Meriones

“ From the summit of the pass the ground sweeps away to the southward, an ocean of white-flowered cistus bushes interspersed with the vivid yellow of the broom. But this brilliant spectacle does not continue for many miles; it soon gives way to the{225} usual jumble of rock and grass and olive; and at last from this stony upland one looks down across the sloping cornfields to the distant Guadiana and the town of Mérida.
A big red-roofed village with no special feature, built beside the broad and sandy bed of a great river, Mérida from a distance looks commonplace enough. ”

“ You have often had to wear a merino frock and merino socks, I dare say; but perhaps you do not know that the fine soft wool of which these are made comes from Spain. It is more interesting to know that there is a tradition which says that the particular breed of sheep from which this wool is taken, came originally from England; their coats improved greatly in quality under the genial climate of Spain, and some people have supposed that the name merino is a corruption of trans marino, because they came from over the sea. ”

“ A large number was every year sent to the capital for the consumption of the Court, and for the religious festivals and sacrifices. But these were only the males, as no female was allowed to be killed. The regulations for the care and breeding of these flocks were prescribed with the greatest minuteness, and with a sagacity which excited the admiration of the Spaniards, who were familiar with the management of the great migratory flocks of merinos in their own country. ”

“ Hence we find the city of Merida, a beautiful modern city claiming a population of 60,000 people, and surrounding it, supporting it, vast henequen plantations on which the rows of gigantic green plants extend for miles and miles. The farms are so large that each has a little city of its own, inhabited by from 500 to 2,500 people, according to the size of the farm. The owners of these great farms are the chief slave-holders of Yucatan; the inhabitants of the little cities are the slaves. The annual export of henequen from Yucatan approximates 250,000,000 pounds. ”

“ The Rio Apure, and some other rivers of considerable size, either rise or receive their tributary streams from the mountains of Merida, watering in their courses immense tracts of level and fertile land, which also extend from these mountains to the vicinity of the Orinoco.
Capital.—The chief city of the province is Merida, from which the whole district has taken its name; this city is situated in 8° 10ʹ north latitude, and 73° 45ʹ west longitude, twenty-five leagues south-east of Varinas, 80 leagues south of Maracaybo, and 140 leagues south-east of Leon de Caraccas. ”

“ Mérida is the centre of an isolated railway system, connected with the ports of Progreso and Campeche, and having short lines radiating in all directions to Peto, Valladolid and Izamal. It stands on a broad, partly open plain near the northern border of the peninsula, where the thin loose soil covering a limestone foundation permits the rapid percolation and evaporation of the rainfall, and therefore supports a comparatively scanty vegetation. It is highly favourable to maguey cultivation, however, and Mérida is the centre of the henequén, or sisal fibre, industry. ”

“ Merida is a handsome well built town, in form a square; the streets are spacious, parallel to each other, and cross at right angles, but have only the foot paths pav’d; it is built on a sandy soil; has a handsome arch’d gate way at the end of every street, next the country, but no gates hung: the houses are low built of stone, and white wash’d; the out side of which, in this country, has bad effect on the eyes ”

“ The Sword of Welleran
Where the great plain of Tarphet runs up, as the sea in estuaries, among the Cyresian mountains, there stood long since the city of Merimna well-nigh among the shadows of the crags. I have never seen a city in the world so beautiful as Merimna seemed to me when first I dreamed of it. It was a marvel of spires and figures of bronze, and marble fountains, and trophies of fabulous wars, and broad streets given over wholly to the Beautiful. ”

“ The colonies in Misiones are merely an [Pg 116] extension into Argentine territory of the great belt of colonies of southern Brazil, which stretches from the neighbourhood of Santa Catalina and the Rio Grande do Sul to the River Paraguay. The Brazilian type of colonization is based upon work with the hoe, in clearings that have been made in the forest by the axe and by fire. Ordinary farming would be impracticable between the large stumps which the clearers have to leave in the ground, to rot there slowly. It would, moreover, be useless, as the land, though rich in humus, is light and aërated. ”

