



Produced by Julia Miller, Barbara Kosker and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)









  By Maturin M. Ballou.


  AZTEC LAND. A new Book. Crown 8vo, $1.50.

  THE NEW ELDORADO. A Summer Journey to Alaska.
  Crown 8vo, $1.50.

  DUE WEST; or, ROUND THE WORLD IN TEN MONTHS.
  Crown 8vo, $1.50.

  DUE SOUTH; or, CUBA PAST AND PRESENT. Crown 8vo,
  $1.50.

  UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS; or, TRAVELS IN AUSTRALASIA.
  Crown 8vo, $1.50.

  DUE NORTH; or, GLIMPSES OF SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA.
  Crown 8vo, $1.50.

  GENIUS IN SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. Crown 8vo, $1.50.

  EDGE-TOOLS OF SPEECH. Selected and edited by Mr.
  BALLOU. 8vo, $3.50.

  A TREASURY OF THOUGHT. An Encyclopaedia of Quotations.
  8vo, full gilt, $3.50.

  PEARLS OF THOUGHT. 16mo, full gilt, $1.25.

  NOTABLE THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN. Crown 8vo,
  $1.50.


  HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY,
  BOSTON AND NEW YORK.




AZTEC LAND

BY

MATURIN M. BALLOU




  The dust is old upon my sandal-shoon,
  And still I am a pilgrim.

  N. P. WILLIS.


[Illustration]


  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
  HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
  The Riverside Press, Cambridge
  1890




  Copyright, 1890,
  BY MATURIN M. BALLOU.


  _All rights reserved._


  _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._
  Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company




PREFACE.


Having resolved to visit Mexico, the question first to be considered was
how to do so in the most advantageous manner. Repairing to the office of
Messrs. Raymond & Whitcomb, in Boston, after a brief consultation with
those experienced organizers of travel, the author handed the firm a
check for the cost of a round trip to Mexico and back. On the following
day he took his seat in a Pullman parlor car in Boston, to occupy the
same section until his return from an excursion of ten thousand miles. A
select party of ladies and gentlemen came together at the same time in
the Fitchburg railroad station, most of whom were strangers to each
other, but who were united by the same purpose. The traveler lives,
eats, and sleeps in the vestibule train, while _en route_, in which he
first embarks, until his return to the starting-point, a dining-car,
with reading and writing rooms, also forming a part of the train. All
care regarding the routes to be followed, as to hotel accommodations
while stopping in large cities, side excursions, and the providing of
domestic necessities, are dismissed from his mind. He luxuriates in the
pleasure of seeing a strange and beautiful land, without a thought as to
the _modus operandi_, or the means by which detail is conquered. In
short, he dons Fortunatus's cap, and permits events to develop
themselves to his intense delight. Such was the author's experience on
the occasion concerning which these wayside views of Mexico were
written. It was a holiday journey, but it is hoped that a description of
it may impart to the general reader a portion of the pleasure and useful
information which the author realized from an excursion into Aztec Land,
full of novel and uninterrupted enjoyment.

  M. M. B.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER I.


  Locality and Political Divisions of Aztec Land.--Spanish
      Historians.--Boundaries.--Climate.--Egyptian Resemblances.
      --Products of the Country.--Antiquities.--Origin of Races.
      --Early Civilization.--Pictorial Writings.--Aboriginal Money.
      --Aztec Religious Sacrifices.--A Voluptuous Court.--Mexican
      Independence.--European Civilization introduced by Cortez.--
      Civil Wars.--The Maximilian Fiasco.--Revival of Mexican
      Progress.--A Country facing on Two Oceans.--A Native Writer's
      Statement.--Divorce of Church and State                            1


  CHAPTER II.

  Remarkably Fertile Soil.--Valuable Native Woods.--Mexican Flora.--
      Coffee and Tobacco.--Mineral Products.--Silver Mines.--Sugar
      Lands.--Manufactories.--Cortez's Presents to Charles V.--Water
      Power.--Coal Measures.--Railroads.--Historic Locality.--Social
      Characteristics.--People divided into Castes.--Peonage.--
      Radical Progress.--Education and the Priesthood.--A Threshing
      Machine.--Social Etiquette.--Political Organization of the
      Government.--Mexico the Synonym of Barbarism.--Production and
      Business Handicapped by an Excessive Tariff                       23


  CHAPTER III.

