Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2
by Brantz Mayer · English · Gutenberg #49538 · 936,688 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol. 2 of 2
Author: Brantz Mayer
Release date: July 28, 2015 [eBook #49538]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49538
Credits: Produced by Julia Miller, Chuck Greif and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEXICO, AZTEC, SPANISH AND REPUBLICAN, VOL. 2 OF 2 ***
[Illustration]
MEXICO;
AZTEC, SPANISH AND REPUBLICAN:
A HISTORICAL, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL, STATISTICAL AND SOCIAL
ACCOUNT OF THAT COUNTRY FROM THE PERIOD OF THE INVASION
BY THE SPANIARDS TO THE PRESENT TIME;
WITH A VIEW OF THE
ANCIENT AZTEC EMPIRE AND CIVILIZATION;
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE LATE WAR;
AND NOTICES OF
NEW MEXICO AND CALIFORNIA.
BY
BRANTZ MAYER,
FORMERLY SECRETARY OF LEGATION TO MEXICO.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II.
HARTFORD:
S. DRAKE AND COMPANY.
MDCCCLIII.
ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by
SIDNEY DRAKE,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Connecticut.
C. A. ALVORD, PRINTER
29 Gold-st., N. Y.
CONTENTS.
BOOK IV.
CHAPTER I.--Absence of accuracy--Humboldt--Superficial extent
of Mexican Territory--Physical structure of Mexico--Volcanic
mountains--Climates--Tierras Templadas, Calientes,
Frias--Political divisions and boundaries of Mexico--Old Spanish
divisions--Provinces--Intendencies--States--Departments--North
boundary--Present States and Territories--Rivers of Mexico--Rivers and
Lakes of Mexico, 9
CHAPTER II.--Division of
population--Whites--Indians--Africans--Leperos--Rancheros--Characteristics,
Indifference, Procrastination--Females--Better
Classes--Their social habits--Entertainments--Leperos--Their
habits--Evangelistas--Thieving--The Ranchero--His character and
habits--The Indian race--Agriculturists--Traditionary habits adhered
to--Improvidence--Superstition--Drunkenness--Indian women--Servile
condition--Local adhesiveness--Peonage--Whipping--Planter-life--Its
solitude and results--Mülenpfordt's character of the Indians--Indian
tribes and races in Mexico--Table of castes in Mexico, 22
CHAPTER III.--Population--Census--Tables of population--Relative
division of races--Relative intellectual cultivation--Relative
population in hot and cold districts, 41
CHAPTER IV.--Agriculture--Dry and rainy seasons--Irrigation--Yield
of corn lands--Colonial restrictions--Colonial dependence--Bad
intercommunication--Arrieros--Corn lands--Different kinds
of corn in Mexico--Mode of cultivation--Production--various
uses of corn--Banana--Mainoc--Rice--The olive--Vine--Chile
pepper--tomato--Frijol--Maguey--Maguey estates--Making
Pulque--Aloes--Cacti, 48
CHAPTER V.--Estates in the valleys of Cuernavaca and
Cuautla--Mexican haciendas--Sugar regions--Coffee--Its
yield--Tobacco--Orizaba--Chiapas, etc.--Indigo--Cotton--Manufactures
encouraged in Mexico--No new agricultural
population--New manufacturing population--Production of
cotton--Vainilla--Jalap--Cacao--Cochineal--Its production and
quantity--Silk--Fruits--Agricultural prospects--Grazing, and not an
agricultural country, 62
CHAPTER VI.--Reflections on emigration--Advantages of America--Land
and labor--Mines wrought by Aztecs--Mining districts and extent
in Mexico--Errors as to early supply of metals from America--True
period of abundance--Mines not exhausted--Condition--Families
enriched--Effect of mining on Agriculture--Relative product of
silver for ten years--Table of product--Yield of the mines since the
Conquest--Coinage in 1844--Total coinage 1535 to 1850, 76
CHAPTER VII--Income of New Spain 1809--Expenses
of New Spain 1809--Mineral productions--Military
force--Agriculture--Manufactures--Commerce--Exports--Imports--Present
commerce--Imports--Exports--Nineteen years trade between the United
States and Mexico--Character of imports--Character of exports--Silver
exported--Fairs in Mexico--The future prospects and position of
Mexico--Not a commercial country--Railway from Vera Cruz to the city
of Mexico, 93
CHAPTER VIII.--Disorder of Mexican finances--Enormous usury--Character
of financial operations--Expenses of administrations--Analysis of
Mexican debt--Comparison of income and outlay--Deficit, 107
CHAPTER IX.--Table of cotton factories in
Mexico--Consumption--Production--Increase of factories--Day and night
work--Deficit of material--Water and steam power--Mexican manufactures
generally, 112
CHAPTER X.--The military in Mexico before and after the
revolution--Confirmation of army--Its political use--Character
of Mexican soldiers--Recruiting--Tactics--Officers--Dramatic
character of army--Recriminations--Condition of the army at the
peace--Army on the northern frontier--Military colonies--Character
of the tribes--Fortresses--Perote--Acapulco--San Juan de
Ulua--Re-organization of the army--Tabular view of men
and Materiel--Navy--Extent of coast on both seas--Naval
establishment--Vessels and officers--Expenses of war and navy, 116
CHAPTER XI--Relations between the Mexican church and the
Pope--Clergy--Monks--Nuns--Monasteries--Convents--Wealth of the
church--Ratio of clergy and people--High and low clergy--their
history--vices--Monks--Rural clergy--Their character--Conduct
of clergy, public and private--Missions in California--Mode of
conversion--Monks in Mexico--Zavala's strictures--Pazo's strictures
on South American clergy--Church in the United States and in
Mexico--Constitutional protection of Catholicism--Duty of the
church--Bulls--Paper money, 130
CHAPTER XII.--Various changes of the Mexican
constitution--Present organization of the national and
state governments--Constitution of 1847--Legislative and
judiciary--National and state--Judiciary--Administration of
justice--Civil and criminal process--Mal-administration of
justice--Prisons--Crime--Accordada--Condition of prisons--Statistics
of crime in the capital--Garrotte--Mexican opinions, 144
CHAPTER XIII.--What Mexico has done--Review
of her conduct and character--Mexican
opinions--Classes--Indians--Mestizos--Whites--Army--Church--Divisions
of whites--want of Homogeneousness--Want of nationality and of
a people--Remedies--Emigration--Religious liberty--political
order--Labor, 155
BOOK V.
CHAPTER I.--Division of Mexico into States--Eastern, western,
interior--Yucatan--Boundaries, departments, population, districts,
towns, parishes, productions, principal towns, islands,
harbors--Chiapas--Boundaries, products, departments, towns, rivers,
population--Remains in Yucatan and Chiapas--Discoveries of Stephens,
Catherwood, Norman, etc.--Palenque--Uxmal--Yucatan calendar--Yucatan,
Chiapan, Mechoacan, Nicaragua and Mexican months--Yucatese and
Chiapan cycle--Yucatese and Mexican solar year--Differences--Yucatese
months--Tabasco--Boundaries, rivers, lagune, inhabitants, productions,
towns and villages, 165
CHAPTER II.--Boundaries of Vera Cruz--Rivers, lagunes, mineral
springs, population, political divisions, productions, cattle,
cities, towns--Vera Cruz--Its diseases--Meteorological
observations at--Water fallen at Vera Cruz--Orizaba--Ascent
of the mountain--Magnificent views--Difficulties--The crater
extinct--Elevation of the mountain--Descent--Antiquities
in the state of Vera Cruz--Ruins at Panuco, Chacuaco, San
Nicolas, La Trinidad--Small figures--Papantla--Description
of the pyramid--Ruins at Mapilca--Pyramid and temple at
Tusapan--Isle of Sacrificios--Misantla--Remains near
Puente Nacional--Tamaulipas--Boundaries, rivers, lagunes,
climate, population, productions, towns--Antiquities of
Tamaulipas--Topila--Rancho de las piedras--Sculpture--Remains, etc.,
etc. 183
CHAPTER III.--Oajaca--Extent, Boundaries, Geology, Valley, Indians,
Departments, Population, Mines, Ports, Productions, Cattle,
Towns, Ancient remains--Mitla--The palace--Tombs--Antiquarian
speculations--connection of Mexican remains--Quiotepec, or Cerro de
las Juntas, 210
CHAPTER IV.--Puebla--Divisions, productions,
factories--River--Streams--Puebla de los
Angeles--Cathedral--Towns--Mines--Quarries--Mountains--Popocatepetl
--Atlixco--Olivares--Ascent of the mountain--The crater--Elevation--Pyramid
of Cholula--Visit to the pyramid--Correct dimensions--Territory of
Tlascala--History--Position--Size--Productions--Towns, 220
CHAPTER V.--State of Mexico--Area, Divisions,
Population, Federal district, Valley, Highways,
Lakes--Zumpango--Cristovol--Chalco--Xochimilco--Tezcoco--Salt-works
--Cities--San Augustin--Festival--Tezcoco, Tacuba, Toluca--Cascade
of Regla--Towns--Valley of Cuernavaca--Acapantzingo--Its Indian
isolation--Mines in the state, 233
CHAPTER VI.--Description of the city of Mexico--Cathedral--Its
architecture and riches--The Palace, University, Market,
Chamber of Deputies, etc.--Portales--Mineria--La Merced--San
Domingo--Characters and costumes--Paseos--Alameda--Aqueducts--Passeo
Nuevo and de la Viga--Alameda--Description of it--Life in
Mexico--Theatres--Opera--Domestic life--Genuine but cautious
hospitality--Legend of the virgin of Guadalupe, 244
CHAPTER VII.--Antiquities in the museum--Statue of Charles
IV.--Condition of the museum--Feathered serpents--Viceroy's
portraits--Cortéz--Portrait--Armor--Pedro de
Alvarado--Images--Vases--Tezcoco--Palace--Trough--Massive
mounds--Tescocingo--Hill--Its ancient adornments--Ancient
bellevue and reservoir--Tezcocan splendor--Bosque del
Contador--Ponds--Lakes--Arbors--Pyramids of Teotihuacan--Houses of sun
and moon--Path of the dead--Carved pillar--Pillar at Otumba--Pyramid
of Xochicalco--Hill of Xochicalco--Its structures, 266
CHAPTER VIII.--State of Mechoacan--Boundaries--Elevations--Volcano of
Jorullo--Theories of Humboldt and Lyell--Present condition--Rivers of
Mechoacan--Climate, Health, Indians, Departments, Agriculture, Towns,
Mines--Jalisco--Boundaries, Population, Rivers, Lakes, Divisions,
Manufactures, Agriculture, Factories--Guadalajara--Towns--San Juan
de los Lagos--Tepic--San Blas--Mines, Islands, Mining region,
Indians, Character and Habits, Church and School, Education,
Bishopric--Territory of Colima--Extent, Climate, Productions,
Towns, 286
CHAPTER IX.--Sinaloa--Boundaries, Climate, Divisions, Indians,
Products, Towns, Mines--Sonora--Boundaries, Divisions, Rivers,
Climate, Indians, Trade, Towns, Mines--Territory of Lower
California--Boundaries, Character, Population, Products, Pearls, Salt,
Mines, Seals, Whales, Climate, Ports, towns, Population--State of
Guerrero, 298
CHAPTER X.--State of Querétaro--Boundaries, Divisions,
Characteristics, Rivers, Population and climate, Districts,
etc., Agricultural products, Forests, Factories, Cities,
Mines--State of Guanajuato--Boundaries, Extent, Soil--Lake
Yurirapundaro--Climate, Effect of maladies--Productions, Vine,
Olive--Divisions--Population--City of Guanajuato--Towns in
the state--Hacienda of Jaral--Mines--Silver, Copper, Lead,
Cinnabar--Zacatécas--Boundaries, Extent, Agriculture, Divisions,
Population, Towns--Zacatécas--Aguas Calientes, etc.--Product and value
of Zacatécan mines--Ruins of Quemada in Zacatécas, 306
CHAPTER XI.--State of San Luis Potosi--Boundaries,
Lakes, Rivers, Climate, Departments, Products--San
Luis--Towns--Mining region--New Leon--Boundaries, Character,
Rivers, Climate, Departments--Agriculture--Grazing,
etc.--Monterey--Coahuila--Boundary, Position, Climate, Productions,
Towns--State of Durango--Boundary, Character, Divisions, Streams,
Productions--City of Durango--Towns, Mines, Iron, Silver--Indian
necrology--Cave burial, 324
CHAPTER XII.--State of Chihuahua--Position, Boundaries,
Extent, Characteristics, Rivers, Lakes, Indians, Divisions,
Climate, Productions--Cattle estates--Mint--Mines--Principal
towns--Chihuahua--El Paso del Norte--Military importance--El
Paso wine, etc.--Antiquities--Indian ravages--The
Bolson de Mapimi--Mexican modes of travelling and
transportation--Litera--Mules--Arrieros--Conducta--Coaches--Freight
wagons--Mexican habit of Home-staying--want of exploration--Modern
advancement, 334
APPENDIX NO. 1--Profile of the Plateau--Mexico to Santa Fé--Santa Fé
to the Gulf, 346
APPENDIX NO. 2--Mexican Coins, Weights and Measures, 347
BOOK VI.
TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO.--Exploration of the far
west--Long, Nicollet, Frémont--Santa Fé trade--First
adventurers--Caravans--New Mexico erected by Congress into a
territory--Geological structure of New Mexico--The Rio Grande--Its
value--Soil--Products--Irrigation--Cattle--Indians--Mines--Gold--Silver
--Copper--Iron--Gypsum--Salt--Climate--Pueblo Indians--Wild Indians
enumerated--Number of Pueblo Indians--Census--Proximate present
population--Character of people and government--Santa Fé--Alburquerque
--Valley of Toas--Statistics of Santa Fé trade, etc.--Itinerary from
Fort Leavenworth to Santa Fé and El Paso, 351
STATE OF CALIFORNIA.--Title to the region--Missionary settlement,
its purposes--Character of California--Secularization
of missions--Population in missions--Agricultural
statistics--Cattle--Hides--Tallow--Herdsmen--Trade--The
war--Condition of California at its close--Progress of
settlement and law--Constitution adopted--Admission as a
state--Former boundaries--The great Basin--Utah--Great
Salt Lake--Pyramid lake--Rivers--Present state
boundaries--Area--Geography--Sacramento--San Joaquin--Shastl
peak, 367
STATE OF CALIFORNIA CONTINUED.--Configuration of the state--Bay
of San Francisco and city--Rivers of California--Character of
soil, etc.--Relative sterility and productiveness--Climate--Dry
and wet seasons--Causes of change--Climate in San Francisco,
coast range valleys and interior valley--Area of arable and
grazing land--Productions--Discovery of gold--Its position--The
placeres--Washing--Digging--The Mines--Calculations as to the yield
of the mines--Gold yielded by California--Its quality--Quicksilver
mines--Commerce--Population--Growth of cities--Old
presidios--Towns--Land titles--Mission lands--Conclusion, 378
APPENDIX.--Meteorological Observations in California, 398
BOOK IV.
GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF MEXICO--POLITICAL
DIVISIONS--POPULATION; PRODUCTIONS--MINES--AGRICULTURE;
MANUFACTURES--COMMERCE--FINANCES--ARMY; NAVY--CHURCH--CONSTITUTION AND
LAWS; NATIONAL CONDITION.
CHAPTER I.
GEOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL STRUCTURE OF MEXICO--EXTENT.
ABSENCE OF ACCURACY--HUMBOLDT.--SUPERFICIAL EXTENT OF MEXICAN
TERRITORY.--PHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF MEXICO--VOLCANIC
MOUNTAINS--CLIMATES--TIERRAS TEMPLADAS, CALIENTES,
FRIAS.--POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF MEXICO.--OLD SPANISH
DIVISIONS--PROVINCES--INTENDENCIES--STATES--DEPARTMENTS.--NORTH
BOUNDARY--PRESENT STATES AND TERRITORIES.--RIVERS OF
MEXICO.--RIVERS AND LAKES OF MEXICO.
It is unfortunate that, notwithstanding the rich mineralogical and
agricultural character of Mexico, no thoroughly accurate survey or
geological examination has ever been made of the whole country. There is
no complete map of the territory which may be confidently relied on. The
enterprise of developing Mexico, since the foundation of the colonial
government by Spain has been almost entirely abandoned to private
enterprise, and, consequently the valuable information, collected by
individuals, either perished in their hands after it had been used for
their own benefit, or, if imparted to the government, has never been
united and collated with other accounts and reconnoissances which were
in the hands of national authorities. A great deal was done by Baron
Alexander Humboldt, during his visit to New Spain early in this century,
towards gathering the geographical, geological and statistical
information which was then in existence, though scattered, far and wide,
over the viceroyalty, in a thousand different hands. His voluminous work
is an enduring monument to his industry and talent; but there is
necessarily a great deal of it that was altogether transitory in its
character both on account of the political and social revolution which
has since occurred, and in consequence of the opening, by the republic,
of Mexican ports to the commerce of the world.
Nevertheless, at the period of Humboldt's visit, the main bold
geographical and geological features of Mexico were sufficiently well
known for practical purposes, and as his descriptions have, in most
cases, stood the test of criticism during near half a century, we may
still safely appeal to him, and to his industrious countryman,
Muhlenpfordt,[1] as the most reliable authorities upon these topics.
* * * * *
According to Humboldt, Mexico presented a surface of one hundred and
eighteen thousand four hundred and seventy-eight square _leagues_, of
twenty-five to the degree, yet this calculation did not include the
space between the northern extremity of New Mexico and Sonora, and the
American boundary of 1819. Thirty-six thousand five hundred square
leagues, comprising the States of Zacatecas, Guadalajara, Guanajuato,
Michoacan, Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Oajaca, Tabasco, Yucatan, Chiapas,
were within the torrid zone; while New Mexico, Durango, New and Old
California, Sonora and a great part of the old Intendancy of San Luis
Potosi, containing in all eighty-six thousand square leagues, were under
the temperate zone.[2]
A more recent, and, generally, an accurate writer,[3] has estimated the
boundaries of Mexico, prior to the treaty of 1848, at Guadalupe, between
the United States and Mexico, to have embraced an area of one million
six hundred and fifty thousand square miles, including Texas. By the
treaty just mentioned we acquired an undisputed title to Texas, and a
territorial cession of New Mexico and Upper California.
Texas is estimated to contain, 325,520 square miles.
New Mexico " " 77,387 " "
Upper California " 448,691 " "
--------
851,598 " "[4]
If we, therefore, deduct from the preceding estimate of one million six
hundred and fifty thousand square miles, the sum of eight hundred and
fifty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-eight square miles, we shall
have, as the best approximate calculation, that we can now make, seven
hundred and ninety-eight thousand four hundred and two square miles, for
the total superficial extent of the Republic of Mexico, as at present
bounded since the ratification of our recent international treaty. By
that negotiation it consequently appears that we have obtained one half
the former territory of Mexico and twenty-six thousand five hundred and
ninety-eight square miles besides.
The geological structure or physiognomy of Mexico is peculiar. The great
Cordillera of the Andes, which traverses the whole of South America,
from its southernmost limit, is exceedingly depressed at the Isthmus of
Panama, where its gentle swells serve merely to form a barrier between
the union of the Pacific and Atlantic. But, as soon as this massive
chain enters the broader portion of North America, it divides into two
gigantic _arms_, to the east and west along the shores of the Gulf and
of the Pacific, which support between them a continuous lofty platform,
or series of table lands, crossed, broken, and intersected by
innumerable and abrupt _sierras_, some of which rise to the height of
seventeen thousand feet above the level of the sea. This geological
structure prevails throughout the whole of Mexico, as now bounded; for,
at the Rio Grande, the southern limit of Texas, the land sinks to
comparative levels, and affords channels for the numerous and important
streams with which, Louisiana, Florida and Texas are abundantly
irrigated. Whilst this is the case on the _northern_ and _eastern_
confines of Mexico, the _western_ portion is still traversed by the main
body of the gigantic Cordillera, which, penetrating California with its
icy peaks of the Sierra Nevada, passes onward to the north until its
rocky walls are lost, beyond Oregon, in the wilderness that bounds the
Frozen Sea.[5]
The reader who pictures to himself such a country will easily understand
that all temperatures are gained in Mexico on the same parallel of
latitude,--or that eternal heat and eternal frost are encountered in
crossing the country in a straight line from Vera Cruz to the Pacific
coast. It is a country hanging on the two slopes of a mountain, one of
which descends to the Gulf and the other to the Western Ocean; and the
traveller, in penetrating it, even by the road usually traversed by
public conveyances, must attain a height of ten thousand six hundred and
sixty feet, before he begins to descend into the valley of Mexico, which
is, still, seven thousand five hundred and forty-eight feet above the
level of the sea! Thus it is, that throughout the table lands, the
geographical position, as far as latitude is concerned, is entirely
neutralized by the extreme rarefaction of the atmosphere obtained by
ascending through loftier regions. Humboldt graphically declares that
climates succeed each other in _strata_ or _layers_, as we pass from
Vera Cruz to the capital, or from the capital, descend to Acapulco or
San Blas on the west coast,--beholding in our varied journey, the whole
scale of vegetable life. The wild abundance of vegetation on the shore
of the Gulf,--its beautiful palms whose stems are wreathed by a myriad
of impenetrable parasites which grow with such rank luxuriance in the
hot and humid air of the tropics,--are exchanged, as we begin to rise
from the level of the sea, for hardier forest trees. At Jalapa the air
is milder, though the vapors from the Gulf which concentrate and
condense at about this height on the sides of the mountains, sustain the
perpetual freshness of the verdure. Further on, the oak and the orange
give place to the fir and pine. Here the rarefied air becomes pure, thin
and perfectly transparent; but as it necessarily lacks moisture, which
condenses below this region, the vegetation is neither so luxuriant nor
so constantly vigorous. Great plains or basins, spread out in silent and
melancholy vistas before the traveller,--many of them, cold, bleak and
lonely moors, whose dreary levels sadden the heart of the spectator. The
sun which comes down through the cloudless medium of an atmosphere
unscreened by the usual curtain of vapor, parches and crisps the thirsty
soil, whilst the winds that sweep uninterruptedly over the unbroken
expanse, fill the air, during the dry season, with sand and dust. These
high barren plains occupy a large portion of the centre of the country
between Zacatecas, Durango and Saltillo; and such is in fact the
character of large portions of the whole of Mexico, except when the
comparatively level nature of the soil permits the small rivulets that
filter from the Cordillera through the narrow vallies, to form
themselves into rivers which may be used for irrigation. Wherever this
is the case nature at once recovers her vigor under the influence of
heat and moisture.
