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MONUMENT PAKK.-Page 89.

SOUTH BY WEST

WINTER IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
AND SPRING IN MEXICO

EDITED WITH A PREFACE

By the Eev. CHAELES KINGSLEY, E.L.S., F.G.S.

CANON OF WESTMINSTER

Silith EUu0tratixrn0

W. ISBISTER & CO.
6 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON

PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY,
AT THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS.

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PREFACE.

This unassuming volume vnW, I trust, prove
^ interesting to that fast-increasing class of readers
^^ who look eagerly for any fi-esh information about
' the New World, To some, I ventiu'e to beheve, it
may have a sohd value, on account of the novel
facts about Mexico and its capabihties wliich ^\'ill
'•'• be found in it. Such persons may find it worth
while to peruse, likewise, a paper on Mexico m
Ocean Higlnvcujs for May 1873, by the " M." who is
so often alluded to m this book. The tune for
developing the vast resoiu'ces of that countiy is
sm^ely close at hand. It possesses every earthly gift,
save — for the present at least — the power of using
them. Alone of all the countries of the world, it can
produce in abundance, in its Tierra Templada and its
Tierra Cahente, the riches both of the Temperate
and of the Tropic Zones. Its position, between the
Atlantic and the Pacific, ought to make it, some day,
one of the most important highways of the world ;
and when the city of Mexico is joined by a raih'oad
to some port on the Pacific, as it is akeady joined
— by honourable Enghsh enterprise — to Vera Cruz

vm PREFACE.

on the Atlantic, it ought to become the entrepot of
a vast traffic, not only between CaUfoiTiia and New
York, but even — so some think — between China and
Europe. Heaven grant that that and all wholesome
developments may be effected from within, by the
Mexicans themselves, under the guidance of some
■wise and virtuous President ; and anarchy and
brigandage be peacefully exterminated, by the exter-
mination of their true causes — ignorance and want.
If not, the work will have to be done — perhaps in
rougher fashion, and perhaps sorely against their will
— by the American people. However much the
wisest of them may shrink from the thought of
annexation, they are growing less and less inclined
to tolerate, along the whole fi^ontier of Texas and
New Mexico, a state of society which is as injurious
to the Mexicans themselves as to the American
settlers, and wliich has, in the last few years, given
a pretext for armed invasion and usurpation by the
Ultramontane party in Eui'ope. That experiment,
it is true, is not likely soon to be repeated. But
it will be the duty of the patriotic President of
the United States to prevent even the chance of
its repetition ; and to carry out at all risks — as far
as Mexico is concerned — the " Monroe doctrine."
However, we must hope better things for that fair
but hapless land. We must hope that her govern-
ment will so conduct itself toward foreign statesmen
as to re-enter honourably the comity of Nations ;
and toward foreign capitalists, so as to attract the
wealth — American, Dutch, and EngHsh — wliich is

PREFACE. IX

ready to flow into and fertilize and pacify the whole
country.

But there is another object, of even deeper in-
terest, which I cannot but help hoping that this
book may further : namely, that better understand-
ing between American and British citizens, which is
growing so fast just now.

Eveiy one who knows anything of the Americans
of the older States, knows also that they are a
generous, affectionate, and high-minded people, who
put a courteous and modest visitor under hea\y
obhgations, not only for the bounty of their hospi-
tality, but for the pleasure of their society. But too
many, I fear, misled by the reports of cynics and
bookmakers, are unaware that the same good quah-
ties are to be found in the distant territories, in the
very wilds of the Bocky Mountains themselves, as
well as in the older East and South ; and that the
border-fringe of ruffianism — which must exist on the
frontier of any vast country — which is no worse now
in Texas or New Mexico than it was two centuries
ago in many border districts of England, Scotland,
and Ireland, rapidly retreats before that most poteut
of civilizers, the raih'oad, as it pours in, from the
distant regions of the old States, a perpetual rem-
forcement of the good, to diive the bad further and
further into yet more desolate wildernesses. Much
which the authoress may have longed to say, she
could not say, for fear of trenching upon private con-
fidences : but she has said enough, I trust, in her
sketch of the foimdation and rapid growth of a colony

X PREFACE.

in Colorado, at the foot of the very wildest part of
the E-ocky Mountains, to show that, even there, face
to face with the most brutal Red Indian, not only
hospitality and humanity, virtue and probity, but
cultivation and refinement are to be found among
men and women who are not ashamed to labour with
their own hands, ennobled by the sense that they
are doing a great work — replenishing the earth and
subduing it. And even of those who may have less
cultivation or refinement, I know that I can say this
at least. As long as the man of the Far West is not
ashamed of honest toil, and as long as his courtesy
and chivalry toward women is as perfect as I am
assured it is, so long he will find that every real
English gentleman who visits him will recognise in
him a gentleman likewise.

I am bound to add — in my pleasant capacity of
editor to this book — that it owes nothino- whatso-
ever to my pen, beyond the mere correction of the
press, and the scientific names of a few animals and
flowers. The whole of the physical facts — botanical,
zoological, or geological — were observed or collected
by the authoress herself.

CHAELES KINGSLEY.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT.

PAGE

First land — Our pilot — New York harbour — The doctor — A puzzled
official — The streets of New York — Central Park — Hellgate
Ferry — Maples — Picture of Washington — Fast trotters — A drive
in a buggy — Start for Niagara — The Kenisteo Valley — " Run
over a keaow " — Portage — The train- boy— Niagara — English
service — The rapids — A horrible story — Des Vaux College — The
Whirlpool — Leave Niagara — The smoke of Chicago — A friend
in need — West Point — The Catling gun — A terrible little shot
— Our first American service, . . . . .1

CHAPTER II.
FROM EAST TO WEST.

Down the Hudson — Trains in the streets — Parlour cars — Baltimore
— An American country-house- — The Convention of 1871 — Start
for the West — St. Louis — "Arctic Soda" — Mustang fever —
Kansas city — The Plains — Prairie dogs — An old "rattler" —
BufFalos — United States forts — A railroad feat — Denver and the
Rocky Mountains — The pioneer narrow-gauge railroad — Pike's
X eaK, ■ a , , . . • .^"x

CHAPTER III.
LIFE IN A NEW TOWN.

A series of surprises — The young tovni — Our shanty and its fittings
— How we live — Glen Eyrie — Tea in a loft— Bird-cage making —

xii CONTENTS.

PAGE

A " scare" — House-warming — The Soda Springs — A trapper —
"Walk to Mount Washington — School — Move to our new quar-
ters— Staging and stage-drivers, . . . .47

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN — continued.

.The weather — Washing and cooking — The penalties of a free country
— Visitors from Denver — A snowy pillow — The cold "snap" — •
A presentiment — Sunshine again — The Falls of the Fountain —
Starting a reading-room — Colonist-catching — The Garden of the
Gods — Pete shows his wisdom, . . . . .65

CHAPTER V.

CANONS AND COLD.

My first Canon — Wild beasts — Pleasant society — A spelling match —
Camp Creek Caiion — Exploring by moonlight — Mountain air —
Snow drifts — Triumph of the Narrow Gauge — The Fountain
ditch — A Westerner — Antelope-shooting — A grand view — A
change in our plans, . . . . . .77

CHAPTER VI.
MONUMENT PARK.

Expedition to Monument Park— A cheap dinner — The monuments —
A rough road — School-keeping a failure — Locating the skating
pond — Snow-birds — A second jMouumeut Park — The southern
mountains — " Over the Ratons," . . . .87

CHAPTER VII.

CHRISTJIAS AND NEW YEAR.

A Christmas treat — Stock-farmers' troubles — The western metropolis
— Parlour skates — The fall of the Ulsters — Sleighing — A warm
Christmas day — Christmas tree— God save the Queen — My first
Indian — A wind storm — Now Year's Day — Our new hotel —
Ute Indians— A " surprise party " — Cow-catching a dangerous
amusement, . . . . , . .98

CONTENTS. XIU

CHAPTER VIII.
MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS.

PAGE

Bronco manners — Mountain ajjpetites — The Eainljow Fall — A
scramble — The new road — Trailing Arbutus — Glenwood MiUs
— Beavers — A cold bath — Arkansas hospitality — The Ute pass
— A scare — A " washing bee " — Our first Ei)iscopal service —
The ditch full at last— Growth of the town — A ride over the
mesa — An exploring expedition — The " Pike's Peak gold
fever" — A " cold snap " — Our concert, . . . 108

CHAPTER IX.

LAST DAYS IN COLORADO.

Valentine's Day— The "Iron Ute "—Move to Glen Eyrie— The
Servant Question — Snow blockade on the Union Pacific — A
perilous path — The land of sui-prises — Cheyenne caiion — A dis-
tant view — Prospecting on Pike's Peak — Colonists — The irate
market-gardeners — Indians and their doings — Farewell to
Colorado, ....... 125

CHAPTER X.

COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS.

Surface features — Climate — Irrigation — Timber — The mining in-
terest— Coal beds — Attractions to settlers — The snowy range —
Population — Denver — The Denver and Rio Grande Railway
— Colorado Springs : its foundation and growth — The Soda
Springs — Pueblo — Caiion City — Difference between the Old
and New Worlds, . . . . . . 1 37

CHAPTER XI.

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD.

Denver Pacific Railroad — A pigs' paradise — The highest railroad
point in the world — Snowbucking — How to keep well — Sage-
brush and sandstones — The Mormon Railroad — Great Salt Lake
City — Angelic architects — Commerce and holiness — Shoshonee
Indians — A lofty breakfast-room — Miners — Flowers — Poison-
oak — -California — The Pacific at last, .... 152

XIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIT.
CALIFORNIA.

PAGE

Calif ornian oysters — The Seal Rocks — A Western play — Chinese
opium-eaters and tem])le — An opera "buffa" — Earthquakes —
Sacramento Bay — San Raphael — A council of war — Seal and
salmon — Preparations for journey — Yo Semite photographs —
The San Jose Valley — A Calif ornian country-house — The suc-
cessful millionnaire — Chinese servants — Adios California, . 166

CHAPTER XIIL

DOWN THE PACIFIC.

The " peaceful ocean " — A tumble — Sea-gull and Spanish lessons —
An odious child — Orchilla — The new " Earthly Paradise " — -A
narrow escape — Sunday — An addition to our party — Gloomy
forebodings, . . . . . . .178

CHAPTER XIV. '

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA.

The Puerto de Manzanillo — Frijoles and tortillas — Mexican meals —
The exports of the port — Our start for the interior — The
Laguna de Cuyiitlan — The delights of a night joiirney —
Guadalupe — Salt collecting — Don Ignacio Lagos — Lace and
embroidery — Tropic woods — Ptumours of the Revolution —
Tecolapa — A rough road — The volcano of Colima — Colima —
Feast-day sights — Martial music — Easter decorations — A huerto
— The Alameda — Hacienda de San Cayetano — The eruption of
February 26th — More news of the Revolutionists, . ,184

CHAPTER XV.
ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS.

Our start — An ill-broken team — La Quesaria — Chicken wine — Bar-
rancas— Saia Marcos — Mule trains— An uncomfortable luncheon
— The " Pedrirjal " — A break-down — Zapotlan — A revolution —
The bafBed bridegroom — Rough lodgings — Pulque — Severe —
An early breakfast — A " scare " — Onions — "Los bonitos rifles "
— Pronunciados — Alkali flats — A dry lake — " A friend indeed"
— Our escort — La Coronilla — Robber towns — Guadalajara at
last, ........ 206

CONTENTS. XV

CHAPTER XVI.
GUADALAJARA,

PAGE

The Paseo— Barricades — The Belen Cemetery — Attractive baths —
A fortunate escape — The Cathedral — Confessionals — EUlos])icio
— Senor Menesses — A clean kitchen — Embroidery — The Cuna —
A wonderful contralto — Helados — A wicked bull — Pottery —
The opera — The States Prison — An embarrassing present —
Mexican troops — How to make a pronunciamiento, . . 232

CHAPTER XVII.
UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA.

The Rio Grande de Santiago — Ocotlan — Ordering dinner — The rob-
bers— La Barca — An escape — A luxurious bed — Dug-out canoes
— Buena Vista — A dead robber — Wine-growing and pedrigal —
" Una SeHorifa tan grande" — The faithless negro — Farms
and farming — The Padre's " boys " — An indigestible meal —
Hanging a robber — Irapuato — Molasses candy — Swape wells —
Cereus and nopals — Salamanca — Singing birds — The churches
of Celaya — Indian music — A story of the '' Plagiarios" —
Peru pepper — Jumping cactus — A pretty leap — Approach to
Queretaro, ....... 244

CHAPTER XVIII.
QUERETARO TO MEXICO.

A bet — The Hercules Factory — Cheap labour — Arrival of the en-
gineers from Colorado — Las Campanas — Leave Queretaro —
Spearing a dog — The Divide — San Juan del Rio — Thunder-
storm— An uuluckj' choice of routes — Ill-requited kindness —
Barred out — An Indian school — The valley of the Tula — The
broken break — Gathering nopal leaves — The cajiital of the
Toltecs — An early start — On Cortez's track — The valley of
Mexico — The railroad track — Arrival in the city, . . 2GS

CHAPTER XIX.
LIFE IN MEXICO.

Tlio Hotel Iturbide — Flowers — Tacubaya — The Paseo — Aztec
calendar stone — The Inquisition — Cathedral of Mexico — A ride

XVI CONTENTS.

PAGE

round the city — Cinco de Mayo — Chapultepec — The Pronun-
cianiiento of October 1S71 — El Peuoa del Agua Caliente —
Executions by the Liberals — Breakfast at the San Cosme —
Speeches — The Habanera — Mexican salutations, . . 285

CHAPTER XX.

LIFE IN MEXICO — Continued.

Indios and their costumes — Street cries — Guadalupe — Arrival of the
engineers — Trying a gun — An agua cerro — Drainage — The
Academia — Aztec arts — The Palacio — A Mexican debate —
Chills and fever — Gizzard tea — The Monte Pio — The tree of the
Noche Triste — A narrow bridge — Departure of the engineering
party — Feast of Corpus Christi — Tacubaya — The Museum — A
"useful man" — The considerate co?nparfre, . . . 309

CHAPTER XXI.

LIFE IN MEXICO — Continued.

Visit to Guadalupe — Origin of the miraculous serape — The collegiate
church — Votive offerings — Church of Tepayac — Sulphur spring
— Letter from M. — Popotla and Tacuba — Molino del Rey —
The battles of August and September 1847 — An unfortunate
haciendado — Last evening in Mexico, .... 336

CHAPTER XXIL

A RECONNAISSANCE IN THE SOUTHERN TIERRA
CALIENTE.

Preparations — Breakfast at Santa Ft^ — The unreasonable command-
ante — Over the Sierra — " Escolta " — Pueblos of the Toluca
valley — Tenancingo — My new guide — The barrancas — A bad
ford — The old pack-horse takes a swim — A curious phenome-
non— The cave of Cacahuamili^a — Bananas and sugar-cane —
The Mexican Sindbad — An army of bats — Stoning iguanas —
Hacienda of San Gabriel — Ixtapan de la Sal — " A bad place "
— The romance of the skunk — Back to Mexico, . . 357

CONTENTS. xvii

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ.

PAGE

TeocaUis of the Sun and Moon — Pulque — Puebla de los Angelos —
Churches and relics — Sta. Florenzia — Muddy roads— The steel
works of Amozoe — Cacti — A midnight start — The Peak of
Orizaba — Down the cumhres — Orizaba — A wild team — The rail-
road again — Vera Cruz — The Vomito and the Norte — Gachu-
pines and parrots — Farewell to Mexico, . . , 382

CHAPTER XXIV.
MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES, . . . .399

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

MONUMENT PARK, ....

HORSE-SHOE BEND, ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS,

DRUG AND BOOK STORE,

PRAIRIE RANCHE NEAR SALINA,

PRAIRIE DOGS, .

STREET IN DENVER,

OUR SHANTY,

THE CANON IN GLEN EYRIE,

THE GATE OF THE GARDEN OF THE GODS,

CROSSING A TRESTLE BRIDGE,

MONUMENT CREEK,

THE MONUMENT ROCKS,

INDIANS, ....

PIKE'S PEAK,

THE ROCKS NEAR GREEN RIVER,

WOMAN MAKING TORTILLAS,

BELL TOWER AT COLIMA,

THE CATHEDRAL, GUADALAJARA,

THE CATHEDRAL, MEXICO, ,

THE PALACE OF CHAPULTEPEC,

THE TREE OF THE NOCHE TRISTE,

Frontispiece.
PAGE 29
33
35

105

114

157

1S7

198

235

292

299

325

CHAPTEE I.

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT.

First land— Our pilot— New York harbour— The doctor— A puzzled official— The
streets of New York- Central Park— Hellgate Ferry— Maples— Picture of
Washington — Fast trotters — A drive in a buggj- — Start for Niagara— The
Kenisteo Valley — " Run over a keaow" — Portage — The train-boy — Niagara
— English service— The Rapids— A horrible story — Des Vaux College— The
Whirlpool— Leave Niagara— The smoke of Chicago— A friend in need — West
Point— The Gatling gun— A terrible little shot — Our first American service.

In the autumn of 1871 the Episcopal Church Convention
of the United States was held in Baltimore, and the Dean of
Chester accepted the invitation of many Americans to attend
as one of the representatives of the Church of England. He
most kindly asked me to join him and his family in their
journey to America. We left Liverpool on September 2 2d,
and on Sunday morning, October 1st, after a prosperous
voyage, we sighted the shores of the New World.

First appeared Far Island, and then Long Island, which
gradually became more and more distinct, till we could see
houses upon it. Land-birds came flying round the ship, a
large one like an oriole settling on the mast ; and a shoal
of sharp-nosed dolphins played round us, leaping four or
five feet out of the water.

The evening before, while we were at dinner, still 300
miles from New York, for the first time since leaving
Queenstown the engines had slackened their ceaseless beat,
and a general stampede for the deck ensued, to see our pilot
come on board. The good-natured captain allowed M. and

2 SOUTH BY WEST.

me to come up on the bridge ; and there, half a mile ahead
on the starboard bow, lay a pretty little schooner of fifteen
or twenty tons, and on the port bow a tiny rowing-boat. We
went slower and slower, till as the little boat slid alongside,
looking as if she must be sucked under the huge ship, the
engines stopped for just one minute. The great man, in
purple kid gloves, a tall hat, and a pilot jacket, climbed up the
side ; a dozen hands were stretched out to help him over
the bulwarks ; and as his feet touched the deck, " Full
speed ahead ! " roared the captain, and away we went again.

About 1 P.M. on Sunday we passed Sandy Hook light-
house, and found ourselves in the outer bay of New York.
The sky was cloudless, the sun intensely hot, and the sea
like glass. Away to the left beyond Sandy Hook rose the
heights of New Jersey, lost in mist at the furthest point of a
huge semicircle of many miles, joined to Staten Island by a
bit of low swamp land, covered, I was told, with red cedars
and cranberries, in which you may get good shooting and
bad fever.

Staten Island was on our left bow, clustered with charm-
ing villas buried in trees down to the very water's edge, end-
ing at the Narrows or entrance into the inner bay in an
escarped hill, with Fort Tomkins above and Fort Wadsworth
in the water. On our north, opposite Sandy Hook, lay Far
Eockaway, Eockaway, and Coney Island, famed for clams,
in front of Long Island, which ended on our right bow at
the Narrows with two more forts bristling with 2 2 -inch
guns. The part of Long Island between the forts and
Brooklyn is where Washington was defeated by the English
after Saratoga, and forced to retire upon New York through
a swamp where Brooklyn now stands, in which he lost a
great number of his men.

Passing the Narrows about L30, we anchored inside
New York harbour, and waited patiently for the Health
officers and Custom-house authorities to come on board.

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 3

The scene was marvellously beautiful, — Brooklyn on the
right ; then beyond East Eiver lay New York itself, the spire
of Trinity Church rising far above all the other many spires
and towers ; then the mouth of the Hudson or North River,
as it is called at New York, with Jersey City on its further
side ; and as a background the blue ridge of the Palisades,
300 feet high.

We were soon summoned below to the saloon to be
inspected by the doctor ; and, crowding in, sat positively
suffocating for some time, no doctor appearing ; till at last a
voice at the door announced, " You have been inspected, and
the doctor has passed you all," and out we trooped again.
But how it was managed — whether the doctor marked us
down as we went in, or took a telescopic view of us through
the windows — no one ever found out.

Our good luck did not end here ; for the Custom-house
officers, being in an amiable frame of mind, decided to send
us ashore with our baggage, about which matter there had
been great doubts and many discussions. So the Company's
tender, with its black funnel and white band (" The Par-
son's Tie," the sailors call it), came off; and by three we
started across the bay for the Custom-house. We flew
through the water in the strange low- decked little boat,
with a platform between the paddles, and the " walking
beam " working above the deck, as is the case in all the
low-pressure engines, which are exclusively used for river
boats. The ferry-boats we passed looked most grotesque
to our eyes, white painted, with deck piled on deck, and
surmounted by their walking beam and tall funnels. Arrived
at last at the Custom-house, we found Dr. C. awaiting us on
the gangway. After two large waggon-loads of mail-sacks
had been cleared out, the luggage began to come on shore ; and
how anything got through safe I cannot imagine. Truck
after truck was run to the edge, and the hapless boxes dashed
down upon them with a crack that made one's bones ache in

4 SOUTH BY WEST.

very sympathy. After all our things were collected, Dr. C.
took one of the officials aside, and, in a confidential and im-
pressive manner, said to him, "Now, look here, the Dean of
C. has just come over from England ; so I 'm sure you will
pass his things out as quick as possible." The poor man,
who did not the least know what sort of a creature a Dean
was, thought he must at least be some tremendous foreign
potentate, and looked duly impressed. The consequence
therefore was, that our boxes were hardly opened, but
chalked and passed in no time ; a gTcat contradiction to the
accounts we had been hearing of the severity and rudeness
of the New York Custom-house. The building itseK is a
huge shed, 50 feet high and 200 yards long, and at the end
was an iron grille, through which men were thrusting their
hands with cards of hacks, and screaming to the new-comers
to take them. We forced our way through the noisy crowd
to the two carriages which were waiting for us, and drove
off.

The streets near the river had a strangely foreign look,
reminding me more of some West Indian town, with their
green jalousies and shady side-walks, than of any English
city. But when at last we got into Fifth Avenue we began to
see the full magnificence of this splendid city. The houses
are very lofty, built of a rich dark-brown sandstone, with a
great deal of mica in it, which comes from Ohio ; or of a
yellowish white New Jersey stone ; or of beautiful white
marble, which, owing to the purity and clearness of the air,
never seems to get dirty. Up the houses Wistaria grew
with an almost tropical luxuriance, and Virginia creeper,
just turning red, climbed right up to the roofs. Many
houses had a tiny bit of garden, with brilliant green turf and
brisht flowers in front. On each side of the streets trees
were planted, ailanthus, maple, sumach, catalpa, broad-leaved
birch, and weeping willows, which last grow to a prodigious
size.

XEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 5

Monday, 2d. — After breakfast, unpacking, and writing
letters, we wandered out down Fifth Avenue a little way.
We passed some eight churches, all of different denomina-
tions, including Episcopal, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Catholic,
Universalist, and a magnificent Jewish Synagogue just oppo-
site our host's house. It is built of red stone, relieved by
the most delicate white stonework, giving it quite a Moorish
look, and two cupolas on the street side tower high into
the air. The Jewish population of New York is estimated
at 60,000, and they seem very much respected.

We were greatly struck by the enormous w^ealth which
all this quarter represents. The rents are perfectly fabulous.
One of our friends told us that the whole yearly rent of a
large house he lived in, in one of the flourishing New Eng-
land cities, was less than the rates and taxes he pays yearly
on his own house which he has built on Thirty-eighth Street.

In the afternoon we were taken a drive through Central
Park. It is beautiful, and unlike anything one has ever seen
before. Broken ground with large sheets of water blasted
out of the grey rocks, which are covered with Virginia
creeper, just turning red, and crawling all over the ground.
The trees are well grouped : black walnut, now turning
purple ; maple, sumach, oaks, and birches. Beds of flowers
are scattered here and there ; the red salvia especially, in
masses of blazing scarlet. On the right of the main road is
the beginning of a Zoological Garden, with elands, buffalos,
and deer, grazing peaceably close to the carriage-way, and
children riding camels over the grass. The roads are per-
fect, made of pulverized stone rolled down with heavy two-
horse rollers. The horses look so w^ell fed and groomed, and
the rollers and water-carts in the park are so neat, that they
might belong to some gentleman's garden, with his carriage-
horses harnessed to them.

Odohcr 4. — This afternoon we drove with Dr. H. through
Central Park to the Hellgate Perry, over East Eiver, which

6 SOUTH BY WEST.

is an arm of the sea connecting the harbour with Long Island
Sound. The river, though navigable above and below, is so
blocked up at this point with masses of rock under water, as
to make the passage impossible for large ships. This is a
serious disadvantage to shipping, forcing the Atlantic ships
and steamers to come far out of their way round the outside
of Long Island, wdth the dangerous bar to cross before they
can reach the harbour ; and the Government are now carrying
out a scheme for removing the obstacle to make a safe passage
for the largest steamers. Under the water large bodies of
men are working, blasting innumerable galleries through the
rock, and in a few years they hope the whole bed will be
cleared.

We crossed over to Astoria on Long Island in the ferry-
boat, which runs every half hour, Dr. H.'s two spirited horses
standing like rocks the whole way over ; and on landing
drove up through the village of charming villas, buried in
trees and gardens. Turning to the left through an avenue of
high trees, we came down to the side of the East Eiver again,
and drove some way along a road between the houses and
the water. The views across to the land were beautiful in
the extreme. It was a hazy, warm afternoon, and the trees
were just beginning to turn. Certainly no description or
even painting has ever given one an idea of what the autumn
tints are in reality. The maples were here and there perfectly
dazzling — pure clear amber below, then every shade through
orange till the tips of the branches and tops of the tree were
bright scarlet. It is the clearest colouring I ever saw : nothing
to remind one of death or decay ; the live healthy tree
becomes transformed into a flame of fire. We paid several
visits. One dear old Dutch cottage, a perfect museum of
treasures of art, paintings and sculptures inside, had in its
garden a rock on which Washington had smoked many a
pipe, for he was quartered at the house during the War of
Independence. Another house near by, belonging to Mr. W.,

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 7

was just the ideal of the American country-house one reads
of in books ; large and roomy, with a broad raised wooden
piazza without any balustrade, running all round it, upon
which was scattered every variety of rocking chair. There
we were shown a small portrait of Washington, painted while
he was President. It was very beautiful : a noble steadfast
face in profile, looking away into the future with deep-set
earnest eyes — a man, indeed, to found a new nation. Mr.
W.'s grandfather was one of those who signed the Declara-
tion, and held a distinguished post in the first American
government ; and he bought the picture soon after Wash-
ington's death.

We turned homewards after this visit, meeting many of
the city men driving from their work to their country-houses,
in their delightful spider-wheeled waggons, with fast-trotting
horses. When we were safe on the broad streets across the
ferry. Dr. H. showed us how fast his horses could trot, and gave
me the reins when they were trotting as fast as a good gallop.
It was the most curious sensation, as the traces were quite
slack, and the waggon, with four souls in it, was pulled by
my hands. I held on for about five minutes, using the whole
of my strength, and then had ignominiously to give up the
reins, or I should have just dropped them.

Thursday, bth. — Directly after breakfast I had a drive in
a buggy with a thoroughbred trotter through Central Park,
and across the Haarlem river, by a wooden bridge, to a
lovely bit of wild country, past the High Bridge which brings
the water of the Croton aqueduct into New York, through
winding lanes, with pretty cottages here and there, festooned
with vines, and gardens full of squashes and Indian corn.
Here corn is always called " wheat," and maize is known as
" corn" par excellence. I hardly know whether I most enjoyed
the country or the mere fact of passing through the air, for as
we came home " Kentucky" was made to show off his paces,
and trotted at the rate of a mile in 2 minutes 50 seconds.

S SOUTH BY WEST.

Friday, Qth. — After our few charming days in New
York, during which we met with kindness and hospitality
on all sides that we can never forget, we started for Niagara
by the 5 p.m. train, on the Erie Eailway. Crossing from
New York to Jersey City in one of the huge river ferry-
boats, we pushed our way to tlie train, through a crowd of
the great unwashed, along the dirty, ill-lighted depot : but,
once in the luxurious sleeping car all discomfort ceased. We
had the compartment for four at the end of the car all to
ourselves, with arm-chairs, sofa, footstools, and even our
own washstand and looking-glass ; with liberty to walk
through the rest of the car, or the whole train, if we wished :
though no one, save the conductor, could invade our little
room.

The evening was dark and wet, so we saw nothing of the
country, except where here and there the great bell on the
engine began to toll, and the red light from the blazing
furnace fire was reflected on the houses as we ran through
the open streets of some town, with no protection for the
passers-by save their own wits.

At Turner's, a station forty-eight miles from New York,
we stopped a quarter of an hour for supper, and got an ex-
cellent one of tongue, coffee, and delicious bread, for 25 cents
each ; after which we turned in for the night, tempted by
the snowy pillow-cases, clean sheets, and gay Californian
blankets with which the car-porter had invitingly spread our
berths. I should doubtless have slept the whole night
through, had not the house-flies in New York bitten my face
and hands till I was nearly wild ; and had not showers of
sand, not to say cinders, flown in my face through the
ventilators : but these were only slight discomforts ; and I
woke at 5.30 quite refreshed, and very glad to wash hands
and face with clean water and good soap, provided in the
ladies' dressing-room outside our compartment.

As the day dawned we became gradually aware of the

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 9

wonderful beauty of the scenery through which we were
passing. We had left the valley of the Chemung, and were
running up the Kenisteo river. Wooded hills on each side,
covered with forests of maple, birch, oak, hickory, tulip,
chestnut, pine, hemlock, and willow— like our English black
willow — by the water ; the undergrowth composed chiefly of
raspberry, sumach, cypress, asters, and golden rod. On either
side of the river were fields of maize in shocks, with bright
orange pumpkins lying between the rows ; or open pastures,
in which fine horses and cattle were feeding. The fields were
divided by "worm" fences — known in Canada as Snake-
fences — or by root -fences, made of the upturned roots and
stumps of large trees. The stumps were left standing in the
ground where the soil was not very good ; and where it was
worth while to get rid of them, either burnt standing, or torn
up with some machine. The houses, built mostly of wood,
reminded one of Swiss chalets, with deep eaves : but with-
out the picturesque decorations.

The slope of glowing trees, of every possible shade, from
palest amber to deep carmine, mingled with gaunt bare pine
stems, or deep black hemlocks, down to the river, was beau-
tiful in the extreme ; especially where at some bend in the
track a further ridge came in sight, with intense blue sha-
dows brought out by the brilliant foreground. But unluckily
beautiful scenery will not satisfy the craving of hunger ; and
we were lookimj forward to seven o'clock for breakfast at
HornellsviUe with great delight, when, at a quarter to seven,
outside the little station of Kenisteo, we came to a standstill.
On inquiring, we found that " a freight car was off the track,"
a man observing coolly, "Kun over a keaow, I guess !" which
proved to be the case. So there we had to wait, let the
down train pass us, get on the down track, and run up it
for some distance, till we came to the next "switch" or
siding. While we were waiting there, not over comfortable
at our position, a train passed us to go to the switch at

10 SOUTH BY WEST.

Kenisteo, with several large open trucks full of blue barrels.
These we were told were " oil tanks," otherwise petroleum
cans, — pleasant neighbours on a jolting track. The tanks
are now made of iron, an improvement on the old barrels :
but, as a New York fellow-passenger remarked to us, " It 's
about as safe as gunpowder." At last the train moved on ;
and, passing the oil train, we got to Hornellsville, and our
much-coveted and excellent breakfast, some of which we
carried off, as we had hardly time to satisfy ourselves before
the cry of " All aboard " from the conductor warned us that
time was up.

In about two hours we came near Portage ; and the con-
ductor of our car took us out on the back platform to get
the best view of the bridge, which is one of the wonders of
the country. It is a " trestle bridge," built entirely of
wood 800 feet long and 223 feet high, across the Genessee
river, which here has eaten its way through the limestone
rocks, and made a deep chasm. Below the bridge, the river
falls into a deep basin of stone, then into a second, and then
rushes away to the foot of a large conical rock, under which
it turns sharply, another stream falling over the rock in a
splendid waterfall, and joining the Genessee below ; while
all is softened, and yet brightened, by the vivid colouring of
the trees on the crest of the cliffs.

After Portage came rather a different kind of country, as
we were out of the Kenisteo valley. Forest close to the
rail ; sometimes a clearing in process of making ; fallen
trees, burning stumps, men with their axes hewing off the
branches or loading the carts. Then upland fields, with here
and there a vineyard. As we neared Buffalo it became still
more open, with wide pastures, worm fences, wooded hill-
tops, and at last a glimpse of distant blue flat-topped heights,
on the further side of Lake Erie.

A boy had appeared in the cars after breakfast, dropping
a tempting book on each seat, and returning just as the un-

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 1 1

wary had had time to feel a slight interest in the letterpress,
for his book or his money. Now he came round with Buffalo
Morning Express; and then again, offering us Isabella or Cat-
auba grapes, with a tough inside and foxy flavour. Buffalo,
where we stopped and changed engines, looked very unin-
teresting, on a dead flat. We saw nothing but six spires, a lot
of shingle houses, and a great deal of smoke in the distance ;
with a fore-ground of large sheds, a good many cows, a boy
and a dog. We now turned off on quite another line, and
ran through a level country for some miles, with dikes on
each side of the rail, filled with reeds, asters, Oenothera, and
golden rod ; and our young friend the train-boy soon re-
appeared with apples, candy, and books of Niagara water-
falls, and the "Great Western Money Package." This
packet, price one dollar, is said on its wrapper to contain
" Silver and gold in each package up to $2.50 (10s.).
" 1 quire superfine quality paper.
" 1 packet sup. envelopes.
" 1 penholder and pen.
" 1 sheet blotting-paper.
" 1 photograph.
" 5 views of Niagara Falls."
I saw a good many packages opened, chiefly by honeymoon
couples, who abound on this line : but none of them con-
tained the promised coin.

Then, running through some woods, we emerged beside
what seemed a large and perfectly smooth lake about a
mile and a half across, wooded down to the water : but on
looking as far as one could beyond the train, a white cloud
appeared, rising apparently from behind a wooded point ;
and in a moment we knew that our lake must be the
Niagara river ; the cloud was the column of spray from
the Falls; and we gazed with all our eyes, till, plunging
into the woods again, river and all was shut out.

After some consultation we decided to cross the lower

12 SOUTH BY WEST.

SQspension bridge in the cars, and get our first view from
thence ; and when the time came, and the good-natured con-
ductor took us out again on the back platform as we crept
over the lofty bridge, we went rather in fear as to what our
first impression would be. But in a moment there was no
shadow of doubt on our minds. A dead silence ; and then
an irrepressible exclamation of wonder and delight. There,
two miles up the gorge, at the head of a smooth green blue
river, between high limestone cliffs, covered with blazing
maples and black pines, was Niagara. When we had
escaped the mob of yelling cab-drivers, who pounce on the
luckless traveller almost before the train stops at the station,
and had found our way in a comfortable carriage up to the
Clifton House, our first thought was to rush out to the upper
suspension bridge, and there to stand in silence trying to
realize the whole thing. The extreme beauty struck us more
than anything else. There was nothing horrible — hardly
awful. The water as it fell looked so soft. I tried to think
of what it reminded me most in substance, and all I could
think of was whipped cream ! — a sad bathos, but true. The
sound of the water was soft, harmonious, musical, and, though
strong, was never oppressive. The sun was bright, the air
still ; so that the spray rose straight up into the blue sky.

Sunday, 8th. — The sound of the Falls made sleep all but
impossible. I was longing all night for day to dawn, that
I might see them again ; and when daylight came their
aspect was completely changed. A strong wind was blow-
ing, driving the spray down towards us, and covering all the
view in a fine bluish white mist ; the early sun caught
half the Horse-shoe fall, leaving the rest in shadow ; and
lighted up the mass of blazing maples and Virginia
creepers close to us.

The Eector, Mr. M'C, called for us at 10.30, and we had a
glorious walk along the cliff over the river to his church at
Clifton. We had a very nice service, the Dean preaching :

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 13

and it felt home-like hearing the prayers for the Queen
so far away. The singing was good, but peculiar. A very
pretty young lady played the harmonium, and three others
and a gentleman sang. The fittings of the tiny church are
good, though plain, made of the white pine of the country,
topped with black walnut, which is very handsome. After
service we walked back to the hotel, and then drove up to
dinner at Mr. B.'s. There were several Englishmen there,
and after dinner we all set out for a long walk. First we
went to a high point directly over the Horse- shoe Fall, where
we got the finest view we had yet seen, through a frame of
maple and hickory. Then, turning up the railroad track, we
walked along it for some distance, to my horror, till assured
that there were no trains on Sunday, and that, if there were,
it would not matter. Then a steep bit of road led us down to
the level of the river. The water was quite quiet near the
bank : but passing a small island we came suddenly upon a
scene of fearful grandeur. We were within half a dozen
feet of the rapids. Then for the first time we realized the
awful force of the water. We sat on the bank throwing in
pieces of wood ; watching them whirled along ; listening to the
horrible stories of the accidents this year ; till the place
seemed haunted, — especially as the greatest tragedy took
place close to where we sat. A man was crossing the river
some way up. His boat by some means was swamped ; and
he was swept down towards the rapids. He swam the whole
way, till he came close to the spot we were on, where at
that time some workmen of Mr S., who owns all this side of
the river, were making a bridge. He made straight for
them, swimming gallantly, tliinking he was saved, and came
within a few feet of the bank. They stretched a pole out to
him to help him : but it was too short : they missed him !
All hope was gone : and he just made straight for the
Fall, still swimming, and, as he reached the edge, put his
hands above his head, raised himself up, and dived clean

1 4 SOUTH BY WEST.

over. His body was found torn limb from limb below the
FaUs.

We were glad to shake off such painful impressions, and
wander on to Mr. S.'s beautiful place. His house is on the
high ground, with woods and shrubberies down to the water,
where a dozen little islands lie clustered, connected with
pretty bridges, and fringed with a brilliant yeUow-green
reed about a foot high, which grows in all still creeks round
this part of Canada.

Coming back, Mr. B., who is a good botanist, helped us
out of some of our puzzles about the new trees and flowers
we saw at every step. I got to know locust beans, button-
wood nuts, a kind of plane, black walnuts — and learnt to
my cost the difference between hickory and bitter hickory
nuts, which look just alike, till you unwarily try, and tasting
the wTong one seem to be eating a mixture of sloe- juice and
tannin.

We walked home in the twilight, down a ravine in the
cliff, half way between the Horse-shoe and the hotel; the
American FaU, right before us, shut in the view like a huge
white curtain ; and when we got in it was quite dark.

Mondmj, 9th. — Out sketching on the piazza by 7.30 ; a
splendid day : hot sun and strong breeze.

After breakfast the M'C.s called for us, and we went down
three miles to Des Vaux College, on the American side. Mr.
P., the head master, and his wife, took us all over it. There
are about fifty boys, foundationers and term boys. They are
nearly aU gentlemen's sons. The College is conducted en-
tirely on the military system, and seems most perfect in its
arrangement. The dormitories were beautifully fresh and
neat ; each boy has his alcove, and has to keep it tidy, and
make his own bed. Some of the rooms were gay with
pictures and photographs. We went to the schoolroom,
where the Dean spoke a few words to the boys ; then into
the armoury, where their muskets are kept ; and on through

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 15

dining-room, kitchen, and washing-room. Here Mrs. H.
and I were much attracted by a capital kind of brush for
cleaning boots, combining blacking and cleaning brush, with
a nice handle into the bargain. Mrs. P. was so amused at
our raptures that she dived into her store cupboard, and
presented me with a new one on the spot.

The famous whirlpool belongs to the College, and is a
large source of income, as visitors have to pay a slight toll
for going to see it.

Above, looking up to the railroad bridge, the river is a
mass of white foaming boiling rapids, leaping into the air, and
ending in the angle of the cliffs in an apparently smooth
round pool, which is in fact the w^hirlpool. At this point
the river is completely shut in with high cliffs, covered with
dark trees ; and one thinks there can be no outlet : till,
turning the point, you find that it makes a sudden bend at
right angles, still between high wooded chffs ; then another
bend, and it is lost behind the hiQs above Queenstown and
Lake Ontario. There are rapids below the whirlpool : but
they are not so dangerous. The ' Maid of the Mist ' is the
only boat that ever got safe through. There are always
things floating in the whirlpool, sailing gently round and
round till they touch the centre, when down they go in an
instant, and do not emerge till they get a quarter of a mile
down the river.

We "concluded" to spare ourselves the long climb down
and up 300 steps to the river, as the sun was broiling, and
we had a hard day before us ; and so drove straight to the
Falls city. If travellers get their first impressions from the
road on the American side, I can better understand their
being disgusted with the place. — Wooden shanties, desolate-
looking trees, untidy little stores, German gasthaliser and
wirthschaften, and horribly dusty roads. The Falls city,
however, is a pleasant place, with good stores of photo-
graphs and Indian curiosities.

16 SOUTH BY WEST.

A visit to the drawing-room of the Cataract Hotel, which
overhangs the rapids, only served to increase our satisfaction
at being on the Canadian side ; for the view of the Falls is
entirely lost, and you are only impressed with the rush and
turmoil of the rapids.

We explored Goat Island : but resisted all entreaties to
risk our necks and get a ducking by going down to the
" Cave of the Winds," below the American Fall, being quite
content with its beauty from Luna Island, where the water,
as it takes its great leap, looks like threads of spun glass,
clear as crystal.

October 1 0th. — It was hard, after three days of such per-
fect enjoyment, to tear ourselves away from Niagara. Each
hour that we stayed only brought out some fresh beauty,
and made us long to spend weeks there instead of days.
Were any one to take the whole journey from England and
back again, and see nothing in America but Niagara, it
would, I think, be well worth the trouble. But time was
short ; so on Tuesday morning we found ourselves on board
the cars for Kingston, via Toronto. This part of our journey
was not enjoyable ; as, when one is once accustomed to the
novelty of snake-fences, small farms, backwoods, clearings,
and blackened trees, the constant repetition becomes rather
tedious : and we were not sorry to reach Toronto, and spend
some hours there in poking about the streets and making-
small investments in the fur trade, till it began to rain.
About 6 P.M. we left by .rail for Kingston, and most foolishly,
in our ignorance, did not take places in the sleeping-car.
Anything more uncomfortable than the six hours we
passed in that train I have seldom felt : smothered with
petroleum from the lamps — the lashing rain forcing us
to keep the windows up — noisy fellow-passengers, and a
road that nearly jolted one to pieces.

At 2 A.M. we reached Kingston, and as we drove up to the
city in pitchy darkness, for the first time observed that the air

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST ROINT. 1 7

was filled with the smell of burning wood. After a couple of
hours' broken sleep in our clothes, we got up at five ; the
smell of fire was stronger ; the air seemed full of smoke ; and,
embarking on the steamer ' Corinthian/ we were told that
it was the smoke from Chicago, which was burning before we
left Niagara, and from the great Wisconsin forest fires. It so
filled the air, though it had travelled 500 miles, that it com-
pletely spoilt our views on the St. Lawrence ; and we could
only get any idea of the effect of the Thousand Islands covered
with brilliant foliage, when we passed close between some of
them. The rocks of which they are formed struck us as some-
thing quite new; and I have since learnt from Professor
Dawson at Montreal that they are a spur of the Laurentian
formation of Canada, through which the river has sawn its
way with great difficulty, thereby forming this beautiful
group of islands of every shape and size.

But a worse disappointment was in store for us. After
we were clear of the islands the smoke grew so thick that,
on coming to the head of the Grand Sault, our captain
announced that he could not see ahead, and so dared not
" shoot the rapids : " but was going down a canal by the side
of the river at the rate of three miles per hour. This was
intolerable, as we should be about twenty-four hours getting
to Montreal : so we determined to " abandon the ship," and
try our luck by land. The lock at which we were stopping
was but three miles from a station on the Grand Trunk
Eailroad, where we found a train would arrive in two houi-s.
Gathering up our bags and umbrellas — our luggage had
happily been sent through by rail,— we prepared for a tramp,
with the chance of losing our way in an unknown country.
But a friend was at hand, in the shape of a respectable-
looking man on the bank, who said he would " hitch up his
waggon" and drive us to the station for a doUar with plea-
sure. The offer Avas too good to be refused ; so we closed
with him at once, and clambering up the steep canal bank,

18 SOUTH BY WEST.

found ourselves in front of our friend's house, where his
wife and daughter, both smartly dressed, made us welcome.
In five minutes our host drove round from the little farm-
yard in a light spring-waggon, with a gay pair of horses
that would hardly stand still to let us clamber in, before
they started at a furious pace along a perfectly break-
neck road, full of rocks and ruts, with snake-fences on
each side, and woods of hemlock, spruce, red cedar,
and pine. Our driver was very communicative, and so
delighted to hear about the "old country." His grand-
father came from London ; and he spoke with loving pride of
England, as did every Canadian we met. They are far more
loyal, alas ! than many English people ; and the Queen's
birthday is a general holiday, and day of rejoicing all over
the country. This man, who looked like a small farmer,
and towed ships up and down the canal — a waggoner is the
name of his class — said he " owned thirteen horses ; and that
his daughter drove a pair all about the country," adding, by
way of encouragement, " not this pair, as these are apt to
run away if they see a wheelbarrow or anything strange in
the road." Happily for us they saw nothing " strange " before
reaching the line ; where we got out, thanking our friend — who
seemed to think the obligation was entirely on his side — and
walked up the track to the station in the casual way people
do here, riu'ht in front of an engine with cars behind it full
of gunpowder.

Montreal we reached late at night ; and, owing to over-
fatigue and a day's rain, we saw much less of it than we
wished in our two days' visit. Then we crossed the St. Law-
rence by the Victoria bridge, that marvel of engineering, two
miles long; a night journey took us through Evangeline's
country ; and by daylight on Saturday we were running down
the Hudson Eiver Eailroad.

October 14.— West Point.

We arrived at this paradise this morning ; steamed across
in the ferry-boat to the foot of a wooded cliff; and drove up

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 19

a steep road to the Academy. It stands on a plateau about
100 feet above the river, on a point, as its name denotes,
with views up and down the Highlands of the Hudson, wood-
covered hills 3000 to 4000 feet high, while the river, which
here makes a sharp bend, runs between them. The
whole look of the mountains, but for the bright-coloured
foliage, reminds one strongly of the best bits of Killarney.
The hotel is in a perfect situation at the end of the point,
looking up to Newburgh.

We started forth for a stroll before dinner, and went
first to a pit on the parade-ground full of IMichaelmas-
daisy, growing so abundantly that it had just the same
effect as a bed of blue-bells in spring at home. Then
we tried a path leading down past the hotel, that looked
as if it must take us to the river; as it did in course of time,
after we had had a most delicious scramble over rocks and
throuGjli trees, geoloirizing and botanizing to the best of
our powers. We found three if not four new kinds of fern ;
one corresponding evidently to our Filix-mas, and a Poly-
podium so like vulgare that I could not tell them apart, save
that their leaves might be a little longer and narrower than the
English one. The rocks were covered with blueberry — the
berries had gone — and Virginia creeper, which trails over rocks
here as well as up trees. It seems to me quite a pity it
should not be grown in this way in English gardens ; the
effect of the bright leaves on grey rock or dark soil is beau-
tiful. The maple was dazzling ; one bush we found with each
leaf green in the centre, with a scarlet edge. Our path at
last led down to the beach, where we sat on a huge ice-
scratched rockjUnder a group of " white" — Weymouth — pines,
looking up to the highlands, and feasting on the extreme
beauty, which far surpasses anything we had been led to expect.
We walked up to the hotel by a rather longer route, gather-
ing leaves, nuts, and flowers. The arbor-vita? grows magni-
ficently in the rocky cliffs ; juniper, covered with fruit,
hickory, butternut, walnut, chestnut, birch, maple, white and

20 SOUTH BY WEST.

purple oak, dogwood, guelder rose, all different shades of
yellow, red, and purple ; here and there the long scarlet and
orange leaves of the sumach, like flames of fire ; through
the trees views of river and mountain; and all bathed in
hot sunlight. When we got back, we soon set to work on
an excellent dinner, which ended with ice-cream for dessert
— a sign we were back in the neighbourhood of New York,
where you seldom have dinner without it. At Mr. P.'s, in
New York, we had ice in the shape of waffles, and cobs of
Indian corn, the green leaves of Pistache, the pod of Vanille ;
and in the streets you get a wine-glassful for a cent, paying
two cents if you have the luxury of a spoon.

After dinner, General R, the superintendent, kindly intro-
duced us to his adjutant, who took us all over the Academy.
The library is a fine room, where the students may come
and read as much as they like. They have all sorts of
books, from classics down to story-books. One table had a
pigeon-hole devoted to each periodical magazine, British as
well as American. There are a few very fine pictures of
celebrated generals, more or less connected with the Academy
— Washington, Monroe, Lafayette, General Totten, a noble-
looking man — indeed, they are all fine heads, born to rule, such
as it would be difficult to find here or in Europe now-a-days.
We then went across to the gymnasium, out of which opens
a room with models of guns and projectiles, in all stages of
construction, — an admirable plan, as on the same board you
have the bar of iron in every stage, up to the perfect barrel.
Here I saw a Gatling gun for the first time, a beautiful
weapon. It has, I think, ten barrels ; a tin case con-
taining twenty cartridges, with regulation musket bullets
1^^ of an inch, fits into a slit on one side, and, as a crank is
turned on the right by a handle, drops a cartridge from the
left into the barrel, and fires instantly. Captain H. said he
had fired one sixty times as fast as he could turn the handle,
and found, on going up to the target, they were all in a

NEW YORK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 21

space as wide as his own chest would cover. We then
went up into the recitation and drawing rooms, and the
engineering-room, with models of forts, pontoons, and maps ;
and, lastly, into a large room full of trophies and models,
hung all round with the tattered colours which were through
the Mexican war and the war with the South. But, of all
the things in that room, the one that sent a thrill through
one to one's very finger-ends was a small conical shot, not
twelve inches long. It was " the shot " that opened the
war, the one fired on April 12, 18G1, on Fort Sumter.
Opposite it was the return shot from the North, a round
ball ; and between the two a huge ball from the Northern
iron-clads, thrown at Fort Sumter two years later, when it
was in possession of the South.

It was a strange feeling : standing there with that terrible
little shot in my hand, and the Stars and Stripes waving
from the flagstaff outside.

In half an hour we went out to see a dress parade of the
cadets. Just as we got opposite the flagstaff the gun fired,
the flag dropped, and the band struck up a march. It was
extremely pretty to watch the parade. Their drill was gone
through like clock-work, and they doubled off the ground
to perfection. There are 254 cadets at present. The dis-
cipline is Spartan; the course is four years, and for
two years they have no vacation ; tlien they have seventy
days' leave of absence, and no more till they have done
the other two years. They liave no holidays in the week
but Saturday afternoon ; and then they may not go out of
the Academy bounds.

Their uniform is a plain light grey : but the regular
soldiers' full dress is most picturesque ; light l)hie trousers,
dark blue short jacket, and slouched beaver liat with a
black ostrich feather at one side, looped up on the other
side with a gold eagle.

Sunday, Oct. I5th. — This morning General 11. called for

22 SOUTH BY WEST.

US to take us to service in the cadets' chapel. The chapel
itself is not remarkable for beauty, being much like the
buildings at Sandhurst ; but inside, over the altar, there is a
fine painting by Professor Weir, who teaches drawing
here, and is considered one of the first American artists.
Below the picture is a trophy of the American eagle with
outspread wings, over a blue banner, with the national
motto " God and our Country," under which are draped
two ensigns crossed of the stars .and stripes.

On the wall to the left, looking towards the altar, is a
recess with glass before it, containing the flags captured in
the Mexican war of '47, with two elaborately-chased guns
let into the wall on each side, and the names of all the
officers who fell inscribed in gold on small black tablets.
On the wall too, right above where we sat with the General,
are similar tablets, with the names of all the generals who
served in the AVar of Independence, and have died since.
Where Arnold's name should have been, a blank is left. In
another recess were the five colours taken from us at Sara-
toga, and some guns and mortars captured at the same time,
with the old G.E. upon them.

It gave one a strange feeling again : looking up at them,
and hearing our first American service in the West Point
Chapel. The service was very much shortened on account
of the cadets ; the singing, done by seven or eight of them in
a gallery over the door by the organ, was exceedingly good,
slow and reverent. Dr. P., the chaplain, preached a most
impressive sermon upon Chicago, with a touching allusion to
the sympathy of Britain and Germany. After the ascription
he repeated the whole of the doxology

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow,"

and the whole congregation sung it slowly and solemnly to
the dear " Old Hundredth." It was perfectly overpower-
ing to our English ears. Then followed a short prayer

NEW YOKK, NIAGARA, AND WEST POINT. 23

for the army, navy, and the cadets, "that they might be
made good men and good soldiers ; " then the blessing, and
we left the church. It was a very beautiful service : — so
much reverence on the part of the young men, notwith-
standing their different creeds.

General E. took us on the way to the hotel past Kos-
ciusko's monument on the top of the old fortifications.
There never was any fighting, he said, on this actual point :
but at the old Fort Clinton, just below. At Constitution
Island, just above, the army was disbanded after the War of
Independence was over; and on the grass, at the end of the
parade-ground, lie the old chains which were put across the
river to prevent the Britishers getting up.

After dinner we walked to Fort Putnam on the hill
above the point with Dr. F. The road winds up through
rocky woods, and from the Fort we got a splendid view up
and down the river, the Point and its buildings lying mapped
out below. I caught a beautiful little tree toad, bright buff
colour, with suckers on its feet ; and near the top the Katydids
— grasshoppers — were perfectly deafening. "We came down
just in time to hear Yankee Doodle played at the cadet Sunday
parade, which we watched from the piazza of General A.'s
house. He was in command of the Colorado district, which
I hoped soon to visit. Here w^e met Professor "Weir, the
painter, who told me of a new way of preserving leaves
and ferns, by dipping them in linseed oil, and pressing them
between newspapers.

About 7.30 General and Mrs. A. called ; evening visits
being the custom in America. After they were gone we
took a stroll. It was like a summer's evening, deHciously
hot. The air was full of the sound of grasshoppers and frogs,
and also, alas ! of mosquitos, who are biting voraciously.
This is our third Sunday in America. Each has been quite
perfect in its own way ; the first coming into New York
harbour, the next at Niagara, and to-day at "West Point.

CHAPTEE IT.

FKOM EAST TO WEST.

Dowii tlie Hudson — Trains in tlie streets — Parlour cars — Baltimore- —An Ame-
rican country-house— The Convention of 1871 — Start for the West — St. Louis
— "Arctic Soda" — Mustang fever— Kansas city — The Plains — Prairie dogs —
An old "rattler" — Buffalos — United States forts — A railroad feat — Denver
— The Rocky Mountains — The pioneer narrow-gauge railroad — Pike's Peak.

On Monday, 1 Gth, we set off by train down the east bank
of the Hudson, past pretty towns and villages of white
houses, with a singular collection of names, — Indian, Dutch,
Classic, and English, all mixed up together. For instance, you
have Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, Tivoli, Caatskill, Athens, Stock-
port, and Troy, all within some hundred miles of each other.

Close to New York we got a fine view of the Palisades,
a curious line of basaltic cliffs 300 feet high, running for
some miles alonc,^ the western bank of the river. We came
slowly into the city, down one of the streets, for three or
four miles, a most alarming proceeding to our European
nerves, as the street was crowded with children, horses, and
carriages. Every moment we expected some one or some
thing would get under the car wheels. But as the State
affords no protections against accidents, people learn to pro-
tect themselves ; and while the great train of cars steamed
slowly on, the bell on the engine tolling funereally, the
passers-by cleared off the track just in time to escape de-
struction. The apparent carelessness of human life struck
us much when we first arrived in America.

The Dean asked the conductor of our car, as we crossed

FROM EAST TO WEST. 25

the bridge at Portage, whether people were not forbidden to
stand on the platform.

" Yes," he said, " there is a notice to that effect : but every-
one does it at his own risk, and if he is killed there is no one
but himself to blame."

An American friend was greatly diverted at my horror as
we ran into Baltimore, but confessed that he had once been
thoroughly frightened. He was on an engine going over a
flat stretch of road ; and as it seemed perfectly clear for two
or three miles, the engineer started full speed to show him
the pace of the engine. Suddenly, as they rushed along, in
the middle of their racing ground, they saw close before
them a tiny child, of a year or so, sitting playing on the
rails. They whistled and hooted and tried to stop. All in
vain ; the child did not move. But just as they thought in
agony that in a moment more nothing could save it, a woman
stepped leisurely from a cottage by the side of the track,
picked the little thing up with one hand, and stepped back
as the engine rushed past.

After breakfast in New York we started for Baltimore in
a parlour car. The Bishop of New York and his daughter
and several gentlemen, all on their way, like ourselves, to
the Convention, jomed us at the depot; so \ve were a
party large enough to secure the whole central compartment
of the car for ourselves. It was about 14 feet by 8, and 11
feet high, with five windows, and arm-chair seats for twelve,
carpets, footstools, and bright lamps, as well as a tap of
iced water. This really is the perfection of travelling. "\Ve
walked about and talked to our friends, and had visitors in
to see us from the other cars, all the afternoon ; so that it did
not matter to us tliat the New Jersey country through Avhich
we ran was flat and uninteresting, except for its extreme
richness. Our chief external excitements were crossing the
Earitan, Delaware, Schuylkill, and Susquehanna rivers, which
are quite magnificent ; and also in passing Phihidelphia we

26 SOUTH BY WEST.

got a fine view from the cars of the city, running past it
through a part of Fairmount Park, one of the most beautiful,
as well as one of the largest public parks in the world, being
over 1600 acres, with the Schuylkill river flowing through.

At 8 P.M. we reached Baltimore, where our kind recep-
tion- certainly went far to prove the truth of the popular
belief, that it is the most hospitable city in the Union. And
here I met Mr. S., who most kindly offered to be my escort
to the West to join my brother next week, if I can find no
one going sooner.

Thursday, l9tJi. — Mrs. H. and I took a little walk this
afternoon to a railroad tunnel they are making near here,
which is being lined with blocks of white marble. There
were blocks of a finer kind, such as is used for building,
in a yard close by. All the basements of the houses are
built of this lovely marble, quarried about eight miles off,
the upper floors being usually of red brick.

At four o'clock we went to dinner at Mr. D.'s, in Madison
Avenue, where the Bishop of Minnesota was staying. He
has given his whole life to the Sioux Indians, and has an
extraordinary influence over them, which would not surprise
any one who had the honour of knowing him.

Besides him we met Bishop Atkinson, and the Bishops of
Ehode Island and Connecticut. The latter took me in to
dinner, and was most agreeable. He told me much that was
interesting about his diocese, where he said one could still find
in the country districts that simple primitive New-England
life one reads of in Hitherto and the Gayworthies, and which
is becoming rarer every year, under the growth of large towns.

October 20. — Miss P. carried us off to luncheon at her
father's country-house, five miles from town. We have had
a lovely drive past pretty country places, with distant views
of a rolling wooded country.

Mr. P.'s house was one's ideal of an American country
place. A long road through purple oaks and yellow hie-

FROM EAST TO WEST. 27

kory led up to a rather low white house, its broad piazzas
covered with luxurious rocking-chairs ; and fragrant beds
of roses either side of the steps. We went for a walk
through the pleasure-ground, and passing a field of corn
(maize) had the delight of picking off a large cob, as the
corn was not yet cut. Luncheon was ready on our return ;
such a pretty meal: "Irish" and sweet potatoes, delicious
rolls, thinnest wafer-biscuits; and in the middle of luncheon
little old-fashioned glasses of "Confederate punch" were
handed round by the negro man and maid. After tea and
coffee, which are drunk at table, we sat in the piazza ; and
then took our leave, laden with boughs of scarlet maple,
cobs of corn, Osage oranges we had picked up in the road,
a glorious bunch of rosebuds and mignonette, promises of a
collection of varnished leaves, and the kindest wishes for our
speedy return.

During our stay we drove through the park just beyond
the city. It had originally been a gentleman's place, and
was given by him to Baltimore. The trees are beautiful; the
winding roads up and down hill, with deer coming to stare
at the carriage, the brilliant foliage, bright sun, and clear
air, give one quite a new idea of a city park.

23d. — We went ofi" to the city early, to the Convention at
Emanuel Church, which of course the Dean attended every
day ; and we listened for some time to the debates, hearing
some very good and some very bad speaking.

The General Convention meets every third year, the
larger cities of the Union being taken in rotation. It met
once before at Baltimore in 1808, when a small parlour was
large enough for the Upper House, consisting of two Bishops
out of a total number of six. In 1871 there met 50 Bishops
in the Upper House ; while in the Lower House were the
Delegates, lay and clerical, four and four from each diocese,
making a total, theoretically, of 400, practically of about
300. The Upper House, after the opening service, retired to

28 SOUTH BY WEST.

a smaller church close by, where they met with closed doors.
The Lower House continued their meetings at Emanuel, a
very large church. The platform of the apsidal chancel
was turned into a place of business, with a chair and table in
the centre for the President, and others for the secretaries
and reporters. The floor of the church was systematically
mapped out, according to the dioceses. The name of each
State or territory was printed in large letters on a standard,
above the respective pews ; so that one had the whole of the
United States, from Massachusetts to California, from Ala-
bama to Minnesota, brought before one in that little space.

'iith. — Went into the Convention again, and arranged
everything with my kind escort to the West ; finished my
packing ; telegraphed to my brother in Colorado to say when
I should arrive at Denver ; and we then went to dine at the
Bishop of Maryland's. We met there Bishop Wilmer of
Alabama, and his cousin Bishop Wilmer of Louisiana, the
Bishop of Albany, and various other people. Many were
the questions I had to answer about my journey in prospect ;
and I was soon so tired as to be glad, in spite of all the
pleasant acquaintances I made, and friends I met, to go
quietly home to rest with Mrs. B., our kind hostess, till it
was time to start.

Mr. B. drove me down to the depot about 10 p.m., and
put me into Mr. S.'s hands ; and in pitchy darkness and
lashing rain I bade farewell to Baltimore, its charming
inhabitants, and my dear English friends, and was fairly
launched on my way to the unknown West.

My berth was extremely comfortable ; and I had a good
night, notwithstanding many stoppages and bumping to and
fro, little dreaming of what an escape we had. In the
morning it leaked out that during the night a train in
front of us had broken down, and been unable to signal us ;
and had it not been for the powerful air-brakes they use on
this line, we should have run rinht into it, as we were onlv

FROM EAST TO WEST.

able to stop just as we got up to it ; while to add to the
possible horror, another train was close behind us.

In the morning of Wednesday we were woke up at five
by the conductor ; when we discovered to our surprise that
during the night we had climbed up about 2000 feet,
and were now at Altoona, near the top of the Alleghanies.
It was a misty morning, so that the views were rather

f*- '*' -^/ijt

Horse-shoe Bend, Alleghany Mountains.

spoilt : but over the summit we caught glimpses through
the mist and clouds of grand scenery as we wound round
the mountain sides. On either hand were pine forests,
some black from recent fires, others with a brilliant under-
growth of sumach and dogwood.

About eleven miles below Cressou Springs on the sum-
mit of the mountains, having run all that distance without
steam, we came to the Horse-shoe Bend, where the curv^e is

30 SOUTH BY WEST.

SO great that, looking out of the windows of the last car,
you see the three engines of the train running parallel with
you, only the other way.

The rain cleared off, and the scenery became more and
more distinct as we came down the side of the mountain
trout-streams, their banks shaded with tall hemlocks, and
a thick undergrowth of rhododendrons and ferns among
the rocks.

At a thriving-looking city, called Johnston, we came
to the first coal-mines, and they increased in number as
we went on. They are mainly adits— galleries run into the
hill-side horizontally. From Johnston we followed the
Connemaugh river which joins the Alleghany above Pitts-
burgh, through the Packsaddle Gap, reaching the Wolver-
hampton of the States about 1 1 a.m. Here we changed cars ;
and with great difficulty found places in the sleeping-
cars of the New York train we joined, as it was crowded
with passengers. As soon as we were clear of the smoke
and dirt of Pittsburg, the journey till dark was quite
lovely. We crossed the Ohio, where we first saw stern-wheel
steamers for shallow water; then ran along a stream for miles
and miles, following its windings till the sharp curves
made me feel almost giddy. So the night came on : and
on the 26 th we woke up to find ourselves among the
rolling hills and plains of Indiana ; and had breakfast
at Terre Haut, of coffee, roast quail, and corn bread.

The country grew more level as we neared St. Louis ;
and about ten miles from the city we passed some bluffs
standing out of a dead flat of alluvial ground running
away to the river, which are supposed to mark what have
been at one time the old banks of the river itself. In one
part of this flat rose half-a-dozen mounds, believed to be
Indian burying-places of immense antiquity. At last we
reached the river, and all turned out of the cars into six
huge omnibuses, with four magnificent horses to each, and

FROM EAST TO WEST. 31

drove down to a ferry-boat, where they were all drawn
up side by side, the horses standing like statues ; and
so we crossed the INIississippi. Like every European, I was
prepared to be greatly impressed by my first view of the
" Father of Waters : " but I must confess to a feeling of
blank disappointment. I saw nothing but a wide river —
but not as wide as I expected, of a horrible pea-soup
coloui-, covered with steamers ; a huge unfinished bridge ;
and the city, on the other side, looking rather ding}% with
its broad wharves or " levees," and long rows of tall ware-
houses.

Landing on the further bank, an incident occurred which
gave one a glimpse of the rough and ready fashion of the
West. The gangway of the ferry-boat was a good foot and
a half below the levee or pier on which we had to land ;
and one naturally expected that they would either raise it
in some way, or put down something to smooth the joining.
No such thing. The horses were set off full trot ; and they
dragged us up with a bump that would have broken any
ordinary carriage to pieces, sending the passengers all flying
in a mass against each other in the middle of the omnibus.

This over, we went at a great pace up the muddy streets,
away from the river to the hotel, where we stopped for a
few hours. As the parlour was very hot, and full of crying
children, we escaped and took a short stroll about the city.
We went first to a German bakery, and then refreshed our-
selves with an "Arctic Soda," flavoured with strawberry, 10
cents. These soda fountains are found at every "Drug-
store" in the large cities, with taps of different flavours, and
generally one marked " Tonic," which produces something
considerably stronger than the innocent raspberry and pine-
apple syrups. Chemists are not allowed to sell spirituous
liquors, except for medicinal purposes ; and the police are
supposed to search their stores at intervals. But wlien the
officer comes in and asks if they liave any spirits on the

32 SOUTH BY WEST.

premises, he is occasionally silenced by a glass of " Tonic
and Soda," and leaves the chemist alone till the next time
he feels thirsty.

After laying in a small stock of provisions against our
journey across the plains, we made our way down to the
Missouri Pacific depot; and were soon steaming away
towards the setting sun.

Now began the really novel part of the journey. I was
west of the Mississippi ; on that enchanted ground to which,
if you have once set foot upon it, you must sooner or later
return. " Mustang fever" is the name which Westerners give
to that wholly inexplicable feeling, which is said to allure
people back into the wilderness, almost against their own
wills, when they try to cure themselves of their roving
tastes, by living in the cities of the Eastern States, or even in
Europe. Ere I w^ent thither it was easy enough for me in my
ignorance to laugh at this theory : but now I am not quite
sure that I have wholly escaped the contagion. Certainly the
journey of the first evening, as we left St. Louis, was most
attractive. The moon was so bright that I was tempted to
sit up looking at the country till nearly every one else had
gone to bed. We ran for some hours alongside of the Mis-
souri river, the trees on its banks reflected clear and sharp
in the smooth water, reminding one of some charming
old steel engraving. Then we crossed the river, and ran for
some way with it on our right, and with broken ground on
the left, in some parts cultivated, in others forest, with deep
gullies worn by water through the light sandy soil.

At last I packed up for the night ; and woke about six
on the 27th to find the train at a stand- still at some bit of
a place, a perfect specimen of a mushroom town. It con-
sisted of a few wooden houses, a saloon, a boot-store, a dry
goods store, and directly opposite our car a wooden shanty,
with a plate on the door, stating that this was " Dr. Miller's
Office ;" while above the door the public were informed, in

FROM EAST TO WEST.

large letters, that H. C. IMiller sold " drugs, medicines,
paints, oils, glass, putty, books, stationery, and perfumery."

The ground was white with hoar-frost ; and the sun
rose crimson over an open country rolling away to the
blue distance. With joy I thought, — " Only one night
more, and we shall be at Denver : " Ijut then, to our dis-
may, came the news that by some unlucky chance we had
started in the wrong train, and must wait fourteen hours at
Kansas City to catch the through train. My heart sank ;

for of all places to wait at, a more unpleasant one on a hot
day than Kansas City, which we reached about 8 a.^l, can
hardly be found. But in a new country one has to put up
with many little annoyances; so we determined to make the
best of a bad matter, and drove up to the Lindell Hotel.
After breakfast in a very hot room, we explored the town
a little. It stands on a sandy bluff over the liver ; a
strange situation to choose, as the foundations for all the
houses on the slope of the hill have to be cut out of the

34 SOUTH BY WEST.

sand at gTeat expense and inconvenience. There were two
or three good streets, partly finished ; several hotels ; and
scattered stores, some wooden and some brick, standing alone
or in small clusters ; little wooden saloons, with glass fronts,
and various titles in English or German — " Colorado Saloon,"
" Denver Saloon," " Deutsches Gasthaus," etc. ; and candy or
fruit stores at the corners of what are in the future to be
streets, but are now only masses of mud and stone with a
boarded side-walk. One of these small booths bore a device
painted in the very roughest style of art,— a large shoe, a
green and red fly, and the word " syrup " written below them.
After some reflection I found that it signified that " Shoofly
syrups " were to be procured from the owner.

Higher up the hill there are churches, schools, and many
good residences : but the day was so hot that I put off my
further explorations to some future visit. Along the river
below the city are lines of warehouses, and one of the huge
elevators for raising and shipping loads of grain. Of this
curious process an excellent description may be found in
Mr. Macrae's account of Chicago in The Americans at Home.
After dinner we went down to the depot of the Kansas
Pacific Eailroad, to secure our tickets and places in the
8leeping-cars. The heat was intense, the road being cut
through sandbanks, which reflected the blazing sun over-
head. The day wore away slowly, and I was rejoiced to
hear about 10.30 p.m. the rattle of the four-horse omnibus
outside the hotel, to take us to the train, and decided that I
had , seen enough of Kansas City to satisfy me : though I
doubt not, from what I know since, 1 should have liked it
better had it been less hot, and I less impatient to get on.

28th. — At daybreak I found we were on the prames in
good earnest ; and in a couple of hours we stopped at Salina
for breakfast.

This was the point from which, in ] 8G7, the Trans-Conti-
nental Survey started, described by Dr. W. A. Bell, in his
New Tracks in North America. It was then a place of im-

FROM EAST TO WEST.

portance as the temporary terminus of a line, where all goods
were transferred from the freight cars to the ox trains,
destined to carry them through the dangers of a hostile
Indian country to Denver and the towns of New Mexico.

Directly we left Salina we came upon the regular plains ;
short grass in tufts on a sandy soil, and long stretches of
brown, rolling away wave upon w^ave, like some great ocean
turned into land in the midst of a heavy ground swell after
a storm. Here and there was a prairie ranche or farm, with

Prairie Ranche near Salina.

its corral for horses and cattle, and the great heap of grass
which represents the civilized haystack of eastern or Euro-
pean farms.

It is a lonely life, that of a rancheman. Settled out upon
the prairie with his herd of horses and cattle, often with-
out another house within a dozen or twenty miles, the
only human beings whom he sees are the passengers on
the daily train, or some passing emigrants, wearily crawling
over the plains with their white-covered ox-waggons ; except
when he drives his beasts for sale to the nearest market. In
the winter the snowstorms are terrible ; and in December

36 SOUTH BY WEST.

1871, hardly more than a month after I crossed the plains,
twenty-seven men were brought in on the Kansas Pacific
Eailroad frozen to death while tending their herds. One man,
a large cattle-owner, was found dead thirty yards from his
own door, with $5000 in his pockets; having evidently wan-
dered round and round, bewildered in the blinding snow,
and dropped at last from exhaustion, not knowing he was
close to his home.

But that people can live out on the borders of civihsa-
tion and prosper is a fact proved by the very existence of
such States as Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, etc. Fifty — cer-
tainly seventy — years ago they were quite as wild and much
more inaccessible than Kansas and the Territories are now.

I could not take my eyes off the country, so strange and
new it seemed ; and suddenly my attention was attracted by
a small brown post, about a foot high, planted in a sandy
ring, with a little round pit in the centre. I looked again-,
thinking it a strange place for a post, and there was another,
and a dozen more. All at once one of the posts threw
itself fiat down and disappeared into the pit, displaying four
short legs and a twinkling tail ; and I saw it was a prairie
dog {Arctomys Ludovicianus). We were going through a
dog-town, and there they sat by scores on their hind legs
praying at the train and rubbing their noses with their fore-
paws. They are the quaintest little animals ; and make
charming pets, as they are very easily tamed. They are very
falsely called dogs, their only claim to such a name being
their cry, a short bark : but are really more nearly allied to
marmots. They are usually supposed to live in the strange
company of a small owl and a rattlesnake ; and I have
heard people assert that in each hole these three most un-
congenial friends are found. This fact, how^ever, I have
been unable to prove satisfactorily, never having myself seen
either snake or bird with the prairie dogs. Those who have
had much experience in the West, tell me they have often

FROM EAST TO WEST.

seen the rattlesnake come out of holes in a clog-town, but
have never seen any prairie dogs come out of the same hole.
They are very difficult to catch, as their movements are very
rapid. The best plan is to pour M^ater down the hole, and
so drown out the poor little beast, who comes up choking
and spluttering, and is then easily made prisoner. The
peculiar shake they give their short tails as they bolt down
the hole has given rise to a Western phrase, denoting great
rapidity, — " in the twinkling of a tail."

Prairie Dogs.

My brother M. had a narrow escape one day in drowning
out prairie dogs. His party was surveying in New Mexico,
near Maxwells; and being camped near a dog-town they
determined, one stormy evening, having nothing better to do,
to catch prairie dogs. So accordingly, taking off shoes and
stockings, and armed with tin pan, pail, and shovel, four of
them sallied forth. Turning a stream of water from the
neighbouring irrigating ditch over the town, they waited
over the holes with their hands down all ready to catch the

38 SOUTH BY WEST.

unlucky little half-drowned dogs as they came up sneezing
and snorting. Two or three were caught and deposited
in the tin pan with the lid down ; but one large hole
tempted them to further endeavours ; and the water being
properly directed down it, M, was all readiness to grip his
prey, when suddenly, instead of the furry head of a dog,
appeared the fiat skull and glittering eyes of an old rattle-
snake. In an instant the valiant hunters were scattered,
with the old rattler after them ; and for some minutes a lively
game was carried on, the rattler making darts at their bare
shins as the four heroes hurled bucket, shovel, and volleys
of stones against him. At last one lucky shot disabled him,
and after he was despatched they "concluded" not to hunt
prairie dogs any more that day.

Near Brookville, a little station some way beyond Salina,
we passed through a range of the bluffs, which one hears
of so often as a feature of prairie scenery. They seem
to be entirely water-worn. A smooth grass-covered slope
rises up in a gentle wave from the prairie, and ends abruptly
in a steep rocky face. Sometimes, nearer the foot of the
Eocky Mountains, a few pines or scrub oaks find shelter on
the rocky side of the bluff : but out here on the plains no
twig was to be seen. Among these bluffs large herds of
horses and cattle were grazing ; and we passed an occasional
ranche till about mid-day, when every sign of civilisation
was left behind, and we reached the edge of the buffalo
plains.

Now began great excitement in our car, which was the
last on the train ; and some of us went out on the back
platform to watch for the appearance of the buffalo. This
is not a very safe proceeding, as there is only a rail just
across the end, and the sides are open. Still there is some-
thing pleasantly exciting in sitting there as one whirls along
the single track, over dry water-courses on fragile-looking
trestle bridges ; or between sandy banks, with high snow-

FROM EAST TO WEST. 39

fences to keep the snow in the winter from drifting and
filling np the cuts ; or over a wide smooth expanse, dis-
figured in many places by the long tongues of black running
out on either side the track, where a spark from the " smoke
stack," or chimney, has set the short buffalo grass on fire
during the droughts of summer. In some places these fires
had run for two or three miles over the country ; and it was
very likely owing to their pasture being so burnt that for a
long while we saw no buffaloes alive, though endless skele-
tons lay on each side of the track, and we passed several
dead bodies in various stages of decomposition. A most
cruel and foolish fashion prevails on these trains, of shooting
the poor animals from the cars as they go along, for the
mere pleasure of killing. Of course, many more are missed
than hit : but when they are wounded there is no means of
stopping to despatch them ; so they die in misery along the
line.

However, for some time it seemed as if the passengers on
our train were not to have any opportunity of showing their
skill ; for we reached Fort Parker without seeing a buffalo.
But suddenly I caught sight of two about a mile to the
north. Then the excitement among the passengers redoubled;
in half-au-hour we heard the crack of a pistol from the front
of the train ; and as it sped on we came in. sight of three
huge beasts, not more than 200 yards from the track. They
had been startled by the pistol-shot, and were galloping
along in their clumsy way, parallel with the cars, as they
always do when frightened. One wondered how such awk-
ward-looking beasts could keep up such a pace ; for long
after we had passed them they kept in sight, still galloping
after us, with their heads down. They are most hideous
animals, with heavy heads and shaggy shoulders quite out of
proportion with their small hind-quarters.

The buffalo, or more properly bison, ranges over the
great plains of Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska,

40 SOUTH BY WEST.

iu enormous herds ; sometimes, in the summer, getting
as fai north as the 50th parallel. They seem very little
disturbed at the invasion of their tenitories by railroads ;
and take kindly to the telegraph posts, evidently con-
sidering them put up for their special convenience to
rub against. This, as may be imagined, does not improve
the insulation of the wires ; and so many posts were rubbed
down at first, along the Kansas Pacific Eailroad, that orders
were given to stick the new ones full of large and sharp
nails. This, however, only made matters worse, as the
buffalos found the nails most charming combs for their
shaggy coats, and the posts were knocked down more fre-
quently than ever. So now the authorities have been
obliged to give up in despair, and let the line take its
chance.

At Ellice we stopped for dinner : but preferring our own
provisions to a nasty meal of tough and almost uncooked
buffalo-steak, I took advantage of the train waiting to get a
little walk on the prairie, coming back into the cars with a
handful of common weeds which were all new to me. Most
of them were in seed, as the season for flowers, alas ! was
over; and some of my fellow-travellers were not a little
puzzled at any one taking an interest in such rubbish.

Then away we went again over endless plains, through
blinding sun and dust : when, to my amazement, I saw here
and there, to the south, beautiful lakes and rivers, with trees
along their banks reflected in the clear water. I had been
assured that there was hardly any water, and not a single
tree all across these plains ; however, here they were most
certainly, and I called my friends to look too. But as we
approached one of the lakes it gradually faded away into the
air, and we found it was nothing but mirage.

The utter desolation and monotony was only varied here
and there by a herd of prong-horn antelopes (Dicranoceros
furdfera), bounding away from the train, or a wolf skulking

FROM EAST TO WEST. 41

round some skeleton, or a great owl sitting blinking in the
sun, or a group of soldiers or hunters drying buffalo meat,
and curinw hides at some " ducf out " station.

These dug-outs were more used a year or two ago than
they are now, as the Indians are quieter : but w^hen the
Kansas Pacific was building, and in the earlier days of stage-
driving across the plains, they were absolutely necessary.

The following description of Pond Creek Station, from New
Tracks in North America, will give a good idea of a fortified
stage station : — " Standing side by side, and built of wood
and stone, are the stables and the ranche in which the drivers
and the ostlers live. Behind is a coralle or vard, divided off
from the plain by a wall of stones. In this is kept the hay,
etc., belonging to the station. A little subterranean passage,
about five feet by three, leads from the stables to the house.
Another one leads from the stables to a pit dug in the ground,
about ten yards distant. This pit is about eight to ten feet
square, is roofed with stone supported on wood, and just on
a level with the ground, port-holes open on all sides. The
roof is raised but little above the general level of the ground.
Another narrow subterranean passage leads from the house
to a second pit commanding the other side of the station,
while a third passage from the coralle to a larger pit com-
mands the rear. In both houses many repeating Spencer
and Henry breech-loading rifles — the former carrying seven
and the latter eighteen charges — lie loaded ready to hand ;
while over each little fort a black flag waves, which the red
men know well means 'no quarter' for them. When attacked
the men creep into these pits, and thus protected, keep up a
tremendous fire through the port-holes. Two or three men,
with a couple of breech-loaders each, are a match for almost
any number of assailants. I cannot say how many times
these little forts have been used since tlieir construc-
tion, but during the three weeks (1867) we were in the
neighbourhood, the station was attacked twice. The Indians

42 SOUTH BY WEST.

are beginning to understand these covered rifle-pits, and the
more they know of them the more careful they are to keep
at a respectful distance."

About 4.30 we came across the buffalos again. This
time they quite fulfilled all one's expectations as to
number ; and till sunset we were never out of sight of them.
In one place we saw 200 or more a mile away, and in
another the plain was literally alive with a vast herd, three
or four miles off, which I was told must have numbered some
thousands. The groups near the track varied from four to
twenty, of all sizes ; and once I saw a little calf, with its
father and mother galloping on either side of it, to protect
it from the black smoking monster that disturbed their
evening's grazing.

As the sun set in crimson glory over the plains, we
reached the station for Fort Wallace. The depot there was
full of United States officers, who had driven in to get the
mail and newspapers. The Fort was too far off for us to see
it in the twilight : but those we had passed in the day had
given one a good idea of these little centres of civilisation,
with their neat white quarters, and the welcome Stars and.
Stripes waving from the tall flagstaff, as guarantees of order
and protection out on the desolate prairie.

I could hardly divest my mind of the idea that we should
be attacked by Eedskins ; for the name of Fort Wallace is
associated with such horrors : but we met with no worse a
misfortune than a very bad supper; and sped on towards
Denver. During the night we passed Kit Carson, the scene
of a terrible Indian raid in May 1870; and Elko, from
whence, in the day-time, Pike's Peak may be seen, 100 miles
away south-west. Kit Carson is the point from which began
one of the most marvellous feats in the annals of railroading.
150 miles of road were wanting to complete the Kansas Pacific
Eailroad to Denver ; and these 150 were graded and built in
a hundred days. The last day twenty miles remained un-

FROM EAST TO WEST.

finished. Double gangs were put on, working towards each
other from both ends ; and before evening they met and put
in the last rivet, one laying 8^, the other 1 1 J miles.

