems no motive for de- 
 ception. Incredible as it may seem, this awful penance continued, 
 without intermission, for half an hour! If they scourged each other, 
 their energy might be less astonishing. 
 
 " We could not leave the church, but it was perfectly sickening ; and 
 
 had I not been able to take hold of the Senora 's hand, and feel 
 
 something human beside me, I could have fancied myself transported 
 into a congregation of evil spirits. Kow and then, but very seldom, a 
 suppressed groan was heard, and occasionally the voice of the monk 
 encouraging them by ejaculations, or by short passages from Scripture. 
 Sometimes the organ struck up, and the poor wretches, in a faint voice, 
 tried to join in the Miserere. The sound of the scourging is indescriba- 
 ble. At the end of half an hour a little bell was rung, and the voice 
 of the monk was heard calling upon them to desist ; but such was their 
 enthusiasm, that the horrible lashing continued louder and fiercer than 
 ever. 
 
 '' In vain he entreated them not to kill themselves, and asstired them 
 that heaven would be satisfied, and that human nature could not en- 
 dure beyond a certain point. No answer but the loud sound of the 
 scourges, which are many of them of iron, with sharp points that enter 
 the flesh. At length, as if they were perfectly exhausted, the sound 
 grew fainter, and little by little ceased altogether. We then got up in
 
 PENANCES. 347 
 
 the church, and when the pious farce began, took so act- 
 ive a part in the sport upon the naked Lacks of the fa- 
 thers, as to inflict bodily injury, and break up the bloody 
 entertainment. Still Protestantism has been felt in 
 Mexico, if not embraced, and the common people look 
 back to the happy time when the soldiers of their Prot- 
 estant conquerors made money plenty among them, and 
 when even-handed justice was dealt out alike to rich and 
 poor, high and low. Though the foreigners laughed at 
 the fables of the priests and ridiculed the monks, they 
 yet were honest in their dealings with the people instead 
 of taking by violence. As there are no people so besot- 
 ted that they do not admire courage and honesty, so the 
 Paisano looks upon the heretic as a man of a superior 
 race to himself. 
 
 the dark, and with great difficulty groped our way in the pitch dark- 
 ness through the galleries and down the stairs till we reached the door, 
 and had the pleasure of feeling the fresh air again. They say that the 
 church floor is frequently covered with blood after one of these penan- 
 ces, and that a man died the other day in consequence of his wounds." 
 — Life in Mexico, vol. ii. p. 213.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The Necessity of large Capitals in Mexico. — The Finances and Reve- 
 nue. — The impoverished Creditors of the State. — Princely Wealth 
 of Indi^'iduals. 
 
 BLA.VING spoken of the Clmrcli, the great power which 
 overawes the government, it is also proper to mention the 
 secondary powers : the men of colossal fortune. In a 
 country like Mexico, whose wealth arises from mines of 
 silver, these immense private fortunes are requisite to the 
 successful development of its resources. Large capitals 
 must be constantly hazarded on the single chance of 
 striking a bonanza^ in an adventure as uncertain as a 
 game of monte. The abandoned mine often turns out 
 to be the treasury of an untold fortune to the man who 
 was laughed at for attempting its restoration, while the 
 most promising adventure proves a total failure. The 
 temptations to these adventures are dazzling in the ex- 
 treme. The ambitious man forgets the shame and irre- 
 trievable ruin that follows a failure, and looks only to the 
 chances of winning a title of nobility and "a house full 
 of silver." Men who shun the gambling-table will ad- 
 venture all on a mine, and in a year or two they have 
 passed from the memory of men, for they have become 
 poor. Again, a man of slender means has become rich 
 in the ^Mexican sense, which means a man of millions, 
 and then he is at once elevated by his admirers into that 
 brilliant constellation which is the "great bear" of the 
 Mexican firmament. 
 
 Still, these powerful private individuals prevent the 
 consolidation of any government, whether republican or
 
 STATE CREDITORS. 349 
 
 dictatorial, and put far off that necessary evil, tlie con- 
 fiscation of the estates of the Church. If there is a Con- 
 gress in session, its members are influenced as our own 
 are influenced. They are swayed this way and that by 
 private interests. When Congress is not in session, they 
 are constantly operating upon the treasury, or, rather, 
 the minister of the treasury is diving about among them 
 to raise the means to keep afloat from day to day. They 
 will not submit to their full share of taxation. When 
 they advance money on the pledge of some income, it is 
 on the most onerous terms, so that at least one quarter 
 of the revenue of Mexico is used up in interest or usury. 
 Long experience has reduced the business of shaving the 
 revenue to a system. The most common way to do this 
 is to buy up some claim at twelve and a half cents on a 
 dollar, and then couple it at par with a loan of money on 
 the assignment of some rent. Every thing is farmed 
 out, until at last, two years ago, Escandon proposed to 
 farm the whole foreign duties. 
 
 Many a time have I sat down in the large ante-room 
 of the treasury to look upon and study tlie characters of 
 those who have come there to be disappointed, when 
 promises will no longer satisfy hunger. One poor wom- 
 an had got a new promise in 1851, and three months' 
 interest, on money deposited with the Consolado of Vera 
 Cruz, and invested in 1810 in building the great road 
 of Perote. Santa Anna, on his return, gave her a new 
 order, and she presented it to the minister with bright 
 hopes, when he gave her fifteen dollars — all he had in 
 the treasury. The best way to collect a debt at Mex- 
 ico is to convert it into a foreign debt, if possible, and 
 then, if there is a resident that stands high with his min- 
 ister, the matter meets with prompt attention. He that 
 can buy a foreign embassador at Mexico has made a 
 fortune.
 
 350 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 I have spoken of two rich men of Mexico, the first 
 Count of Regla, and one wlio has succeeded to his mine. 
 As I was standing on the Paseo, a lad passed driving a 
 fine span of mules. " That is the Count de Galvez," 
 said my companion, " the son of the late Count Perez 
 Galvez, the lucky proprietor of the honanza in the mine 
 of La Suz at Guanajuato." 
 
 "But that honanza has given out," said I. 
 
 " Xo matter ; this boy's inheritance is sometimes esti- 
 mated at $9,000,000." A snug capital with which to 
 "begin the world ! 
 
 Laborde, the Frenchman who projected and estab- 
 lished the magnificent garden at Cuamavaca, and also 
 built, from his private fortune, the great Cathedral of 
 Toluca, made and spent two pi-incely fortunes in suc- 
 cessfiil mining, and at last ended his checkered career 
 in poverty. The Countess Euhl, the mother of young 
 Galvez, and her brother the Count Kulil, are also fortu- 
 nate miners. The latter is now interested in the Real 
 del Monte, But the rich man of the RepubHc is the 
 ^larquis de Jaral, in the small but rich mining depart- 
 ment of Guanajuato. Tliis man's wealth surpasses that 
 of all the three patriarchs put together. A few years 
 ago, the whole amount of his live-stock was set down by 
 his administrador (overseer) at three million head. He 
 then sent thirty thousand sheep* to market, which yield- 
 ed him from $2 50 to $3 a head, or from $75,000 to 
 $90,000 annually. The goats slaughtered on the estate 
 amounted to about the same number, and yielded about 
 the same amount of revenue. Besides all this, there is 
 his annual product of horses and cattle, and com and 
 grain fields many miles in extent. Truly this ^larquis 
 of Jaral is a large fanner. But as I said of mining, so 
 I may also say that large capitals are necessary to carry 
 * Waed's Mexico, vol. ii. p. 470.
 
 MEXICAN MILLIONAIRES. 351 
 
 on agriculture successfully in the vast elevated plains of 
 the northern, or, rather, interior departments, for the 
 whole value of the valley of Jaral consists in an artificial 
 lake, which an ancestor of the present proprietor con- 
 structed before the Revolution for the purpose of imga- 
 tion ; for, without irrigation, his little kingdom would be 
 without value. I might speak of many other landed 
 proprietors whose estates are princely, but none are equal 
 to Jaral. Indeed, all men of wealth possess landed es- 
 tates. It is the favorite investment for successful min- 
 ers to purchase 2ifeio plantations, each of a dozen leagues 
 or so, under cultivation.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 A'isit to Pachnca and Real del Monte. — Otumba and Tulanzingo. — The 
 grand Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Silver Mines of Pachuca. — Hakal 
 Silver Mines. — Real del Monte Mines. — The Anglo-Mexican Mining 
 Fever. — My Equipment to descend a Mine. — The great Steam-pump. 
 — Descending the great Shaft. — Galleries and Veins of Ore. — Among 
 the Miners one thousand Feet under Ground. — The Barrel Process 
 of refining Silver. — Another refining Establishment. 
 
 Ax opposition line of stages upon the road tliat ex- 
 tends sixty miles from the city of Mexico to the north- 
 ern extremity of the valley has brought down the fare 
 to $3. It is a hard road to travel in the wet season, and 
 not a very interestiaig one at any time. Three miles of 
 causeway across the salt marsh brought us to the church 
 and village of our Lady of Guadalupe Hidalgo. From 
 this place we passed for several leagues along the barren 
 tract that lies between the two salt-ponds of San Cris- 
 tobal and Tezcuco, and soon arrived at Tulanzingo, 
 where the great battle of the Free-masons was fought, and 
 where eight poor fellows lost their lives in the bloody 
 encounter. This, and the horrible battle of Otumba, 
 which Cortez fought a little way east of this spot, are 
 memorable events in the history of Mexico — more mem- 
 orable than they deserv-e to have been. 
 
 As we rode along the eastern rim of the valley, the 
 sun was shining brightly on the western hill that in- 
 closed it. The opening made by the canal of Huehue- 
 toca was plain in sight. To read about this canal and 
 to derive an idea of it from books is to get an impression 
 that here, at least, the Spaniards did a wonderful work. 
 But to look at it is to dissipate all such compliment-
 
 THE HAKAL MINE. 353 
 
 ary notions. The engineer who planned it may have 
 been a skillful man, but the government that fettered his 
 movements, like all Spanish governments of those times, 
 consisted of a cross between fools and priests. Even 
 those pious gamblers, the Franciscans, had a finger in 
 the business. After absorbing, for near a hundred years, 
 the revenue appropriated to completing the work, they 
 abandoned it to the merchants of ^lexico, who finally 
 finished it. The pond that was to be drained by it, the 
 Zumpango, was certainly an insignificant afifair. There 
 was nothing farther of interest until we arrived at Pa- 
 chuca. 
 
 Pachuca is the oldest mining district in IMexico. In 
 its immediate vicinity are the most interesting silver 
 mines of the republic. These mines were the first that 
 were worked in the country, and immediately after the 
 Conquest they were very productive. They were worked 
 for generations, and then abandoned ; again resumed aft- 
 er lying idle for nearly a century, and worked for almost 
 another hundred years ; and then once more abandoned, 
 and resumed again while I was in Mexico. They now 
 produce that princely revenue to Escandon and Com- 
 pany of which I have already spoken. 
 
 The Hakal (Haxal) mine in part belonged to the 
 number of those which the English Real del Monte Com- 
 pany worked on shares, with poor success, for twenty- 
 five years. It lies about three fourths of a mile fi*om 
 the village of Pachuca. That company devoted their 
 chief attention to the mines upon the top of the mount- 
 ain, at an elevation of 9057 feet, and seven miles dis- 
 tant firom this place, and these mines were comparatively 
 neglected. The new company, immediately upon tak- 
 ing possession, devoted particular attention to the Hakal, 
 which resulted in their striking a bonanza^* in the Ro- 
 * A very rich portion of a vein is called a bonanza.
 
 354 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 sario shaft, which was yielding, from a single small shaft, 
 about $80,000 a month, if I recollect rightly.* The ore 
 of this mine is of a peculiar quahty, and its silver is best 
 separated from the scoria by the smelting process, of 
 which I shall treat more fully when I come to speak 
 of the mines of Eegla. The Guadalupe shaft, close by 
 the Rosario, was doing but little when I was there, as 
 it does not belong to the same proprietors. On the 
 night of my arrival they had just completed the work of 
 pumping the water out of the San Nicholas shaft, famous 
 for the immense amount of silver taken fi'om it in the 
 early period of the mming history of Mexico. 
 
 Mounted on a good horse, and followed by a lackey, I 
 rode up the zigzag carriage-road which the English com- 
 pany constructed a quarter of a century since in order to 
 convey their immense steam machinery to the top of the 
 mountain, some seven miles distant. This road is still 
 kept in a good state of repair, and forms a romantic drive 
 for those who keep carriages in the mountains. The sun 
 was shining upon the cultivated hills and rolling lands 
 far below us as we jogged along our winding way up the 
 mountain. At every turn in the road new beauties pre- 
 sented themselves. But it was getting too chilly for 
 moralizing, and both lackey and I were pleased when 
 we reached the village upon the top of the mountain, 
 which bears the name of Real del ^lonte. The house of 
 entertainment here is kept by an English woman, who 
 seems to be a part of the mining establishment. "While 
 in her domicile, I found no occasion to regret that I was 
 again elevated into a cold latitude. 
 
 More than thirty years have passed since that second 
 South Sea delusion, the Anglo-Spanish American min- 
 
 * Mr. Thomas Auld, the director of the company, furnished me 
 very accurate data in relation to affairs, but these are with my other 
 losses at New Orleans.
 
