Festival of San Agustin de Las Cuevas--El Paséo de Las Vigas.
MAY 23d, 1825.--Yesterday and to-day we attended the festival at _San
Agustin de las Cuevas_. The avenues leading to this little town, were
thronged with people on foot, on asses, on mules, on horses, and in
coaches drawn by six or eight mules. The whole population of Mexico
seemed flocking to it and to _Istapalapa_, at which latter place is
the feast of the Indians. Most persons take lodgings for the three or
four days of the _Pascua_,[1] for which they pay enormous rent. From
day-light until ten o'clock, these pious christians hear mass in the
parish church. We had to travel four or five leagues, and, therefore,
did not arrive in time to witness these religious solemnities; but at
twelve, we were introduced into the cock-pit--a rough, circular
building, with seats around it rising one above the other--and in the
centre, an area serving as an arena for the combatants. Its roof, high
and open to admit light and air, was decorated with long wide shreds
of various colors--diverging from the centre--all in scenic taste. The
seats were soon filled with spectators of all ages, sexes and classes.
The most fashionable ladies of Mexico were present, and the most
distinguished men of the republic were engaged in betting heavily on
the champions of the pit. The noisy clamor of fifty voices, seeking
bets with stentorian cries, warned us of the approaching fight. The
cocks, armed with sharp slashers, like double edged sabres, are
arrayed before us--suddenly the pit is cleared--an awful silence
prevails--they rush to the conflict--a few moments decide the fate of
one--and all is again confusion. For three hours the sport continues,
to the great diversion of the spectators, who appear to take an eager
interest in the cruel scene. The women around me were betting and
smoking, and two friars sat at my right hand. What a picture of
Mexican customs is before us! Women--fashionable women, and priests in
a cock-pit on a Sunday! 'Tis quite bad enough for us to be seen here,
but we are curious travellers, and must observe every thing we can.
After witnessing a few fights, we visited the gambling rooms, to see
the game of _monte_, which resembles faro. The tables were loaded with
doubloons and dollars, and surrounded by players, who, in a few
minutes, won and lost many hundreds.[2] Here I saw no women betting,
but there was one a looker on like myself, but I don't know if the
scene was as novel to her as to me. On walking next through the plaza,
I observed all species of games, at which the blanket gentry--male and
female--young and old--were trying their fortune, invited in many
instances by an image of the Virgin or of some patron saint. Gambling
is, I may safely conclude, the general vice of this nation.
Drunkenness is not common in these assemblages, and is confined
chiefly to the Indians.
[Footnote 1: Whitsuntide is the period for this festival.]
[Footnote 2: Mr. Ward, who is good authority, states that "the bank at
these tables varies from 1,000 doubloons (16,000 dollars) to 3,000
doubloons, (48,000 dollars.) Fifty or sixty of these (800 or 1,000
dollars,) are an ordinary stake upon the turn of a card; but I have
seen as many as six hundred and twenty, (9,920 dollars,) risked and
won."--_Ward's Mexico_.]
After dinner, we walked to a green plot without the village, where the
ladies were dancing to the music of two or three guitars. At this
amusement we left them each evening, and returned to the Hacienda. At
night the cock-pit is carpeted, and converted into a ball room. Thus
the fashionable people of the city of Mexico, celebrate for three
successive days this religious feast.
In choosing San Agustin for these amusements, the selection is
certainly a good one. Conveniently situated at the edge of the plain
of Mexico, about twelve miles from the city, to the south, the site is
very pretty, and the scenery is extremely gay in contrast with the
sterility which immediately surrounds the capital. Water is so
abundant in this village, that every garden is irrigated, and the
trees and plants always possess a freshness of verdure which is rarely
seen upon the table land. The mountain of _Ajusco_[3] rises behind the
town--the tallest peak of this southern ridge--its top is rugged and
barren. It is sometimes sprinkled with snow during the winter. A
remarkable bed of lava from an adjacent peak, overlays a large corner
of the plain near _San Agustin_, round the point of which the road
leads from Mexico--so distinctly is it defined, that it is easy to
imagine the melted mass flowing from the furnace of the volcano till
it gradually congealed.