On the morning of the 30th I was up before daylight. As
the sun rose, ahead of us, pink in the dawn appeared range on
range of hills ; and I knew they were the Eocky Mountains
at last. At 6 A.M. we steamed into Denver, where my brother
M. was waiting for me on the platform. I fear my adieux to
my travelling companions were sadly wanting in length and
courtesy : and I have no very distinct recollection of how we

street in Denver.

got up to the hotel. But ere long I recovered my lost wits
as we sat down to a seven o'clock breakfast of delicious
mountain trout, eggs, and good coffee, to which I did ample
justice, as the food along the Kansas Pacific had not been
very tempting, and Mons. Charpiot's cooking was not to be
despised.

Denver stands at the junction of the South Platte and
Cherry Creek, about fifteen miles from the mountains. It is
certainly one of the most successful of all the new cities
of the West, and is growing at a perfectly prodigious rate.
The streets are wide, and laid out in straight lines, crossing at

44 SOUTH BY WEST.

right angles. There are very few " mean" or badly-built houses,
such as one is too apt to see in a new western town ; most
of the business blocks are of brick or stone, and in the resi-
dence streets pretty wooden villas stand each in their own
little garden plot. Cottonwood (white poplar) trees are
planted along most of the streets, and seem to thrive. The
stores are excellent ; and if one does not object to paying
four times as much as one would in England, all the neces-
saries, and most of the luxuries, of life can be easily pro-
cured in Denver.

Later in the day, M. and I went to dine with Colonel and
Mrs. G. ; and after dinner they took us for a drive round the
city. The day was bitterly cold and grey, with shattering of
sleet from time to time ; and I was thankful to put on seal-
skm and cloud and fur gloves — ^rather a contrast to our
sufferings from heat on the plains only the day before. We
drove across the Platte to a sandy hill, which is to be in
future the public park of Denver. It is called the Boulevard,
and has a fine ridinnr and driviuGf road laid out, with four
rows of Cottonwood trees and irrigating ditches. This, how-
ever, must be seen, like many other things in the West, by
the eye of faith ; as at present the road is a rough, sandy
track, and when the TTte Indians visit Denver they make the
park their camping ground. We got a very good idea of the
city from the Boulevard. It looks just if it had been dropped
out of the clouds accidentally, by some one who meant to
carry it further on, but got tired, and let it fall anywhere.

To the east one sees nothing but brown barren plain, away
and away. But on the west the view is superb. The prairie
rolls up in great brown waves to the foot-hills of the Eocky
Mountains, which bound the western horizon as far as eye
can see, north and south. At first I confess I was disap-
pointed as to their height ; but I soon discovered to my con-
solation that I had not seen the real mountains. For just
before sunset the clouds cleared off; and there, behind the

FROM EAST TO WEST. 45

foot-hills which lay in deep purple shadow, gleamed the
white peaks of the Snowy Eange, illumined by golden glory ;
and down South, Pike's Peak rose clear pink and wliite,
seventy-five miles away.

Monday, Xovember 1. — At 7.30 a.m. we were down at
the depot of the Denver and Ptio Grande Piailroad, and
found a quantity of new acquaintances, friends of M., going
down with us, — among others, Mr. N., the chief engineer to
the Fountain Colony, one of the very kindest of our many
kind friends.

They were all, of course, full of talk about the railroad,
the first division of which, as far as Colorado Springs, had
only been open a week; and I was soon imbued with a
proper enthusiasm at its complete success. It is the pioneer
narrow gauge (three feet wide) railroad of the States^ as well
as the pioneer north and south road.

For some miles out of Denver the road follows the course
of the Platte, till it turns to the mountains, and is lost to
sight in the dark abysses of the Platte Canon. Then, after
leaving the Platte, the line follows one of its tributaries,
Plum Creek, for about thirty miles, bordered with willows
and cotton woods. Here I may as well explain tliat a
" creek" in the West means any small river or stream. The
land on either side of Plum Creek is taken up by settlers,
and fenced off into ranches for sheep, cattle, and agriculture.

Every mile took us nearer to the mountains ; and at last
the train began climbing up the Divide, or watershed of the
Platte and Arkansas. Here we first got among the Pineries,
a great source of wealth all along the Piocky jNIountains ; and
at Larkspur passed a large steam saw-mill in full work.
Up the Eight Mile, a little creek which runs north from the
top of the Divide, — where we passed an old man washing for
gold, — the grade was very steep, seventy- five feet to the mile ;
and in a few moments we stopped at the summit, beside the
lake, which from its north end feeds the Platte, and from its

46 SOUTH BY WEST.

soutli the Arkansas. It was the highest point of ground I
had ever been on, being 7554 feet above the sea ; only second
in height as a railway pass to Sherman, on the Union Pacific
Eailroad, which is 8370 feet.

We got out of the car while some telegrams were de-
spatched, and walked about a little to warm ourselves ; for
the place bore out its reputation of being the coldest spot in
Colorado ; and then began the run down to the Springs,
about thirty miles. The road now was picturesque in the
extreme, winding along the banks of the Monument Creek, 1

past fantastic sandstone rocks, water-worn into pillars and
arches, and great castles with battlemented walls, on the top
of every hill. Through the pine trees we now and then
caught glimpses of the mountains, pink and purple, towering
up ridge over ridge, till, about Husteds, the whole panorama
south of the Divide lay stretched beneath us.

To the right the foot-hills rose, crowned by the grand
snow-covered head of Pike's Peak, 14,336 feet high. To
the south, the horizon was bounded by Cheyenne Mountain,
standing right out into the plain ; and from it to the east-
ward stretched the boundless prairie.

CHAPTER III.

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN.

A series of surprises— The young town — Our shanty and its fittings — How we
live — Glen Eyrie — Tea in a loft — Bird-cage making— A " scare" — House-
warming — The Soda Springs— A trapper— Walk to Mount Washington —
School — Move to our new quarters— Staging and stage-drivers.

" CoLOBADO Springs, Colorado, Nov. 1S71.

" Dear * * * — Here I am ' located ' at last, and the best
thing I can do is to describe our arrival here, and my first
impressions, which, to say the least, are novel.

" We pulled up at a log cabin by the side of the track,
and from the door- way came a voice, saying, ' Dinner 's on
table.' Out we all got, and I thought — Surely we can't be
going to dine in this place : but M. took me round to the
back door and into the parlour, where he told me to wait
while he saw to the luggage. In a few minutes he returned,
and took me into the dining-room, where I found,, to my
amazement, two large tables on one side, and four small
on the other, with clean linen, smart waiters, and a first-rate
dinner ; far better than any we had had on the Kansas
Pacific. I was in a state of complete bewilderment : but
hunger soon got the better of surprise, and we were doing
ample justice to oyster-soup and roast antelope when in
came General and Mrs. P. It was pleasant to find well-
known faces among so many new ones.

" You may imagine Colorado Springs, as I did, to be a
sequestered valley, with bubbling fountains, green grass,
and shady trees : but not a bit of it. Picture to yourself a

48 SOUTH BY WEST.

level elevated plateau of greenish-brown, without a single
tree or plant larger than a Spanish bayonet (Yucca) two feet
high, sloping down about a quarter of a mile to the railroad
track and Monument Creek (the Soda Springs being six
miles off), and you have a pretty good idea of the town-site
as it appears in November 1871.

" The streets and blocks are only marked out by a furrow
turned with the plough, and indicated faintly by a wooden
house, finished, or in process of building, here and there,
scattered over half a mile of prairie. About twelve houses
and shanties are inhabited, most of them being unfinished,
or run up for temporary occupation ; and there are several
tents dotted about also.

" On the corner of Tejon and Huerfano Streets stands the
office of the Denver and Rio Grande Railway, a small wooden
building of three rooms, in which all the colony work is
done till the new office is finished. It is used, besides, as
post-office, doctor's shop, and general lounge for the whole
town. My house stands next to it; a wooden shanty, 16
feet by 12, with a door in front, and a small window on
each side— they are glass, though they do not open. It
is lined with brown paper, so it is perfectly wind-proof,
and really quite comfortable, though it was ordered on
Thursday and finished on Saturday. M. has now put his
tent up over the front of the shanty, with a rough board
floor, and it serves for our sitting-room by day and his
bedroom at night ; so we can warm both tent and room
with a stove in the former : but on IMonday we forgot to
bring the stove down from Denver, and I had to do without
it as well as I could. In one corner of the shanty we put
my little camp-bed ; my trunks in the others. Our furni-
ture had not arrived from Denver; so M. found an old
wooden stool, which had been used for mixing paints upon,
tacked a bit of coloured calico over it, deposited upon it a
tin basin, and there was an impromptu washhand- stand. A

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN.

few feet of half-inch board were soon converted into corner
shelves, and, with warm yellow and red California blankets
on my bed, and a buffalo-robe on the floor, my room looked
quite habitable. In the tent we have put the stove, a couple
of wooden kitchen chairs from the office, and a deal table ;
M.'s bed makes a comfortable sofa by day; and over the door
into the shanty hang two bright curtains Dr. B. has brought
me from Denver, as a contribution to our housekeeping. In
the corner by the stove stands a pail of water ; and over it
hangs an invaluable tin dipper, which serves for saucepan,
glass, jug, cup, and every use imaginable.

Our Shanty.
t

" Monday night, after paying one or two visits, we went to
the office and had a game of whist with Mr. K and Dr. G.,
who has been burnt out of Chicago and come down here to
settle. Then I locked myself into my strange new abode,
with M.'s revolver as protection against imaginary foes ; and
by dint of buffalo-robes and blankets, and heaps of flannel,
managed to keep tolerably warm, though my breath con-
densed on the sheets, and when I got up the bucket had a
quarter of an inch of ice on it.

" Tliis is how our day goes, now that we have got

50 SOUTH BY WEST.

everything ' fixed ' properly : — Get up at 7 A.M. in the cold
frosty air. M. comes in and lights the stove ; heats some
water ; and by eight we are ready for a walk of nearly half
a mile down to the restaurant (the log cabin), with a fine
appetite for breakfast. The food is good and plentiful.
Beefsteak or venison; biscuit — as they call hot rolls out
here ; hot buckwheat cakes eaten with butter and molasses
or honey ; and the whole washed down with bad tea or ex-
cellent rich milk. Then if there is time we take a stroll and
look for seeds and stones. There are all sorts of stones and
crystals to be found here ; and I hear of amethysts up the
Monument. On Monday Dr. G. brought me a lump of rock-
crystal as large as a man's fist, which he picked up close to
our tent ; and it serves me for a paper weight.

" At nine work begins, and I attend to my household
duties, sweeping the room, etc., and then am ready to help
M. in writing out agreements for lots and memberships. At
12.30 the train comes in, and we go down to dinner. At
5.30 it is almost dark ; supper is at six, and then we shut
up our tent and spend a cosy evening."

Wednesday, Nov. 2. — Drove up to Glen Eyrie with Mrs,
P., and General P. and M. followed us up to tea. Glen Eyrie
lies about five miles north-west of town, between the Garden
of the Gods and Monument Park. It is a valley in the foot-
hills, about half a mile long and a little less broad, shut in
from the plains by a rock wall, which runs almost from
Cheyenne Mountain to Monument Park, some fourteen
miles, varying in height from fifty feet to some hundred,
with here and there a gateway through to some valley or
canon. Into Glen Eyrie debouches one of the finest cafions
in the neighbourhood ; it has been explored for ten miles
into the mountains, and goes on no one knows how much
farther. At the very mouth of the caiion, close to a beautiful
group of Douglassii pine, and just above the little rushing

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN.

mountain torrent, which used to be known to trappers as
" Camp Creek," the P.s are building a most charming large
house : but till it is finished they live in a sort of picnic
way, in rooms 10x10, partitioned off from the loft over the
stable ! There was just room for us all four to sit at tea,
and we had great fun. There were four cups, but no

The Canon in Glen Eyrie.

saucers ; and we had borrowed two forks from the restaurant,
so that we each had one. Their coloured servant had cooked
some excellent venison and " flapjacks " for us ; and we had
Californian honey, blackberry preserve, first-rate coffee, and
baked potatoes.

M. and I drove home in the buggy, at 9 p.m., with two

62 SOUTH BY WEST.

mules that " scared" continually ; and as the road down to
Colorado City, three miles, seemed a series of hills, pits,
gulches, banks, streams, etc., the drive was more exciting
than agreeable. Just as we were crossing a little creek a
huge owl flapped out of a tree right before us ; and the mules,
I thought, would have thrown themselves flat down : then,
as we came to the Company's irrigating ditch outside Colo-
rado City, they scared again, and nearly went over the side
of the bridge. Through the city we heard what we thought
at first were coyotes (prairie wolves), but it turned out to be
a stray foal, which came after us full gallop, whinnying
all the way, and caught us up close to the restaurant, where,
of course, we had a splendid " scare." It was a glorious
night ; the moon almost as bright as day, and the air so
mild that we felt oppressed in all our fur wrappings.

The first few days passed quickly in learning the ways of
the country, and settling down in our new life. Up to that
time I had seen nothing at all alarming in the way of Indians
or wild beasts ; but there came a day when M. was obliged
to go up to Denver on business, leaving me under Mr. N.'s
care. The day was busy enough. I had to manufacture a
cage for some snow-birds {EremojjJdla cornuta, a sort of lark)
which the French nursery -gardener had caught for me ; and
when one has nothing handy to make a cage of, it naturally
takes some time. Leroy caught the cock first, late one even-
ing ; and I kept it all night in a little pen on the top of my
trunk, made of Martin Chuzzlcunt, a candy-box, my travel-
ling-bag, and two blocks of firewood ; the whole covered
with a bit of flannel. But next day came the hen ; and, of
course, must have a cage, and the cage required much
thought. First I begged an old candle-box from the grocery
store, and over the front of it I twisted some wire which the
negro from the office got for me off an old broom-handle.
As there was not enough to finish it, and none was to be
bought for love or money nearer than Denver, I had to put

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 53

a board over the rest of the opening. In the evening, how-
ever, when I secured the tent-flap, and set to work to make
up my fire, I began to feel the " creepy" sensation of our
nursery days stealing over me. My only living companion
was a very dirty black-and-white kitten called " Tucker : "
but M. had left me his revolver, so that I felt pretty secure,
and when I was well warmed I locked myself into my room,
and with the pistol close to my side, and the kitten on my
feet, was fast asleep in a minute. How long I had slept I
knew not ; but I was awoke by a sound I had never heard
before. Peal upon peal of demoniac laughter, mingled with
shrieks and screams, seemed sweeping past the shanty— now
loud, now softer, till they died away in the distance. I flew
up, and with the revolver across my knee, listened in a per-
fect agony of terror : but the sound, whatever it was, had
gone by, and by the time I had struck a match, and found it
was four a.m., 1 knew what it must be — a band of Coyotes
(prairie wolves) had come through town on a raid after stray
sheep. And small blame to me if I was frightened ; for
many a stout Westerner has told me how, camping out on
the plains in hourly expectation of an Indian attack, a band
of Coyotes have made every man spring to his feet with rifle
or revolver cocked, thinking the wolfish chorus was an Indian
war-whoop.

November 7. — The P.s came back from Denver, bringing
me a splendid silver-back bear robe as a birthday present,
which makes our tent look luxurious. We invited Dr. B.

and Mr. to tea in honour of my birthday, and M. and

I had great fun preparing for our house-warming. He went
out and got a white teapot and mill<:-jug, six tin mugs, six
forks, knives, tea-spoons, and plates : a tin basin for washing
the dishes, a packet of tea and sugar, a bag of crackers (bis-
cuits), and two boxes of sardines. We laid the table in
English style, and felt quite "high-toned" — to use a Western-
ism — when our guests came in. We had previously insisted

54 SOUTH BY WEST.

on Dr. B, going doM'n to the restaurant and eating a large
supper, for fear of making too large an inroad on our tea,
which was exactly like boiled hay. We thoroughly enjoyed
being four Britishers together so far away from the old
country; and, after our sumptuous tea, sat chatting and
singing songs round the stove till eight, when our party
dispersed, as the haunting demon of America — business —
called for their services again, and M. got out his office
books, and I answered home-letters.

November 8. — Having all my dishes to wash after our
party the night before, I spent some time in "searching
around" for a dish-cloth ; and at last by good luck hit on
half a towel in the office, and was boasting of my treasure at
dinner to Dr. G., when he mildly informed me it was his,
but, with a pioneer's proverbial generosity, allowed me to
keep possession of it. After the dish-washing was accom-
plished, we went to see Mr. 's start for Wet Mountain,

as small events are very great in the life of a young colony.
He had an ambulance, packed with every kind of thing for I

setting up a ranche, drawn by a team of four mules, his I

own pony being tied behind. The waggon was drawn up
close to the side of a shanty where some of the colony
officers sleep ; and when at last the mules were harnessed,"
and Mr. and his companion, a young Dutch master-
carpenter, were getting in, the wheelers started forward, the
leaders stopped dead, and crack, crack went the wheel against
the shanty, carrying off half-a-dozen of the shingles. M.
seized the mules' heads and stopped them after twenty yards ;
half the things fell out of the waggon, the whip flew one way,
the oats another, and the bystanders looked on in perfect
convulsions of laughter. After four false starts they got off
at last, the pony hanging back and acting as a brake to
the frantic mules : but how they have sped who can tell ?
Neither of them know the road, now deep in snow ; and Wet
Mountain Valley is 100 miles from here.

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 55

Two more English friends came down by the train ; so
we determined to pay a visit to the Soda Springs at Manitou,
six miles off, where there is a temporary hotel kept by
English people ; and we set off about 5 p.m. It was dark,
except for the light from four inches of snow, against which
the road showed quite black ; while an icy north wind was
blowing down from the Divide, and whistled round and
through us.

The road up to Colorado City, a gambling and drinking
den two miles from the railroad, seemed to me decidedly
bad, especially as it was two or three inches deep in stiff
mud : but it was beautiful, compared to that from the city
up to Manitou. We had to cross the Colony irrigating
ditch two or three times, besides Camp Creek, and various
other creeks, on bridges made of planks laid loose crosswise
over supports without any fastening or any railing at the
side. But worst of all was the ford over the Fountain Creek,
close to the Soda Springs.

We drove straight down the bank into the river, which
boiled and foamed over a rocky bed ; and the descent was so
steep that when the horses were in the water the hind wheels
were as high as their backs. We plunged and struggled
through, and up the other bank, and then breathed freely.
Next day, when . I complained of the road, I was seriously
reproved by some stanch Coloradan, who said it was as good
a road as any one could want.

The creek passed, in a minute more we were at the tem-
porary inn, a long one-storied wooden shed of single boards,
divided off into a double set of rooms on either side of a
passage, excepting in the entry and dining-room, where it is
open.

The night was cool, to say the least ; and in spite of five
blankets and a bear- robe, whose weight was suffocating, my
face was nearly frost-bitten. Eor, as the hotel was only run
up for summer visitors, the boards had large spaces between

56 SOUTH BY WEST.

them ; and when I woke in the morning I was surprised to
find how much daylight showed through the walls.

On looking out of the window, I found we were in an
exquisite valley, with pine-covered mountains rising 5000
feet up from the Fontaine qui bouille, as it used to be called
in old trapping days. In these more prosaic times it is
merely Fountain Creek. The sun shone bright over the
snow, and blue jays, with crest erect and screaming voices,
flashed through the scrub oak round the creek.

The Soda Springs lie in a group along the stream ; some
on the bank, and others in its actual bed. There are four
principal ones ; the first you reach is the " Manitou," close
to the road, the basin of which is some five or six feet
across. The largest spring, "the Navajo," has formed a
large basin, six or eight feet across, in the centre of wliich
the water boils up in a violent current. One would sup-
pose there was water enough to make a good-sized trout-
stream : yet not more than five or six gallons a minute issue
from it. The overflow is carried off to the creek by a
channel four inches wide and one inch deep, through the
thick incrustation of soda deposit which spreads all over the
surrounding rocks. Fifteen feet higher up the creek.lies
the third, a chalybeate spring, wdiich deposits no sediment.

On the opposite side of the creek lies the " Galen Spring."
It is the smallest of the four, but much the strongest; and is
used chiefly for drinking. The cavity is about 1 2 inches
in diameter, and the water 1| feet deep. The bubbles
rise ceaselessly, but not more than half a gallon of water per
minute passes off. Tliere is a constant deposit of whitish
substance from the spring, which extends down to the
margin of the creek, twenty feet off, on each side of the
tiny stream which trickles from the " Galen."

Professor Hayden, in the U. S. Geological Survey, says,
" The water issues from the ground very near the junction
of the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, close by the

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 57

base of Pike's Peak, . . . These springs must necessarily
have their origin in the metamorphic rocks, although the
waters may pass up through a considerable thickness of
the older sedimentary. On both sides of Fountain Creek
there is a considerable thickness of the carboniferous beds ;
but the creek seems to run through a sort of monoclinal rift,
though at the falls above the stream cuts through the ridges
nearly at right angles. At any rate, there cannot be a very
great thickness of the unchanged rocks below the surface of
the springs."

The water seems to maintain the same temperature,
about 65°, all the year round, being pleasantly cool in
summer, and never freezing in winter. About half a mile
from the creek lies the " Iron Ute " spring, up a splendid
gorge, called Ingleman's canon, with Pinus Douglassii and
silver fir springing up between every rock. This spring is the
finest and strongest of all ; the water containing, in addition
to the salts of soda and potash of the lower springs, a large
proportion of iron.

From the Soda Springs, a trail through pine woods, and
up rocky mountain sides, leads to the summit of Pike's Peak.
This expedition may be made in two days by sleeping at
the half-way house just below "timber line ;" that is to say,
11,000 feet above the sea; and, though rather a rough trip,
is quite practicable for ladies.

It would be difficult, in any part of the world, to find
such a series of mineral springs in finer scenery. And there
can be no doubt that the prophecies of Euxton and Fre-
mont will be fulfilled ; and that the " Fountain Colony" will
answer aU the expectations of its promoters, and become a
da'i:.gerous rival to Saratoga and the Sulphur Springs of the
East.

From the upper end of the Manitou valley a road leads
up to South Park and the mountains over the famous old
" Ute Pass," where the Ute Indians of the mountains lay in

58 . SOUTH BY WEST.

wait for the mountain buffalo coming down to feed in winter
on the plains, when driven out of their summer haunts in
South Park by the snow. All this little valley and the
town site of Colorado Springs have witnessed terrible fights
between the Utes and the Cheyennes. It was a kind of
neutral ground ; and when one tribe dared to set foot upon
it, their enemies were all ready to pounce upon them. So
late as 1869 the Cheyennes scalped and killed six white
people between the present railroad track and Colorado
City.

Sunday, November 12. — A splendid morning: but we
were rather late, and just as we were starting for breakfast in
the restaurant, the wind changed, blowing all the smoke and
fire down into the tent ; so I had to rush to the office, which
is always my refuge when the stove goes wrong, which it
does once a day, while M. fought the chimney. When it
was brought to reason by the united genius of M., Mr. B.
the contractor, and Butler the office-negro, it was too late for
breakfast; so we cooked some coffee and " Eamornie" extract
of meat, had some bread, butter, and potted meat, doing well on
the whole for an extempore breakfast. Then M. was called
away to the office, and I made my bed, " fixed up " my rdom,
fed the kitten and the remaining snow-bird (the other having
been frozen to death in my room on Tuesday night), washed
all the breakfast things, and put them away ; and by that
time M.- came back, and we settled down to write home.

Then the tent flap is pushed back ; a head comes in ; M.
jumps up crying " Why, Ike ! how goes ? " and rushes out.

It is Ike, the hunter from Cheyenne Manitou ; and they
stand outside talking for ten minutes, while I make notes of
the first real hunter I have seen, for the benefit of the home-
letters. A tall young fellow in his Sunday clothes, which of
course are not half as picturesque as his week-day ones would
be. A soft black hat, rough pilot coat, dark trousers, tucked
into long boots up to the knee, and a pair of beaver gloves

LIFE IN A NEW T0^^^. 59

peeping out of his pocket. He and M. make a good group ;
with his chestnut horse, and its qvieer bridle and Mexican
saddle with broad stirrup straps and high peak in front ; and
the glorious mountains as a background. Off he canters one
way, M. goes another, and I curl up on my bear-robe and
begin to read ; when I hear a clatter, and look out in time
to see the Santa Yi stage with its four bay horses swing past
the tent. I begin to read again, and the flap is slowly pushed
aside, and in walks " Bruce," the deerhound, to grin lov-
ingly at me, and retire to his wife " Lady" outside. Then
comes a knock ; a strange man appears to ask where B., the
livery-man whom the company employs, lives ; and by the
time I have sent him off about his business it is dinner-time,
and we go down to the restaurant.

We had settled to go up to Manitou for the afternoon :
but at twelve the sun, which had been intensely hot all the
morning, clouded over ; a snow-storm swept over the moun-
tains, coming down within a mile of us ; and when at two
it cleared off, we found that one of the mules had strayed
last night, and that Butler the negro had taken the other to
go and look for it. So we contented ourselves with a walk
to Mount Washington with the two dogs : for as there is
neither church nor service here yet, the only way Sunday
can be kept is by making it a day of rest from the incessant
business of the week.

We struck across the prairie-rise on which the town
stands, passing bones of cattle and antelope strewn here and
there, to a deep gulch, almost dry now ; and climbed up the
brown slope of sandy soil, to find the other side covered with
gramma, buffalo, and bunch grasses — the three kinds which
form the pasturage on the plains — mixed with the dry stalks
and seed-pods of fifty varieties of flowers. What would I
give to see them in flower ! I gathered a few seeds, and
passed a fine lupin, whose pods were not ripe. As we got
higher up the vegetation changed a little, and the ground

60 SOUTH BY WEST.

was strewn with blocks of stone, red granitic hornblende, and
any quantity of quartzose stones, some pink, some white.

When we came to Mount Washington itself, a solitary
hill about 2| miles south-east of the town, rising some 300 or
400 feet above the plain, we passed a few Eocky Mountain
pines (Pinus ponderosa) with their large cones and fine long
foliage. We scrambled up the little mount over the red
rocks, covered with bunches of blue gentian, now dry and
withered, but, owing to the excessive dryness of the air,
keeping their colour quite brightly ; Spanish bayonet
{Yuccct filifcra), the only green thing which shows now on
the plains ; and prickly cactus ; and at last we stood panting
on the top. The air is so rarified that it makes going up the
slightest hill quite an effort.

It was a glorious view. North lay the Divide, shining
with snow ; west, the mountains in purple shade witji snow
clouds sweeping over the higher peaks ; south, flat land with
mesas — long table-lands rising out of the plain. East
lay the Bluffs, a continuation of Mount Washington, shutting
out the great plains from our view. These plains run east
to Kansas, without a single tree, for 400 miles.

Talking of Kansas : the Kansas Pacific Eailroad has been
entirely blocked with snow for some three days. A train
got into Denver the day before yesterday ; and one tried to
get in yesterday, but failed. It is a great pity, on account
of our letters, which all come by that line. But on the
other hand it makes us rather rejoice down here at the con-
trast between the broad and narrow gauges, as the little
Denver and Kio Grande has never been stopped yet by the
snow, and was only 2| hours behind time on the worst day.

We walked back from Mount Washington as the sun
went down behind Cheyenne Momitain, without seeing any
game ; which was disappointing to the dogs, who were looking
out for a jack rabbit {Lepiis campestris of Waterhouse), or a
coyote, and got no reward for their long walk save innumer-

LITE IN A NEW TOWN. 61

able cactus spines which stuck in their feet, and made theni
come limping to us every half-mile to have them extracted.

Last night, or rather about 7 P.M., we had a pack of
coyotes through the town. We were sitting in the hut after
tea; Lady was lying in the corner; Bruce was out; when the
pack rushed past, yelling and laughing as if Bedlam were
let loose. Bruce gave tongue outside ; Lady dashed at the
tent door, M. after her, catching her by her back ; the cat
jumped up spitting and growling ; and I thought the world
was gone mad. The whole thing took less time than it does
to write it, and then all was quiet. These little excitements
are very strange, and make one realize that one actually is
in the Far West, among the wolves and trappers and the
fantastic life which one reads of at home, and which it is
sometimes difficult to conceive.

November 13, — A lovely morning, clear and hot, with a
wisp of cloud hovering round the highest peaks.

Last night it was bitterly cold, and I had to go to bed
without a fire, as no power which we could bring to bear
would make the stove light.

Field and Hill's rooms, for the new office above their
store, were ready ; so we decided to move over in the after-
noon ; and I went out, and sitting on a log of firewood, did a
sketch of our old shanty. I am really sorry to leave it : we
have had such fun there : but it is getting too late in the
year for tent-life, and it will be pleasant to get into a good
plastered room.

Mrs, P. has undertaken to begin a school for the colonists'
children, and opened it this morning. I went up before she
arrived, and found seven children all in great excitement
about their teacher. The school is some way up the town
side; a pretty three -roomed house which ]Mrs. P. has rented
till a regular school-house can be built,

I returned to the dear old shanty to pack up and move.
What work it was : and how I hate moving ! Leroy, the

62 SOUTH BY WEST.

Frencli gardener, was invaluable, and kept running back-
wards and forwards between the shanty and the new office
all the afternoon ; — first with a teapot and lamp, then a
bundle of rugs, then odds and ends of every kind, from
sardine boxes down to fossils, which he stuffed into a big
basket.

My room is delightful. The Company has taken the
three rooms over Field and Hill's dry goods and grocery
store, with an outside staircase leading up to them. The
front room is the office, the middle M. and Mr. N. share, and
the back one has been allotted to me. I have a splendid
stove in the middle, which keeps me quite warm ; and have
two windows looking over the town east away to the plains,
with the white bluffs at Jimmey's Camp showing twenty
miles away. From the office windows we look on the whole
range, with Pike's Peak as a central point, and have the
amusement of seeing all that goes on at the depot and on
the line a quarter of a mile below us.

The store is also the temporary Stage Office till the real
one is built, and one of our daily excitements is the arrival
and departure of the coach, coming up from the south to
" connect" here with the up train, and taking the new arrivals
on to Pueblo, Maxwells, or Santa Fe in New Mexico.

It is a sight I am never tired of watching : the coach
with its four splendid bays, standing in front of the office ;
the horses held by two men, a third with the reins ready ;
the " messenger " stowing his mail-bags safely away ; the pas-
sengers bundling in for a period of misery of varying length.
When all is ready, and not till then, out walks the great
man, in yellow blanket coat, and hat securely tied down with
a great comforter. He mounts the box, arranges himself
leisurely ; the messenger is beside him, wrapped in buffalo
robes ; then the reins are put in his hand, and as he tightens
them, away go the horses with a rush that takes one's
breath away.

LIFE IX A NEW TOWN. 63

The Western stage-driver, on his box, with the " lines,"
as they call the reins, in his hand, is inferior to no one in
the Eepublic. Even the President, were he on board, must
submit to his higher authority.

Among many and varied accomplishments, these stage-
drivers have the credit of being able to consume a prodigious
amount of whisky. The following story is the most remark-
able illustration of this trait in their character ; the incident
occurring, I was assured by the narrator, on the mail that
runs south from Denver to Santa FL

"As the coach drove up to the door of the hotel in
Denver, out stepped a jolly-looking Englishman, and asked
for the box-seat. The stage-driver eyed him from head to
foot dubiously, till he saw in his baggage a keg of whisky,
when, with a slight change of countenance, he told him, ' he
guessed he could fix it.' And when the messenger cried ' All
aboard,' the Englishman and his whisky took the box-seat.

" The first twelve-mile stage was monotonous, the Eng-
lishman probably meditating on 450 miles by coach ; and the
stage-driver, who seemed desperately taken up with his
horses, on ' that thar whisky barrel.'

" The station is reached at last ; and the Englishman,
feeling cold, announced that he was going inside for the next
stage : but wishing to do the right thing asked the stage-
driver first whether he would have a drink.

" ' Waal,' says he, ' guess I will,' and catching hold of
the barrel uncorks it with a masterly hand, and for the space
of some twenty seconds goes through an elaborate process of
"star-gazinfj" throuc;h a wooden kecr.

" ' Waal,' he remarks, 'that's rale good :' setting it down.

" ' Oh, if you like it,' says the Englishman, 'just keep
it up there, I shan't want any for the next stage,' and jump-
ing in dozes off in a troubled sleep, or at least the nearest
approach to one which the bumps and jerks of the old Con-
cord coach will allow, till they change horses at the next stage.

64 SOUTH BY WEST.

" Feeling thoroughly chilled he jumps out and asks the
driver for the keg, which is handed down to him, and
through which he proceeds to "star-gaze" in the most ap-
proved Western fashion. To his surprise and horror not a
drop oozes out.

" ' Why,' he says, ' what 's gone with the whisky ? '
" ' Why,' says the stage-driver, ' ain't there none thar ?'
" ' No,' said the Englishman ; ' what's happened to it ?'
" ' I guess it leaked out.'

" ' But that 's impossible ; where can it have leaked to V
" ' Waal,' says the stage-driver, ' guessed it 's leaked down
my throat.'

" ' Down your throat ! why, man, you don't mean to say
you 've drank it all ? '

" ' Why not ? thar warn't much whisky nither.'
" ' Why, my good man, you don't mean to say that in a
twelve-mile stage you drank the whole of that keg of
whisky ? '

" ' Yes. But then, ye know, what 's one keg of whisky
amongst one stage-driver ? ' "

CHAPTER IV.

LIFE IX A NEW TOWX continued.

The weatlier— Washing and cooking— The penalties of a free co\uitrj' — Visitors
from Denver — A snowy pillow— The cold "snap" — A presentiment — Sun-
shine again— The Falls of the Fountain— Starting a reading-room— Colonist-
catching — The Garden of the Gods — Pete shows his wisdom.

Noveiiiber 14. — Swept out my new room and " fixed up"
a little : but I have no shelves at present, which is dis-
tracting. Then I made sis copies of schoel circulars for
]\I. to send round to the oiitlying colonists. In the after-
noon drove up to Manitou with Mrs. P. I had no idea how
lovely the drive was ; as when we went up last week it was
quite dark, and coming down towards the town we miss the
best view looking up the Fountain to Pike's Peak and the
Lete Pass. "VYe drove with a very slow pair of mules, so
we had no time to go round by the Garden of the Gods, as
we intended at first.

We are having glorious weather during the day, hot and
sunny with a fresh wind, though the nights are very cold.
Coming home we stop]ied at one of the Soda Springs ; and
an old man they call The Hermit, who has lived here for
years in a shanty, and drinks the water all day to cure his
rheumatism, brought us a tin cup to get some soda-water.

Novanher 15. — AVent over to Mrs. C.'s, and did a quan-
tity of washing ; it was hard work ; and I am to iron the
things to-morrow. When I first arrived I found that wasli-

66 SOUTH BY WEST.

ing, done very badly, at $2.50 (10s.) a dozen, would not at all
suit my ideas. So my kind neighbour, Mrs. C, offered me
the weekly use of her wash-tubs and irons ; and after scoi-ch-
ing a few collars, getting into a state of black despair with
the starch, rubbing the skin off my knuckles with the rubber,
and burning my hands with the irons, I have turned into
quite a good laundress. Many are the pleasant mornings
we spend over our wash-tubs, while she tells me stories of
her life in beautiful California and Oregon, which she left
two years ago. The C.'s insisted on my stopping to dinner,
and we had an excellent one of roast-beef and tapioca-
pudding, which I helped Mrs. C. to cook in the intervals of
washing.

This afternoon a man and his wife came up to the
office to speak to M. ; and, to my delight, I found they were
English from Lincolnshire. They have been out seventeen
years, most of the time in Canada ; and have been down
here rather more than a year keeping a dairy-farm over the
Creek. I took Mrs. — — to my room, and we made friends
in a moment over our English sympathies. It was really
delightful once again to hear a genuine English misplacement
of "h's," in the way she talked of the "hair" of Colorado
being very different from the " hold " country.

M. and I went for a walk down to see the " boarding
train," in which the men at work on the line live ; but it
had gone up to the Divide, and we came home past the
graveyard. It is right out in the open, so desolate, with
railings round each grave, sadly suggestive of wolves.-^

The school is flourishing, and every one is pleased. I
went up to see it yesterday. It was just recess-time, and
the children were getting their luncheon. A daughter of
M.'s washerwoman came, and said " Good-morning " to me,

^ Since writing the above, the graveyard has been moved to the
southern slope of INIount Washington, where a pretty cemetery has been
laid out.

LIEE IX A NEW TOWX. 67

with a kiss, whicli I did not receive with due gratitude, as
she had evidently breakfasted off garlic. But this is a free
country, where the washerwoman is as good as 1 5 and
consequently I must submit, with smiling submission, to
being kissed by her daughter.

M. has made the two deerhounds a charming wooden
house under my window, into which " Lady " rushed last
night with yells of delight, took possession of the warmest
corner, and made a nice bed in the hay ; but tiresome
" Bruce " refused to be caught, or to come when he was
called, and was only secured to-day, after he had been fight-
ing another dog ; whereupon M. tied him up to his house,
and he has been howling ever since, to our utter distraction.
^ "■ The surveying and planting out of the Manitou valley
into villa sites began yesterday. Messrs. N. and Von M.
have begun mapping it out.

November 15. — ^AVent up to my friend ]\Irs. C.'s, and
ironed my clothes. I am able to do it quite quickly now.

Mr. J., treasurer of the D. and E. G., with his sister
from Philadelphia, came down on the train from Denver,
I offered Miss J. half my room for the night, which she
accepted gladly, as there was no place for a lady to sleep in
nearer than Manitou.

About 4 P.M. M. had "Baby" and "Mouse"— two of the
mules — put into the ambulance, and took us for a drive to
the north side of the town, through a large prairie-dog town.
It covers some acres in that direction, and makes the road
at night rather unsafe ; for the little dogs are fond of mak-
ing a hole right in the middle of the road, quite undisturbed
by the traffic.

After supper, it was such a lovely evening, briglit and
warm, with a new moon, that I proposed a walk ; so the J.'s,
Dr. B., Captain de C, and we, walked off southwards across
the town-side, to the Santa Fe road. "When we got home,
I made tea in my room, and we spent a most pleasant even-

68 SOUTH BY WEST.

ing, talking round the stove of England and America, and
books, etc. When ]\Ir. J. and M. left us, about ten, we
found, to our amazement, it was snowing. We could hardly
believe it after our delicious walk ; but Miss J. and I made
ourselves up as warm as we could, and went to bed. I
covered her up with the buffalo-robe, as she was sleeping on
a camp-bed, with her head towards the door, and went to
sleep in a moment myself under my bear-robe. But in
the middle of the night we were woke by a terrific wind-
storm, which made the house shake and rock as if the roof
were coming off every minute. Finding, however, that we
did not fly away in our beds, we " concluded " to go to
sleep again : but about 4 a.m. I was woke by Miss J.
saying, " I don't know what it is : but my head is getting
very wet."

Up I jumped, lit a candle, and found that the snow was
drifting right in through the cracks on each side of the door
and the key-hole on to Miss J.'s head, and that there was a
little drift on the floor nearly two inches thick. It did not
take a minute to turn her bed round, put two chairs by the
door, with my waterproof cloak over them as a screen, and
fly into bed again. I slept till six, when I got up and lit
the stove ; but as I had nothing but " kindling," it did not
burn long : M. having taken our one coal-scuttle into the
office the night before, and forgotten to bring it back.
There was nothing for it but to huddle ourselves up in
blankets till about 7.30, when M. knocked at the door with
some hot water he had heated for me in the office. The
snow had ceased : but the wind was blowing a perfect
hurricane against our door, and the house was rocking and
shaking frightfully. At 8.30 we made a rush into the
office, where M. and Mr. J. were waiting for their two half- '
frozen sisters. The wind was so strong I could hardly
shut my door as we came out, and the cold, as we ran down
a quarter of a mile to breakfast, was really fearful. I put

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 69

on a fur muffler, and wrapt my cloud round and round my
head, and yet my right ear, which was on the windy side,
was in such torture I thought it must be frost-bitten ; but
I was consoled for the pain by learning that when it hurts
you are all safe, and that only when a comfortable sensation
of warmth comes on is one in dano;er of beinfj " frosted."
How good breakfast was after that bitter walk ! but the
struggle home against the wind was far less pleasant.

After we got back, Miss J. and I made our beds, put
the room straight, and sat reading and writing all the morn-
ing, till it was time for dinner, when we made another rush
for the restaurant.

The snow was drifting tremendously, the strong wind
lifting the dry powdery particles off the ground, and blow-
ing it across the plain in clouds of white dust. The ther-
mometer outside our house registered 13° above zero, — 19°
of frost. The train, we thought, would of course be stopped
by drifts on the Divide : but it was only one hour late; and,
in the middle of dinner, in it steamed. It was really a fine
sight. The little ' Cortez' had been through the snow-drifts,
up to the top of the lamp in front of the chimney. The
wheels, and every ledge and corner, were a mass of snow,
and the icicles hung in a crystal fringe all along the boiler.

W., the engineer, came in to dinner, looking, as they said,
" pretty wild, as if he had had a struggle for it," and said he
thought they would not get back to Denver before morning,
as the wind would be against tliem. So Miss J. decided to
stay with me another day : while her brother and another
oftlcial determined to risk it, and go back to Denver by
the afternoon train.

W. is a fine fellow, and one of the best engineers in the
West. He saved a train on the Kansas Pacific last summer,
by his care and prudence, in a strange way. It was a very
dark wet night, tlie rails very slippery, and he had a kind
of presentiment that if he tried to make up time he would

70 SOUTH BY WEST.

have an accident ; so lie went slowly down a long grade
before coming to one of the longest trestle-bridges on the
line, over a deep gully. When he got to it he felt certain
something would go wrong if he crossed it ; so he shut off
all steam and jammed the breaks down : but by this time
he was so close that the engine and some of the front cars
were on the bridge before he could pull up. He sent a man
on to see if all was right, and found that two of the trestles
in the middle of the bridge were gone ! Had he run on, the
whole train would have gone rigjlit throuoh to the bottom of
the gully, a depth of forty feet.

The afternoon was as bad as the morning, driving snow-
dust and bitter wind : but towards evening the snow
began to disappear, evaporating into the dry air, though
the thermometer never rose above 29° all^day outside the
house.

I8th. — Woke at 6.30 to find the sun blazing through my
red curtains, and not a breath of wind stirring. The snow
is almost gone here ; but we hear that the train had a rough
time last night. They got up with great difficulty to within
five miles of the top of the Divide : but, being short of
water, had to run back ten miles ; and at 2 a.m. this morning
they had not reached the top, although forty men from the
construction train had turned out to help them. However,
they got into Denver at eight this morning, and the down-
train started at 9.25.

After making the beds and sweeping the room, ]Miss J.
and I went down for a walk to the creek. It looked very
pretty, half-covered with ice, in the bright sunshine, the ice
cracking and snapping like little pistols every moment.
The bushes were bare, except here and there a plant of
prairie-rose with its leaves still flame-colour ; and I got two
curious kinds of cones off a willow by the water.

Miss J. went off to Denver by the afternoon train ; and
Mr. jM., an Englishman from Maxwells in New Mexico, who

LIFE IN A NEW TOWN. 71

has been here for a day or two, left also ; so we expected
to be quite alone again. But the down train brought a very-
agreeable young German-Eussian engineer, who has been
sent out by the Eussian Government to inspect American
railroads and bridges. M. and I drove with him up to
Manitou in the afternoon, and as he could speak hardly
any English, I at once began talking French, and we had a
very pleasant drive.

When we got to Manitou we three walked up to
the Falls of the Fountain with j\Ir. B. and Mr. von M.,
about half a mile above the hotel. It is the most ex-
quisite valley, or rather canon, I have ever seen, just
wide enough for a narrow road, while the foaming stream
dashes down over red rocks and fallen trees, and barriers
of frozen snow, with huge Douglassii pines, red cedars,
and pinons, shading it on either side. We walked over
the crisp snow, frozen so hard that it did not wet one's
boots, and crossed the Fountain by a single log, not more
than twelve inches in diameter, and slippery with ice.
M. gave me his hand, and though I was in a great
fright for fear of a cold bath, I got over all right. Then up
we climbed a long narrow path along the face of the clifi",
and saw a beaver dam down in the stream below. Up again,
past a hut where the men who are blasting the road were
cooking their supper, while two black-tailed deer's heads and
skins were drying on a bush outside ; and at last we came to
the end of the present road, and climbed along a track in
the rocks about sixty feet above the stream, where the road is
to go, and M. gave me a helping hand again till we came to a
point opposite the Falls. They are not very grand : Init the
canon down which the Fountain comes is splendid, winding
up into the mountains, which rise several thousand feet
above the stream, their black pines standing out sharp
against the gleaming snow. It was enchanting ; the rush of
falling water, the ice and snow, the pines, the crimson rocks,

72 SOUTH BY WEST.

the noble mountains, and the fading light, made up a picture
I shall never forget.

We turned homewards, and reaching the temporary inn
found that Dr. B, and Captain de C, who walked up, had
just arrived, to pretty Mrs. de C.'s delight, who had been all
alone for three days, with nobody to speak to, and both her
babies sick. We had a pleasant tea all together, and M,
von W., Mr. von M., and I kept up a jargon of mingled
Trench and German all the time, to the great diversion of
the rest of the party. We had to finish tea quickly in order
to be back at Colorado Springs in time for a meeting about
the reading-room and Scientific Society ; and Dr. B., M., and
I drove home in the bright moonlight with Pete and Baby,
who, unlike most mules, never require a whip ; and got in
just at 7.30.

As the population is increasing every day, we and some
of the colonists have been trying to devise some plan to get
up a reading-room, where the young men may spend their
evenings, instead of lounging about the town, or going up to
drink in the saloons at Colorado City. So we sent out to
invite the colonists to meet together and discuss the subject
this evening. We carried chairs, lamps, and benches over
to the railroad office, and had a capital meeting of thirteen,

Mr. F. made a very good speech ; and when M. and Mr.
M. F. were appointed to frame the constitution and bye-laws,
and some one raised the question of what would happen if
they did not agree, Mr. F., in the most gallant manner, said
of course M. " would do nothin<2: without his sister's advice,
so there could be no difficulty," — a sentiment which caused
much laughter. $143 were subscribed on the spot, and
I had the honour of naming the Society the " Fountain
Society of Natural Science."

Novemhcr 19^^.. — M. and I drove up to Manitou after
breakfast, and took the De C.'s to the Garden of the
Gods, one of the great sights here.

LIFE IX A NEW TOWX. 73

Half way between the Springs and Colorado City we
overtook a man, who M. thought might be a new-comer ;
and having the interest of the colony always in view, asked
him if he would like a lift ; and in he got behind. He was
a New-Yorker, he said, and had been out three weeks in
Colorado, having come for his health.

" He liked the place so well," he said, " that he had con-
cluded to remain, and being a lawyer had stepped right into
business." I happened to make some remark to ]M. : where-
upon he said — •

" Madam, I presume you are an English lady."
I laughed and said, " Yes, that I supposed he had found
me out by my sj)eech."

" Yes," he replied, " I could tell at once. I think it ex-
tremely pleasant to hear the language spoken by an English
person, when they speak well."

M. said, " I suppose you would hardly take me for
English."

"No, sir!" said the gentleman, "you are not English
surely ?"

"I ought to be," replied M., " considering we are brother
and sister."

That was quite too much for our friend ; however, we
made him such pretty speeches, that when he got out at the
very unattractive hotel at Colorado City, he nearly vowed
eternal friendship, and gave us such pressing invitations to
call upon him that we hope he will settle at Colorado
Springs, in order to cultivate our society ; so by a little
civility we trust we have caught a fine large colonist.

When we got to Manitou we took up the De C.'s, and
started back for the Garden of the Gods. ^Ye turned off the
road half way between Manitou and Colorado City, across a
sowed field, and over frightful ups and downs till we came
to a bridge across the Eountain. It was just wide enough for
the waggon — here all kinds of carriages are called waggons —

SOUTH BY WEST.

and was quite rotten. How we got over I know not, for
Pete, who had been turned out for some tune, and was not
on his best behaviour, shied violently in the middle. How-
ever, we did get over in safety, and drove along what was
dignified by the name of a road : though it more resembled
newly-dug celery trenches, varied by gravel-pits, and a deep
ditch right across every few hundred feet. At last we got

The Gate of the Garden of the Gods.

into the Outer Garden, a great open space of grass under the
foot-hills, with scattered pines, and here and there fantastic
sandstone rocks ; and further on, to our right, lay the great
rocks, the real wonder of the Garden. We passed many
weird-like figures praying, with their heads all bent towards
Cheyenne Mountains ; then a red sandstone nun, with a
white cowl over her head, looking at a seal who stood

LIFE IX A NEW TOWN.

on his tail, and made faces at her. There, I was told, two
cherubs were fondly kissing, though to my eyes I confess
they looked more like a pair of sheep's heads ; and so find-
ing new absurdities every moment, we came to the great
gateway ; drove between the huge red rocks, 250 feet high ;
and turned to see the view. It surpasses everything I have
yet seen.

The great rocks were of a warm salmon colour, with green
pines growing in their crevices, bringing out the richness of
their colouring; and between them, as if set in a glowirg

Crossiug a Trestle Bridge Q). TO).

frame, shone Pike's Peak, covered with snow, as a centre to
the picture, with Cameron's Cone and the foot-hills, all blue,
white, and pink, three or four miles off.

I wish every one at home could see this view. No
descriptions or photographs can do it justice ; and as for
drawing it — who can do that ?

We had come into the Garden " the back way ;" the best
plan being to come first through the great gateway, and drive
out at the other end. Driving back the way we came, we

76 SOUTH BY WEST.

got along without misfortune, till we came to the unfortunate
bridge again ; and this time Pete positively refused to cross.
Twice M. got him to the middle, and Pete tried to push
poor Baby over the side and then backed side-ways. At
last M. told us to get out, and he took them at it four times :
but a mule's mind, when once made up, is not to be moved,
and we had at last to drive round another way. On the
whole, perhaps Pete was right : for he had twice been
through a bridge, — the last time having been lame for a
month ; and the chances were considerably in favour of his
going through this one.

CHAPTEE Y

CANOXS AND COLD,

My first Cafion— Wild beasts— Pleasant society— A spelling matcli— Camp Creek

Canon— Exploring by moonlight—Mountain air— Snow drifts— Triumph of
the Narrow Gauge— The Fountain ditch— A Westerner— Antelope-shooting
— A grand view — A change in our plans.

" Colorado Springs, Tuesday, Nov. 23.

" Dear * * * — I have been np a canon. Anything so
wonderful I never saw in my life.

" It was on last Sunday when we went up to Manitou, the
Soda Springs ; and, fortified by a good English dinner, Dr. B.
proposed a walk up a little canon at the back of the tem-
porary inn. We turned off the road about fifty yards below
the hotel, up a path through scrub oak, wild rose, gooseberry,
raspberiy, and spiraea bushes, besides many other shrubs,
which, as they are leafless, I cannot identify, with clematis
festooning every bnsh. The valley for a quarter of a mile
was an ordinary wooded mountain gorge ; but it suddenly
closed in, and we found ourselves in front of a narrow gate-
way of rocks, a hundred feet high or more ; and in a moment
were in the canon.

Tlie trail led up the bed of a little stream, then dry,
which had sawn its way through walls of sandstone of every
imaginable colour, from rich purple and crimson, to salmon-
colour and white. The rocks were worn into the most
fantastic shapes, battlements, castles, and pillars, hundreds

78 ' SOUTH BY WEST.

of feet high, sometimes ahnost closing in the path ; then
opening out on one side or the other into almost perpendicular
hill-sides, covered with piiion, red and white cedar, rocky
mountain pine, and Pinus Douglassii. We went under several
of the latter growing in the canon. One I measured, which
was eleven feet round, four feet from the ground ; and I am
told that is a mere sapling to some higher up in the mountains.
One had fallen, and we had to walk its whole length ; rather
a slippery path, as it was covered with frozen snow several
inches thick. Then came a sudden twist ; the rocks almost
met over our heads, sandstone on one side, limestone on the
other ; and I touched both sides of the canon at once, with-
out stretching my arms to full length.

" It was the wildest scene — the towering rocks, black
pines, and white snow. We looked such impertinent atomies,
daring to venture into the heart of the mountains. I never
heard such stillness before ; it was quite oppressive ; not a
breath of Avind, not a leaf stirring ; no sound or sign of life,
save ourselves, and a solitary hawk wheeling round against
the streak of blue sky we could see from our prison walls.
For about a mile we Avent up, twisting and turning every
twenty yards ; so that, looking back, one could not imagine
how one had got in, or would ever get out again.

" This canon has never yet been thoroughly explored :
but it runs on for miles and miles into the mountains, get-
ting grander and wilder the further it goes.

" This is certainly a most uncanny country. Every stream
saws out a canon. Every rock takes tlie likeness of some
fantastic building or creature.

" Tell G. I have seen plenty of beaver dams ; the streams
are full of them all round ; and deer (Ijlack-tailed) are very
plentiful, coming right down to Manitou. There are no
bears very near, and no wolves, except coyotes, who very
often come through the town at night, and scare us all, for
their cry is just like the Indian war-whoop.

CANONS AND COLD. 79

" We are getting quite a pleasant society here ; and,
besides those who are settled here, like ourselves, there is a
constant stream of Englishmen coming in from the ranches,
or up from Maxwells ; and a good many visitors already
come down from Denver, This morning I met Gov. H. at
breakfast, and with him Mr. Bowles of " The Springfield
(Mass.) Eepublican," who, with his very charming wife and
daughter, has come out to see how Colorado is getting on.
We walked together up to Gov. H.'s new house, which is
nearly finished, and I took them to see our dogs, who are
considered curiosities out here. Mr. Bowles asked me to
join his party in an expedition down to the Indian Eeserva-
tion in Kansas next week : and much I wish we could do it.

" If the weather is fine, M. and I hope to take a trip this
week or next up to Bergun's Park, twenty miles from here
in the mountains. I hear it is a lovely place. It will be a
three days' trip, and we shall stop at a ranche half way.

" So you see, after all, though we are in ' the wilds,' we
are tolerably civilized ; and do not go about clothed in skins,
or armed with revolvers, or meet a bear if we take an
afternoon walk."

2Sd. — At dinner-time INI. rushed in to say he must go
up to Denver with Dr. B. on business ; so I was left alone
again, and went over to the school to see Mrs. P., who is
going on most perseveringly with her self-imposed occupa-
tion. I heard the children's spelling-match, and the length of
the words and the correctness of the spelling quite alarmed
me. A spelling-match is a regular American institution,
and is capitally described in that most remarkable book, The
Hoosier Schoolmaster.

Friday, 25th. — It has been a gloriinis day, bright sun,
and quite warm, and I have never yet seen tlie mountains
look so beautiful. Went up to the De C.'s after breakfast,
and on the way back called in to see Mrs. G., who has

80 SOUTH BY WEST.

moved into lier new store on Tejon Street to-day. It looks
resplendent. The front is painted in black and white chec-
qiiers, and a huge scarlet boot is hung out as a sign. It is
one of the best buildings we have got in the town. On
coming home, feeling in a very energetic frame of mind owing
to the change of weather, I pulled all my small amount of
furniture into the middle of the room, covered the floor with
tea-leaves, which I had saved from our last tea-party, and
swept out my room on the most approved English method.

Sat 26. — Mrs. P. asked me to drive up to Glen Eyrie

with her, and explore the Camp Creek Canon, above the

house. Anything more lovely I never saw. At the

entrance of the canon the coloured rock-walls are about

a stone's-throw apart ; and the ravine on either side of

the clear foaming stream is filled with a rich growth of

trees and shrubs, festooned with Virginia creeper and

wild clematis. Further up the waUs close in ; and we

scrambled up, crossing and recrossing the stream every few

yards, by fallen timber and boulders under lofty pines and

cotton woods, till we came to the "Punch Bowl." The

stream has scooped itself out a round path in the red and

white streaked rocks, which rise high above the bed of the

stream. The basin is about twenty feet across, and fills up

the whole canon. The water falls into it over steps of rock ;

and above it the canon winds up into the mountains, no

one knows how far, as only a few miles of it have been as

yet explored. About two miles up are some beautiful

falls, which M. discovered last year : but as the only way

across the Punch Bowl was by a single log of pine, very thin

and covered with ice, and as I was wet through from wading

through the snow, which was quite deep in some places, I

did not feel inclined to risk the chance of an icy bath, but

determined to see the Falls some other time, and we turned

back to Glen Eyrie for dinner and dry shoes.

General P. and Professor H. of Madison, Wisconsin,

CANOXS AND COLD. 81

came up, and we started, as the sun set and the moon
rose, to explore the upper end of Glen Eyrie. The moon
looked so tempting over the crest of the hill that we set off
on a track that leads up the high ridge dividing Glen Eyrie
from the Upper Garden. After we had passed the great
Echo Rocks, and made them sing two or three songs a couple
of bars beliind us, a narrow track led us to the top with a
scramble ; and once there, the view was really superb. To
tlie right, on the crest of the hill, was a group of pines,
through which the moon shone so brightly, it was like white
daylight. Beliind us lay the Glen, with its strange red
rocks, and the hills rising up to old Pike all covered with
snow ; and in front of us another deep valley, shut in with
another wall of rock, widening out into a park above, and
below narrowing into a canon which apparently had no exit.
None of us had ever been there before : but we plunged
down the hill through deep snow, with here and there a
Spanish bayonet sticking up to prick the unwary, down to
the bed of the canon. It was so narrow that only one per-
son at a time could squeeze along between the rocks ; and I
began seriously to fear it would soon get too narrow for us
to escape, and that we should have to stay there for the rest
of our days. Suddenly, however, out of the intense black
shade, we came into a streak of brilliant moonlight, which
streamed throuc;h a cleft in the rocks before us not more
than three feet wide ; and we saw we were at the gate of
the canon with the outer valley in dazzling light beyond.

We sat still for a few minutes to gaze in delight through
the rocks ; then squeezed between them with some little
difficulty, and looking back, could not see the passage by
which we had emerged. It seemed as if we had broken
through the lower panes of a Gothic window, which had
been partly filled up with stone.

Turning to the right we went up a high snow-covered hill
to the foot of the outer wall of the Garden, more than 7000

82 SOUTH BY WEST.

feet above the sea. This wall is a mass of rock from fifty
to three hundred feet high, and in some places not more
than eighteen feet thick, running along the top of a line of
hills made apparently of debris of old rocks, and extending
from near Cheyenne Mountain to Monument Park, with
here and there an opening into one or other of the gardens
or parks, where some creek has sawn its way through.

It was a stiff climb through the snow, in the intensely
rarefied air, which completely takes one breath away going
up hill ; and for five minutes after we reached the top I felt
as if my chest had been scraped raw : but after a little rest
this sensation went off. Going down was much pleasanter
than getting up, and in a little while we were wading
through the snow and mud up to the stable, where the P.'s
are still living, as their house is not finished.

After supper and a very pleasant evening, Professor H.
drove me home, and we found M. waiting to receive us.

He had had a rough journey down from Denver : but
was more fortunate than the hapless people who started the
day before him, for they broke down three miles north of
Sloan's ]\Iill on the Divide, and were twenty-four hours get-
ting those three miles. The Saturday train caught them up
at Sloan's Mill, and they joined company, every man turning
out and digging in the snow for four hours ; by which means,
and by driving the engine against the snow full speed, they
got through at last.

This fall of snow is exceptionally heavy ; and unlike
what we usually have here, being soft and wet, like Eastern
States or English snow, instead of dry and powdery. With
the high wind we have had it drifts badly, and packs into a
much closer mass than our usual Western snow.

The narrow gauge still holds its own against the broad
gauge, and a freight train got through behind the passenger-
cars yesterday ; while on the Union and Kansas Pacific
Ptailroads no freight has got through for two weeks, and

CANONS AND COLD. 83

all tlie passenger trains have come into Denver one to four
clays late. There have been two feet of snow for the last
week at Denver, ami every one is sleighing who can afford
it; while the sleigh-owners are making small fortunes by
charging eight to ten dollars an hour.

2d>th. — Yesterday was bright, but horribly cold. The
trees by the creek had each twig covered with rime half an
inch thick, from a dense fog which had frozen upon them the
night before. It was an important day to us ; as the Foun-
tain Ditch, i.e. the irrigating ditch by which the water from
the Fountain above Colorado Springs, is to be brought down
to irrigate the town site at Colorado Springs, was finished.

Yesterday the water was turned in, and so we hoped that
it was slowly making its way down the ditch last night to-
wards us : though, as the ditch is 1 1 1 miles long, having to
be carried round hill-sides and over gullies, it will take some
time to fill it thoroughly. Just now, however, one of the
engineers came in to say that the water had broken through
the bank close to one of the flumes (wooden troughs, in
which the water is carried over gullies), just by Colorado
City, and had run away and made a great lake.

M. has sent him up with planks and men to fill in the
hole ; so we hope all will be right. How it can have hap-
pened we cannot tell. It may be that the frost has shrunk
the earth at the joining with the flume ; but some fear that
it may have been done out of spite.

November 30. — Thanksgiving Day.

The snow is gone, and the sun blazing in a cloudless
sky. I watched the avalanches falling on Pike's Peak all
the morning, and, after each, the cloud of snow-smoke rising,
and blowing round the top of the mountain.

To-day is such a contrast to the last three days, which
have been so bitter we have only left the house for our
meals, and then rushed down mufiled up in every wrap we
possessed to keep out the wind.

84 SOUTH BY WEST.

Yesterday afternoon, as M, and I were sitting in the
office, the door opened, and in walked a man followed by a
large saffron-coloured bull-dog, called Eattler. This man,
whom M. knew very well, is the most thorough specimen of
a Western man I have yet seen to speak to. He was dressed
in apparently five or six flannel shirts, two undercoats, thick
trousers tucked into long boots, a light-blue soldier's great-
coat with capes, under which knife, pistol, and powder-flask
peeped out, and a slouched felt-hat completed the costume.
As I sat listening to his yarns to M., I could have fancied
myself reading a chapter of Gatlin. Here was the real
thing. A fine-made young fellow about twenty- eight, with
bright blue eyes and brown hair and beard, up to anything,
from shooting a wolf to riding 240 miles in thirty-six hours
to catch a prisoner; yet civil and courteous to me in the
extreme. All the time he was here I never heard a single
bad word from him, though I saw that he caught himself up
short two or three times. It was strange, seeing and hearing
with one's own eyes and ears what one has read of since
childhood.

P. has just been in to get the surveying things. He said
it was so cold he could not get the men to go out early this
morning. At 8 a.m. it was 9° above zero, and at 10 only
15°. There was a grand dinner at the restaurant in honour
of Thanksgiving Day ; but we missed it, M. haviiig to go up
to Glen Eyrie on business. I went with him, and as no
one was at home at the stable, Mrs. S., who is cooking at a
log cabin for the men working on the house, gave us a
capital dinner, off tin plates ; and taught me how to make
biscuit, which means hot rolls, and slap-jacks, a kind of
pancakes which one eats at breakfast and tea, in a little
pile, covered with butter and syrup, or honey.

December 2. — The " cold snap" has driven large herds of
antelopes in from the plains to the shelter of the bluffs, and
yesterday, hearing there were some near town, M. and I had

CANONS AND COLD. 85

out the ambulance with the mules, and drove off in search
of them, armed with a revolver. We had not gone more
than a mile and a half west of the town site when we saw a
herd in a hollow to the right of the road. M. got out and
crept away after the antelope, telling me to drive slowly
after him. There were ahout twenty-three, and when we
had crossed the hollow and got to the top of the next rise,
we saw an immense herd of some hundreds a mile west. I
watched M. along the crest of the hill, the antelope mean-
while running round below him out of sight, when suddenly
he stopped. Piff, piff, piff went the pistol, and I drove on
to him. No luck, alas ! as Butler, the negro at the office,
had loaded the revolver, and carefully put in half charges ;
so every shot fell short. We drove after them, and M. got
three more long shots from the waggon, but to no purpose.

In the evening we drew up a sketch of the constitution
and bye-laws for the " Fountain Society of Natural Science."
We keep the list of members in the office, and the number
is increasing every day, as every one who comes in is im-
mediately attacked for a subscription, |3 giving a yearly
membership, or $20 a life membership.

This morning I got up at 5.30, just as the eastern hori-
zon grew crimson over the plains before sunrise, lit the
stove, heated some water, and cooked two cups of " Ram-
ornie ;" by seven o'clock we were off with Mr. de C. in the
waggon to try after antelope again ; and I tried to cure my
uncontrollable dislike of fire-arms by keeping one of the
rifles on my knee till it was wanted.

We fell in with two herds in the same place as yester-
day : but our luck was as bad as ever, for so many parties of
shooters were out after them, that we could not get within
range. We drove on the bluffs in hope of smaller game, and
Mr. de C. got a " cotton tail" rabbit {Lqms Artemisia:), and
we looked in vain in the bushes for prairie chicken. But we
got what quite repaid us for the want of sport — a magnifi-

86 SOUTH BY WEST.

cent view of the moimtains to the south, which at the town
are hidden by Cheyenne Mountain. Across long stretches
of plain we saw the Greenhorn jutting out from the main
chain, with the Spanish Peaks sticking up blue and golden
beyond it, and in the furthest distance the Eaton Moun-
tains, over Maxwells, two hundred miles away.

The antelopes are so starved this winter that they are
coming in by thousands off the plains all along the base of
the mountains. At Greeley, the colony town north of
Denver, they come among the houses and get shot from the
windows. A herd of forty was crowded in a field, and the
Greeleyites went out and surrounding it shot them all down,
poor little things ! They are so pretty, it seems cruel to
kill them in this unsportsmanlike manner.

On the 5th a large party of railroad officials and visitors
came down to the Springs, and we spent two days showing
them the sights of the country, the Garden of the Gods,
Glen Eyrie, Manitou, etc. The weather was perfect for
sight-seeing, and the evening so mild that we sat at Mani-
tou with doors open to the porch, and walked up and down
outside without hats or jackets.

AVliile our visitors were down our plans for the winter
underwent a considerable change. Important business
requiring General P.'s presence in Mexico, he and Mrs.
P. asked me to join them in January or February, in a
journey via San Francisco and the Pacific to the city of
Mexico ; thence to Vera Cruz and New Orleans, and so to
New York ; while M. and some engineers received orders
at the same time to be ready at any moment to start for the
same point overland.

CHAPTEE VI.

MONUMENT PAKE.

Expedition to Monument Park — A cheap dinnei- — The monuments — A rough road
— School-keeping a failure — Locating the skating-pond — Snow-birds — A
second Monument Park — The southern mountains — " Over the Eatons."

December 10. — All the time I have been here, I have
never yet seen one of the strangest of the many strange
sights in Colorado. So this morning, the weather being
fine, with hot sun and no wind, my brother M. got a " buggy"
and a good horse, and we started for " Monument Park."

About twelve miles north of the to^\^l are a set of bluffs,
the beginning of the Divide, running out eastward from the
mountains some twenty miles into the plains ; and forming a
series of grass valleys, or " parks," as they are called in the
West. The largest of these has all along its northern side
innumerable groups of sandstone rock, worn by weather and
water into the strangest forms, and not inajipropriately
called monuments. The lower part of the monuments is of
light yellow sandstone conglomerate, capped with a harder
sandstone, coloured dark lirown by the presence of a good
deal of iron.

A wave of upheaval seems to have run from south to
north and cracked the hard sandstone pan, letting in the
influences of weather to the softer conglomerate below, till
the whole has been eaten away, save these isolated pillars.

A similar wave seems to have formed the bluffs among

SOUTH BY WEST.

which they lie. The northern sides slope smoothly down,
covered with grass, into the Parks ; while their southern
sides are rocky, with pines growing on them, and the strata
seem turned back and set on edge.

We crossed the Monument creek about four miles above
town. How we did cross I do not know, as the bed of
the creek had changed, and the wooden levee at the ford
was now of no use. The stream was also covered with ice,
all but a couple of yards in the centre. With some per-
suasion the horse plunged into the ice, and dragged us up a
perpendicular bank on the other side. But this was a trifle
to what was coming. We followed up a newly made trail

through the brushwood, not cut, but only run through by
the passage of a waggon or two, which led us at last up a
gulch under the railway. It was a horrid place ; just room
to squeeze under the trestle bridge, with the wheel on one
side three feet higher than the other ; a careless driver
could not have got through without an upset.

We then came to a good road, and trotted away across
plains between the bluffs, covered with Spanish bayonet and
burrowed with prairie-dog towns. We drove along, skirting
the bluffs for eight miles or so, with the mountains on our
left ; till turning in through a sort of pass, through rocks
which seemed full of iron, we found ourselves in a " park."

Through this we drove on three or four miles, till we came

MONUMENT PARK. 89

to the railway-crossing at Monument creek, and there stopped
at a very nice roadside boarding-house called " Teachouts,"
where w^e put up the horse, and went in for dinner. It is kept
by a charming old lady and her son. She looks thoroughly
English ; though she is, I believe, an American ; like an ideal
farmer's wife, in neat dress, snowy cap, and apron, and with
that indescribable air of comfort about her which belongs to
an old-fashioned farm-house kitchen. Two ladies were stay-
ing there, who had come out with their sick husbands in
search of health in this pure mountain air. One of them had
made a really line collection of minerals and cry^stals during
the months she had spent out here. She took me up to her
room to show me her treasure, and gave me several speci-
mens of smoky quartz, satin spar, and white chalcedony.
One crystal of smoky quartz which she found not far from
here was one of the finest I have ever seen ; nearly a foot
long, and quite perfect. We had a capital dinner, cooked by
a German maid, — a kind of meat pie with a bread-crust,
potatoes, bread, pickled cabbage or " cold slaw " as it is
called here, and apple tart. The whole cost of our dinner
and the feed for our horse was 1 dollar 25 cents — quite
astonishing in this land of high prices. After saying
good-bye to our new friends, and begging them to call on
us at Colorado Springs, we turned up towards the park.

Monument Park is a large glade about two miles long,
running from east to west; the end of the glade being
filled up with the blue and red walls of the foot-hills covered
with pine-trees, which rise about 3000 feet above the valley.
The south-western slopes of the l)lufrs are covered with the
Monument rocks, which, at first sight, strike one as irre-
sistibly absurd.

They are of every height and size, from the great giant
thirty feet high, to the pigmy of twelve inches ; sometimes
they stand alone ; sometimes in groups of twenty or more.
No two are alike, and each year they change their shape ; as

SOUTH BY WEST.

wind, snow, frost, and rain go on with the work of destruc-
tion, with which for ages they have been moulding this group,
as if over some set of Titanic graves.

We drove along to the end of the Park, and turned up
over the southern bluffs, which, as far as I can see, have few
if any monuments on them. The road or track was so bad
here that M. made me walk up, as he expected the buggy
to upset. The sun was so intensely hot that I was nearly

The Moiiaiuent Rocks.

smothered going up-hill in my sealskin, though we were at
least 7000 feet above the sea. At the top I looked in vain
for a road down. There was positively none ; and to my
amazement I saw M. deliberately turn the horse right down
the hillside, which was at an angle, I should think, of 35°,
and covered with stones. I could hardly keep my feet in
some places, and how the horse got dowai I cannot tell :
but he crept along with the straight shafts of the buggy

MONUMENT PARK. 91

right over his ears, and by dint of careful driving and patience
arrived safely at the bottom. We saved nearly four miles,
and drove home by Glen Eyrie, stopping to " prospect " on
a little creek, where we found good indications of coal, plenty
of what is here called "kidney iron," some imbedded in
sandstone, some lying loose, and M. found some fossil
shells.

"Colorado Springs, December 20, 1871.
"Deak * * *,— Since I last wrote I have been trying a
new occupation, and have made a gTeat failure in it. I have
been keeping school for two days !

' " I got a telegram last Monday from the P.'s, who are
in Denver, to say they were detained ; so I went up to the
school, intending to send the children home. But when I
got there I found more than twenty children assembled out-
side in the snow ; and they were so anxious to have school
that at last I consented to stop and teach them myself The
door was locked : so I made two of the bigger boys get in
through a window, and following them in nnfastened the
door ; and we soon lit the stove and set to work. They were
of all ages, from five to fifteen, so that it was rather a
difficult matter to keep them all at work at once. How-
ever, as I was a novelty, and as we only worked till twelve,
they were very good, and got on capitally. Next day, how-
ever, was a very different matter, I went up again ; but
found that some of the boys were evidently determined to
try how naughty they could be. They threw things at tlie
girls ; refused to do their work ; and when I found one pretty
little girl in floods of tears, and asked what was the matter,
she sobbed out, ' They call my hair heaver tails! I could
hardly help laughing at such a thoroughly Western form of
insult : but I found that ' young America' was a good deal
too strong for the ' English school-marm ;' and after shutting
one of the chief offenders in a room by himself for an hour,

92 SOUTH BY WEST.

which a little quelled the disturbance, I was delighted when
twelve o'clock came ; and sent my young tormentors home
with a tremendous scolding.

" We went out on Thursday to the great gully behind the
town, with the chief engineer, to ' locate ' a skating-pond for
the use of the colonists. We found a capital place, where,
with very little trouble in making a dam, we can get 700
feet by 130. The water will be turned into it from the
Fountain Ditch, which we hope will soon be full : but the
heavy frosts which came just as it was finished have cracked
the banks in so many places, that there have Been constant
leaks all along ; and the engineers have been up nearly every
day stopping them.

" I have got seven snow-birds and a bunting {Junco cani-
ceps) in my room now. They fly against the telegraph-wires
in the strong wind ; or some of the numberless hawks and
buzzards which abound here hurt them ; and we find them
lying dead on the ground in hundreds. All that I have got
have been hurt or benumbed ; and are now quite tame, and
will feed from my hand.

" When it snows, they come in immense flocks of many
thousands ; and disappear again as soon as the snow melts.
They must be quite tired, poor little things, of these constant
changes. One week it is so hot one cannot bear a jacket
in the daytime, and the next week it is freezing. But it is
a glorious climate ; and I am gaining weight and strength
every week. I never was in a place where one so enjoys
the mere fact of living.

" We had a glorious ride last week over the plains, in
search of antelope, to the bluffs about five miles from town ;
and riding up between two bluffs found ourselves in a valley
full of monuments, like those in Monument Park. It was
quite a discovery, as no one had heard of their existence before.
If there is any water there it will be a charming site for a
house some day, as the glade is much prettier than Menu-

MONUMENT PARK. 93

nient Park itself; and the views between the bluffs, of moim-
tain aud plain, are magnificent.

" Whenever I get out on the plains and look southward to
those endless mountain-ranges which stretch away into New
Mexico till they are hidden by the roundness of the earth, I
am seized with a longing to go south and see them. But the
stage-journey is enough to deter any one from going who
is not absolutely forced to go. ]\Iy desire, however, was
not thoroughly cured till M. gave me an account of a night-
journey he made across the Eatons. I have since got him to
write it down for your amusement at home ; and I think it
will give you as good an idea of the difficulties of winter
travel out here, without railroads, as you could have, unless
you came and tried it.

OVER THE RATONS.

" We 're going to have rough Avork over the mountain
to-night," I said to Dutch Sam, the messenger of the S. 0. M.
(Southern Overland Mail), at the Eed Eiver Station, where
we stopped for supper on a night in the end of December
1870. "Who takes us over?"

"Frank Blue's turn to -night,. I think. — Supper's ready."

In I bundle, and find Frank stretching himself, after a
three hours' snooze, preparatory to driving forty miles on a
bitter winter night over the roughest piece of road in
Western America.

"Hullo, where are you coming from ? AYlio 's aboard ?"

" Nobody but me."

" Bully for you ! Where 's your bottle ?"

A " square drink" opens his eyes a little, and as we dis-
cuss some steaming beef-steaks he gives us the pleasant
news that " the other side" (the north side of the mountain)
was sloppy with half-melted snow as he came over in the
morning, and that it is probably now a sheet of ice.

94 SOUTH BY WEST.

" However," he adds, " as there 's nobody but you aboard,
don't mucli matter if we do go over."

On which I thanked him, and asked him how long ago it
was since he had overturned, so as to calculate the chances
against his doing so to-night.

" Well," he said, " Old went up with me last night,

and I told him the mules w^anted roughing. He said they
didn't, so just to show him they did, I piled the leaders into
a heap just above Dick Wooten's there, and I guess from

the row the insides. Old among 'em — kicked up, he '11

believe me the next time."

" But where on earth did you go ?" I asked.

" Oh," he said, " I waited till I got a snow-bank kinder
handy, pulled on my near leader, slipped my brake, bucked
myself into the snow-bank, and let the old shandrydan rip."

" Well," said I, " thank goodness I am not one of the
Company's officers !"

After another long drink we muffle up, and I jump on
to the box-seat beside Frank, wdiile Sam turns inside for a
snooze.

In five seconds more the helpers swing the leaders into
their place, and with a tremendous plunge that threatens to
burst every piece of tackle about them, the four mules "lay
themselves down" and race away, their ears laid back along
their necks, their tails tight down to their quarter, bucking
and squealing along the only piece of level this side of the
mountains. We are over it in a minute, and in and out of
the dry watercourse with a lurch that makes me grip the
handrail, the mules steadying on the furtlier side, where
begins the steady pull up the first ascent.

What a gorgeous Mdld scene it is ! In front the range
rises in a black weird wall, and the full moon streams
down on the white broken crags, making them look like the
battlements of old ruined castles ; and across the road the
pines shed a ghastly shadow, setting off still more brightly

MONUMENT PARK. 95

the moonlight on beyond. And now we are in tlie canon
itself, and the crags beetle a thousand feet high on either
side, save where here and there a long steep slope runs up
far into some snow-covered glen.

I express a hope that the other side is as clear as this
one, as up to the present the road has been perfectly clear of
snow ; and Erank says that all is dry up to the summit,
but from that down we shall catch it.

We trot on in silence for the next half-mile, crossing
and re-crossing the stream several times, till we open a little
glade, at the further side of which we see the camp-fires of a
Mexican bullock-train, whose ten waggons are drawn up in
a semicircle against the rock, forming an enclosure to keep
the cattle from roaming. The fires shed a warm kindly
blaze round, lighting up the dark pine stems, and playing
on the little white points of rock at the opposite side of the
canon. The team object strongly to passing them : but
Frank's heavy whip soon reassures Kitty, one of the leaders,
who squeals and bucks each time the thong cracks across her
quarter. As we lose the fire we plunge again into the dark-
ness of the canon, and steady the team as we near tlie
Devil's Gate, so called from two enormous rocks throuoh
which the water-course has worn a channel only just wide
enough for a waggon to get through, and which towei over
our heads to some 200 or 300 feet high. It is a wild place,
and was famed in old times for desperate Indian encounters.

From this up to the summit we have better froin<T, and
the mules, well warmed to their work, take us up quickly and
steadily ; and almost before I am aware a piercing cold blast
warns me that we have reached the summit, and that there
is nothing to shield us from the north wind, M^hich I see
swirling the snow in wreaths on the top of Fisher's Peak,
ten miles away. Anxiously we strain our eyes down the
northern slope, only to find deep snow over everything.

The road turns sharp at right angles along the crest of

96 SOUTH BY WEST.

the hill for the next quarter of a mile past the old tree
which marks the boundary-line of the territories of Colorado
and New Mexico, and on which ten years ago a famous
highwayman was lynched. As we reach the turn in the
road where the descent begins we pull up and begin to pre-
pare for it.

Sam and I get out and tie the front and hind wheels to-
gether with ropes so as to block the coach entirely, and pre-
vent the hind- wheels from swinging round, as if they did so
it must upset the coach. This done, Sam goes forward a
little way to reconnoitre. Not five steps has he gone when
his heels fly up into the air, and down he comes on the
broad of his back, with a crash that re-echoes throuirh the
still night ; and it is some seconds before he can find breath
to reply to our questions of what had happened, and how
did it look. All that we get, however, is a confused sen-
tence, out of which I catch, "The darn'dest meanest road

this side of ," wliich we receive with shouts of laughter,

and Frank tells him to jump on board.

This time I get inside, as Frank says he 's "going to run
'em down."

Sam follows my example ; and we each station ourselves
at a window. Frank gets the team's heads straight, and in
another second we are sliding over a sheet of ice at twelve
miles an hour, on a gTadient of one foot in ten. A sudden
jar, a grunt, and a half-choked groan from one of the
mules, while a half- smothered curse from Frank tells that
something has happened. I crane out, and see the ofi-
wheeler down flat on her side, fortunately with her legs
outward, as, had they fallen inwards, she would have thrown
the other wheel mule, and then nothing could have saved
us. As it is, how we get down the next 400 yards goodness
only knows ; but at the end of it we find a big snow-drift ;
and into it Frank unhesitatmgly shoots us, thus enabling
him to stop the team. I run to the leaders' heads, while

MONUMENT PARK. 97

Sam gets hold of the fallen mule, and now the question
is, how to get her on to her feet. Frank tells me to
swing the leaders across the road from the mule so as
to give her room to struggle ; and then applying the
whip as hard as he can across her loins she struggles
up, only to fall again, as the leaders, frightened at the
crack of the whip, make a wild plunge forward. My feet
slip from under me, and for a second I think that the
whole team and the coach beside are over me : but thanks
to the rough lock of the wheels they could not move the
coach, and I struggle up, only to have the same thing
happen again. But this time the old mule keeps her feet ;
and after cutting away the snow a little round the wheels
we jump in, and off we start again. The worst part is over ;
and the next half-mile we sail along grandly, when down
goes the same wheeler again, and we drag her thirty or forty
yards before we can stop. We get her up again : but she is
so much hurt and cowed by the fright, that she falls again
three or four times before we reach the station about a mile
ahead. Here we find that the poor brute has not got a
single hair on her left side from the point of her ear to the
root of her tail, and on the shoulder, ribs, and hip-bone a
good deal of skin has come off as well. 'But any way/
Frank says, ' she 's only a mule ; ' and sure enough a year
afterwards, I sat behind her over the very same piece of
mountain, looking as if she Lad never skated down the
Eatons."

" You will easily imagine that after hearing this story I
felt somewhat like the man who said, ' I kin eat biled crow,
but I don't hanker arter it : ' and did not ' hanker ' any
more after a journey across the mountains."

CHAPTEE VII.

CHEISTMAS AND NEW YEAR.

A Christmas treat — Stock-fanners' troubles —The western metropolis — Parlonr
skates — The fall of the Ulsters— Sleighing — A warm Christmas day — Christ-
mas tree — God save the Queen — My first Indian — A wind storm — New-
Year's Day — Our new hotel — Ute Indians — A " surprise party "—Cow-catch-
ing a dangerous amusement. «

" Denver, Colorado, Dec. 27, /71.
" Dear * * *, — As Christmas comes but once a year, and
it is many a long day since we spent it together, we deter-
mined to give ourselves a treat. So on the 20th of Decem-
ber M. shut up his books and papers ; I wound up my affairs
by taking my collection of snow-birds, now numbering eight,
to a neighbour ; locking up my valuables, and putting on a
clean dress, and at 12.30 we were in the cars en route for
a week in Denver.