These physical features, and consequent diversities of temperature, have
caused the division of Mexico, as it rises from the two Oceans, into
three regions, or superficial strata, which are called, the _tierras
calientes_, or _hot lands_; the _tierras templadas_, or _temperate
lands_; and the _tierras frias_ or _cold lands_. The _tierra caliente_
covers chiefly that portion of the territory which lies on the borders
of the Atlantic and Pacific; yet it is not confined exclusively to the
coast, inasmuch as all those parts of Mexico in which there is heat and
moisture enough to produce the fruits and maladies of the tropics, are
classed under this head. The _tierra fria_ comprises the mountainous
districts rising above the level of the capital up to the limit of
constant snow; while the _tierra templada_ embraces those milder middle
regions not comprehended in the two other sections. Classing them by
elevation _in feet_, we may suppose that the _tierras calientes_ extend
to between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above the level of the sea; the _tierras
templadas_ to between 4 and 8,000 feet; and that the _tierras frias_
embrace all the remaining portions up to the region of eternal ice.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES OF MEXICO.
It is, perhaps, more of historical or antiquarian interest, than of
actual present value, to recur to the ancient divisions of the
viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, there are readers who are
naturally anxious to trace the territorial aggrandizement as well as the
recent curtailment of Mexico, and we have, therefore, thought it proper
to present a picture of the limits and apportionment of the country at
several periods.
The territorial limits of that region generally called NEW SPAIN, were
comprised between the degrees of 15° 58´ and 42° of north latitude; and
between 89° 4´ and 126° 48´ 45´´ west longitude from Paris,--calculating
from the easternmost point of Cape Catoché, in Yucatan, to the extreme
western limit of the land at Cape Mendocino, in California. The Gulf of
Mexico and the Carribean Sea bounded this country on the east and
south-east; the Pacific Ocean on the west; Guatemala on the south; and
the United States, on the north. There was a multitude of islands
comprehended under this territorial dominion. On the east coast of
Yucatan were the isles of Holvas, Comboy, Mugeres, Cancun, Cozumel and
Ubero;--in the Gulf of Mexico, the island of Bermejos and several
smaller ones;--in the Pacific, the isles of Revilla-gigedo, of Maria,
Cedros, San Clemente, Santa Catalina, San Nicolas, Santa Barbara, Santa
Cruz, San Bernardo, San Miguel;--and in the Gulf of California, or
Cortéz, the isles of Cerralvo, Espiritu Santo, San José, Santa Cruz,
Carmen, Tortugas, Tiburon, Santa Iñez, and numerous insignificant islets
or keys.
* * * * *
The limit between the United States and New Spain was defined by a
treaty negotiated between the Chevalier de Onis, then Spanish minister
at Washington, and John Quincy Adams, American Secretary of State, after
long and learned historical as well as legal discussions of territorial
rights and limits, which the student will find, at large, in the second
and fourth volumes of "American State Papers," published by the
government of the United States. This treaty was signed on the 22d of
February, 1819, and, according to its third article, the boundary
between Mexico and Louisiana, which was then ceded to the Union,
commenced with the river Sabine at its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico,
at about latitude 29°, west longitude 94°, and followed its course as
far as its juncture with the Red river of Natchitoches, which then
served to mark the frontier up to the 100th degree of west longitude,
whence the line ran directly north to the river Arkansas, which it
followed to its source at the 42d° of north latitude,--whence another
straight line was drawn upon the said 42d parallel, to the coast of the
Pacific Ocean.
This line, it was supposed, would interpose a perpetual barrier of
wilderness, tenanted only by Indians and wild animals, between the
republic of the north and the treasured colonies of the Spanish crown.
But subsequent events have shown in the course of little more than the
quarter of a century, how rapidly the population of the old world and
the new has swelled beyond the limits prescribed by statesmen, until the
savage and the beast have been made to yield their hunting grounds and
forests for the use of civilized man.
* * * * *
At the earliest period of which we have any authentic information, this
territory of Spain was divided into the kingdoms of Mexico, New Galicia,
and New Leon; the colony of New Santander; and the provinces of
Coahuila, Texas, New Biscay, Sonora, New Mexico and the two Californias.
This arrangement was extremely indefinite; but, in 1776, the country was
divided into twelve intendancies: Merida, Oajaca, Vera Cruz, Puebla,
Mexico, Valladolid, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi,
New Biscay, and Sonora; and the three provinces of New Mexico, and Alta
and Nueva California. The intendancy of San Luis Potosi, included New
Leon, New Santander, Coahuila and Texas, and San Luis Potosi,
proper;--the intendancy of New Biscay embraced the provinces of Durango
and Chihuahua; and the intendancy of Sonora took in the provinces of
Sinaloa, Ostimuri, and Sonora. Each intendancy was subdivided into
_subdelegaciones_. Another division cut off New Spain, proper, from the
_Provincias Internas_. These last named provinces included all the
territory lying north and northwesterly of the intendancies of Zacatecas
and Guadalajara, or the kingdom of Nueva Gallicia. The "_Provincias
Internas del Vireynato_," must be distinguished from the "_Provincias
Internas de la Commandancia de Chihuahua_," which, in 1779, were
comprised in a General-Captaincy. The two intendancies New Biscay and
Sonora, then part of San Luis Potosi, belonged to the provinces of
Coahuila and Texas. The interior provinces of the viceroyalty were the
intendancy of San Luis Potosi, including the provinces of New Leon and
New Santander. The _actual_ kingdom of New Spain was composed of the
intendancies of Mexico, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Guadalajara, Valladolid,
Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Oajaca, Merida, and San Luis, proper, and the two
Californias. In the year 1807, the "_Provincias Internas_" were divided
into _western_ and _eastern_, and two general commandancies created.
1st. The _Provincias Internas Occidentales_, or _Western_, were the
intendancies of Sonora, Durango, with Chihuahua (new Biscay); the
province of New Mexico, and the two Californias.
2d. The _Provincias Internas Orientales_, or _Eastern_, were, Coahuila,
Texas, New Santander and New Leon.
* * * * *
Such were the main territorial divisions of New Spain during the
concluding years of the Spanish government,--whilst the revolution was
in progress,--and until the nineteen provinces of the empire of Iturbide
were erected by the federal constitution of 1824 into the nineteen
States of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Texas, Durango, Guanajuato,
Mexico, Michoacan (Valladolid), New Leon, Oajaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San
Luis Potosi, Sonora and Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Jalisco
(_Guadalajara_,) Yucatan, and Zacatecas,--and the TERRITORIES of Old and
New California, Colima, New Mexico, and Tlascala. In 1830 the State of
Sinaloa and Sonora, separated into its natural divisions, since which
each has been a distinct, independent State. In 1836, the revolution
which destroyed this federal constitution, changed these STATES into
DEPARTMENTS; by which name they were recognized until the month of May,
1847, when the old federal constitution of 1824, with some amendments,
was reenacted, and the departments once more converted into states;
whilst provision was made for the creation of the new _state of
Guerrero_, to be composed of the districts of Acapulco, Chilapa, Tasco
and Talpa, and the municipality of Coyucan--the three first of which
pertain to the state of Mexico, the fourth to Puebla, and the fifth to
Michoacan,--provided these three states gave their consent within three
months from the 21st of May, 1847, at which period the act reforming the
constitution of 1824 was passed.
The war between Mexico and the United States was happily terminated by
the treaty negotiated at the town of Guadalupe, by Mr. Trist, on the 2d
of February, 1848; and, by this compact, the limit between our
respective territories was greatly changed from that which had been
fixed by the treaty with Spain in 1819. According to the convention of
Mr. Trist, the boundary between the republics commences in the Gulf of
Mexico, three leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande,
otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its
deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly
into the sea; from thence it passes up the middle of that river,
following the deepest channel, when it has more than one, to the point
where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico, thence, westerly,
along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico, which runs north of the
town of El Paso, to its western termination;--thence northward, along
the western line of New Mexico, until it intersects the first branch of
the river Gila, or, if it does not intersect any branch of that river,
then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and then in a
direct line to the same;--thence down the middle of the said branch and
of said river, until it empties into the Rio Colorado;--thence across
the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower
California, to the Pacific Ocean.
It will be perceived by inspecting the map that this new boundary cuts
off a large portion of northern Mexico, and gives us the valuable
territories of New Mexico and Upper California, together with an
undisputed right to the enjoyment of Texas, which had previously been
united to the North American confederacy by international contract,
after the independence of Texas had been recognized by foreign nations
and maintained by its own people.
The states of the Mexican Republic and its territories are,
consequently, under the existing constitution, the following:
STATES.
1. Coahuila.
2. Tamaulipas.
3. Vera Cruz.
4. Tabasco.
5. Yucatan.
6. Chiapas.
7. Oajaca.
8. Puebla.
9. Mexico, with the Federal District.
10. Michoacan.
11. Jalisco.
12. Sonora.
13. Sinaloa.
14. Chihuahua.
15. Durango.
16. New Leon.
17. Zacatecas.
18. San Luis Potosi.
19. Guanajuato.
20. Queretaro.
21. Guerrero.
TERRITORIES.
1. Lower California.
2. Colima.
3. Tlascala.
RIVERS AND LAKES OF MEXICO.
I. ON THE EASTERN COASTS.
1st. The RIO GRANDE DEL NORTE, or RIO BRAVO, which is the largest of all
Mexican streams, and rises, in about 40-1/2° north latitude, and 100°
west longitude, from Paris, in the lofty sierras which are a
continuation of the gigantic chain that forms the spine of our
continent. It pursues a southeasterly direction towards the Gulf of
Mexico, and traverses a distance of nearly eighteen hundred miles.
2d. The RIO DEL TIGRE, rises in the state of Coahuila, and passes, in a
southward and easterly direction, through the states of New Leon and
Tamaulipas, and finally, after traversing about three hundred miles,
debouches in the Gulf of Mexico.
3d. The RIO DE BORBON, or RIO BLANCO. The sources of this stream are in
New Leon, whence it runs towards the east, and, crossing the state of
Tamaulipas, falls in the LAGUNA MADRE.
4th. The RIO DE SANTANDER, rises in the state of Zacatecas, crosses the
state of San Luis Potosi, passes by Tamaulipas, winds to the north, and
falls, near the bar of Santander, into the Gulf.
5th. The RIO DE TAMPICO, is formed by the union of the rivers PANUCO and
TULA. The upper source of the PANUCO is in the neighborhood of the city
of San Luis Potosi, the capital of the state of that name. Near half a
league north north-east of this city, in the valley de la Pila, rises a
spring which is protected by a basin of fine masonry, and conveyed by an
aqueduct to town. Several other streams, coming from the south-west,
unite with this source and form the PANUCO. West of the first of these
streams, swells up the mountainous ridge which divides the waters of
Mexico between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The Panuco courses
eastwardly,--and, passing rapidly through the LAGUNA CHAIRÉL, unites
with the TULA. This latter stream mingles the waters of the rivulets
Tepexi, Tequisquiac, and Tlantla, in the northern part of the state of
Mexico; and receiving, by the canal of Huehuetoca, the water of the Rio
Quautitlan, it winds onward through the valley of Tula, and near the
limits of the states of Queretaro and Vera Cruz, until it joins the
Panuco. These united rivers receive in the state of Tamaulipas, the name
of the RIO DE TAMPICO, which debouches, finally, in the Gulf of Mexico.
6th. The RIO BLANCO rises in the state of Vera Cruz, near Aculzingo, at
the foot of Citlaltepetl, or the mountain of Orizaba. It courses onward
through a varying and rough channel among the mountains and plains,
until it is lost in the lagunes near Alvarado.
7th. The RIO DE SAN JUAN. The sources of this river lie partly in the
metallic mountains of Ixtlan, in the state of Oajaca, and partly in the
neighborhood of Tehuacan de las Granadas. Many large, but wild streams,
spring up in these mountain regions, and form the broad but shallow RIO
GRANDE DE QUIOTEPEC. This river, after winding through the valley of
Cuicatlan, receives, from the south, the large stream of LAS VUELTAS;
and all these unite to form the RIO DE SAN JUAN, which pursues its
eastern course until it approaches the coast near Alvarado, when it
divides into two arms. One of these, named TECOMATE, joining the
COSOMALOAPAN and PASO, form the large lagunes of TEQUIAPA and
EMBARCADÉRO,--whilst the other arm, by a different course, also
debouches in the same lagunes.
8th. The RIO DE GUASACUALCO, rises at about 16° 58´ of north latitude,
and 96° 19´ west longitude, from Paris, in the mountains of Tarifa, and
pours onward towards the east, receiving accessions from a great number
of small mountain streams and rivulets, until it falls into the Gulf of
Mexico.
9th. The RIO DE TABASCO, or RIO DE GRIJALVA, or RIO GUICHULA, rises in
the mountains of Cuchumatlanes towards the centre of Guatemala, and
falls into the gulf at the port of Tabasco.
10th. The RIO DE USUMASINTA, rises also in Guatemala, and debouches in
the LAGUNA DE TERMINOS.
II. SMALL EASTERN COAST STREAMS.
RIO GARCES.
RIO DE TUSPAN.
RIO DE CAZONES.
RIO DE TENISTEPEC.
RIO DE JAJALPAM, or TECOLUTLA.
RIO DE NAUTLA.
RIO DE TLAPACOYAN.
RIO DE PALMAR.
RIO DE MIZANTLA.
RIO DE MAGUILMANAPA.
RIO DE YEGUASCALCO.
RIO DE ACTOPAN.
RIO DE CHUCHALACA.
RIO DE SAN ANGEL.
RIO DE SAN CARLOS.
RIO ANTIGUA.
RIO DE JAMAPA, or MEDELLIN
RIO AQUIVILCO.
RIO DE TONALA.
RIO DE SANTA ANNA.
RIO DE CAPILCO.
RIO DE DOS BOCAS.
RIO DE CHILTEPEC.
RIO DE SABOJA.
RIO DE CHAMPOTON.
RIO DE CHEN.
RIO DE ESCATALLO.
RIO DE SAN FRANCISCO.
RIO DE SILAN.
RIO CEDROS.
RIO CONIL.
RIO BOLINO.
RIO NUEVO.
RIO BACALAR.
RIO DE LA ASCENSION.
RIO SAN JOSÉ.
RIO HONDO.
Many of these streams are, in fact, not entitled to the name of rivers,
though a few of them are important, whilst all are valuable to some
extent for agriculture, transportation, irrigation, or occasional water
power.
III. RIVERS ON THE WEST AND SOUTH COAST OF MEXICO.
1st. RIO DE CHIMALAPA, sometimes called also, RIO DE CHICAPA, rises in
the forests and mountains of Tarifa in about 16° 43´ north, 96° 33´ west
from Paris, and debouches in the Pacific, after passing the village of
Tehuantepec. The rivers OBSTULA, NILTEPEC or ESTEPEC,--DE LOS PERROS or
JUCHUITAN, ARENAS, LAGARTERO, OTATES, are small coast streams falling
into the lagunes that border the ocean.
2d. The RIO DE TEHUANTEPEC is formed by the union of two streams, one of
which rises about fifty leagues west north-west of Tehuantepec, near the
village of San Dionisio, whilst the other springs from the mountains of
Lyapi and Quiégolani, in the lands of the Chontales. The two unite seven
leagues north-west of Tehuantepec; and, passing by the village of that
name, this river finally pours into the Pacific, near the small port of
Las Ventosas.
3d. The RIO VERDE rises in the Upper Misteca, eight leagues north of
Oajaca, and falls west of the Cerro de la Plata and of the Lagunas of
Chacahua, into the Pacific. On the coast of Oajaca there are many
smaller streams and rivulets, such as the CHACALAPA, the MANIALTEPEC,
the COLOTEPEC, the SANTA HELENA, the CAPUTITA, the COMUN, the AYUTLA,
the CHICOMETEPEC and the TECOYAMA,--the last of which is the boundary
between the states of Oajaca and Puebla.
4th. The RIO DE TLASCALA, or RIO DE PAPAGALLO, has its source in the
vicinity of the town of Tlascala, in the mountain Atlancatepetl; passes
through the state of Puebla, receives the RIO MEZCALA, out of the state
of Mexico, and enters the Pacific south of the village of Ayulta.
5th. The RIO DE ZACATULA, or RIO BALSAS, originates in the valley of
Istla, in the state of Mexico, and after winding west south-westerly, it
receives the RIOS ZITACUARO, de CHURUMUCO, and del MARQUEZ out of the
state of Michoacan, and passes into the Pacific.
6th. RIO DE AZTALA rises two leagues south-west of the village of
Coalcoman, receives the AGAMILCO, MARUATO and CHICHUCUA, and flows into
the sea between Cachan and Chocóla.
7th. RIO DE TOLOTLAN, RIO GRANDE DE SANTIAGO. This is one of the longest
and most important of Mexican rivers, formed by the junction of the LAXA
and LERMA, near Salamanca, in the state of Guanajuato, and falls into
the Pacific near San Blas after a course of about two hundred leagues.
The Rio Bayóna or Cañas is an important stream on the coast near the
boundary between Jalisco and Sinaloa.
8th. The RIO DE CULIACAN rises in the north of the state of Durango,
where it is called RIO SANZEDA, thence it takes its course towards the
north-west, receiving some smaller streams, and then passing by the town
of Culiacan, falls into the Gulf of California. The RIO DE ROSARIO, RIO
DE MAZATLAN, debouche in the same gulf. The rivers PIASTLA, ELOTA,
TAVALA, EMAYA, MOCORITO, SINALOA or OCRONI, AHOME, are small streams on
the coast of Sinaloa.
9th. The RIO DEL FUERTE has its source in the metalliferous mountains of
Batopilas and Uruachi, in the state of Chihuahua, where it is known as
the river BATOPILAS. It takes a westerly course across the state of
Sinaloa about 27° north;--it receives a number of other streams, on the
western slope of a range of the Cordilleras, and finally flows into the
California Gulf.
10th. The RIO MAYO is the boundary stream between the states of Sinaloa
and Sonora; at its mouth in the Gulf of California is the small port of
Santa Cruz de Mayo, or Guitivis.
11th. The RIO HIAQUI, or YAQUI, rises on the west slope of the Sierra
Madre, near the village Matatiche in the state of Chihuahua, whence its
course is west south-west, across the state of Sonora; it receives the
RIO GRANDE DE BAVISPE which rises in the state of Chihuahua, and also
the RIOS OPOSURA and CHICO, and, finally, is lost in the Gulf of
California, at about 27° 37´ north latitude.
12th. RIO DE GUAYAMAS. This river rises at San José de Pimas, in
latitude 28° 26´ north, its course is west south-west, and its mouth in
the Californian Gulf, at the fine and favorite harbor of San-Jose de
Guayamas in latitude 27° 40´.
13th. The RIO DE LA ASCENSION rises at about 31° 40´ north and 112° 37´
west longitude. On its south-westerly course it receives the tributary
waters of the RIO DE SAN IGNACIO and falls at about 30° 20´ north into
the Gulf of California.
14th. RIO DE COLORADO. This important stream is formed of the river
RAFAEL in about 40° 15´ north, and 110° 50´ west longitude from Paris,
on the western declivity of the Sierra de las Grullas, whence it takes
a south-west course and receives, at the foot of the Monte de Sal Gemme,
the RIO DE NUESTRA SEÑORA DE DOLORES, which springs about 1° 30´ west of
the RAFAEL, in the Cerro de la Plata; and, thus, receiving the
accretions of a number of other streams, it courses onward until it is
lost at the head of the Gulf of California. The whole length of the
COLORADO is estimated at about two hundred and fifty leagues. For about
fifty leagues it is navigable by small sea going vessels; and, for about
a hundred leagues higher, it may be traversed by large boats. The sea is
said to ebb and flow between thirty-five and forty leagues beyond the
mouth of this river. The sources of the ARKANSAS and of the RIO GRANDE
DEL NORTE lie very near those of the COLORADO; so that the waters of the
Gulf of Mexico and of the Gulf of California are nearly united by these
streams across our continent.