“ That night the troops yielded up their arms to a motley looking band of Indians, led on by some of the outcasts of society, deserters, assassins, &c. A meeting was held at the town hall, and the pronunciamiento of Valladolid given to the world, seconding the plan of Iman, and re-announcing the Constitution of 1824. From the importance of the place, its example was followed by the surrounding villages and towns, and in the course of a week, Merida, the capital of the State, declared for the new order of things; several of the military taking a part in the proceedings. ”

“ The fishers’ league, or guild, was called Gremio de la Cofradia{256} del Cuerpo Santo, and the merchant fishermen called themselves Mareantes: they had their own ordinances, laws, and regulations, and, being an extremely powerful and wealthy body, they had control of all municipal affairs, and always came off best in any dispute with their neighbours. In gratitude to Heaven for the prosperity which they enjoyed, these merchant fishers subscribed money to build a church worthy of their town, and the result was the beautiful edifice of Santa Maria la Grande. ”

“ Not far above the town is the Pass of Portachuelo, which marks the boundary with Mérida, the central of the three Andine States.
Mérida is the mountain State par excellence of Venezuela, including within its boundaries the highest peaks and some of the hottest valleys in the country. With this variety of climate it is natural that the range of products should be wide, but bad roads and resulting high cost of transport have kept the country largely undeveloped. ”

“ In truth, the men of Aragon knew not themselves.
Stirring times indeed; for the news had just penetrated to far remote Lérida that the two greatest nations of Europe were at each other's throats. It was a long cry from Ems to Lérida, and the talkers on the shady side of the market-place knew little of what was passing on the banks of the Rhine.
Stirring times, too, were nearer at hand across the Mediterranean. For things were approaching a deadlock on the Tiber, and that river, too, must, it seemed, flow with blood before the year ran out. ”

“ The population, including Indians, is 465,800. We have given a description of Campeachy first, on account of its being the principal trading place, and formerly the metropolis. Merida de Yucatan is now the capital and residence of the intendant, who is also called captain-general. Merida is ten leagues from the coast; its port is called Sisal, being in 21° 10ʹ north latitude, 89° 59ʹ 30ʺ west longitude, with a castle and small harbour, having an immense sandbank opposite its entrance. Merida is situated in a plain almost destitute of water; the population amounts to 10,000. ”

“ He stands, a lonely, cloaked figure, at the end of the long stone pier, and his dark Spanish eyes rest on the steamer as it glides away into the darkening east and south.
Often, often this man watches the boats depart, but he never goes himself. Often, often he gazes out in his chastened, impenetrable silence over the horizon, as if seeking to pierce the distance and look on the bare heights of the far-off island.
For there, over the glassy smoothness of the horizon, behind those little grey clouds, is Majorca--and Lloseta. ”

“ Mérida is an important railway junction, for here the Madrid-Badajoz railway meets the lines from Seville, Huelva and Cáceres. No Spanish town is richer in Roman antiquities. Most of these are beyond the limits of modern Mérida, which is greatly inferior in area to the ancient city. ”

“ The chief plantations of the province are at a short distance from the capital, where a college and seminary for the priests is established, in which the inhabitants are educated; besides these buildings, are a handsome cathedral and three convents, with several chapels.
The population of Merida amounts to upwards of 11,000, composed of Spaniards, mestizoes, mulattoes, &c. The whites are chiefly employed in agricultural pursuits, and the people of colour in [263] the manufacture of articles of cotton, and woollens. ”

“ While the colonists of the River Plate crossed immense deserts and reached the Pacific by way of Upper Peru, the colonists of Chile crossed the Andes from Arauco and established themselves to the east of the Cordillera at Mendoza, opening for themselves a road to the Atlantic. Thus the city of Mendoza, capital of the Argentine Province of Cuyo, was a bond of union between the two countries. ”

