Note.—In confirmation of all we have said in this chapter in regard to the administration and condition of law in Mexico, and in relation to the army, we refer to an able pamphlet published in that country, in 1848, entitled "Consideraciones sobre la Situacion Politica y Social de la Republica Mejicaen el ano 1847," written, we understand, by Don Francisco Lerdo. It presents a dark picture of the country at that epoch; but the author's purpose was to unmask the social and political diseases of his country, and his patriotic task was the more needed because that country was on the brink of ruin from war.It is to be especially noted with commendation that the Mexicans have recently become the severest critics not only of their institutions but of themselves. The miserable, boasting spirit,—the taste for grandiloquent proclamations,—the indiscriminate laudation of Mexican virtue, talent, science, honor, valor, and justice, which filled the papers and pamphlets of the nation, but which were never sustained when the Mexicans came in contact either with highly cultivated foreigners or were opposed by foreign arms, have all been greatly qualified since the war. The combined lessons of her unsparing but truthful satirists and of her invading enemies, will not be lost on a people really sensible and sensitive, though bewildered for more than a quarter of a century during which bombast served for glory or consolation when anarchy was not altogether triumphant. In confirmation of this growing spirit of self-examination with a view to national reform, we would also refer to the discreet and able memoir of Don Luis G. Cuevas, minister of foreign and domestic relations, read by him before the Chamber of Deputies, on the 5th of January, 1849.
Note.—In confirmation of all we have said in this chapter in regard to the administration and condition of law in Mexico, and in relation to the army, we refer to an able pamphlet published in that country, in 1848, entitled "Consideraciones sobre la Situacion Politica y Social de la Republica Mejicaen el ano 1847," written, we understand, by Don Francisco Lerdo. It presents a dark picture of the country at that epoch; but the author's purpose was to unmask the social and political diseases of his country, and his patriotic task was the more needed because that country was on the brink of ruin from war.
It is to be especially noted with commendation that the Mexicans have recently become the severest critics not only of their institutions but of themselves. The miserable, boasting spirit,—the taste for grandiloquent proclamations,—the indiscriminate laudation of Mexican virtue, talent, science, honor, valor, and justice, which filled the papers and pamphlets of the nation, but which were never sustained when the Mexicans came in contact either with highly cultivated foreigners or were opposed by foreign arms, have all been greatly qualified since the war. The combined lessons of her unsparing but truthful satirists and of her invading enemies, will not be lost on a people really sensible and sensitive, though bewildered for more than a quarter of a century during which bombast served for glory or consolation when anarchy was not altogether triumphant. In confirmation of this growing spirit of self-examination with a view to national reform, we would also refer to the discreet and able memoir of Don Luis G. Cuevas, minister of foreign and domestic relations, read by him before the Chamber of Deputies, on the 5th of January, 1849.
WHAT MEXICO HAS DONE—REVIEW OF HER CONDUCT AND CHARACTER.—MEXICAN OPINIONS—CLASSES—INDIANS—MESTIZOS—WHITES—ARMY—CHURCH.—DIVISIONS OF WHITES—WANT OF HOMOGENEOUSNESS.—WANT OF NATIONALITY AND OF A PEOPLE—REMEDIES—EMIGRATION—RELIGIOUS LIBERTY—POLITICAL ORDER—LABOR.
WHAT MEXICO HAS DONE—REVIEW OF HER CONDUCT AND CHARACTER.—MEXICAN OPINIONS—CLASSES—INDIANS—MESTIZOS—WHITES—ARMY—CHURCH.—DIVISIONS OF WHITES—WANT OF HOMOGENEOUSNESS.—WANT OF NATIONALITY AND OF A PEOPLE—REMEDIES—EMIGRATION—RELIGIOUS LIBERTY—POLITICAL ORDER—LABOR.