15th. The RIO GILA rises in the Sierra de los Mimbres, and descends to
the south, through a small and mountain bound valley until it unites
with the Colorado.
IV. LAKES, LAGUNES, &c.
1. TIMPANOGOS and TEYUGO or SALADO.
2. LAGUNAS DE BAVISPE, SAN MARTIN, DE GUZMAN, DE PATOS, DE ENCINILLAS
and DE CASTILLA in the state of Chihuahua.
3. The LAGUNA DE CAYMAN in the BOLSON DE MAPIMI.
4. The LAKES of PARRAS and AGUA VERDE on the west boundary of Coahuila.
5. The LAKES of CHARCAS, CHAIREL and CHILA in the state of San Luis
Potosi.
6. Nine small SODA LAKES in Zacatecas.
7. The large and important LAKE OF CHAPALA and others in Jalisco.
8. PAZCUARO, CUIZCO, ARARON, HUANGO, TANGUATO, and HUANIQUO in
Michoacan.
9. The five large LAKES of TEZCOCO, CHALCO, XOCHIMILCO, SAN CRISTOVAL
and ZUMPANGO in the valley of Mexico.
10. The LAKES of ATENCO, COATETILCO, and TENANCINGO in the valley of
Toluca.
11. A number of small ones in Oajaca.
12. The LAKES of TAMPICO, CATEMACO, ALIJOYUCA, TENANGO, CHIAPA on the
gulf coast or near it.
13. The LAKE of YURIRAPUNDARO in Guanajuato.
CHAPTER II.
MEXICAN CLASSES.
DIVISION OF
POPULATION--WHITES--INDIANS--AFRICANS--LEPEROS--RANCHEROS
--CHARACTERISTICS
--INDIFFERENCE--PROCRASTINATION.--FEMALES--BETTER
CLASSES--THEIR SOCIAL HABITS--ENTERTAINMENTS.--LEPEROS--THEIR
HABITS--EVANGELISTAS--THIEVING.--THE RANCHERO--HIS CHARACTER AND
HABITS.--THE INDIAN RACE--AGRICULTURISTS--TRADITIONARY HABITS
ADHERED TO--IMPROVIDENCE--SUPERSTITION--DRUNKENNESS--INDIAN
WOMEN--SERVILE CONDITION--LOCAL
ADHESIVENESS--PEONAGE--WHIPPING.--PLANTER-LIFE--ITS SOLITUDE AND
RESULTS.--MUHLENPFORDT'S CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.--INDIAN TRIBES
AND RACES IN MEXICO.--TABLE OF CASTES IN MEXICO.
An adequate and proper classification of the Mexican population, for
descriptive purposes, may be made under the general heads of: Whites,
Indians, Africans, and the mixed breeds, who are socially sub-divided
into--1st, the educated and respectable Mexicans dwelling in towns,
villages or on estates; 2d, the Leperos; and 3d, the Rancheros.
The whites are still classed in Mexico as _creoles_, or, natives of the
country; and _gachupines_ and _chapetones_, who are Spaniards born in
the Peninsula. The Spanish population yet remaining in the country, its
immediate descendants, and the emigrants from Spain, form a numerous and
important body. Her Catholic Majesty's Consul General in Mexico derives
a lucrative revenue from supplying this large class of his countrymen
with annual "protections," or "_cartas de seguridad_," granted by the
Mexican government, but procured from it through the instrumentality of
this functionary.
The Spaniard no longer holds his former rank in the social scale of the
ancient colony. There are many wealthy mercantile families in the
republic, who owe allegiance to the crown; but among the mechanical
classes there are numbers of poor Castilians whose fate would be
melancholy in Mexico, were they not succored and protected by their
wealthier countrymen.
The Mexican native, in whose veins there is almost always a few drops of
indigenous blood, is commonly indolent and often vicious. The bland
climate and his natural temperament predispose him for an indulgent,
easy and voluptuous life; yet the many
[Illustration: RANCHEROS.]
faults of his character may be fairly attributed to the want of
education, early self-restraint and the disordered political state of
his country which has produced a bad effect upon social life. With quick
and often solid talents, the Mexican citizen is not devoted, early in
his career, by thoughtful parents, either to intellectual pursuits or to
that mental discipline which would regulate an impulsive temperament or
fit him for the domestic, scientific, or political position he might
attain in other countries, under a different social _régime_. He
recollects that in the best days of the colony his family had been
distinguished, powerful and rich, and he finds it difficult, in his
present impoverished state, to forget this traditionary position.
Accordingly, he acts upon the memorial basis of the past, as if it were
still within his grasp or control. This renders him thriftlessly
improvident. Mexicans still speak of the epoch when they or their
parents "swam in gold," or dispensed ducats to the dependants on whom
they now reluctantly bestow coppers. Besides this, their indolent
indifference, which almost amounts to Arab fatalism, makes them not only
subservient to the past, but idolaters of a hope which is quite as
fallacious. According to their belief, better times are continually
approaching. Something, they imagine, will shortly occur to improve
their broken or periled fortunes. "_Paciencia y barajar_,"--"patience
and shuffle the cards," is a maxim on the lips of every one who is
overthrown by a revolution, loses his friends, incurs censure, or finds
himself starving for want of a dollar. If you enquire as to their
prospects, their friends, their interests, or, indeed, in regard to
almost any subject that requires some reflection for a reasonable
reply,--they answer with the habitual--"_Quien Sabe!_"--"who can tell!"
which in the vocabulary of a common Mexican is the--"_quod erat
demonstrandum_" of any social or political problem.
Such qualities and habits do not prepare a nation for resolute action
upon progressive principles. We consequently find, throughout Mexico, an
universal predisposition to _dependence_ upon others, or to a blind
reliance upon _chance_. The drum and the bell which ring forever in our
ears in Mexico, apprise us that immense numbers who possess sufficient
influence to introduce them into the army or the church, repose
comfortably under the protection of those two eleemosynary institutions.
Such is, moreover, the case in all the administrative departments of the
government. Indeed, the state seems only to be constitutionally
organized in order to supply the wants of those it employs, or to found
a genteel hospital in which intriguing idlers are supported either at
the expense of industrious men or by contracting national loans which
may finally overwhelm the republic.
The church, the army, and the government, are thus three permanent
resources for young persons who are too indolent to engage in mercantile
pursuits, or too proud to stoop from their hereditary family rank either
into trade or the workshop.
Bad as are these social features, there is another which may be reckoned
still worse. There are thousands in the republic whose daily reliance is
exclusively on fortune, and for whom the turn of a card decides whether
they are to return to their comfortless families with a plentiful
dinner, or without a cent upon which they may, to-morrow, recommence
their contest with luck at the gambling table. This is a dreadful vice
when it becomes habitual among a naturally susceptible, thriftless and
procrastinating people like the Mexicans. Prodigal not only of their
gold but of their time, they squander the latter without ever reflecting
that it is the capital of industrious men. They regard business as a
burden, and put off, whenever they are permitted, a debt, an engagement,
or a duty, "_hasta manana_"--until to-morrow!
We are perhaps wrong in alleging that every duty is procrastinated, and
life given up exclusively to pleasure; for the genuine Mexican is strict
and punctual in the performance of, at least, the externals of religion.
The pious observances of the church, are, however, even more generally
rigorous among the women than the men.
* * * * *
The Mexican females in the upper ranks are badly, if at all, educated.
Few foreign modern improvements have been engrafted on the old Spanish
system of teaching, whilst the subjects taught, and the text-books used,
are quite as primitive. At home, the Mexican lady is obsequiously served
by devoted domestics, but is brought up without a personal knowledge of
a housewife's thrifty duties. The evil influence of such vacant minds
upon the male sex must, necessarily, be very great. If the intellect
does not suggest topics for conversation, it is natural that the
instincts will supply the deficiency. Thus it is that the life of large
numbers of Mexican men is summed up in devotion to their horses, their
_queridas_, and their favorite gambling tables; whilst the existence of
Mexican women is as easily divided between mass, meals, dress, driving,
and the theatre.
Yet we will not be tempted by an epigrammatic sentence, into
condemnation of the whole of Mexican society. It would be unjust to
convey an unqualified idea that such are the characteristics of the
entire white race whose birth or rank entitle it to an exalted social
position. Nevertheless, it is a true picture of perhaps the most
numerous class. The Mexican revolution--its struggles, endurance and
success,--disclose many manly features of national character, and
prepare us to appreciate that patriotic and cultivated body of men and
women who form the national heart and hope of the republic.
The Mexicans have been so harshly dealt with in the descriptions of
foreigners, that they are not always disposed to welcome them beyond
their thresholds. This arises neither from fear nor jealousy, but from
the natural distrust of persons whom they imagine visit their country
with but little sympathy for its institutions and less consideration for
their personal habits. Nor is this repulsiveness to strangers exhibited
so much in the fashionable circles of society as it is among that
loftier description of persons we have already referred to. Yet there
are occasions upon which the houses and hearts of this very class are
cordially opened to intelligent and discreet foreigners, and it is then
that an opportunity is afforded of seeing the best phases of Mexican
character. The fine benevolence of ancient friendship, the universal
respect for genius, a competent knowledge of the laws and institutions
of other countries, a perfect acquaintance with the causes of Mexican
decadence, and a charming regard and care for all those domestic rites
which cement the affections of a home circle, may all be observed and
admired within the walls of a Mexican dwelling.
When a stranger is thus received in the confidential intimacy of a
household, there is no longer any restraint put upon the inmates in his
presence. The courteous expressions which are ordinarily used in the
commerce of society, and whose formal but excessive politeness have
induced careless men to imagine the Mexicans insincere, are now only
expressive of the most cordial devotion to your interests and wants. "Mi
casa esta á su disposition," "my house is at your disposal," means
exactly what it says. You are at home.
As the Mexicans are not a people addicted to the same mode or extent of
informal social intercourse among themselves as the Germans, the
English, or the Americans, it is not strange that they should guard
their doors so carefully against foreigners who visit their country for
the purpose of acquiring fortunes rapidly, in order to enjoy them in the
society of their native land. The reception of a stranger upon an
intimate footing is therefore the greatest compliment he can receive
from the meritorious classes. It is not alone with public affairs or
purely intellectual discussions that we are entertained in such
re-unions of cultivated society. In the free conversation of the
intimate circle there is always a cordial display of sincere interest
for the welfare of each other. The aspirations of the rich or the hopes
of the poor, are always tenderly discussed. There is abundant evidence
of _heart_; and, even after years have elapsed, and the sojourner in
Mexico has returned to his home, he will find by his correspondence that
he is still remembered by the intelligent friends, who made him forget
that he was "a stranger in a strange land."
The Mexicans have generally supposed that it was impossible to entertain
their friends without an extravagant expenditure which was perhaps the
standard that measured the value of their guests. They have still to
learn that a simple style and a cordial welcome together with the
refined conversational intercourse are more valued than imported
champagne and "_pâté de foie gras_." As soon as their society becomes
less old fashioned and formal, they will find themselves more
comfortable in the presence of strangers. In Mexico, as in all
countries, there are notorious specimens of egotism, haughtiness,
ill-breeding, and loose morals, both among men and women; and although
we find these worthless elements floating like bubbles on the surface of
society, they must not be regarded as exclusive national
characteristics. "A nation, in which revolutions and counter-revolutions
are events of almost daily occurrence, is naturally prolific in
desperate and crafty political adventurers;" but the evils that have
been begotten by the past, must not be considered as permanent.
The _Lepero_ is a variety of the Indian, and combines in himself most of
the bad qualities of the two classes from whose union he derives his
being. He is the inhabitant of cities, towns or villages, and, is in
Mexico, what the _lazzaroni_ are in Naples. Neither white, black nor
copper colored; neither savage nor civilized; neither an agriculturist
nor a mechanic, the _lepero_ occupies an equivocal position upon the
boundaries of all these characters. His existence is altogether a matter
of chance. He has scarcely ever a permanent home. His wife and children,
or his _amiga_, are lodged on the ground floor of a hovel in the
outskirts of the town, from which he is often expelled in consequence
either of his poverty, intemperance, or quarrelsome behavior. If
unmarried, he finds a resting place, in these delicious climates, on a
mat beneath the sky, or within the friendly shelter of a wall
[Illustration: FANDANGO.]
or portico. He is devoted to _pulque_ and music; for, whilst he drains
his social glass in the _pulqueria_ amid a crowd of companion _leperos_,
he is ever ready to sing a stave or make a verse in which a spice of wit
or satire is certainly found. When he has earned a dollar by toil, he
quits his labor even before it is completed, in order to spend his
enormous gain. His wants are so small that he may be liberal in his
vices. He regards work as an odious imposition upon human nature; and,
created merely _to live_, he takes care only of to-day leaving to-morrow
to take care of itself. Prudence, he thinks, would be a manifest
distrust of Providence. His food, purchased at the corner of a street
from one of the peripatetic cooks, consists of a few _tortillas_ or
corncakes, steeped in a pan of Chili peppers compounded with lard. A
fragment of beef or fowl sometimes gives zest to the frugal mess. His
dress, of narrow cotton or leather trowsers, and a blanket which is at
once, bed, bedding, coat and cloak,--is worn season after season without
washing, except during the providential ablutions of rain, until the
mingled attrition of dirt and time entirely destroy the materials. An
occasional crime, or quarrel, which is terminated by a resort to knives
and copious phlebotomy, sends him several times every year to the public
prison, where he is faithfully visited, fed and consoled by his spouse
or _amiga_. As he passes along the streets with the manacled chain-gang
to sweep the town, he begs a _claco_ with such bewitching impudence that
the man who refuses the demanded alms must be insensible to humor. Like
the Indian, he is remarkably skilful in imitation, and makes figures of
wax or rags, which are not only singularly faithful as portraits, but
possess a certain degree of grace that is worthy of an artist. Some of
the tribe read and write with ease and even elegance. Among this class
are to be found the _evangelistas_ or letter writers, who, seated around
the _portales_ and side walks of the _plaza_, are ready, at a moment's
notice, to indite a sonnet to a mistress, a petition to government, a
letter to an absent husband, or a wrathful effusion to a faithless
lover. Another branch of this nomadic horde is engaged in the profitable
occupation of "thieving," which requires no capital in trade save nimble
fingers, rapid action, and a bold look with which detection may be
defied. The narrow streets and lanes of towns are the theatres in which
these accomplished rogues perform. No man in Mexico dares indulge in the
luxury of carrying a handkerchief in his pocket. The attempt would be
useless, for a _lepero_ would appropriate it before the stranger had
walked a square. Upon one occasion a hat was actually taken off an
Englishman's head by a _lepero_ in a dense crowd; but the act was so
adroitly done, that the jolly foreigner joined in the shout of laughter
with which the hero was hailed as he vanished among the masses. Should
the priest pass at such a moment with the _host_, on his way to the
chamber of a dying citizen, the _lepero_ would fall on his knees with
the rest of the townspeople, yet whilst he beat his breast with one
hand, he might be seen to keep the other tenaciously in his victim's
pocket. If caught in the felonious act, which rarely happens, the
_lepero_ takes the inflicted blows or choking with craven humility, and,
whilst he shouts--"_ya esta, Senor amo,--ya esta!_" "enough, my master,
oh enough!" he is seeking for another opportunity to pilfer his
punisher's watch or purse, during the conflict.
Such is the Mexican _lepero_. The sketch may seem broad or even
caricatured to those who are unacquainted with the country, but its
accuracy will be acknowledged by all who have resided in Mexico and been
haunted by the filthy tribe.
* * * * *
The RANCHERO comes next in our classification of the Mexicans. He is a
small farmer, or _vaquero_, who owns or hires a few acres on which he
cultivates his corn or grazes his cattle. He is not an Indian, a white
man, an African, or a lepero, yet he mixes the qualities of all in his
motly character. He is a person of lofty thoughts and aspirations;--a
devoted patriot;--a staunch fighter in all the revolutions whenever
_guerillas_ are required;--a hard rider and capital boon companion over
a bottle or in a journey among the mountains.
On his small estate he devotes himself to the cultivation of the ground,
or leaves this menial occupation to his family whilst he goes off to the
wars or to carousals and _fandangos_ in the neighboring village
_pulquerias_. He is an Arab in his habits, and especially in his love
and management of the horse. Dressed in his leather trowsers and jerkin;
with his serape over his shoulders, his broad brimed and silver corded
_sombrero_ on his head; his heels armed with spurs whose three-inch
rowels gleam like the blades of daggers; his sword strapped to the
saddle beneath his _armas de agua_, and, grasping his gun in his
hand,--the Ranchero is ready, as soon as he mounts, to follow you for
months over the republic. He is the _nomade_ of the country, as the
_lepero_ is of the town. His devotion to his animal is unbounded. The
faithful quadruped is his best friend and surest reliance. His _lazo_
lies curved gracefully in festoons around the pommel of his saddle.
Thus, with his trusty weapons and his horse, the mounted _ranchero_ is
at home in the forest or in the open field; on hill side or in valley.
Few riders, elsewhere, can equal him in speed or horsemanship; and few
can excel him as a herdsman, a robber, an enemy, or even a _friend_
whenever you hit his fancy or are willing to understand his character
and pardon his sins.
INDIAN RACE OF MEXICO.
Notwithstanding the brilliant pages which Aztec history contributed to
the annals of America and the civilization which prevailed, not only in
the valley of Mexico, but also in other portions of the territory now
within the limits of the republic, we find that the indigenous
descendants of these heroic and intelligent ancestors have degenerated
to such a degree that they are at present in general, fitted only for
the servile toils to which they are commonly and habitually devoted.
Three hundred years of oppression may have done much to produce this sad
result. Without union among the tribes; without community of feeling,
language or nationality; the Indians became an easy prey to the
Spaniards after the conquest of the great central power. Old prophecies
were accomplished, according to the Aztec belief, by the arrival of the
Spaniards. "It is long since we knew from our ancestors,"--said
Montezuma to Cortéz,--"that neither I nor all who inhabit these lands
were _originally_ of them, but that we are strangers, and came hither
from distant places. It was said that a great lord conveyed our race to
these regions and returned to the land of his birth, and yet, came back
once more to us. But, in the meantime, those whom he first brought had
intermarried with the women of the country; and when he desired them to
return again to the land of their fathers they refused to go. He went
alone; and ever since have we believed, that from among those who were
the descendants of that mighty lord, one shall come _to subdue this
land, and make us his vassals_! According to what you declare of the
place whence you come, which is _toward the rising sun_, and of the
great lord who is your King, we must surely believe that he is our
natural lord."
Such were the superstitious opinions amongst the most civilized of all
the Indian nations at the period of the conquest. It is not surprising
therefore to find the other nomadic, predatory hordes,--whose ferocity
was not so keen as that of their northern kindred, but had been tempered
and softened in some degree by the genial climate of the tropics,--soon
yielding to the superior will of a masculine race, eager, not only for
gold, but for the establishment of estates which were in fact
principalities, and whose beneficial improvement required the employment
of large bodies of continual and compulsory laborers. The Indians
afforded the staple of this stock at once. The conquest rooted out all
their old institutions by violence. Their government and laws were
overthrown by force; their religion was changed by power; their graven
idols, the material emblems of their gods, were ground to dust; their
social system was completely overturned; and thus, perfectly
annihiliated as a nation, in politics, theology, and domestic life or
habits, they were, in the end, but wretched outcasts in their own land.
The Indians may therefore be regarded as somewhat prepared by
degradation for the system of _repartimientos_, which, as we have
already seen in the historical part of this work, was instituted
immediately after the conquest.
The aborigines throughout Mexico have been devoted as a class to
agricultural labors. Immediately after the conquest the Spaniards forced
them to toil in the mines as well as in the fields; but as soon as a
race of mixed blood was found to replace these original laborers in the
bowels of the earth, the native Indian escaped to wilder districts where
there were no mines, or where his services were required on the surface
of the earth. Besides this, since the revolution, labor has been
somewhat more free than before that epoch. The Indian, if not bound to
the estate, by the slavery of debt, as we shall see hereafter, has the
right to do what he pleases, and consequently he selects that labor
which will give him support with least fatigue in a country whose soil
is almost spontaneously productive.
The Mexican Indian, may therefore be generally designated as an
agriculturist. A few of them engage in the manufacture of certain
elegant fabrics of wool and cotton; in some of the _imitative_ arts, in
which they greatly excel; and in the formation of utensils for domestic
use.
In the field, the Indian executes all the labor,--sometimes in the midst
of the great plantations of sugar, cotton, coffee, corn, tobacco, wheat,
and barley--or, at others, in the midst of the beautiful gardens for
which some parts of the republic are celebrated. In all these positions
his labor is faithfully performed;--but he is the enemy of all changes
in the modes or utensils of his work. He prefers the old system of
drawing water for irrigation; the old system of rooting the earth with
the Arab stake instead of the American plough; the old system of
carrying offal, stones, or whatever is to be removed from his fields,
in bags, instead of in barrows or carts; and the old system of bearing
every burden, no matter how onerous, on his shoulders instead of a dray
or a wagon. It offends him to speak of changes, which he regards as
unrighteous innovations. His character, like that of the Chinese, is one
of excessive tenacity for old customs. After three centuries of constant
intercourse with strange races, he still segregates himself from the
foreigner, and, nestling in his native village, keeps aloof from the
Spaniard. He speaks his hereditary language; clings to his old habits;
and,--according to the report of reliable travellers,--worships,
occasionally in private, his ancestral idols. In the capital, garlands
which have been secretly suspended on the images by Indians, are still
sometimes found around the hideous Aztec divinities preserved in the
court yard of the University. "You gave us three very good gods"--said
an Indian once to a respectable Catholic curate,--"yet you might as well
have left us a few of our own!"
