CHAPTER V.
FROM SALTILLO TO JARAL.--A JOURNEY BY DILIGENCE.--PECULIARITIES OF DILIGENCE TRAVEL.--BRIGANDAGE; HOW THE GOVERNMENT SUPPRESSED IT.--ROBBERS TURNED INTO SOLDIERS.--STORIES OF BRIGANDS AND THEIR WORK; THEIR TREATMENT OF PRISONERS.--A CASE OF POLITENESS.--DINNER AT A WAY-SIDE INN.--_CHILE CON CARNE_.--DESCRIPTION OF CHIHUAHUA.--THE SANTA EULALIA MINES; ROMANTIC STORY OF THEIR DISCOVERY.--TORREON AND LERDO.--COTTON IN TRANSIT.--STATISTICS OF COTTON IN MEXICO.--FRESNILLO.--CALERA.--A BAD BREAKFAST.--ARRIVAL AT ZACATECAS.--LODGED IN AN OLD CONVENT.
Bright and early the next morning our friends were ready for the journey to Jaral, where they were to connect with the train on the International Railway to carry them farther into Mexico. The distance is about forty miles, and was to be made by diligence, as the railway from Jaral to Saltillo was not then completed. They by no means regretted this, as a ride in one of these vehicles would be a novelty. The boys had read and heard a great deal about diligence travel in Mexico, and were more than willing to have an experience of it.
The start was made about seven o'clock in the morning, and there was a considerable crowd in the street to see them off. The arrival and departure of the diligence is an event in a Mexican town, though less so than it was before the days of the railway. It is probable that by the time this book is in the hands of the reader, the locomotive will have a finished track between Saltillo and Jaral, and the diligence will be known no more, except as a relic of past days. Those who have been jolted for hours and days in these heavily built carriages and over bad roads will give the heartiest kind of a welcome to the new order of things. The diligence will long continue on many of the side roads in Mexico, where it will not pay to build the railway, just as the stage-coach still exists in parts of the United States; but the great through routes have lost it for all time.
Immediately on their arrival at Saltillo, before going to Buena Vista, Doctor Bronson secured places for the trio in the diligence for Jaral; at the diligence offices all through Mexico, the rule of "first come first served" is followed as in a steamship or a Pullman car, and when the vehicle is full the traveller whose place is unsecured must wait for the next journey, extra carriages being very rarely put on. If the weather is good, an outside seat (_el pescante_) is decidedly preferable, as it affords a much better view of the scenery along the route. American tourists generally take the chances of the weather, and select outside places; but the native, who does not care for the prospect, and desires nothing beyond making the journey as speedily as possible, is quite content with the inside (_el interior_).
Mexican roads are bad, and Mexican carriages are constructed with a view to withstanding all the shaking that a rough road can give. The result is that at the end of a long journey the traveller feels very much as though he had been passed through a patent clothes-wringer or an improved threshing-machine. But no such fear troubled our friends, as the distance to Jaral was but forty-two miles, and the schedule time for the journey seven hours. The road was bad enough, it is true, but the youths heeded the advice of Doctor Bronson, and consoled themselves with the reflection that it might have been a great deal worse than it was.
They had read so much about brigandage in Mexico that the possibilities of an encounter with highwaymen naturally came into their minds. At the first opportunity they asked an American resident of Saltillo about the state of the country through which they were to pass, and the liability to an unpleasant encounter.
"There is hardly any danger on this line now," was the reply, "and it is a long time since a robbery was committed. There is less brigandage in Mexico to-day than there was a few years ago, but there is still too much of it to make travelling altogether agreeable. The Government has put down the system of robbery as much as possible, partly by capturing and killing the brigands, and partly by hiring them to quit the business and become respectable citizens."
"That's a curious way to suppress crime," said one of the youths, "to hire a man to be honest, after he has spent a good part of his life in robbery."
