The little town and harbour of Acapulco resemble a wash bowl with
a cup full of water in the bottom. On rounding the promontory that
protected the entrance to the basin, we found ourselves in the arena
of a vast amphitheatre formed by a range of lofty hills that shut us
out on every side from the world we had left. At the foot of these
hills, opposite the entrance, was a narrow strip of level ground
affording room for a miniature city. Here are the coal depots of the
Pacific Company, and here, on the arrival of every steamer, a brisk
trade is carried on in eggs and poultry, bananas, oranges, and limes.
I have already referred to the feats of gastronomy performed at our
first landing. Though it was yet early in the morning, our first
impulse, after a warm greeting between us and our mother earth, was
to seek a convenient house of entertainment, where for the moderate
charge of fifty cents we might eat an unlimited quantity of eggs and
chicken.
As the American House seemed already full, we bent our steps towards
the United States, where we were fortunate enough to secure a seat at
the first table. For a few minutes nothing was heard but the cracking
of eggshells, the mumbling of chicken bones, the sipping of coffee,
interrupted by various inexpressible ejaculations of delight; but as
one dish was emptied after another there arose a strange Babel of
full-grown English and baby Spanish.
"Here muchacho!--muchacho! eggs--wavers--mas wavers--mas
chickeen--cafe--mas milk--darn your eyes, don't you know your own
language, see here;" and thus, words failing, they had recourse to
signs. But after we had eaten a couple of chickens and nearly a dozen
eggs apiece, with a corresponding supply of bread and coffee, neither
words nor signs were any longer intelligible, and all our eloquence
produced no other reply than the simple monosyllables, "no mas," or
the more mysterious "poco tiempo." "Poker temper," cried a hungry
voyager, "I've had poker temper long enough, I tell you, now I want
some chicken." "Poco tiempo," returned the imperturbable host, and
finishing our dinner with a hearty laugh, we sallied forth into the
street.
Acapulco, in spite of its picturesque location, presents little that
is attractive. The houses, though built of stone, appear mean and
dilapidated, half way between a stable and a jail. To my eye, at
least, the tangled, unbroken foliage of the tropics is slovenly and
monotonous compared with the shaven fields and trim forests of New
England. I missed that pleasant green that carpets all but our most
barren hills. Nothing else, not even the architectural beauty of the
cocoa palm with the tinkling music that the softest breeze steals from
its ivory leaves, can compensate for the nakedness of the soil. It
reminds one of an Indian chief, terrible in his war paint and graceful
with his nodding plumes, but otherwise as naked as the day he was born.
But my curiosity was abundantly gratified in studying the manners
and habits of the people. They are so backward in all the arts of
civilization that one cannot escape the impression that they are a
degenerate race. It seems impossible that they should have built the
houses they now occupy, and indeed, in all the towns through which we
passed inhabited by a race of Spanish origin, I do not remember to
have seen a single building in progress of erection or which did not
seem to have been standing at least half a century. Every day a market
was held in the open air on one side of the plaza, where, besides the
articles already mentioned, there were exposed for sale fresh beef
cut up into long strips, or rather rags, several kinds of vegetables,
cheese, and tortillas.
Most of the trafficking was here done by women--they sat squat on the
ground with thin rude baskets beside them--they used cakes of soap for
the smaller currency, and fragments of stones for weights, breaking
them in pieces till they balanced the article they were selling, and
then, by some process of arithmetic I could not comprehend, arriving
at the correct amount.
Near the sea-shore there was a fruit market held under the shade
of some lofty trees. Here women and boys seated behind rude tables
kept up an incessant cry to attract the attention of some loitering
Californian, "Comprar oránges? comprar lemona? picayune a glass."
"Me no comprar--me no quiere," returns the other, taking it for
granted, with delightful absurdity, that Mexicans as well as babies
can understand bad English more readily than good, "me no comprar
mas; me havvy all me wishy, here," stroking his stomach with most
expressive complacency.
