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Writing Type: Book
An account of his travels in northen Mexico.
Keywords: Mexico, travels, Poinsett, tertulias, Mora, women, indigenous tribes
Archive: Robinson Library, University of Newcastle
Text: p.2 Writes of the "Gran Sociedád" of Mexico that some call "Súciedad". He arrived on 17 July 1825. And describes his stay at "the best hotel in Mexico" (Mexico City)
p.6 "The cook herself is indeed a hornament, as a cockney might say; and in truth I know of no regular word which might at all suit the subject. She may be an amiable creature, for anything I know to the contrary; but if dirty linen, feet without shoes or stockings, a face covered with brilliant semispheres, reflecting the fire like a sort of moveable reverberating furnace; hair as dishevelled as that of a Gorgon, and not a remarkable cleanliness; hands which had never been washed (p.7) since she took possession of her office; and delicate lips, which only half-concealed a set of black and decayed teeth, and which confined within their tender grasp a paper-cigar, whose smoke found an exit only through her gently-expanding nostrils; add to all which qualifications, a skin and complexion like an olive, and quite as greasy; if this lovely picture of Eve has charms for my reader, let him hasten to this glittering land of mines, where he will scarcely find a kitchen which cannot present a living original, whereof this, I confess, is but a faint sketch!"
p.8 Comments on the fact that many Mexicans are barefoot.
"On passing through the streets, I observed little apartments (originally intended to be occupied by coaches) filled with women, more than half naked, and men sprawling on the floor from the effects of inebriation. The children were perfectly naked. Some of the women were engaged in grinding, on a stone, Indian corn, which was presently converted by another hand into a sort of pancake called Tortilla, and which is considered a great delicacy in Mexico!"
p.10 he had a letter of introduction to President Guadalupe Victoria: "This gentlemen is of ordinary stature, and whether it was from his bad state of health, or the cloak that he wore, I know not, his appearance certainly did convey the idea, that he possessed military feeling and energy which should belong to a man who had been placed by the suffrages of a whole nation in so exalted a situation."
He then met Mr Alamán, Minister for Home and Foreign Affairs, and managing director of a Mining Association "situations, which, to me, appeared a little incompatible with each other; and so the President afterwards thought".
p.11 "Mr Alamán is of short stature, and from his appearance, I should consider him to be under thirty years of age. In conversation, his speech is so slow, that he gives the idea of thinking before he speaks; which, in a Minister, is a requisite of no small importance."
p.13 He met Poinsett (spelt Painsett) and Mr Ward, the English Chargé d’Affairs, "who was very polite, and invited me to dine with him, although I took no letters of introduction to him; I was afterwards frequently invited to his balls during my stay in the city. I am bound to record this kindness received from a gentleman with whom I had not the slightest previous acquaintance; especially as he has laid me under still further obligations, by having mentioned me favourably (as I understand, for I have not had leisure to read it,) in his much-admired work on Mexico. Mr Ward is a very intelligent gentleman, and from his situation must have had excellent means of obtaining information, and I make no doubt that his work is exceedingly interesting."
He also went to Pointsett's balls: "[Their] object was to bring the natives and foreigners into more immediate contact, which has a strong tendency to remove at least a portion of those prejudices so natural to those who (p.14) have seen little of society, and less of the world."
p.31 Describes a bullfight at the Plaza Grande, Maravetío Grande, (near Tlalpuhagua, North-north west), on 10 December 1825. They were celebrating the anniversary of their constitution. "The enclosure was surrounded by lofty benches, on which well-dressed ladies of all ages were seated to witness the spectacle, and to applaud any act of cruelty committed by the combatant! I soon retired from so disgusting a scene, lamenting, in my own mind, that the feelings of mothers and daughters should be blunted by exhibitions, tending to unfit them for the offices of humanity, which are the particular attributes of their sex."
p.35 Cinapéquaro, (Valladolid?) Mexico, 11 December: "The meson was nearly full of lodgers, and the plaza grande resounded with singers, whose voices, accompanied by guitars, celebrated the beauty of the female dancers, and indicated, in recitative, the various movements of the fandango."
p.48 December 17 1825, Uréquero: "We stopped a breakfasted at the first good-looking house we came to. The owner was an elderly lady who sold pottery, and who gave us as much as we could eat, served on silver, and, in spite of our entreaties, would not accept any renumeration! This was the first instance of disinterested hospitality which we had met with since our departure, and it deserves to be recorded. She told us that she was a native of Spain, and that her husband had died during the revolution."
p.52 Guadalajara, Mexico’s second city is sometimes referred to disparagingly as el Rancho Grande, the great farm.
p.52 20 December 1825, Guadalajara: "The ladies and gentlemen too, walk about finely dressed under the Portale, and convert it into a fashionable promenade. From seven till ten, there is perhaps not a single family in the whole town which has not taken a few turns, in the gayest dresses, to witness sweetmeat exhibition; to see and to be seen!"
p.53 Mentions the Hicare family of Guadalajara: "Where there were two young ladies, one extremely handsome, and the other used always to be leading us into mischief, and leaving us to extricate ourselves the best way we could."