"It doesn't harmonize with our ideas of propriety," said the gentleman, "but it had the desired effect at all events. General Diaz, when he became President, induced the robber chiefs to quit the business they were in, and enter the service of the Government; they were pardoned for their misdeeds, commissioned as officers in the army, and appointed to preserve order in certain districts. Their followers were enlisted as soldiers to serve under their old leaders; each soldier receives $40 a month, and furnishes his own horse and equipments. As they know the whole country where they are on duty, they have effectually put down brigandage in their districts; they are the best horsemen in the world, and there's no finer body of cavalry anywhere than the Mexican _Rurales_--the reformed brigands."
"Doesn't it sometimes happen that they turn robbers temporarily, just to keep themselves in practice?"
"Yes, they have done so in several instances, but on the whole these converted highwaymen have kept faith with the Government very fairly. You must remember that brigandage has been a regular occupation for centuries, and it cannot be broken up in a hurry. In some parts of the country it was organized as a business, and many men who stood well in the community were associated with the robbers, and received a percentage of their earnings."
"Did they take any part in the robberies?"
"Not exactly with their own hands; but they used to notify the brigands when valuable trains were to be on the road, and at what time they would start; they acted as scouts or spies, if you please, and in this way earned their right to a share of the plunder.
"I was once captured and carried into the mountains by a party of brigands who held me for a ransom. In the old times before Maximilian came here, the Mexican brigands simply robbed travellers who made no resistance, and killed those who resisted unsuccessfully. Maximilian imported some Italians, who very soon turned robbers, and affiliated with the Mexican bandits; they taught the Mexicans the Italian trick of holding prisoners for ransom, and it was practised very extensively.
"Well, the rascals carried me off to their retreat in the hills, and made me write to my brother demanding five thousand dollars as ransom for me. They threatened that in case it was not paid by a certain day I would be shot, and my friends would receive my head as a proof that the threat had been carried out.
"The letter was delivered by a respectable citizen, who was on friendly terms with my brother and myself. I had dined at his house and he at mine, and we had had several business transactions. It had been intimated that he was friendly with the brigands, and this circumstance proved it. My brother paid the money to him, and I was released and allowed to come home. They treated me well while I was with them, but kept a guard over me all the time with orders to kill me instantly in case I attempted to escape."
"I suppose they made you promise not to reveal the name of that man to the authorities?"
"Not at all; I could have done so, and he would have been tried and convicted on the evidence of myself and brother. He would have been shot without mercy, but the matter would not have ended there; the brigands would have avenged his death and assassinated both of us within a week, _sure_.
"In some respects the brigands were not so bad as they have been painted," the gentleman continued. "The diligence companies have an arrangement whereby a traveller can buy a letter of credit to pay his bills with along the road, instead of carrying money, which would be a temptation to robbers. His expenditures are indorsed on the letter of credit by the company's agents, or he can draw a few dollars every night upon his letter to pay his hotel bill with. But it is necessary to carry some money in your pocket to pay the robbers for the trouble of stopping and examining you; if they find absolutely nothing to reward them for their efforts, you will very likely be killed as a warning to be more considerate the next time you travel. If they should rob you of your letter of credit, you can write or telegraph back to the agency where you obtained it, and a telegraphic transfer will be made for the amount remaining.
"Their usual plan of operations is to rush out suddenly from the road-side, and present pistols and guns in the faces of passengers and drivers, with a suddenness that prevents resistance. The passengers are ordered to alight, hold their hands in the air, then to lie down and place their mouths to the ground, and in this attitude their pockets are searched. The brigands are generally polite but firm, and in the American phrase, 'they won't stand any nonsense.' When the examination of pockets is completed they order the passengers to lie still for five or ten minutes, perhaps for a quarter of an hour, and during that time the fellows disappear from sight. If no resistance is offered no one is harmed, except once in a while when a blood-thirsty brigand kills for the sheer pleasure of it; but such fellows are soon apprehended, and generally they are betrayed by their followers, who do not relish the crimes that may be visited on their heads.
