Jropieal Jours 
 
 TO 
 
 Soltee Sou/ps 
 
 in 
 
 MEXICO * 
 
 <0 
 
 PRESENTED WITH COMPLIMENTS OF THE 
 
 Mexican National R. R 
 
 The Shortest, Quickest and 
 
 Jy • " ^ 
 
 ^ Host Picturesque Route ^ 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 MEXICO and the UNITED STATES 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE MEXICAN NATIONAL RATLROAD. 
 I8 93 . 
 
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 [ w ^,„^*« m »«««»«*' 
 
 ).i /^l&/y 
 
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 49 it 61 PARK PL- 
 
pro(i) tl?e Border to tl?e Qapital 
 
 A PROMINENT guide-book writer says, "The shape of Mexico is that of 
 a cornucopia turned the wrong way " — the cornucopia is there, but it is 
 by no means turned the wrong way : the big end is toward the United 
 States, and there is naught for us to do but to pour out its treasures of climate, 
 scenic beauty, antiquity, legends and commercial wealth for our delectation 
 and to the prosperity of its people and ours. 
 
 It is a favorite " ism" to compare rather odiously the mountains, rivers and 
 lakes of this continent with those of Europe ; and applying the names of those 
 on the other side to those on this side of the ocean is where the comparison 
 becomes odious, as we have an American Rhine, a Switzerland and an Italy 
 of America, down to Mexico, where an Egyptian title obtains which might be 
 more complimentary to its age if it went the other way and Egypt was called 
 the Mexico of the Old World. Even the title of " Old " is now disputed with 
 the lands across the seas, as the history of Egypt's civilization is new, while 
 Mexico's graven pillars, crumbling teocallis and ruined temples tell of a civil- 
 ization whose generations run back through unremembered centuries and 
 whose history must forever go unwritten. 
 
 The discovery of Mexico by Francisco Hernandez de Cordova was made 
 on the 4th of March, 15 17, at a point on the coast of Yucatan, and a year 
 later was followed by Juan de Grijalva, who landed on the Island of San Juan 
 de Ullua in the harbor of the existing city of Vera Cruz, from which port two 
 years later Cortez commenced the march of the conquest, whose history is one 
 of fascinating romance and adventure. The story of his battles, victories and 
 defeats, the pomp and pageantry of Montezuma's court, to the fearful scenes 
 of the noche triste, is familiar to every school boy, and the remembrance of it a 
 lingering desire to see a country it was worth so many lives to obtain possession 
 of — hence dates and statistical figures are unnecessary here. The all-impor- 
 tant question of the traveler of to-day may be written in seven words : Which 
 is the shortest and the quickest ? Being answered satisfactorily, he proceeds 
 at once, taking up his historical data en route. 
 
 Cortez could not have been impressed with the country from a first view, 
 any more than the modern traveler is when he comes to the border at Laredo 
 
TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 ^Sa 
 
 and looks across the murky waters of the Rio Grande to the plains on the 
 other side, and, beyond them, to the barren, treeless, verdureless hills that 
 would seem to shut out anything but the charmingly delightful country that 
 opens up from their southern slopes, and, but for the tale of wealth, of salubri- 
 ous clime, of people queer and 
 quaint, of obelisks and temple 
 ruins, of mysterious idol gods 
 and pyramids, of cities falling 
 on their own crumbling walls, 
 not only Cortez, but every 
 modern traveler would turn 
 back discouraged on the first 
 impression at the boundary 
 hills. But the story of a coun- 
 try so unique in varied attrac- 
 tions is to be relied upon and 
 the journey continued. 
 
 To go from one place to 
 another in one's own country 
 is to see another town or city 
 with similar streets and houses 
 and a people of similar habits 
 and customs ; to go from New 
 York to San Francisco is hard- 
 ly a change of scene — the street 
 scenes are the same, the inte- 
 rior views are alike, and the 
 dress of the San Franciscan, 
 his manners and customs differ 
 Herein then, lies the charm of foreign travel. 
 
 FROM A BACK COUNTY 
 
 not from the New Yorker. 
 And it is surprising how great the difference, just here and across the 
 border — a narrow, muddy river like the Rio Grande is the dividing line be- 
 tween the Nineteenth and the Sixteenth centuries, and perhaps the Tenth or 
 Twelfth, or a bygone age that is dateless. It is true there is a mingling of 
 the modern with the ancient in Mexico, but there is enough of the ancient to 
 make one journey, or two, or a dozen, intensely interesting and fascinatingly 
 charming. 
 
TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 As I say, the charm begins when the river is crossed, but the transition of 
 a night from the border city of Laredo is the stepping back some hundred 
 years as one contemplates it in the shadow of the ruins of the Bishop's Palace 
 on the hill that overlooks the valley and city of Monterey, and if it were not 
 for the steel shining rails of the Mexican National Railway, and the smelters' 
 smoking chimneys that have modernized and Americanized the view, the spell 
 of the other century might not be broken of the legend and history of this 
 Bishop's Palace ; and of the battle wherein it was a citadel any native will 
 discourse to you, or you may read it in the guide book, which, as says Shakes- 
 peare, "ne'er did lie, though folks at home condemn em." There are hun- 
 dreds of quaint old ruins — aye, thousands — in Mexico that no book or paper 
 
 ever tells of, and 
 the interested tra- 
 veler finds how 
 little of the story 
 has been told him. 
 Of the people, 
 what shall I say 
 of them? I don't 
 mean those who 
 wear the Parisian 
 bonnet instead of 
 the lace mantilla, 
 or the silken tile 
 instead of the sil- 
 
 THE BISHOP'S PALACE, MONTEREY. yered sombrero> 
 
 but the oldest inhabitants — those of the ancient Spanish dress, and of the 
 humbler sort who might trace their lineage to the great Aztecs and Toltec 
 times ; but the country is modernizing, and he who would see the primitive- 
 ness of it should go to-day nor wait hasta vianana, as the natives say, for 
 to-morrow the other century may be blotted by the nineteenth. 
 
