LETTER III.
The norte continued to blow strongly the following morning; and contented with having effected our escape, and an advance of two whole leagues into the country, we resolved, by common consent, to remain tranquilly at Tampico Alta till we saw what another day might bring forth.
We were luxuriously lodged in one of the mud cottages, in a windowless apartment, without a stick of furniture but what we brought into it. That, however, was more than sufficient to fill it, as our camp beds, with which we had been fortunately furnished from Europe for this tour, completely occupied three fourths of the floor.
So here we abode, leaving our retainers, whose number had now increased to five in all, to make the most of the halt with the horses and mules under their care. We breakfasted and supped upon tortillas or maize cakes, fowls, Chili pepper, rice, coffee, and frijoles or black beans; with the addition of an agreeable liquor, made of the fermented juice of the sugarcane. We looked to our accoutrements, cleaned guns and pistols, strolled in the forest, and at night enjoyed the most luxurious rest, in our clean and well-appointed beds; and blessed our stars, that we had turned our backs for ever upon the Halcyon, the Fonda de la Bolza—the heat, the impurities, and the nuisances of Tampico. Dull as it was without doors, I could not help strolling about, for a few hours, among the low woods, and did not fail, in spite of all my care, to gather a plentiful harvest of garapatoes, to rid myself from which gave me an hour's employment in the evening.
The following day, however, we were up betimes, and set seriously forward. The ordinary road from Tampico to the capital is a very circuitous one, passing by the towns of San Luis Potisi, Zacatecas, and Guanaxuato; and we had decided to leave it far to the right or northwest: pursuing as an alternative the more direct, more difficult, but far more picturesque mule track of the Cañada.
I may here, without offending you, bring to your recollection thus much of the physical geography of the remarkable country which was now the scene of our rambles; namely, that its peculiar geological structure admits of its surface being divided into three distinct parts—the tierras calientes, tierras templadas, and tierras frias. The first, the hot districts, lying on the Pacific and Atlantic border, and in greater or less contiguity to the sea, are fertile in sugar, indigo, bananas, and cotton; and exhibit all the phenomena of the tropics. The second, the temperate lands, forming a zone of mountains and broad plains of four or five thousand feet elevation, are blessed with a climate of rare beauty, and favourable to many of the productions of our milder latitudes, while the third, the cold regions, occupying the central table land of the high Cordillera, are exposed to greater vicissitudes of heat and cold, and overlooked by the highest summits of the Mexican chain, rising into the region of eternal snow. Our progress from Tampico to the capital, which lies at an elevation of upward of seven thousand feet above the gulf, would accordingly give us a glance at each in turn.
As our line of route has not been often described, I will give you as much detail as I am able. The incorrectness of the best maps, and the difficulty of getting two people of the country to agree in assigning the same relative position to any given town or remarkable object beyond the bare line of the route, must necessarily throw a degree of indistinctness over my narration.
Imagine us, then, mounted and setting forward from our homely quarters at Tampico Alta, like gentle knights, attended by our string of sumpter mules and serving men. I flatter myself that to a peaceful looker-on we afforded a gallant spectacle, and that our motley contrasted well with the wild country into which we immediately plunged; while, in the eye of the predatory spectator, there was that in the glitter of our arms and the resolute look of the party which must have commanded respect, and quelled the desire of plunder. But that you may better judge yourself, I present you with the following extract from our muster roll.
In advance rode Don Alberto, Don Carlos, and Don Carlos Jose, mounted upon three steeds of doubtful pedigree—Blanco, Rosso, and Pinto, which had been kindly pressed upon our purchase by worthy acquaintances in Tampico, as possessing a thousand virtues, fitting them for the peculiar purpose for which we required them, and no faults but such as were to be absolutely of no account to us. When they dozed—which was often—the prick of the enormous Spanish spurs which jingled at our heels incited them to action; and when once upon a time we found them too lively, the pressure of the powerful Spanish bit soon reduced them to order. For the journey we preferred using the European saddle rather than the Mexican, and had accordingly included them in our purchases in New-Orleans.
We were all armed with holster pistols and sabres, to which Pourtales and myself added our double-barrelled guns. M-Euen had furnished himself in New Orleans with a formidable dragoon sabre of such length that it quite put the light curved cimeters of his companions to the blush. Our costume was a marvellous mixture of European and Mexican; the serape, the sombrero with its silver band, the scarlet sash, and jacket of the latter having been adopted, while the residue of the male outfit was European.
