The new City of Mexico.--The Discoveries of Gold.--Ruins at
Mexico.--The Monks, and what Cortez gained by his Piety.--The City
of Mexico again rebuilt.--The City under Ravillagigedo.--The National
Palace.--The Cathedral.--A whole Museum turned Saints.--All kneel
together.--The San Carlos Academy of Arts.--Reign of Carlos III--The
Mineria.
The city of Mexico, as rebuilt by Cortez, was but an humble affair. The
small amount of plunder realized from the city destroyed; the necessity
for large remittances to secure peace at the Spanish court; the general
poverty and destitution of the Indians inhabiting the surrounding
villages, and the narrow limits of the Aztec empire, were great
impediments in the way of erecting a magnificent city. On a small
scale, he resembled Santa Anna in the activity with which he could
organize an army after defeat, or resuscitate affairs when apparently
irretrievable. He knew how to improve the most slender means to the
accomplishment of ulterior purposes. Perseverance is not one of the
leading characteristics of the Spanish race, yet it is surprising to
see how much they will often accomplish with what would appear to us
totally inadequate means. Such was eminently the talent of Cortez.
Surrounded by disappointed men, who had been lured to the country by
magnificent pictures of its resources, he still went on extending his
conquests among the surrounding tribes.
Fortunately, the most precious of all metals is obtained by the most
simple process, and the gold-washings of the Mescala and other parts of
the south, which the Indians had but partially wrought, received more
attention as soon as they learned how readily the precious metal could
be exchanged for the gewgaws of the Europeans. Gold dust was greedily
exchanged for its weight in bright silver coins, and an ounce of gold
was not unfrequently given for a bright-colored handkerchief. In a few
months the means for the organization of a community were obtained from
the gold-diggings. Nothing tends so much to elevate the lowly as the
discovery of gold-washings, in which individual effort, and not
machinery, is the ruling power, and the producer of wealth. But even a
gold country has its evils; for nowhere have I ever seen so many
disappointed men as at the very place where an abundance of gold could
be had for simply washing it out of the mud; and nowhere have I seen so
large a proportion of unemployed men as on the spot where the wages of
labor were fabulously high. Still, with all these drawbacks, the city
of Cortez rapidly progressed under the stimulus of gold discoveries,
until he found the wildest of his dreams falling short of the reality.
THE MONKS IN MEXICO.
The new city did not occupy the exact position of its Indian
predecessor, but was clustered around the still remaining navigable
canals, upon the southern border, while the main portion of the old
city, which lay toward the northern limits of the island--where to this
day such an abundant supply of earthen gods is to be found by
digging--was left a mass of ruins. These were not, by any means, the
ruins of fallen stone walls, or capitals, or columns, but shapeless
masses of earth, which proclaim most unmistakably the kind of
magnificence which distinguished the ancient capital of the Aztec
empire.
The monks, who scented gold as buzzards scent carrion, began early to
discover the growing wealth of this new city, and soon a party of a
dozen Franciscans, in sackcloth with downcast visages, approached the
city. They came, not as religious teachers, but as spiritual
scavengers, who had consecrated their lives for gold to clean out the
road to heaven for the vilest sinners. Cortez, who had been the
greatest sinner, was now the greatest penitent. The whole city was
moved at the coming of these holy men, who carried the cross before
them, but forgot not the cards and the dice in their pockets--who
daily, in the mass, consecrated spiritual bread for famishing souls,
and at night spent the wages of their piety at the gambling-table. To
the surprise of his fellow-profligates, and to the astonishment of the
Indians, Cortez, walking bare-footed, led the procession that escorted
the monks from near the spot where his brigantines had sailed among the
corn-fields of Iztapalapan to the little chapel he had partly finished,
and which now stands in the yard of the Franciscans.[50] He was so
zealous in the performance of his devotions and his penances that he
won the affections of the holy fathers to such a degree that he ever
found faithful supporters in the powerful order of Saint Francis in all
his troubles at the Spanish court. The question of his sincerity
mattered little to them. It was the benefit of his public example which
they, above all things, desired in their search after golden treasures.
To get gold and to gratify their vices was their pious calling. Though
they boast of having baptized some 6000 Indians, this argues nothing,
except as it tends to show the numbers of the Indian population of the
valley; for, as a badge of their subjugation, the Indians received
Christian baptism; and truly it has been said of them, "They feared the
Lord, but served their graven images."
We have now a sadder tale to tell; one that philanthropists have
grieved over so often. Gold-washings are soon exhausted, but they
frequently lead to the discovery of silver mines, which become so
profitable as to drive away the very memory of the gold-washings. Thus
the fact that gold-washings ever existed in Mexico, or even in Brazil,
is almost forgotten, and the places where those washings were rests in
vague tradition.
