Class Tj^lM Rnnk.Tgfc e Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/mexicotodaytomor02trow MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW BY E. D. TROWBRIDGE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1919 All rights reserved » f ^3 Copyright, 1919 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1919. PEEFACE We have, in the United States, a very confused idea of what has been happening in Mexico during the past seven or eight years. Beyond knowing that there have been revolutions and counter-revolutions, with a mass of disorder, and that we have, two or three times, been on the verge of war with our next door neighbor, we know little of what it is all about. In the following pages I have endeavored to give a general idea of the social, industrial, political and economic conditions which have prevailed in Mexico since the fall of the Diaz re- gime in 1911, and to outline briefly some of the prob- lems which confront the country. I have not attempted, in this work, anything like a complete history of Mexico, but I have felt that, for a full understanding of present-day conditions, it is essen- tial to examine early Mexican history and the history of Spanish rule and subsequent events insofar as these periods have affected national life. In dealing with events antedating what may be termed modern Mexico I have made no attempt at original research, and, so far as concerns anything prior to 1900, the work here presented is a repetition or reflection of the findings or opinions of Fiske, Prescott, Bancroft, Luis Perez Verdia and other authorities. The story of subsequent events is based largely on personal experience or observation, and on opinions formed through contact with all classes of Mexican society. I have endeavored, in the hope of aiding in a better understanding of the whole situation, PEEFACE to present tlie Mexican viewpoint, as well as tliat of the outsider, on questions of domestic affairs and foreign relations. I wish to express my thanks to Senores Luis Cahrera, Ignacio Bonillas, Carlos Basave, Eduardo del Easo, Eafael E'ieto, V. M. Gutierrez, J. M. Cardenas and other Mexican friends for facilities given me for obtain- ing data; to Mr. George F. Weeks of Washington for chronological data ; and to Mr. C. W. Van Law of Bos- ton for valuable suggestions. Edwakd D. Teowbeibge, Detroit, December 9, 1918. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Ancient Mexico and the Aztecs .... 1 II Aztec Civilization 10 III The Montezumas 22 IV The Spanish Conquest 31 V Spanish Mexico 39 VI Independence 50 VII Madame Calderon De La Barca 61 Vin American War — French Occupation ... 80 IX PoRFiRio Diaz 91 X The Cientificos 97 XI Social Conditions 105 XII Hygienic Conditions 115 XIII Agrarian and Other Problems 119 XIV Madero 130 XV HUERTA 140 XVI Carranza — Villa — Zapata 151 XVII Difficult Conditions 167 XVIII Carranza and His Troubles 179 XIX The New Constitution 202 XX Constitutional Government 222 XXI Financial Needs 233 XXII Mexico and the World War 247 XXIII Mexico and Foreign Capital 261 XXIV Agrarian and Other Problems 273 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW CHAPTER I ANCIENT MEXICO AND THE AZTECS Mexico is a land of vivid, startling contrasts. The great Mexican Plateau is a region bathed in perpetual, brilliant sunshine; the Mexican tropical forests are vast, somber jungles into which the sunshine barely fil- ters. It is a land of mystery, and a land of common- place dirt and existence. Areas of fabulously rich soil contrast with arid desert regions. In Mexican history there are, on the one hand, romance, adventure, chiv- alry, sacrifice, lofty ideals; on the other, oppression, cruelty, sordid ambition, pestilence. Great wealth confronts the direst poverty. The lights are always strong, the shadows always dark. Much has been written of Mexican history, of the early architecture, of the Spanish conquest, of wars and revolutions, of industrial growth and possibilities. The purpose of these works has been to make scientific examination of the life of early American peoples, to give purely chronological relation of the course of events in the country, or to treat the question from the viewpoint of world developments in commerce and in- dustry. Little has been written from the viewpoint of the social life of the Mexican people. It is intended in the following pages, to attempt to give some idea of the conditions of the life of the people, of the factors which 1 2 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEKOW led up to the turbulent years through which Mexico has passed, and of the problems which confront the coun- try. It is necessary, however, in order to reach an un- derstanding of present conditions, to review early his- tory, and that of the Spanish rule in Mexico, in so far as these have influenced the development of the social conditions of the people. Who the original inhabitants of Mexico were, and where they came from, are questions veiled in impene- trable mystery. We are apt to think of the Aztecs as the early people of Mexico. They, however, were rela- tively late comers. In 1870 there was found at Te- quizquiac, in a geological formation of the Nezoic pe- riod (the period of fauna gigantica), a skull of a cow, carved in stone, and human bones have been found in old geological formation, indicating that the country was inhabited at a very remote period. The first his- toric period in Mexico was that in which the great stone monuments and temples were erected by the Itzaes, a race whose civilization spread over Central America and thence along the West Coast of South America. The monuments, constructed of huge blocks of stone, were covered with rich carvings having many of the characteristics of the Assyrian and early Egyptian monuments. The carvings are historical records, with figures and groups of figures used much as hieroglyphics were used by the Egyptians, and while some, by anal- ogy or by traditions picked up by early Spanish priests, have been deciphered, the key to this lost ideographic language has never been found. In general, the early monuments may be grouped into three divisions: Those of the Itzaes, in Yucatan and Central America; those of the Mixtecos and Zapotecos, branches of the Maya race, in Mitla, (in the State of Oaxaca), at Xochicalco, (in the State of Morelos) and at various AJSTCIENT MEXICO AND THE AZTECS 3 points in the States of Puebla and Guerrero ; and those of the ToltecSj including the great pyramids erected at Teotihuacan, pyramids at Cholula and other points, and the ruins of great temples and buildings at Tollan (Tula), all points within a hundred miles of Mexico City. Some of the carvings in Yucatan seem to indicate that the Itzaes came from the East, which, if true, would give them JSTorth African or Asiatic origin. These people were star worshipers, and had a theocratic form of government. They built, as a capital, the city of Palenque, in Yucatan, whose ruins constitute the most elaborate found in the new world. Palenque probably antedates the Christian era by one thousand to two thousand years. The Itzaes were succeeded, perhaps overthrown, by the Mayas, whose origin is also lost in obscurity. The Mayas were of the Nahoa family. All legendary and monumental records indicate that this race came from the E'orth, and probably settled in Yucatan in the early centuries of the Christian era. Definite Mexican his- tory begins with the Toltecs. Luis Perez Yerdia, whose work, '^ Historia de Mexico," qualifies him to speak with authority, says that the Toltecs were settled in California, north of the Gila Eiver, at a very early date, and that their earliest legends and traditions indi- cated that they were of Asiatic origin. Perhaps they came from the far JSTorth, after following the chain of islands along the Bering Sea. In any event, they had a capital called Chalchicatzincan, probably in California. After some civil strife, seven chiefs, with a large fol- lowing, started South at a date computed to be 544 a. d. They moved from time to time, finally establishing the town of Tollanzinco in 645, later, in 661, establishing their capital at Tollan (Tula), fifty miles from the present Mexican capital. Here they built a great city, 4 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEROW grew in numbers and power, and finally dominated the whole of the Mexican Yallej region. Their govern- ment, which had been a tribal one headed by two chiefs, and Rye sub-chiefs, was changed into an absolute mon- archy. In any attempts to study the very early history of Mexico one of the difficulties of determining anything as to the age of monuments is due to the tropical and semi-tropical plant life. Buildings, once abandoned, soon disappear under the profusion of foliage, and only chance excavation brings to light what may have been an important city centuries ago. At E'ecaxa, in the State of Puebla, some American engineers engaged on a large construction job, undertook to open up a large mound, evidently some sort of a ruin. On digging down six feet they found the walls of a Toltec temple, which they uncovered. The building was of massive hewn stone, paved with heavy flagstones. One of the latter was out of place, and, on digging into the hole where it had been the investigators found a small earthen jar containing two sixpence pieces of George III ! The building had evidently been used, prob- ably as a residence, as late as the latter part of the eighteenth century, but was so deeply buried in loam that the tops of its walls were six feet below the sur- face. On the great Mexican plateau, with its altitude of 8,000 feet, plant life is not so luxuriant, and monu- ments of ancient days do not disappear in this way. However, much of the carved or written record of an- cient days has been blotted out by the fanaticism of the Conquerors. During the Toltec domination another race, the Chichimeca, had probably settled in the Mexico Val- ley. Their origin is obscure, and little is known of them save that they came from, the I^orth. Whether ANCIENT MEXICO AND THE AZTECS 5 tliey succeeded to tlie power of the Toltecs through prosperity due to tribal growth and energy, or whether they were invaders who overthrew the Toltecs, is not clear. The Toltec rule ended in 1116, perhaps some- what earlier, and there is a lapse of some years to 1170, when, according to the best evidence, the history of Chichimec rule began. In any event, the Chichimecs apparently came in great numbers, divided into several distinct tribes which settled around the borders of the Valley Lakes. Of these tribes the Acolhuans, later known as the Tezcucans, were the most powerful, and their chief exercised a sort of feudal control over the other tribes. The Acolhuans settled at Texcoco, where, before long, their crude huts, built of reeds, gave way to buildings of brick and stone, and the foundations were laid for a permanent and powerful government. The Xochimilcos settled south of Lake Chalco, the Tepanecs at Atzcapozalco, the Chalcos east of Lake Chalco, and the Tlaxcaltecs on the shore of Lake Tex- coco. The Tlaxcaltecs, due to tribal warfare, withdrew early, settling at Tlaxcallan. Of the remaining, the Acolhuans outstripped the others, and their capital, Texcoco, soon became the most important place in the whole of Mexico Valley. This city is credited with having had 200,000 inhabitants, living in 30,000 houses. As the Tezcucans developed picture writing to a high degree a good deal of their history has been preserved. Ixtlilxochitl, a descendant of the royal fam- ily, early in the days of Spanish rule wrote an ex- haustive history of the Kingdom. Ixtlilxochitl, fortu- nately, lived at a period so close to the days of Tezcu- can domination that he was able to get much accurate information as to the conditions of the life of the people, social customs, and so forth. We have, there- fore, a graphic picture of a civilization, quite highly 6 MEXICO TO-DAY A:^D TO-MOKEOW developed in many respects^ existing at a period when the greater portion of the continent was occupied only by savages. The royal palace, which included all pub- lic buildings, covered, a tract of land three quarters of a mile long by half a mile wide. The royal quarters were luxuriously embellished with alabaster walls and beautiful tapestries of feather work. In the courts were many varieties of trees, and there existed quite elaborate buildings devoted to specimens of animal and bird life. There was also an aquarium containing specimens of fish of the kingdom, and many fish brought from distant points. An elaborate system of courts was established, and something of education was at- tempted under the care of the priesthood. The great- est development of the kingdom was under E"ezahual- coyotl, who died in 1470. The Aztecs, another race from the North, probably from California, started wandering southward some time in the twelfth century. Traces of their migration are found in Arizona, then in New Mexico and finally in Northern Mexico. At Casas Grandes, in the State of Chihuahua, they built a great city, and the com- bination palace and citadel, a building or group of buildings of briok, eight hundred feet long by two hundred and fifty feet wide, was, in part, six or seven stories high — probably the first sky-scraper on the continent. The movements of this tribe from Casas Grandes southward are easily traced. The tribe even- tually arrived in the lake region of the Mexico Valley, but, as all fertile tracts were already occupied, had to content itself on an island marsh in Lake Texcoco. It is improbable that this spot would have been selected but for the fact that according to tradition an Aztec wise man had said that the people would not settle per- manently until they found an eagle and a serpent to- ANCIEI^T MEXICO AND THE AZTECS 7 getlier. Consequently, when in their wanderings they found an eagle devouring a serpent they decided to stay and make the best of a bad location. They had a hard time of it, as marshes had to be reclaimed to give them any soil to cultivate. Moreover, the neighboring tribes did not want any more people in the valley, and were hostile to a point of persecution. The new people, how- ever, were hardy and tenacious, and, having come more recently from a country where they were in battle with climatic conditions, they were stronger, man for man, than those around them. They stuck to it, man- aged to hold what they had, and soon had a settlement of a permanent character. Arriving at the lake in 1325, by the end of the century they were influential, and their capital, Tenochtitlan, was of almost equal importance with Texcoco. In a war between the Tezcu- cans and Tepanecs they came in, at a critical moment, as allies of the former, and helped in the annihilation, in 1428, of Tepanec power. As a reward they were given a large part of the conquered territory. Shortly after this there was formed an alliance, of- fensive and defensive, between the Aztecs, Tezcucans. and Tlacopans. By the terms of the Alliance the three contracting parties were to act together for defensive purposes, and were to divide, in proportions of two- fifths, two-fifths and one-fifth, all the spoils of war. ^"0 offensive could be undertaken without the consent of at least two of the allies. Each kingdom continued a separate and independent rule, and was at liberty to go on with its own development, and the three were allied only for military purposes. At first the Tezcu- cans probably dominated the alliance, but later the Aztecs took the lead. It is a somewhat remarkable fact, considering the possibilities of trouble over division of spoils, that the alliance thus formed continued for more 8 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW tlian a century, and was, in fact, only overcome by tlie Spanish conquest. The alliance was of the greatest im- portance in the subsequent history of the country, not only because of its strength but because, in the use of that strength, it created many enemies and paved the way for foreign interference. The Aztecs, early in their history in the valley, were called Mexicans, from their patron deity, Mexitli. As they became the dominating military factor and the leading political power the subsequent operations of the alliance may be considered as of Aztec or Mexican character, and will be treated as such. The Mexican rule, or, more correctly, the Mexican domination, was now extended rapidly in all directions. It extended east to the Gulf of Mexico, and up and down the Gulf for perhaps two hundred and fifty miles. Toward the south it extended two hundred miles or more, on the west it touched the Pacific Ocean, and on the north it took in practically the whole of the Mex- ican plateau. Altogether, considering the primitive na- ture of its people and the humble origin of the domi- nating nation, it was an extensive country. The great point of weakness in the scheme was, however, that power was not centralized. Each conquered tribe was left to itself and subjected only to paying tribute. Con- sequently, nothing in the way of a national spirit or power was developed. In fact, the tendency under this scheme was to increase tribal jealousy and hatred, and to throw the subject peoples into any strong combination which might give promise of relief from immediate troubles. There was nothing in this so-called empire to suggest the rule of the Eomans, who, on vanquishing a foe, immediately set about to build up, not a tributary nation, but rather a distinctly Eoman province. The AJSTCIEJ^T MEXICO AJ^D THE AZTECS 9 situation miglit be compared to that of the world-wide empire set up by Alexander, who conquered, exacted tribute and moved on, leaving a hundred petty king- doms in his wake. CHAPTEE II AZTEC CIVILIZATION From earlj days the Toltecs had developed a rela- tively high civilization. They made much progress in agriculture, knew something of astronomy, formulated a calendar, had an ideographic system of writing, and understood something of government. It would be tedious to attempt any classification, in chronological order, of the social and economic development made by the succeeding nations. It is, however, important to understand, in a general way, the social conditions ex- isting at the time of the Spanish Conquest. In de- scribing these conditions no attempt will be made to differentiate between Toltec, Tezcucan or Mexican civ- ilizations, the three being treated as common to all. The Toltecs and Tezcucans had hereditary monarchs, while the Aztec monarchy was elective. Due to this and to other conditions there were minor differences in laws and in social customs, but the civilization may, for the purpose of this work, be considered as Mexican, especially as the Mexicans largely dominated at the time of the conquest. The Spaniards, on coming to Mexico, found little to learn from the Mexicans as to agriculture, and, in fact, had much to teach them. It must be remembered, however, that agriculture in Spain had been developed to a very high point by the Moors, and that, agricul- turally, they were at that time easily the first nation in the world. It seems probable, from all the data avail- 10 AZTEC CIVILIZATIOJST 11 able, that Mexican progress iu agriculture was up to the average of most European countries. They not only tilled the soil, but they understood and developed irrigation. In hilly country the ground v^as terraced, not only to utilize all available land but to prevent such land, once cultivated, from being washed away in heavy rains. Corn was raised everywhere, and there was a great variety of vegetables. Various spices were raised, and, as a substitute for sugar there were the products of different plants. Cacao (chocolate) was grown in the tierra caliente (hot country) and was in general use. Great quantities of cotton were grown, and cotton cloths, from the coarsest to the finest, were to be had in all parts of the country. The products of other plants were used for making other textiles, and skins and furs were made useful by tanning and treat- ment. A good grade of paper similar to papyrus was made from the fiber of the maguey plant. Gold and silver were used for ornaments, and were wrought and carved with considerable skill. Pearls were brought from the Gulf of California, and were much prized. Emeralds, turquoises, opals and other precious and semi-precious stones were also used for ornaments, but were usually in the rough, due to the absence of hard enough materials with which to cut them. Eor purposes of ornamentation, both in the way of personal decoration and for household use, feather work designs were much used, and in this dainty art the Mexicans excelled. The gorgeously colored feathers of tropical birds were used in immense quanti- ties for this purpose, and the artisans were so skillful that the most intricate and delicate designs were put into tapestries or on cloths for wearing apparel. There was no phonetic alphabet, but an ideographic system of writing had existed from very early days, and 12 MEXICO TO-DAY AI^D TO-MOEEOW had been developed to a point where, with the use of conventional hieroglyphics, much could be expressed in writing. In the earlier days this mode of expression appears to have been confined to stone carving, but later a vast amount of picture writing was done. The Mex- icans developed this to its highest point by superimpos- ing a color scheme on the original method of written expression. This gave them greater flexibility, as a figure in black would mean one thing, while the same figure in blue would mean something else, or perhaps indicate a different state of the first object. Thus, a disc could mean the sun, a white disc the rising sun, a black disc the setting sun, a disc half-painted white midday, and so on through an endless number of com- binations. A footprint meant traveling, a tong-ue meant speaking, and a man seated indicated an earth- quake. Many of the signs were seemingly arbitrary, but doubtless due to some association of ideas. Thus, the serpent was used to represent time. This, while apparently arbitrary, was doubtless due to the idea of the noiseless speed with which time glides by. The zeal of the Spaniards for religion was as great as their avarice for gold, and their first acts in Mexico were to destroy the old temples. As temple walls were covered with picture writing, all documents and parch- ments were considered as part of an idolatrous worship and were promptly destroyed. One early prelate made a huge collection of picture writings solely for the pleas- ure of burning them all at once in a huge bonfire ! Pos- sibly in this very fire perished the key to the whole language. At all events, in the first few years the Spanish destroyed every piece of writing found, and only after their first fanatic fury was exhausted did they realize what they had done. Then the priests began to decipher such manuscripts as turned up, either by use of AZTEC CIVILIZATIOIS' 13 such other documents as they had or by combining them with traditional history. Thanks, then, to the same church which destroyed the greater part of the written records, some of the old manuscripts remain and are use- ful in forming an idea of the history and life of the people. That there was a clearly defined if intricate means of expressing thoughts in writing is certain, and that this had been developed, not merely to represent single ideas but to record past events with careful refer- ence to their chronological order, is also certain. The people, then, had long passed the stage of living the day for itself, and had developed in thought to a point where they wished to record what had gone before. In other words, they had made a great step in civilization, not only in agriculture and in the .development of comforts, but also in thought. How rapidly they reached this stage is uncertain, but from their knowledge of astron- omy it seems probable that the process took many cen- turies. The movements of the sun, moon and planets must have been observed and recorded for many years, for they had a remarkable knowledge of the revolutions of the different bodies. Their calendar was amazingly accurate, although worked out on a totally different basis than ours. The year was divided into eighteen months of twenty days each, and each year Rve extra days were added. This gave them a year of 365 days. To make up the actual loss in time extra days were added during each cycle, 13 in most and 12 in the others, on a basis of making a total addition, in 20 cycles of 1040 years, of 252 days. This gave them, in 1040 years, a total of 379,852 days, as against actual time of 379,851 days, 1 hour, 5 minutes and 2 seconds. The calendar would, in other words, serve 23,000 years before an error of a full day would occur. In the Julian calendar, in use 14 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW at the time of the Spanish Conquest, there was an error of over 8 days in 1040 years, and the Gregorian calen- dar, now in general use, is a day in error every 3323 years. While it may be of small interest to know that we cannot run nearly as long without losing a day, it is of the highest interest to know that this people had, at such an early date, made such close and accurate obser- vations. The Aztec calendar stone, unearthed in the main plaza of Mexico City in 1790, gives a marvelously ingenious combination of the days, months, years and cycles, and, erected in a vertical position, it acted as a sun dial. With indications of the equinoxes and sol- stices, it gave a complete and accurate statement of time, hour, day, month, year and cycle, — probably the most complete affair of its kind ever erected. The Mexican had an elective monarchy. During the reign of a monarch the nobility named four electors, who, on the death of the monarch, named his successor, and the latter was usually of the same family. Unless a son of the deceased monarch was of mature age, a brother or nephew was chosen. The monarch was su- preme in all matters, with one important exception. In each kingdom there was a supreme judge, named for life and independent of the king. Thus provision was made for dispensation of justice without any influence or pressure from the court. In each province there was a lower court, and below this were minor magistrates in every village or district. On the presentation of cases before the two upper courts, and perhaps before magis- trates, a record of the facts or claims was made in pic- ture writing, this work being done by an officer of the court corresponding with our court stenographer. The care with which these records were made is attested by the fact that old records were accepted by the Spanish for several years after the conquest. AZTEC CIVILIZATIO:tT 15 The la-ws, as with all primitive peoples, were severe. Murder was punished with death, and adulterers were stoned to death. Thieving was punishable with death or slavery, according to the gravity of the offense. Changing boundary lines or falsifying weights were capital offenses, as was breach of trust by a guardian. Intemperance was punished with death for young men, and with loss of property for old men. Public debtors were sold as slaves. Prisoners taken in war could be sold into slavery, and the very poor often sold themselves or their children. Slaves were well treated, and had certain rights. They could work for others when not needed by their owners, and thus could acquire property. They were even allowed to own slaves. Children of slaves were free. There was no currency, and trading was mostly by barter, supplemented by the use of quills filled with gold dust. As a medium of exchange bags of cacao beans, containing a fixed weight of beans, were used. Small pieces of tin, cut T shape, were also used in trad- ing, the value, as with the cacao beans, being intrinsic. While some of these features were of a primitive na- ture, others, especially those of the provisions for courts of justice, showed a high order of development. In general, the political organization was well laid out to fit the needs of the people, and there appears to have been a disposition to do justice to all classes of people. The religious beliefs of the Mexicans present curious contradictions. They believed in a ^^ god omnipotent," " by whom we live," '' giver of all gifts," " of perfec- tion," ^^ under whose wings we find repose and sure defense " — in other words, in a supreme deity, creator and ruler. This conception was so great as to stagger the average primitive mind. Clearly, there must be one Supreme Being, omnipotent, without beginning and 16 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW without end. But how could He, alone, rule the des- tinies of a world full of many peoples ? The creation, in the dim past, was not so staggering, but the multi- plex duties of a god in guiding the universe were mani- festly too great to be carried out without assistance. To meet this, the Mexicans developed the idea of a num- ber of inferior gods who were charged with specific duties. Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, had to do with all war matters. Quetzalcoatl, god of the air, was a benevolent deity who, in the dim past, had quarreled with the other gods and had been driven out, leaving the country in a boat and going East, promising to return. There were gods of the air, of the household, of the harvest, and so forth, with a total of thirteen major gods inferior to the Supreme Being. Again, there was a confused doubt if these gods could properly take care of a thousand and one things without outside help, so two hundred minor gods were conceived, and to them were given all the details in the management of every day life. While, ethically, the addition of many minor gods detracts from the perfection of the scheme, it is, nevertheless, of greatest interest to know that the Mexi- cans had, in the idea of a Supreme Being, the greatest of religious conceptions. Their belief in immortality was a natural consequence of a belief in a supreme being. They believed in various grades of future life. Soldiers who died in battle were most highly honored, as their spirits were supposed to immediately go to the Sun, and after a space of time spent in songs and dances in the Sun's travels in space, the souls animated song birds living in paradise. Evil spirits went into a place of eternal darkness. There was not, in their conception of paradise, anything of the material sensualism so characteristic with primitive peoples, and their idea of a place of punishment is unaccompanied by any sugges- AZTEC CIVILIZATION 17 tion of torture. The whole tendency of their religious belief, especially in its early stages, was along poetic lines. The gods were propitiated with offerings of fruit and flowers. The sun, bringing warmth and light, was considered as the direct agent of an omnipotent power. It was the generating impulse of the world, and was therefore frequently represented as double to indicate two sexes. The rite of baptism was practiced, the lips and bosom being sprinkled with water. At death the body was covered with scraps of paper to protect the spirit on the dark road — a practice followed, in one form or another, by the Egyptians, Phoenicians and other early peoples, and having its counterpart in a part of the burial service in the Eoman Catholic Church. Eemains were cremated and the ashes kept in vases in each household. Confession to priests was obligatory, and penances were imposed. Confession, however, was only made once in a lifetime, doubtless on the theory that atonement and subsequent sinning would be incom- patible. Consequently, confession was usually made late in life. Then a lifetime of sins could be confessed and atoned for. The priests, on confession, gave abso- lution. This absolution was of material as well as of spiritual value, as it carried with it immunity from arrest for various offenses. After the Conquest the na- tives, when arrested, frequently presented evidence of confession in expectation of immunity. As the act of confession was the most important one in life, the simple folk doubtless had a confused notion of the very futility of existence when it represented nothing in the new order of things. The priesthood was numerous and powerful. Five thousand priests, it is said, were attached to the main temple, and doubtless a goodly percentage of the entire population were in the priestly orders. Education, 18 MEXICO TO-DAY AISFD TO-MOKEOW chiefly relative to church ritual, picture writing, astrol- ogy and astronomy, was in the hands of the priests. There was no attempt at any popular education, but any one desiring to enter the priesthood became a noviti- ate and was put through a long course of instruction before being given orders. The priestly orders in- cluded nuns, who, in addition to taking part in some of the ceremonies, did feather work and embroidery for coverings for the church altars. As has been pointed out, the earlier tendencies of religion were along very gentle lines, and the sacrifice of human life, developed later to such horrible propor- tions, seems inconsistent with the poetry of the scheme. It is certain that human sacrifice as a religious rite was unknown until about 1325. The practice was brought from the E^orth, perhaps by the Chichimecs but more likely by the Aztecs, as its appearance coincides with their arrival at Lake Texcoco. Prescott and many other writers assume that this dreadful practice could only have been introduced by a ferocious people, and they make frequent reference, based on this hideous rite, to the ferocity of the Aztecs. It must be remembered, how- ever, that the offering of a sacrifice of blood to the gods, and frequently of human blood, has been common in all early civilization. Its adoption by the Aztecs may have been purely accidental, due to some dire necessity of flood or famine, when it was felt that nothing short of some extraordinary sacrifice would appease the wrath of the gods. It became a species of fanaticism, and many who wished to attain especial glory or atone for great sins offered themselves to the priests for the purpose. It was religion gone wrong. As the custom was devel- oped on an ever-ascending scale, war was waged on inno- cent neighboring tribes solely to obtain victims for sacri- fice. Erom all the evidence gathered by the Spanish AZTEC CIVILIZATIOlSr 19 conquerors it seems clear that a large part of the scheme of expansion developed by the Mexico Valley alliance was simply to secure victims for the great festivals. Such wholesale slaughter does not seem in keeping with the idea that the people were of a peaceful dispo- sition. The Aztec religion, however, was of a mys- terious sort, appealing, in many ways, to the imagi- nation. The great temple at Ixtacalco was on the top of a hill which commands a vast stretch of country lying two thousand feet below, and many other temples were placed amid surroundings which suggest the weird pic- tures of Dore. To such points the great throngs came to worship, and here, in the vast spaces of nature, they listened to incantations and appeals to their gods. In the capital the temples were built on high mounds or pyramids, with paved roadways winding to their tops, where, in front of altars, sacred fires always burned. One can imagine the multitude watching an endless pro- cession of priests, in their weird robes, chanting their way up to the altar, where, in view of all below, the incantations ended in an offering to the gods. What more natural, therefore, that the idea of human sacrifice, once introduced, should take a strong and immediate hold ? Horrible and bloodthirsty as it was, we have only to think of the horrors of the Inquisition, of mas- sacres and persecutions done in the name of Christ, to understand how religion could far depart from peaceful ideals. The Mexican Indian was doubtless affected by cli- matic conditions. The tribes encountered by early set- tlers in other parts of I^orth America were savage or semi-savage, with no fixed abodes, living by the chase and rarely tilling the ground. The Mexican Indians, however, had, at a very early date, tilled the soil, and were accustomed to living in permanent homes, fre- 20 MEXICO TO-DAY A:N^D TO-MOEKOW quently with great numbers grouped together in large cities. Their religion, their life and their government all tended toward permanency, and they had reached a stage of civilization far beyond anything to be found further E^orth. The movements of the various tribes and the rise and decline of one race after another, were not unlike the history of old Asiatic peoples. Whether or not they originally came from a different stock is uncertain, but in any event their civilization was doubt- less greatly aided by more moderate climate than that enjoyed by their neighbors farther J^Torth. As crops could be raised the year around, hunting, as a means of existence, became of secondary importance. The fact that each race had a war god, combined with the practice of human sacrifice, has led many historians to take for granted that sanguinary characteristics predominated. This does not appear to be warranted by the history of the people. The very fact that five or six tribes lived in close proximity to each other around the shores of Lake Texcoco is reasonably good proof that the general tendency was peaceful. The Toltecs, Chichimecs and Aztecs in turn obtained a preponderance in the Mexico Valley through the growth of their respective tribes, through the establishment of cities, through intermar- riage with adjoining tribes and through alliances. From time to time there were tribal wars, but these appear to have been incidental and due largely to the crowding together of many rival tribes in a compara- tively small area of fertile land, rather than to any natural tendency toward warfare. It is important to keep in mind the general character of the civilization to understand the amazing events which transpired vvith the advent of the Spaniards. Scattered throughout Mexico were scores of tribes — philologists have traced thirty languages and one hun- AZTEC CIVILIZATION" 21 dred and fifty dialects — and in the Mexico Valley, whose three dominating tribes were in an alliance, there were at least a dozen distinct tribes. The country was fairly populous, and the Valley country doubtless had one and a half million inhabitants. The dominating tribes, through their conquests and especially through their toll for human sacrifices, had embittered their neighbors. The early Spaniards referred always to the empire of the Montezumas. They perhaps did not fully understand the political conditions of the country, and were, moreover, inclined to exaggerate in general and in detail. There was not, in a political sense, an em- pire, but rather a large group of tribes of which three, through industry and agriculture, had become more powerful than the others, and which were, through alli- ance, able to impose tribute on their neighbors. The dominating tribes had armies, as had the others, but the so-called armies depended largely on great numbers rather than on any military organization or efficiency. CHAPTER III THE MONTEZUMAS PopuLAE imagination pictures the Montezumas as a long line of powerful emperors. As a matter of fact, however, the Aztec did not achieve a dominating influ- ence in the Valley until the early part of the Eifteenth Century. On the death of Itzcoatl, the king who had, as a final touch to their domination carried through the formation of an alliance with other powerful nations, the wise men and nobles elected, as his successor, Motecuh- zoma Ylhuicamina. The name, Motecuhzoma, corrupted by the Spaniards to Montezuma, means, in the Aztec tongue, ^' The man of fury and respectability,'' while Ylhuicamina means, ^' archer of heaven." This young man came from a noble family, had distinguished him- self in military operations and had headed the mission charged with negotiations for an alliance with the Tex- coco kingdom. On coming to the throne he deferred his coronation to conduct a campaign against the Chalco tribe, neighbors who had for years been hostile to the Aztecs. The campaign was a brilliant success, and Motecuhzoma returned to the capital with several thou- sand prisoners who were duly sacrificed, in the mids g of great festivals, to celebrate the ceremony of coronation. Immediately following the coronation the Chalcos re- belled but they were again defeated and five hundred of them, taken prisoners, were sacrificed by being thrc wn into a sacred fire, from which they were drawn out before life was extinct, that their hearts might be cut out and 22 THE MONTEZUMAS 23 offered to the gods. The same tribe gave trouble at intervals during several years, but were finally subju- gated, their capital, Amecamecan, being destroyed. In 1449 heavy rains caused a great flood, which so inun- dated the Aztecs' capital that for weeks the only means of getting around was in boats. To guard against a recurrence of this disaster Motecuhzoma built a great dike, fifty to seventy-five feet wide and over six miles long, the work being pushed so actively that it was finished before the following rainy season. Heavy snows and frosts in 1450-1454 destroyed the crops and caused a serious famine which was only partially re- lieved by rations given to the people from the royal storehouses. To appease the gods more victims were needed for sacrifice, and campaigns were waged in the far south. In 145 5 there were good crops, and this was attributed to the great number of prisoners sacrificed. Consequently to obtain still more captives the scope of military operations was greatly enlarged and campaigns conducted in remote regions South, East and West. By 1460 the Aztec power covered the greater part of what now constitutes Mexico. In the meanwhile, Motecuh- zoma did much to embellish the city, building temples and public edifices and constructing an aqueduct to bring a supply of pure water from Chapultepec. Mote- cuhzoma Ylhuicamina died in 1469. His brother, Yla- caclel, declining the throne, the nobles elected as ruler Axaycatl, son of Motecuhzoma's daughter. The new ruler, following the practice of his grandfather, post- poned his coronation until he had taken the city of Tecuantepec and conquered the southern gulf coast to obtain a large supply of victims for the coronation cere- monies. The reign of Tizoc Chalchuihlatonac, 1481- 1486, was characterized by nothing of consequence. Ahuizotl, who followed, extended and rebuilt the temple 24 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and celebrated its dedication with the most gigantic orgy of human sacri- fice the world had probably ever seen. For two years, while the construction work on the temple was being pushed, all prisoners, instead of being immediately sac- rificed, were saved, and a great throng of them, the spoils of campaigns in distant regions, was ready for the dedication ceremony. The chiefs of all subject tribes were all asked to the festival, at which they were royally treated. Before dawn, on the day of dedica- tion, a vast multitude, including thousands of guests from every part of the dominions, was gathered in front of the temple. With the first streaks of light on the horizon Ahuizotl gave the signal to begin the slaugh- ter, he himself cutting out the heart of the first victim and offering it, with much ceremony, to the high priests, who, in turn, placed it before the idol of the war god. There followed, then, a great procession of victims, marching and being sacrificed in fours, the horrible slaughter continuing until darkness set in. By night the royalty and priesthood were soaked in blood, but the number of prisoners was so great that the ceremony had to be prolonged for four days before the last of the line was reached. Ahuizotl died in 1502, and was succeeded by Mote- cuhzoma Xocoyotzin (Motecuhzoma II), a grandson of Motecuhzoma I. The new monarch was thirty-four years of age, had distinguished himself as a soldier and had later taken priestly orders. There is nothing in American history to compare, in point of picturesque features, with this period, in which the power of Mexico reached the zenith. Mexico City, located in a great valley surrounded by high mountains, is always beautiful, and the snow-capped volcanoes add the charm of variety to the scene. In the early days, THE MONTEZUMAS 25 however, there was an added charm in that the city was partly an ishuid, partly a stretch of shore on Lake Tex- coco. This lake was probably ten or twelve miles across, but has now shrunk to a small shallow body of water with an area of only ^ye or six square miles. Much of the land was " made " by digging canals, and in a large part of the city communication was by these waterways, which swarmed with all sorts and sizes of canoes and boats. Flowers, fruits and vegetables were raised in great quantities in the small squares of land reclaimed by a canal system of great extent, and this section became known as the ^' floating gardens '' of Mexico, which the early Spaniards called the Venice of America. The city, which is said to have had some 300,000 inhabitants, was well laid out, with wide streets and a great market place. In the market place the various classes of business were grouped, one section being given to grains, another to vegetables, another to pottery, another to gold and silver ornaments and pre- cious stones, and so on. On regular market days sixty thousand people came to market, while on other days there was an attendance of twenty-five thousand. The section of the market devoted to featherwork pictures, in the making of which the Mexicans had been expert for centuries, always attracted many of the well-to-do classes. The shops displayed a great variety of cloths, the fineness of which indicated the social grade of the wearer. Society was divided into various castes or grades, from the most humble to the nobility, and rigid rules were laid down to govern the clothes and conduct of each class. There were, in the city, three hundred temples or smaller places of worship, presided over by a great number of priests. The priestly class was usually robed in white when in the temple, but had dif- ferent costumes for various occasions — combinations of 26 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW black figures on white, purple on white, or white on black, to suit each particular ceremony. The picture writings covering the temple walls gave an added touch of the picturesque to the solenm incantations and mys- tical dances which formed a great part of the ceremonial worship. The wealth of the tributary regions, from the temper- ate climate of the plateau to the tropical coast country, poured into the city. Taxes and tributes were paid in the products of each region, and grain, fruit, feathers, gold, silver, precious stones, fine woods, furs and a thou- sand other articles came in an endless chain. The main- tenance of the royal household, with its nobility and hundreds of retainers, called for vast quantities of the products of the country. One picturesque item in the list of royal household needs was 24,000 bundles of colored feathers, which doubtless was largely contrib- uted by the tropical sections of the country. An army of ten thousand had to be provisioned, and from the state income provision had to be made for the thousands of priests. The nobility, dressed in rich clothes and with ankles and arms covered with gold and silver bands, lived in a sort of barbaric splendor. Swift messengers, working in relays, brought fresh fish from the coast and game from the north for the royal table. Couriers kept the palace informed of everything happening in the most remote parts of the country. Justice was administered hj tribal chiefs and sub-chiefs, and from all accounts the amount of crime was small. One of the most curious facts regarding the race is that, up to the time of the conquest, the people knew nothing of the use of iron, and all the stone carving, woodcarving and other such work was done with tools or implements made of stone or copper. That the people had considerable mechanical ability is shown by the THE MONTEZUMAS 27 construction of the great pyramid at Teotihuacan, as high as a modern sky-scraper, and also by tlie fact that huge blocks of stone used in temple construction, some of them weighing many tons, were often moved great distances from quarries. The whole picture is vivid : a curious mixture of bar- baric splendor and civilization, of primitive peoples and urban life. Their civilization may be compared to that of the early Egyptians, but with the notable difference that a large class of nobility, following early tribal cus- toms, had a voice in the selection of their ruler. Here, on the Mexican plateau, separated by thousands of miles of sea from any other civilization, a people living in a stone and copper age emerged from purely tribal con- ditions, worked out a form of alphabet or expression through pictures, developed a government, carried on much internal commerce, built cities, and established a sort of an empire; and did all this, or the greater part, two thousand years after a similar development had come and gone in Egypt. What curious thoughts of evolution arise in one's mind! The advance in thought and civilization in- creases its pace as each stage is passed. Who knows but that the development of the Mexican race began in the same place and at the same remote time as that of the Hindoos or Egyptians ? Had it been retarded by a fight with nature in a hostile climate ? Centuries, perhaps ages, had passed in making the first steps from barbarism and savagery to that of the first stage of civi- lization; then four or -^we centuries of rapid progress, and a definite social and political scheme was developed ; and finally, conquest by people of another civilization, a conquest so swift and a subjugation so complete that every sign and vestige of the civilization already devel- oped was lost. It was not a case of a civilization influ- 28 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOREOW enced or accelerated by another race. The new civiliza- tion was not grafted on the old. The old was simply annihilated, so entirely blotted out that it might have never existed so far as its influence on the people was concerned. And the pity is that this happened just as the old civilization gave promise of rapid development. Prescott says, " In this state of things it was benefi- cently ordered by Providence that the land should be delivered over to another race, who would rescue it from the brutish superstitions that daily extended wider and wider with the growth of empire. It is true, the con- querors brought along with them the Inquisition, but they also brought with them Christianity, whose benign radiance would still survive when the fierce flames of fanaticism should be extinguished ; dispelling those dark forms of horror which had so long brooded over the fair regions of Anahuac.'' Prescott, at the time he wrote (about 1855), had a world wide reputation, but, aside from being a chrono- logical and highly interesting record of events, his work is of small value in determining the influence of the conquest on the Mexican people. His work is more or less a mechanical history, wonderfully told, but it shows his lack of knowledge of conditions. Doubtless influ- enced by the Spanish historians whose works he studied with such care, he fell into the error of assuming that the mere substitution of Christianity for a religion which sanctioned human sacrifice was sufficient recompense for the destruction of a nation and a civilization already well advanced. It may be argued that but for the spirit of adventure of the Spanish, the new world might not have been discovered for many years, and that world- progress would have been arrested by that much. The casual critic will ask what ^N^orth America would have been if it had remained in the hands of the Indians. THE MONTEZUMAS 29 But that is beside the point. One might equally ask, what would the country be if all of North America had remained in the hands of the Spaniards^ Two-thirds of the North American continent was inhabited by sav- ages, and their disappearance, under the progress of an Anglo-Saxon civilization, can in no way be compared to the course of events in Mexico. In the latter case there were four or Rye million people, half of them under a common rule, who had already made a start in civilization. That that civilization was an inferior one in many respects is true, but, in a large measure, it an- swered their wants. It was at least better than nothing, and gave promise of amounting to something more. If, in the change, the people had had a chance to adopt the new civilization, become part of it and advance with it, there would be no cause for regret. But, for the people at large, the forms of the church were given in place of civilization. They became a subject race, a race of slaves who had no place in the general scheme of things. In place of advancing, they were reduced to slavery and, in that, retarded. Mexico, during three hundred years, was a country in which the Mexican had no voice, a colony so thoroughly Spanish that, but for occasional protests from Dominican priests as to the treatment of the natives, no one would have known that the Mexican existed. It was not that all the colonial rulers were cruel, only that the Mexican was considered an inferior being to be used as a beast of burden for the benefit of his superiors. Due allowance must be made for the Spanish view- point. The Spaniards of that day were adventurers and zealots. They came of a people having a different civ- ilization and a different religion, which, alone, Vv-ere suf- ficient to place them beyond the range of consideration. The very fact that the people fell an easy victim to 30 MEXICO TO-DAY ANT) TO-MOEEOW Spanish arms was taken as a proof of inferiority. So far as the people were concerned, the Spanish considered that they had done their fnll duty in bringing them into the Churchy even if this was done at the point of the sword. The glorious conversion having been accom- plished, there was no further obligation. By right of conquest, strengthened by rights given by the Church, the cenquerors owned the country and everything in it, and the natives were clearly there to be useful to the Spanish crown and its representatives. This reasoning prevailed for centuries, and, among the people of pure Spanish blood