" Wlien we crossed the Divide the difference in climate
showed strangely. With us at Colorado Springs, the snow
has never lain more than four days at the longest. North-
ward, the country is covered with a solid cake of frozen
snow, two to twelve inches deep ; and our Scotch friends on
Plum Creek are in sad trouble about their cattle, most of
them having run off before the storms to the rich pastures
of the Arkansas river, a hundred miles south ; while those
that remain are grubbing about in the snow for patches of
buffalo or bunch grass, under shelter of the bluffs. To be
sure, it is an exceptional winter : but it is a serious matter

CHRISTJVIAS AND NEW YEAR. 99

for the stock-raiser to be liable to such a winter, if it only
comes once in seven years.

" Denver looks wintry enough, under six inches to a
foot of snow : but it is full of life and bustle. The toy-shops
are gay with preparations for Christmas-trees ; the candy
stores filled with the most attractive sweetmeats ; the furriers
display beaver coats, and mink, ermine, and sable, to tempt
the cold passer-by ; and in the butchers' shops hang, besides
the ordinary beef and mutton, buffalo, black-tailed deer,
antelope, Kocky Mountain sheep, quails, partridges, and
prairie-chicken.

" The streets are full of sleighs, each horse with its collar

of bells ; and all the little boys have manufactured or bought

little sleds, which they tie to the back of any passing cart or

carriage ; and get whisked along the streets till some sharp

- turn or unusual roughuess in the road upsets them.

" The first night I spent here I could hardly sleep from
the heat. I had been looking forward with delight to
having a carpeted room again : but when I came to try
one, it seemed so stuffy after the bare floor and innumer-
able draughts of air from windows and door in my ' sky
parlour ' at the Springs, that I was nearly stifled, and had to
throw the windows open, Mith the thermometer down in the
neighbourhood of zero outside.

" "We found plenty of old friends up here, and have made
many more since we came. In the frank unconventional
state of society which exists in the West, friendships are
made much more easily than even in the Eastern States, or
still more, in our English society ; and, if one wants to have,
as the Americans express it, ' a good time,' one must expand
a little out of one's insularity, and meet the hearty good- will
shown one with some adequate response.

" There is unluckily no out-door skating to be had here,
as the snow has spoiled all the ice : but we have discovered
a capital substitute in the roller-skating rink, where, in a

100 SOUTH BY WEST.

large hall on a board-floor, with four-wheeled parlour skates,
you can do every figure that is possible on ice. Every day
a large party of us, both Americans and English, go down to
the rink, and great is the fun we have. The fact of being a
first-rate skater on ice does not help a bit on roller skates ;
and after shuffling about helplessly myself, envying one
young lady, who was skimming round with perfect ease, it
was, I confess, very comforting to see two distinguished per-
formers, both over six feet high, skate hand in hand to the
end of the hall, and, losing all control over their feet, rush
violently against the wall, and fall flat on their backs side
by side.

" Talking of falls, M. and two other large Englishmen, all
three in Ulsters, which create much mirth out here among
the small boys, were walking alofig one of the streets here
the other day : — you must understand that in a new city the
wooden side-walk is often only made in front of each house ;
and where there is a gap in the buildings there is a corre-
sponding gap in the pavement. As the street was covered
in snow, our friends did not see one of these sudden preci-
pices before them, and walked calmly on, and over the end
of the side-walk, which was nearly two feet above the
ground, all three falling flat in the snow side by side, to the
intense delight of the passers-by. On Friday evening, after
two hours' skating at the rink, we went out for a sleigh-
drive, the first I have ever had ; and most delightful it was.
We were muffled up in blankets and buffalo robes and all
our furs. The thermometer was 2° below zero ; the moon as
clear as day ; and, with a capital pair of horses, we flew over
the smooth sparkling snow, our sleigh-bells jingling in the
frosty air. When we got home, about 11 p.m., M. looked
just like Santa Glaus, with his moustache and hair all snowy
white from his frozen breath.

" Christmas Day was bright, and even hot in the sun ; and
we had to pick our way to church through rivers of melted

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR. 101

snow. The Episcopal church looks rather like a wooden
coach-house outside : but inside it is very nice, and was
prettily decorated. The excellent Bishop of Colorado, Dr.
Eandall, is still in the East, getting together a number of
clergy to come out to the Territory ; or we should have had
the pleasure of hearing our Christmas sermon from him.
But even his absence mattered little to any one who had
had no chance of getting to church for two months ; the dear
familiar service alone was quite enough to satisfy one. The
singing, by an amateur quartett choir, of two ladies and two
gentlemen, was very good, but florid.

" I w^as asked to eat my Christmas dinner at Colonel M.'s,
where Miss J. boarded ; and, simply because I was her friend,
every one in the house made me welcome. Dinner of the
orthodox turkey and mince-pie over, we were summoned to
the Christmas-tree in the parlour, which was decorated, in
place of our holly-berries, with strings of raw cranberries
and snowy popcorns, pretty to look at, and nice to eat.

" There were several children in the house ; and I hardly
know wliether they or their black nurses were most de-
lighted. One little negro girl, who had charge of Mrs. M.'s
lovely baby, was nearly crazy, as every one in the house had
put something on the tree for her ; and when a large brown
paper parcel was given her, down went the poor baby on the
floor, as she tore the parcel open and found a pair of new
boots inside. I sliall never forget the child's ecstasy, caper-
ing about like a black puppy, and showing her white teeth
from ear to ear.

" The evening passed with games and music, and constant
refreshments in the shape of candy and hickory-nuts ; and
suddenly our host turned round to me and said, ' Now, I '11
sing something for you ;' and began the first verse of ' God
save the Queen.' It sent a thrill over me, hearing it a
thousand miles west of the Mississippi for the first time
since leaving England. And then I was made to sing it all

102 SOUTH BY WEST.

through ; for, though the tune is familiar enough in America,
no one present knew the right words. It was a pleasant
ending to a pleasant evening.

" To-morrow we go home to Colorado Springs, so farewell."

On the 28th we started for home, dropping half-a-dozen
of our English friends at Plum Creek ; and, on the Divide,
I had a new experience, for there I saw my first Indian.
At first he looked to me like the most ugly of all old
Hampshire gipsy hags ; but as we got nearer to him, his
hideousness was amazing. A smooth copper-coloured face,
with a very long nose; straight black hair, the two front
locks (the scalp locks) braided with beads ; buckskin moc-
cassins and shirt ; a buftalo robe, inside out, wrapped round
him, and fastened at the waist by a belt ; and a bow and
aiTows in his hand — altogether the most revolting specimen
of humanity I had ever seen.

M. and Dr. L. went and spoke to him in a jargon of
Spanish and Indian ; and he asked where Washington was.
At first they thought he meant the city, but he said, — " No,
no; he is somewhere near;" and M. found he meant Wash-
ington, the old chief of the Northern Utes ; and that Ulay,
the new Mexican chief, was on his way up to have a " big
talky-talky."

The day before we came home the most terrific wind-
storm began at the Springs, and people were sitting up all
night expecting their houses to be blown down. The only
harm, however, that it did was to blow down or unroof a
few shanties ; and when we got down, it was quite calm
again, and no snow to be seen. It was very pleasant get-
ting home again, and having such a warm welcome from
every one ; and I had graphic accounts of their Christmas
gaieties, which had consisted of a ball in Foote's Hall, a large
building just finished, where, I believe, as many as twenty
couples mustered ; and a most successful school-treat, which

CHRISTMAS AND XEW YEAR. 103

Mrs. P. had arranged for her scliool children and their
l^arents.

December 29. — The day "began in perfect calm. I went
up to Mrs. C.'s to do some ironing, and the morning was so
hot that we were obliged to keep both window and door
open while we did our work. The thermometer was 52°;
hot sun, and not a breath of air stirring : but over the top of
Pike's Peak hung a small white cloud, a certain sign of mis-
chief ; and so it proved, for about 3 p.m., as I was making a
sketch on Tejon Street, suddenly, without any warning, down
rushed the wind from the mountains in a moment, and nearly
blew the pencils and paper out of my hands. I packed up as
quick as possible, and, running to Mrs. de C.'s, borrowed her
thickest gauze veil, tied it tight over my face, and, walking
sideways like a crab, started the half mile for home. The
wind was from west, and my road lay north-west ; so, l)y
taking advantage of every lull between the gusts, and making
a dash up-wind, the next gust did not blow me quite out of
my course. I could just keep my feet along the open : but
coming to the business block where the houses stand, I saw
the dust-storm coming too, and right in my face. I tried to
cross the street, one hundred feet, to a boarding-house where
I could get shelter ; but midway the whirlwind caught me,
bringing with it sand, bits of wood, and pebbles as large as
a sparrow's egg. These missiles cut so, even through the
thick veil, that I could only cover my face with both hands
and stand still. Staggering to the wall of the house, and
hoping for shelter, I found it was rather worse than in tlie
open ; so I managed at last to creep round to the back-door,
and came plump upon a terrified cow, who had gone there
too for safety. My sudden appearance caused much aston-
ishment to the inmates of the house : but they forgave my
unceremonious entry, and gave me house-room till the gust
was over, and I could get home. All that day the storm
raged : but abated towards evening ; and the day ended

104 SOUTH BY WEST.

with a splendid lunar rainbow between us and the moun-
tains.

Dec. 31. — M. and I went a long walk up the Monument
specimen-hunting, and found some pretty bits of crystal and
fossil wood. About two miles above the town, on the banks
of the creek, is a large bed of fossil shells.

January 1, 1872. — The new year has come in with bright
sun, no wind, and cloudless blue sky. It is a marked day in
the life of our little colony ; for after two months of delays,
the Colorado Springs Hotel was opened at 2 p.m., and we
went to our first meal there, and ate with English knives
and forks, off English china, a first-rate dinner.

But this was not the only event of the day ; for in the
morning a swarm of Indians came into town. They were
Utes from New Mexico, and M. recognised many old ac-
quaintances among them. One of the young braves was, he
said, the greatest thief unhung in New Mexico. He has
five squaws, and makes them all steal for him. He had
on a scarlet blanket over buckskins ; a kind of breastplate
of beads, mostly white ; and a row of silver beads down the
parting of his hair, ending on his forehead with a silver cres-
cent. There were several squaws of the party, whose ugly
faces we were glad to see, as their presence is a sure sign of
peace ; and for a few weeks rumours had been flying about of
an intended outbreak among the Utes on the other side of the
foot-hills. The men and women were dressed very much
alike ; except that the women's hair was cut straight round
just below the ears, and the men wore their long scalp locks
with little cases of beads, like a bouquet-holder, siirrounding
them. Some of their faces were painted with red stripes ;
and one had red and yellow stripes on the cheeks, yellow
being the second mom'ning for a near relation. "When an
Indian dies, the nearest of kin paint themselves entirely
white, and retire to their lodges for ten days, during which
time no one sees them. They then come out and paint them-

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR.

105

selves red and yellow till the end of the month or moon, when
the days of mourning are over. The Ute war-paint, which I
happily did not see, is black and white. The Indians were
intensely interested in the railroad track — the first they had
ever seen ; and squatted down, rubbing the metals with their

Indians.

fingers. They hung about all the morning, on the look-out
for a little pilfering ; and when the train started, some went
up to Denver by train, and the rest camped up the Foun-
tain, about a mile below Manitou, to hunt in the mountains.
In the evening we determined to get up a " surprise
party " for Mrs. F., one of our neighbours, and this is how
it was managed. Duiing the day we went to all our friends,

106 SOUTH BY WEST.

and asked tliem to meet us at seven o'clock, and in a body,
and without giving our hostess that was to be any warn-
ing, we knocked at her door. The surprise was on her
side, not ours, when she opened the door and found a
dozen people outside wishing her a happy new year, and
come to spend the evening. Of course she had been able
to make no preparations for us : but that makes just the
fun of a " surprise party : " one goes merely for the sake of a
pleasant evening, and does not expect anything more than
the hearty welcome one is sure to get.

January M. — Dr. B. asked me to drive the L.'s, who
arrived from England three days ago, up to Manitou with
Governor H.'s ponies. Half way up we passed the Indians'
camp, and saw their lodges, tents of dark brown skin, sup-
ported by poles tied together in the middle. As we went
by, one of the Indians was kind enough to stand in the
bushes close by the road, with bow and arrow ready drawn.
The ponies were almost frantic with terror ; and one of our
party was somewhat alarmed too, thinking our last hour
had surely come. Horses, and still more mules, cannot bear
the smell of an Indian, and will often " scare" at them — as
the phrase is — when their driver cannot see one within a
quarter of a mile.

Mh. — M. went up to Denver, and the L.'s, Dr. B., and I
went up with him as far as Teachouts, and spent a couple of
hours in Monument Park. I was invited to go on the cow-
catcher, with which every American engine is armed. It is
a kind of nose of iron bars sharply pointed, which sweeps
any obstacle from the track; and on the top there is just room
for three people to sit with their feet hanging down close to
the rails. But though in my secret heart I wished just
to feel what it was like for once, M, told me that it was
really such a risk that I resisted the temptation, and we
settled ourselves comfortably on the back platform. If you
do run over a cow, which verv often cannot be avoided

CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR. 107

with one of these stupid Texan beasts — for they will seem
to be mo^dng off when the engineer " toots " at them, and
then, as he starts again, turn right round, and walk into the
train, — it is thrown up on the top of any one who sits
on the cow-catcher. A man could raise himseK up : but a
woman must either be thrown off, or receive the cow, in
a mashed state, in her lap. Then, again, the " eccentrics "
may get out of order, and a dozen bumps will come, which
must throw one off. And, in addition, this particular engine
" throws fire," unless there is a very strong head mnd ; so,
altogether, it was much more comfortable to be sitting^ in
the sun on the hind platform, than getting holes burnt in
my clothes, as our cow-catching friends did before the trip
was over.

It is curious how soon one gets accustomed to the seem-
ingly reckless way people go on here. There we stood or sat
on the platform, with our feet hanging down almost touching
the rails. It was perfectly safe, because we knew the risk
of a slip, and guarded against it : and we thought no more
of there being real danger than if we had been sitting on a
coach-box at home.

CHAPTER VIII.

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS.

Bronco manners— Mountain appetites— The Rainbow Fall— A scramble— The new
road— Trailing Arbutus— Glenwoocl Mills- Beavers— A cold bath— Arkansas
hospitality— The Ute pass— A scare— A "washing bee"— Our lirst Episcopal
service— The ditch full at last— Growth of the town— A ride over the mesa—
An exploring expedition— The " Pike's Peak gold fever "—A " cold snap"—
Our concert.

In the beginning of January we had a speU of perfect
weather ; and we took advantage of it to carry out our long-
talked-of plan, of driving up into tlie mountains to see
Bergun's Park, which belongs to Dr. B. So, early on the 7th
we started in a buggy, with Governor H.'s two brown ponies,
celebrated all through Colorado as the most enduring pair
of animals in the Far West. It was a bright cold morning,
but we were well wrapped up in buffalo robes and blankets,
with our luggage in two small travelling-bags stowed under
the seat. Our first excitement was on crossing the Monu-
ment Bridge, beyond the railroad track. An old man was
just harnessing a pair of broncos, or tame wild horses, to his
waggon, preparatory to his day's journey ; for he had been
camping in the bushes by the creek for the night. Either
our buggy or a herd of cows which came over the bridge
startled them, and after the manner of broncos, they reared,
kicked, jumped over the traces, knocked the old man down,
and were just making off when he got on his feet, and with
the help of the cow-herd stopped them. We stayed to see

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 109

no more, for fear our ponies should do likewise, as they
usually run away on starting. We saw nothing more of
interest till we passed Colorado City, and arrived at the
Indian camp, where a small child in a red jacket appeared,
running about among the rocks like a brown monkey ; and a
little further on we fell in with a squaw, dressed in buckskin
and a red blanket, trying to lasso three run-away ponies.

At Manitou we stopped for breakfast with General and
Mrs. P., and must have considerably astonished their New
York cook by our mountain appetites, for a second supply of
broiled venison was sent for in five minutes, and George, the
negro servant, was running in continually with fresh dishes of
hot biscuit. Mr. B., who was staying there, volunteered, after
breakfast, to go with us up the new road through the canon
of the Fountain, while Dr. B. took the buggy over the Ute
Pass, to meet us where the old and new roads join. So we
walked up the canon as far as the place where the workmen
are blasting for the road, and then climbed down to the top
of the Lower Pall, a dangerous bit of rock work, as a slip
would have dropped us into the stream below : however, we
got down safe, and then crept along the right bank of the
stream, sometimes on ice, sometimes swinging ourselves
round the stem of a tree, and soon found ourselves at the
" Upper or Ptainbow Fall." The stream comes over a rock
wall about a hundred feet high, which shuts in the whole
valley. The canon is not more than twenty feet wide, and
the effect of the white stream falling into this narrow chasm,
whose walls tower up hundreds of feet, is most beautiful.

Then we turned up the mountain side to the right, as it
is impossible to scale the rocks on each side of the fall. It
was a hard climb ; sheets of rock and pulverized gTanite,
with here and there a tuft of grass, a scraggy oak or pine
tree, or a creeping cactus ; and woe to the unwary one who
laid hold of the latter for help ! The sun was intensely hot,
and beat down on us unmercifully ; and the slope was

110 SOUTH BY WEST.

SO steep, we had to use our hands and knees in many
places. When we got to the top, about 500 feet above the
stream, we were rather out of breath, and not at all sorry to
rest, as going up hill in this rarefied air is no easy matter.
The way down to the creek again was rough, through bushes
burnt by some mountain fire, and over big boulders ; and in
one place we had to swing by a little tree over a rock, alight-
ing on a sheet of ice. We were quickly down, however ;
struck the trail for the new road by the creek about a quarter
of a mile above the Eainbow Fall, and soon came to a place
where we had to cross the creek. Boughs had been thrown
in to make a crossing-place : but the stream had risen from
the melting snow ; so we got fresh saplings of cotton-wood,
and some logs w^hich were lying about, and tossing them in
on the top of the old boughs, crossed dry-foot. But what
was our disgust when, thirty yards on, round a corner of rock,
we came upon a second ford, which had to be bridged back
again. Above this the road had all been graded and
bridged, and we got along at a good pace. Here the canon
narrowed, with rock walls on either side of pink granitic
hornblende, several hundred feet high. Huge Douglassii pines
grew along the creek, arching overhead, with spruces and
pines, or felled across it, their feathery branches cased in a
delicate coating of ice, taking the exact form of each twig.
Great boulders lay in the stream ; the water rushed past them
or under sheets of ice ; and overhead, on the topmost rocks,
and sometimes coming down to the road, was brilliant hot
sunshine. If was the most beautiful road one could see or
imagine.

We followed it for about a mile and a half, and as the
rock walls grew lower, came upon the shanties of the work-
men who were making the road. The men all came out and
stared at us in speechless amazement ; for we were the first
passengers who had ever come up the road, and it was some
time before they could collect their senses to speak to us.

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS, 1 1 i

But at last the contractor, being persuaded that we had not
dropped from the sky, recovered himseK sufficiently to say
that we were only a quarter of a mile from the junction of
the old and new road. We hurried on, and found Dr. B. and
the ponies waiting for us beside a spring, at which we slaked
our thirst with the clearest water imaginable ; and bidding
farewell to our guides, drove off again.

The road now followed the Fountain up a fine valley,
with rocky pine-covered hills rising to an immense height
on either side. In some places we were a good deal delayed
by ice on the road, having to get out, scrape up earth with
our hands to strew over it, and then lead the ponies over :
but we got safely, about 1.30, to Sale's Sawmill. Here the
valley widened out a good deal, with grass slopes up to the
edge of the pines, and occasional prairie-dog towns ; and
four miles above Sale's we came to the fork of the roads, the
left leading into South Park, to Fair Play, and the great
mining districts, the right to Bergun's Park. The rise here
began to be steep, and we got into snow, and soon reached
the pineries of the Divide, between the Platte and Arkanzes.
The quaking aspen, showing that we were near snow-line,
grew among the pines at the top of the Divide, which was
just 8000 feet above the sea. The ground under the pines
was covered with trailing Arbutus, which Dr. Hooker pro-
nounces to be exactly the same species as that of the Scotch
Highlands — Arctostcqjhijlos Uva ursi — it is called by the
Indians " kinikinick," and is used by them as tobacco. Im-
mense quantities of trees had been felled for timber on the
Divide, and we drove down through tlie pineries for a mile
or more, till we reached a little grass park or oj^ening where
Dr. D. has established a fine sawmill, just seventeen miles
from Colorado Springs. Here we were to stay for the niglit.
So we pulled up at a new wooden shanty near the mill, and
were taken into a nice large sitting-room, with open hearth
and roaring pitch-pine fire, where the ladies of the family

112 SOUTH BY WEST.

made us welcome. They were horrified, however, at our
instantly setting out, as supper was not ready, to see a fine
beaver-dam up the valley.

We waded through frozen snow about a mile and a half
up a side- stream, now sinking into a drift over our boots,
now getting out of the way of stray cattle, now being flown
at by a fierce dog from some solitary shanty ; finally, after
crossing two streams, we came, in a narrow valley, to the
dam, which amply repaid our rough walk. As it was
covered in ice and snow we could walk all over it. It
formed an irregular semicircle about 100 yards wide, thrown
right across the flat part of the valley. The bank in front
was about five feet high, thrown up like a fortification —
a breastwork of earth gently sloped back, and beaten quite
smooth by the beavers' tails as with a spade, with a wattle
of sticks from half-an-inch to an inch thick along the top.
Willow and oak bushes grew in the water behind the dam ;
and a dozen yards back from the edge was the beavers'
house, a round heap, three feet above the ice, of sticks and
logs, with a little mud in the interstices.

All the streams in the mountains round here are full of
beavers ; and though one never sees them, their work is only
too visible. Two families of beavers last December took pos-
session of the Fountain Creek, close to Manitou, and in a
fortnight had felled most of the largest cotton-wood trees,
some of them two feet thick, which we were watching with
pride and delight as one of the ornaments of the valley. The
families must have been cousins ; for when the upper dam
was finished, its makers came down and helped those at the
lower one, who were slower at their work ; and unless they
are kinsfolk, beavers never help each other.

The sun had set ere we finished our exploration, and we
hurried back to Glenwood Mills, to find supper ready for us
in the kitchen. We had stewed oysters, smoked beef, moun-
tain raspberries of Mrs. D.'s own gathering and preserving.

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 1 1 3

bread and potatoes. Tliere was neither butter nor milk in
the house : but a few hours' fast makes the best sauce in the
world, and we ate our dry bread and drank our tea with
great enjoyment. We sat round the fire in the sitting-room
chatting and looking at specimens ; and Dr. D., who is a
Yorkshireman by birth, told us a good deal about the
country, which he knows thoroughly, especially about South
Park, where he lived for eight years. One winter, he said,
the snow was eight feet deep all over the Park, and they had
to get in and out of the houses by the upper windows. One
of the ladies kindly gave me up her room, the sleeping-
rooms being divided from the sitting-room by an eight-foot
partition, which had the advantage of letting in the wai^mth
of the roaring fire ; and about 9.30 our party broke up, and I
was not sorry to get a few hours' sleep after our long day.

Toward morning the cold was intense, and a little after
6 A.M. we were glad to roast ourselves by the fire, after wash-
ing our hands and faces in a tin basin of water from the pond
outside, to get which ice a foot thick had to be broken.
Wliile we were at breakfast at seven, the sun rose ; li'j^hting
up Pike's Peak, which we could see from the house towering
up over the pineries ; and by eight o'clock we had bidden
farewell to our kind hosts, and were once more in the waggon
and off to Bergun's Park. The ponies, refreshed as much as
we were by the good cheer at Glenwood Mills, testified their
joy by making a bolt from the door as we were just gather-
ing up the reins, and running away for half a mile over ditches
and through pine-stumps before we could pull them up.

We followed the valley about two miles through the
snow, then up a hill into the pine woods, and through the
boundary fence of the Park. We now kept in the forest for
a mile and a half, and then down a steep pitch nearly two
feet deep in snow, to a pretty grass-glade Mith a stream in
the middle, and woods of huge pine, spruce, Douglassii, and
silver fir round it. The latter is, I think, the most beauti-

114

SOUTH BY WEST.

fill of all the fir tribe, when it is self-sown, and not crowded
by other trees ; a black and silver pyramid without a twist,
or a single branch out of place. Then came another belt of
wood, and we emerged into the Park itself. It is about eight
miles long, and in some places a mile wide ; a fork of the
South Platte runs through it, on each side of which the gi^ass

Pike's Peak.

slopes up to the pineries, and they again to the mountains,
both scattered with a few huge red sandstone monuments.
Looking north, the park is shut in by a strangely jagged
mountain, known as the Devil's Nose. South, you get a
magnificent view of Pike's Peak, which looks much grander
from this side than from the east.

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 115

The stream is full of excellent trout, and \Te tried to
get some from a family of Germans who have taken up a
claim right in the middle of the Park : but being surly, dis-
agreeable people, and possibly feeling they had no right to
be there, they would give us neither fish, milk, or butter,
though their cows were feeding on Dr. B.'s hay. We felt
rather like the man Governor H. tells of, who, travelling in
Arkansas, rides up late one day to a lonely ranche. The
sole occupant is a woman, who comes to the door hearing a
traveller arrive ; and the following dialogue ensues : —

Man. — " Good day, ma'am, how goes ? Can you give my
horse a feed ? "

Woman. — " "Wa'al, I hain't got much."

Man. — " Can you give him some corn and hay ? "

Woman. — " Wa'al, I hain't got no corn, and I hain't got
no hay."

Man (inquisitively). — " Can you give him some fodder ?"

Woman (reflectively). — " Wa'al — no ; I hain't got no fod-
der."

The horse must take care of himself evidently ; so the
traveller begins again persuasively : —

" Well, can you give me something to eat ? "

Woman (doubtfully). — " Wa'al, neaow, I guess I hain't
got much."

Man (impatiently). — " Can you give me some bread and
beans ?"

Woman. — "Wa'al, I hain't got no bread, and I hain't got
no beans."

Man (furiously). — "Why, how do you people do down
here ? "

Woman (cheerfully). — " Oh, pretty well, thank you ;
heaow do yen do?"

So after resting the ponies and making a sketch, m'c
turned homeward, reaching Glenwood at 1 p.m.

We got a warming by the fire for ten minutes, but no

116 SOUTH BY WEST.

food, as our visit had completely cleared out the larder, with
the exception of one slice of dry bread, which kind Mrs. D.
bestowed upon us. So we divided it into three portions,
and satisfied our hunger for a little while. When we started
again, the snow on the Divide had melted somewhat in the
hot sun, and balled a good deal, so that our progress was
slow for some miles, till we got clear of it. Then the road
being down-hill, we went along well, and reached the foot of
the Ute Pass at 3.15 p.m. There of course we all got out,
and clambered up the hill, which was hard work, as in many
places there were sheets of glaze-ice, from ten to twenty
yards long, on a steep slope, which had to be strewn with earth
before the poor ponies could be dragged over. It is by no
means a pleasant task, when one's own fingers are half-frozen,
to have to use them like terrier's paws in scratching earth
out of the frozen ground, and then running the risk of slip-
ping down one's-self and dragging the ponies over one, or
being knocked down in their slips and struggles. The
Pass winds over two hills with a deep gorge between them.
At the top of the first hill we got into the waggon, and drove
for a little way, being rather tired : but just before the dip
into the gorge we met an ox-team. In most places you can-
not pass anything on this road ; here, however, a dry stream-
course enabled us to turn out of the way, and stand to let it
pass : but just as it got by, the ponies smelt some raw beef
which was at the back of the ox-waggon, and reared and
plunged, dragging us straight up the bank of the stream. I
thought we must go over ; however, strange to say, we got
by in safety.

These ponies have a peculiarly delicate sense of smell,
and will " scare," as the phrase here is, at anything with a
game scent ; so much so indeed, that we are always obliged,
on starting for a drive with them, to have any bear or buffalo
robe thrown into the back of the waggon at the last minute,
or they become almost unmanageable.

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 117

From the actual summit of the Pass we got a magnifi-
cent view of the Plains, stretching away like a ripe harvest-
field in the light of the setting sun, yellow and purple ; while
the mountains between which we saw them, and the canon
of the Fountain, were all in deep shadow. It was a frightful
road, steep as a house-roof, with stones, rocks, and ice to im-
prove it ; and as our front axle was sprung, and our break did
not act properly, we had to walk all the way down the Pass
to Manitou. Here the P.'s wanted us to stay and refresh our-
selves, but we were such objects, and so tired, that we pre-
ferred going straight home, and reached Colorado Springs at
7 P.M., as starved, burnt, ragged, and footsore a set of travel-
lers as could well be seen.

Jan. 8. — So stiff after our mountain-trip I could hardly
move. However, I went up to Mrs. C.'s, where we had agreed
to have a " washing bee," and initiated Mrs. L., who was fresh
from England, into the mysteries of soaping, boiling, rinsing,
starching, and ironing.

lOth. — Dr. B. started for California to see General R,
and arrange about the Mexican expedition, and as soon as
he comes back we shall all start west and south.

Saturday, l'2th. — As M. was away at Pueblo, IMrs. P.
brought me up to Manitou yesterday ; and this morning we
have been roaming up the canons, collecting seeds and
stones. A white spiraea grows here in great quantities, and
when it is in flower I am told it looks like powdered snow
among the green leaves. The day was so hot that we could
not bear jackets over our gowns. After luncheon we walked
down to the beaver dam, on the Fountain, and got some chips
from the trees the beavers have felled. They are exactly the
shape of ordinary chips cut with a hatchet, from an inch to
three inches across.

To-morrow we are going to have our first Episcopal
service in the town ; Mr. E., the clergyman from Pueblo,
having offered to come for a Sunday ; and we hope that till

118 SOUTH BY WEST.

a church is built here, the Bishop will be able to send us a
clergyman once a month. We are determined to begin with
as good a service as possible ; we have had several prac-
tices this week for it, and had our final one this afternoon.
Mr. E. arrived on the coach; and I found that he was*
not only an Englishman, but came from Marlowe, so w©
had a pleasant talk over all our Berkshire friends.

Sunday, IMh. — A lovely day. A little before 11 A.M. we
went over to Foote's Hall, where the service was to be held.
I had Mrs. P.'s harmonium over from the school, and we
managed the Canticles and two hymns very creditably, most
of the congregation joining in. There were sixty-five people
present, a good many of whom were Methodists, etc., but the
larger proportion Episcopalians. As no one else seemed in-
clined to lead the responses, I did ; and was much laughed
at afterwards for my emphatic "Amen" to the prayer
for the President ; but I explained that I had my English
Prayer-book with our dear Queen's name open before me,
and it was for her and not for the President that my Amen
was said.

After service we took a stroll to the Fountain ditch,
wdiich the engineers reported would be full to-day at last :
but the water had not yet come down. After dinner at the
hotel, w^e sat down on the piazza or in the parlour, with all
the doors and windows open. The sun was so strong that
we were quite glad to get into the shade.

Later in the afternoon we took a walk, and as we neared
the great gxilch at the back of the town we heard a curious
and most unusual sound for this part of the country, like a
large waterfall, and on getting up to the edge, found, to our
gi-eat delight, that the ditch w^as full, and was pouring a
strong stream of muddy water down into the gulch below,
where the reservoir is to be made. Now that it is full,
the colony authorities are going to cut small ditches
down each street, and plant trees by them, which will

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 1 1 9

soon improve the look of the town ; and the colonists
are already talking of planting gardens and fencing in
their residence lots.

The town certainly is growing prodigiously. I find it
quite difficult to keep pace with all the new arrivals, or the
new buildings which spring up as if by magic.

The hotel is a great success, and is pronounced to be
the " best house west of the Mississippi." It is full of
visitors already from Denver and the east, who come in
search of health or to enjoy our beautiful scenery ; and the
Denver and Eio Grande Eailroad is just moving its offices
down here from Denver, which will bring down a most
pleasant set of people to add to our little society.

I5th. — We went out riding a little after seven along the
Colorado City Pioad, and then turned up the Mesa which
lies between the plains and the foot-hills. A Mesa here
means a huge bank or down of earth, sometimes 200 feet
high, and seemingly the deposit of ancient glaciers. I had
never been on the mesa before. It is quite flat on the top,
covered with buff^ilo and gramma grass, Spanish bayonet,
and cactus, with low thorns, scrub oak, and here and there
an old cedar growing down the steep sides into the valleys,
which run up into the mesa in all directions. We rode
along the top for a mile or two, and it was some time before
we could find a place to get down, the slopes to the flats
below being almost perpendicular and covered with stones :
but at last we managed it, crossing the ditch a second time,
and then the Monument Creek at a ford.

Temporary Inn, Manitou, Jan. 19. — I came up here a
week ago to pay a visit to General and jMrs. P., who are
living here till Glen Eyrie is finished, and we are very busy
preparing for a concert. The reading-room is in want of
funds, so we have determined to give a concert for its benefit ;
and have enhsted all the musical talent in the neighbour-
hood to help us.

120 SOUTH BY WEST.

IQtli. — M. came up, and we started on a great " explor-
ing expedition " to find, if possible, a direct road across the
mountains from Manitou to Glen Eyrie, about four miles,
prospecting by the "way for silver and coal leads. Our first
discovery, on the first hill we climbed, was a quantity of
galena, which seemed tolerably rich with silver : but, as we
expected, we did not find anything worth working, as all
this neiglibourhood has been thoroughly prospected for silver
and gold mines already since the days of the great " Pike's
Peak gold fever," when Colorado City had for one brief year
4000 inhabitants, and all this countrv was swarming with
miners and emigrants from the East, who thought, poor
creatures, that a second California was discovered. Thou-
sands j)oured out here across the plains, of whom hardly a
tenth ever got home again. Some were killed by Indians ;
some died of the hardships of the journey ; or ended still
more sadly when their dream of prosperity faded ; or crawled
home broken-hearted, like the poor fellow who was seen start-
ing across the plains from Kansas with a good team of horses
and smart waggon, with this inscription painted in gaudy
colours on the tilt — " Pike's Peak or Bust," and who, a few
months later, came creeping wearily home, ragged and
ruined, witli a lame mule, supposed to be stolen, in place
of the horses, and on what remained of his waggon-top the
one word scrawled — " Busted." But those who survived, and
who braved all the risks and difficulties of the new country,
are the people to whom Colorado owes her present and
future prosperity. The Fiftyniners, as they proudly call
themselves, are looked on with a kind of respectful admira-
tion by the younger Coloradans, as the little pioneer aristo-
cracy of the territory ; and they stdl keep up the old bond of
friendships made in the midst of unheard-of dangers fifteen
years ago ; and have a gathering once a year in Denver of
'■'The pioneers of 1859."

But to return to our scramble — for a scramble it was, as

MOUXTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 1 2 1

we were the whole time going up or down liill. From the
top of the hill, al)out 500 feet high, we descended through
cactus and yucca, white cedar and piiions, into a deep
canon, the first of three we had to cross at ris^ht anrdes.
The sides were so steep that M. had to slide down to the
hottom, and catch me in his arms as I came down after him.
In this canon we found three distinct coal banks ; one of
them seemed exceedingly good coal, and close to the surface ;
the only difficulty in working them would be the distance
to haul the coal by waggons, which would make it more
expensive than coal brought a much greater distance by
rail.

Then we turned up a rising plateau of good grass ; and
down into a second caiion, a very large one, with huge
blocks of stone lying along it, shaded by cedars and Dou-
glassii firs. AVe jumped from rock to rock, followed the
canon up for about a mile, and then came to the grassy
Divide, between the slope we were following up from the
Fountain river, and Glen Eyrie. Tliat was a hard bit of
walking, the keen air taking away one's breath, and making
a rest every quarter of a mile really necessary. Pushing
up a steep rise, through scrub oak and a thorny bush which
caught and tore our clothes, we reached the top at last, and
got a glorious view. We were considerably over 7000 feet
above the sea. To the south-west was Pike's Peak, just
enough veiled in an incipient snow-storm to look majestic ;
and to the north, beyond the salmon-coloured rocks of Glen
Eyrie below us, lay the plains and the pineries, fifty miles
away, all purple in the setting sun.

As soon as we were rested, down we went to the Glen by
a little canon — such a scramble ! but I only got one fall the
whole way, which was fortunate, considering the places we
had to go down ; and we reached the house, where the car-
riage was waiting for us, at sunset, having gone four and a
half miles in two and a half hours, crossed three canons.

122 SOUTH BY WEST.

and never been on half a dozen yards of level ground the
whole way.

In this air it is ahnost impossible to feel fatigue. At
the end of the day one is wholesomely tired : but in the morn-
ing one gets up as fresh after a long walk as if one had been
doing nothing out of the way.

Jan. 2Sth, Manitou. — Our concert is over, and has been
a gTeat success, in spite of the cold. After a month of
perfect weather we have had a " cold snap," and the thermo-
meter was down last night 22° below zero. I went down
three days before the concert to stay at Colorado Springs
with the F.'s, to be on the spot ready to practise at any time
of day.

On the 24th there was a dense snowy fog, and the ther-
mometer never rose above zero all day, and when we met in
the evening at the L.'s for a practice, it was 19° below. We
were nearly frozen. We put the piano close to the stove,
and between each verse of the songs which I was accom-
panying, I had to jump up and put my fingers into the open
stove door to thaw them ; for they were quite numb from
touching the keys.

My warm room with a hot stove in the F.'s well-plastered
house, and two " comforts " (quilted cotton- wool covers) on
my bed, was delightful, after the cold stniggie home through
the snow. The luxury of being in a well-built house after
the temporary inn at Manitou was very great; for the latter
was only built to accommodate summer visitors, and is about
as warm to sleep in as an ordinary cow-shed. I heap clothes
on my bed — seven blankets and a bear robe — and keep quite
warm all night ; but as there is no stove in my room, getting
up and washing in the morning is a great trial.

On Thursday, the day of the concert, the weather was a
little less severe. Practices of one kind or other were fToins:
on from early morning ; and we had a full rehearsal in the
afternoon as soon as the southern stage came in ; for it

MOUNTAIN EXPLORATIONS. 123

brought a bass viol and its owner from fifteen miles down
the Fountain. He made a most imposing foundation to the
" concerted pieces," which were valses and ecossaises played
by the owners of the livery stables on two violins, ]\Irs. H.
on M.'s guitar, and Miss B. at the piano.

It was a new and pleasant sensation making a toilet —
though a very plain one — for the concert. We colonists
hitherto have not been able to indulge much in evening dress,
though doubtless that will come soon with our rapidly grow-
ing civilisation ; and a thick tweed gown has served me for
morning and evening, Sunday and week-day alike, ever since
I came here three months ao-o.

The tenor from Colorado City came to tea at the F.'s ;
and so did M., and we had some really pleasant musical
talk in the intervals of writing out programmes for the
evening.

The concert was advertised for 7.30 : but we did not all
get together till nearly eight ; and by that time Foote's hall,
which at present is used for every sort of public gathering,
was crowded wdth an orderly audience of about 150, of all
classes, down to " bull-whackers " who dropped in after their
day's w'ork with the ox and mule teams.

At last all was ready. Captain de C. appeared with a
jug of egg-nogg under his coat, which was cunningly
deposited under the piano, so that as the performers w^ent
up to the very shaky platform they could stoop down and
refresh themselves unseen ; and the concert opened with a
chorus. Everything went well. The bass viol, who I found
had only tried his instrument a fortnight before, scraped away
and tuned his strings, which insisted on getting out of tune
every six bars. Our prima donna Mrs. P., and M., got rap-
turous applause. Mrs. P. sang a scena of Verdi's and two or
three popular ballads ; and j\I. began with " The Fox went
out on a Moonlight Night," wliich was so successful that
he had to sing two other songs as encores. "We wound up

124 SOUTH BY WEST.

with the " Men of Harlech ; " after which loud cries for M.
began ; and he w^as obliged to sing again.

All went home delighted wdth their evening. The result
to the reading-room was most satisfactory, as after all ex-
penses were paid we netted $60 (£12 sterling), a creditable
amount for a town only five months old.

CHAPTER IX.

LAST DAYS IN COLORADO.

Valentine's day— The "Iron Ute"— Move to Glen Eyrie— The Servant question
— Snow blockade on the Union Pacific — A perilous path — The land of sur-
prises-Cheyenne caiion — A distant view — Prospecting on Pike's Peak —
Colonists — The irate market-gardeners — Indians and their doings — Farewell
to Colorado,

"Glen Eyrie, Valent'me^s Day 1872.

" Dear * * * — Here is indeed the ' erster Friililin^stafr.'
Oh for a poet or a musician to put it into word or sound !

" I am sitting writing in the canon, under a grove of
cotton-wood, Douglassii fir, and silver spruce. My cliair is a
lump of red granite, with a wall of the same rising behind
me reflecting the hot sun, so that I begin to feel like your
idea of perfect bliss — a lizard on a hot wall. T]ie creek
frozen solid, gleams white, at my feet ; and opposite rises
the south wall of the canon, 800 to 1000 feet high; red,
pink, and salmon rocks show through the pine and piiions,
which cover them ; and all is in black shade, save the
streaks of snow which lies here and there still unmelted.

" There is not a sound except the sighing of a breeze in
the pines, or the scream of a blue jay as he flashes past in
the sunlight, and scolds at finding me intruding on his soli-
tude ; or when a solitary half-tame sheep that haunts this
valley comes rustling down through the scrub-oak off the
mountains to drink at the creek. The air is full of the
scent from the cotton- wood, which is beginning to bud ; and

126 SOUTH BY WEST.

a fly settles on my paper to rest after his first flight in the
spring sunshine. How strange to think I am in the Eocky
Mountains ; all alone with my books, writing and drawing ;
out of all sound of human voices, and yet as much at home
as if I were in England.

" But I must have done with sentimentalities, and tell
you how I have been spending the last fortnight.

" For the last week at Manitou, before we moved over
here, we were nearlj' frozen, and I spent most of my time
in-doors trying to keep warm, and talking French and Ger-
man with charming Miss S., while we worked at cotton
gowns for the Mexican trip, which looked excessively out of
place in such weather.

" On Sunday week we walked through a dense fog to the
' Iron Ute Spring,' which lies nearly half a mile from the
Soda Springs, up a beautiful gorge. The water tastes just
like ink : but its effect on me was perfectly magical. I
drank again and again, and walked home feeling a different
being — for I have been quite ill from the cold, — and since
then have been perfectly well.

" The following day we moved over here to Glen Eyrie,
General P.'s lovely house, which has been building for the
last six months, and is at last finished enough for us to get
into it, though it is still haunted by armies of painters, etc.
It is built close to the mouth of the canon I am writing in,
on the slope of the hill, with the glen stretched out before it
dotted with tall pines and fantastic rocks of every colour
except bright blue, shutting it in from the outer world.

" I have been very busy since we came, helping my kind
hostess to settle in — no easy matter in this servantless
land — where one has to do most things for one's-self. The
want of servants in the West is a very serious difficulty,
and one it seems almost impossible to overcome. They are
simply not to be had, whatever you pay them. One of our
neighbours has been trying the whole of this winter to get a

LAST DAYS IN COLORADO. 127

servant, sending to Denver, Georgetown, Central — every-
where, in fact. After doing all her own house-work, and
cooking for her own family and several boarders for two
months, she got a girl at last from a ranche in the moun-
tains, who thought she would like a change. To this
creature, who could not cook or make herself useful in any
way, except in actual scrubbing, she paid $25 (£5) a month,
board, lodging, and all found ; and before the month was
out the young lady found Colorado Springs was 'too dull
for her,' and went off to Denver, leaving my friend servant-
less again. I remember finding this advertisement in the
New York Times one day : — ' 102 East 3Gth Street, between
3d and 4th Avenues. — A respectable young lady as cook ;
willing to assist at washing and ironing. Call for one day '
Imagine the condescending way in which the 'respectable
young lady ' would cook one's dinner if it suited her to do
so ; and then how she would dress herself up and walk out
in French gown and bonnet after the cooking was over !
This gives one some idea of the ' servant ' difficulty in the
eastern States. How much greater must it be out here !

" In the case of having good servants out from the
east or from England, tlieir passage-money, some $80 to
|100, has of course to be paid in advance ; and though it
could easily be refunded to their mistresses out of the
first year's wages, the chances are so strongly in favour of
their marrying or wishing to change their place before the
year is out, that it makes the risk too serious for the plan to
succeed often. The only hope I see of getting any good
servants is by importations of Chinese from California.
Already all the washing is done by them in Denver, and one
blue-coated and pig-tailed gentleman with some outlandish
name, has made his appearance down here ; and will soon, I
suppose, be followed by more.

" We are hoping every day for Dr. B.'s return. He has
been nearly a month on his journey from San Francisco,

128 SOUTH BY WEST.

which usually takes four days ; and the line is now so
badly blocked on this side of the Salt Lake that large
provision trains on sleighs are being sent to snowed-up
passengers, who are actually suffering for want of food — at
least so say the papers. It is a bad look-out for our journey
west. Nevertheless we are getting very impatient to be off ;
for now that I find you approve of my going to Mexico, I am
so afraid lest anything should prevent our trip. We are
working away at Spanish, and reading up all we can find
about the country, which seems really a land of enchantment.

" The other day M. drove up from the Springs, bringing
a Hollander to see General P. After a late breakfast, we
wandered out, and as we had much to talk over, we lay down
on the grass in a sunny place, and then climbed up the
gTeat red rocks, to the top of a hill, where w^e sketched the
most beautiful view I have seen yet. The great rocks for
foreground, then the Garden of the Gods a mile and a half
away, and the mesas and mountains and purple plains
behind tliem.

" Yesterday I went up there again to colour my sketch,
and thought I would try going home by a new way ; so I
carefully clambered down some sheets of red sandstone rock,
till I came to such an awful place, that I confess I was fairly
frightened. It was a cleft between two rocks, and thinking
I could get down it, I made for a pine tree which overhung
it a little, and of which I caught hold, and looked. I found
I was on the edge of a kind of step about twenty feet high ;
below it was another ; and below this second I could see
nothing, but there must have been an overhanging ridge any
height from twenty to two hundred feet from the gTOund.
I held fast to my tree, for one false step would have sent jup.
over. Luckily my head is perfectly steady ; but every
time I moved, a pebble rolled down, and jumped from ledge
to ledge, and then disappeared with a last skip into the

LAST DAYS IX COLORADO. 129

unknown depths. I stayed to pick a Lit of creeping juniper
which grew at the foot of the tree, pretending to myself that
I was not a bit frightened ; and climbing up on hands and
knees along the path I had come down, was thankful, in spite
of all my assumed bravery, to find myself on the safe side of
the hill again.

" I fear my admiration and wonderment at this strange
country must be growing too wearisome to you. But every
day I find some fresh puzzle or curiosity that I have not
seen before, and long for you to see it too, and explain it to
me. For instance, I found a hill of gypsum, 500 feet
high, within a quarter of a mile of this house the other day ;
and borrowing a pickaxe from one of the workmen, toiled up
to the top of it, and spent an hour in clumsily picking out
specimens, some white, some satin spar, some a faint pink,
of wdiich I have since made you a paper weight. We had
no notion that there was any gypsum in the glen before this
week : but it is a land of surprises, and there is always the
delightful possibility, if one goes out for a walk, of making
some new discovery in geology or botany, or of finding some
fresh view or way over the mountains which no one has ever
thought of. One of the great charms of a new countiy
is the feeling that one is looking on places which pro-
bably have never been seen before, save by some stray
trapper or savage Indian. So you must have patience
with me if I grow prosy over our wonderful mountains
and rocks.

" As I was waiting this, I heard voices coming up the
canon ; and soon Mrs. P. appeared, bringing several of our
Denver friends who are do-wTi at the hotel. We all
scrambled up the canon, along the ice-covered stream, with
birds singing among the pine tops in the sunshine overhead.
We made our w\ay above the Punch Bowl, which is now,
with the waterfall, a mass of solid ice, to Daphne's Leap, a
beautiful bubbling spring under a group of pines ; and as we

130 SOUTH BY WEST.

stood there, a noble eagle flew over our heads, so close that
we could see his yellow gleaming eye looking down on us
as we held our breath in surprise and delight."

Colorado Springs, Feb. 21. — All the railroad officials have
moved down here at last from Denver, and I am staying
with Mrs. W,, who is settled in two comfortable home-like
rooms at the Hunt House.

Tlie last few days at Glen Eyrie have been lovely — quite
summer weather ; and we have been panting for summer gar-
ments. After dinner to-day Captain S. and I started for a
long ride to Cheyenne Canon. It is close to Cheyenne
Mountain, about six miles from here ; and the huge
blue cleft in the hills ha§ looked so mysterious and
awful that I have always longed to explore it ever since
I first came.

We went across the railway track south of the town,
inspecting the track layers' work on our way ; over the
Fountain, through ploughed land, and past alkali springs,
up a long flat valley to the mouth of the canon. We tried
to ride up it a little way : but found the horses could not
keep their feet, the sides were so steep. So dismounting,
we led them back ; tied them by the reins to two pine
trees ; and then walked up along a side-hill on one side of
the little stream, pushing our way through bushes and trees,
on such a steep slope of pulverized granite that I could not
keep my feet without a hand to help me. We scrambled
along till we reached a side canon, and here sat down to
rest.

The rocks are magnificent; far finer than any I have
seen before — of red granite straight up many hundred feet in
smooth rock walls, so worn by water that they look quite
polished. Wherever there is a crack, fine pines grow in it,
if there is place for a root.

LAST DAYS IN COLORADO. 131

We sat some while enjoyiug the grandeur and solitude,
the silence only broken by the stream below tumbling over
the great boulders, and then turned back, as further progress
up the valley was impossible without a hatchet to clear a
way through the brushwood ; to find our horses safe by their
respective trees, Tlien mounting, Ave turned up to the right
over a mesa into a second valley, which would make the
most perfect site in the world for a house, with a wall to
the west of red and green rocks considerably over 1000 feet
in height, crowned with pines, over which circled a huge
pair of bar- tailed eagles.

We forded a stream, with a scramble over fallen logs and
boulders, which made me respect my horse's power of keep-
ing her feet, and toiled up the great mesa which stretches
down from the foot-hills into the plains. At the top we
stopped to breathe the poor horses, who seemed to feel
climbing up 1000 feet as much as human beings do, and
there we got a fine view. The mountains rose behind us in
rugged masses to the very sky. The plains east and south
stretched away and away like a purple ocean in the sunset.
To the north-east we saw over the Divide, which rises
nearly 2000 feet above the plains, to Cedar Point on the
Kansas Pacific Eailroad, ninety miles off. We kept along
the mesa for some two miles, and then up and doAAii rolling
hills and valleys of short buffalo grass, full of prairie-dog
holes, which made careful riding necessary, till we struck
the Fountain again, and got into the town just at sunset.

Feh. 22. — M. returned in the afternoon from Pike's Peak,
where he and Captain D. have been for three days prospecting
for water for the ditch. Their object was to find a place on
the Peak where water could be stored in large quantities,
and let out to supply the ditch at the time of year when it
is wanted for irrigating the crops, without diminishing the
stream, so as to interfere with the rights of mill-owners and
farmers below, who are not on the Company's lands, and

132 SOUTH BY ATTEST.

who, crying out before they were hurt, have been raising a
violent opposition to the colony for taking any water at all
from the Fountain.

Our poor prospecters, on the second day of their expedi-
tion, walked sixteen miles to the lakes, just below timber
line (11,000 feet), across fallen trees, with snow from two to
five feet deep. When they camped at night they had a little
excitement in the shape of a mountain lion (puma) ; who,
coming close up to their camp-fire, scared the donkey who
carried their camp outfit to such a degree that he jumped
on the top of Captain D., who lay asleep on the ground ;
and there was a regular melee of men, donkey, and fire,
while the puma trotted off before any one had time to get
out a rifle.

23d — Dr, B. at last arrived from San Francisco, having
spent twenty-four days on the road, thanks to the snow.
He, however, has not suffered from starvation, and we have
received most encouraging reports as to the probability of the
line being open in a fortnight, which is the time actually
fixed for our start westward.

25th. — Cold and sleety, after a week of spring weather.

2(jfh. — In the afternoon, while I was waiting for M. in
the office, some colonists — a man, his wife, and three chil-
dren— came in, having come down by the train. They were
English, from Southampton, and utterly disgusted and dis-
heartened, of course, by the place at first sight. They ex-
pected a large town, with fine farming lands, ready ploughed
and fenced, all round. They had no bedding, nor any neces-
saries for life in a shanty. The baby was ill, the little girl
crying with fatigue and bewilderment, the father cross, and
the mother dirty. M. put them for the night into our old
shanty, which happened to be vacant ; and gave them his
own bed, as they were from the old country, though they
were disagreeable enough, goodness knows.

But never will I persuade people to emigrate after seeing

LAST DAYS IX COLORADO. 133

these and other colonists arrive, utterly unprepared for the
sort of life they will have to lead. Thinking that a town
here means what it does in England ; that farming lauds —
which, in truth, are good enough wlien they are irrigated
and properly farmed — are to be like a rich bit of Hertford-
shire or the Vale of Thames ; and finding what it is in
reality, they turn round and accuse those who have advised
them to leave the struggle for existence in the old country,
of sending them to their death and ruin in the new.

Two men — nursery- gardeners from Long Island — came
in the other day. M. was out ; so they attacked the chief
engineer, who was in the office.

"Where are General , and , and the people who

wrote that circular ; because, if yve catch them, we '11 shoot
them."

]\Ir. ]Sr. tried to pacify them.

" Where are the farming lands ?"

" There, outside, by the creek."

" That 's nothing but a gravel patch."

" You can feed your cattle on it all winter nevertheless,"
replies Mr. K But still they rave ; when in comes Mr. .

" N., can you help me to some hands for the new road
over the mesa ? I can't get enough men to work on it."

The enraged colonists prick up their ears.

" Here are two already to hand," says Mr, N.

" What may you happen to give for work in this country
of yours ? " sneers one.

"The usual wages for day-labourers — S2-^ a day."

Thereupon a wonderful calm comes over the irate nur-
serymen, who consider that a place where you can get 10s.
a day for common labour cannot be such a very bad place ;
and in a week they come in, like most other emigrants,
vownig it is the finest country in the world.

Feb. 27th. — A cold sleety morning. I drove down alone
to Colorado Springs from Glen Eyrie. Two Indians were

134 SOUTH BY WEST.

outside one of the stores, indulging in such extraordinary-
antics that I was really afraid to drive past. They ran along
like beasts on all-fours ; then they tumbled down and rolled
over ; and then they crouched and pulled their bows. One
of the men from the store seeing me, kindly ran and held
them till I had passed.

Yesterday, as we were at dinner, a quantity of Indians rode
past the hotel, trailing their tent-poles ; the squaws with the
papooses on their backs, laden, besides, with all the belongings
of the tribe, while the braves rode on in front with no load save
their guns and bows. To-day the town is swarming with them ;
and I was called into one store to see two men and two papooses
about ten and twelve. The men had brought in buckskins
and buffalo robes to trade for cartridges for their revolvers,
and " papoose boots." Some unwary new-comers traded for
buffalo robes ; but when the purchases were made found they
had bought a good deal more than they bargained for, as the
robes were so filthy that they had to undergo some weeks
of cleaning before being admissible to any civilized house.
These Indians are disgusting people ; and my terror of them
grows greater the more I know of them. The bravest men,
who would go into battle with as little concern as they would
walk down the street, have told me that they feel perfectly
paralysed at the idea of an Indian fight. Their cruelties to
women are as bad, or worse, than to men ; and friends of my
own, who crossed the plains in the days before railroads,
when they were liable to attacks any moment from the
Cheyennes and Arapahoes who then haunted the stage route
along which the Kansas Pacific Eailroad runs, have told me
of Indian attacks and almost miraculous escapes which, if
put on paper, would beat, for tragedy and horror, the most
sensational novel that ever was written.

A trustworthy informant vouches for the truth of the
following, which happened to a lady now living in the
territory : —

LAST DAYS IX COLORADO. 135

She was crossing the plains some years ago in a waggon
train. The Indians attacked the party. The horses of the
waggon she was in happened to be particularly strong ; so
she managed to escape from the general massacre which
ensued, with her baby in her arms. A servant with her, and
the driver, were the only ones who got away, the whole of
the rest of the party being killed.

The Indians pursued her. The driver at last, thinking
escape impossible, was about to cut the horses loose and
save himself by riding one of them off. She, however,
drew her revolver, which she held at his head, telling
him she would shoot him dead if he did not drive for life.
There she sat, with the baby clutched in one hand, the
revolver in the other, and the arrows whistling around.
At last the Indians stopped to pick up some things which
had fallen out of the waggon, and she was saved : but
in her agony of terror she had squeezed the baby to
death, and had to drive for three days and nights with
the dead child in her arms, expecting another attack every
moment, till Denver was reached, where her husband
awaited her.

March 4. — To-morrow we start. All our preparations
are made ; M. and the five others of the engineering party
leave by the overland stage ; and the P.'s and I go north on
our way to San Erancisco.

Before we meet in the city of Mexico, the overland
party will have no easy trip southwards ; and some people
have been kind enough to suggest, in Western phraseology,
that " ha'ar is riz down south ;" signifying that, as they have
to pass through the Apache Indian country, they run a
chance of getting scalped.

It is sad to leave so many dear and kind friends,
whom I seem to have known for years instead of
months : not knowing whether most of us may ever meet
again.

136

SOUTH BY WEST.

If anything had been needed to make me believe in
the kindness, generosity, and warm-hearted friendship of
Americans, the four months I have spent here would have
proved to me — what I knew already — that in no country on
earth can one find better and truer friends than in the
United States.

CHAPTER X.

COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS.

Surface features— Climate— IiTigation— Timber— The mining interest— Coal beds
— Attractions to settlers- The snowy range— Population — Denver— The
Denver and Rio Grande Railway — Colorado Springs : its foundation and
growth — The Soda Springs — Pueblo — Canon City— Difference between the
Old and New Worlds.

The territory of Colorado forms, so to speak, a saddle
upon the great Continental backbone. " Lying between 37°
and 41° of north latitude, and 102° and 109° of west longi-
tude, it extends east and west about 390 miles, and north
and south about 275 miles, forming a rectangle, containing
an area of 106,500 square miles, or 68,144,000 acres. Reach-
ing from near the middle of the great trans-Mississippi plain
up the mountain-slope, it laps over the summit of the conti-
nental Divide (watershed), and rests its western border on the
Colorado basin. It includes within its bounds the system
of mountain-parks, and the sources of the four great rivers,
the Eio Colorado, the Eio Grande del Xorte, the Arkansas,
and the Platte.

" Of the large area contained within its boundary lines,
about four-sevenths are embraced in the true mountain
region, whose snowy summits form the watershed of the
Continent. The remaining three-sevenths, situated chiefly
east of 105° west longitude, and extending the whole length
of the territory north and south, consist in great part of
broad plains furrowed by shallow valleys, widening and
fading away as they extend eastward, and, witli the excep-
tion of the parks and some valleys of the mountains, contain
all the arable lands of the territory." ■"•

^ U. S. Geological Survey of Colorado, 1869.

138 SOUTH BY WEST.

These arable lands may be divided into three distinct
districts, to each of which belong one of the three great rivers
on the east of the mountains. The northern of these divisions
extends alon2; the course of the South Platte river and its
tributaries, from near the north-east corner of the Territory,
bounded by the eastern slope of the Eocky Mountains, till
it is shut in on the south by a high, broken, irregular ridge,
called the Divide. This rido-e starts from the base of the
mountains opposite South Park, running far eastward covered
with pines, till lost in the plains ; and forms the Divide
or watershed between the waters of the South Platte and
Arkansas rivers.

The second district extends from the Divide southwards
to the Ptaton Mountains, on the borders of New Mexico, and
is watered by the Arkansas river and its tributaries.

The third and smallest district consists of the San Luis
Park, and its tributary valleys, some of which extend over
the Colorado boundary into New Mexico. It cannot, there-
fore, be divided by the arbitrary line of division between
these two territories. Its waters find an outlet into the
Eio Grande del Norte.

This belt of arable lands along the mountains is becoming
daily more thickly settled by farmers, who find that wheat
and oats can be raised along the courses of the three great
rivers, with as much ease and less risk than gold and silver
can be mined in the mountains of the Territory.

The climate of this agricultural region, whose elevation
varies from 4000 to 7000 feet above the sea, is remarkably
dry, bracing, and healthy. Snow generally begins to fall in
October, and ceases in April or the beginning of May, in the
northern districts. North of the Divide it sometimes attains
a depth of one to two feet for a time : but south of the Divide,
in the second or Arkansas river division, it seldom, except in
the valleys, lies more than twenty-four hours, evaporating and
leaving the ground below quite dry. In winter the sun is
usually brilliant, and powerful during the day-time ; while

COLOKADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. 139

the nights are excessively cold, the thermometer falling occa-
sionally 20° and 30° below zero. In summer, though the
heat by day is extreme, the nights are always cool — the air
rarefied on the plains, rising, while a refreshing breeze sweeps
down from the mountains to take its place.

The rainfall at Colorado Springs for the year ending
November 30, 1872, was 28-30 inches. The raean tem-
perature for the same period was, — winter, 29'84 ; spring,
46-78 ; summer, G7-29 ; autumn, 45-85 ; for the year, 47-44.

Besides the agricultural interests, which are yearly
taking a larger and more important part in the industries
of the territory, these arable lands are largely devoted to
stock-raising. In consequence of the dryness of the climate,
cattle and sheep are herded out all the winter, feeding upon
the brown grass : but owing to this same dryness the pas-
turage is very thin; so that, acre per acre, this section is
capable of sustaining much fewer cattle than is the case in a
well-watered country.

Water is the great want in the territory. The soil,
though good, is light, and except in the " bottom lands," i.e.
directly along the courses of the rivers or streams, is in-
capable of cultivation without irrigation. Every year, how-
ever, more attention is being given to this subject ; and if
the Coloradans will, as they seem inclined to do, learn a
lesson from their neighbours the Mormons in Utah, whose
system of irrigation is the most perfect and successful in the
New World, there seems no reason why millions of acres now
covered with buffalo grass and prairie flowers, should not be
used for raising wheat and oats instead of antelopes and
prairie-dogs.

Leaving the plains and ascending the foot-hills we find
up to "timber line," 11,000 feet, vast tracts of mountain
slope covered with pine forests, chiefly composed of Rocky
Mountain pine {Pinus ponderosa). Of these forests the one
most worked at present is that which covers the Divide, and
■which is chiefly manufactured into " lumber " at Larkspur, a

140 SOUTH BY WEST.

station of the Denver and Eio Grande, near the summit of the
Divide, where there is a large steam saw-milL The supply of
lumber on the Divide convenient for transportation is, how-
ever, already beginning to be comparatively small ; and the
mountains west of it in the region of Bergun's Park are
sending large supplies. About 16,000,000 feet of lumber
are sent from the Divide each year, and from 30,000,000 to
35,000,000 of feet are cut annually in the territory. Colorado
lumber now fetches about $25 "00 per 1000, and it takes on
an average about five trees to make 1000 feet; that is to
say, a thousand square feet one inch thick. In the fourteen
months from September 1871 to November 1872, the Sloan
Saw-mill Company at Larkspur turned out 3,052,036 feet
of manufactured lumber, that is, floor boards, scantlings,
etc. ; 75,000 railway ties (sleepers) ; 3000 telegraph poles ;
2100 cords of wood, or bales four feet thick each way, of
odds and ends suitable for firewood and such purposes.

This lumber is a great source of wealth at present : but
the supply is not inexhaustible ; and people seem apt to
forget that, though it takes but an hour to cut down a tree,
it has taken that tree many years to grow, and will take as
many to replace it.

Scarcity of timber, however, is not the only evil that will
arise. By destroying the forests the already small rainfall
will be yet further diminished.

In Nebraska this is felt so strongly that a " Timber Bill"
has been framed by Senator Hitchcock and passed, allowing
160 acres of the public land to every person who will plant
forty acres of trees and keep them in good order for ten years.
The State law of Nebraska also exempts all lands from State
taxes for five years when the owner or farmer will plant a
few acres of timber on them. This good example might
easily be followed in Colorado. Trees are largely planted
in all the new cities which are springing up along the
mountain base : but this is not sufficient ; and those who
take the deepest interest in the welfare of this noble terri-

COLORADO— ITS RESOURCES AXD PROGRESS. Ul

tory, will do well to restore as speedily as possible the forests
which are now being destroyed.

HavinfT reached the mountains we now come to an
entirely distinct source of wealth from any before named :
I mean the mines of Colorado.

The counties in which mining has been chiefly carried
on, are six: Gilpin, Clear Creek, Park, Summit, Lake, and
Boulder counties, though minerals of more or less value are
found throughout the length and breadth of the territory.
It would be impossible to attempt any description of the
number and value of the mines which are now being worked.
Suffice it to say, that the discoveries daily made in these
regions, are helping to make this one of the most important
mining districts in the United States. Large towns, such as
Georgetown, Central, Golden, Blackhawk, Idaho, are coming
into existence round the mines ; reduction works are being
built; and railways for the transportation of the rich ores,
are being pushed into the heart of the mountains. As an
instance of the rapid growth of the South Park section, the
assessed value of Fairplay, its principal towm, in INIay 1872
was $36,000; in May 1873, 8l9G,000. Its population in
May 1872, 350 ; in May 1873, 1500.

" The shipments of ore from Colorado east and to Europe
amounted during 1872 to 160 car-loads ; the quarterly
returns showing a steady increase, thus : 26, 37, 45, and 52.
The value of this ore was 8560,000, and the total bullion
product of the year was 82,295,040."

Besides the precious metals, that is to say, silver and
gold, which are found " native " as well as in galena and
quartz, the mountains contain vast quantities of iron ; and as
the foot-hiUs are full of coal, there seems no doubt that in a
few years ironworks will be started which may rival those
of Pennsylvania.

Near Canon City, in the Arkansas Valley, large and
valuable coal mines have been opened close to the Grape
Creek Iron Mountain. This coal (a lignite), which is

142

SOUTH BY WEST.

already largely mined, is of a better quality tlian any yet
found in the territory, and is capable of being successfully
used for smelting purposes.

The following table, drawn up by Professor Eaymond,
showing the relative values of some of the most important of
the Western coals, is taken from a paper read before the
American Institute of Mining Engineers at Philadelphia,
May 21, 1873 : —

Temperature.
Degree C.

O CO CO C-l O CO IQ (M CO !>. Tfl
C) CO' O ^ CO -^ t^ CO CO C5 LO

o »o -o m o CO CO o o ^ o

(>1 C^ CI (N CI CI C^) (N (H <N IM

Calorific. Power.
III.

t^c-iocooomoooocico
lo -H o CO r^ o — I 01 CO o -*

1~- Ci -tl 1^ lO O O -t< CO CO CO

Calorific Power.
II.

(N1-0(MC1tJ<(X)OC3>0000
t-COt^'.OOGi0 01rtiOO

-t< o ^ o oj -f t- t-- CO [^ 01

OtOt^Ot-iOOCOt^Ot—

Calorific Power.
I.

O O lO Ol OS GO ■<*< Ol O C» GO
OiQi— lOit^O-HOlCOcOCO

C5 <z 'O 00 'O r-- oD Lo •* t^ C5
in o o lo CO ■* Tti CO t^ o o

Combined Water.

lO O CO O CO KO CO O O (M -*

cOTficO'THt^ipcoTti'Tiiciqi
r-t^oit^O'+'^-^LOcbco

Ash.

-toocooiooocor^oo

CO cp -+ cp CO p '7^ Ol r- C» ip

ococor^cb-rj^TfHCiihcoTj*

Moisture.

-+ -H t^ CO CO CO 01 C» GO CO O
C5 -H -T* lO p Ol O O -7! CO >.p

oooo-^cbcocbcbib-*-^

^H i-H t-H 1 — 1

Suli.lnir. <? '■? t;- 9 9 <» « r^ ^ 9 :
ooi-mo^^ooooo •
1

Oxygen.

0 01 C5 0 Tt< 01 ^ 0 oi 01 t^

pOOOllOOOpcprJHTflr-

lb 0 0 ilo C5 -^ G5 01 CO -ti ^

f— (I-Hi— If— t df— I' — ^--Hi-HrH

Nitrogen.

rtGlCOTt<>OC1-H00 C5
p 01 p r- 01 ■*! p ip : : i;-

Hydrogen.

a)Tt<ococoGococooioo
ocoot^cocooicorfcom

10 ^ CO CO Tf CO CO ^ t^ ^ ^

Carbon.

d-^Tt^CS'^'+IOt^GOOlTtl
I^ CO c» p 7^ 01 1^ p 0 t;- p
0 -+ c; -^ c> CO 0 1^ i^ 0 01

10 0 CO CO 0 lO 0 CO CO CO t-

No.

rtdOO"<tl»OOI>0000^

I-H (-H

c 0

^ i

•^ ^

0 M

ker Co.,
ock Coal,

cq W

t~^

GO oi

0 i-i
i-i i-i

»\ ■>

:; ~

»»

1— r r^

.— .

03 C3

0 ^

Q ^

S «^

S -^

0 rt
w 0

0
0

rH (M

CO -*

ITS CO

!z;

COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. U3

Enough has been said to show that the territory of
Colorado has no lack of natural attractions for those who go
" out West " with a view to making money. For the ordin-
ary traveller, searching either for health or amusement, it is
no less attractive.

The chmate, as I have already said, is bracing and
healthy, and so dry, that, even in winter, one does not feel
the cold nearly so severely as at a higher temperature and
lower altitude. For invalids suffering from asthma or con-
sumption, if the latter disease is not too far advanced, the
air works wonders ; and they are ordered now to Colorado
from the Eastern States, and even from Canada, as English
people are sent to Cannes or ISIadeira.

One invalid whom I happened to know, came out in the
summer of 1871 apparently dying of consumption, obliged to
be moved in an invalid carriage. In the spring of 1872 we
wished him good sport as he started on foot for a week's
shooting and camping in the mountains !

To the botanist and geologist there is an endless field
of interest in the flowers on the plains and the rocks in the
hills ; while even a member of the Alpine Club could
hardly despise the scarcely-explored wonders of the Snowy
Eange.

One of the members of Professor Hayden's Survey thus
describes the view from the summit of Mount Lincoln, in
the spring of 1873 : —

"AYe reckoned carefully, and estimated that we had
in view more than one hundred peaks, which would not
fall below 13,000 feet, and at least fifty of 14,000. The two
great connected ranges which were most conspicuous were
the Sierra Madre to tlie west, beyond the Arkansas Valley,
and the Blue Eiver range to the north, a continuation of that
upon which we were, but bending around westward enough
to bring a great line of rugged peaks against the sky. In
the Sierra ]\Iadre lie two prominent summits, named Yale

144 SOUTH BY "WEST.

and Harvard by Professor J. D. Whitney, in his explora-
tions here four years ago ; and the ridge finishes abruptly at
the north with the highest peak of all, estimated by us at
15,000 feet, and named the Holy Cross, from the two
immense snow banks intersecting each other conspicuously
on its side, as seen from Grey and Evans, farther north than
this. . . .

" Eumours of surpassing heights attach themselves to the
name of the Holy Cross and to Sopris Peak ; the explora-
tions of this summer will go far toward settling what is after
all the highest summit in Colorado, and in the whole United
States. As viewed from Grey, Evans, and Lincoln, the palm
belongs to the great mountains far beyond the Sierra Madre,
and near to one another ; one a ridge with a hump upon it,
and the whole covered with unbroken snow, like an Alp ;
the other a mass ending in a perfectly conical black peak. By
levelling and estimate of distance, we believe those summits
to rise above 16,000 feet. We are making off in that direction.

" But to return to Mount Lincoln. Almost below it lies
the Hoosier Pass, a low ridge across the valley up which we
had come, perhaps of moraine origin, separating the affluents
of the two great oceans, the Platte, leading to the Gulf of
Mexico, the Blue, to the Gulf of California. Indeed, on the
next mountain are head branches of the Platte, the Blue,
and the Arkansas, and it has been thence very suitably
named Treaique. We see the Platte tumbling down the
precipice just opposite, out of an always frozen lake. On
this side, the famous mountains Grey and Evans are hardly
conspicuous among a host of their equals ; Long's is almost
hidden by the narrow ridge. South-east\vard the Park
makes a marked and welcome variety in the scene, and
beyond it the great isolated mountain of Pike's Peak is very
distinct and striking. On the whole this mountain summit
commands points in a region of country nearly or quite
25,000 square miles in extent."

COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND TROGRESS. 145

And now let us see what sort of population is springing
up in this vast Territory, larger than all Great Britain. Some
foreigners, and a good many strangers from the Eastern
States, cause no small amusement to the inhabitants of
Colorado by the stupendous preparations they make before
coming West to insure their personal safety. " Among their
last acts," says an indignant "Westerner, " before leaving the
States, is the purchase of a pair of Colt's navies, and at least
one of Bowie's brightest blades. A Sharp's carbine further
contributes towards the completion of the military outfit,
while their trunks and valises fairly groan with multitudin-
ous packages of cartridges and fixed ammunition

The people who thus make walking arsenals of them-
selves and infernal machines of their luggage, in view of a
Western trip, only succeed in making themselves ridiculous,
and in putting themselves to a vast amount of expense and
anxiety, without rhyme or reason."

" Ah ! but," says some one, " there are the Indians ! "

True, there are Indians : but there are many more white
men ; and the Indians are quite wise enough to know by this
time, that the less trouble they give the better for themselves.
The Utes, who are the Indians most largely spread over
Colorado, are now perfectly peaceable; and the Cheyennes
dare not venture into the thickly settled belt along the base
of the Eocky Mountains.

But let us take this same thickly-settled belt, from Den-
ver southwards, and mark its progress in the last fifteen
years.

In 1858, a little knot of some half-dozen enterprising
men arrived at the mouth of Cherry Creek, attracted across
the plains by the news of the gold discoveries at the base of
Pike's Peak. Here they decided to "locate" themselves;
and Mr. A. J. Williams, now one of the leading citizens of
Denver, built the first store in Auraria, now West Denver.
He, with General Larimer and a few others, soon afterwards

146 SOUTH BY WEST.

crossed Cherry Creek, and surveyed and laid out a new
town, which they named after the then Governor of Kansas,
— General Denver.

On the 1st of January 1871 the Census returns for this
city gave 5000 inhabitants ; and on the 1st of January 1872,
10,000 inhabitants ; showing that in one year the population
had doubled. Now in 1873 its population is between 15,000
and 20,000.

In the beginning of 1870 the whistle of an engine had
never been heard in Denver. In March 1872 five railroads
were running out of it, and several more were projected.

And this is no mushroom growth. The progress of Den-
ver, though rapid, is substantial ; and it has already taken
its place as the most important commercial city between
Kansas and Utah.

In 1870, the Kansas Pacific Eailroad being finished to
Denver, some of its most influential officers and promoters,
struck with the future importance of the belt of country
down the eastern base of the Eocky Mountains, conceived a
scheme for developing it by making a line of railroad, which,
running from north to south, should connect all the great
Transcontinental lines, to wit, the Kansas Pacific, the
Atlantic and Pacific, and the Texas Pacific, and also tap the
vast resources of the mountain chain along which it should

run.

This line was incorporated under the name of the Denver
and Ptio Grande Itailway ; to commence at Denver, having
as its ultimate point El Paso del Norte, on the frontier of
Mexico. Besides being the first north and south road in
this section, it possessed an extreme interest for all railroad
men, being the first narrow-gauge road in the States, its
projectors having decided upon a 3 feet gauge in place-
of the usual 4 feet 8,^ inches of the other railways. The
gradin<T of the road was be2;un in March 1871 ; and the first
division, from Denver to Colorado Springs, a distance of

COLORADO ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. U7

seventy-six miles, was completed on the 27th of October
1871, when the first train ran through. The grading of the
second division, from Colorado Springs to Pueblo, a distance
of forty-two miles, was begun January 1st, and completed
June 15th, 1872. The Arkansas Valley branch was opened in
November of the same year. The total length of line now
in operation is 156 miles — 118 of main line; a branch,
known as the Arkansas Valley branch, of 38 miles ; and
construction is being rapidly pushed on to Trinidad, on the
borders of Colorado and New JMexico.

A bare comparison of the amount of passenger and freight
traffic along this route, before and after the railway came into
operation, will serve to show how great the development of
the country has been, and how fully justified were the original
promoters in their anticipations. Before the railway replaced
the stage-coach, the latter ran tri- weekly, and carried an aver-
age of five passengers per trip, or thirty, both ways, weekly.
During the year 1872, the railway, being still partly under
construction, carried on the same route, 25,168 passengers,
or an average of 484 weekly, being an increase on the stage-
coach of 1500 per cent. As regards freight, Mexican teams,
and a few others, carried all there was. The freight hauled
by the railroad in 1872, an average distance of sixty-one
miles, was 46,212 tons. The earnings for transportation
during the year 1872, exclusive of construction materials, was
$281,400-29 ; operating expenses for the same, $175,206-32 ;
leaving a net balance of $106, 193 '9 7. The business for the
first three months of 1873 was 45 '5 per cent, over that of the
same quarter in 1872 ; while the net earnings for July 1873
showed an increase of 94 per cent, over the corresponding
month in 1872.

Southward from Denver, along the line of the Denver and
Kio Grande Eailroad, the lands on each side of the Platte river
are now nearly all taken up ; and farmers are bringing them
under cultivation, wherever it is possible to get water upon

148 SOUTH BY WEST.

them. In the same way the " Divide " country, before the
advent of the railroad, was almost entirely open to settle-
ment. Now, besides the timber cut from its forests, it is
being settled rapidly, and producing good crops of potatoes,
oats, barley, and hay.

Seventy-six miles from Denver we reach Colorado Springs,
the first town of any importance south of the Divide. Before
the construction of the railway this place had no existence,
the town-site being then bare prairie. Many reasons in-
fluenced the promoters of the Denver and Eio Grande
Eailway to fix upon this as the spot for establishing the
"Fountain colony;" and, as the event has proved, they
were not mistaken.

In the first place, this is the very best point for many
miles, for entering the mountains, both for the transportation
of ores from South Park down to the railway by the Ute pass,
and for tourists w^ho wish to see more of the range than its
eastern face. At the foot of Pike's Peak, five miles off, are
the famous Soda Springs of the Fontaine qui bouille, described
by Euxton, Fremont, etc., and this was thought to be another
and important reason for building a town within easy
reach.

The first sod of the temperance colony town of Colorado
Springs was turned on the 4th of August 1871. Now (ISTovem-
ber 1873) its population numbers between 2000 and 2500.
There are between 400 and 500 buildings ; and the " frame"
is now giving place to stone and brick as building materials ;
the mountains close by supplying excellent stone, which is
dressed in the town, while the bricks are manufactured on
the spot. Schools abound ; there are two public schools ;
three or four private ones ; and the new public school-house,
a handsome building of brick and stone, to cost $15,000, is
in course of building. Two churches, Presbyterian and Metho-
dist, are already finished ; the Baptist is in course of con-
struction ; and the Episcopalians are now building a stone

COLORADO — ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. U9

church of Gothic architecture, which is acknowledged already
to be the best built and prettiest church west of the Missis-
sippi.

Of course, the usual lodges of Masons, Oddfellows, Good
Templars, and so forth, are to be found; besides a Fire
Company and Military Company. At the Stores every want
may be supplied. There are banks, admirable hotels, plan-
ing-mills, telegraph offices, and a steam printing-office, where
a first-rate weekly newspaper and monthly magazine, called
Out West, bearing chiefly on the Eocky Mountain section, are
published. These are conducted by an able English editor,
whose enterprise and perseverance have succeeded in pro-
ducing the most trustworthy, and at the same time most read-
able magazine, that ever appeared in a town barely two
years old.

Eesidence lots in the town are worth from SI 00 to $300.
The farming lands belonQ-ing to the colony round the town
are worth from $20 to $50 per acre, and to irrigate these,
twenty miles of irrigating ditches have been constructed by
the Fountain Colony.

At Manitou — the Soda Springs — which also belongs to
I he colony, hotels have been built ; and thousands of
tourists from the Eastern States and Europe have visited
these mineral springs in the last two years ; while all round,
the villa lots worth $500 and $1000 are being rapidly
bought up by people who wisli to make their homes in
this lovely spot. I have just heard that six villa lots have
been sold to English people of good means in the last three
months. Indeed, the English and Canadian incomers are
now making a marked portion of the population. During
the past summer (1873), a Government signal-station has
been established on the summit of Pike's Peak ; and a trail
has been made to it from Colorado Springs, which is now
the head-quarters of the Territorial Geological Survey, Dr.
Hayden, its distinguished chief, being well enough satisfied

150 SOUTH BY WEST.

with this spot, for scientific as well as social reasons, to pro-
pose making his home in the town.

Following tlie Denver and Eio Grande farther south we
come to Pueblo, about forty-two miles from Colorado Springs.
The land along the Fontaine qui bouille between these two
towns was fairly settled before the railroad was built.

Pueblo, the present terminus of the main line, made
good its claim a few months ago to the title of " city." It
was, before the railroad came, a sort of border land, between
American civilisation and enterprise pushing its way down
from the north, and the remnants of Mexican semi-barbarism
of the south, struggling to keep possession of its old haunts.
The northern race has won, as usual, and now the old adobe
Spanish houses are giving place to " iron front brick stores."
Not content with the old town, on the north bank of the
Arkansas, which now has a population of 3000, a new town
in connexion with the railroad company, known as South
Pueblo, has been started on the southern bank ; and, though
only a few months old, 100 buildings have been put up,
and some 500 inhabitants settled there. From Pueblo, the
Arkansas Valley branch line of thirty-eight miles leads up
to Canon City, close to which, at Labran, the coal mines,
mentioned before, have been opened. This city is growing
no less rapidly than the others along the railroad; and,
besides its commercial importance, is likely to be attractive
to all classes of travellers, as it lies within easy reach of the
great canon of the Arkansas, the finest canon north of the
" Big Canon of the Colorado," where the whole Arkansas
river has sawn itself for miles a narrow channel many hun-
dred feet deep through the solid rock.

Farther south than Pueblo we need not go, as we are at
the end of the railway : but when the tiny track is carried
on — which it will be in the course of the comiog year — to
Trinidad, on the borders of Colorado and New Mexico ; and
later down to the very gate of Mexico, at El Paso del Norte,

COLORADO ITS RESOURCES AND PROGRESS. 151

the same plienomenon, which I have tried to describe, will
be seen. For the new world differs essentially from the old
world in this point. Its inhabitants do not say, " Let us
make a railroad from this town to that :" but, " Let us make
a railroad ; and then, when it is done, let us make the towns
along it."

