Full text of "Mexico, the land of unrest; being chiefly an account of what produced the outbreak in 1910, together with the story of the revolutions down to this day"

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

MEXICO

THE LAND OF UNREST

BEING CHIEFLY AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT
PRODUCED THE OUTBREAK IN 1910,
TOGETHER WITH THE STORY OF THE
REVOLUTIONS DOWN TO THIS DAY

:: BY HENRY BAERLEIN ::

Lately Special Correspondent of ' The Times ' in Mexico
Author of ' On the Forgotten Road,' 'The Diwan of Abu'l Ala,' etc.

SEE PAGE 178

PHILADELPHIA

J. B. LIPPINGOTT COMPANY

LONDON: HERBERT & DANIEL

I HAVE to thank the Editors of the ' Revue de
Paris/ the ' Revue Bleue,' the ' Fortnightly Re-
view/ the 'Contemporary Review/ the 'Eng-
glish Review/ the 'Nation/ the 'Manchester
Guardian/ the ' Outlook/ the ' Morning Post/
and the 'Westminster Gazette' for allowing
me to print certain sections of this book.

DEDICATION

To L. CRANMER-BYNG

IT pleases you to say that I compose my books in
order that I may sit down to write a dedication. Be
that as it may, one does enjoy oneself to see the
words come dancing from their inkpot, whence at
other times they have to walk so slowly and, before
they reach the paper, be subjected to a search so
troublesome to put it mildly. There is no great
difference between their treatment and the practice
usually followed with the workers of a precious mine
who, coming out into the sunlight, are not only
stripped, but fingered in their nostrils, hair and
hollow teeth, so that they shall not take a lawless
jewel. I am much afraid that we, who institute so
rigorous a watch upon the words, will end by fleecing
them of any jewel, any radiance, any trifling beauty
which they somehow have acquired. Few are the
inkpots that resemble precious mines. But those
among us who are most mistakenly severe will feel
that in the dedication it is possible to stand aside
and let the words run as their nature urges them.

Our home it has been said that only in the English
language is there such a word, and yet I know not if
the diffidence of other languages is less to be admired.
It may not be so simple an idea, for I believe that
we possess a home wherever in our thoughts we love
to walk again. And on that island in the Baltic,

vii

265436

viii DEDICATION

where the cherry-dealers look like pirates, where the
cows are not supposed to give their milk till 6 p.m.,
where surely at his water-mill the bibulous ex-traveller
continues to philosophise, where the lady of a wayside
inn besought us to abide with her because she never
had had English clients and it would be so delightful
to assuage us every day with beefsteaks, where the
fisher-maidens merely shake their heads if they do not
desire to dance, where you can hardly find a cave or
precipice without its legend, where the woods give
beauty even to the sea there, on that island, you
and I have got a home.

Perhaps the moments of our friendship that I
cherish most are those, and they are numerous, when
we have been at Folly Mill among your growing trees
in Essex. A tenderness invades your face, a sort of
gloating is upon your eye which has at other times a
pensiveness or else a sudden, choking merriment
I say you gloat as you bend down to touch the little
trees. This poplar has increased, you say, beyond
all recognition, and that graceful ash exhibits five
more leaves at least. And you are happy, if the
rabbit and the frost have done no damage. If they
have you call down curses on the venerable head of
Lakin, your eccentric gamekeeper.

It was otherwise as we were trudging down the
long, grey road when night had fallen on our Scandi-
navian island. You did not upbraid me, you did not
protest, but now and then you groaned, for we had
made a detour of some miles to see a whitewashed
church that was not even romanesque. We came
by woods of silver birch and lovely mountain ash and
fir, but you declined to look at them. Your equanimity
was not restored until, at our hotel, we came into
the presence of Miss Crete and her grizzled father,

DEDICATION ix

who was out of Potsdam and combined the functions
of a colliery director I am quoting from his card
with those of a lieutenant of militia in reserve.
Apparently he was unable, whether in the one
capacity or in the other, to appreciate the works of
Heine, and we had to be extremely strenuous before
his pretty daughter wavered from the faith of Pots-
dam. ' People who go out into another land to write,

they are they cried the parent. He was

flushed with indignation.

' Do you think,' asked Grete very nicely, 4 that
you will be coming back through Potsdam ? '

We declared that nothing could prevent us.

6 Glad to see you ! ' roared the Prussian. ' As for
Heine

' Dear papa ! ' She put a Bismarck-herring on
his plate.

' And if,' I ventured, ' if I write a book about this
island ? '

He did not reply.

The book is still unwritten, and for fear that it
will never be produced I give you this one of a
distant country. There the trees are more gigantic
than upon the Danish island. Everything (save man)
is more magnificent, and in these pages it has been
deplorably reduced. Go through them as you go
through your plantations.

H. B.

PREFACE

MEXICO may have been thought a blessed country in
that during the administration of Porfirio Diaz she
appeared to have no history commercial progress
and the arts of peace not being usually thought
historical. One heard of Mexico as of a land where
all was tranquil, and where the regenerate inhabitants
had been persuaded by the greatest of the Mexicans
to keep the law, his law. A few who studied Mexico
more closely came to the conclusion that the Presi-
dent was mortal, and that after his decease some
things would happen. But they were rebuked for
being pessimistic and ungenerous and blind.. The
smouldering discontent lay not five fathoms out of
sight. ... As long as possible the partisans of Don
Porfirio, the native and the foreign ones, endeavoured
to waylay the truth (Chapter I), even as the President
had in the old days (Chapter II), and in our own time
(Chapter III) suppressed the men who really knew
him. The abuses of the legal system were so flagrant
(Chapter IV), the semi-independence of the States
was so ignored (Chapter V) by Don Porfirio, whereas
the men he sent into the States were in their turn such
despots (Chapter VI), and the economical conditions of
the whole Republic so unsatisfactory (Chapter VII),
that the discontent was gathering everywhere, and as an
instance we may look (Chapter VIII) on Yucatan. If
Mexicans had not been so long-suffering, so contradic-
tory (Chapter IX), the Revolution would have come

xii PREFACE

far sooner. When it finally burst out (CHAPTER X)
it devastated the Republic, and although the Presi-
dent resisted to the last, he and his party had to
go. The conquerors did not alone bring certain
progress with them, but the promise of a progress more
pronounced. The partisans of Don Porfirio resisted
while they could, in every way, those who were
fighting for the Constitution and those others who
were trying to record events, and though one is dis-
posed to think about one's private ant-hill as a range
of craggy mountains, I will quote the words of a New
York review J :

6 Few persons understand, 1 it said, ' how rigorous is
the censorship in Mexico and how ample are the
official facilities for suppressing such news dispatches
as happen to displease the authorities. Modern Mexico
is known to the outside world mainly through volumes
officially inspired. . . . Even so well-equipped and so
competent a journalist as the correspondent of the
London 'Times' has complained of the difficulty of
transmitting news from Mexico after it has been
laboriously gathered.'

Diaz having fallen, you may urge that it becomes un-
necessary to describe the Mexico of Diaz. Why stir
up the muddy water ? Yet it does not seem excessive
to devote nine chapters to some phases of a state of
things which lasted many years. . . . Chapter XII is
devoted to the tragedy which culminated in Madero's
death and to a brief consideration of what is to
come.

And the Mexicans ? I have been asked a thousand
times. Well, they are childish. One could very
properly explain that with a population so much
mixed pure Spanish, Spanish-Indian and a score

1 'Current Literature,' April, 1911.

PREFACE xiii

of different Indian races it is hardly possible to
generalise, but if you want a comprehensive picture
I should say that they are childish. Have you ever
seen a boy tear up a living beetle and a moment later
say that yonder ripples of the olive tree are like his
mother's hand when he is lying in his bed ? So are
the Mexicans. I fancy that a number of the mis-
creants who, owing to a mere misunderstanding,
massacred three hundred Chinamen in Torreon not
long since some were cut into small pieces, some
beheaded, some were tied to horses by their queues
and dragged along the streets, while others had their
arms or legs attached to different horses and were
torn asunder, some were stood up naked in the market
gardens of the neighbourhood and given over as so
many targets to the drunken marksmen, thirteen
Chinese employes of Yee Hop's General Store were
haled into the street and killed with knives, two hun-
dred Chinamen were sheltered in the city gaol, but all
their money was appropriated and such articles of
clothing as the warders fancied ; one brave girl had
nine of them concealed, and calmly she denied their
presence even when her father had gone out to argue
with the mob and had been shot for being on the
Chinese side a number of these miscreants, I fancy,
are on other days delightful citizens. 1 And when
they wish to do a brutal deed they often go about it
in a way that we should smile at. Irabien, a friend
of mine in Yucatan, had as a nursemaid a good
Indian who was nearly used to being flogged and
otherwise maltreated and was finally abandoned by

1 * The Mexicans are descended on the one side,' says Mr. Cunning-
hanie Graham, ' from the most bloodthirsty race of Indians that the
Spanish conquerors came across, and on the other side from the very
fiercest elements of the Spanish race itself elements which had just
emerged from eight hundred years of warfare with the Moors. '

xiv PREFACE

her husband ; he made off into the country of the
hostile Indians of Quintana Roo ; but one day,
being captured, he was carried back into his former
master's hacienda, and this master, wishing at all
hazards to increase the population of the farm,
commanded that the wife should come back instantly.
She would not go. The master had sufficient in-
fluence, and six-and-twenty soldiers came to fetch
her. Irabien put up a barricade, the soldiers looked
at it and marched away, and nothing more was done.
. . . The chapters in the second portion of this book
are sketches of the Mexican from several points of
view. They are intended to assist a trifle towards
an understanding of this people. Only Chapter XVII
is concerned with General Diaz, and although it is,
so far as I know, accurate in every fact, it has not
been included in the first part as the form of it is
fanciful. The other chapters are mere disconnected
fragments.

All men are liars, and it easily may be that portions
of this book will not be credited. I make, however,
no claim to be free from insularity, because in writing
of conditions in the Mexican Republic I have some-
times held them up against our own, and not so much
because these are perfection as that everything is
relative, and we compare with what is most familiar.
At the same time it has been impossible to be as wholly
insular as certain critics have demanded on the part
of other writers. I do not at every mention of a
deed or of a thought in Mexico request the reader to
remember that we are considering not England, but
another country. Thus, in reference to General
Diaz, it appears to be superfluous for me to say con-
tinually that his methods at the start were justified ;
the country was in chaos and the treasury was bare,

PREFACE xv

the Constitution could not be regarded, and in fact
one does not censure him, one praises him, for his un-
English statesmanship. And when we blame it is not
owing to the lapse from our ideal, but from what
should have been his. A system tantamount to
martial law was still applied to the community which
had progressed, and in the last ten or a dozen years
the autocrat was in the centre of a most corrupt and
most oppressive oligarchy.

Before this book was published it was necessary for
me to obtain an explanation of the_conduct of ' The
^Tjines ' towards-me wJiile-JLwasjin Yucatan. This
explanation, which came out in the proceedings
before Mr. Justice Darling, will be found on jDj^geJtl.
I am very sorry that in my account of Mexico s
grievances I have been compelled, in one chapter, to
refer to some of my own.

With regard to the above proceedings, it may
be thought, since ' The Times,' in spite of their
admissions, were not found guilty of libel, that I
would do well, if I am dissatisfied, either to bear it in
silence or go to the Court of Appeal, which certainly
is a most protracted and may be a most costly affair.
It may be thought that in a book which deals with
Mexico and incidentally with the laughable and
horrible judicial methods of Porfirio Diaz, now in
exile, one should make no reference to the majesty of
British law. There are certain countries Macedonia,
Mexico, Finland, and Armenia where the inhabitant
is treated in a way that rouses the exasperation of
the British public. Sometimes they have even called
upon their Government to intervene.

CONTENTS

PAGE

DEDICATION . . . . . . . vii

PREFACE xi

PART I : Mexico in Revolution

CHAPTER I
COMO TAPABOCA ........ 3

Imperfect knowledge as to Mexico, in Middle Ages and
now Some reasons for this Some books on the country
The gathering of information in Yucatan Munoz
Aristegui and Ricardo Molina The prison 'The Times.'
Mr. Justice Darling The secret 'police Yucatecan
priests Bursting^ the storm Flight to Mexico.

CHAPTER II

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT OF DIAZ . . 56

A rare, old book of doubtful authorship The weeping
of Diaz Benito Juarez The natives of Oaxaca Baranda
and Chavero Princess Salm-Salm Porfirio's battles
Lozada, the brigand.

CHAPTER III ^

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID .... 69

The Church in Mexico The Constitution The famous \
Creelman interview Democracy in Mexico Porfirio's >"^
intentions Classes of Mexicans As to re-election and ,
liberty.

CHAPTER IV

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE .... 86 -v^*-

Pancha Robles, the slave-dealer The senile Minister of
Justice The jefes The strange police The President's
relatives.

xvii

xviii CONTENTS

CHAPTER V PAGE

THE SOVEREIGN STATES . . . . . .103

Analogy of Leopoldo Batres Abuses with regard to the
antiquities The lurid politics of Yucatan.

CHAPTER VI
PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS . . . . . . .115

The little kings The deputies The Constitution The
dead deputy The Indians' flight Old times.

CHAPTER VII
A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 127

Rich and poor in Mexico Aztec nobles Taming of the
Indians The greatest landowner on earth Limantour
and Corral The Yaquis Mexican women and children.

CHAPTER VIII
THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN . . . . . .143

1. Don Ignacio's letter : Conditions in Campeche, etc.
How men are bought and sold in Yucatan The hunters
The slaves of Yaxche. 2. Don Ignacio's letter (continued) :
Perils of education Mendicuti, the leper The ancient
servitude The native of British dominion. 3. Don
Oleffario, etc. : The suggested statue The Molinas :
Auidomaro, Luis, Augusto, Trinidad, Ignacio and others
Perez Ponce. 4. Some Documents: Flogging Death of
the Indians More flogging. 5. The Human Heart : Peon
and Matilde Poot Manuel Rios and the newspaper A
sad return for hospitality Drastic treatment of Indians.

CHAPTER IX

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY 199

What sort of man is the Mexican ? Contradictions of
Mexico Heaven and Hell The torturers T peasants and
police Villavicencio and Cabrera l*he lieutenant The
reticence of Mexican historians The little girls of
Zacatecas.

CHAPTER X
^> DAWN AFTER DIAZ 213

The celebrations of September, 1910 Madero Aquiles

V Cerdan The growing revolution Limantour and Orozco

Chihuahua Mucio Martinez The American shadow-

CONTENTS xix

PAGE

The Mexican deputies The country in arms Glory of
the 'Daily Mail' Ciudad Juarez Vilia.the jjanflit
Mexico's Joan of Arc ' The Friends of General Diaz '
Uruapam and Cuernavaca Resignation and flight of
Diaz The interregnum Dangers and hopes.

CHAPTER XI
IN A FIELD 308

CHAPTER XII

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA . . . .313

The murder of Madero Huerta, Felix Diaz and de la
Barra Death of Reyes The future of Mexico.

PART II: The Background

CHAPTER XIII
OAXACA'S ROAD OF LIFE AND DEATH .... 329

CHAPTER XIV
POETRY IN MEXICO . . . . . . .335

The national library The treatment of poets Acuna,
Quintana Roo, Prieto, Altamirano.

CHAPTER XV
To CHILPANCINGO ....... 359

Chapultepec: the fete The trains of Mexico Tres
Marias The approach to Iguala On the road to Chili
The unstable mountain The Indians and the motor.

CHAPTER XVI
THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO ...... 378

The National Lottery The Frenchman and Gonzalez
The ritual Philosophy The perambulating Turk Bulls,
horses and cocks Pelota and more philosophy.

CHAPTER XVII
SAINT AND MINSTRELS 398

Saint Lawrence, his life His worshipper in Western
Mexico.

xx CONTENTS

CHAPTER XVIII PAGE

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 405

CHAPTER XIX

AN ANGLO-MEXICAN PIRATE ..... 427

EPILOGUE . . 434

GLOSSARY ......... 437

A FEW NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION .... 440

(a) The Spanish language in Mexico.
(6) The Maya language.
(c) Mexican place-names.

A NOTE ON MEXICAN WORDS IN THE LANGUAGES OF

EUROPE ........ 443

STATES AND POPULATION OF MEXICO .... 444
JNDEX. . . 445

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Map of Mexico .....

Facsimile of a coin, obverse and reverse

Huerta's Cabinet ....

Don Enrique Munoz Aristegui

General Ignacio Bravo

Madero before his ascent

Felicista soldiers in Belem .

A British musician ....

Antonio Carillo .....

In Merida's Penitenciary

A British Honduranean

The Marconigram ....

' The door is locked . . .' .

In Merida's beautiful plaza .

Convicts sweeping the streets

The aqueduct of Queretaro

The cathedral .....

Peasants in the State of Veracruz

Half an hour before execution

The shooting party ....

An ancient stone on Monte Alban

The custodian of Monte Alban .

xxi

. inside cover

title-page

. frontispiece

facing p. 5

5
5

15
23
23
23
35
35
39
45
45
63
69
91
91
93
109
109

xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Olive trees at Tzintzuntzan . . . facing p. 123

Colonel Prospero Cahuantzi . . . . 123

Our special train ,,133

Building a railway in Hidalgo . . . 133

After a skirmish in Chihuahua . . . 137

A land-owner ...... ,,137

Yucatecan horses . . . . . 153

TomasTec ,,181

e II mondo e di chi ha pazienza . ,, 205

A saint's return ...... 205

Villavicencio 205

The market of Tuxtla Gutierrez ... 207

Madero ,,213

General Mucio Martinez . . . . 219

General Felix Diaz 219

Vice- President Ramon Corral . . . 219

A quack at Pachuca 219

New Laredo and Laredo .... 225

Pascual Orozco . . . . . . 231

Madero ... . . . . 241

Between Veracruz and the capital . . 251

Diodoro Batalla ... . . . 251

Dr. Vazquez Gomez ..... ,,251

c Los Pujos Porfiristas ' . . . . 269

Lake Patzcuaro . . . . . . 275

How they bombard editors . . . . 285

A'shoofly' ,,285

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xxiii
San Juan de Ulua ..... facing p. 287

1 In full harmony ' ,, 297

Zapata ....... 305

f We all complain . . .' . . . . 309

Ploughing 309

At a balcony 313

Vice-President Pino Suarez . . . . 313

After burning for five hours . . . 315

' You are taken swiftly . . .' . . . 317

A street in February, 1913 . . . . 317

The spot where Madero was murdered . 319

Planning a bombardment .... ,,321

The Minister from the Motherland . . 321

Francisco Madero, senior .... ,,323

The spectators ...... 323

The ruined tower ..... 325

Mexico, the Land of Unrest ... ,,339

The Alameda ...... 339

Guanajuato ...... ,,351

The business centre of Cordoba . . . 355

Orizaba, the extinct volcano . . . 365

A blackened cocoa-nut shell . . ,,373

Moonlight on Lake Chapala . . . 383

The old leper 383

The National Theatre ,,391

Plateresque facade 403

On the bank of the Viga canal . . . 411

xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

' Grave nihil est homini . . .' . . . facing p. 421

A new El Dorado ,,421

A blind man chanting his prayers . . 427

The domesticated pirate .... 427

Luncheon at Guanajuato .... ,,431

' Travellers in the desert . . .' . . . 431

Fishing boat on Lake Chapala ... ,,431

Tehuantepec ...... ,,431

' Mexico City has no intention . . .' . . 435

Beside the church of La Soledad . . 435

NOTE. The lower illustration facing p. 91 and that which faces p. 93
were obtained after two hours of midnight persuasion of a grocer in
Tuxtepec ; that facing p. 181 was given me by a gracious and learned
leper in Yucatan ; the articles whose photographs face pp. 205 and
373 were gifts to me from the Merida Chamber of Agriculture. For
the lower illustration facing p. 285 I have to thank the Mexican Rail-
way, while the National Railway of Mexico has been good enough to
lend me five of the views, and three of the others were provided by
Senor del Paso, of the Mexican Financial Agency. The two beautiful
photographs facing p. 383 are by Dr. H. A. Palmer, late of Guadala-
jara, and are copyright in the United States. The remaining illustra-
tions are either taken from Mexican newspapers or are snapshots of
mine.

PART I
MEXICO IN REVOLUTION

MEXICO

THE LAND OF UNREST

CHAPTER I

COMO TAPABOCA

Injustice is no less than high treason against heaven.

MARCUS AURBLIUS.

AN expedition which the second Philip is supposed
to have equipped with the munificence of 20,000
ducats seeing that his court physician, Doctor
Francisco Hernandez, was the leader of it travelled
through the province of New Spain, made drawings of
the plants and animals, collected medicines and tested
them in hospitals. This expedition, which was
scarcely recognised by Philip, carried back to Spain
in 1577 some eighteen volumes, all but one containing
text and illustrations of the natural history, while the
eighteenth volume was devoted to the Indians'
customs and antiquities. Hernandez wrote in Latin ;
he translated portions into Spanish, and the natives,
under his direction, started rendering this book into
the Aztec language. All the copies that were left in
Mexico have disappeared. In Spain the volumes were,
with every honour, placed upon the shelves of the
Escorial. They were not published, to be sure, but
they were ' beautifully bound in blue leather, they
were gilded and supplied with silver clasps and

4 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

corners, heavily and excellently worked.' And in the
great fire of the 7th and 8th of June, 1671, they
perished. . . . An enlightened doctor in the Mexican
Republic, who had given me much information and
had promised me much more, did not return.
Two barristers, who proved their every word, did not
return ; they had been flung, I ascertained, into the
prison, as they wished to exercise the suffrage. A
lieutenant who was very earnest, and had given me
some stirring facts, did not return. For all I know
he had been sent to join his comrades, two lieutenants
who admired the Minister of War, Bernardo Reyes,
and who gave their votes for him to be Vice-President.
So they were shipped off to the Territory of Quintana
Roo, 1 where both of them died instantly, the climate

1 General Ignacio Bravo, dear old friend of Don Porfirio and ruler
of the Territory of Quintana Roo, is well enough described, perhaps,
by the photographer. But seeing that he is our neighbour, for the
Territory is contiguous with British Honduras, we may like to have
some further details. ' He was in the Maya campaign,' says a
Yucatecan merchant, ' and one of the generals of Mr. Diaz's confi-
dence the most despotic and cruel man that ever came to this world.
He treated all his soldiers in the campaign in the most how do you
call that ? most fearful manner, and the prisoners, the Indian pris-
oners, that he had during the campaign were many a time set to fire
alive. Two of the Yucatecan soldiers that went to the campaign had
a fight with the hands, and when the cabo, what you call sergeant,
went to separate them, one without having any intention struck him
with the hand. Bravo knew about this thing, called the soldiers to
explain what had happened. The man that struck the cabo told
General Bravo what had happened, and that he had asked the cabo's
pardon. General Bravo told that man to clean his shoes and ordered
the other two to go out, the cabo and the other soldier ; and whilst he
was cleaning his shoes Mr. Bravo took his pistol and shot him in the
back and killed him. You will know at least a hundred more acts
of this kind done by this man.' ... Of course the population of
Quintana Roo is not absorbingly devoted to the peaceful arts, but
when Great Britain undertook to stop the private importation of
material of war, the predecessor of Ignacio Bravo was inducing many
of them to believe that, after all, the Government of Mexico was not
implacable, and that within the limits of the Territory there was room
enough for Mexican and Maya. Bravo put the clock back with a
vengeance, back beyond the thirteenth century when a certain
Spanish Viceroy, Carlos Francisco de Croix, Marquis de Croix, pro-
claimed that * the people of this country have to learn, now once for

Don Enrique Mufioz Aristegui.

Seep. 21

General Ignacio Bravo.

Madero before his ascent with Mr. Dyott.

It is believed that no other chief of a state has travelled in an aeroplane. See p.

COMO TAPABOCA 5

being noxious, and an illness called by Mexicans * lead-
poisoning ' quite prevalent. Such were certain of the
risks they ran who wanted to make known what they
considered to be truth. Not that the truth was
always hateful to the Government in Mexico, but
they were even as police in many of the States who
are relieved when criminals do not walk straight into
their arms. Let truth go past upon the other side.
. . . Thus, if I have suppressed the names of most of
my informants, I shall run the risk of being met with
disbelief. And they would, in the days of Don Porfirio,
have run the risk of something even more unpleasant.
You may say that this is plausible, but does not
guarantee the truthfulness of my informants. We
will talk of that.

all, that they were born to hold their tongues and to obey. Let them
not venture to discuss, or have opinions in, political affairs.' Bravo
punishes the Maya and the Mexican, his officers and privates, those
among his army who have come there in the usual course of things,
and those who have been shipped for their political opinions, and
he punishes the native and the foreign merchant. Being angry with
the colonel in command of the 8th battalion, he announced that all
the men would be converted into beasts of burden, and with 46 kilos,
on their backs he made them march from Peto down to Santa Cruz,
which is a distance of some 40 leagues, and the battalion had to be
renewed. Ignacio Bravo is the civil and the military chief, he is the
superintendent of education and of health, and he receives the corre-
sponding salaries. But how shall one man serve four masters ? When
as military leader he has sometimes made a swift advance he has
forgotten that he is the Chairman of the Board of Health, and with
his men provided only with two spoonfuls of atole during four-and-
twenty hours, it has been necessary for them, so that they could keep
alive, to eat the mules which had not been so fortunate. But when
he marched with five battalions (of 600 men apiece) there died each
day some forty, and he buried them in such a fashion that it was not
difficult for hungry dogs to excavate their bodies. When it pleases
Bravo to dispatch his men to Okop he is neither acting as the military
nor as the hygienic officer, because to occupy this low ground, which
is dominated by a mountain range, is unstrategical, and from the
Lake of Okop rise such deadly emanations that the men are very
quickly killed. It must be said of him, however, that he does not
fear to die ; he walks alone, his head bent down as if in this way to
avoid saluting, and with four or five companions he will ride along
the lonely forest paths, and he will ride upon that 18-inch gauge rail-
way to the coast. His wounded soldiers he sends usually overland to

6 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

The writer of a book on California need only have a
picture of the vegetable products, and behold ! he
may advance with great impunity whatever social and
political and economic lies that please him. So
thoroughly has he bewildered the poor reader that the
criticisms of this individual will be suspended and the
toll-bar will be lifted up and quite a horde of mis-
cellaneous statements can be hurried through. No
doubt that with a set of monstrous photographs
from Mexico it would be possible for me to strike
your judgment, as the saying goes, all of a heap,
and the remainder of this book would meet with
credit. Certain inmates of the country would object,
and you would naturally say that they are interested
parties, either for a patriotic or financial motive. I
shall not, however, set to work in this way. I shall
beg you to preserve your faculties of criticism and
to weigh the value of my evidence. And I shall not
attempt to make this evidence seem better than it is.
So many paths invited me, I ran down one and then

Peto, five of them escorted by an able-bodied man, and sometimes
they are not assassinated by the intervening Indians. If, however,
he himself obtains possession of these Indian foes he burns them all
alive, his second in command Blanquete kicking back into the
bonfire anyone who manages to writhe beyond its reach. The
Territory's wholesale commerce is made over chiefly to the son of
Don Ignacio, who likes to give concessions for the retail trade to
Turkish pedlars that will bow to his caprices. He insisted on two
Chinese merchants being shot because they had neglected a formality
the payment of a fee, or something of the kind.

One would imagine that this warrior would fall with Diaz, but the
last I heard of him was that he had produced a bad impression in the
capital of the Republic. He had been commanded to remain there
while his actions in the Territory were investigated. Then he dis-
appeared and sent a message to the Minister of Gobernacion to inform
him that he had repaired to his Quintana Roo, and that he had
resumed possession of his former office. It was apprehended that he
meant to take up arms against the Government, and * as it is well
known,' observed El Pais, ' that the insalubrious climate causes eighty
men to perish out of every hundred who go thither,' a campaign was
contemplated with abhorrence.

COMO TAPABOCA 7

another, and I had no time to look at every bush.
For instance, when the priests of Yucatan obliged me
to consider them I did not follow the advice of a
religious Yucateco and examine each one very closely.
What I did was to select at hazard several parishes,
and in them to compare the doctor and the lawyer,
if there was one, and the priest. I gathered many
tales about the priests, but none did I believe till my
religious friend acknowledged it was true. The
Mexicans, he said, have from the time of Don Benito
Juarez had an education that is secular, which pre-
disposes them to scurrilous remarks about the
clergy. I could not have found an arbitrator friend-
lier to them than is my friend, and I have printed
nothing on this topic nor permitted anything which
he rejected to assist in moulding my opinions. Thus
at many points I had recourse to those who would be
anxious to persuade me to fling overboard that
special information. As I say, it was at many points,
because I had to mourn the loss of such a multitude
of stories that I could not bring myself to let them
all be tested so severely, and it therefore may be
false about the barbers of Campeche, that they shave,
or rather the apprentices shave, any beggar free of
charge on Saturdays, if he is blind. ... So far as
humanly was feasible, the statements of this book
have been subjected to a stern and cold examination.
It is not for me to swear that in these pages there is
no fierce sarcasm, like that of Mrs. Alec Tweedie.
4 Diaz,' she says, ' has never shown favouritism. His
warmest friends hold no office.' She refers, one may
presume, to General Ignacio Martinez, who was wont
to ride with Diaz every Sunday, and who does not
hold an office for the reason that the President com-
manded his assassination. Then she tells us that

8 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

among the decorations of Porfirio there was the
Cross and Star of Constancy of the First Order.
Likewise, with the best will in the world, I may have
fallen into errors quite as serious as those of Mrs.
Alec Tweedie. ' Madero, who has laid him low,' she
says, c was a man more or less put into office by Diaz
himself.' 1 Several of my statements will seem as
remarkable as this, but Mexico is a surprising coun-
try ; and I have been on the watch. A statement,
after all, need not be true because it happens to be
dull.

In Mexico it was not difficult to gather information
printed, written, whispered for the people who
were on the side of the authorities, and also those who
sided with the angels, had a lot to tell you. Books
appear to be completely favourable or completely
the reverse. It is a fault ; but when I studied
Yucatecan priests and asked continually for the name
of one who had some merit, I was told of Father
Gongora ; and when I asked again, then I was told of
Father Gongora ; and when I asked again, then I was
told of Father Gongora. So with my book ; it would
be more artistic and it would be more convincing if
I could have put more sunlight in the gloom. 2 Ap-

1 Perhaps this is a printer's error, and instead of * office ' she wrote
' prison.' Otherwise, as Don Francisco I. Madero never held an office,
I can scarcely understand what Mrs. Tweedie means. And she does
not seem to be one of those gay and sweeping writers who refuse to
condescend to details, for she talks of Senor Landa's ' handsome
spouse Sofia,' and concerning Limantour, she talks about his ' lovely
teeth.'

._. 2 'He is incongruous, injudicious, crude, and rather hysterical,'
said an American reader of my MS. ; ' there is an absence of charm ' ;
while his description of a lynching party would, I have no doubt, be
charming. 'The invincible animus is so exceedingly obvious.' And
if this gentleman had been a Mexican official under Don Porfirio, I
think it very probable my animus would have been roused. There
was a frigid, callous and inhuman school in the United States which
utterly declined to credit even such abuses as the Government of
Mexico admitted. ' He is unconvincing.' Woe is me.

COMO TAPABOCA 9

parently the most repulsive circumstances can, if
treated properly, dissolve into the mist. Another of
these ladies, an American, Mrs. Marie Robinson-
Wright, who has for years unflinchingly attended to
the Mexican and such Republics, says about Cam^
peche that :

wild beasts and hostile Indians are not the greatest
perils in that tropic forest. Terrible tales are told of
enormous serpents which hurl themselves from the trees
with the force of a catapult, by one twist of their
sinuous coils crushing the life out of a man on horse-
back, and swallowing smaller animals in the twinkling
of an eye. Even worse than the giant boa is the small
vibora de sangre, whose bite causes the blood of man
or beast to ooze through the pores of the skin until the
veins are empty and the victim dies of exhaustion.
There are also tiny vipers, the exact colour of the
leaves under which they lurk, whose sting is certain
death. . . . And yet life is almost ideal, and invariably
the stranger in Southern Mexico is astonished at the
magnificence in which the wealthy planters live.

But I have not sufficient Gongora for all occasions.

A facile mode of gaining credit is to spill discredit
on the others, but if people gave themselves the
trouble of composing books on modern Mexico or on
the President, I am compelled in courtesy to read
them. And if there be only few by living writers
in the English language that I think altogether ad-
mirable the works of Saville, Maudslay, Lumholtz
and Flandrau I do not wish to insinuate that I give
a more truthful picture than the rest. Godoy's book,
I can say at once, is ludicrous. He is the man whom
Don Porfirio had sent as Minister to Cuba, and to
demonstrate that he was a diplomatist he dipped his
pen in undiluted treacle. What he will do now I
know not, but so long as Mexico submitted to the old

10 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

regime we had the sickly thought that if the President
delayed to send him as Ambassador to Washington
he surely would continue writing. There is a large
interval between this personage and Mr. James
Creelman, who is well known for his interview with
Don Porfirio and now has given us a book. I under-
stand that in the States he has a reputation for un-
swerving accuracy, and to judge him by the standard
of Godoy would be an outrage. Find two or three
mistakes when you are reading him at random and it
will be serious. In Yucatan he did not hear the truth
about the exiled Yaquis (he was handicapped, be-
cause in all the week or ten days that he stopped
there it is scarcely probable that he met any Yaqui
at a banquet) ; and in Mexico he clearly suffered
from the handicap of a prodigious sleep, so that his
observations could not start before the dawn, and
never did he hear the raucous church-bells. ' The
church,' he says, ' is silent save within her own walls/
And I think that Mr. Creelman is much handicapped
by an excessive courtesy. ' I have so many friends,'
quoth Don Porfirio, and Mr. Creelman simply re-
produces this remark. Another handicap is one that
always is attached to illustrated interviews one has
to go to press a long time previous to publication.
4 Except the Yaquis and some of the Mayas,' said
Porfirio Diaz in December, 1907, ' the Indians are
gentle and they are grateful.' The interview appeared
in March, 1908, and I suppose the printer set it up
before the 26th of January, and declined to let
the massacre of Orizaba be the pretext for correc-
tions.

So much then for the authorities who had the
Government's approval. On the other side is Mr.
Turner's ' Barbarous Mexico,' which I would sooner,

COMO TAPABOCA 11

in the sultriness of Tonala 1 that I am undergoing,
be invited to confirm than to deny. Don Joaquin
Peon, a Yucatecan hacendado, wrote a letter to the
' New York Times ' wherein he undertook to ridicule
the Yucatecan part. Some slips one does discover
certainly the Yaqui couples were divided in the
first years of the importation, those who subsequently
came to Yucatan found that their purchasers had
gained some culture or had culture thrust upon them ;
also in the haciendas people are not kept away from
the physician any more than valuable mules are kept
from the veterinary surgeon ; also Mr. Turner's
artist gave the people Mexican instead of Yucatecan
costumes. But the worst 2 of Mr. Turner is I quote

1 The saying is that when a native dies he takes his blanket with
him.

2 I should not have mentioned the labours of Mr. Percy F. Martin,
F.R.G.S., if it were not for a review he wrote in a financial paper of
Mr. Turner's book, reviling it. The two-volume book of Mr. Martin
could, I think, have been written by a careful man in Sussex ; what was
needed was a good collection of official papers from Mexico and from
a few capitalists. It is quite an interesting book, just as a directory
of Sussex would have been. With regard to Mr. Turner, he says
that some of the statements are as ignorant as they are inaccurate.
But later on he says that the prison system of Mexico is of a much
more lenient and humane nature than that of any country in either
the New or the Old World. ' Most people will submit that Mr. Percy
F. Martin, F.R.G.S., had better not diverge from his directorial work
if he is going to make such statements that are of appalling ignor-
ance and strikingly inaccurate. And yet believing, with the sage,
that it is better to sit than to stand, does he regard complacently
the long rooms in San Juan de Ulua in which men sit all day in
darkness ? As you enter through the only door (there are no windows)
you see two long rows of eyes that glitter ; well, he may believe that
it is much to be preferred, more lenient and humane in fact, to cause
a man to lie down than to sit, and thus he may approve the floggings
which have this result ; he may believe that it is better to be sleeping
than awake if so he will approve the slumber brought about by
those who have the privilege of selling drink to their companions ;
finally, he may believe it is better to be dead than living and if so,
I follow him when he insinuates that in the Old World we are not so
lenient and humane as to shoot dead our Abelardo Anconas or cremate
alive our Emilio Ordonezes or put prisoners, one after another, into
the non-disinfected typhoid cells of Belem or the tuberculosis cells of
San Juan de Ulua, where the lot of the ' political ' in Don Porfirio's

12 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

a gentleman who did not wish to be but was a Gover-
nor in Mexico the worst of Mr. Turner is that he is
pretty full of truth. His book does not pretend to
be descriptive of the whole of Mexico, but merely of
those parts which are most infamous. Don Joaquin
draws an attractive picture of the lifelong idyll in
the haciendas, but he does not yet completely domi-
nate our language, and when he describes the land
on which the Indian is allowed to plant his beans and
so forth, he refers to it as of an inexhaustible fertility,
whereas he means the opposite, or else has an imagina-
tion of that same calibre. The book which Mr. de
Fornaro wrote on ' Diaz, Czar of Mexico,' was
formally denounced as an immoral thing, and was
forbidden the Republic. Mr. Carlo de Fornaro is a
British subject, born in India of Italian parentage,
but he acquired his immorality when he was brought
to Mexico to serve as the art editor of ' El Diario,' a

day included all these items. Under the Maderist Government poor
Mexico (if not Mr. Percy F. Martin) was emerging out of darkness and
it seemed as if one's reference to such horrible iniquities need never-
more be couched in the present tense. If Mr. Percy Martin, F.R.G.S.,
will take the trouble to ask, as I have asked, British employers of labour
in the State of Sonora, he will hear that there are no workers as good
as the Yaquis. ' It may be news to Mr. Turner,' he says, 'to learn
that the Yaquis are, and always have been, a wild horde of savages,
absolutely untractable and unmanageable. For years the Mexican
Government has been endeavouring to pacify them and to make
them more friendly ; all efforts, however, have been unavailing, and
the tribes remain absolutely unsubdued.' Yes, I believe this will be
news to Mr. Turner. The savages were those who sent the Yaquis
into exile and secured their fertile lands. One word is true in
Mr. Martin's sentence, for the Yaquis cannot be subdued. From
Guaymas to San Bias a boat was taking between 500 and 600 of
them, under barbarous conditions, into exile. Before they reached
San Bias six women had jumped overboard. Mr. Percy F. Martin
says that Mr. Turner almost conveys the idea that he has some
personal grievance to ventilate. That is what they always say, those
writers who lack personality. And it appears to me that it is to the
credit of a man if he does not regard the natives' plight as in a
theatre you watch a play impersonally. ... In Mr. Martin's favour,
on the other hand, it may be supposed that he is ignorant of the true
facts of the case.

COMO TAPABOCA 13

very reputable organ. He was there enabled to ab-
sorb much information on the government of Don
Porfirio, of course less moral than one could desire.
This was, however, not the reason why in the United
States he having gone there for the publication of
his book they thrust him into prison for a year,
with a supply of ink and paper. He had libelled
Don Porfirio, they said. Perhaps the next book,
which I understand he wrote in prison, will be
suave ; but an Italian artist, even if he should be
born in India, cannot be expected to control his
pen. He has much more of unembroidered truth
than has, for instance, Mrs. Tweedie, since that
virtue finds its way into the office of a journal much
more easily than to the dinner-parties and sublime
receptions which claimed all too many of that lady's
nights. ' Unknown Mexico ' and ' New Trails in
Mexico,' by Carl Lumholtz, which deal with Indians
of the west and north-west, are two books I cannot
praise without presumption. ' Viva Mexico,' by
Charles Flandrau, portrays the common round of
life in a remote plantation of the State of Veracruz ;
its varied pictures of the natives and the settlers are not
less delightful on account of being true. Those who
wish for an authoritative guide to the antiquities of
Mexico can place themselves with every confidence
in Mr. Marshall Saville's care. This profound and
brilliant scientist, Professor at Columbia University
of American Archaeology, is much respected by his
fellow-students, as one may see, for example, in the
pages of Carl Lumholtz. Although Marshall Saville
was not born till 1867, he has made his sixteen
expeditions into Mexico, spent several years amid
the ruins of Honduras and of Guatemala, has begun
to publish monumental works on the antiquities of

14 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Ecuador and of Columbia : only one of these impor-
tant volumes is in the library of the British Museum.
Probably the best guide that we have among us to
the antiquities of Southern Mexico, is Mr. A. P.
Maudslay, an Englishman. His reputation is among
the learned.

He who wrote about Porfirian Mexico could some-
times gather facts inside the office of a newspaper.
Many of them had arrived by post, because the
telegrams were stripped and dressed again by legal
bandits on the road. These gentry had so much to
do that, though the papers oftentimes protested, they
refused to hurry: a telegram, say from Chihuahua, 1
came into the capital, to that revising office ; there
blue pencils set to work and india-rubber also, loyal
officers were brought to life again, the wounded were
in flawless health and the insurgents died. The
telegrams on other subjects likewise underwent
revision, the fair copy was transmitted to the editor ;
but once at least it was in February, 1911 the
original, with the corrections scrawled across it, was
delivered. And as Mexico was then emerging out
of barbarism, it was going to be presented by the
editor to a museum. Telegrams in cypher were
forbidden, and it would be tantalising to have news
you may not publish. So the facts arrived by letter,
though the envelope was often steamed and then,
according to the paper, they were printed or with-
held. There was not nearly so much freedom then as
in the days of Maximilian or Benito Juarez. The
subsidised Press was bad, the Press that wanted
to be subsidised was worse they treated many facts
as if they were insurgents. And the independent
papers published at their peril. When the revolution
1 Pronounced: Chee-wa-wa.

Felicista soldiers firing from the ruins of Belem Prison,

February, 1913.

COMO TAPABOCA 15

started in 1910, I believe that during ten days half
a dozen papers were suppressed in the capital alone,
and not merely were they suppressed, but the editors
were thrown into Belem, with such haste that there
was no time for a trial. Now Belem I weigh my
words is the most noxious prison in the world. 1
When they wanted to give punishment to a policeman
he was sent there to perform a little cleansing ; if
you bribed a man to let you pay a visit you were
bound to wear such garments as you would not mind
destroying afterwards. The slime of ages and the
pestilential vapours darken every cell. Two hundred
prisoners could be there I will not say comfortably ;
as a rule it held between 4000 and 5000 and if it
were not for murder and the everlasting typhus one
could hardly have existed. But even Belem did not
always put a muzzle on the truth. How often this
occurred, though, I could judge when I contrasted
what I saw in print with that which editors had told
me. There was least divergence, that is over any
length of time, with ' El Pais,' the organ of the
Church. In Mexico, despite the strictest legislation,
there is hardly any limit to the power of the clergy,
and when ' El Pais ' spoke out the truth about the
prison and the Revolution it was safer far than all
the other independent sheets. To say that, when
the Revolution started, these brought punishment
upon themselves by virulence of language is beside
the point an article which caused the death of ' El

1 An authoress, Dolores Jimenez y Muro, spent several months in
Belem because she walked in the procession of the llth September
(vide page 216) carrying a flag. In Belem certain warders made an
effort to assault her. With the captives, male and female, who were
unprovided with a pen or other means of vengeance, they accom-
plished their desires by using marihuana, the deadly native drug.
The head of the establishment was authorised to add long months to
any sentence on the information of the warders.

16 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Paladin ' and the inevitable Belem for its editor, a
gentleman who had for fifteen years preached brother-
hood among the Mexicans, was positively statesman-
like and are they not provoked, good God ? One
day the Government determined that it could not
tolerate ' El Pais ' any longer, and they closed the
office several hours before a new machine was to be
blessed by the Archbishop, for the circulation had
gone up so greatly that the old equipment could not
cope with it. The editor was wanted, but as every
house of Catholics which had a secret room entreated
him to be their guest he stayed inside the capital
and he would never have been found. The reptile
Press anticipated that they would inherit the fine
circulation of their foe ; some days elapsed and ' El
Pais ' was in the field again, amid rejoicings of the
Catholics and of the Liberals and of the creditors.
So swiftly did the circulation rise, that in the briefest
time the Buenos Ayres ' Prensa ' was the only
Spanish journal in America which was not beaten.
The chief creditors of ' El Pais ' are Messrs. Goetschel,
Jews from France, whose stock is registered under
the names of five priests. ... A journalist less
prosperous was Filomeno Mata, 1 who assisted Diaz
in the days of Tuxtepec ; he had been thirty times
in Belem, where he kept a bed. Another one has
been in the profession half a century, and Don Porfirio's
friend. But growing old, he seemed to have become
too independent. His paper was suppressed, he made
a personal appeal to Don Porfirio, was promised

1 * The hardships of the last imprisonment,' says a local journal,
' were too great for a man so far advanced in years.' He died, aged
64, at Veracruz, on 2nd July, 1911. This indomitable worker for the
cause of Mexican freedom had at least survived the tyranny of Diaz.
He who suffered many cruelties and hardships from the Government
was now shown every honour, and was buried at the Government's
expense.

COMO TAPABOCA 17

justice, and the next day had a visit from the Pro-
curator of the Republic, who explained, while weeping,
that he had his orders which he could not disobey.
One might suppose that from this source I should
receive embittered information. But the victim is a
Mexican Montaigne.

However much I came to be prejudiced in favour
of those who were against the Government and most
of the authorities, I do not think that I accepted
anything of any moment till I, being fallible, had
satisfied myself it was more right than wrong. The
Government would have been much astonished had
they known some of my sources ; neither these nor
private people could I name, with one or two excep-
tions ; such was the Republic under Diaz. ... I am
quite aware that Mexicans incline to one extreme I
or to the other, but if I go on protesting that I never
was unduly credulous, I shall protest too much.
Perhaps it is advisable to give some illustration of
the method which I followed when in Yucatan.
4 The Times ' had asked me to devote an article
the sixth one of the series to the native question,
and as there had been a good deal written on the
Mayas and their Yaqui comrades, it was necessary
that I should go down to Yucatan. The British
Minister, whose constant kindness to me I shall not
forget he placed his knowledge and his library at

1 But often their exaggerated statements are the children of their
courtesy. I think they seldom sign a book or photograph for you,
but they apply to you the epithet * distinguido. ' And when two or
three newspapers called me the ' redactor,' or the ' redactor-correspon-
sal ' of ' The Times,' I paid no attention to the obvious absurdity which
called me, as I thought, the ' editor ' or the ' editor-correspondent ' of
' The Times. ' Apparently, though, this expression means nothing more
than a member of the editorial, as opposed to the advertising, side of
a paper, and one of the London editors subpoenaed by ' The Times '
had asked us to ask him this question in the witness-box. But
unfortunately he was never put into the box.

18 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

my disposal had cherished the intention of a visit,
since the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection
Society was quite reluctant to accept his view of the
conditions, as he had embodied them in a dispatch
to Sir Edward Grey. But just about this time Sir
Reginald (then Mr.) Tower was promoted from the
diplomatic stagnation of Mexico to Buenos Ay res.
And he certainly escaped a world of trouble, for if
he had travelled to the hot peninsula he would have
been accompanied by Don Olegario Molina, the
then Minister of Fomento [Board of Trade], ex-
Governor of Yucatan. Don Olegario, a man who has
not only made himself but all his family, down to
the nephews and the sons-in-law of cousins, is a
stranger to fatigue, and Sir Reginald would have
found it difficult to get away from him. I, on the
other hand, was only called upon to get away from
ordinary people, those to whom Don Olegario had
given me benignant introductions, 1 wherein it was
stated that my sentiments would surely not be those

1 Such letters are not always of assistance in Yucatan, as the
English aviator, Mr. Dyott, found in 1912 when some of the influential
people to whom he had introductions took to bombarding him with
cocoa-nuts. His contract said that he must fly at Merida, but
Barbachano the impresario acknowledged that the neighbourhood is
111 adapted for such exercises on account of rocks and cactus. It was
settled, therefore, that the flying should be at Progreso by the sea.
The contract also said that Mr. Dyott would not be required to give
the show if there should be a wind exceeding 15 miles per hour ; he
pointed out to the Governor that the speed was nearly 45, and that a
neighbouring windmill would not be revolving if the wind were less
than 20. The Governor assured him that there was no wind at all,
and in the meantime sent two soldiers to prevent the windmill going
round. The aviator did not wish to disappoint the numerous specta-
tors, most of whom had come the 30 miles from Merida. He started
making preparations, and while he was thus engaged the mob and
the committee pelted him with cocoa-nuts. The contract also said
that when his aeroplane was ready to ascend he should be paid by
Barbachano. This would not have happened if the situation had not
been explained to the spectators, who were so desirous that a man
should fly in such a gale that they insisted on the impresario fulfilling
this part of the contract. Mr. Dyott then made several good flights,

COMO TAPABOCA 19

of the conspirators who lately had been travelling
through Yucatan, to gratify the Yellow Press. ' Oh !
the ex- Governor's farm is the worst of all. They
flog them to death, and of course, you see, the people
on the farm only have the owner of the farm to be
their judge.' 1 Thus in the charming, moonlit colon-
nades of Merida spoke one who is a British Hondura-
nean but can boast a language of his own, whereas
Don Olegario pours out mellifluent and soothing
periods of King's English. Those deep colonnades
had made me think about Don Olegario, whose hand
upon my shoulder had been gentle as the moon-
light. When he used to beam upon me at the Board
of Trade, this fatherly old man could not prevent
his eyes from blessing me. ' If,' so said the British
Honduranean, ' I find you in a more close place,
you'll be having enough from me.' There was an
indiscreet policeman at our side, who angrily in-
formed me that his duty made him be there. So we
two went up to my hotel, and this is what he said

and everyone was satisfied save Barbachano, who came up with the
police to the hotel that night in Merida meanwhile Mr. Dyott had
sent all the money out of Yucatan and charged the aviator with a
breach of contract on the ground that he had not flown by the town
of Merida, but at Progreso. It is not allowed, apparently, to have a
man arrested while he dines in Yucatan, and Mr. Dyott lingered at
the table. During the next days, when he was in the Penitenciary,
his food consisted of some oranges, and every afternoon at the same
hour came Barbachano, asking if he would return a portion of the
money or would fly again. At last the aviator said that he would fly,
he was let out the last train having gone down to Progreso it was
thought that he could not escape a special engine was in waiting, his
intelligent mechanic had arranged as to the aeroplane, and in a little
cargo boat they flew from Yucatan.

1 This and kindred passages may give one the impression that I
was too much addicted to those people who could speak a sort of
English. But I cannot reproduce the words of those who spoke in
Spanish. Nor is it the case that all the English-speaking Mexicans
whatever was the attitude of humble British sojourners from the West
Indies were the enemies of Don Porfirio's system, though they
should have been, for they were usually men who had been educated
here at Stonyhurst or in the United States.

20 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

about the haciendas : 4 Those people can't come to
' the town ' [they can. but with difficulty] ; ' each
farm has five or six policemen or more, so that the
people can't get out. There is no justice for those
people. When a man escapes from one of those
farms they seek for him as if he did a criminal crime,
and he is cruelly flogged and he has to work for the
rest of his days. The slavery will never abolish here
under no consideration ; the slaves on the plantation,
it is only the encargado who can read ; so that they
may not be wise, the child, when it is eight years old,
begins to work for twelve cents a day.' Don Olegario,
at all events, had not descended to such detail, but
my midnight guest said something which exhibited
his ignorance, if nothing worse. ' There was a good
farm,' he said, ' Dr. Palomeque's, an old man, he
treated the people very well.' We shall speak of
Dr. Palomeque. But the Honduranean's knowledge
was not limited to farms of henequen. 4 When you
go to Dzitas x and to the branch line of Espita, that
part of the world only grows corn and beans ; the
people are half naked because they have no money
to buy clothes, and the country is all prickly. They
only get 1 J pesos a week.'

A custom which prevailed among the Persian
monarchs was to fill the mouth of any laudatory poet
with gold pieces, but when there succeeded to the
throne a ruler who was economical or less addicted
to that special sort of verse, he substituted treacle.
So the poet's mouth was stopped, as he declaimed
beside the saddle of his lord, it being usual to pave
the royal progress through a town with poems.
Como Tapaboca signifies in Spanish (tapar=to stop
up, &oca=mouth) what is applied to-day in Spanish-

1 For the pronunciation of Yucatan place-names see Glossary.

COMO TAPABOCA 21

speaking countries to non-laudatory persons ; in
Porfirian Mexico it was both gold and treacle. But
if you could not digest them other substances were
brought to bear. ... I went to Yucatan with no
intention other than to look into the slavery, if it
existed, but some various abuses forced themselves
upon my notice. Half a year ago there had been
trouble in the State, because at Valladolid the
sensuous despotism of Don Luis de Regil, the jefe,
could no longer be endured the flabby, obstinate
governor, Mufioz Aristegui, would not supersede
him and he was assassinated, with some others.
During four days Valladolid, then the second town
of Yucatan and afterwards a lifeless place, was in
the rebels' power. Aristegui rushed twenty times a
day to Mr. Blake, not knowing what to do. This
Mr. Blake, the railway manager, an imperturbable
and jovial Englishman not thirty years of age, had
organised his service after many obstacles so that,
unlike the Governor, he could at once learn what
was happening in every part of Yucatan. Aristegui
entreated, also, that he should advise him what to
do, but the notorious general, who came post-haste to
the Peninsula, ignored the local sovereignty, for, after
having shot three of the rebels, he took with him one
hundred and sixty other citizens up to the capital of
the Republic. Such as had a satisfactory physique
were put into the army, while the rest untried
were given leave to pay their journey home ; a batch
of fifty others had been tried in Yucatan, had been
found innocent, and were, on my arrival, in the
Penitenciary. But all this, knowing Mexico a trifle,
would not have induced me to investigate the Yuca-
tecan wrongs more closely than the others. When I
gradually came to do so, my proceedings irritated

22 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

not alone Aristegui, who strove for many afternoons
to make me listen to the voice of reason, but the
editor and owner of a journal, Don Ricardo Molina,
with whose method I had little sympathy. 1 His
uncle Olegario of whom sufficient elsewhere depre-
cated his ambitions to be Governor, but Don Ricardo
persevered ; he now and then addressed some callow
youths he was less popular than wise ; in fact, he
was above the average of his fellow-deputies and
every morning he addressed a number of Yucatecans,
but the ' Diario Yucateco ' did not circulate beyond
1100-1200 (including a large free list of officials and
others), whereas the independent ' Revista de Merida,'
at double the cost, had a circulation of 6000-7000.
The ' Diario Yucateco ' not only occupied Molina's
time, but claimed an annual allowance of about 8000
(in view of the poor circulation), but Molina's wealth
is quite considerable and the sacred cause of propa-
ganda was upheld. Nor should I have complained if
it had not attempted to increase its owner's popu-
larity at the expense of me. Some who observed
that for a week or two I spent a large part of my time
with hacendados knew, by some inscrutable deduc-
tion, that I was an emissary from Porfirio Diaz, for
which reason the Society of Workmen passed a
resolution praying that I would hear both sides in
the matter of the slavery. (This may seem quite super-
fluous, but they remembered Mr. Creelman.) Pre-
sently it grew to be an axiom that I was Don Francisco

1 My lack of sympathy with those of Mr. Justice Darling may be
thought to be less due to disapproval of his method than to his
rigidly hostile summing up. But many of my friends had dreaded
the jocular methods of Sir Charles Darling who, over and over again,
laid himself open to being publicly rebuked. I had also dreaded the
indignity of having fault found with my writings, and the still greater
indignity of having them praised by a man whose attempts upon
literature are so deplorable.

A British Musician.

In the band of Mcrida's penitenciary

Antonio Carillo. See *>

In Merida's penitenciary.

The text, in broken Spanish, is a question put to the convict as to whether he is all complete,

whether he is not being devoured, say by the cat o' nine tails. He replies that he has not been

imprisoned in England. From the Diario Yucateco,

COMO TAPABOCA 23

I. Madero ; he himself had been in those parts not
so many months before but no matter. And a
third group had it that I was the secretary of the
Anti- Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society ;
for I was talking to a multitude of people on the labour
question, some of whom diverged from one another,
it appears, in politics. Then the ' Diario Yucateco '
roundly swore that I was none of these things, but
an evil spirit who had come in search of points, such
black points as I would exclusively select. But
though I stayed for many weeks and Don Ricardo
persecuted me with zeal, he did not grow more
popular in fact, he fled upon the boat which carried
me yet he accomplished something ; for my visit,
thanks to him, was far from dull. So much, then,
as an introduction to the mastiff-like and sallow
Don Ricardo. In despite of all his opulence the
' Diario Yucateco ' was not independent, for it had
the privilege of the judicial notices and thus was
indirectly subsidised.

The Penitenciary is something of a show-place,
but when I was taken over it by the director, an
assassin called Bolardo, and regaled with beer and
with an admirable orchestra of murderers (these are
the inmates who stay long enough to make it worth
while that they shall receive instruction), I was not
shown everything, and it was necessary for me to
return at least three times before I had examined all
the bartolinas. The director laughed good-naturedly
at my attempts upon the Spanish language, for the
dictionary he produced for me had no such word,
but only calabozo ( =cell). The prison had some
calabozos, to be sure, and they were thirteen feet by
nine, with a slab to sleep on, with two ventilators and
an opening above the door. To make a long and

24 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

tedious story short, it finally transpired that bartolinas
are constructed out of calabozos, by moving back the
wooden door and taking out the bed and blocking
one at least of the two ventilators ; you could read
for three or four hours in the middle of the day, and
in these dungeons several suspects had been kept for
sixty days, they being gentlemen of the first families
who were accused of trying to upset the Government.
Aristegui, the well-intentioned boot importer, cannot
really be much blamed, for he was only the obedient
servant of Don Olegario, and had been placed by
him in charge of Yucatan, when Diaz, fearing the
enormous influence of Olegario, brought him as
Minister up to the capital of the Republic. Olegario
continued thus to govern Yucatan, and poor Aristegui
received the odium ; he gave commands to the
director, who was nothing loth, to keep these gentle-
men in durance and permit no exercise whatever.
(If it is immodest I am sorry, but I have to mention
that when I had agitated for six weeks they were
allowed one and a half hours' exercise per diem.)
Bolardo was accustomed to make no distinction
between those who had been sentenced and those
others who, sometimes a year and sometimes
longer, waited for a trial. He himself had slaughtered
several of his charges : some by flogging, some by
doing nothing. He was in the alcaldia (warders'
room) one day, when Dr. Avila came in to ask per-
mission to obtain a patent remedy for someone whose
condition was alarming. ' Give him a spoonful of what-
ever you like,' said the director. ' I shall not spend
money on such people.' When the doctor said that
he could not have the responsibility, ' What does
it matter ? ' cried Bolardo, and the invalid a big,
strong man of middle age called Cuitun died in

COMO TAPABOCA 25

two days. The ' Diario Yucateco ' said that it was
monstrous of me to search out these black points in
the Penitenciary, forgetting that the Governor had
begged me to go over it, and surely my acquaintance
would have been too superficial if I had not stepped
beyond the beer and orchestra. The journalists of
Yucatan, if they did not offend the Government, were
not admitted, and it seemed that the ' Diario Yuca-
teco' s ' knowledge emanated from a curly-headed
young reporter who had been incarcerated for a day
or two because he tried, when he was drunk, to set
fire to a circus. Now that I had started it was
requisite to probe the subject.

Prisoners were flogged informally, as when Bolardo
struck a student, Senor Arcobedo one of the editors
of ' Yucatan Nuevo ' for not rising as he entered.
They were flogged as when Bolardo broke two sticks
and broke the head of one Isidro Castillo, who had
ventured to protest against the treatment which he
suffered from a certain foreman. The director
struck him in the presence of the other convicts, and
as it was quite impossible to let him take his wound
about the streets two days alone divided him from
liberty Bolardo asked the jefatura for another
month's imprisonment, because the man, he said,
was so incorrigible ; and a month inside a bartolina
cured the wound. Sometimes the flogging was v
conducted with formality, as in the case of Manuel
Fernandez Boo, a Spaniard. He had been to school,
unluckily for him, with Primitive Diaz, and they had
foregathered in Havana, where Don Primitivo forged
the tickets of the lottery and was imprisoned. Coming
afterwards to Yucatan, they gave him command of
the secret police ; but Manuel Fernandez Boo was
too loquacious and was locked up on a charge of

26 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

stealing. Then for three months he was set to
quarry stones and turn a wheel ; if he exhibited a
trace of slackness he was flogged informally. Near
the beginning of each month Bolardo and a member
of the Vigilance Committee and a Government
representative walked round the prison (they are
called the Revista de Comisario) to hear complaints
about the food. But when he told them that he
worked all day and died of hunger they refused to
listen, and the furious Bolardo ordered that at four
o'clock next morning he should have a hundred blows ;
the implement is the organ of a bull with a steel rod
in it. The prison barber 1 occupied a cell precisely
opposite. He saw the struggle, for the convict would
not lie down prostrate, and the four men, after tele-
phoning to Bolardo, beat him anyhow and anywhere
and till they could no more and till he did not struggle.
On the evening of that same day Bolardo suddenly
snapped out that he must have the hundred
blows ; they told him that the punishment had been
inflicted. ' I know nothing of it ! Flog him now ! '
retorted the director, and another hundred blows
were rained upon the almost lifeless body. There was
scanty justice then in Yucatan, but the member of
the Vigilance Committee, Pedro Reguera, a chemist,
took an active part in the elections and was sentenced
to nine months' imprisonment. As for Manuel
Fernandez Boo, he vanished. Some say that he was
deported to Quintana Roo, while others say he died
upon the morrow of a flogging. Certainly Judge
Solis, after having seen the man in prison, ordered
that he should be liberated. And Benigno Fernandez

1 This young man was charged with stealing a watch worth
10 pesos, whereas he said a comrade gave it him to sell. The com-
rade said the barber had advised the theft, and even so one thinks
that three years and seven months' detention is excessive. During
all this period he shaved 480 people a week and was unpaid.

COMO TAPABOCA 27

Boo, a brother, who had served on board the Spanish
Transatlantic boats and was a burly man, killed some-
one in a drunken brawl at Progreso, and lest he should
slay the director of the Penitenciary, in vengeance of
his brother, he was locked for three years in a cell,
where he became demented. As he tried to hurl
himself upon the man who brought his food, Bolardo
punished him by giving only half the ordinary rations
and removing his apparel, so that he was cold o*
nights. He went on growing thinner till he died.
No doubt Bolardo had been told that herrings, in the
Gaelic phrase, ' live on the foam of their own tails,'
and he desired to ascertain if some analagous capacity
lay in a sailor. Another Spanish subject whom I
visited, and who for three years out of the five had
been a lunatic his five years' isolation was a punish-
ment for having made an effort to escape was
Daniel Blanco. He disturbed the neighbouring
convicts by his intermittent, random shouts all
through the day and night. But Don Rogelio Suarez,
Spanish Vice-Consul and the son-in-law of the
omnipotent Don Olegario, said he had looked at
Blanco through the door and found him sane. A
friend of mine in Yucatan, a Catalonian opera-singer,
tried to move this consul to object at least when
Spanish subjects were incorporated nolens volens in
the army. ' But,' said Don Rogelio Suarez, twirling
his moustachios and flashing his fine eyes and talking
Spanish like a horse which prances, ' they have not
inscribed themselves upon my list.' . . . These Peni-
tenciary abominations were excused by the authori-
ties, because the prison was too picturesque 1 a place

1 There was an account of such a lively spot in El Pais,' of April 3,
1911. In Pachuca prison dwelt a convict, Pedro Elizalde, 'who
enjoys great privileges, and because of his despotic conduct is with-
out the approbation of his colleagues. One of the abuses which they

28 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

in other days: a series of small booths were set up
in the patio, while you were more or less at liberty
to go into the town and sleep with your senora. It
so happened that one day I asked the Governor if
there was commonly a doctor present when a man
was flogged. He threw his hands up and entangled
them in his gold pince-nez cord : ' Upon my honour
as a cdballeroS he exclaimed, ' there is no flogging ! '
And impressively he bent his heavy body over
towards me and he placed a plump hand on my knee.
They flog the inmates of the poor-house, where a
vigorous young man (who entered on account of
drunkenness) was made the foreman and entrusted
with the task of flogging all the others : drunkards,
disobedient folk, the aged and the mad. As for the
Penitenciary, * I met a grave official of the custom-
have against him is that he exacts a contribution of from 3 to 5
pesos for the balls, which it is usual to celebrate in that establishment,
and which are nothing less than orgies. As a certain number of the
prisoners cannot pay, they are marked out as enemies by some of the
officials. Elizalde lends the convicts money, with interest at 25 per
cent, which is subtracted from the food allowance paid them by the
Government. He also has the privilege of selling seeds, at any price
he likes. '

1 It compared unfavourably with San Juan de Ulua, and was only
less notorious for being more remote. In 1893 Don Rafael Peon had
trouble with the Indians, who were settled near his hacienda. They
asserted that he was appropriating land of theirs, and in reply he
ordered that they should be flogged. They waited for him with long
knives [machetes] and one gun, which killed a Maya. Then the
Government had five men shot, without a trial, and twenty-one were
ordered to San Juan for a period of twenty- two years. It was
illegal that they should be sent to Veracruz, but the authorities
across the water took them in return for half a peso each per diem.
One of them, called Justo Foot, became the private servant of the
chief director, Colonel Hernandez, and was thus in a position to meet
Yucatecans in the market-place, and send back word as to the treat-
ment of the others. Terrible as San Juan was made for the politicals,
it offered some amenities for the remaining convicts. Cigarettes
could be procured and books, whereas the library inside the gaol of
Merida was, to a great extent, in order to impress the tourist : it was
founded at the instigation of a writer who for his political and social
articles was punished with a term of four years' penal servitude. He
gave some fifty of the books himself, and when he chanced to be

COMO TAPABOCA 29

house who, in his capacity of prefect of the convicts
(presidente del presidio), had seen perhaps a hundred
floggings. His own penal servitude was owing to the
fact that in the desolation of Campeche his chicle-
workers fell upon him, and in self-defence he killed
a man. Not thinking for a moment that he would
be punished he came up to Merida, a wearisome long
journey, and informed the Governor. He is an in-
stance, by the way, of how they used to swindle at
the Penitenciary : the rule was that one-third of
what a man might earn was for his upkeep, and one-
third was to be given him at the completion of his
sentence, and one-third was to be sent out to his
family but often there was so much discount that
the wife did not receive a cent, and, being unable to
discover any other means of livelihood, was driven
by the Government to immorality. The chicle-owner
had 600 pesos in his pocket when he came, he earned
some hundreds by his handiwork and owing to his
post as prefect, but the treasurer (who subsequently
was jefe politico of Cuernavaca) made off with the
whole of it ; and when the prefect was allowed to
leave, the ' Diario Oficial ' announced, in a bombastic
paragraph, that as a recompense for his good work
the good authorities had gratified him with no less a

again imprisoned he was not allowed to use the library. Cheap books
were given by the Corporation of the city every year as prizes, and a
few days afterwards Bolardo used to have them piled up in a patio
and burned. As for the prisoners at Veracruz, when Olegario Molina
entered into power he looked askance upon the annual sum which
Yucatan was paying to San Juan de Ulua. So the twenty-one were
carried back, and at the station made a fine show for their families
and friends, because they had good clothes and books and trunks,
which they had either earned or been regaled with, also cocoa-nuts
and many knick-knacks they had carved for sale. Bolardo had the
clothes and books and trunks and cocoa-nuts and knick-knacks burned
to ashes in the Penitenciary. 'There might be epidemics,' he ex-
plained, 'at Veracruz.' And thinking that the convicts might be
discontented, he put all of them for two years into calabozos, and
deprived them of permission to receive their friends or families.

30 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

sum than 600 pesos. . . . Something has been said
of the unhealthy life inside those bartolinas, and I
learned from Dr. Vega, chief of the Sanitary Board,
that he had made suggestions of reform in July, 1909.
Tuberculosis might be the result of a prolonged
imprisonment. And Dr. Vega did not know if any-
thing had been effected. That, he said, was not his
business, and the subject of tuberculosis made him
restless. He declined to speak another word ; he
banged the poor report of 1909 upon the floor and
read triumphantly in French a passage from a book
which proved that cats-o' -nine-tails are administered
to British convicts every day. The sanitary board
of Merida permits a person with tuberculosis to
expectorate in any tram, while they will only disinfect
the last house he has lived in, when he is no longer
dangerous. This Dr. Vega is the son of Colonel Rabia
or, as we might say, Colonel Fury ; he was seldom
called his proper name and now the doctor thinks
that he himself is unimpassioned. He had listened
to me, so he told the ' Diario Yucateco,' with angelic
patience.

One of the most urgent matters dealing with the
Indian race, both on and off the haciendas, was their
forcible enrolment in the army. This, of course,
would not so often be the lot of those who had a
master he could buy them out or find a sub-
stitute but now and then a puissant master would
employ this arm against a servant. Five domesticas
or women slaves incurred the wrath of Don Ricardo's
aunt in Merida, their mistress. They were flogged
and sent to one of the Molina farms, but in the night
they ran away. The major-domo, Pablo Ruiz, was
charged with having aided them, and, notwithstanding
that he had a wife and family, was forthwith sent to

COMO TAPABOCA 31

fight the rebels in Chihuahua. As a rule, the press-
gang operates on those who are without protector :
sixty-six unfortunates were shipped to Veracruz
towards the end of January ; some of them indeed
were culprits and their lives were the reverse of edify-
ing one rare rogue would tell his victims that he
was a member of the secret police force and had been
conducting deep investigations ; in this way the scamp
extracted heavy sums of money. But a number of
the sixty-six were men who had been charged with
being complicated in the 1909 revolt, and they had
been declared not guilty ; yet, as the Governor told
me, the police felt in their hearts that these men were
not innocent. Some others had to go, nor say fare-
well to anyone, because of troubles with the boundary
marks at Muna. They asserted that the Govern-
ment had sold to several hacendados property which
was not theirs to sell, and they tore up the boundary
marks. Aristegui acknowledged to me that the
ancient land books were in Seville ; it was very
complicated. But from what I knew of other parts
of the Republic in the central district of the State
of Tamaulipas it did not avail the Indians that they
had the tax receipts for five-and-twenty years, while
only twenty are required by law ; their lands were
given by the Governor to a friend of his, the local
deputy ; and this is one example out of hundreds it
was not impossible that they had been despoiled at
Muna. ' But apart from that,' said the jefe politico
of Merida, another Molina, ' they were people of the
vilest disposition.' This was not the case with Aniseto
Tun, for instance, nor with Nicolas Romero; while
the Muna representative of Government could tell me
nothing more enormous about Pedro Segovia than
that he was habitually drunk on Sundays. ' We have

32 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

five balls in a vessel,' said the jefe politico, ' four white
ones and a black one. If it is their destiny to pick a

black ball ' But an ex-jefe politico, Don Augusto

Peon, told me that, at any rate in his time, no white
ball was ever used. ' They leave here,' said the jefe,
' with a medical certificate. The man who has a
physical defect is not allowed to sail.' But when the
sixty-six were carried to the capital of the Republic
and again examined, Manuel and Pedro Jimenez,
Moises Montero, Felipe Balam, Aniseto Tun and
Mauro Solis were found unsuitable one of them was
incapacitated with a fistula, another had the most
incurable disease : Montero was near sixty years
of age so they were stripped of uniforms, and in a
climate far less tropic than the Yucatecan, were
abandoned in their underclothing to their own de-
vices. ' We do not know any of their names,' said
Aristegui, ' for it is the Minister of War who has
them. They are worthless Indians who may not
have been convicted in so many words, but of their
character the less you say the better.' And he was
offended when I asked how soon the Yucatecan
Government would bring them back themselves
they had no money. ' It is in the hands of the Minister
of War, and doubtless,' said Aristegui, ' he will
attend to it.' I ventured to remark that with the
Revolution General Cosio had enough to cope with,
and that if the men were not indemnified . Aris-
tegui jumped up and glared at me. ' Indemnified !
What nonsense ! I must ask you to depart.' If
anyone endured a year or two of wrong imprisonment
the utmost he could hope for was a paper ' dejando

al Senor en buena opinion y fama ' (leaving

Mr. with a good reputation). ' No ! no ! stop !

I beg you,' said the Governor, ' to sit down. I really

COMO TAPABOCA 33

cannot authorise the State to pay.' And ultimately
they were brought back by a fund the public raised,
and I will not insinuate that as a man, apart from
being Governor, Aristegui refrained from helping these
unfortunates. He had regaled, we know, a citizen
who was set free from an erroneous imprisonment of
many months with almost five pence (twenty centavos)
of his private purse. ' I will admit you,' so he said,
4 into a secret. We withhold the publication of their

names ' ' Although,' said I, ' ' ' Well, yes,

the law demands it ; but we are benevolent, we only
send the evildoers, and we have to do this with a
certain wariness. The public are so foolish.' It
appeared to me that this might be the case with
Dr. Betancourt, a relative of Olegario, because he
clearly did not know what was a fistula. Aristegui
snatched up his telephone and agitatedly demanded
of the jefatura if this allegation could be verified.
He mopped his brow. ' You must see Betancourt,'
he said, and the ' Diario Yucateco ' had the usual
article describing how el ingles de marras a some-
what contemptuous phrase was nonplussed by the
doctor. I did not succeed in meeting him, however,
since he suffered during the remainder of my visit
from a most insidious ailment that permitted him
to go about his business studying, maybe, the in-
tricacies of a fistula but would not let him undergo
extraneous excitements.

In the meantime Mexico was in the throes of
revolution, and the Government appeared to be
most critically situated. It was not alone the fighting
in Chihuahua and in other States, it was the dis-
affection which was palpably upon the increase.
And I cabled Mr. Willert, correspondent of ' The
Times ' in Washington, to ask if I should send him

34 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

telegrams. All the dispatches I had, in November
and December, forwarded about the Revolution
went through him, in order to prevent us duplicating ;
and the cost from Mexico to Washington is relatively
inconsiderable. On the next day (6th February)
he cabled twice to tell me to take any steps to send
news promptly, also that he had revived the old
arrangement with the Western Union at El Paso on
the frontier, which I was to use in case of accidents.
He added that, as I requested, he had put himself
into communication with the Direct or- General of
Federal Telegraphs in Mexico City, begging that the
Merida sub-office should be authorised to take my
messages at press rates. Not a word came from the
capital, and in collaboration with the Chief of Tele-
graphs in Merida I cabled his superior. The style was
more than suave. All through the night there was
no answer, and again I cabled (not so suavely) with
the rather ludicrous addition of a fee of fifty centavos,
due on every telegram which asks a favour from
officials, even if it is to do their duty. He 1 replied
that on the understanding I observed the guarantees,
whatever those might be, permission would be given,
.and although I had not paid him for his answer he
was out of courtesy replying in a telegram, but this
indulgence was not to be taken as a precedent.
When I had previously cabled from the capital ' via
Galveston ' there never was the slightest trouble and,
although the Government flew in the face of solemn

1 This Don Camilo Gonzalez was removed from office when the sun
of Don Porfirio had set. ' But there has been down here at least,'
so an American wrote recently to me from Yucatan, ' surprisingly
little paying of old scores.' One may urge that this Gonzalez, for
example, was but executing orders, but he might have followed in the
footsteps of Saint Genest, now the patron saint of Spanish if not of
all other shorthand writers : he refused to take down some abomin-
able rescript of the Roman Emperor and felt the consequences.

A British Honduranean in Merida's Hospital.

The bearded gentleman is supposed to be Don Augusto Peon. The seated person is presumably
the conventional type, in those parts, of an English correspondent. From the Diario Yucateco,

The Marconigram.

In this caricature the author is depicted in the
act of sending a lurid message to the Times.
His arrows are devoted respectively to cells,
tortures, black balls, hospital, lack of firemen,
insects, very many insects, absence of cat-o'-nine-
tails, therefore more advanced conditions than in
England, floggings, locusts. From the Diario
Yucateco.

COMO TAPABOCA 35

contracts and prevented messages from being sent
for two days on the wire of the Associated Press, I
did not hear of any interference with the American
cable company. I sent a telegram, devoted chiefly
to Chihuahua and containing information which the
local papers had not been allowed to publish. They
would have been forced by the authorities to give
their correspondents' names. In five hours I was
told that the authorities up in the capital declined
to let my telegram go through. 1 This was a dis-
concerting business, and the message could not go
until a Ward Line vessel s.s. ' Esperanza ' stopped
outside Progreso on the second day. The Revolution
was not standing still, and with my telegram in-
creased and modified I went out from the harbourless
Progreso in a fishing boat. (I much regret I cannot
here describe that voyage over perilous green rollers,
while the captain plied his amiable Maya man with
economic questions as to practices prevailing in the
vessels of Quintana Roo.) The wireless operator
chose the moment of my climbing up the side of the
' Esperanza ' (which means ' hope ') to cast off in a
little steamer from the other side, because he wanted
to see Merida, and so he went, not asking leave of
anyone. I wish that he had been as independent in
transmitting my dispatch, for on the next day I was
told a story of a broken motor, and the agent of the
Ward Line seemed to place no limit on my simple
faith. The British captain of a trading vessel took
my message over to Mobile. The British Consul sent
my envelope for Washington inside an envelope of
his to some New England town three hundred citi-

1 'Telegraphing,' said Don Porfirio in the Creelman interview,
when he looked back upon the savage era which preceded him,
telegraphing was a difficult thing in those days.'

36 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

zens of Merida (including foreign business people and
the Chief of Telegraphs) had recently had all their
letters opened at the magistrate's 1 and my belated
telegram went on the next boat to Havana. 2 He
whose motor had been in the best of health conversed
about it with a friend of mine, as they were also heading
for Havana. The Marconi operator of another Ward
Line vessel told me, four or five weeks later, that the
captain had instructed him to send no message
dealing with the politics of Mexico nor anything in
cypher. It was necessary for the Ward Line we
need not discuss the reasons to be on the best of

1 When the Revolution was triumphant, one Manterola, postmaster
of the Federal District, addressed a copious letter to the Press upon
the subject of his honesty, the sole possession which he had to leave,
he said, to his descendants. Letters had been seized, but that was in
accordance with the law ; he stigmatised as very foolish, very lazy
good-for-nothings, his unintellectual subordinates.

2 Thus my message went in triplicate to Washington, en route for
England. * He gave it to a mariner,' said Mr. Justice Darling con-
temptuously, 'and no doubt some day it will turn up in a bottle.'
(Loud laughter.) 'Again they guffawed,' says 'Vanity Fair,' 'and
again Mr. Baerlein (who was the plaintiff) did his duty. He laughed.
. . . Mr. Baerlein is a great traveller. He has had his grit tried in odd
corners of the world. . . . Platitudes are always untrue. The latest
to be discredited is the one which asserts the rare adventurousness of
the life led outside the dead spots which we tame folk call cities. Never
will he forget the peril to be encountered in the mother of cities.'
During a case against the editor of ' The Times ' ' History of the South
African War,' Mr. Justice Phillimore, on taking his seat, said that
' on reflection he thought that he ought to have checked laughter that
was heard in the Court yesterday. There must be no laughter to-day '
(January 27, 1911). I hope I am not doing Mr. Justice Darling an
injustice, but I have searched in vain through the reports for anything
resembling this. When I have been present in his Court he has been
very willing to repeat, with an uplifted eyebrow, a facetious or a
jocular remark which Counsel has not heard. ' What the dickens are
you two fellows up to ? ' asks a Senior Counsel in Punch ' (February 5,
1913). ' We're in old Dearie's Court to-day,' says one of the Juniors.
' Brilliant idea to wear masks and save facial strain. ' . . . Of course
it will be said that if I criticise this Judge I am no sportsman. Judges,
save the very best, are not machines, the unimpassioned representatives
of Justice, and if you should come before a man who has the general
reputation of being a defendant's judge, it might have been your for-
tune to have Mr. Justice Grantham, who was looked on as inclined
to take the plaintiffs view. It was your luck to be in Darling's
Court ; abide by that. When Mr. Justice Grantham died, after all

COMO TAPABOCA 37

terms with Don Porfirio's Government. But this
brave operator said that I could telegraph all night ;
he would defy the captain.

The ' Diario Yucateco ' was exasperated ; I
remained in Yucatan. And Don Ricardo printed more
absurdities, endeavouring in this way to be popular
and expedite my going. But I had by this time
gathered a good quantity of information on the life
the natives lived. It seemed to me that in a property
of Don Ricardo' s at Acanceh their position was
unenviable, since the agent of the farm and the jefe
politico was one and the same person ; when Aristegui
was superseded this man was immediately removed
from office. And it seemed to me that Dr. le Plongeon,

the efforts to remove him from the Bench had been in vain, the papers
said that he had been our worst Judge. So there was a vacancy.
And if you advocate that Mr. Justice Darling be removed, you have
but slender chances of success. His jocularity may be deplorable,
but he is not financially corrupt, and surely it is difficult to show that
by his jokes he injures anyone. We are not in Central America,
where judges, taking their departure, cheerfully agree that they have
not been quite impeccable. * While our judges,' says a writer in the
* Gentlewoman , ' ' are free from those venal practices which have brought
the Bench of other countries into disrepute, some of them are guilty
of other faults which sadly retard the course of justice, and detract
considerably from the dignity of the law. I refer more particularly
to the habit which a few of the judges have contracted of making a
joke (sometimes funny, sometimes feeble) on every possible occasion.
. . . It is as seductive as the drug habit the more it is indulged in,
the greater is the desire for it and the judge in question is a hopeless
Joe Miller. ' This writer complains chiefly of the scandalous waste of
most expensive time. But I suggest that if the legal improprieties
of England, wholly different as they are in kind, work more subtly
than do those of Nicaragua, then by so much is our greater civilisation
a greater evil. I am told that I must refrain from wondering (in
print) as to what Dante would have done with such a judge. But
Max Beerbohm in his latest series of caricatures has one of which
Sir Claude Phillips says that : ' Naughty, teasing Puck suddenly
becomes a Juvenal, pitiless in satire, in the caricature On Circuit,
which delineates Mr. Justice Darling in the act of handing the Black
Cap to his marshal, with the instruction, " Oh, and get some bells sewn
on this, will you ? " ' Meredith hoped to die with a racy French story
on his lip, and perhaps the majority of those who are condemned to
death do not deserve anything better than one of this judge's jokes.
The caricature, says the 'Nation,' 'is an example of downright,
public-spirited and honest personal satire.'

38 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

the French savant, would have been dismayed to hear
about a property of Don Ricardo's called Ebnakan,
for the doctor had located Eden in this hot peninsula,
he found in Yucatan the grave of Abel and the
shrivelled heart of the poor victim and the knife used
in the deadly conflict. At Ebnakan a state of things
existed which it is impracticable to repeat ; much

hvorse it was than in the army, where an officer would
ometimes lock the door upon himself and a stripped
;oldier, whom he then would flog and hold in his left
hand a pistol to be used at an emergency. A pitiable
and I proved it a veracious document came into
my possession, written by a carpenter who had been
temporarily at Ebnakan. If I could but reproduce the
simple, ungrammatical, detailed account of horrors !

Don Ricardo, at a cost of sixty dollars gold,
dispatched a prepaid cable to Messrs. J. Henry
Schroder and another, asking : ' Is Henry Baerlein
truly your correspondent ? ' to ' The Times.' In large
black letters in the middle of the front page of his
journal he inserted the replies in English and exult -
ingly appended a translation and his comments. The
first answer said that I was not connected in any way
with ' The Times,' except as an occasional contributor. 1

1 * For consiguente,' said the ' Diario Yucateco,' ' el Mister no es cor-
responsal del ** Times," como se habia creido, sino un simple individuo,
que por su cuenta y riesgo esta recogiendo informaciones que podra
6 no comunicar a aquel periodico, del que es simple contribuyente de
ocasion, como cualquier hijo de vecino.' 'Consequently he is not
" The Times' " correspondent, as we were led to believe, but a simple
individual who on his own account and at his own risk is gathering
data which he may or may not communicate to that paper, of which
he is merely an occasional correspondent, as any neighbour's son.'
And it uttered a grave warning to its countrymen : ' Conviene, pues,
que salgan del error quienes habian considerado al susodicho como
todo un corresponsal del gran periodico.' 'Therefore, let those who
considered him to be fully a correspondent of the great paper no
longer harbour that delusion." 'We are almost entirely without
authentic news here,' Mr. Willert had written. ' Anything you can
get through will be extremely valuable.'

Llame aj Taints y no me oyo
Y pues sus puertas me cierra.
De lo que hago en esta tierra
No el responde smo yc

"The door is locked, the Times has ceased
To listen, it has washed its hand
Of me, what I do in this land
Does not concern it in the least.'

From the Diario Yucateco.

COMO TAPABOCA 39

Messrs. Schroder, in obtaining this information from
4 The Times ' office, had told them that it was to be
regarded as confidential ; but the second answer,
which after four days' consideration was sent by the
Foreign Department of ' The Times,' said merely :
' Not member " Times " staff, only authorised submit
articles.' Of this the first half was as accurate as
possible and I believe it will remain so ; but seeing
that Mr. D. Disraeli Braham, the sender, acknow-
ledged in cross-examination that he knew the second
part of his answer might be dangerous 1 for me, he
would have been acting more thoughtfully, I think,
if he had either consulted me before replying or else
added to his cable the words ' not to be published.'
(This part of his cross-examination happens to be
omitted from ' The Times ' report of the case.) He
should, I suggest, have remembered that when the
authorities of a foreign country are exasperated
against a correspondent of ' The Times ' it may be
simply owing to the latter 's laudable zeal, and I do
not doubt that this is why he was himself expelled
from Russia. This cable caused me to bring an action
for libel, but Mr. Justice Darling actually held that
when the Mexican newspaper asked if I was ' truly
your correspondent ' they meant ' your own corre-
spondent,' that is to say the resident correspondent,
and if they had been told I was the ' special corre-
spondent ' they would not have understood the phrase !
He did not look as if he expected anyone to laugh
when he put forward this opinion. . . . And, with
his rare humour, he seized one of my weapons with

1 Everyone in Court, so far as I could ascertain, thought this a
very damaging admission on the part of the witness, as surely it is.
But not so Mr. Justice Darling. He gazed in his most frigid manner
from the top of his two beautiful, white, nervous hands and never
alluded to the admission in his summing-up.

40 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

which to wound me. ' The Times ' had always spoken
of me in their own columns as its 'special corre-
spondent,' and why, he asked rather testily, why
was I not satisfied with that ? A judge, it is held
[Law Reports, 14 Q.B.D. p. 108, Smith v. Dark], does
not misdirect the jury if he gives expression to his
opinion and not even, I presume, if it causes him to
make heavier demands upon the plaintiff than did
the defendant's counsel. But although one may
demand of Yucatecans that they read 'The Times'
and read it carefully whether they will do so is a
matter of opinion.

Mr. Moberly Bell's successor (a Mr. Nicholson, a
' Harmsworth ' man) told me on my return to England
that they had no idea that they were causing me
unpleasantness, and also there was an impression in
the office that I called myself in Yucatan the corre-
spondent of ' The Times.' Yet when I was asked to
do that article about the treatment of the Indians it
had not been mentioned that I might secure facilities
and find more open doors by posing as the corre-
spondent of the 'Licensed Victuallers' Gazette.' I
think they might have been less ready to play into
Don Ricardo's hands. The paragraphs he now began
to print were splendidly sarcastic, or they virtuously
held me up to scorn as one who was exposed, the
merest writer who was getting access into places as a
correspondent of ' The Times ' and who occasionally
would perhaps send part of what he culled to London,
seeing that he was permitted to submit. These
paragraphs I subsequently showed to Mr. Nicholson,
who scratched his head, observing he had no idea, etc.
' " The Times " is very grateful for all the trouble
you have taken,' so Mr. Willert wrote me in December
from Washington. But now they took the opportunity

COMO TAPABOCA 41

to ask me to refrain from corresponding, x and as day
by day ' The Times ' came out to Mexico with not a
word about the Revolution very ugly things were said.
I begged them, if they still were interested in the
country, to dispatch another correspondent, as the
Revolution would increase. ' Nobody here knows
anything about the situation,' so Mr. Willert had
written me from Washington, and apparently in
London they did not want to know, because a long
cable which by three routes I sent through Mr.
Willert was ignored. ' The only thing that really
matters,' Mr. Willert wrote me, ' is for them to get
the news in London.' And this ignoring the fate of
several articles I had already sent with reference to
the Revolution. Correspondents have ere now been
ruffled if a Government takes steps to silence
them 'To diminish the effect of the triumph of
the Revolution in the people's mind,' said Mr.
James R. Garfield, an American ex-Minister of the
Interior who lately had been travelling in Mexico,
' the Government,' he said, ' is concealing the news,'
and in order that from any lurking resentment and
from my too brief acquaintance with the country I
might not be led to misinterpret what I saw and
what I foresaw, I secured the very kind and highly
competent revision of the British Minister. But Lon-

1 The explanation which they gave before Mr. Justice Darling was
that they felt uneasy about me. I had obtained the usual free passes
on the Mexican Railways, and although they knew all about this in
November and said no word indeed, how could they, since I was
also writing for other papers ? they explain that in February it was
weighing on their mind and made them quite uneasy as to what I
might be doing. After my abrupt dismissal, I sent a letter by three
different routes to Mr. Willert, asking him to forward it to London.
I pointed out not only the embarrassing but the perilous position in
which they had placed me, and I said that as the Revolution would
succeed they ought to send out someone else to Mexico. But from
their evidence at the trial it appeared that they never had this letter.

42 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

don would not print. 4 More hopeful outlook,' they
announced on 12th March, because a New York
correspondent told them that the Mexican insurgents,
save the mere marauders, would ' lay down their
arms, accept the amnesty and renew their allegiance.'
But on the 19th of April they were bound to say, as
said the ' New York Times,' that ' no peace is possible
till Diaz retires.' Let us now go back a little. On
the 12th March a telegram from Mr. Willert had
these words : 4 The state of affairs is conceded to be
grave, but how grave none pretends to know. Rigor-
ous censorship, the guerilla nature of the warfare,
official reticence, ignorance of the details and person-
alities 1 of Mexican politics all militate against
accuracy.' It seemed as if ' The Times ' ' one of his
[General Diaz'] oldest and firmest friends in the
foreign Press ' (I quote from ' Current Literature,'
New York, April, 1911) was averse from publishing
unpalatable truth. ' Whatever the grievances and
ambitions of the opponents of the Diaz Administra-
tion, their activities,' said ' The Times ' on the 14th
March, 'are regrettable inasmuch as they threaten
the remarkably rising prosperity of the country's
trade and industries, and it is therefore to be hoped
that the United States Government's present demon-
stration or manoeuvres at Galveston and on the Texas
border will be accepted by the rebels as an indication
that their proceedings are viewed with disfavour by
Mexico's best customer.' So it would seem that in
these days the grievances and ambitions of a people

1 This was no exaggeration on Mr. Willert's part. Indeed he was
imperfectly acquainted with the Mexican Ambassador at Washington
itself, for on March 27 there was a cable saying that Senor de la
Barra belonged to an old and wealthy family. The facts are that he
is the son of a foreigner, a Chilian, who conceived the good idea of
taking horses up to San Francisco at the time of the great boom.
On the way his boat was wrecked, and that is how he came to Mexico.