While we thus sauntered through the streets engaged in the innocent
and laudable occupation of sucking oranges and eating what seemed to
be withered slices of brown bread, but was really cocoanut and sugar,
another part of our fellow-passengers were much more gravely employed.
A meeting was held on the plaza, sundry speeches were made full of the
most scorching sarcasm, and resolutions passed denouncing the conduct
of the Company in the strongest terms. A collection was taken up for
the purpose of instituting legal proceedings against the Carolina, and
having her condemned as unseaworthy. Dark hints were given of burning
her before she could leave the port. We were to get home from Acapulco
the best way we could, and afterwards hold the Company responsible for
all loss incurred by our detention.
It seemed for a time as if these agitators would succeed in
accomplishing their purpose. A broken-down steamship belonging to
the American consul was lying in the harbour, and it was natural to
suppose that he would do all in his power to detain the Carolina, in
order to obtain passengers for his own vessel. The first step was to
order a survey to be made of the ship. The survey was made as a mere
matter of form by three dignified officials within the steamer, and by
as many naked Indians without. The divers, who seemed to understand
their business much better than their superiors, reported that two
strips of copper had been detached from the ship's bottom, and the
seams were also open, thus causing the leak which had occasioned us
so much uneasiness. On making this discovery the authorities delayed
giving us a permit to go to sea, and the commandant of the fort above
the town received orders to blow us out of water if we attempted to
force a passage. Our captain declared he would go to sea in spite of
them. The passengers entered into the dispute with ardour, and began
to furbish up their revolvers and argue the feasibility of carrying
the citadel by a coup-de-main.
In this state of affairs, when the doughty little town of Acapulco
and the spiteful little steamer Carolina seemed about to come to
loggerheads with each other, a compromise was proposed that satisfied
the dignity of both the contending parties, and prevented that
dreadful bloodshed that must otherwise have inevitably followed. The
Indians, who had discovered the leak, were commissioned to stop it.
For this purpose two strips of copper were provided to take the place
of those that were lost, and lowered down to the divers, who instantly
sunk with them beneath the surface, the white soles of their feet
glancing curiously amid the dark water. What they did with the copper
afterwards I cannot say. It did not rise again to the surface. But
whether they really succeeded in nailing it on to its proper place, or
whether it is now quietly reposing in the soft mud at the bottom of
the little harbour, is a question about which I must decline giving an
opinion.
This arrangement, however, had the desired effect; it healed the
breach, if it did not stop the leak. Our captain received his permit,
and in a few hours we were ready for sea. About one hundred of our
company remained behind, unwilling to risk their lives further in the
Carolina. Part of them went across the country on mules to the city
of Mexico, and thence by wagons to Vera Cruz, and the remainder took
passage in the worn-out steamer belonging to the consul, thus jumping
out of the frying-pan into the fire. If any one wonders that we did
not all follow the example of the first, an explanation is easily
given. The land journey to Vera Cruz was long and toilsome--the rivers
were already swollen by the winter rains, and it was doubtful if we
should succeed in crossing them; and after reaching that city we might
still have to wait a long time before we could obtain a passage to
any port in the United States. Besides, the chief-engineer thought
he had now succeeded in repairing the engine, so that we should have
no further trouble on that score; but, more than all, the sun shone
brightly, the touch of the earth had given us all new strength and
spirits, and we no longer retained any very lively apprehensions of
the dangers we had so recently encountered.
