HOUSE WITH TILE FRONT.
Doctor Bronson added a note to the effect that there was a considerable amount of diplomacy in the marriage of President Diaz with his present wife. Her father was one of the leaders of the Church party, and the marriage strengthened Diaz with the Conservatives by making them less hostile to him and his policy; the party was further conciliated when Señor Rubio became Secretary of the Interior, and other members of the old opposition were provided with places under the Government. But though the hostility of the Church party has been diminished it still exists; its leaders are ready to take advantage of any mistake of the Government, and if they could again obtain control they would speedily overthrow the present Constitution, whose authority they have never acknowledged.
"The hostility of the two political parties in Mexico to each other," added the Doctor, "is far greater than that between the two great parties of the United States. The Liberal party in Mexico believes in general education, in the construction of railways, the encouragement of manufacturing and other commercial enterprises, and a complete separation of Church and State. The Clerical party believes in the condition of affairs which existed before 1858, in a union of Church and State, and the control of education by the Church, and it has been a steady and consistent opponent of the railways that connect Mexico with the United States. It looks with alarm upon the present influx of foreigners and theadoption of their ideas by the Mexicans. It is proper to add that this alarm is shared by many adherents of the Liberal party, who fear that their country is being denationalized, and will some day be gathered into the fold of the United States."
AMERICAN RESIDENTS OF MEXICO.
Frank and Fred examined the Constitution of Mexico, and found that it had many points of resemblance to that of the United States. Each of the States has the right to manage its own local affairs, but all are bound together for general governmental purposes. The central government consists of legislative, judicial, and executive branches, as in the United States; the President is the executive head, and the Senate and House of Representatives form the legislative branches. There are two Senators for each State, and one Representative for every forty thousand inhabitants; Senators and Representatives alike receive $3000 a year. Congress meets on April 1st and September 16th, and each of its sessions lasts two months. During the interim between the sessions a permanent committee of both Houses remains at the capital. Representatives must be twenty-five years of age, and Senators thirty years, and both must be residents of the States they represent. All religions are tolerated, but no ecclesiastical body is allowed to acquire landed property.
Regarding the army and navy Fred wrote as follows:
"The President is commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces, just as he is in the United States. According to the official figures, the war footing of the army comprises 3700 officers and 160,963 men; these are divided into 131,523 infantry, 25,790 dragoons, and 3650 artillerymen. On a peace footing the army includes about 30,000 men of all arms of the service, including the Rurales, who keep the brigands in order, as we have described elsewhere. A friend at my elbow says the officers are almost as numerous as the privates, and he has known a garrison where there were twenty-nine officers and only twenty-seven soldiers.
A MILITARY POST.
"The navy won't take long to describe, as it contains three small gunboats and two larger ones. The small gunboats each carry one 20-pound gun, and the larger boats two guns of the same calibre. They are unarmored vessels, are not fast, and from all we can learn we don't think the navy of the United States need have any fear of that of Mexico, at any rate, after we complete some of the ships we are now building."
A COUNTRY POST-OFFICE.
"While we are considering public matters," wrote Frank, "let us look at the Postal Department. There are about 1200 post-offices in the republic, or one for every 8750 inhabitants; in the United States we have a post-office for every 1200 inhabitants, or seven times as many as Mexico in proportion to the population. The number of pieces of mailmatter handled in a year in Mexico is an average of two to each inhabitant, while in the United States the average is fifty-one. The Mexican mails are increasing in importance every year, and will continue to do so as the people become better educated. The extension of the railways causes many new post-offices to be established, and also many telegraph offices. There are more than 20,000 miles of telegraph and 500 telegraph offices; 14,000 miles of telegraph belong to the Government, and the remaining portion is the property of private companies, railways, and individuals.