COMO TAPABOCA 43

are not even worth considering. And if the opponents
of the Diaz Administration were, as ' The Times ' has
since said, ninety per cent of the inhabitants, or if
they were far fewer it is lamentable that these words
should have been written. ' It is interesting,' they
continue, ' to observe that the Ministry of Finance
describes the movement as the work of certain restless
spirits without prestige and without any support
in public opinion and of a purely local character.'
No doubt if a newspaper has to close the ordinary
channel of information it is driven to collect the news
where best it may. But this extraordinary channel
was, to put it courteously, choked with lilies. ' Sin
novedad ' (nothing new) the Under - Secretary of
Finance had telegraphed to Limantour in Paris, when
the Revolution was in full swing (cf. 'The Times' of
24th November, 1910) and if that is how he kept his

chief informed ! They had indeed acknowledged

it would be much better for the prestige of Porfirio
Diaz both in Europe and America if those about him
could resist the inclination to indulge in rhetoric about
the country's freedom. ' It would be idle to deny,'
they said, ' that the republic is Diaz and Diaz an
autocrat.' But this was hardly news. Men looked at
one another 1 and they marvelled and they spoke of
the insidious Mexican diplomacy and of capitalists in
Mexico and of investors who in London might be
nibbling.

Then I was pursued by secret-service men, both
competent and foolish ones, but Merida contained

1 It is regrettable, I think, that in its many interesting and volumi-
nous Supplements on Russia, Japan, Ireland or any other country,
' The Times ' should fill up a certain portion with advertisements ;
because with the most thorough and sincere desire to speak the
whole truth, there will be people always whose untutored minds
believe that in the circumstances it is not so easy. There is a South
American Supplement which appears monthly and includes Mexico.

44 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

about 700 (for a population of 50,000), so that all of
them could not be brilliant. (For one's English
conversation there was usually a Chinaman.) They
received from thirty to one hundred and fifty pesos a
month, while others the most dangerous were paid
by piecework. Now and then I took a photograph :
the mestizo (half-breed) standing by the bench is
probably a thirty-peso man, but in the other view
we have a celebrated villain, who was glad to let me
photograph his stick. Antonio Carillo started his
career by hunting runaways from haciendas, and at
Ticul he attempted to assassinate with bombs. His
talent, therefore, was not to be wasted in a little
town, they summoned him to Merida, equipped him
with a uniform and gave him captain's rank, because
he was a dashing fellow. He was posted at the Santa
Ana police-station. Later on he was discharged for
having made it an assembling place for women and
for wealthy youths, whom he exploited with a game
of so-called chance. But he retains the privilege of
keeping an immoral house which does not pay the
legal tax, his fame as ' bravo ' still abides with him,
he is respected and will do whatever the authorities
suggest, including murder. Yet, after all, these
biographical particulars prove little as to his acumen
in the secret service. Merida the beautiful was
riddled with this kind of gentry la terre paraissait
orgueilleuse de porter tant de braves ! even private
persons having retinues of silent feet, to know what
happens and ingratiate themselves, maybe, with 'the
authorities. Thus Avelino Montes, Olegario's son-in-
law and partner, paid three thousand pesos monthly
for his private service ; and when Delio Moreno
Canton, the candidate for Governmental honours,
lay concealed, it was a Montes man who ran him down,

In Merida's beautiful plaza. See .

Convicts sweeping the streets

of Cuernavaca, under a guard.

COMO TAPABOCA 45

and Montes had the glory of informing Aristegui.
. . . The manager of my hotel, a Frenchman, urged
me to shake off the dust of Yucatan ; he could not
even guarantee that no untoward item would be
lurking somewhere in a dish below his roof. ' The
Times ' had publicly disowned me, and I was no more
protected than the journalist Abelardo Ancona, who
was searched on entering the gaol, was interviewed
from midnight until two o'clock by Olegario and at
three o'clock he died a shot resounded, and, although
the explanation which they gave was suicide, a certain
Villamil of the police, a dreadful person, was promoted
and promoted. Those who took the management of
these affairs were very thorough. When Fernando
Sanchez, President of a committee of the workmen,
occupied himself with politics he found the prison so
unhealthy that he died the second day. The Govern-
ment, invited to deliver up his body to impartial
doctors, did not wish to cast aspersions on the
Government's practitioners and Dr. Palomeque, the
devoted servant of Don Olegario, was placed in charge.
The whole internal system, which had turned a
blackish red, he excavated and returned the shell to
poor Fernando' s relatives, informing them to their
astonishment that death had taken place through
heart disease. The relations argued that he never was
afflicted by this malady, but, on the other hand, it is a
fact that the internal organs will assume this colour
if the action of the heart be stopped, say with potas-
sium cyanide. But as the Frenchman's fears were
groundless and I have survived there is no reason why
I should approximate myself to Sanchez or Ancona.
Yet I think that when we are inflated with the surfeit
of our knowledge we should not forget that for a long
time we were in another and maybe more blessed

46 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

state ; and I admit that for the student of psychology
it is delicious if you feel a qualm or two about your
boon-companion.

In the haciendas and the towns, with natives so
addicted to the Church, it is a potent influence for
good or evil which the Church possesses. Look you
down, if so it pleases you, upon the natives who can
apprehend so little of the Christian dogma what the
Tarahumares have, for instance, in north-western
Mexico reposes chiefly in the words Senor San Jose
and Maria Santissima ; for their Father Sun they
have adopted the words Tata Dios (Father God) who
is husband of the Mother Moon (the Virgin Mary)
but the missionary priests were useful and heroic in
so many ways, their flock had such a healthy joy in
its religion even now they dance in places round the
Christian emblems in a church at midnight with the
zeal of bygone generations dancing round the bygone
gods and for the selfsame purpose : to acquire
material benefits and health. Contrast that picture
with the Yucatecan church of Tecoh, which is often
empty, since the people have refused to worship under
a lascivious old man. That he should lead a patriar-
chal life, with children and with children's children
all about him, would not so much scandalise 1 a people
which is used to seeing priests come over with their
mistresses from Spain ; but he does not observe a
precept which was hanging until recently in a Cam-
peche Church the Bishop took it down because of
the attention it attracted from the tourists ' While

1 The Danish peasants, we are told by Von Raumer (' Geschichte
der Hohenstauffen,' Pt. VI, page 180), made themselves the cham-
pions of the humble priests against the bishops when, in the year
1190, it was mooted as to whether concubines should be dispersed. If
one allowed the priests to have their consorts, then, the peasants
argued, they would be less anxious to abuse the wives and daughters
of the peasantry.

COMO TAPABOCA 47

in the confessional,' it said, ' the priest shall not
solicit either sex.' The priest of Tecoh has the
ministration of some haciendas ; for example, at the
one called Pixyah, when a girl would not confess before
her marriage, they discovered why the priest excited
in her such repugnance. He remains because he speaks
the Maya language ; if the careworn Austrian
Archbishop could induce more estimable Yucatecans
to enroll themselves in this profession he would clear
the whole Augean stable. 1 As it is he cannot do
without the Spanish importations in his palace
there is only one (a secretary) who is not from Spain
and these are sometimes moral, seldom have they any
application, and the Maya language with its very
limited vocabulary is not often mastered. In the
haciendas if there is a priest he is too frequently an
agent of the hacendado, preaching as his mouthpiece
on a special point of discipline and telling him what
he has learned in the confessional. So they can
scarcely be ignored when you are dealing with the
Indian's life. As an example they are wretched :
Father Mir of Tizimin believes, like certain Indians
in some other parts of the Republic, that one should
not tamely go into a shop and buy religious candles.
The devoted Indian climbs into the tree-tops to collect
what has been left there by the wild bees ; sometimes
for a lump not worth two pennies he will hew a cedar
down which is worth twenty pesos. Father Mir
blows out the lighted candles at the earliest
opportunity, arranges them and sells them quickly
to another devotee. The corner which he makes in
candles, so that in the whole of Tizimin there is no

1 The instances have been restricted to as small a number as appear
to justify this accusation. * From Mexico southwards,' says a writer
in * Blackwood's Magazine' (November, 1911), 'the disorders of the
clergy, secular or regular, are notorious.'

48 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

other salesman, has been celebrated in a previous
book on Yucatan. Him and the priest of Tecoh I
have met, and they are not inspiring spectacles. The
custom with this Mir is to bequeath his mistresses
to the mestizo sacristans. A girl, whose mother was
a member of the sisterhood of Saint Vincent of Paul,
did not wish to marry one Antonio Puig, Mir's nephew
and chief sacristan ; she was obliged to do so and to
live in Mir's great house, which used to be a convent.
But one night Antonio, after a terrific scene, removed
his wife. A girl, Luisa Sosa, also was an inmate of the
convent, and her husband, a good mason but a
worthless man, allowed himself to be placated with
one hundred and fifty pesos, after he had come back
unexpectedly and witnessed his dishonour. Tizimin
has now become quite ant i- Catholic, since they have
had this Mir for eighteen years, and his parishioners
from time to time bombard him with French breakfast-
rolls. But both the wealthy and the poor among them
are continuously urged by thirty-two most earnest
ladies of the sisterhood to give a contribution towards
the upkeep of a saint ! In Valladolid was a priest,
by name Castillo, who raised up two families, the
mothers being sisters ; but they quarrelled. And a
gentleman (marked X), with whom I had been talking
when I photographed the secret-service man, informed
me how the priest of Tixkokob, by name Ancona, had
declined to let him marry a most lovely girl, the grand-
child of Ancona' s sister. Though the girl was just
as anxious to be married they were kept apart, and it
was only by the kindness of old General Canton, the
Governor, that the man was ultimately sent to
Tixkokob as stationmaster, and about this time the
girl whose letters had been intercepted had a son.
Ancona was then sixty-seven years of age ; he is now

COMO TAPABOCA 49

eighty-nine. She ran away, fell into some financial
difficulties, and the priest ' forgetting and forgiving
all that she had done ' presented her with 4000 pesos
and received her back into his house. Varela, priest
of Baca, vaunts the beauty of the local maidens, and
if you will come at fair-time he will see that you are
entertained. The doctor of a rich man called Mez-
quita, who had lately died at Izamal, told how the
priest would not communicate him on his death-bed
if he did not pay the Church a sum of 3500
pesos (one centavo for each 25 Ibs. an arroba of
hemp). Mezquita always had refused to pay the
Church's impositions ; so they bargained now, and
finally 100 pesos were accepted. But the Church is not
endowed, and if you want her services it seems to me
that one centavo per arroba is no very grievous tax.
There is this much excuse for the commercial spirit
in the priests of Yucatan their congregations never
would support them. ' In a town towards Campeche,
twenty-seven leagues from here,' an English-speaking
hacendado said, ' the priest leaves out of the convent
every Sunday morning with a game-cock, going to
fight in the open parade. After he goes into any rum
shop that is near and has his drink equal to anyone.
He says he is only a priest when he is in the church ;
outside he is like any other man.' Mendoza, priest of
Tizimin, had four children ; Aguilar, who succeeded
him, misled the fourteen-year-old daughter of his
cousin, living with her very openly ; Ortiz, a priest in
Merida Cathedral, had two children by a cousin, but
this happened when he was a village priest. The
children and the mother lived with Don Eusebio
Escalante and the priest made monthly payments.
Now, in virtue of his eminent position, he has totally
abandoned them. And this is only Yucatan we have

50 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

considered, for I will not speak of what I do not know.
But in two other States, far distant from each other,
when the Bishop and the priest go travelling round the
villages a handsome girl is put aside for each of them ;
she is much better dressed than she has ever been
and she is covered with a certain perfume. On the
other hand, the well-beloved Bishop of Tabasco could
not, on account of his exceeding poverty, go from the
capital to see his dying father. 1 And in many other
parts of Mexico the priests are, doubtless, very worthy
men, and I suppose that it is natural that one should
hear about the reprobates. But if the upper classes
who concern themselves in things ecclesiastical could
be more often pious than what in schoolboy's English
is called ' pi ' that is beato, if they struck themselves
less often on their breasts I think the priests, by their
activities and their example, would less often strike
the Indians to the mud. In Mexico the picturesque
is always round the corner : as the bell of Angelus
tolls in the watch-tower of an ancient farm you may
perceive the master and his Indians kneeling in the
long verandah, in the yards where precious hemp is
drying and among the twilit meadows ; when the
ceremony is concluded the grave Indian moves
towards his master, wishing him a happy night,
whereat the master gravely bows and wishes him the
same. Two hours later you may see a vast procession

1 However, it is not my business to compile a list of admirable
bishops. Or shall anyone whose roof lets in the sky be bound to
listen to the landlord when he demonstrates that this is quite unusual ?
There are, I do not doubt, a number of archbishops and of bishops
in the Mexican Republic who permit the sky to filter through them.
And it is, I hope, still less my business, to declare that I do not
attack the Church of Rome. * At the risk of appearing prejudiced, '
so write two recent travellers, * we must say that the Catholicism of
the country is so decadent that its disgraceful services would be best
done without.' I do attack the Church of Mexico which calls itself
Roman Catholic, as it might call itself Wesleyan.

COMO TAPABOCA 51

serpentining through the darkness, with a crackling
and a flash of fireworks, white-clad men supremely
happy, bent old women-slaves and women with the
rapture of Madonnas giving sustenance to babies who
resemble apes.

And now the discontent exploded. It was like the
sudden and complete upheaval of a house of cards.
This town was trembling at the near approach of
desperate ex-slaves, that town was utterly deserted,
here the agent of a farm was done to death and rail-
way trains were overturned and Aristegui tearfully
prayed for advice from Mr. Blake, the imperturbable.
The governor tried, indeed, to be a man of iron ; for
he summoned the two editors and told them, with a
meaning glance, that it would be unpatriotic if they
did not publish lies. (To the 'Diario Yucateco' it
would have been rather uncongenial.) And at
Catmis, where the valiant Yaquis and the Mayas
had entrenched themselves, the soldiers of the Cuerpo
de Seguridad Publica took to their heels with small
delay poor peasants, many of them had been made
to serve a second time in this militia. They departed
now so rapidly that as they burst into a station and
began to set a waiting train in movement it was
necessary for the doctor to abandon all his baggage
and run feverishly after them. It was like seeing lions,
said the Press. Two officers were told that they would
be court-martialled. In a few days Aristegui saw that
everything was lost, he telegraphed to Mexico for
troops, and when they came they were but numerous
enough to guard the banks of Merida and certain of
the public buildings. No hacendado with an unclear
conscience dared to show himself outside of Merida,
except to go down furtively to where a ship was. So
the despotism of Don Olegario and the boot-importer

52 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

went the way of despotisms. Merida was on the eve
of being captured, when a temporary Governor came
from Mexico, one General Curiel, who was received
with wild rejoicing. Thirteen members of the local
congress met that night, on the 13th of March, after
Aristegui had been actual Governor during thirteen
months and thirteen days. ' I venture to suggest/
said the presiding gentleman, ' that Senor Aristegui' s

application for a leave of absence ,' but the rest

was drowned in laughter. And the other members of
the Congress swayed upon their rocking-chairs and
vainly searched for inspiration in the ceiling and were
silent, even as a tongueless chicken in the old days
when a hacendado would have met his death if he had
been detected in his camp by Mayas whom he had de-
spoiled. The members of the Congress merely nodded,
as they had so often done before. . . . And two days
later, with a certain feeling of relief, I left the State.
And yet it had been glorious to march beside the
brave battalions and at last to see my dear and long-
afflicted friends triumphant. But with even such high
thoughts I could not keep myself from thinking,
pleasurably, of my own survival. If the hostile powers
never meant to slay me, they at all events had taken
to themselves this extract out of Arthur Hugh
dough's Decalogue :

Thou shalt not kill, but needst not strive
Officiously to keep alive.

And I was now disturbed by nothing, save to know
how much the secret- service men would want in tips.

It was a clear and cold March evening when we all
sailed out together from Progreso towards the setting

COMO TAPABOCA 53

sun. Our boat moved imperceptibly, and if it had
not been for the pale streak we left behind us I should
not have thought that we were moving. In the boat
came the dethroned one, Mufioz Aristegui, now
looking like a weary grandmamma, and his alert
young secretary who directed Public Works in
Yucatan. This person, Medina Ayora, put a bold
face on the business, but was forced at frequent
intervals to wipe his pince-nez with his handkerchief.
And on the boat, with the appearance of a burglar
who has had too much to eat, came likewise Don
Ricardo Molina. ' Our beloved editor,' so the
' Diario Yucateco ' had proclaimed that morning,
' travels to the capital of the Republic, there to occupy
his seat in Congress.' And though Congress was not
to assemble for another fortnight, he had come from
Merida by special train, out to the steamship by a
special tender, so consumed was he with passion to
begin his duties. And I think he was considering the
black points of his Fatherland, which as a legislator
he must help to rub away. At all events, Ricardo in
the yellow shooting-cap was very glum. He strode
about the deck and scowled, what time poor Munoz
querulously spoke into Medina's ear. For those three
comrades it was a most miserable world, this world of
ours ; the pallor which had fallen over it was universal
surely, and would surely last for ever. And behind
the boat was spread the pallid streak of foam upon the
dark waves that were laughing, laughing.

Far to the left of us were palms, and they were
bowing us farewell. The clumsy little tender rolled
across the purple waves ; not this black vessel on our
left and not the sun to which we steered could inter-
rupt the solemn laughter of the sea. That sun was
golden, with a lower part of red, as if the gold were

54 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

being manufactured in the crucible. And suddenly
the crucible was emptied of its treasure and red-hot
had fallen down on to the water's rim. Beyond it was
a region which had opalescent and frail clouds upon
the frontier and the sun attempted to set fire to
them. Not so impregnable to mourners is the
boundary of the land of dream and less alluring is the
frontier of the gracious meadows of the dead. Some
birds, black messengers, fly upward out of sight. . . .
A greyness overwhelms the sky, save where a spatter-
ing of red and yellow stains it and recalls the flag
which has now utterly been banished at my side
the yellow shooting-cap has Spain been banished
utterly ? But now the shore of Yucatan is nothing,
is a shadow on the margin of the sea. There, to the
south and east and west, the slaves have gone to sleep.
And one or two of them, the Mayas, dream about the
men who raised the pyramid at Chichen Itza ; one or
two of them, the Yaquis, dream about their brothers
in the mountains of Sonora. (Now the deputy is
talking to me.) One of them, perhaps, will rise up
from his dream and make it flash against the world's
indifference, as yonder lighthouse flashes on the
greyness. Presently we veer a point, the wind is
blowing at us straight from Mexico what is it that
the deputy was saying ? Then the clouds upon the
frontier change to lilac, and they are not so much cloud
as they are lace, from heaven falling on the sea.

My friend the sea ! It was on the next afternoon
that someone overheard the Public Works Director
and our deputy Ricardo as they plotted. But the
Yucatecan friend who overheard them was a sorry
negligible sight upon a deck-chair, and Ricardo,
clinging to the rail, informed the other that he would
reward him more than handsomely if he could

COMO TAPABOCA 55

penetrate into my cabin and secure the documents.
It would be such a good thing for the country, quoth
Ricardo. How he meant his comrade to proceed I
know not, and apparently such enterprises are not
in the province of a Public Works Director ; this one,
anyhow, was waiting for instructions. And the sea
grew very playful and Ricardo wanted to hear nothing
more about my documents.

CHAPTER II

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT
OF DIAZ

THERE fell into my hands one day in Mexico the
charming little book of Don Sebastian Lerdo de
Tejada. It was written 1 in New York in 1889, but
I suppose that there are fewer copies of it now extant
than there have been good Presidents in Mexico.
Assassination was the lot of those who printed it and
tried to publish it abroad. The second part ' In
Exile ' (En el Destierro) I have not as yet secured ;
the myrmidons of Don Porfirio have had the start
of me. But in the meanwhile I will give some ex-
tracts from the former volume, and its author was a
philosophic person very qualified to deal with such
a subject. He preceded Don Porfirio in office, having
come there automatically on the sudden death, in
1872, of the great Zapotec Benito Juarez. They did

1 I have reason to believe that Don Sebastian did not write this
little book himself, but that another exiled Mexican composed it from
the scraps of conversation, documents and letters he was able to
collect. If anything be fanciful one cannot for that reason say that
it is wholly destitute of value ; we must try to separate the wheat
and chaif. Don Trinidad Sanchez Santos, editor of 4 El Pais,' and
the most able publicist, perhaps, in Mexico, was of opinion that what-
ever is most intimate comes straight from the ex-President. It may-
be added that the man who generally is reputed to have edited this
book asked Don Porfirio, four years ago, if he might come back after
twenty years of exile. Diaz answered that he had got no objection,
but that he could not say what the attitude would be of Justice. And
the editor is very credibly reported to have stayed in the United
States.

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT 57

not in those days have Vice-Presidents in Mexico ;
the man who by the law succeeded was the head of
the Supreme Court of Justice. Lerdo de Tejada's
brother Miguel was one of the most eminent of Mexi-
cans, and as for him himself, a political opponent
an Imperialist has told me of an interview which
happened in Jalapa. 1 For an hour my friend was
pouring out his arguments with something more than
vigour, while Sebastian, walking up and down the
cloisters, occupied the next hour in corrosive criticism,
point by point, of all the arguments, and he had
made no single note. When he was President he
carried all his business in his memory. And he knew
how to write !

4 If there is any sting,' he says, ' in certain of the
pages, may my loyal and my faithful fellow-citizens
forgive me : fruits which to the ringers are most
rough are most delightful to the palate. This is not
a diatribe, it is no satire, no complaint ; but merely
some impressions which I should not like to die with
me. In exile I have altered my ideas on men, but
notwithstanding this the men have undergone for
me no alteration : that is to say, that I shall judge
them as before my glorious disaster of 1876.'

He met Porfirio Diaz in the first days of the
restoration of the Republic ; but he had already
heard of him from Juarez at the time of the Vidaurri
execution. ' He is a man,' said Juarez, ' who weeps
when he is killing.' And a few days later he was
seeing off some traitors at the station. He had
wished to have them shot, and now was breathing
words of consolation, while his handkerchief was

1 Capital of the State of Veracruz. Also spelled : Xalapa, and
pronounced almost like Ha-lappa. But of course we have retained
our own pronunciation jalap of the root of that plant which was
brought from there and is employed in medicine as a cathartic.

58 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

soaked with tears. He railed at the Republic for
this unjust sentence, and on the departure of the
train he waved his kepi and he wept. 4 Are you
aware,' said Don Sebastian to Juarez, ' that he is
eccentric ? ' ' What ? Has he been shooting some-
one else ? ' the President demanded. ' Not a bit of
it. He has been seeing off the traitors at the station.'
4 Yes,' quoth Juarez, ' either he is shooting people
or is bidding them farewell. . . . He is original ! '

It may be urged that Presidents in exile are not,
when they write of their successors, as dispassionate
as one would wish ; but Don Sebastian was too
humorous, too cynical, too wise to let his feelings
carry him away. ' In order to convert,' he says,
4 a friend into an enemy one look is all you need ; to
make an enemy your friend you will shed all your
tears in vain.' The prejudice with which we regard a
Latin- American, saying that he must be always at the
one extreme or at the other, and that cool apprecia-
tion is beyond his reach I think our author was not
so much tainted as are many Anglo-Saxons. Member
of an old colonial family, he knew his Mexico, and
treating of Oaxaca 1 (on whose soil a public man is born
as often as a public woman in Jalisco) he observes
that most of the celebrities, political and economical,
of Mexico have had their cradle in the southern State.
' Every baptism of a little Oaxacanian,' he remarks,
' is but another cypher added to the burden of the
Budget ; every wedding is a threat against the
Treasury. The education of a little Oaxacanian is
achieved as easily as crying : after he has read the
proclamations of General Diaz, the economic notes
of Don Matias Romero, and the diplomatic notes of
Mariscal he can obtain the first diploma and the first

1 Pronounced : Wa hacca.

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT 59

public employment. It is said that these children
do not weep nor suckle, but all the Oaxacanians
weep. . . .' They choose, he says, the sword or else
the law for their profession, and they are so morbid
that when they are not for killing someone they do
not commit suicide. ' Cunning and hypocrisy are
qualities inherent in a Oaxacanian, and he cultivates
with nice attention both these attributes of Nature.
His mission in the world is this : to last as long as
possible and nearly all of them arrive at being
centenarians ! to work as little as possible and to
live, to live well. . . . His determination is inflexible :
the courage of Juarez in the wilderness, and the
tenacity (by fits and starts) of Diaz, the heroic
patience of Don Matias piling up his nonsense, these
are three different manifestations of perseverance.
In whatever way it shows itself, this virtue elevates
the Oaxacanian : in a century of little muddy men
the men of bronze impose themselves. The Oaxa-
canians are men of bronze. . . .' Louis XI., of unholy
memory, was wont to use a Latin proverb which we
may translate : Who knows not how to feign, he
knows not how to reign. And this, says Don Sebas-
tian, ' is the strong side of the estimable Oaxacanians.
There is nothing we can call fictitious about Don
Matias : I conceive of him as being one of the most
famous fools in Mexico. But he is a bona-fide fool :
he thinks he is a man of talent. . . . And he has a
special tact : to lawyers he will talk about finance
and to financiers of the law, to diplomats he will
discourse on architecture and to architects upon
diplomacy. And if no person understands him,
everyone cries out his fame. Ah, yes ! if General
Diaz is a wonderful comedian, Don Matias as trage-
dian is sublime.' And we are told how Don Matias,

60 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

the bronze lion of Washington society (when he was
Minister), found that his melancholy countenance
was sometimes inconvenient, as when Lord Paunce-
fote at a reception took him for a lackey and gave
over to him hat and coat and stick.

Our author meditates upon the Yucatecans and
their neighbours of Campeche, who are given less to
politics, ' but when the Lord our God commands that
they should walk this road they do it with the utmost
energy. I do not know if they were friends of mine
or of my presidency, but I had a couple of Campeche
friends : Pedro and Joaquin Baranda. This Don
Pedro was a personage, theatrical and smart, such
as we only meet with nowadays, alas ! in the vignettes
that decorate the " History of Frederick of Prussia " ;
without having found himself in a single battle he
possessed the rank of General and (which is still more
tremendous) the reputation of a gallant fellow. . . .
Some days after the distracted flight of General Diaz
on the plains of Icamole this magnificent Don Pedro
spurred the Palace carpets and addressed me, " If
you authorise me, Sefior Lerdo, I engage myself to
bring the head of Don Porfirio Diaz." . . .

' " General," said I, " do not molest yourself. It
is sufficient if you bring his ears." . . .

' On the day after the action at Epatlan the same
Sefior Baranda said to me, " I should desire to sally
to Campeche, Mr. President."

4 " But the revolutionary Diaz," I replied, " ad-
vances by Oaxaca ! "

4 44 That is true, and I am anxious to demolish him
upon the sea."

4 44 All right. Remember, you are going to bring
his head ! "

4 4< His ears, Mr. President, his ears." . . .

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT 61

4 " Oh, very well ; whichever causes you least
inconvenience. ' '

' And he vanished, with a clink of spurs.' . . .

The memories of Don Sebastian have their varied
facets, and, although it does not deal with General
Diaz, we may quote the following adventure with a
dramatist. Chavero' s snuff-box was more perilous
than many hostile cannons, so the Army Secretary
used to say, and thus one gathers an idea of Don
Sebastian's manfulness. ' One night in February,
1874,' he says, ' a little person who was swathed up to
his eyebrows in a black and flowing mantle, with an
air of one of the fantastic folk of Hoffman, moved
towards me and : " I come," he said his voice was
melancholy " Don Sebastian, I come to speak with
you upon a grave and private matter. . . . Are the
doors all locked ? " " They are." " No one can
interrupt us ? " "No one ! not a fly, nor flea." . . .
Then the muffled person showed himself : it was
Don Alfredo Chavero ! Nervously he started fingering
a manuscript. Some idol that he has exhumed, I
thought. " The tempest of a kiss," quoth he. " I
beg your pardon ? " " That is what my work is
called : The tempest of a kiss." " Dear me, that's
good." " You think so, Senor Lerdo ? " " Certainly,
and it is most original. I have seen tempests in the
sky and tempests in a lover, even tempests in a glass
of pulque; but the tempest in a kiss . . . ah, what
originality ! " " So I have come," he was most
solemn, " I have come to read my drama to you. It
is worthy of great Calderon, says Dr. Peredo." . . .
" I am very sorry, but I have no time." . . . "In
that case, Senor Lerdo, let me read the first act to
you . . . hardly more than two hours." "It is
impossible, Senor Chavero ! " " Nor the argument ?

62 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

In two words I will tell it you. The niece of an aunt
falls in love with a cousin ; the cousin of the cousin
falls in love with the niece ; the tutor intervenes and
marries the apple of discord. The two cousins fight
and kill each other. The aunt of the niece dies of
anguish ; the niece dies also in giving a kiss to the
cousin number one. What a simple drama, what a
moving plot ! Do you not think so, Mr. President ? "
" Sublime ! only that . . ." " Yes ? " "I should
also kill the tutor." "Ah, but how?" "By
burning the drama." . . .'

And he gives the picture of another interview,
between Benito Juarez and the Princess Salm-Salm, 1
which has not been always truthfully depicted. ' The
Salm-Salm had about her nothing of romance :
American by birth and education, of the Anglo-Saxon
race, so cold and positive . . . she came twice to
San Luis to see Juarez; but these unexpected visits
had been instigated by the thoughtfulness of General
Diaz, who was eager to get rid of the Princess and
found no better way than that of sending her to us
at San Luis, assuring her that Juarez would forgive
the Archduke. But as all the acts of General Diaz,

1 This lady died in December, 1912. Miss Agnes Leclerc, as she
then was, met Prince Felix Salm-Salm in the early sixties when she
was a bareback circus-rider. Fascinated by her beauty, he married
her one morning at five o'clock, and the couple became two of the
most popular and most talked of people in America. The Prince
raised a volunteer regiment, and, her training having made her
absolutely fearless and a perfect horsewoman, the Princess was often
at the head of the regiment on the field of battle. Governor Yates
gave her a Captain's commission and pay in addition, but she gave
all the money for the wounded. In 1863 the Prince took part in the
Mexican Revolution, assisting the Emperor until 1867, when they
both were captured and sentenced to death. The Princess managed
to obtain from Juarez an order for her husband's release. He returned
to Prussia and died on the battlefield in 1871. She, for her services
as nurse in the same campaign, was awarded the Iron Cross, being
the only woman upon whom this coveted distinction had ever been
bestowed.

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT 63

even those that are most insignificant, are bound up
with duplicity, he gave to the unfortunate Princess
the letter of Pausanias. 1 As she only spoke German
and English, she employed the latter in her interviews,
and Don Jose Iglesias was the interpreter. These
interviews were not at all dramatic : Don Benito's
face was like a mask.'

It is not necessary that we should repeat the several
tales about the childhood and the youth of Diaz.
Other tales, of an heroic nature, have been told us
pretty often, and we have to cast aside so many
splendid adjectives that have been showered on his
later years, we have to come to think of such a
different man that we should be quite dazed if we
could not preserve at least those early stories. Don
Sebastian, doubtless, took enormous pains to make
investigations he had little else to do when he was.
exiled his ability is undisputed, but he may have
been deceived when he gave credence to these most
ferocious tales. When he refers, however, to the
celebrated skirmish of the 2nd of April and the birth
of Don Porfirio's widespread popularity he gives the
figures and we have to listen. Thirteen thousand
desperadoes, he asserts, flew down upon 4000 wretched
people, and it is a fact that fifty-six officers, captured
by treason, were dispatched at the command of Diaz.
There is some discrepancy between the various
historians. ' The Republican forces swept everything
before them,' says the Mexican ' Year Book,' and
that is what usually happens when 4000 are attacked
by 13,000. ' Their losses were cruel,' says the ' Year

1 This, of course, refers to the King of Sparta, who sent a letter to
Artabazus, a Persian Satrap in Asia Minor. The letter was treason-
able and the postscript said 'Kill bearer' (cf. Thucydides i. 132).
The passage in Homer about Bellerophon, who went to the King of
Lycia bearing a similar message, is in Iliad vi. 160, etc.

64 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Book,' which is really a most handsome volume
issued ' under the auspices of the department of
finance ' and published in two different shades of
red and gold in London at a guinea. ' Their losses
were cruel/ says the ' Year Book,' whose 700 pages
are so full of pleasant information that I think it
is the price alone which has prevented it from being
on the shelves of every family which knows our
tongue. An optimistic writer is the one who revels
in a circulation ; here we have a band of writers who
are all of them and all the time magnificently opti-
mistic. Those of you who have some sorrow in the
world, come buy this gorgeous book, and if you have
4000 wretched sorrows they will be annihilated surely.
In that part which is devoted to the blinding grandeur
of Porfirio Diaz it observes that 'their losses were
cruel,' and apparently 'tis not intended to have
reference to the fifty-six officers. ' The heroic
Mexicans,' so says another writer (and I do not think
that he is subsidised), ' captured one entrenchment
after another, and daylight saw them in possession
of the place.' Now what says Don Sebastian ?
' Everything,' he assures us, ' was in favour of General
Diaz : superiority in numbers, moral superiority,
and topographical superiority : there was no battle
and no strategy : the Imperialists fired a few cart-
ridges and deserted, especially the members of the
foreign legion, who had asked already for an armistice
from Don Porfirio.' It likewise is a fact that when
I was in Mexico some of the bolder spirits ventured
to protest against the naming of a street ' Dos de
Abril.' Says Don Sebastian, ' The rout of Marquez
and his retreat to the capital were due to General
Toro : the siege of Mexico is the most humiliating
page in the campaigns of Diaz. Not only did he

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT 65

prolong the siege at the instance of Marquez, but he
allowed him to escape, protecting him as far as
Veracruz. Afterwards, when the Republican Govern-
ment was re-established, wishing to balance his
military errors with an act of theatrical probity, he
gave back 300,000 pesos, which remained when he
had paid the troops.'

Perhaps, indeed, this reimbursement was not made
without an object, but we surely must believe
that Don Sebastian goes too far when he accuses
Don Porfirio of treating with Bazaine. ' On 15th
August, 1865,' he says, ' I sent a circular at the
command of Juarez to the chiefs of the Republicans,
announcing that the National Government would
never quit the country. These circulars came to the
hands of Escobedo, of Regules, of Corona, of Porfirio
Diaz ; in a note appended to them by the Minister
of War those leaders were required to read the
circulars to their respective corps in the Order of the
day, since it was well that all the people should have
knowledge of these patriotic resolutions. General
Diaz did not read the circular, although he was
commanded twice to do so. This unpardonable act
was not explained to us when we were in Chihuahua,
whether it was owing to the difficulties of transit or to
the prevalence of warring bands, but in San Luis news
was brought to Juarez, indicating that the motive of
the disobedience of Diaz was that he was in active
communication with Bazaine. ... In truth, the
traitor of Sedan in his attempt to grasp at Mexico
was, as is well known, treating with some chiefs of
the Republicans. Who were those chiefs ? Until
now all is conjecture and induction in this dark
affair ; and it is by conjecture and induction that
the crime may be explained. . . . Diaz was a prisoner

66 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

of the French ; could his escape from Puebla be
feasible, when he was looked on as a dangerous man ?
There should be still in Mexico a Frenchman of the

name of M , who carried several secret notes

from Diaz to Bazaine. . . .'

But after all we have the ' Year Book,' which is
published by McCorquodale and Co. Ltd., 40 Coleman
Street, London, E.C. (all rights reserved), and there
we learn that Diaz ' was destined to play so tran-
scendent a part, not only during the remainder of the
war against the French and against the Empire,
but . . .' and so forth. And besides, he is a patriot.
Did he not prove it when in 1876 at Palo Blanco he
gave out a proclamation to the poor, downtrodden,
outraged Mexicans ? The patriot (in Article 10)
promised ' to deliver the country from the oppression
of foreign enterprises.' This alone would seem to
indicate that he was not the sort of man to parley
with Bazaine, whose enterprise assuredly was foreign.
If, however, we give ear to Don Sebastian, we can
argue that men are not born to virtue, it must con-
stantly be thrust upon them, and one can become a
patriot in course of time. Eleven years divide these
incidents ; perhaps the General in 1876 had recently
become a patriotic person. He was very fine just
then; he undertook (in Article 11) that lotteries should
be abolished, as they were immoral, and if you still
doubt his patriotic fervour look, I pray you, at the
next Article, wherein he says he will not recognise the
English debt. . . . One has to bow to circumstance,
and Don Porfirio has not been able to fulfil these
promises in their integrity ; he said, for instance
(Article 1), that freedom of election should no longer
be a farce, and furthermore he promised (Article 7)
that the Public Power would not slay its enemies.

WHAT LERDO DE TEJADA THOUGHT 67

However, we may recognise that his intentions were
profoundly patriotic.

Don Sebastian remains the devil's advocate. ' One
of the most valuable qualities,' he says, ' of General
Diaz has been the ability to clothe himself in every
manner of disguise : he is the man of transformations,
physical and moral. In the former Garrick, Talma,
Coquelin are left behind, and as for moral metamor-
phoses the chronic rebel has become an ardent
friend of peace ; the incendiary of '71 favours the
formation of a fire brigade in '88 ; the cattle thief of
'74 advises on the rearing of black cattle in '87 ; the
tireless foeman of the railway from Mexico to Vera-
cruz in '75 hands out concessions in '77 ; he who in
'73 writes to a fellow-soldier and insults the Bar by
calling it a hospital of ink will presently preside at
meetings of these juris-consults. . . .'

But our latest extract from the little book shall
treat of something picturesque. A letter from Tepic
was sent in May of 1872 to Lerdo telling how in April
General Diaz, ' in the disguise of an ecclesiastic and
accompanied by one General Galvan, arrived at San
Luis, to beseech the help and the protection of Lozada.
It was no easy matter for Diaz to secure an audience ;
at last, after a thousand humiliations, he was received.
Lozada was standing up and had his hat on ; Diaz
entered and was followed by the insignificant Galvan.
His hat was in his hand ; he smiled most sweetly, as
he always does with hacendados whom he asks for
money. He wanted to embrace Lozada, but was
forced to be contented with an icy hand. Somewhat
disconcerted, Diaz then began to adulate the Tiger
of Alica, swearing that he burned to know him and
that he was honoured by the grip of such a hand.
He concluded his renowned harangue in this way :

68 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

" Persecuted everywhere, I come to find a refuge in
this land of liberty ; what a difference between Juarez
the despot and Miguel Lozada the hospitable and
magnanimous ; Miguel Lozada, whom those calum-
niate who know him not, and whom / feel bestows
on me an honour with his hand." Was the hero's
lying repugnant to the bandit ? Anyhow, a follower
of his commanded, on the next day, that the General
should leave the territory. . . .' [On the day after
receiving this singular letter, Don Sebastian went to
talk about it with the President.] 4 1 had already
unfolded the letter to show him, when he stayed my
hand and said : "I am certain it concerns our great
vagabond . . . my countryman, Porfirio Diaz."

' " Exactly. Have you had a presentiment ? "

4 " He has written from Tepic and promised to
prepare an ambush for Lozada, on the understanding
that I recompense him with ..."

' " But he has eaten bread and salt at the chieftain's
table ... he can never be so treacherous. ..."

'"No? read.

So much for Don Sebastian's story. Whether it be
true or false I will not say, but I have met an erst-
while friend of Diaz who was never elevated to the
rank of General ' because,' said Don Porfirio, ' he
would not lend me money, and I was obliged to make
myself so humble to the robber-chief Lozada.'

CHAPTER 111

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID

(A TRANSLATION)

[This interview, like that with Mr. Creelman, is the sum of various
conversations, only with the difference that he who wrote it has been* on
and off, a friend of Don Porfirio's for more than 60 years. He has
been good enough to let me take this chapter from a book that will be
published. Under Don Porfirio it would have been impossible to give
his name, without imperilling, perhaps his life, and certainly the publica-
tion of a very valuable and authoritative book. Now I am free to say
that it is Don Ireneo Paz, the venerable editor of * La Patria. ']

HTH FEBRUARY, 1909. At this moment, in the
clamour of the rockets, bombs and chimes and
motor-cars, amidst a multitude of the devout, they
celebrate the consecration of the new Archbishop of
Mexico, Senor Mora, in whose honour this imposing
festival is being held in the Cathedral that is at the
side of the National Palace. In this latter building is
the national Supreme Executive, General Porfirio
Diaz, who had possessed himself of the Government
at Tecoac, his third and successful revolution.

Exactly at a quarter past twelve, in the middle of
the day, when all the central streets were being
shaken with the fury of the bells and fireworks, an old
Liberal entered the Palace. He was one of those whom
nowadays we call contemptuously Jacobites, who
notwithstanding were accustomed in the early days
to fling themselves into the struggle with no personal
ambition, with no wish for lucre ; on the contrary, in

70 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

dissipation of their meagre fortune, of their health
and their domestic comfort, risking their lives at every
turn in order that they might give utterance to the
ideal which was rooted in their hearts, to form a people
of free men. The foundation of the Mexican Republic
is the work of these Liberals, as is the Constitution
promulgated in 1857, the separation of Church and
State, the independence which was secured at
Queretaro.

4 What noise may that be, Mr. President ? ' asked
the old Liberal, in perfect innocence.

General Diaz raised himself majestically from his
seat, walked to the balcony and glanced into the
street. Then he replied, in off-hand fashion, ' It
appears the new archbishop is being consecrated in
the temple there.'

' But surely the Constitution was not celebrated,
six days ago, with such enthusiasm.'

' It was not celebrated with any.'

' But the Constitution which has been our
laborious '

4 Do not deceive yourself, my friend. The Constitu-
tion has been no more than a pretext, so that we, the
i revolutionaries, could take Power by assault. We
' invoked the Constitution, we fondled it like a pretty
child, but really it has not been of the slightest
practical importance for a single President of those
who proclaimed it.'

4 At all events, it has assisted them in sustaining
their authority, since from the time of Comonfort
they have not ceased to call themselves Constitutional
Presidents.'

4 And ever since then it has been a mere obstacle '

4 Very well, General, we will talk of that. We have
known each other for too long, and we have always

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 71

been too candid with each other to be able now to hide
our thoughts. But apropos the consecration of this
new archbishop and all the turmoil they are making, I
permit myself to ask this question : Is it lawful to
be ringing all those bells and to burn all that powder
and to deafen us with the noise ? '

4 Heavens ! Don Pancho, it's not for you to ask me
such things, when you know as well as I do what the
people are who lead the Government. You know
that the Governor, the aediles, the police, all those
who have to do with public order, are the monks'
own servants. How can they rise up in opposition
to the ceremonies that are being made for an arch-
bishop ? '

' Perhaps the Reform Laws are not in operation ? '

' That is another scarecrow which should not be
touched by those who know as well as we do both
the Mexican people and its Governors.'

' Then let us leave these questions forjbhe present|
Besides, I have been wanting to a.sk ymi if t
interview which the papers publisher! a few month i
ago was authentic, that one which is said to have!
occurred between yourself and one Creelman,
American journalist* ?,*

' What surprises me is that sagacious men like yjpu
shouM have been capable of giving credit to such
folly ' [a seme j ante paparrucha].

4 Because I did not believe it, I asked you if it was
authentic.'

4 It's as true as a dead child ! You know me too
well to believe that I could stroll for hours upon the
terrace of Chapultepec, exhibiting the white of my
eyes and opening my nostrils excessively in order

1 ' Un de ses plus energiques et de ses plus habiles avocats,' says
the Review ' Le Correspondant ' (Paris) of August, 1911. H. B.

72 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

that the Yankee reporter may be able to give wings
to his fancy. What happened was this : a friend of
mine, a member of my Cabinet, came to read me the
article which was already manufactured [confeccion-
ado] for an American publication. It didn't seem
bad to me, or rather it seemed very good, because
without compromising me much it lent a lustre to my
antecedents and put me on a good footing for the
future, so that it gave me all the facilities which I
desired, whether to continue sacrificing myself for the
Fatherland or to shake off the dust thereof [zafarme]
in time if things should blow into a whirlwind [a
ponerse turbias]. I acknowledge to you that I thought
the writing was so well dressed up, so much in confor-
mity with what are not but should be my profoundest
thoughts, so seemly for our luckless proletariat, that
I accepted it unhesitatingly as if it had been inspired
by me myself, not making more than a very few
modifications on some entirely Yankee points of
view which would have put me in a very ridiculous
position, and I gave my consent to two things : that
it should be published in English and Spanish, and
that it should be amply paid for.'

' About how much was the cost of this work ? '

' Some fifty thousand pesos.' [Como unos cin-
cuenta mil pesos.] 1

' So that you approve of everything which is here :
that you are the most romantic figure, an unreadable
mystery, the foremost figure of the American hemi-
sphere ? '

' Who will weep if you give him bread ? They
serve up eulogies to me, let them continue. In the
first place, the size of political figures depends on the
eyes which look at them ; and in the second place, they

1 Surely this is a mistake on Don Porfirio's part. H. B.

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 73

are always immense when they pay fifty thousand
pesos.'

' Then did you not use those words with which the
conference begins : " It is a mistake to suppose that
the future of democracy in Mexico has been en-
dangered by the long continuance in office of one
President. I can say sincerely that office has not
corrupted my political ideas, and that I believe
democracy to be the one true, just principle of govern-
ment, although in practice it is only possible to
highly developed peoples. I can lay down the
Presidency of Mexico without a pang of regret, but
I cannot cease to serve this country while I live " ? '

'How could I have ever uttered such a series of
absurdities [seme j antes barbaridades], when certainly
I could not have kept my countenance while I was
saying them ? In the first place, this Creelman was
not so much of an imbecile as to believe the contrary
of what he saw and, moreover, those I govern, though
they are foolish enough [bastante esttipidos] as a
whole, are not so foolish as to think that I have now
got half a drachm \un adarme] of democracy in my
body. What democracy should I be going to have ?
And what should I want it for ? '

' But formerly you were a scarlet democrat.'

' Yes, formerly, not now. It is not the same thing
to be a shopkeeper and a merchant. I should like
some of those flaming democrats who spout in the
clubs to come and occupy my place for a couple of
years, and the same thing would happen to them as to
me and Gonzalez : in the first year, with the best
intentions, we wanted to have freedom of election,
freedom of debate, freedom of the Press, freedom of
all kinds, because we were also just as overflowing
[rebosantes] with democracy as all the theorists who

74 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

hear the cock crow and know not whence ; but each
of us began to see that this people is of those that
know nothing else than to fawn upon [encaramdrsele]
the man who treats them with a certain gentleness
[dulzura]. Here in this Palace we have proved the
truth of the proverb which says : "He who is of
honey will be eaten by the flies."

4 And, General, surely that is why you thought that
it was best to rule with a cudgel ' [garrote].

' Or with the slayer [matona], as the funny papers
call the sword I usually wear ? '

While he was saying this there shot from under his
eyelids one of those luminous looks which made
such an impression on Mr. Creelman.

Then he concluded, with something more of
serenity : ' Without having a firm hand, no President
will keep in power for four years in these Latin-
American countries.'

' Seeing that we are such intimate friends, would
it be possible for you to tell me with entire frankness,
with that frankness which you have employed in this
interesting conversation, whether it is true that you
desire to be re-elected for the period 1910-16, despite
the fact that you begin it with more than eighty years
upon you, an age which some imagine to be incom-
patible with the delicate business of governing a
nation ? '

' I will tell you, Don Pancho, that I hardly ever
speak the truth to friends or others when they ask
me questions about things I look upon as com-
promising [que considero comprometedoras] ; but this
time I assure you that I am speaking with entire
sincerity, because you are my old friend, because I
know you are discreet and because I feel the
necessity of throwing off the burden of this reticence

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 75

which I have had to keep within me during more than
thirty years, while I have had this Government
beneath my sway. Very well, yes only those who
are very short-sighted [muy meopes] cannot see that
I consider this position as my inseparable comrade.
I shall be very old next year, and older still in the
year that will follow. Even now I can scarcely hold
myself erect [erguirme] in front of certain people who
must see me whole and strong. God knows the
trouble which I go to so as not to give my hand to be
squeezed and to prevent a groan escaping me each
time I put myself to some unusual exertion. If they
do not re-elect me, a thing which has not passed
through my imagination, not even as a dream, I
should die the next month, because power has become
my second nature. I shall enter the Palace faltering
[gateando, lit. walking like a cat], but I shall enter at
the age of eighty years just as I shall enter at the
age of ninety-two, which is the maximum age I
promise myself, according to the strength of will I
feel within me and the calculation which I make in
order to preserve my best faculties, which are the
energy to defeat obstacles and the good eye to choose
my servants.'

4 So that you are already thinking of an election
after that one organised for 1910 ? '

4 1 am thinking of all those that can follow while
I preserve an atom of life, and I found myself on this
that nobody attempts to let me go [pretende dejarme ir]
and for no other reason than that everyone is horribly
afraid of the man who may come, and, so that there
may not come another whom they know not of,
neither the Mexicans nor the foreigners allow me to
go ; and as I want to go just as little, the result is
that my re-elections must be indefinite. Inquire of

76 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

anyone, with the exception of some few who have
ambitions such as Zufiiga y Miranda, 1 ask any
Mexican or foreigner there in the street if he does not
wish that I should convert myself into another
Jupiter, and they would I know it answer you that
they would like me to become immortal. Why ?
Because although I do not give them all those
frivolities [fruslerias] that they call public liberties,
I keep the peace for them, the friendship with other
nations, and a rSgime which is neither Republic nor
Monarchy, but which is useful to many people of your
acquaintance; they make their harvest, and those
who live on the budget have security for to-morrow's
bread and the others can work in tranquillity. They
throw it in my face, these few politicians, I know it
well, that I drown the aspirations of talented youths,
that I let no one rise up, not so much as raise his head
to put me in the shade, that with this peace it seems
a shame that orators cannot surpass themselves, nor
literary men, nor politicians, nor any of the intellec-
tuals of any profession, because I do not give them
a theatre in which they can shine, because I have
converted the legislators into mutes and the Press I
have put in a bag [en la picotd]. . . . And what ?
What is the value of this weight in the balance when,
on the other side, there is the whole nation developing
itself, progressing, making itself strong to assure its
autonomy in the future, and for a life perhaps full
of the grandest prosperity ? '

' I must praise again the candour with which you
are speaking, dear General. It is for me a novel and
complete revelation, this mass of ideas that you have

1 A gentleman interested in astronomy. His candidature, many
years ago, was not taken seriously. And to-day the playful under-
graduates are fond of calling him ' Mr. President. ' H. B.

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 77

been exposing for me, because I see behind them an
entire system of Government which I did not believe
you had so well considered. Now I am going to allow
myself to ask you a question : When do you think
that the people will be ready for democracy that is,
to change the personnel of its Government at every
electoral period, without fear of economic and political
upheavals ? '

4 Those who come after us will know. As far as I
am concerned, democracy did not suit me, and
therefore I suppressed it totally. It is easier to
govern an idiot people [un pueblo idiota] which does
not know how to elect, than whosoever mingles in
elections, because, even counting with the majority,
there always remain discontented fractions among
those who are beaten. When there are no votes there
are no victors and no conquered, and that is why I
have been able to keep myself in power for so long,
because this is a Republic which does not vote, does
not know how to fight [luchar], which has no candi-
dates, which has left everything to me as readily as
one gives other folk a troublesome burden.'

' Is it a fact, Mr. President, that you believe that
the middle class is the fountain from which democracy
is to be hoped for ? '

4 In the first place, I will tell you that I do not
believe that democracy exists or can exist among us,
and the reason is that we have no one who hankers
for it, save a person here and there. Everyone who
has what he wants flings democracy to the devil. And
as far as concerns the classes which compose society, I
have no idea that some of them are better than others
in political activity. The classes are three, according
to what they say : the high, the middle and the low.
Well now, look here, this is what I think of the three,

78 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

notwithstanding that I have /belonged to all of them.
The high class is that of the rich, that of the aristo-
crats, and as they say that extremes meet, this one
elbows the lowest class, having the same ignorance,
the same abject ness [bajeza], and the same dull and
vile [torpes y soeces] passions. Now that I have seen
from a very small distance [de cerca] all their hoggish-
ness, I am terrified, knowing that it is not there that
virtue thrives, nor intelligence, nor patriotism, nor
anything. All these people, counting as they generally
do on very great fortunes, which allow them to want
for nothing, are nevertheless those who make them-
selves most humble to the men in power, and also they
are those who know how to be the lowest in their
adulations. Very often a man of the people has more
dignity than a millionaire, and in the bosom of exalted
families one sees more horrors than among the people.
I repeat that I have been struck with horror as I
learned of things that never had passed through my
imagination. All this together, the immoral life of
the high class, their absolute ignorance of science and
the arts, their idle customs, their indifference to
politics, their nullity in every sense, their incapacity
even to know what sort of a thing is democracy and
where it is to be found. The low class has three layers :
a lowest one, which is upon the mud of depravity and
misery ; that which is a little higher and is formed
of the poor artisans who are equally vicious and do
not know of any government except that of their
employers who pay them for their work and punish
them when they do not accomplish it ; and there is
the class of the factory hands who already know what
a strike is, who are on the same level as others living
on their own little occupations, who know how to
read newspapers and argue about public matters, but

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 79

in the most disorderly fashion [mas desalinadd\, those
who have no more idea that there is a Constitution
and that in conformity with it they could, if they
desired, elect their authorities. And there remains
for us that which they call the middle class, which is
almost entirely suckled on the treasury. Apart from
artists, shop assistants, heads of workshops who have
not got wealthy and have not yet passed into the
aristocracy, hairdressers, pulque dealers, innkeepers
and sacristans, the rest are employes, and that is
where one really finds the intellectuals, and I count
as being such employes the men who are ministers
down to those who are deputies and schoolmasters.
Now tell me, Don Pancho, whether this is where
[en ese gremio] we can look for democracy. In
consequence I have hoped neither little nor much,
despite the assurance of Mr. Creelman that our people
will acquire education and will become democratic,
and as far as touches me it suits me to keep them in
an everlasting statu quo, so as not to be molested with
electoral tickets, which only those would use who
have some private benefit in view. Standing as we
are on the ground of sincerity, I confess to you that
democracy is of no more importance to me than a
serenade cuerno, 1 when once all those who count in
this country are disputing among themselves for the
honour of proposing, of entreating, of begging me to
go on in the Presidency, although many of them bite
their teeth [de dientes para afuera] and do it so as not
to be behind the rest, because they think they can
be certain that I am an old and useless thing. Look
for example at the personages who have formed the
aristocratic re-electionist club in which there are

1 A term of contempt, which at any rate is forcible. Lit. a horn
which has been left out over niyht.H. B.

80 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

more than a dozen who would like to meet me at a
dark corner. You will tell me, Don Pancho, if those
whom they call ' cientificos ' can be my partisans in
good faith when I am not a ' cientifico,' not even
secretly.'

6 So that if an opposition party should be
formed . . . ? '

4 1 would not be two hours in flattening it out, 1 as
I have flattened out all those who have wanted to be
hostile to me in whatsoever form. I should be a pretty
fellow to consent to little oppositions [oposicioncillas]
in Congress or in any part. At least in Congress you
have seen that as for those who have ruffled me [des-
templado] a little, I have taken their seats away from
them, and if some of them have come back it is
because they have come to offer me, almost on their
knees, together with repentance, the most absolute
obedience. Even these heterogeneous clubs that are
now being formed, notwithstanding that the first
thing they propose is my re-election, whether they
call themselves Liberals, Democrats or Jews, these
innocent clubs I do not let out of my sight, because
when they are allowed to take wings some of them
fly further than is convenient. There you have, as
examples, the Governments of Juarez and Lerdo who
got many headaches on account of the clubs and the

1 And if, like Nicholas of Montenegro, he had settled to allow an
opposition party, it is probable that much the same fate would have
happened to the leader of it as befell M. Radovich, the husband
of King Nicholas' niece, who has for years been kept in chains. There
is an island prison on Lake Scutari which has, except in size, a good
deal of resemblance to that island prison of San Juan de Ulua ; in
the former I found only six-and-thirty dungeons (all occupied), and
the prisoners fight not against tuberculosis but malaria. Another
point in which these picturesque and shrewd old gentlemen, Porfirio
and Nicholas, resemble one another is the praise which has been
showered on them by some ardent lovers of romance, of heroism and
of liberty. H. B.

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 81

little oppositions. No, Don Pancho, with me the
politicians either knock their heads against each other
[cabrestean] or drown themselves or remain quiet and
submissive or they have to pay me for it. With me
they have not got more than one of the two soups
that you know of. . . .'

The General laughed at his sharpness and proceeded
in an airy fashion :

4 They made me say that I consented that one
might suppose I had said of the opposition parties
that I would be glad to see them formed, as if people
would be so foolish as to fall into the trap ; but as they
knew me pretty well it was only a few who were so
stupid. As a rule, there is no one who opens his mouth
except in order to extol me, to applaud me, to deify me,
and all this is the result of my politics, that permit
everything except that someone should attempt to
put himself in front of me. While it is I who give
the orders, there is not going to be any other but
myself in the candlestick ; this is the only way
whereby we all of us can keep the feast and not be
interrupted. Every head is bending now, and God
deliver him who tries to raise up his.'

4 Would you cut it off ? '

1 There would be no help for it. And I should at
once repeat that good paragraph which Mr. Creelman
supplied me with and did it very well : "It was
better that a little blood should be shed that much
blood should be saved. The blood that was shed was
bad blood, the blood that was saved was good blood "
my blood, which always has been the principal.'

4 And is it a fact that you give preference to the
school over the army ? '

4 That is what they made me say, but I am not so
foolish. Neither the boys, not the masters, nor my
G

82 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Minister of Public Instruction, nor the whole collection
of books would help me to squash an insurrection
in Guerrero or a mutiny of the Flores Magon, while
with my soldiers and my cannons and my officers
who are got up now like Germans, I can make the
land tremble, above all, on every 16th of September
when they see the new elements of destruction filing
pompously through the streets of Mexico. Public
instruction has been of no use to me and never will
be ; while the less the Mexicans know how to think
the more will they be inclined to maintain me,
without suspecting, though, that I have carried off
their liberties and that I have made myself their
dictator. The slower they are in learning the longer
they will leave me in peace to govern them, believing
that I am the Most Holy Trinity.'

' But returning to a point we omitted, Mr. President,
about the re-election for the period after 1916, do
you think that you can preserve your old energy in
the six years following the Centenary ? Formerly
you used to give three audiences a week, and these
are already reduced to Mondays only, and not all the
Mondays ; your hunting-parties are less frequent, and
in fine, your application to business tends to cause
you more fatigue every day, and even illness. Are
you not afraid of seeing yourself deprived one day
or another of all participation in the Government ? '

' I am strong, but supposing that I cease to be so,
the only thing that will happen is that my secretary,
Chousel, will seize the opportunity to build another
house or two, like that one he has already in the
Colonia Juarez 1 and my Ministers will do the rest.
That which matters is that the whole world should
know I am at the front even though I do not govern.

1 A fashionable part of the capital. H.B.

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 83

The Mexicans will keep their fear for the God Moloch,
and the outsiders will keep high our funds.'

' Exactly. I do not want to abuse your kindness
further, General, and I am going to stop now that the
bombs are bursting and the bells out there have gone
back to this ringing. But let me ask you: is it true that
the Government has made some arrangement with
the church bodies in virtue of which these corporations
can break the Reform Laws, establishing convents on
all sides and making public scandals such as the
recent coronation at Oaxaca and this one now with
the consecration of the new archbishop ? '

' Look here, Don Pancho ; you must pardon me if
I regard your question as impertinent, and here are
the reasons : a public man, as you know, who controls
a Government like mine cannot frame contracts of
this kind, either expressly or tacitly. In this last
form perhaps there is something which consists
solely in dissimulation, in tolerance, and which can
also call itself the method of true liberty. So long as
the acts of the clergy do not cause harm to the Govern-
ment, why should they be stopped ? The Reform
Laws, like all others, must be a little flexible : one
can use them, according to circumstances, by making
them tighter or slacker. At the present it has been
arranged to slacken them so that we may all be in
peace. If it cheers them up, the priests and their
satellites, to crown a virgin or to consecrate a new
archbishop, why not ? Whom do they harm with
these innocent entertainments ? . . .'

4 They harm the Liberal creed/ exclaimed Don
Pancho as he roughly interrupted the first magistrate ;
* they harm the ignorant by keeping back their moral
progress ; they harm the credit of the whole nation in
the eyes of foreigners who think that we are forming

84 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

here a people of fanatics 1 . . . and these same
fanatics grow so arrogant as to believe that they are
governed by Santa- Anna or by Miramon.'

4 Quiet yourself, my friend, and above all consider
what is the result of throwing broadcast these stale
[randas] ideas which are out of harmony with the
present age of evolution. Nowadays the men of
science, the really clever men, are laughing at our
old Jacobitism which has become inadequate in face
of modern methods of experimentation. . . .'

Don Pancho opened his eyes enormously and fixed
them in terror on the President, saying at the same
time to himself he was amazed : ' But is this the
same Porfirio whom I have known for more than
sixty years ? '

1 We may note that certain foreigners were not repelled by this fanati-
cism. On the contrary and as an illustration of their enterprise, if
nothing else, we have Lord Cowdray's firm which tried to float upon
the top of the fanatic wave. Three or four years ago they brought a
mighty poster out, adjuring Mexicans to use their oil, and saying that
His Holiness the Pope advised this course of conduct. When that
poster came into the hands of the ' Petroleum World' of London they
addressed it to an influential and trustworthy correspondent at the
Vatican. Perhaps in Mexico it had been some small parish priest who
told his congregation that he liked this oil and, on the other hand,
perhaps it was not so ; but what is certain is that from the Vatican
came the reply one would expect, which poured cold water on the
troubling oil.

However I would not suggest that business and religion should be
strictly kept apart. There is, in Mexico again, the case of Mr. Stilwell,
a most ardent Christian Scientist, who is constructing a great railway
down from Kansas City to the State of Sinaloa. He is in the habit of
conducting parties of Americans and other magnates through the
country, and when they are sitting round him in his private car he
will discourse upon the future of his railway very glowingly and after-
wards give very lucid answers to financial problems. After this he
gives them each a book of Christian Science hymns, and with his
secretary playing the harmonium he leads the voices ; and it is
delicious when those corpulent old gentlemen take from their mouths
the fat cigars and warble. Sometimes one of them at the conclusion
of a hymn or even, prematurely, of a verse, will have financial doubts
as to the railways. He will ask a question and he will be satisfactorily
answered. Then the singing is resumed. . . . Unfortunately, since I
wrote these words, the railway has gone into liquidation. H. B.

WHEN DON PORFIRIO WAS CANDID 85

The President continued quietly :

' We have no pact whatever with the clergy.
We let them pray, we let them build and decorate
their temples, we let them foster clandestine associa-
tions, we let them peal their bells and make some
processions so long as they do not interfere in any
way with us, except if it is to preach a blood-curdling
sermon or so in exchange for the gory articles that
the Liberal sheets devote to them.'

' But also they are heaping up treasure a menace
for the future.'

' There will be someone there who will compel them
to disgorge again ' [la segunda desamortizaciori].

And as the President arose to stretch his hand out
to one of his Secretaries of State who had arrived by
appointment, the interview concluded. As Don
Pancho left the room he stumbled against the door
and against the adjutants, and presently his pointed
silhouette vanished . . into the distance.

CHAPTER IV

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE

IT may sometimes be bad business if you kill a man.
Well, I have written all that sentence very carefully ;
one has to be so careful when one writes of Mexico.
For instance, there appeared a rather scathing book
which dealt with one particular division of the country.
I do not say the book was free from all sensationalism
or from all exaggeration, neither can I say that I am
a complete admirer of the tone of it. Still there
was truth, and damning truth, on many of the pages,
but a Mexican who lived for years in England was
disgusted. He denounced the book as being so much
libel, garbage, treachery and malice. He was on the
point of writing to the papers so that nobody in
England should believe a word of what this book
contained, because there was a sentence in it saying
that the President attired himself in plain blue serge.
But fortunately this good patriot desisted. He did
nothing more than tell to all and sundry that the
book was quite untrue and that he was prevented
by official prudence from displaying in the papers
how absurd it was. I shall attempt to be meticulous.
Of course, if a mistake should be discovered in this
chapter, I might avail myself of the argumentum ad
hominem and an example which occurs to me is that

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 87

of Valladolid. But this I will not do. I will believe
what I was told by the Porfirian authorities ; they
said that of their soldiers eight were killed by the
insurgents of the frontier-town. Some thirteen
carts were needed for the Government's dead servants;
but no matter I will be as accurate as in me lies.
And having said that it may sometimes be bad
business if you kill a man, I am prepared to give the
figures : it is bad sometimes to the extent of rather
more than forty dollars Mexican. This is the price
you will have paid, and one must calculate the interest
on capital. At other times a man is quoted at a price
much higher, but I am not going to be sensational.
What Pancha Robles usually pays at Tuxtepec is
forty dollars, and she sells the contract-labourers,
the enganchados, more or less at sixty-five dollars,
delivered in the hacienda. She is thoroughly notorious,
a woman who engages in this lamentable traffic.
Agents whom she has in the large cities go about
collecting people, and if there should be a shortage it
is made up in the gaol of Tuxtepec, which like the
other gaols of Mexico one enters with a fatal ease.
Of course, the contract does not mention that the
men are sold for life, but when the six months period
is over they are usually well in debt and may not
leave before it has been paid. A hacendado, with a
shrugging of the shoulders, will deplore his country-
men's improvidence. As owner of a reputable hacienda
he could not have tolerated any of the dirty clothes
in which the slave arrived ; he gave him others at a
certain price and these were of such good, enduring
stuff that very often one could sell them at the same
fair price to four or five or six successive slaves.
Thus would the debt begin ; a man should really take
more trouble to arrive with decent clothes. The

88 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

hacendado who is called Don Jose Sanchez Ramos
has a manager defective in the science of arithmetic.
The workmen are obtained, at fifty cents a day, from
villages about El Faro. When the week is done they
ask for six times fifty cents. The manager reminds
them with a curse that ere they came they had two
dollars ; with another curse he says that nothing else
is due, and if they will not work, the hacienda will be
made unpleasant for them. These practices, I have
been told, did not prevail a little time ago when
Seiior Ramos had the President of the Republic as a
partner, but there is just now some difficulty in
securing workmen for El Faro, and if the officials of
the villages did not oblige the people to present
themselves, a myriad of coffee plants would go to
rack and ruin. Should a labourer escape, he has to
pay the sum of fifty cents a day for each of the
policemen who pursue and catch him. So the debt is
always mounting up. The slave may not be sold for
life, but when he is allowed to leave there is not, as a
rule, much life left in him I have been inside the
hospital at Tuxtepec. An enganchado from the
capital, I readily admit, is not among the most robust ;
he has been undermined by pulque 1 and disease.
Nor do the two small cups of aguardiente every day
(their value is a little under two cents each, and he
pays six) improve his health. The diet is frijoles and
tortillas. There are folk in Mexico who tell you with
considerable indignation that it is a curse when
tourists bribe an editor to put their articles into his

1 An alcoholic liquor which is got, all over Mexico's high central
plateau, from a cactus. It is said to taste like sour buttermilk and
certainly it smells like nothing else, but is consumed in frightful
quantities. Another beverage, procured in certain parts of the States
by roasting cactus roots and leaves, is mescal. The late governor of
Sinaloa told me that his first (and last) year of office saw 188 murders
the total population is 296,701 and mescal is the common cause.

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 89

magazine ; they rush through the Republic and are
so misguided as to talk of the employers who provide
no sustenance but beans (frijoles) and small cakes of
corn (tortillas). If the tourist were to live, as they
have done, for twenty years in Mexico, perhaps then
he would come to know that grouse and salmon are
not what the lower classes look for. Beans and corn
cakes are the dishes of the great majority what
would you more ? I would, for my part, like to have
the beans in a condition not so adamantine, and the
tortillas likewise would be far less formidable if they
were not nearly raw. ' It makes me sick,' said an
American to me, ' yes, sick when I am reading all that
nonsense of frijoles and tortillas. I can stand a lot,

but really ' Well, I do not know if he had seen

the kind of women who are set to make tortillas, each
one for a dozen enganchados. From their looks you
would imagine that they never have been anything
but sick ; a few of them are on the eve of motherhood,
not one of them has strength enough to break the
corn. So it would not require a connoisseur to see
that even six months has reduced the enganchado's
value to a sum far less than sixty-five dollars, while
the rustics who have been retained for various weeks
at the plantation of El Faro could, one fancies,
hardly get the manager to promise them a larger sum
than thirty-five cents daily if they were to stop.
But when the enganchados march away from Tuxtepec,
with Pancha Robles riding near them and a pistol at
her side, she probably is thinking that it is a good
investment, and she must have been annoyed at
losing seven whom her son was taking to the hacienda
of a Spaniard or a Mexican. He killed them bang
went seven times forty dollars and the interest on
capital. Moreover, when young Robles had been

90 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

unmolested by the judge of first instance he was put
in prison at the order of the jefe, and he is in prison
at this moment. Pancha was away on business
when I called ; and the attractive woman with the
brilliant eyes, who is her housekeeper, invited me to
wait until the evening of that day. Herself she walked
across the leafy road towards another house, picked
up a pig and took it in with her, while I was at the
window of the modest house of Pancha, looking through
the iron bars. There is not much to see : at one side
of the room is nothing, at the other side a humble bed
around which, on the wall, are hung a scarlet box, a
bunch of telegrams, an English shooting-cap. There
is a little shelf above the bed, and there, illuminated
by a flame which dances on a saucer full of oil, one sees
a picture taken from an illustrated paper. I am
anxious, as I said, to stick meticulously to the facts,
and if the picture is not one of ' The Good Shepherd '
I am too short-sighted to be positive it represents
a bishop with his crosier and a flock of sheep. Ah,
Pancha mia !

At this point I will assume that he who reads this
chapter cannot tolerate me anymore. * Fancy making all
this bother,' he exclaims, ' about the town of Tuxtepec
and its vicinity/ As if one could not find an evil spot
in every land ! How can I write on justice, I that am
unjust ? There is no difference between me and those
wretched people who for some dark purpose have
invented lies about the country, saying that the Press
enjoyed no freedom, that there were no juries. All
these statements have been utterly denied, and it
may be that any others would have been denied by
the sagacious Council of Administration of the
American Colony, assembled in the club-room of the
4 Herald.' They assembled there perhaps because

Peasants in the State of Veracruz.

Half-an-hour before execution.

The camera had to be held under the photographer's coat, and
he only succeeded in snap-shotting three of the five men.

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 91

there was no other room available. But I protest
that it was cruel. We might just as well meet in the
dungeon of a prisoner and talk so gaily of the freedom
of the world. Tis said that money talks ; 1500
dollars, I believe, were laid each month upon the
4 Herald's ' pen I hope they will excuse me if it was
2000. And I am so grieved to have to contradict the
Council of Administration, but there really were no
juries anywhere in Mexico save in the Federal District.
I thank God that Mexico is not entirely destitute of
juries, for the Council and myself have something still
in common I can utterly deny the statement that
there were no juries. Yet the subject is of small
importance, as it happened very often that there was
no trial. Those two who were dealt with in Colima,
for example what was it to them if juries or no
juries throve in the so-called Republic ? Having
been suspected of a crime their house was entered by
gendarmerie and one of them was in the kitchen when
they slew him, while the other citizen succeeded in
escaping to the church. He begged the priest to save
him, but gendarmerie arrived and shot him straight-
way through the head. Police in other countries
have been guilty of excess of zeal, but here the Gover-
nor of Colima shielded them, and if the priest had not
moved heaven and earth the jefe would not have
received his punishment of eighteen months in prison.
But I am unjust again. It is so easy in a land the size
of Mexico to find some evil spots, if one goes search-
ing here and there and everywhere ! Yes, that is true ;
I will return to Tuxtepec. There, in the neighbour-
hood, five men suspected of the crime of theft were
shot, nor was it long ago. The trial took place on the
previous day, when they were hung up by a certain
portion of their bodies, in the hope that they would

92 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

satisfy the jefe's conscience and confess. 1 You will
declare that I am merely putting down a series of
abominations, with no object other than a sordid one,
and if it be conceded that my object has a different
character oh, surely, surely, it is a mistaken object,
for the Government of Mexico was doing what it
could to set its house in order. That is what they said,
and who am I that I should disbelieve them ? For
the moment it was necessary to hang up a lot of people
(I give verse and chapter elsewhere), to suspend them
by their thumbs, etc., since they were obstinate with
their confessions. But one should have the politeness
to believe a Government if it is civilised. Yes, then
I might, I would at all events have made an effort to
believe. It was a Government of force. Themselves
they did not make the slightest effort to induce us to
believe that they were anything more modern. Those
eight soldiers who were killed, as we have mentioned,
in the Valladolid battle, are a proof, because the State
acquired their rifles from the Federal Government.
These rifles numbered ninety-six, and who will say
that such a Government did not arm its retainers to
the teeth ?

LET us begin at the beginning. Over those who sit in
justice was the Minister of Justice, one Fernandez,
uncle to the wife of Don Porfirio. Far be it from me to
insinuate that in a flock of white sheep he was black
or grey. No ; on the contrary, he was a most affec-
tionate old man who had forgotten totally that he

1 It will be seen upon the photograph that two or three musicians
were included in the shooting party. * Pompa mortis,' says Bacon,
' magis terret quam mors ipsa.'

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 93

was Justice. And it would be ludicrous to lay the
Pita question or a hundred other questions at his door.
'Tis true that he made the report on those who were
condemned to death, which does not mean the
murderers, but still a goodly number of the population.
Then the President considered his report, and from
the tenor of it, I presume, gave out the final sentence.
In this life of ours there is no weapon that is half as
strong as luck you would perceive the truth of this
supposing that your life depended on the words of one
who babbles, who does not remember that there are
such things as words. But, bless you, he would not
hurt a lamb. . . . This Pita was a pretty fellow,
who was not so much oppressed by multifarious duties
he was Jefe Politico at Puebla but that he could
ride a hobby which is taken from the ways of Rome.
We have forgotten many things we learned at school,
but Pita had remembered beautifully how the Romans
used to farm their taxes ; and he paid the Govern-
ment of Puebla certain pesos every year so that he
might collect and keep the fines. He also was the
person who inflicted them, and it would seem that the
Poblanos were addicted much to finable offences,
since whatever be the sum that Pita had to give the
Government we did not hear of him lamenting that
the fines were insufficient. By the way, some foreigners
might urge that if a jefe be permitted to avail himself
of this old, classic system and he be unscrupulous
well, well ! to show that the position of a jefe is not
such a gold mine, I have merely to adduce the
instance of a gentleman who went about among the
four or five rich people of a Jefatura in Oaxaca over
which the Government had asked him to preside.
One of the wealthy folk, an English manufacturer
long domiciled in Mexico, was willing to assist the

94 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

future jefe with a hundred pesos every month, another
person undertook to give his 60 pesos, and in this way
some 300 pesos were collected in the district. That
was not enough; the gentleman was forced to tell
the Government that he could not accept the post
because the contribution of the Government (150
pesos) would but bring the total up to 450, while the
candidate had settled to refuse the offer if he could
not have 500. Clearly he did not look forward to
receiving even 50 pesos from the fines, that peaceful
region of Oaxaca being different from Puebla. Here
at any rate we have a good example of the scrupulous :
a person who declined an office rather than that he
should be obliged to be unjust towards his flock to the
extent of 50 pesos yearly, 50 pesos if the worst should
come to the worst and there be not a single finable
offence. Those of my readers who have not been
domiciled in Mexico may think uncharitable thoughts
about the English manufacturer and all the rest who
were prepared to help the jefe, in whose hands the
local justice would have been deposited. Of course,
it is quite admirable that a Minister of Justice should
be dedicated to high thinking and plain living, but if
this ideal had been carried by the Government to an
extreme and the official ran the risk of starving
swiftly, then the moneyed people of the neighbourhood
would have been uncharitable had they let the tragedy
enact itself before their eyes. Poor jefes I Sometimes
you would see one stepping of his own desire out of a
place of splendour, as did Primitivo Diaz, chief of
Merida's police, who had himself transferred from all
the fascinations of the capital of Yucatan, because he
said that in Progreso he would have much more to do.
And let me tell those happy persons who are un-
acquainted with Progreso that it is a settlement of

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 95

wooden houses partly buried in the raging sand. Far
out at sea there will be one or two or several ships, and
sometimes, when the sea is fairly calm, the passengers,
or what is left of them, are landed with the help of
tugs and barges in just under half a day. Progreso
is the port of Yucatan. A great amount of merchan-
dise comes through the custom-house, and for a long
time under Diaz this amount would have been greater
still if, in the complicated act of disembarking, it were
not the fate of merchandise to pass through many
hands. The traders up in Merida discovered that a
large unduly large proportion of the goods evapo-
rated in the journey from the vessel to the shore ; they
told their agents at Progreso, but these people, aided
by the chief of the police, discovered nothing. Merida
began to be dissatisfied with Primitive ; at his own
request he had been taken to the port, and the
condition of the port was worse than ever. Primitivo
was a clever man, no doubt ; a man who could without
the least asceticism save a handsome fortune out of
his restricted pay. Another Diaz but that is another
story. ' Primitivo' s cleverness,' said those of Merida,
4 has been of no avail to us.' 4 Have patience for a
time,' said Primitivo ; ' I shall run the fellows down,
cost what it may.' So Merida endeavoured to be
patient, and he finally did run them down, four of his
own subordinates. It must have cost him dearly in
his innermost emotions when he spread abroad the
infamy of these four men, since they were joined to
him first by the link of being his subordinates and
secondly because they were, without exception, from
his native province of Galicia. Sundry persons at the
time remained dissatisfied with Primitivo, saying that
the stoppage of the leak had cost him dearly. But a
merchant, both in Merida and London, goes about

96 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

asserting that he has no time for gossip ; a subscrip-
tion was begun, and Primitivo got a golden watch.
. . . But we are giving way to gossip, which is not the
method for approaching an austere and elevated
subject. We committed the initial fault in our
assumption that there could exist both justice
and ' Porfirian ' justice, whereas the special features
of the latter which we have recorded can most
probably be matched a hundred times in the great
book of ' Justice.' Let us hope so, for it is by the
digressions from your cold, inexorable, written justice
that the soul of what is human enters in, and justice
after all exists for human beings. Some of the
digressions will be good, and others, many others, bad.
The principle is excellent. And if in this account the
bad digressions have been given greater prominence it
certainly is not because there are no good ones.
Justice would not lay upon the impresarios of Mexico
the burden of those 30 pesos per performance which
they send to Spain. She is the Motherland, of course,
and many of the pieces are from Spanish pens, but
it was infinitely better than mere justice ; it was
overflowing generosity which prompted Mariscal, a
recent Foreign Minister of the Republic, to arrange
than any piece of Shakespeare or Puccini should make
equal tribute. Some will say have said that by this
generosity the drama is not benefited, since the 30
pesos are a handicap for struggling, little theatres ;
but Spain was grateful, and conferred on Sefior
Mariscal a decoration. There we have an instance
where there is more generosity in ' Porfirian ' justice
than in justice. And if I have laid more stress upon
the questionable phases of the former it is owing to
the curious and sorry fact, methinks, that we you, I
and most of us prefer the sorry side of life. What-

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 97

ever be the reason for it, we go naturally to the shade,
we have a greater sympathy with what is in the shade.
So it must be acknowledged that our picture is
distorted, since we have not paid enough attention
to the admirable features of ' Porfirian ' justice and of
its servants. These confess that they have imper-
fections, and they sometimes make enormous progress
in a little space of time. For instance, I was staying
with a friend of mine, a Frenchman, in the capital.
He lost his cook, to whom he had entrusted 20 pesos
for the purchase of supplies. And the police were
absolutely honest, saying that it was beyond their
power to find the man. But if my friend would point
him out to a policeman at a railway station, just
as he was thinking to escape, then the policeman
certainly would apprehend the villain. Thus my friend
will be excused for his comparatively low opinion of
Porfirian police. A few days later we were in the
thick of insurrection ; those who came into the open,
armed with rifles and machetes, could be easily
distinguished, but it did not seem to be a simple task
for anyone to drag the hundreds of conspirators into
the daylight. Yet the Mexican police accomplished
this, and very rapidly. They settled in their mind
that So-and-so was a conspirator, they flung them-
selves into his house, they seized the mattress,
galloped off with it to the police-station, and behold,
when they had ripped the vile thing open, it was
always full of compromising documents. My friend's
opinion of the Mexican police was changed completely;
and we never, never heard of one mistake. No mat-
tress which they ripped was destitute of documents. A
warning flew round all the rebel camp henceforward
mattresses shall not be utilised. But it was all in
vain ; the Mexican police continued to discover

98 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

documents in every mattress. . . . But I am not sure
if by the piling up of illustrations I shall paint a real
picture. And we are assuming that it is a subject
profitable for a foreigner to study. In the books upon
these more or less exotic countries it appears to be the
custom to devote a chapter to the glories of the
pasture-land on which the beef of Britain will be
some day grown, another chapter to the glories that
are hidden, more or less securely, in the mines, another
chapter to the glories of the railway that will soon
return a dividend a glorious surprise for those who
have the shares another chapter to the swarthy
rulers of the country, veritable statesmen, with a
retrospective and reproving chapter on the country's
efforts, from the Spanish days, to rule itself. But
there is nothing said about the 'justice' of the country,
though the subject seems to cry for some investigation.
It will give most valuable data to the student who
sets out to study race-ideals. Take, for instance,
honour as it is defined among the schoolboys of
England, the officers of Germany, the lawyers of the
State of Veracruz. From time to time this special
point of view of honour clashes with the country's
justice, and it is instructive to observe what happens.
At Jalapa lived a wealthy man, with mistresses and
children. He repented of his ways and did the best
he could by marrying one mistress. She, the youthful
mother of a boy and girl, had got a brother who did
not concern himself with these domestic questions
until he had legally become the rich man's relative.
A lawyer F. Gonzalez Mena had ideas of honour,
and he inculcated them into the youth. According
to his notions it was contrary to honour what the
wealthy man had done, it was high time to rub away
the blot. And in the courtyard of the ancient, flower-

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE 99

buried house in which I stayed, when I forgot the
whole world and its grandeur in Jalapa, he gave
his disciple shooting lessons. Other people might
have his ideas of honour ; that which merits our
consideration is the attitude of Justice. We learn
something of the Germans' character from knowing
how far they let loose the hounds of justice after
an official has exhibited his honour, been perhaps
compelled to do so, in a ruthless fashion. When
the rich man had been murdered and his widow
had secured her legal portion of the millions, when
the young man's elongated trial was concluded and
the lawyer likewise had secured his portion, then the
justice of the country did not quarrel with this lawyer's
sense of honour and it saw no reason why he should not
be, as he was under Don Porfirio, a member of the
House of Deputies. . . . And so the study of 'Porfirian'
justice may be profitable, and it might once have
been profitable in the common meaning of that word.
Don Abelardo's post of judge was vacant, for he could
not carry out the Government's instructions. And he
told me that the salary was adequate. Well, they may
charge me with excessive optimism, but I think that if
the Government had not been overturned the number
of such vacancies would have increased. And some-
times there were opportunities for advocates, if it should
be against the Government. I personally knew some
independent advocates of Merida, but these might
all be exiled simultaneously, and when a Russian
engineer, at work upon the circus cupola, fell out with
Avelino Montes, who was over him and was the
Governor's son-in-law, the post of advocate was
vacant until one could be imported from the capital.
But if I seem to hint that in the execution of his duty,
whether as a judge or advocate, a man was liable to

100 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

interference, if I have deterred some enterprising,
rather briefless comrade from the law in Mexico as a
profession, I would duly place on record that the
Government and town official was, in the majority of
cases, screened from interference. When the House
of Deputies was burned, a citizen who lived beside it
was prevented from an interference with the firemen.
There is this much to be said for him he was
impatient, as the fire brigade had not been able to
drive up for something like an hour and twenty-five
minutes ; possibly, too, he was patriotic and did not
wish the house with all the archives and the sacred
Act of Independence to be swallowed by the flames.
What he said was, ' Here is water.' And they
threatened him with Belem if he interfered. Some
people say that it was very fortunate for Don Porfirio
Diaz that the archives were destroyed, but if a
compromising document or two was really there could
he not have removed them in a quiet way or else
promoted the custodian to another office ?

Ill

THERE was no justice in Mexico. I do not say there
was no mercy, for if you should haply be a general or
a bull-fighter they would be merciful. Suppose you
found it needful to commit a murder, as did General
Maas, who in a suburb of the capital fired point-blank
at the unarmed brother of his mistress. You can
plead that Maas was sent to prison for some months
and then was reinstated on the active list, maybe
because he proved himself a better shot than most of
them. You would have mercy if you were a general ;
and a bull-fighter not long since killed a woman on a

PORFIRIAN JUSTICE .101

Saturday. They put him into prison, but the populace
would have been furious if he had not appeared, as
advertised, the next day in the ring. So the police
allowed him leave of absence for that afternoon and
he prolonged it by escaping into Texas. Someone
had to meet the charge ; his brother was arrested and
examined duly and found innocent and set at liberty.
. . . God help you if you were a Mexican and had not
taken the precaution to become a general or a bull-
fighter.

There was more justice for the foreigner than for the
Mexican, but it was rather scant. This may seem
disputable, since the President was well aware that
intervention, not to speak of smaller worries, could be
brought about in this way. But if foreigners were
sure of justice, why did Inigo Noriega give his 50,000
pesos to the judge ? He must have felt uneasy, though
he is an influential Spaniard and a partner of Porfirio.
His method was denounced in heated words by his
opponent, who was Sefior Romero Rubio. ' We must
expel him,' said this gentleman, ' as a pernicious
foreigner.' And Diaz was affected, though he was not
then Romero Rubio' s son-in-law. He remonstrated
with Don Inigo and learned that as a foreigner who
wanted justice (being in the right) it had been neces-
sary for him to put up the 50,000 pesos, as Romero
Rubio had put up 40,000.

There was no justice in Mexico. The highest court
was subject to the President. For instance, when the
owner of a well-known bar, which occupies the corner
of San Juan Letran in the capital, was told to leave his
premises on which he had expended 40,000 pesos, he
objected. Those who wanted him to leave declared
that he had built some rooms for servants on the
second floor. He proved by documents and witnesses

102 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

that these rooms had been built before his time, while
there was nothing in the contract which prohibited
such building. In the court of first instance he was
quite victorious, as also in the Superior Tribunal.
His antagonists then took the case to the Supreme
Court of the Nation. He had shown his proofs to the
Superior Tribunal, who had recognised them ; but the
Supreme Court said that they did not exist. The
judges said that he must leave the house within ten
days, but as it was so flagrant all the business houses
of the capital, both Mexican and foreign, threatened
to put up their shutters for a day. This naturally
could not be permitted, and the President, while saying
that he could not interfere with justice, promised to
exert his private influence. He was surprised to hear
that ' Chato ' Elizaga, his brother-in-law, had spoken
to the judges of the Supreme Court. He was surprised
that the Senora Elizaga was thirsting for the house.
He said he would exert his influence, and though the
owner in July was told to quit he made another
contract in December, and he has not yet been
summoned for contempt of court.

Where justice was in this condition, we may say
that it did not exist. In China and Siam we have
our own courts for our countrymen. Not long ago
that was the system in Japan, but then we showed
our confidence in the Mikado's justice by removing
our own courts. They should have been removed to
Mexico.

CHAPTER V
THE SOVEREIGN STATES

FEW readers in this country will be agitated when
they learn that General Diaz was unconstitutional
and would not let the seven-and-twenty States of
Mexico enjoy their lawful liberty. We have in
England to concern ourselves with such a multitude
of luckless countries that we really have no leisure
to regard the details when the pity and th<^ terror
and the picturesqueness of them do not capture our
attention. Vainly has the pundit tried to buttonhole
us with a story of the constitutional restrictions in
Lorraine, when Macedonia has been the stage of
some unspeakable atrocity. Could we attend to
everything in this disjointed time we should be
gravely exercised about the seven-and-twenty States.
Their need of independence was withheld, their
Governors were not elected by the people, and their
local deputies for in each so-called Free and Sovereign
State there is a Congress were elected by the Gover-
nor, sometimes by the benevolence of Don Porfirio,
and there they sat so long as they conformed with
Don Porfirio' s idea of parliamentary behaviour.
Then Madero wished them to assert their quasi-
f reedom, and we were inclined to sail towards another
subject with the pious hope that he would have suc-
cess. However, to obtain some notion of how far the
sovereignty was scorned it may be profitable if we

103

104 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

contemplate the Chief Inspector of Antiquities, Don
Leopoldo Batres, who was not removed until the
Revolution had been consummated. 1 He travelled
down to Uxmal, one of the sublimest ruins, and with
dynamite blew up a lovely arch, so that a statue,
which was injured in the process, could be extricated
and conveyed to Mexico. His friend, Professor Seler,
who is German, stands accused of having wrought
irreparable damage at Palenque, and we are assured,
by Batres, that the matter will be sifted.

Palenque ! seat of Kings ! as o'er the plain,

Clothed with thick copse, the traveller toils with pain,

Climbs the rude mound the shadowy scene to trace,

He views in mute surprise thy desert grace.

At every step some palace meets his eye,

Some figure frowns, some temple courts the sky.

But Mr. Seler, the Director of the School of
Archaeology in Mexico, would not be satisfied with
Southey's catalogue. In order to observe some
paintings he is said (by Sefior Aguirre, who was on
the spot) to have destroyed a portion of the great
room of the palace. And if it is urged that these two
exploits hardly bear upon the question of State
sovereignty, the fact remains that if the charge
against the German savant is substantiated, Don
Benito Lacroix, Inspector of the Monuments of
Chiapas, will be probably deprived of his position for
not having been a faithful guardian. This Federal
Inspector has, or is supposed, to reckon with a State
Inspector, who was thrust aside, at any rate he stood
aside in these two cases, just as in the realm of
politics the Governors and deputies have stood aside
for Don Porfirio. We have supped full of politics,
and, though we would not for the world balk the

1 Then he came to Europe, but the ' Monna Lisa ' in a little under
two months was reported to have sailed for Mexico.

THE SOVEREIGN STATES 105

consideration of this problem, it may be permitted us
to do so with an archaeologist as villain.