in Mexico, prevails to-day. The Mexi- can Indian is regarded by such people as a hopeless proposition, incapable of any development and useless except as a mechanical unit. Centuries of life as a slave stunted his mental and moral growth. The Spanish conquest, wonderful as it was in opening u.p a new em- pire of fabulous wealth, did nothing for him. Its effect was to set him back a century or more and then keep him in that established place. It is worth emphasizing, in this connection, that, at the time of the conquest, Mexican civilization was, relatively speaking, a thousand years behind that of Spain or Eome. It must not, however, be taken for granted that the Mexican mind was corre- spondingly backward. The Mexicans, due to climatic conditions in the north, had remained in a savage state for many centuries, while people in more favored cli- mates, or, influenced by surroundings, had advanced. The Mexican mind was just forming, and was showing potential power, when its development was brought to a sudden halt by the overwhelming power of a new civiliz- ation. The astounding rapidity with which the blow fell forms one of the most remarkable records in the history of the world. CHAPTER IV THE SPANISH CONQUEST At the beginning of the sixteenth century Spain was just entering on the brilliant career which was soon to place her in a dominant position in Europe. The union of Castile and Aragon by the marriage of Eerdi- nand and Isabella in 1469 had soon been followed by a campaign against the Moors, whose last stronghold, Granada, fell in 1492. The Turkish occupation of the Levant had forced the seeking of new trade routes and markets, and the Spanish and Portuguese had taken the lead in maritime voyages of discovery. The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, opening up visions of the riches of the East, had given the greatest possible stimulus to further adventures and voyages, even if it did not, at the moment, give much return in wealth and treasure. In the West Indies the Spanish had found a weak and effeminate lot of savages and little treasure, but they had established some coloniea and were slowly preparing to develop the agricultural resources by using native labor. The age was one of adventure and chivalry. The Spanish campaigns in Europe had developed hundreds of ambitious and restless spirits who flocked to the standard of any one heading an expedition. The dis- covery of a new world, or, as was supposed, of a new route to an old world, carried with it so much glamour that the adventurous, of high or low degree, lost no time in putting his fortunes to test. In an incredibly short 31 32 MEXICO TO-DAY AJ^D TO-MOEEOW time there were thousands of Spaniards scattered throughout the West India Islands. Each was given a tract of land, frequently a large estate, and, under a system called repartimientos, was allotted a certain num- ber of natives who became, for all effects, his slaves. The cultivation of the soil, although done by slaves, proved, however, tedious. There was no adventure, no excitement, no novelty in it. Consequently every one was constantly trying to find something new. By 1518 the Atlantic coast, from Labrador south, had been exam- ined practically through the length of both North and South America. Cuba had been discovered and a settle- ment established there under Don Diego Velasquez, governor of the island. The Cubans had offered but weak resistance. One native chief, Hatuey, having fled from Hispaniola to escape the oppression of the Con- querors, put up a strong fight, for which, when cap- tured, he was burned alive. At the stake on his being urged to embrace Christianity so that his soul might go to heaven, he inquired if the souls of white men were there, and, on receiving an affirmative answer, said he had no desire to again go to any place where he would find Christians. With this single exception, the Span- iards had no difficulty with the natives, and there was little bloodshed accompanying the conquest, or occu- pation, of Cuba, this being due, in large part, to the efforts of Las Casas, a Spanish priest who accompanied the expedition. Almost as soon as a permanent settle- ment had been made in Cuba, various expeditions were fitted out to cruise in the gulf and learn some- thing of other islands. This expedition found little of interest, and the discovery which had the greatest im- portance was made accidentally. Hernandez de Cor- dova, an hidalgo of Cuba, sailed with three ships for the Bahamas in quest of slaves, but, meeting with heavy THE SPAN^ISH CONQUEST 33 gales, was driven far off his course, and landed on an unknown coast. Here he found houses built of stone, and people wearing well-woven cotton fabrics. All evi- dences pointed to a higher degree of civilization than any he had seen on the islands, and he determined to explore the country. The natives, however, were ex-- tremely hostile, and Cordova was unable to penetrate the interior. He followed the coast for several days, mak- ing several landings and having numerous skirmishes with the natives. After losing nearly half of his hun- dred men, he determined to return to Cuba and fit out a larger expedition. Shortly after arriving in Cuba he died from wounds he had received in one of the fights. The story of his discovery spread all through the settle- ment and caused great excitement, especially as he had brought back with him many curiously wrought gold ornaments. Cordova had landed on the northeast cor- ner of Yucatan, and had examined the coast as far west as Campeche. This was the first landing of the Span- iards on the mainland of a country which was soon to become one of the nation^s greatest possessions. Velasquez, the governor of Cuba, fitted out an expedi- tion which sailed on May 1, 1518, to follow up the dis- covery made by Cordova. This cruise, under command of Juan de Grijalva, made various landings, and at one point a friendly interview was had with a cacique who ruled over the district. As there was no one to inter- pret, such communication as there was had to be made by signs, but the Spaniards were able to understand that the cacique represented some one more powerful who lived in the west. Presents were exchanged, the Span- iards receiving, in return for some trinkets, beautiful gold ornaments and jewels. The expedition examined the coast as far west as the Isla de Sacrificios (Island of Sacrifices), near what is now the city of Vera Cruz. 34 MEXICO TO-DAY A:N'D TO-MOEEOW Grijalva was the first white man to come in touch with the Aztecs. The rich treasure he sent' back to Cuba determined Velasquez to fit out a large expedition to follow up the work already done by founding a perma- nent colony. Hernando Cortes was selected to com- mand the expedition. The reader who wishes for excitement and romance should consult Prescott's ^' Conquest of Mexico." It is only possible here to briefly sketch the main story — a story full of religious zeal, military daring, personal courage and hardship rarely equaled. Cortes made a landing in Yucatan, battled successfully with the natives and then moved on to establish, on April 21, 1519, a permanent settlement at the site of the present city of Vera Cruz. Tales of a rich country beyond set his mind on penetrating to the interior, either by sheer force or by negotiations with the country's ruler. Monte- zuma had received, by couriers, reports of the Spanish victory in Yucatan, and was filled with dread at the tales of men who fought with thunder and lightning. He believed Cortes to be the god Quetzalcoatl, returning to his people, and had grave forebodings as to what the return meant. He determined to try to keep the new- comers on the coast, and opened friendly negotiations by sending representatives, bearing rich gifts of gold, to Cortes, who was welcomed to the country but advised to make no effort to visit the interior. The golden gifts only made Cortes more determined than ever to go through with his enterprise, and he doubtless formed, at this time, a definite idea of conquest. He did not want, moreover, to have the Governor of Cuba snatch the wealth and glory of the achievement, so, to give regular- ity to his proceedings, he had a duly constituted govern- ment installed in the name of the emperor, and this government then gave him supreme powers. Then, THE SPAmSH CONQUEST 35 having sent one of his smaller ships to Spain to claim his rights of discovery, he took the major portion of his small band and started inland. The Cempoallans, a tribe placed under tribute by Montezuma, threw their lot in with the Spaniards, who prepared to march on the Aztec capital. On hearing murmurs of discontent among his men, Cortes scuttled his ships, making any retreat impossible — an act of daring, in the face of unknown dangers in a strange and hostile land, never equaled in history. The Spaniards then attacked the Tlascallans, an independent tribe on the edge of the Mexican plateau, and, although outnumbered twenty to one, their advantage of firearms and cavalry gave them victory, and the Tlascallans became their allies. The Chollullans, allies of Montezuma, were then defeated. Montezuma, hearing of these victories, made no further effort to stop the advance on his capital, which was en- tered by the Spaniards on November 8, 1519. Cortes was received by Montezuma as a friendly ambassador from a foreign potentate, and was given a vast amount of treasure. The Aztec capital was on an island, approached only by causeways, and the position of the Spanish force was one of great danger. Cortes determined on a bold move, and seized the person of Montezuma, who, while treated with deference due his rank, was held captive in the Spanish quarters. Cortes then heard that a Spanish force, sent by the governor of Cuba to overthrow him, was marching up from the coast. He accordingly left the capital in charge of one of his generals, Alvarado, and took two-thirds of his men with him to intercept the Spanish force, which he surprised and defeated. His army, reinforced by recruits from the defeated forces, returned to the capital only to find that Alvarado and his men were being besieged, following an uprising due Se MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW to Alvarado's excesses. The forces were united, but, seeing the hopelessness of the situation, after several days of fighting, Cortes decided on a sally. Under cover of night he fought his way to the mainland, and, although he lost half his army and all of his vast treas- ure, he managed to reach his base at Tlascala. After several months spent in preparation, which included the building of a fleet to operate against the capital, a fresh start was made. The Spaniards had the support of several thousand Tlascallan warriors, and laid siege to Mexico City on May 20, 1521. Montezuma had died in captivity, but Cuahtemoctzin, his successor, had pre- pared for a bitter resistance. After nearly three months of fighting, the Spaniards, aided by their fleet, gained a foothold in the city, and the Tlascallans let loose their fury on the Aztecs, a wholesale slaughter following for two days. Cuahtemoctzin was captured while attempting to escape to the mainland, and the city, the greatest stronghold of the Indian race in America, capitulated August 13, 1521. Less than thirty months had elapsed since Cortes, with his adventurous band, had set foot on Mexican soil. His fantastic dream of conquest was now realized, and the foundation laid for a vast Spanish dominion which was soon to extend from Oregon to the Straits of Magellan. " Whatever may be thought of the conquest in a moral view," says Prescott, ^' regarded as a military achieve- ment it must fill us with astonishment. That a hand- ful of adventurers, indifferently armed and equipped, should have landed on the shores of a powerful empire inhabited by a fierce and warlike race, and, in defiance of the reiterated prohibitions of its sovereign, should have forced their way into the interior ; — that they should have done this without knowledge of the language THE SPANISH C0:N'QUEST 37 or of the laud, without chart or compass to guide them, without any idea of the ditficulties they were to encoun- ter, totally uncertain whether the next step might bring them on a hostile nation or on a desert, feeling their way along in the dark, as it were ; — though nearly overwhelmed in their first encounter with the inhabit- ants, that they should have still pressed on to the capital of the empire, and, having reached it, thrown themselves unhesitatingly into the midst of their enemies ; — that, so far from being daunted by the extraordinary spec- tacle there exhibited of power and civilization, they should have been the more confirmed in their original design ; — that they should have seized the monarch, have executed his ministers before the eyes of his sub- jects, and, when driven forth with ruin from the gates, have gathered their scattered wreck together, and, after a system of operations pursued with consummate policy and daring, have succeeded in overturning the capital and establishing their sway over the country ; — that all this should have been effected by a mere handful of in- digent adventurers, is a fact little short of the miracu- lous, — too startling for the probabilities demanded by fiction, and without a parallel in the pages of history." Prescott somewhat overstates the matter. Mexico was not a powerful empire, and the Aztec rule, while covering a gTeat area and dominating many peoples, was strong only in the sense that through superior armies it was able to impose tribute on conquered tribes. The extortions of the dominating people and the bloody sacri- fice of captives had spread so much discord that it only required some strong unit to bring together the various elements hostile to the government. Prescott, contra- dicting himself, states the case better when he says that " had the Aztec monarchy been united, it might have bid defiance to the invaders." I^evertheless, while con- 38 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW ditions were, in many respects, favorable for the Span- iards, Cortes' acliievenient will always stand out as one of the most daring exploits in history. It was all the more remarkable in that he could not call in aid from his own people, as the irregularity of his proceedings made him dependent on his own resources. This very fact doubtless formed the bases of his success. Failure meant disgrace, ruin and probable death. He could, therefore, afford to risk death where there was a chance of success, and he could take chances which another, clothed with proper authority, would scarce have taken. CHAPTER V SPANISH MEXICO It would be tedious to enter into mncli detail of the Spanish rule in Mexico^ but it is worth while to review briefly the history of the country after the Conquest. This period is especially interesting because of the fact that the Spanish civilization introduced far ante-dated any Anglo-Saxon colonization. Immediately following the conquest Cortes began the rebuilding of Mexico City on plans based on Spanish models. Busy as were the Spaniards with conquering and settling the country, they gave time to the artistic embellishment of their new capital, and the work done was so thoroughly harmonious and comprehensive that it has been possible, during four centuries, to follow the original plan of development, and to produce, as a result, a city which, in symmetry and beauty, has few rivals on the American continent. There was none of the haphazard settlement which char- acterized the growth of the early centers of population in English speaking America, or which, in spite of three hundred years of experience, still applies to many of our municipalities. Under the Spanish scheme the ownership of a tract of land does not carry with it the right to open streets or to erect buildings according to the whims of the owner. Everything done must be in accordance with the general plan laid down by the mu- nicipality. To be sure, the average American city has regulations as to street openings, but these, as a rule, are so loosely drawn or so poorly enforced as to be negligible 39 A 40 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW in the general results obtained. Thus, while a city may have a comprehensive scheme within its own limits, sub- urbs, which are under separate municipal control but which may soon become a part of the city, are not bound by any general scheme, but may lay out such streets as suit their immediate needs. The result is that, with the exception of Washington, none of the larger cities have been built up on any general plan, and, in spite of changes made at great expense, nearly all suffer from great irregularities. Under Spanish practice, the large center, usually the seat of state of provincial govern- ment, exercises strong influence over all adjoining terri- tory, and can lay out a street system, with parks and public squares, with the security that such a plan will be followed for an indefinite time, and that, with the growth of the city, it will be, from time to time, farther extended. This general idea was followed in Mexico. A great public square, on which were erected the principal gov- ernment buildings and a huge cathedral, formed the center of the city, which was laid out with regular streets crossing each other at right angles. From the square three wide streets — somewhat narrow according to modern standards but very wide for the sixteenth cen- tury — run parallel in a westerly direction for half a mile or more. Then comes the alameda, a rectangular public park occupying a space equal to about six city squares. The streets then extend on beyond this park, and at intervals there are circular or rectangular park- ways. The general arrangement, made four centuries ago, made better provision for breathing spaces than prevails in the average American city built during the last seventy-five years. The one error made was in the selection of the site, the new city being laid out on the site of the old. Cortes SPANISH MEXICO 41 doubtless decided on this location because of its great advantages for defense, protected, as it was, by water on all sides, and being reached only by causeways. The gTound, however, was marshy, and the greater part of the land had been reclaimed. The site, therefore, was a poor one so far as furnishing a good foundation for buildings was concerned, and many of the early Spanish edifices are out of plumb, two or three of them so badly that it seems scarcely possible they can stand at all. One of the leading churches in the Calle Francisco Madero looks as if it would topple over at any moment, and its belfry suggests the tower of Pisa. Another great disadvantage of the site, especially when viewed in the light of modern hygiene, was the difficulty of draining it. The city proper, at the time of the conquest, was several feet below the level of some of the surrounding lakes, including Lake Texcoco, and inundations were only partially prevented by the great dike built by the first Montezuma. It was, conse- quently, a serious problem to keep the city dry in the rainy season, to say nothing of the fact that the accumu- lation of filth and surface drainage was a constant breeder of disease. For three centuries the Spaniards struggled with this question, building more dikes and extending great ditches to remote points in an effort to keep the city dry and properly drained. In the latter part of the last century a tunnel was driven, at great cost, through the range of hills which surround the valley, and a great canal, in places seventy-five feet deep, was dug from the city to this tunnel to take care of drainage and to carry off the surplus waters in the rainy season. Even with this undertaking completed, at times great pumps have to be operated to keep the lowest section of the city dry, so it is easy to imagine the constant difficulty the early Spaniards had to face. Alberto J. Pani, in his in- 42 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MORKOW teresting work on ^' Hygiene in Mexico/' says tliat be- yond question the selection of a poor site for the city has been responsible, to a considerable degree, for the poor physical development and lack of powers of resistance of the poorer inhabitants of the city. Lack of proper sani- tation has furnished the groundwork for epidemics and constant disease, and ill-health, extending through gen- erations, has had a decided effect on the physical con- stitution of the people. The choice of this island site had, in an unlooked for way, an important compensation for its disadvantages. This portion of Mexico, or, more properly, the portion somewhat west of the city, is in a zone in which the greatest faults have occurred in the earth's surface, and is subject to severe earthquakes. The city, located on what was an island marsh, is really built on a big and probably only partially dried puddle, and the character of the formation is undoubtedly a protection against the violence of the shocks. Once in a while the resident of Mexico has the unpleasant experience of waking up to find the furniture moving about the room, and, on rush- ing to the window, to see the street lamps swaying back and forth as if swung by a powerful gale. On reaching the street the dim light of the dawn shows the asphalt heaving in long waves, while, with each wave, houses seem to swing out over the sidewalks. The sensation when Mother Earth herself gets in motion is uncanny, and such earthquakes as are experienced in Mexico City would be far more terrifying and destructive but for the measure of protection afforded by the character of the soil. Even the great cathedral, the largest edifice of its kind in Latin America, begun in 1573 and com- pleted a century later, has suffered only cracks from the numerous shocks it has had in three centuries of exist- ence. SPANISH MEXICO 43 Once established in their new capital, the Spaniards took advantage of the situation to dominate all the sur- rounding country. From remote tribes came offers of submission, and Cortes followed these up by sending military expeditions to take possession of the territory in the name of the Spanish crown. Expeditions were sent to explore the country westward as far as the Pa- cific and as far north as the upper end of the Gulf of California. People from Spain, attracted by the ro- mantic stories of the conquest, soon began to pour into the new country, and settlements were made at various points; along the Pacific and Gulf coasts and as far south as Honduras and Guatemala. By the end of the sixteenth century the whole of the country had been explored, and a start had been made on explorations which were soon to place the whole west coast country, as far north as Oregon, under the royal banner. Hand- some public buildings, in use to this day, were erected in the capital. Many people of distinguished families in Spain came over, obtained large grants of land and built themselves palatial residences in the capital, which, half a century before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, could boast of much of the brilliance of Euro- pean capital life. In 1536 Antonio de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, was named Viceroy for the new country, and his work as a colonizer and organizer formed the basis of a permanent government. A public mint was established in 1536, and the new Viceroy in the year following founded the College of Santa Cruz de Tlate- lolco, the first institution of learning in the new world. The University of Mexico was founded in 1573, ante- dating Harvard by sixty-three years. 