"If you want an example of progress look at the railways. Mexico had 379 miles of iron roads in 1879, while in 1887 it had 3962 miles open for traffic, including 92 miles of city and suburban lines. The length of railway completed and in operation at the end of 1888 was something more than 4600. Competent authorities say that by the end of 1889 the length of railways in operation in Mexico will exceed 5000 miles. A great many concessions for railways have been granted by theGovernment for lines that are not likely to be constructed in the life of the present generation. At one time there seemed to be a mania for railway concessions, and the holder of a permission to build a line over an impracticable route, between two insignificant points, believed that he would be able to sell it for a fortune to an English or American corporation.
"Newspapers and other publications have increased in the last few years, but not as rapidly as have the railways. The number is constantly changing, new publications being started and old ones discontinued; and sometimes the starting and discontinuance are very close together, as is the case in other parts of the world. Altogether there are about 300 newspapers in the republic, and of this number fully one-third are published in the capital. Mexico City has as many newspapers as New York or Chicago in proportion to its population, but their circulation is not by any means as large; Mexican publishers are not obliged to stretch their consciences by making affidavits every morning as to the hundreds of thousands of copies they printed on the previous day, or the hogsheads of ink they used for each edition. But though they may not print and sell as many copies as the New York dailies, it is certain that the Mexican papers are steadily gaining in circulation and influence, and the future is full of promise for them.
COMPOSITOR FOR "THE TWO REPUBLICS."
"The capital city has a daily paper calledThe Two Republics, whichis printed in English; it is specially interesting to strangers, as it has a list of the things and places they wish to see, and contains time-tables of the railways. Sometimes it has special despatches from the United States and other parts of the outside world, but as it has no competitor and its circulation could not be greatly increased by a large expenditure, it wisely studies economy to an extent that would not succeed in New York. There's a weekly paper calledThe Mexican Financier, printed in English and Spanish; it circulates all over the world, and is an excellent authority for everything relating to railways, banking, and commercial matters in general. TheFinancierdiscusses important questions relating to the affairs of the Government, attacks abuses of every kind, and suggests ways in which the prosperity of the country and the welfare of the people may be improved.
"The French population is large enough to have a daily paper in its own language, and the Germans have a weekly one. There are twelve or fifteen dailies in Spanish, and they represent all shades of politics. Generally it pays better for a newspaper to be on the side of the Government than against it; but some of the opposition papers are profitable, and edited with much ability. The style of opposition writing here is to attack very savagely, and sometimes the editors find themselves in prison on account of the bitterness of their editorials and their sweeping charges against public men and measures. Some of the editorials we have read since we came here surpass anything in New York or Chicago papers in the heat of political campaigns, and that is saying a great deal. The editor-in-chief ofEl Monitor Republicanoserved a sentence of seven months inthe Penitentiary for a too free use of his pen. He was charged with exciting sedition; he was ably defended, and his case was carried to the highest court in the country, which affirmed the decree of the lower courts.
"You couldn't remember them all if we should give a list of the daily papers in Mexico, and so we refrain; still worse off would you be with the names of thirty or more weekly papers, and as many monthlies and other periodicals. You can find publications here on almost any topic that one could name, and you can find an abundance of romances, at least that is what they tell us. The popular novels deal mostly with Mexican life, manners, and history; a friend tells us that we should read 'Guadalupe,' by Irenio Paz, 'Calvario y Tabor,' by Vincente Riva Palacio, and 'Paisajes y Leyendes,' by Ignacio Manuel Altamirano. The first is a novel, describing Mexican home scenes and life; the second is chiefly concerned with the reign of Maximilian, and the sufferings of the people during the foreign invasion; and the third is an account of the manners and customs of the Mexican people in former times and at present. We intend to get these books, and read them at our leisure on the way home."
The delightful and interesting visit of our friends to the Mexican capital came to an end, as all things must. Farewell calls were made upon friends and acquaintances, and early one morning the trio left the hotel for the station of the Mexican Railway, as the line from the capital to Vera Cruz is called. The daily passenger train leaves at 6.30a.m., and reaches Vera Cruz, or rather is due there, at 7.33p.m. The distance is 263 miles, and there is a branch line to Puebla twenty-nine miles in length.