EVERYreader who has accompanied us thus far in studying the history, geography, resources, and character of Mexico, will scarcely require to be told why it is that the nation has continued disorganized and become impoverished in the midst of such abundance as has been lavished upon it by the beneficence of God. At the conclusion of our chapter upon the commerce of Mexico we described the remarkable geographical position of the territory, and have shown that, by the laws of nature, it ought to enjoy a controlling influence in the affairs of the world. And yet almost three centuries and a half have rolled over since Cortéz planted the Spanish banner on the palaces of Tenochtitlan, and still the question may be asked whether the region is more progressive under republican and royal rule than under Aztec sway? The world has advanced in commerce, manufactures, science, literature and arts, but Mexico has remained comparatively fixed in the midst of a stagnant semi-civilization. She has not exhibited a true warlike character either in her domestic broils or in her opposition to a foreign invader, though her soil has been converted into a camp for nearly forty years. She has confessed her manifold errors by her indemnities and her diplomacy, though she has contrived to invite quarrels, discussions and affronts by an aggressive demeanor towards sojourners in her territory. A religious country by the protective sanction of all her constitutions, still she denies the right of conscientious worship to all who come within her borders. With a military police, and an immense array of judicial officers, her cities and highways are thronged with felons while the disputes of her citizens linger undecided for years in her courts. Her domestic markets are dear, and she has but little to spare for foreign commerce, though her soil is extraordinarily fertile and her climate yieldsthe fruits and grains of the temperate and tropical zones. Throned on mines, she is a borrower at exhorbitant usury. Washed by the two great oceans of the globe, her mariners are fishermen and her vessels skiffs. Ready at all times to borrow from every capitalist, she sees her opulent citizens send their wealth abroad for investment in spite of the tempting interest she promises to pay. Boasting of faith, she is without credit. At peace with mankind and fortified by nature, she is forced to maintain an army either to protect her from herself or to bribe the innumerable remnants of her military politicians into peace. Endowed with a constitution and enjoying the name of a republic, she beholds that constitution violated or overthrown by her army without even demanding the consent of the people. Vaunting, in the most grandiloquent language, her intelligence, glory and resources, she exhibits not a single evidence of that patriotic unity and order which would entitle her to domestic confidence and foreign respect. Owning an extensive territory which is attractive not only for its essential qualities but for its magnificent beauty and grandeur, she has drawn to her shores, since the conquest, only a million of white men. Losing Texas, which in her hands had been, for all this time, a howling wilderness possessed by beasts and savages, she sees that state become, under the magic influence of another race, an independent nation, a maritime power, a commercial territory yielding millions annually for the trade of the world. Surrendering California as a boon for peace, she beholds in a single year, the sands that had been trodden by her own people for several centuries, turn to gold in the developing hand of the energetic emigrants to whom it was given up. Impoverished, haughty, uneducated, defiant, bigoted, disputatious, without financial credit, beaten in arms, far behind the age in mechanical progress or social civilization and loaded with debt, Mexico presents a spectacle in the nineteenth century, which moves the compassion of reflective men even if it does not provoke the cupidity of other races to wrest from her weak grasp a region whose value she neither comprehends nor develops. This compassion is the result of a genuine sympathy with the true patriots who really love their country and know its worth, but whose numbers are too few to cope with the scandalous intriguers and ambitious soldiers by whom the nation has hitherto been converted into a gambling table and its money and offices into prizes.
In the introductory chapters upon the viceroyal government and revolution of Mexico, and in our remarks upon the growth of parties at the close of the war of independence, we have endeavoredto exhibit fairly the existing causes of trouble at those epochs.[39]There was an apology for incapability of political self-rule when a bad government or a degrading despotism was suddenly removed. But, since then, twenty-six years have elapsed; and, in more than a quarter of a century, mankind is fairly entitled to demand from Mexico a denial of the sarcasm of her oppressiveoidorBataller "that the worst punishment to be inflicted upon the Mexicans is to allow them to govern themselves!"
Dark as is this picture of neighboring republicans, we should have been loth to paint it had not our careful studies of their statistics and the commentaries of their own citizens justified the sombre coloring. "For our own part we believe,"—says Don Francisco Lerdo, in his Considerations upon the Social and Political Condition of the Mexican Republic in 1847,—"that all this may be explained in a few words.In Mexico there neither is nor can there be what is called national spirit, because there is no nation."[40]
This, perhaps, is the key of Mexican decadence. The national spirit is centrifugal, if any thing can strictly be called national when citizen is armed against citizen, and when men in civil life and politicians in public life, are constantly seeking to aggrandize themselves either in wealth or power without a thought of loyalty to the constitution which should perpetuate and consolidate national unity of principle and action in spite of all their personal ambitions or party dominations.
