1
 

 
 Frontispiece. 
 
 STUCCO-RELIEF PALANQUE3, CHIAPAS.
 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
 BY 
 
 HANNAH MORE (JOHNSON. 
 
 WITH SIXTY-THREE MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA : 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 
 1334 CHESTNUT STREET.
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY 
 
 THE TRUSTEES OP THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 AU Rights Resei-ved. 
 
 WESTCOTT A THOMSON, 
 Slereoiypers and Electrotypert, Philada.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT is not judged needful by either author or publisher 
 to assign reasons for laying before the public these chap- 
 ters About Mexico, Past and Present, much less to apol- 
 ogize for so doing, save as they may be inadequate to the 
 importance and the interest of the subject. Our " next 
 neighbor " on the south needs and deserves to be under- 
 stood by the citizens of the United States, and especially 
 by those who have at heart the welfare of their fellow- 
 men and desire the extension to them of the blessings 
 of a pure and elevating Bible Christianity. Near neigh- 
 borhood enhances all the motives which would lead us to 
 study another nation and emphasizes our obligation so to 
 do. In the case of Mexico the romance of her history 
 as well as the wonders of her land and the hope of her 
 future renders interest in her people and in their wel- 
 fare easy. 
 
 Among the many authorities consulted in the prepara- 
 tion of this work, the author would acknowledge special 
 indebtedness to 
 
 HISTORY OF COLUMBUS, Washington Irving. 
 HOUSES AND HOME-LIFE OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES, 
 L. H. Morgan (Government Printing-Office, Washington, D. C.,
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 1881) ; also an article by the same writer in JOHNSON'S CYCLO- 
 PEDIA, entitled ''Architecture of American Indians." 
 
 Articles by Ad. F. Bandelier, EEPOKT OF PEABODY MUSEUM, 
 1880. 
 
 NATIVE BELIGIONS OF MEXICO AND PERU, Eevelle (1884). 
 
 DESPATCHES OF HERNANDEZ CORTEZ, with introduction by 
 George Folsom (New York, 1843). 
 
 MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN BERNAL DIAZ. 
 
 HISTORY OF MEXICO, by the Abbe Clavigero. 
 
 ORIGIN OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE, Eev. James F. Eiggs, 
 Mexico. 
 
 MEXICO, by Brantz Mayer. 
 
 HISTORY OF MEXICO, H. H. Bancroft. 
 
 CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE MEXICAN WAR, Wil- 
 liam Jay. 
 
 MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES, Gorham D. Abbott, D.D., 
 LL.D. 
 
 TWENTY YEARS AMONG THE MEXICANS, by Miss Melinda 
 Eankin (1875). 
 
 Publications of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 
 of the American Board of Foreign Missions and the BIBLE 
 SOCIETY EECORD. 
 
 For the use of valuable engravings which add much 
 to the interest of its pages the book is indebted to the 
 courtesy of the Missouri and Pacific Railway Company, 
 St. Louis, and to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
 Missions, New York, to whom the thanks of author 
 and publisher are hereby gratefully tendered.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Columbus the Pathfinder. The first Sight of Mexicans. The 
 Delusion of the Age. Mexico before the Conquest. Geogra- 
 phy of the Country. Climate. Productions 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. 
 
 Votan. Whom did he Find in Mexico ? Old Paths thither. 
 A New Nation. Toltec Remains. The History of a Word . 29 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE VALLEY REPEOPLED. 
 
 Village Indians. Dialects. Aztecs. Maps and Histories. 
 Character. Mexico Founded. The City Described. Tez- 
 cuco. Ruined Cities. Communistic Society. Pueblos ... 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 
 
 Mistakes of Early Historians. Indian Republics. Modern In- 
 dian Communism. The Aztec Clan. Secession. The Tez- 
 cucans. The Confederacy. Tribal Council. The Chief-of- 
 
 Men. Tribal Laws 50 
 
 1
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE WAR-PATH. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Nation of Warriors. To Arms ! Armor. Dress. Commis- 
 sary Department. The Fight for Chapultepec. The Price of 
 an Election. Tactics in War. The Banner of the Tribe. 
 The Captives. Triumphal Processions. Foray in 1497. 
 Effects of War 61 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 
 
 The Home of the Gods. Star- Worship. The One True God. 
 An Aztec Martyr. The Temple of Hungry Fox. The War- 
 God and his Brother. The Hearer of Prayer. Feathered 
 Serpent and his Work. Too much Pulque. The Temple of 
 the Fair God. Great Teocallis. Priests 70 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 
 
 The Aztec Hereafter. Human Sacrifices. Cannibalism. Pen- 
 ances. Self-Sacrifice. Year-Binding 83 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 
 
 Surprising Ignorance. A New Species of God. Freight-Car- 
 riers. Merchants. A Mexican Home. Currency. Markets. 
 Baths. Gardens. Tyranny of Custom. Manners. Cook- 
 ery. Dress. Appearance. Art-Work. Funerals 92 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AMONG THE BOOKS. 
 
 Origin of Written Language. Indian Written Languages Com- 
 pared. Varieties in Penmanship. Mexican Authors. Their 
 Romish Imitators. Celebrated Manuscripts. Make-Up of an 
 Aztec Book. Language. An Indian Poet Numeration. 
 Measurement of Time , 105
 
 CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 
 
 PAUE 
 
 Endurance. Obedience to Parents. Penances. An Indian 
 Baby. Naming a Man. Housekeeping in Anahuac. Steps 
 in Education. Discipline. Public Schools. Girls' Work in 
 the Temple. Boys' Work. Amusements. Mimic War. 
 Fishing- Day. Snaring Game. Cadet-Life. Graduating- 
 Day. Marriage. A Midnight Revel. Motherly Care. Sick 
 Children. Baby-Victims. The Youth of Hungry Fox . . .113 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A GATHERING CLOUD. 
 
 Strange News in Mexico. Aztec Tyranny. Old Hopes Re- 
 vived. Portents. Montezuma's Fear. The Earliest Spanish 
 Colonies. Slave-Hunts. Grijalva's Expedition. Hernandez 
 Cortez. Unwelcome Guests. Soldier-Missionaries. First 
 Lessons in Christianity 128 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NEW SPAIN. 
 
 A Cool Reception. Taking Possession with the Sword. The 
 First Tribute. Palm Sunday. A Welcome at Last. The 
 Camp on the Beach. Teuthile. Marina, the first American 
 Christian. Presents to Montezuma. Startling Despatches. 
 Presents sent Home to Spain. " Come no Farther." First 
 Sermon to Aztecs. A Great Surprise. Totonacan Visitors. 
 Exploration 140 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 
 
 New Seville. Hospitalities. New Allies. Cortez as a Mission- 
 ary. The New Encampment. The Thin Edge of a Wedge. 
 Anxiety in Mexico. Another Aztec Embassy. Breach 
 "Widens Between Old Foes. Spanish Duplicity. A Religious 
 Visit. Change of Public Sentiment in Mexico. March from 
 Cempoalla. Sinking the Ships. Beauties of the Road. A 
 Frigid Zone. A Highland Chief. Tlascala. A Week of 
 Battles. Spanish Victories in Peace and in War 151
 
 10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HO FOR THE CAPITAL ! 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Are they Gods, or are they Men? An Aztec Plot. Reception 
 in Cholula. The Snare Discovered. Cruel Vengeance. The 
 Business of Conversion. One Ray of Gospel Light. More 
 Aztec Gifts. Aztec Position Explained. The Road to Mex- 
 ico Blocked. Ascending a Volcano. Another Embassy . . 169 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. 
 
 First View of City. A Thrilling Message. An Indian Fort- 
 ress. Beautiful Iztapalapa. Reception in Mexico. Indian 
 Etiquette. Montezuma's Visit. His Story. The Spanish 
 Quarters. Visiting Montezuma. A Sermon. Two Parties in 
 Mexico. More Preaching. Were the Aztecs Cannibals? 
 The Secret Chamber 183 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A CAPTIVE CHIEF. 
 
 The Aztecs at Home. Bad News from Villa Rica. Plots and 
 Counterplots. The Spaniards not Gods. Seizure of Monte- 
 zuma. Spanish Justice. The Humbled Chief. The Pleas- 
 ures of Captivity. Search for a Harbor. A Southern Colony 195 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 
 
 Aztec Conspiracy. The Tezcucan Chief. Arrested. Aztecs 
 Swear Allegiance. A Spanish Quarrel. Cortez Demands the 
 Temple. Fears of Aztec Revolt. The Spaniards Consent to 
 Go. Shipbuilding. Enemies from Cuba. Cortez makes 
 Friends of Enemies. Conquers Narvaez. Bad News from 
 Mexico. Return of Cortez. Alvarado's Cruelty. Aztec Ven- 
 geance. Siege of the Garrison. The Death of Montezuma. 
 A Fight on the Temple-Roof. The War-God has a Tum- 
 ble. Moving Fortresses. Bridges Destroyed. The Noche 
 Triste .203
 
 CONTENTS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED ! 
 
 PACK 
 
 A Rally at Tlacopan. Ketreat to Tlascala. Victory at Otnm- 
 
 ba. What will Tlascala Say? Indian Hospitality. Juan 
 
 Yuste. An Aztec Bribe. A Successful Foray. Preparations 
 to Attack Mexico. Death of the White Man's Friend. Over- 
 looking Mexico. Deserted Tezcuco. New Allies. Subduing 
 the Valley. New Boats. Plans for Attack. Cutting the 
 Causeway. Spaniards on a High Altar. Fire and Sword. 
 The Tribes Rally. Cortez Destroys the City. Guatemozin 
 Captured 221 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 
 
 Ruined Mexico. Extending Conquests. Search for South Seas. 
 Rebuilding the City. Guatemozin Betrayed. Spanish Cru- 
 elty. Converting the People. Cortez Sends for Missionary 
 Helpers. Their Character. Spiritual and Financial Success. 
 Conservative Indians. The Monks Befriend them. Abuses 
 of Power. Enslavement of Indians. The Council of the In- 
 dies. Rebellion. The Chiefs on Horseback. Riveting the 
 Chains. Draining Lake Zumpango. Teaching the Indians . 238 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 VICEROY ALT Y. 
 
 Sufferings of Colonists. The Seven Cities of Cibola. Uncivil- 
 iziug Mexico. The World's Treasure-House. New- World 
 Gold for Old- World Wars. Buying Heaven with Cash. The 
 Pope and his Imperial Partner. The Inquisition Set Up. 
 Expulsion of Jesuits. Splendid Churches. Mexican Chris- 
 tianity a Failure. Those Gachupines! Loyalty to Spain. 
 Hidalgo's Shout for Independence. His Betrayal and Death. 
 Nursing a Roman Viper. The First Congress and its Con- 
 stitution. Morelos and his Heroes. His Martyrdom .... 259
 
 12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK XXI. 
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Liberty Bides her Time. Shall the Bourbons be Eestored ? 
 Iturbide's Blow for Independence. The Plan of Iguala. 
 Victoria Guadalupe. The Emperor Iturbide. His Mistake. 
 His Exile. His Death. The Last Foothold of Spain 
 Benito Juarez. Eise of the Church Party. The Law of 
 Juarez. The Constitution of 1857. European Interference. 
 King-Making, and what Came of It. Maximilian's Death. 
 Progress of Constitutional Liberty. Present State of Mex- 
 ico . 277 
 
 CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 TO MEXICO BY KAIL. 
 
 The Mountain of the Star. Vera Cruz. The Castle. Through 
 the Hot Lands. Climbing the Sierras. Indian Hucksters. 
 Orizaba. The City of Mexico. Its Mountain-Sentinels. 
 Gardens. Markets. Water- Works. Grand Plaza. Paseos. 
 Alameda. Memories of the Inquisition. Churches for Sale. 
 The Grand Cathedral. Aztec Belies. The Mexican Fourth 
 of July. Streets and Houses. City Improvements. Educa- 
 tion. Illiteracy. Worshipers. Street Scenes. Chapultepec. 
 Sulphur-Factory in a Volcano. The Two Virgins. Their 
 Political Friends . ... 307 
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 THE LAND : ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 
 
 Present Limits of Mexico. Its Harbors. Prospective Changes. 
 Tunneling Volcanoes. Eoad-Makers. Unexplored Ee- 
 gions. The Siesta. The Seasons. Want of Forests. The 
 Cactus Family. The Maguey and Pulque. Intemperance. 
 "An Agricultural Cosmos." Mines. Indian Character. The 
 Mozo. Eailroading. Burros. Mexican Homes. Popula- 
 tion. The Hacienda. Old Tezcuco and Tula. Monterey 
 and its Suburbs. Chihuahua. Zacatecas. Guanajuato. 
 Queretaro. Guadalajara. Puebla 336
 
 CONTENTS. 13 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 "A LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Gospel in the Sixteenth Century. Political Influence of 
 Luther's Bible. Romish Antagonism. Bible Translations. 
 The Translation of Enzinas. Escape from the Inquisition. 
 The Iron Rule in Mexico. The Circulation of the Bible in 
 Mexico. A Reading-Circle in the Fields. The Story of San 
 Roman. Miss Rankin the Pioneer Missionary. Blessed Re- 
 sults . . 360 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 
 
 Praying in an Unknown Tongue. Francisco Aguilar. The 
 Church of Jesus. Death of Aguilar. Rev. H. C. Riley. 
 Conversion of Manuel Aguas. His Death. Rev. James 
 Hickey. The Mission Work by the Baptist Church (South). 
 The Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterian Church 
 (South). Friends. Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodist 
 Episcopal Church (South). The A. B. C. F. M. Martyrs. 
 Native Evangelists. Devoted Service. Glorious Outlook . . 380
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGH 
 
 STUCCO-BELIEF, PALANQUES, CHIAPAS Frontispiece. 
 
 POPOCATAPETL ("THE HlLL THAT SMOKES ") 23 
 
 PLANTATION OF MAGUEY (Agave Americana) 25 
 
 ANCIENT TOLTEC PALACE AT TULA (OR TULLAN), MEXICO . . 33 
 
 BUINS IN YUCATAN 43 
 
 A PUEBLO (COMMUNAL DWELLING) IN NEW MEXICO .... 45 
 
 A TAOS PTJEBLO ... 47 
 
 MEXICAN INDIAN MAT-MAKERS (MODERN) 59 
 
 MEXICAN GOD OF WAR, HUITIZILAPOCHTLI, OR HUMMING- 
 BIRD 73 
 
 TEMPLE OF TIKAL, A SUBURB OF FLORES, YUCATAN .... 77 
 GREAT SACRIFICIAL STONE OF THE AZTECS, MEXICO .... 79 
 
 AZTEC GODDESS OF DEATH 85 
 
 TRADERS ON THE CANAL (MODERN) 95 
 
 THE SPLENDID TROGON OF MEXICO 97 
 
 INDIGENOS OF NORTHERN GUATEMALA 133 
 
 MAP OF THE MAINLAND OP YUCATAN, MEXICO 134 
 
 PRESENT INHABITANTS OF MERIDA, YUCATAN 137 
 
 ORIZABA, AS SEEN FROM THE MEXICO AND VP:RA CRUZ BAIL- 
 ROAD 153 
 
 MAP OF THE MARCH TO MEXICO . . . 154 
 
 TRANSCONTINENTAL PROFILE OF MEXICO 166 
 
 MEXICAN BASKET-SELLERS 168 
 
 PYRAMID OF CHOLULA 173 
 
 NEAR VIEW OF POPOCATAPETL 181 
 
 MAP OF THE VALLEY OF MEXICO 186 
 
 MAP OF MEXICO AND TEZCUCO 204 
 
 MEXICAN TEOCALLIS 215 
 
 PEUBLO OF NORTHERN MEXICO 219 
 
 THE VALLEY OF TULA, MEXICO 231 
 
 15
 
 1 6 ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 FOOD- VENDER 237 
 
 THE GREAT CATHEDRAL OF THE CITY OF MEXICO 241 
 
 CHURCH OF TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO ... 249 
 
 KEFRESHMENTS FOR THE HUNGRY (MEXICO) . 257 
 
 A PUEBLO, AS NOW EXISTING IN NEW MEXICO . . . . 263 
 
 MIGUEL HIDALGO 271 
 
 BARRACK AT SALTILLO 277 
 
 HIGH BRIDGE ON THE MEXICO AND VERA CRUZ RAILWAY . 281 
 
 BENITO JUAREZ 287 
 
 CHURCH OF SAN DOMINGO, CITY OF MEXICO 298 
 
 MEXICAN OFFICERS 301 
 
 STREET IN VERA CRUZ 308 
 
 INDIAN HUT IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE 311 
 
 CITY OF MEXICO (DISTANT VIEW) . . . 313 
 
 THE CITY OF MEXICO 315 
 
 TERMINUS OF LAKE CHALCO CANAL, MEXICO CITY 317 
 
 MERCHANTS' BAZAAR, MEXICO 322 
 
 SELLER OF BIRD-CAGES, MEXICO 323 
 
 MEXICAN MARKET-WOMAN 325 
 
 A MEXICAN SENORA 326 
 
 CHAPULTEPEC CASTLE 329 
 
 SUMMIT OF IZTACCIHUATL, MEXICO 330 
 
 ON THE CANAL, NEAR MEXICO CITY 337 
 
 THE OX-CART 338 
 
 WATER-PEDDLER, MEXICO 340 
 
 GATHERING THE JUICE OF THE MAGUEY FOR PULQUE . . 341 
 
 SHOP FOR THE SALE OF PULQUE 343 
 
 NATIVE INDIAN ABODE 347 
 
 MAKING TORTILLAS, MEXICO 348 
 
 MEXICAN WATER- WORKS 349 
 
 CITY OF MONTEREY, MEXICO 353 
 
 CITY OF QUERETARO 357 
 
 WASHING AT THE WELL 360 
 
 MONTEREY 375 
 
 CHURCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, MONTEREY 376
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 A HIDDEN CONTINENT, 
 
 UNTIL Christopher Columbus, by his voyage across 
 the Atlantic, had proved that the world is rouud, 
 110 one in Europe thought of going westward to reach 
 India. Merchants and travelers took the old caravan- 
 routes through Syria and the Valley of the Euphrates, 
 or crossed Egypt and went by the Red Sea. Every 
 path to the land of gold led men eastward. Marco 
 Polo, a Venetian traveler of the thirteenth century, 
 journeyed by these old paths so far east that he stood 
 on the pine-clad hills of Xipangu (Japan) and looked 
 out on the broad Pacific Ocean. He supposed that this 
 was one of those great flat seas by which the flat w r orld 
 was encircled, and that if a vessel ventured too far upon 
 it contrary winds might blow such unwary sailors over 
 the edge of the world. Columbus, who was a student 
 as well as a sailor, read the adventures of Marco Polo 
 and other travelers, and came to quite a different con- 
 clusion. If the world is round, as he believed, the 
 water which Marco Polo saw stretching far to the east 
 was the same ocean as that which washed the western 
 shores of Europe. Japan and India could be reached 
 2 ir
 
 18 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 by a vessel from Europe steered due west across the At- 
 lantic Ocean. 
 
 For eighteen long years Columbus talked and dreamed 
 of this voyage. At last, in the year 1492, after many 
 disheartening delays, he sailed from the harbor of Palos, 
 in Spain, with a little fleet of vessels provided by his 
 sovereigns, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Cas- 
 tile, king and queen of the united Spains. It was on 
 this voyage to India that Columbus discovered the little 
 island of Guana-hane, one of the Bahamas, named by 
 him " San Salvador." He supposed it to be one of the 
 outlying islands of Asia, and that by pushing on still 
 farther toward the west he would soon reach that con- 
 tinent. His great desire was to open up to his coun- 
 trymen a new path to the Spice Islands, the pearl-fish- 
 eries and the mines of gold, silver and precious stones 
 of which they so fondly dreamed, and, better still for 
 Columbus was an earnest Christian to tell the story of 
 the cross to its heathen people. He hoped also to build 
 up a new empire for Spain and to become its viceroy, 
 with power to transmit the office to his posterity. He 
 returned to Spain with the news of his discovery, but 
 went back once and again to pursue his search for India, 
 expecting to find some gate through these western islands 
 to that country. How strong was his hope is shown by 
 the fact that on his third and last voyage he took with 
 him Arabic interpreters, so that when he met any Moham- 
 medans at that time the rulers of India he would be 
 able to hold conversations with them in a language un- 
 derstood by all followers of Mohammed. 
 
 We can scarcely imagine the ignorance of those times. 
 In 1502, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, 
 climbed to the top of the mountains on the Isthmus of
 
 A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 19 
 
 Darien and looked off over the vast expanse of water 
 toward the west, never realizing that he had discovered a 
 new ocean or that the peak on which he stood formed part 
 of the backbone of a new world. For many years after 
 the western shore of the Atlantic was discovered all who 
 landed upon it supposed they were in some part of Asia. 
 They called those countries " the West Indies," and the 
 people of both North and >South America " Indians." 
 
 In 1502, Columbus was earnestly examining the coast 
 of Central America, hoping to find some passage like the 
 Straits of Gibraltar which would prove to be the long- 
 looked-for gateway to the laud of gold. Indeed, so 
 eager was he in this vain pursuit that he lost sight of 
 everything else. 
 
 It was during this voyage that Europeans obtained 
 their first glimpse of Mexican wealth and civilization. 
 One party from the little squadron had landed on an 
 island near Cape Honduras to obtain a supply of fresh 
 water. While on the beach they saw a canoe of unusu- 
 al size making its way toward the point on which they 
 stood. Its passengers and crew made a large company ; 
 they seemed to be strangers, and to have come from a 
 long distance. Fernando Columbus, who was with his 
 father at the time, describes the boat as "eight feet wide 
 and as long as a galley, though formed of the trunk of 
 a single tree and shaped like those common in the 
 islands. In the middle of the canoe there was an 
 awning made of palm-leaves, not unlike those of the 
 Venetian gondolas, which formed so close a covering 
 as to protect whatever it contained against the raiii and 
 waves. Under this awning were women and children, 
 goods and merchandise. The canoe was rowed by 
 twenty-five men."
 
 20 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 The admiral gave thanks to God for having afforded 
 him samples of the commodities of those countries with- 
 out exposing his men to toil or danger. He ordered 
 such things to be taken as seemed most valuable, 
 amongst which were cotton coverlets and tunics with- 
 out sleeves, curiously worked and dyed with various 'col- 
 ors ; coverings for the loins, of similar material ; large 
 mantles, in which the female Indians wrapped them- 
 selves like the Moorish women of Granada ; long wooden 
 swords with channels on each side of the blade, edged 
 with sharp flints that cut the naked body as well as 
 steel ; copper hatchets for cutting wood, bells of the 
 same metal, and crucibles in which to melt the metal. 
 For provisions they had roots and grains, a sort of wine 
 made of maize, resembling English beer, and great quan- 
 tities of almonds * of the kind used by the people of New 
 Spain for money. 
 
 The Spaniards were very much struck by the modest 
 bearing of these new comers, and considered them su- 
 perior to any natives they had yet seen. Columbus 
 ordered their canoe to be restored to them, with Euro- 
 pean goods in exchange for those he had taken. He 
 then let them all go except one old man who was 
 more intelligent than the rest, and who seemed to 
 be their chief or cacique, as such a person is called 
 in Spanish histories of the New World. This cacique 
 could understand the language spoken in Honduras, and 
 through his interpreters from that country Columbus 
 heard about the old man's home at the west. 
 
 The historian adds : " Although the admiral had heard 
 so much from the Indians concerning the wealth, polite- 
 ness and ingenuity of these people, yet, considering that 
 * Cacao-beans, of which chocolate is made.
 
 A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 21 
 
 these countries lay to leeward, and he could sail thither 
 from Cuba whenever he might think fit, he determined 
 to leave them for another occasion, and persisted in his 
 design of endeavoring to discover the strait across the 
 continent, that he might open the navigation of the 
 South Sea, in order to arrive at the spice countries." 
 
 How absorbed Columbus was we may know when we 
 read the whole story of this neglected opportunity; for 
 such it proved to be. The natives of Honduras had 
 pictured Mexico as rich and populous beyond all com- 
 parison. They dazzled the Spaniards with stories of 
 people who could afford to wear as their ordinary ap- 
 parel crowns and bracelets and anklets of gold, with 
 garments heavy with golden embroidery ; of others, who 
 had chairs and tables inlaid with gold, and who ate and 
 tlrauk out of vessels of the same precious metal. They 
 professed to be familiar with Indian coral and the spices 
 which had made the trade with India so valuable to 
 Spain. Everything in their own land of which the 
 Spaniards boasted these Indians claimed would be found 
 in that wonderful country toward the setting sun. Even 
 the ships and cannon and horses with which they had 
 been at first so astonished actually figured in some of 
 these fancy-sketches of Mexico. 
 
 But, though Columbus was convinced that he was in 
 the neighborhood of a rich and civilized people, he had 
 no time to stop by the way until he had fulfilled his 
 great commission from Heaven to enrich the Church from 
 the treasures of India, and to set up the standard of 
 Christ among its heathen people. He supposed that he 
 was near one of the provinces of Tartary and that he 
 would soon reach the Ganges, and he was fired with a 
 holy ambition to be the first son of the Church who
 
 22 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 should tell the story of redemption on the banks of this 
 sacred river of the Hindus. He did not dream that be- 
 tween him and the object of his search two continents 
 stretched their vast length almost from one polar circle 
 to another, and that behind them rolled the widest ocean 
 in the world. 
 
 It was with this great purpose in view that Columbus 
 resolutely turned away from this half-opened door to 
 Mexico and left the discovery and conquest of that 
 country to a man who had the same idea of going west- 
 ward to India, and the same desire to bring the heathen 
 into the fold of the Church, but who had time to turn 
 aside to take possession of all the gold-mines that opened 
 along his way. 
 
 We need not turn our back on Mexico because Colum- 
 bus did. Let us lift the veil by which it was so long 
 hidden from the European world and look at this beau- 
 tiful land as it appeared 
 
 BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 
 
 Mexico, which occupies the tapering southern end of 
 North America, was then held by various tribes, the 
 chief of which were called "Aztecs." Yucatan, which 
 had recently been brought under tribute by these warlike 
 people, was the southern limit of their conquest. Their 
 other boundaries are unknown save that with different 
 kindred tribes they occupied all of what is now known 
 as Mexico. 
 
 For grandeur of scenery and variety of climate and 
 productions this country is unsurpassed by any other 
 on the globe. The great mountain-chain which runs 
 along the Pacific shore of both continents widens out in 
 this region into lofty table-lands. One of these, called
 
 POPOCATAPETL ("THE HILL, THAT SMOKES ").
 
 24 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 the " Valley of Mexico," is nearly one thousand square 
 miles in extent and from five thousand to eight thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea. Three hundred years 
 ago one-tenth part of this plateau was covered with 
 lakes, both salt and fresh. These have dwindled in size 
 since those early days, probably because the surrounding 
 hills have been stripped by the invaders almost bare of 
 the luxuriant forests which once covered them. Lofty 
 hills form a rampart on three sides of this table-land. 
 On the north it opens out on a great natural road lead- 
 ing along the level mountain-tops for a distance of 
 twelve hundred miles. It *vas probably along this 
 great highway that many of the early settlers of Mex- 
 ico came from their homes at the North. 
 
 Rising out of this vast mountain-mass are snow-capped 
 peaks, one of which the highest land on our continent 
 is a mile and a half higher than the lofty platform on 
 which it stands. Along the nineteenth parallel of lati- 
 tude rise five volcanoes. Two of these overlooked the 
 Aztec capital and bore the Indian names they still hold. 
 Popocatapetl " the hill that smokes " has been doing 
 its best to deserve that title ever since it received it; 
 Iztaccihuatl " the woman in white " is so called from 
 its fancied resemblance to the form of a woman lying 
 with her face upturned to the sky, a snowy robe folded 
 across her breast. 
 
 Descending on each side from this rocky platform to 
 the sea, the traveler passes over three great natural ter- 
 races, each of which has a diiferent climate and produc- 
 tions differing with the elevation. In the Aztec country, 
 which lay entirely within the tropics, the whole scale of 
 vegetation could be found. Forests of evergreen oaks 
 and pine flourished on the mountains, below the snow-
 
 A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 
 
 25 
 
 line, with wheat and other northern cereals. Below 
 these, in richer variety, were the flowers and fruits of 
 the temperate zone. Maize, which is found everywhere 
 in Mexico, attains its most luxuriant growth in this mild- 
 er climate. The cactus family grows in almost endless 
 forms, the maguey with its rich yellow clusters of flowers, 
 and other trees and plants native to this soil. 
 
 PLANTATION OF MAGUEY (Agave Americana). 
 
 The mountains are often cleft by deep ravines in which 
 Nature revels in moisture and warmth and brings out 
 her richest vegetable treasures. Magnificent trees root- 
 ed far below lift their heads into the sunshine, and flow- 
 ering vines clamber everywhere in a wilderness of beau- 
 ty and fragrance. Gay butterflies glance in the sunlight 
 like blossoms on the wing. Air and earth are alive with 
 myriad insects, while birds as rich in flashing plumage as 
 any gem in all the mines of Mexico enliven the woods 
 with songs unheard in other tropical countries. Some
 
 26 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 of the most beautiful garden-flowers came from this 
 land. They were first carried to Europe by visitors to 
 Mexico, and thence, after being domesticated in the old 
 gardens of Spain and France, they have found their 
 way back to their native continent as emigrants from 
 the Old World. All the dahlias can trace lineage to some 
 gay beauties that once grew on these mountain-top mead- 
 ows of Mexico. It was years before they could be civ- 
 ilized enough to dress in double sets of petals, and the 
 gardeners of this day have only to let them alone for a 
 while, and they go back to their wild Mexican sin- 
 gleness. 
 
 It is in the low lands along the sea that we find the 
 luxuriance and variety of tropical vegetation. "Even 
 the sand-dunes," says a recent writer, " blaze in color, 
 lupines in high waving masses of white, yellow and 
 blue, great mats of glittering ice-plants with myriads of 
 rose-colored umbels, lying flat on the white sand, while 
 all the air is sweet with fragrance." 
 
 Here were multitudes of plants which are at home 
 only in Mexico. Among them was the cacao, from 
 which the natives prepared their delicious chocolate, and 
 whose seeds passed from hand to hand instead of coin. 
 The vanilla, which grew only on the seashore, was used 
 then as now for flavoring. The cochineal was also 
 raised on the coast ; it was the insect which fed on the 
 leaves of a cactus-plant. From the dried body of the 
 female was procured a brilliant red color much used by 
 the Aztecs in dyeing their cotton cloth. 
 
 Next to the bamboo, there is probably no plant which 
 can be used in so many ways as the Mexican agave, or 
 maguey. Of its bruised leaves were made broad sheets 
 of paper, on which the most of Mexican history was
 
 A HIDDEN CONTINENT. 27 
 
 written. Prepared in another way, these leaves thatched 
 the poor man's cottage. Its thorns served for pins and 
 needles ; its delicate fibres, for thread ; and those which 
 were heavier were twisted into cords or ropes. From 
 its roots a palatable and nutritious food was prepared, 
 while its juices, when fermented, made an intoxicating 
 liquor ou which the old Aztecs were accustomed to get 
 drunk. 
 
 On the coasts there were also forests of mahogany, 
 Brazil-wood, iron-wood, ebony, Campeachy-wood, with 
 numberless varieties of the palm tree. These forests 
 swarmed with small animals, such as tapirs, porcupines, 
 ant-eaters, sloths, monkeys and armadillos, with alliga- 
 tors in the streams. Scorpions, centipedes and other 
 venomous creatures abounded everywhere. The silk- 
 worm also is indigenous to many parts of the country. 
 
 Mexico has few rivers of great length, and these are 
 navigable only where they cross the narrow belt of low- 
 land to reach the sea. 
 
 The mineral wealth of Mexico exceeded that of any 
 other land, not excepting Peru, so famed for its precious 
 metals. Gold was once the staple production of the 
 country, as silver is now. It was found in placers, and 
 was more easily worked than silver. With all that 
 natives and foreigners have taken out of the earth, it is 
 supposed that many valuable mines remain to be dis- 
 covered. Of iron the natives knew nothing, though 
 mountains of solid ore were found when the Spaniards 
 opened this great mineral storehouse. Tin is abundant 
 in Michoacan and Jalisco. Copper is very common, and 
 lead is found in almost every silver-mine. In Oajaca are 
 found amethysts, agates, turquoises and carnelians. 
 
 The beautiful marbles of Mexico have been used for
 
 28 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 building purposes from time immemorial. The natives 
 employed porphyry and jasper in decoration. Various 
 kinds of greenstone resembling emeralds were found, 
 and were in great demand for ornaments. Amber came 
 from Yucatan, and pearls from California. The salt- 
 lakes of the table-land yielded abundance of that pre- 
 cious commodity, which formed a chief article of com- 
 merce between the people of that region and less favored 
 tribes.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. 
 
 AMONG the pictures carved on the ancient monu- 
 -*- ments in Mexico are those which represent Votan, 
 whose history belongs to the earliest dawn of civilization 
 in this Western world. He and his companions are said 
 to have come from a foreign land in ships. They found 
 the people, from the Isthmus to California, clothed in 
 skins, dwelling in caves or rude huts and speaking one 
 language. There are evidences that Votan brought with 
 him to this continent a knowledge of the one true God, 
 which he taught to the people. As we are further told 
 in these traditions that no temples or altars were known 
 in Votan's day, he must have lived before the Mexican 
 pyramids were built, since these all seem to be designed 
 for places of worship. 
 
 Votan and his friends married the women of the 
 country, and after establishing a government they made 
 several voyages to their native land. On his return from 
 one of these trips Votan reported that he had been to see 
 the ruins of a building erected by men who intended to 
 climb up on it to heaven, and that the people who lived 
 in its neighborhood said that it was the place where God 
 gave to each family its own language. 
 
 Who were these aboriginal inhabitants of America 
 whom Votan taught, and when was it that they emerged 
 from their caves and huts to gaze on these first white 
 
 29
 
 30 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 men who came to this continent? At some time in 
 their history they no doubt migrated from Central Asia, 
 that cradle of the human race. As to when or by what 
 road they found their way to America we cannot be so 
 sure. A glance at the map of the world will show that 
 away up among the icebergs of the polar circle the north- 
 western corner of America comes so near the north-east- 
 ern corner of Asia that their outlying islands seem like 
 stepping-stones from one continent to the other. The 
 Alaskan Indians, on our side, and their neighbors in 
 Siberia, now find no difficulty in crossing Behring's 
 Straits in their little kyacks, and it is more than proba- 
 ble that in the far-away past of which Mexican records 
 tell, some of the wandering tribes of the Old World 
 found their way to this continent by this northern 
 road. 
 
 We hear now of small colonies of Japanese on our 
 western coast who have come over by still another route, 
 which can be seen on maps that give the direction of the 
 ocean -currents. One of these great sea-rivers runs north 
 through the Pacific Ocean quite near the eastern shore of 
 Asia until it is opposite Japan; then, turning suddenly, 
 it sweeps due east until it strikes the coast of California. 
 The people of Asia occasionally drift over to America on 
 this ocean-current. Uprooted trees of kinds which do 
 not grow on this continent are found on the shore, and 
 Japanese junks are stranded at the rate of about one 
 every year, and sometimes, it is said, with some of 
 their shipwrecked crew still alive. 
 
 It is probable that other civilized people succeeded 
 Votan in the possession of Mexico, but until some time 
 in the tenth century no one of them was described. At 
 that period a new nation made its appearance among
 
 EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. 31 
 
 the shadowy races with which the land was peopled. 
 Tradition says they were white men who came from the 
 north-east in companies, some by sea and some by land ; 
 twenty thousand of these emigrants, led by a dignified 
 old chief, are said to have come at once. They are de- 
 scribed as a good-looking people, wearing long white 
 tunics, sandals and straw hats. They were mostly 
 farmers and skilled mechanics, and were peaceable, 
 orderly and enterprising. They had left their own 
 land, Huehue-Tlapallan, after a struggle of years with 
 the barbarous tribes around them, and made their way 
 south to Mexico a country with which it is probable 
 they had been familiar as traders. Many suppose that 
 these immigrants were the same people as the Mound- 
 Builders of our own country that strange, nameless 
 race whose earthworks astonish the archaeologist of to- 
 day. Tools which these old workmen left behind them 
 in the Ohio Valley and elsewhere are made of a kind of 
 flint which is not found nearer than Mexico. Shells 
 which must have come from the Gulf of Mexico have 
 also been found buried in the graves of the Mound- 
 Builders, showing that ages ago these people must have 
 trafficked with those who lived along its shores. When 
 war disturbed them in their home at the North, the more 
 enterprising of them migrated to Mexico and built cities 
 and temples on the same general plan as those erected by 
 their forefathers, but of so much more substantial mate- 
 rials that many of them have outlasted the centuries which 
 have come and gone since they appeared among the south- 
 ern tribes. These people went by the name of " Toltecs" 
 among their Mexican neighbors and successors. When 
 the later tribes came to have a written history as they 
 did about four hundred years afterward they ascribed
 
 32 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 all that they knew of civilization to those who pre- 
 ceded them. 
 
 The Toltecs filled the land with colossal masonry. 
 Many of the temples, pyramids, castles and aqueducts 
 which were in decay when Cortez arrived, in 1519, are 
 supposed to have been built by these people. The half- 
 buried ruins of Tula, or Tullan, one of their great cities, 
 may still have been inhabited at the time of the conquest, 
 but most of the places known to have been built by- them 
 were numbered among the antiquities of Mexico when 
 Columbus was near that laud, more than twenty years 
 before. 
 
 In Xochimilco is found a great pyramid with five 
 terraces, built on a platform of solid rock. This rock 
 has been hollowed out, and long galleries with smooth, 
 glistening sides formed within it. The great pyramid of 
 Cholula, built by the early race, covered forty-five acres 
 of ground and was fourteen hundred feet square at the base. 
 A winding road led to its top, which was flat, with small 
 towers for worship. All these structures were built with 
 their sides squared by the points of the compass. They 
 are now found buried in the depths of vast forests, far 
 away from the haunts of civilized men. As the Indians 
 always seem unwilling to reveal the secret of their ex- 
 istence, many of these are no doubt yet unknown to the 
 white race. 
 
 The temple of Papantla, fifty miles from Vera Cruz, 
 was hidden in the dense woods west of that city for more 
 than two hundred years after the Spaniards landed on 
 the coast, having been discovered by a party of hunters 
 in 1790. This building is so old that those who could 
 decipher the picture-language of the Aztecs could not 
 interpret tl.e inscriptions on its terraced sides, though
 
 34 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 when found the characters were almost as fresh as when 
 the ancient sculptors laid down their tools. It is built 
 of immense blocks of porphyry put together with mor- 
 tar. A stairway of fifty-seven steps leads to the top, 
 which is sixty feet square. The stone facing of the sides 
 is covered with hieroglyphics of serpents, crocodiles, and 
 other emblems which remind one of the monuments of 
 ancient Egypt. Some, indeed, have supposed that the 
 builders of the old Mexican pyramids belonged to the 
 same family of nations, and have even gone so far as to 
 say that some of the work they left is as old as that of 
 Egypt. Humboldt, who visited some of these ruins, 
 traced their resemblance not only to Egyptian but to 
 Assyrian architecture, and says of their decaying pal- 
 aces, " They equaled those of ancient Greece and Rome 
 in ornamentation." 
 
 About four hundred years passed away, and the Toltecs 
 disappeared from Mexico ; war, pestilence and famine did 
 their work among these interesting people. They left ac- 
 counts of their nation and polity in carefully written or 
 pictured histories, some of which were extant when Cor- 
 tez came ; none of them can now be found. One of the 
 early Aztec chieftains made a bonfire of some of these 
 books, and the Spaniards, in their fanatical zeal to blot 
 out all traces of heathenism, destroyed libraries of these 
 and other valuable records which would now be worth 
 more to the world than all the monkish legends that 
 ever were written. 
 
 But there was much that could not be blotted out. 
 The Aztec measurement of time more perfect ihan any 
 known to the Greeks and the Romans was taught to 
 them by these old astrologers, who seem to have known 
 the precise length of the tropical year. The ingenious
 
 EARLY SETTLERS OF MEXICO. 35 
 
 system of picture-writing in use among all the tribes, the 
 more enlightened of their laws and the most refined and 
 humane part of their worship were a legacy from their 
 Toltec predecessors. 
 
 Very strong light is often thrown on the past by the 
 history of a single word ; the name " Toltec " is an in- 
 stance of this. While many other Mexicans were yet 
 wandering tribes these people came to the valley and 
 began to build the large edifices for which they have 
 since become famous, and to carve the symbols of their 
 faith on the solid rocks about them. Their rude neigh- 
 bors looked on with wonder. They had no word of their 
 own to express the new and strange character of a builder; 
 and when they had need to speak of such a man, they 
 called him a Toltec.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE VALLEY REPEOPLED. 
 
 AMONG those who became masters of the great table- 
 -*- land of Anahuac * after the disappearance of the 
 Toltecs were several kindred tribes called Nahuas, or 
 " skilled ones," who claimed to have entered Mexico at 
 different times from some place at the North. Their 
 civilization, which made them differ from those tribes 
 that lived by the chase, was shown by their giving up 
 their wandering life and settling down, one after another, 
 as neighbors around Tezcuco, the largest lake on the table- 
 land of Mexico. Thus they became what is known as 
 sedentary, or pueblo ("village"), Indians. These peo- 
 ple, like other North American tribes, have straight 
 black hair, with a fondness for paint, feathers and gew- 
 gaws. Their nahuatl the w r ord for language meant 
 "pleasant sound." This varied as much then among 
 different tribes as is now the case in Mexico, where the 
 people of one Indian village (especially the women) speak 
 a language which those in another not ten miles distant, 
 perhaps cannot understand, although they have been 
 neighbors for a century. 
 
 Like all Indian languages, Aztec proper names had 
 a meaning and were easily written in rude signs or pict- 
 ures. Thus the name of the great chief Nezacoyatl, or 
 " Hungry Fox," was expressed by a picture of a fox, 
 * Meaning " near the water."
 
 THE VALLEY EEPEOPLED. 37 
 
 and its image, carved in stone, in his lordly pleasure- 
 grounds on the shore of Lake Tezcuco, gave the title 
 and the history of the owner. 
 
 By giving our readers the English signification of 
 these names they will have some advantages possessed by 
 old Mexican readers, who, it is likely, would have stum- 
 bled as often as we do over the spelling, if not over the 
 pronunciation, of these words. Thus, for instance, 
 Quetzalcohuatl (ketzalcowatile), a hero-saint who figures 
 in Mexican history, shall be " Feathered Serpent," and, 
 instead of Huitizilapochtli that frightful name for their 
 still more frightful war-god we will say " Humming- 
 Bird," which is the decidedly mild interpretation thereof. 
 
 The Aztec tribe with which our story has most to do 
 were among the latest arrivals on the great table-lands of 
 Mexico. A curious map of their migrations before they 
 came there was still in existence when the Europeans 
 overran the country. It was so different from the maps 
 in use in Spain that the Spanish soldiers who captured it 
 supposed it was an Aztec embroidery-pattern, and sent it 
 as such to the old country. They also had a history of 
 the tribe in picture-writing. This declares that Mexico 
 was peopled by men who came out of a cave and after- 
 ward traveled all over the country on the backs of turtles. 
 Aztlan, the home of the Aztecs, was written with all, a 
 waved line (~ ) their picture-sign for water put 
 beside one of a pyramidal temple and a palm tree. We 
 may know by the latter picture that Aztlan was not very 
 far to the north. 
 
 The Aztecs were a band of fierce savages who took 
 refuge in the swamps near the site of the present City of 
 Mexico after a migratory life elsewhere. It is quite pos- 
 sible to fix the date of this last remove by records kept
 
 38 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 by their more intelligent neighbors. A few of the Tol- 
 tecs no doubt remained in the valley, and they had taught 
 the Alcohuans a tribe which preceded the Aztecs who 
 afterward became the most cultured people in Mexico. 
 Their calculations were thus exact euough to guide us in 
 ours, so that we know that the Aztecs entered the Valley 
 of Mexico early in the fourteenth century. Their rec- 
 ords also show that at that time the Aztecs were com- 
 posed of seven related families, or clans, each one of 
 which formed a little community guided by its own 
 chief, and all bearing the same surname. In other 
 words, there were only seven surnames in the whole 
 tribe. 
 
 From the outset these new comers were considered 
 intruders, and were obliged to content themselves witli 
 a precarious footing ou the neutral ground by which, in 
 Indian fashion, the settlements of their neighbors were 
 surrounded. They lived on fish, birds and such water- 
 plants as grew in the swamp, as well as by predatory raids 
 on the peaceful farmers around them. While they were 
 still in this unsettled state the oracle of the tribe is re- 
 ported to have spoken for Humming- Bird, their war- 
 god, in this wise: 
 
 " I was sent on this journey, and my office it is to 
 carry arms, bows, arrows and shields. War is my chief 
 duty and the object of my coming. I have to look out 
 in all directions, and with my body, head and arms have 
 to do my duty in many tribes, being on the borders and 
 lying in wait for many nations to maintain and gather 
 them, though not graciously." 
 
 We can picture in imagination the wily old medicine- 
 man who made this speech, and thus fixed the policy of 
 the tribe on a distinctively war-basis.
 
 THE VALLEY REPEOPLED. 39 
 
 In 1325, as \ve learn from their old records, a great 
 change took place in the condition of the Aztecs. Some 
 of the tribe saw on a reedy island on the lake a splendid 
 eagle perched on one of the cactus-plants with which the 
 region abounds. His wings were outstretched toward the 
 rising sun, and he held a writhing serpent in his beak. 
 The old oracle of the tribe was consulted again. He de- 
 cided that this was a token that the gods were smiling on 
 the Aztecs and wished to point out this place as a site on 
 which they ought to build a city. This was begun by- 
 sinking piles in the water. On these they first built little 
 thatched cabins, with walls woven out of the reeds they 
 found growing on the lake-shore, and plastered with mud. 
 They called the place Tenochtitlan (or "Stone-cactus 
 City"), either because of this circumstance or because one 
 of their leading chiefs was called Tenoch (" Stone Cac- 
 tus "). The Aztec capital for such it became was 
 afterward named Mexico, after Mexitli, one of their gods. 
 
 Year after year, as the tribe pushed out and increased 
 in numbers and wealth, the islands on which they lived 
 were linked together and to the mainland by strong cause- 
 ways of stone. The place Mexitli became impregnable to 
 Indian warfare. They continued by means of their long 
 dykes not only to join the island to the mainland, but so 
 to pen up the waters flowing into the lake as to surround 
 the city with deep water, and thus defend it in case of a 
 siege. At intervals sluices were cut through the cause- 
 ways, over w r hich openings bridges were thrown that 
 could be taken up in time of war. 
 
 It is probable that for many years the tribe owned no 
 other land than that on which their city stood. It was 
 divided into four quarters, or calputti, each having its 
 own chief and temple, council-house, and other public
 
 40 ABOUT MEXICO, 
 
 buildings. These calputti were afterward further sub- 
 divided into communities, each living in houses large 
 enough to contain a small army. The rush huts in time 
 gave place to more substantial edifices, many of which 
 were elegant in design and finish. In Montezuma's 
 day a quarry of soft blood-red stone almost as porous as 
 a sponge was discovered in the mountains near by, and 
 many of the houses in the city were rebuilt of this with 
 fine effect. 
 
 The city was regularly laid out, with wide, straight, 
 clean streets radiating from the central teocallis, or house 
 of the gods (a plan which was followed throughout Mex- 
 ico), and numerous and beautiful squares. One of 
 these, the principal market-place of the city, was sur- 
 rounded by splendid corridors so smoothly paved that 
 they were as slippery as ice. Like Venice, the city was 
 veined with canals, along which the produce of the coun- 
 try was borne in numberless boats into its very centre. 
 
 A massive stone aqueduct brought an abundance of 
 pure water from a large spring at Chapultepec, a few 
 miles distant. Immense reservoirs cut out of solid rock, 
 with steps leading down to the level of the water, still 
 remain to show the substantial character of Aztec masonry 
 and enterprise. Where the branch streams of this aque- 
 duct crossed the canals they were widened and left open 
 on top, so that the carriers who served out water to fam- 
 ilies could bring their canoes directly under these bridge- 
 like reservoirs to be filled, the water being dipped out for 
 them by a man stationed above. 
 
 The houses of the better class in Mexico were built of 
 stone and were seldom over two stories in height ; they 
 covered a great deal of ground, having large courtyards 
 in the centre. The roofs were flat and terraced, the Avails
 
 THE VALLEY REPEOPLED. 41 
 
 well whitened and polished, and the floors made of the 
 smoothest plaster and neatly matted. All the walls were 
 very thick and strong, the ceilings being high and gen- 
 erally of wood. Doors were almost unknown and chim- 
 neys unheard of. 
 
 The houses were usually kept very neatly. Walls 
 w r ere hung with cotton drapery in bright colors and 
 curious feather-work. The beds were often curtained 
 and quite comfortable. Though chairs and tables were 
 not found even in the so-called palace of Montezuma, 
 there were low seats which were easy as well as elegant. 
 The house occupied by Montezuma's clan was very lux- 
 urious in its appointments. Its garden was surrounded 
 by balconies supported by marble columns and floored 
 with jasper elegantly inlaid. In the grounds were ten 
 large pools, in which all the different species of water- 
 birds found in Mexico disported themselves. Sea-birds 
 had tanks of salt water. All were kept pure and sweet, 
 filled by pipes leading from the lake or the aqueduct. 
 Three hundred men were constantly employed to take 
 care of these creatures, and a bird-doctor attended to 
 such as were sick. About these tanks there were pleas- 
 ant corridors, where Montezuma and his brother-chiefs 
 often walked to observe the curious habits of these 
 feathered captives. 
 
 Spanish writers speak also of a great collection of 
 albinos, another of dwarfs and giants and deformed peo- 
 ple, some of whom had been made such to provide curi- 
 osities for the State museum. 
 
 Besides the large collection of water-birds, there was 
 another one of such as were found in fields and woods. 
 A menagerie of wild beasts had been gathered from every 
 country known to the Mexicans.
 
 42 ' ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 The official residence of the chiefs of Tezcuco had 
 three hundred rooms ; some of the terraces on which it 
 stood are still entire and covered with hard cement. Its 
 richly-sculptured stones form an inexhaustible quarry for 
 the house-builders of this age. The neighboring hill, 
 where once was a summer retreat for these luxurious 
 rulers, still shows the stone stairways and ten-aces which 
 adorned the place. The city was quite embowered in 
 trees and beautified with many parks and gardens. In 
 fact, the botanical garden found at the time of the Span- 
 ish conquest was a model afterward copied in various parts 
 of Europe. 
 
 Our faith in the glowing descriptions given by Spanish 
 authors of Mexican art and civilization before the con- 
 quest would not survive their many exaggerated and 
 contradictory stories if we could not turn to the testi- 
 mony left by the old inhabitants themselves. While the 
 monuments reared by the Aztecs in the Valley of Mexico 
 have been swept away, the temples and the dwellings far- 
 ther south exist in vast and splendid desolation, proving 
 that from their very beginning these later tribes were 
 familiar with a style of architecture whose " lavish mag- 
 nificence has never been excelled." 
 
 A late traveler speaks of the ruins of Kabah as " orna- 
 mented from the very foundation." The cornices run- 
 ning over the doorways would embellish the art of any 
 known era, and "amid a mass of barbarism of rude and 
 uncouth conceptions it stands an offering by American 
 builders worthy the acceptance of a polished people." 
 
 The remains of Mitla one of the holy cities of South- 
 ern Mexico are considered the finest in a country which 
 can furnish ruined cities by the score. These remains 
 are situated in a desert place unsheltered by the dense
 
 RUINS IN YUCATAN.
 
 44 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 forests which have overgrown and buried so many others. 
 In the dry air the brilliant red and black of its wonder- 
 ful frescoes have never faded. Some gifted architect of 
 a forgotten age has adorned both the inner and the outer 
 walls of these buildings with panels of mosaic so ex- 
 quisitely wrought that " they can only be matched by 
 the monuments of Greece and Rome in their best days." 
 The rooms have vaulted ceilings and are in pairs, uncon- 
 nected with other apartments, opening out of doors. 
 Some rude artist of a later day has scrawled coarse 
 figures on these walls, showing that the nameless build- 
 ers of Mitla, like the Aztecs and other tribes, had suf- 
 fered from invasions. The terraced roofs of many of 
 these buildings are now heaped by Nature's kindly hand 
 with luxuriant vegetation, and we can see where the Aztecs 
 learned to make their beautiful roof-gardens. Sculptures, 
 paintings, tesselated pavements, luxurious baths, fountains 
 and artificial lakes, are all found in mournful decay in the 
 silent depths of many a wilderness. 
 
 The cell-like apartments of one of these elegant build- 
 ings in Mitla led its observer to suppose that it was a 
 convent and to name it " The House of the Nuns," but 
 in comparing it with other buildings in Northern 
 Mexico, some of which are now inhabited by pueblo 
 Indians, we find that this must have been one of those 
 joint tenement-houses which Columbus noticed in Cuba, 
 and which form one of the strongest proofs that society 
 throughout Spanish America was communistic. They 
 were generally large and calculated to hold a clan or a 
 number of related families. Some were several stories 
 high and had hundreds of rooms ; in these a population 
 of from one hundred to three thousand found shelter. In 
 the country these fort-like villages were similar to those
 
 46 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 human hives seen to-day in many parts of China where 
 families composed of hundreds of individuals are banded 
 together for mutual protection under one roof, bearing one 
 name. Their communism in living thus finds expression 
 in their houses. 
 
 The dwellings of these communities were built on 
 what is called the terraced plan. Imagine a house like 
 a huge staircase, in which each story formed a step ten 
 feet high. The whole interior was made up of numerous 
 small square apartments, often arranged in pail's, having 
 no connection with others, rising tier above tier, without 
 any halls or stairways, each story being wider by one row 
 of rooms than the one above it. 
 
 In ruins now existing in New Mexico it is evident that 
 the inmates used ladders and trap-doors in the floor or 
 ceiling when they passed from one story to another.* 
 Those who came into the house from the outside climbed 
 to the roof of the first story by ladders, never entering, 
 as we do, by doors on the ground-floor. These ladders 
 were drawn up after the inmates were safely housed. 
 The roof of the first story made a shelf on which to 
 plant a ladder for climbing to the roof of the second, 
 unless, as was sometimes the case, all the stories but the 
 first had outside doorways. Each house had one or more 
 rooms set apart as council-chambers for the clan or as 
 places of worship. There must have been many dark 
 rooms in such buildings, but these people lived in stormy 
 times, and their houses were fortresses. The walls, both 
 
 * The captain sent by Mendoza (the first Spanish viceroy) to search 
 for the famous " Seven Cities " speaks of " excellent good houses of 
 three or four lofts high, wherein are good lodgings and fair chambers, 
 with ladders instead of stairs, and certain cellars (estufas) under- 
 gronnd, very good and paved. The seven cities are seven small 
 towns, all made with this kind of houses."
 
 48 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 inside and outside, were very thick and strong, plastered 
 so carefully with a kind of white cement that they shone 
 like enamel and led the Spaniards to think that these 
 were palaces whose stones were plated with silver. Bright 
 unfading colors were often used in decoration, and bricks 
 were laid in ornamental courses. Ventilation was had by 
 small apertures placed opposite each other and in a line 
 with loopholes in the outer walls. Chimneys were un-\ 
 known to these ancient masons. The cooking for the 
 community was done by a common fire, or by several fires 
 if the clan was a large one. 
 
 Outside the large cities these communal dwellings were 
 often grouped by the side of some stream and surrounded 
 by cultivated fields and orchards, or oftener on some com- 
 manding hilltop. This was necessary in case of attack 
 from hostile tribes. A group of these massive buildings 
 surrounded by luxuriant trees must have presented a 
 fine appearance. Some were from five to six hundred 
 feet long, with wings. Towers two or three stories high 
 were often added. 
 
 The building known as the Casa Grande, on San 
 Miguel River, has walls eight feet in thickness and is 
 supposed to have been seven stories high, with a front 
 of eight hundred feet. Near this building was another, 
 with rooms built around a square. The whole country 
 in this region (one hundred and fifty miles north-west 
 of Chihuahua) is full of Indian mounds, in which are 
 found stone axes, mills for grinding corn, broken pot- 
 tery, and other tokens that this was once the home of a 
 large and thriving population. 
 
 In case of war the terraced roofs were heaped with 
 missiles and bristled with defenders. When defeated, 
 the survivors fled for refuge to the caves which abounded
 
 THE VALLEY REPEOPLED. 49 
 
 in that mountainous country. Holes large enough for a 
 living-room are found to-day dug out of the face of a 
 precipice, and so high that in one case the mortar which 
 was used in walling up the front of the excavation must 
 have been carried up four hundred feet. These retreats 
 were generally in the most inaccessible places, where it 
 would be difficult with all the skill of modern times to 
 build fortifications. Water was sometimes led to these 
 places by a secret pipe ; others were supplied by cisterns. 
 In a cemented tank which was recently found in one of 
 these cave-dwellings at the North the print of a little 
 child's hand is seen as plainly as if the small fingers had 
 touched the soft plaster but yesterday. In some cases 
 immense pine trees have grown up amid these ruins, 
 showing how long ago they were forsaken by human 
 beings.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 
 
 WHAT we know of the social organization and gov- 
 ernment of the Aztec and kindred tribes has come 
 down to us mostly through Spanish sources, as, excepting 
 some pictures carved on temple-walls and on monuments, 
 most of their early records were swept away at the time 
 of the conquest. But these foreign writers knew so lit- 
 tle of the peculiarities of the people they professed to de- 
 scribe that their accounts are often contradictory. Thus 
 a great empire is spoken of by one writer as ruled by 
 the despot Montezuma. Kings elect him to his high 
 office. He is surrounded by a great retinue of heredi- 
 tary nobility, and princes from a score of provinces are 
 obliged to attend him as hostages for the good behavior 
 of their people, while a harem of a thousand dark-eyed 
 beauties graces his splendid halls. On the other hand, 
 Cortez informs Charles V. that some of these tribes have 
 a republican form of government. Such, for instance, 
 were the Cholulans, a powerful mercantile tribe about 
 sixty miles from Mexico, and the Tlascalans, a race of 
 bold mountaineers whom Cortez met and conquered on 
 his way to that city. Of Tlascala he says : " It resem- 
 bles the States of Venice, Genoa and Pisa, since the 
 supreme authority is not reposed in one person. In 
 war all unite and have a voice in its management and 
 
 50
 
 LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 51 
 
 direction." Besides these republics, there were many in- 
 dependent tribes. At the very door of the capital was 
 Tezcuco, whose territory rivaled that of the Aztecs in 
 extent, while its history, as related by Tezcucan writers 
 to their adopted countrymen of Spain, shows a line of 
 monarchs some of whom were claimed to be the intel- 
 lectual peers of Socrates, David and Solomon. While 
 the Tezcucans took precedence of the Aztecs with re- 
 gard to culture, the Zapotecs of the South defied them 
 as warriors. We learn from Cortez that no Aztec ever 
 dared to set foot on their territory. 
 
 There is nothing stranger in the history of the Aztecs 
 than the quiet behavior of the people when their so- 
 called emperor was taken captive. During a morning 
 call at his palace he is arrested by Cortez, and after a 
 brief explanation is carried in his litter through the 
 streets by his weeping nobles to the quarters of an 
 armed band of foreigners and left there a prisoner, .to 
 guide the affairs of his realm by their permission and 
 under their direction. Nothing explains the inconsis- 
 tencies of this relation or dispels the mystery which 
 surrounds this Indian potentate until we study the so- 
 cial customs which still prevail among the aborigines 
 of America and examine the deserted homes and tem- 
 ples of the very tribes in question. Such a study clears 
 up many of the mistakes of early historians. We find 
 everywhere evidences of a state of society so widely dif- 
 ferent from that existing in Europe as to be unintelligible 
 there. Cortez speaks of his host as Sefior Montezuma 
 " setter " being a title applied to an ordinary Spanish 
 gentleman while in the same letter he describes the 
 princes and the lords who formed the court of this 
 Indian ruler. Other writers are more consistent, and,
 
 52 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 boldly jumping to the conclusion that this was a great 
 empire with a sovereign like their own, the victories 
 they describe are, of course, greatly magnified. That 
 this was the impression of Mexico gained by the rude 
 Spanish soldiery we know from the fact that when they 
 first saw the beautiful cities of the valley in their glorious 
 setting of mountain and lake they feared to grapple with 
 a people whose civilization in some respects outshone their 
 own, and but for the dauntless courage and ambition of 
 Cortez they would have turned back on the very thresh- 
 old without their coveted prize. Two descendants of 
 Tezcucan chiefs, who afterward described their country 
 for the benefit of European readers, give their history 
 the same coloring, claiming the rank of emperors for 
 their ancestors. Further research has shown that all 
 these were fanciful theories, and that not only in Cholula 
 and Tlascala, but throughout Mexico, the republican form 
 of government prevailed. 
 
 When the Aztecs came into the valley, they were a 
 group of seven distinct but related families, all speak- 
 ing one language and worshiping the same gods. The 
 strange, hard syllables of their seven surnames were per- 
 petuated among them until some time near the close of 
 the seventeenth century almost a hundred years after 
 the Spanish conquest. These families held their lands in 
 common, as all American Indians do, and it is probable 
 that long before they forsook their huts in the swamp for 
 substantial stone houses they lived together on the com- 
 munal plan. In Stephens's Travels in Yucatan we have 
 a glimpse of Indian village-life as it existed then. The 
 author says: "The food is prepared at one hut, and 
 every family sends for its portion; which explains a 
 singular spectacle we had seen on our arrival a pro-
 
 LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 53 
 
 cession of women and children, each carrying an earthen 
 bowl containing a quantity of smoking-hot broth, all 
 coming down the same road and dispersing among the 
 different huts. This custom has existed for an unknown 
 length of time." 
 
 Like their neighbors, these Aztecs held as their own an 
 undefined territory over which they might extend their 
 city as they chose. As we have seen, the ground on 
 which Mexico stood was nearly all reclaimed from the 
 salt marshes of Lake Tezcuco. It had about it a fringe 
 of. floating gardens which in part supplied the city mar- 
 kets, although with the increase of population a still lar- 
 ger supply was drawn from the fields and the orchards of 
 tribes they had forced to pay tribute. 
 
 The city had four calputti, or wards, each of which was 
 governed by its own chief and had its own temple and 
 public buildings. These wards were further subdivided 
 as the tribe increased in numbers. Not only was each 
 ward sovereign in its own territory, but each of its sub- 
 divisions was an independent organization so far as its 
 local interests were concerned. 
 
 The business of the tribe was transacted in the cen- 
 tral council-house teepan, or house of the community. 
 This building fronted the great open square in the heart 
 of the city and had a tower for defence and lookout. It 
 is reasonable to suppose that it was this large building 
 which was described by Spanish historians as Monte- 
 zuma's palace. As the dwelling of the rich and power- 
 ful clan to which the chief-of-men belonged, the tribal 
 council was probably held within its chambers, that 
 being the custom through all the subdivisions of the 
 tribe. 
 
 While the settlement on the lake was still new one of
 
 54 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 these original Aztec clans, or kins, seceded in some family 
 quarrel and proceeded to set up for itself on the main- 
 land. In 1473 these divided clans had a fierce struggle 
 on the battlefield ; the Aztecs were finally left masters. 
 In punishment for their offence against the tribe, the 
 Tlatilucos, as the seceders were called, were degraded by 
 the tribal council to the rank of women ; no male Indian 
 could fall lower than that. Their young men were denied 
 the rank of warriors and became mere burden-bearers for 
 their victorious brethren. In the peace which followed, 
 the vanquished men were set to work on the great teocalli& 
 which the Aztecs were then building. After years of 
 alienation the Tlatilucos were conditionally restored tc. 
 their former rank and allowed their birthright as war- 
 riors, but the two parties never ceased to be bitter enemies. 
 The old hatred was only smothered, and broke out afresh 
 in the time of the Spanish invasion, when an opportunity 
 was taken to pay off old scores, with interest, and those 
 who had been seceders were in league with the enemies 
 of the Aztecs. 
 
 Among the tribes which had settled in the valley be- 
 fore the Aztecs built their island-city were the Alcohuans, 
 afterward called Tezcucans, after their city, Tezcuco. 
 They were a more humane and cultivated people than 
 the Aztecs, upon whom, from the first, they seem to have 
 looked down as an inferior race. As they advanced in 
 wealth and civilization they extended their conquests to- 
 ward the north. 
 
 About one hundred years before the Europeans made 
 their appearance in the valley, the Tezcucans who were 
 on the losing side in a conflict with their neighbors, the 
 Tepanacs, who appear at that time to have been masters 
 of the table-land entered into a league with the Aztecs
 
 LA WS AND LA WGIVERS. 55 
 
 and Tlacopans. In gratitude for the valuable assistance 
 rendered by the former tribe at a time when their nation 
 was nearly crushed, the Tezcucans gave their once-despised 
 neighbors the tribute they levied on the conquered Tepa- 
 nacs, and henceforth the Aztecs were masters of the val- 
 ley. The three allied tribes agreed to stand by each 
 other under all circumstances. In any war in which all 
 united the spoil was divided according to terms agreed 
 upon among themselves, Tezcuco and Mexico, as the 
 largest tribes, taking the lion's share. Each of the con- 
 federate powers was absolute in its own territory, and 
 might carry on war and levy tribute for itself. These 
 tribes lived in friendship for about one hundred years, 
 when, as might have been expected, they fell out over 
 their plunder. By this time the Aztecs had succeeded 
 in bringing an immense territory under tribute, carrying 
 their banners in triumph from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 and as far south as Guatemala and Yucatan. The whole 
 government of their nation was organized on a strictly 
 war-basis, with a general at its head. 
 
 The commander-in-chief of the Aztecs was elected for 
 life or during good behavior. The office was not in any 
 sense hereditary, although Montezuma, the chief in power 
 at the time of the Spanish conquest, was the nephew of his 
 predecessor, " the bold and bloody Ahuitzotl." The old 
 warriors of the tribe, the head-chiefs of the confederate 
 tribes and the leading priests were the electors of this 
 officer. These electors constituted a tribal council, which 
 was the fountain of all power, religious and civil. They 
 not only elected the chief and deposed him if he dis- 
 pleased the tribe, but after his inauguration they decided 
 all questions in peace or in war. The chief seems to 
 have been an executive of their decrees, which, like those
 
 56 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 of old Venice, were despotic, and often cruel. The man 
 chosen by this council bore the title of " chief-of-men " 
 (tiaca-tecuhtli). 
 
 Among the Aztecs the chief had an associate in of- 
 fice whose business it was to look after the revenues of 
 the tribe. This man had the strange title of "snake- 
 woman" (cohua-cohuatl), meaning, probably, a mate. 
 From their first appearance in history these warlike 
 people had subsisted on the plunder taken from other 
 tribes, so that whoever had the care of the revenues 
 from this source had the life of the nation in his hands. 
 This associate chief went through the same ceremonies at 
 the time of his inauguration, and wore the same dress, as 
 the "chief-of-men," and in time of emergency he was ex- 
 pected to head the army. 
 
 Tlascala had four chiefs, who acted in concert; the 
 Zapotecs had a high priest or divine ruler, and the Tez- 
 cucans also had but one. 
 
 It is a fact established by one of the oldest sculptures in 
 Mexico that the custom of double headship was common 
 there from the earliest times. A nameless artist has given 
 us on the walls of Palenque a picture representing the 
 two chiefs in their official regalia the very dress which 
 Montezuma wore, as described by Spanish writers. 
 
 Among the qualifications which were required in the 
 chief-of-men were gravity and dignity of manner, fluency 
 of speech and bravery in war. The prolonged ordeal 
 through which each candidate for ordinary chieftainship 
 was called to pass was a test of his character and of his 
 fitness for office which none but those possessed of every 
 Indian virtue could endure, and any one selected from 
 among those thus distinguished could scarcely fail to be 
 worthy of public trust. The candidate was obliged to
 
 LAWS AND LAWGIVERS. 57 
 
 pass through four days and nights of torment. He ate 
 but little, and that of the poorest food ; he was sur- 
 rounded every hour by a crowd who subjected him to 
 every possible indignity ; he was jeered at, taunted and 
 scourged until he was bleeding and exhausted. This 
 over, he spent a year in close retirement and abstinence. 
 After another four days and nights of the most rigorous 
 and cruel tests of his patience and his fortitude, he was 
 brought out in triumph to enjoy once more the society of 
 friends and allowed to dress and feast at will. The 
 head-chief wore his hair tied up on the top of his 
 head with a narrow band of leather dyed red. 
 