Take one of those pleasant volumes of the British
poets that were published nearly half a century ago ;
the chances are that it will open at a page on which
there is a steel engraving of a nymph about to swim.
The pamphlets that have been devoted to Don
Leopoldo Batres usually open, I believe, at an
exposure of the way in which he interfered at Mitla.
Some amount of interference is quite proper, seeing
that he is the chief custodian of the ancient glories,
just as Don Porfirio was the custodian of the nation's
honour. We would not be so pedantic as to criticise
them always for an undue interference ; local bodies
are not always very capable and have not such a
grasp of things as Don Porfirio and Senor Batres.
Grasp of things ! ' It is probable,' said ' El Imparcial,'
' that all the commission given to Sanchez [a domestic
servant whom Don Leopoldo sent to Mitla] was to
gather in the objects found this being the sole pre-
occupation of the Inspector of Monuments. ... In
the present case this is not only a question of
scientific interest, but one which involves Mexico's
good name. We therefore hope that, with all activity
and energy, steps will be taken to avoid the ridicule
that threatens us and the loss of the data which may
be obtainable from said discovery.' But since these
words appeared, in May, 1910, we have had no more
announcements with regard to the discovery, and it
must be inferred, as Mrs. Nuttall says, that ' the
grave, which is surely that of a Zapotec high-priest
and ruler, and may be that of the builder of Mitla,
has simply been plundered by order of the Con-
servator of Public Monuments, with the sanction of
the Ministry of Public Instruction, by a domestic

106 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

who, when not entrusted with such archaeological
work, serves at the table of the Batres family.' And
it was at a table in Oaxaca that Don Leopoldo said,
by no means in a whisper, that his salary was such-
and-such a sum, while he required an altogether
larger one to live in gentlemanly style. I fear that
those who overheard him did not make the obvious
retort ; he certainly continued to augment his in-
come. Mrs. Nuttall, from the depths of her American
enthusiasm, and because she loves and understands
the relics which to many people are the chief thing in
the two Americas, would have made his income up to
the desired amount from her own pocket, I believe, if
he would not again have listened to his predatory in-
stincts. As many scientists and tourists are prepared
to testify, he was for years a wholesale and a retail mer-
chant of the antiquities of Mexico, such as the idols ema-
nating from the Pyramids of Sun and Moon at San Juan
Teotihuacan ; he has received payment for ' affording
facilities ' whereby these objects could be taken from
the country, though its laws forbid their exportation.
It will be remembered that it was this man who had
the savage altercation with the Due de Loubat at the
New York meeting of the International Congress of
Americanists, where the latter justly reproached him
for his methods. ' It is very curious,' said an old
peasant woman of San Juan, 4 for the Sefior Batres
has been working in the Pyramids and has got out
of them two automobiles.' So the cunning Toltecs
worked in porphyry and made a golden breastplate
for their statue of the Sun, and with consummate skill
inlaid the pea-green jadeite on their teeth so that
Don Leopoldo Batres might maintain his large
expanse of body. They have not contributed with
much success, it seems, towards the upkeep of his

THE SOVEREIGN STATES 107

mind, for the authorities have settled to reject his
mode of classifying the Museo National and to adopt
the system urged by Mrs. Nuttall. ' It was my
privilege some months ago,' she writes, ' to accompany
Bishop Plancarte when he visited the museum for the
purpose of showing me certain specimens in his collec-
tion, of a type that we had both been studying and
discussing.' The Bishop of Cuernavaca is the most
scholarly and distinguished of living Mexican
archaeologists. ' To our profound regret we found
that the numbers on the specimens, which enabled
the student to make use of the instructive catalogue
of the Plancarte collection, had entirely disappeared.
Obliged, for the purpose of comparative study, to
refer to three objects which Bishop Plancarte had
discovered together in a single tomb, we ascertained,
after a prolonged search, that Serior Batres had
assigned each of these objects to a different locality
and to a different civilisation ! ' But if all the ex-
militiamen Don Leopoldo is no more than that
can scarcely be expected to be archaeologists, they
can, at any rate, be reasonably honest. Codexes
illuminated documents of fibre-cloth are now so
rare as to possess enormous value. He disposed of
one, the codex Sanchez Solis, to the German Minister.
And if Mexican antiquities were going, one regrets
that most of them were sent to the Berlin Museum.
Mr. Seler, who appears to be the most unworldly of
professors, may have left it to his wife (a celebrated
banker's child, and Seler was the tutor) to obtain for
Senor Batres the Red Eagle, so that the Museum in
Berlin received an annual supply of wonders. But
the Conservator had been looking out for other fields.
To Monsieur Capitan, the representative of France
at the Americanist Congress of 1910, he confided that

108 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

he had not yet received the Legion of Honour. ' Ah,
pensez done I ' said Monsieur Capitan. And in the
4 Mexican Herald ' of 29th June, 1911, it is stated
' a large lot of idols and archaeological specimens
have just been discovered ready to be shipped to
Guatemala by a person who had given his name as
Leopoldo Batres. . . . The secretary [of the museum]
began an investigation at once, inasmuch as there is
a strict prohibition against the sending of archaeologi-
cal objects out of the Republic.' But the German
colony in Mexico, which has a number of most righteous
merchants who will not be gratified with eagles, have
been ostracising Mr. Seler at the German Club. And,
by the way, there are in Mexico three scientific
societies, but Leopoldo Batres was not member of a
single one. If he confined himself to selling imitations
to the foreigner, his countryfolk would listen to the
plea that it is patriotic, for the foreigner is human
sometimes even feminine and will insist on the
illicit booty. You will not succeed in turning them
away with mere soft words, and it is patriotic, there-
fore, to provide them with the imitations. Batres was
supposed to make these objects in the cellar of his
house ' we will say nothing about the individual
. . . for he is known well enough,' says ' El Tiempo,'
the conservative and Catholic organ, ' as is also the
damage he has done to the science of archaeology by
means of his proceedings, his ignorance and his
audacity, which is that of an improvised savant '
but these imitations have been known to find their
way to Mexico's museums, for the stranger cannot
always be deceived. But he can be discouraged, as
was Mr. A. P. Maudslay, whose researches in the
Guatemalan field are so well known and valued ;
Mr. Maudslay was unable to secure permission to

An Ancient Stone on Monte Alban.

The Custodian of Monte Alban

With his machete.

THE SOVEREIGN STATES 109

investigate the mounds on Monte Alban, and as no
domestic servant seems to have been willing to ascend
the mountain it is left in peace, and probably it will
be left until a butcher's bill of one of Mexico's Don
Leopoldos must be settled.

When he was accused of something flagrant he
defended himself by printing letters from the local
guardians, who were under him and as subservient as
were the Governors to Don Porfirio. In politics and
archaeology there may not be sufficient able men in
every State of the Republic, but the ' one-man
system ' has been found a ghastly failure. Even if
Porfirio and Leopoldo had a myriad eyes and honest
eyes they could not cope with all the country, and
they stifled everywhere the men who con amore would
devote themselves to these two occupations. As to
why the ruins have been ever supervised by Batres, no-
body can tell ; his ethnological-anthropological books
merely show his ignorance, and the reason given by
some Mexicans (that he is the natural son of Don
Porfirio' s late father-in-law, who also did his best to
educate him) is not adequate. O Reuter, if you had
but paid your agent a more princely fee, so that he
had dedicated wholly his activities to you, then every
archaeologist would have bowed low before you.

And yet the policy of riding rough-shod over all
the separate States was so disastrous to the local
politicians, who were thrown aside, and in the end to
Don Porfirio Diaz, who was also thrown aside, that
we must contemplate the subject rather closely.
And it happened that in San Luis I met a man who
once had figured in the politics of Yucatan. He is a
member of a learned profession, which he studied

110 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

during several years in the United States and Canada.
Thus he was able to relate in English what he knew,
and as the words fell from his lips I give them here.
' It is not totally a lie,' said he, whereby he meant
that it was true, and it is more convincing, I believe,
than are the vagaries of Leopoldo :

' Foolishly believing the interview Diaz-Creelman,
a group of persons belonging to the best families in
Yucatan got together in order to found, how do you
say ? to establish no ? a political party with
democratic ideas. This interview Diaz-Creelman
that I have referred to was an interview granted by
President Diaz to an American journalist, in which
Diaz expressed himself saying that he would dedicate
the last years of his life the last years of his life to
teach the people of Mexico the true democracy, and
thought, therefore, that they would, that they should,
take more interest in politics and would establish
clubs of opposition to the Government. . . . So, as
I said, we established the Centro Electoral Inde-
pendiente ; it began its work with the publication of
a political platform that would have to be accepted
by whoever was elected candidate of the club, I mean
candidate for the office of Governor and any other
office. After that we began the publication of a paper
called " El Sufragio," and sent commissions to the
different towns of the State to propagate our ideas
and establish clubs dependent of the central club in
Merida. Two or three weeks after the club was
established we noted great enthusiasm in the mass
of the people and began to receive letters there is a
word in Spanish of adhesion ; before five or six
months we had 5000 in our books 5000 in a State of
300,000 inhabitants and where 75 per cent of the
people do not know how to read nor write. The

THE SOVEREIGN STATES 111

date I don't remember the exact date. Well, now !
all these works involved the expenditure of money
that we collected among our friends and apparent
supporters. We might say that most of this money
was collected among the rich classes, that is, among
the hacendados, in the haciendas, who some contri-
buted believing in the exit, I mean success of our
campaign, and some on account of before you put
it on account of friendly relations with the directors
of the movement, and very few because they thought
that that the movement would be, if nothing else,
a means of educating the people in the true demo-
cratic ways is that right, is that the way to say it ?
But you ought not to believe that these farmers, the
hacendados, had the how do you say ? the valor
de sus ideas, because we have proofs to the effect
that if they gave us 50 pesos they at the same time
gave the Government the Government party 100.
There was one of them who offered us 1000 pesos
under certain conditions that were not accepted
acceptable. Everything pointed to our success ;
there was great enthusiasm manifested among the
people. The whole State seemed to be with us when
we decided to have a private election in the club,
among all the people who had signed that adhesion
to our club, in order to elect the candidate. Before
this election was held we sent a commission to inter-
view President Diaz and put the facts before him and
get what do you say ? his reaffirmation of the
interview with the journalist Creelman. As we knew
beforehand that the people had two or three names
in mind for candidate, the commission told President
Diaz the names of these three men, saying that
probably our candidate would be elected among the
three. President Diaz answered that he was glad to

112 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

hear that the opposition party was working with
success and was in the law, that he knew one of the
men who figured in the list and knew him as a good
man and a man that he would be glad to see elected.
This man was General Curiel. The commission came
back from Mexico and a splendid reception was made
to it no ? by the people. There were about 5000
waiting for them in Merida, and a special train of
twenty cars went to Progreso to greet them.

' By this time the Yucatan Government had begun
to hinder us in all our movements. All the members
of the the Directiva ; all the principal officials of the
club were followed, day and night and openly, by
members of the detective force, the secret police,
I mean. Our club had been invaded every night by
twenty or twenty-five policemen and two or three
police officials. The school opposite the club had its
roof guarded by armed force, and several of the minor
officials of the club had been put in gaol. We had
reports daily to the effect that a lawyer, Amabilis, and
others of the Government party had been looking
over the criminal records and looking out desespera-
demente, desperately for the means of involving us in
a criminal process. Also the effect that the Govern-
ment, the Yucatan Government, would use force
against us if necessary to make us abandon our ideas.
Several telegrams were put to Diaz explaining the
situation. Diaz did not deign answer them. Order
of prison was given against our candidate yes, I
tell you who was elected by 10,000 votes in our
convention. This candidate's name is Delio Moreno
Canton. We had how do you call ? to get together
the officials of the club ? in order to discuss the best
way of making front to the situation. Somebody
proposed, somebody said that the only way of making

THE SOVEREIGN STATES 113

front to armed force, when all guarantees had been
apparently suspended, was with armed force. Nobody
accepted the idea of what would be looked as a
revolution. It was dangerous nobody was partisan
of shedding blood, and, even if everybody had been
so, there was no money, time, nor nor people expert
in a movement of that sort. So it was decided unan
unanimously to keep on working as we had done and
until it was materially impossible to continue. By
this time Indians from the farms and small towns, and
National Guards were brought to Merida and made
to march into a parade in honour of the Government
candidate. As this people were brought by force,
and most of them were partisans of our candidate,
the results of the parade were what ought to be
expected : lots of hurrahs for Delio Moreno Canton,
and mueras, the yell opposite to hurrah, for So-and-so,
mueras for Munoz Aristegui. The night of this parade
there were 3000 soldiers kept at their garrisons and
the police greatly reinforced. At the plaza opposite
the Governor's palace, where Munoz Aristegui, the
Governor, was to receive the hurrahs and compli-
ments of the paraders, the scandal became enormous,
and the members of the detective force began to
strike to whoever they encountered in their path. About
fifty persons were arrested and condemned in the
next day to spend thirty days in the Penitenciary
as seditious people and under only one witness the
police. After this parade matters became worse for
the officials and followers of the opposing party. Our
sympathisers were imprisoned daily on more or less
fictitious charges, and the bomb exploded when an
accusation was presented by the State Attorney to a
criminal court against all the officials and many of the
followers for revolutionary let me think for con-

114 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

spiration. More than a hundred orders of prison were
let out, and those who could not escape were locked
in the Penitenciary, and kept isolated in some cases
for more than sixty days. The charge was for a
revolution which they said was to start the 14th of
October of 1909. This was the end of the patriotic
but rather dangerous political movement. We have
only to add that the principal leaders of the club who
appeared in the criminal proceedings as leaders of
the revolutionary movement have been condemned
to two years' imprisonment for a revolution that
appears in said proceedings that was to be started
14th of October. . . . There is another thing. After
having been from November, 1909, to January, 1911,
in prison, seven of them were let out because the
authorities said they were innocent. But they had
no opportunity of enjoying this liberty, for at the
Penitenciary door the police took them and arrested
them at the police-station, and from there forced for
five years into the army.'

CHAPTER VI
PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS

IN Mexico one naturally went against the Governor.
The twenty-seven States have each of them a
Governor, and so has the Federal District, which
answers to the District of Columbia in the United
States. The power vested in these twenty-eight
persons is extensive, they are as one of them told me
little 'kings,' and it is natural that many of them
be unfitted for a post of such importance. Thus one
was compelled to be against them. Naturally also
there were some exceptions. I know one who had
ideals that will not be realised outside Utopia, and he
gave expression to them in a language that can only
be described as 'decorated' English. Nor must I
forget another Governor 1 who paid a visit to his
criminals when they were on the eve of execution,
gave them a magnificent cigar, and usually educated
their children at his own expense. But many of the
Governors should have embarked upon a different
occupation, not in every case the one which served
them ere they rose to govern States here I am think-
ing of the individual who used to be a bandit and not
even a moral bandit. They should have been removed
immediately. One must acknowledge that the

1 As, in the story of the Revolution, it is necessary for me to
include this Governor's name, let it be given a more honourable
mention here 'tis Don Diego Redo, and his colleague who was kind
to criminals was Don Guillermo de Landa y Escandon.

116 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

President was hampered in his choice ; the men had
seldom undergone a training. Whom was he to take ?
A number of his old companions, white-haired
generals, were in want of house and home. Of course,
the ranks of these were getting thin. Whom else was
he to take ? Sometimes a gentleman who owned
much property inside the State, at other times a
gentleman who would not own it till his term of
office was concluded. It was seldom requisite for any
one of them to have to claim a pension. And they
were not wholly wrapped up in providing for them-
selves : with several of them it was most advisable
that if you brought a lawsuit you should have their
son or son-in-law for counsel ; you must run the
risk that he had been approached by your opponent.
Not to make a tedious list of it I will adduce one other
only, under whose administration there was built a
gorgeous clock-tower in the capital of his unhappy
State. He had a nephew who some years ago began
to build this tower ; he started by informing certain
quarry-owners that it would be patriotic if they
made the town a present of an adequate supply of
stone. This celebrated mining town has got no water
installation, but one cannot think of everything at
once, and possibly a clock-tower was essential. Any-
how, the splendid stone was given, and the nephew
left it in the plaza for a long, long time, but possibly
he was considering between a multitude of plans.
The clock-tower was to be (and is) so much more
grandiose than any building which the town possesses
that it could not be decided on so readily. Meantime
a bank was needed, and the nephew sold his splendid
stone to the contractors there it stands to-day,
below the shadow of the clock-tower. Then the
nephew had to ask the quarry for a new supply of

PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS 117

stone, since he was being regularly paid as builder
of the tower, and if he did not build it, surely he
would be dishonest. Splendid stone was brought
into the plaza and the building was begun. For years
it was continued, while the nephew could not say
when he would hand it over. In the year of the
Centenary of Independence it occurred to General
Diaz that the tower might well be finished for the
culminating day, the 16th September, and at all
events the town is saving what it used to pay the
nephew. It would dearly like to have some water
in its houses, but the uncle has a pulque hacienda, and
will tell you that it is a wholesome beverage. . . .
I am not an out-and-out admirer of the little 4 kings '
of Mexico, and yet I thought that one 1 of them, who
spoke to me with candour of his colleagues, was a
man on whom I could rely. It was not his own per-
sonal integrity that we discussed, but politics as they
are in a State. He told me that the Federal deputies,
those who sit in the capital, are selected by indirect
voting, and that the deputies of a State are selected
by direct voting. He gave me a book where this is
to be found. After that he told me the executive,
the legislature and the judiciary are separate and
independent in each State ; he, the executive, was
not above the other two a circumstance which might
bring complications if it were so. Thus I was unable
to secure a good account of the internal politics of
his own State from this, one of the most intelligent
and sympathetic of the Governors. I shall have to
try to give my own account.

When somebody became the Governor of a State,
the whole of the judiciary and the legislature of his
predecessor was not called on to resign, although the
1 Don Teodoro Dehesa.

118 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Governor had many friends who must be given some
position. He would not be able to request the others,
all of them, to step from office certain ones would
have the President's support, and these could not be
ousted. Even when the Governor had filled his place
for many years he was not free from Presidential
interference. There was, for example, one young
man in want of money as he recently had married.
His father-in-law was one of the cientificos, a great
plunderer ; he asked the President to put the young
man in the way of earning money since a husband
should support his wife. And so it happened that he
was presented with the post of deputy that is, with
25 a month. If he had been a deputy in Mexico
itself the sum would have been 30 ; but, as it was,
he took up the position in a State of which the
Governor was the determined foe of all the cientificos.
The President had settled the affair ; that was the
end of it. Apart, though, from the President, there
was not much with which the Governor had to
combat. His predecessor's legislature and judiciary
had set free many situations for his friends. And
then they settled down to govern : the executive,
which was the Governor, the legislature, which was
mostly nominated by the Governor, and the judiciary,
which was mostly nominated by the Governor. You
may recall that I was told that in the case of States
the voting was direct, and so it was the Governor
voted.

There are other countries just as backward as was
Mexico and just as barbarous, but there it is not
customary to adorn the nakedness in feathers. They
do not believe in European institutions, which may
be most excellent for Europe, but will scarcely be
adapted for all other continents. Such a philosophy

PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS 119

must recommend itself to us, because it is not only
wise, but honest. In the so-called Mexican Republic
there appeared to be no doubt no honest doubt but
that the European institutions were to be imported
wholesale. And a book is printed which contains a
number of these institutions ; it is the book whereby
the Government of the Republic is to be conducted.
Many other books are printed which contain a quan-
tity of these imported institutions ; these are for
the Government of individual States. I do not know
by whom these books were studied not, I think, by
many people in the so-called Mexican Republic.
Yet the constitutions, as embodied in these books,
were not ignored. It is the custom for the chief
square of a town to have the name of Plaza de la
Constitution ; it is the custom, I am told, in drinking-
booths for patriotic peons to exclaim, ' Viva la Con-
stitution ! ' and it was the custom for their Governor
to be styled El Gobernador Constitutional. From
time to time these constitutions were improved. It
was a crying scandal that the men who governed
Mexico that is, the circle which surrounded the ex-
President should be the same as those who had a
great part of the industries in their possession. It
would need some self-denial for this group to put
aside its opportunities. You can't have everything ;
this sentiment is not in their possession. That a
member of the governmental ring should as a broker
use the knowledge he obtained, or that as manu-
facturer he should have the advantage of a tariff he
obtained, or that as agriculturist he should have the
assistance of an Irrigation Bank he had been in-
strumental in obtaining, or that as concession-dealer
he should sell to foreigners or eke to Mexicans those
public works whose building he obtained by his

120 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

position in the Government all these activities
were unopposed except by the opinion of the people,
which, as readers will have gathered, was of quite
exiguous importance in the so-called Mexican Re-
public. But they passed an article not long since in
a certain State which laid it down that deputies
while they are such may not without permission of
the legislature take upon themselves a public office
or employment under Government or State or Town.
However useless be this article, it showed a laudable
desire. And yet one cannot keep oneself from think-
ing that, before the constitutions had a series of new
articles affixed to them, some steps should have been
taken to enforce the old ones. In the constitution of
the State to which we have alluded they went into
some refinements on the voting question. ' The
members of the Legislature, those of the Superior
Tribunal, those of the municipalities, the Governor,
and the judges, shall be chosen by the people in direct
election. . . . For the election of deputies the State
shall be divided into districts of 60,000 inhabitants.
The fraction which exceeds 30,000 shall also be a
district. ... In all kinds of elections it shall be
.-sufficient for a man to get a mere majority, with the
proviso that in this majority there shall be not less
than a fourth part of the votes which are recorded.
If no individual secure so many votes there shall in
consequence be held a second election of the same
sort as the first one, with the candidates restricted
to those two who get the larger number of the votes.'
In Puebla, not so long ago, the man the interventor
who should have been behind a table to receive the
votes of those who dwelt inside a block of houses,
this official did not put in an appearance, and his two
subordinates, who were Maderists as were other people

PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS

in the block set out in search of him at nine o'clock,
when he should have been sitting at the table for an
hour. They learned that he was still in bed. At ten
o'clock, while he was breakfasting, he told them that
he had resigned, and any further information could
be got from the authorities. Immediately his visitors
proceeded on their way, and, after interviewing various
officials, found that he had spoken truthfully and that
he had indeed resigned at midnight. It was clear
that if the block was not to be disfranchised there
should be no time lost ; it was noon instead of eight
o'clock. So, in default of interventor, his subordinates
sat down behind the table, ready to receive the votes,
the direct votes of the people. After they had been
there ten minutes the interventor appeared, foaming
with rage. They were usurpers, he shouted, they
were men of incredible effrontery. After eighteen
minutes came the jefe politico, and after thirty-five
minutes both the Maderists were in prison and the
table had been removed. But Puebla, though a town
of 100,000 inhabitants, the seat of an Archbishop, and
a place of wealth, was not the whole Republic. And
the President had spoken : ' It is praiseworthy on
the part of the Mexican people/ said he, when he
opened Congress in September, 1909, ' that they
should always take a greater interest in the exercise
of their electoral rights.' In Yucatan, 300 of the
leaders of the party which desired to vote for someone,
who was nephew of a previous Governor and a man of
liberal ideas, were flung into prison. Probably the
President considered that the people's interest should
be restricted to the men of not such liberal ideas, and
even though the Governor of every State is called
progressive when you write of him or to him El
progresista Senor Gobernador it may be said that

122 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

this is but a ceremonial epithet. Now we have given
two unpleasant instances of that which overtakes
a voter in the so-called Mexican Republic. We must
have the fairness to adduce a third example and
from one of the Pacific States. The President had
also made the observation in September, 1909, that
the people's greater interest ' is necessary for the
sake of designating its future Governors under the
beneficent rule of peace.' He had determined who
should be the Governor, and on a certain day the people
were electing him. A citizen of San Francisco, who
was staying with the future Governor, walked round
the town, which has no sights wherewith to entertain
a tourist. He was therefore suffering from boredom,
and, for lack of occupation, went into a polling-room
and voted. In seven other polling-rooms he voted ;
always, naturally, for his friend. When I was
challenged by a Mexican official to give any single
illustration of the freedom of a voter being interfered
with, I refrained from Puebla and from Yucatan and
many others, thinking that this instance from the
shores of the Pacific would be less offensive. But he
was indignant. ' You must not believe it for a second ! '
he exclaimed. ' No, you must not believe it that they
let him vote. We are so courteous. They would
never tell him that he was ineligible. No, they
certainly would not, for that is not what they are
wont to do. But when he had withdrawn himself
from each of those eight places, then they took his
voting-paper and they tore it into little pieces.' ' But
it was not for the opposition candidate,' I murmured.
4 Mexicans,' quoth he, ' are very courteous.'

So the Governor and his satellites came down upon
a State. The process was not half as picturesque as
when the cavalry of Mexico is going into other

Olive trees at Tzintzuntzan.

They were planted by the founders of the Franciscan convent (closed in 1740) and are perhaps the oldest

olive-trees in America. See p- 125

Colonel Prospero Cahuantzi,
the somnolent Governor.

PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS 123

quarters : first the soldiers jog along, their sombre
uniforms all dusty, then a multitude of women, some
of them with children fastened to their backs, and all
of them with pots and pans. They try to keep up
with the soldiers, but it is a weary business. At their
heels and very wretched are a quantity of mongrels.
Soldiers, women, children, mongrels fighting with
the dust ; and in the Governor's train were deputies
and judges, jefes and secretaries, who gradually come
into the light of day. And when the Governor's term
was over he was very often reappointed, and the
satellites rejoiced. The population of the State is
unconcerned. They decorate the streets a little, since
it is requested of them ; and they let off a supply of
fireworks, since it is their pleasure, and they are as
keen to send them heavenward (not that they go
very far, these native products), they are just as keen
to send them up in honour of the Virgin or a Saint
or any Governor. Some of these small ' kings ' ruled
over territories most extensive Chihuahua is a
State of 227,468 square kilometres, and Sonora of
more than 199,000 others had a small dominion,
such as that which a delightful Aztec gentleman
administered. He was of such obesity that it was
quite impossible for him to keep awake (if he was
being spoken to or not) for more than fifteen minutes
at a time. However, if the operatives of a local
cotton-mill were out on strike he took the field in
person, on a horse, and after that the strike was never
serious. Be they Governors over large or little States
they would refer you to the constitution if you asked
them how it was that the executive and legislature
and judiciary are independent of each other. ' It
must lead to awkwardness,' you said. ' Senor, but
it is in the constitution.' ' I have an affair,' you said ;

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

' the judge is so-and-so. If only it could be arranged,

I ' ' Yes ? ' And you conclude the sentence.

' Well, well ' said the Governor, ' I must have a

conversation with him. He is a good lad. Yes, who
knows ? ' And in the conversation he brought up
your case and recommended it to the judge. ... As
for the legislatures, there was recently in one State
an unheard-of opposition of three people. ' It is the
end of all things,' said the others. And who were
these who represented 60,000 ? Sometimes they
were wealthy hacendados, for which reason they were
not attracted to the office, and they let their substi-
tutes [suplentes] sit and earn the salary instead of them.
.... I think I have conveyed the general impres-
sion that the deputies of Mexico both of the Central
Government and of the States were able to accom-
plish far less than their brethren in most other coun-
tries. But there was a deputy who took no part in
the proceedings of the first two weeks of Congress ;
it was noticed, since he did not come to take his salary ;
and at the ending of the second fortnight it was
noticed once again that he did not come for his salary.
Was he ill, was he in Europe ? Then another fort-
night and, on pay day, not a sign of him. Perhaps
he was too altruistic to receive a salary. They got
impatient with him at the end of the succeeding
fortnight, so they sent an urgent messenger and
ascertained that he had died eight months before he
ever was elected.

On reading through this chapter I perceive that I
have used an adjective to which objection will be
taken, Foreigners and Mexicans say frequently
that the Republic is not backward. It has made
colossal strides, they say, in these last thirty years.
The railways and the banks, the manufactures I

PORFIRIAN GOVERNORS 125

admit that they exist, and even if the Mexicans would
have done next to nothing by themselves, yet cer-
tainly the railways and the banks and manufactures
are in Mexico. Before this period of thirty years the
land was in an everlasting turmoil I admit that for
the foreigner and for his money Mexico became far
safer than of old. The Yaqui Indians, settled in a
rich part of Sonora, struggled vainly to resist the
Mexican invasion, but the Mexicans in their rich
country have been wise enough to let their names be
put upon the foreigners' prospectus sheets. It has
seemed well to Providence to lead the Mexicans into
a country where the climate is delicious and the soil
is often rich and underneath it is a treasure-house of
jewels. Therefore you would fancy that the Mexican
would thank his God he desecrates the temple and
he desecrates the land. At crumbling Tzintzuntzan,
to which we sail to see the Titian in the church, there
is a notice which entreats you that ' for love of God '
you will not spit ; all over Mexico there should be
notices commanding the inhabitants to make them-
selves more worthy of the land. It is not of the In-
dians that I speak ; they gave to Mexico the greatest
of her sons, the last great Mexican Benito Juarez
and in contemplation of their sufferings we stand in
silence. I am speaking of those people who are more
or less of Spanish blood. So few of them deserve to live
in Mexico ! And it is fashionable to deplore that all
the Indian population should be backward. Leave the
Indians whom you have exploited ! Look upon
yourselves as one of your good men, the aged Agustin
Rivera, looks upon you. ' In theories the boldness
of Don Quixote, and in practice the pusillanimity,
the inability to conquer obstacles, and the phlegm of
Sancho Panza. . . . We are given,' says Rivera, ' to

126 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

scholastic disputes, to beautiful discourses, pretty
poems, enthusiastic toasts, proclamations, projects,
laws, decrees, programmes of scientific education,
plans of public improvements, in Andalucian style
and well-rounded periods. ... In the department
of physics in the College of Santo Tomas in Guadala-
jara were taught the first cause, the properties of
secondary causes, supernatural operations, the sacra-
ment of the Lord's Supper, eternity everything,
in fact, save physics.' He says that you were back-
ward in viceregal times, and in the year you pensioned
him, in 1901, he said that you were backward still. I
say that you were going backward, for the poorer
classes under Diaz found themselves in a position
which compared unfavourably with that of thirty
years ago. It is most difficult to enter into such
comparisons, but after taking all the circumstances
very carefully into account it seemed to me that even
if the old times were as bad as they are painted we
must grieve for their departure. I could never leave
off mourning the old brigands. They were swept
away from all the roads and mountain passes. They
but we will talk of them no more : not of Porfirian
cientificos, not of the secretario, not of Porfirian
jefes, and not of his progresista Senor Gobernador.

CHAPTER VII
A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES

A SWARTHY woman goes towards the market with a
little coffin balanced on her head ; a younger woman
staggers out into the glaring sunlight with the cavalier
who lay between her and the cold for several hours in
that foul meson, where the rats apparently disdained
the rags which flutter round the couple, and, instead,
have nibbled at their toe-nails ; they would not have
lurched so quickly from the door if it had not been
for the placid-looking, yellowish, blind beggar whom
perhaps the landlord, and perhaps a merry comrade
of the meson, had propelled into the street. That
younger woman's friend turns round to strike the
human avalanche, when she, with her bad feet, rolls
up against him with a laugh such as an Andalucian
fan is wont to hide, and so the couple laugh and blink
to watch the coffin in the sunlight. Rarely do they
hear a song of nightingales. The street is pictur-
esque : green wooden balconies and faded sun-blinds
hang irregularly from those buildings which are
washed, at certain seasons like their inmates, by the
rain. One guesses at the colour which was first
exhibited by each of these old walls, and as for the
strong, iron bars fantastically intertwined have they
not grown more twisted and awry through laughing at
the grimness of their lot : affixed by some hidalgo to
protect him from light-fingered folk and now this folk

127

128 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

is dwelling in the dead hidalgo's palace ? Wayfarers
and loungers of the slimy street, they edge towards
the footpath as two members of the rural guard, alert
in grey and silver, ride along the cobbles and will scowl
when it so happens that their horses' feet, accustomed
to the treacherous mountain paths, go sliding on the
vegetable debris. These two fellows listen regularly
to the song of nightingales. A milkman rides behind
them with his jars suspended, military fashion, from
the saddle ; and two wardrobes, on the contrary, are
carried on the shoulders of a fragile-looking Aztec,
with the ankles of a woman. ' Angel's hair ! ' exclaims
a busy vendor of that delicacy. ' Who demands my
angel's hair ? ' and he disposes of the silken threads,
which are not more nor less than finely shredded
melon boiled in sugar. Furtive, tangled carboneros
from a distance pick their way among the various
objects of the street, their thin arms hanging at their
sides, while they walk, bending almost double, under-
neath the sacks of charcoal. Desperate, emaciated
dogs are nosing what has been flung out upon the
cobbles, and a curious traveller goes by, towards the
station, a white handkerchief tied round his neck
and in his hand a European, decorated coal-scuttle, 1
whose contents are prevented by a piece of cord from

1 Even when the higher classes travel, you will be astonished at
their baggage. In Charles Flandrau's * Viva Mexico,' there is a
gentleman who has a bird-cage full of boots ; a banker's widow
Madame Scherer told me as we came from Europe that she had a
quantity of boxes : 37 items, and with her husband, 38. She dis-
approved of the delicious ' Viva Mexico ' because it does not worship
the authorities. And as for her, she had perceived the errors of the
Jewish faith and worshipped God in Catholic cathedrals, just as He
was worshipped by her and her husband's potent friend, Don Jose
Limantour, Minister of Finance, whose inclinations it was well to
share. Tis said in Mexico that Limantour's French father was a Jew
. . . but in a lyric book which Diaz Dufoo, of the staff of * El
Impartial,' once wrote about the son, I see this is not mentioned ;
and if it is not true the comedy evaporates.

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 129

falling out. The traveller's destination and his trade
are mysteries. A man goes by with offal from the
slaughter-house, not heeding whom he may collide
against ; a sweating water-carrier in leather jacket,
leather apron and a broad strap round his forehead to
support the jar between his shoulders, on the brass
plate which he wears in front he has a number ; then
the man with offal steps into a wider street just round
the corner, caring not whom he may roll against. The
loungers here they call them lizards block the
footpath and two lines of vehicles block up the road,
what time the lizards and the driven hold their hands
up at each other, twiddling the first two fingers.
Women of the upper classes who might profitably
patronise the water-carrier instead of trying to conceal
their Indian pedigree with powder 18 per cent alone
of Mexicans have undiluted Spanish blood and
young men also of the upper classes greet each other
with an air of satisfaction as they tool enormous
motors at a snail's pace up and down. ' Buy angel's
hair ! Who will buy angel's hair ? ' Sometimes a
week of two before they marry these young men will
hire a flock of angels and one room which has a table
in the centre ; they will start by drinking gallons of
champagne for they have listened far too often to
the song of nightingales. The sweetest nightingale,
so says the proverb, is the money in one's purse.

There was ' hardly a connecting link between the
blankets and the satins, the poppies and the
diamonds ' in Madame Calderon de la Barca's day
(about 1840). The middle class, if it attempted
to exist, was plundered by the Government or
by the other bandits. And the rise thereof is a
phenomenon of recent years, the years of peace.
But for this middle class there would have been

130 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

no Revolution. ' It is the middle class,' said Don
Porfirio to Mr. Creelman, ' that concerns itself with
politics and with the general progress. Hitherto
our difficulty has been that the people do not occupy
themselves enough with public matters.' When the
small Chihuahua farmers and the tradesmen did
concern themselves with such affairs they had against
them in the battlefield and elsewhere both the upper
and the lower classes. ' Something which is most
injurious to Mexico,' said Senor Limantour to me in
London, ' is that our vast Indian population is so
easily contented. We can sell them next to nothing.'
And I found that it was so ; the average Indian, grave
and childish, was content to march in Don Porfirio's
army, while the average member of the upper classes
was content to march with what they deemed the
strong battalions. That the wealthy should not be
disposed to change is normal, and in Mexico the upper
classes have so far as I could ascertain one family,
that of Cervantes, which is ancient ; while the others
usually hark no further back than to a Spanish mule-
teer who managed to obtain concessions in the nine-
teenth century, or to a soldier or a skilful smuggler of
the same dim epoch, or a priest at all events in
Yucatan. These pious founders had enriched them-
selves and their descendants, in default of others
the remaining Aztec nobles in Cholula and Tlaxcala
are unrecognised, unrecognisable except by their own
race ; the Spanish nobles crossed the seas again when
Independence was declared so that the lucky
offspring of these various professions we have
mentioned formed the upper classes. They had
not had time to lose the knowledge of how
wealth is gathered, and the great majority were still
engaged in this pursuit, nor did they often look in vain

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 131

for some facilities from Don Porfirio. On the con-
dition that they left the politics to him and those
whom he selected, General Diaz zealous for no other
thing than power (until the cientiflcos persuaded him,
a very old man, to bethink himself of gold as well)
was ready to assist the wealthy classes to be wealthier,
and most of them were naturally partisans of his.
They were content. But with the lower classes it was
to a large degree their disposition. Nearly all the
stars, apparently, must in their courses fight against
them ere they yield to discontent : the miners at a
certain camp were forced to jump across a stick while
they ejaculated 4 Ave Maria!' One of them was silent
while he jumped. ' Now/ cried the foreman, ' say
your prayers.' Out came the amalgam, and the miner
was invited to explain. ' I will tell the truth,' he
said ; ' they pay me half a peso every day, and on that
sum I must support my wife and seven children, my
wife's mother and my aunt and my mistress.' Had
he been a trifle less domesticated he would have
been satisfied to live inside an empty cement barrel,
which is considered quite respectable ; it does not
give much shelter, but one has a post-office address.
And they will even, if it be demanded of them, stop
outside the church : a woman of the Zambos that
repulsive negro-Indian mixture was requested by
the priest to stay at home, as she distracted the
attention of the faithful. Circumstances must be very
difficult if ordinary Indians allow themselves to
disobey : a mediocre circus was performing in a
village near to Guanajuato, and the manager, afraid
lest there should be a tumult of dissatisfaction, went
into the ring before the programme started and
informed the audience that all expression of emotion,
whether favourable or unfavourable, was entirely out

132 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

of order. So the programme was enacted till a
lamp upset ; the circus was in flames and stolidly
the audience walked away. These Indians are
obedient : in Tepic it was commanded that no
man with those white, flimsy, cotton drawers should
come into town, but that he should array himself in
trousers. Comfortable drawers were duly put away
and often at the entrance of a town, the native carry-
ing the trousers in his bundle ; also he would some-
times hire the trousers cheaply for a day. It is their
nature to be satisfied and trouserless ; it also is their
nature to adorn themselves and thus ascend the social
scale if they are pushed. An Englishman beyond
Lake Patzcuaro, the manager of a great lumber works,
refuses to increase a peon's wages if he will not put
on boots in place of sandals and equip himself w r ith
trousers. Grave and gentle and contented as they
naturally are, they have been made still more so by
the centuries (pre-Spanish and Colonial and Mexican)
of miscellaneous oppression. But within them,
deeply buried, is the faculty of the divinest discontent.
In many of the tribes a desperado will at once walk off
to justice at the heels of some small boy who carries in
his belt a cane of red Brazil wood, called a vara, with
the reddish ribbons hanging down ; it is the vara, not
the man, which they respect. And with a docile
perseverance they bore arms for Don Porfirio, despite
the cruelty and hardships that a dog would have
resented. And at last they can be capable of showing,
very clearly, that they are dissatisfied : a native of
Oaxaca, a poor fisherman, forgave his wife her first
few infidelities and then he put a stake through her
body and in the centre of a piece of blazing sand he
took his steps against the lover, whom he buried to the
neck and near him lay a gourd of water. In Hidalgo

Our Special Train

to the lumber works of an English Company in Michoacan.

See fi. 132

Building a Railway in Hidalgo.

The man between the rails is a murderer and a good workman.

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 133

was another husband, a mechanic on a half-completed
railway, who was patient with his wife, the cook,
until she had deceived him thrice ; he warned the
lover that it must occur no more, and when it did he
slew this man, was flung into Pachuca prison, and
would surely not have been allowed on bail, a per-
manent condition, if his engineering prowess had been
mediocre. Maybe in the central districts of Jalisco
this catastrophe would not have happened, since the
woman she was such an admirable cook would
have conformed with local habits and would have set
down before the husband she intended to dishonour a
good soup of donkey's ear ; as an alternative she
would have been obliged to hold the little finger of her
left hand in his drinking-water. . . . Even as the
proletariat in Mexico have got it in them to rebel at
home, so will they, under heavy provocation, show
their discontent in public matters : Chato [pug-nose]
Diaz, brother to the President and father, it is said,
to General Felix Diaz, was treated like our Indian
lover, only worse. To punish him for a detestable
existence now and then, because of ennui, he would
shoot a sentry Juchitan arose and cut the soles from
his feet and made him walk a mile or two across the
sand. (Porfirio's revenge was such that now the wind-
swept town of Juchitan looks like the suburb of its
cemetery.) When the tireless propaganda of Madero
and the triumph of his followers had driven home,
at last, to Don Porfirio's army that there was indeed
much cause for them to be dissatisfied, they started
to desert and the Diazpotism was a doomed affair.
This blind servility, which had been manifested for
so long, was thought by Don Porfirio's adherents to be
unassailable : you were compelled in opening the
Congress to address His Excellency with enormous

134 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

periods of vast magniloquence, and there is a humane
provision that the Speaker varies every month the
business man Macedo, who performed this function
in September, 1910, acknowledged ruefully, behind
the scenes, that he was bowing to the precedents
but if you had occasion to address a nameless Indian,
say a Huichol, you could call him anything you liked ;
for instance, 4 de la Cruz ' [of the Cross], which he
would understand 1 and henceforth this would be the
fellow's surname. Very often, Lumholtz tells us, they
would not remember what the name was which had
been bestowed upon them, and if they could not afford
the fee of 25 centavos they were not encumbered with
a Christian name at all and they were perfectly con-
tent. The Huichols are but one division of the Indian
race in Mexico, but this ingrained inherited indiffer-
ence to fortune has been found to dwell among the
larger number. Let them have or not have any name
or rights or prospects, they were always more disposed
to bear the burden, be it great or small : the execution
of five people (see p. 91) on suspicion or withholding
from a man the power to celebrate a humble feast
when he has had a child of his baptised a lowly
citizen begged for an audience with the post-Porfirian
jefe politico of Merida, Sefior Camara y Camara and
amazed him by soliciting permission for the feast.
As thus the Indians were inclined to be submissive
they were more and more repressed, but that which
irritated them to danger-point was the increasing gulf
between themselves and those who battened on the
song of nightingales. Without affirming that the

1 Their folk-lore has its worship of the Perfect Man ; it has a figure
of the Greek and Latin cross which represents the human figure with
its arms outstretched ; while if they trace a second cross on cliffs or
sand or, as a medicine, on the patient's body it is there to represent
the moon ; and if a third cross it is probably the morning star.

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 135

gorgeous fetes in honour of the Revolution against
Spain a hundred years ago stirred up the recent
Revolution, it is safe to argue that the poorer classes
were as much exasperated as their English brethren
by the Coronation, which I think we could perceive
without great inroads on our perspicuity contributed
a bitterness into the feelings of so many who partici-
pated in the Strike of 1911. That prolonged display
of opulence, that circus in the streets of Mexico, was
incommensurate with the amount of bread in place
of this old Roman policy, the more dilapidated of
the mob were locked away, while those who lined the
pavement were prevented from encroaching on the
road by means of the policemen's dog-whips and
the hind legs of policemen's horses. That prolonged
display was incommensurate with the position of the
country : ' Mexico,' said the ' Mexican Herald,' ' is the
second of the world's Republics.' On the next day
this diverting Yankee journal had an article which
very seriously put the claims of France, but Manuel
Acuria had extolled this very people with a view to
pouring greater glamour round his own :

Of those who march to the drum,
In the seas of whose triumph the sum
Of all triumph beside is immersed.
Panic-stricken and rudely dispersed
Three times he was flung into flight
By the people who rose in their might
Andj Fatherland, came to thy need,
Gave a soldier for each of thy seed,
For each soldier a lord of the fight.

Serenely did the Government of Mexico proclaim its
grandeur. . . . To assert that every man of wealth
was in or with the Government would be too sweeping .
Don Francisco I. Madero stood against them and among
the foreigners who temporarily opposed them was the

136 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Signer Dante Cusi, for he spent some half a million
pesos on an irrigation work and wanted to employ the
water of his own estate. The Minister Molina would
not hear of it, and ultimately gave permission if the
legal paper was drawn up by Casasus, a friend of his,
the ex-Ambassador in Washington the fee was
30,000 pesos. But the men who governed Mexico
were, generally speaking, those who had control of
her finance and industries ; they had the power and
wealth, tremendous opportunities, and little sense of
a responsibility towards the people. Oh, the lower
classes if the economic state of Mexico produced in
them a sentiment of agitation, it would be advisable
to drink the liquor of boiled humming-bird, which is,
they say, effectual for heart disease.

The middle class began to thrust themselves
between the hammer and the anvil. As a rule this
intermediate class, in order to preserve itself, looks
forward to alliance with the hammer. But in Mexico
the upper ranks were very much inclined to keep
themselves apart and some of those who were con-
spicuous among the leaders hardly were conspicuous
for probity. The middle class had therefore, on
account of self-preserving reasons and of altruistic
ones, to seek alliance with the anvil. In Chihuahua,
for example, the entire, enormous State was in the
hands of General Luis Terrazas and his family of
millionaires and some few other favoured persons.
Not alone had they become proprietors of most of the
material resources, but the Government was likewise
in their hands they seemed to be so indispensable
that when an aged tool of theirs, the Governor, was
deposed by Don Porfirio in the turmoil of the Revolu-
tion, when Chihuahua was most critically situated
and the family of General Terrazas were as popular

After a Skirmish in Chihuahua.

A L,and-owner.
General Luis Terrazas, whose estate is, or was, nearly as large as Holland and Belgium together.

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 137

among the people as a red rag with a bull, then a
particularly hated son of his so dissolute that he
seduced his own niece before he married her was put
into the vacant office, not because it was believed that,
in a rough-and-ready manner, he would cause the two
opposing factions to lay down their arms and drink
away, with him, perhaps at his expense, their griev-
ances ; no, it had been in contemplation for some
years that he should be appointed Governor ' to
steady him.' Those who were anxious for improve-
ment in his character did not delay to point out to the
others that, as he had never been entrusted with a
post, the highest post of all would have a tendency to
occupy his time. And he misgoverned poor Chihuahua
for a month or two. The middle class of that high
northern State is vigorous ; there came a time when
the Terrazas tyranny each jefe politico a little tyrant
was no longer to be borne. If anyone is permanently
in possession of a post and if he is a demi-god unani-
mously re-elected, there will not be wanting those
who nourish the belief in their equality, to say the
least of it, with him. Don Jose Limantour, the
famous Minister, would therefore smile on being told
that he possessed another critic. He repaired perhaps
into his famous garden and endowed it with another
rose tree. Did not all the world resound with his
achievement of establishing the national finances on a
gold foundation ? He was certainly a competent, a
more than competent financier. But the middle
class regarded him with no enthusiasm : the statistics
which he flaunted, for example of the imports, saying
that from 18,000,000 pesos in 1876 they had increased
to something like 200,000,000 these required an
explanation ; for the former figures in a totally dis-
tracted land were destitute of any value. Mining in the

138 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

same years yielded 20,000,000 pesos and 150,000,000 ;
but how many of them stayed in Mexico ? And
foreign companies derided the proposal to subject
them to the mining laws of the Republic. Then the
middle class could show that by the tariff it was
certain of the foreigners and of the wealthy Mexicans
who profited. And Limantour's transaction with the
railways had, maybe, strategic value, though this has
been doubted, but financially was far too beneficial
for a wealthy group : a sum of 50 million pesos van-
ished in the process 1 ; there was an unseemly squabble
as to several millions of the spoil between the widow
of del Rio on the one hand and the Minister upon the
other. It is not to be contradicted that the schemes
of Limantour in many cases changed the chaos into
order ; but again it was a firm of foreign bankers
(Messrs. Scherer) which bought up the I O U's
[alcances] of the Government employes at a discount
of from 40 to 50 per cent, and these were paid by
Limantour. Julio Limantour, his late brother, was
a partner of Messrs. Scherer.

We have in Don Ramon Corral, the late Vice-
President, a fair example of a man who by his own
exertions raised himself into the upper class, while
Limantour had the advantage of a father, a shrewd
Frenchman, who acquired the capellanias in 1867,
when the Church was separated from the State and it
was cheap to get control of these foundations which
the pious had established, either for a Mass to be
perpetually said or for the education of the impecuni-
ous. (There was, of course, an option for descendants
of the founder to regain the gift, but this was generally

1 The Government bought the various American lines for 150
million dollars gold = 300 million pesos. Bonds were issued for
350 million pesos.

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 139

looked upon with prejudice.) Now Don Ramon Corral,
apart from politics, was hated by the middle class
because he was successful and did not concern himself
in making life more pleasant for the others, and because
he was disreputable. Many members of the wealthy
class, no doubt, were hard on those who were less
fortunate, but Corral, Sefior Izabal and General Torres
had Sonora in their grasp ; it was a long triumvirate
of tyrants. Those who felt compassion for the
Yaquis had to execrate these miserable Governors.
Forsooth, they said the Yaquis were not law-abiding
persons, for this people showed resistance to the law
of Corral, Izabal and Torres. Land of great fertility
should not be Yaqui land, so the triumvirate per-
suaded General Diaz to dispatch an army. Peace
had been prevailing for quite long enough, nearly
150 years, and the nefarious land-registration law
which Diaz fathered anybody could lay claim
to lands to which the actual possessors could not
prove recorded titles this was ample to provoke
the conflict, for the Yaquis knew no more of titles
than their ancestors, through all those centuries, had
known of Spaniards or of Mexicans. An explanation
never was vouchsafed to them and a protracted war
began. The soldier who could kill a Yaqui warrior
no such simple business, they discovered and could
show his victim's ears, obtained a bounty of a hundred
pesos. So the war was profitable to the soldiers, who
could get their trophies, after all, from any Yaqui
farmer at the plough ; was profitable likewise to the
gentlemen who sold the guns and ammunition to the
Yaquis and inherited their lands. That many were
deported to the Yucatan peninsula is common
knowledge. I am glad to say that the authorities
who triumphed in the Revolution would not have this

140 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

blot to stay upon the honour of their country.
Apropos of honour, I believe the writers in the Mexi-
can Republic looked askance upon a colleague who
contributed a book about Corral and did not say one
single word of how that person, ere the age of twenty,
forged his benefactor's name and was imprisoned.
But Corral had one good quality, besides his business
aptitude : he loved his children very much. A father
whom I knew in Mexico was so devoted to his little
children that when he returned at nine or ten o'clock
for supper he insisted on their presence, and they used
to go to bed for several hours before he came. Corral,
when he was going to a brothel, did not leave his son at
home.

These were the kind of people whom the middle
class were up against. These were the upper class.
They did not, it is true, behave like the Apaches of
the Sierra Madre, who would come down from their
mountain strongholds at a certain month ' the moon
of the Mexicans ' which they had set apart for
plunder. No, there was not any special month. Of
course, in every country those who have the wealth
and those who have the power which emanates from
the political organisation will entrench themselves in a
commanding place, but there was not another country
which was civilised and which displayed so grossly
this phenomenon. The mediaeval mode of life per-
sisted, they had not advanced as much as Spain for
instance, in the Jockey Club a grandee from the
Motherland who would, if anybody, be received with
open arms, announced that he had found it necessary
to frequent a brothel as he would not otherwise have
met a lady. And this segregation was enforced not only
with the foreigner the diplomatic body, one by one,
gave up the vain attempt to move in Mexican society ;

A SONG OF NIGHTINGALES 141

for if the native ladies deigned to answer invitations
to a dinner and, an hour before the time, sent round
a servant with a note to say that after all they would
not come, there was the placid consciousness among
these ladies that they had dispensed the cream of
courtesy. The intercourse between them and the
gentlemen of Mexico was very slight, but on the other
hand they were upon the best of terms with all the
saints, except if now and then the saints were bearish :
one young lady vowed her necklace to a figure of the
Virgin if she was invited to a certain party. She was
not invited ; if she had been she would have adorned
the figure and removed the necklace only when she
wished to wear it. Little girls were dressed up stiffly
for a month to represent the Virgin of Lourdes, and
little boys three years of age could be discerned in
tramcars dressed in the unhealthy habit of St.
Francis ' Oh, the darling -little Franciscito ! ' was
the cry. Nor did the convents which illegally existed
differ much from mediaeval ones in Spain. The inmates
even had the custom of adorning waxen dolls, now as a
priest, now as a canon or a doctor, with a wig or gold-
knobbed stick. ' Is he not beautiful, my little Jesus ? '
asked the girls in a Puebla convent of a foreign lady
whom I knew there. And in Spain, at Pampeluna,
are preserved the relics of a holy child of wax, which
had belonged to Juan de Jesus San Joaquin, a monk
when Philip IV. was on the throne. That doll is said
to have accomplished many miracles. This social
and religious mediae valism joined itself most naturally
to the economic privileges of the upper class. In other
mediaeval countries there was not the same material
progress, not the same great chances of enrichment.
So the middle class had obstacles more serious than
elsewhere ; they themselves were children of the past

142 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

and this infected chiefly their religion. As they
struggled to emancipate the country, as they brought
about at length the Revolution, they were pushing to
a place between the stolid classes over and above
them. ' This transcendental work,' said ' El Correo
Espanol ' in August, 1892, reviewing the account which
Dr. Fortunato Hernandes recently had published on
the Indian races Don Porfirio's Government com-
missioned him to study them ' this transcendental
work shows us the people with their melancholy look,
with all the past of their pride of demi-gods, of the
burden of their unspeakable present and all the
sadness of the slavery to come.' The middle class were
battling with this phalanx and that other and with
other days.

CHAPTER VIII
THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 1 ' 2

Don Ignacios letter

IN Yucatan the masters are particularly kind to their
dependents, for the reason that there is a scarcity
of labour. Should a slave exhibit symptoms of
disease he is provided, free of charge, with medical
attendance on the hacienda, or is carried to the
master's house in Merida, no charges being usually
made for board and lodging. People who insist on being
cynical may say that this is how the mules are treated
and that if you are the owner of a mule or slave you
naturally will prevent the creature's body from
becoming inefficient. You will know precisely where

1 For the pronunciation of Yucatan place-names, see Glossary.

2 * Instead of describing the hacienda system of Yucatan,' said an
American reader of my MS., * the author goes into hysterics over the
peons and their practical slavery. ' If you believe a person is hysterical
you certainly will not believe him if he should deny the charge. ' Of
the terrible outrages he speaks of as if they occurred daily, one took
place fourteen years ago.' But as the murderers are still at large
the blot on Yucatan grows larger. And if I were to give all the cases
which have happened recently some people will assert that I give
quite enough the reader I have quoted would be justified in repri-
manding me. The hacienda system is described most adequately, I
believe, by Don Ignacio Peon, and I am at a loss to supplement his
information. Some haciendas (such as his) have a resident priest,
others have not ; in some of the haciendas it is customary for the
master to appropriate a portion of the wild stag which his slave has
shot ; in others this does not obtain. . . . But I believe that the whole
hacienda system is an outrage, since it is dependent on the hacendado.
Where, like Don Ignacio, he is a good man life is quite endurable for
those upon his farm, and where he is a bad man life is unendurable.

143

144 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

to draw the line, since, if the body has upon it certain
wounds or scars got in the ordinary course of things,
it can continue to produce the same amount of labour.
Well, suppose we let the cynics have their way;
suppose we do not give the master credit for exalted
motives, it remains a fact that he is careful of the
body of his slave. In Yucatan he is more careful
than in parts of the Republic where the labour market
is so crowded that it is as though one passes through
a field of corn, and if from time to time you knock a
head off will the Government have people watching,
or will Governments of other countries watch ? For
instance, if you have a hacienda in Campeche you will
not, from all accounts, be harried by the public
servants, though one might suppose that these would
serve the public which remunerates them. Let a
native of Jamaica talk : ' Somebody went to
Jamaica,' were his words, ' and made a contract, and
they carried down here about 200 men for the cutting
of dye-wood. When they came here they sold them
to the farmers, 2 dollars each ; and they were compelled
to work for any wages that was offered to them. I
lived to witness the skulls of eighteen men, natives of
Jamaica, that were buried in one grave. They were
murdered because they refused to work as slaves.
They were flogged to death at a place called San
Ignacio. Those who were yet alive could not inform
the British Consul, because, if they wrote, the letter is
searched and torn to pieces. Some of them are there
to-day ; they get a little more wages and a little
liberty, but they can't leave the place. ... In 1903
I came in a contract from Havana with 140 men ; I
went as an interpreter. The contractor did not know
that I knew the Republic before. They carried us
to the same spot, San Ignacio, and they treated us just

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 145

the same as those men formerly. As I speak the
Indian language I got a chance to run away, escape
from the place, myself and six others. After travelling
for ten days in the woods, among tigers and snakes,
we find ourselves in the nearest town, Laguna, and
present ourselves to the British Consul. He also was
a shareholder in the company and he gave us no
satisfaction. Hahn is his name, a German. 1 They
put us in gaol and they compelled us to return to the
same spot. There we remained with the rest for three
months. We had to steal a boat in the night and make
an escape.' All this is the statement of a negro ; but
a neighbouring hacienda, San Patricio, was described
to us by an American who was anxious to conceal the
worst abuses out of loyalty to previous employers.
They are Americans who get their men by contract
from the colder parts of the Republic, and they usually
do not live long enough to get acclimatised. So many
women are imported with each lot of men, these
women being told that they will be expected to
prepare the food. Sometimes they really do not think
that any other thing will be expected from them, and
indeed it was not in San Patricio' s schedule when a
native foreman made a number of these women, in
whose contract there was absolutely nothing said of
dancing, go through dances in his presence, having
been deprived of their apparel. . . . The conditions
of Campeche are inferior to those of Yucatan, the
haciendas being less accessible. Where telegraphs and
roads are wanting, where the overseer makes out the
certificates of death, he being the assistant justice
[juez auxiliar], where it is the custom to oblige the
hands to work gratuitously (en fagina is the phrase)
all Sunday, every Sunday, for the owner, and where

1 Now dead.

146 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

hacendados are not seldom in financial straits, so that
for some months they sublet the shop and he who
takes it as a speculation does not try to keep the prices
down you will not charge me with exaggerating if I
say that sometimes in Campeche labourers are poorly
off. They have a chance of greater happiness in
Yucatan, and if I deal with those comparatively
pampered people I shall not be charged by owners with
injustice. To describe the fortunes of a slave in
Mexico I might avail myself of evidence collected by
a friend of mine while he was in the service of a famous
pulque company whose operations are in several
States upon the central tableland. But there the
workers are not lacking, and in consequence are not
so petted as in Yucatan. And since it is important
that the owners should not say I am unjust I will not
mention any of the sordid, pitiable cases which that
gentleman has given me. Perhaps he has too sensitive
a temperament I must admit that he has now
become an artist and he thinks these pulque
workers are the most unhappy people in the
world. I could avail myself of evidence collected
by my erudite and indefatigable friend Don
Carlos R. Menendez, who is President of the
Associated Press of Mexico and editor of one of
the few papers you can read. He wrote a mono-
graph upon the Indians of the whole Republic,
showing that the wild ones have decreased deplor-
ably in number from about 10 millions in the Spanish
era to about 2J millions showing also why it is that
they are in so grievous a condition : wrongs they
suffered from their own ' nobility ' before the con-
quest, terrible exactions of the conquerors, most
devastating plagues, a lack of hygiene, alcohol,
premature marriage and marriage between parties

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 147

:hat do not love each other and sometimes (as I will

nstance) do not even know each other. This de-

Dopulation and this degradation have attacked the
native races of the whole Republic ; only in Oaxaca
are they adding to their numbers, and in that State

lave, like vicious tourists, to be under observation
when they tread the lovely courts of their ancestral

Vlitla. Maya, Zapoteco, Nahuatlan and Tarascan,

;hey are in a sorry plight ; the efforts which are
being made on their behalf are moderate. If they
are not among the outcasts then they are among the
slaves, and those of Yucatan, the Mayas, ought to be

;he happiest. They do not know, however, what a

if e it is of which their cousins die, nor do they know
what special slavery subsists among the half-breeds of

^ampeche, of the central tableland, the Valle Nacional,
and other parts. Judged as a whole, they seem to

lave a happier existence than the other pure-blood
races or the toiling half-breeds, but out of considera-

ion for the owners of all Mexico I will in the remainder
of this paper on 4 The Slaves ' allude to none except

;he Mayas.
I did not discover Yucatan. Fierce battles have

>een waged already over the remarks of those who

ame before me, hacendados (owners of the haciendas
and of slaves) asserting that the books, if rigorous, are
written after an absurdly brief experience. Some-

imes they say that Anglo-Saxon residents in Merida
amuse themselves at the expense of poor and un-
suspicious writers. I have got no doubt but that I
shall be charged with something heinous, only it
will have to be with something new ; because I stayed

or many weeks in Yucatan, I was not unsuspicious
and I got one of the ablest and the most respected
hacendados Don Ignacio Peon to state his point

148 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

of view. I then proceeded to reply to his remarks,
he listening with great forbearance. In the first place
he does not agree with me that they are slaves.
4 Some people,' I may thus translate his written
words, ' have gone so far as to assert that Indians
can be bought and sold. If this were so I would agree
that there is slavery in Yucatan ; but it is such a base-
less charge as not to be worth contradicting.' Now
suppose you want a man to leave a hacienda, you will
give him the account of what he owes (the carta
cuenta) and with this the man will walk about until
he finds another hacendado who will pay the sum,
that is to say, will buy the slave. He does not crudely
give 100 dollars or 200 dollars or 500 dollars for the
man; he gives that money for the chains. It has
been known to happen that a man throws off the
chains and gets his liberty, but hacendados do not]
think it worth while taking this into account when
purchasing. 1 Their slave can pay the debt, and cases
have been known a man of Don Ignacio's not only
paid this money, but gave several hundred pesos for
a church bell yet as their emolument is 75 centavos
(Is. 6d.) to a peso (2s.) daily and the family must be
supported, and the Indian has no more idea of thrift
than any butterfly, it follows that he does not fre-
quently endeavour to release himself by paying. He
can run away ; ah yes, but very probably he will
come back a broken butterfly. All over Yucatan
are people who go hunting for the fugitives and who
are dedicated solely to the chase ; one of the biggest
of these hunters is an erstwhile Government official,
Benigno Palma Moreno, whose head office is in Merida,
near that of the jefe politico. Just as it is not custom-

1 * I must expect to beat hemp in Bridewell all the days of my
life.' Terence's ' Phormio,' Act II. ; translated by Echard.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 149

ary to employ the Spanish words for ' buy ' and
' sell ' and ' slave,' so is the word for ' hunter ' not
applied to this Benigno. He is called ' cohechador,'
which means the ' briber ' and appears to indicate
that he does not use violence. He enters any house
without an order from the magistrate, although this
is illegal and the law says that the magistrate must go
himself and take his secretary. Yucatan is ill-adapted
for a refugee ; there is no fruit for him upon the trees,
there are no springs, no rivers, and except if he can
cross into Quintana Roo, where the wild Indians will
assist him, he will certainly be caught. Suppose he
passes through a town, he runs the risk of being shot
by a policeman (as occurred at Motul, for example,
while I was in Yucatan and as the reputable
newspaper made only one allusion to the matter we
may surmise that the Governor was not inactive) ;
now the shooting was illegal, and because in Mexico
there is no law against a refugee, nor can you be
imprisoned for non-payment of a debt. Well, if our
fugitive is not illegally seized by the hunter and is
not illegally shot by policemen he may still be
captured by the servants of the hacienda, as occurred
some fourteen years ago near Tekax when the slave
resisted, was decapitated, had his body flung on one
side of the road, his head upon the other, and his head
at all events escaped the last indignity of being eaten
by the zopilotes, for a charitable dog was passing by
and rescued it and brought it into Tekax. By the
laws of Mexico this treatment of the slave was
reprehensible, and I can testify that Serior Manuel
Cirerol, his owner and destroyer, was not left un-
punished. Cirerol's own person stayed intact, save
from the million tongues that do not think the person
should be loved unwisely by the daughter of a former

150 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

mistress who in her time never gave herself to anyone
but Cirerol. He flourishes his green old age in
Tacubaya near the capital, and, in Cromwell's
phrase, 'we should not hear a dog bark at
his going.' He secured a palace from Ignacio
de la Torre (son-in-law of Diaz), who but I
decline to wallow any longer in this sexual mud.
Now that two of the sons of Cirerol are slain I will not
speak of their peculiarities except to mention that
they were unbending to the slaves. One of their
haciendas rose against them, all the sugar-fields were
burned, the farm was ravaged and one half the
Yucatecan troops which had been sent to save them
showed, by their behaviour in the field, their sympathy
with the maltreated slaves. Another hacendado owns
a slave called Chi who has forgotten those long, weary
fourteen years in which he waited for his father's
death to be avenged. ... So much for refugees.
It will be taken as a truth that they have little chance,
and it is only the courageous and more desperate
who try. They know what punishment awaits them,
not alone from hunters and policemen, but from
people of a higher grade : the Cirerols allow 300
pesos (30) a month to the jefe politico of the district
and he does their will. Suppose the refugee is haled
off to the hacienda, he is flogged. I have so great a
pile of documents that I will not select one hacendado
who is no worse than his brethren. Let me mention
that the slaves of Yaxche, which is quite a show farm
near to Merida, are flogged if they go into Merida
without permission from the major-domo. These men
have no wish to fly, but those who have and win to
Merida do not find all their troubles ended. I will
give one from a multitude of cases, rendering as far
as possible the simple language of the document :

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 151

On the 19th of October, 1910, it being nine o'clock at
night, there came into my house which is marked with
the number 330 of the street number 59, the citizen
Miguel Burgos, labourer of the hacienda San Isidro.
The motive which made him tramp to the city at these
hours was because the overseer, Sefior Vicente Aguilar,
had beaten him from six o'clock. As this overseer is
accustomed to maltreat the wretched people of this
hacienda and afterwards to have them locked up in the
neighbouring village of Conkal, with the knowledge of
his master Senor Pablo Aguilar, and even if they should
be wounded the authorities won't listen to the poor
who are complaining of their wounds, and the masters
in their turn do nothing but give the authorities bad
information of the slave, and so you have the unjust
punishment which they receive with aching of their
soul. Referring to what was done to Burgos to be able
to obtain justice, and seeing that he had three wounds
in the head, various blows on the shoulders and arms,
and more on the fingers, he had to fly in these hours ;
and as he is my brother-in-law, as soon as it was day
that which I did was to take the necessary steps to
present him to justice. With the help of a generous
advocate we succeeded in presenting him to the criminal
judge, Senor Don Joaquin Patr6n Villamil. This judge
gave us justice and there went by fifteen days without
us being able to clear up the deed, as it was necessary
to have several witnesses the judge was asking for. And
as these witnesses were slaves of the hacienda they were
notified and threatened cruelty so that they should not
speak the truth, and thus they got no punishment what-
ever. And we could not get justice on account of this.
When there had gone by two months from when he left
the hacienda, Burgos was pursued ; the owner asked the
help of the authorities, and with one who is thought to
be a secret officer he could see where and in what part
Burgos was working and they got so far as to extract
him from the very house where he was working. And
at once the captain and other helpers came to find him
and to take him to the Mejorada police-station, and on

152 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

the next day he was passed into the station of San
Sebastian where he was after a week drafted into the
National Guard. And with the activity of our gene-
rous advocate we gained, though late, his coming out.
And in this style are many cases in our State.

We have established then that slaves who run
away, although they have a perfect right to do
so, have to face considerable risks. The other
door to liberty is to pay off the debt, and this,
as we have shown, they can but rarely do. In
former days, before the rise in henequen, the
slave had greater leisure and more opportunities
for gaining money. Nowadays he will be well
advised if he is reconciled to bear this burden all his
life. It starts with the poor fellow's marriage, which
he is persuaded to embark on at a very early age, as he
will thus be in the owner's debt and also keeping up
the population of the hacienda. As expenses rise he
asks the owner always for more money, and up to a
certain point he finds him very willing. I heard of a
hacienda where the men owe very little, so that they
can leave when they desire and do not have to run
away ; but this is as exceptional as is the case of one
who is a foreman on the farm of Dona Carmen Perez
and who has a capital of 8000 to 10,000 pesos, a house
in Muna, maize (although his latest harvest has been
eaten by the locusts), other vegetables, cattle and a
family of sons who are entirely free. The over-
whelming rule is for the slaves to be in debt and to
regard it as a part of their existence. Thus they are
restrained from leaving. If they were not so ridicu-
lously honest they would leave, regardless of the
debt which has been forced upon them. Workers who
come into Yucatan from the interior of the Republic

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 153

know that by the laws they need not honour such a
debt, and as they would not do so the proprietors of
haciendas will not lend them a centavo. But the
Maya ' is an honest man,' writes Don Ignacio Peon,
4 and very rarely will deny his debt.' ... I may
have most peculiar ideas, but I believe that if you
do your utmost to keep all your slaves in a condition
of most abject ignorance so that they do not know
the value of their labour, and accept, without the
shadow of a question, whatsoever pittance you bestow
well, I believe that you are coming perilously near
to stealing. ' And the Indian is aware,' writes
Don Ignacio, ' that by the law he can deny the
debt. He is convinced, though, that he would be
stealing.'

So the slaves we buy when we secure the chains
are not in the least likely to escape us. If you fear
that they will disregard the debt and if your scruples
will not let you chase them should they go, then
you had better keep them posted as to the militia
[guardia national], which they detest and which they
can avoid by staying on the hacienda. You might also
mention that if they should brave the horrors once, it
easily may happen that they will be called upon to
brave them once again, as the authorities do not pay
overmuch attention to the card which certifies that
so-and-so has done his duty. Then there is another
weapon which is for the boys who are not yet indebted,
are not slaves. A hacendado told me how he had
prevailed upon the parents of a boy whose inclination
was to be a blacksmith in the city. ' He will earn
much more,' the righteous hacendado said, ' but then
he will look down upon his father and his mother.'
And they hung their heads. ' But more than that,'
the hacendado added, ' I can tell you something

154 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

more which he will do. The hacienda is a moral place,
but Merida is not. How would you like your son to
have three women ? ' And they shook their heads.
Of course, there was the possibility that he would
not look down upon his parents and that he would be
contented with his wife. ' But I was doing well,' the
hacendado said to me, ' and now the fellow is at
work upon my hacienda very happily.' There is
another weapon still, a splendid weapon, and that is
the love our Indian feels towards his birthplace.
Where the bones of his beloved lie there does he want
to live and even if the bones of his own body have
been dislocated by a flogging. . . . Sometimes, if the
man is lazy or in other ways incorrigible, it will be a
good idea if you let him go and tell the people who
are interested in such things that every year a certain
number leave your farm whatever be the case with
other farms quite unmolested. You will thus have
something to reply if they should form a bad impres-
sion of you, having heard that you are one of those
who will not let an Indian pay his debt and leave. . .
You have your human purchase as securely as the
cattle. With regard to those who sell, they either give
the carta cuenta to the man so that he may himself
look out for buyers this is naturally not a common
system, as the hacendados will be most reluctant, save
if their finances force it on them, to deplete the farm
or else they will dispose of all their men, together
with the farm. It is not usual to say that on a property
there are a hundred men who will perhaps remain,
but in the many brokers' inventories which I saw, it
stated that there was so much of henequen, so many
head of cattle and so many servants and so many
boys (not yet enslaved). There is no hacendado who
would buy a farm except he could also buy the men.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 155

He takes a quantity of guns and cloth to make his
entry smooth, but if the people should not stay he
would set the machinery in motion : hunters and
policemen and the higher Government officials and
the faithful of his slaves. . . . We have seen that
Indians do not move with readiness from that place
where they first beheld the glaring light of Yucatan.
It is the habit of a certain man of law, Don Juan
Molina (Olegario's brother), to put down the slaves
when he is making out a mortgage and by law
you can have in a mortgage only that which is im-
movable.

So much for buying and for selling, whose existence
I believe that I have shown, securing thereby Don
Ignacio's approbation when I say that there is slavery
in Yucatan. Moreover, I believe that working
en fagina, as prevails in many parts of Yucatan, in
haciendas and in towns and other places that is,
being forced to give your work for several hours a
day without remuneration I believe that by the
Ant i- Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society, as
well as by most other people, this will be considered
slavery. Moreover, I believe that if an adult lets
himself be flogged illegally, maybe because he has not
kissed the hand of his employer's clerk I learn from
Don Ignacio that this is what has happened to some
people who declined to kiss the hand of Sefior Manuel
Rios, clerk of Don Ignacio's tyrant brother I believe
that if a man submits his body in this fashion to
another man he is a slave.

156 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Don Ignacio s letter (continued)

DON IGNACIO is not a blind supporter of the present
system which has turned the Mayas into cattle.
Yucatan is full of famous ruins, but the crumbling
caracol of Chichen Itza and the colour which is fading
quickly from that splendid wall at Acanceh do not
inspire in me as much resentment ; no, nor does the
lamentable state of Uxmal where a section of the
House of Turtles fell to dust the other day ; the plight
of these extraordinary ruins does not cause as much
resentment as the pitiful condition of the Mayas,
the descendants of the builders. ' What the Indians
want,' says Don Ignacio, ' is a little education.' He
himself would be prepared to educate if all the other
hacendados were obliged by Government to do so.
As it is, the Indian on a farm of Don Ignacio' s is
instructed in the Christian doctrine, nothing else.
Some other farms, whose owners are religious,
inculcate the same course of study, but the editor of
'La Verdad' ('The Truth') an organ which is pub-
lished somewhat furtively out of the basement of the
Austrian archbishop's so-called Palace tells me that
in far the greater number of the farms there is a total
lack of education. Not that they are made to toil
until they drop, as I remember seeing in a somewhat
lurid picture that would have been more convincing
if the people had been clad as Mayas, not as Mexicans
of the interior. No ; when they have done their daily
work they are allowed to go a-hunting or, if they
prefer, they can go hunting with the moon. Of course,
no guns are given to the stalwart Yaquis who were
carried from the valleys of Sonora and are prisoners of

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 157

war (men, women, children and the child unborn all
prisoners of war). These cannot be allowed to have a
gun. When possible they seize one, to the uncon-
cealed dismay of all the local troops who, being
brought down in the train, have had the first firing
practice of their lives en route out of the window so
that Yaquis after they have done their work have
usually nothing else to do than dream about their
distant valleys that, alas ! were all too fertile. They
can watch the Mayas going in pursuit of deer or
mountain pig the Mayas who have had three
centuries of servitude and certainly would not have
made such violent resistance to the introduction of
new landlords, modern landlords in Sonora. And
these gentle Mayas are not unsuccessful in the chase ;
it is indeed the chase, for they will follow deer or bird
until they sit them down, and then then the poor
creature is in peril. Many hours are thus employed,
not only to the Indian's satisfaction but the hacen-
dado's, since the Maya is in this way kept from mis-
chief. ' Once,' writes a Yucatecan artisan I cannot
give his name- ' once I had occasion to be in one of
these haciendas in which there was a Mexican who
did not know much, but at least how to read and
write, though not correctly. This Mexican bought a
book, one of those children's reading-books, and with
it he began to give lessons to one of these poor
wretches with whom he had some friendship. When
he began to read the first lessons he had the mis-
fortune that the master noticed it, and immediately
and in a very cruel manner he put the Mexican out of
the hacienda, so that he should not go on teaching.'

From Isidro Mendicuti I have heard a ghastly case
one of a multitude. This Don Isidro, a most brilliant
person, was within a fortnight of his death when I first

158 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

met him. Leaning on his elbow, with his battered
head thrust out towards me from the hammock he
kept swaying in the hammock to and fro. After a
few minutes it was not the scaly hands you noticed,
nor the scaly feet ; you did not wonder how the man
could speak with such a rigid, artificial jaw ; you
ceased to wonder how the nostril which no longer was
a nostril could retain so large a piece of pendent
cotton- wool ; you did not speculate on how much he
could see through his dark glasses, for above them was
a shade which hung from half-way up the forehead and
the forehead's other half was loftier than that of many
men. Isidro Mendicuti, dying in his pale brown ham-
mock, speaking with a fire all afternoon, swaying to and
fro poor leper. He maintained that we have liberty
if we have chances to improve, and as the Maya has
no chance he is deprived of liberty. A boy had been
entrusted to him by his mother-in-law, who had some
business with a hacienda. She was there acquainted
with a woman who, on dying, gave the boy to her, and
she in turn delivered him into Isidro' s hands. This
boy was taught to read and write; he learned so
rapidly and with such eagerness that he detested
Sundays, when there was no teacher. With a few
centavos that they gave him he acquired a flute, and
in two days could imitate the birds. The hacienda
changed proprietors ; the new one I am glad to say
he lost his money, though he still looks prosperous
began to search for the ex-hacienda boy. He traced
him to Isidro, asked for him and was refused. He then
began to persecute the mother-in-law, so that she
finally besought Isidro to send back the lad. He did
so. Six months later he was sitting at his mother-in-
law's, the boy was in the house, he was brought to see
his former patron, he had turned into a perfect

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 159

savage. He that might have been an artist was no
doubt a skilful cutter of the leaves of henequen.

It will be understood that I do not insinuate that
every hacendado is iniquitous. Some here and there
consider that the human beings under them are
capable of cultivation. They have schools for boys
and girls. In one large farm I visited the girls' class
was in operation, and among them, making letters, was
a small Corean child. x Some hacendados are as good
to their own Mayas as they have to be to the Coreans.
They establish schools, and in one farm I know there
is a band, while this remarkable establishment is not
run by the major-domo in so far as punishing the
Mayas is concerned. These people vote themselves
for one man, usually an old man, who with two
assistants has to judge the sinners, and the most
sagacious sentence is that for his drunkenness the
usual fault the culprit shall be made to do some
work for the benefit of the community. But altogether
on the haciendas it is far too much a question of the
owner's temperament or that of his administrator.
If these happen to be disagreeable the slave will have
a vista of sad days before him ; if they happen to be
pleasant then the Indians if you ask them whether life
is good will not say ' Yes/ for they have suffered so
much that they are afraid to talk and they will not
commit themselves to such a downright answer.

1 Her father probably would spend his leisure moments with a
wooden sword attacking some imaginary Japanese. Large bodies of
Coreans used to practise for the coming contest and assume the most
ferocious attitudes, whereas at other times they are the mildest people.
For example, those who have turned Protestants in Merida live nearly
next door to the Pagans, and there is no anger lost between them.
Now that they are under the dominion of Japan the government of
that great country keeps an eye upon them, sending secret agents in
the guise of ice-cream vendors (who observe if any youth is being
trained with wooden swords into a possible assassin of another Ito),
and, moreover, sending diplomats who cause the hacendados to be good
to their Coreans.

160 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

What they say is ' Biz huale, which means ' It will
be so.'

4 The laws of Mexico have always striven against
slavery,' says Don Ignacio, ' and the Indians enjoy the
same rights as the whites, and have the same property
rights as any other citizen.' The laws of Mexico are
excellent, and far too excellent, it seems, for daily use.
Not Indians alone but all the people have to lead a
lawless life. ' The judges, though one hears the
contrary,' says Don Ignacio, 4 do pay attention to the
Indians' complaints, because they have judicial
responsibility and if one often sees them sending
back complainants to the hacienda it is not because
they were not heard in justice, but because they are
disarmed by guarantees of better treatment which
the owner offers them and they desist from the com-
plaint.' . . . But never has a judge been punished
for neglect of duty, rather for excessive conscientious-
ness has he been frowned upon by his superiors. And
these authorities in little towns, the jefes politicos,
are they so often conscientious ? Don Ignacio
informed me that a certain one in southern Yucatan
was very good, they had been colleagues long ago at
school. A fortnight later I had ascertained that this
official took 300 pesos monthly from a neighbouring
hacienda, and of course complied with all the hacen-
dado's wishes. Don Ignacio was not astonished !

The morality, no doubt, as Don Ignacio says, is
better on a farm than in the town, where living is too
indiscriminate. In a monogamous society the way-
ward instincts of a man should be restricted, but
his instincts should not absolutely be repressed.
Near Izamal, on Miguel Gonzalez Soso's farm, a boy
became enamoured of a girl who lived on the adjacent
farm, the property of Quintin Canto. As the custom

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 161

is, the lad, his father and his mother went with
presents to the other farm. But the major-domo,
when he learned that they intended to deprive his
farm of one who might bear many slaves, distrusted
them [et dona ferentes] and commanded them, as
well as the bride and her family, to the lock-up
[calabozo], one of which there is on every farm.
Subsequently they were haled to Merida and stowed
away in Senor Canto's city calabozo, which the private
mansions of that pretty town are often furnished
with. A lawyer set to work, withstood the offer of a
bribe from Senor Canto, and the jefe politico insisted,
under threat of an exposure, that the boy and girl
should be allowed to marry. And how many boys
and girls have been divided ? Wealthy houses in
the town have usually got some thirty female slaves
[domesticas] who are not servants as we understand
it, because they are not paid. They are fed, of course,
and clothed ; beyond that they receive no wages
and they have no liberty. They may not leave the
house except to go to Mass, when they are under a head-
woman's charge. They naturally do not speak to any-
one while they are going to and from the church,
and so they spend their lives. Within the house they
do the customary work, and when their owner thinks
it opportune they travel to the hacienda and are there
provided with a husband. Those alone who serve
a master who is not a hacendado have some liberty
to choose their mate. And Don Ignacio assures me
that the Indian is not abject, nor degraded. I prefer
to think that these three centuries of slavery have
left an imprint. Once the Mayas were a noble race.
And now the hacendado says that they are indolent,
that the prosperity of Yucatan would vanish if the
Mayas were not forced to labour ; they would live

162 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

on sunlight and a patch of beans. Not so when they
were dragging stones up the gigantic pyramid of
Chichen Itza. Who would not be indolent when there
is never any hope of better things ? . . . They are
a gentle people, from the Spanish conquest they have
been imposed upon. And sometimes, out of despera-
tion, they imposed upon their conquerors. The friar
Motolinia (in the ' Historia de los Indios de Nueva
Espana') tells how they were forced, by means of
blows, to bring their idols that were putrifying and
forgotten underground, and certain Indians ' were
so much tormented that in truth they made new
idols, which they gave up to the Spaniards so that
they should be no more maltreated.' ... I am
much afraid that Spain does not export such estimable
priests to-day as was the friar Motolinia. Rarely do
they learn the Maya language, though it has a very
limited vocabulary and is not more unpronounceable
than are the Kaffir dialects. In consequence, the
clergy that attend the haciendas have, in almost
every instance, to be natives, and the more
exacting class of Yucatecos do not lean to this
profession which is unendowed. The priest is
at the orders of the hacendado and will fulminate
against the wickedness of theft if it so happens
that the owner has been missing an unusual amount
of property. ' You must obey your master,' says
the priest, ' or you will go to Hell.' No doubt
this is a dark allusion to the neighbouring hacendado,
who will be prepared to shelter refugees. And when
I say the priest is at the orders of the hacendado, I
should mention it is only fair that hacendados will,
at the request of priests, give half a dozen blows to
anyone who has not learned his Christian doctrine.
It is wrong to steal, and even if it only be a piece of

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 163

wood each country has its penalties, and Yucatan
rewards this crime with eight years of incarceration.
But a man to whom this happened was invited to
become a servant in the hacienda and he might have
chosen that alternative.

' The slavery oh, I shouldn't like it to be known
who told you this ; they'll punish me cruelly and
make my burden ten times heavier than it was you
see if a man, if a poor man that has no money ' (a
native of British dominion, as he called it, was
speaking to me), ' you go to one of these rich men in
the town and ask him to lend you 200 or 300 dollars ;
while you are a young and strong man he quickly
give you lend you that portion, whatever you ask
for, and after that you are taken to one of the hemp
plantations and they give you a wife. As soon as you
get to the farm he give you a woman, that is for those
who are slaves on the farm. I have never been
indebted.' He who told me this was not a model of
respectability. ' I did escape from prison twice,' he
said, ' here, just here. The first time they take me
because I was drunk, the second time because the
constable wanted me to remove from the spot where I
was standing, so that he may have the chance to
ravish a woman, and I would not. That time they
didn't ask me anything, but only sentenced me for
ten days. It was very easy to get away ; they take
me out to work and the constable was drunk oh, yes,
each time. You see the custom is if you behave
yourself quite good they take you out in the street to
work ; they give you facilities. ... I speak the
language pretty clean. I speak the Spanish language
from end to end.' . . . But I regret to say that this
man proved to be a liar. He informed me that I should
find two men in the hospital who had been flogged

164 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

next door, inside the Penitenciary, and now could
only lie in the position of a sleeping soldier, and there
was a soldier over each of them. What I discovered
was a man who had tuberculosis, and a boy from the
correctional school each of them, being criminal, was
guarded by a yawning soldier. But if this F. A.
MacDonald of the dusky countenance was tropical
in his imagination, I am not compelled, I think, to
put him wholly overboard, since I have solid evidence
for certain of his statements. The proprietor of one
of Mexico's big journals says he has been told
repeatedly of villages wherein the representative of
Government maintains the olden custom of the
jus primce noctis, frequently securing it by sending
off the bridegroom 1 on a trumped-up charge to prison
or the army. c The rule is,' said MacDonald, ' that
at four o'clock in the evening those slaves have to
go and kiss the hand of their master or mistress that
is in the farm. Otherwise, who does not present him-
self is entitled to six lashes, with the exception of
those farms I told you about. J. M. Guerra he
gives very good treatment, and the second good farm
is Alvaro Peon's; he has got many farms. The next
thing, the rule of the farm is that the encargado
[manager] and the master himself take the girl and
later on he calls a young fellow and marries him to the
girl.' In continuation of what he said with regard to
new-comers : ' The owner of the farm give you a
woman " This is your wife," as they would say. The
woman is born on the farm, you see is to that owner
as a horse or cow. They take you to the house where
she is living.'

1 So the lover of a nursemaid in Tampico was deported, since tl
family in which she served were anxious not to lose her, and we
influential.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 165

But the natives' servitude is not of yesterday.
There are extant some letters to the kings of Spain,
in which the monks denounce as an excessive toil the
carrying by natives of Campeche wood down to the
sea ; the kings prevented it. Some other letters
caused the kings to stop the exploitation of the
indigo ponds, which produce fevers and a plague of
flies ' so that no man can eat his bread in peace.'
Then the monks declared that another system had
been found by offering the Mayas houses and some
more inducements in the haciendas which would
cause the natives to recognise the owner as their
master, and this would produce a kind of slavery. ' I
was trying to sell to this gentleman a gas-engine,' said
to me a merchant in Merida, who had some English,
c and I was speaking always with the manager, trying
to sell to Mr. X a gas-engine, and I was always trying
to show him the benefit, the economy of the gas-engine,
and I was always after him. The manager told me
one day that it was useless to insist, because to this
man, to the proprietor, the wood consumed in the
steam-engine did not cost him anything, because the
the the Indians of the plantation had the obligation
to bring a certain quantity of lumber or wood for the
engine without receiving any pay, and that was the
reason why he was not interested in looking at the
economy of the gas plant. That's how I knew about
this, his procedure.'

But however much the Maya be imposed upon,
however little of the wealth of Yucatan a wealth
which would not be without him comes into his
pocket, he prefers, says Don Ignacio, to have the
right to cultivate his patch his milpa, as they call it.
' Twice a year the hacendado stops the work upon
his farm so that they may have time for private

166 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

labour. ... In his gun and in his milpa lies the
Indian's happiness.' Sometimes, though, it is not
permitted that he sell the beans and maize and chile
without having his proprietor's consent. Thus at
Chilip, in a farm I know of. Usually when the farm
is near to Merida, in the henequ6n zone, there is not
land enough for any milpa save that of the owner ;
and where all the Mayas have their holding, as for
instance at Chacmay, Don Ignacio's fine old hacienda,
the delight with which they cultivate it is a proof, if
that were necessary, that they are not fond of their
accustomed labour call it slavery or labour in the
fields of henequen.

Ill

Don Olegario, etc.

THERE is a movement to set up a statue in the pretty
town of Merida to Dona Isabel Molina. You may
leap to the conclusion that she has directed, as it
were, the wind ; beneficently blowing on to Yucatan
this memorable wind has done in recent months a
work most marvellous, for it has penetrated to my
lady's chamber. Into that part of the house where
nothing ever happened save the toil of making
Amurath succeed to Amurath, where nothing was
discussed save that which indirectly or directly had
to do with this procedure, whose value is less certain
than its age, a wind has blown. Madero's revolution
sang a vigorous, brave message from Chihuahua, and
there was no Mexican so listless and no Mexican so
much preoccupied as not to hear the waking of thei]
people. Someone had to be Madero's minister amonj

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 167

the Yucatecan women. But it was not Dona Isabel.
The statue is to be erected since she is the only wife
of a Molina who has had no child.

This is one of my most disagreeable chapters and,
I shall be told, among the most unnecessary. Pecca-
dillos, doubtless, can be seen in the Molina family,
but can they not be seen in other families of Yucatan
and elsewhere ? It was in poor taste when Don
Audomaro, hunting for a slave who had escaped to
Merida, knocked at a certain lady's house and
threatened her Dona Mauricia Esquivel that if
the slave was not forthcoming she would be consigned
' a las recogidas,' that is to say, she would be gathered
to the herd of prostitutes where they were expiating
their profession. On the next day, at four o'clock in
the morning, he came back, and in the presence of his
coachman shouted to the lady what her fate would
be. ... I will not affirm that Audomaro is unique ;
several other men on earth have in these circum-
stances had the same idea, two or three of them have
even uttered it, but he the brother of Don Olegario
could have it put in execution. Thus it is with all
the family. As men go in this makeshift of a world,
they are perhaps not absolutely of the lowest, but
in Yucatan they occupy positions of the highest,
and for these they are unfit. Not members of the
ruling class, Don Olegario has elevated them to high
positions where they have done damage. If we should
recount the less endearing traits of the wife of so-and-
so, then our words, having been read, would be flung
upon the dustheap as mere negligible gossip. We
are dealing, though, with Caesar's wife. And some
of the Molinas, such as the young doctor Don Ignacio,
who have not been lifted to a high position, probably
are only waiting for a leisure moment of Don Olegario.