If we recur to our statistics in the third chapter of this volume we shall find that, out of seven millions six hundred and twenty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-one inhabitants of the republic, it is calculated that four millions three hundred thousand are Indians, that more than two millions are either mixed bloods or negroes, and only about one million white, while, of the whole population, not many more than seven hundred and forty thousand are to be regarded as either educated or at all instructed! The most numerous class, the large majority of Mexicans,—the Indians,—are not civilized. We make this assertion without qualification. They aretamedand have been comparatively submissive; they are not open idolators and have generally conformed, according to their limited understanding and instruction, to the direction of the Catholic priesthood; but neither this taming nor this conformity, considered relatively to their general demeanor, constitute civilization either under a monarchy or a republic.The Indians, therefore, regarded as a political or social element in a democracy, are not fairly to be valued as integral constituencies of the Mexicanrepublic. We have already delineated the character of this class and will not recapitulate the points of sluggish indifference which forbid the hope of its elevation. Less savage than the North American red man and hunter, the Mexican Indian is only dwarfed in energy and in the expression of passion, by the emasculating influence of the climate. In all other respects he resembles the tenant of our western forests and will neither willingly mingle with us, adopt our habits, nor labor for others upon a soil which spontaneously supplies his wants. In his passive state he is content with imitation; in his aroused anger he rushes blindly and vindictively into danger, and is willing to die rather for revenge than for right. Is it not folly then to ask this class to comprehend the representative system? Nor can we justly expect its comprehension and correspondent adherence or practice from the unenlightened Mixed Races, especially when those races do not derive their origin, exclusively, from pure white stocks, but are formed by a medly mosaic of Indian, African, Oriental and Spanish. The hope of Mexico must, therefore, repose in the whites alone; and, on this class we might confidently rely as the nucleus around which future numbers and civilization would gather, if we found them orderly, free, united and firm in adherence to their constitution modified by the indispensable addition of religious liberty and the speedy as well as inflexible administration of justice. But, in this small class, we have the most serious difficulties to contend with, for, without constitutional recognition, the officers of the army, the hierarchy, and the intriguing politicians, form three distinct powerful bodies who must blend in perfect union for mutual support, or must be content to see the country involved in civil war if they differ.
We have already noticed the origin and continuance of the army's influence, and the natural despotic tendencies of that class. It represents Force. It is, moreover, a historical fact, that the Mexican church does not confine itself to matters of faith, but, as the richest national proprietor and as the comptroller of conscience by virtue of the constitution, has constantly quitted the cloister to fight in the arena of politics. Nor was its weapon weak, for it was armed with Superstition. Wielding the bolts of spiritual thunder in a nation in which no other religion is tolerated or known; possessing the power of discovery by confession, and of control by penance, excommunication, anathemas, and ecclesiastical interdicts; ruling thesoul without appeal, and grasping the purse, it will be at once seen what a powerful element of influence such an institution must become when directed by a single head. If the masses would prey upon the church, it was the policy of the church to support the army; if the people desired to destroy the army, it was the interest of the army to support a church which could control by conscience or bribe by money the miscalled representatives of the people.[41]With force and superstition, thus welded together by interest, the representative system can expect but little favor from these two important divisions of the white race.
Is there hopeful reliance, then, upon another power which is controlled by a portion of the educated whites? The Liberty of the Press, in Mexico has disappointed its warmest advocates. An instrument which should ever be used for the enlightenment of the multitude has been employed only to demoralize and deceive it. Instead of attacking bravely all abuses of administration and all international prejudices, or weaknesses; instead of holding the executive departments to strict accountability before the chambers and the people; instead of displaying frankly the vital interests and materials of social reorganization, and thus contributing to the common prosperity and peace of the country, the periodical press of Mexico, with few honorable exceptions, has fostered the meanest passions and hatreds of the ignorant masses and has betrayed public opinion by trafficking with or truckling to the men or the classes who live by public abuses and disorder.[42]Instead of checking and thwarting the interference of the church in civil affairs, it has stood mute or appalled before the ecclesiastical power. If there is no reliance, therefore, on the press, what available trust may be reposed in the pure, civil patriots, men of letters, professional characters, merchants and proprietors? The slender numbers of this class, compared with the army, church, Empleados or governmentemployées, and intriguing civilians connected either with the state in its various departments offinance, or with the press, at once deprive it of equality in influence. In all the turns of fortune in Mexico, these men have, hitherto, never been able to command the country for any length of time so as to give a permanent beneficial direction to public affairs, and we may, therefore, readily agree with Lerdo in believing that his country possesses no elements of nationality. He might have gone further in his analysis, and declaredthat there was no nationality because there was noPeople; for who will dignify with that republican name such discordant and heterogeneous materials of races, characters, politics and purposes. APeopleis not a mere aggregation of human beings. A nation, in the true sense of nationality, is only a great family, for whose strength and power it is necessary that all its individual members should be intimately united by the bonds of interest, sympathy and affection. Such a nation may form a government, but it is difficult for a government to form such a nation. And this was the peculiarly fortunate position of our North American states at the period of Independence, for we had no political and social revolution to effect. Our people and our government grew up together. At the close of the war the United States were poor. The military men had enjoyed no revenue from their services but personal honor. They were badly fed, paid and clothed. There was no rich, ready made prize to be seized by ambitious or avaricious men in the gorged treasury of a nation. All were essentially equal because all were equally forced to work for livelihood. There was no recognized class in government or society. We were all of one blood, and did not fall into the error of amalgamation with Indians and negroes. We were controlled by reason and not governed by passions or instincts. We had nothing but liberty and space; soil and freedom. Our soldiers were rewarded with land; but that land was in the wilderness and exacted toil to make it productive; and thus, compulsory industry diverted the minds of our political founders from those ambitious enterprises, which by the aid of the military have so long degraded Mexico. Conquest and rapid Fruition,—was the maxim of Spain; Occupation and Development,—the policy of England. The eager Iberian was prompt and headlong in the adventurous life of discovery. The cautious Anglo Saxon followed in his steps, ready to glean and replant the fields that had been hardly reaped of their virgin harvests.