Grave, taciturn and distrustful,--types, in manners, of a crushed and
conquered race,--the Indians of Mexico, wear a sombre look and demeanor,
accompanied by an air of evident submissiveness. It is rare to find them
merry, except at the end of harvest on the large estates, when an annual
festival is prepared, in which they are accustomed to unite with great
zest. They have other periods of cessation from toil, such as the
Sabbath day, the feasts of the patron saints of their village or parish
church. Upon these occasions their devotion to the externals of religion
is exhibited by a lavish expense in articles which they imagine may
contribute to the honor or glory of their spiritual protector in heaven.
In order to celebrate the occasion with due decorum, according to their
simple ideas, they not only spend whatever money they happen to possess
at the moment, but _pledge themselves_, in advance, at the _haciendas_,
for the loan of sums which they must repay by future labor. The result
is that these superstitious frivolities consume a large share of the
Indian's substance; and, notwithstanding his economy and frugality, he
and his family are obliged to spend the greater part of the year in
misery, in recompense for the rockets, fire crackers, music, wax
candles, and flowers, which he purchased on the Festival of his _Santo_.
In addition to these ecclesiastical costs, we must not omit his personal
expenses, for the Indian does not forget his bodily condition whilst he
pays attention to his spiritual wants. Liquor and gambling, fill up the
occasional pauses in the pious ceremonials, so that after the Indian has
finished his religious services and his dinner for the day, it is quite
likely that he is prepared to creep into a hovel or shelter with his
family, where they may sleep off the debauch that universally finishes
these ecclesiastical functions. Similar wild indulgences are permitted
among them at marriages, baptisms and interments, and in consequence of
this thriftlessness, these miserable wretches are never able either to
leave property to their offspring or to afford them an education by
which they may improve their lot in life.
The Indian woman is the true and faithful companion of her husband's
fortunes. She works incessantly at her appropriate tasks. She grinds the
corn for the _tortillias_ and _atolé_ of the family, and carries them to
her husband wherever he is at work; she weaves, in her rude manner, all
the materials of cotton or wool that are worn by her household; she
makes the garments of her spouse and children; she keeps the domestic
premises in order without an assistant; nor does she cease, for a
moment, to nourish and watch her offspring during their infancy. If her
husband departs to another district, or is enlisted as a soldier, she
straps her pack and her youngest child on her back, and accompanies her
liege lord, whilst a train of their mutual descendants, "small by
degrees and beautifully less," follows in their rear.
We have said that the Indians are frugal in their food and economical in
their dress, for in reality, their meals commonly consist only of cereal
products, and, especially, of corn. Atolé, tortillias, Chili peppers and
frijoles, are sufficient to support them. They do not eat flesh
habitually, and yet they are healthy and robust, nor is it extraordinary
to see individuals among them who attain the advanced age of more than
of ninety years.
Their occasional indulgence in drunkenness, disgusting and injurious as
it is at the moment, does not generally destroy the constitutions of
these hardy laborers, whose subsequent compulsory temperance, not only
in drink but in food, soon repairs the momentary inroads of a day's
debauch.
The dress of both men and women is the simplest and the cheapest
possible. In the state of ignorance and abjection in which this race has
been so long held, it is not easy to conceive whether their intellectual
faculties might be again aroused. In some of the colleges of Mexico,
individuals have applied themselves with great care, have received
classical educations, and made remarkable progress even in the sciences,
in some of which they excelled. But generally speaking, these instances
may be regarded as remarkable exceptions. The Indian, as we have
[Illustration: INDIAN'S OF THE SIERRA.]
[Illustration: HACIENDADO.]
before observed, when he quits the agricultural field, exhibits most
talent in the imitative arts. The instruments and materials he uses are
of the simplest and rudest kind, and, although the imitations produced
by him are wonderfully accurate, yet they want that lively variety which
is only produced by vivid imaginations.
Upon the plantations the Indians are in reality slaves, notwithstanding
the Mexican laws prohibit slavery. This condition is produced chiefly by
two causes. The Mexican Indian who cherishes, as we have seen, a
remarkable devotion to his old habits, customs, utensils and implements,
is gifted with an equal tenacity or adhesiveness for the place of his
birth. Nomadic as were his ancestors, the modern Mexican Indian is no
wanderer. The idea of emigration, even to another state or district,
never originates in his brain, or is tolerated if proposed to him as a
voluntary act. So helpless is his condition if placed beyond the limits
of his habitual neighborhood or hereditary haunts, that he feels himself
perfectly lost, abandoned and cast off, if compelled to change either
his residence or his occupation. He has no variety of resources. He
knows nothing of alternatives. The operations of his mind, as well as of
his hand, are perfectly mechanical. The utter helplessness of such an
individual, if suddenly transferred from the midst of his companions and
all the scenes of his life-long associations or duties, may be easily
conceived, and consequently the greatest punishment that a _haciendado_,
or Mexican planter, can inflict upon his Indian serf is to expel him
from the estate upon which he and his ancestors have worked from time
immemorial. When other punishments, which elsewhere would be thought
severe, fail to produce reform or amendment in the Indian's conduct, it
usually happens, that the serious threat of expulsion from the estate,
made by the owner himself, or his authorised representative, to the
native, reduces the refractory individual to subjection. Thus it is,
that this peculiar territorial and local adhesiveness contributes to
making the Indian's condition not only _menial_ but _servile_.
The second cause may be found in the habits of wild and extravagant
indulgence which we have already described. These licentious outbursts
of recklessness create a pecuniary bond between the proprietor and his
laborer. The Indian becomes his debtor. It is the policy of the
landholder to establish this relation between himself and the Indian,
and consequently he affords him every facility to sell himself in
advance, even for life, to his estate. The Indian, is thus at least
completely mortgaged to the landed proprietor, and as that personage
usually possesses considerable influence in his neighborhood, the
laborer finds it extremely difficult or nearly impossible to enforce his
freedom even by appeals to the legal authorities. Such is the origin and
system of _peonage_, which still curses Mexico although the
_repartimientos_ and slavery have been abolished by fundamental laws.
We have observed that there are other punishments of the Indians
resorted to on Mexican plantations for trifling faults or misdemeanors,
besides the great and final calamity of expulsion. They are fined and
they are flogged. "Looking into the corridor," says Mr. Stephens, in his
work on Yucatan, "we saw a poor Indian on his knees, on the pavement,
with his arms clasped around the knees of another Indian, so as to
present his back fairly to the lash. At every blow he rose on one knee
and sent forth a piercing cry, he seemed struggling to retain it, but it
burst forth in spite of all his efforts. His whole bearing showed the
subdued character of the present Indians, and with the last stripe the
expression of his face seemed that of thankfulness for not getting more.
Without uttering a word, he crept to the major-domo, took his hand,
kissed it, and walked away. No sense of degradation crossed his mind.
Indeed, so humbled is this once fierce people that they have a proverb
of their own: "Los Indios no oyien sino por las nalgas,"--"The Indians
only hear through their backs."
* * * * *
This hereditary condition or relation between the Indian and the
original Spanish races has acted and re-acted for their mutual
degradation. With a large population under his control, for all purposes
of labor and menial toil, the Spaniard, of whatever class, found himself
entirely free from the necessity of manual labor or mechanical pursuits.
Notwithstanding this immunity from bodily toil, the native of Castile
did not devote the leisure he enjoyed, whilst the Indians were working
for him, either to the improvement of his mind, or the preparation of
philanthropic plans for the amelioration of his servant's lot. A mere
physical life of personal indulgence, or an avaricious devotion to the
rapid acquisition of fortune, absorbed the whole time of these planters,
who lived in almost utter seclusion amid the lonely wastes of their
large territorial possessions. The planter who resides in a populous
nation, or who is enabled to visit easily the capitals of commerce,
literature, and art, is a man, who, from his personal independence,
culture, and wealth, is usually in our own country to be envied for the
peculiar privileges which his station affords him. But in Mexico, the
position and education of the planter, if he lives constantly on his
estate,--which is not universally the case,--are altogether different
from those of the North American land-holder. The Mexican possesses few
or none of those social and intellectual qualities that have been
cultivated by the North American in the best colleges and circles of his
country; nor does he enjoy equal facilities of intercommunication
between the cities or rural districts of Mexico. The immense size of his
plantation which sometimes extends several leagues in length and
breadth, necessarily disperses instead of congregating a populous
neighborhood. "He is master of all he surveys,--he is lord of the fowl
and the brute," but his dominion is a solitary and cheerless one. Few,
and irregular posts rarely bring him the news of what occurs in the
great world. Visits are seldom and ceremoniously paid. He must find
within himself the constant springing source of vivacity and of an
ambitious desire for progress, or he must subside into mere animal
existence. The latter is unfortunately in most instances the natural
result, and it is therefore not at all astonishing to find Mexican
planters or their mayordomos devoting all their energies to the
maintenance of the servile system we have described, whilst their
statute-book and constitution profess to have abolished slavery.
Whilst such is the effect upon the character of the master or his
representative, it is natural to suppose that the character of the
servant will be equally degraded by the want of those new ideas with
which the constant refreshing intercourse of society ventilates the
mind. The Indian knows no world but that bounded by his horizon.
Slavery, when involuntary, may even be respected in the sufferer, but
the Indian who becomes a slave in spite of law, by religious
superstition, loathsome vices, and time-hallowed servility, sinks far
below the level of the African, who is sober, careful, faithful to his
master and his family, and either from imitation, or a degree of natural
dignity, seeks to acquire respectability among his fellow slaves.
"It is hardly possible," says Mühlenpfordt, "to judge of the true
character and intellectual capacity of the Indian at a time when he has
but just partially recovered his rights as man, and has had little
opportunity of giving independent culture to his mental faculties.
Though the civic oppression under which the Spaniards and Creoles held
all the copper colored race and the colored people generally before the
revolution, has, for the most part disappeared, yet their emancipation
has, as yet, only nominally taken place. Hierarchial oppression has yet
hardly decreased, and the clergy, both the inferior secular priests and
the monks who have the greatest influence over the Indians, find their
account in declining to promote, if they do not positively retard, their
intellectual development. Time only can inform us what advantages will
accrue to the Indians from the new order of things. Up to this period
the introduction of the boasted civilization of Europe, as well as of
the Catholic religion, has been of but trifling benefit to them, and
only a trace here and there of progress to an amelioration of their
condition is to be remarked.
"The Mexican Indian of the present day is generally grave and taciturn,
and almost sullen, when not excited by music and intoxicating drinks to
loquacity and pleasure. This serious character may be remarked even in
the children, who appear more knowing at the age of five or six, than
those of northern Europeans at that of nine or ten. But this appearance
of steadiness is by no means consequent on a quicker development of
mind, and the looks of these young people, dejected and void of all the
cheerfulness and confidence of children, have nothing that gladdens the
observer. Gruffness and reserve appear to be essential features of the
Indian character, and it cannot, I think, be assumed that these
qualities were implanted in them only by the long oppression that
weighed down the Mexican race, first under their native rulers, and
afterwards under the Spaniards; inasmuch as they occur among the
aborigines almost universally throughout America, even when these have
never suffered any curtailment of political liberty. To that cause may
be rather attributed the stubbornness and selfishness which constitute a
striking trait in the character of the present Indians. It is almost
impossible to move any Indian to do a thing which they have resolved not
to do. Vehemence, threats, even corporal punishment, are of as little
avail as the offer of gold or reward; persuasion, coaxing, entreaties
help as little. The Mexican Indian loves to give an appearance of
mystery and importance to his most indifferent actions. If stirred up by
weighty interests, he breaks his accustomed silence, and speaks with
energy but never with fire. Jokes are as rare with him as raillery and
laughter. I never heard an Indian laugh heartily, even when excited by
spirituous liquors. His uncommon hardness of character allows him long
to conceal the passions of indignation and vengeance. No sign betrays
externally the fire that rages within until it suddenly breaks out with
uncontrollable violence. In this condition the Indian is most likely
inclined to commit the most dreadful cruelties and the most fearful
crimes. The Mexican aborigines bear with the greatest patience the
torments which the whites were formerly and are still inclined to
indulge against them. They oppose to these a cunning which they
dexterously hide under a semblance of indifference and stupidity.
Despite their long slavery; despite every effort which has been employed
to rob them of their historical recollections, they have by no means
forgotten their former greatness. They know right well that they were
once sole lords of the land, and that those Creoles who are so fond of
calling themselves Americans, are but the sons and heirs of their
oppressors. I have myself frequently heard Indians, when their ordinary
reserve has been overcome by spirituous liquors, declare that they were
the true masters of the country, that all others were mere foreign
intruders, and that if the Creoles could expel the Spaniards they had a
far better right to expel the Creoles. May the latter be taught by their
own acuteness to grant the Indians, while it is yet time, the practical
exercise of these civic rights theoretically conceded to them, for the
revolt of the copper colored race would indeed present a fearful
spectacle!"
INDIAN TRIBES OR RACES IN MEXICO IN THE STATE OF YUCATAN.
1. Mayas.
IN THE STATES OF CHIAPAS AND TABASCO.
2 Teochiapanécos,
3 Zoques,
4 Cendáles,
5 Mames.
IN THE STATE OF OAJACA.
6 Zapotécas,
7 Mixtecos,
8 Mixes,
9 Chinanutécos,
10 Chontáles,
11 Cuicatécos.
12 Chochos,
13 Chaténos,
14 Huabes,
15 Huatequimánes,
16 Izcatécos,
17 Almoloyas, a few.
18 Soltécos,
19 Trìques,
20 Pabúcos,
21 Amúsagos,
22 Zoques,
23 Aztécos.
IN THE STATES OF MEXICO, PUEBLA AND VERA CRUZ.
24 Aztécos,
25 Totonáques,
26 Popolúcas,
27 Tlapanécos,
28 Mixtécos,
29 Huastécos,
30 Cuitlatecos.
IN THE STATE OF QUERETARO.
31 Otomés,
32 Chichimecas, and a few Aztécos.
IN THE STATE OF MICHOACAN.
33 Tarráscos,
34 Otomés.
IN THE STATE OF GUANAJUATO.
35 Pamos,
36 Capúces,
37 Samues,
38 Mayolias,
39 Guamánes,
40 Guachichiles.
IN THE STATE OF JALISCO.
41 Cazcánes,
42 Guachichiles,
43 Guamánes,
44 Tenoxquínes,
45 Matlacingos,
46 Jaliscos.
STATES OF SAN LUIS POTOSI, NEW LEON AND TAMAULIPAS.
47 Chichimecas, Aztecos, or Tlascaltecas.
IN THE STATES OF DURANGO AND CHIHUAHUA.
48 Tepehuanés,
49 Topías,
50 Acaxis,
51 Xixímes,
52 Sicurabas,
53 Himas,
54 Huimis,
55 Acotlánes,
56 Cocoyámes,
57 Yanos,
58 Tarahumares.
IN THE STATE OF SINALOA.
59 Coras,
60 Nayarítes,
61 Hueicolhues,
62 Tubaras,
63 Cinaloas,
64 Cahitas.
IN THE STATE OF SONORA.
65 Mayos,
66 Zuáques,
67 Hiaquis,
68 Yaquis,
69 Guazare,
70 Ahome,
71 Ocoromi,
72 Teguéca,
73 Tepahue,
74 Zoe,
75 Huite,
76 Guaymas,
77 Pimas-bajos,
78 Mobas,
79 Onabas,
80 Nures,
81 Saboribas or Sisibolaris,
82 Huras,
83 Heris,
84 Sabaipures,
85 Sonoras,
86 Eudebes,
87 Opatas,
88 Seres,
89 Tiburones,
90 Pipos-altos,
91 Papagos or Papahi-Ootam,
92 Yumas,
93 Cucapachas,
94 Coanopas,
95 Cajuenches,
96 Cutguanes,
97 Hoahonómos,
98 Bagiópas,
99 Quiquimas,
100 Cocomaricopas,
101 Apaches-tontos,
102 Pimas-gileños,
103 Apaches-gileños,
104 Nijoras,
105 Apaches-mimbreños,
106 Apaches-Chiricaguis,
107 Yabipaïs or Yabipias,
108 Jalchedumes,
109 Juníguis,
110 Yamágas,
111 Chemeonahas or Chemeguabas,
112 Cosnínas,
113 Moquis,
114 Navajos,
115 Timpachis,
116 Yutas,
117 Tabeguachis
118 Payúches,
119 Talarénos,
120 Raguapuis.
IN OLD CALIFORNIA.
121 Pericuis,
122 Monquis or Menguis,
123 Guaycúras,
124 Coras,
125 Cochimas,
126 Colimies,
127 Laimones,
128 Utschetas,
129 Vehitis,
130 Icas.
IN NEW CALIFORNIA.
131 Rumsenes,
132 Escelenes,
133 Eclemaches,
134 Achastlies,
135 Matalanes,
136 Salses,
137 Quirotes.
IN NEW MEXICO AND PART OF TEXAS.
138 Keras,
139 Piras,
140 Xumanas,
141 Zuras,
142 Pecuris,
143 Cumanches,
144 Jetans,
145 Tetans or Tetaus,
146 Yutas,
147 Kiaways,
148 Apaches,
149 Nanahas,
150 Apaches-_llaneros_,
151 Lipans,
152 Faraones,
153 Mescaleros.
The following table exhibits, in separate groups, the varieties of
parentage and blood, forming the castes in Mexico and throughout Spanish
America:
TABLE OF CASTES
1. ORIGINAL RACES.
PARENTS.
{European _whites_ are called _gachupines_ or _chapetones_
White. {_Whites_, born in the colonies, are called _creoles_.
Negro.
Indian.
2. CASTES OF WHITE RACE.
PARENTS. CHILDREN.
White father and Negro mother, Mulatto.
White " Indian " Mestizo.
White " Mulatto " Quarteron.
{Creole, (only distinguishable
White " Mestiza " { from the white by a pale
{brown complexion.)
White " China " Chino-blanco.
White " Quarterona Quintero.
White " Quintera " White.
3. CASTES OF NEGRO RACE.
PARENTS. CHILDREN.
Negro father and Mulatto mother, Zambo-negro.
Negro " Mestiza " Mulatto-oscuro.
Negro " China " Zambo-chino.
Negro " Zamba " Zambo and Negro, (perfectly black.)
{Quarterona
Negro " {or Quintera " Dark Mulatto.
4. CASTES OF INDIAN RACE.
PARENTS. CHILDREN.
Indian father and Negro mother, Chino.
Indian " Mulatto " Chino-oscuro.
Indian " Mestiza " Mestizo-claro, often very beautiful.
Indian " China " Chino-cholo.
Indian " Zamba " Zambo-claro.
Indian " China-cholo Indian, with short frizzily hair.
Indian " {Quarterona
{or Quintera Brown Mestizo.
5. MULATTO CORRUPTION.
PARENTS. CHILDREN.
Mulatto father and Zamba mother, Zambo, (a miserable race.)
Mulatto " Mestiza " Chino, (rather clear race.)
Mulatto " China " Chino, (rather dark.)
Besides these specified castes there are several others not
distinguished by particular names; such, for instance, as the produce of
unions between the Mexican Indians or Spaniards and the people of the
East Indian continent or Philipines, numbers of whom came over during
the old viceroyal government. The best criterion for judging of the
purity of blood, is the hair of the women, which is much less deceiving
than their complexion. The short woolly hair, or coarse Indian locks,
may always be detected on the head or on the back of the neck. This
tabular statement exhibits at a glance the mongrel corruptions of the
human race in Mexico, and presents an interesting subject for students
of physiology and ethnology.[6]
CHAPTER III.
POPULATION.
POPULATION.--CENSUS.--TABLES OF POPULATION.--RELATIVE DIVISION OF
RACES.--RELATIVE INTELLECTUAL CULTIVATION.--RELATIVE POPULATION IN
HOT AND COLD DISTRICTS.
It is to be regretted that no very accurate census of Mexico has ever
been made, and that since the year 1831, no effort has been persistently
pursued by the government to enumerate its citizens and collect such
statistical data as may always be easily gathered by persons engaged in
this important task. The irregularity of the central or executive power;
the instability of all governments since the establishment of
independence; the intestine quarrels, not only in the capital but in the
departments or states, have all contributed to, and even partially
compelled, this neglect of a great national duty.
In the absence, therefore, of official statistics and reports, we are
obliged to rely upon approximate results, founded on the _partial_
enumerations of preceding years and the calculations of experienced
statesmen and writers. In the following table we shall exhibit all the
most trustworthy statements existing either in Mexican works or in the
writings of reliable authors:--
VARIANCES BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT CALCULATIONS AND CENSUSES OF THE
POPULATION OF MEXICO.
Years. No. of Inhabitants.