  The Route to Mexico.--Via the Mammoth Cave.--Across the Rio
      Grande.--A Large River.--Piedras Negras.--Characteristic Scene.
      --A Barren Prairie Land.--Castano, a Native Village.--Adobe
      Cabins.--Indian Irrigation.--Sparsely Populated Country.--
      Interior Haciendas.--Immigration.--City of Saltillo.--Battle
      of Buena Vista.--City of Monterey.--The Cacti and Yucca-Palm.
      --Capture by General Taylor.--Mexican Central Railroad.--
      Jack-Rabbits.--A Dreary Region.--The Mesquite Bushes.--Lonely
      Graves                                                            43


  CHAPTER IV.

  Zacatecas.--Sand-Spouts.--Fertile Lands.--A Silver Mining Region.
      --Alpine Scenery.--Table-Land of Mexico.--An Aged Miner.--
      Zacatecas Cathedral.--Church and People.--A Mountain Climb.--
      Ownership of the Mines.--Want of Drainage.--A Battlefield.--
      Civil War.--Local Market.--Peculiar Scenes.--Native Beauties.
      --City Tramway Experience.--Town of Guadalupe.--Organized
      Beggars.--A Noble and Successful Institution.--Market of
      Guadalupe.--Attractive Senoritas.--Private Gardens                62


  CHAPTER V.

  A Mexican Watering Place.--Delightful Climate.--Aguas Calientes.
      --Young Senoritas.--Local City Scenes.--Convicts.--Churches.
      --A Mummified Monk.--Punishment is Swift and Sure.--Hot
      Springs.--Bathing in Public.--Caged Songsters.--"Antiquities."
      --Delicious Fruits.--Market Scenes.--San Luis Potosi.--The
      Public Buildings.--City of Leon.--A Beautiful Plaza.--Local
      Manufactories.--Home Industries of Leon.--The City of Silao.
      --Defective Agriculture.--Objection to Machinery.--Fierce
      Sand Storm                                                        76


  CHAPTER VI.

  Guanajuato.--An Ex-President.--Richest Silver Mine in Mexico.--
      Reducing the Ores.--Plenty of Silver.--Open Sewers.--A Venal
      Priesthood.--A Big Prison.--The Catholic Church.--Getting Rid
      of a Prisoner.--The Frog-Rock.--Idolaters.--A Strawberry
      Festival at Irapuato.--Salamanca.--City of Queretaro.--A Fine
      Old Capital.--Maximilian and His Fate.--A Charming Plaza.--
      Mammoth Cotton Factory.--The Maguey Plant.--Pulque and Other
      Stimulants.--Beautiful Opals.--Honey Water.--Ancient Tula.--
      A Freak of Tropical Weather                                       97


  CHAPTER VII.

  City of Mexico.--Private Dwellings.--Thieves.--Old Mexico.--
      Climate.--Tramways.--The Plaza Mayor.--City Streets.--The
      Grand Paseo.--Public Statues.--Scenes upon the Paseo.--The
      Paseo de la Viga.--Out-of-door Concerts.--A Mexican Caballero.
      --Lottery Ticket Venders.--High Noon.--Mexican Soldiers.--
      Musicians.--Criminals as Soldiers.--The Grand Cathedral.--The
      Ancient Aztec Temple.--Magnificent View from the Towers of
      the Cathedral.--Cost of the Edifice.--Valley of Anahuac          126


  CHAPTER VIII.

  An Extinct Volcano.--Mexican Mountains.--The Public Institutions
      of the Capital.--The Government Palace.--The Museum.--
      Maximilian's State Carriage.--A Peculiar Plant.--The Academy
      of Fine Arts.--Choice Paintings.--Art School.--Picture
      Writing.--Native Artists.--Exquisite Pottery.--Cortez's
      Presents to Charles V.--A Special Aztec Art.--The Sacrificial
      Stone.--Spanish Historical Authorities.--Public Library.--The
      Plaza.--Flower Market.--A Morning Visit.--Public Market.--
      Concealed Weapons                                                150


  CHAPTER IX.

  A City of Vistas.--Want of Proper Drainage.--Unfortunate Site.--
      Insecure Foundations.--A Boom in Building Lots.--Pleasant
      Suburbs.--Night Watchmen.--The Iturbide Hotel--A Would-be
      Emperor.--Domestic Arrangements.--A New Hotel wanted.--
      Places of Public Entertainment.--The Bull Ring.--Repulsive
      Performance.--Monte de Piedad.--An English Syndicate purchase
      it.--The Alameda.--The Inquisition.--Festal Days.--Pulque
      Shops.--The Church Party.--Gilded Bar-Rooms.--Mexican
      Marriages.--Mothers and Infants.--A Family Group                 170


  CHAPTER X.