But while gold is procured by the most simple process, to extract
silver requires science, and an immense expenditure of labor and
machinery, in delving to the very bowels of the earth, and in
separating the slight percentage of pure silver from the mass of ore.
In this exhausting labor, which is often assigned to convicts, Indians
were employed until they gave up the ghost. The conquerors had
appropriated to themselves the best-looking of the Indian females,
while their husbands--for Indians marry very early in life--were
consigned to the mines as laborers and carriers in the bowels of the
mountain. From this promiscuous intercourse, so early introduced, has
arisen the present mixed-blood population of Mexico. The offspring of
sin, they are a nation of sinners. The pure Indians are the descendants
chiefly of the unenslaved tribes, like the Tlascalans and Tezcucans,
who carried on the subsequent wars of Cortez, and the whites are mostly
descendants of later immigrations.
In a former chapter we have seen that the evils which California
suffered in the first years of its existence afflicted Mexico down to
the time of the great inundation of 1629; and from the pen of an
eye-witness we have given a picture of the state of society at that
time. But during the five years that the water rested on the city, its
superabundant wealth disappeared; many of the nobility and gentry
withdrew to Puebla, carrying with them their treasures and their vices,
while multitudes of the poorer classes perished. So that when the
Virgin of Guadalupe, in her great mercy to an afflicted people, caused
the earth to open and swallow up the great excess of waters, they had
become a sobered and a more moral population. It is from this abating
of the waters in the year 1634 that we have to date the origin of the
present city of Mexico; for the foundations of all the buildings except
those about the Cathedral were so much softened by five years of
soaking that they could not be relied on; and a new city grew up upon
new foundations. This is the Mexico of the present day; a city more
elegant than substantial, and dependent more upon the plaster and
colored washings of its walls than solid masonry for its apparent
durability.
THE VICEROY RAVILLAGIGEDO.
It was the great Vice-king Ravillagigedo, toward the close of the last
century (1789), who gave the finishing strokes to the city, and
established its reputation as the finest city on this continent while
the vice-kingdom continued. It was then one of the best-lighted cities
to be found, while in its paving he expended the large sum of
$347,715.[51] We have seen, in our own day and in our own large cities,
the popular applause which follows the rigid enforcement of wholesome
ordinances; and it may be well supposed that in a city like Mexico,
such an unusual proceeding would elevate the fearless magistrate in
popular estimation, and make him the subject of all kind of apocryphal
anecdotes.
The best of the anecdotes illustrating his sternness in enforcing city
ordinances is the following: A police officer once reported to him the
case of the occupants of a house who had neglected sweeping in front of
their premises. He informed him that the family had consisted of a
widowed mother and two daughters, but that the mother had died during
the previous night, and that, instead of sweeping the street as usual,
the daughters sat at the door weeping, and soliciting money of
passers-by to bury the dead body. "Return," said the viceroy sternly to
the officer, "and stand at the door until there are twelve shillings (a
dollar and a half) in the plate, and then take it, and bring it and the
offenders to me." The officer did as directed. "Deliver the money to
the municipal treasurer, in payment of the fine for violating the city
ordinance," said the vice-king to the officer, "and then return to your
duty." He then turned to the orphans: "I hear that your mother is dead,
and that you wish to obtain the means of burying her. Here is an order
on your parish priest, who will bury your mother, and here is a trifle
for yourselves," he said, handing to each of them a gold ounce. They
went their way, blessing the man that had succored them in their
necessity. This early example of the rigid enforcement of city
ordinances has never been forgotten in Mexico, where, considering its
limited means, for its revenue[52] does not exceed $400,000, including
its landed rents, its government is well sustained, and its laws better
enforced than in many of our own cities. Its police consists of a
military patrol,[53] who, oddly enough, perform the duties of
lamplighters.
THE NATIONAL PALACE.
The National Palace is an immense structure, which occupies the eastern
front of the Grand Plaza, and is sometimes foolishly called the Halls
of the Montezumas. It contains within itself all the offices of
government, besides the barracks of the President's guard. Besides
being the city residence of the President himself, it contains the two
halls that were formerly occupied by the two legislative bodies, the
Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, while such a burlesque of our free
institutions existed in Mexico. In this palace also was the National
Mint, so long as any body would trust the nation with his silver bars
to coin; but, now that the mint is farmed out, it is removed to a
private establishment. In this building are all the archives of the
vice-kingdom and the republic, and he who would study the history of
the past must diligently labor here.
