the most part vacant. The present dividing-line is more- natural
than the former one ; it may, roughly speaking, be said to be that which separates the Red from the Brown Indians, who are at least as different from one another as the Latin is from the Anglo-Saxon race. On the Red Indian the Spanish Missions never produced any civilising effect ; conversion brought them to what the old warrior-priests not inaptly termed the condition of "Indies reducidos," with the result that at the time of the annexation of Texas the population was rapidly dwindling away. The Brown
• Indian, on the other hand, was of a more plastic nature; he had long passed through the nomad stage, and was capable at onca of imbibing and assimilating a higher civilisation. These Indians readily accepted, in form at least, the religion of their conquerors, who thereafter evinced no antipathy of race, such as divides the Caucasian from the Negro. Since the independence of Mexico, the Indians have, in fact as well as in name, enjoyed equal rights with their fellow-citizens of Spanish descent, and have in many cases risen to the highest positions in the Republic. For instance, President Juarez, Almonte, the leader of the party which invited Maximilian, and Mejia, fellow-sufferer with the latter at Quer6taro, were all of pure Indian blood. Mr. Bishop remarks that few things are more curious, at this time of day, than to look back at a map of the western possessions of the United States prior to the annexation of Texas. At that period, in addition to Texas, which alone contains an area equal to that of France and Spain combined, a considerable part of Indian territory, Kansas, half of Colorado, all of Utah, Nevada, California, Arizona, and New Mexico belonged to the Southern Republic, which, in fact, was nearly equal in extent to the United States themselves. The acquisition of this vast terri- tory was the making of the United States. It gave them, as Mr. Bishop points out, one-third of their domain,—that which is now most open to the teeming millions of Europe.
Mr. Bishop, on landing at Vera Cruz, at once set himself to work to acquire information. He seems to have a faculty, one developed more or less in all Americans, for picking people's brains. By dint of cross-questioning every one whom he met,. by keeping his eyes open, and by testing difficulties for him- self, instead of being deterred from attempting to do a thing because he was told it was impossible, he has succeeded in see- ing and doing about twice as much as an English traveller would have accomplished in the time. The American Consul at Vera Cruz, a physician, who had resided there twelve years, and had had consequently considerable experience of yellow fever, maintained stoutly that it was epidemic, but not contagions. He urged that great injury was done to the commercial interests of both countries by the annoy- ing and unnecessary restrictions of quarantine against a fever which cannot be transmitted. Mr. Bishop does not mention a curi- ous fact connected with yellow fever, namely, that there appears to be a distinct variety of it in each different district ; and that a native of one port, who, as is well known, rarely if ever catches it in the place of his birth, is by no means safe from its attack in any other place. Mr. Bishop animadverts on the confused state of the tariff, and on the restrictions imposed on imports at the Custom House. There are 378 specified articles, and the least variation in a label or form of a package is visited with penal- ties, to which the consignee is subject The bulky silver cur- rency of -the country is a farther impediment in the way of
• Old Horico and her Lost Prosiness; a .Tourney in Nixie°, Southern Cab:tom* and Arizona. by way of Cuba. By William Henry Bishop. With Illustrations. London: Chatto and Hindus, 1883. business transactions ; the supply of gold coinage is very limited, and till lately there were but two banks issuing bills, and these but to a small amount, and receivable only at short distances from the capital. A National Bank of Issue has now been established, and a flood of depreciated paper is driving the solid coin out of circulation, so that, as Mr. Bishop remarks, there may be worse in store for the Mexicans than the handling of bags of unwieldy dollars. The revenue of the country was exceeded by its expenditure during the last fiscal year to the extent of ten per cent., and this without taking into account the foreign debt, for which some sort of settlement will sooner or later have to be made. It seems strange to Mr. Bishop, on American principles of assessment, that real property is not taxed except upon such income as it produces ; that it may remain idle and escape scot-free, however much it may enhance in value. But jealousy of the foreigner has imposed restrictions. Foreigners are absolutely prohibited from acquiring land within Eve leagues of the coast, nor may they do so within twenty leagues of the frontier without permission from the President. Further, no foreigner may own real property at all, except on condition of remaining in the country and looking after it; if he be absent for two years, his property may be denounced and taken possession of by the first corner, just as if it were a mine. Mr. Bishop attributes this fear of foreign domination, which everywhere crops out in Mexican legislation, to the weakness of the nation, and their experience under the French intervention. So long as such restrictions as these remain, Mexico cannot hope to attract that foreign capital and enterprise without which it is impossible for her adequately to develope her magnificent -natural resources.
