A CRUISE IN NORTHERN MEXICO.--II.
On the following day we drove into Ascension,--a small place of recent
date. When New Mexico was taken over by the Americans, a body of
Mexicans emigrated thence and settled here. Ascension bears little
resemblance, therefore, to the ordinary Mexican town; it has no ruins,
its population is increasing, it is growing in size--an altogether
unparalleled state of things.
Repairing to the Customs House, we gave bonds for the return of our
horses and waggon, and submitted our baggage to be searched. A new
agent, whom none of us knew as yet, having lately arrived from the City
of Mexico, the search was rigid. However, we had nothing contraband,
with the exception of a few cartridges, the duty on which was (as it is
on most things taxed at all) fully equal to their value. Had it been
levied to protect a home manufacture, it might have been comprehensible;
but, unless imported, cartridges are not procurable at any rate in
Northern Mexico. Pillage of this nature is apt to encourage evasions of
the law; for any one resident in the country to smuggle, or countenance
smuggling though, is extremely foolish, and in the long run inevitably
leads to mischief. It is important at present to stand on good terms
with the official class. Intrigue in the City of Mexico, and the
jealousy of their neighbours, renders it impossible for the officers to
wink at anything like systematic smuggling, although a little diplomatic
hospitality soon serves with these degenerate, albeit still often
chivalrously polite descendants of Old Spain, to secure the passage,
unsearched, of such an "outfit" as ours. Moreover, the penalties
incurred where smuggling has been detected have been rendered so severe
lately, that the risk is not worth running. Yet there are men with a
large stake in the country who, for the sake of saving a few dollars,
live under perpetual suspicion and supervision, in an atmosphere of
constant annoyance.
A good story was current about the Colonel's first visit to the
Ascension Customs House. He was on his way with a large party to survey
a ranch for which he was then in treaty. The Superintendent at that time
in power was a ceremonious and pompous old gentleman, possessed of
something of the pride of race characteristic of Spaniards of the old
school. Reasoning from the number of Don Cabeza's companions that he was
a man of great importance in his own country, he showed every
disposition to treat him with consideration. Through the medium of the
Colonel's interpreter conversation was established; sweet phrases flowed
and compliments were bandied between the principals with courtier-like
agility and address. The Customs Superintendent placed his house, his
subordinates, his resources--in short, with Spanish figurative
magnificence, placed even his country and fellow-countrymen at the
disposal of his guest; and not to be surpassed in generosity, the
Colonel magnanimously gave him the United States, and as many American
citizens as he wanted. If the old hidalgo, or "son of somebody," were
"bluffing," he had struck the very man to "see him and raise him back."
Things were progressing swimmingly when, at Don Cabeza's suggestion,
some bottles of champagne were produced from the waggons and uncorked.
The Superintendent had never seen champagne before, and supposing its
effervescence to be a rare and precious property appertaining only to
the wines of the great, was more than ever convinced of the exalted rank
of his new acquaintance. Unfortunately, it occurred to him to inquire at
this juncture into the position of the other members of the party, and
to save himself the trouble of a little explanation, the interpreter
briefly described them as his master's peons. With his own hands the old
fellow thereupon collected their glasses, and placed them all together
in the middle of the table. "Since _he_ did not drink with peons," he
said, "it would only be necessary to fill two glasses." "That settled
it." All the Colonel's tact and diplomacy were necessary to preserve
peace now, for the Superintendent, having adopted the peon notion, clung
to it, and the "boys," some of whom were friends of the Colonel's and
gentlemen anywhere, and all of whom were gentlemen on the frontier, got
the "big head," and displayed effervescence scarcely less remarkable
than that of the champagne itself. The result was that the wine,
intended to propitiate a dozen thirsty officials, was finished on the
spot by the indignant "peons," and the interpreter, not permitted to
drink with the Customs official and the Colonel, was not permitted
either to partake with the rest of the party, and narrowly escaped
receiving a far more severe expression than this of their displeasure.