The manager of the hotel told our friends that it was advisable for them to procure tickets, and check their trunks in the afternoon preceding their departure, else there might be mistakes and consequent delay in getting away. Assisted by one of the runners of the hotel, Frank attended to these formalities, and completed them to his entire satisfaction. Tickets were taken to Puebla, and baggage checked to that place; the trunks were carefully weighed, and all exceeding thirty-three pounds to each passenger was heavily charged for. Frank remarked that evidently the managers of the line were not running it for fun, but to make money.
"And well they may," said an American gentleman who was talking with the Doctor when the youth returned from the station. "This line of railway is one of the most expensive in the world," he continued, "partly in consequence of the difficult engineering over the mountains and partly by reason of the wastefulness of its builders. According to the report of the Minister of Finance, its total cost was $36,319,526, or at the rate of more than $123,000 per mile; it was built with English capital, aided by Mexican subsidies.
"It was begun in 1852, though there had been a concession for a line as early as 1837. The concession included a Government subsidy, and one of the conditions was that construction should be pushed from both ends of the line towards the middle. This necessitated the transportation to the city of Mexico of rails, locomotives, cars, and all sorts of building material over the old diligence-road; the transport of these things gave employment to great numbers of men and animals, but increased the cost enormously, probably twice what it would have otherwise been. The work was suspended several times by revolutions, wars, lack of funds, change of government, and other obstacles; and the line was not completed until the end of 1872. It was inaugurated by President Lerdo, on the 1st of January, 1873, having been solemnly blessed by the Archbishop of Mexico the previous day.
SURVEYING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
"When you see the section between Boca del Monte and Orizaba, where the railway descends 4,000 feet in twenty-five miles, with numerous curves of 300 feet radius and gradients of three or four per cent., you will not wonder that a great deal of money was expended in crossing the mountains. While the surveys were being made it was frequently necessary to lower the engineers by means of ropes over the precipices, and the workmen were often suspended in this way until they could cut deep enough into the side of the mountain to obtain a foothold."
There was not much of interest along the railway line as the train rolled out of the capital. Our friends found themselves skirting Lake Tezcoco, and they had a near and farewell view of the famous church of Guadalupe; in order to avoid heavy grades, the railway takes a circuitous course, and is much longer than the wagon-road connecting the capital with Puebla. For many miles it is bordered on both sides by fields of maguey; Frank and Fred estimated that the acres of maguey plants they had seen since entering the country were sufficient to supply pulque enough for a population three times as large as that of the republic at the present time.
As they neared Apizaco they saw some changes in the general aspectof the country, but it was still thetierra fria, or cold region, in which they had been so long sojourning. At Apizaco they changed to another train, which took them over the branch line to Puebla, landing them at the station of that city at the hour of noon. They sought the Hotel Diligencias, and found it a comfortable establishment, from a Mexican point of view.
Puebla is a city of 70,000 inhabitants; it is old and wealthy, and its cathedral is one of the finest in Mexico—some do not hesitate to give it higher rank than the cathedral of the capital. Our friends went the usual round of sight-seeing in the city, and according to custom, one of the first things they saw was the cathedral.
"Stop a moment," said Frank, "the cathedral was not the first object to attract our attention. Our eyes had been fixed upon the great volcano, Popocatepetl and his white sister; they are in full view from the city and much nearer than at Mexico, so that they are far more impressive. Then, too, we had a view ofthe noble peak of Orizaba, of which we shall have more to say later on.
"Puebla has so many churches," continued Frank, "that you can't expect us to visit all of them. We went to the cathedral, which was consecrated in 1649, and therefore is a venerable building; additions have been made to it at various times since then, and within the last two or three years a handsome monument to Pope Pio Nono has been erected on the terrace on which the cathedral stands. The building has two fine towers; we climbed to the top of one of them, and had a fine view. Fred and I did the climbing, while the Doctor remained below.