Also the St Cortéz family: "In which there were also two young ladies, one so exceedingly beautiful, that her fame had reached the city of Mexico. The other was not so handsome, but her figure would have served for a model."
p.65 Tepic, 4 January 1826. He visited Señor Herrera, from Chile, who introduced him to Colonel Negréte and his Spanish-born wife: "She is the most lady-like in her manners and conversation of any with whom I have yet become acquainted in Mexico. We had many arguments together respecting the comparative advantages if a town or (p.66)country life in which she manifested great good sense, education, and feeling. Her person is small, but her features are very pretty."
p.80 Mazatlán, Jan 19 1826. He met Mr Short and Mr Espeléta, who were both about to be married (or marred, he jokes). Short is to marry a daughter of Yrriarte, the owner of the gold mine at Cosalá; and Espeléta (a Spaniard) to the sister of Cubillos of Tepic. Hardy knew Short in Buenos Aires; "He is a merry fellow, and was particularly obliging."
p.81 Mazatlán, Jan 20 1826. He met Ramos Arispe. (p.82) "This gentleman is a literary character, of what merit I know not; but his chief reputation arose from his having been sentenced, on account of political offences, upon three different occasions, to be shot; a fate from which he was only saved by the exertions of his amiable wife now living with him here."
p.90 Jan 22 1826, Guaymas. "The captain of the Resguarda, whose name is Salazar. Is a very fine young man, and is married to a very agreeable lady, possessed of a great deal of wit, talent and invention; but as there are no females in the port of equal attractions, my gallantry (p.91) yields to the necessity of passing them over in silence."
p.99 Feb 13 1826, Pitac. "The family of señor Escabosa reside in the best houses, next to that of Monteverde, in Pitac. The lady is elderly, fat, full of life and spirits, but always complaining of bad health. I found her in bed, and company in the same room. Her daughter is a fine young woman, about 19 years of age. Her eyes are bent on the ground, until the formality of a new acquaintance wears off, and then she is very familiar and entertaining; her conversation, like that of her mother, is always sensible, but not so satirical.
Another young lady, a niece of the family, whom I met in this house, was full of drollery, and a little given to telling ‘yarns’. For example, she said she was born in Mulatos, a famous mining place, where she remembered to have seen large lumps of gold as big as a pumpkin; and that the native miners suspended themselves over the perpendicular precipices, which are of enormous height, for the purpose of chipping off gold from their sides; and that upon one occasion, the rope which supported one of these people broke; down fell the unfortunate adventurer, and before he reached the bottom, his head was fairly separated from his shoulders! She was tall and thin, about the same age a the daughters of Señor Escabosa; but she was of a melting constitution (p.100) always ‘falling in love’ so at least the ladies used to say, who are sometimes a little too fond of scandal in these matters!
I next became acquainted with the wife of a Mr Gaul, an Englishman. [...] I was passing by the house humming an English air, at the time the lady in question happened to be sitting under the viranda, enjoying the cool air and meditating on the cause of her husband’s absence. It appears she had heard the air before, and she set to enquire who I might be? Receiving the reply, that I was a lone Englishman, she invited me to enter her house. Several other ladies were assembled in Tertulia, one of whom was fascinatingly beautiful for her age, certainly not more than 75, and who, on the appearance of a stranger, was wont to put on all those melting smiles which are intended to captivate the heart. There was another damsel equally young and very lady-like in her manners and appearance; certainly not of less antiquity. She was as sentimental as a dove, and as insinuating as the point of a needle. The only remaining female present, save except for an old Indian cook, was a young widow, whose attack on all strangers was irresistible. ‘Formed to adorn a court’ she cast a ray of splendour on all who were happy to gaze on her; and the expression of her countenance seemed to demand that homage to which she was so amply entitled. Nature (p.101) had lent a master’s hand in forming her elegant figure; and having exhausted her last efforts in the beauty of her features, was contented to leave the mind, enclosed in so beautiful a casket, to the mere schooling of the Graces. In manners gentle and so full of sensibility, her very look carried conquest in it; and that index of her heart, the eye, shone with a refulgence which the hardest metal could not resist. Teeth of the most exquisite whiteness, lips that never moved but to enchant, and bosom that never heaved except to liberate a sigh, or in dole of her helpless widowhood, - but, kind reader! Let thy imagination fill up the rest. I am not competent to complete the portrait."
p.111 San Miguel de Horsasítas, nr. Pitic, (feb?) 19, 1826.