CHAPTEE XL

THE PACIFIC RAILEOAD.

Denver Pacific Railroad— A pigs' paradise— The highest railroad point in the
world— Snowbucking— How to keep well— Sage-brush and sandstones— The
Mormon Railroad— Great Salt Lake City— Angelic architects— Commerce
and holiness— Shoshonee Indians — A lofty breakfast-room — Miners — Flowers
— Poison-oak — California — The Pacific at last.

March 6, Wednesday. — At 8.30 a.m. General and Mrs. P.
and I steamed out of Denver on the Denver and Pacific
Eailroad, Lidding farewell to the last of our Colorado friends
at the depot, excepting Colonel G., who came with us as far
as Cheyenne. I sat on the back platform, which was prefer-
able to the car, as one got a much better view ; though for
some distance there was nothing to be seen but prairie, with
a dead antelope lying here and there, and the Platte running
parallel with us, between low banks covered with red-
stemmed willow. The morning at first was grey and cloudy:
but as the sun rose higher it caught the points of the suoisvy
range, and brightened the northern slope of dear old Pike
with pink and opal, as I took my last look of his familiar
rounded head 150 miles south of us.

On our left ran the foot-hills ; and as we went on a series
of fine snow mountains came in view, one after another.
Mount Posalie; Long's Peak, or rather twin peaks, 14,000
feet high; and finally. Grey's Peak, 14,300 feet, towered
above the rest of the snowy range.

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 153

Close to Evans, a small colony town, named in honour of
Governor Evans of Colorado, we crossed the Platte on a long
trestle-bridge, the barometer falling to 4800 feet, a difference
of nearly 1000 feet in little more than an hour. The river
was very wide, but not deep, with great shoals of gravel and
debris washed down from the mountains, and forming barren
islands in the stream. On the further side we soon came to
Greeley, the rival colony to Colorado Springs. " The location "
of the town site is not nearly so good as ours, as it is rather
in a hollow, which with all the snow this winter has become
a perfect mudhole. But the Greeleyites have the advantage
of an unlimited quantity of water, the Platte lying on the
south and east of the town, the Cache la Poudre on the
north; and certainly the ground, which had been irrigated,
looked excellent wherever we could see it through the snow,
which still covered most of the country north of Evans.

At Carr station we got once more into a Mesa country,
showing we were approaching the Black Hills, with prairie-
dog towns and sandstone blufi's ; and the train rattled across
trestle-bridges, over dry arroyos, and climbed up a rather
steep grade, the only hard piece on the whole road. The
pace was fair : their average speed is twenty miles an hour :
but between Denver and Johnstone, the second station out,
we had been going forty miles an hour, which is very fast
for a Western road. Then a second line of telegraph-wires
came in sight, and at noon we ran into Cheyenne, the junc-
tion of the Denver, Pacific, and Union Pacific Piailroad.

As the hotel was burnt down this winter, we had to pick
our way along a plank path to a nasty eating-house, for we
did not think it prudent to begin upon the two well-stocked
luncheon-baskets we had brought from Denver, before there
was any need. In lialf-an-hour the Union Pacific train
came in ; we took our places, which had fortunately been
reserved for us, in the crowded sleeping-car ; and amused
ourselves by watcliing the happy pigs which abound in the

154 SOUTH BY WEST.

town. It is quite a pigs' paradise at this time of year, being
a Slough of Despond to human beings. Even in walking
from the depot to the eating-room, Mrs. P. got over her shoes
in mud.

Leaving Cheyenne, where the elevation is 6072 feet, the
road, in thirty-two miles, rises to Sherman, on the Laramie
range. This is now the highest railroad point in the world,
being 8242 feet above the sea, with an average grade of over
sixty feet to the mile up to it.

" From Cheyenne to Granite Canon," says Professor Hay-
den, in the U. S. Geological Survey of Wyoming, " near the
summit of the first range " — a distance of about nineteen
miles — " the recent tertiary beds lie close up to the flanks of
the mountains over a belt of several miles, affording com-
paratively easy transitions from the newer formations to
the granite nucleus. For hundreds of miles, either north or
south of this line, it would be difficult, or perhaps impossible,
to build a railroad across the mountains : but here nature
seems to have provided an easy inclined plane to the very
margin of the mountain summit. The ridges are very nearly
concealed, while on either side they can be seen as formidable
as anywhere along the eastern base."

As we climbed up through the foot-hills, we got into
a sub-alpine flora, and strangely rounded red granite castles,
with scattered pines.

Sherman itself, at this time of year, was not impressive.
Nothing to be seen but a few wretched wooden houses, a
bar, a bakery, and an erection dignified by the name of
" Summit House," with great snow-heaps piled all round
them ; a few pigs, and here and there a red rock sticking up
on the bare hill behind the station. When we left Sher-
man for the run down to the Laramie plains, we plunged
at once into snow-sheds ; and once, where tliere was no
shedding, we plunged right into a snow-drift, as high as
the top of the cars. This caused a good deal of unpleasant

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 155

excitement ; and, for a moment, we thought we had stuck
fast, and should have to be dug out by the swarm of work-
men who were clearing the track : but, just as we were pre-
paring to look our misfortune boldly in the face, the engine
" bucked " right through, and we were free.

" Snow-bucking " is a most exciting amusement on these
Western roads. If a train get into a drift through which
there seems any chance of forcing it, the cars are taken
off and left in safety behind ; the engines are backed about
fifty yards ; and then run full speed right at the drift,
forcing their way in — thanks to the sharp- nosed "cow-
catcher,"— and sending the snow flying in clouds round
them. This process is repeated many times, getting a little
further each run ; till at last a passage is made by sheer force.

Down we went a tremendous grade, crossing the head
of Dale Creek, three miles west of Sherman, by a bridge 650
feet long and 126 feet above the little stream which runs in
summer at the bottom of the valley, but which was now
buried in snow. Then past the City of the rocks, a curious
collection of natural houses, castles, churches, and monu-
ments, all in red granite, relieved here and there by a green
pine. South in the sunset lay the snowy range, shutting
in North Park; north were the Black Hills we had just
crawled over, and at which we looked with extra interest,
as in the morning a telegram had appeared in the papers
stating that " the richest mines in the continent " had
just been discovered in them up north. Passing Fort
Saunders, a large and important U. S. Port, we reached
Laramie, 7400 feet, in the midst of the Laramie plains,
about 6.30, and the train stopped liaK-an-hour for supper :
but, warned by our dinner at Cheyenne, we had had an
early supper from our own stores, and spent the time we
waited in walking up and down the platform and round
the hotel, to get a little exercise before the night's journey.
If any travellers across the continent wish to keep in

156 SOUTH BY WEST.

X^erfect health during the journey, let them, in the first
place, take their own provisions, so as to be perfectly inde-
pendent of the food at the ordinary railroad restaurant, —
to wit, half raw beef-steaks and hot bread ; and let them also,
whenever the train stops, and while the rest of the pas-
sengers are laying in the seeds of indigestion and dyspepsia,
take a brisk walk, circulating their blood, and getting plenty
of fresh air into their lungs, instead of the heated atmo-
sphere of the restaurant dining-room. And, above all
things, let them never drink water on the plains without
mixing even a teaspoonful of wine or spirits with it ; as the
water with which the car is supplied is often taken from
tanks in which it has been standing for days, and is conse-
quently exceedingly unwholesome.

But to return to Laramie. The town seems a tidy-looking
place, the streets wide, and the houses built of wood. They
consist, however, for the most part, of eating-houses and
saloons, which latter look as if a good deal of shooting
might go on in them.

On the 7th, morning broke over the desert, covered with
snow and sage-brush (Artemisia tridentata). We were now
fairly over the Continental Divide, on the Pacific water-
shed ; and at breakfast-time we reached Bitter Creek, a
tributary of Green Pdver, which joins the Eio Colorado
above the "Big Canon," and flows into the Pacific, the
rivers on the eastern side of the Sierra Madre joining the
north and south Platte, and flowing by way of the Missis-
sippi into the Atlantic. All day we ran through the alkali
and soft sandstone formation which extends from here right
down to Arizona, between the Sierra ]\Iadre and the Wah-
satch Mountains ;— mesas of light yellow soil, with flat
cakes of sandstone sticking out in straight lines near the
top, each layer marking some ancient sea-beach; and again,
sandstone rocks honeycombed into the strangest forms, or
left standing like huge castles, as in the case of the two

THE PACIFIC RAILHOAD.

157

well-known rocks near Green Eiver, which stand out alone,
masses of sandstone forty feet high by twenty or thirty
feet wide, on a bare hill over the river.

At Eock Springs we passed the coal mines, which pro-
duce some of the best coal yet worked in the Eocky
Mountains, and supply this whole line of road. The delays
with snow of the night before had made our train so late
that it was too dark, when we reached the Wahsatch ]Moun-
tains to see anything of Echo and "Weber canons, — the only
pass through the whole range, — except high bare rocks tower-

The Rocks near Green River.

ing up on either side in the gloom. At Ogden, which we
reached late at night, we found the hotel was crowded ; so,
as the sleeping-car of our train was left at the station, being
the end of the Union Pacific division and beginning of the
Central Pacific, we remained all night in it ; and were up
betimes on the 8th for a day at Salt Lake City.

At 8.30 we left Ogden in the Mormon Eailroad, with a
Mormon conductor, who did not object, however, to giving his
" Gentile" passengers plenty of information about his rail-
road and his country. We crossed the Weber river, a large

158 SOUTH BY WEST.

stream of sweet water which flows into the Salt Lake, and
rau south parallel with the Wahsatch range, which lay on
our left. There had been a fall of snow during the nisht :
but now the sun was shining brightly, and we got exquisite
views of the snowy mountains all round the great basin
glistening in the sunshine, with deep blue shadows. The
plain was covered with sage-brush : but between the bushes
grass was growing, and innumerable cattle, in very good
condition, were feeding round the little white farms. From
the blue-green waters of the great lake rose high islands,
each the property of some elder, for it is the mark of
Mormon aristocracy to own an island ; and behind them
towered purple mountains, with the snowy peaks of the
Oquoh range showing over them again. About Kaysville,
a neat town, with straight streets of brick and wooden
houses, orchards and shade trees, the farms became very
numerous, especially along the base of the mountains.
The houses were substantial, with good wattle fences or
ditches round the land, which in some places grows corn
without irrigation. The meadow larks were singing on
every fence, and the lake was covered with wild-fowl.

As we neared Salt Lake City, we were half-choked by
the fumes of the hot sulphur springs, which lie close to the
track. The city stands just below the slope up to the
Wahsatch Mountains, with the great lake stretching to the
north and west, while south a broad plain leads the eye
away between ranges of mountains, till the horizon of
shadowy hills melts into the blue sky.

We spent the morning in seeing all the wonders ; first
walking up town past the theatre to Brigham Young's house,
or rather houses, — for he has a perfect nest of buildings,
inside a high stone wall; and storehouses, in which to
receive the enormous tithes he claims from "the Saints"
for doing them the favour of governing them. We went
next to the Temple and Tabernacle, which stand on the

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD, 159

Temple Block, 666 feet square, enclosed by a high wall. A
portly Mormon took ns into the Tabernacle — an immense
oval building, 150 feet by 250, and 80 feet high, with a huge
domed roof, supported by forty or fifty stone pillars, 20 feet
high, the spaces between being filled with masonry and
innumerable doors. We asked our guide how many it held,
and he replied, " 13,000 by measurement; but I have seen
14,300 leave this building in three minutes, less six seconds."
The fittings are perfectly plain ; the only ornamental thing
in the whole building being the organ, the second largest
in the States ; built, with the exception of the keyboard
and a few pipes, in the city, and under the superintendence,
I am sorry to say, of an Englishman from one of the large
London firms, who has turned Mormon.

The Temple close by, "for church purposes only," our
guide said, is only four feet above the ground as yet. Brigham
Young, who is the architect, claims that the designs for it are
revealed to him by angelic visions : but as the foundations
have been altered several times already, the angels do not
seem infallible. The building is made of fine grey granite,
from the Little Cottonwood canon, with a freestone moulding ;
and as all the material till lately has had to be hauled down
by ox-teams, the progress of building has been slow and ex-
pensive, as it is now several years since it was begun, and the
foundations, so far as they have gone, have cost $4,000,000.
Now, however, a narrow-gauge railway runs up to the canon,
so that there is some chance of the Temple being finished ere
" the Saints" have ceased to exist.

There is a museum in the city, where we saw speci-
mens of the natural products of the country, such as
ore from the famous "Emma Mine;" selenite from the
Southern Utah; a fine white encrinitic marble of exqui-
site texture from near the city ; and a variety of curio-
sities, among which the most remarkable was a shawl made
by a Mormon lady from the hair of her favourite dog!

IGO SOUTH BY WEST.

There are also capital shops ; and the Mormon women are
famous for the manufacture of excellent buckskin gloves,
prettily embroidered with silk, for which, however, they
ask an exorbitant price, the plainest pair being four or five
dollars. The Saints also make very good " candy," as we
proved to our entire satisfaction. The store at which we
bought it bore, like all the other Mormon shops, this extra-
ordinary inscription — above a golden eye with rays from
it, is written " Holiness to the Lord," and below, " Zion
Co-operative Mercantile Institution," a most characteristic
combination. The streets are 130 feet wide, with an
irrigating ditch down each side, and a row of trees shading
the side walk. Each house stands in its own garden plot,
with fruit-trees around it, and the water from the ditches is
let into each garden for a certain time every day. The air
was soft and balmy from the melted snow ; and the peaches
and almonds just coming into blossom, and grass beginning
to show along the ditches, were a pleasant sight to our
eyes, accustomed for so many months to the barren brown
plains, or black pines in the mountains.

We got a capital dinner at the Townshend House, which
was crowded with Englishmen, come out, we supposed, to look
after their interests in the Emma Mine ; and at 4.15 we were
back again at Ogden, with an hour for writing home-letters
before the Western train started at 5.30 p.m.

The train from the East was delayed by a " wash" on the
track ; so as it was telegraphed several hours behind time, our
westward train started without it, with only our three selves
and two other passengers as occupants of the whole sleep-
ing car. For eight and a half hours we ran along the north-
ern shore of the Great Salt Lake ; and woke on the 9th on the
Sage Brush Desert, close to the Humboldt river, along which
we kept all day. At Elko, where we stopped for breakfast, the
first of the Shoshonee Indians made their appearance, idling
about the station; dressed as usual in buckskin, coloured

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 161

blankets, and felt hats ; and at Carlin quantities of squaws,
with papooses on their backs strapped up like mummies
with a wicker covering to their back-board to protect their
ugly little heads, crowded round the cars like hungry dogs,
thankful for any scraps left from our breakfast. Nothing has
ever given me an idea of more thorough degradation than
the way those Indian women clawed bits of bone and skin,
and either gnawed them like wild beasts, or thrust them into
their pouches, to feast on at their leisure. The mixture of
races at all the stations was most striking — Indians in their
blankets, and Chinese in their blue tunics, standing side by
side ; rivalling each other in ugliness : but with one very
marked difference, — that whereas the Indians were always
lounging about doing nothing, Johnny was sure to be
hard at work, turning an honest, or it may be dishonest,
penny.

At the Palisades Station, where the rail follows the course
of the Humboldt river through a narrow canon of strangely
distorted strata, we saw immense waggon trains, which had
brought ore down from the celebrated White Pine mining
district, and were now camped close to the track ; the white-
covered waggons drawn up side by side, and herds of mules
and oxen feeding in all directions. Following do^m the
canon for some distance, round sharp curves, we got once
more on the alkali flats, and ran on all day between endless
purple hills with snow-covered mountains beyond, while red
willow and cottonwood grew along the river banks ; a grate-
ful relief to the wearisome glaucous green of the sage-brush ;
till at dusk we came to the " Sink of the Humboldt," a lake
thirty miles long, into which the river — like almost all in
the Salt Lake basin — flows and disappears.

During the night we climbed up 3000 feet ; and by day-
light on the 10th were at Summit, the top of the Sierra
Nevada, 7017 feet above the sea, breakfasting by lamplight
in the dining-room of the station, under sixteen feet of snow.

162 SOUTH BY WEST.

When we started again General P. wi'apped us up in
rugs and blankets, for it was bitterly cold, and we sat on the
back platform of the car, running through forty miles of
snow-sheds, and from time to time catching glimpses of
magnificent scenery through the gaps between the sheds —
snowy mountains piled up to the sky, and black pines.
At Emigrant Gap we were almost out of the snow-sheds,
and were running down a steep grade, with the steam
shut off and every break screwed down tight. Near Blue
Canon, over the American river, we bade farewell to the
snow, and looked down into the gorges, sometimes 2000 feet
and more below us, as at Cape Horn, where the track is cut
in the solid rock, round a precipice 3000 feet above the
river, which winds among blue shadowed pine-clad hills,
with silver threads of mining streams gleaming down their
sides. At Dutch Flat we were in the midst of the great
gold-mining district of Placer County. In some places
whole hills had been entirely washed away by years of
gold- washing, leaving ghastly hollows to puzzle the geolo-
gists of the future ; and two or three streams, one above
the other, were carried round the hill-sides under the
giant pine-trees, in iron pipes, or ditches, and flumes,
like the one poor little MKss ran over in Mr. Bret Harte's
story.

A coach was waiting at Dutch Plat to take passengers to
Little York and " You Bet Bridge ;" a most convincing proof,
if we wanted any, that we were in very truth among the
miners. They stood about the stations, some clothed in blue
or red shirts, their trousers tucked into high boots, seeing off
their friends, dressed in irreproachable Sunday suits of black
by the train. They were tall, strong, bearded men, capable
of much evil, but of much good too under all their roughness,
as surely is shown in Bret Harte's descriptions of that Cali-
fornian life.

As we passed not far from Virginia City, I read his poem

THE PACIFIC KAILROAD. 163

"In the Tunnel/' so exquisite in its rough pathos that I
cannot help transcribing it in full : —

" Didn't know Flynn—
Flynn, of Virginia, —
Long as he 's been 'yar ?
Look'ee here, stranger,
Whar hev you been ?

Here in this tunnel

He was my pardner.
That same Tom Flynn —

Working together,

In wind and weather,
Day out and in.

Didn't know Flynn !

Well, that is queer ;
Why, it 's a sin
To think of Tom Flynn,

Tom with his cheer,

Tom without fear. —
Stranger, look 'yar !

Thar in the drift

Back to the wall
He held the timbers
Ready to fall ;
Then in the darkness
I heard him call :

" Run for your life, Jake !
Rxm for your wife's sake !
Don't wait for me."

And that was all

Heard in the din

Heard of Tom Flynn, —
Flynn of Virginia,

That 's all about

Flynn of Virginia.
That lets me out.

Here in the damp. —
Out of the sun, —

That 'ar derned lamp
Makes my eyes run.
Well, there, — I 'm done !

1G4 SOUTH BY WEST.

But, sir, when you '11
Hear the next fool

Asking of Flynn, —
Elynn of Virginia, —

Just you chip in,

Say you knew Flynn :
Say that you 've been 'y^'"-"

Every half-hour, as we got lower down, brought us a
week or two later in the year, till, in the four hours' run, we
seemed to pass from winter to England in June. Delicate
pines and shrubs covered the hill-sides ; then came live
oak ; peach in flower, and a vineyard. Lower again, ger-
aniums hanging in baskets outside the windows, green
grass, well-kept gardens full of vegetables, oak-trees full
of mistletoe. And round Auburn, only 1320 feet above
the sea, the green glades and woods were glowing with
crimson cyclamens, and the meadows blue and orange with
Nemophila and Eschscholtzia. General P. and I stood on
the platform ; and, if the train stopped for a moment, we
jumped off and gathered up whatever growing thing we
could lay hands on. After our first raid, we came back
in triumph with young red shoots from what we supposed
to be a dwarf oak, when one of the black-coated miners in
the car walked up to us, and, with a bow, said —

" I suppose you are strangers, and are not aware that
that is poison-oak ; and I advise you to throw it away as
soon as possible."

We lost not a moment in following his advice, and, with
a sigh, cast our beautiful red shoots out of the window : but
not before they had done some mischief; for the General
and Mrs. P., having touched them with bare hands (I luckily
had on gloves), were quite badly poisoned ; a red irritating
rash coming out wherever the plant had touched their skin,
which lasted for a fortnight. I met a man in Colorado who
was still suffering from the effects of poison- oak, with which
he had accidentally rubbed his head three years before.

THE PACIFIC RAILROAD. 165

The children at each station came into the cars with
bunches of wild-flowers ; and at Eocklin, instead of getting
out to dinner like the rest of our fellow-passengers, we ran
off to an oak-grove hard by, and soon had our hands full of
Nemophila, Cyclamen, and the " long-stalked golden violet "
{Viola pedunculata), a brilliant yellow pansy with an almost
black eye.

Truly, Californians may be justly proud of their country.
It seems a veritable land of promise, with its rich pastures
just Kke EngHsh parks, dotted with groves of live oak, and
full of the finest stock ; its noble wheat fields ; and the
white saw-like line of the great Sierras, towering up behind
into the sky, full of precious metals.

In the afternoon we reached Sacramento, half under
water, as the American river was all in flood. Then a few
hours, through green meadows and corn-flats, across the
San Joaquin, and over the coast range, took us to Oakland ;
and we ended our journey with a quarter of an hour's steam
across Pacific waters, in one of the huge ferry-boats, to San
Francisco, with its rows of lamps, like festoons of light, up
the hill-side, on which it is mostly built.

CHAPTEE XII.

CALIFORNIA.

Californian oysters— The Seal Rocks— A Western play— Chinese opium-eaters
and temple — An opera "buffa" — Earthquakes — Sacramento Bay — San
Raphael — A council of war — Seal and salmon — Preparations for journey— Yo
Semite photographs — The San Jose Valley — A Californian country-house —
The successful niillionnaire — Chinese servants— ^c^ios California.

" Lick House, San Francisco,
March 13, 1872.

" Dear ^''' '''' ^'\ — If you were only here to share the
' good time ' I am having ! On Monday we began the
day by the treat of a late breakfast at ten o'clock, General
and Mrs. K. calling on us before we began. Such a good
breakfast it was ; such delicate little fried oysters, no bigger
than a shilling, so different from those great Eastern ones,
of which you have to take three or four bites !

" Then we went out for a drive round the town, with its
quaint streets up and down hill, and green gardens round
the houses, planted with Eucalyptus (Australian blue gum),
geraniums, roses, Calla lilies, and fuchsias, all in flower.
Our driver, after he had taken us all about the city, pro-
posed to drive us out to Point Lobos, seven miles, to see
the ' Seal Eocks.' We did not know in the least what
the Seal Eocks might be, but consented. So away we
went over Telegraph Hill, past the old Mission Dolores,
with its cemeteries spreading over acres, along a good road,
over sand dunes covered with blue lupin brush, till we got

CALIFORNIA. 167

our first view of the Pacific stretching away green and
rainy to the west, with the famous ' Golden Gate ' leading
from it into Sacramento Bay to our right, and huge hills of
blown sand to the left.

" At the point there is a large hotel ; and as it was rain-
ing when we arrived there we had some thoughts of driving
straight home again : but on second thoughts we ' con-
cluded' to get out and see what was to be seen, as we had
come so far; and it was lucky we did so. We went through
the hotel, which is built on the cliff, about fifty feet above
the sea, to a broad gallery with rocking chairs and telescopes;
and below us rose out of the water a group of brown rocks.

" Presently, as we Avere looking about, a strange sound
greeted our ears; a hoarse bark; and looking more closely at
the rocks, we discovered to our amazement that they were
literally alive with huge seals. There were hundreds of
them crawling up and down, barking, catching fish, and fight-
ing like a set of animated caterpillars. It was the strangest
sight I ever saw; and we stood there watching them for
nearly an hour. The chief of the herd, a gigantic old fellow,
is called General Butler. He lay at the top of a rock
waiting till some unfortunate young one had crawled up on
his flippers with infinite difficulty, and just as the poor
little beast arrived safely at the top, the General rushed
upon him open-mouthed, and sent him spinning into the
water again. They are usually called ' sea-lions' (Otaria),
species undetermined; and I hear that on the Farrallone
Islands, some sixty miles out to sea, they swarm in even
greater numbers than at Point Lobos. It is immensely to
the credit of the San Franciscans that these seals are pre-
served, and so jealously do they guard them that if anybody
shot one I do not think his life would be worth much.

" Then we drove home, and had a walk about the streets
till dinner at 5.30, and after dinner we went to the theatre.
Here people only put on evening dress for the opera, so we

1G8 SOUTH BY WEST.

went in morning gowns and liats. We saw a capital trans-
lation from the French, thoroughly well acted throughout ;
and then a local sketch, ' by one who knows how it is him-
self,' called ' Stocks, or Up and Down.' It was extremely
interesting, though not pleasant, being an expose of one of
the bubble mining companies ; and as every character in it
was some well-known Californian the excitement in the
house was intense.

" On Tuesday we went off by the street-cars to the
Chinese quarter ; and at last found our way down an alley
to the Chinese temple, a red brick house, with gold, red,
and blue tablets on the gate-posts. There was no one to
show us the way; so General P. opened the first door we saw,
and we looked into a large dark room, where on beds, covered
with sheets like corpses, with a tiny lamp burning at each
bedhead, lay a dozen or more opium-eaters. It was horrid :
and the General shut the door a good deal quicker than
he had opened it, while we made our way up the stairs. On
the next floor we found a number of old Chinamen sitting
round a table writing with big reed-pens, which they hold
quite upright ; and smoking. They pointed up another
flight of stairs, and there at last we reached the temple.

" There were three altars, one behind the other, the first
with silver monsters on it, and artificial flowers and joss-
sticks in a carved stand. The second had a carved frame
over it, with more tinsel flowers ; and on the third, at the
end of the room, was a great image of a red man with three
black beards, surrounded by cut paper-ornaments and pea-
cocks' feathers.

" The Chinese names sound very absurd. Sam Yek sells
fruit; Wing Hing takes in washing, I longed for you
yesterday to draw a splendid Chinese lady whom I saw, with
her skewered chignon, and purple-silk jacket and trousers,
and jade bracelets. She looked just as if she had walked
off a fan.

CALIFORNIA. 1G9

" Last night we went to the opera to hear the 'Ballo in
Maschera/ and have been ill from laughing ever since. The
real prima donna was a pretty pert little Italian girl dressed
as a page, who sang charmingly. The other lady who con-
sidered herself the prima donna was first dressed in black,
then in green satin. She had a face like a living skeleton,
with the most enormous teeth I ever saw. She wore a long
train, which was very much in her way, and she kicked it
vigorously from time to time. She also had a white veil,
which was a source of great trouble to her, and to the bari-
tone, who had to put it on her several times after she, in her
excitement, had unveiled, rolled it carefully up, and put it
in a corner. The baritone was the best of the troupe, and
sang very well when he was not acting lady's-maid. Then
there was Signer Catalani, ' the silver- voiced tenor from
Milan.' I daresay his voice was very silvery, but we could
not hear very much of it ; also, he did not know his part ;
and he looked so painfully ' like bursting ' when he held a
high note and grew impassioned that I felt quite anxious.
Ulrica, the witch, sang rather well ; and looked impos-
ingly ugly in black and gold, surrounded by a chorus of ten
girls, who knew no more of their parts than I did. The
men's chorus sang well : but the villain, in a costume which
had evidently been used for a cavalier's part for many years,
would come in at the wrong time with a roaring bass, which
had a most melodious effect, and set the gallery (which was
full of miners and that class) yelling and cat- calling, till we
thought they would 'bring the house down' in earnest. I
believe there is sometimes a very good opera in the city ;
but certainly Covent Garden would not have given us half
the amusement we had last night.

" By the bye, we had a lively little earthquake this
morning. It came up with a little grumbling roar at ten
minutes to seven ; shook my bed backwards and forwards
about four times ; and then passed on : and as nothing more

170 SOUTH BY WEST.

happened I turned round and went to sleep again. I could
not conceive at first what it was, as I have never felt one
before. They are very common here, and sometimes are
rather strong ; indeed once the whole of the population
rushed out into the street, thinking the city was going to
be swallowed up like Lisbon.

" It is so hot to-day I am writing with open windows in
a spring gown, having left off nearly all my winter things,
with a bouquet of rosebuds, heliotrope, and stocks beside
me.

" Do not expect to hear for some time after we leave this.
We shall be at the city of Mexico in a month if we are
lucky : but we may be delayed by a hundred things, so do
not be uneasy if you do not hear soon."

Thursday, March 14. — San Eaphael. Left the city for a
visit to General E. at San Eaphael. The bay is certainly
one of the loveliest things I have ever seen ; the city built
upon the hill- side, with a veil of smoky mist hanging over
it in the bright sunshine. Then to the left, as we steamed
out, the Golden Gate away to the open sea, with a few vessels
coming in, or starting out. Angel Island in front, with
Tamalpais (the head of the range), 2300 feet high, as a back-
ground. Far away on the right the beautiful coast range,
stretching south like a string of opals, till it fills up the
circle by fading away behind San Francisco itself

The sea-water from the Pacific was blue and green, in
marked contrast to that of the Sacramento river, which
flowed out muddy brown, and met the inflowing tide near
Angel Island. The hills and islands were brilliant green,
with acres of buttercups growing on the grass in the open,
and groves of live oak and bay down to the water's edge.
Wild ducks and sea-fowl of all kinds were innumerable ;
and dolphins played all round the steamer.

Our trajet took about an hour ; and we landed at a point

CALIFORNIA. 171

called St. Quentin, and went across a long marsh in a small
railroad, to San Eaphael. It is a lovely village, in a valley of
green hills at the head of the marsh, with Tamalpais tower-
ing over the foot-hills to the west. There are 800 inhabi-
tants ; and many of the houses are pretty villas with gardens
full of flowers, belonging to gentlemen who have business in
the city. Most of the wealthy San Franciscans live out in
the country, going in daily for their business by rail or
steamer, or like one of our acquaintances at San Mateo,
driving in twenty- five miles with fast trotters at fifteen
miles an hour.

We were received by General E. with true American
hospitality ; and after a light luncheon, at which we made
acquaintance with dried Californian figs, one of the most
excellent of preserved fruits, w^e rushed out into the
garden. There we found quantities of flowers wild in the
grass, which in England we cultivate in the gardens as
annuals ; roses, heliotropes, verbenas, and our hardy hot-
house flowers, and all Australian shrubs, grow out here all
the winter. Frost is very rare, and the thickest ice they
have had for two years has been one-eighth of an inch
thick : but it is never very hot in the summer near San
Francisco, the thermometer seldom rising above 70°.

After dinner, the plans for our Mexican journey were
thoroughly discussed. There are three routes by which to
go, but all have some disadvantages. The first is from Man-
zanillo, by way of Colima, Guadalajara, etc. This is of course
the best, being a stage route nearly all the way ; and for
various reasons it must be reconnoitred at some time or
other. But the only fear for this route is, that as the rebels
have been defeated and disorganized in front of San Luis
Potosi, we may be troubled by bands of them as robbers on
the road.

The second is from Acapulco across to the city of Mexico ;
about a ten days' journey, but no roads; so it would be a case

172 SOUTH BY WEST.

of riding on horseback, and camping at night the whole
way. Also it is not the line of country we wish to see, and
would leave all the northern line still to be reconnoitred.

The third is to Panama, and then to St. Thomas, Havanna,
and Vera Cruz : but that would take too long ; longer indeed
than if we went by rail back to New York, and down to
Vera Cruz by sea.

The telegrams from Mexico all declare that the revolu-
tion is at end, and that Porfirrio Diaz, the chief of the rebels,
is killed, so that there is no risk in our undertaking the
journey ; and as the first route is so much the best in
many ways, it is almost decided that we are to take it in
preference to any other.

Friday, 15th. — A day of sunshine and flowers. Mrs. R,
Mrs. P., and I went out for a drive in a charming low phaeton,
with a splendid pair of Californian horses, across the marsh
by a frightful road to the point where we landed from the
steamer. We went round the point past the Penitentiary,
and up a green hill covered with flowers. Then down no
road at all to a second marsh, and round to a beautiful
valley, green hills shutting out all the bay save a little
corner, which looked like a lovely fresh- water lake, with
Tamalpais rising right above us. Then we turned up to the
right, over a hill covered with trees, which divided us from
the San Raphael valley, and down through groves of red
wood and bay, with a luxuriant undergTOwth of grass, ferns,
and flowers, — fritillary, lupins, vetches, and cyclamen, besides
a dozen others that I did not know.

March 1 6. — Another lovely day. Mr. O'C, a neighbour,
drove us down to the station, and we had a charming steam
across to the city. Half-way across we saw a curious battle
between a seal and two sea-gulls for a large salmon. The
seal had caught it, and was trying to bite it in two, jumping
half out of water, flinging it away, then catching it again,
and worrying it like a terrier with a rat, till his splash-

CALIFORNIA. 173

ings attracted two sea-gulls, who swooped screaming down
upon him, and all three fought together for the fish till we
passed out of sight of them.

At the wharf Mr. Y. and Senor A., a young Mexican,
who with General E. are to make up our travelling party to
Mexico, met us ; and the gentlemen all went off together for
blankets, carbines, and " six-shooters " for the journey. Mrs.
P. and I went out later to complete our part of the outfit, and
replenish the medicine-chest with large stores of quinine
pills.

Tlien I went to see ]\Ir. Watkins, the celebrated photo-
grapher of the Yo Semite Valley, to whom I had a letter
from the C.'s of Colorado Springs. His photographs and his
descriptions of the Valley made me wish more than ever
that our time had been long enough in California to allow
us to get down there : but at this time of year it is impos-
sible, as there are forty feet of snow in the valley. How-
ever, if anything could give one an idea of its grandeur, these
photographs would ; and when next morning I found a col-
lection of six dozen on my table, which, with Californian
generosity, Mr. Watkins had sent to me, simply from my
being a friend of his friends, I was quite content to wait tiU
some future day to see the Yo Semite.

March 17. — Started this morning at 8.45 for B ,

twenty-five miles down the San Jose Eailroad, ]\Ir. R, its
hospitable owner, and Captain 0. and his pretty daughter,
joined us at the depot. The road runs down the long penin-
sula at the northern point of which San Francisco stands.
At no point of our route was it more than ten miles wide,
the bay lying on the east, and the Pacific shut out by green
hills about 400 feet high on the west. The day was perfec-
tion ; and the views across the blue waters of the bay, with
its white-sailed ships, to the pearly pink and blue coast range
beyond, were exquisite. ]\Ionte Diabolo stands up in the
centre of the range, proud of his little 4000 feet height.

174 SOUTH BY WEST.

wliicli looked low enough after our Colorado giants. The
marshes on the edge of the track were brown now : but
when the hills get dried up in the summer, then a plant
which grows all over the marshes gets bright green as a
compensation. The meadows were ablaze with flowers, yel-
low, purple, and lilac ; the orchards full of peach-trees in
flower. The whole scene appeared so English, that I had
to look at the vegetation to persuade myself I had not
swooped down on the dear old country in June. It is
most provoking that we happen to be here the only month
in the year that the strawberries are not ripe. One gen-
tleman told me that he had several acres of strawberries; and
that after he has used all that he wants for his house and
preserving, the remainder are left to rot upon the ground, as
they are so common here they do not pay the labour of
picking for sale.

We drove from the depot up to the house with a pair of
fast trotters, and sat down to a sumptuous d4jeuncr a la four-
clictte, at eleven. The house is built on no exact plan : but
a block has been added here and a room there, and the
result has been charming ; a wide gallery, enclosed with
glass, runs round all the lower rooms, which are fitted with
Californian woods, pine, cedar, redwood, walnut, and laurel,
or, as it should be called, bay. It is the most beautiful
wood I have ever seen, like a rather dark orange wood,
and taking the finest polish. I saw a pianoforte made
of it by a San Francisco maker, which was as beautiful
outside as its tone was good when opened. After breakfast
we went all over the house, and afterwards went off to the
stables to see the horses, and a marvellous collection of
Californian carriages, of which there were sixteen, of all
shapes and sizes.

Then we went to the ten-pin aUey and had a game of
bowls, till a team of four fine Californian horses came round
in one of the sixteen carriages, and I and some of the rest of

CALIFOHNIA. 175

the party drove up about eiglit miles to San INIateo to see
Mr. 's pretty place.

The stables there are unique, all in polished woods of the
country, with silver fittings. On one side of the entrance is
the coachman's room, with luxurious sofas and chairs ; and
on the other the harness-room, in which the harness is kept
in glass cupboards lined with velvet. There is a broad
passage from end to end, and we drove right through, with
our high carriage and four horses, between the stalls, which
were full of magnificent thoroughbreds.

Mr. 's story is a strange one ; and I hope I may be

forgiven if I put it down as it was told me, as one of the
most remarkable instances of persistence and industry one
has ever heard.

He came out here not many years ago, and took up a
claim for a quartz mine — that is to say, a mine ^yhere the
gold has to be crushed out of the solid quartz rock, instead of
washed from the loose red soil, as in hydraulic mining. He
worked at it, feeling sure it would pay, till he had exhausted
all his money and all his credit, and found no gold. Then
a friend came out and joined him, who had $3000 or $4000.
They worked on till the friend's money and credit were
also exhausted ; but still no gold. The friend now got

discouraged : but Mr. insisted on his keeping on,

and three days after they struck the vein. He now took
out $1,000,000 a year, finally sold the mine for an immense
sum, and his income now averages $60,000 (£12,000) a
month.

We found him most kind and agreeable, and he took us
all round his grounds. The shrubberies of Australian
mimosas and Peru pepper were full of the pretty crested
Californian quail, quite tame, and by the door were a tiny

Japanese cock and hen, and when Mr. took the cock

in his arms, fondling it as if it were a kitten, the little
creature was as pleased as could be.

176 SOUTH BY WEST.

We drove home through San Mateo, a pretty village,
with fine trees round the houses. The old live oaks were
just coming out with fresh green shoots.

After our drive Mrs. R. took us into her kitchen, with
its four Chinese cooks in white aprons. She gave me a
most attractive account of the merits of Chinese as servants,
saying that she had never known comfort till she had every
servant in her house a Chinaman, except the butler. They
require explicit orders at first : but when once they know
what you want, they go on doing it day after day just like
machines.

There is a story told of some San Franciscan who wanted
to see how far his Chinese servant used his reason in serving
him. So one day he called John into his garden, and taking
up a brick, carried it about twenty yards, laid it down, took
it up again, and carried it back to the starting-point.

" jSTow," said he, " John, you are to do what you see me
do."

Off he went, leaving John hard at work ; and coming
back several hours after, he found poor John, with his hope-
less yellow face, going on taking up the brick, carrying it the
twenty yards, and bringing it back again, as regularly as
clockwork. His master had told him to do it, and he got
his money for it ; so it was no business of his to question the
sense of the proceeding.

About 5 P.M. we bade farewell to B , and drove down

to the station in two carriages, our host driving the first
himself, and when we reached a turn in the road about
half a mile from the depot, we saw the train was in. On
shot our host and his fast trotters, leaving us behind ; and
just as he was nearing, the train started ; so the groom made

our horses gallop down a steep hill. Mr. managed to

stop the train for a minute, and into the station we swung
full gallop, jumped out on the platform, and got into the
cars as they started for the second time.

CALIFORNIA. 177

We are all prepared for our start to-morrow. Our lug-
gage is compressed into the smallest possible compass. My
cabin-trunk and a small valise contain all my worldly goods
that are to go to Mexico. I have laid in a stock of paper
and ink here, and all that I have to do to-morrow is to get a
Spanish Grammar. Our medicine-chest is well stocked, and
we have each private stores of quinine pills in case of
"chills and fever;" so now we have nothing to do but bid
farewell to all our San Franciscan friends, and beautiful
California, hoping that it may not be the last time we shall
see its hospitable shores.

CHAPTEE XIIL

DOWN THE PACIFIC.

The "peaceful ocean" — A tumble — Sea-giills and Spanish lessons— An odious
child— Orchilla — The new " Earthly Paradise " — A narrow escape— Sunday
— An addition to our party — Gloomy forebodings.

On hoard the 'Alaska,' March 20, 1872.— The Pacific
Ocean was well named. On the 18th of March, as we
steamed out of the Golden Gate, there lay before iis a
glassy sea, imrufHed by a single breaker, and so it remained
during the eight days of our voyage. The sun blazed
overhead; the shores of California rose green and red on
our left ; crowds of sea-gulls flew screaming in our wake ;
the Chinese sailors glided noiselessly about the deck in their
blue dresses; and the "walking beam" of the great engine
moved up and down with a relentless regularity, carrying
us away from civilisation, comfort, safety, to we knew not
what.

All the first day we ran down a few miles from the coast
in sight of the soft green hills, which looked just like the
southern coast of Ireland on a summer's day, save where
in one place they were covered with acres of wild oats, and
at nightfall we passed Monterey Bay, with the lights gleam-
ing from its old to^vn, the oldest settlement in California.

I slept soundly in my pleasant roomy cabin on deck, till
about 3.30 a.m., when the Chinamen began washing the
decks just outside. Still sleepy, I thought it was raining,

DOWN THE PACIFIC. 179

and jumped up to shut the port ; knocked my head
violently against the top berth, and then, forgetting that
I was in the land of "Saratoga trunks," and that berths
were made high in proportion, I finished my misfor-
tunes by tumbling right out on the floor, and lay there
for some time, feeling myself all over to see which bones
were broken. Finding nothing worse than a few scratches
and bruises, I went to bed again in a humbled frame of
mind.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was as beautiful as the day before.
The sea was so calm, that one could not be sea-sick. Senor A.
gave me two Spanish lessons, and I did nothing all day but
learn Spanish, till I gave myself a headache : but an hour's
sleep set me all right, and after dinner we walked up and
down the deck, the two Generals discussing railroads and
finance, etc., till I felt quite learned on the subject.

To-day we have been out of sight of land. The crowd of
white sea-gulls which have followed us from San Francisco
have left us during the night, and their place has been taken
by a few larger brown ones, with smaller bodies and longer
wings. This morning we saw a great shoal of dolphins;
as far as I could judge it was a quarter of a mile long, and
rushing from the ship, they skipped away to the west, leap-
ing right out of water in their haste.

Thursday, 2\st. — All day we have been steaming along
under blazing sun on the blue sea. The hours go very slowly
between the doses of Spanish, and Cooper's novels, to which
I have been reduced, as I have read the few otlier books in the
ship's library. We have plenty of time to watch our fellow-
passengers, a few of whom are very pleasant : but one woman
with a particularly odious child is our hete noire, as she is
always turning up and coming exactly where one does not
want her. As soon as we got on board the child insisted on
running out in the sun bareheaded; so the woman screamed
to her, " Now, you shall come in. Is you the boss of me,

180 SOUTH BY WEST.

or is I the "boss of you ?" — enougli to show us she was to be
avoided.

Simclay, litli. — On Friday night we ran into Magdalena
Bay, to take in a cargo of Orchilla, too late to see anything
but the bare outline of the hills.

Saturday morning we got up early, as we could not sleep
much, the ship being still, and moreover full of Mexicans,
who came on board as soon as we dro]3ped anchor, and
laughed, shouted, danced, and sang the livelong night.
After breakfast General P., Senor A., and I rowed off to land
in a boat belonging to the Captain of the port, with two
other Mexicans to row us. As soon as we started I was
initiated into one of the Mexican customs. The Captain
took out of his pocket a bundle of cigarettes, and drawing
one half out, offered it to me with a bow. I refused in the
best Spanish I could muster, and got Senor A. to explain
that "Americanas" do not smoke, to prevent hurting the
good man's feelings : but even then he looked rather dismal,
and greatly puzzled at my want of taste.

Overhead flew numbers of the "Tijeras" — Scissor-kite
{Nauclertis furcatus).

The hills are quite bare of everything except low bushes,
on which the orchilla grows — the only article of commerce
this forsaken place produces. It is a long grey lichen, which
only grows in a very dry climate, close to the sea, in this and
the corresponding southern latitude. It is worth twenty-five
cents per lb., and is sent entirely to England for dyeing, pro-
ducing a fine crimson colour.

This place was called "Paradise" by some Eastern specula-
tors, who got up and sent out a colony of some 500 people a year
or two ago, after the method of Martin Chuzzlewit's " Eden."
This is the Paradise they found awaiting them. A narrow
peninsula of perfectly bare red hills about 1000 feet high,
between the ocean and the bay, ending at the water's edge in
a strip of sandy beach, on which stands a warehouse and a

DOWN THE PACIFIC. 181

store for the orcliillas and the people engaged in picking it.
Here we landed, and Mrs. E.,the Mexican wife of the American
representative, made us welcome, and we sat in the store,
which was pleasantly cool. She told us that there was no
water nearer than eight miles off, along a spit of sand we saw
on the eastern side of the bay, and that was from a laguna
where the water is brackish : so, she said, she had most of
the drinking water from San Francisco by the steamer once
a fortnight. She offered us some pale ale : but being curious
we were foolish enough to refuse, and ask for a glass of
laguna water. One mouthful was enough, and too much ;
and our politeness was put to a hard proof in swallowing
that one.

After a few minutes' rest we went out along the burning
beach. It is made of shell-sand ; and just above tide-mark
was a curious ledge about five feet high, formed of recent
fossil shells. They seemed so fresh — in some pink Balani
the colours were as bright as in those on the beach — that I
fancied they must be merely a huge shell-heap lying loosely :
but on trying to pick a shell out I found they were firmly
imbedded in a hard sandy clay. I managed, however, with
some difficulty, to knock off some good specimens. We
picked up quantities of shells, alive and dead, and dis-
turbed hundreds of sea-gulls who were wading about at the
water's edge, feasting on shell- fish, and quite tame. I
ventured on to the top of the shell-ledge, and found the
orchilla growing on scrubby bushes. One prickly plant was
in leaf — the only green thing to be seen : and besides this
there was a euphorbia with tiny red flowers and no leaves,
and cactus of four kinds : one of the other passengers higher
up the beach found a fine Mesembryanthemum in flower. But
I was so horribly afraid of meeting a rattlesnake that my
scientific search was a very hurried one, and as it was it very
nearly came to an untimely end.

General P. had gone back to the ship to fetch Ids wife,

182 SOUTH BY WEST.

and as we had been told the cargo would be several hours
coming on board, I was wandering on half a mile from the
landing-place, when suddenly the whistle blew from the
steamer. I was for getting back as fast as possible : but
Sehor A. would not hurry, and said it was all a mistake —
he knew they were not to sail till 4 p.m. "Any way," I said,
"we will go towards the boat," and having gained that point
with some difficulty, we waded through the burning sand,
under a scorching sun, I scolding and Senor A. grumbling,
till, horror of horrors ! the whistle blew again ; there appeared
the Capitano of the port, waving his arms and yelling to us
to hurry ; and the boat seemed just shoving off. I began
to run, with Seiior A. after me, and what with heat and
anger, and the sand in which I sank deeper and deeper at
each step, and the fear of being left for a fortnight with
nothino- but the laguna water to drink, I felt as if I were in
a hideous nightmare, and that the boat was going farther
and farther instead of my getting nearer. However, we did
reach it at last ; and in liaK an hour more, when we were
displaying our treasures on deck, and under way, I made
a solemn resolution never to put my faith in any one's
judgment but my own where a steamer's sailing was con-
cerned.

This morning we stopped at Cape San Lucas, the
southernmost point of Lower California, and took on board
several Mexicans. One plays the piano quite beautifully.
We have had a good deal of music every evening, after it is

too dark to read. Mr. from San Francisco has been

reading aloud to some of us Joaquin INIiller's Songs of the
Sierras, some of the most perfect descriptions of western and
tropic scenery, we all agreed, that have ever been written.

To-day the heat has been suffocating, not a breath of air
to be had, and the sun driving down through the awning.

We had service on deck at 10.30 a.m. Mr. W., the
U.S. Navy Chaplain from San Francisco, conducted the ser-

DOWN THE PACIFIC. 183

vice, and we had two hymns, vdiich Mrs. V. and I led, and a
good and attentive congregation.

Honda]/, 25tJi. — Steaming across the Gulf of California,
or Mar de Cortes. More motion, and there are a good many
vacant places at table. At luncheon-tmie we sighted the
coast of Sinaloa. The air is deliciously cool : but our cabins
last night were unbearable, as they are on the ocean-side of
the ship, and the breeze comes from the land.

Two Mexican gentlemen,^ who say they are merchants
travelling for a house in Guadalajara, have been talking to
Mr. Y., and have asked leave to join us as far as Colima
The General has consented, as two more armed men may be
an advantage to our little party ; and though we do not
expect to have much trouble, it is always best to be as
strong as possible.

To-morrow morning we land, and then our journey begins
in earnest. This has only been a preliminary. We have
been holding a council of war as to where to hide the few
valuables we did not send back from San Francisco. My
trinkets, and an English bank-note, with one or two valuable
papers, are stowed in a tiny oilskin case inside my dress.
General P. has been instructing Mrs. P. and me in the
mysteries of pistol practice, and we can go through our drill
pretty creditably now. All on board shake their heads, and
beg us to come on to Acapulco or Panama : but the lot is
cast, and the country must be seen, and so we must make the
best of it.

^ One of these gentlemen proved afterwards to be Don Porfirio Diaz,
the leader of the Revolution, who, so far from being killed — as was gene-
rally believed at the time of our leaving San Francisco — had escaped
from Mexico somewhere on the east coast ; thence to Kew York ; crossed
the Continent by the Pacific Eailroad ; and come down to Manzanillo on
board the ' Alaska.' On his return the Revolution, which had dwindled
into comparative insignificance during his absence, flamed up more fiercely
than ever.

CHAPTER XIV.

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA.

The Puerto de Manzsimllo—Frijoles and tortillas— Mexican meals — The exports of
the port— Our start for the interior — TheLagunade Cuyutlan — The delights
of a night journey — Guadalupe— Salt collecting— Don Ignacio Lagos— Lace
and embroidery — Tropic woods — Rumours of the Revolution — Tecolapa — A
rough road— The volcano of Colirna — Colima — Feast-day sights — Martial
music — Easter decorations — A huerto — The Alameda — Hacienda de San
Cayetano — The eruption of February 26th — More news of the Revolutionists.

Colima, March 28, 1872. — Thus far on our way in safety,
and amid new sights and sounds in this pretty town, I must
try and write the history of the last two days.

On the 26th, I was woke by the gun at 5.30 a.m., and by
6 was dressed, as the sun rose and we steamed slowly into
the " Puerto de Manzanillo," on the western coast of Mexico.

The harbour of Manzanillo, though small, is very good
and safe, with water twenty feet deep close to the beach. It
consists of two bays ; the inner is almost landlocked, the
entrance to it being between two lofty rocks, covered with
scrub and cactus. To the north of the bay is a belt of low
thickly- wooded land, from which rise the featheiy heads of
the coquito palm, backed by blue mountain-ranges one
above the other till the last is half lost in the clouds.

Facing the west lies the little town, consisting of two
large warehouses with deep verandahs and red roof, and a
few dozen small houses and huts, mostly thatched with
palm leaves, along a narrow strip of sand. Behind the
houses rise wooded hills between the sea and the Laguna de

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 185

Cuyutlan, which lies two hundred yards behind tlie town,
and is reached by a narrow gap in the hills. The said hills
look quite brown now, as it is nearly the end of the dry
season, and the leaves will not be out till the rain comes in
six weeks more.

We landed at 7 a.m., and were made welcome at the
house of some German merchants, where we spent the hot
hours of the day, most hospitably entertained by our hosts
and the French Consul.

Our first quest was to get a "somhrcro" for General P.;
as a felt hat was unbearable under such blazing sun. So
off we set, with a Mexican guide who professed to speak
English. We soon, however, found that his English was, if
possible, worse than our Spanish ; I therefore plucked up
courage, put my lessons from Senor A. to the proof, and
found to my great delight that the half-dozen words I
attempted, helped out with violent gesticulations and a loud
and impressive delivery, were understood, whether they were
correct or not.

In the little market-place half-a-dozen men and women
were sitting in picturesque attitudes on the ground, under a
tree, selling fruit, peppers, beans, and queer pottery of all
shapes and sizes, from blue and red dogs and images up to
large water-jars.

The beach was gay with groups of pretty black-eyed
children, in bright-coloured cotton clothes, playing in the
sand ; women passing along with earthen water-jars in their
hands, their " rehosos" (a long dark cotton scarf, which all
Mexican women wear) drawn gracefully over their heads,
the right end thrown over the left shoulder ; and men
dawdling about, as if such a low thing as work were un-
known, dressed in pink or white cotton shirts, white trousers,
the universal broad-brimmed palm-leaf " sombrero" and a
" serapc" or blanket, of various colours thrown over one
shoulder.

18G SOUTH BY WEST.

The water of the bay looked bright under the tropic sun ;
and made us long for a sea-bath after the heat of our voyage ;
till we saw an ominous black fin appear above water within
thirty yards of shore, and then learned that the bay was full
of sharks.

" There has been no accident with them, however, for
years," said our informant reassuringly : but we thought
the time for a disaster might be just recurring, and that we
would rather not be the victims.

When we got back to the house, we went into a large up-
stairs room, with an outside staircase from the court at the
back of the house, where a young coco-nut palm and a Ciruela
hog-plum {Spondias) tree liung with birds in cages, made me
feel I was really in the tropics again. A barefooted Mexican
boy brought us up cups of chocolate and "pan de huevos,"
literally, egg-bread, light sweet cakes, something like French
brioches. But one must taste Mexican chocolate to know
its charms; it is thick, yet light, and each tiny cup — for a
little goes a long way — is crowned with the most delicious
brown foam, which melts in the mouth as you drink it.

The morning passed very pleasantly. The room we
were in looked right over the bay, and away to the moun-
tains on the north ; and the new sights on the beach were
enough to keep one amused for a week. Once we heard
fearful yells ; and, rushing to the window, saw two stalwart
men dragging a large pig along the sand by his hind legs.
Their object was to get him into a boat, and take him off to
a sliip hard by : but to this he strongly objected, and emitted
the most unearthly sounds ; the whole process, which, in
England, would have taken three minutes, lasting about
half-an-hour, as the men found it necessary to rest every
two or three yards, have a gossip with passers-by, and
smoke a cigarette.

Besides these outside diversions, we had several visitors ;
among others the Commandante of the Custom-house, who

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA.

187

brought Mrs. P. and me each a pretty little calabash, stained
and carved by the Indians, and full of beautiful shells.
There was a piano in the room — old and of the tin-kettle
order, it is true : but we managed some music nevertheless.
M. G., the Consul, gave us a capital song in Spanish and
Apache Indian, and some absurd little Mexican things ; and
then I started a Volkslied, and our German hosts went on
with one after another till dinner, at 12.30.

Wuiuan nirtkinjr ToiliUas.

At dinner we were introduced to Herr D.'s pretty
Mexican wife : but unluckily she could speak nothing but
her own tongue, so that we ladies could only make eyes at
each other. Dinner was excellent ; and we had the two
standing dishes of the country, ''frijoles" and "tortillas"
The first are a small brown bean, which forms the chief food

188 SOUTH BY WEST.

of the lower orders throughout Mexico, and without which,
in one form or another, no meal is considered perfect. They
are very nourishing, and pleasant occasionally : but, as one of
the overland party expressed it, " They are very good for 365
days : but when you get them oftener than that they become
wearisome." " Tortillas " are very thin cakes of maize.
They are made by boiling the maize and then rubbing it
into a fine paste on a Lava stand, called a " metate." When
the paste is perfectly smooth, a piece is taken in the two
hands, and patted and slapped till it is as thin as a half-crown,
the size of a breakfast plate, and about as tough as an ordi-
nary sheepskin. It is then baked for a moment on a griddle
and served hot, but quite limp. It is used as a spoon and fork
with which to eat the frijoles; you tear off a corner, and divide
it in two, doubling up one half as a receptacle for the beans,
which you push in with the other bit, and eat spoon and all
together. A common joke takes its rise from this — " That
the Mexicans are so proud and so rich that they never use
the same spoon twice."

■ In Mexico the day begins early with a light meal about
6 A.M., called " Dcsayuno" when you take a cup of chocolate,
and "pan clulce." Tlien about twelve comes " Almuerzo"
breakfast, a heavy meal with several dishes of meat. About
5 P.M. comes " la Comida" dinner, a lengthy proceeding,
with endless courses of meat, which are all served alone,
excepting the " Puchero" boiled beef with a mixture of
every imaginable vegetable in the same dish ; and dinner
ends with small cups of excellent Cafe noir.

Manzanillo, though such a small place, does a large
trade. It exports coffee, rice, indigo, various kinds of wood,
such as cedar, rosewood, and primavera (a hard yellow
wood used for the bodies of railway cars), and coquitos ;
these are small brown nuts, about the size of a pigeon's
egg, from the coquito palm, and are used for making
palm-oil and candles ; 500,000 lbs. are exported annually

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 189

from this port. In the outer bay of Santiago large quan-
tities of pearl oysters are found ; the pearls are very fine,
and fabulously cheap. There are also good eating oysters
in the bay and all along the coast : but hardly any attention
is paid to them, the difficulty of transportation being so
great. If a railroad ever comes here, oysters will be an
important item in its freight; as with a Eoman Catholic
population the demand for them inland would be immense.
Now everything has to be carried to and from the interior
on pack-mules, which is a serious obstacle to trade of all
kinds. — Ah for a railroad !

Our baggage was sent on by this same means of transpor-
tation early in the day ; and much I trembled as I saw my
poor old cabin-trunk, a faithful companion for so many
thousand miles, tied with cords on one side of a thin, dirty,
vicious mide, with one of the valises on the other side to
balance it, and delivered over to the tender mercies of an
" Arriero" or mule- driver, who looked quite incapable of
taking care of anything, and quite capable of any amount
of robberies, and worse.

We expected all day that our two fellow-passengers from
the ' Alaska ' would make their appearance : but no one had
seen them land ; so it was decided that we would wait no
lonefer, but go on without them ; and at 4 P.M. our cavalcade
started, creating no small excitement.

General P., General R, Mr. Y., and Seiior A., with two
officers of the Custom-house, who joined us as far as Colima,
were mounted on pretty little Spanish ponies, which looked
half-buried in their trappings ; ISIrs. P. and I set off in
a dilapidated old phaeton drawn by two mules ; and were,
oddly enough, the first people who had ever driven out of
Manzanillo. It was only three days before, that enough of the
road by the laguna was finished to enable a carriage to get
to the Puerto. Usually passengers go by a smaU steamer,
or in canoes, up the laguna to Cuyutlan SiUo : but this

190 SOUTH BY WEST.

year, owing to the extreme dryness of the season, it was too
shallow for navigation.

Passing through the single street of the town, we came
suddenly on a magnificent view across the laguna, which is
forty miles long, by one to ten miles wide, with a belt of
brilliant green fringing the water, and a background of blue
mountains. The lake, bathed in evening sunlight, was
literally covered with wild fowl and white cranes ; while
here and there a black log turned slowly over in the water,
and as it disappeared we found we had been watching an
alligator. Our road wound along the shore of the lake,
bordered with mangrove trees, raising themselves from the
poisonous swamp on stilted roots, three to six feet high.
On the right rose the rocky hills of the Puenta de Ventaoias
(the Cape of the Winds), covered with huge Organo Cactus
forty feet high, with single stems three feet in diameter,
standing like giant candelabra among the bush. They are
thus named from their straight branches, resembling the pipes
of an organ.

The road itself baffles description, being still in process
of making ; suffice it to say that we were bumped and jolted
over rocks, stones, and hills till we came to what was, if
possible, rather worse — deep sand on the narrow strip
of land dividing the sea and the laguna. Then, for two
leagues (about six miles), we had to go at a foot's pace
smothered in blinding dust. But wherever the road was
good w^e enjoyed the drive, as the vegetation was much
greener than on the hills at Manzanillo, and we soon had
our hands full of lovely flowers. The air was rich and
heavy with that peculiar scent which you find nowhere but
in the tropics ; parrots flew screaming and chattering over-
head ; and from time to time we heard the roar of the surf
on the shore to our risrht.

At Campos, a picturesque village of a few palm-thatched
huts, we halted at sunset. As the mules were unharnessed, we

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 191

sat in the carriage, and had our supper of coffee, pan de
Mievos, tortillas, and boiled eggs. It was cooked on a primi-
tive kind of stove — a table covered with clay, and the fire
built on a few stones ; the eggs were brought us in a hat
for want of a dish : but everything was excellent, and, as
we all agreed, far above any meal one would get at an ordi-
nary railroad restaurant in the States.

After supper we changed into a three-seated ambulance
with no springs to speak of; a wooden roof just too low for
my head, so that I had to lean forward all the time ; four
mules ; and an intensely stupid driver, called Guadalupe.
We went on at a good pace in the darkness, through the
woods, along a road which had just been cleared ; having to
keep the curtains down tight to avoid scratches from the
frightful thorns every tree seems to bear in the tropics. For
the first hour we pretended that we were very happy ; sang
songs, told stories, and kept up a spasmodic conversation
with our two outriders, j\Ir. Y. and Senor A., who preferred
their ponies to the jolting of the carriages : but gradually
the songs grew flat, the stories lost their points, the riders
relapsed into silence ; and we had to acknowledge that a
night-journey was not a pleasant experience.

One or two of the party managed to get snatches of sleep :
but I was a little too tall to curl myself up on the floor as
Mrs. P. did, and never closed my eyes, in spite of the comfort-
able beds of blankets tliat General P. made for us. The hours
went by slowly, as we now crept through sand, now jolted
through a clearing over all the stumps — Guadalupe took
special pleasure in driving over stumps, — then dashed full
gallop across an open bit of dry swamp. Here and there we
passed an ox or mule train halting for the night, beside a
bright fire. Then came an interchange of compliments
between the drivers, and with a " hucnas noches, Smorcs"
on we rattled, Guadalupe making the night liideous with
grunts, groans, and yells of " hccka mula, ar-r-r-he," and cracks

192 SOUTH BY WEST.

of his long whip like a series of pistol-shots. Mr. Y.'s white
pony was always to be seen as he rode by our side, keeping
Guadalupe in order ; which was needed, for he was as pig-
headed as most stupid people are; and but for the white
pony's rider, I believe we should never have found our way
to Cuyutlan Sillo ; but have lost ourselves as Sefior A. con-
trived to do, not coming up with us till four hours later.

At 1 A.M. we reached Cuyutlan Sillo, the end of the
laguna ; and crossing a long dike, stopped to change mules.
The ground was white with salt, by which the people round
get their living, collecting and sending it inland. The beach
near by is very fine, and as many as 5000 people come
down here annually from Colima, Zapotlan, etc., for sea-
bathing and salt- collecting, though there is no good road to
the interior. If there only were a railroad, what an amount
of passenger traffic would spring up ! The annual produce
of the salt-works here is 7,500,000 lbs. It was a malarious
place, and we were glad, when the mules were harnessed, to
leave it, and to make the best of our way to el Paso del
Kio, where we were to have a few hours' rest.

The Kio de la Armeria, when we reached it at 3.30 A.M.,
was nearly dry, having only about a hundred and fifty yards
of water at the ford : but though it was only three feet deep,
the passage w^as sufficiently alarming, as the river-bed is
nothing but huge stones, and of course in the worst place the
mules refused to move. However, we got through somehow,
and half a mile more took us to the house of Don Ignacio
Lagos, where we halted for what remained of the night.

It did not look inviting; nothing does, I think, at 4
A.M., after twelve hours' travelling. But at last we roused
up the inhabitants, and Mr. Y. went on a reconnaissance for
clean beds, if such were to be had. His report was favourable ;
so we crawled out of the waggon with stiffened limbs, went
through a deep verandah, with people sleeping in hammocks
and on rugs ; and found two rooms, bare of furniture, it is

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 193

true, save sacking beds and a table, but tolerably clean. In a
few minutes Seiiora Eamonsita Lagos, a comely lady, brought
us clean sheets and pillow-cases ; and with our own Cali-
fornian blankets we made ourselves pretty comfortable.
Sleep, however, I found, was out of the question ; as an in-
cessant noise was kept up by burros (donkeys), cocks, mules,
cicadas, and human beings, who seemed to get up just as we
went to bed.

By 8 A.M. we were ready for breakfast. It was pre-
pared in the palm-thatched portico of the house, which
was built round the farm-yard; so we had plenty of com-
pany in the way of fowls, dogs, and pigs. Our breakfast
was delicious; we had "polios" (chickens), eggs, tortillas,
frijoles, chocolate, and coffee. The Colima coffee is the best
I have ever tasted — equal to or excelling the finest Mocha ;
and as it is kept in the little husk which surrounds the two
berries, and is husked and ground fresh each time it is
wanted, loses none of its delicious aroma by keeping. It
was the first time that most of us had eaten a meal, every
item of which, down to the sugar and salt and the earthen
cups we used, was produced in the country.

Don Ignacio gave us plenty of information about the
country and its products. He owns a large tract of land ; and
grows sugar, coffee, and rice on it. His handsome wife, who
is a good deal younger than he, showed us after breakfast
some of her lacework and embroidery, for which the women
in this State are famous. The lace is made by pulling out
threads of coarse linen at different intervals, and working on
the lattice-work left, much like Greek lace. It is used for
trimming, and though coarse has a veiy good effect. In
quite poor houses the pillow-cases are bordered with this
lace, sometimes six inches deep. The embroidery is much
prettier. The dress of the Momen of the country consists of
a short full petticoat over a white shift coming high over the
shoulders, and the rchozo over their heads. The sleeves and

194 SOUTH BY WEST.

neck of this shift are beautifully worked with white or hlack
cotton in delicate patterns. Senora Lagos had embroidered
on the one she wore a wreath of black vine leaves and
berries, worthy of French work,

A little before 10 a.m. we started again, sending back
the saddle-horses and going on in the two carriages ; a
" muchacho " (boy) sitting on the front seat by the driver to
help him to urge on the mules by means of showers of
stones : but we soon got rid of him, and took the Coiiiman-
dante instead, to learn as much as we could from him of the
country.

We drove for four miles over a grassy plateau about fifty
feet above the river, with fine mountains on three sides and the
ocean on the fourth, though we were not quite high enough
to see it. When we left the plateau, which is many miles
long, and good grazing land, the road took us without a
turn for several miles through the woods. These were very
disappointing after a former acquaintance with tropic woods
in the West Indies. The timber was poor and crooked ; the
trees burnt and brown with the summer sun ; and the only
flowers to be seen were here and there a yellow acacia or a
cactus flower like a ball of living flame. However, we were
told that in the rainy season, which lasts from May or June
till November, the country is completely transformed.

One halt we made at a hut beside a little stream, when
the Commandante, with his usual good-nature, got us a big
bunch of bananas, and some " Affua de Coco" — the fresh clear
water from the green cocoa-nut, which was most refreshing
after a dozen miles of heat and dust. While we were stop-
ping, two exceedingly handsome young Spaniards, fully
armed, rode up ; one of whom we found was Senor C, nephew
of General C, the Commander-in-chief of Guadalajara.
They told us that the revolutionists had been giving some
little trouble between Colima and Guadalajara, and the tele-
graph lines are all cut ; so that we could not communicate

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 195

with General C, who was going to protect us on our journey :
but they did not think we should have much trouble from
the rebels.
-^ One A.M. brought us to Tecolapa, a pretty village with a

grove of coco-palms, where we stopped to change mules ;
Sefior P., the Commandante, went out to forage for provi-
sions, and soon returned, followed by two senoras. One
was old and ugly : but bore on her head a tray of excellent
eggs and tortillas. The other was a lovely girl of seventeen,
by name Catalina, dressed daintily in a white gown, little
pink apron, red shoes on her tiny feet, and a blue cotton
rebosa covering all her pretty face save her large brown eyes.
She seemed as handy as she was lovely; for " los frijoles con
qucso (beans with grated cheese) de Catalina " were perfec-
tion ; and what we left were carried off as a prize by our
men.

We had been coming along the best road, though
not through the most populous district, leaving most of the
large sugar, maize, and cotton " haciendas " (estates) on the
left, between us and the Eio Armeria. The imcleared land
costs S4 or sixteen shillings per acre ; and will always
produce one crop of sugar or cotton in the year ; but with
irrigation it would produce two crops.

Leaving Tecolapa, which is about 450 feet above the sea
we got our last view of the Pacific Ocean ; and began a steep
ascent through the forest to the mountain pass at Los ]\Iolos,
where the descent into the Valley of Colima begins. The
woods were much greener in the mountains, bamboos
and palms (Chamsedorea) growing among the hardwood trees.
The summit of the pass is 1470 feet above the sea ; and up
the last part the Government has made a good graded road
through a rocky bit, in which we found a fine vein of white
marble, evidently quite unnoticed. AVe longed to " pre-
empt " it at once, as it will be valuable some day.

The descent from Los Molos looked so uninviting that

196 SOUTH BY WEST,

most of us preferred walking down a mile, to trusting our
necks to four mules at full gallop and an improvised brake,
made by tying one of the hind wheels with rope to the front
axle, over a road which was simply a pile of rocks on a slope
as steep as a house-roof. Strange to say, the ambulance
when we reached it had not upset, nor had the wheels come
off, as we expected ; so we drove on : but the road, though
rather less steep, was quite as rough, and in one place General
E. and I, who were sitting together on the back seat, were
shot up against the hard wooden roof of the ambulance ;
and I got such a blow on my head that I subsided humbly
on the floor, and did not say much for some time.

At about 5 P.M. we approached Las Mescales : and here,
as we emerged from the mountains, burst upon us one of
the most sublime sights I have ever seen. From a plain
twenty miles broad, and less than a thousand feet above
sea-level, rose the volcano of Colima, 13,396 feet high, with
a crown of smoke pink in the setting sun against the clear
blue sky, and wreaths of light clouds floating along its
sides. Much as we had heard of the grandeur and beauty
of the volcano, it far exceeded all our expectations ; and
its sudden appearance across the plain greatly increased the
effect.

From Las Mescales, with a " remuda^' or relay of three
ponies and a mule, all with horribly sore backs, which
seemed to make no difference to their owners or drivers, we
started along a good though dusty road up the last rise
before reaching Colima. The ground in one place was
covered for acres with black volcanic stones, an unpleasant
donation from the beautiful volcano we had so admired; and
here we saw something else for the first time, quite as
ominous as the black stones ; a little wooden cross by the
side of the road on a heap of stones, and an inscription
scribbled below it to the effect that some Augustin or Juan
or Domeuique had here been killed by robbers.

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 197

From the rise we looked over the fertile valley, with its
watercourses shaded with trees, its rows of coco-palms, and
rich fields ; and driving along sandy roads shaded by great
fig-trees, with sweet black fruit the size and shape of sloes,
we reached the town of Colima about 7 p.m. ; and rattled
through the streets, our " cochero" yelling and whipping the
hapless ponies till they fairly galloped. Everything was
dark, or at least as good as dark ; for the only light was from
a wretched lamp lit with coco-nut oil, hanging from a chain
across the streets at very long intervals. We went through
the Plaza Nueva and the Plaza des Amies, to the hotel,
expecting to find tolerably uncomfortable quarters there :
but as we drew up, out came the proprietor, and, with many
bows and pretty speeches, explained that Senor Don Juan
P. H. expected us at his house, which he had, with true
Mexican hospitality, j)laced at our disposal. The street was
too narrow for our ambulance to turn in it ; so we had to
make a long round to get back into the Plaza des Armes,
which we had only passed by a dozen yards. However, we
rattled back, and drew up before a grand house with a
Moorish facade occupying the whole north side of the plaza
(square). A muchacho took us through a passage and up
a long stone stair, at the head of which, with a huge New-
foundland dog by his side, our host was awaiting us, and
made us truly welcome,

" Colima, Easter Day, March 31, 1873.
" Dearest * * *, — If verbal photography were invented,
how gladly would I use it to describe the view from our
windows, as it passes before us, like a series of strange

pictures !

" We were fairly puzzled the morning after we arrived
here to know where we could be ; buildings, trees, and
people are such a mixture of the old and new, eastern and
western worlds.

" To-day being ' Fiesta ' (Feast-day), as well as Sunday,

198

SOUTH BY WEST.

the place is swarming witli life. From our sitting-room,
with its fresco-painted walls, tiled floor, and large windows
opening into the iron balcony, we look out upon the Plaza
des Armes, a large square. On the east side is a church
with picturesque stone belfry, and the State's prison ; a

Bell Tower at Colima.

dozen soldiers lounging by the door in blue and red, with
white kepis. On the south and west side run single-storied
buildings with arches in front of them ; and our host's house,
with a fine Moorish front, takes up the whole of the north
side. The rooms are on the first floor, above stables, offices,
etc. Under the ' portale' or arcade in front of it on the

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 199

ground-floor are a series of shops ; and on the pavement
beneath the lofty arches stand ' cajons' (boxes), as they call
the booths where the common goods of the country are
sold. In the centre of the Plaza is a fountain, with its group
of idlers gossiping with the water-carriers ; and round the
carriage-road runs a tiled pavement, along which orange-trees
in full flower and fruit are planted every eight or ten feet,
each protected by a quaint double stone seat. Far away lie
the blue mountains through which we came from Manzanillo ;
with a foreground of coco-nut palms tossing their leaves in
the hot wind over the red-tiled roofs, while a score of
zopilotes (black vultures) sail overhead in the cloudless blue
sky. Below, in front of the window, sits a lazy fellow
under the orange tree. He has on a white shirt, open at the
neck ; white loose trousers ; a crimson faja or sash round his
waist ; a grey and red striped seraipe ; white boots ; and a
broad sombrero trimmed with black, shading his brown face :
more Indian than Spanish.

" Now comes a procession round the carriage-way ; three
or four men with guitars, flute, and harp, strumming away an
accompaniment to a pretty Spanish song which two women
in front are sinfdno" • and before them trots a hideous old
Indian in very scanty clothing, with a fire-stick in one hand
and a bunch of little rockets in the other, which he lets off
every few minutes with a fizz and bang that drives Ali, the
Newfoundland dog, nearly wild with excitement, as he thinks
it must be a revolution at least. They parade all round the
Plaza, and disappear down a side-street, to have their place
taken by a ' circo' three or four gaily-dressed men and boys
on horses, with a distracting brass band before them, who
also vanish in the same place. They are succeeded by an
absurd procession of little boys, who have got entire pos-
session of a clown hideously painted, three musicians with
fiddles, and a drum ; and in their midst a bit of white vianta
(cotton cloth) on two sticks, with five little dolls hung against

200 SOUTH BY WEST.

it by the neck. "What the meaning of this is, or whether
it has any meaning, I cannot say ; but it seems to give the
muchachos infinite satisfaction. There goes a man calling
' Pasteles, pasteles,' with a tray of sweet cakes on his head ; or
another, crying over his fruit in the most heartrending of
all Gregorian tones, ' Buenas naranjas cle Chi-i-na-a-a' (fine
China oranges), ' Sandias' (water-melons), sweet bines, ban-
anas, and zapotes. Patient little hiirros jog by, with loads
of green maize fluttering in the breeze, or with four earthen
water-jars in picturesque wooden panniers.

" Under the orange trees the sellers of rebozos, serapes, and
fajas are chaffering with their customers ; asking, after the
manner of the country, three times as much as the article is
worth, and coming gradually down to the lowest possible
price.

" The ' Scnores cahalleros ' ride by with their broad felt
sombreros heavy with silver trimmings, dainty short em-
broidered jackets, and buckskin silver-buttoned ' pantalones'
open from the knee, over full white drawers. Their saddles
are plated with heavy embossed silver ; the stirrups are also
silver ; and besides the embroidered saddle-cloth, their horses'
flanks are nearly covered with chapaderos of tiger or goat
skin, which hang down nearly to the ground, with a serape
rolled up and strapped behind the saddle.

" On Thursday we took a walk to the Alameda, the
public garden or park. To our surprise we were told to
come out without hats or gloves, and only a light shawl
over our evening dresses. All along the streets ladies were
sitting on the pavement at their doors, wdiile black-eyed
Seiioritas looked out from the prison-like iron-latticed
windows, and talked with the Senores caballeros, who
lounged against the bars rolling their cigarettes. It was
just like a series of Philip's Spanish pictures.

" In the Alameda the band of a battalion just arrived from
Guadalajara was playing, and playing extremely well ; but it

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 201

had to stop while the retreat was beaten at the barracks
close by. Of all hideous and indescribable noises Mexican
martial mnsic bears away the palm. Imagine two or three
boys with no ear for music learning to play on cracked
cavalry bugles of different keys ; then add half-a-dozen other
boys drumming on old tin trays and toy drums ; and you
will have a fair idea of what goes on four times a day in
every Mexican garrison town.

" On our way home we went into two of the principal
churches. Being the Thursday in Holy "Week, they were
crowded with people kneeling on the floor, and gorgeous with
liohts and ornaments. The hisrh altar was a blaze of tinsel,
gilt vases, flowers, and candles. One kind of decoration was
really pretty, though rather absurd, — from long strings hung
round green balls ; and on examination, I found they were
covered with live mustard and cress, growing on flannel,
just as we used to grow it on bottles at home in the nursery.
But in one church I saw what, to my unaccustomed eyes,
seemed shocking. Close to the door lay, on a kind of bier, a
life-size figure of the Saviour, with the head bound up,
dressed in grave-clothes and strewn with flowers. Those
who were used to that sort of thing seemed to think it all
right : but I confess I was horrified, and glad to get out into
the cool dark streets.

" On Good Friday, having no church, alas ! to go to, we
stayed in till the evening ; when Don Juan took Mrs. P. and
me out for a walk, across the bridge of the Eio de Colima.
It was quite dark, save for the light of the coco-nut oil lamps,
and the little fires of the women cooking and selling ' tomcdes
con puerco ' (a horrid invention of bits of pork inside a little
hot maize roll) on the pavement. We went into one church
which was nearly empty. The altar and crucifix were
shrouded with dark green boughs, against which the life-size
figure hung ghastly pale ; a friglitful figure of the Virgin in
black, with a kind of white cap, leant against the feet.

202 SOUTH BY WEST.

" Yesterday, Don Juan drove Mrs, P, and me out to his
' luicrtol or fruit orchard. Colima is celebrated for these
gardens, belonging to the different residents; and our host's
is one of the finest. It is about a mile from the Plaza, and
just outside the town, where the ill-paved streets and long
rows of one- storied houses, looking with their barred win-
dows, like successions of prisons, change to sandy lanes with
a few miserable huts. In the high wall, a large gateway leads
into the garden-house, with a great swimming-bath, and a
cool tiled piazza, where Don Juan told us he sometimes gives
dinners to his friends. Thence through a bower of roses,
and the ' manta de la Vierge,' a beautiful climber with
pink flowers, a narrow walk hedged on either side by scarlet
hibiscus, took us to the garden proper. This consists of
rows of coffee, oranges, limes, mangos, bananas, and zapotes ;
and everywhere the slender stems of the coco-palms rise
through the lower growth, their broad heads of leaves, with
a zopilote roosting on each leaf, forming a dense green roof
overhead. Eeturning to the garden-house, the gardener's
pretty little barefooted boy had prepared for each of us a glass
of ' agua de coco' the clear water from the green coco-nut,
standing in a plate in the midst of a wreath of roses and
hibiscus; and we drove home through the town with a glorious
bouquet apiece. All the inhabitants were sitting out at their
doors : so we had a good opportunity of judging of the good
looks of the people ; and were greatly disappointed. Some of
the young girls were rather pretty ; and one we saw who was
perfectly beautiful ; with very delicate sharp-cut features, fair
skin, great black eyes, and the usual magnificent hair which
is the glory of the women here ; they wear it in two plaits
down their backs, which often reach down to their feet. But
the older women are perfectly hideous ; the Indian blood
showing strongly in all.

" I am getting on with my Spanish ; and can now make
the servants understand, and I follow most of a conversa-

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 203

tion : but for the first two or three days I did mal-ce the
most absurd mistakes. However, now w^e are obliged to
exert ourselves, and plunge along through a perfect quagmire
of mistakes, as both Mr. Y. and Senor A. are off for two days
on a reconnaissance, looking for a better pass through the
mountains, for the way we came is too steep for a railroad,
and we hear that there is a very good pass, keeping the
course of the Eio Armeria all the way.

" I hope you will get this. Sehor P, has ' thrown himself
at my feet in kissing my hand,' as they say here, and offered
to take a letter for me, and send it from Manzanillo by the
Panama or San Francisco steamer."

Monday, April 1. — Yesterday, at about 5 r.M., after spend-
ing the afternoon drinking half liquid lemon-ice and eating
Granadillas, we went to the Alameda of the Plaza Nueva ;
got out, and walked among crowds of people, who were
listening to the band. I was really quite uncomfortable
at the way the people all stared at me, and especially at my
feet, of which I cannot say I felt at all ashamed, as I had
on a particularly pretty pair of English shoes. At last it
grew quite unbearable ; and I was getting hotter and hotter
every moment, when, to my intense delight, we met the
American Consul's wife, and another lady. They soon ex-
plained the mystery ; and told me that the Mexicans think
it very improper to show one's feet. All the women have
their gowns made as long or longer in front than at the
back; and thus their astonishment and amusement at my
very inoffensive short gown were accounted for.

This morning, at seven, Don Juan, who really seems
to think no trouble too great if it adds to his guests'
enjoyment, drove Mrs. P. and me out to the hacienda de San
Cayetano to see the cotton-mills belonging to General de
la V. and his brother. They are about two miles from tlie
city, along a lovely lane between stone walls enclosing

204 SOUTH BY WEST.

gardens of bananas and coco-palms. Figs and prima-vera
trees, so valuable for their fine timber, with their glory of
golden flowers, arch overhead ; and the avenue leads you
straight to the gate of the hacienda.

General de la V. received us at the door, and took us
into a long low room, divided off by lattices five feet high,
and serving for office, sitting-room, bed-room, and armoury.
The gates of the hacienda are kept closed all night, and
twenty men armed with rifles and muskets in case of robbers
or revolutions. After coffee, ham, and dry bread — there was
no butter, though all around is fine pasturage — we went over
the mill. It is worked by a thirty-horse-power steam-engine,
and a forty-horse-power water-wheel, the water coming from
the river close by, in a stone dike one-fourth of a mile long.
The looms and spindles are from Boston ; the steam-engine
from Brooklyn. Two hundred men, about thirty boys, and
one hundred women, all Mexicans, are employed. Mr. B.,
the English chief engineer, told us that they work well
when some one is by to keep an eye on them. We went
through all the rooms, and saw the cotton in every stage,
from the first, where, freed from the pod, it is put into
the carding-machine and the seeds taken out, to the looms
where the coarse white " Mania " (cotton cloth) is made.
The engine-house was exquisitely clean ; and the "governor"
ornamented with a bunch of tropical flowers in honour of
our visit.

