A Ride to Popocatapetl.--The Village of Atlizco.--The old Man of
Atlizco and the Inquisition.--A novel Mode of Escape.--An avenging
Ghost.--The Vice-King Ravillagigedo.--The Court of the Vice-King
and the Inquisition.--Ascent of Popocatapetl.--How a Party perished
by Night.--The Crater and the House in it.--Descent into the
Crater.--The Interior.--The Workmen in the Volcano.--The View from
Popocatapetl.--The first White that climbed Popocatapetl.--The Story
of Corchado.--Corchado converts the Volcano into a Sulphur-mine.
One of the first objects of interest in Mexico is the volcano of
Popocatapetl. A stage runs from Puebla to Atlizco, but beyond that
village the visitor must travel upon horseback. Atlizco is worthy of a
special notice from its situation in a most fertile valley, and its
peculiar location at the base of a conical hill. This hill, like every
attractive locality in Mexico, is the scene of romantic traditions of
the common people. From many, I select one illustration of the state of
society in the times of the vice-kings.
There once was, the tradition runs in this village, an old _hidalgo_
who possessed a plantation in the immediate neighborhood of the town.
His family consisted of himself and two daughters; and he was rich.
Upon a certain time, one of those strolling monks, with whom the
country abounds, chanced to offer an indignity to one of the daughters,
and the old man chanced to return the indignity by inflicting upon the
monk such a beating as never poor friar had yet received in the
vice-kingdom--such a one as the feelings of an outraged father alone
could justify. This was not the end of the matter; it was only the
beginning of evil to the old man, as he well knew, for he had laid his
hands upon one of the consecrated--one who had received the sacrament
of "Holy Orders;" and, above all, he was rich enough to tempt the
cupidity of the Inquisition, which always watched with jealous care
over the orthodoxy of those whose estates, when confiscated, would add
to "the greater glory of God," that is, to the treasury of the "Holy
Office."
Guilty or not guilty, the old man had but one mode of escape, and that
was by avoiding an arrest. To effect this object he resorted to a novel
expedient. As soon as he heard that his accuser had started for Mexico,
it was given out that the old man had suddenly died. A circumstance by
no means thought remarkable, when it became known that he had assaulted
a priest. As he had not yet been accused, his neighbors ventured to
come to his funeral; and a coffin, with his name and age marked upon
it, was decently buried in holy ground. The funeral fees, too, were
secured before the estate was pounced upon by the familiars of the
Inquisition. The daughters put on the deepest mourning, and hid
themselves from the public gaze, among their relatives; for they had
not only to endure the loss of home and estates, but were to be shunned
as the accursed of God--the children of one dying while under the
accusation of sacrilege. As for the Inquisition, its officials did not
care to investigate the question of the decease, for it had reaped all
the benefit it might hope for from his conviction--"The Holy Office"
had become his heir.
THE OLD MAN OF ATLIZCO.
Strange appearances and stranger noises after a time were heard about
the cave that is said to be in the top of the hill of Atlizco, and
sometimes a ghost had been seen wandering about the hill by certain
benighted villagers; and one time, when the accusing monk was returning
rather later than usual from a drunken revel, this ghost who had now
become the town-talk, chanced to fall in with him, and to give him such
a beating as few living men could inflict, and then disappeared. Still
there was no earthquake, and the sun rose and set as though no injury
had been done to a priest.
Time wore its slow course along, without any important incident
occurring in this matter, until the reputation of the new Virey,
Ravillagigedo, reached Atlizco. Shortly thereafter there appeared at
the vice-royal palace in the city of Mexico an old man, who related in
a private audience the story of his griefs and of his misfortunes, and
insisted that, in striking "the Lord's priest," he had no intention of
committing an act of impiety, but that the feelings of a father had
overcome him in an unguarded moment, and induced him to avenge an
attempt made to dishonor his daughter. The story of the old man touched
the Virey, who had a manly heart wrapped up in a forbidding exterior.
But it was a delicate undertaking even for a vice-king to attempt to
wrest a rich estate out of the clutches of the "Holy Office" without
himself being suspected of heresy, or of disloyalty to the Church. Yet
Ravillagigedo was never at a loss for expedients when justice was to be
done or the oppressed relieved. The best advice, however, that he could
give the old man was to hide himself again, and to send his daughters
to Mexico to accuse the monk.
Upon a set day, the vice-king was found arrayed in state, surrounded by
a council of Inquisitors, before whom the daughters, in the deepest
mourning, presented themselves as the accusers of the profligate monk.