[Footnote 3: The _Cerro_ of Ajusco is, according to Humboldt, 12,119
feet above the sea--consequently 4,649 feet above the plain on which
the city of Mexico is situated.]
* * * * *
FEBRUARY 26th, 1826. I have just returned from witnessing the gayest
sight which Mexico ever presents. This is the promenade of _Las
Vigas_.
_El Paséo de Las Vigas_ is a beautiful road just without the inhabited
part of the city, at its south-eastern extremity. It is bordered by
double rows of aspins and willows; and upon one side of it, passes the
canal which connects the lakes of _Chalco_ and _Tescuco_. Though it is
the month of February, nature has assumed the gay mantle of
spring--all is verdant--all is smiling with luxuriant sweetness. The
temperature of the shade is most delightful.
At the moment when the sun, sinking behind the mountains, has lost its
oppressive warmth, the population of Mexico pours itself upon this
charming spot. Hundreds of coaches roll along amid multitudes on
horseback and on foot. These ponderous vehicles, uniform in shape, are
various in their decorations, showing the several fashions which
prevailed at the time of their construction;--some adorned with
paintings commemorative either of heathen mythology or of remarkable
historical events; the pannels of some tell us of sieges or of battles
in days long gone by; some represent the perils of the deep; others
exhibit Neptune riding gently upon his subdued waves, or perhaps the
"pale Diana" or the "laughing Venus," or Calypso in her grotto using
her bewitching sorceries to win the youthful hero. These, and similar
devices, mark the period of vice-regal magnificence, and are now
peculiar to the hackney coach. Those of modern date, are in better
taste, being painted modestly, of a uniform color, but the wheels and
carriage part are generally richly gilded.
The coaches are filled with well dressed women--I won't say that many
of them are beautiful--who recognize their acquaintances by a
coquetish quirk of the fan--(a never-failing attendant even in coldest
weather)--or an active play of the fingers, at which the Mexican
ladies are very dexterous, and which might be misconstrued by the
uninitiated as a beckon to approach. Horsemen, in the characteristic
costume of the country elsewhere described, pass and repass,
exhibiting their proud and gallant steeds; and the multitude on foot
display their Sunday dresses, in which there has been of late a
manifest improvement.
The canal is strewed with boats, crowded with passengers of the lowest
class, who are amusing themselves with guitars, to which they sing and
dance. They return decorated with flowers woven into a chaplet, which,
contrasted with the black hair hanging down in a single plait behind,
of a pretty Mestiso girl, renders her quite interesting,
notwithstanding her copperish color.
All these in themselves present a highly exhilarating picture; but
added to the fine prospect of the mountain barriers of the Mexican
plain, and especially of the snowy peaks of the volcanoes of Puebla
which rise in full view to the south-east, this scene can scarcely be
equalled.
As pleasing however, as the scene is, and though we meet none but
smiling faces, yet I cannot refrain from observing that remarkable
inequality so revolting to the feelings of a republican. Marchionesses
and countesses with the richest jewels, are seen at one glace with the
poor _lepero_, whose all is the single blanket which hides his
nakedness. Nor is it agreeable to see a strong guard of cavalry, whose
attendance it must be presumed, is necessary to prevent disorder.
Sentinels, indeed, are posted around and in all the public buildings
of Mexico--they are posted at the entrance to the halls of Congress
and to the galleries, in various parts of the palace, (a name by which
the government house is still known,) where the President resides, and
in which are the public offices--and they are posted even in the
theatre. I am sorry thus to detract any thing from the scene which I
witnessed this evening with so much pleasure, but candor requires it.
Lent has now commenced. Public amusements (except occasionally a
concert at the theatre,) and large parties are suspended for a while.
The ladies complain occasionally of ennui. Their present diversion is
stupid enough. They assemble in small _tertulias_ every night at each
others' houses, and play an uninteresting game with cards, called
lottery. The sole object achieved is to kill time, of the value of
which Mexicans have no idea, for in themselves they have no resources
whatever. Reading is so irksome they cannot endure it--and work of any
kind costs labor. They can do naught but eat, sleep, smoke, talk, and
visit the theatre.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.