We then went along the water-conduit to the two reser-
voirs, into which the water is let at night ; and back to the
hacienda, past a field of mulberry-trees for silk-worms, of
which six thousand are raised on the estate every year.
The 2}atio (court) has a garden of fruit-trees at the northern
end, and opposite the mill runs a long low building of
separate tenements, two rooms deep, for the work-people
and their families.

Mr. B. showed us a most interesting sketch, done on the

FROM THE COAST TO COLIMA. 205

spot by Senor de la V., of the eruption of the Volcan tie
Colima on the 2Gth of February. Mr. B. said that the first
he knew of it was hearing all the workpeople rushing out
shrieking and praying into the patio ; and he thought at
first, from the disturbance, there must be a revolution. On
going out, however, he found it was something much more
awful than any work of man. From the nearest peak rose a
huge tree of smoke, with showers of ashes falling back from
the red-hot stones, which flew up a certain height, and then
seemed to explode. It has been in almost constant erup-
tion ever since ; the last explosion was on the 26th of
March, the day we landed : but since we came in sight of
it, it has most provokingly chosen to be quite quiet. "We
live, however, in hopes of its going off again ; and every
time there is any sudden stir in the town, we rush to the
stairs outside the sala, from whence we can see the moun-
tain, in hopes that it has been considerate enough to begin
its fireworks again for our benefit.

About 10 A.M., the sun being very hot, we drove home,
laden with pomegranates and bouquets of orange flowers.

Tuesday, 2d. — Our start has been postponed, and we
cannot get off till to-morrow. The Governor of Colima
has been here this morning giving advice about our journey.
We are to go to-morrow as far as San Marcos, a large
hacienda just on this side of the famous harrancas or canons,
where we are to sleep, and cross the barrancas next day
without an escort ; so that we must trust to our own arms.
The Governor says that if we meet the praimnciados (revo-
lutionists) without an escort, they will not molest us : but
should we have Government soldiers with us, and meet them,
like Artemus Ward and the Indians in the happy hunting-
grounds, "guess there will be a fight." He says also, that we
are not likely to fall in with robbers on the first two days*
march, till we get near Zapotlan ; and there he has ordered
a carriage and an escort to meet us. It sounds altogether

20G

SOUTH BY WEST.

" rather warlike." To-niglit, Incarnacion M., the owner of the
horses we have hired, lias been round to say that the revo-
lution has broken out strong near Quesaria, and that he will
not start till we give him security for his animals. This
our people will not do, as these good Mexicans are quite
capable of getting a friend, in the guise of a Pronunciado, to
steal the horses, and then demand the value from us. How-
ever, at last, after an hour's talk and argument, he consents
to go, if we take two extra armed men : so we go.

CHAPTEE XV.

EOBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS.

Our start — An ill-broken team — La Quesaria — Chicken wine — Barrancas — San
Marcos — Mule trains — An uncomfortable luncheon — The " Pedregal" — A
break -down — Zapotlan — A revolution — The baffled bridegroom — Rough
lodgings — Pulque —Severo — An early breakfast — A "scare " — Onions — "Los
bonitos rifles "— Pronunciados — Alkali flats— A dry lake — " A friend indeed"
— Our escort — La Corouilla — Robber towns — Guadalajara at last.

Wednesday, April 3. — At 3 A.M. our host woke us, and
in half an hour all was bustle and confusion in the house.
By 5 A.M. we were ready, and our start was one of the
prettiest scenes possible. Pack-mules were kicking and
twisting ; saddle-horses held by armed servants ; our party
all armed with Henry rifles, carrying sixteen shots, and with
revolvers ; the crowd of lookers-on standing gaping round ;
Senor H. on his grey pony, with a huge umbrella strapped
to the saddle ; Ali, the Newfoundland dog, bustling about to
see all was right ; and the first crimson streaks of sunrise
behind the old bell-tower.

Mrs. P. and I were both armed ; it was a queer sensation
buckling on a revolver for the first time : but our pistol-
drill on board ship has taught us how to avoid shooting
our companions ; and notwithstanding the laughter that
greeted my first appearance with a full-sized Smith and
Wesson on my belt, I mean to stick to it ; and am already
beginning to look on it as my best friend.

208 SOUTH BY WEST.

For tlie first ten miles the order of march was this : —
First, two armed men ; then the five pack-mules, with their
two drivers, also armed ; then two of the gentlemen, Mrs. P.,
and I, in the same old phaeton that brought us from Man-
zanillo, with Mr. M.'s (the U. S. Consul) horses in it ; the
rest of our party, with Don Juan, another gentleman, and
Mr. M. who is coming through to Guadalajara with us ; and
two more servants to bring up the rear.

I never remember a more lovely morning, the air was so
cool and the sunrise over the mountains was glorious. We
reached the rancho of the Cebana at about seven, and there
Don Juan and his friend left us, much to our regret, for we
had all got really fond of the dear old gentleman ; and his
kindness and hospitality were boundless. We also at this
point changed Mr. M.'s horses for a pair which I am certain
had never been driven before. To begin with, they would
not start. Two of the servants then rode up, one on each
side, and catching them by the heads, and flogging at the
same time with the raw hide whips they use here, got them
off with a bounce at last. They went for a little way full
gallop, till our gentlemen were left far behind ; when, coming
to a slight rise, they stopped dead, and began backing. Then,
the harness being perfectly rotten and tied together with bits
of string, the near horse slipped under the traces, turned com-
pletely round, and stared at us with his head at the end of
the pole. At last they were started again at a furious pace :
but in a minute Mrs. P. and I discovered that the near horse
had not got the bit in his mouth at all, but had slipped
it out, and it was hanging on his throat. Scream as we
would to the cochero, he would not or could not understand
us : but drove solemnly on, flogging the horses to a wilder
pace, till at last, much to his astonishment, we dragged the
reins from his hands, and as we fortunately were going up
hill, the animals at last stopped. The gentlemen then caught
us up ; the harness was " fixed up," and we set off once more,

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 209

with Mr. Y. and Sefior A. l)y our sides : but in about a mile
the horses behaved so badly again that we could bear it no
longer, and entreated to get on the mules. So we pulled up
at a palm-thatched hut, where our steeds soon arrived.

Mine was a brown one, and very ugly : but a solemn and
patient beast, who jogged along most comfortably if allowed
to choose his own road. Mrs. P. rode a little black one, who,
in memory of our Colorado pets, we called Baby. They
paced about four miles an hour ; and passing through fields
of maize, frijoles, and sugar-cane, all irrigated and looking
exc[uisitely green, we came at 1 1 A.:\r. to the La Quesaria, a
large hacienda or estate, 3820 feet above the sea, seventeen
miles from Colima.

Entering by a gateway in high thick walls, we passed
through a large outer yard strewed with megass (the crushed
sugar-cane), and surrounded by low houses for the workmen
and their families, to the inner enclosure. AYe went through
an archway of volcanic stone, and nnder a massive stone
aqueduct on solid arches, to the house, where, beneath a double
wooden piazza, our pack-mules were already unloading. On
the wall dividing the two enclosures stood a quaint bell-
tower with three handsome bells, which were rung at noon
by three Doys in white in the most primitive fashion. The
two smaller bells had strings tied to the clappers, both of
which one boy pulled at the same time ; while the two other
acolytes were occupied in hoisting the third and largest bell
mouth upwards, and then, having once set it off, turning it
over and over as fast as possible, producing altogether about as
deafening and inharmonious sounds as can well be imagined.
Till breakfast was ready we wandered aljout the patio, saw
the sugar-mill, and went into the quiet little church, just
opposite the house. The hacienda employs 200 hands ;
and produces yearly 225 tons of clayed sugar, 78 tons of
"panda" coarse brown sugar, 50 tons of rice, and 1200
barrels of rmn. Sefior A. came in when we had almost

210 SOUTH BY WEST.

finished an excellent breakfast of eggs, cliickens, and frijoles;
and after giving the various items of manufacture of the
estate, ended with the extraordinary statement, " And they
make chicken wine."

Of course he was greeted with shouts of derision : but
he stuck to his point, and soon, to convince us, a bottle was
produced with " Vino de pechuga" (a chicken's breast) on
the label. We tasted the decoction ; and found it very bad
rum, without any perceptible flavour of feathers. It is sent
in large quantities to the interior. Three barrels are made
daily, worth thirty-six dollars each ; and two chickens are
boiled in every four gallons of the wine. Such is the fact ::
but the reason why still remains a problem for future tra-
vellers to solve.

We were not much reassured by the accounts of the
road, which a priest told us was " muT/ peligroso " frona
robbers, and that the league and a half between La Quesaria
and Tonila was the worst part of all. So, when we started,
at 1 P.M., three servants were sent ahead a-s videttes ; we
all came next, with the baggage-nrales, and the four other
servants behind us, — a party of fourteen in all. In about
a quarter of a mile we passed the Barranca de la Quesaria,
the first of any size we had yet come to ; it was very steep,
the road zi^za^cring down the side to the stream below. Then
up the other side, and along a broad road between stone
walls. Oh, what a sharp look-out we kept ! but no robbers
appeared. After half a mile we came to the Barranca del
Muerte (of death), an ill-omened name. It was full of
yellow Alamanda ; and the stream was fringed with exquisite
ferns, though higher up the rocks, which in the rainy season
are alive with green, they were now all parched and dead.

Climbing up the further side, we rode into the little
agricultural town of Tonila, and through its quaint streets of
old houses, with crinkled Eoman-tiled roofs and wooden
corbels. An old church, with three bells in a belfry standing

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIOXS. 211

apart from the main building, in front of the door, was being
rebuilt, bricks being mixed with volcanic stones.

Out of Tonila we took a sliort cut across the slopes of
the Volcan de Colima, whicli now towered up above us, with
its two peaks of " fuego " and " nieve" fire and snow. Smoke
poured from a fissure low down on the side below the peak
of " fire ;" and near San Marcos the ground was quite grey
with the dust which had fallen in clouds five weeks before,
during the eruption of February 26. The country was open
and bare of trees, except along the streams, which all canon
as they do in Colorado, each canon taking a southerly
direction towards the Tux pan or Apiza river. We were
also pleasantly reminded of our northern country by the re-
appearance of the Spanish bayonet or yucca. In the north
we know it from one to three feet high ; here it grows to
twenty feet, with many branches and fine heads of flowers ;
and is used as a hedcje to the corn-fields.

Our only excitement during the march was just as we
were turning up a hill, wlien two horsemen appeared at the
top. They drew up. So did we : and the gentlemen all
rode to the front. They hesitated, and seemed inclined to
turn back: but finally reassured — every one declared — by
my umbrella, which was unfurled in a most peaceable style,
they came down the hill ; and, as they passed, with a plea -
sant though rather trembling " Jntenas tardes " (good-evening),
we saw it was only a poor fat old gentleman travelling with
his servant, who had evidently been much more scared at us
than we had been at them.

About 3.30 we caught the first sight of the hacienda of
San Marcos, rising up white on a knoll of rock, over a mass
of low buildings clustered together. What a view it was !
The volcano, with its two peaks and its pine-covered slopes,
was on our left ; and far down to tlie rioht, across rich suo-ar-
fields, ran the dark line of the great Barranca de Beltran,
with the mountains of Morelia rising msT^^^ed behind it.

212

SOUTH BY WEST.

After half-an-liour more, over two small canons and along
an open plain, we jogged up to the hacienda, not at all
sorry to ride in through the wide open, hospitable gates, and
jump off under the orange-trees.

Don Mauricio G., the owner, was not in : but soon re-
turned ; and his family being at Zapotlan, he placed the
whole of his house " at our disposal," and we are to stay two
nights to enable the gentlemen to examine the country.
After an excellent dinner, we proceeded to " fix ourselves up."
The P.'s and I had two immense rooms, with no windows, —
theirs opening on to the street outside, and mine on the deep
verandah which runs round two sides of the yard. The
servants (there were about eight) were intensely stupid, and
would not understand ; so of course we had to call our
constant helper Mr. Y. to the rescue ; and, tlianks to his
superintendence, we at last got some beds made up. Then
we retired for the night : but no sleep came to me, for my
bed was nothing but a flat table on low legs, instead of high
ones, plus a mattress an inch thick entirely made of hard
knots, and one sheet. The bedding, I suppose, is in Zapot-
lan with the family, judging by the scarcity here.

Thursday, ith. — This morning I got up pretty early,
aching ratlier more than when I went to bed, and went out
iri the piazza till breakfast.

It is just the middle of " croj) time ;" so the whole place
is in a state of the greatest bustle and animation. The "Alto "
(high place), a small mound of rock about 100 feet high,
is surmounted by a beautiful old Spanish castle, where the
family live wdien they are at home. It is reached by a long
flight of red earthen steps from the pa^to below. All
round the pai!t'o are low buildings inside strong walls, —
sugar-mills, stables, corral for mules, a small church, and the
long suite of rooms where we are lodged.

All the day Mrs. P. and I have been spending in the
greatest comfort, lying in hammocks in the verandah, writing.

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 213

sketching, studying Spanish, and watching the endless life
of one of these large haciendas ; the mule-carts and pack-
mules, with great loads of sugar-cane, coming in from the
fields to the mill ; men and women, in gay-coloured cotton
dresses, coming and going all day long ; a traveller, on a
tired mule, arriving from time to time ; our own men loung-
ing about, waiting for the Senores caballeros to come in
from their reconnaissance, and creeping round behind me
with a " mira I" to each other of admiration at my wonderful
genius in having put a dolefully bad likeness of Severo, our
picturesque " master of the horse," into the foreground of
a sketch ; — and behind all these kaleidoscope groups rises
the Alto, and the Volcan de Fuego as a background.

One of the women servants, with whom I made great
friends, presented to me as a "recuerdo" (keepsake) a paper
full of the grey dust which fell from the said volcano ; and
Don Mauricio, on my showing this to him, brought me some
of the pumice which fell in quantities at the same time.

The following account by one of our party Avill give a
good idea of one of these large haciendas : —

" San Marcos," he says, " is a sugar plantation covering
22,000 acres, whose lands extend to the summit of the
Volcan de Colima. The slopes of the volcano are covered
with pine. On the lands of San Marcos are IGOO souls.
The hacienda employs 300 hands, and produces yearly
3000 barrels rum, 550,000 lbs. sugar, besides corn and fri-
joles. The hands employed in the sugar-works are paid
ten dollars (£2) per month, besides rations. Those work-
ing in the field earn five dollars per month and rations.
These wages may be considered average prices for labour on
the haciendas in this region, of which San Marcos is a fair
specimen."

From the same source came this account of the recon-
naissance, which was very successful, considering how few
hours they had for it : —

214 SOUTH BY WEST.

" We examined the Barranca cle Tuxpan, the Platanillo,
and that of Cuchipehuatl. From a projecting ridge we
could see about seven miles east and five miles west. The
general line is nearly straight. At its junction with the
Barranca de Beltran, the top of the Tuxpan canon is 3250
feet above the sea, the bottom 2570. As far as discernible,
the bottom of the gulch is a succession of valleys sloping
towards the bed of the river, averaging half a mile in width.
Generally the river runs between a valley and a bluff, alter-
nating according to the windings of the gulch. Most of
these valleys are cultivated. The fall of the river is about
fifty feet to the mile. The Barrancas of the Quesaria, Tonila,
and El Muerto are described as uniting before their junction
with the Tuxpan river."

On the 5th we had to get up at 3 A,M. for our start, but
were amply repaid for the trouble by the picture which met
our eyes as we came out into the piazza. The whole court
was lit up by two huge fires in iron cressets to light the
men at the mill ; for they were grinding cane all night ; and
the red glow and dancing shadows played upon the walls
and towers of the Alto. Close by, our servants were pack-
ing and saddlinff the mules and horses under the orange-
trees. Our host, followed by a troop of dogs, was overseeing
everything ; servants ran about with cups of chocolate and
plates of cakes ; and some sleeper was still swinging in his
hammock at the end of the piazza.

At 4 A.M. we set out to cross the famous " larrancas" or
canons, as they would be called in Colorado. A road be-
tween fields of sugar-cane hedged with bananas, led us in
half a mile to the brink of the Barranca of Tuxpan. It is
about 700 feet deep, and the paved road is zigzagged down
the almost perpendicular sides. We preferred dismounting
and walking, and even so could hardly keep our feet. At
the stream which runs along the bottom we mounted, and
]\Irs. P. and I had each a mozo (servant) by our sides, in case

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 215

our mules should slip going up the steep ascent. Old
Salomi, my mozo, was also keeper of the ammunition — a
very important person. At the top of the Tuxpan we
struck a long barren plateau of volcanic ash, and then
descended into the great Barranca of Beltrau, and kept
some way along its " bench," a flat valley a mile wide, 500
feet below the upper plateavi, with the river in a yet deeper
cleft on the right, and beyond it the impenetrable mountains
of Michoacan, full of robbers and " mountain lions."

The trees were full of parrots, and of the chachcda'pa, a
handsome game-bird, as large as a cock-pheasant, with a
curious double larynx, which enables it to produce a hideous
noise. Everywhere the Alamanda was in blossom, and
Baby's black head was soon decorated with bunches of its
lovely yellow flowers. Passing the little village of Platanar,
with 500 inhabitants, we turned down through a stream,
then up to the high land again; and at Agosto struck the first
pinery, at an elevation of 3500 to 4200 feet above sea-level.
They seemed to me much like the common Eocky Mountain
pine ; only the tufts of needles are larger and longer, and have
a kind of debilitated droop, like those of the Sierra Nevada.

Soon we came to the regular pine barrens ; and rode
through them for some miles, passing two immense trains of
mules. We met and passed during the day's journey 1000
animals, loaded with an average of 300 lbs. each, or a total
of 150 tons. Some of these were carrying salt, sugar, dry
goods, groceries, hardware, rum, coffee, rice, and timber,
from the coast to Guadalajara, and other towns of the table-
lands. Others were loaded with soap from Zapotlan,
crockery from Guadalajara, cotton goods, potatoes, etc.,
bound for Colima and the coast.

These mule trains are continually robbed in passing tlie
pine barrens; and whenever we came to a sandy arroyo, or
gulch, we kept a sharp look-out. A band of robbers a week
ago made this road almost impassable. They stopped every

216 SOUTH BY WEST.

one who came along the road, and after robbing them,
gagged tliem and bound them to the trees till night came ;
when they loosed one man, and, making off, left him to
untie all his fellow-sufferers.

The heat and dust were unbearable ; and, wearied out witli
climbing up and down the barrancas, we were truly thankful
to reach the last of them, the barranca de Atenquique, at
the bottom of which is a " paradero,'' ' o'n stopping-place.
Here the mules and horses were unladen, and trotted off
to the stream, where they stamped about in the cool water
to escape the flies. We meanwhile rested outside a miserable
palm-thatched hut, as the house was too filthy to enter ; and
tried to get something to eat for luncheon, as we were nearly
starved. The mistress of the house, a great fat dirty woman,
brought out some " mole de guajalote ; " namely, turkey
stewed till it is almost black, in a sauce of red pepper so
intensely hot that one feels as if one were positively eating
fire. Some of our party, whose throats were hardened to
Mexican cookery, thought this excellent : but we wretched
ladies wept involuntary tears after a bit the size of a six-
pence ; and as Atenquique produced nothing else, we set to
work to forage in our own luncheon basket for anything that
might be left therein. To our joy we discovered one tin of
sardines remained ; a few Albert biscuits of Mackenzie and
Middlemass — a strange place for Scotch biscuits to get to ! —
and a bottle of Burgundy. It was quite sour : but that did
not matter a bit. Then I plucked up courage, went into the
filthy hut, and with Severo's help manufactured some tea in
an earthen pipkin, which was very reviving ; and thus we got
our luncheon. The pigs grunted round our feet : the
chickens, whom their fat mistress called " Jews of Polios,"
flew over our cups and plates : a large dog jumped in and
out of the low door away across our laps ; and the picture
of discomfort was completed when a horrible beggar woman
came and joined the group.

HOBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 217

This barranca joins the Tuxpan about a quarter of a mile
below the road, and from that point the Tuxpan winds to
the south and south-east. To any one accustomed to the
magnificent canons of Colorado, I must say that these bar-
rancas, though very grand, are certainly disappointing. But
we, perhaps, are hardly fair judges, as we passed them in
the dry season ; even from the flowers and ferns which we
then saw we got a faint idea of the magnificent vegetation
which covers their sides during the rainy season, when
each little thread of water has turned into a foaming torrent,
with tropical trees covered with flowering creepers growing
down to the water's edge.

At the top of the barranca, 4030 feet above the sea, we
found an old " mud waggon," with five mules, waiting for
us ; and, with a warning from the chief of our escort to have
all arms in readiness, as the road was swarming with robbers,
we set off for fifteen miles jolting into Zapotlau.

The road was indescribable, through sandy tracks in the
pineries, creeping along at three miles an hour, for we took
five hours to do that wretched fifteen miles. Then out of
the forest and into a fresh misery, in the shape of our first
" pedregal," or stony place. A pedregal is a series of lava
screes, where the hot lava has run over the country from
some one of the innumerable volcanos which, active or
extinct, appear all over Mexico. This one, where the road
crosses it thirteen miles from Atenquique, is 4970 feet above
the sea, so that we had been rising steadily since leaving the
Barrancas. It was a wild tract, a mile or more wide, of
horrible lava rocks, among low scrub of mimosa and nopal
(prickly pear), and in the very rocks themselves, where
nothing else would grow, nestled the most exquisite cacti of
endless variety. Our escort previously had all agreed in
assuring us that the pedregal was the most likely place on
the whole road for the robbers to attack us, so that our feel-
ings were not exactly comfortable when we discovered that

218 SOUTH BY \Y£ST.

tliey and our mules bad gone round by anotber road a quarter
of a mile off, and just at tbat moment our wretcbed old
coacb, as tbe mules tried to drag it up a great step of rock,
broke down utterly. Tbe cocbero got down ; tbe mucbacbo
got down ; we all got out ; everybody suggested sometbing
different ; and I retired to a convenient rock near by witb
one of tbe rifles, and tried to imagine wbat I sbould do if
tbe robbers pounced upon us. At last tbe escort came up,
tbeir moutbs full of some sweet fruit, sometbing like a
yellow plum, wbicb tbey found on a tree near by ; and,
after gallantly presenting us witb some of tbeir spoils, tbe
united energies of tbe wbole party succeeded in dragging
tbe stage over tbe rock, tying up tbe broken part witb cord,
and on we went again, arriving at Zapotlan at 5 p.m.

Zcifpotlan, April 6.— In a town witb Pronunciados all
round us, advancing from all sides, expecting tbeir arrival
to-nigbt, and not knowing bow we sball get out— sucb is oiir
state at 12 a.m.

Wben we arrived at tbe botel yesterday at five, even
before we could get out of tbe coacb, a gentleman rusbed to
tbe door to ask if we bad come from Cobma, and if we knew
anytbing of Don Julio Garcia and bis movements. We of
course knew notbing : but later in tbe evening came start-
ling news.

Tbe day after we left Colima it was attacked by tbe Pro-
nunciados under Julio Garcia. Tbe colonel of tbe Govern-
ment troops was wounded.

Tbis morning tbe news is confirmed : but Don Julio
was " wbipped," and is now retreating in tbis direction, to
join forces, as tbey suppose, witb La Bastida, anotber rebel
cbief wbo is coming down from Seyula. Tbe telegrapb line
has been cut between bere and Colima. Tbe operator tbere
managed to send tbe news tbrougb, and tben Don Julio
caugbt bim, maltreated bim, and destroyed tbe wires. Tbey
expect tbat be may arrive bere tbis afternoon or even-

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 219

ing. This morning, scouting parties are out all round the
town, and the troops are all under arms : but tliey would
not do much good in case of an attack, for their rule is to
retreat to the barracks under such circumstances, and shut-
ting themselves up securely, to leave the town in the hands
of the revolutionists.

Nobody seems to mind much. There is no excitement,
and things are going on much as usual. The women are sit-
ting on the pavement selling fruit and flowers. The men
are lounging about, gossiping over the fountain, or drinking
"pulque" from carved calabashes in the fondas. The very
soldiers are loitering at posada doors. And all this, with
an enemy advancing from two sides : not to kill them, it
is true, but to levy a heavy sum on their city, and take what
they will.

All we can do is to wait quietly for the stage, in wliich
we start to-morrow at 1 a.m. ; pray that Don Julio may be
detained ; and eat water-melons.

We are advised to hide all our arms for fear of the Pro-
nunciados, tiU we get to Zacoalco, where the danger of meet-
ing them ceases, and the real danger from the robbers begins.
The former, every one says, will not annoy us at all if we
meet them : but would of course take our arms if they could
get them, and search for Government mails or property. But
the robbers between St. Ana Acatlan and Guadalajara are
a very different matter. The stage is robbed by them nearly
every day. Yesterday it came through safe : but the day
before it was attacked by fourteen robbers, and tlie seven
passengers were robbed of all they had. They did not make
any resistance, and had no escort, both of which protections
we shall have. That makes a great difference ; and Don
Eamon V., to whom kind Don Juan F. H. has given us in-
troductions, and who is going to lend us the captain of his
own private escort, says that he has no doubt that ^\■e shall
get through perfectly safe.

220 SOUTH BY WEST.

I have discovered that the young man who greeted us so
eagerly yesterday on our arrival, had good cause for his
anxiety about Colima. He is the son of a wealthy "hacien-
dado" near here ; and accompanied with three servants splen-
didly armed and mounted, was on his way down to Colima to
be married. This morning he got a message from his father,
forbidding him under present circumstances to go on ; so he
has had to turn back and go home again, leaving his poor
bride waiting disconsolately among the cotton bales with
which they have fortified Colima, till Don Julio clears out,
and her lover can travel in safety.

Our gentlemen intended to go off at five this morning on
a reconnaissance down to Tuxpan, a fifty miles' ride : but as
Don Julio is advancing just that way, they had of course to
give it up : so we had a good sleep and breakfast at nine, an
unheard-of luxury in this country of early rising. But our
rooms — what would you at home think of them ? They are
just like prisons ; very high, without a vestige of a window.
Heavy wooden doors, barred like bara- doors, open into
the courtyard, into which all the mules, horses, and stages
come : the floors are brick, and the walls roughly painted.
The furniture of my room consists of a chair and table of the
very rudest kind, and three beds, which were all so dirty that
it took me some time to settle which I would take possession
of. But there were clean sheets ; and with my own blankets
to cover the filthy mattress, I soon forgot about everything,
and had the soundest night's sleep I have had for a long
while.

Some of the party, as they could not make the long ex-
pedition to Tuxpan, rode out about five miles to the haci-
enda of Huascalapa. " From this point," says one of them,
" which is on the very verge of the Tierra Caliente, we
obtained a good view of the country lying south, towards the
Tuxpan river. It is a large plain, covered with plantations,
producing all the fruits of the tropics ; sugar, coffee, cotton,

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 221

rice, bananas, etc. From this plain the country rises gradu-
ally to Huascalapa, a large stock farm, whose lands in the
direction of the volcano are well timbered with pine, oak,
cebano (a hard constructing wood), and roble, a kind of red
oak. Huascalapa, and the country to the north, produces
corn, wheat, barley, frijoles, and all fruits of the Templadas,
or temperate zone."

This morning General P. and I took a walk round the
town. It is a thriving place, of 25,000 inhabitants, standing
at a height of 4900 feet, on the slope of some hills over-
looking a magnificently rich plain, on the further side of
which, to the east of south, rises the Volcan de Colima, or,
as they call it here, " de Zapotlan." The streets are much
wider and better than those of Colima, and the plazas are
larger, though not so pretty. The Plaza Grande, on which
our hotel is, has oleanders and oranges round it, and a few
larije shade trees, which seem to be a kind of ash. Low
houses, with arcades painted white, pink, and blue, run
round it ; and the tower and walls of a splendid old church
stand in one corner. They are building a new one of fine
grey lava close to it. The city must be extremely old,
judging by the pillars of lava one sees about the streets,
and which look like what we should consider in England
Eoman work.

This is the first place where we have risen high enough
into the Tierra Templada to meet with the maguey, or great
American Agave, from which Pulque, the national beverage
of the Mexicans, is manufactured.

We tasted some pulque : but I think it was sour, for it
was a good deal thicker than it usually is. It was white,
and felt in one's mouth like a crisp kind of cream : but
tasted like yeast, witli a flavour of pigskin ; and I did not
feel at all inclined to acquiesce in the Mexican song, in
which some enthusiastic pulque-drinker says that " it is
preferred by the angels to wine !"

222 SOUTH BY WEST.

Zapotlan has another trade, which supports a large
number of its inhabitants ; for it is the head- quarters of the
soap manufacture, and supplies nearly the whole of the
Western States of Mexico. The Tequesquite or impure car-
bonate of soda or potash used in this manufacture is found
round the lagoons of Seyula and Zacoalco. As much as
100,000 cargas of 350 lbs. each are annually freighted from
these lagoons to Zapotlan, Guadalajara, and a few inter-
mediate places.

There are some very good shops ; and a pretty market,
with heaps of peppers, tomatos, limes, zapotes, etc., on the
ground, shaded by a square of "tide" matting on a stick,
something like a Chinese umbrella. This matting is made
from the tide reed, which grows in all the fresh-water
lagoons, and is plaited by the Indians into mats, which are
called " pctates" and also into " tompiates" baskets the
shape of a bucket, and of every size from that of a tea-cup
to a bushel, which are used throughout the Kepublic for
holding and carrying all manner of stores. Under an arcade,
Indian girls were selling flowers ; and we took home to Mrs.
P. a quantity of red and white frangipani {Plumieria) flowers,
of which they had great saucers-full pulled off the stalks.

This morning at breakfast, Severo, the "master of the
horse," brought in to Mrs. P. and me a great bunch of
poppies and stocks. He had observed how eager we were
for any flowers we saw, and the good-natured fellow had
been out to the market to get these for us. He is a very
fine-looking man — a fair Spaniard, six feet high, with blue
eyes and light hair. His dress is a magenta shirt, with
black in front ; buckskin pantaloons, with rows of silver
buttons and black embroidery down the leg ; a shoi-t em-
broidered buckskin jacket ; a rainbow- coloured scarf round
his throat ; a black belt, with silver-mounted pistol ; and a
sombrero, with silver embroidery— altogether one of the
most effective costumes I ever saw.

ROBBERS AND REYOLUTTOXS. 223

Guadalajara, April 8. — Thank God, we are here safe at
last ! and I hope we may never have to go through another
such day of anxiety, and perhaps danger, as yesterday.

After about four hours' sleep, the second night at Zapot-
lan, I was woke by sundry thumps on my prison-door, and
the voice of a mozo calling, " Las cloce y media" half-past
twelve. I jumped up, and, by the light of a miserable wax-
candle dressed myself, and found my way through waggons
and mules, and sleeping Indios in the patio, to the sala,
where the sleepy " amo " (liost) had prepared us chocolate
and sweet bread.

By 2 A,M. all was ready, and with no feeling of regret
we bade farewell to Zapotlan, and started in a regular
American ' Concord ' stage-coach. We were a party of nine
ourselves, as Severo, and Galindo the captain of Don Eamon
V.'s private escort, have come through with us. Our only
■other fellow-passenger was an old Senora, the mother of the
Colonel of Zapotlan, who sat in a corner by me, and puffed
cigarettes all the day long.

For the first part of the road we kept our arms out, as
there are some bad places between Zapotlan and Seyula.
There was no light for a couple of hours, except from the
stars ; but we could not sleep ; every nerve seemed strained
to catch some sight or sound which might denote robbers,
and the Southern Cross shining down on us in its calm
beauty seemed almost a mockery of our disturbed and anxious
feelings. Where we stopped to change mules especially, we
were on the look-out, as the " ladroncs" are very fond of
making a rush upon the coach as it stands still. A regular
plan was arranged in case of an attack. We were all to fire
at once, without giving tliem time to come near. " Fire low
and keep cool" were the orders. Then we ladies, if the
ruffians did not run at once, were to throw ourselves on the
floor, and fire from under cover, while the gentlemen got out
to fiuht.

224 SOUTH BY WEST.

Our road led us up and over a steep divide, some miles
from Zapotlan; and just before dawn, as we were going
down the further side, between high cactus hedges, we had
a " scare ; " for in the grey light we saw a man drop suddenly
into the ditch behind us. He was evidently on the look-
out for us, but not liking the muzzles of the rifles out of the
windows, let us go by untouched. At sunrise we readied
Seyula, a pretty old town, and changed mules. Here the
news was worse and worse. The Government troops were
marching south on the town ; beyond them the Pronunciados
were in force on the road ; and beyond them again the
country was swarming wdth robbers in bands of any number
from two to two hundred.

Leaving Seyula, all the arms were hidden, in hopes of
saving them should the Pronunciados catch us. The rifles
were wrapped in a serapc, and stowed under the back seat ;
but we kept our pistols on us, concealing them under our
clothes.

A little way from the town we struck the Lago de Seyula,
a salt lake, with soda flats all round. A few miles along
the lake we met the Government troops, a fine body of
cavalry, and their colonel confirmed the reports of the road
we had heard. The alkali dust was perfectly choking,
scorching the very skin ; and we muffled our faces in hand-
kerchiefs, and so jolted on hour after ]iour over rocks and
guUeys, and in one place through half a mile of heaps of
broken pottery, layer upon layer, several feet thick, imbedded
in loose sandy soil, till at 1 1 a.m. we drove into the village
of Cebollas (onions).

We pulled up in front of a poor-looking house, with
a young fellow lolling on the window- seat, where breakfast
was preparing, of which we were in need, as a cup of choco-
late was all we had tasted since five o'clock the day before.
Severe and Galindo were left to guard the coach, and we
dragged our stifi'ened limbs across the patio and into the

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 226

house, where two or three women received us with great
empressement, and gave us Zapotlan soap and water to wash
off a little of the dust from our scorched and blistering
faces, and then sat down to a most uninviting meal of
omelet and " came seca " (dried beef). Just as we did so,
however, we heard a clatter in the court-yard, and in rode
two Pronunciados and dismounted. In a minute, two more
and an officer appeared in front of the windows ; and they
then sent in word they wdshed " our permission " to search
the coach for arms. Those of the gentlemen who were not
out already went out instantly. Every possible argument
was used : but Chavarin, the major, said he had orders to
come and take the rifles. Expostulation was in vain ;
resistance out of the question ; for, though we could easily
have overpowered this party, they w^ere but the outpost
of another body. So, with dismay, Mrs. P, and I next
saw the five rifles and two pistols handed in through the
window, to be taken by the women who were serving us,
and stowed away in an inner rooro. It was evidently a
prearranged thing, and the whole pack were in leagme, — the
w^omen were so very reassuring to us in the way they
hovered about us while all this was going on, begging the
" Seneritas to fear nothing, there was no danger ;" and the
young man in the window, who watched us so closely, and
then disappeared, I cannot help fancying was in the secret
also. In fact, we found out afterwards that our party and
their precious repeating rifles had been watched and fol-
lowed all the way from the coast.

After a long argument, " Major " Chavarin gave us back
the two pistols — all the others were safe under our clothes —
and promised to go with us and meet his colonel, who, he
said, was about a mile up the road, and confer with him
about giving us back the rifles. He came in to breakfast
with us, and, as he sat by me, my feelings alternated
strangely towards him, as he seemed so embarrassed that

226 SOUTH BY WEST.

I could not help being sorry for liim ; and then, thinking
of the loss of our arms, I wished — well, some wishes are
best unspoken. He was dressed in a linen jacket, and high
embroidered boots over linen pantaloons ; was well armed ;
and on his left wrist wore a suggestive bracelet — a leather
strip about an inch wide, ornamented with a hundred or
more copper caps. His men were a despicable set of
ruffians, in any kind of dress over military trousers,
wretchedly armed with old muzzle-loading carbines, and all
drunk.

We set off again with heavy hearts, which were not
lightened when we got to the place which Chavarin had
spoken of as his colonel's post, and he rode up to say
that his colonel had been obliged to go off to Zacoalco,
and had left a scout to tell him ; so there was an end of
our rifles. He promised, however, to escort us through
the worst bit of robber country near St. Ana Acatlan, and
half promised that he would there give back two of the rifles.
So on we drove in blazing sun over the alkali plains by the
side of the lakes, choked and scorched with the dust, which
seemed to blister the skin as it touched, and watched the
lake on our left with reflections of the trees towards Zaco-
alco in its bright water, which rippled on the shore. Sud-
denly some one said —

" Why, there are clouds of dust blowing across the
lake!"

And as he spoke the water began to fade away as we
drew nearer, and we found it was nothing but a horrible
waste of soda sand, and that our rippling lake was only
mirage.

That mirage and the word Cehollas will always call up
unpleasant associations in my mind as long as I live ; for as
we were looking out at this strange sight, up rode three of
the Pronunciados, and said that the Major had been obliged
to turn back, and that they must go too, being alarmed at a

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 227

cloud of dust ahead, which they thought must be Govern-
ment troops, and would like our ammunition.

That, of course, was refused ; and fearing they might
get a recuerdo from our revolvers, they sneaked off, leaving
us comparatively defenceless at the very edge of the bad
country. There was nothing for it but to get on as fast as
possible. Three of the gentlemen got outside the coach ;
Mrs. P. gave her pistol to Galindo, and 1 mine to Senor A.,
as they were now unarmed. So each man had a pistol,
thirty-six shots in all ; and I kept the ammunition in my
lap, to be ready to load again if need be.

We turned from the horrible alkali plains, with their
dancing lakes of mirage, along a road between stone walls
and bushes. On the hillside all the trees had been burnt or
cut, to leave no shelter. How we strained our eyes at each
gap, expecting to be pounced upon every instant ! We soon
stopped for a rcmucla at a village of three or four huts,
and then saw a white rag on the hill. The people said, " Oh,
it was only clothes washing : " but General E. went up and
found it was tied on to a rail stuck upright — a rather curious
way of washing clothes. Then we were made to barricade
ourselves with cushions and valises, with orders if firing
began, to throw ourselves flat down and heap tlie l)lankets
over us. The gentlemen got out and went ahead in a skir-
mish line up the hill for a mile or so : but nothing befell us.
When they stopped, the poor cochcro entreated them to go
inside, for he said, " If we are attacked, and you fire, and
make me drive on instead of stopping, as Mexicans always
do, to allow the coach to be robbed, then the robbers will
certainly shoot me as I come back to-morrow." So INIr. M.
came inside : but the two Generals still stayed out, tliinking
our safety was more important than that of tlie hapless
cocker 0.

The road wound along the foot of the hills, with a rich
plain below us; fields of sugar-cane, maize, wheat, and

228 SOUTH BY WEST.

grass, and large herds of cattle grazing. But we were
almost too anxious to take much interest in statistics ; and
it was with no slight feeling of relief that we saw in about
two hours more the town of Sta. Ana Acatlan ahead of us,
and rattled through its street and market crowded with
people.

At the diligence ofiflce we halted, and — thanks to the
great kindness of Don Eamon V. of Zapotlan, who gave
us letters to the Gefe Politico, or chief man of the town — we
were provided with an excellent escort. In an hour twenty-
eight trusty men, haciendados and rancheros, mounted on
little tough spirited horses, and well armed with musket,
pistol, and machete (a strong short sword), under the com-
mand of an old army officer, were assembled in the street
ready to take us the whole way to Guadalajara. While
the escort were assembling we tried to refresh ourselves
a little Avith water-melons, and I made sketches of little
boys, who came and stared with round black eyes at
the American senoritas. The doorway of the house was
a perfect study, carved in grey stone in the most delicate
and elaborate way. Meanwhile the old seiiora, our com-
panion, was holding quite a levee of friends, who came
crowding up to the coach window to talk with her, and con-
gratulate her on escaping so far the dangers of the road.
She behaved admirably, good old lady, throughout: only
Avhispering to me from time to time in a tone of despair
''Ah los bonitos rifles I " — " The beautiful rifles !"

When all was ready, and we had persuaded a drunken
Zouave, who said he had been left behind by the French,
that we could not possibly give him a place in the coach
to Guadalajara, as he desired, we clattered off through
the streets and up a hill towards the Coronilla Mountain.
At every turn we met ox and mule trains, who had all
been robbed that day, the drivers giving different accounts
of the number of the ladrones, and looking at us with pity.

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 229

But our good escort kept up gallantly, forming front and
rear guard in the bad places, and dodging along to cut off
corners in the safe ones ; and so we crossed the Divide under
the Coronilla in safety, wliere Mr. M. had himself seen two
sets of travellers robbed. This mountain was the scene of a
desperate encounter between the Imperialists and General
Eamon Corona, who was advancing from Sinaloa with the
Eepublican army of the West. The Imperialists were de-
feated, Corona's troops carrying their position at the point of
the bayonet; and he arrived before Queretaro, which was
then beincj besietred, in time to frustrate the success of the
Emperor Maximilian's desperate sortie, which was made
with a view of cutting his way out, and escaping to the
Pacific coast via Morelia.

Down in the valley below we were told to be on the
look-out ; a robbery had been committed in the morning ; and
the ground was strewn with papers left from the plunder
Our escort formed in single file on either side of us, and
some skirmished along behind a high cactus hedge, till we
came to a robber-town, Santa Cruz ; a miserable place, with
adohe houses, for the most part roofless, looking quite worthy
of their owners' trade. On the top of the church we saw
four men evidently watching us, and outside the town two
or three more on horseback sneaking off into the distance,
thinking us too stronsf to be meddled with.

We climbed up and over another Divide, as the sun set
blood-red behind the mountains, and passed the old Casa
Fuerte, which used to be a military post : but now, because
there is more need than ever of protection on the road, all
the troops have been withdraM'n.

At Santa Augustin, another robber-den, we stopped an
hour after sunset to change horses, thankful for even a. few
minutes' rest from the jolting of the coach ; and got a cup of
chocolate, our escort halting close round us to prevent a rush
on the coach, as armed men were hanging about the doors,

230

SOUTH BY WEST.

looking at us with longing eyes. Then, with six stout
ponies, on we went, getting snatches of sleep between the
bits of pedregal ; and I think I had been dozing some
quarter of an hour when we stopped, and up rode the
Captain to say we were to be very watchful, as we were
coming to a bad barranca. It was a wild scene, as I rubbed
my sleepy eyes open and looked out. We were tearing on
with our half-broken ponies over an open sandy rise ; our
escort, with carbines unslung and ready to fire in a moment,
galloped alongside, with their scrapes over their shoulders to
keep off the cold air, and most of them were masked with
handkerchiefs to keep off the dust. After this place was
passed in safety, we dozed off again from time to time, till,
on coming to the city outposts, six miles from Guadalajara,
we were stopped, and a " passport of arms " demanded by the
picket. This we had not got : but when it was explained
who and what we were, the sergeant in command let us
go by, as one of the worst places was still to come, and
to have passed it without arms would have been mere
folly. Nothing, however, occurred, and at 10 p.m. we
rattled down the streets of the capital of Jalisco, our
muchacho on the box carrying a flaming torch, which left
a trail of sparks behind him, and our faithful escort keep-
ing close around us.

We pulled up at the Diligence Hotel to leave the old
Seiiora ; and having got us there, the proprietor was deter-
mined to keep us, and positively refused to allow the coach
to take us on to the rival Hotel Hidalgo, where we intended
to stay. Neither threats nor persuasion availed, and the
mozos began taking off the luggage. We had, perforce, to
alight, and had some difficulty in getting even a chair for Mrs.
P. to rest upon, who was quite exhausted. Leaving some of
the gentlemen to see to the luggage, we set off to walk to the
Hidalgo, as it was past ten o'clock, and no Lack-carriages
were to be had. But our troubles were now over, for on our

ROBBERS AND REVOLUTIONS. 231

way we met the Commandante, Colonel U. ; and in a moment
more General C. himself, who took us straight to the house
of some German gentlemen, which in deed, as well as word,
was placed at " our disposal." And, supper ov^', we were
thankful to go to our comfortable home-like rooms after
twenty- three and a half hours' travelling.

CHAPTEK XYI.

GUADALAJARA.

The Paseo— Barricades — The Belen Cemetery — Attractive baths — A fortunate
escape — The Cathedral— Confessionals — El Hospicio — Senor Menesses — A
clean kitchen — Embroidery — The C'una — A wonderful contralto— i/etocZos —
A wicked bull — Pottery — The opera — The States Prison — An embarrassing
present — Mexican troops — How to make a pronunciamiento.

Guadalajara, April 10. — We are in perfect Paradise
here after " roughing it " for so many days. Our hosts are
kinder than words can say; and one almost forgets that there
are such things as robbers and revolutions till one sees all
the gentlemen and the coachmen going about with revolvers,
and barricades across the streets for fear of the rebels making
an attack.

The 8th was spent by Mrs. P. and me in resting and
enjoying our host's excellent German piano, while the gentle-
men received all the authorities, who paid them a long and
satisfactory visit. Everywhere as yet the idea of a railroad
has been received with acclamation.

In the afternoon at five we took a drive in a comfortable
carriage, with a pair of fine mules. We went along the
Paseo, a boulevard planted with trees, which runs all round
the town. There are now only two points of egress from
the city to the Paseo, as all the streets are barricaded with
strong adobe (sun-dried brick) walls, very well done.

We passed in one street a church built in old days by
the Indians. The whole front is carved in the most elaborate

GUADALAJARA. 233

and beautiful way in brown lava; and as a pillar for the
corner is a gigantic figure of St. Christopher, sixteen or
twenty feet high, carrying the Infant Christ on his shoulder.
From thence we drove to the Belen Cemetery, a strange
place. It is inside immensely high, with thick walls. In
these walls are niches, into which the coffins are put head-
foremost, with the name on a glass or stone door. Each
niche is leased out for the space of five years ; and if at the
end of the time the lease is not renewed by the survivors,
the coffin is taken out and cast away, and the niche let to
some fresh person. In the centre of the cemetery is a fine
building, with four avenues of orange-trees leading up to it,
in which all the bishops and priests are buried.

The sun had set; the new moon, a mere silver thread,
rose in the crimson sky over the pinnacles of the gateway,
as we turned to go home : while away on the hill-tops we
saw a bright fire, and wondered if it were not a signal of the
robbers.

This cemetery is connected with the Belen Hospital —
a vast building, covering I know not how much ground, with
wards for sick and insane, and schools for children, within its
walls, managed by Sisters of Mercy. Its revenues at one
time were immense. But becoming impoverished through
endless revolutions, it had almost fallen into ruin, when
Bishop Portugal, some dozen years ago, rebuilt and re-
endowed it. We went all over it during our stay in Guada-
lajara; and though, thanks to the climate, the wards were
tolerably fresh, with roses and oleanders and plumbago peep-
ing in at the ever open windows, yet from what little I could
see in half an hour, both medical skill and nursing know-
ledge are at rather a low ebb in the State of Jalisco.

When we got home. General C. and his beautiful American
wife came to call on us. She really is kindness itself : but
one offer she made us is so thoroughly characteristic of the
state of the country, that I was immensely amused at it.

234 SOUTH BY WEST.

We were talking of the baths which abound round the city,
and she said —

" You ought to go to the baths three miles from town ;
they are much better than those nearer ; and it would be
quite safe for you to go with a guard of half a dozen troopers,
which the General would give you any day."

We thought that on those terms " le jeu n'en vaut pas la
chanclelle" and with much laughter declined. The more we
hear, the more thankful we are at having come through so far
safely. General C. telegraphed to us to say we positively
must not come, as he could not spare us a sufficiently strong
escort ; a small one would have compromised us with the
Pronunciados, and nothing under 300 or 400 men would have
made us really safe. He never received any of our tele-
grams, as the lines were all cut, and we of course could not
get his.

Then again, by staying that one extra day in Zapot-
lan, we were saved from what befell the people who came
through the day before us. The stage between Zapotlan
and Sta. Ana was attacked and robbed by a large body
of robbers. Everything was taken, and the ladies and
children were actually stripped of all the clothes they had
on, and sent on in the coach in this state.

This is a fact, horrible as it may seem: and yet here
everything goes on as usual ; and the men, instead of rising
and sweeping such wretches from the face of the earth,
lounge on the Plaza, listen to the band, shrug their shoul-
ders, and say, " What a pity ! "

Yesterday morning we took a walk about the city, j\Irs. P.
and I being stared at in the most disagi-eeable way, I sup-
pose on account of our wearing hats, instead of mantillas or
rebozos. Some one remarked that it is just the way the
Chinese are stared at in New York, — a flattering comparison !
The cathedral, to which we went first, was, I must confess, dis-
appointing. It is a magnificent building, standing on the

GUADALAJAKA.

235

Plaza : but, being built of adobe, which is much used here
on account of its being safer, because more elastic than stone
in case of earthquakes, the authorities have seen fit to paint
it skyblue and yellow. So, like the houses, which are painted
in the same way, it has a kind of gingerbread look.

Inside the cathedral there are altars to different saints
or virgins along the sides, with life-size figures of the special

The Cathedral, Guadalajara.

saint by the side of each altar ; they were really very fine ;
all coloured to imitate life, in perfect proportion and well
executed.

By each altar also was its confessional-chair, -^a carved
wooden sentry-box, shaped like a chair ; and in one sat an
ill-looking priest, listening to a woman who was kneel-
ing, her head completely covered in a black shawl. She

236 SOUTH BY WEST.

made her confession tlirouoh the side of the box ; and the
priest sat there, paying, it seemed, very little attention to
her, but staring about and watching our movements with
great interest. It was the most revolting form altogether
of the Roman Catholic religion, — all its beauty gone, and
nothing but the worst features left.

One priest actually came lounging into the choir, with a
cigar in his mouth.

In the afternoon one of our hosts and Senor H., General
C.'s A.D.C., drove with us to the Hospicio de Guadalajara,
which was founded a hundred years ago by Bishop Juan
Cruz Euiz Cabanas ; and is the most perfect institution of
the kind I have seen in any country. It stands on a rise
in the suburbs of the city, the other side of the little river,
at the end of a long street. In the centre rises a magnificent
dome over the chapel, round which all the buildings cluster.
It covers between six and eight acres of ground ; and there
are twenty-five different gardens of flowers, each with a
deep corridor running between the flower-beds and the
rooms, which are built all round. Within its walls are 700
children of all ages, from the little foundling of a few
days to the young workman of twenty. The Sisters of
Charity who manage it received us at the door, and took
us to the parlour, where we were joined by Senor Menesses,
the maestro of the Opera and music-master of the Hospicio.
He is a genius of whom the Guadalajarans are justly proud.
At seventeen he wrote an opera, and sent it to Verdi for
corrections, who returned it without altering a single note.
He was good enough to play to us some marvellous variations
of his own on Lucrezia Borgia, which were a triumph of
execution. After this most pleasant prelude we went all
over the institution, going first into the children's schools. Of
these there are three degrees ; one for the infants, mixed,
from three to six years old ; the next, also under two Sisters,
for girls and boys, separate, to ground them ; and the third for

GUADALAJARA. 237

elder children, the boys of about eleven being passed on
to a master.

Among the infants I was shown one jolly little English
boy, whose father, a workman, had died out here, leaving
this mite. He seemed perfectly happy, and had forgotten
every word of English. In the department of the " ninos"
the boys were carpentering, making shoes, and weaving.
All the clothes they wear they make themselves ; and the
cotton cloth and blue rebozos for the girls were perfectly
woven.

The kitchen is a splendid room forty or fifty feet long,
with a high dome in the centre, and two enormous ranges
standing out in the middle of the floor covered with coloured
tiles. They looked pleasantly familiar to me when I saw
they came from " Leamington, England." The elder girls
in turn do all the cooking, and anything so spotlessly clean as
the kitchen I never saw. One might have literally eaten
one's dinner with much greater comfort off the glazed red-
tiled floor than off many of the tables we had had to be
contented with in the last few weeks.

Everything and everybody looked happy. Flowers and
birds were in all directions, and pets of all kinds, from a
little chestnut-coloured pig to dogs and babies, roamed about
wherever they pleased.

We had not time to go into the infirmary and the old
people's department — an almshouse on a large scale — but
went on to the girls' school Here they were saying lessons,
drawing, and embroidering. The drawing was very fair, but
the embroidery in gold and silver thread on velvet was most
beautiful. This is one of the Mexican specialities, and a
pair of blue velvet slippers embroidered with the Mexican
arms in fine gold thread would have held its own against
most Indian embroidery. The maiden of fourteen or fifteen
who was working it blushingly uncovered it to show us,
and was perfectly enchanted at our admiration.

238 SOUTH BY WEST.

Througii this department we went to tlie " Cuna" or
nursery. Here there were thirty little foundlings, each with
its own nurse. One was dressed up in white, just going to
be baptized. It was found on the doorsteps six days ago
by one of the Sisters as she opened the gates in the early
morning. Poor little things ! it was the saddest sight : but
perhaps it is the best fate that could befall them, for they
will be happy and well taken care of, and then started in
a good position in life. All the foundlings save two or
three were white. The poor Indios, low as they are,
hardly ever abandon their children.

From the Cuna we went to the music-room, to hear Seiior
Menesses give his lesson to the girls. There were about
twenty, from fourteen to nineteen years old. They sang
first a chorus from the " Elisir d'Amor" with two soprano
and one contralto solos, and then another from " Semi-
ramide" — both perfectly rendered. Then the contralto
sang us a scena from " Semiramide" quite splendidly. She
has the finest contralto I have ever heard for depth, evenness,
and quality ; and with age — for she is not quite sixteen, —
and the good teaching she is sure of, it will be something
wonderful. These girls, as soon as their education is finished,
if they do not marry, which many do at once, get first-rate
situations as governesses ; indeed, Senor H. told us the
demand was much larger than the supply.

The last part we went to was the CoUegio, where the
"paying class" is taught. It is a large boarding-school for
the sons and daughters of gentlemen from all the Western
States of the Eepublic. Our dear old friend Don Juan E.
H.'s son and two daughters are here. The son, a pretty
little gentleman-like fellow, came to see us : but the
daughters were away with the Superior at a watering-place
on Lake Chapala, where the Guadalajarans go for bathing.
We went away at six, after a two hours' visit, thoroughly
delighted, and very much astonished by all we had seen.

GUADALAJARA. 239

In the evening, as two fine bands were playing on the
Plaza, we all went out and walked round with hundreds of
other people, or sat under the orange-trees, listening in a
delicious, lazy, dreamy way to the music till near ten, when
we adjourned to the saloon for " helaxlos" (ices). The ice
comes from Cuyuitlan, only two leagues from here, a place
about 5000 feet above the sea-level. It is made by putting
the water in little pits at night ; and by the excessive radia-
tion of heat it becomes ice by morning.

Wednesday morning. — General P., Mrs. P., and I drove
out at eight to " los Banos del Agua Azul," — the blue water.

They are a quarter of a mile from town ; and in the bath-
house, outside which climb Banksia roses and heliotrope,
are five large swimming baths of spring water, which
bubbles up from the pebbly floor. The water, about four
feet deep, is never cold, and myriads of little fish swim in
the baths, and nibble one most unmercifully.

As were we going to drive away after a delightful swim,
we heard shouts and galloping, and towards us, over the
green meadows and gardens, came a big bull, pursued by
two or three men riding with lazzos. The bull was deter-
mined not to be caught, and made for a deep dike close to
the baths, through which he got in some unaccountable
way. It was much too deep and wide for the horsemen to
follow him ; and he was trotting away tail erect, and looking
as wild and wicked as only a triumphant bull can, when
one of the lads threw himself from his horse, tore off most
of his clothes, and, lazzo in hand, cast himself into the
muddy dike. He emerged on the other side, as black as
the wicked boys after St. Nicholas's ink-pot : away he ran
after the bull ; and the last we saw was the pursued and
pursuer disappearing in the far distance among the rolling
meadows : but we never heard whetlier tlie bull was cauuht.

After breakfast I went out with jNIr. ]\I. to do some com-
missions for his wife under the Portales. There are excel-

240 SOUTH BY WEST.

lent shops, full of American and European goods ; while at
the cajons, on the pavement under the Portales, goods of the
country are sold, as in Colima. But here they have one
manufacture which neither Colima or any other city in
Mexico can boast of to a like degree. I mean pottery. It is
made in every shape and for every use, and is so cheap one
can hardly understand how it pays to make it. I got at one
of the cajons two or three handfuls of the tiny models of the
larger pots and jugs and basins which are made as toys for
the children, and a perfect Noah's ark collection of taran-
tulas, alacrans (scorpions), ducks, cocks, cranes, and nameless
birds and beasts, painted the colour of life, except, I think,
one monkey, half an inch high, who rejoiced in a red and
blue coat and a yellow head. All these, delicately painted
and finished, I got for the enormous sum of 16 cents, or 8d.
English, We went to one Plaza, where a regular crockery
market is held, and there laid in an immense store of the
different wares. I bought a large black water-bottle, beauti-
fully painted, with gold and silver patterns, and quantities
of smaller jugs, pots, and tazzas of endless varieties, some in
the same black and gold, others grey with gold tracery.
One water-jar which seemed in great favour was in the
shape of a grey pig with golden snout and tail, and a hole
in his back through which the water was poured.

But my greatest treasure I got quite by accident. One
morning one of our hosts came and said, " Here is an old
Indio who is famous for painting pottery, and he has brought
the only things he has by him at present."

Out I flew to see, and there found a pair of exquisite
jars about fifteen inches high, with quaint covers. The
ground was a delicate pinky grey, on which were painted
patterns of eagles, deer, trees, and buildings in black, gold,
and silver. I thought, of course, they would be quite ruin-
ously expensive, and asked the price in fear and trembling.
What was my amazement, therefore, when the old man

GUADALAJARA. 241

humbly asked 6 rcalcs (3s.) ! The bargain was concluded
without hesitation, and the old fellow went off delighted
with his miserable payment. Mr. S., who had been stand-
ing by, thought me wildly extravagant, and said it was pre-
posterous, and that I ought to have got them for half the
sum : but I was far too pleased with my treasures to grudge
the old Indio a farthing, and indeed they would have been
well worth ten times the money.

The Guadalajarans also make very good figures of their
pottery ; and, thanks again to the kindness of our hosts, we
carried away a very good collection of " Typos del Pais " —
types of the native costumes. They are six to ten inches
high, and very well made ; dressed exactly like the different
classes of the people, who each have their distinguishing
dress. One which I got was a portrait of a well-known
"Alcalde" (chief man) of a village a few miles from Guada-
lajara ; and it is, so said those who knew him, an excellent
portrait, as he stands with his cigarette in his mouth just
ready to light it with the slow match in his hand.

This pottery is sent from Guadalajara all over the
Eepublic.

On Wednesday evening our whole party \\\i\\ General
and Mrs. C. went to the opera. An Italian troupe are stay-
ing in the city, who gave " Eigoletto " very well indeed.
La Visconti as Gilda was charming. She has a pretty sweet
voice, though it is not very strong, and her singing and act-
ing are excellent. Verati, the Duke, has a nice voice, and
sang " La Donna e mobile " well ; and the quartett with
Grossi as Eigoletto could hardly have been better rendered
anywhere.

Between the acts we went out into the corridor, where a
good many of the ladies were smoking cigarettes, as a matter
of course. We however only refreshed ourselves with ices
brought round by little barefooted black-eyed boys. The
opera-house is a huge building, and when finished will hold

242 SOUTH BY WEST.

4000 people; at present it only seats 1600. Last night it
was miserably empty, and the empty boxes looked all the
worse from the fact that there are no seats in them, as
every one wlio comes has to bring his own chair, like a
snail with his house. There are five rows of boxes, one
above the other, and the original plan was to make the
columns between each box of crystal. However, as one
political party or another has come into power from time to
time they have appropriated the building funds for their
own uses ; and so the idea of crystal columns has had to be
given up, white marble ones being now put in their stead.

Friday we went to pay a visit to the States Prison, in hopes
of finding some lace which we had been told was made there.
However, there was no lace to be got in the women's quarters,
where we went first, and Mrs. P. so little liked the looks of
the men who appeared on the other side of the double iron
sate through which our "uide wished to take us, that she
went back to the carriage. But I was curious to see the
prison, and so went on with Sehor A. and the turnkey. The
prison is built on a peculiar principle : long streets of cells
radiating from a common centre, so that the priest standing
in the middle can preach to all the prisoners at once. I con-
fess when the heavy bolts turned, and I found myself the only
European among such an assemblage, I rather repented not
having followed Mrs. P.'s example. The prisoners were mak-
ing hats and baskets of palm-leaf, and crowded round me in
such a way that I was rather alarmed. However, poor fel-
lows, they were very civil, though their curiosity at the white-
faced Senorita knew no bounds. They wanted to load me
with their little manufactures, and it was only by desperate
exertions on Senor A.'s part, and assurances that I was going
across the sea, that I was not forced to carry off a cardboard
house covered with powdered stone, besides various other
equally trying inventions. One man, however, would take
no refusal, and insisted on giving me a pair of pretty little

GUADALAJARA. 243

fine baskets of his own making ; and when Senor A. told
me in English I must take them, and I accepted the gift,
the poor fellow's delight and triumph knew no bounds.
But I was not at all sorry to get out of the double gates,
between which some prisoner was receiving a visit from his
wife and child, and regain fresh air and liberty.

At dinner we were startled by a military band striking
up outside, in the Calle San Francisco, and found that as it
was the last day of our stay at Guadalajara, it had been sent
to play under the windows by kind General C. Later in the
afternoon he sent the troops round, and we all went out in
the balcony, and watched them march past the house. They
were short and small, slouching along with heads hanging
down, and muskets all criss-cross anyhow, as thoroughly un-
soldierlike a body of men as I ever saw. But the reason is,
I believe, that they are all Indies, who, by fair means or foul,
are pressed into the service. Hardly any enlist of their own
free-will, much preferring the promises of the chief of any
revolutionary party, of large pay and plunder, to the small

pay and hard work of the Government. made us

laugh by an account he gave us of how he could raise a body
of Pronunciados : —

" I have only to go out on market or fiesta day, and
call the people round mc, and say, ' Now you shall have
as much pulque as you like, and I will give you four reals
a day if you will pronounce for me ; ' and then I give
them ■pidquc, and they all get drunk, and then I draw my
sword and I make them a speech about ' la Patria ' and
' Libertad,' and they all pronounce, and then there is a revo-
lution."

CHAPTEE XVII.

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA.

The Eio Grande de Santiago— Ocotlan— Ordering dinner— The robbers La Barca
—An escape— A luxurious bed— Dug-out canoes— Buena Vista— A dead
robber— Wine-growing and pedregal- " ?7«a Senorita tan grande"—T'he
faithless negro— Farms and farming— The Padre's "boys"— An indigestible
meal— Hanging a robber— Irapuato— Molasses candy— Swape wells— Cereus
and nopals— Salamanca— Singing birds— The churches of Oelaya— Indian
music— A story of the " Plagiarios"—I'eTU pepper— Jumping cactus— A
pretty leap— Approach to Queretaro.

April 13. — Guadalajara to Ocotlan.

At 6.15 A.M. we left hospitable Guadalajara, carrying
away none but the pleasantest reminiscences of our stay of
six days.

Pablo, a pleasant young fellow, who had been our cochero
in Guadalajara, came with us as 7nozo, and was in a state of
supreme delight at being armed with a Henry rifle and
revolver. Mr. M. also came with us as far as La Barca.

The usual route from Guadalajara to the capital is by
La Venta, Lagos, Leon, and Guanaguato ; but for two reasons
we chose the more southern route, past Lake Chapala and
up the Kio Lerma. First, because the engineer's party
from the north (of whom we had heard nothing as yet,
which made us very anxious) must pass along that route,
and so be able to give a report on it. Secondly, because
we were told the Chapala route was shorter and better, if
there can be anything " better" in one Mexican road than

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 245

another. Certainly, after the first few miles it was bad
enough — rough and stony, and in the softer places there
were clouds of dust.

At San Pedro we stopped and got three men as escort,
and at 9.30 came to San Antonio, a hacienda where we
changed mules, and had breakfast in a hut by the roadside.
The women in the hut, which was only made of sticks and
thatch, gave us eggs, frijoles, tortillas, and came seca, in
chilli Colorado sauce, which for hotness almost beat the mole
de guajalote at Atenquique. But besides these native viands
we got capital chocolate, made from some cakes we had
brought with us. So, on the whole, we fared well.

At 12.15 we came to the summit of a small pass (4850
feet), and there before us lay a splendid valley, rich with
golden wheat -fields, with a fine river flowing through it on
our left to the north-west ; and we knew we had struck the
great central valley of Mexico, commonly known as the
Valley of the Lerma.

This valley is one of the richest portions of the Eepublic.
Its length, between Guadalajara and Queretaro, is about
230 miles, and its greatest width (between Leon and the
mountains of Michoacau), 60 miles. About one-tenth of
the available land in it is under cultivatioiL Wheat, maize,
and beans grow freely without irrigation, yielding good crops
year after year without the slightest pains being taken
to improve the soil. With irrigation and better farming
two crops might be obtained ; and when a market for the
produce, and easy means of transportation are supplied, this
tract will become one of the most important wheat -growing
districts of the world. The amount of wheat which could
be raised in this valley alone has been variously estimated
from 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons yearly, equal to or surpass-
ing the whole yearly yield of California.

The river rises in the Lago de Lerma, near Toluca, out-
side the western rise of the Valley of Mexico ; and from its

246 SOUTH BY WEST.

source, till it flows into the eastern side of Lake Chapala at
La Barca, is known as the Eio Lerma. It passes out of the
northern side of Chapala at Ocotlan, and from thence to San
Bias, where it falls into the Pacific, is called the Rio Grande
de Santiago. North of Chapala the Santiago flows through
a very deep canon ; and there are also two fine falls on it —
one a horse-shoe fall ; and another about twenty miles from
Guadalajara, of which I saw a photograph, which the Guada-
lajarans consider only second to Niagara.

The valley, as we jolted along it, seemed one vast corn-
field. High mountains lay on the north, and our road ran
along a southern ridge which divided the valley from Lake
Chapala. There was very little timber on the mountains,
and in what little there was many fires were burning, for
everything is as dry as tinder.

At 4.30 P.M. we left the hills ; crossing a bridge over
a branch of the Santiago, where the Indian women were fill-
ing their water-jars, and swimming about in the water like
a shoal of fish ; and reached Ocotlan, a large hacienda two
miles from Lake Chapala.

We stopped here, intending only to get a relay and go on
the last stage to La Barca : but Mrs. P. was ill, so we de-
cided upon staying there for the night. The owner in Guada-
lajara had given our party letters to his Administrador, so we
were most kindly received, and rooms instantly prepared for
us. The hacienda was the prettiest we had seen. The centre
of the patio was filled with a garden of the loveliest flowers
and shrubs imaginable ; roses, carnations, plumbago, ole-
anders, oranges, and bananas growing together in wild luxuri-
ance ; and on one side was a high tower, with shaky steps
and shakier ladders leading to the top, up which I followed
the rest, after seeing to our invalid, and was rewarded by a
glorious view.

North and west were the mountains, with the forest fires
flickering up and down their slopes. South we got a glimpse

UP THE VALLEY OE THE LERMA. 247

of the lake, beyond a rich flat with various branches of
the river winding down round the little town. East
stretched away a valley through endless hills. A thunder-
storm was raging over the mountains of Michoacan, on the
further side of the lake. The sun was setting behind the
mountains we had passed, in a perfect glory of crimson and
gold ; and over our heads, so close we stretched our hands
to catch them, flew flocks of black rice-birds, thousands
upon thousands, in a ceaseless stream, to the eastward.

But we were hungry, and supper seemed as if it never
would come ; and when it did come at last, though excellent
for strong people, yet there was nothing fit for our invalid ;
so Pablo and I went off to the kitchen, to see what could
be done. I gave him orders, in abominable Spanish, inter-
larded with signs. These he, in turn, translated as he
thought best, to the half dozen women who were scuttling
about the kitchen, making as much fuss as if they were
preparing dinner for a regiment ; and at last, strange to say,
I succeeded in getting some eggs properly boiled, which I
carried off in triumph.

The Administrador came in to supper, and gave us the
latest " novedades," which here means robber stories. The
Pronunciados have been giving him a good deal of trouble
lately. About two weeks ago they came down on the
hacienda, made a levy of thirty dollars ; and as he did not
pay fast enough, they carried off his corn and sold it.

As to the robbers, they are getting the worst of it
thereabouts. There was a family of robbers near by, who
attacked the neighbouring rancheros (small farmers), caiTy-
ing off their flocks and produce ; and about fifteen days ago,
the rancheros, unable to stand it any longer, got together in
force, attacked the robbers, and killed the whole family,
father, sons, and cousins, save one, who was badly wounded.
Next day, as the victors were carrying ofl" their prisoner,
other robbers appeared to the rescue ; so the rancheros

248 SOUTH BY WEST.

killed the wounded man, and a few of the fresh robbers ;
the rest ran away : and they got off all safe themselves.

After supper came a delicious lazy lounge in the cor-
ridor while the gentlemen smoked, with the air full of the
scent of roses and orange-blossom, and then I went off to
my room in intense heavy heat, and tried to sleep on a bed
which almost rivalled those at San Marcos for hardness.

April 14.— Ocotlan, 4875 feet, to Piedad, 5400 feet.

At 6.15 A.M. we started, with the Administrador and four
of his men, well armed and mounted, as escort. In about
two miles, after crossing various bridges, we struck the
lake (its level is 4850), and drove eastward along its shore
for nearly two hours. Here it is between twenty and thirty
miles wide, and on the further side the mountains of Micho-
acan rise in grand rugged masses to a considerable height.
Between the water and the road runs a narrow stony strip,
which the Indians have irrigated thoroughly, and where
they raise fine crops of chilli, tomatos, sweet potatoes, and
cucumbers.

At 7.30 we passed Tamein, a town of 3000 inhabitants,
who get their living chiefly by fishing and gardening ; raising,
besides cattle, corn and wheat.

Soon after this we turned away from the lake, which
here makes a southerly bend ; cut off a corner of some miles ;
and reached La Barca, on the Pdo Lerma, just above where
it flows into the lake, at 9.30.

It was market-day, and the Plaza was densely crowded
with a noisy mass of buyers and sellers. We stayed there
for breakfast. The food was very good at a dirty little Fonda
(restaurant) close to the stage-office ; all the walls of which
were decorated with little bits of Guadalajara pottery, hung
in patterns round some larger bowl or plate. We heard here
of a most fortunate escape we had had the night before.
When we stopped at Ocotlan, a courier from a house of
business in Guadalajara, who had ridden beside us all day,

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 249

went on, thinking we had only halted to change mules. A
few miles on he fell into an ambush of robbers, who robbed
him ; beat him within an inch of his life ; and asked where
the stage was. He declared it was but three or four miles
behind. " Well," they said, " we will keep you here ; and if
it doesn't come we will kill you." In the night, however,
he got to his horse, and managed to escape to La Barca ;
where some of our party heard his story.

Our stage had to be conveyed across the river in two
dug-out canoes, a difficult operation, as the canoes are made
of a single log, scooped out into the semblance of a boat.
Two of these had to be put side by side, and the stage
run into them, two wheels in each boat, and so ferried over.
This took some time ; so, after breakfast, I had time for a
sleep, and found that, under some circumstances, two chairs,
with a couple of loaded rifles across them, make a tolerable
bed ; and I got a comfortable nap, with my hand on my
revolver, though the door was crowded with beggars and
muchachos, and the floor was so alive with creeping things
that I had perforce to keep my feet off it.

We walked down to the river through the Plaza, laying
in on our way a good store of splendid water-melons, and
crossed in one of the dug-outs to the further bank, where the
stage was in readiness. The river level was 4900 feet, a
rise of fifty feet from Ocotlan.

Mr. M. left us here, to our great regret, to return to
Colima; going back across the lake by a little steamer
belonging to Mr. C, an enterprising American, who runs
it once a week from Chapala, at the western end, to La
Barca. Just across the lake at this point is La Palma or
Tequiqui, a place to which great part of the goods for the
Western States are brought by a mule route from the city
of Mexico via Morelia.

Bidding farewell to ]\Ir. M. we started from the river
bank at 12.30, and in half an hour reached the Hacienda de

250 SOUTH BY WEST.

Buena Vista, where we stopped for an escort. This hacienda
stands on a little rise above the river ; and the casa is really
a very fine building, with deep portales, fresco-painted walls,
and a high and picturesque bell-tower rising at one end.
It occupies one side of the Plaza, which is in the centre
of a town of 5000 inhabitants, all belonging to the
estate.

AVhile some of the gentlemen went off to the casa to
see about the escort, Mrs. P. and I sat in the stage regaling
ourselves on water-melons and sweet limes ; watching the
people coming and going, and the mules laden with maguey
rope from the 2juI q;iie-gr o\Nmg districts of the eastern plateau.
We were much puzzled as to the use of a large round build-
ing with a thatched roof, like an unfinished theatre, and
found out at last that it was a cockpit !

General E. succeeded in getting a capital escort of eight
private soldiers belonging to the hacienda, all armed with
pistols, carbines, and lances. These latter are the same strong
spears which are used in the bull-fights, and are considered
the best weapon against robbers.

Our next halt was to change mules at Tanguato, a pretty
town twenty miles from La Barca, with a population of 5000.
All the land round was irrigated, and brilliantly green with
fields of garabances (horse-beans) and tobacco. Just out-
side this pretty, peaceful little town, we passed a dozen men
carrying something on a litter covered with a scrape, and
found out afterwards that it was a dead robber, who had just
been killed.

For the first time for many months we felt the first drops
of rain. A delicious thunder-shower cooled the air and
laid the dust, and made our escort wrap their scrapes
round them as if it were the depth of winter. How we
rejoiced in it, tllo^^gh it lasted only a few minutes !

At 5 P.M. we got a relay at Yurecuaro, and half an hour
after stopped at Salitrillo, a small village on the borders

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 251

of the Nacimiento lake, to make some Liebig soup for
Mrs. P., who was tired out. The villagers get their living
by making jpetate mats from the tule reed, which grows all
along the lake. We set off again at a quarter to six, and on our
left saw a loner low hill of volcanic ash, which would make
splendid grape soil. We all agreed how in the future we
would establish a great wine-making place there, and what
the wine should be called, and how we would send samples
to all our friends, and rival the trade of Xeres ; when to
our dismay we turned right up the said hill, and in a moment
wine and railways and all thoughts of anything save present
misery took their flight. Never have I felt the equal of that
shaking; it was not mere stones or screes, but a real pcdrcgal;
downright rocks, between which the wheels would stick, and
the mules stop short ; and then came a perfect hurricane of
bad words, blows, and stones, till up we went with a jerk that
sent us all flying.

The last bit of the ascent we had to walk, as the jolting
grew unbearable ; and a sorry procession we looked, wearily
dragging ourselves and the rifles up the rocks, the bushes
cut on each side of the track for fear of robbers lurking in
them, and our wretched team coming slowly behind with the
heavy coach. Five hundred feet did we climb up that
'pcdregal, and by the time we reached the summit, 5500 feet,
there was barely light to read the barometer.

When w^e began the descent the scene was wild in the
extreme. Our escort, with their long lances pointing up-
wards, and their scrapes thrown over their heads, to keep
off the rain, which was falling again ; a thunderstorm raging
in the mountains ; the fireflies flickering in the damp pas-
tures : the mules strurrKlinij alonir the horrible road ; and
the pleasant possibility of robbers any minute. Our poor
beasts were completely used up, and it seemed once or twice
as if we never should reach our journey's end. But at 10
P.M. we drove into Piedad, wearied to death, and Don Pt. V.,

252 SOUTH BY WEST.

to whom we had letters of introduction, being ill, we were

passed on to a friend of his, Don Ignacio , who placed

his house at our disposal, and late though it was, had beds
made up, and an impromptu supper prepared.

Ajdril 15. — Piedad, population 10,000.

Mrs. P. and I shared a small room, without windows,
opening into the patio, with large wooden doors. I could not
sleep much, as the fleas were maddening, so got up about
6 A.M., and dressing in the dark, after a cold bath on the plan
which Miss Nightingale so much approves, i.e. a pint of water
and a wet towel, I went out into the patio. There I found the
daughters of Don Ignacio smoking cigarettes, and we soon
made friends, they, in their good-natured fashion, excusing
and understanding my halting Spanish in a marvellous
way. They were very nice girls, though quite uneducated.
Senorita Cresencia, the youngest, was very handsome, with
heavy but well-formed features, and beautiful eyes and
teeth. The patio had bananas and fruit-trees growing in
it. One by one our party appeared, and we at last got our
desayuno of chocolate and hiscoches, for which I had been
longing for some hours.

After we had a little satisfied our hunger, General E.
and I, being in an inquiring frame of mind, set out for a
walk, and first went to the church on the Plaza, where our
appearance sadly disturbed the devotions of the worshippers.
For, when we paused for five minutes in a side-chapel to
examine a fine old carved altar into which were let some
good paintings, numbers of the people who had been praying
in the body of the church followed us in, and, kneeling down
close to us, pretended to go on with their prayers, but really
stared at us from behind their hands.

We walked on through the town, which is mostly built of
cantera, a light volcanic stone, grey or pink. This stone is
very easily carved, and is found all over the central plateau.
\Ye got some specimens of it from a heap of stone lying

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 253

ready for use, and found that a thin slip of it broke and
crumbled easily in one's fingers.

We then strolled on to the Purissima, a very old church
standing close to the river. It was a most picturesque build-
ing, and I tried to begin a sketch of it : but by this time a
swarm of about forty muchachos of all ages, from two to
twenty, had collected, who calmly followed our every step
and motion, and at last we had to beat a retreat. We
longed to put them to flight, but though General R. ap-
pealed touchingly to their feelings in the best Spanish he
could muster, nothing had the slightest effect, and they
followed us to the very door. There, however, they got their
reward ; for Don Ignacio, happening to see our triumphal
entry, pounced out on them and soon dispersed them. He
apologized to me afterwards for his fellow- citizens, saying
tliat besides my hat, which was a sight in itself, as all
ladies wear rebozos or go bareheaded, they had never seen
" una senorita tan grande" (such a tall lady). How unlucky
for me that the Mexicans are small !

We found that while we had been out walking those
who stayed at home had discovered an old white-headed
American negro, who kept a restaurant in Piedad for the
stage passengers, and who professed himself capable of
cooking a " reel elegant brekfass, sah. I cook for Gen'ral
Scott, sah, when he come to Mexico." So, out of sheer joy
at hearing the familiar dialect again, we were delivered over
into the old fellow's hands ; and there we sat, trying to while
away the time till the "reel elegant brekfass" should appear.
But hour after hour went by, and we felt more and more
starved, and still no food came. At last, after various
messages had been sent, and endless excuses returned about
the difficulties of getting what was fit for " 'Merican ladies
and gen'lemen to eat," we discovered that just as everything
was ready, the stage for the West had come in, and the
faithless old wretch had given the passengers our breakfast.

254 SOUTH BY WEST.

and was slowly preparing number two for us. However,
we got it at last, two or three hours past the appointed time,
and whether it was our hunger, or the real excellence of the
meal, we found it very good.

We were all desperately tired, and spent most of the day
pretending to read and work up the notes : but every few
minutes one or other would give a desperate nod and sub-
side into silent contemplation of a map or note-book, with
his head on the table.

We are all getting so statistical we have agreed, that
when we return to civilized society we shall be unendurable.
My special department is to keep notes at each rise or halt-
ing-place of the elevation from the two barometers ; besides
general notes, as all the others do, of the produce and trade
of each place we pass.

April 16. — Piedad to Irapuato, 5500 feet.

Left at 6.15 and crossed the Eio Lerma, which here is
100 feet wide and fordable at this time of year above and
below, by a fine bridge. It was made of cantera, with eight
arches, carved balustrades, and a tablet at each end stating
when and by whom the bridge was built, and that it cost
7265 dollars (£1453). A mile from town we came to the
hacienda Santa Ana, belonging to a rich widow. It stands on
a little rise above a fertile plain, where ploughing and sowing
and harvesting were all going on at once. In one large field
we counted fourteen ox-ploughs at work. The plain is a
continuous wheat and corn field for miles and miles, varied
by a stretch of mesquite trees, with good grazing beneath
them. All the valley seems to have been covered at some
period with this mesquite, a beautiful tree of the acacia
tribe, wutli delicate fern-like leaves, and pods of edible
beans. In many places trees of it are left standing here
and there in the corn-fields, and used as growing granaries
for the corn stocks, which are stored in the branches.
Goats are particularly fond of the mesquite beans; and

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 255

near St. Ana we saw a large flock of them actually clamber-
ing up into the lower mesquite bushes, after stripping the
branches within reach from the ground.

At the hacienda de la Laguna Largo, garabances were
being threshed by a man driving a mob of horses round and
round an enclosure over the beans. They are used for fatting
hogs, of which immense numbers are raised on the hacienda,
and driven all the way to the city of Mexico, at the rate of
three leagues (between eight and nine miles) a day.

Food here is very cheap ; a fat sheep costs Si ; chickens
thirty- one cents (fifteenpence) ; eggs nine cents a dozen.

At 12.23 we stopped for breakfast at Penjamo, a robber-
town of 6000 inhabitants. Of this town we heard many
uncomfortable anecdotes in Guadalajara, and were quite sur-
prised to see it look neat and civilized outwardly. Among
other little tales, one gentleman told us that the priest of
Penjamo was a kind of chief among the robbers, and that he
(our informant), being obliged to stop for a night in the
town, had taken the precaution of getting a letter to the
priest, who took him in and treated him most hospitably.
Emboldened by the pacific look of his host, he ventured to
touch ou the subject of the robbers, and the priest's supposed
authority over them.

" Oh," said the Padre, "would you like to see my boys ? "
and opening a door he ushered liis astonished guest into a
patio where twenty or thirty villanous-looking fellows were
assembled in readiness at a moment's warning, to go out " on
the road " and rob or murder to any extent. Our friend
was thankful enough, he said, to be under the Padre's pro-
tecting care : but not at all sorry to make the best of his
way next day out of reach of such a formidable family.

How true this might be we had no opportunity of judg-
ing, I am thankful to say : as it was, the breakfast we got
in a horrid little fonda was misfortune enough for one day.
I never saw such a filthy place. In England one would

256 SOUTH BY WEST.

hesitate to put pigs into sucli an abode. Breakfast, which
was cooked and served by two disgusting women, consisted
of eggs, rice, and chilli, with a little sour bread. As ill
luck would have it, I came in late, when all the boiled eggs
were gone, and had to swallow two fried eggs, wdiich, though
excessively nasty at the time, satisfied my hunger com-
pletely, and I did not discover till afterwards that they had
been fried in tallow-candle grease. The consequences may
be imagined ; and the rest of the day's journey, which
luckily was over by 5.30, is a doleful blank in my mind, as I
lay on a bed of rugs in the coach in helpless hopeless misery,
except just as we were entering Irapuato. I was then
roused effectually by some one calling from the outside of
the coach, " They are hanging a robber I " General P. made
Mrs. P. and me cover our eyes (not that we had the slightest
wish to look out), and told us afterwards that a robber cap-
tain who had first been shot, was, according to the custom of
the country, being hung to a tree outside the town, to make
quite sure of his being dead.