 THE MINING MANIA. 355 
 
 ing fever, broke out in England. It surpassed a thou- 
 sand-fold the wildest of all the New York and California 
 mining and quartz mining organizations of the last five 
 years. Prudent financiers in London ran stark mad in 
 calculating the dividends they must unavoidably real- 
 ize upon investments in a business to be carried on in a 
 distant country, and managed and controlled by a debat- 
 ing society or board of directors in London. Money was 
 advanced with almost incredible recklessness, and agents 
 were posted off with all secresy to be first to secure from 
 the owner of some abandoned mine the right to work it 
 before the agent of some other company should arrive 
 on the ground. No mine was to be looked at that was 
 not named in the volumes of Humboldt, and any mine 
 therein named was valued above all price. In the end, 
 some $50,000,000 of English capital ran out, and was 
 used up in ^Mexico. It was one of those periodical ma- 
 nias that regularly seize a commercial people once in 
 ten years, and for which there is no accounting, and no 
 remedy but to let it have its way and work out its own 
 cure in the ruin of thousands. It is the same in our 
 own country.* 
 
 * Before leaving California, a young man in my office, who had been 
 using some of my money which he could not replace, proposed to re- 
 pay me in a certificate jn-inted in red ink, Avhich certificate declared 
 
 that I had paid $2000 toward the capital stock of Mining 
 
 Company ; Capital Stock, $250,000 ; signed Col. , President, a 
 
 gentleman a little in arrears at his boarding-house, and my defaulting 
 young man Avas secretary. Rather an unpromising show that, as the 
 property consisted of a tavern, built of canvas upon Colonel Fremont's 
 Maraposa grant, on tlie principle of squatter sovereignty. Near by the 
 squatter had dug a promising hole, and if only money and machinery 
 could be had, perhaps he might realize something from it. The young 
 man assured me that they had an agent in New York negotiating for 
 machinery, and in a few months they would be able to declare divi- 
 dends. Biting my lips to suppress a hearty laugh, I put the j)aper print- 
 ed with red ink into my pocket. 
 
 On my arrival in New York, I was thunderstruck at seeing a gilded 
 sign stuck up on the Merchants' Exchange : " Mining CoMPANr
 
 356 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 After a hearty breakfast at the tavern, I called at the 
 office, or, as it is here called, " the Grand House" {Casa 
 Grande)^ and was introduced by !Mr. Auld, the director, 
 to the foreman, who took me to. the dressing-room, where 
 I was stripped, and clad in the garb of a miner except 
 the boots, which were all too short for my feet. My rig 
 was an odd one ; a skull-cap formed like a fireman's, a 
 miner's coat and pants, and my own calf-skin boots. But 
 in California I had got used to uncouth attire, and now 
 
 Office." Not orer-troubled by modesty, I ventured in, and inquired if 
 that machineiy had been sent out. I was requested to be seated in a 
 fine cushioned chair. As I love entertainment, I sat down, and took a 
 survey of the desks, the Bnissels carpet, the ledgers, and the piles of 
 pamjjhlets, which clearly demonstrated that a man would get his money 
 back many times over before he paid it in. It seemed strange how all 
 this could be supported on the supposed future earnings of a hole in the 
 ground. The Board of Directors assembled. JNIany of them, I was as- 
 sured, were the leading men of New York, and things went off with all 
 solemnity, "When all was ready, an immense piece of the richest gold 
 quartz was taken from a desk, such as used to be sold at good prices in 
 San Francisco for this very purpose. But not a man in that august as- 
 sembly dreamed of the manner in which such things are gotten up, ex- 
 cept perhaps the said agent sent out to get machinery, but now figuring 
 as a director. I was easily prevailed on to sign an argumentative certifi- 
 cate, and was shown one signed by Robert J. Walker on a much worse 
 hole in the gi-ound than this. I was also informed that New York was 
 not the proper market, Avhich I understand to mean that machinery 
 could not be obtained in New York on the credit of a quartz vein ; and 
 in London they would not look at a scheme that did not embrace a mill- 
 ion at least, said the agent aforesaid. Therefore he proposed to give 
 me an engraved certificate, declaring that I had paid $8000, which of 
 course I readily accepted Avhen I found that there was no machiner}' in 
 the case, and that all I had to rest my engraved certificate upon was the 
 one hundredth i)art of the said hole in the ground, with a doubtful title. 
 The last I heard of this agent was, that he was traveling with his wife 
 upon the Rhine. Whether he was in search of machineiy or not, I did 
 not stop to inquire. 
 
 Instead of the above being an extraordinary case, I understand that 
 it is about a fair average of the California gold schemes that have been 
 brought upon the stock-market of New York. If the papers are only 
 drawn up in the proper fonn, the most prudent men in \Vall Street are 
 sometimes found to embark their capital before the question has ever 
 been settled whether gold can be successfully obtained from quartz in 
 California.
 
 DESCENT INTO A MINE. 357 
 
 thought nothing of such small matters. We therefore 
 walked on without comments to the house built over the 
 great shaft, where my good-natured English companion, 
 the foreman, stopped me to complete my equipment, 
 which consisted of a lighted tallow candle stuck in a 
 candlestick of soft mud, and pressed till it adhered to the 
 front of my miner's hat. Having fixed a similar append- 
 age to his own hat and to the hat of the servant that was 
 to follow us, we were considered fully equipped for de- 
 scending the mine. 
 
 While standing at the top of the shaft, I was aston- 
 ished at the size and perfect finish of a steam-pump that 
 had been imported from England by the late English 
 mining company. With the assistance of balancing 
 weights, the immense arms of the engine lifted, with 
 mathematical precision, two square timbers, the one 
 spliced out to the length of a thousand, the other twelve 
 hundred feet, which fell back again by their own Weight : 
 these were the pumping-rods, which lifted the water four 
 hundred feet to the mouth of a tunnel, or adit^ which 
 carried it a mile and a quarter through the mountain, 
 and discharged it in the creek above the stamping-mill. 
 There is a smaller pump, which works occasionally, when 
 the volume of water in the mines is too great for the 
 power of a single pump. 
 
 A trap-door being lifted, we began to descend by small 
 ladders that reached from floor to floor in the shaft, or, 
 rather, in the half of the shaft. The whole shaft was 
 perhaps fifteen or twenty feet square, with sides formed 
 of solid masonry, where the rock happened to be soft, 
 wliile in other parts it consisted of natural porphyiy rock 
 cut smooth. Half of this shaft was divided off by a par- 
 tition, wliich extended the whole distance from the top 
 to the bottom of the mine. Through this the materials 
 used in the work were let down, and the ore drawn up
 
 358 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 in large sacks, consisting eacli of the skin of an ox. The 
 other half of the sliaft contained the two pumping tim- 
 bers, and numerous floorings at short distances ; from 
 one to another of these ran ladders, by -which men were 
 continually ascending and descending, at the risk of fall- 
 ing only a few feet at the utmost. The descent from 
 platform to platform was an easy one, while the little 
 walk upon the platfonn relieved the muscles exhausted 
 by climbing down. ATitli no great fatigue I got down 
 a thousand feet, where our farther progress was stopped 
 by the water that filled the lower galleries. 
 
 Galleries are passages running off horizontally from 
 the shaft, either cut through the solid porphyry to inter- 
 sect some vein, or else the space which a vein once oc- 
 cupied is fitted up for a gallery by receiving a wooden 
 floor and a brick arch over head. They are the pas- 
 sages that lead to others, and to transverse galleries and 
 veins, which, in so old a mine as this, are very numer- 
 ous. When a vein sufficiently rich to waiTant working is 
 struck, it is followed thi'ouo^h all its meandcrinsrs as Ions: 
 as it pays for digging. The opening made in following it 
 is, of course, as irregular m form and shape as the vein it- 
 self. The loose earth and rubbish taken out in followino: 
 it is thrown into some abandoned opening or gallery, so 
 that nothinsr is lifted to the surface but the ore. Some- 
 times several gangs of hands will be working upon the 
 same vein, a board and timber floor only separating one 
 set from another. When I have added to this descrip- 
 tion that this business of digging out veins has contin- 
 ued here for near three hundred years, it can well be con- 
 ceived that this mountain ridge has become a sort of 
 honey-comb. 
 
 When our party had reached the limit of descent, we 
 turned aside into a gallery, and made our way among 
 gangs of workmen, silently pursuing their daily labor in
 
 THE MINEKS. 359 
 
 galleries and chambers reeking with moisture, while the 
 water trickled down on every side on its way to the com- 
 mon receptacle at the bottom. Here we saw English 
 carpenters dressing timbers for flooring by the light of 
 tallow candles that burned in soft mud candlesticks ad- 
 hering to the rocky walls of the chamber. Men were in- 
 dustriously digging upon the vein, others disposing of 
 the rubbish, while convicts were trudging along under 
 heavy burdens of ore, which they supported on their 
 backs by a broad strap across their foreheads. As we 
 passed among these well-behaved gangs of men, I was 
 a little startled by the foreman remarking that one of 
 those carriers had been convicted of killing ten men, and 
 was under sentence of hard labor for life. Far from 
 there being any thing forbidding in the appearance of 
 these murderers, now that they were beyond the reach 
 of intoxicating drink, they bore the ordinary subdued ex- 
 pression of the Meztizo. According to custom, they lash- 
 ed me to a stanchion as an intruder ; but, upon the fore- 
 man infoiTtiing them that I would pay the usual forfeit 
 of cigaritos on arriving at the station-house, they good- 
 naturedly relieved me. Then we journeyed on and on, 
 until my powers of endurance could sustain no more. 
 We sat down to rest, and to gather strength for a still 
 longer journey. At length we set out again, sometimes 
 climbing up, sometimes climbing down ; now stopping 
 to examine different specimens of ores that reflected back 
 the glare of our lights with dazzling brilliancy, and to 
 look at the endless varieties in the appearance of the rock 
 that filled the spaces in the porphyry matrix. Then 
 we walked for a long way on the top of the aqueduct 
 x)f the adit, until we at last reached a vacant shaft, 
 through which we were drawn up and landed in the pris- 
 on-house, from whence we walked to the station-house, 
 where we were dressed in our own clothes again.
 
 360 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 When my underground wanderings were ended, and 
 dinner eaten, it was too late in the day to visit tlie re- 
 fining works ; but on the next morning, bright and early, 
 I was in the saddle, on my way to visit the different 
 establishments connected with this mine. First, upon 
 tlie river, at the mouth of the adit, was a stamping-mill, 
 where gangs of stamps were playing in troughs, and re- 
 ducing the hard ore to a coarse powder. A little way 
 farther down the stream the ore was ground, and then, 
 in blast ovens or furnaces, was heated until all the baser 
 metals in the ore became charged with oxygen to such a 
 degree that they would not unite with quicksilver. The 
 ore was then carried and placed in the bottom of large 
 casks, and water and quicksilver were added, and then 
 they were set rolling by machinery for several days, un- 
 til the silver had formed an amalgam with the mercury, 
 while the baser metals in the ore were disengaged from 
 the silver. The whole mass being now poured out into 
 troughs, the scoria was washed off from the amalgam, 
 which was gathered and put into a stout leathern bag 
 with a cloth bottom, and the unabsorbed mercury drain- 
 ed out. The amalgam, resembling lead in appearance, 
 being now cut up into cakes, and placed under an im- 
 mense retort, fire was applied ; the mercury, in form of 
 vapor, was driven tlirough a hole in the bottom of tlie 
 platfoiTa into water, where it was condensed, while the 
 silver remained pure in the retort. This is called the 
 baiTel process, and is used for certain kinds of ore. 
 
 I had come self-introduced to the Real del Monte, but 
 that had not prevented my recei\'ing the accustomed 
 hospitality of the establishment, xl groom and two of 
 their best horses were at my service during my stay. 
 As the weather was fine, and the roads of the first class 
 of English carriage-ways, I heartily enjoyed the ride 
 down the mountain gorge until it opened upon the broad
 
 REFINING SILVER. 361 
 
 plain where the second refining establishment, that of 
 Yincente, is situated. Except that the iron floors of 
 their blast ovens were made to revolve while in a state 
 of red heat, all was substantially the same as at the last 
 place. Following the meanderings of the stream, I had 
 been gi-adually descending from the sharp air of earlj 
 spring to the more appropriate temperature of the trop- 
 ics, as I had occasion to notice in looking into the fine 
 garden of the English director, which exhibited both the 
 fertilizing eifects of irrigation upon English flowers, and 
 the advantages of tropical heat upon native varieties. 
 
 Q
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 A Visit to the Refining-mills. — The Falls and basaltic Columns of Reg- 
 la. — How a Title is acquired to Silver Mines. — The Story of Peter 
 Terreros, Count of Regla. — The most successful of Miners. — Silver 
 obtained by fusing the Ore. — Silver "benefited" upon the Patio. — 
 The Tester of the Patio. — The chemical Processes employed. — The 
 Heirs of the Count of Regla. — The Ruin caused by Civil War. — The 
 History of the English Company. 
 
 "\Ye rode along tlie stone road across the plain, pass- 
 ing now a number of English-made wagons laden with 
 stamped ore for E-egla, and then a drove of cargo-don- 
 keys trudging along under the weight of bags filled with 
 the rich ore of Hakal. Now and then, too, we encounter- 
 ed American army-wagons converted to peaceful employ- 
 ment, and adding to the material wealth of Mexico. But 
 our ride was not a long one before we reached Regla, 
 the utmost limit of our journeyings, a distance of twelve 
 miles from the "Real." Here the first salutation from 
 the English gentleman at the head of the establishment 
 was that breakfast was waiting, as it was now eleven 
 o'clock, and we must not visit the works upon an empty 
 stomach. My surprise at this unlooked-for hospitality 
 was a little diminished when I learned that all these en- 
 tertainments of strangers are at the company's expense. 
 