Behold us, then, four days after we entered the harbour of Acapulco,
once more stealing out to sea. The caution with which we moved soon
convinced us that, whatever repairs had been made during our stay, the
engine was still in a very precarious condition. Slowly and painfully,
like one just recovering from sickness, we crept along the smooth
surface of the Pacific. We watched with the most intense solicitude
all the signs of the weather, fearing lest some storm hovering near
should spy us out and swoop down upon our feeble craft. What we feared
was at length partially accomplished. A storm that swept across the
ocean many miles from our course just brushed us, in passing, with its
cloud-broad wings. The effect of this trifling blow showed us what
we should have had to expect if we had encountered the main body of
the tempest. The leak gained upon us with frightful rapidity, and we
were obliged once more to have recourse to the buckets. We divided
into several companies, that succeeded each other in this fatiguing
labour, and were thus enabled to continue at work nearly the whole
night. About three in the morning I left my station on the ladder for
the last time, my clothes completely saturated with coal and water,
and altogether my appearance so deplorable that a decent chimney-sweep
would have been ashamed to be seen in my society. But the heat of the
smoke-pipe round which I huddled soon dried my clothes, and as to my
appearance, I consoled myself with the reflection that, bad as it was,
our situation was ten times worse.
The result of this night's experience was to induce Captain W. to give
up his design of reaching Panama, and turn the ship's head towards
Realejo. The passengers had already strongly urged this change, but,
with that jealousy natural to sea-captains and cookmaids, he had
hitherto preserved the most impenetrable mystery as to his intentions.
Having after some difficulty found the entrance, we sailed up the
river about a mile, and made the ship fast at a wharf where the
steamers of Vanderbilt's line take on board their coal, and we were
now at liberty to take a view of the surrounding country.
The town of Realejo was eight miles further up the river, and the
only buildings near the wharf were two or three miserable shanties
inhabited by an old Indian and half a dozen melancholy fowl. On the
opposite side of the river, or perhaps I should rather say arm of the
sea, here about a mile in width, a single house was visible peeping
through the snarled and matted forest. An American bark and brig lay
dozing over their anchors half a mile from our ship, seeming, so thick
was the silence in which they were encrusted, to be stuck fast in that
enchanted sea, like flies in a hogshead of molasses.
With these exceptions every thing still remained in apparently the
same state as when, six thousand years before, evening and morning
were the fifth day. The "great horologe divine" of this lower creation
was all complete--there were the springs, the weights, the wheels, but
the maker's fingers had not yet put them in motion, and they still
seemed waiting for that powerful touch. It was almost like sacrilege
to venture into those sublimely silent waters, and arouse them from
their long slumbers by our noisy and impertinent life.
The sea here seemed to have gained upon the land--the trees stood like
the herds on a sultry summer's afternoon knee deep in the cooling
flood. Beneath the low arching roof the shadows lay thickly woven and
felted together. Birds of unknown plumage glided along the glassy
pavement, among the slender stems, or unfolded their crimson and gold
to the sun as they floated carelessly over our heads. Each little leaf
hung silent on its perch--there was not even that whispering hum that,
like the drone of a beehive or a country school-house, is forever
heard from a waking forest.
But suddenly an almost imperceptible ripple came creeping round a
distant headland, and the next moment a rude canoe shot out into
the river. Others continually made their appearance in different
directions, and in a few hours fifteen or twenty were drawn up on
the beach. They contained large baskets of eggs, oranges of a finer
flavour than any we had yet tasted, and a strange fruit resembling the
quince in size and shape, but as yellow and almost as tasteless as a
pumpkin. Parrots, macaws, and paroquets were also offered for sale,
and some of them, we were told, talked the purest Castilian, but no
one seemed disposed to try that method of instruction.
Having satiated our curiosity on the novel scenery around us, the
question arose whether we should remain in the ship during her
hazardous voyage to Panama, or tempt the more uncertain difficulties
of a journey through Central America. A party that had gone up to
Realejo to make inquiries, having brought back a favourable report,
the greater part of the passengers abandoned the ship without
reluctance. It was only at the last moment, however, that we could
make up our minds to follow their example. The brief twilight of the
equator was already closing around us when we took our seats in the
only remaining canoe and pushed off from the ship in company with
which we had braved so many perils. We crossed and recrossed the
river several times to avoid the currents and shallows; sometimes we
were in the middle of the stream, and again we glided like a shadow
beneath the overhanging branches. It was the hour of vespers, and
presently our boatmen, an Indian with his wife and daughter gaily
dressed in their Sunday attire, began chanting in a low and rather
plaintive tone the Evening Song to the Virgin. As the river grew
narrower the trees on either hand bent their heads in listening
silence. Closing our eyes, we seemed to be floating onward, as in a
dream, independent of human agency, still farther and farther into
the heart of a boundless, trackless forest. It was a dream to last
forever, but suddenly the canoe struck with a wide-awake jar against
the wharf at Realejo. Several huge canoes, as big as a railroad car
and each dug out of a single mahogany, lay moored in the stream.