"You can judge of the richness of the interior when I tell you that the high altar cost more than $110,000. There are eighteen bells in the tower, the largest of them weighing nine tons, and an inscription on the tower tells that this large bell cost $100,000. The chapels abound in sculpture and paintings, and if we should make a list of them, without any comment whatever, I'm afraid you would find it too long for patient perusal. The cathedral is 323 feet long by 100 wide, and occupies an imposing position which is well calculated to impress the beholder.
RUINS OF THE COVERED WAY TO THE INQUISITION.
"We visited two other churches, the San Francisco and La Compañia, and found them well worth the time we devoted to them, and a great deal more than we could spare. Our guide showed us the ruins of the covered way to the Inquisition; for Puebla, no less than the city of Mexico, had a branch of this institution of the Church. Puebla has always been noted as a religious city; it was founded as an antidote to heathen Cholula, which is only a few miles away, and its full name is Puebla de losAngeles—'Town of the Angels.' Before the Laws of the Reform went into force four-fifths of the valuation of real estate and other property in Puebla belonged to the Church, and one-fifth to private individuals.
CATHEDRAL OF PUEBLA.
"Puebla has extensive manufactures of cotton cloth, glassware, and pottery. Like Guadalajara, it is famous for its pottery, and it is also famous for glazed tiles, which have been liberally used for ornamenting the houses, both inside and out. Domes of churches and their outer and inner walls are covered with these tiles, and the same is the case with many private buildings. The effect is very pretty, though sometimes too gaudy for our taste; but then, you know, the Mexicans are fond of color. Another famous manufacture of Puebla is braided straw-work. Baskets and mats were offered to us in great quantity and variety, and we found them so pretty that we invested a handful of dollars in these articles. They will come in very well at Christmas-time for friends whom we wish to remember.
"The city has a Plaza Mayor, a Zocala, an Alameda, and a Paseo, just like any and every Mexican city. We gave a glance at them, and then went to the battle-ground of theCinco de Mayo(5th of May, 1862). It is on the hill of Guadalupe, and from one point we have a view of threesnow-covered volcanoes, together with a fourth mountain that just barely misses reaching the snow-line. A much more important battle than that of theCinco de Mayowas fought here April 2, 1867, when General Porfirio Diaz, now President, stormed Puebla and captured the imperial garrison."
STREET SCENE IN PUEBLA.
PART OF PUEBLA.
"In the height of its glory," said Fred, "Puebla contained more than ninety churches. In 1869 it had sixty churches, nine monasteries, twenty-one collegiate houses, thirteen nunneries, and numerous chapels and shrines. The confiscation of ecclesiastical property has reduced the number of the churches to little more than twenty, abolished the nunneriesand all the monasteries except two, which are really hospitals or almshouses for old and disabled priests. Some of the confiscated buildings have been sold for private uses, and others converted into schools, hospitals, libraries, and other Government establishments for local, State, or general government use.
"Doctor Bronson had a letter of introduction to the superintendent of the Hospital de Dementes, or Insane Asylum, which is in the building that was formerly the nunnery of Santa Rosa. We accompanied the Doctor when he went to deliver the letter, and were politely received and shown through the establishment. The hospital appears to be well managed, and Doctor Bronson was much interested in it. Of course the building was particularly attractive to Frank and myself, as we wanted to see how the nuns were lodged in the olden times. They certainly had a most delightful home so far as the eye was concerned, and I don't wonder that the nunneries in Mexico were popular among the women. The decorations everywhere were of beautiful tiles; the courts and their walls, the walls of rooms, the ceilings, the oratories, the bath-rooms, and even the kitchens and cooking stoves, were all covered with finely painted and glazed tiles. It is easy to keep such rooms clean, and we certainly have never seen a cleaner and neater building anywhere. We did not ask whether the attractions of the place had any beneficial effect upon the insane patients, but certainly they ought to have.
"From all we could observe, the city is admirably provided with hospitals, schools, and asylums, and no doubt the fact that so many suitable buildings were ready at hand had something to do with their number. Then, too, the Church had made liberal provision for the sick and suffering, and the Government here, as in other cities, had the good-sense not to undo the philanthropic work which was so long carried on under religious auspices. In the general hospital half the patients are treated by allopathy and half by homœopathy. The advocates of either system can readily demonstrate its superiority over the other, as they can in other countries besides Mexico."