April 17. — Irapuato, population 14,000.

"We had intended staying tiU 3 p.m., and then going on
four leagues to Salamanca to sleep : but owing to some
trouble about relays of mules, we had to stay at Irapuato all
day. This was no hardship, as the hotel, the San Fran-
cisco, was good and clean ; and I, being still rather the
worse for the tallow-candles, was glad to spend the day
lazily resting. In the hotel were delicious baths of hard
water, which could hardly be called cold, and yet was not
warm, and in each of them floated a little ball of maguey
fibre, serving for sj)onge or flannel for soaping.

The "Gefe Politico," Sehor , gave our gentlemen a

great deal of information, and in the course of the day took
them out for a ride round the neighbourhood of the town.
He is a determined and go-ahead man, a great enemy
of the robbers. We found it was he wdio had ordered

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 257

the ex'^cution of the robber captain the ' day before ; and
he says he means to hang every one he can catch, without
mercy.

Towards evening we went out for a walk to the Plaza,
which is prettily laid out with quantities of flowers, shrubs,
orange trees, and adobe seats. As we came into the town
the night before. General P. counted seventeen towers and
domes. They were venerable-looking, being built of grey
cantera ; while the buildings to which they belong, and the
houses, are all of adobe (sun-dried brick).

As we came home through the market, Mrs. P. and I, to
our gTeat joy, discovered a woman selling long sticks of real
molasses candy, just like what we used to get in the States.
It was the first really home-like thing we had seen ; so we
invested in a great bundle, and carried it back to the hotel
in triumph.

IMh. — Irapuato, 5500 feet, to Celaya, 5710 feet.

A delightful day's journey, leaving Irapuato at 8.30 a.m.
The town is buried in flower gardens. Outside, on the eastern
side, the road goes along a causeway to a stone bridge of five
arches over the Silao river ; and a little farther on reaches a
second bridge over the Guanajuato river. One of the arches
of this last one, however, is not safe, and sooner than take
the trouble of mending it, the townsfolk have made a
crossing over both rivers, which certainly at this time of
year are nearly dry : but in the rainy season it cannot be at
all easy to ford. ^

The valley of the Lerma, up which we travelled all
day, is here about fifteen miles wide. The mountains of
Guanajuato, with their countless wealth of mines, lay to the
north, and those of Morelia and ]Michoacan to the south.
The plain between was beautiful, covered with mesquite, and
white-walled haciendas, on little knolls, every few miles ; a
thick line of trees marking the river course, and hundreds of
acres of wheat, green or golden ; in some places the reapers

258

SOUTH BY WEST.

were cutting it, and in others the land was being ploughed
up again for a second crop. In only two places did we see
any dressing put on the laud.

Eound all the villages swape wells, like those of
Egypt, are largely used for irrigation ; and in some places
there is an absurd invention. A great wooden spoon
is fastened on to a crossbar between two posts ; and as
a man pulls down one end with a rope, up flies the spoon
and empties its spoonful of water into the little irrigating
ditch.

The road was plentifully ornamented with little wooden
crosses, showing that, peaceful as everything seemed now,
robbers had plied their unholy trade here at some time. And
to prove tliis still further, a mound was pointed out to us
by the roadside where but a few months ago some famous
robl)ers were caught and hung.

The " Gefe Politico" of Salamanca, a Spaniard, was still
lame from a spear- wound he got in the leg a fortnight ago,
in a hand-to-hand encounter with some of these "gentlemen
of the road," in which, I am happy to say, he came off vic-
torious, in spite of his wound.

"We reached Salamanca at 10.30. The approach was very
pretty, through long straight streets of organo cactus (Cereus
gem77iatus), mixed with mesquite, for a mile or more before
we reached the city. This cereus is most useful for hedges.
Joints of it, a few inches high, are planted side by side, and
in a very short time they grow into an impenetrable gTcen
wall, sometimes eight to twelve feet high. In other parts
hedges are made of the nopal or tuna {Opuntia strida).
Sinti'le leaves are stuck into a little trench, laid alternatelv
to and from the road, and when they grow into large plants
they are useful, not only as a hedge, but for their fruit and
young leaves. The fruit of one kind of nopal is yellowish
green inside ; but the best is a variety with bright canary -
coloured flowers, and a deep blood-red flesh to the fruit,

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 259

wliiuli on the hottest day is always cold and crisp, almost
like a water-ice.^

But to return to Salamanca. It is such a bright clean
place that we quite wished to stop there for a longer time
than was needed to eat an excellent breakfast. The Dili-
gence Hotel was charming, with a patio full of rosres and
oranges, and singing birds in cages, and after breakfast
]\Irs. P. and I were taken into a little sitting-room with
rockinof-chairs and sofas, which was most luxurious after
the wretched places we had lodged in before.

Salamanca is a thriving town of 10,000 inhabitants, who
get their living by hand-manufactures of shawls and rebozos.
There is also a porcelain-manufactory near by. General P.
got an exceedingly good pair of goatskin-gloves, made in
the town, thoroughly well cut and sewed, for 12 reales, 6s.,
which in Denver would have cost four or five dollars.

We left at 12.20, and our next halt was in 7| miles, to
change mules, at the hacienda del Molino de Zaralia. There
is at this hacienda a large olive-yard, and a mill where a good
deal of olive-oil is made. How much exactly we could not
ascertain ; for after General R and Senor A. had both tried
to find out how much an olive-tree yielded, and had both
failed signally, Mr. Y. " went for" the man, who completely
shut liim up by replying, " Oh, as much as God pleases."
We tried no more statistical questions after that !

While we were waiting, Mrs. P. and I were attracted by
the brilliant note of a bird, and going into the piazza round the
house, found a dozen birds, most of them new to us, in cages.
Of course there were several mocking-birds, " Sen Sontile,"
as the Indians call it, meaning "a hundred sounds," and a

^ "I saw also another fruit called carreau — the 'Nuchtli' of the
Mexicans. The skin is very tender, and of an orange colour ; the inside
is red as blood, and the flesh like that of plums ; it stains where it touches
like mulberries ; the taste is very good, and it is said to be excellent for
curing the bite of venomous creatures." — Champlain's Voyage to (he West
Indies and Mexico, 1599-1G02.

260

SOUTH BY WEST.

pretty blue bird, " Gouroullone Azul." But our songster was
a quiet-looking dark grey bird, a little smaller than a black-
bird, whose song was like a series of raetallic notes from- a
loud and clear musical box. The Mexicans call it " Clarin,"
and it comes, so said the Avoman at the hacienda, from the
Tierra Caliente, near Vera Cruz.

We walked in the huerfa, where they grow olives, figs,
and grapes : and besides the more useful trees, the walks are
lined with roses, pinks, and sweet peas, like a garden at
home ; which so delighted us that, to tell the truth, Mrs. P.
and I tempted the gentlemen to steal some for us. Leaving
the hacienda we drove for some distance down a water-lane
from the Celaya river, and at 2.30 passed through an Indian
town, whose inhabitants can speak no Spanish at all, and
cannot make themselves understood ; so it has been called
the " Puehla de los huajes" the Town of Fools. Close by
is another puebla, where all the people are robbers. They
come out with clubs and daggers, and rob the poor foot-
passengers : but never attack an armed force ; so they did

not trouble us.

At five we got to Celaya, the prettiest town I have seen
in Mexico. The approach is up a long straight causeway,
with running water on each side, and hedges of cereus,
mesquite, reed, and Peru pepper-trees, round small fields
and gardens of alfalfa or " Chilli- clover " {Lucerne), used
as food for horses, lettuce, onions, and barley ; and at the
end, rising over thick banks of trees, the white and painted
domes and spires of the town.

The Plaza is beautiful — a perfect tropic green-house;
with a fine white column of cantera in the centre, sur-
mounted by the arms of the republic carved in stone, and
painted of their proper colours. Pound the foot of the column
is a fountain of excellent water from an Artesian well, which
also supplies " los delicios hams termcdes" tepid baths oppo-
site the hotel. We felt quite civilized again, the hotel being

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 261

two stories high ; and from the balconies of our rooms we got
a splendid view of the innumerable churches of Celaya.
There are twelve, to a population of 30,000. Two had large
domes, covered with coloured tiles of a yellowish green, with
patterns in the centre of each division of the dome in darker
colours. The effect is exceedingly good, as they look like
fine mosaic. One thing which has struck us all through the
journey, is the amount of magnificent churches all over the
country. Every day we have passed from ten to twenty, and
as often as not, the village round the church is nothing more
than a collection of two or three dozen huts, more fit for pigs
than himian beings ; the whole wealth of the neighbourhood
having gone into the hands of the priests, and produced this
great useless building, leaving the Indios round sunk one
step lower in poverty, superstition, and ignorance.

I tried to make a sketch of one of the churches from my
window, which was on the second floor, and attracted thereby
a crowd of idlers, who quietly took up their position in the
street below, watching all I did, and making remarks on
me and my occupation, which seemed to puzzle them
greatly. In the evening we went out on the Plaza, which
was crammed with people, to hear a band of Indian musi-
cians with native instruments, who were playing under the
column. The music was unlike anything I have ever heard
before, save perhaps the crooning of an Irish bagpipe. I
could not see exactly what instruments they had ; some
were wind : but besides these there were little drums and
stringed instruments. The music was wild and soft, but
very barbaric.

At last we have heard of the overland party from Colo-
rado. One telegram arrived from Zaccatecas this morning,
saying they were well and safe, and another after dinner
asking for an escort to Guanajuato, as the pronunciados had
taken their arms : so they have had troubles as well as we.

A few weeks after we had listened to the musicians on

262 SOUTH BY WEST.

the Plaza of Celaya, not dreaming of dangers, an incident
occurred in the town, of which the foUowinir letter from
my brother will give the best account, showing upon what
a volcano one may walk unknowingly : —

" Dear * * *, — We got into Celaya last night, to find the
whole town topsy-turvy at the rescue of Sefior S. from the
" plagiarios." You may remember that in my letter three
weeks ago from here, I told you he had been plagiared (kid-
napped for ransom) : but as the story is a good one, I will
give you the whole of it, S. is a relative of a rich Spanish
haciendado, of whom the plagiarios, I believe, have been
trying to get hold for some time. Finally, one evening they
saw S., and thinking that half a loaf was better than no
bread, they decided to take him.

"As he was ridincp in through the outskirts of the town
just after dark, a man rode up and asked him for a light for
his cigarette. As he gave it, he saw that the man was ex-
changing courtesies with him by handing him the muzzle of
a revolver, and, glancing round, he found he was surrounded.
Seeing that he had no chance, he surrendered, and was tied
on the back of a horse, and carried off into the mountains
of Culiacan.

" Next morning his friends, fearing that he was plagiared,
began inquiries after him, and traced him from the hacienda
whither it w^as certain he had gone, to the outskirts of the
town, where they lost all traces of him. Hearing further
that a body of mounted and armed men had gone out of
town at about ei^ht o'clock in the evening?, in the direction
of Culiacan, they felt certam that he was victim to that
most unpleasant fate — a ' plagio.'

" A general call to arms of the Spaniards of the district
was made ; and my old friend H. was among the first to arm
his mozos, and scour Culiacan. After three or four days'
fruitless search, a messenger came out from town to say that
So 000 had been asked for his ransom, which his relative had

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 2G3

refused to pay ; and that a message had been sent with the
demand, saying that if the search was not stopped imme-
diately he would be killed in twelve hours.

" Fearing that the plagiarios might put their threat
into execution, they returned to town in the hopes of per-
suading poor S.'s relative to raise the money. The days
passed, however, and nothing was done, till at last a friend
of his determined to risk everything again, and arming his
mozos, started to Culiacan to search.

" After wandering for a couple of days on the mountain,
they came across a little track made by men and horses, and
following it up for about two miles, they got among some
large broken boulders, with bushes growing in between
them, at the foot of a sandstone bluff. Pressing on, they
saw a man spring from behind a boulder, and run in through
a little trap-door in the face of the cliff. They charged
after him, and, tearing open the door, found two men pre-
paring their arms inside. In three seconds it was all over ;
and they then proceeded to search the cave, which was
about 30 feet by 20, Avith a freshly-moulded floor. After
searching round for some time, somebody's foot struck a
hollow place in the floor ; and tearing up the loose soil, and
three or four planks that sustained it, they found in a grave,
7 feet by 3, poor S. : but in a most piteous pliglit : half-
starved, tightly bound with raw hide, gagged and blinded,
and even his ears stopped up with wax.

" As they were untying him, an alarm was given outside
that the plagiarios were coming back in force. Evidently
they must have been on the other side of the mountain, and
underrated the numbers of S.'s rescuers, for, without parley
or warning of any sort, they charged right upon tlie party in
the cave, which far outnumbered them, and which besides
w^as, as it were, in a strongly fortified position. After a few
minutes' hard fighting, in which three of the plagiarios were
killed, the rest ran. Two more were picked up in the

264 SOUTH BY WEST.

pursuit by the lassos of the mozos ; and only two, I believe,
escaped to tell the tale.

" Poor S., as soon as he was sufficiently recovered to do
or say anything, which was not for two or three days, told
a strange tale of how he had been kidnapped by one party,
and after he had been ill-treated and starved by them for a
week, during which time there were some hopes of his
ransom being paid, they sold him to another band for 200
dollars. He was then carried off to his new quarters, his
buyers taking the chance of getting the ransom : but they,
finding there was little hope of making a profitable job out
of it, sold him to a third party for 300 dollars, in whose
cave he was when he was rescued."

April 19. — Celaya, 5690 feet, to Queretaro, 6050.

"VVe left at 9.45 a.m., with a capital Government escort
of thirty cavalry, all splendidly mounted, and armed with
carbines and spears. Outside the town we crossed the
Celaya river — which Avas 150 feet wide, with three inches
of water — by a fine cantera bridge of four arches. The
road ran along a paved causeway over a grassy plain : but
as a good deal of the paving was up, we were alternately
shaken to a jelly or plunged into a muddy hole, so at last
the cochero was persuaded to take us along the " dirt road"
beside the paved one. At a bridge over some ditch we were
stopped by meeting four waggons, with ten mules to each,
on their way to Guanajuato, laden with iron machinery from
the iron-works of the Trinidad at Pachuca. One heavy
waggon had chosen to stick half-way up the bridge,
and the mules from one of the other waggons had to be
put on to tlie sticking team to help them over before we
could pass.

As we drew near Apaseo, the road was shaded with fine
quaking aspens, and hedged with roses. The land is irri-
gated from a strong spring, and looks green and fertde, and

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 265

the town, through which we passed at twelve, is suri^unded
with huertas full of flowers and fruit-trees.

At 12.30 we made a long halt at the Molino de Apaseo,
5840 feet, to get a relay. It is a little corn and wheat mill,
and grinds 1| tons in twenty-four hours. It was a stupid
place to stop at, so I diverted myself by making pencil-
studies of nopal, cacti, and the Peru pepper {ScMmcs molle),
which here becomes one of the common trees. It is an
extremely pretty tree, with its long delicate leaves and
branches of coral berries, and in some places gTows to a very
large size. The berries taste like pepper : but I cannot find
that they are made much use of in Mexico, except for feed-
ing song-birds, as they are said to improve their voices. In
Peru, its native country, the Peruvians make a vinous drink
by boiling them.

Our escort, all but a sergeant and four men, left us at
Guachipi, where we stopped at 1.45. After Guachipi we
had to pass a spur of bad land, covered with Cactus. A new
species appeared here, the " Cholla" which, in Arizona, where
it gTows only too plentifully, is called "jumping cactus."
Each joint is a ball of horrible spines ; and they are supposed
to jump off the plant as you come near it, and stick to you
and your horse. As to its jumping power, I cannot give an
opinion : but I know, by painful experience, that if you once
get a choUa-ball on your clothes, you will have considerable
difficulty in getting it off again, and may think yourself
lucky if some of the spines do not penetrate to the skin.
General P. told me the horses and mules on the Trans-
continental survey of 1867 went nearly mad with this cactus
in Arizona, the balls sticking to their fetlocks ; and the
more they tried to kick them off, the faster they stuck.

At La Calera, a robber- village, we passed a quantity of
limekilns, from which the place is named.

The roads, after leaving the cactus -land, were deep in mud,
and we got along but slowly. We were now on the great

2G6 SOUTH BY WEST.

high road to Mexico, and passed quantities of waggons and
mules going west and north. Eighteen mules were laden
with Orizaba tobacco for La Barca ; and then came twenty-
six waggons, with five mules each, taking " dry goods " to
Leon. These waggons carry in wet weather 1| tons, and in
dry 2 1 tons.

About six miles from Queretaro we had to climb up and
cross a bad bit of pedregal, with high stone walls on either
side of the road, or rather lava pile, called a road. As we
neared the top of the rise, I was looking out of window, for
we were rather on the qici vive for robbers, and saw our
sergeant, followed by two men gallop forward as hard as he
could go, and, suddenly turning, put his beautiful little black
horse right at the tremendous stone wall. It was one of the
prettiest leaps I ever saw. The little horse alighted half-
way up the wall, scrambled to the top and over, landing safe
and sound on the other side in a cactus patch, though how
^he did it is a mystery to me. There was great excitement
for a minute : but the sergeant, coming back again over a
gap, reported that he had seen a man in a bush, who, how-
ever, proved to be harmless.

At the top of the hill we found four of the escort sent out
from Queretaro to meet us, and for a few seconds were in
some uncertainty as to their calling, for their attire was a
curious mixture of civH and military, and they were fully
armed. The officer in command, however, soon reassured us
by presenting his credentials from the Governor of the city ;
so that, when we found a second batch of them drawn up at
the bottom of the hill on each side of the road, we were not
tempted to prepare for action, as the engineer party were
next day in the same place. A little further on we met
another detachment, making thirty in all ; so we were well
protected, though the only good they did us was in helping
to drag the coach over a stump, into which we were driven,
and where we stuck fast for ten minutes.

UP THE VALLEY OF THE LERMA. 267

The approach to Queretaro is very beautiful. It stands
in the midst of corn-fields, with a semicircle of hills behind.
The road to it runs partly on and partly beside a causeway,
through an avenue of magnificent old Peru pepper-trees.
Another causeway, running parallel with the road, is the
embankment for a railway, begun under Maximilian's direc-
tions during the Empire.

Our minds were full of the poor Emperor as we neared
the scene of his tragic end ; and, about a mile from the town,
a voice called from the outside of the coach, as we passed
an adobe ruin, " That 's where they shot Maximilian." Of
course we were greatly excited, and just as General R was
giving us some fine moral reflections on the vanity of human
greatness, and my sympathies were all aroused, the voice
called down a second time, " That 's the wrong place." How
foolish we all looked !

At the Hotel Diligencia, where we arrived at 5.30, the
rooms were clean and comfortable, and there was very fair
food ; so we settled to stay three or four days, to get a little
rest, and also to wait for the engineer party, who were now
following us.

CHAPTEE XVIII.

QUERETAKO TO MEXICO.

A bet — The Hercules Factory — Cheap labour — Arrival of the engineers from
Colorado — Las Campanas — Leave Queretaro— Spearing a dog — The Divide —
San Juan del Rio — Thunderstorm — An unlucky choice of routes — Ill-requited
kindness — Barred out— An Indian school — The valley of the Tula — The
broken break^G-athering nopal leaves— The capital of the Toltecs — An
early start— On Cortez's track — The valley of Mexico — The railroad track-
Arrival in the city.

Sat., April 20. — We drove out iu the morning to the
Hercules Cotton Factory, which belongs to Senor K., the
most enterprising man in Mexico. The way thither was
down a steep hill outside the city walls, and at the bottom
we got on a splendid road built by Senor E, A stream,
shaded by pepper trees, ran along the side of the road,
where Indian women were washing clothes, and their chil-
dren were washing themselves. To the right, stretching
across the valley from the town to the hills, on more than
sixty arches of stone and brick, was the great aqueduct,
which was built under the following circumstances : —

A gentleman of the city, which at that time was badly
supplied with water, made a bantering bet with a friend,
that if he (the friend) would give a silver shrine, costing
|1, 000,000, to the Virgin, he, on his part, would build an
aqueduct at a like cost. The bet was taken, and the aque-
duct built : but the builder would not allow his friend to
fidfil his part of the engagement, wisely considering that the

QUERETARO TO MEXICO. 269

money might be better employed. The "water is brought
from a spring 2i leagaies up the Canada in which the Her-
cules Mill stands, and the same spring supplies the mill with
water.

About a mile out of town we passed the Purissima,
another factory belonging to the R's. It stands in a beau-
tiful garden of oleanders, oranges, and shady trees, with green
turf and lovely roses beneath. Between it and the Hercules
is a continuous village -street of the Avorkpeople's houses in
the valley, which here suddenly narrows into a mere cleft in
the hills. ISTearly every house had flowers or birds in the
windows, or on the roofs. On reaching the Hercules we
went first into a large court full of tropical plants mixed
with the finest French roses, — a fountain in the centre, and a
marble statue of Hercules, with each hand on a lion, which
cost $5000, and was brought from Italy by Senor E.

Don C. E. took us first to see the great water-wheel, which
is the best, and the second largest, overshot wheel in the Ee-
public. It is an iron wheel forty-eight feet in diameter, made
by Wren and Barrett of Manchester. We then went all over
the factory, which is the very poetry of manufacturing.
High airy rooms opening on courts filled with the choicest
flowers. The people all look healthy and happy; and a
strike has never been known. 2050 hands are employed
in the two factories, besides a host of wood-carriers wlio do
not live there. Don C. told us they keep a private army
of seventy foot-soldiers and twenty cavalry, in case of any
attack in troublous times. The men are dressed in a pretty
white uniform, with red and yellow facings ; each man gets
four " bits " (about 2s.) a day, his lodging, and one uniform a
year ; and for the cavalry, horses are provided and maintained.
On an emergency they can arm 500 of the workmen, who are
all drilled and trained. In the fire-encrine room we saw two

light guns, and there are regular sentry-boxes along the
roofs, and at all outlets. During the war of the Empire the

270 " SOUTH BY WEST.

factory was not disturbed in any way, thougli Liberals and
Imperialists were fighting round it for months. To the
credit of both sides it was respected ; as indeed it should be,
as a great national benefit.

On the ground floor, below the cotton mill, is a fine flour
mill ; which, however, is only worked on Sundays, as during
the week enough water cannot be spared from the rest of
the factory. Besides the water-wheel, there are two double
oscillating engines ; and, connected with these, a very perfect
arrangement of hose, in case of fire, to every story of the
buildings. The machinery is all of the very best and newest
kinds, and mostly from England.

The two mills use up 1600 tons of raw cotton yearly,
which is brought from Coluna, Morelia, Texas, Vera Cruz,
and from the valley of the ISTazas in Durango and Chihuahua.
Their production is 1150 tons of cotton cloth, "mania" be-
sides yarns and wick; and 2000 tons of flour. Although
water constitutes the principal power, 5000 tons of wood are
used annually in the mills. It is growing scarcer every
year, and has to be brought long distances. General P. saw
one Indian carry 225 lbs. of wood up to the top of a wood
pile thirty-five feet high. He had brought this load on his
back 18 j-^ miles ; and having had to stand the cost of timber
and chopping himself, was paid 45 cents, about Is. lOd., for
the whole job.

We had been calculating that the engineer party might
arrive in the evening, when we got a telegram saying they
had passed Salamanca ; and at seven they came, such a
dirty wayworn set as never were seen, after the 1600 miles
they had travelled overland since we parted at Colorado
Springs. How w^e all talked over our adventures, escapes,
and experiences, can best be imagined by those who have
been in like case.

Sunday, 2\st. — All the morning was spent in talking,
making up reports, and watching the usual Sunday sights

QUERETARO TO MEXICO. 271

from the balconies. The most exciting of these was a pro-
cession of bull-fighters through the streets, playing the
famous march of the bull-ring. There was a bull-fight of
course, and two of the party went to it : but came back
disgusted, saying " it was miserable ; no good fighting ;
nothing but a mere butcher's shop."

In the afternoon, we drove out to Las Campanas to
see the spot where the Liberals shot Maximilian, Miramon,
and Mejia, standing side by side. It is a solitary bare hill
about a mile from the Garita; and half-way up the east
side, a rough pile of stones about four feet high among
the cactus scrub, with two very small wooden crosses on
the top, and a third cut on a stone below them, marks the
place of the last act of the tragedy. From this point
there is a glorious view of the city, with its ring of hills
across the fertile gardens and fields between Las Campanas
and the city. Just inside the walls, and buried in trees,
rises the dome of the old convent of Las Cruces, where
the Emperor's last days were spent, and from whence
he was brought to Las Campanas. From the summit,
where there are remains of earthworks, the view was one
of the finest I have ever seen : up the valley, the city,
with its innumerable towers and domes glancing in the sun
and the delicious green of the trees which surrounded it in
all directions ; north, the distant mountains of Guanajuato ;
and west, the valley of the Lerma, with one single date-
palm standing up as a sentinel against the evening sky.
What a spot for the poor Emperor to see as his last view
of his beautiful but unhappy empire !

It is exceedingly difficult to find out the real history of
those last days ; but every one who has any good feeling,
even though on the Liberal side, seems to give IMaximilian
the credit of a will to do well and right, though he was
merely a tool in the hands of Bazaine and the French
Emperor.

.272 SOUTH BY WEST.

In the evening there Avas a sharp thunderstorm, with
hailstones as bifif as rohins' eG:2!S.

Monday, 22d. — General E. and Mr. Y. have gone on to
Mexico by the regular diligence, leaving us in Senor A.'s
hands. The engineers are going on a reconnaissance up the
Lerma Valley to Toluca, which will take them about three
weeks. Governor H. joins us ; and we leave for the capital
to-morrow. Travelling almost day and night, Mexico may
be reached in two days : but we are going to take it more
easily by stopping the first night at San Juan del Eio.

April 23. — Queretaro to San Juan del Eio.

We left Queretaro at 12.15 in a small private stage, by
the road past the Hercules Factory. Beyond the mill we
drove up the narrow Canada filled with luxuriant orchards,
the aqueduct and road running parallel. We passed a
ruined church, destroj'ed during the war of the Empire ; for
all this part was fought over more than once, being the
position of the Liberals. Further on there were large quarries
of " loza" a pink stone used for paving ; and mules were
bringing down slabs of it to the city. The road, which was
well graded, took us up out of the Canada in about an hour,
and at 1.30 we reached the hacienda of Alcarriaga on cactus-
covered hills. The cattle are fond of the voung leaves of
the nopal, and we saw them browsing freely on it. Below
the cactus in the grass I saw a pretty white and pink
amaryllis, which had the effect of a crocus : but I was not
able to get any.

After Alcarriaga we came to a wide cultivated plain,
which extends to San Juan del Eio, with a broad road
between nopal hedges. This plain is one of the richest
maize-growing districts in Mexico, this year's yield being
45,000,000 lbs. The only approach to excitement as we
drove along Avas when our escort of half-a-dozen men found
an unfortunate dog that they chose to consider mad, and
for want of any robbers to chase, hunted the poor beast

QUERETARO TO MEXICO. 273

down and speared it, only laughing at our indignant pro-
tests.

At four we reached La Palma, and halted for an hour.
It is a village of palm-thatched huts, each surrounded with
a hedge of organo cactus, giving it the quaintest look, and a
background of purple mountains, white in places with hail,
rising from the rich plain. While we waited, an escort of
sixteen men rode up from San Juan del Eio, and at five we
set out again.

Close to this place is the Divide or watershed between
the waters of, the east and west, which is remarkable for
being merely a rise and fall of some fifty feet in the middle of
the great plain, instead of being, as in most cases, a mountain
range. The river, which runs through San Juan del Eio,
flows into the Panuco, and thus into the Gulf; while the
Qaeretaro stream, which also rises here, flows into the Lerma,
and thus into the Pacific.

We were caught on this very Divide in a heavy thunder-
storm, which made the roads so heavy that our already tired
mules completely gave out, and we crawled into San Juan
del Eio at 8.30 in the dark.

April 24, — San Juan del Eio to Aroyo Zarco,

I had most comfortable quarters, being lodged, as bed-
rooms were scarce, in the sala of the hotel, a long room with
pictures on the walls, and actually three or four books on
the table, — mostly Spanish sermons, it is true, but still they
were books, and, having seen none but my own note-books
for so long, it gave one quite a pleasant sensation of civili-
sation again. The doors of my room, which evidently were
very old, were of richly-carved wood, and the shutters to the
deep windows which opened on a balcony were of the same.
From the windows which were over the principal entrance,
and shaded by a huge tree, I got glimpses of the pretty
town, the tower and dome of the church rising over the trees
which lined the street. In the gallery round the patio there

274 SOUTH BY WEST.

were quantities of birds in cages, witli banana^s and flowers
growing in large pots ; and we were rather sorry to change
our comfortable quarters for the misery of a thirty-five miles'
stage drive. The river runs past the town under a rocky
cliff, very much like the Dee at Chester ; and the air being
alive with swallows closely resembling the European species^
made the likeness still more striking.

From San Juan del Kio, which we left at twelve, the road
led up a long and steep hill, which we crawled up, over an
atrocious road, so slowly that we had to submit to the indig-
nity of being passed by a herd of beef cattle, which we had
passed on the 18th between Irapuato and Salamanca.

We had an escort of five men : but we were considerably
more afraid of them than of the unknown dangers from which
they were supposed to defend us ; and so when they announced
their intention of leaving us and returning to San Juan del
Eio, we let them go without much regret. A furious thun-
derstorm came on as we reached the top of the hill, just
before the escort deserted us, and their upright spears kept
me in a perfect fever, as every moment I expected they or
we should get struck by lightning. Wliile the storm was
at its worst we were passing through a great maguey plan-
tation, and, though horribly frightened, I could not help
laughing at the antics of a man who had been collecting the
pulque in a pigskin, and now was jumping from plant to
plant like some gigantic flea, with his quivering pigskin on
his back, to cover over the open cavities in the pulque plants,
for fear the rain or hail should get in and injure the precious
juice.

At Las Palmillas the stage road branches ; the usual route
going straight to Tula, and the other taking a more southerly
course by Aroyo Zarco to the same point. For some in-
scrutable reason, we M^ere assured that this southern I'oute
Avould be the best to take, so we took it, and toiled along
with an exhausted train of mules, over a wide open grass

QUERETERO TO ]\]EXICO. 275

plain, with a road deep in mud. At 5 p.m. we came to
Soledad, which must at some time have been a fine town,
but now is quite ruinate ; and then, and not till then, did
we discover, that the stance route we had chosen had been
out of use for more than a year, so of course we could expect
no relays all along it. There were but two alternatives :
either to go back to Las Palmillas, several miles, and so
along the northern route on the chance of getting relays ;
or to stick to the route we had chosen, and try to get on
with our luckless mules to Aroyo Zarco. The latter course
was decided upon, and we began by giving the poor animals
an hour and a half's rest at Soledad, getting at the same time
a fair meal in a great room in what had once been a fine
hotel, but where now a stray arricro was looked upon as
a welcome guest. Our party, therefore, created no small
stir, and two Mexican gentlemen who were resting their
horses seemed immensely interested in all our proceedings.

It was 6.30 when we left, and we were all tolerably tired.
General and Mrs. P. tried to get a little sleep on the front
seat. Governor H. was on the middle seat with his rifle
between his knees; Seiior A. and Pablo outside; and Ion the
back seat, with a little heap of rifles, pistols, etc., by my side.
We had been driving, or rather creeping, for the mules refused
to trot, for an hour or so, when we were startled by a clatter
of hoofs ; voices in Spanish called out of the darkness ; and
as we dimly made out two mounted men close to us, the
coach stopped. Quicker than I thought possible, the Gover-
nor's rifle was out of window, and he had " drawn a bead "
on the nearest man.

" Wliere 's my pistol? " called the General. I made a dive
in the darkness, got it out of the holster, passed it to him,
and crouched down in silence to see what would come next.
It seemed hours while \xq heard Senor A.'s voice on the
box, and those of the two unknown speaking so fast we
could not make out what they were saying. In vain the

276 SOUTH BY WEST.

General called to Seiior A. to know what it all meant ; lie
was too intent on his conversation to answer. At last, how-
ever, he called down —

" It is two gentlemen who saw at Soledad the ladies were
tired, and want you to stop at their hacienda, close here."

Poor men ; they little thought how near they were being
killed for their kindness. As soon as we had recovered our
fright a little, we settled not to accept their kind offer, but
to go on our way to Aroyo Zarco, as we could not well be
more tired than we were then. So parting from the Hacien-
dados in a much more friendly way than we had greeted
them, we drove on ; and after crossing five streams, arrived
at last at our destination at 11 p.m. Here fresh troubles
awaited us.

The Diligence Hotel was a huge house, three stories
high, with a heavy barred door, at which Pablo pro-
ceeded to knock for admittance. Not a sound was to be
heard in answer ; gradually all the gentlemen joined him,
and the mo/o and cochero lent their aid. In vain they
thumped, in vain they shouted. It was like a house of the
dead. After an hour they resorted to threats, in a loud voice,
of breaking in forcibly ; for we knew there were inhabitants,
as we could see a light moving about inside ; and at last a
man appeared at an upper window, who added insult to in-
jury, by saying he had thought we were robbers. Wlien re-
assured on this score, he proceeded to undo the gates and let
us into the patio, and then took us up some stone stairs to
an empty room, where we made up a resting-place for Mrs. P.
with blankets, and I waited with what patience was left till
rooms were prepared for us. The man at first seemed to
consider beds an impossibility, as he said the amo had
the key of the linen, and he could not wake him ; how-
ever, we had no compassion on the amo's slumbers, and in
half an hour got some fairly comfortable rooms ready. Sup-
per there was none, and we had no food with us ; so General

QUEKETARO TO MEXICO. 277

P. gave US each some whisky and water to prevent chills
and fever after such a day's work, and by 1 a.m. I was fast
asleep.

2bth. — Aroyo Zarco, 8010 feet, to Tula, G700. I was woke
at early dawn by the song of birds ; and so importunate were
their shrill voices, that, tired as I was, I could not get to
sleep again, and at last had to get up. On going out into the
corridor I found whence the sounds came. All along the
open passage were liung cages of clarines, sen sontiles, and
half a dozen other species. One mocking-bird amused him-
self by cat-calling, imitating the clarines and parrots, and
then bursting forth into a perfect torrent of his own song.

The house, wdiicli had once been a large hacienda, was
built round three sides of a court, which on the fourth side
was divided by one-storied rooms and a gateway from a second
court, where the mules and horses were kept. It stood on a
small river which ran down from the hills, through rolling
lands covered with pulque plantations, its course marked by
a rich line of trees.

Next morning Governor H. and I took a stroll to a fine
pulque plantation near by. We passed on our way the pre-
sent hacienda, which stood on a rise about a quarter of a mile
from the Diligence House, and attached to which was a cart
and carriage manufactory. The grass w^as jewelled with the
pink and white amaryllis we had seen at Alcarriaga, and I
picked a bunch of it, with long crocus-like leaves. Our
progress through the pulque plantation was more exciting
than pleasant, as there were scattered huts throughout it,
each of which contained one or more large and fierce dogs,
who rushed out to dispute our passage, and we had to arm
ourselves with the largest stones w^e could find to keep them
at l)ay. But the walk was well worth the accompanying
annoyance, for I had never before been in a good pulque
patch, and we walked along through an avenue of plants ten
feet high, their huge sword-like leaves meetmg overhead

278

SOUTH BY WEST.

with the most weird effect. As we came home, we were
startled by the iinmistakeable jabber of a school, and follow-
ing the sound, came to an open door into a tidy room, where
some twenty or thirty little brown Indians were repeating
their lessons after the most orthodox fashion. They were
quite as much surprised at our sudden appearance as we
were at finding a school in such an out-of-the-way place.

We left Arroyo Zarco at 10.15, the barometer giving
8010 feet, and drove up a steady rise up the Cierro Zarco, a
fine cattle range. The soil was rich ; wheat, corn, and pota-
toes grew freely, and the mountains to the east were
timbered. Above the Cierro open rolling land took us to
San Eosal, a hacienda, 8440 feet ; and passing it we struck
hills covered with timber, live oak, arbutus, etc. At San
Antonio we reached the highest j)oint of the pass, 8700 feet,
and there a magnificent view burst upon us. We had all got
out of the coach, as the road was rough, and there were
rumours of robbers in the woods, and walked along in the in-
vigorating mountain air, under the shade of fine trees, like a
bit of a Devonshire park. Turning a corner with a fore-
ground of grey rocks and red soil, under the arbutus trees
with their scarlet leaves, and the live oaks with their young
purple shoots, we suddenly saw below us the rich valley of
the Tula, laid out like a map — fields of golden grain and
green grass, white villages and haciendas, and a background
of blue mountains rising up like a wall of opal between us
and our goal, the Valley of Mexico. The Valley of the Tula
is entirely surrounded by mountains, with single volcanos
rising up out of the fertile plain, and the river winding away
to the east, falls into the gulf at Tuxpan.

At San Miguelite, which we reached at 1.15, we had
dropped 500 feet, and got into the coach again, or rather
upon it ; for tired of the jolting and heat of the inside,
General and Mrs. P. and I got outside, and had a most enjoy-
able journey. A few miles beyond San Miguelite we were

QUERETAUO TO MEXICO. 279

near having a disafrreeable accident. We came down a lons^
incline, to a bridge across a deep ditch full of water. This
bridge was built after the fashion of this part of the country,
with an abrupt rise just in the middle. Our cochero, as the
mules dragged us with a mighty effort over this hogsback,
put down the brake half a second too soon ; snap it went
close to his foot, and away went the mules, carried along by
the weight of the heavy coach, straight for the ditch, which
took a sudden bend back. We all thought we w^ere in for an
upset, without any doubt : but by dint of tremendous exer-
tions on the part of the cochero and mozo, and torrents of
abuse to the mules, which luckily Mrs. P. and I could not
understand, the coach was stopped close to the edge of the
ditch without hurt. It took some time to splice up the brake
so as to make it fit for service over the bits of pedregal which
crop up everywhere, thanks to the near neighbourhood of
volcanos : but at last we got on, and drove across a splendid
grass plain, to Agualete, 7675 feet. Here, as there was a bad
bit of road, we got out, and walked down the hill to the haci-
enda, picking handfuls of amaryllis and wild reseda. Agua-
lete is a large hacienda and flour-mill, supplied by water
from an aqueduct along the top of a high stone wall. The
fields all round are irrigated, and were yielding fine crops of
wheat. Close to the aqueduct I saw a woman standing with a
basket under a big nopal bush, and on going up to her found
she was, by means of a long stick, with a wire hook at the
end, hooking off the succulent green leaves of the cactus to
cook. These leaves, if picked young enough, make a most
delicious vegetable, of the consistency of stewed cucumber :
at Colima we used to have them every day at dinner.

At San Antonio de Tula, 7200, which we reached at
4.30, a large hacienda, with a fine corridor of carved brown
cantera stone running along the front, we joined the regular
road, and our troubles, as far as relays, were over. How
thankful I was to see the last of our poor mules ; for I had

280 SOUTH BY WEST. %

got to know them each for some peculiar vice ! Just out-
side the hacienda a deep caiion begins, and we kept between
it and the mountain-side for several miles. Dow^n the
caiion were quantities of brilliant flowers : but they were
too far off for me to make out what they were. The roads
were abominable, stones and mud alternately, till we rose
again into a band of mesquite country. Then, in the setting
sun, we crossed a last divide, and down a steep hill swarming
with workmen going home from the stone quarries, to a
wooded valley ; and crossing the broad shallow river under
great groups of trees, we dashed round a corner into Tula,
the ancient capital of the Toltecs.

26th. — Tula, 6610 feet, to Mexico, 7300.

Tula is in a charming situation under the hills, sur-
rounded by trees, and boasts one of the finest churches I
have yet seen in Mexico. The rest of the town is poor,
excepting the hotel, which, being on the " camino real"
(high road) between Mexico, the West, and the North — for
here the road from San Luis Potosi joins in — is a very good
one. My room was over the front of the house, and when
Pablo knocked at my door, calling "las quatro" — 4 o'clock
A.M., I was repaid for the exertion of getting up at that
unearthly hour by the view I got of the church, with its
exquisitely proportioned dome and high-walled garden rising
like a great ghost in front of my window in the grey dawn.
After a hurried desayuno of chocolate and biscoches, about
5.15, we at last were all prepared. The coach, with its
eight horses — two wheelers, four in the swing, and two
leaders — was at the door, and, just before sunrise, away we
went full gallop. We had given up our private coach, and
taken places in the regular stage, so that we went a good
seven miles an hour the whole day, changing horses or mules,
as the case might be, every dozen miles. As the coach was
crowded, I and two others of our party preferred a little
extra dust and shaking to the heat inside, and travelled out-

QUERETARO TO MEXICO. 281

side all day, thereby getting an excellent idea of the country,
which grew more interesting every mile as we drew nearer
to the capital.

Outside Tula we passed a church where evidently some
great fiesta was going on ; for even at that early hour, the
churchyard was crowded with holiday folks dressed in their
best, strolling about over the grass, or amusing themselves
with swings and games under the trees. The road led up a
long hill from the town through fields of barley, wheat, oats,
and broad leaves, with Spanish broom and erythrina gi-owing
in the hedges : but at the top of the Divide, close to Venta
la Bata, we had risen nearly 700 feet, and got into a
totally different vegetation, with a dwarf fan palm growing
among the rocks, and stunted maguey seemingly run wild
from the plantations which covered the lower slopes.

At Venta la Bata we changed our horses at 7.30 for a
splendid team of grey mules ; and crossing a farther divide,
7490 feet, we reached the outer valley of Mexico, and stopped
at Huehuetoca, 7275, for breakfast. A poor old beggar came
creeping in during breakfast with quaint little cases made
of plaited palm leaf; and ]\Irs. P. and I, unable to resist our
mania for collecting curiosities, each got one; though, small
as they were, it was rather difficult to know where to stow
them, so crowded were we for room. The beggars are a most
unpleasant feature in Mexican travelling. The moment the
coach stops, a swarm of cripples, blind, and maimed, crowd
to the door, and before one has time to alight, are displaying
their various disgusting wounds, and clamouring for alms,
sometimes actually catching hold of one in their eagerness.

Huehuetoca is close to the Laguna de Zumpango, round
which Cortez retreated on liis way to the friendly Tlascala
after the misfortunes of the Noclu Triste, from los Eemedios,
where he took refuge the night after his escape. " He took,"
says Mr. Prescott, " imder the conduct of his Tlascalan guides,
a circuitous route to the north, passing through Quauhititlan,

282 SOUTH BY WEST.

and round lake Tzorapanga (Zumpango), thus lengthening
then' march, but keeping at a distance from the capital.
From the eminences as they passed along, the Indians
rolled down heavy stones, mingled with volleys of darts and
arrows on the heads of the soldiers. Some were even bold
enough to descend into the plain, and assault the extremities
of the column. But they were soon beaten off by the horse,
and compelled to take refuge among the hiUs, where the
ground was too rough for the rider to follow. Indeed, the
Spaniards did not care to do so, their object being rather to
fly than to fight."

Our road kept to Cortez's actual route for some leagues,
and we saw in fancy, as we drove on, the worn-out Spaniards
struggling along the plain, living on wild cherries, a few ears
of corn, or a dead horse, while their enemies, to quote Mr.
Prescott again, " followed in the track of the army like a
flock of famished vultures, eager to pounce on the dying and
the dead."

Leaving Huehuetoca about eleven we soon passed Coyo-
tepec, a large hacienda standing on a ridge to the right, whose
name (the Hill of the Coyote) denoted that we were within
the old Aztec boundaries. " Tepee " in their language means
a hill, as in the case of Chapul Tepee, the Hill of the Grass-
hopper, at which in the old picture-maps the wanderings
of the Aztec nation always end, and which is there repre-
sented as a small hill with a huge grasshopper on the top.

A good road between wheat-fields, ditches filled with
familiar-looking water-plants, and shaded with straight lines
of upright Humboldt willows and aspens, led us to Cuautit-
lan, 73 GO feet, a pretty town surrounded with rose-hedges,
and apparently making its living by a manufacture of black
shiny pottery. And a mile or so beyond we stopped at the
foot of a long rise for our last remuda into Mexico. Eight
white horses were harnessed in a moment, and away we
flew at break-neck speed, only slackening about half way

QUERETARO TO MEXICO. 283

up the hill, as one of the middle horses got his head down
and pulled so frantically against the collar as nearly to choke
himself. The road down from the Questa was steep as a
house-roof, and we swung from side to side so that every
moment I expected to be shot off into a cactus-bush :
but down we came in safety into a narrow valley with a
stream and rows of Peru peppers and aspens ; and emerging
from the hills found ourselves at Tlalnepantla, in the actual
valley of Mexico. But our impatience to see the famed
valley was doomed to the most aggravating delay ; for the
streets of Tlalnepantla had, I should imagine, never been
repaired since the days of Cortez, and were in such a state
of mud, gulches, rocks, and holes that it took us more than
half an hour to struggle through the ^vretched little town.
Some market or feast was going on, as the Plaza was swarm-
ing with people, who had ample time during our slow progress
to satisfy their curiosity by staring at me, and making
audible remarks on my hat, my dress, and my extraordinary
behaviour in going outside the coach.

At last we got free of the horrid streets and their scarcely
less unpleasing inhabitants, and trotted aw^ay across the
beautiful valley, along straight roads through gTeen meadows,
planted with upright Humboldt willows and Lombardy
poplars, with dikes on either side ; and past ruined Aztec
villages and flourishing haciendas towards the famed city.
The air was fragrant, like England in June, from damp
grass, and the roses which lined the ditches everywhere.
Popocatapetl was in an ill-humour, and hid his head in
clouds, so that we only saw the grand slope up towards
the snow-peak : l)ut even that was enough to give one an
awful feeling of unknown size and height ; for the gi-eat
blue ghost carried one's eye up and up till it seemed to
mingle with the very clouds themselves. The roads were
crowded with pack-mules, w^aggons, carts, horsemen, and
coaches, and here and there a small body of troops. jMy

284 SOUTH BY WEST.

task had been to count the mules and waggons, to get some
idea of the traffic for a railroad ; and in the journey since
Tula we had passed or met 350 mules and 127 waggons,
all carrying full loads, besides innumerable ones returning
unpacked from various points, and Indios who were carrying
half a mule's load packed on their shoulders.

It w^as three o'clock before we neared the city, which lay
in the midst of the vast plain, its glittering towers and
domes rising above the flat buildings ; and the dark rock of
Chapultepec, crowned with its white palace, away to the
right, under the Ajusco mountain, Avhich stands up strikingly
out of the line which encircles the valley. At 3.30 we passed
the Garita, and made our way through ruined suburbs, past
dismantled convents, now turned into barracks, and waste
open spaces half covered with sheets of water from the over-
flow of open sewers, which would breed a pestilence in any
other climate, till we heard — oh wonder and delight ! — the
shriek of a locomotive, and coming to an open railway-crossing,
jolted once more over real iron rails. I never thought I should
have rejoiced so to see a railroad : but the ugly American
engine, with its wide smoke-stack, seemed to us, after two
months of bad roads and stage-coaches, like a harbinger of
law, order, and civilisation ; and we all indulged in frantic
congratulations to each other on the joyful sight.

A quarter of an hour more and we raced down one of the
principal streets, turned short in under a doorway, Senor A.
crying to us to duck our heads or we should be killed ; and
pulled up in the patio of the Hotel Iturbide.

CHAPTEE XIX.

LIFE IN MEXICO.

The Hotel Iturbide — Flowers — Tacubaya — The Paseo — Aztec calendar stone —
The Inquisition— Cathedral of Mexico — A ride round the city — Cinco de
Mayo — Chapultepec — The Pronunciamiento of October 1871— El Peiion del
Agua Caliente — Executions by the Liberals— Breakfast at the San Cosme —
Speeches — The Habanera — Mexican salutations.

Hotel Iturbide, May 1, 1872. — Another chapter of my
little history begun, amid flowers and birds, and comforts of
all kinds. What a contrast to the records of the last two
months ! I have been too busy "^Titing for two English and
American mails to be able to take up my journal before ; and
also we have been resting a good deal, so a brief sketch of
the last six days must suffice.

We arrived on Eriday the 26th at about 4 p.m., and found
that General E. and Mr. Y. had engaged most delightful
rooms for us, opposite their own, in the old palace of the
Iturbides ; ours overlooking the Calle San Erancisco, while
theirs look into the patio or inner court. My room is about
30 feet by 25, and 18 feet high, with an iron balcony of
its own, a prettily painted ceiling, large mirrors, and com-
fortably furnished ; and now, witli a hanging basket of
flowers swinging in the window, round which an emerald
humming-bird flutters, and bouquets on the table, it looks
charming.

Saturday. — After a cup of delicious coffee and bread with

286 ■ SOUTH BY WEST.

fresh butter, a luxury unseen since California, General P. and
I took a stroll about 7.30 a.m. up the Calle San Francisco.
At one of the cross-streets we came upon a crowd of flower-
sellers, men and women, and in a moment were surrounded,
and had the most exquisite bouquets thrust into our faces.
One was offered for a real (6d.), which in London would have
cost a guinea. Certainly anything more lovely or in more
perfect taste I never saw. It reminded one of Prescott's
account of the flowers of the plateau in Cortez's time.

A capital Prench restaurant is attached to the hotel, to
which we go down for breakfast and dinner, beginning the
morning with desaymio in our own rooms. The dining-
rooms open on a small garden enclosed by walls thirty feet
high, planted with eucalyptus trees, which grow ten and
fifteen feet a year, and flowering trees and shrubs among
which the humming-birds flash in the sunlight. A little
stream two or three feet wide runs through the lawn in the
middle, crowded with ducks, water-fowl, and chicJdquilotes
(the fly-catching snipe from Lake Tezcoco) ; in the trees
cages of singing- birds are hung. There are little kiosks all
round, in wliich if one does not mind the chance of spiders,
one can have one's meals. But it is a pretty and pleasant
place, and, what is perhaps more to the point, the food is
excellent.

At breakfast Mr. M. came in, and Major C, editor of the
Two Rejnihlics, who kindly sent in later in the day a heap of
New York papers, which were a perfect feast to us, as we
have heard nothing from Europe or the East since leaving
San Francisco. I got an English letter at breakfast, of the
11th of March, and spent part of the day in answering it, and
the rest in reading Prescott, which is intensely interesting
now one is on the actual spot. In the evening we got a
telegram from M., asking for an escort from the Governor
of INIichoacan,

28th. — The day began delightfully by Pablo arriving at

LIFE IX MEXICO. 287

the door with his arms literally full of flowers from Mr. Y. ;
sweet-peas, double seringa as large as a rose, and bujiches of
" Flor de San Juan " {Bovardia), far fuller and more fragrant
than the meagre specimens we have in English hot-houses.
It grows on the mountains, and the Indios bring it down
packed in "huacals" on their backs. My room has been
like a greenhouse ever since.

After breakfast, Mrs. P. and I, the General, Governor H.
and Mr. Y. drove out to Taculjaya, westward from the
city, the favourite suburb of Mexico, where all the rich
residents have their country houses. A more charming
spot can hardly be imagined ; the cool airy houses are buried
in trees, and surrounded with beautiful gardens in which
flowers from every climate grow side by side luxuriantly.
The Tlalpam Eailroad, a local line of sixteen miles, running
to Mixcoac, San Angel, Coyoacan and Tlalpam, has its first
station at Tacubaya ; and, with a line of horse -cars, puts it
within easy reach of the city.

Coming home we turned down past the handsome depot
of the Tlalpam Eailroad, and drove to the Garita Porfirrio
Diaz, by the side of the old aqueduct of the Agua Gordo,
and then along the Paseo. We stopped at the Tivoli des
Fleurs, a pretty cottage with a ditch round it filled with
white arums, to get some ice-cream, and then went on the
San Cosme, close to the old bull-ring, now quite falling to
decay, as bull-fights are prohibited, though I believe they
are sometimes winked at still. We drove home through the
Alameda, which is on the Calle San Praucisco. It is very
pretty, with twelve different fountains under fine trees, native
and foreign, and beds of flowers ; a carriage drive all
round the outside, and broad walks, some of them paved, run
in all directions across it.

The streets of the city are straight, and cut each other at
right angles, with here and there a Plaza planted with trees
and flowers. The houses are all flat-roofed, and are built

288 SOUTH BY WEST.

round a patio, wliicli is readied from tlie street by a porte
cochere. In the patio the carriage is kept ; the stables also
being often on the ground floor. The living-rooms are on
the first floor ; and outside them round the patio runs a
balcony filled with flowers and bird-cages. At one end of
the principal street, called in one part the Calle Plateros,
and in another the Calle San Francisco, is the great Plaza,
turned by the Empress Carlotta from a heap of rubbish into
a beautiful labyrinth of trees, flowers, and fountains. On
the north side stands the Cathedral, a noble building, with
its two great towers and exquisitely proportioned dome,
which rise above everything else in the city. The whole
east side is occupied by the Palacio, containing within its
walls all the Government buildings, the Congress Hall, and
the President's house. The south and west sides are sur-
rounded by shops shaded with deep Portales, under which
a constant clatter of buying and selling goes on.

29tJi. — Wrote all day, and in the afternoon drove on the
Paseo, and watched all the pretty Senoritas driving, and the
Polios (dandies), on their fine horses with silver-mounted
trappings, and silver-embroidered hats and pantaloons, mak-
ing their gTaceful bows, and then just tickling their fiery
steeds with their ponderous spurs to make them caper and
curvet before the Senoritas.

One could almost fancy one's-self in Hyde Park, from the
crowds of carriages standing round the great fountain of
Liberty at the end of the Paseo. The idea of danger did
not enter one's wildest fancy : but since then we have
heard this disagreeable fact : —

Not three months ago three young ladies of one of the
very highest Mexican families here were driving on the
Paseo. Their carriage happened to be the last of all coming
home. They were suddenly stopped by several armed men
on horseback, who asked the coachman whom he was driving.
He, being a shrewd man, gave a false name, as, had their real

LIFE IX MEXICO. 289

name been known, they would have been plagiared (carried
off for ransom). As it was, the robbers took all their
jewels, and after debating whether they should kidnap
them, at last decided, as the leader of the band did not
come, to let them go home. In gratitude for this one
of the girls kissed the chief's hand ; and so the adventure
ended.

We are told that it is quite unsafe to drive to Chapul-
tepec (not three miles) unarmed.

April 30, — Before breakfast Mrs. P. and I went out for a
walk along to the Plaza to look at the birds the Indios bring
in for sale, and to poke about for curiosities. At the stands
under the Portales all sorts of toys, silver filigree work,
baskets, bowls of calabash prettily painted, pottery, and glass,
are sold ; and we are getting quite a large collection of all
sorts of odds and ends, which though common enough here
will be valuable at home. Coming back, we got some flowers
and strawberries.

In the evening Governor H. and I took a walk all round
the Plaza and behind the Cathedral, and examined the great
Aztec Calendar Stone, which was disinterred in 1790 in the
Plaza, and is now let into the north wall of the Cathedral. It
is a huge circular block of black porphyry, about eight feet in
diameter, weighing originally nearly fifty tons. On this the
Calendar is engxaved, " and," says Prescott, " shows that the
Aztecs had the means of settling the hours of the day with
precision, the periods of the solstices and of the equinoxes,
and that of the transit of the sun across the zenith of Mexico.
... It was transported from the mountains beyond Lake
Chalco, a distance of many leagues, over a broken country
intersected by water-courses and canals. In crossing a bridge
which traversed one of these latter in the capital, the supports
gave way, and the huge mass was precipitated into the water,
whence it was with difficulty recovered. The fact that so
enormous a fragment of porphyry could be thus safely

200 SOUTH BY WEST.

carried for leagues iu the face of such obstacles and without
the aid of cattle— for the Aztecs had no animals of draught
— suggests to us no mean idea of their mechanical skill and
of their machinery ; and implies a degree of cultivation little
inferior to that demanded for the geometrical and astrono-
mical science displayed in the inscriptions on this very
stone."

May 2. — Yesterday morning we drove at nine with Mrs.
Y. to the Plaza San Domingo. It and all the buildings
round it used to belong to the Inquisition, which was in
existence till ten years ago. At the west side now is the
Custom-house ; on the east some conventual buildings, dis-
mantled by the Liberals, and a chapel full of the most revolt-
ing figures. Outside the chapel is a long wall, against which
political prisoners condemned to death are shot. The waU
was full of bullet-holes, with a little cross scratclied where-
ever any one had fallen. It seems horrible to shoot them
there in the open Plaza.

On the north side is the Church of San Domingo. It
must have been gorgeous in old days : but the Liberals have
taken away all the jewels. The altar is carved up to the
very ceiling, and decorated with figures and Venetian glass.
Eight and left are altars carved and gilded, with pictures
let into the panels. Some of these pictures are very good.
Service was going on when we went in, and the church was
crowded. A priest was preaching in Spanish. We were
not sorry to get out into the open air away from the scowl-
ing priest, who saw we were foreigners and " hereticos" and
the mass of listeners, who knelt and sat all over the floor ;
especially as we were told that the chances were rather
serious in favour of the whole building falling down some
day, as it was so shaken by earthquakes as to be quite
out of the " plumb."

From thence we went to some charming public baths
belonging to the Y.'s, in one of the old Inquisition buildings,

LIFE IX MEXICO. 291

and I shuddered as I thought what those thick walls must
have seen. About two years ago, somewhere between the
baths and the Plaza, a chamber in the wall was discovered
which had no entrance except by a hole at the top, and in it
were five dead bodies half mummied, evidently of some
victims of that horrible institution, who had just been
dropped in from above and nothing more heard of them. I
saw a photograph of the group when it was discovered,
rivalling D ore's Inferno in horror.

Down the same street was the Palace of Justice, origi-
nally a convent. There are two double courts, three stories
high. A chapel between them is all that now remains of the
convent, with so many carved and gilded shrines all round
that it had the appearance of golden walls.

Thence we went to the Cathedral, which stands on the
north side of the Plaza Mayor, as some say, on the site of
the great teocalli of the Temple of Montezuma. The Cathe-
dral consists of the main church, a triple nave, supported
on very high pillars and rounded arches ; and a large side
chapel, seemingly of older date than the main building, as it
is covered outside with elaborate stone carving, evidently
by Aztec workmen. We went into it, but it was so crowded
with a mob of the " great unwashed " that we soon came
out and went round to the main entrance. The coiip
d'oeil is very much spoilt by the choir, which fills up the
centre of the nave, and leads to the high altar, by a
pathway with a massive brass railing on either side, de-
corated by brass figures two to three feet high, at regular
intervals.

The high altar is very gorgeous. It is supported on
twelve green marble pillars, with a second row of smaller
ones above. On each side of the steps are two magnificent
pulpits, entirely made, stairs and all, of a kind of greenish
alabaster, very clear and beautiful, and strangely carved
with figures of angels, etc. They must be very old. The

292

SOUTH BY WEST.

basins for holy water are of the same material. A great
"Fonction" was going on, as it was the 1st of May, the
month dedicated to the Virgin, and all her shrines were
covered with flowers, and crowded with worshippers. The
organ played lively tunes, which sounded more suitable
to an opera-house than a church, the choir sang by
snatches, and a wheel of bells on the screen was spun
round and round, jingling as the Archbishop elevated the
Host.

The Cathedral, Mexico.

At the back of the high altar is an apse of exquisite
carving — all gilded, of course. The Liberals stripped the
cathedral of all its jewels, and the silver chandeliers by
which it was lighted have been replaced by commoner
ones.

Outside, all along the wall of the raised ground on which
the Cathedral stands, are groups of Indies selling birds under
the trees, and women with picturesque stands of cakes and

LIFE IX MEXICO. 293

sweet drinks, draped in flowers and reeds. They have a
pretty fashion here of hanging a kind of shade of fresh green
reeds along the tops of the shop doorways, dotted with
flowers. Flowers everywhere !

May 3. — We were up by eight, and took a walk in the
Alameda, and then up to the flower-sellers. It is so dis-
agreeable having to bargain : but as foreigners we are gene-
rally asked double if not treble what the people will take.
The most flagrant instance of this I have met with was
yesterday on the Plaza. A man had a cage of " Canarien
de Siete Colores," nonpareil birds, four hens and three
cocks. He asked six dollars a pair, and we said " No."
He came down and down in his price, and at last, as w^e
walked away, sent a little boy to offer us the cageful for
six dollars.

In the same way the flower-seUers offer one a bunch for
a real.

"■ Es demasiado " (It is too much).

" Entonces Senorita, que dare usted ?" (Then what will
you give ?), and you get the whole for a medio, threepence.

3fai/ 4. — As usual, we took an early stroU along the
streets ; there is always something new and strange to be
seen. The " Aguadors" or water-carriers are strange objects.
A broad leather strap passes round their foreheads, support-
ing an immense water jar on their backs, while a second
strap round the back of the neck supports a smaller one
hanging in front of tliem. They wear a leather cap and
leather apron, over wdiite shirt and trousers.

After breakfast Governor H. and I w^ent up on the
azotca, the flat roof of the hotel, and got a fine view of
everything except the top of Popocatapetl. Not once have
we seen the great volcano entirely since we came ; his head
has been hidden in clouds in the most provoking way. I
counted over thirty domes about the city, and the towers
must have been double as many.

294 SOUTH BY WEST.

It was the fete of the Santa Cruz, and all the workmen

of Seiior 's new house, half a block up the street, were

assembled on the roof, where an immense cross covered with
flowers was erected, round which they were firing innumer-
able rockets and fire crackers. A more silly proceeding I
never saw.

For the last two days it has been quite chilly, and
several of our party have got colds on the chest. It is in-
tensely hot on the sunny side of the street, but crossing to
the shady side one is quite cold, so that chills are very
common. This however is the hottest time of year, and the
climate is most charming, as one is never too hot ; and a
shawl over one's shoulders, with a summer gown, is all one
needs in the evening out walking. The ]\Iexican ladies all
wear a lace shawl or mantilla when wallcing in the morning,
but a few are taking to hats. Foreigners dress usually after
their own fashion ; but Mrs. P. and I have discarded hats,
as it is much pleasanter to wear a mantilla.

This afternoon. General P. being quite unwell with chiUs
and fever, Governor H. and I took the horses, and, escorted
by Pablo, started for a ride. "VYe went through the Plaza,
past the market, down the most filthy streets, each with an
open black ditch of horror stagnating down the centre ; over
the canal ; and at last out on an open causeway running
round the city. The great plain, once covered by the waters
of Lake Tezcoco, which have now retreated three miles from
the Garita of San Lazaro, lay beyond us covered with cattle,
separated from us by a deep unfinished canal with running
water in it. And towering up opposite to us, rose the beauti-
ful Istaccihuatl (the WTiite Woman), with a single pink cloud
behind the peak, which brought out its snowy covering
in strong relief. "VYe turned to the right and rode along
the causeway through gardens and orchards, with here and
there a ruined church or a strong earthwork, reminding
one unpleasantly of the possibilities of war and revolu-

LIFE IX MEXICO.

295

tion in this troubled country. Pablo was armed ; and in
a state of such overflowing importance at the possession of
a revolver, that we felt tolerably secure for ourselves as to
robbers.

Alas for one's dreams of the floating gardens! One object
of our ride was to try and find some trace of them. In vain
had we asked all our friends : no one could tell us where
they were, and all we could discover were oblong patches of
garden, with a slimy ditch between each, which shake, it is
said, if you jump on them, and — worst of all, they are
covered with onions.

We came round to the canal again, higher up, and crossed
by the Garita, where the port-dues are taken from the
barges. The trafiic by this canal from the south and south-
west is enormous.

In twelve months, from 1st July 1865 to 30th June 186G,
102,541 tons of goods, paying duty, entered the city by this
canal, besides 29,231 head of cattle : —

Goods of the 1 st class,

,, 2d class,

,, 3d class,

Timber and the liner woods.
Building-stone, etc.,
Goods in transit to the interior.

Total,

Total weiglit in lbs.
.37,979,000
81,45.3,100
G,G9 1,3-25
10,870,275
32,195,375
9,887,050

179,082,725

"UTiich quantity, reduced to tons, equals . . 89,541 tons.

Of eggs, sand, and other articles on the free list, are

brought in at least .... 3,000 „

Articles coming in without tlie knowledge of the

respective offices (contraband) amount at least to 10,000 „

Total, 102,541 tons.

Cattle entering the city by the cniial during the

same period, ..... 29,000 head.

296 SOUTH BY WEST.

In the 1st class are included, among other articles, sugar,
coffee, brandy, cocoa, hides, dry goods, flour, tobacco, furni-
ture, glass, etc.

In the 2d class — beans, cotton, charcoal, wheat, pepper,
fruits, pulque, soda, fish, etc.

In the 3d class — carts, straw bags, matting, ropes, straw,
hats, etc.

We rode from the Garita up the great causeway, by
which, I believe, Cortez entered the city of Mexico, along
the side of the canal. Half-way up, towards the city, stands,
on a pedestal, a fine bust of Guatemozin, the last of the Aztec
kings. It was erected by President Juarez in 1869, with an
inscription, on one side, in Aztec ; on the other, in Spanish.
Close by is one of the many fountains of water one finds all
over the town. An old soldier was filling a little jarita, and
I asked him for a drink, which of course he gave me, with
the usual courtesy of the lower orders here. I really
believe it is a pleasure to them to be asked to do one any
little favour.

All the streets were full of preparations for the 5tli of
May ; and little boys, with green, white, and red calico flags,
were getting up processions of their own, and terrified our
horses with cries oVAhajo los Franceses" — Down with the
French !

May 5. — I was awoke before dawn by men singing, or
rather yelling, patriotic songs in the streets. At sunrise a
salute of twenty-one guns was fired, with an accompaniment
of fire-crackers, and then the noise was incessant till ten at
night.

And all this patriotism, display, excitement, and boast-
im?, what does it commemorate ?

" It is because 3000 sick Frenchmen could not take a
very strong position, defended by 15,000 Mexicans."

Such was the explanation of the great and glorious Cinco
de Mayo, which Mr. gave me.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 297

The event was in reality the battle of Puebla, when the
French, in 1862, advanced from the coast, and tried to take
that city. And ever since, the 5th of May has been to the
Mexicans what the 4th of July is to Americans.

After breakfast, about 10.30, we all adjourned to the
balcony of my room to see the great procession through
the Calle San Francisco.

First came the public schools, all the boys in new clothes,
with a small advanced guard of cavalry ; three bands ; then
the members of Congress, two and two, looking, in their
black trousers, tail coats, and tall hats, as if they were
going to a funeral ; then, strongly guarded by a large body
of police, came the Cabinet ; and last, between the minister
of war, and some other distinguished member of the Govern-
ment, walked a short thickset ugly man, with a smooth face,
who I knew in a moment to be Juarez, as thorough an
Indio as any who sells birds on the Plaza. The police kept
closely round him, so fearful are they of assassination ; then
followed more bands playing ; and, lastly, the troops, a much
more soldierlike and well-dressed body than we have seen
heretofore.

After the whole Government had gone on to the Teatro
Nacional to make speeches and orations, Mrs. P. and I went
to see the S.'s, who asked us to go with them out to Chapul-

tepec. I drove with Mr. S. and Father , a German,

who was the Emperor Maximilian's confessor and private
secretary, a most charming old gentleman, courteous and
simple, ^vith that savoir faire which a thorough knowledge
of the world gives.

He talked to me a great deal about the sad state of this
country, in which he has lived for more than twenty years,
and told me that when he was in prison four years ago, he
and some of his friends met together one night, and said to
each other, "Well, what next?" Then he told them the
story of the Indian who was caught in the rapids above

298 SOUTH BY WEST.

Niagara, and how, when he found that all efforts to save
himself were useless, he wrapped himself in his blanket,
and, standing up, went over the Falls without another
movement. " Now," said he, " we are in the state of that
Indian ; and every man in Mexico must wrap himself in
liis blanket, and allow himself to be swept down with the
stream."

I did not like to ask him much about the Emperor and
Empress, It was the first time he had ever been to the
Castle since the fall of the Empire, and he evidently felt it
very much.

But I am forgetting, in the Father's conversation, the
road by which we drove out. The Paseo del Imperador, a
fine macadamized road, made by Maximilian, and planted
with rows of poplar, cotton-woods, and willow trees, leads
over flat green meadows which used, in Montezuma's time,
to be covered with water, to the Eoyal Hill of Chapultepec,
which the successive rulers of Mexico have kept as their
country palace.

The rock of porphyry on which the castle is built rises
abruptly out of the dead flat, and around its foot are the
groves of " Ahuahuetes," the famous cypresses under which
the Aztec kings held their court. Their boughs are covered
with masses of the grey " Spanish moss" {Tillandsia usne-
oides), hanging down in streamers and festoons yards long
from every twig, and giving the trees a weird look which
is quite indescribable.

Driving round to the western face of the rock, up which
the Americans stormed in 1847, a new road, built by Maxi-
milian, winds up to the summit. On it stands the castle,
built at the end of the last century by the Viceroy Galvez,
thereby arousing the jealousy of the Government, and hasten-
ing the end of the Spanish rule.

We first came to a mass of buildings, once the military
academy, but now unused, with beds of flowers in front,

LIFE IN MEXICO.

299

round which the carriage-drive runs. Getting out, we
walked through a gateway and along a flagged open passage,
passing the Emperor's private entrance through a low

postern to our left, over which grew a passion-flower in full
bloom — strangely appropriate, I thought, to those who so
often passed in and out of that doorway.

From the eastern side a winding stair led us up to the

300 SOUTH BY WEST.

beautiful garden, round which are the rooms of the house
on the side facing the city, and a broad portico open to
the "west and north. At one end is the Empress Carlotta's
bedroom, opening into a small sitting-room, and looking
over the plain away to the volcanos, then a salon, a library,
and, opening into the latter, Maximilian's bedroom and
study. None of these rooms are large ; and their decora-
tions, though in perfect taste, are simplicity itself. In the
garden, nearly all the trees were planted by the Emperor
and Empress's own hands — Australian Eucalypti, oranges,
and the finer kinds of pines. Eound the portico, and
scattered about the ground, are exquisite bronzes from the
antique ; and it did my heart good to find the Venus of
Milo and the Apollo Belvedere underneath that tropic
sun; and the walls of the portico decorated with Pom-
peian frescos. The present occupants have had them all
draped, considering them too little clothed to be fit for
Mexican eyes. The effect may be imagined better than
described !

We climbed up to the Observatory, which stands in the
garden, and there a view burst upon us which made us at
last realize the beauty of the far-famed valley. To the east,
up the green-fringed Paseo del Imperador, lies the city,
with its countless domes and towers glistening white in a
rich setting of green trees. Beyond it lies the hill of
Guadalupe, and the sacred place of Mexico, where the
Virgin first appeared on the Western continent. To the
right of it again is the Lake of Tezcoco, with the town of
Tezcoco just visil)]e below the mountains on its farther
side. Following the lake round, a purple volcanic hill,
rising abruptly from the plain, cuts it off, and hides Lake
Chalco, forming a low foreground to the two giant volcanos,
Istaccihuatl and Popocatapetl, who rear their heads, covered
with eternal snow, 17,712 feet into the blue tropic sky.
From the slopes of Popocatapetl a range of mountains

LIFE IN IVIEXICO. 301

extends right round tlie valley, witli the Ajusco, the highest
of them, directly west of the city, till the circle is completed
at Guadalupe again. Lines of upright Humboldt willows
and Lombardy poplars, marking some road, run m all
directions over the green and golden plain ; and from
masses of trees rise, even on the lower slopes of the moun-
tains, the white towers of scores of churches or haciendas.
Below us feathered the weird " Ahuahuetes," with their grey
garlands of moss, and Maximilian's unfinished lake sparkled
in the setting sun.

We drove down and round the rock once more, stopping
to measure " Montezuma's tree," the kin<:T of the OTove. It is
said to be forty-five feet in girth ; but we all agreed that
measurement to be under the mark. It is a triple tree,
without a sign of decay. A group of three or four more
close by are almost as large, and to the west of the rock are
four avenues of them converging from a common centre.
Under these trees Montezuma held his court, sipping his
" cliocolatl " in golden goblets, or smoking " tobacco " mingled
with Liquidambar; while the rock above was used as a watch-
tower and place of sacrifice. What strange and sad thoughts
filled one's mind as we turned away to the Eoyal Hill ! First
the favourite home of the proudest of Indian monarchs ; then
in the hands of the Spaniards for nearly three centuries,
who, in their zeal to obliterate all memory of the past, actu-
ally destroyed the statues of Montezuma and his father cut
in bas-relief in the porphyritic rock; assaulted and taken
by the Americans in 1847 ; then the scene of Maximilian's
brief reign; and now once more, strangest of all changes,
the home of a pure Indian, — for there lives Don Benito
Juarez, President of this great and unhappy Eepublic ; using
the rooms, and eating off the porcelain plates of a Prince
of Austria. Truly truth is stranger than fiction !

%th. — This afternoon I called on Mrs. , and she gave

me a curious account of the Pronunciamiento last October.

302 SOUTH BY WEST.

I could hardly realize that only six months ago the guns
had been pointed up and down the street we were in ; and
that the bullets were flying over the azoiea so fast that her
husband, who had gone up there to see the state of affairs,
had to beat a hasty retreat.

In May 1871, the temporary peace of Mexico, which
had lasted since the Emperor Maximilian's death, was once
more disturbed by a presidential election. The candidates
were Don Benito Juarez, Senor Lerdo de Tejada, and Don
Porfirio Diaz. Juarez was elected (for the fourth time).
Seiior Lerdo (the present President of Mexico) retired quietly
from the contest, and lived in the city of Mexico. But
Diaz, persuaded against his will by over-zealous friends,
most unfortunately for himself and Mexico, consented to
put himself at the head of a revolutionary movement, and,
as they say here, " pronounced" against the Government in
October 1871.

It was on a Sunday morning. The President was at
Chapultepec. The Ministers all out of town. A regiment
in the barracks close to the Alameda were the first to " pro-
nounce." Their colonel was at church. When he came
back he found the whole barracks in an uproar. He
mounted the stairs, and tried to bring his men to reason —
they shot him dead.

Before the President heard of the pronunciamiento the
rebels had possession of the citadel. He behaved with the

greatest firmness, sending at once for General , at that

time in the city; who vowed that he would "retake the
citadel before midnight, or die in the attempt." Accord-
ingly, as soon as it was dark, he commenced an advance
over the azoteas of the houses, and by 12.30 had kept his
word, for the citadel was once more in possession of the
Government troops.

The contest has proved more serious than was at first
anticipated ; and for between eight and nine months the

LIFE IN MEXICO. 303

whole country has "been oveiTun with guerilla bands, who
make the revolution an excuse for wholesale highway rob-
bery and murder, besides requisitions on every estate for
food, forage, arms, and money.

A letter to-night from the engineers from Morelia, and a
telegram from Acambaro ; so we may soon expect to see
them.

1th. — This morning we rode out to the Peiion del Agua
Caliente, on the shores of the Laguna de Tezcoco. "We left
the city by the Garita de San Lazaro, and turning from the
Vera Cruz high road, rode across a flat, in some places
covered with turf, in others incrusted with salt, soda, and
potass, reaching, in about three miles, a solitary cone of
volcanic rock. It is an old volcano : but some convulsion
seems to have tipped it over, so that the crater is now low
down on the south-west side, forming a cave.

Eound the foot of the Penon are salt-works, of a most
primitive kind. They are on this fashion : — A quantity of
the earth is placed in a round hole at the top of a raised
heap. Upon this water is poured, which, escaping by
means of a small pipe through the side of the heap into
an earthen pot, crystallizes into salt or soda as the case
may be.

There is a hot spring here, as the name of the place
denotes. It is inside a square of buildings, in the centre of
which stands a fine and very old church. Invalids come
hither and stay for the sake of the baths. We got off our
horses and went into the bath-house, a low dark building,
with baths of different degrees of heat ; the bubbling water
in the last being so hot I could only just bear my fingers
in it.

Mounting again and riding round the foot of the hill,
we tried to get down to the lake : but its shores were too
marshy to bear our horses' weight. So we rode up to the
old crater. In the mouth of it, which forms a large cave, live

304 SOUTH BY WEST.

a quantity of most hideous Indians, who talk little or
nothing but Aztec. They crowded round us for quartillas,
driving away their innumerable dogs, who rushed out barking
and bristling. These people live by catching tiny fish, about
an inch long, that abound in the lake ; and these they cook over
a fire of dried manure, and sell to their fellow Indians farther
inland, who live chiefly upon it. The ground all round
sounds unpleasantly hollow to the horses' tread, and great
alarm has been felt several times at strange noises heard in
the Penon, as people in the city fear it may take it into its
head to explode again some day. Riding home across
the flats, which in the rainy season are covered with water,
the sun was intensely hot, for it was past 10 a.m., and my
little horse fretted me, as he would not do the regular
pacing gait like the others, but either walked like a snail
or jogged. Coming through the city we passed the gas-
works, where gas is made from resin.

We passed also a splendid old church, which, with a large
piece of ground round it, has just been sold by the Govern-
ment for ^5000. It is now used as a factory of some kind.
Smoke was coming out of the little windows at the top of
the beautiful dome, a great proof that the Church-party is
not in the ascendant just now.

Since the Liberals came into power by the death of the
Emperor Maximilian, the power of the clergy has been
entirely taken from them. The churches are despoiled ; the
convents dismantled ; poor old nuns of eighty are turned
adrift homeless and penniless in the streets ; and the
clergy, who now are not allowed to appear outside the
church-walls in their robes, are paying back four-fold
the debt they have been laying up ever since the conquest.
Their punishment is heavy : but their crimes have been
heavy also. During the last century two-thirds of the
real estate of the country was in their hands ; and the
vast quantities of silver and gold produced annually used

LIFE IN MEXICO. 305

by them for " church purposes," instead of the further de-
velopment of the land.

In one Plazuela, against a blank wall, are some hundreds
of bullet-holes and crosses rudely scratched in the plaster.
At every cross a man has been shot — among others,

General Doran, one of the Imperialist generals. Mr. ,

as we rode by, pointed out the spot where he had seen him

fall. In the Plaza San Domingo, General , an old man

of seventy, was shot about five years ago. The wretches tied
his elbows together, and put him up against the wall on a
heap of dirt, and shot him in the open square.

Three of the churches we passed were quite out of the
perpendicular from earthquakes, and also, I believe, from
the shifting soil on which the city stands, owing to the
gradual drying up of the lake. Two on the opposite sides
of one street looked most absurd, leaning towards each other
as if making a bow.

In the evening we went to a party given by the American
Minister. Most of those present were American or English :
but there were several French, a few Mexicans, and we
had some charming music.

Maij 8. — After receiving several very pleasant visitors
we drove out to the American Cemetery. It is just beyond
the English Cemetery, in the outskirts of the city. Mr.
S., the U. S. Consul, found it in shocking repair, overflowed
constantly by the water from the ditches. So he has put
up a wall all round, aiid keeps it in tlie most perfect order.
The first part is a garden with a pretty cottage where the
man in charge lives, and farther on are the graves, planted
with flowers ; the monument to the American soldiers who
fell during the Mexican war, a plain and rather ugly erec-
tion, stands at the end under the tall trees, which shade the
whole cemetery. We came away loaded with flowers which
the gardener gave us.

Fresh facts about this curious country come under one's

306 SOUTH BY WEST.

notice every day. To-day I was told that till quite lately a
favourite method of making money among some members
of the community, has been stealing the gravestones from
the different cemeteries and selling them. We drove down
to Chapultepec by a fine Calzada, alongside the aqueduct of
the Agua Delgado. At every leak in the masonry grow
masses of maidenhair fern, and pretty little flowers. A little
while ago this Calzada was thought unsafe, and no one
would drive on it ; which was a pity, for it is the best-
made road I have seen in Mexico : but now there is no
danger, and as the coachman had a revolver in his belt, we
had a safe and pleasant drive out, and home by the Paseo,
which was crowded.

9th. — We went to a breakfast at the Tivoli de San

Cosme, given by Mr. • , an American. The G.'s,

Madame E., and her mother, Senora ■ , a daughter of the

President, who was extremely pleasant, her husband and
several others, about thirty in all, were there. We began by
a game of bowls in the Tenpin Alley, and at one o'clock
went to breakfast in the open gallery of the main build-
infj. On one side we looked down into the wood of
beautiful trees which shade most of the garden, with a
great tame monkey swinging about the branches ; and on
the other over a pretty flower garden, with a stream
running through it, to the blue mountains. An excellent
military band played all breakfast- time, and drove the
dancers of the party nearly crazy by playing valses
and habaneras. I sat between Madame E. and Senor C,
with the Minister of War and the President's daughter
opposite. Senor C. could not speak a word of French or
English : so I had no alternative between taking a fearful
plunge into the quagmire of my bad Spanish, or silence.
I chose the quagmire : and to my utter surprise and delight,
found I could actually make myself intelligible to the
Senor, and that I could also understand him. It was

LIFE IN MEXICO. 307

very encouraging, and I find the Mexicans so merciful
and patient with one's blunders, that I mean to work
hard at my Spanish, about which I have been quite in
despair lately.

After fourteen courses of meat, with hardly any veget-
ables, had gone round, in true Mexican fashion, the toasts
began while dulces were served. Some of the speeches were
admirable. An old gentleman of eighty, who forty years
ago was United States Consul here, made the prettiest
speech in Spanish in proposing "the Ladies:" — "To the
only aristocracy we tolerate, who rule us without laws, and
from whose judgment there is no appeal." " Leaving us
with only a sujplica," added the Minister of War, which
means the prayer for mercy of a condemned criminal.

The Governor of Mexico made a capital speech also.
Speech-making, so tedious usually, seems a natural gift to
Mexicans ; and is as pleasant to the listeners as it is easy
to the speech-makers.

After breakfast, that is to say about 3.30 p.m., we all
went into the garden. Then the large dancing hall was
opened, next to the gallery where we had breakfasted, and
adjourning there, we danced till half-past five, and I at
last learned the " Habanera."

Of all dreamy easy dances it is the most charming,
with the strangest changes of time, and the strangest time
for dancing all through. I found when I had once gone
through the figure that I knew it. It opens by two couples
doing a very slow chaine des dames without turning ; then
your partner takes you round the waist, giving his left hand
to the other lady, and you giving your right to the other
gentleman, and thus you halanccz three or four times for-
ward and back ; and then comes the delicious half valse,
half polka, half walk,— I do not know how to describe it.
Then you begin with another couple, and so on all round
the room. One custom they have is that during the crossing

308 SOUTH BY WEST.

in the first figure, a gentleman, if he has no partner, may-
slip iQ and take a jpaloma (dove), that is, steal a lady from
her first partner : but everything is done so quietly, lazily,
and gracefully that you hardly seem to move.

