Long ago, when we ended our visit in Canada and Newfoundland, we left
behind us the polar bears and the icebergs and all those things which
are to be found in the cold parts of the earth. Then we traveled over
the United States with its temperate climate, where neither heat nor
cold are severe. Still moving south, we come to Mexico.
At the time Columbus discovered America Mexico was the home of gentle
little Indian children. Their skins were not as red as the rest of their
people in North America, but were of a brownish tint. Their lips were
rather thick, and their voices were soft. They called themselves Aztecs.
These children went to school and learned lessons while the other
Indians of North America were living like savages. They were taught
music and painting and the history of the Aztecs. They studied
strange-looking books written in pictures, each of which stood for a
certain word.
As they grew up they were taught to worship many gods, some of whom they
believed to be very cruel. They feared these gods and offered sacrifices
of human beings to them. It was a dreadful belief indeed that could make
people do this.
A great king named Montezuma ruled over the whole country. He lived in a
magnificent palace far up on a lofty plateau in the middle of the
country, with mountains on either hand, as though to guard him. He wore
rich garments which he changed many times a day. He ate the choicest
food from dishes of silver and gold. Hundreds of people waited upon him,
ever ready to do his bidding.
Montezuma made the city where he lived very beautiful. There were
gardens filled with flowers, and ponds stocked with different kinds of
fish. There were menageries where birds of brilliant plumage were cared
for so tenderly that they could not miss their free homes of the forest,
and there were wild animals of both hot lands and cold. Altogether, the
city was the wonder of all who visited it.
There came a time, however, when all this was changed. A few years after
Columbus discovered the New World a Spaniard named Fernando Cortez
sailed along the shores of Mexico with his fleet of ships. He entered a
harbor and landed. The simple Indians who stood watching, bent low
before the strange white men, for they thought them gods from heaven who
had come to visit them, and they gladly told all they knew about the
country. Gold and silver? Yes, there was plenty to be had in Mexico.
Furthermore, they described the wonderful city on the plateau above,
where the great Montezuma held his court.
Cortez listened with great interest. He was a brave man; he was also
cruel and greedy. His eyes flashed as he thought of all the riches to be
gained if he could conquer the natives. But he used only soft words and
begged to be shown the way to the wonderful city among the mountains
above him. He declared that he wished to pay respect to the ruler of the
country.
The Indian guides led the way while Cortez and his train of knights
followed.
On, yet ever upwards they climbed, soon leaving the hot, damp lowlands
behind them. The air became cooler and fresher, and the fruits that grow
only where the heat is great, were soon passed. On, yet ever upwards!
The pathway now became steep and rough, but it brought the Spaniards at
last out upon a broad plain on which stood the city described by the
natives of the lowlands. The king came to meet the strangers in all his
glory. He lavished gifts upon them, too--gold and silver and precious
stones,--all those things which he thought valuable in the eyes of his
guests. He entertained them royally and gave feasts in their honor.
While the cruel Spaniard was looking at the rich gifts, he was planning
how to conquer Montezuma and his subjects and get all the wealth of the
country into his hands.
It was not long before this was done. Montezuma's reign was brought to
an end; the beautiful buildings of the city of which he was so proud
were destroyed, and the Indians of Mexico became the slaves of the
Spaniards.
For nearly three hundred years Spain ruled over the country, during
which time many boys and girls crossed the ocean to make their home in
Mexico.
Some of the Spaniards married gentle Indian maidens and their children
were called half-castes, to show that they were half-white and
half-Indian. For this reason there are three kinds of children who call
Mexico home,--first, creoles, whose people came in the beginning from
Europe; second, the Indians, and third, the half-castes. Many of these
last are so fair in the skin that one would scarcely think they could
have any Indian blood whatever.
Although the white people came in the beginning from Spain, they have
lived so long in Mexico that they now have a name of their own. Many of
their children are very beautiful. They have soft black eyes which grow
sharp and piercing as they become excited. They are usually very gentle,
but if they are crossed they show a quick, unruly temper. They are not
fond of work, but like to be waited on by their servants. Many of them
are rich and live in grand houses built around courtyards whose
fountains play all day long. The air of these courtyards is filled with
the odor of lovely flowers growing there.