Scrambling over two or three smaller ones that lay by our side, we
mounted the wharf and looked round for the city. We could discover
nothing in the darkness but half a dozen ill-looking natives, one of
whom now came forward and offered with a vast deal of gesticulation to
conduct us to a hotel where there were muchos Americanos. Taking our
trunk on his shoulders he led the way and we followed in silence. A
short walk through streets silent as churchyard paths, and lined with
doorless, windowless houses, brought us into a rather more cheerful
neighbourhood, and to a hotel filled indeed with mucho Americano. All
were busy in making arrangements for their journey, and a few rapid
inquiries soon gave us all the needed information.
A contract had already been made with several wealthy proprietors to
convey us across the country, one hundred and fifty miles, to Granada
on Lake Nicaragua, where we should proceed by water to San Juan.
Carts, drawn by oxen and capable of containing six persons, were to be
provided for the moderate charge of eight dollars apiece.
The most prominent member of our little cartful was a sturdy buckeye
blacksmith of the most royal generosity and good nature. But he never
seemed to know when he was conferring a favour, and hence it lost much
of its effect from the want of that accompanying smile and unconscious
softening of the voice that so often please more than the gift itself.
His hair and eyebrows were whitey brown, his features showed even in
their coarseness his frank and dashing temper--and the words came
sputtering out of his mouth like ale out of a bottle.
His companion, a quiet, smoothfaced lad from Wisconsin, who was
wonderfully expert in the use of the rifle, had to my knowledge no
other name than Si.
Texas, as we styled the third of our party, was an odd mixture of
shrewdness and simplicity. He had a thousand oddities, the fancies of
a young girl, the whims of an old bachelor, and the greenness--I use
it for want of a better word--of a Southern plantation. We all made
him our butt; he knew it and enjoyed it, for he knew too that he could
put an end to it whenever he would.
Monday morning, the head of our train began its march out of the city,
and the rest followed at long intervals. There were in all about forty
carts, containing nearly two hundred and fifty passengers,--and, as
we are now fairly under way, I will take the opportunity to give
a description of one of these ingenious vehicles. The body of the
cart, which was made of mahogany, was about seven feet in length and
three and a half in width. Over it was erected a rude framework of
slender sticks resembling the osier, and covered with raw hides to
keep off the sun and rain. The wheels were formed of solid pieces
of mahogany about four feet in diameter and six inches thick, with
stout projections at the hub; and as they fitted very loosely to the
axle, the whole fabric moved forward with that rolling, sidelong gait
peculiar to sailors and elephants. Four oxen were yoked to this rude
contrivance in the manner common I believe to all Spanish countries. A
straight piece of wood about four inches square, slightly hollowed at
the ends to fit the heads of the oxen, was bound firmly to their horns
by long strips of hide. This yoke is much lighter and simpler than our
own, but more time is required to make it secure, and its position on
the head would probably be unfavourable to drawing heavy loads.