"Sometimes they build a barricade across the road at a place where there is a sharp turn, and in the confusion that follows the arrival of the coach at the barricade they perform their work. In such cases the robbers are concealed in the bushes all along the road-side, and the passengers suddenly discover a dozen or more guns bearing on them at once. Discretion is always advisable under such circumstances, and the traveller who is prudent will surrender his valuables at once.
"A friend of mine tells a story," he continued, "that illustrates the politeness of the Mexican robbers.
"He was travelling on horseback with a friend and a servant, and fell into the hands of a band of brigands whose leader was named Manuel. The fellows took everything of value that the travellers had, and then the chief told the sufferers that he would give them a pass which would save them from further molestation. Perhaps he was not altogether disinterested in so doing, as the exhibition of the pass would save his friends the trouble of searching an array of empty pockets and getting nothing for their trouble.
"Thereupon he wrote on a leaf of my friend's note-book something like the following:
"'DEAR GOMEZ,--This party has been thoroughly examined, and we've left them nothing you want. Please allow them to go on without delay.'
"Then he told them where they would be stopped, and was about to bid them good-by when my friend suggested that he had nothing with which to pay his expenses on the road. Manuel suggested that the travellers ought not to want for anything, and immediately gave them five dollars, which he placed in a neat pocket-book that he had taken from another traveller the day before. They met the other robbers at the place designated, and on presenting the pass were not interfered with in any way. My friend's horse had become lame, and Gomez generously gave him a fresh horse, stolen, no doubt, from somebody else, and turned the lame steed out by the road-side."
Other stories of the same sort were told, and the interview ended with an account of how the American owner of a line of coaches between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, away back in the forties, before the days of the railway, made a bargain with the chief of the brigands commanding the route, by which, in consideration of an annual subsidy, they were not to molest his coaches or passengers. The subsidy was regularly paid, and the brigands faithfully regarded their side of the bargain. When General Scott was advancing from Vera Cruz upon the capital he made a contract with this same American to supply the army with beef; and through the efficient aid of his friends the brigands, he had no difficulty in carrying out his contract. They stole cattle from all the haciendas within a hundred miles of the route and kept him well supplied.
The road from Saltillo to Jaral follows a picturesque valley, and in the forty-two miles between the two places makes a descent of nearly fourteen hundred feet. Consequently there was more down-hill than up, and the diligence went along in fine style. The driver was an accomplished whip, and managed his team admirably. For a part of the way the vehicle was drawn by horses; at the first station mules were substituted, and our friends were unable to say which were the better for the work. The driver explained that he preferred mules for the reason that in case they ran away they would keep to the middle of the road, while horses were apt to shy and turn to one side, thereby endangering the safety of the diligence and its passengers. This difference between horses and mules has been noted by drivers in other parts of the world, and is said to be correct.
The driver had an assistant, whose duty it was to throw stones at the leading animals to encourage them to their work. He was a skilled marksman and rarely missed his aim. Sometimes he threw the missiles while seated on the box at the driver's side, and at others he ran alongside the team or kept near the wheels of the coach. In either case the result was the same, and the conveyance under his manipulations made good progress.
Crosses at several points on the road showed where travellers had been killed by robbers. On all the roads of Mexico these crosses can be seen, and on some routes they are painfully numerous.
At noon a halt was made at a hacienda sufficiently long to enable the passengers to have something to eat. They were supplied with _chile con carne_, a stew of meat and peppers, very hot in two ways, and with the ever-present tortillas and frijoles. The jolting over the road, combined with the pure air of the Sierras, gave the travellers a vigorous appetite, and they heartily enjoyed their road-side repast. The service was somewhat primitive in character, and reminded our friends of Delmonico's, in New York, solely by its contrasts.