'Not only was the whole of the country explored before the end of the sixteenth century, but practically all of it was thor- oughly organized under Spanish rule. The Indians, 44 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW awed into submission by the conquest, offered little or no resistance to the settlement of their country. There were, from time to time, local insurrections, generally resulting from the harsh treatment of labor at the mines, but these were always quickly suppressed, and none of them ever assumed the proportions of a national upris- ing. In this and in the two following centuries various decrees and royal acts prohibited the enslaving of In- dians, and some viceroys attempted to enforce the regu- lations, but local practice was too well founded and local avarice too great to permit compliance. The general practice was that a grant of land carried with it all the people already settled in it, and these people, while not technically slaves, could be obliged to work the estate for the owner's benefit. The rapid spread of Spanish colonization and rule was doubtless in large part due to the desire to find gold and silver. What extremes of cruelty were used to com- pel the natives to produce or find these precious metals may be imagined from the fact that, with a few excep- tions, every Mexican mining camp of any conse- quence to-day appears in a list of mines published in 1810. To be sure, some new properties have been opened in old camps, and some properties formerly of little value, have, under modern methods, become large producers. Speaking generally, however, the Spaniards made such a thorough search of the country that they located the great silver and gold camps within a few years after the . conquest, and followed this up by locat- ing nine-tenths or more of the properties known to-day. In 1557 Don Bartolome de Medina, in Pachuca, in- vented a method for the extraction of silver from ore by the use of mercury, and this gave a great stimulus to the mining industry. It is interesting to note that the Pachuca camp is, to-day, one of the greatest silver pro- SPANISH MEXICO 45 ducing districts in tbe world, and its annual production, due to the use of the cyanide process and the utilization of hydro-electric power from JN ecaxa, is equal to the pro- duction of a decade during Spanish days. The importance of the mining industry may be judged by the fact that during the Spanish colonial period the recorded production of silver was over two billions of pesos, the peso having a value, at that time, of about one dollar in American money. There were produced, in the same time, sixty-eight million pesos of gold. As these figures are from records turned in for purposes of taxation, it is probable that the actual pro- duction was considerably in excess of the amount re- ported. The figures must be considered relatively. Taking into consideration the total stock of silver in the world and its relative purchasing power, the peso, according to various estimates, had a relative value of from six to ten dollars. As judged by to-day's stand- ards, therefore, the average annual production of pre- cious metals in Mexico during the colonial period was worth an amount equivalent to fifty or seventy-five mil- lion dollars, and, due to the richness of the ores first treated, doubtless represented a greater amount during the first century. Statistics are misleading, and, by way of comparison, a better idea of the value of the stream of silver and gold which now began to pour into Spain can be gained by the simple statement that the amount of precious metals produced by Mexico annually was double the total amount of royal treasure possessed by any monarch in Europe. Spanish America, from Oregon to the Straits of Magellan, produced, during three centuries of colonial rule, four and a half billion pesos in silver, Mexico contributing nearly forty per cent, of the total. In the light of the tremendous production under modern scientific mining methods the annual production in 46 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW Mexico in Spanish days might seem small, but, con- sidering that the methods of the day were very crude, the output was quite remarkable. Only rich ore could be treated, and the whole process was one of hand labor. As late as twenty-five years ago, with the steam engine to supply power, the cost of silver production at the Pachuca camp was over twelve dollars per ton of ore, and ore with a value of less than fifteen dollars per ton was of too low a grade to treat. There is little data on costs in the Spanish days, but it is certain that only ores from the richest veins could be utilized. To-day the production cost at the Pachuca camp is three dollars per ton, a fourth of what it was only a few years ago. Obviously any comparison with former production is out of the question. The treatment of the Indians in mining operations brought forth protests, from time to time, from the early Dominican and Franciscan monks. With four- teen and fifteen hours constituting a day's work, with no provisions for health, and with much cruelty in the handling of the work, the labor conditions were as bad as they could be. Las Casas, the priest-historian, writ- ing of Cortes' first fortune, accumulated in Cuba, says, pathetically, " God, who alone knows at what cost of Indian lives it was obtained, will take account of it." It was not that Cortes was by nature cruel, for his recommendations to the government contain many hu- mane ideas. The whole system was based on forced labor, and was designed to drive the labor to the utmost point of endurance. One of Cortes' early acts after the conquest was to ask the crown to send out a number of priests so that the conversion of the natives might be actively pushed. A large niunber of monks were sent out, and they, scattering over the country, everywhere made bitter denunciation of the inhuman treatment of SPANISH MEXICO 47 the natives. The protests of these pioneer missionaries, coupled with the heroic efforts of Las Casas, mitigated, in some degi-ee, the sufferings of the Indians, and re- sulted, at different periods, in the adoption of humane regulations covering the conditions of labor. It was, however, much easier to get proper regulations adopted than to have them enforced in the colony. The land owners and mine owners had large selfish interests at stake, and many of them were very powerful. They were far removed from contact with the home govern- ment, and naturally exercised much influence over the colonial officials. Many of the viceroys sent out were intent on enriching themselves, and, instead of attempt- ing to stop abuses, were only too glad to take advantage of them for their own purposes. Moreover, most of the great estates or mines were not managed by their owners directly but intrusted to administradores, or managers, who were usually men of a lower degree of education aind who had little thought of anything but " getting results," regardless of the means employed. The owners themselves, living in comfort in the capital, were fre- quently entirely out of touch with the detail of the work on their properties, and, in general, indifferent as to the native labor so long as their income came in regu- larly. They were not necessarily heartless, but they simply regarded the Indian as an inferior being who was useful as a mechanical unit. The Indians, stunned by the sweeping success of the Spaniards in the conquest, submitted to slavery with little or no resistance, and re- mained under the yoke for three hundred years. The propaganda for the conversion of the Indians was highly successful, and in an incredibly short time the whole country accepted Christianity. The early mis- sionaries were not only zealous. They were self-sacri- ficing, and many of them men of fine feelings. Their 48 MEXICO TO-DAY AI^D TO-MOEEOW constant effort to help improve the condition of the na- tives doubtless greatly aided their propaganda. In the latter part of the sixteenth century the missionaries translated various religious works into the leading na- tive dialects, and opened schools at many missions to help in spreading Christian doctrines. The history of Mexico during the Spanish rule is strikingly and exclusively the history of the Spaniards in Mexico. With the exception of some efforts by the missionaries to help the natives, or at least to reduce the severity of their conditions of labor, little was done for the Indians. The natives of the country had no partici- pation in its life except as units of labor. It was, per- haps, natural that the Indian should have little part in the general scheme of life, but, allowing for all racial differences, it is really amazing that a few hundred Spaniards, having conquered a country with five mil- lions of people in it, should, with a few thousands who came over later, so thoroughly and absolutely dominate it that the Indian, except as a means to an end, disap- peared in the country's history. The very absence in the Spanish records of Indian names, except those of towns, is an indication of how completely the submer- gence was. The government was one of, by and for the Spaniards. It must be said, however, in justice to the invaders, that they respected, in many cases, the tribal rights to community lands. The Mexican tribes had no private ownership of land, but each tribe or commu- nity had an allotment of land which was owned in com- mon, and worked in common or in rotation by the indi- vidual members of the tribe. The Spanish, in many of their grants, specifically exempted such community lands, and a good many Mexican villages to this day own common land which has been so held from the days of the Aztecs. SPANISH MEXICO 49 An interestiDg event during the Spanish rule was the sending from Mexico of an expedition, in 1611, to Japan, with the object of charting the coast with a view toward establishing trade. The expedition was well received in Japan, but, on learning that the Span- ish wished to chart the coasts, the Japanese became appijhensive lest the ultimate object might be to pre- pare for a conquest, and the commissioners were ordered to leave. The expedition came to nothing, and the at- tempt is of interest only as the first effort of people of European blood to get in touch with the affairs of the Japanese empire. CHAPTEE VI IKDEPENDEITCE Spain^, in the Seventeentli Century, rose to the height of her power and glory. The crowns of Castile and Aragon, united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isa- bella, fell by inheritance to Charles the Fifth, who, as Emperor of the Holy German Empire and Archduke of Austria, ruled over a vast empire. Spanish armies had swept over France and Italy. The Spanish Americas, extending over the greater part of the length of two continents, were pouring into the mother country a steady stream of treasure. The Philippines formed the commercial base for a great Oriental trade. Ender Philip the Second, Charles' successor, this great empire was consolidated, and became, far more than it had been under Charles, a Spanish empire, with Madrid as its capital. The Spanish flag floated in every sea. Spain, in a hundred years, had leaped from an insignificant position to that of the great world power. But the em- pire was to fall faster than it had risen. In 1588 an event, the consequences of which were not then realized, changed world history. Through the defeat by the Eng- lish of Philip's ^^ Invincible Armada " Spain lost con- trol of the se^, and from then on her position became a secondary one. She kept her colonies and retained part of her commerce, but her domination in world affairs was gone. The Spanish rulers, occupied with troubles at home, paid little attention to the colonies, whose af- fairs were intrusted to the Council of the Indies. The 50 INDEPEE-DENCE 51 stream of wealth pouring in from Mexico and Peru helped to enervate the whole government. The wealth, of an artilicial character, led to neglect of internal devel- opment, and the general tendency was to govern the colonial possessions on the basis of squeezing out of them the last peso of revenue. There was little of a constructive character, and much, in fact, to discourage real progress. Erom time to time there were ministers who realized the danger of a form of government which gave little and exacted much. In 1783 the Conde de Aranda, in a private memorandum to the King, deplored the aid given by the Spanish to the British American colonies in their fight for independence. He pointed out that while England was Spain's enemy, the example of the northern colonies might easily be followed by the Span- ish colonies. His memorandum continues : " The lib- erty of religion, the ease of settling people and vast tracts of land, and the advantages which the new form of gov- ernment offers, will attract the artisans and laborers of all nations . . . and within a few years we shall see, with the greatest regret, a colossus as our neighbor. Once this Anglo-American power is enlarged and estab- lished, we cannot but believe that its first vision will be that of the possession of the Eloridas in order to domi- nate in the Mexican sphere. Once this is accomplished, it will not only be in a position to interrupt our com- merce with Mexico whenever it wishes, but it will aspire to the conquest of that vast empire, — which we, from Europe, could not defend against a power grand, for- midable and established on the same continent. . . . These are not vain fears, but truthful prognostications of what must inevitably happen. . . . How is it possible that the American colonies, when they are in a position to conquer Mexico, will refrain themselves and leave us 52 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKROW in peaceful possession of that rich country ? It is not believable, and, therefore, sound policy dictates that we should, in time, take measure to prevent evils which may overwhelm us." The Conde recommends that three new kingdoms be formed, one of Mexico, one of Peru, and the third of the remaining Spanish possessions, the ruler of each to be named by the Spanish crown, but each kingdom to be given entire freedom to legislate for itself. Under the stimulus of home rule each kingdom would so develop as to be strong enough to protect itself from attack, while Spain would derive benefit in con- tinuing a healthy commerce with the new countries. Had the counsel given in this remarkable document been followed, the catastrophe which lost Spain all her American possessions might have been averted. Neither to this nor to other occasional pieces of sound advice given was any attention paid. The whole tendency of the Spanish policy was to alienate the sympathy of the colonies. The vision of Aranda came true, and, once the American colonies were firmly established, the Span- ish colonies, one by one, began to fight for independence. In this effort they were greatly aided by internal condi- tions in Spain. Napoleon had overrun the country, and the King, kept on the throne by him, had alienated the people. Many loyal Spaniards in Mexico and other colonies felt that their mother country, dominated by foreigners, could no longer claim their allegiance. At the beginning of the Nineteenth Century Mexico was by far the most important of the Spanish colonial possessions. The country had over five millions of people, and the capital, with 135,000 inhabitants, was the most important city of the new world. The govern- ment revenues were twenty million pesos a year, the foreign commerce amounted to thirty-two million pesos, and mineral production exceeded twenty million pesos. i:NDEPE:t^DENCE 53 The well-to-do class, including many loyal Spaniards, was galled by the stream of revenues going out of the country for the support of a government dominated by A^ipoleon. The Spanish residents of Mexico were, moreover, greatly irritated by the fact that they had little or no participation in government affairs, which, from the most important matters down to petty details, were handled by people who were new to the country and not in sympathy with its ideas. Of the sixty-four vice- roys who had represented the Crown only one had been born in Mexico, and the same general condition pre- vailed as to minor posts. In the church, conditions were no better for the native born element. The post of archbishop had, with one exception, never been given to any one born in the country, and the bishops of Mexico, Guadalajara and Michoacan were almost invari- ably of foreign birth. The industries of the country had largely been farmed out, under monopolistic conces- sions, to court favorites who, having no natural sympa- thy for the country, had no hesitation about exploiting it for their own benefit. All internal conditions were favorable for a change. In Spain the people were in open rebellion and fighting heroically to throw out the French usurpers of their government. Moreover, the prosperous development of the United States under its new government furnished a striking contrast to the devastated condition of Europe, then struggling in the throes of the Napoleonic wars. Everything tended to encourage a break between Mexico and the mother country. A movement toward independ- ence, started in 1808 in Queretero, was carried along secretly for two years, enlisting, during this time, the sympathy and support of Miguel Hidalgo, a native born priest who soon assumed the leadership of the cause. On the sixteenth of September, 1810, Hidalgo, then 54 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW parish priest of Dolores, learning that the conspiracy had been betrayed to the government, anticipated any action by seizing the local authorities and government funds, making, at the time, a public speech which pro- claimed the object of the movement to be that of taking the government out of the hands of Europeans, v^ho, he said, had already delivered their own country to the Erench and who would follow up their treason by soon handing Mexico over to the invaders. The revolution made headway rapidly, gathering in force of numbers day by day. The towns of Celayo and Queretero fell, making little or no resistance, and on the twenty-eighth of September Guanajuato, after a heroic defense by the Governor and the small force he had with him, came into the possession of the revolutionists. The revolutionary force, while large in numbers, was hardly more than a mob. There was nothing like military organization or discipline, and the fall of each town was accompanied by great excesses. The homes of Spanish residents were plundered of everything of value, and shops were sacked by the troops and populace. Word of the insurrection reached Mexico City quickly, and preparations were made for the defense of the capital and for the gathering of sufficient forces to put down the uprising. The in- surgent army slowly improved in organization, took town after town, and finally, on October thirtieth, de- feated the royalist forces within twenty miles of the capital. Hidalgo was unable, for lack of arms and pow- der, to follow up this victory by taking the capital itself, and decided to return to Queretero. The march north was abruptly interrupted on the seventh day of Novem- ber by an encounter with royalist forces going to the aid of the capital. The revolutionary forces, unpre- pared for an attack and lacking arms and ammunition, were disastrously defeated, and Hidalgo and other lead- i:n"depei^dee^ce 55 ers barely managed to reach Queretero. The movement, however, spread throughout the country, and Hidalgo was able to gather a sutHcient force to take Guadalajara, where the first steps were taken to form a regular gov- ernment. The record of the early days of the revolu- tion is blackened by the excesses committed in various to^vns. The revolt, however, resulted in a decree being issued by the Viceroy prohibiting slavery and abolishing head taxes. The first act of the newly formed govern- ment was to issue a similar decree. The weak position of the insurgents at Guanajuato was betrayed to Calleja, the royalist general, who proceeded to attack the city. The revolutionary forces, unable to withstand the attack of a well equipped force, evacuated the city. Before leaving they entered the jail and killed one hundred and thirty-eight out of two hundred and forty-nine Span- iards who had been arrested and placed in confinement. Calleja retaliated by killing every one encountered on the streets when the town was occupied, some four hun- dred people, most of them in no way connected with the revolt, giving up their lives in this act of bloody ven- geance. Allende and others of the insurgents now joined Hidalgo at Guadalajara, where the butchery of innocent Spaniards was repeated, two hundred being killed. Hidalgo determined to attack the royalist forces, counting on the large number of his men for victory. He had a total of thirty thousand men to draw on, and from these he formed seven battalions of infantry, six squadrons of cavalry and two batteries of artillery, the force totaling three thousand four hundred men. There were, however, only twelve hundred muskets, and of these many were useless. The army marched out of Guadalajara and arrived at C alder on, thirty-five miles distant, on January fourteenth, 1811. Calleja, with seven thousand men, attacked the force on the seven- 56 MEXICO TO-DAY AI^D TO-MOEEOW teenth, and completely routed it, Hidalgo, Allende and others leaders managing, however, to escape. The roy- alist forces now reoccupied Guadalajara, and later took all the towns which Hidalgo had held. Hidalgo, Al- lende and thirty other leaders were later betrayed to the royalists, and all were executed in July, 1811. The heads of Hidalgo, Allende and Aldama were set on spikes on the jail in Guanajuato and remained there, a grewsome warning, for ten years. Early in the revolutionary movement the church had excommunicated Hidalgo and other leaders, and had threatened with excommunication any who gave mate- rial or moral support to the cause. Neither this nor the execution of the leaders was effective, however, in sup- pressing revolutionary ideas, and armed opposition to the government developed rapidly in various parts of the country. Jose Maria Morelos became, soon after the death of Hidalgo, the leader of the revolution, and for four years conducted military operations which were successful only in harassing the government. He was finally defeated, captured, and shot. During all this time a form of revolutionary govern- ment was maintained, but the government, such as it was, had to shift frequently and rapidly in the series of successes and defeats which its army met. Neverthe- less, the movement was gradually becoming an organized one, gaining strength in numbers and leaders from month to month, and was, in fact, so formidable that by 1820, the government was obliged to maintain an army of 85,000 men in the field. Augustin de Iturbide, an officer in the royalist army, in 1821 conceived the idea of a compromise by establishing an independent consti- tutional monarchy in Mexico, with Fernando VII of Spain as King. The plan, so-called that of Iguala, received the approval of the new viceroy with the under- II^TDEPENDEE'CE 57 standing that should Eernando VII be unable to accept the throne one of his sons should be chosen in his place. This phm was carried out, and on the twenty-seventh of September, 18::^ 1, Iturbide entered the capital in the role of liberator of the country. A provisional govern- ment was named, with Juan O'Donoju as provisional viceroy. Iturbide had doubtless counted on the disap- proval of the plan by the Spanish government, and cal- culated that, once in power, he would be in a position to deal with the situation. The Spanish government repudiated the arrangement, and Iturbide's followers promptly set up a cry demanding that he be proclaimed emperor. On May eighteenth a Congress was called, and Iturbide was elected emperor, and his coronation followed on July twentieth. Congress, which was Itur- bide's tool, voted him a salary of one and one-half mil- lion pesos, an amount which, however, for lack of funds, was never paid. Shortly after this, Iturbide dissolved Congress, and proceeded to run affairs under a dictator- ship. The government extravagance, coupled with its methods, provoked a new revolution led by Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, which received the support of the army. As a result Iturbide was obliged to abdicate, and left Mexico on April 11, 1823. Although com- pelled to leave the country, Iturbide, in recognition of his services in securing the independence of Mexico, received an annual pension of 25,000 pesos. The Mexican Eepublic was then proclaimed, and was organized in October, 1824, as a constitutional repre- sentative republic with eighteen states and four terri- tories, and D. Guadalupe Victoria was elected presi- dent. The fortress of Ulua, near Vera Cruz, the last Spanish stronghold in Mexico, capitulated on November 18, 1825. Manuel Gomez Pedraza succeeded Victoria, but held office only a few weeks, being forced out by 58 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW Vicente Guerrero, who had the support of Santa Anna and other military leaders. In 1829, an army of four thousand men, sent out from Spain in an attempt to re- conquer the country, seized Tampico, but, attacked by Santa Anna and General Teran, was obliged to capitu- late, surrender its arms and sail for Spain after its leaders had given a promise that no further effort would be made by Spain to interfere in the affairs of the new republic. Internal troubles, however, were more calcu- lated to bring disaster than attacks from without. Gen- eral Anastasio Bustamente overthrew Guerrero's rule and succeeded in dominating most of the country. Guerrero withdrew to the south and organized a formid- able army. The captain of a Sardinian ship purchased by Guerrero was bribed by Bustamente to betray the ex-president, who was invited to lunch on board in Aca- pulco harbor and seized when luncheon was over. The unfortunate Guerrero was taken in Oaxaca, tried by an irregular court martial and executed. This act pro- duced a reaction of feeling, and Santa Anna led a move- ment to overthrow Bustamente, who was obliged, in December, 1832, to sign a convention recognizing as President, Gomez Pedraza, under the election of 1828. Pedrazo served an unexpired term of three months, when Santa Anna was elected as his successor. The early years of the Mexican Eepublic were char- acterized by a long series of factional and personal quarrels in which the control of the public treasury seems to have figured as the main prize. Each govern- ment left the treasury bankrupt, and, in fact, the early fall of a government was usually foreshadowed by heavy treasury deficits. Why the treasury should have figiired as a prize would, therefore, be inexplicable but for the fact that each government, on coming into power, promptly repudiated all the obligations of its prede- IT^DEPEI^DENCE 59 cessor, and was tlius enabled to start off with a clean sheet. Every new government introduced something new in the way of taxes, spent lavishly while the pro- ceeds lasted, and then collapsed or was overthrown. No one had an^'^^contidence in whatever government or party happened to be in power. In 1836, when Texas de- clared its independence and funds had to be raised to equip an army to suppress the revolt, the government raised, on loans, 2,200,000 pesos, paying 40 per cent, interest for half a million and 4 per cent, per month for the balance ! The Texas campaign was a complete disaster. Santa Anna, had he been an able military leader, might have, with his six thousand men, put a quick end to the young republic. He committed, however, great excesses, burn- ing towns and villages, shooting prisoners, and permit- ting his soldiers to loot, all this '^ f rightfulness '' only arousing the most determined spirit of resistance. Moreover, he had no plan of campaign, and permitted his own forces to separate into two or three units, the better, probably, to carry out the general idea of laying the country waste. On April 21, 1836, he, with thir- teen hundred men, was surprised by the Texan army of eight hundred men under Sam Houston. The Mexican force was completely routed and Santa Anna taken pris- oner. Santa Anna, in grave danger of being shot in reprisal for the shooting of Texan prisoners, sent orders to Filisola, his second in command, to withdraw his three thousand men and await orders — an act of per- sonal cowardice which the Mexican people have never forgotten. Filisola followed his instructions, and Santa Anna, after some months of life in prison, secured his own liberty by agreeing to recognize the independence of Texas. Santa Anna returned to Mexico, where the government declined to support his action, and endeav- 60 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW ored, unsuccessfully, to raise funds for a new campaign against Texas. While discredited, Santa Anna man- aged to keep a hold on the military element, and con- tinued to be a power in politics for some years. In 1836 Spain gave official recognition to the Mexi- can republic. This, coupled with the elimination of complications through the independence of Texas, prom- ised Mexico freedom from foreign troubles. Mean- while, however, trouble had been brewing with France over a question of claims of French citizens for losses in the various upheavals in Mexico, and in 1839 France sent a squadron of ten ships to Mexico, established a blockade and captured Vera Cruz after a bombardment in which, incidentally, Santa Anna lost a leg. The French claims were settled by the payment of 600,000 pesos, for 200,000 pesos of which the French govern- ment never found any claimants. CHAPTEE VII MADAME CALDEEON DE LA BARCA It would be wearisome to go into the detail of the petty squabbles and the series of political turnovers in the next few years of Mexican history. A vivid pic- ture has been painted, however, by Madame Calderon de la Barca, wife of the first minister sent by Spain to Mexico, in her '' Life in Mexico," first published in 1842 and republished recently (E. P. Button & Co., New York). Madame de la Barca was Scotch and en- dowed with a rich fund of the wit of her race. Her book not only gives a graphic picture of life in Mexico but is bright and entertaining throughout, and well worth reading. To give some idea of the conditions prevailing eighty years ago the following extracts from this charming work are given. " One circumstance must be observed by all who travel in Mexican territory. There is not one human being or passing object that is not in itself a picture, or which would not form a good subject for the pencil. The Indian women with their plaited hair, and little children slung to their