The mothers of the little creoles dress in dainty lawns and laces,
following the latest fashions from Paris. They are proud of their tiny
hands and feet and are careful to do no hard work that may spoil their
shape. They embroider, and do other fancywork, and they sing and play.
They are very loving, and bring up their little ones to be polite and
respectful. They, as well as their husbands, are ever ready to show
kindness to visitors and strangers.
The Indian children of Mexico lead a very different life from their
creole brothers and sisters. After the Aztecs were conquered by the
Spaniards they lived the life of slaves for such a long time that it
became a habit with them to look up to the white men as higher beings,
so that to this day they are as humble as slaves although they are now
free and the country is a republic.
The little Indians have few clothes, but that does not matter, for they
do not need more in the warm climate in which they live. As for shoes,
their people in the good old times before the coming of the Spaniards
wore none, so why should they? Sandals are certainly far more
comfortable, besides being the best foot-gear possible for mountain
climbing.
In the warm lowlands the Indians live in simple huts of wood or bamboo,
with thatched roofs of palm leaves. Farther up on the table-land where
it is cooler the homes are still small and easily made, but they are of
unburnt brick, called adobe. The roofs are flat and covered with clay.
No matter how poor the family may be the home is not complete unless it
has an oven large enough for a person to sit in, also made of adobe.
Stones are piled in this oven and heated. Then water is poured over
them, which makes a heavy steam rise, in which the people take their
baths.
"It is good," the little Indians would tell you. "So good, that as the
sweat bursts out over your body, it will take out all the badness, and
make you feel well and strong."
The poorest children need not be hungry, for fruits and vegetables are
cheap and plentiful. Besides these, there are the tortillas the Indian
mothers make every day for their families.
Outside of every house there is sure to be a field of maize, big enough
to furnish the family with all they need during the year. When the maize
is ripe it is gathered and put away for future use. Every evening the
women of the household take some of it and place it in jars of hot
water. They add a little lime to soften it. When morning comes, they
take it from the jar, and spreading it on a stone bench, make it into
paste with a stone roller. Now it is put into a dish, and enough water
added to make it into a batter thick enough for pancakes. One by one
these are baked before a fire of charcoal. Hours are spent each day
preparing tortillas. Even the rich people of Mexico are fond of
tortillas, and hire special cooks to prepare them for the table.
The Indian children are very strong. The boys practice running and learn
to carry heavy loads on their backs with ease. Many of the men are
porters, or work in the silver mines carrying out the ore; some of them,
however, are busy on the farms. As the boys grow up, they generally
follow the same trade as their fathers. The pay is small and the work is
hard, but it seems easier for the Indians to keep to the same old habits
that were formed under their masters, the Spaniards.
Wherever you may travel in Mexico, you will meet Indian porters with
heavy loads on their backs, moving along at a steady trot. Hour after
hour they will keep this up, carrying seventy-five or a hundred pounds
at a time. The Indian farmers may be fifty or even a hundred miles from
a market for their goods, but it does not seem to trouble them that the
vegetables they wish to sell must be carried all the way on their backs.
Besides the Indian and creole children are the half-castes whose skins
are darker than those of their white brothers and sisters, though many
of them have rosy cheeks. They are pleasant and good-natured, but are
apt to be sly and lazy.
The fathers of the little half-castes are generally farmers or mule
drivers. Their older brothers and sisters are often servants in the
homes of the wealthy creoles, where they learn the ways and fashions of
the white people and try to copy them.
Most of the boys and girls of Mexico go to school which they must reach
by seven o'clock in the morning, and where they spend about ten hours of
each day. The seats and desks are not comfortably arranged as they are
in most places in the United States. Those children who can have chairs
are fortunate, for many of them sit on benches and even on the floor.