He’s staying at the house of Victores Aguilar, a Spaniard, thanks to a letter of recommendation from someone in Mexico City. "His wife is a more portly dame, a native of Sonora, intelligent and motherly. Their manners are simple, and I have reason to think that their hospitality was genuine. They have a large family of daughters, who appeared to examine me from head to foot, with the curiosity so natural to those who have seen little of foreigners; and having satisfied themselves that I was not altogether a savage, they entered into familiar conversation with the greatest playfulness and good humour. In the evening they played on the guitar, sang and danced, and laughed, as those laugh who know no sorrow, and feel no apprehensions for the future."
But one of the daughters was ill: "I was obliged to look serious and stroke my beard while her symptoms were related to me, and my advice asked." He explains that he’s dabbled in "quackery", but had never before had a female patient: "I knew scarcely anything of their complaints beyond a headache, an earache, a toothache, and a catalogue of imaginary infirmities to which it is sometimes the fashion to be subject."
p.112 He proclaims it to be the heat, urged on by, " the vanity of being thought scientific, skilful, and I know not what besides. As I assumed more than professional severity of look, and determined fixedness of posture, I could see her anxiety amounted almost to agony; her colour went and came, as an expression of perplexity involuntarily came over my own features, for she stood as one on whom a judge is (p.113) about to pass a sentence, clinging to hope, till the fatal word is pronounced.
At last, however, thinking that persevering silence might be more productive of mischief to the patient than a simple nostrum, I began by saying, that I considered the case by no means desperate! And having thus dissipated a multitude of fears, and awakened fresh hope, I gravely felt the pulse of this interesting young lady, examined her complexion, her full black eye and tender figure, with more of the tenderness which belongs to the lover than the stiff formality of a doctor, and at length I stuttered out, ‘there is no danger,’ though in fact there might be some as regarded myself. The fact is, as in candour I must confess, I knew no more about the complaint than Adam did of playing marbles."
The next morning she said she had passed a comfortable night. "With a look of triumph, I then said, ‘I think We have struck at the root of the complaint; time and patience may do the rest.’ All this fell upon the ears of the audience like soft evening music! (p.114) Pleased with the effect which, beyond my most sanguine expectations, the medicine I ordered had produced, and having risen into something like importance, I strutted about like an empiric!"
But he then announced he was leaving the next day, "in spite of the earnest wishes of these excellent and simple-minded people, upon whom I had practised this, I trust, harmless imposition, by hoisting false colours, I carried my intention into execution, leaving, what I was satisfied could do no harm, - a few simple doses of medicine."
p.189 La Villa del Fuerte, on the Fuerte River, not far from Alamos. April 1826. He’s sitting under the portal of the treasurer’s house when a sentry gives a warning cry, "Yaquis. I proceeded to the Congress Hall as quickly as my legs would carry me; and as I entered the door, I was caught hold of by several fair ladies at the same moment, who in tears cried out, ‘You must, - you shall stay and defend us.’ But hard as it might have been under other circumstances to have resisted such bewitching supplicants, it was now no time for yielding; and disengaging myself as well I could from the delicate hands which would have detained me, I passed men and women on their knees, pouring out their devout prayers to the painted saints."
He wrapped a blanket around him, took up his sword and pistols and went back to the Plaza Grande. (p.190) "There were about 12 men calling for reinforcements, another 5 or 6 shooting over the houses. One man who was too afraid to advance. Women were in their houses or sought refuge in the church and congress hall. Some men pretended to be loading their muskets, rather than at their posts. (p.191) After 10 minutes of tension, there was a cry 'no hay nada' and it was all over. But several of the men of the town had fled into the hills, and one of the deputies ran and several hours later met the postman and told him that La Villa del Fuerte had been sacked and burned by the Yaqui."
p.193 June 1826 He is detained in Villa del Fuerte and did some more ‘quackery’ using 3 or 4 doses of 'Gotas de Salud'. "The first person I cured was the daughter of Manuel Estrada, a child, of cutaneous eruption. Another was a young lady , who was so covered over (p.194) with painful boils that she could scarcely lie down in her bed."