PYRAMID OF CHOLULA.
Every visitor to Puebla should go to Cholula, and particularly to its great pyramid, which is, in some respects, the most remarkable edifice on the American continent. In point of fact, very few visitors fail to see it, and many of them go to Cholula before doing anything else.
"It is an easy excursion," wrote Frank, "as Cholula is only six or seven miles from Puebla, and can be reached by a tram-way which deposits you at the very foot of the great pyramid. A special car for sixteen persons or a smaller number can be had for ten dollars, and it isas much subject to your orders as a private carriage would be. As we were three instead of sixteen, we decided to go in the ordinary way, paying fifty cents each for the round trip. The cars afford a fine view, and altogether we greatly enjoyed the excursion.
"We took a guide from the hotel, and he called our attention to the various buildings and other objects, of which there were so many that they are considerably confused in our recollection. We crossed the Attoyac Valley, which abounds in fields of grain, and is dotted with ruined churches and monasteries, one of the latter having been converted into an iron-foundery and another into a cotton-mill. There is an old Spanish bridge crossing the Attoyac River, and the Mexicans have shown their ability to utilize the water-power of the stream by building several mills upon it.
"We had not gone far before our eyes took in the mound, or pyramid of Cholula, and also the great volcanoes of Popocatepetl and the White Woman all in one view. The mound did not seem insignificant, although backed by these great mountains; they are thirty miles away,though they seem much nearer, while the pyramid is close upon our horizon and steadily swells into the sky as we approach it.
"This is a good place for a bit of history. Cholula was an important city, and covered a large area, when Cortez came to Mexico; under the conquerors it had at one time fifty churches and other ecclesiastical buildings, but now it has dwindled to a population of less than 5000, and most of its former edifices are in ruins. The great pyramid is the principal monument of the Aztecs, and in fact it is the best preserved of their monuments to-day in all Mexico. For a picture of what it was when Cortez looked from its summit, we have read with great interest the description in Prescott's History. Here it is:
VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID.
"'Nothing could be more grand than the view which met the eye from the truncated summit of the pyramid. Towards the north stretched the bold barrier of porphyry rock, which Nature has reared round the Valley of Mexico, with the huge Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl standing like two sentinels to guard the entrance of this enchanted region. Far away to the south was seen the conical head of Orizaba soaring high intothe clouds, and nearer, the barren, though beautifully shaped Sierra de Malinche, throwing its broad shadows over the plains of Tlascala. Three of these volcanoes, higher than the highest peak in Europe, and shrouded in snows which never melt under the fierce sun of the tropics, at the foot of the spectator the sacred city of Cholula, with its bright towers and pinnacles sparkling in the sun, reposing amidst gardens and verdant groves. Such was the magnificent prospect which met the eye of the conquerors, and may still, with slight change, meet that of the modern traveller, as he stands on the broad plateau of the pyramid, and his eye wanders over the fairest portion of the beautiful plateau of Puebla.'
SPORT AT CHOLULA.
"We are quite willing to adopt Prescott's description for our own, as the scene is the same to-day as in the time of Cortez, except that there is little left of the sacred city of Cholula, with its spires and pinnacles, its gardens and verdant groves. The pyramid is a stupendous structure, and worthy a place by the side of the great pyramids of Egypt. It was long thought to be a natural mound, but all the excavations that have been made in it show that it is an artificial work, built by time and patience and the muscle of many thousands of men. Its interior is of earth, and its exterior was once stone and adobe, but time has covered much of the outside with earth, in which trees, grass, and bushes have taken root and grow luxuriantly.
"The car stopped at the foot of the pyramid, and there we alighted. There is a sloping road leading to the summit; it was built by the Spaniards, and in its construction much of the old masonry was removed. We ascended partly by this road, and partly by steps, pausing several times on the way in order to rest and take in the ever-changing view. We did not take the measurements of the mound, and therefore must give you the figures of others.