They study aloud, so you can imagine what a chattering there is. It is
hard to understand how they manage to get their lessons.
There are many holidays in Mexico, when the tiresome schools are closed
and both big folks and little give themselves up to feasting and
dancing.
One of these, Good Friday, is celebrated in a curious way. All day long
men go through the streets carrying figures of the traitor Judas hanging
from long poles. They stop from time to time as children come running up
to them to buy a Judas. Now comes the sport, for the figures can be
blown up. Bits of lighted punk are held against the figures, when they
suddenly burst like fire-crackers and make noise enough to deafen the
ears of the passer-by. It is no wonder the children save up their money
for Good Friday so that they can buy numbers of Judases.
The evening is the best part of the whole day, for then immense Judases
are hung up on lines across the streets and crowds of people gather to
watch them while they are blown up and exploded. At the same time the
city bells ring out the glad news that Judas has been destroyed. The
strangest part of all is the crackling noise that now follows,
representing the breaking of the bones of the two thieves who were
crucified at the same time as Jesus. The Mexicans certainly have a queer
way of celebrating Good Friday.
On the Coast.
Although a part of Mexico lies in or near the torrid zone, all kinds of
climate are to be found in the country. Let us see how this is. Along
the shores of the Pacific on the west, and of the Gulf of Mexico on the
east the land is low and the air is hot and moist, and for this reason
there is much illness there. The children of these lowlands know only
two seasons, the wet and the dry. Many of them live on ranches where
herds of cattle feed on the high, coarse grass. Here and there small
streams flow through the land from the mountains above, and there are
lakes shaded by tall palm trees. These are the places where the tropical
fruits of Mexico grow,--vanilla, spices, bananas, cacao, and oranges.
Mangoes, cocoanuts, and alligator pears, besides many others seldom sent
to temperate lands, also grow here in plenty.
The lowlands are not perfectly flat, but slope upwards toward high hills
where the air is clear and much cooler. The children here can gather
yellow oranges and clutches of bananas, like their brothers and sisters
of the lowlands, while they may also pick peaches and apples in their
orchards. Flowers and trailing vines grow everywhere about them. The
palms of the hot lands wave in the breeze on one side, while the roses
and honeysuckles of the temperate zone bloom on the other. It is a
strange and beautiful country.
Slowly we bid good-by to the little homes nestled among the trees, and
with the help of a big double-engine we climb up the steep slopes to
still higher lands. The trees are of a different kind now, for strong
pines and oaks are about us everywhere.
The long climbing comes to an end at last. The double-engine has done
its work and is used no longer, for we move out upon the plateau of
Mexico where cactus plants spread over many acres, and wheat and barley
fields greet us like old friends from the United States.
[Illustration: A Mexican Village.]
Vera Cruz.
When Cortez arrived on the coast of Mexico his ships entered the only
good harbor on the eastern side of the country. He and his men landed at
a place to which the Spaniards gave the name of Vera Cruz, or "True
Cross." Afterwards they built a city there, which to-day is one of the
two principal ports of Mexico. Every year many ships are loaded at the
wharves of Vera Cruz with limes and hammocks, silver and copper, which
they carry to the United States and other countries.
Vera Cruz is a beautiful city. Tall palm trees shade many a lovely home,
in whose gardens children are playing throughout the year. Before it
stretches the Gulf of Mexico, while at its back the lofty volcano
Orizaba reaches far up toward the sky. The people of Vera Cruz work hard
to make it a clean city, and they are helped by the vultures--big,
ugly-looking birds who are ever ready to swoop down into the streets and
house-yards to devour any decaying matter to be found. Bits of fruit and
vegetables, scraps of meat, and dead animals whether big or little, are
greedily eaten. Although the city is kept clean from one end to the
other, it is not a healthy place for a home. Fever is in hiding
everywhere and visitors find it wise to make only a short stay in the
place.
Getting Vanilla.
