Valley of Mexico

“ On the lofty table-land which lies between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, at an elevation of nearly seven thousand five hundred feet, the valley of Mexico lies engirdled by its ramparts of porphyritic rock, like a vast fortress provided by nature for guarding the infancy of American civilisation. ”

“ Ten miles ride in the valley took us out from among the broken hills, and the view became magnificent. The mountains along the eastern horizon, beyond the lakes of Mexico, lay like great purple clouds against the deep blue sky. Popocatapetl, monarch of them all, lifted his head, white with the snows of ages, majestic and awful in its grand proportions, far into the unclouded heavens in the distance. Truly, the beauty of the Valley of Mexico has not been overrated. ”

“ Half way up the stony slope, facing the lovely city which lies on the opposite side of the valley, rich in brilliantly colored domes and towers, with sunny fields and shaded avenues stretching about the course of the small Rio, and the pale, shadowy mountains filling the blue distance, stand the three stone crosses marking the scene of the tragedy whose shadow rests yet on many hearts. On the quiet plain between, in that June dawning, the Mexican army was drawn up to see the last act of the short drama. ”

“ Now it runs like a slender thread along the face of a tremendous cliff, now doubles on itself till the locomotive can stare into the windows of the rear car, and now T at a dizzy height it spans some abyss with a bridge which looks like a cobweb suspended in the air. After climbing about eight thousand feet into cloud land, the track begins to dip toward the great Valley of Mexico. The air is thin and pure, the mountains are bare and bleak, with trees of stunted growth and open levels of pasture-land from whose heights are seen still loftier summits crowned with eternal snow. ”

“ As for this fair valley of Mexico, there was scarcely an object either of beauty or utility, the creation of Christian wants or Christian taste, to be seen, for which his memory could not trace a rival, or superior, which existed in the day of paganism. The maize fields, the maguey plantations, the orchards and flower-gardens, that beautify the plains and sweeping slopes,—these were here, long ages ago, with the many villages that glisten among them,—all indeed but the white church and steeple ”

“ The fields beneath the hills are very like the farms of the West, all except the mountains. Culture and comfort seem to nestle in these shaded retreats. The sierras of Toluca and Guadalupe come together in a narrow and not lofty pass, which our engineering associate is easily surmounting with his gauges and his trains. Over it, and we are in the Valley of Mexico. The city lies fifteen miles off, a garden of foliage being our ceaseless escort to its gates. ”

“ From the river and from wells dug in the valley irrigation makes this unusual fertility possible, and the old-time well-sweep is everywhere, with its long see-saw pole with a weight at one end and a bucket tied to the other. A ride of a mile on the horse-car is worth while. You will see what you see in almost every Mexican town, not a shade tree on the streets, and the brown, flat-roofed adobe houses without windows are anything but inviting. Of course there are fine churches, what town has not its Carmen and Merced and San Francisco? ”

“ The whole city lay below us spread out like a map; there are few chimneys in Mexico, and consequently there was no smoke to mar the view, and we readily traced the streets and avenues, stippled with the green of the squares and gardens that abound so numerously. We looked over the plains and down upon the lakes, and then our gaze swept to the mountains that surround the valley in a jagged chain that covers nearly 200 miles of distance in its girdling course. ”

“ How much I would like to paint the beauties of Mexico in colors so faithful that the people in the States could see what they are losing by not coming here. How I would like to show you the green valley where the heat of summer and blast of winter never dare approach; where every foot of ground recalls wonderful historical events, extinct races of men and animals, and civilization older by far than the pyramids. ”

“ Here we leave the plain and enter the Vale of Laja, 250 miles north of the city of Mexico. Before us is a frowning gateway of solid rock, but following the shimmering little river, the beautiful valley breaks upon the view like a panorama. Everywhere is the pepper tree, loaded to the tips with the beautiful berries that look so much like our cherries. Dame Nature here is at her best. Bananas, oranges, lemons and pomegranates everywhere shade the peaceful homes whose acres in the rear are covered with maize and pepper and fruits and flowers. ”