 Thejpatio, or open yard of Regla, on which the princi- 
 pal portion of the ores of the Real del Monte company 
 are "benefited," or, as we should say, extracted, is sit- 
 uated deep down in a barranca^ where both water-power 
 and intense heat can be obtained to facilitate the process 
 of separation. The immense amount of mason-work 
 liere expended in the erection of massive walls would
 
 THE falLkS of regla. 363 
 
 make an imposing appearance if they had been built up 
 in the open plain ; but here they are so overshadowed by 
 the mason-work of nature that they sink into insignifi- 
 cance in comparison. The bank, some two hundred feet 
 high, of solid rock, as it approaches the waterfall on 
 either side, has the appearance of being supported by 
 natural buttresses of basaltic columns — columns closely 
 joined together and placed erect by the hand of nature's 
 master-builder. Still, all would have been stiff and for- 
 mal had the sides of the barranca been lined only with 
 perpendicular columns ; but broken and displaced pillars 
 are piled in every conceivable position against the front, 
 while a vine with brilliant leaves had run to every fis- 
 sure and spread itself out to enjoy the sunshine. The 
 little stream that had burst its way through the upright 
 columns and over the broken fragments, fell into a per- 
 fect basin of basalt, heightening immensely the attrac- 
 tions of the spot. I sat down upon a fallen column, and 
 for a long time continued to contemplate the unexpected 
 scene, of which, at that time, I had read nothing. There 
 was such a mingling of the rich vegetation of the hot 
 country with the rocky ornaments of this pretty water- 
 fall that I could never grow weary of admiring the com- 
 bined grandeur and beauty of the place, from which Pe- 
 ter Terreros derived his title of Count of Regla. 
 
 Peter Terreros, the first Count of E,egla, became one 
 of the rich men of the last century in consequence of a 
 lucky mining adventure. In olden times the water in 
 the Real del ]\Ionte mines had been lifted out of the 
 mouth of the Santa Brigeda and other shafts in bulls' 
 hides carried up on a windlass. AYlien near the surface, 
 this simple method of getting the water out of a mine 
 has great advantages on account of its cheapness, and is 
 now extensively employed in Mexican mines. But aft- 
 er a certain depth had been reached, the head of water
 
 364 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 could no longer be kept down by this process, and, in 
 consequence, the Eeal del Monte was abandoned about 
 the beginning of the last century, and became a com- 
 plete ruin ; for no wreck is more complete than that which 
 water causes when it once gets possession of a mine, 
 and mingles into one mass floating timbers, loosened 
 earth, rubbish, and soft and fallen rock. By the min- 
 ing laws of Mexico, the title to a mine is lost by aban- 
 doning and ceasing to work it. It becomes a waif open 
 to the enterprise of any one who may " re-denounce" it. 
 The title to the soil in IMexico, as in California, carries 
 no title to the gold and silver mineral that may be con- 
 tained in the land. The precious metals are not only 
 regarded in law as treasure-trove, but they carry with 
 them to the lucky discoverer the right to enter upon an- 
 other person's land, and to appropriate so much of the 
 land as is necessary to avail himself of his prize. Col- 
 onel Fremont's ^Mariposa claim, and all other California 
 land claims, are subject to this legal condition. 
 
 Peter Terreros, then a man of limited means, conceived 
 the idea of draining this abandoned mine by means of a 
 tunnel or adit (socahon) through the rock, one mile and 
 a quarter in length, from the level of the stream till it 
 should strike the Santa Brigeda shaft. Upon this en- 
 terprise he toiled with varied success from 1750 until 
 1762, when he completed his undertaking, and also struck 
 a bonanza, which continued for twelve years to yield an 
 amount of silver which in our day appears to be fabu- 
 lous. The veins which he struck from time to time, as 
 he advanced with his socahon, furnished means to keep 
 alive his enterprise. When he reached the main shaft, 
 he had a ruin to clear out and rebuild, which was a more 
 costly undertaking than the building of a king's palace. 
 Yet his bonanza not only furnished all the means for a 
 system of lavish expenditure upon the mines and refin-
 
 PETER TERREROS. 365 
 
 ing-works, "but from his surplus profits he laid out half 
 a million annually in the purchase of plantations, or six 
 millions of dollars in the twelve years. This is equal to 
 about 500,000 pounds' weight of silver. Besides doing 
 this, he loaned to the king a million of dollars, which has 
 never been paid, and built and equipped two ships of the 
 line, and presented them to his sovereign. 
 
 The humble shop-keeper, Peter Terreros, after such 
 displays of munificence, was ennobled by the title of 
 Count of Regla. Among the common people he is the sub- 
 ject of more fables than was Croesus of old. "When his 
 children were baptized, so the story goes, the procession 
 walked upon bars of silver. By way of expressing his 
 gratitude for the title conferred upon him, he sent an in- 
 vitation to the king to visit him at his mine, assuring 
 his majesty that if he would confer on him such an ex- 
 alted favor, his majesty's feet should not tread upon the 
 ground while he w^as in the New World. Wherever he 
 should alight from his carnage it should be upon a pave- 
 ment of silver, and the places where he lodged should be 
 lined with the same precious metal. Anecdotes of this 
 kind are innumerable, which, of course, amount to no 
 more than showing that in his own time his wealth was 
 proverbial, and demonstrate that in popular estimation 
 he stood at the head of that large class of miners w^hom 
 the wise king ennobled as a reward for successful min- 
 ing adventures, and that he was accounted the richest 
 miner in the vice-kingdom. The state and magnificence 
 which he oftentimes displayed surpassed tliat of the 
 Vice-king. This in no way embarrassed an estate, the 
 largest ever accumulated by one individual in a single 
 enterprise. 
 
 Count Peter is estimated to have expended two and 
 a half millions of dollars upon the buildings constituting 
 the refining establishment of Regla, which goes under
 
 366 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 the general designation of the patio. Why his walls 
 were built so thick, or why so many massive arches 
 should have been constructed, is an enigma to the pres- 
 ent generation, as they could by no means have been 
 intended for a fortress down in a barranca. 
 
 But let us go in and examine the different methods of 
 "benefiting" silver here applied. The ores from the 
 Eosario shaft of the Hakal mine of Pachuca are here 
 stamped and ground, and then thrown into a furnace, 
 after having been mixed with lime, which in fire increases 
 the heat ; wliile upon the open torta we shall see that 
 lime is used to cool the mass. Litharge (oxide of lead) 
 is added, and the mass is burned until the Utharge is de- 
 composed, the lead uniting with the silver and the oxy- 
 gen entering into the slag, into which the baser metals, 
 or scoria in the ore, have been formed. This is cast out 
 at the bottom of the furnace. The mass of molten lead 
 and silver is drawn off, and placed in a large oven with 
 a rotary bottom, into which tongues of flame are contin- 
 ually driven until the lead in the compound has become 
 once more oxydized, forming litharge, and the silver is 
 left in a pure state. This is the most simple method of 
 purifpng, or " benefiting" silver. 
 
 A little beyond the furnace is a series of tubs, built 
 of blocks from broken columns of basalt. In the centre 
 of each revolves a shaft with four arms, to each of which 
 is fastened a block of basalt, that is dragged on the 
 stone bottom of the tub, where broken ore mixed with 
 water is ground to the finest paste. Here the chemical 
 process of "benefiting" commences. A bed is prepared 
 upon the paved floor {patio) in the yard, in the same 
 manner as a mortar bed is prepared to receive quick- 
 lime dissolved in water. In the same way is poured 
 out the semi-liquid paste. Tliis is called a tot^ta, and 
 contains about 45,000 lbs. Upon this liquid mass four
 
 BENEFITING THE ORE. 367 
 
 and a half cargas of 300 lbs. of salt is spread, and then 
 a coating of blue vitriol (sulpliate of copper) is laid over 
 the whole, and the tramping by mules commences. If 
 the mass is found to be too hot for the advantageous 
 working of the process, then lime in sufficient quantities 
 is added to cool it ; and if too cool, then iron pyrites 
 (sulphate of iron) is added. The mules are then turned 
 upon the bed, and for a single day it is mixed most 
 thoroughly together by tramping and by turning it over 
 by the shovel. On the second day 750 lbs. of quicksil- 
 ver are added to the torta, and then the tramping is re- 
 sumed. 
 
 The most important personage, not even excepting 
 the director, is called "the tester;" for the condition of 
 the ores varies so much, that experience alone can de- 
 termine the mode of proceeding with each separate torta^ 
 and upon the tester's judgment depends oftentimes the 
 question whether a mining enterprise, involving millions 
 of dollars, shall prove a profitable or unprofitable ad- 
 venture. Perhaps he can not read or write, though daily 
 engaged in canying on, empirically, the most difficult 
 of chemical processes. To him is intrusted the entire 
 control of the most valuable article employed in mining 
 — the quicksilver. He is constantly testing the various 
 toTtas spread out upon the patio / to one he determines 
 that lime must be added ; to another, an opposite process 
 must be applied by adding iron pyrites. "When all is 
 ready, with his own hands he applies the quicksilver, 
 which he carries in a little cloth bag, through the pores 
 of which he expresses the mercury as he walks over and 
 over the torta^ much after the manner that seed is sown 
 with us. The tester determines when the silver has 
 all been collected and amalgamated with the mercury. 
 Whether the tramping process and the turning by shov- 
 els shall continue for six weeks or for only three, is de-
 
 368 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 cided by him. When he decides that it is prepared for 
 
 washing, the mass is transported to an immense wash- 
 ing machine, which is propelled by water, where the 
 base substances are all washed from the amalgam, and 
 then the amalgam is resolved into its original elements 
 of silver and quicksilver by lire, as already explained, 
 with the loss of about seventy-five to one hundred pounds 
 of mercury upon each torta. 
 
 Let us now run over the many chemical processes 
 that have been resorted to in order to separate the silver 
 from the ore. The roll-brimstone, that has been pro- 
 cui'ed in Durango, or in the volcano of Popocatapetl, is 
 bought up at the mint in the city of Mexico, where it is 
 burned in a room lined with lead, and into which water 
 is jetted until the smoke of the burning brimstone is con- 
 densed. This water of sulphur is then carefully collect- 
 ed, and distilled in a boiler of platinum, on which sulphur 
 can not act. The sulphuric acid obtained by this distil- 
 lation is used to separate the gold that is found in the sil- 
 ver bars fi'om silver. This sometimes amounts to ten 
 per cent. The acid dissolves the silver, but does not 
 act upon the gold, which is thus separated from the sil- 
 ver. The sulphate of silver is drawn off and poured 
 upon plates of copper, by which means the silver is pre- 
 cipitated, and sulphate of copper, or blue ^'itriol, is pro- 
 duced, which, not being of use in the mint, is sold to the 
 Heal del Monte Company, where it is employed in ob- 
 taining silver. The process by which the company obtain 
 their salt has been already stated, while the hme they 
 use is burned upon the mountains. After all these hard 
 and laborious processes, only from five to ten per cent, of 
 silver is obtained, except in cases of honanzas^ which 
 shows that silver mines can be profitably worked only 
 in those countries where labor commands the lowest 
 standard of wages.
 
 THE HEIRS OF REGLA. 369 
 
 The heirs of the Count Peter inherited his accnmula- 
 ted treasures, his purchased estates, his title, and his 
 prospects of future success in mining, which were as 
 brilliant as they had been in his lifetime. They never 
 dreamed of financial embarrassments in the midst of ac- 
 cumulations of wealth which surpassed the wildest of 
 Oriental romances. They forgot that their wealth rest- 
 ed upon the perfect security which they inherited from 
 the wise and virtuous government of Carlos III., of 
 blessed memory ; that he it was who had put out the 
 fires of the Inquisition, and so curtailed the power of 
 the priests that they could no longer plunder with im- 
 punity, or rob the Terreros of the fruits of their father's 
 enterprise by threatening theni with the censure of the 
 Church, which, in the reign of a feeble king, had a sig- 
 nificant meaning. The new code of mining laws, the 
 cheapness of quicksilver, and the opening of commerce, 
 had all combined to make their fortune, which they might 
 lose in a moment if the heir to the throne should prove 
 an idiot, as was most likely, and priests should again 
 usurp the control of aifairs, and play their old game of 
 plundering the rich while they excited the populace. 
 
 Fortunately for the family of Terreros and the many 
 successful mining families of that period, Charles IV. was 
 not quite so much of an idiot as his grandfather or his 
 great-grandfather had been, and tliough the Inquisitors 
 resumed their fires, yet it was with such comparative 
 moderation as not to interfere seriously with the progress 
 of that prosperity to which Carlos III. had given an im- 
 pulse. The Countess of Eegla still sported the richest 
 jewels to be found in New Spain, and her sister's coronet 
 was the envy of all the ladies of the court. But the in- 
 surrection of Hidalgo came upon them in the midst of 
 prosperity, overwhelming alike the rich and the poor. 
 The large Spanish capitals began to be withdrawn from
 
 370 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 the country, the plantations were broken up, and the 
 mines, abandoned by their laborers, soon fell to ruin; 
 and they who had been baptized in the midst of the most 
 ostentatious display of wealth, found themselves pinched 
 to sustain their ordinary expenses. 
 
