Frederick Albion Ober

“ Far below, gazing downward from the dizzy bridge we are crossing, upheld by slender columns, we can see a little stream dashing into a black and dismal ravine, where it is lost, until it reappears on the plain we have left. Plunging into a tunnel, we emerge at the other end into scenery radically different, for we have now reached the region of pines, more than five thousand feet above the sea. A little valley lies spread before us now, an emerald embosomed in the mountains, called La Joya, the Jewel, in the centre of which is the station of Maltrata. ”

“ A silent and a saddened crowd, we wended our way up the hill, along the course of a swift-running stream that supplies the aqueduct that passes Chapultepec and San Cosme.
Soon we entered the wood that renders El Desierto one of the most enchanting resorts within a day's ride of Mexico. Pine, hemlock, cedar, and oak clothed the hillsides and darkened the deep and delightful vales. They are the largest trees found in a body in the valley, always excepting the cypresses of Chapultepec. In fact, there are no others left, except in isolated specimens in the various villages. ”

“ Through centuries of change, and every variety of discord and warfare, the dies of the mint have gone on, stamping the likeness of successive rulers upon the product of the mines. Coins of the realm, of the empire, of the republic, at last the steady stream shows only an even flow of coins of the republic, the emblem of Liberty upon every one. Every peso is stamped with its weight in drams and grains; and good weight it is, every dollar weighing just one ounce; for these good Mexicans hold that an honest dollar is alone the product of an honest man. ”

“ The burros and cargadores, Mexico's traditional burden-bearers, look on in wonder as their occupation vanishes. The electric light in the Grand Plaza of this city shines on excavated columns and sculptures of the old Aztec temple, as well as on the hoary cathedral and deserted Inquisition building, as if to rebuke the deeds of darkness of the past. Just as marked is the transition in religious matters. The more intelligent liberals, disgusted with 'The Church,' are naturally making their transit into infidelity. The common classes are more and more asserting their liberty of conscience. ”

“ Shooting above the plateau, the great volcanoes, Orizaba, Ixtaccihuatl, and Popocatapetl, lift their hoary heads high into the clouds, and if we ascend their sides to their summits, we shall have traced vegetation to its last limit,—from the palms, bananas, and sugar-cane of the heated coast, through the oranges, apples, peaches of the temperate belt, the wheat, barley, aloes, the oaks, pines, and hemlocks of the tierra fria, to the last starry cryptogam that flecks the borders of the eternal snows! ”

“ Thus the gondola glides gently over the waves, the passenger indulges in day-dreams of Venice, and that sort of thing, until all at once he finds that the canoe has ceased gliding, and he looks out and sees his degenerate gondoliers engaged in a struggle to the death with a mud-bank, and stirring up with their setting-poles—for the true gondolier in the American Venice does not paddle, but poles—such an accumulation of unutterable odors, that his very hair stands on end with surprise. ”

“ The suburbs to the south seem even more attractive than the city, with low, red-roofed houses, groups of palms, and ruined forts. Down the coast stretch the wind-blown sandhills,—the medanos,—yellow, flecked with green, with coral reefs tossing the foam above the blue water, and the Island of Sacrifices—Isla de los Sacrificios—lying low to the eastward.
Under the walls of the castle fortress, San Juan de Ulua, the steamer drops anchor, half a mile from the mole, where seems concentrated the life of the city. ”

“ Far above the wall of mountains that surrounds the valley of Mexico towers the mighty Popocatapetl, visible from the city of Mexico, and one of the most beautiful objects that grace that land of glorious scenery. It is the first to greet the traveller's eye and enchain his attention as he enters the Mexican valley, the first he later seeks in the morning, the last he loves to look upon at evening time.
Though called an active volcano, it has emitted nothing but sulphur fumes, and perhaps a little smoke, within the memory of man. ”

“ It occurred to me that the Mexicans must be a forgiving people, that they allow such an humiliating reminder of defeat to stand on the border of their chief city. It would have been more generous in our people to have omitted the names of the victories, content to have a simple monument over our brave soldiers; for we need no reminder of that buried past, now that our former foe is marching with us hand in hand to an assured future of prosperity. The cemetery lies just clear of the suburbs, and where the level fertile fields commence. ”

“ Everything here is for the enjoyment of the men,—the parks, the promenades, the drives, the cafes, the social life. Poor woman is looked upon merely as the Turk regards his mistress,—as an object to be kept jealously out of sight of the stranger, as a toy for the moment's enjoyment. That she rebels and repines at her harsh treatment is evident to the observer. But heartily do they enjoy the exquisite pleasures of the carnival. Here they can meet their lovers, and most zealously do they improve the fleeting hours in the ball-room. ”

