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diff --git a/79021-0.txt b/79021-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed4e3cd --- /dev/null +++ b/79021-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6489 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79021 *** + + + + + MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA + + + + + _TRAVELS IN MANY LANDS_ + + +A series of Geographical Readers for Intermediate Grades, written by +Harry A. Franck and published by F. A. Owen Publishing Company: + + THE JAPANESE EMPIRE + CHINA + MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA + _Others in preparation_ + + * * * * * + +Books by Mr. Franck published by The Century Company, New York: + + A Vagabond Journey Around the World + + Four Months Afoot in Spain + + Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras + + Zone Policeman 88 + + Vagabonding Down the Andes + + Working North from Patagonia + + Vagabonding Through Changing Germany + + Roaming Through the West Indies + + Glimpses of Japan and Formosa + + Wandering in Northern China + + Roving Through Southern China + + East of Siam (French Indo-China) + + + + + _TRAVELS IN MANY LANDS_ + + MEXICO _and_ + CENTRAL AMERICA + A Geographical Reader + + + BY + HARRY A. FRANCK + + WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS, MANY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR + + + F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY + DANSVILLE, NEW YORK + + + COPYRIGHT 1927 + F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY + + _Travels in Many Lands—Mexico and Central America_ + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + PUBLISHERS’ FOREWORD + + +The very best way to give boys and girls a clear idea of just what life +is to their brothers and sisters of other lands is to take them through +those lands. If they cannot go in person (and of course few can), a +well-written story of travel will be a valuable substitute for personal +experience. + +To be of educational value to the reader, a book of travel must first of +all be authentic. It must have been written by one who knows at first +hand the things about which he writes. A superficial knowledge gained by +flitting through a country along its main traveled routes is not +sufficient to enable a writer to tell a complete story about it. + +Among the notable travelers of our time, probably none has more +thoroughly covered many countries than Harry A. Franck, the author of +this book. His travels have not been mere sight-seeing tours. He has +gone into the out-of-the-way places and lived in the homes of the common +people, to study their habits and manner of living. He has visited their +temples and schools. He has learned something of their language and +talked with them on all manner of subjects so as to become familiar with +their views of life. + +From boyhood, Harry Franck had a desire to know about the great outside +world. In 1900, during his first summer vacation while attending the +University of Michigan, he set out, with only $3.18 in his pocket, to +see something of Europe. He worked his way across the ocean on a +cattle-boat, visited the principal cities of England, then Paris and the +Exposition that was being held there. He signed as an able seaman for +the return trip and reached Ann Arbor for the fall term, only two weeks +late. + +Mr. Franck worked his way through college and intended to make teaching +his profession, but that first European trip gave him an appetite for +more travel. When he was graduated, he started out, with only enough +money to buy supplies for his camera, to work his way around the +world—which he did in sixteen months. After this trip he wrote _A +Vagabond Journey Around the World_, which is regarded as one of the most +remarkable books of the kind ever published. Since then he has written +many other volumes telling of his experiences. During more than twenty +years of travel, Mr. Franck has covered half a hundred countries. He has +journeyed 50,000 miles on foot and at least an equal distance by +primitive native methods. He carries equipment for obtaining the best +possible pictures. Many of the illustrations in this volume are from +photographs taken by him personally. They give intimate and unusual +glimpses of peoples and places. + +_Mexico and Central America_ may be given to children as supplementary +reading with the assurance that it is based on actual facts most +carefully verified. The world to-day is not what it was even a decade +ago. Conditions, customs, the very people themselves have changed; some +greatly, some slightly. A book of this kind, to be really helpful, must +reflect these changes. It is no less true, however, that such a book +should be concerned chiefly with those characteristics and aspects of a +country and its people which have an element of permanence. For this +reason, the perplexing internal problems of the countries visited are, +for the most part, merely touched upon by Mr. Franck. To do more would +be outside the scope of a geographical reader. + +As children read about our Latin-American near neighbors, we feel +confident that they will be impressed with the fact that the people of +the whole world are one great family; that what affects one nation +affects all nations sooner or later, and to a greater or less degree. +Children, like adults, must be led to see that people everywhere have +their virtues and ambitions, their trials and hardships, and that the +misfortune or the prosperity of one country is reflected in other +countries far away. + +Knowledge of these facts should prompt us to work for the peace and +well-being of all peoples, particularly through the channel of our +schools. In this connection, Payson Smith, Commissioner of Education for +Massachusetts, has aptly said: “Education in all lands should lead the +youth to recognize those interests which are common to humankind, to +magnify the virtues which all men hold in common, to minimize those +differences and distinctions which divide, and to interpret the history +of race and nation in those terms that are helpful to world progress as +well as to national self-respect.” + + + + + ACKNOWLEDGMENTS + + + To the Century Company, New York, publishers of Mr. Franck’s _Tramping + Through Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras_, grateful acknowledgment is + made for permission to use certain of the author’s photographs which + first appeared in that volume. The illustrations referred to are on + the following pages of this book: 21, 27, 31, 33, 36, 47, 68, 69, 70, + 74, 76, 79, 84, 85, 86, 96, 103, 105, 110, 111, 137, 156, 165, 166, + 167, 168, 170, 176, 179, 191, 206, 207, 208, 213, 215, 217, 218, 220, + 223. + + For courteous and generous response in providing other illustrations, + we are indebted to the following: Mr. J. M. Bejarano, secretary of the + Mexican Chamber of Commerce of the United States, New York; Mr. C. A. + McIlvaine, executive secretary, The Panama Canal, Canal Zone; United + Fruit Company, Boston; Panama Mail Steamship Company, San Francisco; + Ward Line and Wendell P. Colton Company, New York; Resorts and + Playgrounds of America, New York (publishers of _Picturesque + America_); International Harvester Company of America, Inc., Chicago; + Pan American Union, Washington, D.C. + + The proofs were critically read by Mr. J. M. Bejarano (mentioned + above), Mr. P. K. Reynolds of the United Fruit Company, and Miss Lena + M. Franck, the author’s sister. To all of these appreciation is due. + + + + + Coats of Arms of + Mexico and the Central American Countries + + +[Illustration: + + Guatemala +] + +[Illustration: + + Honduras +] + +[Illustration: + + Salvador +] + +[Illustration: + + Mexico +] + +[Illustration: + + Nicaragua +] + +[Illustration: + + Costa Rica +] + +[Illustration: + + Panama +] + + (Cuts by courtesy of Pan American Union) + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I OUR SOUTHERN NEIGHBORS 11 + II ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER 17 + III TRAVELING AS THE MEXICANS DO 29 + IV SOMETHING OF MEXICO HISTORY 39 + V NORTHWESTERN MEXICO 53 + VI ON THE GREAT TABLE-LAND 64 + VII I GO TO WORK IN A MINE 73 + VIII VARIED PRODUCTS AND HOW THEY ARE SOLD 87 + IX CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE IN MEXICO 95 + X GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH MEXICO CITY 108 + XI RECREATIONS AND SOCIAL LIFE 124 + XII THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT 134 + XIII ROUND ABOUT THE MEXICAN CAPITAL 141 + XIV MY JOURNEY TO THE GULF COAST 151 + XV TROPICAL MEXICO 163 + XVI THROUGH GUATEMALA ON FOOT AND BY RAIL 174 + XVII A CONTRAST IN CIVILIZATIONS 186 + XVIII IN THE DEPTHS OF HONDURAS 200 + XIX A VERY PECULIAR “ROYAL HIGHWAY” 209 + XX INDUSTRIOUS LITTLE SALVADOR; AND BELIZE 224 + XXI NICARAGUA, AND AMERICAN “CO-OPERATION” 233 + XXII COSTA RICA—THE “RICH COAST” 247 + XXIII PANAMA AND THE GREAT CANAL 259 + PRONUNCIATION LIST 283 + + + MAPS + + SPANISH POSSESSIONS AFTER THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 51 + PROPOSED NICARAGUA CANAL ROUTE 239 + RELIEF MAP OF THE PANAMA CANAL 266–267 + PANAMA CANAL AND CANAL ZONE 269 + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Beautiful Mexico City, circled by mountains, as it looks from the + Cathedral clock tower. In the foreground is the National Palace. +] + + + + + MEXICO _and_ + CENTRAL AMERICA + + + + + CHAPTER I + OUR SOUTHERN NEIGHBORS + + +The foreign land nearest to our United States of America is Mexico. +Although most of us live closer to Canada than to Mexico, we hardly +think of the Canadians as foreigners. True, they are citizens of the +British Empire, and do not vote in our elections. But any of you who +have been in Canada know how much it is like home—how very few things +are different at all. + +Mexico, on the other hand, is very foreign indeed. The Mexican people +and their ways, even the Mexican scenery and climate, are as unlike us +and our ways, our scenery and climate, as if they were on the opposite +side of the globe instead of just across a shallow river. Yet close as +it is, and interesting as it would prove to be, most of us know and care +less about Mexico than we do about Europe. A thousand Americans cross +the Atlantic and travel in Europe to one who steps across the Rio Grande +and enjoys visiting our quaint southern neighbors. In school we study a +great deal about European history, but most of us never hear of Mexico +in history class, except in connection with what we call our Mexican +War. + +Surely it is important to know one’s closest neighbors; so I am going to +invite you to come with me on what I think will be an interesting +journey, not only through Mexico but clear down through Central America, +with its half dozen smaller and smaller republics, until we reach our +own people again along the Panama Canal. Some of the traveling will be +rough; sometimes our lodgings will not have all the comforts of home. +But I will do all the walking and coarse eating and hard sleeping for +you, so you can give all your attention to the pleasures of the trip and +bring home a clear knowledge of the people and the land so close to us. + + + Some Things We Should Know First + +Sometimes it is fun to visit a foreign country before we know anything +about it, but in the end it is not the wisest plan to do so. Before we +start it will be worth while to stow away in our knapsacks a few facts +about Mexico and the smaller lands beyond. + +In Mexico we shall be in another _United States_, for the official name +of the country is the “Estados Unidos Mexicanos,” which means the +“United States of Mexico.” If, some day, you go on traveling with me +beyond the Panama Canal, into the great continent of South America, we +shall find still other _United States_. There are twenty-eight states in +Mexico, two territories, and a federal district. The capital is in the +federal district, which is almost surrounded by the _state_ of Mexico. +On the south it is bounded by the state of Morelos. Some people are +surprised that the name Mexico should be given to a city, a state, and a +country. They forget that, for example, part of New York City is in New +York County, and all of it is in New York State. + +Mexico is about two thousand miles long. Its width varies from one +thousand miles, up near the northern border, to a mere 130 miles down at +its “wasp’s waist” of Tehuantepec. It has a coast line of nearly six +thousand miles. You will notice that this is much more than double the +length of the country, and the reason is that the Pacific Ocean all but +surrounds the great peninsula of Lower California, while the peninsula +of Yucatan stretches far out into the Atlantic to help form the Gulf of +Mexico. The country has one large lake. Very few of its many rivers are +navigable. + +Some people like figures, even if they are very large ones. For them we +may say that Mexico has nearly 800,000 square miles of territory. +Perhaps most of you, like myself, will get a better idea of its size if +I say that it is almost as large as our five biggest states rolled into +one—Texas, California, Montana, New Mexico, and Arizona. Down in Central +America, however, we shall find that the country of Costa Rica is hardly +as large as Pennsylvania, and that Salvador is no larger than New +Jersey. + +[Illustration: + + Ward Line. Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + Miles away one can see the snow-covered head of Mount Orizaba. +] + +Mexico is a land of mountains. It is really an immense table-land or +plateau, beginning far up in the Rocky Mountains. Ciudad Juárez on the +frontier is more than 3,700 feet above sea level, and within two hours’ +train ride of Mexico City this great plateau is 8,100 feet high. Then it +begins to subside, running down to almost nothing in the Isthmus of +Tehuantepec. We might liken it to a great land wave (with the nation’s +capital just over its crest) topped by many snow-clad peaks as white as +foam. The Sierra Madre, or “Mother Range,” runs the whole length of the +country, as the Rockies do in ours. Besides this main ridge, nearly +everywhere more than 10,000 feet high, there are many cross ridges and +parallel ranges. Of the great peaks, always capped with snow and ice, +Orizaba is over 18,000 feet high, Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, the +“Sleeping White Woman,” are each over 17,000. None of them is as high as +Mt. McKinley in Alaska or the giants of South America. Yet there are +volcanoes in Mexico which, though as lofty as Mt. Whitney (highest point +in the United States proper) are so unimportant, compared to the others, +that we do not even know their names. + +As you may already know, there are about fifteen million people in +Mexico. It would be difficult to take as accurate a census there as is +taken every ten years in the United States. About one-fifth or twenty +per cent of the inhabitants are purely of the white race. Thirty-five +per cent are Indians. The rest, or nearly half the population, are +_mestizos_, that is, mixtures of the Indians with the Spaniards who +conquered them. In one sense North America south of the United States is +not a white man’s country. Yet in another sense it is, for the white +inhabitants do most of the governing and have most of the wealth. The +_pela’os_, or “peeled ones”—those who are very poor and have no real say +in the government—make up about sixty per cent of the population. + + + The Central American Countries + +Central America includes all the countries between the Isthmus of +Tehuantepec and Colombia. Sometimes Mexico also is considered a part of +Central America, which seems reasonable enough, for it is surely a part +of the central portion of land of the western hemisphere. The whole of +this region we are to visit has been likened to a great horn, fastened +to the United States as to a head. The horn—or the imaginary animal that +owns it!—seems to be trying to gore South America with the sharp curved +tip which we call the Isthmus of Panama. + +Central America includes the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, +Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, and the British crown colony of +Belize, often called British Honduras. Except this last, and little +Salvador, all the countries of Central America are like Mexico in +stretching clear across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. +They somewhat resemble a family of children, lined up according to size, +with Mexico as the big brother. We shall see, too, that they have tried +several times to live together as one family, but they do not seem to be +able to do so peaceably. + +Perhaps this is enough to know before we start on our journey. If we +know too much about a country before we visit it, we lose much of the +pleasure of travel. For then there are no more surprises left for us +than there are in a story of which we know the plot. Yet one other +matter should be mentioned before we start—the climate. If you think +that because Mexico is so far south you will need only summer clothing, +you will have many a day of shivering before you reach Panama. Take +along the things you wear at home in late autumn and early spring, and +remember that there will be many days, and especially evenings, when you +will need at least a light overcoat. Most of the time in Mexico we shall +be up on the high table-land, and even in Central America we shall +sometimes be as high above the sea as Denver is. + + + + + CHAPTER II + ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER + + +For Americans, Mexico is easy to reach. If you like an ocean voyage you +can take a steamship from New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, or +almost any of our other large ports. If you prefer to go by land, you +can step into a sleeping-car and be carried all the way to Mexico City. + +Not only Texas, but New Mexico, Arizona, and California border on +Mexico. In fact these last three states are closer to it than Texas is, +for the western half of the boundary—beyond the Rio Grande—is merely an +imaginary line. Along that there is no barrier to cross, though customs +officers and other officials may make you feel that there is. Americans +who are forgetful of their geography often think of the Rio Grande as +forming the entire boundary. + +On the opposite sides of the frontier stand many pairs of towns—like +twins facing each other! The largest border town on the United States +side is El Paso (Texas), which means “The Pass.” It is almost in the +center of the long boundary that stretches from the Pacific to the Gulf +of Mexico, just where the Rio Grande begins to be the dividing line. +There are four bridges between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez across the +river. One of them is used by street cars that run in both countries. +Think of going to a foreign country in a street car! + +[Illustration: + + San Diego & Arizona Ry. + + The market place and church in Juárez, across the Border from El Paso, + Texas. +] + +I first entered Mexico much farther eastward, at Laredo, Texas. I might +have gone across in a train, but I decided that I would rather walk. I +wished to see the boundary shaft, with its silver sides bearing the +coats of arms of the two countries. This is in the middle of the bridge. +Besides, there was the famous river itself to be seen. + + + The Rio Bravo del Norte + +The “Wild River of the North,” as the Mexicans call the Rio Grande, +seemed a queer name for the sluggish and dreary stream that flowed +slowly past beneath me. Its thirsty banks reminded me of the Mexican +coat of arms which, like our own national emblem, has an eagle on it, +but an eagle perched on a spiny cactus and holding a rattlesnake. Rough, +barren country, sparsely inhabited, borders the Rio Grande. Nothing +larger than a rowboat can navigate the river; there are almost no fish +in it; it turns no mill wheels or electric-lighting machinery. Its only +job seems to be to form the boundary, and even that it does not always +do properly. For one thing, it bends and twists and wanders as if it +were not sure just where it wished to go. Thus the border it marks is +more than two thousand miles long, though only about half that distance +in a straight line. It changes its mind—I mean its course—so often that +we have to have a commission in Washington to keep the farms along it +from changing nationality every time it decides to take another twist. + +[Illustration: + + Boundary marker on bridge at Laredo. +] + +The water in the Rio Grande is often so low that people can wade across +it almost anywhere. Because it wanders most near the Gulf of Mexico, +into which it flows, the eastern part of the international boundary is +five times as long as it might have been. The river is not a very +efficient boundary because it does not keep out smugglers, of things and +of people. Gangs of bandits sometimes make raids across it, for they +have only to ride or wade through it. Men steal cattle on one side and +drive them across to the other. People who would not be allowed to enter +the United States as immigrants often find ways to get across the Rio +Grande. Our officials cannot watch every twist and corner of that +wandering, shallow river. + +The Mexicans themselves come and go freely, for we do not like to shut +out our next-door neighbors. About 40,000 Mexican men come over every +year to work for us, picking cotton, repairing railroads, and doing +other hard manual labor which the native American is glad to leave to +others. Since the World War more than half the goods that Mexico imports +come from the United States and nearly eighty per cent of the things she +exports go to that country. Part of the total, of course, is carried in +steamships, but more and more of it crosses the Rio Grande. + + + The Two Laredos + +To a large extent, the western part of our United States was once +Mexican. Not only the four states that border on Mexico have Spanish +names, but so have Nevada, Colorado, even Montana. I was not surprised, +therefore, to find Laredo in Texas almost a Mexican city. More than half +the people in the streets had the black hair and the brownish skin of +Mexico. Most of the signs in store windows were in Spanish. Even at the +United States post office the clerks spoke Spanish better than they did +English. There was soon to be an election, and I noticed how Spanish +were the names of the men running for the offices of mayor, sheriff, and +so forth. + +Yet Laredo is rich and prosperous and American compared to Nuevo (New) +Laredo across the river. The moment I had crossed the bridge into Mexico +I was surrounded by Mexican scenes. Men wandered listlessly about the +streets with candy and fruits and queer biscuits for sale, some of them +carrying their wares on boards on top of their heads. Most of the +streets were not paved at all, and were deep in dust. Beggars followed +me. Down on the edge of the river women washed clothes in the muddy +stream—a kind of laundry we shall see often in our travels. The women +beating soaked clothing on rocks instead of rubbing it on washboards +reminded me of the little American boy who, soon after his family took +him to Mexico, came running into the house shouting, “Mother, come quick +and see our washerwoman trying to break stones with father’s best +shirt!” + +[Illustration: + + The shallow and meandering Rio Grande at Laredo, Texas, as seen from + the international bridge. +] + +There is a hotel in Nuevo Laredo now, and some other modern buildings. +As we go on into Mexico we shall find, indeed, that our southern +neighbors have many fine streets and great buildings. Most of the houses +I saw in Laredo were typically Mexican. Nearly all of them were covered +with stucco once gaily painted pink, blue, orange or some other bright +color, but now much faded. They were all one or, at most, two stories +high. Like Spanish houses everywhere, they were “wrapped around the yard +instead of having the yard wrapped around the house,” as someone once +put it. On the outside they were bare and ugly, crowded against the edge +of the street and with no space between them. But inside they had little +_patios_ gay with growing flowers and other vegetation. Two words which +we must learn before we go far in Mexico are _patio_ and _plaza_. The +first is the unroofed flower garden that makes a kind of courtyard for a +house; the other is a park, nearly always with beautiful trees, shrubs, +and flowers, in the center of a city. In the daytime most of the people, +at least the women and children, live in the _patio_. In the evening, +dressed in their best clothes, they stroll about the _plaza_ near the +bandstand. + + + On Mexican Railroads + +There was a funny little street car, hardly ten feet long, in Nuevo +Laredo. It brought me finally to the railroad station, which looked like +nothing but a shed made of _adobe_, that is, of mud-and-straw bricks. +The station was closed, but by and by two men in important-looking +uniforms came, and began selling tickets and checking baggage. Then the +train arrived, a very American train, for it had come from San Antonio +in Texas. + +Before we went on into Mexico, however, some second-class cars were +added to the train. These had wooden-slat benches, two lengthwise along +the sides of the car and ten pairs of seats back to back in the middle. +They had no cushions and no elbow-rests, and would have seemed very +uncomfortable to Americans—even though they were made in Indiana! But +the fare on such cars is so much less than on the others that the great +majority of Mexicans travel second-class. + +[Illustration: + + San Diego & Arizona Ry. + + A Mexican boy water carrier who lives near the border between Mexico + and the United States. +] + +I decided to go second-class myself. Not only did it seem an easy way to +save money, but it gave me a chance to be among the real, everyday +Mexicans. As all Mexican trains burn oil, soot and cinders did not +bother us as we rumbled away across the flat and sandy country. But +every car was a smoking-car and the women were smoking as freely as the +men. Behind us were an ordinary American coach marked “first class,” +Pullman sleeping-cars, and a dining-car, carrying American and rich +Mexican passengers. + +The railways of Mexico were originally English or American. On my first +Mexican trip the conductor and the engineer were white Americans, and +the fireman was a negro. The conductor did not take up the tickets, but +left that to another uniformed man called the auditor. He, like the +brakeman and the train boy, was Mexican. The Mexican word for brakeman, +by the way, is _garrotero_, which means “twister” or “choker.” In the +days before airbrakes were used on trains, he had to help stop the cars +by twisting what looked like an automobile steering-wheel on the top or +the platform of each car. + +Not long after my first visit to Mexico the Mexican Government began to +operate most of the railroads in the country. Except for our Southern +Pacific, which runs down the western side of the country to Guadalajara, +Mexico’s second largest city, and the Mexican Railway from Vera Cruz to +the capital, all the lines are combined now under the name National +Railways of Mexico. The American conductors and engineers were +discharged, and later on so were the American managers and +superintendents. At present there are only about 16,000 miles of +railroad in all Mexico. New York and Ohio together have about the same +mileage. + +We left Nuevo Laredo at three o’clock in the afternoon, or what would +now be called fifteen o’clock! A Mexican law did away with “A. M.” and +“P. M.” on the ground that they were confusing—and even dangerous in +railway time-tables. Some of the European and South American countries +have done the same sensible thing. Instead of stopping at twelve o’clock +noon and beginning over again with one, two, three, they simply go right +on counting. So fifteen o’clock means three in the afternoon, twenty +o’clock is eight in the evening, and so on up to twenty-four o’clock or +midnight. It is really very simple, and most people when they are used +to it decide that this is a better way of marking the time than ours. + + + My First Mexican Journey + +General Zachary Taylor took several weeks to get from Laredo to Monterey +during our war with Mexico. Now one can cover the distance in six hours. +For the first hour or two I noticed that the land was very flat and dry, +much like southern Texas. Almost the only vegetation consisted in those +tough, spiny, worthless plants called cactus, mesquite, and chaparral. +For miles I did not see a house, or a human being, outside the train. +There were no cattle, nor even birds. The land seemed to be too dry for +them. Yet, oddly enough, there were some fences—one or two barbed wires +stretched on crooked sticks. The wind howled mournfully through the +thorny mesquite bushes, but there was not a cloud in the sky, and the +sunshine almost burned us when we stepped out into it at the stations. + +Before long, hazy mountains began to appear. By six—I mean +eighteen—o’clock, big saw-toothed ranges stood near us on both sides. +Sometimes, as the shadows of the setting sun played over them, they +seemed to be running a race with the train. Still there were few people, +or cattle, or houses. Now and then we might catch sight of a +wild-looking man, dressed in sheepskins, tending a little flock of white +goats. Here and there some flat, mud-colored huts appeared. The strong +wind sifted sand from the half-desert all over us. + +Then we reached Monterey, gleaming under the moonlight. It is the +largest city of northern Mexico. Behind it stands a high notched ridge +that looks so much like a seat that it is called Saddle Mountain. +Monterey (spelled Monterrey in Spanish) has the largest steel mills in +the western hemisphere south of the United States, and one of the +largest in the world. Some Mexicans complain that the city is too +_americanisado_, or Americanized. They think it has copied too much from +the United States. But to me it certainly looked much more like Madrid +than like one of our own cities. Most of the streets, I found, were very +narrow. They had such cramped sidewalks that when two people met, one of +them usually had to step down. The houses nearly all showed bare walls +close up against the street, and every window was barred with iron as if +it belonged to a prison. The Catalina River, which is supposed to flow +through the town, was so dry that mule and donkey paths wandered along +its stony bed, and sellers of fruit, vegetables, and gaudy cloth had set +up their little booths as if in a street. + +Still, I could believe the people who told me that Monterey is not so +Mexican as other cities farther south. Sometimes I even heard English in +the streets. Already I had several times heard myself called “gringo.” +That is a slang word for “American” all the way from the Rio Grande to +Patagonia. Sometimes the people who use it mean to be insulting, but +most of them think it is a perfectly good, kind name for us. No one is +sure just where this nickname came from. The most common explanation is +that the Mexicans often heard American soldiers, during our war with +Mexico, singing a song by Robert Burns that began: + + “Green grow the rashes, O!” + +[Illustration: + + The city of Monterey, with Saddle Mountain in the background. +] + +You can see how, out of “green grow,” they could easily make “gringo.” + +Our southern neighbors, all the way to Cape Horn, also call us Yankees +(they spell it _yanquis_) and an American from Louisiana is just as +likely to be called a _yanqui_ as one from Connecticut. Even this +nickname is sometimes used with an unpleasant meaning. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + Would you think it was fun to wear a sombrero as big as this? +] + + + + + CHAPTER III + TRAVELING AS THE MEXICANS DO + + +There were some fields of corn south of Monterey, but soon dust and +thorny bushes covered the landscape again. Mountains rose all about us, +as the train climbed higher and higher. The mountains seemed to keep +crowding closer, like a circle of bandits. They also seemed to become +lower, but that, of course, was because we were going up into them. The +train made quite good speed, in spite of the steep grade it had to +climb. + +Saltillo, where I stopped for a few hours, is almost a mile high. The +weather was pleasantly cool for the first time since I had left our +Great Lakes. Rain had fallen, and it was almost fun to splash through +small puddles in the poorly paved streets. I was very weary of the +bone-dry, sun-scorched country in which I had been traveling all the way +from San Antonio. + +The only train from Saltillo to the next large city ran at night. I +should have been more comfortable in the sleeping-car, or even among the +few Americans scattered about the first-class day-coach. But what is the +use of traveling if you go to bed and sleep through the journey? I +decided to sit up with the Mexican passengers in the second-class car, +even if the benches were hard. + +I counted a hundred grown-up passengers in that car, besides more than a +dozen children. There were all kinds of Mexicans, from city people who +were as white as I, to men and women of the fields sunburned almost +chocolate-brown. Only a few of them wore our style of clothes. Most +Mexicans still prefer their native dress, the most important part of +which is the _sombrero_, a large hat. Mexican men, like American women, +want a hat different from anyone else’s. The hats of the peons, or +workingmen, are made of straw; the others are of very thick felt, +decorated with colored tape and a kind of embroidery. + +Wealthy Mexicans, and even some who are not at all rich, pay a hundred +dollars for a hat loaded with silver decorations and weighing several +pounds. The crowns of _sombreros_ are so high that they would surely +hold two quarts of fruit. Such hats are of almost any color except red. + +A Mexican never looks half so impressive or picturesque with his hat off +as with it on. The rest of the costume is very much alike for everyone. +The coat or jacket reaches only to the waist, and has many more buttons +than seem necessary. Shirts are of all the colors you can think of, +without collars and neckties. A wide cloth belt of some gay color is +wound about the waist. The trousers are so tight as to make one wonder +how the owner can get into them. Some have rows of buttons down the +sides from waist to ankle. + +A few of the men in our car wore shoes, but most of them had on +_guaraches_, a mere sole of cowhide tied to the foot with thongs of +leather. In place of overcoats men wore or carried _sarapes_, reminding +me of the blankets in which the Indians of our Southwest wrap +themselves. Some of these were woven with fancy patterns in colors, and +had long fringes at the ends; all had a slit in the middle to put the +head through. + +None of the women wore hats. Instead of the _sombrero_ and _sarape_ they +had the _reboso_, a kind of shawl for wrapping around the head as well +as the body. Their skirts were very long. Some of them wore leather +sandals and some were barefoot. The children dressed just like their +fathers and mothers, the little boys in huge hats, gay _sarapes_, and +skin-tight trousers, the girls wrapped, head and all, in shawls. + +[Illustration: + + A Mexican boy of the highlands wearing a thin cotton suit and a straw + hat. The _sarape_ or _poncho_, a strip of cloth with a hole in it, + helps him to keep warm. +] + + + A Cold Night Ride + +It was easy to see that the passengers claimed more Indians than white +men as their ancestors. Yet they were very polite, both to me and to one +another. I could not help watching one family near me. The father seemed +hardly twenty years old, and the mother was even younger. He was a very +sturdy, muscular, sun-browned fellow, as if he had worked hard outdoors +all his life and never weakened himself with the luxuries of a soft bed +and a heated house. They had a child about two years old, his black eyes +even brighter, if possible, than those of the father and mother. When we +were all struggling for seats at the beginning of the trip, the father +picked the child up by one hand and swung him clear across the car to +the mother, but the youngster never stopped smiling. + +I am sure none of us could have done more to make a lady comfortable on +a hard journey than that Indian peon, who had probably never been inside +a school in his life, did for his young wife. And though the Mexicans of +the peon class seldom laugh, I am certain no American crowd would have +been so good-natured as these passengers were, huddled together on hard +benches all night long. Not once did I hear any of the children cry, or +even whimper, though it was not at all what an American would consider a +comfortable ride. + +The farther south we went the cooler it grew, for we were still climbing +among the mountains. I pulled out my sweater, and finally wrapped myself +in all the clothing I had with me, but by midnight I was sorry I had not +brought an overcoat. Once or twice I dozed for a few minutes, with my +head on my bundle, but there was no room for anyone to lie down. + +It seemed strange to be shivering with cold when, at about four in the +morning, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer into the Torrid Zone. As +daylight began to creep through the windows I stood in the vestibule and +watched the bare, brown landscape hurrying by toward the north. I could +see no mountains now, because we were on top of them. Scattered mesquite +bushes and cactus, some of it ten feet high, were the only growing +things. I began to think that Mexico must be a poor land for farming, +but before I left the country at its other end I learned that much of it +is very fertile. Just as the sun was beginning to cast long slanting +rays across the cold earth we arrived at a large city named San Luis +Potosí. + +[Illustration: + + Among the many forms of cactus in Mexico is the so-called “organ + cactus.” Its great stalks, covered with sharp spines, sometimes grow + twenty feet high. +] + +Perhaps you have been wondering whether you could not go down through +Mexico in your own automobile. I am afraid not. The highways built there +long ago by the Spanish have become miserable trails. Even in Spain +roads are not very good, and Mexico is a true daughter of that land. The +Indians who ruled in Mexico before the Spaniards conquered them were +quite civilized in many ways. But as they had no wheeled vehicles, nor +even any domestic animals (everything being carried on men’s backs), +their descendants of to-day do not consider roads as important as we do. + +The present government of Mexico is building highways, and perhaps some +day we can drive all the way to Mexico City in the old “flivver.” But we +would not get very far south of the Rio Grande in it now. For one thing, +there are many long stretches with no towns, no stores in which to buy +food, and no gasoline stations. When we reach the capital we shall find +automobiles enough. But away from the big cities and off the railroads +we must travel mostly by