1793--Census of the Viceroy Revilla-Gigedo, including
Vera Cruz and Guadalajara, according to an
estimate in 1803, 5,270,029
1803--Geographico-political tables of New Spain, 5,764,731
1810--Semanario economico of Mexico, 5,810,005
1820--Navarro's Memorial on the population of the
kingdom of New Spain, 6,122,354
Calculation of the first Congress, 6,204,000
1831--Actual census of the Mexican Republic, published
by Valdes, 6,382,264
1824--Hon. J. R. Poinsett, 6,500,000
1825--Humboldt, about, 7,000,000
1838--Report of Commissioner of Chamber of Deputies, 7,009,120
1834--Galvan's Mexican Calendar, 7,734,292
1836--Notices of the states and territories of the Mexican
nation, 7,843,132
1830--Mr. Burkhardt--a German author, 7,996,000
1842--An estimate made as the basis for the election of
a Congress, (exclusive of Texas,) 7,015,509
In the year 1838, Señor Jose Gomez de la Cortina,--ex-Conde de la
Cortina, one of the most enlightened citizens of Mexico, published a
carefully prepared essay upon the population of Mexico, in the 1st No.
of the Bulletin of the National Institute of Geography and Statistics of
the Mexican Republic; and his opinion was that the number of inhabitants
greatly exceeded any of the above amounts. By observing the increase of
population in different periods of five years, he considered it
satisfactorily proved by the _Tablas Geographico-politicas_, of 1803,
that the augmentation, in favorable years, was at the rate 1-4/5 _per
cent_. By applying this ratio to the census of the _Tablas_, which gave
in 1803, 5,764,731 inhabitants, we shall have an increase of about
105,000 yearly; and if we calculate at this rate of augmentation for the
46 intervening years, we find in 1850 an increase of 4,830,000, or a
grand total of 10,594,731.
In the year 1842, however, when an estimate was made of a basis of
population, upon which to found a call for a Congress to form a new
constitution under the plan of Tacubaya, in 23 Departments or States and
Territories, exclusive of Texas, the government calculated that there
were 7,015,509 inhabitants.
TABLE OF POPULATION IN 1842.
Departments. Population.
Mexico, 1,389,502
Jalisco, 679,311
Puebla, 661,902
Yucatan, 508,948
Guanajuato, 512,606
Oajaca, 500,278
Michoacan, 497,906
San Luis Potosi, 321,840
Zacatecas, 273,575
Vera Cruz, 254,380
Durango, 162,618
Chihuahua, 147,600
Sinaloa, 147,000
Chiapas, 141,206
Sonora, 124,000
Queretaro, 120,560
Nuevo Leon, 101,108
Tamaulipas, 100,068
Coahuila, 75,340
Aguas Calientes, 69,698
Tabasco, 63,580
Nuevo Mexico, 57,026
Californias, 33,439
----------
7,015,509
{New Mexico, 57,026
Deduct for {Upper California, since 25,000
{ added to the United ------
{ States. 82,026----82,026
----------
Estimated actual population in 1842, 6,933,483
Add 10 per cent. for the probable increase in 7 years 693,348
----------
Proximate actual population in 1850, 7,626,831
This population may be relatively classed among races and castes as
follows:
4,354,886 Indians.
1,100,000 Whites.
2,165,345 Meztizos, Zambos, Mulattoes, &c.
6,600 Negroes.
---------
7,626,831
As Mexico, since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, possesses
798,402 square miles, this will give nine inhabitants and a fraction, to
the square mile.
From these calculations we deduce some very important facts as to the
physical and intellectual condition of Mexico, which are very
significant in the illustration of history. It appears that the total
number of pure whites in the republic, is, in all probability, not more
than 1,100,000; while the Indians, Negroes, Zambos, Mulattoes, Meztizos,
and all the mixed bloods, amount to 6,526,831. During our residence in
Mexico we ascertained from reliable authority that among the Indians and
negroes but two _per cent._ could read and write, while among the
whites, and castes, but twenty _per cent._ were estimated to enjoy those
benefits. Thus we have:
87,229 Indians and Negroes able to read and write.
653,069 Whites and mixed castes able to read and write;
or, only seven hundred and forty thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight
individuals, either completely educated or instructed in the simplest
rudiments, out of a population of more than seven and a half millions.
These are startling statistics in regard to the citizens of a nation
whose government is theoretically and practically based on the culture
of the people or their capacity for self-rule; and, when considered in
connexion with the historical details presented in the first volume of
this work, they will show that the distracted condition of Mexico is a
mingled cause and consequence of her intellectual darkness.[7]
One of the most interesting investigations in Mexican statistics would
be to compare the number of births in the regions called the _tierras
calientes_--or hot country, with those in the tierras frias, or _cold
region_. From calculations made by Cortina in 1838, from data derived
from nine departments, he concluded that the excess of births in the
warm regions or _tierras calientes_ was 1-5/10 per 100, over the
_tierras frias_.
He gives the following actual statistics in evidence:
1st. Result of the general census of the department of ZACATECAS since
the year 1824, and progressive increase of population therein before the
separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes:--
Years. Total population. Increase of population biennially.
1824 247,295}
1826 272,901} 25,606
1828 274,537} 1,636
1830 290,044} 15,507
1832 314,121} 24,077
1834 331,781} 17,660
2d. In 1836, after the separation of the portion of Aguas Calientes,
this department had 264,505 inhabitants.
In June, 1838, it had 273,575 "
-------
Increase in one year and a half, 9,070
3d. In the period from 1st of January, 1837 to 30th of June,
1838, there were born in the said department, 21,941
Died in the said department, 12,871
------
Increase of population, 9,070
4th. In the department of Oajaca in 1834, it was calculated that
there were 457,033 inhabitants.
In December, 1838, 500,278 "
-------
Increase in four years, 43,245
RESULTS.
Maximum of annual increase of population in Oajaca, 15,000
Minimum " " " " 6,000
Maximum " " " Zacatecas 12,000
Minimum " " " " 500
Of not less importance are the investigations upon the excess observed
in one sex over the other. Before the appearance of Humboldt's work it
was the opinion that in the New World nature did not follow the same law
of equilibrium in the difference between the sexes as in Europe, and
especially that in the tropical regions, the number of females exceeded
greatly that of the males. Baron Humboldt combated this notion and
demonstrated its error. He presents in his political essay upon New
Spain a table of the population of eight Intendencies, in which it
appears that out of 1,352,835 inhabitants there were 687,935 males and
664,900 females, which establishes a relative proportion of 100 to 95.
In the _Tablas Geografico politicas_, already cited, it is expressly
said that in New Spain, in the Intendencies of the _tierras frias_, or
cold regions, as well as in those of the _tierras calientes_, or hot
regions, the population inclines to a preponderance of males. Don
Fernando Navarro y Noriega gives in his tables of population 71,642 more
males than females; and, in the account of the taxes made by order of
the government in 1781, it appears that the excess is still in favor of
males, though in a much less proportion than assigned by Baron Humboldt.
We present the following table, prepared in Mexico for the purpose of
throwing more light on the subject:
TABLE OF POPULATION IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS IN DIFFERENT YEARS--RELATIVE
EXCESES--BIRTHS AND DEATHS.
Years. Departments, States, or Cantons Males. Females. Excess Excess
of States. males. females.
1829 New Mexico 21,799 21,640 159
1819 Alta California 10,979 9,107 1,872
1830 Do. do. 12,473 10,011 2,462
1832 Nuevo Leon 49,571 48,601 970
1829 San Luis Potosi.--See following
table.
1832 Oajaca 237,127 247,887 10,760
1823 Michoacan 178,052 187,028 8,976
{_Canton_ of Vera Cruz 29,851 31,695 1,844
{ " of Misantla 2,451 2,658 207
1831 { " of Papantla 4,279 4,225 54
{ " of Tampico 11,112 12,265 1,153
{ " of Jalacingo 7,816 8,046 230
{ " of Jalapa 19,837 22,867 3,030
1826 Guanajuato 165,896 179,288 13,392
1834 Chihuahua 75,303 69,879 5,424
1838 Tamaulipas 49,235 45,460 3,775
1838 Aguas calientes 33,661 36,032 2,371
1831 Jalisco.--See following table.
1838 Zacatecas. " " "
1821 Tamaulipas 34,356 33,428 928
1833 New Mexico 31,012 26,164 4,848
Births. Deaths. Excess.
Males. Females. Males. Females. Males. Females.
1829 San Luis Potosi--first
six months 4,882 5,159 2,029 1,885 421
1830 Jalisco--whole year 14,307 13,905 13,194 11,972 820
1837 Zacatecas--18 mo's. 10,935 11,006 6,376 6,495 48
1834[8] State of Mexico, except
2 prefectures 18,410 18,804 cholera this year.
1830 Guanajuato----whole
year 14,699 14,252 7,235 7,511 276
It may, generally, be said that the excess of one sex over the other is
in inverse proportion to the latitude; or, in other words, that, as we
advance from the equator, the excess of females over males decreases,
until the reverse occurs as the degrees of latitude augment. We must,
however, except from this rule the department or state of Tamaulipas, in
which the constancy with which nature sustains the excess of males, is
somewhat extraordinary. The most ancient document possessed upon the
subject, relative to this State, is of the year 1793, and from this we
discover that, from that year until 1807, 124 more males than females
were born therein, and that 30 more females than men died during the
period--
More _females_ than males are born in the following States, in the
order in which they are placed:
1. Vera Cruz--greatest number.
2. Oajaca.
3. Puebla.
4. Michoacan.
5. Guanajuato.
6. Jalisco.
More _males_ than females are born in the following States,
according to the order in which they are placed:
1. Alta California--greatest No.
2. New Mexico.
3. Sonora.
4. Chihuahua.
5. Coahuila.
6. New Leon.[9]
[Illustration: INDIANS OF THE TIERRA CALIENTE.]
CHAPTER IV.
AGRICULTURE--AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
AGRICULTURE--DRY AND RAINY SEASONS.--IRRIGATION--YIELD OF CORN
LANDS.--COLONIAL RESTRICTIONS.--COLONIAL DEPENDENCE--BAD
INTERCOMMUNICATION--ARRIEROS.--CORN LANDS--DIFFERENT KINDS OF CORN
IN MEXICO--MODE OF CULTIVATION--PRODUCTION--VARIOUS USES OF
CORN.--BANANA--MAINOC--RICE.--THE OLIVE--VINE--CHILE
PEPPER--TOMATO--FRIJOL--MAGUEY.--MAGUEY ESTATES.--MAKING
PULQUE.--ALOES--CACTI.
Sun, seasons, temperature, soils and moisture are the chief elements of
agricultural success or failure, according as they are beneficially
harmonized or unfortunately disunited. In our geological and
geographical descriptions we have already indicated the rapid changes of
temperature in Mexico experienced by rising gradually from the sea shore
to the summit of the table land, and passing through the _tierras
calientes_, _templadas_ and _frias_. This is the origin of the variety
of Mexican productions and the reason why the pine and the palm are
encountered upon the same parallel of latitude; but the _fertility_ of
Mexico is very much governed by the moisture with which it is annually
favored, and for which it is obliged to rely chiefly on the clouds. The
Mexicans are not accustomed to separate the year as we do into the four
seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, for the variation of
temperature scarcely authorizes such marked distinctions of climate; yet
they divide the twelve months into two grand divisions of _El Estio_--or
the dry season, and _La Estacion de las aguas_, or the rainy season. The
latter commences about May and lasts usually four months, whilst the dry
season comprises the remainder of the year.
The curving shores of Mexico along the gulf and interior highlands
gather and hem in an immense body of vapor, which is carried on by the
trade winds and condensed against the cold and lofty inland mountain
peaks which rise above the limit of perpetual congealation. This occurs
during the dry season whilst the sun is at the south. But when the power
of that luminary increases as it advances northward, and until it has
long turned back again on its southern course, these vapors are
dissolved by the hot intertropical air and descend, almost daily, in
fertilizing showers. The
[Illustration: GROUP OF PLANTS.]
formation of rain clouds and the precipitation of their moisture usually
begin on the coast near Vera Cruz, and the course of the rain storms
advances from east to west, inundating the _tierra caliente_ along the
eastern coast fifteen or twenty days before the table lands are
moistened. There have been seasons in which it did not begin to rain
until a month or two after the usual period. In 1802 such an event
occurred; and, again in 1826, the vapors did not begin to form and
descend until the end of July, in consequence of which the corn was
totally lost. If the rains are withheld beyond the middle of June, all
the cereal products are either destroyed or suffer greatly from the
drought. The power of the sun, by that time, becomes so great that the
ground is scorched and the air filled with clouds of dust which seem to
gather and concentrate the blazing rays, until the falling particles
surround or fall upon the traveller over the plains as if he were
passing through a shower of heated cinders. The heat, and the masses of
burning dust, are almost overpowering not only to vegetable but almost
to animal life.
The agricultural prosperity of Mexico, accordingly, depends either
largely upon the relative duration of these two seasons, or on the power
of the landed proprietors to supply the loss of water from the clouds,
by IRRIGATION derived from the rivers or slender streams that meander
through the interior of Mexico. Seldom, indeed, is the Mexican planter
or farmer obliged to complain of too much moisture. Between the
parallels of 24° and 30° the rains are of shorter duration, and the
intervals between the showers greater. But, fortunately, beyond the
26th°, a copious supply of snow, during the winter, compensates for the
want of rain at the regular season. Irrigation, therefore, is
universally resorted to, wherever there is an adequate supply of water,
and large sums are expended by the possessors of the principal estates,
in the construction of _acequias_, or canals; _presas_, dams or
reservoirs; and _norias_, or water wheels, by which the refreshing
element is forced up and distributed over the thirsty fields.
* * * * *
Such is a brief review and summary of the soil and seasons of Mexico.
The average annual yield of the corn lands throughout Mexico is
estimated at twenty-five bushels for one. In portions of the country,
during favorable years, and where the irrigation is good, from sixty to
eighty bushels for one have been produced. At Cholula, near Puebla, the
increase is stated at forty for one, while at Zelaya, Salamanca, and
Santiago, further north, from thirty-five to forty are produced on an
average of years. In the valley of Mexico, proper, the yield is from
eighteen to twenty; and even in the old possessions of California, it is
set down at from fifteen to seventeen. The best writers consider,
however, that notwithstanding the extraordinary fertility of their soil,
the Mexicans do not produce in ratio of quantity, superior crops to the
best agricultural portions of the United States.
* * * * *
The agricultural advantages of New Spain were early pointed out by some
of the colonial authorities to the Spanish Home government; but the very
fact of their existence seems to have alarmed the Court and to have
originated those restrictive laws which, as we have shown in our
historical narrative, so long ensured the dependence of the colony. The
King, the Cabinets and the Council of the Indies united in believing
that if the internal resources of the nation were developed, fostered,
and placed upon a firm basis, the political as well as the industrial
independence of America might naturally ensue; and accordingly, these
authorities resolved at once to adopt the narrow system of restrictions
which retained the essentially productive power in the hands of Spain.
Zumarraga, the first bishop and second archbishop of Mexico, addressed
urgent letters to the Emperor Charles V., exhibiting the agricultural
value of the country, and solicited laborers, plants, seeds, cattle, and
all the usual means for the development of Mexican resources. The
_Bandos_ published in the year 1524, by Cortéz, which are yet preserved
in the Hospital of Jesus, in the capital, contain wise decrees for the
encouragement of industry, and prove that the military life of the
Conqueror had not made him forgetful of his early agricultural labors in
the West Indies when he first emigrated from Spain. But the policy of
Spain was constantly declared to be adverse to this wholesome and
reasonable encouragement. When Luis de Velasco, the second of that name
who was viceroy in New Spain, passed thence to the viceroyalty of Peru,
he was instructed by the King and Council of the Indies to be careful
not to "foster manufactures, nor to allow the cultivation of vines,
inasmuch as there was already ample provision of these things and the
commerce of the kingdom should not be impaired by such colonial
products." At the same epoch, his successor in Mexico, the Conde de
Monterey, was also required to be equally vigilant and restrictive in
the region confided to his government. These orders, however, were not
always faithfully complied with throughout such extended and sparse
jurisdictions as those of Mexico or Peru; and accordingly in 1610,
through the Marques de Montesclaros, who replaced the Conde de Monterey
in those colonies, the royal prohibitions were repeated, with the
addition of the following emphatic language:--"Inasmuch as you
understand perfectly, how much the observance of these rules is
necessary for the _dependence_ of the colonies upon the parent state, we
charge and command you to see to their faithful execution." Wine and
oil, two of the most important products of Spain, and two of the
absolute necessaries of a Spaniard's life, wherever he may happen to
live, where thus protected from competition, and formed the means of
preserving the colonial vassalage. Nothing was left to the New World,
therefore, either to manufacture extensively, or to cultivate, except
some of the coarser cotton cloths, for ordinary garments, or a
sufficiency of the _cerealia_ for domestic consumption. It was necessary
to preserve an equilibrium or a reasonable ratio between the supply of
food and the production of the mines; and thus the common agricultural
and horticultural home markets for the necessaries of life were alone
left unencumbered for the Mexicans.
We are not aware that Spain encouraged, more than was absolutely
demanded for political ends, a system of internal improvement by
national roads, with lateral branches thridding and binding together all
parts of the country. Highways were opened and horses and mules
imported. But these were only suitable for the internal transportation
of the country; and, even to the present day, the whole of Mexico is
traversed by miserable roads, whose channels are often cut up into deep
ravines by the unceasing attrition of caravans. The stubborn but useful
mules, moving about the country in large bodies, under the guidance of
Arrieros, follow each other in single file over the same path for
centuries, and there is scarcely a highway in Mexico that is not worn by
their footsteps to the depth of several feet. Bad roads, royal
restrictions, and the want of transportation except by mules, all
combined to impede rural industry, waste the people's time, destroy
internal intercourse, and to force the consumption of agricultural
products either upon the spot where they grew or in its immediate
neighborhood. The independence of Mexico since 1824, has of course
relieved the nation from the foreign restrictions upon her commerce; but
the agricultural habits of the people were not to be changed by a
constitution or industrial laws. Improved roads and improved modes of
transportation have scarcely been attempted by the modern republicans.
Constant revolutions have destroyed concert of action among the people
in the different states through which the new highways would pass, at
the same time that they have impaired the unity of system or policy
upon which the national government might have acted for the general
improvement of internal communication or development of agricultural
resources. Some of the best citizens have written and labored in behalf
of national industry in all its usual or possible manifestations; but we
fear that many years of profound peace must be ensured to Mexico before
the farmer will be able to share in the blessings of commerce by means
of exportation.
[Illustration: ARRIEROS AND MULES.]
The great CORN LANDS of Mexico are those of Puebla;--the Bajio, which
comprises portions of the state of Guanajuato, Queretero, Valladolid,
Zacatecas, and Guadalajara, in the vicinity of the Rio Santiago;--the
valley of Mexico, in the state of Mexico;--the valley of Poañas, in
Durango;--and it is calculated that the cleared ground in these
districts is capable of producing _cerealia_ for a population five times
greater than that of Mexico at present. Corn, in the states of Mexico
and Puebla is worth two dollars the _fanega_ of one hundred and fifty
pounds; in Oajaca about one dollar for the same quantity. Its value is
every where irregular, and no general tariff of prices can be assigned
to Mexican breadstuffs until some great national market shall be
established or Mexico becomes an exporting country. Neighborhoods, at
present establish prices.
MAIZE or CORN, is a gift from the New World to the Old, and is
unquestionably the favorite food of the great mass of the inhabitants of
our continent. In Mexico, every household is furnished with it
abundantly, and all classes use it habitually.
Although this plant is a native of America it is never found growing
wild in the republic. Single stocks may be occasionally seen in remote
or uninhabited districts, but they are rarely met, and, in all
likelihood, have been sown by the flocks of robber birds who ravage the
Mexican _milpas_ or corn fields during the ripening season.
The best cultivated varieties in Mexico, are:
1st. _Maiz de padus_; with small ears, of eight rows, and the most
unimportant of all the varieties raised in the country.
2d. _Maiz manchado_, or _chiniesco_; a productive species with white,
yellow and red grains;--sometimes also entirely blue, in which case, it
is called _pinto_.
3d. _Maiz blanco_; a very productive kind, yielding a fine sweet meal.
4th. _Maiz amarillo_; this is sub-divided into:--1st, _maiz amarillo
grueso_, which is very generally cultivated and rarely yields less than
two or three ears each, with from three to six hundred kernels or
grains. 2d, _maiz amarillo pequeno_, is smaller and less stout; but in a
fruitful soil its yield weighs from ten to fifteen hundred weight, more
than the _grueso_.
5th. _Maiz cuarentino_; or quarentine corn; better known in Mexico under
the name of _maiz tremes_, or, _olote colorado_, which ripens quickly
and may be planted in the coldest parts of Mexico.
6th. _Maiz tardio_, or, _de riego_; the most productive of all
varieties, and that which is cultivated around the city of Mexico, and
in many moist regions. It sometimes yields five hundred per cent. on the
quantity planted.
Maize succeeds best in Mexico in moist and warm climates; but it has the
great advantage over the other cereal grains that it may be as
successfully cultivated in this country in the _tierras calientes_, as
in the _tierras frias_. Its highest limits here are from two to eight
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and consequently the time
required for ripening is different at different elevations. It varies
from seven months to six weeks.