 The Terreros family kept their title good to the Eeal 
 del JMonte by retaining a few workmen about the prem- 
 ises ; but it was substantially abandoned for twenty-five 
 years before the English Real del Monte Company took 
 possession. In the space of two years this company had 
 cleared out and rebuilt the adit by working gangs of 
 hands night and day. Another party, engaged upon the 
 shafts, arrived at the adit level at the same time with the 
 workmen upon the drain. A third party, engaged in 
 making and repairing a carriage-road from the sea to the 
 mine, had completed their labors ; while a fourth party, in 
 charge of machinery and steam-power apparatus enough 
 to equip a Cornish mine of the largest class, had arrived at 
 the mine. In this fourfold, and much of it useless labor, 
 the company had exhibited untiring activity, while they 
 exhausted all their capital without realizing the return 
 of a single dollar. But they derived rich hopes from 
 reading the story of Peter Terreros, and they continued 
 to hope on and hope ever, for a period of twenty-five 
 years longer, when they ceased to exist. The story of 
 this company is summed up in saying that they expend- 
 ed upon this vast enterprise the sum of $20,000,000, and 
 realized from it $16,000,000. They disposed of all their 
 interests here for about wliat their materials were worth 
 as old iron, and the present proprietors enjoy the fruits 
 of their labors at a cost of less than a million of dollars, 
 with a fair prospect of yet realizing from their specula- 
 tion as large a treasure as that acquired by Peter Terre- 
 ros, the first Count of Regla. 
 
 Having thus described with some minuteness one of
 
 THE REAL DEL MONTE. 371 
 
 the most extensive silver mines in the world, where an 
 average of 5000 men and unnumbered animals are em- 
 ployed, it will not be necessary to go into details as we 
 notice the many other celebrated mines of Mexico.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIIL 
 
 Toluca. — Queretaro, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas, — Fresnillo. — "Ro- 
 mancing." — A lucky Priest. — San Luis Potosi. — The Valenciana at 
 Guanajuato. — Under-mining. — A Name of Blasphemy. — The Los 
 Rayas. — Lnmense Sums taken from Los Rayas. — Warlike Indians in 
 Zacatecas. 
 
 A STAGE runs daily from the city of Mexico by Ta- 
 cubaya and the Desierto to the beautiful valley and city 
 of Toluca. This town is greatly indebted for its pres- 
 ent celebrity to successful mining adventures. Its Ca- 
 thedral is a monument of the munificent liberality of the 
 Frenchman Laborde, whose fortune was ever unequal to 
 his generosity. We have spoken already of the almost 
 Oriental magnificence displayed in the famous garden 
 which he built and adorned at Cuamavaca. After spend- 
 ing the wealth acquired from the bonanza of Tasco, he 
 started ofi" in search of new adventures and a new for- 
 tune. Being again successfiil, he made Toluca the bene- 
 ficiary of his princely Hberality. The celebrated Cathe- 
 dral of that city, and all its ornaments, are the proofs of 
 his munificence. When his third fortune was exhaust- 
 ed, the fickle goddess forsook him, and he who had three 
 times been raised from nothing to the condition of a mill- 
 ionaire, came in his old age to the archbishop for relief 
 from his poverty. Tliis relief he obtained by selling the 
 jewels he had once bestowed upon the Church. Such 
 often are the vicissitudes in the life of a successful miner. 
 I can not notice here the many interesting objects gath- 
 ered as I would wish to do, nor have I space for a de- 
 scription of the beautiful mountain scenery about Toluca. 
 
 The middle states of ^Mexico, Guanajuata, Zacatecas,
 
 MIDDLE STATES OF MEXICO. 373 
 
 Durango, and San Luis, are deserving of a more ex- 
 tended notice than my limited space will permit. There 
 is little of war or romance to recount in the history of 
 any of them. Their story is made up of notices of silver 
 mines, and times of great bonanzas and cattle-raising. 
 Here the population is mostly white, made up of the 
 hardy peasantry from Biscay. The Indians on the high 
 table-lands were too hardy to be reduced to slavery: 
 the result is the same here as in Chili. The two races 
 have not extensively intermixed, as the Indians were 
 driven northward, where, for a period of three hundred 
 years, they have, in a measure, maintained their inde- 
 pendence, and have so much improved in the art of war 
 that they are able to return again and fight for the homes 
 of their ancestors. The white inhabitants of these states 
 are more cleanly in their habits, and more industrious 
 than the Southern people. The little state of Queretaro 
 has little to boast but its agriculture, but to the north 
 of it is a country of mines and pasturage. 
 
 There was formerly great rivalry between the states of 
 Guanajuato and Zacatecas on the ground of their mining 
 successes. Each in turn has had its season of boasting, 
 for it has happened that, in those years when Guanajuato 
 was most prosperous, Zacatecas was not in bonanza^ 
 and vice versa. When I was first in Mexico, San Luz 
 and San Luce, at Guanajuato, were in bonanza^ with di- 
 vers others; and out of $300,000 in silver bars brought 
 down to the city of Mexico, nearly ten per cent, of gold 
 was extracted. But now both these bonanzas have given 
 out, and the annual product of silver in the State of Gua- 
 najuato has fallen off over $2,000,000, while the mines 
 of Zacatecas are in a most flourishing condition, as is 
 shown by the large sum of $1,200,000 being demanded 
 by government for renewing the lease of the mint at Za- 
 catecas.
 
 374 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 Fresnillo is the most flourishing of the mines of Zaca- 
 tecas. This mine was formelj considered of little value. 
 Among its advantages is an American manager, who for 
 many years has aided in the direction of its affairs. On 
 my return from Mexico, I found the road up the Perote 
 covered with wagons laden with portions of a monster 
 steam-engine, the iiftli that was to be employed to pump 
 the water from this mine. It seems incredible that so 
 large a sum as $1,000,000 should be required for the 
 freight alone of this new machinery. But, after I had 
 become familiar with the vast scale on which every thing 
 is conducted at a large silver mine, where millions ap- 
 pear as the small dust of the balance, I can credit what 
 my readers might think improbable.* 
 
 I have often spoken of the peculiarities of peasant life 
 in the country and of the j^^ons of the cities. But there 
 is another phase of humble life to be considered — the so- 
 cial state of the mine laborer. Like all men whose 
 wages are very irregular, and subject to the fluctuations 
 which follow mining speculations, they themselves be- 
 come irregular in their lives. They have all heard of 
 the many instances of persons of as humble condition as 
 themselves accidentally falling upon a princely fortune, 
 and they know, too, what a miraculous change such a 
 discovery m.akes in the social condition of Sipeo7i, for ev- 
 ery miner in Zacatecas knows the homely distich : 
 
 " Had the metals not been so rich at San Bernabe, 
 Ibarra would not have wed the daughter of Virey."t 
 
 In addition to scraps and snatches of songs, the min- 
 ing laborers have their romances, which are as wild as 
 the yarns of the sailor, and have for their almost univer- 
 
 * By reference to a long and able paper on the mines in the hill of 
 Proano (Fresnillo), it appears that one half of the cost of four puraping- 
 engines already in operation in that mine was the freight from Vei-a 
 Cruz to the mine. 
 
 t This translation is bad enough, but no worse than the original.
 
 PADRE FLOKES. — CUATOKCE. 375 
 
 sal theme tlie miraculous acquisition and loss of a for- 
 tune. The hero possesses princely wealth to day, though 
 yesterday he was suffering for food, and to-morrow he 
 will be again bereft of all by the fickle turns that For- 
 tune makes in the wheel of destiny. The wildest of our 
 romances never come up to many incidents tliat have oc- 
 curi'ed in their own mine ; and when they attempt fic- 
 tion, it is on the pattern of the Arabian Nights' Enter- 
 tainments. I do verily believe that all that class of 
 Arabian tales are but the reproduction of the romances 
 from the Oriental gold-washings. 
 
 The most important mines in the State of San Luis 
 Potosi are those near Cuatorce. In the midst of bleak 
 and precipitous mountain ridges is the village of Cua- 
 torce, from which a circuitous mountain road leads to 
 the entrance of the mining shafts, in which more won- 
 derful things have occurred than in the Avildest of the 
 "romances." The story of Padre Flores is a familiar 
 one, but will bear repeating. 
 
 The padre, being tired of the idle life of a pauper priest, 
 bought, for a small sum, the claim of some still more 
 needy adventurer. After following his small vein a lit- 
 tle way, he came to a small cavern containing tlie ore in 
 a state of decomposition. This, in California, would be 
 called a "rotten vein." With all the difficulties to be 
 encountered in obtaining a fair value for mineral in a 
 crude state, the poor priest realized from his adventure 
 over $3,000,000, which was considered a very fair for- 
 tune for an unmitred ecclesiastic. 
 
 The Mineral Report, mentioned in tlie last note, which 
 is so full on the subject Fresnillo, insists tliat it is a con- 
 tinuation of the formation of Cuatorce and the other mines 
 of San Luis. The mountains at Cuatorce are more 
 dreary, bleak, and barren than in any other of the prin- 
 cipal mining districts, as it is more exposed to the storms
 
 376 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 and tempests from the northeast and from the ocean. 
 It was in this State of San Luis Potosi that Dr. Gard- 
 ner's quicksilver mine was alleged to exist, and in the 
 ineffectual efforts made to determine its whereabouts 
 our government has become quite familiar with the lo- 
 cation of all the worked mines of this state. The mines 
 upon the mountains of Cuatorce are said to have been dis- 
 covered in 1778 by a negro fiddler, who, being compelled 
 to camp out on his way home fr-om a dance, built a fire 
 upon what proved to be an outcrop of a vein, and, in 
 consequence, found in the morning, among the embers, a 
 piece of virgin silver. It is a doubtful question among 
 those who are anxious about trifles whether the name 
 Potosi given to this mine, owes its origin to the similar- 
 ity between the mode of its discovery to that of the cel- 
 ebrated mines of that name in South America, or to the 
 vast amount of silver at one time taken from it. 
 
 Guanajuato, when it yielded its six millions a year of 
 silver, besides a fair supply of gold, was one of the most 
 important States in the republic. "With every success- 
 ful speculation, new adventurers were found to invest 
 their capital in resuming the working of abandoned 
 mines, until at last men have become bold enough to un- 
 dertake, for the third time, the draining of the great shaft 
 of the Yalenciana, so famous in the last century. When 
 I was last in Mexico that undertaking was reported to 
 have been accomplished. This mine is on a more mag- 
 nificent scale than even the Real del !Monte. Its cen- 
 tral shaft alone cost a million of dollars ; and though 
 steam power can not be used, yet it is so dry that horse 
 windlasses can keep it clear of water. Its abandonment 
 in every instance has been in consequence of some insur- 
 rectionary chief setting the works of the mine on fire, and 
 not from any deficiency in its product of silver. When I 
 was in Mexico, so little progress had been made in re-
 
 \ 
 
 THE MINE OF LOS RAYAS. 377 
 
 storing the mine that it was not thought worth visiting. 
 But the most sanguine hopes were entertained that it 
 would again be as productive as in the times when its 
 abundant riches secured for its owner the title of Mar- 
 quis of Valenciana, though he had worked with his own 
 hands on the shaft which afterward yielded him its 
 millions. 
 
 Second in importance among the old mines of Guana- 
 juato is Zos Hayas. Its history presents a new feature 
 in the mining system of Mexico, not before mentioned, 
 but which is important to a right understanding of the 
 operation of the mining code. The right of discovery 
 gives title to two hundred varas along the mine, and to 
 two hundred varas (about 500 i^^\) in depth. The con- 
 sequence of this limitation is, that when a very rich claim 
 is made, there immediately springs up a contest to get 
 below it, and to cut off the lucky discoverer from the low- 
 er part of his expected fortune, and he has no means of 
 avoiding such a result but by driving his shaft down- 
 ward until he reaches a point below his first two hund- 
 red varas^ which entitles him to claim another section 
 downward. 
 
 This principle is strikingly illustrated in the case of 
 the famous mine of the priest Flores at Cuatorce, which 
 he blasphemously named "the Purse of God the Fa- 
 ther,"* where there are marks of divers attempts being 
 
 * This will sound to Protestant readers something like horrible blas- 
 phemy ; but it must be borne in mind that God the Father of the Cath- 
 olics is an entirely different idea from the spiritual God whom we wor- 
 ship. The devout Protestant who recognizes but one Being worthy of 
 adoration, veneration, and worship, never ventures to mention any of 
 the names by which He is known but with the profoundest reverence. 
 The Catholic, on the other hand, has a host of objects which he deems 
 worthy of adoration, and seems to have cheapened the article by multi- 
 plying it. His senses are all exercised in his peculiar kind of worship, 
 and, as a natural consequence, they are apt to conclude that the Al- 
 mighty enjoys those exhibitions that give them the greatest pleasure.
 
 378 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 made to undermine him, thougli without success. But 
 the case is a different one when the bonanza is upon a 
 high ridge, and it can be undermined bj drifting in from 
 a lower leveh Then commences a Hvely contest to de- 
 termine who can dig the fastest, and make the most rap- 
 id progress in this contest of mining and countermining. 
 The ]Marquis de los Rayas owes his title and his prince- 
 ly fortune of 811,000,000 to a successful contest of this 
 character. The Santa Amita was in bonanza^ j-ielding 
 an ore so pregnant with gold that the crude mass often 
 sold for its weight in silver. 
 
