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  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.

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  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