Mexican Trails - A Record Of Travel In Mexico 1904-1907

A Record of Travel in Mexico, 1904-07, and a Glimpse at the Life of the Mexican Indian By Author of The Philosophy of Self-Help, Where Dwells the Soul Serene, The Ministry of Beauty, etc. Illustrated from Original JP holographs by the Author G. P. Potaam f s New York and London Knickerbocker press 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1909 BY STANTON DAVIS KIRKHAM Ube - Rnfcftcrbocfeef pce8, UUw ll ort CJ rt TO THE MEMORY OF GENERAL RALPH WILSON KIRKHAM, U. S. A. A WISE TRAVELLER, AND A GOOD SOLDIER, WHO SERVED UNDER GENERAL SCOTT IN THE VARIOUS BATTLES WHICH LED TO THE SURRENDER OF THE CITY OF MEXICO THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED FOREWORD THIS book is a glimpse of Old Mexico as I have caught it, not from the car-window, but from many a trail during three years spent in wandering over the country, from the Border to the Isthmus and from the Atlantic to the Pacific a look at the little cities of New Spain, which was before Mexico, and a study of the village life of an Indian people who were before New Spain. Faintly enough, but faithfully I hope, it portrays the real Mexico not the Mexico of the tourist, nor yet that of the man of affairs intent upon exploiting the country for his own ends, and in cidentally for the countrys welfare, but at the expense, necessarily, of all that is unpractical and picturesque. Much has been written of Mexico and not a little emphasis laid upon its pos vi Foreword sibilities and its progress that is to say, its Americanisation. One of the richest countries in the world in its minerals and in its agriculture, its wealth is not less great in the element of the picturesque and in its individual charm. Perhaps no apology is needed for another book, de voted more exclusivelyto this aspect. You may go to Mexico for its commercial advantages or you may still visit it to elude the commercial spirit altogether, ac cording to your inclination or your needs, and surely there zs need to-day of escap ing now and again from the atmosphere of affairs, of hurry and worry, into one more genial and indolent where money is not everything. The fascination of Mexico is unlike that felt in other nooks and corners of the Old World. There are suggestions of one or another country, but they are nothing more. One is aware of a charm which would seem to be essentially Mexican as the perfume of the gardenia is peculiarly its own due in part to age, in part to a marvellous landscape, in part to the funda Foreword vii mentally picturesque life which finds here an adequate setting. The churches and haciendas which dominate the plain do not merely recall the Past they are the living embodiment of that Past, and still represent Colonial Spain. On the other hand, Indian villages all over Mexico are little more Spanish than a Hopi pueblo is American. On the great plateau the outlook is one of the most desolately beautiful on earth. Its colours are those of the desert its silence, that of eternity its distances, ample and satisfying, so that the spirit rejoices at the vast perspective. On the edge of orange-coloured deserts float ragged purple mountains, and beyond them, like the waves of the sea, range upon range of ethereal blue fade imper ceptibly into a remote horizon. Over this expanse the sun rises and sets as upon a world of opal. At a suitable elevation on the western slope of the plateau the climate is superior to that of any part of Southern Europe, from Andalusia to theshores of the Bos via Foreword phorus, or indeed of Egypt However, there is a marked difference between the eastern and western slopes the Pacific side is dry, the Atlantic damp and rainy, and more or less affected by the northers from the Gulf. Almost any town on the western slope, with an elevation of not more than six thousand nor less than four thousand feet, possesses a delightful cli mate. In this region the temperature is highest in April and May. By June the summer rains have begun, lasting into November...