No brigands came to disturb the progress or the minds of the travellers, and in due time they reached Jaral and were landed in safety. Fred made the following practical note for the information of future travellers:
"The fare between Saltillo and Jaral is $3.75. Twenty-five pounds of baggage may be carried free by each passenger; for all excess he must pay seventy-five cents for each twenty-five pounds. There is a daily departure each way, and sometimes when the business demands it there are two departures."
There was not a great deal to be seen at Jaral, but the youths did not waste their time. They devoted themselves to obtaining information about the country to the northward along the line of the International and Central railways, and here is substantially what they ascertained:
"A hundred miles to the north of where we now are is the city of Monclova, which was for some time the terminus of the International Railway. It was the capital of Texas and Cohahuila when they both formed one State, before the war which gave Texas her independence. It is the centre of a region rich in minerals, and of late years several enterprising Americans have established themselves there, and are developing the resources of the country. Some of the silver ore in the Monclova district is so rich that it is sent to the United States and to Europe to be reduced, and the transportation of this ore furnishes a good business for the railway company.
"About half-way from Monclova to the American frontier is the town of Sabinas, which is the centre of a rich coal region. Mexico is in great need of coal, and it is only recently that it was known that she had a fine supply of it in her borders. It is found in a large part of the Sabinas Valley. There are extensive mines at Hondo and San Felipe, especially at Hondo, whence they are shipping large quantities for the use of the railways in this country and Texas, and for the mines in the interior of Mexico.
"There is an abundance of iron ore near Monclova, not far from the railway, and it is proposed to erect extensive iron-works at Sabinas for its reduction. The railways seem to have waked up this sleepy country, and if some Rip Van Winkle of other days could arise and look around him, he would rub his eyes in astonishment.
"If we had come into Mexico by the Central Railway we would have passed through the State of Chihuahua (pronounced she-_waw_-waw); but we wouldn't have seen much, as the train leaves El Paso in the evening, runs through a desolate country, and reaches the city of Chihuahua for breakfast in the morning. Mr. Janvier, the author of 'The Mexican Guide,' says there is not much to be seen in the city, and advises travellers not to stop there. According to his account, it is so overrun by Americans that it cannot be called a typical Mexican town. It has about 20,000 inhabitants, and no public buildings of importance, with the exception of the Church of San Francisco, which was built by a tax of one real on each pound of silver taken from the Santa Eulalia mines, which are in the vicinity. Chihuahua was once the centre of a large trade with the United States; and at one time when the road was dangerous, armed caravans were made up periodically, just as they are made up in Central Asia and other parts of the Old World at the present time.
"The silver-mines of Santa Eulalia are about fifteen miles from Chihuahua, and have the reputation of being among the richest silver-mines in the world. The district is fifteen or twenty miles square, and contains, or once contained, a good many silver-mines, which turned out fabulous amounts of the precious metal. Gen. Lew. Wallace has visited and described some of these mines, and judging from his account they must have been very rich. According to tradition, there was a time when the Real de Santa Eulalia had 7000 inhabitants, and the city of Chihuahua 70,000, all living, directly or indirectly, upon the product of the mines. Since the Spaniards left Mexico the mines have not been worked as extensively as before, and the operations now carried on there are upon a limited scale. There is a prospect that some of the old glory of the mines will be restored, now that northern Mexico is becoming accustomed to American ways of mining, and is beginning to adopt them.
"There is a romantic story concerning the way the mines were discovered. About the year 1700, three scoundrels who had been driven out of Chihuahua went to find refuge among the mountains of Santa Eulalia; they must have been a very bad lot to be obliged to seek safety in that region, which was infested by the Apache Indians, who were at war with the white people, and would have made quick work of killing these refugees if they had caught them. How they lived nobody knows; they were obliged to shift their locality from time to time to prevent being found by the Indians, and one day they came upon a ravine with precipitous sides, where there was a good supply of water.
"One of the men knew something about silver, and in looking around he found a rich deposit of ore. They sent word by a friendly Indian to the senior priest in Chihuahua that they would show him where he could get enough silver to build the finest cathedral in the world, and would do so on condition that he would absolve them from their sins, and obtain their pardon from the authorities.