Mr. Bishop hits off happily many little social peculiarities which distinguish Mexicans from his countrymen. The shops, for instance, which instead of bearing over the door the names of their proprietors, take lome fanciful title,—a jeweller's, "The Pearl ;" a bootmaker's, "The Foot of Venus ;" or a dry-goods store, "The Spring-time." The employs and their patrons seemed to him democratic in their manners, measured even by an American standard. Till lately, it was not etiquette for ladies of -the upper class to enter a shop ; the goods were brought out to them in their carriages at the kerbstone (Mr. Bishop spells it 4' curbstone "). Nor was it etiquette for ladies to be seen walk- ing in the streets, except to and from mass in the morning, and then, as in all Spanish countries, they were always dressed in black. In fact, even for gentlemen, it was hardly considered correct to walk at all,—the caballero who wanted to go any- where from home must mount his horse, and avoid jostling with the crowd. Mr. Bishop does not do justice to the danza, which he calls a slow waltz,—so slow as hardly to be a dance at all. It is 'quite true that the Havanera—in Mexico always, par excellence, called the danza—is slow ; but that is an advantage, and even a necessity, in the tropical island of its origin and the elevated table-land of its adoption. Its music is essentially rhythmic, and once heard can scarcely be forgotten ; it is familiar to the admirers of Carmen; and as for its not being a dance, the lithe and dreamy movements of those engaged in it, invariably in perfect time with the measure, are infinitely more pleasing to watch, than the violent and mostly unsuccessful efforts of the dancers in a New York or London ball-room to keep time with our rapid waltz or jerky galop. Mr. Bishop breaks quite new ground in his chapter on "The Fine Arts and Literature of Mexico." Though he is obliged to allow that the series of native painters is chronologically in a declining order of merit, he shows that the earliest Mexican masters, for the most part, of course, severely religious, have left works which do no discredit to the contemporaries of Murillo, Ribeira, and the Caracci. Mexican hospitality is seen at its best in the life at their large haciendas. These are estates, often of many square leagues in extent, the residences on which are a strange mixture of fortress, farm, and factory, combined often with the tasteful adjuncts of a country house. Here the owner, or in his absence his adminis- trador, holds patriarchal state. A stranger provided with letters of introduction is entertained with the best of everything; excursions, displays of lassoing and "tailing bulls" are got up in his honour ; he is found in horses and in mounted guards where necessary, and is pressed to prolong his stay for days and weeks. The meals are truly patriarchal; at the head of the table sits the amo, next to him on either side the guests, then the ladies of the family ; below them come the gentlemen, and lower still the clerk, bookkeeper, and humbler dependents. Mr. Bishop cites one of these haciendas, the Molino de Flores, as illustrative of the very different sentiment thrown around anything in the shape of a manufactory from that prevailing in America, and certainly no leas in England. The mills, residence, granaries, and chapel are .terraced up a steep hill-side round a court, set at the entrance of a striking little gorge. The water-power, after turning the mills, is led through lovely gardens, in which there are numerous fantastic jets and surprises ; a secluded bathing - tank, a rustic bridge, and a rook-cut mortuary chapel are included in the grounds.
The ascent of Popocatepetl, the highest mountain in North America, was made without any great difficulty by the author ; it is purely a matter of endurance ; there is no danger, as in the higher Alps, since the snow attains no great depth, and there are no crevasses or true glaciers. On the authority of General Ochoa, Mr. Bishop gives its height at 19,673 ft. to the lower lip of the crater, and estimates 1,700 ft. more for the upper rim. This would give about 3,400 ft. more than the measurement of Humboldt, and can hardly be correct. Sulphur is extracted in almost a pure state from the crater by Indians, who are let down to the bottom by a windlass, and live there for three weeks at a time. The volcano was ascended by three of the companions of Cortez, for the purpose of procuring from it sulphur, required by the Spaniards to renew their stock of gunpowder. For three hundred years no second ascent was made, and the circum- stantial account left by these early explorers was even dis- believed. It was not till about the year 1829 that the mountain was again scaled, by Mr. Frederick Glenuie, late Her Majesty's Consul at Mexico, in company with Baron Gros, the French Minister, afterwards well known in China. Their experiences, and those of every subsequent traveller who has followed them, have folly confirmed the account of the old Spanish Conquistadores.
The mining laws of the country are those promul- gated by the Bing of Spain in 1783. Mr. Bishop pronounces them as in certain respects better than those of the United States. "Litigation about the original title of a Mexican mine is almost unknown, while that of an American mine of any value is invariably in litigation." On the other hand, nobody can own a mine in fee ; if it be not actually used and worked, the title reverts to the State. To allow a mine to stand idle, is assumed to be an injury to the community. Mr. Bishop left the country by the little-travelled brid7e-path to Acapulco. He passed through Cuernavaca, but does not mention the fine ruins of sculptured stone at Xochi- calco in that neighbourhood, which will bear comparison with the better-known ruins of Mitla and Palenque ; a reproduction from squeezes of the principal temple was erected by the French Government, in the garden of the Paris Exhibition of 1867. A Mexican colonel who had seen twenty years' service in different wars of his country accompanied the author to Acapulco, and much interesting information was derived from conversations with him. To Mr. Bishop's disclaimer of any other designs on the part of his countrymen than those of commercial profit, the colonel's reply was, "You will not annex tut with bayonets, you will annex us with dollars ; I feel it, I know it. Your great commercial enterprises will insensibly get hold of the vitals of our country, and the rest will follow." He cited what had been done in California since it ceased to be a Spanish province. This Mr. Bishop was soon to see for himself. Landing at San Francisco, he made his way down the State to the Mexican frontier again, and records his experience of the "Lost Provinces" in the second part of his book. Wastes have been reclaimed by irrigation, and it is found that by the very practice the land stores up part of the water, and less is needed each year ; the culture of the vine and orange have been introduced on an enormous scale ; the tenure of land in large acreage, a tradition from the Mexican time, lends itself to the industry of cattle-raising; health resorts have been esta- blished in a climate where even the valetudinarian may amuse himself by growing an orange crop that will give him an income; and finally, the circle of communication with the Northern and Southern States of the Union has been effected by the comple- tion of the Southern Pacific Railway. Certainly it is a tale of progress, from apathy to energy, from death to life, which, except for sentimental reasons, cannot raise regret if the United States should follow their "manifest destiny" even further south.
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