"Humboldt says the mound is 1400 feet square, covering forty-five acres of ground, and 160 feet high; another authority makes it 177 feethigh, and 1425 feet square. Another, and probably the most exact measurement, gives the following figures:
"North line, 1000 feet; east line, 1026 feet; south line, 833 feet; and west line, 1000 feet.
"The summit is a platform, or plateau, measuring 203 by 144 feet, and having an area of not far from one acre. This plateau has a stone parapet around it, and there is a chapel in the centre; the mound was evidently built in four stories, like some of the oldest pyramids of Egypt; but they are less distinct than the stories or stages of the famous pyramid of Sakkara, on the banks of the Nile, which is said to have been built by the children of Israel during their captivity.
LOCAL FREIGHT TRAIN.
"The sides of the pyramid correspond to the cardinal points of the compass, north, south, east, and west; and in this respect the structure resembles the great pyramid of Cheops. Nobody can tell when it was built; the Aztecs found it here when they came, and the Indians whom they conquered said it was not the work of their ancestors. The Aztecs dedicated it to their god Quetzalcoatl, and every year they sacrificed on the summit of the mound thousands of victims in the manner we have described in our account of Tenochtitlan. When the Spaniards came here they found a statue of the Aztec deity on the place where the chapel nowstands; one of the first acts of Cortez was to destroy the statue, and order the erection of a church in its place.
A RELIC OF THE PAST.
"In his report to the King, Cortez said the city of Cholula contained 20,000 houses and the suburbs as many more. The people received him kindly, but he learned, or pretended to learn, that they were plotting against him. So he called a meeting of all the dignitaries, under pretence of a consultation, and when they were assembled he ordered a general massacre. Six thousand of the people were slain, and for two days the city was given over to be pillaged by the Spaniards and their allies the Tlascalans, who were bitter enemies of the Cholulans. The Tlascalans were, of course, gratified with the slaughter and pillage, but Cortez offended them deeply when he refused to permit the sacrifice of the prisoners captured in the affair.
"We remained nearly two hours on the summit of the mound enjoying the magnificent view, and trying to picture the place as it was in and before the days of Cortez, and shuddering as we thought of the blood that had been shed there in sacrifices and by the swords of the conquerors. Fred made a sketch of the view, and then we descended and looked through the village, which contained very little of interest; next we tooka Mexican dinner at the Fonda de la Reforma, a small but clean restaurant on the Plaza Mayor. The plaza is as large as that of the capital city, but so little used that it is grass-covered in many places. There were few people there when we saw it, but they told us that it is quite lively on market-day, when everybody in the town comes there; there is a Zocala in the centre of the plaza, but it offered so few attractions that we did not visit it. We strolled through the ruined churches, and our guide told us that one of them, the Capilla Real, which consists of three churches in one, was built for the especial accommodation of the Indians. The massacre which Cortez ordered is supposed to have begun on the plaza, but no one knows the exact spot.
INDIAN FARM LABORERS.
"The natives have a tradition that there are vast amounts of treasure concealed in the pyramid of Cholula, and we remark that this tradition seems to prevail concerning old structures in all parts of the world. We heard it in Egypt, India, Japan, China, Palestine, and other countries, and presume we shall continue to hear it wherever we go until we give up travelling and settle down to home life.
"Mr. Brocklehurst tells a good story about a priest who once learned through the confessional that one of his parishioners had discovered the cave where Montezuma's treasures were hidden. He explains that there is a belief common through Mexico that at the time of the invasion Montezuma hid all his treasures, and afterwards he and his high-priest put to death all that assisted in the hiding, so that only they two should possess the secret.
"The priest persuaded the Indian to show him the cave, but it was only on the condition that he should be blindfolded while going to it. The priest thought to outwit the Indian, and so he managed to drop the beads from his rosary, one by one, as he walked along; in fact he had provided himself with several rosaries, so that he would have beads enough for the road.