"But the most remarkable of my cures was that of the wife of the State Counsellor, who, after having given birth to a child, was attacked with such severe pains as to be unable to move, or even to breathe, without the most excruciating agony. I was bathing in the river when her husband came and called me to see her. I inquired what medical man attended the lady ; and being told that it was Garéy, whom I knew to be an exceedingly good doctor, I refused to go. But the Counsellor would take no denial. He said that Garéy had given her up, and had prepared her friends for the fatal event; it would therefore be a satisfaction to her family if I would pay her, at least, a visit. Thinking there could be no harm in this, I dressed myself and followed him. I found her, as I supposed, dying. Her cheeks were pallid; her lips had lost their colour, and she had scarcely any pulse. I was extremely affected by the sorrow of her mother and sisters; and this feeling induced me to try and blunder upon a remedy. Accordingly I set out for a leaf of the Závila, and putting a portion of it into spirits to steep, I allowed it to remain for 2 hours, at the end of which time it had assumed a colour very like that of a pale rose. Of this tincture I gave her a tablespoonful, which, producing alleviation, I repeated 2 hours after; and in the evening I left directions that should pain return during the night, her (p.195) nurses must give her another spoonful. When I returned the next morning, I found her considerably better. A fixed pain, however, remained in the right side, which the Závila failed to remove; she also had lost the use of her right arm and leg, and her mouth was slightly drawn on that side. Having exhausted my ingenuity, I was about to abandon my patient to her fate, when I recollected my wonderful 'gotas'. I gave her a few, not knowing what the consequences might be, by way of experimentation!"
An hour later she had fully recovered: "They all thought me a wonderfully clever doctor, and I believe I myself nearly fell into the same error. Without, however, puffing myself off, I felt an indescribable pleasure at having saved the life of this poor woman. [...] Having met with such success in this case, I was called upon on many occasions; and when the alarm occasioned by the supposed approach of the Yáquis produced a very serious effect on several young ladies, at the time in a delicate state, I was considered quite competent to prescribe for them, which I did without losing my newly acquired reputation."
p.205 Alamos.
"During my stay in the Real, I became acquainted with a family in which were several young ladies who talked, sang, danced, played on the guitar, and gave me such an agreeable idea of female society in this place; so much so, as to induce me to believe that (p.206) the fears of the men were far greater than those by the ‘weaker sex,’ who are certainly in the Alamos the stronger-minded of the two."
p.268 In a boat off Sombrerito, Baja California. "We had scarcely been at anchor an hour, when we observed people approaching. They were Indians, (p.269) who, supposing that our object in coming here was to pay a visit to their mission, had brought horses. I availed myself of the opportunity, and took my servant with me. [...] The first person I saw on my arrival was a little, sharp-looking, humpbacked old man, with small grey eyes, and a long pointed nose. He had on a sort of white apron, which extended from his neck, and covered his knees, leaving his arms exposed as high as the elbows, to which joint the sleeves of his shirt had been rolled. I took him for a shoemaker, as he sat at the door of his house on a three-legged wooden stool.
As I approached, he rose from his seat, and advancing, saluted me with ‘Que séa ustéd bien venida,’ (you are welcome,)- and immediately invited me to alight from my horse. This I did, and was ushered into a tolerably large room, with a brick-floor, table, two arm-chairs, three young ladies, a child of about ten years old, and an Indian cook. I was requested to take a seat; and my astonishment was not small at learning , that the person from whom I was about to receive hospitality, was the holy friar (p.270) of the mission!" (A Spaniard)
p.282 9 August 1826. Island of Tiburow.
Two Indians signal to his party (on a boat). They are invited to the boat and exchange presents and they ask him to cure the chief’s wife. The Indians were kept on the boat as hostage and Hardy went ashore. The woman had been in labour for four days, suffering acutely and her situation seemed hopeless. "Her husband was occupied in shaking over her a small leathern bag, painted and otherwise ornamented, and containing I know not what, which when shaken produced a rattling noise."
Hardy is unable to communicate to the group on the shore other than by sign language. "When I signified by signs that there (p.283) was serious fear lest the patient might only find relief from her present sufferings in the grave, which idea I conveyed by stretching myself on he sand and closing my eyes, the whole party set up a dreadful yell, that was echoed, although with a more subdued shrillness, from the neighbouring mountains. Indeed, I thought it prudent to prepare the family for a fatal result, from a very natural apprehension that, if the poor woman should die, the Indians might take a fancy to try their poisoned arrows upon my body; supposing me to be the author of her almost inevitable death: a ceremony I by no means wished to go through!"
