CHAPTER I.

THE COUNTRY.

The Gulf Stream-Boundaries, Natural and Political-Physical Geography-Table-Lands — Volcanoes-Geology — General Scenery-Rivers-Sea Board-Climate-Dry and Rainy Seasons-Descriptive Sketch of the States-Las Chiapas, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, Puebla, Mexico-The Capital -Guerrero-Mechoacan-Jorullo-Colima, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Sonora, Queretaro, Guanaxuato, San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas, New Leon, Cohahuila, Durango, Chihuahua, Lower California.

THE Voyager across the Atlantic Ocean as he looks down upon its troubled waters, with their ceaseless ebb and flow, might readily imagine that they tossed their foaming crests without any definite direction, as they are driven hither and thither by the capricious impulses of the winds. But really the mass is moved onward by a mighty and uniform influence, and travels over thousands of miles in the same direction. There are rivers in the ocean, the courses of which are almost as regular and as well defined as those which flow through the land. Strange as this statement may seem, it is not the less true, having been ascertained by patient and accurate inquiry. Drift-wood is found to float uniformly in certain given directions, and bottles thrown out from vessels, for this purpose, in differents parts of the ocean, are almost invariably picked up or cast ashore in the line of these marine rivers. Two of these ocean currents, flowing

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in a westerly direction from the coast of Africa, meet in the Caribbean Sea, and are turned northward by the American Continent, where they form the Gulf Stream.* This stream, as it flows out from its torrid bed, sweeps past the coasts of Newfoundland, and is then turned eastward toward our own shores. Its waters still retain much of the heat they had received in the tropical regions whence they flow, and this confers upon us the blessings of a warm and genial climate. Every westerly wind that blows to us bears with it a portion of this heat to temper our winters' cold. But for this strange, yet most merciful provision, our climate would be as inclement as that of Labrador, which lies nearly in the same latitude with the British Isles. How wondrous is the wisdom thus displayed in the arrangement of the earth, and all that is therein! He who calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the earth, has so guided them that they rule the climate of a people thousands of miles from the place whence they flow!

It is of Mexico, the land which forms the cradle of this mighty ocean-stream, and which determines its course, that we are to speak in the following pages. The Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans wash its eastern and western shores. It rises between them as a vast table-land, bounded on the north by California, New Mexico and Texas, on the east by the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, on the south-east by British Honduras and Guatemala, on the west and south-west by the Pacific Ocean. From the want of accurate

*It has been conjectured that the force of current, as it sweeps round from west to east on the shores of Central America, has, in the course of ages, hollowed out the Gulf of Mexico, leaving the hard and rocky fragments, which have resisted its power, to form the Islands of the West Indies.

surveys its area is somewhat uncertain, but it may be roughly stated at 830,000 English square miles, though some estimates make it much more extensive.

Few countries have so often removed their borders as Mexico. When Cortez landed at San Juan, and conquered the country for Charles V., his master's claims to territorial authority were only limited by his power to enforce them. All North America was supposed to be the property of the pope, and to be given by him to the Spanish king. The title deeds of the Romish bishop were never subjected to a legal inquiry. They were the consequence of his claim to universal empire. Wherever the swords of Castille prevailed, there was a sufficient title for Charles. Cortez won for him Mexico, so called from the Aztec god of war. Alvarado added Guatemala to his possessions. Jesuits and their monkish brethren acquired California and New Mexico for his successors. There were no defined boundaries in those days, save where the waves shut in the continent.

The

The physical geography of the country is very extraordinary. Perhaps no other region of the globe presents such varieties of surface or climate within the same extent of territory. Along the coast there lies a narrow fringe of lowland. Advancing into the interior, the ground rises rapidly, sometimes mountain ranges stretch precipitously like a mighty wall for leagues, sometimes the ascent is more gradual and slopes upward at a scarcely perceptible angle. But whatever may be the gradient the ascent is continuous till an elevation of from 5,000 to 7,500 feet above the level of the sea is attained. The traveller having reached this altitude comes to vast plateaux of tableland which extend for many hundreds of miles. These