After the dancing was over we parted from all the ladies
with the regular Mexican salutation, — a stage embrace, one
hand on the shoulder, the other round the waist ; and a kiss
on both cheeks. It took me completely by surprise with
strangers, Senora , the President's daughter, for in-
stance : but it is the correct thing ; and must be gone
through as a matter of course.

CHAPTEE XX.

LIFE IN MEXICO — continued.

Indios and their costumes— Street cries— Guadalupe — Arrival of the engineers —
Trying a gun— An agua cerro — Drainage — The Academia — Aztec arts— The
Palacio — A Mexican debate— Chills and fever — Gizzard tea — The Monte Pio
— The tree of the JVoche Triste — A narrow bridge— Departure of the engineer-
ing party— Feast of Corpus Christi— Tacubaya — The Museum— A " useful
man" — The considerate compadre.

One can never be dull in Mexico if one's window looks
on any thoroughfare. The passers-by are a continual
amusement, and remind one of the changing patterns in a
kaleidoscope. The gaily dressed and well-mounted Cabal-
leros riding out to the Paseo, or starting for some journey to
the country, with a well-armed troop of servants behind
them ; the rumbling diligencias, with tlieir eight horses,
tearing over the ill-paved streets at full gallop, and turning
comers in safety where you expect to see them overturn
bodily; the mule-waggons coming in laden with bales of
cotton from the north ; long trains of pack-mules, with
quaintly dressed " arieros" in leathern apron and drawers,
coloured shirt, and broad sombrero, starting with loads of
goods for the interior; and the little burros trotting into
market, entirely buried, save their heads and tails, in a load
of alfalfa grass, vegetables, or chickens from the country
round.

Then there are the Indios, who ply their various trades

310 SOUTH BY WEST.

in the streets. Each class has its distinguishing dress,
often very picturesque.

The carboneros jog along in ugly dark-blue cotton clothes,
with narrow white stripes, a grey serape over their shoulders ;
the women with a bit of coarse cloth on their heads, put on
like a Eoman peasant's head-dress, their long braids of hair
bound with red, twisted round it, and their heavy packs of
charcoal, covered in coarse grass, supported by a leather
strap across the shoulders.

The fruit-seller, in a blue striped petticoat and man's
straw sombrero, carries a tray of tempting fruits — bananas,
water-melons, oranges, limes, mangos, zapotes, chirimoyas,
avocates, from the Tierra Caliente, and strawberries, figs,
pears, apples, and all the temperate fruits from the plateau.

The " aguador" water-carrier, has a leather yoke and
apron over his white shirt and blue trousers, carries a huge
red earthen jar on his back, and a smaller one hanging down
between his hands, each hung by leather straps on his head,
which is covered in a close-fitting peaked leather cap.

Sombre — almost grotesque — as his dress appears, the
pulque carrier exceeds him in quaintness. He too has the
leather apron, but his shirt is often a dark blue, with red
or white stripes ; he wears leather drawers coming just
below his knees, and over a bit of cloth on his head, which
once was white, a leather strap supports the quivering pig-
skin full of pulque on his back, while under his arm he
carries the " acujotc^' or long gourd, used as a siphon to
suck the juice from the maguey plant. Anything more
unpleasant than the appearance of a cart full of pulque skins
shaking over the rough roads, like pigs made of light brown
jelly, cannot well be pictured. The popular account of the
way the skins are obtained is so entirely novel I may as well
recount it.

A pig is selected, shut up by himself, and starved for
several days. He is then taken out, tied by one hind leg to

LIFE IX MEXICO. 311

a tree, and in front of him at some distance an ear of maize
is laid. The ravenous pig espies the tempting food, and
struggles to get free : but his hind leg is much too firmly
secured. At last — so says the historian — his frantic efforts
succeed, but how ? He pulls himself out of his own skin !

The " Mantequero," lard merchant, is an important person,
for in Mexico lard is used instead of butter in all kitchens.
He stalks along all in grey, grey shirt, short drawers, and strip
of grey cloth round his waist like a short petticoat, carrying
the tub of lard piled up in a white pyramid on his head.

The " Galopmas" kitchen-maids, go out to market each
morning to get the provisions for the day's consumption —
nothing is bought in large quantities. Their plain dark
brown or blue stuff gowns and blue rebozos look dingy,
though respectable : and one is glad of a bit of bright colour
in the dress of some of the other women of the city, who
wear the universal white shift, embroidered round the neck,
and a full petticoat which is of some bright red stuff three
quarters of its length, while the upper part is brilliant
yellow.

But after all, the most interesting of all the Indios are
the bird- sellers, who bring their " huacals" or packs of birds,
up from the Tierra Caliente, and sit in crowds in the Plaza
outside the cathedral They bring ''Sen sontiles" or mocking-
birds ; clarines with their quiet grey plumage and ringing
metallic voices ; 2^^io real, or royal whistler, a green and
blue bird the size of a thrush, dirty and greedy when kept in
confinement, devouring an unbelievable amount of " moscas"
small black flies, which are found, I believe, near the Lake of
Tezcoco, and sold by the pint measure ; " cardinals," with
brilliant red plumage ; and the lovely " canario de siete colo-
res," or nonpareil as it is called in the southern States, a
canary with seven different colours on its tiny body ; par-
rots and paroquets from Vera Cruz and Oaxaca ; and some-
times, I grieve to say, a cage of little humming-birds, lovely

312 SOUTH BY WEST.

as the flowers put at the bottom of their cage, who generally
beat themselves to death in a few hours.

In the evening, the streets, though deserted by these
traders, are anything but quiet. Their place is taken by
more noisy vendors, who rend the air with cries of " Tomales
con puerco," a very uninviting hot and greasy kind of saus-
age-roll. And one woman about 9 p.m. every night chanted
in piercing tones a long recitation, of which I could only dis-
tinguish the words — " Hot ducks, 0 my soul ! 0 hot ducks ! "
Later, when all these sounds are stilled, and the streets are
deserted, as the clock strikes 10 p.m. one is startled by a
hideous din, which continues the whole night through. At
every street corner a " sereno," watchman, with a lantern is
stationed. At each quarter of the hour he blows a whistle,
shriller than words can describe, which is answered by all
the other watchmen on his beat, and each hour he sings to
a sort of Gregorian tone the time and state of the weather,
" Las doce, y sere-e-no."

At first I found sleep impossible, as a sereno unfor-
tunately was stationed close to the hotel ; and also I was
continually roused in the middle of the night by what I took
to be a boy of wakeful habits whistling the Mexican " re-
traite" that most unmelodious of all bugle-calls. Time,
however, accustomed me to the watchman's shouts and
whistles, and I discovered that the little boy was a mocking-
bird belonging to Senor Lerdo de Tejada, the present Presi-
dent of Mexico, whose house was opposite, that woke up
at intervals during the night to pour forth this call in the
darkness.

Monday, May 13. — General P. and I rode in the after-
noon out to Guadalupe, famous for two circumstances :
firstly, as being the first and only spot, till a year or two
ago, where the Virgin is supposed to have appeared on the
western continent ; secondly, as being the scene, on the 2d
February 1848, of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe

LIFE IN MEXICO. 313

Hidalgo, by which New Mexico and Upper California were
ceded to the United States.

Guadalupe lies about four miles from the city, up a long
straight road, with trees on either side, through green mea-
dows covered with white herons. To the left of the road
runs the old causeway, up which the pilgrims used to crawl
to the shrine on their knees, with twelve " stations " of
carved stone and images on it, where they stopped to rest and
pray. This causeway has now been sold to the Mexico
and Vera Cruz Eailroad Company, and trains run along it in
place of the pious pilgrims, who must now make use of the
train, or go up the muddy road — another proof of the deca-
dence of priestly power in the country.

Guadalupe is built round the foot of a projecting spur
from the mountain range on the northern side of the ISIexican
basin, which ends abruptly within half a mile of the Lake of
Tezcoco.

The place consists of three churches ; — a little sky-blue
one on the top of the hill, over the spot on which the Virgin
appeared ; two in the town below, decorated with quan-
tities of delicate stone carving and coloured tiles; about sixty
houses ; and, as far as we could see, about the same number
of inhabitants.

How such a miserable little hole can warrant trains almost
every hour in the day is a miracle indeed ; yet the Indios
troop there in such numbers that ten special trains run
every day between Mexico and Guadalupe, taking first class
passengers the single journey for a " real" Gd., and second
class for a " medio" 3d.

Coming home it was quite dark, and we came at a sharp
hand-gallop all the way. A thunder-storm w^as raging in
the western mountains, and the bright flashes lit up the
whole country in pink and blue light every moment. A
little way out of Guadalupe the General pulled up : —

" Have you a pocket in your habit ? "

3U SOUTH BY WEST.

"Yes."

"Then you had better take this," pulling a Derringer
from his coat ; " when you fire it, full cock it and pull the
trigger."

It struck us as so absurd to have to take these precautions
in a quiet afternoon ride three miles from a great city, that
we both burst out laughing. But nevertheless I buttoned my
little protector inside my jacket, putting an extra cartridge
in my pocket, and rode on at a good pace with my hand
on the hilt. The General had his trusty six-shooter in
readiness, and we both kept a sharp look-out behind the
trees and in the ditches, full of green bushes. A mounted
patrol of two men and a sergeant were keeping guard : but
notwithstanding this protection there have been a good
many robberies along this bit of road in the last few
months ; while a mile beyond Guadalupe, where the route
runs along the Lake shore, there is a point where the chances
are so heavy in favour of your being robbed, that for some
time it has been almost deserted by travellers, unless they
are strongly escorted.

Going straiglit in to dinner in my habit when we got
home, I pulled the little pistol out and laid it beside me on
the table ; and was greeted with a shout of laughter from all
our party.

What would people in England think of a young lady
producing one of these deadly weapons after a quiet ride
down to Eichmond on a summer afternoon ! I was very
glad to restore the Derringer to its owner ; for the saying is,
that if you carry one you are sure to shoot yourself or your
best friend before six months are out, as they require such
careful handling.

lith. — I had a most pleasant surprise to-day. "We were
going out in the afternoon for another ride — this time on a
safer road — when, as I was sitting waiting, Senor A. looked
in and said some one wanted me. I, thinking it was a

LIFE IN MEXICO. 3 1 5

visitor, who might keep me from my ride, said in Spanish,
with I fear no very amiable tone of voice, that the " some
one " was to come in. However, as he or she did not obey, I
went out: and there in the passage, more burnt and dusty
than can be described, stood my brother. He had just
arrived with the engineering party from Toluca, having made
another most satisfactory reconnaissance, up the valley of
the Lerma from Salamanca to its source in the Lago de
Lerma, near Toluca. They had seen robbers, but had not
been robbed ; and found timber and riches of every kind in
the country, — the only misfortune being that one of the
party sickened with fever on the trip, and by the time he
arrived at the city was seriously ill.

General P. and I rode out by the Garitaof San Lazaro
and down the Vera Cruz stage road for about three miles.
Just outside the Garita, in some adobe fortifications, were
a company of soldiers, a waggon, and a quantity of lookers-
on, a class very common in Mexico, where people always
seem to have time, whatever the occupation they are engaged
in, for a lounge, a gossip, and a " cigarro" whether the object
of interest be an execution or a tumble-down mule.

" There is a row there," said my companion; and I galloped
past, looking the other way, with a horrible fear lest some
one was being shot.

Coming back, as the crowd was still there, I suggested
that this might be the case, and General P. said the same
idea had struck him. It was too horrid to be in uncertainty
any longer ; so with my best bow and in my best Spanish I
asked a man in the road, " Que succede ? "

" No mas que provar ttna Canonazo" — only trying a gun,
was the answer. How relieved I was ! But we found after-
wards, on inquiry, that my fears had been quite needless,
as the authorities have still a little respect for the feelings of
the civilized inhabitants, and have all executions at half-
past four or five a.m.

316 SOUTH BY WEST.

Tlie P.'s and I dined out in the evening, and on the
dinner-table were a collection of the most splendid carna-
tions I have ever seen. In one bouquet there were sixteen
varieties, of every shade, from palest yellow to one which
was almost black. The country seems to suit them speci-
ally, and it would be well worth while for English gardeners
to get seed from here. During dinner we had what is
here called an " agua cerro" which, in plain English, means
a regular deluge ; and such it was — the rain coming down
in sheets, reminding one of Schnorr's picture of the Flood,
where the angels are represented pouring water out of
buckets on the world below. These agua cerros are the
forerunners of the rainy season, which is beginning this
year unusually early. The Feast of St. John is generally
the time it commences, and this year it is nearly six weeks
before its time. As we drove home, the streets were in
many places a foot deep in water; and with the queer
foreign houses and churches, narrow streets, and the lights
reflected in the water, of whose depth one could not judge,
one might have imagined one's-self in Venice, except that
the " coche" was hardly as smooth and easy a conveyance
as a gondola.

Next morning the effects of the storm were much less
poetic. When M. and I went out for an early walk the
water had subsided, and the streets were covered with a
slippery, slimy mud, most disgusting to touch and smell.
Indeed, instead of mending matters by washing the town
clean, the rain seems to have made things even worse than
before.

The system of drainage here is primitive. Each house,
as I have said before, is built round a patio, a square paved
court, six inches to one and a half feet below the street level.
Across the centre of this court to the main drain in the street
runs the principal sewer of the house, covered, it is true, with
flat paving- stones : but these are generally merely laid side

LIFE IN MEXICO. 317

by side across it without cement or mortar, so that a poison-
ous gas rises from innumerable cracks between the badly-
fitting stones. When a rain-storm comes the patios are
flooded, these drains are all flushed, and the consequences
may be imagined.

One of the engineers, as I said, came in yesterday with a
bad attack of fever beginning, and this atmosphere is not
likely to improve it.

On Wednesday afternoon we went with a large party of
friends to the Academia — a very good art-school, with a
picture-gallery attached. Senor Obregon, a young Mexican
artist, who was educated in the Academia, met us there and
took us all over it. The pictures of the old Mexican school,
which filled several rooms, were simply atrocious, mere
replicas of the very lowest Spanish art ; and in the two
rooms of European pictures, I only found three productions
worth looking at, though we were shown {not by Senor
Obregon) endless "real Murillos." I am sorry for poor
Murillo's reputation if he ever touched them.

But the really interesting room was that of the modern
Mexican school. It is a fine room, well proportioned, and
decorated with fresco medallions of all the old masters round
the roof, and some of the pictures are really beautiful. Senor
Obregon holds a deservedly high place among Mexican artists,
and he had several of his pictures there. One of Columbus
as a youth was fine enough to establish any artist's reputa-
tion ; and I was delighted to find from him that he intends
ere long to come to Europe, where I hope he may make
himself a name.

The Mexicans seem to have a natural talent for art.
Even the poor Indies show extraordinary aptitude in doing
anything which needs taste in arrangement of colour. The
painted gourds and calabashes in which the " chia" and
other sweet drinks at the street-corners are sold are
often extremely pretty, painted in bands of black and

318 SOUTH BY WEST.

colour, with patterns in gold and silver, brilliant but not
gaudy.

The pottery I have already mentioned : but lately I have
been getting, thanks to Mrs. Y., a collection of " Ttjpos del
Pais," little pottery figures four inches high, of all the dif-
ferent costumes of the country; for here each occupation
has its distinguishing dress. They are exquisitely made, in
the most perfect proportion, all coloured exactly according
to life ; and so delicate is the workmanship, that in the fea-
tures of two tortilla makers, one from the city of Mexico,
the other from Puebla, you can at a glance distinguish the
two distinct races of the Aztec and Tlascalan ; and these
figures, worthy of coming from the hand of a first-rate
artist, are made for two reales (Is.) each, by a poor old Indio,
crippled, ill, and half-starved, who has no tools to work
them with, save his nails and little bits of stick ! Poor old
Manuel ; if he lived in Europe or the States, his fortune
would soon be made ; and now his old wife, Manuela, tells
me that, as he is very ill and can only do a very few of
these little statuettes in the week, they often do not know
how to get their next meal.

These are far superior to the wax and rag figures, which
are also made in the city. The latter are larger and more
effective, but they look unnatural, and are so easily broken,
or melted, in the trajet through the Tierra Caliente and
Cuba, that very few arrive safely at the end of their journey.

Another art here is that of silver and gold filigree work,
some of which is most beautiful and delicate. I have con-
stant invasions of silver workers to my room, bringing nap-
kin-rings— which, if a little larger, would make beautiful
bracelets, — ear-rings, butterflies for the hair, necklaces, and
crosses, for which they ask an exorbitant price at first, and
end by coming down to an absurdly small sum for such
delicate workmanship.

The most characteristic art, however, which remains in

LIFE IX MEXICO. 319

Mexico, is that of making feather-pictures. Prescott says,
"The art in which they (the Aztecs) most delighted was
their plumajc or feather-work. With this they could pro-
duce all the effect of a beautiful mosaic. The gorgeous
plumage of tlie tropical birds, especially of the parrot
tribe, afforded every variety of colour : and the fine down
of the humming-bird, which revelled in swarms among
the honeysuckle bowers of Mexico, supplied them with soft
aerial tints that gave an exquisite finish to the picture. The
feathers, pasted on a fine cotton web, were wrought into
dresses for the wealthy, hangings for apartments, and orna-
ments for the temples. No one of the American fabrics
excited such admiration in Europe, whither numerous speci-
mens were sent by the conquerors. It is to be regretted
that so graceful an art should have been suflered to fall into
decay.

" This art held an honourable place among the trades of
the Aztecs. ' Apply thyself, my son,' was tlie advice of an
aged chief, " to agriculture, or to feather- work, or some other
honourable calling. Thus did your ancestors before you.
Else how would they have provided for themselves and their
families ? Never was it heard that nobility alone was able
to maintain its possessor."

But though feather-work, like its Aztec inventors, has
lost its high place in the land, yet it is still carried on
in a small degree ; and from the humbler productions of
the present day one may imagine the gorgeous robes of the
Aztecs, which dazzled the eyes of the rough Spanish con-
querors as they entered Mexico on the 8th of November 1519.
In these degenerate days, the feather-pictures are chiefly
prints or photographs of the costumes of the country, which
are entirely covered with feathers, looking in the distance
like brilliant paintings. I gave one of the feather-workers

a photograph of M , in a South American gaucho dress,

telling him the colours of the clothes. In a week he

320 SOUTH BY WEST.

brought it back to me, entirely covered in feathers, except
the face and hands. The handkerchief on the head is done
in the tiny plumes from the " ruby-topaz " humming-bird's
throat ; the j)0'^'^chilla in scarlet cardinal's feathers, with
stripes of other colours running across it ; the chiripa and
white trousers in black and white ; and the curtain which
hangs behind the figure is a green glory, from the emerald
humming-bird's breast. It is quite a gem, yet the man
apologized very much for asking a dollar for it, as he said
there were so many plumaj'es de colibris (humming-bird's
feathers) used in it.

I have seen one or two rehozos from 200 to 300 years
old, woven of cotton and gold or silver threads, as fine and
soft as silk, exquisitely coloured, and, as their present state
proves, almost indestructible. The rehozos of the present
day are all alike, dull brown or blue, without any beauty of
design or colour. The scrapes are very picturesque, woven
of wool and cotton, in well-chosen colours, the prettiest
having white or black grounds, with coloured borders and
centres. Some of the finer ones, which are made in wool
and silk, with gold and silver threads, are most beautiful ;
and a young dandy will often give $500 (£100) for a serape
of this kind, to strap behind his saddle.

But to return to our sight- seeing. On leaving the
Academia we went to the Palace, which occupies the whole
of the southern side of the Plaza Major. We went first up
a long flight of stone stairs — most wearying work in this air
— to the Sala of the ambassadors, where the receptions used
to be held at the time of the Empire. On the dais at the
end are the same chairs under the red and gold canopy
which Maximilian and Carlotta used. The room is very
long, with a polished floor that made us long for a dance ;
and is beautifully fitted with evidences of the poor Emperor's
taste. On the walls are full-length portraits of all the

LIFE IN MEXICO. 321

leaders of Mexico since it sliook off the Spanish yoke — the
Padre Hidalgo in a dress half warlike half ecclesiastical,
Iturbide, Bustamente, etc. Out of them all only one had
died a natural death ; and he had fled the country. The
others were all shot !

We penetrated to the President's rooms, in which are
beautiful vases and statues from Italy, brought by the
Emperor. Whatever may be the " indignant feelings of the
Mexican nation at the extravagant outlay on works of art,"
which is one of the commonest complaints against the un-
happy Maximilian, the present possessors of the said works
of art do not seem to object in the least to benefit by them
as they are here.

Senor C, a most charming " diputado" who was educated
in Europe, then took us into Congress, which is within the
palace precincts. We were taken to the diplomatic box, and
listened to a very good and animated speech on some
Church-matter for quarter of an hour. The Congress Hall
is in a semicircle. In the centre of the flat side, on a little
dais, sit the Speaker and four others. Senor C, the Governor
of Mexico, was one of these, on the Speaker's right. On the
floor of the house are tables, and two rostrums, from which
most of the speeches are made. The present speaker, how-
ever, was in his own seat in the double tier of members
round the semicircle. The upper galleries and boxes were
crowded with listeners. Everything was extremely quiet
and dignified.

After we had listened to the debate, we went down
into the patio and saw the magnificent state-coach, costing
40,000 dollars, which the workmen of JMilau gave the
Emperor. He and the Empress never once drove in it, and
Juarez is the only person who has ever used it, driving in
it from the Oraciones on the 5th of JNlay. A very vehement
republican who was present remarked, for the benefit of the
party, "Well, a man who has a carriage like that in this

322 SOUTH BY AYEST.

country deserves to be shot !" The logic of the remark I
failed to see, and Don Benito Juarez seems to have appro-
priated the Milanese workmen's gift with much complacency.

\Wi. — The P.'s, General E., and I, went to-day to make
our formal calls on the wives of two of the Ministers, and
on the President's daughters, as it is etiquette that strangers
should make the first visit. The latter we found at home,
and were very much charmed with them. Their mother
was an Italian ; and having lived some four years in the
States, they speak English very fairly, so that we got on,
with the help of a little Spanish, without any difficulty.

May 21. — We are in a sea of troubles. Mr. V. M. came
in off the Lerma reconnaissance with fever, which has since
turned typhoid in almost its worst form. Three days ago
]\Ir. H. also sickened, and we have been in great alarm
about him. To-day, however, he is better.

Governor H. now is in bed ; and I too have had the
enjoyment of a touch of intermittent chills and fever.

What a horrid sensation it is ! I could not imagine at
first what had happened to me. There is a prince in one of
Grimm's fairy tales who is always saying, " Oh, if I could
but shiver !" and at last his wish is gratified by his wife, who
pours a dish full of little fishes down his back, which pro-
duces the desired effect. I felt just as if the little fish were
slipping and wriggling all over me ; my teeth chattered and
my hands shook. Then in a little while came a hot rush of
blood, up went my pulse, jumping and then dying away,
my head ached like a furnace, and then again came the
chill. It has skipped the alternate days with me, which
makes me all the more uncomfortable, as intermittent fever,
if it once gets hold, is so apt to return for years. But I
have taken such quantities of quinine that I hope it is
almost baffled.

22f/. — Our hospital is improving. To begin with my-
self : I am quite well again ; Mr. H, up ; and the Governor

LIFE IN MEXICO. 323

mending. Mr. V. M. also is a shade better, thanks to an
extraordinary remedy which our good friend Dr. S. ordered
as a last resource — tea made from the peelings of chickens'
gizzards. It is an intense astringent, and more unpalatable
than words can describe. I went down to the kitchen of
the restaurant to order it myself to prevent mistakes ; at the
same time desiring one of the waiters to take the Governor a
cup of real tea, which we had procured from a chemist's with
the greatest difficulty, as tea is not usually to be had here.
Now, if a Mexican waiter can make a mistake, he will ; and
after waiting an interminable time for the arrival of the real
tea, I went to see if it had reached the Governor. I found
him, poor man, perfectly raging, declaring that he was
poisoned, and demanding in no measured terms what these
Mexicans had given him that they called tea. My dismay
was great when I found that the gizzard-tea had been
brought to him instead of Mr. V. M., and that he had
taken a good draught of it, being parched with thii-st. I
could not help laughing in spite of his misery, and as no real
harm was done, soon set matters right by despatching poor
old Trinidad, the author of all the mischief, for a fresh brew ;
and the gizzard-tea has acted like magic on the patient for
whom it was destined.

May 23. — Some American friends called for us at
1 P.M., and we went with them to the Monte de Piedad, the
national pawnshop of Mexico. It is in Cortez's palace, facing
the north side of the Cathedral, at the top of the Plaza.
The ground of what is now the Palacio was originally granted
to Cortez : but was ceded by his descendants to the Govern-
ment. In exchange they were given the groimd formerly
occupied by the palace of the Aztec Kings, and built upon
it the present edifice.

We went into a long narrow room, with a table down the
centre. The walls were lined with cupboards with wire grat-
ing, in which the valuables in pawn are kept. Sefior ,

324 SOUTH BY WEST.

the head of the Monte Pio, was with us, with five assistants,
who unlocked the most magnificent sets of diamonds and
pearls, some of immense value, and handed them to us as
we sat round the table. Some were quite new, others equally
old. These jewels are put in " en clejjosito" at haK their value,
and if not redeemed at the end of six months, are put up to
auction at their full value. If they do not realize this, they
are put up again after a certain time at reduced value, and
so on till they are sold. It is entirely under the Govern-
ment, and is admirably managed.

Besides the jewels, plate, and valuables of all kinds, in
the grated room, there were several rooms filled with fur-
niture, and one very large one full of pianos and sewing-
machines of every possible make. Altogether, however, the
place, except for the jewels, was not so interesting as we
had been led to believe.

2mh. — M. and I, followed by his mozo, a smart-looking
feUow, rode out to Tacuba to see the famous old tree of the
Noche Triste. It was a lovely morning, after torrents of
rain the night before, and the scent from the rose hedges
was delicious as we rode along the shady Calzada de San
Cosme, on the very track of Cortez and his soldiers, as they
fought their way along this same causeway, when they were
driven from the city.

As it was Saturday morning, the road was crowded with
Indies trooping in to the gTeat market, — men, women, mules
and burros laden with fruit, vegetables, alfalfa grass, poviltry,
and charcoal, in one continuous stream. The fowls are
sometimes packed in an absurd way, which at first sight
seems horribly cruel, for they are sewed with string in layers
with their heads out, on a flat board, which is carried on
their owner's back. However, I hope they are not really
as uncomfortable as they look, for the string, instead of
going through their bodies, as it appears, is only passed
under their wings, and fastened to the board underneath.

LIFE IX MEXICO.

325

The most curious sight are the " Carhoneros " from the
mountains, who trot along — men and women— carrying a
pack of charcoal some 200 lbs. weight on their backs, for a
distance sometimes of as much as forty miles.

The Tree of the Noche Triste.

There is a line of street cars running out along tliis road
all the way (three miles) to Popotla, and three cars with two
mules each start from the Plaza every half-hour, going all
three close together at full gallop, which has the most
absurd effect. It would be much more convenient to pas-
sengers if they ran singly and at shorter intervals : but I

326 SOUTH BY WEST.

fancy it is safer if tliey all run together, as there is less
chance of their being stopped by " ladrones." The old tree
stands close to the road, in the churchyard of a small church,
and till within the last month was in perfect preservation.
Some little time ago, however, it was sold, so the story
here goes, by the Government to a Frenchman for some
small sum. He immediately sold it again for $1500 : but
on the authorities denying his right to do so, or, as a
Westerner would say, " going back on him," he, to spite
them, on the 2d of May spread petroleum over the tree and
set it on fire. It is not so much injured as was feared from
first accounts, some few branches being still green and
unhurt : but I am afraid it will never recover such a shock.
It is a huge old AhuaJmcte, quite hollow now, and is of the
same age as,- or even older than, those of Chapultepec.

Turning westwards from Popotla we rode through narrow
lanes between pulque plantations out into open fields covered
with flowers. A low lilac verbena, French marigolds and
salvias, were the only ones I knew, except of course wild
roses, which flourish everywhere. We tried to cross a deep
watercourse between high artificial banks, as our object was
to reach Chapultepec across country : but the heavy rains
of the night before had flooded every ditch, so that we
had to turn back, and with some difficulty made our way to
open grass pastures full of cattle and horses, between Tacuba
and San Cosme ; and crossing the Toluca narrow-gauge rail-
road, of which a few miles of track are laid, followed it up to
the Calzada from San Cosme to Chapultepec.

Here we were completely stopped by a great dike which
runs down the side of the road, and is about thirty feet
broad, twenty feet deep, and full of water. The mozo how-
ever was determined not to turn back, and was also rather
anxious, I fancy, to show off" his own pluck and M.'s new
horse, which he was riding, so he said if the " niruc " could
follow, he would lead the way over the railroad bridge.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 327

the only way of crossing. It was but tliree feet wide, and
made of boards laid between the rails. M. followed on a
pretty little barb pony, and I brought up the rear on a great
long-legged American trotter, which was not by any means
sure-footed on smooth ground. I felt considerably relieved
when he bore me safely over, as a slip on the bridge would
have been disastrous.

We turned up the Calzada to Chapultepec, along the
side of the aqueduct of the " thin water," through whose
grey stone arches, fringed with maidenhair ferns and a hun-
dred delicate flowers, we caught glimpses of the beautiful
Teja, the Empress Carlotta's hacienda. This hacienda was
confiscated v/hen the Liberals came into power again, and
is now sold to the lawyer who defended the Emperor, and
who bought it to prevent its going into hostile hands. It is
wonderfully rich ground, and I was told three crops can be
got off it in the year.

The sun was partly hidden by clouds, and the fresh
pure air, laden with the scent of young leaves and roses, was
quite enchanting. We caught a good view of the peaks of
the two volcanos, though their slopes were hidden in white
clouds ; and we got home at 1 1 a.m. by way of the Paseo
del Imperador.

26th. — Our party broke up to-day, alas I General P.
and Governor H. have gone out with M. and the engineering
party on a reconnaissance down the Eio Lerma to Salamanca
and Guanajuato. They intend joining us again in a fort-
night, just in time to sail in the French packet of the 1 8th
of June ; leaving M. and the rest to make further explora-
tions of the country. Meanwhile Mrs. P. and I are left
here under General E.'s care.

We spent the whole morning in " fixing up " in various
ways, such as sewing cord on sombreros, and the hundred
and one little things which arc always needed at the
last minute before a start. M.'s dress was perfect for the

328 SOUTH BY WEST.

purpose ; though as Mrs. Y. said, if she had met him on the
road she should have prepared her purse and her prayers
instantly. Dark trousers and short cloth jacket, Holland
blouse over flannel -shirt, fastened at the waist with a blue
faja, over which went cartridge-belt with revolver and ivory-
mounted dagger given him by a Spanish friend (of whom
more anon). The whole costume was completed by a broad
grey felt sombrero, with silver cord and tassels, — the " som-
hrero ancho " of the song.

His horse was a beauty, cream-coloured, — the most
esteemed barb colour — and looked very handsome with his
Californian saddle, a Mexican bridle of white maguey fibre
and red wool, and his repeating Winchester carbme slung at
the saddle-bow.

Several of our friends came to see the whole cavalcade
off, and at 3.30 they started. Tlie six gentlemen in front,
followed by two mounted mozos leading the two pack-mules,
— a goodly array : but

" I wish them safe at home."

29th. — "We were going out driving, but an agua cerro came
on which lasted an hour and a half It began with thunder
and heavy hail, which quite whitened the pavements, lying in
heaps three inches high against the steps ; and then turned
into a torrent of rain. All the streets were inundated, and
the S.'s coachman, who went out to get a carriage, came
in with the news that the patios of the hotels were swim-
ming in water a foot deep. So I had to wait till the
water went down a little, and at seven Mr. S. walked home
with me, and by means of an impromptu pathway of planks
we managed to get across the patio at the Iturbide, which
was still nearly covered, being a good deal lower than the
street level, though the street was dry.

May 30. — The Feast of Corpus Christi — a great day
among the Mexicans. All the shops were closed, and the

LIFE IN MEXICO. 329

air before dawn was full of the sound of bells. We went
out early to the Plaza, and found the flower-sellers in the
side streets from the Plateros sitting on the curb-stone in
their usual places with hundreds of beautiful bouquets
before them.

Mrs. Y. took us to inspect the various wonders of the
day. On each side of tlie pathways up to the different
doors of the cathedrals sat Indies with toys, which are only
sold on this day ; surrounded by swarms of children arid
nurses, spending their medios, quartillas, and clacos. The
gi-eat favourites are " huacalitos," small models of the packs
the Indies carry on their backs. They are made of bits of
wood, filled with fruits or " dukes," and covered with split
reed lookmg like sugar-cane, into which are stuck gay
flowers.

The next toys in favour are the " mulitas" donkeys, made
of corn-shuck, each carrying two huacalitos an inch long
filled with dulces.

Then come innumerable coloured wooden and earthen
toys, aU representing a hideous dragon, who generally carries
a figure of the Virgin standing on his back, or drawn by him
in a rude car.

The Indies could not explain the reason or .'meaning of
these toys — " only it was the day of Corpus Christi, and
so they had them of course."

We went into the Cathedral : but the incense, the jingling
bells as the host was raised, the shrill voices of the choir
bursting out by fits and starts, apparently without connexion
with the service the priests were conducting ; the crowds of
people, fine ladies and filthy leperos all jostling against each
other and eyeing us hereticos with no friendly glances ; the
heavy odour of the incense ; and the far less agreeable smell
of humanity from the vast crowd, soon drove us out into the
fresh hot air in the Plaza.

Before the priests lost their power, this Fiesta was one of

330 SOUTH BY WEST.

the greatest days in the year. " The host," says Madame
Calderon de la Barca, " is carried through the city in great
procession, at which the President, in full uniform, the arch-
bishop and all the ministers, etc., assist," and woe to any
heretico who did not fall on his knees as they passed. Now,
however, all this is gone by, and the service in the Cathedral
is all that is allowed.

In the afternoon Senora • called on us. She is a

beautiful Baltimorian ; tall, with a magnificent figure, fair
hair, dark eyebrows, and those wonderful violet eyes which
you hardly ever see except in Baltimore.

May 31. — After desayuno, the S.'s and Mrs. Y. called for
us, and we drove out to Tacubaya. It was a perfect morn-
ing, with changing lights, tender and pearly, and a cool wind.
We drove first to Senor E.'s villa, which is very lovely, with
ponds, streams, and bridges, under thick trees leading up to
the house. It stands on a terrace, a perfect bower of
flowering creepers, bignonias, honeysuckles, passion-flower,
jessamine, and roses. The house itself is very pretty, and
looks more European than any other Mexican house I have

been into. But Mr. 's, which lies a quarter of a mile on,

is the real British house. When we came to the hall-door,
the first thing I saw were two old coloured engravings of the
Derby and Ascot Grand Stand, hanging in the portico. In-
side, the passages were all hung with dear old hunting and
stage-coach coloured prints, so familiar in English houses.
Erom a gallery up- stairs the finest view over the Valley
of Mexico is to be had, with Chapultepec as a foreground.

We were in the humour for sight- seeing, so after break-
fast we went off to the museum and spent a most pleasant
time there. The collection of minerals is very fair ; but
many of the trays were empty, the contents (being very
valuable) having disappeared in a mysterious manner, which
some people hint that the of&cials in charge could account
for if they liked.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 331

The birds and beasts of the country occupy two large
rooms, but are not well set up. There were several fine
specimens of the " Pito-Eeal," or Quezal — Trorjon impenalis,
the royal bird.

But the most interesting room of all was that containing
the antiquities. There we saw the original picture of Cortez,
the same which is engraved in Prescott's History. It is a
grand, calm face, great strength and beauty : but with a
certain touch of either fanaticism or charlatanism — I cannot
make out which. There were portraits of all the viceroys
after him, down to the last. The early ones of the real old
Spanish type had for the most part fine noble faces : but a
more thorough set of ruffians than the later ones would be
difficult to find. Small blame to the Mexicans for Mashing
to free themselves from such governors.

There were a number of the old Aztec picture maps,
and Aztec remains of all sorts; among others, some good
obsidian (volcanic glass) weapons and mirrors ; alabaster
bowls exquisitely carved in high relief, with flowers and
fruits, to catch the blood of the victims of sacrifice ; and
the wooden instruments which the priests used to beat on
the top of the Teocalli, or mound of sacrifice, to call the
people to arms. There were of course inumerable idols of
every degree of hideousness, which looked very Egj^tian.
The more one sees of Aztec remains, the more tempted one
is to believe in their connexion with Egypt ; and our guide
the librarian, an extremely intelligent young gentleman,
held this view strongly. The best European authorities,
however, seem to think that there is no real connexion, but
only an outward likeness between them.

Cortez's standard was there too, carefully preserved
under glass, side by side with the brilliant standard decorated
with the picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which the
Emperor Maximilian brought over. And there, too, was the
old flint-lock the Padre Hidalgo fired off in 1810, at the

332 SOUTH BY WEST.

village of Dolores, near Guanajuato, when he shouted
" Liberta ! " at twelve o'clock at night.

It was a strange jumble altogether of old and new, Aztec,
Spanish, and Austrian.

We were caught in a perfect deluge going home, and had
to " walk the plank " again to get into the hotel.

Count , the minister, and Mademoiselle , dined

with us. It is very pleasant finding such delightful Euro-
peans on the further side of the Atlantic. He had just been
to see Congress disperse, which it did amid firing of can-
nons and floating flags, and black looks from the President,
who was furious at the whole session being wasted, and at
last getting a refusal to his wish of sending Ministers to
Austria and Spain.

Little did we dream at the time I wrote the above, that
this would be Don Benito Juarez's last public appearance,
and that before Congress could reassemble for its September
session he should have gone to his account. He died of
apoplexy in July 1872.

June 3. — Most exciting news ! The revolution has
been burning up again lately in the north ; and to-day we
heard of the defeat of Corella at Monterey, and the total
rout of the Government forces. There are rumours afloat
of ponuncianiuntos in the States of Vera Cruz and Puebla.
I hope it is not true, as it might seriously interfere with our
journey down to the coast.

Uli. — As I was sitting with a friend to-day, her agent
came in with a story which would be startling enough in
any country but this. It was as follows : —

Last week, as an inoffensive tenant of Mrs. came out

of his house in the Calle Perpetua — a particularly peaceable,
quiet street — he was knocked down, stabbed in the arm
three or four times, and robbed by a man who, it is supposed,
took him for Sehor JST., the agent, and imagined he had been
collecting rents, and was therefore worth robbing.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 333

Tliis, however, is hardly as bad as another story which
a young Mexican, whom I shall call B., told my friend.

One day, riding on the Paseo, B. was joined by a young
gentleman from Guadalajara, whom he knew slightly : but
did not like, as he was a low vulgar fellow. He had a very
ill-looking common sort of man riding with him, to whom,
to B.'s great disgust, he introduced him, saying, " You ought
to know him, for he is such a useful man. If you want to
get rid of any friend you have only to send for this gentle-
man; and in two days your friend has disappeared, and
nothing more is heard of him." B. detached liimseK from
such delightful companions as soon as possible. Two years
later the " useful man" was killed at the head of a band of
robbers in the interior !

And now for one more anecdote, and we will take leave
of this disagreeable subject.

Once upon a time there existed in the environs of the
town of Zacatecas the most desperate robber-band that per-
haps ever flourished in Mexico. No carriage, no diligencia,
no hacienda, was safe from their depredations ; and people
going out of Zacatecas thought it as natural to be robbed in
the Mesquital (acacia gi'ove) as to put on their night-caps
and go to bed.

This summer, just before M, went up there, a most com-
plete change took place. One of the two chiefs of this
robber-clan, on being given $500 by the Governor, turned
what is usually called king's evidence ; and instead of hav-
ing, as M. expected, a most desperate fight for life on enter-
ing Zacatecas, his mind was considerably relieved by the
driver of the dihgence saying that no robberies had taken
place during the last month, — as from the 3d to the 28th
instant, 119 robbers had "died with their boots on," as a
Westerner would elegantly express it.

" In one instance, however," to use M.'s words, " the better
traits of the Mexican character were brought out. The in-

334 SOUTH BY WEST.

former was told by the Governor that the man of all others
he wanted to get rid of was his (the informer's) old partner,
co-chief, and compadre.

" It must be understood that the ties of one compadre to
another are closer and more respected by Mexicans than that
of brother, though all that the word means is fellow god-
father. The informer left Zacatecas one afternoon with a
couple of armed servants, and went down to see his com-
padre, who lived in a hamlet of Zacatecas, called Guadalupe.
After chatting for half an hour in the most affable manner
with his unsuspecting compadre, he said —

" ' Compadre, will you accompany me up to Zacatecas ? '

" ' Oh, yes,' said the compadre ; ' but what for, com-
padrito?'

" ' Just to take a little Paseo.'

" ' Con mucho gusto ' (with much pleasure).

" He saddled his horse, and mounting, accompanied his
compadrito up towards Zacatecas.

" About half-way they came to three cotton- wood trees ;
whereupon the informer stopped, and turning to his com-
panion, said —

" ' Compadre, wliich do you like best of those three trees ?'

" ' Wliat do you ask me for, compadrito ?'

" ' Why,' said the other, ' haven't you any particular
fancy?'

" ' No,' said the compadre ; ' but that one looks the
prettiest.'

" ' Well,' said the informer, ' you know, compadre, the fact
is that I have got an unpleasant duty to perform, and so, as
we are compadres, I thought I would gi'ant any last favour
you might ask, and let you choose the tree to be hung on,'

" The wretched compadre put his hand to his sword and
was going to object, but he found the other in earnest :
for, at a sign from the informer, the two armed servants,
who were uj) to the game, put a brace of bullets into his

LIFE IN MEXICO. 335

back, strung him up with a lasso to the tree of his choice,
and left him there as a warning to all such as might here-
after wish to follow in his footsteps ; while his compadre,
the informer, rode into Zacatecas quite unconcerned, as,
whatever might be the sin of killing his compadre, it was
fully atoned for by having carefully attended to his last will
and testament."

CHAPTEE XXI.

LIFE IN MEXICO — continued.

Visit to Guadalupe— Origin of the miraculous serape — The collegiate church —
Votive offerings — Church of Tepayac — Sulphur spring — Letter from M. —
Popotla and Tacuba — Moliuo del Key — The battles of August and September
1847 — An unfortunate haciendado — Last evening in Mexico.

June 7. — To-day we made our long-talked-of expedi-
tion to Guadalupe, as our time here is getting short. The
weather looked so threatening, and the roads through the
city were so deep in mud, and so full of holes, that we were
strongly tempted two or three times to turn back : but we
persevered and were rewarded ; for, thanks to good driving,
we escaped an upset ; and once outside the Garita the road
improved, the rain held off, and the clouds which remained
shaded us pleasantly from the scorching sun.

Arrived at Guadalupe, we went first into the great
Collegiate-church at the foot of the hill, built in com-
memoration of the miracle, and in which the wonder-working
picture of the Virgin is now preserved. We entered, with
an old priest, by the Sacristy, which is full of wardrobes and
chests of drawers containing the priests' clothes, of which
they must be very vain, judging by the number of looking-
glasses on the walls, below a series of miserably painted
pictures representing the life of our Lord. The church, or
rather cathedral, is magnificent, with its painted and gilded
roof and gorgeous high altar, in the centre of which — at a

LIFE IN MEXICO. 337

safe height to avoid detection from the eye of the unbeliever
— hangs the famous serape.

The following is the story of its miraculous origin, taken
partly from what was told me on the spot, and partly from the
graphic account of Madame Calderon de la Barca : — Early
in December, in the year 1531, ten years after the conquest
of Mexico, a poor and pious Indio, named Juan Diego, a
native of Cuautitlan, went to the suburb of Tlatelolco to
learn tlie Christian doctrine, which the Franciscan monks
taught there. As he was passing over the barren hill of
Tepayac (now Guadalupe), the Virgin Mary appeared to him,
and told him to go in her name to the Bishop, the Ilus-
trissimo D. Fr. Juan de Zumarraga, first Bishop of Mexico,
and tell him that she had appeared in Mexico, and wished
to have a place of worship erected in her honour on the
spot.

He obeyed her : but could not obtain an audience of the
Bishop. The next day the Virgin appeared in the same
place ; and on his telling her of his failure, " Pteturn," she
said, " and say that it is I, the Virgin INIary, the Mother of
God, who send thee."

Juan Diego did as he was desired : but the Bishop
would not believe him, merely desiring him, if it were
as he said, to bring him some sign or token of the Virgin's
will.

On the 12th of December lie carried this message to her,
and she " bade him climb to the top of the rock of Tepeyac,
to gather the roses he should find there and bring them to
her. He obeyed, though well knowing that on the spot
were neither flowers nor any trace of vegetation. Xeverthe-
less he found the roses, which he gathered and brought to
the Virgin Mar}^" She threw them into his serape, and bade
him return to the Bishop and show them as the token he
had asked. Juan Diego set out for the Episcopal house,
and when he found himself in presence of the prelate, he

338 SOUTH BY WEST.

opened the serape to show him the token ; when, lo ! instead
of roses there appeared imprinted on it the miraculous pic-
ture of the Virgin !

It was conveyed by the awe-struck Bishop to his own
oratory ; and soon after, this splendid church was erected in
honour of the patroness of Nueva Espagna, in which the
serape has hung for upwards of 300 years.

It was uncovered for our special benefit, and a row of
candles were lighted in front of it. A more palpable fraud
I never saw. Even at the distance we stood we could, with
aid of an opera-glass, see that it was merely an oil-painting,
and a poor one into the bargain ; and Dr. S., who has ex-
amined it closely, assured me you can see the paint on the
canvas as clearly as possible. The painting represents the
Virgin in a blue cloak covered with stars, a garment of
crimson and gold, her hands clasped, and her foot on a
crescent supported by a cherub.

It is held in such reverence throughout the Eepublic
that hardly any house is without some representation of it ;
and even in the poor Indios' dwellings, where often there
is not a chair or a table, a little coloured print of " Nuestra
Seiiora cle Guadalupe" is stuck up on the wretched walls.
The moment it was known in the town that the picture
was uncovered for "los Americanos" the Indios came troop-
ing in ; and, casting themselves on their knees, said their
prayers to it with the utmost devotion, thinking themselves
highly favoured at having a chance of seeing the sacred relic
at any but the usual times.

The high altar is surrounded with massive silver rails,
which lead down to the choir. This is the only church
which has not been despoiled by the Liberals : but even they
did not dare lay hands on anything in a place so bound up
in the hearts of the whole Mexican people. The choir is the
most beautiful piece of wood- carving I have seen in the
country ; and the screen is quite unique, of dark carved

LIFE IN MEXICO. 339

wood richly inlaid with silver work, which has a most
charming effect.

In one corner of the church was an extraordinary collec-
tion of votive pictures ; and, had not disgust overpowered all
other feelings, it would have been hard to keep one's coun-
tenance. They are miserable daubs, in the coarsest style of
art, descriptive of the dangers from which people have been
delivered by the aid of " Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de
Mexico," who always, let it be remembered, appears in each
in the exact form of the picture.

In one there is a street-fight ; and she is seen in the
clouds over the houses by the unlucky man who is getting
the worst of it, and who calls upon her just in time to save
himself from a stab. In anotlier a man is being plagiared
(carried off by robbers for ransom), sitting dolefully bound
under a tree, with the robbers all round him, and the
Virgin again comes to the rescue. Another man is upset
in a raging torrent, with a heavy cart and the mules on the
top of him. His companions of course are killed : but he
looks placidly out from under a wheel, with nothing save his
head above water, and calling on " Our Lady," is miracu-
lously saved.

But perhaps the most absurd of all, was the picture of a
stage-coach which has come in two ; the eight white horses
tearing off in the darkness over a narrow bridge with the
front wheels ; the cochero and muchacho thrown from the
box and lying dead on the ground ; while the happy and
pious man, who has been miraculously preserved by the blue
and golden Senora in the right-hand corner of the clouds,
drags his lady-love with her mother and sister, out through
the windows of the prostrate body of the coach.

Besides these pictures, so thoroughly characteristic of tlie
dangers of Mexico, there are here, as at every wonder-work-
ing shrine, wax arms, legs, heads, and whole figures of those
who have been cured of various diseases ; pairs of crutches

340 SOUTH BY WEST.

stand in the corner ; and, among other votive offerings, a
single head of maize, from some Indio I suppose, too poor to
give more. There are altars all round the church to the
principal saints. On that of St. Joseph is a grotesque re-
presentation under a glass case, in pottery figures, of the
birth of our Saviour. Mary and Joseph are nearly twice
the size of the surrounding shepherds and shepherdesses ;
and from the ceiling hang little tin candelabra, such as we
put on Christmas-trees, and cherubs of the rudest kind. It
was a relief to get out into the fresh air, and shake off the
impressions which the sight of such superstition could not
but inspire. But there was more to be seen yet.

We painfully climbed up the narrow and steep w^ay
between low walls to the little blue church, built over the
actual spot on the hill of Tepayac, where the Virgin appeared.
The stones that paved the path, which is zigzagged up the
face of the hill, were slippery with age, and the wear of
those millions of weary feet and knees w^hich have dragged
themselves up to the top of the hill. Only four years ago

the Senora , mother of one of the members of the

Cabinet, an old lady of past sixty-five, crawled on her
knees the whole distance from Mexico to the church, on
the 12th of December, the great fiesta in commemoration
of the event.

We were amply repaid for our climb when we reached
the summit, by the superb view over the great Cathedral
Church to the towers and domes of beautiful Mexico, and
the rim of mountains beyond, and the Lake of Tezcoco to
the left, between us and the gTeat volcanos. The church is
very small, and not particularly pretty : but close to the
door is a fine portrait of the blessed Juan Diego, as he
walked over the mountain that December day three hundred
years ago, with the birds flying around his head and settling
on his shoulders. It seemed to me to be by the same hand
as the portrait of Cortez in the Museum.

LIFE IN MEXICO. • 341

A miserable diseased child was selling medals and pic-
tures and strips of holy ribbon, some of which we bought
for a real, inscribed, " Medida del sagrado rastro de mcestra
sefiora de Guadalupe de Mejico," — measure of the sacred neck
of Our Lady. The only other occupants of the little chapel
were an Indian man and woman, who, lighted taper in hand,
were slowly crawling on their knees up the altar-steps and
back again to a side altar, kissing the hangings of the altars
each time they reached them. The poor creatures seemed
so completely absorbed in their performance, whatever it
was, that they hardly even glanced at us ; though foreigners
always create a sensation among the inhabitants, even so
near the city.

"We descended the hill by a paved walk on the opposite
side, like that we had come up by, passing a curious monu-
ment— a mast and sail of a full-rigged ship, as large as life,
built of adobe, and plastered ; which a wealthy inhabitant of
Mexico, during a storm at sea, vowed to put up to the Virgin
of Guadalupe if he were saved. He was wrecked : but his
life was saved, and he kept his vow more honourably than
another gentleman of whom I heard, who vowed Si 00,000
to Sta. Maria de Guadalupe ; and when the time came for
payment, repented of his bargain, and managed to pay half,
and get the receipt from the priest for the whole amount !
Our stony path led us down to the Holy Sulphur spring,
over which an exquisite little chapel, the " Pozito de Guada-
lupe," is built. The dome is covered with blue and white
glazed tiles, divided by yellow stripes, which run down from
the top. We entered among a crowd of devotees and beggars,
and drank some of the bright yellow muddy water ; and, after
this last very disagreeable experience, thought that we had
seen all we need see of the most sacred spot of Mexico, and
returned.

On reaching the hotel late in the evening, we were
greeted by General E. : —

342 SOUTH BY WEST.

" Well, have you heard what your husband and brother
have been about ? They have had a fight with the robbers,
and cleaned them out."

Pleasant news indeed for us ! For we had received
letters every day saying that they were prospering, and
having an excellent journey, without a word of robbers. It
appeared, however, that this afternoon's coach from Toluca
had brought word from the diligencia authorities at Mara-
vatio or Morelia, to the chief of the diligencias here, that
some of "los SeFiores Cabcdlcros" had been attacked by
robbers, killed several, and driven on unhurt themselves ;
which last item set our minds a little at rest.

A few days later I received the following letter from my
brother, which may serve to give some idea of the chances
of the road in Mexico : —

" Salamanca, Jime 10.

"My DEAR * * *,— . . . We left Maravatio in the diligence
at 3.30 A.M., the Governor inside, Gen. P. and I on the box.
Of course it had been raining, and was horridly dark, so we
kept a good look-out. About five miles out of town, we ran
down into a gully, with a stone wall on the left, and high
tree cactus to the right. Suddenly from a break in the wall,
and from behind a grove of cacti, out sally — without speak-
ing, and at a walk — five men on horseback. It was the
queerest sight — it seems a dream now.

" A ghostly fig-ure walks across the horses' heads ; they
stop : we have a vague feeling of uncertainty what to do ;
wheu the sharp whisper of the cochero breaks the spell —
' Ahi viene ! ahi viene !' here they come !

" The next thing I remember was taking a cool shot at a
man about ten yards from me, while Gen. P.'s pistol was
cracking right and left, blinding me with smoke. Alas ! I
had forgotten to throw in a cartridge from the magazine
before starting. I throw it in, and drop the man over his
saddle-bow ; while, at the same instant. Gen. P. and the

LIFE IN MEXICO. 343

Governor do likewise for two others. They reel past the
coach hors cle combat, while the two remaiuing ones we dose
v/ith bullets as they slink away : but without apparent
eftect.

" Gen. P. was polite in the extreme to one of them w^ho
stopped behind a cactus for a minute. I think in thirty
seconds he put half-a-dozen bullets in through that old tree
in a way that made the fellow clear out as if he didn't like it.
I contented myself by scaring my man once : but I don't think
he '11 forget it. He went back up the road, and stopped 200
yards up the hill to have a look. I let loose, and the ball
hit the hard sandstone below him, and ricochetted up the
road past him, making it ring every twenty yards. You
should have seen him go for it. . . . Well, we jumped down,
and commenced skirmishing till it was light alongside the
coach. Would you believe that there were seven men on
board besides us, and one woman ; and only one of them was
game to take one of our pistols and help us. The w^oman
said to me afterwards, when I spoke to her, that 'there was
no time to be afraid.' After we had skirmished about a
mile, I was astonished to see the Governor creeping along
under cover of a wall some 300 yards off, just as if he was
' birding.' Away I w^ent for him, and as I got within 100
yards, he let loose over the wall. He had spotted two more
reconnoitring, and if you have ever seen G. at home creep-
ing on a blackbird, you wall have an exact idea of his move-
ments. Unfortunately he missed, and they cleared out ; so
we went back to the coach, and found that out of the three
shots the robbers had fired, one had torn the sleeve of Gen.
P.'s coat, and grazed his arm, passing over the mozo's head,
and past my ear. So ended the gTeat conflict. . . .

" From jNIorelia, after a very pleasant time with the Pre-
fect, we went to 's hacienda. He, , provided us

with an ex-robber, Gabriel by name, — the mildest man who
ever robbed a coach or cut a throat, — to take Gen. P. and me,

344 SOUTH BY WEST.

as the others were to follow in a body, through the worst
robber country. The first ten miles were the most danger-
ous, and about four miles from 's we came to a little

robber-hamlet on a hill. Directly we got in sight, we saw
the look-out on the top of the hill give the alarm, and in a
moment it was like a swarm of bees. Horses driven up
men crowding out of a little stone tienda (shop), and most
unusual activity shown. Gabriel said, ' It is all right, I know
them, and if you like will introduce Gen. P. to the chief.'
We declined with thanks ; so when we got within 400 yards
of the house, Gabriel galloped forward to tell them who we
were. When we were 200 yards nearer, with a long stone
wall dividing us from them, we stopped, and then it came
out somehow that we were each of us in a horrid funk. The
utter feeling of uncertainty as to whether our robber-friend
was to be trusted or not made it very kittle. In a minute,
however, we decided that we might go on ; so in through
the gate we rode, and past the house, where Gabriel was
standing chatting with about forty of them. Whereon they
off with their hats, and, with a mighty cheer, burst out,
' Que viva Don Porfirio Diaz.' I took off my hat with a
low bow, in some perplexity at this strange greeting, and we
rode on. In fifty yards Gabriel joined, saying when he got
up, they asked him if we had any money, and who we were.
Yes, he answered, we had money : but that I was Porfirio
Diaz's Pirst General, and that Gen. P. was a Californian
capitalist come down to see the country, with a view of
negotiating bonds for Diaz. As luck would have it, I looked
my assumed character fairly well, being beautifully mounted,
and dark enough in complexion to satisfy the most critical.

" On Gabriel led us in pelting rain through robber-ham-
lets, bypaths, and woods till it got quite dark, and we
halted at 10 p.m. at the house of a friend of his in a really
respectable little village, on a sort of island in the flat land,
strongly defended. After some food, and having a yarn

LIFE IN MEXICO. 345

about robbers, we chucked ourselves into bed, and as be said
there was no danger, left our arms lying about the room.
We were just dozing off when there was a violent scuffle in
the tienda next door, and a woman rushed past our door to
get out through the big gate, shouting, ' Gabriel ! Gabriel !
ladrones! We all jumped up. Gabriel seized his rifle and
tore open the window, while we began hunting for arms in
the darkness, not knowing what was going on. In a second
I heard Gabriel's rifle miss fire — and acrain — and arain.
He yelled for another rifle, and I found the General's and
gave it him. Out of the window he jumped into the dark-
ness, in his shirt. In the meantime Gen. P. found his pistol
and I mine, and out we went. There was a light in the store,
and suddenly we saw Gabriel fire about 100 paces away, and
run on with a couple of other armed men after him.

" Just about that time we became aware that we were
up to our knees in mud, in nothing but our shirts, and it
was raining. On finding at the store that there were only
three robbers, who had tried to rob the till, we went back and
armed ourselves for further mischief, — Gen. P. in the dark-
ness getting hold of the mozo's rifle, and filling it with Smith
and Wesson pistol-bullets from my belt, and I getting by
mistake into Gabriel's pants. I armed one of the mozos with
my pistol, and the other, an old fellow of about eighty, with
an enormous sword which I found in the corner. ^NFean-
while, I had got my gun. The sight of the old man, whose
teeth were chattering with mingled cold and fear, in a scant
shirt and drawers, poising his gigantic sword's point on the
ground with palsied hand, makes me burst witli laughter
while I write. Out we sallied : but found Gabriel cominsr
back, without having caught anything except a violent cold.
Then we looked over our arms, laughed for about half an
hour over the scare, and slept till morning. Gabriel guided
us well to Salamanca, and thence we went to Guanajuato,
coming back here to-day."

34G SOUTH BY WEST.

June 8. — At 7.30 A.M. we started for Tacuba, some of
the party driving, and Mr. Gr. S. and I riding. I rode Mrs.
S.'s beautiful cream-coloured barb " Dicky," whose paces are
perfect. He does the peculiar Spanisli sohre passear gait
enchantingly, so that one has nothing to do but sit still
without moving in the saddle, and be carried along quite
smoothly at seven miles an hour, by a sort of half run, half
canter, the horse moving both legs on the same side at once
like an elephant. This is the easiest pace for man and horse
alike; and a well-trained horse will keep up this gait for
twelve and fourteen hours on a stretch.

It was a bright morning, and the road, as on the last
time I rode along it with M., was swarming with Indios
coming in to market. After taking a farewell look at the
old tree at Popotla, and getting some bits of charcoal,
remains of the Frenchman's fire, from below it as a recuerdo,
we rode on to Tacuba, about a quarter of a mile.

Here stands an enormous church inside an olive yard,
and beyond, on a green open space somewhat like an English
village-green, is one of the Teocallis where Cortez and his
men halted, to gain time after the ISToche Triste, and re-form.

Mr. Prescott thus describes the scene: —

" Cortes and his companions now rode forward to the
front, where the troops, in a loose, disorderly manner, were
marching off the fatal causeway. A few only of the enemy
hung on their rear, or annoyed them by flights of arrows
from the lake. The attention of the Aztecs was diverted by
the rich spoil which strewed the battle-ground ; fortunately
for the Spaniards, who, had their enemy pursued with the
same ferocity with which he had fought, would in their
crippled condition have been cut off probably to a man. But
little molested, therefore, they were allowed to defile through
the adjacent village, or suburb, it might be called, of Popotla.

" The Spanish commander there dismounted from his jaded
steed, and, sitting down on the steps of an Indian temple.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 3it

gazed mournfully on the broken files as they passed before
him. What a spectacle did they present ! The cavaliy,
most of them dismounted, were mingled with the infantry,
who dragged their feeble limbs along with difficulty ; their
shattered mail and tattered garments dripping with the salt
ooze, showing through their rents many a bruise and ghastly
wound ; their bright arms soiled, their proud crests and ban-
ners gone, the baggage, artillery — all in short that consti-
tutes the pride and panoply of glorious war, — for ever lost.
Cortes, as he looked wistfully on these thinned and disordered
ranks, looked in vain for many a familiar face, and missed
more than one dear companion, who had stood side by side
with him through all the perils of the Conquest. Though
accustomed to control his emotions, or at least to conceal
them, the sight was too much for him. He covered his face
with his hands, and the tears which trickled down revealed
too plainly the anguish of his soul. . . .

" Meanwhile the advancing column had reached the neigh-
bouring city of Tlacopan (Tacuba), once the capital of an in-
dependent principality. There it halted in the great street,
as if bewildered and altouether uncertain what course to
take ; like a herd of panic-struck deer, who, flying from the
hunters with the cry of hound and horn still ringing in their
ears, look wildly around for some glen or copse in which to
plunge for concealment. Cortes, who had hastily mounted
and rode on to the front again, saw the danger of remaining
in a populous place, where the inhabitants might sorely annoy
the troops from the azotcas, with little risk to themselves.
Pushing forward, therefore, he soon led them into the
country. There he endeavoured to re-form his disorganized
battalions, and bring them to something like order."

The teocalli outside Tacuba is a good deal destroyed by
age : but we rode up to the top, which still is quite large
enough to allow ample room for our two horses, and our three
companions on foot. We found a few bits of broken pottery

348 SOUTH BY WEST.

upon it — liow old, who can say ? Perhaps those scraps of red
earthenware with black painted lines in barbaric patterns,
may have held the blood of the victims of sacrifice, at the
very time that Cortez and his men were halting in the great
street outside.

The Spaniards after this halt marched out to a hill at some
few miles' distance, called then the Hill of Otoncalpolco, where
they took possession of a large teocalli with strong outworks
of stone, in which they entrenched themselves for a day and
night ; and there, in later times, was built a church dedicated
to the Virgin, under the title of " nuestra Senora de los Re-
medios" whose miraculous image was supposed to be brought
over from Spain by the followers of Cortez.

" It is said that this image was brought to Mexico by a
soldier of Cortez's army called Villafuerte ; and that the day
succeeding the terrible Noche Triste, it was concealed by him
in the place where it was afterwards discovered. At all
events, the image disappeared, and nothing further was
known of it until, on the top of a barren and treeless moun-
tain, in the heart of a large maguey, she was found by a for-
tunate Indian. Her restoration was joyfully hailed by the
Spaniards. A church was erected on the spot. A priest
was appointed to take charge of the miraculous image. Her
fame spread abroad. Gifts of immense value were brought
to her shrine. A treasurer was appointed to take care of her
jewels, a camarista to superintend her rich wardrobe. No
rich dowager died in peace till she had bequeathed to Our
Lady of Los Eemedios her largest diamond or her richest
pearl. In seasons of drought she was brought in from her
dwelling in the mountains, and carried in procession through
the streets. The Viceroy himself on foot used to lead the
holy train. One of the highest rank drove the chariot in
which she was seated, .... and plentiful rains immediately
followed her arrival."^

^ Madame Calderon de la Barca.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 349

We were most anxious to pay a visit to the hill of Los
Eemedios, and talked of extending this very expedition
thither : but the road to it and its neighbourhood were re-
ported as being so unsafe, that unless we went a large party
very strongly armed, we should infallibly fall in with the
ladrones ; so our project had to be abandoned. After leaving
Tacuba we rode down a b}^ath to a rather suspicious-look-
ing village, where there was another large teocalli, one side of
it now forming the wall of a house. Being very thirsty, we
bought from an Indian woman in the village about 200 small
apricots for a medio (3d.), on which we feasted ourselves and
the horses ; and then started home by a long muddy road
leadinof us back into the Calzada de San Cosme.

June 9. — Paid our farewell visit to beautiful Chapul-
tepec. It was as usual a delicious morning. Nothing can
be found more delightful in the way of climate than the
fresh cool air of the Mexican plateau after sunrise at this
time of year — every leaf and blade of grass sparkles with
rain or dewdrops of the night before ; the flowers fill the
air with fragrance ; the birds sing ; the colibris and gorgeous
butterflies dart past one like living jewels ; the glorious
tropic sun pours down on the valley; while any idea of
oppressive heat is dispelled by the white gleaming heads of
the snow-crowned volcanos against the clear blue sky.

We wandered for the last time through the mysterious
avenues of ahuahuetes, gathering quantities of small grey-
leafed orchids with pink flowers, and masses of the stream-
ing Spanish moss ; not as a recuerdo : but for the much more
prosaic purpose of packing our various treasures ; as it is so
soft and yet elastic, that it makes the best stuffing, next to
horse-hair.

Then we turned westwards, and leaving the castle and its
groves behind us, walked up a green road, past the Emperor
Maximilian's buffalo- gi'ove, which he destined to be the be-
ginning of a gi-eat Zoological Garden : but which, like most

350 SOUTH BY WEST.

of his intended improvements, is fast relapsing into its
original waste. Our point was Molino del Eey, a large flour-
mill a mile off, belonging to the priests of Mexico, the scene
of the famous battle on the 8th of September 1847, between
the Americans and Mexicans.

We drove up to the Molino ; and the Padron, a very
pleasant and gentlemanlike young Mexican, showed us all
over it. From the top story — it is five stories high, and
stands on a hill — we got a view it is as impossible to de-
scribe as to imagine, all over the valley, with Chapultepec
and its dark groves of giant trees at our feet as a foreground.
The battle-field, with its monument to the Mexican generals
■who fell on that day, lies outside the large enclosure of the
Molino, which really is more like a village inside walls than
a mill.

The Mexicans were inside the walls, and covered the flat
roofs or azoteas ; so that the Americans could produce no
effect on them, as they were well sheltered, while the
Mexicans were inflicting heavy loss on their assailants.
General Scott therefore ordered his men to storm the posi-
tion, which they did with magnificent gallantry, forcing their
way through a low narrow doorway,

Mexican affairs in the spring of 1847 were somewhat in
the following position : —

California and New Mexico were already in the hands
of the Americans. Tampico was also theirs ; and General
Taylor, left with a comparatively small army of occupation,
along ihe line of the liio Grande, had pushed forward to
Saltillo, and there gained the brilliant victory of Buena
Vista.

General Santa Anna, who had returned from exile in the
previous year, had been elected President of the Eepublic of
Mexico, in place of General Salas. Undeterred by previous
disasters, he determined to withstand the advance of the
Americans to the utmost, deceiving the masses of the people

LIFE IN MEXICO. 351

by accounts which left the public mind in doubt as to
whether he had not after all been victorious.

Meanwhile, on the 9tli of March, General Scott landed
his troops on the coast below Vera Cruz, and by the 26th,
after a vigorous bombardment. General Landero, the com-
mander, capitulated ; surrendering into General Scott's
hands the principal commercial port and most renowned
fortress of the Eepublic.

Leaving this important capture in the hands of General
Worth, Scott marched with 10,700 troops towards the capi-
tal. The first opposition he met with, was where the road
from the coast first enters the rugged passes of the Sierra.
Here he encountered the Mexican troops, who were en-
trenched in a strong position ; and on the 1 8th of April
gained the decisive victory of Cerro Gordo, by which he
opened the way for the American forces to the upper plateau
of Mexico.

Jalapa and Perots were abandoned by the Mexicans
without firing a gun ; and from Perote, General Worth, who
had joined the army, advanced towards Puebla.

The indomitable Santa Anna, meanwhile, had not been
idle. In spite of these disheartening reverses, he had gathered
together nearly 3000 men from his broken armies, and with
these advanced from Puebla to give battle to General Worth
at Amozoc. Unable, however, to check him, he retired upon
the capital. Puebla in the meantime yielded submissively
to General Worth on the 2 2d of May ; and here the Ameri-
can forces were assembled.

In August, General Scott being reinforced by the arrival
of fresh regiments, resolved to march upon the cajiital,
and on the 11th concentrated his forces in the valley. Of
the four possible routes by which this object might be accom-
plished, Scott chose that which, turning south from the
hacienda of Buena Vista, and passing the town of Chalco,
led along the narrow strip between the shores of Lake Chalco

352 SOUTH BY WEST.

and the foot-liills of the mountains forming the southern rim
of the Mexican basin, till it fell at Tlalpam into the main
road from the city of Mexico to the southern Tierra Caliente.
On the 15th of August this movement was commenced ; and
on the 17th, Worth, after an advance harassed by the light
troops of the Mexicans, reached Tlalpam.

On the 21st Valencia was defeated in the brilliant battle
of Contreras ; while, at the same time, the left of the Ameri-
can army was engaged in the equally successful attack on
Churubusco. After these crushing defeats, a short armistice
was proposed. To this General Scott consented. But as the
conditions were not adhered to, he sent word on the 6th
September to Santa Anna, calling attention to the infractions
of the compact, and declaring that, unless reparation were
made before noon the next day, he should consider the
armistice at an end. Santa Anna replied by recriminations,
and a bombastic appeal to the people ; so on the 7th prepara-
tions were made for the final attack.

On the 8th General Worth advanced on a strongly forti-
fied position beliind Chapultepec — the Molino del Eey —
which was now used as a cannon-foundry, and the fortified
Casa Mata close by, which contained a large quantity of
powder.

The Molino was assaulted with heroic courage, and
defended with equal gallantry. The havoc made by the
guns of the Casa ]\Iata among the Americans was terrific :
but they were undaunted ; and at last, hand to hand, they
forced their way into the IMoliuo, while a heavy cannonade
reduced the fatal Casa IMata, and drove its occupants for
shelter under the guns of Chapultepec, A series of strategic
movements were now commenced, which had the effect of
completely deceiving the enemy; and meanwhile prepara-
tions had been going forward for the attack on Chapultepec,
Early on the 1 2th the bombardment commenced, and on the
13th the position was carried by assault, after a staunch

LIFE IN MEXICO. 353

opposition under the gallant old Bravo, who, fighting to the
last, was taken prisoner with 1000 combatants.

The end was near. The routed troops retreated fighting,
across the meadows and along the causeways, to the capital.
Worth seized the causeway and aqueduct of San Cosme,
while Quitman advanced by the other from Tacubaya to the
Garita of Belen ; and by nightfall these gallant officers had
established themselves in the suburbs of the city, and awaited
the return of daylight under the walls of the unsubdued
citadel. But before morning, Santa Anna — at last convinced
of the impossibility of continuing the struggle — had closed
the panic-stricken Council of War, by announcing that the
citadel must be evacuated ; soon after midnight General
Scott was aj)prised of the fact that the Government and
troops had fled from the capital ; and on the morning of
the 14th the American army were in possession of the city.
The war was now virtually at an end, though many engage-
ments of more or less importance ensued during the few
following months.

In January the New Congress assembled. Santa Anna,
deposed and defeated, fled for refuge to Oaxaca ; and finally,
early in April, one year and eight months after his return to
Mexico, embarked for Jamaica in voluntary exile. But ere
he could leave, the peace he had so determinately opposed
was concluded; and on the 2d February 1848 a treaty was
signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, confirming the southern
boundary of Texas, and ceding New Mexico and Upper
California to the United States.

But to return to our expedition.

The fortifications round the Molino were all rebuilt
during the French occupation of the country, and are in
good preservation. We walked down a steep hill, as the
road was so bad we thought it safest to trust to our own
feet: but as the carriage arrived safely at the foot, got
in again, and drove on through maguey plantations and

354 SOUTH BY WEST.

orchards to Tacubaya. The Indies were holding a great
market, and we sauntered up the street looking at their
goods, which for the most part consisted of vegetables and
fruits. Among the latter were quantities of pears, and some
excellent green figs, of which we laid in a good supply, as
they were rare luxuries, and drove on three miles through
rolling pulque plantations to the hacienda of Mr. P.

The owner, though born in Chili, was an American
citizen. He married a wealthy American lady, and lived
on his fine estate in great prosperity. In 1847 General
Pillow's brigade was quartered in his barns, which com-
promised him seriously with the Mexicans; and he gave
further offence at the battle of Molino del Hej, when he
took breakfast to the American Generals before the fight,
and, after it was over, took care of the wounded.

From this time ill-luck pursued the unfortunate man.
The people of Mixcoac, a village between his hacienda and
the mountains, cut off his water supply in either 1858 or
1859, and thereby destroyed his whole crop for the year.
He, at least, got damages from the Government for this
injury. At the beginning of the Intervention, however, the
chief officer of the Government repaid himself in some small
degree ; for, the day President Juarez's family escaped from
Mexico, they caught the ladies from Mr. P.'s going to church,
turned them out of the carriage, put two soldiers on the
box, and drove off. The mules alone were worth $1000,
and of course were never heard of again by their owner.
As soon as the French left the country, the persecution
began afresh; and in 1868, 1869, and 1870, the Mixcoac
people cut off the water again. When Diaz's troops came in
front of Mexico they quartered themselves on the hacienda.
The robbers killed his administradors and robbed his house
repeatedly; and at last the unfortunate gentleman had to
give up the struggle and retire to safe quarters, leaving his
beautiful home to its fate.

LIFE IN MEXICO. 355

It is now completely deserted. The paper is falling off
the walls of what were once splendid salas. The only-
living creatures in possession are swallows and doves, who
build unmolested in every room. The pretty garden is a
tangled wilderness. Two of the fountains in it, of Artesian
water, clear and pure as crystal, are dry ; and the third is
almost completely covered with a mass of roses, bignonias,
and a dozen other flowering creepers run to waste. The
walls in front of the hacienda are broken down ; and the
roofs of two immense granaries have fallen in. A fine road
which Mr. P. built from the house towards La Piedad he
was obliged to block up, as it was only used as an entrance
for the robbers.

A short distance from the hacienda we passed a smaller
house, where one of his administradors (an Englishman)
used to live. One day it was attacked. The ladies of the
family entrenched themselves on the azotca, where they
remained in comparative safety. The administrador de-
fended himself bravely below : but after killing several of
his enemies, at last was killed himself, and the house was
rifled.

We left the hacienda with relief. Anything so utterly
depressing as the whole aspect of this once beautiful estate
cannot be imagined.

Thursday, IMh. — Once more we have struck our tents,
and are prepared to march.

The last four days have been consumed in paying and
receiving farewell visits, and packing up our numerous
treasures — no easy work where one has to explain every
want to people who generally contrive to misunderstand
directions if given by one of their own countrymen in purest
Castillano, and much more by foreigners in halting speech.
We felt somewhat inclined to follow the example of the
man who came raving one day to the alcalde of a village,
talking three languages in hox^es of making himseK under-

356 SOUTH BY WEST.

stood : — " Senor Juez and Alcalde, dispense me s'il-vous
plait. Last noche three hombres, called Gringos, entrada'd
me casa, rompido'd me chairs, broke me vasos, and knocked
down Margarita tampoco. Hang the country and the lan-
guage ! I wish I 'd never learnt it !"

However, all is accomplished at last. I have spent my
last evening with Mrs. Y., walking home, attended by a pomp-
ous coloured servant, through the quiet streets I have learnt
to know so well. No lights, save the summer lightning
playing overhead, or the lamps of the sleepy serenos, who
were waiting till 10 p.m. to begin blowing their hateful
whistles. And now my trunk is packed, and all is ready
for a fresh start to-morrow, with England before me in five
weeks more.

CHAPTER XXII.

A EECONNAISSANCE IN THE SOUTHERN TIEEEA CALIENTE.

Preparations- Breakfast at Santa Fe — The unreasonable Commandante— Over
the Sierra — " EscoUa" — Pueblos of the Toluca valley — Tenancingo — My new
guide — The barrancas — A bad ford — The old pack-horse takes a swim — A
curious phenomenon — The cave of Cacahuamilpa — Bananas and sugar-cane —
The Mexican Sindbad— An army of bats — Stoning iguanas — Hacienda of San
Gabriel — Ixtapan de la Sal — "A bad place " — The romance of the skunk —
Back to Mexico.

The shortness of our stay in Mexico, and other reasons,
made it impossible for us to visit — as I longed to do — the
southern " Tierra Caliente," or tropical lowland of Mexico.
But M., my brother, made about this time a railway recon-
naissance thither, which he has described in the following
letter ; and which contains, I believe, many facts new to
English and American readers : —

"Dear E., — It must not be imagined that our prepa-
rations for a reconnaissance in Mexico are very great, as
from my journal I see that I was told off for southern
service at about 4 p.m. on the 1st. A few provisions in
the shape of cartridges were laid in, rifles cleaned, saddles
and pack-saddles looked to, and barometers compared. My
servants, three in number, had ten dollars apiece given to
them to leave with their families ; and at ten o'clock on
the morning of the 2d I took the barometer-reading and
time at the door of the hotel. Of course my horse insisted
upon standing first on his head, and then on his tail, much

358 SOUTH BY WEST.

to my own discomfort and the delight of the sundry-
friends who were waving ' adios ' to me from the window.
I flattered myself on starting that such a ruffianly-looking
band had never before ridden down the Calle Plateros. My
own outfit consisted of a grass 'sombrero audio' the in-
variable Mexican short jacket, and a pair of goat-skin over-
alls ; while the bells on my Texan spurs jingled a merry
tune to the horses' quick step. A carbine, revolver, and big
knife completed the picture.

" The mozos, in their yellow leather jackets and trousers,
also armed with carbine, pistol, and sword, chattered gaily
to their accompanying compadres, who were giving them
the last novedad or robber-story from our proposed route.
Even the old white pack-horse caught the infection, and
backed into carriages, or spluttered the remains of last night's
shower over the pavement, to the undisguised disgust of the
catrinas, the young swells of Mexico, who were ogling certain
dark eyes that peeped through the gay sunblinds on either
side of the street.

" Past the barracks and into the Paseo, meeting the late
risers coming in from their morning ride ; through the
Chapultepec Gate, and up the street of Tacubaya, where the
train runs past us, to the great disgust of our horses, till we
strike the first descent of the long limestone road leading
from Mexico to Toluca.

" Twelve o'clock, and we stop at the little hamlet, or
rather long street of Santa P^, where we are to pick up an
ex-Pronunciado, my companion and guide. He is all ready
saddled : but presses me to come and breakfast, which, con-
sidering that I have had nothing except a cup of chocolate
at 5 A.M., and that there will be no chance of getting any-
thing more till 5 p.m. on the other side of the mountain, I
accept most willingly, and sit down, after profuse apologies
on his part for his offering such a meal to his ' querido
amigo,' to vermicelli soup, a noble piece of steak; roast

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 359

chicken ; ' molle' which is turkey parboiled and fried in a
sauce of Chile hot enough to set a dry man on fire ; washed
down with a tumbler of very fair tin ordinaire, and topped
up with a little cup of caf^ noir and a 'puis caf6 of ' mescal!
It may well be imagined that, starting directly after this,
one is rather given to meditation, solid, but altogether too
heavy for the subject, which consists of a steadily ascend-
ing foot-hill of brownish-yellow as a foreground, going up
and up till it loses itself in blue green pine woods, their heavi-
ness relieved by patches of yellow wheat, and capped with
the long broken Ime of the sierra. That is beautiful enough :
but let us see what we are leaving. Mexico, nestling in a
corner of its broad valley, half-hidden in trees and shrub-
beries, lies like a map 1500 feet below us. To the north we
follow the valley for sixty miles, dotted with lakes and ham-
lets, till we lose it in the blue distance of the sierra ; while
east, across Tezcoco, in whose blue water they are reflected,
Popocatapetl and Istaccihuatl shut out the view by 8000
feet of sombre mountain side, the varied tints of which are
set off by 3000 feet more of dazzling snow, standing out
sharp and clear in the blue sky.

" Up and on past El Contadero, the last outpost of the
Federal district, which my revolutionary companion thinks
prudent to avoid, as the Commandante is still suffering from
the effects of a scrimmage three months before, in which
my friend had the great misfortune to put a rifle-ball
through the said Commandante's leg. The delicate way in
which he told me he did not care to meet him rather
amused me.

" ' Don't think,' he said, ' that I have any ill-feeling
towards the man : but he is so unreasonable ; I cannot under-
stand his dislike to me after I have submitted to the
amnesty.'

" I told him to meet me a mile on ; thinking, as I saw the
Commandante limping about giving his orders, that after

360 SOUTH BY WEST.

all it was not so wonderful if lie did harbour a little spite
against my unlucky friend.

" Here my passports are carefully looked over ; and, after
folks have convinced themselves that I am on a pacific
errand, I jog along to where C. meets me, under the first
straggling pines. From here the road changes into short
broken zigzags, winding through the deep gulches, trying
alike to man and horse. Here we pass a train of ten mule
waggons, bringing grain into Mexico. The front waggon has
its front wheels mired down so deeply that the united efforts
of thirty mules are unable to get it out. Just half a mile
above we overtake the three diligences ' doubling up ' their
teams over a rough piece. The reader has no doubt a vision
before him of four gallant greys racing up a long English
turnpike-road, up a gradient of 1 in 100 feet; but let him
imagine one coach at the bottom of the hill, whose six
lead-mules have been put on to the other team, making
fourteen mules in all, which are now toiling with another
diligence up a gradient of 1 in 16, over rocks and stones
that would not disgrace the side of Snowdon.

"Up and onward, till the barometer marks 10,400 feet
above sea level; and we see, 2000 feet below us, the broad
wheat lands of Toluca blushing under the setting sun. Here
we breathe our horses, tighten up our girths for the descent,
and ask the escort, who are waiting for the coach, the
' news.' There is none ; and after telling them not to take
us for robbers when they catch us up with the coach down
below, we jog down the road in the last gleam of sunset,
which, striking a cloud in the western horizon, is reflected
on to the snow peak of the Nevado de Toluca, lighting it
up with a crimson glow. Down and across an open plain,
with its scattered ranches ; past the monument to the
famous Hidalgo, the liberator of the Mexican people, on
the place where he made his first and most decisive stand
against the Spaniards ; down again through a vista of fine

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 361

trees till twilidit changes to night, and we are reminded of
the diligences we left behind us by the sharp crack of a
whip, the heavy lumbering of their wheels, and the clatter
of the sabres of the cavalry who escort it. We turn aside,
and they rattle past us, their eight mules doing their twelve
miles an hour down a hill over which nobody but Mexican
drivers would dare to do more than four ; while we laugh
at the ' insides,' who, taking us for robbers, hide their pis-
tols in their hand-bags, and call on the escort and ' la san-
tissima Virgen' to protect them, — though both would have
proved useless if we had really been what they thought us.
We canter along with the escort for the next mile, till we
reach the top of the descent into the Toluca valley : and
jog slowly down into the little town, or rather street, of
Lerma, the city of the Lake.