  Benito Juarez's Grandest Monument.--Hotel del Jardin.--General
      Jose Morelos.--Mexican Ex-Convents.--City Restaurants.--Lady
      Smokers.--Domestic Courtyards.--A Beautiful Bird.--The Grand
      Cathedral Interior.--A Devout Lottery Ticket Vender.--
      Porcelain-Ornamented Houses.--Rogues in Church.--Expensive
      Justice.--Cemetery of San Fernando.--Juarez's Monument.--
      Coffins to Let.--American and English Cemetery.--A Doleful
      Street and Trade                                                 194


  CHAPTER XI.

  The Shrine of Guadalupe.--Priestly Miracles.--A Remarkable
      Spring.--The Chapels about the Hill.--A Singular Votive
      Offering.--Church of Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.--Costly
      Decorations.--A Campo Santo.--Tomb of Santa Anna.--Strange
      Contrasts.--Guadalupe-Hidalgo.--The Twelve Shrines on the
      Causeway.--The Viga Canal.--The Floating Islands.--Indian
      Gamblers.--Vegetable Market.--Flower Girls.--The "Noche-
      Triste" Tree.--Ridiculous Signs.--Queer Titles.--Floral
      Festival                                                         205


  CHAPTER XII.

  Castle of Chapultepec.--"Hill of the Grasshopper."--Montezuma's
      Retreat.--Palace of the Aztec Kings.--West Point of Mexico.
      --Battles of Molino del Rey and Churubusco.--The Mexican White
      House.--High above Sea Level.--Village of Tacubaya.--Antique
      Carvings.--Ancient Toluca.--The Maguey.--Fine Scenery.--Cima.
      --Snowy Peaks.--Leon d'Oro.--The Bull-Ring and Cockpit.--A
      Literary Institution.--The Coral Tree.--Ancient Pyramids.--
      Pachuca.--Silver Product of the Mines.--A Cornish Colony.--
      Native Cabins.--Indian Endurance                                 220


  CHAPTER XIII.

  Puebla, the Sacred City.--General Forey.--Battle-Ground.--View of
      the City.--Priestly Miracles.--The Cathedral.--Snow-Crowned
      Mountains.--A Cleanly Capital.--The Plaza Mayor.--A Typical
      Picture.--The Old Seller of Rosaries.--Mexican Ladies.--Palm
      Sunday.--Church Gala Day.--Education--Confiscation of Church
      Property.--A Curious Arch.--A Doll Image.--Use of Glazed
      Tiles.--Onyx a Staple Production.--Fine Work of Native Indian
      Women.--State of Puebla full of Rich Resources.--A Dynamite
      Bomb.--The Key of the Capital                                    241


  CHAPTER XIV.

  Ancient Cholula.--A Grand Antiquity.--The Cheops of Mexico.--
      Traditions relating to the Pyramid.--The Toltecs.--Cholula of
      To-Day.--Comprehensive View.--A Modern Tower of Babel.--
      Multiplicity of Ruins.--Cortez's Exaggerations.--Sacrifices of
      Human Beings.--The Hateful Inquisition.--A Wholesale Murderous
      Scheme.--Unreliable Historians.--Spanish Falsification.--
      Interesting Churches.--Off the Track.--Personal Relics of
      Cortez.--Torturing a Victim.--Aztec Antiquities.--Tlaxcala.--
      Church of San Francisco.--Peon Dwellings.--Cortez and the
      Tlaxcalans                                                       258


  CHAPTER XV.

  Down into the Hot Lands.--Wonderful Mountain Scenery.--Parasitic
      Vines.--Luscious Fruits.--Orchids.--Orizaba.--State of Vera
      Cruz.--The Kodak.--Churches.--A Native Artist.--Schools.--
      Climate.--Crystal Peak of Orizaba.--Grand Waterfall.--The
      American Flag.--Disappointed Climbers.--A Night Surprise.--
      The French Invasion.--The Plaza.--Indian Characteristics.--
      Early Morning Sights.--Maximilian in Council.--Difficult
      Engineering.--Wild Flowers.--A Cascade.--Cordova.--The Banana.
      --Coffee Plantations.--Fertile Soil.--Market Scenes              282


  CHAPTER XVI.