 As badges of their office the "chief-of-men" and his as- 
 sociate wore certain ornaments which it was death for any 
 one else to assume. One of the green stones so much ad- 
 mired in those days was hung from the bridge of the nose; 
 a golden lip-ring was another appendage. Wristbands 
 of exquisite feather-work, armbands and anklets of gold 
 elaborately chased, added to the brilliancy of his attire. 
 Montezuma is described as wearing a large square man- 
 tle of richly-embroidered cotton cloth tied about his neck 
 by two of its knotted corners, a broad sash with fringed 
 ends draped about his loins, sandals with golden soles and 
 thongs of embossed leather. His garments were sprinkled 
 with precious stones and pearls, with a long and hand- 
 some tuft of green feathers fastened on the top of his 
 head and hanging down his back. At the time of his 
 introduction to Europeans he was about forty years of 
 age, tall, thin, with long, straight black hair and but little 
 beard. He had a paler color than most of his race, and 
 a serious, if not a melancholy, expression. If half that 
 we read of Montezuma's epicurean tastes and inactive 
 habits is true, it is reasonable to suppose that he was a
 
 58 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 confirmed dyspeptic, which may in part account for his 
 gloomy views of life at this time. 
 
 The Mexicans seem to have had no written laws. It 
 is said that in early times their laws were so few that 
 everybody knew them by heart. In later days a record 
 was kept of suits in law, and the decisions given in these 
 cases served as precedents. Thus was established a com- 
 mon law founded on long usage. The despotic decrees 
 of the council were often given after consulting the 
 priests, who were the oracles of the tribe. When the 
 gods had decided, there was no appeal. A number of 
 such cases occurred in the troublous times when the 
 Aztecs were at war with the Spaniards. It is said that 
 all the wisdom of the great Hungry Fox could not avail 
 in a controversy with these priests. The chief loathed the 
 worship of Humming-Bird and sought to bring his peo- 
 ple back to the altars of the Toltecs. But in vain. The 
 oracles declared that all the troubles in which the tribe 
 were then plunged were due to the neglect of human 
 sacrifices, and it was decided that henceforth the cruel 
 war-god should have his fill of them. 
 
 The punishment of crime was most severe. Every 
 petty theft was punished by the temporary enslavement 
 of the culprit to the person he had wronged, or by death. 
 Stealing a tobacco-pouch or twenty ears of corn or pilfer- 
 ing in the market-place was thus atoned for. In the lat- 
 ter case the thief was clubbed to death on the spot. Any 
 one who was guilty of stealing gold offended Xipe, the 
 patron god of those who worked in the precious metals ; 
 he was therefore doomed to be skinned alive before the 
 altar of this deity. The effect of these severe laws against 
 robbery was everywhere seen in treasures being left 
 unguarded. A man who died drunk was dreased for
 
 MEXICAN INDIAN MAT-MAKERS (MODERN).
 
 60 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 burial iu the robes worn by the goddess of strong drink, 
 his patron saint. Drunkenness in young people, since it 
 unfitted them for public duty, was punishable with death, 
 though the same fault was winked at in an older pel-son. 
 Slanderers fared somewhat better, and escaped with singed 
 hair. Any member of the ealjmlli who failed to till the 
 little portion of the public land assigned to him became 
 an outcast, and was condemned to menial service. If he 
 failed to till the lands of any minor for whom he was 
 guardian, his breach of trust was punished with death. 
 
 True slavery, iu our sense of that word, was unknown 
 among these people. As outcasts they forfeited their 
 tribal privileges, but could be readopted by their breth- 
 ren after some meritorious act. 
 
 It was a capital otVcncc to wear any part of a chief's 
 regalia or for a man or a woman to put on the dress be- 
 longing to the other sex or to change the boundaries of 
 lands. These old communal lands were most jealously 
 guarded. The people bad strong local attachments, and 
 it is said that thousands in Mexico are still living on the 
 plots of ground tilled by their ancestors hundreds ot'y 
 ago. Many of these were not A/tees, though most of them 
 had been at some time tributary to them. 
 
 We learn from picture-records that four cities on the 
 coast of Mexico paid each, yearly, four thousand hand- 
 fuls of the feathers needed in the exquisite mosaic-work 
 for which these tribes were so famous, two hundred bags 
 of cocoa, forty tiger-skins, one hundred and sixty kinds 
 of certain colors needed in the temple- worship or Im- 
 personal decoration. Other places paid tribute in cochi- 
 neal, dyestuffs, gold, precious stones, besides the victims 
 for sacrifice the most valuable of all revenues.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE WAR-PATH. 
 
 A MONG some of the tribes of Anahuac a farmer or 
 ** a mechanic or a merchant might be counted as a 
 man ; not so was it with the fierce Aztecs. Every male 
 in that tribe was born to be a warrior ; it was only when 
 he was maimed, sick, old, or, worse than all, an outcast 
 from his clan, that he could not claim the privilege of 
 going to the battlefield. Even the priests took a leading 
 part in every conflict. It was not only their business to 
 interpret . the will of the gods, but they marched at the 
 head of the Aztec troops bearing a little image, or talis- 
 man, of the most famous of the war-gods of Mexico. It 
 was also the duty of the priests to give the signal for the 
 battle to begin. When war was decided upon by the 
 great council, a messenger was sent to the tribe to be 
 attacked, and in case the help of their allies and tribu- 
 taries was needed word was sent also to them. No one 
 dared to refuse to join the Aztecs 'when they took the 
 war-path. 
 
 Like the Sioux and other tribes on our borders, the 
 Aztec braves had a war-dance around a blazing fire the 
 night before they set out on a raid, and ceremonies as 
 heathenish and disgusting as any of those in which our 
 wild Indians engage were common among them. The 
 humble wigwams on our prairies and the proud, lux- 
 urious city enthroned on Lake Tezcuco sent out the 
 
 61
 
 62 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 same kind of men in war-time. We can readily believe 
 in the savage orgies held in the splendid square of 
 Tlatililco when we remember the impurity and cruelty 
 of old Home when her warriors, builders and poets, her 
 historians and statesmen, were moulding a civilization 
 which made her the mistress of the world. 
 
 When the great snake-drum on the temple sounded 
 the call to arms, the warriors from fifteen years old and 
 upward gathered at the armory or house of darts belong- 
 ing to their ealpulli, where the weapons of their clan were 
 kept. We have pictures of the armor they wore which 
 correspond with the descriptions given by Cortez and his 
 soldiers. The spear was their main weapon. It was made 
 of hard and elastic cane, with flint points fastened into a 
 slit at the end with gum and the strong fibres of the 
 maguey. The spear sometimes had several of these flint 
 tips. Their swords were made of tough wood, with 
 grooves cut along the edge, in which was inserted a 
 hard stone whose sharp edge was easily broken, but 
 which cut like a blade of the finest steel. The bow was 
 made of cane, and the arrows were carried in a quiver on 
 the shoulder. They also had slings for throwing stones, 
 which they used very skillfully. Shields were made of 
 canes netted together, inwoven with cotton, encased with 
 gilded boards and decorated with feathers. These were 
 carried on the left arm, and were so hard that the Span- 
 iards found that nothing but the arrows from their cross- 
 bows could pierce them. 
 
 Every warrior, from the chief-of-men down to the 
 rank and file, was painted. The common soldier some- 
 times had scarcely any other dress than the colors of his 
 clan, fancifully applied to face and body; at best, he 
 went to the field with head, feet and avms bare. A
 
 ON THE WAR-PATH. 63 
 
 quilted cotton tunic two fingers thick was so much like 
 a coat of mail that the Spaniards were very glad to bor- 
 row the cheap and useful fashion. A chief wore his hair 
 cropped above his ears, and a wooden helmet, over which 
 he often stretched the skin of some wild bird or animal, 
 the grinning teeth and fierce eyes of a bear or a tiger sur- 
 mounting the painted face. The head of an eagle with 
 hooked beak was a favorite device to represent the spirit 
 of the wearer or the name he had won in battle. Lip- 
 pendants, ear-rings and other gewgaws were worn if the 
 soldier's means permitted such extravagance. The chief- 
 of-men and his associate wore their hair tied with strips 
 of leather colored red with cochineal. The towering 
 plume of green feathers on the helmet was a mark of 
 the highest rank which no other warrior dared to assume. 
 A green stone hung from the bridge of the nose, and the 
 ear- and lip-rings were of wrought gold. Bands of 
 exquisite feather-work encircled the arms, wrists and an- 
 kles of the chief. On the field of battle a long tress of 
 feather- work hung from the crown to the girdle. From 
 this was suspended a small drum or horn, which the 
 chief used in making signals to his men. As habits 
 of luxury increased among the Aztecs their chief went 
 out in a splendid litter. Gayly-dressed pages carried a 
 gorgeous canopy over his head ; and if obliged to alight, 
 he was supported by chiefs of the highest rank. Cortez 
 declares that these Indian chiefs came out to meet him in 
 battle as they would go to some holiday parade, and that 
 even the hardy Tlascalans had in this respect declined 
 from their republican simplicity. 
 
 The army was readily prepared for a march. The 
 common soldier carried his own provision. He had in 
 his pouch coru-cake baked very hard, ground beans and
 
 64 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 chia (a berry out of which he made a palatable drink). 
 Coffee was unknown among these people until after the 
 conquest, and chocolate was a beverage which none but 
 the wealthy could afford. He had plenty of red pepper, 
 and used it not only as a condiment, but also as food. 
 Salt for seasoning was obtained from the lake that sur- 
 rounded the city. Cornstalk sugar was a common 
 luxury, and formed part of the bill of fare in camp. 
 Special carriers accompanied the army, loaded with 
 whatever was needed, such as tents, tent-poles, mats for 
 bedding, camp-kettles and ammunition. They also had 
 the ornaments with which braves who should distinguish 
 themselves in battle were to be decorated before they left 
 the field. One of these tokens was the privilege of wear- 
 ing a wrap of peculiar color. If the army passed 
 through the land of one of its tributaries on its way, 
 provisions were always furnished to it by the people, 
 and friends and allies brought presents as a token of 
 good-will. 
 
 The Mexicans needed no other strongholds than their 
 massive houses and temples. The country was peculiarly 
 adapted to their methods of warfare. Paths like that 
 through the famous pass of Thermopylae, or still more 
 easily defended, were common. There were hilltops 
 and precipices from which stones could be rolled down 
 on an assailing force, and retreats among the mountains 
 where a great army could hide in ambuscade as did 
 thirty thousand of the men of Israel behind the city 
 of Ai in Joshua's day. The burning of the teocallis 
 was always the token of victory. The warriors of the 
 place who survived either fled or were taken captive, 
 and the women and children, who were generally sent 
 to some cliff-dwelling among the hills before the storm
 
 O.V THE WAR-PATH. 65 
 
 broke on their homes, came back if they came at all 
 to a scene of utter desolation. 
 
 But war did not always end thus. When a tribe 
 refused to pay a valuable tribute, no attempt was made 
 to destroy it, but merely to force obedience. The Aztecs 
 once paid tribute to the Tepanacs, a tribe on the main- 
 land, near Mexico. When their city became strong 
 enough to rebel, a struggle took place for the mastery, 
 in which the Aztecs were victorious. The immediate 
 cause of this war was the possession of the great spring 
 at Chapultepec, by which the city was supplied with 
 water through an aqueduct. As this was on the yaotlaUi, 
 or neutral ground, between the Aztecs and Tepanacs, any 
 attempt of the latter to cut off the water-supply of Mexico 
 was taken as a challenge to war. Their success in this 
 struggle made the Aztecs the leading power in the table- 
 land. They became the head of a strong confederacy of 
 tribes, and ruled with a high hand for nearly a hundred 
 years, until, hated and feared by all their neighbors and 
 crushed at home by the despotism of the council, the 
 Aztecs were ripe for rebellion, and their beautiful domain 
 fell an easy prey into the hands of the foreign invaders. 
 It is said that when Montezuma was asked why he 
 had suffered the little republic of Tlascala to lift a 
 defiant head between Mexico and the sea, he replied 
 that the Aztecs would have crushed it long ago but 
 that they needed victims for sacrifice and could get them 
 readily in the skirmishes which constantly took place 
 between the two tribes. Thus, with war as their chief 
 business in life and a religion which demanded thou- 
 sands of human sacrifices yearly, the Aztecs were glad 
 of any pretext for an attack on their neighbors. The 
 choice of a new war-chief was sure to bring on a con-
 
 66 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 flict with somebody, as the ceremonies of his induction 
 to office were never complete until he had brought home 
 a train of captives. Some of these he must capture with 
 his own hands a feat which was sometimes accomplished 
 by strategy, but oftener in a haud-to-hand fight. Al- 
 though all these tribes believed that heaven was made 
 for warriors and that none had higher seats there than 
 those who died on the bloody stone of sacrifice, yet they 
 had a natural love of life, and never yielded to their fate 
 without a struggle. A Mexican's first aim in battle was 
 not to kill his enemies, but to take captives. He would 
 sacrifice a score of lives rather than fail in this aim. 
 
 The tactics of the Aztecs in war were those of rude 
 nations. A favorite device was to feign retreat, and 
 thus to decoy their victims into snares. Their ingenuity 
 in such stratagems was equaled only by the patience with 
 which they were carried into execution. The most dar- 
 ing warriors, and even the " chief-of-men " himself, would 
 hide in some pit dug on a road toward which the enemy 
 was enticed, and here they would remain motionless for 
 hours, even days, like tigers waiting for a chance to 
 spring on their hapless victims. They never left the 
 field without carrying oif their dead and wounded a 
 custom which sometimes turned victory into defeat. 
 
 These tribes all went into battle with a defiant war- 
 whoop. Each clan had its own war-cry usually its own 
 name and every pueblo had its standard. The device 
 of Mexico was a cactus on a stone, rudely painted on a 
 banner and carried on a pole high over the troop by a 
 chosen standard-bearer ; and it was as high a point of 
 honor then as now to defend the flag at all risks. 
 
 When captives were taken, they were secured, if many, 
 by wooden collars and fastened together in gangs ; if few,
 
 ON THE WAR-PATH. 67 
 
 each warrior cared for his own prize. In the old picture- 
 records of this country and carved on the stones of the 
 monuments captors are seen holding prisoners by their 
 long hair. On the sides of the sacrificial stone these 
 scenes are carefully cut, the hand of one figure being 
 raised to grasp the head-ornaments of his victim, who 
 drops his weapons helplessly. Sometimes the captives 
 helped to bear the spoils of war to the city of the con- 
 queror. In every case they were considered as sacred 
 objects devoted to the war-god, and were well fed and 
 cared for. Ransom was entirely out of the question. 
 The captor dared not spare his victim's life even when 
 his own was in danger, as any loss in this respect was 
 defrauding the war-god. The lynx-eyed priests were 
 ever on the watch to detect and punish those who would 
 be merciful, if any such there were in those dark days. 
 The careless warrior who lost a captive and made the 
 excuse of one of old, "As thy servant was busy here and 
 there he was gone," met the same doom : " Thy life shall 
 go for his life." When the wretched victims had been 
 led home in triumph, they were taken first to the chief 
 teocattis, or house of the gods, aud after bowing to Hum- 
 ming-Bird and his hideous brother they were marched 
 solemnly around the great stone of sacrifice, then taken 
 away to a house set apart for those who were thus ap- 
 pointed to die. The home-coming of such an expedition 
 was a great event. The warriors were received with the 
 wildest din of music ; flowers were showered upon them, 
 and the air was filled with the odor of burning frankin- 
 cense. The old men of the tribe carried the censers, 
 standing in rows on each side of the path, their long 
 hair tied on the back of their heads with gay strips of 
 leather, and sometimes they bore a shield with a rod and
 
 68 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 rattle, which they sounded in token of rejoicing that they 
 were the fathers of such braves. Along the road were 
 erected bowers decked with the choicest flowers to be 
 gathered in that flowery land. 
 
 In 1497 a great army was sent out by the confederated 
 tribes. It went far southward to Tehuantepec, and came 
 back loaded with plunder and with multitudes of captives. 
 Some of the ruined cities now found iu those solitudes 
 may then have been laid waste, but no record remains to 
 tell of the scenes of carnage and rapine which must have 
 marked this campaign. The confederates afterward 
 ravaged all the Totonac region as far east as the Gulf- 
 coast, swept it clean and recolonized it with their own 
 people. 
 
 The victors in the tribal wars cared not to change the 
 customs or the laws of a subjugated people ; all they asked 
 was tribute, and the question was often settled in one 
 battle. When this was concluded by the burning of 
 the teocallis the signal of surrender the amount and 
 kind of articles of tribute and the time when this was 
 to be paid were immediately arranged. The vanquished 
 party were henceforth watched with jealous care by a tax- 
 gatherer appointed by the victor ; a house was set apart 
 for his use and as a place of storage for the tribute until 
 it should be sent away. Some tribes paid their tribute 
 every eighty days, and others once a year. This tribute- 
 money was sometimes borne to the capital on the backs of 
 human victims who had been chosen by lot to suffer for the 
 tribe on the altars of the conqueror. These sad proces- 
 sions must have been a common sight even in the few 
 peaceful days known among these war-loving people. 
 
 After each fresh conquest the Aztecs adorned their city 
 with a new temple, bearing the name of the conquered
 
 ON THE WAR-PATH. 69 
 
 people and filled with their gods. These senseless 
 blocks of wood and stone were prisoners, and as snch 
 were punished severely when the tribe they represented 
 rebelled. The victors sought to make the worship of 
 these captured idols acceptable by stationing in each 
 such building priests from the tribe from which the 
 idols were taken. 
 
 At the time of the Spanish invasion the whole country 
 seemed to be on the eve of one of those terrible conflicts 
 by which some of the fairest portions of the earth had 
 been desolated. The Aztecs had maintained then* suprem- 
 acy for nearly a hundred years, and now the tribes far and 
 near, outraged by their oppressions, were brooding over 
 their wrongs, awaiting some leader who should head a 
 new confederacy and mete out justice to Mexico. She 
 was drunk with human blood, and the tide of war was 
 turning as, in time, it always will turn against a people 
 whose only right is might. Unheard by it, God had 
 said of the beautiful Aztec city, as he had said of Baby- 
 lon of old, "The cup which she hath filled, fill to her 
 double."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 
 
 A BOUT thirty miles north of Mexico are the remains 
 --*- of Teotihuacan, a city so old that it was falling into 
 decay when the Aztecs entered the valley. The ground 
 upon which it stood seems to have been built over by 
 succeeding generations. Three successive concrete plat- 
 forms for houses, one above the other, have been found 
 buried under the cornfields which have flourished there 
 for centuries. So large was this city that its ruins cover 
 a space twenty miles in circumference. It was a shrine 
 where of olden time the native worshipers flocked with 
 their votive offerings little clay images, men's heads, 
 arrows and pottery decorated in bright colors. Thou- 
 sands of these now strew the plain or are brought to 
 light by the rude ploughs of the country. There are 
 two large pyramids one dedicated to the sun, the other 
 to the moon standing like grass-grown hills among 
 these ruins. One wide, straight street called " the 
 Path of the Dead" is raised above the level of the 
 plain and leads up to the pyramid of the moon. This 
 is bordered by many small pyramids, which are sup- 
 posed to contain the now-nameless builders of these 
 great monuments. 
 
 This worship of the sun and the moon seems to have 
 at one time prevailed throughout Mexico, and was still 
 
 70
 
 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 71 
 
 retained in all the temples when other forms of idolatry 
 were introduced by later settlers. In some forgotten age 
 of their history the Mexicans had " exchanged the truth 
 of God for a lie." Their belief in an invisible Creator 
 and Ruler of the universe and the names and the char- 
 acter they gave him show that the ancestors of these 
 people must have known of the one living and true 
 God. They spoke of him as " He who is all in him- 
 self," "He in whom we live, all-wise, all-seeing, al- 
 mighty and everywhere present, the Giver of every good, 
 a Being of infinite purity and grace and the hearer and 
 answerer of prayer." No images of this God were made ; 
 a prayer said to have been found among the old Aztec 
 records tells us how he was regarded. Besides the sad 
 picture which it gives us of the famines which often 
 prevailed in Mexico, it reveals the breathings of one 
 who, like Cornelius of old, was "a devout man and 
 prayed to God alway:" 
 
 " O our Lord, protector most strong and compassionate, 
 invisible, impalpable, thou art the giver of life. Lord 
 of all and Lord of all battles, I present myself here 
 before thee to say a few words ; the need of the poor 
 people, the people of none estate or intelligence. Know, 
 O Lord, that thy subjects and servants suffer a sore 
 poverty that cannot be told of more than that it is a sore 
 poverty and desolateness. The men have no garments, 
 nor the women, to cover themselves with, but only rags 
 rent in every part, that let the wind and cold in. If 
 they be merchants, they now sell only cakes of salt and 
 broken pepper. The people that have something despise 
 them, so that they go out to sell from door to door and 
 from house to house ; and when they sell nothing, they 
 sit down sadly by some fence or wall or in some corner,
 
 72 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 biting their lips and gnawing their nails for the hunger 
 that is in them. They look on one side and on the other 
 at the mouths of those who pass by, hoping, peradven- 
 ture, that some one will speak some word to them." 
 
 Hungry Fox, a great Tezcucan chief, built a temple to 
 this god toward the close of his long life, when he had 
 become heartsick at the abominations of the religion of 
 the Mexicans. This temple was nine stories high. A ' 
 tenth story, overhanging the others like a canopy, was 
 painted black, to represent the sky at night, gilded with 
 stars outside and decorated within with precious gem& 
 and metals in the highest style of art known to his peo- 
 ple. This temple he dedicated " To the Unknown God." 
 No image of him was allowed in this beautiful shrine, 
 and nothing but incense, fruit and flowers was oifered 
 upon its altar. A sonorous piece of metal struck by a 
 mallet called the worshipers together. 
 
 The common people seem to have known but very little 
 of this good and great being. The gods they served were 
 like those who made them fierce, unholy and delighting 
 in blood. Thirteen of these were superior to the rest, 
 and two hundred were of lower rank. At the head of 
 all these the Aztecs put their frightful war-god, Huiti- 
 zilapochtli, or " Humming-Bird." This god was repre- 
 sented as a man with a broad face, a wide mouth and 
 terrible eyes. He was girt about with a golden serpent 
 ablaze with jewels, and held a bow in one hand and a 
 bunch of golden arrows in the other. His dress glit- 
 tered with gold, pearls and precious stones. He wore a 
 necklace of human faces wrought in silver and hearts of 
 gold. His left foot was shod with the feathers of the 
 tiny humming-birds which gave him his name. At the 
 feet of this god stood a little one called Milziton, or
 
 MEXICAN GOB OF WAR, HUlTIZlLAPOCHTLI, OR HUMMING-BIRD.
 
 74 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 " Little Quick One," which was borne by the priest at 
 the head of the army in time of war. When this 
 hideous idol was first seen by Europeans, there stood 
 before it a brazier of burning coals in which lay three 
 hearts just torn from the bleeding breasts of human 
 victims. 
 
 Humming-Bird had a younger brother, a favorite with 
 the Tezcucans, who was also a war-god. His name, 
 Hacahuepanenexcolzin, is almost as bad as his dispo- 
 sition, and we would not venture to "write it except to 
 give one of the curiosities of Mexican spelling. These 
 two gods stood side by side in the old temple in Mexico, 
 fitting representations of the dark-minded priests who 
 made them. "The smell of this place," says Berual 
 Diaz, an old Spanish soldier whom we shall often quote, 
 " was that of a charnel-house." We cannot wonder that 
 whitewash and scrubbing-brushes were always brought 
 into use when Cortez got possession of one of these blood- 
 stained shrines. 
 
 Another prominent figure in Mexican mythology was 
 Tezcaltipoca, " the Hearer of Prayer." His image was 
 of black shining stone. An ear hung by a string from 
 his neck, on which smoke was pictured, whose ascending 
 wreaths represented the prayers of his distressed people. 
 Stone seats were put in some street-corners of Mexico, in 
 the hope that this god would rest upon them when he 
 visited the city. On these sacred seats no one else was 
 permitted to sit. 
 
 By far the most interesting character among these gods 
 was that of Quetzalcohuatl, or " Feathered Serpent," the 
 god of the air. Stripped of all the romance with which 
 he is invested, this old hero appears as a tall, fair-faced 
 man of a different race from any of those which inhab-
 
 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 75 
 
 ited the valley. He had a broad forehead and long black 
 flowing beard and hair, and came to Mexico from some 
 distant land on an errand of benevolence. Some sup- 
 pose him to be the leader of the Toltec tribes, and to 
 have come with their seven ships which figure in Mex- 
 ican history; but this is by no means clear. Neither 
 does he seem to be the Votan of other traditions, al- 
 though he did the same good work among the people 
 which is ascribed to that hero. It was Feathered Ser- 
 pent who taught these still-barbarous tribes those arts of 
 peace so foreign to savage natures. The Mexican calen- 
 dar and picture-writing were his invention. The riches 
 which lay hidden in the bowels of the earth were all un- 
 known until he unveiled them and showed men how to 
 dig and refine gold and silver and to work in all precious 
 metals. During his stay the land became a very Eden. 
 Cities arose, and in the heart of the wilderness fair fields 
 were opened to the sun. But these bright days did not 
 last, The powers of evil became envious of the benev- 
 olent god of the air, and he was obliged to flee for his 
 life. 
 
 The Mexicans tell a story of the rivalry between 
 Tezcaltipoca and Feathered Serpent which is worthy of 
 heathen idol-makers. Tezcaltipoca, fearing that he was 
 about to lose the reverence of the people, disguised him- 
 self as a hoary-headed sorcerer and persuaded Feathered 
 Serpent to drink pulque, or the fermented sap of the 
 maguey. The event proved that it is no safer for a 
 god to indulge in such intoxicating beverages than it is 
 for men to do so. Poor Feathered Serpent became tipsy 
 and wandered out of the country in disgrace. On his 
 way to the sea to return to his own land he stopped at 
 Cholula, where he found hearts open to receive him;
 
 76 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 there he stayed for twenty years. The people built 
 temples in his honor and sat at his feet to learn. Like 
 Cain, " the Fair God," as he was called, disapproved of 
 bloody sacrifices, and commanded his followers to offer 
 nothing on his peaceful altars but sweet incense and the 
 fruits of the earth. After twenty happy years Feathered 
 Serpent left Mexico by the way he came. His snake- 
 skin boat was waiting for him on the shore of the Gulf. 
 Turning to his friends who had followed him, he bade 
 them farewell, promising that some day he would come 
 again from his home toward the rising sun and take pos- 
 session of their country. 
 
 The white race to whom this old hero belonged are 
 indebted to him for their successful entry into Mexico. 
 At the time the Spanish vessels made their appearance, 
 in 1517, there was a universal expectation that the Fair 
 God was about to return, and the white sails of the ves- 
 sels were mistaken for bright-winged birds who had come 
 to bring back their benefactor from his long exile. 
 
 The Aztecs adopted this god, among many others, after 
 they came to Mexico ; his shrine at Cholula was visited 
 by multitudes of devotees from all parts of the country. 
 This city was older than Mexico, and is supposed by 
 many to have been founded by the Toltecs. There, on 
 the top of the famous pyramid of Cholula, was a large 
 hemispherical temple in honor of this Fair God. An- 
 other temple was reared to him within the serpent-wall 
 of the great temple of Mexico ; it was entered through a 
 gate fashioned like the mouth of a hideous dragon. The 
 black, flame-encircled face of his image enshrined there 
 and the altar dripping with blood had taught the people 
 to think of him as a fit companion for the war-god him- 
 self that most bloodthirsty of all Mexican deities.
 
 TEMPLE OF TIKAL, A SUBURB OF FLORES, YUCATAN.
 
 78 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 There were thousands of temples in Mexico. They 
 were built in the form of terraced pyramids with stair- 
 ways on the outside leading to a paved platform on the 
 top, where all worship was carried on. The great temple 
 of Mexico was three hundred and seventy-five feet high. 
 Each of its lofty terraces had its own flight of steps, ris- 
 ing one above the other on the southern side of the pyra- 
 mid. In their worship the priests, with the victims 
 chosen for sacrifice, climbed the first of these stairways 
 and passed entirely around the terrace until they reached 
 the next flight of steps, and so, ascending in solemn pro- 
 cession, they wound on up and up to the great altar in 
 sight of multitudes assembled on housetops and in the 
 great square which surrounded the building. Three 
 storied towers arose on the flattened top, and between 
 these was the awful stone of sacrifice. The weight of 
 this stone was twenty-five tons. It was an immense 
 round block of green porphyry elaborately carved with 
 strange figures illustrating acts of worship, and humped 
 on its upper surface, so that the breast of the victim, 
 bound and stretched upon it, could better be reached by 
 the sacrificial knife. In the centre was a dishlike cavity 
 with a groove running from it to the edge of the altar, to 
 lead away the blood. The whole was a mute but elo- 
 quent witness to the character of the sacrifices offered 
 upon it. 
 
 Each temple was not only a place of worship, but a 
 watch-tower from whose commanding height priestly 
 guardians overlooked their congregation. Like watch- 
 men, they used to call out the hours of the night through 
 their trumpets. The sacred fires were in two stoves near 
 the altar. These were fed with wood, and, burning all 
 night, shone out over the city. Here, too, were the
 
 80 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 observatories where astrologers studied the heavens or 
 in that more spiritual worship they had learned of the 
 Toltecs adored the starry host circling overhead. 
 
 In the towers which formed the corners of the great 
 enclosure were deposited, after cremation, the ashes of the 
 dead heroes of the tribe. In one of these, also, was kept 
 a huge snake-skin drum, which was used to call the peo- 
 ple together to witness a sacrifice or for war. The sound 
 of this drum could be heard, it is said, far beyond the 
 city limits sometimes to a distance of eight miles. 
 
 These houses of worship were always the principal 
 buildings in every town or hamlet in the land. Besides, 
 there were many others on hilltops and sacred places 
 throughout Mexico. One of them stood in the centre 
 of every settlement. It was surrounded by a wall, which 
 was often turreted and always high and strong ; for in 
 time of war it was around these temples that the battle 
 raged most fiercely. Fronting the principal roadways, 
 there were entrances to the enclosure on all four sides. 
 These roads stretched, wide, clean and straight, several 
 miles beyond the city, so that a retreating army, when 
 pursued by the enemy, might have no hindrance if it 
 sought the protection of the gods. 
 
 Standing on one of the lofty towers of the great tem- 
 ple in Mexico, Cortez counted four hundred places of 
 worship in that city alone. Of the chief teoeallis (house 
 of the gods) he writes to Charles V., " The grandeur of 
 its architectural details no human tongue is able to de- 
 scribe." The square in which it stood was surrounded 
 with the great serpent-wall, each of whose four sides 
 was a quarter of a mile long, giving room within the 
 enclosure for a town of five hundred inhabitants. Forty 
 high and well-built towers were along this wall. The
 
 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE. 81 
 
 largest of these, says Cortez, had forty steps leading to 
 its maiu body, which was higher than the tower of the 
 principal church in Seville. Another writer says, 
 "There were seventy temples within the square, each 
 one of which had its images and blazing fires. Besides, 
 there were granaries where the first-fruits of the land 
 were gathered for use in the temple, storehouses for 
 other kinds of tribute, a house of entertainment for 
 pilgrims from a distance, a hospital tended by priests, 
 an arsenal and a library, besides a garden where flowers 
 were raised for the temple-service and accommodations 
 for many of the priests." Curious imagery wrought in 
 stone, woodwork carved, inlaid or richly painted, orna- 
 mented the interior of every apartment of the great 
 building.* Within the main temple were three large 
 halls adorned with these sculptured figures and the rich 
 feather-work hangings which were among the highest 
 efforts of Aztec art. An army of priests was needed 
 for the elaborate service of this temple. It is said that 
 five thousand were employed in the great teoccdlis, besides 
 women and children in multitudes. Seventy fires were 
 to be kept up day and night. Incense was offered four 
 times every day viz., sunrise, midday, sunset and mid- 
 night. Besides their sacrificial duties, the priests were 
 the school-teachers, historians, poets and painters of the 
 tribe. They must have been hideous objects, dressed in 
 long black robes, with blackened faces and tongues torn 
 and bleeding with frequent penances. Their hair, which 
 
 * In the year 1881 excavations were made in front of the cathedral 
 in Mexico, where this building once stood, and a few feet below the 
 surface were found the old capitals of the door-posts of the temple. 
 They were heads of large stone serpents, each ten feet long and five 
 feet high, with feathered ornaments carved out of solid stone. 
 6
 
 82 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 was never cut nor combed from the time they entered the 
 temple-service until they left it, was matted with blood 
 and with cords twisted into the long maas. The chief 
 priests were more elegantly dressed on state occasions. 
 A costly and magnificent robe like that of the god whose 
 day he celebrated marked the high priest of the nation. 
 A huge tuft of white cotton worn on the breast was his 
 sign of office. There were a few priestesses, who lived a 
 nun's life in the cloisters of this temple. Both priests 
 and nuns were free to come and to go, but those who 
 had made a vow never to marry were punished with 
 the utmost rigor in case they broke their vow.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 
 
 Aztecs believed in the immortality of the soul, 
 -L both of men and of beasts. Heroes who died in 
 battle and those who sacrificed themselves to the gods 
 had the highest place their heaven could offer. They 
 were supposed to be in the service of the Sun, and that 
 after singing in his train as he passed through the heavens 
 their souls went to beautify the clouds and birds and 
 flowers with colors 
 
 " Bright as a disbanded rainbow." 
 
 Even women and little children especially those who 
 died in the service of the gods had as bright a hope 
 as heathenism could offer. After death the women spent 
 four years in heaven, and then were permitted to become 
 birds, with the privilege of coming back to the scenes of 
 earth if they wished, to live on honey and flowers. Hell 
 was merely a place of darkness. 
 
 Yet, with these comparatively agreeable provisions for 
 the future, the Aztec religion, wherever it prevailed, made 
 this world "the region and shadow of death." The 
 Psalmist must have had in mind such a religion as 
 this when he prayed that God would have respect to 
 the covenant, since the " dark places of the earth were 
 full of the habitations of cruelty." Never, in any nation, 
 was human sacrifice carried to so frightful an extent as 
 
 83
 
 84 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 among these refined and cultured Indian tribes. The 
 
 O 
 
 practice had been common among the Aztecs from the 
 earliest times, and gave to the whole race a fierce and 
 gloomy character which made them hated by all their 
 neighbors. The position which they gained as head of 
 the three confederate tribes afforded them an opportunity 
 to engraft this hideous custom on the milder worship of 
 the people around the lake. For about one hundred 
 years, or during the time of this supremacy, human 
 sacrifices and the sacrificial eating of human flesh pre- 
 vailed throughout Mexico as never before. About the 
 time of the Spanish conquest the burden of such a re- 
 ligion became intolerable, and Mexico seemed as ripe for 
 destruction as was -old Sodom or the Canaanites when 
 their cup of iniquity was full. From Yucatan, on the 
 far south-east, to the most distant of the Nahua tribes, 
 on the north, the altars reeked with human blood. The 
 practice was so universal, and so many victims were at 
 last demanded, that death in this terrible form must 
 have stared every one in the face. A large tribe on the 
 Pacific slope was so nearly exterminated in one of the 
 wars begun and carried on to obtain captives for sacrifice 
 that men were not left to till the ground or work the 
 mines ; all who had not been slain outright in defending 
 their homes were borne away to die on Aztec altars. A 
 colony was sent over from Mexico city to take possession 
 of the empty houses and unharvested fields, while the 
 proud cities enthroned on the shore of the lake sought 
 for other communities to lay waste. If silent walls 
 could speak, many a beautiful city among the scores 
 now in mournful ruin throughout Mexico could tell 
 of scenes of carnage when, in the name of the gods 
 they all worshiped, the foe came down upon them in
 
 AZTEC GODDESS OF DEATH.
 
 86 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 fierce attack and swept away the inhabitants as with a 
 besom of destruction. 
 
 In these days of unbelief there are some who doubt 
 the accounts given by both Spanish and native historians 
 of human beings kept to fatten like cattle in a stall, of 
 still-palpitating bodies thrown from the high altar down 
 to the captor and his friends, who stood waiting to re- 
 ceive this horrible provision for a decorous feast to be 
 eaten as sacred food at the command of the gods. But 
 these writers, though differing from each other in many 
 things, agree in their testimony concerning this. Cortez, 
 who is apt to be more moderate in his statements than 
 his followers, says of one of the Nahua tribes in his 
 letters to the king, " These people eat human flesh a 
 fact so notorious that I have not taken the trouble to 
 send Your Majesty any proof of it." During the siege 
 of Mexico the Tlascalan allies of Cortez subsisted large- 
 ly on the bodies of the slain, and Montezuma himself 
 was reproved by his Spanish visitors for this horrible 
 practice. 
 
 One of the descendants of Hungry Fox, the great 
 Tezcucan chief, wrote in Spanish an interesting history 
 of his people. In this he says that his great ancestor 
 became disgusted with the sacrifices and cannibal feasts 
 in which they engaged during their connection with the 
 Aztecs, and that before their confederacy was broken up 
 he made an effort to put a stop to all such practices and 
 to return to the milder rites of their star-worshiping 
 ancestors. But his voice was raised in vain ; the old 
 priests shook their matted locks and protested against 
 his innovations. They pointed to Tenochtitlan, across 
 the lake, as an instance of the glory and success to be 
 won by the faithful votaries of the war-god. To give
 
 THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 87 
 
 weight to their influence, the tide of battle began to turn 
 against the three confederate tribes, and Hungry Fox 
 was obliged to yield to the popular clamor for human 
 victims wherewith to appease the anger of Humming- 
 Bird, the insatiable war-god. 
 
 Every month in the year had its bloody festivals. 
 At one of these the handsomest and bravest of all the 
 captives was for one year named Tezcaltipoca, after one 
 of the principal gods, and was obliged to illustrate by 
 his life and death the vanity of all earthly things. For 
 one year he was dressed in the most elegant and costly 
 robes, housed in the most luxurious dwelling the city 
 afforded, married to four beautiful girls and regaled with 
 flowers, music and sweet odors ; his table was loaded 
 with dainties and his couch was royal in its comfort and 
 decoration. At the end of that time he was carried away 
 from his splendid home and gay attendants, stripped of 
 his raiment and led with solemn burial-chants to a little 
 temple outside the city to die on the altar. As the fatal 
 knife descended the old priest called on the gazing crowd 
 to note this scene as the end of his sermon on life. Three 
 times a year, Tlaloc, god of storms, demanded a human 
 sacrifice. His home was in the fiery crater of Popocate- 
 petl. In March, when the people prayed that the clouds 
 which overhung his throne might pour out an abundance 
 of rain on the ever-thirsty earth, little children were of- 
 fered. Three times each year women were sacrificed. 
 Once, in its closing days, when Talconian, mother of all 
 gods, held high festival, a female prisoner suffered. She 
 was obliged to dance until the last moment, then was 
 beheaded and skinned and had her body thrown at the 
 feet of the war-god. At one time two perfect victims 
 were called for at once one for the war-god, the other
 
 88 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 for Tezcaltipoca. At the time corresponding with our 
 month of October, during a feast called " the Coming of 
 the Gods," the priests scattered corn meal on the floor in 
 the place where the gods were expected to enter, hoping 
 to find the sacred footprints of this chief deity. They 
 were not likely to be disappointed for want of contriv- 
 ance on the part of these " medicine-men." * 
 
 How far the priests were able to deceive themselves is 
 shown by their long and severe penances. They fasted 
 sometimes to the verge of starvation. They pierced them- 
 selves with thorns, bled their ears and cut holes in their 
 tongues, through which sticks were thrust. It must have 
 been difficult for a priest thus maimed to speak intelligibly. 
 In times of great calamity an Aztec chief and a number 
 of his followers are said to have offered their lives as a 
 voluntary sacrifice on the altar of their country. Priests 
 have been known to retire to the wilderness for a year's 
 mortification of the flesh. Building a small hut, the 
 devotee lived there alone, without light or fire and with 
 scarcely enough of uncooked maize to keep himself alive. 
 No man could go through this " great fast " more than 
 once in a lifetime. 
 
 The manner of the victims' death afforded scope for 
 variety. They were often dressed in fancy costumes and 
 made to dance in character. Sometimes, like gladiators, 
 they fought for their lives on a large stone platform in 
 the great square of the city. The goddess of harvests 
 
 * On the island of Cozumel, one of the sacred places visited by 
 thousands of pilgrims from Mexico, the Spaniards found a huge 
 image standing close against an inner wall of the temple. Behind 
 this was a private door belonging to the priests, which opened 
 through this wall into the back of the idol, whereby a priest en- 
 tered and from his safe hiding-place answered the prayers of the 
 people in an audible voice.
 
 THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 89 
 
 was propitiated by a human victim ground between mill- 
 stones like the corn the deity was asked to bestow. 
 
 Every expedition in time of war, every trading-party 
 which set out on its travels, the election of a head-chief, 
 the inauguration of a new one or the dedication of a tem- 
 ple was marked by extraordinary sacrifices. When the 
 great teocattis in Mexico was dedicated, in 1486, forty 
 thousand persons are said to have been sacrificed to the 
 terrible war-god. We would believe this to be an ex- 
 aggeration but for the fact that the skulls were pre- 
 served in houses called zompantli, or "skull-place." 
 One Spaniard, who was curious enough to count these 
 ghastly relics arranged in order, gives the number as 
 one hundred and thirty-six thousand. 
 
 Among the pretexts by which the victims were per- 
 suaded to yield up their lives was one common among 
 Romanists when a young woman enters a convent. She 
 goes to become the bride of Christ ; so the Aztec girls 
 were given to the gods. A story is told of one poor 
 woman who was so determined to forego this honor that 
 she fought for life. In her case it seemed that self-sur- 
 render was necessary to make the sacrifice acceptable, and 
 after struggling with her for a while they let her go. 
 
 The most solemn of all festivals was that of " year- 
 binding," as it was called, which marked the close of the 
 cycle of fifty -two years. The people were taught that in 
 the course of ages the world was to be four times de- 
 stroyed and renewed, and that each of these events was 
 to be looked for at these semi-centennial periods. As 
 the time drew near they gave themselves up to gloom 
 and despair. They did penances for past sins, and then 
 faithlessly threw away their idols altogether, broke np 
 their furniture, rent their clothes, neglected field and
 
 90 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 mine, workshop and garden, and ended by a fast of 
 thirteen days. The holy fire which had been kindled 
 fifty-two years before on the temple-roofs was now suf- 
 fered to die out, and the people sat down in a darkness 
 of soul over which pitying angels must have wept. As 
 the old year died the priests marched in solemn proces- 
 sion to a lofty hill a few miles outside the city, bearing 
 with them the fairest of victims some noble young 
 chieftain taken in battle and reserved until this fateful 
 day to be offered in sacrifice. He was stretched across 
 the altar with his face upturned to the sky, while the 
 shaggy-haired priests stood about him. chanting their 
 wild temple-hymns. Would the gods accept the sacri- 
 fice, or would the spirits of evil prevail? Unseen by 
 mortal eyes, the air was full of them. From the poorest 
 hut by the lake-side to the most lordly pueblo in the land, 
 men were waiting in breathless silence for an answer. 
 Mothers covered the faces of their little ones lest malig- 
 nant deities engaged in the battle supposed to be going on 
 in the air should swoop down and carry them away. The 
 devoted father cut his ears till the blood flowed, hoping 
 thus to avert all evil from his family. All eyes gazed 
 aloft till the Pleiades, slowly gliding through the heav- 
 ens, should pass the zenith. The suspense grew awful. 
 Would Tlaloc, god of storms, rise in his fury from his 
 throne on yonder volcano and sweep the valley with a 
 whirlwind ? Would their queenly cities go down in the 
 salt floods of Tezcuco, or would an earthquake prelude 
 the mighty catastrophe which would ruin a guilty world? 
 Slowly the moments pass. The stars go by overhead, and 
 then, at a signal from priestly hands, a shout rends the 
 air. The Seven Stars have crossed the dreaded line : the 
 world is safe for another fifty years. The sacred fire is
 
 THE HABITATIONS OF CRUELTY. 91 
 
 now kindled anew in the bleeding breast of the victim 
 on the altar, and fleet runners carry it to temples, cities 
 and hamlets far and wide. The people give themselves 
 up to fourteen days of feasting and merriment. They 
 refurnish their houses, spin and weave, and plant their 
 fields. Life flows on as of old. But, in its best estate, 
 all Mexico sat in darkness. Some there were, no doubt, 
 who felt after God, sitting in humble silence at his feet, 
 or as good stewards dispensed his bounty to others. To 
 such his love and fatherly pity must have been revealed, 
 since " in every nation he that feareth him and worketh 
 righteousness is accepted of him." But no song of joy- 
 ful trust has floated down to us out of the dense dark- 
 ness that covered the land. There was many a cry like 
 that of Solomon " Vanity of vanities " many a prayer 
 for mercy, but none had reached the firm foundation 
 where the triumphant Psalmist stood when he sang, 
 " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in 
 trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be 
 removed, and though the mountains be carried into the 
 midst of the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be 
 troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling 
 thereof."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 
 
 WHILE the Mexicans built temples to the suu and 
 the moon like those in which their ancestors wor- 
 shiped in Asia and retained many of the religious forms 
 which prevailed there, they forgot many other things which 
 had been known in the Old World from the earliest ages. 
 In the book of Job iron is spoken of as taken out of 
 the earth ; in Mexico mountains of iron-ore are found, 
 but no use was made of it until Europeans showed the 
 people what to do with this most valuable of metals. 
 
 Antediluvians like Jabal, " the father of all such as 
 dwell in tents and such as have cattle," and old Tubal 
 Cain, who " worked in brass and iron," would have 
 looked upon the Mexicans as far behind the times in 
 which they lived. The farmers of ancient Syria, such 
 as Gideon and Oman the Jebusite, taught oxen to tread 
 out the grain on their threshing-floors; the Mexicans had 
 never heard of such a thing. Of all the vast herds of 
 cattle which roamed their uplands, not one had ever been 
 tamed. There was not a beast of burden in all Mexico, 
 neither had the people any idea that the milk of cows 
 and of goats was good for human food. 
 
 The horse was unknown by the Mexicans until they 
 saw those brought from Cuba by Cortez for the use of 
 his cavalry. For a long time the Indians looked upon 
 
 92
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 93 
 
 horse and man as one animal, and supposed them to be 
 supernatural beings. At one time, in an encounter with 
 these people, a Cuban horse was left wounded on the 
 field. The villagers near by, finding him in this con- 
 dition, were full of sympathy for the poor beast. They 
 brought him their finest flowers and their fatted poultry 
 to tempt his appetite, but all in vain. He was only a 
 horse, and he starved to death on fare which would have 
 satisfied some of the best-worshiped idols in all Mexico. 
 Some months afterward, when the Spaniards came that 
 way again, they found the skeleton neatly polished and 
 set up in the village temple as a new god. The spirited 
 mustangs for which the country is now so famous all date 
 from the conquest. Before that time important news was 
 brought to the capital by fleet-footed runnel's. By means 
 of relays at short intervals these men could bring de- 
 spatches from the coast, two hundred and fifty miles dis- 
 tant, in twenty-four hours ; this seems almost incredible 
 when we remember the lofty mountains to be crossed on 
 the way. The Aztecs boasted that fish which only the 
 day before had been swimming in the Gulf were often 
 brought to Montezuma's table. 
 
 An Indian road in those days had but one virtue : it 
 was as nearly straight as it could be made, never turn- 
 ing to the right hand or to the left for rugged mountain 
 or for precipitous ravine. A chasm was sometimes filled 
 up with stones or bridged with a log, but otherwise there 
 was only a footpath wide enough for one man. Ordinary 
 travelers kept up a steady trot all day, even when carry- 
 ing burdens a habit still common among the Mexican 
 Indians. Many footpaths used in these days were trav- 
 eled by Montezuma's carriers, and some are now worn in 
 deep ruts by the feet of many generations.
 
 94 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 As it was considered beneath the dignity of the great 
 chiefs to walk, they were carried in litters on the shoul- 
 ders of porters. When they alighted, they were supported 
 under each arm, and were led about like children when 
 first attempting to walk. The tribe of Zapotecs, in the 
 South, had a high priest who never walked at all, his feet 
 being too sacred to touch the ground. The people bowed 
 with their faces to the earth when he passed, and no one 
 of the vulgar crowd ever saw him except in his litter. 
 
 The immense stones used in building temples in Mex- 
 ico were hewn in some distant quarry and dragged by 
 long files of men, with ropes, over wooden rollers, to 
 their destination. They were hoisted to their places in 
 lofty walls by some such simple but effective contrivances 
 as were in use when the oldest cities of the world were 
 built, 
 
 Men were also employed as carriers of merchandise in 
 the trading expeditions from tribe to tribe. Companies 
 of merchants were fitted out by the tribe not only with 
 goods for sale or for exchange, but regularly prepared for 
 battle in case of attack. Their journey was always a 
 dangerous one. As they felt their way cautiously from 
 one tribe to another they always had to cross the yaotalli, 
 or debatable ground, or no man's land, by which each 
 territory was surrounded. An experienced and honor- 
 able chief always led the party, which, when the por- 
 ters were included, often formed a small army. Many 
 a battle was occasioned by the visit of such an armed 
 force, some of whom might always be suspected as spies. 
 The return of such an expedition was an occasion for 
 great public rejoicing, especially if it had come back suc- 
 cessful. It was met by gay processions, and came march- 
 ing home with flying colors, under arches of flowers
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 
 
 95 
 
 aiid greenery and pelted with bouquets. The traders 
 went first to the central temple to lay an offering of 
 their best before the idol. From thence they went to 
 the great teepan, or council-house, to meet the chiefs who 
 
 TRADERS ON THE CANAL (MODERN). 
 
 had sent them out, and feast with them as honored guests 
 and in token of fraternity. After these ceremonies they 
 went each man to his own dwelling. 
 
 A Mexican home was unlike any known in Christian 
 lands. In comparison with the clan to which a man be- 
 longed, the wife and the children held a low place. The
 
 96 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 whole community had a claim upon him iu his day of 
 triumph and home-coming. The council of his kindred 
 had named him at birth, educated him, trained him for 
 war, chosen him a wife and married him to her, and they 
 would bury him when he died ; and it was easy to see that 
 duty to them came before all other duties. The habit of 
 giving descriptive titles was shown in the name applied 
 to the merchant. He was called " the man who exchanges 
 one thing for another," or " the man who gets more than 
 he gives." 
 
 Most of the commerce of the country was carried on 
 in the way of barter. The artisan brought his own wares 
 to the town market-place and exchanged them for what- 
 ever he wanted of his neighbor's goods of equal value. 
 The money was cacao-beans, put up in small bags or 
 lots of eight thousand. Expensive articles were paid 
 for in grains of gold, which was passed from hand to 
 hand in quills. Sometimes pieces of cotton cloth were 
 used, or bits of copper instead of coin. 
 
 The market-place was a great open square surrounded 
 by wide corridors, where venders sat with their goods 
 protected from the weather. Cortez thus describes the 
 market-place in the City of Mexico as he saw it in 
 1519: 
 
 "This city has many public squares, in which are sit- 
 uated the markets and other places for buying and selling. 
 There is one square, twice as large as that of the city of 
 Salamanca, surrounded by porticoes, where are daily as- 
 sembled more than sixty thousand souls engaged in buy- 
 ing and selling, and where are found all kinds of mer- 
 chandise that the world affords, embracing the necessaries 
 of life as, for instance, articles of food as well as jewels 
 of gold and silver, lead, brass, copper, tin, precious stones,
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 
 
 97 
 
 bones, shells, snails and feathers. There are also exposed 
 for sale wrought and unwrought stone, bricks burnt and 
 unburnt, timber hewn 
 and unhewn of various 
 sorts. 
 
 " There is a street for 
 game, where every va- 
 riety of birds found in 
 the country are sold, as 
 fowls, partridges, quails, 
 wild ducks, flycatchers, 
 widgeons, turtle-doves, 411 
 pigeons, reed-birds, par- 
 rots, sparrows, eagles, 
 hawks, owls and kes- 
 trels; they sell, likewise, 
 the skins of some birds 
 of prey, with their feath- 
 ers, head, beak and 
 claws. There are also 
 sold rabbits, hares, deer 
 and little dogs, which 
 are raised for eating. 
 
 " There is also an 
 herb street, where may 
 be obtained all sorts 
 of roots and medicinal 
 herbs that the country 
 affords. There are 
 apothecaries' shops 
 where prepared medi- 
 cines, liquids, ointments 
 and plasters are sold; 
 7 
 
 THE SPLENDID TROGON OF MEXICO.
 
 98 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 barbers' shops, where they wash and shave the head ; and 
 restaurateurs, that furnish food and drink at a certain 
 price. There is also a class of men like those called in 
 Castile porters, for carrying burdens. Wood and coals 
 are seen in abundance, and braziers of earthenware for 
 burning coals ; mats of various kinds for beds, others of 
 a lighter sort for seats, and for halls and bedrooms. 
 
 "There are all kinds of green vegetables, especially 
 onions, leeks, garlic, watercresses, nasturtium, borage, 
 sorel, artichokes and golden thistle; fruits, also, of 
 numerous descriptions, amongst which are cherries and 
 plums similar to those in Spain ; honey and wax from 
 bees and from the stalks of maize, which are as sweet as 
 the sugar-cane. Honey is also extracted from the plant 
 called maguey which is superior to sweet or new wine ; 
 from the same plant they extract sugar and wine, which 
 they also sell. Different kinds of cotton thread, of all 
 colors, in skeins, are exposed for sale in one quarter of 
 the market, which has the appearance of the silk-market 
 at Granada, although the former is supplied more abun- 
 dantly. Painters' colors as numerous as can be found in 
 Spain, and as fine shades; deerskins, dressed and un- 
 dressed, dyed different colors ; earthenware of a large 
 size and excellent quality; large and small jars, jugs, pots, 
 bricks and an endless variety of vessels, all made of fine 
 clay, and all, or most of them, glazed and painted ; maize, 
 or Indian corn, in the grain and in the form of bread 
 preferred in the grain for its flavor to that of the other 
 islands and terra firma ; pates of birds and fish ; great 
 quantities of fish, fresh, salt, cooked and uncooked ; the 
 eggs of hens, geese, and of all the other birds I have men- 
 tioned, in great abundance, and cakes made of eggs. Fi- 
 nally, everything that can be found throughout the whole
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 99 
 
 country is sold in the markets, comprising articles so 
 numerous that to avoid prolixity, and because their 
 names are not retained in my memory or are unknown 
 to me, I shall not attempt to enumerate them. Each 
 kind of merchandise is sold in a particular street or 
 quarter, assigned to it exclusively, and thus the best 
 order is preserved. 
 
 "They sell everything by number or measure at 
 least, so far, we have not observed them to sell anything 
 by weight. There is a building in the great square that 
 is used as an audience-house, where ten or twelve per- 
 sons, who are magistrates, sit and decide all controversies 
 that arise in the market and order delinquents to be pun- 
 ished. In the same square there are other persons, who 
 go constantly about among the people, observing what is 
 sold and the measures used in selling, and they have been 
 seen to break measures that were not true." 
 
 The Mexicans appear to have been a very cleanly peo- 
 ple. Abundant provision was made in the cities for 
 bathing. Great basins cut in stone, with steps leading 
 down to the water, are still found. In many places 
 there were underground reservoirs for rain-water. 
 
 Fountains and waterfalls were included in their land- 
 scape-gardening an art that seems to have reached a 
 perfection which European gardeners of that age could 
 not exceed. Cortez describes "a garden near Mex- 
 ico which was the largest, most beautiful and refreshing 
 that I ever beheld. It is two leagues in circuit, and 
 through the middle of it flows a fine stream of water. 
 At intervals of about two bow-shots are houses, with 
 beds of flowers, together with a profusion of herbs and 
 odoriferous plants." The botanical gardens contained 
 specimens of every plant to be found in that end of the
 
 100 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 continent. The floating gardens of Mexico, so often 
 described, were light rafts of woven reeds on which turf 
 was heaped. Through the matted vegetable growth thus 
 produced willow stakes were driven, fastening all togeth- 
 er, and in time the roots of plants reached down through 
 the soil into the shallow water of the lake. Such gar- 
 dens, linked together on the borders of the city, extend- 
 ed its boundaries far beyond its original limits. The 
 terraced roofs of the houses were also airy gardens 
 abloom with flowering plants, and even with small 
 shrubbery. The whole city seemed devoted to floricul- 
 ture. Out of this wilderness of beauty arose hundreds 
 of towers, with many open squares surrounded with 
 well-paved corridors and handsome public buildings. 
 
 As every male among the Aztecs was born a warrior, 
 and as the army was almost constantly in the field, the 
 house-building of this nation of banditti was mostly 
 done by levies on subjugated tribes. They put up houses 
 without a nail or a hammer. Hungry Fox, chief of the 
 Tezcucans, employed a force of two hundred thousand 
 men in building and furnishing a government house. 
 The same great chief had in the centre of a magnificent 
 park a country-house which, judging from its ruins 
 still remaining, must well have compared with some of 
 the finest royal residences in Europe. Enough can still 
 be found to prove that art has sadly degenerated in Mex- 
 ico since Aztec rule declined. With the despotic power 
 of the tribal council, the greatest tyranny of custom pre- 
 vailed throughout Mexico. Every act of civil and of 
 common life was regulated for the people so rigorously 
 that " the course of improvement," says one writer, 
 "was chained as completely as in China or Hindo- 
 stan."
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 101 
 
 The manners of the people showed great attention to 
 all the proprieties of life. The Aztecs always saluted by 
 touching the hand to the ground and then raising it to 
 the head. "When they appeared in the presence of the 
 great chiefs, it was common to wear a coarse mantle over 
 their rich -garments, in token of respect to superiors in 
 rank. The dignity and the decorum of an Indian coun- 
 cil are proverbial among us, and the Mexican teepan was 
 a model of tedious etiquette. Cortez says, " No sultan 
 or infidel lord now known had so much ceremonial in 
 their courts as did Montezuma." A censer with sweet 
 incense thrown on the burning coals was swung before 
 the honored guest by an Aztec host, that the very air 
 might breathe its welcome to him. Hands were care- 
 fully washed and dried before and after meals, and the 
 whole person was bathed every day. There were no 
 tables or knives or forks, but finger-bowls and cotton 
 napkins were commonly used, and dainty pottery. It 
 is said that in the higher circles meats were kept 
 hot on chafing-dishes, the guests being seated on clean 
 rush mats placed on the floor; chocolate was served in 
 cups of gold, silver or tortoise-shell, and an after-dinner 
 pipe was as common there as here. The Aztecs became 
 skillful cooks as the tribe increased in wealth, though 
 the poor could never forget the day when, hunted into 
 the swamps, their ancestors were often obliged to fall 
 back on the glutinous scum of the lake as a substitute 
 for more palatable food. 
 
 In dress as in architecture these people had advanced 
 far beyond the more northern Indians. The costume of 
 the citizen was a large square mantle (tilmantli), worn 
 throughout Mexico ; two ends of this were brought to- 
 gether and knotted tinder the chin. This flowing dra-
 
 102 ABOUT MEXICO, 
 
 pery was often fringed or tasseled and sprinkled with 
 gems according to the taste and wealth of the wearer. 
 The cold's were rich and varied, generally dyed before 
 the cloth was woven, and often skillfully embroidered in 
 fanciful designs on a plain ground. Additional mantles 
 of feather-work and fur were common, and quilted cot- 
 ton tunics. With sash, long and ample, tied about the 
 loins, collars, bracelets and anklets of gold-embroidered 
 leather richly adorned with precious stones, and gaudy 
 pendants from ears, under-lips, anil sometimes the nos- 
 trils, we have a picture of the Indian brave of Mexico 
 which would quite rouse the envy of his less-cultivated 
 red brother of our own Western frontier. The chiefs, 
 as we have seen elsewhere, had other finery, belonging 
 to them exclusively. The festival array of an Aztec 
 was sometimes a beast mask or in skins flayed from 
 human victims, in which young men dressed themselves 
 to dance. Priests wore the robe of the god whose day 
 they celebrated ; the warrior, the colors of his clan. The 
 women wore several skirts of different lengths, one over 
 the other, so that the bottom of each skirt might be seen, 
 while over all these were loose flowing tunics. These gar- 
 ments were often richly tinted and embroidered in taste- 
 ful figures. Stripes and plaids were common. A tine 
 soft cloth woven of rabbits' hair and dyed in various 
 colors was also used. Decorations of feathers, gems, 
 pearls, little figures and trinkets of gold added great 
 beauty to these costumes. The Aztec women walked 
 the streets unveiled, though those of some of the other 
 tribes wore a covering on the head. Their eyes were 
 dark and their hair was long, black and thick, flow- 
 ing about the shoulders. Their faces had the passive, 
 even sad, look which marks their race.
 
 CIVILIZATION OF MEXICO. 103 
 
 No product of Mexican patience and skill was more 
 justly admired than were the exquisite feather-mosaics. 
 The artist sometimes spent a whole day selecting one tiny 
 feather and gumming it in its place on a warrior's cloak 
 or shield. The rainbow sheen of the breast and the throat 
 of the humming-bird was most eagerly sought for this 
 work ; it was almost as costly as though the glittering 
 patterns were wrought in the gems it so perfectly imi- 
 tated. The little bird whose plumage had been stolen 
 was itself reproduced in the design, or fishes with gleam- 
 ing scales or flowers of radiant colors shone out as though 
 they were real, and not mere copies from nature. Birds, 
 fishes and all other known animals were also imitated 
 exactly in gold and silver, each hair and scale being 
 most carefully wrought in the metal. This art, they 
 claimed, was taught by Feathered Serpent, their hero- 
 god. The same forms were cut in gems and worn as 
 jewelry. One emerald thus carved was crushed with 
 holy horror by a Spanish priest when he found that it 
 had been worshiped as a god. 
 
 When the life of the Aztec reached its close and prep- 
 aration was made for the funeral rites, the darkness with 
 regard to the coming state in which the tribe walked be- 
 came manifest. After the survivors had mourned all day 
 in silence over their dead, seeking by tender entreaty and 
 offers of food to win back the departed spirit, they filled 
 the night with despairing shrieks and moans. They then 
 made preparations for cremation. All the possessions of 
 the dead man were brought together and burned with him. 
 When a head-chief died, his body lay in state for a cer- 
 tain time dressed in the garb of his patron god. But a 
 long and dreary journey lay between him and those re- 
 gions of bliss promised to the great warriors of the tribe.
 
 104 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Wood aud water were put beside him ; a costly mask 
 covered his face, and a green stone cut in the shape of a 
 heart was placed between the cold, mute lips. A little 
 dog was provided, to guide his master through the perils 
 of the way, aud plenty of paper passes were furnished for 
 the time of need. The priests spoke of a wonderful place 
 where mountains strike together, the road being guarded 
 by " the great snake and great alligator, the eight deserts 
 and eight hills." In earlier days a crowd of wives and 
 servants stood by. The priests exhorted them to be 
 faithful in the next world to their departed master, 
 after which they were killed, and burned also with 
 his ashes. At the funeral of Nezhualpilli, the son of 
 Hungry Fox (A. D. 1515), just before the Spaniards 
 came, it is said that two hundred male and one hundred 
 female attendants thus suffered. With the bodies wore 
 burned, in a vast funeral pyre, quantities of rich stuffs, 
 jewels, weapons, ornaments and costly incense every- 
 thing, in fact, needed to keep up the dead man's state in 
 the next life. So far as possible, the other classes aped 
 this horrible fashion. Some made wooden statues of 
 their friends, with hollow places in the necks, in which 
 their ashes were put. These were kept as family idols.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 AMONG THE BOOKS. 
 
 uncivilized man pictures the event he wishes to 
 J- record. If he is describing a battle, he draws 
 something which suggests war his arrows, his toma- 
 hawk or the scalp of his foe. Water is often expressed 
 by a waved line ; a month, by the figure of the moon ; a 
 day, by that of the sun. In such rude pictures origi- 
 nated the old Hebrew alphabet in which Moses wrote, as 
 is shown by the names of the letters. Thus, aleph means 
 "an ox;" beth, "a house;" gimel, "a camel;" and daleth, 
 " a door." Through ages of use the lines of these pict- 
 ures were changed and simplified, until they became 
 merely letters in which the original design could scarcely 
 be traced. 
 
 An advance in civilization is shown by an effort to ex- 
 press abstract ideas by signs. Among the ancient Egyp- 
 tians an ostrich-feather was chosen to represent the idea 
 of truth. They went still farther, and ased signs to rep- 
 resent sounds as our letters do. Thus the figure of a 
 hawk meant the sound a, etc. In the next step in writ- 
 ten language both pictures and symbols are dropped, and 
 signs are used only to represent the sounds of spoken lan- 
 guage characters which can be combined to make sylla- 
 bles and words. This is phonetic writing. If a man can 
 write one word in this way, he can go on and write a 
 hundred words, or five hundred if he has learned to use 
 
 105
 
 106 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 five hundred words iu conversation. Such a person is 
 no longer a savage : he has become a partially-civilized 
 man. 
 
 Every letter used in the composition of this book has 
 such a history of civilization as this. Tracing it to its 
 fountain-head, we find ourselves on the banks of the 
 Nile, among the pyramids of old Egypt, where men 
 made their first rude attempts to write language. " In 
 every letter we trace," says Max M tiller, "lies embedded 
 the mummy of an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph," or 
 symbol. The Phoenicians, who were the travelers and 
 the wide-awake people of their day, visited Egypt and 
 there learned the use of letters. What the Pho3nieians 
 knew, they taught to the Greeks, who in their turn be- 
 came the teachers of all Europe. They began to write 
 language about B. c. 600. It was from these people that 
 the Romans whose alphabet we use got their first idea 
 of a written language. The very name they gave their 
 letters tells the story. It is alpha beta, the first two let- 
 ters of the series used by the Greeks. The written lan- 
 guages of the New World have no part in this history of 
 our alphabet, as the characters used by the American 
 tribes are of their own invention. It is very doubt- 
 ful whether until this century any of them ever got 
 much beyond picture-writing. 
 
 About the year 1821, Se-quoy-ah, a Cherokee Indian, 
 heard a white man who was visiting his tribe read a let- 
 ter. Those who have all their lives been accustomed to 
 seeing people read have no idea of the effect produced on 
 this untutored child of the forest when he discovered that 
 the curious little black marks on paper had conveyed 
 ideas to the mind of his visitor, and that there were other 
 white men who would find the same meaning in them.
 
 AMONG THE BOOKS. 107 
 
 He began to think and to ask questions about this strange 
 fact, and slowly he grasped the idea of making characters 
 which would represent the different sounds of the human 
 voice. After mouths of study he found that eighty-five 
 distinct sounds, or syllables, were used in Cherokee con- 
 versation, and that all the words with which he was 
 familiar were combinations of these. He contrived 
 eighty-five signs, or characters, which represented these 
 sounds. This done, it was easy to put them together to 
 make words ; and the Cherokees had a written language 
 so simple that under the guidance of Se-quoy-ah these 
 Indians have gone beyond their white brethren, and in 
 their system of phonetics have got rid of a world of 
 rubbish, in the shape of useless or silent letters, with 
 which our written words are encumbered. 
 
 Some have claimed that the Mayas of Yucatan a 
 people supposed to have descended from the builders of 
 the magnificent cities now in ruins there once had such 
 a phonetic alphabet, but this cannot be proved until a 
 key has been found to the records carved on their mon- 
 uments. So far, these are still an enigma to the curious 
 student. The Toltecs, Tezcucans, Aztecs, and other 
 Kahua tribes, had a few symbols representing ideas, but 
 most of the numberless manuscripts found at the time of 
 the conquest were in picture-writing. It is not proved 
 that they had the art of writing sounds, although they 
 seemed to be rapidly working toward it. 
 
 The Aztecs were very skillful in representing the 
 forms of birds, animals and fishes in gold and silver; 
 but the same objects, when used in picture-writing, were 
 strangely distorted. They made no difference in size 
 between men, women and children, but indicated differ- 
 ence of age by dots near the head of the figure repre-
 
 108 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 sented. Their human beings were always big-headed, 
 long-footed, with faces in profile, immense noses and a 
 front view of one staring eye. The work was otherwise 
 well done, with clear strokes and fadeless coloring. The 
 priests were the great picture-writers and historians of 
 the tribe. Their law-records were said to have been so 
 accurate that the Spanish government always took them 
 in evidence when Indian testimony was required. There 
 were several different styles of penmanship, no one of 
 which is now understood by any living person. In less 
 than one hundred years after the conquest there were but 
 two persons who could read the manuscripts which es- 
 caped the general wreck. Both of these men were very 
 old, and neither was a skilled interpreter. 
 
 The Romish priests became very much interested in 
 Mexican picture-writing. When it was decided that the 
 Indians could be trusted with their old art, the monks 
 began to encourage them in it, and even to study it 
 themselves in order to communicate the truths of the 
 gospel to these poor people in the way most familiar to 
 them. In some cases they were successful. Many a 
 native who had gone faithfully through his pray ere in 
 an unknown tongue now began for the first time to un- 
 derstand them. The Aztecs were a deeply religious peo- 
 ple as, indeed, were all the Mexican tribes and when 
 they came to unburden their hearts to the priests in the 
 confessional, they could in no way express themselves so 
 well as by their old pictures. Many learned the art in 
 order to relate their religious experience, and thousands 
 of new manuscripts were written, some of which remain 
 to perplex the antiquarian. A monk who understood 
 picture-writing says he was literally overwhelmed by 
 these Indian confessions on long strips of muslin.
 