the old narrow, unpaved trails. Most Mexicans +are horsemen, unless they are so poor that they have to walk. + + + A Real Mexican City + +San Luis Potosí is now one of the up-to-date cities of northern Mexico. +It lies in a great basin of mountains more than a mile above sea level, +so that its climate is always cool, and pleasant except during the +rains. Many of its buildings are well made, and it has a fine cathedral. +Its business men are so enterprising that some of them have become rich. +It is the capital of the state of San Luis Potosí, which was the first +state in Mexico to pass laws in favor of the working classes—the +“radical land reforms” about which we shall learn more later on. + +When I first saw San Luis Potosí it seemed rather poor and miserable. +Perhaps that was partly because rain fell nearly all the time I spent +there, and because I still had American cities in mind. The dull skies +made it seem very dreary, and the only way to keep warm was to walk or +to stay in bed. I could not help laughing at the idea most Americans +have of the climate of Mexico. It should be as warm as Florida, they +think, because it is as far south. They forget that most of it is a +table-land high above tropic sea level. + +[Illustration: + + The public market of San Luis Potosí overflows along the cobbled and + often muddy streets. Each family has its few cents’ worth of produce + to sell. +] + +There seemed to be at least a hundred ragged men and boys at the +station, clamoring for a chance to earn a few cents by carrying +someone’s baggage. Hundreds more of them wandered about the town looking +for some way to earn their food. Their tight trousers and short jackets +and collarless shirts, even their leather sandals, were ragged and torn. +Their clothing might be patched with half a dozen different faded +colors. Some had only a strip of old carpet as a _sarape_ wrapped around +their thin bodies. They wandered dismally about in the cold rain. There +seemed to be as many poor women and girls as men and boys. In fact they +seemed poorer, for most of them did not even have _guaraches_, but +splashed about in bare feet. Nearly all the poor people were trying to +sell something or other. There was a covered market, but only a small +part of the great throng could find room in it. Every narrow little +muddy street all about the market was lined on both sides with sellers +squatting over their wares. Most of them had hardly ten cents’ worth of +stuff to sell, and the buyers were so poor that many bought only a +cent’s worth at a time. There were little piles of six peanuts, sickly +little apples, tiny cones of muddy-looking sugar, turnips cut in two +because people could not afford to buy whole ones. It would take pages +just to mention all the things to eat that were for sale in tiny +quantities. Then there were baskets and earthenware jars of every kind +and size, scraps of calico, and long strips of leather for making +sandals. Now and then a woman dressed better than usual went along +making purchases, always followed by a ragged man or woman carrying what +she had bought. To any Mexican above the peon class it is a terrible +disgrace to carry the smallest package in public. + +All the people of San Luis Potosí are not poor, by any means. In the +daytime most of the homes looked poor, because one could see only their +bare outer walls. But when they were lighted, I got many a peep into +richly furnished rooms and flowery _patios_. In the great churches and +in the best shops there were men and women, and children, too, fully as +well dressed as any I had seen in my own land. + +My hotel room had a fine view of the mountains, but I was supplied with +no water, no mirror, no towel. When I went downstairs to wash, I found +the landlady sitting on the floor shelling peas into the only washbasin! + +I am sure you will be interested in what I had to eat. Mexican +breakfasts are very light, nothing but a cup of coffee or chocolate, and +a roll or a corn cake. For dinner and for supper we always had a very +thin soup, squash, boiled beef, and hot corn _tortillas_ that looked +much like our pancakes. Then came a plate of rice and peppers, tripe, +and a peppery dish of beans (_chile con carne_). Every real Mexican meal +includes red or black beans, served just before dessert. Since pies and +cakes are not native to Mexico, we usually had as our last course a bit +of fruit and the blackest coffee you ever saw. + +Of course there are better hotels in Mexico than the one I have +described. Even San Luis Potosí has a better one now. But some of the +beds I slept in were not much more comfortable than the wooden benches +in a second-class Mexican railroad car. Who minds such things, though, +if he can travel in strange foreign lands? + +[Illustration: + + Photo by H. L. Summerville, San Antonio + + At San Antonio, Texas, one may visit four Franciscan missions built by + the Spanish monks. La Concepción, the first, was erected in 1713. + Then came San José and San Juan, and in 1730 San Francisco (or + Espada) Mission which is shown here. +] + + + + + CHAPTER IV + SOMETHING OF MEXICAN HISTORY + + +Perhaps we ought to know a little about the history of Mexico before we +go farther into the country. Hundreds of years before Columbus came to +America, two tribes of the Nahua nation of Indians came down from the +north into what is now Mexico. They were energetic and enterprising, as +people from a bracing climate usually are compared to those who live in +tropical countries. But gradually the first tribe, called Toltecs, seem +to have lost some of their ambition and fighting spirit. It is said that +in the eighth century the capital of the Toltecs was at a place now +called Tula, just north of the Valley of Mexico, in which the capital of +to-day is situated. They were excellent architects, as we can easily +believe from the ruins of many of their buildings that remain. They knew +how to fuse metals, to cut and polish the hardest stone, to make +earthenware and fabrics (cloth), and they invented a calendar and a kind +of writing. Although it was hardly writing as we understand it, being +more nearly picture drawing, the Toltec emperors wrote in it a kind of +poetry and philosophy. + +About the end of the twelfth century, three hundred years before +Columbus sailed, the Aztecs moved southward and drove the Toltecs before +them. Although they belonged to the same race, the Aztecs were more +ferocious and gloomy than the Toltecs, and they had a very cruel +religion. They finally established their capital, Tenochtitlan, where +the City of Mexico is to-day. It is said that they waited for a sign to +show where the capital should be located. This sign was the sight of an +eagle perched on a cactus with a rattlesnake in its claws; from it comes +the coat of arms of present-day Mexico. + +Meanwhile, for many centuries, a tribe called the Mayas had been living +still farther south. They also seem to have come down from the north, +but much earlier than even the Toltecs. Some scientists believe that all +the original inhabitants of the western hemisphere came from Asia by way +of Bering Strait and Alaska. This is not at all impossible. I have seen +Mongolians of the Gobi Desert and Indians of the New World who could +hardly have been told apart except by their clothes. Perhaps wave after +wave, or tribe after tribe, of people who were originally Asiatic swept +down across the two Americas until there were inhabitants even at the +southern tip of South America. These original settlers are generally +spoken of as Indians, but they might better be called Amerinds to +distinguish them from East Indians. + +The Mayas of Yucatan were never conquered by the Toltecs and the Aztecs, +but in the eleventh century famine and pestilence broke out among them. +Those who survived went on to what are now Guatemala and Honduras. They +took their civilization with them, and as we shall see when we come to +the ruins of their cities, they were far more civilized than the Indians +who lived in wigwams and roamed our western prairies shooting buffaloes. +In fact, they probably reached a higher state of civilization than any +other inhabitants of America before Columbus’ day. The ruins of the +Mayas at Uxmal and Chichenitza in the Mexican state of Yucatan, at Cobán +and Quiriguá, Guatemala, and at Copán, Honduras, are still being +explored, mostly by Americans, and we are learning more and more about +this remarkable people. + + + The Aztec Religion + +By the time the Spaniards came to Mexico, the Aztecs had spread their +rule from the Atlantic to the Pacific. They had adopted or thought out +for themselves a civilization like that of the Toltecs, and in their way +were as far ahead of the nomad Indians of our plains as the Europeans +were above the savages of Africa. But the Aztecs were a curious mixture +of mildness and ferocity. This is not so surprising as it may sound; in +my travels I have found many wild tribes that in some ways were as +gentle as children. The laws of the Aztecs were severe, and their taxes +were heavy. + +The priesthood were rich, powerful, and very numerous. The chief god of +the Aztec religion was the god of war, who was called Huitzilopochtli! +As if it were not bad enough to have so dreadful a name, he had to be +kept pleasant by human sacrifices. If a week went by without someone’s +being killed in his honor, he was likely to grow peevish and do the +whole Aztec nation great harm. There were altars to him all over the +country, and they were constantly drenched in human blood. In a museum +in Mexico City you may see an elaborately carved stone of sacrifice +which the Aztecs had in their capital. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + On this stone the Aztecs used to offer human sacrifices to their war + god. It is now in the National Museum, Mexico City. +] + +Every year the most nearly perfect young man in the nation, after being +given twelve months of feasting and high living, was sacrificed on this +stone before a multitude of people. Gladiators fought, as in Rome, in +honor of the bloodthirsty god. Men armed only with wooden spears for +protection were attacked by other men carrying weapons made of +obsidian—a black stone as hard as flint and sharpened to a razor edge. +The people really enjoyed the thrills they got from sacrifices and +contests, but they pretended, and perhaps really thought, that the gods +demanded these. Babies and beautiful girls were sacrificed to appease +the rain god. The Aztecs, besides sacrificing hundreds of their own +people every year, made war against their neighbors in order to get +victims—men, women, and children—for the sacrifices. + + + The Spaniards Arrive + +There was a saying or legend in Mexico that some day the mild gods of +the Toltecs would return. According to the legend these gods had white +skins. When the Spaniards came, they found the conquest of the Aztec +nation made easier by the fact that many of the Indians thought the +Toltec gods had arrived. + +Hernando Cortés landed in 1519 at a place now called Tabasco, near the +present Vera Cruz, with about two hundred men. After sending a message +to the Aztec emperor, Montezuma, commanding him to submit to the king of +Spain, Cortés forced a thousand Indians to carry his baggage, and +started for Tenochtitlan. The swift Indian runners (who took fresh sea +food to the royal tables in the capital every day) met him with the very +proper answer that Montezuma would continue to rule his own country +without help from a king he had never heard of before. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + The Aztecs used this stone as a calendar. It is now in the National + Museum, Mexico City. +] + +Cortés pushed on over the mountains toward the capital. But he might not +have conquered Mexico and given Spain what was for a long time her +richest colony, if it had not been for three advantages. One was the +legend already referred to. Another was the simple honesty of the +Indians, who did not then know how tricky these people from Europe could +be. But perhaps Cortés’ greatest advantage lay in the quarrels among +various tribes of Indians. If all the people of Mexico had stood +together, they probably could have driven out the Spaniards—in which +case Mexico might have been Aztec to this day. + +The kingdom or republic of Tlaxcala, now a poor little state southeast +of Mexico City, long warred with the Aztecs. At first its people fought +Cortés, but later they became his allies against their Aztec enemies. +Near Mexico City is still an ancient tree which is called the Tree of +the Sad Night because under it Cortés sat all one night and watched his +beaten soldiers retreating. But he reorganized among the friendly +Tlaxcalans, and finally came back to Tenochtitlan and overthrew +Montezuma. By 1540 all the territory from Panama to what is now our +state of Washington was called New Spain. + +In a way the Spaniards may be regarded as the “more gentle” gods of the +legend, but in some respects they were just as cruel as the Aztec war +god. Cortés had the bloody sacrifice stone cast down, and destroyed the +dreadful blood-spattered temples, driving out the priests. But the +people were distributed as slaves among the Spaniards. The Spanish +priests destroyed many of the native art treasures and inscriptions, so +that the record of Aztec civilization was largely lost. These priests +considered anything that had to do with the Aztec religion or culture as +wickedly superstitious. The conquerors thought of Mexico simply as a +mine to be worked for the benefit of Spain, without any attempt to be +fair to the Mexicans themselves. Commerce with other countries was +forbidden on pain of death. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Tree of Noche Triste (“Sad Night”), Guadalupe, under which Cortés is + said to have wept as his defeated soldiers passed by. +] + +[Illustration: + + In the central _plaza_ of Dolores Hidalgo stands a statue of the + priest Hidalgo, the “Father of Mexican Independence.” +] + +For three centuries Spain ruled Mexico in this stern way, through +viceroys sent out by the king. Finally, in 1810, when the Spanish at +home were busy fighting Napoleon, a priest named Hidalgo rose against +the viceroy then in office and tried to overthrow Spanish rule in +Mexico. But Hidalgo was captured and executed the next year. There are +statues to his memory, and streets named for him, all over Mexico. He is +often called the father of his country, or the Washington of Mexico. +Later the revolt was taken up by another priest, named Morelos, who was +executed in 1815, and for whom one state and the capital of another +state are named. In 1821 Mexico City was surrendered by the last Spanish +viceroy. His name, by the way, was O’Donojú—can you guess where his +ancestors came from? A Mexican named Iturbide proclaimed himself +emperor, but he was banished, and when he came back to Mexico again he +was shot. Since 1824—except for the short-lived empire of Maximilian +(1865–7)—Mexico has been a republic. + + + Mexico as a Republic + +Since it was largely the example of the United States that caused Mexico +to proclaim her independence, it was natural that she should form her +constitution and laws very much after ours. But Mexico’s history as a +republic has not been as happy as our own. Our people had long had town +meetings and colonial assemblies; the people who had been ruled by +Spanish emperors and their viceroys for three centuries, and before that +by Aztec emperors, had little idea of how to govern themselves. After +the revolution in Mexico there was chronic civil war and disorder until +1876. While there were only fifty-seven viceroys in the three hundred +years that Mexico was a Spanish colony, there have been, in the century +since the revolution, sixty-six presidents, two emperors, and a regency. +Frequently the presidents have been killed while in office. One of them +ruled for thirty-four years, but another was president for only +forty-six minutes! + +Even to-day many Mexicans and other people of Spanish-America cannot +understand any kind of political change except a violent one, resulting +in the death of the ousted leader. I remember being in South America +when Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States. You know +that he was a Democrat and that the man in office when he was elected +was a Republican. Even some of the educated Spanish-Americans showed +great surprise that the Republican Taft let the Democratic Wilson take +over the office. They would say to me: “Is not President Taft the +commander-in-chief of the army? Then why does he not order the army to +drive this Wilson out of the country, and keep the office himself?” How +dreadful such a state of affairs would seem to us! + +[Illustration: + + Photo by H. L. Summerville, San Antonio + + The Alamo is often called the birthplace of Texan independence. It was + the scene of a heroic defense against the Mexicans in 1836. +] + +We must not overlook our own war with Mexico during that country’s years +of disorder, for it is a more important part of our neighbor’s history +than of our own. Many Americans now think that the war was more our +fault than Mexico’s. There was bitterness and misunderstanding on both +sides. Texas, then a part of Mexico that was being settled more and more +by Americans, had won its independence in 1836. In 1845 it asked to be +admitted as a state of the United States and it was annexed in spite of +the protest of Mexico. A dispute as to the boundary increased the +antagonism between Americans and Mexicans, and the slavery question was +also involved. After about a year and a half of fighting, Mexico City +was taken by General Scott, who came up to it from the coast just as +Cortés had. By the treaty of peace signed in 1848, Mexico ceded to us a +large territory that included the present California, Nevada, Utah, most +of Arizona, and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. + +[Illustration: + + Rare carving was used in decorating the Spanish missions. This window + is in San José Mission, San Antonio, Texas. +] + +During our own Civil War there was foreign intervention in Mexico. +France wished to get a foothold in the New World, despite the Monroe +Doctrine; so she sent the brother of the emperor of Austria, a +well-meaning but weak man named Maximilian, over to be emperor of +Mexico, with a French army to support him. But the Zapotec Indian +Juárez, with the help of the half-Indian Porfirio Diaz and others, +defeated Maximilian after the French had abandoned him. They had him +shot, and that was the last time Europe tried to introduce royalty into +the western hemisphere. + +[Illustration: + + A map showing possessions remaining in the hands of Spain after the + Louisiana Purchase. +] + + + Porfirio Diaz + +Porfirio Diaz was the greatest of the sixty-six presidents Mexico has +had since the revolution. He remained in office for thirty-four years. +As already mentioned, Diaz was partly of Indian blood. He was born a +backwoodsman, in the state of Oaxaca. After studying law he fought in +the war between Mexico and the United States. He remained in the army +for a while after the war, went back to law, and gained increasing +prominence until he was elected president in 1876. He united the various +chieftains by convincing them that if they did not stop fighting among +themselves the United States would intervene. He organized the +_rurales_, a kind of country police on horseback who made Mexico safe +for travel. He persuaded foreigners to invest money in industrial +developments, increased the number of schools, and improved Mexico in +many other ways. But he was a very stern ruler, and did not allow the +mass of the people much individual liberty. + +Diaz was elected president for the eighth and last time in 1910. By then +he had become a deaf old man, so that a rich landowner named Madero was +able to drive him out. He went to Europe to spend his last years, and we +are glad that he, unlike most presidents of Mexico, was not killed. With +all his faults he did much for his country. Indeed, as soon as Diaz’ +dictatorship was over, Mexico fell back into its old state of civil war. +Madero was assassinated two years later. Among the men who since that +time have ruled Mexico, as president or by some other name, was +Carranza, who defeated the bandit generals Villa and Zapata and was +recognized as president in 1915. He was actually elected president the +following year, but was driven out of office and shot in 1920. Then came +Huerta, then Obregón, then Calles. + +The new Mexican constitution allows a man to be president only once, for +a four-year term. + + + + + CHAPTER V + NORTHWESTERN MEXICO + + +In entering Mexico by the railway through Laredo, near the eastern end +of the boundary, we took the shortest route. If we had entered through +El Paso, we should have gone down through the immense state of +Chihuahua, with its huge cattle ranches. Since Boquilla Dam in Chihuahua +stores up the largest reservoir of water in North America, that state +will become, with irrigation, fertile and very important. But the +landscape now is much the same as that farther east—dreary, spiny, +dry—with mountains to be climbed. On the El Paso route we should have +crossed the state of Durango, with many mines. Between this line and the +one on which we are traveling lie Coahuila, much like southern Texas, +and Zacatecas, a mining state. In the end this route would have brought +us to the same place that we shall reach through San Luis Potosí. + +Instead of taking either of the lines of the Mexican National Railways, +we might have come down by the Southern Pacific from the western end of +Arizona, and found ourselves in the state of Sonora. That, too, is much +like the other states bordering on the United States. The Southern +Pacific goes down through the slender west-coast states of Sinaloa and +Nayarit (formerly the territory of Tepic) to Guadalajara, capital of +Jalisco, which we shall reach by the other route. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + In the state of Durango some of the silver mines are located in very + rugged country. Did you ever see a suspension bridge like this? +] + +There are many Chinese along the west coast, and now a few in other +parts of Mexico. Most of them are merchants; others are market +gardeners, and in the capital we shall see Chinese restaurant keepers. +Some people think that Japan wishes to control Mexico, because there are +Japanese colonies on the west coast, just as there are on our Pacific +slope. But Japanese holdings in Mexico are really much smaller than +ours. Some of western Mexico is very fertile. In one recent year 2,048 +carloads of potatoes left Mexico by the west-coast line. Cantaloupes, +tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables are sent by the trainload to +the United States just when winter makes them high-priced and hard to +get in our own land. + +We must not forget Lower California. It is one of Mexico’s two +territories. The other is Quintana Roo, far away on the eastern side of +the peninsula of Yucatan. Some day perhaps both these territories will +become states. Long, slim Lower California, though it is about as long +and half as wide as our own California, has no railroads. Its entire +population is only 60,000. The northern part of the peninsula is better +developed than the rest and more nearly like the United States. The +middle part is dry and not very useful. The southern end is fertile, but +less developed than the north. It produces cotton, oil, pearls, and +other valuable things, but it needs railways and roads to take them to +the world markets. + + + The Yaqui Indians + +In the state of Sonora are the very interesting Yaqui Indians. Some +members of this warlike tribe live in Arizona; they are closely related +to the fierce Apaches of our Southwest. But most of them, at least those +still untamed, are in the southern part of Sonora. Ever since the white +man came to Mexico the Yaqui have fought to keep him off their lands. +Most American Indians did that, of course, but the Yaqui are famous +because as a tribe they have never been conquered. In all the western +hemisphere, the only primitive peoples equally independent are the San +Blas Indians in Panama, and others far up the Amazon. + +The Yaqui believe themselves to be descended from a wolf. They live to +fight. “Centuries of semi-starvation, of tyranny, of exposure to burning +heat, desert thirst, mountain storms, constant fighting and suffering +have produced men as tough and brutal as the cactus, as swift of foot, +wild, and canny as their brother the coyote.” They can run ten miles an +hour for hours at a time. Hidden among their mountains, they are +terrible enemies and hard to defeat. The state government of Sonora pays +them money every month to keep them from going on the warpath. Even +though a bounty of a hundred Mexican dollars has been offered for any +Yaqui alive or dead, they are still independent. + +Porfirio Diaz, who pacified all the rest of Mexico, could never make the +Yaqui recognize the Mexican Government. He sent expeditions against +them. His soldiers killed many of them; thousands were taken prisoner +and shipped to far-off Yucatan. There they were made to labor almost as +slaves on the henequen plantations of the _tierras calientes_, the hot +country, and many died from brutal treatment or because of the climate, +or by suicide. + +But the brutality of the Diaz soldiers only made the Yaqui hate more +bitterly those who wished to rule over them. If a little kindness had +been tried, there might perhaps have been better results. Now and then, +within recent years, the Yaqui have made peace with the Mexican +authorities. Many of them, known as _mansos_ (“tame ones”), may now be +found in every Sonoran village, and even in neighboring Arizona. As +soldiers in the Mexican army they are among the bravest, though they are +too independent to be very well disciplined. They make hard-working +laborers, better than most of the Indian tribes. But the _bravos_ (“wild +ones”) in the hills of southern Sonora continue to stir up trouble. The +Calles government, tired of trying to make peace with them, decided to +conquer or exterminate them. + +Strange as it may sound, the Yaqui call themselves Christians. Long ago +Spanish missionaries went back into the deserts of Sonora where soldiers +feared to go. Though they were unable to talk with the Indians, they +told them by signs the story of Christ. Naturally, the Indians did not +understand all of it, and so to-day, when they try to present a Passion +Play at Easter time, they distort it queerly. They carry about a rag +doll to represent Jesus, and there are half a dozen others meant to +stand for Judas. It is a very barbaric ceremony, with many gaudy colors, +strange Indian music, and other semi-savage features. Most of the +participants get drunk on maguey whiskey. + + + The Tame Indians + +There are Indians living in Mexico who have never seen a white man. +Parts of the states of Michoacán and Guerrero have never been explored +by white men. But the great majority of the Indians of Mexico are +peaceful and even timid. Although it is about one-fourth as large as the +United States, Mexico has only one-seventh as many people; but of the +fifteen million about six million are full-blooded Indians, and among +the eight million _mestizos_ (half-breeds) there is more Indian than +European blood. These tame Indians of many tribes, breeds, and tongues +are quite different from the unconquered Indians of the Sonora desert. +The Indian of the Mexican plateau is a farmer, not a hunter. He is +quiet, very solemn, so peaceful as to be almost servile. He dreads +responsibility, and really likes to be a kind of half-slave to his +employer, to whom he brings his problems and troubles. He seems to have +been suppressed so long, under Aztec emperors, Spanish viceroys, and +dictators like Diaz, that he is unable to decide things for himself, +preferring to have someone always tell him what to do. + +If we compare the crowd at a Mexican railway station with our +recollection of one at a station in Texas, the people of the two regions +do not seem at all of the same stock, though to quite an extent they +are. The “Texicans” look hopeful, as if they expected to be successful +in life. The Mexican Indians and peons, in contrast, have either a +hopeless expression or one as stolid and indifferent as that of the +pack-animals they drive. Most of the male population of the smaller +towns sit upon the station platform, “wrapped in blankets and +meditation, waiting only for another day to pass,” as one traveler has +said. Of course we have stolid, blanket-wrapped Indians in our +Southwest, but they are the exceptions rather than the rule. The women +at the Mexican stations seem to be somewhat more energetic than the men. +They stroll past the train windows offering food and other things for +sale. But even they are easily discouraged. + +Although they do seem so sad and hopeless, most Mexican Indians and +part-Indians are, in a way, good natured. In all my wandering in Mexico +I hardly ever had an unkind word from them, in spite of the fact that +many of them do not like foreigners, especially “gringoes” or _yanquis_. +There are beggars in Mexico, but the poor people do not thrust forward +their miseries and misfortunes as much as is done in some other +countries. + +[Illustration: + + Rochester Photo, Mexico City + + The humble donkey is the best friend of the Mexican peon. +] + + + Differing Characteristics + +The Mexican masses differ in many ways among themselves. We must +remember that the people, except the small percentage who are entirely +white, are a mixture of Indian with Spanish blood. The great majority, +therefore, have much the same characteristics as the pure Indians. But +we notice that while the plateau inhabitants are timid and morose, those +of Tehuantepec and the tropical coast lands are gay and almost carefree +in their manner. A bare landscape always seems to have a depressing +effect on people, while a region that is full of trees and plants cheers +them. + +Mexicans, even of the poorest class, are musical, and are as fond of +flowers as the Japanese. Along almost any miserable trail that I +traveled I found morning glories, geraniums, patches of dark purple +blossoms, huge masses of bougainvillea. There are Mexican bands in small +as well as in large towns, belonging usually to the police or the fire +department. They all play quite well, though they may know few pieces +and actually be unable to read music! They are naturally rhythmical. In +prisons there are bands made up of the convicts. + +Many Indians and peons of the plateau take only one real bath a year. +Yet I cannot blame them much. Down in tropical Mexico there is plenty of +bathing; but up on the plateau where there is no natural heat, and very +little artificial heat, the water is generally cold. On St. John the +Baptist’s Day, however, all Mexicans bathe. On that day (June 24th) the +rivers and the public bathhouses are crowded from daylight until long +after dark. There are almost no bathtubs in Mexico except in the hotels +of the capital. Shower baths are more common, and in the warmer regions +the nearest river does very well. But only a brave man would bathe in +the rivers of the high table-land. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + At Aguascalientes the women and girls bathe and do their washing in + the stream fed by hot springs. +] + +Speaking of baths, there is a Mexican state named Aguascalientes, which +means Hot Springs. Its capital, bearing the same name, is honeycombed +with tunnels of unknown origin and purpose. In this city, famous for its +hot sulphur baths, it is said that the Aztecs many centuries ago had +elaborate baths for their emperors and nobles. + +Sometimes the Mexican Indians seem to us quite stupid. I have seen one +of them carry a long beam across his shoulders, and be unable to get +through a gate with it because he did not know enough to turn sidewise. +These people seem to have almost no imagination or initiative, but must +copy from others or be told by them what to do. However, they are not +physically weak. I have mentioned already that when Cortés came to +Mexico he found Indian runners carrying fish from the coast to the +capital daily. They ran in relays, but even so, great strength and +endurance were required. The distance of two hundred miles, including +mountain ranges 7,500 feet high, was covered between afternoon and +Montezuma’s dinnertime next day. Recently two Mexican Indians ran a +hundred kilometers (about sixty-three miles) in nine hours and +thirty-seven minutes. Their course from Panchuca to Mexico City was from +a mile and a half to two miles above sea level, at an altitude where +many people find it hard to breathe even when walking. Yet these two men +of the Tarahumare tribe (a name that means “foot racing”) were so fresh +at the end of the run that they looked as if they could turn around and +start back again. + +The Aztecs had no horses or oxen, or any other four-footed beasts of +burden, not even the llamas found in Peru. That was such a handicap to +trade that we wonder the Aztec civilization rose as high as it did. +Mexican Indians of to-day are all used to carrying loads on their backs, +in baskets with a strap across the forehead. Indeed, American engineers +building the first railroad in Mexico had to prevent the Indians from +taking the wheels off the wheelbarrows and carrying the loaded barrows +on their backs. + +[Illustration: + + Photo from Janet M. Cummings + + A Mexican girl spinning wool. After being carded, so that the fibres + will lie in the same general direction, the wool is worked into + pieces of uniform thickness, forming strips about four inches wide + and seven inches long. These strips are lengthened and twisted + together as they are wound upon a distaff. After many unwindings and + rewindings, a fluffy piece of cord is produced. In the picture you + see fluffy strips of wool extending from the basket to the girl’s + hand. The wool is spun later into a finer thread. +] + + + + + CHAPTER VI + ON THE GREAT TABLE-LAND + + +South of San Luis Potosí there was some dry and shriveled corn, standing +in shocks. The first planted fields of maguey appeared. As we rose to +the mile-and-a-half altitude this source of Mexico’s chief beverage +became more and more frequent, until maguey lined the railway and +covered the rolling plains to the distant mountain rim. Sometimes the +long, straight, emerald-green rows climbed broad high ridges, and +vanished. Near at hand each plant resembled a huge artichoke, more blue +than green, thus adding another color to the landscape. The maguey and +cactus belong to related families. + +When the maguey plant is about seven years old it flowers and +dies—though its roots live and develop into another plant. Just before +blossoming time, the base of the plant is cut out in the shape of a +great bowl. The sap or juice runs into this rapidly, five or six quarts +a day, and flows for three or four months, giving barrels of a milky +fluid. The Mexicans call this _agua-miel_ or “honey water.” Hawkers go +about the streets and along the platforms of railroad stations shouting +“Agua-miel!” For the twelve hours before it begins to ferment, this +juice of the maguey is sweet and clear, and can do no one any harm. + +In some of the maguey fields along the railroad I saw peons with +untanned pigskin sacks over their backs, trot from plant to plant, part +the pulpy leaves, and bend over the central pool in the hollow of the +maguey. Each carried a long gourd, and when he had sucked this full of +the sap he poured it into the pigskin sack. As soon as the sack was +full, he trotted away to the plantation house with it. + + + The Best-Known Mexican Beverage + +A little of the fermented “honey water” is added to the fresh juice, +which then ferments very rapidly, and quickly becomes what the Mexicans +call _pulque_. If left to ferment naturally, the maguey juice, for a day +after the process begins, looks like skim milk and tastes rather like +buttermilk. During that time it becomes more and more intoxicating. +After thirty-six hours it is fit only to be thrown away. In some cities +_pulque_-vendors are not allowed to sell it after it is twenty-four +hours old. But most of them disobey the law and keep it much too long. +When it is highly fermented, _pulque_ becomes a poison that makes those +who drink it want to go out and kill someone—unless they first fall +stupefied in the gutter. A blind man could find a _pulquería_ (_pulque_ +saloon) by the sour stench of _agua-miel_ that has been kept too long, +and only a man with the taste of a Mexican peon could drink it after it +has reached that stage. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + The Mexican extracts _agua-miel_ from the maguey by sucking it up into + a gourd. It is this juice which ferments and becomes _pulque_. +] + +Early-morning trains loaded with _pulque_ roll into the capital and the +other large cities of Mexico. They are like our milk trains, but seem +even more numerous. Two hundred thousand gallons of _pulque_ are drunk +in Mexico City every twenty-four hours. That means an average of six +glasses a day for every man, woman and child in the capital; and as few +foreigners or well-to-do Mexicans drink it, those who do must surely +drink more than six glasses. + +Every day more than $10,000 in Mexican money, all from the pockets of +the poor, passes over the counters of Mexico City’s two thousand +_pulquerías_. The saloons have gaudy fronts, crude paintings, and vulgar +or blasphemous names, such as “The Rest-House of St. Peter.” About them +gather ragged Indians who look as if they had not had a real meal for +weeks, but had spent for _pulque_ everything they could earn, beg, +borrow or steal. + +Luckily _pulque_ comes only from the highlands, and sours too quickly to +be transported very far. It spoils even more quickly than milk, so that +it is unknown in the lowlands, and even in some parts of the plateau. +The contrast between the gloomy people of the Mexican highlands and the +more cheerful ones of the tropical regions is not due entirely to the +difference in natural surroundings, but is accounted for partly by the +fact that the former have _pulque_ and the latter do not. + +The Mexicans made _pulque_ before the Spaniards came. Drunkenness was +not unknown even then; it is very common now. If _pulque_ cannot be +widely distributed, the Mexicans know how to make other liquor that can +be. They boil the lower leaves of the maguey and distill from them +_mescal_ or _tequila_. This drink, a stimulant as strong as whiskey or +brandy, is held responsible for most of the acts of violence committed +in Mexico. + +[Illustration: + + A street stand where _pulque_, the Mexican maguey beer, is sold. In + the background is an election poster. +] + +There has been some agitation for prohibition in Mexico. All the efforts +are directed against _pulque_, the poor man’s drink. The big +_hacendados_, or landowners, are nearly all opposed to what they call a +“fool reform” because they make their fortunes from the _pulque_ which +they send to the capital. A recent law makes it illegal to plant any +more maguey, and perhaps the time will come when the stuff that +befuddles the people of the Mexican highlands will be as unknown there +as it is elsewhere. + + + My First Tramp in Mexico + +I left the train one morning at the station of Dolores Hidalgo. The town +itself, I found, was several miles from the station. A tiny mule-drawn +street car covered the distance, but I preferred to walk. On the way I +met a beggar riding a donkey. He answered my “Buenos dias” (“Good +morning”) with a whine of “A little alms, _caballero_.” As _caballero_ +is the Spanish word for horseman (though it has come to mean +“gentleman”) it seemed strange to me to be called that by a man who was +riding while I was on foot. + +[Illustration: + + In this house in the town of Dolores Hidalgo lived the priest who in + 1810 started the revolution against Spanish rule. +] + +Dolores Hidalgo is named for the priest who began the Mexican revolution +against Spanish rule. He lived in this quiet little town with its two +enormous churches, and travelers may still see his house, where most of +the furniture is just as he left it when he was captured and executed by +the Spaniards. From Dolores Hidalgo I struck off across the country +toward the important city of Guanajuato. There was no road except a +trail or path that now and then seemed to lose itself. Fences are almost +as unknown in Mexico as they are in China, and when I heard bulls +bellowing savagely not far from me, I looked about for a tree to climb +in case of need. However, the region resembled China in its treelessness +as well as in the scarcity of fences. There were forests of cactus +almost as big as trees, but it would have been a painful job to climb +one of those spiny things. + +[Illustration: + + A Mexican village in which I spent a night. Such _adobe_ (mud-brick) + houses roofed with thatch are found in many parts of Mexico. +] + +I saw that the ground along the way was dotted with tunas, which we call +cactus apples. These are bright red when ripe, very full of seeds, but +quite juicy and rather good, at least for thirst. But you must not +forget to peel off the thick outside rind, or you will think you are +eating a cushion full of pins. Before it is peeled the tuna is harder to +handle than a porcupine, leaving the fingers full of little spines that +are very hard to remove. A curious thing about the cactus apple is that +it grows on the edge of the plant’s leaves, sometimes a dozen apples +encircling one leaf. + + + A Cold Lodging + +That night I slept in an Indian hut made of _adobe_ (mud and straw +bricks baked in the sun) and grass. My lodging cost me three Mexican +cents. The Mexican dollar and cent, by the way, are worth only half as +much as our own. My bed was a reed mat about three feet long, and my +room was really the family barnyard, with chickens and donkeys all about +me. For supper the woman served me a bowl of _sopita_ (called “little +soup” because it is so thin), corn _tortillas_, white cheese, and boiled +peppers. The boy of the family wandered about eating cornstalks as if +they were sugar cane. I shivered nearly all night, though I was far down +in the tropics. + +Long before daylight the woman of the house got up and began making +_atole_. She took some shelled corn and sprinkled it in the hollow of a +large stone. Then she crushed it with a stone rolling-pin, strained it +through a sieve, and threw it into boiling water. It took her a whole +hour to make the _atole_, and it certainly was not worth the trouble. It +was hot, but it tasted like water in which corn husks had been boiled. +That was even sadder than the ordinary scant Mexican breakfast. But my +bill for supper, lodging and breakfast was only six cents! + +All that morning and half the afternoon I tramped along a trail that was +sometimes deep in sand or sticky mud, and sometimes a slope of +cobblestones thrown together on a steep hillside. I met or overtook many +donkeys, loaded with crates of cactus-fruit, railroad ties, ears of +corn, and sometimes with women and children. By and by peons or workmen +in American overalls began to appear. + +Most of them were quite friendly, but some had been drinking, and acted +as if they wanted to pick a quarrel. Once, when I sat resting at a high +spot on the trail, three drunken peons came stumbling over toward me. +One of them, about forty years old, thrust his _pulque_-scented face +into mine and demanded a cigarette. But I was watching one of the +others, a ragged youth who slowly walked in my direction, with one arm +held behind him. He had a very wicked gleam in his eye. Suddenly I +jumped up and snatched the hidden hand into sight. It held a large, +sharp-pointed piece of broken rock. I knocked this out of his hand, but +instead of trying to fight he let his two companions drag him away down +the trail. I strolled on after this incident and a few minutes later +came out high above the famous mining city of Guanajuato. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + I GO TO WORK IN A MINE + + +Some people, thinking of the shape of Mexico and Central America, have +called it a great horn into which United States citizens pour immense +sums of money. While it is true that we have many large investments in +that region, the horn is rather a horn of plenty, pouring out upon us +dividends, silver, gold, copper, and oil. + +There are more than five thousand mines in Mexico, between the northern +border and Oaxaca, where mountains and mines begin to subside. Some of +these mines produced for Montezuma, then for the Spaniards, and now for +Americans, who own eighty per cent of the mines of Mexico. The Aztecs of +to-day are still delving in the depths of the earth, but for American +stockholders rather than for native or Spanish rulers. Of many valuable +minerals within Mexico, silver is the most important. Mexico is the +largest producer of this metal anywhere; it gives us three-fourths of +our silver, and in most silver ore there is more or less gold. Much of +its copper and lead also are sent to us. An iron mountain rises in the +city of Durango. Mexico is second only to the United States in the +production of oil, and in time it may produce more. Even now we import +oil from our southern neighbor. + +I was so much interested in the subject of mining in Mexico that I +decided to go to work in a mine. Agriculture, the other important +Mexican industry, I could see while walking about the country; but to +learn much about mining and the ways of miners, I should have to go down +_into_ Mexico in a different way from that followed by most travelers. + +There was no better place to do this than Guanajuato, a great mining +center. A schoolmate of mine was superintendent of the most important +group of mines there. When he heard of my desire, he quickly offered me +a job, advising me to start with the mine named Pingüico. + +[Illustration: + + The city of Guanajuato is surrounded by mountains containing many + valuable mines. The Alhóndiga, once the Spanish headquarters and now + a prison, rises above the other buildings. +] + + + The Sights of Guanajuato + +Before I mounted a horse and rode out to the mine, 8,200 feet above sea +level, I roamed all about Guanajuato city. Its name, meaning Hill of +Frogs, seems to fit it. Gigantic carved stone frogs are found in one +part of the city. With its population it lies huddled down in a great +basin, a blue labyrinth of mountains heaped up on all sides. The main +street is like a stream at the bottom of the hollow, and many of the +side streets are as steep as stairways. The roof of one house is +sometimes below the doorstep of the one behind it. The climate is almost +perfect. The year round there are brilliant days such as Lowell +celebrated in his lines on June, and cool, mosquito-less nights. + +A famous old Spanish fortress called the Alhóndiga bulks above +everything else, like a huge packing box in the center of a toy city. On +one corner of it the head of Father Hidalgo, the “father of Mexican +independence,” hung for years, as a warning to others not to try to +overthrow Spanish rule. Now the Alhóndiga is a prison. I spent two hours +there—though only as a visitor! Inside the building the prisoners seemed +to have much freedom. Some lay in the bright sunshine in the stone-paved +_patio_, others washed themselves and their clothing at a huge fountain. +During the day many of them worked at weaving hats and baskets, making +brushes and similar things. These they sold for themselves, so that they +could buy food from outside. The cells were much larger than most prison +cells, because they were once the chambers of the colonial government. + +[Illustration: + + Prisoners in the Alhóndiga in Guanajuato wash their clothing in one of + the great basins left by the Spanish. +] + +Guanajuato is full of color. There are flowers everywhere, even inside +the prison. The houses are painted pink, cream, blue, green, or whatever +hue the owner fancies. The blankets of the lower-class men, the garments +of the women, and the motley array of things in the market streets all +make a jumble of colors. + +In Guanajuato there are mummies which are not embalmed and purposely +preserved, like the mummies of ancient Egypt, but corpses that are +naturally preserved by some queer quality in the soil. I went down into +a high vaulted corridor where there were more than a hundred bodies +shrouded in sheets but looking much as they did in life. + + + What I Saw at the Mine + +From the veranda of the mine building at Pingüico we could look down two +thousand feet to a great plain of the Mexican table-land. We could see +half a dozen towns, some more than twenty miles away, and many trails +like brown threads winding off across the plain and up into the +mountains. The travelers plodding along them seemed no larger than ants. + +With one or two other Americans I jumped upon a little square platform +hanging just below a huge iron bucket that was full of Mexican miners. +Someone blew a whistle and down we went, at the end of a steel cable, +into a kind of well or shaft drilled in the rocky mountain, a thousand +feet deep. Some of the shafts were still deeper. Once in a while, during +the descent or the ascent, the hoist engine would get out of order and +for ten minutes (which seemed as many hours) we would hang suspended in +the inky blackness. + +At the bottom of the shaft we stepped out in a long low gallery with +walls of solid rock. Far back at the end of this gallery, or some of its +smaller branches, miners were digging away at a _veta_, or ore vein. It +was very hot in most parts of the mine, and the Indian and peon miners +wore only a loin cloth, a pair of leather soles, and a huge straw hat. I +wondered what they could need the hat for, with two thousand feet of +earth and rock between them and the sun, until I saw a great piece of +jagged rock come tumbling down on a man’s head as he picked at the vein +of ore. + +Some of the men worked in pairs. One held an iron bar like a huge chisel +and another struck it all day or all night long with a sledge. There +were two or three sets or shifts of miners, and one set came to work +when the other left, so that the mining continued all the time. When a +deep enough hole had been made, dynamite was thrust into it, someone +lighted the fuse and shouted a warning to everyone to keep back, and +with a “bang!” down would come a mass of rock ore. However, most of the +mining in Pingüico was done with automatic drills, which made holes in +the rock much sooner than the hand chisels, but with a terrific noise. +The miners were so careless in handling the dynamite that it was no +wonder some of them had only one arm or one eye, or were covered with +great scars. + +My own work was to take samples. Whenever one of the little iron cars +filled with ore passed me on the tiny railroad that was laid along each +gallery, I snatched a handful of the ore and put it into a sack. The +samples were sent up to the office to be assayed (examined) to see how +much gold and silver and copper each “heading” or vein was giving. Later +I had to go down many hundred feet more, worm my way through small +holes, and with a hammer chip rock samples off the top of a gallery. It +was terribly hot in such “pockets.” Perspiration ran in streams down the +naked brown body of the miner who, holding a big straw hat under my +hammer, caught most of the samples I chipped off. Some of the samples +dropped into his thick hair and stayed there until he picked them out. + +[Illustration: + + Cutting ore by hand in one of the galleries in Pingüico mine. The + miners could not stand the heat if they wore clothing. +] + +The miners were very religious. They set up empty dynamite boxes as +altars or shrines, and placed in each either a cross or a cheap picture +of the Virgin Mary. They always kept at least one candle burning in such +a shrine. When I was ready to leave a part of the mine that was not +lighted with electricity, some miner was sure to beg my piece of candle +for a shrine. In the morning several of the miners would bring bunches +of freshly picked flowers to set before the image. Most of the men wore +about their necks a rosary or a charm, such as a prayer written on paper +and folded up into a little wallet. Some of them chanted a prayer when +the cage was dropping down into the earth. Many of them swore +dreadfully, but they stopped it for a moment whenever they passed one of +the dynamite-box shrines, and snatched off their hats. Yet they did not +care at all if one of the American mine bosses stopped to light his +cigarette at one of the candles burning before the Virgin’s image. + +It was always very pleasant to come out into the sunshine again after a +day down in the mine. There was a hot and cold shower bath for the +Americans, but the Mexicans never seemed to bathe. Afterward, we men +from the north gathered around a table for a big American-style meal +prepared by the Chinese cook. At night the mountain world was very +still, but we could always hear the rumble of the hoist engines and the +other machinery of the mine, as if a great giant within the earth were +grumbling because he could not get out. + + + Following the Ore + +I spent a month at Pingüico mine. During the last half of this time I +was a car boss. My work then was to keep constantly after the miners and +see that they did not hide one of the ore cars in a dark side passage, +or tip a load over, or do any other mischief in order to loaf while we +straightened things out or found more cars. At the end of October, I +drew my wages and set out to see what became of the ore when it left the +mine. + +After being hauled to the surface in the great iron buckets which were +used as elevators by the miners themselves, the ore was thrown out on a +“gridley”—a kind of screen or gridiron made of railroad rails. There it +was broken up, and the rocks that had no “values” in them were thrown +out on a great hill. This hill, which rose far above a little native +hamlet, was entirely made up of waste. A small train carried the rest of +the ore to the noisy stamp mill. This was built on the side of a hill, +so that when the ore was dumped into the bins at the top, gravity +carried it on down until nothing was left but some whitish sand from +which all the values had been extracted. + +Big stones were broken up by hand. Middle-sized stones, spread by +machinery on broad leather belts, moved past several peon women, who +picked out the worthless stones and threw them away. Small stones went +directly under the stamps, and the others followed as soon as they were +ready. Each of the great iron stamps weighed several tons, and struck +several blows a second. Water was poured in as the stones were being +broken up, and the resulting mixture, smelling much like mortar or wet +lime, was run into huge iron cylinders, rolled and rolled, and poured +out upon zinc platforms. Over the platforms, which were constantly +shaking, water flowed. Finally the heavier, valuable stuff ran into huge +vats, in which it was stirred and watered for several days, until the +values had settled and could be drawn off at the bottom. That left in +the vat only worthless white sand which two peons kept shoveling out and +carrying down to the valley below. + +[Illustration: + + Rochester Photo, Mexico City + + The outdoor part of the Pachuca mine in Mexico. The ore starts at the + top of the stamp mill and is reduced to almost pure silver or gold + by the time it reaches the bottom. +] + +The last samples I took in the mine showed nine pounds of silver and +twenty-three grams of gold to the ton of ore. From this you see that a +great deal of work has to be done to get a small amount of valuable +metal. The Aztecs and the Spaniards had very crude methods of working +out the ore. One way was to spread it over a stone-paved _patio_, mix it +with mercury, and drive mules and donkeys round and round in it for days +at a time. The American methods are so much more thorough that any of +the old “dumps” of the Spaniards are worth sending through a stamping +mill for the values left in them. In fact I know of one great stone +house, a superintendent’s home, that was torn down and sent through the +stamp mill. It yielded silver and gold enough for a good profit over the +cost of building a new house. When the values have finally been run down +into smaller vats and treated with zinc shavings, there comes out a dark +metal that is about half pure, silver and gold. This is put into melting +pots inside a padlocked room and run into large molds, then melted again +and finally turned into dark-gray blocks that look like paving bricks. +One of these blocks, so heavy that only a strong boy can lift it, is 85% +pure and worth about $1,250. Two or four such blocks are tied on the +back of a donkey and taken down to the town office or the railway +station under guard. + + + “High-Graders” + +At the mine I had found that whenever a set of miners came up out of the +shaft, they were required to stand one by one on a wooden block, with +their arms stretched out, and be searched for stolen ore. Workmen toward +the bottom of the stamp mill, where the material becomes quite valuable, +are locked inside rooms walled with chicken wire. A mere handful of +metal, or a flat sliver of it that can be hidden between the sole of the +foot and the leather sandal, may be worth several dollars. In some of +the mines about Guanajuato there are real gangs of bandits who carry +revolvers and take “high-grade” (valuable ore) by force. But most of the +“high-graders” are regular miners or workmen who hide a little precious +metal on their persons and attempt to get home with it. They try to +justify themselves in doing this on the ground that Mexico, with the +precious metals inside it, more rightfully belongs to them, the +descendants of the Toltecs and the Aztecs, than to the foreigners who +own the mines. + +[Illustration: + + Indian miners of Peregrina mine being led off to prison because they + had tried to steal pieces of silver and gold ore. +] + +On the day I went to the stamp mill, the American manager had planned a +special search for stolen ore. When it came time for the workmen in the +zinc room to leave, the _jefe político_, or chief Mexican official of +the district, was there to search them. These workmen have to have two +sets of clothing, one for outdoors and one to wear while at work. When +they come to work, or when they leave, they strip in one room and walk +into the next to dress in the clothes they have left there. But even so, +they manage to steal scraps and slivers of silver and gold, such as the +chips knocked off when the metal is cast in molds. Of the five men +searched that day, three had some “high-grade” concealed about them. One +wore a pair of shoes, which seemed a strange thing for a Mexican peon to +have; a lump of silver was discovered in each toe. Another had a piece +of silver about as big as a dollar in the little wallet intended for a +paper prayer or the picture of some saint. The third had a scrap of pure +metal tucked into the top of his hat. + +[Illustration: + + Mexican soldiers in a mining district have plenty of cartridges and + most of their rifles are modern, but their uniforms are much like + the clothes of civilians. +] + +One of the two innocent men was sent running to town for policemen. +These officers of the law wore very shoddy uniforms, carried clubs, and +had enormous revolvers sticking out through their short coat-tails. But +they were so much like the poorly paid and hardworked peons that it +seemed very unbrotherly of them to tie ropes about the waists of the +thieves and drive them away to prison. Some Mexican prisons are well +built and almost too comfortable. But the cold, stone-floored, bedless +calaboose in one of these small mountain towns is not a pleasant place, +and poor prisoners are kept waiting weeks and perhaps months until the +judge is ready to call them for trial. + +[Illustration: + + Mexico may have been the original home of Indian corn. It is the staff + of life of the people. One sees great valleys filled with it. +] + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + VARIED PRODUCTS AND HOW THEY ARE SOLD + + +To the average stay-at-home American, Mexico is only a sun-scorched +desert. He usually knows only about the northern section of it, so much +like the thirsty parts of Texas and Arizona. His imagination pictures +great stretches of half-desert framed in purple mountains. + +In reality, Mexico has a great variety of natural features and +corresponding variety in climate and products. It has great snow fields +which never melt, sandy wastes, highlands swept by cold winds, +delightful temperate valleys, tropical jungles dense with vegetation. + +Although snow falls on the mountain tops, there is really no winter. +There are two seasons, the wet and the dry. The dry season (during our +winter months) is generally the pleasanter. But the rainy season is not +unpleasant, for it seldom rains long at a time. From June to September, +there is a shower almost every night, and in the morning the sky is a +brilliant blue, every leaf and flower fresh and fragrant, as if the +whole universe had been freshly washed. From October to May there is +almost no rain. The great plateau has a kind of perpetual spring, except +that the nights are cold. After sunset the policemen of Mexico City, and +many other inhabitants of the high places, wrap a cloth about their +throats and over their mouths, believing the night air to be bad for the +lungs. A visitor from the north enjoys the air, day or night. + +[Illustration: + + Rochester Photo, Mexico City + + A collection of the wonderful fruits of Mexico—oranges as big as our + grapefruit, luscious figs, bananas, and some other fruits which we + in the United States never see. +] + + + Mexico Has Many Products + +Almost everything can be grown in Mexico, because its elevation varies +from sea level to a height of more than two miles. Wheat is grown in the +highlands, two crops a year in some places. Most of it is brought to +threshing mills in great fiber mats, usually on men’s backs. But corn, +rather than wheat, is the Mexican “staff of life.” Some scientists think +that Mexico is the original home of the maize or Indian corn; certainly +this is Mexico’s chief agricultural product. It grows not only in the +highlands, where there are evergreens and oaks, but also in the hot +lands. Beans and barley, tobacco, cotton, sugar cane, coffee, sisal +hemp, cacao, and many kinds of tropical fruit are grown in Mexico. +Cattle and sheep are raised, timber is cut, precious metals and oil are +obtained from the ground. + +From sisal hemp, which grows best in Yucatan, are made ropes, hammocks, +and much of the binding twine used in our wheat fields. Cacao comes in +the form of large, flat, brown beans contained in pods that hang from +the lower branches of a big bushy plant. The beans are dried in the +sunshine, ground up, and mixed with sugar to make chocolate and cocoa. + +Like the Chinese, the Aztecs used no wool until they learned to do so +from Europeans. But they grew and used cotton, and they wove henequen, +maguey and cactus fiber centuries before the Spaniards came. Henequen, a +variety of sisal hemp, has the longest fiber and is therefore used for +binding twine. From the cactus Mexicans take a thorn, with a long fiber +attached, to use for rough sewing. Such a natural needle and thread has +been common since before the days of Montezuma. Even after they learned +the advantages of wool, the Mexicans wove by hand cactus fiber or hemp +_sarapes_ and blankets with strange designs and colorings, as did the +Indians of our Southwest. Now such things are rarely handmade, even in +Mexico. + +In the tropical parts of Mexico are great forests containing enough +mahogany to make that wood as cheap as oak, if it were not so difficult +to transport. The most valuable hardwood logs are too heavy to float +downstream, and building railroads to bring them out is expensive. On +the coasts are many kinds of palm trees, and large plantations of +coconuts. The coconut meat, called copra, gives us a valuable oil. +Excellent oranges are grown in the valleys; bananas, olives, indigo, and +the chicle from which we make chewing gum are produced in the hot parts +of the country. + +In the United States we can buy the same things in cities and towns +which are far apart. That is because we have great companies sending +their products all over the country. But in Mexico, as in China, each +village has its particular product, which sometimes cannot be bought +anywhere else. Irapuato is noted for strawberries. Celaya makes a kind +of fudge, which is sold in tiny wooden boxes. At Querétaro opals from +the mines near by are peddled on the streets and at the station. Lariats +and ropes are the specialty of San Juan del Río. The bad roads prevent +towns from exchanging products, and so does the _acabala_. This is a tax +levied by local officials on what is brought into a town to be sold. + +The Spaniards taught the Mexicans, partly or entirely, how to make many +things. But one art that is genuinely Indian is the making of pottery. +Coming down directly from Aztec times, Mexican pottery to-day has almost +the same forms and colors as the pottery found in prehistoric mounds. +Much skill is shown in the modeling of _tipos populares_, little painted +earthenware vases shaped like the human figure and often as small as our +smallest dolls. They are complete, even to the tiny sandal thongs. + + + A Land of Markets + +Many Mexican products are sold in public markets. When Cortés came to +Mexico, he and his followers were amazed at the size of the Mexican +markets; and so is the traveler of to-day. The tiniest village has its +marketplace, where business is sometimes still carried on by barter, +that is, by trading one thing for another without using money. In +Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, where Mexico City now stands, Cortés +says he saw sixty thousand people in the markets four days out of five +and on every fifth day a hundred thousand. + +[Illustration: + + Rochester Photo, Mexico City + + A warehouse in a Mexican sugar mill. The juice of the sugar cane is + boiled down and run into molds of this shape, after which it may be + refined until it becomes the snow-white sugar that we use on our + tables. +] + +Native markets are interesting sights in any part of the world, and very +decidedly so in Mexico. Though there are stores much like ours in all +the larger towns and cities, the common people do most of their buying +in the market. This is usually a stone-paved yard covered by a +sheet-iron roof. As it is seldom big enough to hold all the sellers and +buyers, especially on the chief market day (often Sunday), the streets +all about the market swarm with queer-looking people. One sees much +vivid color and all manner of goods. + +Ragged men and women squat on the narrow sidewalks or even in the +street. Spread out before them are gay blankets, _sarapes_, clothing, +old shoes, new sandals, rawhide thongs, lassos, native saddles, +drygoods. For block after block are displayed sweetmeats, fruits, food +(cooked and uncooked), native fabrics, precious stones and other stones +that are merely pretty, matting, shells, feathers, baskets with colored +designs, native herbs and medicines. Sections of the cobbled floor and +street are covered with Indian pottery—jugs, pots, earthenware kettles. + +There are big round cakes of what looks like maple sugar, though it is +really ordinary sugar—what the Indian gets when he boils down sugar-cane +juice in one of his crude kettles. We see a coarse kind of flour (it +looks as if it had been mixed with gravel!), lumps of rock salt, a kind +of native spaghetti, red and green peppers, red and black beans, ears of +corn, shelled corn, corn meal, corn cakes, slabs of meat, fish which +looks none too fresh. Chickens, their wings broken or their legs +hobbled, lie forlornly on the stony ground. Ducks and turkeys are tied +to the posts that support the roof. The turkey, by the way, is a native +of Mexico. The Aztec name for it was _guajalotl_, a word which, as you +might guess, came from the sound made by the gobbler. The Mexicans still +call it _guajalote_ instead of using the Spanish name. + +Every market has its babies, crawling about under foot or carried +papoose-fashion on the mother’s back. Dogs, flies, noises, confusion do +not increase the visitor’s pleasure, but the Mexican of the lower +classes does not mind. He loves excitement. Everything is sold by count +or measure instead of weight, just as in Aztec days, when almost the +only money consisted of transparent quills filled with gold dust, +T-shaped pieces of tin and copper, and cacao beans. Bundles of corn +husks are used as wrapping paper. Many of the purchases are very +small—ten peanuts bought for a cent, a handful of tiny potatoes, slices +of squash and pumpkin, a cent’s worth of cabbage, eggs by the _mano_ (or +“hand”) which means five at a time. If you wish to buy five dozen eggs, +you will have to buy a dozen “hands,” paying for each “hand” at a +time—for the Indians are not good at arithmetic. + +About the streets wander peddlers of fowls, almost hidden beneath a +dozen or more cages of chickens. Gamecocks are carried in little +cigar-shaped baskets so that they cannot get hurt or hurt one another. +Other peddlers have parrots, screeching parakeets, and canaries; still +others oranges, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, pomegranates, and the +large, oblong, pulpy fruit called papayas. + +An Indian, driving his flock of turkeys to market with a long whip (much +like the whip used by a Chinese duck herder), may sell one or two +turkeys along the way, but he will not sell them all at once, even in +the market. He seems to feel that this would cheat him out of his day in +town. I know an American who tried unsuccessfully to buy all the broom +corn in a market, at a higher price than the sellers could get for the +finished brooms. They said that if they sold it all they would have no +work to do for the coming month! + + + The Mexican Market Is a Queer Place + +If you stop to buy a _tortilla_, all the other _tortilla_ sellers will +begin to shriek that the _tortillas_ you are looking at are very poor +ones, and that theirs are better. Beggars wander about. An old woman +stoops to pick up three or four grains of corn that someone has dropped, +and tucks them carefully away. You stop at an open-air restaurant in the +market, where you perch on a narrow wooden bench and eat from a very +rough table. But being a foreigner, you attract so much attention that +you decide to dine thereafter at a hotel. + +Then there are “readers.” Because most of the people cannot read, men +and women who can are scattered through the crowd to do so. They read +very fast indeed, usually from strips of cheaply-printed colored paper. +Sometimes the strips are political arguments, sometimes poetry, +sometimes stories. The readers are paid for their work by selling copies +of each sheet after they have read it. Now and then a couple of +musicians, one with a rude harp, another striking a steel triangle, sing +mournful songs. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE IN MEXICO + + +November had come when I took the train at Guanajuato and traveled down +to Silao through broad plains of corn. So late in the fall it seemed +strange to find dozens of women at the Irapuato station selling +strawberries, but one can buy strawberries at Irapuato every day in the +year. The basket I bought was a foot in diameter and cost only a +quarter, so I was only amused to find all the largest berries carefully +arranged at the top, with smaller and smaller ones toward the bottom. I +still had some left when I reached Guadalajara after dark the next day. + +All three of the main railroads carry their passengers to Guadalajara, +the second largest and, in some respects, the finest city of Mexico. It +is the capital of Jalisco, one of the richest states in the country. At +an altitude of five thousand feet, Guadalajara has a better climate than +lofty Mexico City. With its twenty _plazas_ and many splendid buildings, +it reminds the traveler of a southern European city. In fact, it is +often called the Athens of Mexico. In the business part of town the +sidewalks are covered with _portales_, great stone or _adobe_ archways +that form arcades along the edge of the street. One can stroll from +store to store without stepping out into the hot sunshine. Guadalajara +is noted for its _porrónes_, or porous clay jars in which water will +remain cold even on the warmest day. + +[Illustration: + + Delicious strawberries are sold at the station of Irapuato every day + in the year. +] + +One of the reasons that Guadalajara is so fine a city, and that its +people are above the average in Mexico, is that there is no _pulque_ in +the state of Jalisco. Although its soil is very fertile, the maguey does +not grow well. Drunkenness is rare, and there are no _pulquerías_ to +offend the traveler’s nose. Almost every night the band plays in the +beautiful central _plaza_, and there are even occasional big electric +advertising signs that remind one of large cities in the United States. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Looking down upon the market house at Guadalajara, Mexico. +] + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + As one looks across the city of Guadalajara, he can easily understand + why Mexico has been called the country of domes. +] + +Almost the only thing that keeps Guadalajara from being a favorite +resort for rich American invalids is that its nights are too noisy. The +Mexicans, like other Latin-Americans, do not seem to mind noise and +uproar as much as we do. In fact, most of them seem to enjoy it. The +policemen of Guadalajara all blow their whistles about every ten minutes +from midnight until daylight, as if they were trying to keep up one +another’s courage. All night long, electric street cars pound over the +rails, creak at the switches, their gongs ringing constantly. Young men, +who enjoy life too much to go to sleep, gather under a window to +serenade some beautiful maiden, or wander through the streets, singing +(or trying to sing) and playing guitars. About four in the morning, when +the other noises die down, all the church bells in town begin ringing. +They waken hundreds of dogs and roosters, who join the uproar, and soon +afterward the peddlers begin to shout their wares. By this time the +traveler is convinced that he will get no more sleep. + + + Round about Lake Chapala + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + The Falls of Juanacatlan are sometimes called “the Niagara of Mexico.” +] + +Not far from Guadalajara are the Juanacatlan Falls which furnish +electric power and light for the city. Five hundred feet wide and +seventy feet high, they are often called “the Niagara of Mexico.” The +Santiago River in which these falls occur flows into beautiful Lake +Chapala, the second largest body of fresh water between Lake Michigan +and Lake Titicaca, far down in South America. One lake in Nicaragua is +larger. Lake Chapala is seventy miles long and twenty miles wide. Birds +from as far north as Labrador come to spend the winter about it—and so +do many wealthy people from the United States! It seems strange to find +so large a body of water almost a mile above the level of the ocean. +Like our Lake Erie, it is quite shallow, and violent storms often sweep +across it. Fishermen, before setting out, almost always step into the +Chapala village church to pray that St. Peter, their patron saint, will +grant them a safe return. At this church, on the morning I left, the +waves were dashing as if angry with it for cheating them of their prey. +Yet the evening before, in water that was calm and friendly, I had a +splendid moonlight swim that I shall never forget. + +[Illustration: + + I take a horseback ride about Guanajuato. The picture shows several + forms of cactus. +] + +I had intended to have one of the fishermen take me down the lake in a +small open boat, but the storm was so high that none of them would go. +So I had a very pleasant summer walk to a great _hacienda_, or estate, +owned by an American, at the other end of the lake. Along the way the +roads and trails were not hard-paved and crowded, but soft and +wandering, as if they were meant rather for walkers than for +automobiles. Mud fences or walls lined some of the trails, but most of +them had only open fields on either side, with clusters of _adobe_ +houses here and there. I met hundreds of Indians carrying on their backs +pottery and earthenware figures wrapped in hay or grass. They were on +their way to Guadalajara, for the next day, Sunday, was a great market +day in that city. + +One of the pleasures of life in Mexico is horseback riding. Nearly all +the Mexicans, except the poorest class and those who live in large +cities, have horses, and so do most of the Americans and some other +foreign residents. (At last count, by the way, there were about 100,000 +foreigners in Mexico.) I had had many a ride over the mountains about +Guanajuato, and I rode all over this fine American _hacienda_. For miles +in every direction vast fields were being plowed by oxen. The white +garments of the drivers spotted the brown landscape. In the clear air of +the Mexican table-land one can see much farther than in most places. At +night there seem to be several times as many stars in the sky as we can +see at home. + +Once I stopped at the _adobe_ home of a bee-keeper, and his wife hurried +out with a big bowl of clear honey, and some _tortillas_. The bees lived +in hollow logs having little thatched roofs. Out in the bushy foothills +where land was not worth cultivating, we met the herdsman who was +responsible for the _hacienda_ cattle. His face was sunburned almost to +the same color as his leather clothing. He knew by name all the animals +under his charge, while the American owner did not even know how many +there were, unless he looked the matter up in his office records. Once I +climbed so high that I could see all of Lake Chapala, and range after +range of the mountains not only of Jalisco but of Michoacán across the +lake. To reach again the lake-front plantation house took my horse more +than an hour. He had to pick his way down stony trails through almost +perpendicular cornfields. + + + A Walk across Michoacán + +The next morning my American hosts sent me across the lake in their +launch. I found a trail, and walked all day across the state of +Michoacán. The scenery was beautiful. There were birds by the thousand. +Lazy _zopilotes_, big ugly vultures, sat sleepily in the sunshine or +circled slowly about overhead. Snow-white herons stood in the marshes, +looking for frogs and other prey. There were birds red, blue, green, +purple, golden, even lilac-colored. Wild ducks hovered about every reedy +pond. Eagles did aviator stunts in the sky. Great flocks of small +blackbirds flew close to the ground. The air was full of bird calls. + +Almost all that day’s walk was on a single estate, called the Guaracha +_hacienda_. It was one of those huge tracts of land owned by the same +Mexican family for many generations. Just as my shadow was beginning to +look very long and ungainly I reached the headquarters of the estate. +Hundreds of white-clothed workmen, their day’s work done, were coming +toward it from every direction. They all lived in a village of huts +clustered about the owner’s residence and offices. I passed through +several big gates and crossed three or four cobblestone-paved yards. In +one of the outer courtyards were dozens of clumsy two-wheeled carts and +in another were at least two hundred mules. The inmost yard was a garden +of flowers, and at last I came to the great cement-floored veranda of +the owner’s house, its roof supported by immense pillars. + +[Illustration: + + Making roof tiles on a big Mexican estate. There are few wooden houses + in Mexico and shingles are almost never used. Tiles, made of clay + and sand much as we make bricks, cover most of the roofs. +] + +The owner was not at home. In fact he had not been there for years. Like +many of the rich landowners of Mexico, he preferred to live elsewhere—in +Mexico City, New York, or Paris. The estate was managed by an +_administrador_, or manager. He appeared, wearing a white jacket and +skin-tight trousers, with an immense revolver strapped on his left hip. +Welcoming me with Mexican politeness, he ordered the servants to prepare +dinner and a bed for me. Although he was more courteous than most +Americans, I felt at the time, and still feel, that he did not like +“gringo” visitors. He sat with me awhile, but would not join me at +supper, saying he was afraid of getting too stout if he ate more than +twice a day. + +Such immense estates as this, with owners who live like kings on what +their peons produce, are the ones which the Mexican Government is +attempting to divide among the people who do the actual work. (You will +find more about this in Chapter XII.) One front corner of the Guaracha +_hacienda_ house was used as a store, and the other as a church. Many of +the peons were in the store, buying on credit against their future +wages. After evening church service (held every night) the priest sat +with us on the veranda and told amusing stories. He had on a huge black +Texas hat and what seemed to be about half a dozen long robes. The +Indian workmen, their wives and children came up now and then to kiss +his hand. + + + I Continue to Tramp + +The _administrador_ insisted on lending me a horse for the rest of my +trip across his estate. He seemed to think that the white or upper class +would be disgraced if the common people saw me walking. The horse and +the _mozo_, who was to take him back, landed me at a railroad station. +But I left the train at Zamora and set out on foot again. + +[Illustration: + + The interior of a Mexican hut. The cookstove consists of three stones + laid together, with a little fire between them. In this very humble + home the family and the family cat are quite contented. +] + +It was barely daylight when I started. Hundreds of Tarascan Indians, +going down to town for market day, crowded the narrow, winding trail for +the first few miles. They were not exactly friendly, but they showed no +desire to harm me, though an American who lived near Zamora had told me +it was dangerous to take a walking trip among them. The trail stumbled +over long stretches of jagged rocks, wandered in the bed of a mountain +stream, then climbed through thin pine forests, the wind whistling +mournfully. There were many cornfields. Suddenly I remembered what I had +heard about these Indians. Although they had not welcomed me with open +arms, all had said “Adiós” or some other Mexican form of “Good day,” if +I spoke to them first. But when I stepped into a field to photograph a +man guiding a wooden plow, to which were hitched a donkey and a cow, he +shouted, “No, señor, I don’t want it.” + +“Why can’t I take your picture?” I asked. + +“Because I don’t want it taken,” he replied. + +On my travels, I have often met people who objected to being +photographed. Many tribes and races are superstitious about photography, +as this Indian evidently was. They think that a man who has their +picture can harm them by harming the picture. However, very few of them +are as determined as this Tarascan Indian, who picked up a kind of +ax-hammer and strode toward me swinging it threateningly. Having already +decided to oblige him by not taking his picture, I went on my way before +the argument grew more personal. + +In the straggling towns, with their buildings of thatch and rubbish, +there was no objection to my camera. Indeed, the people were eager to be +photographed, but they always wished to see the picture the moment I had +snapped it. I never could make them understand that there would be +nothing to see if I opened the camera and showed them the film. One +friendly old woman let me photograph the interior of her hut, with her +cat sitting on the earth floor beside the “hearth”—a fire built between +three stones. Then she brought out a tiny photograph of her dead son and +asked me to make a life-size picture from it! + + + The Dangers of the Trail + +Late that afternoon I was reminded again of the American’s warning. Just +at sunset I heard half a dozen peons singing and shouting as they came +over the top of the hill ahead. I was sure they had been drinking +_mescal_ or _tequila_, and knowing how quarrelsome the peons can be when +drunk, I was not surprised at their inviting me to a duel. I carried a +revolver, but it was too small to do much harm. Besides, I wanted to +keep out of trouble. I acted as friendly as possible; but the biggest +and most intoxicated man in the group had a large new revolver which he +seemed bent on trying out on me. Fortunately it took him some time to +get his courage up, and while I kept my boy’s weapon pointed at him I +backed away down the road. Finally he fired four shots at me, but his +aim was poor. All the men, women and children traveling in my direction +gathered close about me, hoping I would protect them from their drunken +fellow-countrymen! + +The next day’s walk through a great pine forest was delightful, although +my early morning start was a cold one. At last the trail, unraveling +like a broken shoestring, went swiftly down a great mountain into the +town of Uruapan. It was as different from the town where I had spent the +preceding night as Florida is from Illinois. The houses were set in +banana groves, and many of them were lightly made. The people, +surrounded by flowers, seemed more cheerful than those up on the bleak +plateau, and I should have liked to stay longer among them. + + + + + CHAPTER X + GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH MEXICO CITY + + +THE only train out of Uruapan left long before daylight. There was such +a crowd of peons about the tiny waist-high ticket window that by the +time I got my ticket I felt as if I had played through a championship +football game. After traveling for an hour or two across a land of +cornfields pink with cosmos flowers, the train began to climb. It went +up in great loops to a high station from which I had a wonderful view, +and then raced down the other side to beautiful Lake Pátzcuaro. The town +of the same name is very old, and lazy, and delightful. The grass grows +up between the cobblestones of the streets, but no one seems to care. +The people look and act as if they were asking, “What is the use of +doing to-day what we can put off until to-morrow?” This philosophy of +life seems, to keep them happy, but most of us would hardly be contented +to imitate them. + +On the edge of Pátzcuaro is a hill called Calvary, the summit reached by +a steep and stony trail along which are fourteen “stations of the +cross.” The pious people of this region often go up there to pray. From +that height the landscape with its mountains and plains looks like a +huge brown sun-faded tapestry. In the center, as if it were a great +ragged hole in the fabric, lies Lake Pátzcuaro. Sandy promontories and +tongues of mountains give it a very strange shape. On the shore of the +lake, a few miles from Pátzcuaro town, lies what is left of the ancient +capital of the Tarascan Indians. + + + Tzintzuntzán and Morelia + +Tzintzuntzán was the residence of the chief of the Tarascan kingdom of +Michoacán, which was not conquered until ten years after Montezuma’s +empire fell. To reach it I started out early one morning, while +Pátzcuaro was still blanketed with fog. On the way I met long +processions of Tarascan Indians with red pottery, of every size from +cups to immense water jars, carried in nets on the backs of horses, +donkeys, men, and women. Even small children carried loads. Here and +there I picked up shining black obsidian, a hard stone used in olden +times in place of steel. Some of the pieces were in the form of +arrowheads and crude knives. + +I had hoped to have a swim in Lake Pátzcuaro. But though the trail often +touched the shore, this was so muddy that I should have had a mud bath +trying to get in or out of the clear water. + +Tzintzuntzán was once an important city, but even the splendid ruins +which travelers saw there a hundred years ago have almost disappeared. +Now it is really only a poor Indian village, with pigs roaming in the +cobble-paved or muddy streets. The bells of the ancient church are hung +in near-by trees so that they will be less likely to be shaken down by +earthquakes. Inside the church there is a picture, supposed to have been +painted by the great artist Titian, which is famous the world over. A +queer out-of-the-way place to find a masterpiece! + +[Illustration: + + In the church of the little old town of Tzintzuntzán, former capital + of an important Indian empire, is this famous painting, said to be + by the great Italian painter Titian. +] + +The modern capital of Michoacán is the city of Morelia. It lies in a +broad rolling plain, 6,200 feet above the sea. Across the town stretches +an ancient aqueduct, some of its high arches covered with masses of +purple bougainvillea. High above everything else stand the two beautiful +towers of the cathedral. Morelia is warm for all its height, and brown +with dust, while the country about it is almost treeless. If it were not +for _pulque_, the city might be as splendid as Guadalajara, for the +region is very fertile. As a matter of fact, the people are so slow and +backward that Michoacán is often called “the torpid state.” + +[Illustration: + + The stone chapel erected on the spot where Maximilian, the Austrian + archduke who tried to be emperor of Mexico, was shot by order of the + Mexican president Juárez. +] + + + On to Mexico City + +The railroads from Morelia to Mexico City make a great half-circle +through the candy-city of Celaya and the opal-town of Querétaro. The +latter is famous as the place where Maximilian was captured and ordered +shot by Benito Juárez. Out on a bare stony hillock at the edge of town +where the ill-fated emperor faced a firing squad, is a stone chapel +dedicated to him. There are fields of corn all about it, as if it were +no more famous than any other spot in Mexico. + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + The great Spanish aqueduct that brings water to the city of Querétaro. + The huge spiny cactus leaves in the foreground are the kind on which + grows the tuna or cactus apple. +] + +At Querétaro I caught a south-bound express train. We zigzagged up +through bare, stony country to reach the higher plateau of Mexico City. +There were still fields of maguey in long rows, with men gathering +_pulque_ in pigskin bags. But the maguey was the only green to be seen, +for the great cornfields had dried up that year for lack of summer rain. + +I should have preferred to enter Anáhuac, as the Aztecs called the +Valley of Mexico in which they built their capital, during the day. But +by the time we reached the highest point on the line, 8,237 feet above +the sea, the red sun was sinking behind the great peaks ahead of us. The +weather was like that of late October in our northern states, and almost +the only vegetation was scrub oak. When we reached Tula, ancient capital +of the Toltecs, it was black night. Even so, the light of the train gave +me glimpses of the great cut in the hills by which modern engineers +drained the ancient valley of Anáhuac. The train raced on down into the +valley, and soon I found myself struggling with a mob of passengers at +Buena Vista Station in the City of Mexico. + + + In the Mexican Capital + +In 1925 Mexico City celebrated its sixth centennial. It was founded in +1325, almost three centuries before the first English settlement in +North America. I have already told how, according to the legend, the +Aztecs saw an eagle perched on a cactus and holding a rattlesnake in its +claws, and there built the city they called Tenochtitlan. Thus the +capital of Montezuma was founded more than a hundred and fifty years +before Columbus crossed the Atlantic, and nearly two centuries before +Cortés landed in Mexico. The Spaniards tore down most of the Aztec +buildings, but they built their own capital on the same spot. + +Mexico City is 7,347 feet (nearly a mile and a half) above the sea, yet +it was built on a swamp, much of which has now been drained. It stands +in a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains. The snow-clad peaks of +Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl seem to reach into the sky almost above +it. Mexico City has about the same population as Pittsburgh. It is the +only really large city in Mexico. Guadalajara, the next in size, has +about as many people as Albany, N. Y. + +The principal thoroughfares of the Aztec capital radiated from a central +point, an immense square in which towered the temple of Huitzilopochtli, +the Aztec Mars or god of war. This main _plaza_, now called the Zócalo +(an Arabic name brought to Spain by the Moors centuries ago) still +contains the main religious building of Mexico, for the great cathedral +takes the place of the old _teocalli_. The people to-day worship on the +same spot where their ancestors watched the dreadful Aztec priests +perform sacrifices. This is the oldest cathedral in North America, +having been built between 1573 and 1657. Its walls form a cross 426 by +206 feet. + +All about the Zócalo are government buildings flying the Mexican flag, +which is red, white and green, and bears the eagle-and-rattlesnake coat +of arms. We see many soldiers near these buildings. They look rather +boyish and poorly disciplined compared to our soldiers. Military +service, by the way, is compulsory in Mexico. Every young man in the +country is supposed to serve either in the active army or in the +national guard; but many youths manage to get out of it. Among the +government offices we find the telegraph department as well as the post +office, for in Mexico, as in continental Europe, the government handles +telegrams as well as mail. New buildings are still being added by the +government. The Legislative Palace on the Plaza de la República will +cost millions of dollars. All Latin-American countries have a tendency +to spend a great deal on their capitals and little in their provinces. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + The Zócalo, Mexico City’s great central square, on which front the + Cathedral and other important buildings. +] + +Although Mexico City is large and modern, with inhabitants of many +nationalities, few of its business buildings are more than three or four +stories high. Of churches, there are fifty or more. All, except a big +American Episcopal church and a few small ones of other denominations, +are Roman Catholic. + +The principal streets are broad, well paved, brightly lighted and clean. +There is an excellent electric street-car service. This will carry us +along beautiful _paseos_ (raised roads lined with double rows of old +trees) through the _colonias_ (rich suburbs) out into the country. There +are many automobiles also. As the drivers are reckless, and the traffic +rules and police are more lenient than in the United States, we must be +very careful in crossing a street. + + + Stores and Streets + +[Illustration: + + Looking across Mexico City one sees no skyscrapers, though there are + some large buildings. Most of the houses have flat roofs, which are + often used in the evening as family sitting rooms. +] + +Most stores in Mexico City are open from eight to one and from three to +seven. During the two hours that they are closed, the town seems almost +dead. As everyone goes home for lunch and a _siesta_, or afternoon nap, +the traffic is very heavy four times a day, instead of merely morning +and evening. In front of many of the stores are _portales_, arcades. +Foreign as well as Mexican goods are sold. The latest men’s hats from +New York or London may be seen in the same window with immense plush or +leather _sombreros_. There are bright yellow _sombreros_, trimmed with +silver, costing a hundred dollars; there are huge gray hats, hats as +green as the hillsides of Ireland, hats weighing several pounds and +worth their weight in silver. The wealthy men of Mexico, especially +those who ride horseback in the country, think they are not well dressed +unless they wear the most huge, elaborate, and costly hats. + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + “Fifth of February Street” in Mexico City. It is so narrow that the + sun shines into it for only a few minutes each day. +] + +Many of the stores have fancy or romantic names. The sign on the front +almost never gives the owner’s name or any hint as to the kind of goods +sold inside. A clothing store belonging to José Caballero may be called +“The Eden of the Poor Man,” or “The Ideal of the Future.” You must look +inside a store to see whether it sells vegetables or pottery, and +inquire of a clerk if you wish to know who owns it. Yet the shop names +are easy to remember, and are a kind of trademark. + +In the stores all the people, except high-class ladies, smoke if they +wish. Even the clerks do so when waiting on customers. Mexican +cigarettes being very strong, the air in a busy store soon becomes hard +to breathe. In all but the best department stores and foreign-style +shops there is bargaining over prices. A clerk who can sell something +for more than the fair price gets a part of the extra profit. But we +have not always had fixed prices in our own American stores. + +In Mexico, and the other countries south of the United States, the +streets sometimes bear names that seem fantastic to us. We would think +it very strange to find a “Fourth of July Street” or “Labor Day Avenue” +in an American city. But our southern neighbors often name a street for +their independence day, or for some other holiday or saint’s day. +Another interesting feature in Mexico City is the “Mount of Piety.” This +is a municipal pawnshop, where those who need money can borrow it at one +per cent a month interest by pawning what they can spare. + + + City Houses + +We have seen the _adobe_ huts that Indians and peons build in the colder +parts of Mexico; we shall see reed and branch hovels in the warmer parts +of the country; and you will recall that in passing through Laredo we +glanced at some typical houses. (Chapter II.) It will be interesting to +explore a better-class house in Mexico City. It is two stories high. The +stone or mud-brick walls are three or four feet thick, and tinted a +bright color. The inside walls are not papered, but are painted or +kalsomined. About the _patio_ or courtyard, which is the daytime living +room, is a tile-floored, covered walk or half-open corridor. The front +door is a heavily-built, metal-studded affair, secured with enormous +iron bars and huge padlocks. + +[Illustration: + + The great Cathedral which faces the central square in Mexico City is + one of the oldest, largest and finest churches in the New World. +] + +The owner lives on the second floor. The ground floor is occupied by the +servants and may contain a stable or garage; or it may be rented as a +store. The family rooms open on a balcony overlooking the _patio_. The +ceilings are very high. The roof, thick, heat-proof, is flat and paved +with bricks. This style was brought to Spain by the Moors of sunny +northern Africa. The roof is used as a playground and is the place where +the family gathers in the evening. As a flower garden it rivals the +_patio_ below. A parapet guards the roof’s edge, but neighbors may step +from roof to roof. Water runs off through tiles that project beyond the +walls, emptying directly into the street or the _patio_. During a +shower, if you are not careful, you may find yourself beneath a small +Niagara. + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + This splendid old house in Mexico City was built by Rodrigo de Vivero + y Velasco about 1596. Its many _azulejos_ or colored tiles have made + it known as the Tile House. The builder’s father once said to him, + “My son, you will never build a house of tiles.” He meant that the + boy would never succeed. However, the young man did prosper and + built this residence which is now the Jockey Club. +] + +The house, no matter how fine in other respects, has few modern +conveniences. The brick floors are very cold in the morning, though they +may be warm enough by noon. Sometimes there are rugs, but very rarely +carpets. In Mexico City even millionaires seldom have their houses well +heated. There are probably not a hundred homes in all Mexico with +furnaces or other central heating plants. Since we Americans often go to +the opposite unhealthful extreme of over-heating, the Mexican way seems +especially uncomfortable to us. An American family who wish to live in +Mexico as they do at home have almost to reconstruct their house to +install stoves, perhaps running pipes out the windows. Few Mexican +houses have chimneys. + + + Mexicans Have No “Servant Problem” + +Servants have always been so plentiful in Mexico that only the poorer +Mexican women ever do any cooking, though they are all excellent workers +with a needle. Cookstoves are usually crude, even in the best houses. +They are often made of mud-bricks, with small charcoal holes to cook +over. As the servants will not use American ranges or other +“new-fangled” things, the old style still prevails even among the rich. + +Servants in Mexico are much like those in China. Four or five can be had +at the cost of one American servant. As a matter of fact, one _has_ to +have four or five servants. The cook will do no washing or sweeping, and +even the _mozo_, or “man of all work,” has very limited duties. The +_mozo_ usually serves as _portero_, a combination of doorman, guard, and +janitor. He sleeps, often on the floor, just inside the big front door. +Knowing that the _mozo_ will open the door, the family, when they go out +for the evening, do not have to carry any of the huge old Spanish keys. + +Unlike the custom in China, Mexican servants are given either their food +or an allowance of money for board. The cook often feeds all her own +family from the household supplies of her employer. The lady of the +house usually does not go to market, but sends her cook or another +servant. Just as in China, the servant entrusted with this duty often +“squeezes” a few cents on each purchase; that is, he takes a little +commission for himself. + +[Illustration: + + Mexican 20-peso bill, issued in 1914 by the Provisional Government + from its headquarters in Vera Cruz. Notice that although the word + “peso” is used, the dollar sign is given interlocked with “20.” +] + + + + + CHAPTER XI + RECREATIONS AND SOCIAL LIFE + + +The Mexican National Theater in Mexico City is one of the most costly +and elaborate in the world. Among other things, it has a glass curtain, +made at a cost of thousands of dollars by a great jewelry firm in New +York. But the theater has never been finished. The tendency of the +government recently has been to regard schools and lecturers on +agriculture as more important than places where the rich may enjoy +themselves in the evening. Yet nearly every important Mexican city has a +magnificent municipal theater, supported by taxes on the people. + +The same play is not given week after week, as in the largest United +States cities. Stock companies present a different play every few days, +or even every day. One reason they can do this is that in Mexico, as in +continental Europe, a prompter is used. He sits in a little box at the +front of and half under the stage, and reads the lines to be repeated by +the actors. Sometimes he can be heard all over the house, but this does +not seem to bother a Mexican audience at all. Actors who are used to +having a prompter can seldom remember their lines without one. I +remember a very funny performance of _Hamlet_ given in New York City by +a foreign company which had just come up from Mexico. As there are no +prompters’ boxes in New York, except in the opera houses, this company’s +prompter had to stand in the wings at one side of the stage. The +prompter had bought a huge Mexican hat, which he wore through the entire +play, and as there was a light behind him, the shadow of a man in modern +clothing topped by a huge cowboy hat was thrown on the stage among the +actors, who were garbed in medieval doublet and hose. You can imagine +how odd was the effect. + +Most plays in Mexican theaters do not last a whole evening. _Zarzuelas_, +Spanish one-act farces, are more common. You may buy a ticket for one +_tanda_, a single play, or for the whole evening. But if you pay for +only a _tanda_ and then decide you would like to see the whole show, you +may find that you have to go out or take another seat because your seat +has been bought for the next _tanda_. + + + Popular Sports + +Among other Mexican recreations are bullfights and cockfights, always +with much gambling. In fact, gambling itself is one of the chief +recreations. Lottery tickets are sold everywhere, even by peddlers who +call the numbers as they wander along the streets. During a ball game +the noise of betting often drowns out the umpire’s voice. + +There are bull rings in most Mexican cities. The one in the capital, +probably the largest in the world, is a huge steel structure. Great +crowds gather there for the most important bullfights, which are usually +offered on Sunday. Sometimes as many as 30,000 spectators—men, women and +children of all classes—see a fight. Yet even such a crowd is small by +comparison with that at one of our championship prizefights—and the +admission fee to a bullfight is a great deal less. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + Mexico’s chief sport is the bullfight. +] + +Of the cruelties of bullfights, where horses are gored to death and +bulls worn out with painful teasing before they are butchered—or of +cockfights, where the roosters gouge out each other’s eyes with their +sharp spurs, and perhaps both die of their wounds—I will say little. +After all, we cannot fairly criticize such sports so long as brutality +and gambling are allowed at our crowded prizefights. + +Horseback riding used to be quite general in Mexico, and many Mexicans +ride well. There is almost no tennis or golf, except among foreigners. +In mining districts, and in other places where Americans live, there is +some baseball. One of the most amusing things in Mexico is to hear our +baseball terms translated into Spanish, or mispronounced in English. +Sometimes, on a Sunday, a “gringo” and a Mexican team play a game—and +the Mexicans do not always lose. + +[Illustration: + + A Mexican boy who likes to play baseball. +] + +However, baseball is rather strenuous for the Mexican climate and +temperament. Because of the plateau altitude, it is hard work even for +Americans to run bases. There is gymnasium work in most city schools, +and the young men of the cities are fond of fencing. One of the most +interesting games played in Mexico City and a few other places is +_pelota_ or _jaí alaí_. This game was invented by the Basques, who live +in the Pyrenees Mountains on the border between France and Spain. There +are two players on each side. On the right hand they wear a long +_cesta_, a kind of trough woven like a basket. With this they play a +game that reminds one of handball. At the end of the long, high room is +a slate wall against which the ball is struck. A constant uproar of +gambling goes on among the spectators at a _jaí alaí_ game. Since this +is a very violent game, for which the players must be in the pink of +condition, it has become almost entirely professional, like +bullfighting, which also was once engaged in by amateurs. + + + The Plaza Promenade + +The mildest and pleasantest, as well as most general, recreation in +Mexico and in almost all the countries south of the United States is the +promenade. The central _plaza_ is the center of social activity. During +band concerts the people walk slowly round and round the _plaza_. The +single men go in one direction, and the girls and young women in the +other. They smile or stare at one another each time they meet. In some +places there are four lines, two lines of the upper class inside and two +of the poorer people outside. + +The _plaza_ is where most courtships begin. In Mexico boys and girls do +not mingle freely. A young lady may not appear in public with any man to +whom she is not related. After she is married, her husband, father, or +brother must always go with her. An elderly Mexican woman is expected to +have at least one servant along when she shops. The “women of the +people,” as the wives and daughters of the peons are called, are more +free in their movements. The girls and women of the middle class have +not long worked in stores and offices, but now thousands of girls are +employed in such places in Mexico City. An unmarried woman, if she does +not enter a convent, lives with her father or brother. + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + An old house in Mexico City, showing a paved _patio_. The rooms all + open on this court. +] + + + An Odd Kind of Courting + +Mexicans of marriageable age have rather a poor chance of becoming +acquainted. A young man perhaps catches a glimpse of a girl in church, +or at her window, and wishes he knew her. He probably finds her in the +evening _plaza_ promenade. Even there he does not speak to her, but they +may gradually begin to smile when they meet. + +After this has gone on for several evenings, the young man follows the +girl home. She, of course, is with an older relative, and the suitor +stays well behind, pretending he is not following. The girl looks out +through the iron bars of a high window and sees the young man leaning +against the wall of the house across the street. But at first she +pretends not to see him. Later, if he comes every night, she begins to +let him see that she is watching him. But he must be sure to come, even +in bad weather. If he is afraid of a wetting he will be considered a +poor prospect, a “fine-day lover” only. By and by the two begin to talk +through the bars of the parlor window. This coming to a girl’s window +every evening is called “playing the bear,” though it is really the girl +rather than the young man who is inside the “cage”! If the window is +high above the street, sometimes the man may bring a small hand +telephone, such as can be bought in the best Mexican stores. But you may +be sure that some older member of the young lady’s family listens and +keeps an eye on her, so that she will not overstep the bounds prescribed +by Mexican custom. + +Finally—provided the young man has not decided to “play bear” somewhere +else, or the young lady has not stopped coming to the window—the father, +or uncle, or a school friend of the young man calls on the father of the +girl. After many preliminaries this go-between explains the suitor’s +prospects, tells how much money he has, and asks that he be allowed to +court the girl formally. If the family is willing, the same relative or +friend brings the young man and presents him, first to the father, then +to the mother, the brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins who may live in +the house—and finally to the girl herself. Everyone pretends that until +then the young man has never seen her! After that he may call upon her +every evening, though always with some member of the family in the room +or at least within hearing. Marriage usually follows quickly after the +“introduction.” The groom has to pay all the expenses of the ceremony +and must even provide the bride’s trousseau! Usually he tells his future +mother-in-law how much of his money she may spend on the bride; or +perhaps his own mother, sister, or aunt buys the bride’s outfit. +However, the girl often brings a dowry, money or other property, and so +does her share to establish the new household. + + + Other Mexican Customs + +Mexicans are noted for their formal politeness. Almost everyone I met +along the road in the country said “Adiós,” which really means “May God +be with you,” just as our “Good-by” originally did. Even the peon lifts +his hat and says “Con permiso” (“With your permission”) when he wishes +to get past you. A whining beggar can be driven off with a “Pardon me,” +more easily than with rough words. + +When people move into a new town the strangers are expected to call on +the old residents, which is the reverse of the custom in most parts of +the United States. Anyone you call on will be very, very polite, even +though he may not like you. A Mexican seldom invites a friend to his +home, and not often to his club. To be sure he may offer you his house, +saying it is yours, or he may seem ready to give you anything of his +that takes your fancy, but you had better accept nothing—though I know +of cases where the owner saw something precious carried off rather than +be discourteous. Saying “My house is yours” is really only a formality, +like our “Dear Sir” in a letter. + +Because many of the sidewalks of Mexico are very narrow, it is not +customary always to keep to the right, as we do. A woman, or the older +of two men or women, or the social superior, expects to be given the +side nearest the wall. The person on the outside may have to step off +into the mud. + +In introducing one person to another a Mexican begs permission of the +more important person to present the less important one, or of the older +to present the younger. If a man is introduced he responds by giving his +full name, very clearly—“Juan Miguel Calles, servidor de usted” (“your +servant”)—and then the older or more important person does the same. +This is surely better than our way of letting the introducer pronounce +(or mispronounce!) the names. Persons introduced usually bow low without +shaking hands. Men friends when they meet fairly hug each other, shaking +hands when the _abrozo_ or embrace is broken. If two Mexican friends, or +even old acquaintances, meet a dozen times a day, they shake hands, talk +a little, and then shake hands again as they part. Women do not repeat +their names when they are introduced, and instead of embracing each +other, they kiss. + +[Illustration: + + Rochester Photo, Mexico City + + A Mexican barber who attends to his customers wherever he can find + them. He charges very little, but then, he has no rent to pay! +] + +Christmas is celebrated for a week or more in Mexico. On Christmas Eve, +and sometimes for several evenings before Christmas, there are +celebrations in the homes. Instead of the Christmas tree, and “stockings +hung by the chimney with care” there are _piñatas_. These are small +earthenware jars stuffed with candy, games, toys and even money and +valuable presents. They are hung from the ceiling of a room or from a +tree in the _patio_, and each child is blindfolded and given three +chances to break the jar with a stick. When at last it is broken, the +children tear the bandages off their eyes and shout and laugh as the +entire company scrambles for the sweetmeats and presents. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT + + +The capital of a country is usually the best place to learn about its +form of government, though it may not be the best place to find out how +the government really works. The government of the “United States of +Mexico” is in many ways like our own. The Mexican constitution, like +many others, is modeled on ours. The action of the English colonies in +America in declaring their independence of the mother country gave +Mexico and other tyrannically ruled colonies in the New World courage to +do likewise. + +The young republics, naturally, found that what suited us did not +altogether suit them. In general, they have made new constitutions, +instead of trying to keep the old ones up-to-date by amendments. Still, +the framework of government remains much like our own. In Mexico there +are two senators from each state, as with us, but there are also two +from the Federal District. Instead of calling the larger legislative +branch the House of Representatives, Mexicans use the European term, +Chamber of Deputies. Like our representatives the Mexican deputies are +elected on a basis of population, one for each 60,000 inhabitants. All +men can vote. A married man may vote at eighteen years of age, a single +man at twenty-one. + +In theory the president is elected by popular vote, for four years, and +cannot be re-elected. He must be a Mexican by birth and at least +thirty-five years old, and his father and mother must also be native +Mexicans. Instead of waiting, like our presidents, until March 4, four +months after election, the new Mexican president takes office December +1. In practice, however, most Mexican presidents have obtained office +not by election but by force, gathering a small army and driving out +whoever is president at the moment. Therefore the more intelligent and +independent Mexicans often do not have a chance to vote, and so many of +the others are told how to vote that there are seldom any real +elections. The Supreme Court is supposed to be an independent body, like +ours, but a dictator-president usually has so much power that he +controls both the legislative and judicial branches of the government. + + + The Constitution of 1917 + +There has been so much talk about the Mexican constitution of 1917 that +we must not pass on without glancing at it. It is much longer and more +detailed than ours, and certain of its provisions are novel. Some people +say that it is a Bolshevik constitution; others claim that it at last +gives the ordinary people a fair chance, instead of letting the rich +have everything. It provides that every Mexican who wants a piece of +land shall have it. Any village that petitions will be given, from the +neighboring big estates, enough land so that each family shall have +twelve and a half acres of irrigated land or fifteen acres of inferior +land. More than two million acres have already been distributed in this +way. In some parts of the country the landowning families are allowed to +keep from five to ten thousand acres. If they do not divide the rest and +offer it for sale within a year, the government takes the property and +divides it, giving government bonds in payment. + +As about seventy per cent of the fifteen million inhabitants of Mexico +make their living from the soil, this is an important reform. Until 1857 +every village did have land for its people to cultivate. Then Juárez +drafted a new constitution dividing the land and allowing the people to +sell their property for very little to the big landowners. When they had +foolishly done this, the peons had to work for the big _hacendados_ at +any wage offered them. Many spent so much in advance at the _hacienda_ +stores and for weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies presided over by +the _hacienda_ priest that they were practically debt slaves. + +Can Mexico ever be a country of small independent farmers? Some +observers say no. Machinery and big irrigation works are needed. The +great Boquilla Dam in the state of Chihuahua was built not by Mexicans +but by an American company. The peons have no capital to invest in +improvements, and they are not progressive or energetic. Near as they +are to the United States, most of them have very primitive agricultural +implements. Moreover, the peon does not want responsibility. He prefers +a master who will tell him what to do. The best way to keep him at work +is to keep him in debt. His reasoning seems to be: “If I am in debt to +an _hacendado_ I am sure of my job. Therefore I do not wish to be out of +debt and have land of my own.” + +[Illustration: + + This plow was made by the farmer himself. It is entirely of wood + except for a little iron point, and it does not plow deep enough to + prepare the ground for really good crops. +] + +Under Diaz, foreigners owned much in Mexico, especially the mines. The +new constitution says a foreigner cannot own land or water within a +hundred kilometers (about 62 miles) of the frontier or of the coast. If +he was already owner of any such property when the new constitution went +into effect, he was allowed to go on holding it until he died, but he +could not will it to his children unless they were Mexican citizens. In +order to own land anywhere else in Mexico a foreigner must promise not +to claim the protection of his home government; so far as concerns his +property, he must be a Mexican. + +The new constitution has also affected religious organizations in +Mexico. The church laws that are now being enforced were also in the +Juárez constitution of 1857, but they are regarded by the Roman +Catholics, especially, as unjust. Many Mexicans believe that the Church +and the government should be quite separate. Certain priests formerly +exercised political influence and owned immense tracts of land. The 1917 +constitution forbids the Church to own real estate. Under Calles the +church buildings were taken over by the government, and the priests were +allowed to use them only under certain conditions. Outdoor religious +processions and other ceremonies were forbidden, and priests and nuns +might not appear in public in their vestments. + + + Improving Agriculture + +The “revolution,” as the Mexicans call the years of trouble and fighting +that followed the downfall of Diaz, was directed against the big +landowners. The new government policy is sympathetic toward labor, and +gives advantages to the working people. An agricultural college has been +established in Mexico City for men from every state. There are other +similar schools elsewhere. The government sends out agricultural experts +to give advice in even the remotest districts. They lecture in theaters, +abandoned churches, public squares; they use the radio, the movies, and +printed circulars to teach the people better farming methods. The +federal government gives or sells seed and helps farmers to buy +machinery. In most of Mexico’s twenty-eight states there is a National +Bank of Agriculture in which both state and federal governments are +interested. + +The trouble is that while seventy per cent of the Mexican population +lives on the land, only about one acre in ten is cultivated. Some soil +is so fertile that it will yield three crops a year, even with the crude +old methods and no fertilizing. But less than half the country is now +useful for farming. The government is working hard on an irrigation +program, and in time Mexico will probably have enough fertile land to +support all its people. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Haying time in Mexico means the use of a two-wheeled oxcart. In most + parts of the country farming methods are still very primitive. +] + +[Illustration: + + Courtesy “Picturesque America” + + The castle of Chapultepec near Mexico City, the summer home of the + president, is surrounded by a very beautiful park. +] + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + Among the “floating gardens” of Xochimilco, near Mexico City. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + ROUND ABOUT THE MEXICAN CAPITAL + + +Chapultepec, on the outskirts of Mexico City, was the summer home of +Montezuma. Now it contains the president’s handsome summer palace. There +is a wonderful park, and along the _paseo_ or boulevard between it and +the capital are fine statues of famous Aztecs and Mexicans. For a +century Chapultepec was the West Point of Mexico. Many of the cadets +were killed when American soldiers captured the place during the war +with Mexico. Now there is a larger military academy at San Jacinto. + +The Valley of Mexico in which the Aztecs and the Spaniards built their +capitals was once a great lake, and there are six small lakes in it now. +When the Spanish _conquistadores_ first entered Anáhuac they found the +whole valley a network of canals and waterways. Tenochtitlan they +reached across a great causeway, a raised road with water on either +side. Some remnants of these great works still remain. In the days of +Montezuma what is now Mexico City was practically on an island, with +more traffic by water than by land. + +On the lakes about Tenochtitlan floated rafts of interlaced branches, +covered with rich soil and blossoming flowers. The last survival of that +Aztec floral paradise is Xochimilco, a kind of picnic lake a few miles +outside the capital. Xochimilco means “Where the Flowers Are” and the +place is well named. Mexicans of all classes are so fond of flowers that +every day in the year great quantities of roses, carnations, double +violets, and other products of the floating gardens of Xochimilco are +sold in the capital. + +The gardens do not really float now, or at least they do not move about, +as they did in Aztec days. But many of them bob up and down when one +steps on them. They are made of mats of interlaced branches covered with +a thin layer of rich soil in which plants are set out. Tiny huts for the +gardeners are built on the islands. Anchored with willow poles thrust +into the mud bottom, the islands often become fixed when the willow +takes root. Flat-bottomed boats are poled about by the Indian +descendants of those who established this watery kingdom in the +thirteenth century. Some boats are loaded with flowers or vegetables +until they look like floating farms; some carry whole families (as in +China); others are filled with picnickers, for Xochimilco is a favorite +outing place. Guitars and other instruments may be heard there any +moonlight evening. Peddlers of _tamales_, _tortillas_, _pulque_, and +other things to eat and drink move about in boats. The Indians who live +and work in the floating gardens are full-blooded Aztecs, still speaking +the ancient tongue. They are a cleaner and more independent people than +the city half-breeds, and are very proud of their ancestry. + + + The Famous Volcanoes + +[Illustration: + + Courtesy Ward Line. Photo by American Photo Co., Havana + + Mt. Popocatepetl, the most famous mountain in Mexico, as seen from the + side of the Pyramid of Cholula. An ancient _adobe_ mound is in the + right foreground. +] + +The springs which supply the lakes in the Valley of Mexico have their +source in the snows of the two great volcanoes that lift their white +heads into the sky above it. One of these mighty peaks, Popocatepetl +(17,543 feet), is known the world over. Its name means “Smoke Mountain.” +There have been a number of eruptions of this volcano since Cortés +reached Mexico; the most recent was in 1802. The mountain still smokes, +however, and some day it may again belch forth lava and ashes. Although +it is one of the mountain wonders of the continent, being surpassed in +height by only four mountains in North America, Popocatepetl belongs to +a Mexican general and has often been offered for sale! Perhaps if he +offered to deliver it wherever the purchaser wished, he could more +easily sell it. “Popo” furnishes ice, sulphur, and great parks. The +whole floor of its crater, which is a mile wide at the top and a +thousand feet deep, is covered with pure sulphur. It throws this out at +the rate of about a million tons a year; a hundred million tons of +sulphur have been taken from its crater in the period since the +Spaniards came. As the mountain produces more sulphur than the world can +use, and the United States obtains an ample supply from Texas, and +Louisiana, the general will probably have trouble in selling his +mountain. + +[Illustration: + + Courtesy “Picturesque America” + + A wonderful view of Ixtaccihuatl, the “Sleeping White Woman,” as this + famous volcano appears from Amecameca. +] + +Alongside Popocatepetl stands—or rather lies—Ixtaccihuatl, an extinct +volcano almost as high and nearly as beautiful as the other. We say +“lies” because the name means the “Sleeping White Woman.” The snowy +mountain does actually look much like a woman lying with her head +pillowed on one arm. A Mexican legend says that Popocatepetl was a god +and Ixtaccihuatl a maiden with whom he fell in love. She was not +faithful to him, however, so he turned her into a mountain. But “Old +Popo” himself froze with grief, though he still shows his anger now and +then by belching forth smoke and sulphur. + +For the traveler there are few more beautiful sights in the world than +these two great snow and glacier-capped volcanoes, as seen from anywhere +in Mexico City. In the clear air of highland Mexico they seem almost +near enough to touch. They stand forth from any point in the Valley of +Mexico, and even from far beyond, though on the opposite side they do +not resemble the mythical characters. + +It is not very difficult to climb to the top of “Old Popo” or the “White +Woman”—and it is very easy to come down again. The ascent takes about +three days, fifty dollars, strong shoes, warm clothing, and good guides. +A railroad carries us to Amecameca, a mile and a half above sea level +and about forty miles from Mexico City. Horses may be used up to the +first rest house. From there the climb is on foot, first in loose +shifting black sand, then in snow and ice. On a clear day the view of +the Valley of Mexico, with its great capital and its lake-dotted basin, +is worth walking many a mile to see. In every direction lie those great +hills that are the most striking feature of the Mexican plateau. For a +time we struggle upward in the clouds, which move about as if they were +living things. The wet snow grows harder; the glare of reflected +sunshine hurts our eyes. At last we drop down exhausted at the mouth of +“Popo’s” crater. + +Its walls, we see as soon as we are rested enough to peep over, are of +black obsidian, that flint-hard stone of which the Aztecs made +arrowheads and knives. Far below are acres of yellow sulphur, and gases +rise from the crevices in the crater floor. It is so very cold up here, +more than three miles high, that we soon decide to go down again. Once +we have made up our minds, that is easy. We sit down on a straw mat, +with a guide who carries an iron-pointed staff as a rudder and brake, +and away we go! It is the toboggan slide of a lifetime. Rocks and +crevices must be dodged while coasting at a rate that carries us farther +in a minute than we could climb in an hour. The sulphur is brought down +in this same speedy way. + +There are many other volcanoes in Mexico, the highest among them Orizaba +(18,654 feet) which is the third highest mountain in North America. Most +of the volcanoes seem to be extinct, but one can never be sure. +Earthquakes are quite frequent. + + + A Place of Pilgrimage + +Mexico has almost numberless churches. It has been called the land of +domes, because most of the Mexican churches are built in a style of +which the dome is a conspicuous feature. In olden days men who became +rich, especially in the mines, erected churches as thank offerings. In +some old towns there almost seems to be a church for each inhabitant! + +Perhaps the most famous church in Mexico, and certainly the one +considered most holy by the Mexican masses, is Guadalupe. It is three +miles out of the capital. One can cover the distance by street car or +automobile, or, better still, on foot. Thousands of pilgrims come to +pray at this greatest shrine in Mexico, and often they have to camp in +the streets of the holy village. Guadalupe is to the Mexicans what +Benares is to the Hindus, Mecca to the Mohammedans, and Jerusalem to the +Jews and Christians. + +To reach the church we climb a stairway cut in solid rock. On the way we +pass the stone-carved sails and mast of a vessel—a memorial erected more +than two centuries ago by sailors who, having prayed to the Virgin of +Guadalupe during a storm, had been saved. This is the most important of +many similar thank offerings. Some grateful people send crude pictures, +showing themselves being dragged out from under the wheels of a train or +a truck, or they donate the crutches they no longer need after a +miraculous cure. The church and its chapels are hung with rich offerings +of draperies and banners given by the wealthy, and the life-size image +of the Virgin glitters with jewels and precious stones. The chapels are +crowded from morning until night, every day in the year. The Indians and +peons of Mexico are very religious; they almost always raise their hats +when they pass a church door. I have seen all the people of a town +kneel, their hats laid on the cobblestone pavement before them, when a +bishop went by. But the Indians cling so closely to tradition that even +after four centuries many old pagan rites remain and form part of their +Christian worship. A Catholic visitor would not recognize all the rites +performed by the pilgrims at Guadalupe. + +Whatever else they do, all drink the waters of a certain spring that +flows down the sacred hill. It is a sulphur spring that boils and +bubbles and has a very unpleasant odor. There are no individual cups; +instead there are copper dippers, chained to a rail. It is a very rare +pilgrim who does not carry home some of the holy water for his family +and friends, or even to sell; and as most of the pilgrims are too poor +to bring worthy receptacles, many of them use old bottles. + +[Illustration: + + Keystone View Co., Inc. + + Devout Mexicans climbing the stone stairs at Guadalupe. The famous + stone sails mentioned in the text stand beside the stairs. +] + +According to a legend, the Virgin appeared to a poor Indian named Juan, +and commanded him to build a church where she left a bunch of roses. The +priests and the people accepted his story, and joined forces to erect a +church that has become the pilgrim center of Mexico. In it may be seen +candles of every size, burning before the altars at which pilgrims have +prayed for some blessing. To reach the shrine many crawl on hands and +knees all the way up the stone steps cut in the rock hill where Juan +found the roses. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Interior of the famous Cathedral at Guadalupe. Around the altar is a + silver railing. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + MY JOURNEY TO THE GULF COAST + + +The narrow-gauge railway that carried me away from Mexico City passed +close under the walls of Guadalupe. I had hoped to go straight on down +through the center of the country, on foot and perhaps sometimes on +horseback. Then I might have visited the pleasant old city of Cuernavaca +and the quaint little state capital of Oaxaca on the way to Tehuantepec. + +Near Oaxaca, at Mitla, there are wonderful ruins of great buildings +which the Zapotec Indians of ancient times probably used for religious +and burial purposes. Mitla means “Place of the Dead.” I did not visit +Mitla or its neighborhood because just then civil war and bandits made +the region a bad one for the “gringo” who wished to get home again some +day. Instead, I took the railway down to the Gulf coast, intending to go +south on another line. After all, this would bring me to as many +interesting and historic scenes as the other route. + +Soon we came to the famous pyramids of Teotihuacán looming above the +plain. No one knows just when or by whom these two great artificial +hills were built, but it was before the Toltecs came. The larger pyramid +had recently been cleared of the trees and bushes that had found root in +the soil deposited by winds over a long period of years. Cement-colored, +it rose in four terraces, with a low monument on the summit. Although it +has as much material in it as the great pyramid of Cheops in Egypt, this +Mexican pile does not look so imposing, because the proportions are +different. It is much larger at the base and not nearly so high. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + In the Hall of Mosaics at Mitla are marvelous relics of prehistoric + builders. +] + +The train made a mighty curve to the northward in finding its way out of +the Valley of Mexico. I got off it in the famous little state of +Tlaxcala. You remember that Cortés was helped in the conquest of Mexico +by the Tlaxcalans, a tribe at enmity with the Aztecs. After his final +victory the people of Tlaxcala were given certain special privileges +because of their assistance. Their lords were baptized and required to +swear allegiance to the king of Spain, but they were left in command of +their domains. Even during viceroy days the Tlaxcalans were treated +better than the other Indian tribes. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Pyramid of the Sun at San Juan Teotihuacán, seen across the maguey + fields from the Pyramid of the Moon. +] + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + The low pyramids at San Juan Teotihuacán have given this region the + name “the Egypt of America.” +] + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Detail of the strange carving on one of the pyramids at San Juan + Teotihuacán. +] + +Tlaxcala is the Rhode Island of Mexico, the tiniest of the twenty-eight +states. Its name means “Land of Corn.” The fact that it is almost +completely hedged in by mountains was both a hindrance and a help to +Cortés in his conquest of Mexico. With the two great volcanoes of +Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl gazing down upon it, Tlaxcala is one of +the most striking regions in Mexico. However, one might think it had +been punished at last for joining the white invaders against the rest of +the Indians. It is really rather miserable, by no means prosperous. + +Although the capital of a state, Tlaxcala town has only about three +thousand inhabitants. It is several miles from the railway, being +connected with the station and the outer world by a few wretched mule +cars. I decided it would be more fun to walk than to ride. Tlaxcala is +several hundred feet higher than Mexico City, and it is cold and dreary +and almost treeless. Its ancient church of San Francisco is said to be +the oldest structure in North America built for Christian worship. Many +of its stone buildings are mere ruins, where grass and flowers grow as +they do among the cobblestones of the streets. Yet Tlaxcala has a +complete state government, with all the customary officials and features +of a capital. + + + The “City of the Angels” + +Puebla, the next state capital on the way to the coast, is called the +“City of the Angels.” There was no city at this place when the Spaniards +came. A legend says that angels appeared to a priest in a dream and +helped him lay out the city they said should be built there. But while +it is cleaner and in some other ways better than most Mexican cities, +Puebla did not look exactly angelic. It is a city of churches, many of +them having domes decorated with the bright-colored tiles that are a +Puebla specialty. Some have carvings, paintings, and other precious +things that compare with the possessions of old European churches. +Puebla is also an important manufacturing city, producing much flour, +soap, glass, paper, and cheap pottery. + +[Illustration: + + The marketplace of Tlaxcala has a dozen or more buildings to shelter + the sellers. As the weather is never cold, walls are not needed. +] + +Some of the old houses of Puebla have their fronts covered with tile +mosaics of birds, animals, and saints. Such buildings are all low, so +that a view across the city shows little besides flat roofs and church +domes. Most of the outer walls are cream white, but some are tinted more +gayly. Puebla resembles Tlaxcala in being even colder than Mexico City +and in being watched over by “Popo” and the “White Woman.” Far away to +the west stands Orizaba, highest peak in Mexico. There was music in the +_plaza_ that evening, but the air was so chilly that I soon hurried back +to my hotel. Even there the only warm place was in bed. People in Puebla +do not build fires for comfort, but merely heat up a little charcoal to +cook with. + +[Illustration: + + Courtesy Ward Line. Photo by American Photo Co., Havana + + From the summit of the ancient pyramid at Cholula one obtains a + splendid view of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl. The shrine dates + from the year 666, when it was erected by Cortés after he had + ordered the destruction of the Aztec temples in the vicinity. + Cholula being the sacred city of the tribe, this action resulted in + the natives’ troubling Cortés constantly and finally securing his + downfall. +] + +The next morning I was ready to get up at dawn, though I found it cold +work. A three hours’ walk from the central _plaza_ of Puebla warmed me +and brought me to the top of one of the greatest pyramids in the world. +This is at Cholula, eight miles from Puebla. It was built of sun-dried +bricks, limestone, and clay, by some tribe that arrived before the +Aztecs. When Cortés came, there was on top of it a great temple to the +Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. The Spaniards pulled down the ancient images and +overthrew the altar on which so many people had been sacrificed to the +bloodthirsty god. Now there is at the summit a great church to which +many pilgrims come. The ancient pyramid has crumbled a good deal and is +so covered with grass, flowers, and trees that it looks almost like a +natural hill. Through a great gash that has been made in it runs the +street-car line to Puebla. + + + Down to Vera Cruz + +Though it is called the Mexican Railway, the line from Mexico City down +to Vera Cruz belongs to the English. Descending from the great Mexican +plateau, it zigzags back and forth, often on the brink of precipices. At +one point we could look down upon the town of Maltrata, more than two +thousand feet below, as directly as if we had been in an airplane. The +train, behind a double-header engine, twisted about until it seemed as +if it must be lost, but finally we reached our destination. + +For the first time since my second day in Mexico I was less than a mile +above sea level. High above all else, and much farther away than it +seemed, was the symmetrical snow-capped top of Orizaba. This was first +climbed by American officers during our war with Mexico. The cold peak +looked still stranger from the town of Orizaba where I spent the night. +Orizaba has one of the largest cotton mills in the world, and a big +brewery; but although it is really an industrious place, it is just near +enough the tropics to be rather sleepy and careless in its manner. + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + Along the Mexican Railway, the oldest railroad in Mexico, leading from + the high plateau of the capital down to Vera Cruz. +] + +It took eighteen miles of winding and tunneling to get down from Orizaba +to Córdoba, almost directly below. The train skirted yawning precipices, +passed through dense vegetation, banana plants without number, coffee +plantations, and uncultivated jungle. It seemed very hot after being on +Mexico’s plateau, though we were still higher than the tops of our +Alleghanies. + +[Illustration: + + Photo from Janet M. Cummings + + A fine _hacienda_ house on a coffee plantation near Córdoba, Mexico. +] + + + Two Gulf Ports + +Tropical Vera Cruz, where the Mexican Railway finally ends at sea level, +is the greatest port of Mexico. Ever since the days of Cortés it has +been the country’s front door. In a sense, entrance by railroad from the +United States is by the back door. Most travelers to and from Mexico, +and most imports and exports, except oil from Tampico, go through Vera +Cruz. Cortés, landing there on Good Friday, which the Spanish call “The +Day of the True Cross,” gave the place that name. A hundred years before +the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, Cortés claimed all Mexico in the +name of the king of Spain. He built a fortress which still covers a +small island a mile from shore and bears the marks of many a battle. +Ever since Cortés traveled the road from the coast to Tenochtitlan, Vera +Cruz has been both a door to power and a way of escape for the defeated. +It is the favorite place for beginning revolutions against the +government in power at Mexico City. The American General Scott took Vera +Cruz before he started on his way to capture the capital. + +Vera Cruz is one of the most Spanish cities in Mexico. There used to be +much yellow fever there, and travelers hurried through it as fast as +possible. But now it is fairly healthful, though very hot. The wharves +have every modern docking facility. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + The harbor of Vera Cruz is a busy one. This city has had an important + part in the history of Mexico because it is one of the country’s few + fine ports. +] + +Some distance up the coast is another important city, Tampico, more +important perhaps to Americans than to the Mexicans. Most of the oil +from Tampico is finally used in American automobiles, and many of the +oil wells belong to Americans. Tampico and the great oil fields about it +are so American that the Mexicans themselves often call the region +“Gringolandia.” Being close to the coast, the oil fields cannot legally +continue to be held by foreigners, according to the 1917 constitution. +The matter is under discussion by the Mexican and United States +governments. Although it is an important city to those who think in +terms of oil, Tampico is not as interesting or as pleasant a place as +most Mexican cities. + +[Illustration: + + © Burton Holmes, from Keystone View Co. + + The oil wells at Tampico sometimes catch fire and send a great cloud + of smoke high into the air. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XV + TROPICAL MEXICO + + +Returning to Córdoba, I was taken by a Mexican railroad down to the +Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The train was a kind of way-freight. All day we +rambled along through tropical vegetation so dense that gangs of men had +to labor constantly to keep it from covering the track. Oranges were so +plentiful that they were left to rot on the trees. Pineapples were sold +through the train windows at two cents each. Beautiful palm trees of +many striking and always symmetrical shapes stood forth from the jungle. + +But it was not all jungle. After the mountains died down to mere hills, +came broad meadows dotted with cattle, the herdsmen on horseback. There +were prairies almost like our own, and fertile bottomlands. At several +of the stations, I saw white men of much larger build than the tropical +Mexicans. The older of these men had long beards. The younger ones, who +made me think of American farmer boys, caught the cars for short rides. +Later I learned that they were Mormons, a number of whom went to live in +Mexico years ago. + +[Illustration: + + Photo by Hugo Brehme, Mexico City + + Down near Orizaba, Mexico’s splendid tropical vegetation begins. +] + +Long after dark we reached Santa Lucrecia. Although it is important as +the junction of two railways, it is only a straggling village of +sheet-iron and thatch—a station and a few huts amid banana groves. The +houses are perched on piles as a protection against dangerous animals +and high water. Here, in this narrowest part of Mexico, the great chain +of mountains stretching from Alaska to southern Chile becomes so low +that Santa Lucrecia is less than a hundred feet above sea level. I found +the air damp and depressing, the night hot and heavy. The moon seemed to +be trying to throw off the clouds that were smothering it. The +inhabitants usually sleep on their porches, in hammocks, but travelers +are not so lucky. I spent a bad night in the Mexican hotel for which a +place had been hacked out of the jungle. Thin wooden partitions between +the rooms reached only halfway to the roof, so that I could hear every +sound made by the other guests; and it was too hot to sleep much beneath +my big mosquito-net canopy. + + + The Isthmus of Tehuantepec + +[Illustration: + + Houses on the tropical Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The canoes are big + jungle trees burned and carved out into craft that slip easily + through the water. +] + +Here and there on the way westward across the isthmus were open-work +houses, almost like woven baskets. But much of the time the railroad was +the only evidence that anyone had been through the jungle before us. The +telegraph poles were old rails, set upright; wooden poles rot or are +eaten by ants. Now and then we saw a man toiling along behind a crude +wooden plow, the yoke fastened to the oxen’s horns in the Spanish +fashion. In some of the cornfields, instead of scarecrows were wooden +crosses set up to frighten away “devils.” Palms and immense trees of +other kinds, with masses of smaller trees and bushes between, made me +feel as if we were surrounded by an endless green curtain. + +[Illustration: + + In Tehuantepec the houses are very flimsy, often with walls of reeds. + Do you see the earthenware water jar, placed in the shade and breeze + so that the water will keep cool? Shelves and cubbyholes have been + dug in the earth bank that fences in the yard on one side. +] + +The Indians of the hot lands were different from those of the plateau. +They appeared to be much more contented, more serene and happy. Fewer +clothes, fewer troubles! It took very little effort to build their crude +houses, and anyone who did not want to work could almost pick all his +food in the jungle. + +[Illustration: + + A Tehuantepec woman wearing her _huipil_ or white starched headdress. + The big bowl she carries is made of a gourd decorated with carved or + painted flowers and figures. +] + +In the crowded thirdclass coach were some of the far-famed women of +Tehuantepec. They are spoken of as very handsome, though American taste +might prefer a different type. They are of splendid physique, dignified +yet not haughty, and have a charming smile. They wore a gay square of +cloth wrapped about the waist, and a sleeveless upper garment. Almost +all of them had a few red flowers in their jet-black hair, and many wore +necklaces of American five-dollar gold pieces. + +These women are not so simply dressed when they have on their national +headdress, the _huipil_. This is a white contrivance of lace and +ruffles, starched stiff, which hangs down the back like the war bonnet +of a Comanche chief. In this regalia a woman of Tehuantepec looks very +gay indeed as she stalks along, barefooted, balancing on her head a big +bowl decorated with painted flowers. + + + The Town of Tehuantepec + +[Illustration: + + In the market of Tehuantepec town. The women, who wear a very queer + costume, carry on business with little help from the men. +] + +The town of Tehuantepec, which is the largest town on the isthmus, is +merely a big Indian village. Some of its streets are cobbled, but most +are very sandy. Through a wide fertile valley runs a shallow river in +which there is much bathing. The natives all know one another and one +another’s business, which seems to be mostly the selling of tropical +products among themselves. Tehuantepec has a very large and lively +market. So many of the buyers and sellers are women that one traveler +said he felt like a musical comedy star surrounded by the chorus. For a +long time, after most of the men of the isthmus were killed in local +warfare, there were five women to one man. The women learned to do +everything for themselves and became very independent. They are still +“head of the house” in their homes. + +[Illustration: + + Underwood & Underwood + + Cutting and carting sugar cane on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. +] + +A big _fiesta_ or celebration was held in Tehuantepec the night I was +there. A band played and fireworks were set off. One piece represented a +huge duck, another a mammoth turkey, and two others a man and a woman of +gigantic size. Each piece was worn over the head and shoulders of a man +who capered about while it blazed away above him until nothing but the +wooden framework was left. Fireworks of one kind or another provided +light and noise during most of the night, and left me little chance for +sleep. + +[Illustration: + + Up on the cool table-land the _peons_ wear huge hats, but down where + the sun is hot and tropical the hats, queerly enough, are quite + small! +] + +But there were other sounds too. I had hardly dozed off when, directly +under my ground-floor window, men and women began singing, accompanied +by a sort of banjo. They sang the same mournful two lines over and over +again. Sometimes there was laughter, too, and the sound of good-natured +disputes. At midnight I looked out and saw about fifty people sitting on +the ground with their backs to the wall, all smoking and drinking. A +dozen times I drifted into troubled sleep, only to be wakened again. +About three o’clock the noise stopped; but just as I drew a long sigh of +relief the _fiesta_ band burst out right beside my window! The terrible +racket lasted until daylight, when I got up to catch my train. + +No, Tehuantepec had not been serenading me! When Juan, the little brown +waiter, brought my breakfast, I asked him what all the noise meant. + +“Oh,” he answered, “yesterday the man next door died, and those were his +friends celebrating the wake.” + +“And keeping all the rest of us awake,” I answered, so sleepy that I did +not realize how much my words sounded like a pun. + +“Ah, yes, señor,” replied Juan, “it is very sad. But what can we do? +People will die, you know.” + + + On to Guatemala + +I walked over to the town of San Jerónimo to reach a railroad that calls +itself, without very good reason, the “Pan American.” There was one +passenger car, divided into two classes, at the end of a very slow +freight. In a long day of traveling we covered 112 miles. Sometimes the +walls of vegetation were so close as to scratch the sides of the car. +Gay-plumaged parrots and cockatoos screamed at us from bamboo thickets. +But most of the way the country was dry and sun-baked, cactus and +mesquite the only growing things. Down here where the huge _sombreros_ +of the Mexican highlands would seem to be so much more necessary, the +people had narrow-brimmed straw hats that made me think of a circus +clown’s comic hat. + +[Illustration: + + International Harvester Co. + + Sisal leaves being loaded on a flat car. +] + +[Illustration: + + International Harvester Co. + + Sisal fibre as it looks when it comes from the machine called the + decorticator. +] + +After a night spent in a hot and sandy little town, the same train +carried us off again at dawn, and for another tropical day we dragged +along southward, so close to the west coast that once we caught a +glimpse of the Pacific. In the evening we crawled into Mariscal on the +Mexico-Guatemala border. + + + The Great Peninsula of Yucatan + +Northeast of this route to Guatemala lie four big states of Mexico and +one of its two territories, jutting far out into the Gulf of Mexico in +the peninsula of Yucatan. This is a hot, fertile country, producing +important Mexican products. Its henequen or hemp gives the world rope +and twine; its cacao bushes furnish us much of our chocolate and cocoa. +The capitals of Campeche and Mérida are interesting towns, quite up to +date in some ways. At the base of the peninsula is the state of Tabasco +with its capital of San Juan Bautista (“St. John the Baptist”). + +On the peninsula of Yucatan are to be found remains of the Mayan +civilization. Centuries ago (no one knows exactly when) the Maya Indians +came to this part of the world, spreading all the way from Yucatan to +Salvador. They had a calendar that was more exact than that of the +Aztecs, more exact even than ours is, and they seem to have been the +most highly developed people on the North American continent before the +white men came. Carved stone ruins and picture-writing on paper made of +cactus fibers were found by men searching for chicle, the pitch-like +substance from which chewing gum is made. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + THROUGH GUATEMALA ON FOOT AND BY RAIL + + +My entrance into Central America was rather amusing. I had fallen in +with two other Americans, and after a night spent at Mariscal on the +border, we started to walk across a wooden bridge into Guatemala. The +rails of the “Pan American” line ran across it—but the trains did not! +We had scarcely set foot on the bridge when we heard a great shrieking +across the river. Three very ragged Guatemalan soldiers, barefooted and +wearing calico uniforms and straw hats, had run out of a palm-leaf hut +and were waving three weapons. One was a very aged musket, another a +rusty bayonet, and the third a piece of wire that looked like a ramrod. +These “three musketeers” had one whole gun among them, though probably +no cartridges. + +“Don’t cross the bridge!” they yelled. “No one is allowed to cross the +bridge!” + +“Why not?” we shouted back. “We are not very heavy!” + +“You must come across in a boat!” they ordered. “The Pope himself cannot +cross that bridge; Guatemala does not wish it!” + +[Illustration: + + The central _plaza_ of a Guatemalan village—just bare ground with palm + trees here and there. +] + +By this time they themselves had nearly crossed it in running toward us. +As we turned back to find a boat, the guard sought again the shelter of +their palm-leaf hut. A very ancient and leaky rowboat soon carried us +across to the southern bank of the shallow Suchiate River. A dozen +childish-looking shabby soldiers surrounded us and led us to the +_comandancia_. There an officer whose dignity and uniform were worthy of +a general got out a big ledger and wrote down in it answers to all sorts +of questions. Name, birthplace, business, religion, reason for coming to +Guatemala, and a great many other points that seemed even less +important, interested him. At that time Guatemala had a stern dictator, +Estrada Cabrera, who required his officials to keep close track of all +foreigners entering the country. Since then political conditions in +Guatemala have become much more stable. + +[Illustration: + + Down in Central America there is usually no better transportation than + crude two-wheeled oxcarts. Spanish-speaking people always fasten the + yoke to the top of the oxen’s horns. +] + +The little baggage we carried having been carefully examined, we swung +it over our shoulders and set out to walk to a railroad station nearly +fifty miles away. There was a little narrow-gauge railway from the sandy +jungle town of Ayutla, just beyond where we landed, but no train would +run on it that day. The sun was blazing hot, and when we were not +ankle-deep in sand we were wading rivers or pushing through tunnel-like +openings in the dense jungle. My companions fell behind but I went on +and at night I reached Coatepeque, where I found a hotel run by an +American. The place was hardly up to the level of, let us say, the +Waldorf-Astoria, yet my bill for lodging and breakfast was fifteen +dollars—or, to use the Spanish term, fifteen _pesos_. + +However, do not let this keep you away from Guatemala. One can often get +sixty Guatemalan dollars for one American dollar. The two Americans who +crossed the border with me had only three American dollars with them +then, yet next morning when they arrived at Coatepeque they had more +than a hundred dollars left! Meanwhile they had paid five dollars to +ride all night in a two-wheeled bullock cart that made them feel as if +they had been through a threshing machine. + +The owners of big estates often send a peon a hundred miles or more to +some town where there is a bank, to get the money for paying off +workmen. The peon, carrying a grain sack full of the ragged, dirty paper +money, walks back all the way alone. At night he tosses the sack into a +corner of the hut where he is to sleep, and no one ever seems to think +of robbing him. + + + Where Coffee Grows + +Guatemala is a land of volcanoes, some of them still active. All over +the country great sharp-pointed peaks, cinder-colored, reach into the +sky. In a way the volcanoes of Central America are a blessing, for if +their eruptions sometimes bring along an earthquake and shake down a +city, the lava dust makes the soil very rich, and a few good coffee +crops usually pay for all the damage. + +The two principal products of Central America, at least so far as +concerns the rest of the world, are coffee and bananas. Some of the +largest coffee plantations in Guatemala are along the road we followed +after leaving Coatepeque. Coffee bushes, about as high as a man’s head +and so compact that they look almost like little green haystacks, grow +best at about two thousand feet above sea level in tropical countries. +The coast lands are too hot and moist for coffee, and highlands like the +Mexican plateau are too cold and dry. Plantations, made up of long +parallel rows of bushes, may be found in most of the foothills of +Central America, and because coffee requires some protection from the +blazing tropical sun it is planted in the shade of banana groves or thin +forests. + +Coffee bushes are covered with bright red berries. Inside the red skin +of each berry we find two white beans, each having a flat and a rounded +side. The flat sides face each other. Indian women and girls pick the +berries, putting them into baskets and then into sacks, which men carry +to the center of the estate. There, among the buildings where the owner +or manager and nearly all the plantation people live, the sacks are +emptied upon outdoor floors. The berries are shoveled over and over in +the hot sunshine and old women hull them in the shade of their huts. +When the separated berries are well dried they are ready for market but +they must be roasted and ground before they are in a form to use for +making the coffee we drink. + +Many of the plantations belong to Germans, and most of the others to +rich Guatemalans, who perhaps live in Paris or New York and never see +their estates. The Indians who do the work, picking or shoveling or +carrying coffee from daylight until dark, with only an hour or two off +for food and perhaps a short nap, are paid less than ten cents a day in +our money, though they receive a monthly allowance of fifty pounds of +corn and beans and half a pound of salt. + + + Guatemalan Indians + +[Illustration: + + An Indian boy of Guatemala carrying his small brother on top of a + heavy load he is taking to market. +] + +We met thousands of Indian carriers. Most of the trails of Guatemala are +so poor that the best way to carry goods over them is on men’s backs. +Our road being a little better, we met some oxcarts. The yokes were so +tightly strapped to their horns that the oxen could not even shake off +the flies. There were donkeys under huge packs, men riding mules, even +an occasional automobile where the road was especially good. But the +procession of Indians loaded with freight was almost continuous—not only +strong young men, but old men, boys, women and even little girls who +early learn to carry big earthenware jars of water. In the evening we +passed groups of these carriers squatting around little fires cooking +their suppers. + +The Indians of Guatemala are short but very sturdy. There are so many of +them that Guatemala might almost be called an Indian republic. Clothed +in their ancient costumes, homespun and colored with crude dyes, they +look picturesque and very interesting at first sight. On closer view +they appear rather stupid. Perhaps that is not their fault. They have +been much abused ever since Alvarado, a cruel lieutenant of Cortés, +conquered Guatemala four hundred years ago. Even now they are forced to +accept a job from anyone who will pay them low wages, though no one can +require them to carry more than a hundred pounds or go more than two +days’ walk away from home. + +Only one-third of the people of Guatemala claim to have any European +ancestors. Six out of ten persons are pure Indian, and eighteen or +twenty different tribes are said to be represented among them. Many are +probably descendants of the Toltecs who, between the seventh and twelfth +centuries, were driven out of Mexico by the Aztecs. Many more are Mayas, +of the tribe that left splendid ruins in Yucatan, Guatemala, Salvador +and Honduras. Is it not sad to think that these people now are unable to +build anything better than a thatched _adobe_ hut unless someone tells +them how? + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + These blanket venders of Guatemala offer a fine study in the more + intelligent type of Indian found in that part of Central America. +] + +One very dark-skinned tribe, who worry little about clothes, build their +homes in palm trees, on platforms thirty feet above the ground. Since +such platforms can be reached only by climbing the notched tree trunks +that serve as ladders, the children learn to walk up and down tree +trunks almost before they learn to walk on the ground. The natives’ +large toes are very much overdeveloped by constant climbing. Members of +this tribe use bows and arrows. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + A picturesque group of Guatemalan pottery venders. +] + +Most of the Guatemala Indians are very docile, obeying even a white +child. They are small in stature, the men averaging hardly five feet in +height, and the women being even shorter. However, an American who could +carry for an hour on a good level road what these Indians can carry all +day, and day after day, over steep and difficult mountain trails, would +be considered a wonderful athlete. Carrying heavy loads gives them very +erect soldierly bodies, but often their complexions are bad because they +eat a yellow earth mixed with sulphur, which they think will cure +disease. Some of the men have thin beards, in contrast to the naturally +smooth faces common among American Indians. + +Queer clothes in bright colors are so much liked that a group of +Guatemalans resemble an opera chorus. The women wear no hats, but have +three garments—a loose waist, a thick cloth skirt, and a gaudy sash. +They wear as much jewelry as they can get, especially necklaces of +silver coins. They are very expert at such handicrafts as weaving cloth +for garments and making ropes and hammocks of maguey fiber or cactus +hemp. + + + We Reach the Capital + +We had hoped to reach Retalhuleu by the end of our second day of walking +and to take a train for Guatemala City at six the next morning. But the +trail was so bad that we finally stopped at a little thatched village, +ate a supper of native bread, cheese and coffee, and stretched out for a +few hours’ sleep. I got up again at two in the morning and for six miles +stumbled along the trail through the darkness. Bands of dogs dashed out +at me from every hut, barking savagely; fortunately their bark was worse +than their bite. By trotting the last few miles, I just caught my train. + +It is barely a hundred and thirty miles from Retalhuleu to the capital, +but the train took twelve hours for the journey. We made a large number +of stops. Many of the passengers were yellow and listless with fever, +and did not seem to enjoy life much in this land of perpetual summer. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Mount Agua, Guatemala, one of the volcanoes which has caused so much + trouble near the country’s capital. +] + +About noon, at Escuintla, our train turned eastward and began climbing +from the coffee-growing Pacific slope to the pine-tree heights of +central Guatemala. We spent an hour winding along the shores of +beautiful blue Lake Amatitlán, then crossed part of it on a stone +causeway. There are several such gem-like lakes of sparkling blue water +in settings of towering mountains. On the larger ones are steamers, as +well as the Indians’ dugout canoes. Most of the steamers—like the hotels +and the sugar, cacao, and coffee plantations of Guatemala—are owned by +Germans. + +We passed close to two cone-shaped volcanoes that can be seen from +almost any part of the country. It was getting dark when the first +houses of Guatemala City began to appear among the trees, and half an +hour later we dragged into the station. A barefooted policeman in a +straw hat had already gone through the train writing down facts about +the passengers, so we were free to make our way through a shouting mob +and try to find supper and lodging. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + A CONTRAST IN CIVILIZATIONS + + +There have been three capitals of Guatemala. Ciudad Vieja (“Old City”), +now a poor village with about three thousand Indian inhabitants, was +founded by Pedro de Alvarado soon after he took possession of the +country. He brought the best architects and workmen from Spain and +planned to make this the metropolis of the New World. For a time it was +the most magnificent city in the western hemisphere. But in 1541 it was +suddenly destroyed by a flood when the lake in the crater of the volcano +Agua (“Water”) broke through its banks. + +The people then moved their capital two miles northeast and built +another fine city. Long before any white men came to live in what is now +the United States, the Guatemalan capital had tens of thousands of +inhabitants. There were palaces and cathedrals there when we had only +log cabins. Would you have imagined that in the heart of Central America +a great city existed at the time the Dutch bargained with the Indians +for the purchase of Manhattan Island? + +The Spaniards had chosen a beautiful site, but nature again violently +protested. This time the great volcano Fuego (“Fire”), quite as properly +named as its destructive companion Agua, belched forth a flood of hot +lava and destroyed the second capital. This city, now called Guatemala +la Antigua (“the Ancient”), is famous for its ruins of great churches +and palaces, but it has a population of only about seven thousand, +mainly poor Indians. The volcanoes seem to be never satisfied, for the +old capital has been devastated again and again by other eruptions, as +well as by earthquakes, floods, and avalanches. It has also been visited +by terrible epidemics of disease. + +In the same year that our Declaration of Independence was written, our +Central American neighbors built Guatemala la Nueva (“the New”), or +Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala. This city they located twenty +miles from the second capital; but though it remains the capital, it +also has been very badly treated. Some superstitious persons think that +evil spirits live inside the earth and cause volcanoes and earthquakes. +One might readily imagine that such spirits wanted to drive everyone +away from that beautiful region about the foot of Agua and Fuego. Is it +not queer that people insist on living again in places where they have +been overtaken by disaster? + +The present capital was to have been a copy of the old ones, but it has +never equaled, in magnificence or population, Guatemala la Antigua. +However, it has about 120,000 inhabitants and is the most important city +of Central America. It stands on a small plain about 4,900 feet above +sea level and seventy-two miles from San José, its port on the Pacific. +Wool, cotton, leather goods and earthenware are manufactured, and there +is quite an important commerce. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + A bird’s-eye view of Guatemala City. What a contrast this flat-roofed + town is to one of our skyscraper cities! +] + +Guatemala City is laid out in a checkerboard of wide but poorly paved +streets. Most of its buildings are very low, because of the constant +danger of earthquakes. The houses are covered with stucco, gaily +painted. The main entrance door of a dwelling is often so large that a +smaller door is cut in it for common use. The big door is opened only to +admit the owner’s carriage or automobile, which goes through to the +stable or garage at the back or side of the _patio_. Brass and iron +knockers, beautifully wrought in the form of a human head or hand, take +the place of bells at many of the best houses, and the great doors +themselves are studded with iron or brass nails. + +The shops which so often occupy the lower floor of a residence, instead +of being in “business blocks,” have no glass windows, but only a big +wide-open door. Goods are poorly displayed, and in most places prices +are not fixed, so that one must do much bargaining before buying. In the +public markets we see Indians who have walked many miles with +merchandise on which they will make but a few cents’ profit. Indian +women, in gaudy homespun garments, smoke big black cigars. Their heads +are covered with masses of blue-black hair, and their skin shines like +polished copper. The market, filled with the products of both tropical +and temperate climates, gives one some idea of the richness of the +country. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + The Cathedral in Guatemala City, damaged by the earthquake in 1917. +] + +Even this third and present capital of Guatemala has been several times +destroyed. Indeed, it has been completely laid waste once since I first +saw it. For a month following Christmas Day, 1917, it was shaken by a +long series of earthquakes. Government buildings, schools, and hospitals +were destroyed or damaged, as were the National Institute, with its +laboratories, the museum, the meteorological observatory, the national +theater, the metropolitan cathedral and other churches. Many of the +buildings have been restored, but they have lost their old beauty as +examples of Spanish art. The residence section has moved farther out +into the country. + + + A Country inside Its Own Capital + +So far as I know, Guatemala is the only country in the world of which +one can see every nook and cranny by merely going to its capital. How? +By means of a great relief map covering several acres, laid out inside +the Guatemala City race track. It is made of cement, plaster and stone. +There is a high platform on which one may walk clear around the map, +studying it in detail. Turning a crank causes water to flow through the +rivers, fill the lakes, and form the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. + +Although I intended to see the rest of the real Guatemala, the map +showed me all of its physical characteristics. Every mountain, every +lake, river, valley, city, even the trail I intended to take out of the +country, was there. If I had flown 230 miles across the country, between +the two seacoasts, and from the Mexican border to Honduras and Salvador, +I could not have learned more about the make-up of Guatemala than I did +in my half-hour stroll around the relief map. + +I could see that Guatemala is all mountains and high valleys, except for +two strips of lowland along the coasts. Its highland scenery entitles it +to be called the Switzerland of Central America. However, Switzerland is +often snow-covered, while Guatemala, wherever vegetation can grow, is +green all the year round. Among its mountains are twenty-eight +volcanoes, some of them as perfect cones as Fujiyama in Japan. As most +of these are still active, and many of them throw out lava and ashes +frequently, part of the country is very bare. On the big relief map I +could see the volcano that blew its head off in 1902, ruining the city +of Quezaltenango and covering valuable coffee lands several feet deep +with volcanic ash. I could locate all of Guatemala’s beautiful blue +lakes. Over there, nearest the Pacific, is Lake Atitlán, filling the +crater of an extinct volcano five thousand feet high, and almost in the +shadow of three very active cones. This lake is twenty-five miles long, +with eighteen green islands in it; and it is so deep that its bottom has +never been found. Eighteen miles from the capital is Lake Amatitlán; +along its shore and across part of it runs the railroad from the Pacific +coast. + +[Illustration: + + Inside the race track at Guatemala City is a big relief map of the + entire country. Every mountain peak, every stream, every trail is + shown. Water can be turned on to fill the rivers and lakes. +] + + + Through Guatemala + +Although I obtained from the big relief map at Guatemala City a clear +idea of the lay of the land in the most important country of Central +America, the map, of course, did not show me the people and their ways, +and I was chiefly interested in these. So I took the train again a few +days later, this time toward the east. After crossing a range of +mountains, we started down toward the coast beside a racing river. +Rather than go on to Puerto Barríos, the chief port of Guatemala on the +Atlantic, I left the train sixty miles inland in order to visit one of +the former centers of Mayan civilization. + +Great civilizations almost always spring up in valleys, and here in the +valley of the Motagua River the most advanced Indians in North America +had their home. The Mayas flourished for some fifteen hundred years, +beginning about the time of Christ. Quiriguá, the ruins of which I had +stopped to visit, was probably built in the fifth century and abandoned +more than a thousand years ago. No one knows why the Mayas left this +part of the country and moved northward into Yucatan. Earthquakes, +pestilence, human enemies, or even superstition may have driven them +out. Or they may simply have decided to move, though most people would +not have abandoned, without good reason, such splendid stone cities as +they left behind. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + At Quiriguá, Guatemala, is this strange example of the carving left by + the Mayas. +] + +The ruins of Quiriguá, lost for centuries, were discovered in 1839 by +John Lloyd Stephens, an American. Later, when Americans built the +railway through Guatemala, great mounds and mammoth stone ruins were +found. But the largest uncovering of ruins was done by the United Fruit +Company in 1910. Where the Mayas once had a great city, there is now a +13,000-acre banana plantation. However, the company has left +seventy-five acres, on which are the best ruins, free from planting. +Fifteen of these acres have been cleared of jungle, but one who wishes +to visit all the ruins must chop his way through dense tropical +vegetation. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + A great stone left by the Mayas at Quiriguá. +] + +Ants and decay have destroyed all the woodwork in the ancient Mayan +cities, not only at Quiriguá but at Cobán, at Copán in Honduras, and in +many parts of Salvador and Yucatan. The stonework remains, and recent +American expeditions have uncovered statues and curiously carved stones, +some of them enormous, and whole buildings that must have been very +splendid when new. Some of the carved stones you may see in American +museums. Half above and half below the ground are great monuments, +resembling those of Egypt, and bearing hieroglyphics that the +archeologists are still trying to read. Some of the stone-carved faces +look so much like the figures at Chinese imperial tombs that many people +think the Mayas were Tartars who made their way from Asia across Bering +Strait and down into Central America. + +Like the Chinese, these Central Americans seem to have considered the +turtle sacred, and to have used it as an emblem of long life. One of the +largest monuments I saw at Quiriguá was a turtle eight feet high and +said to weigh twenty tons. It was completely covered with carvings and +hieroglyphics. Enough of the writing has been translated to show that +here was once a great city, with _plazas_, temples and palaces. Great +forests have overgrown the pyramids and mounds of the Mayas. As there is +no natural stone in this region they must have brought from a distance +the immense blocks of sandstone which they used. But how? Perhaps they +floated them down the Motagua River on rafts. Yet how did they lift them +to the places they now occupy? + +At the height of their power the Mayas were as good architects and +builders as the Aztecs, and their calendar, cut in stone, was better +than the one in Mexico City. But about the fifteenth century they seem +to have begun to weaken, and their downfall was hastened by the Spanish +conquest. At first they fought stubbornly against the conquerors. But +the Mayas of to-day are docile, almost childish, only half civilized; +and they scarcely realize that their forefathers were once the most +advanced people on the North American continent. + + + “Bananaland” + +I spent a night with the American overseers of one of the banana +plantations that cover the country between Quiriguá and the Atlantic. +Many miles of private railroads run through the region that was formerly +jungle-covered swamp, and from there millions of bunches of bananas go +to the United States and Europe. Nearly all the hot lowlands of Central +America grow bananas for us, most of the plantations belonging to +Americans. Shiploads of bananas leave Puerto Barríos and other +east-coast ports every week. + +In the morning my hosts lent me a hand car having a seat, and two +muscular West Indian negroes pumped me for miles through “bananaland.” +This plantation of Quiriguá is one of the smallest in Guatemala, and +there are much larger ones in other countries, yet as far as I could see +were waving banana leaves, very green and very large, with here and +there a huge hardwood tree. Banana fruit grows not on a tree but on a +great plant having a fleshy rootstock or rhizome. Large buds or “eyes” +develop on the rootstock. What looks like a trunk is really a mass of +overlapping leaf-sheaths. Pieces of the rootstock are planted, and, if +these fail to sprout, shoots are cut and stuck in the ground to grow. +Only one bunch of bananas grows on a plant. It hangs over at the top, +about ten feet from the ground, and at first glance it looks as if it +were growing upside down. As a matter of fact the bunch is hung upside +down later on when displayed in fruit store or grocery, and we are used +to seeing it in that position. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + A fully developed bunch of bananas ready for harvesting. +] + +A burly negro, carrying a long pole at the end of which is a knife, +nicks the plant, just below the middle of the “trunk”; the upper half +swings down and a helper severs the bunch with his machete. The fruit is +laid carefully on the ground, for if a single banana is bruised, the +whole bunch and perhaps many others around it will spoil before the +destination is reached. In a few minutes a train comes along, and each +bunch is laid on a cushion of leaves in one of the open cars. The men +know how many bunches will fill a car and how many carloads will fill a +ship, and they know, too, just when each bunch should be cut so as to +reach the American market in good condition. Bananas going to England +have to be cut earlier. At the wharf the fruit is carefully carried +aboard either on wide endless belts or on negroes’ heads. It is put in +the ice-cooled hold of the ship, which is kept at just the right +temperature. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + Bananas are carried to the railway by a steam tram which runs through + the plantation. +] + +After the old stalk has been cut down, another banana plant grows up +rather quickly from it. Before long a big flower, usually purple in +color, appears at the top of the plant, and slowly the tiny bunch of +bananas beneath it grows to its full size and is ready, in its turn, to +be cut. A banana plantation is more or less perennial, though it takes +plenty of labor and watchfulness to keep it producing its best. + +A _ripe_ banana is never seen in a banana plantation, unless someone has +been careless. If the bunches were not cut down and shipped before a +single banana turned yellow, the fruit would be completely decayed +before it reached us. Its flavor is best when it is cut from the tree in +a green condition and allowed to ripen slowly. The Central Americans fry +and bake bananas, especially the species called the plantain which is +never eaten until cooked. The natives dry bananas as we do grapes, they +grind them up for flour, and they even make banana wine and vinegar. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + A banana steamship is quickly loaded by use of machinery. +] + +As nearly all plantation workers are negroes, and the bosses almost all +Americans or Englishmen, English is much oftener spoken than Spanish in +the banana lands of the Caribbean. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + IN THE DEPTHS OF HONDURAS + + +Just south of Guatemala is Honduras, nearly as large and in many ways +much like it. But while Guatemala has a population of two and a quarter +million, Honduras has only a third as many inhabitants. It has about as +many people as Pittsburgh, but is larger than Pennsylvania. The Keystone +State would be very thinly populated if 600,000 men, women and children +were scattered through it. It is not strange, therefore, that during +long stretches of my tramp across Honduras I saw not a single soul. + +Except for a narrow strip of swampy land on either coast, Honduras +consists in a series of elevated plateaus and rows of mountains. The +cordillera, or main range of mountains, runs from northwest to +southeast, parallel to and only about fifty miles from the Pacific +coast. The slope toward the Atlantic is longer and more gentle than on +the opposite side. Unlike Guatemala, Honduras has no active volcanoes, +and no lakes. It is watered by many streams, but most of them are swift +and stony, and none are really navigable. Because the smallest country +of Central America crowds into Honduras on the west, its Pacific coast +line is only sixty miles long as compared with an Atlantic coast line of +four hundred miles. + +Columbus discovered this country in 1502, on his fourth voyage to the +New World. He called it Honduras, which in Spanish means “Great Depths,” +because of the difficulty of getting anchorage in the deep waters along +its Atlantic coast. But it is a land of great depths in another way +also, for between its mountain ranges are immense valleys which +sometimes seem to have no bottom. Peasants plant their patches of corn +on slopes as steep as a church roof. Walking through the country is much +like forever going up and down stairs. + +In the higher parts of Honduras there are many pine and oak forests, and +down on the narrow coasts the banana is much at home. Though tropical +fevers are common, up on the table-land two blankets feel very +comfortable at night. Near as Honduras is to the equator, frosts are +frequent. The banana is the most important product, then come coffee, +coconuts, rubber, tobacco and hides. There is considerable silver, mixed +with a little gold, and some other valuable minerals. The American-owned +mines of Rosario at San Juancito, twenty-five miles from the capital, +are the largest silver mines in Central America. When I was there they +employed about eight hundred men. + + + Social and Political Conditions + +The early explorers found not only ancient rich mines but numerous +pyramids and carved stones showing that there was once a real +civilization in what is now Honduras. To-day the population is largely a +mixture of Indian and Spanish blood. The people seldom weave their own +garments, since they can buy foreign cloth with the profit from products +that almost grow themselves. There are some negroes on the north coast, +among the banana plantations, and on the Mosquito Coast there are +Caribs, descendants of fierce Indians who once inhabited the West Indies +and gave their name to the Caribbean Sea. Once the favorite refuge for +runaway slaves from the West Indies, the Mosquito Coast even to-day has +one of the most mixed populations in Central America. + +[Illustration: + + Pan American Union + + The famous Rosario mines in Honduras, showing ore being sorted by + native boys. +] + +From 1539 until 1821 all Central America was one Spanish colony. In 1822 +Honduras was a part of the Mexican Empire; from then until 1839 it was a +member of the Central America Federation. Since 1839 it has been +independent, though it has tried several times to join with the other +small republics in forming a Union. + + + I Plan to Walk + +The only public railway in Honduras is a little line that starts out +bravely from Puerto Cortés toward the capital, 250 miles distant. Puerto +Cortés is a squalid village of wooden buildings in a hot swampy region +on the low _north_ coast. (The link between the American continents +swings almost due eastward below Guatemala.) + +The railroad’s old wood-burning locomotive somehow manages to crawl +thirty-eight miles to Potrerillos in the foothills. There, as if it were +afraid to venture into the real mountains beyond, the daily train turns +back again. Tegucigalpa and Bogotá (in Colombia) are the only American +capitals that have no rail communication with the outside world. Beyond +Potrerillos the rest of the journey consists of five rough hours in a +very aged automobile, then four or five days on mule-back. + +I might have taken the Guatemala railroad down to Puerto Barríos, where +I could easily have crossed the Bay of Honduras, or followed the hot and +swampy shore, to Puerto Cortés. There I might have taken the little +Honduras railroad, later an automobile, and finally a mule to the +capital. But I decided that it would be more interesting to go right +down through the country to Tegucigalpa. That meant a long walk, for the +trails of Honduras are so bad that in many places an animal cannot get +over them. In such a country a man’s own legs are his surest means of +transportation. + + + A Lonely Trail + +Instead, therefore, of descending to the coast, I went back up the +Motagua River from Quiriguá and left the railway at Zacapa. There I +exchanged my ragged paper money for Honduran dimes (called _reales_ and +worth only a nickel) and for some silver dollars from half a dozen +near-by countries. Almost any kind of silver money can be used in +Honduras but paper money is often quite worthless. Besides a full +knapsack, I took with me a hammock to sleep in. Made of a kind of grass +by the Indians of Guatemala, it weighed only three or four pounds, and +cost but thirty cents! + +The journey began with a hard afternoon walk over dry hills. I crossed +four ranges and spent the first night in a narrow valley dense with +vegetation. The home of the man who took me in was made of poles set up +to form four walls, with roof of thatch. It would have looked to +Americans like a poor tool shed. Such huts would be very unpleasant +places to sleep in without a hammock. I hung mine between two posts and +was soon asleep. I was not yet in Honduras, for I did not pass the +unmarked boundary until the next day, but this was typical of my +lodgings on the trip through that country. + +Sometimes I had to hang my hammock from rafters so high that I could get +in only by “chinning myself” and swinging over as if on a trapeze. +Sometimes I swung from the porch of a cowshed, sometimes in a dirty hut +where all the doors and windows were tightly closed. The price for such +lodgings was usually five cents. One night when I occupied the corner of +a _hacienda_-house veranda, if I had fallen out of my hammock I should +have dropped eight or ten feet to a flagstone floor or twice that +distance into a cobbled farmyard. At other times I hung so low that pigs +wandering about in the night looking for something to eat lifted me up +as they crawled under me; and several times children or grown people +with blazing torches came to wake me up and look me over. Once in a +while the night might be fairly quiet, but there was nearly always a +great hubbub of roosters, dogs, cattle and pigs, or of people snoring. + +As my hammock was merely a net, and the mountain nights were chilly, I +was often too cold to sleep much. It was not always possible to find a +house by nightfall, and several times I slept out under the trees, not +knowing but that some wild animal would take it into his head to attack +me. I remember one such night when a group of drunken peons wandered +along the trail not far away, but they did not catch sight of me. Once I +spent the night high up on a mountain in the hut of an old woman who was +ill. A girl kept a fagot fire burning all night and smoked me like a ham +hanging from the rafters. Yet how much filth that simple little +thirty-cent hammock kept me out of! The country people of Honduras +seldom have beds, and their houses have no floors. Once I tried sleeping +Honduran fashion on a sun-dried oxhide thrown down on the uneven earth, +with two empty grain sacks as mattress and covering, but I never tried +it again! + + + Honduran Food + +Each morning I folded up my hammock and set out again, nearly always +without breakfast. The people got up late and I seldom had patience to +wait for them to cook food for me. Yet if I did not wait, it might be +half a day before I came to another hut. Often I almost lived on water, +and none too good water at that, for the people of Honduras, lacking +wells, use any near-by stream or pond. The traveler simply kneels at the +water’s edge and drinks. + +[Illustration: + + Two women of Honduras shelling corn and getting a meal ready for me. + Many Honduran houses have even poorer kitchens. +] + +[Illustration: + + A boy of Honduras with his father’s yoke of oxen. They do not plow + much land in a day, but the family raises only a little corn and a + few vegetables—just enough to live on. +] + +There was no milk, butter, or cheese, though I saw plenty of cattle. +Sometimes I was offered stale bread, but not often. Beans and Indian +corn, and corn _tortillas_ that were heavier than those of Mexico, made +up nearly every meal. Occasionally tough strips of sun-dried beef hung +from the rafters; but even that kind of meat was rare. Once in a while +there might be tomatoes as small as cherries; and always there was very +bad black coffee. Even if roosters had kept me awake all night, the +people would usually assure me that all the chickens had died or that +they “belonged to someone else.” So I seldom got chicken—but when I did, +an entire spring chicken never cost more than ten cents. I had better +luck with eggs. However, the women insisted on breaking a hole in the +egg before boiling it, and as neither cooks, water, nor dishes were +clean I did not like the custom. The people of Honduras seem to have a +superstition that an egg will not cook unless the boiling water gets +inside it. Even if I offered to pay more for eggs without holes, the +holes would be there and the cook would tell me that the eggs “broke +themselves.” + +[Illustration: + + One of the carved stones left by the Mayas at Copán, Honduras. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + A VERY PECULIAR “ROYAL HIGHWAY” + + +I was told that Tegucigalpa was fifteen days’ journey from Zacapa by +mule, perhaps a little less on foot! I wanted to reach the capital in +time to see an old friend before he left for the United States, but if I +had been the richest man in the world I could have gone no faster. To +realize this made me feel very helpless, yet I knew that our own country +must once have been much like Honduras. How different our life would be +now without railroads, or even roads! + +There was not a yard of real road on all of my two weeks’ tramp from the +border to the capital. Trails through forests and mountains in the +United States are smooth and easy in comparison with this ancient route +between Guatemala City and Tegucigalpa. Yet it is called the _camino +real_, that is, the royal highway! I saw nothing either royal or +highway-like about it. + +Often I climbed for hours, sometimes by stone steps cut in the mountain, +only to come down on the other side. My clothes were worn out, and the +American paper money in my pocket was almost ruined by perspiration and +the tearing jungle. Within a few hours midsummer heat would change to +the chill of late autumn. For miles I stumbled among loose stones where +there was always danger of spraining an ankle. I waded and swam through +rivers; I splashed through mud; now and then I got soaked by a sudden +shower. After losing time at two streams in undressing and dressing +again, I decided thereafter to plunge in, shoes and all. At times I had +to follow the bed of a stream, wading across it and back, or scrambling +up its steep bank and down again. Now and then I lost my way, and had to +stop to get my bearings; there was seldom anyone to ask. For the most +part the trail seemed to have built itself, without human aid, and it +had a habit of falling into deep gullies and struggling out again like a +drunken man. + +At least there was often the pleasure of drinking from a clear cool +mountain stream; and I must admit that occasionally the trails of +Honduras give the finest walking in the world. What could be more +pleasant than to wander along grassy upland paths, with magnificent +forest vistas on either side, or through the forests themselves, range +after blue range of mountains spreading away to the horizon? For miles +at a time I did not see a human being. + +Crooked telegraph poles, on which was strung one lone sagging wire, were +often useful in showing me the way. The telegraph lines of Honduras +belong to the government, and one can send a message anywhere in the +country for a nickel. The mail of Honduras is usually carried by a lazy +barefoot youth wearing faded khaki and an ancient straw hat. He may have +a pack mule, but whether he has or not he takes very long indeed to get +from one town to another. + + + Valuable Forests + +Mahogany and other valuable hardwoods are found in the great forests of +Honduras, but there is no such thing as a mahogany forest. Trees of this +species grow far apart; it is considered good luck to find sixty +mahogany trees in 25,000 acres. Tree “hunters” recognize a mahogany tree +by its great size and its brightly colored leaves. They bring in +cutters, who may have to build a road to reach the tree or to haul it +out. It is a day’s work for two men to cut down a tree. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Immense mahogany timbers ready for shipment. +] + +A single log of genuine curly mahogany may sell for $10,000. In our +country an inch board is often cut into sheets as thin as paper, for +veneering other wood. Much of our “mahogany” furniture is really +mahogany veneer and some of it is perhaps not even that, but an +imitation, for real mahogany comes only from the lands of the Caribbean. +Yet in Honduras mahogany logs are used not only to make tables but even +rail fences! On a hillside that might produce food for many people I +often saw a _milpa_, or tiny cornfield, fenced off with mahogany slabs +that to a furniture manufacturer would be worth ten times all the corn +produced by the patch in a lifetime. But as I have already said, the +great problem is to get the wood to market. Like ebony, rosewood, +cocobola and snakewood—other valuable hardwoods of Central +America—mahogany will not float, and there are no railways or roads. + + + Scenes along the Way + +The first sizable Honduras town I saw was Santa Rosa. Four thousand feet +above sea level, with fine scenery all about it, the place looked very +pretty from a distance with its white church bulking above the low +houses. But the people are not very industrious or progressive. There +were no hotels, restaurants, electric lights, carriages or automobiles. +When I asked for lodging, the people sent me to the drugstore, where an +American doctor had a “room” made by curtaining off with canvas a part +of the public hallway to the _patio_. The doctor was away from home, and +I slept in his bed that night. + +Tobacco grows about Santa Rosa, and every native hut is a cigar factory. +Men, women, and even children smoke the rather crude cigars, and +quantities of these are sent, on men’s backs or on pack animals, to +other parts of Honduras. + +[Illustration: + + A street corner in Santa Rosa, Honduras. The men in the foreground are + soldiers, and the store behind them is one of the best. +] + +The doctor whose room I had used came home next day and proved to be a +huge man from Texas. He worked very hard, for the people of Honduras +have almost no doctors, and he received very little pay because his +patients were all so poor. The great majority of the natives live and +die without any medical attention whatever, except for what relief they +may get from a rare wandering pill peddler. Most of them think any +“gringo” is a doctor, so they were always calling upon me to prescribe +for them. As I had a small medicine case with me for my own use I +sometimes did try to help them. They were always astonished that I would +accept no payment, and now and then an old woman insisted on paying me +by refusing to take money for my lodging or a meal. Hookworm, cancer, +and other dreadful diseases were very common; smallpox was raging in one +town I passed through. + +One man with whom I spent a night insisted that I take a photograph of +his sick wife, showing her bed and “even the color of her face,” so that +he could send the picture to the Virgin of the Remedies at a distant +shrine. He imagined that in that way she could be cured. Some of the +people were afraid of a camera, but many of them wanted their pictures +taken. As I had only a few films, and those who wished to be +photographed insisted on spending two or three hours in dressing up for +the occasion, I often refused; but I had a hard time explaining matters. + +Along the trail, I would frequently pass a crude wooden cross showing +where someone had died from disease, had been killed accidentally, or +had been murdered. There is no capital punishment in Honduras, unless a +military chief orders an execution, and as prisoners are usually +released each time there is political revolution, murder is not +considered a very serious offense. To remember this when passing a +wooden cross up on a lonely mountain top was never very pleasant. + + + Meeting Strange People + +I saw several bands of soldiers wandering, rather than marching, +northward. They were ragged and barefooted, and were followed by their +bedraggled women and children. All were on foot and carried all they +owned on their backs and heads. The soldiers of Honduras are usually as +badly disciplined as they are clothed. They carry their rifles at all +angles even when on parade. They are fond of being officers—indeed, +there are almost as many generals and colonels as there are privates. +Now and then some of them were rather impudent, but I could always pay +them back. I would show their commander my letters and passes from +important officials and have him make the troops line up and drill so +that I could take pictures of them. + +[Illustration: + + The women of Honduras, as well as the men, smoke the black cigars of + Santa Rosa. They weave their own skirts, often working in words + having a religious meaning. +] + +There were many prisoners also, working in gangs. Sometimes they were +chained together, yet they did not seem badly treated. I remember +passing one group who were supposed to be working on the road but who +were all loafing in the shade and smoking. They laid their fingers on +their lips as a sign to me not to waken the guard, who was sleeping on +his back with his rifle lying across him. + +One day I met a pair of pure-blooded Indians carrying oranges in big +nets. They sold me “two hands,” or ten fine oranges, for a Honduras +nickel. Later I met larger bands of them going to market, each carrying +a load on his back, partly supported by a strap across the forehead. It +was five or six days before I saw the first vehicle, a two-wheeled cart +with solid wooden wheels, the greaseless axle screaming so loudly that I +could hear it a mile away. The cart was drawn by two oxen having the +yoke bound to their horns. + + + Honduran Hospitality + +Except for an occasional soldier, all the Hondurans were very courteous. +To be sure, like most Spanish-speaking people, they often said “My home +is yours” without really meaning it. A man who was my companion one day +gave me to understand that he lived in a palace and wanted me to come +and stay with him that night. But when we reached his home it was just a +miserable hut, and his family would not let me in until I offered to pay +the usual price for a lodging. The man who had invited me went out to +get a candle, and I had to try a dozen houses before I could buy food +enough for a supper. The country people of Honduras depend entirely on +candles for light, and as they do not read in the evening—or, for that +matter, much at any time—they often have no light at all. + +[Illustration: + + A company of soldiers in a Honduras town. +] + +There seemed to be at least two _chuchos_ (yellow mongrel dogs) for +every human inhabitant. Often they kept me awake most of the night. The +people do not feed their dogs, or their pigs either, but leave the +animals to pick up what they can. + +About sunset on the last day of the year I came to Comayagua, second +largest “city” of Honduras and formerly the capital. No sort of hotel +was to be found in the town; the central _plaza_ was a sheep pasture; +the _tiendas_, little den-like stores, sold almost nothing to eat. The +mongrel _chuchos_ were more numerous than the people, and so hungry that +if you did not watch they would grab a _tortilla_ out of your hand. It +was a very languid place, as if everyone were suffering from the +hookworm disease which makes people feel lazy and good-for-nothing. + +[Illustration: + + The central _plaza_ of Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras. Bright purple + bougainvillea covers the arbor. +] + + + The “City of the Silver Hills” + +On New Year’s Day—a very hot one!—I started out on the last lap of my +journey to the present capital. In the afternoon I had a chance for a +fine swim in a river of clear water. (At such times I sometimes washed +my clothing, which soon dried in the bright sunshine.) The next morning +just at sunrise I came in sight of my goal, Tegucigalpa, the “City of +the Silver Hills.” When I walked into the central _plaza_ I showed that +I had been fifteen days on the road. But there were still some clothes +in my knapsack, and at the post office I found a pair of American shoes +which I had mailed to myself at that address months before. + +[Illustration: + + Pan American Union + + The President’s palace at Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is rather an imposing + and romantic-looking building. +] + +With its 40,000 inhabitants, the capital is really the only important +town in the country, yet it is not a very bustling place. I stopped at +the Hotel Jockey Club, which might have been worse and might have been +much better. The only bath was in the basement—a stone vessel into which +trickled cold water. The bare rooms were furnished with sagging cots. +Barefooted servants fed us in the dining room on the usual Honduran +food, while a variety of barnyard creatures looked on. + +[Illustration: + + A corner of Tegucigalpa, showing Picacho, the hill from which the + capital has often been captured during revolutions. +] + +Sleepy little shops, frequently owned by foreigners, put up their wooden +shutters at dusk, and after that there was not much left for a visitor +to do but to roam the dark cobbled streets. On Sunday evenings a band +played in the central _plaza_ while the population promenaded. To be +fair to Tegucigalpa, I should say that I found some very nice people +there, and I will testify that it has one of the finest climates in the +world. + +Honduras has almost no policemen except in the capital. I arrived just +in time for the first official inspection of a new police force. It had +been organized by General Lee Christmas, a famous American +soldier-of-fortune who was once a conductor on the railroad in Guatemala +and later was a general in the Honduran army. Not only he and I but the +president and all the diplomatic corps were there. The Indians who had +been made into policemen looked scared. Very solemnly each stepped +forward when his name was called, saluted the chief, and then fell back +into rank. + +From Picacho, a long ridge of mountains ending in a blunt nose close +above Tegucigalpa, one gets a good view of the city. There is a saying +that anyone who captures Picacho may sleep in the palace. Most of the +frequent revolutions in Honduras begin and end when someone with a few +hundred soldiers captures that hill. From it one can look down into the +_patio_ of nearly every home. Most of the buildings are one story high, +roofed with red tile. Above them stands a whitewashed cathedral with +twin towers. Mountains roll away on every side, and over them wind two +ribbon-like roads. + + + Down to the Pacific + +Of the two routes the traveler may take out of Tegucigalpa (except for +the hard trail by which I had come) one goes through Comayagua and on to +the short railway from Puerto Cortés; the other and shorter goes down to +Amapala on the Pacific. An American who had been working in the mines of +San Juancito took my things on his horse, and I walked down to the coast +in a day and a half. The night I spent at Pespire, far below the +capital, on the edge of the blazing tropics, but I started out again at +three in the morning, for there was a fine moon. As soon as the hot sun +appeared, lizards came out to warm themselves on the rocks. Natives +wearing spurs on their bare feet rode past. Mule trains coughing in the +dust, and creaking wooden carts, carried freight. + +With the fantastic ranges of the interior and even the last low +foothills left behind, I plodded across a dusty plain covered with +withered grass and mesquite, where cattle panted for water. The owners +of the American mines have helped the government build a road for +automobiles, which climbs 2,000 feet out of the central valley and +descends 5,000 feet to the coast. But much of the traffic is still of +the old-fashioned kind. + +[Illustration: + + Soldiers of Amapala, the Pacific port of Honduras. They look rather + lazy, but probably they are suffering from the hookworm disease + which takes away a person’s energy. +] + +On the Atlantic side of Honduras there are many ports, but Amapala is +the only one on the Pacific. It is not on the mainland but on the island +of Tigre, twenty-four miles out in the Bay of Fonseca. From the top of +an extinct volcano that rises above Amapala one can see three +countries—Honduras, Salvador, and Nicaragua. Barefooted soldiers wrote +down many facts about us as we landed from our launch at the narrow +wooden wharf. Then we settled down in a not very comfortable hotel to +wait until a steamer on the San Francisco-Panama route came along to +carry us southward. + +[Illustration: + + Amapala is on a volcanic island in the ocean, twenty-four miles from + the mainland. From the top of this island one can see three + countries. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XX + INDUSTRIOUS LITTLE SALVADOR; AND BELIZE + + +Tucked away on the Pacific side of Honduras lies Salvador, the smallest +republic between Hudson Bay and the Golden Horn. In size it is just a +big farm, 140 miles long by 60 miles wide. There are single estates +larger than that, in Mexico and in several other countries. Yet it has +more inhabitants than any other Central American country except +Guatemala. In area not much larger than Vermont, it has five times the +population of the Green Mountain State. The 1,700,000 people who live in +its 7,225 square miles make Salvador the most crowded country in the +western hemisphere, with the single exception of the “black republic” of +Haiti in the West Indies. In fact, few countries in the world are more +thickly populated. + +Where people are crowded, the struggle to earn a living is harder; and +where it is hard to earn a living, people cannot afford to be lazy. So +it is not surprising to find that the Salvadoreans have more energy and +industry than their neighbors. Hillsides that would remain untouched in +Honduras are cultivated to their very summits. Nowhere can you look down +into a valley without seeing it well planted. Salvador has less forest +and fewer wild animals than the other Central American republics, and +with the possible exception of Costa Rica it is the most progressive +country in that group. + +Perhaps there are other reasons for its progressiveness besides a large +population. There are few Indians, and these are more advanced than the +Indians of the neighboring countries. They all speak Spanish. Most of +the upper class are of pure European descent. Perhaps the inhabitants of +Salvador have always been of better stock than their neighbors. +Certainly Alvarado found it a hard job to conquer Cuscatlán, as this +region was called in early days. + +There are very few foreigners in Salvador; they do not own much of the +country, as the Germans do in Guatemala. Nearly every Salvadorean has +his own piece of land, instead of working for a huge estate, and this +condition naturally makes the people ambitious and willing to work. + +Like Guatemala, Salvador is a land of volcanoes. On the way to the +capital you can count several peaks; from the ocean you can see a dozen. +Mount Izalco has been in such constant eruption for more than a century +that sailors call it the “Lighthouse of Salvador,” and for a long time +volcanoes were the only lighthouses along the coast. The postage stamps +of Salvador once bore the picture of a volcano. + +As I said earlier, the damage done by eruptions and accompanying +earthquakes is often balanced by the fact that volcanic ash enriches the +soil. Salvador is a fertile country. Its narrow seaboard, its low +alluvial plain, and its level plateau, about two thousand feet high, +furrowed by river valleys and broken by smoking cones, grow splendid +crops. Its rivers, flowing toward the Pacific, water the country well. +In some regions there are three crops of corn a year. But coffee is the +principal product. It was introduced in 1840 by a Brazilian school +teacher, and to-day there are hundreds of thousands of descendants of +the coffee tree he planted in his garden. In fact, eighty per cent of +the exports of Salvador consists in coffee, which goes mostly to France +and Germany. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Mount San Miguel in Salvador still smokes. The lava in the foreground + rolled down the mountain side a century ago. +] + +Indigo, which grows in many parts of the country, was once the chief +export, but aniline dyes made it a less important crop. Did you know +that indigo when under cultivation looks like a field of willow +switches? The switches and leaves are soaked in water to which chemicals +have been added, the resulting fluid being boiled down later into a +paste. Indigo is used to dye cloth as well as to make the blueing for +wash day. In Salvador cattle abound and there are many minerals, but it +is an agricultural rather than a grazing or a mining country. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Coffee being dried on a plantation in Salvador. +] + + + The Usual Way to Enter Salvador + +Almost all visitors to Salvador come by sea. It has several ports along +its single coast. At Acajutla steamers anchor a mile out. Sometimes +passengers have to be transferred to the shore boat in a big basket, +lifted by a steam winch on board the ocean vessel. La Unión, down at the +southern border of the country on the Bay of Fonseca, has a good harbor +and better docking facilities. + +A railroad runs from Acajutla to San Salvador, the capital; altogether +there are now about 250 miles of railway. It is hoped to make connection +with the railways of Guatemala and Mexico so that the people of Salvador +can go all the way to New York by rail. This little country has good +roads between the chief cities, and the government is building new ones. +On them one sees some automobiles but more oxcarts. There are other +fairsized towns besides the capital, the largest being Santa Ana. In +addition, one passes through a number of pretty villages. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail S. S. Co., San Francisco + + Sacks of indigo, product of Salvador, ready for shipment to San + Francisco. The straw man at the top of the pile shows that these + workmen were as fond of a joke as ours would be. +] + +I hope you have not made the mistake of thinking that this country is +the San Salvador where Columbus first landed. That was a small island in +the West Indies; this is a continental country bordered by the Pacific. +Besides, its name is merely Salvador, though the capital is called San +Salvador. This capital, by the way, is one of the most beautifully +located cities of Central America, a warm, sunny place about two +thousand feet above sea level. It stands in a fertile plateau, among +green hills, at the base of a volcano 8,360 feet high. Deep ravines are +worn in the plain by streams rushing down from the highlands. As these +are crossed only by narrow tracks they protect the city in time of war. +However, Salvador is quite a peaceful state compared to its neighbors. +It has not had a revolution since 1903. Its presidents are legally +elected and they are not dictators. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Wouldn’t it be fun to have a ride in this kind of swing? At La + Libertad, Salvador, the water is so shallow that passengers have to + be transferred from the ocean vessels to shore boats. +] + + + The Capital and Its Troubles + +The capital, however, has had its troubles. Founded in 1528, it has been +ruined several times by earthquakes. It was completely destroyed in a +single night in 1854, and there have been many severe shocks since then. +Once it was rebuilt twelve miles southwest of the original site, but it +was moved back in 1858. As recently as 1917 a great earthquake did heavy +damage to five towns including the capital. + +No wonder, then, that the houses of San Salvador are nearly all of one +story, with very thick walls built to withstand earthquakes. There is a +handsome government building, and a cathedral. The streets are straight, +the sidewalks paved with rock and cement, the water supply a good one. +There are more automobiles in San Salvador than in any other Central +American place except the city of Panama. In general it is perhaps the +most modern and progressive city of that region, outside the Canal Zone. +One sees many pretty _señoritas_, many priests in black robes. The +120,000 people of the capital, all white or _mestizo_ (Spanish and +Indian mixture) do not wear gaudy garments, and there is little that is +picturesque. + +Salvador possesses a good telegraph system, and better schools than +those of its neighbors. In theory the schools are all free and every +child is obliged to attend. But this is true only in the towns. The +country people and the lower classes have little education. Since even +in the United States many people cannot yet read or write, we must not +be too critical of conditions in Central America. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + In the city of San Salvador there are handsome buildings in the + shopping district which surrounds Duenas Park. +] + +A few queer old customs remain. Men ringing bells go along the streets +and through the markets with little boxes containing tiny images of the +Virgin, to which people may bow if they pay a penny. Horse cars rattle +leisurely through the streets with a great cracking of the drivers’ +whips. There is music almost every night in the central _plaza_, and +flirtations under the palm trees. In almost every town an official looks +after the people’s health. Sanitary conditions are better and there is +less sickness than in most tropical countries. Salvador, lacking an +Atlantic coast, is free from the diseases that are common in the +fever-infested hot lands. + + + England’s Central American Colony + +Belize (British Honduras) is one region in Central America that we are +likely to forget or overlook, for it is not a republic. Yet it is larger +than Salvador, being of much the same width but nearly forty miles +longer. We find that its area is about that of Massachusetts. Tucked +away on the eastern side of Guatemala and the Mexican peninsula of +Yucatan, much of Belize is low country bordering on the Caribbean. +Besides the more usual tropical products, such as mahogany and chicle, +it has tortoiseshell and sponges for export. + +Of its 45,000 people only about a hundred are pure white. Most of the +inhabitants are negroes from the West Indies, and English is the +language spoken. The river Belize runs through the middle of the colony. +The capital, of the same name, has a population of about 13,000. + +Belize seems to be a Spanish corruption of “Wallis,” the name of an +early British settler. Buccaneers or pirates first occupied it, then +came logwood hunters. Off the coast, the British settlers were attacked +by a Spanish fleet, but they repulsed it and landed a force of two +thousand men. In 1798 Spain acknowledged the occupation. Belize has been +an organized British colony since 1862. + + + + + CHAPTER XXI + NICARAGUA, AND AMERICAN “CO-OPERATION” + + +The morning after we sailed from Amapala in Honduras our steamer stopped +at Corinto, the chief Pacific port of Nicaragua. A railroad runs from +there to Managua, the capital, and beyond, touching the principal towns. +Except for some private tracks, it is the only railway in Nicaragua; yet +it is barely 175 miles long—a very small mileage, considering the +country’s size. Nicaragua’s area of nearly 50,000 square miles makes it +the largest country in Central America, though Guatemala really has more +land. Including its two big lakes, Nicaragua is about as large as the +state of New York. It extends from ocean to ocean, but most of its +650,000 people live in the western third of the country, which is higher +and more healthful. The central cordillera, or main mountain range, +between four and five thousand feet high, is only twelve to thirty miles +from the Pacific. As most of the country, east of this, is low, +unpleasant, and unhealthful, all the cities and big towns are on the +Pacific slope. + +The railroad goes inland a short distance, then turns south. It skirts +the mountains, including smoking Momotombo. In this region are frequent +eruptions. Thirty miles from Corinto the train reaches León, formerly +the capital, then crawls on southward to Managua, the present capital, +on the southern shore of Lake Managua. + +[Illustration: + + Corinto, the principal Pacific port of Nicaragua. +] + +León and Granada both wanted to be the capital. The dispute was settled +by giving the honor to neither, but to Managua. This city, unimportant +then, now has 40,000 inhabitants. It is not a pleasant place. For one +thing, it is only 140 feet above sea level, which is far too low in a +tropical country. Despite occasional breezes from the lake front, it +swelters in heat nearly all the time. Like Corinto and León, it is a +city of sand. A barren expanse of desert faces the old cathedral. +Vegetation sprouts from a fallen spire. Dust covers the grassless +central _plaza_; it is two inches deep in the main avenues; it settles +on the low roofs and seeps in everywhere. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + This large and well-built school is in the city of Managua, Nicaragua. +] + +There is no water fit to drink. When the Spaniards established +themselves in America they were usually careful to build their capitals +up in the mountains. But they did not bother so much about water. In +those days most of Europe thought bathing unhealthful, and as the people +drank wine to quench thirst, water was needed only for cooking and for +the horses. Nearly all the old Spanish capitals still have a very poor +water supply. + +It is not strange that Nicaragua, being low and hot, with the least +invigorating climate in Central America, is one of the most backward +countries south of the United States. Nearly all of its people have the +hookworm disease, which makes them feel tired all the time. A big +American charitable foundation has been fighting this disease throughout +Central America; but it will probably remain as long as the people go +barefoot, for the parasites that cause it work their way in through the +skin. + + + Recreations of the People + +However, there are some energetic Nicaraguans in the cities. Managua has +taken up baseball and even boxing—though that sport has long been +opposed in Latin-America as a brutal amusement of the barbaric +“gringos”! The aristocrats of Central America are very fond of +theatrical entertainments, and there is a national theater in nearly +every capital. But as the expense of bringing actors from Europe is +high, performances are rare in such little places as Managua, even +though the government helps to pay for them. Those who want amusement +usually fall back on the evening concerts in the _plaza_. + +It may seem queer to speak of the composition of verses as a favorite +“indoor sport,” but that is just what it is among the educated young +men. In Spanish-America nearly everyone who knows how to write tries to +be a poet. The newspapers print many amateur poems, but do not pay for +them. However, the authors consider the honor of appearing in print +before all their friends sufficient reward. Occasionally a real poet is +discovered among the crowd, like one pearl in a ton of oysters. +Nicaragua gave to the world Rubén Darío, considered by some critics the +greatest modern poet writing in the Spanish language. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Loading coffee at a plantation in Nicaragua. +] + +This country, with all its handicaps, has many natural advantages—good +rivers and thick forests, minerals in the ranges, and a large amount of +land suitable for cultivation. Men who should know say that it could +develop wealth greater than that of any other Central American country. +It has almost all tropical products. Mahogany, rosewood, logwood, +sandalwood, and other valuable hardwoods grow in its forests, in which +gums, dyes, and medicinal products also are found. The rich soil of the +western cultivated region grows splendid maize. Coffee, sugar and +bananas are produced. In the little-cultivated eastern and central parts +of the country, there are many herds. But the Nicaraguans do not make +the most of their opportunities. Their country is almost as undeveloped +as Honduras, and its exports and imports are less than those of the much +smaller Salvador. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + A glimpse of Lake Nicaragua, famous in the history of attempts to open + a passageway between the Atlantic and the Pacific. +] + + + The Nicaraguan Canal Question + +Lake Nicaragua, which bears an important relation to the history of the +country, is the largest body of fresh water between our Great Lakes and +Lake Titicaca in the Andes. It is 115 miles long and 45 miles +wide—almost as large as all Salvador. A little north of this lake and +twenty-five feet higher is Lake Managua, thirty-five by twenty miles in +extent. When gold was discovered in California, many Americans went +there by way of Nicaragua, before the Panama Railroad was built. +Commodore Vanderbilt ran steamers across Lake Nicaragua to a low place +in the mountains and he had stagecoaches carry the prospectors from +there to the coast, where they embarked for California. Many of them saw +gold in the rivers, and on their return from California some stayed in +Nicaragua. Thus Americans came to control the mines in that country, as +they do in other parts of Central America and in Mexico. + +[Illustration: + + Map showing proposed Nicaragua Canal route, with opening cut between + Lake Nicaragua and the Pacific. The San Juan River connects Lake + Nicaragua with the Caribbean Sea (Atlantic Ocean). +] + +For a long time Nicaragua was considered a better location than Panama +for a canal between the Atlantic and the Pacific. Lake Nicaragua is only +110 feet above sea level, and drains into the Caribbean through the San +Juan River. Moreover, the cordillera, between Lake Nicaragua and the +Pacific, is quite low. Dredging the San Juan River would allow ocean +vessels to come up to the lake, and from there a canal could be dug to +the Pacific, only eleven miles away. + +The possibility of a Nicaraguan canal was discussed in the United States +Congress as early as 1826, and Henry Clay was sent to investigate. The +principal disadvantage of a canal in that location would be the long +distance between the two oceans. Much dredging would be required, for +most of the San Juan River is so shallow that only small launches can +navigate it. Yet if ever traffic outgrows the Panama Canal, which is +quite possible, Nicaragua will furnish another steamer road between the +Atlantic and the Pacific. In 1916 the United States paid Nicaragua +$3,000,000 for an option of ninety-nine years on this canal route. This +gives us first rights there until the year 2015. As a matter of fact, +the $3,000,000 never left New York. It was paid to the bankers who had +loaned money to Nicaragua. + + + An Interesting History + +The history of Nicaragua is especially interesting to us, because the +United States Government and individual Americans have had so large a +part in it. Like the countries north of it, Nicaragua was once a center +of Indian civilization. There are stone sculptures and ruins of an early +civilized race, and remains of ancient Indian dialects. Columbus sailed +along the Mosquito Coast in 1502; Granada was founded in 1524. During +the three centuries of Spanish rule Nicaragua was part of the one +Central American colony, with its capital at Guatemala City. Two years +after it became independent in 1821, Nicaragua joined the Federation of +Central America, which lasted for sixteen years. Then came civil war, +followed by war not only with Honduras and Costa Rica but with England. +The English claimed all the Mosquito Coast, but gave up their claim, +except to Belize, in 1860. Since then there has been the usual Central +American story of one dictator after another, with not very many +presidents getting their office legally. From 1893 to 1909 Nicaragua was +ruled by José Zelaya, a dictator much like Diaz of Mexico. He began +well, but soon became a great tyrant. Because the illiterate peons, who +made up so large a part of the population, took no interest in political +matters, he could run the country much as he pleased. Zelaya helped +Nicaragua to make some progress, but he took away from the people what +little political self-confidence they had gained. + + + Our Relations with Nicaragua + +Americans as individuals had already been much interested in Nicaraguan +affairs before official United States “co-operation” began in 1909. As +in Mexico, large investments had been made by American capitalists. +Zelaya had been having himself re-elected over a period of seventeen +years when a revolution was started by General Juan Estrada at +Bluefields, an isolated port on the Caribbean. Zelaya incurred the +displeasure of the United States, through the execution of two +Americans, and he was finally forced to resign and flee to Mexico. +American Marines were landed at Bluefields to protect our interests. + +In 1910 Estrada was elected president by the Nicaraguan Congress and his +government was recognized by the United States; but he resigned after a +few months. In 1912, when Adolfo Diaz was president, another revolution +broke out, and again American forces were landed. As a result, Diaz’ +position was strengthened. Thereafter a “legation guard” of a hundred +Marines was retained at Managua for a number of years. By keeping +political conditions stable under several administrations, the presence +of these troops was of benefit to American bankers and others whose +money was being used to develop the country’s resources. After the +withdrawal of United States troops in 1925, political unrest and +intrigue again appeared. In 1926 when, after an interval, Diaz had again +taken office as president, his election was contested by a former vice +president, Juan B. Sacasa. Diaz, recognized by the United States and +other leading nations, asked for American aid. Again Marines were landed +to help preserve order. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail S. S. Co., San Francisco + + Loading coffee at San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It has to be carried + out from shore in a lighter and then transferred to the ocean-going + vessel. +] + +Some European and American newspapers, and some of our members of +Congress and public speakers, criticize the United States Department of +State for its Nicaraguan policy, speaking of it as unjustified +“intervention” rather than beneficent “co-operation.” The policy is not +popular, either, with all the people of Nicaragua. The wisdom of doing +as we have is too debatable to go into here. I have given an outline of +the facts because our policy has been affected not only by the need to +protect American lives and property, but also by the possibility that +some day the United States may wish to take up its option on the +Nicaragua route for a new canal. + + + The Results of “Co-operation” + +Unsettled conditions led American bankers to take charge of the huge +Nicaraguan national debt, and to arrange to manage the railroad. They +came, in time, to control nearly everything of value in the republic. It +is undoubtedly true that Nicaragua made some progress under American +supervision, but not much is visible to the hurried visitor. Managua is +in no better repair now than when the Marines first came; most of the +cities and towns are more dilapidated than those of Honduras. But the +national debt was reduced from $32,000,000 to $9,000,000, and the +_córdoba_, or Nicaraguan dollar, was brought up to the same value as our +dollar. + +In the old days anyone who thought he was important expected at least a +pass on the railroad, and if he was very influential he expected a +private car. The car would be attached to a regular passenger train, and +this train would have to stop and wait several hours while the +private-car man paid visits along the line. This was all changed under +American “co-operation.” The railroad began to run on a schedule and to +pay a profit. The Nicaraguan Government proceeded to buy back control of +both the railroad and the national bank. + + + The Adventurous William Walker + +It would be too bad to leave Nicaragua without telling the story of +William Walker. That most notorious filibuster in Central American +history was born in Tennessee. In his youth he studied medicine in +Edinburgh and Heidelberg. Later he worked for newspapers in New Orleans +and San Francisco. Public attention was first attracted to him in 1853 +when he attempted to conquer the state of Sonora, just across the +Border, and was nearly killed by Mexicans. + +Believing that some day the North would force the abolition of slavery +in the United States, Walker decided he would establish a slave monarchy +in Nicaragua. When the two political parties of Nicaragua, the +aristocrats and the democrats, were fighting tooth and nail in 1855, +this American adventurer landed with fifty-eight blue-shirted men who, +though carrying few weapons, soon captured Granada. Walker had himself +appointed secretary of war and commander-in-chief of the Nicaraguan +army. By the end of the year he had induced the United States Government +to recognize his puppet president. Not long afterward, accusing this +president of conspiracy, Walker ordered him shot and declared himself +president. Then he fought a war with Costa Rica, and proclaimed English +the official language. Nicaragua did not allow slavery, but Walker had +the anti-slavery clause in its constitution annulled, and offered +American slave owners a land of refuge. + +However, his rule led to an insurrection. He had taken Commodore +Vanderbilt’s steamers on the Nicaraguan lakes and sold them to another +American capitalist. By way of reprisal, Vanderbilt loaned money to +Walker’s enemies and helped to get him defeated. Walker surrendered to +the commander of an American naval vessel and was taken back to New +Orleans. From there he went on a lecture tour! + +Always restless and ambitious, he returned to Nicaragua in 1857 with a +following of American adventurers. The Nicaraguans drove him out, and he +turned his attention to Honduras. On his first attempt to invade that +country he was shipwrecked. Later he took the city of Trujillo, but he +could not hold it. In time he was captured by a British warship, handed +over to the Honduras Government, courtmartialed, and shot. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + Old Spanish church in Trujillo, the Honduras coast city once captured + by William Walker. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XXII + COSTA RICA—THE “RICH COAST” + + +If we travel by the shortest and most comfortable route from Nicaragua +to Costa Rica—the “Rich Coast”—we shall take a steamer on the Pacific +from Corinto to Puntarenas (“Sandy Point”) where we can get a train for +the capital. Or we can take a boat at Granada and sail down Lake +Nicaragua to the border of Costa Rica. Let us, however, go down the +Atlantic coast—called the Mosquito Coast from the Misskitos or +Mosquitos, a race of mixed African and Indian blood. + +Weather-blackened old San Juan del Norte, otherwise known as Greytown, +will be the Caribbean terminus of the Nicaraguan Canal, if it is ever +built. It is a typical east-coast town, low, swampy, ill smelling, with +black inhabitants in the majority. In the days of the gold rush to +California it was a thriving city. Then this coast, from Yucatan to +Costa Rica, was a part of the British Mosquito Kingdom, of which only +British Honduras (Belize) now remains. To-day the whole population of +Greytown rush to their doors to stare at any new white man who lands +there. + +We take a boat from Greytown to Port Limón, the principal port of what +many people consider the most charming land in America. Limón harbor is +bounded by a white crescent beach fringed with graceful coconut palms. +Several million bunches of bananas a year are shipped from Limón to the +United States and Europe. The Caribbean shore is noted also for its +turtles, which furnish us soup and tortoise shell. On the Pacific coast +pink pearls and mother-of-pearl are obtained. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + Coffee picking on a plantation not far from San José. +] + +Limón is the eastern terminus of the short transcontinental railway +which passes through the capital, San José. One of the three railroads +in Spanish-America most famous for scenic beauty, it carries us inland +through an ever-changing panorama of banana plantations, cane fields, +thatched villages, dense jungles and forests. We pass magnificent trees, +festooned with moss and vines, as we make our way through rugged gulches +and beside foaming rivers. In the distance lofty mountains tower toward +flimsy white clouds that float in the bluest of skies. From Port Limón +to San José the railway is owned by an English corporation but it is +leased by the Northern Railway Company, a subsidiary of the United Fruit +Company. From San José to the Pacific coast the railway is owned and +operated by the Costa Rican Government. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + A cart full of coffee beans delivering its load. +] + + + Into the Highlands Once More + +The train climbs mountain sides until the stream it has been following +becomes a mere ribbon far below. It crawls along winding cliffs that +look out upon endless vistas of waving palm-tree tops. Soon we are up in +the exhilarating coolness of the highlands, among rolling hills. The +banana lands and the uncomfortably hot weather have been left behind at +the foothills. Up to an altitude of three of four thousand feet, we pass +many coffee plantations, the red berries glistening in the morning dew. +The bushes climb hills so steep that the planters and pickers would seem +to need ladders. Costa Rica coffee, which is considered excellent, is +sold mostly in the European countries. To the Costa Ricans it is one of +their most important products. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + One of the processes in preparing coffee for the market consists in + washing it. +] + +Other products of this rich land are tobacco, sugar, cacao, rubber, +vanilla, and hides; but all these are of small account compared to +bananas and coffee. Costa Rica has minerals, too, but its agricultural +products are more important. Columbus rightly named the region “Rich +Coast.” Yet fertile as it is, and despite its name, it was very poor +until it had been opened up by foreign capital. + +Costa Rica, with its 23,000 square miles, is about half as large as +Pennsylvania. Except Salvador, it is the smallest republic in the +Americas. Everywhere but on the east coast it is very mountainous, with +many volcanoes. Not only is the scenery beautiful; the climate is +splendid at all but the lowest levels. Most of the country is so +healthful that Canal Zone doctors recommend it to convalescents, and +many American employees go to Costa Rica for their yearly vacations +instead of returning to the United States. + +The railroad reaches a height of almost five thousand feet at the top of +the pass some ninety miles from the Atlantic. The mountains seem to roll +over one another in all sorts of shapes, like a school yard full of boys +playing rough and tumble. Here are great gorges, there hollows or plots +of almost level land covered with small farms. Some of the peaks are two +miles high, and from the top of one of them both oceans can be seen. + +[Illustration: + + Panama Mail Steamship Co., San Francisco + + Both coffee and rosewood are shipped from Puntarenas, Costa Rica. +] + +From the summit, the train descends two thousand feet toward the +capital. On the way we stop at Cartago, the old capital and seat of +Spanish rule, picturesque with its red-tiled roofs. It was named for +Carthage, famous city of antiquity. When independence was declared, some +of the people of Cartago refused to join the revolutionists, and the +latter made San José their capital. Many wealthy Costa Ricans still +prefer to live in Cartago. It lies on the slope of the volcano Irazú, +which has a number of worn-out craters. Mt. Poas makes more trouble for +the region. In April, 1910, an earthquake was felt throughout the +plateau, and in Cartago one thousand people, one-tenth of the +population, perished in the ruins of their city. To-day there are still +signs of this disaster, but most of the wrecked area has been rebuilt. +The visitor who wanders about Cartago on a summer evening (the only kind +of evening the city has) and sees the gay crowds at the outdoor band +concert or coming from the movies or the theater, finds it hard to +realize that it has been the scene of a great tragedy. + +[Illustration: + + United Fruit Company + + The National Theater at San José, Costa Rica, is a very costly and + handsome building. +] + + + The Delightful Costa Rican Capital + +The train goes on down into a fertile valley dotted with little farms +and puffs into San José, the most delightful capital in Central America +and one of the most interesting small cities anywhere below the Rio +Grande. It lies in a natural amphitheater of mountains that are always +green, their heads often lost in clouds. It is a city of quaint Spanish +architecture, yet with every modern comfort, a city of the loveliest +climate, a quiet, peaceful city slumbering beneath a warm sun that never +burns, with the most attractive _plazas_. and, some people think, the +most beautiful women in the world. + +The most delightful thing about San José is that, though it is so +up-to-date in some ways, it remains as picturesquely charming as a city +of old Spain. Nearly every woman one meets wears a very large shawl. +Even among the lower classes this wrap is often richly embroidered, +though the wearer may be barefoot. It is often of silk, in brilliant +colors, with a fringe a foot long. The one- or two-story houses squat +contentedly about the big cathedral, like chicks about a hen. Oxen plod +slowly through the narrow Moorish streets behind the driver’s goad—for +the Spanish way is to walk ahead and coax the animals to follow by +goading them in the neck. Their noses almost touch the ground, their +massive shoulders swing from side to side in unison, because of the yoke +bound to their horns. In the coffee fields just outside the capital, the +peons laugh and chat as they fill their baskets with the red berries +that will some day cheer the café customers of Paris and Berlin. + + + A Progressive Land + +Columbus discovered the “Rich Coast” in 1493, and by the time of his +fourth voyage, in 1502, it seems already to have been settled. Fortune +favored it from the beginning. As it had few gold mines, it did not +attract to its shores those swashbuckling adventurers whose descendants +still keep so many of the neighboring countries in turmoil. It was not +settled by _conquistadores_ from hot-blooded Andalusia, bent on +enslaving the Indians and doing no work themselves, but by people from +Galicia in the northwestern corner of Spain. Although other Spaniards +consider the Gallegos (people of Galicia) rather stupid, they are the +hardest-working farmers in Spain. Those who came to America did not +intermarry with the Indians of Costa Rica but took the country away from +the native tribes. To-day, once we have passed the black fringe along +the Caribbean coast, we find few Indians and not many half-breeds, but a +race that is eighty per cent pure Spanish, even among the lowly peons. + +It is no wonder that the people of Costa Rica seem happier than most +Central Americans. Their country is not only fertile and charming, but +usually it is one of the most peaceful of the Latin-American lands. The +two smallest republics on the American continents, Salvador and Costa +Rica, are among the most progressive. + +The Costa Ricans are paying off their national debt. They have enough +primary and grammar schools for all the children, and colleges in the +chief cities. The law requires all children to go to school. Not being +troubled by constant civil wars, Costa Rica has had time to progress. +The land is fairly divided; most of the people own their own farms and +are contented. Nearly every countryman has his own little estate, with a +patch of bananas, a fruit garden, and a place to grow vegetables. + +Costa Rica refused to join the other countries of Central America in a +federation, because it knew that it could get on better alone than by +combining with its quarrelsome neighbors. True, in 1872 it had its ninth +constitution which, for the next ten years, was almost suspended by a +dictator of the Diaz type; and since then the constitution has often +been changed. But on the whole it has had a peaceful history. Its +president and members of Congress are elected for four years. It has a +small standing army of five hundred soldiers in time of peace, but as +all men between the ages of eighteen and sixty are in the militia, it +can quickly call upon 50,000 reserves if war breaks out. + +Costa Rica has a population of about 500,000, of whom only 3,500 are +Indians. Most of its people live on the central plateau, in an area of +about 3,500 square miles, so that nearly five-sixths of its territory is +still covered with forest and jungle. The four principal cities are in +the one mountain district, and are so close together that they are +connected by a wagon road barely thirty miles long. Most of its roads +and forms of transportation are still quite primitive. Away from the +railroad nearly all travel is on horseback, or in oxcarts. The small +horses are almost all singlefoot—that is, their gait is an amble—which +makes them easy to ride. Nearly every traveler carries saddlebags across +his shoulders, instead of a suitcase in his hand, and horses are seen at +almost every station. + +Although San José is a city of only about 40,000 inhabitants it boasts a +two-million-dollar national theater which is as richly decorated as any +in the United States. This theater was badly damaged by an earthquake in +March, 1924, but it has been almost entirely rebuilt. It really benefits +only the rich and the well-to-do, since most of the people cannot afford +to attend it. Often it is closed for a whole year. Yet everyone is +required to help pay for it, because it is maintained by the government. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + The city of Panama from Ancon Hill, looking out across the Pacific’s + broad expanse. +] + + + + + CHAPTER XXIII + PANAMA AND THE GREAT CANAL + + +The slender connecting link between the two Americas is sometimes not +considered a part of Central America. But surely it should be, now that +it is a separate republic and not a part of Colombia in South America. +Formerly called the Isthmus of Darien, it is the narrowest part of the +Americas, at one point being only thirty-five miles wide. + +Porto Bello, on the Atlantic coast of Darien, and now of little +importance, was the first place on the American continents settled by +white men. On September 1, 1513, the Spanish explorer Balboa set out +from there with an expedition of 190 white men and a party of Indians, +to see whether there was truth in the rumor that a great sea lay to the +westward. Until then the men who followed Columbus across the Atlantic +thought the land he had discovered was a part of Asia. Balboa fought his +way through unfriendly tribes and difficult country for twenty-five days +before he reached a hill from which, as Keats says, + + “He stared at the Pacific, and all his men + Looked at each other with a wild surmise, + Silent, upon a peak in Darien.” + +(The poet made the curious mistake of crediting this discovery to “stout +Cortés.”) + +[Illustration: + + Balboa, after discovering the Pacific, went down to the shore and took + possession of the ocean for the Spanish crown. +] + +We say that Balboa discovered the Pacific, and in a sense he did, though +in reality millions of people had seen it and men had sailed upon it for +centuries before that. Erecting a crude cross on the hill from which he +first viewed the ocean, he pushed on down to the coast, which he reached +four days later. Rushing into the water, he claimed possession of the +ocean and all the lands bordering on it in the name of the king of +Spain. Of course Balboa did not know that this ocean washed the shores +not only of North and South America, but of Asia, Australia, and +hundreds of islands. + +[Illustration: + + A ruin at Porto Bello, supposed to have been the Custom House during + Spanish rule. +] + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + The Panama Railroad’s handsome station in Panama City. How sharply it + contrasts with the picture above! +] + +In 1519 Panama City was founded on the Pacific side of Darien, and +became the outfitting base for expeditions to Peru, the first one led by +Pizarro, who began the conquest of South America for Spain. The +Spaniards built, between Porto Bello and Panama City, a road that for +many years was one of the richest trade routes in the world. All the +gold and treasures sent from Peru to Spain passed over it. When the +natural wealth of Peru declined, Panama slumped. No new settlers came +and many of its old residents died from malaria and yellow fever. +Finally it became so unimportant that it lost its rank as a separate +dependency of Spain and was made a province of the viceroyalty of New +Granada, which included the present republic of Colombia. + +During the gold rush to California, Panama again became important. Many +men chose to go by way of Panama rather than make the long, dangerous +journey across the United States. Three Americans, seeing their +opportunity, secured from Colombia a concession to build a railroad +across the Isthmus. The first rails were laid in 1850, and five years +later the Atlantic and Pacific were joined by the first continental +railway, forty-seven miles long. By the time it was finished it had +taken in $2,000,000. It carried 1,200,000 passengers in one year, beside +much freight, including $50,000,000 worth of uncoined gold, sent from +California to New York. The fare for that forty-seven miles was +twenty-five dollars, and passengers had to pay extra for their baggage +and mining outfits. To-day one can cross the isthmus in about four +hours, as comfortably as if going from New York to Baltimore, and at +about one-tenth the fare of the early days. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + Balboa from Ancon Hill, showing Canal Zone administration building in + right foreground, schoolhouse (left foreground), baseball park, and + harbor. +] + +[Illustration: + + Culebra Cut in 1913 when the canal was being dug. +] + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + Gaillard Cut at Gold and Contractor’s Hills. +] + +[Illustration: + + Gatun Locks, with Gatun Lake beyond. +] + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + A steamship in the Middle East Chamber, Gatun Locks. +] + + + Building the Canal + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + A relief map of the Canal Zone shows mountainous region through which + the canal passes. + +Long before the railroad was built, people had begun to think of digging +a canal across the narrowest part of the Americas. By such a short cut, +ships could save thousands of miles between the two oceans. The French, +who had recently finished the Suez Canal, started this job in the New +World. But they soon discovered that Panama, with a rocky mountain chain +running through it, was not Suez, where they had only to dig a ditch +through a desert, in ground so soft and flat that they could simply +throw the earth up on the banks. One assessment after another was levied +on the French stockholders, until thousands of them had lost the savings +of a lifetime. Ferdinand De Lesseps, engineer of the enterprise, was +arrested, charged with stealing the stockholders’ money. But the +difficulties of the task were chiefly to blame, and the French gave it +up. Mosquitoes killed thousands of workmen by transmitting malaria and +yellow fever. The French did not realize that it would be necessary to +exterminate the mosquitoes before men could live long enough on the +Isthmus of Panama to dig a canal. + +Many Americans still thought the Nicaraguan route better for a canal +between the two oceans, but the United States finally took over the +French rights to the Panama Canal. We paid the French $40,000,000 and +gave the new Republic of Panama $10,000,000 for the privilege of running +the canal across its territory. We also promised to pay Panama $250,000 +a year rental forever (beginning in 1913 when the canal was expected to +be finished) for a strip of land ten miles wide across the isthmus and +extending three miles into the sea at either end. The fact that Colombia +earlier refused to sell or rent this land to us led the people of Panama +to declare their independence. Finally, after years of argument, we gave +Colombia $25,000,000 for the loss of her isthmian province. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + The Great Gatun Spillway Dam, Panama Canal, which takes care of the + overflow of water. +] + +On May 8, 1904, we took over the Canal Zone and what the French had left +there. For ten years that small strip of land was the busiest place on +earth. As a member of the Canal Zone police force I spent six months +there when the canal was nearing completion. One of my tasks was to help +take a census of Canal Zone residents. We found 62,810 people, of whom +37,428 were employees of Uncle Sam, and helping in one way or another to +dig the canal. Only 5,228 of the residents were Americans; nearly half +were British subjects, mostly black people from the West Indies; the +others came from more than fifty different countries. + +[Illustration: + + Map of the Canal Zone showing plainly that the Pacific end of the + Canal is farther east than the Atlantic end. +] + +[Illustration: + + In the Canal Zone, Americans live in such houses as these. +] + +[Illustration: + + Photos from Ford Educational Weekly + + American children at Balboa attend school in this fine building. +] + +[Illustration: + + Natives of Panama outside the city live in such huts as this. +] + +[Illustration: + + Photos from Ford Educational Weekly + + A street of native houses in the old City of Panama. +] + +Some of the men ran huge steam shovels that gnawed their way through the +cordillera or “backbone” of the Americas, which here is only a few +hundred feet high. To dig through those comparatively low rock hills was +a formidable job. A miniature state grew up along the canal, with +everything from ice plants to office buildings. There were dozens of +towns, and thousands upon thousands of comfortable two-story screened +bungalows to house American and other employees. We spent $43,000 a year +just to keep down the mosquitoes that had driven out the French. +Hundreds of trainloads of rock and earth were carried to the end of the +Zone every working day and dumped in the sea or in out-of-the-way +places. All this went on until the canal was opened in 1914, and even +after that there was still digging and dredging and other work to do. +The successful completion of the canal was made possible only by the +energy and devotion of Colonel Goethals, General Gorgas and their +associates. From the very beginning it was realized that the canal was a +medical as well as an engineering problem. Without sanitation and +preventive medicine the enterprise would surely have failed. + + + Ideal Living Conditions + +The Panama Canal Zone has become a wonderful place in which to live. The +American Government runs everything, even the stores, the laundries, the +restaurants, the hospitals, the rebuilt railroad. The several thousand +Americans and many workmen of other nationalities who remain there to +look after the canal do not use money in the stores, but pay with +tickets issued to all government employees. The Canal Zone now has a +lower death rate than the average American city or the United States as +a whole. The thousands of American children who are born and live there +have splendid schools, magnificent playgrounds, and a perpetual summer. +They become wonderful swimmers, for they can swim outdoors every day in +the year. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + In the Canal Zone outdoor swimming is possible all the year round. + Some splendid swimmers have been developed there, and they begin + early. This picture shows the youngest members of the famous Red, + White and Blue Swimming Troupe at the Balboa Pool. +] + +American women in Panama keep house rather differently from those in the +United States. They have plenty of servants. There are no stoves, except +for cooking, but electric lights burn day and night in clothes closets +to keep the clothing from mildewing. Light and power come from the +Spillway, over which flows the surplus water from Gatun Lake. +Electricity costs the government very little and the employees nothing +at all. The air from the land is like that of July at home, but almost +always a soft, cool, refreshing breeze blows in from the ocean. There is +a yearly rainy season, yet even that is not so very unpleasant. + +A trip across the Canal Zone is like a ride through botanical gardens. +Strange trees, many of them enormous, often with air plants and orchids +growing on them, stand forth above the dense jungle. Clumps of feathery +bamboo wave like huge ostrich feathers in the breeze. There are +delicious alligator pears, papayas that look like muskmelons, mangoes. +Some of the finest pineapples in the world grow on Taboga, one of the +several small islands at the Pacific end of the canal, a favorite place +for picnics and short vacations. There are few more delightful places in +the world than the Canal Zone, and if you ever have a chance to go +there, by all means do so. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + Delicious pineapples grow in the Canal Zone. +] + +Not long ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Canal Zone again. It was +hard to realize that the great cut had been made by steam shovels. +To-day it looks like a natural valley. From fifty to seventy vessels can +be passed through the canal in a single day, depending on their size. +Electric locomotives known as “mules” draw ships through the three locks +at each end of Gatun Lake, which is eighty-five feet above the oceans. +Huge steel doors, high as a ten-story building, open and shut +noiselessly. Water rushes in or pours out through enormous concrete +pipes, and quickly lifts or lowers a ship. Then another gate ahead +opens, the “mules” tow the ship into the next lock, and the process is +repeated. Great liners or war vessels are handled as easily as the +smallest sailboats. + + + The Republic of Panama + +The Canal Zone is only a very small part of the Republic of Panama, +though to Americans and to the world at large it seems far more +important than the rest. Panama has 32,400 square miles and about +400,000 inhabitants, outside the Canal Zone. There are numerous streams, +one of them navigable for a hundred miles. Much of the republic is +mountainous. Outside the limits of the Canal Zone it is the least +developed of any Central American country. There are no cities of any +size besides Colón and Panama City, at the two ends of the canal. +Although these are inside the ten by fifty mile strip, they are not +governed by the United States, though our government exercises its +influence to keep them cleaner than most Central American cities. + +Colón was long known as Aspinwall. “Colón” being Spanish for Columbus—a +far more important man than the Englishman Aspinwall who once lived +there—Colombia long ago refused to receive letters addressed to +Aspinwall or to harbor ships whose papers used the offending name. So +that name died out, and only now and then does an “old-timer” still use +it. Colón is rather a commonplace city, with checkerboard streets and +wooden shops and houses, but it is much more up-to-date than most cities +of Central America. + +[Illustration: + + Papaya fruit is very large and grows in clusters. These trees are on + Bracho Plantation, Panama. +] + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photos by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + Cacao trees, Las Cascadas Plantation, Panama. The flat cars carry + drying trays. +] + +Panama City, capital of the republic, is a more interesting place. Its +history alone makes it worth visiting. Old Panama City was founded more +than a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. In +1671 it was destroyed by the famous English pirate Henry Morgan, who +killed and tortured many people and carried off 175 donkey-loads of +treasure. (Some of the valuables he left behind have been discovered +recently.) Later Morgan bought his pardon from King Charles II, was +knighted, and became governor of Jamaica. The present city was built in +1673, about five miles from the old one. The ruins of the first city are +a favorite place for Canal Zone picnics. + +The Panama City of to-day is built on a rocky projection almost +surrounded by the sea. A huge stone wall thirty feet high nearly +encircles it. It has well-paved streets, trolley cars, water and +sewerage systems. On one side of the central _plaza_, where both +Panamanians and Americans promenade, is the bishop’s palace, and on +another the cathedral, its twin towers covered with mother-of-pearl. The +best buildings in the town were erected after Panama declared its +independence. Some of its stores and customs remind one of the United +States. Yet many of the people still do their work out on shaded +sidewalks, in the old Spanish-American fashion. Women sit there sewing, +and so do tailors. If we stop in the _plaza_ to rest, men, women, and +even children offer us lottery tickets. It is forbidden to sell them in +the Canal Zone, but they may be had in Panama City or Colón. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + A San Blas Indian climbing a coconut tree. +] + +One of the amusing things to see at Panama is the sun _rising from the +Pacific_. “The Pacific!” you exclaim. “Why, only people in Japan or +Hawaii could do that.” However, if you look carefully at the map on page +269 you will find that a person at Panama City actually could see the +sun come up out of the Pacific Ocean. Since South America lies far east +of North America, the land connecting them has to run east-west more +than north-south. But it does not run straight at all. The outline of +Central America makes one think of a roller coaster, with a number of +loops that form gulfs. On one of these gulfs is Panama City. It is +twenty-three miles farther east than the Atlantic entrance to the canal, +and it is so placed on the Gulf of Panama that one looks eastward across +the water. + + + Products and People + +The Republic of Panama has the usual tropical products. Chiriquí +Province, much of which is 3,000 feet above sea level, is noted for its +grazing lands and its excellent cattle. “Panama hats,” by the way, were +never made in Panama, but in Colombia and Ecuador. They got their name +from being carried across the isthmus on their way to the United States +and Europe. Panama Republic has only the beginning of a railway system +and practically no roads at all. More than half its territory is +uninhabited, and only a small part of the rest is cultivated. The +average Panamanian works only enough to procure the bare necessities of +life. His food, shelter, and clothing are of the simplest. Yet the +country has large areas of very fertile land, and other valuable +resources, and in time it may become a wealthy member of the family of +nations. + +The most interesting people in the Republic of Panama are the San Blas +Indians, whose territory begins about fifty miles below the Canal Zone +and continues to the border of Colombia. They are small but very sturdy, +with remarkable chests and shoulders, and are expert boatmen and +swimmers. They navigate the Atlantic coast in fifteen-foot dugouts, and +sometimes bring fish and fruit to Colón. Although they treat white men +politely in the daytime, the San Blas Indians seldom allow strangers to +stay in their territory after dark. Having preserved their tribal +identity through four centuries since the white man’s arrival, they +propose to remain independent just as long as possible. Therefore they +never intermarry with the whites, and no one has been successful in +persuading them to give up the primitive life of their forefathers. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + A San Blas Indian family standing in front of their home. +] + + * * * * * + +Here we are at the end of Central America! It has been a pleasant and an +interesting, if sometimes a rather rough, journey. Those of you who +wish, may start for home, boarding a fast comfortable steamer at Colón +or Panama City; but I am going on to South America, and I shall be glad +to have anyone come along who would like to visit the countries of that +great continent. + +[Illustration: + + Canal Zone. Photo by E. Hallen, Official Photographer + + Ruins of old Panama—Cathedral tower, showing rounded opening in which + there was once a spiral staircase to the belfry. +] + + + + + PRONUNCIATION LIST + + + AUTHOR’S NOTE: The pronunciation of Spanish will not be found + difficult, as the number of sounds is few, and there is little + variation. There are some differences between Spanish as spoken in + Spain and Spanish as spoken in Latin America, and since this book + relates to Mexico and Central America it seems best to indicate sounds + as they would be given there. Some words in this book, also, are of + Indian origin, and are therefore pronounced somewhat differently. One + who is interested to go more deeply into the matter will find + information under “A Guide to Pronunciation” in _Webster’s New + International Dictionary_. The symbols of that dictionary have been + used in the following list. + + abrazo (ä-brä´sō) + acabala (ä-kä-bä´lä) + Acajutla (ä-kä-hoot´lä) + adiós (ä-dē-ōs´) + administrador (äd-mē-në-strä-dôr´) + adobe (ä-dō´bā) + Agua (ä´gwä) + agua-miel (ä-gwä-myĕl´) + Aguascalientes (ä-gwäs-käl-yĕn´tās) + Alhóndiga (ä-lôn´dē-gä) + Alvarado (äl-vä-rä´dō) + Amapala (ä-mä-pä´lä) + Amatitlán ( ä-mä-tē-tlän´) + americanisado (â-mā-rē-kän-ē-sä´dō) + Anáhuac (ä-nä´wäk) + Antigua (än-tē´gwä) + Atitlán (ä-tē-tlän´) + atole (ä-tō´lā) + Ayutla (ä-yoot´lä) + + Belize (bĕ-lēz´) + Bogotá (bō-gō-tä´) + Boquilla (bō-kē´lyä) + Bracho (brä´chō) + bravos (brä´vōs) + + caballero (kä-bä-lyā´rō) + Cabrera (kä-brā´rä) + Calles (kä´lyās) + camino real (kä-mëē´nō rā-äl´) + Campeche (käm-pā´chā) + Carranza (kä-rrän´sä) + Cartago (kär-tä´gō) + Celaya (sā-lä´yä) + cesta (sĕs´tä) + Chapala (chä-pä´lä) + Chichenitza (chē-chĕn-ët´zä) + Chihuahua (chē-wä´wä) + chile con carne (chē´lā kôn + kär´nā) + Chiriquí (chē-rē-kē´) + Cholula (chō-loo´lä) + chuchos (choo’chōs) + Ciudad Juárez (syoo-däd’ hwä’rās) + Ciudad Vieja (syoo-däd’ vyā’-hä) + Coahuila (kō-ä-wē’lä) + Coatepeque (kō-ä-tā-pā’kā; _Eng._, kō-ä’tā-pĕk) + Cobán (kō-bän’) + Colón (kō-lôn’) + colonias (kô-lō-nē’äs) + comandancia (kō-män-dän’-syä) + Comayagua (kō-mä-yä’gwä) + conquistadores (kôn-kēs-tä-dō’-rās) + Copán (kō-pän’) + Córdoba (kôr’dō-vä) + Corinto (kō-rēn’tō) + Cortés (kôr-tās’; _Eng._, kôr’-tĕz) + Cuernavaca (kwĕr-nä-vä’kä) + Cuscatlán (koos-kät-län’) + + Darien (dä-rē-ĕn’; _Eng._, dä-rĭ-ĕn’) + Darío, Rubén (dä-rē’ō, roo-bĕn’) + Diaz (dē’äs) + Dolores Hidalgo (dō-lō’rās ē-däl’gō) + Durango (doo-räng’gō) + + El Paso (ĕl pä’-sō; _Eng._, ĕl pă’sō) + Escuintla (ĕs-kwēn’-tlä) + Estados Unidos Mexicanos (ĕs-tä’dōs oo-nē’dōs mĕx-ē-kä’nōs) + Estrada (ĕs-trä’dä) + + fiesta (fyĕs’tä) + Fonseca (fōn-sā’kä) + Fuego (fwā’gō) + + Gallegos (gä-lyā’gōs) + garrotero (gä-rrō-tā’rō) + Gatun (gä-toon’) + Guadalajara (gwä-dä-lä-hä’rä) + Guadalupe (gwä-dä-loo’pā) + guajalote (gwä-hā-lō’tā) + guajalotl (gwä-hä-lōtl’) + Guanajuato (gwä-nä-hwä’tō) + Guaracha (gwä-rä’chä) + guaraches (gwä-rä’chās) + + hacendados (ä-sĕn-dä’dōs) + hacienda (ä-siĕn’dä; _Eng._, hä-sĭ-ĕn’dä) + Hidalgo (ē-däl’gō) + Huerta (hwĕr’tä) + huipil (hwē-pēl’) + Huitzilopochtli (hwēt-zēl-ō-pôch’tlē) + + Irapuato (ē-rä-pwä’tō) + Ixtaccihuatl (ēx-täk-sē’hwätl) + Izalco (ē-säl’kō) + + jaí alaí (hī ä-lī’) + Jalisco (hä-lēs’kō) + jefe político (hĕ’fā pō-lē’tē-kō) + Juanacatlán (hwän-ä-kät-län’) + Juárez (hwä’rās) + + Laredo (lä-rā’dō) + Las Cascadas (läs käs-kä’däs) + La Unión (lä oo-nē-ōn’) + León (lā-ōn’) + + machete (mä-chā’tā) + Managua (mä-nä´gwä) + mano (mä´nō) + mansos (män´sōs) + Mariscal (mä-rēs-käl´) + Mérida (mā´rē-dä) + mescal (mĕs-kăl´; _Mex._, mexcalli—mĕks-kä´lyē) + mesquite (mĕs-kē´tā; _Eng._, mĕs´kēt) + mestizos (mĕs-tē´sōs) + Michoacán (mē-chō-ä-kän´) + milpa (mĭl’pä) + Misskitos (mĭs-kē´tōs) + Momotombo (mō-mō-tôm´bō) + Montezuma (mŏn-tĕ-zoo´mä) + Morelia (mō-rā´lyä) + Morelos (mō-rā´lōs) + Mosquitos (môs-kē´tōs) + Motagua (mō-tä´gwä) + mozo (mō´sō) + + Nahua (nä´wä) + Nayarit (nä-yä-rēt´) + Nueva (nwā´vä) + Nuevo Laredo (nwā´vō lä-rā´dō) + + Oaxaca (wä-hä´kä) + Obregón (ō-brā-gōn´) + O´ Donoju (ō-dôn-ō-hoo´) + Orizaba (ō-rē-sä´bä) + + Pachuca (pä-choo´kä) + paseo (pä-sā´ō) + patio (pät´yō) + Pátzcuaro (päs´kwä-rō) + pela ’os (pā-lä´ōs) + pelota (pā-lō´tä) + Peregrina (pā-rā-grē´nä) + Pespire (pĕs-pē´rā) + Picacho (pē-kä´chō) + piñatas (pē-nyä´täs) + Pingüico (pĭng-gwē´kō) + plaza (plä´sä; _Eng._, plä´zä) + Plaza de la República (plä´sä dā lä rā-poo´blē-kä) + Poas (pō´äs) + Popocatepetl (pō-pō-kä-tā´pĕtl) + porrónes (pō-rrō´nās) + portales (pôr-tä´lās) + portero (pôr-tā´rō) + Port Limón (pôrt lē-mōn´) + Potrerillos (pō-trā-rē´lyōs) + Puebla (pwā´blä) + Puerto Barríos (pwĕr´tō bä-rrē´ōs) + Puerto Cortés (pwĕr´tō kôrtās´) + pulque (pool´kā) + pulquería (pool-kā-rē´ä) + Puntarenas (poon-tä-rā´näs) + + Querétaro (kā-rā´tä-rö) + Quetzalcoatl (kāt-zäl-kō-ätl´) + Quezaltenango (kā-säl-tā-näng´gō) + Quintana Roo (kēn-tä´nä rō´ō) + Quiriguá (kē-rē-goo-ä´) + + reales (rā-äl´ās) + reboso (rā-bō´sō) + Retalhuleu (rā-täl-oo-lā´uh) + rhizome (rī´zōm) + Rio Bravo del Norte (rē´ō brävō dĕl nôr´tā) + Rio Grande (rē´ō grän´dā) + rurales (roo-rä´lās) + + Sacasa (sä-kä´sä) + Saltillo (sāl-tē´lyō) + San Blas (sän bläs´) + San Jacinto (sän hä-sēn´tō) + San Jerónimo (sän hā-rō´nē-mō) + San José (sän hō-sā´) + San Juan Bautista (sän hwän bou-tēs´tä) + San Juancito (sän hwän-sē´tō) + San Juan del Norte (sän hwän dĕl nôr´tā) + San Juan del Río (sän hwän dĕl rē´ō) + San Luis Potosí (sän loo-ēs´ pō-tō-sē´) + Santa Lucrecia (sän´tä loo-krā´syä) + Santa Rosa (sän´tä rō´sä) + Santiago (sän-tē-ä´gō) + sarapes (sā-rä´pās) + señor (sā-nyôr´) + señoritas (sā-nyō-rē´täs) + servidor de usted (sĕr-vē-dōr´ dā oo-stĕd´) + Sierra Madre (sē-ā´rrä mä´drā) + siesta (sē-ĕs´tä) + Silao (sē-lä´ō) + Sinaloa (sē-nä-lō´a) + sombrero (sôm-brā´rō) + Sonora (sō-nō´rä) + sopita (sō-pē´tä) + Suchiate (soo´chē-ä´tā) + + Tabasco (tä-bäs´kō) + tamales (tä-mä´lās) + Tampico (täm-pē´kō) + tanda (tän´dä) + Tarascan (tä-räs´kän) + Tegucigalpa (tā-goo-sē-gäl´pä) + Tehuantepec (tā-wän-tā-pĕk´) + Tenochtitlán (tĕn-ôch-te-tlän´) + teocalli (tā-ō-kä´lyē) + Teotihuacán (tā-ō-tē-wä-kän´) + tequila (tā-kē´lä) + tiendas (tyĕn´däs) + tierras calientes (tyā´rräs kä-lyĕn´tās) + Tigre (tē´grā) + tipos populares (tē´pōs pō-poo-lä´rās) + Titicaca (tē´tē-kā´kā) + Tlaxcala (tläs-kä´lä) + tortilla (tôr-tē´lyä) + Trujillo (troo-hē´lyō) + Tzintzuntzán (tsĭn-tsoon-tsän´) + + Uruapan (oo-roo-ä´pän) + Uxmal (ooz-mäl´) + + Vera Cruz (vā´rä kroos´; _Eng._, vĕr´ä krooz´) + veta (vā´tä) + Villa (vē´lyä; popularly, in Mexico, vē´yä) + + Xochimilco (hō-chē-mēl´kō) + + yanqui (yäng´kē) + yaqui (yä´kē) + + Zacapa (sä-kä´pā) + Zacatecas (sä-kä-tā´-käs) + Zamora (sä-mō´rä) + Zapata (sä-pä´tä) + zarzuelas (sär-swā´läs) + Zelaya (sā-lä´yā) + Zócalo (sō´kä-lō) + zopilotes (sō-pē-lō´tās) + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79021 *** |