 They worship him bv performing a pantomime of the life and suffering 
 of Christ, which is called the mass, and seek to propitiate him by offer- 
 ing the body of his Son in sacrifice. They bestow upon God gifts of 
 jewels and of gold ; and as he passes through their streets in the form 
 of a wafer, as they believe, the soldiers present arms, beat the drum, 
 and discharge their cannon, as to an earthly prince. Though our Sav- 
 iour (Santo Christo) heads the calendar of intercessors between God and 
 man, he is seldom invoked, though they often honor him by naming 
 their children after him. As they have conferred upon a multitude of 
 their saints the supernatural powers of God, they have necessarily 
 brought God himself down to earth. If I might be pardoned the ex- 
 pression, I should say that they treat him and his well-beloved Son with 
 a loving intimacy. The worship of the Catholics is substantially mate- 
 rialism, more or less gross, according to its distance from or its proxim- 
 ity to Protestantism. There is no blasphemy, according to their system, 
 in naming their shops after the Holy Ghost, a horse-stable after " the 
 Precious Blood," though I could never hear them mentioned or see them 
 without having my Protestant notions shocked, while I equally shocked 
 their feelings by refusing to kneel to the Host, and slipping out of tJie 
 way to avoid it. Xor could I exhibit the least reverence to their relig- 
 ious emblems without committing what in me would be an act of idol- 
 atry, the two systems being so diametrically opposite that one can 
 not go a step toward the other without breaking over a fundamental doc- 
 trine of his own belief. God is an invisible Spirit, says the Protestant. 
 God is a Spirit, answers the Catholic, but he daily assumes the form of 
 a wafer, and traverses our streets, and in that form we most commonly 
 worship him. Such is the religious antagonism that will ever be found 
 in the world while man remains what he now is, ever divided between 
 mentalism and materialism. Forms and names often differ, but these 
 are the two ideas into which all the religious systems of the world re- 
 solve themselves, although abortive attempts are often made to com- 
 bine them.
 
 DEEP MINING. 379 
 
 Contests of this kind are very different from those 
 which used to take place in CaUfornia some years ago, 
 when twenty feet square was marked off upon the top 
 of a ridge, through which the claimant had to sink his 
 shaft to the base rock on which the gold was supposed 
 to be deposited. When the rock was reached, it was 
 often found difficult to keep the lines that had been mark- 
 ed off on the surface, particularly when the lead grew 
 richer as it approached the bord- r of the claim. Con- 
 troversies were frequent, and frequently resulted in sub- 
 terranean quarrels and fights, and, of course, ended in 
 superterranean lawsuits. But the ^Mexican rival parties 
 were seldom near enough for a fight, and the quarrel 
 ended, as it began, in a contest to determine who could 
 dig the fastest. 
 
 Another peculiar feature of deep mining is the con- 
 struction of the main shafts. A description of the meth- 
 od of construction of one of these I take from Ward's 
 Mexico,* a book that is otherwise of little value to a per- 
 son seeking for information on the subject of mines at 
 Guanajuata, so great has been the revolution there in a 
 few years in the condition of mining affairs : "I know 
 few sights more interesting than the operation of blast- 
 ing in the shafts of Los Rayas. After each quarryman 
 {barretero) has undermined the portion of rock allotted 
 to him, he is drawn up to the surface ; the ropes belong- 
 ing to the horse-windlasses iinalacates) are coiled up, so 
 as to leave every thing clear below, and a man descends, 
 whose business it is to fire the slow matches communi- 
 cating with the mines below. 
 
 " As his chance of escaping the effects of the explo- 
 sion consists in being drawn up with such rapidity as to 
 be placed beyond tlie reach of the fragments of rock that 
 are projected into the air, the lightest raalacate is pre- 
 
 * Vol. ii. p. 452.
 
 380 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 
 
 pared for his use, and two horses are attached to it, se- 
 lected for their swiftness and courage, and are called 
 the horses of j^^^^«(^(?a The man is let down slowly, 
 carrying with him a light and a small rope, one end of 
 whicli is held by one of the overseers, who is stationed 
 at the mouth of the shaft. A breathless silence is ob- 
 served until the signal is given from below by pulling 
 the cord of communication, when the two men by whom 
 the horses are previously held release their heads, and 
 they dash off at full speed until they are stopped either 
 by the noise of the first explosion, or by seeing from the 
 quantity of cord wound round the cylinder of the inala- 
 cate that the pegador is already raised to a height of 
 sixty or seventy varas [Spanish yards], and is conse- 
 quently beyond the reach of danger." 
 
 The author then goes on to enumerate the risks that 
 attend this calling oi 2)egcidoi\ and the consequent high 
 wages that have to be paid to persons who undertake 
 this perilous office, all of which accidents and adventures 
 must be familiar to those of my readers who have paid 
 any attention to the business of blasting rocks ; and as 
 his hairbreadth escapes have nothing in them remark- 
 able, we may conclude this notice of Los Rayas by add- 
 ing his statement that the king's fifth from this mine, 
 from 1556 to his time, amounted to the snug sum of 
 $17,365,000. He gives only the sum reported, and 
 makes no calculation for the large sums out of which the 
 king was annually cheated at all the mines. That my 
 reader may understand how a sum so apparently incredi- 
 ble as five or eight times seventeen millions of dollars 
 could be taken out of a single mine, he must recollect 
 that Los Rayas was a most productive mine shortly after 
 the Conquest, and that for a century or two it was com- 
 paratively of little value, until ^Ir. Jose Sardaneta under- 
 took the undermining of the rich mine of Santa Amita
 
 INDIANS AND SOLDIERS. 381 
 
 in 1740, and that afterward the rich product of the low- 
 er levels of the Santa Amita are included in this immense 
 sum. 
 
 There is too much sameness in the details of the his- 
 tories of the various other important mines of this State 
 and of those in the adjoining State of Durango to jus- 
 tify the lengthening out this chapter, and I will conclude 
 it with giving the substance of a statement I heard the 
 American gentleman make on the subject of Indian dep- 
 redations in the very centre of the republic, showing 
 the great inconvenience suffered in consequence of the 
 state of insecurity in which the people constantly live. 
 A party of their own Indians, a most degraded band of 
 cowardly vagabonds, that lived not a great way from the 
 city, concluded to personify a company of northern sav- 
 ages, in order more successfully to plunder the inhabit- 
 ants. With shoutings, these vagabonds rushed into the 
 houses of the people, who were so paralyzed by the very 
 sight of Indians in a hostile attitude, that, without re- 
 sistance, they suffered them to plunder whatever came 
 within their reach which tempted their cupidity or lust. 
 At length, becoming satiated with liquor and champagne 
 that they had taken from a carrier, they had to retire 
 and camp out for the night. In their retreat they were 
 pursued by a captain and soldiers of the regular army, 
 who, being more numerous than the Indians, exhibited a 
 great deal of courage until they came in sight of the sav- 
 ages, when, all at once, it was concluded to encamp for 
 the night, and to resume the pursuit the next day, when 
 the Indians would be at such a distance that they would 
 not disturb their pursuers by their whooping.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIY. 
 
 Sonora and Sonora Land Speculators seeking Annexation. — Sonera 
 and its Attractions. — The Abundance and Furity of Silver in Sono- 
 ra. — Silver found in large Masses. — The Jesus Maria, Refugio, and 
 Eulalia Mines. — A Creation of Silver at Arizpa. — The Pacific Rail- 
 road. — Sonora now valueless for want of personal Security. — The 
 Hopes of replenishing the Spanish Finances from Sonora blasted by- 
 War. — Report of the JVIineria. — Sonora. — Chihuahua. 
 
 It lias been said in another chapter that the Apaches 
 had extended their depredations beyond the first tier of 
 States, and had entered Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis 
 Potosi, and even Guanajuato, making this second tier 
 of states their stamping ground, wliile Sonora, Chihua- 
 hua, Coahuila, over which they now rode without oppo- 
 sition to a country more abundant in plunder, are left as 
 political waifs to any who may choose to take possession 
 of them. As in all abandoned countries, there are in- 
 habitants here incapable of getting away, and too poor 
 even for the Indians to notice ; and there are a few mis- 
 erable villages still existing, with a fragment of their 
 former population. All the inhabitants of these wretch- 
 ed hamlets have their eyes fixed on the United States 
 as the only hope of relief from their Indian plunderers. 
 The proprietors of estates, extending over vast districts, 
 too cowardly to defend their claims, which exceed in ex- 
 tent European principalities, are sitting quietly down at 
 a respectful distance, anxiously looking forward to the 
 time when their claims will rise in value from a few dol- 
 lars to as many hundred tliousands by an annexation to 
 the United States. jMexican operators in grants have 
 not been idle. They have ascertained what the United
 
 LAND TITLES. 383 
 
 States courts call a title, and have been providing them- 
 selves with the necessary parchments,* while American 
 operators, in connection with them, have been equally- 
 busy. 
 
 Chihuahua and Sonora are the States or Departments 
 to be affected by our Pacific Kailroad. Sonora is the 
 most valuable of the two, not only on account of its in- 
 exhaustible supply of silver, but also on account of its 
 delightful climate and agricultural resoui'ces. It is like 
 the land of the blessed in Oriental story. California 
 does not surpass it in fertility or in climate. With in- 
 dustry and thrift, it could sustain a population equal to 
 that of all Mexico. The table-lands and the valleys are 
 so near together that the products of all climates flour- 
 ish almost side by side. Food for man and beast was so 
 easily procured that the descendants of the early settlers 
 sunk into effeminacy long before the breaking out of the 
 great Apache war of the last century. Drought, how- 
 ever, makes the formation of artificial lakes and reser- 
 voirs necessary to the full development of its agricultu- 
 ral wealth. 
 
 But it is the remarkable abundance of silver which 
 distinguishes it above all other countries except Chihua- 
 hua. I have described, in a former chapter, the long 
 and laborious processes by which silver is produced from 
 the ore in the southern mines, and also the great depths 
 
 * When I was first at the city of Mexico, Governor Letcher intro- 
 duced to me a son of the late emperor, who had a claim for land in 
 California which he had not located before the annexation, I advised 
 him, without a fee, that our courts did not recognize foreign "floats," 
 and that, by his own laches, he had lost his claim, which he now spread 
 along the Sacramento River for 400 miles. Finding out, after an ex- 
 penditure of several thousand dollars, the defect, he got a new claim 
 from the late President Lombardini of thirty miles square, Avhich he will 
 probably now pin tight in Sonora. The defect of our two last treaties 
 with Mexico was in not having a clause inserted reducing all titles to 
 land to six miles square, as a consideration for the enhanced value by 
 the annexation.
 
 384 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 from which it is raised. In Sonora, silver is most com- 
 monly extracted from the ore by the simple process of 
 fusion. But in the district of Batopilos, it is, or rather 
 was, found pure. If we should adopt the theory that 
 veins of ore extend through the entire length of ^Mexico, 
 then I should say that they " crop out" in Sonora, or, 
 rather, that the silver lodes which are here above the 
 surface dip toward the city of Mexico, and also north- 
 ward toward California. The mountain chain which 
 traverses California under the name of the Sierra Ne- 
 vada appears to be only a continuation or reappearance 
 of the mountain chain here called Sierra Madre (Moth- 
 er Range), which forms the boundary between the de- 
 partments of Sonora and Chihuahua. 
 
 On the western declivity of this mountain range, the 
 most remarkable illustration of this fact of cropping out 
 is found at Batopilos, akeady mentioned. This town is 
 in a deep ravine. The climate is, Hke that of the Cali- 
 fornia gulches, intensely hot, but remarkably healthy. 
 Here the lodes of silver ore are almost innumerable,* with 
 crests elevated above the ground. The mine Qi El Car- 
 men^ in the times of the vice-kings, produced so immense- 
 ly that its proprietor was ennobled, with the title of Mar- 
 quis of Bustamente. This was the beginning of the 
 family of Bustamente. A piece of pure silver was found 
 here weighing four hundred and twenty-five pounds. I 
 should like to continue in detail to enumerate the rich 
 surface mines in the southern portions of these two States, 
 but, lest I sliould weary my reader, I must omit them, 
 
 * I would not like to make such extravagant statements on my own 
 authority, however satisfactory the testimony might be to myself, for 
 the abundance of silver in Sonora is beyond the belief of most men. 
 But, fortunately, I have, in Ward's " Mexico," an authority that can 
 not be disputed. The work is accessible to all my readers. The au- 
 thor was charged by the British government with an examination of 
 the mines of Mexico.
 
 CHIHUAHUA AND SONORA. 385 
 
 and refer those who wish to learn more to the transla- 
 tions from the last official reports of the 3fmeria, enti- 
 tled Chihuahua and Sonora, which are embodied in the 
 Appendix. 
 