“ We walked out in the cool of the evening toward the aguadas, or ponds; the birds were still, and a quiet brooded over the lonely place, except for the cries of the gallinules in the marsh, one of which Alonzo shot, and waded into the water waist-deep to secure it. Sometimes the simplest thing will awaken thoughts of home when in a strange country where the scenery is different; and mine were carried back to the North by the sight of a group of cat-tail flags, growing as in Northern meadows.
The industry of the Indian women of Yucatan is a matter of wonder. ”

“ There is scarcely a block that has not an unfinished building in it; and as to the streets, they seem to be maintaining a perpetual and running fight with the streams that plough them on their way down from the hills. Aside from deep gutters that cross the main thoroughfares, heaps of filth and refuse obstruct the way, making the city, as it appeals to at least two senses, the sight and smell, more objectionable even than the city of Mexico. The houses are low and massive, of the style of architecture that prevails in all Spanish cities in Mexico, with walls of stone and grated windows. ”

“ Exactly in its centre is a red-domed church, and a square with portals and fountain; every inch is cultivated beyond the town, where verdant valleys run up into the hills, the slopes of which are yellow with grain and brown with upturned earth. Hill is piled upon hill, stretching away to the horizon till lost in purple haze. We are cutting the crests of a hundred ridges, crawling along the summits of mountains, now peering into dark chasms a thousand feet deep, containing streams drawn fine as silver threads, now penetrating forests of pines, black and vast. ”

“ Here are cliffs one hundred and fifty feet high, enclosing a basin deep and wide. Immense basaltic columns, perpendicular ranges of rock pillars, rise high above our heads, and from a deep gap, at the head of the gorge, a stream of water rushes out,—an immense volume,—which takes a leap of forty feet or more, and plunges into a rocky basin. It is a most striking picture, this foaming, roaring avalanche of milk-white water, suddenly projected into view from a deep black chasm, and precipitated into this rock-ribbed ravine. ”

“ If you wanted a gold mine in proximity to picturesque scenery, there you had it; if you wanted to slay a brigand on the road, it was just infested with them,— not too many for comfort, but enough to furnish a spice of adventure and satisfy your appetite for blood; but if you were at all timid, and abhorred the thought of bloodshed, why that road was just a walk-over, there was not a robber within one hundred miles.
Well, in short, there was Hooper, just as lively as when I last left him on board ship, and with a host of friends down to see him off. ”

“ Elevated at this height above the plaza, of nearly one hundred and eighty feet, the din of the city reaches our ears,—the hum of myriad voices, the patter of thousands of feet, and the rattle of coach-wheels over the pavements. Yet it is a rather silent crowd that fills the square, composed in great part of idle vagabonds who have no employment, and hence are in no hurry, and create no bustle. Directly beneath us is the great square, with the smaller one, the zocalo, or pleasure garden, in its centre. ”

“ Undressing in this chamber, you enter the water, the glimmer of which is visible by going in some ways, and swim towards the light, then, by diving under a ledge that falls from the roof above nearly to the surface, you find yourself in the circular opening some sixty feet beneath the surface of the earth. It is not a pleasant place to bathe in at all, but it is cool and dark, and in refreshing contrast to the glare and heat outside. ”

“ Many a mile of hill and plain are spread out before us, alternately claiming attention, till the outermost circle of all is reached, blue, dim, misty above which, full ninety miles away, grand, majestic old Popocatapetl thrusts his pointed helmet, crowned with perpetual snow, through clouds of silvery, dazzling white. At the summit of the ridge, descending the eastern slope, is a beautiful grove of Mexican oaks, crowning an oval hill, each tree a mound of verdure. Descending the hills, you come to others, upon and among which Real del Monte is built ”

“ Athens has mountains and sea, but scanty plains; Rome, plains, but no water, and low-browed hills; Jerusalem, mountains, but no plains nor sea. . . . The city lies all about us, its limits being equidistant in every direction. Its flat roofs extend for a mile, domed with spacious churches."
Says a celebrated French traveller: "Mexico is a grand city, in the Spanish style, with an air more inspiring, more majestic, more metropolitan, than any city of Spain except Madrid, crowned by numerous towers, and surrounded by a vast plain bounded by mountains. Mexico reminds one somewhat of Rome. ”