 AMOSQ THE BOOKS. 109 
 
 Even those Datives who had been taught the use of the 
 Roman alphabet would return to their old art whenever 
 they could. 
 
 Back of these monkish documents are writings which 
 no one can understand. Not long after the conquest 
 one of these was sent to Charles V. by Mendoza, the 
 first viceroy of New Spain. It is called the Mendoza 
 Codex, and is a copy of some old manuscript, since it is 
 done on European paper. The Spanish vessel by which 
 this book was sent was captured in mid-ocean by the 
 French and taken to Paris with other booty. There 
 the chaplain of the English ambassador saw it, and 
 bought it. It was taken by him to England and en- 
 graved as one of the illustrations of Purchases Pilgrim- 
 age. The original picture-book was lost for a hundred 
 years, but finally was found and put in the Bodleian 
 Library, where it now is. Spanish and English inter- 
 pretations of the Mendoza Codex have been published, 
 but are not to be relied on. 
 
 An entirely different style of picture-writing is seen in 
 what is called the Dresden Codex. This manuscript was 
 first heard of in 1739; it is an original, painted in fine, 
 delicate characters on agave-pajjer. There is no clue to 
 the origin or the interpretation of this beautiful manu- 
 script, though some of the figures and the characters are 
 like those carved on the stones of Palenque, and may 
 possibly illustrate manners and customs of Southern 
 Mexico in vogue several hundred years ago. 
 
 About the time it was deemed necessary to invent an 
 Indian Virgin Mary for these poor people, Boturini, 
 one of their warmest friends, devoted himself to a long 
 and patient search among them for relics and manu- 
 scripts, hoping to find something which would help the
 
 110 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 monks in this pious effort. He lived in their cabins, be- 
 came familiar with the various dialects and gained the 
 confidence of the people, and thus obtained a knowledge 
 of their history and traditions better than that of any 
 other European. After making a great collection of 
 maps and manuscripts, he started with his treasure for 
 Spain. But the authorities took alarm at these signs of 
 sympathy with the Indians. Boturini was arrested be- 
 fore he could get out of Mexico; all his papers were* 
 taken from him and stored in a damp room in the vice- 
 roy's palace. Some of them were stolen, some became 
 so mouldy that they fell to pieces ; and in time the col- 
 lection which had cost so much time and labor was en- 
 tirely lost. 
 
 Sahagan, a Franciscan monk, wrote a long history of 
 the people among whom he labored, but it was deemed a 
 dangerous enterprise tending to perpetuate the heathen- 
 ism which was still wrought into the warp and woof of 
 Mexican Christianity. Sahagan dared not publish his 
 book, and for nearly three hundred years it was as much 
 lost to the public as was one of the picture-writings of 
 which he spoke. 
 
 The world lost the best history of Mexico ever writ- 
 ten when the bigot Zurramaga emptied the great library 
 of Tezcuco into the town market-place and burned it 
 there ; the smoke he raised seemed ever after to linger 
 cloudlike over the vanquished race. What remained 
 of their early records was hidden away, like their lost 
 cities, until their very memory perished, and none were 
 left to read the mouldy fragments which here and there 
 have come to light. 
 
 The Aztec manuscripts were folded in a curious zigzag 
 manner, something like a fan, and stiffened at each end
 
 AMONG THE BOOKS. Ill 
 
 by two pieces of light wood. For paper, agave-leaves 
 were used, and sometimes a piece of white cotton cloth 
 or a neatly-dressed deerskin. Strips of these, one or 
 two feet broad and from twenty to thirty feet long, 
 were neatly joined together. The folds in these were 
 the pages, and the boards at each end were the cover, 
 of the book. 
 
 The Aztec language was copious and polished, and 
 the orators of the tribe were very eloquent in the use 
 of it. The words were often long, some of them having 
 fifteen syllables. Besides this language, there were many 
 others spoken ; some have counted thirty-five dialects at 
 the time of the conquest. Tradition says that the poet- 
 chieftain Hungry Fox was the author of sixty hymns to 
 the true God, only a very few of which, however, have 
 come down to our time. Be this as it may, it is not 
 likely that any of these compositions were written until 
 the Roman alphabet came into use among his people, but 
 were preserved in the memories of his followers. 
 
 In writing figures the Aztecs expressed a small num- 
 ber by circles or by units. A tiny flag represented the 
 number 20 ; a feather was 400 ; a sack, 8000 ; a flag 
 with two cross-lines was 10, and the same picture with 
 three dots beside it stood for 24. Records of the grain 
 and other products which were furnished for the use of 
 large Aztec communities are still preserved. 
 
 Nothing so well shows the high grade of civilization 
 to which these Indians attained as their system for the 
 measurement of time ; this, it is supposed, they inherited 
 from the Toltecs. They had discovered the exact length 
 of the solar or tropical year, and the necessity of leap- 
 years in order to bring their time up to the seasons. 
 They divided this year of three hundred and sixty-five
 
 112 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 days and six hours into eighteen months of twenty- 
 days each, and these months again into four weeks of 
 five days. This left an excess of five days which did 
 not belong to any month. During this time it was con- 
 sidered to be worse than useless to do any work, since the 
 powers of evil would thwart their best endeavors un- 
 hindered by the gods, who were all off duty. No 
 prayers were offered to them, therefore, and those who 
 had a heart to laugh when everything was in such dire 
 confusion gave themselves up to amusement. The fact 
 
 that 
 
 "Satan finds some mischief still 
 For idle hands to do " 
 
 must often have been emphasized in these times of gen- 
 eral license, and probably furnished the reason why 
 these days came to be considered particularly unlucky 
 days. 
 
 The leap-year of the Aztecs came at the close of their 
 period of fifty-two years, or four cycles of thirteen years 
 each, when thirteen days were added to make the time 
 right with the seasons. These thirteen days were the 
 solemn season of year-binding, described in a previous 
 chapter.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 
 
 r IFE from its outset must have been a serious busi- 
 -L* ness with the Mexican boys and girls. They were 
 taught from their cradle to endure hardship, to sleep on 
 the floor on a mat, to suffer hunger and thirst, pain and 
 fatigue, without complaint. Of home, in our sense of 
 that word, they could have known but little, since edu- 
 cation in all its branches was almost entirely in the hands 
 of the government. The fathers and the mothers of 
 Mexico may have had as much natural love for their 
 children as parents have in our own country, but parents 
 had much less opportunity to spoil their children by the 
 over-indulgence which is possible here. Both boys and 
 girls were taken from home at a very early age, to be 
 brought up in the public schools of the tribe. 
 
 Some of the laws of Aztec society would not be en- 
 dured by the young people of our day and country. For 
 instance, respect to parents was carried so far that even 
 after marriage a young man dared not speak in the pres- 
 ence of his father without first obtaining his permission. 
 The wife and the children of a merchant who was away 
 on one of those dangerous trading expeditions were not 
 allowed the luxury of bathing while he was absent ; they 
 could not wear their best clothes or live on anything but 
 the plainest fare until he returned in safety. These sac- 
 rifices were made to win for him the favor of the gods.
 
 114 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 In case of prolonged absence and great peril the mother 
 and the children did penance by cutting themselves with 
 flints. The art of doing this properly was one of the 
 lessons taught in Aztec public schools. The children 
 were trained to believe that the sight of blood pleased 
 the cruel deities who were supposed to preside over the 
 commerce of their country. 
 
 Scarcely did a child open its eyes on this world when 
 religious ceremonies for its benefit began. An astrologer 
 was called in to decide whether or not it was born under a 
 lucky star. This question was not raised, however, about 
 the children born during the last five days of the year : 
 these were always accounted as unlucky, and the little un- 
 fortunate who then entered on life was dubbed from the 
 outset "useless man" or "useless woman," as the case 
 might be, and neither his own good sense nor the good 
 management of the parents could save the youngster from 
 a double share of this world's troubles. When the little 
 one was two or three days old, it was carried out of 
 doors by an orderly procession of its friends and laid 
 on a heap of freshly-cut grass. It was then bathed 
 (some would call the ceremony " baptism "), while the 
 gods were invoked in its behalf, the petitioners kneeling 
 on the ground with their faces to the east. At this time 
 a baby-name was given to the infant, by which it was 
 known in the family circle for a few months only ; then 
 a priest came to give the child its second baptism and its 
 proper name. It was called always after some object in 
 nature. A little girl was often named after one of 
 the beautiful flowers with which the whole land was 
 abloom. Every name had a meanipg and could easily 
 be written, since it was not spelled, but pictured. It was 
 after this second ceremony that a bow a.nd arrows were
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 115 
 
 laid on the pillow of a baby-boy, to signify that he was 
 born to be a warrior. In this same way a tiny spindle 
 and distaff were given to a girl-baby, to show that her 
 business in life was to spin, weave and provide for a 
 family. A stone mortar and pestle were buried under 
 the family grindstone, where the mother ground corn to 
 ensure plenty of food in store for her daughter, while 
 the bow and arrows given to her little brother were 
 in due time buried in the fields where it was expect- 
 ed he would some day fight. By this ceremony it 
 was supposed that he would be made successful as 
 a warrior. 
 
 A boy who lived to grow up and make a figure in the 
 world was named three times. When years had passed, 
 if he survived the fasts and penances by which he was 
 initiated into the ranks of the priests or the warriors, or 
 when, as a common soldier, he found glory on some 
 bloody battlefield, he had a new name given to him, by 
 which he was ever afterward known. Any remarkable 
 circumstance in a man's life was apt to be commemorated 
 in this way. This is a very old custom, and is often de- 
 scribed in the Bible. Thus, Abram and Sarai were re- 
 named Abraham and Sarah in their old age, because God 
 at that time covenanted to make them the parents of a 
 great nation. When Jacob struggled all night by the 
 ford Jabbok, God said, "Thy name shall no more be 
 called Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power 
 with God and hast prevailed." The name "Hungry 
 Fox " was given in this way to the most famous of all 
 the chiefs of Anahuac as a memorial of the years of dis- 
 tress and privation through which he passed before he 
 reached his high position. The Aztec " chief-of-men " 
 had a third name, which well expressed his gloomy,
 
 116 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 superstitious character. It was Montezuma, " the sad or 
 severe man." 
 
 At a certain time in the year every child which had 
 reached a proper age had its ears bored. The same 
 month all the boys and girls were lifted by their ears, 
 four or five times, from the ground, in order to make 
 them grow straight and tall. 
 
 Home-life was always short. There was seldom any 
 big brother or big sister at home to tease or to overawe 
 the little ones, since all over eight years were in school, 
 and were married as soon as they left school. It was not 
 necessary for any family to have a large dwelling. A 
 pair of rooms opening into each other and unconnected 
 with the rest of the house was probably enough for most 
 of them. Even the most elegant mansions found in 
 Southern Mexico were arranged in this way, and ac- 
 commodated scores of families. 
 
 Before the State took the children in charge they were 
 taught to work. Some old picture-writers of that day 
 have given a description of the progressive steps in the 
 education of children. Three small dots over the head 
 of one of their human figures show that it is intended to 
 represent a boy or a girl three years of age. There is a 
 picture of half a corncake near these dots, to show what 
 was such a child's allowance for one meal. More dots 
 and a whole corncake tell us that the child has grown 
 older. As years go on we see the boys beginning to carry 
 burdens. One picture shows a boy of four learning to 
 do easy little tasks ; he carries a willow basket to market 
 for his father. A girl of the same age takes her first 
 lesson in spinning. The boy of six goes out into the 
 field to pick ears of corn ; a year later his father teaches 
 him how to fish in the lake. He paddles about in a little
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 117 
 
 canoe and learns how to handle a bow and arrows. The 
 girls, meanwhile, are set to grinding corn and cooking 
 cakes for the family among the chief occupations of a 
 Mexican woman's life to this day. 
 
 Since human nature is the same all the world over, we 
 may be sure that even among the industrious people of 
 Anahuac there were some who were lazy and selfish, but 
 this, like most other family matters, was regulated by 
 the government. A lad who would not work when he 
 was bidden was made to stand over burning pepper until 
 he was almost choked with the smoke, or he was beaten 
 with a thorny stick. A youngster who would not speak 
 the truth had his lip punched with a thorn. Laziness 
 seems to have been counted as an unpardonable sin among 
 these people. The children were kept busy on principle. 
 In this respect, and in many others, these Indians differ 
 widely from their red brethren who rove our prairies 
 and live by the chase. Among the Nez Perc6 and other 
 tribes of the North the boys are taught to endure bodily 
 discomfort with patience, but never to work, tilling the 
 fields, and even felling lumber and building the houses, 
 being considered woman's work. Our Indians think it 
 unsafe to compel a boy to obey his parents, lest his spirit 
 be broken. 
 
 The public schools of the Aztecs were called " houses 
 of the youth." These buildings, which were often quite 
 extensive, adjoined the temple, and were always under the 
 care of the priests. They had other expressive names 
 for them, such as " the place where I grow " or " the 
 place where I learn." The teacher was called "the 
 speaker of the youth," or was commended to his pupils 
 by the pleasant name of " elder brother." The teachers 
 of the girls' department were sedate old maiden-ladies
 
 118 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 who had forsaken the world and taken up religion as a 
 profession. 
 
 Reading and writing in Mexico were not the simple 
 studies which in these times are set before a child of five 
 or six years. The vast majority of the people knew 
 nothing of these fine arts. 
 
 Besides the use of 'the brush and the pencil in picture- 
 and map-drawing, history was committed to memory, 
 together with national hymns, war-songs and prayers 
 used in the temple-service. The studious pupil was 
 taken out on the temple-roof at night to study the 
 heavens with the old astrologers. They knew the 
 Pleiades and other constellations, and were able to 
 measure off the years by these starry timekeepers. 
 Some of the little ones were sent to the temple at a 
 very tender age. It is probable that on account of 
 the frequent battles of that warlike tribe there were 
 many orphans under the care of the government. 
 
 The temple was also an industrial school. Every boy 
 and every girl had work to do to keep its numerous 
 buildings and courts in order. The great stairs and 
 terraces by which the altar was reached from the out- 
 side were soiled with the feet of many long processions 
 going to and coming from that place of blood, or by 
 the clouds of dust for which the valley is still famous 
 during the long dry season. The tesselated pavements 
 of shrine and hall and corridor had to be cleansed 
 frequently, or they could not have compared favorably 
 with the streets of the city, which, we are told, were 
 swept daily by a thousand men. The priests' quarters 
 were also in the temple, and, with the vast army of 
 these officials (said to have numbered five thousand in 
 all), there must have been work enough for all the un-
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 119 
 
 married girls and women in the tribe. To the girls, 
 also, was given the duty of bringing water from the 
 beautiful fountain in the temple-court to use in religious 
 service. They also had care of the flowers which grew 
 in the temple-garden, and which were always in demand 
 as offerings to the idols. Nor did their duties close with 
 the long bright days of the tropical year ; three times in 
 the night they rose to look after the fire on the roof, 
 which was never suffered to go out. The boys cut the 
 wood and brought it in, and it was woman's work to put 
 it in the stoves and sprinkle in the flame a fragrant gum 
 much used in worship. Such of the girls as showed 
 aptness were taught to embroider cotton cloth in gay 
 colors and to do certain kinds of fancy-work in feath- 
 ers. Besides weaving this cloth, they made it up into the 
 quilted armor with which the public armory was stored. 
 The boys were no less industrious. They were up at 
 sunrise, and climbed to the temple-roof to hail the sun 
 as he rose over the mountain-walls of the valley. Here 
 the old priests stood waiting, with their solemn faces 
 turned eastward, until the first red rays shot upward into 
 the cloudless heavens. Then, amid joyous acclamation 
 and kissing their hands to the orb of day, a hymn was 
 chanted in his praise, and quails and incense were offered 
 in sacrifices to him as to a god. At other times the boys 
 connected with the temple were sent out on a curious 
 hunting expedition into the forests which then covered 
 the mountains. Accompanied by a priest who understood 
 the business, they gathered spiders, small serpents, scor- 
 pions, and other poisonous creatures with which the 
 country abounds. These were brought back to the tem- 
 ple and burned with tobacco in a very ceremonious way. 
 Out of this disgusting mixture was made a sacred oint-
 
 120 ABOVT MEXICO. 
 
 ment with which the priests rubbed themselves, offering 
 it also to the idols in sacrifice. 
 
 Many of a boy's occupations were such as might be 
 classed among amusements. Once in their month of 
 twenty days the Aztecs had a religious festival, when the 
 braves of the tribe appeared in their gay costumes, each 
 in the color of his clan, to engage in feats of arms. The 
 boys, with their teachers, were obliged to attend this re- 
 hearsal, which generally took place in the public square 
 surrounding the great temple. 
 
 Everything was regulated by government orders. The 
 tenth day of February was set apart for what the Mexi- 
 can boys knew as "fishing-day." It was a great holiday, 
 even when the sport was so carefully regulated by the 
 elders that in our free-and-easy times it would not be 
 called sport at all. These Indian boys were taught to 
 catch water-fowls by a very ingenious stratagem. An 
 empty gourd was left floating on the water so long that 
 the birds became used to the sight of it. The fowler 
 then came quietly among the birds, wearing on his head 
 another gourd, pierced with eyeholes, his hands being free 
 to drag his hapless victims under water by their legs. 
 They also snared game as our Indians do by driving 
 the wild animals they used for food into a net or pitfall, 
 or by surrounding them. 
 
 Some of the occupations of these Indian boys deserve 
 the name of play. They had a ball-game like tennis, for 
 which courts were built. In some of the communal 
 houses still found in the southern part of Mexico the 
 elegant rooms which were used for this purpose are 
 found, showing the luxurious character of the people 
 who built them. They played with india-rubber balls, 
 and managed to carry on the game without using their
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 121 
 
 hands or their feet. Whoever touched the ball with 
 either hand or foot was out. 
 
 At fifteen the boys were put into a public school of 
 arms, under the care of experienced chiefs deputed by the 
 council for that business ; here they were taught to han- 
 dle weapons skillfully. The lads then entered the ranks 
 of the warriors. Long and rapid marches were common, 
 and, as the youth went fully armed or carried the arms 
 of one of the warriors, he soon found that war was no 
 pastime. The lads also carried the baggage of priests 
 who were traveling on religious errands. Their gradu- 
 ating-day came in our month of May, when the feast of 
 the god Tezcaltipoca was celebrated. It was always a 
 joyous occasion, in spite of the fact that on that day a 
 young man, the fairest, noblest and most gifted of the 
 captives, was offered in sacrifice to this god. For a whole 
 year the victim had been petted and feasted ; that day all 
 his fine clothes were taken from him, and his gay com- 
 panions, his luxurious quarters, his music, flowers and 
 games, were left behind, and, surrounded by wild-eyed 
 priests, he went with a solemn procession to a bloody 
 death outside the city. But it was a gala-day for the 
 lads in the temple. The women prepared a feast for 
 them, including a graduating-cake sweetened with honey. 
 It was the great frolic of their lives. They sang and 
 jested and raced in the temple-corridors. Those who 
 were in the classes below them had as much fun at their 
 expense as the young people of our times have on All 
 Fools' day, and the young women pelted the graduates 
 as they ran the gauntlet of their fellows. 
 
 It was unlawful for an Aztec youth to remain unmar- 
 ried, and his matrimonial affairs were generally settled by 
 the time that temple-service and education were ended.
 
 122 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 He had not the trouble of proposing to the young woman 
 who was to be his wife; that was the business of his clan, 
 who employed one of their matrons as a go-between to 
 arrange the matter for both parties. The wife was pur- 
 chased, and became the property of her husband. The 
 first step was to find out, not whether the young lady was 
 willing, but whether the birth-stars of the young people 
 agreed. If this question was settled to satisfaction, the 
 marriage ceremonies went on. After a long exhortation 
 from the priest the young people were united by tying 
 their garments together in a strong knot ; they then 
 walked seven times around the fire, casting incense into 
 it. After this the pair fasted four days and did penance 
 in perfect silence, sitting on the floor, and the marriage 
 ceremony was complete. 
 
 In October, when it was believed that all the gods ar- 
 rived on a visit to earth, cornmeal was strewn on the 
 floor outside of Tezcaltipoca's shrine, in order that his 
 footsteps should be seen as he entered. On the twen- 
 tieth of the month the boys, dressed to look as much 
 like monsters as possible, had a dance around a great 
 fire in the square. The old chiefs got drunk if they 
 chose (a privilege never allowed the young men), and 
 always burnt a prisoner or two before their revels were 
 ended. 
 
 With all their ferocity, there were some softer traits in 
 the character of the Aztecs which relieve the picture of 
 those days. Amid the universal despair which marked 
 the festival of year-binding, when property went to 
 wreck and the whole country seemed shrouded with 
 mourning, the Aztec mother covered her baby's face 
 while the priestly procession marched by her door, lest, 
 if the world should be destined to survive for another
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 123 
 
 cycle of fifty years, her little one should live on as a 
 mouse. 
 
 The temple of the goddess Sentol, who was supposed 
 to preside over the harvests, was visited in May by troops 
 of little girls, who came bringing ears of corn to be 
 blessed. These ears were afterward taken home and 
 put in the granary, in order to sanctify all that was 
 in it. 
 
 In time of famine poor parents were taught by the 
 priests that they would win special favor of the gods by 
 selling their little ones for sacrifice. The price of a boy- 
 baby was but a basket of corn, and a girl brought still 
 less. Tlaloc, god of storms, received most of these offer- 
 ings. The poor little creatures had their faces painted, 
 brightly-tinted paper wings were fastened to their shoul- 
 ders, and, dressed in gay clothing, they were borne along 
 the streets in litters fancifully decorated with feathers and 
 flowers, to be drowned in a whirlpool or exposed to birds 
 of prey on the mountains. If the frightened children 
 cried on the way to their death, so much the better. A 
 din was kept up in the streets as they passed along, to 
 drown their piteous wail. At the water's edge the priests 
 received them and carried them to their doom. For their 
 comfort the weeping mothers were told that the souls of 
 children thus devoted to Tlaloc went after death to a cool, 
 delightful place where they were happier than they could 
 possibly have been on earth. There was a hall in the 
 inner part of the great temple where these souls of the 
 little ones were supposed to come on a certain day each 
 year to assist in the service, and thither went these poor 
 mothers to commune with the departed spirits or to think 
 over their meritorious act of devotion.
 
 124 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 STORY OF THE YOUTH OF HUNGRY Fox. 
 
 Some of the descendants of Indian chiefs who were 
 carried to Spain became noblemen in their adopted coun- 
 try. Two of them wrote histories of ancient Mexico. 
 The pictures of imperial splendor with which they daz- 
 zled the eyes of their European readers were, no doubt, 
 highly colored to suit the times and to vindicate their 
 own claim 'to rank with the princes of Spain. The 
 brightest figure which they describe is that of a chief 
 who was, no doubt, a king among men, whatever may 
 have been his office or his title. The story of his boy- 
 hood and his youth is a picture of life in one of the pala- 
 tial houses of Mexico during one of its stormiest ages. 
 
 About one hundred years before the Spanish came into 
 the valley the city of Tezcuco was taken by its neighbors, 
 the Tepanacs, and its people were brought under trib- 
 ute to the conquerors. The son of the Tezcucan chief 
 was then a boy of fifteen just graduated from school, 
 and probably out in his first battle. When the Tezcu- 
 cans were forced to retreat, the boy took refuge in a tree. 
 While hiding there he saw his father and a few faithful 
 followers overpowered by the enemy and literally cut to 
 pieces. He waited until the victors had gone, when he 
 cautiously made his way down and fled away, only to be 
 discovered and carried in triumph to the Tepanac city. 
 With fettered hands and a yoke about his neck, he moved 
 on with a sad procession of captives through the fields and 
 the forests, across the lake, and on and on till they reached 
 the flower-wreathed arches under which the Tepanac 
 elders and women greeted their victorious army with 
 songs of welcome. He was led to the temple to bow 
 before the idol, and then, with other prisoners, to await 
 the death which his captors should choose for him. In
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 125 
 
 this place of doom he found that the keeper of the prison 
 was one of his father's old friends. As the story goes, 
 the old man, knowing that no ransom was possible in 
 the case, offered to take his place in the cell a kind- 
 ness which cost him his life. After his release the boy 
 found his way to the Aztec capital, and through the in- 
 fluence of friends there he was allowed to cross the lake 
 to his old home in Tezcuco. Here he lived a quiet, 
 studious life for eight years, watched, no doubt, by the 
 eagle-eyes of the Tepanac deputy, who never forgot that 
 some day the slain chief would be avenged by the hands 
 of his son. 
 
 In time a new Tepauac chief was elected, more fierce 
 and suspicious than the conqueror of Tezcuco, and con- 
 gratulations on his accession to office seem to have been 
 expected from all his tributaries. Our young Tezcucan 
 came with others, bringing an offering of flowers ; but a 
 cold reception awaited him, and he was warned that his 
 life was in danger. He returned to Tezcuco as soon as 
 possible, only to find that his life was not safe there even 
 in his capacity of a humble student. Maxtla, the Tepa- 
 nac chief, had determined that he should die. Orders 
 were given that he should be murdered while attending 
 one of the religious festivals. His teacher, with fatherly 
 care for the youth, put in his place a person who strongly 
 resembled his pupil, and thus a second time was his life 
 saved by the sacrifice of that of another. 
 
 Maxtla now sent a strong body of soldiers to Tezcuco, 
 with orders to kill the young man wherever or whenever 
 they found him. He was playing ball in the courtyard 
 with a party of friends, and, desiring to finish the game, 
 he ordered refreshments to be set before the soldiers. 
 Without losing sight of their intended victim, the hun-
 
 126 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 gry men sat down to eat. Now, Tezcucan etiquette de- 
 manded that guests should be welcomed with the sweet 
 fumes of incense. The attendants were told to heap the 
 burning censer, which stood in the doorway, high with 
 fragrant gums, until such a dense smoke arose that by its 
 aid the young man slipped away unobserved and hid in 
 the earthen pipes of an aqueduct under the house. 
 When night came on, the fugitive made his way into 
 the street and to the cottage of a friend not far away. 
 A price was now set on his head and a reward offered to 
 any one who would bring him, dead or alive, to Maxtla. 
 
 The close search which followed reminds us of King 
 David's wandering life among the hills of old Judea. 
 At one time the youth is hidden by friendly hands under 
 a heap of maguey-fibres which had been prepared for the 
 loom ; then he is heard of in the wild mountain-fast- 
 nesses of Tlascala, living on roots and herbs. Ventur- 
 ing out, he is tracked to a field where a girl is cutting 
 chia, a plant used in making a favorite Mexican beverage. 
 The girl recognizes him, and, hearing his pursuers not 
 far away, she hides him under the pile of chia stalks 
 which she has just cut, in time to put the baffled soldiers 
 on a wrong track. It was during these days of suffering 
 and peril that the young Tezcucau took the name of 
 Nezacoyuhuatl (" Hungry Fox "), which he afterward 
 made so famous as that of a warrior, a philosopher, a 
 lawgiver and a poet. 
 
 When by the help of their Aztec confederates the 
 Tezcucans regained their ancient power, Hungry Fox 
 beautified their city on the lake-side until in splendor 
 and extent it must have equaled the grandest cities 
 of Central America. The remains of one of his palatial 
 dwellings which was said to have contained three hun-
 
 CHILD-LIFE IN MEXICO. 127 
 
 dred rooms have furnished an inexhaustible quarry for 
 the churches and the public buildings erected by the 
 Spaniards near its site. In one of the magnificent parks 
 laid out under the direction of this chief the humble name 
 he bore was frequently set forth in the lean figure of a 
 coyote, or fox, carved in stone. He never seemed to be 
 weary of picturing those days of trial when he was a 
 hunted fugitive in the land over which he became chief 
 ruler. Some of his poems, preserved to this day in the 
 writings of his great grandson, remind us of the book of 
 Ecclesiastes ; they have the same sad refrain : " Vanity 
 of vanities, all is vanity !" With all that the world 
 could give, Hungry Fox found it to be an unsatisfying 
 portion. To him the past was not more full of sorrow 
 than the future was of doubt, and in the chilling shadow 
 of both the present had no true light or peace.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A GATHERING CLOUD. 
 
 pENTURIES had -passed since Feathered Serpent 
 
 V' sailed from Mexico to his unknown home in the 
 
 East. His was probably the last pale face seen in that 
 
 part of the continent until Columbus, searching for a 
 
 gateway to India, coasted along Honduras in 1504. 
 
 It will be remembered that on this voyage the Span- 
 ish vessels, which had stopped at an island to fill their 
 water-casks, saw a large canoe coming landward, prob- 
 ably on the same errand. It brought a trading-party of 
 Indians from some point on the mainland. The first 
 glimpse which Europeans had of Mexico was gained 
 from the account which these voyagers gave. For fifteen 
 years, or more, however, no effort was made to follow up 
 this clue. Meanwhile, the Mexican traders went home 
 with news which must have thrilled every gossip in all 
 that region. Not one of their party had seen a white 
 man before. The bearded sailors, their white-winged 
 ships, the strange goods oifered in barter, together with 
 the fact that they hailed from the East, stirred anew the 
 hope cherished by many thoughtful Mexicans that Feath- 
 ered Serpent was about to fulfill his promise to return, 
 gather his followers about him, and once more become 
 the leader and the benefactor of their long oppressed 
 and divided people. 
 
 128
 
 A GATHERING CLOUD. 129 
 
 For more than one hundred years had the Aztecs been 
 preying on other tribes. There was scarcely a tribe south 
 of the table-land, from the Gulf to the ocean and as far 
 down the coast as Yucatan, but was feeding this proud 
 people with its best products. Field and fishery, mine 
 and workshop, were subject to the cruel exactions of a 
 resident officer appointed by one or all of the confederate 
 tribes. Most cruel tyranny of all, the flower of the 
 youth were yearly claimed for sacrifice upon the altars 
 of these allies. We hear of a few tribes who would 
 not bow their necks to the yoke. Brave Tlascala 
 a little republic penned up in the mountains between 
 Mexico and the sea went for years without cotton, 
 salt or cacao because she could not produce these articles 
 herself and would not admit confederate traders lest they 
 should prove to be spies. Feeble remnants of several 
 other tribes still existing can proudly boast that no 
 banner of Montezuma's ever floated above their land. 
 
 Old prophecies about Feathered Serpent now loomed 
 up as never before. There were storms and floods, earth- 
 quakes and meteors, which gloomily heralded his ap- 
 proach. One night in 1517, when there was no earth- 
 quake, nor even- a storm in the air, Lake Tezcuco rose 
 suddenly in a great wave and flooded the city. Comets 
 glared in the sky, and once a strange untimely light in 
 the east seemed the forerunner of a new sun. Would 
 not the Fair God as Feathered Serpent was called be 
 angry when he came back and found his altars polluted 
 with blood and his name made hateful to those who were 
 groaning under the burdens imposed upon them by the 
 Aztec religion ? 
 
 Whether or not Montezuma, the Aztec " chief-of-men " 
 in those days, had a part in thus misrepresenting Feathered
 
 130 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Serpent we cannot tell. When chosen by his peers to 
 fill this high office, he was a priest in the great temple, 
 and as such he must have known that Feathered Serpent 
 had forbidden the loathsome and cruel rites which 
 through Aztec influence had become common. As a 
 priest he was well read, also, in the ancient history of 
 his people. Nothing disheartened him so much as 
 prophecies about Feathered Serpent. He believed that 
 he was a man of flesh and blood like himself, whose fol- 
 lowers might be expected to come again at any time to 
 Mexico to fulfill his promised mission. If they did, a 
 revolution was certain. Montezuma would no longer be 
 " chief-of-men " and Aztec power would be humbled. 
 These thoughts filled the chief with the deepest gloom. 
 Humors of the visit of Columbus to America and the 
 presence of Spanish colonists in Cuba were probably 
 afloat, and had reached the ears of the ever-vigilant 
 council of chiefs. A coast-guard was on duty night and 
 day, and fleet-footed couriers were ready to bear the news 
 of an invasion to the proud city on the lake. 
 
 None were so frequently consulted in the council as 
 were the shaggy-haired priests. Their night-watches in 
 the towers of the great teocallis gave them the best pos- 
 sible opportunity of reading the stars. In no other way 
 could the dark-minded Mexicans come so near to Him 
 who made them as by studying the movements of the 
 celestial bodies. But every sign now foretold disaster. 
 In vain the soothsayers went through long fasts and 
 cruel penances. The gods did not hear, though prayers 
 to them were mumbled with tongues torn and bleeding 
 with the thorns worn to gain their favor. 
 
 Not long before the arrival of the white men a priest- 
 ess, a maiden nearly related to Montezuma, professed to
 
 A GATHERING CLOUD. 131 
 
 have had a vision of tall-masted ships approaching the 
 shore, and of pale-faced, bearded men in strange cloth- 
 ing landing on the coast with instruments of warfare 
 unknown to her people. But beyond her ken, far over 
 the blue waves which Feathered Serpent crossed in his 
 retreat, a great nation was unconsciously preparing for 
 the conquest of Mexico. 
 
 The earliest Spanish colonies were planted on several 
 of the West India Islands. Every ship brought a horde 
 of needy adventurers. In their insatiable thirst for gold 
 they trod down the gentle, indolent race they found there 
 until not one was left. The most cruel slavery prevailed 
 wherever a Spaniard set his foot. 
 
 As the islanders melted away before their taskmasters, 
 slave-hunting expeditions were fitted out by the planters 
 to ravage other islands in search of new victims. It 
 was during one of these slave-hunts that the Gulf of 
 Mexico was discovered. Francisco Hernandez de Cor- 
 dova, a Spanish planter in Cuba, was on his way to the 
 Bahamas after a cargo of slaves, when a fearful storm 
 drove the vessel far out of her course toward the west. 
 After tossing about for three weeks he landed on the 
 coast of Yucatan. He found there a people very differ- 
 ent from the islanders among whom he had lived. The 
 adventurers landed near a large Indian town. The in- 
 habitants came out to see them, and seemed at first very 
 friendly. But this proved to be a stratagem to draw the 
 visitors into a tetter position for the battle which the 
 natives intended to bring on. They had heard of the 
 Spaniards and their white-winged ships, and probably 
 of their slave-hunts, and determined to have nothing to 
 do with the treacherous palefaces. In the fight which 
 they provoked with the Spaniards it was proved that the
 
 132 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 natives were no match for the invaders, though they suc- 
 ceeded in wounding several of them with the darts and 
 the flint-edged wooden swords which they carried. De 
 Cordova took to his boats again with his men, and, 
 keeping in sight of land, went north and landed in 
 Campeachy. The people here, though more civil than 
 their neighbors down the coast, were no better pleased 
 to see the strangers. 
 
 Here were well-built temples of stone. The priests, in 
 long white garments, came with censers full of burning 
 coals in their hands. On these they dropped sweet- 
 scented gums, and swung them before their visitors to 
 perfume the air. Others had bundles of dried reeds, 
 which they laid in order on the ground and set on fire, 
 motioning that if their visitors did not go back to their 
 vessels before those reeds were burned up it would be 
 worse for them. They stood silently about the little 
 fire, waiting with folded hands the departure of the in- 
 truders. This gentle hint was taken, or there would 
 have been another battle as there was not long after- 
 ward, when De Cordova landed at a large village called 
 Potonchan. There were farmers living in large, sub- 
 stantial stone houses surrounded by cornfields. The 
 Spaniards stopped here to fill their water-casks at a 
 spring, when the natives attacked them, killing forty- 
 seven, wounding others and taking five prisoners. Five 
 of De Cordova's men died on board ship, and he him- 
 self lived but a few days after his return to Cuba. 
 
 This expedition brought back a good report of the 
 country. De Cordova had kidnapped two of the young 
 men of Yucatan, clad in their native costume. Nothing 
 interested his Spanish neighbors, however, so much as the 
 ornaments of wrought gold which these savages wore.
 
 INDIGENOS OF NORTHERN GUATEMALA.
 
 134 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 They imagined that this new " island " was full of mines 
 of gold, silver and precious stones. They had been dis- 
 appointed in the mineral riches of Cuba ; here was the 
 opening of which they had dreamed. The governor of 
 Cuba, Velasquez, lost no time in fitting out an expe- 
 dition to go in search of these treasures. He gave the 
 command to Juan de Grijalva, his nephew, who set sail 
 May 1, 1518, for this new field of conquest. If the In- 
 dians received them peaceably, Grijalva had gay cloths 
 
 EARLY DISCOVERIES 
 IN NEW SPAIN. 
 
 and trinkets for presents and barter ; if they were hos- 
 tile, he was provided with guns and ammunition. 
 
 Grijalva's fleet was caught in a storm. After beating 
 about for a while he was borne on its strong wings to 
 Cozumel, a small island south of the north-eastern corner 
 of Yucatan. He soon crossed over the mainland and 
 went to Potonchan, where the farmers had so roughly 
 handled De Cordova and his men. This second visit 
 ended in a second battle, in which the Spaniards were 
 victorious.
 
 A GATHERING CLOUD. 135 
 
 As the voyagers sailed westward along the coast for 
 several hundred miles they saw with admiring eyes pleas- 
 ant villages surrounded with luxuriant trees and wide- 
 spreading fields. The houses and temples, so lofty and 
 white in the distance, reminded the strangers of their 
 native land, and they called the whole region New Spain 
 a name it bore on European maps for many a year. 
 
 While Grijalva was on the borders of Mexico the great 
 council of the Aztec nation sent some of their police- 
 officers down to the coast to interview the visitors. They 
 could communicate with each other only by signs, it is 
 true, but in this pursuit of knowledge under difficulties 
 both parties were deeply impressed. The Aztecs gave 
 Grijalva to understand that they came by the orders of 
 Montezuma, a great chief who lived some distance from 
 Tabasco, to the north-west. This is the first mention in 
 European history of the now-famous chief, Montezuma. 
 
 Touching at San Juan d'Ulua, the Spaniards saw a 
 temple where bloody remains showed that human sacri- 
 fices had just been offered. This sickening sight stirred 
 up their religious zeal and reminded them that the con- 
 version of the savages to Christianity should be one great 
 object in their journey to the West. 
 
 As soon as possible after his nephew's return Governor 
 Velasquez prepared to follow up his expedition with one 
 which should bring more glory to Spanish arms and 
 more gold into his own pockets. Grijalva had done so 
 much better as an explorer than he had done as a sol- 
 dier that he was displaced and the command given to 
 Hernando Cortez, who had been one of the conquerors 
 of Cuba in 1511, and was now master of a fine planta- 
 tion. He was young, handsome, enterprising and pop- 
 ular ; recruits flocked to his standard, and six ships were
 
 136 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 soon fitted out. One hundred and fifty of Grijalva's 
 followers enlisted under Cortez, besides other volunteers 
 numbering six hundred men. While in Trinidad the sol- 
 diers were set to work to quilt their jackets with cotton, 
 which grew in great abundance around the place. This 
 was a fashion borrowed from the Indians, and served a 
 good purpose in warding off the arrows used in battle. 
 Hard fighting was expected, but little did the busy army 
 of quilters dream of the bloody struggle before them, or 
 how great and far-reaching would be its consequences. 
 
 The instructions given by the Spanish authorities to 
 their military leaders in the New World were such as 
 would suit an army of crusaders. Such, in fact, the in- 
 vaders were, though their zeal for Christianity spent itself 
 in forcing the pagans to bow to crosses and images and to 
 accept the pope as lord of lords. This potentate had kindly 
 divided all the world outside of Europe between his faith- 
 ful children the king of Spain and the king of Portugal. 
 Several popes had given to the latter the undiscovered 
 world from Cape Bojador, in Africa, to India. On the 
 4th of May, 1493, Alexander VI. published a bull in 
 which he drew an imaginary line from the north pole 
 to the south pole one hundred leagues west of the Azores, 
 giving to Spain all that lay west and to Portugal all that 
 lay east of it. With a commission from his king to take 
 possession of such an inheritance, and one from Rome to 
 convert all the heathen, each soldier felt himself to be a 
 Heaven-sent missionary, and, however wicked he might 
 otherwise be, his good work for the Church would atone 
 for all his sins and secure for him at last a seat in para- 
 dise. The flag of the expedition showed that it was going 
 on a religious errand. On a ground of white and blue 
 was a red cross surrounded with flames of fire. Its
 
 PRETEXT INHABITANTS OF MERIDA, YUCATAN.
 
 138 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 motto, translated, was, " Friends, let us follow the cross; 
 in that sign we shall conquer." 
 
 After a solemn celebration of the mass and a devout 
 prayer to St. James, the patron saint of Cortez, the ex- 
 pedition sailed for Mexico, February 18, 1519, in six 
 ships, the largest of which were only from seventy to 
 eighty tons burden. The fleet took the route to Yuca- 
 tan, intending to creep westward along the shore until 
 the domain of the great Indian chief was reached. Two 
 priests, Olmedo and Juan Diaz, accompanied the army ; 
 the latter had been over the ground before with Grijalva. 
 Both were very much in earnest about their missionary 
 work. 
 
 The first attempts seem to have been more successful 
 than some which followed. On the island of Cozumel 
 was a large temple to which pilgrims came from long 
 distances. Near it stood a huge stone cross which from 
 the earliest times had been adored as the god of rain. 
 Cortez began his work of reform in this holy place. As 
 but very little could be done in the way of preaching, on 
 account of ignorance of the language, Cortez gave the 
 natives an object-lesson by ordering his men to pull down 
 the gods enshrined in the temple.* The people shud- 
 dered at his impiety, groaned and wrung their hands, 
 expecting that fire would come down from heaven to 
 punish this sacrilege. Then, finding that no such re- 
 sult followed, they yielded after a slight resistance, and 
 even helped the soldiers to pull down the old idols, whose 
 impotency had been made so plain, and to put up the 
 saints and the Virgin in their places. This done, they 
 began to burn incense before the new gods and to offer 
 
 * The ruins of this temple are still to be seen on this now-deserted 
 island.
 
 A GATHERING CLOUD. 139 
 
 corn, fruits and quails, and asked Cortez to leave with 
 them a teacher who could instruct them in this new re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Two of the natives of Yucatan had been taken to 
 Cuba by Grijalva, and through them it appeared that 
 several Christian captives were somewhere on the main- 
 land. Cortez sent a ship after these men, and one of 
 them was rescued. This was Geronimo de Aguilar, af- 
 terward interpreter to the army.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NEW SPAIN. 
 
 work accomplished by the army since leaving 
 J- Cuba might well encourage Cortez to hope that his 
 expedition, so far as missionary work was concerned, 
 would be entirely successful. The idols of Cozumel, 
 that famous heathen shrine, had been demolished, the 
 Virgin and saints had been set up in their places, and 
 the people had consented to sacrifice to them rather than 
 to their old gods. 
 
 Leaving this hospitable place, the fleet sailed for Ta- 
 basco. Grijalva's reception here not long before had 
 been very cordial, but the natives seemed to have 
 changed their minds after he had gone. They eyed the 
 Spaniards suspiciously through the loopholes of a strong 
 timber wall which surrounded their town, and took all 
 night to consider the polite request which Cortez sent, to 
 be allowed to land to get water and provisions. Mean- 
 while, the women and the children had been stealthily 
 carried to a safe place in the mountains, and the warriors 
 of the tribe rallied to defend the place. 
 
 Finding that he was not welcome in the town, Cortez 
 landed a short distance below it, on a small wooded island. 
 Here, on a great ceyba tree, he made three cuts with his 
 sword, to signify that he had taken possession of the 
 country for his sovereign and the pope of Rome. The 
 
 140
 
 NEW SPAIN. 141 
 
 next morning the natives came in several boats to this 
 spot, bringing as a gift fowls, fruit and vegetables, with 
 a request from the chiefs that the visitors would " take 
 these things and go away, never to trouble their country 
 any more." 
 
 " It is shameful in you to leave us to perish with hun- 
 ger and thirst," said Aguilar. 
 
 " You are strangers to us," replied the Indian spokes- 
 man ; " your faces and your voices are frightful to us. 
 We do not want any of you in our houses. If you need 
 water, dip it up out of the river, or dig wells as we do." 
 
 " Tell them," said Cortez to Aguilar, " that we shall 
 never go away without seeing their town. I have been 
 sent here by the greatest lord in the world, and I cannot 
 return without a full account of this country. If they 
 do not receive me as a friend, I shall commend myself to 
 God and fight them." 
 
 " You had better not boast in a country which does 
 not belong to you," retorted the chief. "As to entering 
 our town, we shall never permit it; we will kill you all 
 first." 
 
 Both parties now prepared for battle. The Indians 
 came out with defiant yells. Although evidently terri- 
 fied at the roar of the guns and the sight of " four-footed, 
 two-headed beasts " (as they called the horses and their 
 riders), they fought bravely until they were attacked on 
 the land-side of the town, when they fled. Cortez and 
 his men slept that night in the spacious temple. 
 
 After another attempt to dislodge the invaders, the 
 Indians came bringing a tribute of provisions, gold and 
 a number of victims for sacrifice, in token that they had 
 given up the contest. While they were in the camp 
 some of the horses stabled near by began to neigh. The
 
 142 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Indians, very much frightened, asked anxiously what 
 they said, supposing that these strange creatures were 
 gifted with speech. Some wag of a soldier replied, 
 
 " The horses are angry because your people have been 
 fighting their masters." 
 
 Upon this, the simple-minded natives made a humble 
 apology to the animals, offering them flowers and turkey- 
 hens to eat. 
 
 As the army was in Tabasco over Palm Sunday, Cortez 
 took occasion to give these heathen people a lesson in 
 Christianity. He marched his men in solemn procession 
 through the streets, each soldier bearing a palm-branch in 
 his hand. The scene ended on the high platform of the 
 temple. Here, in view of the awestruck multitude, the 
 idols were taken doAvii and a Virgin and Child put in 
 their sacred places. The priests then celebrated mass 
 and baptized the natives who had been given to them 
 as tribute. 
 
 A more cordial welcome awaited the fleet at its next 
 landing on the coast of Mexico. The place of landing 
 received from Cortez the name of San Juan d'Ulua. 
 The people flocked to the beach and with smiles and 
 gestures invited the ships to land. Before the anchor 
 could be dropped two canoes were alongside the flag- 
 ship with a message from the "governor." The new 
 comers asked to see the leader of the squadron ; and 
 when shown into his presence, they bowed low and said, 
 
 " Teuthile has sent to ask what people you are, what 
 is your business here and what he can do for you." 
 
 The language was so different from that which Aguilar 
 had learned in Yucatan that it was necessary to keep up 
 the conversation by signs. With the help of a good sup- 
 per, it was not very hard to make the messengers under-
 
 NEW SPAIN. 143 
 
 stand that the Spaniards were friendly and would call on 
 their master the next day. 
 
 Cortez landed on Good Friday, April 21, 1519. With 
 the help of their Cuban slaves and the natives the army 
 were soon sheltered in booths and tents, while a great cross 
 of wood was raised in the centre of the camp. The peo- 
 ple, determined to see all that was going on, began to put 
 up huts for themselves, brought beds, provisions and cook- 
 ing-utensils, and prepared to stay while the great show 
 lasted. Many a dainty dish cooked in native style found 
 its way into the Spanish camp from the ovens and the 
 kettles of these thrifty Indian dames. Yet Cortez 
 ordered that a strict watch should be kept against In- 
 dian treachery a precaution which the lawless character 
 of many of his own men rendered necessary. 
 
 Teuthile did not wait for the promised visit from Cor- 
 tez. He was a representative of the Aztec council prob- 
 ably one of their collectors of tribute and he knew that 
 it was his duty to look well after these strangers. He 
 came into the camp the next morning with a number of 
 attendants, some of whom were porters laden with pro- 
 visions and other gifts for the visitors. He paid his re- 
 spects to Cortez by burning incense before him, and little 
 straws which had been touched with his own blood. In 
 return for the rich ornaments in gold and silver and 
 feather- work which he received, Cortez gave a robe of 
 silk, a glittering necklace of glass, curious beads, scissors, 
 mirrors and articles made of iron and wool materials of 
 which the Mexicans knew nothing. 
 
 So far it had not been necessary to use words, but now 
 there might have been awkward pauses but for a conver- 
 sation which was observed between one of the deputy's at- 
 tendants and Marina, an Indian girl who had been given,
 
 144 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 among other articles of tribute, to the Spaniards at Ta- 
 basco. On inquiry, it was found that this girl was 
 an Aztec by birth, of the tribe Teuthile represented, a 
 chief's daughter, who after her father's death had been 
 sold by her mother, and had been taken south to Tabas- 
 co. She was the first person baptized at Tabasco, and 
 was thus the first nominal Christian Indian in all Amer- 
 ica. She soon brought Cortez and Teuthile into conver- 
 sation, and afterward became chief interpreter between 
 her people and their conquerors. 
 
 It was on Easter Sunday that this first visit of the 
 Aztecs to the Spanish camp took place. Cortez and his 
 men, having first attended mass, invited their Indian 
 guests to a Spanish dinner. 
 
 As they were viewing the camp Teuthile saw a gilt 
 helmet belonging to Cortez, and expressed a wish that 
 Montezuma might have one like it. Cortez immediately 
 handed it to him, saying, 
 
 " Take it to your master, and may he soon return it 
 to me full of his gold ! I wish to compare it with some 
 we have in Spain." 
 
 The helmet was not the only thing sent to Moutezuma 
 on that eventful day. Some of the Spanish officers, ob- 
 serving a group of Aztecs busy in one corner, went to 
 see what they were doing, and were surprised to find 
 that they were official reporters getting up the despatches 
 which their chief was obliged to send to Mexico. Pen- 
 cil in hand, these men were sketching the camp, the 
 Spanish soldiers in their helmets and coats of mail, 
 the horses in gala-array, to do honor to the occasion 
 the black-throated guns, the tall-masted ships riding 
 at anchor not far away, with many other things which 
 they did not comprehend, but which gave the Mexican
 
 NEW SPAIN. 145 
 
 council an exact idea of the numbers and the probable 
 strength of these visitors. 
 
 Here was a fine opportunity for Cortez. He deter- 
 mined that these despatches should make a sensation such 
 as was never before known in all Mexico. He ordered out 
 his men for a full-dress parade. The drums beat and the 
 bugles sounded an alarm. Instantly the troops formed 
 in order of battle, and the horses, inspirited not only by 
 the music, but by the roar of the cannon, pranced about, 
 while the heavy shot, aimed at the dense forest back of 
 the camp, splintered the tree-branches like thunderbolts 
 from the sky. Some of the Indians fell to the earth and 
 cowered in the dust, while others took to their heels. A 
 chieftain's dignity was for the moment forgotten in that 
 wild rush for the woods. All that the Aztecs had ever 
 heard of gods descending to the earth in human form 
 W 7 as now revived. Had not three hundred of them just 
 arrived and taken possession of the country? The eifect 
 which Cortez desired having been produced, he soothed 
 his terror-stricken guests with gentle tones and reassuring 
 smiles, while Marina, who had heard the guns at Tabas- 
 co, did what she could to quiet their fears, telling them 
 they were safe from the power of these terrible black 
 monsters, which were now in the hands of their friends. 
 When the confusion was over and the painters were at 
 work again on their despatches, they had some new and 
 startling facts to report, and perhaps nothing more so 
 than an Aztec stampede. 
 
 In a few days ambassadors from the City of Mexico 
 made their appearance in camp with a splendid array of 
 presents and a message from Montezuma. They said he 
 did not want the white men to brave the dangers and 
 fatigue of the long road to Mexico, neither did it suit the 
 10
 
 146 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 dignity of his office to come and see the strangers. The 
 presents he had sent would express his good-will, and he 
 desired that they might soon return with safety to their 
 own country. 
 
 If anything more was needed to excite the army to 
 press on and examine the treasures of Mexico for them- 
 selves, the gifts just brought to their camp from that 
 wonderful city over the mountains would be all that 
 was necessary. The helmet sent to Montezuma was 
 returned at this time filled with gold, as Cortez had 
 requested. 
 
 A troop of Indian servitors had spread mats on the 
 ground and piled thereon in great heaps the goods they 
 had brought. Among them were cotton mantles plaided 
 in gay colors. Others were shaggy on the outside, with a 
 white lining, woven in one thickness ; enough garments 
 of this description were given to clothe Cortez and all 
 his men. There were also deerskin shoes embroidered 
 with gold thread and having white and blue soles, gilded 
 shields adorned with brilliant feathers and seed-pearls, 
 crowns of feathers and gold mitres set with precious 
 stones in curious patterns, rich plumes fretted with gold 
 and pearls, fans in magnificent variety, golden fishes, 
 birds, animals, sea-shells of gold and silver, so skillfully 
 wrought as exactly to imitate these productions of nature, 
 the feathers, skins and hair being superior to any Euro- 
 pean workmanship. The most remarkable objects in this 
 collection were two large wheels, or disks, one of gold 
 and the other of silver, representing the sun and the 
 moon. Both were formed of plates of these metals, on 
 which animals and other objects in nature were wrought 
 in raised figures and exquisitely finished. These were 
 Aztec calendars, representing their divisions of time,
 
 XEW SPAIN. 147 
 
 and were worth two hundred and twenty thousand dol- 
 lars. When these articles were sent to Spain, they were 
 accompanied by four Mexican chiefs and two native 
 women. These appeared before the emperor Charles V. 
 dressed in their native costume. The warriors had jewels 
 set in gold hanging from their ears and lips a fashion 
 which the Spanish courtiers thought very unbecoming in 
 men, but one which these Indians considered altogether 
 ornamental. This exhibition took place in one of the 
 northern cities in Spain. The emperor, after questioning 
 about the climate, was considerate enough to send his 
 visitors to the warmest corner of Spain, where they 
 need not be exposed to sudden changes of temperature. 
 
 Montezuma's gifts only whetted the Spaniards' appetite 
 for gold. However, the next embassy from Mexico, which 
 came in a few days, brought more gifts, but a firm re- 
 fusal from the council of chiefs to allow the army to 
 approach any nearer to the city. 
 
 That evening, as the sun sank behind the woods and 
 the Aztec officials were preparing to leave, the bell rang 
 for vespers. There was a sudden dispersion of the group 
 which always gathered about the presents. Every man 
 hurried to the large wooden cross which had been set up 
 in camp, and, kneeling on the sand, began to pray with 
 the most ostentatious devotion. So religious a people as 
 the Aztecs could not fail to understand such movements, 
 although they did not know what god was addressed. 
 Father Olmedo told them that the chief object of this 
 visit of Europeans to their coast was to bring to its peo- 
 ple a knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ, 
 whom he had sent to be the Saviour of the world, show- 
 ing them, at the same time, an image of the Virgin Mary 
 with the infant Jesus. When the address was finished,
 
 148 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 this image was formally presented to the Aztec chiefs, 
 with the request that they would set it up in their 
 temple instead of those of the bloodthirsty gods which 
 they worshiped. The Aztecs accepted this gift very 
 gravely, thinking, perhaps, it was not safe to dispute 
 w r ith preachers who could back their arguments with 
 horses and cannon. 
 
 The next morning the Spanish sentinel, when he 
 looked in the direction of the Indian huts by which 
 the camp was surrounded, found that they were all de- 
 serted ; the natives had stolen away in the night. The 
 venders of fruit, vegetables and poultry on which the 
 army had depended for its supplies had vanished, and 
 the invaders were left between the sea and the woods 
 with no certain prospect of sustenance from either. The 
 outlook was very gloomy. The low, hot, unhealthy beach 
 where they were encamped became a place of graves for 
 the Spaniards. Many an ambitious adventurer was laid 
 under the shadow of those tall trees while they were there. 
 The survivors became more and more discontented and 
 despondent. 
 
 Cortez resolved not only to seek a better situation, but, 
 when it was found, to build a city which Avould serve as 
 a base of supplies for his army and show the people of the 
 country that he had come to stay. Most of his men had 
 but one idea : they had come to make what money they 
 could in a short visit, and to go back to Cuba with their 
 spoils. Cortez, who had heard of the rich and prosper- 
 ous tribes in the interior, believed he had only to cross 
 the mountains rising behind the camp like a wall to reach 
 a land of fabulous wealth and fertility. He determined 
 not to wait for any invitation from Montezuma, but to 
 push his way to the capital, see the famous chief in his
 
 NEW SPAIN. 149 
 
 own palace, bring him into subjection to the pope and 
 the king of Spain, convert the people to the true faith, 
 settle the country, and, best of all, turn into the coffers 
 of his own land the stream of gold which he believed 
 to be flowing into those of Mexico. He saw that the 
 greatest difficulty would be to bring his own army so to 
 appreciate the grandeur of such an enterprise as to forget 
 personal ambition in this splendid conquest for Church 
 and State. His first step was to send a party northward 
 along the coast to explore the country, and to find, if 
 possible, a good harbor and a navigable river which 
 would furnish a path into the interior. After an absence 
 of three weeks his men came back with the report that, 
 although they could find no good harbor, they saw a spot 
 sheltered by a high rock where two rivers emptied into 
 the Gulf. There was plenty of fine timber, good stone 
 for building, pasture for cattle and tillable lands. Cor- 
 tez decided to send his vessels up to this point with the 
 stores, while he, with four hundred men and the horses, 
 went by laud. 
 
 Before camp was broken five Indian visitors came in 
 one morning who quite turned the current of thought 
 for the homesick men and made it much easier for Cortez 
 to carry out his plans. In dress, manner and appearance 
 these Indians were quite different from any the Spaniards 
 had seen, although they were red like other Indians, with 
 straight black hair. But their faces were curiously deco- 
 rated with gold-leaf, put on in patches, and bright blue 
 stones and gold rings in ears and nostrils. Two of these 
 five men understood enough of the Aztec language to tell 
 the girl Marina that they were Totonacs, of a powerful 
 tribe at Cempoalla, a place twenty-five miles distant 
 toward the north. Not long before the arrival of the
 
 150 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Spaniards this tribe had been beaten in battle by the 
 Aztecs, and the heavy tribute exacted from them by 
 the victors was a great grievance. Their distress at 
 this particular time was very evident. They spoke bit- 
 terly of children who had just been claimed for sacrifice 
 on Aztec altars, and seemed veiy anxious to throw off 
 the intolerable burdens which had been laid upon them. 
 Would these powerful white men come to their own 
 country and become their allies ? 
 
 Nothing could have pleased the wily Spaniard better 
 than such a proposal. He had supposed that the Az- 
 tecs were a united people, and that Montezuma, seated 
 on an imperial throne, had only to lift his sceptre for an 
 obedient nation to prostrate itself before him. But here, 
 ripe for revolt, was a tributary people that he could by 
 skillful management separate from Mexico and use as 
 the thin edge of the wedge which would finally disrupt 
 the Aztec empire.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 
 
 rPHE road to Cerapoalla lay through luxuriant groves 
 - of cocoa and palm trees, and then amid beautiful 
 meadows alive with butterflies and birds. Flowering 
 vines in a gay tangle clambered aloft, festooning the 
 trees and loading the air with palm and spicery. As 
 the Spaniards passed they saw on the face of nature one 
 of those cruel blots of war the blackened ruins of a 
 little hamlet which had just been burned. Cempoalla 
 was only twelve miles from their new campground, 
 and was a city surrounded by well-kept gardens and 
 orchards. 
 
 In one of the suburban villages through which they 
 passed the Spaniards were met by twenty of the leading 
 men of Cempoalla, who came bringing refreshments 
 from their chief. Here the road was lined with crowds 
 eager to see the strange creatures who seemed to these 
 simple folk to have dropped among them from the 
 moon. The men wore large mantles ; the women were 
 modestly dressed in long white or parti-colored cotton 
 robes reaching from neck to ankle. They brought 
 wreaths of wild flowers to hang about the horses' necks 
 and to strew in the path, as was their custom when wel- 
 coming home their own braves. Both men and women 
 were very much bejeweled. Necks and noses, ears, lips, 
 
 151
 
 152 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 arms and ankles, had that profusion of glittering orna- 
 ments which rude races so much admire. 
 
 As the soldiers made their way through the crowd 
 some horsemen riding in advance came dashing back 
 with news. They had been near enough to look within 
 the walls of Cempoalla, and saw there houses of bur- 
 nished silver most dazzling to behold. In the glowing 
 sunlight the white stucco of which they were built gave 
 the buildings a glistening appearance which the excited 
 cavaliers thought was due to a plating of some precious 
 metal. On a nearer view of the place they compared it 
 to Seville, one of the most beautiful cities of Spain, and 
 named it thus without further delay. 
 
 An immense white building with loopholed towers 
 stood in the market-place, and in this the army was 
 invited to take up its quarters. Here the hospitable 
 dames of Cempoalla made ready a good supper, which 
 they spread on the floor for their guests. Clean mats for 
 bedding were brought in abundance, and with these at- 
 tentions the Indians politely withdrew, leaving their vis- 
 itors to dispose of themselves for the night. After set- 
 ting a strong guard the tired soldiers lay down to rest 
 surrounded by what they estimated was a population 
 of sixty thousand Indians. 
 
 The next morning the chief came to pay a visit of 
 state to the new comers. He was led into the presence 
 of Cortez, supported under each arm by a chief and fol- 
 lowed by a company of servitors bringing rich presents. 
 Cortez returned the visit in due form the next day. The 
 conversation soon turned upon the late political events in 
 Mexico. The chief complained bitterly of Aztec oppres- 
 sion and eagerly sought an alliance with the Spaniards. 
 
 Nothing since he left Cuba had given Cortez so much
 
 154 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 hope of conquering Mexico as this story of a house divided 
 against itself. He had modern experience, as well as 
 scriptural authority, for believing that in this con- 
 dition of things Montezuma's power could be over- 
 thrown. But he was politic enough to conceal his design 
 of conquest under the veil of religion. He explained at 
 length and very earnestly that he had come to Mexico on 
 
 a missionary errand ; he wished to set up among the peo- 
 ple the true religion and to abolish human sacrifice. On 
 his way to Cernpoalla he had passed a temple where 
 bloody human offerings had just been made, and the 
 indignation of the soldiers over the dreadful sight thus 
 presented was still burning; and had the general followed 
 their advice, it is probable that these priestly butchers of 
 the tribe would never have taken knife in hand again. 
 
 After enjoying Cempoallan hospitality for a few days 
 the army took up the line of march to their new encamp- 
 ment, near the site of their proposed city. This was on
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 155 
 
 the seacoast, only twelve miles from Cempoalla and in 
 the country of the Totonacs. The whole tribe, it ap- 
 peared, were as ready as the people of Cempoalla to 
 throw off the hated Aztec yoke. Strengthened by the 
 presence of their powerful visitors, they refused to pay 
 the taxes then due. Still further to curry favor with the 
 Spaniards, they went vigorously to work to help build 
 the new town. Stone, lime and timber were to be brought 
 to its site, and hands were needed to rear the walls of what 
 must have been, when the cannon were mounted, an al- 
 most impregnable fortress. 
 
 Meanwhile, Teuthile's late despatches had made a 
 great stir in the City of Mexico. Every movement in 
 the Spanish camp had been stealthily noted long after 
 Indians had been ordered to leave the neighborhood. 
 Reporters lurking in the woods had pictured the fast-in- 
 creasing graves on the beach, the vessels departing for the 
 north with part of the forces, and, what was most of all 
 to be dreaded, that visit from their enemies the fierce 
 Totonacs. All this, with the march along the shore 
 toward the Totonaean capital, had been pictured faith- 
 fully and sent by express to Mexico. How to break 
 this league between their tributaiy tribe and the Span- 
 iards was the question brought before the perplexed 
 council. Supposing that, like Indians, these people 
 from over the sea would be satisfied with tribute and 
 would go away to leave them to manage their own 
 affairs, they resolved to try what effect gold and other 
 costly presents would have upon them. Two of Monte- 
 zuma's nephews, with a brilliant array of other chiefs, now 
 set out for the camp to spread before Cortez another 
 magnificent presentation of gifts. 
 
 About the same time all Cempoalla was thrown into
 
 156 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 a flutter of excitement by a demand from the council of 
 Mexico for twenty young men and maidens to be sacri- 
 ficed on the high altar there; this was intended as a pun- 
 ishment for daring to entertain the strangers without per- 
 mission. Cortez saw his opportunity ; he ordered his 
 new allies to seize these messengers and put them in 
 prison. The poor Cempoallans shrank in terror, not 
 daring to offer such an affront to their haughty Aztec 
 masters. On the other hand were these mysterious 
 strangers, who might crush them while professing to 
 shield them from their oppressors. But Cortez was 
 firm. Would they break with their Aztec masters or 
 with him ? Of the two evils, the puzzled Cempoallans 
 chose what seemed to be the least : they resolved to 
 throw themselves on the mercy of a Spanish rather 
 than a Mexican conqueror, and the surprised tax-col- 
 lectors were soon thrust behind prison-bars. But they 
 did not gnash their teeth with rage there very long, for 
 Cortez, unknown to his allies, contrived to set them free 
 that night, got them on board of one of his ships, and 
 took them to a point where they could land with safety 
 and speed back to Mexico to tell their story to the coun- 
 cil, while, at the same time, he made a bid for Aztec 
 friendship by thus delivering them. 
 
 While the Totonacs were thus dependent on Cortez to 
 shield them from Aztec vengeance, Cortez determined to 
 bring them into the true Church ; he therefore took an 
 opportunity to pay them a religious visit. He first tried 
 by smooth words to persuade them to give up their idols. 
 Finding that these would not avail, he impatiently ordered 
 fifty of his men to mount the steps of the temple and 
 demolish the idols with their pikes. The angry chief 
 stormed and threatened that if this order was carried
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 157 
 
 out it would call down on their heads the vengeance of 
 every god in Mexico. But Cortez coolly reminded him 
 that the Aztecs would be glad to become allies of the 
 Spaniards, and that if the Totonacs were not very civil 
 to him he would leave them to settle the old score with 
 their former masters without any help from him. This 
 threat silenced the poor chief, but the people were furious. 
 The priests called loudly on them to arise and defend 
 their gods. They ran about in the crowd with wildly- 
 streaming hair, beating their breasts in rage and despair. 
 As usual, Cortez improved this circumstance. He now 
 ordered his men to seize the chief and the leading priests, 
 and, taking them apart, he gave them to understand that 
 if they did not quiet the mob the city would soon be too 
 hot to hold them. In order to save their own lives, they 
 were thus obliged to check the excited multitude, and 
 actually to aid the soldiers to pile up the wooden gods, 
 with all their finery, and to burn them in the public 
 square. With what groans and lamentations this was 
 done can better be imagined than described. The sol- 
 diers next took the temple in hand. Walls and floor, 
 foul from disgusting worship, were soon cleansed and 
 some bright new images set up in the empty shrine. 
 Father Olmedo then gave the people a lesson in the 
 worship due the idols of Rome just introduced to them ; 
 he ordered the priests to take off their black tunics and 
 put on white, and, with candles in their hands, to join in 
 the solemn procession which wound up the temple-stairs, 
 never again to echo the footsteps of those who carried up 
 human victims to die on that high altar. One thing at 
 least was effected : the natives saw that the gods before 
 whom they had trembled were unable to punish those who 
 had thus insulted them, or to defend their worshipers.
 
 158 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 While this work of converting the natives was going 
 on, the revenue-officers, who had found their way back to 
 Mexico after their escape from imprisonment in Cempo- 
 alla, had created quite a change in public sentiment by 
 their report to Montezuma and his council. After all, 
 the strangers were their friends, and the " water-houses," 
 as they called the ships, were blessings in disguise. Full 
 of gratitude and admiration, they were now sent back to s 
 their deliverers loaded with presents. The poor Totonacs, 
 unable to understand this situation, were more than ever 
 convinced that Cortez was not a human being, but the 
 Fair God himself, and that he who could so trans- 
 form the Aztecs was the only one who could protect 
 them. 
 
 On the 16th of August, Cortez began his march toward 
 Mexico. He had with him five hundred of his own 
 countrymen, fifteen horses and six field-pieces, with 
 several of the principal men of Cempoalla as hostages 
 for the good behavior of the city in his absence. With 
 the gifts from Mexico, many baggage-porters were needed, 
 and these were furnished by the Totonacan allies. The rest 
 of the army were left as a garrison in the new town, then 
 little more than a fortress. One of the soldiers, an old 
 and devout man, was charged with the duty of training 
 the people in the religion they had so unwillingly adopted. 
 Part of his business was to teach them how to make wax 
 candles. The woods in the neighborhood of Cempoalla 
 were rich in wild fruits and berries, one species of the 
 latter furnishing wax in large quantities. Out of this 
 tapers were made, to burn before the Virgin and Child. 
 The industrious natives were quite pleased with this new 
 employment, and worked diligently to provide the tem- 
 ple with lights far exceeding in brilliancy and steadiness
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. Io9 
 
 those of the fireflies with which they lighted their own 
 houses. The new camp was now a regularly-organized 
 colony of Spain. Cortez was chosen mayor, with his par- 
 ticular friends as subordinates a precaution very neces- 
 sary among these restless adventurers. The name of the 
 city was very long and very religious, according to the 
 fashion of the times. It was Villa Rica de la Vera 
 Cruz u the Rich City of the True Cross." 
 