We have endeavored to analyze candidly the condition of the Mexican republic, and, in performing the disagreeable task we have been guided not only by our own personal observations in the country, but by the argumentative criticisms of native writers. Having ascertained the disease it is our duty to seek the remedy. The obvious policy of Mexico, under existing circumstances, is to exhibit a firm, constitutional, orderly, peaceful aspect, which, together with her manifold allurements of soil, climate, and geographical situation, will gradually attract to her shores the eager multitudeswho are seeking a new home in America. Emigration is the overflowing of a bitter cup. Men do not ordinarily leave the land of their birth, the home of their infancy, their parents, friends and companions, for the untried hazards of a land in which there is no community of laws, habits, and language, unless poverty and bad government force them into the wilderness. They depart to better their lot. They must have the assurance, therefore, of their rights in property and personal liberty guarantied by stable laws promptly administered by incorruptible judges. Such meritorious emigrants will not populate Mexico unless she demonstrates her capacity for order and security; and, without these accessions, we have shown that Mexico never will, as she does not now, possess a republicanPeople. She must cultivate thecivilidea; she must abandon her military parade; she must discard her habitual bombast and grandiloquence; she must banish the despots who have debauched and plundered her; she must reform her social life and learn to believe that there are other pleasures worthy the notice of men besides gambling, bull baiting and cock fighting; and, above all, she must establish religious liberty. It is an absurd idea that nationality can be preserved by enforcing Catholicity by virtue of the constitution. The Roman church must consent to share this earth,—the patrimony of mankind,—with other believers and spiritual laborers. It cannot monopolize the soil, even if it can control the faith. The day of monoply is gone,—that of individuality has come, and there can be no good government that is not founded on tolerant Christianity, which is the creed of Love, the enemy of Force, the founder of true Democracy.[43]
When an orderly and firm government shall have been established, Mexico will be refreshed continually by the energizing blood of a hardy, industrious and enterprising white race from beyond the sea. Germany will send her sons and daughters; Ireland, France, England, Italy and Spain will contribute theirs. The various nations, mingling slowly by marriage with the white Mexicans, will amalgamate and neutralize each other into homogeneous nationality. Mexico may thus gradually congregatea People. The language of the country will, in all likelihood, be preserved;for the white natives who now speak Spanish will of course form, for many years, the bulk of the population, and when they die, their offspring and the offspring of the emigrants will know but one tongue. There will thus be no violent extirpation of races; but a slow and genial modification. Modern inventions, arts, tastes, science, emulation, new forms of thought, new modes of development, will be introduced and implanted by these emigrants. The million of white men, and the two millions of mestizos, will become more prosperous under the increased trade and industry of the nation. A good government will be ensured, for the hardy emigrants fly from the political oppression and poverty of the old world to enjoy peacefullibertyin this.
There is nothing in this scheme of progress to which a good man or a republican can object, and if Mexico is sincere in her professions of democracy, and not merely anxious to preserve intact the fragments of a ruined Spanish colony,without a people and without nationality, she will imitate the example of the United States and welcome to her vallies and mountains all who are willing to approach her in the name of order, labor, and liberty. But if she stubbornly adheres to her stupid self-seclusion, and bars the portals of her splendid empire with the revolutionary impediments that are annually scattered over the republic, she will break the beautiful promise given to humanity in the success of her revolution;
"Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, unfinished,As if a morning in June with all its music and sunshine,Suddenly paused in the sky, and fading slowly descendedInto the east again, from whence it late had arisen!"Longfellow's Evangeline.
"Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, unfinished,As if a morning in June with all its music and sunshine,Suddenly paused in the sky, and fading slowly descendedInto the east again, from whence it late had arisen!"Longfellow's Evangeline.
"Something there was in her life incomplete, imperfect, unfinished,As if a morning in June with all its music and sunshine,Suddenly paused in the sky, and fading slowly descendedInto the east again, from whence it late had arisen!"Longfellow's Evangeline.