backs, their large straw hats, and petticoats of two colors — the long strings of ar- rieros with their loaded mules, and swarthy, wild-look- ing faces — the chance horseman who passes with his sarape of many colors, his high ornamented saddle, Mexican silver stirrups, and leathern boots — this is picturesque. Salvator Rosa and Hogarth might have 61 62 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW traveled liere to advantage: Salvator for the sublime, and Hogarth taking him up when the sublime became the ridiculous. . . . ^^ The common Indians, whom we see every day bring- ing in their fruit and vegetables to market, are, gener- ally speaking, very plain, with an humble, mild expres- sion of countenance, very gentle, and wonderfully polite in their manners to each other ; but occasionally, in the lower classes, one sees a face and form so beauti- ful, that we might suppose such another was the Indian who enchanted Cortes; with eyes and hair of extraor- dinary beauty, a complexion dark but glowing, with the Indian beauty of teeth like the driven snow, together with small feet and beautifully-shaped hands and arms, however imbrowned by sun and toil. . . . ^' It has a character peculiar to itself, great plains of maguey, with its huts with uncultivated patches, that have once been gardens, still filled with flowers and choked with weeds; the huts themselves, generally of mud, yet not unfrequently of solid stone, roofless and windowless, with traces of having been fine buildings in former days ; the complete solitude, unbroken except by the passing Indian, certainly as much in a state of savage nature as the lower class of Mexicans were when Cortes first traversed these plains — with the same character, gentle and cowardly, false and cunning, as weak animals are apt to be by nature, and indolent and improvident as men are in a fine climate; ruins everywhere — here a viceroy's country palace serving as a tavern, where the mules, stop to rest, and the driv- ers to drink pulque — there, a whole village crumbling to pieces ; roofless houses, broken down walls and arches, an old church — the remains of a convent. . . . For leagues scarcely a tree to be seen ; then a clump of the graceful Arbol de Peru, or one great cypress — long MADAME CALDEKOlSr DE LA BARCA 63 strings of mules and asses, with their drivers — pas- ture-fields with cattle — then again whole tracts of maguey, as far as the eye can reach; no roads worthy of the name, but a passage made between fields of maguey, bordered by crumbling-down low stone walls, causing a jolting from which not even the easy move- ment of Charles X's coach can save us. But the horses go at full gallop, accustomed to go through and over everything. . . . '' Then as to schools, there are none that can deserve the name, and no governesses. Young girls can have no emulation, for they never meet. They have no public diversion, and no private amusement. There are a few good foreign masters, most of whom have come to Mex- ico for the purpose of making their fortune, by teach- ing, or marriage, or both, and whose object, naturally, is to make the most money in the shortest possible time, that they may return home and enjoy it. The children generally appear to have an extraordinary disposition for music and drawing, yet there are few girls who are proficient in either. . . . " REVOLUTION in Mexico ! or Pronunciamiento, as they call it. The storm which has for some time been brewing has burst forth at last. Don Valentin Gomez Earias and the banished General Urrea have pronounced for federalism. At two this morning, joined by the fifth battalion and the regiment of comer- cio, they took up arms, set off for the palace, surprised the president in his bed, and took him prisoner. Our first information was a message arriving on the part of the government, desiring the attendance of two old sol- diers, who put on their old uniforms, and set off quite pleased. Next came our friend Don M — ■. — del C o, who advised us to haul out the Spanish col- ors, that they might be in readiness to fly on the bal- 64 MEXICO TO-DAY ANTf TO-MORROW cony in case of necessity. Little by little, more Span- iards arrived with dift'erent reports as to the state of things. Some say that it will end in a few hours — others, that it will be a long and bloody contest. Some are assured that it will merely terminate in a change of ministry — others that Santa Anna will come on directly and usurp the presidency. At all events. Gen- eral Valencia, at the head of the government troops, is about to attack the pronunciados, who are in possession of the palace. . . . '' The firing has begun ! People come running up the street. The Indians are hurrying back to their vil- lages in double-quick trot. As we are not in the center of the city, our position for the present is very safe, all the cannon being directed tow^ards the palace. All the streets near the square are planted with cannon, and it is pretended that the revolutionary party are giving arms to the leperos. The cannon are roaring now. All along the street people are standing on the balconies, looking anxiously in the direction of the pal- ace, or collected in groups before the doors, and the azoteas, which are out of the line of fire, are covered with men. They are ringing the tocsin — things seem to be getting serious. " Nine o'clock, p. m. — Continuation of firing without interruption. I have spent the day standing on the balcony, looking at the smoke, and listening to the dif- ferent rumors. Gomez Farias has been proclaimed president by his party. The streets near the square are said to be strewed with dead and wounded. There was a terrible thunderstorm this afternoon. Mingled with the roaring of the cannon, it sounded like a strife between heavenly and earthly artillery. We shall not pass a very easy night, especially without our soldiers. MADAME CALDEKOI^ DE ^A BARCA 65 Unfortunately there is a bright moon, so night brings no interruption to the tiring and shxughter. '' Our lirst news was brought very early this morning by the wife of one of the soldiers, who came in great despair to tell us that both her husband and his com- rade are shot, though not killed — that they were amongst the first who fell ; and she came to entreat C n to prevent their being sent to the hospital. It is reported that Bustamente has escaped, and that he fought his way, sword in hand, through the soldiers who guarded him in his apartment. Almonte at all events is at the head of his troops. The balls have entered many houses in the square. It must be terri- bly dangerous for those who live there, and amongst others, for our friend Senor Tagie, Director of the Monte Pio, and his family. ^^They have just brought the government bulletin, which gives the following statement of the circum- stances : ^ Yesterday, at midnight, Urrea, with a hand- ful of troops belonging to the garrison and its neighbor- hood took possession of the National Palace, surprising the guard, and committing the incivility of imprisoning His Excellency the President, Don Anastasio Busta- mente, the commander-in-chief, the Mayor de la Plaza, and other chiefs. Don Gabriel Valencia, chief of the plana mayor (the staff), General Don Antonio Mozo, and the Minister of War, Don Juan Nepomuceno Almonte, reunited in the citadel, prepared to attack the pronunci- ados, who, arming the lowest populace, took possession of the towers of the cathedral, and of some of the highest edifices in the center of the city. Although summoned to surrender, at two in the afternoon firing began, and continued till midnight, recommencing at 'Q.ve in the morning, and only ceasing at intervals. The colonel of 66 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW the sixth regiment, together with a considerable part of his corps, who were in the barracks of the palace, es- caped and joined the government troops, who have taken the greater part of the positions near the square and the palace. His Excellency the President, with a part of the troops which had pronounced in the palace, made his escape on the morning of the sixteenth, putting him- self at the head of the troops who have remained faith- ful to their colors, and at night published the following proclamation : u i u rj^]^g President of the Kepublic to the Mexican isTation. " ^ " Eellow-Citizens : The seduction which has spread over a very small part of the people and garri- son of this capital ; the f orgetf ulness of honor and duty, have caused the defection of a few soldiers, whose mis- conduct up to this hour has been throvni into confusion by the valiant behavior of the greatest part of the chiefs, officers, and soldiers, who have intrepidly followed the example of the valiant general-in-chief of the plana mayor of the army. The government was not ignorant of the machinations that were carrying on ; their au- thors were well known to it, and it foresaw that the gentleness and clemency which it had hitherto employed in order to disarm them, would be corresponded to with ingratitude. u i u rj^j^-g YiuQ of policy has caused the nation to re- main headless (acefala) for some hours, and public tranquillity to be disturbed; but my liberty being re- stored, the dissidents, convinced of the evils which have been and may be caused by these tumults, depend upon a reconciliation for their security. The government will remember that they are misled men, belonging to the great Mexican family, but not for this will it for- get how much they have forfeited their rights to respect ; MADAME CALDEKOIsr DE LA BAECA 6Y nor what is due to the great bulk of the nation. Public tranquillity will be restored in a few hours; the laws will immediately recover their energy and the govern- ment will see them obeyed. " ^ " Anastasio Bustamewte. " ' " Mexico, July 16th, 1840.'^ ' " A roar of cannon from the Palace, which made the house shake and the windows rattle, and caused me to throw a blot over the President's good name, seems the answer to this proclamation. " 17th. — The state of things is very bad. Cannon planted, all along the streets, and soldiers firing indis- criminately on all who pass. Count C a slightly wounded, and carried to his country-house at Tacubaya. Two Spaniards have escaped from their house, into which the balls were pouring, and have taken refuge here. The E-^ family have kept their house, which is in the very center of the affray, cannons planted be- fore their door, and all their windows already smashed. Indeed, nearly all the houses in that quarters are aban- doned. We are living here like prisoners in a fortress. The Countess Del V e, whose father was shot in a former revolution, had just risen this morning, when a shell entered the wall close by the side of her bed, and burst in the mattress. " As there are two sides to every story, listen to the proclamation of the chief of the rebels. " ^ Senor Valentin Gomez Farias to the Mexican People. ^' ' Eellow-Citizens : We present to the civilized world two facts, which, while they will cover with eter- nal glory the Eederal army and the heroic inhabitants of this capital, will hand dowu with execration and in- famy, to all future generations, the name of General 68 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKROW Bustamente ; this man without faith, breaking his sol- emnly-pledged word, after being put at liberty by an excess of generosity ; for having promised to take innne- diate steps to bring about a negotiation of peace, upon the honorable basis which was proposed to him, he is now converted into the chief of an army, the enemy of the Federalists; and has beheld, with a serene counte- nance, this beautiful capital destroyed, a multitude of families drowned in tears, and the death of many citi- zens ; not only of the combatants, but of those who have taken no part in the struggle. Amongst these must be counted an unfortunate woman enceinte, who was killed as she was passing the palace gates under the belief that a parley having come from his camp, the firing would be suspended, as in fact it was on our side. This government, informed of the misfortune, sent for the husband of the deceased, and ordered twenty-five dol- lars to be given him; but the unfortunate man, though plunged in grief, declared that twelve were sufficient to supply his wants. Such was the horror inspired by the atrocious conduct of the ex-government of Busta- mente, that this sentiment covered up and suffocated all the others. " ^ Another fact, of which we shall with difficulty find an example in history, is the following. The day that the firing began, being in want of some implements of war, it was necessary to cause an iron case to be opened, belonging to Don Stanislaus Flores, in which he had a considerable sum of money in different coin, besides his most valuable effects. Thus, all that the government could do, was to make this known to the owner, Seiior Flores, in order that he might send a person of confidence to take charge of his interests, making known what was wanting, that he might be immediately paid. The pertinacity of the firing pre- MADAME CALDERON DE LA BAECA 69 vented Seiior Flores from naming a commissioner for four days, and tlien, altliongh the case has been open, and no one has taken charge of it, the commissioner has made known officially that nothing is taken from it but the implements of war which were sent for. Glory in yourselves, Mexicans ! The most polished na- tion of the earth, illustrious France, has not presented a similar fact. The Mexicans possess heroic virtues, which will raise them above all the nations in the world. This is the only ambition of your fellow-citi- zen, " ' Valentin Gomez Eaeias. ^^^ Mexico, Julv 17th, 1840.' '' 21st. — After passing a sleepless night, listening to the roaring of cannon, and figuring to ourselves the devastation that must have taken place, we find to our amusement that nothing decisive has occurred. The noise last night was mere skirmishing, and half the can- nons were fired in the air. In the darkness there was no mark. But though the loss on either side is so much less than might have been expected, the rebels in the palace cannot be very comfortable, for they say that the air is infected by the number of unburied dead bod- ies lying there; indeed there are many lying unburied on the streets, which is enough to raise a fever, to add to the calamitous state of things. ^' The tranquillity of the sovereign people during all this period is astonishing. In what other city in the world would they not have taken part with one or other side ? Shops shut, workmen out of employment, thousands of idle people, subsisting, Heaven only knows how, yet no riot, no confusion, apparently no impa- tience. Groups of people collect on the streets, or stand talking before their doors, and speculate upon 70 MEXICO TO-DAY AISTD TO-MOKEOW probabilities, but await the decision of their military chiefs, as if it were a judgment from Heaven, from which it were both useless and impious to appeal. '^ This being Sunday, and a fete-day, a man was murdered close by our door, in a quarrel brought about probably through the influence of pulque, or rather of chinguirite. If they did not so often end in a deadly quarrel, there would be nothing so amusing as to watch the Indians gradually becoming a little intoxicated. They are at first so polite, — handing the pulque-jar to their fair companions (fair being taken in the general or .Pickwickian sense of the word) ; always taking off their hats to each other, and if they meet a woman, kissing her hand with an humble bow as if she were a duchess ; — but these same women are sure to be the cause of a quarrel, and then out come these horrible knives — and then, Adios ! . . . ^^ It is impossible to conceive anything more humble and polite than the common country-people. Men and women stop and wish you a good day, the men holding their hats in their hands, and all showing their white teeth, and faces lighted up by careless good-nature. I regret to state, however, that to-day there are a great many women quite as tipsy as the men, returning home after the fete, and increasing the distance to their village, by taking a zigzag direction through the streets. . . . ^' Senor Canedo, Secretary of State, has formally an- nounced his intention of resigning. Certainly the sit- uation of premier in Mexico, at this moment, is far from enviable, and the more distinguished and clear- headed the individual, the more plainly he perceives the impossibility of remedying the thickly-gathering evils which crowd the political horizon. ^ Revolution,' says Senor de , ^ has followed revolution since the MADAME CALDEROJSr DE LA BARCA 71 Independence, no stable government Las yet been estab- lished. Had it been so, Mexico would have offered to onr eyes a phenomenon unknovni until now in the world — that of a people, without previous prepara- tion, passing at once to govern themselves by democrat- ical institutions.' . . . '' They, as well as every Mexican, whether man or woman, not under forty, have lived under the Spanish government; have seen the revolution of Dolores of 1810, with continuations and variations by Morelos, and paralyzation in 1819 ; the revolution of Yturbide in 1821; the cry of Liberty (grito de Libertad) given by those generals ' benemeritos de la patria,' Santa Anna and Victoria, in 1822 ; the establishment of the federal system in 1824; the horrible revolution of the Acordada, in which Mexico was pillaged, in 1828; the adoption of the central system in 1836 ; and the last revolution of the federalists in 1840. Another is pre- dicted for next month, as if it were an eclipse of the sun. In nineteen years three forms of government have been tried, and two constitutions, the reform of one of which is still pending in the Chambers. ^' If any one wishes to try the effect of strong con- trast, let him come direct from the United States to this country; but it is in the villages especially that the contrast is most striking. Traveling in JSTew England, for example, we arrive at a small and flourishing village. We see four new churches, proclaiming four different sects; religion suited to all customers. These wooden churches or meeting-houses are all new, all painted white, or perhaps a bright red. Hard by is a tavern with a green paling, as clean and as new as the churches, and there are also various smart stores and neat dwell- ing-houses ; all new, all wooden, all clean, and all orna- mented with slight Grecian pillars. The whole has 72 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEKOW a cheerful, trim, and flourishing aspect. Houses, churches, stores, and taverns, all are of a piece. They are suited to the present emergency, whatever that may be, though they will never make fine ruins. Every- thing proclaims prosperity, equality, consistency; the past forgotten, the present all in all, and the future tak- ing care of itself. No delicate attentions to posterity, who can never pay its debts. No beggars. If a man has even a hole in his coat, he must be lately from the Emerald Isle. . . . " Transport yourself in imagination from this New England village to that of , it matters not which, not far from Mexico. Look on this picture, and on that. The Indian huts, with their half-naked inmates, and little gardens full of flowers; the huts themselves either built of clay or the half-ruined beaux restes of some stone building. At a little distance an hacienda, like a deserted palace, built of solid masonry, with its inner patio surrounded by thick stone pillars, with great walls and iron barred windows that might stand a siege. Here a ruined arch and cross, so solidly built, that one cannot but wonder how the stones ever crum- bled away. There, rising in the midst of old faithful- looking trees, the church, gray and ancient, but strong as if designed for eternity ; with its saints and virgins, and martyrs and relics, its gold and silver and precious stones, whose value would buy up all the spare lots in the New England village; the lepero with scarce a rag to cover him, kneeling on that marble pavement. Leave the enclosure of the church, observe the stone wall that bounds the road for more than a mile; the fruit trees overtopping it, high though it be, with their loaded branches. This is the convent orchard. And that great Gothic pile of building, that stands in hoary majesty, Mx\I)AME CALDERON DE LA BARCA 73 surmoimted by the lofty mountains, whose cloud-en- veloped summits, tinged by the evening sun, rise behind it ; w^hat could so noble a building be but the monastery, perhaps of the Carmelites, because of its exceeding rich garden, and well-chosen site, for they, of all monks, are richest in this world's goods '^ Also we may see the reverend old prior riding slowly from under the arched gate up the village lanes, the Indians coming from their huts to do him lowly reverence as he passes. Here, everything reminds us of the past; of the conquering Spaniards, who seemed to build for eternity; impress- ing each work with their own solid, grave, and religious character; of the triumphs of Catholicism; and of the Indians when Cortes first startled them from their repose, and stood before them like the fulfillment of half -for gotten prophecy. It is the present that seems like a dream, a pale reflection of the past. All is de- caying and growing fainter, and men seem trusting to some unknown future which they may never see. One government has been abandoned, and there is none in its place. One revolution follows another, yet the remedy is not found. Let them beware lest half a century later, they be awakened from their delusion, and find the cathedral turned into a meeting-house, and all painted white; the railing melted down; the silver transformed into dollars; the Virgin's jewels sold to the highest bidder; the floor washed (which would do it no harm), and round the whole, a nice new wooden paling, freshly done in green — and all this performed by some of the artists from the wide-awake republic farther north. . . . " Certainly no visible improvement has taken place in their condition since the independence. They are quite as poor and quite as ignorant, and quite as 74 MEXICO TO-DAY AJSTD TO-MOEEOW degraded as they were in 1808, and if they do raise a little grain of their own, they are so hardly taxed that the privilege is as nought. . . . '^ 1st Sept. — This revolution is like a game at chess, in which kings, castles, knights, and bishops, are making different moves, while the pawns are looking on or tak- ing no part whatever. " To understand the state of the board, it is necessary to explain the position of the four principal pieces — Santa Anna, Bustamente, Paredes, and Valencia. The first move was made by Paredes, v/ho published his plan, and pronounced on the eighth of August at Guada- lajara. About the same time, Don P M: , a Spanish broker, who had gone to Manga de Clavo, was sent to Guadalajara, and had a conference with Pa- redes, the result of which was, that the plan of that general was withdrav^n, and it was supposed that he and Santa Anna had formed a combination. Shortly after, the Censor of Vera Cruz, a newspaper entirely devoted to Santa Anna, pronounced in favor of the plan of Paredes, and Santa Anna, with a few miserable troops, and a handful of cavalry, arrived at Perote. Here he remains for the present, kept in check by the (government) General Torrejon. Meanwhile Paredes, with about six hundred men, left Guadalajara and marched upon Guanajuato ; and there a blow was given to the government party by the defection of General Cortazar, who thought fit thus to show his grateful sense of having just received the rank of general of brigade with the insignia of this new grade, which the president put on with his own hands. Another check to the pres- ident. Once begim, defection spread rapidly, and Pa- redes and Cortazar having advanced upon Queretaro, found that General Juvera, with his garrison, had al- ready pronounced there, at the moment that they were MADAME CALDEE0:N' DE LA BARCA Y5 expected in Mexico to assist the government against Valencia. Paredes, Cortazar, and Jnvera are now united, and their forces amount to two thousand two hundred men. " Meanwhile General Valencia, pressed to declare his plan, has replied that he awaits the announcement of the intentions of Generals Paredes and Santa Anna; and, for his OAvn part, only desires the dismissal of General Bustamente. " This, then, is the position of the three principal pronounced chiefs, on this second day of September of the year of our Lord 1841. Santa Anna in Perote, hesitating whether to advance or retreat, and, in fact, prevented from doing either by the vicinity of General Torrejon. Paredes in Queretaro, with the other re- volted generals. Valencia in the citadel of Mexico with his pronunciados ; while Bustamente, with Generals Almonte and Canalize, the mark against which all these hostile operations are directed, is determined, it is said, to fight to the last. '^ Mexico looks as if it had got a general holiday. Shops shut up, and all business at a stand. The peo- ple, with the utmost apathy, are collected in groups, talking quietly; the ofiicers are galloping about; gen- erals, in a somewhat parti-colored dress, with large gray hats, striped pantaloons, old coats, and generals' belts, fine horses, and crimson color velvet saddles. The shop- keepers in the square have been removing their goods and money. An occasional shot is heard, and some- times a volley, succeeded by a dead silence. The arch- bishop shows his reverend face now and then upon the opposite balcony of his palace, looks out a little while, and then retires. The chief effect, so far, is universal idleness in man and beast, — the soldiers and their quad- rupeds excepted. However, every turret and belfry is 76 MEXICO TO-DAY AISTD TO-MOEKOW covered with soldiers, and the streets are blocked up with troops and trenches. Erom behind these turrets and trenches they fire at each other, scarcely a soldier falling, but numbers of peaceful citizens ; shells and bombs falling through the roofs of the houses, and all this for ^ the public good.' " The war of July had at least a shadow of pretext ; it was a war of party, and those who wished to reestab- lish federalism may have acted with good faith. Xow there is neither principle, nor pretext, nor plan, nor the shadow of reason or legality. Disloyalty, hypocrisy, and the most sordid calculation, are all the motives that can be discovered ; and those who then aifected an ardent desire for the welfare of their country have now thrown aside their masks, and appear in their true colors ; and the great mass of the people, who, thus passive and op- pressed, allow their quiet homes to be invaded, are kept in awe neither by the force of arms, nor by the depth of the views of the conspirators, but by a handful of soldiers, who are themselves scarcely aware of their own wishes or intentions, but that they desire power and distinction at any price. " 23rd. — We have received news this morning of the murder of our porter, the Spaniard whom we had brought from Havana. lie had left us, and was em- ployed as porter in a fabrica (manufactory), where the wife and family of the proprietor resided. Eight of General