 Past experience had taught Cortez that either great 
 difficulties or a life of idleness would make his men 
 homesick. He saw that hardship and delay were in- 
 evitable, and feared that the sight of ships riding at 
 anchor, ready to carry them back to Cuba, would be a 
 temptation to them to desert ; he therefore determined to 
 cut off this opportunity by sinking all these vessels before 
 he left the coast. He induced those who inspected the 
 vessels to pronounce them worm-eaten and unseaworthy. 
 The sails, the iron and the cordage were carefully taken 
 out of them, and then a hole cut in the bottom of each 
 ship sent it to the bottom, where no deserter could 
 reach it. 
 
 The chief of Cempoalla sent his ally abundance of 
 provisions for the journey, with two hundred porters and 
 four hundred warriors. It was the rainy season, and all 
 nature was rioting in a luxuriance of growth known only 
 in this high tide of a tropical year. Field and forest were 
 teeming with life. Where the latter was threaded by 
 footpaths a tangled undergrowth disputed every inch of 
 a way which was never wide enough for two travelers to 
 walk abreast. Passing from these forests into the culti- 
 vated fields which surrounded every hamlet, the eye was 
 gladdened by corn of such magnificent growth as com- 
 pletely to overtop the low-roofed houses in which most
 
 160 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 of the people of the lowlands lived. The banana, the 
 plaintaiu, manioc, cocoa, vanilla and other tropical fruits 
 made this a home of plenty. The white- walled villages 
 nestling in these fertile plains were often unseen by the 
 traveler until he could look down upon them from some 
 breezy terrace on the mountains. 
 
 The road took the army over some of the wildest 
 passes. The steep side up which they clambered was 
 here and there cleft by deep fissures ; these often formed 
 the bed of a torrent hurrying onward to the Gulf. Where 
 the path crossed these ravines a log or a leaning tree 
 bridged the yawning chasm, or a single arch spanned 
 it at some dizzy height. Up, up, up these frightful 
 steeps the long lines of men and horses wound, often 
 in paths wide enough for only a single passenger. From 
 different points upon the way their eyes took in some of 
 the grandest landscapes in the world. Sunny plains 
 stretched far below, sloping gently toward the Gulf. 
 Here and there the white walls and the towers of some 
 pueblo gleamed through the deep green of surrounding 
 orchards or crowned a hilltop, ft is not probable that 
 the country was densely populated. There were no scat- 
 tered farmhouses, the home of a single family, as with us, 
 but hamlets where a number gathered for mutual pro- 
 tection. 
 
 Beyond this lookout place the army passed into a re- 
 gion of intense cold that frigid zone which enwraps the 
 world everywhere, if one only climbs skyward far enough 
 to find it. Here the vapors from the Gulf, wafted west- 
 ward against the frozen mountains, were condensed, and 
 fell in a pitiless storm of sleet in which the troops perished. 
 The thick garments of quilted cotton with which many had 
 provided themselves at Trinidad were as great a protection
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 161 
 
 against the icy blast as against the Mexican arrows which 
 they were intended to ward off, but the poor half-clad 
 Cuban porters died by scores along the way. The sol- 
 diers, benumbed with cold and suffering with hunger and 
 thirst, were three days dragging their heavy cannon over 
 these mountains. 
 
 After leaving this dreary region the Spaniards came to 
 a high valley on the mountain-side, where they found 
 houses of hewn stone larger and better built than any 
 they had yet seen in the country. Elegantly furnished 
 apartments were put at their disposal by a chief whom 
 Cortez styles " lord of the valley." When this man was 
 asked if he was a subject of Montezuma, he drew him- 
 self up proudly and asked, "Who is not a subject of 
 Montezuma ?" as though he would say, " Is he not master 
 of the world ?" Cortez insisted that His Lordship should 
 do homage to the king of Spain, demanding some gold 
 as a token of his obedience. 
 
 This ceremony was easily understood by the Aztec. 
 He consented to send to Montezuma this challenge from 
 the white man, adding, 
 
 " If Moutezuma commands me to do so, I will give 
 you not gold only, but myself and all that I possess." 
 
 THE TLASCALANS. 
 
 Next to the Aztecs, no tribe makes such a figure in 
 Mexican history as the Tlascalans, a race of bold and 
 hardy mountaineers who inhabited elevated valleys be- 
 tween Mexico and the Gulf. Cortez had taken a road 
 which led him near this region. He was advised by the 
 Totonacs to secure the good-will of this tribe, and, if 
 possible, to enter into league with it. For generations 
 it had been at war with the Aztecs, and never once had 
 11
 
 162 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 it been forced to pay tribute to its proud neighbors around 
 Lake Tezcuco, although it had been completely hemmed 
 in by them, so that Tlascala had become a little world 
 by itself, without a single gate through which it dared 
 to procure the products of the Mexican valley. 
 
 Cortez, who had ventured into the interior with but a 
 handful of his own men, could not leave such a nest of 
 warriors between him and his base of supplies on the 
 coast. On the other hand, they might be made allies 
 in case of war with the Aztecs. A visit to Tlascala was 
 therefore resolved upon. 
 
 In the march to Tlascala the army came to a high 
 battlemented wall twenty feet thick, nine feet high and 
 six miles long, which, reaching from one mountain to 
 another, defended one of the approaches to that country. 
 This frontier wall was semicircular in one place and over- 
 lapped itself, making an indirect and easily-defended en- 
 trance. The stones of which this fortification was formed 
 were so firmly cemented together that years afterward, 
 Avhen the Spaniards wished to level it to the ground as 
 they did everything that could keep alive a spark of 
 national pride among the natives it was found almost 
 impossible to pry them asunder ; so that the remains of 
 these celebrated walls are to be seen to-day. 
 
 When the Spanish army marched to Tlascala, in Aug- 
 ust, 1519, this wall had not a single defender. A little 
 way farther on the other side some Indians showed them- 
 selves, and fled without any notice of the signals of peace 
 which Cortez caused to be made. As it afterward proved, 
 these were scouts of a force of a thousand men, who 
 came with loud cries of defiance and brandishing their 
 weapons. They soon fled, and the Spaniards followed, 
 supposing that these, like the other Indians, were terri-
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 163 
 
 fied with the guns and the horses. This was their first 
 experience with a Mexican ambuscade. They soon found 
 themselves in a deep and narrow valley, surrounded by 
 a surging mass of warriors, many of them clad in little 
 more than paint and feathers, and all yelling as only 
 savages can yell. 
 
 Cortez, with forty archers, thirteen horsemen and six 
 cannon, pressed through this raging sea of enemies till 
 he reached an open plain, where he made a stand and 
 fought all day. Much injury was done to the savages, 
 but the Spaniards did not lose a man. This would seem 
 incredible but for the fact that in all their warfare these 
 people risked everything in order to secure prisoners for 
 sacrifice and to carry off their own slain and wounded 
 from the battlefield. A dozen men would thus throw 
 away their own lives in order to gain a single captive, 
 and by the time those who thus fell were rescued it is 
 easy to see that many more lives were forfeited. 
 
 In one of these Tlascalan battles two of the horses 
 were killed. This fact was carefully concealed from the 
 enemy, who, until they saw one of these creatures dead, 
 supposed they were immortal like the gods. After their 
 discovery of the truth one of these animals was cut up, 
 and the pieces were sent to all the Tlascalans as an inspir- 
 iting summons to come out and conquer their common 
 foe. 
 
 The next day, having received reinforcements from 
 his camp, Cortez sallied forth at daybreak to make an 
 attack on the neighboring villages, five or six of which 
 he burned, took four hundred prisoners, men and women, 
 and fought his way back to his camp without loss. 
 
 An after-breakfast battle that same day was still more 
 remarkable as described in Spanish history. An immense
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 army of Indians estimated at one hundred and forty- 
 nine thousand attacked the temple where the Spaniards 
 were entrenched, forced an entrance and had a hand-to- 
 hand fight with the white men. There is no doubt that 
 the Spaniards would have been beaten had not the Tlas- 
 calan leaders disagreed among themselves. Seven days 
 of such hard fighting was necessary to subdue the Tlas- 
 calans. 
 
 After the retreat of the natives they sent fifty of their 
 braves with white badges to carry provisions to the 
 Spanish camp in token of submission. It was noticed 
 that these messengers were looking carefully about them, 
 as if they were examining the defences of the place. 
 The Cempoallans, understanding Indian tactics, warned 
 Cortez, for they were sure these men were spies. A 
 close cross-examination followed. One after another 
 confessed at last that this visit to the camp was only part 
 of a plot to surprise the Spaniards that night. One of 
 their priests had said that in no other way could they get 
 rid of these white men. They were, no doubt, children 
 of the sun, and could be reached only when he had with- 
 drawn his beams. The whole party had their hands cut 
 off, and, thus cruelly maimed, they were sent back to 
 Tlascala with the message that by night or by day, 
 whenever they came, they would find the Spaniards 
 ready to give them battle. 
 
 This punishment so much worse than death to the 
 Tlascalan warrior struck terror into all hearts. Long 
 before the bleeding stumps could be shown to the council 
 of Tlascala, Cortez was out upon another raid among the 
 Indian villages. Supposing their plot would be success- 
 ful, the warriors were hiding in the woods and thickets 
 around the camp, and as soon as it \vas dark they began
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 165 
 
 to gather about it in crowds. The Spaniards sallied forth 
 and so completely surprised them that they all fled. After 
 a little rest the Spaniards again began their work of de- 
 vastation, attacking every town around the hill on which 
 they were encamped. In view of his success in this 
 cowardly warfare, Cortez congratulated himself that 
 God had interfered in his behalf, enabling him to 
 destroy ten towns and many people. 
 
 During the hottest part of this week of battles in 
 Tlascala another party of Aztecs came to the Spanish 
 camp to make a formal offer of obedience to the great 
 chief in Spain. It was not their intention to give up 
 their customs, their government or their religion ; that 
 would mean the death of their tribe. The council had 
 empowered them to make arrangements with Cortez as 
 to the amount and the kind of tribute they should give. 
 This point settled, they expected the satisfied strangers 
 to leave them in peace. 
 
 The desire which Cortez continued to express to visit 
 the country of the envoys perplexed them. Friends 
 with the white man they could not be, but they would 
 give of their treasures to avoid fighting. If they failed 
 to keep their promise, then would it not be time enough 
 to come with an army to punish them ? Montezuma's 
 message was very plain. "Our country is barren and 
 poor," he said. " You will have to climb rugged moun- 
 tains and brave many dangers in order to visit us. Do 
 not come." 
 
 These messengers remained in the Spanish camp dur- 
 ing a great part of the struggle with the Tlascalans and 
 saw what these white men were capable of doing, and 
 used their utmost endeavors to hinder the friendship 
 which afterward sprang up between them and the Tlas-
 
 IG6 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 calans. This want of harmony among the tribes suited 
 
 Cortez exactly. 
 
 But, with all this success, the Spaniards felt themselves 
 to be in a desperate situation. Many 
 of the men were ready to mutiny and 
 leave Cortez to his fate. They were 
 far from home, in the heart of an ene- 
 my's country ; and should they succeed 
 in fighting their way back to their 
 base of supplies at Villa Rica, they 
 had no vessels to take them back to 
 their own country in case the garrison 
 had been overpowered by their treach- 
 erous neighbors, or, what was quite as 
 possible, had given up because so weary 
 of the ambitious schemes of their 
 leader, whom many of them con- 
 sidered little better than a madman. 
 But for a timely visit from the Tlas- 
 calan chief Xicotencatl, it is likely that 
 Cortez might soon have found himself 
 without an army. This young man 
 came one morning in a cloud of in- 
 cense, touching the ground and lift- 
 ing his hand to his head. It was 
 easy to see that his proud spirit was 
 still unbroken, although he acknowl- 
 edged that his people for the first 
 time submitted to a foe. From fear 
 of treachery, the invitation he brought 
 to the Spaniards to visit Tlascala was 
 not accepted for a week. Other chiefs 
 
 row came to the camp, and their overtures seemed so 
 
 CUERNAVACA C 
 
 CHILPANCINGOC
 
 CEMPOALLA TO TLASCALA. 167 
 
 sincere that the army finally took the line of march for 
 Tlascala. 
 
 This city was eighteen miles distant from the camp at 
 Tzompach. The country abounded with high, level val- 
 leys, which at this time were fertile and well cultivated. 
 As the Spaniards approached the city they noted with 
 pleasure and admiration the beautiful white houses among 
 the trees, the well-tilled land, the luxuriant harvests and 
 the signs of thrift everywhere. It is said that the city 
 of Tlascala had a market where thirty thousand people 
 bought and sold every day. It was well supplied with 
 meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, and bath-houses and bar- 
 ber-shops and a well-regulated police-force were found 
 there. 
 
 The blind old chief, Xicotencatl the elder, anxious to 
 know what the white man was like, felt the face of Cor- 
 tez and fingered his beard and his armor, finally accept- 
 ing him as a friend. Soon after this the poor old man 
 embraced the Christian faith, in token of which a great 
 cross was erected by his orders in the market-place of 
 Tlascala. Scenes similar to those at Cempoalla would 
 have been enacted here but for the protestations of 
 Father Olmedo, who succeeded in this instance, at least 
 in persuading Cortez to use sermons rather than swords 
 in converting the people. 
 
 It was in Tlascala that Cortez first heard of the long- 
 cherished hope of Feathered Serpent's return. These 
 hunted and oppressed people were waiting for deliverance 
 when the white men came, but, not being prepared as the 
 Aztecs were, their sudden appearance on their frontier 
 roused all the warlike instincts of the tribe. 
 
 The question of the white man's might once settled, 
 the Tlascalans at once acknowledged his right to rule
 
 168 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 over them, and from that time Cortez was very generally 
 accepted as one who had come in fulfillment of prophecy. 
 The democratic form of government universal through- 
 out Mexico was so evident here that Tlascala was never 
 called anything but a republic. 
 
 MEXICAN BASKET-SELLERS.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 HO FOR THE CAPITAL! 
 
 THE Aztec chiefs who visited Tlascala were very 
 anxious that Cortez should take Cholula on his 
 way to visit Montezuma, if the Aztec council should 
 consent that he might come to Mexico at all. They had 
 hoped that the Totonacs and their Spanish allies would 
 quarrel by the way, that the army would perish with 
 hunger and cold as they crossed the bleak mountain- 
 walls of their valley, or, should they survive these perils, 
 that the Tlascalans would entrap and crush them in some 
 of their deep valleys. But all these hopes had proved 
 vain. Montezuma and his council were quaking with 
 fear over the latest despatches from their envoys. The 
 pictures they drew of sleeping villages attacked by a 
 ruthless foe, of murder and pillage and fire, were only 
 too familiar work with all Aztec reporters, but these 
 white men had clothed war with new terrors. March- 
 ing in triumph from tribe to tribe, laying the thousands 
 of Tobasco under tribute, they had won allies in Cem- 
 poalla without a blow. Now even Tlascalan braves, 
 after their proud ranks had been beaten down like grass 
 in a hailstorm, were bowing under a yoke which all the 
 armies of the confederacy had not been able to fasten 
 upon them. Were they gods, or were they men like 
 themselves? The wisest of their priests now declared 
 
 169
 
 170 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 that it was the will of the gods that the white strangers 
 should find their graves in Cholula; to Cholula, then, 
 they must be enticed with a hint that the long-delayed 
 invitation from the "chief-of-men" to visit Mexico might 
 await them there. 
 
 Cholula, eighteen miles from Tlascala, was one of the 
 sacred places of Mexico. It was the home of a rich and 
 powerful tribe of merchants who had but lately broken 
 friendship with the Tlascalans to become the allies of the 
 Aztecs. Cortez resolved to pay a visit to the city, and 
 fixed a day. This news caused great anxiety among the 
 Tlascalans. It was very plainly their duty to accompany 
 their allies to Mexico ; it was quite as plain to them that 
 the most dangerous road there would be that which should 
 take them through Cholula. 
 
 "Do you not see," said the wary old Tlascalans to 
 Cortez, " that no Cholulan chief has been to visit you, 
 though the city is only eighteen miles away ? Other 
 tribes, which live much farther off, have sent their best 
 men to seek your friendship ; why have the Cholulans 
 been so indifferent?" 
 
 With thanks for this warning, Cortez asked that mes- 
 sengers be sent to the Cholulan council to demand an 
 explanation. The very cool answer which came to this 
 demand provoked the general to send them at once a 
 formal summons to come immediately and submit to him 
 as the representative of the king of Spain, " the lord of the 
 whole earth." If they refused, he said, he would march 
 against them and destroy them as rebels. This arrogant 
 message had its effect. The next day the Cholulan 
 chiefs walked over to the camp to apologize for their 
 neglect. To make the scene more impressive to these 
 new visitors, Cortez had their, speech recorded by a notary
 
 HO FOR THE CAPITAL! 171 
 
 and required them all to sign it as a fair statement of 
 facts. 
 
 " Now," said he, " I am going back with you to Cho- 
 lula, to see for myself if you have spoken the truth." 
 
 The Tlascalans again cautioned Cortez not to venture 
 too far. No tribe in Mexico was more noted for cunning 
 than were the Cholulans. Finding that he was bent on 
 going, the whole native army offered to accompany him. 
 Cortez allowed the Tlascalans to attend him until he was 
 within six: miles of Cholula, when he persuaded all but 
 six thousand men to return until he was ready to go on 
 to Mexico. He said that he was afraid the entrance of 
 so large a body of armed Tlascalans would throw the 
 city into a commotion. 
 
 The army of Cortez encamped for the night on the 
 banks of a small stream ; the next morning, in great 
 numbers, the citizens poured out of Cholula to greet the 
 strangers. The Cholulans were by far the best-dressed 
 people the Spaniards had yet seen. The chiefs wore 
 cloaks over their mantles ; these were elegantly woven 
 and embroidered, and were generally provided with 
 pockets. Hundreds of priests in long black dresses 
 and with flowing hair mingled with the crowd, chanting 
 solemn temple-hymns and swinging fragrant censers as 
 they walked. The women wore flowers in their dark 
 hair, and came laden with wreaths to deck the horses, 
 which here, as everywhere, created a fever of excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The city of Cholula was situated in a beautiful and 
 highly-cultivated plain, well wooded and watered by 
 artificial canals. It was venerable with age. Its early 
 records were probably lost when Mexican libraries were 
 burned by order of the conquerors. Tradition said that it
 
 172 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 had been the home of Feathered Serpent ages before. An 
 elegant temple in his honor crowned the great pyramid 
 which' the Aztecs and kindred tribes found there when 
 they entered the valley. It was now a great resort for 
 pilgrims, who came in multitudes to worship at this 
 ancient shrine. 
 
 The spirit of Feathered Serpent had, however, long 
 ago died out of his worship. Here, where he had been 
 best known and loved, his altars reeked with human 
 blood. It is said that six thousand victims were yearly 
 slaughtered in this city alone. 
 
 The wide, clean streets and massive houses were noted 
 with great admiration by the army, who now entered the 
 city. It contained about twenty thousand houses, and, 
 as we have seen, these were always occupied by many 
 related families. The population was probably about 
 two hundred thousand. 
 
 A large temple with its surrounding courtyard was 
 given to Cortez for the accommodation of his men, who, 
 with the exception of the Tlascalans, were all quartered 
 within the city walls. Provisions were sent to them, 
 " although not in a bountiful manner," as Cortez com- 
 plained. Every day the fare provided for the army 
 grew worse. The Cholulans explained that corn was 
 scarce, but those who looked out on the waving fields 
 around them concluded that this was an excuse unworthy 
 of so wealthy a people. It was noted, also, that the chiefs 
 paid very few visits to the Spanish quarters. Their guests 
 soon began to compare notes among themselves. Some 
 had observed the loaded house-roofs here and there, 
 where piles of stone could be hidden behind parapets or 
 among the flowering plants with which they were often 
 adorned. The watchful Totonacs, who had the liberty
 
 174 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 of the city, noted, as they strolled about, signs of pitfalls 
 familiar to an Indian's eye. The Tlascalans very natu- 
 rally said, " Did we not tell you so ?" It was Marina, 
 however, who actually discovered the plot which many 
 had suspected. She had found a friend among the 
 women of Cholula, a chieftain's wife, who in her anx- 
 iety for Marina's safety warned her to leave the camp 
 and take refuge with her. She hinted that the Aztecs 
 were at hand, waiting to join the Cholulans in a mas- 
 sacre of the Spaniards and their allies, and that w r onien, 
 children and valuables were about to be sent out of the 
 city. 
 
 Hearing this confirmation of his own fears, Cortez 
 requested a meeting of the city council. He told them 
 that he saw he had become a burden to them and that 
 he had made up his mind to leave Cholula for Mexico 
 the next day, and asked that they would furnish him 
 with two thousand men to transport his artillery and 
 baggage. After some consultation among themselves 
 this request was granted. Cortez next sought an inter- 
 view with the Aztec embassy and told them of the plot 
 he had discovered, charging Montezuma with it. They 
 feigned great surprise and declared that neither their 
 chief nor the council knew anything about it ; the fault 
 lay entirely with the Cholulans. Cortez, although satis- 
 fied that they were deceiving him, affected to believe the 
 Aztecs. At the same time, he kept them apart from the 
 people of the city, lest his plan to take vengeance upon 
 the latter should fail of execution. 
 
 That was a sleepless night for the Spanish general ; his 
 little army seemed to be standing over a magazine. They 
 were in the heart of an enemy's country and surrounded 
 by friends quite as capable of treachery as were the foes
 
 HO FOB THE CAPITAL! 175 
 
 he dreaded. There were also many among his own men 
 who had no sympathy with his ambitious schemes ; these 
 malcontents counseled a retreat to Tlascala. Others found 
 fault that he had dealt so mildly with the Indians, and 
 still others said that he had been foolhardy and had ruined 
 the expedition by leading them into this dangerous place. 
 Most of them, however, sided with their general, who 
 thought a time had come to strike a blow which should 
 for ever put a stop to Indian treachery. The next morn- 
 ing Cortez so posted his guns as to command the great 
 avenues of the city and stationed a guard of picked men 
 at the three entrances to his own quarters. The Tlasca- 
 lans had orders to come to his assistance when a signal- 
 gun should be fired. 
 
 It was still very early when some of the Cholulau 
 chiefs came into the courtyard with the two thousand 
 porters they had promised the day before, and these, 
 with the Spanish soldiers on duty, soon crowded the 
 place. Then, calling aside their leader, Cortez charged 
 the Cholulans with the plot he had discovered. Small 
 time was allowed for explanation, as the signal to fire 
 on the unarmed crowd penned in the enclosure was 
 immediately given to those who held the entrances. 
 The noise within the courtyard attracted a furious mob 
 outside, but they were mowed down by the guns, which 
 swept the avenues. As the foremost fell others rushed 
 on over the heaps of slain. The Tlascalans, who had 
 been eagerly listening for the signal, now came pouring 
 into the city and attacked the Cholulans in the rear. By 
 the orders of Cortez his allies wore sedge-leaves on their 
 heads, to distinguish them from the natives of Cholula 
 and Mexico. 
 
 As usual in Mexican warfare, the battle raged most
 
 176 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 fiercely around the temple, and on this awful day the 
 great pyramid of Cholula became the centre of the 
 storm which broke over the city. Many of the Cho- 
 lulans rushed up its steep stairways and took refuge in 
 the towers with which it was crowned. From thence 
 they hurled stones, but with little effect, on the heads 
 of the invaders who pressed up behind them. These 
 tall towers, which were of wood, were soon wrapped in 
 flames. The city was given up to pillage. The fierce 
 Tlascalans captured scores of victims for their altars, 
 and led them away to their camp, to be offered up to 
 the gods in that feast which would mark their trium- 
 phal return to their own valleys. 
 
 Some of the Cholulan chiefs who had escaped implored 
 Cortez to shield Cholula from the vengeance of his ter- 
 rible allies. However foreign was his conduct from the 
 spirit of Him in whose cause he professed to be engaged, 
 there was something which led the poor Cholulans to 
 trust in the white men rather than in those whose relig- 
 ion was one of vengeance. The efforts of Cortez to quell 
 the uproar were in time successful. It is said that he 
 prevailed on his allies to give up their captives. If this 
 be true, they gave the highest proof of their regard for 
 his washes which was possible to a Mexican Indian. All 
 the inhabitants but the chiefs who had been shut up 
 were driven from the city. Many of the towers and 
 houses were burned, and more than three thousand of 
 the people had been killed. 
 
 Returning to his quarters, Cortez called his Cholulan 
 prisoners to account. With one consent they excused 
 themselves and blamed the Aztecs. If he would forgive 
 them this time, they promised to be henceforth and for 
 ever faithful subjects of the great lord across the sea.
 
 HO FOR THE CAPITAL I 177 
 
 Two of these chiefs were sent out to invite the people to 
 come back to their homes, and, says Cortez, "the next 
 day the whole city was filled with men, women and 
 children in as much security as if nothing had oc- 
 curred." 
 
 Many a fatherless family there was that sad day as 
 the women and children who had fled for shelter to the 
 mountains came flocking back to their desolate homes. 
 Saddest of all were the black-robed priests who had 
 escaped the general carnage. Now that the fight was 
 over and the dead were buried, the Spanish general 
 began his work of cleansing their temples and convert- 
 ing their flocks to the new religion. What was left of 
 the great teocallis was turned into a Christian church. 
 An immense cross was erected among the smouldering 
 ruins, and, but for the wise counsel of Fathers Olmedo 
 and Diaz, the war for conquest would have been followed 
 by as fierce a crusade for the Church. Yet happy were 
 the captives who were waiting their turn to be sacrificed. 
 Every door of every cage was opened. If there was 
 anything in all that troublous time which satisfied the 
 Indians that Feathered Serpent had come again in the 
 person of Cortez, it was this act of mercy. How strangely 
 were the cruelties of that dark and bloody age in which 
 he lived mingled with the fulfillment of that prophecy 
 of " liberty to the captive and the opening of the prison 
 to them that are bound " ! 
 
 Another embassy from Mexico showed what a fright 
 events in Cholula had given to the Aztec council. They 
 begged that the white men would not trouble themselves 
 to come any farther, as they inhabited a cold and barren 
 country and the people were poor ; they would, however, 
 supply their visitors with such provision as they could 
 12
 
 178 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 spare. It is plain that from first to last the European 
 idea of conquest never entered their minds; they sup- 
 posed that Cortez persisted in coming because he was 
 not satisfied with the amount of tribute they offered. 
 It was not strange, therefore, that the representatives 
 of these poverty-stricken tribes should come laden with 
 more gifts for the conquerors. They had already poured 
 enough of their treasure at the feet of the invaders to 
 lure the most homesick man in the camp across the 
 mountains, and every time they came the army were fired 
 with new courage to seek a place where gold and gems 
 were so plentiful. Besides their protest, the council sent 
 an explanation of the part they had taken in the Cholula 
 affair. They professed sincerely to deplore the treacher- 
 ous conduct of their allies in that city, and said that 
 their army had been sent to that neighborhood to quell 
 some disturbances in two tributary tribes whose lands 
 joined those of the Cholulans. 
 
 Cortez wisely forbore to express his doubts of Aztec 
 sincerity ; his face was now turned toward Mexico, and 
 it was politic to show himself as friendly as possible to- 
 ward the authorities there. He soothed the evident fears 
 of his visitors, at the same time assuring them that he 
 was certainly coming to visit their country. 
 
 And yet again the terror-stricken chiefs sent messen- 
 gers over the gradually shortened way between their city 
 and the Spanish camp. The burden of their story now 
 was that Montezuma was anxious that Cortez should 
 take a safe road on his inevitable journey. 
 
 This message reached the general on his way to Mex- 
 ico. The army had come to a place where the road 
 forked. One well-worn footpath was choked with 
 trunks of prostrate trees and other rubbish which had
 
 HO FOR THE CAPITAL! 179 
 
 recently been put there by order of the Mexican council ; 
 the other path was that which had been marked for the 
 army as the best and safest for the horses. It is not 
 strange that fresh treachery was suspected here. Find- 
 ing that the road which the Indians had blocked up was 
 the most direct, Cortez ordered his men to clear it of 
 stones and of timber. They made short work of this, 
 the Tlascalans especially laboring with a will to open a 
 path toward the citadel of their lifelong enemies. The 
 courage of the Totonacs, however, gave out at the last 
 moment; so, thanking them for their fidelity in the time 
 of his greatest need, Cortez dismissed them with liberal 
 rewards out of the abundance with which Montezuma 
 had provided him. 
 
 The army now pressed on and up the highest of the 
 great mountain-ranges on which are piled the central 
 table-lands of Mexico. Cortez writes of it: "Eight 
 leagues from the city of Cholula are two very lofty and 
 remarkable mountains.* In the latter part of August 
 their summits are covered with snow, and from the high- 
 er a volume of smoke arises equal in bulk to a spacious 
 house. It ascends above the mountain to the clouds as 
 straight as an arrow, and with such force that, although 
 a very strong wind is always blowing on the mountain, it 
 does not turn the smoke from its course. As I wished to 
 ascertain the cause of this phenomenon, as it appeared to 
 me, I despatched ten of my companions, with several 
 natives of the country for guides, charging them to as- 
 cend the mountain and find out the cause of that smoke. 
 They went and struggled with all their might to reach 
 the summit, but were unable, on account of the great 
 quantity of snow which lay on the mountains, the whirl- 
 
 * Popocatapetl and Iztaccihuatl, both snow-clad all the year.
 
 180 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 wind of ashes which swept over it and the insupportable 
 cold." 
 
 From one of the dizzy heights on this burning moun- 
 tain, Popocatapetl, the explorers saw an Indian trail wind- 
 ing down through the stunted shrubbery of a pass at 
 their feet which seemed much more direct and easy 
 than the one which the army had chosen. Wrapping 
 some huge icicles in their blankets, to prove that they 
 had actually been in this frigid zone, the party retraced 
 their steps. After some conference with their Aztec 
 leaders, it was decided to take the route just discovered. 
 
 A storm of rain and sleet was now sweeping wildly 
 through the pass. Men and horses were benumbed with 
 cold, but they struggled on till nightfall, when they came 
 to an inhabited place in Chalco, where the Aztecs pointed 
 out a large house newly built by their country-folk for 
 the accommodation of the traveling public. In this 
 building Cortez and all his men, numbering between four 
 and five thousand, found shelter for the night. Abun- 
 dance of provision had been stored up here, with firewood 
 ready for use. Every lodging-room was soon warmed 
 by a blazing fire built on the stone floors. The smoke 
 escaped through the open window or door, there being 
 no chimneys in all Mexico. 
 
 The army was now approaching the valley by a road 
 which crossed its mountain-wall between the two great 
 peaks, Popocatapetl an<^ Iztaccihuatl, which rise on the 
 south-east like the pillars of some majestic gateway. 
 They had not yet reached the highest point in the 
 pass when they were met by messengers from the 
 Aztec council ; they were charged with one more almost 
 despairing message from the council. With childish 
 fear and persistence, they begged the Spaniards even
 
 182 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 then, when almost in sight of the city so long the 
 goal of their hopes, to turn back. They laid more 
 gold at the general's feet, with many rich and costly 
 stuffs and an offer of tribute without stint. They 
 were kindly received, as before. Cortez assured them 
 that he would be very willing to oblige Moutezuma by 
 turning back, but that he had come by command of his 
 king, who would never be satisfied without a full account 
 of the country from an eye-witness. After a personal 
 interview with Montezuma he would be better able to 
 decide how much tribute the Aztecs should pay to his 
 master.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. 
 
 TT was on the morning of November 8, 1519, that 
 J- from the top of Ilhuatca the army of Cortez saw 
 what seemed to their dazzled eyes a landscape in Fairy- 
 land. Snow-capped mountains enclosed a valley rich in 
 bloom and verdure, with clear lakes laughing through the 
 endless summer of a tropical year. In this crystal setting 
 rose a capital worthy of any dream of the far-famed At- 
 lantis. Miles of wide, clean streets radiating from the 
 gates of the colossal temple were lined with massive 
 stone edifices having walls of glittering stucco and 
 terraced roofs abloom with flowers. These houses were 
 the homes of at least three hundred thousand people. 
 A fringe of beautiful island-gardens were seen dotting 
 the lakes, spacious and well-ordered market-places, canals 
 alive with boats, aqueducts whose ruins still attest the 
 superior skill of those ancient masons, parks and pleas- 
 ure-grounds, and, towering above all, the great pyramidal 
 temple, altar-crowned and smoking day and night like 
 the lofty peaks which marked the sky-line of the land- 
 scape. 
 
 In spite of the cringing terror which Montezuma had 
 lately betrayed in his messages to them, the soldiers of 
 Cortez, gazing at all this splendor, dreaded to grapple 
 with a people whose civilization seemed not only to equal, 
 
 1S3
 
 184 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 but to exceed, their own. Nothing but his own indomi- 
 table courage and towering ambition upheld Cortez as he 
 led the little band of his countrymen over these moun- 
 tain-walls, whose gates now seemed to close behind him 
 and to shut out all hope of rescue should help be needed. 
 Looking westward from their lofty perch, the soldiers 
 saw the Lake of Chalco, with its island-city and numer- 
 ous white-walled hamlets peeping out from embowering 
 trees or half hidden amid the luxuriant fields of corn 
 and maguey. 
 
 It w r as daybreak when the army began to descend into 
 the Valley of Mexico. They soon reached a well-built 
 town on the mountain-side, now called Amaquemeca. 
 Here they were kindly received by an Aztec official, 
 who kept them two days and supplied them with abun- 
 dance of provisions and with the gold which they 
 coveted more than all else. Envoys from Mexico re- 
 ceived them here, and went with them a inarch of twelve 
 miles to their first resting-place in the valley. This was 
 in Ajotziuco, a town built partly on the shelving side of 
 the mountain and partly on piles in the lake. The streets 
 of this lower part were all canals, and were alive with 
 the canoes of market-men bringing provisions into the 
 city from suburban gardens, and of others who ministered 
 to the needs of a large population. 
 
 The night spent in Ajotzinco was one of great anxiety 
 to the vigilant general. Indian friends had informed 
 him that an attack might be looked for here, and pointed 
 to villagers who came down the mountains or entered by 
 the canal, eager to see the strangers. Cortez professed 
 to take them all for spies, and, probably intending to 
 create a wholesome awe at the outset, ordered the guard 
 to shoot fifteen or twenty of these over-curious visitors.
 
 MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. 185 
 
 "But few of them," he coolly says, "returned to give 
 the information they were sent to obtain." 
 
 At Ajotzinco, as the army were about to leave, they 
 were asked to wait, as Cacama, the young chief of Tez- 
 cuco, w r as on his way to give the strangers a formal 
 welcome to the valley. He was a young man of about 
 twenty-five years of age, erect and proud, as became an 
 Indian chief, coming in a splendid litter borne on the 
 shoulders of men. As he alighted his attendants began 
 to gather the stones which strewed his path, and to sweep 
 it clean for his richly-sandaled feet.* As he advanced 
 into the presence of the general he bowed to touch the 
 earth, and then raised his right hand to his head 
 a Mexican token of respect to a person of high rank 
 now common in Oriental lands. Cacama was bearer 
 of another chilling message from Montezuma. It was 
 Montezuma's earnest wish that the strangers would be 
 satisfied to stay away; but if they were still determined 
 to visit him, he would receive them at his home, as he 
 was too ill to come to meet them. 
 
 After an exchange of presents and of brief speeches 
 through Marina as interpreter the Spaniards marched 
 out of Ajotzinco to the causeway across Lake Chalco, a 
 well-built structure wide enough in some places for 
 eight horsemen to ride abreast. The lake was alive 
 with canoes, in most of which were sightseers gliding in 
 and out from among the chinampas, or floating gardens, 
 which lined the causeway. 
 
 About three miles out in Lake Chalco, Cortez spied a 
 fortress rising out of the water ; it was well defended with 
 towers and capable of holding from one to two thousand 
 
 * It is said that this custom still prevails among the Indians of 
 Mexico when a person of consequence is traveling.
 
 186 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 people. No gates were visible. Access to the interior 
 was probably gained by ladders, which were drawn up in 
 case of threatened danger. This fortress commanded the 
 approaches to a small but beautiful city built wholly in 
 the water. As the army passed through this place an 
 
 Jbbzp 
 THE VALLEY OF 
 MEXICO 
 
 excellent supper was given to the soldiers, with an invi- 
 tation to stay all night ; but their Aztec escort advised 
 that they should go a few miles farther, to Iztapalapa, 
 the home of Montezuma's brother,* on the southern bor- 
 der of the salt lake Tezcuco. This city lay within full 
 * This city still remains, under its old name.
 
 MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. 187 
 
 view of Mexico, only six miles distant. From Iztapal- 
 apa a broad stone causeway led westward through the 
 lake to the island-capital. Very near the city this cause- 
 way was intersected by another, which led southward to 
 the mainland. At the junction of these two causeways 
 was a very strong fort with two high towers, surrounded 
 by a double parapetted wall twelve feet high. This was 
 Fort Xoloc, afterward so famous in the siege of Mexico. 
 
 After a night's rest hi the halls of Iztapalapa the 
 army was met by a large party of Aztec chiefs and 
 warriors gayly dressed in mantles of embroidered cot- 
 ton or costly feather-work, their faces sparkling with 
 gems set in w r rought gold, which hung from lips, ears 
 and noses. As each one came within speaking distance 
 he saluted the general by touching the ground and 
 then lifting his hand to his head. The long proces- 
 sion was an hour passing Cortez with this tedious cere- 
 mony. This over, the Spaniards took up their line of 
 march into the city. The streets swarmed with an eager 
 crowd, which covered the house-roofs and filled every 
 doorway and loophole from which a view could be 
 obtained. 
 
 As the Spaniards crossed one of the movable wooden 
 bridges which spanned the canals of the city, Monte- 
 zuma, in a splendid litter and attended by a brilliant 
 retinue, came down a broad avenue to meet them. With 
 him marched two hundred chiefs in single file, in two 
 processions, one on each side of the way and close to the 
 houses. When near the strangers, Montezuma alighted 
 and came forward supported on the arm of his brother- 
 chiefs of Tezcuco and Iztapalapa. Tapestry was spread 
 for his richly-sandaled feet, and a canopy gay with 
 feathers and glittering with gold and jewels was held
 
 188 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 over his head. Cortez alighted from his horse and ad- 
 vanced alone to meet the chieftain whom he had so long 
 desired to see. As the representative of his king he 
 would have given to M'ontezuma those brotherly greet- 
 ings common among the European sovereigns of that 
 day, but the attendant chiefs instantly checked what 
 they considered undue familiarity. A glittering collar 
 of pearls and crystal which Cortez took from his own 
 neck and threw over Montezuma's shoulders was gra- 
 ciously accepted, however. 
 
 In the Mexican ceremony of touching the ground 
 which followed, Montezuma headed the long procession 
 that filed by the Spanish commander. Not an eye 
 was lifted from the ground as with measured step and 
 great dignity the natives passed the strangers whose 
 mighty exploits and mysterious errand to their shores 
 had been for months the theme of every tongue. Moute- 
 zurna soon returned, and after directing his brother to 
 remain with Cortez he at once re-entered his litter and 
 was borne away. 
 
 A spacious building in the centre of the city and oppo- 
 site the great temple had been assigned to the Spaniards 
 for their use during their stay ; here the great chieftain 
 awaited his guests. Taking Cortez by the hand, he led 
 him into a saloon and seated him on a piece of rich car- 
 peting with which the floor was spread, telling him to 
 wait until he should return. 
 
 Montezuma soon reappeared accompanied by attend- 
 ants laden with many costly and substantial gifts, among 
 which, says Cortez, were " five or six thousand pieces of 
 cotton cloth very rich and of varied texture and finish." 
 The soldiers had all been dismissed to their quarters, and, 
 with a few of his officers, Cortez was alone. Taking his
 
 MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. 189 
 
 seat on another piece of carpet, near his guest, Monte- 
 zuma through an interpreter made his first formal speech 
 of welcome. He was a man in the prime of life, tall 
 and well formed, paler in color than his brethren, with 
 a careworn look which was easily explained when we 
 remember the harassing anxiety of the past months. 
 His beard was thin and his hair was long, black and 
 straight, short hair being considered by Mexicans very 
 undignified in a person of rank. He wore a large em- 
 broidered mantle sprinkled with precious stones, a heav- 
 ily-fringed scarf about his loins and sandals with golden 
 soles. Several rich plumes of green towered above his 
 head. 
 
 Sitting there on the floor beside Cortez, Montezuma 
 gave the history of his forefathers, going back to days 
 when other white men had come from some far land at 
 the east and gained possessions in Anahuac.* Their 
 chief afterward went back to his own country, but came 
 again after many years. Those of his people who had 
 remained had intermarried with the natives and built 
 towns, but they would not acknowledge him as their 
 ruler. The disowned chief went away to the east, prom- 
 ising to come again and bring the people into subjection. 
 
 " From what you tell us of your country toward the 
 sunrising," said Montezuma, "and of your chief the 
 master of the whole earth, who has known of us and 
 sent you hither to see us, we believe that he is our nat- 
 ural lord, and as such we desire to obey him. We pay 
 our tribute to you in his place. You shall rule this land 
 for him. All we have is at your disposal. We will not 
 deceive you. Since you are in your own country and 
 
 * A name meaning " near the water," applied to the country in- 
 cluded between the fourteenth and twenty-first degrees of latitude.
 
 190 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 your own house, rest and refresh yourselves after the 
 toils of the journey. I believe that the Totonacs and 
 Tlascalaus have told you much evil of us, but do not 
 believe them. They are our enemies. They have told 
 you that my house and my furniture are of gold, that I 
 myself am a god. But you see it is not so;" and he 
 opened his robes as he spoke. " You see that T am flesh 
 and blood like yourselves." 
 
 Once more assuring Cortez with much apparent sin- 
 cerity that he was in his own home and, with his army, 
 would be bountifully supplied with all that he needed, 
 Moutezuma concluded his long address and went away. 
 
 The quarters assigned to the army were in one of the 
 communal dwellings already described, which, with its 
 hundreds of rooms, was large enough to hold them 
 all. It was very near the great temple, was two sto- 
 ries high in the centre, with many spacious apartments, 
 and had loopholed towers along its walls. Some of 
 these great rooms were hung with gayly-tinted draperies 
 and had inlaid floors and ceilings of smoothly-polished 
 wood. But little furniture was required, since bed and 
 bedding commonly consisted of a mat wrapped about the 
 sleeper, who stretched himself on the stone floor. Other 
 beds were canopied and had soft cotton coverlets. 
 
 The Aztecs provided well for their unwelcome guests. 
 A hot supper was spread for all, and the men turned in 
 for the night after taking every precaution against attack. 
 Cannon were planted at each entrance, and the sentinels 
 had orders to shoot any man who left the quarters with- 
 out permission from the general. It was usual to fire an 
 evening-gun, but the first night which the Spaniards spent 
 in Mexico was celebrated by the most thunderous discharge 
 of artillery it was in their power to make. The whole
 
 MEXICO EE ACHED AT LAST. 191 
 
 city, just quieted after the feverish excitement of the day 
 was roused again, as though the burning mountain on 
 whose hearthstone the city seemed to stand had suddenly 
 belched out fire and brimstone in its very streets. 
 
 The next day Cortez and his suite obtained permission 
 to visit Montezuma's palace, which was not far away. 
 Many questions were asked and answered on both sides 
 in this interview. Montezuma showed particular interest 
 in the personal rank of his visitors, and soon made him- 
 self acquainted with their names and titles. 
 
 It was during these peaceful days of his stay in Mex- 
 ico that Cortez made his first effort to teach the Aztecs 
 the true faith. He always declared that this was the 
 -chief object of his visit, and he would never entrust 
 it wholly even to the priests who accompanied him. As 
 he was always obliged to speak through his interpreter, 
 the Aztec girl Marina, we may suppose that her gentle 
 manner gave a softer tone to the lecture than the zealous 
 general would have wished. How much of the truth 
 the newly-converted Marina could communicate to the 
 devout and thoughtful chief we cannot say, but we know 
 that the story of the cross is thrilling no matter how sim- 
 ply it may be told. No one can listen to the fact that 
 " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
 Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life," without hearing the gospel in 
 its wondrous fullness. But it is not likely that this 
 proud soldier put the meek and lowly Saviour first in 
 his word-picture of redemption. It was not Jesus with 
 his compassion on the multitude, but the cross on which 
 he died not the salvation he purchased for a lost world, 
 but the Church he had commissioned to proclaim it 
 that were most prominent in all these discussions.
 
 192 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Montezuma was willing to admit that the Christians' 
 God was good and great and worthy of a place among 
 Mexican deities, but a pious horror filled his mind when 
 it was suggested that he should set these aside and wor- 
 ship one just imported into the country. Had not his 
 people gained all their prosperity since they chose Hum- 
 ming-Bird for their guide and protector ? For more than 
 one hundred years they had marched to victory behind 
 his image. On the other hand, if Feathered Serpent 
 was about to assert his old supremacy, could they not 
 win his favor by giving to the Toltec rites which had 
 always been observed in the temple the leading place in 
 its ceremonies ? But Cortez insisted on something more 
 than this, and Montezuma was sorely perplexed. 
 
 There were two parties not only in the council as 
 such, but among its priestly members. Those who were 
 most loyal to the war-god would have marched to the 
 coast on the first appearance of the white men and swept 
 them out of the country ; the other party would do 
 nothing which would offend the hero of the nation's 
 dreams should he be hidden under a Spaniard's armor. 
 To this latter party Montezuma belonged. It must 
 have had considerable strength from the first, or the 
 strangers would not have been received by relays of 
 tribute-bearers. But it is not probable that, with all 
 the superstitious awe with which they were regarded, 
 they would have been allowed without resistance to inter- 
 fere with the service of the temple. Yet in one of the 
 stories with which Cortez seeks to win his monarch's 
 favor he pictures himself as so full of missionary zeal 
 that the first time he went to the temple with Monte- 
 zuma he tore down the war-god and his associates from 
 their pedestal and sent them tumbling down the temple-
 
 MEXICO REACHED AT LAST. 193 
 
 stairs. He afterward cleansed the darkened shrines 
 where these idols stood, and, forbidding Montezuma ever 
 to pollute them again with human blood, put up in their 
 places images of Our Lady and the saints, which, he 
 coolly adds, "excited not a little feeling with Monte- 
 zuma and the inhabitants. They at first remonstrated, 
 declaring that if my proceedings were known through- 
 out the country the people would rise against me." Upon 
 this, Cortez preached a sermon on the great sin of idol- 
 atry. He represents Montezuma as meekly responding 
 that no doubt he and his people had fallen into many 
 errors, and that Cortez, having so recently come from 
 the home of their ancestors at the East, must know more 
 of the religion they taught than those could who had 
 been so long absent from it, and if he would instruct 
 them in these matters and make them understand the 
 true faith they would follow his directions. He also 
 says, "Afterward, Montezuma and many of the principal 
 citizens remained with me until I had removed the idols, 
 purified the cluipels and placed the images in them, man- 
 ifesting apparent pleasure in the change." 
 
 Cortez had from the beginning given his religion a 
 foremost place. However early he might set out, the 
 matin-bell was rung and mass was performed before the 
 troops left their camp. Their march was marked by the 
 crosses they set up on every campground. One of his 
 first orders, therefore, on arriving in Mexico was that a 
 suitable room should be fitted up in their quarters as a 
 chapel. While the carpenters were arranging for an 
 altar they found what seemed to be a doorway recently 
 plastered up. Visions of hidden treasure filled the 
 minds of those who made short work of opening this 
 secret room. Their suspicions proved to be correct: 
 is
 
 194 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 they found themselves in a large hall filled with rich 
 stuffs, costly ornaments and gold, silver and precious 
 stones. " I was a young man when I saw it," says Ber- 
 nal Diaz, " and it seemed to me as if all the treasures 
 of the world were in that room." "Hands off!" was a 
 hard command in the face of such a treasure, but Cortez 
 was able to enforce it. He gave orders that the hole 
 should be sealed up, and that for the present no one 
 should mention what he knew of Montezuma's secret 
 hoards.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A CAPTIVE CHIEF. 
 
 only opportunity which Europeans ever had of 
 - seeing the Aztecs at home, pursuing the ordinary 
 business of life, was during the first five months which 
 Cortez and his companions spent in the valley. Although 
 a city invaded by the inhabitants of another world as 
 the Spaniards seemed to the Mexicans to be must have 
 been excited by their presence, it is probable that Mexico 
 and its people appeared to these visitors much as they had 
 been for nearly a hundred years. Possibly it had not been 
 so long since it had been beneath the dignity of a chief 
 of high rank to walk up stairs. Mexican officials 
 appear then to have indulged in a pomp unknown 
 before and quite out of keeping with the democratic 
 principles of the tribe. An instance of this occurred 
 during this first week in Mexico, when Cortez and 
 Montezuma were together visiting the great temple. 
 They had come to the foot of the first flight of stairs, 
 when Montezuma ordered two stout Indian porters to 
 pick up his guest and carry him in their arms to the top 
 of the building. Cortez resisted, but the chief did not 
 yield the point. He considered that Cortez was the rep- 
 resentative of the lord of the whole earth, and that as 
 such he ought to receive all the honors which Mexico 
 could heap upon him. 
 
 195
 
 196 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 "You ought not to walk up stairs," urged the chief; 
 " you will be tired." 
 
 " Tut, tut !" exclaimed Cortez ; " a Spaniard is never 
 tired ;" and, suiting the action to the word, he sprang up 
 the steps, followed by his stalwart soldiers, leaving the 
 astonished Montezuma far behind in the arms of his 
 carriers. 
 
 The markets were inspected by the Spaniards, who 
 drove sharp bargains with the fruit-sellers and the 
 mechanics. They visited the parks, the museum, the 
 botanical gardens, aviaries and menageries, and fished 
 and rowed on lake and canal. Six days thus passed 
 pleasantly away without any disturbance between the 
 Spaniards and their entertainers. Even the Tlascalans, 
 usually so defiant and suspicious, seemed to forget, as 
 they walked the streets gazing on the splendors of 
 the Aztec capital, the vows taken in infancy never to be 
 at peace with their hated neighbors. But such a state of 
 things could not be expected to last long. As Cortez 
 remarked in his letter to the king about that time, " we 
 Spaniards are somewhat troublesome and difficult to 
 please." He was thinking, perhaps, of the strain which 
 would soon be put upon Montezuma's loyalty to his new 
 liege across the sea. Cortez intended to make of Mexico 
 a Spanish city, to gain and to keep its treasure, to colo- 
 nize the country, to convert the people and to become its 
 princely ruler under the king and the pope of Rome. 
 
 Cortez soon decided that his first step must be to get pos- 
 session of Montezuma and hold him as a hostage while he 
 was teaching the people to submit to their foreign rulers. 
 He supposed that the chief was the hereditary sovereign 
 of Anahuac, and that while he could hold him he would 
 have control of the government. He had the more reason
 
 A CAPTIVE CHIEF. 197 
 
 to expect success in this daring scheme when he saw what 
 power he had already gained over Montezuma through 
 his superstitious fears. The plot did not at first meet 
 the approval of the Spanish officers not because they 
 felt it to be unjust to their kind and unsuspecting host, 
 but because they were less daring than their leader. Yet 
 he was not long in persuading them to yield to his will, 
 especially when he explained that tidings from the garri- 
 son at Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz would furnish him 
 with a good pretext for arresting Montezuma and hold- 
 ing him prisoner. Bernal Diaz tells us that " they were 
 so anxious over this proposition that some of them prayed 
 all night about it." 
 
 It seems that since the army had left Vera Cruz a 
 tribe living to the north of that place had appealed to 
 the garrison for help against Aztec oppression. They 
 wished to ally themselves with the Spaniards as the 
 Totonacs had done, and they declared that they would 
 have sent tribute to Cortez while he was at Villa Rica 
 but for fear of a hostile tribe whose lands they would be 
 obliged to cross. However, such was the awe inspired 
 by the white man that they would dare even to do this 
 if the commandant would send them four Spaniards to 
 protect them from their enemies on this dangerous jour- 
 ney. This request was granted, and the four soldiers 
 immediately set out. It was not long before two of 
 them came back with a terrible story of Indian cruelty. 
 They were the victims of an Aztec plot. The tribe to 
 whose assistance they had been sent were still loyal to 
 their Aztec masters. By the orders of Quancapopoca, 
 the revenue-officer in charge, the four Spaniards had 
 been seized, and all would have been killed had not 
 two escaped to tell the tale.
 
 198 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 The commandant immediately went with fifty of his 
 men and several hundred Indian allies to avenge this 
 murder. In the battle which followed, the Spanish com- 
 mander and several of his men were killed. The Aztec 
 deputy and his forces were, however, completely routed, 
 and fled to the mountains. Prisoners were found in the 
 city, ready to be sacrificed, who accused the Aztecs of de- 
 coying the Spaniards into the clutches of their tribe, and 
 said that an attack on Ceinpoalla was also part of this 
 plan. It was arranged that this story should be told by 
 Cortez during one of his morning visits to Montezuma. 
 Taking with him five of his bravest cavaliers, the Span- 
 ish leader arranged that others should drop in as if by 
 accident. The rest of the Spaniards were told to take 
 their places quietly on the street-corners in the neigh- 
 borhood, to check any attempt the people might make 
 to rescue their chief. 
 
 Moutezuma was in a very cheerful mood that morning, 
 and so profuse in his gifts that he offered to many one 
 of his young daughters to Cortez or to one of his men, 
 and to give with her some of his most valuable gems. 
 Cortez refused the lady promptly unless she would be- 
 come a Christian, but pocketed the gold and the jewels, 
 since they did not need baptism. Leading the conversa- 
 tion toward graver topics, he introduced the story of 
 the treacherous dealing on the coast. Cortez affected to 
 consider the tidings as highly improbable ; he said he did 
 not believe his host was capable of such double dealing. 
 Others, however, he said, would not be so charitable ; and 
 if Montezuma wished to clear himself, it would be ne- 
 cessary to arrest those who had been concerned in the 
 murder and punish them as they deserved. Montezuma 
 made no objection to this, and immediately gave orders
 
 A CAPTIVE CHIEF. 199 
 
 that the proper officers should be sent after the deputy, 
 who lived nearly two hundred miles from the city of 
 Mexico. Cortez expressed his satisfaction with this des- 
 patch ; " But," he added, coolly, " my duty to my sover- 
 eign will not be accomplished until you have given me 
 some hostage as a guarantee of your good faith. If you 
 will come yourself to my quarters and remain there until 
 this affair has been cleared up, I will be satisfied that you 
 mean to see that justice is done." The startled Monte- 
 zunia earnestly protested against the seeming lack of con- 
 fidence in his honor, and offered to provide some one else 
 in his place ; but Cortez was firm in his demand, assuring 
 the chief that in no sense would he be a prisoner, and 
 that he should not only have the services of his own fol- 
 lowers, but that all the soldiers would cheerfully obey his 
 commands. In his ignorance of the principles of gov- 
 ernment among these Indians, Cortez put duty before the 
 chief in its strongest light. It was the council which had 
 plotted against the Spaniards. Montezuma, as their ex- 
 ecutive officer, had given the deputy his orders, and no 
 one could be found so suitable as himself to act as their 
 hostage until justice could be dealt out to those who had 
 only obeyed their despotic commands. 
 
 While Cortez was arguing with Montezuma, Velas- 
 quez de Leon became very impatient lest the Indians 
 who stood around should become excited and attack 
 them. He cried out at last, 
 
 " Why do you waste words on this barbarian ? We 
 have gone so far that we cannot go back. Seize him ; 
 and if the Indians resist, we will plunge our swords into 
 their bodies." 
 
 " But finally," says Cortez in his letter to the king, 
 " he expressed his willingness to go with me, and imme-
 
 200 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 diately gave orders to have the apartments he wished to 
 occupy made ready for his use. This being done, many 
 nobles came to him stripped of their robes, which they 
 carried hanging on their arms, and barefooted, bringing 
 a litter, on which, with tears in their eyes, they placed 
 him in deep silence ; and in this manner we proceeded 
 to the quarters which I occupied." 
 
 Meanwhile, news of this strange visit began to circu- 
 late, and the people might have raised a disturbance had 
 not Montezuma quietly bade them disperse. He said 
 that he was only going on a visit to his friends and no 
 one need be anxious for his safety. 
 
 True to his promise, the soldiers of Cortez served the 
 captive chief with great deference. His people came 
 freely to see him, and the council held its meetings in 
 the Spanish quarters. The chief's spirit had been thor- 
 oughly subdued. He was gentle and patient, very grate- 
 ful for favors and generous to a fault to his grasping 
 jailers. 
 
 The distinguished visitor had time to be fairly settled 
 among the Spaniards when courtiers announced the arri- 
 val of the deputy Quancapopoca with a large retinue. He 
 was brought, as became his rank, in an elegant litter, in 
 which he had been carried over the mountains a distance 
 of more than one hundred and eighty miles. He was 
 immediately delivered to Cortez, who put him and his 
 men under a strong guard. At first the whole party 
 denied that what they had done was by the order of 
 Montezuma, but on further questioning they accused 
 him as the author of the plot. The confession, how- 
 ever, did not save them from death. Cortez ordered 
 them to be taken to one of the large public squares of 
 the city, bound to the stake and burned to ashes. Aztec
 
 A CAPTIVE CHIEF. 201 
 
 laws were so severe, and the death-penalty was so com- 
 mon, that this scene made no commotion among the 
 crowd who gathered round. 
 
 During the execution Cortez came into his prisoner's 
 apartment with a soldier bearing iron fetters, and charged 
 Montezurna with the murder of the Spaniards. Monte- 
 zuma was completely overawed, as though he had fallen 
 into the hands of a being who could read hearts, a divine 
 avenger of ancient wrongs committed by the Aztecs. He 
 did not resist when the shackles were put on him, but 
 expressed his humiliation and anguish of soul in moans 
 and tears. 
 
 After the victims had been burnt Cortez ordered the 
 chief to be set at liberty. His intention had been to 
 crush the spirit of his captive and make him contempti- 
 ble in the eyes of his followers. He renewed his efforts 
 to soothe Montezuma and make him content with his 
 fate. At the same time, he publicly announced that it 
 was his wish that the government should be carried on 
 as before, with due obedience to the king of Spain as its 
 acknowledged head. The Aztecs quietly submitted, sup- 
 posing, as usual, that all Cortez asked was the tribute 
 which they so often exacted of a conquered tribe. 
 
 So docile had Montezuma l>ecorne that when Cortez 
 made the pretence of offering him his liberty he refused 
 the boon, probably fearing that some of his brother-chiefs 
 would kill him if he ventured from under the protection 
 of the Spanish guns. He only asked to be allowed to 
 visit the pleasure-gardens of the city and its neighbor- 
 hood. Permission was readily granted, since nothing 
 could please Cortez better than to keep his captive in a 
 good humor while he fastened the chains more securely. 
 None of the gay attendants around Montezuma's splendid
 
 202 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 litter were gayer than the captive chief himself during 
 these excursions. He was fond of table-luxuries, and 
 one entertainment followed another. The Spaniards 
 were boon-companions, and for a while " all went merry 
 as a marriage-bell." The generous spirit of the chief 
 made it easy for him to satisfy his new friends and keep 
 Marina busy with long descriptions of the treasures of 
 his country. 
 
 The mountains which surrounded Mexico were rich in 
 mines of silver and gold, and, as nothing interested the 
 Spaniards so much as to hear of these, Montezuma com- 
 missioned some of his people to go with them to visit 
 these vast mineral depositories. One party went with 
 Aztec guides to inspect the mines of Oaxaca, lying about 
 two hundred miles to the south. Their road lay along 
 that great platform of hills on which were built many 
 strongly-fortified towns occupied by a large and thriv- 
 ing jx)pulation, some of whom surpassed the Aztecs in 
 their homes and in their luxurious habits.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 
 
 THE young Tezcucan chief, Cacama, so keenly re- 
 sented the degrading position occupied by the 
 " chief-of-men " that he withdrew to his home in Tez- 
 cuco and refused to attend the meetings which the 
 peace party in the council held in the Spanish quarters. 
 By Montezuma's advice, it was resolved to see what could 
 be done to bring the young man to terms, as it was found 
 that he was heading a conspiracy to unseat Montezuma. 
 Tezcuco was eighteen miles from Mexico by canoe, and 
 thirty by the lake-shore path. Cacama's home was built 
 partly on land and partly on piles in the water, and so 
 high above the water that the canoes could pass under 
 and come out on the other side. 
 
 It was arranged that the visit of the council should be 
 unexpected. They crossed the lake under cover of dark- 
 ness, and, gliding under the dwelling, the whole party 
 made an entrance by an unguarded door and surrounded 
 the young chief before he realized his danger. He was 
 quietly bound hand and foot and lifted into a canoe, 
 which as quietly paddled across the lake to Mexico. 
 On landing, Cacama was put into a litter and carried to 
 Cortez. Other arrests were soon made, and a successor 
 chosen by the council was installed in Cacama's place. 
 
 Montezuma's weak behavior during all this showed 
 
 203
 
 204 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 that he and his council recognized Cortez as a master. 
 Montezuma was soon induced to acknowledge himself 
 a vassal of the king of Spain, and to express his desire 
 in a public meeting of the chiefs that all his people 
 should yield to that monarch the obedience which they 
 
 THE VALLEY OF 
 MEXICO 
 
 nad once paid to him. " This," wrote Cortez, " he said 
 weeping, with more tears than it became a man to ex- 
 hibit." All the chiefs present took the oath of allegiance 
 to the Crown of Spain. A Spanish notary wrote an ac- 
 count of the whole transaction, which account was sent 
 to Charles V.
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 205 
 
 This unconditional surrender of these proud warriors 
 was in obedience to what they believed to be a decree of 
 the gods those mysterious beings whose will was the 
 sum of Aztec law. The same deep-rooted superstition 
 led them to make a further sacrifice : the tribute once 
 paid to the council was now to flow into the Spanish 
 treasury. Tax-gatherers were seut out in all directions, 
 coming back in due time laden with treasures, amount- 
 ing to more than six millions of dollars in gold, drawn 
 from every place subject to Aztec rule. The secret treas- 
 ure-vault into which the Spanish carpenter had blun- 
 dered soon after the arrival of the invaders was now 
 thrown open, and its contents were divided. After 
 one-fifth had been carefully set apart for the king, the 
 remainder was distributed among the soldiers. But the 
 more they had, the more they wanted. Murmurs of 
 dissatisfaction had been heard before ; now they became 
 loud and deep. Suspicions were expressed that Cortez 
 and his leading officers were getting more than their 
 share of the spoils. It is probable that the war of words 
 would soon have ended in bloodshed had not trouble arisen 
 in a new quarter. 
 
 The army had now been six months in Mexico. The 
 Christian worship, which they at all times upheld, had 
 been so far performed in their own quarters. But the 
 great teocattis near by was a perpetual reminder that, 
 while they had succeeded in treading under foot the 
 government of Mexico, heathenism was still flourishing. 
 Possibly human sacrifices were not offered on the high 
 altar Cortez declares that he put an end to these shortly 
 after he came but the hideous rites to which the Aztecs 
 were devoted no doubt went on as before in other parts 
 of the city. Soon after Montezuma's formal surrender
 
 206 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 he was informed that the Christians would no longer 
 hold their worship in secret ; they must have the use of 
 the great temple. They wished to erect a cross on its 
 lofty top and in the sight of all Mexico offer adoration 
 to the one true God. Cortez writes that he then went 
 with his men to the great temple, pulled down the idols 
 by force, cleansed the foul and blood-stained shrines and 
 mounted the saints therein, administering all the while a 
 solemn lecture on the sin of idolatry. To do Cortez 
 justice, however, he made quite a scriptural statement 
 of his belief when Montezuma threatened him with the 
 vengeance of his gods : " I answered through the inter- 
 preters that they were deceived in expecting any favor 
 from idols, the work of their own hands, and that they 
 must learn that there was but one God, the universal 
 Lord of all, who had created the heavens and the earth, 
 and all things else. He was without beginning and im- 
 mortal, and they were bound to adore and believe him 
 and no other creature or thing. I said everything I 
 could to divert them from their idolatries and draw them 
 to a knowledge of our Lord." 
 
 This last sacrifice of principle was too much for the 
 Aztecs, who had borne all other innovations with com- 
 parative patience. Even the meek-spirited Montezuma 
 told Cortez that the people could not be held in check 
 much longer ; the white men had better go while they 
 could. Cortez received the chief's suggestion very 
 quietly, replying that he was quite willing to leave the 
 country immediately but for one thing : he could not go 
 without ships, and those in which he came were now at 
 the bottom of the sea. Others must be built, and of 
 course that would take time. Montezuma answered that 
 if this was all that hindered the Spaniards from going he
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 207 
 
 would begin shipbuilding immediately. Montezuma gave 
 orders that a large force of his own men should go to the 
 coast, under the direction of Martin Lopez, a ship-car- 
 penter who accompanied Cortez, cut down trees and pro- 
 ceed to build a sufficient number of ships to take every 
 Spaniard to his own land. He thought that with this 
 prospect before them he might be able to keep the people 
 quiet a while longer ; if not, he could not answer for the 
 consequences. Cortez approved of this plan, and the 
 men set out. . But the Aztec discontent which made this 
 course necessary caused many gloomy forebodings among 
 the Spanish soldiers. The strictest watch was kept day 
 and night; every man and every horse was ready for 
 battle at a moment's notice. 
 
 And now a new trouble arose. Cortez was waiting 
 with deep anxiety for news from Spain. His long letter 
 to the king had never been answered. He had hoped 
 that his glowing descriptions of the new empire he had 
 conquered for his master and the rich treasures he prom- 
 ised would turn the scale in his favor when his quarrel 
 with Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, should come up 
 for settlement. But, so far as he knew, the court had 
 taken no notice of his conquest, and he had reason to 
 fear that delay was caused by a plot in Cuba to supersede 
 or punish him. One messenger after another had been 
 sent to the coast for news without avail ; they were keen- 
 eyed Indian reporters who at last brought tidings which 
 thrilled every heart in the Spanish quarters. The des- 
 patches to the council pictured a fleet of eighteen ves- 
 sels, eighty horses, nine hundred men, ten cannon and 
 about a thousand soldiers. They showed, also, the mes- 
 sengers of Cortez imprisoned by these new comers. 
 
 Montezuma, who told the news, was much surprised
 
 208 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 when Cortez received it with every token of joy. The 
 soldiers hurrahed, the cannon thundered out a salute in 
 a way which thoroughly perplexed the Aztec chief. But 
 the fact that the Spaniards were divided among them- 
 selves came out in time, in spite of all the efforts which 
 Cortez made to hide it. 
 
 Angry at the presumption of Cortez in securing so rich 
 a prize for himself, the Cuban governor had sent this 
 force to take him prisoner and wrest this new em- 
 pire from his hands. Narvaez, the commander of the 
 fleet, was appointed to capture and supersede him. He 
 landed where Cortez first entered Mexico, and the same 
 Indians came flocking to his camp. It was soon seen 
 that these white men were no friends of the conquering 
 heroes who held Mexico in their iron grip, and the news 
 had been discussed in secret meetings of the Aztec coun- 
 cil before the Spanish soldiers who were under the same 
 roof knew anything of it. 
 
 Hearing about the garrison at Villa Rica, Narvaez 
 sent a summons to the commander to surrender. The 
 insolent attacks made in the summons on the honor of 
 his general so provoked the trusty Saudoval, who had 
 charge of the fort, that he refused to allow the messen- 
 ger to finish reading it, whereupon the envoy grew very 
 angry and threatened them all with the gallows. San- 
 doval coolly remarked that if he insisted on reading the 
 summons he should have an opportunity to do so to 
 Cortez himself, and, turning to some stout Indian por- 
 ters, ordered them to seize the envoys, bind them secure- 
 ly and carry them like so many packs of merchandise to 
 the Spanish general. 
 
 News of this strange party reached Cortez in time for 
 him to give them a proper reception. He sent orders to
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 209 
 
 have them immediately released, set on horseback like 
 true Spanish cavaliers, and brought to the city, not in 
 the guise of enemies, but in that of welcome friends. 
 He kindly apologized for the rudeness of his young cap- 
 tain, smoothed over his quarrel with Narvaez and treated 
 the envoys with such courtesy that the friendship became 
 real and lasting. His efforts to gain the confidence of 
 JSarvaez were not so successful ; the latter boasted loudly 
 that he would arrest Cortez and put Montezuma again at 
 the head of his people. 
 
 News of this threat came to Cortez at a time when 
 one hundred and twenty of his best men were away in 
 the South planting the colony he had planned in more 
 peaceful days ; he wrote to them to meet him at Cholula. 
 Then, with seventy soldiers and unencumbered with his 
 cannon, he started for the coast. There were foes with- 
 out and foes within the little garrison he left behind him, 
 but his greatest fear seemed to be about Moutezuma. 
 What course would he take when left to himself? Cor- 
 tez told the chief he was going to punish a rebel against 
 the king of Spain, and exacted a solemn promise that 
 during his absence the Aztecs should be as obedient to 
 Alvarado, whom he left in command, as they had been 
 to himself. Montezuma's friendly spirit showed itself 
 by an offer of five thousand Aztec soldiers ; these were 
 declined with thanks. With the little force at his dis- 
 posal, Cortez made a rapid march over the mountains to 
 Cholula, where he found friends waiting impatiently to 
 join him. The captain of this colonizing expedition, 
 Velasquez de Leon, was a relative of the Cuban governor. 
 Narvaez had made a great effort to break the friendship 
 between him and Cortez, and his loyalty in such circum- 
 stances gave new courage to the anxious general. 
 