“ Far to the left the volcano rears its white peak above ranks of sombre pines, and right beneath is a variegated landscape, alternate groves, copses, fields, and garden spots, through which is traced the sinuous line of the iron road. Beyond the tank is a narrow iron bridge, ninety feet long, and spanning a chasm that ends only at the valley below. If any support should snap here, nothing could save us from being precipitated two thousand feet downward. At the bridge the fair vale of Maltrata again lies before us, though ten miles distant by the track, and nearly three thousand feet below. ”

“ Yet their acres were broad and free from weeds, and smiling, beneath the glorious sun of Northern Mexico, in cotton, tobacco, corn, and cane, intermixed with desirable fruits, such as apples, quinces, and peaches. They lived, to be sure, in mud hovels, mere boxes of adobe brick, hardly ten feet high by twenty square; but these huts are cool in summer and warm in winter; and what more does man want, in this climate of perpetual sunshine? ”

“ We rode under high cliffs full of caves and holes, in which a miserable people found shelter, and great rocks were set up on the ridge, as though the milestones of the Cyclops, to guide one to the valley of Mitla. After rounding these cliffs, the semicircular valley opened out, with an Indian town lying at the bottom, and the ruins hidden behind it surrounded by hills on three sides. Two great trees stand in the centre of the town, landmarks visible miles away, and beneath these some dozen or so of women were holding market in the open air as we drove up. ”

“ An antiquarian is not like the wise man, who found a treasure and went straightway and hid it; but he, immediately he discovers anything of value, sets up such a howl of self-glorification that the attention of the whole world is directed thereto. Then, while the excavator is absent, looking for some means of conveying his treasure out of the country, the government steps in and quietly carries it off. Thus Mexico is enriched. The government is apathetic in regard to ruins and antiquities—till somebody finds something, then it is wide awake at once. ”

“ He has one eye closed as if blind, and his tattered leather breeches barely hang together. He passes, and a white-headed Indian trots in sight, bearing a load of fireworks on his shoulders, and all the paraphernalia for the celebration of Holy Week. A basket-maker comes next, then a man with tunas, or prickly-pears, for sale, and all sorts of vegetables and flowers, colored by the artist to exactly imitate the natural article.
While Mexico is fast becoming modernized, it is fortunate, perhaps, that the customs and costumes of the people are thus perpetuated. ”

“ This water serves to irrigate the garden, full of orange trees, coffee, and coco palms. Without it, the plain about would be a waste; with it, it blossomed like an oasis, as it was. The lime-rock crops up everywhere, and about the orange trees brick walls have been built to retain the water. Everywhere are high stone and arched gateways, and away on every side stretch broad fields of hemp. ”

“ In no country in the world can you pass so rapidly from zone to zone,—from the blazing shores of the heated tropics to the region of perpetual winter, from the land of the palm and vine to that of the pine and lichen,—for in twenty hours this can be accomplished, and the traveller may ascend a snow peak with the sands of the shore still upon his shoes. ”

“ All the way up the hills you can trace the road, its serpentine trail drawn in and out the valley and along the ridges, ever and anon doubling upon itself, but ever climbing. At last we reach another water-tank, perched at the crest of a ridge, after having ascended over a grade of nearly five per cent through rock cuts hung with ferns, severing the backs of the buttresses that come down from the mountains above, and through tunnels that pierce them one after another. ”

“ In Mexico City every vista of every street is terminated by a hill or mountain, blue and hazy in the distance, perhaps, but still there, to remind one of the works of nature while contemplating the works of man; in Puebla every vista is cut short by a church, or chapel, or some religious edifice. You are confronted at every turn by men begging for the Church, beggars with flaunting rags and tin cash-boxes, which they display before your eyes, and, what is worse, under your noses. Priests, wrapped in great black cloaks, form a goodly proportion of the pedestrians ”

“ Most of them were asleep, and but one man could be seen on guard in the whole encampment, though the Indians, scouts and all, outnumbered the whites ten to one, and were not a long way distant from their retreats in the Mexican mountains. The squaws and children, temporarily deprived of the protection of the gallant "bucks," had already raised shelters over themselves and their belongings, in the shape of huts of brush, or cloth tents, and there they sat, as hideous groups of redskins as ever drew the breath of life. ”

“ Back of the grove is Molino del Rey, the King's Mill, where the Americans lost so many men in capturing this key to the defences of the city. The great building is now used as a foundry for ordnance, and stands as on that memorable day in '47 in all its ugliness. On the hill above is a monument to the Mexican soldiers who fell in the action, and from this point the eye takes in at a glance the entire situation,—Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, the fall of which determined that of the city. ”