Valencia's soldiers sallied forth from the cita- del to rob this factory, and poor Jose, the most faith- ful and honest of servants, having valiantly defended the door, was cruelly murdered. They afterwards en- tered the building, robbed, and committed dreadful out- rages. They are selling printed papers through the streets to-day, giving an account of it. The men are taken up, and it is said will be shot by orders of the MADAME CALDEEON DE LA BARCA T7 general ; but we doubt this, even though a message has arrived, requiring the attendance of the padre who con- fesses criminals ; a Eranciscan monk, who, with various of his brethren, are living here for safety at present. " The situation of Mexico is melancholy. " 24th. — i^ews have arrived that General Paredes has arrived at the Lecheria, an hacienda belonging to this family, about three leagues from San Xavier; and that from thence he sent one of the servants of the farm to Mexico, inviting the president to a personal confer- ence. The family take this news of their hacienda's being turned into military quarters very philosophically ; the only precaution on these occasions being to conceal the best horses, as the pronunciados help themselves, without ceremony, to these useful quadrupeds, wher- ever they are to be found. " We have just returned after a sunny walk, and an inspection of the pronunciados — they are too near Mex- ico now for me to venture to call them the rebels. The infantry, it must be confessed, was in a very ragged and drunken condition — the cavalry better, having bor- rowed fresh horses as they went along. Though cer- tainly not point-device in their accouterments, their good horses, high saddles, bronze faces, and picturesque attire, had a fine effect as they passed along under the burning sun. The sick followed on asses, and amongst them various masculine women, with sarapes or Mangas and large straw hats, tied down with colored handker- chiefs, mounted on mules or horses. The sumpter mules followed, carrying provisions, camp-beds, etc. ; and various Indian women trotted on foot in the rear, carrying their husbands' boots and clothes. There was certainly no beauty amongst these feminine followers of the camp, especially amongst the mounted Amazons, who looked like very ugly men in a semi-female disguise. Y8 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW The whole party are on their way to Tacubaya, to join Santa Anna ! The game is nearly up now. Check from two knights and a castle — from Santa Anna and Paredes in Tacnhaya, and from Valencia in the citadel. People are flying in all directions, some from Mexico, and others from Guadalupe and Tacubaya. . . . " It appears that Santa Anna was marching from Puebla, feeling his way towards the capital in fear and trembling. At Eio Frio a sentinel's gun having acci- dentally gone offj the whole army were thrown into the most ludicrous consternation and confusion. ISTear Oyotla the general's brow cleared up, for here he was met by commissioners from the government, Generals Orbegoso and Guyame. In a moment the quick appre- hension of Santa Anna saw that the day was his own. He gave orders to continue the march with all speed to Tacubaya, affecting to listen to the proposals of the com;missioners, amusing them without compromising himself, and offering to treat with them at Mexical- singo. They returned without having received any de- cided answer, and without, on their part, having given any assurance that his march should not be stopped; yet he has been permitted to arrive unmolested at Tacu- baya, where Paredes has also arrived, and where he has been joined by General Valencia ; so that the three pronunciado generals are now united there to dispose of the fate of the republic. . . . " The same day General Almonte had an interview with Santa Anna, who said with a smile, when he left him, ^ Es buen muchacho (he is a good lad) — he may be of service to us yet.' " The three allied sovereigns are now in the arch- bishop's palace at Tacubaya, whence they are to dic- tate to the president and the nation. But they are, in fact, chiefly occupied with their respective en- MADAME CALDEEON DE LA BAECA Y9 gagements and respective rights. Paredes wishes to fulfill his engagements with the departments of Guan- juato, Jalisco, Zacatecas, AgTias Calientes, Queretaro, etc. In his plan he promised them religious toleration, permission for foreigners to hold property, and so on — the last, in fact, being his favorite project. Valencia, on his side, has his engagements to fulfill with the fed- eralists, and has proposed Seiior Pedraza as an integral part of the regeneration — one whose name will give confidence now and ever to his party. General Santa Anna has engagements with himself. He has deter- mined to command them all, and allows them to fight amongst themselves, provided he governs. Paredes is, in fact, furious with Valencia, accusing him of having interfered when not wanted, and of having ruined his plan, by mingling it with a revolution, with which it had no concern. He does not reflect that Valencia was the person who gave the mortal wound to the govern- ment. Had he not revolted, Santa Anna would not have left Perote, nor Paredes himself passed on unmo- lested. . . .'' CHAPTEE VIII AMERICAN WAR — EEENCH OCCUPATION The admission of Texps to the American union in 1844 precipitated war with the United States. His- torians seem to be unanimous that there was no just cause for war, and that the attack on Mexico was an act of oppression on a weak neighbor. In any event, it is certain that Mexico was in no shape for a foreign war. '' The condition of the country to provide for its defense against foreign attack could not have been worse/' says Verdia. " Unstable governments ; entire penury : a demoralized and corrupted army, without or- ganization and without a single capable leader: the political parties effervescent and inexorable : the clergy egoistic, and the public cold." The American army under Zachary Taylor attempted to move on Mexico from the north, but the plan proved a failure because of the difficulties of keeping open the lines of communi- cation. An expedition was accordingly sent to Vera Cruz, and Winfield Scott, after taking the port, marched on the capital, meeting with stout resistance along the route. The fortress of Chapultepec was stormed and taken, and, once the American forces were in posses- sion of this commanding point, resistance practically ceased. Among the defenders of Chapultepec were the students of the National Military Academy, and their heroic resistance, fighting until every boy was killed or wounded, shines as brightly to-day as it did three quarters of a century ago. By a treaty signed 80 AMEKICAlSr WAE 81 on February 2nd, 1848, Mexico ceded to the United States Texas, New Mexico and California, received fifteen million pesos of indemnity, and was released from various American claims amounting to three mil- lion pesos. For seven years following the war with the United States Mexico was ruled, or misruled, under the dicta- torship, direct or indirect, of Santa Anna. Public opinion became so strong that Santa Anna finally fled to Havana, and his departure was followed by three years of more or less chaotic conditions, with three or four insurrections and turnovers. In 1858 Benito Juarez, President of the Supreme Court, came into the presidency by succession. His government was bitterly opposed by the conservative party, and a new revolution broke out. Most of the time during the next three years the conservative gov- ernment was in control of the capital, but the state of its affairs is indicated by the fact that, to obtain a loan of one million pesos from a Swiss banking house it was obliged to give fifteen million pesos in bonds, se- cured by twenty per cent, of all national revenues. The Juarez government, after three years of fighting, finally overthrew the government in power. Juarez, who was of pure Indian blood, was a lawyer of distinction and a man of constructive ability. He was, however, sur- rounded by minor leaders who had their own interests at heart more than those of the nation, and many of the reform measures put through under a new consti- tution were nullified by arbitrary acts of ambitious in- dividuals. The church and state were separated, free- dom of religious thought guaranteed, and civil marriage established. Church lands were transferred to the Na- tion, but in the confusion of the time the best of them passed into the possession of party leaders and their 82 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW friends. Juarez had barely establislied himself in the capital when another insurrection started, headed by three conservative leaders, and there followed seven months of fighting before the government was in full control of the country. Meanwhile, the treasury had been emptied by military expenditures, and the govern- ment issued a decree suspending, for two years, pay- ments on its national and foreign obligations. The suspension of payments brought forth vigorous protests from England, Erance and Spain^ and finally resulted in negotiations between these countries for united action against Mexico. Erance's claims were entirely commercial, and were partly stimulated by an interest held by JN'apoleon Ill's minister in the Swiss loan made to the Conservative government. England, aside from commercial claims, was piqued by the fact that the conservative government had seized 600,000 pesos belonging to the British legation. Spain had some commercial claims, and a claim for the assassination of twenty-five Spanish subjects, who had been attacked by bandits. Spain, moreover, was irritated by the fact that the Spanish minister had been given his passport as a persona non grata because of his open support of the conservative party. A convention was signed in London for a joint expedition, but it was agreed that action should be confined to seizure of ports and other methods to secure proper gTiarantees for the future. A Spanish fieet arrived at Vera Cruz on the 29th of No- vember, 1861, and the city, having been evacuated by the Mexicans, was occupied a few days later. On Jan- uary 7, a combined British and Erench fleet arrived, and the following day an ultimatum was sent to the Mex- ican government setting forth the respective claims and demands of the three governments. There was no unity of action, however. The British and Spanish declined AMEKICAN WAE 8S to support tlie French plan of establishing a monarchy in Mexico, and took little part in subsequent proceed- ings. Negotiations with the Mexican government came to nothing. The Mexican representatives at a con- ference protested, in vain, that the various acts com- plained of were not those of the constituted Mexican government but were the acts of usurpers and bandits, and that the only act for w^hich the constituted govern- ment was responsible, the suspension of payments, was due solely to the inability of the government to pay. The French forces, meanwhile, had been greatly in- creased in number by the arrival in March of a large convoy, and the British and Spanish re]3resentatives, seeing that France was bent on seizure of the country and the establishment of a monarchy, declared the con- vention signed in London null and void, and refused to take any further part in the affair. France, which had the least legitimate claims, was thus left alone to carry out Louis I^apoleon's ambitious plan of a French- controlled Mexican empire with Archduke Maximilian of Austria as Emperor. E'egotiations of the French with the Mexicans were of a perfunctory character. The French, determined on a permanent occupation of Mexico, would listen to no proposals, and started to advance with six thousand men on the capital. Their commander had, however, underestimated the fighting qualities of the Mexicans, and was obliged, after some heavy fighting, to entrench himself at Ol-izaba and await reenforcements. In September Field Marshal Forey arrived at Vera Cruz with 31,000 men, and after some monthb of delay he started, at the head of an army of 36,000 men, for the capital. The Mexican army of 20,000 men, poorly equipped and badly provisioned, had gathered at Puebla to make a stand against the in- vader. Forey laid siege to Puebla and entirely cut off 84 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW supplies, so that the Mexicans, after 62 days of siege, were obliged to surrender. Further resistance was im- possible, and the French army entered the capital on June 7, 1863, after Juarez and his ministers had with- drawn to San Luis Potosi. The French, to give a sem- blance of legality to proceedings, ordered the formation of a junta of thirty-five Mexicans, to be named by the French minister, the junta to elect three Mexicans to provisionally govern and to name a council of 215 members to establish the permanent form of govern- ment. The council was composed of conservatives and clericals who were tools of the French, and within a month proclaimed Mexico to be a constitutional and hereditary monarchy, with a Catholic monarch with the title of Emperor, the latter to be Maximilian, or, in the event of his declining, to be some one named by I^apo- leon III. In pursuance of this program Maximilian was named Emperor, accepted the position and came to Mexico with the Empress Carlotta, arriving at the cap- ital on June 12, 1864. The French invasion did not have the support of England or Spain. The United States made emphatic protest, but the American government, then occupied with a civil war, was in no position to back up its posi- tion. The French public took little interest. Maxi- milian, left largely to rule the country as he pleased, plunged the government into heavy debts, partly through court extravagance, partly through recog-nition of French claims and partly through heavy military expenditures. The French claims recognized totaled 173,000,000 pesos, including 23,000,000 for transport of troops, 74,000,000 for war expenses, 9,000,000 for foreign legion expenses, 18,000,000 for the use of the French army, 15,000,000 to cover the Swiss loan, 15,000,000 for miscellaneous claims, and 19,000,000 for interest — AMERICAN WAR 85 and all this against a country whose bankruptcy pre- cipitated the war! The emperor received a salary of a million pesos a year, an annual grant of two hundred thousand was made to the Empress, and a brilliant court was maintained at great expense. The great extrava- gance aroused much ill-feeling among the Mexicans and in a large measure alienated the support of the conserva- tives, who had at first given hearty support to the em- pire. It inspired the republicans to continuous effort to drive out the invaders, and Maximilian had hardly arrived in Mexico before he was confronted with formi- dable fighting in three or four sections of the country. He was, in consequence, obliged to maintain an army of 63,000 men, 28,000 of them French, 6,000 Aus- trian Volunteers, 1,300 Belgians and the balance Mex- ican conservatives and imperialists. Harsh measures were resorted to in the hope of stifling the revolutionary movement, a decree being signed in October, 1865, pro- viding the death penalty for any prisoners taken in action against the government. Large bodies of troops were sent ]^orth. South and West to crush republican leaders and their troops. The situation was compli- cated by the fact that many of the republican troops were undisciplined and in several cases led by men who were bandits first and patriots second, resulting in the commission of serious excesses which, in turn, justified drastic measures. Reprisals followed reprisals until the war became one of extermination. Towns and plan- tations were burned by the imperialists, civilians sus- pected of republican sympathies were shot, and, in gen- eral, a ruthless campaign was waged to stamp out every republican tendency. On the other hand, the republi- can forces, frequently only large bands of guerillas, lived for the most part by pillage and plunder, wreak- ing vengeance on any one who opposed their operations. 86 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW Meanwhile Juarez, at Paso del E'orte, maintained the nucleus of a government, exercised, so far as possible, a control over the various leaders, and endeavored to push something like a military campaign. In 1864 the Empire borrowed, in London and Paris, forty million dollars, the loan being at 6 per cent, but being sold to the financial houses at 37 per cent, dis- count, the annual charge therefore being practically ten per cent. In the year following fifty million dol- lars of 6 per cent, bonds were sold in Paris at 32 per cent, discount, calling for practically 9 per cent, inter- est. In each case a portion or all of the interest was discounted, and a large part of the proceeds was used to satisfy outstanding Erench claims, so that the gov- ernment finally realized less than ^ve million dollars in cash from the financing. The loans had hardly been concluded before the government was again in difiicul- ties. The government's troubles were now increased by events abroad. The United States, in December, 1865, made an energetic protest to France against the intervention in Mexico. A few months later Prussia's victory over Austria created a new menace for France. In view of the possibility of trouble with the United States, and to better prepare France against pos- sible attack by Prussia, J^apoleon decided to abandon the Mexican Empire to its own fate, and announced that the French troops would be withdrawn in 1867. Before this was known in Mexico the republican forces had been making much headway and had, at several points, won important victories in battles with the im- perialist troops. The news that the French troops would be withdrawn gave them more confidence and stimulated them to further efforts, and, at the same time, it greatly discouraged the Mexican leaders and troops who had AMERICAIsT WAR 87 joined the imperialist cause. Maximilian felt the hope- lessness of victory without European support. He was inclined to abdicate, but the decision of a council of friends and ministers was against such a course, light- ing continued throughout the country, with the odds generally in favor of the Republican forces. Maxi- milian organized his army into three units or armies, the jSTorthern, Central and Eastern, and attempted to push a swift campaign to end the revolution, but all in vain. In the fall of 1866 defeat followed defeat. The Republican cause, in spite of lack of money or dis- ciplined forces, kept gaining headway. Colima and the surrounding country fell into Republican hands, Guada- lajara followed, and General Porfirio Diaz defeated imperial forces and occupied Oaxaca. Again Maxi- milian thought of abdication, but, with the indecision characteristic in all his acts, decided to leave the matter to a council of leading imperialists. The council, com- posed of 35 men, met on January IT, 1867, and voted, 27 to 8, against abdication. Republican victories con- tinued, Zacatecas, San Luis and Guanajuato falling by the end of the month. Maximilian left the capital for Queretaro to be in the center of military operations, and attempted, too late, to prevent the union of the Re- publican armies of the North and West. By the middle of March Queretaro was surrounded by the Republican forces numbering nearly 30,000 men. Marquez, one of Maximilian's generals, was sent to Mexico to bring the garrison of the capital to Queretaro in a desperate effort to break through the lines, but, instead of follow- ing instructions, he took the available forces and at- tempted, with them, to raise the siege of Puebla by General Diaz. The latter, learning of Marquez' inten- tion, made a brilliant assault, carried the city and then turned his victorious army on Marquez, who, having 88 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW learned of Puebla's fall, tiad started back for the cap- ital. On April 12 the siege of Mexico City by the Ee- pnblican forces under Diaz was begun, and all hope of relief for Maximilian from this quarter ended. The besieged at Queretaro made several unsuccessful efforts to fight their way out, and, cut off from supplies, their situation grew desperate. On May 16 Maximilian surrendered, and, on delivering his sword, requested that his family be allowed to embark for Europe. He made a plea for his generals and leaders, saying that they had merely been following his orders and fortunes, and that he wished to be the only victim of the catas- trophe. The Eepublican leaders called a court martial, under a law passed in 1862 providing the death penalty for all enemies of the Eepublic, and the court, meeting on June 14, condemned to death Maximilian and his two generals, Miramon and Mejia. In spite of the ef- forts of friends, of protests from representatives of other governments and of an appeal from the United States, the condemned men were shot on June 19, 1867, at Cerro de Las Campanas, near Queretaro. Maxi- milian's dream of a great Mexican empire was ended. Mexico City capitulated on June 20, and Vera Cruz eight days later. The war had been a bloody one, with losses in killed, wounded and prisoners, of 73,037 for the Eepublican forces and 12,209 for the Mexican Im- perialists, while the Erench lost, in killed, nearly 25,000 men. Juarez reentered the capital on July 15, 1867. The country, after three years of revolution, was in a de- plorable condition. Business was at a standstill, and the government had much difficulty in collecting taxes. The army, which had grown to large proportions, was now cut down to 20,000 men, and other measures were taken to bring down expenses. Some of the military AMEEICAN WAK 89 leaders were disaffected^ and tlie Juarez government was hardly reestablished before new revolts began to appear. Early in 1868 there was an uprising in Yuca- tan and another in Sinaloa, and General IS^egrete '' pro- nounced " and seized Puebla. Other generals, in 18G9, revolted San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas, and, obtaining a considerable following, soon had Central Mexico in an uproar. Another military leader, once defeated in Sinaloa, appeared suddenly at the port of Guaymas in a chartered boat carrying 120 men, seized the town and captured 5,000 rifles and 80,000 pesos and made good his escape, only to have his boat sunk later. In May, 1871, the military ^' pronounced '' in Tampico, and held the town twenty days against the government forces sent to put down the incipient insurrection. While the various uprisings were, in each case, put down, there was sufficient disorder to cause dissatisfaction, and to furnish an excuse for ambitious military leaders to declare for some new change. Juarez was reelected President in the Fall of 1871, and almost immediately the validity of the election was attacked by a group of military leaders who proposed the " plan de Noria '' for the suspension of constitutional order and the calling of a junta or commission to reorganize the country. The Juarez forces, after two or three engagements, put dowQ opposition, and the country entered on a brief period of much needed peace. Juarez was making good progress in the rebuilding of the government and the development of the country v^hen he was stricken by heart trouble, dying on the 18th of July, 1872. Juarez, while not a great man, was a thorough patriot and devoted to the welfare of his country, giving it the first taste of a government not dominated by selfish and personal motives. His death was deeply mourned by the people, and his name has gone down in Mexican 90 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW history as the father of constitutional government of the country. Juarez was succeeded by Sebastian Lerdo, President of the Supreme Court, who continued the policy of Juarez and enforced the provisions of the constitution covering a separation of church and state and prohibit- ing religious orders from acquiring lands. During Lerdo's regime Lozada, an Indian bandit from Topic, led a force of eight thousand men to attack Guadala- jara. He was defeated by government forces, captured and executed, and the country, for some time, lived in peace. Lerdo was a candidate for reelection, and was declared the winner in an election which was generally known to have been fraudulent. Opposition to his re- election was led by Porfirio Diaz, who, taking advan- tage of a denouncement by the President of the Supreme Court of the illegality of the proceedings, seized the reins of government on November 26, 1876. In May following General Diaz was duly elected president, for the term ending in E^ovember, 1880, and on a platform opposing reelection. In accordance with this platform. General Diaz was not a candidate for reelection in 1880, Manuel Gonzalez occupying the chair for four years, but his rule of Mexico was practically continuous from 1876 until 1911. CHAPTER IX PORFIKIO DIAZ So much has heen written of this remarkable man that it would be useless to attempt more in these pages than a bare outline of his character and motives. To the foreigner he has been pictured as the greatest man produced by Latin America; to the Mexican he was, for a third of a century, a symbol of power; to the sociologist he appears as a despot. He has been lauded as few other rulers ever have been, and he has, during the past seven years, been as cordially abused. Born of Indian parents and of pure Indian blood, his origin was most modest; from young manhood to old age he was an aristocrat par excellence. He received a mili- tary training, and his rule, through many years, was a rule based on military strength. A man born of the people, he had contempt for the people; knowing his own people, he built up for them a paternal form of government which fell of its own weight; a great man in force, in decision, in organization, he fell short of greatness in his failure to recognize the inherent weak- ness of the system he developed ; a statesman in foreign relations, he failed to even start his own country on sound political lines of thought; honest, he failed to realize or to stop the abuses of his own supporters; a patriot in desiring the development of the riches of the country, he failed to realize that no development can be real where the mass of people fail to move forward in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; in brief, 91 92 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW his greatness was that of a military leader, and his policy that of a feudal lord. The subsequent political upheaval was so directly due to conditions prevailing in Mexico that it is necessary to make some detailed analysis of the course of events during General Diaz' regime. Diaz was a born leader, and his first experience was with wild and undisciplined troops. Everything in his military career tended to make him think in units of force rather than to consider the individual. The country, when he came into power, was suffering from the effects of years of misrule by unscrupulous dictators and from a four years' war to throw out a foreign invader. The government was bankrupt, there was no business, plantations had been ruined during the civil strife following the