 " The ' Good Success Mine' {Bueno Successo) was 
 discovered bj an Indian, who swam across the river aft- 
 er a great flood. On arriving at the other side, he found 
 the crest of an immense lode laid bare by the force of 
 the water. The gi'eater part of this was pure massive 
 silver, sparkling in the rays of the sun. The whole town 
 of Batopilos went to gaze at the extraordinary sight as 
 soon as the river was fordable. This Indian extracted 
 great wealth from his mine, but, on coming to the depth 
 of three Spanish yards {va7'as), the abundance of water 
 obliged him to abandon it, and no attempts have since 
 been made to resume the working. When the silver is 
 not found in solid masses, which requires to be cut with 
 the chisel, it is generally finely sprinkled through the 
 lode, and often serves to nail together the particles of 
 stone through which it is disseminated."* — "The ores 
 of the Pastiano mine, near the Carrrien, were so rich 
 that the lode was worked by bars, with a point at one 
 end and a chisel at the other, for cutting out the silver. 
 The owner of the Pastiano used to bring the ores fi'om 
 the mine with flags flying, and the mules adorned with 
 cloths of all colors. The same man received a reproof 
 from the Bishop of Durango when he visited Batopilos 
 for placing bars of silver from the door of his house to 
 the great hall {said) for the bishop to walk upon."t 
 
 The next mine of interest in our progress northward 
 is the Morelos, "which was discovered in 1826 by two 
 brothers named Aranco. These two Indian jt?66>?i5 w^ere 
 so poor that, the night before their gi'eat discovery, the 
 keeper of the store had refused to credit one of them for 
 
 * Ward, vol. ii. p. 578. f Itid. 
 
 R
 
 386 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 a little com for his tortillas. They extracted from their 
 claim $270,000; yet, in December, 1826, they were still 
 living in a ^vretched hovel, close to the source of their 
 wealth, bare-headed and bare-legged, with upward of 
 $200,000 in silver locked up in their hut. But never 
 was the utter worthlessness of the metal, as such, so 
 clearly demonstrated as in the case of the Arancos, 
 whose only pleasure consisted in contemplating their 
 hoards, and occasionally throwing away a portion of the 
 richest ore to be scrambled for by their former compan- 
 ions, the workmen." 
 
 Near the ^lorelos is the Jesus Maria, Though on 
 the western or Sonora slope of the mountain, it is only 
 eight leagues from Chihuahua. This, like !Morelos, is a 
 modern discovery, and, of course, was not included in the 
 number of those Sonora mines which produced such an 
 intense excitement about a hundred years ago in !Mexi- 
 co, and even in Spain. Here, within the circuit of three 
 leagues, two hundred metallic lodes were registered in one 
 year. The story of the mine of El Refugio^ discover- 
 ed by a fellow of the name of Pacheco, gave occasion for 
 anecdotes Kke those of the Arancos which we have just 
 recited. A dealer had an old cloak which took the fancy 
 of Pacheco, and to purchase this thing he gave ore from 
 which the dealer realized $8000. Tliree twenty-fourths 
 (three bars) of the product of this mine netted, between 
 the years 1811 and 1814, $337,000. On the Sonora 
 side of the mountain is Santa Eulalia. The ores of 
 this real [district] are found in loose earth, filling im- 
 mense caverns, or what are called " rotten ores" in Cali- 
 fornia, and are easily separated by smelting. One shil- 
 ling a mark ($8) was laid aside fi'om the silver which one 
 of these caverns produced, which shilling contribution 
 constituted the ftmd out of which the magnificent Cathe^ 
 dral of Chihuahua was built.
 
 THE MINE OF AllAZUMA. 387 
 
 Proceeding northward, we come to a spot the most 
 famous in the world for its product of silver, the mine 
 of Arazuma. For near a century, the accounts of the 
 wealth of this mine were considered fabulous ; but their 
 literal truth is confirmed by the testimony of the English 
 embassador. After examining the old records which I 
 have quoted, I have no doubt that the facts surpassed 
 the astonishing report ; for in ]\Iexico, the propensity 
 has ever been to conceal rather than over-estimate the 
 quantity of silver, on account of the king's fifth ; yet it 
 is the king's fifth, actually jpaid^ on which all the esti- 
 mates of the production of Sonora silver mmes are based. 
 Arazuma (which, in the report of the Mineria that I have 
 translated for this volume, appears to be set down as 
 Arizpa) was, a hundred years ago, the world's wonder, 
 and so continued until the breaking out of the great 
 Apache war a few years afterward. Men seemed to run 
 mad at the sight of such immense masses of virgin sil- 
 ver, and for a time it seemed as if silver was about to 
 lose its value. In the midst of the excitement, a royal 
 ordinance appeared, declaring Arazuma a *' creation of sil- 
 ver" {creador deplatd), and appropriating it to the king's 
 use. This put a stop to private enterprise ; and, after 
 the Indian war set in, Arazuma became almost a forgot- 
 ten locality ; and in a generation or two afterward, the 
 accounts of its mineral riches began to be discredited. 
 
 We have the following record in evidence of the mass- 
 es of silver extracted at Arazuma. Don Domingo As- 
 mendi paid duties on a piece of virgin silver which weigh- 
 ed 275 lbs. The king's attorney {fiscal) brought suit 
 for the duties on several other pieces, which together 
 weighed 4033 lbs. Also for the recovery, as a curiosity, 
 and therefore the property of the king, of a certain piece 
 of silver of the weight of 2700 lbs. This is probably the 
 largest piece of pure silver ever found in the world, and
 
 388 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 yet it was discovered only a few miles distant from the 
 contemplated track of our Pacific Railroad. 
 
 I might continue enumerating the instances of min- 
 eral wealth brought to light in these two states, Sonora 
 and Chihuahua, if I supposed it would be interesting to 
 my readers ; but as they have heard enough of silver, I 
 may add that rich deposits of gold were found at Molat- 
 to in 1806, and a still greater discovery of gold was 
 made a few years ago. In this latter discovery, the poor 
 diggers suffered so much from thirst that a dollar was 
 readily paid for a single bucket of water, and at length, 
 by reason of 'the drought, this rich placer had to be 
 abandoned. 
 
 Such is Sonora, a region of country which combines 
 the rare attractions of the richest silver mines in the 
 world, lying in the midst of the finest agricultural dis- 
 tricts, and where the climate is as attractive as its min- 
 eral riches. But its richest mineral district is near its 
 northern frontier, and is almost inaccessible, and can nev- 
 er be advantageously worked without an abundant sup- 
 ply of mineral coal for smelting ; nor can any of its mines 
 or estates be successfully worked without gi-eater secur- 
 ity for life and property than at present exists. The 
 capitalists of Mexico will not invest their means in de- 
 veloping the resources of Sonora, and in consequence, 
 the finest country in the world is fast receding to a state 
 of nature. I found in the Palace at jMexico a copy of 
 the last report of the Governor of Sonora upon the state 
 of his Department, in which he mentions, among many 
 other causes of its decadence during the last few years, 
 the extensive emigration of its laboring population to 
 California. 
 
 Extravagant as are these statements of the mineral 
 riches of Sonora, they probably do not come up to the 
 reality, as the largest of them are founded on the sums
 
 FUTURE OF SONOKA. 389 
 
 reported for taxation at the distant city of Mexico, when 
 it was notorious, as already stated, that a large portion 
 of the silver was fraudulently concealed in order to avoid 
 the taxes. Such concealment could be successfully car- 
 ried on in a region so distant and inaccessible as Sonora 
 was in the time of Philip V., for it was in the reign of 
 that idiot king, before the liberal mining-ordinances of 
 Carlos III., that the Sonora mining-fever broke out. 
 
 A hundred years have passed since the once formidable 
 Apaches swept over northern Sonora like a deluge, blot- 
 ting out forever the hopes which the Spanish court had 
 conceived of retrieving the fallen finances of their em- 
 pire from this El Dorado. But Providence had ordered 
 it otherwise. The Spaniards had done enough to dem- 
 onstrate its inexhaustible wealth, and then they were 
 driven away from this " creation of silver,"* and the whole 
 deposit held for a hundred years in reserve for the uses 
 of another race, who were destined to overrun the conti- 
 nent. 
 
 I should have but half performed my task should I 
 omit to speak of the excellent bay and harbor of Guay- 
 mas, in the southern part of Sonora. After San Fran- 
 cisco, it is the finest harbor on the Pacific, and is the nat- 
 ural route through which our commerce with tlie East 
 Indies should be directed. The long experience of Spain 
 taught her that a western route to the East Indies was so 
 much superior to the one by the Cape of Good Hope as 
 to compensate for a transhipment of all of her East In- 
 dia merchandise upon mules' backs firom Acapulco to 
 Vera Cruz. Much more advantageous must it be to us, 
 when a railroad from El Paso, passing through the midst 
 
 * I do not kno-w exactly how to translate the Spanish idea attached 
 to the words creador de plata unless by saying that it is a spot where ba- 
 ser substances are supposed to be converted into silver by some unknown 
 process of nature.
 
 390 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 
 
 of the silver district I have described, shall transfer our 
 commerce with Japan and China to the Pacific side of 
 our continent. Here the very silver necessary for the 
 purchase of tea is nearly as abundant as tin in some of 
 the European mines, and, as in California, the prospects 
 held out to the farmer are equal to mineral attractions. 
 
 It would be folly for our government to acquire So- 
 nora without first providing for connecting it with our 
 country by railroad, and equally foolish to acquire it 
 without making provision, in the treaty of acquisition, 
 for reducing all land-titles to the size of a single town- 
 ship, in consideration for the superior value given to the 
 property by the annexation, and for annulling all land- 
 titles under which there is not an actual occupancy. 
 The Spanish courts concede to government this power 
 over private rights, and for this reason a treaty of acqui- 
 sition from ^Mexico would prevent the confusion that now 
 exists in California, and enable American settlers to lo- 
 cate understandingly at once. All titles should con- 
 tinue to be subject, as they now are, to the right of the 
 miner to enter in search of precious metals, thus no con- 
 flicts in relation to the rights of land-owners and miners 
 could arise. The principle on which the ]\Iexican min- 
 ing laws and the California mining customs are estab- 
 lished should be recognized by the United States. But 
 that right of entry would not arise until the construction 
 of a railroad should afford the means of actually reduc- 
 ing the country to possession, which Spain never has ac- 
 complished, and Mexico never can accomplish.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 MINERIA REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF SONORA. 
 
 Among the five-and-twenty states and territories that 
 compose the Mexican confederation, there is no other which 
 contains in its respective territory the like wonderful min- 
 eral riches which abound in the state of which we treat. 
 This would appear almost fabulous ; but there is proof 
 enough from the testimony of many residents of that state, 
 and from the assertion of travelers, from the evidences 
 which the archives of the various missions exhibit, and from 
 the royal registry of mines (reales de minas), and, lastly, from 
 the indubitable fact of the production of great quantities of 
 gold and silver from the mines and placers of this state, con- 
 sidering the small amount of forces, and its isolation from 
 all the principal settlements of the republic by reason of the 
 distance which separates it from them. 
 
 In fact, many metals of universal estimation, such as gold, 
 silver, mercury, copper, and iron, in a pure state, in grains, 
 in masses, or in dust, as well as mixed with other metals, 
 superficially or in veins, are found in the extensive territory 
 of Sonora ; lead, or combinations of lead, for aiding in ex- 
 tracting metals by fire, and for the construction of munitions 
 of war, amianthus or incombustible crystal, divers ores of 
 copperas, exquisite marble, alabaster, and jasper of various 
 colors, as well as quarries of stone of chrispa and magnetic 
 stones, muriate and carbonate of soda, saltpetre or nitrate of 
 potassa, are, in enumeration, the mineral productions which 
 are found in abundance in the territory of the state of So-
 
 392 APPENDIX. 
 
 nora, which comprehends the region from the river of Fort 
 Monte Clarasal at the south to the Gila at the north, and 
 from the Sierra Madre at the east to the Colorado at the 
 northwest. 
 
 To the disgrace of the nation, these authentic and exact 
 notices of the marvelous riches of this remote state have 
 availed nothing in determining speculators {empresarios) to 
 resort to those places in pursuit of a fortune so certain, or at 
 least to have avoided, by the means of colonization, the loss 
 which iz feared of this inestimable jewel. 
 
 The territory of the state of Sonora lacks nothing but se- 
 curity [from incursions of Indians] in order that the hand of 
 man may be profusely recompensed for his labor. Virgin 
 soils, where the agricultural fruits of all climates not only 
 flourish, but many of these improve in quality; navigable 
 rivers, which contribute in part to the easy transportation of 
 the products to the ports of the Pacific for exportation and 
 consumption; mines andi placers of precious metals, in many 
 of which there is no necessity of capital to explore and col- 
 lect them — are not these stimulants enough to attract there 
 a population thrifty and civilized ? In order to ascertain 
 the mineral riches which the nation may lose in a short 
 time, we call attention to the mineral statistics which follow, 
 although they are imperfect and diminutive. 
 
 As already we have said, the whole of Sonora is mineral; 
 but as among us we only give this name to those places in 
 which there have been discovered and worked a conjunction 
 of veins, it results that the places in this state to which for 
 this cause has been given the name of mineral are thirty- 
 four. Some of the mines are amparadas [viz., worked suffi- 
 cient to confer a legal title to the occupant], and are imper- 
 fectly in a state of operation. The names of all of these two 
 classes, which are sixteen in all, are Hermosillo, San Javier, 
 Subiate, Vayoreca, Alamas, Babicanara, Batuco, La Alame- 
 da, Rio Chico, El Aguaja, Aigame, El Luaque, Saguaripa, 
 La Trinidad, San Antonio, and El Zoni. 
 