He was surprised she was still alive and tried to save her.
p.284 "Relying on the assistance of that Providence that sometimes confounds the strong and confident, and lends his aid to the weak and humble, I offered up a mental ejaculation, and then made the necessary preparations for commencing an operation, of the precise nature of which I was in a great degree ignorant. [....] The roof of the hut wherein this poor sufferer lay, afforded shade rather than shelter, with the sides open to the four winds of heaven. Her bed was no other than the sand and the softest support that could be found for her head was the shell of a tortoise.
[...] I proceeded to measures which I conceived best adapted to the occasion; and I was finally not without hope, that [...] Dame Nature might finish the operation. In conclusion, I gave the patient a tincture of senna [...and] signified that I would return."
He returned to his boat at 3pm they heard "a horrid yell, which I feared might announce the death of the sufferer". He went back to the shore, ordering his captain to watch and to protect them if necessary. Indian women and children rushed to meet him and dragged his boat to the beach: "At first I did not know what to make of this movement; but reflecting, that at least I had nothing to fear from women and children I remained quiet." He went to the hut where, "the poor woman, although dreadfully feeble, upon my approach, animated her languid countenance with a smile, in token of gratitude.
The rest of the Indian women hung about my neck, greeting me with the most determined caresses. Nothing would satisfy the exuberance of this feeling on the part of the daughter of the 'Capitan Grande', a young woman of about sixteen, and ‘of an interesting countenance’; but forcibly making (p.286)me sit down beneath the shelter of the hut while she painted my face a la Tiburow! Not wishing to deny her the indulgence of this innocent frolic I allowed her to proceed. She mixed up part of a cake of a blue colour, which represents ultramarine (and of which I have a specimen,) in a small shell; in another, a white colour, obtained by a ground talc; and in a third as mixed a colour obtained from the red flint-stone of the class which I stated before was to be found on Seal Island, and resembled cinnabar. With the assistance of a pointed stick, the tender artist formed perpendicular narrow stripes down my cheeks and nose, at such distances apart as to admit of an equally narrow white line between them. With equal delicacy and skill the tops and bottoms of the white lines were finished off with a white spot. If the cartilage of my nose at the nostrils had been perforated so as to admit a small, round, white bone, five inches in length, tapering off at both ends, and rigged something like a cross-jack yard, I might have been mistaken for a native of the island!
As soon as the operation was finished, the whole party set up a roar of merry laughter, and called me ‘Hermano, Capitan Tiburow’ being the limited extent of their knowledge of Spanish."
When he returned to his ship he was indeed mistaken for an Indian. They had to stay that night, but nonetheless had their muskets and swords ready for a night attack. "A dozen times during the night I imagined that my medical skill was called into requisition."
p.289 "The Indians on the island of Tiburow are very stout, tall, and well-built fellows, exceedingly like the Twelchii tribe of Indians in Patagonia, and with a language so like theirs, that I imagined I was transported back into those wild regions. They by no means look so ferocious as they are represented, and there is something peculiarly mild in the countenance of the females. Their dress is a sort of blanket, extending from the hips to the knees. But most of the women have this part of their body covered with the skins of the eagle, having the fathers turned towards the flesh. The upper part of (p.290) the body is entirely exposed, and their hair is dressed on the top of their head in a knot which greatly sets off the effect of their painted faces. The men use bows and stone-pointed arrows; but whether they are poisoned, I do not know. They use a sort of wooden mallet called Macána, for close quarters in war. They have a curious weapon which they employ for catching fish. It is a spear with a double point, forming an angle of about five degrees. The insides of these two points, which are six inches long, are jagged; so that when the body of a fish is forced between them, it cannot get away on account of the teeth."
p.291 "[The Indians] permit no intercourse with the ‘Christianos’ of [Pitac]". He had become "so great a favourite with the islanders" that he was allowed to visit wherever and whatever he liked as he went in search of gold (finding none) and collecting minerals.
p.294 They set sail, but a storm brought them back to shore. He visited his patient, who was sitting up.
p.415 Opusura, March 1827.