They stated, with an artless simplicity which could not fail to
convince, the story of the wrongs the monk had done them. The
Inquisitors, sitting in the presence of the incorruptible Virey, could
not, for very shame, do otherwise than declare unanimously that the
monk, and not the old man, was worthy of the censure of the Church.
"Then let us wipe away the stain that rests upon the fair fame of these
ladies as daughters of one dying suspected, by decreeing their father's
innocence," said the Virey.
This being assented to, the record of the old man's innocence was made
up, and, when duly attested by the Inquisitors, was handed to the
daughters. A door was at this moment opened, and there entered into the
august presence a gray-headed old man, to whom the daughters presented
the record. The old man, when he had received the record, advanced,
and, bowing humbly, made confession of his fault. It was a bitter pill
for the "Holy Office" thus to be tricked into the performance of a
common act of justice, and in this way to lose a valuable estate. From
this time onward, it is said that Inquisitors were never known to hold
court with a Virey.
ASCENT OF POPOCATAPETL.
At Atlizco horses must be procured for the journey up the mountain, for
beyond this point there is no carriage-road. I here follow the verbal
narrative of Mr. Frank Kellott, the artist of whom I have already made
mention, as I dared not venture where bleeding of the lungs is produced
by the rarity of the atmosphere and by the fatigue.
"The company consisted of Mr. Corchado, the proprietor, Mr. Munez, a
neighboring gentleman, three ladies, and myself, all on horseback.
Sixteen Indians had been sent forward on foot early in the morning,
with all the conveniences to make the trip a safe and agreeable one.
The party went cheerfully up the mule-road that leads to the mountain
rancho of Zacopalco, one of the highest inhabited points upon our
globe. The soil upon the mountain, composed of volcanic mud, yields
such rich grasses, that almost at the upper edge of the timber there is
a milk-house (_lecheria_), where a cattleherd, if caught out at night,
may find a shelter. The inner man being well cared, for at the rancho,
we journeyed on, following the path that led us through a tangled mass
of trees and plants, and among _barrancas_ whose sides were covered
with pines. The timber grew shorter and more stunted as we proceeded,
until, at the height of 12,544 feet, the pines entirely disappeared. A
little farther on, at an elevation of 12,692 feet, we were at the limit
of vegetation. After journeying a league or so over the yielding sand
mixed with sharp stones, twelve of our Indians and our horses gave out.
From this point for a little way farther, our party proceeded on foot,
with the four remaining servants.
"We had gone only a little way farther when two of our fair companions
also gave out, and we sent them back to the rancho with the returning
horses and the fatigued servants, for there was now no time for delay,
if we intended to reach the summit that day. The third lady went
bravely on, and would probably have enjoyed the honor of being the
first woman that had ever ascended Popocatapetl, had it not been for
the unfortunate arrangement she had made in her wardrobe. Instead of
putting on the pantaloons, or _bloomers_, she had added extra skirts by
way of precaution against the cold; so that when she had climbed about
3000 feet over volcanic sand and loose stones, she gave out from
fatigue and the bruises she had received in her numerous falls. It was
a painful effort even for those of us who had no _skirts_ to impede
us to get on; and it was imprudent for her to proceed farther, for the
icicles would be in her way as much as the sand and stones; for these
icicles were like spikes projecting upward from the rocks, and between
which we should have to place our feet and pick our way as best we
could without falling upon them. In this state of things there was no
alternative, and we were reluctantly obliged to dissuade her from
farther effort, and to consign her over to the kind attentions of three
more of our Indians, who had given out, to conduct her down the
mountain.
"Unfortunately, one of the last three Indians sent back had in his
pocket all the chocolate, an article almost indispensable to the
comfort of a party climbing a high mountain, and, unconscious of our
loss, we continued our way until it was too late to remedy this loss.
The basaltic rock which we had now reached was covered with the icicles
which I have described, and we found no little difficulty in placing
our feet between them, and guiding ourselves with the iron-pointed
sticks which had been furnished us; while the dizziness caused by
looking back upon the world we had left behind added to our troubles.
"Mr. Corchado, to draw off our attention from our own hardships,
related to us the story of the death of six of his workmen, who
undertook to make the journey down the mountain by night. Each of them
had a load of stolen brimstone on his head. The day after this rash and
criminal attempt, their dead bodies were found in such a situation as
to indicate plainly the manner of their death. Stiffened with the
intense cold, and impeded by their heavy burdens, they had stumbled in
the darkness, and had fallen upon the sharp ice. One had his cheek
pierced, and the others had divers wounds and bruises marked upon them
as they lay frozen in death. The story of these unfortunates was not
calculated to inspire us with very pleasant reflections, in case the
weather should change while we were on the mountain.