The _diseases_ which sometimes affect or destroy this vegetable in
Mexico, as well the animals that assail it, may be summed up as follows:
1. _La requitte_, a wasting blight which affects the maize where it is
sown upon poor soil and is subjected to damp, cold weather soon after
planting.
2. _El carbon_--a vegetable fungus growth, resembling carbon or coal,
which appears in the ears and destroys them. This abortion in the fruit
is believed to be produced by an insect.
3. _El hanjo_--a species of _uredo_, which forms itself in the ear and
ruins it. The disease is generally known as _los Cuervos_.
The animals and birds that attack corn are:
1. A sort of mole--_talpa_--which undermines the fields and destroy the
young plants.
2. The _larvæ_ of _melolontha_, which not only seize the roots, but
often destroy the stalks and ears.
3. Flocks of pilfering birds, with which the corn-fields are covered, if
they are not carefully watched during the approach of harvest. Neither
day nor night are the ears safe from the attacks of these pilferers;
and, in order to protect the crop, watchmen are placed on high stages,
overlooking the acres, whence the traveller constantly hears their
shouts, during the day, or the crack of the warning whips, during the
night.
* * * * *
Maize may be planted in Mexico at different periods of the year,
especially in those districts in which, for nine months, there is always
sufficient moisture. In the _tierra caliente_, the _rancheros_,
cultivate, in this grain, the best spots lying near their dwellings. In
the cooler districts they have two kinds of culture--one by irrigation,
and another upon a dry soil. The latter mode is subdivided, by the
Mexicans, into three kinds--the _humido_, _aventureso_, and _temporal_.
In the first mode of cultivation the _Maiz tardio_, is sown, and it is
usually found to be the most productive. A seeding made in a soil
capable of preserving the winter's moisture and the humidity of the
first spring rains, is called _siembra de aventureso_. In the
_temporal_, a quickly ripening species of corn is planted--such as the
_maiz cuarentino_--which may be cultivated either before or during the
rainy season, from May to November.
It is rare that the common Mexican _ranchero_ is sufficiently provident
to select the soil for his corn crop, with due care; and accordingly we
find that maize is often planted in the midst of fields abounding in
stiff ungenial clay.
The present corn production of Mexico is not accurately determined, but
it is estimated that it is the chief subsistence of at least five
millions of persons, whilst it supplies the only fodder for all kinds of
domestic animals. Its average product must therefore be not far from at
least twenty millions of bushels.
* * * * *
Corn is a varied article of diet among all classes. The ancient Mexicans
made a species of sugar from the juice of the stalk--while the modern
Mexicans brew from it a fermented drink, called _pulque de maiz_, or
_omayo_. The extremely saccharine pith of this plant is often devoured
raw by the Indians, and it has been also frequently used in the
manufacture of brandy. The unripe ears are boiled or baked, and sold in
the towns and villages to the poorer classes, forming their sole
subsistence; while the leaves and stems afford a capital food for
beasts. Sometimes these portions of the plant are devoted to
architectural purposes, and a neat rustic hut is built of the cornlike
stalks, interwoven and thatched with their broad and graceful leaves.
A kind of beer, called _chicha_, is sometimes prepared from the kernels
of ripened maize, and is found, by natives and strangers, to be an
agreeable as well as wholesome beverage. When the _meal_ is boiled in
water, and mixed with some farinacious roots, a favorite and exceedingly
grateful gruel, known as _atolé_, is formed by the process. In the
_tierra caliente_, the kernels are often roasted and ground into
_pinole_;--but the most ordinary consumption of this precious vegetable
is in the _tortillas_, for which Mexico is so celebrated, and in the
preparation of which it is estimated that more than two hundred thousand
females, in the republic, spend four or five hours of every day. In
order to make _tortillas_, the grains of corn are soaked in water, to
which a small quantity of lime has been added, until they are relieved
of their shells. The pure and softened pulp is then laid on a flat stone
or _metate_, one end of which is slightly raised from the ground. A
Mexican woman kneels in the rear of the _metate_, and with another round
stone, rolls, macerates, and amalgamates the crushed corn until it is
formed into a rich succulent paste. Hard by, a thin metallic griddle is
set over ignited coals, which is constantly supplied by another female,
who pats the dough into extremely thin and delicate cakes. They are
eaten hot from the griddle, but, even when carefully prepared, are
deemed insipid and unsavory by foreigners.
Nor are these the only purposes to which this delightful plant and its
offal are devoted by the Mexicans. They have discovered, within a few
years, that a capital paper, for ordinary purposes, can be made of its
leaves; and they have long ago used them as wrappers for the
_cigarritos_, which no loyal native fails to indulge in hourly.
Man and beast--dwellings, food, paper, architecture, and cigars--are
thus, in Mexico, all indebted to Indian corn as one of the greatest
elements of comfort, sustenance, utility and luxury.
The extraordinarily productive BANANA is to the inhabitants of the
_tierra caliente_ what _maize_ is to those who dwell in the loftier and
cooler regions of the table land. An acre of wheat will supply the wants
of three men, but an acre of Bananas, or _plantains_, says Humboldt,
will support fifty.
The MAINOC, _cassava bread_, _jatropha manihot_, the JUCA or YUCA, as it
is known in the West India islands, is peculiar to the _tierra
caliente_, but is more used on the western than eastern coasts of
Mexico. A fine flour is made of the root, which in its raw state is
poisonous. When deprived of all its juice by pressure, the residuum is a
farinacious pulp, forming a pleasant food whose consumption, however, is
not likely to increase in Mexico.
The cultivation of RICE is not extensive. On the east coast between
Alvarado and Guasacualco, and on the western between Jamiltepic and
Huatulco, it has been grown in some few spots; but it does not appear to
please the popular taste sufficiently, ever to enter largely into the
list of national productions either for export or home consumption.
The OLIVE was one of the banned and forbidden products of the Spanish
colonies; but notwithstanding the inhibitions we have already cited in
this section, the tree was planted in various portions of the country
both previous to the revolution, and during intervals of repose whilst
the war of liberation was waging. The archbishop of Mexico was one of
the first to cultivate a plantation of it at Tacubaya near the capital.
At the beginning of this century, Joaquin Gutierrez de los Rios,
commenced the culture at his _hacienda_ de Sarabia, within the district
of Salamanca, in Guanajuato, and succeeded admirably; but his trees were
destroyed entirely during the revolution. At present some large
plantations have been made, in the same state, at several _haciendas_,
and, especially, at that of Mendoza, where 30,000 olive trees were set
out, in 1849.
The VINE, like the olive, was a forbidden fruit to Mexican
agriculturists under the Spanish dominion, except in a region about
Parras whose extreme northern remoteness from the capital perhaps
exempted it from the general inhibition. Elsewhere, throughout the
colony, vineyards were ordered to be destroyed wherever they
[Illustration: TORTILLERAS.]
were attempted; and this rule seems to have been enforced very
generally, except, at Tehuacan, in the state of Puebla and at some
points in the Misteca in Oajaca. The value of Spanish wines imported
annually before Mexican independence, reached the ample sum of $700,000;
and as the French and Germans have, since the opening of the ports,
availed themselves of the benefit for their own trade, it is very
questionable whether the vine will ever become an article of extreme
produce as long as the present race occupies the soil of Mexico. In
1843, the vine was still chiefly cultivated at Tehuacan and at Parras.
Plantations had been made in the neighborhood of Zelaya, but the actual
production of the region about Parras may be estimated from the returns
of the interior custom house of that district through which 616 barrels
of native brandy weighing 2,693 arrobas of 25 lbs. each and 323 barrels
of wine of 1,035 arrobas, together with 204 tierces of raisins, had
passed during the previous year.
_Chile_ PEPPERS or _capsicum_, are extensively cultivated on the table
lands. This pungent vegetable is not only used upon the table or in the
food of all classes as an occasional agreeable stimulant, but has become
one of the regular necessaries of life. It is either ground and mixed
with the various sauces and stews that always form part of a Spanish
meal, or is stuffed with pleasant condiments and eaten as other products
of the garden. No Mexican will pass a day without a dish of the genuine
article, and even foreigners who wince under its excoriation upon their
arrival in the country, soon become as fond of it as the natives.
Mexico produces nearly all the garden stuffs which are either natural to
or have been introduced into the United States, but either in
consequence of the climate, or of a careless mode of cultivation, they
do not generally equal our own in quality or flavor. The _tomato_ is
very fine, lucious and plentiful; and, next to corn, Chili and
_frijoles_, is probably most extensively consumed.
The _frijol_, a rich, nutritive, brown bean, altogether different,
however, from the ordinary _Garrabanzos_, is universally found on the
tables of Mexican gentlefolks and in the humble platters of the Indians
or Mestizos. Various kinds of this valuable esculent are raised in the
republic; but the dark bean of Vera Cruz is always sought as a delicacy
in the houses of the upper classes throughout the republic. It is both
wholesome and nourishing. Mixed with the stimulating gravy formed of
_chile_, and eaten with a _tortilla_ or corn cake, it soon becomes a
necessary of life to a stranger who resides for any length of time in
Mexico. Some of our country men have become so fond of the food, that
they have brought the bean with them upon their return to the United
States, and now supply their table with it instead of _hominy_. From the
_frijol_, the _tortilla_, and the _Chile pepper_ we pass to the great
national liquor, which requires generally longer time to win the favor
of foreigners.
THE MAGUEY--METL, or AGAVE AMERICANA, is a species of Ananas, or Aloe,
from which is made octli or _pulque_, the favorite beverage of the lower
and middle classes of Mexicans, especially in the central parts of the
table land.
This plant grows wild in almost every part of Mexico, yet the people do
not extract a liquid from it, except in the neighborhood of Puebla and
the capital, where its consumption is enormous. The principal
plantations are in the States of Puebla, Mexico, Guanajuato, and a small
portion of Valladolid. The districts most celebrated for the excellence
of their liquor, are in the vicinity of Cholula and the Plains of Apam.
So great was the consumption of this favorite national drink, that the
small municipal tax upon it, at the gates of the cities, amounted,
before the revolution, to $600,000--and, in the year 1793, to upwards of
$800,000.
Pulque is so little known in Europe, or in the United States, that some
account of the process, by which it is made, may be acceptable.
[Illustration: MAKING PULQUE.]
"The Maguey, or aloe, from which it is extracted, differs but little, in
appearance, from those which abound in the south of Spain, and are
known--though of a much smaller size--in England. Its growth is slow,
but when arrived at maturity, its leaves are usually from five to eight
feet in length, although some considerably exceed these dimensions.
"In the Maguey estates, the plants are arranged in lines, with an
interval of three yards between each. If the soil be good, they require
no attention on the part of the proprietor until the period of flowering
arrives, at which time the plant first commences to be productive. This
period is very uncertain; ten years, however, may be taken as a fair
average, for, in a plantation of one thousand aloes, it is calculated
that one hundred are in flower every year. The Indians, know, by
infallible signs, almost the very hour at which the stem, or central
shoot, destined to produce the flower, is about to appear, and they
anticipate it, by making a deep incision and extracting the whole heart,
or central portion of the stem, as a surgeon would take an arm out of
the socket, leaving nothing but the thick outside rind, thus forming a
natural basin or well, about two feet in depth and one and a half in
diameter. Into this the sap, which nature intended for the support of
the gigantic central shoot continually oozes, in such quantities that it
is found necessary to remove it twice, and even three times, during the
day. In order to facilitate this operation, the leaves on one side are
cut off, so as to admit a free approach. An Indian then inserts a long
gourd, (called _acojité_,) the thinner end of which is terminated by a
horn, while at the opposite extremity a small square hole is left, to
which he applies his lips, and extracts the sap by suction. This sap,
before it ferments, is called _Aguamiel_, (honey water,) and merits the
appellation, as it is extremely sweet, and does not possess that
disagreeable smell which is afterwards so offensive.
"A small portion of this _aguamiel_ is transferred from the plant to a
building prepared for the purpose, where it is allowed to ferment for
ten or fifteen days, when it becomes what is termed _Madre Pulque_, (the
mother of Pulque,) which is distributed, in very small quantities,
amongst the different skins or troughs, intended for the daily reception
of the Aguamiel. Upon this it acts as a sort of leaven; fermentation is
excited instantly, and in twenty-four hours it becomes Pulque in the
very best state for drinking. The quantity drawn off each day is
replaced by a fresh supply of _Aguamiel_, so that the process may
continue during the whole year without interruption, and is limited only
by the extent of the plantation. A good maguey yields from eight to
fifteen quartillos or pints, of _Aguamiel_ in a day, the value of which
may be taken at about one _real_, or twelve and a half cents;--and this
supply of sap continues during two, and often three months. The plant,
therefore, when about to flower, is worth ten dollars to the farmer;
although, in the transfer of an estate, the _Magueyes de corte_, ready
for cutting, are seldom valued, one with another, at more than five.
But, in this estimate, an allowance is made for the failure of some,
which is unavoidable, as the operation of cutting the heart of the
plant, if performed either too soon, or too late, is equally
unsuccessful and entirely destroys the plant. The cultivation of the
Maguey, where a market is at hand, has many advantages, as it is a
plant, which, though it succeeds best in a good soil, is not easily
affected either by heat or cold, and requires little or no water. It is
propagated, too, with great facility; for, although the mother plant
withers away as soon as the sap is exhausted, it is replaced by a
multitude of suckers from the old root. There is but one drawback on its
culture, and that is the period that must elapse before a _new_
plantation can be rendered productive, and the uncertainty with regard
to the time of flowering, which varies from eight to eighteen years. But
the Maguey grounds, when once established, are of great value, many
producing a revenue of ten and twelve thousand dollars per annum.
"The natives ascribe to Pulque as many good qualities as whiskey is said
to possess in Scotland. They call it stomachie,--a great promoter of
digestion and sleep, and an excellent remedy in many diseases. It
requires a knowledge of all these good qualities to reconcile the
stranger to that smell of sour milk or slightly tainted meat, by which
the young Pulque drinker is usually disgusted; but if this can be
surmounted, the liquor will be found both refreshing and wholesome, for
its intoxicating qualities are very slight, and as it is drunk always in
a state of fermentation, it possesses, even in the hottest weather, an
agreeable coolness. It is found, too, where water is not to be obtained;
and even the most fastidious, when travelling under a vertical sun, are
then forced to admit its merits.
"It is only to be met with _in perfection_ near the places where it is
grown; as it is conveyed to the great towns in hog-skins on mules or
asses. During this tedious process the disagreeable odor increases and
the freshness of the liquor is lost. A strong sort of brandy, called
_Mexical_, _Mescal_, or _aguardiente_, is likewise prepared from the
aloe, of which there is a great consumption in the country. Nor is the
utility of the plant confined to this; the Aztecs prepared from its
leaves the paper on which their hieroglyphics were written, pieces of
which, of various thickness, may be found at the present day. The more
fibrous parts supply the country with _pita_, a strong thread or twine,
which is made up into ropes and used not only in the interior, but on
the western coast as cordage for vessels. It is not so pliable as hemp,
and is more liable to be affected by the weather; but it is extremely
tough and durable, and consequently of very general utility. The
preceding plate contains an aloe in full produce, with the leaves cut,
the central cup displayed, and the skin, gourd, and scraper used in
extracting the sap."[10]
Mexico is filled with varieties of Aloes and Cacti. A species known as
the Organos--whose tall, erect and fluted columns shoot up to a height
of ten, fifteen or twenty feet, is used in many parts of the table land
for fences. Planted in close rows, its fine spines and firm limbs afford
an impervious wall against intruders, whilst the tops of these evergreen
and growing barriers are almost always covered with the most beautiful
blossoms. In many districts of Mexico these _cacti_ form one of the most
picturesque as well as useful features in the landscape.
CHAPTER V.
COLONIAL PRODUCTS.
ESTATES IN THE VALLEYS OF CUERNAVACA AND CUAUTLA--MEXICAN
HACIENDAS.--SUGAR REGIONS--COFFEE--ITS
YIELD.--TOBACCO--ORIZABA--CHIAPAS,
ETC.--INDIGO--COTTON.--MANUFACTURES ENCOURAGED IN MEXICO.--NO NEW
AGRICULTURAL POPULATION--NEW MANUFACTURING POPULATION.--PRODUCTION
OF COTTON--VAINILLA--JALAP--CACAO--COCHINEAL--ITS PRODUCTION AND
QUANTITY.--SILK--FRUITS--AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.--GRAZING, AND NOT
AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS CONTINUED.--COLONIAL PRODUCTS.
SUGAR.
It is generally admitted that the cultivation of SUGAR commenced in
China. The cane became first known, through Marco Polo, in the middle of
the thirteenth century; and it was soon after introduced into Nubia,
Egypt and Ethiopia; whence, about the 15th century, it reached Europe.
It was first planted in Sicily, and carried to Spain, Madeira, and the
Canary Isles; and, twenty-eight years after the discovery by Columbus,
it was introduced into Hayti, by Pedro Atienza, and speedily spread over
the West Indies and other parts of America.
THE SUGAR CANE is one of the most valuable agricultural products of
Mexico, and we are convinced from personal observation that the estates
in the _tierra caliente_, where it is chiefly raised, are the richest,
as well as most beautiful, in the republic. There is scarcely a lovelier
prospect in Mexico than that which spreads before the traveller as he
descends from the northern mountains into the valley or Cuernavaca,
which lies south of the valley of Mexico, and may be reached easily in
the course of a day. On every side, as far as the eye can reach, fields
of the freshest verdure are spread out, dotted with the white walls and
towers of the magnificent _haciendas_, which have been founded in this
valley ever since the conquest. Screened from the cold winds of the
upper table land by the protecting barrier of mountains which hem in the
vales of Mexico and Puebla, the valley of Cuernavaca basks, on their
southern slopes and feet, in a tropical climate. Winter never destroys
the foliage in this sheltered region. Pleasant streams gurgle through
its midst and afford sufficient supplies for irrigation. On the plain
the tender green of the young cane, waves in the sun-light like a mass
of purest velvet; whilst the palm and the plantain mingle their
[Illustration: MEXICAN FOREST SCENE.]
pensile and massive foliage amid the densest groves of oranges, aloes,
and forest trees. The valley of Cuernavaca is one of those picturesque
regions which are so well calculated to bring back a fanciful beholder
to the scenes he has conjured up in youth whilst perusing the story of
Paul and Virginia, or the glowing descriptions of the Arabian Nights.
It is in this charming region that some of the opulent citizens of the
republic, have succeeded the wealthy Spaniards in the princely domains
and _haciendas_ of the _tierra caliente_. In the neighborhood of
Cuernavaca we find the estates of Temisco, San Gabriel, Trenta Pesos, El
Puente, Meacatlan, San Gaspar, San Vicento Chiconcuac, and Atlajomulco.
The valley of Cuautla unites with that of Cuernavaca, on the east, and
contains, among others, the prominent estates of San Nicolas, Atlihuyan,
San Carlos, Acotesalco, Pantitlan, Cocoyöe, Calderon, Casasana, Santa
Iñez, Coahuistla, Mapastlan, and Tenestepango.
In the state of Oajaca there are the fine haciendas of Guendolein,
Arragon, Chicomastlahuaca and Ayotla, besides smaller plantations; and,
in the state of Vera Cruz there are many valuable estates in the
neighborhood of Orizaba and Cordova. The last mentioned establishments
produce annually from 40,000 to 50,000 arrobas of sugar; whilst those in
the valleys of Cuernavaca and Cuautla de Amilpas, (calculated in all, at
forty-eight, in number,) yield about 800,000 arrobas of sugar and
syrup--besides 50,000 barrels of rum. These products, together with some
indigo and coffee, raised in these two last named valleys, swell the
value of agriculture in these branches to two millions and a half
annually. On the estate of Guendolein, in Oajaca, 40,000 arrobas of
sugar were yielded every year, which sold in the federal capital at
about $160,000. At Atlajomulco, in Cuernavaca, 880,000 square yards of
land were cultivated in cane, which produced 4,600 cwt. of refined
sugar, 7,800 cwt. of molasses, and 300 cwt. of syrup. From the syrup is
distilled the common _chinguerito_, or a superior species of beverage
known as _aguardiente de cana_. At the estate of Santa Iñez, near
Cuautla, 4,000 barrels of this spirit are annually distilled and sold in
Mexico at $32 each, which, with a deduction of eight dollars for
transportation and duties, will leave a return for the planter of 24
dollars per barrel. In addition to this production of ardent spirits,
the estate produces annually about 40,000 loaves, of twenty-three pounds
each, or 920,000 pounds of refined sugar; and here, as elsewhere
throughout the planting districts, it is calculated that the molasses,
syrup, and in some places, the aguardiente, pay all the expenses of the
estate. The chief difficulty encountered by the proprietors, and their
_administradors_, is in the worthlessness of the Indian laborers, whose
character as agriculturists we have noticed in the section of this work
treating of the classes of Mexican society. Three hundred hands are
employed at the _hacienda_, who are paid a _per diem_ of two and a half
or three _reals_, according to their qualifications or work.