 14
 
 210 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 With a hundred and sixty-six men in all, and that 
 faith in himself which he seems never to have lost, Cor- 
 tez now pushed on to Tlascala, and from thence down 
 over the shelving mountains to the lowlands where the 
 enemy lay entrenched. There, in a raging storm whose 
 noise drowned every other sound, he surprised Narvaez 
 at Cempoalla, wounded and captured him, and then set 
 himself to the task of winning the hearts of those who 
 had crossed the sea to fight him, and succeeded in turn- 
 ing an army of foes into friends. 
 
 After dismantling the vessels in which they came and 
 stowing their sails and rigging at Villa Rica, Cortez was 
 proceeding to secure this conquest on the coast, when start- 
 ling news came from Mexico. The Aztecs had rebelled. 
 The garrison were in a state of siege ; their quarters had 
 been undermined and several of his men had been 
 killed. The soldiers of Narvaez expected, when they 
 came, to go to Mexico to reinstate Montezuma ; they 
 were now willing to go with Cortez to help put him 
 down. 
 
 The troops which had been sent away on expeditions in 
 the neighborhood were recalled in hot haste, and, leaving 
 his sick and wounded at Cempoalla, Cortez set out. The 
 path chosen was not the one he had traveled before. The 
 same mountains were to be crossed, but he entered the 
 valley near the city of Tezcuco. The country seemed 
 to be deserted by its inhabitants. The dark forests of 
 cypress and pine through which the road sometimes lay 
 could not be more lonely than were some of the hamlets 
 he passed. As the troops descended the mountain they 
 were met by messengers from the beleaguered garrison. 
 Alvarado implored them to hasten to his rescue. 
 Montezuma wrote to say that he had kept his promise
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 211 
 
 faithfully and was not in any way to blame for the 
 rebellion. Both seemed hopeful that quiet would be 
 restored when Cortez returned. 
 
 Marching around the southern border of Lake Tez- 
 cuco, Cortez approached Mexico by the same causeway 
 over which he rode in such state the autumn before. 
 How changed the scene now ! The silence of death 
 brooded over the waters. Scarcely a sign of life was 
 visible anywhere till he reached the quarters where 
 the Spanish sentinel aloft in the tower called out that 
 the commander had come. " They received us," says 
 Cortez, " with as great joy as though we had restored 
 their lives to them, which they already considered as 
 lost." 
 
 It seems that Alvarado, the hot-headed young cavalier 
 who had been left in command, had attacked the natives 
 during a month of special religious festivals, and that six 
 hundred of the flower of Aztec warriors had been butch- 
 ered in cold blood. The Spaniards were accused of 
 plundering the bodies of the slain. Alvarado excused 
 himself to his angry general for this outrage by charg- 
 ing the Aztecs with a plot to surprise the garrison and 
 murder them all. The story may have had its origin 
 with the Tlascalans, who no doubt longed to break the 
 friendship between the Spaniards and their own lifelong 
 enemies, in order that they might themselves have a 
 share in the spoils of war. 
 
 Whatever may have been the occasion of the out- 
 break, the long-pent-up hatred of the natives had now 
 burst forth with fury. A cry for vengeance rang through 
 the city. The people attacked the garrison with mine 
 and with fire. Montezuma pleaded with them in vain. 
 At last open hostilities ceased, but the markets were closed
 
 212 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 and the water-supply was cut off, in order to starve out 
 the Spaniards. The garrison would have perished bat 
 for a little spring of sweet water which was discovered 
 oozing up within the enclosure. Gloomy as was the 
 prospect, Cortez sent a messenger the next day to Villa 
 Rica to tell of his safe arrival ; but the man had scarcely 
 started on his journey ere he returned covered with blood 
 and bruises, saying that all the inhabitants were up in 
 arms and the bridges were raised to cut off all hope of 
 retreat from the Spaniards. 
 
 The Aztecs now came surging up with wild yells 
 of defiance. The house-roofs could not be seen for the 
 masses of people who covered them and darkened the air 
 with arrows and stones. A volley from the guns checked 
 but a moment the crowd in the street. The infuriated 
 Aztecs tried to scale the walls upon which the guns were 
 mounted, but were beaten back. Firebrands were thrown 
 among the Tlascalan huts, whose thatched roofs burned 
 rapidly ; the flames seized on a wooden parapet on the 
 walls, and it was necessary to tear down part of these de- 
 fences and protect the breach by the guns. Night put a 
 stop to the contest, but the Spaniards were busy till day- 
 break making what repairs they could. 
 
 The Aztecs, who slept on the ground, close to the walls, 
 were up before the sun and with fresh recruits renewed 
 the attack. By a sally from the garrison they were 
 driven back to a barricade they had thrown across the 
 street. The Spaniards cleared this obstacle and the whole 
 length of the street to the dyke, the Indians disputing 
 every inch of the way. Every house was a fortress from 
 whose roof showers of stones and darts were hurled on 
 the Spanish coats of mail in the streets below, where a 
 hand-to-hand struggle constantly went on. It was soon
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 213 
 
 necessary to fire these dwellings, in order to dislodge the 
 assailants. This was slow work, separated as the houses 
 were by gardens and canals. Thus the day was spent. 
 Though many were killed, the enemy, with unabated 
 energy and fierce war-whoops, pursued the retreating 
 Spaniards to their citadel, and then lay down again close 
 to its walls, to be ready for an onslaught in the morning. 
 All their old character had returned. The Spaniards at 
 last had a sight of the traditional Aztecs hungry for 
 blood and desiring no greater glory than to die a war- 
 rior's death. On renewing the attack, if all the men 
 who climbed the wall were killed, others pressed eagerly 
 forward to take their places. 
 
 It was now resolved to appeal to Montezuma, who sat 
 sullenly in his apartment listening to the wild storm out- 
 side, raging at times against the very walls. The unhap- 
 py chief at last mounted the parapet and consented to 
 speak to his people. 
 
 " They will not listen to me now," he said, sadly, " nor 
 to your false promises, Malinche." * 
 
 It was even so. The Aztecs, stung to madness by the 
 tame surrender of their chief, refused to hear him. A 
 shower of stones was aimed at him, one of which, strik- 
 ing him on the temple, brought him senseless to the 
 ground. Three days afterward he died. 
 
 This account of Montezuma's death is not believed 
 among Mexicans ; they say that with two other hostages 
 of note he was slaughtered by the Spaniards and his dead 
 body thrown over the wall. Cortez, who speaks very 
 indifferently of this event, says, "I gave his dead body 
 to two Indians who were among the prisoners, and they 
 
 * Malinche, from Malintzin, the lord of MeYina, is the name by 
 which Cortez was always known in Mexico.
 
 214 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 bore it away to his people. What afterward became of 
 it I know not." 
 
 An unsuccessful attack made by the Spaniards greatly 
 encouraged the Aztecs, who now advanced to the teocallis, 
 partly occupied by Christians, who were soon driven out. 
 About five hundred of the natives took possession of its 
 top, and, laying in a store of provisions and stones, they 
 prepared to fight their enemy from the height of this 
 building, which overlooked the Spanish quarters. It 
 was evident that this fortress must be taken, and the 
 cavalry made a charge to clear the way for the infantry ; 
 but the horses slipped on the smooth pavement and were 
 sent back, and some mail-clad soldiers, with Cortez at 
 their head, succeeded in reaching the first flight of steps 
 leading to the second terrace. The whole building was 
 three hundred feet square at the base, and the path to 
 the top went round and round the pyramid by five ter- 
 races, a distance of nearly a mile. Each stairway was. a 
 scene of fearful conflict, those all along each terrace hurl- 
 ing down stones on the heads of their assailants, who, pro- 
 tected by sharpshooters below, were forcing their way inch 
 by inch to the top. Once masters of this commanding 
 position, the Spaniards set on fire the wooden towel's 
 which surmounted the building, tumbling the war-god 
 found there down the steep sides of the temple. Many 
 Aztecs flung themselves over the edge of the platform in 
 sheer despair. A great effort was made to push Cortez 
 headlong to the terrace below, but he was stoutly defended 
 by his men, forty-five of whom lost their lives in this 
 three hours' battle in the air. Not an Aztec escaped. 
 
 The capture of this strong position and the fall of 
 their idol struck dismay for a time into the hearts of the 
 Aztecs, and Cortez now called for a parley. The chiefs
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 
 
 215 
 
 came to the meeting-place, but the summons to lay down 
 their arms met with a calm resistance. They answered 
 that they were determined to make an end of the Span- 
 iards if they all died in the attempt. 
 
 That night Cortez followed up his advantage by burn- 
 ing three hundred houses. The men who were not doing 
 
 MEXICAN TEOCALLI. (From an old drawing.) 
 this were up all night repairing the movable fortresses 
 under cover of which they hoped to reach those on the 
 house-roofs. But 6n dragging out these clumsy machines 
 the next morning it was found impossible to use them. 
 The Aztecs had fulfilled their threat of destroying the 
 bridges over the canals ; the Spaniards were now obliged
 
 216 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 to fill up these water-ways with stones from the razed 
 buildings around them a work on which they spent two 
 days under a galling fire of stones and arrows. After 
 much exhausting labor communication was opened again 
 with the western causeway, and the cavalry went back 
 and forth over a solid road. It was the only path to the 
 mainland, the Aztecs having broken up every other dyke. 
 But the Spaniards were no longer penned up. 
 
 The Aztecs now called for a truce. They promised, if 
 they were forgiven, to raise the blockade and replace the 
 bridges. Meanwhile, they requested that their chief 
 priest, who had been captured in the storming of the 
 temple, should be set at liberty to lead them in their 
 negotiations. This was gladly done. 
 
 There seemed now to be some prospect of peace, and 
 Cortez, who had scarcely eaten or slept since the outbreak 
 began, sat down to take some refreshment, when a mes- 
 senger cam in hot haste to say that the Aztecs were at- 
 tacking thevgarrison and that several men on guard in 
 the street they had cleared had been killed. Cortez 
 sprang on his horse and galloped to the spot, followed by 
 a few horsemen, who drove the enemy right and left into 
 the side-streets. The foot-soldiers were panic-struck and 
 did not follow immediately, and by the time they rallied 
 a surging mob of Indians had closed in behind Cortez 
 and those who were with him. Canoes loaded with 
 warriors swarmed on each side of the causeway, which 
 was crowded with Indians. 
 
 Turning to go back, Cortez reached the bridge nearest 
 the city, but found that it had been shifted, so that the 
 horsemen, pushed from behind, had fallen in the chasm, 
 which was far deeper here, out in the lake, than the 
 shallow canals he had been filling up. The infantry, amid
 
 THE AZTECS REBEL. 217 
 
 a storm of stones and darts, were dragging the draw- 
 bridge back into position, and Cortez was lost to sight 
 for a time. A rumor spread that the general was dead. 
 Both he and his horse reappeared, however, but many 
 another brave warrior fell that day to rise not again. 
 
 o 
 
 The Aztecs were once more masters. They held four 
 bridges, while the Spaniards held four others, on the 
 western causeway, nearest the mainland. 
 
 The Spaniards now resolved to leave the city. The 
 soldiers of Narvaez had long been clamoring to go to the 
 coast, and all were exhausted by ceaseless efforts by night 
 and by day and unnerved by the seemingly hopeless char- 
 acter of the struggle with a foe which not only outnum- 
 bered them a thousand to one, but which, if every Aztec 
 now in the city were slain, could bring a still greater 
 force to the attack in a few hours. It was determined to 
 fall back on Tlascala, going by the western causeway, 
 though it led in a directly opposite direction. But it 
 was the shortest path and partly in the possession of the 
 Spaniards; once on the mainland, they would make their 
 way northward around Lake Tezcuco, and finally due east 
 to Tlascala. Cortez gave up his own horse to carry the 
 king's treasure, but by far the largest part of what had 
 been gained at such a cost was left behind, though a few, 
 more greedy than the rest, loaded themselves with spoil. 
 A son and two daughters of Montezuma, with several 
 leading chiefs among them Cacama, the fiery young 
 chief of Tezcuco were in the sad company which 
 marched out of Mexico that night. The most import- 
 ant duty was the management and defence of a pontoon- 
 bridge hastily constructed by the general's orders. This 
 was intended to span the chasm in the causeway, which 
 had been again uncovered and its movable bridge de-
 
 218 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 stroyed. When the entire army had passed over this 
 break, the bridge was to be taken up and carried to the 
 next, and so on till all the breaks were passed. 
 
 The Spaniards started at midnight, July 1, 1520. 
 The night was dark, and a drizzling rain fell on the 
 silent company which hurried toward the only path of 
 escape. Most of the dwellings in the neighborhood had 
 been destroyed, and there were no priestly watchmen in 
 the high towers of the temple to give the alarm, as in 
 olden times. The Indian sentinels whom they met were 
 soon silenced ; the bridge was laid down, and the army 
 was half over before the Aztecs took alarm. Then from 
 far and near they came after their escaping prey, hurrying 
 through the darkneas with infuriated yells. The Span- 
 iards pressed on till all were safely over the first opening 
 in the causeway. Then to lift the bridge and carry it to 
 the next ! The men plied their strong pikes in vain ; 
 the heavy timbers, sunken in the mud and pressed down 
 by the trampling feet of the fugitives, could not be lifted, 
 and, stunned and bleeding from the stones showered upon 
 them, the Spaniards were forced to abandon the bridge, 
 over which the Aztecs now crowded with wild shouts of 
 triumph. Pressed by those behind them, attacked by 
 enemies on the lake, the front ranks fell into the yawn- 
 ing breach, spanned only by a single beam. Some of the 
 horses swam over with their riders ; others forded a shal- 
 low place. Many were dragged off the causeway and car- 
 ried away to be slain on the altars of the war-god. The 
 chasm was soon filled with struggling victims or the bodies 
 of the dead horses and men, over which those in the rear 
 made their way to the last opening. 
 
 In such peril men often forget everything but their 
 own safety, but in this terrible night the Christians imi-
 
 PUEBLO OF NORTHERN MEXICO.
 
 220 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 tated the virtues of their savage foe, who at all hazards 
 bore away their dead and wouuded from the field. Those 
 who had safely passed each breach rushed back to save 
 their struggling comrades in the rear, and there was a 
 rally which covered the retreat of the shattered remnant 
 of the Spanish soldiery. But fresh Aztec forces came 
 down like a torrent, and the Christians gave way and 
 swam back among the canoes. Alvarado was unhorsed 
 and left behind surrounded by Aztecs thirsty for the 
 blood of the man who had caused this terrible slaughter. 
 Putting his long lance firmly into the wreck, he vaulted 
 over the breach at a single leap.* 
 
 Cortez sat down and through the darkness watched 
 the shattered army go by. Most of the horses were 
 gone; all of the cannon had been left at the second 
 bridge. Not a musket remained, nor a man who was 
 not wounded. Most of his Tlascalan allies had perished, 
 while scores of his brave cavaliers had for ever disap- 
 peared beneath the briny waters of Tezcuco or had been 
 dragged away to slaughter. But Marina was safe, and 
 Aguilar, Montezuma's daughters and Martin Lopez, the 
 old shipbuilder, with Alvarado and others of his trusted 
 friends, who gathered around their general. It was now 
 his turn to weep, and the tears of Cortez were long re- 
 membered by those who know the anguish of his soul 
 that sad night of the Spanish retreat. At Tacubaya, on 
 one of the avenues leading out of the City of Mexico, 
 a gnarled old cypress tree enclosed with a railing stands 
 almost in the roadway, and marks the spot where Cortez 
 stopped to rally his shattered army on the " sad night." 
 
 *The place has always since been known as " Alvarado' s Leap;" 
 it is near the western extremity of the Alameda. The lance Alvarado 
 carried is also preserved.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 
 
 THE end of the western causeway, where it joined the 
 mainland, was still held by the Spaniards. Over 
 this, in the darkness and the rain, the fugitives pushed on 
 to the city of Tlacopan, where Cortez found them huddled 
 together in the great square awaiting his directions. 
 
 " To the open country !" he called out. " Hasten, or 
 the Indians will be upon us again !" 
 
 To get away from the terrible house-roofs was the gen- 
 eral's first aim. But who knew the way out of the city ? 
 Now in the van, and now in the rear, the horsemen kept 
 the Indians at bay until the foot-soldiers had gained pos- 
 session of a large temple which stood on a hilltop out- 
 side Tlacopan.* After some fighting they drove out 
 those who held the building, and, safe for the present, 
 kindled a blazing fire, dried their wet clothes and dressed 
 each other's wounds. 
 
 All that night and until dark the next day the enemy 
 gave them no rest. At midnight, guided by a friendly 
 Indian, the Spaniards stole out, and, leaving fires burn- 
 ing, in order to deceive the natives, they took up their 
 line of march for Tlascala. But a sentinel gave the 
 alarm, and the Aztecs came rushing out like a swarm of 
 
 * Now called " Montezuma's Hill." Upon it is a church dedicated 
 to Our Lady de los Remedies. 
 
 221
 
 222 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 angry bees all along the road, pelting them with stones 
 and taunting them with their defeat. What with their 
 wounds, the horses overloaded with disabled men, the 
 entire want of artillery and the ceaseless fighting, this 
 first day's march was not over nine miles. Their road 
 led north, around several small lakes, and then east 
 through a mountainous country which gave the Indians 
 every advantage. Huge stones were rolled down from 
 the heights on the fleeing host. Sharpshooters hidden be- 
 hind rocks and trees let fly their arrows as the Spaniards 
 dragged themselves along or strayed into the fields for 
 an ear of corn wherewith to appease their hunger. Fam- 
 ine might have been added to the other perils of the way 
 but for the wild cherry trees, then in fruit, which every- 
 where grew in abundance. So many of these hungry 
 men were killed that Cortez was obliged to punish strag- 
 glers in order to save the remnant of his army from those 
 of the relentless enemy who hovered around them like 
 birds of prey. 
 
 Two nights and a day were spent in camp, to rest the 
 wornout men and horses. During this time crutches 
 were made for those who were too lame or too weak to 
 walk, so that in case of attack the horses wouk\ be free 
 for duty. Cortez marched with his men, cheering them 
 on with his own unfailing courage and that faith in his 
 own mission which he never seemed to lose. Most of 
 those with him were veterans who had come with him 
 from Cuba. The recruits he gained from Narvaez, being 
 in the rear in the flight from Mexico, had borne the brunt 
 of the battle, and most of them fell on that " sorrowful 
 night." The poor Tlascalans, too, were nearly all gone, 
 but those who still lived pushed bravely on with their 
 companions in arms, seeming to forget that it was for the
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 223 
 
 sake of the white men that half the houses in Tlascala 
 would be in mourning. 
 
 In one of the skirmishes by the way four or five Span- 
 iards were badly wounded ; among them was Cortez him- 
 self. The death of a horse at this time caused great 
 lamentation. The general says, " We derived some con- 
 solation from the flesh of this animal, which we ate, not 
 leaving even his skin, so great were our necessities." In 
 this sorry plight they traveled about fifty miles to reach 
 a point only eighteen miles distant, as a bird flies, from 
 the City of Mexico. 
 
 About a week after the retreat the troops stood on a 
 mountain-ridge from whose height they looked eastward 
 over the vast plain of Otumba. It was the place called 
 by the early settlers of Mexico Teot-huacan " the habi- 
 tation of the gods." Here were built some of the largest 
 and oldest pyramids on this continent, and here the Aztecs, 
 coming from their distant home a tribe of wandering sav- 
 ages, found one of the most flourishing Toltec cities. At 
 the time when the Spaniards stood on these mountains the 
 ruins of this nameless city were strewn over the plain, 
 but a pyramid almost as large as the great pyramid of 
 Egypt was still standing, crowned with a temple dedi- 
 cated to the sun. As the army came to the summit of 
 this range they saw what well might strike terror to their 
 hearts. Spread before them as far as the eye could reach 
 was a mighty host arrayed for battle. The white tunics 
 of the common soldiers made the plain look like a field 
 of snow. Gay banners held aloft each the ensign of 
 some clan or tribe showed that the multitude had been 
 gathered from many parts of the country. They were 
 there to dispute the passage of the Spaniards to Tlascala. 
 " We thought it certain that our last hour had come,"
 
 224 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 said Cortez, " so great was the force of the enemy, aud 
 so feeble our own." But after a few inspiriting words 
 from their leader the little band pressed forward as it 
 were into the very jaws of death. The enemy closed 
 about them, attacking them with such violence that the 
 two armies mingled, the Tlascalans being so scattered 
 among their red-skinned brethren that they were entirely 
 lost to sight. The Spaniards defended themselves in little 
 groups of four or five; the mail-clad horsemen dashed 
 about in the crowd in every direction, trampling the In- 
 dians under foot and throwing them into confusion, " they 
 being so numerous that they were in each other's way and 
 could neither fight nor fly." The battle lasted nearly all 
 day, and probably would have ended in the total defeat 
 of the Spaniards had not the Indian commander fallen. 
 A great panic followed. " After this," says Cortez, " we 
 were somewhat relieved, although still suffering from 
 hunger, until we reached a small house on the plain, in 
 which, with its surrounding fields, we lodged that night." 
 From this point could be seen the mountains of Tlascala 
 " a welcome sight which produced not a little joy in 
 our hearts, since we knew it was the land where we were 
 going." Yet a sad, uneasy thought must have forced 
 itself upon the mind of the general when he recollected 
 how few of the brave Tlascalans who a few months be- 
 fore marched with him so willingly to Cholula were now 
 returning to their homes. How could he be certain of a 
 welcome in such circumstances ? 
 
 It was scarcely daybreak when the army set out for 
 the desired refuge. The enemy still lingered about in 
 such strength and with such shouts and jeers, and some- 
 thing harder and sharper than these, that the Spaniards, 
 although considering themselves victors, were actually
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 225 
 
 hooted out of the country. Entering Tlascala, the in- 
 habitants brought provisions to them, but wanted to be 
 well paid in gold. The invaders were no longer con- 
 querors who could demand tribute or gods who must be 
 obeyed, but a defeated, fleeing army. They stopped three 
 days at this place to rest, and while there had a visit from 
 some of the leading chiefs of the tribe. Never did noble 
 red men better deserve that title so often given to them 
 in scorn than did these Tlascalan braves. They opened 
 their homes to the strangers, carrying the sick and the 
 lame in litters to a place of rest and dressing their 
 wounds with skill and kindness. The old chief Maxixca 
 took Cortez to his own home and gave him a bedstead to 
 sleep on, with clean cotton sheets and coverlets a luxury 
 he had not enjoyed for many a night. He lay here for 
 days tossing with a burning fever, the result of fatigue 
 and exposure after his wound. Many of the soldiers 
 died here, and were buried in the campground with a 
 rude cross to mark their graves as those of Christian 
 men. 
 
 At length the Indians began to mutter over the burden 
 of feeding an army of strangers. Many of the soldiers 
 became homesick and urged Cortez to hasten back to 
 Villa Rica to look after their brave companions there, 
 who perhaps might not be able to hold out in case of a 
 siege. This Cortez determined not to do. He was even 
 then, after all his disasters, forming plans to go back to 
 Mexico and recover the prize which had once been in 
 his grasp. He dared not trust his Spaniards so near 
 the ocean-path to Cuba. 
 
 While Cortez was debating this subject with his men a 
 party of Aztec chiefs arrived in Tlascala bringing pres- 
 ents, and offering peace to their old enemies if they would 
 
 15
 
 226 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 break friendship with the white men and help to destroy 
 them all while disabled and in their power. Some of the 
 younger chiefs would have accepted these proposals from 
 the Aztecs, but old Maxixca rejected them. His scorn 
 and indignation rose to such a pitch that he forgot the 
 decorum which always prerails in an Indian council, and 
 silenced one of the hot-headed young braves by turning 
 him out of doors. 
 
 This generous sympathy of his allies was a great en- 
 couragement to Cortez. Shamed by the loyalty of their 
 Indian friends, almost all the Spanish soldiers yielded to 
 his persuasions to return to Mexico. Their first step was 
 to open the highway between that city and the garrison 
 at Villa Rica by an attack on the Tepeacas, a tribe who 
 held two passes through the mountains, and who had 
 murdered a number of Spanish travelers during the 
 recent troubles. Their country bordered on Mexico 
 and was tributary to it, and their Aztec neighbors were 
 even then busy among them stirring up a war with the 
 white men. In the battles with these people Cortez took 
 hundreds of captives and vast spoil. Men, women and 
 children were branded with a hot iron as slaves and 
 divided among his own men and his allies, the first of 
 many thousands of human beings who were afterward 
 thus degraded by the Spaniards. 
 
 It was now very evident that all the Indians of Ana- 
 huac were watching the struggle between the Aztecs and 
 the Spaniards, ready to take the side of the victor. The 
 crushing defeat of the Tepeacas decided many of them ; 
 crowds began to flock to the standard of Cortez. The 
 star of this bold adventurer was now in the ascendant. 
 As an umpire among many warring tribes he settled their 
 quarrels to his own advantage, and in a short time built
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 227 
 
 up a great kingdom for Spain between Mexico and the 
 Gulf. 
 
 The Aztecs, meanwhile, were busy at home as well as 
 abroad. They had selected as " chief-of-men " Guate- 
 mozin, an Aztec warrior of the old school ready to die 
 rather than to yield an inch to the invaders of his coun- 
 try. So soon as the failure of the embassy to the Tlas- 
 calans was known the Aztecs began to garrison their fron- 
 tier, fortify their island-city, mend their broken dykes, 
 replace their bridges and rebuild their temples and 
 houses, whose roofs were so important in street-fighting. 
 They had learned much by experience. New instru- 
 ments of warfare were contrived, in order to defeat the 
 horsemen. Spanish swords lost in thase bloody battles 
 on the causeways were fastened on long poles, the better 
 to reach and to cut the horses, which, with the cannon, 
 had made the Spaniards almost invincible. 
 
 With the road to Villa Rica clear behind him, Cortez 
 now bent all his energies to the reconquest of Mexico. 
 He resolved to build thirteen boats in such a way that 
 they could be taken apart and carried in pieces over the 
 mountains, to be used in the lake in the siege of the 
 doomed city. Martin Lopez was put in charge of a 
 large force of Indian carpenters, and the woods were 
 soon ringing with the strokes of Spanish axes. 
 
 Meanwhile, Cortez sent to Cuba for all else he needed 
 to carry on the war, but before the men and stores arrived 
 he had twice been reinforced by the crews of veasels which 
 had been sent from that island on the same errand which 
 brought Narvaez. In both cases Cortez had the satisfac- 
 tion of enlisting under his banner men who had crossed 
 the sea to carry him in chains to Spain. Another large 
 company, which came to plant a hostile colony, were
 
 228 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 shipwrecked and obliged to put in at Villa Rica for 
 repairs. They were soon persuaded by generous treat- 
 ment to join Cortez in his expedition against Mexico. 
 Thus by patience and kind words he gained one hundred 
 and fifty men, twenty horses and an abundance of arms 
 and ammunition all from his avowed enemies. 
 
 While Cortez was at Tepeaca, the scene of his recent 
 victories, a messenger came to the camp from TJascala 
 with sad tidings. Maxixca, the old chief who had been 
 so true a friend to the white men, lay dying of small-pox 
 a disease of which the Indians had never heard until 
 the Europeans came which was then raging fearfully 
 throughout the country. To some of his people this 
 affliction was a fresh reason for hatred to the Spaniards, 
 but Maxixca saw in them the children of Feathered Ser- 
 pent. He believed that they had come in fulfillment of 
 ancient prophecy to claim their old possessions and to 
 lead him and his people to the one true God. In his 
 last hours he sent to Cortez for some one to come and 
 teach him how to approach this great Being in whose 
 presence he soon might stand. The priest Olmedo came 
 in hot haste, and found the dying chief with a crucifix 
 before him, to which his eyes were turned ; his old idols, 
 which his fathers worshiped, had all been given up, and 
 he had taken this instead. It was all he had learned of 
 Jesus. In an age when the Church so perverted the 
 truths of the gospel, though not so much given to the 
 worship of the Virgin as afterward, it is good to know 
 that the teaching of Olmedo was plain enough to lead 
 the anxious soul of Maxixca to his true Saviour, so that 
 he died confessing his faith in " the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sins of the world." Four other Tlas- 
 calan chiefs were baptized with him.
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 229 
 
 Busy with his preparations, Cortez did not come to 
 Tlascala until on his way to Mexico. His army had a 
 royal welcome from their old allies, and more than ever 
 won their hearts when they saw that every Spanish sol- 
 dier wore mourning for Maxixca. Here they were joined 
 by a vast horde of Tlascalans more eager than ever to 
 fight the Aztecs, and thousands were left behind to bring 
 the boats when Martin Lopez and his men had finished 
 them. 
 
 Once more the Spanish army climbed the mountain- 
 walls of Mexico. There was one path so steep and 
 rocky that Cortez thought the Aztecs would not expect 
 him to take it, and by this he resolved to go and surprise 
 them ; but the next day, as the troops descended toward 
 the valley from the bald summit where they had en- 
 camped for the night, they saw that trees had been 
 freshly cut down, blocking all the way. With great 
 difficulty these were cleared from the road, and, coming 
 to an open space beyond the forests, Cortez halted until 
 his men came up, when, with what seems to have been 
 true devotion, he bade them all join him in thanksgivings 
 to God for bringing them once more in safety to that spot. 
 Before them spread the beautiful Valley of Mexico, with 
 its fair cities, its glittering lakes and its hamlets em- 
 bosomed in trees. Through the clear air rose columns 
 of smoke from a score of signal-fires. Tezcuco, at their 
 feet, had given the alarm, and from point to point the 
 tidings flew, until every village around the lake knew 
 that the dreaded white men were at their gates. The 
 Spaniards saw that they had need to hasten to Tezcuco 
 before the Indians could have time to rally. 
 
 It was from this great city that Cortez intended to 
 attack Mexico. Not being able to reach it before night,
 
 230 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 the army halted at a village about six miles distant, whose 
 inhabitants fled at their approach. The next morning, 
 December 31, 1521, the army entered the almost deserted 
 place and took possession of a great lonely dwelling large 
 enough, we are told, to have held all the Spaniards pres- 
 ent had they been doubled in numbers. As no one was 
 seen in the streets, some of the soldiers mounted to the 
 top of a tower which afforded a good lookout, and saw 
 the people fleeing in every direction, some in canoes on 
 the lake, and some on foot toward the mountains. 
 
 While Cortez was fortifying Tezcuco he sought in every 
 way to make friends of all the tribes within his reach. 
 Most of them profeased sorrow for the part they had 
 taken in the late outbreak. One tribe posted watch- 
 men on the mountains overlooking Mexico, to be ready to 
 make an alliance with the Spanish leader so soon as sig- 
 nal-smokes should tell that he had come. While these 
 people w r ere in camp the messengers of another tribe with 
 whom they had long been at war came to Cortez on the 
 same errand. Hearing that they were unfriendly to each 
 other, Cortez told them that he could have no greater 
 satisfaction than would be afforded by his making peace 
 between these old enemies. His object was to unite the 
 tribes of the valley, in order that they might help him to 
 conquer Mexico. After two days in the Spanish camp, 
 the visitors went home in high good-humor with each 
 other and the white men, and determined to put down 
 the Aztecs. 
 
 Among the tribes who had old scores to settle with 
 Mexico were the people of Chalco ; their alliance with 
 the Spaniards had roused the Aztecs, who now threatened 
 to punish them. Their messengers came in haste to ask 
 for help, showing on a large white cloth a map on which
 
 232 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 were marked a number of towns about to attack them, 
 with the roads the parties would take. A force was sent 
 immediately to help these Chalco allies. The wild ravines 
 and mountain-fastnesses now resounded with the din of 
 war as Cortez made a circuit of the valley, leaving be- 
 hind him a track marked by death and ruin. 
 
 Martin Lopez now had his boats all ready; eight 
 thousand Tlascalans had been detailed to bring them in 
 pieces on their shoulders a distance of fifty-four miles. 
 The way was rough and steep, leading over the moun- 
 tainous back-bone of the continent. This procession of 
 porters was six miles long. Besides these were thousands 
 of armed warriors as a guard, and two thousand men 
 loaded with provision for the multitude. AVhen the long 
 procession came in sight of Tezcuco, Cortez went out to 
 meet it. A salute was fired, the drums beat, the bugles 
 sounded and the cheers of thousands rent the air. For 
 six hours this vast fierce multitude streamed into Tez- 
 cuco. Cortez might well tremble over the responsibility 
 of leading an army which were not only savages, but 
 cannibals with a thirst for Aztec blood which was no 
 mere figure of speech. Before the war was over he found 
 that it was so much harder to hold back his merciless 
 allies than to let them carry on a battle in their ordi- 
 nary way that he set them loose to ravage the country 
 like fiends in human shape. 
 
 Every day during these weeks of preparation the army 
 increased in numbers. The Tezcucans must have come 
 back to their beautiful city in crowds, for, cold as they 
 were at first, they rallied under a new chief, a grandson 
 of Hungry Fox, and came to Cortez fifty thousand 
 strong. His first blow was struck at the aqueduct by 
 which the City of Mexico was supplied with water.
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 233 
 
 The water was brought across the lake from a spring at 
 Chapultepec. After a desperate conflict, the Spaniards 
 succeeded in cutting the pipes and tearing down the noble 
 structure on which they were laid. Still further to harass 
 the Mexicans and to provide their own camp with food, 
 the soldiers went out and reaped all the grain-fields with- 
 in reach. Two divisions of the army approached Mexico 
 by land, while others, commanded by Cortez, came in his 
 brigantines. 
 
 From a lofty tower in the city of Tezcuco the Spanish 
 leader had watched for the signal-smokes which should 
 tell the dwellers in the valley that the siege had begun. 
 The Aztec canoes had come out in swarms from every 
 town and village around the lake. Iztapalapa had just 
 been burned, and its homeless people were all in their 
 boats. Getting in his brigantine, Cortez bore down upon 
 this fleet, being carried along by a strong wind that was 
 sweeping over the water at the time, and without a shot 
 from the cannon on their decks hundreds of the smaller 
 crafts were crushed like eggshells and the rest chased 
 back into the canals which interlaced the City of Mex- 
 ico. 
 
 An encampment on the southern causeway leading to 
 the city was the end of the first day's work. The In- 
 dians made an attack that night, but were quickly re- 
 pulsed by the brigantines. The next morning neither 
 land nor water could be seen for the multitude that 
 poured out of the city, " all howling as though the world 
 had come to an end," said Cortez. 
 
 It being seen that the canoes had come from the side 
 
 o 
 
 unprotected by the brigantines, the Indian allies were set 
 to work to widen every sluiceway through the dykes, in 
 order to allow these large boats to pass. Up to that time
 
 234 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 most of the lake had been fenced off, but in a few days 
 the water-patrol was able to go all around the island-city 
 and assist each division of the army. 
 
 As the Aztecs had broken up the bridges over nearly 
 every canal in the city, the streets were full of ugly gaps 
 which could not be crossed by horse or foot in the daily 
 assaults. The friendly Indians now filled these with 
 bricks and rubbish, and strict orders were given that no 
 advance should be made except over a solid road. But, 
 as the Aztecs were busy every night undoing what was 
 done by day, the work was repeated again and again. 
 
 Alvarado was the first to forget the warning. Cortez 
 saw his command one day flying back in hot haste and 
 the enemy, like dogs in full cry, pursuing them. In 
 front was a bridgeless canal into which the whole party, 
 horse and foot, were driven. In the attempt to save 
 them Cortez was dragged off his horse, and would have 
 been carried away in a canoe had not several of his men 
 sacrificed their own lives to save the life of their general. 
 Forty-five Spaniards and a thousand Indians were lost 
 in this battle. As the survivors retreated to the great 
 square to defend themselves against the yelling throng 
 which pressed upon them from every side, faint odors of 
 burning incense of a kind only used in sacrifices came 
 floating down from a high tower near by. Looking up, 
 the Spaniards saw what chilled the life-blood in their 
 hearts. Aztec priests were dragging several victims to 
 sacrifice, and, from their white skins, they knew them to 
 be their own fellow-countrymen. They saw the wretched 
 captives made to dance before the idol. 
 
 This victory was celebrated by the Mexicans with wild 
 enthusiasm. Drums were beaten and horns were blown. 
 Messengers were sent to every old ally, carrying the
 
 235 
 
 heads of Spanish men and horses, with a call for help to 
 drive out the invaders by a grand rally of all the tribes. 
 Whatever fear the Spaniards felt at this crisis they kept 
 to themselves ; their savage allies, who could so soon be 
 changed into savage enemies, knew nothing of it. Some 
 friendly tribes, being threatened with an attack from the 
 Aztecs, sent to ask help, and it was freely given, though 
 the Spaniards had to be divided to do it. 
 
 It was now forty-five days since the siege had begun. 
 Much of the city was already laid waste. Montezuma's 
 house, with its aviaries, museum, magnificent summer- 
 houses and lofty corridors, was a mass of smouldering 
 ruins. The old Spanish quarters, near by, were also torn 
 down, and with the bricks from these and other buildings 
 the Tlascalans had reared barracks for the Spaniards and 
 themselves on the southern causeway. 
 
 At a council of war to which the allied chiefs were 
 summoned it was resolved to begin on the outskirts of 
 Mexico and level everything to the dust, filling up the 
 canals as the advance was made. The Aztecs saw this 
 work begin, and seemed to know that the worst had 
 come. They tried to discourage the Tlascalans, who 
 pulled down their houses, crying out to them that they 
 would have their trouble for nothing, for, whichever side 
 conquered, they would have to rebuild the city. But the 
 direful work went on. Even Cortez regretted the destruc- 
 tion of this beautiful city. Seven-eighths of it were now 
 in ruins. The people had been living on roots, the bark 
 of trees and rats, without good water and surrounded by 
 dead bodies. Famine and pestilence added their ravages 
 to the terrible devastation. Women and children wan 
 and haggard with disease and hunger wandered about 
 the ruins. The allies were charged to let the wretches
 
 236 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 alone, but the Indians knew no pity, and, although for 
 three days after they reached the heart of the City of 
 Mexico no regular fighting was done, a merciless carnage 
 went on. The people and many of the chiefs would have 
 yielded, but Guatemozin and his adherents seemed bent 
 on making the difference between Montezuma and them- 
 selves as striking as possible; Guatemozin would die 
 rather than surrender. A captured Aztec chief sent 
 back to him to treat for peace was killed, and the mes- 
 sage was returned, with a shower of arrows, that " death 
 was all they wanted now." 
 
 The truce was concluded, and hostilities began again. 
 The story of the dreadful days which followed can never 
 be fully told how these miserable, starving people were 
 hunted out of their hiding-places to be shot down in the 
 streets or driven into the water. One of the stratagems 
 used was to collect into one great basin all the canoes 
 that could be found, so that when the houses were at- 
 tacked the helpless inmates had no means of escape across 
 the canals, but were stabbed and drowned. At last one 
 of the brigantines on duty in the lake a large basin in 
 the city broke through a fleet of canoes which had gath- 
 ered there, giving chase to one in which was evidently 
 some important personage. The Spaniards were about to 
 fire upon the party, when some one signaled to them that 
 the " chief-of-men " was there. The master of the brig- 
 antines bore down upon them instantly, and Guatemozin, 
 with his companions, was soon led into the presence of 
 Cortez, who was on one of the housetops near the mar- 
 ket-place. " I made him sit down," said the conqueror, 
 " and treated him with confidence ; but the young man 
 put his hand on the poignard I wore at my side and en- 
 treated me to kill him, because, since he had done all his
 
 MEXICO SHALL BE CONQUERED! 
 
 237 
 
 duty to himself and his people, he had no other desire 
 but death." 
 
 Thus, on the 13th of August, 1521, ended one of the 
 most cruel sieges recorded in history the first experience 
 which the heathen of this New World had with the so- 
 called Christians of Europe.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 
 
 A GREAT storm broke over the ruined city the night 
 after the surrender of Guatemoziu. The rain came 
 down in torrents, as though the pitying heavens would 
 wash out the awful blood-stains with which men had 
 polluted the earth. The streets were deserted by friend 
 and by foe. Only the dead were there, lying in silent 
 heaps over which brooded the pestilence.* More than 
 fifty-five thousand persons are said to have perished 
 within the city by sword and by famine in that siege 
 of seventy-five days. 
 
 Taking with them the captured chief Guatemozin 
 and all the treasure which could be found after a most 
 diligent search, the Spaniards withdrew to Cuyoacan, a 
 city on the mainland, not far south of Mexico. 
 
 Cortez had not secured peace for himself by the de- 
 struction of Mexico. Envious tongues were busy against 
 him on both sides of the Atlantic, and he was in constant 
 danger of arrest and recall. More than once directions 
 were sent to Mexico to hang him without the ceremony 
 of a trial. Admiral Columbus, a son of the great dis- 
 coverer, was one of those who came from Cuba to put an 
 end to what were deemed his treasonable designs. In 
 
 * The remnant of the population, at the request of the conquered 
 Guatemozin, went to the neighboring villages until the town could 
 be purified and the dead removed (Bernal Diaz). 
 238
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 239 
 
 spite of these untoward circumstances, and before the 
 smoke of battle had fairly lifted, Cortez sent out explor- 
 ing parties to continue the search for that strait to the 
 south seas of which all Europe was dreaming, and with 
 less than a thousand of his countrymen, some of whom 
 were disloyal at heart, he proceeded to garrison the val- 
 ley and the Gulf coast, and to subdue the outlying 
 tribes. 
 
 Among those who came to pay their respects to the 
 conqueror were the Michoacans, a powerful tribe living 
 about two hundred miles west of Mexico. Warned by 
 the fate of that city, and afraid, perhaps, that their turn 
 might come next, they hastened to become the allies of 
 the great lord Cortez claimed to represent. He received 
 the embassy, which was headed by the principal chief 
 himself, with the honor due to distinguished visitors, and 
 by way of entertainment took them in one of his brig- 
 an tines to view the ruins of the great Aztec capital. 
 They gazed on the widespread scene of desolation with 
 mute wonder, but seemed much less impressed by that 
 than by the running of the horses and the noise made by 
 the black monsters that vomited fire. 
 
 These people told of a great sea lying near their coun- 
 try, toward the sunset. About the same time Cortez 
 heard of another large body of water, stretching far to 
 the south. In the geographies of those days all unknown 
 lands were counted as islands, and, now that it was set- 
 tled that the world was round, men were continually 
 looking for a passage between these to "other islands, 
 rich in gold, pearls, precious stones and spiceries."* The 
 report of these Indian visitors therefore received imme- 
 diate attention. Explorers were sent west and south 
 * Cortez.
 
 240 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 with strict orders not to return without discovering and 
 taking possession of these seas by setting up crosses along 
 their shores. 
 
 Meanwhile, it was necessary to plant a colony some- 
 where in the valley to secure to Spain possessions which 
 had been won at such a cost. There seemed to be no bet- 
 ter site for the city which Cortez proposed to found than 
 the island on which Mexico once stood, and no better 
 men to superintend its rebuilding and repeopling than 
 two Aztec chiefs, one of whom M 7 as Montezuma's son 
 and the other his associate in office, the cihua-coatl, or 
 " snake-woman," as the second chief was called. Al- 
 though he was head of the tribe while his partner was in 
 captivity, Tihucoa's name does not appear in history until 
 the great tragedy was over, and then only as a taskmaster 
 over his conquered people and as the traitor who finally 
 caused the death of Guatemozin. So vigorously did the 
 work go on that in October, 1524, when Cortez wrote 
 his last letter to Charles V., the new city already con- 
 tained thirty thousand householders, a fine market sup- 
 plied with all the old-time luxuries, beautiful gardens 
 that fringed the lake-shore and dotted its broad expanse, 
 while Christian churches lifted their towers heavenward 
 over the ruined shrines of this land, still overshadowed 
 with heathenism. The great stone of sacrifice, the cal- 
 endar, the war-god, and numerous other relics of the 
 former life of these people which could not be destroyed, 
 were buried in a deep pit, according to the order of the 
 conqueror; these were all dug out again in 1790. A 
 large convent replaced the famous House of Birds, and 
 on the site of Montezuma's residence arose the splendid 
 palace of the viceroys of " New Spain of the ocean sea." 
 Cortez had a fancy for long, high-sounding names, and
 
 242 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 it was his request that the country he had conquered 
 should bear this title. Strange to say, however, though 
 Mexico rose from its ashes a Spanish city, with so many 
 radical changes, the conquerors never seem to have 
 thought of giving this place a Christian name. It was 
 at first Tenochtitlan " Stone-Cactus Place ;" now, as 
 though to show that it was as truly heathen as ever, it 
 was called Mexitli, after an Aztec god. 
 
 Mexico was now more of a fortress than ever, though 
 it did not cover so much ground as formerly it had done. 
 All the canals were filled up and the streets laid out wide 
 and straight. Day and night the work went on until it 
 was completed. Like the children of Israel who built 
 the cities of old Egypt, the lives of these Aztec masons 
 and carpenters were " made bitter with hard bondage, in 
 mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the 
 field." On the foundations of the old teocallis rose a 
 great cathedral. The Aztecs had boasted that human 
 blood and precious stones had been freely mingled in the 
 mortar of their temple ; the building which replaced it, 
 though dedicated to the Prince of peace, cost them far 
 more in human life and treasure. 
 
 In time nearly all the country known at the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century as Mexico was conquered 
 by Spain. A few wandering tribes at the North contin- 
 ued to defy all attempts at subjugation, and still lived by 
 the chase. Village Indians who, as far as possible, 
 have maintained their old laws and customs, in spite of 
 foreign intruders have always boasted with a laudable 
 pride that no Spanish, or even Aztec, banner ever floated 
 over their lands. These are tilled in common now as 
 then. These people still speak their old dialects and 
 refuse to learn any other, communication for the purposes
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 243 
 
 of trade being kept up by a few men who act as inter- 
 preters and attend to the business of the tribe. In re- 
 cesses among the mountains far to the south are tribes 
 which have held entirely aloof from white men, whose 
 very existence is known only by hearsay. Many others 
 that are better known have been so reduced in numbers 
 and so broken by oppression that scarcely a trace of their 
 old character remains. 
 
 Some who took the wrong, or unfortunate, side in the 
 struggle constantly going on between Cortez and his 
 Spanish enemies were punished with fire and sword. 
 Many a chief w r as hung from his own roof tree or 
 burned at the stake, while thousands of the common 
 people were branded as slaves and sold to the highest 
 bidder, to wear out their lives in cruel bondage. 
 
 Poor Guatemozin, the young Aztec " chief-of-men," 
 lost his life in these contentions. It was in 1525. Cor- 
 tez had gone to Honduras, a journey of fifteen hundred 
 miles, to put down D'Olid, one of his captains, who had 
 been sent to the south on a colonizing expedition and un- 
 dertook to set up for himself. Besides his Spaniards, 
 horse and foot, Cortez had three thousand Mexican troops. 
 The wild mountain-ravines echoed with the strains of mar- 
 tial music as they passed along, while buffoons in gay 
 attire cheered the way with jest and song. But during 
 this almost kingly progress through the land food and 
 provender gave out, and the whole army were in great 
 peril from famine. For days they subsisted on grass and 
 the roots of an herb which burned the lips and the 
 tongue. The poor fool who rode near Cortez was the 
 first who died. The Indian guides lost the way, and the 
 whole party would have perished in those pathless forests 
 but for the mariner's compass which Cortez always car-
 
 244 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 ried. The army became so disorganized that each man 
 foraged for himself. Sandoval, the faithful friend of 
 Cortez, was obliged to go out at night to procure food for 
 him, for his rations were stolen constantly. It is said of 
 the Mexicans that from the chiefs down they fared much 
 better, as they kidnapped unwary natives in villages 
 through which they passed and had some cannibal feasts 
 until Cortez heard of it and put an end to their orgies. 
 
 In this state of affairs the Aztec chief who rebuilt 
 Mexico came to Cortez with the story of an Aztec plot 
 to reinstate Guatemozin in his chieftainship. At no 
 time since the conquest had there been a better opportunity 
 for revolt ; the city was weakly guarded and the garrison 
 was a house divided against itself. The informer showed 
 Cortez pictures of those who led the conspirators ; they 
 were Guatemozin and his friend, the chief of Tlacopan. 
 They were both seized immediately and examined sepa- 
 rately, and after a short trial, with dubious proofs of 
 guilt, both were hung by the roadside on a great ceyba 
 tree. The people, seeing Cortez in his tent studying his 
 chart and compass, concluded that he was a magician, and 
 that the trembling little needle he so anxiously watched 
 had been telling him the secrets of hearts. Some of 
 them, afraid for their own lives, came to him and begged 
 him to look again at the strange oracle and ask it if they 
 were not true friends to the white man. It is needless to 
 say that Cortez improved this, as he did all other oppor- 
 tunities, to establish his character of a teule, or god.* 
 
 The subjugation of the tribes of Mexico was not ac- 
 complished until the Spaniards had swept the land as 
 with a besom of destruction. Cities were depopulated 
 
 * The Spaniards were known as teules, or gods, long after they were 
 found to be like other men.
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 245 
 
 and leveled to the earth, the mountains denuded of their 
 forests, streams and lakes dried up, the farms laid waste, 
 and those of the people who escaped the awful havoc of 
 war were driven into hopeless slavery. The bishop of 
 Chiapas affirms that fifteen million out of the thirty mil- 
 lion found by the Spaniards on entering the country had 
 been cut off before the land had been quieted in that 
 mental and moral death which followed the conquest. 
 Well may historians call this " one unspeakable outrage, 
 one unutterable ruin " ! 
 
 The priests who accompanied the army of zealots 
 which overran the country seem from the first to have 
 counseled more gentle measures, but all alike were bent 
 on forcing the conquered race into obedience to the pope. 
 They had come to wipe out paganism and drive the peo- 
 ple like a flock of frightened sheep into the fold of the 
 true Church. When they saw the picture-writings of 
 the Aztecs and the sculptured walls of their temples, it 
 was decided that all such heathenish rubbish must be put 
 out of sight as soon as possible. Thousands of carefully- 
 written books were therefore piled up and burned, and as 
 far as possible everything which reminded the people of 
 their ancient faith was destroyed, unless, as was often the 
 case, it could be furbished up and adopted by the Church. 
 Without waiting to understand enough of the language 
 to communicate an idea in words, they baptized the na- 
 tives in crowds. One priest boasted that he had converted 
 and brought into the Church from ten to fifteen thousand 
 in a single day. So superficial was the work that, 
 although Mexico became one of the most faithful and 
 intolerant upholders of Rome, so much of the ancient 
 idolatry remained that to this day intelligent defenders 
 of the papacy visiting Mexico blush for shame at what
 
 246 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 they may well call a paganized Christianity. In many 
 cases the same idol has served for both forms of idolatry 
 when reclothed, renamed and well sprinkled with holy 
 water. Tomantzin "Our Mother" was once wor- 
 shiped by crowds in the veiy spot now sacred to the Vir- 
 gin of Guadalupe, the tutelar divinity of Mexico. 
 
 The land must have been full of idols. The Francis- 
 cans boasted that in eight years they had broken twenty 
 thousand images. On a high mountain in Miztec one 
 of the Dominican friars found a little idol called " the 
 Heart of the People." It was a beautiful emerald four 
 inches long and two wide, engraved with snakes and 
 other sacred devices. Knowing its great value as a gem, 
 a Spanish cavalier tried to buy it, but the pious friar was 
 horror-struck at the idea, and, proceeding with what he 
 considered his duty, he ground it to powder and strewed 
 it to the winds. 
 
 In this respect the early Fathers were a great contrast 
 to those who followed them. One of the first acts of 
 Cortez as governor-general had been to propose a plan 
 for the conversion of the Indians, and one of its prime 
 requisites, in his opinion, was that no prelate or bishop 
 should be sent to New Spain, since the first object of such 
 officials would be to make money. " They will use," he 
 says, "the estates of the Church in pageants and other 
 foolish matters, and bestow rights of inheritance on their 
 sons or relatives." He told the king very plainly that 
 if the Indians had an opportunity to compare the honest, 
 moral lives of their old priests with those led by the cor- 
 rupt dignitaries of Rome it would be worse for the latter : 
 " If they, the pagans, understood that these were the 
 ministers of God who were indulging in vicious habits, 
 as is the case in these days in Spain, it would lead them
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 247 
 
 to undervalue our faith and treat it with derision, and all 
 the preachers in the world would not be able to counter- 
 act the mischief arising from this source." 
 
 On May 13, 1524, there landed at San Juan de Ulua 
 a company of twelve Franciscan friars, sent to Mexico, 
 in response to the original call of Cortez, for the purpose 
 of converting the Indians. These monks fully realized 
 what was asked of them, and became not only the spir- 
 itual advisers, but actually the material protectors, of 
 the Indians. They taught the Indians to work. Among 
 the many missions established by them amidst these peo- 
 ple, those of the west coast were both financially and spir- 
 itually the most successful. The first white settlers in 
 California were Franciscan monks. They found there 
 a less warlike and energetic people than those in the 
 Valley of Mexico, and trained them to habits of indus- 
 try and devotion. Substantial churches and mission- 
 buildings soon arose in the wilderness, about which 
 clustered the little adobe villages surrounded by fields 
 and orchards. The only roads for many years to be 
 found in the country were those between these stations. 
 Many of these missions became very rich. At the be- 
 ginning of the last century the Franciscan monks of 
 California owned immense tracts of land and carried on 
 a thriving business with Russian merchants from the far 
 North-west in wine and wool, hides and tallow. In this 
 way Spain was able to claim as her own the whole Pacific 
 coast as far as Puget Sound. The Indian converts were 
 patient, docile children whose prayers to the Virgin and 
 the saints led their hearts into ways so old and familiar 
 that but little violence was done to their feelings in the 
 change from one religion to the other. When from any 
 failure or from removal these Indians were left to them-
 
 248 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 selves, they relapsed into barbarism. They held their 
 lands again in common and as far as possible kept up 
 their old tribal organization. These divisions were 
 known even among those who had been under the heel 
 of the oppressor for generations. They often elected a 
 chief whose only privilege was to serve as a taskmaster 
 over his people. A hardy and industrious race, they 
 cling tenaciously to the homes and the habits of their 
 forefathers in spite of the most stringent laws, by which 
 their masters strove to mingle the tribes. Thirty-five of 
 these tribes are known to have survived the conquest. 
 Many of them inhabit the same villages, speak the same 
 dialect, work at the same business and with the same rude 
 tools as those which their ancestors used generations ago. 
 Loyal as they may be to the corrupt religion which was 
 forced upon them, many in remote and isolated places are 
 looking for Montezuma to return, confusing him, no 
 doubt, with Feathered Serpent, in whom their fathers 
 so vainly trusted. The revolt of the Zapotecs in 1550 
 was due to this hope. We are told that the sacred fire 
 which once glowed on Aztec altars is still kept burning 
 in hidden caves, and of Indian boys whose solemn chants 
 morning and evening toward the rising and setting sun 
 tell of heathen superstitions which have survived three 
 hundred years of Romish teaching.* This last beautiful 
 
 * In 1847, Brantz Mayer writes: "While at the hacienda of Ta- 
 mise, near Cuernavaca, he pointed out to us the site of an Indian 
 village at the distance of three leagues, the inhabitants of which are 
 almost in their native state. They do not permit the visits of white 
 men, and, numbering more than three thousand, they come out in 
 delegations to work on the haciendas, being governed at home by 
 their own magistrates, and employ a Catholic priest to shrive them 
 of their sins once a year; they earn their wages, make their own 
 clothes of cotton and skins, and raise corn and beans for food."
 
 CHURCH OF TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO.
 
 250 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 custom was adopted by the Church of Rome, and might 
 have carried many Indian hearts heavenward in true de- 
 votion had the hymns or the prayers been written in a 
 language the natives could understand. It is through 
 these simple, ignorant people that the Church party has 
 always maintained its hold on Mexico. The Indians 
 seem to be grateful for the protection given to them 
 in earlier years by those priests who had devoted their 
 lives for the good of the children of the soil. 
 
 The frightful oppressions of the Indians by the colo- 
 nists were for many years combated by the monks. 
 When Charles V. changed the form of colonial gov- 
 ernment to that of an audiencia, the president and four 
 councilmen who composed the body seem to have vied 
 with each other in keeping up the pomp and ceremony 
 of court-life, and the labors of the Indians in building 
 their palaces and in bringing provisions for their luxu- 
 rious establishments were greatly increased. In six or 
 eight months one hundred and thirteen persons, men and 
 women, died from exposure in carrying burdens from dis- 
 tant mines and fields and gardens through the snow and 
 rain of those bleak uplands. The monks, who always 
 sided with the Indians, thundered from the pulpit and 
 the confessional, aiming especially at the auditors, whose 
 sumptuous works were carried on at such a sacrifice of 
 human life. The audiencia, in revenge for some of the 
 plain sermons of the first bishop of Mexico, cut off his 
 support. He retaliated by excommunicating the audi- 
 encia. In 1530 a great junta, or council, was held in 
 Spain, to consider the important questions arising out 
 of the relations between the colonists and their serfs ; for 
 such they truly were. The decision was unanimously in 
 favor of the Indians.
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 251 
 
 Of the priests, none were more faithful friends to the 
 natives than was the philanthropist Las Casas. While a 
 young man residing in Cuba his attention had been called 
 to their wrongs. His Dominican confessor had decided 
 that his sins could not be forgiven while he owned Indians. 
 With his eyes thus opened, Las Casas began to preach 
 against his brother-slaveholders. He finally saw it to 
 be his duty to go to Spain to plead the cause of the In- 
 dians with the king himself. It seems that while Charles 
 V. was yet a boy his heart had been touched by the stories 
 related to him by Las Casas, who had been to America 
 with Columbus in 1494. Las Casas determined to use 
 his influence with the king in behalf of the oppressed peo- 
 ple of Cuba and other islands, who were melting away. 
 
 Las Casas became a priest in order to preach the gos- 
 pel to the Indians and humanity to their oppressors. 
 He had a friend in Cuba to whom he applied for money 
 to enable him to carry out this noble aim. To his sur- 
 prise, he found that the eyes of his friend, Reuteria, had 
 also been opened, and that he was preparing at that very 
 time to go to Spain on the same errand. After confer- 
 ring together, however, it was decided that, since they 
 were both so poor, Reuteria should mortgage his farm 
 and Las Casas should sell his horse, and that all they 
 both could raise should be spent by the latter in a trip to 
 Spain. While there he gained new light on the avarice 
 and tyranny of the Spanish colonists. The facts were 
 so disheartening that he was afraid to speak all his mind 
 to the all-powerful Cardinal Xiuienes, with whom he 
 consulted about the wrongs of the Indians. But one day 
 he asked, 
 
 " With what justice can these things be done, whether 
 the Indians are free or not?"
 
 252 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Xiraenes exclaimed, 
 
 " With no justice! What ! are they not free".' Who 
 doubts about their being free ?" 
 
 It was while such discussions as these were going on 
 that the planters bethought themselves that the negroes 
 of Africa might replace the Indians. While Charles V. 
 was in Germany he was besieged with petitions to grant 
 licenses for the importation of Africans to till the depop- 
 ulated soil of the West Indies and of other Spanish colo- 
 nies. Ximenes protested, and twelve times daring fifty 
 years Las Casas crossed the sea on his philanthropic 
 errands, but in vain. 
 
 One of the earliest effects of the discovery of America 
 was a division of its lands (repor&mteitfoft) among the set- 
 tlers from the Old World. In 1497 a patent was granted 
 to Christopher Columbus authorizing him to divide the 
 newly-discovered countries among his followers. It was 
 his decision that " the natives should till the soil for the 
 benefit of those who hold them." Little did this good 
 man think of the inheritance of shame and sorrow he 
 was preparing for his countrymen and their victims in 
 lands he had never seen. 
 
 At first the Spaniards had only a life-estate in the 
 serfs ; next, the owner had the right to the service of a 
 man and his son, and finally the natives were doomed to 
 unending servitude. They could be taken from place to 
 place at their master's pleasure, with such wages as he 
 chose to give or with none at all. These removals were 
 the sorest trial the village Indians could endure. To be 
 torn from the lands their forefathers had tilled, to work in 
 mines for life, and to be compelled to labor on farms when 
 they had been trained at the loom, were alike irksome to 
 these creatures of custom. Not only toil, but tribute,
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 253 
 
 was exacted. Every male over fourteen was obliged at 
 appointed times to bring a little packet or quill of gold- 
 dust if he lived near to or worked in a mine ; or if he had 
 no gold, he paid tribute in cotton. 
 
 After several experiments, the government of Mexico 
 and of other Spanish colonies in the West was confided to 
 the " council of the Indies/' a body of men appointed by 
 the king and nominally responsible to him. This council 
 was represented in New Spain by a viceroy, who, with 
 the old audierwia for his counselors, was absolute enough 
 for a real monarch. There had been so much difficulty 
 in ruling through persons of inferior rank, like the 
 audiencia, that it was decided to put a man over them 
 with "that divinity which doth hedge a king," that he 
 might stand between the natives and the crowd of money- 
 making adventurers who were flocking to America. Of 
 the sixty-four viceroys who reigned in Mexico, several 
 seem to have befriended the downtrodden race over 
 whom they were placed. The second of these rulers 
 declared that "justice to the Indians was of more im- 
 portance than all the mines in the world, and that the 
 revenues they yielded to the Spanish Crown were not of 
 such a character that all human and divine laws were 
 to be sacrificed in order to obtain them." 
 
 During the reign of Mendoza, the first viceroy, the 
 Indians, grown desperate with their manifold wrongs, 
 rose in their first formidable rebellion since the death of 
 Guatemozin. The old names of Tlascala, Cholula and 
 Tezcuco gleam out as of old in the records of these 
 stormy days, although in the guise of serfs one scarcely 
 recognizes the proud warriors of twenty years before. 
 Up to that time their chiefs still wore their old insignia 
 of rank and tied their hair on the tops of their heads
 
 254 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 with red leather. Those who had beeii loyal to Spain 
 were now rewarded by permission from the viceroy to 
 ride on horseback and carry a gun when they followed 
 him to put down the insurrection. The gachupines* 
 were very angry about this conciliatory policy of the 
 wise Meudoza; but when the news reached Spain, the 
 king, who always had in his heart a warm corner for the 
 Indians, was so much interested that he issued an edict 
 of emancipation, with full authority to the messenger 
 who took it to Mexico to enforce all its commands. 
 
 If putting the Indians on horseback was an affront 
 to the Spanish pride, the planters were much more deep- 
 ly moved when their pockets were touched. After a 
 vain attempt to resist the new law, a delegation of Cre- 
 oles was sent to Spain to protest against this sentimental 
 interference with their human machines. The good Las 
 Casas, then bishop of Chiapas, tried his hand at mend- 
 ing matters, but he was too true a friend of the red men 
 to be tolerated, and he was ever afterward regarded by 
 the planters as their enemy. 
 
 Unfortunately for the Indians, the delegation reached 
 Spain at a time when Charles V. was in great trouble. 
 He was always in want of money to carry on his numer- 
 ous wars, but never had he been in such need as now. 
 The Turks, who for a long time had been thundering at 
 the eastern gate of his empire, now boldly entered and 
 snatched away the crown of Hungary, which he must 
 win back at any cost. His quarrels with his neighbor 
 across the Pyrenees, Francis I., were now at their height, 
 and both these potentates were ransacking Europe for 
 allies and borrowing money wherever they could get it. 
 For political reasons, Charles was just then very friendly 
 * The Mexican name for natives of Spain.
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 255 
 
 with the Protestants, and had thus offended the pope, 
 who would be sure, unless pacified, to retaliate by stir- 
 ring up trouble in other quarters. Besides all this, the 
 ravages of pirates in the Mediterranean called for a strong 
 hand to punish these old offenders. In doing this a great 
 Spanish fleet was lost in one of the most awful storms 
 which ever swept the seas, and hundreds of ships were 
 wrecked, with the loss of eight thousand men. It will 
 easily be seen that with all these troubles the emperor 
 could not afford to quarrel just then with his colonists. 
 Favored by these circumstances, and by means of brib- 
 ery, the Mexican delegation carried their point and went 
 home rejoicing, to rivet still tighter those chains which 
 bound the Indians of New Spain to a life of hopeless 
 slaven\ Although a few of the principal Indian fam- 
 ilies remained who by law were entitled to the privileges 
 enjoyed by the Spanish nobility, they were a conquered 
 people and lived in bondage. It was to the interest of 
 their conquerors that they should be kept in ignorance, 
 counted as minors, shut up in villages by themselves and 
 forbidden to engage in commerce. 
 
 The natural taste of the Indians for engraving, em- 
 broidery, feather- and mosaic-work, modeling in clay, and 
 other like occupations requiring artistic skill, met with 
 great disapproval from the Council in Spain. They were 
 forbidden to engage in anything but the coarsest work, 
 lest they should become discontented or unfit for menial 
 service. This oppression was at last so evident to the 
 world that the pope, with all his jealousy of Charles V., 
 declared that " the Indians are really and truly men cap- 
 able of receiving the Christian faith. " 
 
 But those original proprietors of the soil were often 
 sullen and distrustful, only held in check by the strong
 
 256 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 arm of the law, and quite as liable to break out in unex- 
 pected times and places as were the long-slumbering fires 
 of their own volcanoes. Again and again in Spanish colo- 
 nial history was the cruel Indian warfare of our own 
 times enacted. During a time of famine they burned 
 the palace of the viceroy over his head and tore down 
 some of the public buildings in a blind fury which struck 
 alike at friend and at foe. Even the labors of their 
 kind-hearted spiritual Fathers were several times repaid 
 by general murder and pillage. 
 
 Famines were sadly common. At one time this dis- 
 aster was followed by a plague which carried off two 
 million people. In the all-absorbing search for gold the 
 old system of irrigation was neglected, and the moun- 
 tains, made bare of their natural covering of trees, ceased 
 to regulate the supply of moisture. The streams, sud- 
 denly swollen by rain, often became raging torrents, and, 
 overleaping their natural bounds, poured down the moun- 
 tain-sides into the lakes. In the Valley of Mexico there 
 were five of these which were often so full in times of 
 freshets that they overflowed every barrier and ran to- 
 gether. 
 
 Lake Tezcuco, in which the City of Mexico originally 
 stood, and which is still near it, is twenty-six feet lower 
 than Lake Zumpango, farther north. In 1607, after the 
 city had been several times flooded by the influx of the 
 waters from the upper lake, it was resolved that it should 
 be drained by tunneling the mountain-wall which sur- 
 rounds the valley at its lowest point. Fifteen thousand 
 Indians were set to work on this gigantic enterprise, and 
 by a reckless sacrifice of human life the subterranean 
 canal, twelve miles long, was cut through in a few 
 months, making an outlet to the sea. But the torrents
 
 THE HEEL OF THE OPPRESSOR. 
 
 257 
 
 which sometimes flowed through it carried with them so 
 much sand and rubbish that the canal was soon choked 
 up, not being made with a sufficient slope to give momen- 
 tum to the current. The sides gave way, the vaulted roof 
 fell in, and the upper lake was dammed up again. More 
 than seventy years afterward the consulado, or incorpo- 
 rated merchants of Mexico, took the work in hand and 
 resolved to make an open cut. This was done, at an 
 enormous expense of men and money, about one hundred 
 
 REFRESHMENTS FOB THE HUNGRY (MEXICO). 
 
 and thirty years after it was begun. During this time 
 Mexico was almost entirely under water for five consec- 
 utive years. The foundations of houses were destroyed, 
 and such misery prevailed that the court at Madrid gave 
 orders that the city which Cortez built should be aban- 
 doned and a new Mexico built, on higher ground. Hap- 
 pily, several earthquakes during the year 1634 cracked 
 the ground in various directions, and the surplus water 
 made its way down through the yawning fissures, much 
 to the relief of the inhabitants, who had been living 
 IT
 
 258 AnOUT MEXICO. 
 
 in second stories and on roofs and going about in 
 boats. The poor natives gave all the credit of this 
 providential interference to their patron Our Lady of 
 Guadaloupe. 
 
 As in other things, so also in the matter of education, 
 did the Church befriend the Indians. In the latter part 
 of the sixteenth century the Jesuits founded a seminary 
 where the natives were taught to read, write and recite 
 prayers to the Virgin and the saints. The University 
 of Mexico, for the education of Creole youth, had been 
 established more than thirty years when this school was 
 begun. About the same time an attempt was made to 
 gather the wandering savage tribes at the North into 
 settled habitations, and to teach them to work as a source 
 of revenue to the colony, and also to quell their con- 
 stant tendency to rebellion. This proved to be a very 
 difficult task, and more than one mission established for 
 this purpose was destroyed and had its leaders murdered 
 by those whom they came to help.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 VICEROYALTY. 
 
