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  By Maturin M. Ballou.


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

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  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 Caball