" Here a hasty council is held as to whether it is better to
push on twelve miles to Toluca, or stay where we are. Hav-
ing letters of importance to deliver there, I decide to go on,
being slightly biassed in my decision by the quarters, as I
prefer a comfortable room in the Toluca Hotel, hardly second
to the Iturbide in Mexico, to a miserable lodging in the
Meson at Lerma, where a few months previoiis I had passed
a sleepless night on account of hungry bed-fellows. So after
a petit verre with some friends whom we met opposite the
little tavern, we settle ourselves down in the saddle for a
twelve-mile trot across the level plain, through the darkness.
The servants, who up till now have been riding in open
order, close up with us ; and a general conversation ensues
on the topic ever dear to Mexicans, namely, robbers ; and
really a fitter place than the long straight road we were
now travelling, with its deep dikes on each side, and a
cross road cutting in at intervals, could scarce be imagined.
Suddenly C. bends low over his saddle-bow, and I see his
hand busily slipping the carbine slung along his saddle,
while the servants slip theirs out of their cases. I slip my

362 SOUTH BY WEST.

pistol out of the holster, and peer through the darkness
ahead, at five or six forms which appear to be horsemen coming
towards us. Just then we catch the clmk of a sabre, and I
hear a thankful sigh behind me from one of the boys, which
finds an echo in my own breast of ' Escolta' the escort. It
was amusing to watch their movements when they caught
sight of us, which was not till they were within about twenty
yards. The two leaders pulled up short, to let the rest get
up. Out rattled their carbines, while the two last half-
wheel their horses, in order to run in case we should prove
awkward customers. ' Quien vive V challenges the sergeant.
' ilf epco,' I reply. ' De quel regimento V 'Americano! ' Passen,'
in a sort of voice that showed his uncertainty still as to who
we were. The ambiguity of this challenge is patent, as any
robber could call himself ' Paisano' or 'Americano,' and the
escort would pass him without further inquiry.

" This was the only excitement that beguiled our road ; and
about 8 P.M. we were clanking up the streets of Toluca to the
hotel, where the fatigues of forty-eight miles in nine hours
were soon forgotten in a warm bath, a good supper, and bed.
Next morning early, I did my business with the Governor and
the Gefe Politico (chief of police), who objected so strongly
to my revolutionary friend, that I thought it best to send
him back, and continue my route alone. That day I made
a short and broken journey, to let the horses recover from
their long trip of the previous day, and \vas very kindly
entertained by the Gefe Politico of Tenango, who gave me
all possible information about the country, and accompanied
me next morning up to the head of the Tenango Pass, the
southernmost and highest point of the Toluca Valley, and
indeed of the Central Mexican plateau. It is this pass that
forms the watershed of the Eio Lerma, which from here
runs through a series of large valleys, divided from each
other by deep and rocky canons, to the Pacific at San Bias,
opening out into the large valley called the Bajio at Sala-

THE SOUTHEKN TIERRA CALIENTE. 363

manca. Toliica is 8G00 feet ; the upper portion, known as
the Toluca Valley, comprising an extent of some 50 miles
by 30, is all under cultivation, and is by far the most thickly
populated part of Mexico. Here the land does not belong,
as is generally the case, to private individuals. It is owned
by Indian ' Pueblos', or corporations, each family having its
little plot of land, and working by co-operation under the
direction of the ' Juez ' or judge. A large number of these
Indians do not speak Spanish ; and those who do, do so very
imperfectly. From what I know of them, they belong, I fancy,
to one of the older Mexican races before the Toltec or Aztec
came in. Socially, they are a quiet, well-conducted people,
working in the summer on their farms, and in the winter at
small industries, one of the principal of which, at the upper
end of the valley, is the weaving of baskets and mats made
from the rushes growing in the lagoon of Lerma. These
mats, together with earthenware, pottery, eggs, chickens, and
charcoal, they take over to Mexico for sale. The means of
transportation is on their own backs ; and an Indian will
carry from 150 to 200 lbs. thirty miles a day for almost any
distance. On this trip, two Indians with empty packs, whom
I had as guides some months before, happened to leave the
gate of Mexico at the same time as I did, and kept up with
me to within about two miles of Toluca, where they turned
off to their own little Pueblo without the sliGjhtest si2;ns of
fatigue.

" But now we are on the summit of the Divide ; and before
us the Tierra Caliente is losing itself in the far distance in a
blue haze, Down through a deep canon, past little Indian
villages and a couple of flour-mills, and ' aguardiente' distil-
leries, we fast leave behind us the cold zone, and I hail,
with delight the last scrub oak at about 7000 feet above sea-
level, and see a thousand feet below me the luxuriant leaves
of banana peeping through the dark green of the orange-
trees in the Plaza of Tenancingo. After finding a lodging

364 SOUTH BY WEST.

in a tumble-down old palace, which formerly belonged to
the great folk of the place, and is now used as a sort of
inn, I wander down to the river with an acquaintance.
From the town it seems just across a level plain shut in by
two ranges of mountains, which converge about twenty miles
below ; and I am congratulating myself on a good railroad
line for at least that distance, when, on the outskirts of the
town, I suddenly come upon a chasm 200 feet deep, into
which I find the river fall, about 200 yards above the spot
we stand on.

" The beauty of the scene before me is almost indescrib-
able. Six miles up stream a thin white ribbon over a wall
of grey rock marks where the river debouches on to a flat grass
plain, through which it meanders sluggishly till it reaches
the end of the volcanic strata, where it drops over a perpen-
dicular black wall of trap rock into a circular basin 100 feet
across, which it has eaten out of the soft sandstone that here
comes to the surface ; and when my companion tells me that
this is only the beginning of one of the smallest of the
barrancas of the plain, which stretches southward, I become
aware of the fact that engineering in the Tierra Caliente
is not quite so easy as it looks.

" After smoking a cigarette or two and watching the cur-
tain of spray which hung over the fall, we wander back to
the inn, where I find waiting for me a short, thickset, dark
man, who places himself at my disposition, and gives me a
letter from the Governor of Toluca, in which he says that
' he has much pleasure in introducing to me the bearer,
Q., as a man whose thorough knowledge of the Southern
country and people would make him doubtless an invaluable
guide to my party.' Which surmise has been fulfilled to the
very letter.

" As, however, Q. has some little business to settle, we do
not start next day ; and I amuse myself by prospecting for
coal, which is said to exist there, but only find veins of cin-

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 365

nabar. The following morning (the 6th), accompanied by
a goodly cavalcade of enthusiastic railroaders, we cross the
bridge above the fall, and keep down the eastern bank of
the stream, which seems to be considered the best. I find
that my friend was not mistaken in his description of the
plain. The river-channel, or, as I will call it and its like
for the future, ' Barranca,' de San Geronimo, deepens 200
feet in the next three miles, and the fall of the plain itself
is very considerable. Our friends proposed to accompany
lis to a little pueblo called Sumpahuacan, distant fifteen
miles, and lying, at the extreme south-eastern edge of the
plain, in a sort of cove. This we reach about mid-day,
after passing one desperately deep barranca called San
Pedro, which skirts the range on the eastern side of the
plain. As we canter up the further slope, we see a consider-
able commotion astir in the pueblo ; and some of our party
draw back ; fearing a ' Pronunciamiento^ or a disturbance of
some kind or another. I however innocently cantered on
with Q. into the little Plaza, where we were suddenly con-
fronted by about thirty well-armed Indians, who halt us
sharply, and in no civil way ask what the dickens we all
want. Before I have time to reply, however, they recognise
Q. ; and warm greetings take the place of a warmer but less
pleasant welcome which might have ensued had I been
accompanied by any one else. Wlien I look back at our
well-armed little troop, I can hardly blame their mistaking
our errand. The Indians, too, have a hearty welcome for
railroad interests, wdiich they show by preparing a sump-
tuous repast under the grand old ash-tree in the Plaza ; and
after dinner, when our friends leave us, provide us with a
good escort and sure guides for the next fifteen miles.

" With many regrets we say goodbye to the Indians, and
part with our friends on the further side of the Barranca,
which we have to recross ; and I must say I feel rather
queer as I see them canter off across the plain. My posi-

366 SOUTH BY WEST.

tion is tliis : Myself and three servants, whom I feel I could
depend on utterly, in a country new to all of us, inhabited
by Indians who seem entirely at the beck and call of Q.
Can I trust him ? I was a good prize, I knew ; which en-
dangered still more my position. ' Well, I '11 try him at all
events !' and giving a cigarette to each of our Indian escort,
I pave the way to a long conversation about the troubles of
the last revolution, as we make our way towards the junction
of the Barrancas de San Pedro and San Geronimo.

" About haK a mile from the junction the trail we have
been following strikes the edge of the San Pedro Barranca
again, which has now deepened into a chasm 500 feet deep,
dropping sheer down on our side, and bounded on the oppo-
site side by the Kange, which rises some 4000 feet above us.
An Indian trail three feet wide, with a perpendicular waU
below, and where one false step would send one 500 feet on
to the jagged rocks of the stream-bed, is not an inviting field
for soliloquy ; but I could not help feeling awe-struck at the
almost inconceivable power which had, geologically speaking
in a few years, hewn this chasm out of solid sandstone rock.

" The first glance at the trail decides me that I would
sooner trust my own legs than the horse's ; and down I get,
utterly regardless of the Indio's assurance that there was no
fear yet, and relinquish my horse into the hands of one of
them. My mozos do the same ; but Q. says that his old
grey went down it the last time at a hand-gallop, after an
unpleasant encounter with the Government troops on the
plain above. So giving him the rein, he lets the old horse
pick his way down the zigzag path, over loose boulders, a
sheet of sandstone worn smooth by the barefooted Indies, or
— what is more dangerous than either — a rut worn through
the sandstone a foot deep and a foot broad, through which
a horse has not room to pass one foot before the other,
unless he lifts them clean out of it. Down we go, through
shrubs, clinging here and there to the face of the cliff.

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 367

till the sound of the water below us, scarcely noticed
above, deepens into a low roar, and we find ourselves at
the actual junction of the two barrancas, 550 feet by my
barometer below the plain. Here the trail crosses the
eastern barranca, which, owing to the previous night's rain,
is in flood, and up to our horses' stomachs. "We pass, how-
ever, in safety, with the exception of an Indio who chooses
a line for himself, and in jumping from one rock to another
in mid stream, slips, and if he had not been brought up by
hitting one of the mozo's horses, would most probably have
had his brains dashed out in the rapids below. But he joins
in a good laugh at his own expense on the further bank,
when I give him two dollars to get some more powder, as
his own had been thoroughly soaked.

" The trail now keeps low along the edge of the river. On
our left hand the range rises in a perpendicular crag some
3000 feet high, from whose top a man might drop a stone
amongst us. In all my mountaineering, which is not a
little, I have never seen such a sheer wall : still less can I
account for its formation. Its stratum, or rather strata, are
curved, broken, and lying at every angle. The rock itself is
one of those strange intercalations of sandstone, shale, and
limestone that are sometimes met with, and from its position
with regard to the range on the western side of the plain, it
would seem to have been upheaved simultaneously with it,
but cut off from it at a more recent epoch by the action of
water.

" Keeping down the bank of the river, or rather a long
series of rapids, we came in a couple of miles to the junction
of the barranca which we had been following with another
coming in from the west ; and on looking at the troubled 100
yards of water between us and the further bank, I feel my
heart sink when Q. tells me that this is the only ford. But
in spite of his advice to go back to Sumpahuacau, and cross
the range to the east, I detei-mine to get to the plain on the

368 SOUTH BY WEST.

further side if possible; and tell the mozos to make their pre-
parations accordingly. They unpack the old horse, and
repack very carefully. Fortunately, as will be seen here-
after, my body-servant is sharp enough to take my papers
and maps out of the pack and strap them round his own
shoulders, while we girth up our horses ; and I put my
barometer and watch into the crown of my hat for fear of
casualties.

" When we are all ready, an Indio dashes in, and just
manages to reach the point between the junction of the two
streams. He says we can make it ; and in another ten
seconds Q.'s old grey is in the middle of it. Suddenly he
makes a wild plunge forvA^ard, or rather under, which brings
forth a gulp from his rider of mingled fear and cold water :
but thank goodness, the old grey has only hit a big rock,
and scrambles out on the sandy neck, dripping, but none
the worse, Avith the exception of Q.'s rifle, which, as he had
forgot to take it out of the holster, went right under water
This served as a warning to me and the mozos to take ours
in our hands, and I make my essay with a vengeance, as my
horse, after refusing to go in for a minute or two, makes a
sudden dive into the water, nearly unshipping me. By
dint of administering a gentle dose of the butt of my rifle
under his ear, I force him up-stream, so as to avoid Q.'s
rock, and land safely on the little peninsula. The mozos
pass, one of them driving the old pack-horse in front of
him, in safety. Thinking it needless to make our escort
wet themselves more than is necessary, I have fee'd them,
and said goodbye on the bank we left, from which they have
been intently watching our passage, and are now shouting
advice to us as to the best mode of crossing the next stream,
into which our guide rushes and comes out fifty yards down-
stream, after rolling over two or three times, with the
pleasant news that it was half a yard deeper than the first
one.

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 3G9

" In goes Q. : and about mid-stream the old horse is swim-
ming : but gets out with a struggle. I follow safely, as does
the first mozo : but judge of my horror on seeing the old
pack-horse, who comes next in order, turn deliberately
nearly in mid-stream ! Tor a moment he keeps his feet,
and then is swept down the rapid. Fortunately the stream
sets on to the bank on which Q. and I stand, and about fifty
yards below the gallant grey straddles a rock sideways that
was sticking up. No man knows how he kept his head
above water for the thirty seconds which it took the other two
mozos to get across and uncoil their lassos. Entering the
stream cautiously, one throws a lasso over the old horse's
head, while the other makes two or three shots at one of his
hind legs sticking out of the water, which he finally catches.
Putting their horses up-stream they pull him from his rocky
resting-place : but then, oh horror ! his full weight being
exposed to the force of the stream, the strain is so heavy
on the lassos that the horses cannot find sufficient foothold
on the rocky bottom. Down goes the outside horse ; and he
and his rider scramble to shore as best they can, while
the other one slips his lasso, preferring to lose it than to run
the chance of losing his own or his horse's life. But some
horses were born to be hung, and not drowned. The old
grey, after turning over three or four times, lands on a sandy
promontory that juts out forty or fifty yards below ; with,
strange to say, both lassos on him. There he sits on his
tail in the water, with his forefeet out in front of him,
staring round with the most comically bewildered look that
can be imagined. And it is some time before we can induce
him to get up and come on to the bank. Here he is un-
packed, and receives as hearty a benediction as men who
find their clothes wetted, bread soaked, and whisky-bottles
broken, can be expected to give. Happily, I carry a pocket-
flask, which we now divide among the party ; the guide an,d
the mozo who has got ducked coming in for the lion's share.

2 A

370 SOUTH BY WEST.

" Here first I become aware that twilight deepens on us ;
and by the time we reach the top of the barranca, where my
barometer registers 750 feet above the stream bed, along a
twin path to the one we came down, it is almost dark.

" Ten miles to go, and a mighty poor chance of supper ;
which we prove thoroughly two hours afterwards, when we
find at the little ranche that the owner has been taken off
the previous week by the Government troops, on suspicion
of having been connected with the stealing of a horse, and
that his wife and family have been sorely straitened since
for a means of subsistence. However, maize cakes, cheese,
junket, and fresh milk are delicious when flavoured by that
most excellent sauce of hunger ; and after scattering some
maize stalks, the only fodder we could get for the poor
horses, who were thoroughly tired out by one of the longest
and hardest day's work they had ever done, I roll myself in
my cloak on the grass, and remember nothing till the sun
wakes me next morning.

" With a true Englishman's grunt, I cast off my blankets,
and find the horses are greedily despatching their morning
meal of maize stalk.

" From inside the hut I hear unmistakeable sounds of
breakfast.

" Q. is up already, and has been making love to our hostess
for the last hour, much to the hindrance of her culinary
operations. After a hearty breakfast, the counterpart of
last night's supper, we start along the plain, which here is
a perfectly level expanse of grass, about two miles wide,
bounded on the east by the barranca we crossed last night,
and on the other side by a still larger one coming in from
the north-west. Beyond the latter, a long range looms up,
in which is the very valuable mining region of Tasco, from
which the range takes its name. We follow the plain down
for the next ten miles, where it is shut in by two mountains,
under which, to my intense surprise, I find the two bar-

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIEXTE. 371

rancas disappear. After an examination, I find that both
of these barrancas have outlets, one to the right, and the
other to the left of the mountains ; but of very ancient date.
The left-hand barranca enters the mountain side about 1000
feet below the level of the plain, about 800 feet below its
old channel, which here strikes almost due north. As far as
I could judge, though I could not get to it, the entrance to
the tunnel is 300 feet high by 200 broad. The western
barranca, I should fancy, was 1500 feet below the level of
the plain, but its own old channel is only about 200. It is
not very difficult to give the reason for this curious natural
phenomenon. Countless ages ago, these two rivers or bar-
rancas ran over the bed of trap which caps the plain. In an
unlucky day for engineering they w^ore it through, and began
eating their way through the soft sandstone below it. For
centuries they must have kept to their original channels, on
either side of the mountain, but at last the under current of
water began eating out an escape under the mountain, which
escape it finally made about three miles below the entrance :
with one noticeable fact, that instead of following more or
less the direction of their old channels, the two streams
converge under the mountain, and come out within fifty
yards of each other on the further side. After explorations
showed me that even the present mouth of the eastern
barranca has been changed, for about 100 yards from it, to
the eastward, is an enormous cavern, now known as the
cave of Cacaluiamilpa, which has been traced back into
the mountain for some two miles or more, but never, I
think, to the very end. It must evidently have been an
older chainiel than the present one, which for some reason
got blocked up, and the present channel eaten out in its
stead.

" This cave has been so well described by j\Ir. Brantz
Mayer, Secretary of the U.S. Legation to Alexico, %vho
visited it in 1842, that I venture to make use of his words : —

372 SOUTH BY WEST.

" ' I was one of the last to leave the entrance of the cave,
which hangs in a huge arch of sixty feet span, fringed with
a curtain of vines and tropical plants. Our party preceded
me for some distance along the road that descends rapidly
for the first hundred yards. Each one of the guides, In-
dians, and travellers, carried a light. ... I lit my torch
and followed.

" ' The first hundred yards brings you to the bottom of
the cavern ; and, if not warned in time, you are likely to
plunge at this season of the year (September) up to your
knees in water. You cross a small lake, and immediately
before you, under the vast Gothic vault of the cave, rises a
lofty stalagmite pillar, with a fringe falling from the top of
it, which seems formed of the brightest foam congealed in a
moment. A mimic pulpit rises from the wall, covered with
elaborate tracery, and hard by an altar is spread with the
fairest napkins, while above it depends a crystal curtain
hanging in easy folds, each one of which flashes back the
light of your torch as if carved from silver.

" ' We fastened the end of our twine to a pillar of the
altar and struck oiit westwardly in the direction of the
cavern. After a short distance we turned slightly to the
south, and passing down a file of rocks that had fallen from
the roof, entered the second chamber.

" ' In the centre of this a huge stalagmite has been formed.
... It is a lofty mass 200 feet in circumference, surrounded
from top to bottom by rings of fountain basins hanging from
its sides, each wider than the other, and carved by the action
of water into as beautiful shapes as if cut by the hand
of a sculptor. An Indian climbed to the top of it, and
firing a blue light illuminated the whole cavern. By the
bright unearthly blaze every nook and corner became visible,
and the waters and carving of this fountain-tower stood out
in wonderful relief.

' We penetrated to the third chamber. Here there was

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 373

no central column, but the effect was produced by the im-
mensity of the vault. It appears as though you might set
the whole of St. Peter's beneath it, with dome and cross.
... An Indian fired a rocket, which exploded as it struck
the top of the immense dome, the detonation reverberating
from side to side of the vault with the roar of a cannonade.
A sheet of stalactite was struck, and it sounded with the
clearness of a bell. . . .

" ' Beyond this chamber was a narrow path between the
almost perpendicular rocks, and, as we passed, the guide
crept through an entrance near the floor, and, holding his
torch aloft, displayed a delicious little cave, arched with
snowy stalactites. In the middle rose a centre table,
covered with its fringed folds, and adorned with goblin
nick-nacks. . . .

" ' Two rocks standing beyond this retreat are the portals
of another chamber, groined, like the rest, in Gothic arches,
with the tracery of purest stalactites, while its floor is
paved all over with beautiful little globular stalagmites.
In a corner fountain we found the skeleton head of a
serpent.

" ' The path beyond this is nearly blocked up by immense
masses that have fallen from the roof. Passing over these,
you attain another vaulted cathedral, bright as the rest with
flashing stalactites, while its floor is covered knee-deep with
water. . . .

"' We had now penetrated nearly 5000 feet in the in-
terior of the earth, and the guides said that the chambers
were still innumerable beyond. Persons have slept here
and gone on the next day, but no termination has yet been
discovered. . . . From this chamber we returned to the

entrance by the clue of our twine.'

******

" On leaving the cave and gaining the plain that lies to

the south of it, we, for the first time, become aware that we

•
374 SOUTH BY WEST.

are in the Tierra Caliente. The suu strikes down fiercely on
the lava that crops up through the soil ; and a dull steamy
brown grey mist rises off the plain, making a little patch of
light green sugar-cane in the hacienda of San Gabriel, five
miles away, look temptingly cool. But I have wandered
from my railroad line in search of ' the beauties of nature ;'
and I have to skirt the mountain due north acrain to regain
it, at the further end of the old northern channel of the
barranca.

" After skirting the base for about five miles along the
plain, I open on a sort of little oasis in the desert, formed
by the river of Malinalco coming in from the north, which,
just as it debouches from the mountains, opens out into
an oval basin a mile and a half long, covered with sugar-
cane, rice, and maize, the latter growing above the level of
artificial irrigation ; while the broad belt of banana that skirts
the river banks, forms, with its large pendant foliage, a beau-
tiful contrast to the delicate spikes of the cane. Here and
there a ceiba or an ahuahuete rears its giant head 150 feet
above the stream-bed; and beneath its shade, and half hidden
in orange groves, peeps out a little low white house, with a
broad verandah, and sometimes a dark spot among the
bananas marks a coftee -plantation. Joyously we drop into
the valley, forgetting the burning heat in the cool green
foliage. Through the maize, and into the cane-brake, with
its little ditches bubbling with the fresh clear water; and
then we dive into the semi-darkness of the banana grove ;
the refreshing roar of the river deepening till we emerge into
the bright sunshine on its bank.

" It seemed almost a sin to drop from the sublime to the
ridiculous at such a time and such a place ; but how could
one help it ? In mid-stream, with the water boiling and
seething round their waists, was a family party, — to wit, a
stalwart youug man, with his aged father on his back,
the two reminding me sadly of Sindbad and the Old Man of

THE SOUTHERX TIERRA CALIENTE. 375

the Sea. In front of him was this young man's wife, in
the treble agony of driving three donkeys, each packed
down with household penates, on the top of which were
perched her three round-headed boys, aged respectively
five, six, and seven. An Irishman driving two pigs was
nothing to it. Each donkey went separate ways ; the
stream, against which she could hardly struggle, threatened •
every moment to overwhelm one or other of them. In
vain she screamed to her husband to throw off the old
man, and save his own children from drowning : but the
Old Man of the Sea stuck to him, and absolutely refused
to be drowned. After the first burst of laughter, we saw
that matters were really serious, and, charging in on horse-
back, got down-stream of the donkeys, and picking the
children off their backs, drove them to the bank. But judg-
ment fell upon the Old Man of the Sea, as Sindbad, tripping
over a big sunken rock, dived head-foremost into the water,
within ten yards of the shore. No sooner did Sindbad find
himself in this plight than he cast the old man off, and
' sauve qui pent ' was the cry. Poor old Man of the Sea !
We fished him out of a deep eddy, thirty yards below, half
drowned, and certainly more than half full of water. It
was a beautiful sight to see him sitting on the bank, and
hear the flow of anathemas that bubbled out on his son's
head between the gulps for breath. But his daughter-in-law
was equal to the occasion ; and as we crossed the stream,
and plunged into the banana swamp on the further side, wq
could hear the old man's guttural bass and the woman's,
squeaking falsetto singing a glorious duo to the rattling
accompaniment that Sindbad was playing on the donkeys'
backs with a thick piece of driftwood, varied every now and
then by a shrill scream from one of the children, who had
been nearly or perhaps quite swept off the back of one of the
donkeys by one of the long hanging leaves of a banana.
" The trail we had been following soon broadened, and we

376 SOUTH BY WEST.

find ourselves on the remains of an old Indian Calzada,
leading up to the little Plaza of Cuoatlan del Eio, where we
decide to pass the night in the house of one of Q.'s revolu-
tionary friends. We ride up to the door, and get a most
hearty welcome from him.

" The evening passed away in eating, drinking, and chat-
ting, and with one curious incident as we were coming up
from the river at sunset, after a refreshing bathe. We saw,
as we got to our host's door, an enormous cloud of what at
first appeared to be black-birds, coming out of the top of the
Court-house that stood opposite, a noble old pile of Spanish
architecture, surrounded by a garden and some magnificent
coco-nut palms. Q. immediately called my attention to
them, and told me that they were an army of bats, which
lived in two enormous attics on the top of the house. As
far as I could form an idea, there must have been millions
of them, as the next morning early, when they came in the
same way, and two or three hours later in the evening, they
took six minutes coming out in a continuous stream of thirty
to fifty deep. Next morning we went up and inspected
their domicile, or rather tried to do so, as it was utterly im-
possible to get near them from the dirt.

" After the bat inspection was over we followed down the
river through a long chain of banana groves, which every
now and then opened out into a little ' vega', or meadow of
rice or sugar, till we came, in about six hours, to the bound-
ary wall of the hacienda of San Gabriel, and through the
scattered bushes we saw a broad low-lying flat of perhaps
four miles square, the cane-lands of San Gabriel and San
Jos^. Our path here followed the outside of the wall,
covered with great patches of lianas, honeysuckles, and pas-
sion-flowers. The sun was at its full height, and, to our
intense delight, we found basking in the heat, on the top,
numberless iguanas and teguexins (lizards). And now the
fun began ; by a common impulse we bent down to the ground

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIEXTE. 3 i ,

from our saddles without getting off, and in another moment
such a broadside of stones was hurled at the hapless iguanas,
as perhaps never yet had surprised their weak nerves. The
horses grew as excited as we did ; and my old horse, who
had evidently been at this work before, would point at one
of them like a dog, and swing himself round of his own
accord, so that I could get a fair shot with the full swing of
my arm : but I am afraid there was a great deal of good
shooting and very bad hitting. However, we managed to
have a pretty lively time, which was increased by one of the
mozos hitting the old pack-horse hard under the ear with
the biggest stone he could find ; and by my saddle turning
round with me as I stooped to pick up a stone, dropping
me on my head, having carefully chosen the hardest spot
along the whole road for my exploit. I am ready to depose,
on oath, that an old black and red iguana, ten yards on,
was laughing at me when I caught sight of him, and, as I
pulled out my pistol to have a quiet shot at him, he cocked
his head on one side, as much as to say, ' Tlie man who falls
off his horse can't hit me.' Alas for his powers of divina-
tion ! The ants' nest, into which he fell, told a different tale
as we passed the next morning.

" As we entered the little Plaza outside the hacienda of
San Gabriel, I became aware of the fact that it was Sunday, as
it was thronged with Indios from the neighbouring ranches.

" The yearly yield of this hacienda is 48,000 panes of
sugar, weighing about 25 lbs. a piece, and worth %i each ;
4000 barrels of aguardiente or rum at $18 a barrel ; and
about 1000 cwts. of rice, $2.50 per cwt.

" It may be curious to you to know the yield of the small
State in which San Gabriel lies (Morelos) : —
933,000 arobas (25 lbs.) of sugar,
G8,600 barrels of rum,
37,000 cwts. of rice,
3,000,000 lbs. weight of tropical fruits.

378 SOUTH BY WEST.

were last year's harvest (1872), of which some two-thirds
went up to the city of Mexico, at an average price of ^1.50
per cwt. for freight, for an average distance of seventy miles.

" Here I was at the southernmost point of my trip, and
the next day I trespassed on the well-known hospitality of
the administrador of the hacienda, by resting my horses and
lounging.

" On the return trip we follow back our old line for three
days to Pedras Negras, where we branch off to Ixtapan de la
Sal, so called from the great salt pan or lick there. On
nearing a little village about two miles from it, we heard the
bells ringing for mass, and Q., who had intended to go to
the Padre's house in Ixtapan, said that we would wait till
he had done mass here, and then ride back with him, as he
is a man ' muy instruido ; ' and certainly a more pleasant
courteous gentleman of the world I have rarely met. It was a
pretty thing to see the little children run out of the cottage
doors and plump themselves down in the road on their knees
to receive the old man's blessing as we trotted past with him
after mass. We were soon deep in railroad politics, and a
little sprinkling of natural science ; and before I knew where
I was, I found him bowing me into a long low nicely fur-
nished room, which had a certain air of refinement about it
that one does not often meet with in Mexican towns. As
he had to perform another mass here, he persuaded me to
go up to a wonderful cave about liaK a mile from town
during his absence, adding laughingly, ' I know of old that
Q. doesn't care for my blessing, and to you as " buen heretico,"
I would not give it if you asked me.' So off we started, past
the salt licks formed by a stream which bubbles out of a
crack in the lava rock, evidently being the overflow or rather
escape of the pond I am about to describe.

" Leaving these, we headed for a low circular hill, say 200
feet in height, and a quarter of a mile across at the top, in
which, I was told, the cave and crater lie. As we neared it the

THE SOUTHERN TIERRA CALIENTE. 379

first thing that struck me about it, was the wonderful fertility
of the soil. The oaks, which must have had hard work to
send their roots down in the rugged lava bed, are of far
larger size than any I had yet seen in Mexico, and of
most brilliant foliage. The tufts of grass which find a
precarious living at their feet are rank and healthy.
Eising the hill by a well-beaten path through the trees, we
suddenly opened on a circular glade, 300 feet in diameter, of
tlie most gorgeous grass lawn, in the centre of which is a
circular basin of 150 feet in diameter and twenty feet in
depth to the surface of the water. For aught one could tell
it might have been hewn by hand out of the solid lava, so
straight and smooth are the sides, with the exception of one
place where the bank shelves down sharply to the water's
edge. At a hundred different points on the surface water
heavily surcharged with gas comes bubbling up, and in one
spot so strong is the jet that it makes a mound of water
about a foot high by six inches through. From what I
judge, the water must be very deep, and our guide told us
that they had sounded it for eighteen brassadas (about 108
feet), and found no bottom, except close to the edge, about
two or three yards from which there seemed to be a sudden
drop off. I had nothing with me, I am sorry to say, in
which to bring home any water : but the taste seemed to be
almost entirely carbonate of soda, without a vestige of
iron.

" ' A bad place,' says Q. : ' but come on to the cave.'

" And verily, as we forced our way up through the gi'een
oak over a steep bank, and I cauglit sight of the blue white
bubbles seething up out of the blue black water, — a fitter
mouth for I'lnferno could hardly have been imagined,

" Topping the crest, we opened out on to a grass glade
with a bunch of trees growing out of a sort of rockery in
the middle, which was the cave.

" We were to leeward of it, and at about twenty yards'

380 SOUTH BY WEST.

distance I could clearly scent a smell of what seemed to
me salts of ammonia.

" Tying our horses to the little rail, we jumped inside, and
found a broken opening between three or four boulders that
seemed to have been rent asunder by earthquakes. But I
could not trace a definite line more than that the gas came
from two sides of the opening, and that a straight line drawn
from the southernmost one, and cutting the north one,
would have, if produced, hit the pond or crater we had
just left ; also that the same line produced southward would
have hit the salt-lick and soda-spring at the bottom of the
hill.

" It seems to me that it is simply a vent of the gas, the
natural channel of which carries the gas from the crater to
the soda-spring, as in all three I noticed sudden strong
burstings out of gas at uneven intervals.

" To show the strength of the gas, I placed a strong young
game-cock in the full blast of the southmost vent, which
seemed to be the strongest. In three seconds he was reel-
ing ; ten, had fallen ; and in fifteen was nearly dead. After
taking him out and restoring him, I tried myself, and gave
myself the most exquisite bursting headache in the same
time, which lasted me for the rest of the day. The smell
was exactly like sal-ammoniac.

" In ten minutes I tried the game-cock again, who died in
about fifteen to eighteen seconds, as I could not be quite
certain as to the date of his death,

" The grass around was quite covered with bones of rats
and birds ; and in the opening itself was the skull and neck-
vertebrse of a donkey, who, my guide informed me, had died
there before the railing was put up.

" But I picked out quite a romance there. On a boulder
sticking up in the opening lay a half- decomposed bird,
while, with one paw on the bird, and the other clutching
the rock, was a skunk at about the same stage of decom-

THE SOUTHERN TIEliRA CALIENTE. 381

position. Poor fellow ! he paid with his own the life he
would have taken.

" It was then getting late, so we cantered back to Ixtapan,
and after a good breakfast (twelve o'clock), set off for Tenan-
cingo, which we did not make till nine o'clock p.m., men
and horses tired out. Here I find orders to get back to
jNIexico, which I do with many long farewells to the hospit-
able folk of the S, Tierra Caliente. . . ,"

* * * * * *

CHAPTEK XXIII

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CKUZ.

Teocallis of the Sun and Moon- -Pulque — Puebla de los Angelos — Churches and
relics — Sta. Florenzia — Muddy roads — The steel-works of Amozoc — Cacti —
A midnight start — The Peak of Orizaba — Down the cuTtibres — Orizaba— A
wild team — The railroad again — Vera Cruz— The Vomito and the Norte —
Gachupines and parrots —Farewell to Mexico.

Friday, June 14. — Our exit from tlie city of Mexico was
at first sifjht much more civilized than our entrance into
it ; for we came in on the top of the stage-coach ; and we
left in a train on the Vera Cniz Eailroad. But there the
civilisation stops. We had come in armed with revolvers
and carbines ; we left protected by three car-loads of soldiers,
200 men in all. The Eevolutionists six weeks previously
had attacked the train at Omatusco, killing the guard who
incautiously looked out to see what was the matter, and
burning the station. But notwithstanding this novel experi-
ence in railroad travelling, we were all in too high spirits
at being actually on our homeward road to mind any amount
of possible Pronunciados.

General P. and Governor H., with Gabriel their faithful
guide, arrived from the interior the night before ; and at
7 A.M. we had bidden farewell to a crowd of friends on the
platform, and steamed out along the old causeway to Guada-
lupe ; the sun shining on the waters of the Lake of Tezcoco,
and lighting up the dazzling snowy summits of the two great
volcauos, clear cut against an azure sky.

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CHUZ, 383

The railroad skirts tlie northern side of the lake, running
through green meadows and past Indian villages. At San
Juan Teotihuacan, where we stopped for a minute, we got a
good view of the celebrated Teocallis of the sun and moon,
— the only remaining relics of the Micoatl, or PathAvay of
the Dead, as the plain on which they stand was called by
the Aztecs. In Cortez's time, these pyramids, which stand
rather less than half a mile apart, were surrounded by
hundreds of smaller ones disposed symmetrically in wide
streets, forming a vast burying-ground. The two great
pyramids were surmounted by two stone idols covered
with gold, representing the sun and moon. No trace
of these lemains; the gold having been appropriated
by the greedy conquerors, and the vast stone images de-
stroyed by order of Zummaraga, first Bishop of Mexico, to
whose ill-directed zeal we owe the destruction of most of the
relics of the Aztec civilisation. The Teocalli of the sun is
682 feet round at the base; perpendicular height 180 feet.
The Teocalli of the moon is rather smaller, and 144 feet high.
I could make out faint traces of the ancient terraces
round the outside of the Teocalli, though it is now overgrown
with cactus and scrub, and battered out of shape with the
weathering of 300 years.

The teocallis were the temples of the Aztec nation. On
their summits burned the sacred fire ; and there, too, those
horrid rites of sacrifice were perpetrated, which made the old
Spanish conquerors feel that death in any other form was
preferable to the chance of falling into the hands of the
Aztec priests.

From San Juan an up grade took us out of the Valley of
Mexico past Otumba, historic as the scene of Cortez's great
struggle with the Tlascalaus ; and when we had risen 1000
feet above our starting-point, we reached the Llanos or
Plains of Apam. Apam, besides being the centre of one of
the finest Avheat districts of jMexico, is the pulque metropolis

384 SOUTH BY WEST.

of the world. Here, as far as the eye can see, the country is
covered with countless acres of jpidque, plantations. So vast
are the quantities consumed of this very uninviting bever-
age, that a '' trcn de pulques" runs every day each way
between Mexico and Puebla; and during the year 1871
the railroad carried 34,G05 tons of it. Gabriel, who escorts
us as far as Vera Cruz, brought Mrs. P. and me a large bowl
of pulque when we stopped at Apam, of which we drank,
chiefly to please him. It was neither very good nor very
bad ; but generally foreigners, after a short apprenticeship,
get as fond of it as the natives.

rive miles from Apam we passed the hacienda where

General ■ was shot, whom I saw on the 5th of May

walking close to the President in the procession. He was
murdered by robbers on his own hacienda, a fortnight ago ;
and his funeral, three days before we left the city, was the
most splendid spectacle I have seen in the country, — minis-
ters and generals following the hearse, with all the troops in
Mexico. The din of military bands was so deafening, that,
knowing nothing of the funeral, I ran to the window as they
passed to see if there was a Pronunciamiento. At Sultepec,
a little further on, the train, last autumn, was attacked by
Pronunciados, who lay flat on the roof of the little station-
house, and shot at the military guard of the train.

At Apisaco, where we stopped for breakfast, the main
line of the Vera Cruz railroad stopped, a branch only going
to Puebla. The middle section of the road between Apisaco
and Orizaba, over the edge of the plateau of Mexico, was not
finished.'^ Our route to the coast took us on to Puebla by the

^ This division was opened on the 29th of December 1872, and pre-
sents to the eye of the engineer the most remarkable triumph of railroad
engineering in the world. " After the first four miles beyond Orizaba we
get on what they call ' the grade,' which is an almost uniform one for the
next twenty- five miles of 4 per cent., or 210 feet in the mile. In the last
seventeen miles, from Maltrata to Boca del Monte, we ascend 3500 feet
along the face of a broken hill-side, which has an average side slope of

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 385

branch line, down a rather steep grade, at twenty-five miles
an hour. Tlascala, that once flourishing city which stretched
along the summits and sides of the hill, the capital of " the
land of hread," lay on the right of the track as we wound
round the sharp cur\'es of the Sierra, and across the Zahuatl
by a fine iron bridge, in place of the ancient stone one, by
which Cortez and his men approached on the 25tli of Sep-
tember 1519, All that one sees of the city from the railroad
is a church on the hillside.

We arrived at Puebla at 1.30, and were at once struck
by its cleanly appearance. The streets are well-drained and
paved. The position of the city is magnificent, lying, as it
does, at the foot of the eastern slopes of Popocatapetl, so
that at the end of most of the narrow streets the vista is
filled by blue mountain-side. As we were in plenty of time
to catch the French steamer at Vera Cruz, we decided to
stay one night at Puebla, in order to see some of its
beauties.

We wished to have visited Cholula, the "holy city" of
the ancient Mexicans, from whose ruined Teocallis innumer-
able Aztec remains are still dug : but it is some miles off,
so we had to content ourselves with an exploration, as
thorough as might be, of its Spanish successor, " la Puebla
de los Angelos."

Mr. B., the consul, kindly acted as our cicerone, and took
us first to his own house, which is in a part of the convent of
San Domingo, the patron saint of the Inquisition. In what

about 1 to 1 . A number of rocky points, separated by deep ravines, form
a continuous succession of tunnels and bridges. It seems almost incredible
that the longest piece of tangent in seventeen miles is 100 feet, yet it is
a fact ; in many places we find curves of 350 feet radius ; while in two
places we find 250 feet ; and when the track ■was opened, owing to the
caving in of a tunnel, a temporary track was built round the point through
which the tunnel runs, with a curve and reverse curve of 150 feet radius.
Over the whole of this division the speed is limited to eight miles per
hour, which is found to be the maximum speed that can be run with per-
fect safety." — From Ocean Highways, May 1873.

2 B

386 SOUTH BY WEST.

are now Mr. B.'s stables are cells in the thick wall, where
the victims were incarcerated. During the siege in 1862
he tried to open a way through to the church of San Do-
mingo, which adjoins, and came upon a small square chamber,
which we were shown, in the massive wall, which was full
of human bones. These unfortunate creatures had, as in the
city of Mexico, been dropped in from a hole in the top and
there left. Truly, " murder will out !"

The Church of San Domingo is very large. A side chapel,
devoted to some special Madonna, has a dome of carved and
gilded wood so fine and delicate it looks like golden cobwebs.
This Madonna was one of the richest in all Mexico; her
jewels were magnificent; and she had one string of large
pearls which used to appear on fiesta days fifteen varas
(yards) long. These jewels, if they still exist, are said to be
in the custody of the bishop, who keeps them buried for fear
of a revolution. During the siege by the French, Mr. B.
and his family took refuge in this chapel, as being more out
of the way of shells than his own house. What strange
surroundings ! — the ghosts of all those victims of the Inquisi-
tion— the superstition of the country, which could expend
thousands on this tawdry image — and outside, the shot and
shell of the European invaders !

Thence we made our way to the Cathedral, which stands
on the pleasant Plaza. It is outside almost a facsimile of
the Cathedral of Mexico. The columns inside, were covered
up to the capitals in crimson velvet in honour of some feast,
and had a most striking effect. The high altar is sup-
ported by sixteen columns of marble of the country, and
richly adorned with silver and gilding. Under the canopy
— el Cipres I believe it is caUed in Mexico, — stands a Ma-
donna made in some metal, and weighing, we were told,
9000 lbs. Beneath the altar some steps lead down into a
circular room lined throughout, walls, roof, and floor, with
black and white marble. In this room the bishops are

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 387

buried, their coffins being placed in niches in the wall, which
are covered with the marble lining.

The choir is lined with stalls, the backs of which are
inlaid with wood, no two of the same pattern. Over the
bishop's chair at the end is a picture of St. Peter, also in
inlaid wood : but so exquisitely is it executed, that not till
I had actually mounted the bishop's throne and felt it over
with my fingers could I believe it was not a highly-finished
oil-painting.

One chapel was full of horrid relics — a bone from this
saint's leg, or that saint's arm — a skull of one, and a tooth of
another. Gabriel, who is a thorough Lihcrale in his dislike
of the clergy, said to me, talking of relics, " If all the teeth
of Sta. Apolonia were collected which are scattered over
Mexico, they would fill eight railway cars !"

Hard by, another chapel was opened by the sacristan,
and we were taken within the iron gates, which were care-
fully locked after us to keep out the leperos, who swarmed
after us. A false back to the super-altar was unfastened by
a secret spring and taken down, and before us lay enclosed
in a glass case the figure of Sta. Florenzia. She was a
martyr, and reposed transfixed by an arrow, in clothes which
savoured strongly of a Fairy Queen in a pantomime : but
they were literally incrusted with jewels. The silver and
gold tissue was embroidered with seed pearls and tiny
diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and turquoise. Round her neck
hung magnificent pearls ; and her right wrist was adorned
with a bracelet of single emeralds, flat and hardly cut, each
nearly an inch long. If the jewels were hona fide — and we
were assured that they were so — the pretty, childish-looking
little saint, who lay there so innocently unconscious of all
her grandeur, must have been worth a king's ransom. We
were most fortunate in getting a glimpse of her ; as, owing
to the value of the jewels, she is only uncovered once a
year ; and hardly any foreigners have been allowed to see her.

388 SOUTH BY WEST.

Leaving the Cathedral, a violent rainstorm put an end to
our sight-seeing ; and we had to run back under shelter of
the Portales to the Casa de Diligencias, which was a pleasant
resting-place enough, the upper gallery round the patio being
full of birds and flowers, with bananas and orange-trees
growing in tubs, and plenty of benches outside our rooms to
lounge on, enjoying the freshened air.

Puebla being the terminus of the railroad, we had to
betake ourselves once more to our old enemy, a diligence.
So accordingly, on the 15th, we whirled out of the " City of
Angels," with eight wild ponies, making up our minds to
two days more of misery before again reacliing civilisation
in the shape of railway carriages.

The view from the first rise out of Puebla was superb ;
and as we stuck fast in a deep mud-hole at that point for
some ten minutes, we had plenty of time to admire the
beauties of nature. Behind us lay the white city, at the
foot of Popocatapetl and Istaccihuatl, whose snowy heads,
pink in the rising sun, looked so near, one almost imagined
one could touch them. To our left rose the massive Malinche
and the Cofre de Perote, and far away, right before us, gleamed
the white needle-like Pico de Orizaba. The roads were
naturally bad, and owing to the unusually early setting in
of the rainy season, were rendered worse by mud. In the
actual rainy season, coach-traffic is sometimes stopped for a
time owing to the mud. As an instance, when President
Juarez's family returned to Mexico after the fall of the
Empire, the carriage in which Madame Juarez was travel-
ling stuck fast in the streets of Cordova ; and in spite of the
efforts of twenty-four mules harnessed together, it was several
hours before it could be extricated. Luckily, however, no
such misfortune befell us ; and, sitting outside the coach, the
journey was pleasant enough, as there was no dust, and the
scenery was splendid.

At Amozoc, the first town we reached, while we changed

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 389

horses, the coach was surrounded by a jabbering crowd of
men and women, wlio offered for sale spurs and bits of a
peculiar manufacture — steel inlaid with silver. Tliis is, I
believe, tlie only place in Mexico where steel is worked;
and they have carried the art to great perfection. The spurs
— some of them immensely heavy — were beautifully chased
with elaborate patterns in silver on the steel. They and
the bits were no use to me, as Mexican bits are far too
severe to put into any English horse's mouth. I found,
however, that among other things, the people were selling
the most exquisite little flat irons of the same work, and
got two or three pair, less than an inch in length ; and a
pair of sleeve buttons, with a silver flower inlaid in the blue
steel.

Our next halt was at Tepeaca, where we hoped to get
some breakfast. The people of the town, however, seemed
to pay as little attention to the welfare of travellers as to
the walls of their houses, which were all falling down from
neglect : for we could not get a relay of mules, or anything
to eat save a little sour bread ; and so we had to push on
hungry, and with a tired team. The road led us through a
series of flat valleys, ten miles or more broad, covered with
corn-fields and pulque plantations ; and about 2 P.M. we
reached Tecamachalco, a pretty town on the mountain-side,
at the entrance of a canon through which the road leads.
Orchards and gardens full of fruit-trees, with hedges of
maguey and sweet peas, surround the town, watered by
streams of water which run down off the mountains.

Through the canon, we plunged into a luxurious cactus
and aloe vegetation for some miles. The Yucca of the north,
or some closely allied species, grew in strange uncouth trees,
with thick brown stems, surmounted by the head of narrow
green leaves. Opuntias and Dasyliriums of endless varieties,
mingled with the glaucous green sword -blades of the maguey,
whose yellow and scarlet flower-spikes, fifteen and even

390 SOUTH BY WEST.

twenty feet high, rose stiffly erect, like flaming candelabra,
above the surrounding scrub.

After the cactus-land came a long stretch of cultivated
land in a broad valley, till at 6.30 p.m. we reached San
Augustin Palmar. After a tolerable supper we retired to our
rooms to sleep, or try to sleep, for three hours, as the dili-
gence was to start at 1 a.m. precisely. My room was too
full of " chinches'' to encourage much sleep ; and it was
rather a relief than otherwise, when the sleepy servant
thumped at my door and cried twelve o'clock, to get up and
plunge my head into cold water — the only equivalent for
sleep in such a case.

At 1 A.M. we started ; two passengers besides our own
party making the coach uncomfortably full. Till daybreak
we were lighted by flaming torches carried by the muchacho
on the box. They shed a stream of sparks behind us, and
showed us here and there the weird hedges of cactus and
aloe which lined the road, and in the uncertain light took
every imaginable shape, giving us not a few alarms by their
unpleasant resemblance sometimes to a group of men on the
watch for the coach. However, we passed in safety the
"jornaclas" — j)l^ces where the road runs in a deep gulch
barely wide enough for the coach to get along, while those
on the box are just on a level with the surrounding ground.
They are uncanny spots, and much infested by robbers ;
so all the gentlemen got out and walked on each side of the
deep roadway.

About 4 A.M., just as the dawn was beginning to take the
place of our torch-light, a view broke upon us that I have
seldom seen equalled. We were winding down the face of a
steep hill. Below us lay a gorge of infinite depth filled with
seething blue mist, stretching away with endless windings
between rocky cliffs, whose upper parts were clear cut in
hard blue shadow, while their base was lost in the blue
cloud below; and beyond, against the blue-grey sky, rose

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 391

the peak of Orizaba, its everlasting snow faintly pink with
the first rays of day, while we Avere still shivering in the
shadows of night ; and close to us, on the edge of the cliff,
throwing the whole picture into shape, by force of contrast,
stood a single maguey, its tall flower-spike rising hard and
scarlet against the pale snow.

At dawn we reached La Canada, a town at the bottom
of the valley we had looked into, and found it crowded with
waggons and hundreds of mules transporting a Government
" Conduda" of $4,000,000 from the mines down to the coast.
Then, rising 500 feet up a long hill, with superb views of the
Peak on our left, we found ourselves on the very edge of the
great Mexican plateau.

Below us was one of the cumbres or steps, by which in a
few miles the stage-road descends nearly 4000 feet. This
first cumhre was about 800 feet, down which the road was
zigzagged ; and when we reached a few huts at Vall^ below,
and stopped to change mules and get some excellent choco-
late, looking back one hardly knew how we had come down,
so sheer was the cliff and so steep the turns : but that was
nothing to what was to follow. On starting again I got
outside to see better ; and because I thought that the very
small chance of being pitched off the coach was preferable to
being quite flattened between a very fat Mexican and a very
sleepy Spaniard inside. From Valle, a pretty sharp rise
leads to the top of the great Cumbre de Aculcingo ; and
here, in four miles, you drop suddenly 1900 feet, and change
from the cactus-vegetation of the plateau at the top, to the
tropical of the Ticrra Caliente below.

At the summit of the Cumbre, the two leading mules
were taken off, and trotted down loose in front of us ; the
cochero managed the four mules in the " swing," and the
break, which is worked by his right foot ; and the muchacho
held the two Avheelers, on whom, poor beasts, came all the
weight of the coach.

392 SOUTH BY WEST.

' Vamonos!" Down goes the break! Gabriel, who is
beside me, seizes my arm with one hand, and holds me in
my place by main force. We squeeze ourselves into the
smallest compass possible, to give the cochero and muchacho
room for the free play of their elbows ; and down we plunge.
The cliff is almost perpendicular ; the road takes twenty-
two sharp turns down it ; and being utterly unprotected by
any kind of railing, and swarming with pack-mules, and
long waggon-trains from the country below, the descent is
neither safe nor easy. Once or twice, at a particularly sharp
corner, I thought we should not be able to turn, and must go
clean over, as the coach was very heavily laden : but, thanks
to the magnificent driving of our cochero, we reached the
foot in safety, and breathed again.

At the village of Aculzingo, where we saw our two leaders
quietly trotting into their stable, we changed mules in a
moment, and then went off full gallop with our new team
along a splendid road. It was the strangest change from
the barren cactus-land above the Cumbres. The Canada or
valley, down which our road lay, is twenty miles long, and
one to one and a half broad, between wooded mountains
from 1000 to 3000 feet high. A little river, shaded by
cypress and sub-tropical trees, ran through rich fields of
maize and sugar-cane, with hedges of huge aloes in full
flower, and past palm-thatched huts, with green parrots
crawling about the door-ways, surrounded by neat gardens
full of bananas and pine-apples. Then the valley narrowed
into a pass. We crossed the Ime of the Vera Cruz Railroad,
saw it winding up the mountain-side to Maltrata, and
met a group of English engineers riding out to inspect their
track, their unmistakeable British attire contrasting queerly
with their Mexican saddles and little Spanish horses. We
whirled round the corner of a hill ; and there was the pretty
town of Orizaba right in front of us.

We pulled up at the door of the Diligence Hotel — a great

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 393

improvement on our previous resting-places, — and sending
on our baggage under Senor A.'s care to await us, decided to
stay twenty-four hours in the attractive little town, as we
were all tired with our rough stage journey, and glad to
spend as short a time as possible in the ill-omened Vera
Cruz.

The well-dressed Mexican visitors at the hotel must
have wondered at my appearance as I walked in to inspect
our rooms. Every one was in a gTeat hurry and confusion, as
the coach only waited to put us down, and then went on to
join the railroad at Fortin, seven miles on ; so in order to
make myself useful, I caught up the first of our possessions
I could lay hands on, and carried them off to my room. As
luck would have it, they happened to be a couple of rifles, and
never shall I forget the horror and amazement with which the
good people sitting at almuerzo in the dining-room regarded
me. I can excuse them ; for I must have been a strange
figure, with a crimson and purple bandana handkerchief,
which Gabriel had given me, knotted, robber-fashion, over
my cotton Garibaldi, to keep off the dust, a short woollen
gown — a deadly offence to Mexican feelings, — sunburnt and
dusty, and laden with the two heavy carbines !

The town of Orizaba nestles at the foot of the great
snow-capped Pico, fairly l)uried in lime and orange groves.
One cannot tell where the streets end, and the orchards
begin, so mixed together are they. Little streams of water
dash across the roads, and the old stone walls are alive with
ferns of endless variety. After a siesta in the middle of the
day, we walked up to the market, and bought pine-apples for
a real apiece, which I have never seen equalled for size and
flavour; and in the evening we wandered out of the town
through cool shady groves, where oranges, mangos, and
bananas, mingled with scarlet erythrinas, and huge aloes, and
a hundred other beautiful plants and flowers, growing with
that prodigal luxuriance one sees only in the tropics, had the

394 SOUTH BY WEST.

delicious fragrance of our hothouses. The night at Orizaba,
however, did not pass quite as pleasantly as the day. The
mosquitos, delighted to find a new-comer, swarmed into my
room through the iron-barred window, which was, like almost
every other in the town, quite guiltless of glass ; and having
no mosquito-net, I was so devoured as to be almost unrecog-
nisable when I appeared at breakfast next morning.

At 10 A.M. on the 17th we left in the diligencia for
Fortin, seven miles off, and our last experience of " staging "
was certainly an exciting one. The mules, when once har-
nessed, are always impatient to be off; so two men turn the
two leaders at right angles to the other six, with their heads
against the wall, and a bit of rope, eight or nine feet long,
passed through their bridles. When all is ready, they turn
them out into the road, run beside them till their heads are
quite straight, then let slip the ropes, and away the whole
eight go, heads down and crouching low, as hard as they can
fly for a quarter of a mile. On this occasion the mules — a
magnificent greyish roan team — were very fresh ; and being
kept waiting for a few minutes, the wheelers began to amuse
themselves by a kicking match, which ended in their kicking
over the traces, throwing themselves and the middle mules
down, and breaking the harness. When fresh harness was
brought, and all the passengers were ready, they were once
more put in, and starting with two or three good kicks, we
went down the narrow paved streets of Orizaba like Llitzow's
wild hunt, the heavy coach whisking round corners and fly-
ing over ditches in a way that took one's breath away.

One glimpse more we caught of the Pico de Orizaba,
which will never be effaced from my mind. It had been
hidden in clouds all the morning, but as we flew along the
excellent road, through sugar and coffee fields, we happened
to look up, and far overhead towered the snowy peak like a
great white ghost looking out on us from the clouds which
rolled round its base above the blue foot-hills ; while we

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 395

below looked up to its calm coldness throiigh a frame of
bananas, aloes, and palms, in blazing steaming heat.

At Fortin we reached the temporary terminus of the rail-
road, and were soon comfortably established in English
carriages for the run of seventy miles into Vera Cruz. The
first part of the road lay through banana, coffee, and tobacco
fields, at Cordova plunging into tropic forest, with the trees
covered with lianas, and clouds of yellow butterflies dancing
in the sua Just beyond Atoyac, a little station above a
beautiful rocky river, we came to the Chicahuiti Pass, where
river and railroad make their way through a narrow gap out
of the mountains. The road is blasted along the cliff, some
200 feet above the river, which falls in a cascade fifty feet
high, through a narrow cleft of rock completely over-
arched by fine trees, wooded hills rising on either side a
thousand feet from the stream. Once out of the pass you
are clear of the mountains ; and as you cross a wide open
plain to Paso de Macho they stretch away south as far as
eye can see, an almost impassable wall, till lost in the misty
Atlantic atmosphere.

The journey thence became tame and tiresome, over
wide plains covered with volcanic boulders, with here and
there a tree-bordered gully, through blinding dust and broil-
ing sun, till at Soledad we struck the belt of wooded swampy
land which runs along the coast. So dense is the forest
through which the road has been cut, that a calf which got
upon the track galloped down in front of the train for more
than a mile, before it could find a place to turn off. The
swamps were full of two kinds of white cranes, and as we
neared the coast low palms grew among the underwood.
About 4.30 P.M. lines of coco-nut palms appeared ; then white
buildings ; and plunging through an opening in the old bat-
tered walls, which, by the way, for want of stone, are built
entirely of white coral and madrepore, we steamed along
inside the ramparts of Vera Cruz.

396 SOUTH BY WEST.

The very name of this ill-omened city brings unpleasant
associations with it. Besieged and bombarded countless
times, it appears as if fate had tried to sweep from the face
of the earth the headquarters of that most horrible disease,
the " Vomito," which rages in the city for several months of
the year. It only disappears at the approach of a second
plague, the " Norte" a furious wind which, though driving
away " Yellow Jack," often prevents vessels approaching the
coast for days, if they escape being driven ashore when
caught in it suddenly : a severe remedy.

It was therefore with no small feeling of relief, as we
had to sleep there for one night, that we heard Dr. S.'s greet-
ing when he met us on the platform at Vera Cruz : —

" City quite healthy ; not a single case of fever."

Hot and tired as we were after our journey, we were
thankful for a few hours' respite before a sea-voyage ; and
were soon comfortably established at the hotel, looking on
the pretty Plaza with its group of tossing coco-nut palms
and hedges of scarlet hibiscus. But though the hotel was
excellent, and we got an unlimited amount of ice which
of course comes straight down from the States, yet the re-
membrance of the heat of that night haunts me. In vain I
tried to sleep. I pulled my bed into the middle of three
or four thorough draughts, with a breeze rushing in through
the high open windows. But the breeze was a sirocco, pour-
ing hot air upon one, and by its very violence heating instead
of cooling one's skin. I tried fanning myself: but that
made matters much worse. At last, towards morning, in
despair I got up, and sitting at the window, passed what
remained of the night in watching the wakening life of
the city, and especially the antics of the ugly Zopilotcs, the
black Turkey buzzards, who swarm about the streets, acting
as aide-de-camps to the norte, in keeping the streets clean.

Soon after sunrise I sallied forth with Dr. S. to see the
town. It is very small, being about five blocks long by

THE CITY OF MEXICO TO VERA CRUZ. 397

three blocks deep, and entirely surrounded with the coral walls.
We went outside the walls to the north of the town, near
the great sand-hills which extend for miles along the coast :
but the heat was so fierce, we soon had to beat a retreat.
The only attractions in the city itself were the market and
some charming baths. These baths were built round a
patio, full of tropic flowers of every hue, and great banana
plants, and fitted in the most luxurious way possible : and
Mrs. P. and I came away not only refreshed by our
bath, but laden with bouquets which the courteous pro-
prietor picked for us on seeing our delight with his
garden.

The market, just off the Plaza, is well worth a visit ; for
there, besides the fruit and vegetables, which are always of
interest in a tropical country, the Indios bring in quantities
of birds, especially parrots, from the neighbouring forests.

Apropos of these parrots, I heard an absurd story, which,
of course, turns against the " GacJiupins" as the Mexicans
call the Spaniards from old Spain. These Gachupins are
supposed to be exceedingly "green" when they first arrive,
and to do all sorts of foolish things. One Gachupin, so the
story goes, had heard much of the parrots of Nueva Espagna,
and on landing at Vera Cruz made straight for the forest to
try and catch some. He soon reached a wood full of them,
and seeing one sitting quite quiet in a tree by himself, began
to climb the tree to secure him.

The parrot, as it happened, was a tame one, which had
escaped to the forest again : but had not lost the power of
speech. As our Gachupin put out his hand to seize him, he
cocked his head on one side, and exclaimed —

" Que . . . quieres ?" — which, being interpreted, means,
"What do you want?" — with a very strong Spanish ex-
pletive.

The Gachupin took off his hat, and, with a low bow,
replied —

398 SOUTH BY WEST.

" Dispcnsc-me, V. Senor ;" " Excuse me, Sir, I tliouglit you
were a parrot."

Not being a Gacliupin, I went no further than the market
in quest of parrots, and soon found an irresistible " Lorito,"
a little red-headed fellow, who, far from insulting me, was
crying helplessly in a palm-leaf bag, with three small brothers
and sisters out of the same nest. He proved an excellent
traveller, and reached England in safety. At 4 p.m. we
embarked on board the ' Nouveau Monde,' which was lying
on the glassy waters of the gulf beneath the guns of San
Juan de Uloa, Senor A., and one of the engineer's party,
who had come with us as far as the coast, with our faithful
friend Gabriel, came on board, and only left us when the
pilot's boat returned to shore, some few miles out at sea, —
Gabriel taking leave of us in true Mexican fashion, kissing
General P. on both cheeks, and giving Mrs. P. and me a
stage embrace, as he patted us on the back. True-hearted
friend ! Were there more like him in the country, beautiful
unhappy Mexico might take the place she ought among the
nations of the world.

Three days of indescribable heat and misery brought us
across the gulf to Havannah, where we spent nearly a week ;
thence in a small steamer we crossed to Key West, and up
the coast of Florida to Cedar Keys, where we took the cars,
running through the palmetto groves and cedar swamps of
Florida and South Carolina to Savannah, Charleston, Kich-
mond, and New York, heartily glad to be once more safe on
American soil.

CHAPTER XXIY.

MEXICO AND ITS EESOURCES.

By those who know it best, Mexico is always spoken of
as a country richer in natural products than any other in
the world.

This is a broad statement : but it has more truth in it
than such sweeping assertions usually possess.

Lying between 21° and 14° north latitude, it would seem
at first sight to be an almost exclusively tropical, or semi-
tropical, country. But from its northern boundary there
runs down a central plateau, gradually rising from an alti-
tude of 3000 feet above sea-level at El Paso, till, fifty miles
south of the city of Mexico, or 18° north latitude, it has at-
tained an elevation of 8000 to 9000 feet. Thus the difference
of latitude is entirely counteracted by the altitude, and the
southern portion of the plateau is in reality colder than the
northern.^

This plateau forms a connecting link between the Rocky
Mountains of North America and the Cordilleras of South
' America, with a noticeable point of difference from these
northern and southern ranges. In both of them the Atlantic
slope is the most gradual, the Pacific slope being precipitous,
and the mountains approaching comparatively near to the

^ City of Mexico, elevation 7400 feet, mean temperature 17° 5 Centi-
grade, or 63° Fahrenheit.

El Paso del Norte, elevation 3900 feet, mean temperature 21° Centi-
grade, or 70° Fahrenheit.

400 SOUTH BY WEST.

coast. In Mexico this is reversed, the Pacific slope being
much the longest : hut still not sufficiently gradual to allow
of any river-communication between the interior and the
coast, as in North and South America,

This plateau is not by any means smooth, being formed
of a series of basins, landlocked in every case on three sides,
and very commonly on all sides by mountain ranges rising
from 500 to 3000 feet, while round its southern extremity
extends a volcanic rampart, south of which the landlocked
basins disappear entirely, and the main watershed, which
north is extremely complicated, becomes more clearly
defined.

The volcanos of Orizaba, Popocatapetl, Istaccihuatl, Ma-
linche, the Nevada de Toluca, and Jorulla, form a connecting
chain, which present a remarkable exception to the ordinary
mountain-chains.

" The cones of eruption," says Humboldt, " usually follow
the direction of the axis of the chain ; but in the Mexican
table-land the active volcanos are situated on a transverse
fissure running from sea to sea in a direction from east to
west."^

Eound this plateau, which will average roughly 400 miles
across, lies a belt of true tropical country, varying from 50
to 200 miles in breadth. The Mexicans have divided their
country into three zones : —

The Tierra Caliente, or Torrid Zone, from sea-level to an
altitude of 5000 feet, or, in other words, the limit of sugar.

The Tierra Tcmplada, or Temperate Zone, from 5000 to
7000 feet.

The Tierra Fria, or Cold Zone, from 7000 feet and up-
wards.

Taking these three zones and examining their products,
we may arrive at a tolerably correct knowledge of their
natural riches.

^ Humboldt, Essai politique.

MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES. 401

In the Tierra Caliente we find sugar, rice, cotton, coffee,
tobacco, cocoa, indigo, vanilla, drugs, vegetable poisons, herbs
of all kinds, cochineal, yarns, coquito nuts for oil, gum-
arabic, gutta-percha, and all the tropical fruits, i.e. banana,
orange, lemon, lime, pine-apples, figs, cocoa-nuts, guayava,
chirimoya, zapote, chico-zapote, granaditas, mangos, etc.

In woods there are mahogany, Brazil wood, ebony, prim-
avera, rosewood, zapote, orange, chijol, alzaprima, and an
endless variety of hard- woods and dye-woods.

Sugar. — Throughout the Tierra Caliente sugar is largely
raised, and the refined white sugar which in the city of
Mexico now fetches from 4d. to Gd, per lb., is considered
to be of a superior quality to Havannah sugar. The State of
Morelos, for instance, which contains 3500 square miles,
last year (1872) raised 233,250 cwts. of sugar, with only
about l-20th of its sugar-land under cultivation, besides
15,425 tons of molasses, which are mostly converted into
rum and aguardiente.

Coffee. — The coffee supply of Mexico is at present scarcely
equal to the demand for ho me- consumption, and this for a
very simple reason — that the people are too lazy to grow it.
The south-west, especially the States of Colima and Micho-
acan, have, up to the present time, proved ' themselves the
best coffee-producing districts. But through all the soutli
there is so much land possessing just the same natural
advantages that there can be no doubt that if the same care
were taken there as in the two former States, just the same
quality of coffee could be raised. The coffee-bean of Colima
and Uruapan closely resembles that of Mocha, and quite
equals it in flavour.

Cotton. — The south of Mexico cannot be said to be
thoroughly satisfactory as a cotton-raising district, with
the exception of the State of Guerrero, as the crops are
from time to time entirely destroyed by an insect which
attacks the pod just as it has boiled, and in a night will

2 c

402 SOUTH BY WEST.

destroy a whole crop. This, however, has not occurred in
the northern portion of the country, where there are large
cotton districts in Southern Chihuahua, Western Durango,
and Coahuila. In the city of Mexico this cotton fetches
one cent per lb. less than the Texas cotton, because the
latter is more thoroughly cleaned. But English and Ameri-
can millowners in Mexico state that the Mexican cotton is
stronger and of quite as fine a fibre as the Texan ; and that
when properly cleaned it ought to command a market value
of one to two cents per lb. more than the Texan. Sea
Island cotton is universally grown throughout the north.

Tohacco. — An enormous quantity of tobacco is grown in
Mexico, especially in Orizava and Tepic. But, owing to the
carelessness of the Mexicans in curing it, its quality is far
inferior to the Havannah, though it is naturally good. And
should the Havannah crop diminish in consequence of the
abolition of slavery in Cuba, some Cuban tobacco-firm might
with advantage migrate to Mexico. Land is cheap, labour
is cheap, and with the varied soil and climate a " vuelta
abajo"^ may be found, which will in a few years rival or
surpass Cuba itself.

The products of the Tierra Templada and Tierra Fria —
excepting woods — are so intermixed, that thej^ may be taken
under the same head. In these two zones are found maize,
wheat, barley, maguey, grapes, all kinds of temperate fruits,
such as apples, peaches, strawberries, etc.; beans, peas, Chili
or peppers, alfalfa or luceru, and all kinds of vegetables.
Potatoes grow above the 7000 feet level.

The Tierra Templada, lying above the tropic woods, and
below the oak and pine of the Tierra Fria, is almost entirely
bereft of timber, with the exception of willow and ahuahuete
along the streams, and a sparse growth of poplar, ash, and
sycamore.

^ The western coast of Cuba, the best tobacco-produciDg district in the
island.

MEXICO AXD ITS RESOURCES. 403

" ^ The largest bodies of timber I have seen are those on
and around the slopes of the mountain of Toluca, and those
stretching south from Maravatio down into the TieiTa
Caliente." Following the western side of the Mexico basin,
there are pine forests, from the crossing of the Mexico and
Toluca stage-road, for about thirty miles north.

" On the south-west side of the valley from the Toluca
mountain there is not much timber, except far back, say
thirty to forty miles in the range ; so that the first fine body
of timber we come to is that of the Jordana, on the west
side, about forty miles down. This runs down within six
miles of the river ; and opposite, about twenty miles distant
to the east, are the forests of Xocotitlan and Trochi. From
here there is no good timber for twenty-five or thirty miles,
when we strike the western edge of the forest of Tlapujagua,
coming in from the south. From this to within four miles
of Maravatio, there is fair timber on both sides of the river.
That on the south-west side runs down to the forests of
Troxes and Angangeo, which are fine pineries. The northern
forests follow the mountain which leaves the river ; and the
last point where we have good timber is on the Sierra
Augustin, about twenty miles north of Acambaro, and
twenty- five east of Salvatierra.

" On the south side, however, twelve miles south of
Maravatio, is the Sierra Andres, which is the n.e. boundary
of the range that runs down to the east of Morelia, and into
the Tierra Caliente. This is the largest body of timber, and
the finest that we liave along the route. It stretches west
down to Acambaro and Zinapecuaro, and south for thirty
leagues, broken here and there. This is the furthest point
west that pine grows.

"It will be seen, then, that from Toluca for 100 miles
down the Eio Lerma, and distant three to six leagues from

^ Report on Timber Resources of the Lerma Valley, City of Mexico,
May 1872.

404 SOUTH BY WEST.

it, we have a succession of pineries varying in size and

AN'Ortll.

"The principal woods are two sorts of pine, — cedar,
which grows something like the Washingtonia gigantea ;
spruce, white and red oak. The red oak grows to a large
size, and is used principally for waggon work. The white
oak is smaller, and in many places grows in such a way
as to produce the best of ties. I have seen in one acre of
ground fifty sticks twelve inches thick at the base, and not
less than ten inches at fifty feet from the ground."

Of all the products of the Tierra Templada and Tierra
Eria, we will examine only two — wheat, and the maguey
plant.

At present only enough wheat is raised in Mexico for
home-consumption : but this might be developed to a point
of which perhaps neither foreigner nor Mexican has any
idea. That Mexico would be a good point for production
there can be no doubt, and a ready market for the surplus
produce, over and above that consumed in the Tierra
Caliente, where wheat will not grow, would be found at
Havannah and the West Indian Islands, whose supply at
present comes from far up the Missouri river. The barley,
oats, and maize would also be in demand. And if California
and Chili can ship round the Horn to England, Mexico could
do the same much more easily from her Gulf ports. The
quality of wheat grown at present is somewhat inferior,
being the old Andalusian seed brought in by the Spaniards
250 to 300 years ago, which has never been renewed. Its
}ield, however, is very large. Humboldt states that the
Mexican wheat gives seventeen to twenty- four grains for one.
That of France give five to six for one, and Himgary eight
to ten for one.

The principal wheat-producing districts of the north are
at present the districts of Ures and Hermosilla, in the State
of Sonora, which harvested 150,000 tercios of 300 lbs. each

MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES. 405

last year (1872) : but were this tract thorougUy developed,
it ought to yield at least half a million.

The valleys of the Carmen and Encinillas in Chihuahua,
which cover an area of some 2500 square miles, ought all to
be under wheat.

Further south we find great plains in the State of San
Luis Potosi, which would also raise good wheat.

From Zacatecas, down past Aguas Calientes, Lagos,
Leon, and Guanajuato, a series of valleys form the wheat
region which supplies the mines of Guanajuato, Zacatecas,
Fresnillo, and Durango.

South of this we reach the principal wheat-raising dis-
trict, known as the Bajio, These wheat-lands of the Bajio
lie along and adjacent to the Eio Lerma and its tributaries
for a distance of 200 miles. At present not one-tenth of
them are utilized. But were this district put under proper
cultivation, it is almost impossible to calculate what it might
produce. Its possible yield has been estimated at 500,000
to 1,000,000 tons;^ and those whose judgment may be
safely taken, say that there is no reason why it should not
reach the latter figures.

To the east of the Bajio and the Pdo Lerma we find
another enormous wheat-raising district, that round Quere-
taro, San Juan del Ptio, and Tula. It is now either almost
uncultivated, or else devoted to maize-growing. In the
Valley of San Juan del Bio, in 1872, 45,000,000 lbs. of maize
were harvested.

South of this again, and due east of Mexico, lie the
plains of Apam, the wheat-growing region which supplies
the city of Mexico, Puebla, the mines of Pachuca, and the
whole south-eastern Tierra Caliente. Here also an immense
quantity of barley is produced.

Another product of the Templadas worth notice is
the maguey plant. Agave Americana, which may fairly be

1 California's yield for 1S72 was between 800,000 and 900,000 tons.

2 C 2

40 G SOUTH BY WEST.

considered as one of the most remarkable plants in the
world.

At the age of from four to eight years, according to its
class, before the flower-spike has grown large, the flower-
stalk and the adjacent leaves are cut out, forming a hollow
from one to two feet in diameter. Into this hollow, for six
to ten months, a thick, sweet juice exudes from the base
of the leaves, which is gathered morning and evening after
scraping the sides of the cavity. This is put into vats, to
ferment for eight or nine days, diluted slightly with water ;
and when a heavy film settles at the bottom, the liquid,
which is skimmed off, is ready for drinking. This liquor,
called pulque, forms the universal drink of the Mexicans.
To give some idea of the amount of pulque used in the city
of Mexico, the Mexico and Vera Cruz Railroad, over a dis-
tance of sixty miles, derive the sum of $600 daily from the
transportation of pulque; which, at ten cents a ton per mile,
would be 1 00 tons of pulque daily, and this from only one
side of the city of Mexico.

But this is not the only use of the maguey plant : from
its butt a sort of whisky called Mescal is distilled.

The fibre, moreover, of the leaves, after they have been
dried and combed out, makes the finest hemp ; and in Mexico
nothing else is used for ropes, lassos, string, etc. The French
navy made experiments with this fibre, and found that a one-
inch rope of maguey fibre sustained the same strain as a
l-|-inch Manilla rope. This should be brought into more
general use. At present Yucatan exports in a small way ;
about 2000 bales of 400 lbs. each, leaving the port of Pro-
gresso every month for Havannah and New York. But as
the supply is unlimited, it is to be hoped that this in the
future will take a large place among the exports of Mexico.

Another use of this fibre in Mexico is for mats of all
sorts, especially for putting under the saddles or pack-
saddles. From its power of rapidly absorbing heat and

MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES.

407

moisture, it proves the most perfect saddle-cloth, as it keeps
the animal's back cool, and at the same time prevents the
saddle from frallin;?.

Having obtained a slight idea of the -wealth above ground
of Mexico, we must now delve deeper ; and this brings us to
the most important of her natural products — her mines of
precious metals. The principal deposits of gold and silver
lie along the whole range of the Sierra Madre as far as 21°
north latitude. South of this the line of deposits divides,
one head following the eastern, the other the western edge of
the central plateau, until it dips into the Tierra Caliente of
the south. Here, throughout the whole breadth of the country,
as far south as Chiapas, the land is so dotted over with
mines, that it may be described as one vast mining region
second to none in the world.

Besides this central chain of mines there is a large dis-
trict in the States of Coahuila, Nueva Leon, and San Luis
Potosi. This has been hitherto but little explored, with the
exception of the mining region of Catorce in the northern
part of San Luis Potosi.

The following is an approximate estimate of the present
production of silver : —

Amount coined annually at
Guanajuato Mint,
Zacatecas,
San Luis,
Guadalajara,
City of Mexico,
All the other less important mints,

Amount sent out of the country in bars
and otherwise uncoined, including a
large amount smuggled,

$4,500,000
4,500,000
3,000,000
3,000,000
5,000,000
8,000,000

$28,000,000

12,000.000

Total, $40,000,000

The average yield of ore throughout Mexico is about

408 SOUTH BY WEST.

$40 per ton. But of course much richer ores are to be
found. The mine of Sombrerete, north of Zacatecas, ten
years ago reduced $14,000,000 of ore in eleven months.
And Humboldt estimated that in 1803 Mexico was pro-
ducing "two-thirds of what was annually extracted from
the whole globe."

The reduction of ores is carried on in the most primitive
way ; and in some places old furnaces are at work, reducing
by fire, which have been going ever since the Spaniards first
landed.

The usual method of extracting the ore is by means of
old-fashioned stamps worked by mules. The following ac-
count of the reduction-works at Parral, by one of the engineer-
ing party in 1872, will give an idea of the present state of
things : — " After the ore is worked out of the vein, men
break it by hand to prepare it for the stamps in the smelt-
ing works, — a carga (350 lbs.) is broken for three reals
(Is. 6d.). The stamps are four in number, worked by mule-
power. Thence the ore goes into the arrastras, which is
worked by a little ten-horse-power engine. After it has been
thoroughly worked in the arrastras it is allowed to run out into
the patio, a paved yard. Here salt, quicksilver, and sulphur
are thrown in, and it is trampled by mules till it is supposed
to be ready. It is then washed, and the amalgam squeezed
in a bag to get out all the possible quicksilver. An
immense quantity of quicksilver is lost by this process, as
only one-sixth of what goes into the retort is pure silver."

In Guanajuato fifty-two mines are actually worked at
present, though the number of veins is not and cannot be
known. 996 stamps with four mules each are worked there,
and sixty mills with sixteen mules each. These, with a
reserve of 256 mules for stamps, mills, and patios, gives 5200
mules in the city of Guanajuato alone.

Iron, lead, tin, copper, antimony, alum, saltpetre, etc.,
are found in Mexico in large quantities. And in a few

MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES. 409

years she may rank with California or Spain for her cinnabar
(quicksilver in its natural state). Of this there are large
deposits in many places only waiting development, and of
late years the supply has been decreasing while the demand
has increased.

A jar of quicksilver (75 lbs.), worth in Mexico five years
ago $75, is now worth from $110 to $140.

Coal, too, is reported from various points in the country :
south-east of Zapotlau, in Jalisco ; south of Morelia, in
Michoacan ; between Puebla and Matamoras Azucar : and
in the State of Vera Cruz between Tuxpan and Tampico.
It has, however, never been actually worked : but each year
it becomes more important to the welfare of the country
that coal-mines should be opened, as charcoal, the only fuel,
is becoming more difficiilt to obtain. And were coal pro-
curable, it would be used for the reduction of silver by a
less wasteful process than the " arrastras," and for the work-
ing and pumping of the mines by steam instead of mule or
man-power.

Here then we find a country possessing enormous natural
wealth, a variety of climates, and consequently of products,
unsurpassed by any other in the world, — every advantage
in fact which nature can bestow on one tract of land. But
it is undeveloped. To what is this owing ?

The simple answer to this is of course from the inertia
of the people, and from the constant political disturbances.

This is partly true. But is it even now too late to
rouse the people from their inertia ; to suj)press the facility
for revolutions ?

To this there seems but one answer, given alike by
Mexicans and foreigners : —

These evils may yet be overcome by rapid means of
transportation — in other words, by railroads.

With a system of railroads the force of contact with
other nationalities would stimulate the Mexican to action.

410 SOUTH BY WEST.

The very products of tlie country would be doubled in value
by quick railroad transportation. The surplus of the home
consumption could be exported ; and to starving thousands
would be given a living by the further development of their
own country.

A pailful of water, moreover, at the right moment, might
have stopped the great fire of Chicago ; and in the same
way fifty men might crush out a revolution, if they could
be moved in a few hours to the spot where the first spark
imited.

Then again the intercliange of products between the
temperate and tropical zones of Mexico, now carried on
with immense disadvantages, owing to the topographical
difficulties of the country, would be promoted to an extent
undreamed of hitherto ; while all the improvements in
machinery for mines, agriculture, etc., would be brought
within reach of the most remote hacienda, the owner of
which cannot now afford to send his crops to market, owing
to the cost of transportation being as great as the return he
would get for his produce.

Mexico at present only possesses one railroad of any im-
portance— the Mexico and Vera Cruz railway, which was
completed from the Atlantic to the city of Mexico on the
1st of January 1873, after (owing to causes too numerous to
mention here) twenty-one years of construction.

But though this is the only railroad, it must not be
imagined that the Mexicans have been behind-hand in
trying to get other people to build railroads for them ; they
are fully alive to the fact that they cannot build them for
themselves ; and numbers of concessions have been granted
by the Mexican Congress. But hitherto, for one reason or
other, these have all fallen through.

During the last two years, however, the railroad question
in Mexico has revived with more than its old vigour ; and
it seems probable that ere long one of the many projected

MEXICO AND ITS RESOURCES. 411

companies may take solid shape, and give the country a
chance of regeneration in a thorough system of railroads.

The Mexican people are now wearied out by sixty years
of political intrigue and strife, in which the mass of the
people — say eight millions out of nine, have neither borne
nor wished to bear an active part, knowing that they are only
tools in the hands of better educated and more scheming
men. The cry which is now heard throughout the length
and breadth of the country is, " Give us peace and railroads.
By the first, we gain security for the development of our noble
country. By the latter we render that peace more secure, by
the increase of power which would be given to the existing
government ; and further, they would give us a ready market
for the increased production of our land."

There may be yet a bright future for IMexico, if her
rulers will but give her the chance to let her take once more
the place she has lost ; and make her motto like that of her
neighbour the United States, " Development of the earth's
riches."

PRINTED BY T. AND A.. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY,
AT THE EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS.

WORKS BY

REV. CHARLES KINGSLEY,

CANON OF WESTMINSTER.

Health and Edztcation.

Second Thousand, Crown 8vo, ^s. 6d.
II.

Town Geology.

Fourth Thousand, Crown 8vo, ^s.

III.

Madam How and. Lady Why ;

OR, FIRST LESSONS IN EARTH-LORE FOR
CHILDREN.

With numerous Illustrations .

Third Edition, Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt, extra, '•^s.

IV.

Selections from Writings.

With Portrait.
Second Thousand, Crown Svo, 6s.

W. ISBISTER & CO., 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON.

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