empire, peo- ple were starving, and leaders and troops were apt, at any moment, to start new troubles. Nothing but forceful, drastic and quick action would convince every one that further upheavals would not be permitted. At the first sign of any revolt, therefore, there was swift vengeance — so swift and ruthless that an indelible memory of it was left in the neighborhood. The coun- try was full of bandits, who, roaming in small bands, had been able to dodge half hearted troops and to loot at pleasure. A war of extermination was begun on the bandits, and, after it had been carried far enough to satisfy them that, sooner or later, they would all be lined up and shot, their leaders were given a chance to enroll, with their men, in a well paid and well dis- ciplined rural police force to keep the country districts safe — with the stone wall and firing squad as an op- tion. They enrolled — and, from this beginning there developed a magnificent force, the " rurales," which, for riding and fighting qualities, has not often been excelled. Force, more force, ruthless force, sudden POEFIEIO DIAZ 93 annihilation — these soon began to whip the country into shape. Diaz, knowing the incapacity of the average Indian for self-government, devised a political system well suited, theoretically, for the needs ol the people. Each community had a jefe politico, or political chief, re- sponsible to the state governor. The jefe was, prac- tically, " the whole works " in his district. He gave the Indians advice, helped settle their disputes, col- lected the taxes, and was, in many respects, what the tribal chiefs had formerly been, with the important distinction that the tribes or communities had no voice in his selection. The plan, in its inception, was not vicious, and was, in many ways, well suited to the com- munities. A good political jefe was almost a father to the peon, who, with his childlike nature, wants some one to take his troubles to. To carry out a general scheme of reorganization it was essential to have no op- position in congress, and, in the selection of candidates, the jefe politico was particularly useful to the govern- ment, as he was always in a position to say how many votes had been cast for the government candidate in his district. Under this system elections were mani- festly a farce — if, indeed, anything like an election was attempted. Ballot-box stuffing was unnecessary because the polling booth was usually at the jefatura — the jefe's office — and no one voted unless asked to do so. In view of the ignorance of the people these strong- arm methods, considered from the viewpoint of the gov- ernment, were fully justified. The next great move was to get some industrial de- velopment. N^othing much could be done without rail- roads, which, moreover, would be useful for military operations in case of trouble. A railway had been built to Puebla in 1869, and the line to Vera Cruz opened 94 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEEOW three years later. The government, anxious to cover the country with a network of roads, was confronted with a big problem. There was no capital in the conn- try for the work, and foreign capital, looking over the years of political troubles in Mexico, was timid. The government did not own great stretches of land which it could offer as compensation for the financial risk, and it was obliged, to interest capital, to make very liberal concessions, grant high tariffs and exemptions from taxes. Even these inducements were insufficient, and resort had to be had to heavy subsidies, guaranteed, in most cases, by a portion of custom house revenues. We are apt, in looking back half a century, to judge events by present day standards, and to ignore condi- tions as then existing. American politicians set up a hue and cry over the great '^ steal ^' of the railroads in the land grants given them to build Western roads — grants which, as a matter. of fact, had no tangible value and only a small potential value even with the develop- ment of transportation. In the early fifties a private company undertook the construction of canal and locks on the St. Mary's Eiver at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and, not having the funds to complete the work, ap- pealed to the state for aid. Michigan was money poor and land rich, and responded, not with cash, but with a vast grant of land. Certain mineral lands included in the grant now yield the canal company an annual income equal to the total amount of the subsidy asked, — and the arrangement has been called a '' steal.'' So with many of the early Mexican concessions. With need for development, with no credit, the government made the best bargains it could. Little by little rail- ways began to push out from the capital, North, South and West. With the opening of railways other indus- try became possible, but in its efforts to foster new lines POEFIEIO DIAZ 95 of economic activity the government often went too far. Cotton was produced throughout the country in consid- erable quantities, and to increase this production and stimulate manufacturing, liberal concessions were given under guarantees to put prohibitive duties on imported manufactured cotton. The net result of some of these concessions was to develop an artificial industry, but, at the same time, to greatly increase the cost to the con- sumer. Cotton goods, used by all the people, cost dou- ble their former price, and, while cotton planters and spinners reaped some benefits, the loss was greater than the gain. In spite of mistakes, Mexico slowly but surely pressed forward. It was not all easy going. The people, crushed under slavery for centuries, lacked initiative. There was no considerable amount of native capital. The railroad problem, with a small traffic in sparsely settled regions, was not an easy one, more frequently yielding deficits than profits. But Mexico is rich in the products of the soil, and, given peace, cannot fail to prosper even under adverse conditions, ^ew min- ing districts opened up along the railways, and old dis- tricts, abandoned for lack of rich ores, became, under the stimulus of transportation, large shippers of low grade ores. Agricultural activity became greater, and new factories opened. All this meant more work, more money in circulation, and increased government reve- nues. Gradually the economic situation became more stable, and with this stability there was a steady im- provement in the strength of the government. In the first fifty years of independence there had never been such a thing as national credit. The foreign loans and credits obtained by Maximilian were based rather on French than Mexican support, and these credits, on the downfall of the Empire, became a burden rather 90 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MORKOW than a help. The first ten years of Diaz' rule were, therefore, accompanied by continuous difficulty in at- tempting to place the government on a sound financial basis. Some money had been obtained in England, and there were certain English debts in connection with the various railway guarantees. There were, also, a large amount of Erench claims pressing. Due to the general improvement in the situation the government was able, in 1887, to float, in Berlin, a loan of somewhat more than fifty million dollars, half of which was used to reduce British and Erench claims and the balance for domestic needs and government expenses. Erom this time forward there was comparatively little difficulty in financing. The Banco Kacional, established in 1882 by a combination of Erench, Spanish and government capital, had grown to be a strong institution and was able to take care of the currency needs of the nation under a concession (similar to the provisions of the Federal Eeserve Banking Act) which permitted it to issue its notes against fifty per cent, cash reserves and fifty per cent, commercial paper discounted for other banks. Various state banks also issued notes under state concessions. The value of the peso, fixed at 49.6 cents, was stable, the banks prospered, and by 1893 government credit was well established both at home and abroad. During this time necessary changes were made in the laws to permit the reelection of the president. In 1882 the constitution had been changed to provide for succession of the presidency to the president of the sen- ate instead of the president of the Supreme Court, and this was now changed to have the presidency pass, in case of death or disability, to a member of the cabinet, in a certain order of priority. The government was well settled, and hereafter was to be a close corporation. CHAPTER X THE CIENTIFICOS Up to this point there seems to have been little rea- son to find fault with the Diaz government, and much reason to praise it. During Gonzalez' terms as Pres- ident some of the people in the administration acquired either a direct or speculative interest in a large amount of English owned Mexican bonds, then selling at a fraction of their par value, and the administration attempted, unsuccessfully, to force through legislation which was designed to secure redemption of the bonds at par. As the Gonzalez government was, in personnel, composed largely of Diaz- adherents, this could, in a measure, be counted against Diaz. There were minor claims of abuses, particularly regarding land questions. On the whole, however, there was little criticism. Every one recognized, moreover, that Mexico, for the first time since its independence was declared, had a stable government, and that national credit and finance were in fair or even good shape. Brigandage had been exterminated. Eoreign capital was beginning to seek a field in Mexico. Diaz w^as a dictator, but there was no indication that he was greatly enriching himself by abuse of his power. Just when a change began to be felt is uncertain. Whether there was any change in policy is also uncer- tain, and it seems more likely that the change, such as it was, was gradual, and that perhaps, or even probably, those in power were not conscious of any change. The 97 98 MEXICO TO-DAY AJ^D TO-MOEEOW government, nominally of a democratic character, was really an oligarchy, self perpetuating, legalized by a constitution, supported by a congress. It was rather a system than a political organization. It was in no sense the product of party politics, for politics, as such, barely existed. It was a big machine, controlled by one strong man, who, with a few friends and advisers, proposed to attend to the administration and politics of the whole country. The machine had some big wheels in the various government departments, army, public works, industries, interior, and the like. Con- gress was a side machine whose chief function was to put everything in legal form. In each state was a ma- chine, with a governor and a legislature, and working as part of the state machine were the jefe politicos, or local chiefs. It was ^^ boss rule" of a, highly scientific type, and had a great advantage over American '^ boss rule '' in that there was no opposition. In fact, opposi- tion was not wanted, and if any signs of it developed as much of the machine as necessary was set to work to grind it out of existence. It has frequently been said that the rule of Diaz was really the rule of the rich class, but this was hardly the case. In Mexico the rich class had not often been active in government matters. It had been more than willing to be left alone. It had wanted a government which would preserve order, be lenient as to taxes, and keep the native Indian in his proper position. Diaz ruled with an iron hand, and the rich class gave him such moral support as he wanted. The Government was not, however, one organized by the rich element, but rather one which that element was glad to support. Directly this class (excepting a few inmiediately asso- ciated with the government) took no interest in public affairs. It paid its taxes and encouraged the church THE CIENTIFICOS 99 to support tlie government, and in return enjoyed pub- lic order and received support — rurales or troops when necessary. In the end it amounted to almost the same thing as if the rich class had been the government it- self. The rich class could not get along without a strong power in control, while the government, receiv- ing revenues and support from that class, could afford to be very '' easy " with it. The two, therefore, came to be hand-in-glove. The only reason for making this distinction and relationship clear is to emphasize the fact that, had the government been one actively partici- pated in by the rich class, it would doubtless have been careful not to let abuses become so grave as to threaten its existence. The situation has had many parallels in American politics in cases where corrupt boss or party machines have been built up, not by or even with the connivance of the wealthy class but rather because of the indolence and indifference of that class, which, in paying for a certain amount of protection, has only paved the way for further excesses and abuses of power. The Diaz government doubtless never deliberately started out to abuse its power. Diaz was a born leader who soon found that with a few able men with him he could absolutely dominate the country. He loved power for power's sake, and proceeded to build up a machine that would run the government — and keep him in power. Then some one discovered that the machine, while grinding out government business, could grind personal axes as well. More axes were brought in by others in the circle, and now and then some friend had an ax to grind, so that before long the machine was doing a lot of work for which it was not designed. The '^ Cientificos " (scientists from the " scientific '' scheme of government), were those who were in the inner circle or who, acting with government people, 100 MEXICO TO-DAY ANB TO-MORROW derived benefit from various government legislation, public works, concessions, contracts, etc. The real '' Cientifico '' group was quite small and was composed of men who handled government contracts, certain bankers, a few large landowners, and a number of men in active politics. Properly speaking, there were prob- ably not over fifty " Cientificos " — a close political- financial ring which had, however, extensive ramifica- tions. The revolutionary party, since it came in power, has, in a vague way, extended the term to apply to many who were not properly in the ring. In other words, many who inherited wealth or who indirectly derived benefit from the prevailing conditions have been cred- ited with being " Cientificos " when, as a matter of fact, they took no interest whatever in political matters and had no hand in the deals put through. In the eyes of many of those identified with the revolutionary party the mere possession of wealth was evidence of guilty participation in the corruption of politics. There were, as pointed out before, a large number of landowners who acquiesced in the government's methods of doing busi- ness, and gave it moral support, receiving, in return, " protection '' of one sort or another. Many of these derived much direct or indirect benefit under the gen- eral political scheme, but they were not in most cases in any way responsible for the conditions. Another class which derived certain benefits under the system were the salaried employees of the government. Many of these men were conscientious and efficient pub- lic servants who received only moderate pay, and whose interest consisted, aside from the direct question of pay, in holding responsible and permanent positions. While it is true that some government officials used their posi- tions to enrich themselves, there were many who were above any suspicion in all their dealings. Contrary to THE CIENTIFICOS 101 the prevailing general impression, there was little graft in public offices. Public utility corporations, for in- stance, rarely had to pay out money to get things done. There were some remarkable cases of efficient and hon- est administration. The great waterworks system, con- structed to bring water from Xochimilco to Mexico City, was built by the government, and is as fine an example of engineering work as is to be found on the continent. The size of the work involved, in spite of economical administration, the expenditure of many millions of dollars. The engineer who designed and carried out the construction of the work from beginning to end retired from office, on the change of administra- tion, practically penniless. The last director of public works in Mexico City under Diaz, occupying a posi- tion affording vast opportunities for graft in dealing with public service and other corporations, was obliged, when forced out of office by the changed order of things, to seek a modest clerkship in 'New York. Some gov- ernors, even, were left in comparative poverty when they lost their positions. For the honest and efficient government official the political turnover was a disaster, as the mere fact of his having been employed under the old regime was sufficient to condemn him. Before examining the operations of the ^' Cientifi- cos " it is worth while to outline the way the govern- ment was run and to explain its relations to foreign capital, concessions, and the like. Such graft as ex- isted was '' higher up," and the government depart- ments were, as a whole, honestly conducted. When viewed from the standpoint of an efficiency expert, gov- ernment departments, the world over, can hardly be called efficient, and the Mexican departments were scarcely an exception to the rule. Nevertheless, they were conducted with regularity, and business was trans- 102 MEXICO TO-DAY AXD TO-MOEEOW acted with reasonable sxjeed and, generally speaking, with great accuracy. Governmental jjractice in Mex- ico follows the French scheme, both being based, pri- marily, on the Eoman legal code, and, latterly, on the code Xajjoleon. Under this practice ever^^ government or private act, especially as to contractual relations, is provided for by the code, the functions of courts being rather to determine questions of fact than those of equity. The general tendency^ therefore, is that much more detail is covered, specifically, in government con- tracts and concessions than is the case in the United States and other countries which, in government prac- tice, follow the English common law scheme. In all Mexican concessions covering public utilities, for in- stance, the exact duties, obligations and rights of a com- pany are specified with a minuteness which is rarely found in American franchises. In the United States franchise tenxis have frequently been of a general char- acter, and in many states there were specific laws per- mitting the organization, under such laws, of telephone, electric light and power, interurban railway and other companies performing public services, the companies being free to establish their own rates and regulations. Only, in fact, within the past ten or twelve years has there been, in the United States, any general movement, through the creation of public service coramissions, to regulate public service corporations in their relations with the public. In Mexico for many years all con- cessions of this character have been very explicit as to tariffs and details of operation, and the provisions, in general, have safeguarded the interests of the public. It is true that liberal concessions were granted to at- tract capital, and doubtless, in view of the results ob- tained, some of the provisions of concessions were more liberal than they should have been. In many cases THE CIEXTIFICOS 103 peicdcBl exempticMi from taxes was granted, and, while saA a ^ovisicHi may hare been necessary during a dtart period ^diile the bosmess in qnestion was in proc- ess of de^opment, it was scaroely fair to the public liiat such esemptioii ahouid have beoi granted, as was done in many cases, for a long term of years. Some of llie l^igest concerns in Mexieo hare, as a result of lliis sort of policy, idiat amounts to entire exemption from taxes for tenns Taiyii^ from. twenty-Ave to ninety- nine yeai& In jnstiScation of ihe policy it may he said, liowei^er, that it was not an easy matter to interest cap- itid in Mesdco, especially as, eonteii^OTaneoiis with de- ^e&i^nent in Mesieo, lliexe was a world-wide mo^^emieiit in railway, eleetnc power and odier poblic utility con- stmetkHL — a mov^eoient on siidL a large scale as to aliscab all capital availaUie for iMs dass of inxestment. Inigatian wods in India, railway and otker public ntililty dev^dopmsiiB in llie Aigentine, Brazil, Cliili, China, India, I^ypt and Soutli Africa, were all bidding for money, and olOFeiing vefy liberal conditions. Amer- ican railways were being eooisfdidated, great power plants were being bnOt, and Canada was absorbing a Tast amoont of capital in her Western development. "Die great world-wide movcaoaent in foreign iuTestments, began in tlie earl^ ^nineties, was in full sway, and Mexico was in con9etiti TO-MOEROW tions which were likely to change from day to day. All operations therefore ceased, and the mines — the larg- est copper producers in the country — were closed down for three months. An agreement was finally made to give the employees four per cent, of the net profits, and, under this arrangement operations were resumed. The mines have been running without interruption for some eight months, and presumably every one is satisfied. The settlement finally made was in striking contrast to some of the extravagant demands made at different times, and the incident illustrates the uncertainty cre- ated by the new conditions. The same sort of diffi- culties have been experienced at many places. Em- ployees have, in the end, usually agreed to terms which were fair and reasonable, but often the original demands made have been of a prohibitive character and calcu- lated to discourage the employer class. To put foreign investments on a sound basis the re- quirements, briefly, are: The control of labor to pre- vent unreasonable exactions in wages or conditions of work; the full reestablishment of railway service; a policy on the part of the government which will enable them to earn a reasonable return on capital invested; and restoration of order in the rural districts — this last being a problem which has already been met in some sections but which has not even been touched in others. The reorganization of the banking system is, of course, highly important for facilitating full commercial and industrial growth, but is not of as immediate impor- tance as the other questions. There are, in the coun- try, some $180,000,000 (pesos) in gold and silver coins, and while the use of metal currency exclusively is cum- bersome, the provision of bank issues is not one of great urgency. The supply of currency would be insufficient MEXICO AND FOREIGN CAPITAL 269 under an expanded volume of business, but takes care of needs for the time being. Two factors wliicli will, if fully appreciated, exert an influence in relations between the Mexican government and foreign capital may be mentioned. The first of these is the somewhat intangible proposition that there has been, during the past fifteen years, a great improve- ment in the moral tone of large business transactions. This is due, in part, to the force of public opinion, and, in part, to the tremendous development of corporate business. Twenty years ago, even fifteen years ago, corporations were, relatively, small in size, and many of them were concerns formed for the sake of promo- tion profits. With rapid growth in size and number their operations attracted more attention than before, and this developed, in their managers and directors, a greater sense of responsibility, not only to their share- holders but to the public at large. This is, in the Mex- ican investment question, a matter of some importance, as it lessens the chance of free-booting and piratical promotions. It is, to-day, an actual influence. Con- cerns having large investments in Mexico are inclined, as they were not a decade ago, to realize their moral obligation to national interest. The other factor is that throughout the revolution the heaviest losers have been the Slexicans themselves. In destruction of property, in upset of business, in loss of income or production, the aggregate of material in- jury done to Mexican interests is greater than that suf- fered by foreign interests, and, if the matter be looked at with reference to the number of people affected, the Mexican loss is on a far greater scale. In loss of life, the Mexican civil population has suffered more, by many times, than the foreign population. In these 270 MEXICO TO-DAY A'NB TO-MOEROW two items no account is taken of the starvation of thou- sands of the poorer classes, nor the death of thousands from epidemics which, in sweeping over the country, found easy victims in the hadly nourished people. The entire population of Mexico has suffered heavily - — has gone through revolutions, counter-revolutions, riots, famine, looting, and epidemics. Foreigners having in- vestments in Mexico but not living there have been apt to look at the revolution in an abstract way, and to consider it only with reference to its effect on their busi- ness, scarcely realizing that there has been an upheaval which has affected all the business and all the people of the country. Full realization of the extent of the upheaval will incline people to a greater degree of tol- eration in considering the position of the government. There are, to be sure, many who hold the opinion that the state of disorder, approaching anarchy, which pre- vailed for a long period is evidence that the country is not ready for self-government, and that either a dic- tatorship or foreign intervention will be required to fully reestablish and maintain order. It is certain that any attempt to return to a military dictatorship would only result in plunging the country into further dis- order. The question then arises as to whether or not foreign intervention is necessary. Disregarding for the moment, all question of foreign investment in Mexico, and considering the subject from the viewpoint of the needs of the Mexican people themselves, would foreign intervention furnish the most satisfactory solution of the problem? Any foreign intervention would be bit- terly opposed by a great majority of the people, and its cost to the country in money and bloodshed would be heavy. The whole matter then resolves itself into this : Is the present government equal to the task of govern- ing the country ? This, again, raises more questions. MEXICO AND FOREIGN CAPITAL 271 Has the present government the moral and physical force necessary to control the country and to protect life and property? Has it a policy which, if carried out, will bring peace and prosperity to the nation ? Are the elements of weakness so great as to imperil ultimate success ? These points may be discussed in consecu- tive order. The present government has certain ideals of reform, and these ideals have given it a moral force of some strengi;h. With these, and by physical force, it has established its power throughout the country, and has, at the very least, succeeded in bringing a reason- able degree of order out of