DIVISION OF MEXICO INTO STATES—EASTERN, WESTERN, INTERIOR. YUCATAN—BOUNDARIES, DEPARTMENTS, POPULATION, DISTRICTS, TOWNS, PARISHES, PRODUCTIONS, PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ISLANDS, HARBORS.—CHIAPAS—BOUNDARIES, PRODUCTS, DEPARTMENTS, TOWNS, RIVERS, POPULATION—REMAINS IN YUCATAN AND CHIAPAS.—DISCOVERIES OF STEPHENS, CATHERWOOD, NORMAN, ETC.—PALENQUE—UXMAL—YUCATAN CALENDAR.—YUCATAN, CHIAPAN, MECHOACAN, NICARAGUA AND MEXICAN MONTHS.—YUCATESE AND CHIAPAN CYCLE.—YUCATESE AND MEXICAN SOLAR YEAR—DIFFERENCES.—YUCATESE MONTHS.—TABASCO—BOUNDARIES, RIVERS, LAGUNE, INHABITANTS, PRODUCTIONS, TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
DIVISION OF MEXICO INTO STATES—EASTERN, WESTERN, INTERIOR. YUCATAN—BOUNDARIES, DEPARTMENTS, POPULATION, DISTRICTS, TOWNS, PARISHES, PRODUCTIONS, PRINCIPAL TOWNS, ISLANDS, HARBORS.—CHIAPAS—BOUNDARIES, PRODUCTS, DEPARTMENTS, TOWNS, RIVERS, POPULATION—REMAINS IN YUCATAN AND CHIAPAS.—DISCOVERIES OF STEPHENS, CATHERWOOD, NORMAN, ETC.—PALENQUE—UXMAL—YUCATAN CALENDAR.—YUCATAN, CHIAPAN, MECHOACAN, NICARAGUA AND MEXICAN MONTHS.—YUCATESE AND CHIAPAN CYCLE.—YUCATESE AND MEXICAN SOLAR YEAR—DIFFERENCES.—YUCATESE MONTHS.—TABASCO—BOUNDARIES, RIVERS, LAGUNE, INHABITANTS, PRODUCTIONS, TOWNS AND VILLAGES.
INtreating this branch of our subject we have followed the order adopted by Mühlenpfordt in his "Republik Mejico," and acknowledge the important assistance we have derived from the careful, minute and laborious personal researches made by that industrious German author relative to the geography of Mexico. Since the publication of his volumes, in which he had been greatly aided by the previous works of Humboldt, Ward, Burkhardt and other explorers during the present century, the Mexican government has organized a Statistical Commission, whose investigations have been published in a series of Bulletins, and to these we are indebted for recent authentic information about some of the most interesting portions of Mexico. The northern regions, meanwhile, have been illustrated by the explorations of Frémont, Abert, Emory, Wislizenius, Cooke, Simpson, and other officers of the American Government; but as most of the territory examined by them has become the property of the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe, their labors are not of importance in describing the Republic of Mexico as at present bounded. In the last Book of this work, however, which we have devoted to the consideration of California and New Mexico, we shall recur to those brave and scientific explorers of a remote region, so recently a wilderness, but which their labors, andthe combined fortune of war and mineral wealth have subdued for the benefit of mankind.
In accordance with the plan proposed in the separate consideration of the several States and Territories of Mexico, we shall divide them into three groups:—those on the eastern or Gulf coast; those on the western or Pacific coast, and those in the interior.
The State of Yucatan, sometimes known by the name of Merida or Campeché, occupies the greater portion of the peninsula which bounds the southern edge of the Gulf of Mexico. Its eastern side is washed by the Caribbean Sea, and touched by the settlements at Balize; on the south it is bounded by Guatemala; on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, from which it is separated by the river Paicutun that falls into the Laguna de Terminos. Its northern coast extends from Cape Catoché to the Punta de Piedras, about eighty-six leagues; and the whole area of the State is computed at 3,823 square leagues.
Yucatan possesses very few streams and none of importance that are known or explored. On the west of the peninsula, debouching into the Gulf of Mexico, there are the rivers or rivulets of Escatalto, Chen, Champoton;—the San Francisco falls into the Bay of Campeché; in the north there are the Silan, the Cedros, and the Conil; while the streams of Bolina, the Rio Nuevo, the Bacalar, the Ascension,and the Honda or Rio Grande pour into the Caribbean Sea. In 1841 the population of the State is stated in a census, taken by order of the government, as follows:
This census, although it professes to be accurate, may nevertheless be incomplete, inasmuch as the inhabitants of Yucatan, dreading new contributions and detesting military service, endeavor to reduce as much as possible the number of their families in the lists prepared for government. Besides this, it does not appear to comprehendallthe departments according to Mühlenpfordt, who divides the State into fifteen departments.[44]The population has been estimated by some careful writers, acquainted with the people and the country, at 525,000 souls; in our table of population on page 42 of this volume, we have on good authority stated the number to be, in 1842, 508,948, while others have increased the number to 600,000 and even to 630,000, which amount is assigned to Yucatan by a census in 1833! The last mentioned number will give about 165 individuals to each square league.[45]
The character and quality of the productions of Yucatan may be estimated by the following statistical table, which has been translated and published by Mr. Stephens in the first volume of his Incidents of Travel in that State.
CAMPECHE.CAMPECHE.