"During my stay in Opusura, I believe I cured everybody for a length of time, but myself; and of the cases which I treated, there were some of so curious and so novel a nature. [...] In Sonora, the sick are beyond measure dirty in their habits. [...] Upon one occasion, I was called in to attend a young lady, who was troubled with a redundancy of saliva. Her hands had a thick dark covering on them, which I took for gloves; but it was the accumulated filth of thirty-three days. Superstitious belief dictated that people should not wash for forty days during such illnesses and her family could not believe that she survived the washing.
p.416 They have an odd notion of diseases, some of which are imagined to be caused ‘by wind between the flesh and the blood’; and whenever a lady is troubled by a pain between the shoulders, especially in the right shoulder and arm, they invariably attribute it to phthisis brought on by ‘hard work’.
If a patent were to die from consumption, they burn all his clothes &c. as they consider the disease contagious."
"A young lady came over from a great distance ‘to be cured’. She claimed to have every complaint under the sun. I asked her if she were married or single; single was the answer. I then told her, that so many complaints as she seemed to have could only be cured by a husband! At which observation she was exceedingly exasperated; but her anger terminated (p.417) in a proposal to marry me! I was never so surprised in my life, and looked quite stupid."
p.510 Back in Mexico
"We used, every day, to have a Tertulia in the library of Mr Ackermann, (from 10 to 3pm) which was attended by the following individuals: Señor Mangino, who is one of the Ministers of the National Treasury" (aged around 40, he had been to Europe ). (p.511) José María Mora, aged approx 35, who "has all the pallidness and languor which is so common in men of great talent and literary acquirements. He writes with great purity, force, and elegance, and possesses the faculty of observation in a greater degree than that of conversation. What, however, he does say, is always edifying and is listened to with great interest. He is of an amiable disposition, although perhaps too much of an enthusiast in politics. Doctor Mora possesses, I believe, the best library in Mexico. He was employed in the year 1823, by the Ayuntamiento of Mexico, to examine the desague, an interesting account of which he published, and received the thanks of the body, for his exertions and perspicuous suggestions respecting the canal."
Juan Cevallos, Marques of Guardiola, (aged 29-30) "He is a person of great quickness, has read a great deal, has a good memory, and a poetical imagination. Of all the Mexicans with whom I am acquainted (Señor Mangino excepted), he is the most moderate in his political opinions, and has, I think, juster notions of Mexico than most of his countrymen."
Francisco Vidaurre, Secretary of the late General Bravo (aged around 26) "[He is] good-looking, and good-humoured. He (p.512) is a native of the republic of Guatemala. We used to designate him the poet; not because he was inspired by the Muse [...] but because we had a quiz against him."
p.512 Andreo Prieto (aged 50) "although he desired not to be thought so old. He used to amuse us, because he was so obstinate in any opinion which he might once have expressed, that there was no possibility of convincing him of an error, by any power of reasoning or effort of voice to drown his observations, as his own was so deep and loud, that he silenced his opponent’s whenever he found the case go against him."
Signor Obregon (aged 50 to 60), director of the rent of the national tobaccos "is an oddity. I have never known him to cease talking for five minutes altogether, since our acquaintance began. Like Prieto, he is careful with his money; and it is one of the most entertaining things to see these two discussing the relative values of any two articles which each might be anxious to exchange with the other to advantage. Signore Obregon had a gold snuff-box, and Prieto a gold watch, and a negotiation had been opened between them for a mutual exchange, which lasted, I believe, for a whole year, without having been brought to a close; and probably it never will!"
Juan Perez (no age given) "is one of the most silent men I have ever met, although he speaks occasionally, he never ventures an opinion, upon any subject; but as all could not be talkers, and it was necessary (p.513) that there be some listeners, Don Juan was the person to complete out tertulia."
Eulogio Villarrrútia (around 35) "a distinguished officer in the Mexican service. [....] He commanded at Vera Cruz, when the breaking off of negotiations with the castle of San Juan de Ulloa brought on open hostilities between that castle and the forts of Vera Cruz. He is said to be the best officer in the Mexican army, and is besides the most gentlemanly and honourable man, and one whom I highly esteem."
"Bonifacio Fernandez de Cordova occasionally attended the tertulias. He is a man of very good talent, and extremely entertaining in his conversation, which is full of anecdote and poetical quotations."
"Signor Bustamente is a mineralogist. This gentleman possesses a great deal of real science, and is, withal, most modest and unassuming. He is a man of great liberality, and of very gentlemanly manners."
"Signor Delbarrio the minister from the republic of Guatemala, is a young man of great talent and promise, and is a most agreeable companion. He speaks English extremely well."