168 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

For instance, you may not be much disturbed by
two of Don Luis Demetrio Molina's crimes. The
point, however, is that he (Olegario's nephew), having
failed in private undertakings, was created jefe
politico of Merida. (1) In the village Tixcancal were
some thirty or forty Indians who had lived there
many years, after having been pacified. Molina
wanted people at a farm of his, and swore these
Indians were the allies of a village that had risen in
revolt ; he took them forcibly to Kankanba, a maize
farm, and when by the treatment there they had
grown tame enough he took them to a farm of hene-
quSn, a league from Merida. He subsequently was
obliged to sell the farms, and certain of the Indians
fled. Their village, Tixcancal, they could not go to,
for the jefe would have sent them back to whosoever
bought Molina's farms. And probably they joined
the hostile independent Indians of the south and told
them of the ways of Yucatan. (2) A man to whom
Molina owed 100 pesos for some lime requested that
an aged person who had accidentally been taken for a
soldier in the State troop should be liberated. This was
done, and afterwards Molina said he was astonished
that in view of his good services in this affair he
should be asked to pay the 100 pesos. Again, you
may not be indignant over the ineptitude of Doctor
Don Augusto Molina (Olegario's brother). We will
not concern ourselves with his technical errors,
although they are said to be within the comprehension
of a layman ; but those people who would be in the
good graces of Olegario beseech this doctor to attend
them. He is pious. ' We have to thank the Blessed
Virgin or one of the Saints, I know not which one,'
he said in my hearing, and the father of a sick child
whom he was addressing said that he would like to

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 169

have some details of her convalescence. Don Augusto,
with his hands held up as if he were a Moslem praying,
edged towards the door. ' Perhaps it is an inter-
cession of a larger Saint,' he said. The sick child's
father, rolling in his hammock, cursed a little. ' I
can tell you,' quoth the doctor as he stood upon the
threshold, ' it is owing to some act of virtue.' And he
vanished. It may well be said that if this kind of
doctor is employed, one should either be susceptible
to this kind of treatment or have a sturdy constitu-
tion. Maybe he will not damage such a patient, but
as Olegario appointed him to be Director of the School
of Medicine and Surgery, one would suppose that he is
causing general damage. By the way, both he and
the aforementioned Don Luis were put by Olegario
into the local Congress, which does nothing and is
paid for it. Perhaps this doctor will not rouse your
wrath, but it is only Yucatecos who will be invited
to subscribe to Dona Isabel's monument. Apropos
of piety, there is Don Jose Trinidad Molina (also
Olegario' s brother), who was, until recently, the
President of the Railways of Yucatan. He could not
bear to have a Presbyterian in his employ, and when
the station-master of Motul adopted that religion,
after having been for many years a blameless station-
master, Don Jose* Trinidad retired him instantly.
A member of the Church of Yucatan confesses, and
the priests of Yucatan are usually at the service of
the man's employer. This may seem a monstrous
thing to say, but the proven sins of Yucatecan priests
are still more heinous, and as I have spoken of them
elsewhere, and I quite appreciate the difficulties
which surround the excellent Austro-Spanish Arch-
bishop, let this be enough. . . . Many hacendados
would, in this particular, behave as did Don Jose

170 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Trinidad ; and he may have been such a brilliant
man of business that the railways would have reaped
advantage from his supervision. But he was put in
through Olegario, and was so harmful that the General
Manager (who is the coolest Englishman in the
tropics) would have resigned if Don Jose had been
continued in his office and so a friend of Olegario' s
was substituted.

There are people just as ignorant of Mayan ruins
as is Don Andres Solis, but he (though he was merely
the son of a cousin of Olegario's) became the In-
spector. A year or two ago he informed a couple of
English travellers that he had never been to Chichen
Itza, but that he had satisfactory photographs. And
meanwhile Chichen Itza, the marvellous, is crumbling
to the ground. For lack of some intelligence (not
much) the fragile portions are left unsupported. If
the Inspector wishes to keep up-to-date he will soon
have to be supplied with other photographs. There
are people just as clever as Don Avelino Montes
(Olegario's son-in-law), but he is able with the help
of Olegario to damage Yucatan. It was resolved,
five years ago, in order to improve the price of
henequen, that for a time the hacendados should not
sell by far the greatest buyer is the International
Harvester Co. of the United States. This company
has contracts which oblige it to deliver henequen,
so that the hacendados were not only tending to
increase the cost, but they were also placing the
International in a dilemma. Then the Yucatecan
banks, who are among the most important hacendados,
were commanded by the Minister of Finance to hold
their henequen no longer. Thus they sold, and all the
others had to sell. The Minister of Finance was,
through the President, performing what Don Olegario

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 171

(then Minister of Trade) requested, and Don
Olegario was doing what the International requested,
for he is their agent and the partner of his son-in-law,
Don Avelino. . . . There are people still at large
who have done just as much financial damage to a
country as the Spanish Vice-Consul, Don Rogelio
Suarez, has done to Yucatan. He also is a son-in-law
of Olegario. It was his method to refuse to discount
bills at the official rate ; the applicant would then
repair to Don Rogelio' s residence and any bill what-
ever would be taken (at another rate). The bank it
was that died. In other cases when a man has acted
in this fashion and has been detected he must pack
up for another field ; but Don Rogelio has been con-
soled with two monopolies. (Of course, as son-in-law
of Olegario he could not go to prison.) He imports
such superlative cattle that the slaughter-houses
cannot patronise another merchant not that the
other merchants made no effort, but they did not
happen to be relatives of Olegario. The Spaniard
was rewarded, too, with the monopoly of dynamite.
His firm (M. J. Sanchez and Co.) possess in Yucatan
what the cientificos possess in other parts of the
Republic. These made a law which put upon imported
dynamite a duty of about 3 pesos for every 25 Ibs. ;
because, they said, the manufacture of this article
should be in Governmental hands. They built a
factory in Torreon, and Don Porfirio's son was one
of the directors. At the same time it was settled
that if for any reason they should not be making
dynamite, then they should have permission to
import it, free of duty. When the place in Torreon
exploded evil tongues, of course, said that it was
done purposely ; but this has not been proved,
because the newspapers preserved a silence, not

172 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

reporting even whether anyone was slain. Since this
occurred, the cientificos (represented in Yucatan by
Sanchez and Co.) have imported dynamite. As bread
in France, so dynamite in Mexico they said the
public must be protected ; at first the price was low,
but it has risen. Suppose that a competitor imports,
they kill him by lowering of prices.

But, after all, the most injurious to Yucatan have
been the late Don Audomaro and Don Olegario
himself. Don Audomaro was the guardian of the
welfare of all the Indians of Chuburna, Cholul,
Chablekal, Cenotillo, Dzitas, etc., and with the object
of becoming a more potent guardian he consulted
with Don Olegario as to the nomination of the jefe
politico, the military chief, the municipal judge and
so forth. He was strongly of opinion that his way
of dealing with the Mayas was the best, and as some
other men were strongly of a different opinion he was
always in an atmosphere of controversy. Sometimes
he would use the pen, as in his letters to * El Penin-
sular,' more often he would use the sword the sword
of injustice. Being the brother of Don Olegario he
would not permit his name, as occasionally happened
with the names of other hacendados, to be any way
connected with the sufferings or death of slaves.
When a paper called ' El Universal ' made exposure
of the sort of life which, on the farm of Don Manuel
Casares, was the lot of five contracted labourers, then
it did not occur to anyone to put the editor in prison.
On the contrary, these men were liberated. The
Supreme Court, in this instance, let the counsel for
these five illegally contracted men say what he had
to say. But when this counsel (Don Tomas Perez
Ponce, who has suffered much for his opinions) tried
to help a slave, the victim of Don Audomaro, he was

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 173

charged with being insolent, and straightway was
thrown into prison. Both the third criminal judge
and the Honourable [sic] Revising Court, who each
of them violated several articles of the Constitution,
lent themselves to Audomaro ; and as it chanced
that Olegario was at this time a candidate for re-
election to the post of Governor, the tyrant family
was not displeased at knowing that Don Tomas
Perez Ponce, who considered that this candidature
was most poisonous for Yucatan, would be removed
from the electoral campaign. The result he would
not alter, as he would not count the votes, but possibly
he might arouse the people to some lawless act. The
slave, Antonio Canche, was not treated worse than
all the thousands under Audomaro ; he simply was
not paid enough to live on ; he was compelled to work
gratuitously during two or three hours every day,
and he was not allowed to go beyond the haciendas
boundaries. He and his family escaped to Merida,
where he besought Don Tomas Perez Ponce to assist
them ; in a few days he came back to Perez Ponce,
saying that Don Audomaro had discovered him and
had been twice to seize him. Perez Ponce therefore
took the man into his house. Canche dictated to
him an exact account of what had been the life at
Xcumpich, and as Audomaro naturally had not given
him an education and he could not sign his name,
Don Tomas signed on his behalf. The document was
published Audomaro flew to several lawyers for a
way in which to punish Perez Ponce ; but they told
him that the document was only signed at the request
of Canche, neither was there in it one offensive word,
not one immoderate expression. Finally Don Audo-
maro had recourse to the third criminal judge,
Ignacio Hernandez, who proceeded to give all the

174 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

necessary orders, as, for instance, that the printing-
house of Senor Escoffie should be searched, and that
his wife, the cashier and the bookkeeper should be
examined. After this he put Don Tomas Perez Ponce
into prison, saying that he had been insolent to
Audomaro. And from prison Perez Ponce wrote a
letter wherein he pointed out that according to Article
151 of the Criminal Code it is the duty of a judge
of first instance to apply the necessary zeal in order
to lay bare the truth and ascertain the guilty parties
when it is alleged that a transgression has occurred.
This judge did not take any notice of the document
arraigning Audomaro ; when at last he did take
notice two months after it was published he said
merely that it was an insult to Don Audomaro. And
the higher court confirmed his judgment. This is not
to say that judges can be always bought in Yucatan.
When Don Buenaventura Herrera published a long
letter in the ' Revista de Merida,' denouncing certain
employes of the hacienda San Antonio, in the dis-
trict of Tixkokob, for having flogged and imprisoned
an unfortunate native, then Don Buenaventura was
not cast into prison. San Antonio did not belong to
a Molina. . . . ' Oh, but you have let your mud-
rake show one incident of Audomaro' s life. Now,

really ! ' I can hear them say. If they will not

believe that Audomaro was a miserable person I
invite them as in Mexico I heard a deputy invite
his irrepressible critics in the strangers' gallery to
meet me in the street ; I will regale them with the
documents I hold concerning Audomaro when they
have a week to spare. In this place one example
more will, I believe, be thought sufficient. The
labourer, Francisco Tuyim, left the farm of Tzabcan
or San Angel, before it passed into the hands of Don

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 175

Audomaro ; and Gertrudis Tuyim, his brother, a
one-armed man, left the farm in Don Audomaro's
time, in order, like Francisco, to work in the
orchard of Don Raymundo Camara ; and there
he stayed some time, while his previous employer
would not send the wages that were due to
him. The ancient father of the Tuyims, who was
at Don Audomaro's farm, became so seriously
ill that his two sons begged Seiior Camara to
let them have such money as their father owed to
Don Audomaro, as they wanted to withdraw him
from that farm and care for his last days ; but
Molina's major-domo would not have them set foot
in the hacienda, nor would he accept the money
which they brought ; they then resolved to take
their father out by night, and this they did, inside a
hammock. Molina made complaint to Don Ray-
mundo Camara, who in reply sent him an invitation
to the orchard, where the old man lay in agony and
where he died that night. Molina used this oppor-
tunity to urge upon Gertrudis Tuyim that he should
return to Tzabcan. He declined. ... So far as I
can see, the one good point about Don Audomaro is
that he is dead.

Why should this family be so unpopular ? They
have been generous. Don Olegario did not accept
a salary for being Governor, and now there is the
doctor, Don Ignacio Molina, who attends the in-
digent for almost nothing. Yet when Yucatecos talk
about this hated family they never seem to make
allowances because of this good attribute ; and it
would be impossible for them to plead that they are
ignorant, as Seiior Olegario Molina made no secret
of his beautiful idea, and Don Ignacio goes to the
expense of several pesos so that everyone may learn

176 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

about his prodigality. The common patient is
supposed to pay, but when this is impracticable he
may write a letter, and the lucky comrade has no
further obligation. He does not, as we have hinted,
pay the newspaper ; and the physician generally
even writes his letter for him. Here is the translation
of a notice which appeared on 7th March, 1911, in
the ' Revista de Merida ' :

[COMMUNICATED]

OBLATION OF GRATITUDE

To THE SENOR DR. DON IGNACIO MOLINA C. 1

On writing these lines, symbols of thankfulness for
the grand paladin of science, I feel that in my soul
there is engraving itself with gilt letters the profound
thankfulness which from the happy moment when he
made me cross without difficulty the lake of Acheron
I came to him professing and shall follow him professing
to eternity. This titan, this exalted one to whom to-
day I am directing these sentences, enigmas of gratitude,
is the most illustrious Senor Dr. Don Ignacio Molina C.,
he who with his inexhaustible science saved me from a
premature death, wherefore to-day making use of this
opportunity I take the liberty to recommend him to
the indulgent public which knows how to appreciate all
that which has enough of the noble and elevated.

PETRONA S. SALAZAR DE B.

1 This is a good opportunity for explaining the system of surnames
in Mexico. The late Vice- President was Jose Maria Pino Suarez,
so that his father's surname was Pino and his mother's Suarez. He
could have omitted the latter or have used merely the initial, as does
the above Ignacio Molina C. (Usually it depends upon the name's
renown.) The wife of a man whose father's surname begins with B.
signs with her maiden name and the addition * de B.,' or else say ' de
Balsas.' This latter method is the most common, and then the maiden
name shrinks usually into an initial. Thus the wife of Francisco
Madero was formerly known as Sara Perez and, after her marriage,
Sara P. de Madero.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 177

Whether or not her dissolution would have been
)remature, Petrona if, indeed, she wrote this letter
has not yet arrived at arranging her thoughts.
)n the other hand, she may not be entirely con-
valescent. ... So the Molinas can be generous. I am
[uite aware that people will inform me that I am
leceived, that even if Don Olegario, with musical
accompaniment, gave up his salary, he turned the
alace into a gigantic home for geese and he persuaded
nost of them to lay him golden eggs. As an example,
le acquired the two or three large haciendas of Ayala,
he philanthropist, who died and left the proceeds
>f them to the poor. When they were auctioned,
lobody was rash enough to bid against the Governor,
and he secured them at a price that was so low that
>ther people would have paid it for the contents of
he orchard this is not the truth, but it is nearer
han one usually gets. Ayala, the philanthropist,
would have been sorry, for the poor were not enriched.
. Don Olegario gave up his Governmental income,
and if you are in a carping mood you will be saying
hat he did not merit a centavo, since he made his
Congress pass a law restricting lotteries ; and now
he National, which is the only lottery in Yucatan
except, of course, Don Olegario's own flourishing
concerns is subject to the grievous tax imposed on
11 that were established after Congress made the law.
I know not if the law was passed unanimously ;
>ut a little time before I disembarked on Yucatan,
wo members of the local legislature actually differed
from their colleagues and and said so. The Republic
saw these things reported in the newspapers and
|rubbed its eyes. ' Where are we going to ? ' it gasped.
Dne was expected to reply, ' Chaos ' or ' Revolu-
tion ! ' Well, and was it not revolting that a man,

178 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

two men, selected by the Governor in preference to
thousands, that these men should have the salary
and venture to oppose their patron ? Was it not to
be a bandit ? How could any Governor be asked to
keep his State in good condition if the very members
of the Congress thwarted him ? But Senor Olegario
Molina had no reason to resent the measures that
were passed affecting lotteries. Thus he could easily
afford, the critics say, to send his Governmental,
moderate emoluments to hospitals. Yet as a
proof that he is generous I give upon the title-
page a photograph of nickel money (obverse and
reverse) which circulates or circulated at his hacienda,
Sacnicte. You will observe from the device O.T.
that in this farm he and his prudent brother
Trinidad were partners. 'So that Audomaro,' you

may say, ' did not indulge in all the sins. He '

But you are wrong. A broadsheet was issued in
Merida by one Felipe Rivera of Chuburna, telling
how Don Audomaro stopped outside his shop and
bitterly reproached and drove away some of the
hacienda labourers who happened to be buying from
Rivera when Don Audomaro had himself a shop
inside the hacienda. So indignant was he that his
slaves should patronise a cheaper shop that he abused
Rivera, and in such unmeasured language that the
shopkeeper withdrew into his house. Don Audo-
maro, more exasperated, came in after him, and
disregarding that his wife and family were present
or, maybe, infuriated when he saw a woman who, to
quote the broadsheet, ' so vigorously had sustained
her rights against the iniquitous pretensions ' (some
of the French pre-Revolution customs have been
carried over the Atlantic) he poured out a furious
tirade. His wrath against Rivera had in some degree

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN

179

arisen at his inability to make the civil judge, Her-
nando Ancona, say that the property and garden of
one Bernabe Argaez y Milanes, Rivera's stepson,
was, in fact, the property of Audomaro. He had
let this Bernabe live peacefully for several years and
make his land more valuable ; then Don Olegario
became the Governor but in this case the judge did
not allow himself to be affected.

As for Olegario and Trinidad, they did not wish to
have their servants handle ordinary coins which are
never disinfected and may pass through hands that have
tuberculosis. So they went to all the inconvenience
of making money which would not go forth into the
tainted world, as only one shop, that of Sacnicte,
would accept it. What the shop accepts it for I
cannot say, because there is no value stamped upon
it. Still, it is impossible to think of everything, and
maybe while they were arranging the design they
were a trifle harassed by the thought that it was
not a legal operation. And a Governor should do
his utmost to be in the law. They have a way of
telling you in Yucatan that there was nothing for it
but to coin money, since the Government did not
provide them with sufficient of the low denomina-
Itions. And the hacendados often used to bore a hole
into the Government's pesos, for if one has got into
the way of seeing the more humble coins have a
limited but healthy circulation why should there
not be some supervising of the vagrant peso ? This
is merely prudence, but when I applied the epithet
to brother Trinidad I had in mind a notable economy
|for which they have to thank him at the hospital,
[e being head of the committee, it did not seem
fright to him that so much milk should be consumed,
ind he reduced the quantities. He is no doctor, but

180 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

he said that it was common sense that sick men
should not drink so much.

Some Documents

OUT of my collection of the documents which deal
with certain aspects of the Yucatecan slavery I shall
not publish any that the hacendados might with reason
call superfluous. To certain folk an accusation if it be
repeated fifty times is stronger than if it be merely
stated once. To folk whom we may think more
valuable and whose time is of greater value such a
repetition is a weakness. They will ask for one
authentic instance, under the proviso that it is not of
a freakish, isolated character. Now with regard to
flogging, which is practised on by far the greater
number of the haciendas and is quite illegal, I shall give
one case which happened in a hacienda then belonging
to Rogelio Suarez, Vice- Consul of Spain and son-in-
law of the all-powerful Molina. Elsewhere I have
dealt with Senor Suarez, showing that a slave upon
his hacienda is not to be pitied less than are the
Spanish slaves of circumstance. I hope the Spanish
Foreign Minister will soon select a better representa-
tive.

Here are the details of the flogging (translated as
closely as possible) :

Jose Andrade, Notary public of the State of Yucatan,
in the Mexican Republic

I certify that at three o'clock of the afternoon
this day, before the witnesses who will sign at the fool
was present the citizen Tomds Tec, to which name

Torn as Tec.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 181

answer, declaring that I am 21 years of age, married,
an inhabitant of Noh-nayum, and I say : that on
Saturday the seventh of this month, when I was work-
ing in the drying yard of the hacienda Noh-nayum,
Canute Tec gave me notice that I must immediately
present myself in the agent's office, an order which I
obeyed at once; and when I was in the office I was
insulted by the agent; when I asked the reason for
these insults the agent answered by assaulting me and
whipping me in the face with a soga vaquera, with which
he wounded the upper lip, and even now this is much
inflamed ; then I was locked up in the dungeon of the
hacienda, where I stayed from eight in the morning until
midday, when I was taken out and again conducted to
the office ; there the agent went on reviling me and
threatening me, saying that Senor Rogelio Suarez, owner
of the hacienda, had given the order that they should
flog all those who did not obey the commands with
docility. Thereupon the agent, taking a soga which had
been soaked, rang his bell for one of the cowherds of the
hacienda and there came Marcelino Chim, half-brother
of me the declarer. That the said Marcelino Chim
received an order to keep down his brother with his
hands, and I was ordered to place myself on my knees,
whereupon I was given twenty-five lashes, whose marks
can still be seen very easily although 2 days have
passed. I, the declarer, affirm that all this was done
in the presence of Dionisio Chuc and a native of the
Canary Islands, whose name I do not know, but who is
the Administrator of this hacienda Noh-nayum.

These deeds I have related, declaring that I cannot
sign, this being done at my request by the citizen Don
Jose G. Corrales, before the witnesses, the citizens
Higinio Febles and Eusebio Gonzalez, neighbours who
are present and adults.

And at the request of him who is interested, for the
purposes that may suit him, I deliver this at Merida on
the ninth day of October of 1905.

[Here follow the signatures of Corrales, the witnesses
and Andrade.]

182 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

The photograph was taken at the same time, two
days after the flogging. It may be surmised that as
this example dates from 1905 1 have no later instances.
I have selected this one as the hacendado is a man of
standing and the slave was photographed. These two
conditions are fulfilled in other cases, but they do not
often come together. When a Maya has been flogged
he does not (in a thousand cases once) resort to the
photographer and to the notary public. He does not
do so for the reason that he is accustomed to this
treatment, and another reason is that notaries are
seldom so courageous as to help the Maya in defiance
of the hacendado: one or two have been humane
and have been ruined. As for natives not resenting
such a treatment after all these centuries of servitude,
it has become so much a part of their existence that
they even spare the hacendado any little pain he might
be caused by giving the command. An ancient Maya
came one Monday night to Manuel de Irabien, a friend
of mine, who had come down to supervise his brother's
hacienda for a week or two. The Maya said that
having given way to drink on Sunday he had not done
any work on Monday and must therefore have a
flogging. But he perfectly agreed with Irabien that
it would be more rational if on each of the other five
days of the week he did a fifth of that which he had
left undone, receiving payment as if he had worked
on Monday. You may say that hacendados who
prefer the flogging system are uneconomic. Well,
they are. But, on the other hand, in graver cases, if at
is a question of delivering the man to justice and of
losing him perhaps for several weeks, they naturally
do their utmost to support the old belief that the
punishment to fit the crime is flogging. Mayas have
become entirely servile, but the Mexicans from the

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 183

interior of the Republic are opposed to flogging and
prefer incarceration. So they are unpopular among
the hacendados. Sometimes it will happen that a
hacendado has the strength of will to flog the Mexican,
as, for example, Juan Torres, who for ten days got, for
having once been drunk, his five-and-twenty lashes
every day at Catmis, where the Cirerols had planted
sugar and reaped bullets. It would serve no purpose
if I should enlarge upon the variations in the details.
4 They flog them,' I am quoting from a man who
frequently was of assistance to me. He had had great
opportunities for observation, seeing that he was for
years employed in the capacity of visitador, a kind
of registrar who goes from farm to farm. ' They flog
them in the middle of the labourers,' he said, ' so that
they may take notice. The rule is that the man kneel
down, otherwise they stretch him over one of the
bales of hemp, and after he is flogged they put on
salt and lime or sour orange and put him in the prison
until he is better. Sometimes they flog them to
death.' But surely this is quite a rare occurrence, as
there would be one slave less. And who knows ?
there might be a justice-loving Mexican who would
in some way force the hacendado to give monetary
compensation to the relatives, without it being such
a large amount as in the case of Miguel Verde. This
man stood in an exceptional position, for his name
ere they translated it was Michael Green and the
present American Consul at Veracruz (in which State
he was beaten to death about eleven years ago) exacted
retribution. But we are talking of Yucatan and :
' Some time ago,' this is an English-speaking merchant
whom I quote, ' one of Dr. Palomeque's servants died
on account of a terrible how you call that ? terrible
whipping the manager of the plantation gave him

184 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

by the order of one of his [the Doctor's] sons. Well let
me see, when the manager of the plantation was was
whipping the servant this let me see he notified by
telephone that the servant was getting in very bad
fix on account of the whipping and that he may die on
account of that. He answered by telephone to con-
tinue the whipping anyway. A few days afterwards the
servant died. It is about one year and a half ago.
Everyone was conversing about that. . . . He's
intimate friend of the Governor.' It is not germane
to this affair, but these were his next words : ' This
man, Palomeque, has very bad sense, very bad way of
conducting himself. On the llth of August some
years ago, in the Government of Don Carlos Peon, the
people were shot in the square by the advice of this
man, that was Don Carlos's particular friend.' It
would serve no purpose to go into details of the
floggings, nor to speak especially about the women,
who are sometimes beaten as if they were men and
sometimes on the shoulder by a foreman who stands
facing them, another foreman holding them at arm's
length at their back. To prove that it is contrary to
law we have the case of Baeza, a young man who said
that he had flogged an Indian in self-defence but was
put into prison for a period of seventy-two days. He
was upon the opposition side in politics.

Another document will give an insight into several
phases of the life on Yucatan farms :

Licenciate Galbino Puga y Sosa and Licenciate
Camilo Manzanilla, notaries public of the State, we
certify : That sitting in the house n r 477 of street n r 64,
at the request of the Licenciate Don Tirso Perez
Ponce, there were presented to us the day-labourers
Miguel Canche, Asuncion Esquivel, Pedro Pech, Anas-
tacio Pech, adults and dwellers in the farm Xcum-

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 185

pich, which belongs to Don Audomaro Molina. The
said labourers declared : that they had just left the
said farm and have no desire to continue working there,
because every day they were obliged to work at what
is known as fagina^ which lasts for two hours every
day and is never paid for : because their task which
is pointed out to them after the fagina is very badly
paid, also this payment being made in a form that they
dislike. At this point there presented themselves like-
wise Gertrudis Castillo and Evaristo Chacon, also
adults, dwellers at Xcumpich, who made precisely
the same declarations as the previous persons with
respect to fagina and the pay, also how they served
in the said farm until yesterday and have no desire to
return. All these labourers declare that they were
frequently flogged, there having been flogged of those
present Asuncion Esquivel, because he asked the agent
for his carta cuenta^ Anastacio Pech for having allowed
his son Loreto to go to work outside the farm, which
action he believed was in his rights as father ; that he
was not only flogged but also locked up for eight days
in one of the three dungeons which are on that farm,
compelling him at last to bring his son to work with
him on the farm. For cutting a thousand leaves of
henequen they are paid 25 centavos, for 1500 they
are paid 62 centavos, and one peso for cutting 2000
leaves : that very rarely could they exceed 2000, which
necessitates severe exertions, seeing that it is demanded
as an indispensable condition that each leaf should
measure six cuartas [=126 centimetres] and only those
are considered which have this measurement : that
those which have not got this measurement are not
paid for; that if by an oversight or by the necessity
of working quickly they leave on a plant less than the
twenty leaves that had been settled, then as a punish-
ment they are not paid, and if this is repeated they are
also flogged. That several have asked for their carta
cuenta without being able to get it and the others, on
account of this, have refrained from asking. That
the cleaners [weeders] receive for one mecate fifty cents

186 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

and for two mecates a peso ; but if, as frequently occurs,
they clean more than one mecate but less than two,
they are always paid fifty cents, the remainder being
for the benefit of the owner of the hacienda ; they add
that when Don Felipe Rivera had a shop at Chuburna
they were prohibited from buying there, under penalty
of being flogged ; that both the agent Antonio Pinzdn
and Don Audomaro Molina ordered them to purchase
only at the shop of Desiderio Dzib, the local judge.
That when they want to sell eggs, poultry, etc., the
agent or the owner does not pay what the servants ask,
but a lower price which they themselves fix. That
there still exists in the corridor of Xcumpich a piece
of wood with a chain attached and this was used by the
major-domo to keep in subjection any of the servants
who committed a fault ; although this is no longer used
since the dungeons were built, one of those present,
Pedro Pech, declares that he has been chained up. All
those present affirm that the price paid for their work
was never fixed by them, seeing that he who arranges
the price is Don Audomaro Molina. They conclude
by saying that they left the hacienda to-day.

And at the request of the Licenciate Don Tirso Perez
Ponce, we deliver this in Merida on the sixteenth of April,
1905, making it clear that the individuals who said
they had the above names belong to the native race and
all of them speak Spanish with more or less perfection.
. . . Being witnesses the citizens Miguel Gonzalez Sosa,
Isidro Sierra Jimenez, Juan de Dios Hernandez and
Jose D. Gomez, neighbours, here present and adults,
who as agents sign with ourselves the notaries.

[There is a footnote which recounts some of the
other exploits of Don Audomaro. Most of them refer
to the imprisonment which happened to those many
persons who did not agree with him on land questions.
He does not seem to have imprisoned the local school-
master. Perhaps he took into consideration that for
nineteen years that functionary had been at his post,

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 187

with honourable mention of the municipal authorities.
He was discharged. ... I am sorry that we have to
deal so much with Don Audomaro, who has for some
months been occupying not more than six feet of land.]
Another document will show what liberty falls to
the share of citizens of this Republic :

Jose Andrade, notary public of the State, I certify :
That it being two o'clock of the afternoon of this day
there was present before me Maria Jesus Pech, to which
name she answers, being adult, an inhabitant of the
town of Motul, and she said : that it will be two years
ago since there came to her house at daybreak several
soldiers of the National Guard and they seized her
grandsons Feliciano and Valentin Alonso, taking them
to the hacienda San Juan, near the said town of Motul.
A few days later they were removed from there and
taken to the town of Merida for the following reasons :
Valentin Alonso, a minor then, of 10 years of age, was
accustomed to go from the hacienda San Juan to Motul,
with the object of seeing the said Maria Jesus Pech,
his grandmother, who had been very ill since the
morning when those two were taken from her. This
disgusted the Administrator and he was sent to the
Correctional School of Merida. Feliciano Alonso
received from the Administrator a punishment of
flogging, which caused him to come to his grandmother's
house, where he was apprehended in order to be sent to
the same Correctional School. The former has been an
inmate of that establishment for 2 years and the latter
for 8 months. The complainant asserts that these
minors are held against the will of their father, Carlos
Alonso, to whom they are subject ; he is a worker at
the hacienda Chichi, which belongs to Senor Don
Olegario Molina. She also declares that Feliciano
Alonso, whose age is now fifteen, has been promised his
freedom if he consents to contract matrimony with
some woman who is in the employ of the said hacienda
Chichi. The complainant says that she knows that
these minors are entered in the Correctional School as

188 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

having been placed there at their father's request,
which is false. She manifests that her object in relating
these occurrences is simply with the hope of finding a
charitable person who will take pity on her and her
grandsons and will help her in having them liberated.

Yes ! Mexico is a Republic. . . . We have had a
brief but a sufficient glance at Yucatan slavery as
pictured in the documents. Maybe that my collec-
tion is imperfect it would anyhow make Sancho
Panza feel as sympathetically sore as he was after
witnessing the knight's unfortunate encounter with
the Yangliesian carriers but I cannot find therein a
single paper which a slave in gratitude has dedicated
to the hacendado. And by this I do not mean that
all of them are situated in the same unhappiness. But
those who chance to be more fortunate do not leave
written records. If I had one I should print it, and
without misgivings. I should not believe that it had
been extracted in the fashion followed by a certain
jefe. This official was deciding what to do with
someone who had walked in a political procession,
and had been arrested as he was the enemy of a
policeman. ' You will go to the Penitenciary for
thirty days,' said the jefe politico, ' or else you may
sign this paper which says that you are fond of the
Government.' ' I am neither for the Government,'
was the answer, ' nor against it. I will go to the
Penitenciary.'

The slaves who are contented do not testify, and
of the others very few. ' Let there be darkness,' say
those hacendados. Now and then we see a hand
that reaches out to them.

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 189

The Human Heart

A WOMAN called Matilde Foot was hoping that
Augusto L. Peon, the largest landowner in Yucatan,
would be the godfather [padrino] of her little boy, as
he had been of hundreds. To be the padrino of a
child is not a matter which the Mexicans consider
lightly ; a relation which is of the first importance
which is sacred is set up between the child, his family
and the padrino. In this woman's case Senor Peon
did not accept the honourable office for himself but
gave it, as in many other cases, to his confidential
clerk, a man who serves him very blindly, Manuel
Rios. This poor woman Poot had been abandoned
by her husband ; she thought that in the battle of
our life it would be well to have a potent friend. And
one day Rios told her that she was not paying
adequate attention to his godchild and that therefore
she must go to live at Yaxche, Don Augusto's noble
hacienda. She was taken down by force, and in the
hacienda was presented to a man to be his wife. In
Yucatan there is a scarcity of labour. Well, it was
two months ere she was able to escape, and then she
ran to Merida, was seized by the police, delivered to
this Rios, flogged, and sent to one of Don Augusto's
other farms, near Uxmal, and provided with another
husband. This occurred four years ago, but Rios has
forgotten all about it. Don Augusto's brother tells
me that he thinks the woman was a drunkard ; and
assuming this, then surely she was not subjected to

190 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

a proper treatment. Rios found he could not trace
her, and he has forgotten all about the boy, which is a
thing padrinos rarely do. And there is something
which a Catholic would never do, says Rios, and
that is to give a woman first to this man, then to that
one, all within ten weeks. He has assured me that
he never could have done it, since he must conform
to Don Augusto's notions, and he adds that Don
Augusto is a Catholic. . . . But I should not be hard
on Rios for his memory. We have our imperfections,
all of us, and Rios has acknowledged to me that his
memory is bad. He scarcely could remember an
appalling incident which had occurred five months
ago, when one Ramirez, serving at the hacienda
Yaxche, had committed suicide. ' El Dictamen,' the
independent newspaper of Veracruz, gave all the
details, and one may observe that the authorities of
Yucatan have no affection for this paper. They have
put the agent into gaol and probably he will be
sentenced to a year or two, the pretext being that he
is responsible for some insulting paragraphs in
c Yucatan Nuevo,' a paper whose existence and whose
purpose (a Diaz and Dehesa candidature for the two
chief offices of the Republic) have alike been long
forgotten. In ' El Dictamen ' I read how this Ramirez
could not clear a certain area of land, which had
been given him to do ' en fagina.' The ground was
heavy, and in the allotted time Ramirez had not
managed to remove the trunks of several trees.
So he was flogged twenty-five lashes, says ' El
Dictamen ' and he was told that if he did not on
the next day clear that area and another of an
equal size he would receive another twenty-five.
The wretched fellow, who was ill besides, made his
escape and was discovered, after several days, a

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 191

corpse. 1 'Ah, yes,' said Rios, 'he had killed him-
self. Perhaps for a caprice, who knows ? I think
he was an alcoholic.'

' Did the coroner say that ? '

' Who knows ? What is a coroner ? ' His forehead
was a map of wrinkles.

' Is there some examination ? '

' Oh, I dare say ; but I really don't remember what
they do. You see, it has nothing to do with us. He
killed himself outside the farm. His body was found
there. Yes, it was dead.'

' And if he had died on the farm ? '

' Oh, that is a different thing.'

' It would not have got into the papers ? '

Rios frowned. ' Who knows ? ' he said. . . .
' But we never pay attention to what the papers say.
You know as well as I do lies ! lies ! lies ! ' he
waved his arms about, ' oh, they are dreadful. Didn't
the " Diario " say that you listen to the bad, old
music of the band, here in the nights ? '

' But don't they sometimes by accident have some-
thing which is true ? ' I ventured.

' Vile, abominable things ! If I could have my
way with them ! ' He looked ferocious.

I reminded him that one could have a paper stopped
in Mexico by merely charging it with having uttered
libel. Such had been the fate of ' El Pais,' the most
important paper of the capital, because a minor
Government official said that it was libellous to

1 J'ai perdu tout mon bonheur,
J'ai perdu mon serviteur,

Colin me delaisse.
Helas ! il a pu changer !
Je voudrois n'y plus songer ;

J'y songe sans cesse.

But Rousseau was no flawless prophet and only the second and
fifth lines are applicable here.

192 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

publish that he had been put in prison for a theft.
(But he did not persist in this denial.) ' If you are
unwilling to proceed to such extremes,' I said,

'you '

4 May they all be taken to the devil ! '

4 You can bring an action, I presume, and get them
to pay heavy damages 5000 or 10,000 pesos. Then
they would be much more careful.'

4 Lies ! lies ! lies ! ' He took me by the arm.
4 What did they say of you that you had watched
a fire in Merida, when you were three hours distant
by the railway ? After that one can't believe a word.'

It seemed to me that he was not an expert on the
subject of mendacity, and so I tried to show him that
there is a difference, sometimes, between two state-
ments that diverge from accuracy. ' Your employer,
Don Augusto,' I observed, * was of opinion that mere
folly one need never contradict, but if they touch

one's honour ! ' And I don't think that I need

have quoted Don Augusto. ' Come, why don't you
get the paper fined 5000 pesos ? '

He expressed contempt I cannot say sublime
contempt in face and shoulders. ' But why should
I hurt the paper ? Let the poor thing live,' he said,
' if that is what it wants to do.'

I should have liked to take the photograph of
Manuel in that great moment. ' And although this
article is up against the honour of yourself and Don
Augusto, I suppose it is a rare event for people of
the farm to kill themselves ? '

4 Oh, let them be. Besides, we have enough to do
with other things.'

I recognised that I was in the presence of a quite un-
usual man. 4 If someone in the office here/ I said,
4 insults you ? '

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 193

k Pooh ! I pay his wages and discharge him.'

4 If you are insulted by a man who is not your

subordinate ? ' I mentioned one of his acquaintances

4 what would you do ? '
4 Well, what is there to do ? '

I shall be subject to some criticism for alluding thus
to Don Augusto and his clerk. They were of much
assistance to me. I believe at one time Don Augusto
came to my hotel, while I was breakfasting, for half
a dozen mornings in succession. He would talk
philosophy for something like an hour and then escort
me in his motor to some institution. We went out to
Yaxche and another farm, Tetzitz, which he had lately
bought ; a rumour came to me that certain years ago
a woman of the farm had told the overseer that her
husband was too ill to work and if he were compelled
to do so she would go to Merida, to the authorities.
On this the overseer was reported to have hung her up
and syringed her with water mixed with chile. Don
Augusto said it was a story he could not believe, but
he was very willing to investigate. So one day we
went out by tram, with several relays of mules who
cantered most of the 26 miles. And at the hacienda
we unearthed a venerable Maya who spoke Spanish
very well and told us that the overseer used to treat
the women always in that fashion, save that he did
not put chile in the water, and the usual offence for
which he treated them was drunkenness. . . .

It would be palpably unjust on my part if
I were to speak my mind about the smaller
hacendados and say nothing of the largest one
because he had assisted me. I saw a letter in the
' Mexican Herald ' written by a foreign cigar-merchant
o

194 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

of Orizaba ; this peculiar person said that it was most
ungentlemanly for a writer to examine the conditions
of the Valle Nacional's tobacco fields, accept a
hacendado's hospitality, and then denounce his evil
conduct. What he should have done, no doubt, in
order to comply with the cigar man's sense of etiquette,
was either to remain a score of miles away at Tuxtepec,
in the hotel, or else to mention blandly to the hacendado
what was his design. I found it quite embarrassing,
but I discussed Matilde Foot and others both with
Don Augusto and his faithful clerk. And I reiterate
that Don Augusto was most helpful, not only in
opening official doors he was a kind of god in Merida
but with his conversation. Of the Governor, Don
Enrique Munoz Aristegui, he used to say that he was
most laborious and honest, but was ignorant of human
hearts. ' No conoce el corazon humano* This he said
repeatedly, in English and in Spanish, fearing that I
would not understand. It is a breach of confidence
that I should write this down, but Don Enrique very
probably has something similar to say of Don Augusto,
and what could be better basis for a real friendship ?
Don Augusto, by the by, knows English very well, but
not so perfectly as to be destitute of sudden jewels.
He was anxious to translate one day the Spanish
phrase for ' I am an enlightened person ' [soy
hombre ilustrado] and he said, ' I am an illustrated
man.'

From one who formerly in Southern Yucatan had
served as jefe politico I heard that, consequent upon a
wish of Don Augusto, he had sent out five-and-twenty
soldiers to secure a dozen Yaqui men and women and
an unborn child who had escaped. Two women and
three men were captured by the troops, while the
remaining refugees crossed over to Campeche. Subse-

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 195

quently Don Augusto asked this jefe to perform
another service and to send up to his farm the two
sons of a slave, who both of them were living in the
jefe's village. ' Don Augusto made it known to me,'
so said the ex-official, ' that these two were minors
and should therefore not be separated from their
parent who was on the farm. I answered that the
age of one was twenty-four, the other twenty-nine.
But he desired that I should send them. I refused ;
the young men as a punishment were put into the
Guardia Nacional and Don Augusto got the Governor
to name another jefe.'

I wondered if this was the Governor of whom he
said : ' No conoce el corazon humano.'

Here is the translation of a document drawn up by
Jose Andrade, a notary public :

I certify and give it on my faith : that at the request
of the Licentiate Don Tirso Perez Ponce I sat in union
with the witnesses who at the end of this declare them-
selves, in the house n r 477 of the street n r 64, it being
half past three in the afternoon, and there were present
before me the citizens Juan Pablo Can, married, day-
labourer and adult, and David Gutierrez, married, day-
labourer and adult, living at Yokat, and the afore-
mentioned Can living at Ticul, according as they did
manifest and say : the former, Juan Pablo Can, who for
a long time living in the same place, served as a day-
labourer in the farm Yokat of which the owners were
respectively Don Felipe Peon, Don Eusebio Escalante,
Don Raymundo Camara, and Don Rafael Hernandez
Escudero, whose persons he was wont to serve in the
farm Yokat on the ordinary working days, withdrawing
for repose to the town of Ticul, where he always had
maintained his home, living in union with all his
family, which is formed of his wife and sons Manuel
Can, Santiago Can and Juan Pablo Can y Leon, all
under age. On the farm being bought by Don

196 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Augusto Peon, he who makes the declaration was un-
well, remaining in his house where he was being medi-
cally treated, and when for a week he had not been in
a position to assist in the accustomed labour of the
farm Yokat, the agent Senor Felipe Herrera gave order
to Senor Don Cosme Solis to make it known to him
that he should go, despite his illness, to the farm, and
on the next day Senor Don Ricardo Ferraez, adminis-
trator of Yokat, conducted him to the residence of
Senor Don Augusto Peon in this city of Merida, where
he stayed for a term of 10 days and was taken to the
same farm Yokat by the administrator Senor Ferraez,
and on the same day he was given notice that he must
transfer his residence to the aforesaid farm, which
obligation had in Merida been laid upon him by Senor
Don Augusto Peon and his commissioner Don Manuel
Rios. That a little time after buying the farm and
in conformity with the strict orders whereby Juan
Pablo Can and his family should establish themselves
in Yokat, the agent Felipe Herrera and the adminis-
trator Senor Ferraez, personally, came with carts
belonging to the same hacienda to fetch the furniture
of Can which was in his house at Ticul and transferring
it to the house which had been appointed for him in
the farm. That on Saturday the llth inst. Senor Manuel
Rios arrived at Yokat by train and gave notice to Juan
Pablo Can and David Gutierrez to prepare themselves
because they had immediately to go to Merida in ac-
cordance with the wish of Senor Augusto Peon, which
order was obeyed when the train returned at six in the
evening, Senor Rios conducting them to this city to the
house of Senor Peon, where they arrived at 1 at night,
because the train, which was a special train to fetch
them, suffered a delay. That on arriving at the house
of Senor Peon neither David Gutierrez knew the where-
abouts of his brother, the minor Mateo Gutierrez, nor
did Juan Pablo Can know the whereabouts of his son,
the minor, Manuel Can Leon, and they received notice
that these persons were in Merida by means of the
minor Santiago Can who came to the house of Senor

THE SLAVES OF YUCATAN 197

Peon and gave information of the house in which they
were, and after permission which they got from Senor
Peon, without saying what for, they went out in search
of Mateo Gutierrez and Manuel Can Leon, whom they
found. In this state were brought before me the
minors Mateo Gutierrez and Manuel Can Leon and in
the presence of David Gutierrez and Manuel Can, their
representatives, they deposed the following facts : that
it is more or less 15 days ago since the Senores
Cristobel Carrillo, Transito Escamilla and his father
Juan Escamilla apprehended them in the town of Ticul
and brought them to the barracks of that town, in which
they were detained from 6 in the evening for a time of
2 days and during these, on a Sunday, at 7 in the
morning, they were conducted to the jefe politico and
he warned them that they had to go oack to serve in
the farm Yokat and if they did not do so they would
be consigned to serve in the army for 5 years ; and
they replying to the warnings of the jefe politico
said both of them that they would not go to the farm
Yokat because they had never lived there and always
had been settled in the town of Ticul. Immediately
they were taken to the prison and placed in one room
there, together with 4 others who are called Santiago
Can, 17 years of age, Santiago Esquivel, Pedro Coh,
and Liborio Uc, and when it was Monday at half past
seven in the morning when the train arrived for Merida,
they were brought to the house of Senor Don Augusto
Peon by Senores Juan Escamilla, Manuel Rios and the
chief of police, Don Cristobal Carrillo, in uniform ; when
they arrived at the house all 6 were locked in a stable
under the care of a person whose name they do not
know and they know him to be a salaried servant of the
house. When they had been imprisoned for 4 days in
the house of Senor Peon, the Senor Ricardo Ferraez
took them to the farm Yokat, and on arriving there,
not believing themselves servants of the farm, they got
away at once to the town of Ticul, where they remained
some days and on hearing that new orders of apprehen-
sion had been dictated against them they came to

198 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Merida in search of an advocate to represent their
rights. Thus they have expressed themselves, manifest-
ing that they cannot sign their names, which has been
done at their request by the Senor Francisco Buenfil
R. before the witnesses citizens Jose A. Vadillo and
Pedro P. Peraga, here present, of this town and adults,
before whom those who make the declaration manifest
that they have no wish to give services of any sort to
Senor Peon nor in any farm which he possesses. Given
on my faith Merida, March 13th, 1905.

One may add that the Senores Cristobal Carrillo,
Transito Escamilla and his father, Juan Escamilla, are
members of the police who are employed specially to
hunt for ' refugees,' as they have taken to calling those
free citizens ' who refuse to go on suffering bad
treatment in certain haciendas which belong to those
who have high sway in politics.' I have not met this
Cristobal Carrillo or his comrades, but perhaps I do
them no injustice if presuming from their occupation
I assert that they are ignorant of human hearts :
' No conocen el corazon humano.'

CHAPTER IX

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
OF MEXICAN HISTORY

IT is regrettable that I should have to write this
chapter, not alone because it will be passing dull a
pile of facts but on account of what Carlyle has
said : ' Wilt thou know a man, above all a mankind,
by stringing together beadrolls of what thou namest
facts ? ' But they will merely be presented for the
purpose of evolving out of them an atmosphere. The
dusky potentate who squats immovable upon a throne
of ivory in Timbuctu does not, in our imagination,
differ from the King of Guinea they are objects in a
deadly vacuum, whereas if they would live for us they
must have atmosphere. So far as I can recollect the
lamentable day when I was not more versed in Mexico
than most of you who read these lines, it was to me
a land of Aztec battlefields on which the modern
desperadoes skulked behind the cacti when they were
not killed by Diaz. Possibly I thought he was a grim
and necessary person, but my information went no
further. It was rather like the bald announcement
in the ' Morning Post ' that Lord and Lady So-and-so
have gone into the country, as compared with the
more detailed information of the Press in Mexico
which tells you that the same thing has been done by
Senor Don Fulano and his virtuous Senora. Thus we

199

200 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

have a state of ignorance to be dispersed before the
Mexicans stand out for us as real men and women.
But the process of distilling atmosphere from facts is,
in the case of Mexico, peculiarly difficult. You look
upon this picture and on that a lion lying down
beside a lamb, another lion who is not unnatural,
and what deductions will you make ? We are not
now concerned with other peoples who no doubt are
far from simple, but the Mexican, indeed, is com-
plicated. And it is upon the reader, I rejoice to say,
that the successful brewing of this atmosphere depends.
I merely shall provide the facts and try to ascertain
in what proportion are the lion's natural to his
unnatural proclivities. And from this medley of the
colours much of some, of others little you will paint
yourselves a picture. Even as the postal service out
in Mexico is to a large extent effective in proportion
to the care bestowed upon it by the public, so will you
in this case have responsibilities. An enterprising old
Dutch engineer was occupied in Mexico with some-
thing in the nature of a text-book and the data
were supplied to him in Spanish by the various
departments. The Director-General of the Post
Office provided him with many details, and ' although,'
said he, ' the working of the postal service does
depend a great deal on the employes, yet if it is to
be conducted with efficiency and to the satisfaction of
the public, then there is a heavy burden on the
shoulders of the public. We have instituted, for
example, with some foreign countries the arrangement
of the postal order. Certain countries, on the other
hand for instance, Spain and Portugal have not
arrived at any such arrangement with ourselves ;
and it is urgently impressed upon the public that they
should be careful not to ask at any post office for

THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY 201

orders payable in Spain or Portugal, as they might
inadvertently be issued.'

Mexico is full of contradictions : in Morelos on the
sugar haciendas we would swear that patience of a
most extraordinary, not to say excessive, character
is in the master's bosom 30 cents a ton he pays for
cutting cane, and after they have cut two tons, which
is no heavy task, the men go home to idleness and
worse than that. They are contented, for they
cherish no ambitions, and the local discontent which
made them join Madero's revolution was occasioned
chiefly by disputes regarding water-rights ; and when
the water is at their disposal, as I found in one
important district, they are apt to let it run to waste,
and to continue with the maize instead of starting
with the much more profitable sugar, which necessi-
tates a certain energy at the beginning. So the peasant
does not rise. In Yucatan he does not rise, but on
account of other reasons. The Morelian labourer
if so he can be called will go away if he is dis-
contented, but the Yucateco scarcely goes until his
poor, exploited body no, when he is dead it can be
still exploited. There is not much hilly ground in
that Peninsula, but there is one small village half-way
up a hill ; it has a graveyard underneath it and
another one above. ' I shall be pleased to bury him,'
the priest has said a hundred times, ' wherever you
desire, and at no cost at all if it is in the cemetery down
below. But I must warn you that a person who is
buried there will probably go down to Hell, whereas
the happy ones, who are interred above it is a
first-class cemetery, and we have to charge a fee
will, I have got no doubt, become good citizens of
Heaven.'

Those who have not been good citizens on earth will

202 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

also suffer from what seems to us the waywardness
of Mexico. Behind a double door, securely bolted,
in the famous Alhondiga de Granaditas, we discovered
an emaciated boy. He hung his head when we
inquired for what foul deed he had been so severely
punished, while the rest of Guanajuato's prisoners
assassins and the perpetrators of whatever has been
recognised and of such things as have no recognition
in the Decalogue were strolling round the sunlit
galleries, a little too much crowded to be absolutely
comfortable, but a prisoner is after all a prisoner.
4 What have you done ? ' we asked the miserable lad,
and while we waited for his answer we had too much
time to see the terrible condition of the walls and
floor, to feel that we had died a thousand deaths from
the most evil stench. At last he murmured, ' I have
been accused, they have accused me of the crime of
theft.' But no, he had not stolen all the silver in the
State of Guanajuato. And, talking of thieves, there
was the Governor of Guanajuato, Senor Obregon
Gonzalez, who did a merry trade with his tienda de
raya, the shop from which his miners were compelled
to buy, although the less-expensive village shop is
near at hand.

Nor is the system of police less contradictory. The
men who have occasion to commit a murder in
Chiapas need not always fly across the frontier into
Guatemala. If they want to be completely safe they
do so with the reigning President of Guatemala
in possession it would really be too great an irony if
steps were taken to molest an alien murderer. But
the policemen of Chiapas are, I found, extremely
tolerant. Not far from Tapachula, in the lovely
mountains, lies a coffee hacienda, and it is the only
one that is not German or American. I could not

THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY 203

learn if the proprietor was to be found or not, as he
had lately killed his wife and taken the precaution also
to assassinate the book-keeper. He would have told
the judge that, as an outraged husband, he was fully
justified but the authorities did not disturb him,
and perhaps he was in Guatemala and perhaps he was
at home with his deceased wife's sister, whose
equivocal position had induced him to destroy his
wife. And in Chiapas the police can be as energetic
as you please. ' Not long ago,' I quote from ' El Pais '
of 18th April, 1911, ' some unfortunate labourers in
the department of Chilon (where slavery exists with
all its horrors, with its cruel punishments and tributes
that are worse than death) attained their liberty and
fled, with thousands of precautions ; they were not in
debt, they wanted nothing more than to be free ; but
they were followed by the agent of the farm ; and three
of them, a woman and a new-born child were stretched
upon the ground ; their life was taken by the Mausers
of the amateur police. As this produced great
indignation in the hearts of honourable people, it was
necessary for the judge to make inquiries ; those
who had been culpable were lodged not in the prison,
but in the municipal building. Presently they were
declared innocent. What had happened ? . . . And
another Indian, a refugee, was dragged into the
agent's presence,' I am quoting still from ' El Pais,'
' and this ferocious animal commanded that his legs
should be cut off, as warning to the others, and that
they should plant him in the ground ' the upper
portion of his body being left to the ferocious sun.
He did not die for two whole days. ' The municipal
agent of a village that was in the grip of smallpox
ordered that the victims should be driven out and
banished to the mountains if they could not pay the

204 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

sum of 20 pesos for an adult and 10 pesos for a
child.' We read in Dr. Dillon's book on ' Russian
Characteristics ' that some villages in which this
malady was rampant were consumed by fire, the
population being kept inside a ring of soldiers. Then
it was no question that a money payment would
exempt you, and at Monterrey, in northern Mexico,
the doctors, who not long since tried to save as many
of the people as they could, gave such a medicine to
their smallpox patients that they at the same time
gave an order to the undertaker's men, and I did not
hear that any of them ever compromised for money.
Poor Chiapas ! which in 1822 came of her own free will
into the Mexican Republic. It were almost better
that she had remained a province of disastrous
Guatemala. . . . We have said that Mexico is
contradictory, but with regard to the police there is
not much excessive kindliness to balance the excessive
zeal. And if I could unearth some facts relating to
this kindliness, how many should I want in order to
obliterate the cruel facts ? Villavicencio, Commissary
of Police, requires a number of indulgent colleagues
ere the scales of Mexican police administration can
be thought of as approximately level. He is one of
those who torture. Hipolito Olea, a barrister, de-
nounced him in the School of Jurisprudence for the
treatment that was given to one Astilleros, who had
murdered his old mistress, Marie Poucel, and would
not confess. The method used in this case was
unspeakable, and seeing that the Commissary had a
full supply of instruments in his police-court, one does
not suppose that Astilleros was the only criminal or
political suspect on whose person they were brought
to bear. With many, on the other hand, he has
employed the milder variation of suspending by the

"II mondo e di chi ha pazienza."
1 The woild is his who has patience." Italian Proverb.

A Saint's Return

to his church, after being repainted.

Villavicencio.

THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY 205

thumbs. And he has certain cells made of cement in
which he feeds the prisoners on cecina, a dry, salt
meat ; he will not give them anything to drink. If
any girl should enter his police-court it is probable
that, as they say in Mexico, there will be still another
soldier for the President of the Republic. This Villa-
vicencio was one of the police who killed the wretched
and half-witted man Arroyo, after his abortive effort
to assassinate the President in 1897. Villavicencio,
Cabrera and Velasquez slew the man in prison, so
that it was natural for them to be rewarded : we
have spoken of the licence 1 which the former now
enjoys, Cabrera was promoted to be chief of the police
in Puebla. Both of them, for form's sake, were
condemned to death for having killed Arroyo ; and
there is no doubt that such a sentence and analogous
promotion would have fallen to Velasquez if he had
not wanted to confess the crime. He was prevented
by the judge, and later on the news was circulated
that he had committed suicide in prison. And the
newspaper ' El Mundo ' printed an account of how
he died when he had still three days to live. This is
the same Velasquez who desired to marry Senorita
Ricoy, but was balked by her confessor, Padre
Tortolero, who did not approve of the police official
and advised the girl to have no more to do with
him. The Padre thereupon was seized and bound
at the police-court, where they went on pouring
alcohol into his throat until he died. . . . The Mexi-
can is naturally cruel and one therefore would suppose

1 One of the first acts of the de la Barra Government was to arrest
this man with two of his confederates. They were accused of having,
by the use of torture, got a false confession from some people in the
city of Chihuahua, where a bank had been despoiled. The torture
lay in putting guiltless people into coffins, with a menace that if they
did not confess they would remain there permanently. It is said a
former manager of this same bank is filled with the desire to travel.

206 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

that he is something of a coward. But the purely
Indian population of the south is slothful even more
than it is cowardly. That overwhelming climate and
the centuries of hard oppression have induced a kind
of artificial sleep. You can do whatsoever operations
you desire and probably they will not waken. Let us
go no further than Chiapas : it is several years since
he of whom I speak was Governor, but he will not
be soon forgotten. He was always thinking that he
would (deservedly) be shot, and when one day a
miserable Indian soldier of a guard of honour started
fumbling with his gun and sent it off into the ceiling,
lo ! the Governor swore that it was an attempt to do
away with him. He therefore had this Indian
suspended from the ceiling and precisely in the fashion
we have indicated. Yet there was no rising of the
natives ; they cannot be aroused so easily from
their prolonged, unhealthy sleep. No doubt it then
became the duty of their more enlightened brethren
to protest, but in their eyes this very Governor had
merits, for he was much less addicted than his average
colleague to the game of graft. Suppose you wanted
a concession for a tramway or a sanitary work, then
you would not be favoured much if you could claim
to be his cousin ; he preferred that you should go to
him accompanied, if she was comely, by your daughter.
Just outside the chief town of Chiapas, 140 kilometres
from the station of Jalisco, is the house of the conces-
sions. ' While the highways,' says Terry's guide-book,
4 are said to be safe, the prudent traveller will travel
in the company of someone.' As for Indians who
inhabit the less tropic regions, as for example the
Huitchols, we are told by Lumholtz that they have
no personal courage and they also seem to be devoid
of cruelty, for if a man is ailing for a longish period,

THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY 207

that is from three weeks to four months, they will not
let his sufferings continue, but with his consent they
squeeze the life out. Jars of corn and beans are
scattered round the room, a fire is lighted and the
patient is deposited upon a mat ; then he is pressed
with hands and knees. But if we make a study of the
diverse Indians of this large Republic Mayas,
Zapotecs, Tarascans and the rest of them, we certainly
shall find few vices and still fewer virtues that they
have in common. They are merely rather better than
the other Mexicans, but as they hitherto have played
so small a part in the affairs of the Republic we may
pass to those of Spanish and of mingled blood. They
will themselves acknowledge they are cruel to the
lower animals and human beings. As for cowardice :
an operatic company was travelling by train towards
Irapuato in October, 1910. Six military prisoners were
being carried in the same long, second-class saloon,
their arms securely fastened and the feet of some of
them tied also. As a guard, there was a youthful officer
with half a dozen men. The officer was pleased to
dally with the chorus-girls. And when a member of
the escort asked him for permission to supply tequila
to the prisoners he carelessly gave his consent, and
soon this local product of the maguey plant was being
poured from beer-bottles down six receptive throats.
It was not long before the prisoners forgot themselves
and started quarrelling ; indeed, so dire was the effect
of the tequila on a certain one that he broke through
the officer's preoccupation, for his words of ribaldry
began to make inaudible the words of love. ' Carajo,
bind that fellow tightly ! Draw his cursed arms
together ! ' cried the youth, and as the soldiers
executed his command the victim screamed for very
pain. He begged that mercy should be shown him,

208 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

but the chorus-girls did not believe that he was really
suffering ; at all events they laughed, and their
companion rose to put a stop to the discordant
screaming. First he had the luckless one securely
gagged, a process that one would have thought
entirely adequate, and afterwards he struck him in
the face until the blood rushed forth all over his
white garments. But before the train arrived at
Irapuato, the unsightly, helpless prisoner was taken
to the lavatory, washed, ungagged and put in clean
apparel. The young officer was not inclined to give
more punishment, for he ignored the fellow's exclama-
tions when he had been put again upon the seat among
the other prisoners : ' I am unfortunate, you are the
criminal ! Take off your epaulets ! I am unfortunate,
by God but you disgrace the army ! ' And the atti-
tude of all the other travellers, all those civilians who
looked calmly on throughout the dastardly proceeding,
was the attitude of cowards. . . . On the strength oi
this abominable story, to put down the Mexicans as
over-prudent, does, I will acknowledge, savour oJ
injustice and caprice. Far stronger would be my
indictment if I were to take a census of the seven -and-
twenty States of Mexico in order to reveal that they
possess so many cowards. But I am not anxious to
indict this people and I am not even anxious to assure
you that my diagnosis is correct. The Englishman
who undertook a journey to Boulogne, espied a girl
with flaming hair and travelled back at once to tell
his countrymen that such was the delightful property
of all the girls of France, perhaps he could be routed
by statistics. Yet we give you our impressions, he
and I ; we saw the ruddy damsel and the cowards.
It is possible that if you really want to know how
Nature painted all the girls in France you will decide

THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY 209

to put your faith in the statistics ; it is possible that
you will be misled.

In Cuba nowadays one hears a great deal of the
prevalent corruption. Let us not forget the past of
Cuba ; she, like Mexico, was educated by the noble
Spaniards, and the aim of this curriculum was to
produce such marvellous, transcendent beings that
one cannot wonder if it failed. The people of the
colonies were either left in their own native state of
ignorance and knowledge or if they were members of
the ruling class it was proposed to send them on
Icarian flights, and after they had shown conclusively
and often that they were the sons of earth and
earthly they were blamed for being so corrupt. This
mode of education did not vanish with the Spaniards.
For example, in the charming little library of Zaca-
tecas they have got some copies of the ' Registro
Oficial,' and one of them, whose date is 19th of
September, 1830, has the following announcement :
' Jose Fernandez de Leon, citizen, professor by
examination in the praiseworthy art of first letters
and academician of the same, participates that he
has opened his establishment and pupilage at number
3 in Damas Street, and that he may accomplish all
his duties to the full he must confine his teaching to
the branches of orthology, caligraphy, arithmetic, the
Christian doctrine and orthography, urbanity, Cas-
tilian grammar which deserve the first attention and
in which he teaches boys according to their age and
capability. Thus he is given credit, since the honour-
able people are sufficiently content with him for
having kept his burden and received so many children.
He has now the satisfaction of beholding numbers of
them in illustrious careers, an honour to the State.
He takes this opportunity to make it public that the

210 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

help and kindness, cleanliness and food provided for
the children are the best, and for a moderate sum.'
As in the Spanish days and as in 1830 it is usual that
pedagogues propose ; but if they would confine
themselves to the arithmetic so that their pupils
who embrace a public office will not be accused of
graft then Mexicans would still be charging one
another with corruption. There is that old, ingrained
disposition to suspect their rulers, and political
experience was not enjoyed by many. We should
therefore, when we learn on unimpeachable authority
in Mexico that Mexicans are bad, believe that they
are not so bad as they are painted, and if haply there
does not seem an excuse which we can find for them,
we shall have less for those who came before and
made of politics a close monopoly.

The facts which have been stated in this article
would seem to disengage our love from that which is
the quality of being Mexican. It even may be that
you will prefer the Count who was si jeune et dejd si
Moldo-Valache. And you may argue that the pupils
of the Sefior de Leon, citizen, can scarcely have
achieved ' illustrious careers.' But we forget that
Senor de Leon dwelt in a land of sunlight where a
person's foibles are not hidden and where any slight
disfigurement upon the face does not, as in some
other countries, hide the face that is behind it.
Aye, the Mexicans do not expect a man to be a flawless
creature. Let him have the spots of cowardice and
cruelty and fickleness and of corruption he is not
disqualified from an illustrious career. Sometimes,
of course (but only when the man is dead or is a
matador), no single spot will be admitted ; n<
derogatory word is to be ever used in speaking of
the early patriot Hidalgo, that enthusiastic priest

THE STUDY OF MEXICAN HISTORY

who butchered many, or of Don Benito Juarez, who
is great enough to stand within the light of truth.
Approach a Mexican (not an Imperial relic) and
inform him that it is your wish to talk about the
slaying in the citadel of Mexico, the Ciudadela. After
you have made it clear to him that you refer to the
terrific act of Don Benito he w r ill utterly deny that
such a thing took place, and when his rage has passed
away he will be grieving that they should have told
you such a quantity of lies. The savage slaughter in
the Ciudadela has, indeed, been treated to the
reticence of Mexican historians ; among the few that
speak of it is Don Ireneo Paz, the famous publicist,
who did not only write ' Algunas Campanas ' [fourth
edition, 1910], but participated in them as a soldier
and a writer he composed, for instance, the whole
Plan of Tuxtepec at the request of his unliterary
friend, Porfirio Diaz. . . . We who pride ourselves
upon our fairness will be apt to be impatient with a
people that is always going to extremes. Nor is it
possible for us to get approximately at the truth by
not believing any figure till we have divided it by
ten ; our old idea was that the Latins of the New
World could not but exaggerate. In ' El Pais,' a
paper which was, like lago, nothing if not critical, I
saw a notice of four men, rurales, who arrived at a
Chihuahua station last December in pursuit of rebels ;
they descended from the train, and on the platform
were assassinated by the foe. This article was called :
4 A disagreeable occurrence.'

They are contradictory, these Mexicans ! I came
out of the library at Zacatecas to revive myself with
oranges, because the reading of those musty journals
makes one see that there is something in the Mexicans
which we shall never understand. About their evil

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

qualities, enfolding them, is the eternal quality of
childishness. 'La Lima de Vulcano,' in its number of
the 25th April, 1838, informs you that : ' it is related
with sufficient sorrow that the French boats now
blockading Veracruz have captured within sight of
the town and even under the fire of the castle a
Campeche schooner. If that is so, we are not so much
oppressed to know the ship is captured as to learn
the circumstances under which it happened . . . and
the honour of the Mexican flag cannot let this insult
go unpunished.' . . . They are children. As for
governing themselves ! I threw away the rem-
nants of the oranges, which I had sucked in
the delicious, unaesthetic mode of Yucatan. Are
any tyrants worse than children ? I went slowly
back into the library, and as I turned upon the step
I saw two little girls pick up the orange debris and they
saw that I was looking at them. Well, in one brief
instant their brown eyes had guilt and laughter and
despair and pleading and the quaintest resignation
shining from them. More of wisdom came into those
eyes than would be wanted for the governing of
Zacatecas.

UNIV. OF

CALIFORNIA

CHAPTER X

DAWN AFTER DIAZ

THE REVOLUTION WHICH BEGAN IN 1910
THE EVOLUTION OF MEXICO

DRAMATIS PERSONS

(Porfirio Diaz (Old Regime)

PRESIDENTS OF MEXICO j Francisco L. de la Barra (Interregnum)
(Francisco Madero (New Regime)

VICE-PRESIDENTS OF
MEXICO

PROMINENT MINISTERS '

GENERALS IN THE FIELD

BRIGANDS

f Ramon Corral (Old Regime)
I Pino Suarez (New Regime)

J. Y. Limantour (Old Regime), Finance

Vera Estanol (Dying days of Old Regime),
Public Instruction and Interior

Emilio Vazquez Gomez (Interregnum), In-
terior

Dr. Vazquez Gomez (Interregnum), Public
Instruction

Ernesto Madero (Interregnum and New
Regime), Finance

Navarro (Old Re'gime)
Luque (Old Re'gime)
Garcia Cuellar (Old Regime)
Victoriano Huerta (Every Regime)
Orozco (New Re'gime)
Ambrosio Figuera (New Regime)
Pancho Villa, ex-brigand (New Regime)
Viljoen, the Boer (New Regime)
Luis Moya (New Re'gime)

Mucio Martinez, Governor of Puebla (Old

Regime)

Reyes Spindola, Editor of ' El Imparcial '
1 (Old Re'gime)
I Zapata, ex-groom of Son-in-law of Diaz
(New Regime)

213

214 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

CHIEF OF POLICE General Felix Diaz (Old Regime)

ORATOR* (Bulne's and Batalla (Dying days of Old

I Regime)

EXILES (voluntary and ( General Bernardo Reyes (Old Regime)
otherwise) \ Many of the above

fTeodoro Dehesa, Governor of Veracruz
FRIENDS OF PORFIRIO) (a very wise friend)
DIAZ I G. de Landa y Escaudon

vJLord Cowdray

UNDERNEATH a shower of roses Don Porfirio Diaz
made a progress through the capital of his Republic
on the 16th of September, 1910, and they were
celebrating the heroic priest Hidalgo whose enthu-
siasm, as it were, had been the first stone of the new
Republic. On the 16th of September, 1910 one
hundred years from Hidalgo's rising Mexico was
far from being a complete Republic ; even Rome,
however, was not built within a hundred years, and
Rome did not waste any of her time in arguing that
she possessed no slaves. And whatsoever Mexico had
left undone, she had at any rate expelled the Spanish
Viceroy, she had executed Agustin de Iturbide her
dashing son, when he assumed Imperial dignities, and
she had executed Maximilian the stranger. All these
actions would have had the strong approval of
Hidalgo, since there could be no Republic while such
men were in the Palace. It would have been irony
to eulogise Hidalgo if his aspirations had been wholly
disregarded. But the dashing Iturbide and Maximilian
had been slain, and that was something. ' Viva la
Republica Mexicana ! ' Surely good Hidalgo would
have frowned on Iturbide when he locked the
opposition members out of Congress ; such a thing

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 215

could not be done by Diaz, for there was no opposition
party on the 16th of September, 1910. And if
Hidalgo had been in the streets on that excited day
he surely would have thrown some flowers (for the
President was driving past), and if a man asserts for
more than thirty years that he is the Constitutional
President, how can one contradict him ? I do not
think Hidalgo would have called him a Dictator;
for Hidalgo was a simple old enthusiast.

4 Viva la Republica Mexicana ! Viva Don Porfirio
Diaz ! Viva el General Diaz ! ' and his carriage
slowly passes onward. At his side, of course, is Don
Ramon Corral, Vice-President, a younger man though
pretty old in vice. The President looks like a gallant
soldier coming back from a campaign : he waves his
arm continuously, gracefully as if he would bestow
on every one of us a laurel leaf and roses fall upon his
arm. Corral is looking at us with his eyes half-shut
as if it were a microscope that he were looking through,
to study little creatures of repulsive morals. By the
carriage and behind it is the Presidential Staff on
horseback. They are beautifully clad, they are a
handsome corps oh, one hopes that they will never
be defiled by cannon smoke. A lady on our balcony
has conceived a weakness, as have many people, for
the bonhomie of Colonel Samuel Garcia Cuellar. She
exclaims and he salutes her in a month or two his
right hand will have been shot off by the insurgents.

' Viva Don Porfirio ! ' The windows of his private
house were broken on the llth of September ; it
was done by anti-re-electionists. But politicians
who express themselves in such a way ! . . . No
doubt they are disgruntled voters who have not
been able to elect Francisco I. Madero. They
should have the decency to hang their heads, for

216 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

it is due to their untoward intervention that
the President has only got ninety-eight -hundredths 1
of the votes and by depriving him of the re-
mainder they have shown themselves unpatriotic.
And they want it to be thought that they are patriots !
With flags of the Republic they have gone in a
procession to the monument of Cuauhtemoc, the
noble Aztec. Yes, a band of ordinary citizens who
happened to be marching down the road to lay some
flowers at the feet of Cuauhtemoc, which Hernan
Cortes burned, allowed these anti-re-electionists to
join them. One thing they had all in common :
detestation of Corral, because he was Corral and
because he was a member of the scientific party, the
cientificos, 2 a guild of clever men whose principle was
to exploit the country. They protested that they

1 ' There can be no doubt,' said 'The Times ' on October 27, 1911,
* that, had Sefior Madero been allowed a fair field in the Presidential
election of 1911, his success at the polls would have been as decisive
as the success of his subsequent appeal to arms.' But this is an ex-
aggeration, as if we except the Northern States of Coahuila and
Chihuahua those who would have voted at this moment for Madero
were the so-called intellectuals and their adherents. It is estimated
by competent observers,' so ' The Times ' continues, * that 90 per cent
of the population of Mexico were at the time of the Centennial celebra-
tions last year utterly hostile to the administration then in power.'
But the prestige of Don Porfirio would have prevailed ; it wanted
something more than noble words for Don Francisco to inflame the
populace.

2 * He governs,' says Senor F. Garcia Calderon, ' with the aid of
the "scientific" party a group which believes in the virtue and
power of science, exiles theology and metaphysics, denies mystery
and confesses utilitarianism as its practice and positivism as its
doctrine.' Of course, ' cientificos ' was a nickname which the party
did not apply to itself. The above description of them by the young
Peruvian writer is taken from his admirable book, ' Latin America :
its Rise and Progress,' of which an English translation has recently
appeared. At the other end of the scale is a ridiculous book by an
American, Mr. Nevin O. Winter, who claims to be complete and
accurate. His book is published in 1913, and he is so certain that
Porfirio Diaz is the President that he repeats the official story of his
life, which has been told before. Mr. Winter says that it has not
been his aim ' to advance radical views.'

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 217

were not politicians, and it is quite true they only
interfered in politics when their own interests could
be promoted. For a dozen years, as Don Porfirio
grew older, they had gradually grown more powerful,
and now they were surrounding him as with a tightly
woven palisade of gold. He had not suffered any
party to concern itself with politics, a subject that
was his and only his ; but he was unsuspicious of the
cientiflcos : lawyers, deputies and business-men and
bankers friends of his. The chief of them was
Limantour, who was no politician but his faithful
man, a man sent down from heaven to arrange the
Mexican finances. All these cientificos were estimable
people, friends of his. They had founded a newspaper,
' El Imparcial,' which was to support his Government.
One day it called him ' the divine.' . . . And so,
as Don Porfirio grew older, the cientificos waxed
powerful. Their private fortunes flourished most
amazingly ; they helped each other, and while they
were always swearing fealty to Don Porfirio they saw
to it that all the Governors who were appointed
should be cientificos. These servants of the party
were, of course, good Porfiristas everybody who was
anybody had to be a Porfirista but they were also
cientificos. And in September, 1910, there were only
three Governors, I believe, out of the twenty-seven,
who were unadulterated Porfiristas, relics of another
day. As for Corral, when he became Minister of the
Interior and Vice-President, he was not yet a cientifico,
but the party put in Miguel Macedo as his Under-
secretary and he was won over. This Macedo and his
brother Pablo, wisely sent by Limantour to London
to be Financial Agent, 1 are two little valetudinarians
who are said to have inherited their brains and their

1 This appointment has been cancelled.

218 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Jesuitical qualities from a Portuguese ghetto. They
are fascinating men. . . . But all the citizens who
marched along with flowers for Cuauhtemoc abhorred
the cientificos and felt that Corral was a burden on
their necks ; those anti-re-electionists went further
in the business and opposed the President because he
had not freed the nation from Corral. And now, on
the llth of September, the President was going to
unveil a Pasteur monument. These enemies of order,
said their enemies, must instantly be scattered to
the winds or to Belem. So General Felix Diaz, 1
the chief of the police, rode with his followers
into their midst; unluckily the horses trampled
on the flags of the Republic and on those which
had Hidalgo's portrait which produced among the
citizens a feeling of exasperation. Some of them
were bold enough to make for the police, and with
chrysanthemums, their only weapons, to lash out
upon them. Who knows what these desperadoes
would have done to Don Porfirio ? The citizens were
just as wicked as the anti-re-electionists. Let all of
them be haled to Belem. ... Ah ! if some had not
escaped and run into the centre of the town, with an
unheard-of cry : ' Viva Madero !.' Lounging at the
entrance of the Jockey Club a gentleman, well versed,
presumably, in other animals than horses, said that
this was madness which would have been interesting
to Pasteur. ' Viva Madero ! Viva Madero ! ' The
gentleman curled his lip. ' He is a madman,' he
observed, ' that Pancho Madero.'

1 He is either the nephew or the illegitimate son of Don Porfirio.
As a chief of police he was efficient, and he claims to be able to fill a
loftier post. He is said to resemble Don Porfirio in his perseverance ;
whether he possesses any of the other attributes of his successful
relative we cannot say. When he and Huerta slew Madero he was
grim enough, but has he anything of Don Porfirio's grim humour and
his organising power ?

General Mucio Martinez.

See P.

General Felix Diaz.

Seep. 21 8

A Quack at Pachuca,
explaining what the flesh is heir to.

Vice- President Ramon Corral.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 219

' Yes,' replied another lounger, ' he has written a
book.'

Headlong ran the citizens, the anti-re-electionists.

But on the 16th of September there was not a sign
of them. As Don Porfirio in triumph drove along
the streets he made you think about the driver of
the horses of the sun. How many of us noted
Corral, grimly sitting at his side ? The day was
glorious and few of the spectators but were blinded.
In the ten or twelve cablegrams which every member
of an embassy could send without payment the first
experience of cabling for a number of them it is
probable that Don Porfirio did not find anything
worth being censored. Mexico was lavish and the
diplomats were given what they wanted, save
a moment for reflection. They made speeches on the
grandeur of the country. Don Porfirio, they said and
thought, is of all Presidents the most secure, since he
is almost worshipped by the citizens. Those dread-
fully important diplomats were so much occupied in
finding adjectives to deck their speeches that they
could not find the time to visit Calle Bucareli, where
the Governor of the District was detaining those
whom he did not consider ornamental. If they had
been ambassadors he would have bought them
clothes, for when the delegates of the Republic of
Honduras made it known that they possessed no
evening clothes the Foreign Office told them of a
tailor, whom they patronised and whose account the
Foreign Office duly settled. They were gratified,
these delegates, and forthwith ordered a supply of
shirts and socks, for which again they sent the bill
to the mistaken Foreign Office I, if I had been a
taxpayer, would have objected to this covering of
Honduranean nakedness while fellow-citizens of mine

220 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

were put aside because they were so ragged. And the
diplomats were so much taken up with looking at
their portraits in the Governmental papers hardly
one of them had ever been considered such a prophet
in his own country that they could not read the
discontented Press. If they inquired about Francisco
I. Madero they were told that he was an idealist, a
visionary who was rich, a grandson of Don Evaristo
Madero, the multi-millionaire. ' Besides, you know
he never wrote that book of his.'

' In fact,' said a diplomatist who knew one of the
three Porfirista Governors, namely, Don Teodoro
Dehesa of Veracruz, ' in fact he followed the example
of Corral, who copied from a dictionary you remem-
ber, doubtless.'

' Well, Madero is not foolish. He is good at
business, but he never wrote the book himself.'

So much one learned about the man who had come
into prominence by making speeches up and down
the country with the kind consent of Don Porfirio,
and who was locked up in a prison on the 16th of
September. Once his propaganda had been thought
to be so harmless. He was merely echoing the
Constitution when he advocated an effective suffrage
oh ! a very splendid thing and when he was
opposed to re-election of the President was he not
merely echoing the words of Don Porfirio ? ' No
matter what my friends and supporters say,' quoth
Don Porfirio at the end of 1907, ' I retire when my
present term of office ends, and I shall not serve again.'
But the President imagined that his voice and that
of Don Francisco were both crying in the wilderness.
He looked with some indulgence on the younger man,
who coming back from France and luxury had settled
to drink water like his peasants and to eat their food ;

DAWN AFTER DIAZ

the President had never been unfaithful to the simple
diet of his ancestors. But notwithstanding Don
Porfirio's attitude, the Governors and the police
were far less gracious and they put as many obstacles
as they could think of in Madero's path. They told
the President that everywhere the pilgrim was
arousing popular enthusiasm. ' It is for the grand
old Constitution,' said the President.

' But he wants to introduce purity into our
politics ! '

4 We have all been young '

And several of the Governors sighed, particularly
he of Aguascalientes, who was at the time of life when
certain people love to spend their days in organising
questionable fetes ; he of green Tabasco, Abraham
Bandala, who had come to be so aged that he had no
time to give his prisoners a trial ere he shot them ;
he of beautiful Michoacan a territory almost virgin
still who was too old to do anything but stroke his
beard.

' We have all been young,' said Don Porfirio, ' and
I have not forgotten the reforms that I desired so
fervidly.'

' But would it not be safer ? '

4 1 have thought of that,' said Don Porfirio, ' but
I don't want to permit an accident if I can help it.
He belongs to a powerful family. And just because of
that I tell you it is better he should beat the drum and
not an upstart lawyer. Don't you think that I am
right ? '

But afterwards Don Pancho agitated more severely,
stood for Presidential honours failing any other
candidate and thus he was imprisoned, first at
Monterrey, where the Madero influence is strong
and where his proclamations, written in confinement,

222 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

showed that he was author of his book. Then they
transferred him to San Luis Potosi. ' I am quite
disappointed in the man,' said Don Porfirio. ' Who
knows ? I might have put him in as Governor of the
State of Coahuila, if he had behaved himself ; we
really must have young men here and there. In
Sinaloa I selected, on account of this, Diego Redo, and
although the voters were absurd and had to be
imprisoned. In Jalisco I have also settled on a clever
youth, because I liked his father. If the people say
his cleverness will, like Diego's, be employed for his
own benefit at their expense, I answer them that even
those who are the youngest of us may have learned
too much.'

And thus October came. Such diplomats as had
survived the hospitalities went back, and I presume
that those who ultimately paid the bill, poor Mexicans,
were swept away from each side of the railway track.
As for the Government it was contented, thinking
that the country had been advertised. Now Mexico
would be admitted to the brotherhood of cultured
peoples. She had opened a new powder factory and
had enlarged the prison. 1 Now the fame of Don
Porfirio would be established. He would never be
regarded like Cabrera, President of Guatemala, who
persists in clinging to his office despite the sixty-six
ingenious and dull attempts which people made upon

1 Not to be unjust I should say that in this month a University
was founded and the first stone of a charming legislative palace laid,
and the supply of drinking-water made more copious. As for the
ephemeral delights, such as a ball in the Palace with 30,000 electric
stars in the ceiling and among the roses of the specially constructed
room no other would have held an orchestra of 150 ; a fairyland
entertainment on the rock of Chapultepec, a mimic battle on a lake with
all the fireworks from Paris, a banquet in a cavern by the Pyramids of
the Sun and Moon and so forth and so forth in a bewildering multi-
tude, they must have taken months of work, and, verily, each one
appeared to be the work of artists.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ

his life before he shut himself up permanently in the
Palace, and has now to face no peril but electric
currents that have so far failed to satisfy the engineers
who put them on the telephone and in his bath.
No ; Don Porfirio was President by the desire of nearly
all the Mexicans. ' I have so many friends in the
Republic,' he said to Mr. Creelman, ' that my enemies
seem unwilling to identify themselves with so small
a minority.' And indeed there was no party but
Madero's which opposed his re-election. Both the
Democratic and the Reyist parties were against Corral,
these latter having the calamitous desire to make
Bernardo Reyes the Vice-President. He is said to
have been loved when he was Governor of Nuevo Leon
in his first term of office he was not unpopular. If
you desired to win a suit you had to have his son-in-
law for counsel, but it must be remembered that we
are talking of Mexico. In his second term, after Diaz
had dismissed him ignominiously from the War Office,
he was cursed by passing peasants in the streets of
Monterrey. He had come back like a beaten hound.
He was said to be popular among the troops ; how
many of them knew that when he was commanding
at San Luis he assassinated a couple of drunken
soldiers who were lying on the floor of the barracks ?
He looked in as he was going home from the casino
and he shot them. If he had become the President
of Mexico he would with difficulty have been
hindered from embroiling the Republic with her
northern neighbour, not merely because he dis-
liked Americans when Mr. Elihu Root, Secre-
tary of State, went down to Mexico he was
the only Governor en route who would not go to
meet him at the station but his popularity, like his
appearance, was of the cowboy order ; his impulsive-

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

ness was only held in check by fear of Diaz. It was
rumoured that no peso of his money need have any
shame about its origin, but that alone is not an
adequate equipment for a high official. When he was
commanded to transfer his energies to Europe he
informed the Reyist party that he was a soldier and
must go. He went by night. A demonstration had
been planned, but the electric current once again was
on the side of the authorities, and so the town was
plunged in darkness and the sudden exit of Bernardo
Reyes was not noticed. Diaz would not let this kind
of man become Vice-President and occupy a portion
of the limelight. And Madero's party, I am glad to
say, had resolutely set itself against the lofty aspira-
tions of this General.

One might suppose the word manana is not in
the Mexican vocabulary, since Madero's rise became
so rapid. When he got away from San Luis and
crossed the frontier at Laredo in disguise, the Govern-
ment was laughing at him. He had made himself
ridiculous. He would be simply adding one more to
the band of Mexicans who dwelt perforce in the
United States, whence he would undermine the
Government as much as any of the other discontents ;
as much, for instance, as the brothers Flores Magon
by their eloquent socialist tirades had undermined
it from Los Angeles. . . . But the Madero movement
was preparing for a long time in the dark. One may
compare it with those gases that assemble slowly and
then bring about an earthquake.

Yet it so befell that certain of the shocks were
premature. When everything was highly charged a
Mexican had the misfortune to be burned alive in
Texas, and this mode of death was urged by his own
countrymen the crime was heinous. Then the mob

MHMMMHHHBMHMIMBMBBBHMIHHBBBHHHHHBHI

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 225

of Mexico's capital seized on the opportunity for an
anti-American riot ; they destroyed some windows
and pulled down a little flag that was suspended from
a toy-shop. But the whole affair was mild, especially
in view of the hostility felt always for Americans.
That people has itself to blame : the dignity of the
United States is not so much resented as the impu-
dence of individuals ; the great Republic does not
usually send the better class of its inhabitants to
Mexico, and very striking is the contrast when a
courteous Indian peasant stops to pass the time of
day with you. 'Tis said that the Americans are busy
people, but in Mexico they don't subsist, like those
islanders, by taking in each other's laundry ; they
are far more often taking in each other. 1 And this
does not earn them the respect of the natives. There
was a similar riot in Guadalajara, where the Americans
made painful exhibition of their nerves : they filled
their houses both with food and guns, nor would
emerge into the pleasant streets ; and there was only
one life lost, that of a local boy whom an American
shot accidentally. The riot in this town of gardens
was produced directly by the lynching, as Rodriguez
the sinner was a child of this fair city. But in Mexico,
the capital, there was among the rioters more
than a single motive. It was animosity against the
Government which broke the windows of ' El Im-
parcial.'

And thus in several towns of the Republic those
Maderists who should not have come as yet into the
open were impelled to do so by the sound of turmoil

1 And so there is a story that in such and such a year when the
uproarious festivities of Thanksgiving were at their height in the
American Club of Mexico City, one of the young members rose to
make the great suggestion that all present should announce their real
names, for fun.

226 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

that was in the air. A large supply of arms and
ammunition was discovered at Pachuca, while at
Puebla an adherent of Madero fired for six hours on
the soldiers and police. Aquiles Cerdan, grandson
on the maternal side of a former Governor of Puebla,
will go down to history as a misguided but a valiant
man. He was assisted only by a friend or two and by
his family, the ladies shooting at the soldiers and
haranguing the spectators with the greatest zeal.
His little son was loading for him all the day, regard-
less of the fact that he exposed himself. And on the
roofs and the adjacent church were several hundred
of the foe. But Mucio Martinez, the disastrous
Governor of Puebla, stayed all day inside the barracks,
making military dispositions, so we are told. The
fight was furious, and when Cabrera the policeman
tried to force an entrance Cerdan' s sister shot him
through the heart. 1 She had been picking off the
soldiers with remarkable success, and Miguel Cabrera
was a lucky man to meet his death in such a way
instead of in one of the mediaeval methods which he
had revived for his profession. Cerdan had no wish
to kill for killing's sake a colonel who burst in upon
them was bound up with ropes and locked into the
bathroom. Ultimately soldiers stormed the house, but
Cerdan was not found until some hours later, in the
middle of the night, when he disclosed himself ; he
had been hiding underneath the floor. A soldier hap-
pened to be in the room and Cerdan gave himself up
to him, a prisoner. But he was doomed : the military
man put up his gun and shot him dead. The corpse
was taken to the barracks ; presently in the blue

1 This lady, with a view to doctoring a weakness of the heart,
accompanied Madero and his family when, in September, 1911, they
set sail for Yucatan.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 227

garments of a labourer it was displayed outside the
barracks' door, to serve as an example. He had
fought against a despotism, like Hidalgo.

We are now in the second half of November. The
authorities are called upon to stifle certain bands that
have appeared in old Tlaxcala, in the State of Hidalgo
and in the neighbourhood of Rio Blanco, Orizaba,
where the French cotton-mill proprietors are not in
fear of any Truck Act and where consequently it is very
simple to persuade the men to be Maderists. But the
factory, since that affair of 1908, has always got
sufficient soldiers on the premises, and there it seems
that Don Porfirio is executing that is just the word
-those drastic notions of the traveller who said that
Mexico would be a fine place if it were not for the
Mexicans. . . . These premature uprisings are de-
feated ; many luckless fellows go to prison and the
Government congratulate themselves that all has
ended well. 4 The plans of Madero have utterly
failed,' says the 'Mexican Herald,' a subsidised
newspaper written in American. ' The Government
of to-day is strong, rich and efficient, besides having
the support of the immense majority of the country's
inhabitants and the moral weight of an enlightened
public opinion in its favour.' The ' Mexican Herald '
is a sheet which rubs one the wrong way ; forty years
ago the country inns had always got a pile of news-
papers against the coming of a coach whose pas-
sengers the brigands had entirely stripped. The
Herald ' was not in existence then, no more was I,
but what a destiny it would have been to find oneself
enveloped in a paper such as that ! ' As for Senior
Madero,' it says on 19th of November, 1910, ' if his
share in this affair is as represented, he will lose what
little credit remained to him in the judgment of all

228 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

right-minded persons.' Unluckily for the Govern-
ment and its insincere acolytes, Madero had a good
deal of credit at the banks. And this egregious
' Herald ' also says that : ' We do not, however, {
attach undue importance to this aberration, to thisj
so-called Maderist conspiracy. ... Is Madero in his
right mind ? ' I believe the ' Herald ' did discover
that he had a liberal mind and would allow them toi
continue to endanger their immortal souls if so it
pleased them. But, on the other hand, if they
resolved to say what they believed, they certainly
had got no ground for hoping that he would reward
them with a subsidy. The Government was in
November as mistaken as the ' Herald,' but it erred
through folly and the fools have got a certain right
to be forgiven. Among those people who are
taken up in Mexico, to gaol, are a number of poor
peasants and a number of more educated men, such as
an engineer l who had been nominated by Madero
as provisional Governor of Tlaxcala. This gentleman,
Manuel Urquidi, employed his time in learning
German and translating from that tongue a book on
electricity. The man who has misgoverned poor
Tlaxcala for some four-and-twenty years is not too
brilliant in Spanish. The educated captives are
retained for months without a trial, in accordance
with the customs that have hitherto prevailed in
Mexico ; the helpless peasants when they are found
innocent are told that they may go. Suppose they
come from Orizaba and do not possess the rail-
way fare well, they will not get home quite so
quickly.

