Mexico

The purpose of this work is to treat of Mexico as a topographical and political entity, based upon a study of the country from travel and observation; a method such as has found favour in my book upon Peru. The method of viewing a country as a whole, with its people, topography, and general conditions in natural relation to each other, is one which commands growing acceptance in a busy age. I have been able to observe much of the actual life and character of Spanish-American countries from considerable travel therein. Both Mexico and Peru ever lured me on as seeming to hold for me some El Dorado, and if I have not reaped gold as the Conquistadores did, there are nevertheless other matters of satisfaction accruing to the traveller from his journeys in those splendid territories of mountain and forest.

Mexico, superfluous to say, is not part of South America, although this book appears in this series. But it is part of that vast Spanish-speaking New World whose development holds much of interest; and which may occupy a more important part in coming years than is generally thought of at present.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

PAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

INTRODUCTION BY MARTIN HUME. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv

CHAPTER I A FIRST RECONNAISSANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Romance of history--Two entrance ways--Vera Cruz--Orizaba--The Great Plateau--Fortress of Ulua--Sierra Madre--Topographical structure--The Gulf coast--Tropical region--Birds, animals, and vegetation of coast zone--Tierra caliente--Malaria--Foothills--Romantic scenery--General configuration of Mexico--Climatic zones--Temperate zone--Cold zone--The Cordillera--Snow-capped peaks--Romance of mining--Devout miners-- Subterranean shrines--The great deserts--Sunset on the Great Plateau-- Coyotes and zopilotes--Irrigated plantations--Railways--Plateau of Anahuac--The cities of the mesa central--Spanish-American civilisation--Romance of Mexican life--Mexican girls, music, and moonlight--The peones and civilisation--American comparisons-- Pleasing traits of the Mexicans--The foreigner in Mexico--Picturesque mining-towns--Wealth of silver--Conditions of travel--Railways-- Invasions--Lerdo's axiom--Roads and horsemen--Strong religious sentiment--Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl--Sun-god of Teotihuacan--City of Mexico--Valley of Mexico--The Sierra Madre--Divortia aquarum of the continent--Volcano of Colima--Forests and ravines--Cuernavaca--The trail of Cortes--Acapulco--Romantic old haciendas--Tropic sunset-- Unexplored Guerrero--Perils and pleasures of the trail--Sunset in the Pacific Ocean.