“ We are at last on the high lands of Mexico, the districts which at least three different races have chosen to settle in, neglecting the fertile country below. A sharp turn in the road brings its fairly out into the plain; and then on our left are the two snowy mountains that lie at the edge of the valley of Mexico, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, famous in all Mexican books. Like Orizaba of yesterday, they seem to rise from the plain close to us ”

“ We may add to the story of the youth that at the time of the Conquest [Pg 193] there were thousands of these chinampas, and they annually paid a good revenue to the Aztec authorities. The Valley of Mexico appears to have been more densely peopled at that time than it is to-day, as every inch of solid earth was tilled to its fullest capacity, and the necessity arose for utilizing the marshes and also the surface of the lakes. ”

“ Each valley is about twenty miles in length and from two to four miles broad, and from the sterile hills that enclose them to the lowest depression of the basin the soil gradually increases in fertility. This valley, or conjunction of valleys, if not the objective point of the Mexican Southern Railway, is at least the most important on the line. It is the centre of the State, contains the richest land and largest sugar plantations, and its city is the most considerable south of Puebla and the capital. ”

“ The Valley of Mexico is an immense basin, of approximately circular shape, with one extreme diameter of about 60 miles, completely bounded by high mountains, and having only two or three quite high passes out of it. ”

“ The history of the valley of Mexico, as far as it can be traced, consists, as we have seen, of the conquest from time to time of the sedentary agricultural population by ruder and more warlike tribes from the hills. ”

“ This is a land without chimneys, for two reasons: The climate is not cold enough to require fires, and if it was, the poor people would never be able to purchase wood. The little cooking that is done, is accomplished by little charcoal fires in braziers.
If all this country was a plateau, then my tale would not be told, but there can be no mountains without valleys, and it is these valleys that make Mexico one of the most delightful spots in this country. In the lovely valley of the noisy little San Juan River, rests the beautiful city of Monterey—“King Mountain.” ”

“ Another harder pull yet, and a more beautiful wild orchard of blossoming palms, and we enter a valley of great beauty, with mighty mountains guarding its eastern side and entrance. These are the loftiest peaks that have appeared on the road since leaving the green hills of Mexico. They rise close to the pass, and leave only a narrow path into the valley. They appear as if placed here on purpose to protect the land from invaders, and to that purpose they were put. For we are now close upon the historic ground of Buena Vista. ”

“ It is a narrow pass bordered by high hills, and connects the lowlands of the coast with the regions of the tierra templada. How an army could get through the pass in the face of anything like determined and intelligent opposition by a force superior in numbers, it is difficult to understand. An English writer who has visited the spot says of it as follows: 'That 10,000 Americans should have been able to get through the mountain passes, and to reach the capital at all, is an astonishing thing; and after that, their successes in the Valley of Mexico follow as a matter of course. ”

“ Gathered round the shores of their Alpine sea, these petty communities continued, after their incorporation with the Aztec monarchy, to maintain a spirit of rivalry in their intercourse with one another, which—as with the cities on the Mediterranean in the feudal ages—quickened their mental energies, and raised the Mexican Valley higher in the scale of civilization than most other quarters of Anahuac. ”

“ The grass was fresh as ever; the mountains, too, heretofore naked, cover themselves with a green coat of grass. This whole valley, or rather plain, from Paso to Chihuahua, seems fertile enough to raise many millions of stock, and in former times they raised large numbers; but at present the wild Indians are the lords of the country, and the Mexicans are becoming impoverished more and more.
Our noon camp is the highest point, according to my barometrical observations, on the road between Paso and Chihuahua; its elevation above the sea is 5,317 feet. ”