Our train was very long, and composed as follows: Two armed and mounted, ill-looking serving men, clad in the costume of their country, by name Juliano and Miguel—rogues both. The former had now been our equery and valet for a month. He was a smooth-looking varlet, with a soft voice, small and active person and habits. Now that he had money, there was an affectation of spruce trimness in his clothing. He was in all a perfect contrast to his comrade—a huge-boned, powerful man, with strongly marked features, half shrouded by a mass of tangled black locks; and who, we all agreed, would form the finest study in the world for a bandit. We never liked him or his looks, or his deep churchyard cough; but necessity has no law. They were both armed with rusty sabres; and Juliano had, moreover, stolen an unwieldy carbine from some dear confiding friend of his, and was wont to speak most confidently of his valour, and of the execution he was to perform in case of our being attacked by banditti, which was all along spoken of as a more than probable event. He had thrown us into convulsions of laughter at the very outset, at Pueblo Viejo, by a preliminary discharge of the mighty engine, which he had seen fit to indulge in previous to the real battle which he expected, when we saw his diminutive person fairly overthrown by the recoil.
Next in the train came Don Juan Espindola of Zacualtipan, the arriero; whom we had hired with a train of eight mules, to convey us and our baggage to the capital. He was a worthy man; and true, faithful and simple in manners, like most of his class. Our confidence in him was well placed.
The arriero is the carrier of New Spain, and the little honesty and uprightness to be found in the country, seem to have fallen exclusively to the share of those of his rank and profession. The most precious commodities are unhesitatingly delivered to his care, merely enclosed in bags for conveyance to the coast, and the arriero never fails to perform his contract. Espindola had come down to Tampico with a conducta; and there we engaged him for the return, with as many of his mules as were necessary. The remainder were sent in advance under his domestics or mozos, two of whom, however, accompanied us on foot as whippers-in; and fine, active lads they were. In them the Indian blood predominated over the European. The arriero had, with our concurrence, invited a certain friend of his, Don Gaetano, to accompany us, and to take advantage of our escort. To this arrangement we acceded with the more readiness, as, though evidently of a most unwarlike character, he added another to our number; and had moreover been one of our fellow-prisoners in the Halcyon. I should still mention two saddle mules; and then sum up our forces, as consisting, in all, of nine souls and seventeen quadrupeds. Whatever may have been the intrinsic value of our pluck, we certainly cut a rather imposing figure.
Till we should arrive at the town of Zacualtipan, within four or five days' journey of the capital, there was nothing to fear from banditti, if common report spoke truly.
Thus, you may imagine us, when once in motion on the morning of our quitting Tampico Alta, proceeding league after league, under any easy pace, through that beautiful undulating country, clothed with its gorgeous flowering thickets, to which 1 have already alluded. Many an expression of admiration burst from us as anew bird or splendid flower attracted our attention. An occasional shot hazarded at a rabbit or pheasant, alone broke the silence which reigned over this waste but beautiful region. After about seven leagues' ride, we halted for two hours at a rancho, or farm, or our breakfast of cabbage palm, salad, and eggs. Poor fare, you would say; but, truth compelling, I must admit that sundry additions were supplied from our travelling stores, and to name them would at once let you into the secret, that, however warlike, we were not to be classed with those doughty warriors of old, who had "no stomach but to fight."
From the vicinity of this farm, the undulating country for many miles became perfectly open, totally denuded of bushes, though occasionally studded with bands of thick forest, and altogether reminded us strongly of the great prairies, till about sunset, when we gained a swelling elevation affording a wide view towards the east. In that quarter the vast Laguna Tammiagua, only separated from the gulf by a narrow band of sand hills, extended as far as the eye could reach.
Shortly after, we arrived at a large hacienda, called La Messa, situated on a commanding eminence, at the edge of prairie country alluded to, and overlooking, to the south, a deep glen full of wood, and a far-stretching expanse of roundish hills covered with luxuriant vegetation.
In the absence of more regular places of entertainment, the custom of the country authorizes the traveller to make his halt with his retinue at the first farm which may suit his convenience; and though the hacienda is in general the country residence of a rich and wealthy proprietor, we felt no scruple in dismounting and asking shelter and provender for ourselves and our party.
And here I have to record one of those strange rencounters which the Rambler has sometimes to note upon his tablets in utter amazement how they are brought about.