Few people live in the low country around Vera Cruz except Indians and
half-castes. Here and there on the banks of the streams you may find a
group of palm-thatched huts with Indian children running in and out
among the trees. The weather is so warm here throughout the year that
they wear scarcely any clothing and many times in the day they plunge
into the river to cool themselves. Sometimes the boys take long tramps
into the forests on the slopes above them in search of pods filled with
vanilla beans. They must seek only dark and moist places, for vanilla
plants do not grow well in the sunlight. Swarms of mosquitoes buzz about
the boys' bare legs, and snakes and lizards often cross their path. Many
times they are obliged to crawl between tangled vines and push thick
underbrush aside. But they care little for these things. Their minds are
set on finding enough vanilla plants to yield them a goodly load of
pods, which they will carry home and dry with the greatest care before
sending them to market.
Acapulco.
On the western coast of Mexico is the city of Acapulco, with its deep
and beautiful harbor. Many large steamers are loaded with cattle and
hides, timber and fruit at its wharves.
The Mexican Farms.
Many of the children of Mexico have their homes on tobacco and sugar
plantations which are found on the slopes rising from the lowlands along
the shore. Still other children live on the plateau of Mexico on large
farms which stretch over miles of country and seem like small towns in
themselves. The men on these farms are busy in various ways. Some of
them have the care of large fields of wheat or barley. Others tend herds
of cattle or flocks of sheep.
The owner of such a farm is usually a rich man who lives with his family
in a large stone house surrounded by high walls. There is a courtyard
where beautiful trees and plants are growing and fountains are playing.
The wife and children of the owner wear dainty garments and are waited
upon by many servants. They have the choicest food,--fruits of many
kinds, chicken cooked in different ways, tortillas of course, besides
all sorts of delicacies prepared by excellent cooks.
The workmen have very different homes. They live in small huts of one or
two rooms, and built of mud or adobe. Inside are rough stone fireplaces,
and a few mats are spread on the floor. Here the children and their
parents sit while they eat their simple meals of tortillas and black
beans, and here they stretch themselves at night for sleep. They are
quite happy, however. Outdoors are the birds, the flowers, and the
beautiful sunshine. They need few clothes and they do not go hungry.
There are usually large dairies on these farms where women are busy
making the rich milk into butter and cheese. Thousands of pounds are
often sent to market from one such farm during the year.
You have probably seen century plants in the hot-houses you have
visited, and have been told that they belong to the aloe family. When
the Spaniards first came to Mexico they saw the Indians making paper
from the pulp of the leaves of the aloe plant and twine from its fibers.
The sharp thorns on the edges of the leaves furnished needles for the
Indian women, and the sap of the aloe was made into pulque, the favorite
drink of the natives. They also made hammocks from the fibers and
thatched the roofs of their huts with the big leaves, lapping one over
the other like shingles. In fact, the Indians made so many uses of the
aloe plant that the Spaniards thought it worth while to raise it in
large quantities for themselves.
The aloe has thick, pointed leaves sometimes ten feet long. It blossoms
about once in ten years, when it sends a flower stalk twenty or thirty
feet up into the air. At the very top an immense cluster of
greenish-yellow blossoms appears. All the strength of the plant goes
into these blossoms for, as they open, the leaves wither and die.
The Indians have learned to tell when the plant is getting ready to send
up its giant flower-stalk. Just before it appears they cut out the heart
with a sharp knife, leaving only the thick, outside rind of the stem.
The sweet sap that should have gone to feed the flower-stalk begins to
ooze into the hollow and continues to do so for several weeks. The
Indians, who have discovered the right time to cut into the plant to
prevent its flowering, have also learned that the sap can be used in
making the drink which they call pulque.
The city of Mexico is a beautiful one, with high stone walls around it,
a large square in the centre, and broad streets running at right angles
to each other. Nearly all the houses are built of stone, with flat roofs
on which the people sit in the evening to enjoy the cool breezes and
watch the stars twinkling merrily in the heavens above.
The children of the big stone houses can play in inner courtyards among
flowering plants and fountains. But when they leave their homes to go
out into the city they must pass through heavy doors studded with nails
and heavily chained. The house windows that face the street have iron
bars across them, so that at first these houses seem like fortresses.