The principal towns of Yucatan, are, 1st: the capital,Merida, in the northern part of the state, about ten leagues from the coast, containing a population of near 15,000 individuals. Its port is the small haven of Sisal, which is in reality nothing but a bleak roadstead, protected by a fort and a sand bank.
2nd:San Francisco de Campeché, with a population of about 9,000;—a port which is considered by navigators one of the best in the state, yet is by no means, a secure or comfortable anchorage.
3rd:Vallodolid, the chief town of the district of that name, with near 4,000 inhabitants.
4th: San Felipé de Bacalar, or Salamanca; a town and military post in the district of that name, containing a garrison and about one hundred and twenty houses.
Besides these, there are the villages of Xampolan, Jequetchacan, Lerma, Champoton, between the rivers Campeché and Champoton on the west coast, and Silan, Santa Clara, Vigia del rio and Chaboána, on the north coast. In the interior there are many Indian villages.
The Island of Cozumel on the east coast of Yucatan—which was the first land discovered by the Spaniards in their voyage to Mexico,—is now almost uninhabited, and contains some ancient remains, which are probably the ruins of the splendid structures that attracted the attention of the adventurers, and satisfied them they had reached a land which was sufficiently civilized to be worthy their exploration and plunder.
It has generally been supposed that Yucatan affords no safe harbors or anchorages, which would either tempt commercial enterprise to her shores, or afford vessels of war sufficient protection so as to render the peninsula valuable in a military point of view. Yet it seems from an official copy of a recent British survey of the coast of Yucatan, which is to be found in the office of our Coast Survey in Washington, that there is a fine harbor for vessels of any size under the island of Mugeres, the easternmost point of Yucatan, where they may ride at anchor in safety, protected from winds in every direction. The harbors of Ascension and Espiritu Bay, are represented as good; the latter being capable of holding a fleet of the heaviest kind of English frigates and war steamers. There is good anchorage, moreover, off the north-east point of the island of Cozumel.[46]
This state has been very inadequately examined. It is bounded north by Tabasco; south and south-west by the Republic of Central America, or Guatemala; west by the state of Vera Cruz and by a small part of Oajaca; and on the east partly by Yucatan and partly by Guatemala. Until the year 1833 the territory comprised in this division belonged to Guatemala, when it joined the Mexican confederacy. Comprehending the northern declivities of the Cordilleras and table lands of Central America, Chiapas is, throughout a considerable part of its territory, cut up into successions of ridges and valleys, which are rich in many of the finest tropical productions. Corn, cacao, sugar and garden vegetables are produced readily. Tobacco of good quality grows in the district of Sandoval, and in the neighborhood of Oajaca. In the district of Tonalá, a small quantity of indigo of an extraordinarily fine quality is cultivated; and here, also, pepper and the maguey plant are yielded plentifully. Ananas, sapotes, bananas, figs, apricots and various similar fruits abound in Chiapas, while in its forests, oaks, cedar, mahogany, ebony, and other valuable woods are found in considerable quantities. But the greater part of this fruitful state is still an unknown waste, which the labors of other races must fully explore and develop.
Chiapas is divided into four departments and nine districts, which, together, possess 92 parishes.
1st: The Department of the Centre, with 12 parishes, besides the capital of Ciudad-Real, or San Cristoval de los Llanos and the town of Chamúla.
2nd: The Department of the South, with 10 parishes, in the district of Llanos, 11 in Ocozingo, and 17 in Tuxtla.
3rd: The Department of the West, with the district of Ystocomitan, containing 17 parishes; Tonalá, 3 parishes; and Palenque, 4 parishes.
4th: The Department of the North, with the districts of Tila, containing 6 parishes, and Simojoval, 12 parishes.
The chief towns are,Ciudad-Real, orSan Cristoval de los Llanos; a fine town with about 6,000 inhabitants, possessing a cathedral church, four convents for monks, and one for nuns, two chapels, and a hospital. The first bishop of Chiapas, who erected the see of that name in 1538, was the renowned Bartoloméo de las Casas, whose fame is so intimately connected with the early history of the country, by his constant and merciful interference in behalf of the Indians.
The other important towns are San Juan Chamúla, containing 4,000 inhabitants; San Bartoloméo de los Llanos, whose 7,000 people are chiefly engaged in the cultivation of cotton, sugar, tobacco and corn; San Domingo Comitlan; San Jacinto Ocozingo, with 3,000 inhabitants who devote themselves to the care of cattle, and cultivate some cacao and corn; Tuxtla, with 5,000 inhabitants who trade in tobacco and cacao; San Domingo Sinacantan, on the borders of Tabasco in the territory of the Zoques, with 2,500 inhabitants who employ themselves in the culture of silk, of which they weave shawls and other similar fabrics, which are esteemed of a good merchantable quality, and are used in the country or adjacent states; Chiapa de los Indios; Tecpatlan; Ostoacan; Teopixca; Acapala; Capanabastla; Izcuintenango; San Fernando Guadalupe; and Simojovél.