"My friend Mr. Dick and myself completed the tertulias, which lasted every day from ten a.m. till 3, p.m., during which time there was no dearth of conversation, or matter for discussion. So many (p.514) various talents never suffered a long pause, and the time passed away most agreeably. Among other subjects, the following was often canvassed: respecting the right of any one of the oppressed committing, himself, an act of retributive justice for the benefit of society in general. Indeed, there are two favourite topics from which the Mexican politicians draw all their inferences of liberty and legislation, and apply them to their own political circumstances. The assassination of Julius Caesar is their strong argument for having given the death-blow to the domination of Spain, and for having executed the sentence of death on the ex-Emperor Iturbide, although it is chiefly to him that Mexico owes the attainment of its independence. And for the adoption of a federal system of government, they insist, as a convincing proof of its superiority over every other, the success which has attained it in the United States of North America."
p.515 "The members of the Tertulia would not defend assassination, neither could they disallow the sovereignty of the laws; therefore the death of Caesar by assassination could not be defended. But they would not allow, however, that he died by assassination!"
"With regard to the death of Iturbide, it cannot be denied that it was legal, because he was condemned by the General Congress; and therefore, on his head, the only question was, whether, as a benefactor, the nation ought to have spared the life of a man, without whose talent and co-operation, Mexico might have been struggling for what Iturbide was mainly instrumental in acquiring, namely, Freedom. Upon this question we are always at issue; nor is it, in fact, easy to decide a matter which requires so many relative circumstances to be duly considered and weighed.
As to the adoption of a Federal system of Government; there we were more at variance. I denied, in toto, the wisdom of this system for Mexico. The period which has elapsed since the North Americans obtained their independence, is yet of too short duration to demonstrate the superiority of federalism over every other system, unless it can be proved that it subdues any excess of ambition that might, under another form of government, have enslaved thousands. A much longer period must therefore elapse, and the youths of America must (p.516) have other pursuits than those of commerce and agriculture, before we can positively admit that North America will be permanently happy under her present system.
Be this as it may, I have not yet been able to understand how the style of government and institutions of North America can be made to apply to Mexico. If this country indeed had had so wise and amicable leader as Washington, to direct its councils, he would undoubtedly have proposed that form of government which best suited the previous habits and education of the people; but whether that would have been federal or monarchical, who can decide? In Mexico, it is the fashion to reflect upon the political event of the independence, without considering the means or weighing the possible consequences."
As a foreigner, "I could not, of course, give my opinion in favour of the expediency of a federal government; but as a mere question of analogy, I ventured to express my entire disbelief of the eligibility of federalism for Mexico. The people of North America were indeed nurtured in the lap of liberty; had enlightened institutions to enlarge their understandings, and their revolutionary leaders possessed a previous knowledge of legislation to direct their choice in the adoption of a political system; and, in fact, (p.517) the declaration of the independence of that republic was nothing more or less than the confining within the limits of their own, the laws, manners, and customs of the mother country, for the more especial use and benefit of themselves. Mexico has acted as if she were trying to make the clothes of a grown person fit an infant, without alteration; for has she considered the possibility of decay. Sparta, Carthage, and Rome, flourished for ages. But what modern has ever doubted that these famous republics contained within themselves the seeds of their own dissolution. Old as the world is, and numerous as are the systems of government, none has ever demonstrated to be perfect: but that must surely approach the nearest to perfection which is congenial to the previous habits, genius, and feelings of a people. In short, a system must be made for the people, and not the people for the system. Indeed, with respect to the present form of government, which has hitherto answered so badly, it is a pity that the Mexicans do not change it for one better suited to their circumstances, character, and previous habits. It is, besides, far too expensive for the resources of the country, and had infinitely multiplied the number of both private and public tyrants. It has, in short, made the members of the body independence of each other, which is contrary to reason and practical utility.
But, nonetheless, to effect a reform, whether under the present system of government or any other, I am convinced that a benevolent tyrant, - (p.518) one who would rule with a rod so long as it might be requisite, but who, at the same time, would consult the ultimate happiness of the country, and the improvement of its inhabitants, is absolutely necessary: such an one, for example, as Rivellegigedo: and, till such be found, Mexico will, I fear, be unworthy of her independence, and a blot in the book of liberty. Whether I was right or wrong in my view of the subject, I cannot concede; but it is certain that this philosophy was not received as true.
These, and other matters, used to form the subjects of discussion [at the tertulias]."
"From these gentlemen I learned, that Mr Hunter (the person who excited so much interest in England a few years ago by the history of twenty years passed among the Indians,) was killed in the province of Texas, in the late revolt against Mexico."