"The priest saw the treasures in the cave and then walked home blindfolded, as he had come. When home was reached, the Indian remarked to his reverence, 'You had the misfortune to break your rosary, and drop the beads on the road; I picked them up, and if you count them you'll find they're all here.' And to this day no white man has found out where those treasures are concealed.
AN AZTEC RELIC.
"Secrets are preserved generation after generation by these people; there may or may not be any treasures of Montezuma in the caves around Mexico, but if the Indians know of their existence and the place of their concealment, and believe it their duty not to reveal the hiding-place, nothing can ever wring the secret from them. Persuasion, threats, punishment, torture, have been tried repeatedly upon these primitive people, but all to no purpose.
"There is a document among the records of Tlascala which says a tribe of Tlascalans brought in large quantities of gold-dust, and gave to the Church enough to make and pay for the crown of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The Spaniards tried to find out whence it was obtained, but the Indians would not reveal the locality of the placer. Losing all patience, they tied up several of the Indians, and flogged them 'within an inch of their lives.' The Indians bore the pain without a murmur, and within a week the whole tribe left for Guatemala, and with them all who knew the location of the placer. To this day it has not been revealed."
From Puebla our friends went to Tlascala, which is interesting on account of its connection with the Conquest of Mexico by Cortez. According to history and legend, it was an important city when Cortez landed at Vera Cruz; now it has barely 4000 inhabitants, and the greater part of its public buildings have disappeared. When Montezuma learned of the approach of Cortez he asked permission to send ambassadors to him through Tlascala, which was then at war with the Mexicans; the crafty Tlascalans gave the desired permission, but at the same time despatched an embassy to negotiate an alliance with the Spaniards, and join hands with them in subjugating the Mexicans. Of course this was exactly what Cortez wished, and the treaty was made before Montezuma could be heard from.
INTERIOR OF AN OLD CHURCH.
"We went by the morning train towards Apizaco," said Fred, "and stopped at the station of Santa Anna, nineteen miles from Puebla. There we found a tram-car, which carried us to our destination, three or four miles from the line of the railway. It took us through the curious and sleepy little town of Santa Anna, where not even the dogs showed any signs of activity, with the exception of one that was biting a flea. Thenwe passed some ruined churches, went at full speed into the valley of the Attoyac, passed another town whose name I've forgotten, and pulled up at Tlascala in front of the hotel where we expected to have breakfast and pass the night. It was not a prepossessing hotel, but we thought it might be endured for our brief stay; the result was better than we anticipated, as the food, thoroughly Mexican, proved toothsome, and the beds were hard enough to get us up early in the morning without any summons from a night porter.
"The State Legislature was in session, for Tlascala is the capital of the State of the same name, which happens to be the smallest commonwealth of the Mexican union. We looked in upon the meeting and found the members seated in two rows, facing each other; there were eight of them, and all were smoking as unconcernedly as though in their own homes. Doctor Bronson told us that smoking is permissible at all times in the Mexican Congress, and therefore the State Legislatures only follow the example which is set by the higher body. At one end of the hall is a railing which shuts off a space for the President and his secretaries, and close by the rail there is a tribune where the members stand when making speeches.
"After looking at the Legislature and listening for a few minutes to a discussion relative to an appropriation for making a road from somewhere to somewhere else, we looked at the curiosities in the Legislative building, which seems to be quite a museum in its way. They showed us the banner which Cortez carried in his conquest of Mexico, and afterwards presented to the Tlascalans in acknowledgment of the great services they had rendered him. It is about ten feet long and forked, or 'swallow-tailed,' at the end; the fine and heavy silk of which it is made was once a beautiful crimson; but it has faded to the complexion of a decoction of badly made coffee; and the tassels and cords are somewhatfrayed and worn. Considerable sums of money have been offered for this banner on behalf of Spain, but the Tlascalans have refused all propositions for its sale. We saw also the grant of arms to the city signed by Charles V. of Spain, and the city charter bearing the signature of Philip II. and dated at Barcelona, May 10, 1585.