1 When the Revolution triumphed he became an Under-
of State.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 229

About this time the northern States of Coahuila
and immense Chihuahua showed that they would
want some pacifying. But the Government was not
uneasy. It would drive the Coahuila rebels into the
inhospitable mountains that contain ' 40 species of
mammals, 16 reptiles, 5 batrachians, 4 fishes and
almost numberless insects.' ' In Chihuahua, Senores,'
said General Diaz to a deputation from his native
State, ' it is a thing of no importance. If they ever
reach five thousand I shall take the field myself,
despite my years.' When they passed that number,
reaching far beyond it, they were over all the country,
and perhaps he thought that it was better if he stayed
at home and moved the little flags about upon the
map which he had on the billiard table. To this
deputation from Oaxaca he said also that the whole
revolt was with the object of depressing Mexican
securities. If this were true it would be needful for
us to revise our sentiments regarding the idealism of
Madero. That the stocks were kept comparatively
motionless was due to the activity of Mexican financial
agents in the Old World buying, buying, buying.
I do not believe that Cerdan or Madero had this kind of
impulse. Certainly it seems peculiar that any man
should for six hours be facing certain death in order
that the Mexican securities should fall. Perhaps the
President believed what he was saying and the simple-
minded populace is always ready to ascribe to the
financiers that which otherwise is dark, inscrutable.
Of course, it is the work of those nefarious financiers !
And at this time Serior Limantour in Paris was
attempting to convert the other half of the Mexican
debt. He found, however, that financiers were not
buying, buying. I am told that he denied in the
' Figaro ' that there was any truth in certain cables

230 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

then appearing in ' The Times.' l But the financiers
would not buy.

Meanwhile there was much activity among the
rebels of Chihuahua, and they were not disconcerted
when the Government denounced them as so many
bandits. It is true that there and elsewhere they
would liberate the prisoners, but these were often
held in custody for a political offence or the suspicion
that they were acquainted with the family of a
political offender. Pascual Orozco, junior, who now
appeared as military chief of the insurgents of
Chihuahua, was resolved to punish without mercy
those who should give way to brigandage. This
Pascual Orozco used to convoy silver from the mines
into the city of Chihuahua, being very much re-
spected. 2 His adherents were not in the field exclusively
to fight for Don Francisco's plans concerning suffrage
and no re-election. They had been so thoroughly
exasperated by the local Government, the jefes
politicos, who were not more arbitrary in Chihuahua
than in other parts, but the inhabitants of those wild

1 But when you are in Paris and discourse about a distant country you
have not the means or inclination and the leisure always to be accurate.
*The Press in Mexico,' said Limantour, 'is never censored.' I could
laugh at such a thought ! At six o'clock each evening a gentleman
came from Chapultepec to ' El Pais. ' He did not say, ' Thou shalt not
print this telegram, ' but as a friend who had peculiar access to the
truth, he deprecated the appearance of an unveracious message. On
the true ones he was wont to put his imprint, ' O.K.,' in blue ink.

2 He returned to this career when the new Government, which he
so greatly helped to bring about, was well established. As he reached
Chihuahua city in the flush of triumph nothing less could satisfy his
worshippers than to demand for him the Governorship. He took,
however, the command of the State rural forces at a salary of 8 pesos
a day ; it was he who listened to the multitude who had complaints
to bring, and thus his popularity increased still further. He remained
to quell disturbances which the elections might produce, then he
withdrew to private life. . . . And then he took the field again,
Madero being President Perhaps Orozco simply was dissatisfic j
because of the delay in settling the agrarian question, and perhaps "
could withstand his worshippers no longer.

Pascual Orozco.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ

regions are not so long-suffering as many of their
brothers. Also in Chihuahua was the question of
gigantic haciendas, which, besides the direct damage
that they do to the small farmers, have an evil
reputation in the matter of tax assessment, while
they are apt to leave great stretches of the country
undeveloped : Limantour came back from France
with land legislation on his programme. . . . Well,
Orozco showed himself a competent guerilla chieftain.
There was sent against him General Navarro, who is
not adapted to this kind of warfare. He is elephan-
tine, moving with enormous care, and with an over-
whelming army. He did not wish to experience the fate
of one of his commanders in the gorge Malpaso. Thus
he travelled carefully and saw no rebels. Towns and
villages along the Mexican North- Western Railway
and as far west as the borders of Sonora were con-
tinually being taken. ' In a little time,' the Govern-
ment declared, ' we shall surround them. Have no
fear.' But those who knew how formidable was the
nature of the country said that it would be as well
to come to terms by changing some of the detested
jefes. Those who knew how bitter was the feeling
and how wide a sympathy was felt for the insurgents,
thought that Don Ramon Corral, whose health was
shattered by his mode of life, should not become
Vice-President. If only Don Porfirio had recognised
his grand mistake of having forced the people to
accept this man ! He knew the feeling, for about the
20th of June, 1910, he had had a conference with
Dr. Vazquez Gomez on this subject, and he said,
4 1 am convinced that if I go away and Corral serves
as President for two months there will be a revolu-
tion.' But though he did consult the famous doctor
for his deafness, he was deaf to his political advice.

232 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

And Vazquez Gomez, afterwards elected to the Vice-
Presidency of the Anti-Re-electionist Club, informed
him that his own continuance in office could perhaps
be tolerated, but that Corral's resignation was essen-
tial. Diaz thought that he would live through this
term and the next, wherefore it did not matter
in the least who was Vice-President. He had the
comfortable feeling that he would attend the
funeral of Corral [he did so, but in Paris] in the
meantime let him be Vice-President, because he did
what he was told. If people hinted that it was
unpatriotic to have such uncertainty attached to the
succession, he replied that he knew best. . . . Many
Governors and others have since then been incapaci-
tated by an illness so persistent that it has obliged
them to retire to Paris 1 or at least to Mexico City.
And Corral was in a dreadful state. (The specialists
whom he frequented afterwards, in Paris and in
Berlin, could not help him.) But Don Porfirio
did not propose to let himself be dominated by the
followers of mad Madero. He himself was not
distressed at all, but like a war-horse in the meadows
he was young again. For several years he had not
felt like this. And on the first day of December he
and Corral took the oath : he with a hoarse, loud,
jovial voice, Corral as one who scarcely knows what
he is saying. Don Ramon himself had begged the
President to let him go back into private life, to
supervise his vast possessions in Sonora ; but the
President was obdurate and Corral took the fatal oath.
If only Don Porfirio had listened ! And if he also had
resigned he would have put a crown on his career.

1 This wealthy colony is called ' Colonia de la Bolsa.' One of the
parts of Mexico City, the haunt of pickpockets and others, is known
by this name. (Bolsa = purse.)

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 233

But when he tentatively bruited this, at once the
flatterers, the courtiers, the 'Society of Friends of
General Diaz ' rushed round to Chapultepec and
begged him as a patriot to reconsider and I do not
say that they were under the necessity of bringing
forward many arguments. For one thing he would
not have heard them, as he sobbed so loudly. 1

So the beginning of December found things rather
doubtful in Chihuahua, though that misnamed organ
' El Imparcial ' said every day that Pascual Orozco's
forces had in the last four-and-twenty hours been
decimated and disheartened. 2 Things were likewise
dubious in many regions of the country and in the
capital. These oaths should have been taken in the
newly built chamber, which was furnished down to
the spittoons. It is a place from which the public
cannot be excluded. We were told that it was
incomplete and that the ceremony would take place
inside the School of Mines, a venerable and exclusive

1 The fount of tears in Don Porfirio was never dried. On these
occasions when he let himself be nominated once again he used to
weep, and when he paid his annual official homage at the tomb of
Juarez, though he is reported to have subsidised a book which
ineffectually tried to drag the great man from his pedestal. * Oh, my
great teacher ! ' Don Porfirio would cry, oh, my great teacher ! '
And in the proclamation which he issued once at Huajuapan, he in-
vited Mexicans to choose between himself and Juarez 'Juarez
who has dreamed he is a prince, Juarez the coward with his insensate
despotism, Juarez with his mob of vile Cubans and of cringing para-
sites. ' He urged the Mexicans to choose between this Juaraz * who
by Machiavellian wiles has managed to implant a poison in your
hearts ' and Diaz who is * your sincere friend, your brother. Let
them choose between a disloyal, tyrannical and parricidal government '
and Diaz. Then he used to weep beside the tomb, but ' the tears of
penitents,' says Saint Bernard, 'are the wine of angels.'

2 If only we could feel as much confidence in this official chronicler
as in old Bernal Diaz, the conquistador, who, for example, when he
writes about the battle of Otumba, says that certainly on this occa-
sion it was owing to the presence of St. James astride his milk-
white courser that the victory was with the Spaniards. ' I myself,'
he says, ' did not behold him, and this was, no doubt, because of my
innumerable sins.'

234 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

structure that is sinking into the uncertain ground.
The President came by a route that was changed at
the last moment, and though Mexicans are undemon-
strative on these occasions it was strange that we, the
foreigners, should be the only ones to greet the old
man on his way. ... It would be wearisome to give
the marches and the countermarches of Chihuahua,
when this town or village was acquired by the
insurgents, how they burned the archives and their
past, as by the tyrant jefes it had been recorded ;
how the cumbersome Navarro made his progress
through the district and how some of his subordinates
achieved distinction. How the villagers did all that
in them lay to help Orozco, firing on the Federals from
roofs and hill-tops, not providing them with any food.
How small were the demands of the sombre-clad
troops ! Such food as the soldaderas, their resourceful
female comrades, could collect, and such medical
attendance as the soldaderas could bestow, and they
were satisfied. I met a doctor in Chihuahua City
who had offered to betake himself to any part where
Federals were operating ; this was not accepted, as
they had one doctor with the troops. 1 There is a
Mexican Red Cross Society, but as it waited until
April, 1911, before it said that under certain circum-
stances it would take the field we shall postpone
discussing it. How faint was the enthusiasm for this
war, among the Federals ! 4 They are our compadres,'

1 Before we are indignant with Navarro let us have the fairness
to examine how the native invalid was being treated in the towns. At
Cuernavaca, which is something of a show-place, a resort of pleasure,
there was at this time and for long afterwards one hospital in which
the beds have strong iron frames, but plain boards take the place of
a mattress. There are no sheets, no clothing for the sick or wounded,
and when a patient is carried to the hospital . . . the clothing in
which they arrive is never changed, and the only protecting cover is a
blanket . . . and, despite it all, some are known to have recovered.
The only precaution ever credited to the place seems to be con-

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 235

so they said ; and yet in spite of everything these
men of Don Porfirio, gaol-birds mostly and political
prisoners, did not en masse go over to the rebels. It
is true they went in small detachments, jumping from
the trains if there was not an officer with a revolver
at the door ; and four of them in uniform came to the
hacienda of an Englishman, requesting some employ-
ment. As the war prolonged itself, this kind of thing
became more common : soldiers could be seen at
Ciudad Juarez actually pulling off their stripes as
they descended from the train ; nor could the officers
be totally impassive to the glamour of the Liberating
Army, as Madero with good reason styled his forces.
General Luque 1 suffered most severely ; he promoted
a young Yucatecan officer called Pino not alone for
his deserts, but owing to the vacant places. One day,
near to Juarez, eighty federals were sent to give their
horses water ; sixty of these men evaporated. But
the Government, who took precautions not to let
these incidents be known, believed that this was
natural if Mexican met Mexican. That there was any
widespread sympathy for this Madero they did not
believe. He had proclaimed himself 4 Provisional
President,' and been inaugurated on his property in

nected with a man suffering from what is believed to be leprosy. He
has a room apart from the others and is kept under heavy guard. In
the general ward patients with open wounds were bunched with those
suffering from infectious diseases. Two convalescent patients, one
suffering from black smallpox and the other from erysipelas, took
their meals from the same dish. The only desire of the patients who
have any interest in life is to escape. At night it is necessary to
place heavy locks on the doors, and in the daytime a guard is neces-
sary to keep a watch on those who are able to crawl or walk. '

1 Luque is the man who, several months before, when Yucatan had
some domestic troubles, urged his soldiers to possess themselves of
Valladolid by promising rewards that are not usually given nowadays.
He let them sack the town, a Mexican town ! But some of the
victims were not Mexicans ; some of them were Turkish women whose
ear-rings were pulled roughly out, and a Turkish girl of twelve who
was so treated that she died on the following day.

236 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Coahuila at the same hour as Porfirio Diaz spoke the
formula in Mexico City. Oh ! he was a mountebank.
But it would be as well to stop his wretched escapade
the eyes of all the world seemed to be veering round
to Mexico. And Diaz thought about ' The Tiger of
Santa Julia,' one Negrete, who had slain his seventeen
men and was himself now to be shot. The good
old days, the good old days in which the Government
would have employed this fearless, indefatigable
personage in Coahuila, with the promise of free pardon
if he did the job. Aye, Diaz thought about the Tiger
very wistfully. This was what they had to pay for
being so much civilised. He sent commissioners into
Chihuahua with an offer, but the rebels who remained
in arms would have the punishment of death. These
overtures were not accepted, and the rebels went
about their business doggedly. They were not paid,
but care was taken of their families. And when they
rode into a village for provisions they would either
pay for them or give a note that would be honoured
when the cause had triumphed. Many foreigners, in
mining camps and so forth, who exchanged supplies
for notes were rather under the impression that
they had been robbed. And other foreigners were
disinclined to put their money on the rebels.
' This affair will be forgotten in a month,' Lord
Cowdray said to me when I returned from
Chihuahua before Christmas ; and during one
and a half hours he tried in such English as he
commands, which at all events is superior to his
Spanish he tried to induce me to send a certain
cablegram to ' The Times.' ' You can write or cable
that you stake your reputation on it.' I demurred,
but he was positive. And as he had known Mexico
for many years and many parts of Mexico, I suggested

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 237

that it would be well to give his name and say that he
would stake his reputation that within a month, etc.
He hesitated, on account of modesty. But afterwards
he said that he was willing. 1 'Ask him,' writes
Mr. T. P. O'Connor, who admires in him the
man of action, 'ask him why President Diaz
outlived his power in Mexico, and he will
say a few words.' And, alas ! on 7th of May,
1911, Don Porfirio said in a proclamation that
' it is impossible to foresee when the disturbances
will end.' Perhaps Lord Cowdray thought the
rebels' strength had been exaggerated ; anyhow, the
Government was strong enough to spare him 250 of
their most competent warriors the rural police.
At a distance of 25 feet from each other they had to
prevent the irritated Indians from approaching too
near to an oil-polluted river and igniting it as a
revenge for having their supply of water ruined.
' The President is intensely loved and admired,' said
Lord Cowdray, ' throughout the length and breadth
of the country.' And if Don Porfirio had followed
good advice he would have known that there are
times when you should not press down your system
so profoundly on the people. You may go so far that
of a sudden with resistless violence they hurl them-
selves into the air, destroying your machinery ;
and as they fall upon your fields and rivers change
them utterly.

With the new year no assistance came to Don
Porfirio from the inferior officials, those who are in

1 I have not singled out his firm to make remarks upon ; it
simply forced itself, beyond all others, on my notice. When Lord
Cowdray, for example, aired himself as to Madero, and was urging me
to send that optimistic cable to * The Times,' I had not asked for his
opinion ; and now, looking back with wisdom that comes after the
event, he must be glad that I did not dispatch the cable.

238 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

closest contact with the people everywhere. ' The
smaller saints,' says a Bulgarian proverb, ' will be the
ruin of God.' Yet if wisdom travels slowly to the
Governors of Mexico (except Don Teodoro Dehesa)
it cannot be expected to go very hot-foot to the jefe
politico of an outlying district. For so many years
the country has enjoyed a sort of peace, and Don
Porfirio has said that anyone who breaks it shall be
drowned in his own blood. The jefes, therefore, made
no effort to conciliate the Revolution ; on the contrary,
they were fomenting it, as they saw nothing but
Maderists and Maderists, whom, of course, they had
to crush. Their private enemies assumed the shape
of damnable Maderists, but if you did anything at all
or nothing it was always at the heavy risk of being
branded. In the State of Puebla, for example, dwelt
an idle jefe who made over his administration to a
lady friend. She mulcted people, put them into
prison, just as if she were the jefe. One day, after
having listened to a husband's story, she commanded
that the lover of his wandering wife should be
imprisoned. She did not inquire the name, but when
this gentleman was in the lock-up he sent word to her
that he was grieved, and then she knew that she had
dealt with a dear friend. ' Yes, yes,' he said when
he was talking to her after his release, ' but now the
husband is at large and it is inconvenient.' So forth-
with she gave orders that the husband should be taken
to the cell from which the lover had been rescued.
' God above me ! What have I done ? Why should
/ be here ? ' exclaimed the husband. And the lady
answered, ' You are a Maderist.' . . . Revolution-
aries were thus manufactured in all parts of the Re-
public, only two small States, Colima and Queretaro,
both very backward States, not coming into line.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ

With the suspension of the guarantees a little later,
those who fell into official clutches were disposed of
very swiftly. And where one was slain a dozen rose.
It then began to exercise the Government as to the
money of their foe. This could not emanate entirely
from the pocket of Madero. What proportion came
from the United States ? A good deal, certainly.
Madero said that he would write a book to demonstrate
that nothing was received from the Americans. But
among the very large number of Mexicans who lived
in the United States owing to their President and
owing to the desperate condition of the labourer
much sympathy was felt with the insurgents. Of all
the twenty- seven Republics in America there is but
one from which the people emigrate. A labourer in
Mexico is the most patient of all animals ; yet he
will turn. Between his master and the law's caprice
he is not to be envied. Possibly he finds that the
United States are paved with other things than gold ;
however, he will have enough to send a contribution
even if it be not more per week than what his village
schoolmaster could earn in Mexico, about 4s. 6d.
It may be thought that this is not a princely wage for
pedagogues, but in the State of Zacatecas it would be
appreciated, for the Governor sent out a document
not long ago which stated that there were no funds
available for such a purpose and advising all the
schoolmasters to seek another occupation. Zacatecas
is supposed to be a wealthy mining state. When
Luis Moya, the insurgent chief, began to take it and
Durango under his control, he forced the banks to
pay him what was standing to the credit of the tax-
collectors, while he paid a schoolmistress, and I
presume the schoolmasters, whose salary had not
been given them.

240 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

This digression shows that the official Mexico was
somewhat barbarous and that if the Revolutionaries,
save those who were with Madero and Orozco, were
such bandits as the Government declared, it would
have been to the general benefit if the supply of them
could have been multiplied. . . . The contributions
of expatriated Mexicans were not the only ones that
came from the United States, for it was by this route
that opulent and more enlightened landowners of
Mexico contributed. Although no money was received
from the Americans, Madero could not close his ranks
to volunteers, who were impelled by love of freedom.
In America, that is to say among the population of
the street and plain, the government of Don Porfirio
was anything but popular : they had perceived that
it was a burlesque Republic, while the presence of
political offenders and the publication of a certain
set of articles were influencing many. Whether tin
young volunteers were animated by a love of f reedoi
or adventure, or even booty, one could not expec
Madero in each case to ascertain by an examination.
If he had rejected them they would have joined
independent band, such as the one which worked ii
Lower California. The aim of these opponents of th<
baited Government was to establish there a socialistic
State, and while at the beginning of the year Chihua-
hua and Oaxaca and Tabasco gave the Government
enough anxiety, this Californian problem was unique.
So they availed themselves of ' El Imparcial,' whicl
called the wrath of God and man upon the daring
rascals. I do not think that I pay undue attention t(
this paper, since there would have been no revolutioi
if the sinister activities of Reyes Spindola, x its editor,

1 So that he should not be interfered with all the paper which
Press of Mexico required was only to be had from an expensive factory.

DON FRANCISCO

Madero.

From the Mexican Herald.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ

lad been discouraged. But the cientificos had put
lim there, had put him more or less at Don Porfirio's
service, and had given him carte blanche to try to ruin
everybody else's reputation. Until he was obliged to
run away from Mexico he wielded a pernicious
nfluence. But on the Lower Californian business he
was almost funny, saying this attempt to found a
socialistic State could not be adequately censured ; it
was horrible, it was immoral. But the movement
came to nothing. . . . We have alluded to Americans
who at this time were fighting for Madero. General
3iaz remonstrated through the Embassy in Washing-
;on, requesting also that a keener watch be kept upon
she frontier, since the rebels were importing arms and
ammunition and supplies. The frontier is of an
enormous length, and the Americans, not aided over-
much by colleagues opposite, did what they could.
But Don Porfirio should have remembered that it was
,he help of the Americans, against Sebastian Lerdo de
Tejada, whereby he was elevated to the Presidential
chair. And when with Juarez he was fighting Maxi-
milian, 'we saw and touched projectiles of war of
American manufacture, marked U.S.A.,' says A. F.
]!asoni, who was a captain in the Imperial army at
the capitulation of 20th June, 1867, and afterwards
wrote ' Le Drame Mexicain.' Madero had some other
foreigners among his troops of course, a Garibaldi,
grandson of Giuseppe ; some Australians, they say ;

["heir charge was 18^ cents per kilo, which was more than double the
>rice in England, and the duty hindered importation. As the cost of
>roducing a book was thus made most exorbitant I fancied that
f Don Porfirio had heard of this he would have put an instant stop to
i monopoly which was antagonistic to the Progress that has ever found
n him its chief support (vide Edicts). What was my surprise to see
:hat Porfirito, his son, is a director of this paper factory and he
limself a stockholder. And as such one can onlv congratulate him,
since it pays 8 to 10 per cent on over seven million pesos of capital.

242 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

and Viljoen the wily Boer, one of the members of
a Boer colony which had been set up in Chihuahua
and, whatever be the causes, had not flourished like
the similar endeavours of the Mormon.

For a time we have not spoken of Navarro. It was
better, for he has been occupied in bayoneting
wounded insurrectos. Even in this lurid book I
cannot reproduce the photograph I saw when in
Chihuahua. But it left no doubt, because the bayonet
could not have entered so unless the victim had been
lying down. And then Navarro left all else and
marched due north to save Ciudad Juarez, which
Orozco was besieging. All the bridges on the railway
line between Chihuahua and Juarez were destroyed,
and as Navarro went with infinite precautions it was
thought that he would not relieve the place. Orozco
found himself unable, having poor artillery, to seize
this celebrated little town, and he retired. Our old
friend General Luque could not be dislodged from
Ojinaga, which is a small town in Chihuahua's
wilderness. He had no opportunities to bayonet the
wounded, since he could not venture from the town,
his forces adding up to ninety-eight. There had
arrived with him the remnant of a full battalion
of 600 ; such as could escape had joined the rebels.
Luque knew that they would not dislodge him, for
he made the women and the children walk about the
plaza and the streets and so there could be no bom-
bardment.

In February it was clear to Don Porfirio that som
thing must be done ; so General Mucio Martine

1 The inhabitants of Puebla City flew to put their shutters up and
flew to arms one February afternoon because a shot was fired by a
policeman at a mad dog. Mucio Martinez had incensed the people
so profoundly that an outbreak was expected every moment. In his

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 243

Governor and scourge of Puebla during twenty years,
got ill. He struggled hard against it, taking train on
two occasions for the capital, where he consulted with
the President most anxiously, because he had not
yet done all that he could do in Puebla. But the
President informed him that he had done quite enough,
and that he should resign himself to sickness. Other
functionaries would be failing soon ; a veritable
plague was looming over them. Whereat Don Mucio
cursed roundly.

' Mucotito ! ' quoth the President, ' if you knew all
that I know '

' Shoot the devils ! '

' It has gone too far. In fact we may be shot
ourselves. The soldiers '

' Oh, you talk as if the Federals were like the dirty
troops of Puebla State. It isn't over all the army
that you have to keep a guard of Zacapoaztla Indians.
By the way, we have them now in Puebla at the
barracks and the prison and in other places ; and I
must confess I like to see those fellows with their
scarlet blankets.'

' What ! Perhaps you do not know that we have

amorous affairs he was a grisly satyr, using Pita the jefe politico as
his confederate. He was the real owner of the twelve or fourteen
gaming-houses which the law prohibited entirely and in which a
country farmer would be drugged and robbed. He ruined countless
people through his machinations with the Pulque Trust and always,
always he preserved the favour of the President it is said for an
annual consideration of between 30,000 and 50,000 pesos (after the
seducing of the German Consul's daughters). Finally, it was
apparent that he could no longer be sustained. In ' El Pais ' a couple
of instructive articles were printed : * El Canto del Cisne ' the Swan
Song. Let us merely note that to provide the funds for paying
interest on the enormously increasing debt, it was not pulque which
was made to pay, but water ! Could a sacrilegious hand be laid on
pulque or on meat or any other article whereof Don Mucio and his
friends had the monopoly? But now I understand that nearly all
the fine possessions of Don Mucio, for which he could not show a
title, have been passing into other hands.

244 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

had our troubles with the officers ; yes ! the officers
of the regular army.'

4 Shoot them ! Have them tried at night and shot
at daybreak. But I surely needn't tell you this ? '

The Presidential face remained immovable, save
that his eyelids slowly fell. 4 And they are usually
very young,' he said. ' Who knows ? Who knows ? '

4 Man ! you should have more faith in your old
comrades.'

4 Young ... so young.' The blue eyes of the
President were full of tears, as when he wept at his
defeat upon the plain of Icamole. ' But it was of
you, my friend, that we were talking. Go back now
to Puebla and have your secretary to compose the
proclamation.'

1 Carajo ! but I am not ill.'

4 Then someone of your family is ill and you must
go with her to Germany or France.'

4 And I can't appoint an acting Governor ? Don't
you think that in a few months ? '

The General stamped his foot impatiently, and in
the proclamation Mucio announced that he must go to
Europe. What he did was to deprive himself of his
moustache and, thus disguised, continue in the town
of Puebla, which is called the City of the Angels.

This was the beginning of the end. The President
recognised that he was now on the defensive.
And the rebels naturally were encouraged. Colonel
Ahumada, who had ruled Jalisco with intelligence,
became the Governor of Chihuahua. But the gleams
of sunlight for the Federals were very fitful, almost
like the visits of the President to gay Guadalajara,
the capital of Mexico's chief state, Jalisco, whither he
has been but once in all the years that have elapsed
since he had General Corona murdered. Now the

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 245

Federals had given up as hopeless the repairing of the
railroad from Chihuahua City to Juarez and the rebels
notified that elsewhere any train with soldiers would
be fired on. This was not an idle threat, and after-
wards, long afterwards, the Government had the
brutality to send their soldiers by the common trains
and sometimes with a load of dynamite. What can
you do with such a Government but blow it up ?

On 6th March at Washington the War Department
(as in June, 1908, September, 1908, and July, 1909)
issued mobilising orders ; on the 16th it was said that
20,000 were in camp at San Antonio, Texas. I was
told by competent authorities at San Antonio that it
was rather more than half this number 1 let it pass.
The Mexicans do much the same ; for now the stand-
ing army has been found to be much smaller than on
paper one of the most extraordinary features of the
fall of Diaz was that on his arrival in Spain he said he
had been under the impression that his army consisted
of 28,000 men, whereas it was precisely half as numer-
ous while it is a fact that General Torres, 2 fighting
Yaquis in Sonora, telegraphed down to the capital
for such and such supplies. They could not well be
sent from Mexico not alone because communications
were so bad and therefore money was dispatched,
so that the soldiers should be properly equipped, and
Torres with that money could have given them two

1 The particularly well informed correspondent of the Morning
Post ' in Washington, Mr. Maurice Low, said in the issue of May 5th
that the American army was in no better condition to undertake a
serious campaign than she was at the beginning of the Spanish war.
He added that even to secure the 11,000 men at San Antonio the
authorities had found it necessary to include more than 1000 raw
recruits.

2 When the Revolution was triumphant, this notorious ex-Governor
fled into the United States and issued the announcement that he did
not purpose to return to Mexico, ' because,' he said, ' I have no friend
there.'

246 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

kits apiece. . . . Now were these troops at San
Antonio to intervene ? Mr. Wilson, the American
Ambassador in Mexico, was rather apprehensive, but
his Government knew well that even if they should
assist some of their countrymen they would endanger
many others, and the mob of Mexico would not draw
fine distinctions bet ween l los Yanquis,' as they call them,
and the English and the Germans and the French. Also,
there is a strong feeling in America that Mexicans them-
selves should settle their disputes and that Americans
who live there cannot claim a treatment better than
is given to the natives. Both the Federals and Insur-
rectos had displayed consideration for the foreigner,
and he, for his part, if he had a stake in Mexico was
usually on the side of Diaz. He remembered the
concessions which he had received, the bribing was
so common that it was accepted like the sunlight, and
forgotten. They had grown accustomed to the
system, and Madero certainly had paralysed all
business. Don Porfirio requested that the troops
should be withdrawn and he was answered that they
had come down to execute ' maneuvers.' It was
well to choose a district every year which had not
previously been utilised ; and if they were more
numerous this time than they had ever been, was
that not natural in the United States ? The general
opinion there was hostile to an expedition, which
they also knew would be no promenade. Why had
the troops been sent ? Did General Diaz ask for
them ? He had a precedent, since Senor Izabal, 1
when Governor of Sonora, quelled an outbreak at the
mining camp of Cananea with the help of military

1 But Senor Izabal was too eccentric, possibly, for us to use him as
an illustration. He was photographed at Hermosillo with eleven
Yaqui heads behind him in a semicircle, stuck on rifles.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 247

from the States. If General Diaz, feeling insecure,
did not invite them, were they really aimed against
the Japanese ? A story runs that Don Porfirio has
been perfidious, has made a treaty with Japan and
that the document was photographed by somebody
from Washington. This is not probable : Japan has
naught to gain by such a treaty. If she gets her
vessels into Magdalena Bay 1 before the enemy, then
Mexico can utter protests, but that is all that she
can do by way of making her neutrality respected.
There is another party, though, which may have
brought about the sending of the troops, for have the
cientificos not numerous and influential business
friends in the United States ? And could this not
be an ingenious attempt to stop the war by thus
exploiting the insurgents' patriotism ?

Madero's army was not yet in a position to attack
important towns ; they rode about Chihuahua, taking
little places and becoming every day more skilful.
Had they had the arms of their opponents they would
not have been so long about this Revolution. But the
time was near when they were to receive a good
supply of Mausers, often with a man attached. And
every day the Government was losing in prestige.
Not only that, but foreign money would not enter
the Republic. And commercial life became more

1 After San Francisco, this is the best harbour on the whole Pacific
coast of both Americas. The six years' lease by the United States
came to an end in 1910 and has not been renewed. In the event of
war between Japan and the United States its value to either side
would be inestimable. Mexico herself, if she were not reminded by
these two great Powers of the bay's existence, would have occupied
herself with it no more than she has done with all the rest of Lower
California. ' Thejefe politico of Ensenada, L.C.' said the ' Mexican
Herald' of December 16, 1911 'has advised the Department of
Gobernacion that for lack of a print shop the publication of the official
paper has been stopped since last March, but they hope to resume
later.'

248 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

stagnant. As to manufactures, nothing seemed to
flourish save the powder factory which had been
opened in September and whose products were
considered bad, although the Army Secretary, General
Gonzalez Cosio, told the army more than once that
they were good. 1 The other implements of war
cannot be made at home ; and uniforms are wanted
rarely, as the soldiers strip their dead companions
and are subsequently stripped themselves of their
excessive garments. . . . Then it was that Seiior
Limantour came over the Atlantic. On arriving at
New York he said that all the troops in Texas had
been sent there for some exercises, but he did not
understand the movements of the Yankee warships
that were cruising off the coast of Mexico. How can
these ships, he said, co-operate with the troops in the
general manoeuvres at so great a distance from the
natural base ? It was not clear to him ; and then he
made a fine courageous speech, wherein he said that
if there should be intervention all Mexico would be
united to hurl back the foe. This caused him to be
popular in Mexico. His journey, mile by mile, was

1 On the 23rd of June, when the war was over, it transpired that
General Mondragon, chief of artillery and furnisher of some of the
supplies, was inaccessible. The Mexicans are not averse from spread-
ing rumours, and the deadly ones on foot regarding Mondragon were
numerous as were the bullets of the Civil War on every one of which,
so it was said, he made a profit of a cent. Besides, they were, so
it was said, of such bad quality that more than anything they caused
Navarro to hand over Ciudad Juarez to the rebels. Also the artillery,
which Mondragon himself perfected, is alleged to have been rather
futile and the bills of the contractors very swollen. It was always
such a goodly sight, the handsome fellow with his waving, black
moustache, his endless decorations and the strut which seemed to go
so well with his heroic name. Would it be possible for any Mexican
again to revel in the sight ? Or, in the lines of Lewis Carroll on the
father being photographed, shall we in this uncertain world assure
the Mexican of one thing which is certain, namely, that he would
contemplate the distance with a look of pensive meaning ? . . . On
the formation of Huerta's Cabinet in February, 1913, General Manuel
Mondragon was made the Minister of War.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 249

telegraphed down to the capital, and when he got
there he was splendidly received and for about about
a week he was quite popular. They spoke of him as if
he was the one man who could patch things up,
although he has said always that he is a mere financier
and no politician. But he was a shrewd observer,
said the people and with reason. Had he not laid
down a programme of reforms, such as the sub-
dividing of the large estates ? x Had he not said that
there was much improvement possible among the

1 The problems in connection with the land in Mexico, the size and
the legality of many holdings, call aloud for an inquiry. But one
ventures to suppose that many Mexicans were quite prepared to let
Madero have his chance the task was hard enough and many of the
working-class of Mexico would, I believe, regret that Mr. Honore J.
Jaxon, of Chicago, visited this country and on their behalf addressed
the 44th Annual Congress of the Trades Unions of Great Britain. This
enthusiastic French-Canadian he took a part in Kiel's revolution and
is still an amiable firebrand spoke with much severity about Madero
to the Congress, and informed them that it was impossible to stop
the firm determination of the working-class of Mexico to ' abolish
private ownership of land and of the instruments of production and
exchange.' I was not present at the reading of this manifesto, which
concludes : * Fraternally and sincerely, THE WORKING CLASS OF
MEXICO by Honore" J. Jaxon, Special Envoy to Europe on behalf of
the Insurrectos of Mexico.' But when I had an opportunity in
London, at the end of January, 1912, of meeting Mr. Jaxon I did not
so much deplore the sentiments of this great document ; how could
one shed cold water on this kind of thing? * As an immediate sequence
to the success of this their heroic struggle for land and liberty the
workers of the entire world are freely invited to participate as indi-
viduals in the material benefits of this expected victory. But I was
grieved that Mr. Jaxon, whose sincerity I do not doubt, should have
apparently been drawn into this matter by the brothers Flores Magon,
the implacable foes of the Mexican President. Their journal, printed
at Los Angeles, he calls in his address ' our newspaper ' and I believe
that if the Special Envoy had found time to go to Mexico it would
have been a course to recommend. He talks of the enlightened
attitude of these workers who in every quarter of Mexico are refusing
to give up their weapons and are reoccupying and cultivating their
lands without regard to the parchment titles held by the financial
ring. The latter gentlemen are now busily engaged in bargaining
for the invasive support of their inequitable claims by the Govern-
ments of Germany and France and other foreign powers. In fact,
it is stated that nearly half a billion of money is already pledged
for this purpose.' One is astonished that he can refrain from being
in the midst of such tremendous business.

250 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

jefes ? Yes, in Paris he had spoken like a lion, in
New York as if he were a lion's whelp, in Texas
nearer to Porfirio he spoke as if he were a man,
while in the capital of Mexico he spoke as Ministers
are wont to do. The President made much of him,
and with his help did an unprecedented act re-
organised the Cabinet. Except for Limantour him-
self and General Gonzalez Cosio, who had had hij
teeth drawn years ago, none of the Old Guard wei
retained. A telegram was sent to Reyes bidding hi]
return, but he had lost his glamour. With regard to
the new Ministers, one must recall that they
merely secretaries of the President, appointed and
be dismissed by him. They are in no way undei
Parliamentary control. Moreover, in the present
case they none of them had taken part in politics anc
their opinions were unknown, save those of Sefior d(
la Barra. As Ambassador in Washington he had not
raised his voice ; he merely made himself the tul
by which the Government of Mexico discoursed
that of the United States. He celebrated conferenc
there with Dr. Vazquez Gomez, and returning to his
native country brought the reputation of a careful,
cultivated, unoriginal official. The other Ministei
were worthy men : for instance, he of Public Instruc
tion, Jorge Vera Estanol, had worked himself froi
indigence and absolute obscurity to the position of a
leading lawyer. He was educated by the State, and
in return for this he never ceased from teaching
at the School of Jurisprudence, though, of course,
he could have spent those hours more lucratively.
One portfolio, which had been held by Don Ramon
Corral, was vacant, and Dehesa travelled up to Mexico.
For twenty years this philosophic statesman had been
ruling Veracruz. He made a good part of his fortune in

Between Veracruz and the Capital.

Diodoro Batalla. See .254

Dr. Vazquez Gomez.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 251

the custom-house, but honestly, since it was he who
had the perquisite of taking a proportion of the value
of the goods improperly declared, and it was long before
the merchants could get used to making candid declara-
tions. Then Dehesa, who reminds one (in appearance)
of a mediaeval cardinal, invested profitably both in
houses and Murillos. He was much admired, and
when he took the road to Mexico the country said that
they would have an excellent new Minister of Gober-
nacion, which has no exact equivalent with us : he is
the link between the State Governors and the Federal
Government, he has authority over the Federal
District and the various territories ; perhaps one
might call the post a glorified Ministry of the Interior.
Dehesa was a strong man he received the Yucatecan
exiles and rewarded them with good official posts ;
he is a meditative man who can be roused to passion if
you speak to him about the cientificos. His animosity
against their chief, Don Jose Limantour, has been
notorious ; he thinks, moreover, that he could make
just as shrewd a Minister of Finance. Well, maybe
it was Limantour who sent him back to govern Vera-
cruz, for Limantour could threaten that he would
resign, and he possessed the confidence of Europe.
But Dehesa may have seen that this new Cabinet
would not live long, and Don Porfirio most probably
obtained from him the perspicacious notion to win
over Dr. Vazquez Gomez with this bait. And so the
Ministry of Gobernacion stayed unoccupied. How-
ever, it was not for one portfolio that the insurgents
had been fighting. And at last the admirable Indian,
Vera Estanol, took this post also.

On the 1st April Congress reassembled, and the
President, amid the deepest expectation, read his
message. He was all in favour of the principle of non-

252 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

re-election as well as of the other requirements, so
far as they were known, of the rebels. He rebuked
them, of course, for having taken arms against a
President [he had risen against two], but he appeared
to be inclined to give them 60 cents for every 50 they
demanded. By this time the popularity of Limantour
had waned from its abnormal height. They look at
him askance in Mexico because of two things : on the
one hand, he is punctual, accurate and energetic ;
on the other hand, to put the matter with a due
regard to the conventions, he has not grown any
poorer on account of his official post. All eyes were
turned on Don Porfirio. Would it be peace or war ?
The next few days saw the beginning of a Parlia-
ment in Mexico. Theoretically there had been one for
these many years, but nobody had noticed it. The
members, nominated by the President or chosen under
his auspices, had done no more than stand up, every
now and then, to wave their hands which is the way
in which they vote. Apparently the subjects that
engrossed them always were the minutes of the last
meeting and a quiet ruminating as to whether this or
that Republican should be allowed to waive his natural
antipathy of orders, ribbons, stars and so forth, in
consideration of the merits which the Chinese Emperor
had somehow seen in him. But now they suddenly
began to legislate, and on the largest questions, while
the public swarmed to listen. There is room for
several thousand, since the House is built in what was
once a theatre and the construction has not varied.
Stalls and stage are occupied by deputies, all the
remaining parts by audience. On the 1st April
cavalry and a battalion of detectives were employed
without the Chamber and within, but for the ordinary
sittings they dispensed with cavalry, and the detectives

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 253

are discreet. But most discreet of all is an attendant
who brings water to the deputies ; he puts a glass
beside the speaker, who has soared excessively into
the sky ; the speaker gazes at it and descends to earth.
They talk of re-election and Porfirio. One gasps to
hear the kind of things they say. Will not the
President chop off their heads to-morrow ? But the
public yell with joy. When, on the other hand, a
deputy who is suspected of a leaning towards the
President desires to speak, they hiss him as he rises
from his desk and as he walks in the direction of the
tribune. When he speaks, with sarcasm, a member
of the audience shouts, ''Fuera! ' ['Out with him ! '] ;
the cry is taken up, ' Oh ! Fuera ! Fuera ! ' but the
deputy who is presiding issues no commands. A
youthful law-maker, who speaks like Romeo at the
break of day, is cheered deliriously when he urges that
non-re-election should become the rule for deputies.
' The people,' he exclaims, 4 do not love us for ever ! '
He would have the judges relatively permanent, but
no Governor should be succeeded by a relative no !
not unto the fourth degree of consanguinity. The
next gentleman I could not hear because a most
vigorous debate was being conducted in the Press
gallery. However, he may not have been worth
hearing. From another gallery a clarion voice sang
out, ' We are losing our time ! ' And the next speaker,
one Lozano, a pugnacious person and a follower of Don
Ramon Corral, was forced to shout like any sailor in a
storm. He said Madero was unpatriotic, and when
this was loudly questioned he replied that he would
meet his interrupters afterwards, outside the House.
But Lozano was unreasonable. ' Tell me, is it so ? '
he asked, 4 Yes or no ? ' ' No ! ' shouted someone.
' You are drunk ! ' screamed back Lozano. The

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

alluring subject brought at least two orators into the
fray : Diodoro Batalla of Veracruz and Francisco
Bulnes, the historian. Here we can ask again was
it going to be war or peace ? Not war, as Don Porfirio
was beaten. Hitherto the deputies unfavourable
to the President had been a little crude, but these
two men spoke, in their different ways, for what is
best in Mexico. ' All those who have reached office
here,' Batalla said, ' have clung to it. Santa-Anna was
continually making trips abroad and apocryphal
visits to the corners of the earth, but he returned
precisely after the completion of the period of the
acting President and he resumed supreme command.
The figure crowned with a halo of glory, the most
exalted figure in our history, Benito Juarez, lost at his
last re-election a portion of his hold on the people
through his wish to continue in power. Lerdo greatly
risked his popularity, weakened his prestige anc
cooled the love of his fellow-citizens when he accom-
plished, against wind and tide, his re-election.' Thei
Don Diodoro declared that with the country a mixtu]
of illiterates [30 or 40 per cent] and a great mass
egotisms, with no adequate number of citizens
march as vanguard of the laws even Tolstoi woul<
have tried to be re-elected. ' Some say that laws
neither good nor bad, but depend on the peopl
behind them to defend them. If we are going to wail
for good laws until we have made good citizens wit]
bad laws we will never arrive at the desired point. .
Let us pass laws for education, let us not delay theii
passage till all Mexicans are educated.' He held uj
to scorn the flatterers of Don Porfirio. ' Upon theii
heads,' he cried, ' be the blood of Chihuahua ! ' His
denunciations and his raillery and his amusing
gestures make of him an idol. Not while he speaks

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 255

does the audience exclaim, as to another deputy,
4 Talk with more reason ! ' Don Diodoro whose
bedroom 1 is the crowded scene of great political
activity while he rolls to and fro in bed till it is time
for lunch Don Diodoro can please himself. He can
even be malicious with regard to Bulnes, the admired
historian who sits for Lower California and probably
has never been to that abandoned, inaccessible
domain. Then Bulnes, with a learned discourse,
answers him. The public is not so delighted with his
exposition of democracy, for he is too profound and
too allusive. But his wisdom, aided with the tricks
of oratory, gradually conquers them. He paints the
desperate condition of the country during seventy
years of independence and the means whereby the
President and his advisers brought about, from 1880
onwards, a more placid state. His picture of the Peace
of Diaz, that has been so much extolled from hemi-
sphere to hemisphere, is hardly calculated to appeal to
foreigners, those foreigners whose interest in the
advancement of the Mexican has not been equal to
their vested interest. And when this famous peace
was being broken it was natural that they should echo
the emphatic hope of Lord Cowdray that Madero
would be seized and shot. ' Never, never had there
been a work,' said Bulnes, ' so sincerely patriotic and
so cleverly concocted to prevent us being traversed by
a single wave of that old bellicose, light-hearted
nightmare. They wanted Mexico to play the most
bucolic of the symphonies, producing notes that
should be a mere tumult of the meat and bone.' The
articles of ' El Imparcial ' were sedative : (a) ' What
is the influence of cold upon the Russian character ? '
(b) ' Investigations as to the industrial activity of

1 I grieve to say that he died suddenly on June 3rd, 1911.

256 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

ant-hills.' (c) ' Progress of the botanic science in
Manchuria.' . . . Down upon the dreamy, romantic,
tremulous, audacious spirit of youth was turned a
shower-bath of statistics, physical statistics, com-
mercial statistics, criminal and matrimonial statistics ;
a literature of numbers, the formidable eloquence of
the treasury reserve ; a theatre without buskins, a
honeyed history without criticism, a science without
daring. . . . And public opinion applauded enthusi-
astically, with immense sincerity, a spectacle whi<
it had never seen nor dreamed of seeing, namely, a sk;
without clouds ; but it is such a sky that freezes up
your harvest ; . . . and applauded most particularly
when they found themselves in vessels ornamented
with rich garlands, gliding on a waveless sea ; but as
there existed no free Press the lighthouses were all ex-
tinguished. Then the hurricane was feared no longer,
since the atmosphere had been made thermally uni-
form ; but let them not forget the dreadful quiet of the
reef. . . . 4 We took,' said he, 'no thought of the people,
on whose head the bureaucrats were dancing ; finally
we thought there was no people, until they rose in
resentment, dazzled by a light of gold and grandeur
which was cast upon them by the ruling classes and
was not the sun's light.' . . . The orator reminded them
that on 21st June, 1903, he had said in the Liberal
Convention that if Mexicanism be contrary to
Porfirism he voted for the Fatherland. ' And not on<
of you who are listening to me, not one of you deputi(
would be here,' said Bulnes, ' if he had avowe<
himself as anything but a Porfirista.' He remindec
them that General Diaz had his merits and that in this
hour when the dictatorship was passing they did n<
do well to fling contempt and nothing but contempt
upon him. ' It is true he has committed errors and,

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 257

grant, all sorts of crimes against our democracy ;
mt it is also true that this democracy so foully treated,
was one that could not live, for we have never been
able to be democrats, and no tribunal has punished or
can punish those who violate and who demolish
phantoms.' With regard to Don Porfirio's merits,
you cannot demand,' he said, ' that a personal
jovernment should have two independent Chambers,
Sovereign States in the Federation, a Press so free as
o build up among the people an acquaintance with
;he whole depravity of anarchism, professors who
officially may damn the Government, immaculate
ribunals that will put a stop to all injustice. The
'unction of a dictatorship is to give peace and wealth,
to give protection to science, art and literature, to
Sjive the time wherein the people of itself can, slowly
or swiftly, create the foundations of its freedom ; and
;his has been done by General Diaz in a way that few
could imitate. . . . The great mistake was when we
emerged from the infernal chaos of the demagogues
to enter into the chaos of silence, the chaos of the
social formula, the chaos of a peace which smothered
our insensate dogmas, our romantic follies and our
mighty talk, our turbulence that was so ruinous, our
wretched quarrels, but also at the same time our old,
easy licence which in many ways resembled freedom.
There lay the great error, in having overlooked the
>eople's rights through being taken up in a magnifi-
cent and brilliant work, whose object was to sacrifice
all things and souls unto material improvements ; so
,hat there should be but one sensation that of the
gasoline penetrating into the motor's cylinders ; but
one sole thought, the moral and the intellectual
abdication of the race ; but one phenomenon, the rise
of a plutocracy. And this great error,' said he, ' causes
s

258 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

us to stand here naked like a bacchanalian woman ;
it is certain that the peace has been assisted by the
railways, telegraphs and port works, telephones and
aeroplanes, and what you will ; but these benefits
are different portions of the structure which as it
becomes more vast requires cement more strong,
and the appropriate cement was in the definition of
Benito Juarez : " Peace is the regard for others'
rights." That is to say, peace is justice ; this was
the cement and we did not remember it ; here is the
secret why the whole work seems to be upon the eve
of toppling over.' He concluded with this sentence :
' Gentlemen, I have great hopes that when these
various reforms held out to us are realised, the people
will profit by them. Should it not be so, the people
would be lost ; for they would go on giving their
adherence to the cursed law of the Latin- Americans
To destroy when you are weary of obeying and obe
when you are weary of destroying.' 1

Don Porfirio, as we have shown, had not bee
helped by the behaviour of the small officials when
the Revolution was more critical. Now, when he
stood a beaten man, all his concessions and his army
impotent to stop the tide, one looked in vain for his
great friends the 'Society of Friends of General Diaz.'
They were very quiet. As they thought about the
nasty situation it occurred to one of them that they
were not political but merely private friends. 'Tis
true that they had urged him to continue in his office,

1 So much for the apologists of General Diaz who have sought to
justify his tyranny by sneering at the Chamber. ' Mexicans,' they
say, ' are quite incapable of legislating ' : just as if the ludicrous
which I have not in this account by any means slurred over were
eschewed by legislative bodies. And the journalists and deputies of
Mexico would find it hard to be so little Latin-American, so little
human, as to rise from thirty years of stern repression and refrain
from being somewhat irrepressible.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 259

and it was a thousand pities they had stepped on
to the field of politics. A thousand pities they
would never go beyond their sphere again. Of course,
if Diaz in his private life had need of friends they
would immediately present themselves ; but he had
not been murdered yet. The shameful President of
this Society, Don Guillermo de Landa y Escandon,
was glad to think that as the Governor of the Federal
District he had raised around himself a wall of
popularity. The large amounts which he had given
to the poor, those plans which he had propagated for
amelioration of the workman's lot would they not
tell ? He had been virtuous, not joining in the
pulque trust because he was the Governor. Well,
he made more money from outside the trust ; that was
an accident. And if he sold this poison to the poor,
did not the others sell it ? And if as Governor he
benefited certain companies which gave him wealth,
did others act in other ways ? No ; he was popular,
and popular he would remain. And Governor he
would remain. Poor, strutting Don Guillermo really
does believe that he means well.

By this time it was not the President but Limantour
who was in supreme command. This Revolution
had astonished Diaz so completely, had bewildered
him, had left him dazed. The programme he had
cherished in September was to be the President of
Mexico for ever and for ever. People might say that he
lusted after power, but they had spoken evil things of
Miguel Hidalgo whom they now were celebrating with
such fervour. In a hundred years, if by that time he
were dead, the many books which vowed that he was
great would surely win the day against those few
perverted books. So in September he was well at ease
and Don Ramon Corral was at his side. Perhaps it

260 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

was unwise to leave the world, unpatriotic to leave
Mexico in such uncertainty regarding the succession,
for he surely would survive that dissipated fellow.
Should he take unto himself a young and vigorous
Vice-President who would attract the country ?
What ! there might even be some resignations from
the ' Society of Friends of General Diaz.' . . .

In December, eleven days after he and Corral took
the oath, he was consulting with a merchant as to
how the people could be brought back to their olc
docility. This merchant, a Tabascan, told him that
with such and such reforms it would be possible, he
thought, to blunt their anger if it was too late to win
their love. Tabasco and Chiapas had been smoulder-
ing, he told the President, for many years : in both
of them a great deal has been done by Nature and a
great deal of iniquity by man. So Don Porfirio
requested him to make a memorandum of the
remedies, however drastic, which he thought were
wanted. And in due course it was written and
copy sent to Limantour in Paris ; when this Minister
returned to Mexico he met the merchant and, no1
knowing how the memorandum had been instigated
he remarked that the propounding of such plans
made him quite eligible for Belem. And by the time
when Limantour came back the harried President was
in a whirlpool of conflicting memoranda, being pulled
to this side and to that, and with no prospect that he
would emerge into the quiet water. He would never
see again, so much he knew, that method of paternal
Government. This changing Mexico would never
tolerate a repetition of the tactics of the railway
merger when it was arranged by him and Limantour
and others, the country only hearing of it afterwai
to some extent. Nor would it now be possible f<

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 261

him and Limantour to let the country learn by
telegram from London that one half tfre debt had been
converted if, indeed, it ever was ; yes, if, indeed, it
ever was on those conditions. All was changing, and
the changes that he made on his part did not stop
the runaway chariot, simply brought him near enough
to swallow up the dust. He was bewildered, baffled,
and he threw himself into the arms of the sagacious
Limantour.

Meanwhile the fighting still continued. Luis Moya,
the large, bearded farmer who was subsequently slain
upon the field of battle near a village in which his
betrothed, a schoolmistress, was living, had the
revolutionary forces of Durango and of Zacatecas.
Many tales are told of this heroic, simple man ; one
evening he left his thousand followers and in a motor
came to Torreon, the seat of many industries, where
Chinamen particularly thrive. He left his motor in
the suburbs, took a cab and drove about the place, to
study where it might most easily be captured. Then,
although his photograph had been in all the papers,
he beguiled an hour or so at a saloon, and, wishing
always to improve his stock of information, visited a
cinematograph. At Agua Prieta, on the northern
frontier, and at Cuernavaca, the umbrageous haunt of
tourists, in Morelos, and throughout Guerrero, the
wild mountain-state, resounded cries of death and
panic. In Guerrero it was Don Ambrosio Figueroa
and his stalwart brothers with La Neri, a most
vehement young Joan of Arc, who marched to victory.
They took the capital, that Montenegrin sort of place,
poor Chilpancingo, and the Governor, Don Damian
Flores, made his exit in a packing-case. It had been
the ambition of this really honourable man to build a
a road to Acapulco, and he realised, he told me, how

262 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

the State was backward. But in his too-short adminis-
tration he had made small headway ; there was
general discontent, and the authorities did not
resemble Flores half as much as they resembled the
white-haired commandant at Iguala, who displayed
a flag of truce displayed it from the church's tower,
and when Don Ambrosio Figueroa came unarmed
across the plaza with some five or six companions to
confer with him, a volley rattled from the church and
nearly all of them were shot. This ancient sinner,
in an hour or two, was duly executed ; as for Flores,
who had been a schoolmaster in Mexico, the capital,
and was at all events an earnest man, I hope that in
his packing-case he was not shipwrecked, as were we,
on our return across the broad and raging Balsas.
It was as the Liberating Army of the south that Don
Ambrosio' s insurgents swept from the Pacific, from
the mountains. . . . On the Arizona frontier, oppo-
site the town of Douglas, there was much manoeuv-
ring, for the rebels wanted to compel the garrison of
Agua Prieta to fire over into Douglas, which they did,
to the undoing of American spectators. This small
town capitulated, and Porfirio Diaz, who was always
wont to pay the soldiers regularly so that they would
still be faithful ' What had I done,' he said once at
Chapultepec in answer to a toast, ' what had I done
to obtain this generous and self-denying sacrifice,
that voluptuous sacrifice, to shed their blood for my
blood ? ' Don Porfirio thought it was opportune to
give the soldiers now one peso daily. That is what
he advertised, but whether they received it is another
matter, for the Serjeants take advantage of the gam-
bling habits of their men, and as they make advances
always calculate so much commission. It is to be
doubted whether during all these hundred years there

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 263

was the least improvement in the soldier's lot. A
comrade of Hidalgo, Don Gregoris Melero y Pifia,
says : ' And Ximenes had not one peso for
the journey to Saltillo ; and I told him not to be
afflicted on account of my battalions and that he
should give them not the smallest piece of money till
we came into the said Saltillo, and that with his mess
alone and with two boxes of cigars which I preserved
we should be rich ; my soldiers thought that all which
I had done was good, and as for the remainder of the
army I went out to search for funds (which not a few
were willing to provide, in view of interest) and in a
little time we got 4000 pesos.'

Clouds were gathering on every side when Don
Porfirio secured an armistice. It was to last for five
days from the 23rd April, but this did not prove to be
sufficient. As the spokesman of the Government, a
judge was ordered to proceed to Juarez, and a couple
of unauthorised ambassadors Esquivel Obregon and
Oscar Braniff tried their hand at treaty making.
Obregon had been the unsuccessful candidate for the
Vice-Presidency of the Anti-re-electionists, when Dr.
Vazquez Gomez beat him, and he now was anxious
to be prominent ; while Oscar Braniff had his
eye upon the governorship of Guanajuato. But the
Braniff brothers are the progeny of a most clever
Irish- American mason who became a multi-million-
aire, and a clever French maid who survives. From
this good ancestry they have descended far enough ;
when they attempt to play a part they usually are
like that one who excited merriment by posing on an
airship and ascending to a height of several yards.
Another one composes songs, alas ! and yet another
one endeavours to make Mexicans be peaceable.
He was quite angry with Madero when his efforts

264 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

failed. The Government, of course, had no alterna-
tive but to accept whatever terms Madero gave thei
yet they would not swallow the initial one, th<
resignation of Porfirio Diaz. Don Porfirio, that is t<
say, would not accept it, though a number of his
officers declared that quite enough had now been don<
to save his face. ' I shall resign,' quoth Diaz, ' whei
I am assured that I can do so without injuring tl
country. If I go at present it would be to let loos
anarchy, and if I fix a date it would deprive th(
Government of all stability. No ! when my conscience
tells me that the land is pacified I shall depart. 1
And so the fighting was resumed. ' I will,' said Doi
Porfirio, ' pour out the last drop of my blood, if it
wanted, for my country.' Hundreds of his country-
men were yet to feed the Revolution. ' But I proi
I will go,' said Don Porfirio, the man who made all
those promises at Tuxtepec in 1876. Upon a Yuca-
tecan hacienda I was shown a tree with scarlet flowers
which is popularly called the Tree of Tuxtepec,
because the fruit that one seems justified in hoping for
is not produced ; in place of it there is a harvest of
discoloured, knife-like objects. Possibly the ' Daily
Mail ' knew all about these attributes of Don Porfirio,
when, as the triumphant foreign editor informed me,
they requested him to be their Special Correspondent.
But in this respect, at all events, ' The Times ' was
not, as Mr. Garvin has called it, the sad associate and
victim of the ' Daily Mail.'

While the peace negotiations were in progress, the
Maderists and the Federals of all that part of th(
Republic which was not included in the armistic
had been continuing the struggle. Those wh<
sympathised with Don Porfirio thought it was oppor-
tune to sneer at his opponent for the insubordination

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 265

of the rebels in the rest of the Republic ; and it would
have been much more agreeable to Don Porfirio if
all the discontented Mexicans had rested on their
[arms awhile, until he could get General Reyes back
| into the country. Even if the armistice were not to be
extended to the minor leaders, and in the Madero dis-
trict were to last a fortnight, it was felt that General
Diaz, Special Correspondent of the ' Daily Mail,' would
thus recuperate himself, and with his enemies dis-
organised, their zeal relaxed, he would be able much
more easily to bring about the perfect peace which he
had ex cathedra been announcing to the world. If,
on the other hand, Madero 5 s armistice was broken in a
week, then it was quite inevitable that Porfirio would
fall, since the official status of the revolutionaries
had been recognised and the United States would have
no reason for not following the Government's example.
Don Porfirio' s ambassador, Judge Carbajal, made
every effort to prolong the talking, and on the 3rd
May Madero yielded him another period of three
days armistice. Madero was quite ready to give up
his own position ; he would not except by popular
election take an office, and his relatives would also
step aside, if General Diaz would be equally a patriot.
The Constitution had been disregarded during many
years, and now the rebels were determined to enforce
it ! They would not allow the Government, which
had been vanquished on the field of battle and was
utterly discredited, to get the better of them in
diplomacy : five members of the Cabinet and fifteen
Governors must be Maderists till the time of the elec-
tions, and the rebel army must be paid. A rumour had
already circulated that Madero owed twelve millions
and a half of dollars to the Standard Oil Company ; he
was indebted, and incalculably, to his followers'

266 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

enthusiasm, to the tyranny of Don Porfirio's regime.
These questions of the Governors and Cabinet were
on the table, but the stubborn President refused to
think about his resignation while the country was
disturbed. The Papal envoy, prompted by the wife
of Diaz, tried if he could not cajole him, but ' I came
into my seat,' the old man said, ' among a shower of
bullets. That is how I shall depart.' Four thousand
students of the capital requested him to go, a deputa-
tion of the working-men besought him not to be the
cause of further bloodshed. He pretended to be
adamantine and extremely patriotic. He could point
to Puebla, where the bandits, so he said, were murder-
ing the Spaniards ; but a wealthy Spanish hacendado
had invited some insurgents to a banquet, rendered
them incapable, and telephoned for Federals. Is it
surprising that a vengeance was exacted ? At
Pachuca, the great mining camp, it was impossible
for even Don Porfirio to label the insurgents as so
many bandits ; they were in possession of the town
and in the plaza and with great formality they
executed one of their own men for looting. Every-
where the rebels marched to victory and showed that
they were worthy of it. In the north and in the centre
and the south they were prevailing ; Don Porfirio
was in a plight as hopeless as was Mazatlan, the
western port, whose tax-collector, Federal officials,
and the postman had escaped on to a gunboat, with
the funds. And then Madero, grieving that the blood
of Mexicans should still continue to be shed, an-
nounced that he would waive some of the peace
conditions, while Porfirio should for the moment not
resign. This resolution was, of course, unpopular
among his warriors, but he could probably have kept
them from attacking Ciudad Juarez if one Colonel

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 267

Tamborrel reputed to have been an adept in the ways
of mathematics, but the mathematics he employed
as usurer were very simple if this Tamborrel had not
sent messages which taunted them with cowardice.

Ciudad Juarez, with the custom-house and with
huge stores of rifles, ammunition and quick-firing
guns, fell on the 10th of May, but not until 180 men,
including Colonel Tamborrel, had been killed and
250 had been wounded. It was Colonel Viljoen's
opinion that this large proportion of men shot was
owing to the closeness of the range of fire. Navarro's
army had been beaten 1 by small farmers and by
tradesmen. He himself with many of his officers was
seized, and unlike many of them he did not break
his parole. The dour old soldier, in the riddled town
which had resisted during three long days, sat in the
jefatura, now become the Palace of Madero's Govern-
ment, the meeting-place of his new Cabinet. In vain
the rebels shouted for Navarro's head ; they still
remembered what his bayonets had done on those
Chihuahua battlefields, and they were for avenging
Cerro Prieto, in which place, when guarantees were
not suspended, he had ordered thirty peasants to be
taken round the corner of a house and murdered, as
they could not prove at all events were quite in-
capable of satisfying him that on the previous day
they had not been in arms against the Government.
Madero had enough to do without the task of shielding
his late enemy ; he therefore drove him in his motor
to a place at which he could wade through the Rio

1 The subsequent court-martial of Navarro, when his late opponents
had come into power, was a good but not by any means a solitary
instance of Sir William Gilbert's vogue in Mexico. It is a very rare
occurrence, even in Central and South America, for a President to
behave as did Comonfort on 19th of December, 1857, when he joined
a revolution against his own Government.

268 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Grande into Texas. Some of the Americans among
Madero's men had looted in the streets of Juarez.
Villa, 1 one of his assistants, jealous of the foreign
legion, tried to murder Garibaldi in a restaurant
across the border, and was finally disarmed by
American Secret Service agents. So much for the
local difficulties, and the pedestal to which he had
ascended and from which he could dictate to Diaz
was not made securer by the fighting which continued.
As the Army of the South came through Guerrero it
was pointed out that they were disobeying Don

1 The career of this eminent bandit and general officer is typical
of Mexico, where cotton mills and Pullman cars and thousands of
industrious foreigners have not by any means expelled Romance.
The parents of Pancho Villa had. a small farm, in the State of
Durango, to which he succeeded. With his mother and his sister
a girl of great beauty he looked after the farm, leading a most
active, hard and healthy life. His sister had a number of suitors
among them a local magistrate ; and one day when she vanished
Pancho fetched a priest and rode with him across the mountains in
pursuit. They caught the couple, whom the priest immediately
married ; then the husband was compelled to draw up his own death
certificate, the brother-in-law killed him and the priest prayed over
him. The others then returned and Pancho would have lived quite
peacefully upon the farm if the rurales had not tried to capture him.
For fifteen years he roamed the mountains with two faithful cowboys
and although there was a prize of 2000 on his head. He pillaged
farms, he robbed the travellers and helped himself to cattle. In his
more than eighty combats with rurales, forty-three of these were
killed, while he himself was eight times wounded. . . . Then Madero
rose and Villa saw that as an active politician he might take an
honourable place again among his fellow-countrymen. And in fact
he did become a sort of national hero, a hero of the Revolution. He
became a General of Rurales. Now and then he lapsed into his
brigand habits, for example at Parral, where he is said to have
gathered from the Banco Minero and other banks the sum of 18,600,
out of which he handed over to the Revolutionary funds exactly
13,600. This happened after he had been devoting himself for a
long time to Madero's cause Raoul Madero, the President's young
brother, was one of his most ardent admirers and by this time
Pascual Orozco was in arms against the cause. General Pancho
Villa made out a receipt for the money which the Banco Minero gave
him and he added that it was booty of war, so that it would not be
repaid by the Federal authorities. He pointed out that the Bank had
for too long been furnishing money to Orozco in the north ; now for a
change they must give a little to the south.

LOS PUJOS PORFIRISTAS

-Senor expresidente:-no le quepa a Ud. duda; el unico
cam/no que nos queda para volver d\colar es la gate-
ja f 6 sea da ecolucion.

Porfirian Yearnings.

This, from the Impartial, represents Don Porfirio being told by one of his Ministers that evolution
(hence the tail) is the only system which offers them a dog's chance (fatera, lit. a cat's door-hole) of

returning to power.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 269

Francisco, while the very act of having taken Juarez
was held up as proof that he could not restrain his
men. ' While there is any fear of anarchy,' quoth Don
Porfirio, ' I shall remain.' But now, with Juarez in
their hands, the revolutionaries would not listen.
Many of them thought their leader had been far
too patient with the foe.

Now while the Revolution, which undid so much
of wrong, was near its close, there came to Mexican
affairs a much-belated evolution : Don Porfirio' s
new Minister of the Interior submitted a new suffrage
law, which had two fundamental principles, viz. :
the publicity of all acts connected with elections,
from the preparatory registration to the actual polling
and the computation of the votes, as also the inter-
vention, subject to given rules, of political parties
legally organised in the country for the purpose of
sustaining given principles and supporting given
candidates for office. Hitherto all parties, save the
President's, had had a most precarious existence ;
and, as we shall see, the parties that came gradually
into prominence were often hostile to Madero, but
with him it was to be an era of free speech. When
several ladies started to harangue the insurrecto
troops at Juarez in an effort to procure adherents for
the filibusters, Mexican and eke American, whose
socialist Republic was not faring well in Lower
California, Madero let them have their say, though he
was hotly urged to have them silenced. This and
many other proofs he gave of the progressive spirit,
but the good proposals that Porfirio was making were
but golden pieces offered to his judges. By the system
which prevailed throughout his thirty years the
polling officers committed all the fraud and violence
he wanted ; now the different political parties were

270 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

to have the right of vetoing officials when the nature
of their occupations made their independence doubt-
ful. We were not again to have the edifying sight
which I had of an Indian voter 1 handing in his card
to four men sitting round a table who, whatever may
have been their humdrum occupation, were just at
the moment swindling one another at a game of
monte, and on the reverse side of the Indian's card
they put their score, and when they had used the card
they tore it up. . . . Another bill, long overdue,
which now was placed before the deputies dealt with
the distribution of small tracts of land among the
people. Limantour himself had said in France that
the possession, not to speak of the acquiring of,
those vast estates in Mexico was pregnant with
abuses.

Since the north was clearly settling down the
captive Federals were sent to reconstruct the
railway it became imperative for the Red Cross

1 Yet when the Revolution had aroused the Indians and their
brothers it was not so long before they all went back again to sleep.
At the beginning of December, 1911, the municipal elections in the
capital were marked by glacial indifference. Some of the polling
places were not installed at all and others not until half-past twelve
o'clock. ' The Government candidates,' we were told, ' have won an
easy victory.' So then the Revolution has not by itself sufficed to
give the Mexicans their freedom, if the sovereignty is abdicated to
the public power. It has been urged that Mexico must have com-
pulsory democracy, that if the people do not wish to exercise their
rights they must be forced to. But it is the public power alone
which has the necessary force at its disposal. When the people will
not vote, then someone votes on their behalf. And that someone
else is always the same. 'Tis useless to disguise the fact. These
things occurred when Diaz was the President and they continue. . . .
But the axolotl Mexico's strange reptile can grow up. For many
years it was supposed that these inhabitants of Lake Texcoco (who
are called thus from the Aztec ail water and xolotl slave) were
never able to transform into adults, who would have soon become
extinct if at the age of six months they had not been infant prodigies.
However, it has now been ascertained that this repulsive-looking
larval salamander can develop, under favourable circumstances, lungs
and tail. But those who do this and embark upon a new existence
as lizards are not many.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 271

Society to do or die. They died. For months they
had been saying that the country was too mountain-
ous, and also that the army guns were better than
the insurrecto weapons, so that Federals were seldom
hit, and with the others they could scarcely sym-
pathise ! Then, in a night, a new Society the White
Cross sprang upon the world, its chief an energetic
Texas lady, granddaughter of General Mejia who was
shot with Maximilian. This Society went out into
the field at once, begged money everywhere in every
manner possible and otherwise, and was enabled to
accomplish a good deal. . . . Down in Guerrero's
pine-clad mountains was a lady of the utmost energy,
the leader of a formidable band of rebels. She La
Neri was her name had operated near the ancient
port of Acapulco ; now she turned towards the capital,
and it was understood a letter being intercepted
that she with her own fair hands was anxious to
decapitate Porfirio. They say that he, with his bluff
humour, spoke about Guerrero as the State in which
an erring woman started the disease of pinto, 1 through
cohabiting with a crocodile. The leader of the Army
of the South, Ambrosio Figueroa, had in vain sent one
of his three stalwart brothers to make terms with Diaz.
He had seen him in the capital and told him that it
was no other than himself who was responsible for
all the Revolution. ' You have made,' said he, ' this
Revolution.' ' Como ? I ? What do you mean ? '
cried Diaz. And the leader of 8000 troops explained
that it was owing to Corral's appointment. ' I
have many cannons. I shall put you down ! ' so said
the President, and Don Francisco travelled back into

1 A species of leprosy which is prevalent in parts of Guerrero and
Chiapas. Black spots emerge on the face and spread until the entire
face is covered with a blue-black blotch.

272 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

the mountains. There his brother made a proclama-
tion which could leave no doubt but that this army
was quite loyal to Madero. ' The Government,' he
said, ' will make arrangements with us after we dis-
card our noted chief,' and this ' would weaken the
force of the armed protest which all the sons of Mexico
have settled to maintain.' One of the reasons why
the war must be continued was ' because when we
asked through our peace representatives for the
resignation of General Diaz, he answered categorically
that he would not resign, and only promised in his
manifesto that he would retire when his conscience
indicated to him that peace was firmly established.
The revolutionists put no faith in the performances
of his conscience, but only in truth and justice.'
Figueroa's force was larger than Madero' s, better
armed and infinitely better trained, although the
Boer who was Madero' s chief -of -staff had inculcated
much of his experience. If Don Porfirio complained
that they were bandits, though they did keep perfect
order, though the army's business was conducted in
a large house with a set of books and clerks and type-
writers and the essentials of a well-established business
venture, if the chief of that half-convict army made
complaint well, who would listen ? In the State of
Puebla was a force of 15,000 rebels who had seized
3000 Mausers from the Federals and six machine-guns.
There was only one bright spot for Don Porfirio,
since he received a declaration of unaltered loyalty
and great respect from the ' Society of Friends of
General Diaz.' If he waved this valuable document
he would be able, doubtless, to send all the insurrectos
running home. The ' Friends ' were, many of them,
taking steps to leave for Europe, but they made such
mighty flourishes it is the custom underneath

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 273

their autographs. . . . However, let it not be thought
that all the richer folk, except Madero, stood if that
word is appropriate beside the President. He had
won favour with capitalists, he had maintained the
public credit and what looked like order, by the
disregard for human rights ; and yet some of the
wealthy class had always been in opposition. Now
from Aguascalientes came the stirring news that
two or three young gentlemen who had been nothing
more than members of the jeunesse doree were
upon the warpath, and, indeed, they did not go light-
heartedly, for when they found that a Maderist had
been giving way to brigandage they had him shot.
And fighting for the cause were General Tapia,
commander in Atlixco, who a month before had been
a shoemaker with daily wages of a dollar, and Jalisco's
General Aragon, who was a barber. 1 This was just
like dear old times, when soldiers were impromptu ;
for example, General Zaragoza of the 5th of May,
and his subordinate Porfirio Diaz. . . . While the
Government was swiftly losing ground the country
was emerging from the shades of barbarism. A
proposal came before the Congress and in three
days was, with some improvements, made a law
to set free those who were imprisoned on account of
politics. The Revolution had been everywhere
triumphant in a military sense and a political . . .
and if the Government commanded that whole
States should be delivered over to the rebels, it was
certainly unreasonable to continue holding in con-
finement the unarmed adherents of the Revolution.
Just at this time Cuernavaca was evacuated and the

1 The native colonels of the eighteenth century were not endowed,
says Humboldt, save with gorgeous uniforms and royal decorations
by King Charles the Third of Spain, and thus equipped one could
perceive them at the counters of their little shops.
T

274 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Army of the South replaced the garrison and the
police, who silently departed in the night of 20th of
May. There was no semblance of disorder ; when
the rebels had been in this lovely and historic town
for thirty minutes they arranged for patrols and
forbade the furnishing of liquor to their men. The
riotous examples of Pachuca and of Uruapam were
not followed ; at the first of these, before the rebels
shot a man for looting and thus calmed the more
exuberant companions, all the prisoners had been
released, the prison burned, the archives also in
accordance with the general custom burned, and
many things blown up the miners being perfectly
familiar with the use of dynamite. Meanwhile the
Governor was concealed, and after he had been
unearthed and put into a temporary cell he wrote
enormous letters to the Press, because he wanted to
explain that he had been abandoned by his men
the Revolution being all too popular and so he was,
he said, no coward. Uruapam of the tiled, squat
houses in the middle of her coffee trees and negligent
banana trees and all the flowers of Paradise, was made
the victim of her prefect's cowardly behaviour.
4 Its people,' says a guide-book, c are pleasant,' and
they probably would have remained so if the prefect
with the soldiers had not run away ; these ninety
men had sallied forth to meet a body of Maderists
who were said to be upon the outskirts of the town,
and as the prefect changed his mind and led them
back into the plaza he was greeted by some boot-
blacks who exclaimed, ' Viva Madero ! ' He was
quick to gather the significance of such a demonstra-
tion, and he made a speech in which he said that he
was sorry to be so unpopular. The less deserving
Indians of the neighbourhood it was a Sunday,

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 275

they were idling in the pretty plaza shouted with
the bootblacks, and immediately the prefect, Salvador
Gutierrez let his name be known went off escorted
by the soldiers. Merchants and the leading citizens
besought him to allow the troops to stay, but he
required them for his personal protection. Then the
rougher element felt their own courage rise amazingly,
and as the military disappeared they hurried off
to storm the gaol. They gave 300 prisoners their
freedom. It was all that Manuel Coria, an old
gentleman, could do to ride among the angry mob
and to dissuade them for a time from plundering
the stores. At last they came with knives and axes,
would have murdered him (the prefect-substitute),
and started looting. While the men were thus
employed the women and the children from the age
of four were waiting in the street to carry off the
goods, and when this method was too slow the mules
were brought and loaded and were driven to a place
of safety in the woods. Not only were the public
records used for bonfires, but the ledgers were all
taken from the stores and burned. On Monday night
Maderist soldiers reached the town, declaring that
when they had found the worst offenders they would
shoot them, and it has been said that three score men
were executed. Such a lamentable orgy was avoided
by the citizens of Cuernavaca ; seeing that the prison
guard had been removed while it was dark they had
the prudence to collect a lavish breakfast for the
prisoners and thus to keep them occupied while other
citizens got ready flowers and flags and painted out
the name of Diaz everywhere and then the rebels
came, flung would-be rioters into the prison, issued
an announcement that the price for looting and for
gathering in crowds was death ; this had a tendency

276 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

to quiet the more restless ones, and soon the civil
Government was being well established.

4 Adaptiveness,' quoth Emerson, ' is the pecu-
liarity of human nature,' which would seem to prove
that there is something human in the ' Mexican
Herald,' for it was engaged at this time in assuming
a convenient attitude with all the speed that it
considered decent. During these last weeks it had
allowed a jeweller to advertise upon the page that
once was kept for leading articles, and on the inter-
vening space they talked about Hawaii. Yes, when
they announced that Diaz would resign, the ' leader '
was a calm discussion of the labour problem in the
Sandwich Islands. The resignation of Porfirio was
in the peace agreement of the 21st of May, when it
was settled also that Corral should vanish and that
de la Barra, Foreign Secretary, should become the
President ad interim. ' Henceforward the hostilities
which have existed in the entire national territory of
the Republic shall cease,' it said, ' between the forces
of the Government and those of the Revolution, those
forces to be dismissed in proportion as in each State
the necessary steps are taken to guarantee tranquillity
and public order.' Some time would elapse before
the rebels of the whole Republic could be notified.
And as in many States the Revolution had been due
to hatred of the Governor-despot, the retention of an
armed force till new Governors could be installed
would constitute a guarantee. It was impossible to
trust Porfirio Diaz, though we cannot say that it was
he who instigated the attempts to bribe Orozco, and
by means of one de Villiers lure Viljoen, and
assassinate Madero. ' When the peace is finally
secured,' so said Madero to his soldiers, ' you will
have the privilege of leaving, if you like, the army.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 277

There will be no conscription. The army which in
future will uphold the liberty as guaranteed by the
Constitution will be made of soldiers who come in of
their free will and who receive good pay/ As for
the Government which, after Don Porfirio's depar-
ture, would be constituted, it was evident the rebels
had no real plans ; they had a genius for makeshifts,
and in no round hole was there the spectacle of any
square peg being harboured. It was truly wonderful
how the Maderists bore themselves, and though we
must not imitate that book of Bourget's which
depicted all the Protestants as scoundrels and the
Catholics as angels, we were justified, I think, in
claiming that Madero, Dr. Vazquez Gomez, and the
rest of them were more than men of promise. We had
got their conduct in adversity to guide us, and when
they were taking over the Republic it was at an
hour of such high chaos that the very fact of their
survival was a wonder. In Guadalajara there was such
rejoicing at the news of peace, the bells were rung and
happy citizens with flags and branches in their hands
assembled in the plaza five of them were shot by
the rurales, and, in consequence, the rash young
Governor resigned. In other days he could with
absolute impunity have checked the demonstration,
but the people's character was changing. Hard by,
in Colima, forty bandits fifteen of them carried
arms knew very well who was Porfirio's governor.
In that unlucky little State some sportsmen had, a
week or two before, been shooting birds ; the soldiers
thought that they were rebels and incontinently
shot a couple of them dead ; the other one escaped,
but on the morrow he returned with both his hands
held up as a precaution, and the soldiers shot him in
the back. Such was the bravery of Senor Don Enrique

278 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

O. de Lamadrid, the Governor ; he did not hesitate
a moment in delivering Colima to the bandits, though
the garrison was better armed and much more
numerous than they. But it is questionable whether
any bandit could be more nefarious than Don Enrique,
under whose administration you were punished more
severely if you stole a bean than if you killed a man ;
indeed, a murderer had only to become the servant
of a wealthy hacendado. Don Enrique's term of office
was approaching its conclusion ; in a certain night
some years ago another sort of a conclusion had been
probable, when he had staggered from a banquet
walking, quite exceptionally, unassisted to the
chamber of the hacendado 's wife. Just as preposter-
ous as these two Governors were other representatives
of Diaz. We have seen at Uruapam how the rebel
troops were summoned for the maintenance of order,
and the whole Republic would have fallen into
anarchy if they had been less vigilant. The mob
maliciously excited by the old regime was eager to
avail itself of golden opportunities. 'If I go at
present it would be to let loose anarchy.' Yes !
Don Porfirio delayed his going. On the 24th of May
the Chamber overflowed with citizens, who took by
storm the seats of diplomats and Press and the
Supreme Tribunal. Swaying to and fro, they hardly
could await the message of Porfirio' s resignation.
It was not to come, a handbill circulated through
the crowd announcing that the people were deceived
again, that Diaz did not purpose to resign. The
crowd was in a wild confusion instantly, and the
police, who tried to clear the galleries, were impotent.
Amid the howling tempest one could hear a bell, but
not the chairman's voice. ' Viva Madero ! Muera
Diaz ! The resignation ! The resignation ! ' Finally

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 279

Don Manuel Calero (afterwards a Minister) yelled out
the news that it would be to-morrow. fc No ! no ! to-day !
Now ! We demand the resignation ! ' Other voices
could be heard : ' People, you have been deceived !
They are not going to resign ! Quick to Cadena ! '
Sweeping out into the daylight they bombarded with
a shower of rocks the building of ' El Impartial,' and
there would probably have been no bloodshed if a
member of the secret police had not flung an insult or
let his revolver off the stories vary at a working-
man. Then the offender fled into a hat-shop and was
there besieged. A large detachment of reserves
came dashing to the Zocalo with their revolvers
drawn ; they rained a shower of bullets into the
retreating, struggling mass. The Zocalo or Plaza
Mayor or Plaza de Armas is the spot whereon, in 1325,
the migrant Aztecs laid the city's first foundations,
since they there beheld a royal eagle of extraordinary
size and beauty with a serpent in his talons and his
broad wings open to the rising sun this picture was
emblazoned on the flag of the Republic. Grisly scenes
took place upon the Zocalo in Aztec and in Spanish
times ; the 24th of May if details were related
would be held as not inferior to those. The house of
Diaz in Cadena was protected very well by soldiers
and police, but such as were within the President
himself lay stricken with an ulcerated tooth could
hear the frenzy of the people crying, ' Viva Madero'!
Muera Diaz ! ' He had been their President through-
out another day. And on the next day he resigned ;
between the bedroom where he tossed in agony and
that luxurious apartment where the Cabinet was
gathered Limantour went to and fro. ' Not once,'
said Limantour, ' did he think of himself. Every
thought he expressed was for the future of his country.

280 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

His resignation must for ever silence those who could
not find another criticism than that he perpetually
lusted after power.' Tricoloured flags without the
royal eagle and the serpent fluttered everywhere.

And let us see what Diaz wrote : ' Senor ' it was
the chairman of the House of Deputies whom he
addressed ' The Mexican people which has so
generously lavished honours upon me ... which
seconded me patriotically . . . that people, sir, has
risen in armed bands, declaring that my presence at
the head of the executive is the cause of the insurrec-
tion. I know of no act imputable to myself that could
warrant this charge ; but, over and above the fact that
I may have offended without knowing it, I am not the
person to be a judge as to the merits of my own case.
Therefore, respecting, as I have always respected, the
will of the people, I come before you now, in accord-
ance with Article 82 of the Federal Constitution, to
resign unreservedly the high office of President of the
Republic, to which I was elevated by the vote of the
nation, and I do it the more readily in that by retain-
ing the office in question I should be exposing the
country to further bloodshed, to the loss of its credit,
to the destruction of its wealth, to the extinction of
its activities, and the risk of international complica-
tions. . . . An ampler and more dispassionate survey
will lead to a true estimate of my acts, allowing me
when I die to carry with me the consoling sense that I
have in the end been understood by my countrymen,to
whose welfare I have devoted and will continue to
devote my entire energies.' The populace, in large
bodies of 5000 and in smaller ones, paraded joyously
through all the streets ; some had a military band and
some an orchestra of violins to lead them it was like
a merry picnic. And the total list of casualties

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 281

numbered thirty-eight one unidentified person dead
and thirty-seven wounded, among whom there were
eleven injured by bullets. Great activity was shown
by the White Cross Society, and by the Red Cross,
which had taken a new lease of life. The services of
these benevolent associations were appreciated, so
that motors and the members decorated with the
badges of the two societies were heartily applauded
as they sped along. I hear that comments of the most
favourable character were made all over the town . And
demonstrators went unhindered through the suburbs,
to the music not alone of military bands or fiddles ;
there was that which is evoked from empty cans
mtisica de petroleo, they call it and one cannot
surmise what the natives in this hour of triumph would
have done without the precious Standard Oil tins.
So the feared and famous Trust did, after all, partici-
pate in Mexico's good Revolution.

that under Diaz Mexico had made

a notable advance ; the Government was even
patriotic in a way. But it pretended to derive its
power from the people's will, whereas it stifled the
expression of such will, it was a military oligarchy.
Such a system must involve subservience and
ignorance, while at the same time nowadays a ruler
has to feign at least that he is on the side of education ;
and with even such a semi-education as Porfirio
provided such a Government becomes impossible.
When, as the ' New York Evening Post ' observed,
the repressed millions are able to read their own
history and laws and to think about them and to know
what the democratic movement is in the world outside,
their demand for a share in the Government can no
more be restrained than can their intellects. And
it was the new generation, which Diaz for very

282 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

shame could not refuse to help create in Mexico, which
proved his undoing. Political ideas had been let loose,
and their ferment in the popular mind made the
usurping of government by a clique no longer possible.
Education, as John Morley has said, cannot deny its
own children. If in Mexico, or India, or the Philippines
we venture to open closed minds and teach to young
men liberty and self-government, we must not be
astonished if the lessons are applied even to our own
discomfort. Diaz did not merely fall because the army
proved a vain thing, but because the people had it in
their hearts that he should fall. In August, 1909, a
most serene and loyal article appeared in ' El
Impartial,' whose object was to show conclusively that
revolutions had become impossible in Mexico. This
odious journal, subsidised by those who held the
country, was among the foremost causes of the
Revolution. Now they published a long, clever
editorial ' Ni amigos, ni enemigos ' wherein they
said that for the future they would be serene, the
kindly critics, not the friends and for the best of
patriotic reasons not the foes of Don Francisco.
As for being subsidised had they committed errors ?
They were human, and the very day-star does not
always shine with equal radiance. The subsidy had
been employed in lotteries and gifts to the subscribers
of the paper; partly it had been directed to the
forwarding of social and artistic works, and partly to
the publication of a handsome supplement (which
now they would perhaps not be in a position to
continue) ; partly it had been employed in paying for
a period of fifteen years the hundreds of mechanics
and those other workers and the thousands who had
lived by selling this most popular of journals.
4 Ni amigos, ni enemigos.' Some days later ' El

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 283

Imparcial ' replied to certain scoffers whose male-
volence or absence of sagacity had given a distorted
reading to the manifesto. But by penetrating, so they
said, into the Mexican psychology they found that the
misguided conduct of their critics had been owing
to the novelty in Mexico of a pure, independent paper.
They would be not of Porfirio Diaz nor of Don
Francisco I. Madero, but of all the people ; they
would place themselves upon a lofty seat, and be
impartial, loyal and serene. Some others who had
been the tools of Don Porfirio did not desire to operate
with any new regime, for Coahuila's legislative body
put itself against the man who was appointed by
Madero to be Governor ad interim. This Don Venus-
tiano Carranza, who had come into the war like any
feudal prince, with cohorts of retainers, was accom-
panied by insurrecto soldiers to his new position. In
the previous elections, to be sure, he was if not the
popular at least the opposition candidate, and it was
Don Porfirio' s party which had given office to the
legislative body. Then a law relating to elections was
not ratified by the assembly of Tabasco, though the
Chamber in its recent strivings after evolution had
approved. With the prevailing notions as to freedom
and the fearless hunger for reforms which permeates
society, this action of Tabasco in upholding, as it
does undoubtedly, the legal right of States is capable
of serious developments. But those who then
succeeded Don Porfirio would not, like him, lay the
foundations of their house amid the pestilential
meadows where no rivalry can rear its head. And
of the parties that were to participate in Mexican
affairs, perhaps the most important, after the Maderist
party (and in union with it), was the Church. Men
and money are at her disposal, both the willing and

284 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

unwilling peasants whom the hacendados can control,
and money to a greater sum than the capitalisation
of all the Government banks. For years the Church
has been obliged to wield a rather subterranean
influence, but now, with formal programme and with
admirable candidates, it has emerged into the day-
light. We who stood and watched might well be
fascinated by the situation : in the days of Diaz, who
officially opposed the Church, it was in ' El Pais ' and
4 El Tiempo,' organs of the Catholic party, that the
politics of Diaz were subjected to the most efficient
and relentless criticism ; if they could assail that
Government with something like impunity Don
Trinidad Sanchez Santos of ' El Pais ' was, as we have
mentioned, offered an asylum in almost every house
which has a secret chamber when he was compelled
to hide himself in February, 1911 ; the most pompous
little journalist who owns and edits ' El Tiempo ' has a
secret chamber on the premises how would they not
assail the liberal, milder Government ? Madero was
inclined to place them in the same position as they
have in the United States, and that is a position
which the Catholics of Lower Canada are now assert-
ing is ideal. Where you have, as in the Mexican
Republic, such a number of illiterates (a good deal
more than half the adult population), it is question-
able whether such a freedom can be granted, and it
is not certain that the grant of it would satisfy the
Church. Yet under the Australian ballot and the
broader franchise it is probable that she, far better
organised than was Madero' s party, would if there
had been no bargain have defeated him at the
elections.

' I will,' said Don Porfirio, ' pour out the last drop
of my blood, if it is wanted, for my country.' But

How they bombard Editors in Mexico.

Office of the Heraldo Independiente.