On riding round the corner of one of the principal buildings, what was my surprise to see my friend Pour-tales folded in the embrace of a huge brawny young Mexican—and yet greater to find, on dismounting, that I was to be honoured with a fraternal squeeze from the same arms, before I could see what face there might possibly be appended to them. I was not long, however, in recognising in the athletic, sunburnt young man, who thus welcomed us to his home, a certain smooth-faced, ungainly stripling, who had been our fellow-passenger two years before, in the New York packet, from Havre de Grace to America. He had been sent from Mexico to Paris, to be instructed in the language, literature, and manners of the politest country in Europe; and, at that epoch, having finished his term of education was returning with his bundle of acquisitions, to enlighten his benighted countrymen. On shipboard, where he was generally known by a singular sobriquet bestowed on him by my light-minded companion, namely, "Amiable et execrable Tampico," we had of course made acquaintance. We found that he had learned to eat with a knife and fork, to dress like a civilized man, to talk a little bad French; to dance, and to play the monkey, which he did á merveille, clumsily aping Pour-tales in his various changes of costume, and his whimsical contrivances for banishing ennui; and emulating the sailors in their expeditions to the top-gallant-mast head. After landing, we had lost sight of him. We heard, however, that he had been delivered up by the captain with a regular bill of lading to the Mexican consul at New York, and to his utter dismay and disappointment, not being considered accomplished enough, had been sent to a "finishing academy" in Pennsylvania. Many adventures, and the multitude of strange personages with whom we had come in contact during the rambles of the two past years, had driven him out of our remembrance, till most unexpectedly we found his two long, Indian-shaped arms locked round our necks at La Messa, a brown athletic Mexican, utterly forgetful of all the polite education he had undergone, curbing a wild horse, and hunting a wilder leopard. He seemed to be absorbed in his hunting schemes; and, instead of a collection of books, valued himself upon the number of lion, ounce, and wildcat skins which decorated his apartment. His thin and meager French was richly larded with noble sounding Spanish words and phrases; but we contrived to converse about old and new times.
La Messa, the property of his uncle, to whom he seemed to be considered as future heir, was the centre of a vast estate stretching many leagues on every side.
From the specimen before us, however, nothing could exceed the poor homely style and rough living of these wealthy proprietors at a distance from the capital.
Our evening meal, which we were invited to take with the family, was a sleepy entertainment, in which we tasted nothing but the burning Chile or red pepper with which every dish was seasoned; and that done, we all packed together with Aimable et execrable Tampico into a small apartment, where, fortunately, the cold air of the norte, which was still blowing, prevented us from being at once suffocated by heat, and bitten to madness by the moschetoes.
The following morning, after a loving adieu from our acquaintance who left the rancho at dawn to join in a tiger hunt in a distant part of the country, we continued our journey to the southward.
Our route led us down into the dell below La Messa, and over the hillside opposite, till we entered a broad, green glade, stretching through the forest for some miles to the foot of the eminences upon which the large Indian village of Osuhuama is situated. We were quite unprepared for the vast panoramic view which unrolled itself to our view from the summit of a high conical mound, perched on the very edge of the declivity, with which this, the first step as it were of the higher country, breaks down to the general level of the country in the vicinity of the coasts.
The village, with its picturesque huts and enclosures of bamboo, and little patches of cultivation, lies scattered over the ridges of a number of broken hills. The church is nearly on the highest point, and directly at the foot of the mound whose form and position, in defiance of its size, would suggest the idea of its being artificial.
Any description of the wide view to the north, west, and east, comprising in the latter direction the Laguna Tammiagua, and fading to the apparently illimitable horizon, would be utterly impossible. The slope of the hills displayed a wilderness of rank vegetation. To the south rose several groups of conical hills, in advance of the more distant chain to which we were gradually approaching.
The afternoon's march brought us some leagues on our road over an undulating country, covered for the most part with forests of palmetto; and we took up our night's quarters at a poor rancho, tenanted by an old woman, and, unfortunately for us, preoccupied by a gambling party, whose drunken and lawless demeanour was sufficiently offensive and menacing to keep us in hot water for some hours; when they were pleased to take their departure: relieving us from the necessity of either blowing out their brains, or being ourselves stabbed; a choice of evils truly, but one which appeared for a while almost inevitable. The night was gloomy; and the mountains in advance half shrouded by curtains of dark clouds. I have a disagreeable recollection of the whole scene. I remember, however, that both amusement, interest, and surprise, were excited in us by three distinct circumstances: amusement at the extravagant joy and pride of heart evinced by Juliano, when a rabbit was killed with his mighty carbine, by Espindola; interest at the visit of two fine boys, lineal descendants of Montezuma, from a a neighbouring rancho; and surprise at the fact being mentioned to us, that the father of an old gallant who was the leader of the debauchees before named, was at that hour in sound health at the next hacienda, at the age of one hundred and twenty years. This rancho lay twenty-four leagues from Pueblo Viejo.