"There is a mass of official documents, all of great age, that we had no time to examine, but which would be of great interest to a student of Mexican history. They showed us the treasure chest, which had four locks; and it was explained that anciently the city was ruled by four chiefs, each of whom had a key to one of the locks. Each of these chiefs had a palace of his own, and when the Spaniards came they destroyed the palaces and erected churches upon their sites. Time is destroying the churches, and only their ruins remain to show where the palaces were.
"One of the documents preserved here is the Spanish translation of an order commanding that 80,000 picked men should march with Cortez against Mexico. Cortez personally gave orders for the translation of this historic paper. In the same room is the war-drum of the Tlascalans—a hollow log two and a half feet long and six or eight inches in thickness, and covered with curious carvings.
FIRST CHRISTIAN PULPIT IN AMERICA.
"The object of greatest interest to us was the first Christian church and the first Christian pulpit erected on American soil. They told us that the structure now standing is the original one built by order of Cortez; it is in good preservation, and evidently has been well cared for. On the pulpit is an inscription which relates that the church was the first erected in 'New Spain.' Not far from the pulpit is the font in which the four chiefs of Tlascala were baptized in 1520; it is cut from a single block of black lava, resembles a huge bowl, and is of very creditable workmanship. The portraits of these four chiefs are preserved in the Legislative building, and each of them has 'Señor Don' prefixed to his Indian name; other portraits are in the same building, and there are many paintings in the church, but few that we saw possess any merit beyond that of an ordinary tavern-sign.
OLD BAPTISMAL PONT, TLASCALA.
"While we were strolling about the town," continued Fred, "we saw some Indians coming in from the mountains with logs of wood which were to be cut into planks, and beams already shaped and finished. We judged that these timbers weighed not less than 400 pounds apiece, andsome of them little, if any, below 500 pounds. They carried these timbers as they carry most other burdens, slung over their backs and supported by straps crossing their foreheads. These are the descendants of the people that carried over the mountains the timber for the brigantines of Cortez which he launched on Lake Tezcoco and used for the reduction of Tenochtitlan. We examined a beam that one of the carriers had placed on the ground, and found it to be of hard pine, twenty feet long, ten inches wide, and six inches thick. You may make your own calculation as to its weight if you think our estimates too high.
ANCIENT BELLS.
"There are several old churches in Tlascala in addition to the one we have mentioned, and we visited some of them more to pass away the time than with the expectation of finding anything of interest.
"In the afternoon we went to the shrine of Ocatlan, which is on a hill a mile or more from the grand plaza. This, we learned, was similar to the church of Guadalupe near the capital, as it commemorates the miraculous appearance of the Virgin to a poor, ignorant, but benevolent Indian named Juan Diego, in the years not long after the Conquest. The shrine is mostly of modern construction, and is greatly revered by the Indians, who come here in large numbers from all the surrounding country."
The party spent the night at Tlascala and left the place in season toconnect with the train from Puebla, which meets the downward train at Apizaco from Mexico for Vera Cruz. Their trunks went by the train of the previous day, and were waiting for them in care of the Apizaco station-master. They had an abundance of time for breakfast at the junction; the through trains stop there twenty minutes for meals, and our travellers arrived fully a quarter of an hour in advance of the train by which they were to depart.
Apizaco is eighty-six miles from the city of Mexico. For the next sixty miles of the journey there was nothing of special interest along the route, which traverses the table-land at an elevation of nearly 8000 feet above the sea. The highest point on the line is at the siding of Ococotlan, between the stations of Guadalupe and Soltepec, where the elevation is 8333 feet. At Esperanza, near the edge of the great plateau, 152 miles from Mexico City, the barometer shows a height of 7900 feet. Here they met the up-train from Vera Cruz, which had left that city at 5.30a.m., and was due in the capital at 7.30p.m.
Just beyond Esperanza the train reached Boca del Monte, or "Mouth of the Mountain," and here began the descent to thetierra caliente. What our young friends saw in this descent will be told in the next chapter.
A NATIVE PLOUGHMAN.