 The remaining eighteen are found abandoned, some for 
 the want of water, and others for the want of laborers or
 
 APPENDIX. 393 
 
 capital, and by the fear which the barbarous Indians in- 
 spire. The names of these last minerals are San Juan de 
 Sonora, that of the Sierra at the northwest of Guaymas, Ari- 
 zuma, Bacauchi, Antunes, San Jose de Gracia, El Gavilau, 
 San Ildefonso de la Cienequilla, San Francisco el Calou, 
 Santa Rosa, San Antonio de la Huenta, Vadoseco Sobia, Mu- 
 latos, Basura, Alamo-Muerto, and San Perfecto. 
 
 In the same state have been discovered twenty-one pla- 
 cers ; of these, one is of virgin silver, in grains and plates 
 (planchas), and twenty of pure gold, in grains and dust ; but 
 as nearly all these are situated in the mineral districts {min- 
 erales) already mentioned, the names of those which are not 
 given are the following : Agua Caliente, Gluitovac, Las Pa- 
 lomas. La Canaca, and Totahiqui. With the exception of 
 three, to which gold-hunters from time to time resort to re- 
 lieve their necessities, all the others remain abandoned. 
 
 There was only one mineral district actually in work at 
 the close of the last century and the beginning of the pres- 
 ent ; those now actually in process of being worked are 
 fourteen, and their names are La Grande, La tluintera, El 
 Subiate, Bulbaucda Europita, Vayoreca, La Cetera, Santo Do- 
 mingo, Noercheran, La Sibertao, Minas-Nuevas, El Tajo, 
 Minas Prietas, and another near La Grande. 
 
 From the mineral districts (minerales) abandoned there 
 ought to be inferred an increased number of mines, which 
 are in the same condition, but we do not know their names, 
 and we have only notices of the twenty following : Pimas, 
 La Tarasca, Ubalama, Ojito de San Roman, Yaquis, La 
 Guerita, Noaguila, Las Animas, Afuerenos, Piedras-verdes 
 Navares, La Calera, Caugrejos, Guillarmena, San Atilano, 
 San Teodoro, and El Gavilau. In those in Pinas, and in one 
 of those of the mineral of San Jose de Gracia, have been 
 found considerable amounts of pure silver deposited in their 
 veins, and mineral taken from San Teodoro has produced 
 one half silver. In extracting the silver from the ore in this 
 place, we ought to mention that the greater part of these 
 mines are susceptible of great bonanzas, from not having 
 been worked extensively, as their proprietors abandoned 
 
 R2
 
 394 APPENDIX. 
 
 them when the metals failed to appear upon the surface, 
 and when the exploration was a little more costly. 
 
 There are eleven haciendas in the State of Sonora for pu- 
 rifying the metals which the mines and placers produce, 
 without taking into the account many little establishments, 
 with from two to five horse-mills, with one bad furnace for 
 the fusion of metals. Three of these are situated in Alamas, 
 five in Aduana, one in Promontorio, another in Tatagiosa, 
 and the last in Minas Nuevas (iS^ew Mines). There are 
 many abandoned mines, as the rubbish and ruins indicate, 
 which we have noticed, in all the abandoned mineral dis- 
 tricts. 
 
 The methods which they have observed in extracting the 
 metals from the ore are the patio [by application of quick- 
 silver in an open yard], and that of fusion, with the aid of 
 some metals that assist the fusion ; but from the fact that 
 the quicksilver augments considerably the price, the few that 
 there carry on the business have preferred the process of fu- 
 sion to that of the patio, from being less costly, and because 
 the docility of the metals afford facilities to this process. 
 
 No machines of new invention have been introduced into 
 that state, either for the drainage of the mines or for facili- 
 tating the extracting of the metals. This ought not to sur- 
 prise us, in places so desert and distant from the metropolis, 
 unaccustomed to the vivifying movements of commerce, and 
 to the necessities which civilization has engendered in the 
 more important populations in the central parts of the re- 
 public. That which is rare, and ought to call attention, is 
 the exception of some mines, where malacatos [water-sacks 
 of bull-hides, drawn up by a windlass] are used for dis- 
 charging water. In almost all those which have thus been 
 worked, they have not had an opportunity to exhibit their 
 riches, as the abundance of water in many of them was 
 the principal cause of their abandonment. 
 
 The greatest difficulty in the way of giving an exact idea 
 of the products of the mines and placers of Sonora is the 
 scandalous contraband exportations of gold and silver which 
 are made from the ports of the Sea of Corte'z [Gulf of Call-
 
 APPENDIX. 395 
 
 fornia] on the one hand, and, on the other, the difficulties that 
 have presented themselves to his Excellency, the Governor 
 of that state, for giving the statistical notices which have 
 been sought on repeated occasions by the Junta of the Mi- 
 neria, both of which causes have made difficult the account 
 which we furnish ; but by those which they themselves fur- 
 nished of the production of those minerals before and since 
 the independence of the nation, and by the exhibits of vari- 
 ous witnesses presented in the remission of bars which from 
 thence they made to the capital of the republic, when the 
 ports of the Pacific were sealed to foreign commerce, the 
 production of precious metals having yielded in divers epochs 
 not far from 4500 pounds of silver, without considering the 
 gold (abundant enough in placers and in rivers), and from 
 what is known, the quantities of this metal extracted have 
 been considerable, and in more abundance than in the min- 
 eral districts of the other states of the republic. 
 
 Attention having been much called to the ley and weight 
 of the grains of pure gold found on the surface in Cluitovac, 
 Cienequilla, and San Francisco, as well as those masses of 
 virgin silver found in Arizuma, which wonderful riches stim- 
 ulated the colonial government to despoil the proprietors of 
 it, and afterward the King of Spain, in declaring that it per- 
 tained to his royal patrimony. 
 
 All those places in Sonora which are actually abandoned, 
 as well as all the lands of that state, are susceptible of pro- 
 ducing great riches. The reasons on which these assertions 
 are founded are those which M. Saint Clair Duport mentions 
 in speaking of the probable variation there will be in value 
 of gold and silver in time, by reason of the great extractions 
 hereafter of these metals, particularly in California [this was 
 before the annexation of California] and Sonora, where, as 
 in the Ural Mountains, and the Altai Mountains of Central 
 Asia, gold is extremely abundant, and because in the placers 
 mentioned explorers have recognized gold in dust, which 
 they have not washed for want of water in some, and from 
 the difficulty that exists in others in order to work them, 
 such as those of Arizuma and La Papagueria.
 
 396 APPENDIX. 
 
 Nothing could be said in relation to the number of opera- 
 tives who are employed in working the mines of this state, 
 nor the day-laborers ; nor in respect to articles consumed 
 there, as well in the digging of the metals as in extracting 
 them from the ores, because, as has already been said, his 
 Excellency the Governor has not been able to give the no- 
 tices which have been sought, and there are no other better 
 authorities through whom information can be procured. For 
 in this state there are no mining courts,* but the ordinary 
 judges of first instance are the authorities which take cog- 
 nizance of matters which occur in the department of the 
 Mineria. 
 
 There are no companies for the exploration of the mines 
 in that remote state. Some inhabitants, in distant periods, 
 have procured the formation of numerous caravans with the 
 character of companies, and with the object of collecting 
 precious metals, which they encountered in the placers of 
 Arizuma and of Papagueria, but until now they have not 
 been able to hold with effect undertakings so laudable. 
 
 Various are the causes on account of which the riches 
 which lie buried through all parts of the immense territory 
 of the State of Sonora have not been explored. Some of 
 these reasons have already been referred to, but, for greater 
 clearness, we take this opportunity to recapitulate them all. 
 The first, which are much noted, are the following : 
 
 1st. The absolute want of personal security. 
 
 2d. The scarcity of population, and of the means of sub- 
 sistence for the few hands that they were able to have de- 
 voted to working mines in the immediate vicinity of hostile 
 Indians. 
 
 3d. The irregularity and the want of experience and cap- 
 ital in those who have undertaken the exploration and the 
 extraction of metals, which has occasioned the abandonment 
 
 * The title to all mines in Mexico rests solely upon discovery and 
 improvement, without any regard to the proprietorship to the land on 
 ■which the mines are located ; but the proof of discovery and improve- 
 ment must be made and recorded in the mineral courts, except in So- 
 nera, where the ordinary courts have jurisdiction.
 
 APPENDIX. 397 
 
 of this class of speculations whenever they presented any 
 difficulties, or commenced to be more costly by failing to pro- 
 duce metals upon the surface of the earth. Some certain 
 speculations which have been directed with regard to the 
 rules which regulate mineral industry, and have been pros- 
 ecuted with capital, have well compensated the labors and 
 efforts of the proprietors. 
 
 Gold and silver, as above said, are not the only mineral 
 productions of Sonora. In the part of Muchachos, situated 
 in the Sierra Madre, between Tueson and Tubac, and in Mo- 
 gollon, a place situated in the mountains of Apuchuria, in 
 those of Papagueria, and near the Colorado, are found great 
 masses of virgin iron, and abundant veins of the same metal. 
 Cinnabar was discovered in 1802 in the hill of Santa Te- 
 resa, situated in the mineral of Rio Chico ; and in the hills 
 which are at the north of the Colorado, it has been found in 
 the past age. Copper is also found in Antunes, Tonuco, 
 Bacauchi, Pozo de Crisante, Sierra de Guadalupe, Sierra de 
 la Papagueria, and particularly in the Couanea, from whence 
 have been extracted great quantities of this metal, with a 
 great ley of gold. Metals of lead (metales plomosos) abound in 
 Agua Caliente, Alamo-Muerto, La Papagueria, Arispe, and La 
 Cieneguilla. From these two last points have been taken 
 considerable quantities of them, for supplying all other 
 mines of the state [to aid in fusion], and for munitions of 
 war. Copperas, or sulphate of iron, is abundant in San Ja- 
 vier, San Antonio de la Huerta, and Agua Caliente. In the 
 first of these placers a vein runs from south to north, from 
 pieces of which, dissolved in water, there results a tint 
 which, by evaporation, forms into grains, and produces the 
 same effect as the tint of China. In Cucurpe is amianto, or 
 incombustible crystal, which the ancients so much valued. 
 Marbles of various classes and colors, as well as alabasters 
 and jaspers, are found in Opasura, Hermosillo, Uores, La 
 Campana, and other points ; but we do not know as yet the 
 place from which the Aztecs obtained the beautiful reddish 
 marble which they used in the construction of their divinity 
 of Chapultepec, which is preserved in the National Museum,
 
 398 APPENDIX. 
 
 and which, according to all conjectures and probabilities, 
 proceeded from the quarries of marble of that state. There 
 are quarries of the stone of chrispa, and even the magnet in 
 Alamas, Hermosillo, in t^ierras of the frontier, and in the 
 causada of Barbitas, ten leagues distant from Hermosillo, 
 near the route of La Cieneguilla. Muriate and carbonate of 
 soda, saltpetre, or nitrate of potassa, are found in the margin 
 of the rivers which empty into the Gulf of Corte'z [of Cali- 
 fornia], and particularly in the mouths of the Colorado. 
 
 B. 
 
 REPORT OX THE MINERAL RICHES OF CHIHUAHUA. 
 
 The statistical notices which have until to-day been re- 
 ceived, embrace five cantons or departments of that state, 
 which show that there exist in it sixteen minerals [districts 
 containing mines], of which twelve are in working, and four 
 abandoned in consequence of the incessant incursions of bar- 
 barous Indians. Their names are Hidalgo del Parral, Minas 
 Nuevas, San Francisco del Oro, Santa Barbara, Zopago, Chi- 
 nipas, Guazapores, Batozegache, Guadalupe y Calvo, Cuaco- 
 gornichie, Galeana, Cosihuiriachic, Santa Eulalia, Barranco, 
 and two more, without names, in the^ canton Caleana. 
 
 Twenty-one mines are found in operation in the twelve 
 minerals in action. The number of those abandoned is in- 
 creasing, and is not permanent ; and the only cause referred 
 to is that many of them are abandoned for want of capital, 
 and others from the hostility of the barbarians. The pro- 
 ducts of those that were worked in the year 1849 amount 
 to 146,818 marks of silver, of a ley of eleven dineros, and 7 
 marks, 7 oz., and 4 eighths of gold to the twenty-two quintals. 
 The number of haciendas and furnaces for extracting the 
 metal from the ore was twenty, and the processes which 
 they use in that state are the patw and the furnace ; the last 
 is the most general. Finally, there has been put in practice 
 a third system, by the house of Manning and M'Intosh, for
 
 APPENDIX. 399 
 
 the purpose of separating the silver by means of the precip- 
 itate of copper. The consumptions of the last year, 1849, 
 amount to $544,194, notwithstanding which the notices omit 
 the returns of various mines, haciendas, furnaces, and water- 
 mills. The items are quicksilver at $140 a hundred, gun- 
 powder, lime, wood, sulphate of copper, salt, iron, steel, metals 
 of aid [metals thrown into the compound to aid the process 
 of extracting], tallow, grease, hides, leather, corn, straw, grain, 
 flesh, beans, and bars of iron. The number of opeiatives is 
 not known with exactness, because the reports only refer to 
 certain mines and haciendas, but in these they amount to 
 1833, besides day-laborers at five reals (4ths of a dollar) a day 
 for half the time. The most important improvements that 
 have been introduced into some of these mines consist in 
 the establishment of pumps for facilitating draining, and in 
 the introduction of German ovens for fusing a greater quan- 
 tity of mineral at a less cost and with greater perfection, 
 being so much the more interesting as the condition of the 
 metals presents itself more easily to this kind of benefiting. 
 