A " Slioofly " built round a Train

wrecked by revolutionaries near Huamantla, on 24th May, 1911, two days before the flight of Diaz.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 285

this grievous want did not arise, it seems. At any
rate, on the 26th May, just as the grey wings of the
dawn were gliding over that high mountain ridge, the
famous warrior stole away. The bullets which, he
told the Papal envoy, would be needed at his going
were, as far as possible, dispensed with, and to guard
himself against them he had two whole trains of
soldiers under General Huerta : a battalion of the
Zapadores in a train preceding his, part of the twenty-
fifth battalion in the train behind him. Thus he
hurried down to Veracruz, and though the bullets
came en route at Tepechualco for he thought it was
expedient to take the narrow-gauge, less ostentatious
line his escort only lost some six or seven killed.
' I will pour out the last drop of my blood,' said Don
Porfirio when he was thinking of his faithful army and
police the number of assassinations they and others
had committed in compliance with his will has been
put down by good authorities at, roundly, 30,000.
When at last he came to Veracruz he was in such a
state of shall we call it toothache ? that he had to
be extracted from the car by two attendants, and
removed upon their shoulders. Veracruz, for reasons
dating back to 1879, is not the place where Don
Porfirio would come in search of health, and these
few necessary days before the boat could sail were
spent in Messrs. Pearson's house, with many soldiers
guarding him, the British flag above. On the 28th
May a sea-breeze, so they tell us, made the torrid
port more bearable ; perhaps it was not strong enough,
this breeze, to carry from the dungeons of the island-
gaol, San Juan de Ulua, the complaint of sixty
prisoners to the ears of Don Porfirio. It had been
necessary for Lord Cowdray (of Messrs. Pearson) to
obtain some lands upon the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,

286 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

where he has built a railway which will have an
interesting competition with the Panama Canal. A
most handsome price was offered for the lands that
were in the possession of the family of Madame Diaz ;
and the President, when it was paid, disposed of other
lands at Acayucan to Lord Cowdray's firm. The native
owners of the soil did not agree to this arrangement.
Whether, as I hear from one source, 1 the land was
Government property, or, as the other sources say,
the land was native property, it is a fact that when
it was transferred to Messrs. S. Pearson and Son, the
natives rose they surely could not think this firm
would be a more nefarious landlord than the Govern-
ment which then prevailed and when the troops
came down a number of the natives fell (again this
number varies greatly with the source of informa-
tion), * Lord Cowdray is like Napoleon . . . when
his plan is thought out,' says Mr. T. P. O'Connor,
'he is certain of the results, and has all the joy
and none of the terrors of battle ' and it seems
from all accounts that some 300 were dispatched
to prison, where they stayed without a trial.
The tuberculosis in San Juan, which removed
Rosado, an aggressive kind of lawyer, played such
havoc on the men of Acayucan that, with the assist-
ance of some other causes, only sixty of them I have
got these figures from the doctor still survived. Their
land is not the best for grazing, but is used for that ;
and even if the natives who remain upon it have
declined to pay their rent it gives a healthy occupa-
tion to some English cowboys. At San Juan de Ulua

1 Somewhere Mrs. Alec Tweedie tells about the water-sprite
Malinche, saying : ' Tis a pretty legend, and one of, oh, so many ! '
Yes, when Don Porfirio was flying she declares that ' unarmed the
ex-President descended from his car ' [the rebels being round about it]
' and took part in the engagement.'

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 287

also but I fear that Don Porfirio did not remember
this -was one Sarabia, a youthful journalist, a Madero
who had failed. You should not take arms against the
ruler of your native land if you have got no chance
of winning ; and Sarabia has paid the penalty with
three years of unmitigated darkness. When Porfirio
arrived at Veracruz he was in the enjoyment of a
lamp, and now he has, of course, been liberated. . . .
Whatever may have taken place at Acayucan it is
certainly the fact, as Mr. Hugh Pollard said recently
in the 'Daily Graphic,' that corrupt officials have
sold large portions of Mexican land to foreign com-
panies. The Indians living on the land have protested,
but as they could produce no title deeds how should
natives have title deeds ? their land has been sold
to white companies, who in turn have sold it to
ranchers, who enclose the water with wire fences, or
to agricultural companies, who only employ contract
or convict labour. No wonder the white man is
disliked.

Illegal honours 1 were accorded on the 31st May to
General Diaz, who should not have heard the nation's
anthem play at his departure. And perhaps his old
companion, General Huerta, was affected by the
situation when he made a speech, declaring that,
whatever people might assert, these troops would
always be at his disposal. 'They are the only portion
of the country,' so he blurted out, ' which has not
gone against you.' The ex-President, in black, a

1 How much better was he treated than, a hundred years before,
the Virgen de los Remedies! This image, brought across by Cortes,
was the object of much veneration, and was ultimately, on the out-
break of Hidalgo's movement, clothed in general officer's apparel and
invoked as Patroness of Spain. The rival image, the Virgen de
Guadalupe, proved to be the more efficient, and a revolutionary
general pulled the general's sash from off the Spanish Virgin and
made out a passport so that she should leave the country.

288 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Panama hat in his hand, stood like a soldier on parade.
The soldiers who were facing the veranda of that
barn-like, wooden house some wearing sandals, some
with shoes, their garments more or less dilapidated
were the men who had protected him at Tepechualco,
where some sort of plan not well matured was in
existence to prevent his flying from the country ere
he had disgorged his wealth. ' If Mexico should be
involved in difficulties, then,' he said, replying to his
grim old friend, General Victoriano Huerta, ' then I will
return with pleasure. I would place myself there at
the head of all the loyal forces, and beneath the shadow
of that flag I would know how to conquer once again.
... If the Fatherland should ever want my services,
then solemnly I undertake, as a gentleman and
soldier, to be always at the soldiers' side and under-
neath their flag, so that I may defend the cherished
soil of Mexico until I have poured out my latest drop
of blood.' Among those who went with him on the
German boat was General Fernando Gonzalez, son of
that Gonzalez who was nothing but a simple soldier
and had been preferred by Diaz to a hundred abler
men, in 1880, to succeed him, with the subtle plan that
Mexico should be so smitten by the contrast as to call
back in despair its former President. Fernando,
sailing on a German boat, had been until a week ago
the Governor of the State of Mexico, but had resigned
one day and rushed across the mountains on his car ;
he hoped the situation which he left behind him would
be dominated. This Fernando, when he was elected
to the office by the President he used to chuckle as
he told the story travelled to his capital, Toluca,
on the day of the election by the local Congress. An
officious personage demanded whether Don Fernando
had some property or had been born within the limits

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 289

of the State, and on receiving negative replies he said
that it was awkward, as no man could, by the
Constitution, be elected who should not be qualified
in one of these two ways. Another personage perceived
that they had got three-quarters of an hour before
election time ; he speedily went out and on behalf of
Don Fernando bought a house. That evening, when
the election had been held, the house was sold again,
and at a profit of 300 pesos. Tempora mutantur I
hope that Don Porfirio will pardon me this Latin tag
for Diaz was constrained to steam away from Vera-
cruz on board the s.s. ' Corsica ' in 1875 with him
who afterwards became the President Gonzalez pere.
. . You could not, at the time and later, be quite
positive of open roads for either your own person or
dispatches out of Mexico. The prostrate power
behind the throne, chief of the cientificos, Rosendo
Pineda, tried with a nom de guerre to steal from
Veracruz. ' But we,' so said the ' Daily Mail,' ' to be
quite sure of getting good dispatches, we took the
precaution of securing Diaz as our Special Correspon-
dent.' Was it not a master-stroke ? And when the
searchlights of the fortress struck the s.s.' Ypiranga' as
she glided out into the darkness of the gulf , a man was
seen close by the rail, apart from other passengers, and
gazing through his glasses. ' Embittered/ so we read,
' and disappointed he may be, but that he will keep
altogether to himself throughout the trip is not
anticipated by his friends.' The moonlight fell upon
the brazen instruments which had been playing at the
wharf, it fell upon the white apparel of the peasants
who were clustered there behind the soldiers. And
the vessel glided out into the darkness. Quickly in
the fort of Santiago, after having fired a salutation to
this traveller, the guns were growing cold, and in the
u

290 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

captain's quarters, with a tropical rapidity, the gar-
lands of the girls of Veracruz were fading. So
departed from the shores of Mexico the Special
Correspondent of the ' Daily Mail.'

And so a thoroughly carnivorous old gentleman
had been succeeded in the despotism by a water-
drinking, undersized, pacific vegetarian. Madero
de la Barra's unofficial adviser was, in fact, the Lord
of Mexico, and if it were not for his opposition to the
re-electing of a President, one would have reason to
consider with anxiety if he could bear the strain of
adulation for so long a period as did Porfirio Diaz.
Don Porfirio, of course, in 1876, proclaimed that he
would never let himself be re-elected ; but there is not
any Indian blood in Don Francisco I. Madero, and
whatever be the virtues of the Indian he is mon-
strously conservative : he will, if it is in his power,
destroy new-fangled implements of agriculture, seeing
that he likes the old ones ; he will not deny devotion
nor centavos to a saint who recently was deaf to him,
and whose wood image at the time was subject to
indignities ; he will not be disposed to go from public
into private life. The man who made the promises at
Tuxtepec was not of purely Indian blood, as, for
example, was the daughter of a poor old man who
was bewildered by the swift and excellent Canadian
tramways of the capital. Half-way to Guadalupe, an
adjacent shrine, the countryman was caught by this
electric innovation, both his legs were torn from off
him, and as he was lying on the road his daughter
knelt beside him, stroked his head, and softly asked
him, ' Papaito does it hurt you ? ' But there was
enough of Indian in Porfirio Diaz to account for the
resistance which he offered during thirty years to
anyone who tried to pull him down. . . . What of

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 291

the Indians who climbed into the temporary Cabinet ?
Emilio Vasquez Gomez and the better-known Fran-
cisco come from Tamaulipas. They were born to
poverty, so that the elder studied for the law and
subsequently was enabled to support his brother,
who from 1880 until 1889 was learning medicine.
Four of the five examiners, in March, bestowed on
him a white ball, and in May the young man beat the
fifth examiner in open competition for the chair of
pathology. He practised in the State of Veracruz at
Coatepec, he studied in some European towns, he
represented the Republic at a Moscow Congress and a
Congress of the deaf and dumb in the United States.
He wrote a book to prove how in the very heart of
the Republic, in the Federal District, one was only
offered a defective education ; he became the
President of the Academy of Medicine, and then, in
April, 1910 not having taken any part in politics
he was elected by the anti-re-electionists to be Vice-
President. Emilio, a week before, was thrust into
Belem because the Government believed he was the
manager of these elections. They accused him of
provoking what was, at the time, undreamed of
Revolution, and it was November when the brothers,
like Madero, settled temporarily in Texas. Don Emilio
became the Minister of Gobernacion, Don Francisco
Minister of Education. They and other Ministers have
made mistakes, but, to repeat the words of Limantour
on the 30th May, 1911 and I fear he was disposed
to be sarcastic ' these gentlemen will do a great deal
better than we have done, and I wish them well.'
Both the brothers suffered disappointments in the
period of de la Barra's Presidency. Don Emilio was
not considered a good Minister because he settled
every question out of hand with a supreme indiffer-

292 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

ence to all red tape. If anybody told him, for example,
that he had been fighting for the Revolution and was
-pesos out of pocket, Don Emilio perhaps the
frankest and most sympathetic person whom I met in
Texas straightway gave an order on the national ex-
chequer for the money ; so that, with Madero's strong
approval, he was asked to send in his resignation ;
thereupon his followers of the ' Pure Liberal ' party
chose him as their Presidential candidate. He was
defeated. His brother's claim to be Vice-President on
the Madero ticket did not prosper ; at the National
Convention, and with the approval of Madero, he was
set aside for Pino Suarez, who is said to have given
proofs of discretion, moderation and statesmanship
at the Juarez Peace Conference. He was for many
years a publicist in Yucatan, where he enjoyed
general esteem, and in 1909 was occupying the
dangerous post of president of the local opposition.
Dr. Vazquez Gomez was exasperated by his brother's
fate, and as, by taking on the leadership of what is
known as the Central Anti-re-electionist Party, he
displayed an inclination to assist Madero's enemies,
it was considered by the future President that Pino
Suarez would be more adapted to be second in com-
mand, while, as Minister of Public Instruction, ' Dr.
Gomez,' said Madero, ' can continue to lend great
service to our party. I am only sorry that he does not
accept graciously the result of the Convention which
was adverse to him.' The Central Anti-re-electionist
Party which consisted of the original Anti-r(
electionists who refused to be merged in the Pro-
gressive Constitutional Party, as the followers oj
Seiior Madero then called themselves selected Dr.
Vasquez Gomez as their Presidential candidate.
Some have criticised Madero for appointing his own

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 293

uncle 1 Don Ernesto to the office held so long by
Limantour, and the reply that Diaz recognised the
competence of Don Ernesto and desired him to accept
this very post is not such a complete reply as that the
foreigners in Monterrey, which is commercially the
most important town of the Republic, cannot think of
anyone more fitted than their fellow-citizen, the
banker, for the charge of this portfolio. And, by the
way, Don Rafael Hernandez, Minister of Justice, has
been criticised, and on the ground that formerly he
followed Don Porfirio ; to this the answer is that
everyone who gave his service to the State was bound
to follow Don Porfirio, and seeing that Hernandez
was a man of brains [these have since been blown
out by some followers of Felix Diaz in the streets
of Mexico] it was more profitable that he should be
utilised than that the whole administration should be
drawn from that minority which was Madero's family,
or from that scantier minority which was in opposition
always to Porfirio Diaz. With regard to Manuel Calero,
Minister of Industry, ' he is,' said Don Francisco I.
Madero, ' not alone no member of our party, but a
Porfirista, and he has been for a long time. As we
thought that he possessed ability to fill the place, he
was appointed.' And in answer to some observations
by the Senor Vera Estaiiol, ex-Minister, he said that
' many Governors who are not of our party have been
put in office : the States of Morelos, Queretaro,
Guanajuato and others have executives that were not
named by the anti-re-electionist party ; the Governor

1 And the nephew of Porfirio Diaz, General Felix Diaz, who was
chief of the police, a man of some ability, is not frustrated in his
efforts to become the Governor of Oaxaca. He addresses to the
citizens a manifesto, humorous in parts, on the promises which oft
are made by candidates and on the destiny of these fair promises.
Oaxaca puts her faith in Senor Juarez, Don Benito's son, who has
inherited not only a great name, but likewise no great humour.

294 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

of the State of Mexico, for example, I did not even
know by name, while the chief executive of Nuevo
Leon is the president of the Superior Court, and was
named under the Diaz Government.' As to the task
they had in front of them, Madero and his friends
were under no illusion save that which was owing to
their youth. c Confidence,' once said the great Lord
Chatham, ' is a plant of slow growth in an aged
bosom.' The conditions were both new and strange.
An electoral system had to be contrived and put in
working order. By the side of these electoral colleges
the country stood in direst need of numerous
political kindergartens. Mexico's best orators were
wanted to inform a people then embarking on self-
government what are the limits set to legislation,
and how time is wanted, even by the most impatient
of us, to establish large reforms, and how in Don
Benito Juarez' oft-repeated, oft-forgotten words
peace is the respect for others' rights. We could not
prophesy in Mexico. But while there would be dangers
consequent upon the Revolution peaceable pursuits,
divested of an alien excitement, would not all at once
attract each member of the rebel army ; some of them
would be reluctant to forgo their free cigars and drinks
and tram-rides, and their swagger, and revolvers, and
their double and their triple cartridge belts and
while there would be dangers consequent upon the old
regime and others of a character more deeply founded,
such as the disintegrating movement, we thought that
we were not injudicious in believing that the country
had a happy future, both for natives and for capital.
Supposing, for the sake of argument, we said that the
majority of Mexicans would always be, as often in the
past, incapable of ruling the Republic, State or village.
Yet the wrong they do would be corrected or restrained

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 295

by greater criticism of the Press and of the National
Assembly. . . . ' Soy Fronterizo,' says the son of those
bleak uplands in Chihuahua that sustained the Revo-
lution ; ' soy Mexicano,' says the dweller in the central
valleys, who is more inclined to wait in war and peace
until he knows that his adventure will not be too
speculative; ' soy Yucateco,' say the slave and the slave-
owner of that curious peninsula which is too busy to
pay much attention to the rest of the Republic. 1 And

1 In 1848 Yucatan was reincorporated with the Mexican Republic.
Until then and from the time when they were liberated from the
Spaniards, these two had not always been united. After three years'
reluctance on the part of Yucatan they were joined together in 1824.
In 1829, 1832 and 1834 their relations were extremely strained, and in
1840 Yucatan set up an independent Republic. (It was in October of
that year when the ' True Blue,' a British schooner, was seized by the
Yucatecans for alleged smuggling, and * in insolent and peremptory
terms,' says Rafael de Zayas Enriquez, the encyclopaedic patriot, did
H.B. M. corvette ' Comus ' cause the Republic of Yucatan to deliver the
ship, to pay an indemnity of 8000 pesos, and to * swallow the outrages.')
Texas was the foreign state to which the Yucatecans were attracted.
In a pamphlet of 1842 (* Protesta de Yucatan contra las violencias del
Gobierno provisorio de Mejico '), we find them declaring that the three
Texan warships were only with them for defensive purposes and that
even if they cruised off Veracruz and Tampico, it was only to observe
whether an expedition against Yucatan was being prepared. By the
way, on the title page of this pamphlet there is a group of American
artisans, agriculturists, soldiers and sailors underneath a flag on
which is the word 'Constitution 1 (in English), while in the clouds
above there is a temple on whose architrave is the word * Liberty.'
Don Andres Quintano Roo, the renowned statesman and poet, was
sent on a mission from Mexico to his native Yucatan, in order to in-
duce it to resume the old connection. After various vicissitudes this
came about in 1848, when the ruling class in Yucatan was forced to
call in the assistance of the Mexicans against the Mayas, who were in re-
volt and were taking a complete revenge for everything which they had
ever suffered from the whites. The panic-stricken Yucatecans made an
offer of the sovereignty of their country to the Spanish or the British
or to any other foreign Government which was prepared to send them
speedy and effective help. An envoy was dispatched to the United
States, but James Buchanan, the Secretary of State, would do no
more than recognise Yucatan's independence. He declined emphati-
cally to support its annexation. So there was no help for it and
Yucatan, which at this time included Campeche, was compelled to
come to terms with Mexico. . . . But if a non-Yucatecan were to be
appointed governor of Yucatan he would have a situation as uncom-
fortable as the Banus of Croatia who is sent from Budapest.

296 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

there is a danger that in this way the United States of
Mexico will break into three separate republics. As the
Revolution terminated there was vast enthusiasm for
Madero. ' If I were a poet I would write poetic eulo-
gies,' said Mr.Elihu Root; 'if I were a musician I would
compose triumphal marches ' to the greater glory of
Porfirio Diaz. And there would be many like this
acolyte of Mr. Roosevelt, eager to rejoice with him
who had achieved success. The large majority of
Mexicans would be sincere, because it was a change
from Don Porfirio' s prolonged regime, and, on the other
hand, because it was a change ; the large majority of
foreigners would do their best to seem sincere, and thus
assist their business. If it once is bruited round the
world that Mexico is on the eve of many revolutions,
that it will relapse into the state of Honduras or
pitiable Nicaragua or mediaeval Guatemala, then the
work of many years will be undone. The confidence
with which most of the foreigners in Mexico regarded
Don Porfirio Diaz .was needs outwardly transferred to
one whom they would willingly have shot a little time
ago from motives of pure business. ... As for
General Bernardo Reyes, the theatrical old hero of
the army well, we were not always told of what
occurred at Orizaba as, for instance, when a dozen
of the more loquacious mill-hands were shot dead
in March, 1911, and the editors of all the journals
kept a corresponding silence but we do know that in
Orizaba, Reyes, who had been permitted to return,
embraced the revolutionary chief, Rafael Tapia.
Those who were so fond of dreaming that Bernardo
Reyes would assemble round his banner the remains
of Don Porfirio's army and of the discredited political
machine perhaps did not realise as keenly as did
Reyes that the militarist day was over, that the army

IN FULL HARMONY

The Interregnum.

From the Mexican Herald.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 297

had been beaten by the nation. A proposal that the
army should be merged in the insurgents for the
purpose of restoring order was, by many critics, called
fantastic and impracticable. But with Reyes' help,
it was a problem to be solved. The elevation 1 of the
lucky volunteers above the men who have attended
military colleges and been promoted chiefly by the flux
of time is always and in every country much resented
by these latter. In the United States, when General
Wood was thus promoted after the campaign of
Cuba, such a storm arose that even now, from time
to time, the darkness reappears. And Reyes, if he
could have satisfied the rebels and preserved the
honour of his old companions, would indeed have
powerfully aided to upbuild the country. He had
long been nourishing a plan to make the army
popular and democratic by conscription. Formerly,
in easy times, he won the adoration of his troops;
and now he prayed that during the uncertain times

1 At all events Don Agustin del Pozo, rebel leader in the State of
Puebla, issued on the 20th of June a statement saying that ' in several
newspapers I see they have bestowed on me the rank and style of
"General." Our noble Army is an institution which I honour most
profoundly, and this rank, I feel, is inappropriate for anyone except
the soldiers who by studies and a long career have gained it, after
many steps, or those who in campaigns, like Pascual Orozco, have
become renowned for heroism and for military genius. But as for
me, I am not dedicated to a soldier's life and I was not so fortunate as
to defend upon a battlefield the liberties of my dear country which a
despotism had disdained for thirty years ; some trifling work I under-
took, to help the Revolution which was headed by the liberator,
citizen Francisco I. Madero, caused me to be nominated chief of all
the revolutionary forces in the State of Puebla ; and when I accepted
this responsible and high commission it was only on account of
patriotic duty which demanded all my power and the absence of all
selfish interest whatever. Since it may be cruel irony to call a man a
" General " when he has got no right to the distinction, I would beg
that you do not apply to me this title, for I say that I am no more
than an honest citizen who strives and hopes, so far as it is given him,
to serve his country, now that he is called upon to serve. The
Revolution has been made to conquer freedom and not military rank.
Let us abandon this and use our energies to make us free.'

298 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

he might conduct himself in such a way as to achieve
the admiration of the world. His country in a few
months had gone back to where it was some five-and-
twenty years ago, for the reforms of Diaz often did
not penetrate below the surface. We must judge the
former President by the material at his command,
if we are ready to assume that he availed himself of
all the good his country had to offer and in that case
also we acknowledge that a house deficient in founda-
tions is, before aught else is done, to be destroyed.
Reculer pour mieux sauter and with de la Barra,
Reyes and Madero working side by side, another and
more stable house, employing certain features of the
fallen structure, was begun. A few months would not
be sufficient ; but if five-and-twenty years are wanted
then we may lose hope in Mexico.

New brooms sweep clean, and if Madero could not
make a clean sweep of the devastating lotteries and of
the bull-fights de la Barra had not witnessed such a
fight until, as President, he was at one which they
arranged to help the widows of both Federal and in-
surrecto soldiers yet Madero would assuredly be more
consistent with his old idealism than the Socialists
had been in Lower California, for just 600 dollars
were sufficient to persuade the sixty last surviving
Socialists to go their way. What Mexico requires is
not alone a larger portion of the light : to raise, for
instance, the indigenous and varied people into citizens
of a republic. (While in 1911 the debt of Mexico per
head was only 14 dollars, and much less than that of
Argentine, the prosperous republic of the south is in
the presence of an infinitely smaller native burden.)
Mexico requires that ancient evils should not, in the
present dispensation, worm their way to power again :
the cientificos, who are the shrewdest of intriguers,

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 299

must have no recuperation as they once had from
another rout. It happened that in 1897, when
Macedo was the President of the Casino Nacional and
the notorious Pineda sat on the committee, these and
other cientiflcos were dispossessed. Macedo grew
quite truculent before he would exhibit the accounts,
although when they were seen at last his attitude was
not surprising for he has a reputation as financier,
he was designated by Porfirio Diaz to be the financial
agent here in London. And the plate of the Casino
was discovered in a house of prostitution which
Pineda patronised. A dividend was paid by the
Casino in that period and that alone in which the
cientiflcos were ousted ; for when they resumed
authority this institution failed. What Mexico
requires is that, as Governor Gonzalez of Chihuahua
said, there should be no extension or renewal of
monopolies. ' We shall not take away the riches of a
foreigner who holds them legally, but we are up
against the Diaz system of the granting of con-
cessions, with the ruinous emoluments demanded by
our politicians. Mexico has been exploited by the
foreigners for many years, until the people, as a whole,
have nothing. (The industrial advancement has not
benefited 20 per cent.) We were on the verge of
becoming a nation of paupers, but the special
privileges 1 shall be stopped, if we can do so. Foreign

1 Let it not be thought disingenuous of me if I now quote from the
pages of the ' Mexican Herald. ' But the new regime enabled it to have
a column which it called ' Free Speech.' On Friday, June 23rd of the
year before last : ' The demand that a thorough investigation must be
made,' it said, ' of Mexico's big business concerns, particularly those
that worked under Government concessions and with which members
of the old administration were directly or indirectly allied, is growing
not only among members of the new rtgime, but also, it seems, among the
business element here in the capital. . . . Forming themselves into an
organisation body for the purpose of giving moral and, if necessary,
financial assistance in the movement of the new body politic in

300 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

capital we shall invite, but it must enter into competi-
tion with our own. Undoubtedly the foreigners who
profited so greatly by the Diaz system will be hard hit
by the new rtgime, which is determined to build up
the country and ameliorate the sad condition of her
people.' [This Governor was executed summarily
when Felix Diaz and Huerta came into power.]

ridding this country of graft and corruption, a committee of business
and professional men is said to be not only contemplated, but actually
launched in this city, and is preparing to give every assistance possible
in cleansing the political, commercial and financial life of the re-
public. '

On June 25th, Francisco I. Madero authorised the publication in the
4 Herald ' of a statement that it was his purpose to investigate closely
and faithfully the conditions of all Corporations which had dealings
with the Government, as well as all Government officials against whom
charges might be brought, based upon adequate evidence of corrup-
tion or of wrong-doing. ' There has been considerable speculation,'
said the 'Herald,' 'as to the reason why the Aguila company was
selected as the first one to be investigated by Madero agents, and an
explanation may be found in the report that has reached Madero to
the effect that Lord Cowdray when he left Mexico last April went to
Washington and New York and, after conferences with Henry W.
Taft and John Hays Hammond, induced Hammond to see President
Taft repeatedly and urge upon him the necessity of American inter-
vention in Mexico to protect big interests here and suggesting the
probability that England would intervene if the United States did not.
It was reported yesterday that in line with the investigation of other
big companies, concessions, contracts and methods of doing business
here that Lord Cowdray's other interests in Mexico would be included,
not only the Tehuantepec railway, but his big contract work as well.'
Soon after this Lord Cowdray, who had hurried back from England
to New York, was said to be endeavouring to sell his oil interests to an
American company. * The report had it,' said the * Herald ' on July
15, * that there was every probability that the sale would be made in
the near future, but it may be stated on good authority that those who
are conversant with the plans of the Maderos do not share this belief.'
It quoted from a personage who was in close touch with the situation
and who said that the Maderos did not wish American capitalists to
buy possible lawsuits in Mexico and for that reason and that alone
they were doing everything in their power to prevent this proposed
sale. Lord Cowdray went to Mexico and in the ' Nueva Era,' the
semi-official mouthpiece of the Maderos the editor, Juan Sanchez
Azcona, being the man who was appointed Madero's confidential
secretary it was written that ' after a campaign of several weeks
dedicated to an unsuccessful attempt to transfer his immense oil
properties in Mexico to the Texas Oil Company and the Gulf Refining
Company, Lord Cowdray has left New York for Mexico. . . . Now

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 301

Foreigners the most benevolent may say that in
the people likewise there must show itself this good
determination, which has often been to seek. And
with regard to making it more easy for them by
the abolition of monopolies, it seems to me, for
instance, that consideration should be given to the
Monterrey Iron and Steel Works. There is duty of 3f

it is known by everybody in Wall Street that the representatives of
the two companies mentioned were convinced that the oil concessions
of the Pearson Company are not a good investment and that they have
been advised by lawyers that the concessions are in danger of being
revoked if put to the test in court. It is said in Wall Street that these
two cientificos [Landa y Escandon and Limantour, who helped Lord
Cowdray, as did others of the discredited cientifico group, to obtain
his colossal concessions from the Diaz Government] have exercised
pressure on the American companies through European financial
interests to persuade them to take the oil properties of Lord
Cowdray. ... In Wall Street it is said that Lord Cowdray told
two or three of his associates there that he would soon control the
new Government of Mexico as easily as he had that of General Diaz.
Both his friends and enemies in Wall Street (he has both) await with
considerable interest news of the activities of Lord Cowdray in the
City of Mexico.' When he called upon Madero, ' I assured him,'
wrote the latter in the * Nueva Era,' ' that if he has duly complied
with the respective contracts he has nothing to fear, as my Govern-
ment will respect contracts and concessions which have been formu-
lated with the late Government and which have been effected in due
form and in compliance with all legal requirements. ' . . . ' That
Congress, when the present body ... is succeeded next year by a
more Liberal Chamber, may order investigations, 3 said ' The Times ' in
a very interesting article on 21st November, 1911, 'is possible. But there
would be much surprise if such action lead to anything more than
minor alterations in the terms of a few concessions and perhaps to the
inauguration of a campaign against certain Trusts. ' . . . At the fall of
Madero's Government, in 1913, Senor Manuel L. Lujan, agent to the
United States of General Orozco, declared that when Senor Gustavo
Madero, brother of the President, was in New York he made arrange-
ments with the Standard Oil Company to ' kill ' the competition of the
Aguila [Eagle] Oil Company in Mexico. Senor Lujan directed the
attention of the Senate's Sub-Committee to the fact that three days
after the Madero Government was established a Bill was introduced
in the Mexican Congress annulling concessions granted by President
Porfirio Diaz to the Eagle Oil Company. And on 17 February, 1913,
the New York correspondent of the ' Daily News,' in referring to the
reported resignation of Madero and succession of de la Barra, cabled
that ' the news was official, for it came from the British Legation and
was inspired by Lord Cowdray, whose immense Mexican interests
were backing the ex-Provisional President [de la Barra].'

302 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

to 5J 1 cents Mex. a kilo on I beams, which in Liver-
pool or Antwerp cost say 7 a ton ; on rails, which
cost in England about 5 a ton, there is duty of 2|
cents a kilo. On a steel building at about 18 a ton
(laid down in Mexico) the duties, taking into account
the galvanised iron and the bolts, come to about 7
a ton ; so that when a man erects a sugar factory of
average size it costs him 21,000 dollars Mex. more
than he should pay the total cost being 600,000
dollars. It appears to me that Mexico does not derive
an ultimate advantage from a tariff on the jute
productions, and the British Minister was wont to
chaff Lord Cowdray, who in England advocates free
trade while for the Orizaba jute mill he must have
protection. All the jute is from Bengal, and the
resulting sacks are more expensive than if they could
be imported. When I asked the manager for a
defence of his position he explained that 1800
Mexicans were given employment. But it is extra-
ordinary, it is shameful, that for at least three years
the country has been buying maize from Argentine
and elsewhere. Let the 1800 men be put to agricul-
ture. And as we are on this subject we encounter
what is Mexico's most urgent need : the need for
patriots. When the fraternal strife was over and the
Government began receiving claims for compensation,
there would step into the office Sefior Don Fulano,
with a business-like expression. ' Practically all my
farm has been destroyed.'

' Ah, what misfortune ! And at how much do you
place the value ? '

6 Half a million pesos.'

4 Many thanks. Will you be kind enough to

1 The lower price is for steel beams in the rough, as they leave the
mill ; the higher price is for beams cut to the correct size and drilled.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 303

come in several days ? The documents shall be
prepared.'

The second conversation, as a rule, was not so long :
4 Here are the documents. I trust that you will
find them accurate. Of course, one's memory is
human and my clerks are here to help you. They
inform me that the value of the property, as you
assessed it for the payment of your taxes, 1 is precisely
20,000 pesos.'

It was not sufficient that, for Mexico's salvation, de
la Barra, Reyes and Madero should have striven with
united effort : de la Barra, the most prudent diplomat,
and Reyes who was like a meteor, and Madero who
was like a star. The people from the highest to the
lowest had so much to learn, so many years they
should forget. And it is not enough if they congratu-
late themselves for having more than followed
Emerson's advice to hitch your wagon to a star. Let
them remember that the conduct of Bernardo Reyes,
opportune as it might be, would possibly give way to
his impulsive nature, though one must acknowledge
he secured some victories against himself that are a
marvel, he the hope of the Porfirian remnant, of large
vested interests and of a portion of the beaten army ;
while Madero with a halo from the field of battle
sane, clean-handed, resolute, courageous, was backed

1 It is worth recording that this system which establishes the tax
on land is, as it were, the poor relation of the system of New
Zealand, and New Zealand prides herself on being, in such things at
all events, a good deal in advance of other countries. There the
valuation is conducted by State valuers, and if the owner is dissatisfied
he may appeal to the Assessment Court, and if he still believes that it
has been too highly valued and the valuer refuses to reduce it, then he
can require him to purchase the property at the assessed value. On
the other hand the valuer, if he thinks that the Court has made an
unfair reduction, may require the owner to consent to what he con-
siders a fair selling value or else he will purchase the property at that
value on behalf of the Government. These are two points in the
* Valuation of Land Act, 1908."

304 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

up by partisans enthusiastic and fanatical, by followers
who brooked no opposition, and by money. Towards
October, when the President was to be chosen, this
triumvirate did not continue to be perfectly har-
monious. De la Barra, to be sure, went on the even
tenor of his way ; so shrewdly had he weathered
all the difficulties of the interregnum that his stern
refusal to be nominated was the cause of much regret,
not only to the neutral men and to the Catholic party,
whose repeated efforts could not make him change
his mind. It was his business, so he said, to see that
the elections were conducted properly, and then he
would retire from politics. But on some future day,
perhaps, the country would not look to him in vain.
Madero's friendly attitude to Reyes, whom he had been
once accustomed to hold up as a mere slave of Diaz
and a firebrand, this new amicable attitude was most
unpopular among the Maderistas. They were up in
arms against Madero's promise to have Reyes in the
coming Cabinet as Minister of War. Then, driven
from the side of Don Francisco, Reyes let himself be
nominated for the Presidency, but his followers were
not so numerous as were the Maderistas, with the
consequence that there was trouble, and before the
time for the elections he was forced to fly from
the Republic. Thus Madero, who became the chief
executive, was not in the preliminary period so
strong and so consistent as one might have wished.
Sometimes it is the cruel fate of an idealist to be
idealised ; but if Madero's compromise with Reyes
had the object of alleviating ancient sores and of
promoting general welfare after Reyes undertook to
be the opposition candidate, Madero charged him in
a speech at Veracruz with having planned to steal
from him the fruits of victory and having acted as a

ELMODELO"EMILIANO"

Zapata.

From Multicolor.

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 305

criminal no small proportion of the Mexicans ap-
peared to wake up from their blind idealising when
Madero, by a compact with the Catholics, got their
support. And when he showed some weakness with
;he miscreant ex-groom Zapata, who was terrorising
the green valleys of Morelos, then the Mexicans
)egan to think of Don Francisco as a person whom
they had not understood. 1 But when a man is
President of Mexico it is not requisite that he should
)e all things to all voters. General Reyes, in disguise,
led from the country, and in his turn settled down at
San Antonio, in Texas. ' Do not think,' he wrote to
lis adherents, ' that the good cause is not near my
leart. But Mexico is now no longer safe for me.
Elemain, dear faithful followers, and fight.' The
Governor of Texas charged him with conspiring to
foment a revolution. He and certain of his followers
were then arrested, but the fiery old commander cried
that he had never listened to an accusation so absurd ;
le was a simple soldier, nothing else, who would fight
ace to face with anyone, but was not able to defend
himself against intrigue. Then he was liberated, and
a few weeks later at Linares he surrendered to a body
of the Mexican police, admitting frankly that his
dream of a successful revolution would remain a dream.
I called upon the army and the people,' so he said,
but none responded.' We could hope that, with
Madero as a temporary necessary despot, the Re-
Dublic would continue to evolve, and into something

1 It is said that Madero, an ardent spiritualist, believed that
Zapata's death would be followed, on the next day, by his own Per-
laps, however, he was influenced by humanitarian motives in sparing
the brigand's life. He gave him a considerable sum of money on the
understanding that his outrages against villages and towns and trains
and plantations should come to an end. But this Jacquerie, with
60,000 men at its beck and call, survived Madero. It was a method
of protesting against the inadequacy of the late President's Socialism.

306 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

very different from her small southern neighbours.
And in foreign policy towards Japan and the United
States, it will be well if she leaves well alone. But,
as we are reminded by Moliere : ' Le monde, chere
Agnes, est une ttrange chose.'

Much has been omitted from this baneful story of
the Revolution. I confess I have not mentioned all
the plots against Madero and not all the deeds of
violence which Mexicans committed on the foreigners :
at Cuautla, for example, the emporium of Monsieur
Caire was looted of its contents, save a mattress,
which did not appeal to them and therefore it was
dragged into the middle of the street and burned ;
from the Hotel Morelos, also of French ownership, the
looters even stole the gold-fish in the fountain ; they
compelled a Spanish merchant's wife to kneel down at
their feet and under penalty of instant death to kiss
the ground, while they compelled a Spaniard to
embrace a corpse which had been lying in the street
and was half -decomposed ; some hundreds of Chinese
were massacred in Torreon, because the rebels, having
drunk a dozen bottles of suspected brandy that were
in a court-room waiting for analysis, had breakfast at
a Chinese restaurant and died. I have not mentioned
all the deeds of violence which usually mark a so-called
civil war. But rather than invite you to give ear to
an account more dreadful, I would have this tale
regarded not so much as a complete and perfect
history, more as a drowsy after-dinner entertainment.
He who will provide you with the perfect entertain-
ment must be such another as the splendid French-
man, Jean Froissart, whose tale was written for
this worthy object. Jean was infinitely careful, and

DAWN AFTER DIAZ 307

he could not always reach the scene of action until
thirty years had flown away that is indeed how
he secured the facts relating to the fight of Crecy
and if anyone would disentangle all the truth in such
a land as Mexico he scarcely could pretend to do it
under thirty years. And meanwhile I endeavour, very
humbly, to sit on the chair of this new Froissart, until
his arrival. Then he will be read, like his great
predecessor, for at least five centuries, when it is
probable that I am not remembered even in a Mass,
since they are held I quote from an announcement
in a paper of the capital ' for the repose of English-
speaking dead who live in Mexico.'

Dear, future Froissart ! When you march into the
heavy silence of the jungle, when you loiter in the grey
dust of a cactus village to converse with him who
placidly endeavours to look after school and shop,
when you are taking counsel with a wizard child of
Montezuma or with the diluted children of the merry
towns, will you consider that the natives have a charm
so wild, so delicate, that one is well advised to listen to
the music of their Spanish tongue and also to the
music of who knows what winds which whistle in the
Sierra Madre and what dreaminess of the Tabascan
waters gliding darkly to the sea ?

CHAPTER XI
IN A FIELD

IN a field, not very far as birds would fly from Mexico
the capital, I met Prisciliano ploughing with a wooden
plough. He came towards me, white against the
greyish sky, and in the evening wind his large, white
drawers flapped like sails. He did not hurry, though
the darkness was approaching. Then I saw that he
was middle-aged, a weather-beaten man ; he smiled.

4 Very good night,' I said.

4 That you may pass 'it well.' He stood there,
leaning on the plough, and with an undecided look.
He did not speak, but studied me as thoroughly as
if he were a child.

And his intentions seemed to be pacific.

' Senor,' he said, ' I should be glad if you could
play the flute. I have one.' He removed his large
hat carefully, and from the inside he produced this
instrument. ' It will be good if you can play,' quoth
he.

So primitive a thing it was that, as I held it in my
hand, I wondered how it could produce coherent
music.

' With permission,' said Prisciliano, as he sat him
down upon a rock. He put the huge sombrero on his
head again, so that I who was standing over him
could not observe his face. He sat there very
patiently. How could I disappoint him ?

308

"We all complain of the shortness of time." Seneca.

Ploughing.

IN A FIELD 309

Looking up and down the long, grey road I saw no
possible suplente. These in Mexico are people who
will do things for you when you happen to be in-
capacitated. All the deputies, for instance, have
suplentes, who sit in the Chamber, legislating when
the deputies are sick. The road was edged with trees
that fluttered in the wind.

' It is a pretty flute,' said I.

' Ah ! ' said Prisciliano. He clasped his knees and
slowly see-sawed on the rock. Then presently he
took his hat off, fumbled in it till he found some
cigarettes, and reached a packet up to me. ' Perhaps
before you start to play ? ' he said. From his ex-
pression one would have imagined that I had already
played to him for several hours. I sat down at his
side, and while he held his useful hat against the wind
I lit my cigarette. ' With your permission ' he had
borrowed it to light his own, and then he put it back
between my lips. For some few minutes we said
nothing, but there was a pleasant music in the trees.

' You have been living here,' I asked, ' a long
time ? ' He was so completely in the picture.

6 I have lived here always. ... I am Prisciliano
Guerra, at your orders.'

It was restful to gaze out across the wide, brown
field to where the mist was gathering. Beyond,
there rose the dead volcano with the fingers of the
red-gold sun laid on the snowy peak of it. And
thus it was as if a blazing torch was lifted up into the
sky. The shadows underneath it were as tender as
the sky ; they knew that in a little moment they
would overwhelm the torch and all its bravery, as
Time had overwhelmed that other blaze of the
volcano. Very tender were the shadows as they
closed upon the mountain's glory.

310 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

My friend expectorated. ' You are thinking that
one cannot live here always,' so he said, ' since there
is naught that happens.'

4 But, Prisciliano ! '

4 As for me, I do not care,' he said. ' It does not
touch me.' And he let a smoky column rise up from
the corner of his mouth. It did not live long in the
wind.

4 At all events, to stay here for a little time,' I said,
4 would be delicious.'

' I am nothing, nothing.'

' If it were so peaceful everywhere in Mexico ! ' I said.

' Ah ! well,' observed Prisciliano, ' the pulque does
a lot of harm.'

' It was the Revolution I was thinking of.'

4 What revolution ? When ? ' he asked.

4 Madero's surely you have heard of it ? For
months it has been going on, all over Mexico.'

4 You speak the truth ? A revolution ? And there
was some killing, tell me ? It is sad,' he mused,
4 yes, very sad that men will not be satisfied. You
do not know the village over there ? ' He pointed
with his hand to the horizon. ' Pues, I have heard
things . . . and, who knows ? if I were living in that
place perhaps I also should not be well satisfied.
Who knows ? '

4 Madero was not satisfied,' I said, 4 with Don
Porfirio.'

He scowled. 4 But Don Porfirio,' he said, ' is Don
Porfirio. . . . And what succeeded ? '

4 This will all be a Republic now, with free elections
and-

4 What did he do with Madero ? Ha ! I see him
hanging from a tree, or did they do it in a prison ?
He is very great, our Don Porfirio. He is the greatest

IN A FIELD 311

man of all the Republic. Truly he is a man.' Pris-
ciliano gazed at me with some defiance. ' Si, senor,'
he said. . . . ' But it is cold. I am detaining you.'

The fiery colour had all vanished from the dead
volcano. Everywhere the same grey mist was being
spread ; the last of all the flame had tried to find a
refuge in the windy sky.

Prisciliano rose. ' With your permission,' he
remarked, ' and over there you have your house.
But it is cold, is it not ? '

' Until another time,' I said. ' We have been
talking much and we have had no music.'

He put back the flute inside his hat.

4 1 wish I could have played for you,' I said.

4 Many times I thank you,' said Prisciliano, ' for
when there is anyone who plays to me I am more
pleased than any drunkard. I am going.' And he
started with his wooden plough and as if he would
continue all the night.

He travelled down the field with even steps,
apparently not looking to the left or right. He was
the very spirit of the Indian race indomitable,
persevering, slow. One fancied that he had been
ploughing and would plough for ever, and that if this
wind became the voice of sirens he would not be
interrupted.

Then suddenly he stopped. By this time he was far
away, but as the great sombrero moved a trifle one
could know his head was sinking forward. Thus he
stayed, a lonely figure, while the wind was playing
with his flimsy garments. Against the sombre back-
ground of the earth and air he was a motionless, white
statue. Yes, for he was the belated statue of the
armies of the soil that have conferred their monu-
ments on kings and captains.

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

While the shadows, like a flock of friendly birds,
were gathering about him, at his feet and on his
shoulders, he remained as if he were oppressed by
grievous or inextricable thoughts. And then he
grasped the plough once more and strode away into
the darkness.

In a balcony Madero and Huerta.

" He kissed my hand, he looked into my eyes,
And love, love came at end of every phrase."

Browning's "/ a Balcony.'

Vice-President Jose Maria Pino
Suarez. seei>.su

CHAPTER XII

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA

22nd February, 1913

DURING the good days of 1911, when the President,
Porfirio Diaz, saw revolt on every side and hurled
against it every man (except himself) and all the
instruments which he controlled, it was the task
of Don Francisco de la Barra, the Ambassador in
Washington, to circulate more downright lies in
several months than, one presumes, he bargained
for when he became a diplomat. Sefior de la Barra
is a man of education and refinement, he is Chilian by
origin and therefore something better than the usual
Mexican. So we were very much concerned that he
should thus endanger his immortal soul by uttering,
and not unwittingly, the foulest lies and hundreds of
them. Everything would soon be for the best, he
said, beyond the Rio Grande. ... On the 22nd
February, 1913, Madero was murdered, and Senor
de la Barra, then the Foreign Secretary, told the
countries of the world that it was owing to his effort
to escape while he was being driven from the palace
to the Penitenciary. I dare say General Huerta (the
wealthy cattle-exporter who was much opposed to
Madero's land policy) and General Felix Diaz, the
assassins, made a similar explanation, but they
(especially Huerta) are merely Mexican savages in
blue uniforms, who would be astonished if we stayed

314 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

to listen to them. It is much to be regretted,
though, that Senor de la Barra's soul should have
this grievous burden placed upon it. I am not sure
whether he began to give his explanation during
dinner on the Saturday evening or whether he waited
until after the event had taken place near midnight.
Anyhow, he seems to have been quite impatient
to observe how the Legations had received his
uncouth lie, and so he begged the diplomatic
corps to give him the honour of lunching with him
on the Monday. He stands in need of a considerable
amount of honour. The diplomats 1 declined his
invitation, saying that Madero's death and that of
Pino Suarez, the Vice-President, must be accounted
for. That is why de la Barra toils in the beautiful
Foreign Office trying, trying all day long with the
assistance of the Under-Secretary and of the First,
Second and Third Introducers of Ambassadors, to write
a story which shall be considered plausible. And in
the meantime, at the palace, Huerta's evil countenance
is leering at the stolid Felix.

1 During the terrible days when Maderistas and Felicistas were con-
ducting a civil war, with artillery and sharpshooters, in the very heart
of the capital, when thousands of non-combatants were killed, when
the doors of Belem were thrown open and thousands of convicts made
their escape (one who had been there for twenty years preferred to
stay and two remained for several hours endeavouring to force the
prison safe), when the Zapatistas plundered and assassinated in the
very outskirts of the city and when the position of the American
Ambassador was naturally much more arduous and much more
delicate and much more perilous than that of his colleagues, then it
seems that members of the British colony complained both of their
Minister, Mr. Stronge, and their Consul-General, Mr. Stringer, and
their Vice-Consul, Mr. Milne. The latter is said, perhaps not of his
own free will, to have vanished ; Mr. Stringer went no further than
the Country Club, about eight miles from the capital, where you can
play golf; and the Minister, an elderly gentleman, is said to have
devoted himself to the care of his parrot, so that many of his com-
patriots preferred to take refuge in the American Embassy. The
German Minister also, Admiral von Hintze, was according to all
accounts most energetic and helpful.

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA 315

4 What are you smiling at ? ' says Felix.

' Quien sabe ? ... It goes well with us, dear
friend,' says Huerta.

Felix also smiles a little. ' I have got no doubt,'
says he, ' that you looked just like that when you
received his wife in audience and told her that his
fate would be decided by the Congress of the nation.
Huerta, you are splendid ! '

' We have got the country ! Blood and iron ! '

4 Yes, that is the only way he was unutterably
weak. At Veracruz when I revolted last October
and he took me, why did he not have me shot ? '

' Yes, yes I mean ' He stops, in great

embarrassment. ' By all the saints, Don Felix, I gave
no advice ! '

4 Of course not, companero ! We are friends.'
Don Felix laughs in the most hearty fashion.

' Never shall we separate, I swear it. If I could, my
dear Don Felix, I would breakfast with you, I would
work beside you, I would lunch with you, I

' Gustavo won't ! '

' Ah ! ' His Excellency glances at the Commander
in-Chief, because he is not sure if he is sound on this
point. ' Really, it was needful,' he begins, ' I would
not ! '

4 1 don't blame you.'

4 He was vile. He was unpopular. I thought it
quite a good idea to have some soldiers hidden in
the restaurant when he invited me to lunch. Those
foreign papers you have seen them ? '

4 Don't be angry, my dear friend. What can they
do ? It is the Yankees only we must think about,
and they have said so often they will come that they
will never spoil my sleep.'

' I heard a little story yesterday,' says His Excel-

316 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

lency the Provisional President. ' It happened in a
pulque shop. There was a fellow who had drunk too
much, he shouted that he was a champion soy un
valiente. One could hear him over all the din, and
he persisted with his boastful shouting. Then some
other fellow elbowed through the crowd and stood
defiantly in front of him and told him that he also
was a champion soy tambien un valiente. He stood
with his fingers in the arm-holes of his waistcoat,
and although he swayed a little he looked formidable.
"Now," his whole expression seemed to say "now
what do you intend to do ? " The first one smiled
and said, " Well, then, my friend, we are two
champions somos dos valientes"

Madero lay dead and his regime was over. It had
ended after a pitiless battle, which took place in the
streets of Mexico City and caused the death of
thousands and a vast destruction of property. Felix
Diaz, having, with Reyes, been released from prison
by cadets, had held the arsenal, Madero and Huerta
the palace. Bernardo Reyes was shot through the
head at the first onslaught. And Madero was betrayed
by Huerta to Don Felix. The Republic was again
beneath the despotism of a Diaz ; there was very
little light and one could say that those who had
announced the dawn were stultified. Once more the
Government was ruthless, savage and implacable ;
once more the country dreaded it. ' Freedom
been won,' said Madero to an English intervK
few days before his assassination, ' and when th" ^opie
get a little more accustomed to it they will make good
use of it, and then it will be ordered freedom. Your
great essayist Macaulay in his essay on Milton, shows
that " till men have been some time free, they know
not how to use their freedom." ' But when the

You are taken swiftly

to every part of the capital and to the most distant suburbs by the excellent electric trams, which

have two classes and express, non-stopping services. They have well-appointed funeral cars, on

which the employees are shaved and have their boots blacked free of charge. " This traffic," says

Mr. Percy F. Martin, " proves highly remunerative to the Tramway Company."

A street in the capital, February, 1913.

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA 317

treacherous Huerta, whom Madero always had
protected, and General Felix Diaz, whom Madero
would not execute at Veracruz, when these two
patriots determined that the reign of blood and iron
should return and when they saw with satisfaction
that the sky itself was shot with blood, they certainly
did not believe that this had anything to do with
dawn. Well, I think there will be a period of greyness,
and that afterwards the day will come and from the
north. Before Porfirio Diaz and before Madero it
was destined to surge up in this way. What alone
was doubtful was the moment when the darkness
would be dissipated, and the passage of Madero is the
cause why it will go more quickly. It is stated
officially by Huerta and Felix Diaz that ' from now
peace and prosperity will reign in Mexico.' What
they will not be able to stamp out will be the recollec-
tion of Madero' s honest and heroic efforts, his high
principles, his pitiful endeavour. For a time the
Mexicans will struggle with each other, then they
will struggle desperately against the United States,
and then their country will be known as Mex. (The
cry of ' Mexico for the Mexicans ' was heard a good
deal during 1912. The foreign engine-drivers on the
National Railways, to give only one illustration, were
dismissed. What then resulted was unfortunate:
not only did the native drivers strike and each time
get what they demanded but large numbers of the
locomotives were so treated that they also struck.) In
California it is said that there is a considerable amount
of graft, and there are labour troubles which involve
the dynamiting of the office of a newspaper. But
California has not, for a long time, yearned to be again
a Mexican dominion, as it was till 1848 ; and in a
century or so this will be more or less the attitude of

318 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Mex. From the days of Juarez this was bound to
come, for he neglected his own people and did not
make Mexico an Indian Republic, which would have
possessed a real strength. But this was also bound
to come from that day when it pleased Almighty God
to make these two be neighbours.

No doubt it is a part of the great process that a
quantity of blood and more blood and of ink has
yet to flow. With the Mexicans it is largely a matter
of personal ambitions and hatreds ; some soldiers,
for example, were standing outside one of the Lega-
tions during the conflict between Madero and Felix
Diaz. ' From which side,' they were asked, ' are you
protecting us ? Are you for Diaz or Madero ? '
' Pues, senor? they replied, ' our officer will be back
soon and then we shall know.' The Mexicans will
murder one another, while Vazquez Gomez will
occasionally run a yard or two across the frontier,
will exclaim that he is President, and will run back
to Texas. Then the Mexicans will strive against
their fate, will do their uttermost to keep away from
the Americans ; they will invoke the hatred of the
days of Diaz when his interview with Mr. Taft,
suggesting secret treaty or agreement, brought such
criticism on his head ; they will invoke the hatred of
Madero's day, for he was said to be too well disposed
towards the neighbours. These on their side will
resist with all their strength the irresistible. * Officially

1 The Mexican sociologist, F. Bulnes, writes in his book, ' L'Avenir
des nations Hispano-Americaines ' : ' It is more than probable that by
1980 the United States will hold a population of 250,000,000 in-
habitants. They will then scarcely be sufficient for the needs of this
population, and "will no longer be able to supply the world with the
vast quantity of cereals which they supply to-day. They will there-
fore have to choose between a recourse to the methods of intensive
culture and the conquest of the extra-tropical lands of Latin America,
which are fitted by their conditions to the easy and inexpensive
production of excellent cereals.'

The Spot where Madero was Murdered

in the Muy Leal, Insigne e Imperial (very loyal, notable and imperial) town of Mexico,
according to Charles V.

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA 319

they will declare, like the Ambassador in Mexico, that
the assassination of Madero was an accident ; they
will repeat to Europeans that the Monroe Doctrine
does not call for them to supervise the social and
political morals of the Mexicans ; and they will hope
that no Ambassador will fall a victim to Madero 's
accident of being shot by those who want to set you
free. They will acknowledge, as the ' Spectator ' has
very well put it, that they may have assumed the
honqurable position of trustee without any means of
performing the work of the trust. Logically, they
should either guarantee life and property throughout
the Western World or should modify the Monroe
Doctrine so as to admit the co-operation of other
Powers who may be interested in the affairs of Central
and South America. They will be thinking of the
fate of the Americans and Europeans who may chance
to be in Mexico when war begins and they will think
of all the difficulties of that war, the tortuous length
of frontier, the raiders who will creep into the frontier
towns, the difficulties of their transport in a country
mountainous and desolate, the fact that 200,000
warriors will be wanted, and over a period of at least
two years, the fact that all the Mexicans will be
united then. 1 Of course it would be foolish to assert

1 Maximilian found that in the presence of a common foe the
Mexicans are not to be divided. Naturally it is the Americans to-day
who are the only people capable of causing such a union, but the
natives of less culture have the haziest ideas of what precisely is
the difference between Americans and English, or between Americans,
Dutch, Germans, French, Italians and English. The Spaniards for
whom they have a term of contempt are the only foreigners they
really can distinguish, and they usually do not love them, for they
often are usurious and haughty and they have the lisp. Otherwise,
in time of peace, there is no more general hatred of the foreigner
than there was when Mr. Ward, the British Charge d' Affaires, wrote
in his very thorough, very interesting book [' Mexico,' by H. G.
Ward] that * Zacatecas is the only part of Mexico in which I am
aware that, at the end of 1826, a bad feeling towards foreigners in
general prevailed.'

320 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

that arguments which move the Government and the
majority of the Americans are not opposed by various
important bodies. President Madero could not raise
a loan in Wall Street, and it was announced a few
days after his removal that the Huerta Government
had been successful in arranging for a loan of
$30,000,000. It is obvious that, even with the best
security, you want much more than a few days to
regulate the mere formalities of such a loan. And
one concludes that Wall Street knew beforehand of
the coup d'etat and was in league with the assassins
of the President. Even while Huerta was shelling
Diaz in mock warfare and waiting for the right
moment to betray Madero, the pair were probably
in communication with their Wall Street confederates.
Wall Street is the fiscal agent of the land and indus-
trial concessionaires of the old Diaz. Intervention
means intervention for them. If great financial
forces are in willing league with these Mexican
butchers, one can scarcely doubt but that they will
connive at any crime in order to back up their
investments with American soldiers. As to whether
the Ambassador, Mr. Henry Lane Wilson, in white-
washing the murderers was obeying orders from
Washington and whether such orders were inspired
by Wall Street will possibly be ascertained ; a
large number of his countrymen are now demanding
that the truth be known. His appeal for a more
kindly consideration of the murderers and his very
quick acceptance of the official version of Madero 's
death are indeed to be regarded as an insult to
American intelligence. At the same time one cannot
say, as yet, whether his Government, being reluctant
to interfere (and voicing in this the large majority of
the people), told him to make the best of the fait

Planning a Bombardment of the National Palace.
Generals Mondragon and Felix Diaz.

The Minister from the Motherland.

How the Spanish Minister went to and fro in order to patch up a peace between Maderistas
and Felicistas. Here he is holding a white-handled umbrella.

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA 321

accompli or whether they have been the slaves of those,
the American and Mexican financiers, who will not,
if they can help it, let the Mexicans shake off their
slavery. It is a fact that the Ambassador's relations
with Madero had for a long time been very strained,
that although he was the doyen of the diplomatic
corps it was not he but other diplomats who, towards
the end, communicated with Madero, whereas on the
Sunday and Monday before Madero's fall General
Huerta came several times to the American Embassy.
However, Mr. Wilson is a professional diplomat,
having previously served in Chili and Belgium ; he at
any rate had not the personal connection with Wall
Street as had one of his predecessors, a very impossible
gentleman, who busied himself in securing the Pan-
American railway concession and in constructing the
line, what there is of it, more with an eye to quantity
(he obtained so much per kilometre) than to quality.
We hold that the idealist, Madero, has by no
means lived in vain, but if we turn our gaze from
what he brought into the sky and look at what he did
on earth, we may confess that his idealism did not
serve him well. He seems to have forgotten that the
average Mexican is far less interested in political- ideals
than he is moved to wrath if there is interference
with his pleasures. The firm attitude towards the
lotteries, which if Madero could not stop, he limited,
was altogether different from the usual policy of Diaz,
who would grant the governor of a State, in many
instances, the sole right of establishing a local lottery ;
and many people had been hoping that Madero would
extend this right to them. His gentle methods caused
the Indians to be insolent, to do less honest work than
ever and to spend more timfcin pulque shops. Madero
could not solve the land^id many other troubles

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

which he had inherited from Diaz, and he was too
amiable to stop his partisans and some of his own
family from plundering the State. He wanted to be
constitutional, and therefore he was ineffective. His
very uprightness was a source of embarrassment
among a people saturated with the spirit of corruption
and without the smallest conception of the meaning
of self-government. ' It is the folly of nations,' says
the Abbe* Coignard, 'to found vast hopes upon the
fall of princes.' People thought in Mexico that,
Diaz having been expelled, earth would become as
heaven. That the whole of the abuses under Diaz
would be instantly removed was no less credited
than that the burden of all Mexicans would either
be much lighter or would actually be removed from
off their shoulders. On Madero's side had been the
animosity against Porfirio Diaz, and against him was
the deep resentment which was cherished by the
partisans of Diaz, who contributed from Paris and
New York large sums for any rebel movement. And
against him were the clericals, their leader being de la
Barra. Against him were the great landowners and
the larger part of the Press. He was mild, so that the
average Mexican regarded him quite coldly ; when
this mildness left the country in a turmoil then the
Mexicans who had supported him began to fall away.
Such army officers and men as still were loyal had
apparently no reason other than the flattering praise
which in the newspapers and proclamations of the
Government was showered upon them and which
they seemed anxious to deserve. Madero disregarded
all the rules of Mexico : he spared the lives of his
opponents when he had them in his power. There
might have been some hope for him if he had followed
this old custom, even as Porfirio Diaz would have

Francisco Madero, Senior.

With his sons, Francisco and Gustavo, who have since been murdered.

February, 1913 : The Spectators.

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA 323

certainly fared better had he followed the advice of
a most beautiful young girl, the daughter of a Senator
and granddaughter of a very liberal President, whose
English education and long residence in London did
not stop her from insisting with great eloquence that
the young orator and author, Francisco I. Madero,
Presidential candidate, who at the moment was in
prison, should be killed. 1 It would appear that
Don Victoriano Huerta's party know that such

1 The Ley de Fuga [lit. Law of Flight] enables the authorities to
rid themselves of those whom it is inconvenient to place on trial.
Sometimes the prisoner is really given a chance of escape ; for
instance, if he is a spy, against whom there is no particular resent-
ment ; an attack is apprehended on the part of his employers, and
perhaps a man could not be spared to watch him. He is therefore
told to ride away sometimes he is given his choice and as he darts
from side to side the bullets whistle round him. Sometimes the
prisoner has no chance ; for instance, when Porfirio Diaz was about
to fall, a man went round the State of Aguascalientes, scattering
broadsheets in favour of Madero. * We have such disagreeable work
to do,' said the Lieutenant of Rurales, to an Englishman. When
Mercado, the old Governor of Aguascalientes, was informed of the
Maderist he was much distressed. He said that he had always been
a father to his people Aguascalientes has one school for every 3103
inhabitants and now in his old age he was to be disturbed in this
way. But he was relieved to get a telegram from the Governor of
the adjacent State of San Luis Potosf, requesting him to have the
agitator, who had lately been in San Luis, returned by train. The
Colonel of Rurales also got a telegram from Don Porfirio's private
secretary, saying that a man would on the morrow make an effort to
escape between two given stations ; this must be prevented. When
the train on the next morning was between these stations it went
slowly and more slowly, while the officer who was with the Maderist
urged him to escape. * Not I ! ' cried the Maderist ; * I have heard of
that trick long ago. Here I remain ! ' And he clung fiercely to the
seat. The end of it was that the officer, assisted by the escort, pulled
their prisoner away and threw him out, so that he rolled down the
embankment, just where the Lieutenant and his men were stationed.
* I was warned you would escape,' said the Lieutenant. ' But they
flung me off the train ! ' cried the Maderist. * I am sorry, but you
have three minutes for your prayers,' said the Lieutenant, and he
told the Englishman that while his prisoner was saying them he shot
him through the back. ' We have to do such disagreeable things,'
said the Lieutenant. . . . When Madero's Government was overthrown,
we were told that a good many of his numerous brothers and uncles tried
to escape, but only those were lucky who, with his widow and his
father, managed to achieve a Cuban man-of-war at Veracruz.

324 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

indulgence is mistaken. One of Huerta's nephews,
Sefior Enrique Zepeda, knew that four Maderist ex-
governors, who were in the Penitenciary, should die.
He took a squad of mounted men this happened
after General Huerta had been President about a
month and he demanded of the warden that these
four should be produced. The warden would not
hand them over and Zepeda went on to Belem, where
he requested that they should deliver to him one
Gabriel Hernandez, ex-commandant of Rurales and
his enemy. In this case he was not denied, and when
Hernandez was pushed out of prison the squad
murdered him without delay. And then Zepeda
had the body placed upon a pyre and burned.
Zepeda' s friends, aware that foreign nations may not
know how it is best to treat one's captive enemies,
asserted that Zepedo was not sober. . . . From friends
of Don Porfirio Diaz I have heard but whether it is
true I cannot say that he was anxious to destroy
Madero when he lay in prison at San Luis Postosi,
but that the beautiful and merciful Sefiora Diaz
begged him for Madero' s life. She prayed her
husband not to sully his last years with such a crime.
He told her, so they say, that it was policy. But
she insisted that he had upon his head the murder
6f too many Mexicans. And in a day or two
he is alleged to have consented, saying that he
would not kill Madero, but that he was much
afraid he would some day repent this deviation
from his ordinary practice. . . . With Madero there
could be no stable Government (although the traders,
manufacturers and business men, as opposed to the
concession-hunters and the favourites of Diaz, be-
lieved that, on the whole, he represented the best
chance of achieving this), and those who think that

The Ruined Tower,

of the church at Campo Florido, from which the Maderistas dislodged their opponents,
portrait of the sole Felicista survivor.

THE SOUL OF SENOR DE LA BARRA 325

it is not too late to build up a strong central Govern-
ment and then improve the Diaz system will, I fear,
be disappointed. Between 1821 and 1876 Mexico
had 52 Presidents, 2 Emperors and a Regent not
4 all murthered,' as Shakespeare's Richard II says of
his fellow-monarchs. But it is probable that the
Republic will be soon as thinly populated as was
California in 1848.

PART II
THE BACKGROUND

( CHAPTER XIII
>AXACA'S ROAD OF LIFE AND DEATH 1

As the riders came before the dawn across the silent
courtyard of the hacienda they could see not all the
ring of mountains, but the summits only which pro-
jected from the clouds. There was beyond the
hacienda gate a world of cloud and gloomy peak and
stars. From this high place it was a matter of some
twenty leagues of trail to Tuxtepec ; they wanted to
arrive there in the twilight, so they started when the
gorgeous forest underneath the clouds was growing
weary for the hours of sleep, the long and painful
hours of day. This mountain path descended rapidly,
the travellers rode in the clouds, and when at last
there came a rift in them so that our comrades could
behold the sky they saw one silver star about to
vanish in a little lake of blue. And for a time the
clouds endeavoured to be grim and blank, to have no
dealings with their foe the sun. But when the
childish fingers of the sun were stretched towards
them how could they resist from offering a store of

1 Francis Latouche, one of the most promising of literary men, was
killed in Paris by a slipping motor-bus in January, 1913. His
' Sonnets Pai'ens ' and his ' Antinoiis 1 will preserve~him in the hearts
of those who know when beauty is a dawn. He was the private
secretary of the well-known critic Henry D. Davray, who has written
of him in the Mercure de France.' Other memoirs have appeared in
French and foreign papers ; I may also be allowed to bring my tribute,
since Latouche had published in the ' Revue Bleue,' only four days
before his death, a rendering of this Mexican sketch. It is a delicate
and exquisite translation.

329

330 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

opalescent toys ? And when they had been slain the
riders could perceive among the tumult of gay vegeta-
tion here and there a bamboo hut, a clearing for tobacco,
and again the giants of the forest with their long,
green nets upon their shoulders, gazing like so many
monstrous fishermen towards the sky. At intervals
the path would disengage itself from all those trees,
would mount an eminence, and you would have before
you the wild garden spreading this way, that way,
and assuredly containing under the fantastic waves
of emerald a lonely town which echoed long since to
the feet of men. There was a shimmering haze above
the garden, and it was the ghostly company of our
dead clouds ; ridge beyond ridge they ran distracted,
up and up towards the sapphire dome, the pitiless,
unshadowed and unseeing dome of heaven.

The forest was asleep : above the tree-tops, pressing
down upon them, was a canopy of sunlight and the
yellow bells of the convolvuli which had laboriously
striven upward to that airy region, for a wind to shake
the music out of them, were silent. Underneath the
tree-tops as the ribbons of the sunshine penetrate
they build a labyrinth, a greenish -golden palace of
uncounted habitations, with the corridors that
have no end and with the dazzling chambers
lost in the recesses of the leafy chambers. Further
down it is a world of magic, since the more
mysterious sunlight mingles with the rising vapours
and still further down in the direction of our friends
the riders even the adventurous sunlight has the
look of one who yearns for sleep ; the greyness
from the jungle's moisture almost overpowers it, and
upon the walls of the dark passages through which
the riders come it scarcely has the strength to paint
the jasmine a dim golden hue, the liquid amber green.

OAXACA'S ROAD OF LIFE AND DEATH 331

From such a tunnel they emerged on to the bank of
the broad Rio Papaloapam, the River of Butterflies ;
they forded it, their feet upon the saddle, for the
cumbrous iron stirrups were submerged. And when
at last they reached the other side they also lay them
down to sleep. A bird which had a sort of human
voice, the solitary creature that appeared to be awake,
sang from the greenish-golden thicket.

And the riders in their sleep observed a fine
procession : first a troop of ragged and unshaven
Spanish cavaliers, their helmets flashing to the sun,
their horses with reproachful eyes the path is
difficult and heavy baskets are suspended from the
saddles, baskets full of golden idols. As the cavaliers
advance they barely look into the jungle, for it is not
long ago since certain ambuscaders had their lesson.
But behind them, with his frock-coat tightly buttoned,
walks the stern and ugly Zapotec, the President of
Mexico, Benito Juarez. He is thinking of the Spanish
Church, and with his stick he slashes at an orchid,
lays it low, and instantly there surges up from the
amazing ground a multitude of red-tongue orchids.
Down the road an ox-cart rumbles, taking back its
sodden inmates from a fair ; one glance below the
awning tells you that they are oblivious to the world,
but near the cart a thinly bearded, agitated person
strides along, declaiming in falsetto how he lost his
money, and the pale brown oxen flap their ears.
Inside another cart are several rotund matrons,
loosely clad in white, exhibiting to one another little
sky-blue spangled slippers which most wonderful to
say their feet can wear, and necklaces of twenty-
dollar golden pieces from beyond the Rio Grande.
While they puff at cigarettes they have their children,
three or four years old, at nurse, and for these latter

332 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

they will vary the monotony by giving them from time
to time a smoke. And older boys, among them not a
few with curly European hair, come three or four upon
each donkey, beating it with boughs of jasmine or
with terrible bejuco canes with which the slaves are
flogged ; these urchins come back laden from the fair
with imitation watches or with cloying sweetmeats
that are generally eaten with their envelope of
newspaper, and some of them have managed to
appropriate a door-mat or a fascinating section of
barbed wire, which they temporarily employ as
necklace ; some of them stalk down the road majestic
in their nakedness and some of these are taking dust-
baths with the scraggy chickens. Afterwards, a
wandering musician, a Chatino, saunters by with his
guitar, as if it were a child, upon his hip ; and he will
sing heroic melodies or ponderous, indecent ones in all
solemnity and those who listen, on their haunches,
will regard him with a solemn gaze. Two nondescript
policemen from a hacienda, with their dusty toes
projecting from their boots and with an armoury of
weapons hanging round them, amble onward in
pursuit of some emancipated labourer, and as they
ride they munch at formidable bars of sugar-cane.
And then a white-clad bride and bridegroom, hand in
hand, pass down the road. If she had wanted to
conceal her charms she would have ridden, doubtless,
in a volan ; but she is so happy, and her children and
her children's children all about her are so numerous,
and two of them have risen to the rank of briefless
barrister and to the glory of a black suit and a black
felt hat. These gentlemen had instigated the belated
ceremony, and they kneel them down (upon their
handkerchiefs) with all the humble members of the
family before a wayside shrine. The two contracting

OAXACA-S ROAD OF LIFE AND DEATH 333

parties had desisted from a marriage less because the
fees were heavy one could have it done for two mere
pesos but because they were haphazard Mexicans.
And presently a miscellaneous crew of forty men
lurch down the road with crimson blankets on their
shoulders, for they are from Mexico's high central
plateau. They are powdered by the glimmering dust,
and yet there seem to be as many dabs of vivid colour
on them as upon the gory Christ, whose absence would
leave such a blank in every church of the Republic.
Brownish white and crimson, they are enganchados
men who bring such muscle as they have into the
south : a verminous and sloping-shouldered, narrow-
chested, skimpily-clothed crew of labourers. They
have engaged themselves to work for half a year on a
tobacco finca, and they laugh to think how during all
that time they will not have to search for either board
or lodging or a woman. Several pesos jingle in their
pockets, and they shout lascivious jokes to Dona
Pancha Robles, who conducts them and who gurgles
at the jokes.

Her voice was that of the peculiar bird which called
the riders out of sleep again. And all the forest was
awakening for the revels of the night. Across the
gliding river one could hear the merry mocking-bird ;
a rustle told one of the birds and insects that were
undertaking once again their functions. And a longer
rustle heralded the coming of Oaxaca's old Arch-
bishop, carried in his chair by four lithe Indians. The
most illustrious Senor Dr. Don Eulogio G. Gillow, the
most jovial semi-Irishman, one of the most successful
planters in the country, is not very much concerned
about the beautiful fa9ade of San Jose in Puebla, for
they grow some of the grandest wheat in that impor-
tant region. He is smiling now because of the reports

334 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

which have been sent him from his agents, and the
lovely beetles of the forest which have lit their lamps
and whirl about his head are not more radiant. And
along the road to Tuxtepec these tiny beings all of
light show to the riders that which otherwise they
would not see ; for now the main road has been joined
by that one from the Valle Nacional, and in the shadow
of the dusky jungle one descries a refugee, a miserable
enganchado, who was put to work at last among the
mountains so that he should fly without demanding
his poor wages. Hollow-eyed and all a-tremble
underneath his crimson blanket, he plods onward to
the town ; and further on a second enganchado lies, a
very helpless mass beneath the branches of a patri-
archal tree. His face is in the shadow, he is dying by
the myriad little lanterns one can see the paper which
he clutches : ' Se da su libertad,' it says, ' a Manuel
Gar da.' He is free ' because he has accomplished with
his work the term of his contracted time in this
plantation. And this paper has been given him so
that he be not stopped upon the road.' He vaguely
moves an arm, because the whirring beetles now
appear to him to be a congress of the vultures. But
the luminous, delightful insects dance around him and
alight upon his matted locks, to chant the marvel of
a breathless beauty there, to stay as if among the
tresses of a forest maiden they were prisoned in a
veil of gauze.

CHAPTER XIV
POETRY IN MEXICO

THE other day, in Mexico, I penetrated to the rather
frigid hall in which the Library, the Biblioteca
National, is housed. Two lines of tables, down the
centre of the room, accommodate the readers, and
behind them, raised on little platforms, are the desks
of the officials, while behind these gentlemen are
sundry giant statues made to represent Descartes and
Saint Paul (in very vivid attitude) and Dante and the
rest of them. Behind these two white rows of giants
are the bookshelves and some books. Unfortunately
I began by running counter to the rules, for one of
those officials limped across and pointed at my hat.
He did not speak a word, and when I pleaded that the
room was very cold, he said, ' Sombrero, 1 which is
' Hat.' He was a puny, wall-eyed Indian. ' But you
would not desire that I should take an illness ?

Nature has denied me ,' and I showed him what is

underneath my hat. However, there was no com-
miseration on his face. ' Then you will be respon-
sible,' said I. ' Sombrero,' said the man. By this
time all the readers eight adults, and two placid boys
who happened to be chewing something all the
readers had their eye on us, and I perceived that this
convention of the hat was generally followed, and the
fact that I was sitting underneath the statue of Saint
Paul had naught to do with it. I took my hat off,

335

336 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

while the lame but satisfied official limped away. I
followed him to ask if he would get me certain books
of poetry. He bore me no ill-will. ' Catdlogo,' said
he. This catalogue is at the entrance of the room,
beneath the Humboldt statue, and I should not care
to know what Humboldt thinks of it. Although it is
extremely small it baffles even those who are in charge,
and my official started at the first page and labori-
ously let his black-nailed finger move down half a
dozen pages. ' Bring me any one of these four poets,'
I observed. ' Then you had better occupy your seat/
quoth he. They do not give you ink or pen or
blotting-pad or paper-knife, and there is nothing
that will serve for a distraction, save a printed notice
which is put in front of every reader. ' Those of the
readers ' so we may translate it ' who are smokers are
entreated to be good enough to make proper use of the
spittoons, so as not to soil the boards and to prevent a
fire which the cigar ends might originate. Equally they
are recommended not to place cigars, once they are
lighted, on the tables.'

Well, at any rate the library was careful of its
treasures, and a functionary at the Foreign Office had
discoursed to me upon this topic, saying very plausibly
that armies and that navies do not demonstrate the
culture of a people ; it appeared to me that he was
anxious to belittle navies, and especially his own,
because forsooth it had transpired that many of the
sailors suffer, when they put to sea, from Nelson's
sorriest frailty, and that a recent storm had brought
the stokers reeling on to deck with exclamations that
the boat would founder since the engines had begun
to roll about. They should have known that this was
not the kind of thing to get the better of their
Scottish engineer, and anyhow the boat was built in

POETRY IN MEXICO 337

Italy. But if the Foreign Office gentleman disparaged
navies, he was, like some others of his colleagues, great
on poetry. ' This demonstrates,' he said, ' our
culture : that we cherish poetry.' And it is not to be
denied that they are adepts in the Foreign Office.
Constantly while I was making my researches into
the Republic's literature I was advised to question
this or that official of the Foreign Office, and I never
went in vain. The functionary I have quoted was
assuring me that Mexico was civilised because of the
attention which she gave her poets, and I wondered
if she really did preserve them, dead or living, so
religiously. ' She slaughtered Covarrubias,' I said.

' But that was on account of politics,' the function-
ary answered. ' No, they did not shoot him dead
because he was a poet." 1

Could it be, then, that this land was so exceptional ?
Did she refuse to have her poets wither, like so many
other poets, in the shade ? I could not instantly
believe it, and I went into the library in order that I
might inquire into the lives of some of Mexico's
regarded poets. As I watched the wall-eyed fellow
toiling at the catalogue a feeling of oppression came
upon me, for it augured very badly that in their
own temple it should be so difficult to find them.

1 Senor Don Miguel Covarrubias, the respected Minister of Mexico
at the Court of St. James, tells me that his cousin the poet, who like-
wise was a medical student, had a death of a peculiarly tragic kind.
He was shot and killed in the course of an affray at Tacubaya, near
the capital, on the llth April, 1859, while he was in the act of
amputating the leg of one of the Conservative officers. General
Leonardo Marquez, known as the " Tiger of Tacubaya " (cf. pp. 64, 65),
and whose career of cruelty was almost unexampled, had command
of the Conservatives. The Liberals (fighting, we are told, for en-
lightenment and freedom from the thraldom of the Church) were
defeated and many of them executed, but in so brutal a manner that
the place was thereafter called La Ciudad de los Mdrtires the city of
the martyrs. The anniversary of this battle is celebrated with great
solemnity.

338 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Surely my acquaintance of the Foreign Office had
exaggerated when he said that here they are not
treated with contempt. It would be an unparalleled
occurrence if the mention of the name of poet did not,
in the vulgar mind, evoke indifference or worse.
The wall-eyed one approached me, mumbling that the
poems of Acuria, one of Mexico's chief writers, were
not in the library. Well, in a guide-book I had read
that Manuel Acuiia's poems were enshrined in every
patriotic heart from El Paso to Yucatan, so that it
was possibly thought futile, with the space so limited,
to have his book inside the library.

' Which,' I asked, ' are his best poems ? '

' Quien sdbe ? '

4 But you must have an opinion,' I persisted. ' It
is Manuel Acuna we are talking of.'

' Look then, I would say,' replied this man, ' that
often they are good and often they are not so good,
and often they are quien sdbe.'

Then, because he had maybe more urgent business,
he abandoned me. I had wanted to read something
of the poet, and in front of me was nothing but these
words : ' Those of the readers who are smokers are
entreated to be good enough to make a proper use of the
spittoons' . . . However, it was not long ere another
of the library's officials, one of higher standing, came
to have some conversation with me. Don Jacinto
had resemblance to the poet of the picture-book : his
shirt was ragged and it had been blue ; his haughty
face was furnished with a Vandyck beard and he was
passing dirty. But he leaned upon my desk and
hearing that I was in search of poetry he did not
hesitate to utter one of his unpublished works. The
sound of it was quite sonorous and he undertook to
give it me in writing. As he did not do so I have not

Mexico the Land of Unrest.

The Alameda, Mexico's beautiful park, in February, 1913.

POETRY IN MEXICO

seen able to translate it. On the subject of Acuna he
lid not desire to speak ; he told me that it would be
ivell to go back to the Foreign Office. But I hasten
:o inform the lofty Mexican officials who will read
;hese lines that all the subsequent long talks on
iterature I celebrated with the functionary were
macted in the Alameda or some other place, and out
)f office hours.

On a December evening when our feet made music
n the Alameda's fallen leaves, and when the wind was
oiling through the eucalyptus and the yellow ash
rees, it was natural that we should talk of Manuel
\.cuna. In December, 1873, on such an evening, he
s walking with his dear friend, Juan de Dios Peza,
ind the book which they were reading was Hugo's

Les feuilles d'automne.' Presently Acuna picked
i leaf up from the ground to serve them as a book-
nark, and he saw that it was one which had been
hrown down by the wind before its time. He was
3reoccupied, but not, apparently, more sad than
isual when in the street of Santa Isabel he left his
riend. ' To-morrow come at one o'clock,' he said ;

come punctually.' ' If I should be a little late ? '

Then,' said Acuna, ' I shall go and shall not see you.'
?eza asked him whither he was going. ' I am going on
i journey,' he replied ; ' . . . yes ... a journey

. . you will know about it later.' And the words
'ell on the soul of Peza as if they were drops of fire.
\.cuna left him and he stayed for some time in the
street, well knowing that a chronic ailment of the poet
night be near its crisis. And he went back very sadly
;o the Alameda, which is now a pleasure-ground
ind was the place in which the Inquisition used to
rn its victims. As for Manuel Acuna, he did not go
;o his chambers in the School of Medicine till it was

340 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

late. He tore up and burned many papers. On the
next day he put all his room in order, and it is a
curious coincidence that Juan Covarrubias, the poet
who was shot at Tacubaya, had inhabited this very
room which in the Inquisition days had been a cell,
the present School of Medicine having been erected
for the Holy Office. We may quote a stanza from
Acuna's poem on his predecessor :

Where earth provides a meagre hole
Your venerated shadow dwells
And, weary of its ancient spells,
The broken harp that is your soul.
No longer do the strings unroll
A song to love or fatherland,
But now your cenotaph is fanned
By wailing winds and by the long
Swell of the greatest in your song :
Those silences which understand.

It was the last day of Acuna's life. He went out
to the bath. At twelve o'clock he came back to his
room and with a firm hand wrote these words : ' The
least important matter is to enter into details of my
death ; but it is nobody's concern, I think. Sufficient
if I make it known that I am culpable and no one
else.' He went into the corridors, conversing casually
with his friends. And Peza reached the place some
minutes after one ; a comrade had delayed him at
the door. He found Acufia lying on his bed, as if
asleep, a lighted candle near him. He had taken
poison. Vainly did the doctors try to bring him back
to life, but when he lay in state and the enormous
crowd was paying homage he appeared to weep, and
this may have been due to the embalming or the
tightness of his shroud. He always wept for the
unfortunate, as we may see from 4 La Ramera '
[' The Prostitute '], a poem that begins in this way :

POETRY IN MEXICO 341

O, pigmy race of man,

You that proclaim the truth and Jesus Christ,

With many lies, pretending charity ;

You that have got your heart inflamed with pride,

Gaze up, ah ! gaze away

From what is underneath your feet :

You that say tender words,

And spit upon the gipsy and the beggar,

And because one is a beggar, one a gipsy ;

Look, there is that woman who is grieving, groaning,

For she has the burden of the women

Who march on through life, march on through darkness

Spit there, too. . . .

Beside Acuna's grave one of the chief orators was
Justo Sierra, whom the dead man loved profoundly.
Sierra's verses were indifferent, but he was full of
humour always, laughing at the verses and himself.
He and Acuria had been wont to look into the distant
days. ' What will the world be doing,' sang Acuna,
' with my dreams ? ' [Que hard este mundo de los
suenos mlos ?} Sierra's dreams, so far as they were
printed, we shall not repeat, for they were bad, and
probably the reason why the President promoted
him to be the Minister of Public Instruction was to
ascertain whether a bad poet would make a good
Minister. The experiment was interesting, and one
hoped that Don Porfirio was not discouraged.

Over Manuel Acuna's corpse they uttered words
that should not be allowed to die : ' The brain of
light, the heart of fire.' . . . ' It is no common mourn-
ing,' said another, ' but humanity's despairing cry at
having lost a great apostle.' It was not alone among
the literary men such as the club which he had
founded, the Netzahualcoyotl that his merits were
acclaimed. All men who loved a song in Mexico vied
with each other, so it seemed, in loving Manuel Acuna ;
and Saltillo where he had been born, Saltillo the chief
town of the inhospitable northern State of Coahuila,

342 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

built a theatre and called it after him. They have a
splendid way of doing honour to a man in Mexico.
No decorations are suspended round his neck, for it
is thought to be undemocratic to have decorations.
(True, they are willing to accept these things from
foreign countries, but they do so, I presume, out of
politeness.) What prevails is, either in the lifetime
of the patriot or afterwards, to add his name to that
of any State or town which may be thought appro-
priate. Thus, in official documents, Campeche is
entitled Campeche de Baranda after a distinguished
magnate of that name, and if the person to be hon-
oured was, in the opinion of his countrymen, a factor
necessary to the building of what some of them
believe is a Republic, then his name is given pure and
simple to a State, such as Hidalgo. They did not
add ' de Acufia ' to Saltillo or to Coahuila, but they
built his monument, the theatre, in the form of a lyre.
... So much of reverence and admiration were his
lot that scarcely any favourable attribute could be
imagined but was fastened to his chariot. And one
really cannot blame the critics if in their exasperation
they allowed themselves to imitate the injudicious
worshippers, if they rushed to the opposite extreme,
if when they saw that everything was claimed for
him they did not, as calm Anglo-Saxon critics do,
permit the poet to remain in undisturbed possession
of his real merits. Not that in the end it matters, as
there are at least two ways of annexing an island : one
of them is to annex an island and another way is to
seize an archipelago and be content to lose it all
except one island. If all sublimity did not belong to
Manuel Acuna, if at times he was of the materialists,
yet we may not describe him as a hope-forsaken poet.
He had something of the sublime, something of the

POETRY IN MEXICO 343

material, and more of hope than many of us. In his
poem ' Esperanza ' [' Hope '] these lines occur :

It is the hour when you should fain

Make for the blue with haughty wing ;
It is the hour for you to live again ;

It is the hour for you to sing.
Oh, take your torches that are cold,

Renew their pallid flame, set them above
Your altar and unlock the temple's gate

For one who stands there in the name of love.

Depose, aye fling aside the load
Of tears, the bitter fruitless dew,

And in the gladness slanting from the sky,
There in the light of solace, your abode,

Salute the future that awakens you.
Now stand up confident beneath the sky,
No longer in the gloomy places grope ;
Bid the supreme farewell to sorrow's state
And once again with garlands decorate
The ruins of the altar of your hope.

Let suns invade your Night,

Your face let smiles begem
Whereof the angels have had ne'er a sight

Since from the cradle you did talk to them.

Perhaps the truth about him but how can we
select a better critic than a Latin-American of Saxon
or of Celtic origin, Seiior MacDonall ? ' If in the search
for truth his spirit sometimes doubted,' says Mac-
Donall, ' he was ready always to face the world with a
noble, loving and compassionate heart. He was a
poet of the heart, wounded by memories of childhood.
His images are novel, and his thought audacious ; from
the suave he leaps to the satiric, from the beautiful
to the jocose. And as in his ideas he is advanced, so
in the form he gives to them is he courageous.' He
has been held up, in fact, to odium because he does
not see to it that the caesura is invariably where the
metre wants it. He was as impatient of restraint as
was Lassalle, whom in appearance, with the lofty

344 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

brow, the pioneer's undaunted aspect, he resembled.
He was ever burning to inquire the cause of things,
he pulled up by the roots those artificial flowers of
pietists, he doubted. Here is one of the short poems
of the series called ' Dry Leaves ' :

It is your wish that I believe.

Ah, what else would you have me do ?
When I behold you then I cleave

To God, for I believe in you.

But if he doubted it is very far from true to say
that he despised what other men believe in and respect.
He knows that if a people have no education they
do not deserve their freedom, they cannot be free.
He venerates the teacher, while he utters words of
exhortation for the pupil. Many of his songs are
consecrated to the family, the home, to recollections
of early childhood. Thus in 'Lagrimas' ['Tears'],
which he wrote in memory of his father, we may take
these lines :

You fell . . . the parchments of the night

I cannot read ;

And in the tomb, your dwelling-place,

I know not whether love can dwell . . .

I know not if the dead

Can stretch their hands towards the sun ;

But in the gloomy coil

Of serpents prisoning my heart

I know that somewhere is a little flame

That stretches out for you and lives for you . . .

I know that of all names the sweetest name

Is that I call you by,

And you you are the god whom I adore,

In the religion of my memory.

The Foreign Office functionary and myself were
walking up and down the Alameda ; but the evening
had faded quickly into night, as it is wont to do in
Mexico, and where the fallen leaves had been red,
brown and yellow, they were black. ' And do you

POETRY IN MEXICO 345

think,' I asked, ' that Manuel Aeufia is remembered
still ? '

The functionary turned his head and through the
darkness stared at me.

It was twenty-eight years from the poet's death,
and his old mother in Saltillo was about to die. The
theatre called after him had been destroyed by fire,
and she had lived to see another one erected in its
place, beside a plaza where the trees are thickly
crowded, and you positively have to shout, so gorgeous
is the singing of the birds. This other house was not
called after Manuel but after the proprietor, who
takes his ease at sunset just outside the theatre and
listens to the birds.

' I am very sad to hear it,' said the functionary.

But this naming of the theatre was settled by the
townsfolk. Many of them voted for Acuna and a large
number for the other man.

My functionary threw his hand out. ' Be so kind
as to reflect,' said he. ' Saltillo does not own our poet.
And have you forgotten what he says about the
gipsy and the beggar, whom so many people spit on ?
That is how the miserable place Saltillo treats her
poet. What does it matter ? '

And I had not forgotten the library, the Biblioteca
National, from which the poet's works were absent,
and if no attention was paid to him a great deal was
paid to the people who spit.

' We have some other parts of Mexico,' said my
companion, ' which do greater honour to the great.
The Territory of Quintana Roo, for instance, whom
is it called after but Don Andres ? '

' Who was a statesman. Every child knows that
he fought against the Spaniards from his chair ; that
he presided at the Congress of Chilpancingo, where the

346 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

country's independence was declared ; that he became
a deputy, a senator, a diplomat and president of the
Court of Justice. He did all that for the nation.'

4 Very well, and he wrote poems. Of course,' said
the functionary, in a tone of voice which made me
listen ; ' they were not native poems such as the
General Riva Palacio recommends. You know the
General was a good writer, and once, when he was
satirising a friend of his, he said that our poets ever
speak of nightingales and larks, gazelles and hyacinths
without venturing to give place in their doleful ditties
to the cuitlacoche, nor to the zentzontl, nor to the
cocomitl, nor to the yoloxochitl. The poems of Quintana
Roo are classic. Have you never seen his portrait ? '

4 1 would sooner see his poems.'