The hacienda of Temisco, in the valley of Cuernavaca, is one of the
oldest establishments in the republic, and, within a few years, has
passed into the possession of its present owners for the sum of
$300,000. The extensive buildings, consisting of a commodious dwelling,
constructed in the old Spanish style, and a large chapel, were erected
soon after the conquest. The domain extends over eleven leagues of land
in length, and three in width. Two hundred and fifty laborers produce
yearly about fifty thousand loaves of sugar, of an average weight of 23
pounds. The annual expenses of the farming and management amount to
thirty thousand dollars, which are repaid by the molasses, syrup, and
spirits, as at Santa Iñez, while, in addition to the crop, about four
thousand cattle are raised on the premises. On all these large estates a
store is kept by the owner, at which nearly the whole amount of the
Indian laborer's wages is received back in the course of the year. The
planters, in many parts of the country, are no longer contented with the
old system of extracting and preparing sugar; but, notwithstanding the
enormous cost of transporting such large masses of heavy machinery, they
have introduced all the modern improved engines used in the United
States and the West Indies. The profits must be large that will warrant
so extravagant an expenditure. The great haciendas disburse, in wages
and other current charges, from 800 to 1,200 dollars weekly. The
establishment of a _Trapiche_, or all the works required for a sugar
estate, is so costly an enterprise, that it is not likely the
cultivation of the article will become greatly extended by the opening
of new estates in the most productive regions. Labor, as well as
engines, will be required for this purpose, and it is quite improbable
that the few indolent Indians in the neighborhood will be prevailed on
to abandon their life of laziness for the toils of a sugar plantation.
Besides this, the present production fully supplies the home market, and
although the revenues and profits are extraordinarily tempting, it is
doubtful whether the Mexicans are sufficiently enterprising in
agriculture to adventure such enormous sums as are necessarily expended
before a single cane is planted or a pound of sugar manufactured. As
long as the
[Illustration: HACIENDA.]
rate of interest is high, the roads bad, transportation costly and
unchanged, and the condition of the country unsettled, these vast and
valuable rural districts will, in all likelihood, remain untenanted and
unwrought.
* * * * *
Baron Humboldt, whose analytical mind always strives to classify,
systematize and _tabularize_ his investigations, has endeavored to
ascertain and limit the maximum _height_ at which the cane may be
cultivated; but it is probably true that all such attempts, are
altogether visionary, in a country of great inequalities of elevation,
shelter and exposure. Many local causes, altogether independent of
relative elevation may produce the degree of heat requisite to bring
cane to perfection, yet it is generally conceded that the produce of a
plantation in the table land would not equal that of an estate near the
coast. The valley of Cuautla, for instance, is bounded on the north by
the lofty peak of Popocatepetl, against whose _snows_ the fresh verdure
of the cane, and the graceful branches of the palm are constantly
relieved. In an hour or two after leaving the plantation of Santa Iñez,
the traveller who passes thence towards the valley of Mexico, finds
himself obliged to put on his cloak or _serape_, after having suffered
from tropical heat during the preceding day. It might reasonably be
supposed that the vicinity of such immense masses of ice and snow would
naturally affect the temperature of the adjacent valley; but the frosty
peak of Popocatepetl only serves to condense the vapors that drift
inland from the sea and to set them free over the low and warm valleys
which border its southern base, whilst its broad shoulders protect the
plains from the cold blasts of the north wind.
COFFEE.
The soil of Mexico has been found adapted for the cultivation of coffee
as well as sugar; but under the old Spanish dominion it never formed one
of the articles of export, although it did not interfere with the
productions of the mother country. In 1818 and '19 extensive plantations
were commenced near Orizaba and Cordova, to which additions have since
been frequently made. The plant was likewise introduced into the valleys
of Cuernavaca and Cuautla by Antonio Velasco and the _administrador_ of
the estates of the Duke of Monteleone. The large _hacienda_ of
Atlajomulco, in the immediate neighborhood of Cuernavaca still pertains
to the descendants of Cortéz; and here the experiment of coffee culture
has been long and successfully tried. The average produce of each plant
is estimated at about two and a half pounds throughout all parts of the
republic where the berry is cultivated; though there are districts of
Mexico in which it is said that three or four pounds are yielded. This
probably depends very much on the size, age, or quality of the tree. Mr.
Ward states that he knew of a single tree, in the garden of Don Pablo de
la Llave, at Cordova, which produced _twenty-eight pounds_! The slope of
the eastern Cordillera is supposed to be best calculated for coffee
estates, and it is believed that Yucatan and Tabasco will ultimately,
under favorable circumstances, become the centres of a lucrative trade
in this article, if the Indian population can ever be trained to
agricultural labors, or made productively industrious in a land where
the wants of nature are so few and so easily supplied. The plantations
in the interior must long be excluded from foreign markets for the same
reason that we have assigned in regard to sugar. Roads and improved
transportation are the fundamental and primary elements of commercial
civilization, and until these are obtained permanently, Mexico must look
chiefly to her domestic market for agricultural recompense.
TOBACCO.
In a country in which all the men, and nearly all the women are habitual
and even constant smokers, tobacco, must necessarily be an article of
national importance. So valuable is its production that the government
has continued to maintain the monopoly of its sale, and, previous to the
revolution, managed to obtain an annual _clear_ revenue of from one to
two millions and a half of dollars, with a _gross_ income, occasionally,
of over seven millions and a half. In the cigar factories of Oajaca five
millions of packets of paper _cigarritos_ of thirty in each were
prepared, besides sixty thousand packets each containing seven _puros_
or ordinary cigars.
Tobacco grows well in a small district near Orizaba and Cordova, but the
best article produced in the republic, comes from Simojovel in the state
of Chiapas and from some districts of Oajaca. In Yucatan and Tabasco,
the plant is also cultivated successfully, and produces a mild and
fragrant leaf which is not included in the national monopoly. A large
portion of the tobacco sold in the republic is contraband; for the
ridiculous and greedy restrictions and exactions with which a plant of
such universal consumption is surrounded, necessarily dispose the people
to violate laws which they feel were only made to impair their rights of
production and trade under a constitution professing to be free.
INDIGO.
Indigo was cultivated and used by the Mexicans previous to the conquest.
The plant was known by them under the name of Xiuhquilipitzahuac, and
the particles from which the dye stuff was made, as Mohuitli or
Tlacohuilli. At the close of the seventeenth century the production of
this article had already greatly decreased. The chief part of it,
required for dyeing the cotton cloths which are generally used for home
consumption by the Indians and lower classes of Mestizos, has been
brought from Guatemala. It is found in Yucatan, Chiapas and about
Tehuantepec in the state of Oajaca, and grows wild in some very warm
localities in Tabasco. In this last named region there is every reason
to believe that it may be profitably cultivated, inasmuch as the indigo
plantations of San Salvador, in the neighborhood of Guatemala have been
known to produce one million eight hundred thousand pounds of the
article, valued at two millions of dollars.
* * * * *
The production of WAX, according to the Memoria Sobre el Estado de la
Agricultura y Industria, of Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, is gradually
augmenting in the republic. Attempts have also been made to cultivate
FLAX and HEMP. The first of which has been successfully raised by
Mariano Aillou in the neighborhood of Tenancingo, and the latter, in the
southern districts of the state of Michoacan, where it grows even
spontaneously and is known under the name of _guinary_. The product is
very large, the extent of territory covered by it very great,--and the
thousands of pounds annually raised in that district, are made up into
garments whose quality is highly approved throughout the republic.
COTTON.
In consequence of the high price of imported goods, owing to restrictive
tariffs as well as to the costliness of transportation a number of
intelligent persons began some years ago to establish factories for
cottons and woollens. The stimulus of domestic factories it was supposed
would naturally increase the culture of the raw materials, and,
accordingly, the national industry was aided from the beginning by
prohibitions or excessive duties, which either excluded the foreign raw
material altogether, or fostered the contraband introduction of cotton
twist and woollen thread.
Cotton was among the indigenous products of Mexico at the time of the
conquest; and the early adventurers not only found it to constitute the
common vesture of the masses of the people, but also that the most
delicate and luxurious articles of dress were made of it. The Aztecs
possessed the art of spinning it to an extreme degree of fineness and of
imparting to it the beautiful and brilliant dyes for which they were
celebrated; but both these mysteries were entirely lost in the general
destruction of aboriginal arts and records by the Spaniards.
Notwithstanding the natural anxiety of Spain to furnish her colonists
with her manufactures, she could never prevent the people from weaving
and wearing this spontaneous product of their soil. And, although the
cultivation of the raw material was neglected or not pursued with the
ingenious industry that would have made it a great staple product, it is
nevertheless estimated that the annual value of the domestic manufacture
in Mexico amounted to about $5,000,000. After the consummation of
national independence, foreign nations hastened to seize the trade of
Mexico and to fill the markets with an abundant but costly supply of
European and American stuffs. The drain of the precious metals which
this caused from a country that possessed no other article of export to
pay for the imported merchandize by exchanges, soon alarmed the
financiers of Mexico, and accordingly a higher scale of duties was
adopted for the encouragement of domestic manufactures. This, for a long
time, served only to augment the cost of apparel to the Mexican
consumer, whilst it had no other material effect upon the fabrics of the
country except to seduce a number of wealthy landholders into the
erection of factories, which have cost them, at least, ten if not twelve
millions of dollars. Unluckily, however, this amounted merely to the
creation of vast establishments which could not rely upon the resources
of the country for their supply, for the factories were built _before_
the farms were opened by which they were to be furnished with the
staple!
It is a fact, therefore, not very generally known, that Mexico has
become a manufacturing country. The water power which is abundant in
many parts of a mountainous region like that of Mexico, affords great
facilities for such establishments.
In 1843 there were 53 cotton factories in the republic with a total of
131,280 spindles, and it was estimated that,--looking to Mexico alone
for the supply,--there would be an annual deficiency of a large quantity
of the raw material. This calculation, it must be remembered, does not
include the consumption of cotton by hand looms, an immense number of
which are in constant use through the republic.
In consequence of this evident deficiency, and the prospect of the firm
establishment of a manufacturing system, many persons were induced to
commence the cultivation of cotton. But their failure was signal. It is
true that in Mexico the proportion of small farmers and rural tenants is
small, and that the great majority of the owners of the soil are large
landholders who might sometimes change the character of their
cultivation. But these men belong to the pastoral rather than the
agricultural age, and delight in the easier tending of their flocks and
herds. In addition to this we must take into consideration the well
known characteristics of the southern races enervated still more by the
genial climate of Mexico. Those races are governed by traditions. As
their fathers wrought--so _they_ work. Their antipathy to change is
proverbial, and it is by no means uncommon to see the spirit of an
anecdote related by Bazil Montague, realized every day in Mexico.
"In a particular district of Italy," says he, "the peasants loaded their
panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier
by filling it with stones, and when a traveller pointed out the
advantages to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was
answered that their forefathers, from time immemorial, had so carried
their produce to market; that they were wise and good men, and that a
stranger showed very little understanding or decency who interfered in
the established customs of a country." Such are the difficulties to be
encountered in the habits and prejudices of all old nations, and the
embarrassment, in the present instance, would not be so much in creating
a body of gentlemen planters, as in finding laborers to work the
plantations when they had been acquired.
Brought up as most of the Indians are, on small pieces of land, or in
little villages among the mountains, they find that the fruitful soil
produces, almost spontaneously, enough for their frugal support. A skin
or two, together with a few yards of cotton or woollen cloth, suffice,
every few years, for their requisite covering. The broad leaves of a
plantain, or, a palm with its matted vines, afford them shelter during
the day, whilst a kennel on the ground, keeps off the rains or night
dews. And thus, a servile contentment with traditionary occupations or
idleness, roots them to the soil where they were born, and makes them,
in fact though not in name, the hereditary slaves of the estates on
which their ancestors have worked for centuries. These men are, of
course, not to be suddenly diverted from their tastes; and the worthy
persons who have commenced the cultivation of cotton in suitable
districts of the country where the Indians are numerous and unemployed,
have been obliged to abandon their enterprises from the fact that their
laborers speedily deserted under the plea that they were not used to
such occupations, and, with less toil, had ample food and raiment in
their goats and gardens at home. The reasoning of the Indians is quite
natural and even wise under the peculiar circumstances of their actual
life. _Money_ is no object to them, for they have no object upon which
to expend it, and their isolated existence affords them no comparative
scale of society in which they might advance to a higher degree of
civilization by the possession of wealth. Why then should they toil to
acquire that which to them has not even the value of a _counter_?
Possessing without labor all that is needed for mere existence, their
toil can only be beneficial to their employers. In this, they perceive
by their native sagacity, that there is no recompense and no equality of
interests.
Whilst such are the reasons why a new agricultural population cannot be
created in Mexico, the reverse is precisely the case with regard to a
new manufacturing population. Factories are generally erected in the
neighborhood of large towns, or in populous districts where the surplus
of _females_ is continually in the greatest indigence. These people have
neither pieces of land, nor gardens, nor goats, nor means of livelihood
except beggary or the prison, and consequently they flock with eagerness
to every factory that affords the hope of employment and support. Thus,
whilst the tendency of the agriculture of Mexico is to produce
servitude, that of its manufactures is to create a feeling of honest
independence.
These speculations seem to indicate clearly, first, that the fixed
policy of Mexico is to establish a national system of manufactures; and,
secondly, that the cultivation of the staple which is to supply these
factories will not be largely increased; or if it be increased at all,
its augmentation will not be proportionate to the number and demand of
the factories.
* * * * *
The connexion between the production of cotton and its use is so close
that we have been unable in the preceding passages to avoid anticipating
some statements which will be more amply set forth in our section on
Mexican manufactures. We shall now turn our attention to the cultivation
and annual production in the republic.
* * * * *
Throughout the cotton growing districts of the United States the cotton
plant is of annual growth. Frost destroys it, and the planter is obliged
to renew the seed for every crop. But, in the tierra caliente of
Mexico, this is not requisite, as the tree propagates itself, and the
laborers are only required to keep the fields clear of extraneous plants
which spring up so rapidly and luxuriantly in tropical climates.
Notwithstanding the advantages offered by the erection of the factories
in Mexico, the best data obtained by Don Lucas Alaman in 1843, presented
only the following meagre returns of the proximate quantity of cotton
raised in some of the states of the republic, excluding, of course, the
small parcels raised by Mestizos and Indians for their private
consumption:
ARROBAS. LBS.
In the state of Jalisco, 1,000 or 25,000
" " Sonora, 3,500 " 87,500
" " Durango, 3,044 " 76,100
" " Oajaca, 21,583 " 539,576
" " Puebla, 3,738 " 93,450
" " Vera Cruz, 14,496 " 362,400
------- ---------
47,361 " 1,184,025
In this estimate the cleaned and uncleaned, or ginned and un-ginned
cotton are averaged together. It is generally considered, however, that
the whole country really produces at present about seventy thousand
quintals or seven millions of pounds.
The quantity, and consequently the value of the Mexican cotton crop has
been very variable. At Tepic on the west coast, in whose vicinity there
are many valuable factories, it has been sold as low as fifteen dollars
per quintal; while at Vera Cruz on the east coast it has risen to
twenty-two and twenty-four dollars, and, in Puebla and the city of
Mexico it has reached even to forty and forty-eight dollars. Cotton gins
have been established at Alvarado, at Cosamaloapan, and Tuxtla on the
northern and eastern coasts, and at Tepic, on the west; but they are not
sufficiently numerous throughout the country to supply even the present
limited production.
VAINILLA.
Mexico is generally considered the native country of the delicious
vainilla bean, which grows wild along the eastern coast amid the endless
variety of parasitic plants with which the forests are filled. It is a
native of Vera Cruz, Oajaca and Tabasco. On the wooded mountain or hill
slopes of the latter it has been discovered in great quantities; but
throughout Mexico this pleasant and valuable product has been left
almost entirely to the care of Indians. Its cultivation is exceedingly
simple. A shoot of the plant is inserted in the ground at the foot of a
tree intended to support the future vine, which, if properly freed from
the encumbrance of other parasites, soon embraces the trunk, and yields
beans during the third year. This hardy and fruitful plant lasts from a
quarter to half a century, according to the attention that is bestowed
on it; and it is remarkable that its cultivation has not engaged the
attention of foreigners who might safely reside in the beautiful and
healthy regions of Jalapa.
JALAP.
JALAP, like vainilla, is a parasitic plant; but its root instead of its
fruit is used for medicinal purposes. Its leaves resemble the ivy and
its beautiful red flowers open only at night. Growing plentifully in the
neighborhood of Jalapa, whence it takes its name, it is usually sent
abroad through Vera Cruz, where the commercial returns show that more
than three thousand quintals are rarely exported.
CACAO.
The use of chocolate is so universal in Mexico and throughout Spanish
countries, that it might naturally be supposed the cultivation of cacao
was largely and carefully attended to in the republic. Such, however, is
not the case. The cacao of Soconusco, and of the low grounds of
Caraccas, Guatemala and Guyaquil, was found to be so superior to the
Mexican article, that its production has been almost abandoned except in
the neighborhood of Colima, or on the Isthmus and in the states of
Tabasco and Chiapas.
COCHINEAL.
The OPUNTIA, or Indian fig, a species of cactus is the food in Mexico
which supports an insect from whose body the dye known as COCHINEAL is
made. It is found also in Brazil where it nourishes the _grana
sylvestre_ which affords a dye that is greatly inferior in color as well
as durability to that produced by the _grana fina_ of Mexico.
The _grana fina_ resembles a small bug in size and color, covered with a
whitish mealy powder, through which the rings or cross stripes on the
back of the insect are distinctly visible; the female alone produces the
dye; the males are smaller, and one is found sufficient to impregnate
three hundred females.
The cochineal bug feeds only on the leaf of the _opuntia_. The process
of rearing is complicated and attended with much difficulty. The leaves
of the nopal upon which the seed is deposited, must be kept free from
all foreign substances, and, in the cochineal districts the Indian women
constantly tend the plants, brushing them lightly with a squirrel's
tail.
In a good year one pound of seed deposited upon the plant in October,
will yield in December, twelve pounds of cochineal, leaving a sufficient
quantity of seed behind for a second crop in May. The plantations of the
cochineal cactus are confined to the district of the Misteca, in the
state of Oajaca and in the valley of Oajaca at Ocotlan.
Some of the Haciendas de Nopales contain from fifty to sixty thousand
plants, arranged in lines like the aloes in the Maguey plantations
already described, and cut down to a certain height, in order to enable
the Nopaleros to clean them more easily.
In the year 1758, a government registry-office was established in
Oajaca, in consequence of the complaints of British merchants, who had
received cargoes of adulterated cochineal. This bureau kept an accurate
account of the production and value of the article, within its
jurisdiction, and a tabular statement of the result has since been
published in the Memoria Estadistica de Oajaca, &c. &c., of Don J. M.
Murgnia y Galardi, who was a deputy to the Cortes from that province. By
this document, and subsequent returns, it appears that from 1758 to
1832, inclusive,--or in 75 years,--44,195,750 pounds of cochineal were
produced in the state of Oajaca alone, which were worth $106,170,671 at
the market price.
SILK.
After the independence of Mexico was secured the Mexicans in the
neighborhood of Zelaya, and in a few other places, attempted the
cultivation of the mulberry tree, for the purpose of feeding silk worms.
But this agricultural speculation failed. The planters did not possess
the Chinese mulberry, which is universally adopted as the best in all
silk producing countries.
In 1841 an association under the style of the "Michoacan Company," was
organized, in the capital of Michoacan, for the encouragement of silk
culture. The members of this body labored diligently to introduce the
Chinese tree, and spread it far and wide through the states of Vera
Cruz, Puebla, Mexico, Queretaro, Jalisco, Aguascalientes, San Luis
Potosi, Sonora and Michoacan. These labors were performed by thirty-six
_Juntas de fomento_, or committees of encouragement, and although the
trees have most generally grown well, it is to be feared that the
enterprise resembled the wild speculations in that species of mulberry
which, about the same period, both made and lost so many fortunes in the
United States. The cultivation of silk has been warmly urged by Don
Lucas Alaman, as exceedingly suitable for the state of Oajaca, where, in
the course of time, it may replace the cochineal whose product it is
said is beginning to fail in that district.
FRUITS.
The finest fruits of Mexico are commonly found in the _tierra caliente_.
The orange, lemon, lime, pine apple, banana, chirimoya, sapote,
ahuacate, tuna, granadita, are produced in great perfection. The apples,
peaches, cherries, grapes and gooseberries do not possess the high
flavor, nor are they found in the same varieties, as in the United
States; but the pears, especially those known as Gamboa pears, are
exceedingly delicious. Nearly all these fruits are consumed in their
natural state, yet immense quantities are preserved and form the
extraordinary varieties of _dulces_ without which no Mexican table is
considered properly set forth. It is very probable that if horticulture
and agriculture were scientifically studied by Mexicans, or if North
American and European gardeners were to emigrate to the country, even
the fruits which are now inferior to ours, would improve in quality,
size and flavor under their skilful management.
AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.
From all that we have already stated in regard to the Indian or laboring
population of Mexico, the nature of the seasons, and the want of
irrigation in many districts, except by artificial means, it will be
perceived that the agricultural progress of the country is extremely
doubtful. In addition to this, the land belongs to a few proprietors,
many of whom own estates of twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, and even a
hundred leagues square, which are chiefly devoted to _herds_ instead of
_agriculture_. Mexico is thus rather in the _pastoral_ than the
_commercial_ age, and must pass through the transition state of
independent sub-divided labor before she can stand, naturally, upon the
same platform with northern and European nations.