The Cathedral is upon the northern side of the Grand Plaza, and is said
to occupy the site of the great _teocalli_, and to have a rocky
foundation. Whether this last assertion is really true, I have no
means of verifying, but there must be something unusual about its
foundations, as its towers are the only ones that I know of in the city
that do not lean a little. Ninety years was this vast edifice, or,
rather, pile of edifices, in building, and the amount of treasure
expended in its construction seems to a stranger to be fabulous. The
best of its many fine views, or, rather, the one I admire the most, is
the one from the entrance to the National Palace, though the one most
commonly given is that from the front of the Municipality building,
which occupies the entire south front of the Plaza.
IMAGES IN THE CATHEDRAL.
The interior of the Cathedral is certainly imposing, but I had so early
in life attached the idea of the Gothic architecture to every thing
magnificent in the way of churches, that this Moro-Spanish style fails
to produce an effect commensurate with the merits of the building.
Again, images are not associated with my early ideas of divine worship;
and when, passing from side altar to side altar, I feel that I am only
looking at wax figures, they produce no solemnity in me. And when I
afterward learned, or thought I learned, that the showman of the
strolling museum got his "wax figures" at the same shop, or from the
same moulds in which were cast the images of the saints, they call up
the idea of Punch and Judy.
Before these images I have seen hundreds of worshipers prostrate,
repeating their prayers with the most profound reverence, while the
sight of the image filled me with boyish glee that I could hardly
suppress. The identical image that was labeled Bluebeard in the museum
is now Saint Peter. The "Disconsolate Widow" is now "the Weeping
Virgin." Charlotte Temple, and the baby that never knew its father, is
now Mary and the infant Christ. Macbeth, looking as though he had the
toothache, is Saint Francis. Othello is here a saint; and the sleeping
Desdemona is now the sleeping Virgin. The monster that poisoned six
husbands, and sits meditating the death of a seventh, is now dressed in
the latest Paris finery, and is a saint. The old miser, who laid up
such hoards while he starved himself to death, is here placed among
saints; the clothes are different, but there is the same forbidding
visage. Here, too, are the Queen of Sheba, the Babes in the Wood, the
Belle of the West, the Terrible Brigand, and Sir William Wallace--all
transformed into images of saints, before whom the people bow down with
the most profound reverence, and to whose intercession they commit the
salvation of their souls.
I do not know whether the showman or the priests are to blame for my
irreverence, or whether it is the fault of the system itself. The
argument in favor of the adoration of images is that they make
impressions on the senses which aid devotion; but, if the impressions
made on my senses are to be considered, the whole tendency is to debase
the immortal Maker of heaven and earth below the level of humanity,
"and to change the image of the incorruptible God into an image made
like to corruptible man." There was abundant proof of this in the
tabernacle of our Lady of Remedies above the great altar of the
Cathedral. There sits enthroned this cast-off bauble of some nursery,
emblazoned with jewels enough to supply the means to educate the whole
population of Mexico. To this piece of dilapidated wood and plaster of
Paris are conceded attributes of God Almighty: to grant rain in times
of drought; health in times of pestilence; a safe delivery to women in
peril of childbirth; and before it, in times of public calamity, the
highest dignitaries walk in solemn procession.
Nothing disgusts an Anglo-Saxon more than to witness the mental
degradation of the descendants of the Castilians, the slaves of
superstition, craft, and imposture. From generation to generation they
have lived in constant fear of the secret agents of the Inquisition,
and of the evil spirits that are ever plotting against the peace of
good Christians. The permanency of the laws of Nature, the very
foundation of all self-reliance and courage, is believed to be at the
caprice of every one of a legion of saints, each of whom has been
canonized on proof of working a miracle. Truth, and honesty, and
chastity are subordinate virtues, and only a slavish devotion to his
conscience-keeper can sustain a believer in the hour of greatest
necessity.
There are important truths to be learned in Mexico, and even in this
immense pile of buildings devoted to superstition. Among these is the
perfect equality that should exist in a place of worship. Here the rich
and the poor meet together upon a level; the well-dressed lady and the
market-woman are here kneeling together before the same image. The
distinctions of wealth and rank are for the moment forgotten. While I
was looking on and admiring this state of things, I saw a market-man on
his return homeward with an empty hen-coop on his back. He walked
boldly up, and knelt among the body of worshipers, told his beads, and
then started up and trudged on his homeward journey. This equality is
only for an hour, and hardly so long; yet it is an hour daily, and must
have its effect in this country of inequalities in reminding the most
humble that this inequality is only for this world, and that at the
termination of life all will stand upon a common level.
THE SAN CARLOS.