A NIGHT UPON THE SUMMIT.
"We climbed on, having reached the basaltic rock at an elevation of
16,805 feet, and with exhausting labor we traveled upon it until toward
evening, when we came to that immense yawning abyss, the crater. The
mouth was about three miles in circumference, of a very irregular form.
Into this we entered, and soon arrived at the house which was to be our
lodging for the night. This house was a curiosity in its way; as it was
not built like any other house, and could not be, on account of the
rarity of the atmosphere at this elevation of 17,125 feet, and the
impossibility of obtaining sufficient oxygen, in a closed room, to feed
combustion. It was therefore built in the form of a miniature volcano.
There was an outside and an inside wall, of a circular form, the
outside wall sloping inwardly, and the inside wall, which rested on
pillars, sloping outwardly, until it met the outside wall. The fire was
built in the open court, in the centre of the building, and the party
sat under the arches and warmed themselves. The night that we were
there, the perverse smoke took the same direction as the heated air,
and filled the whole inside to suffocation, so that our condition was
most disagreeable, notwithstanding the arrangements that Mr. Corchado
had made in his own apartment for the comfort of his guests, for the
reflection of the sun on the snow had thrown a film over our eyes, in
spite of our green vails. Our stomachs were nauseated at this giddy
height, and, though we had almost every other kind of eatable and
drinkable, our appetites craved only chocolate, which we could not
obtain. Our heads were dizzy, and our limbs were weary, and we lay down
in a dense smoke to try to sleep.
DESCENT INTO THE CRATER.
"Morning came to our relief, and with it the film had passed from our
eyes. We looked up to the top of the mountain above us, and then down
into that fearful abyss into which we were soon to descend. We could
eat no breakfast, and could drink no coffee, and so we were soon ready
for our day's journey. We followed a narrow footpath until we reached a
shelf, where we were seated in a skid, and let down by a windlass 500
feet or so, to a landing-place, from which we clambered downward to a
second windlass and a second skid, which was the most fearful of all,
because we were dangling about without any thing to steady ourselves,
as we descended before the mouth of one of those yawning caverns, which
are called the 'breathing-holes' of the crater. They are so called from
the fresh air and horrid sounds that continually issue from them. But
we shut our eyes and clung fast to the rope, as we whirled round and
round in mid air, until we reached another landing-place about 500 feet
lower. From this point we clambered down, as best we could, until we
came among the men digging up cinders, from which sulphur, in the form
of brimstone, is made.
"We took no measurements within the crater, and heights and distances
here can only be given by approximation. We only know that all things
are on a scale so vast that old Pluto might here have forged new
thunder-bolts, and Milton's Satan might have here found the material
for his sulphurous bed. All was strange, and wild, and frightful.
"We crawled into several of the 'breathing holes,' but nothing was
there except darkness visible. The sides and bottom were, for the most
part, polished by the molten mass, which had cooled in passing through
them; and if it had not been for the ropes around our waist, we should
have slipped and fallen we knew not whither. We almost fancied that, in
the moving currents of air, we heard the wailings of the lost in the
great sulphurous lake below. The stones we threw in were lost to sound
unless they hit upon a projecting rock, and fell from shelf to shelf.
The deep darkness was fearful to contemplate. The abyss looked as
though it might be the mouth of the bottomless pit. What must have been
the effect when each one of these 'breathing holes' was vomiting liquid
fire and sulphur into the basin in which we stood? How immeasurable
must be that lake whose overflowings fill such cavities as this! It is
when standing in such a place that we get the full force of the figures
used by the Scriptures in illustrating the condition of the souls that
have perished forever.
"Let us turn from great to smaller things--to witness the labors of the
men who work, and eat, and often sleep in the volcano. Some are digging
sulphur and placing it in baskets, while others are waiting to carry it
upon their heads up the side of the crater. Others, again, out of our
sight far up the mountain, are working at the oven, when the weather is
clear, and there is no cloud between them and the sun, as it is only in
the finest weather that men can work upon the top, or carry burdens to
the hacienda. When the weather is fine, all the works are in full
operation, and good profits are realized by furnishing brimstone for
the manufacture of sulphuric acid.