 FT! HE Indians were not the only sufferers from the 
 J- grasping policy of Spain. She proved to be in 
 every way an unnatural mother to this the fairest of her 
 Western possessions. Throned between the oceans, with a 
 front on both the eastern and the western hemisphere, a 
 storehouse of the world's richest mineral treasures and 
 blessed with a variety of climate and productions which 
 gave her the advantage of every zone, Mexico should 
 have been the commercial peer of Spain. Humboldt 
 called Mexico el puente del comercio del mundo (" the 
 bridge of the commerce of the world "), it being on the 
 direct highway between Europe and Asia. "At one 
 time," says Brantz Mayer, "the East and the West 
 poured their people through the cities of Vera Cruz and 
 Acapulco, and some of the most distinguished mer- 
 chants of Europe, Asia and Africa met every year in 
 the capital, midway between Spain and China, to trans- 
 act business and exchange opinions upon the growing 
 facilities of an extended commerce." 
 
 The Council of the Indies decided that Mexico herself 
 should derive no benefit from all these natural advan- 
 tages : she should be simply a colony of miners at work 
 for the mother-country, furnishing a market for her ex- 
 ports. The colonists were forbidden to make any article 
 
 259
 
 260 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 in Mexico which Spain could provide. All commerce 
 with other countries, and even with sister-colonies, was 
 prohibited on pain of death. No vessels but those of 
 the mother-country could enter the ports, and these 
 were carefully searched lest contraband articles especially 
 books should be concealed among the cargo. Modern 
 history and all political writings were particularly under 
 ban. All spirit of inquiry was stifled. One of our out- 
 spoken newspapers would have been considered an in- 
 fernal machine by the inquisitorial censors of the press, 
 who, through lack of heretics to burn, hunted books. A 
 publishing-house in 1770 had to get special permission to 
 bring over type to print an almanac. As all the small 
 dealers in the country were obliged to report, under oath, 
 the amount of their purchases and sales, perjury and 
 smuggling became national vices. Every article of im- 
 port was taxed each time it changed hands, and instances 
 were known where such a tax was paid on a single article 
 thirty times before it reached a consumer. Even Nature 
 was repressed in her exuberance. The law frowned upon 
 Mexican grapes and olives if planted by the hand of man, 
 lest some enterprising Creole or Indian might hinder the 
 sale of wine and oil from Spain by engaging in the man- 
 ufacture of these articles at home. 
 
 For many years after the colony was established on 
 this " bridge of the world," maritime nations of Europe 
 were busy searching for that famous strait to the south 
 seas and other places which had long figured in the geo- 
 graphical romances of Europe. The viceroys of Mexico 
 were anxious to add to the lustre of their reign by some 
 great discovery. At one time rumors of a rich kingdom 
 at the North were brought to the capital by an exploring 
 party led by a Franciscan friar who had been in that
 
 VICEROYALTY. 261 
 
 direction. The name of this region was Quivara. Here 
 arose the seven cities of Cibola painted in glowing colors 
 by the monk who first visited them. This romantic story 
 reaching Spain, orders came back to the viceroy to explore 
 and subdue the land without delay. Cortez, who was then 
 living on his Mexican estate, offered to fulfill this task, 
 but was refused. An army was sent out under Coro- 
 nado, taking the great natural highway leading toward 
 the north over the table-laud, where it entered what is 
 now known as New Mexico. Like the seekers after, the 
 enchanted islands whose splendid domes and walls lured 
 the mariners of a hundred years before, the soldiers trav- 
 eled on and on in a fruitless search, wintering twice 
 in the wilderness and coming back disgusted because 
 they found only a community of Indian farmers living 
 in the large pueblos. A few miserable villages still 
 remain to mark the probable site of the cities of Cibola. 
 
 Mexico whilst ruled by Spain was never so civilized 
 after the conquest as before. It is recorded of one of the 
 viceroys at the close of the eighteenth century that he 
 caused the streets of the capital to be lighted and drained, 
 and strengthened the police-force of this robber-infested 
 land. Beggary increased under Spanish rule, until at the 
 beginning of this century there were twenty thousand 
 beggars in the capital alone. 
 
 Very little was done in the way of public improve- 
 ment during the three centuries of viceroyalty. There 
 were no roads except such as led from one large city to 
 another, and these were very poor. The nobles and the 
 rich Creoles lived on immense estates called haciendas, 
 which separated them widely. One of these gentlemen, 
 who lived oil the hills bordering the lowlands, had a 
 hacienda ninety miles long by fifty wide. He fitted out
 
 262 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 several large vessels yearly, at one time sending over a 
 great shipload of mahogany, and, at another, one of ce- 
 dar logs, from his own forests, as a present to Philip II. 
 of Spain. Besides these munificent gifts, he sent a prince- 
 ly invitation to the king, declaring that if His Majesty 
 would do him the honor to come back in one of these 
 vessels to Mexico his horse should walk from the shore 
 to the capital on ingots of silver. Millions upon mil- 
 lions of gold and silver produced in the mines were sent 
 abroad and helped to carry on the wars by which Europe 
 was devastated. In the years 177374 twenty-six millions 
 of dollars were sent to Spain each year. She had con- 
 quered the New World, and was using its enslaved pop- 
 ulation to help her to lay waste the Old World also. It 
 would be remarkable that during the three hundred 
 years of Spanish government of Mexico and Peru no 
 one of the enemies of Spain despoiled her of those 
 treasure-houses, did we not remember how much easier 
 it was for the cruisers of England and France to capture 
 the Spanish galleons on the high seas than to invade the 
 country and dig the silver and gold from the mines for 
 themselves. As years went on the Church joined the 
 State in its oppressions of the people. The supremacy 
 of the former became the highest aim of the dissolute 
 and avaricious priesthood against which Cortez warned 
 his king. With this one purpose in view, the monks 
 fostered ignorance and compromised with vice, until, 
 like foul and monstrous parasites, these growths well- 
 nigh smothered every vestige of life in the nation. 
 
 While Spain was shaping her colonial policy, Rome 
 was in a deadly struggle with the German Reformers. 
 Leo X. was building St. Peter's church ; to raise the 
 vast sums of money required in this work, he decided on
 
 264 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 an unheard-of exercise of his spiritual power. It was 
 declared that the Church had more of the merits of 
 Christ and the saints than was needed for her ordinary 
 use, and that a surplus was now for sale. Forgiveness 
 of sins could be had for cash, and, as for souls in purga- 
 tory, " the moment the money chinked in the box " of a 
 seller of indulgences they were released from suffering 
 for any time specified, and paid for accordingly. Heresy 
 was the only crime which could not be forgiven. No 
 indulgences were so popular as those which condoned 
 lying, stealing and murder. This infamous traffic aroused 
 Luther to a valiant defence of the truth. In 1517, as 
 he nailed his famous theses on the church door at Wit- 
 tenberg, the sturdy blows of his hammer had resounded 
 throughout Europe, and for years afterward its princes 
 and prelates were battling around the standard of relig- 
 ious liberty which he then raised. But no sound of this 
 warfare seems to have crossed the sea to Mexico. In 
 time we hear of an arrangement between the pope and 
 Charles V. by which Mexican gold was made to flow into 
 the coffers of Rome. The king bought up a large num- 
 ber of indulgences and dispensations and retailed them 
 in New Spain. It was one of the conditions of this 
 wicked traffic that no man should buy more than fifty 
 permissions to steal in one year. "Darkness covered 
 the land, and gross darkness the people." Charles made 
 vast sums of money by this monopoly, and in the squab- 
 bles which arose between him and his partners as to 
 which was the largest shareholder the pope was beaten. 
 Those who believed that God could thus be bribed to 
 wink at sin had small need of clean hands in doing the 
 work of "his Church. 
 
 The spirit of inquiry could not have been wholly re-
 
 VICEROYALTY. 265 
 
 pressed, for, in 1572, Philip II. thought it necessary to 
 set up a branch of the Spanish Inquisition in Mexico. 
 It is not probable that many victims were looked for 
 among the poor and ignorant natives. Their heathenism 
 was always tolerated by Rome ; -so long as they went 
 through the forms of obedience they might indulge in 
 pagan rites. But the rich colonists were looked after 
 most carefully. After an existence of over eighty years in 
 Mexico this satanic institution furnished fifty victims to 
 be burned alive at the stake. In 1 767, Charles VII. of 
 Spain, convinced that the Jesuits were plotting against 
 him, ordered that the society should be suppressed in 
 every part of his dominions. Sealed despatches were 
 sent to every Spanish colony, to be opened by the author- 
 ities on the same day. In April, 1767, when the order 
 took effect, several hundred were sent from Mexico. 
 Even the pope, whose special servants they were, shut 
 his door in their faces. But, though the Jesuits were 
 expelled, the Church establishment continued to engross 
 much of the wealth and power of Mexico. Its ecclesias- 
 tics were the chief land- owners and capitalists of the 
 country. The archbishop was the head of a great loan 
 and trust company, and under deeds or mortgages held 
 one-third of the real estate in Mexico. In 1750 it was 
 stated that the amount of money drawn by the Church 
 from this bankrupt nation corresponded to the interest on 
 a capital of one hundred and fifteen millions of dollars. 
 There are few more sumptuous church-interiors in the 
 world than those of several of the cathedrals of Mexico. 
 The walls of the cathedral of the City of Mexico cost about 
 two millions of dollars. On its massive silver altar within 
 stands a small shrine in which is an image of the Virgin 
 whose three petticoats one embroidered with pearls, an-
 
 266 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 other with emeralds and the third with diamonds are 
 said to be worth three millions of dollars more. These im- 
 posing churches often stand in little villages of adobe huts, 
 the homes of ignorance and squalid poverty. The contrast 
 between the church and its surroundings is all the more 
 striking when we remember that what the village is now 
 it has always been since Rome took possession of Mexico, 
 and nothing could better illustrate the perverted Chris- 
 tianity she has taught its people than these proud shrines, 
 in whose unwholesome shadow they have been sitting for 
 centuries. A picture of Mexico has been given by a 
 visitor from this country in 1846 : * " The things which 
 most strike an American on his first arrival in Mexico 
 are the processions, ceremonies and mummeries of the 
 Catholic worship. As to any rational idea of true 
 religion or any just conception of its divine Author, the 
 great mass are little more enlightened than were their 
 ancestors in the time of Montezuma. Their religion is 
 very little less an idolatry than that of the grotesque 
 images of stone and clay of which it has taken the place." 
 Mexico is still one of the darkest cornel's of the pope's 
 dominions. Nor is this to be wondered at when the char- 
 acter of its priesthood is understood. The abbe Dome- 
 nech, who accompanied Maximilian to Mexico, speaking 
 of these blind leaders of the blind, says of the Roman 
 Catholic Church as he found it there, " It fills no mission 
 of virtue, no mission of mercy, uo mission of charity. 
 Virtue cannot exist in its pestiferous atmosphere. The 
 code of morality does not come within its practice. It 
 knows no mercy, and no emotion of charity ever moves 
 the stony heart of that priesthood which, with an avarice 
 that has no limit, filches the last penny from the diseased 
 * Recollections of Mexico, by Waddy Thompson.
 
 VICEROYALTY. 267 
 
 and dying beggar, plunders the widows and orphans of 
 their substance as well as their virtue, and casts such a 
 horoscope of horrors around the death-bed of the dying 
 millionaire that the poor superstitious wretch is glad to 
 purchase a chance for the safety of his soul by making 
 the Church the heir to his treasures." 
 
 All the viceroys but one who was always known as 
 the " great governor of New Spain " were foreigners. 
 It was the policy of the mother-country to surround this 
 shadow of a king with a privileged class similar to the 
 old nobility of Europe. They were all of pure Castilian 
 blood and natives of Europe. Their children, if born in 
 Mexico, were Creoles. To these foreigners were granted 
 certain privileges (fueros) which in time created a great 
 and impassable barrier between them and the Creoles. 
 The Indians called these people gatzopins, or centaurs, 
 afterward corrupted into gachupines a word which may 
 be traced back to the old idea that Spanish horses and 
 men were one animal. These gachupines were always 
 looked upon as aliens, as they truly were. All the honors 
 and emoluments in Church and in State were reserved for 
 this privileged class ; every law was intended to benefit 
 them. The system of fueros which elevated the gachu- 
 pines was extended also to certain classes among the 
 Creoles. Special privileges were thus granted to the 
 army which lifted a soldier almost entirely out of the 
 reach of the civil law and made both officers and men 
 responsible to their commander alone. The clergy owed 
 obedience only to the bishops, and these in turn to the 
 pope of Rome, who kept his hold on the keys of this 
 great treasure-house by entering into a business partner- 
 ship with the king of Spain. The schools, the engineers, 
 the revenue-officers, and others employed by the govern-
 
 268 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 ment, "were so fenced about by these peculiar fueros that 
 there was a never-ceasing conflict between the central 
 authorities and their irresponsible subjects. The result 
 of these long-fostered evils was constant friction. No 
 difference in blood could create so much bitterness as 
 these odious class-distinctions. Gachupine and Creole 
 thoroughly hated each other, while both trod remorse- 
 lessly on the Indian. 
 
 About thirty-five years after the United States threw 
 off its colonial yoke Mexico was aroused from the uneasy 
 sleep of centuries to take a part in the great struggle for 
 liberty then going on in the world. The fall of the 
 Bourbon dynasty in Spain, in 1808, was the death-knell 
 of absolute monarchy in all her colonies. In that year 
 Charles VI. abdicated in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. 
 This step, taken in haste, would gladly have been re- 
 tracted, but Ferdinand would not yield. While father 
 and son were quarreling Napoleon interfered and put his 
 brother, Jerome Bonaparte, on the throne, declaring that 
 the house of Bourbon had now ceased to reign. Ferdi- 
 nand was obliged to sign the decree of the council of the 
 Indies commanding their Mexican colony to obey the 
 usurper. Strange to say, the gachupines, those creatures 
 of an absolute monarchy, approved of this measure, but 
 the Creoles, in their intense loyalty, publicly burned 
 Ferdinand's enforced proclamation. 
 
 In this emergency the viceroy summoned a junta of 
 the chief men in Church and State. For the first time 
 in their history the Creoles were put upon an equality 
 with the gachupines by an invitation to assist at this 
 council. They were delighted, but the old Spaniards 
 were so enraged that they went to the palace of the vice- 
 roy and seized him, hurrying him away to prison, where
 
 VICEROY 'ALTY. 269 
 
 they kept him three years. These high-handed proceed- 
 ings proved the ruin of the gachupines. The Creoles 
 were determined to uphold Ferdinand, raising seven 
 millions of dollars in a few months to aid the struggling 
 royalists of Spain. 
 
 In 1812 the Spanish Cortes enacted a constitution 
 which embodied many such reforms as the freedom of 
 the press, the suppression of the Inquisition, the closing of 
 monasteries and convents, the expulsion of the Jesuits 
 and the cutting off of all privileges belonging exclu- 
 sively to the army and the nobility. To crown all, the 
 people were invested with power. But long before the 
 ignorant peasantry of Spain could realize their high 
 privileges a counter-revolution had seated Ferdinand on 
 the throne, as firm a believer as ever in 
 
 " The right divine of kings to govern wrong." 
 
 He annulled everything the Cortes had done, persecuted 
 those who had in any way aided the people in their 
 cause, revived the Inquisition, and thus plunged the 
 nation into a civil war which lasted six years. In 1820 
 the people regained their power and compelled the king 
 to swear to support the constitution. There were great 
 rejoicings all over Spain, to which Ferdinand listened in 
 silence. He Avas a Bourbon of whom it was well said, 
 " They never learn anything, and never forget anything." 
 The royalists, though in a decided minority, began to 
 plot again, and ere long the perjured king, with the aid 
 of the Church, had regained his despotic power, and a 
 cloud from the Dark Ages seemed for a time to over- 
 shadow Spain. Ferdinand was restored once more to 
 his throne and compelled again to swear to support the 
 constitution. Backed by the Holy Alliance, he entered
 
 270 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Madrid as l>efore in royal state, but only to become 
 again false to his God and his country. He revoked 
 all his acts since 1820, re-established the Inquisition 
 and its attendant despotism, and for years Spain was 
 like Mazeppa's horse, struggling to throw its riders, liv- 
 ing and dead. 
 
 All this time Mexico was a deeply-interested spectator. 
 Loyalty in a Spaniard amounts to religion, and some, 
 even among those who murmured loudest against the 
 exactions of the government, sided with the tyrants they 
 once had upbraided. But, with all the sympathy it re- 
 ceived, royal authority in Mexico had received its death- 
 blow. The Creoles had been watching from afar that 
 battle for liberty in which the United States had borne 
 a leading part, and, though not republicans in sentiment, 
 they were determined to put down those odious class- 
 distinctions by which so long they had been debarred 
 from taking their rightful place in the government coun- 
 cils. They were dissatisfied with persons, not with prin- 
 ciples, and insisted that natives of the country should 
 have an equal share with foreigners in the management 
 of colonial affairs. But this reasonable request was 
 violently opposed by the gachupines. 
 
 While the Spaniards were thus at swords' points among 
 themselves over questions of rank, still heavier grievances 
 w r ere adding weight to the old yoke of servitude borne 
 by the Indians. In 1808 a plot was discovered among 
 them to lighten their burdens by securing the independ- 
 ence of Mexico. Foremost among the conspirators 
 was Miguel Hidalgo, the Indian priest, or cura, of the 
 little village of Dolores, near San Miguel el Grande. 
 The great uprising under this patriot was the dawn of a 
 new day for Mexico. He was a man of noble presence
 
 MIGUEL HIDATAJO.
 
 272 A BO UT MEXICO. 
 
 and great natural ability, "representing the best elements 
 of the people to whom he belonged," having endeared 
 himself to them by a blameless life and by fatherly care 
 over their temporal as well as their spiritual interests. 
 In spite of stringent laws against colonial enterprise, 
 he had encouraged them to make the most of the vege- 
 table treasures with which Mexico is so richly endowed. 
 Under his direction they had cultivated the native silk- 
 worm and planted vineyards and olive trees. But the 
 jealousy of the government was aroused. Spanish 
 monopolies could be sustained only by crushing the 
 serfs, soul and body, under foot. Hidalgo saw the 
 olive and mulberry trees of Dolores uprooted by a 
 special order from Mexico, the vineyards laid waste and 
 his people ordered to go back to tasks more befitting their 
 condition as slaves. An oil-and-wine press had been 
 established near by, in Guanajuato, and just then the 
 war in Spain had made oil and wine so scarce and dear 
 that home manufacture was much encouraged and very 
 profitable. New hope had sprung up, therefore, among 
 the small planters throughout the district of Salamanca, 
 when the police-force came upon them, tore down the 
 mill and destroyed the stock of the proprietor. 
 
 The long-pent-up hatred toward the conquerors now 
 burst forth with redoubled strength. Hidalgo had be- 
 come one of a band of conspirators scattered throughout 
 the country who had plotted to make Mexico independ- 
 ent. For years he had been brooding over the wrongs 
 of his people, when the outrages at Guanajuato and 
 Dolores fired him with new zeal and courage. The 
 war-cry would soon have sounded, when, by the treach- 
 ery of one of the band, the plan was exposed. The 
 man was suddenly taken ill, and, fearing that he was
 
 VICEROYALTY. 273 
 
 about to die, he confessed all to the priest. Most of the 
 clergy were hand in hand with the tyrants, and this one 
 of the fraternity, though bound by oath not to reveal 
 the secrets of the confessional, lost no time in spreading 
 the news. 
 
 Tidings came to Hidalgo late one evening in Decem- 
 ber. Not a moment was to be lost. Messengers were 
 sent to the captain of a regiment, La Rexia, near by, 
 who was also one of the conspirators. He came with 
 his men early the next morning, and the standard of Mex- 
 ican independence hastily set up before the curate's door 
 attracted all eyes. The villagers flew to arms. In twelve 
 days twenty thousand Indians had gathered about this 
 new flag, the first that had roused any enthusiasm since 
 the old tribal banners had been laid low. They were a 
 motley crowd, armed with slings, bows, clubs, lances and 
 the machetes, or hoes, with which they tilled the soil. 
 Very few besides the soldiers had muskets or knew how 
 to handle them. Hidalgo put on a general's dress and 
 marched at the head of the mob to Guanajuato. Every 
 ranche and every hamlet on the way had furnished new 
 recruits to join the wild shout, " Death to the gachupines 
 and independence for Mexico !" Then Hidalgo arrested 
 the gachup'mes. The whole city was in an uproar. The 
 next morning he presented his cause to the people and 
 carried all hearts before him. The citizens rose almost 
 to a man and joined the insurgents. 
 
 But the partisans of Hidalgo were a cruel and lawless 
 mob. Unused to war, they could not be held in check, 
 and divided councils soon imperiled the cause so right- 
 eously begun. On the march to the capital his army 
 increased to one hundred thousand men. The leading 
 classes were by this time in arms against them, and their 
 
 18
 
 274 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 very numbers were an obstacle to their success. Orders 
 had been given in Mexico to kill all the men, women 
 and children in any town or village which should show 
 favor to the rebels. The brutal general Callega, who 
 carried out the government orders, wreaked its utmost 
 vengeance on Guanajuato. He is said to have butchered 
 at one time, in cold blood, fourteen thousand prisoners in 
 that city alone. 
 
 Hidalgo was permitted to baptize the cause so dear to 
 his heart only with a martyr's blood. He was making 
 his way toward the United States, hoping for shelter 
 there till his plans could be better arranged, but he was 
 betrayed and captured, deposed from his priesthood and 
 shot at Chihuahua, July 30, 1811. 
 
 True as was Hidalgo's devotion to his country, he 
 fought against an enemy whose right arm he was blindly 
 upholding. This was shown by his unswerving loyalty 
 to that Church whose corruption and lust of power have 
 ever made her a fit ally for despots. During the revolu- 
 tionary struggles which followed Hidalgo's death the 
 people began to see that their Spanish masters had no 
 more faithful friends and allies than the Romish priest- 
 hood. Hidalgo's enthusiastic love for the Church was 
 echoed by the first Mexican Congress, which met in 
 1812, the year after his death. They declared that 
 the Catholic religion only should be recognized and 
 allowed in the State, and that the press should be free 
 except for the discussion of religious matters. Slavery 
 was abolished, privileges of birth and color were an- 
 nulled, the property of the gachupines was confiscated, 
 and a representative government of natives was inau- 
 gurated. 
 
 The cause of liberty did not die with Hidalgo. While
 
 VICEROTALTY. 275 
 
 still hopeful of success he had commissioned Morelos, an 
 Indian priest, as captain-general of the insurgent force 
 at the South. After the death of Hidalgo the chief 
 command devolved on his brother-patriot. 
 
 The royalists had entered on a war of extermination, 
 and not a town or a village dared shelter the rebels. 
 Morelos resolved to tire out his enemies by. changing the 
 scene of conflict to the hot lands on the coast, where the 
 men of the cold regions would melt away with its deadly 
 fevers. 
 
 At one time, on a retreat to Oaxaca, Morelos hoped to 
 find shelter for his troops in a little town surrounded by 
 a deep moat. As they came to the bank with the enemy 
 in hot pursuit they saw, to their dismay, that the draw- 
 bridge was raised and the better to prevent their entrance 
 the townspeople had secured every boat. Seizing an axe, 
 Guadalupe Victoria, afterward first president of the re- 
 public, sprang into the stream, and in the sight of the 
 panic-stricken crowd on the opposite bank he swam boldly 
 across, cut the ropes which held the bridge aloft, and as 
 it came down with a thundering crash Morelos and his 
 men dashed over and took possession of the place. 
 
 A story is told of Miguel Bravo, another of the patriots, 
 that shows the spirit which animated many of these noble 
 men. Three hundred prisoners had fallen into their 
 hands at the siege of Palmo, and General Morelos gave 
 the disposal of them to Bravo, who immediately offered 
 them all to the viceroy in exchange for his father, Don 
 Leonardo Bravo, then a prisoner under sentence of death 
 at the capital. But the viceroy rejected the offer and 
 ordered the execution to take place immediately. When 
 Bravo heard the sad news, he set his three hundred men 
 at liberty, saying, " I wish to put it out of my power to
 
 276 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 avenge my father's death lest in the first moments of my 
 grief the temptation to do so would prove irresistible."* 
 
 A national Congress which had been summoned to 
 organize an independent government had not yet finished 
 its work when the members Avere driven out of Chilpan- 
 zinco, where they Avere in session. Morelos led them to 
 a dense fores.t, and there, hidden in the shadow of its 
 great trees, the declaration of Mexican independence and 
 its first constitution were drawn up. Before the work was 
 completed an alarm was given, " The royalists are upon 
 us I" Hastily gathering up their precious documents, the 
 men fled, and Morelos and his handful of patriots, closing 
 in behind them, held until they were beyond pursuit the 
 pass through which they were flying. Morelos heroically 
 stood his ground until but one man remained at his side. 
 Then, when forced to surrender, he said calmly, " My 
 race is run when au independent government is estab- 
 lished in Mexico." He was condemned to be shot for 
 high treason. As he knelt beside the grave already 
 yawning to receive his body, his faith turned from the 
 saints and the Virgin, who were the objects of prayer 
 and adoration for generations, and he cried out to Jesus 
 Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, exclaim- 
 ing with his last breath, 
 
 " Lord, if I have done well, thou knowest it ; if ill, to 
 thine infinite mercy I commend my soul !" 
 * Ward's Mexico, vol. i. p. 204.
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 T 
 
 HE fall of Morelos 
 seemed a death- 
 blow to the insurgents. 
 Under his bold leader- 
 ship men of different 
 ranks in society and of 
 varying shades of opin- 
 ion had marched shoul- 
 B* der to shoulder, Creole 
 and Indian, priest and 
 layman, monarchist and 
 republican, united by 
 ! one bond only " Death 
 to gachupines and inde- 
 pendence for Mexico !" 
 But now all these were 
 scattered to the four winds. In the guerilla- 
 warfare that became general during the reign 
 of anarchy which followed, the Indios bravos, 
 or savage tribes, had their opportunity. The 
 open country was given up to banditti, and every ranche 
 and every hacienda was a citadel in danger of siege. 
 The cities were so infested with robbers that the streets 
 were deserted at nightfall, and few rich men escaped 
 being kidnapped for the heavy ransom extorted from 
 
 277
 
 278 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 their families. But men were thinking. The standard 
 of liberty raised by Hidalgo had floated over the capital 
 but sixty-six days, yet during that time the liberals had 
 used the just-unfettered press to great advantage. News- 
 papers and handbills were scattered with a lavish hand, 
 and truths were taught that burned in the hearts of men 
 like smouldering fire, needing only one breath of free air 
 to kindle into flame. 
 
 One of those who stood by when Morelos was put to 
 death was Agustiu Iturbide, a handsome, dashing young 
 officer from the hills of Valladolid, in Southern Mexico. 
 He had commanded the government troops when the 
 patriot was captured. 
 
 In 1820, when the news of the revolution in Spain 
 sent a thrill throughout the colonies, the viceroy of 
 Mexico received orders from the Council of the Indies to 
 proclaim throughout his dominions that the constitution 
 enacted by the Spanish Cortes in 1812 was again the law 
 of the land. Anxious lest his own power should be cur- 
 tailed, and counting on the support of all the royalists in 
 Mexico, Apodaea resolved to oppose these measures, and 
 so far as was in his power to reinstate the Bourbons 
 on the throne. But Iturbide, though a thoroughgoing 
 royalist, saw fit to disobey both Apocada and the Cortes. 
 Whatever may have been his motives, God's time had 
 come for another blow to be struck for the independence 
 of Mexico, and Iturbide, though an enemy of true liberty, 
 was the instrument prepared for the work. 
 
 Leagued with the Church party, Iturbide contrived 
 to get possession of half a million dollars of public 
 money, and proceeded to set up a new kingdom on these 
 Western shores with the design of perpetuating here the 
 old despotism of Kurope, and at the same time to free
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 279 
 
 Mexico from dependence on the mother-country. He 
 devised what is known as the " plan of Iguala," so 
 named from the little town near Acapulco where it was 
 first set forth. Three ideas are embodied in this plan 
 first, Mexican independence; second, the abolition of 
 caste ; third, the maintenance of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. The country was to be governed by a junta, 
 or council, until there could be imported from Europe a 
 king whose blue blood would command the respect of all 
 parties. 
 
 PriestvS and monks were now in love with Mexican 
 independence. Church property had been confiscated in 
 Spain, and there was good reason to fear that the. vast 
 estates, jewels, money and plate of the Church in Mex- 
 ico would soon go the same way if the ties which held 
 the two countries together were not sundered. Indeed, 
 the Spanish Cortes had already commanded the Mexican 
 prelates to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. It may well 
 be supposed that Iturbide's response to the viceroy's 
 orders aroused the slumbering hopes of every revolution- 
 ist in the laud. With the eight hundred men with whom 
 he started and thousands more who joined him on the 
 way, the gay young general came marching into the 
 capital with banners and music, and once more the 
 war-cry of Hidalgo rang out through the streets of 
 Mexico. 
 
 Iturbide found the Cortes torn with the dissensions of 
 three parties, each eagerly claiming his support. A few 
 urged a return to the old Bourbon principle of one-man 
 power ; other royalists insisted that, whoever was king, 
 Mexico should have a constitutional government ; and 
 00161*8, again, wished to throw overboard all these mon- 
 archists and establish a republic, taking the United States
 
 280 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 as an example. The tide of enthusiasm over the revolu- 
 tion ran high, with Iturbide on its topmost wave. 
 
 The scattered patriots who fought under Hidalgo and 
 Morelos now came out of their hiding-places to join in 
 the shout of " Independence for Mexico !" Among these 
 was Guadalupe Victoria. After the death of his friend 
 Morelos every effort had been made by the government 
 to seduce this brave patriot. He was offered high rank 
 in the army and a rich reward if he would swear alle- 
 giance to viceregal authority. But he could not be 
 bought. A price was set on his head, and he was hunt- 
 ed like a wild beast. Deserted at last by every follower, 
 Victoria fled to the most inaccessible mountains, to re- 
 treats where his Indian friends did not follow him. Here, 
 in utter loneliness, he lived for two years a hermit's life, 
 subsisting only on nuts, berries, roots and such birds and 
 animals as he could entrap. He was one of that great 
 army of martyrs for truth who in all ages and lands 
 have been "destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the 
 world was not worthy) ; who wandered in deserts, and in 
 mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." 
 
 When the news of Iturbide's proclamation rang 
 through Mexico, two faithful Indian followers went in 
 search of Victoria to tell him of the new day which had 
 dawned for their country. It was just three hundred 
 years since the heel of the oppressor had been set on the 
 neck of their race. Hope of freedom from their for- 
 eign masters had long since died out, but hope of free- 
 dom with them was now bringing Creole and Indian 
 into new fellowship, and for the first time in the history 
 of Mexico the two races rejoiced together. 
 
 Victoria's retreat was at last discovered in a cave in 
 one of the wild gorges spanned now by the national
 
 HIGH BRIDGE OJT THE MEXICO AND VERA CRUZ RAILWAY.
 
 282 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 bridge on the Mexican Railway between Vera Cruz and 
 Mexico city. When he came back to the haunts of civ- 
 ilized men, he was worn to a skeleton and so covered 
 with hair that his nearest friends at first did not recog- 
 nize him except by the old lire which gleamed in his eye 
 and the dauntless courage with which he sprang at once 
 to the welcome task of redeeming Mexico from her old 
 fetters. 
 
 Iturbide's arrival in the capital had so roused the 
 populace there that the viceroy was obliged to acknowl- 
 edge the independence of Mexico to save the (/<n-hitjiiii<'x 
 from violence. When this was reported in Spain, the timid 
 official was promptly recalled ; but the man sent to fill 
 his place fared no better in the hands of his new subjects. 
 Mexico liad for ever shaken off the yoke of Spain, and 
 was now launched on the stormy sea of revolution as an 
 independent nation. To conciliate their old rulers, and 
 at the same time to carry out their plan, the Mexicans 
 despatched an invitation to the Bourbons to send one of 
 their spare princes over to fill the new throne. But not 
 one of them would accept the offer. In the general con- 
 fusion which ensued, a grateful people, dazzled by the 
 splendid qualities of their lil>erator, Iturbide, on May 1, 
 1822, pushed him into the seat just vacated by the vice- 
 roy, giving him the title of " emperor." The Mexican 
 Congress, glad to see any way open toward a settlement, 
 legalized this disorderly movement of the people, gave 
 Iturbide the title " Agustin I.," declared his crown hered- 
 itary and conferred royal honors on the whole Iturbide 
 family. An order of nobility was created, so that the 
 rogalia of a Creole nobleman could equal in glitter, at 
 least the regalia worn by the long-envied ffachupmee. 
 
 Agustin I. might have gained a firm footing for him-
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 283 
 
 self and for his children but for the arrogance with 
 which he treated his new subjects and for his indifference 
 to their constitutional rights. He soon quarreled with 
 the Cortes and arrested a number of the members, then 
 dissolved the body and replaced it with a set of men who 
 would obey him without question. These high-handed 
 proceedings opened the eyes of the people to the true 
 character of their favorite. The northern provinces 
 were first to turn upon him ; he was now styled " the 
 usurper Iturbide." Santa Anna, governor of Vera 
 Cruz, uniting with Guadalupe Victoria, joined the dis- 
 affected party and hoisted the flag of the republic ; and 
 when troops were sent from Mexico by the emperor to 
 put down the revolt, they too joined his enemies. Itur- 
 bide saw his mistake when it was too late. In March, 
 1823, after a reign of only ten months, he offered his abdi- 
 cation to the old Congress. Congress ignored the fact that 
 he had ever worn a crown, but accorded him the honor 
 due to his first title " Liberator of Mexico " and sent 
 him and his family quietly over-sea on a pension of 
 twenty thousand dollars a year. 
 
 One more sad act, and the curtain falls on poor Itur- 
 bide. Too restless to stay in Italy, whither he had 
 betaken himself, the ex-emperor secretly came back, 
 hoping, no doubt, to gain his old place in the hearts of 
 his countrymen. He was discovered by one of his former 
 generals, arrested as an outlaw by the State of Tamau- 
 lipas under a law passed by Congress forbidding him on 
 pain of death to set foot on Mexican soil, and shot by 
 State authority. 
 
 The year 1824 is one of the bright points in this 
 dreary history of turbulence. About that time a galaxy 
 of Spanish colonies had declared for independence
 
 284 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Chili, New Granada, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela. 
 The spirit of republicanism had been spreading like fire 
 on dry grass. Mexico for the first time decided to be 
 a republic, and was formally recognized as such by Spain. 
 In the constitution which the whole country then adopt- 
 ed, although patterned after that of the United States, 
 the people show themselves still ignorant of the first 
 principle of liberty. All religious but the Roman 
 Catholic faith were prohibited, the property of the 
 clergy was put beyond the reach of secular law, and 
 none but gachupines were allowed to fill high offices 
 in the Church. 
 
 The republican reaction after the fall of Iturbide re- 
 sulted in the expulsion of the old Spaniards from the 
 country. When the Spanish flag was hauled down from 
 the castle of San Juan d'Ulua, not a vestige remained of 
 the old colonial power of Spain, this fortress, her last 
 foothold on this coast, having held out against the revo- 
 lutionists several years longer than any other part of the 
 country. By a strange ordering of Providence, its keys 
 were finally given into the hands of General Barrancas, 
 the husband of a lineal descendant of the Aztec chief 
 Montezuma. The fall of this castle was thus announced 
 by the president of the republic in his proclamation : 
 " The standard of the republic now waves over the cas- 
 tle of Ulua ! I announce to you, fellow-citizens, with 
 indescribable pleasure, that now, after a lapse of three 
 hundred and four years, the flag of Castile has disap- 
 peared from our coasts." Thus ended what is known 
 as "the war of independence." Mexico was now a 
 member of the family of nations, and, though still 
 wearing the fetters of the greatest despotism on earth, 
 had already entered on that mighty struggle for constitu-
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 285 
 
 tional liberty which after a lapse of more than forty 
 years has ended in its complete overthrow. 
 
 It would be perplexing and unsatisfactory to trace the 
 varying fortunes of those professed friends of Freedom 
 in Mexico who 
 
 " Presumed to lay their hands upon the ark 
 Of her magnificent and awful cause." 
 
 The story of Beuito Juarez, the reformer of Mexico, 
 will give all needed details of its revolutionary struggles 
 and show that, as liberty there had its birthplace in the 
 heart of one Indian, so it reached its glorious consum- 
 mation through the undying and incorruptible patriot- 
 ism of another. 
 
 Benito Juarez was a pure-blooded Zapotec Indian, 
 born in 1806 in the little village of San Pablo Guetatao, 
 among the mountains of Oaxaca. His tribe held the 
 lands of its fathers and maintained a sturdy independ- 
 ence during three hundred years of colonial oppression. 
 This was one of the tribes before whom the proud 
 Aztecs trembled. A few of the men now spoke Span- 
 ish well enough to do business when they took their 
 produce to market, but the women and children under- 
 stood only their old Indian tongue. Young Juarez thus 
 grew up in the atmosphere of the past. The simple 
 herdmen among whom he lived went on the even tenor 
 of their way when Hidalgo raised the standard of inde- 
 pendence among the uprooted vines and mulberry trees 
 of his parish, though their hearts were no doubt stirred 
 with the thought that it was an Indian's hand which had 
 lifted their trailing banner, and that one of the same de- 
 spised race might yet plant it beyond the reach of a 
 Spaniard's grasp.
 
 286 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 The lad Benito had already won a reputation for hon- 
 esty and enterprise when he went, an orphan boy, to 
 Oaxaca, in 1818, to seek his fortune. He was then but 
 twelve years old, modest and thoughtful beyond his 
 years. His great desire was to obtain an education, as 
 many of his own people had done at that time. He 
 could neither read nor speak Spanish correctly. He 
 soon found a place as a house-servant in the family of 
 a teacher, and paid with his services for his board and 
 schooling. In a year's time he had mastered Spanish 
 and was studying Latin. His teacher, who had resolved 
 to make a priest of young Juarez, put him in an eccle- 
 siastical seminary near by. 
 
 On the threshold of his public life, Juarez caught a 
 glimpse of the deep-rooted hatred of Rome for that 
 which leads the people to think for themselves. In 1826 
 the State Legislature gave expression to its liberal prin- 
 ciples by founding the Institute of Arts and Sciences of 
 the State of Oaxaca. The fears of the priests were not 
 groundless : the institute proved to be a focus of revolu- 
 tion and so-called heresy. 
 
 Miguel Mendez, a young friend of Juarez, was among 
 the first to forsake the seminary for the broader field of 
 thought and action opening at the institute. He too was 
 a pure-blooded Indian, a youth whose fine talents and 
 noble character were full of promise for his race and his 
 country. A warm friendship which sprang up between 
 the two young men no doubt influenced Juarez to aban- 
 don his studies for the priesthood. Mendez, however, 
 was cut off in the morning of his days. His early death 
 made an impression upon Juarez which was never effaced 
 through those long and eventful years in which he was 
 permitted to illustrate to the world the great possibilities
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 287 
 
 of the Indian character. Juarez had found a home and 
 a congenial circle of friends. His horizon widened ; he 
 became an intelligent defender of those principles of social 
 
 BENITO JUAREZ. 
 
 and political reform which were then agitating the civil- 
 ized world. 
 
 At twenty-three Juarez was elected to the chair of 
 natural philosophy in the institute, and, still pursuing 
 his legal studies, he came out in 1828 a full-fledged at- 
 torney. From this time he rose rapidly, until, after
 
 288 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 filling several positions of honor and trust, he was chosen 
 as one of the triumvirate which governed Oaxaca when 
 it seceded from the monarchists under Paredes. Finally, 
 when that rebellion was crushed and the republic again 
 rose from the dust, he was sent to represent his State in 
 the general Congress. 
 
 Juarez and his friends did not come a moment too 
 soon to save their country from ruin. The selfish ambi- 
 tion of party-leaders overruled every other consideration. 
 Public credit was at its lowest ebb. Nothing more could 
 be drained from the overtaxed and poverty-stricken 
 people, and, although the government repudiated its 
 debts, it had been obliged to call on the Church to give 
 money as well as prayers for the defence of the country. 
 An appeal to the great banker of the nation was a neces- 
 sity. At this time it held uutaxable property in lands, 
 plate, jewels and money worth three hundred millions, 
 with an annual income of twenty-five millions, besides 
 mortgages on real estate all over the country which 
 yielded millions more. 
 
 In this time of national distress one of the purest 
 patriots of Mexico, Farias, proposed that fourteen mil- 
 lions of dollars should be raised on this Church property 
 if possible, by a loan ; but if that could not be obtained, 
 to sell enough of it to raise that amount. The bill was 
 fiercely attacked as a radical measure. Juarez and others 
 pleaded eloquently in its behalf. We can imagine some 
 of their arguments as they looked on thousands of lazy 
 and dissolute monks fattening on the spoil of centuries, 
 while poor laborers and mechanics forced to leave their 
 families for the perils and hardships of the battlefield 
 had been so long unpaid that the whole army was in a 
 state of revolt. The burning words with which this bill
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 289 
 
 was commended to Congress carried it through by a small 
 majority among the politicians, but the people were too 
 wild with anxiety to know much of Juarez, their great 
 defender, until years had proved his worth and given 
 him a place among the world's great reformers. The 
 churchmen, having failed in the defence of their prop- 
 erty, now appealed to the passions of the mob. There 
 were riots in the capital and elsewhere. Yucatan se- 
 ceded and Indian raids harassed the northern States, 
 while foreign guns thundering against Mexican ports along 
 both the Gulf and the Pacific shores added their terrors 
 to the scene. Some great public calamity was needed in 
 this crisis by which these warring States and people 
 should be united by a sense of common danger to de- 
 fend their country against a common enemy. 
 
 Amid all this fierce internal strife, Mexico was drawn 
 into a war with her powerful neighbor the United States. 
 Until boundary questions were settled between the two 
 countries, in 1819, the Rio Grande had been claimed as 
 the southern border of Louisiana. To rejoin this vast 
 territory, justly yielded then to Spain, and to devote it 
 to the extension of slavery, had become the aim of a 
 large party in the United States. There was room in 
 the cotton- and the sugar-producing lands of Texas and 
 the country west of it for a tier of States larger than 
 all New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. 
 
 When Mexico became a republic, slavery was prohib- 
 ited in its first constitution, although in Texas this law 
 had been a dead letter. There was now a growing pub- 
 lic sentiment against all class-distinctions which led to 
 the re-enactment, in 1825, of an old viceregal law" against 
 the sale and importation of slaves. Two years later the 
 
 19
 
 290 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 twin-States of Texas and Coahuila, governed by a joint 
 Legislature, passed a similar law; freedom was also given 
 to all children born in slavery within their bounds after 
 that date. In 1829 every slave in Mexico was uncon- 
 ditionally manumitted. 
 
 The drift of these events caused great uneasiness 
 among the American colonists in Texas, who by this 
 time had so increased in numbers and in influence as toj 
 have a controlling voice in the politics of that State, 
 although its union with Coahuila was a constant hin- 
 drance to their schemes. The avowed purpose of the 
 Texans to wrest the State from Mexico led the govern- 
 ment in 1830 to shut the door against further immigra- 
 tion from the North. Contracts between citizens of the 
 two countries were as far as possible ignored, and all 
 who resisted the laws were imprisoned. The fierce bor- 
 der warfare to which this policy gave rise led, first, to 
 the severing of the tie between the rebellious State and 
 loyal Coahuila, and then to the independence of Texas 
 and its recognition by France, England and the United 
 States. And now the " Lone Star " of a new republic 
 shone out across the stormy sea of Ameriean polities. 
 How little hope it brought to the friends of human 
 progress may be seen from the fact that of the fifty- 
 seven signers to its declaration of independence fifty 
 were men from the United States pledged to extend the 
 area of slavery. By a law passed a few days afterward 
 this institution was declared to be perpetual. 
 
 This formidable revolt drew the attention of all Mex- 
 ico to the North. President Santa Anna set out for 
 San Antonio de Bejar then occupied by the Texans 
 with all the forces he could muster. The brutality of 
 Mexican warfare was displayed in the siege of the Ala-
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 291 
 
 mo, a strong fortress near the town. With the exception 
 of three persons a Avoraan, her child and a negro ser- 
 vant the whole garrison, numbering one hundred and 
 eighty, were mercilessly slaughtered. This massacre cost 
 Mexico far more than the men Avhose lives Avere lost. A 
 few days afterward the Texans defeated Santa Anna at 
 San Jaciuto, taking as spoils of Avar all the land Avhich 
 but a short time before the United States had offered to 
 buy, and extending their borders soutlnvard to the Rio 
 Grande. But, greatest loss of all, the lawlessness and 
 the barbarity of her leaders now stood confessed before 
 all the Avorld, alienating those Avhose sympathies she most 
 needed and giving enemies of republicanism fresh occa- 
 sion to triumph. 
 
 Mexico had noAV been for nearly thirty years strug- 
 gling toAvard freedom. Much of the time the cause of 
 the people had been lost sight of save by a few patriots 
 Avho deserved the name. The blindness, the ignorance 
 and the folly of her political leaders had excited noAV the 
 Avorld's pity and UOAV its scorn or anger. 
 
 About teu years after the scenes of the Alamo all eyes 
 Avere turned to Avhere the forces of Mexico and those of 
 the United States Avere gathering for conflict on the de- 
 batable land betAA r een the two nations. As an independ- 
 ent republic, Texas was much dreaded by the United 
 States, as she might at any time fraternize with Mexico 
 or accept an English protectorate, which Avas quite as 
 much to be feared. The annexation of Texas by the 
 United States, in 1845, led before long to Avar with 
 Mexico. That government had never recognized the 
 independence of her revolted State. She had good 
 reason, besides, to know that Texas proper Avas but a 
 small part of the territory coveted by her neighbor:
 
 292 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 California also was threatened. The lion. Waddy 
 Thompson, United States minister to Mexico, testifies 
 that when the Mexican government ordered the expul- 
 sion of his countrymen from California "a plot was 
 arranged, and was about being developed by the Amer- 
 icans and other foreigners in that department, to re-enact 
 the scenes of Texas." That he felt "compunctious 
 visitings " when he insisted that Mexico should revoke 
 the order to expel those who were plotting her ruin is 
 not to be wondered at. Pretexts for war were not want- 
 ing when it was found that Mexico would not sell nor 
 pawn her property. It was claimed that she was en- 
 couraging Indian raids into Texas, and the " accumulated 
 wrongs" of American citizens were also dwelt upon. These 
 could be atoned for only by the payment of a total of 
 fourteen millions of dollars. After examination by a 
 commission appointed by the two governments in 1840, 
 five-sevenths of these claims were found to be spurious. 
 Between this decision and the actual commencement of 
 hostilities, in 1845, scheming politicians of the United 
 States were doing their utmost to gain possession of 
 Texas and California. 
 
 The annexation of Texas was no sooner consummated 
 than the Mexican minister in Washington demanded his 
 passports and went home. United States troops sent for 
 the protection of Texas had already taken a position on 
 soil claimed by Mexico. While thus menacing the bor- 
 der the administration in Washington despatched an envoy 
 to Mexico empowered to make an offer of twenty-five 
 millions of dollars for California. Tempting as was 
 this offer, the Mexican government refused to hear of 
 anything but a settlement of the Texan question. This 
 rebuff was followed by an order from the United States
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 293 
 
 government to General Taylor to march directly to the 
 Rio Grande and try war. 
 
 It does not fall within the purpose of this volume to de- 
 scribe the scenes of bloodshed which marked this two years' 
 conflict with Mexico. Peace was concluded between the 
 two nations at Guadalupe Hidalgo in February, 1848. 
 Mexico ceded to the United States an area of more than 
 six hundred and fifty thousand square miles. In con- 
 sideration of this, the United States paid her fifteen 
 millions of dollars and assumed the payment of her 
 debts to American citizens not exceeding two and a 
 quarter millions.* California had been seized in 1846 
 without the loss of a single life. 
 
 Juarez was left by our narrative pleading for means 
 to carry on war with the United States, while Santa 
 Anna, at the North, was endeavoring to stay the enemy's 
 advance. The clergy, unmindful of the nation's peril, 
 were stirring up insurrection at home, which was quelled 
 only by the return of Santa Anna. Taking sides with 
 the enraged priests, this arch-plotter found the opportu- 
 nity for self-advancement which he was ever seeking. 
 With the army behind him, he became dictator, and 
 dissolved the Congress. In the uproar which followed 
 in the State of Oaxaca and elsewhere, Juarez was sent 
 home to restore order. He was immediately elected 
 governor, which office he filled for five years with great 
 acceptance. 
 
 While at home among his own people Juarez became 
 known as one of the ablest and most patriotic statesmen 
 in the republic. He found Oaxaca in wild disorder. The 
 
 *The war cost the United States the lives of twenty thousand men 
 and the expenditure of one hundred and sixty millions of dollars.
 
 294 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 conservatives had seized every office and bade defiance 
 to constitutional law. The State forces had been de- 
 feated at Molino del Rey, and it had been invaded 
 by United States troops. But when the strong hand 
 of Juarez was felt at the helm, rightful authority was 
 everywhere restored. With the energy and practical 
 common sense for which he was noted, he set the people 
 at work to provide arms and ammunition wherewith to 
 defend their State. He established a foundry, and with 
 ore dug from their own hills a battery was soon provided. 
 By patient and systematic economy the public debt was 
 wiped out before his term of office expired, and a balance 
 of fifty thousand dollars was left in the treasury. Juarez 
 retired to the practice of law as poor and as modest as 
 when he first left it for public service, but more loved 
 and honored. 
 
 While fulfilling the duties of his office as governor 
 with unflinching regard for the public weal, Juarez 
 offended Santa Anna. When the latter came once more 
 into power, in 1853, he immediately caused Juarez's 
 arrest. He was seized while pleading in court, and, 
 without being allowed to take leave of his family, was 
 hurried away to a loathsome prison-cell in the castle 
 of San Juan d'Ulua, and from thence he was sent, a 
 penniless exile, on board of a British steamer to work 
 his passage to New Orleans. It was soon the dictator's 
 turn to flee for his life. The country called back its 
 old leader from exile, and in July, 1855, we find Juarez 
 in Acapulco on the road to Mexico. His old friend 
 General Alvarez was now president of the republic, and 
 Juarez was made minister of justice. He now found 
 himself side by side with men who were clinging to the 
 army as the safeguard of the nation, together with those
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 295 
 
 who believed that the Church should be independent of 
 secular law. 
 
 But the trust of Juarez was in the people. Six-sev- 
 enths of them were at his back. What if some of them 
 did not yet see in him their appointed deliverer? He 
 was none the less responsible for their salvation. His 
 keen eye had from the outset detected the weak spot in 
 the constitution of the republic; it was in open con- 
 flict with that fundamental principle of liberty that all 
 men are equal before the law. Until the army and the 
 clergy were shorn of those special privileges which 
 enabled them to bid defiance to constitutional authority 
 the republic would be a failure. What Mexico needed 
 was " a government of the people for the people by the 
 people." This thought was embodied in the famous law 
 for the administration of justice now known by the name 
 of its Indian author " the law of Juarez." The key- 
 note of progress was struck on the passage of this bill 
 by the Mexican Congress in '1857, and millions of the 
 long-enslaved people of Mexico joined in the shout of 
 joy with which it was received. This law awoke the 
 bitterest opposition from those classes whose privileges 
 it attacked. 
 
 Juarez was now dismissed from the cabinet as a dan- 
 gerously popular man, to serve his State again as gov- 
 ernor. But his enemies and his timid friends thus gave 
 him an opportunity to put his theories into practice. He 
 immediately set to work to educate his fellow-citizens up 
 to the true idea of liberty. He built up the common 
 schools, encouraged the Institute and urged upon the 
 people the principle, untried before, of direct suffrage 
 in the election of their governor. The grateful people 
 of Oaxaca exercised their new privilege by electing
 
 296 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Juarez as the first constitutional governor of their State, 
 and soon after lie was chosen chief-justice of the nation. 
 Only a month later, by an overwhelming pressure of 
 public opinion, Comonfort, who was then dictator, was 
 obliged to make him minister of public government. 
 One of the first duties of Juarez in this high position 
 was to ask extraordinary powers for the executive. 
 Congress hesitated, and but for the confidence felt in 
 Juarez as a member of the cabinet the request would 
 have been denied. 
 
 The outcome of the reformer's seed-sowing at this 
 time was the suppression of the Jesuits, the confiscation 
 of their property, and liberty for all religious creeds. 
 These radical measures evoked rebellion even in the 
 liberal camp, and Comonfort himself joined the insur- 
 gents. The triumph of the " old regime " seemed com- 
 plete ; the capital, the army and the treasury were in their 
 hands. In the near future was a European protectorate. 
 
 As early as 1858 the -clericals had sent agents to 
 Europe to ask for aid in establishing a monarchy. 
 They represented that peace between the contending 
 parties was impossible, that the liberals would throw 
 the country into the hands of the United States, and 
 that the only hope of warding off annexation was by 
 strengthening the hands of the Church. Mexico was 
 deeply in debt to England, to France and to Spain, and 
 these powers now agreed on a scheme of intervention. 
 The pretext was an act of the Mexican Congress passed 
 in 1860 authorizing a suspension of payment of the pub- 
 lic debt for two years. It was a desperate measure and 
 unlike Juarez, who proposed it, but the only thing pos- 
 sible under the circumstances, and as such was unan- 
 imously approved by the members.
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 297 
 
 The allies took the opportunity to carry their scheme 
 into effect while the United States had its hands full 
 with a civil war. In 1861 their fleet appeared off Vera 
 Cruz. Finding, on their arrival, that the people of 
 Mexico were opposed to their interference, had repudi- 
 ated the schemes of the monarchists and if let alone 
 could manage their own affairs, the English and the 
 Spanish forces were withdrawn without waiting to con- 
 sult the authorities in Europe. The Freuch, however, 
 remained. Louis Napoleon was ambitious to show his 
 skill in settling the vexed Mexican question; he had 
 a wife who was anxious to show her devotion to the 
 Church of Rome by rescuing this portion of the flock 
 from the clutches of the heretics. The door seemed 
 open. 
 
 After the departure of their allies the French army 
 crossed the mountains to the capital, and there set- up 
 a provisional government. It was their decision that 
 a prince must be imported from Europe to rule this 
 refractory people, and the choice of the man was left 
 to Napoleon III. With his inherited taste for king- 
 making, the French emperor gladly set about the task. 
 He soon fixed upon Maximilian, a young archduke 
 of Austria, then residing with his wife, Carlotta of Bel- 
 gium, in a beautiful and happy home on the shores of 
 the Adriatic. 
 
 When the Mexican ambassadors came to offer him a 
 crown, Maximilian looked coldly on the proposal ; but 
 Carlotta, like Eugenie of France, loved her Church and 
 as a sincere Catholic was deeply moved by the sad story 
 of her visitors. They told of a beautiful land most 
 loyal to the Church ; how its churches and its monas- 
 teries had been despoiled by ungrateful children ; but
 
 298 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 that now the nation, though rent with faction, the prey 
 of heretical wolves, needed only a royal hand to bring 
 it safely and soundly into the fold of mother-Church. 
 The young couple were persuaded to accept the invita- 
 
 CHURCH OF SAN DOMINGO, CITY OF MEXICO. 
 
 tion. After securing the benediction of the pope, they 
 set sail for America on their pious errand, and arrived 
 in Vera Cruz in June, 1864. A magnificent welcome 
 awaited them from the clerical party, and even the peo- 
 ple, united as they were in their protest against foreign
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 299 
 
 intervention, received the fair Carlotta with smiles. The 
 royal pair were heralded from point to point on their 
 mountain-road by the thunder of guns and the waving 
 of banners. It was a time of great rejoicing to the 
 monarchists of Mexico and of Europe. 
 
 But now l>egan the war of intervention ; the war of 
 reform had ended in 1860. Throughout both these 
 conflicts Rome displayed her antagonism to the liberty for 
 which Mexico was struggling. To see this we have only 
 to read the instructions given by the pope to Maximil- 
 ian. Reminding the new-made emperor of his promise 
 to protect the Church, Pope Pius IX. claims for her the 
 right to rule not only over individuals, but over nations, 
 peoples and sovereigns. He denies the right of private 
 judgment to the people and justifies emphatically all the 
 cruel persecutions which have made Rome " drunk with 
 the blood of the saints." His fierce denunciations re- 
 mind us of that impious usurper whom in prophetic 
 vision Paul beheld sitting in the temple of God and 
 setting himself forth as God. 
 
 It was against foreign intervention of popes and kings 
 that the constitutionalists of Mexico had now taken up 
 arms. Stimulated by the unswerving faith and patriot- 
 ism of Benito Juarez, a small party pledged to support 
 the constitutional rights of the people rallied about him. 
 He had voiced the advanced thought of the age, and was 
 determined to live and to die by it. After he was forced 
 to evacuate the capital, in 1863, he was for four years 
 a fugitive, fleeing from city to city with a handful of 
 brave patriots who constituted the republican govern- 
 ment. What with timid friends and malicious foes, ho 
 seemed at times to stand alone, as though the republic 
 existed only in the faithful heart of its Indian president.
 
 300 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 When he was penned up in some city on the borders or 
 hiding in the wilderness, if he could not do anything 
 else, he would keep alive the wavering faith of friends 
 abroad and write words of dauntless courage and sublime 
 trust in the future of his country. For two years and a 
 half while Juarez and his cabinet were in the State of 
 Chihuahua they had no communication with their many 
 friends in the South and the West except through Seflor 
 Romero, their faithful minister in Washington. 
 
 The liberals averaged a battle a day for a whole year. 
 Unaided and unrecognized save when a friendly cheer 
 came now and then from some sister-republic at the 
 North or the South, Mexico's battle for freedom was 
 fought alone. In our war for independence France 
 came to the rescue and turned the scale. Poor Mexico ! 
 Ridiculed, upbraided, despaired of, yet when was there 
 ever a braver, truer struggle for liberty than was hers ? 
 Thrilled by the voice of a few patriot-statesmen them- 
 selves poor and hunted like deer in the forest, yet deter- 
 mined to break down the barriers to the nation's progress 
 six millions of people who could neither read nor write, 
 with the fetters of paganism still clinging to them, and 
 with burdens of poverty and debt which found no help- 
 er, arose against their enemies and successfully grappled 
 with the craft and greed and despotism of Rome, and 
 the well-trained soldiery of France, and the timidity 
 and ambition of \vould-be leaders. 
 
 No trumpet that Juarez blew ever had an uncertain 
 sound. With that tenacity of purpose which is so char- 
 acteristic of his race, the salvation of the republic became 
 with him a master-passion. At one time, when enemies 
 in disguise were urging him to yield to the mediation of 
 England, he saw in their proposition a compromise with
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 301 
 
 the clericals. His reply was worthy of an indomitable 
 patriot. Declaring his unalterable purpose to be gov- 
 erned only by the will of the nation, lawfully expressed, 
 he uttered these memorable words : " I am not the chief 
 of a party : I am the lawful representative of the nation. 
 The instant I set aside law my powers cease and my mis- 
 sion is ended. I cannot I do not desire to, and must 
 not make any compromise whatever. The moment I 
 
 MEXICAN OFFICERS. 
 
 should do so my constituents would cease to acknowledge 
 me, because I have sworn to support the constitution, 
 and I sustain with entire confidence the public opinion. 
 When this shall be manifested to me in a different sense, 
 I shall be the first to acknowledge its sovereign delibera- 
 tions." 
 
 There were rifts at last in the dark cloud which hung
 
 302 AsorT MKXICO. 
 
 over the republic. Discord in the capital among it.- 
 enemies was the means npjxiinted by G<xl lor the deliv- 
 erance of the patriots. The only support given to the 
 empire was from the clericals, who hoped that when 
 Maximilian was firmly seated on his throne he would 
 restore to the Church parry their lost estates. But the 
 emperor soon discovered that he had been deceived by 
 these monarchists. The people had repudiated the mon- 
 archical form of government and were opposed to foreign 
 rule either in Church or in State. Although very friend- 
 ly to the priests. Maximilian chose to conciliate the lib- 
 erals, whose power he recognized, hoping thus to unite 
 all parties. To please them, therefore, he determined to 
 sustain the national laws enacted in 18-37. This gave 
 mortal offence to the Church in Mexico, though the 
 French priests who accompanied the court saw the pro- 
 priety of the measure. Several of the largest bin 
 Church property sold under that law were French sub- 
 The pope agreed with the Mexican priesthood, 
 who declared that they were worse off under the empire 
 than they had l>eeu under the republic. They finally gave 
 vent to their feelings by excommunicating the French gov- 
 ernment, the French army, the French puppet on the 
 throne and everv Mexican who believed in Frenchmen. 
 
 f 
 
 Maximilian's independence had angered Ixmis Xapo- 
 leon also, and his forces were withdrawn. This was a 
 deathblow to the empire. Affairs grew desperate. The 
 emperor's fears of a revolt among his Mexican friends 
 were excited in order to draw him completely to the 
 Church prny, who alone could save him. Even- effort 
 was made to turn the tide by awaking the old fear of 
 annexation to the United States, now at peace. 
 
 What with the curses of the Church, the distrust and
 
 MI-XICA X INDEPENDENCE. 303 
 
 divisions of his party and the fierce determination of the 
 liberals to overthrow the empire and to build again the 
 republic, Maximilian grew desperate. Unable to leave 
 his post, he sent his wife, Carlotta, to plead with Louis 
 Napoleon and the pope for aid ; both were cold and ob- 
 durate. Cuvlotta's last hope was a personal appeal to the 
 head of the Church, at the Vatican. But its doors were 
 shut in her face. All night the young wife sat in an- 
 guished uncertainty in the waiting-room of His Holiness. 
 The answer given her at last sent her out into the world 
 a maniac. Weighed down with anxiety for Carlotta, 
 Maximilian set out to go to her relief, but his sense 
 of duty to his friends impelled him to remain and share 
 their fate. 
 
 The French army having left Mexico, the emperor 
 retreated to Queretaro ; fearing to remain in the capital, 
 he chose this city because of its adherence to the clerical 
 party. Here he was entrenched in a fortress-like church 
 surrounded by high walls enclosing beautiful gardens. 
 Had it not been for the treachery of one of his own 
 generals, he might have escaped to a place of greater 
 safety ; but he was betrayed to the liberal army under 
 Juarez. He was condemned to death as an enemy of 
 the country, on account of a cruel edict, promulgated 
 by him two years before, outlawing all republicans. 
 Every effort was made to save him by the consuls of the 
 European governments, the United States joining in the 
 general protest against this sacrifice of a comparatively 
 innocent man. Carlotta was not there to plead for her 
 husband's life, but the wife of Prince Salm-Salm, one of 
 Maximilian's staff-officers, flung herself at the feet of the 
 Indian president to plead for the life of her sovereign. 
 Juarez wept as he put aside her clinging hands and
 
 304 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 turned away. He did what he believed to be his duty 
 to his country. Maximilian was shot to death, with 
 his associates Miramon and Mexia, in June, 1867. 
 
 Up to this time, though religious liberty had been 
 formulated as law, it never had been realized in practice. 
 The Church party, deprived of the Inquisition and of 
 the wealth which made them the landlords and the bank- 
 ers of the nation, now found a stronghold in the super- 
 stitions of the people whom they had trained. When 
 an avenue was to be lengthened in the capital, a large 
 convent was found to be in the way. Congress ordered 
 the building to be torn down, but the laborers employed, 
 overawed by the priests, who threatened excommunica- 
 tion, refused to obey orders. Finding himself powerless 
 to enforce the law, Juarez went to his old home in Oa- 
 xaca, drilled a regiment of Indians and came inarching 
 back with them to the capital, where they went to work 
 with a will, unhindered by the populace. By such ex- 
 pedients as these, and in the face of many difficulties, 
 Mexico at last was established on a republican basis. 
 
 Since the war of independence began, under Hidalgo, 
 in 1810, ten changes had taken place in the form of 
 government. More than fifty persons had been empe- 
 rors, dictators and presidents. Repeatedly, two distinct 
 governments had existed at the same time, at war each 
 with the other. Secession of States was a chronic trou- 
 ble ; Texas and Yucatan were altogether lost. Both of 
 the emperors were shot. There had been more than 
 fifty revolutions and about three hundred pronunda- 
 mientos. The first great principle evolved from this 
 chaos was that Mexico should be an independent nation ; 
 the second, that sovereign power should be vested in the 
 people. The divisions in the great national party advo-
 
 MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE. 305 
 
 eating democracy are mostly to be traced to the machina- 
 tions of the Church party in its struggles for power, now 
 throwing its weight on one side of the scale and now 
 on the other with the dominant idea of securing the con- 
 trol of the nation. In 1873-74 the liberal constitution 
 framed in 1867 was so amended and improved as to be 
 in several respects superior to its model, the Constitution 
 of the United States. It is now the organic law of Mex- 
 ico. 
 
 Juarez, the unswerving friend of republican institu- 
 tions, died in office in 1872, after having been for four- 
 teen years president of the republic. His pure character, 
 his fidelity to trust and his lofty patriotism have given 
 him the title of " the Washington of Mexico." In 1880, 
 Manuel Gonzales, another Indian, was elected to the 
 presidential chair, being the first man who has taken 
 that seat without bloodshed. 
 
 Mexico is now a confederation of twenty-seven States, 
 one Territory and a federal district. The legislative 
 power is vested in a Congress composed of a House of 
 Representatives and a Senate. All respectable male 
 adults are voters, sending one member to Congress for 
 every twenty thousand inhabitants ; these members hold 
 their places two years. The president holds office for 
 four years, and cannot be re-elected without an interval 
 of four years after his term has expired. The present 
 executive is General Diaz, who took the chair December 
 1, 1884. "Except the immortal Juarez," says a mis- 
 sionary observer, "no man was ever more generally 
 beloved and honored than General Diaz, a tall, dark, 
 half-Indian hero." The members of his cabinet are 
 nominal liberals, "but Romanists have taken fresh 
 courage since his inauguration, and are openly clamor- 
 
 20
 
 306 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 ing for an avenger of Maximilian to arise." There is 
 much said of perfidy and abuse of power. The Prot- 
 estants are daily accused of plotting to annex Mexico to 
 the United States. The enemies of progress and reform 
 are still found in the bosom of the Church of Rome. 
 But with a free press, free schools and a free gospel 
 Mexico cannot go back to the darkness of the past. 
 She may fall for a time, but the prophecy of Abraham 
 Lincoln for the United States will yet be realized for 
 Mexico : " This nation, under God, shall have a new 
 birth of freedom, and a government of the people for 
 the people and by the people which shall not perish 
 from the earth."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 
 
 THE first object which meets the voyager's eye as he 
 approaches Mexico from the east by sea and nears 
 the city of Vera Cruz is the white cone of snow-crowned 
 Orizaba "Mountain of the Star" as it rises behind the 
 city, the giant leader of a file of volcanoes crossing the 
 continent in this latitude. Flat upon the beach before 
 him lies the harborless town, the Villa Rica de la Vera 
 Cruz" Rich City of the True Cross "of Cortez. Its 
 white towei-s and walls and gayly-tinted roofs and domes, 
 mingled with tufted and feathery palms, give to the pict- 
 ure an attractiveness not sustained upon a nearer view. 
 The illusion is dispelled on entering the city, which is 
 dreaded by strangers as the abode of miasms, the home 
 of the deadly vomito. It is, however, regularly laid out, 
 with streets crossing at right angles, and with houses two 
 stories in height, built of coral-rock stuccoed. The buz- 
 zards perched lazily on every roof and every tower, and 
 even on the golden crosses of the churches, seem sombre 
 symbols of danger to the visitor. There is no true har- 
 bor here offering shelter in rough weather. From No- 
 vember to May the " northers " sweep the Gulf with 
 resistless fury, often strewing the coast with wrecks. But 
 these wild winds no sooner begin to rage than the city 
 is cleared of the dreaded vomito, that scourge of these 
 
 307
 
 308 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 hot lowlands; so that, next to the buz/anl-;, which find 
 business all the year round as the only scavengers, the 
 northers are the best friends of Vera Cruz. 
 
 Not far from the city, and separated from it by an 
 arm of the sea, is the island-fortress of San Juan de 
 Ulua. It is a picturesque old pile, said to have cost the 
 Spanish government forty millions of dollars. This ex- 
 
 STREET IN VEKA CRUZ. 
 
 travagance seems to have been quite a source of vexation 
 to Charles V., its first owner. Standing one morning at 
 a window of his palace in Spain about the time the 
 architect's bills came in, he is said to have pointed his 
 field-glass toward America, and, looking through it in- 
 tently for a moment, to have exclaimed with grim humor, 
 " Surely, a building which has cost so much should be 
 seen above the horizon." This castle was the last foot- 
 hold of Spain in Mexico, having held out against the 
 revolutionists several years longer than any other place. 
 The first thought of every one who comes to Vera
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 309 
 
 Cruz is how to find the way out of it. Until 1806 the 
 road from this city to the capital a distance of over two 
 hundred and sixty miles was little better than a mule- 
 path. The Mexican Railway, which now links the two 
 cities, is one of the greatest marvels of engineering skill 
 in the world. It was thirty-six years in building, and 
 was opened on New Year's Day, 1873. Crossing the 
 arid levels of the ticrrci calicnte ("hot lands") bordering 
 the Gulf, the road reaches a point about forty-five miles 
 west of Vera Crux, when it suddenly begins to climb the 
 first terrace or the foothills of that great mountain-mass 
 crowded into the taper-end of North America. The air 
 grows cold and bracing and every breath is laden with 
 the perfume of innumerable flowers. The roadside is 
 lined with lofty palms. Morning-glories of luxuriant 
 growth, with rainbow-tinted flowers, run riot among the 
 trees, and orchids, or plants of the air, finding no room 
 in the teeming soil beneath, take wings like strange bright 
 birds and nestle on the crotches of the trees or cling to 
 their branches. 
 