But when one passes to the back part of such a building and looks out
through the windows there upon the pretty courtyard with its fountains
and flower-beds, or takes a comfortable chair on one of the balconies,
with its gilded balustrades covered with trailing vines, he begins to
feel as though he were in a beautiful palace.
The great square in the middle of the city is beautiful with trees and
flowers, statues, and walks paved with snowy marble. In the long-ago a
temple stood here where hundreds of people were sacrificed to the gods
in whom the Aztecs believed. On one side of the square stands the house
of the president, and on another there is a grand cathedral where the
Mexicans and their children go to worship. The cathedral doors are
always open so that any day you may go inside and find people kneeling
there. Rich and poor, grand ladies in delicate muslins and jewels, and
the poorest Indians with their packs of fruit or coops filled with
chickens still on their backs, kneel in prayer side by side.
Many of the children who have been to the cathedral to worship, stop as
they leave it before the flower-decked stands under the trees, where
women are busy selling cool drinks and sweetmeats. Or perhaps they are
more interested in the Indians wandering about with cages of
humming-birds and parrots, and they beg their parents or older friends
who are with them to buy one of the birds to carry home.
As the children go on their way they pass many a horseman riding through
the streets with broad hat shading his face, and with leggings trimmed
with buttons and silver braid. Silver spurs shine brightly at his side
in the sunlight, as also do the gorgeous trappings of his horse.
There are all sorts of people to be seen on the streets of Mexico. There
are Indians with packs of all sorts on their backs. There are girls in
gaily striped skirts selling fruit. There are water-carriers in leather
aprons with large earthen jars on their backs and smaller ones hanging
down in front; there are bird-sellers with flower-trimmed cages; there
are the Indian policemen who carry lanterns at night, which they place
in the middle of the street while they nap in the doorways close by.
These naps must be very short, however, because every fifteen minutes it
is the business of the policemen to blow shrill whistles, and at every
hour to call the time.
The Big Market.
The boys and girls of the city often visit the big market which is only
a short distance from the cathedral. It is surrounded by high stone
walls and on every side there is a gateway through which the people are
constantly passing.
The sides of the market are lined with shops where people are busy
selling all sorts of goods. There are the stalls of butchers where only
meats are to be seen. There are stands of fruit that fill the air with
sweet odors. There are vegetables of many kinds, furniture, and
dress-goods of all colors. There are shops where fried meats are sold to
hungry people in need of a lunch. There are great piles of cocoanuts and
bananas heaped upon the ground. There are fish from both lake and ocean.
Strangest of all are the cakes made out of marshflies. These flies are
found in great numbers along the muddy banks of the Mexican lakes. There
they lay their eggs among the flags and rushes and are killed by the
Indians and made into a paste.
The middle of the market is filled with Indians who shade themselves and
their wares from the hot sun by large squares of matting perched on
poles. Here is one man with coops filled with chickens, and another with
a stack of earthen dishes made at home. Just beyond him is a woman with
a baby on her back. She is standing by the side of a patient donkey with
panniers filled with melons or peaches, hanging from its sides, and a
happy little two-year old child on its back. Some of the people who are
busy selling their wares have come many miles and left their homes
before sunrise. They have brought their families along with them, so
that half-naked children and babies of all ages are to be seen
everywhere. Some of them are munching fruit, others playing
hide-and-seek among the crowds, while many a tiny baby is nodding itself
to sleep on its mother's back or crying with all its might for a little
attention.
The Museums.
The children of the city are fond of visiting the museums, for there
they can see many of the wonderful things made by the Aztecs in the time
of their great ruler, Montezuma.