March the first we proceeded through the same broken line of country. Some difficulty was experienced from our being several times entangled in jungles of bamboo, and in muddy swamps, or thick natural groves of lemon and orange trees; till two o'clock in the afternoon, when the country became more open, and finding a poor Indian hut, beautifully situated, we halted to breakfast, and to repose ourselves and our animals. The cabin was constructed of light bamboo frames, thatched with palmetto leaves not only on the roof but the sides, and divided into two or three compartments, with coarse screens of grass matting.
The inhabitants were all of the softer sex; consisting of three young maidens, under the surveillance of two most forbidding crones. We here, if I recollect right, made our first experience of the difficulty to which the traveller is exposed in Mexico, in persuading the Indian to furnish him, even if paid in advance, with the slightest food or provender either for man or beast. Nothing was to be had. No hai! was the answer to every query. They had neither maize, nor chocolate, nor fodder, nor eggs, nor fowls; nor bananas, nor frijoles, nor tortillas, nor dried meat, nor even Chile. What did they live upon—for they were all, old and young, as plump as partridges. No hai! was the only word you could extort. However, there was no alternative; our animals must rest, if they might not eat; and we consequently unsaddled, and began to amuse ourselves, as we might, in looking at the bone of our costly ham, and the pounded contents of our biscuit bag, more especially as Espindola whispered to us to have a little patience. Five minutes passed by, and not a word was said. A packet of cigaritas was produced and passed round. What the old Venuses did not refuse, the young ones thought proper to accept. Espindola got into conversation by degrees with one of the elders, and Pourtales began to play the irresistible with another of the party. Good humour and confidence began to thaw distrust, and conquer prejudice. By-and-by, old and young began to move listlessly about. The charcoal fire was stirred up. Still there was no hurry. Another moment, and from under a cloth in a dark corner of the hut, the stone used in the preparation of tortillas cakes was produced; and, as though by accident, a bowlful of maize flour was discovered. As it was there, one of the old squaws fell to work to knead the bread; while the other, after looking very carefully about her, found a store of Chile and a bag of frijoles. This was not all. A guttural parley in their own language was followed by one of the girls stepping out with Espindola to a secret storehouse, from which he returned looking very sly with his arms full of rich golden ears of maize, and a bundle of fodder. By accident, a little loophole in the same quarter flew open, and the premises were immediately overrun by a quantity of poultry, rejoicing at their emancipation from the thraldom to which they had evidently been subjected on our approach. More wonderful than all, we found that, apparently, quite unsuspected by the possessors, the hens had employed their time while thus hidden from the light of day in the production of a dozen fine eggs. In short, within an hour after the hut had been at the extremity of famine, we were furnished with an excellent meal, and there were no signs at our departure that we left discontent behind us. This is strange, but nothing but what is very comprehensible; being a remnant of old times and old policy, when, in consequence of the Spaniard's taking what he could find, without payment, the poor Indian always contrived to have nothing.
The lesson was not lost upon us; and, ever after, what between civility, affected indifference, and content, a timely use of cigaritas and soft words, we never had to leave an Indian hut unsatisfied.
In the course of the evening, after passing through the noblest forests of live oak we had yet seen in the country; or over moist levels, where almost impenetrable thickets of bamboo cane clustered round the huge fantastic trunks of the banian; and ten thousand vegetable strings and ropes wove a canopy overhead, we reached the Indian village of Santa Catharina, whose situation on an elevated plateau vies for beauty with that of its rival just described. We did not halt here, however, but pushing on over a fatiguing line of country by a deep miry track, came to a halt at a large and roomy rancho, where we found the needful accommodation, and the rest which a heavy day's journey of eighteen leagues made very welcome to our draggled train. A few miles to the left, rose a range of mountains covered with foliage to the very summit, and with singularly pointed and insolated rocks rising at intervals from their base.