 The road lies through vast coifee-plantations as rich in 
 fruit and flower and leaf as though they were in their 
 own native Asia. Fields of corn overtop the low-roofed 
 Indian huts, which, half hidden in the waving verdure, 
 seem to be surrounded by some glittering phalanx 
 of old-time warriors with tossing plumes and robes of 
 green. Here perpetual summer reigns, and the fruits 
 and the flowers of every zone flourish side by side. Four 
 times each year the reaper may follow the sower and 
 gather crops yielding from one hundredfold to four 
 hundredfold. On the skirts of Orizaba there are majes- 
 tic forests of mahogany, rosewood and other valuable 
 trees. Here and there in some quiet valley or on the
 
 310 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 shelves of the mountains are some of the finest estates 
 in the world. One of these haciendas lies eleven thou- 
 sand feet above the sea. Herds of cattle feed in the pas- 
 tures far from any human habitation. 
 
 From many points the traveler looks down into some 
 deep gorge of the Sierra Madre, the home of a laughing 
 mountain-stream. He sees far below him, perhaps on a 
 level with the sea, a bit of tierra caliente dropped into a 
 seam of the rocky mass, rejoicing in the warmth and 
 luxuriance of the perpetual spring which is possible in 
 such shelter. From some cabin down there the Indians 
 come toiling up laden with luscious fruits to sell at the 
 nearest railroad station oranges golden bright in a 
 pretty home-made basket which goes with the fruit, 
 great bunches of bananas, pineapples rich and melting, 
 at three cents apiece, and other fruits which the sunny 
 South has so entirely monopolized that they are unknown 
 to us. The venders make a picture to remember cop- 
 per-colored faces, heavy, straight black hair and dark, 
 melancholy eyes. The white cotton garments of the 
 men and their big straw hats are fashions centuries old, 
 but the bright-colored woolen blanket (serape) over the 
 left shoulder and the long cigar are Spanish innovations. 
 The women wear short calico dresses and a small scarf 
 (called a reboza) of silk or cotton, fringed at the ends, 
 wrapped about the head and the shoulders. This is 
 the cradle of the inevitable baby or serves as a pouch for 
 some other heavy load. As she goes to market the In- 
 dian woman shows the industry and the patience of her 
 race by hands busied with her knitting or in picking the 
 chickens she has brought to sell. 
 
 But we are off the track. The Mexican Railway 
 passes through but few large towns. Orizalm, a sleepy
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 
 
 311 
 
 old place nestling picturesquely on the slope of the 
 mountains, is a paradise for invalids, with its quaint 
 houses, whose widespreading eaves almost elbow each 
 other across the clean but narrow streets. Tlascala 
 (Tlaxcalla) is left a little to the south as the train moves 
 
 INDIAN HUT IN THE TIERRA CALJENTE. 
 
 on and up. In one place a rise is made of four thousand 
 feet in twenty-five miles. As the road climbs higher and 
 higher one stratum of climate after another is passed, 
 till the temperate region is left far below, and the cool 
 breeze blowing in the car window seems to come from 
 some latitude far to the north. The road, hewn out of 
 the solid rock, seems to cling to the bare ribs of Mother 
 Earth. Now it runs like a slender thread along the
 
 312 AJUH'T MHXICO. 
 
 face of a tremendous cliff, no\v doubles on itself till the 
 locomotive can stare into the windows of the rear car, 
 and now at a dizzy height it spans some abyss with a 
 bridge which looks like a cobweb suspended in the air. 
 After climbing about eight thousand feet into cloudland, 
 the track begins to dip toward the great Valley of Mex- 
 ico. The air is thin and pure, the mountains are bare and 
 bleak, with trees of stunted growth and open levels of 
 pasture-land from whose heights are seen still loftier 
 summits crowned with eternal snow. 
 
 One of the finest views of Orizaba the peerless is seen 
 from these high grounds. Dr. Haven thus describes it : 
 "How superbly it lifts its shining cone into the shining 
 heaven ! Clouds had lingered about it on our way hith- 
 er, touching now its top, now swinging around its sides, 
 but here they are burned up, and only this pinnacle of 
 ice shoots up fourteen thousand feet before your amazed 
 uplifted eyes. Mont Blanc, at Chamouni, has no such 
 solitariness of position, nor rounded perfection, nor rich 
 surroundings. Everything conspires to give this the 
 chief place among the mountains of the earth." 
 
 Passing on and down, the City of Mexico is reached 
 at last, from the north. The general direction of the 
 track is westward, but it enters the capital near the fa- 
 mous shrine of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. The train 
 which started at midnight from Yera Cruz passed the 
 mountains by daylight not only to give the passengers 
 an opportunity to enjoy the scenery, but to avoid the 
 car-wreckers and brigands who so infest the country 
 that a guard of soldiers is necessary on every train, be- 
 sides the armed and mounted police at each station on 
 the road. The run from the coast to the capital is 
 now made in twentv lx>ur<.
 
 314 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 The City of Mexico is beautiful for situation from 
 "whatever point it is seen. It stands on the lowest level 
 of the valley, about seven thousand feet above the sea, 
 and forms a square like a great checker-board, nearly 
 three miles in length each way. Being no longer on an 
 island, the causeways have long since disappeared, and 
 instead are paseos, or raised paved roads, planted on 
 each side with double rows of trees and running far out 
 into the countiy. The white rim of Lake Tezcuco is 
 now nearly three miles beyond the city walls, but, though 
 so shrunken and shallow, it still forms a beautiful object 
 in the landscape, reflecting in its sparkling waters the 
 snowy mountain-peaks of Popocatepetl and Iztacoihuatl 
 as they tower seventeen miles away eastward from the 
 capital. 
 
 The famous chinampas, or floating gardens, are seldom 
 seen at least, they have ceased to float ; but there are 
 multitudes of well-anchored islands dotting the lakes of 
 Chalco and Xochimilco, in the environs of the city and 
 lining its water-ways. The fruits, flowers and vegetables 
 which grow on their rich soil vie with those which were 
 brought to the city markets in Montezuma's day. 
 
 Frequently the owner's humble cabin is seen half 
 buried in the luxuriant crops, which always grudge it 
 room, while moored to the shore or afloat on the tide 
 is the rude scow which carries the produce to market. 
 Crowds of these boats find their way thither by the Grand 
 Canal, running south-east from Tezcuco to Lake Chalco, 
 a distance of about forty miles. The level of the latter 
 is so much above that of the former that there is quite 
 a swift current running toward the city, and the loaded 
 boats have an easy time going to market; but coming 
 back they are j>oled along by swarthy boatmen or women,
 
 316 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 the depth in lake or in channel nowhere being over five 
 feet. 
 
 The markets of Mexico are something wonderful, 
 especially in the way of flowers. Huge bouquets of the 
 choicest roses, pinks, geraniums, heliotrope, mignonette 
 the flowers of every zone, in fact artistically arranged, 
 sell for a trifle. Everybody buys and wears flowers. The 
 pure smokeless air and the even temperature bring 
 these exquisite flowers to full perfection in size, tint and 
 color. There are fruits of all lands apples, pears, cher- 
 ries, plums, of the North, with figs, oranges, pomegran- 
 ates, pineapples, bananas, of the South, with all the berries 
 familiar to us, and some luscious productions of nature 
 which can be known only by a visit to this highly-favored 
 land. Everything is cheap and abundant. A double price 
 is generally asked by the huckster, who expects to be 
 beaten down and yields with Mexican politeness to the 
 buyer's urgency. 
 
 The city is still partially supplied with water from t1\e 
 famous old spring at Chapultepec for which so many 
 battles have been fought. Aztec supremacy began with 
 its capture and ended after a desj>erate resistance when 
 Cortez cut the aqueduct in 1520. Its health-giving 
 streams are now flowing again. The aquadors, or water- 
 carriers, throng to fill their earthen pots just as they did 
 in the days of Cortez, and the bent figures with their 
 loads strapped on their backs look as though they had 
 just stepped out of the pictures on some old Egyptian 
 monument. 
 
 There are no more beautiful objects in the city than 
 the public fountains. One is built of hewn stone richly 
 decorated with carvings and statuary and polished until 
 it reflects the sunlight like some bright metal. The
 
 318 ABOl'T MKXK'U. 
 
 water, cool and clear, flows in streams from every part 
 of the marvelous structure, sparkling, dripping, splash- 
 ing, until it seems like some gigantic water-nymph just 
 emerging with plentitude of blessings from the waves. 
 
 The centre of the city is the Grand Plaza, a plot of 
 ground about a thousand feet square with a beautiful 
 little garden in the centre. There are pleasant seats 
 among the tall old trees, statuary and fountains toss- 
 ing their bright spray into the air. There is a music- 
 stand about which the crowd gather in the evenings. 
 
 It is not yet a hundred years since the streets of this 
 city were lighted at night, and scarcely twenty-five since 
 a moonlight walk was safe for either ladies or gentlemen. 
 They are as orderly now as those of any city in America. 
 The policemen stand with lanterns, about a hundred 
 yards apart, all over the city. 
 
 Leading away from the western side of the Plaza is 
 the San Cosme avenue, along which Cortez and his dis- 
 comfited army fled through the darkness and the rain of 
 that sad night in 1520. The palace he built is still owned 
 by his descendants. 
 
 On the way to the Paseo Nuevo is the Alameda, a 
 beautiful forest-park of ten or twelve acres surrounded 
 by high stone walls and a moat. It is the chief prome- 
 nade of the city. Well-kept walks and carriage-roads 
 wind about under the grand old beeches, and a massive 
 fountain plays in the centre. Here the birds have built 
 their nests and reared their young undisturbed for gen- 
 erations, and the place is vocal with twitter and song and 
 merry shouts of children. 
 
 There are sad memories haunting almost every corner 
 of Mexico, and this beautiful Alameda is no exception. 
 Long ago, when Rome was mistress here, the fires of the
 
 TO MEXICO BY KAIL. 319 
 
 Inquisition blazed iu this spot, and here, in the sight of 
 assembled thousands who came as for a summer holiday, 
 fifty victims were burned in a grand auto da/6. In the 
 square on which stands the convent of San Domingo 
 were the Inquisition buildings, under the care of Domin- 
 ican friars ; this is now occupied by the Methodist mis- 
 sion. In this square not long ago was an iron post, 
 known as " the burning-post," where heretics were dealt 
 with by the Holy Office. The latest public execution was 
 in 1815, when General Jose Morelos was put to death 
 here. The old Jesuit church in this square is now 
 used as a custom-house. 
 
 One hundred years ago Mexico was a city of mon- 
 asteries and churches. Full one-half the space enclosed 
 within its walls was covered with these various buildings, 
 some of them occupying from five to twenty acres of 
 ground. They were magnificent structures, the abodes 
 of luxury and ease. As the Church increased in wealth 
 and influence the monasteries and the convents are said 
 to have been hotbeds of vice and sedition. When 
 Comonfort was in power, it was found that many of 
 these buildings were interfering with public improve- 
 ment, and he began the work of demolition by ordering 
 a street to be cut through the convent of San Francisco, 
 one of the most elegant in the city. In a part of the 
 monastery thus divided we find another Protestant church 
 worshiping. Some of the exquisitely -polished stones of 
 this edifice are said to have been preserved from the wreck 
 of Montezuma's house, and many of the pillars are known 
 to have been the work of Aztec hands. This vast mon- 
 astery was one of the finest buildings of its kind in 
 America. It was more honored than any other, as the 
 place where the body of Cortez lay in state.
 
 320 ABOUT MK 
 
 The grandest church -build ing on this continent is the 
 cathedral, facing the Plaza. Its white towers, two hun- 
 dred feet high, overtop every building in the city. Its 
 mere shell cost two millions of dollars, and that, too, in 
 a land and an age when labor was very cheap. Scarcely 
 a church interior in the world can surpass this in rich 
 and costly decoration. The wealth of "the golden realm 
 of Mexico" was poured out here without stint. Heavy 
 marbles carved by the bast masters of Europe were 
 brought over the sea and carried by surefooted mules 
 over the dizzy heights of the sierras. The elaborately- 
 carved choir was made in Mexico, and is estimated to be 
 worth a million of dollars. This edifice was begun in 
 1573, by order of Philip II., and finished in about a 
 hundred years. It is of the Doric order, with three 
 entrance-doors on the principal facade, flanked by two 
 square open towers and crowned with a dome of fine 
 proportions. At the base of one of these towers is the 
 celebrated Aztec calendar, an enormous granite monolith, 
 which was removed in 1790 from the place in the Pla/a 
 where it had IK-CH buried by the orders of Cortez. 
 
 The cathedral occupies the site of the great Aztec 
 temple,* and is five hundred feet long by four hundred 
 and twenty wide. "The first object that presents itself 
 to one entering it is the altar, erected on a platform in 
 the centre of the building; it is made of highly-wrought 
 and highly-polished silver and covered with a profusion 
 of crosses and ornaments of pure gold. On each side of 
 this altar runs a balustrade, enclosing a space about eight 
 feet wide and eighty or a hundred feet long. The bal- 
 usters are about four feet high and four inches thick in 
 
 * In 1881 the outlying corner-stones of this old building were dis- 
 covered by workmen digging in the neighborhood.
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 321 
 
 the largest part ; the hand-rail, from six to eight inches 
 wide. Upon the top of this hand-rail, at the distance 
 of six or eight feet apart, are images, beautifully wrought 
 and about two feet high, used as candelabras. All of 
 these the balustrade, the hand-rail and the images are 
 made of a compound of gold, silver and copper, more 
 valuable than silver. It is said that an oifer was once 
 refused to take this balustrade and replace it with another 
 of exactly the same size and workmanship, of pure silver, 
 and to give half a million of dollars besides. As you 
 walk through the building, on either side there are dif- 
 ferent apartments filled from floor to ceiling with paint- 
 ings, statues, vases, huge candlesticks, waiters and a 
 thousand other articles of gold and silver."* The 
 jeweled vestments of the Virgin enshrined in this mag- 
 nificent building are said to have cost three millions of 
 dollars, while the garments of the priests who minister 
 to her on state occasions are proportionate in worth, and 
 so heavy that the wearers can scarcely stand under their 
 weight when pronouncing the benediction. The cathe- 
 dral was but one of seventy or eighty churches in the 
 City of Mexico whose wealth and splendor made them 
 remarkable in an age when the Church claimed a mo- 
 nopoly of the treasures of the world. 
 
 When Cortez was demolishing old Tenochtitlan, as 
 the city was then called, it was found to be impossible to 
 break up some of the heathen monuments with which it 
 abounded, and he therefore ordered them to be buried in 
 the great square. Besides the calendar stones, the old 
 stone of sacrifice, with a heavy yoke once used in hold- 
 ing fast the victim, was dug up in 1790, also a huge 
 stone image of Humming-Bird, with some of the carved 
 
 * Mexico and the United States, by G. D. Abbott, LL.D. 
 21
 
 322 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 capitals of the massive pillars of his temple. These 
 relics are now on exhibition in the National Museum 
 with many other relics of that day, such as Montezuma's 
 feather-shield and cloak and the silken banner once borne 
 before his conqueror. The Mexican government has 
 forbidden the exportation of the relics with which the 
 
 MERCHANTS' BAZAAR, MEXICO. 
 
 land abounds, but antiquarians can still easily reap a 
 rich harvest on this historic ground. 
 
 The houses of Mexico are seldom more than two 
 stories high. They are built about a patio an inte- 
 rior open square surrounded by verandas. The entrance 
 from the street is into this court, from which the upper 
 stories are reached. The style of architecture is Moor-
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 
 
 323 
 
 ish, and each block presents a solid front, with windows 
 and one door opening into each separate dwelling. The 
 soil is very spongy, and, what with floods and earth- 
 quakes, many of the foundations have sunken ; so that 
 
 SELLER OF BIRD-CAGES, MEXICO. 
 
 church-towers lean and doorways may be a foot below 
 the pavement. During the heavy rains of September, 
 Lake Tezcuco is apt to overflow and the city to be 
 flooded. Indeed, the sidewalks are always damp upon 
 the shady side. The lower story of the houses being 
 damp and dark, it is the custom to leave it to the ser-
 
 324 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 vants, while the family are domiciled in the second floor, 
 and in fine weather betake themselves to the roof. 
 
 All the substantial buildings in Mexico are bright with 
 color. Those which are not white stucco are tinted in 
 gray, buff or pale green enlivened with various shades 
 of red. Some of the churches could be called pink. 
 With blocks built with one solid front, it is quite a 
 relief to the eye to see a gray house adjoining one 
 faced with blue encaustic tilas or pale green. Massive 
 carvings and decorations in mosaic-work, balconies and 
 latticed windows are also quite effective and do much to 
 vary the otherwise sombre architecture. 
 
 The houses in the suburbs are gay with flowering 
 vines, and almost any open doorway in the city will 
 give a glimpse of the patio, or courtyard, with its cool 
 verandas and bright flowers and shrubbery around a 
 plashing fountain. 
 
 Among the improvements projected by Maximilian 
 was the rebuilding of Mexico on a more healthful site. 
 The city is still growing westward, according to his wise 
 plan, and the high grounds in the suburbs have quite a 
 modern appearance. Thousands of new houses are going 
 up and old ones have been remodeled, while real estate 
 has almost doubled its value since the life-blood from 
 the world's great centres began to pulsate through the 
 railroads those great continental arteries. 
 
 The lumbering diligence will soon disappear from city 
 and country, with the picturesque brigaud, and the mul- 
 titude of beggars who from time immemorial have in- 
 fested the capital will vanish in that happy day when 
 Yankee ploughs and Protestant Sunday-schools shall be 
 domesticated throughout the laud. These paupers have 
 already been set to work on railroads and other public
 
 TO MEXICO BY BAIL. 325 
 
 improvements, and a house of correction for young 
 delinquents is helpful in reclaiming some of the less 
 hardened villains. 
 
 From statements recently published we learn that 
 " primary education has been declared compulsory, but 
 the law is not enforced. In 1884 there were in Mexico 
 8986 public elementary schools, with nearly 500,000 
 pupils, and 138 for superior and professional education, 
 with an attendance of 17,200. The government spent 
 on education in 1884 more than $3,000,000." Thus we 
 
 MEXICAN MARKET-WOMAN. 
 
 see that education has made slow but steady progress 
 since the separation of Church and State, in 1857. At 
 that time the University of Mexico entirely a Church 
 institution was abolished by the republicans, and a 
 number of special schools took its place for law, med- 
 icine, art, science, agriculture, mines, military and civil 
 engineering, etc. In these institutions nearly four thou- 
 sand students are now pursuing their studies. Besides 
 these are asylums for the blind, the deaf and dumb, and
 
 326 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 other charities which are supported by private individ- 
 uals. With all these opportunities, however, it is still 
 true that six-sevenths of the people of Mexico can 
 neither read nor write. The business enterprise of the 
 country is in the hands of a very few, and those mostly 
 foreigners. The higher classes are not inferior in intel- 
 ligence and culture to cultivated people in the most 
 favored lauds. The Mexican is fluent in conversation 
 and urbane in manner, but the wide gap between the 
 
 A MEXICAN SENORA. 
 
 aristocracy and the lower orders reveals Mexico's great 
 need of a middle class prepared by education for those 
 blessings of constitutional liberty which the masses are 
 yet trampling under their feet for very ignorance. 
 
 Most of the two hundred and thirty thousand resi- 
 dents of the capital are Indians. The kneeling crowd 
 in the churches on some saint's day is largely aborigi- 
 nal in its make-up, and as democratic as in ancient days.
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 327 
 
 The dark-eyed seiiora of Spanish blood wrapped in the 
 ample folds of her silken reboza bows on the stone 
 floor close beside an Indian from the country on the way 
 to market with a hen-coop on his back, and the cackling, 
 crowing inmates of the coop in no wise disturb the prayers 
 of either devotee. Perhaps half the crowd remembered 
 to throw a kiss to their old deity, the sun, as they entered 
 the shrine where the one true God is professedly wor- 
 shiped. There is no Sabbath in Mexico. The sanctity 
 of the Lord's day has been given to seasons devoted to 
 the adoration of his disciples, and there are so many more 
 of these saints' days than of Sabbaths in the year that if 
 they had no other reason to obey man rather than God 
 this would be sufficient for this pleasure-loving people. 
 Formerly they went in the morning to mass, and then in 
 the afternoon to a bull-fight an institution that might 
 seem to have come down from the bloodthirsty Aztecs 
 did we not know that it was brought from Spain. Mex- 
 ico has done better than the mother-country, for these 
 disgusting exhibitions have been suppressed by the gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Mexico is the paradise of equestrians ; even the beg- 
 gars formerly went on horseback. 
 
 The Paseo de la Riforma is a fine avenue three miles 
 long, leading out to the famous castle of Chapultepec, 
 beside the Chalco Canal. A ride in one of the pleasure- 
 boats on the latter is a favorite pastime. These boats 
 are fitted up with cushioned seats in the middle, pro- 
 tected by an awning, for passengers, while the boatmen 
 use their long poles ut either end. On land the way is 
 thronged from seven to nine o'clock in the morning and 
 from six to seven in the evening with equestrians and 
 gay carriages filled with ladies. The magnificent hous-
 
 328 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 ings of the steeds, rich with trappings of gold and silver 
 and silken embroidery, form one of the finest sights of 
 the metropolis, to be surpassed in splendor only by the 
 dress of their riders. The amount of flashing buttons 
 and gold-lace a Mexican gallant can wear is to be meas- 
 ured only by the size of his person. His wide sombrero, 
 feathered and laced, his spurs and other martial accoutre- 
 ments, make him a fine object of observation in the row 
 of horsemen who stand together to be gazed at by every 
 passer-by. 
 
 The nineteenth century makes itself manifest on some 
 of the roads leading out of the city in the shape of 
 "horse-cars" which are crowded most of the time 
 drawn by mules. There are two claases of these cars, 
 with the names on the outside. The conductors blow 
 a horn at the crossings or to hold up. 
 
 The present castle of Chapultepec was built in 1785 
 by the viceroy Galvez on the site of one of the old sum- 
 mer-houses of the luxurious chiefs of Mexico, the foun- 
 dations of which still remain, and also one of the bathing- 
 pools cut in solid rock. It is approached by an avenue 
 of gigantic cypress trees. The city is in full view from 
 the windows, with its domes and towers, its softly-tinted 
 houses interspersed with forest trees. The great valley 
 with its embracing mountains, whose tall sentinel-peaks 
 rise far to the east, are all reflected in the mirror-lakes 
 below from the very base to the summit. Popocatapetl 
 and Iztaccihuatl are giant gate-posts in the granite wall 
 which surrounds this great plateau. Seen through the 
 wonderfully pure and rarefied atmosphere of this high 
 table-land, these summits seem closer than they really 
 are, being thirty miles apart. Between them Cortez 
 made his way, and centuries later General Scott followed.
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 
 
 329 
 
 Popocatapetl, five thousand feet higher than Mout 
 Blanc, is a perfect cone. Now and then a smoke-wreath 
 
 CHAPULTEPEC CASTLE. 
 
 tells of the fires which rage far below its rocky founda- 
 tions, but there has been no eruption within three hun- 
 dred years. Such was the dread of this smoking moun- 
 tain that no Mexican ever scaled it until the Spaniards 
 came. Since these adventurous spirits seized Mexico,
 
 330 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Popocatepetl has been turned into a vast sulphur-quarry. 
 A jet of vapor of twenty horse-power rises about eight 
 hundred feet below the edge of the crater, and it is pro- 
 posed to use this natural force to hoist the sulphur to the 
 top of this vast cavity, instead of employing men to 
 climb up in that rarefied atmosphere with heavy loads. 
 
 &S&:- 
 i 
 
 tPs?t> 
 
 SUMMIT OF IZTACCIHl'ATL, MEXICO. 
 
 Over against Popocatapetl is Iztaccihuatl the " Wo- 
 man in White." Its resemblance to a human figure is 
 perceived more readily than that of the Man in the 
 Moon. One needs a strong imagination in both cases. 
 The giantess lies in her snowy robes, with her feet 
 toward her husband and her cold face upturned, her 
 hair being simulated by one of the dark forests which
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 331 
 
 mantle the lower slopes of these mountains. Recent 
 enterprise has found a way of making money out of 
 both, these old people. Since Popocatapetl produces 
 sulphur, his wife has been called upon for ice, of which 
 she has enough and to spare. The city of Puebla is sup- 
 plied in this way, and a few years more may see its white 
 mantle dealt out by piecemeal to cool other heated com- 
 munities farther away. 
 
 The Virgin Mary is the tutelar deity of all Mexico ; 
 more than two-thirds of the people worship her in the 
 form of an Indian maiden. About ten years after the 
 surrender of Guatemozin, and while the people were 
 still maintaining, though under great difficulties, their old 
 tribal relations, it became evident that the religion which 
 they had been forced to adopt was growing more and more 
 hateful to them, and that unless something was done to 
 win their hearts even the compromise with heathenism 
 which passed under the name of Christianity would be 
 shaken off' altogether : Christians had made the name of 
 Christ so odious that his beloved message lost all its 
 power. 
 
 In the suburbs of the city was a place whither the 
 Aztecs once resorted to pour their sorrows into the ear 
 of their ancient idol Tomantzin a sweet word in their 
 ears. The last syllable is a title given to persons of 
 high rank, but the first part of the name has a mean- 
 ing which is dear to every human heart. It is " Our 
 Mother." Tomantzin attracted the attention of the dig- 
 nitaries of the Church as they studied the Indian ques- 
 tion of that day, and soon she was formally adopted by 
 the conquerors, and with some changes in dress and the 
 development of her history to suit the times she took 
 her place in the Church as the queen of heaven.
 
 332 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Toraantzin was introduced in her new character to her 
 old friends with an ingenuity admirable if not commend- 
 able. One December night in 1531 a converted Indian 
 Juan Diego by name was praying alone on the hill of 
 Guadaloupe, about two miles from the city gate, where 
 the people had always worshiped Tomantzin. As he 
 knelt under the starlit sky the Virgin Mary appeared 
 to him robed in white, a great light shining about her. 
 Yet, wonder of wonders ! she was no longer white, but 
 appeared as an Indian woman and spoke of his people 
 as her own people and in their mother-tongue. 
 
 "Go," she said, "to the bishop of Mexico and tell 
 him it is my wish that a church should be built for me 
 on this spot." 
 
 When Diego recovered from his surprise, he hastened 
 to the bishop's palace with his strange news. It was 
 received with suitable incredulity and passed by. But 
 Diego went back to the spot hallowed by the beautiful 
 vision, and, to his great joy, the Virgin appeared again, 
 repeating her commands to the bishop, and adding that 
 the Church would never prosper in Mexico until her 
 message was obeyed. To give weight to her words, a 
 fountain burst forth from the spot where she stood. 
 Again Juan Diego went to the bishop, who .still doubt- 
 ed. He wanted some sign to prove that the story wa.s 
 true. When the Indian again visited the hill, he saw 
 the Virgin near the spring, but this time she bade him 
 take to the faithless bishop a quantity of full-blown roses 
 as a proof of her creative power. The barren rock now 
 burst forth in bloom, though it was the Mexican winter, 
 when roses did not flourish in those cold uplands. With 
 the miraculous roses in his blanket the Indian hastened 
 back to the bishop, when, lo ! as he opened his treasure,
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 333 
 
 he saw imprinted on the coarse woolen fabric the face 
 that had thrice appeared to him on the hill. This was 
 accepted as convincing proof that the Virgin had espoused 
 the cause of the Indians. Belief in Our Lady of Guada- 
 loupe now became universal among her countrymen, al- 
 though the fraud of the whole story is frankly acknowl- 
 edged by many intelligent and loyal Roman Catholics in 
 Mexico. 
 
 On the spot was built a church which became the 
 richest in this land of rich churches. Its great wealth 
 is not derived from the mines, but from the earnings of 
 the abject poor, in whose behalf the Indian Virgin came. 
 Half the women in Mexico, and thousands of the men, 
 are named after this lady, and scarcely a house in the 
 land lacks her blanket-image enshrined in the most hon- 
 ored place. Hundreds of chapels have been erected in 
 her honor in every city and town in Mexico. 
 
 The anniversary of the Virgin's appearance is still 
 celebrated by a great pilgrimage to her shrine. Along 
 the road from the capital to this spot were constructed 
 fourteen beautiful shrines, each commemorating some 
 fact in the history of Christ. Thousands of devotees 
 can be seen crawling on their bare knees on the hard 
 pavement, saying their prayers as they go painfully 
 along. The highest dignitaries in the land were wont 
 to join in this celebration. As many as one hundred 
 thousand people came on foot from the surrounding 
 countiy to join in the ceremonies and to bring their 
 offerings. Those who were too poor to pay for lodgings 
 would sleep on the sacred soil, and thousands thus camped 
 out rolled in their blankets, acres of sleeping humanity. 
 This pilgrimage is falling into disuse. The great neglect 
 the occasion, and the poor have less time to spend thus
 
 334 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 than in ante-railroad times. In fact, the Mexican Rail- 
 way has usurped the road over which bare-kneed pilgrims 
 traveled, and the shrines are falling into decay since, with 
 Maximilian and Carlotta, clerical rule passed away. 
 
 There has always been a great rivalry between the 
 Virgin of Guadaloupe and the Virgin brought over from 
 Spain, Nostra Sefiora de los Remedies. The latter is an 
 ugly wooden doll about a foot long. It is said to have 
 once belonged to Cortez, and to have been set up by him 
 in the old heathen temple of Mexico. Some of the Span- 
 iards rescued the image at the time of their conflict with 
 the Aztecs, and it was taken away with other valuables 
 and lost in the wreck of the noche triste. When, some 
 time afterward, it was found in the heart of a huge mag- 
 uey-plant on the top of a bare hill, it was claimed that 
 the Virgin had saved her image by a miracle, and hence- 
 forth she was shrined in a golden maguey-flower and 
 worshiped as divine. Many a time the wooden Virgin, 
 seated in a gilded coach and drawn by a nobleman of the 
 highest rank, has been carried through the streets of the 
 capital, while the viceroy humbly walked behind. 
 
 The political opinions of these rival Virgins are sup- 
 posed to be very marked. The republicans were shrewd 
 enough to win the Lady of Guadaloupe to their side at 
 the beginning of the contest, while the Lady de los Re- 
 medies was counted upon as a true Spaniard in her sym- 
 pathies. Each of them had a general's dress and marched 
 with her party when they paraded the streets. 
 
 At one time, when the conservatives were despairing 
 of their cause, they began to threaten the Lady de los 
 Remedies for her indifference to their entreaties. They 
 told her that if she would hear their prayers she might 
 keep her situation in the cathedral and wear her jeweled
 
 TO MEXICO BY RAIL. 335 
 
 petticoats in peace; if she still continued deaf to their 
 prayers, they would put her in plain clothes and ship 
 her to Spain. At last ruin stared them in the face. 
 The wooden doll was taken down, and bearded men, 
 like children in a pet with their toy, bought a passport 
 for her to her native laud. She was actually on her way 
 there in disgrace when the authorities came to their senses 
 and ordered the disgraced image to be returned to the 
 church.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 
 
 A FTER more than half its territory had been taken 
 - by its grasping neighbor the United States, .Mexico 
 still was about four times the size of France, with a 
 coast-line of fifty-eight hundred miles and a common 
 boundary with the United States of eighteen hundred 
 miles. 
 
 Exclude the Rio Grande, which divides the two nations 
 for nearly half this distance, and Mexico may be called a 
 riverless country. The magnificent harbors which open 
 along its western coast are just beginning to be known, 
 though several of them are among the finest in the world. 
 Guaymas, a village at the mouth of a small river empty- 
 ing into the Gulf of California, is now the terminus of 
 a railroad which gives direct communication with St. 
 Louis, Philadelphia, New York and all our great cities. 
 An active trade is springing up which will soon bring 
 the place into competition with some of its better-known 
 neighbors. From San Bias, farther south, on the Pacific 
 coast, a road runs eastward to Tampico, on the Gulf of 
 Mexico. Acapulco, another railroad terminus, has a 
 noble land-locked harbor, and is likely to be one of 
 the queen-cities of the South-west. It is probable that 
 Mexico, so long closed to a free commerce, will first be 
 opened on the north, on its landward side, and that its 
 
 33B
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 337 
 
 lack of water-communication will be more than made 
 up by several great railroad systems converging toward 
 
 ON THE CANAL, NEAK MEXICO CITY. 
 
 the ancient capital and linking the sleepy old cities 
 along their routes with the wide-awake world outside. 
 
 22
 
 338 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 Habits and customs which are wrought into the veiy 
 life of the people are fast giving way before American 
 ideas. In spite of the national bugbear of annexation, 
 Mexico is to-day in a receptive mood. She seems to 
 
 stand like one of her 
 
 I 
 
 own Indians who come 
 out of their cabins to 
 see the train go by. 
 Gaunt and speechless, 
 with faces as unmoved 
 
 as are ' those of their old 
 statues, they wave a per- 
 missive hand to the bold 
 intruder as they stand gaz- 
 ing at this wonder of our rushing age. If old Popocat- 
 apetl, the home of the gods, is safely tunneled for a new 
 track, and the holy hill of Cholula is cut away to make 
 room for the inevitable locomotive, innovations like 
 American looms and ploughs and reapers will surely 
 be tolerated in old Mexico, and the modern express- 
 wagon will be permitted to take the place of the prim- 
 itive ox-cart.
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 339 
 
 There are immense districts, however, where such for- 
 eign wares are still unknown. One has only to find one 
 of these out-of-the-way places to see husbandry carried 
 on as it was when Joseph was Pharaoh's overseer in 
 Egypt. If by chance an American plough makes its 
 way there, it is apt to be broken up for its iron, since 
 that can be turned into cash, while the farmer plods con- 
 tentedly on in the rut his ancestors made five hundred 
 years ago. But the lower classes in town and in city 
 have been aroused to new life. Those who used to beg 
 or to steal because they had nothing else to do can now 
 earn an honest living with pickaxe and spade along the 
 route of some of the new railroads. There has been a 
 very perceptible change not only in arrests for crime, but 
 in that turbulent spirit which found vent in endless rev- 
 olutions. It was estimated that in 1883 more than 
 fifty thousand Mexicans were at work digging, felling 
 trees, building bridges and cutting roads through forests 
 and over mountains. Many of these had never before 
 done a full day's work. At least six railroads are now 
 heading toward as many cities on the Pacific shore of 
 Mexico, while the country is crossed by half that num- 
 ber of transcontinental roads. 
 
 There are but two seasons in Mexico the wet season 
 and the dry season. The mean temperature in January 
 is 52.5 Fahrenheit; in July, 65.3. From October to 
 May there is but little rain. As the heavy floods of 
 autumn are left behind the streams then swollen by 
 freshets dry up, the meadows look parched, the shrubs 
 wither and on the higli plateau clouds of dust fill the 
 air. In some parts of the country water becomes 
 scarce, even for culinary purposes, and the precious fluid 
 may be seen traveling in barrels behind the donkey and
 
 340 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 its master from some stream to the home. In May there 
 are frequent showers, and by September tiny rivulets 
 become raging torrents leaping from shelf to shelf of 
 their rocky beds through some great crevice in the 
 mountains. 
 
 On the Pacific coast the steep sides of the cordilleras 
 are cleft by long valleys running east and west and open- 
 
 WATER-PEDDLER, MEXICO. 
 
 ing out directly on the sea. The surf often thunders up to 
 the very mouth of the deep mountaiu-glen till the green 
 of its perpetual spring is moistened by the spray. 
 
 A large part of Mexico has been denuded of its for- 
 ests. The Spaniards neglected the system of irrigation 
 used by the more provident natives, and many parts of 
 the country once profitably cultivated are now lying
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 341 
 
 waste. The great naked mountains and the leafless 
 character of much of the vegetation give to some por- 
 tions of Mexico a sterile appearance which always makes 
 an impression on strangers. Some varieties of prickly 
 pear grow to the size of quite large trees. The fluted 
 columns of the organ-cactus tower up to the height of 
 sixty feet in favorable soil. The prickly-pear cactus is 
 
 GATHERING THE JTJICE OF THE MAGUEY FOK PULQUE. 
 
 used for hedges, and, as it bristles with thorns and spines, 
 intruders are kept at a respectful distance. The Indians, 
 who are very fond of the fruit of this cactus, go out in 
 August, when it is ripe, and hook it down with forked 
 sticks. Mexico seems to be the home of the cacti. Their 
 grotesque forms are seen everywhere, brightened in their 
 season with beautiful blossoms pink, pale-yellow, warm 
 tints of red or deep gold.
 
 342 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 One of the most common plants is the maguey (Agave 
 Americana). This grows wild everywhere and is useful 
 to its last particle. 1 1 furnishes thread, needles, cord, ropes, 
 thatch and paper, and also bears a palatable fruit when its 
 blossoms are allowed to come to perfection. Its chief com- 
 mercial value is in its sap, out of which pulque, the nation- 
 al beverage, is made. The agave matures very slowly, 
 needing about ten years of growth to become productive. 
 The Indians who have watched it know to a day when 
 the blossom will be ready for the knife. The whole 
 heart of the plant is then cut out, leaving nothing but 
 the stiff outside circle of leaves. Into the deep cavity 
 thus left oozes the sap, which is carefully dipped out two 
 or three times each day. The basin of the wounded plant 
 will hold a pailful of the sweet honey- water. When this 
 ferments, as it does in twenty-four hours, it becomes 
 pulque (pronounced pool-bay). The sap from one plant 
 will often run in this way for three months. The plant 
 then dies, and others spring up from its roots, to run 
 the same course. 
 
 Pulque is produced in large quantities about Puebla 
 and the capital. When ready for use, this beverage has 
 a taste which is a cross between sour milk and slightly- 
 tainted beef; it is seldom palatable on first acquaintance, 
 but a relish for it is soon acquired, and drunkenness from 
 its excessive use is common. The Indians are its natural 
 victims. Humboldt says that in his day " the police in 
 Mexico sent around tumbrels to collect the drunkards to 
 be found stretched out in the streets. These Indians are 
 carried to the principal guard-house. In the morning an 
 iron ring is put on their ankles, and they are made to 
 sweep the streets for three days." 
 
 Mexico has well been called an "agricultural cosmos ;"
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 343 
 
 there is not a plant of any zone or of any soil which can- 
 not flourish within its borders. All European cereals are 
 at home on the table-lands, with the fruits and the forest- 
 trees of other temperate regions. In the forests below 
 one hundred and fourteen varieties of timber suitable 
 for cabinet-work have been counted, with seventeen kinds 
 of oil-bearing plants and several valuable species of gum 
 
 SHOP FOR THE SALE OP PULQUE. 
 
 trees, of which the india-rubber variety is a specimen. 
 Sugar is a staple crop, and coffee, introduced during this 
 century, is very productive. The government has re- 
 cently ordered two millions of fast-growing trees to be 
 planted within four years. Among these is the eucalyp- 
 tus, which flourishes well in the lake-regions of Mex- 
 ico. 
 
 The people are mostly vegetarians ; maize and beans,
 
 344 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 with pepper, form their main diet. The banana lias 
 been a wonderful boon to the poor of this country ; 
 four thousand pounds of bananas may be gathered 
 from ground which yields thirty pounds of wheat. Within 
 a year after the suckers are set out the plant is in full 
 bearing, which means three crops in a year. 
 
 Nothing in Mexico has so fastened upon the world's 
 attention as have its wonderful mines; between A. D. 
 1519 and A. D. 1826 precious metals to the value of 
 $2,588,732,000 had been taken from them. Silver 
 and gold were exported by the ton. At the close of the 
 eighteenth century the famous old vita mftdre, or mother- 
 vein, of Guanajuato had yielded one-fifth of all the sil- 
 ver then in circulation in the world. Most of this treas- 
 ure found its way to Spain, but vast quantities of it were 
 hoarded up in the churches built everywhere in Mexico. 
 Candlesticks of gold too heavy for one man to lift, pyxes, 
 crosses, statues, of precious metals encrusted with gems 
 and most elaborately wrought, adorn the shrines, whose 
 wealth of ornamentation exceeds anything known eLse- 
 where. When the mines of St. Eulalia, near Chihuahua, 
 were in full operation years ago, there was a tax of 
 twelve and a half cents on every eight ounces of silver 
 drawn from the mines, and in fifty years the proceeds 
 had reared one of the grandest churches in Mexico. 
 
 Many of the richest mines in the country those of 
 St. Eulalia among the number have been closed for 
 generations. In the eager search for "bonan/as" the 
 owners passed by a great deal of valuable ore rather than 
 work for it. The government has recently issued a |MT- 
 mit to an enterprising Yankee to reopen this old mine. 
 He has erected a mill in Chihuahua fitted up with mod-
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 345 
 
 ern machinery, and after tunneling the mountain in two 
 directions has turned out from fifteen to twenty-five 
 thousands of dollars in silver bullion in a month, with 
 a prospect of doing better when the capacity of his works 
 is increased. Other metals seem to be waiting for ener- 
 getic miners. Quantities of tin are found in Michoacan 
 and Jalisco, and a ton of this metal was recently brought 
 to the United States from Durango. In the same neigh- 
 borhood is the famous mountain of magnetic-iron ore 
 a treasure of which the Aztecs never knew the use, and 
 which the Spaniards were too much occupied with gold- 
 hunting to consider. 
 
 Old Mexican mines have entered on a fresh lease of 
 productiveness of late years, and new ones will soon be 
 opened. Already the miner's toil is lightened by modern 
 helps, and men are not used as beasts of burdens. Time 
 was when all these tons of ore were carried up in baskets 
 slung on men's backs and supported by a band across the 
 forehead. The amount of labor required may be imag- 
 ined when it is said that one of these old shafts pierced 
 the earth's crust to a depth of sixteen hundred feet, and 
 that it annually yielded five hundred tons of silver and 
 one and a half tons of gold. 
 
 Except when drunk, the Mexican Indians are taciturn 
 and patient under their burdens, though taught by ages 
 of oppression to be distrustful. They seem to be con- 
 tented with their lot, though it must be said that as a 
 people they have in them great possibilities of obstinacy. 
 They are slow workers, but faithful and persevering. 
 They look like a conquered people. Their faces are as 
 sad, their hearts as dark and their minds as ignorant as 
 when the sun went down on their tribes three hundred 
 years ago. Their humility is often most touching. The
 
 346 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 whites have given them the title of gentes sin razon 
 " men without reason " and they accept the reproachful 
 term as readily as it is given. 
 
 The Indians never deserve so well to be called " men 
 without reason" as when they give themselves up to the 
 celebration of some feast-day of the Church. The ex- 
 travagance of a poor man on such occasions, especially 
 when he" frequents the pulqueria, or dram-shop, is mar- 
 velous. Money is borrowed in advance, to be returned in 
 labor; debt thus becomes the bane of the Mexican peas- 
 antry. The debtors (mozos] make up a large part of the 
 population, and a more hopeless slavery it is not possible 
 to imagine. Another great source of this and other 
 evils is the extravagant marriage-fee demanded by the 
 priests. This is never less than fourteen dollars ; and if 
 this ceremony is not altogether dispensed with as it is in 
 a majority of cases a young man begins his career as a 
 mozo by borrowing money to defray the expenses of his 
 wedding. 
 
 In love of wife and children Mexicans of every class 
 are not excelled anywhere. If Diego or Juan is at work 
 on one of the new roads, thither he transports his wife 
 and his babies. He has a shelter for them somewhere 
 among the cactus or mesquite and stunted palms, or he 
 burrows in a hillside or has a little thatch amid the 
 brush, where, though not very comfortable according to 
 our ideas, he has a home. Here the little brown children 
 roll in the sun with the pigs, who have accompanied the 
 family in their migration. The pony, if they have one, 
 is tethered close by, and the inevitable burro, or donkey, 
 goes hobbling about, as long-suffering as the Indian and 
 with something like his history. 
 
 The ordinary homes of the common people are gen-
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 347 
 
 erally built of adobe, or, if near a forest, of pine-slabs 
 leaning against a framework of logs or supported by a 
 tree. The roof is a thatch of cornstalks or branches 
 
 of trees or the stiff, 
 sword-like leaves 
 of the agave. Very 
 
 NATIVE INDIAN ABODE. 
 
 few of these hovels have doors, and none of them have 
 windows. A heap of stones in the corner or a great flat 
 slab in the centre serves for a fireplace on the earthen 
 floor, and the smoke easily finds its way out through the 
 cracks. Corn is ground between two stones, after the 
 simple ancestral fashion. Tortillas cakes made of 
 crushed corn and water, baked hard aud rich brown 
 beans, called frijols, hot with pepper, form the staple 
 food. A few unglazed pots and dishes, a rude pitcher or 
 two for water, gourds for cups, a tortilla-trough and 
 kueadiug-stone, handed down perhaps for generations, 
 with mats for seats and bedding, form all the furniture 
 of the hovels in which most of the people live. The 
 making and the eating of tortillas, however, are not con- 
 fined to the poor. These are points on which all Mex- 
 icans are united. Twenty-five years ago chairs aud tables
 
 348 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 were so little used in Mexico by the poorer people as to 
 be more ornamental than useful ; they preferred to sit 
 on their heels or to lounge on the floor. Very few had 
 knives or forks, and a spoon was always made of a tor- 
 tilla folded together and dipped in the family-dish. The 
 food and the clothing in such a home are generally horue- 
 
 MAKJXG TORTILLAS, MEXICO. 
 
 made. The women are industrious, and manage to weave 
 with their old Aztec looms such cloth as their ancestors 
 gave to Cortez by the bale. The apparatus looks like a few 
 sticks tied together, and when not in use hangs on the wall.
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 349 
 
 "While some of the Indians of Mexico have pushed 
 their way up to positions of influence, and sometimes of 
 wealth, they are generally very poor^ herding together in 
 the cities in a quarter of their own, a people within a 
 people. They number about five millions more than 
 half the entire population while Indian blood predom- 
 inates in the mestizo, or mixed, race of the country, the 
 Creoles, or Europeans and their descendants, forming not 
 
 MEXICAN WATER-WORKS. 
 
 more than one-tenth of the inhabitants of Mexico. The 
 Toluca Valley, about forty miles west of the capital, is 
 owned by Indian pueblos, or corporations. Near Cuer- 
 navaca, where Cortez fought a fierce battle with the na-
 
 350 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 lives, is a village which has successfully resisted Spanish 
 influences and maintained its old institutions to tin's day. 
 Nor is this a solitary instance. The Indians are not dying 
 out nor losing their tribal identity ; they are a hardy race, 
 and still thrive under treatment which blotted out the 
 islanders among whom the Spaniards first settled. They 
 often live to be a hundred years old ; the women are es- 
 pecially long-lived. Few of either sex are deformed. 
 
 The whole race of village Indians, Aztecs and others, 
 are an industrious people. Men and women share in the 
 burdens of caring for the family; a woman may work in 
 the fields, but the heavier part of out-door labor comes 
 on the men. They all seem to be natural burden-bearers. 
 Those of them who are too poor to own one of their lit- 
 tle unshod ponies, or even a " burro," will all day carry 
 on their own backs a load of from seventy-five to a hun- 
 dred pounds. They take short steps and go on their long 
 journeys up and down hill in a jog-trot, returning satis- 
 fied if they have earned a dollar or two at most. Their 
 peculiar tenacity of purpose is shown by the fact that 
 they are apt to go to the very place they set out for, 
 even though they could make as much money by selling be- 
 fore they reached there. A missionary tells of a poor fel- 
 low who brought a hundred pounds of charcoal to market. 
 He had spent a week altogether cutting and burning 
 it, carried it twenty-five miles on his back and sold it 
 for seventy-five cents. Some of these laborers earn from 
 twelve and a half to thirty cents a day ; others, loaded 
 with debt, work for a bare subsistence and scarcely see 
 money from one year's end to another. 
 
 Mexico has never been a densely-populated country. 
 On an all-day journey by rail through the State of 
 Chihuahua the vast, grassy plain over which the road
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 351 
 
 passes, bounded on either side by fantastic mountain- 
 peaks, has scarcely a sign of human habitation except 
 the station-buildings along the track. Immense herds 
 of cattle and numerous flocks of sheep are seen quietly 
 feeding around some lake, as though they had been tak- 
 ing care of themselves for generations. This is not the 
 case, however, for somewhere, hidden in a clump of trees 
 or on a sightly hill, the comfortable mansion of some lord- 
 ly proprietor (haciendado) arises surrounded by fields and 
 orchards and a village of his peon herdsmen. Per- 
 haps all the land which has been in sight for a whole 
 day has been the property of one family for a century 
 or more. Slavery was abolished when Mexican inde- 
 pendence was secured, but the evil effects of the hacienda 
 system as this one-man power is called remained. 
 
 Up to this time the towns and the hamlets of Mexico 
 look very much as they have looked for the past three 
 hundred years bits of old Spain dropped into the New- 
 World soil amid the mouldering ruins of its ancient 
 civilization. Forty miles north of the capital the Mex- 
 ican Central Railroad passes Tula, one of the Toltec 
 cities which was ruined before Cortez came. Here, 
 among the fields near the famous pyramids of the sun 
 and moon, thousands of little images are found by 
 following the ploughman as he turns over the sod; 
 they are supposed to be votive offerings once brought to 
 this old Toltec shrine. No two faces are alike, but the 
 sad expression Avorn now by the Indians is characteristic 
 of these clay heads. Arrows, pottery and other remains 
 show that this plain was in bygone ages the home of a 
 large population. 
 
 Most of the interesting cities of Mexico are, or soon 
 will be, reached by railroads. Monterey, one of the
 
 852 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 oldest cities on this continent, is on the Mexican Nation- 
 al Railroad, about six hundred miles north-east from the 
 capital. It stands at the head of a beautiful valley, on 
 the Rio Catarina, one of the tributaries of the Rio Grande. 
 It is entirely shut in by mountains whose strange shapes 
 give to the scenery a peculiar character which cannot l>e 
 lost when the tide of travel shall sweep away many other 
 landmarks. These frowning summits are so high that 
 the city nestling near at their base is still more than six- 
 teen hundred feet above the sea. Streams of pure cold 
 water flow through the streets from springs not far away. 
 The city, embowered with orchards and gardens, has the 
 same Moorish architecture seen elsewhere, while the fort- 
 ress-like houses and the flat roofs mark it as one of the 
 cities of olden times. A new cathedral, begun twenty 
 years ago, is yet to be finished. The old one stands on 
 the plaza, a pleasant spot Ixjautified by the hapless Max- 
 imilian with winding walks, fountains and parterres of 
 bright flowers. 
 
 Chihuahua is a city about twelve hundred miles north- 
 west from the capital and two hundred miles from El 
 Paso. The Mexican Central Railroad was opened 
 through this place in March, 1884, making communica- 
 tion complete between this point and the City of Mexico. 
 
 Chihuahua had been subject to many inroads from the 
 wild Indians of the Xorth, and for years no enterprise 
 was safe ; now, what with the new railroads, telegraphs, 
 horse-cars, omnibuses, and the whir of American ma- 
 chinery in mills and factories, old times and new are in 
 strange juxtaposition. The city stands in a beautiful 
 valley opening toward the north between the spurs of 
 the Sierra Madre. It is in the same latitude as is South- 
 ern Florida, but, being more than five thousand feet
 
 354 "ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 above the sea, the climate is almost perfect all the year 
 round and well suited to invalids. It is regularly built, 
 with the principal streets wide, straight and swept clean 
 by convict labor. The plaza has its beautiful flowers 
 and shrubbery and is surrounded by a broad promenade. 
 In the centre is a great fountain whose large, deep basin 
 overflows with pure water brought from an artificial 
 reservoir in the mountains, six miles away. Morning 
 and evening, with tall earthen jars poised on their heads, 
 the swarthy Mexican women come to get their supply 
 of water in this public square. The massive stone arches 
 of the aqueduct which brings the stream are quite a feat- 
 ure in the suburban landscape of Chihuahua. Continu- 
 ous house-fronts are quite as common here as in other 
 cities. It has its poor quarter, where this class huddle 
 together in miserable hovels, but most of the city has a 
 bright and cheerful appearance. Houses are built of 
 light-gray stone, with the owner's monogram carved 
 over the doorway, while gilded bars defending the 
 windows cut in the heavy walls tell of days when 
 every dwelling was a fortress. 
 
 The police-force of the Mexican cities is generally 
 very efficient. In Chihuahua watchmen walk the city 
 all day with revolvers ready for action ; at night they don 
 a great serape, shoulder a gun and patrol the streets with 
 huge square lanterns, calling out to each other with os- 
 tentatious regularity ; and woe betide the offender who is 
 caught disturbing the public peace and quiet in a less 
 orderly manner than they do themselves! The next 
 day finds him hard at work in the chain-gang, from 
 which he never escapes until he has suffered the ut- 
 most rigor of the law. 
 
 Six hundred miles farther south, on the same rail-
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 355 
 
 road, is the city of Zacatecas, capital of the State of the 
 game name. It is built in a cleft in the naked moun- 
 tains so characteristic of this region and directly over a 
 rich vein of silver. It is so situated that it does not 
 come into view until one is within a mile and a half of 
 it, and then only in sections unless one has climbed the 
 hills to look down upon it. A number of churches and 
 public buildings make a fine appearance. 
 
 Guanajuato has another of the curiously picturesque 
 situations which Nature has provided for the cities of 
 Mexico. It was founded by the Spaniards in 1545 for 
 mining purposes. It is approached by a deep canon. In 
 what seems to be a collection of villages clinging to the 
 steep mountain-sides are the houses of at least sixty thou- 
 sand people. Along the winding streets or perched here 
 and there on some "coign of vantage" are well-built 
 houses of hewn stone. Deep as is the valley where 
 these are situated, the whole place stands six thousand 
 feet above the sea. 
 
 Guanajuato is the place where Hidalgo raised the 
 standard of revolt in 1809 after gaming over the gar- 
 rison, and not far away is the small village of Dolores, 
 where he had his home. 
 
 Queretaro, also on the Mexican Central Railroad, is 
 another city among the clouds, a thousand feet higher 
 than Guanajuato. The whole State of which this city 
 is the capital is remarkable for its fine scenery and its 
 salubrious climate. Queretaro is furnished with water 
 brought thither from springs six miles away. An aque- 
 duct two miles long crosses the meadows on arches ninety 
 feet high and joins a tunnel in the neighboring hills. 
 This noble structure was built at his own expense by 
 one of the early viceroys. In this beautiful city Max-
 
 356 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 imilian took refuge with a few followers, and on a hill 
 in its suburbs he was put to death. The place is also 
 noted for the treaty of peace which was concluded here 
 between Mexico and the United States in 1848. 
 
 At Lagos the Mexican Central branches off to the 
 west, to San Bias. 
 
 Halfway to the Pacific coast is the quaint old city of 
 Guadalajara, in the State of Jalisco. The bare browu 
 hills by which it is surrounded would look dreary enough 
 but for the gold of the sunlight and the blue of the sky, 
 nowhere brighter than in Mexico. The city is two miles 
 square and is laid out with straight wide streets crossing 
 at right angles, with narrow sidewalks and one-stoiy flat- 
 roofed houses built about a large courtyard. It is a city 
 of churches. The sky-line is everywhere broken by 
 domes and spires with minarets and round towers built 
 by men who learned architecture from the Moors. It 
 has a beautiful alameda and many fine old trees, with 
 arcades surrounding the public square in the centre of 
 the city. Dominating all is the great cathedral with its 
 decorations of blue and gold and a spire two hundred 
 feet high; this building was very much injured by the 
 great earthquake in the early part of this century. 
 Among so many demolished churches and churches at 
 auction and churches given away, it is remarkable that 
 Guadalajara is building a new one which when complet- 
 ed will be very magnificent. To preserve the building 
 from earthquakes a huge cross has been erected within 
 the walls. 
 
 Guadalajara boasts sixteen public squares and many 
 fine public buildings, the State university, the mint, the 
 palaces of the governor and the archbishop and the 
 largest theatre in America. Nor is it behind in modern
 
 358 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 improvements electric lights, telephones and telegraphs, 
 besides the railroad which links it to the Atlantic and the 
 Pacific, and a college for girls. Outside the city limits 
 are a number of factories, Guadalajara being the chief 
 centre for wool and cotton industries. 
 
 Puebla, nestled among the cloud-capped summits over- 
 looking the Gulf of Mexico, ranks next to the capital 
 in size and importance. From this situation, seven thou- 
 sand feet above the sea, is a magnificent outlook. The cli- 
 mate is unsurpassed even in this land of perpetual spring. 
 Puebla is connected by a branch road with the railway 
 from Vera Cruz to the capital. Its wide, clean, well- 
 drained streets, imposing churches, substantial houses 
 and delightful surroundings of hill and grove are pleas- 
 ant to look upon whichever way the eye may turn. The 
 whole place had an air of thrift and enterprise before the 
 great awakening of recent years. Its cotton- and flour- 
 ing-mills, foundries, porcelain- and glass-works and the 
 manufacture of pulque make it quite a business centre, 
 but it is chiefly noted as one of the holy cities of Mex- 
 ico. Its cathedral is proudly called " De los Angelos," 
 from the old tradition that after its massive towers had 
 been upreared the angels came down each night and 
 helped to decorate the magnificent interior. Its pillars, 
 ninety feet high, support a graceful dome from whose 
 centre hangs a ponderous chandelier whose solid gold 
 and silver are tons in weight. The high altar, of trans- 
 lucent marble inlaid with gold, was a gift of one of the 
 bishops. Some of its great stones are as exquisite in 
 color and finish as is any gem in a lady's ring. The 
 image of the Virgin shrined here is almost life-size, and 
 is so bedizened with pearls and emeralds and diamonds as 
 to be worth millions. Delicate and airy wood-carvings,
 
 THE LAND: ITS PRODUCTS AND CITIES. 359 
 
 splendid tapestries wrought in old Spain by royal hands, 
 paintings by old masters, a wilderness of statuary gilded 
 and graven and sanctified by years of worship, make the 
 cathedral of Puebla one of the sights of Mexico. Here, 
 also, in a city of churches, convents and priests, was a 
 branch of the Inquisition, under the care of Dominican 
 friars ; its buildings have recently been purchased from 
 the government by the Methodist mission. One of the 
 gilded rooms of which they took possession had in its 
 walls a door which had been plastered up. This was 
 knocked open, and a room was found in which were 
 many human skeletons. The hapless victims had evi- 
 dently been let down through a well-like opening over- 
 head and left alone to die, the living among the dead. 
 From the courtyard of this terrible prison thirteen cart- 
 loads of human bones were taken before it could be made 
 suitable for the purposes of the mission.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 "A LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 
 
 I 
 
 N 1524, 
 when Cor- 
 tez was forg- 
 ing the chains 
 of Mexico and 
 rebuilding the con- 
 quered city, a flame 
 burst out in Europe 
 which soon grew to a 
 general conflagration. 
 The peasantry of Ger- 
 many were literally interpreting 
 God's good news of " liberty to the 
 captive and the opening of the prison 
 to them who are bound." The printing-press stood 
 ready to speak for them, and thousands of handbills 
 probably the first ever thrown to the winds were scat- 
 tered broadcast, proclaiming the gospel of freedom for 
 the people. The hard-working Germans were roused to 
 a new sense of their manhood. When the spokesman 
 of their great multitude came to plead their cause with 
 
 360
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 361 
 
 the army of the Empire, he had an open Bible in his 
 hand, and, pointing to the sacred pages, he exclaimed, 
 solemnly, " We ask nothing which is not promised to us 
 here by the founders of Christianity." In time these 
 peasants were crushed, but others rose in their stead; 
 their inspiring thought lived on. The Reformation bore 
 fruit in new longings for liberty. Long-buried truths 
 dropped in many a crevice of old foundations had been 
 for two hundred years silently making their way into 
 the light and the air ; they were now forcing apart each 
 hindering clod and stone, and proving that 
 
 "One germ of life is mightier 
 
 Than a whole universe of death." 
 
 Ancient thrones and citadels fast gave way before the 
 new principle that power should be invested in the 
 people. From the outset the ruling classes traced this 
 idea to the Bible, which Luther had just then put into 
 the hands of the people in their own language, and both 
 the book and its reader were hated accordingly. 
 
 There seems to be a natural antagonism between the 
 Church of Rome and a Bible which common people 
 can read. Throughout Christendom this precious book 
 was for centuries concealed from the masses in a dead 
 language, until it became an almost forgotten part of 
 that " whole armor of God " which he has commanded 
 his Church to take in her spiritual warfare. The gospel 
 which had been preached to the poor had thus a political 
 outcome over which kings, priests, and even Reformers 
 themselves, trembled. It is true that Protestantism be- 
 came at times a political engine, but God worked through 
 it in fulfillment of his own word : " Every valley shall 
 be exalted and every hill brought low." 

 
 362 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 It was in the thirteenth century, when all Eurojx; waa 
 arousing from the. torpor of the Dark Ages, that trans- 
 lations of the Bible into several vernacular languages 
 first appeared. In this great movement Spain was a 
 leader. King Alphonso the Wise caused a Spanish 
 translation of the Bible to be made in 1 260 " for the 
 improvement of the Castiliau language;" this manu- 
 script may be seen in the library of the Escorial. In 
 1478, fourteen years before Columbus discovered Amer- 
 ica, we hear of a Spanish Bible published in the city of 
 Valencia. The feeling of the priesthood over this en- 
 terprise is shown by the fact that the work was sup- 
 pressed and the impression burned. Scarcely a copy 
 escaped. 
 
 But little seems to have been known, however, of 
 these translations by the common people, who most 
 needed them ; for when Francis de Enzinas, a pious 
 Spaniard, desired for his countrymen the treasure of 
 God's word in their mother-tongue, he went to Witten- 
 berg to be, as he supposed, a pioneer translator of the 
 New Testament into Spanish. He did the work under 
 the eye of Melanchthou. The first edition, dedicated to 
 Charles V., was published in the year 1544. De Soto. 
 the confessor of the emperor, warned him of the dan- 
 gerous tendencies of this book, and poor Enzinas, though 
 he had been promised the royal patronage, was arrested 
 and thrown into prison. The printing of one verse of 
 his translation in capital letters nearly cost the bold man 
 his life. It was Romans iii. 28 : " Therefore we con- 
 clude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds 
 of the law." 
 
 "For what reason," said the inquisitors, when they 
 tormented him with questions, " have you had this
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHfNETH IN A DARK PLACE." 363 
 
 Lutheran maxim set in capital letters? It is a very 
 grave offence, and deserves burning." 
 
 "This doctrine was not devised in Luther's brain," 
 replied Enzinas ; " its source is the mysterious throne of 
 the eternal Father, and it was revealed to the Church by 
 the ministry of St. Paul for the salvation of every one 
 that believeth." 
 
 While in confinement and in the face of death at the 
 stake Enzinas translated the Psalms and preached the 
 gospel to all who would hear him. 
 
 It is pleasant to record the escape of this bold con- 
 fessor after a long imprisonment. He had become very 
 sad one night, depressed in mind and body, and, going 
 to the grating of his cell for air, he discovered the door 
 to be unfastened. He passed through this, and found 
 the second unlocked also, and then the third, which 
 opened into the street, as though an angel had unbarred 
 them as did Peter's heavenly visitor. 
 
 These facts show that Spain was in possession of the 
 word of God when she extended her sceptre over the 
 pagans of America. The ambition of her military ad- 
 venturers there was not only to enrich her coffers with 
 golden spoil, but to conquer a new world for the 
 pope. 
 
 Xever did the Church of Rome have a grander oppor- 
 tunity than in Mexico to give to perishing souls the gos- 
 pel as it is set forth in God's word. Almost every tribe 
 had bowed to the yoke of Spain and accepted the religion 
 imposed by their conquerors ; but during the three cen- 
 turies of Spanish rule the Bible seems never to have 
 been brought to this dark shore, or, if it was, the book 
 was hidden away in some mouldy library, to be read by 
 priests alone. If the voice of the Reformation ever
 
 3G4 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 sounded in this region and shadow of death, it was soon 
 silenced by the Inquisition, which had a dungeon-grave 
 for every gospel inquirer, whether in Europe, in Asia or 
 in America. God has not been without his witnesses in 
 every age and in every country, but the names of few 
 shine out to human eyes in the annals of the Church in 
 Mexico. The historians of no Christian land were so 
 silent with regard to the Reformation as were those of 
 Spain. Yet thousands of whom the world knows little 
 or nothing died there for the faith of Jesus. Among 
 those who left only a name was Juan de Leon, who lived 
 in Mexico and fled from that country to Spain, only to 
 be arrested there by the Inquisition and burned at the 
 stake in 1559, a heroic martyr for Christ. 
 
 Never were printing-presses watched more vigilantly 
 than were those of Spain at that time. No book could 
 be sold or read without an order from the Inquisition ; 
 a bookseller dared not open a bale of goods without its 
 permission. The same rules were faithfully carried out 
 in Mexico. Even one obnoxious passage in a whole 
 edition of books was erased, and some volumes thus 
 mutilated can to-day be seen in libraries there. Cardi- 
 nal Ximenes, one of the chief promoters of the Holy 
 Office, gave it as his opinion that " the Holy Scriptures 
 should be confined to the three ancient languages which 
 God with mystic import permitted to be inscribed over 
 the head of his crucified Son." We do not find, there- 
 fore, any mention of Bible translation or Bible printing 
 in Spanish America until 1831, when liberal principles 
 began to assert themselves even in the Church of Rome 
 by a new version of the entire Bible prepared by eight 
 Mexican priests and published in the capital by Ribera 
 in 1833. Before that time, however, a Spanish New
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 365 
 
 Testament had been secretly circulating in Mexico. 
 Spanish prisoners of war had taken with them to Spain 
 and to her former colonies in this country thousands of 
 copies of the New Testament translated by Enzinas and 
 published by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Amid 
 the wild havoc of war the blessed story " of Jesus and 
 his love " was breathed in many an ear as this little book 
 sped on his errands of peace. The fruit of such seed- 
 sowing appeared along many a path yet untrodden by 
 other messengers of the cross. The Rev. Dr. Biugham, 
 then secretary of the American Bible Society, went into 
 Mexico in 1826, and everywhere found a great thirst 
 for the word of God. He shipped to the capital five 
 hundred Bibles and one hundred and thirty New Tes- 
 taments. It was his opinion that up to that time not 
 more than two thousand copies of the Scriptures had 
 ever reached Mexico. 
 
 The Mexican clergy seem to have been divided among 
 themselves as to the expediency of circulating the Bible. 
 At one time a poster appeared on the inside door of the 
 cathedral in Vera Cruz announcing the publication of 
 a Spanish Bible with notes, under the patronage of the 
 archbishop ; the same notice appeared in Mexico. But 
 this edition was in thirty parts and cost, unbound, eight 
 dollars a copy. Another record tells us that the only 
 terms on which a Spanish Bible could be procured was 
 by the payment of thirty dollars for the book itself, and 
 thirty dollars more to the curate of the parish for the 
 privilege of reading it. The bargain was completed 
 when the buyer solemnly promised not to read his 
 treasure in the presence of wife, children or servants. 
 
 Such a case is reported in the Bible Record for 1880. 
 A gentleman was traveling in Mexico, in the wildest
 
 3GG ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 part of the country, where great danger was to be feared 
 from brigands. As he walked along he saw in the dis- 
 tance a clump of trees, and in the little space among 
 them, sitting in a circle on the ground, were several 
 men. He feared that he had run into the very danger 
 he was trying to avoid, but put on a bold face and 
 pushed on. As he drew nearer he saw an old man 
 reading aloud to the others from a book. The men 
 rose as he came up to them and received him politely, 
 and, making room in their circle, invited him to sit 
 down on the ground with them. Seeing that they meant 
 no harm, he accepted their invitation. Taking his seat 
 next the old man, he asked to see what he was reading. 
 To his surprise and joy he found that the circle had a 
 copy of the New Testament published by the American 
 Bible Society. 
 
 Another story is to be referred, probably, to a still 
 earlier date. Many years ago, when Mexico was almost 
 wholly without the Bible, a Mexican gentleman who 
 owned a large hacienda in one of the northern provinces 
 became acquainted in a very remarkable manner with 
 the saving truth of the gospel. He was wealthy, and 
 employed so many to serve him that he might be said 
 to own a village. He was proud of his Spanish ances- 
 try, and delighted to tell of the time when those of his 
 family who first came from Spain to America became 
 the fortunate possessors of an image of wood called San 
 Roman, said to have been found floating in the water in 
 mid-ocean. His ancestors named their estate in New 
 Spain after this image ; they built a chapel for it, and 
 worshiped it. When the season was dry, as it often was, 
 they brought San Roman out and carried him in solemn 
 procession about the place, hoping in this way to bring
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 367 
 
 refreshing rain. In case of sickness or any other trouble 
 they prayed to Sau Roman and gave to him the glory 
 which a true Christian gives only to God. The planter 
 of San Roman could neither read nor write, and not a per- 
 son on his great estate was any better off than he in this 
 respect. One day, while in Matamoras on business, a 
 Mexican gentleman showed our friend a book which he 
 called the word of God. He had heard of God and of 
 his Son, but never before that this great Being had writ- 
 ten anything that men could read. 
 