Juan Carrion, an ex-_presidente_ or mayor, with whom we lodged, and the
avowed "_amigo_" of all Americans who frequented the road, was a
delightful creature. He kept a little all-sorts shop, the stock in which
ranged from pastry and sweet-stuff to pins and needles, from wine and
native spirits to grain or fuel. His _tinada_ in Ascension was what the
coffeehouses were in old London--the rendezvous of wit and fashion. Here
prospectors and cattle buyers, immigrant Mormons, _rancheros_, banished
"rustlers," and Mexican horse thieves, with the local loafers and a
bibulous local doctor, assembled, and seated on the counter, on benches,
flour-sacks, inverted boxes, or in the grain-bin, interchanged gossip
over _copitas de mascal_, and the eternal cigarette.
Little Juan--we apologise--Don Juan had a monkey-melancholy physiognomy,
furnished with a radiant and an instantaneous smile--an inexhaustibly
rich smile, which never for a moment slackened or lost its freshness.
Behold him standing behind the counter, quiescent, for a wonder, and as
dejected in appearance as a lost dog. "Don Juan!" "Si, Senor." In a
second, as if it were the surface of still water into which a brick had
been dropped, his face irradiates with a series of expanding rings of
cheerful import. Amongst other faculties that he possessed, was one for
_seeming_ to understand an almost incredible amount of bad Spanish. His
sympathy with the foreigner, whose incoherent ravings proved him to be
labouring under the influence of "somebody's Spanish teacher," was
without end. Don Juan's looks of intelligence and soothing "Si, Senor,"
cheered such as one in his darkest moments and most agonising paroxysms.
A busy man was Juan--an indispensable man, weighed down by his own, his
American friends', his clients', his neighbours', and the State's
affairs. Undoubtedly the conviction haunted him that, were he removed
from this vale of tears, chaos would come again. To hear him sigh
inspired a vague impression, not less significant of vast, troublous
schemes, and ponderous businesses, than the faint rumbling of thunder
is of the distant thunder-storm. Occasionally he remembered that he
considered it incumbent upon him to make his importance felt, to "Assume
the God, affect to nod," to be dignified in demeanour and choice in
language. Animated by these sentiments, Juan behind his counter giving
audience to a poor neighbour was a study equal in sublimity to a
well-executed idol of Buddha. He always had some new long word running
in his mind, culled from a legal document or newspaper, and under
circumstances such as the above, would haul it into his conversation
sideways, head first, anyhow, altogether regardless of how awkwardly or
heavily it alighted. It was a treat to hear him sling it blindly around,
prefixing adjective after adjective to it as he did so, until with
accumulated weight and impetus, at last he brought the whole
tautological string down "kerflop" full and fairly upon the devoted
crown of his auditor, and raising his eyes inexorably from the
destruction that he had caused, would purse his mobile under-lip
severely, whilst the wretched victim of his eloquence crept mutely from
the shop.
The Corralitos ranch[39] consisted of 820,000 acres of magnificent
grazing land, lying, for the most part, in a great basin, through which
a river of from one to two hundred feet broad flowed for a distance of
over thirty miles. Besides this, there were several springs upon it, one
of which gave birth to a stream of seven or eight miles in length, and
which, with a little work and improvement, might have been made to flow
much further. The Janos River traversed it for a distance of twelve
miles in the north-west, and in all directions water was found at a
depth of from ten to twenty-two feet, which, raised by windmills, would
have supplied unlimited herds. These various waters gave the owners of
the property control of at least another million acres of Government
land for grazing purposes. The grass was of the finest kinds of
_gramma_, and since the soil was mostly hard, was not likely to pull or
trample out, however severely it might be grazed. In the Corralitos
River bottom at least thirty thousand acres of land was susceptible of
irrigation and cultivation. This principality, to which the Corralitos
Company possessed a clear title, lay within only a hundred miles of the
nearest point on the Southern Pacific Railway, the intervening country
affording easy and well-watered trails by which cattle might be driven
thither.