The early Spanish settlers were eager monopolists of mines and land.
Their object was to realize fortunes speedily; and by a liberal
_repartimiento_ of Indians they were enabled to found large estates upon
which those Indians either toiled as husbandmen or tended uncounted
herds. The prolific soil soon yielded, with little labor, the required
quantity of vegetables and cereal products; domestic markets were wanted
for the sale of the surplus, and the Spanish government did not open its
harbors for exportation. Agriculture was thus early limited to the mere
animal wants of the _glebœ adscripti_ and emigrant Spaniards, and as
the Indian never labors except when compelled by force or necessity, he
soon preferred the idle and wandering life of a herdsman to that of a
farmer. Many of these estates now number from ten to twenty thousand
head of cattle. Besides this the Spanish laws presented the Indian no
prospects of independent agricultural rights. The foreign landholder
enjoyed the exclusive ownership of the vast freehold. There was no
encouragement or hope given to small farmers who might emerge from the
servile race, and the consequence is that Mexico, until she becomes an
exporting country, receives an augmented population by immigration, and
sub-divides her immense territorial manors, under the demands of trade,
will, in all likelihood remain stationary in every thing pertaining to
agriculture. It is the multiplication of freeholders under the stimulus
of commerce, that promotes freedom, industry, and personal independence.
Competition is continually excited by the wants of a numerous nation, or
by the prospect of selling the results of our labor to others abroad who
are not so well supplied or do not produce the articles we cultivate and
manufacture. But Mexico, as at present constituted, is an exceedingly
small white _civilized_ nation, if we exclude her four and a half
millions of Indians. She is not increased annually by immigration from
the crowded countries of the Old World, nor does she encourage the
advent of strangers. Her population therefore is substantially confined
within the narrow limits of natural increase by birth alone. These
singular facts exhibit the anomalous condition of all the Spanish
settlements upon the virgin and inviting soil of America; and until the
Chinese exclusiveness of these various western nations is abandoned as
an absurdity in the nineteenth century, we do not believe that the Arab
plough will be replaced by the civilized implements of North American
agriculture, or that the Mexican shepherd will turn into an enlightened
farmer. We have seen that even the stimulus of domestic demand for
cotton, has been unable to produce a new agricultural class among those
who were devoted to other traditionary toils. What hope, then, can there
be of an improvement in cereal cultivation, when the country is already
supplied, and owns neither a navy nor merchantmen?
CHAPTER VI.
REFLECTIONS ON EMIGRATION--ADVANTAGES OF AMERICA--LAND AND
LABOR.--MINES WROUGHT BY AZTECS--MINING DISTRICTS AND EXTENT IN
MEXICO.--ERRORS AS TO EARLY SUPPLY OF METALS FROM AMERICA--TRUE
PERIOD OF ABUNDANCE--MINES NOT EXHAUSTED--CONDITION--FAMILIES
ENRICHED.--EFFECT OF MINING ON AGRICULTURE.--RELATIVE PRODUCT OF
SILVER FOR TEN YEARS--TABLE OF PRODUCT--YIELD OF THE MINES SINCE
THE CONQUEST.--COINAGE 1844--TOTAL COINAGE 1535 to 1850.
MEXICAN MINES, MINERAL WEALTH AND COINAGE.
It is generally supposed that the mineral wealth of America was one of
the most powerful stimulants of the Spanish conquest and subsequent
emigration; nor is the idea erroneous if we recollect the manner in
which the Castilian power was founded on this continent and the colonial
policy it originated. It will be seen by the tables annexed to this
section, that the results have largely fulfilled the hopes of the
European adventurers, and that the wealth of the world has been
immensely augmented and sustained, by the discovery of our Continent. In
the order of the earth's gradual development, under the intellectual
enterprise or bodily labor of man, we find the most beautiful system of
accommodation to the growing wants or capacities of our race. Space is
required for the crowded population of the Old World, and a new
continent is suddenly opened, into which the cramped and burdened
millions may find room for industry and independent existence. The
political institutions of Europe decay in consequence of the
encroachments of power, the social degradation of large masses by unjust
or unwise systems, or the enforced operation of oppressive laws, and a
virgin country is forthwith assigned to man in which the principle of
self government may be tried without the necessity of casting off by
violence the old fetters of feudalism. The increasing industry or
invention of the largely augmented populations of the earth, exacts
either a larger amount or a new standard of value for the precious
metals, and regions are discovered among the frosts and forests of a far
off continent, in which the fable of the golden sands of Pactolus is
realized. The labor of men and the flight of time strip commercial
countries of their trees, yet, in order to support the required supply
of fuel, not only for the comfort and preservation but also for the
industry of the race, the heart of the earth beneath the soil which is
required for cultivation, is found to be veined with inexhaustible
supplies of mineral coal.
The bounty and the protective forethought of God for his creatures is
not only intimated but proved by these benevolent storehouses of
treasure, comfort and freedom; and whilst we acknowledge them with
proper gratitude, we should not forget that their acquirement and
enduring possession are only to be paid for by labor, economy, and
social as well as political forbearance.
We do not think these observations out of place in a chapter devoted to
the mineral wealth of Mexico. The subject of property and its
representative metals, should be approached in a reflective and
christian spirit, in an age in which the political and personal misery
of the overcrowded masses of Europe, is forcing them to regard all who
are better provided for, or more fortunate by thrift or the accident of
birth, as enemies of the poor. The demagogue leaders of these wretched
classes, pushing the principle of just equalization to a ridiculous and
hideous extreme, have not hesitated to declare in France, since the
revolution of February, 1848, that "property is robbery."[11] We shall
not pause to examine or refute the false dogma of a dangerous
incendiary. The common sense as well as the common feeling of mankind
revolts at it. Property, as the world is constituted by God, is the
_source_ of new industry, because it is, under the laws of all civilized
nations, the original _result_ of industry. "It makes the meat it feeds
on." Without it there would be no duty of labor, no exercise of human
ingenuity or talent, no responsibility, no reward. The mind and body
would stagnate under such a monstrous contradiction of all our physical
and intellectual laws. The race would degenerate into its former savage
condition; and force, instead of its antagonists, industry and honest
competition, would usurp the dominion of the world and end this vicious
circle of bastard civilization.
And yet it is the duty of an American,--who, from his superior position,
both in regard to space in which he can find employment and equal
political laws by which that employment is protected, stands on a
vantage ground above the confined and badly governed masses of
Europe,--to regard the present position of the European masses not only
with humane compassion, but to sympathize with that natural feeling that
revolts against a state of society which it seems impossible to
ameliorate, and yet whose wants or luxuries do not afford them support.
It is hard to suffer hunger and to see our dependants die of starvation,
when we are both able and willing to work for wages but can obtain no
work upon which to exercise our ingenuity or our hands. It is frightful
to reflect, says Mr. Carlyle, in one of his admirable essays, that there
is hardly an English horse, in a condition to labor for his owner, that
is deprived of food and lodging, whilst thousands of human beings rise
daily from their obscure and comfortless dens in the British isles, who
do not know how they shall obtain employment for the day by which they
may purchase a meal.
To this dismal account of European suffering, the condition of the
American continent affords the best reply. The answer and the remedy are
both displayed in the social and political institutions, as well as in
the boundless unoccupied and prolific tracts of our country. Labor cries
out for work and recompense from the Old World, whilst the New displays
her soil, her mines, her commerce and her trades, as the best _alms_
that one nation can bestow on another, because they come direct from God
and are the reward of meritorious _industry_. Before such a tribunal the
modern demagogue of continental Europe shrinks into insignificance, and
the laws of labor are effectually vindicated.
The MINES OF MEXICO have been wrought from the earliest periods. Long
before the advent of the Spaniards, the natives of Mexico, like those of
Peru, were acquainted with the use of metals. Nor were they contented
with such specimens as they found scattered at random on the surface of
the earth or in the ravines of mountain torrents, but had already
learned to dig shafts, pierce galleries, form needful implements, and
trace the metallic veins in the hearts of mountains. We know that they
possessed gold, silver, lead, tin, copper and cinnabar. Beautiful
samples of jewelry were wrought by them, and gold and silver vases,
constructed in Mexico, were sent to Spain by the conquerors, as
testimonials of the mineral wealth of the country. The dependant tribes
paid their tributes to the sovereign in a species of metallic currency,
which though not stamped by royal order, was yet the representative of a
standard value. The exact position of all the mines from which these
treasures were derived by the Aztecs is not certainly known at the
present day, but as the natives were often compelled to indicate some of
the sources of their riches to the conquerors there is little doubt that
the present mineral district of the republic is that from which they
procured their chief supplies.
The mines of Mexico may be classed in eight groups, nearly all of which
are placed on the top or on the western slope of the great _Cordillera_.
The _first_ of these groups has been the most productive, and embraces
the districts contiguous to Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi, Charcas,
Catorce, Zacatecas, Asientos de Ybarra, Fresnillo and Sombrerete.
The _second_ comprises the mines situated west of the city of Durango as
well as those in Sinaloa, for the labors of engineers have brought them
so close to each other by their works that they may be united in the
same geological division.
The _third_ group is the northernmost in Mexico, and is that which
embraces the mines of Chihuahua and Cosiguiriachi. It extends from the
27th° to the 29th° of north latitude.
The _fourth_ and _fifth_ clusters are found north-east of Mexico, and
are formed by the mines of Real del Monte or Pachuca, and Zimapan, or,
El Doctor.
Bolaños, in Guadalajara, and Tasco in Oajaca, are the central points of
the _sixth_, _seventh_ and _eighth_.[12]
The reader who will cast his eye over the map of Mexico, will at once
perceive that the geographical space covered by this metalliferous
region, is small when compared with the great extent of the whole
country. The eight groups into which the mining districts are divided
occupy a space of twelve thousand square leagues, or one tenth only of
the whole extent of the Mexican republic as it existed previous to the
treaty of 1848 and before the mineral wealth of California and probably
of New Mexico was known to the world. But as that treaty confirmed and
ceded to the United States more than one half of the ancient territory
of Mexico, we may estimate the mining region as covering fully one fifth
of the remainder.
Before the discovery and conquest of the West Indies and the American
continent, Europe had looked to the east for her chief supplies of
treasure. America was discovered by Columbus, not as was so long
imagined, because he foresaw the existence of another continent, but
because he sought a shorter route to the rich and golden Zipangou, and
to the spice regions of eastern Asia. Columbus and Vespuccius both died
believing that they had reached eastern Asia, and thus a geographical
mistake led to the greatest discovery that has ever been made. In proof
of these assertions we may state that Columbus designed delivering _at
Cuba_, the missives of the Spanish king to the great Kahn of the
Mongols, and that he imagined himself in Mangi the capital of the
southern region of Cathay or China! "The Island of Hispaniola," (Hayti)
he declares to Pope Alexander VI., in a letter found in the archives of
the Duke of Varaguas,--"is Tarshish, Ophir, and Zipangou. In my second
voyage, I have discovered fourteen hundred islands, and a shore of three
hundred and thirty-three miles, belonging to the continent of Asia."
This _West Indian_ Zipangou produced golden fragments or spangles,
weighing eight, ten and even twenty pounds.[13]
Before the discovery of the _silver_ mines of Tasco, on the western
slope of the Mexican Cordillera, in the year 1522, America supplied only
_gold_ to the Old World, and consequently, Isabella of Castile was
obliged, already in 1497, to modify greatly, the relative value of the
two precious metals used for currency. This was doubtless the origin of
the Medina edict--which changes the old legal ratio of 1:10.7. Yet
Humboldt has shown that, from 1492 to 1500, the quantity of gold drawn
from the parts of the New World then known, did not amount, annually, to
more than about one thousand pounds avoirdupois;--and the Pope Alexander
VI., who, by his famous Bull, bestowed one half the earth upon the
Spanish kings, only received in return, from Ferdinand the Catholic,
some small fragments of gold from Hayti, to gild a portion of the dome
of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore;--a gift that was suitably
acknowledged in a Latin inscription in which the offering is set forth
as the first that had been received by the Catholic sovereigns from
India.
Although the income of treasure must have increased somewhat, yet the
working of the American mines did not yield three millions of dollars
yearly until 1545. The ransom of Atahualpa amounted, according to
Gomara, to about four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of our
standard, or fifty-two thousand marks of silver, whilst, the pillage of
the Temples at Cuzco, if Herrera is to be credited, did not produce more
than twenty-five thousand seven hundred marks, or a little more than a
quarter of a million of our currency.[14]
It has been generally imagined that the wealth of the New World
immediately and largely enriched the Spanish kings or their people; and
that the sovereigns, under whose auspices the discovery was made,
participated, at once, in the treasures that were found in the
possession of the Indian rulers. Such, however, was not the case. The
historian Ranke, in his essay on the Spanish finances, has shown, by new
documents and official vouchers, the small quantity of the precious
metals which the American mines, and the supposed treasures of the Incas
yielded.[15] It is probable that the conquerors did not make exact
returns to the court of their acquisitions, or that the revenue
officers, appointed at an early period of American history, were not
remarkable for the fidelity with which they transmitted the sums that
came into their possession as servants of the crown; and thus it
happened that neither the king of Spain nor his kingdom, was speedily
enriched by the New World. Baron Humboldt, in one of his late
publications, gives an interesting extract from a letter written by a
friend of Ferdinand the Catholic a few days after his death, which
exhibits the finances of that king in a different light from that in
which they have been hitherto viewed. In an epistle to the bishop of
Tuy, Peter Martyr says, that this "Lord of many realms,--this wearer of
so many laurels,--this diffuser of the Christian faith and vanquisher of
its enemies,--died _poor_, in a rustic hut. Whilst he lived no one
imagined that after his death it would be discovered that he possessed
scarcely money enough either to defray the ceremony of his sepulture, or
to furnish his few retainers with suitable mourning!"[16] The
adventurers _in America_, were doubtless enriched, and duly reported
their gains to friends at home; but Spain itself was not speedily
improved by their acquisitions.
* * * * *
The rise in the prices of grain and other products of agriculture or
human industry, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and
especially from 1570 to 1595, indicates the true beginning of the
plentiful flow of the precious metals to the Old World, in consequence
of which their value diminished and the results of European industry
increased in price. This is accounted for by the commencement of the
beneficial working of the American mines about that period. The real
opening of the mines of Potosi, by the Spanish conquerors, dates from
the year 1545; and it was between this epoch and 1595, that the splendid
masses of silver from Tasco, Zacatecas, and Pachuca, in New Spain; and
from Potosi, Porco and Oruro, in the chain of Peruvian Andes, began to
be distributed more uniformly over Europe, and to affect the price of
its productions. From the period of the administration of Cortéz to the
year 1552, when the celebrated mines of Zacatecas were just opened, the
export from Mexico, rarely reached in value, annually, 100,000 pesos de
oro, or nearly $1,165,000. But from that date it rose rapidly, and in
the years 1569, 1578 and 1587, it was already, respectively--
931,564 Pesos de oro. } The Peso de oro, is rated by Prescott,
1,111,202 " " } at $11.65 cents, and by Ramirez,
1,812,051 " " } at $2.93 cents.[17]
During the last peaceful epoch of the Spanish domination, Baron Humboldt
calculates the annual yield of the mines of Mexico at not more than
$23,000,000, or nearly 1,184,000 pounds, avoirdupois, of silver, and
3,500 pounds, avoirdupois, of gold. From 1690 to 1803--$1,330,772,093
were coined in the _only_ mint of Mexico; while, from the discovery of
New Spain until its independence, about $2,028,000,000, or two-fifths of
all the precious metals which the whole of the New World has supplied
during the same period, were furnished by Mexico alone.[18]
It appears from these data that the exhaustion of the mines of Mexico is
contradicted by the geognostic facts of the country, and as we shall
hereafter show, by the recent issues of Mexican mints. The mint of
Zacatecas, alone, during the revolutionary epoch, from 1811 to 1833,
struck more than $66,332,766, and, in the eleven last years of this
period, from four to five millions of dollars were coined by it every
year uninterruptedly.
The general metallic production of the country,--which was of course
impeded by the revolutionary state of New Spain between 1809 and
1826,--has arisen refreshed from its slumber, so that, according to the
best accounts it has ascended to perhaps twenty millions annually in
total production, in consequence of the prolific yield of the workings
at Fresnillo, Chihuahua, and Sonora, independent of the abundant
production at Zacatecas.
The Mexican mines were eagerly and even madly seized by the English, and
even by the people of the United States, as objects of splendid
speculation, as soon as the country became settled; but, in consequence
of bad management, or the wild spirit of gambling which assumed the
place of prudent commercial enterprise, the holders of stock were either
disappointed or sometimes ruined. Subsequently, however, the proprietors
have learned that prudence and the experience of old Mexican miners was
better than the theoretical principles upon which they designed
producing larger revenues than had ever been obtained by the original
Spanish workmen. Their imported modern machinery and engines for voiding
water from the shafts and galleries is the chief beneficial improvement
introduced since the revolution; but the enormous cost of transporting
the heavy materials, in a country where there are no navigable rivers
extending into the heart of the land, and where the usual mode of
carriage is on the backs of mules, by wretched roads over mountains and
through ravines, has often absorbed large portions of the original
capital before the proprietors even began to employ laborers to set up
their foreign engines. Many of the first British and American
adventurers or speculators have, thus, been ruined by unskilful
enterprises in Mexican mines. Their successors, however, are beginning
to reap the beneficial results of this expenditure, and, throughout the
republic steam engines, together with the best kinds of hydraulic
apparatus, have superseded the Spanish _malacates_.
"Whenever these superb countries which are so greatly favored by
nature," says Humboldt, in his essay on gold and silver, in the Journal
des Economistes, "shall enjoy perfect peace after their deep and
prolonged internal agitations, new metallic deposites will necessarily
be opened and developed. In what region of the globe, except America,
can be cited such abundant examples of wealth, in _silver_? Let it not
be forgotten that near Sombrerete, where mines were opened as far back
as 1555, the family of Fagoaga,--Marquesses de Apartado,--derived, in
the short space of _five months_, from a front of one hundred and two
feet in the outcropping of a silver mine, a net profit of $4,000,000;
while, in the mining district of Catorce, in the space of two years and
a half, between 1781 and the end of 1783, an ecclesiastic, named Juan
Flores, gained $3,500,000, on ground full of chloride of silver and of
_colorados_!"
One of the most flourishing establishments in 1842, was the
Zacatecano-Mejicano Mining Company of Fresnillo. Its 120 shares, which
originally cost $22,800, were still held by Spaniards and Mexicans.
These mines were originally wrought by the state of Zacatecas; but, in
1836, Santa Anna took possession, by an alleged right of conquest, and
rented them for twelve years, to the successful company. In the first
half year of 1841, they produced $1,025,113, at a cost of $761,800, or a
clear profit of $263,313.
* * * * *
Mexico, under the colonial system with the immense product of her mines,
and notwithstanding the richness of her soil for agricultural purposes,
became almost entirely a silver producing country. The policy of Spain
was, as we have already often stated, to be the workshop of the New
World, while Mexico and Peru were the treasures of the Old. The
consequence of this was natural. Mexico, one of the finest agricultural
and grazing lands in the world, but with no temptations to export her
natural products, as she had no markets for them elsewhere, and no
roads, canals, or rivers to convey her products to seaports for shipment
even if she had possessed consumers in Europe, at once devoted herself
to her mines which were to be both wealth and the representatives of
wealth. Her agriculture, accordingly, assumed the standard of the mere
national home consumption, while the pastoral and horticultural
interests followed the same line, except perhaps, within late years in
California, where a profitable trade was carried on by the missions in
hides and tallow. From this restrictive law of exportation we of course
except vainilla, cochineal and a few other minor articles.
The sources of the wealth of the principal families of Mexico will
consequently be found in her mines, and an interesting summary of this
aristocracy is given by Mr. Ward in his "Mexico in 1827," to prove the
fact. The family of Regla, which possessed large estates in various
parts of the country, purchased the whole of them with the proceeds of
the mines of Real del Monte. The wealth of the Fagoagas was derived from
the great Bonanza of the Pavellon at Sombrerete. The mines of Balaños
founded the Vibancos. Valenciana, Ruhl, Perez-Galvez, and Otero, are all
indebted for their possessions to the mines of Valenciana and
Villalpando, at Guanajuato. The family of Sardaneta,--formerly Marqueses
de Rayas,--took its rise from the mine of that name. Cata and Mellado
enriched their original proprietor, Don Francisco Matias de Busto,
Marquis of San Clemente. The three successive fortunes of the celebrated
Laborde, of whom we shall speak hereafter when we describe Cuernavaca,
were derived from the mines of Quebradilla, and San Acasio at
Zacatecas, and from the Cañada which bore his name at Tlalpujahua. The
beautiful estates of the Obregones, near Leon, were purchased with the
revenues of the mines of La Purisima and Concepcion, at Catorce; as was
also the estate of Malpasso acquired by the Gordoas from the products of
La Luz. The Zambranos,--discoverers of Guarisamey,--owned many of the
finest properties in Durango; while Batopillas gave the Bustamantes the
opportunity to purchase a title and to enjoy an immense unencumbered
income.[
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/49538