I pass rapidly over the next day's march, which lay across much the same kind of country, picturesque in the highest degree, from the broken character of the surface and from the rich and redundant character of the vegetation. From the occasional bare ridges which we surmounted, we continued to command most extensive views over the Huastec, as the rich county at the foot of the higher chain is called. This part of the state of Vera Cruz, is, throughout, very thinly inhabited, and cultivation very sparingly applied to its surface. Indeed the cholera of the preceding year had swept away a large proportion of the Indian population; and one extensive Indian village, at which we halted at noon, magnificently situated like all its neighbours, was nearly depopulated by its ravages. Up to the close of this day, when, after passing over another tract of country covered with palm forest, we halted at a large and rich hacienda, about four leagues from the foot of the branch of the Sierra Madra in whose recesses we were to seek the bed of the Rio de la Canada, as our future guide—we had seemingly surmounted no very considerable elevation, but had continually ascended and descended the abrupt hills which appear to be heaped in picturesque confusion over a large tract of country between the coast and the foot of the main ranges. Occasionally, higher summits of evident volcanic origin are seen to rise from their bosom, but these are mostly isolated; and though we had certainly been gradually rising ever since we left Tampico, it was not till we had advanced full fifty leagues from the coast that we gained the foot of the foremost spur of the Cordillera. Of course the whole of the country passed through belongs to the tierras calientes.
The hacienda where we lodged on the evening of the fourth day's march from Tampico Alta, was situated on a plain very near the foot of the mountain. It has principally notched itself upon my memory, from the magnificent, free-standing banian trees in its vicinity, several of which measured upward of thirty feet in circumference. Here we were, as usual, well treated, paying moderately for whatever necessaries we were furnished with.
Deep clouds resting on all the ridges in advance boded no good for the continuation of our journey the following morning. Indeed, it began to drizzle before our train could be set in motion; nevertheless, we flattered ourselves that we might at least reach Chicontepec, the City on Seven Hills, which lay on the mountains rising before us at four leagues' distance.
After two hours' ride, our mule path sank from the open hilly country into a deep glen strewed with rounded blocks of stone, which indicated that in the rainy season it formed the bed of one of those torrents which, fed by the waters filtering through the porous structure of the mountains and table land above them, spring into existence and roll down on their short but furious course to the gulf.
It was just at this period of our journey, when toiling over the broken ground, amid the green twilight shed into the deep defile through an almost impervious canopy of the most gigantic forest trees, covered from the foot to the topmost twig with lithe creepers and enormous parasites, that the rain, which had now menaced for several days, began to descend upon us in torrents. If there was wind, we were not sensible of it at this depth; but the rain poured perpendicularly down, as from a water spout. At the same time every object became shrouded in mist. We nevertheless dragged ourselves forward, till it appeared as though the vale terminated in a cul de sac against the precipitous but forested side of the mountain, when a sudden turn was given to the track, and following it, it began to ascend to the right, by a steep zigzag mule path. Climbing and dragging our spent horses after us, we surmounted one turn after another, till we thought that we should never arrive at the last. There was no sign of our gaining the summit. Whenever the mist rose or shifted for an instant, we caught a glimpse of the steep flanks of the mountain to the left, which seemed but a stone's throw distant. At length, after nearly two hours' climb, we suddenly reached the plateau, and entered the principal street of Chicontepec. At this elevation we were above the region of the rain, and nearly above that of the clouds, for the mist was driving and thin, and an occasional gleam of sunshine gave us a glimpse of the objects around. The houses were much more substantial than any we had seen in the lower country, and a large church with a tower rose above a declivity we had surmounted. At what elevation Chicontepec is situated, I cannot guess, but it must be considerable. It is quite on the barren rocky crest of the mountains, which should be seven in number, according to the interpretation of the name; and must command a view of great extent, but of which we saw nothing. After some trouble we discovered a poor meson, where we were allowed to dry and refresh ourselves.
As to the mules, it was long before we saw them all arrive, and became reassured that one or other, with his precious load, had not capsized, or missed his way. Juliano and the two mozos had been faithful to their trust; but as to Miguel, we could hear nothing of him; and it was not till a couple of hours had gone by, and long after Espindola, finding there was no fodder here, had gone forward with the mules, leaving Juliano to escort us, that we heard from a passer-by, that he had been seen lying by the roadside many miles back. "Un borrachio!" (a drunkard!) said Juliano, with a significant shrug of his shoulders; always willing to throw odium on his fellow, and to contrast his own conduct, whenever it happened to be more correct, with that of his less crafty chum.
After a ride of many hours over difficult and steep ridges, and through close but fertile valleys under partial cultivation—often enveloped in mist, and continually a prey to doubt as to our ever finding our arriero—we at length stumbled upon him at the edge of dusk, tending his mules at an humble rancho, in a pretty valley nestled in the mountains. And here we brought our wet and fatiguing day's journey to a close, by erecting our camp beds under an open palmetto shed, drying our accoutrements as well as might be, enjoying our frugal meal, and betaking ourselves to repose.