With this description of our equipage, the reader will be curious to
know how seven persons could find room in it. If he could have taken
a peep in at the back of the cart, he would have seen the hombre, as
we styled our driver, and the brother of the author elevated in front
on a trunk which had accompanied us to the mines and still clung to us
in all our wanderings. In the interior he would have discovered the
profiles of Ohio, Texas, and New York, who sat crosswise on the bottom
with their backs against one side, their feet against the other, and
presented a lively resemblance to the letter C. As there was not room
enough remaining to accommodate us in the same way, Si and myself
were obliged to sit with our superfluous legs dangling behind. The
obvious advantages of our position in enabling us to see so much more
of what was passing than those within were counterbalanced by equal
inconveniences. A fifth ox, that was intended to take the place of one
of the others in case of any emergency, was tied to one corner of the
cart; and, as he rolled along behind us, the malicious brute would set
down his pestle hoofs with most unnecessary emphasis, making the soft
oozy mud fly like cream in a churn, and spattering us from head to
foot till we were enclosed in a complete suit of defensive armour.
Where the road was smooth, the cattle proceeded at a rapid rate,
urged on by the relentless goad of our hombre. This instrument was as
long and stout as a fishing-rod, and terminated in a formidable brad
that brought blood at every blow. The hind quarters of the oxen were
scarred as if by the smallpox from former applications of this cruel
weapon. When our hombre desired to enliven the pair that were yoked
to the pole, he was obliged to shorten his goad stick by thrusting it
behind him into the cart, to the serious discomfiture of Texas and
Ohio. To do him justice, however, he seldom resorted to this means
of propulsion, except in the most difficult passages, contenting
himself with yelling in the most approved fashion of his class, and
belabouring his cattle with a storm of ringing Spanish curses, any one
of which would easily have filled a balloon. If his unaided efforts
proved ineffectual to extricate us from the slough, he was obliged
to wait till the carts behind came up, when three or four drivers,
levelling their goads all at once at the unlucky beasts, and raising a
concert that would scare at least ten souls out of one weaver, would
commence capering and grimacing in the most frantic manner. The naked
Indian boys, one of whom followed every cart, would join in this
exercise, while twenty or thirty bearded Saxons looked on with supreme
contempt. When this species of incantation did not succeed, the only
resource was to attach a third yoke of oxen, which never failed to
extricate us from our difficulty.
The first part of our journey was as bad as a road through a level
country could possibly be. The dark fat soil had been churned into an
almost uniform mass of the softest mud, into which the wheels sunk up
to the hub. Where the ground was firmer, the road had been worn into
deep ruts and holes, which would bring the cart down upon its axis
with stunning violence. It was the duty of the one in front to give us
timely warning of these dangerous breakers.
"Hard a-starboard," he would suddenly cry, and instantly Texas and
Ohio would brace themselves more firmly, in anticipation of the coming
shock, while Si and myself drew in our pendulum legs with emulous
celerity. Down goes the right wheel as suddenly as if it had rolled
off the roof of a house, settling Texas' head an inch between his
shoulders, and jamming Ohio's inextricably between his knees. The next
moment their positions are reversed, the cart slowly recovers its
balance and plunges down a precipice on the left. It is in vain that
they cling like bats to the framework behind them, or brace their legs
like pillars against the opposite side, the next jolt upsets all their
calculations and throws them into a state of helpless bewilderment,
from which they do not fully recover till the cart reaches more
level ground, when a volley of "darns" and "gollies," and such like
exclamations, seems to operate as a wonderful sedative.
But it must not be supposed that we remained constantly in such
contracted quarters. Ohio's bustling activity was continually driving
him out to stretch his legs, Si was anxious to try his new revolver,
and we all felt a natural curiosity to see as much of the country as
possible. It was unsafe, however, to loiter long behind. The oxen
moved commonly as fast as a man could walk, and if they ever got out
of sight it was no easy matter to overtake them. We each of us found
ourselves at different times in this awkward predicament; and the
state of exhaustion in which we at length rejoined our company, and
the ill-concealed derision with which we were greeted, made us firmly
resolve never again to be guilty of a similar blunder. Yet the boy of
ten or twelve years who accompanied us, performed nearly the whole
journey on foot, and without exhibiting any signs of fatigue. When we
first left Realejo he marched before, in the middle of the road, and
the cattle followed close behind as if he had been their pilot. But
after we were once fairly started, he was no longer needed in that
capacity, and I wondered why he continued to follow us. Presently I
saw him seize a large knife, resembling a butcher's cleaver, that lay
in the back of the cart, and run into the woods. In ten or fifteen
minutes he reappeared, carrying a large bundle of strips of bark
about a foot in length. While I was in an agony of curiosity to know
what he would do next, he advanced to the side of the cart and thrust
several of the mysterious strips in between the axle and the wheel,
which had been for some time creaking in the most distressing manner.