Chiapas is represented to be rich in rivers which rise chiefly in the highlands towards the state of Tabasco and debouche into the Mexican Gulf. The Tabasco river or the Rio de Grijalva; the Usumasinta, the Chicsoi or the Santa Isabella;—the Machaquita, San Pedro, Dolores, Yalchitan, Chacamas, Zeldales, Yeixhihujat, Chatlan, and some others; the Pacaitún or Paicutun; the laguna de Chiapa; some mineral waters; and a valuable salt spring in the vicinity of San Mateo, enrich various portions of this fertile state, whose climate, especially in its higher regions, is said to be delicious and uniform. The number of the population of this state is not officially known. In 1831, a census made by order of the governor Ignacio Gutierrez, which however, did not include fifteen parishes, gave 118,775 inhabitants for the rest of the state. An estimate in a Mexican calendar of 1833 represents the number to be about 96,000, while the government calculation for a basis of representation in Congress in 1842, gives it 141,206, to which about 10 per cent. should be added to give the proximate population in 1850. The Indian tribes of the Zoques, Cendales or Zeldales, Teochiapanécos and Mames are still very numerous, and, of course, form the greater part of the population.
The physical description of these two States, presented in the preceding pages, will have satisfied the reader that they possess a prolific soil and an agreeable climate which would probably attract a large population had they been properly explored and developed by an energetic race. We are sustained in this belief by the fact,that in these States travellers have found the most remarkable remains of an advanced ancient civilization hitherto discovered on our continent. What has existed may exist again under the benignant influence of modern progress; nor is it improbable that as human interests direct the attention of maritime or emigrating nations towards the central portions of the western continent, Yucatan and Chiapas may again become the seat of a population even larger than that which thronged it during the palmy days anterior to the Spanish conquest.
Since the year 1840 three important works have been published in this country relative to these ancient remains of towns, temples, cities, idols and monuments. Two of these are due to the pen and pencil of Mr. John L. Stephens and Mr. Catherwood, while the other and slighter production is the result of a hasty visit paid to Yucatan by Mr. B. M. Norman. These three publications, plentifully illustrated by accurate engravings of the ruins and remains, have been so widely disseminated throughout Europe and America that readers are already familiar with them. In the "long, irregular and devious route" pursued by Stephens and Catherwood, they "discovered the crumbling remains offifty-four ancient cities, most of them but a short distance apart, though, from the great change that has taken place in the country, and the breaking up of the old roads, having no direct communication with each other. With but few exceptions, all were lost, buried and unknown, never before visited by a stranger, and some of them, perhaps, never looked upon by the eyes of a white man." Leaving Guatemala, the travellers encountered, in Chiapas, remarkable remains at Ocozingo and Palenque; and passing thence into Yucatan, in their second journey to those central regions, they explored and described the architectural and monumental relics at Maxcanu, Uxmal, Sacbey, Xampon, Sanacte, Chunhuhu, Labpahk, Iturbide, Mayapan, San Francisco, Ticul, Nochacab, Xoch, Kabah, Sabatsche, Labna, Kenick, Izamal, Saccacal, Tekax, Akil, Mani, Macoba, Becanchen, Peto, Chichen, in the interior; and at Tuloom, Tancar, and in the Island of Cozumel on the eastern coast.
The simple catalogue of these names, indicating the sites of ancient civilization in the midst of what is at present almost an unexplored wilderness and covering so wide a field of observation, will satisfy the reader that it is impossible to condense a satisfactory review of these architectural remains within the space that we are enabled to appropriate to antiquarian researches. The ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, and of Uxmal and Chichen in Yucatan, are,perhaps, the most wonderful of all that have been explored hitherto in this lonely region; and, while we regret that our duty to the living present will not permit us to dwell longer on the curious past, we shall, nevertheless pause, occasionally, as we pass through the Mexican States, to notice those remains which have either been visited by us personally, or are not described in books as accessible to all classes of enquirers and students as those of Messrs. Stephens, Catherwood and Norman. Mr. Stephens believes, after full investigation, that these towns and cities were occupied by the original builders and their descendants at the period of the Spanish conquest, and our own opinion entirely coincides with his reasoning and judgment. Those who desire a complete and conclusive illustration of this branch of the subject will find an excellent argument thereon in both of his publications.[47]
In the first volume of this work we have given an account of the Mexican or Aztec Calendar; and the proximate identity of the Yucatese or Mayan and Aztec Calendar led Mr. Stephens to the conclusion that both nations had a common origin. This argument is also important in considering the period of the occupation of the Chiapan and Yucatese edifices, inasmuch as we know that the Aztecs of Montezuma's period used the Calendar which we have already illustrated and described.