“ The interior of Mexico consists of a mass of volcanic rocks, thrust up to a great height above the sea-level. The plateau of Mexico is 8,000 feet high, and that of Puebla 9,000 feet. This central mass consists principally of a greyish trachytic porphyry, in some places rich in veins of silver-ore. The tops of the hills are often crowned with basaltic columns, and a soft porous amygdaloid abounds on the outskirts of the Mexican valley. ”

“ The city of Mexico stands in a valley which has no outlet, the water that accumulates from the rains being evaporated by the heat of the sun or absorbed in the volcanic soil. The city is in the lowest part of the valley, and is therefore liable to be overflowed whenever the evaporation and absorption are not sufficient to carry off the water that accumulates. There are several lakes that cover a tenth part of the area of the valley. ”

“ Whenever their hold upon the people seems to weaken, a cock-and-bull story like the one just told will awe the superstitious people by thousands to the rescue. Think of that humbug when the water was four years falling, and then the image getting the credit for it!
As a matter of fact, Mexico City was built upon an island only two feet higher than Lake Texcoco, a salt lake with no outlet, and both lake and city are in a crater, and all the water that falls in that forty mile valley must remain until evaporated, even though it takes four years to lower the height of a broken cloud-burst. ”

“ From the broad terrace gleam in the distance the cold peaks of the volcanoes, while Mexico spreads wide in the valley its rectangular lines, every year stretching out farther in all directions, a practical proof to the wise chief of the administration, as he looks down upon them from the now peaceful height of his terrace, of the success of his schemes of improvement and progress. ”

“ It is the most solitary of buildings; not a tree to be seen in its environs; these volcanic rocks behind—Mexico fronting it—the great lakes near it—to the right Guadalupe—to the left San Angel, San Agustin and the mountains which bound the valley. The Indian family who live there are handsome savages; and the girl who attended me at the bath, spoke an extraordinary jargon, half Spanish, half Indian, but was a fine specimen of savage good looks. ”

“ Five lakes are spread over the Valley, occupying one-tenth of its surface.1 On the opposite borders of the largest of these basins, much shrunk in its dimensions2 since the days of the Aztecs, stood the cities of Mexico and Tezcuco, the capitals of the two most potent and flourishing states of Anahuac, whose history, with that of the mysterious races that preceded them in the country, exhibits some of the nearest approaches to civilisation to be met with anciently on the North American continent. ”

“ From the threshold of rigid death, as from the North Cape or the glaciers of Iceland, our eyes pass from the Arctic zone and the pine groves of the North to the gardens of the Hesperides with their golden fruit, and thence to the glowing zone where the palms and the arborescent grasses are developed."—Sartorius. ↑ "The Spaniards followed nearly the same track which the courier of Mexico takes on his way to Puebla, by Mecameca, which is traced on the map of the valley of Tenochtitlan."—Humboldt. ”

“ But, if the remains on the Mexican soil are so scanty, they multiply as we descend the southeastern slope of the Cordilleras, traverse the rich Valley of Oaxaca, and penetrate the forests of Chiapa and Yucatan. In the midst of these lonely regions we meet with the ruins, recently discovered, of several ancient cities, Mitla, Palenque, and Itzalana or Uxmal, [429] which argue a higher civilization{259} than anything yet found on the American continent ”

“ Four-wheeled wagons can travel from Mexico to Santa Fé. The plateau whose levelling is here described is formed solely by the broad undulating flattened crest of the chain of the Mexican Andes; it is not the swelling of a valley between two mountain chains, such as the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada of California in the Northern Hemisphere; or the elevated plateau of the Lake of Titicaca, between the eastern and northern chains of Bolivia ”

“ As we rode along, we found that the scenery on the hilly parts was generally bleak and sterile, the grass dried up, and very little vegetation; but wherever we arrived at a valley sheltered from the sun's rays, there we found a little rivulet trickling through it, with water like liquid diamonds, bathing the trees and the flowers—the loveliest blossoming trees, mingled with bananas, oranges, and lemons, and interspersed with bright flowers, forming a natural garden and orchard. ”