A few turns relieved the difficulty. The bark, ground against the
heated axle, yielded a small supply of lubricating sap that furnished
an indifferent substitute for grease. This lasted perhaps an hour,
when another application became necessary. In spite, however, of this
ingenious artifice, we wore out two axles four inches in diameter in
performing a journey of one hundred and fifty miles. Several times the
axle began to smoke, when the cry of "Acqui, muchacho! muchacho! rota,
fuego!" brought our indefatigable satellite to our assistance. When
not thus occupied, he commonly walked behind the cart, with a grave
and erect demeanour that set off the hat, the only article of clothing
he had on, to infinite advantage.
The wardrobe of our hombre was rather more extensive. He had, besides
a hat, a shirt and pair of pantaloons; and, in that climate, nothing
more was required. The children of both sexes seldom wear a rag of
clothing till they are four years old, and the boys often go entirely
naked ten years longer. As we were passing one day through a village,
the name of which I have forgotten, my attention was attracted by a
little girl not more than three years old, standing before the door
of a house, with no other protection than a cigar and the cloud of
smoke that she breathed from her nostrils with all the practiced
_nonchalance_ of an ancient Dutchman. A dispute, however, arose
as to the sex of this young ancient, one of my companions stoutly
maintaining that it was a boy; but then, as a lady to whom I related
the incident ingeniously remarked, the children dress so much alike
in that country that such a mistake might easily occur.
We went the first day only seven miles, and stopped for the night at
Chanandaigua, a large town, and much more attractive than Realejo,
though the style of building, as in all the cities of Central America,
is to a stranger naturally gloomy and repulsive. The houses are mostly
of one story, built of stone or brick, and plastered with cement.
There are few windows looking towards the street, and these are often
guarded by iron gratings or heavy shutters. The principal hotels and
larger dwelling-houses somewhat resemble an Eastern caravanserai.
They consist of a range of apartments surrounding an open square, and
connected by a broad verandah. On this verandah the most important
affairs of the family are conducted. It is often used as a kitchen,
and almost always as a dining-room and bed-chamber. Hammocks slung
between the posts and the walls of the house furnish a favourite
lounge by day and bed by night. But little furniture is required,
and that of the plainest description. A few chairs, a rough table,
and a number of cot-bedsteads comprised the entire contents of the
best hotel we found during our journey, and in Leon, a city of forty
thousand inhabitants, we were obliged to sleep on the floor.
At Chanandaigua we fared sumptuously on boiled chicken, eggs, and
wheaten bread resembling what we call French rolls. The flour used in
the country is mostly imported from the United States, and the lower
classes subsist almost entirely on corn and fruit. Our hombre grew
fat on a diet we thought fit only for hogs. When we left Realejo, he
threw into the cart a bag containing a lump of something twice as
big as his hand, and of most alarming ponderosity. On stopping for
dinner, he opened the bag, and displayed to our wondering eyes what
seemed the half of a huge cheese, but on closer inspection proved to
be a loaf of meal and water of a degree of density that argued immense
pressure. With a huge wedge of this in one hand and a small wedge
of rude cheese resembling curd in the other, he munched and nibbled
alternately, with the most evident satisfaction. Before we reached the
end of our journey, the bread had become so sour as to impregnate the
whole atmosphere of our cart; yet the appetite of the hombre appeared
in no wise diminished, and he and the muchacho probably finished the
cake between them on their homeward route.