At bedtime there were no signs of our borrachio; but in the middle of the night we found he had returned to his duty, as his churchyard cough was heard issuing from a shed on the premises.
The weather seemed now to have done its worst, and a cloudless dawn heralded forth a bright sunny day;how bright—how sunny—and how beautiful—amid such magnificent foliage and flowers, no pen can describe! In brief, you will hear no more of clouds for some days to come.
At noon, after traversing one considerable stream, we at length reached the valley of the Rio de la Cañada, a clear river, occupying at this time of the year but a small portion of the rock-strewn bed which overspreads a large extent of the low grounds. It is a tributary of the Tula, if my surmise is right. At the point where our pathway came upon it, the vale was comparatively open and spacious, though surrounded by mountains of considerable elevation, and there was much in the whole landscape which brought the scenery of the Italian Alpine valleys to my recollection; but four or five leagues higher up, shortly after the traveller has passed a large hacienda belonging to a wealthy cura on the left bank, it contracts; and, for the succeeding thirty or forty miles takes that peculiar character which has given a name to the river.
The fifth and sixth of March were occupied in advancing from the priest's country seat, slowly up the magnificent ravine, on a rough mule path, worn by the numerous conducta, with which this is one way of descent from the table land above; threading thickets which struggled with the limpid mountain stream for possession of the chasm, and often riding along the bed of the river, which I believe had to be crossed considerably above a hundred times.
We considered the scenery of the Cañada superior to any we had ever seen, comparable to it—and we were, as you know, no novices in mountain defiles, I nowhere met with the sublimity of an Alpine mountain gorge on a great scale, clothed with such beauty. A varied vegetation, stimulated by the alternate vehemence of a tropical sun, and the gentle dews and moist showers from the mountains above, into an inconceivable rankness and richness of growth—all that is beautiful and gorgeous in colouring and curious in detail—birds, butterflies, insects, fruits, and flowers—are here presented to the eyes of the traveller, in the midst of a chaos of rent and riven rock and dizzy precipice, which would be worthy of the most savage defile of the most savage Alpine districts of Europe. No one who has not beheld with his own eyes, can imagine the vigour with which nature puts forth her strength under this incitement from alternate heat and moisture.
League after league we moved forward in ecstasy. Every turn disclosed another matchless picture. It was here a grove of old and shattered trees of enormous growth bent over the surface of the river under the load of moss and flowering parasites which drew nourishment and life from their fibres; their outstretched arms, struggling, as it were, in the interminable folds of the vines and creepers, whose festoons and garlands of flowers, fruit, or pods, entwined every bough to the highest twig. There again rose a thicket of flowering shrubs of all hues, glistening in morning dew, over which the insects and butterflies were gloating in the bright sun; and such butterflies—the rainbow is dull and colourless in comparison!
Farther, the high gray precipice swept down perpendicularly, with its red, purple, and gray hues, innumerable weather stains, and lichens, reflected in the still surface of the stream; while its sheets of bare rock unveiled to the gaze of the passer-by, in the hundreds of thin strata, twisted, broken, entwined, and distorted into a thousand shapes, a page of nature's secret doings, which could not be contemplated without a feeling of awe. The upper portions of the precipices, where they broke down from the forested slope of the mountains above, were frequently overgrown with long strings of strong wiry grass, or by a peculiar species of cactus which rose like a whitish green column perpendicularly from the ledges.
Then came the little opening at the entrance of some lateral valley, with its Indian hamlet, strips of cultivation fully exposed to the broad sun, and groups of rich and sunny bananas, half shrouding the simple cabins of the poor natives: or, as a contrast, one of those dens of rubbish, situated under the shade of a beetling crag, in which everything seemed devoted to putrid destruction; where you moved in twilight through a mass of decaying vegetation; where no living thing sported, and the passenger breathed the chill and humid damp of death, rottenness, and decay.
Four or five leagues from the entrance of the gorge, the signs of that tremendous convulsion, which has burst this channel through the heart of the mountains, are perfectly bewildering. The thin, laminated strata are broken and twisted in every possible manner; and the river, which had never failed us in the earlier part of our journey, but had formed an abundant stream flowing in a chain of alternate rapids or lucid pools, was found to have totally disappeared, pursuing for some distance a subterraneous course below the surface. Soon after however, we found ourselves again on its banks, and early on the afternoon of the first day emerged from the ravine which I have attempted to describe, and approached the great opening, wherein the Indian village of Tlacolula lies surrounded by its orange groves and pretty cultivated enclosures.