4 He was like an old Norwegian farmer, stern and
steadfast, only that there was a mocking laugh about
his lips. And of the poems which he wrote I think
the best one is the 4 Diez y seis de Septiembre.' 1
Even in a translation '

And this is what I make of some of it :

' Of what avail that in Dolores he,

' The unloyal shepherd, gave himself to shout,

( Forsooth, for freedom, and the surging rout

' Of idiots echoed him so tediously ?

' The valour of his ignorance,

f The sacrilegious valour, stood

' Aghast, as it were turned to wood,

' At seeing sunlight on our lance.

' The worthless horde

' Delivered up their necks to the avenging sword.

' As when the rainy Pleiads leap

' From out the bosom of the sky,

( As when the waves are driven high

' Which other winds have rocked to sleep,

1 The sixteenth of September, on which day in 1810 the revolu-
tionary army started from the village of Dolores under the command
of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the parish priest.

POETRY IN MEXICO 347

' So do the remnants of the crowd

' That were full venturous recoil,

f And if our indignation boil,

' And if our voice be loud,

' They recollect the awe

' Of Amerigo when such loveliness he saw.

' Oh, that sedition's lip to-day

' Should open for the wheedling word,

' This liberty that is absurd

' In spite of its new-fangled way !

' Down from the gallows tree

' It shall be hurried to the indifferent grave,

( A warning there to be

f For such as would rebellion wave,

f Aye, wave at the domain

' Whose building was the work of old, unconquerable Spain.'

So fiercely did the vandals cry
When that our hero, the august,
Was brought by fortune to the dust.

Father of love, O sing what thou hast wrought

And which of all thy toil was the sublime,

Singing of liberty, so shalt thou climb

Into the spaces where death is naught

Dost thou not see the world

Mourning the loss of thee,

Under the banner hurled

Of those who madly

Destroying thee came

And come now with honours for thy sweet name ?

' So,' said my friend, ' he had an elevated style,
you see. He was a good example.'

And perhaps that is why they gave his name to
the territory. Judging from the works that were
produced when he was living, his example was
essential to the welfare of the country. Not to
mention more than one of these, we may pick some-
thing from the pen of Jose M. Moreno y Buenvecino,
who composed his fdbulas with the object of
censuring feminine defects and to give advice to
women. He also wrote invective against the bad
poets, etc. At Puebla, in 1823, he published his

348 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

' America Mexicana libre,' an allegoric drama in two
acts, and in verse. The characters are five in number,
viz. America, Victory, Echavarri and Moran (Mexican
generals), and Despotism. There is a chorus of ladies
and soldiers.

But it is deplorable that patriotic verse should
sometimes be so bad. All writing cannot always be
spontaneous, yet surely Pegasus should not be
whipped when he is on a patriotic errand. How was
Guillermo Prieto to continue for a matter of eight
hundred pages and be unfatigued ? The heroes of the
Independence called to him, as they were lying in
neglect, but he was nearly seventy years of age.
Hidalgo and Morelos and their comrades had been
sung, indeed, while yet the noble blood was racing
through their veins, but all the songs were rude, rough
numbers, chiefly written by the lower clergy, and it is
now many years since even in the mountains of
Guerrero, the last refuge, they were lost. As for the
higher clergy, they in common with the merchants
leaned to Spain, and we who look at their activities
can hardly think that they were instruments of the
Supreme Wisdom. Nobody knows more than we do
that it is a facile business to be judging people after
the event, but had we flourished at the time we
surely would have asked the merchants if it was
advisable to fight for union with a country which
prevented them from trading with all other countries ;
temerarious as it may sound, we hope we should
have asked the higher clergy if in their opinion it was
prudent to have no restraint upon the Inquisition :
that enthusiastic body charged Hidalgo with com-
mitting every crime it knew of such as sorcery,
seduction and polygamy. . . . So, too, the move-
ment which took place in 1821 was not unanimous

POETRY IN MEXICO 349

enough for epic poetry ; more ink indeed was spent
than blood, but both of them were doled out by the
aristocracy. There was, among the leaders of this
second movement, little tenderness for the surviving
champions of the first revolt. Quintana Roo was
persecuted and Guerrero killed, and poets would have
found it perilous to celebrate the days of 1810. And
thus it was until the coming of the Emperor, who
commonly is charged with having been a pampered
person, one who did not know and did not wish to
know the people's heart. In September, 1864, he
solemnised the grito, that is to say the war-cry, of the
patriot Hidalgo from the very window in Dolores, just
as now the President of the Republic celebrates it
annually from a window of the National Palace.
In 1865 the Emperor put up a statue to Morelos, it
being his centenary, and he himself delivered the
oration. But unluckily the poets still refused to sing ;
they said that they could not forget how cruel and
how impious had been the pioneers. 1 If such a stan-
dard, though, had been erected by all other poets we
should be the poorer far. Achilles dragging Hector
three times round the walls of Troy assuredly was
impious, and Camoens did not think that he could
reasonably be requested not to write the ' Lusiad '
because there was some cruelty about the glorious
achievements of Vasco da Gama. This hero's
expedition was unpopular in Portugal, as were the
actions of Hidalgo and his comrades in the Mexico of
Maximilian, and I do not put in a claim that the com-
manders should be quite exonerated from the odium
attaching to the Guanajuato slaughter for example,

1 This is very much the attitude of modern Mexicans to Cortes and
his comrades, who are far less popular than the deceived, humiliated,
tortured natives.

350 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

when 247 defenceless Spaniards were assassinated as
the leaders of an army are not slow to take the credit
for some gallantry their nameless followers accom-
plish, and they cannot have it both ways. In 1865
Hidalgo was regarded by the poets as unclean ; in
1885 Prieto wrote the ' Romancero Nacional,' and
nowadays thanks partly to Prieto, partly to the
Latin- Americanism which will either travel all the way
or stop at home Hidalgo is regarded nowadays as
something near to the divine. Guillermo Prieto has been
called the laureate of Mexico, and not because he was
the greatest poet but the most national. His ' Musa
Callejera' ['Curbstone Idylls'] has preserved for us
the picturesque and lurid types of yesterday. In prose
or verse Prieto was voluminous, and after toying with
a playful fancy he would write upon finance. But
being old he turned aside his steps from both these
charming groves, and lived laborious days in order to
produce that which a brotherhood of burning poets
should have given to their country, a collection of
eight hundred pages of patriotic verse. All honour
to the man, who with his white hair and his lofty brows,
his eyes that looked so keenly through the spectacles,
would have presented the appearance of a German
savant if the lips had been less bulky. Pushing out
between the small beard and the cavalry moustache,
they lent the lower portion of the face a sensual
aspect, while the upper part expressed intelligence,
and over both of them there was a veil of suffering.
Eight hundred pages ! and the first and second
poem seem to promise that he will not lack in vigour,
since he starts by telling Bonaparte that he is full
of infamy and guile, proceeding to address him as
' aborto del inferno.' It is rather impious and cruel if
we quote a weaker passage in the old man's volume,

-o"g

s 8.

POETRY IN MEXICO 351

one of those when he was palpably fatigued. So let
us have it done as soon as may be and translate some
lines out of the ' Second Romance of San Miguel the
Great ' :

Then Hidalgo on arrival
Put up in Landeta's dwelling,
Ordered them to seize Isasi,
As for Barrio to seize him.
In the streets the military
Give themselves to creature comforts,
And Hidalgo, not maintaining
Order, is charged with imprudence.
But some argue that with order
You do not make revolutions.
Some are anxious to have fighting,
But with precepts and a compass ;
Others think that it is easy
To command a raging tempest.
All of us are good at hissing,
Very few will face a bull.

The pity of it that when Prieto's pen was working thus
he did not happen to be occupied upon a dissertation
in finance. But there are many pages of the patriotic
volume that reveal the poet. Here, for instance, is a
passage from the ' First Romance of Guanajuato ' :

Darksome labyrinths and caverns,
Mountains tops and viewless valleys,
Such are Guanajuato's streets.
And the houses are suspended
In the sky, there is no passage
Forward, backward ; only two ways
Can you travel : up hill, down hill.
Going up hill you must clamber,
Going down the city curving,
Winding, is like such a person
Who is ever undecided
Whence to gaze upon a picture.

Anyone who has seen Guanajuato will acknowledge
that this is an excellent description. But before we
take our leave of the old singer of the glories and the
hopes of Mexico, the popular and fertile poet, we must

352 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

give as best we can some lines out of an ode of his
that were recited at a blind school at the distribution
of the prizes. Dealing with a man who wrote so
much, and who could sometimes be so flat as when
(resembling a notorious line of Wordsworth) he pro-
duced his

Don Jog ^ de Bustamante ^

we shall be more worthy of the name of critic if, as
with the English poet, we refuse to look at a con-
siderable portion of his work. If these two minstrels
in their long, productive lives came out into the public
air at times quite heedless of their singing robes, we
have, it seems to me, the right to call them both
ridiculous if we do not cut a ridiculous appearance
with a robe like theirs upon our shoulder. We who
cannot build an ark should have the decency to turn
aside from Noah's nakedness. When Guillermo
Prieto spoke in plazas or upon a hill they listened to
him always with attention, and it is unlikely that he
ever had an audience more grateful than was that to
whom he spoke these lines :

Ye orphans of the light, raise up your heads.

O that a sun may dawn in your unending night !

Behold the darkness that is furled

Ahout you and that seems to cling

To you and to divide you from the world !

It is a veil that angels bring,

With solemn mystery,

To guard and keep you free

From earth, to keep you close to heaven where you belong.

Dark is the void

Wherein the orders of the Eternal roll,

And wisdom august, unalloyed,

Even as the sun illuminates the soul.

Like to the kisses of the dew
That sparkle on the lips of you,
Such is the light. A delicate melody,
The song of children or a dirge,
They speak of what shall always be
And make the breast of lovers surge

POETRY IN MEXICO 353

With infinite content-
Such is the light. As of a wandering scent
The mild caress,
Or as a dove's long lullaby
That is to lovers all the tenderness,
As there will reach into your stormy soul
A rumour of the waves in play,
Such is the light . . . and those who walk the way
Of man but in a darker gloom
Shall see more clearly from their tomb
The light of everlasting day. . . .

We have spoken of Prieto in connection with an
English poet. His biographer, Altamirano, meditating
on the fact that literature did not have to be born in
Mexico when she achieved her independence, as the
art of what they called New Spain was subject all
through the colonial period to conditions not so
different from those prevailing in the motherland, to
drive his point well home Altamirano says that the
essentially American verse of Longfellow does not
differ from Chaucer and Shelley. But although I see
it stated that some people have exceeded this Guerrero
Indian in erudition, he surpassed them all in the
ability to hand on his acquirements to his pupils. He
was an extraordinary man, who, till the age of fourteen,
had no Spanish. Of the humblest origin, he ranged
the woods of Tixtla, stoning birds and fighting with
the species he belonged to. This was not considered to
include the Spanish boys, los de razon or seres de
razon [reasonable beings], whereas he was one of the
genie intratable [intractable folk]. And in the school
to which he went at last, the Spanish and the native
boys were separated and were given different instruc-
tion. He was made acquainted with the catechism
and with reading, which is more than many of his
countrymen are taught to-day, but notwithstanding
is inadequate. He had to thank his father for per-

2 A

354 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

mission to be educated with the reasonable beings,
for his father rose to be alcalde and the schoolmaster
was bubbling over with congratulations and was in
the mood for granting this or any other favour.
Presently a law was passed which summoned Indian
boys of application and ability to have their education
finished at Toluca in the Literary Institute. He went
in 1849, took many prizes and became librarian, began
to write in prose and verse, and was ejected, with some
others, on account of being Liberal in politics. He
found a refuge in a private college at Toluca, where
he gave French lessons in return for roof and board.
And after this began a life of wandering, full of
vicissitudes ; now he would charge himself with teach-
ing village louts, to-morrow he would be a dramatist
(presenting on a small, provincial stage for one
performance his c Morelos en Cuautla ' ; in response
to the applause he thrust his head an ugly head at
best out of the prompter's box), and then retiring
to the mountains he was lost in love's first (and
unhappy) dream. He was secretary to Don Juan
Alvarez, that venerable firebrand, most immaculate
of Liberals ; and then he came to Mexico, the capital,
where, in the college of Letran, he set himself to legal
studies. This was in 1857, and his rooms became the
office of a newspaper, of a reforming club and of a
literary group. He used to listen in the Congress
while they made the Constitution ; as he listened he
would suffer all the gamut of despair and hope. And
all this for the present Constitution, which is studied,
I presume, by students of the history of Mexico. Our
indefatigable friend had time to write ' The Bandits of
the Cross,' in Alexandrines, and to improvise with
Manuel Mateos, on a fountain's rim, tremendous
verse against the Government. He took himself off

POETRY IN MEXICO

355

to Guerrero when the war broke out, and in ' El Eco
de la Reforma ' fought the clergy with his pen, while
with the sword he was engaged in several successful
actions. He was made, for his disinterested services,
a deputy, and in a celebrated speech stood up against
the amnesty. This wild-haired orator, a man of
;wenty-seven years, seemed terrible and menacing.
He cried in a storm of passion for the punishment of
wo of the enemy, ' whose skulls should now be white
pon their staff.' About this time he wrote ' Las
apolas ' ['The Poppies'], wherein a youth gives
uch a charming picture of the scenery that she who
istens to him merely answers with a smile :

All the world is sighing, sighing,

It is in a languid case,
Drowsily the world is lying,
Bird and wave and wind are dying

In the desolated place.

Now the butterflies do keep

To the river-bank, their bed ;
Roses fold themselves in sleep,
While the shadows love to creep

Round each rosy, hanging head.

Now the floripondios fainting

Beg the mango trees for shade,
But the cruel sun is tainting
Green woods with her yellow painting,

Woods of lime and myrtle made.

See, the poppies are so white

From the poniards of the sun,
Yet they will be clothed in light,
They bathe where crystals taking flight,

Across the sleepy waters run.

he boy who speaks these words and she who listens
themselves among the palms and come out as
te day is fading :

356 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

All in the tranquil eve
Returns again to life ;
Amid the merry noises
Of the south wind rushing past
One hears harmonious music
Of the waves that rise and fall.

' I am a son of the mountains of the south and I
descend,' the poet cried his audience of deputies was
trembling ' I descend from those old men of iron
who preferred to live on roots and dwell amid the
savage animals than to incline their brow before the
tyrants. ... I have not come here to bargain with
reactionaries or to grow more mild amid the softness
of the capital.' His fame was in all people's mouth.
This Danton of America was banished, since his fiery
eloquence proved too exciting for the citizens. He
took part, as a colonel, in the War of Intervention.
Thus he gained a victory in 1866 at Tierra Blanca,
when he took a convoy and three hundred prisoners.
A few days later he inflicted a defeat upon Carranza,
the imperialist. He won much glory, so they tell us,
at Quere*taro in 1867, and he was hailed in the
dispatches as a hero. When the war was over he
established, with his pay, a newspaper, ' El Correo de
Mexico,' and subsequently about five other papers.
He was president of the Supreme Court of Justice, he
organised the ' Normal School,' at which he worked
so hard that he contracted his last illness. As ifc
settled down upon him he withdrew from his activities
and took the post of Consul- General at Barcelona.
When he came before a great assemblage of the poets
and the writers, taking leave of them he was so
deeply moved that ' Here,' he said, ' here is an orato
you have exalted, one who cannot speak.' But
could sing :

POETRY IN MEXICO 357

Ten years ago, when that I bade farewell

To you, my mother, I was but a child,

And now my sorrows are beguiled
By dreaming how your kisses fell

They were the music of the dew,

They were the singing soul of you.

Upon my knees I fling me forward and
From here I worship the delightful land,

The lofty palm, the manglar's gorgeous dome,
The birds that sing me and the flowers awake,

The cataracts of careless foam

Which on the river's bosom break,

And the magic-scented breeze

That wanders from the shadow of your trees.
Now, very soon, my mother, I shall be

With you on that dark hill, if God desire.

And near the Cross we love I shall aspire
To pray, as once, in sweet humility.

I shall forget the fury of my dreams,

And one by one there will be the trooping back
My childish fancies and how near it seems,

The little house by yon remembered track !
Then with my head upon your shoulder, love,

I shall disclose to you the broken day,
My weary waiting you will watch above,

My tears will be bright bubbles for your play.
Then my grey doubts, my fearing will depart,

The relics of the sorrowed life I bore
Oh, that I were beside you, gentle heart,

Unhappy woman woman I adore.

He stayed for several months in Barcelona and was
ill, so that he was removed to Paris. He was ailing
constantly and ailing on account of all the miles of
land and water which divided him from his beloved
Guerrero. When he died, in February, 1893, he left
instructions that his body should be burned, as
was the custom of his Aztec ancestors. He left his
poems to the manglars of Guerrero and the careless
cataracts, so that it is not needful for them to be in
the Library.

358 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST
TWO POEMS BY EL DUQUE JOB 1

I
THE OCEAN DWELLERS

Now nearer and nearer
And swift is he coming !
With chains of wet coral,
Red coral about him
Now comes the beloved,
Ah, now comes the poet
To his own dominion
For ever and ever.
Has he not bestowed on us
Riches uncountable ?
Breathe it him, sing it him,
Beautiful dreams !
That here the dim ocean
Is full of his poems,
A shell is each volume,
Each poem a pearl.

II
FOR THAT DAY

O take me, death, when falls the sun

At sea, my face turned to the sky,
Where the last weakness is undone

My soul a bird which now at last may fly.

To be alone with sky and sea,

Nor have to listen at the last
To lamentations, let there be

No bell save what the breakers cast.

To die when fading dusk retires

Her nets of gold from the green wave,

Be like the sun, whose grandest fires
Advance as heralds of the grave.

To die before the mob of years

Rebel against my rosy crown,
When life is laughing and her tears

Laugh as the dew which trembles down.

1 [Translated from the lines of Manuel Gutierrez Najera, a Mexican
poet who wrote in the latter half of the nineteenth century, under the
pseudonym El Duque Job.]

CHAPTER XV
TO CHILPANCINGO

THE two Americans, from Arizona and from God
knows where, had told me that it was delightful to go
camping out among the pine woods of Guerrero. It
was not so much with eloquence that they succeeded
in convincing me, for he that came from Arizona's
desert let me call him Westall was a man who on
his own confession was addicted to geology. He said
that there was nothing in the world so interesting as
the world's formation. This, I understood, was not
why he was going to the wild State of Guerrero ; he
was Petleigh's friend. This Petleigh was a flagrant
company promoter, and his company was going to
flourish in Guerrero, where the lumber operations, etc.
etc. ... He was like to a prospectus in his language, and
he frequently alluded to the wonderful resources.
While he did so he would fix me with his cold, blue
eyes as if he scented in me something hostile, and,
indeed, the way in which he put his accent on the
word ' resources ' was enough to give one goose-flesh.
In Guerrero, so he said, were forests of enormous oak
and pine. He showed me photographs, and I believed
that they were taken in Guerrero. I believe it still.
. . . And so we started on the expedition. Our
supplies had gone by railway to Iguala. What they
were I knew not ; in the capital a good American had

359

360 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

sold me a serape, woven beautifully by the natives
and impregnable to rain. Moreover, I had bought a
certain kind of soap which you require I hate to have
to say it if you should accept the hospitality of
Indian huts. At times, on other expeditions, I have
reached a house of branches or a house of mud as night
was falling and the natives would not let us sleep
except upon their private beds they gave us all they
had. . . . We started on this expedition, which
involves a railway journey of the most magnificent.
No sooner out of Mexico than the ascent begins, and
we are winding upward to the valley's southern
barrier. We pass Chapultepec, where the cadets in
1847 are said to have behaved like heroes in with-
standing the Americans. And they are honoured in
September, every year, when President and Cabinet
and diplomats and green-sashed generals and sombre
deputies and other folk assemble in the grove.
They are addressed by barristers the art of oratory
contains no secrets for the gentleman whom I was
privileged to hear and afterwards a hatless lady
speaks with fervour and a young cadet with his
becoming nervousness, and then a Spanish poet
dropped his eye-glass and declaimed an ode, which
very shrewdly ended with allusions to Pelayo and to
Covadonga, so that he was thunderously applauded.
Then a choir of girls sang patriotic lines which they
repeated twice at least, and then another poet
climbed into the tribune. He was frail, a school-
master from Puebla, and his poetry was exquisite.
Whenever it assumed a tinge of rhetoric the deputies
would elbow one another and exclaim in ecstasy.
And I was wondering how Diaz could have all this
patience ; many, many times he must have listened
to the selfsame sentiments, and yet he sat there like

TO CHILPANCINGO 361

an aged lion. Then I did not know how deaf he was.
It is a tax on all of them except upon the poets, who
are not supposed to be original. So long as they say
pretty things of youth, things that were old when
Homer wrote, so long as they work in a metaphor
about a river Mexico, save in Tabasco, is some-
what destitute of rivers and so long as they
reiterate the word ' sublime,' it will go well with
them. Of course, they must not criticise the
heroes. Petleigh said that many of them lost their
lives by falling from the rocks in their desire
to leave Chapultepec. But he was prejudiced, no
doubt. I have alluded to the part which poetry is
made to play in Mexico. And it is not alone at such
brave anniversaries. But when, as not unfrequently
occurs, a statue of Benito Juarez is unveiled, there,
sure enough, is the gesticulating poet, telling lies
about the fine old Indian. When the House of
Congress was equipped with a foundation-stone the
ceremony was so long drawn out, so futile surely
not an omen everyone who somehow had secured
admittance was requested to append his signature to
certain rolls of parchment which were subsequently
sealed up in the stone, and for a Mexican to write his
signature is no such easy business, seeing that a
complicated flourish is essential. Maybe when a larger
number of the population have acquired the art of
writing they will not make so much fuss about it.
We were getting bored, I say, on that uncomfortable,
lofty platform, when at last a poet came upon the
scene and gave his version of the beauties of a House
of Congress. He perspired extremely, but was not
applauded. And before the trouble with the signing
we had had our ears divinely tickled we had been
tickled, the Americans would say, to death by one

362 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

of Mexico's fine orators. His periods could certainly
not reach the native workmen, presumably the
builders of the House, who stood far underneath us
on the ground, and in another sense his words were
much above them ; but they clapped their hands.
Whenever we applauded on the platform there was
this pathetic rumble of applause below.

1 The forests of Guerrero,' Petleigh said, ' are
wonderful, and we have got enormous tracts of land.
I'll tell you how we get it. There is someone who
discovers that a man owes such and such a sum for
taxes. He is pressed to pay immediately. He cannot
and we offer him that sum, with an additional amount,
for all his property. When they are down,' said Petleigh,
' it is not an easy matter for them to arise.' * There's
nothing that succeeds,' he told me, ' like success.'

I mentioned how the orator was deeply gratified
by the applause from those poor workmen ; how, in
fact, he finished up his peroration with a reference to
what the proletariat were going to do. They had, as
he quite truthfully observed, not taken hitherto what
you might call a part in politics ; and this was no
injustice ; they had not displayed an interest which
you might call intelligent. But standing here, upon
the future House of Congress, he had listened with
emotion to the spirit of a people waking up. And
when the House was built they would be ready too.
Then some of us upon the platform cheered, and from
the ground a cheer ascended.

' I like Chapultepec for one thing,' Petleigh said ;
4 it has some splendid trees. Of course, it isn't what
you will be seeing in Guerrero, but I like Chapultepec.'

In case the reader has these sentiments, he may
forgive me if I keep him there another moment, to
relate a grief which in the minds of many spoiled that

TO CHILPANCINGO 363

special hero-function I have mentioned. He who
should have read the leading poem was no less than
Ruben Dario, the delegate from Nicaragua, and held
to be the greatest living poet 1 of Latin- America. He
dwells in Paris. When he sailed for Mexico all
promised well, but soon the President who had
appointed him a President whom the United States
held in aversion fell, and his credentials as a delegate
for the centenary were useless. It was thought that
he would come to Mexico as if he were an ordinary
citizen, and there was formed a club, the Ruben Dario
Society, which issued proclamations and arrayed
itself in the attire of mediaeval Spanish students.
When the train from Veracruz was nearly due, the
club drove to the station in a bunch of taxi-cabs, but
Ruben Dario did not arrive. He went up to the
chief town of the State of Veracruz, Jalapa, where
he lingered in the sun-bathed cloisters and he issued
proclamations also. In a little time he left the country
saying that he would betake himself to the United
States. I have been told that in his poems he is up
against the States, but in so far as I have read him
he confines himself to beauty.

There is one thing to be said for these digressions,
since they give a rough idea of the rapidity with which
the trains proceed in Mexico. The scenery is often
very grand, and in these parts it is not only most
desirable, it is most requisite, that there should be a
limit to the speed, as you acknowledge when you see
the locomotive though the train is of the shortest and
you do not lean out of the window. Sometimes in the
course of, say, ten miles one has to mount three
thousand feet.

1 He is one of the greatest lyric writers of all time in the Spanish
language. A band of disciples, which he discourages, has joined
itself to him. A revolutionary, in ten years he transformed Spanish
poetry. His grace, suppleness and learned complexity are unequalled.

364 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

AND sometimes it will happen that the train divides
itself in two and has to be united with a rope. But they
are well prepared : ' Three long whistles is the signal,'
say the regulations [Section I, Article 89], ' that the
train has divided itself, and this signal will have to be
repeated till the flag or lantern answers it.' That
whistling is, it seems to me, a fair example of the
adage that to know is to forgive. Through many
nights I would have furiously raged, I'm sure, if,
lying on a hard, hygienic bed of Mexico, I had
been forced to hear the varied language of the
locomotives and remain in ignorance of what they
meant. It made my joy to count the number and
the length of all the whistlings, for I knew when-
ever we had some of them in quick succession
that a person or an animal should be upon the
track ; and four long whistles served to call the
guard, and four long whistles followed by a short one
was to call him to protect the front part of the train.
Sometimes, where the land is marshy, there is
even climbing to be done inside the stations. Thus
a locomotive may be resting at a certain level while
the third or fourth compartment is a good ten feet
beneath it. And at less diverting stations the
imaginative creatures of the neighbourhood do what
they can. With chicken pies they seek to please you,
lifting up the edges to display the veritable chicken ;
or they offer fruits, which are delicious sometimes
granaditas, prickly pears and mangoes, little pine-
apples and miniature bananas then there will be the
misguided comrade who entreats you to acquire the
paper that you happily avoided in the capital two
weeks ago, an illustrated paper which attempts, and
not without success, to pass by on the other side of

TO CHILPANCINGO

365

decency. You can have silver spurs and hectic sweets
and walking-sticks and opals of a dubious origin and
other local products. A man who plies his trade about
four stations out of Puebla wishes you to buy his dogs
of earthenware, and certainly the chances are that
you have come out unprovided. Often there is raised
the cry of ' Una caridad por el amor de Dios ! ' and
it is appalling that a person should be blind and live
among such scenery.

But Westall, the geologist, was never made for
scenery. As we went curving round the valley
from Chapultepec he looked out of the window of the
train. ' That is volcanic,' he would say, or, ' That is
not volcanic.' We were passing by long orchards, and
between the branches and the whitewashed walls the
plain of Mexico was visible. We curved among the
hills, so that the great expanse of valley took on the
appearance of a map, and Westall, who restrained his
observations to a line of rocks that were not more than
eight yards from his nose, observed : 4 That is
volcanic.' We rose up beyond the sphere of agave
plants, we had the pines, and down beneath us lay the
rolling land, the pallid waters of Texcoco and the
capital, a brownish blot. All round the valley stood
the chain of mountains, and the capital where many
thousand mortals had been killed was nothing but a
dirty patch upon the quilt-work of the valley.
Straight in front of us, magnificent and armoured in
the morning light, were Mexico's extinct volcanoes
with their helmets of eternal snow : Popocatepetl,
white brother of the Matterhorn, and his near sister
Iztaccihautl, who is known as ' Sleeping Woman.'
Westall said : ' That is volcanic.'

The plateau which divides this valley from that of
Cuernavaca is inhabited by sober woodcutters and

366 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

charcoal-burners. At a place called Tres Marias 1 they
have tried to overcome the general bleakness, for the
station building, which appears to act as an hotel,
is of two stories and is painted red. The population,
wrapped in blankets, crouches round the structure
that is at an altitude of two miles from the Thames.
They regard the train with some indifference and do
not even rise to beg. One has been told, by people
of the knowing south, that virtue is to be considered
geographically ; for which reason it may be the
climate that is answerable for this manliness. But
on the other hand, the climate may sweep generosity
and kindly thoughts from those who travel, and the
people of the neighbourhood may have discovered
that it is in vain to ask for alms at Tres Marias. Still
we look askance at human beings who can live without
assistance from their fellows one would not have
fancied that the world can hold such people, but that
they themselves assure you that it is a fact, and one
would not suppose that virtue can remain immaculate
in any man if there be not some pressure brought to
bear. It is unnatural for us to dwell in virtue, and
there would be little hope for us if we did not address
ourselves to scale a fortress that is like a Pelion piled
upon Gibraltar.

Suddenly we find ourselves upon the ridge that
intervening stretch of highland has been traversed
and instead of one mere valley we have two beneath
us, with a town in each of them. Well, it is Nature,
dignified in protest ; we have said a million times
that in the tropics she is prodigal, and now she wants

1 The other unattractive Tres Marias of Mexico consist really of
four small islands in the Pacific. One of them, Maria Madre (about
9 miles by 4), is a penal colony and usually shelters more than two
thousand pickpockets and minor criminals who are set to work in the
salt-pits under the guard of a hundred soldiers. The more serious
criminals of Mexico are enrolled in the army.

TO CHILPANCINGO

367

to bring it home to the meanest understanding
that she can be prodigal wherever she desires. We
have already passed La Cruz del Marques, an enormous
cross of stone which marks the territory granted by the
Crown to Cortes, as Marquis of the Valley. In the
splendid panorama we can see two towns at once, but
the domain of Cortes held a matter of some thirty
towns and villages. And it has not been all dispersed ;
away beyond the towers of Cuernavaca we discern, as
we go zigzag down the mountain's side, a patch of
brilliant green, which is the sugar land of Atlacomulco.
This belonged to Cortes and is owned by his direct
descendant, the Duke of Terra Nova y Monteleone.
We have passed the sphere of pines and now the fields
that we are gliding down have lilac, pink and yellow
flowers, the lilac ones appear to spread a sort of haze.
Down down we go ; that other valley vanishes and we
approach the level land of this the garden State of
Mexico, which is called after one of her great revolu-
tionary patriots, Morelos. It is like the suavest carpet,
and it rolls up to a wall of hills, pale blue and purple.
On their western side, between them and the ocean,
is Guerrero. We shall soon be carried from this
summer landscape to the forests of Guerrero.

Ill

FOR many kilometres after leaving the luxuriance of
Cuernavaca we are going through a fertile country
where the people live, as other lowly Mexicans, in
ventilated houses, seeing that the walls consist of
wood and air, the quantities approximately equal.
We may spend ourselves in remonstrating with the
Mexicans of other parts, because when it is cold they
Ishiver. Thus it has been, thus it will be, and they

368 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

listen to our words as much as to the wind. But in the
vale of Cuernavaca it is probable that all those flowers,
flying to the breach, afford an adequate protection.
Sugar mills and peaceful huts and flowers till we
reach the stern land of Guerrero.

It may be remembered, possibly, that there were
three of us who undertook this expedition. I do not
feel the necessity for writing much of Westall, as he
did not alter. What is the use of change of scene if in
ourselves there is no change ? And Petleigh did not
cease to talk about Guerrero, so that long before we
disembarked at one of Mexico's historic towns you
find them everywhere, and that may be why Mexico
is not more happy long before we pulled up at
Iguala I was wishing that Guerrero could be wiped
from off the map or Petleigh. And the solitary deed
of violence we saw was carried out upon a person who
was too flamboyant in his praise. The car was
boarded, at the station just before Iguala, by a couple
of most active boys who started to enlarge upon the
glories of their two hotels. We listened for a time,
and then it seemed to us that, really, if we chose the
one or if we chose the other we should fall upon our
feet. I say we listened, but it was to a duet, for these
two boys insisted on a simultaneous unfolding of their
stories. It was evident that they were on the best of
terms, and probably they had it thus arranged
between them that they should exhort the passengers
together and so modify the deadliness of competition ;
they would not be called upon to exercise their wits
in paying their attentions to us in a certain order,
they did not make any study of us, and if either of
them got an angel well, it was unawares. We
promised to put up with them, and they set out in
search of other clients. But a sallow Mexican became

TO CHILPANCINGO 369

exasperated, he arose and knocked their heads
together. It was treatment, clearly, which they were
unused to, for until the train was at Iguala they
remained completely dazed. And there our luggage
and our persons were enveloped by a score of helpers
who transferred them to a shaky carriage ; and within
ten minutes we had taken rooms at an hotel.

Iguala is the place where Iturbide and other
patriots, against whom he had lately fought, united
for the promulgation of that instrument known as the
Plan de Iguala. There have been many plans in
Mexico, but this of 1821 is among the most famous and
among the best. Iguala likewise is the place where
they evolved the present flag. To-day the town is
something of a centre for Guerrero. Peasants wander
in from forty miles away to do their marketing, and
by a line of motors, recently established, one can
penetrate to Chilpancingo de los Bravos, the dreamy
capital. When it was dark, at seven o'clock, the car
appeared ; they undertook to start with us at break-
fast-time, so that we could have all the afternoon at
Chilpancingo, talking to the Governor, hiring mules or
buying them, arranging as to routes and so forth.
4 And to-morrow evening,' said Petleigh, ' you will

camp among the trees. You never saw ' It was a

feeble way for getting out of it, but I remarked that
we had never seen the market-place and that it was
high time to go. A lucky thing we did, because it was
entirely picturesque. The square enclosure, open
to the night, contained a crowd of ghostly people who
were passing to and fro between the stalls, and on
the stalls were wind-blown lamps. It was fantastic,
verily, when this unhastening, quiet congregation
had the whiteness of its raiment shown in flashes.
They were strolling like so many patrons, but from

2 B

370 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

time to time they bought a painted bowl, a strip of
sun-dried meat, a glass of shaven ice and syrup, or
they very seriously listened to Caruso on the gramo-
phone, or they would sit upon their feet no other
words describe the attitude while they were handed
little saucerfuls of something by a comfortable-
looking woman who presided at the brasier, and
instead of kitchen apparatus used her fingers.

We were given every chance of seeing what Iguala
has to offer, since an alteration had to be effected
on the car and it was five hours after breakfast -time
when we began to load. The mail for Chilpancingo
and beyond was in some thirty bags, which filled the
car. It seemed to us to be a pity that the Government
prefer to send their bags for the Pacific ports of South
America by this peculiar way. There is the railroad
to Salina Cruz where vessels call, for I have seen
them ; but, lo ! the bags are carried in erratic motors
up to Chilpancingo, then on horseback for a hundred
miles to Acapulco, where they wait for boats. You
therefore seem to run a certain risk if you send
correspondence from this part of Mexico to Chili, but
our young American chauffeur assured us that the
damage which a letter might receive from climate was
of no importance. If these fellows, so he said, can
read at all they do it well. He had the same high
faith in the capacity of his machine, for when he took
his seat he did not trouble to look round, much less to
ask the weight of any of the pieces that were piled
upon the bags. And on the top of them sat Westall,
up above the roof, if there had been one ; also Petleigh
with his gun. My place was at the chauffeur's left,
and at my left, astride of a portmanteau that with
several others and our cooking outfit had been
fastened to the car with ropes, astride of my port-

TO CHILPANCINGO

371

manteau was Ramon, the gentle mozo. Nothing
happened for the first half-mile, but then we punctured
and it started raining, though it was not then the
[rainy season. We were glad, at all events, to have
Ramon, because the chauffeur said that he himself was
in the grip of fever and incapable of much exertion.
Still, he took us at a great old pace through Perth-
shire scenery, by waterfalls and mountain fields until,
as it was growing dark, we reached the Balsas river
and contrived to get across two slimy planks into
a ferryboat. They had to pull us up a hundred yards
lor so, the current being powerful, and then we
tavigated to the other side. Again we got across the
;limy planks, received another mail-bag and resumed
mr journey. In the rainy darkness we discerned but
little of the road when it was heading straight through
ravine, at other times it hugged the mountain. 1
Jwiftly it would turn aside, then back again, then
ilmost make a circle round a rock. We should have
liked to see the road, because it is not often that you
id one that is but a few months old and is so
:horoughly equipped with ruts. We slided in and out
)f these, not knocking anywhere against the mountain.
is we rose and skirted round a fearsome precipice we
>nly slided over once.

LT the beginning of our precipice we found a quantity
>f mud, sufficient to arrest the motor's downward
>urse. There in the storm-swept darkness it was

1 That there should be a road at all is praiseworthy. ' It would be
loney thrown away,' says Dr. Gadow in his book * In Southern
lexico,' which does not charm the naturalist alone, *it would be

>ney thrown away to construct a cart-road, as every rainy reason it

>uld be washed away.' He travelled through these parts as recently

in the years 1902 and 1904.

372 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

hardly opportune to moralise, but we should live a
very happy life if we could bring ourselves to think,
as we are told to do, that all our trials are, in truth,
so many blessings ; we had reviled the rain which
made the mud. A quarter of an hour of delicate
manreuvrings and we were back upon the road.
It was a far cry yet to Chilpancingo, which my two
American companions had been calling Chil, as if by
such familiarity to make themselves and all of us
believe that it was not so distant. And their country-
man, our fever-stricken chauffeur, was astonishingly
cheerful. He was wet from coat to skin, because it
had been his belief that it was not the rainy season.
Destitute of overcoat, he whistled merrily. He found
it possible to joke (despite our gloomy silence), and
the sole precaution which he took against the weather
was to keep his left hand at the turned-up collar
of his coat, while with his right he undertook to
steer the slipping motor. We drove high above a
valley which contained a camp of lighted huts and
round them a stockade. A little later on we overtook
the soldiers with a ragged crew of convicts ; they
had been at work all day upon the road, 1 and now

1 The roads of many parts of Mexico are in deplorable decay, so
that the produce of a farm will be allowed to rot a few leagues from
the market. West of Uruapam, where no railway runs, the finest
coffee in the world has little value ; sugar-cane, tobacco and vanilla
and enormous crops of cereals have caused Jalisco to be known as the
Republic's granary, but often one has heard the farmers sigh for roads
and often heard the little farmers wish the railways could be turned
to roads. The Spanish highways, such as that which goes to Xochi-
calco, have in many cases turned into moraines, where everything
except his horse's acrobatic skill is calculated to depress the traveller, i
And sometimes in the middle of the towns, as in the wealthy mining
town Pachuca, you will find that roads are furnished not with
mountains only, but with valleys, here a pile of building-stone that was
abandoned years ago and there a lake of mud eight inches deep, and
as for width in front of a Pachucan plutocrat's abode the lake,!
although it had not rained for some three days, extended fifty feet.
But in addition to the ordinary taxes there had been imposed upon
that State a tax of 2 per cent on salaries and wages this would have

gJS

TO CHILPANCINGO 373

were trudging back. From their demeanour one
supposed that they were as indifferent to fortune as
to us ; a single one, a giant, shook his fist at us, and
tie was brought to reason by a tiny soldier reaching
up and boxing both his ears. We did not come past
any people who were on the road for choice. Ramon,
the gentle mozo, who was clinging to the car at my
left elbow and who was as thinly clad as the American
poor Ramon merely shuddered. ' Br r r r,'
said he. The mountain had been at the side where he
was ; when we swerved across a bridge and he was
hanging more or less above the precipice he did not
speak. The ruts were always growing more pro-
nounced ; whatever else the convict labourers can do,
they cannot build a flawless road, and parts of it were
flying in a constant shower above the two Americans
who occupied their seats of peril on the baggage,
perched behind us. After two or three more kilo-
metres we descended to a marshy place where, at an
Indian settlement, we halted, and Ramon got water for
the car. These native dwellings were so rickety that
we could witness their domestic operations through
the walls. We saw the menfolk mostly squatting
round the fire, whereas the women at the outside of
the circle knelt in front of stones and pounded corn
to make tortillas for the evening meal. That woman
who supplied us with the water stood outside the hut

filled up the Governmental purse, if there had been no Governmental
purses. And upon the famous road between Pachuca and Real del
Monte one could see how Don Porfirio's Government acknowledged
that a road could have considerable value. Just before arriving at the
tiill-top we encountered an old man, a servant of the Government, who
asked for 29 centavos. It appeared to us that 7 pence was too much
of a burden for a drive of four miles on a public road. The cost of
building it, however and it is a veritable engineering feat was very
large, our guide observed, and it was built by the Old Taylor Company
(from England) at the beginning of the nineteenth century. 'The
upkeep of it must involve,' we said, * a great deal of expense.' ' That
is so,' said the guide, ' it costs the Company a lot of money/

374 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

and gazed at us, with several children at her skirts.
She was not comely, but the lighted raindrops, falling
on her forehead, were as if a chain of rivers had
been flung by Providence across a country that was
parched and brown.

Again we took the road, though more than one of
us, I do believe, was hoping for an instant breakdown,
so that we, the victims of a most malicious sprite,
could well ask for a place beside the Indians' fire. We
rolled into the darkness that was drenched with rain ;
it made us feel as if we were the citizens of some deep
ocean's floor. ' Br r r r,' sighed Ramon, ' Oh !
what barbarity ! ' The chauffeur knew that winding
road by heart, but after three more wretched kilo-
metres, which he did most gallantly, he stopped all of
a sudden in his whistling, for between the mountain
and the precipice were two enormous boulders and
some smaller ones. This also had been brought about
by the unending rain. They must have fallen down
the mountain side within the last half-hour, as we
were presently informed by someone of the village
who had been that way on business, as he told us
when he came at last with Ramon, whom we had
dispatched in search of any help. He and four
other villagers arrived with crowbars and with
torches to assist us in default of implements, we had
been able to do nothing but lay hands upon the
boulders. The commander of this band, which
Ramon found for us, turned out to be a personage of
forty with a weedy beard he looked as if he was a
carpenter and he could wield his crowbar very
shrewdly, he insinuated it beneath a boulder and
persuaded this unwelcome visitant to move towards
him. His companions stared in admiration, more
especially an aged fellow who was lavish with en-

TO CHILPANCINGO 375

couragement and praise. But the boulder's progress
was not swift, and we had ample reason to desire to
leave : above us from the mountain issued noises that
were ominous. Yet, as it happened, they were never
followed by a scattering of rocks ; they scattered us,
indeed, because we could not know if it would always
be a case of shingle and of harmless stones. We fled
as the reverberating noise began ; we waited till the
mountain had discharged itself and then we came
back through the mud and rain. For want of crow-
bars most of us did nothing, save that from time to
time we gave advice. When we had watched the
weedy carpenter and his assistants move the boulder,
maybe half a foot in half an hour, it seemed to us that
if we turned our steps the car we could by no means
turn towards the Indian settlement, this action,
fraught with ignominy, would at any rate be prudent.
They would take us, to be sure, inside the circle.
We were partly reconciled already to the losing of our
baggage, since the motor was in constant jeopardy of
being crushed, but now the chauffeur thought he
could advance. He moved his hind wheel sideways
with the jack and then he charged into the narrow
space between the mountain and the boulder, so that
he became completely jammed. There surged in us a
dreadful feeling that the denizens of Acapulco would
not have their mail in time and that some luckless
people of the South American republics would be
absolutely disappointed in their news of Mexico. The
cotton bags provided by their Governments in lieu of
canvas ones were scarcely looking as if they would
answer expectations. We were jammed, I say,
between the mountain and the boulders.

Some of us have recollections of the talk around a
camp-fire when the stars come nearer so that they

376 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

may listen. We have had our comrades, lying on the
ground in glorious fatigue, who spoke, one fancied, to
eternity. The silence of the wilderness fell back before
them. On our hazardous, high path to Chilpancingo
we had motor-lamps in place of dying embers, and the
scented torches of the Indians were the stars. And
thus we spoke :

Ramon, the gentle mozo (as he marked time in the
mud) : ' Br r r r. O God ! O God ! What end
do we go to see ? '.

The Venerable Indian : ' O Candelario ! That thou
mayest live ! It moves. Thou art more strong than '

The Mountain : ' M m attle m m m
achchch '

The Chauffeur (at his wheel) : ' Suppose you want a
change of air. . . . Jesus, can't it rain ? . . . Say ! If
you're better now you might as well come back.'

The Weedy Carpenter (as he advances) : ' Let us do
the work. We have begun it.'

Ramon (advancing from the other side) : ' O my
mother ! Here we are, indeed.' [He laughs hysteri-
cally.]

The Weedy Carpenter (to those behind him) : ' I am
smiling. They cannot do without us others.'

The White-clad Indians (lit up by the motor-lamps) :

* We others.'

Ramon : ' Br r r. But it is cold. Carajo ! I
do swear that it is cold.'

The Venerable Indian : ' Boy ! Be you even as our
Candelario. What is the good of you ? Tell me.
Be still.'

A Mournful One (who stands and contemplates) :

* Would that to God we had not come. And yet
perhaps they will be paying as we do deserve, by God.

. But who knows ? '

TO CHILPANCINGO 377

The Venerable Indian : ' O God, may you be
exalted ! '

Parts of the Motor : ' Gl gl gl o o gl gl
shshgl '

Chorus of Indians : ' What shall we do ? We are
here to be destroyed. O thou machine, and may thy
days be short ! And may the hand of God be on thee ! '

The Weedy Carpenter : ' It is pleasant that the
lamps are hot.'

There is no justice in the world (except, I have been
told, in Mexico ; because when it was bruited that a
Minister of Justice was retiring and a most laborious but
uninspired official would be chosen, the appointment
certainly encountered much approval for the reason
that in Mexico you want a man who conscientiously
will have the laws administered ; to make improve-
ments, they asserted, is impossible) if justice were
allowed to flourish we should not curtail the story of
the moving of those boulders. Manfully and ably did
the Indians toil, so that we went upon our way.
Those other five-and-thirty kilometres shall not here
detain us and the fact is that we were so much inured
to the deplorable conditions as to I could almost say
be merry. It may not be in accordance with the
precepts of a Church, but when afflictions, like so
many vultures, seem to blacken every quarter of your
sky, there is a solace in the thought that you have
roused a splendid foe. We were indifferent when
something happened to the steering apparatus, and
we laughed when it began to hail. We shrugged
our shoulders at the lightning, just as if we dwelt in
gay Valencia, where it has been ordered by St.
Vincent Ferrer not to fall. But there was something
pitiable when the car, which had been rolling through
so much of rain and mud, was in distress for lack of
water.

CHAPTER XVI
THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO

A GENTLEMAN connected with Mexico's State Lottery
was good enough to tell me how and why the thing
is carried on. I never thought that it was other than
an honest institution, and so much more honest than
some other forms of local business that it would be
quite regrettable if it were done an injury by mis-
construction or by inadvertence. So I told the
lottery official that his information would become the
basis of an article, and he, to spare me trouble, wrote
the article himself. ' In our columns we have always
managed to discuss,' he says, ' those matters which
are of collective or of public interest. Certain papers
of the capital have occupied themselves, from time
to time, in leading coarse attacks upon the lotteries,
and have pretended to esteem them as pernicious
as all other games of hazard. We, for our part, do
not now propose to deal with all the lotteries es-
tablished here, since they are private enterprises
with a very few exceptions ; and on this account
we must consider that they have a transitory life,
so that it is not needful to discuss them, all the more
as they conduct the chief part of their operations in
the capitals of some of the Republic's States or in
some towns of the interior ; for which reason a correct
account of their security, their method and whatever
else there is to learn about them would be truly

378

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 379

difficult. We consequently shall restrict ourselves
to studying the National Lottery of Mexico, which
is, from every point of view, a most respectable
affair, and which, unlike all others, is protected,
organised and guaranteed by the Federal Govern-
ment ; there cannot be a doubt but that it will in-
volve you in far less than average risk, 1 because not
only of the purity but the lawfulness of its drawings.
We have made our calculations and have verified
them, so that we can say it is the one which is supreme
in the proportion of its funds allotted to the prizes.
While those lotteries which are most liberal give
back in prizes up to 60 per cent of their takings, our
National Lottery usually yields 64, 65, 66 and even
70 per cent, according to the importance of the
drawing, and this liberality is not attained by any
similar establishment in all the world, save those of
universal fame such as the National Lottery of
Madrid.' Perhaps the good man has not seen one of
those luring papers which are sent from Budapest,
and which attempt to dazzle us with a reward more
grand than even 70 per cent in cash ; they tell how
it has been the lot of many families to gain, in this
way, riches and respectability.

But do not run away with the idea that in the
lottery we are describing there is no beneficent or
admirable feature other than the 70 per cent. * The

1 In Peru, if in no other of the sister countries, you appear to run
a risk of making terms with the authorities about your prize. At
some manoeuvres in the mountains of Peru the attache from France
remarked that every morning one stout general officer was called ex-
tremely late, and that when he had breakfasted at leisure and had
smoked a good cigar he turned his field-glass on the troops. Where
lay the explanation ? * You must understand,' the general said, ' that
I was once a grocer. Then I won the million-dollar prize. The
Government informed me that they could not pay ; but they could
pay one half, and for the rest they would confer upon me this posi-
tion. I accepted.'

380 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

National Lottery,' he continues, ' is a Public Office,
which depends directly from the Ministry of Finance
and Public Credit ; this department takes upon itself
to regulate whatever touches the aforesaid lottery.
Moreover, the committee of directors is composed
of honourable men, whose names alone give to the
devotees of our establishment a feeling of security.
He who officiates just now as president is Don
Gabriel Mancera, the engineer and senator who is
so distinguished for his altruistic gifts. With him
are some illustrious men of business and some of the
most conspicuous among the members of Society.'
Oh, to be sure, the days are distant when a lottery
in Mexico could be conducted by a single man. There
was a person, once upon a time, a most iniquitous
Parisian, who distracted many with his so-called
lottery of animals. His stock-in-trade consisted of
two dozen cardboard animals, of whom he put one,
every morning, in a box. It then became the busi-
ness of the players to select their beast, to bet so
many dollars and await the opening of the box, which
ceremony of an evening was attended by enormous
multitudes. In fact, the concourse grew to be so vast,
the street so crowded, that it was impossible for
the inhabitants to leave their houses, and the public
nuisance of a Frenchman had to seek another sphere
for his activities, but not until he had accomplished
his gigantic coup. One day as he was putting in the
box that piece of cardboard which was fashioned in
the image of a serpent he became aware that there
was someone at the keyhole, and behold it was a
youth who had adopted this device for getting stable
information. Quickly haled into the room, he was
rebuked for acting in a manner so equivocal, but after
having promised that he would not breathe a word

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 381

of his ill-gotten knowledge, he was told by the pro-
prietor that he could run away. Of course he
whispered of the serpent to a thousand people, and,
of course, the Frenchman put a tiger in the box. . . .
We do not need to be persuaded that the Loteria
National would have to-day no such manipulations.
' Owing to its righteous directorate, owing also to
unwearied study of the wants and fancies of the
public, it has not been left behind while other business
in the Mexican Republic has developed ; on the
contrary, it has obtained among the public always
more and more prestige.' One only need be present
on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday afternoon at
three o'clock to know immediately that the adminis-
tration of to-day is altogether different from that
of 1883. Suppose that he who then was President
of the Republic, General Don Manuel Gonzalez, were
to ride back from the grave, unchastened, and re-
sume the reins of power, then surely Senor Gabriel
Mancera would withstand him to the uttermost.
Those venerable citizens whom I saw at the table
would have nothing done that is irregular ; they
would not even take into account Don Manuel's un-
lucky temperament, 4 beyond whose grasp,' says
Terry's guide-book (p. ccxxxiii), ' were the high
principles of Diaz.' It became a habit with Gonzalez
to send down an adjutant who told the lottery
officials very plainly what the number was which
on the next day would secure the prize. Of course,
when such events are toward there is a responsibility
attaching to the people, and it seems as if they were
in that dim era not less apathetic at the drawing
function than they are to-day, when, as we have
by this time gathered, there is not the slightest call
for scrutiny. It was another portion of Don Manuel's

382 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

financial programme which aroused his fellow-
countrymen and almost brought him headlong to
disaster, for he could not inundate the country with
his nickel pieces.

No doubt, upon the 16th of September last there
was a scene of tremulous excitement at the drawing
of the prize for 500,000 dollars Mex. (say, 50,000).
The gentleman whom I have hitherto been quoting
is as cool as one expects : ' That lottery,' he says,
' has left a trait of pleasing memories, because it
was divided into fractions and distributed among our
people of the middle class [how fine are his investi-
gations !], who should now be having the enjoyment
of unhoped-for and desirable tranquillity.' But on
a Friday afternoon, when I, as Frenchmen say,
assisted, it was at a very somnolent affair. 'Tis true
the major prize was not more than a thousand
dollars, while the second largest prizes were con-
siderably less, but so decrepit was the audience of
thirty that the chance of gaining such a sum ought
to have kept them on perpetual tenterhooks. Maybe
they were exhibiting the gambler's legendary calm,
and as there was in them more Indian blood than
Spanish one would not care to deny the possibility
of this inhuman conduct. However, it appears more
probable that they were dulled by constant failure.
Many of them had been trying, I could swear it, to
recuperate their fortunes every Monday, every
Wednesday, every Friday, for a chain of years, and
I should be surprised if they had known the frigid
satisfaction of acquaintance with a winner. It was
curious that such a ragged crew should have the
wherewithal to play they cannot surely be so morbid
as to want to listen always to the victories of other
people and the wanton days of Elagabalus have

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 383

vanished, what time two lotteries were instituted : for
the people one, and one for the comedians. There
was no need to buy the tickets, and the prizes, ranging
from a pound of beef up to a hundred gold or thou-
sand silver pieces, were provided by the well-beloved
Emperor.

So far as I can recollect there was, that Friday
afternoon, an individual and only one who made no
secret of it that he was attracted by the comfort of
the chairs ; he slept profoundly. But with him it
was quite palpable that he had drifted in by chance
and was by no means an habitue, for he exhibited
an ignorance of the prevailing customs. When he
sank into the chair and fell asleep he failed to take
his hat off ; a policeman who was standing at the
door approached him, tapped him on the shoulder,
half awakened him and pointed at the hat. Our
friend removed it with a gesture of apology, he bowed
to the policeman and replaced the hat upon his head
and fell asleep. So it was necessary to awaken him
again, which the policeman did with tenderness, and
in a little time the hat came permanently off. As
for the other members of the audience bedraggled
women and a postman (but I must say that he did not
wear the guilty look of one who plays the truant),
and a blue-lipped Indian wastrel, boys with unsold
tickets for the lottery, and one small urchin whose
equipment would have needed scarcely other change
than the addition of a bow and arrows if he had
desired to be an artist's model in the usual array of
Cupid all these people looked with more or less
attention towards the platform. Nearest to them,
just behind the railings, were three pretty page-boys,
neat in blue and gold ; behind these, at a table, were
two busy clerks, and finally behind this pair sat the

384 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

presiding gentlemen, who certainly would not have
found it easy to look more respectable. It is their
presence that is wanted, I suppose, and if they like
to sleep, as one did intermittently and one through-
out the seance, after he had patted all his colleagues
on the back, it is their own concern. Just after three
o'clock the little page-boy to the right of us took up
a wineglass and a bodkin, so too did the left-hand
page-boy, while the other one stood at the table with
a wooden frame in which were ribs of metal ; one end
of the frame was off. The right-hand page-boy
marched you cannot otherwise describe his progress
to a globe that was on his side of the platform and
was larger than himself. An employe was turning it
first one way then another, so that every ball which it
contained should fly about among its comrades.
At the one side of the globe there was a shutter which
the page-boy opened, took a ball out on the bodkin,
held the wineglass over it and marched back to the
table. In the meantime, from a smaller globe, the left-
hand page-boy likewise had procured a ball and came
back to the table. Then the first boy glanced upon
the white ball he had captured, and in shrill and rapid
accents cried a number three times (though I could
not understand him once), and he was followed by the
left boy, on whose ball was written '4.' He cried :
' Cuatro pesos ! cuatro pesos ! cuatro pesos ! ' There-
upon they gave their balls up to the third boy, who
transfixed them, opposite each other, on the metal
ribs, and so for something more than half an hour
the process was continued, being varied only when
the left-hand boy brought back the ball which had
4 1000 ' on it. There was in the audience the flutter
of some sighing, and a clerk went over to a blackboard,
where he wrote the number and the town in which it

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 385

had been sold, this being Mexico the capital on that
particular occasion. As he chalked it in his orna-
mental writing he appeared with every flourish to
be stabbing at the wretched audience. Presently,
when all was over, they went out into the sunlight,
and the sleeper was awakened once again by the
policeman. In a corner of the room a list of the
successful numbers was in course of being printed on
a hand-press, and again the good policeman had to
tap upon the sleeper's shoulder. Each of the pre-
siding gentlemen received his paper, leaned back in
his chair, and let the middle boy declare the numbers
as they stood inside his frame. The one who hitherto
had slept was gradually waking up, and as the busi-
ness terminated he arose and patted his three col-
leagues on the back and patted an adjacent page-boy
and made off. Then the policeman sat him down
beside the sleeper of the audience, persuaded him to
leave the room, and out they went together, arm in
arm. As they were walking through the passage
towards the street they brushed against the women
and the stalwart men who waved the tickets for the
next approaching function to and fro. ' Some thou-
sands of our countryfolk,' says the historian who
never fails us, ' are unfortunately in a state of destitu-
tion on account of physical defects, or illness or the
weight of years ; they have discovered a commodious
livelihood in offering our tickets. If they were to be
deprived of this good trade then it is certain their
serenity would vanish and they would perforce have
to submit themselves to taking up the life of mendi-
cants, instead of being able to adapt themselves to
honourable methods such as that which we are now
discussing.' . . . Ah, well, perhaps it would be in-
tolerant to think of deprecating the persistent traffic

2 c

386 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

which these people ply in all the most frequented
parts of Mexico. ' Diez mil pesos ! Sorteos de hoy !
Diez mil pesos ! Diez mil pesos ! ' and one day in
the Street of the Holy Ghost I listened to a famous
bull-fighter who was exasperated. ' Do you think,'
said he, ' that God created money so that I should
spend it thus ? '

And now we come to the philosophy of all this
matter. One may argue that there is none, and that
people gamble in the Mexican Republic for the self-
same reasons as they gamble elsewhere. But accord-
ing to a certain school, the Mexicans demand con-
sideration that is quite peculiar. They are given,
so 'tis said, to gambling on account of imperfections
in their agricultural economy. Wide stretches of the
land are always rushing from the one extreme into
the other, from extreme fertility to unproductiveness.
In four-and-twenty hours the people pass from wealth
to misery ; their wheat is all destroyed, their flocks
are dying, and underneath the wheel of fortune
they are helpless if it does not take another turn,
which consummation is not to be brought about
except by gambling. Mexico is vast, and on the one
hand there are tracts of country which unroll a
savage fruitfulness such as the part of Coahuila,
where it is sufficient for the cotton to be planted
once in ten years, and the district near to Irapuato,
where, a mile and more above the sea, one has
throughout the year crop after crop of strawberries ;
and so the jungle round a rubber clearing where the
tentacles of vegetation try to choke all human effort
and if they are cut will grow again and at the rate of
half an inch a day. Then, on the other hand, we
have the desert places, where the summer's heat or
ghastly whirlwinds or the dust goes dancing, but

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 387

where cactus grows and nothing else. In either sort
of territory you will know what is to be expected ;
it will surely happen ; but a great deal of the land is
subject to the vacillations we have mentioned. And
the causes are less difficult to find than to prevent.
It is so much a question of the rain and wind. If
there should be a scarcity of rain then will the river-
beds be dry (from 1887 to 1895 the north of Nuevo
Leon was afflicted with a drought, as was the llano
district of Chihuahua), and if the north wind blow
too strongly in the months of August or September
then the cornfields will be devastated. But the very
agents that would bring the rain and temper the
ferocious wind, those noble slaves have been re-
moved, for, as in their own country so in Mexico, the
Spaniards never put a check upon deforestation, and
a great part of the central plateau is denuded. Wind
and rain, they come and go, nor can the flying of a
snipe be more capricious. What a country ! Portions
of it change so little that we have the tale of a Chicago
woman who came down to live in this eternal spring,
and as the mercury of the barometer did not so much
as tremble, she was certain that the instrument was
out of order and she broke it. In those other regions
that we have described, a labourer would formerly
have chosen one of three professions : brigandage,
rebellion, gambling. Now the former

Passant, ne pleure point son sort,
Car s'il vivait tu serais mort

has been more or less blotted out by the rurales, that
ubiquitous and celebrated corps (and, by the way, this
' blotted' is a rather suitable expression, as the brigands,
so we learn, are frequently absorbed into the grey ranks
of their quondam foe) ; rebellion does not always offer

388 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

the antique inducements, and the disappointed labourer
falls back on gambling. He is not restricted to the
lottery.

There is said to be a time for all things, and in
Mexico it is the local feria [the fair] when every
gambler is supposed to let his instincts revel. He
can start to play soon after sunrise, and, if he should
be unfortunate, can visit now and then the image in
whose honour all the festival is being held. I need
not say that with so many pilgrims at the shrine
San Juan de los Lagos, for example, welcomes more
than 60,000 in November it will be demanded of
each person that his attitude should be correct. If
he attempt to imitate the farmer who, despairing
that the rain would ever come, precipitated the
poor image to the ground and smashed it (after which
the rain fell), then he would himself be torn asunder.
Mexico is thickly populated with these images, but
as the wonder-working reputation of them all is
irreproachable, this would be no excuse. The feria
possesses also a commercial side, and surely gamblers
ought to recognise that there they have another
chance of getting water from the rocks. So strange
a mingling is there of celestial and mundane busi-
ness. But whichever of these two, or if it should be
gambling, that has more adherents in the villages,
'tis natural that gambling and the kindred pleasures
should predominate in towns which have a larger
quantity of temples dedicated to the other two pur-
suits, and thus throughout the year have given
people opportunities to satisfy their appetite. Appeal
is made to all the gamblers there be games for men
who want to make a use, comparatively speaking, of
intelligence, and there be games for men who have
no such desire. And these are the divisions of the

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO

389

people, for if the most woebegone pelado came to
| join the table of the Governor's son (i.e. of intellect)
he would not be rejected, if he had some money.
I There is animation in the booth and in another one
there is a fine repast (considering that it is gratis),
I in another one is music.

It so happens that a Turk, who is amongst the
I most renowned proprietors of the Republic, walked
across the frontier of Chihuahua many years ago with
a performing bear. Now he has risen into making
people dance. His wealth is said to be terrific, but he
does not cease to drag his corpulence through North
and Central Mexico, while he is having both his sons
brought up at college. And he does considerable
good, not only by the money which he pays into the
town's exchequer for, like Monsieur Bergeret's
sagacious sister, he is apt to find that space, if there
be such a thing or not, is very dear but is a bene-
factor also in that he provides employment for a
:roupe of acrobats or minstrels. In the Mexican
[Republic there are numerous fine theatres but
(seemingly no actors, and the consequence is that we
>atronise the deadly cinematograph. I vow that I
ld rather see the worst of men and women take
;he stage than have mechanical devices, for, despite
:hemselves, the men and women are a noble order of
jreation. And this may be stretched into applying
to the prompter, on the rare occasions when the
stage is occupied by flesh and blood, although he will
[insist on smoking palpably throughout the whole
>erformance. As he takes the part of every person
in the play, from faithless lover to the girl, this
jmoking is deplorable. It would be too much to
:pect that he should make the necessary altera-
;ions in his voice, as he, regardless whether on the

390 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

stage they have been said or not, reads out the words
your poet will remind you that the words are more
important than the voice in which they happen to be
spoken but one does protest against the smoke of
those cigars. It will be seen that the dramatic art
is at an ebb in Mexico, and certainly I would not
like to say that it will be improved by building in the
capital that gorgeous theatre which never will be
filled, and round the corner there are many, many
folk whose stomachs never have been filled. In
Mexico the art of acting does not flourish, and the
man who fosters acrobats is worthy of much praise.
So may the Turk continue to perambulate the
country, building an oasis with his dirty awnings and
his lamp-lit booths and his guitars. If there is
immorality about the piles of money that are whisk-
ing back into the lamplight, who would not prefer
to be immoral in a gambling booth than moral at a
cinematograph ? Far be it from us to complain that
cinematographs in Mexico do not, like those in
France, give a display of ladies' underclothing we
have it on the word of Madame Calderon de la Barca
that the diamond-bepowdered ladies often had this
part of their apparel, if existing, torn and dirty ;
and it is the superficial things that have been changed
in the Republic but these cinematographs commit
the gravest crime of all ; they are untruthful, since,
according to their showing, virtue is triumphant
always.

Monte, roulette, lotto are the chief games ; it is
curious to see a circle of adults, though of the poorer
classes, solemnly seated at their lotto cards and[
wait until the fish or bird is called. However, thei
be other games which foreigners less reputable than]
our Turk have introduced and to the wrath oi

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 391

Mexicans. A newspaper ' La Lima de Vulcano '
[Vulcan's File] in its issue of the 25th April, 1838,
was righteously indignant, saying that

The devil goes about endeavouring to tempt the
Mexicans ; when families are at their poorest then the
greater spectacles are given so that money should be
spent on them which is required for nourishment ; and
as the spectacles are new the public want excessively
to see them. The foreigners, whose grand and unique
object is to get our money, are preparing for next Sun-
day the pageant of a formidable tiger that will struggle
with a bull whose horns are blunted and will tear the
bull to pieces in the ring. . . . No doubt the fight will
be unequal, very much to the advantage of the owners
of the tiger, since it will receive no wound whatever.
The Government, for moral and political reasons, should
forbid this kind of horrid spectacle, because in this
way people grow to be familiar with scenes of horror.
... If Mexicans have been endowed by God with
sweetness of character and with compassion that is
boundless, why shall this most happy nature be effaced
by that which turns it into something barbarous and
sanguinary ?

I believe it was the bull which proved success-
ful, as he did at San Luis Potosi seven or eight
years ago when he was matched against a circus
lion. In the bull-ring of the capital, about as long
ago, there was a similar engagement : each of the
two animals was slightly scratched and then the
lion laid him down beside the bull in perfect
friendliness. If ' Vulcan's File ' were still at large,
delivering shrewd cuts, it possibly might rage at
foreigners for having first insinuated this idea into
the sweet minds of the Mexicans. When we turn to
less exotic animals to horses it will gratify you to
be told that on the other side of the Atlantic is a

392 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

blessed nation which has laid upon its shoulders one
of the great missions of the English, for in Mexico
there have arisen some of those enthusiasts who do
not spare themselves the trouble of long afternoons
upon a racecourse solely to improve the breed of
horses. One can see the day draw near when such
considerations will be smothered by the ruling passion
of this people, but as yet the sport remains in almost
English purity. Some few regard the horses as mere
counters in a gamble. One may see, however, at a
meeting that as yet the sportsmen have been barely
touched by this most evil and outlandish parasite of
an idea, for when two favourites (both owned by
favourites) were beaten by a sheer outsider at the
first race in the ' Derby Mexicano ' there was an
extraordinary demonstration of delight : the people
darted in and out, ran hither, thither, flung their
hats into the air and uttered incoherent cries, for
they were glad that Mexico contained a breed of such
fair horses. With regard to cocks, the men who write
of bygone Mexico are half inclined to show their
grief because the cock-fight is no longer tolerated.
' It was picturesque,' they say, ' to see the cognoscenti,
wealthy men and poor men clustered round the ring,
all eager for the battle. It was fine to see the two
cocks being held, their beaks not further from each
other than the width of half a dozen hairs. Indeed,
it was a spectacle ! And then a great man would
come driving past, and leaning from his carriage he

would register a bet. Now everything is changed '

However, if these writers would omit to go to church
for one sole Sunday morning they would never more
be so despondent, since the custom does not seem
to be in any danger of neglect. The towns and
villages of Mexico support it most religiously, and so

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 393

do certain strangers. One would think, without
referring to a blue-book, that the articles imported
from the British Isles would take the shape of hard-
ware and machinery ; but there is a demand for
fighting-cocks, and whether it was due to consular
advice or private inspiration, anyhow, there landed at
Tampico recently a British gentleman with fifty
cocks. He must have been replete with prudence,
for he would not live upon the country ; to sustain
himself he carried many hundredweight of the com-
modities of Messrs. Fortnum and Mason. Such a
man would probably not need to be exhorted by a
Consul that he should go through the world with open
eyes. The cock-fight in itself is unattractive, being
but a matter of some seconds. As the one bird flies
across the other he brings into play the fearful spur
that has been fastened to his leg ; a mass of feather
tumbles down and many pesos change their owner.
People who do not object to gambling but to foolish
gambling may denounce the rashness of this kind of
bettor, since the first appearance of a combatant is
all too probable to be the last, and one can scarcely
have enjoyed the chance of learning the good qualities
of any bird. Yet this is not the case, for each of them
was put through trials ere he came into the ring, and
some of them have happily survived a full-dress
battle.

Who can say that cock-fights are immune from
fraud ? It seems to be established that the graceful
Basque game of 'pelota' is like a religion not
precisely what its Founder meant that it should be.
One is sufficiently disturbed by those who in the
scarlet headgear of the Basque pace up and down
between the audience and the athletes, strenuously
shouting what they are prepared to lay. One is still

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

more disturbed by knowing that, besides the gods,
there are some mortals who could tell you which of
these fine-looking men will score the thirty aces.
Thus the game is not as dignified as racquets, neither
does it call for so much skill, because one side- wall's
place is taken by the bookmakers and audience,
while insufficient use is made of the remaining side-
wall. But it is a pretty sight to see the players catch
the ball inside the sort of basket fin that is attached
on to their arm by thongs. And having caught it
with extreme adroitness they will jerk it back towards
the end- wall. There is now only one court in the
whole Republic, yet I had a lodging in the very street,
and frequently at midnight when the uproar made me
lie in bed and think, I used to speculate as to the
quantity of irrigation which will have to be before
pelota gamblers sink to rest. That philosophic
reason for the prevalence of gambling can perhaps not
move us if we are not anxious to find any reason for
the prevalence and possible decay thereof, but we are
dealing with a land in which the Government is apt
to recommend philosophy. On a December night,
a little over seventy years ago, there was a session of
the governmental council when the country, they
concluded, had arrived at such a pass that radical and
most extraordinary measures had to be adopted,
measures that would seize on the imagination of the
public and distract them from their civil strife, so
that all Mexicans in order to unite against the common
foe should give each other an embrace both philo-
sophic and fraternal.

But there are for Mexicans so many different
modes of gambling that it will be arduous to stop
them all, and whether they are due to agricultural or
other causes. The apologist whom we have quoted

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 395

says that it is difficult, if not impossible, for anyone
to land the biggest prizes in successive drawings, so
that every time there is a shower of fortune sprinkled
on a multitude of homes. He does not think the
lottery should be suppressed, whatever happens to
pelota or the cock-fight or the horse-race or the
splendid Turkish enterprise. The lottery distributes
more than half a million sterling every year, from
which, he says, it follows that a lot of well-placed
families in the Republic owe the basis of their fortune
to a prize. And very often they would be unable to
secure this wealth by working for it, even at the cost
of great exertions a pesar de grandes esfuerzos. Here
we can afford to smile in a superior fashion, seeing
that some of our ducal families, who owe the basis of
their fortune to a foundress, can maintain that work
and much exertion were required. Of course, he does
not say that fortune always favours estimable folk ;
this theory would have been absurd. He says that as
the drawings multiply themselves indefinitely, it is
clear that on the transpiration of a certain time all
those or nearly all who buy the tickets will have
changed their social sphere por medio de un premio
[by means of one prize]. We may say that if the
sudden wealth accruing to a family be vast, there is
the fear that they will not be equal to the new
responsibilities; but as one prize in Mexico's State
Lottery is, as a rule, four pesos (rather under 8s. 6d.),
the social sphere of the successful family will not be
revolutionised. Our friend sees so much benefit
come for so many people in this manner that he longs
to see societies begin to form themselves whose object
would be to contribute quantities of money for the
periodical advantage of the members. One may urge
that all the quantities would have been paid by

396 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

members, and our friend acknowledges with perfect
candour that it is so. Let them pay, says he, to make
the fortune of the lucky ones, and let them persevere
until they all or nearly all have had some luck.
Sooner or later it must come about. And if there be
objections that some people vitiate themselves by
sacrificing all or nearly all their wages or emoluments
or income to the purchasing of tickets animosos de
obtener uno de los grandes premios [in a spirited
attempt to gain one of the largest prizes], well, that
which results in other hazardous diversions could
not, he submits, occur in this one ; if it should do,
then it would be truly wonderful and rare. All those,
he says, who buy the tickets know quite well that
there is no luck in the number of the tickets, but in
the proprietor ; and if one take a single ticket or two
tickets or three, yet always will the big prize be
secured by that man who of all the buyers has the
greatest luck. I do not think we can discover any
flaw in this remark ; it is extremely sound. And
very soothing, for the big prize is not conquered by
the big battalions. If you want, says he, to have
the big prize, then one ticket is enough, and if you
persevere with tickets, he has said, then you may
win a prize. What therefore seems to be the fruit of
his experience is that one should play frequently and
humbly. He disdains to waste a word upon the
philosophic school, and it will be confessed that even
though the irrigation works are of importance
at the Yaqui river, for example, it is calculated that
the water will be dammed back for a distance of
40 miles, that the breast-wall of the dam will be of
concrete and 185 feet high, that 400,000 barrels of
cement will be made use of, that 1000 men will be
employed for over two years in construction of the

THE GAMBLERS OF MEXICO 397

dam and ditches much water will have need to
flow across the land before the Mexican declines to
gamble. And there are parts of Mexico, the very
fertile and unfertile parts, to which this philosophic
theory cannot be applied.

CHAPTER XVII
SAINT AND MINSTRELS

ANY saint who has been sacrificed upon a gridiron,
as befell Saint Lawrence, will look sorrowfully down
from his abiding-place if they who worship at a shrine
of his come with a sacrifice. Saint Lawrence suffers
pain enough to see that every wooden, stucco,
leaden, brazen, plaster and more precious image of
him has a little gridiron in its hand. Who knows if
some fanatic devotee will not be moved thereby to
slaughter ? And Saint Lawrence, gentle youth,
looks down and wrings his hands. That martyrdom he
underwent in Rome has been so much exaggerated.
To be sure, while he was undergoing it, he ceased
to live ; but Publius Licinius Valerianus, Roman
Emperor (253-260) was no less outwitted by the
lonely saint than by the King of Kings of Iran and
non-Iran, the triumphant Shapur. The majority of
men, to whom it is not given to accomplish mighty
deeds on earth, complain that they were born too
early or too late ; and it is only the minority of these
who put away their gloominess and always hope by
some fine death to compensate for a comparatively
fruitless life ; and of these cheerful ones it is but one
or two in every thousand who obtain the glorious
departure. Publius Licinius Valerianus had no reason
for suspecting that the young Archdeacon Lawrence
had a mortal ailment, for he was distinguished, so we

398

SAINT AND MINSTRELS

399

read, not by the flower of his youth alone, but by the
beauty of his age. The vigorous old Emperor did not
inquire if he was not so beautiful because he was
consumptive, and we are not even told that a suspicion
came into his ancient, heathen breast when that the
spirit of the saint ascended from the harmless gridiron
into heaven. To prolong the victim's torment, very
little fires had been placed beneath him, and he died
we may presume of a consumption when his body
had been scarcely damaged. The cathedral of Nancy
has a rib ' which was preserved all through the
Revolution; it was recognised,' so say the records,
' and approved by Mgr. Ormond on the 30th June,
1803. The Church of Bouxieres-aux-Dames, near
Nancy, has a fragment of a rib of the same saint.'
Then at Rome ' his ribs are at St. Peter's, at the
Church of Twelve Apostles, at the Church of Holy
Cross ' whose nave appears to be supported by
invisible columns, since we read that ' the nave was
originally borne by twelve antique columns of granite,
of which eight only are now visible ' ' at the churches
of St. Mary at the Gate and St. Mary of the Angels
and St. Praxedis. A rib of Saint Lawrence is at
Montreuil sur Mer,' and most of his body, of course,
reposes in the patriarchal church that Constantine
built over it beyond the walls of Rome. Well might
Saint Lawrence have a smiling face upon the gridiron
when he taunted the rough soldier. He was going
up to heaven by a splendid gate, and he would be
depicted in a hundred thousand monuments and
windows, while it was reserved for Publius to have
his portrait and the portrait of his royal captor hewn
oh, the humiliation ! hewn by Roman subjects on
the rocks of Persis.

Saint Lawrence used to have a good, sardonic

400 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

humour, like his country-fellow Goya ; for he told the
Emperor Valerianus that in three days he could bring
him a supply of what he wanted, namely, treasures of
the Church. Saint Lawrence did not only help the
Sovereign Pontiff and dispense the sacred mysteries
and cherish the infirm, the indigent and consecrated
virgins which are duties appertaining to a common
deacon but he managed the ecclesiastical domains
and treasures, the oblations and the houses of the
Church, since these were at the time the recognised
archidiaconal functions. 'Bring the treasures to
me ! ' cried the Emperor, and Lawrence gathered all
the blind, the lame and other wretched folk together.
At the palace, ' August Prince, 1 he said, l behold our
treasures ! These be everlasting treasures which have
increase always and may be discovered everywhere
and be possessed by everyone.' This was immediately
before they laid him on the gridiron. With his
notable supply of humour he was yet a kindly saint,
an altogether pleasant comrade. He would always
intercede for men and women if it was with bloody
sacrifice or with a song that they approached his
image. Notwithstanding that he loathed the former,
he invariably did his utmost for the supplicant, let
him be blind as was the person whom he once had
cured at Rome inside the lodging of Narcissus, let the
supplicant have chronic headaches even as the widow
whom he long ago had cured inside the catacomb and
let the supplicant be sore afflicted as were they to
whom he once had meted out encouragement beside
the Cloaca Maxima. What he regrets now most of
all in the celestial habitation is that very frequently his
intercession is of slight avail. And then he thinks of
his imperfect life ; that he deceived the rough, old
Emperor has not, so far as one may surmise, been put

SAINT AND MINSTRELS

401

down against him, since Valerianus had backslided
terribly : ' His palace,' says Eusebius, 4 was full of
worshippers of the true God ; you would have taken
it rather for a church with its different ministers than
for a profane dwelling. About the year 257 he was
obliged to march towards the east, as the barbarians
invaded all that part of his demesne. It was his
fortune also to behold his army and some goodly
provinces made desolate by plague, so that his mind
was much affected.' But the tribulations which you
have to suffer will not warrant you to step aside from
Christian virtue ; they should, on the contrary, but
fortify your faith. To one believer there shall be
allotted fiery furnaces, while to another one there
falls a trial of the spirit, and if he should be a Roman
ruler of Valerian's time it is with haughty Persians
and the plague that he may hope to be confronted.
Even if the trial had been grievous, if the Persians
had been still more haughty and the plague more
virulent, the Emperor should not have had recourse
to magic and to the divines of Egypt. Their pre-
scriptions, which he gradually followed, sent him into
the pernicious path and always further, so that we
can only judge with human understanding it would
scarcely be unpleasant to the true God if a worshipper
deceived him. But Saint Lawrence brooded on his
other flaws, on those which might account for the
complete and painful lack of issue which attended
many of his intercessions. When the Pope, his master,
happy Sixtus, stood upon the eve of martyrdom he
had importuned him. ' Where do you go, my father,'
he exclaimed, ' without your child ? What have you
found in me that angers you ? Can you believe me
capable of cowardice or feebleness ? Oh, try me of
your grace, and you will see that I am no unfaithful

2 D

402 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

servant. You withhold from me to-day that honour
which is the supreme one, of mingling my blood with
yours. Oh, father, have you no misgivings that if men
will praise the courage of your martyrdom they yet
may blame your conduct for abandoning in this way
your disciple ? Verily, the palm which in your
presence I shall gain shall be an ornament for you, and
this my triumph shall be yours/ Aye, thus he had
importuned Sixtus and he had deserved the holy one's
reproof, which is reported unto all men by Saint
Ambrose. ' I do not abandon you, my son, but the
faith is calling you to greater combats. I am broken
by the years, but you are in the flower of youth and ]
in the beauty of your age. So you shall have a
triumph far transcending mine in glory. Cease then to
bewail your lot.' It was deplorable that he should
not have been resigned to whatsoever was prepared.
And had he not deceived the blissful Pontiff, in that he
refrained from laying bare to him, as to Valerianus,
that he was afflicted with a mortal malady and that
the soul would leave his frame before the little fires i
could burn it, yes, before they had consumed a single '
rib of him ?

We have a way of thinking that the saints are never
visited by gloomy, introspective thoughts ; but now
perhaps as we reflect upon the ex-archdeacon as he
wanders to and fro in constant agony of mind, we
shall regard him with a fellow-feeling. And it is as if
a little fire burned always in his heart, because the
pious supplicant on earth, if he be disappointed in a
prayer, takes the blame upon himself, acknowledging
that if he were a better and less faulty man the inter-
cession of the saint would probably have been*
successful.

Poor Saint Lawrence ! But when he was looking

Plateresque Facade

of the old convent church of Santa Monica at Guadalajara.

SAINT AND MINSTRELS

403

down, the second Friday morning of last May, into a
church of Western Mexico at nine o'clock, he was
oppressed by none of these dark ruminations. He
was but the kindly saint, the humorous observer, and
it did him all the good to see a man with bird-cages
inside the church. This man was rather squat, a
placid peasant, middle-aged and plain, a modest
person ; when he wanted to suspend a cage upon a
nail beside the altar of Saint Lawrence he could not
have done so but for standing on a chair. He also
took the chair into the middle of the nave, climbed
on to it and hung another cage upon a wire which had
been fastened to the ceiling. As he awkwardly
adjusted it a stream of water fell against him and the
pale canary started singing, heedless of the wasted
water. When the peasant stepped on to the floor again
the cage swung sideways, but the bird did not sing
any bitter notes. The meadow-lark inside the first
cage sang divinely. And it was not long before the
cages had, all five of them, been lifted to their hooks
or nails. They differed from each other, and the
minstrels differed, but a leaf of lettuce and a bowl of
water were in each of them. Maybe three women
knelt at various altars ; I do not know how they were
affected by the music, if it mingled with their
customary adorations, for they did not seem to notice
anything. The placid peasant put the chair into its
proper place and limped away.

He told me, outside in the church's garden, that he
hung the birds up always on the second Friday and
he left them singing till the twilight.

' Has the saint,' I asked, ' been very kind to you ? '
4 The intercessions of him have assisted all of us.'
4 And you,' I said, ' have you been doing this for
many years ? '

404 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

' I am not married.' He picked up the brown sheath
which had fallen from the trunk of a banana tree and
threw it into one of the large, broken urns which stood
upon the moss-grown pavement, underneath the
orange trees and thorny vines and the untidier banana
trees and miscellaneous shrubs. ' When I am not
here,' he said, ' my sister does the business for me.
I go travelling, with earthenware, in many parts of the
Republic.'

His name ? but in the unkempt garden were some
graves between the moss. ' Sefiorita M. F. L.,' said
one of them ; ' Senorita C. R. F.,' the next one.

CHAPTER XVIII
DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 1

4 PARDON me,' said Satan, ' but you understand that
if I don't observe the rules '

Porfirio bowed. He thought that it was safer to be
silent.

4 We shall run through this examination/ said the
Devil. ' Just a form, you know. It is so difficult to
draw the line and even those who are thought worthy
of a place on the committee have to be obedient to
the rules. We have our Constitution, like the rest of
them.'

Porfirio stood more erect. ' Aha ! ' said he.

Now Satan, being of a perfect beauty, cannot grow
more beautiful, not even for a moment. Otherwise
you would have been inclined to say that some fair
thought had lent his countenance a greater glory.
4 Well ' he gave a little laugh ' I really am quite
charmed to see you. Let me mention that I don't
receive all aspirants myself. No, they must be
distinguished. But to business '

He had heard the hoof-steps of Malured, an assistant
devil.

4 1 am ready,' quoth Porfirio.

1 Whether to review the life of General Diaz we prefer to have
the scene inside a law-court or beside the gate of hell is much the
same. But since it is less probable that he will be arraigned before
the first of these I choose the second, and although it may be inartistic,
for the local colour has not been observed.

405

406 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

4 Look here,' said Satan to the new arrival, who was
fixing his asbestos spectacles, ' look here, must we
begin at the beginning ? '

' Yes, we must,' said Malured.

4 But this is Don Porfirio Diaz ! '

Malured gave one of his stiff bows. ' I have the
"Book of Actors.'"

4 But I am a military man ! ' cried Diaz. 4 You are
taking me for someone else.'

4 No ! no ! ' said Satan, 4 my good friend Malured
is infallible.'

4 But I am not an actor ! '

4 Sit you down, I beg,' said Satan, 4 and reply to
what he asks.'

Then Diaz came out with an Oaxacanian oath.
4 What of the medals on my breast ? ' (He did not
see that they had melted all away.) 4 A player would
not '

4 Talking of Oaxaca,' said the Devil, ' is it true that
when Benito Juarez was its Governor and had the
wish to give you some promotion in the army ? '

4 Oh, I know what you are going to say.'

4 Be more respectful, if you please,' said Satan.

Don Porfirio threw out his hand. 4 All right,' he
said ; 4 but how can one exist without some money ? '

4 It depends,' said Satan.

4 In that army no one got his wages,' said Porfirio.

4 And that is why you wished to have a civil post ? '

4 1 thought that so I could be of more service to
the fatherland.'

4 Dear fellow ! ' Satan put his hand, his delicate,
almost transparent hand, on Don Porfirio' s shoulder.
4 Come now, do you think our Books are subsidised ? '

Malured coughed, removed his spectacles and
wiped them carefully.

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 407

4 In Mexico,' said Satan, 'you have got three kinds
of truth. Suppose a man says : " It is truth," then
surely he is lying. If he says : " It is the truth of
truth," then sometimes he is lying. If he says : "It
is the truth of God," then it may be he does not lie.
As for the truth of Satan, I assure you,' Satan said,
' that it is very true. No person who invokes it in
sincerity can tell a lie.'

' Well, well, the truth is that I didn't want to be a
soldier,' said Porfirio. He frowned.

4 And they made you a captain, because ? '

4 Oh, yes, because I came to Oaxaca with a con-
tingent of fifty men.'

4 Exactly ; and you were talking of your medals.
Do you mean that they were given you for military
exploits ? '

4 Some of them,' said Diaz ; ' when a man is chief
executive for any time the monarchs have to decorate
him as a compliment.'

4 You wear one of those German eagles ? '

4 The Red Eagle, monseigneur. It was a compli-
ment.'

The Devil seemed to be perplexed, and Malured
approached and whispered in his ear. 4 Of course it
has more to do with him than with Porfirio,' said
Satan. 4 But these compliments can't surely be
sarcastic ? '

4 By no means,' said Malured, 4 they are given on
account of something.'

4 That is it, precisely. When the two daughters of
the German Consul were seduced by the Governor of
Puebla, this man did nothing. And when a little
German girl called Noecker was seduced by a bull-
fighter, his brother and a third companion, this man
did nothing.'

408 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Malured did not care much for a digression, and
with the object of stopping this one he rapped out an
answer : ' As you say, the man did nothing. If he
had done either of those deeds he surely would not
have obtained the slightest eagle. Now, with your
permission, I should like to see what there is in this
Book/

' Oh, very well, the "Book of Actors," ' said the
Devil, ' and you might have little Red- Washer at
work.'

Malured placed that large volume on the ground,
and lying prostrate by the side of it he turned the
pages. Satan sat down comfortably on his tail, but
Don Porfirio Diaz stood erect, as if he were offended.
He did not appear to notice the arrival of Red-
Washer, with a sponge and bucket ; no, not even when
this little energetic devil took possession of his hand
to rub it.

' Here we have him,' Malured observed. His nail,
in contact with the page, emitted sparks of violet.

' Of course,' said Satan to Porfirio, ' you will
remember that this is the truth, and it will not be well
if you deny it.'

' I protest against this kind of treatment,' quoth
the erstwhile ruler. ' I am not accustomed '

' Ah,' said Satan meditatively, ' you will discover
that the truth has got a certain charm which custom
cannot stale.'

c A man in my position '

* Let me see,' quoth Malured, ' you had some fame
for having kept the peace. 'Twas said that your
assassinations were beneficent, for they secured those
thirty years of peace. Now what have you to say to
that ? '

The Devil put one leg across the other, and his

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 409

beautiful, all-seeing eye was serious with sympathy.
4 Do not think you are unwelcome here,' he said, ' and

if it bores you to relate your sins No, do not

interrupt me ! '

4 They were needful ! '

' As, for instance, at Miahuatlan, when your corn-
padre, who was on the other side, an officer, gave up
his sword to you and you transfixed him with it.
Pray, remember, Don Porfirio, the Devil is a gentle-
man.'

' All that is long ago. What is it that you want of
me?'

1 One cannot blame you wholly for the adulation
you received. Those Mexicans and foreigners '

4 Well, Heaven knows ' Porfirio pulled a grimace
' Heaven knows what they are saying of me now.'

4 And I know too,' said Satan. 4 But it was to be
expected.'

6 1 who paid a yearly visit to the tomb of Juarez.
I who wept there, calling him my august teacher ! '

4 Page 200, section 3,' said Malured from where he
lay upon his stomach. 4 1 have it reported that he
subsidised a book '

4 The fine arts have to be supported, surely,' said
Porfirio.

4 This volume could not undermine Benito's fame.'

4 The plague fetch all those writers ! '

4 1 have also got an English writer,' said Malured,
' one who did not deprecate Benito Juarez, but
addressed you as the greatest person of the nineteenth
century.' 1

4 You think I urged that book ? And how could
Mrs. Tweedie write of me or Mexico ? I tell you, she
could not speak Spanish.'

1 ' Of course,' she admits, ' there were other great men. 1

410 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

4 Yes, my friend,' said Satan, ' but we are not
talking of her book on Mexico, whose very title
"Mexico As I Saw It" is disarming. Oh, for five
minutes of Madame Calderon de la Barca ! What we
want to know is, did you subsidise ? '

4 Canastos ! recanastos ! why, she laughs at me !
She says that I advanced to Icamole and defeated
there a larger force under General Fuero. Everybody
knows I was defeated and received a nickname from
the tears I shed. Forsooth ! I subsidised the book ! '

4 Look here,' said Satan, ' Mrs. Alec Tweedie tells
us that she was acclaimed in Mexico as having real
literary talent and a vast amount of solid common
sense.'