chaos and anarchy. The large centers are all under control, and government au- thority prevails along railway routes. There is much still to be done, and time will be required to finish the work. In a country of the great size of Mexico, with topographical conditions which make brigandage and guerilla warfare difficult to suppress, it is no easy mat- ter to restore peaceful conditions. Briefly then, the framework of government control has been erected, and the progress of completion will be a matter of time. As to the government policy, the general program, with the exception of danger from the tyranny of labor un- ions, is, on the whole, capable of bringing peace and prosperity to the people. Time alone will tell whether the program will be applied in a sane and wise spirit. As to elements of weakness, the main danger is from certain pernicious elements in the military, but the gov- ernment appears to be making headway in curbing these turbulent and selfish spirits. An element of weakness exists in the lack of proper material for civil adminis- tration, due, in part, to the fact that a large part of the ablest men in the country were formerly identified, di- rectly or indirectly, with the old regime, and the gov- ernment has been naturally indisposed to utilize their 2Y2 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW services. As the government becomes solidified, and once it has demonstrated wisdom in the solution of po- litical and economic questions, it will receive the sup- port of all classes, and through this, will be able to use timber which, at the moment, is not available. The outlook, on the whole, is far from discouraging and gives, in fact, much hope for success. Foreign investors generally feel that foreign inter- ests in Mexico deserve special and separate considera- tion. Foreign governments will naturally be energetic in protecting the lives and properties of their citizens, and the Mexican government doubtless fully realizes the importance, even if only from its own selfish mo- tives, of providing security for life of foreigners and for fair play in dealing with foreign property. It may be assumed, however, that, generally speaking, an ad- ministration which will be satisfactory for the Mexican people themselves will be satisfactory for foreigners. If the government is unreasonable or unfair in its gen- eral attitude to capital, the result will be as disastrous for Mexicans as for foreigners. If legislation is un- sound, or the administration of justice defective, the Mexicans themselves will be the worst sufferers. Un- due alarm has been felt by foreign interests in the tend- ency to '^ nationalize " foreign companies. The general principle of placing foreign corporations or foreign properties within the control of Mexican administra- tion is not, in itself, either vicious or unnatural. The real question of importance is whether the Mexican gov- ernment, by its acts and in its administration of jus- tice, will pursue a policy under which there will be ma- terial and industrial progress, regardless of whether the capital necessary for such development be of native or foreign origin. CHAPTER XXIV AGRAKIAN AND OTHER PROBLEMS The ultimate success of a democratic form of govern- ment will depend largely on the creation of a large class of small landholders, and the government has given a great deal of attention to the question. It is fully realized that a promiscuous distribution of land, such as was attempted by Madero in certain sections, will accomplish nothing. The peons have little initiative, and, while they will work well under supervision, they would be likely to fail as independent farmers. Many of them, given a piece of land, would not know what to do with it. They have been accustomed to work for wages by the day, receiving their pay daily or weekly. As independent farmers they would starve while wait- ing for their first crop. In certain sections there are numerous small land- holdings, and in such districts the people are contented and relatively well-to-do. The northern part of the state of Puebla is cut up into tiny farms, every foot of rich valley ^' bottom '' land being utilized for rais- ing corn and beans. The country here is very moun- tainous, and the steepest hillsides are dotted with patches of corn. Riding along in the valleys one can look up at dizzy heights above and see farms perched in the most impossible positions. An incident which hap- pened at the town of Hanchinango will give an idea of the character of the country. An Indian, with one leg fractured and three ribs broken, was brought in 273 274 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOREOW for medical treatment. One of the two Indians who had carried him in on a litter gravely explained that the man had been working on his corn patch but had slipped and fallen off his farm into the valley below 1 In a district like this, where farming on a small scale has been carried on for centuries, every man could qualify as an independent farmer. Unfortunately, the great bulk of farming has been done by large estates, some of these employing two or three thousand peons. The laborers, although accustomed to farm work, have been purely mechanical units all their lives, and would, in most cases, be quite helpless if turned loose to work out their own salvation on a piece of land. The gov- ernment is confronted, therefore, with a problem which not only involves some sane scheme of land distribution but also the selection of suitable people who can be depended on to make success of farming. Senor Don Carlos Basave, head of the Caja de Prestamos (the Agrarian Loan Bank) believes it will be possible to place some forty thousand men on small farms each year, taking some from districts where small landhold- ings have been common, and selecting others from the ranks of foremen and sub-foremen on the big haciendas. He believes, also, that it will be essential to encourage immigration, particularly from Spain and iS'^orthern Italy, where climatic and soil conditions are similar to those in Mexico. Spanish and Italian farmers would not only prosper and add to National wealth, but their example would stimulate the Indian in ideas as to farming. It is proposed to sell land in tracts of vary- ing size according to the character of the soil and cli- matic conditions. In the semi-tropical territory where the soil is rich and there is abundant rainfall, a farm of forty acres would be large enough for an average family, while in the north, where the land is only suit- agraeia:n^ and other problems 275 able for ranching, grants can be made in tracts of a thou- sand acres or more. Sefior Basave believes that dry farming can be successfully developed on a large scale. The Caja de Prestamos will help finance the small farmer, advancing enough for equipment and making small monthly loans against future crops. The general lines along which the matter is being developed are sound. Naturally, however, much time will be re- quired to bring about tangible results. Seiior Zembrano, governor of the state of Nuevo Leon, advocates a military scheme of farming in order to obtain more immediate results. He believes that the large tracts of idle land should be worked by the In- dians under a scheme by which the laborers would be paid ordinary wages and would receive, in addition, a share in the profits. The plan would be handled under government supervision, and those in charge could com- pel idle men to work. This would not only bring quick results but would also serve the purpose of training large numbers of laborers for farm w^ork, and the more efficient could be selected for grants of land. Such a scheme is quite feasible and could easily be the founda- tion of a great agrarian development. This or some other form of mobilization of the agricultural resources of the country would make an immense addition to the wealth of the nation, would help solve the government's financial problem, and would, through placing a great number of people at work, stimulate commerce and in- dustry. Mexico's potential wealth in agriculture is immense. Spain, with similar conditions of soil, cli- mate and topography, supports, in an area one-fourth that of Mexico, twenty-six million people. If this be taken as a basis, Mexico could support a hundred mil- lion people, and, in place of a shortage of crops for her own needs, she could make heavy exports. The high 276- MEXICO TO-DAY Al^D TO-MOEEOW prices of cereals brought about by war conditions are likely to continue for two or three years after the war, or at least until normal conditions of transportation have been restored and depleted stocks are brought back to normal. It will be regrettable if Mexico fails to take advantage of the situation. Spain's agricultural production, especially remark- able in view of the fact that two-thirds of the country is mountainous or sterile, is largely due to irrigation. Mexico has many great areas which could, at compara- tively small cost, be irrigated, and production in these areas would be increased four-fold. Along the whole eastern coast, from Puerto de Mexico north to the- American border, mountain streams tumble down from the great plateau to pour into the gulf. Great stretches of fertile land, at an elevation of one thousand feet or more, are crossed by these streams and could be easily irrigated. The land would have a supply of water throughout the whole year instead of depending on rainfall during a four-months' wet season. The flow of the Balsas Eiver, turned on the vast area of flat lands in the states of Guerrero and Michoacan, in Southwest- ern Mexico, would develop the region into one of the richest agricultural sections of the country. In the north half a dozen rivers could be utilized to water lands which now produce nothing. Large irrigation projects would involve a heavy investment, but the cost per acre would be very small. The increased produc- tion of the soil would add an immense amount to the wealth of the nation. There is probably no country in the world which has as great potential possibilities for agricultural development, and it is to be hoped that the government will be able to work out a program which will result in placing Mexico in the front rank of pro- ducing nations. AGEAKIA]^ AND OTHEK PROBLEMS 27Y The peon is the great problem of Mexico. The pop- uhxr coiiceptiou of the Mexiciin type, based on liair- raising '^ movies " and wild tales of border bandits, is as incorrect as the general notion entertained by many well-informed Mexicans that the native Indian is a hopeless proposition. Nine-tenths of the total popula- tion belong to the peon or humble working class. Two- thirds of all the people are pure Indians, and only one- tenth are pure white. The peon class varies in char- acteristics in different sections of the country, but, in general, submissiveness and docility are common to all the tribes. The Indian is naturally quiet, serious, and peaceful. He has been a serf so long that he does no thinking for himself. He comes to his employer with all his little troubles, and wants sympathy and help. Like a child, he needs restraint. With restraint re- moved he is apt to get into mischief. He is easy to lead, and an unscrupulous leader can induce him to commit atrocious deeds. His wants are limited — a cotton shirt, a pair of sandals, a zarape (blanket), and not very much food. He is, as a rule, peculiarly loyal to the man he is serving, and will go through any amount of hardship and suffering with him or for him. He is affectionate, and lovable — no one can have much to do with the pure Mexican Indian without having a gen- uine affection for him. He is, intellectually, a child. He is apt, but quite undeveloped. His general dispo- sition is peaceful and submissive to a degree that is al- most pathetic. He will starve himself and see his fam- ily starve around him without uttering a word of complaint — but, given the upper hand, he will go to excesses by way of getting even. The idea that he is warlike and bloodthirsty by nature is entirely erroneous. The testimony of disinterested observers is that the pure Indian type played an insignificant part in the revolu- 278 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOKEOW tionarj movement. The pure Mexican Indian is not, by nature, a fighter. He wants a job or merely a chance to till his patch of land — if he is fortunate enough to have one. He is, like most people of a primitive type, quite indifferent to suffering, and has little regard to the value of human life — his own or that of any one else. For years it was the custom on construction jobs — railways, power plants, and the like — to pay fifty pesos — twenty-five dollars — as compensation for fatal accidents to employees. Fifty pesos in coin, and all at once, was ample compensation for the loss of a husband or a father. The average Indian mind could not think more than fifty pesos' worth. Small wonder, then, that the average killing was an incidental affair. It must not be assumed, however, that the Indian is in any way deficient. He not only has ability along initiative lines, but has, and always has had, a distinct ability in mechanical matters. The history of early Mexican civilization shows a high degree of inventive ability. Stone was hewn and carved Vv^ith wonderful ability and accuracy, and huge blocks of stone were moved great distances or erected into pyramids and buildings with seemingly comparative ease. Some American engineers, passing through the valley of the Laxaxalpan River, in the state of Puebla, came across an extremely ingenious device used by an Indian to irrigate his land. The Indian's corn patch, covering perhaps ten acres, was on a '' bench " some fifteen or eighteen feet above the level of the stream. The Indian had rigged up a huge water-wheel, some thirty-five feet in diameter, built of wood and bamboo and carrying a large number of buckets, the latter being simply five- gallon gasoline cans obtained from the nearest town. The force of the stream drove the wheel around, and each bucket scooped up a couple of gallons of water. AGKARIAN^ AND OTHEK PROBLEMS 279 spilling it into a trough when the bucket reached the top of the wheel. The whole device was crude and simple, and was tied together with bits of thong, hemp and rope. It creaked and groaned a lot — but the In- dian, day in and day out, had a steady stream of water running through the length of his little farm. The In- dian said the idea was his own, and, as the location was in a remote mountain valley, there could be little doubt but that he was entirely truthful in this. He could neither read nor write, and only knew a little of the Spanish langTiage, speaking practically nothing but the native Indian dialect, and yet he had devised and installed a somewhat cumbersome but very practical means of raising water. At various times during the past four years prac- tically all Americans have been obliged, in response to orders from the American government, to leave the country, sometimes very precipitately. At such times tramway and power stations, and large and complicated mechanical installations at mines and factories, nor- mally operated by expert American mechanics, had to be left in the hands of Mexican understudies. When the Americans returned, a month or two later, they al- most invariably found things running as smoothly as ever. The Mexican ^' subs,'' many of whom had come to the plants perfectly green two or three years before, had developed sufficiently to fully understand all the machinery, and had been equal to every emergency which had arisen. The pure Indian race has produced civil and mechanical engineers who would take good rank in any country. The mind of the Indian lad of eighteen is as naturally alert as that of any American boy. He may not reason as quickly, but that is usually because of poor schooling. His faculties simply need training. EuU development of these faculties, when 280 MEXICO TO-DAY A^D TO-MOEEOW applied to a race, means patient work througli two or three generations. Reforms in the political systems started to-day may not bear fruit for many years. The general problem of elevating the social status of the race will occupy public and private attention for half a century before anything like large results are seen. ^Nevertheless, a start has been made along these lines, and ultimately much will be accomplished. The chief danger to success will be in anxiety to do much in too short a space of time, with a consequent tendency to- ward superficial instead of real improvement. Prof. Ozuna, a broad-minded educator who has already accom- plished much in the extension of education in Mexico, enrolling over 75,000 pupils in the grade schools in the Federal District, once observed that the great fault of the previous regime in educational matters had been in considering that its obligations were fulfilled when a fine string of school edifices had been dedicated. The Mexican Indian is, in most respects, where he was before the Spanish conquest. Such civilization as he had developed was wiped out, and the invaders gave him nothing to take its place. For three hundred years he was a slave. Mexican independence accomplished little for him in its first half century. The French oc- cupation was, for him, a blank, and the period following it was of such turmoil and disorder that no progress was made. Then came a period of great development under Diaz, with railways and factories and electricity — and still the Indian stayed, socially, where he had been for centuries. Then came the Madero revolution, followed by four years of chaos, from which has emerged a gov- ernment committed to a program which, if carefully carried out and adhered to year after year, will accom- plish much. The Indian has lost four centuries of time. His national development, so rudely stopped by AGEAEIAN^ AISTD OTHER PROBLEMS 281 Cortes, must now be resumed, aud, aided by otber civil- izatiou and bj the breadth of Twentieth Century prog- ress, must give him an opportunity to take his place with other peoples. Mexico, as a country, possesses as great natural wealth as any coimtry in the world. Its wealth is in its soil. An English statesman once said that a country whose wealth was in the soil was like a pyramid with a great base : a shock, no matter how great, would not upset it, and could only do superficial damage. Mexico has suf- fered, ever since 1911, from more or less continuous fighting, has had every sort and kind of disorder and trouble, and has, only within the last year, shown real signs of emerging from her difficulties. Her real wealth has not been affected. Her riches are in wheat and corn, in cattle, oil, hemp, gold, silver, copper, tim- ber, fruits, coffee, tobacco, sugar, chocolate, and a thou- sand and one products of the soil. In two decades she has produced a billion dollars' worth of gold and silver. Her oil fields, producing eight million barrels of oil per month, have potential possibilities of producing a bil- lion barrels of oil every year. Her vast forests of pine and mahogany have sufficient timber to supply the whole continent. With a climate which makes harvests pos- sible the year around, with rich soil and an abundance of streams, she has the means to produce sufficient crops to feed a nation six times as great as her own. Eor in- dustry she has iron and coal. A hundred streams, tum- bling down a mile and a half on their way to the sea, have potential power equal to half a dozen Niagaras. She is rich — immensely rich. Few countries have such recuperative powers. Her period of reconstruc- tion is just begun. Her development may, at first, be slow, but, once set in motion, will push forward at an amazing pace. It has been awakened by a violent ex- 282 MEXICO TO-DAY AND TO-MOEROW plosion. The forces set in motion have not yet had time to take any definite direction, nor has the nation had time to adjust its thoughts to the new order of things. There are excesses, there are extremes, there are a dozen great problems as yet unsolved. The pes- simist sees, in the violence of the change, nothing but a halt in industry, a set-back in progress. To the opti- mist the revolution, in spite of all its ills, means the opening of a new era, of incentive developing initiative, and initiative pushing forward to success. THE END PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 'HE following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan books on kindred subjects Mexico: The Wonderland of the South By W. E. CARSON New edition; revised with additions. Illustrated, 8vo, $2.50 Mr. Carson knows Mexico thoroughly and he has drawn an accurate and fascinating pen picture of the country and of the people, of their everyday life and the everyday sights and scenes. It would be hard to discover anything worth seeing that he has not seen. He has wandered around the Mexican capital and other old cities; he has explored the gold and silver mines and visited some of the quaint health resorts; he has gone mountain climbing and tarpon fishing — and he tells of these many experi- ences in a most entertaining manner. " The most informing and readable account of the country that has been published ; an excellent background against which to view the present crisis." — New York Globe. " In this revised and enlarged edition of his book on Mexico, Mr. W. E. Carson gives a compendious, concise and clear state- ment of the history of that country from the time of Diaz to the accession of Huerta, and an analysis of the present conditions." — Boston Globe. " Interest in Mexico and Mexicans is now universal ; Mr. Car- son has written a lively and interesting book. When President Diaz ruled, he resided in Mexico for a csonsiderable period, and just before the iron dictator's exit he undertook a comprehensive tour as a newspaper correspondent. He has seen and studied, and sifted his impression at leisure. He writes with candor, and with reliability." — Boston Daily Advertiser. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York " The most comprehensive and certainly the clearest and most illuminating work that has yet been written on the history and present conditions of the South American Republics." — San Francisco Chronicle. South America: Observations and Impressions By JAMES VISCOUNT BRYCE Former British Ambassador Author of *'The American Commonwealth," "The Holy Roman Empire," etc. New and revised edition. Colored maps, cloth covers, gilt top, $2.75 WORLD-WIDE OPINIONS " An exhaustive account of South America by that keen observer of inter- national affairs. Ambassador James Bryce , . . destined to rank as an au- thoritative work."-- A^. y. Times. " A gift for which to thank the gods. It is impossible to give more than a faint hint of all the wealth of reflection, observation, and learning in these chapters. The whole book is memorable, worthy of the topic and the man." — > London Daily Chronicle. " A book which compels thought. A work of profound interest to the whole of South America. Every chapter of Mr. Bryce's book would pro- vide material for an entire volume." — Translation from the State Journal of St. Paul, Brasil. " A wonderfully fascinating and informative work . . . will enhance Mr. Bryce's reputation as a keen, scholarly, and analytical commentator on the people and governments of the world." — Philadelphia Record. " One of the most fascinating books of travel in our language. ... A valuable political study of the chief South American states." — London Daily Mail. " A comprehensive work devoted to the continent from the pen of the man best fitted to comment impartially on what he has witnessed. . . . This new book by the distinguished ambassador should find a place in every well- equipped library." — Boston Budget. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue ITew York NEIV HISTORIES OF SPAIN AND SPANISH AMERICA The Rise of the Spanish Empire in the Old World and in the New By ROGER BIGELOW MERRIMAN In four volumes with maps. Vols. I and II. $7.50 the set. This work, the first two volumes of which are now published, aims to show the contimiity of the story of the reconquest of Spain from the Moors and of the conquest of her vast dominions beyond the seas. The first volume deals principally with the nar- rative and constitutional history of the different Spanish king- doms in the middle ages, and with the growth of the Aragonese Empire in the western basin of the Mediterranan. The second volume describes the union of the crowns and the reorganization of Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella. This history forms an indispensable background for the study of Spanish America. " Another Prescott ! . . . History as it should be written . . . scholarship, erudition, accuracy and just proportions — yes, he has all these, but they are subordinated to an eagerness, a posi- tive enthusiasm to make the past human and alive." — New York Sun. The History of Spain By CHARLES E. CHAPMAN $2.60 The whole sweep in the evolution of Spanish life, from the earliest times to the present, has been brought within the compass of a single volume. There have been other one-volume histories of Spain, but they have confined themselves almost wholly to the political European history. Dr. Chapman has seen fit to lay more stress on the changing social, political, economic, and intellectual institutions of Spain, and has never forgotten that the goal of Spanish history for American readers is, not Europe, but the United States and Hispanic America. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York Behind the Battle Line Around the World in 1918 By MADELEINE Z. DOTY Cloth, $1.25 What were the women of the world thinking and planning for the future ? Miss Doty wanted to find out and that was why she made a trip around the world. Since the war our interests have become world-wide. To know what America is doing is not enough. This volume takes the reader into the heart of each land. It tells about Autocratic Japan, Awakening China, Turbu- lent Russia, Materialistic Sweden, Vital Norway, Democratic England and Inspiring France. It shows the difference in man- ners, customs and civilization and what the people are thinking and dreaming. It depicts the great spiritual struggle that along with the physical battle engulfs the world. And particularly do the women of the earth shine forth. The author sees them as an army of mothers joining hands the world around, an army consecrated to the race to come, that the freedom for which men bleed and die may be made perm^anent. Brazih Today and Tomorrow By L. E. ELLIOTT With illustrations and maps; decorated cloth, 8°, $2.25 " Brazil Today and Tomorrow by Lillian Elwyn Elliott af- fords a much needed presentation of affairs and conditions in Brazil. The author has a notable faculty for presenting closely condensed material in modest space and at the same time making it interesting. Her intimate knowledge of the people and their life and of the varied conditions of the country has enabled her to write of them with a certain zest that makes her pages always readable." — New York Times. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York m\ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 017 505 827 8 • H