This was by far the most important Indian village we had seen, though perhaps not the largest, and we found that the population was partly engaged in the manufacture of the cotton cloth which serves as a reboso, or veil for the upper part of the person, of the common people throughout Mexico. They are woven in a rudely constructed loom.
We here passed a long evening, bathing in the river, examining whatever was curious—among which we may mention a pretty crystal cascade directly opposite our quarters in one of the palmetto-thatched huts of the village—and in arguing whether it was lawful or unlawful to shoot a monkey. Several of these animals, of the long-tailed yellow and black species, had been descried in the ravine at their avocations, much to our amusement. Pourtales, however, who remembered the delights of strange meats—such as skunk, racoon, and prairie dogs on the great prairies, and whose philosophy was anything but Pythagorean or Braminical, had been in a perfect fever for a taste of the long-armed gentry, and I believed had actually fired a shot or two, which the objects of his aim had contrived to dodge. M'Euen and myself took him to task, for to us it appeared that he was guilty of having meditated the most culpable homicide. For my part they looked to me far too much like distant family connections, to allow me for an instant to harbour the wish of taking away their lives.
The church of Tlacolula, a dingy stone structure, stands prominently in the middle of the valley.
These Indian villages, though they have ostensibly the power of self-government in matters relating to themselves, as the alcades and other petty functionaries are appointed from the inhabitants, are in fact governed by the priest, who here, as elsewhere, is of the mixed race; and a fiery, fagot-bearing, heretic-hating, determined, beetle-browed clerk, we found the Cura of Tlacolula to be. I thought him very much inclined to act the inquisitor with us, till he discovered that we were extremely inoffensive and civilly inclined, and able to furnish him with a bonus of percussion caps, which he greedily coveted and obtained, after which he gave us his blessing, and left us to pass the night in peace.[1]
So far we had come without any great degree of trouble, or any more serious contretems than such as we might well have expected. Our preconceived good opinion of Espindola had never been shaken for an instant; and our respect for and our confidence in him grew day by day. His mules, though of various tempers, were strong and good, and did their work well. He generally led the youngest and giddiest by the lasso, and the rest followed in their order. The art of packing a mule is quite a science; and it was singular to see, how, after the first day's trial—when the trial was made, which of the heterogeneous and multiform objects composing our baggage would ride best in company, or were
There exists more than one mode of reaching the village of Tlacolula from Tarapico; and I am inclined to think a yet shorter than that described, viz., by Los Huevas, the village of Tantayanca and La Pesca, which, by the calculation of the author of "Notes on Mexico," brings you here in seven days, and after a journey of fifty-three leagues.
We had been up to this evening also seven days on the road from Tampico Alta, and had come, by our arriero's computation, fifty-nine leagues. But our object was to go the most picturesque road, and that we undoubtedly did. suited to the strength of the individual—how everything went by rule and square, and how seldom anything went wrong. The Mexican pack saddle would seem in itself to be a burden. A considerable variety is shown in the leather furniture, which is often embossed and embroidered in red and yellow, in addition to a name such as Bamonos, Abobo, Mejico. These names, however, may be said to belong more to the suit of harness than, as might be supposed, to the animal wearing it.
Once packed, and in motion, off the mules marched in Indian file; one pacing under the mountainous load of the camp beds, another laden with two portmanteaus, a third with carpet bags and canteen, and so forth, while the last scampered after his fellows with the odds and ends belonging to our travelling kitchen, often to the great danger of the pans which dangled from his sides.
On arrival at our place of repose they were unladen, and every set of furniture carefully arranged by itself in the most precise and exact order, while the emancipated animals made use of the first moment of liberty to indulge in a hearty shake, or rolls in the dust, followed up by that brief sententious bray, by which the mule expresses his feelings, in contradistinction to the full, round, sonorous, and protracted descant of his mother ass.
Old Bamanos, or "Let-us-be-jogging," was the most trusted, the most sapient, and the most morose of the train; and occasionally bestowed a brace of resounding kicks upon the hollow sides of Abobo, or another of his brethren, when he saw them in possession of a bush or pasture of particular succulence. He was the leader of the unled, and ordinarily followed his master.
We were fortunate in finding maize fodder in most of our halting places; but in default of this our providers were seldom at loss, but stripping particular trees of their nutritious foliage, supplied the necessities of their mules with what the thickets furnished.
As to our two varlets, when you have said of Miguel that he was a borrachio, you have recorded all the positive evil in his character that come within our notice; as to negative faults he had plenty, but what could be expected of such a wild, unshaven, and uncouth being? As to Juliano, with his smooth face, and smoother language; arrogance of superior breeding, and superior authority, we had long known that his honesty was very suspicious, that his valour was more than doubtful and that his general morals were as worn and discoloured, as the faded, green leather breeches in which he delighted to swagger among the Indians.