"We are at the top once more; and now that our eyesight, which we lost
in climbing the mountain, is restored to us, we will take a view of the
lower world. Looking toward the west, every object glows in the
brightness of the rising sun, except where the mountain casts its vast
shadow even across the valley of Toluca. How strangely diminished now
are all familiar objects that are visible! The pureness of the medium
through which things are seen presents distant objects with great
distinctness, but it will not present them in their natural size, for
it can not change the angle of vision. The villages upon the table-land
were apparently pigmy villages, inhabited by pigmy men and pigmy women,
surrounded with pigmy cattle, and garrisoned by pigmy soldiery. It is,
by an optical illusion, Liliput in real life. Had the English satirist
placed himself where we now stood, he would have more than realized the
picture which his fancy painted. He might have seen the marshaled hosts
of Liliput marching to the beat of drum, in the proud array of war.
"If you wish to see all the sights, you must walk around the mountain,
and look down its steepest side, where there is no table-land, into the
'hot country.' The distance is so vast, the descent so steep, that an
inexperienced climber suffers from dizziness. If you climb to the very
summit, 250 feet above the mouth of the crater, you will find more
surface about you. But it is a point where few can desire to remain
long, or to visit it a second time."
THE SULPHUR MINE.
In Cortez's letters to the Emperor we read as follows: "As for sulphur,
I have already made mention to your Majesty of a mountain in this
province from which, smoke issues; out of it sulphur has been taken by
a Spaniard, who descended seventy or eighty fathoms by means of a rope
attached to his body below his arms; from which source we have been
enabled to obtain sufficient supplies, although it is attended with
danger. It is hoped that it will not be necessary for us to resort
[again] to this means of procuring it." ... "As the Indians told us
that it was dangerous to ascend, and fatal to those who made the
attempt, I caused several Spaniards to undertake it, and examine the
character of the summit. At the time they went up, so much smoke
proceeded from it, accompanied by noises, that they were either unable
or afraid to reach its mouth. Afterward I sent up some other Spaniards,
who made two attempts, and finally reached the aperture of the mountain
whence the smoke issued, which was two bow-shots wide, and about three
fourths of a league in circumference, where they discovered some
sulphur which the smoke deposited."[14] (Bernal Diaz says that the
crater was perfectly round, a mile in diameter.--Vol. i. p. 186.)
During one of their visits they heard a tremendous noise, followed by
smoke, when they made haste to descend; but before they reached the
middle of the mountain there fell around them a heavy shower of stones,
from which they were in no little danger.
In or about the year 1850, Corchado, an active and enterprising white
man, had become a favorite with the Indians at the foot of the
mountain, who proposed to him that he should accompany them when they
again undertook one of their expeditions into the volcano, which of
late had been very frequent. This was a proposition that exactly
accorded with his adventurous character. Accordingly, on an appointed
day, he appeared at the rendezvous, with a rope, a piece of sail-cloth,
and an iron bar. Thus provided, the party, which was a large one,
started up the mountain, but one by one they gave out, until only
Corchado and a single Indian arrived at the mouth of the crater. Here,
unfortunately, Corchado fainted from the loss of blood and fatigue; and
the Indian, not knowing what better to do, covered him with the
sail-cloth, and then started down the mountain for assistance. In a
short time he revived under the sail-cloth, and from his dangerous
position he drew himself into the volcano, that he might not perish
from cold outside. He descended as far as the shelf, and, looking over
into the abyss, he found himself so refreshed by the atmosphere of the
volcano that he brought down the bar, sail-cloth, and rope, determining
to pass the approaching night at the bottom of the volcano. When he had
fixed his bar and rope, the relieving party arrived, and all descended,
one by one, upon the rope to a point where they passed the night in
safety.
Corchado, on his return, gathered up some of the scoria and carried it
to Puebla, when it was found to contain so large a percentage of
sulphur as to warrant its 'denouncement' as a sulphur-mine. Capital was
procured at Puebla sufficient to set up the rude apparatus we have
already described, by means of which a very handsome profit on the
adventure was realized. But, owing to a lawsuit, in which the affair
was at that time (1852) involved, no effort had yet been made to pierce
the mountain, or to explore a passage through some vent or fissure. A
good path had been made up the mountain, and in the month of May it was
considered quite a safe undertaking to visit these sulphur-works.
[14] This must have been the great fissure, and not the crater. I
see no objection to this statement; for in this Cortez had no
motive to falsify, and it is the ordinary appearance of an active
volcano.