"When Guadalupe Victoria was elected President [...] he claimed 14,000 dollars of the General Congress as a renumeration for the service she had rendered to the cause of liberty, during the time he had passed in solitary meditation in a cavern within the state of Vera Cruz. And this sum he obtained!"
p.519 Parties: "During my sojourn in Mexico there existed two parties one calling itself 'Yorkino', the other 'Escoses'. Of the meaning of these two words need no explanation is necessary: they belong to one of the most ancient institutions.
It may be said that the influence of both these parties has been most baneful, although not in equal degree. The Yorkino party, after having destroyed that of the Escoses, and being composed of materials which could not hold together, recently split into two; one being named Yorkinos moderados; the other, Yorkinos exaltados. ((Note explains, "The reader will call to mind the Abbé Barruel’s Memoirs of Jacobinism, beginning with the English translation, (p.446.) Thus did this sect, under the name of Fraternity, &c."))
p.519 "Of General Guerrero (called by his partizans the ‘Hero of the Revolution’), who is said to have betrayed (p.520) his friend General Bravo into the hands of his recent enemies [...] I shall say nothing. Time will unravel what is at present enveloped in mystery."
p.520 "Soon after my return to Mexico, I was introduced to the Condésa de la Cortina and her family. A more excellent and amiable lady does not exist, and I am bound to acknowledge the many kind civilities which I received at her hands. She is a woman of great talent and wit, although I never knew her to make an ill-natured observation. She has an a excellent house, furnished in good taste and containing a variety of extremely good paintings."
p.520 "[José María Mora] from his philosophical turn of mind, great reading, and actual knowledge (p.521) of the political transactions of the revolution, is particularly well-qualified for writing its history, - a work much wanted, and which would be highly interesting to Europeans."
p.521 "The Congress of San Luis Potosi passed a law [...] banishing all European Spaniards, with this extra clause: that all Spaniards who may be married to women of the country, by whom they have children, shall not be allowed to take any part of their families with them, and shall be made to leave two-thirds of their real and personal property for their support and use! Those married, and having no families, shall leave one half of their property behind for the use of their wives!
(p.522) In the state of Guadalaxara there was but one European Spaniard who was married to a Spanish-born woman (the only female of that country in the province). She had a daughter who attracted the attention of a lawyer, a native and a resident of that town, who made proposals of marriage to her parents. The lawyer’s character, however, was said not to be very excellent, and he was refused. He had lived in habits of intimacy with the family a long time, and of course became, during the period, intimately acquainted with them. Afterwards he wrote a comedy, in which the foibles of this family were alluded to in so undisguised a manner, that every person in the theatre, where the comedy was performed, knew the parties.
After this event, the lawyer was elected a member of the General Congress, and was in Mexico, when the law against the Spaniards was first in agitation. Our hero was so fortunate as to have the unhappy mother of the young lady, for whom he had formerly expressed so much attachment, included in the law of expulsion!"
p.526 INDIANS. "The Indians, in the province of Mexico, appear in the mind very little superior to mules. Their apathy is beyond example. Rather than get out of the way, they will suffer themselves to be ridden over; and yet, at their feasts, they appear to possess a great deal of animation. These poor people are as much idolaters as they were in the days of Montezuma; only, that their idolatry is now changed from the adoration of the serpent to the worship of various carved images of Christian saints, which, upon particular occasions, they exhibit and parade with great enthusiasm, and about the dresses and (p.527) decorations of which they expend large sums of money."
He cites a man called Glennie, who made an ascent to the snow covered peaks of Puebla, and gave "a curious account of the half-christian and half-heathen worship of the Indians who reside near the edge of the snow. On their feast days they set off multitudes of rockets and catherine wheels in honour of their deities; and all the money which they do not lavish in this manner, is paid to the convents for relics, prints, &c. By the way, no print of any saint has any efficacy in the estimation, not only of Indians, but of the lower order of whites also in Mexico, which has not been consecrated. These are artifices by which the convents are supported; and the sums of money which are thus expended by the crafty, are enormous. The Indian, however, is extremely industrious, and were it otherwise, it is probable that Mexico would soon dwindle to ‘the shadow of a shade.’ Fish, flesh, and vegetable, are all supplied by the Indians; and every species of manual labour is performed by them. The water carriers, it is said, perform their office in the same way as before the conquest.
The Indians possess a great talent at moulding figures in wax, and in making baskets."
p.530 talks about disease prevalent in Mexico: "Mexico is not therefore a country eligible for settlers. In point of resources, it is much inferior to the United States."
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