The San Carlos, or Academy of Arts, is now in a flourishing condition,
on account of the success of the lottery that supports it. The number
of students here gratuitously instructed in different branches of art
is quite large. Here, too, it is refreshing to see equality triumphant;
the child of the _peon_ and of the prince sit side by side, and on the
days of public exhibition, the crowds that throng its halls are
admitted gratuitously, and are of as miscellaneous a character as are
its pupils. The pictures of _Pangre_ are the present great attraction,
and every new production of his genius gains him additional applause.
The works that Humboldt so much admired are still here, but since his
time there have been added several marbles of considerable merit.
This Academy of San Carlos is one of the many monuments of that
greatest of the kings of Spain since the Conquest, Don Carlos III.,
though not brought into full operation until the reign of his imbecile
successor, Carlos IV. All the monuments of which Mexico can boast at
this day are traceable to the reign of the only enlightened Spanish
prince of whom Spain can boast in a period of 300 years. Nearly a
hundred years have elapsed since the foundation of this academy, and it
has not yet produced a man of the first class either in painting or
sculpture.
The College of Mines, the finest building in this city, is another
exhibition of the liberal spirit which governed in the reign of Don
Carlos. Under this prince a new code of mining laws had been digested,
strikingly resembling the present miner's rules in California. Their
immediate effect was almost to double the production of silver, while
the Mineria was both a school to impart scientific knowledge in
relation to mining, and a bank to advance money to develop new mineral
enterprises. Its support now rests upon the tax it is authorized to
levy of one shilling upon every mark ($8) of silver produced.
[50] As it is an unimportant question whether Cortez first built
a chapel for the Franciscans back of the Cathedral, or the one in
the yard of the Franciscans, I here repeat the popular tradition.
[51] HUMBOLDT, _Essai Politique_.
[52] As my readers may be a little curious to know how the city
government is sustained, I translate the statement of city
revenue of 1851.
There were in that year 379 licensed _pulque_-shops,
yielding a revenue of $65,297
538 retail grocer shops in which liquor is
sold by the gill 25,609
8 breweries pay a city tax of 1,697
132 cafes, fondas, and eating-houses pay 4,418
Tax on grain and bread consumed in the city 53,762
Public diversions, $3103; permitted plays
(not gambling), $3221 6,324
Tax on canals, $6798; tax on coaches, $20,157;
markets, $56,130 83,085
Donation of the proceeds of a bull-fight 830
Gifts, in bread and meat, to the prisons 4,561
A tax of one dollar on the slaughtering of
21,984 beef-cattle 21,984
16,404 calves were slaughtered, paying six
shillings tax 12,303
145,040 sheep, at one shilling and sixpence 27,194
9394 pigs paid five shillings tax, or 5,870
42,734 swine, full grown, paid six shillings 32,055
7750 goats and kids, at one shilling and sixpence 1,453
Tax on property entering the city gates 1,878
Licenses to slaughter to individuals 136
The water rents of $20,000 were consumed in repairs.
The tax on fish yielded $390
The balance of the revenue consists of certain city properties.
_Expenditures._
The heaviest items are for the public prisons $69,863
For the hospitals of the insane 48,000
Lancasterian schools 3,600
Lights and city patrol 52,422
Exhibition of flowers and fruits in November last 1,831
Salaries of school-teachers, and rent of houses
for schools 4,812
Religious worship in Hospital of San Hippolito,
and for vaccine matter 2,282
Cleaning the streets by night and by day 21,378
Salaries 31,472
Dinners and festivals 151
The city has a debt of $617,978, and has, as a set-off, a
claim against the supreme government for $1,700,000 of its
funds seized from time to time, and for keeping prisoners.
[53] The arrests in the year 1851 were 212 men and 182 women for
infractions of police regulations; 1256 men and 1944 women for
excessive drinking; 384 men and 120 women for robbery; 180 men
and 84 women on suspicion of robbery; 120 men and 25 women for
picking pockets; 15 men and 3 women for murder; 728 men and 246
women for affrays and wounds; 209 men and 85 women for carrying
forbidden weapons; 36 men who had escaped from prison; 39 men and
17 women for false pretenses; 354 men and 403 women for
incontinence and adultery; 311 men and 318 women for the
violation of public decency; 64 delinquent youth for the house of
correction--making a total of arrests for the year of 3918 men
and 3430 women; besides, they have protected 315 persons
apprehensive of assaults from evil-doers. _And they have freed
the city from the plague of 6048 dogs!_ Just as many dogs
arrested as human beings. These statistics furnish an inadequate
idea of the number of knife-fights that are of so common
occurrence among the _peons_ about the _pulque_-shops, in which
women and men show an equal skill at stabbing in the back.