But Don Porfirio was rude. His language, for a
moment, was that of his ancestors. And we will not
repeat it.

4 I shall place her writings on that Index of the
Volumes to be read in Hell,' quoth Satan.

Then Malured, who made a speciality of books,
explained : her publishers demand so many illustra-
tions ; that, for instance, in her book on Mexico there
was a picture of Chihuahua horses at a ranch, and
that this picture also served to illustrate Porfirio' s
childhood in the other book.

4 Ah, well,' the Devil said, 4 if one were writing on
the youth of Nelson it would be agreeable to have a
picture of some Shetland ponies. As for literature, I
am not so profoundly versed in prose as in my Milton,
but I think this lady '

4 Her name,' said Malured, 4 is either Mrs. Alec
Tweedie or Mrs. Alec-Tweedie. She uses both forms.'

4 Well, it seems to me her writing is not so dis-
tinguished '

Don Porfirio stepped forward. 4 Those triumphal

' *

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 411

arches we erected ! She brought out a letter saying
that she was a representative of " The Queen," and how
could you expect us to know that it was the sixpenny
" Queen " and not Queen Victoria ? When we called her
a distinguished authoress it did not mean we guaran-
teed that in her writings you would vainly look for
something undistinguished. I remember '

4 Say no more about it/ quoth the Devil. ' Tell me,
don't you feel him rubbing you ? ' He pointed at his
aide-de-camp, Red- Washer, who was in a perspira-
tion. ' Are you quite aware,' the Devil said, 4 that
he is rubbing blood marks from your hand with his
sulphuric acid ? You are brave, I know '

' I have only got away two layers of blood, as yet,'
observed Red- Washer.

Satan murmured that Porfirio was certainly an
acquisition. ' I was going to tell you,' he remarked*
' A few of your important sins are all you need confess,
and then you are of this Society.'

4 1 slew '

4 But what we want from your own lips,' said
Malured, 4 is whether it is not ridiculous to call you the
preserver of the peace ? '

The candidate for Hell stared at the bookish devil,
but his gaze did not work havoc, as of yore. He
laughed good-humouredly. * I could not help myself,
you know. When Don Benito was the President '

4 And all the country wanted peace,' said
Malured.

4 I really had to break it, and when Don Sebastian
was President it was the same, and when Iglesias was
President by law but surely it was better that they
should have me ? '

4 The country wanted peace,' said Malured.

4 1 gave it them. If anybody showed a sign of

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

damaging the peace my peace I drowned him in
his blood.'

' All that is very well,' said Satan. ' It reminds me
of a story. When the blight came down upon the
orange trees, it put a stop to all the merry singing
of the juice. That is what you have done, Porfirio ;
you gave the blight of peace.'

' I never heard of such a phrase, and I have had to
listen to a lot of eloquence,' said Don Porfirio.

Then Satan told him that there are some things
more splendid than peace. ' I never shall persuade
them on the earth,' he said, 6 to have the true
democracy which is established here.' If he had not
been gazing pensively upon the ground he would have
noticed that the fingers of the candidate were moving
slightly ; strange to say, they were making the sign
of the cross. ' Porfirio,' he said, ' you gave them
peace, and by the ruin of two generations. Not alone
the democratic spirit did you flout, and not alone the
country's culture and advancement, but you stifled
all the independence, all the manliness of Mexico.'

4 Now this is too much ! ' exclaimed Porfirio. ' You
are the Devil, and you seem to talk '

4 1 know what you are going to say,' said Satan,
' that I talk as if I were the teacher of a Sunday
school. Perhaps it is so, and at all events I yield to
your expert opinion. Are you not an honorary
member of the World's Sunday School Association ?
But as for my own sentiments, you should remember
that I have officially to act in certain ways, whereas
my head contains entirely different ideas. It is most
tragic.'

' Anyhow,' said Don Porfirio, ' the state of things
in Mexico before I got into the saddle '

' We have been told that peace hath got her

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 413

victories no less than war, 5 said Satan, ' but she hath
humiliations more disastrous than what a war can
ever bring.'

' That famous peace of his,' quoth Malured, ' is
down here in the "Book of Actors."

4 And your acting,' said the Devil, 4 was quite good
enough for many of the foreigners. They really
thought that your preserving of the peace was excel-
lent. And some of them were English Liberals, who
get as hot as in my hottest chamber when they talk
about the Macedonians or the Finns. I shall inquire
of them, when they arrive, how they can give an
explanation. They will say. of course, that Mexicans
are neither Finns nor Macedonians, nor Congolese nor
yet Armenians.'

4 Some of the foreigners will be quite sorry I have
gone,' declared Porfirio.

4 Their deeds of partnership,' said Malured, 4 are
open to inspection here gratuitously.'

4 Carajo ! I do not refer to those few houses. I
mean those with whom I had no private under-
standing, all those hundreds, thousands who invested
in the country and whose fortunes were dependent
on my peace.'

The Devil smiled a little sadly. ' Even as an actor,
you are brave,' he said. 4 But what you have as-
serted now '

4 1 really can rub off no more ! ' It was Red-
Washer whose sulphuric acid had produced no
adequate result.

' Then you can go. Leave him to us, my boy,' said
Satan, and while this assistant picked his apparatus
up the Master gazed at Don Porfirio and finally :

4 Oh, well, if you will spare me no confession,' cried
Porfirio, ' I must acknowledge, I suppose, that peace

414 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

was wanted by them all. It was the people's over-
whelming wish.'

4 Proceed,' said Malured. He made a circle with his
toes, which he had lifted high above his head.

4 No one broke the peace but I.'

4 And it was difficult for you,' said Satan, 4 not to
add that it was quite dishonourable.'

4 1 preserved the peace by shedding copious blood
and afterwards by stifling all my people's indepen-
dence, all their manliness.'

4 Go on,' said Malured.

4 Well, business people dread a change ; and those
who got concessions from me hope for more con-
cessions. Those who want to interest the European
and American investors want to have it thought that
Mexico is perfectly secure. Perhaps it will be some
day, but my system was a despotism which depended
on a single man.'

' So much for your grand peace,' said Satan. ' Let
us talk no more of that.'

* Will you admit him now ? ' asked Malured. 4 1
have a good deal more about him, but as we have
shown that in this peace capacity he was a most
unmitigated actor (hypocrite, I should say) he is
eligible.'

4 But I am rather interested in the man,' said Satan,
4 and who knows when I shall have the time to speak
to him again ? ' He took a yellow notebook from his
pocket. 4 There is no one coming for an hour or two,'
he said, 4 that is to say none who demands my personal
attention. There are six or seven parricides, the
founder of a new religion, the destroyer of a harmless
old illusion, a batch of traitors chiefly from the Latin
countries, and some Anglo-Saxons who did love
themselves not wisely but too well, and someone

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 415

who has also had to do with Mexico, a Yankee who
was luring many of his country-people to a place
called Valles in the State of San Luis Potosi. That
he bought the land for 38 cents an acre, which it was
hardly worth, and sold at 7J to 20 dollars an acre ;
this, I fancy, is no more than business. But he
circulated pictures of the town of Valles, showing
street cars and a bank, and all prosperity ; it is a
miserable Indian hamlet. Do you think I ought to
see the man myself ? '

' Why not see this Porfirio about the matter ?
Not so long ago he had a force of sixty secret-service
agents watching his brave enemy Madero at a town in
Texas. Could he not spare one of them to keep a
watch upon these pictures that were circulated in
Arkansas and that ruined many simple-minded
farmers ? This is only one example of American
what shall I call it ? '

Satan started walking up and down. Then sud-
denly he stopped in front of Don Porfirio. ' That
question of industrial advancement, what of that ? '
he said.

' It has gone pretty well,' said Don Porfirio.

' And ? ' Satan raised an eyebrow.

' It would have gone better still without me/

4 That is right. I am so glad,' said Satan, ' that you
honour my devotion to the truth. Have you got that
about the industries ? ' he said to Malured.

4 Oh, let us look into his murders, they are pictur-
esque and sordid, they are numerous,' was the reply.

1 Do what I tell you,' said his chief.

The prostrate devil therefore ran his pointed finger
down the page until a spark flashed out. ' Here is
the section of the industries,' he said. '"It is not
worth our while investigating how some other

416 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

countries of America have in these thirty years
advanced more rapidly than Mexico for instance,
Argentine and Chili and Brazil. It is a matter of the
men and the resources. Mexico has fertile parts and
others that will not support a crow. But if the total
of resources is not anything more marvellous than
elsewhere, they are, certain of them, undeveloped
owing to the men. Those Mexicans fly always to
extremes I talk of Mexicans who are in a position
to develop property they sit and wait for other
folks' experience or they are gifted with such shrewd-
ness that the pies are few which can escape them.
So you can't depend, as yet, upon the Mexicans ; they
have too much or insufficient enterprise ; and those
responsible for Mexico's industrial advancement,
such as it is, are mostly foreigners."

' I was of assistance to them,' ventured Don Porfirio.

' You are indeed an actor,' said the Devil ; ' could
you help yourself ? '

'I did.'

The Devil, being wise, is fond of laughter. And he
seized this opportunity. 4 Yes, yes, but not yourself
alone,' he cried ; ' your little son, for instance, was
director of a good few companies.'

Porfirio was understood to say that if it pleased so

many people to provide for Porfirito ! 4 He is

amiable, my son, he is an engineer, an architect, an
officer, but I am much afraid when I am gone ! '

' A Richard Cromwell manque, and you will excuse
me,' said the Devil, ' but I really hope for your sake
that they will not ask him to construct your monu-
ments. Most probably it would be sharper than a
serpent's tooth for you. But let us back to business.
Do you think the foreigners were more attracted by
your help or by the favourable prospects ? '

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 417

4 They must always be encouraged,' said Porfirio.

' Be careful. Was it on account of aid you got
before you were the President that you allowed
Americans to build the railway lines ? Was it
Americans who, when you were not President,
encouraged you ? '

He seemed to be reflecting, and Malured informed
his chief that he was in possession of the facts.

' I do not live outside the world entirely,' said the
Devil, ' and it seems to me that if new countries have
their openings the foreigners will enter them and take
their chance of instability. The profits which they
hope for will be solid in proportion.'

4 Then,' quoth Porfirio, ' the peace and progress of
the country are not due to me.' He rubbed his
chin.

' We can't admit you, though,' said Satan, ' nega-
tively, as it were, just on the ground that you are not
possessed of your two vaunted virtues. If we let you
in like that we should be following the poor example
of your own official at a place called Inde in Durango.
When a man was murdered there, not long since,
I- he came with a mounted guard to Inde, and as the
I murderer had vanished he produced a list of the
inhabitants whose characters were bad and then in
alphabetic order he shot the first five, and an English-
man called Baring, a spectator, remonstrated vigor-
lously. It is wrong, as I remarked just now, to do a
favour to a man because he is deprived of certain
i virtues, and I fancy Mr. Baring must have thought it
i 'was absurd to give indulgence merely for the reason
that the client's name began with Z in place of the
good letter B.'

' Shall we let him in,' asked Malured, 4 because of his
assassinations ? '

2 E

418 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

' As I worked against the peace and progress of the
country I do not see how my efforts can be classed as
purely negative,' said Diaz. ' Let me in, I beg you.'

Satan thought a moment ere he made reply. ' You
interfered with justice in your time,' he said.

' Yes. Let me in.'

4 Suppose I have to use the same expression that
was on your judges' lips : " There is a higher order "
" Hay consigna " ? '

' You are making fun of me. I like a seemly joke
have you not heard of that one which I said to old
Sebastian Camacho ? He was marrying his third
wife 1 and I said that it was wonderful to do a thing
like that at eighty, and he told me he was eighty-five,
and then I asked him what his object was.'

' There was once a green wave which I coveted/
said Satan, ' in the South Pacific, and I would not
let her fall into annihilation. She was to be my green
wave for ever, and I broke into the Law to keep her
mine. And now that for all ages I have separated
her from her companions I shall listen to that crying
when all sound is still.'

4 Do let me enter now,' said Don Porfirio. He
thought that he was being swindled, for they had
extracted from him those admissions and did not
appear yet to be satisfied. He would complain but
where could he direct himself ? Some kind of

1 Those who care for a coincidence may like to know that when
she married him this lady's name was Martinez del Campo, and that
in a piece which one Camacho y Martinez wrote (Madrid, 1749)
a tragi -comedy entitled 'Koulikan, Rayo del Assia' there is this
passage :

El alma es libre, y el cuerpo
Es quien contrata servidumbre.

(The soul is free, whereas the body
Doth submit to servitude. )

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 419

questioning he had awaited, but this really was
abominable. From the doorway he perceived a lane
of fallen stars which lighted you to the recess of Hell.
They seemed to beckon you and, if it had been in his
power, he would have put them out.

4 Maybe that it is better,' quoth the Devil, ' if I go
through some of your assassinations. Will you fetch
the " Book of Gore " ? ' he said to Malured, who rose
with great alacrity. The Devil sighed.

4 I fear that I am troubling you,' said Don
Porfirio.

' It is like this,' said Satan. ' I had hoped to spare
myself the pain of talking blood. But evidently there
is nothing else that I can do. Man Diaz, you have
made me sad.'

The candidate was tart in his reply. ' It is a little
strange,' he said, and then he recollected that it
would not be advisable to be on bad terms with his
future host. ' If you will look again into the " Book
of Actors," ' he suggested, ' you will find sufficient
things before your friend returns. I never was a
great commander, but I think it may be said I was
a brave and active person.'

Satan nodded.

4 I was lucky and I can't object to what they called
me : El gran chiripero. 1 Often I was beaten, but
my two great victories have put all else into the
shade.'

The Devil shook his head. ' And your assassina-
tions ? '

4 Oh, General Corona, who had got too many friends
I had him murdered as he came out of the theatre,
and the policeman after doing it was met just round
the corner by some soldiers and was instantly

1 The great fluker.

420 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

dispatched. 1 Then General Ignacio Martinez, who
had saved me in a battle with his 1500 men and after
he fell out with me was in Laredo, Texas, where he
practised as a doctor and thought well to write against
me Igave orders for himto be murdered. Also General
de la Cadena, whom I ordered to be killed at Zacatecas.'

' Yes, on that day the telegraph was cut,' said Satan,
' and you summoned to the Palace, when the train
arrived, a German passenger, and asked him if he had seen
anything occur at Zacatecas . You were terribly excited . '

' May I enter now ? ' said Diaz. ' If you give as
much time to the others ! '

Malured appeared. He had with him the ' Book
of Gore/ And as you looked at Satan you imagined
that the weight of that huge Book was being borne
by him and not by Malured. ' Ah, when I think of
others ! ' he made a gesture of despair.

' I have the two great victories of Diaz ! ' cried the
new arrival.

4 Oh, I am so weary of it all,' said Satan, and he
strode towards a rock whereon he sat him down.
He seemed the very god of grief.

Then Diaz, with his eyes a-glitter, put his hand upon
the arm of Malured, and he besought him whether by
the victories he meant those of the 5th May, at Puebla,
and that other one of 2nd April.

1 These men must have been very carefully selected, since it is the
custom for a Mexican policeman to require more shots than one
before he downs a quarry. As I passed on one occasion through the
port of Veracruz a Spaniard was arrested, and was taken by his
thirsty captor to a public-house. He there became obstreperous,
maybe through having no refreshment offered him, and the policeman
had to whistle for assistance. When a colleague hastily arrived upon
the scene and fired a shot he slew policemen No. 1. At Catmis when
the Cirerols attempted to win back their hacienda from the Yaquis
and the Mayas, one of them succeeded, it is said, in firing 150 shots,
and two into the bodies of the enemy. We make allowance for the
wooded nature of the district, but it seems to argue that a man has
little skill who lets so many of his bullets knock against the trees.

" Grave nibil est homini quod fert necessitas."
No burden is really heavy to a man which necessity lays on him.

A New El Dorado,

which is near the Guatemalan frontier.

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL

But Malured was in a mocking mood. ' The 5th
May, which General Zaragoza gained, not you and
seeing that the scornful French charged up a hill
which had no cover and the Mexicans were on the top
of it inside a fortress, I do not think it appropriate
to celebrate this anniversary, O Diaz ! and to have a
street called " Cinco de Mayo " in every town. What
you may pride yourself upon is that the native troops,
more skilled in throwing stones than firing guns, were
not afraid of standing up against the veterans of
Solferino. . . . Yes, the victory was won by Mexicans
and won against themselves, and that is not a little
thing for anyone.*

Porfirio was very pale. ' Which of my victories
have you got there ? ' he whispered hoarsely.

' Veracruz and Orizaba.'

' Hombre ! let me off. Oh, I have suffered here.
You have been hard on me. It is unjust that I
should be selected for this torment. Satan there
acknowledged that I was a brave and active man.
I had good qualities, and you regard me as a devil, as
a Oh, be just ! dear Malured.'

4 One must have faith in justice, as you said to
Colonel Cota when his son, a brave man and an
officer, was lying under sentence. He had killed
another officer who took his wife. One must have
faith, you said, in justice, and a few hours later you
had Claudimiro Cota shot.'

' Now, listen.' Diaz was much whiter than his hair.
He glanced at Satan, who was still in the same attitude
of sorrow. ' Do not read of Veracruz and Orizaba
I will give you '

' But you cannot bribe me. Sir, ' he said,

addressing Satan.

Don Porfirio was desperate. ' A million pesos !

MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

Take a million pesos or the care of any custom-house.'
He scarcely knew what he was saying. ' I will give
you all the wealth of every church in Mexico ! Be
good to me. And I will give you fifty villages of
independent Indians. I will make you colonel in
my army.'

4 Thanks,' said the assistant devil. Then, quite
placidly, he started reading on the page marked
Orizaba. As he read he saw that Don Porfirio and
Satan, both of them, were sitting on the rocks, and
both of them had the appearance of the men whose
fate it is to have been born for better things. And
Malured was reading :

ORIZABA

* How many people did you kill ? ' demanded General
Martinez.

' None, 1 replied Herrera, the philanthropist who
had been ordered several days before to give up his
position as the jefe politico of Orizaba. It had seemed
to him a wrong that the proprietors of Rio Blanco
should oblige the men to buy provisions in the shop
established at the mill, and pay for them a price above
that which prevailed at Orizaba. When the men came out
on strike Herrera's sympathy was practical : he bought
large quantities of food and gave them to the people.

' Oh, you had police ! You should have made them
shoot. You should have killed, as an example for the
rest. Where is the head of the police ? I want him, 1
cried Martinez.

' Very well. But shooting was impossible, if only for
the reason that against some hundreds of the strikers I
had five police.'

' Where is the chief of them ? I want him. Call
him instantly.'

' He comes. And afterwards it was not needful. I
stood up before the strikers, reasoned with them, and
they promised to refrain from violence.'

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 423

' I want the chief of the police. Ah, that is he !
Now, why did you not fire on them ? Come, answer
me ! ' He stamped his foot.

'To shoot the strikers?' said the chief. 'With all
respect, my General, I would have sooner fired on them
with loaves of bread.'

Martinez gasped. ' So you are insolent ? You

But it shall not happen any more.'

The man saluted.

' You and your companions will be shot immediately.
And as for you,' he said, addressing Don Carlos
Herrera, ' you shall be a deputy, so that we have you
up in Mexico and under observation. But if you should
ever speak a word of these events or of what I am going
to do to-night and for some other nights, then you will
travel,' and his forefinger was pointing upward, fc you
will travel see that you do not forget my words to
somewhere that is further than Mexico.'

Satan lifted up his head. ' How many people fell in
that fine victory ? ' he asked.

4 Two hundred and forty-three,' answered Malured.
4 Their feet were counted as they drove away upon
the freight-cars. He did not send such an envoy
down to Veracruz. He sent a telegram : " Mdtalos en
caliente." 1 Some have dared to say that no such
telegram was sent. I would refer them to Eduardo
Pankhurst, Minister of the Interior, and particularly
to Limon, who then was secretary of the President
and was promoted to be consul in Paris. I will read.'
. . . This was the passage :

VERACRUZ

' A ruler who believes sincerely that he should remain
in office for the people's sake is justified in taking steps
that will prevent the loss of him. Conspirators may

1 * Kill them red-handed.' The original telegram is still in the
possession of the Governor's widow, who now lives at Orizaba.

424 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

be imprisoned. And it may be necessary to destroy
them, but in either case the guilt must be determined
at a trial. If there is no trial you are running risks,
for some of those whom you imprison or destroy may be
quite innocent. Suppose that you have killed them and
you have no proof that they are guilty, then you run
the risk of being called a coward and a murderer.''

' Look here,' said Diaz, ' we have all agreed that I
was brave.'

'In the middle of the night these men were taken
from their beds, were dragged into the Governor's pre-
sence and were murdered. Yes, there was a judge,
Rafael Zayas Enriquez, who arrived when nine of them
were slain, and all that he could do was to protect the
others. Also they had mourners, for the cart was fol-
lowed by the vagrant dogs who licked the blood up as
it fell, and mourned that it was not more copious. The
Governor of Veracruz, an instrument of Diaa, who pre-
sided at this orgy, ended in a madhouse. Don Porfirio
was made of sterner stuff.'

' I can't help interrupting you,' said Diaz. ' I
admit that some of them were innocent and I was
very grieved. What restitution I could make I
made ; for instance, Dr. Albert's son obtained a
governmental post.'

' More shame to him,' cried Malured, ' for taking
it.' 1

4 And some of them had really plotted. How can
one permit such dangerous opponents of the public
weal to be at large ? '

' Not only Mucio Martinez did you leave for twenty

1 It is also most regrettable that the widow of Emilio Ordonez (the
journalist whom Don Porfirio's friend, the Governor of Hidalgo,
burned alive) accepted from the Government of Don Porfirio a
situation in the normal school for lady teachers, as ' prefecta ' one
who is entrusted with the maintenance of order and decorum.

DIAZ AT THE DOOR OF HELL 425

years in Puebla, but the Craviotos you permitted to
misgovern nay, to devastate Hidalgo for the reason
that they had been at your side in battle, if that affair
of 2nd April can be called a battle. Mucio Martinez
and the Craviotos you let loose upon the people, and
Canedo of the State of Sinaloa was another of this
kidney. Diaz, if you be not judged by any other acts
of evil, if your services to Mexico be all remembered
and whatever else there be against you be forgotten,
you shall be condemned.'

' I shall not interrupt again,' said Diaz.

4 1 continue ' :

' Don Porfirio was made of sterner stuff. If he him-
self had been at Veracruz inside the barracks he would
probably have breakfasted next morning with an admir-
able appetite. His faithful soldiers in the barracks had
been given brandy, and the scene was this : A high-
walled courtyard, wherein at the left and at the bottom
piles of dung were decomposing. In the centre lay
three corpses, of Cueto, Ituarte, and Gutierrez. And
the darkness of the night was broken only by four
lanterns : one of them was in the Governor's hand, his
other held a smoking pistol which he had discharged
into Ituarte's ear. The lantern's light was dancing on
the pools of blood, while those who were the authors
of the hecatomb stood in the dark. Then, Dr. Albert,
like the others, in his night apparel and with soldiers
round him, stepped into the courtyard. Savage in
delirium, the governor rolled forward, struck him
brutally upon the shoulder. " Ah, my little doctor, is
that you ? " And turning to the soldiers he exclaimed,
" Now, on this one, Christians. Load!" The miserable
youth had grasped the Governor by the knees, implor-
ing pity ; panic-stricken he flung out a stream of dis-
connected phrases, mad entreaties. After struggling
with his victim for a time, the Governor freed himself
from those convulsive arms, ran towards the soldiers,

426 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

and when Albert raised himself he was surrounded by
the rifles ; at his feet were those three corpses. Shout-
ing words at random '

Suddenly he stopped his reading. Don Porfirio
looked up.

4 Where has he gone ? ' asked Malured. ' You see
my lord has disappeared. It is most strange. . . .
Did you observe how your examination worried him,
poor Devil ? I have never seen him take a case as he
took yours. No, never. . . . He is naturally sensitive.
His temperament is quite at variance with his official
character. But while we have had you before us I
was noticing that he could hardly bear the strain.
And he has left us. I must follow.' Malured arose,
the volume underneath his arm. He walked away.

4 Hold on ! ' cried Diaz. ' What shall I do now ? '

Malured stopped for a moment. ' I am sorry,' so
he said, ' I can't advise you.'

A blind man chanting his praj'ers
in the fierce heat of Teh uan tepee. He is paid by the passers by.

The domesticated pirate.

CHAPTER XIX

AN ANGLO-MEXICAN PIRATE

IT is true. The man is living in Tehuantepec, inside
the long, low, azure house he and a portion of his
multitudinous family. But how shall this Canadian
sea-dog, this uncommon sort of pirate, be made
credible to British readers in the British Islands ?
How would those around me, for example, on this
weather-beaten island of South Harris in the Outer
Hebrides, who during the dark season of the year
devote themselves so much to legends and to books,
how would they knit their brows at being told about
a pirate ! If our specimen were not extant, if he did
not inhabit the new Mexico but old mythology, then
I suppose that these descendants of the Norsemen
would believe in him. And as on this October after-
noon we walk along towards the Sound of Harris,
with the rock-strewn meadows or a darkening glen
beloved by the deer upon our left and with the
crumpled sea upon our right, ah well ! we are in-
vaded by the old enchantment of the Scandinavians.
Those waters felt the keel of sea-kings who would
never sleep below a sooty rafter, who would never
drink beside the hearth. And when they landed on
this narrow island it was but as if they leaped from one
ship to another. Where is now the lonely burial-
ground of Uig ? In the rising meadow they would shake
the white foam off their bodies, having run up thither

427

428 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

from the surf and with their swords held high above
their heads. And it may be that where the little
kirk is standing, by the shelf of creamy sand, there
was a fisher settlement, a place in which the joyous
pirates kissed the girls and sailed away wherein
they differed from our friend in Mexico, whose
domesticity has almost risen to a vice ; and as their
children grew to manhood they were drawn towards
the unseen fathers, drawn to battle like their fathers,
with the distant wave, and on the other hand they
felt a chain which bound them to the silken grasses
of the motherland. Aye, through the generations
which succeeded to the Norsemen's landing there has
been a grievous conflict in the bosom of this people,
hearing now the plaintive land- voice, now the surging
water- voice : it is as on this afternoon when land and
sea are intermingled with a net of driving mist. The
foam clouds and the mist are swept across to land-
ward, charging up the grey rocks of the shore, across
the ragged road and up the meadows. Then the sea
cloud falls behind his comrade, whom the wind blows
up, blows up the emerald hill as if it were a curtain.
And it is so closely drawn that one would think we
mortals may not look upon the other side of it and
then a ray of sunlight shows that there is nothing
and the mist, once more impenetrable, thrown
athwart this island, makes one feel that it is keeping
from us a profounder mystery. And for a time the
land on every side was blotted out ; in place of it
arose a magic house, a temple built by wind and
water ; as the furtive sunlight made an entrance by
the roof it soon suspended on the pearl-grey walls a
tapestry of unimaginable brilliance, just as if the
turquoises and amethysts were strung upon a thread
of laughter. Presently one saw, far off upon the

AN ANGLO-MEXICAN PIRATE 429

right, a darker, unilluminated wall, the promontory
of Rudha Mas a' Chnuic which extends into the
shadowy sea.

And so we come to Obbe with its scattered dwellings
and its elementary small harbour on the Sound of
Harris. Here they surely tell each other some such
legends as prevail upon the outskirts of the land :
here when the gloomy tide in rolling out between
two islands bears upon its surface unaccountably a
streak of white, not passing swifter than the shadow
of a cormorant, they will relate that in the vessel
which has just gone by there went the souls of foreign
merchants and of sailors who were drowned in this
lone region ; here when sleet is driven up from the
Atlantic and across the archipelago of desolation,
it is said by some to be the pirates clad in surplices,
for having mocked at holy Church ; here when the
moaning and the lamentations pierce the night it is
the shipwrecked mariners who float up from the seas
and ask for burial in the darkness where the dear
delights of their old life will not disturb them. Surely
now the people who give ear to these and other
legends, surely they will not reject my story of the
venerable pirate ? Those two Scandinavian-looking
fishermen who loiter on the quay but over there,
that large white building is the school, and near to
such a place one cannot talk of pirates, no, not even
of retired ones.

But whatever be the deadening effect of schools, it
is absurd to throw this charge at every modern
institution. The demure young lady of the wind-
blown locks, for instance, who assists in the ad-
ministration of the little wooden post-office of Obbe
is a vestal at the shrine of strange romance. There
you may learn how difficult it was to find a Pabbay

430 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

postman Pabbay is that island which the ocean
has enticed away from all the others and how the
courageous postman undertakes this voyage once a
month, a futile journey very often till the shepherdess
of that old couple on the island took unto herself a
lover ; you may learn how frequently the mail-boat
does not stop at Rodel, which is certain miles away
upon the outermost extremity of Harris, and the
letters will be carried past you to the south, and on
the morrow when the ship returns they will be carried
past you to the north, and in the meantime, in the
post-office of Obbe, Mrs. Galbraith, the demure young
lady's mistress, is prepared to tell you savage stories
of the deep. Her memory goes back for sixty years,
when she was brought from Ireland to instruct the
boys, ' and if you wish to go back further ' through
her spectacles she blinked at me ' to go back further,
is it ? Then you need to go to Rodel and address the
green old warrior. He's the oldest one of any of us.
And you'll find him there upon his back,' she said.

I thought her tone of voice betokened an imperfect
sympathy with the afflicted gentleman. Her eyes
were positively dancing. But I was myself delighted
when she told me that he throve before the school.
. . . Well, on the gusty way to Rodel I was thinking
of the pirate whom this uncontaminated islander
would like to hear of. I would tell how the Canadian
pirate not that he admits he was a pirate came
to Mexico in 1856. ' No, before that,' said the pirate ;
c I was up and down the coast for four or five years
before that. I cut Brazil wood, dye-wood, and sent
it to Europe. I made money round the Horn, with
six or seven vessels at a time.' Then one might tell
of the political adventures of the pirate, when the
Liberal soldiers tried to shoot him ; how on one

AN ANGLO-MEXICAN PIRATE 431

occasion he was sending arms to Acapulco to the
Church's soldiers whom he thought would be
successful how the captain of a Liberal ship, a ship
of Diaz, took his two large boats, which had a value
of three thousand pesos each. ' And I accused the
man of piracy. The consequence,' said he, ' was
that my captain, an Italian, was arrested and brought
back a prisoner. I told him that I had not anything
against him, and that if he wanted to load dye-wood
I would pay him well, and he was very glad. The
other one said no, and then I had him four or five
months in the prison ; afterwards I let him out. ...
Those were the revolutionary times. Tehuantepec
was fighting Juchitan ; my name was prominent, but
Matos saved my life. They had 800 or 1000 men, by
God, and never took this place. We used to fight
like devils. Very few of them are living now yes,
very few.' One would relate how an importer of the
period contrived to get his goods, per s.s. ' El Mos-
quito,' to La Union, the port of Honduras, in which
you had to pay no custom dues ; it was a harbour of
deposit where they charged you twelve centavos for
a parcel ; as the custom-house officials were unpaid
you paid them and they went their way ; from La
Union the goods were fetched by little sailing ships.
One day, though, Maximilian's Government had got
possession of a ship of our particular importer ; it
was destined to bring arms from San Jose de Guate-
mala, and, the Liberals coming into power, a horse-
man was dispatched to San Jose to warn them not
to bring these arms. And the importer put a boat
behind a yellow cliff ; the vessel came, but as the
surf was bad one could not go aboard. For nearly
two days there was no news from the captain. The
importer went to see the military chief, Porfirio Diaz,

432 MEXICO, THE LAND OF UNREST

told him that his vessel might be bringing arms, and
if the General paid for them and paid the freight
then he could have them. ' We shall see to that,'
said Diaz. Then the captain and four other men
came off the ship at night and hid their little boat
inside a wood. They were arrested, but the captain
had not brought the arms, and then the Liberals
were angry, and they let the vessel go upon the rocks.
4 And I have never yet been paid for it,' said the
importer. ' Well, I happened to have in my house
about forty or fifty bottles of poisoned brandy and
mescal, because a force was coming up from Juchitan.
Another body under General Teran of Veracruz
came to protect the house, and so I didn't like to
leave the stuff about. I never killed a man,' he said.
4 But poisoning is very rare. It was the only thing
which I could do, you know. I lived here in a corner
house, it's torn down now. And when the Empire
caved in I was at Oaxaca, and they took at least 400
cartloads of stuff from me. When General Diaz came
down to Tehuantepec, forty years later, to open the
railway, he sent over somebody for me, because he
said that all his other old acquaintances had called
on him. I told the messenger that I would like to
kick him, and they said I was unwell. Yes, yes, the
Empire would have been successful but for the
United States. My books and papers were destroyed.
I was the only British subject ; the American
Consul came to my house, but he was summoned to
the Civil War at home. He left his archives and his
books, and they were all destroyed.'

The church of Rodel stands upon a rocky eminence
beside the sea. The Norman tower has been lately
struck by lightning, so that angels who may wish to
enter at a distance from the ground are not required

AN ANGLO-MEXICAN PIRATE 433

to fold their wings completely. And within the tower,
as we enter from a sudden fusillade of wind and rain,
a bat swerves upward. In the church a broken
window has admitted all the sea-birds, and the damp
sea air has coated with a greenery of moss that ancient
warrior who lies in his recess of curious and lovely
carvings.

2 F

EPILOGUE

TO A LITTLE ENGLISH GIRL

WHEN you begin to read, dear Isabella, it may be
that you will read this book, and as you are a lady
I must have your name upon the page you will be
sure to look at. Once upon a time the Puebla post-
man did not bring me any letters, and you said do
you remember? that I must have two of yours as
you had six inside the cupboard. Well, now you must
let me give this page, the epilogue, to you. The
postman wouldn't come, and so we spent the time
you, John and I in dancing up and down the patio
of that old hospital of the Dominicans in which your
parents used to live. We danced each morning round
the mulberry, although there was no mulberry, we
played a German game of Fraulein's which I never
understood, we played at oranges and lemons which
all people understand, for someone is a beautiful
sweet orange and the other person is a bitter lemon,
and the person whom they catch as he is walking in
between their arms, he has to choose the orange or
the lemon ; and as I was going you were sad, because
if John and you would have to play this by your-
selves one person would be walking and the other
would be standing still, and that one, so you said,
would have to be an orange and a lemon, both of

434

"Mexico City has no intention of resting satisfied."

Terry's Guide, p. 256. This photograph was taken in February, 1913.

Beside the church of La Soledad in Oaxaca.

EPILOGUE

435

them, both sweet and sour, and that is difficult. But,
Isabella, all you have to do is to be sweet.

I think a lot of people will be saying that there is
no Isabella, and that I have made it up about her,
and pretended that there is one, so that I could use
the nice word 4 Epilogue.' It isn't true, though, and
to let them see that you are real I was wanting to put
in your photograph. There are so many things, you
know, that will make people angry when they read
this book ; I should have had one little thing to
make them pleased.

GLOSSARY

[With a few exceptions there have not been put into this
glossary such words as are found only once. These are
translated in the text. When the word has several meanings
in English, that one which it has in this book is usually given
alone.]

aborto del infierno, abortion of hell.

alcaldia, office of an alcalde or jailer.

alcance, balance of an account, an 10 U.

arroba, Spanish weight of %5 Ibs.

atole (Mex. or Cuba), a gruel made by boiling Indian corn or
maize, pounded to flour, in water and also in milk.

bartolina, cell.

bejuco, pliable reed, rattan. The bejuco tree grows on the
mountain side. Its wood is like leather and with one
of the long, lithe bejuco canes, that will bend but
not break, it is said that forty men can be beaten to
death.

cabo, sergeant.

calabozo, cell.

canasto, large basket. Canastos ! int. denoting surprise or
annoyance.

capellania, pious foundation.

carbonero, charcoal-burner.

caridad, charity, alms.

carta cuenta, account of what a man owes.

cecina, dry, salt meat.

chicle, glutinous substance produced by the chicozapote tree and by
the brown apple-shaped fruit of the zapote itself. Chewing
gum. In Colima it is used to make small statues and
curious figures.

chile, American red pepper [capsicum annuum].

cohechador, lit. briber.

437

438

GLOSSARY

compadre, co-godfather, a relation of importance and scrupu-
lously observed. 1

compafiero, comrade, compeer.

cuatro, four.

diez mil, ten thousand.

directi vo, adj. directive.

domestica, female house-servant.

duque, duke.

encargado, agent, attorney, commissioner.

en fagina, obligatory and unpaid labour.

enganchado, contract labourer.

enganchador, contractor of labourers.

fabula, fable, a feigned story, a legend, rumour.

finca, farm, landed property.

floripondio, magnolia. A tree of great beauty with very large
white fragrant flowers.

frijoles (Amer.), kidney-beans [phaseolus vulgaris].

granadita, the fruit of the pomegranate tree.

hacienda, plantation, farm.

hacendado, onmer of a hacienda.

henequen^fere of the agave plant.

ingles de marras, lit. Englishman oj long ago, contemptuous
expression : that Englishman.

interventor, comptroller, supervisor.

jefatura, office (in both senses) of ajefe.

jefe politico, political head, chief; an officer subordinate to the
State governor.

juez auxiliar, assistant judge.

llano, adj. plain.

machete, long knife, cutlass, cane-knife.

manglar, plantation of mangrove trees.

mecate, rope or cord made of the maguey or American agave.

mescal, intoxicating liquor made from the maguey.

meson, inn.

mestizo, half-breed (though to be accurate it should only be

1 * As a mark of regard,' says Carl Lumholtz in ' Unknown Mexico,'
' one of the customs -officers invited me to be godfather of his child.
I had to support the baby's head during the ceremony, while an
elderly woman held the little body. According to custom I gave
25 centavos to every member of the party, and a more adequate
present to the child. From now I was called "compadre" by most
of those in the village, and that sacred relation was established
between myself and the baby's family which is deemed of so much
importance in Mexico.'

GLOSSARY 439

applied to a person whose father is white and whose

mother is Indian),
milpa (Mex.), maize-Jield, planted or unplanted. Has come to

mean the agricultural labourer's private patch of land,

which he cultivates at certain seasons,
mozo, youth, lad, man-servant.
muera ! may he die ! an exclamation,
padrino, godfather.
papaito, little father (colloquial).

patio, courtyard, open space in front of a house or behind it.
pelado, lit. plucked (colloquial), to be penniless, a nobody.
peon, day-labourer, peasant, foot-soldier, pawn.
peso, silver coin in value about 2s. and containing 100 centavos.

Usually translated as dollar Mex.
presidente del presidio, head of the house of correction, prefect

of the convicts.

pues, well then, an interjection,
pulque, native liquor (see p. 88 n,).

revista de comisario, examination by a delegate, a commissary.
scrape (Mex.), a narrow blanket worn by men or thrown over the

saddle.

soga vaquera, cowherd's rope.

soldadera, female companion of soldier, in various capacities,
sorteos de hoy, drawings of to-day (at the lottery),
soy tambien, / am also.
suplente, substitute.
tienda de raya, lit. shop within bounds ; shop of the estate where

purchase is obligatory.
tortilla (Mex.), pancake made of Indian corn, mashed and baked

on an earthen pan.
valiente, gallant, champion.
vara, rod, staff, emblem of authority.
vibora de sangre, species of viper.
vistador, travelling registrar.
viva ! may he live ! an exclamation,
volan, a box on four wheels, a Yucatecan carriage. The wheels

on one side or on both may with impunity be climbing

over boulders and making the box assume an angle of

4.5 or more degrees,
zopilote (or sopilote), buzzard, a species of hawk [vultur

aura].

A FEW NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION

(a) THE SPANISH LANGUAGE IN MEXICO

THE pronunciation of Spanish is different in Mexico from
what it is in Spain. ' Colombians and Mexicans do presume
to speak in general terms and among educated people,' I am
told by Don Federico Gamboa, the notable novelist, who has
been for some time the Mexican Minister at Brussels, 'a
better Spanish than the one spoken in Spain.' Nowadays
one hears a good many people in the Motherland who go
back to the old pronunciation of ' c ' and ' z ' before certain
vowels ; but the lisp with which the Emperor Charles V. was
burdened, and which first the courtiers and then all the
country imitated, is as yet considered by the Spanish-
Americans to be the universal practice of the Spaniards,
while they have themselves not swerved from the old method
of pronouncing 'zarzuela' and f Cervantes' just as they are
spelled, instead of f tharthuela ' and ' Thervantes.' Also the
' 11,' which generally in Spain has the sound of ' Hi ' in the
English word e million,' is in Mexico, as in Andalucia, pro-
nounced like a double y, e.g. caballo = cabay'yo and polio =
poy'yo; and 'regarding the pronunciation,' says Senor Gamboa,
*of the letter "x," the dispute has not been settled yet, and
we in Mexico insist on pronouncing it as in the olden times,
i.e. like the " j " or your English " h," for instance Oaxaca,
Xalapa. . . . There is another great difference,' he says :
f the far sweeter pronunciation of the language among us.
The Spaniards speak more roughly and close. . . . Our local
pronunciation differs between the States as in Spain between
the Provinces. I think the reason of it is an ethnological
one, on account of the various races and tribes which origin-
ally populated them.' In the State of Chiapas alone there
may be heard, according to Manuel Orozco y Berra in his
excellent 'Geografia de las Lenguas de Mexico' (Mexico,
1864), the Maya, the Lacandon, the Chanabal, the Choi, the

440

A FEW NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION 441

Punctunc, the Chiche, the Mame, the Tzotzil, the Tzendal, the
Zoque, the Mexican and the Chiapaneco languages, whereas
the Casdal, the Trokeck, the Quelen and the Zotzlen have
disappeared. Some of these are aboriginal, some were
carried by invading hosts of Mayas, some the Tzotzil and
the Tzendal were the fruit of the Toltec invasion from
Mexico to Guatemala, which in Chiapas found the Quelen,
and from that produced the other two, while the Mexican
language was introduced by Ahuizotl's army and the Chia-
paneco is perhaps the offspring of Toltec and Chiche, perhaps
it is indeed the oldest language of the new world, the
language of some colonising Nicaraguan tribes who were
governed by two military men selected by the priests. It
is apparent that the Spanish language, in so far as it is
spoken by the natives of Indian blood, has been superimposed
upon a great variety of languages, so that it will vary from
district to district. On the one hand it is thus altered from
the Spanish of the Motherland, while it is unaltered also
from the mediaeval and correcter Spanish. The variety of
people who have, more or less, adopted this old Spanish will
be understood if only from the vast divergence in develop-
ment between their native tongues ; at one end of the scale
are those which have considerable stores of folk-songs and of
sacred songs, whereas at the other end is that language of
Oaxaca to which the Illustrious Bishop Lorenzana alludes in
his pastoral of the year 1770. ( It can only be spoken/ he
says, ' by day, for each word is helped out by gestures which
cannot be observed when the light fails.'

(6) THE MAYA LANGUAGE

With regard to the pronunciation of this language, certain
sounds occur that we, with the Latin alphabet, can scarcely
reproduce. It is sufficient for the purpose of this book to
note in the first place that, answering as closely as possible
to the pronunciation, the form ' Dzitas' is employed for
that railway junction and not ' Qitas ' with an inverted C, as
in the local guide. The inversion of the letter ' e,' by the
way, is used by Dr. Jakob Schoembs of Dortmund in his
monograph ('Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Mayasprachen,'
1906) in order to represent a sound which is midway between
the German ' 6 ' and ' e.' Secondly, the ' x ' in Maya is pro-
nounced 4 sh,' so that Uxmal becomes Ushmal, and Xcumpich,

442 A FEW NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION

Shcumpich. This allusion to the Maya language is, of course,
no more than touching the fringe of a subject upon which
I am not competent to write, but for those who wish to
pursue it one may recommend the ' Chrestomatie Maya ' by
Comte H. de Charency (in the ' Actes de la Societe Philo-
logique,' Vols. XIX and XX, Paris, 1891). 'De toutes le
langues,' he says, 'de 1'Amerique Precolombienne il n'en
est guere dont 1' etude presente autant d'interet que le
Maya.' It is only in Yucatan, where Maya prevails, that it
is a general custom for the Spanish-speaking classes to
acquaint themselves, usually in childhood, with the native
language.

As was noted on their first occurrence in this book,
Chihuahua is pronounced as an Englishman would pronounce
Che-wa-wa, and Oaxaca as he would pronounce Wa-hacca.
With regard to other place-names mentioned here, the
ordinary mediaeval Spanish rule, whatever be the derivation
of the name, is applicable. Guanajuato, for instance, is
derived from Guanaxhuato, a Tarascan Indian word signify-
ing e Hill of the Frogs ' ; in a pronouncing handbook for
English readers I suppose it would be spelled Gwanachato
(the ' ch ' being as in the Scottish ' loch '). It was the custom
of Spaniards to convert the native names by catching rather
at the sound than at the sense ; thus with the Nahuatl word
Cuauhnahuac ' place of the eagle/ for they altered that
to them unpronounceable name into Cuernavaca, which in
Spanish means 'cow's horn.' The town is situated very
picturesquely on a narrow ridge, so that neither of these
names is inapposite. . . . The name of the whole country
and of the capital is pronounced in accordance with the
spelling ' Mejico,' that is to say what an Englishman would
spell phonetically Mechikko, the ( ch ' again being as in the
word 'loch.'

A NOTE ON MEXICAN WORDS IN THE
LANGUAGES OF EUROPE

IT may not be generally known that in the European
languages a certain number, perhaps eighteen, fairly common
words have come from Mexico. ' Tomatl ' is the origin of our
tomato, while our word jalap is, of course, from the town
Jalapa, or Xalapa. [White jalap from Michoacan, the root of
the Convolvulus Michoacan, is usually called Michoacan.]
And the most common of these words is chocolate, whose
derivation can be found, with a great deal of other fascinating
material, in the ' Diccionario de Aztequismos ' by Cecilio A.
Robelo (published by the author in 1904 at Cuernavaca).
Chocolate comes from #oco = sour, acrid, and atl = water,
because cocoa with water and without sweetness is very
bitter, and thus the Mexicans take it. They also call it
cacauatl = water of cocoa. The cocoa tree, whose origin is
in tropical America, is itself derived from cacahua cuahuitl :
cacahuatl (cuahuitl = tree), in distinction from cacahuate = tlaca-
cahuatl or cocoa of the ground.

443

STATES AND POPULATION OF MEXICO

STATES AND TERRI-
TORIES.

STATE CAPITAL.

ELEVATION
OVER SEA.

ABBREVIATIONS
OF STATES.

POPULATIO
OF STATES
1910.

Aguascalientes .

6280

Ags. . .

118,97

Campeche .

sea-level

Camp. .

85,79

Chiapas

Tuxtla Gutierrez .

1776

Chis. .

436,81

Chihuahua .

4600

Chi. .

405,26

Coahuila

Saltillo

5000

Coah. .

367,65

Colima

1538

Col. .

77,70

Durango

6207

Dgo. .

436,14

Guanajuato .

7000

Gto. .

1,075,27

Guerrero

Chilpancingo

3659

Gro. .

605,48

Hidalgo

Pachuca

8000

Hgo. . .

641,89

Jalisco

Guadalajara

6100

Jal.

1.202,80

Mexico

Toluca

8761

Mex. .

975,01

Michoacan .

Morelia

6200

Mich. .

991,64

Morelos

Cuernavaca .

4500

Mor. .

179,81

Nuevo Leon

Monterey .

1500

N.L. .

368,92

Oaxaca

5067

Oax. .

1,041,03

Puebla

7100

Pueb. .

1,092,45

Quer&aro .

Queretaro .

5947

Qro.

243,51

San Luis Potosf .

San Luis Potosi .

6290

S.L.P. . .

624,74

Sinaloa

Culiacan

120

Sin.

323,*

Sonora

Hermosillo .

675

Son.

262,5*1

Tabasco .

San Juan Bautista

Tab. .

183,70

Tamaulipas.

Ciudad Victoria .

1473

Tarn. .

349,25

Tepic(Ter.)

Tepic .

3069

Tepic .

171,88

Tlaxcala

7500

Tlax. .

183,80

Veracruz .

Jalapa

4609

Ver. (orV.C.)

1,124,36

Yucatan

Merida

Yuc. .

337,02

Zacatecas .

7500

Zac.

475,86

Lower California (Ter.)

La Paz

sea-level

B.C. .

52,24

Federal District .

City of Mexico .

7434

D.F. .

719,05

Quintana Roo .

Santa Cruz de

Q.R. . .

9,08

Bravo

15,063,20

444

INDEX

(The names of books and newspapers are printed in italics.)

Abelardo's post, 99
Acanceh [Yuc.], 37, 156
Acapnlco [Gro.], 261, 271
Acayucan [Ver.], 285, 286
Acuna (Manuel), the poet, 135, 338

et seq.

Agua, Prieta [Son.], 261, 262
Aguascalientes, her pitiful governor,

221, 323 n.

her young men, 273

Aguila Oil Co., 84 n., 237, 300 n.,

301 n.
Aguilar, the priest, 49

(Pablo), the master, 151

(Vicente), the flogger, 151
Aguirre on Seler, 104
Ahumada (General), 244
Albert (Dr.), 424 et seq.
Algunas Campaftas, 211
Alhondiga de Granaditas, its

inmates, 202
Alonso (Carlos), the father, 187

(Feliciano), the minor, 187, 188
- (Valentin), the minor, 187, 188
Altamirano, the poet, 353 et seq.
Alvarez (Juan), the firebrand, 354
Amabilis, the lawyer, 112
American ambassador (see Wilson)

Army, 245 and n., 319

Consul at Veracruz, 183

Americans in Mexico, 225, 246
Ancona (Abelardo), his swift end,

11 second n., 45

Ancona, the affectionate priest, 48
Andrade (Jose), notary public, 180,

181, 187, 195
Angel's hair, 128, 129
Anti-re-electionists, 263, 291, 292
Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Pro-
tection Society, 23, 155
Apaches, The plundering, 140
Aragon (General), 273
Archbishop of Yucatan, his diffi-
culties, 47, 156
Archives, Destruction of, 100
Arcobedo, an editor, 25
Argaez y Milanes (Bernabu), his

garden, 179
Argentine's debt, 298
maize, 302

Aristegui (Enrique Mufioz), his
flabbiness, 21

and the voice of reason, 22

his subservience, 24

forcible enrolment, 32

generosity, 33

departure, 52, 53

and the election, 113

the human heart, 194

Army, Forcible enrolment in, 21,
30 et seq.

445

446

INDEX

Army, the soldaderas, 123, 234
Arroyo, the half-witted, 205
Astilleros, his torture, 204
Atlixco [Pueb.], 273
Avenirdes nations ffispano-Ameri-

cainesj 318 n.
Avila(Dr.), 24

Ayala, the philanthropist, 177
Ayora (Medina), his bold face,

53 et seq.

Axolotl, The, 270 n.
Aztec governor of Tlaxcala, 123
nobles at Cholula, 130

Baca, 49

Bacon, quoted, 92 n.
Baeza, his self-defence, 184
Balsas River [Gro.], 262, 371
Bandala (Abraham), the aged

governor, 221
Baranda (Pedro), 60
Barbachano, the impresario, 18 n.,

19 n.

Barbarous Mexico, 10 et seq.
Baring (Mr.), 417
Batalla (Di6doro), the orator, 254,

255
Batres (Leopoldo), inspector and

manufacturer of antiquities, 104

et seq.

his qualifications, 109

Bazaine, 65, 66
Beerbohm's caricature, 37
Belem, 11 second n., 15, 16,

314 n.
Betancourt (Dr. ), Inaccessibility of,

Blackwood's Magazine, quoted, 47 n.
Blake, railway manager, 21, 51,

170
Blanco (Daniel), his madness, 27

Blanquete (Colonel), and the burn-
ing Mayas, 6 n.

Bourget, Reference to, 277

Braham (D.D.), his awful admis-
sion, 39

his experience in Russia,

Braniff (Oscar), 263

Bravo (General Ignacio), 4 n. et seq.,
21

British Charge d 'Affaires, 319 n.

Consul at Laguna, 144, 145
Merida, 35

General, 314 n.

dominion, Native of, 163, 164

Honduras, Native of, 19
its neighbour, 4 n.

Minister, 17, 41, 302, 314 n.

sea captain, 35

ships and Yucatan, 295 n.

Vice-Consul, 314 n.
Buchanan (James), of U.S.A.,

295 n.
Bullfighter, Advantage of being a,

100, 101
Bulnes (Francisco), the historian,

254, 318 n.
Burgos (Miguel), Pursuit of, 151,

152

Cabrera (Estrada), of Guatemala,

202, 222, 223
(Miguel), of Puebla, 205,

226

Cahuantzi (Colonel Prospero), 228
Calderon (F. Garcia), 216 second n.
Calderon de la Barca (Madame),

129, 390, 410
Calero (Manuel), 279, 293
California, 6, 317, 325
Camacho (Sebastian), 418 and n.

INDEX

447

Camara (Raymundo) and his
orchard, 175

y Camara, 134

Campeche, alleged custom of her
barbers, 7

her fauna. 9
desolation, 29

Notice in a church of, 46

Barandas of, 60

144 et seq., 342, et passim

Can (Juan Pablo), his deposition,
195, 196

(Santiago), his information,
195 et seq.

Cananea [Son.], 246

Canche (Antonio) and the refugee,
173

Canedo, 425

Canto (Quintin), opposed to
marriage, 160, 161

Canton (Delio Moreno), the candi-
date, 44, 112, 113

(General), his kindness, 48
Capitan (Monsieur), 107, 108
Carbajal (Judge), 263, 265
Carillo (Antonio), his career, 44
Carlyle quoted, 199
Carranza the imperialist, 356

(Venustiano), 283

Carrillo (Cristobal), the hunter,

198

Carroll (Lewis), 248 n.
Casasus, the Ambassador, 136
Casares (Manuel), the unprotected,

172

Casoni (A.F.), quoted, 241
Castillo, his families, 48

Isidro, his head, 25

Catmis [Yuc.], Life at, 51, 183,

420 n.

Cemetery, higher and lower, 201
Censorship, 14, 35, 41, 42, 230

first n.

Centro Electoral Independiente,

110 et seq.

Cerdan (Aquiles), 226, 229
CerroPrieto [Chi.], 267
Cervantes, an old family, 130
Chacmay [Yuc.], fine old farm,

166

Chapultepec, 222, 360, 361
Character of Mexicans, x et seq.,

391
Charles III. (King), 273 n.

V. and the language, 440
Chatham (Lord), quoted, 294
Chavero (Alfredo), his drama, 61,

Chi, the avenged, 150
Chiapas, Monuments in, 104

tolerance of her police, 203

260, 271 n.

Chichen Itza [Yuc.], 156, 170
Chichi [Yuc.], property of Molina,

187
Chihuahua, her size, 127

land of Terrazas, 136

her peculiar governor, 137

31, 65, 211, 216 first n., 229 et
seq., 236 et passim

Children, their absurd treatment,

141

Chilip [Yuc.], a farm, 166
Chilon [Chis.], Atrocities at, 203
Chilpancingo [Gro.], 261, 345, 369
Chim (Marcelino), the cow-herd, 181
Chinese in Torreon, their plight,

xi, 306

in Quintana Roo, their plight,
6n.

Cholula [Pueb.], 130

Chouse], secretary to P. Diaz, 82

Church in Mexico, its disgrace, 50 n.

its power, 70 et seq.

283, 284, 322, 331

in Yucatan, its condition, 46

448

INDEX

Cientificos, 80, 131, 171, 172, 216

and second n., 247, 289, 298, 299
'Cinco de Mayo,' 421
Cirerol (Manuel), the destroyer, 149,

150
Ciudad Juarez [Chi.], 235, 242,

248 n., 263, 266 et seq., 292
Ciudadela, 211
Classes in Mexico, 77 et seq.
Clough (A. H. ), quoted, 52
Coalmila, 216 first n., 222, 229,

236, 283

Coatepec [Ver.], 291
Cock-fighting, 49, 392, 393
Coignard (Abbe 1 ), quoted, 322
Colima, her police, 91

and her governor, 277, 278

238

Comonfort (President), 70, 267 n.
Confession in Yucatan, 169

Unheard, of Velasquez, 205
Congress, Mexican House of, 251 et

seq. t 278 et seq., 354, 361, 362
Conkal [Yuc.], 151
Constitution, Invoking of the, 119,

221

long disregarded, x, xiii, 265

at elections, 289

being made, 1354
Constitutional, 70, 79, 119 et seq.,

215

Contradictions in Mexico, 201, 211
Convent life (see Puebla)
Coreans in Yucatan, 159 and n.
Coria (Manuel), the old gentleman,

275

Corona (General), 65, 244, 419
Corral (Ramon), his exertions, 138

et seq.

and the brothel, 140

his unpopularity, 215 et seq.,

232, 271
his mode of life, 231

Corral (Ramon) and Diaz, 259,
260

Vanishing of, 276

Correo Espanol, El, quoted, 142
Correspondent, Le, quoted, 71 n.
Cortes, how considered, 349 n.
Cosio (General), 32, 248, 250
Cota (Claudimiro), 421

(Colonel), 421
Covarrubiaa (Miguel), 337 n.

the poet, 337 and n., 340
Cowdray (Lord) and the Pope's

advice, 84 n.

his reputation, 236, 237

his firm, 237 n.

his hope, 255

and Acayucan, 285, 286

and the slaughtered Indians, 2S6

his colossal concessions, 300 u. ,
301 n.

and Madero, 301 n.

and his convictions, 302
Cravioto, 425

Creelman (James), of U.S.A., 10,

22, 69, 71 et seq., 81, 110, 111,

130, 223

Croatia's Banus, Analogy of, 295 n.
Croix (Viceroy Carlos Francisco de),

4 n.

Cromwell, quoted, 150
Cuauhtemoc, 216, 218
Cuautla [Mor.], Looting at, 306
Cubans, their corruption, 209,

297 n.

their alleged vileness, 233 first u.

man of war, 323 n.

Cuellar (Colonel Samuel Garcia), 215
Cuernavaca [Mor.], 29, 107, 234 n.,

261, 273 et seq.
Cuitiin the Maya, 24
Cunninghame Graham, quoted,

xi n.
Curiel (General), 52, 112

INDEX

449

Current Literature, quoted, x, 42
Cusi (Dante), the Italian, 136

Daily Graphic, quoted, 287
Daily Mail and The Times, 264
their special correspondent,

265, 290

their master-stroke, 289

Daily News, quoted, 301 n.
Danish peasants and their priests,

46 n.

Dante, Surmise as to, 37
Dario (Ruben), of Nicaragua, 363

and n. .
Darling (Mr. Justice), his method,

xiii, 22
some of his critics, 36

second n. , 37 n.

and the bottle, 36 second n.

his jokes, 36 second n.,

37 11.
Chances of removal of,

his appearance, 39 n.

De Charency (Comte H. ), 442

De la Barra (Francisco), 42 n.,

205 n., 250, 276, 301 n., 303,304,

313 etseq., 322
De la Cadena (General), 420
De la Torre, the profligate, 150
De Lamadrid (Enrique 0.), 278
De Villiers, 276
Debts of the Indians, 148, 153
Decorations, 8, 108, 342, 407
Dehesa (Teodoro), 117, 190, 220,

238, 250, 251
Del Pozo (Augustin), his statement,

297 n.

Del Rio, Widow of, 138
Democracy in Mexico, 73 et seq.,

223, 257, 270 n., 281
2 G

Deputies, Burning of House of, 100

and suplentes, 309
Deputy, The dead, 124
Diario, El, its art editor, 12, 13
Diario Oficial, its bombast, 29
Diario Yucateco, El, its circulation,

and the evil spirit, 23 etseq.

its acquaintance with

prison, 25

warning and exulta-
tion, 38, 38 n.

beloved editor, 53

absurdities, 191

Diaz (Bernal), 233 second n.

(Carmen R. de), 266, 286, 324

('Chato'), 133

(General Felix), 133, 218 and n.,
293 n., BIB etseq.

(President Porfirio), generally,
ix et seq.

and Bravo, 4 n.

his favouritism, 7

and Creelman, 10, 71 et seq.

rebukes Yaquis, 10

* Czar of Mexico,' 12

and Mata, 16

his system, 19 n.

and 0. Molina, 24

on telegraphing, 35 n.

and The Times, 42

his prestige, 43

considered by Lerdo de

Tejada, 56 et seq.

and Justice, 56 n., 101

Oaxaca, 58 et seq. , 229

his tears at station, 58

at Icamole, 60

233 first n.

head and ears, 60

promises, 66

and re-election, 66, 7etseq.

foreigners, 66, 75

450

INDEX

Diaz (President Porfirio), and the

Church, 70 et seq.

democracy, 73 et seq.

on the different classes, 77

etseq., 130
compared with King of

Montenegro, 80 n.
and the cientificos, 80,

131

as hacendado, 88

and the archives, 100

an election, 110 et seq.

governors, 115 et seq.

Dehesa, 190

how imagined, 199

and Paz, 211

the revolution, 214 et

seq.
Madero, 221, 222, 322

et seq.
his ' friends,' 233, 258

etseq., 272

Corral, 231, 232

the troops, 245, 262

merchant, 260

his resignation, 264 et seq.

and Figueroa, 271

his letter to the Chamber,

280

his flight, 285 et seq.

and Huerta, 287 et seq.

his deafness, 361

principles, 381

career, 405 et seq.

and Woolrich, 431, 432

(Porfirito), 241, 416

(Primitivo), 25, 94 et seq.

Dufoo, 128 n.
Diccionario de Aztequismos, 443
Dictamen El, on Yucatan, 190, 192
Dolores [Gto.], 346 and n., 349
'Dos de Abril,' Discussion of vic-
tory of, 63, 64

Douglas, U.S.A., 262
Drame Mexicain, Le, 241
Durango, 239, 261, 268 n.
Dynamite, Importation of, 171, 172
Dyott (G. M.), the aviator, 18 n.,

19 n.
Dzil (Desiderio), shopkeeper and

judge, 186
Dzitas[Yuc.], 20

Eagle Oil Co. (see Aguila Oil Co.)
Ebnakan [Yuc.], 38
Education, 209, 281, 282, 353

at one's peril, 157, 1^8
El Faro, 88, 89 -

El Paso [Chi.], 34
Elagabalus, his days, 382, 383
Elizaga ('Chato'), his attempt,

102
Elizalde (Pedro), his enterprise,

27 n., 28 n.
Emerson, quoted, 276
Emigration from Mexico, 239
Enganchados, Hiring of, 87 et seq.

Life of, 87 et seq.

Death of, 333, 334
Ensenada[B.C.], 247 n.
Epatlan, Action of, 60
Escalante (Eusebio), 49
Escamilla (Juan), the hunter, 197,

198

(Transito), the hunter, 197,
198

Escoffie', his printing house, 174
Espita[Yuc.], 20

Esquivel (Asuncion), why flogged,
185

(Mauricia) and the threat, 167
Evidence, Value of author's, xii,

6 et seq.
Exaggeration, Courteous, 17

INDEX

451

Fernandez, senile Minister of Jus-
tice, 92, 93

Fernandez Boo (Benigno),the sailor,
26, 27

(Manuel), the convict, 25, 26

Ferraez (Ricardo), the administra-
tor, 196, 197

Figaro, Le, 229

Figueroa (Ambrosio), 261, 262, 271,
272

Flandrau (Charles), his humorous
book, 9, 13, 128 n.

Flogging, Orgy of, 26

Governor on, 28

for not having kissed, 155, 164

at San Antonio, 174

at Noh-nayum, etc., 180 etseq.,
190

Flores (Damian), 261, 262

Magon, 82, 224, 249 n.
Forced labour, 143, 155, 165 et

passim.
Foreigners in Mexico, 66, 75, 76,

102, 122, 299, 300, 319 and n.,

391, 416, 417
Fornaro (Carlo de), 12, 13
' Friends of General Diaz,' 233, 258

etseq., 272

Froissart, his methods, 306, 307
Fuero (General), 410

Gadow (Dr.), 371 n.
Galicia, Natives of, 95
Galvan (General), 67
Gamboa (Federico), 440
Garfield (James R.), quoted, 41
Garibaldi (Giuseppe), 241, 268
Garvin (J. L.), on The Times, 264
Garza Bolardo (Leonardo), 24 et seq.
Gas-engine, Attempted sale of, 165

Genest (Saint), 34 n.
Gentlewoman, The, quoted, 37 n.
Gfeographia de lasLenguas de Mexico,

440
German Club, Ostracism at, 108

Consul's daughters, 243, 407

Minister, 314 n.

Gilbert (Sir William), Reference to,

267 n.
Gillow (Dr. Eulogio), the successful

Archbishop, 333

Gobernacion, Minister of, 6 n., 251
Godoy, his absurdity, 9, 10
Goetschel (Messrs.), 16
Gongora (Father), his merits, 8, 9
Gonzalez (Abraham), of Chihuahua,

299

(Camilo), of the Telegraph, 34
and n.

(Fernando), the governor, 288,
289

(President Manuel), 73, 288,
289, 381, 382

(Obregon), the thief, 202
Governor, Somnolence of a, 123
Governors, how chosen by Diaz,

115 et seq.

Grantham (Mr. Justice), 37 n.

Green (Michael) and the retribu-
tion, 183

Grey (Sir Edward, K.G.), 18

Guadalajara [Jal.], 225, 244, 277

Guanajuato [Gto.], the circus, 131

its thievish governor, 202

the prisoners, 202

263, 293, 349, 351

Guardia Nacional, 113

Guatemala, place of refuge, 202

(see Estrada Cabrera)
Guerra (J. M.), praised, 164
Guerrero (the State), 261, 271 and

n., 348, 353 et seq., 359 et seq.

(General), 349

452

INDEX

Gutierrez (David), his deposition,
195 et seq.

(Salvador), the prefect, 274,
275

Najera (Manuel), 358 and n.

Hahn, late British Consul, 144,

145

Havana, 36, 144
Henequen, how price affects

labourers, 152

Payment for cutting, 185,
186

Hernandes (Dr. Fortunate) on

the Indians, 142
Hernandez (Colonel), director of

prison, 28 n.

(Dr. Francisco), 3

(Gabriel), 324

(Ignacio), 173, 174
- (Rafael), 293

Herrera (Buenaventura), the de-
nouncer, 174

(Carlos), the jefe, 422, 423

(Felipe), the agent, 196
Hidalgo (the State), 425

the patriot, 132, 210, 211, 214,
215, 218, 227, 259, 263, 346 n.,
348 et seq.

Historia de los Indios, 162
Honduras, Clothing of delegates
from, 219

British, its neighbour, 4 n.

its natives, 19, 163, 164

Honour, Legion of, 108

Aristegui's, 28

Hospital at Cueinavaca, 234 n.
Hospitality, Unavoidable requital

of, 193, 194

Huajuapam [Oax.], 233 first n.
Huamantla [Tlax.], opp. 285

Huerta (Prov. President Victori-
ano), 218 n., 285, 287 et seq., 313
et seq.

Huichols, 134

Humboldt quoted, 273 n.

Icamole [Oax.], 60, 410
Iglesias (President de jure Jose),

63, 411

Ignorance of Mexico, 199, 200
Iguala [Gro.], 262, 359, 368, 369
Impartial, El, 105, 128 n., 217,

233, 240, 241, 255, 256, 279,

282, 283
In Exile, 56

In Southern Mexico, 371 n.
Inde [Dgo.], 417
Independence, Destruction of Act

of, 100

Impending loss of, 317 et seq.
Indians (see also Slaves)

Social ambitions of, 130

the nobles, 130, 146

their trousers, 132

Docility of, 132 et seq.

Morality of, in Yucatan, 133

investigated by Menendez, 146

their conservatism, 290, 311

and Madero, 321

Poet of the, 353 et seq.
Indigo ponds, Exploitation of, 165
International Harvester Co., 170,

171

Irabien (Manuel de), xi, xii, 182
Irapuato [Gto.], 207, 386
Irrigation, 396
Ituarte, 425

Iturbide, the Emperor, 214
Izabal of Sonora, 139, 246 and n.
Izamal [Yuc.], 49, 160
Iztaccihuatl, 365

INDEX

453

Jalapa [Ver.], 57 n., 98, 99,

363

Jalisco, 58, 133, 222
- [Chis.], 206
Jamaica, Labourers from, 144,

145

Japan, Consular courts in, 102
Japanese and the Coreans, 159 n.

and a treaty, 247

Jaxon (Honore J.), the firebrand,

249 n.
Jefe politico, An upright, 90

A venal, 93, 159, 160

his amazement, 134

A good, 193, 194

and the minors, 194, 195

Jiminez y Muro (Dolores), the

assaulted authoress, 15 n.
Jockey Club, 140, 218
Journalists in Mexico, passim
Juarez (President Benito), 7, 14, 56

et seq., 211, 233 n., 241, 254,

258, 294, 331, 405, 409

(Benito), the son, 293 n.
Juchitan [Oax.], 133, 431, 432
Justice in Nicaragua, 37 n.

Diaz uncertain as to, 56

Porfirian, Precautions against,
101

Foreigners protest against,

102

and Burgos, 151, 152

her minister, 377
Juvenal, A modern, 37 n.

Kankanba [Yuo.], where Mayas

were tamed, 168
Kansas City, Mexico and Orient

Railway, 84 n.

Lacroix (Benito), inspector of
monuments, 104

Lagtina [Camp.], 145

Land problem, 249 n., 270, 287,
303 n., 313, 318 n.

Landa y Escandon (Guillermo de),
8 first n., 115 n., 219, 259, 301 n.

Laredo, Texas, 224, 420

Lassalle, Resemblance to, 343, 344

Latin America : its Rise and Pro-
gress, 216 second n.

Latouche (Francis), 329 n.

Law Reports quoted, 40

Leon (Jose Fernandez de), pro-
fessor, 209, 210

Lerdo de Tejada (Miguel), 57

(Sebastian), 56 et seq., 241,

254, 411

Lima de Vulcano, La, quoted, 212,

391
Limantour (Jose Yves), Mrs.

Tweedie and his teeth, 8 first n.

in Paris, 43

as to his father, 130

the financier, 137, 138,

217
and the revolution, 229,

230 first n., 231, 248 et seq., 259

etseq., 270, 280, 281,291,301 n.

(Julio), 138

Limon, former secretary of Diaz,

423

Linares [N.L.], 305
Lorenzano (Bishop), 441
Lotteries, 177, 282, 298, 321, 378

et seq.

Loubat (Due de) and Batres, 106
Louis XI, quoted by Lerdo, 59
Low (Maurice), 245 n.
Lower California, 240, 241, 247 n.,

255, 269, 298

class, The, 77 et seq.

454

INDEX

Lozada, Tiger of Alica, 67, 68
Lozano, the deputy, 253
Lujan (Manuel), 301 n.
Lumholtz (Carl), 9, 13, 206
Luque (General), 235 and n., 242

Maas (General), in the suburb, 100
Macaulay, quoted, 316
MacDonald (F. A.), of British

dominion, 163, 164
MacDonall, the critic, 343
Macedo (Miguel), 217, 218

(Pablo), 217, 218, 299
Madero (Ernesto), the Minister, 293

(President Francisco) and Mrs.
Tweedie, 8 and n.

his propaganda, 23, 220,

238, 239

and the States, 103, 135

and the women, 166

Voting for, 215, 216 first n.

Enthusiasm for, 218

personal habits, 220

his escape, 224

his plans, 227, 228

proclaimed Provisional

President, 235

and volunteers, 240

and the resignation of

Diaz, 264 et seq.

and the Church, 284

and his Ministers, 292

et seq.
and concessions, 300 u. ,

301 n.

and Lord Cowdray, 301 n.

his prestige, 303

and Reyes, 304

and the Catholics, 305

his murder, 315

and freedom, 316

Madero (President Francisco)
summed up, 321 et seq.

(Gustavo), 315

(Raoul), 268 n.
Magdalena Bay [B.C.], 247 n.
Malpaso[Chi.], 231
Mancera (Gabriel), 380, 381
Manterola, the postmaster, 36 first

Manzanilla (Camilo), notary pub-
lic, 184

Marcus Aurelius, quoted, 3

Marihuana, 15 n.

Mariscal, Foreign Minister, 58, 96

Marquez (General Leonardo), 64,
337 n.

Martin (Percy F.), his ignorance,
11 n., 12 n.

Martinez (General Ignacio), his
death, 7, 420

(General Mucio), 226, 242 et
seq., 424

the Under-Secretary of "War,
422, 423

Mata (Filomeno), the old writer,

16 and n.
Mateos (Manuel), the improvisor,

354

Maudslay (A. P.), 9, 14, 108, 109
Maximilian, 14, 214, 319 n., 349,

431
Maya (see also 'Slaves' and

' Indians ')

how treated by Bravo, 4 n. et
seq.

language, 162

servility, 182
Mazatlan [Sin.], 266
Melero y Pina, 263

Mejia (General), his granddaughter,
271

Mena (F. Gonzalez), Jalapa's law-
yer, 98

INDEX

455

Mendicuti (Isidro), the leper, 157,
158

Mendoza, the priest, 49

Menendez (Carlos R.), his investi-
gations, 146

Meredith's hope, 37 n.

Merida, 18 n., 19 n., 44 et passim

Mescal, what it is, 88 n.

Mexican Herald, The, its pro-
Diaz protests, 90, 91

quoted, 108, 135, 247 n.,

299 n., 300 n.
Letter to, 193

considered, 227, 228, 276

Mexico, her reputation, 222

progress, 281, 282

debt, 298

future, 317 et seq.

Mexico, by Ward, 319 n.

Mezquita, the rich man, 49

Miahuatlan [Oax.], 409

Michoacan, her senile governor,
221

Milne (Mr.), 314 n.

Middle class, The, 77 et scq., 130

Mir (Father) and the candles, 47

Bombardment of, 48

Miramon, 84

Mitla [Oax.], 105, 106, 147

Mobile, 35

Moliere, quoted, 306

Molina (Audomaro), 167, 172 et
seq. , 185 et seq.

(Dr. Augusto) and the saints,
168, 169

- (Dr. Ignacio), 167, 175, 176

(Isabel), her statue, 166, 167

(Jose Trinidad), 169, 178 et seq.

(Juan), the lawyer, 155

- (Luis Demetrio), the jefe, 81,
32, 168, 169

- (Olegario), 18 et seq., 51, 136,
166 et seq.

Molina (Ricardo), his ambitions, 22

his flight, 23, 53, 54

aunt, 30

cables, 38

gold, 38

sarcasm, 40

Mondragon (General), his activi-
ties, 248 n.

Monks, Spanish, and the natives,
165

Monroe Doctrine, 319

Monte Alban [Oax.], Buried antiqui-
ties on, 109

Montero, the old man, 32

Monterrey [N.L.], 221, 223, 293,
301, 302

Montes (Avelino;, 44, 45, 99, 170,
171

Mora the Archbishop, 69

Morelos, the State, 201, 293, 305

the patriot, 348, 349

Moreno (Benigno Palma), the
hunter, 148, 149

y Buenvecino (Jose" M.), 347
Morley (John), quoted, 282
Motolinia (Friar), quoted, 162
Motul [Yuc.], 149, 169, 187
Moya (Luis), 239, 261
Muna[Yuc.], 31, 152

Mundo, EL, Premature announce-
ment in, 205
Murder, Exact price of, 87

in Siualoa, Common cause of,
88 n.

Murderers, Orchestra of, 23
Museum, Berlin, Advantage of, 107

Names, how given to Indians, 134,

176 n.

Napoleon and Lord Cowdray, 286
Nation, TJie, quoted, 37 n.

456

INDEX

Navarre (General), 231, 234, 242,
248 n., 267 and n.

Navy of Mexico, 336

Negrete, Tiger of S. Julia, 236

Neri, La, 261, 271

New Trails in Mexico, 13

New York Evening Post, quoted,

281

New York Times, quoted, 11, 42
New Zealand, Analogy of, 303 n.
Nicholas of Montenegro, 80 n.
Nicholson (Mr.), of The Times,

Noecker, the German girl, 407
Noh-nayum, home of Tec, 181
Noriega (Inigo), the briber, 101
Nueva Era, 300 n., 301 n.
Nuevo Leon, 223, 387
Nuttall (Mrs. Zelia), 105 et seq.

Oaxaca, 58, 59, 93, 94, 132, 293 n.,

406 et passim
Obregon (Esquivel), 263
O'Connor (T. P.), 237, 286
Ojinaga [Chi.], 242
Okop, Lake of, 5 n.
Old Taylor Co., 373 n.
Olea (Hipolito), the barrister, 204
Opposition, Amazement at, 80,

Fate of leaders of, 80 n.,
283

Opulence in Mexico, 129
Ordonez (Emilio), 11 n., 424 n.
Orizaba [Ver.], 10, 193, 194, 228,

296,302, 421 etseq.
Orozco (Pascual), 230 etseq., 240,

242, 268 n., 276, 297 n.

y Berra (Manuel), 440
Ortiz, the eminent priest, 49

Pachuca [Hgo.], 27 n., 28 n., 226,

266, 274, 372 n.

Pais, El, quoted, 6 n., 27 n., 203,
211, 243 n.

its power, 15, 16

its editor, 56 n.

temporarily suppressed, 191,

192

The censor and, 230

Attitude of, 284

Paladin, El, its suppression, 15,

Palenque [Chis.], 104
Palo Blanco [Oax.], Proclamation

at, 66

Palomeque (Dr.), 20, 45, 183, 184
Pankhurst (Eduardo), 423
Panza (Sancho), recalled, 125, 188
Paper, its price, 240 n., 241. n.
Parral [Chih.], 268 n.
Patria, La, 69

Patzcuaro [Mich.], Lake of, 132
Pauncefote (Lord) and Romero, 60
Pausanias, Letter of, 63
Paz (Ireneo), ex-friend of Diaz, 69,

211

Pearson and Son, Ltd., 285, 286
Pech (Anastacio), why flogged, 184,
185

(Loreto), 185

(Maria Jesus), the grandmother,
187, 188

(Pedro), chained up, 186
Pelote, 393, 394
Peninsular, El, 172
Penitenciary in Yucatan, 19 n., 23

et seq.
Peon (Alvaro), 164

(Augusto) and the balls, 32
and the human heart, 189

et seq.

INDEX

457

Peon (Carlos), 184

(Ignacio), 143 et seq.

(Joaquin), champion of Yucatan,
11, 12

(Rafael), his Indians, 28 n.
Perez (Carmen), the farmer, 152
Perez Ponce (Tomas), the lawyer,

172 et seq., 184 ctseq., 195
Peru and her lotteries, 379 n.
Peto [Yuc.], 6 n.
Petroleum World, The, and the

Pope, 84 n.

Peza (Juan de Dios), 339, 340
Philip II. of Spain, 3
Phillimore (Mr. Justice), 36 second n.
Phillips (Sir Claude), quoted, 37
Pineda (Rosendo), 289, 299
Pino, promoted, 235
Pino Suarez, 292, 314
Pinto, horrible disease, 271 and n.
Pita, the jefe, 93, 243 n.
Pixyah [Yuc.], Indignant girl at, 47
Plancarte, Bishop of Cuernavaca,

107
Plongeon (Dr. le), his discoveries,

37,38
Police, Dullness of Mexican, 97

Great improvement in, 97, 98
Pollard (Hugh), quoted, 287
Poot (Justo). 28 n.

(Matilde), and her husbands,
189, 190

Popocatepetl, 365
Post Office and the public, 200, 201
Praise, Reward for, 21
Presbyterian, The, and Molina, 169
Priests in Yucatan, 7 et seq., 162

and the Press, 15

Prieto (Guillermo), the poet, 348

Progreso [Yuc.], 18 n., 19 n., 35,

52 et passim
Progress in thirty years, 124 et seq.

Protesta de Yucatan, 295 n.
Protestants, Corean, 159 n.
Puebla [Pueb.], its jefe, 93, 238

Voting in, 120, 121

Convent life in, 141

226, 238, 266, 272, 297 n.
Puga y Sosa (Galbino), notary

public, 184

Puig (Antonio), his marriage, 48
Pulque, 84 n., 117, 146, 243 n., 259
Punch, quoted, 36 second n.

Queretaro [Qro.], 70, 238, 293, 356
Quintana Roo, the territory, xii,
let seq., 26, 149, 345

(Andres), 295 n., 345 et seq.

Quixote (Don), recalled, 125

Radovich, his Mexican fate, 80 n.
Railway affairs, 138 and n., 231,
260, 321

and religion, 169

in warfare, 245

Ramirez, his suicide, 190 et seq.
Ramos (Jose" Sanchez), the hacen-

dado, 88

Raumer (von), quoted, 46 n.
Real del Monte [Hgo.], 373 n.
Red Cross, Mexican, 234, 270, 271,

281

Redo (Diego), 115 n., 222
Re-election, 66, 74 et seq., 215, 218,

220, 251 etseq., 290
Regii (Luis de), 21
Reguera (Pedro), a chemist, 26
Renter, his late correspondent, 109
Revista de Comisario, 26
Revism de Merida, La, 22, 174, 176
Reyes (General Bernardo), 4, 223,

458

INDEX

224, 250, 265, 296 et seq., 303 et

seq., 316

Ricoy (Sefiorita), her lover, 205
Rio Blanco [Ver.], 227, 422
Rio Grande [Chi., etc.], 313
Rio Papaloapam [Oax.], 331
Rios (Manuel), the clerk, 155, 189

et seq.
Riva Palacio, cultivated general,

346
Rivera (Agustin), his criticism, 125,

126

(Felipe), the shopkeeper, 178,
179, 186

Roads, 371 n. et seq.

Robelo (Cecilio A.), 443

Robinson -Wright (Mrs. Marie), her
optimism, 9

Robles (Pancha), the lady slave-
dealer, S7 etseq., 333

her son, 89, 90

Romero (Matias), the economist,
58 et seq.

Rubio and the judges, 101
Rosado, the lawyer, 286
Root (Elihu), 223, 296
Rousseau, quoted, 191 n.

Ruiz (Pablo), the major-domo, 30,

Rurales, 268, 323 n.
Russian Characteristics, 204

Sacmcte", its currency, 178, 179
Saint Bernard, quoted, 233 first n.

Lawrence, 398 et seq.

Vincent Ferrer, 377

Salazar de B. (Petrona), her letter,

176, 177

Salina Cruz [Oax.], 370
Salm-Salm (Princess), 62 n.
Saltillo [Coah.], 263, 341, 342, 345

San Antonio, Flogging at, 174
Texas, 245, 305

Ignacio [Camp.], 144

Isidro [Yuc.], 151

JuanfYuc.], 187

de los Lagos [Jal.], 388

de Ulua, 11 second n., 28 n.,

29 n., 80, 2S5etseq.

Luis Potosi [S.L.P.], 62, 65, 66,
109, 222, 223, 323 n.

Patricio [Camp.], 145
Sanchez (Fernando), his fate, 45

the servant, 105

Ancona (Juan), 300 n.

Santos (Trinidad), 56 n., 284

Solis, codex, 107

Santa- Anna (President), 84, 254
Santo Tomas, Teaching at College

of, 126

Sarabia, the failure, 287
Saville (Marshall), his monumental

books, 9, 13, 14
Scherer (Madame), her luggage,

128 n.

(Messrs.) and the lOU's, 138
Schroder (Messrs. J. Henry & Co.),

38, 39
Scutari prison and S. Juan de Ulua,

80 n.

Secret-service men, 43 et seq., 415
Seler (Prof. ), the German, 104<rt seq.
Sierra (Justo), 341
Sinaloa, 84 n., 88 n., 222, 425
Slaves in Yucatan, 144 et seq., 153,

154, 161

procured by Pancha Robles, 87
Smallpox, its treatment in Me

and Russia, 203, 204
Society of Workmen, 22
Soldaderas, 123, 234
Soldiers, how enrolled, their inef

ciency in Yucatan, 21, 30 et

INDEX

459

Soldiers, their pay, 261, 263
Solis (Andres), the inspector, 170

(Judge), 26
Sonora, 231, 232
Sosa (Luisa), 48

Soso (Miguel Gonzalez), the farmer,

160, 161

Southey on Palenque, 104
Spain, Theatrical tribute to, 96
Spaniard, the grandee, 140
Spaniards in Yucatan, 27, 46, 47

in Puebla, 266

in Mexico, 319
Spectator, The, quoted, 319
Spies in Merida, 44
Spindola (Reyes), 240, 241
Standard Oil Co., 265, 281, 301 n.
Stilwell (Arthur E.), 84 n.
Stringer (Mr.), 314 n.

Stronge (Mr. F. W.), 314 n.
Suarez (Rogelio), the son-in-law,

27, 171, 180 etseq.
Sufragio, El, 110
Surnames in Mexico, 176 n.

Tabasco, 50, 221, 260, 283, 361
Tacubaya [D.F.], 150, 337 n.
Taft (President) and intervention,

300 n., 318
Tamaulipas, 31, 291
Tamborrel (Colonel), the usurer,

266, 267
Tampico [Tarn.], Nursemaid's lover

at, 164 n.

Tapachula [Chis.], 202
Tapia (General), 273, 296
Tarahumares, their religion, 46
Tec (Tomas), his flogging, 180,

181

Tecoac [Tlax.], 69
Tecoh [Yuc.], its priest, 46, 48

Tehuantepec [Oax.], 285, 286, 427

et seq.

Tekax [Yuc. ], Decapitation near, 149
Telegraphing, Difficulties of, 14,

34, 35

Diaz on, 35 n.
Telegraphs, Absence of, 145

Officials of, 34
Teotihuacan, Pyramids of, 106,

222 n.

Tepechualco [Ver.], 285, 288
Tepic, 68, 132
Terence, quoted, 148 n.
Terra Nova (Duke of), 367
Terrazas (General Luis), the

millionaire, 136

the son, 137

Terry's Mexico, quoted, 381
Tetzitz, Syringing at, 193
Texcoco [D.F.], 270 n., 365
Thucydides, quoted, 63
Ticul [Yuc.], 44, 195
Tiempo, El, 108, 284
Tierra Blanca [Ver.], 356
Times, The, x, xiii, 17 n., 38 et seq.,
216 first n., 236, 237 n.

Omission from, 39
Tixcancal [Yuc.], Procedure at, 168
Tixkokob [Yuc.], 48, 174

Tixtla [Gro.], 353
Tizimin [Yuc.], 47 et seq.
Tlaxcala, 130, 227, 228
Tolstoi and re-election, 254
Toluca [Mex.], 288, 354
Tonala[Chis.], 11
Toro (General), 64
Torreon [Coah.], xi, 171, 261, 306
Torres (General), 139, 245 and n.

(Juan), the Mexican, 183
Tortolero (Padre), his punishment,

205

Tower (Sir Reginald, K.C.M.G.), 17,
18, 302

460

INDEX

Tres Marias [Mor. and Tep.], 366

and n.
Truth, Mexican Government and

the, 5, 41, 313 et seq.

as to Yaquis in Yucatan,
10

and Mrs. Tweedie, 13

Unpalatable, and The Times,
43

Various sorts of, 407
Tuberculosis, Where to catch,

30
Turkish pedlars, 6 n.

showman, 389, 390

women, 235 n,

Turner, his Barbarous Mexico, 10

et seq.
Tuxtepec[0ax.], 16, 87 etseq., 211,

264, 329, 334
Tuyim (Francisco and Gertrudis),

174, 175
Tweedie (Mrs. Alec), her fierce

sarcasm, 7, 8
her approximation to the

truth, 13
and the water - sprite,

286 n.

discussed, 409 et seq.

Tzabcan [Yuc.], home of Tuyims,

174
Tzintzuntzan [Mich.], 125

Universal, El, 172
Unknown Mexico, 13
Upper classes, The, 77 et seq.
Urquidi (Manuel), the engineer,

228 and n.
Uruapam [Mich.], Orgy at, 274,

275
Uxmal [Yuc.], 104, 156

Valladolid [Yuc.], 21, 48, 92, 235 n.
Valle National [Oax.], 147, 194,

334

Valles[S.L.P.], 415
Vanity Fair, quoted, 36 second n.
Varela, the entertaining priest, 49
Vazquez Gomez (Emilio), 291, 292
(Dr. Francisco), 231, 232,

250, 251, 263, 277, 291, 292, 318
Vega (Dr.), his patience, 30
Velasquez, his unheard confession,

205
Vera Estanol (Jorge), 250, 251, 269,

293

Veracruz [Ver.], 65 et passim
Verdad, La, 156

Verde (Miguel) (see Michael Green)
Vidaurri execution, 57
Viljoen, the Boer, 242, 267, 272,

276
Villa (Pancho), his career, 268

and n.
Villamil (Joaquin Patron), the good

judge, 151

of the police, 45

Villa vicencio, the torturer, 204, 205,

and n.
Virgen de Guadalupe, 287 n.

de los Remedios, 287 n.
Viva Mexico, 13, 128 n.
Voting, 118, 120 et seq., 216, 270,

and n.

Wall Street, 301 n., 320, 321
Ward(H. G.),319n.
Ward Line, Methods of, 35, 36
White Cross, 271,281
Whitewashingof Mexico, America

8 n., 320
Willert (Arthur), 33 et seq., 40, 41

INDEX

461

Wilson (Henry Lane), American

Ambassador, 246, 314 n., 319 et

seg.
Winter (Nevin 0.), his ridiculous

book, 216 second n.
Women, Segregation of high -class,

140, 141
Wood (General), of U.S.A., 297

Ximenes, 263

Xumpich, hacienda, 173 et seq.,

184 et seg.
Xochicalco [Mor.], 372

Yaquis, 10 and n., 12 and n., 125,

139, 156, 157

Yaxche [Yuc.J, 150, 189 et seq.
Year Hook, Mexican, considered,

63, 64
Yokat [Yuc.], 195 et seg.

Yucatan, Adventures of nursemaid
in, xi, xii

the priests, 7 et seg.

Flying in, 18 n., 19 n.

Slaves of, 142 et seq.

Morality of, 154

Inaccuracies as to, 156

and El Dictamen, 190

her historic independence, 295 n.
Yucatan Nuevo, a forgotten journal,

25, 190

Zacapoaztla Indians, 243
Zacatecas, 209, 211, 212, 239, 261,

319 n., 420

Zambos, The repulsive, 131
Zapata, the ex-groom, 305 andjn.,

314

Zaragoza (General), 273
Zayas Enriquez (Rafael), 295 n.,

424

Zepeda (Enrique), 324
Zocalo, 279
Zimiga y Miranda, 76 and n.

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