First of all they stop before a large bed of flowers in the court, in
the center of which is the "sacrificial stone" where, in the old days
before the coming of the white men, people were offered up to the gods
in whom they believed. Near by are the hideous statues of two of these
gods. They are not pleasant to look at, so the visitors pass quickly
into the building where they can see Aztec vases ornamented with strange
carving, masks of volcanic glass, the wonderful feather shields of
Montezuma, books filled with picture-writing, and images made of wax and
representing all kinds of life in Mexico. There is the Indian with his
pack, the charcoal-seller with his donkey beside him laden with coal,
the flower-vender with bouquets of flowers in her hands.
Children are never tired of looking at these wax figures, but however
long they may stay, they do not like to leave the museum without at
least a peep at the feather pictures made in the time of Montezuma.
These pictures are entirely of birds' delicate feathers, laid over each
other so carefully that if you were to examine them ever so closely you
would not be able to tell how the work was done. The pictures are as
wonderful in their way as fine paintings. Only few Indians know the
secret of making them, which is guarded carefully and handed down from
father to son.
The Floating Gardens.
Most of the vegetables raised for the people of Mexico are brought in
the early morning from the floating gardens a short distance from the
city, where there are some lakes. A kind of water-plant grows in these
lakes very fast and mats together, making marshy beds.
Long ago, in the time of Montezuma, the Aztec farmers learned to make
gardens out of these floating masses of weeds. They cut out large
squares which they covered with mud drawn up from the bottom of the
lake. The soil was rich and moist so that no place in the world could be
better for plants. Flower and vegetable seeds were sown and in a short
time beautiful gardens were growing.
From that day to this Indians have been busy tending these floating
gardens. They pass from one to another in canoes, gathering vegetables
and flowers for the city market. One boat will be filled with lettuce,
another with luscious red tomatoes, while still another will be loaded
with bright-colored flowers. It is a pretty sight to see them as they
move slowly along through the Viga Canal that leads from the lakes to
the city. Again and again the Indians paddling along with their loads
are passed by pleasure boats filled with young people, who make the air
resound with the odd sweet songs of the country.
Volcanoes.
South of the city of Mexico there is a range of hills, and beyond these
is a chain of volcanoes, two of which bear the names of Popocatapetl and
Iztacsihuatl. It is much easier, however, to think of them as "Smoking
Mountain" and "The Woman in White," for such are the meanings of these
long words. Both these volcanoes wear garments of snow and they look so
peaceful that the children of Mexico are not troubled with the thought
of what might happen if they should awake in fiery anger some day and
send out streams of red-hot lava over the country below.
The slopes of Popocatapetl are dotted with the huts of Indians who earn
their living by getting loads of sulphur from the crater of the volcano.
The highest mountain peak in Mexico is Orizaba, or the "Star of the
Sea." As you sail towards the eastern shore of Mexico and when you are
still so far away that no other part is in sight, the lofty volcano
Orizaba appears before you with its summit in the clouds. The Indians
chose a fitting name for it, because it certainly seems to rise out of
the sea.
Among the Mines.
When the Spaniards became the rulers of Mexico they found themselves the
owners of the richest silver mines in the world. A great part of the
silver used to-day came from those mines. Although immense fortunes have
been made in the country for hundreds of years, yet the mines are still
rich in the precious ore. They are owned by white men, but the work of
getting the silver is done mostly by Indians. Mules are sometimes used
to carry the ore from the dark caverns underground to the bright world
outside, but much of even this work is done by the Indians themselves,
who climb up the steep sides of the mines with heavy loads on their
backs day after day.
When the silver is found it is generally mixed with sulphur, but
sometimes a lump of the pure metal is turned up. One of these lumps
weighed four hundred and twenty-five pounds, and was worth eight
thousand dollars.
The miners sometimes try to steal the silver by hiding it in their hair,
their ears, or between their toes. They are carefully watched for this
reason, so they seldom succeed.
Copper is also found in the mines of Mexico and some of it is sent to
the United States.
The children of Mexico never need to leave their country for the sake of
a change, for by traveling a few miles, they can enjoy either cold
weather or hot; they can see the trees and plants, can hear the birds,
and can pick the flowers belonging to lands that stretch from the frozen
north to the burning regions of the equator.