We found that like other fashionable servants he had his private gleanings whenever employed by us. One thing I must say for him, that if he was lavish of our credit and dollars, he w^as no less so of his own; for what with one thing or another, he had contrived to draw from us, by the time we reached Tlacolula, nearly the whole of his pay, for the entire tour and the return.
Here, having more leisure to look about us, we were not slow in discovering other dusky shades in his character. Having taken into his head that his valour was hired as our body guard, and being moreover jealous of the respect and confidence which we bestowed upon Don Juan Espindola, he thought proper, all of a sudden, to relinquish all care of our baggage. After leading forward our horses of a morning, ready caparisoned for departure, without further ado, he girded on his trusty—no, rusty blade; grasped his mighty carbine, clambered on his own steed, and awaited the signal of marching. This conduct was the more disagreeable, as our skill in the Spanish tongue as yet hardly comprised terms of objurgation and menace; and this the rogue knew. Nevertheless we gave him a regular "blowing up," which I flatter myself was comprehensible enough, in spite of bad grammar. Gallicisms, and Anglicisms; though indeed I must in fairness state, that, whether in anger or deep-seated grief no one could say, he forthwith departed from our presence, bought himself a bottle of agua ardiente, and got tipsy. Miguel was too good a comrade not to bear him company; so that on the morning of our departure from Tlacolula, they were both found to be so far gone, that it was with trouble they could sit in the saddle.
But, however great our annoyance, nothing was able to damp the spirit of enthusiasm with which we found ourselves inspired. Soon after leaving the village, the huge precipices which towered on both sides, closed in upon the stream, and threw the road into deep shadow; and we were not long in discovering, that beautiful as the scenery had been, we were to see it on a yet grander scale, and clothed with yet greater magnificence. The most sublime part of the defile of the Cañada is that which extends two or three leagues above Tlacolula. A mountain of very great elevation appears literally cloven in twain front the very summit to the foundation; displaying immense perpendicular sheets of white rock, the innumerable lamina of which are twisted and gnarled like the roots of a tree. A wilderness of the richest tropical vegetation clothes the partial slopes, and chokes up the depths of the defile. The gorge varies from five hundred to one hundred feet in breadth.
The continuation of the road where the great defile terminates, presents fine, but in general more open scenery. The mule path for several leagues follows a tortuous track, now on the sides of the steep acclivities, and then to and fro on the side of the river, which has now decreased greatly in size, till it leads you insensibly to the foot of the Monte Penulco.
The road at this season was rendered lively by the strings of mules, laden with the produce of the table land, which take advantage of the dry season to reach the coast by the Cañada, though I cannot say that they add to the safety of the narrow pathway, as it is not always easy to pass without running a certain degree of risk. In the wet season, of course the road in the defile is impracticable, and the cuchillo, or ridge of the mountain, is then followed. Early in the afternoon we now began to descry patches of pine forest, and the river forking, we followed the branch to the right, till we reached the foot of the broad and well-constructed road, which, leaving the defiles, leads the traveller up the precipitous sides of the mountain. A series of turns and zigzags, conducted upon the narrow edge of ridges which are occasionally bounded by abrupt and horrible declivities, sweeping many hundred feet downward to the edge of the river, must then be surmounted. Here accidents are of frequent occurrence; and our caution was increased by the sight of a dying mule which had just before fallen from a higher turn of the road to a lower.
As we continued to climb for nearly two hours, gradually rising one hundred feet after another, we became conscious of a change both in the atmosphere and in the surrounding vegetation. Our view began to expand, and to range over a long chain of gracefully moulded mountains, hemming in the valley of the Cañada towards its source; and when, at length, we emerged upon the summit among scattered groups of evergreen oaks and other forest trees, rising from a fresh greensward, we were conscious that we had quitted the tierras calientes, and had gained the level tierras templadas.
- ↑ There exists more than one mode of reaching the village of Tlacolula from Tarapico; and I am inclined to think a yet shorter than that described, viz., by Los Huevas, the village of Tantayanca and La Pesca, which, by the calculation of the author of "Notes on Mexico," brings you here in seven days, and after a journey of fifty-three leagues. We had been up to this evening also seven days on the road from Tampico Alta, and had come, by our arriero's computation, fifty-nine leagues. But our object was to go the most picturesque road, and that we undoubtedly did.