 " Was it a letter," he asked, " or a history ?" 
 
 The planter persevered in his inquiries until he had 
 heard enough about this wonderful book to want it with 
 all his heart, and at once he offered the owner twenty 
 silver dollars for it. The gentleman would not sell it 
 for any money; he too valued it as a priceless treas- 
 ure. 
 
 But the planter of San Roman was not to be put off. 
 
 " You can get another copy," he said, " and I cannot. 
 I have never heard till now that God had sent any mes- 
 sage to this world, but, since he has, I must have it. 
 Take the twenty dollars, and I'll keep the book." So 
 saying, he folded the precious volume under his serape 
 and rode away. 
 
 The planter had nearly fifty miles to go before he 
 reached the house of a friend who could read this won- 
 derful message to him. He stopped his horse at the door 
 and called out to his friend to go home with him ; " for," 
 said he, " I have a book a strange book for you to read, 
 and I want my family to hear it too. I do not know how 
 to wait until you shall open it to me ;" adding, with a 
 solemn air, " It is the word of God to men." 
 
 The friend thus appealed to was not so much interest-
 
 368 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 ed in this precious treasure as was the planter, and he 
 was at first unwilling to go on such an errand ; but, 
 being urged, he mounted his horse, and the two men 
 rode on to San Roman. 
 
 No sooner had the planter reached his home than he 
 ordered the ringing of the great bell which called the 
 hands in from every part of the estate. Hearing the 
 sound at this unusual hour, the people came crowding 
 to the large patio of his mansion. He ordered every 
 one to be seated to hear important news. After a few 
 words of explanation, the master turned to his friend 
 and said, 
 
 " Now begin at the beginning, and read on until we 
 shall understand." 
 
 The reader held a small Spanish Testament in his 
 hand and opened it at the first chapter of Matthew. 
 Verse after verse the hard, strange names rolled over 
 his tongue, as meaningless to the listeners as were the 
 Latin prayers they had been accustomed to hear mum- 
 bled when they went to mass. At last he came to the 
 twenty-first verse, which declares that Jesus shall save 
 his people from their sins. The people began to get 
 some light and were interested. The story of the wise 
 men from the East and the little children who were 
 killed in Bethlehem made a great impression. And 
 so they went on with the story of Christ's baptism, his 
 temptation in the wilderness, the death of his friend 
 John, the feeding of the " five thousand men, beside 
 women and children." Missionaries of our own time 
 tell of Mexicans who sit up all night to hear the Bible 
 read, and these people had the same thirst for the word 
 of God which characterizes many of their ignorant coun- 
 trymen.
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 369 
 
 When the reader began the story of Christ's betrayal, 
 murmurs of sorrow ran through the listening company. 
 Where the Saviour was crucified, they wept and bowed 
 their heads. How sad, how dark, the outlook for those 
 who had already learned to love the sinner's Friend ! 
 But, thanks be to God, the story did not end there; 
 the cross and the grave were not all. Christ rose again ; 
 he walked and talked with his disciples, and then ascend- 
 ed on high as a conqueror, saying at the last, " Lo, I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 
 As the wonderful story was finished the master rose, 
 and, looking around upon his family and people, said, 
 
 " There was one thing I was most glad to hear : it is 
 that last word of Jesus, when he tells his disciples to go 
 out into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
 creature. They were to teach every one everything he 
 had taught them. Now, my friends, some of these men 
 will come to San Roman to tell us this good news, to in- 
 struct us as the Lord instructed them; they will soon 
 be here, no doubt. Meanwhile, I must learn to read 
 this wonderful book, and you, my sons," turning to 
 them, " must learn too, in order to read again the story 
 of the Saviour's life and to do what he commands us. 
 The disciples have been a long while coming to us, but 
 the world is large, you know ; they will certainly come, 
 for Jesus thus has commanded them." 
 
 The owner of San Roman and his sons at once began 
 to learn to read the precious book. The good news was 
 read from time to time to every one on the plantation, 
 and there, as of old in Judea, the common people heard 
 Christ gladly. Year after year they met on the Lord's 
 day as the apostles taught, until at last a Christian settle- 
 ment flourished where once San Roman was worshiped. 
 
 24
 
 370 ABOUT MEXICO. . 
 
 That old image was soon forgotten. No more flowers 
 or jewels were offered at the forsaken shrine, and no 
 incense went up with the prayers to a senseless block 
 of wood. 
 
 At length the planter heard that a man who talked 
 like the book was in Matamoras. He got on his horse 
 quickly and went in search of him. He would bring 
 him to San Roman, where so many were waiting and 
 longing for Christ's messenger. 
 
 The preacher was soon found, for just then all Mata- 
 moras was stirred with his words ; but it was with great 
 difficulty he could be persuaded to go so far into the 
 country. He had come to Matamoras on only a short 
 visit, and must go back to his own flock. But the 
 planter would take no denial. Go he must, and go he 
 did, to preach to the people of San Roman. 
 
 Once more the great bell was rung, and the people 
 came crowding into the patio to hear that gospel which 
 had now become the word of life to them all. 
 
 When the sermon was over, the host had a question 
 to ask: 
 
 " Sir, you have not told us why you were so long in 
 coming to us. Did not Christ tell you before he went 
 up that you were to preach the gospel to every creat- 
 ure? How long ago was that?" 
 
 "Eighteen hundred years," replied the missionary, 
 awed by the look of sad surprise which his host had 
 turned upon him. 
 
 "' Eighteen hundred years'! And what were the 
 disciples doing, that they did not teach all nations 
 long ago? Surely the Lord said, 'I am with you 
 alway'?" 
 
 " Yes," replied the missionary, sadly, " there is par-
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 371 
 
 don for sin, and they ought to have spread the news ; 
 but for many long years the Church has been asleep 
 over her duty. But you have heard it, and let us pray 
 that the Holy Spirit may work in the hearts of God's 
 people until their love and faith and zeal shall carry the 
 news of salvation not only throughout Mexico, but to 
 the utmost bounds of the earth." 
 
 When war broke out between the United States and 
 Mexico, in 1846, agents of the Bible Society followed 
 the invading army. The pioneer missionary in Mexico, 
 however, was Miss Meliuda Rankin, a devoted school- 
 teacher from New England, who took her place in 
 Brownsville, Texas, just over the border, long before 
 Mexico was opened, and there besieged one gate to this 
 benighted land. The kind of faith which can say to a 
 mountain, " Be thoti removed, and be thou cast into the 
 sea," was here. 
 
 Poor vanquished Mexico was yet distracted with 
 internal troubles, bleeding with wounds our country 
 had inflicted upon her, and too ignorant of her real 
 degradation to know that those of her own household 
 were her worst enemies. While affairs south of the 
 Rio Grande were in this forlorn condition, Miss Rankiu, 
 listening to the sad stories told by returning soldiers, felt 
 that something must be done for poor Mexico. " Who," 
 she continually asked with voice and with pen, " will go 
 to the rescue ?" Her efforts were all in vain. Then she 
 resolved to go herself. She could not preach, but she 
 could teach. She was told that Texas was given up to 
 outlaws, and that even if she could pass there in safety 
 through dangers the Mexicans were too embittered against 
 the United States to listen patiently to what she said. 
 
 But love for perishing souls was stronger than all these
 
 372 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 fears. In 1852, after some delay at Huutsville, Texas, 
 Miss Rankin opened a school for Mexican children in 
 Brownsville, Texas, just opposite Matamoras, in Mexico. 
 In this school the Bible was daily and faithfully taught. 
 Some of her pupils lived across the river, and frequently 
 returned to their homes in Mexico carrying with them 
 the New Testaments she gave them. These girls were 
 watched by a company of French nuns who had estab- 
 lished a school close by Mias Rankin, and also by the 
 Romish priests everywhere. Sometimes their Testaments 
 were snatched away and burned by lynx-eyed inquisitors, 
 but most of them escaped, and many are to-day bring- 
 ing forth a harvest of a hundredfold. 
 
 In 1855, Miss Rankin became convinced that the work 
 of Bible-distribution required the whole time of one per- 
 son, and applied to the American and Foreign Christian 
 Union (New York) to seek for a Christian man who 
 could speak Spanish to come to Brownsville and, as the 
 door opened, to enter Mexico. But such a man could 
 not be found, and rather than see the work hindered 
 Miss Rankin secured the services of an assistant in her 
 school and devoted herself to Bible distribution. Amer- 
 ican friends said, " The Mexicans turn your Bibles over 
 to the priests to burn." After investigation, it was found 
 that this was very seldom the case. She says, " I found 
 that the Mexicans concealed them in the most careful 
 manner, taking them out and reading them by night. 
 I went one day to the house where one of my pupils 
 resided to ask concerning her absence, and also to make 
 inquiry after a Bible I had furnished her. A report 
 had crept into the school that she had exchanged it with 
 the nuns for a saint, and that they had burned it. The 
 mother of the girl met me at the door, and with stream-
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 373 
 
 ing eyes told me that her daughter had died of yellow 
 fever but a short time before. I asked if she had her 
 Bible. She replied, ' No ; I put her Bible in her coffin, 
 as she loved it so much, and it was buried with her/ " 
 Orders came now for dozens of Bibles at once, accom- 
 panied by money to pay for them. 
 
 Miss Rankin was greatly aided in her labors by a 
 traveling German portrait-painter. While attending to 
 his business he visited the homes of many wealthy peo- 
 ple far in the interior, in many places so remote that they 
 knew comparatively little of the great struggle which 
 was then going on over Protestantism, or, if they did, 
 had those about them who were thirsting for the word 
 of God. It was among the poor his message was most 
 gladly received. He often, however, encountered violent 
 opposition, but his heart was burdened with the spiritual 
 needs of distracted Mexico, and he was willing to suffer 
 the loss of all things even of life itself for Christ's 
 sake. He finally lost his life in Mexico; whether he 
 was killed as a Bible-distributor or for the purposes of 
 robbery was never ascertained. 
 
 In 1859 a light finally dawned upon the long night 
 of darkness in Mexico. On Christmas day the liberal 
 army under Juarez entered the capital in triumph ; only 
 the night before, Miramon and his defeated forces had 
 fled away. It was a glorious victory for those who advo- 
 cated religious freedom. The great change was heralded 
 over the land by ringing of bells and firing of cannon. 
 Matamoras, on the northern border, was illuminated, and 
 joined in the general rejoicing. Miss Rankin says, "As 
 the noise from Matamoras broke on my ear I thought I 
 never had heard more delightful sounds, and my heart 
 bounded in joyful anticipation that God's word could
 
 374 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 now have free course and be glorified." Men imme- 
 diately came over from Matamoras for Bibles and tracts, 
 saying, " We can now distribute Protestant books with- 
 out any hindrance, and we will pay you for all you can 
 let us have." 
 
 In 1860 the American Bible Society employed the 
 Rev. Mr. Thompson to labor as their agent in Mexico, 
 the authorities encouraging his work. As far as Mon- 
 terey he found that the Bible had preceded him every- 
 where. At Cadereita, thirty miles from Monterey, a 
 man met him with the abrupt question, "Are you not a 
 teacher of the Bible? I have dreamed of just such a 
 looking man as you ; I knew that somewhere there must 
 be the living teacher of this book." It was found that 
 this man was well read in the Scriptures. He had 
 thrown aside popery, embraced the gospel, and gave 
 good evidence of being truly " born again." In 1861 
 this Mexican and his eldest sou came to Brownsville, 
 and after careful examination were received into a Prot- 
 estant church, the first Mexicans who dared to come out 
 publicly and profess the Protestant faith. 
 
 In 1861, Miss Rankin and her helpers were shut out 
 by the civil war from communication with friends in 
 the United States, and Mr. Thompson returned to the 
 United States. 
 
 Rev. James Hickey, being obliged, as a Union man, 
 to flee from Texas, went to work in Mexico ; he was the 
 first man to collect a congregation of Protestant Mex- 
 icans. In two places he found churches ready for organ- 
 ization, the result of Bible-reading alone. 
 
 After laboring for years amid many perils and some 
 disasters, Miss Rankin's long-cherished desire was grant- 
 ed, and in 1866 she crossed over into Mexico and began
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHISETH IN A DARK PLACE." 375 
 
 work in the beautiful city of Monterey. The hostility 
 of the priests was so great that during the first three 
 months of her stay in that city she moved three times 
 
 MONTEREY. 
 
 out of houses she had rented 
 and then was obliged to leave. 
 But a house was secured at last, and public 
 worship began. Converts multiplied, aud 
 some of them were by this time capable of instructing 
 their countrymen in the truths of the Bible. She se- 
 lected four of these young men and asked them if they
 
 376 
 
 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 would be willing to preach Christ among their people. 
 They hesitated not for want of love to their Master, 
 but because they were laboring-men and had families to 
 support. Finding that they needed but thirty dollars a 
 month, Miss Rankin resolved to set them at work, trust- 
 ing for their support to the liberality of Christian friends 
 
 CHUUCH OF SAN FRANCISCO, MONTEREY. 
 
 in the United States. Sad to relate, this resource failed 
 her just now when the field was so white to the harvest, 
 and, taking her life in her hand, as she had done so 
 many times before, this noble woman went to the United 
 States to lay the cause before the women of its Protestant
 
 "LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 377 
 
 churches. These Christian sisters took the measure of 
 her plan, and sent her back to her work with a heart 
 newly inspired with love and faith r believiug that the 
 day would soon come when she should see " the gospel 
 preached in Mexico by the Mexicans themselves." She 
 had secured funds which enabled her to employ not only 
 four, but eight, men. 
 
 As soon as possible Miss Rankin gathered her laborers 
 together and prepared to send them out two and two, as 
 in apostolic days. The morning came for their depart- 
 ure, and she noticed that two of the young men looked 
 troubled. 
 
 " Why are you anxious ?" she kindly asked. 
 
 The men said they expected opposition, and were par- 
 ticularly afraid of a priest who would meet them with 
 arguments against the Bible. They were so ignorant; 
 how could they answer him? 
 
 Miss Rankin opened the Bible at the tenth chapter 
 of Luke and drew attention to these words: "And he 
 sent them two and two before his face to every city and 
 place whither he himself would come" emphasizing the last 
 clause, assuring the men that, as they were going out in 
 Christ's name to preach his gospel, they might expect 
 his presence and blessing, as he had promised. This 
 scriptural view of the case restored confidence, and the 
 young brethren cheerfully took up their bundles of 
 books and departed, Miss Rankin looking after them 
 with the joyful exclamation in behalf of Mexico, "Arise, 
 shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is 
 risen upon thee." 
 
 At the close of a month, the appointed time, every 
 man came back with the same story that the seventy 
 told to Jesus eighteen hundred years ago. The two
 
 378 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 timid ones were especially happy ; even the priest they 
 had dreaded had nothing to say against the Bible when 
 they met him. The Bible was opened again and the 
 story repeated, with emphasis now on these words: 
 " Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through 
 thy name." 
 
 This work continued from month to month until the 
 whole country within one hundred miles of Monterey 
 had been traversed by the eight Mexican colporteurs. 
 And now should they not press on to regions beyond 
 if the Master made a way ? It was soon opened. Two of 
 these young men were sent to Zacatecas, a distance of be- 
 tween three and four hundred miles. They were the two 
 timid brethren who ventured forth on this long and dan- 
 gerous road, accompanied by two colporteurs employed 
 by the Bible Society. At Villa de Cos, near Zacatecas, 
 they remained several weeks, teaching and preaching 
 with great acceptance. " Scarcely," said they, " do we 
 find time to eat or to sleep, so anxious are the people 
 to hear our readings from God's word." 
 
 When, in 1873, Miss Rankin was compelled by fail- 
 ing health to give her Bible-work into other hands, there 
 were hundreds of converted Mexicans, in six organized 
 churches, with a school attached to each church and a 
 training-school for boys in the seminary-building in Mon- 
 terey. Miss Cochrane writes in 1881 : "All but one of 
 Mr. Thomson's theological class of ten young men date 
 their awakening to the time when Miss Rankin was here. 
 Don Pablo, the tenth man, came from a little village 
 where a single copy of the Bible began the work." This 
 mission is now under the care of the Foreign Board of 
 the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 In 1878 the first Bible-store was opened in the City
 
 11 LIGHT THAT SHINETH IN A DARK PLACE." 379 
 
 of Mexico. The passers-by stopped at its windows to 
 gaze with mingled curiosity and awe on a book which, it 
 was claimed, was the word of God. One peasant from the 
 mountains, who came back to buy a Bible, had walked 
 seventy miles for this sole purpose and in the purchase 
 spent all that he had. He carried home the precious 
 book, and read it to his family and his neighbors. They 
 had no time to listen to him during the day, but they 
 came from far and near at night to his humble cabin and 
 took turns in furnishing him with candles. One aged 
 couple walked twenty miles night after night to hear 
 these wonderful words of life. 
 
 Thus we see that God has put special honor on the 
 Scriptures of truth in the early evangelization of Mex- 
 ico. In hundreds of instances in every part, of the land 
 it has preceded the missionary, and again and again con- 
 gregations have been found all ready for organization as 
 churches where the voice of the living preacher had never 
 been heard. The reading of the Bible alone, blessed by 
 the Holy Spirit to the saving of souls, has proved how 
 true are the Psalmist's words: "The entrance of thy 
 word giveth light."
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 
 
 THE people of Mexico had been praying in an un- 
 known tongue for more than three hundred years, 
 when a devoted priest, Francisco Aguilar, began to read 
 and to ponder the teachings of the Holy Scripture with 
 regard to prayer. As he studied the history of the apos- 
 tolic Church the great doctrine of justification by faith 
 loomed up before him as a new truth, and that peace 
 which he had so vainly sought in fasts and in penances 
 began to flow into his soul. His eyes were now opened 
 to see the miserable perversions of Scripture which Rome 
 had taught for truth. Like the apostle Andrew, Aguilar 
 abode with the Master for one day, and then, eagerly 
 seeking for some one to whom he could communicate the 
 blessing which filled his own heart, brought a brother- 
 priest to Jesus. Thus one friend told another, until a 
 band of fifty Bible students had been formed whose 
 undreamed-of strength at first woke no opposition. But 
 as the truth spread the spirit of persecution was aroused. 
 The Church began to thunder out its warnings and 
 curses, but Aguilar, strong in the Lord, went on his 
 way undismayed. 
 
 An effort had been made by a few earnest souls as 
 early as 1861 to leave the Church of Rome and build on 
 true foundations. This work now took shape, and in 
 
 380
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 381 
 
 1865 the first Protestant congregation was gathered in 
 the capital, under the leadership of Aguilar. They called 
 themselves " The Church of Jesus," and were known 
 from the outset as strong advocates of an open Bible in 
 the language of the people and of prayer in their mother- 
 tongue. Aguilar's ministry was short, but productive. 
 He died in 1865, a victim to the cruelty of Rome. The 
 Church of Jesus had been put under ban. No Roman- 
 ist would give or sell its members food, and they were 
 driven out of every house where they attempted to find 
 shelter. The pastor was among the first victims of these 
 privations, and after his death the little flock were scat- 
 tered by their relentless persecutors. 
 
 In the summer of 1868, Miss Raukin was in the 
 United States soliciting aid for her work in Monterey, 
 when she met the Rev. H. C. Riley, then the pastor of 
 a Spanish Protestant church in New York and her own 
 personal friend. Her statements convinced him that it 
 was his duty to go to the City of Mexico, where two 
 hundred thousand souls were sitting in almost heathen- 
 ish darkness. Three years afterward Mr. Riley carried 
 out this plan, coming to Mexico under the auspices of 
 the American and Foreign Christian Union. His com- 
 mand of the Spanish language enabled him at once to 
 take hold of the work. He had brought with him a 
 printing-press, and this was set up and secretly began 
 its work. 
 
 The effort to regather Aguilar's flock and organize a 
 church resulted in a split on the subject of prelacy, a 
 strong party preferring the simplicity and freedom of 
 worship with which they began. As time went on one 
 party affiliated with the " Church of Jesus," and the 
 other nine congregations in all united under a Pres-
 
 382 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 byterian form of government. The Church of Jesus 
 adopted the old Spanish liturgy used by Christians of 
 Spain during the centuries in which they held aloof from 
 the Church of Rome. 
 
 At last the liberal government felt strong enough to 
 provide the Protestants with a house for public worship. 
 Confiscated churches by scores were standing empty, and 
 one of the handsomest of these the church of San Jose 
 de Gracia was sold to Dr. Riley for a merely nominal 
 sum. The fury of the Romanists knew no bounds. 
 They declared that the day the Protestants took posses- 
 sion of that church the pavement should stream with 
 their blood. 
 
 One night, as Dr. Riley returned to his lodgings, he 
 found a letter thrust under his door ; in this letter he 
 was told that six men had sworn to waylay and kill him. 
 He knew that in those lawless times it would be easy for 
 them to fulfill the threat, but said, " If life must be 
 short, let it be earnest," 
 
 A pamphlet exposing the errors of Rome was now 
 sent out from the press. A copy of this was given by 
 a brother-priest to Manuel Aguas, the most earnest and 
 eloquent champion of the Church of Rome known in 
 Mexico, and a bitter enemy of Protestantism. Aguas 
 was called upon to answer at a public meeting this 
 bold challenge of the Protestants. In order to prepare 
 himself for his task, he took the tract home and sat 
 up all night to read it. Other Romish priests had done 
 the same, and had been hardened in error ; but Aguas 
 was pierced to the heart. He opened the Bible, so long 
 neglected for the traditions of the Church, and it proved 
 to be a sword of the Spirit to him. He wept and prayed, 
 and at last, yielding to his convictions, he went to Dr.
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 383 
 
 Riley, saying, " Like Saul of Tarsus, I have persecuted 
 the Church of Christ," The next time the Church of 
 Jesus met they were astonished to see their old adversary 
 in the pulpit preaching the faith he had once so bitterly 
 denied 
 
 The Romanists were panic-struck. That the man on 
 whose devotion to Rome, on whose talents and influence, 
 the Church had depended for their overthrow should 
 join those despised Bible Christians was indeed a ter- 
 rible blow. 
 
 When the day came for the opening service in the 
 church of San Jose de Gracia, Romanists were there 
 thirsting for Protestant blood ; but Aguas was not with 
 them. He stood boldly by the pastor, ready to die, if 
 need be, for the faith. 
 
 The storm of persecution now raged fiercely around 
 this devoted baud, but like one inspired Aguas preached 
 Christ and him crucified as the only salvation from sin. 
 His whole soul was in the work. Twelve times in one 
 week he was in the pulpit. " Destitute, afflicted, tor- 
 mented " by his enemies, he toiled on for three years, 
 until at last he sank under the tremendous strain to 
 mind and body. His last sermon was from the text, 
 "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteous- 
 ness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 Aguas was carried from his pulpit to die. As sight 
 and memory failed some one leaned over him and whis- 
 pered, " Do you remember the blood of Christ ?" The 
 old light kindled again on his pallid face : " Oh yes ! 
 yes ! The precious blood of Jesus !" and so he passed 
 to his reward. 
 
 A noble band of more than forty martyrs have sealed 
 their faith by their blood in this Church of Jesus. Man-
 
 384 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 uel Aguas, the pastor and bishop-elect of this church, 
 died in 1872. 
 
 Planted in fertile soil, this organization seemed des- 
 tined to outnumber all others and become the leading 
 evangelical Church in Mexico. At one time they claimed 
 over six thousand adherents, and half that number of 
 communicants. It is now sorely rent, however, by in- 
 ternal dissension. In 1884 the communicants numbered 
 about one thousand, and fifty-two preaching-places were 
 reported. 
 
 Elsewhere in Mexico, God's word had " free course 
 and was glorified." In 1862 the Rev. James Hickey, 
 a Baptist minister, began a good work in the city of 
 Matamoras as an independent missionary. In 1863 
 he was preaching in Monterey. His assistant at that 
 time, the Rev. Thomas Westrup, has since been mur- 
 dered by the Indians. Mr. Hickey died in 1866. 
 
 The American Baptist Home Mission Society still 
 holds its ground in Monterey, and has also established 
 itself in the capital. It has (1886) six ordained minis- 
 ters and a membership of three hundred. The Amer- 
 ican Baptists of the South also report stations in Saltillo, 
 Progreso, Palos and Banas, and much that is encouragiug. 
 
 " More important," says one, u than the rise and fall 
 of states and empires is the going forth of the mission- 
 aries of the cross to Christless lands." The years 1872 
 and 1873 are thus marked in the annals of Mexico. 
 Branches of the Presbyterian, Friends and Methodist 
 churches began evangelical work there. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church built on foundations already 
 established. Their work began in the State of Zacatecas, 
 in Villa de Cos, a mining-town about sixty miles from 
 the State capital, where Graysou Prevost, M. D., of
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 385 
 
 Philadelphia, then practicing medicine in Zacatecas, had 
 gathered a company of Christian believers. These peo- 
 ple had been interested in the religion of the Bible by 
 a visit of Miss Raukin's colporteurs from Monterey some 
 time before. In two years after this beginning by Dr. 
 Prevost there was in Cos a church of one hundred and 
 seventy members, a church-building and a religious paper 
 started, called The Emnf/eUcal Torch. News of this 
 awakening reached America, and in September, 1872, 
 at the earnest request of Dr. Prevost, the Presby- 
 terian Board of Foreign Missions sent out its first 
 band of ordained missionaries to Mexico. Protestant 
 influences had then been at work in the capital for ten 
 years. Among those thus inclined were many whose 
 republican principles were so true in type that they pre- 
 ferred a " Church without a bishop " as decidedly as they 
 desired "^a State without a king." At nine different 
 points in the city and the surrounding villages were con- 
 gregations who had turned for sympathy to the little 
 church at Cos. The Presbyterian missionaries, on their 
 way to that point, stopped at the capital, and, finding 
 there this waiting church, they ran up the old blue flag 
 a token there and everywhere else of republicanism of 
 the best type in Church and State. 
 
 Mexico city, Zacatecas, San Luis de Potosij Monterey, 
 Jerez, Saltillo, Durango, Vera Cruz, Acapulco and Ta- 
 basco are now centres of the constantly-enlarging work 
 of the Presbyterian Church. Says the Presbyterian 
 Board's forty-eighth annual report : " Our Church has 
 congregations in a continuous line of States from the 
 Rio Grande to Guatemala, and from the Gulf of Mexico 
 to the Pacific Ocean, thus marking with a large cross the 
 map of the republic." The northern and southern mis- 
 
 25
 
 386 A ROUT MEXICO. 
 
 sions of this Board were united in 1884; they now 
 centre in the capital, and are connected by rail and 
 telegraph. 
 
 The theological seminary founded in Mexico city will 
 soon be established in San Luis de Potosi. In this insti- 
 tution a force of fourteen native ministers and three 
 licentiates has been trained and is doing efficient service, 
 and ten other young men are preparing for the gospel 
 ministry. A mission press is in operation, and the first 
 number of a new paper, El Faro (" The Lighthouse "), 
 was issued in January, 1885. The girls' boarding-school 
 in the capital has (1885) 23 pupils. Another of the same 
 character is soon to be started in the important field of 
 Zacatecas, and one has long been in operation in Mon- 
 terey. 
 
 Statistics for Mexican missions of the Presbyterian 
 Board, as reported in May, 1885, are: Ordained min- 
 isters, foreign and native, 14; licentiates, 11 ; total force 
 of native helpers, male and female, 71 ; organized churches, 
 92 ; church-members, communicants, 6629 ; adults bap- 
 tized in Southern mission in 1884, 631 ; boarding-pupils 
 (girls) in two schools, 68 ; day-pupils, 677 ; Sunday- 
 school children, 1233; contributions, $1673. 
 
 The Society of Friends (Orthodox) are doing a good 
 work in the State of Tamaulipas, which they entered in 
 1872. They have an enterprising publishing-house in 
 Matamoras, which sends out a gospel literature to all 
 lands where the Spanish language is spoken. They have 
 a boarding- and day-school in the same place, with 136 
 pupils, and a membership of about 250 in the State. 
 About a thousand persons attend their services in six 
 established meetings. A boys' school will soon be 
 opened.
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 387 
 
 The Southern Presbyterians have also a mission in 
 Taraaulipas, and report 5 churches and 331 members. 
 
 The Southern Methodists, who entered the field in 
 1873, are strongly entrenched in Mexico city, San Luis 
 de Potosi, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Monterey and 
 Saltillo, besides scores of preaching-places and a large 
 ministerial force, both native and foreign. They have 
 a church-membership of 3022. In their central mission 
 they report 65 Sunday-schools and 1300 children en- 
 rolled. A self-sustaining boarding-school for Mexican 
 girls has been opened in San Luis de Potosi, and a free 
 day-school. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church (North) has circuits 
 centring in Mexico, Guanajuato, Orizaba, Pachuca, Puebla 
 and Queretaro. A large orphanage under the care of 
 their Woman's Foreign Missionary Society is flourishing 
 in the capital, and schools in Puebla, Leon, Pachuca, 
 Miraflores, Queretaro, Real del Monte and El Chico. 
 This mission reports, in 1885, churches, 14; full mem- 
 bers, 625; probationers, 674; local preachers, 16; Sun- 
 day-schools, 18 ; scholars in Sunday-schools, 764 ; con- 
 tributions, $1102. 
 
 The American Board of Foreign Missions (Boston) 
 began work in 1872 in Guadalajara, a city of some 
 eighty thousand inhabitants, situated on the west coast, 
 in the State of Jalisco. They found here at first a won- 
 derful spirit of inquiry among the people. Within a 
 few months there were several conversions. Bitter 
 hostility was soon provoked, and Mr. and Mrs. Wat- 
 kins were stoned in the street by a company of men 
 and boys. 
 
 In November of 1872, Rev. Mr. Stephens, an unmar- 
 ried missionary, visited Ahualulco, a small town about
 
 388 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 ninety miles from Guadalajara. Here he had a home 
 and a welcome from a few sympathising friends, and for 
 several days he held meetings every evening in a room 
 provided for him. It was decided that Mr. Stephens 
 should take up his residence in this place, where the 
 people were so much interested that they would sit for 
 hours at a time to listen, and crowd about him afterward 
 to buy Bibles and tracts. For three months he had great 
 encouragement, and the majority of the people tolerated, 
 and even favored, the Protestants. This success so ex- 
 asperated the curate of the parish that he preached a 
 most exciting sermon to his people, mostly Indians, in 
 which he said, " It is necessary to cut down even to the 
 roots the tree that bears bad fruit. You may interpret 
 these words as you please." An extract from a Mexican 
 paper gives the sad result of this appeal: "At two 
 o'clock on the 2d of March the house of Mr. Stephens 
 was assaulted by a mob crying, ' Long live the euro, ! 
 Death to the Protestants !' They forced the doors and 
 entered, destroying and stealing everything they found. 
 Mr. Stephens was brutally assassinated, his head severed 
 into several parts and his body very much mutilated." 
 One of the Protestants was killed at the same time, 
 and Mr. Wat kins was threatened, but escaped, and oth- 
 ers among the Protestants were assaulted and in danger 
 from poison. 
 
 In 1876, in spite of bitter persecution always trace- 
 able to the priests the converts in Guadalajara num- 
 bered one hundred and fifty. The experience of the 
 laborers here as elsewhere in Mexico proves that " in no 
 portion of the unevangelized world is the preaching of 
 the simple gospel of Christ likely to encounter more de- 
 termined opposition than in countries decidedly Roman
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 389 
 
 Catholic ; that in no other laud is that opposition, when 
 not held in check by civil authority, more likely to pro- 
 ceed to murderous violence." 
 
 With all that makes Mexico one of the most fruitful 
 of mission-fields, it has been called with truth one of 
 the most difficult and dangerous. Scarcely one of the 
 early Protestant churches but has its martyrs, and some- 
 times many of them. The Church of Jesus has had 
 forty. One missionary writes : " More than once I have 
 looked out on a sea of maddened creatures ready to tear 
 me limb from limb, almost succeeding in forcing an en- 
 trance into the house, even cutting a large hole in the 
 door, but held back by the unseen Hand." The same 
 writer says, " The Mexicans are a revolutionary people 
 more used to a breach of than obedience or respect to 
 law. At times they seem to be incapable of anything 
 which is necessary in deliberative bodies." 
 
 The Church party has stirred up the worst elements 
 of society against the Protestants. Again and again the 
 hand of a bishop or other dignitary of the Church has 
 been discerned behind the scenes of violence which are 
 constantly occurring. The advice of the curate of 
 Ahualulco has more than once been given to stir up 
 a fanatical mob. In one case the preacher gave the 
 street and number where Protestant missionaries could 
 be found. In Capulhuac, an Indian town not far from 
 the capital, Louis Gonzales, the first man who dared to 
 present his child for baptism in a Protestant church, was 
 killed for his audacity ; at Tisapan five of the brethren 
 who came out were murdered in seven years. Until 
 1880, Protestants were often forced by mob-law to bow 
 to the Host as it was carried about in processions, but
 
 390 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 the law guaranteeing religious liberty is no longer a 
 dead letter. 
 
 The Presbyterian church in Capulhuac (just referred 
 to) has had an interesting history. It was organized in 
 1873. For a long time the services were held in a se- 
 cluded pine-forest on the mountain-side over-against the 
 place. After many threats from their enemies, they were 
 warned that an attack was about to be made upon them. 
 An armed mob started for their retreat one Sunday after- 
 noon, and were seen crossing the valley to make their 
 way up the hillside, when a violent thunder-storm sud- 
 denly arose and so darkened the air and blinded their 
 adversaries with pelting rain and hail that the little flock 
 escaped unharmed. 
 
 One of the Bible Society's colporteurs was one day 
 seeking to find the residence of a Methodist brother in 
 the city of Leon. He had the difficulty in finding the 
 street and number which is common in Mexican cities, 
 but at last he came to a house which bore marks of a 
 recent assault. The windows had been broken with 
 stones, and the walls were well spattered with mud. 
 " This house has been mobbed lately," he said ; " it 
 must be the one I am looking for;" and on inquiring 
 he found his conjecture correct. 
 
 Another colporteur tells of a brother Martinez, an 
 earnest Protestant preacher, who went to visit the family 
 of a convert in a town called Rancho de Dios. The 
 townspeople had been making a new road between their 
 place and Zacatecas, some miles distant, and they had 
 invited the bishop of Zacatecas to be the first to ride 
 over it. Unhappily for himself, Brother Martinez came 
 riding into town first, taking, of course, the new road. 
 Finding that he was a Protestant, they rushed upon him,
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 391 
 
 tore him from his horse, tied him hand and foot, built a 
 fire and burned his books and papers, and were prepar- 
 ing to burn him on the blazing pile when one of the 
 authorities of the town, who was a friend of the Prot- 
 estants, came up brandishing his sword among the crowd 
 and scattered them, but not until they had succeeded in 
 burning off the poor man's l>eard and hair. The police 
 were obliged to shut Mr. Martinez up in the town-jail 
 to protect him from the mob which still thirsted for his 
 blood. 
 
 The Presbyterian church in Zacatecas has been many 
 times tried in the fires of persecution. Part of an aban- 
 doned Catholic church was rented by the Protestants. 
 That this imposing structure should fall into heretic 
 hands, its saints be taken down from the walls and 
 Scripture texts put in their places was most exasperating. 
 What gave a keener point to the indignity was the fact 
 that the building had been erected by the Inquisition 
 for its peculiar uses, and that in making necessary re- 
 pairs the secrets of that awful tribunal had been unveiled 
 the torture-chamber, the rack and pulley, and even 
 human skeletons with nails in their temples, and other 
 relics of the horrid work of the Holy Office. The 
 transfer was no sooner decided upon than bishop and 
 priests united in plans for " putting an end io all Prot- 
 estants." The mob were ready with knives and pistols, 
 waiting in the cathedral itself for the order to rush upon 
 the Protestants then assembled in their part of the edi- 
 fice. These latter were out in large numbers. Even the 
 Sunday-school children came and joined in the songs of 
 praise which many a brave heart there thought might 
 prove to be his last on earth. Happily for the almost 
 defenceless church, the bishop and his friends had a
 
 392 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 quarrel with the governor as well as with the Protest- 
 ants, and the city authorities, coming to the rescue of 
 the latter, prevented the intended massacre. The whole 
 of this vast building is now used for Protestant worship, 
 the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions having 
 sanctioned the purchase. It is a four-story edifice, with 
 balconied windows and solid stone walls very rich in 
 carving and other ornamentation, and can easily accom- 
 modate a thousand persons in its audience- room. 
 
 In 1875 fourteen Protestants were killed in Acapulco 
 in a riot stirred up by an attempt to establish a Presby- 
 terian mission there. The missionary who accompanied 
 the party was obliged to flee for his life. He was taken 
 for shelter on board a man-of-war then in the harbor. 
 He made his way back to his home in Mexico city, a 
 distance of three hundred miles, by going up the Pacific 
 coast from Acapulco to San Francisco, thence overland 
 to New York, and so by steamer and rail to Vera Cruz 
 and the capital. The little flock already gathered in 
 Acapulco, scattered at that time, " went everywhere 
 preaching the word." Two of them who fled to South- 
 ern California were instrumental in gathering a circle 
 of believers there, who were afterward found ready for 
 organization as a church when a missionary came upon 
 the ground; In less than a year after the massacre of 
 their brethren thirty new centres of light appeared in 
 mountain- villages in that region, and nearly five hun- 
 dred believers traced their conversion to that time of 
 bitter persecution. Native brethren had supplied their 
 friends with Bibles and tracts, Avhich had been secretly 
 circulated and read. When the region was visited by 
 missionaries, in 1883, there were thirteen congregations 
 in and about Acapulco, and six churches ready for or-
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 393 
 
 ganization. The Rev. Procopio Diaz, who lost two 
 fingers in the riot of 1873, came now as a welcome 
 visitor. He took up his abode in Chilpanzinco, the 
 capital of the State of Guerrero, where the governor 
 was so friendly to the Protestants that he kept Bibles 
 in his house for circulation. One of the church-mem- 
 bers in Chilpanzinco died recently, and his funeral was 
 the first ever conducted on Protestant principles in the 
 State. The glorious hopes of the gospel shed a new 
 and strange light on a scene too often marked by ir- 
 reverence. 
 
 In addition to the usual irritation felt in isolated 
 places against new Protestant enterprises, there are now 
 many tokens of a revival of old prejudices. Says a 
 mission report in 1885, " The pressure of opposition 
 from the reactionary party in Mexico is greater than 
 for many years past." The priesthood have charged 
 Protestant ministers from the United States with being 
 secret agents for their government, and that they are 
 there only to prepare the way for the annexation of 
 Mexico to the United States. Several mobs have re- 
 sulted from inflammatory appeals to their religious feel- 
 ings and their patriotism. 
 
 Following these appeals to mob law came the martyr- 
 dom of a faithful brother, Rev. Nicanor Gomez, pastor 
 of the church in Capulhuac. He had gone with two 
 sons, one of them also a minister of the gospel, to lay 
 the foundations of a new and promising church in Al- 
 maloya, near Toluca. Not finding the official who was 
 to give sanction to this enterprise, Mr. Diaz, another 
 pastor, and several of the brethren waited his arrival 
 in the house of a neighbor. There were evidences that 
 a riot was determined on to prevent the Protestants from
 
 394 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 holding their services. People began to crowd iu from 
 other towns. Soon the Romish church-bell began to 
 ring, and the crowd flocked thither. Two of the Prot- 
 estants, suspecting mischief, went also. In the sermon 
 the priest told the Romanists that, " at whatever cost, 
 the Protestants must be prevented from holding their 
 service; they were heretics, enemies of their country, 
 abandoned in their moral character, and ought to be 
 destroyed." Thus stimulated, the crowd rushed to the 
 house where the brethren were waiting. The justice of 
 the peace was there, but not the prefect or the police. 
 Soon with wild shouts the surging mob came down on 
 them with showers of stones. The Gomez brothers 
 slipped out by a back door and went to bring the horses. 
 The Rev. Mr. Diaz, assisted by his brethren, succeeded 
 in getting on his saddle, and escaped with a few bruises 
 from clubs after being chased two miles, but the elder 
 Gomez, weakened by the blows he had received, was 
 dragged to the ground in attempting to mount, and was 
 so badly stoned that after lying unconscious for a short 
 time he died. 
 
 " Twelve years ago," says a missionary writer, " this 
 plain Mexican, Nicanor Gomez, while passing along the 
 street was attracted to a book-stall, on which he found a 
 copy of the Bible. Purchasing it, he began to study its 
 contents, and, becoming more interested, he invited his 
 wife to join him in reading it. After a while he called 
 in his neighbors and opened his house to a meeting for 
 the study of the Scriptures and for prayer. Thus a 
 small congregation grew up, for whose accommodation 
 he gave up the principal room in his humble abode, he 
 and his family being content with less commodious quar- 
 ters. Thus for several years he carried on religious scr-
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 395 
 
 vices, being assisted only to a partial extent by the 
 mission. He had, mainly by his own labor and re- 
 sources, nearly completed a small chapel, which was 
 about to be dedicated when death put the seal on his 
 labors for the cause of Christ." 
 
 The history of this church enterprise is the counter- 
 part of many another in Mexico. The good seed finds 
 a scriptural variety of soil, but that which falls on good 
 ground is wonderfully prolific. Little Bible-reading 
 circles are found in out-of-the-way places in almost every 
 missionary tour. The story of Don Demas Zitary is a 
 case in point. He is a blacksmith working at his anvil 
 all the week and preaching twice on Sunday to a thriv- 
 ing little church, which has been built up by his efforts. 
 As he was walking out one evening with a visiting mis- 
 sionary he pointed to a large wooden cross on a hill 
 near by. The ground around it was strewn with sharp 
 flints, so common in the country. The blacksmith said 
 that when he was a young man several priests came to 
 his neighborhood from Zacatecas on a collecting-tour, 
 and also to exhort the people to penance for the salva- 
 tion of their souls. The fervent appeals of these priests 
 so excited the crowd that they all consented to walk 
 barefoot in procession over these sharp stones, each with 
 a crown of thorns pressed on his forehead and a rough 
 rope around his neck ; " and," said the narrator, " I was 
 one of those who walked with bleeding feet around that 
 cross." 
 
 Another layman, Don Mateo Goitia, a pure Spaniard, 
 is doing a noble work for the Master in the same neigh- 
 borhood. When young he was a bigoted Romanist. At 
 one time, when looking over some old clothes and books 
 which he had taken for debt, he came across a Spanish
 
 396 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 New Testament. He became interested in it, and read 
 it over and over again, till its truths sank into his heart. 
 He saw the falsities of his old faith. He was convicted 
 of sin. He left off his former bad habits, and, as his 
 new principles shone out in his changed life, he drew 
 others to study a book which had brought such blessed 
 results. He now set up a church in his own house; in 
 two years sixty persons were worshiping there. In 1880 
 the members numbered eighty-seven. 
 
 There is something in the loving zeal of many of these 
 untutored laborers for Christ which promises wonders for 
 the future of the Church in Mexico. 
 
 The story of the introduction of the gospel into the 
 State of Michoacan, as gleaned from the letters of Rev. 
 J. M. Greene, gives a touching feature of humble Chris- 
 tian service in connection with the labors of Rev. H. 
 Forcada and other native brethren among the Indians 
 of that region. Mr. Forcada's first visit was to Junapeo, 
 a small town among clustering villages in the lowlands 
 west of the capital. A few Bibles and tracts had been 
 sold or given by a Mexican bookseller in Zitacuaro a few 
 years before, and these had no doubt been doing a silent 
 work ever since among the people. But in 1876, when 
 Mr. Forcada came, Junapeo received him very coldly. 
 Shelter was most unwillingly given him in the village 
 inn, and the storekeeper positively refused to sell the 
 heretic anything. After three months' faithful work 
 Mr. Forcada deemed best to abandon Junapeo for the 
 time. He would not go, however, until he had asked 
 the Master to have his way made so plain that he could 
 not mistake it. That very night the little room where 
 he had been holding meetings was full. The work in- 
 creased in power. The inhospitable innkeeper was con-
 
 REGENERATION OF MEXICO. 397 
 
 verted and became a pillar in the Protestant community. 
 For five years the religious meetings were held free of 
 charge in his large parlor. His wife, once a bigoted 
 Romanist, was equally zealous after her change of heart, 
 and taught her poor neighbors daily. 
 
 In time, Brother Rodriguez's quarters grew too strait 
 for the people who flocked to hear a free gospel, and 
 they began to build a church. Mr. Rodriguez gave a 
 lot and six hundred and seventy-four dollars toward the 
 building, besides superintending the work. The house, 
 sixty feet by twenty-seven, cost twenty-six hundred dol- 
 lars, of which ninety of the people gave ten hundred 
 and ninety dollars. Four young brethren who are sup- 
 porting themselves while they study for the ministry did 
 the work on pulpit, tables, benches, etc. for their contri- 
 bution, while the story of the sixty beams which support 
 the roof is as interesting as though the scene had been 
 laid where the old Sidonians hewed cedar trees out of 
 Lebanon for the temple in Jerusalem : " When the 
 walls of the church were complete, it became necessary 
 to secure sixty stout beams thirty-six feet long. To have 
 bought them in Junapeo would have cost ninety dollars. 
 A good brother in Ahuacate, eighteen miles away, hear- 
 ing of their need, sent them word that they were at per- 
 fect liberty to enter his pine forest and cut free of cost 
 all the beams they needed. The offer was promptly ac- 
 cepted. All the oxen in the neighborhood belonging to 
 the brethren or their friends were brought together, 
 numbering thirty yoke, with two men to each yoke. 
 On a Monday morning they started. Brethren along 
 the road gave men and oxen their meals, and cared for 
 them at night. Three days were necessary for the round 
 trip, so that by Saturday night the thirty-six miles had
 
 398 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 been twice traversed and sixty fine beams were ready to 
 be placed on the walls. The oxen were furnished with- 
 out charge. The sixty brethren each gave a week of 
 his time without cost, and the work was all done as a 
 voluntary offering to the Lord. As I looked at those 
 beams afterward, neatly hewed and placed in position, 
 they seemed to me sermons in wood, objects as sa- 
 cred as the gold which was given for the tabernacle, 
 and I doubt not that they were equally acceptable to 
 God." 
 
 When the church was done, eight of the brethren 
 walked fifteen miles to Zitactiaro after an organ which 
 had been sent to them by friends in the United States. 
 As Junapeo lies three thousand feet lower and it was 
 impossible to carry such a load on muleback down the 
 steep mountain-paths, these men carried it on a sort of 
 bier, accomplishing the labor of love by nightfall of the 
 same day. 
 
 The house was dedicated on New Year's Day, 1883. 
 Such crowds men, women and children, most of them 
 on foot came from far and near that the opening ser- 
 vices were held out of doors. Wrapped in their blankets, 
 they camped out under the open sky. In the tropical 
 climate of Junapeo this was the best arrangement which 
 could be made for such a mass of perspiring humanity. 
 But there came a time when the house had to be packed 
 to its utmost capacity. Fifty persons were admitted to 
 the church on confession of their faith on that occasion. 
 We quote again from Dr. Greene : " As I looked over 
 that audience of five hundred, filling all the benches 
 and seated on the floor, the great mass of humble Indians 
 clothed in white muslin, who receive eighteen to twenty- 
 five cents a day, not more than one in ten of whom could
 
 REGENERATION Of MEXICO. 399 
 
 read, and as I noted their earnest and devout attention 
 to the reading of Solomon's prayer at the' dedication of 
 the temple, and to the preaching ; as I saw the peace and 
 joy reflected on their faces, and in some cases the tear 
 of penitence or gratitude stealing down their cheeks, I 
 longed to be able to photograph the scene and place it 
 before all our Christian people at home who have loved 
 and prayed for the Mexican work as a proof to them 
 that their gifts and prayers have been most signally 
 blest." 
 
 Junapeo has its counterpart in many a town and 
 hamlet in Mexico. Help from abroad seems to stim- 
 ulate to the utmost these generous people. The Indians, 
 the chief actors in every anti-Protestant riot, furnish also 
 the greatest numbers in the harvest of souls gathered by 
 Protestant missions. The heaviest part of the work 
 of evangelization now going on in Mexico is done by 
 native brethren whose zeal and faithfulness have already 
 been blessed to the saving of hundreds of souls in fields 
 which have been entirely tilled by them. As soon as 
 possible it is intended that the work shall be left entirely 
 in the hands of the native ministry. 
 
 Many who are noting the signs of the times in Mex- 
 ico believe that greater persecutions are in store for Prot- 
 estants there than they have yet experienced. The star 
 of conservatism seems to be once more in the ascendant, 
 and Rome rejoices. She is still plotting against every 
 principle on which Mexican liberties have been estab- 
 lished. But, amid the turnings and overturnings to 
 which these revolutionary people are subject, Christ is 
 building up his kingdom among them on foundations 
 firmer than the great mountains on which their cities 
 stand. As " a leader and commander to the people " he
 
 400 ABOUT MEXICO. 
 
 has already caused his standard to be lifted up in this 
 land. They are gathering out the stones and casting up 
 his highway, and some happy day " the work of right- 
 eousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness 
 quietness and confidence for ever."
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 JUST as this volume goes to press, a book by the Hon. 
 David A. Wells, LL.D., entitled A Study of Mexico, is 
 issued from the house of D. Appleton & Co., New York. 
 The following table, showing the population and the area 
 of each of the States of Mexico according to the census 
 of 1879, is from this book : 
 
 Order of 
 density of 
 population. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Area in 
 square 
 miles. 
 
 Number of 
 population. 
 
 Pop. 
 per sq. 
 mile. 
 
 1 
 
 The Federal District (City of 
 Mexico) 
 
 463 
 
 351 804 
 
 759 
 
 2 
 
 State of Mexico 
 
 7,840 
 
 710579 
 
 90 
 
 3 
 
 ' " Morelos 
 
 1,776 
 
 159,160 
 
 89 
 
 4 
 
 ' " Tlaxcala 
 
 1 622 
 
 138 958 
 
 85 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 ' " Guanajuato .... 
 ' " Puebla 
 
 11,413 
 12019 
 
 834,845 
 784,466 
 
 73 
 65 
 
 7 
 
 ' '' Queretaro 
 
 3,205 
 
 203 250 
 
 63 
 
 8 
 
 ' " Hidalgo 
 
 8161 
 
 427 350 
 
 52 
 
 9 
 10 
 11 
 
 ' " Aguas Calientes . . 
 ' Michoacan .... 
 ' ' Jalisco 
 
 2,897 
 23,714 
 39,174 
 
 140,430 
 661,534 
 983484 
 
 48 
 27 
 25 
 
 12 
 
 ' ' Oaxaca 
 
 33,582 
 
 744 000 
 
 22 
 
 13 
 14 
 15 
 
 ' ' Vera Cruz .... 
 ' ' San Luis Potosi . . 
 ' ' Zacatecas 
 
 26,232 
 27,503 
 22999 
 
 542,918 
 516,486 
 422 506 
 
 20 
 18 
 18 
 
 16 
 
 ' ' Colima 
 
 3746 
 
 65827 
 
 17 
 
 17 
 
 " ' Chiapas 
 
 16048 
 
 205 362 
 
 12 
 
 18 
 
 " " Guerrero 
 
 24,552 
 
 295 590 
 
 12 
 
 19 
 
 " " Yucatan 
 
 29,569 
 
 302315 
 
 10 
 
 20 
 
 " " Tabasco 
 
 11 849 
 
 104 747 
 
 8 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 " ' Nuevo Leon .... 
 " ' Sinaloa 
 
 23,637 
 36200 
 
 203,284 
 186491 
 
 8 
 5 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 Tamaulipas .... 
 " ' Duran^o 
 
 27,916 
 42511 
 
 140,137 
 190 846 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 25 
 26 
 
 27 
 
 " ' Campeachy .... 
 " ' Chihuahua .... 
 " ' Coahuila 
 
 25,834 
 83,751 
 50904 
 
 90,413 
 225,541 
 130026 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 " " Sonora 
 
 79020 
 
 115424 
 
 1 
 
 29 
 
 Territory of Lower California 
 
 61,563. 
 
 30,208 
 
 f 
 
 i 
 
 Total for the Republic . . 
 
 739,700 
 
 9,908,011 
 
 13.4 
 
 401
 
 4 "2 APPEXDIX. 
 
 The following facts are given by Mr. Wells concerning 
 the past and the present of the Church in Mexico. After 
 the downfall of Maximilian, when Juarez became the un- 
 disputed and practically absolute ruler of the country, the 
 entire property of the Mexican Church was at once " nation- 
 alized " (a synonym for " confiscated ") for the use of the 
 State. Mr. Wells thus describes the change that resulted : 
 
 " Every convent, monastic institution, or religious house 
 was closed up and devoted to secular purposes, and the 
 members of every religious society, from the Jesuits to the 
 Sisters of Charity who served in the hospitals or taught in 
 the schools, were banished and summarily sent out of the 
 country. And so vigorously and severely is the policy of 
 subjugating the ecclesiastical to the civil authority which 
 Juarez inaugurated in 1867 still carried out that no con- 
 vent or monastery now openly exists in Mexico, and no 
 priest or sister, or any ecclesiastic, can walk the streets in 
 any distinctive costume or take part in any religious parade 
 or procession; and this in towns and cities where twenty 
 years ago or less tile life of a foreigner or skeptic who did 
 not promptly kneel in the streets at the ' procession of the 
 Host' was imperiled. Again, while Catholic worship is 
 still permitted in the cathedrals and in a sufficient number 
 of other churches, it is clearly understood that all of these 
 structures and the land upon which they stand are abso- 
 lutely the property of the government* liable to be sold and 
 converted to other uses at any time, and that the officiating 
 clergy are only ' tenants at will/ Even the ringing of the 
 church-bells is regulated by law. All these rites, further- 
 more which the Catholic Church has always 'classed as 
 among her holy sacraments and exclusive privileges, and 
 the possession of which has constituted the chief source of 
 her power over society are also now regulated by civil 
 law. The civil authority registers births, performs the mar- 
 riage ceremony and provides for the burial of the dead, and, 
 while the Church marriage ceremonies are not prohibited to
 
 APPENDIX. 403 
 
 those who desire them, they are legally superfluous and 
 alone have no validity whatever/ (See Report an Church 
 and Stoic in Mexico to ike State Department by Consul-Gen- 
 eral Strother, December, 1883.) 
 
 " How the lower orders of the Mexican people other than 
 the distinctive Indian population regarded the proceedings 
 of the government against the Church is thus described by 
 M. Desire Charney in the account of his researches in Cen- 
 tral America : ' Upon the suppression of the monastic orders 
 in Mexico, and the confiscation of the property of the cler- 
 gy, and the demolition of certain churches and convents, 
 the multitude protested, but without violence. The lepero*, 
 all covered as they were with medals, rosaries and scapu- 
 lars, pulled down the houses of their fetiches, while the old 
 women indignant witnesses of the sacrilege ejaculated 
 their a res without ceasing. The exiles had fulminated the 
 major excommunication against whoever should have act 
 or part in the work of demolition or should tread the streets 
 cut through the grounds of the torn-down convents, but 
 after a week or so all fear vanished, and not only did the 
 destroyers go about their work without remorse, but they 
 even used the sacred wood-work of the churches to make 
 their kitchen-fires, and the new streets had their passengers 
 like the older ones, 1 North, American Review, October, 1880. 
 
 " Mr. Strother, who has studied the matter very carefully, 
 suggests that an explanation may be found in the character 
 of the Indian races of Mexico, who constitute the bulk of 
 the population, and * whose native spirit of independence 
 predominates over all other sentiments.' He also throws 
 out the opinion that * the aborigines of the country never 
 were completely Christianized, but, awed by force or daz- 
 zled by showy ceremonials, accepted the external forms of 
 the new faith as a sort of compromise with the conquerors.' 
 And he states that he has himself recently attended 'relig- 
 ious festivals where the Indians assisted, clothed and armed 
 as in the days of Montezuma, with a curious intermingling
 
 404 APPENDIX. 
 
 of Christian and pagan emblems, and ceremonies closely 
 resembling some of the sacred dances of the North Amer- 
 ican tribes.' It is also asserted that on the anniversaries 
 of the ancient Aztec festivals garlands are hung upon the 
 great stone idol that stands in the court-yard of the Na- 
 tional Museum, and that the natives of the mountain-villages 
 sometimes steal away on such days to the lonely forests or 
 hidden caves to worship in secret the gods of their ances- 
 tors. But, be the explanation what it may, it is greatly to 
 the credit of Mexico, and one of the brightest auguries for 
 her future, that after years of war and social and political 
 revolutions, in which the adherents both of liberty and 
 absolutism have seemed to vie with each other in outrag- 
 ing humanity, the idea of a constitutional government 
 based on the broadest republican principles has lived, 
 and to as large an extent as has perhaps been possible 
 under the circumstances practically asserted itself in a 
 national administrative system. 
 
 " When the traveler visits the cities of Mexico and sees the 
 number and extent of the convents, religious houses and 
 churches which, having been confiscated, are either in the 
 process of decay or occupied for secular purposes, and in 
 the country has pointed out to him the estates which were 
 formerly the property of the Church, he gets some realiza- 
 tion of the nature of the work which Juarez had the ability 
 and the courage to accomplish. And when he further re- 
 flects on the numbers of idle, shiftless, and certainly to some 
 extent profligate, people who tenanted or were supported by 
 these great properties, and who, producing nothing and con- 
 suming everything, virtually lived on the superstitious fears 
 of their countrymen which they at the same time did their 
 best to create and perpetuate he no longer wonders that 
 Mexico and her people are poor and degraded, but rather 
 that they are not poorer and more degraded than they are. 
 
 " What amount of property was owned by the Mexican 
 Church and clergy previous to its secularization is not cer-
 
 APPENDIX. 405 
 
 tainly known at least, by the public. It is agreed that 
 they at one time held the titles to all the best property of 
 the republic, both in city and in country, and there is said 
 to have been an admission by the clerical authorities to the 
 ownership of eight hundred and sixty-one estates in the 
 country, valued at seventy-one million dollars, and of 
 twenty-two thousand lots of city property, valued at one 
 hundred and thirteen million dollars, making a total of 
 one hundred and eighty-four million dollars. Other esti- 
 mates, more general in their character, are to the effect that 
 the former aggregate wealth of the Mexican Church can- 
 not have been less than three hundred million dollars ; and, 
 according to Mr. Strother, it is not improbable that even 
 this large estimate falls short of the truth, ' inasmuch as it 
 is admitted that the Mexican ecclesiastical body well under- 
 stood the value of money as an element of power, and, as 
 bankers and money-lenders for the nation, possessed vast 
 assets which could not be publicly known or estimated.' 
 Notwithstanding, also, the great losses which the Church 
 had undoubtedly experienced prior to the accession of Jua- 
 rez, in 1867, and his control of the State, the annual reve- 
 nue of the Mexican clergy at that time, from tithes, gifts, 
 charities and parochial dues, is believed to have been not 
 less than twenty-two million dollars, or more than the entire 
 aggregate revenues of the State derived from all its customs 
 and internal taxes. Some of the property that thus came 
 into possession of the government was quickly sold by it, 
 and at very low prices, and, very curiously, was bought, in 
 some notable instances, by other religious (Protestant) de- 
 nominations, which previous to 1857 had not been allowed 
 to obtain even so much as tolerance or a foothold in the 
 country. Thus, the former spacious headquarters of the 
 order of the Franciscans, with one of the most elegant 
 and beautifully-proportioned chapels in the world within 
 its walls, and fronting in part on the Calle de San Fran- 
 cisco, the most fashionable street in the City of Mexico, was
 
 406 APPENDIX. 
 
 sold to Bishop Riley and a well-known philanthropist of 
 New York, acting for the American Episcopal missions, at 
 an understood price of thirty-five thousand dollars, and is 
 now valued at over two hundred thousand dollars. In like 
 manner, the American Baptist missionaries have gained an 
 ownership or control in the city of Puebla of the old palace 
 of the Inquisition, and in the City of Mexico the former 
 enormous palace of the Inquisition is now a medical col- 
 lege, while the Plaza de San Domingo, which adjoins and 
 fronts the church of San Domingo, and where the auto-da-fe 
 was once held, is now used as a market-place. A former 
 magnificent old convent, to some extent reconstructed and 
 repaired, also affords quarters to the National Library, which 
 in turn is largely made up of spoils gathered from the libra- 
 ries of the religious ' orders ' and houses. The national 
 government, hoAvever, does not appear to have derived any 
 great fiscal advantage from the confiscation of the Church 
 property, or to have availed itself of the resources which 
 thus came to it for effecting any marked reduction of the 
 national debt. Good Catholics would not buy ' God's prop- 
 erty ' and take titles from the State, and so large tracts of 
 land and blocks of city buildings passed at a very low 
 figure into the possession of those who were indifferent to 
 the Church and'had command of ready money ; and in this 
 way individuals rather than the State and the great body 
 of the people have been benefited."
 
 AGUILAR, 380. x 
 
 death of, 381. 
 Alvarado's cruelty, and its cost, 
 
 211. 
 
 American Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, 387. 
 
 Aguas, Manuel, converted to "Prot- 
 estantism, 382. 
 Aztecs, 34. 
 
 are defeated, and their capital 
 is destroyed, 236. 
 
 armor, 62. 
 
 born warriors, 61. 
 
 children, 114. 
 
 cruelties, 83. 
 
 doctrine of future life, 83. 
 
 education, 116. 
 
 festivals, 89. 
 
 home rules, 113. 
 
 language, 111. 
 
 laws, 50. 
 
 manuscripts, 110. 
 
 marriage, 121. 
 
 rebel against Spaniards, 203. 
 
 ruins, 42. 
 
 schools, 117. 
 
 softer traits, 1 22. 
 
 tactics, 66. 
 
 traditions, 37. 
 
 tyranny, 129. 
 
 writings, 107. 
 
 B. 
 
 BIBLE SECRETLY CIRCULATED, 
 
 365. 
 Bravo, Miguel, 275. / 
 
 O. 
 
 CACAMA, Tezcucan chief, 185, 203. 
 Capital of Mexico, Cortez' first 
 
 view of, 183. 
 Cempoalla, 151. 
 Chapultepec Castle, 328. 
 Chihuahua, 352. 
 Children, mode of training, 113. 
 
 naming of, 115. 
 
 sold for sacrifice, 123. 
 Cholula a sacred city, 170. 
 
 pyramid of, 32. 
 Cibola, seven cities of, 261. 
 Civilization, ancient Mexican, 92. 
 Columbus the Pathfinder, 17. 
 Cortez, 135. 
 
 ascends Popocatepetl, 180. 
 
 as missionary, 154. 
 
 Aztecs rebel against, 203. 
 
 besieges and destroys City of 
 Mexico, 236. 
 
 cool reception, 140. 
 
 Cuban jealousy of, 208. 
 
 enters Tlascala, 225. 
 
 expedition of, 135. 
 
 march toward Mexico, 158. 
 
 rallies at Otuuiba, 223. 
 407
 
 408 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cortez reinforced from Cuba, 227. 
 retreats from city, 217. 
 returns and captures Tezcuco, 
 
 229. 
 Country decides to be republican, 
 
 282. 
 Creoles, 267. 
 
 D. 
 
 DE CORDOVA, 131. 
 Dress, modes of, 101. 
 
 E. 
 
 END OF SPAIN'S POWER, 284. 
 Enslavement of Indians, 252. 
 
 F. 
 
 FEATHERED SERPENT, 75, 129. 
 Festivals, Aztec, 89. 
 Franciscan friars arrive, 247. 
 Friends, mission of, 386. 
 Funeral rites, 103. 
 
 0. 
 
 GRIJA J,VA'S EXPEDITION, 134. 
 Guadalajara, 356. 
 Guadahipe Victoria^ 280. 
 Guanajuato, 355. 
 Guatemozin betrayed, 243. 
 
 surrenders, 236. 
 Gulf of Mexico discovered, 131. 
 
 H. 
 
 HARBORS, 336. 
 Hidalgo, 270. 
 
 betrayal and death, 274. 
 
 plots for independence, 272. 
 Homes, Mexican, 95. 
 Hungry Fox, story of the, 124. 
 
 temple of the, 72. 
 
 I. 
 
 IDOLS BURNT IN THE STREET, 
 157. 
 
 torn down, 206. 
 Improvements, 339. 
 Indian hucksters, 310. 
 Indians enslaved, 252. 
 Inquisition set up, 265. 
 Iturbide, 278. 
 
 abdicates, 283. 
 
 banished, 283. 
 
 proclaimed emperor, 282. 
 
 strikes for liberty, 282. 
 Iztapalapa, 186. 
 
 J. 
 JUAREZ, BENITO, 285. 
 
 death of, 305. 
 
 exiled, 294. 
 
 recalled. 294. 
 
 services of, 289. 
 
 struggling for liberty, 299. 
 Jesuits expelled, 265. 
 
 L. 
 
 LAKE ZUMPANGO DRAINED, 256. 
 
 Las Casas, 251, 254. 
 
 Laws and government, Aztec, 50. 
 
 M. 
 
 MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE, 101. 
 Marina, first American Christian, 
 
 143. 
 
 Martyrs, Protestant, 392. 
 Maximilian executed, 304. 
 
 sent over as emperor. 297. 
 Mendoza, first viceroy, 253. 
 Mexico before the conquest, 22. 
 
 early settlers, 29. 
 
 mineral wealth, 27. 
 
 present government, 305.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 409 
 
 Mexico, productions, 25. 
 
 railway, 309. 
 
 wealth, first glimpse of, 20. 
 Mexico, City of, ancient, 96. 
 
 cathedral of, 320. 
 
 destroyed, 236. 
 
 education in, 325. 
 
 houses, 322. 
 
 markets of, 316. 
 
 new city described, 314. 
 
 rebuilt, 240. 
 
 residents, 326. 
 
 water-supply, 316. 
 Mexico, Gulf of, discovered, 131. 
 Mexitli, the Aztec capital, 39. 
 Michoacan, gospel introduced into, 
 
 396. 
 
 Mines and minerals, 344. 
 Missions, American Board of For- 
 eign, 387. 
 
 Friends, 386. 
 
 Methodist, 387. 
 
 Presbyterian, 384. 
 
 Rankin, Miss, pioneer mis- 
 sionary, 371. 
 
 Eiley, Eev. H. C., 381. 
 Monterey, 351. 
 
 missionary work, 375. 
 Montezuma, Cortez preaches to, 
 191. 
 
 Cortez sends presents to, 144. 
 
 death of, 213. 
 
 meets Cortez, 187. 
 
 presents from, 146. 
 
 seized and held a captive, 199. 
 
 submits as vassal, 204. 
 Morelos and his heroes, 275. 
 
 N. 
 
 NARVAEZ DEFEATED AND CAP- 
 TURED, 210. 
 
 Narvaez sent to supersede Cortez, 
 
 208. 
 
 New government of Mexico, 253. 
 New Seville, 151. 
 
 O. 
 
 ORIZABA, 307. 
 
 P. 
 
 PEOPLE, 346. 
 
 mode of living, 347. 
 Picture-writing, 108-111. 
 Plants, 342. 
 Police in cities, 354. 
 Popocatapetl ascended, 180. 
 
 described, 329. 
 Presbyterian missions, 384. 
 
 at Capulhuac, 390. 
 
 at Zacatecas, 391. 
 
 statistics, 386. 
 
 Priesthood, corruption of, 266. 
 Puebla, 358. 
 
 Q. 
 
 QUERETARO, 355. 
 
 B. 
 
 RAILWAY, 309. 
 Railroads, 336. 
 Rankin, Miss, pioneer missionary, 
 
 371. 
 
 Reformation, Bible secretly circu- 
 lated, 365. 
 principles, 360. 
 Reporting, Mexican method of, 
 
 145. 
 
 Riley, Rev. H. C., 381. 
 Ruins, ancient, 32. 
 Aztec, 42.
 
 410 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ruins in New Mexico, 46. 
 Toltec, 32. 
 
 S. 
 
 SACRED PLACES AND PEOPLE, 70. 
 Santa Anna president of Mexico, 
 
 290. 
 
 Schools, 117. 
 Seasons, 339. 
 ' Slaves set free, 289. 
 Spain despoiled Mexico, 262. 
 end of power, 284. 
 grasping policy of, 259. 
 Spanish cruelty, 244, 250. 
 
 invaders as missionaries, 136. 
 
 T. 
 
 TEMPLE OF HUNGRY Fox, 72. 
 Temples, ancient, 78. 
 Tezcucans, 54. 
 Tl lacalans, 161. 
 
 Tlascalaus, battle with the Span- 
 iards, 164. 
 Toltecs, 31. 
 
 history of, 34. 
 
 ruins of, 32. 
 
 V. 
 
 VERA CRUZ, 307. 
 Villages, Indian, 36, 242. 
 Virgin Mary, Indian, 109, 331. 
 Votan, 29. 
 
 W. 
 WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 289. 
 
 Worship, early, 70. 
 Writing, origin of, 106. 
 
 picture-writing, 108-111. 
 
 Z. 
 
 ZACATECAS, 355. 
 
 THE END.
 
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