 Four companies have been established for prosecuting the 
 labor of the mines, Preseiia, Rosario, Tajo, and Prieta. The 
 first takes its name from Sehor Delille, the second is com- 
 posed of Mexicans, and the last two are composed of Mexi- 
 cans, English, and naturalized Spaniards. Nothing is known 
 in relation to their capitals. Besides the precious metals, 
 we find lead in Naica and Babisas, of the canton of Mata- 
 moros ; copper, from which only magistral is taken, is found 
 in the canton of Mina, and sulphur and saltpetre in the canton 
 of Iturbide.. The reports mention nothing in respect to the 
 authorities that take cognizance of the afikirs of the Mineria ; 
 but it is presumed that, as in the rest of the nation, the 
 judges of first instance take knowledge of controversies, and 
 the courts of mines, if by chance they are established, take 
 cognizance of the economy and government of the mines. 
 
 The mint of Guadalupe and Calvo coined in 1848, $720,765, 
 and in 1849, $665,225, of which two sums $1,027,130 were 
 of silver, and $355,859 in gold, the whole being the proceeds 
 of 116,015 marks, 1 oz., and 4 eighths of silver, of the ley of
 
 400 APPENDIX. 
 
 eleven dineros, and of 2351 marks, 5 oz.,2 eighths of gold, 
 with ley of twenty-two carats. This appears from the re- 
 ports of the mint of the capital of that state. 
 
 c. 
 
 REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF COAHUILA. 
 
 This state, one of the least populous, and exposed, like all 
 the frontier states of the north, to the incessant incursions 
 of the barbarous tribes, oflers at present very little inter- 
 est to those speculations which engender the exercise of 
 mineral industry — that which, besides experience and cap- 
 ital, requires for its development an abundance of hands and 
 entire security. While the publication of the mineral sta- 
 tistics of the nation not only brings the idea of manifesting 
 the present condition of this branch of industry among us, 
 but also that of propagating its exercise as one of the prin- 
 cipal elements of riches among the Mexicans, it is necessary 
 to speak of the state in which the Mineria is in Coahuila, 
 and of hopes which it makes to spring up for the future. 
 There are twelve mines actually amparadas, or in labor, in 
 the four minerals already mentioned : their names are un- 
 known to us, and it is only ^nown that their monthly prod- 
 ucts amount to 200 marks [of 8 ounces] of silver and 150 
 loads o{ greta [litharge]. The number of operatives employ- 
 ed in all these amount to 193, and the day laborers receive 
 four reals [half a dollar] a day. 
 
 There is no exact notice of the number of- mineral dis- 
 tricts and single mines abandoned in the State of Coahuila ; 
 but the number is considerable, according to the informa- 
 tion furnished from 1843 by the deputation of Santa Rosa. 
 Among those deserving a particular mention is that of the 
 Sierra de Timulco and that of Potrerillos, by the good ley of 
 the metals of the mines of the first, and by the uniformity 
 of the veins and not unappreciable richness of the second. 
 These veins run generally from northwest to southeast, and 
 in the course they encounter, scattered about, silver-bearing
 
 APPENDIX. 401 
 
 galena [sulphuret of lead], lead, copper, with sulphuret of 
 zinc. The amount of the consumptions of the mines that 
 are worked is also unknoiM|; but it is known that the gun- 
 powder costs the operators $9 an aroba [of 25 pounds], of 
 lead, $12 a carga of 300 pounds; that o{ greta, $6; cop- 
 per, of superior quality, $16 the hundred weight; the car- 
 ga of coal, six reals [three fourths of a dollar], and wood, 
 one real a mule-load. The ruins and the heaps of rubbish 
 manifest that in other times there was much activity in 
 the labor of the mines and haciendas for separating the 
 metals ; but to-day there are only in existence some fur- 
 naces, which are the least costly, which the miners of Coa- 
 huila can use for their metals. This they effect generally 
 in ovens, and in galemes in the open plain. But this meth- 
 od of separating the metals, which Coahuilans have been 
 necessitated to adopt as the least expensive, until quicksil- 
 ver has notably fallen in price, has not remained stationary, 
 as in other parts of the republic. These simple inhabitants 
 have succeeded, by the force of experiments, in obtaining as 
 a result the power of fusing 25 cargas [of 300 pounds] of 
 metal, with the aggregation of 18 cargas of greta^ in only 
 one furnace and in the space of twenty-four hours, by con- 
 suming only 45 pounds of coal for each carga of metal. 
 
 There are three companies in that state for working the 
 mines in the mineral district of Ramirez, and another in 
 that of Trinudco. There is no notice of the amount of funds 
 employed, but it is presumed that they are not considerable, 
 by considering the smallness of the fortunes of the inhabit- 
 ants of the frontier. 
 
 In government and economy of mines the Assembly of 
 Mineria of the valley of Santa Rosa have jurisdiction, but 
 in litigations the judges of first instance have jurisdiction, 
 to whom a particular law of this state gives authority. 
 
 In Coahuila, besides silver, there is found virgin iron in 
 masses of considerable volume and of extraordinary value 
 in the Sierra of Mercudo, in Guadalupe, and other points. 
 
 There is copper in Putula or Rios and in Guadalupe, In 
 these mineral districts we also encounter lead. Amianto
 
 402 APPENDIX. 
 
 (incombustible crystal) also abounds in Niezca and in the 
 vicinity of Monclova, as also nitre in San Bias, jurisdiction 
 of San Buenaventura. In the J^ls of Gizedo, correspond- 
 ent to the district of Santa Rosl^are extracted sulphur and 
 copperas. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain and to mention aU the causes 
 which have led to the decadence of the mineral industry of 
 this state, because the reports which the authorities have 
 remitted do not state it exactly ; but there is no doubt that 
 they are two, viz., the want of security occasioned by the 
 frequent incursions of the barbarians, and the little affec- 
 tion which the agricultural people that occupy that state 
 have for mining enterprises ; that, as already said, they re- 
 quire recognizances, as well as capital and hands, things 
 which are scarce enough in the vast territory of the frontier 
 state of Coahuila. 
 
 D. 
 
 REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA. 
 
 The sparse population of this territor}' , the want of scien- 
 tific information in its inhabitants, and the difficulties which 
 have existed in the way of keeping up an intercourse with 
 their fellow-citizens of the centre of the republic, are causes 
 weighty enough for explaining the ignorance in which we 
 live concerning the mineral riches of that interesting penin- 
 sula. AVithout doubt, if we are permitted to judge of it from 
 the abundance of the precious metals which California of 
 the North and Sonora contain, and their contiguities, we 
 ought to infer that in the territory of Southern California 
 the designated metals should be found in considerable quan- 
 tities. The official notices which we possess in respect 
 to Lower California fortify this conjecture. Those exhib- 
 ited by persons who lack competent instruction upon this 
 point contribute in part to foretell what will be the grade of 
 prosperity which will come in time with the developing of 
 the mineral industry in this territory.
 
 APPENDIX. 403 
 
 Southern California, by its topographical position alone, 
 is called to occupy an important place, not only among the 
 integral parts of the nation, but even among foreign parts 
 of America which are bounded by the Pacific. If its first 
 necessity is attended to, with the augmentation of popula- 
 tion commerce will come to give it the consequent move- 
 ment and animation, and the Mineria will come to complete 
 the circle of its prosperity ; so that it is now difficult to per- 
 ceive the grand importance, commercial and political, which 
 this despised peninsula, which is called Lower California, 
 will yet attain when the transition of time and the sequel 
 of events come to realize these Utopian offspring of a patri- 
 otic sentiment ; but we will occupy ourselves with the sta- 
 tistical mineral notices of that territory. 
 
 There are nine mineral districts (minerales) which are now 
 recognized in California : their names are San Antonio, Zule, 
 Santa Anna, Muleje, Triumpho, Las Virgenes, El Valle Per- 
 dido, Los Flores, Cuecuhilas. There is a range traversing 
 from north to south for the space of forty leagues in that 
 territory, which contains also a multitude of veins which 
 have not been explored. In all these minerals abound, but 
 the irregular and inconstant labor of some of the mines does 
 not permit us to consider them as in action. 
 
 Explorations of some mines of gold and silver have been 
 made in California, but they remain in the same state with 
 the other minerales. One and another have been worked 
 superficially, but their possessors abandoned them when 
 they presented any obstacle, which made the working more 
 costly, so that it is no exaggeration to say they all are now 
 abandoned. In a country almost a wilderness (desterto)^ 
 where the want of conveniences in exploration of the mines 
 failed to engender the stimulus of acquiring and preserving 
 the proprietorship of the discoveries,* and where, with the 
 same facility with which they abandon one known vein, they 
 
 * The proprietorship of mines in Mexico is acquired by proof being 
 made to the mining court of discovery and actual working ; and is again 
 lost by an abandonment of four months ; there is no other source of 
 title to mineral lands.
 
 404 APPENDIX. 
 
 proceed to work another new vein — in a country where the 
 great part of the inhabitants might well be considered as 
 tribes that have only reached the first grades of civilization, 
 rather than organized societies, it is not strange that there 
 is a want of mineral recognizances where only the mines 
 at which the metals are easily procured, and not costly in 
 extracting from the ore, are worked. 
 
 Is otwithstanding that which has been said, there are va- 
 rious residents of the mineral districts referred to that ex- 
 tract gold and silver sufficient to cover their commercial 
 transactions, to pay their laborers and the salaries of their 
 operatives, to procure certain necessaries, and to enjoy cer- 
 tain luxuries which many of their fellow-citizens do not en- 
 joy. To ascertain to what value these extractions of met- 
 als ascend is extremely difficult for the want of data with 
 which to aid any calculation. 
 
 The benefiting (extracting the metals from the ores) is no 
 less imperfectly done than the labor of the mines. There 
 are no haciendas for benefiting ; many persons that engage 
 themselves in mining speculations have in that territory 
 one, two, and even five horse-mills, with which they grind 
 the metal ; this they mix with quicksilver and salt — imitat- 
 ing the process by the patio — in proportion of 50 pounds of 
 the first and 75 of the second to 625 (25 arobas) of metal, 
 and, proceeding by means of fusion in bad ovens, they obtain 
 silver. Some others obtain it by means of vases of refining 
 with the aid of lead. 
 
 The consumptions of the Californians in the extraction of 
 the precious metals consist of quicksilver, salt, and wood; 
 the first they have purchased in the last years at two dol- 
 lars a pound, the second at thirty-seven and a half cents for 
 twenty-five pounds, and the third at a quarter of a dollar a 
 mule-load. It is to be presumed that when the quicksilver 
 of i!sorthern California comes to compete with the quicksilver 
 of Spain in the mineral districts of the interior* of the re- 
 public, the price of this principal element for conducting the 
 working of mines will fall greatly in all the nation, and that 
 * This term is applied to all places distant from the capitaL
 
 APPENDIX. 406 
 
 the Mineria will assume a grade of prosperity never yet seen 
 in our country ; and Lower California, by its proximity to 
 the places of the production of mercury, will obtain it, with- 
 out doubt, at a still lower price. The day-laborers, who work 
 the mines of this territory, receive for their labor from sev- 
 enty-five cents to one dollar ; but there is not a fixed num- 
 ber, neither is their occupation constant. 
 
 It is not necessary to speak of the existence of companies 
 for exploring mines in a country where there is such a scar- 
 city of population, and where there is not an accumulation 
 of capital sufficient in order that a part of it might be em- 
 ployed in the hazardous enterprises of mineral industry. 
 The judges of first instance are the authorities that in Low- 
 er California take cognizance of all accounts concerning the 
 afiairs of mines [a la Mineria). 
 
 In the river which passes by Muleje and Gallinas, the in- 
 habitants of those places collect the sands, from which they 
 obtain small quantities of gold in dust. In another placer, 
 which embraces an extension of seven leagues, they also ex- 
 tract some gold in dust in quantities as insignificant as those 
 which result from the sands of the river mentioned. 
 
 Silver and gold are the only metals that have claimed the 
 attention of the Californians, because they derive an advant- 
 age from their extraction, and not because there do not ex- 
 ist other metals less valuable, but which yield proportiona- 
 bly greater profit to the miners that undertake the explora- 
 tion ; these are lead, copper, iron, magistral, crystal of Roca, 
 loadstone, and alum. 
 
 E. 
 
 THE REMAINS OF CORTEZ. 
 
 The account of the disposition of the remains of Cortez, 
 given on page 279, is the one commonly received, and con- 
 tained in works of standard authority. Since this volume 
 was placed in the hands of the printers, I have received a 
 new number of the Apuentes Historicos^ which contains an-
 
 406 APPENDIX. 
 
 other account, which is undoubtedly the true one. Accord- 
 ing to this, when the body of Cortez was first brought to 
 America, it was taken to Tezcuco, and buried at the San 
 Franciscan convent, beside that of his friend, King Don Fer- 
 nando. In the course of the following century it was taken 
 to Mexico and buried in the convent of the Jesuits (the Pro- 
 for is probably intended). After the Revolution, it was 
 transported to Sicily by the agent of his descendant, the 
 present " Marquis of the Valley." 
 
 1 
 
 THE END.
 
 ^^
 
 Date Due 
 
 NOV 16 71 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 f*^ CAT. NO. 23 233 PRINTED IN U.S.A. 
 
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