"The bad men were absolved and pardoned, and kept their promise by showing the way to the mines, which were immediately opened, and yielded one hundred millions of dollars in eighty-six years. Enormous fortunes were made by the owners; and there is a story that once on the visit of a bishop who was to perform some religious service, the owner of one of the mines entertained the holy man at his house. He laid a path of silver bricks from his house to the door of the church, and when the bishop proceeded to the church he walked all the way upon solid silver. And the story ends by saying that the owner was careful to have the bricks taken up as fast as the bishop lifted his feet from them."
Leaving Jaral a little before noon, our friends proceeded by the south-bound train of the International Railway to Torreon, a distance of 130 miles, which was accomplished in about five hours. At Torreon they waited two hours for the train of the Mexican Central Railway, and while looking about them the youths espied several car-loads of cotton, which were about to leave by a freight train then being made up.
Naturally, the sight of the cotton led to an inquiry concerning the production of that article in Mexico and the uses made of it. The youths learned that cotton is grown in about half the States of Mexico, the largest quantity being produced in the State of Vera Cruz, while that of Durango ranks next. In the early part of the century about one million pounds of cotton were exported annually. Down to the time of the independence of Mexico from Spain, the royal authorities allowed no manufactures in the colony that would be likely to interfere with those of the mother-country, and consequently the manufacture of cotton goods was prohibited. After independence was secured, factories were built and set in operation, and at present the production of cotton is not sufficient to meet the demands of the manufacturers.
The best cotton is grown in the _tierra caliente_, but the plant thrives in the table-land up to an elevation of 5000 feet. According to a Mexican statistician, the average product is about 2000 pounds to the acre, which is more than double the average of the cotton-growing region of the United States.
Torreon and its near neighbor, Lerdo, are the principal shipping-points for the cotton grown in Durango. It is probable that the opening of the railways will stimulate the growth of cotton in Mexico. The United States and other cotton-growing countries may look for considerable exportations of that product from Mexican seaports at no distant day. The manufacture of cotton cloth in Mexico is encouraged by an import duty on all foreign textiles that does not give much opportunity for competition. German and English manufacturers have labored hard to convince the Mexicans that they would be greatly benefited by allowing other countries to do their manufacturing for them, but thus far the Mexicans have remained obstinately adhesive to their protective tariff.
The train left Torreon a few minutes before seven o'clock in the evening, and consequently but little was seen of the country until the following morning. Soon after daylight it reached Fresnillo, an important mining town which dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. A valuable silver-mine was opened at Fresnillo at that time, but its operation was long ago abandoned. Fresnillo is the point at which the two sections of the Mexican Central Railway were brought together in 1884, and the route was completed for an unobstructed run of the locomotive from the frontier of the United States to the capital of Mexico.
Our friends made their toilets in the sleeping-car as quickly as possible, and then turned to a contemplation of the scenery through which they were passing. On each side of the railway there was an extensive plain, with a fringe of low mountains forming the horizon. Straight ahead lay a range of mountains, which a friendly fellow-passenger said was rich in silver and had made the fortunes of Zacatecas and other towns.
They stopped for breakfast at a small town bearing the name of Calera, but neither Frank nor Fred could find that it was famous for anything, not even for the quality of the meals supplied by its restaurant. Then they rolled on towards Zacatecas, which they reached in about an hour after leaving Calera. In approaching Zacatecas the train wound among the mountains in numerous curves and bends, forming "mule-shoes" by the dozen, and facing every point of the compass before coming to a halt.
Zacatecas affords a good opportunity for studying silver-mining in Mexico, and consequently it had been selected by Doctor Bronson as a convenient stopping-place. By advice of the conductor, our friends rode in the tram-way cars to the hotel, and intrusted their baggage to cargadores, who were more than anxious for employment. The hotel in which they lodged was formerly an Augustinian convent, and all the more interesting for that reason.