"Man seems the only growth that dwindles here,
Contrasted faults through all his manners reign;
Though poor, luxurious; though submissive, vain;
Though grave, yet trifling; zealous, yet untrue,
And e'en in penance planning sins anew,"
quoted the Colonel with mock solemnity, as we hove in sight of the
Corralitos country.
"I don't know much about 'luxury,'" ejaculated Joe, "unless you're
looking for fleas and chilies."
As we surveyed the glorious expanse of country before us I could not
forbear saying: "Colonel, I thought that the Animas was the 'boss' ranch
in the country."
"In _another_ country; we're in Mexico now," he rejoined.
"You won't catch _him_," said Joe. "Years ago, when Frisco was blooming,
and the stock market was alive there, a period of depression occurred
once, and I asked Cabeza what he thought about it. 'Oh, things have
reached bottom,' he said. A few days afterwards, when they had gone a
durned sight lower, I showed him the stock list, and reminded him of
what he had said. 'Well, well,' said he, 'I meant _high_ bottom, of
course; we're getting down to _low_ bottom now.'"
The Colonel shook his head hopelessly. "Did Joe say he _remembered_
that, or invented it? Well, Joe'll say anything; he don't care what he
says. But this isn't a finer range than the Animas, anyhow--only, of
course, they own every acre of it, and can put a ring-fence round it if
they like, and that's an advantage."
We drove on and in due course reached the _hacienda_, which lay near the
river, and was situated about the centre of the property. In former
times over a thousand people had dwelt here, but the population had now
dwindled to half that number, consisting principally of the wives and
families of the workmen employed by the Corralitos Company on the San
Pedro mines.
These old Spaniards did things on a grand scale; a ranch with them was a
little principality of which the _hacienda_ was the capital. Surrounded
by rows of small adobe houses--like some old country alms-houses--there
was a _plaza_ here that would have made a magnificent drill-ground; a
corral capable of holding 10,000 head of cattle; smaller corrals for
branding, etc.; wool yards, stables where hundreds of horses might have
been bestowed, yards for killing and drying meat, blacksmiths' forges,
carpenters' shops, shops of every description, store-houses, a church,
acres of long-neglected pleasure-grounds, and ruined quarters and
premises of every description, besides those still in fair condition
where a strong military force might have been comfortably housed at any
time.
The prettiest feature of the _hacienda_ was the Caille des Alamos, or
street of cotton-woods, upon which the head-quarters, visitors'
quarters, the offices, the laboratory, and store looked. When I was last
there the trees were in full leaf, and, meeting above the road, formed a
perfect archway which defied the penetration of the sun's most searching
rays. "Here in cool grot," with unseen birds in the thick foliage
filling the air "with their sweet jargoning," Lieut. Britton Davis, the
manager (an old Indian fighter of wide reputation), Sheldon, Neil,
Massey, Slocum, Wallace, McGrew, Don Cabeza, "Joe," Follansbee, Murray,
Roberts, Posehl, Bunsen, and a few cow-boys, in variously mingled
parties, spent many a bright half-hour, spun many a web of yarns,
smoked many a score of cigarettes, and submitted to, or took a hand in
many an attack of good-humoured chaff. The Caille des Alamos, at
Corralitos, has grown, I find, into one of those memory pictures that
form the pleasantest relics of travel, and many of which I have gathered
up and down the world, from the Golden Horn to the Golden Gates, from
the bays of Alaska to Table Bay, from the banks of the Rhine to the
banks of the Meinam.
Since the vendors had agreed to deliver the steers in the Plyas Valley,
only two men had accompanied Murray from the Animas to assist in
branding and to watch the "round up," preparations for which were
immediately commenced.
FOOTNOTE:
[39] This ranch is, I believe, for sale.