“ Peru was at the Conquest truly an imperial colony, embracing all the Spanish possessions in South America, from Cape Horn to the Equator. The word Peru became synonymous with wealth. After the creation of the Viceroyalties of New Granada and La Plata, that of Peru{224} still stretched over a vast area, extending 25 degrees south of the Equator, and from the Pacific to the frontiers of Brazil, while its central position gave it a paramount influence over all its neighbours. ”

“ Any one in Merida, and, in fact the English histories, will tell you that this wonderful city is in the vast tract of marshy land situated between here and Merida, known as the Black Swamp. It is a fact that no white man has ever seen it, since the only approach is across the swamp on the south side, and the way so closely guarded that a person must have special sources of information in order to get through the labyrinth of narrow water courses on the banks of which are sentinels ready to salute the visitor with a shower of poisoned arrows. ”

“ Meruel, to the south of Santa Barbara, has a more temperate climate than the western provinces, owing to the cold Southern Drift which follows the prevalent southerly along the coast. Meruel, the capital of the province, stands on a rise of iron outcrop which gives the earth a reddish look. ”

“ As after these ruins I saw no others in South America, for neither southern Bolivia nor Chile nor Argentina,152 nor Uruguay has any to shew, this seems the fittest place for such few thoughts on the ancient civilization of South America as are suggested to the traveller's mind by the remains of it which he sees and by what he reads in the books of historians and archæologists. A large part of the interest which Peru and Bolivia have for the modern world is the interest which this ancient civilization awakens. It is a unique chapter in the history of mankind. ”

“ But it pleased God that the canoa was carried down the stream, and certain of the Guianians met it the same evening; and, having not at any time seen any Christian nor any man of that colour, they carried Martinez into the land to be wondered at, and so from town to town, until he came to the great city of Manoa, the seat and residence of Inga the emperor. The emperor, after he had beheld him, knew him to be a Christian, for it was not long before that his brethren Guascar and Atabalipa were vanquished by the Spaniards in Peru: and caused him to be lodged in his palace, and well entertained. ”

“ More to the north-east lies Santa Cruz da la Sierra in the midst of a vast grassy plain, which slopes gradually away to the confines of Brazil, Paraguay, and the Argentine Chaco.
The social organization of Upper Peru was a continuation of the system of the Incas, complicated by the antagonism of races. Europeans had established themselves in six cities, whose former inhabitants, driven out to the ice-covered hills or to the torrid valleys, worked as serfs for their lords and masters as cultivators of the soil or as miners. ”

“ We have a day at Progreso, and we are planning to go ashore to visit Mérida, the famous old capital of Yucatan, and evidently most interesting. The accounts in Terry's Guide are quite alluring. It was founded on the remains of the ancient Mayan city, and has a celebrated cathedral built by one of the men who came over with Cortés, and still filled with good old things. The description of Montejo's house, with its door flanked on each side by the stone figure of a Spanish knight with his feet on the head of a Mayan Indian, shows what that conqueror thought of the situation. ”

“ She was the Carthage of San Martin.
At the outbreak of the revolution Peru proper had a population of about a million and a half, and Upper Peru had nearly half a million. Of these the indigenous races formed about half, mixed races a fifth, negro slaves about fifty thousand, and Spaniards hardly a seventh, the remainder being Creoles, the descendants of Europeans born in America. The North and the South of Peru were two separate countries, which looked with jealousy one on the other, even for many years after they became one nation. ”

“ Señor del Norte, every move you make in Mexico is known to me. I have men on the ground who are ready to meet those moves and baffle them. President Diaz is a just and honorable man. He is also a wise man and cannot be bamboozled. Your efforts will be vain, Señor del Norte.”
“We shall see! we shall see!” muttered the Mexican, all the music gone from his voice. “It was a strange chance that threw us together on this yacht, Señor Merriwell, but I am very glad it happened. ”