  The City of Vera Cruz.--Defective Harbor.--The Dreaded and also
      Welcome Norther.--San Juan d'Ulloa.--Landing of Cortez.--His
      Expedition Piratical.--View of the City from the Sea.--
      Cortez's Destruction of his Ships.--Anecdote of Charles V.--A
      Sickly Capital.--Street Scenes.--Trade.--The Mantilla.--Plaza
      de la Constitucion.--Typical Characters.--Brilliant Fireflies.
      --Well-To-Do Beggars.--Principal Edifices.--The Campo Santo.
      --City Dwelling-Houses.--The Dark-Plumed Buzzards.--A City
      Fountain.--A Varied History.--Medillin.--State of Vera Cruz      301


  CHAPTER XVII.

  Jalapa.--A Health Resort.--Birds, Flowers, and Fruits.--Cerro
      Gordo.--Cathedral.--Earthquakes.--Local Characteristics.--
      Vanilla.--Ancient Ruins.--Tortillas.--Blondes in a City of
      Brunettes.--Curiosities of Mexican Courtship.--Caged Singing
      Birds.--Banditti Outwitted.--Socialistic Indians.--Traces of
      a Lost City.--Guadalajara.--On the Mexican Plateau.--A
      Progressive Capital.--Fine Modern Buildings.--The Cathedral.
      --Native Artists.--A Noble Institution.--Amusements.--San
      Pedro.--Evening in the Plaza.--A Ludicrous Carnival.--Judas
      Day                                                              320


  CHAPTER XVIII.

  Santa Rosalia.--Mineral Springs.--Chihuahua.--A Peculiar City.--
      Cathedral.--Expensive Bells.--Aqueduct.--Alameda.--Hidalgo's
      Prison and his Fate.--Eulalia.--A Large State.--A Grand Avenue
      of Trees.--Local Artists.--Grotesque Signs.--Influence of
      Proximity to the United States.--Native Villages.--Dangerous
      Sand-Spouts.--Reflections on Approaching the Frontier.--
      Pleasant Pictures photographed upon the Memory.--Juarez, the
      Border Town of Mexico.--City of El Paso, Texas.--Railroad
      Interests.--Crossing the Rio Grande.--Greeted by the Stars
      and Stripes                                                      343




AZTEC LAND.




CHAPTER I.

Locality and Political Divisions of Aztec Land.--Spanish Historians.--
    Boundaries.--Climate.--Egyptian Resemblances.--Products of the
    Country.--Antiquities.--Origin of Races.--Early Civilization.--
    Pictorial Writings.--Aboriginal Money.--Aztec Religious Sacrifices.
    --A Voluptuous Court.--Mexican Independence.--European Civilization
    introduced by Cortez.--Civil Wars.--The Maximilian Fiasco.--Revival
    of Mexican Progress.--A Country facing on Two Oceans.--A Native
    Writer's Statement.--Divorce of Church and State.


Bordering upon the United States on the extreme southwest, for a
distance of more than two thousand miles, is a republic which represents
a civilization possibly as old as that of Egypt; a land, notwithstanding
its proximity to us, of which the average American knows less than he
does of France or Italy, but which rivals them in natural
picturesqueness, and nearly equals them in historic interest.

It is a country which is much misunderstood and almost wholly
misrepresented. It may be called the land of tradition and romance,
whose true story is most poetic and sanguinary. Such is Mexico, with her
twenty-seven independent states, a federal district in which is situated
the national capital, and the territory of Lower California,--a
widespread country, containing in all a population of between ten and
eleven millions. As in the instance of this Union, each state controls
its internal affairs so far as it can do so without conflicting with the
laws of the national government, which are explicitly defined. The
nature of the constitution, adopted in 1857 by the combined states, is
that of a republic pure and simple, thoroughly democratic in its
provisions. The national power resides in the people, from whom emanates
all public authority. The glowing pen of Prescott has rendered us all
familiar with the romantic side of Mexican history, but legitimate
knowledge of her primitive story is, unfortunately, of the most
fragmentary character. Our information concerning the early inhabitants
comes almost solely through the writings of irresponsible monks and
priests who could neither see nor represent anything relative to an
idolatrous people save in accordance with the special interests of their