"Our knowledge of the Yucatan Calendar," says Mr. Gallatin,[48]"is derived exclusively from the communications made by Don J. P. Perez to Mr. John L. Stephens, and inserted in the appendix to the first volume of this gentleman's Travels in Yucatan. It is substantially the same with that of the Mexicans, though differing in some important particulars.
"The inhabitants of Yucatan had, like the Mexicans, the two distinct modes of computing time, by months of twenty days, and by periods of thirteen days. They also distinguished the days of the year by a combination of those two series, precisely similar to that of the Mexicans. And their year likewise consisted of 365 days, viz., of eighteen months of twenty days each, to which they added five supplementary days; and also of a corresponding series of twenty-eight periods of thirteen days each, and one day over.The following table exhibits the names of the twenty days of the Yucatan month, with their signification, as far as it has been ascertained by Don J. P. Perez; and also the days of the Chiapa month as given by Boturini; and which, from the similarity of the names of several of the days, appears to have been in its origin nearly identical with that of Yucatan.
"The Calendar of the inhabitants of the independent kingdom of Mechoacan, who spoke the Tarasca language, appears to have been similar to that of the Mexicans; and the names of the days of their month as stated by Veytia, are inserted in the table. The names of the days of an ancient Mexican, or rather Toltec tribe, found in the province of Nicaragua, have also been inserted. This, as far as we know, is the extreme southeastern limit of the Mexican Calendar on the Pacific Ocean. That limit on the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico may be traced as far as the islands opposite Cape Honduras (Herrera); beyond which the shores are still inhabited by the uncivilized Musquito Indians.
"The cycle of fifty-two years was also adopted in Yucatan, and the arrangement of the years was precisely the same as in that of Mexico, substituting only the names Khan, Muluc, Hix and Ca-uac, for Tochtli, Acatl, Tecpatl and Calli, as appears in the following table:
"But there was an essential difference respecting the series of the names and numerical characters of the days, as will appear by the following table, which shows the termination of the first year of the cycle, and the beginning of the next ensuing years.
"Don J. P. Perez positively states, that the fundamental rule is never to interrupt either of the series of names or of days. Thus, inasmuch as the last supplementary day of the first year of the cycle (1 Khan) is 1 Lamat; and as, in the order of the days of the month,the day called "Muluc" immediately follows the day Lamat; the ensuing year 2 Muluc commences with the day 2 Muluc, in the same manner as the year 1 Khan commences with the day 1 Khan. It is the same with the other years; so that the first day of every year has the same name and numerical character as the year itself.
"Don J. P. Perez acknowledges that amongst the few mutilated remains of Indian manuscripts or paintings, he has not been able to discover any trace of an intercalation, either of one day every four years, or of thirteen days at the end of the cycle, though he presumes that they had indubitably either the one or the other.
"The Yucatan cycle of fifty-two years, differed in no other respect from that of the Mexicans. The combination of the two series of twenty and thirteen days is used in the same manner in both calendars for the purpose of distinguishing the days of the year.
"The Yucatecs differed materially from the Mexicans with regard to the time of the solar year, when their year began. Don J. P. Perez informs us, that the first day of the Yucatan year corresponded with the sixteenth day of July; and that this was the day of the transit of the sun by the zenith of a place which he does not mention. But he adds that, for want of proper instruments, the Indians had made a mistake of forty-eight hours. In point of fact, it is in the latitude of about twenty-one degrees and a half that the transit of the sun by the zenith occurs on the 16th of July; and Yucatan lies between the latitudes of about eighteen degrees and a half and twenty-one degrees and a half. To commence the year on the day of the transit of the sun by the zenith, is attended with the great inconvenience, that this commencement must vary from place to place, according to their respective latitudes. As Don J. Pio Perez counts every year as having 365 days, and without regard to the omitted bissextile days, it is clear that the day in the Yucatan calendar, on which the transit of the sun by the zenith of any one place occurs, would vary twenty days, or a whole Indian month, in the course of eighty years. This would create such confusion that, if it be a well ascertained fact, that the Yucatan year began on the zenith day, this renders it highly probable that the calendar was, like that of the Mexicans, corrected by an intercalation of thirteen days at the end of the cycle.
"The names of the eighteen months of the Yucatecos, together with such interpretations as Don Pio Perez has given us, their order and their correspondence with our year, new style, appear in the following table:
TABLE OF YUCATESE MONTHS.
"The Mexicans counted only by cycles; they designated the termination of a cycle by a hieroglyphic representing a bundle of reeds tied up; and they sometimes designated, by an equal number of small circles, the number of cycles which had elapsed, since the beginning of their era corresponding with the year 1091. But the Yucatecos, besides their cycle of 52 years, had another, containing thirteen periods of twenty or twenty-four years each. These last mentioned periods were calledAjauorAhau."