 One is more interested in character sketches than landscapes, because one 
 cannot always locate the landscape except by the title, and a picture of a 
 pyramid of Egypt might have a title locating it in Mexico and even the man 
 who has been there and knows it all can't identify it ; fact is, a picture of 
 Jerusalem has been printed along with that of a Mexican city without placing 
 any titles, and the reader asked to guess " which is which," and nine times 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 out of ten Jerusalem's portrait was assigned 
 to Mexico. A landscape along the line of 
 the Mexican National Rail- 
 road might be credited to a 
 railroad across the Alps but 
 for the title under the picture ; 
 but the -natives of Mexico 
 can be assigned to no other 
 country on earth. It is not 
 necessary to walk out into 
 the country or take a horse 
 or a buggy and ride to find 
 the native — he is to be found 
 under the car window at 
 every station ; he may come 
 to sell an opal to the unsus- 
 pecting gringo from the 
 United States, or tempt him 
 to a glass of pulque; the 
 purchase of either may or 
 may not be regretted, as the 
 gringo is or is not liberally 
 constituted. The native may 
 play a fiddle (for he is never 
 a violinist) or ask alms minus 
 the music, or may trudge 
 along, carry (instead of saw) 
 wood and say nothing, or he 
 may bathe in the sluiceway 
 from some hot spring or an 
 irrigation ditch, "with no 
 other protection," as a promi- 
 nent writer has said, "than 
 the blue sky and the Republic of Mexico." 
 
 Not a country on earth, perhaps, presented 
 greater difficulties of travel and transportation 
 before the advent of railroads than Mexico — the 
 
TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 high hills seemed insurmountable barriers, and the deep valleys unapproach- 
 able from the precipitous heights. But the hills were climbed and the valleys 
 invaded, till the narrow paths were hard beaten for centuries before the sur- 
 veyors ran their chains along them and located the road-bed of the iron 
 horse, where only the sure-footed, patient burro had been diiven by a not 
 less sure-footed and patient peon driver. 
 
 I wondered much when I read my early geography lesson, and saw the 
 picture of an inverted mule in a wild tumble down a mountain side, with only 
 his pack-saddle as a possible soft thing to light on, and then only in case he 
 should strike on his back ; but when I came to take a burro ride from the 
 station on the Mexican National Railroad to the great mining town of 
 Catorce, or across the Sierra Madrcs from Toluca to the city of Mexico, I 
 ceased to wonder at the tumble taken by the burro as remembered from the 
 geography, yet wondered more how a railroad could be built where a burro 
 couldn't walk with comfort, much less safety to himself. 
 
 But it has been done, and the traveler rolls in luxurious ease in the Pull- 
 man palace with as much safety as on the plains of Texas, and looks down 
 into the awful gorges where many a burro has turned up his to — hoofs and 
 turned down his load of silver ore as he rolled oer and o'er to a rushing tor- 
 rent of a mountain stream a thousand feet below. All these are forgotten in 
 the magnificence of the view down the canons and across them. At least 
 they would be forgotten if the burros were not still there— as they really are, 
 and forming a serious competition with the railways, as may be seen in the 
 droves along the great, broad highway that runs along the Mexican National 
 Railroad across the plain of Toluca, up and over the rugged sides of the 
 Sierras, carrying the produce from the haciendas of the Toluca Valley to the 
 markets of the capital. 
 
 So serious a competition were these burro trains in the early days of rail- 
 roading, and before the natives had ceased to regard a car as a thing to be 
 looked at but not touched, that the National made a cheap rate from Toluca 
 to the city of Mexico for the native huckster and his stock of vegetables, 
 poultry, wood or charcoal, in the hope to carry the business and do away 
 with a troublesome competition. 
 
 The cheap rate was all well enough, but what was to become of the 
 burro if left in Toluca, and how was the man to get his truck to market 
 after arrival in the city ? This was a problem that could have but one solv- 
 ing—the burro must go along, and he did. The rate was made to include 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 the burro, and he was put into a car along with his master, and they all went 
 to town and back for one fare. 
 
 This was not the only competition. The driver carried as big a load as the 
 
 BUSINESS HEAVY. 
 
 driven, and the droves of human carriers seen along the roadside here form a 
 distinctive feature in one of the most interesting scenes of the world, where it 
 is but the twinkling of an eye to change from the towering grandeur of a 
 lofty snow-capped peak down to the spreading plain, and to the old, once 
 paved highway, just outside the car window there, with its men and animals 
 carrying the commerce cf a country that has wealth enough in her hills to 
 buy the world. 
 
TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 This competition disappeared more quickly as to travel. Your Mexican 
 has an eye for luxury, he knows a luxurious thing when he perceives it, and 
 the Pullman car caught on, so to speak ; it was an instantaneous success. The 
 two-wheel ox-cart, with its coop-like body, and the diligencia are relegated to 
 the off-the-railroad towns, and if you see a Mexican carrying his own blankets 
 and bedding, you may be sure he is from a back county and this is his first 
 trip. But to return to the story of the road. 
 
 A journey whose scenic effect does not rapidly improve can have but one 
 redeeming feature — that of quick transit — in which the rapid revolutions of 
 the wheels apologize for the featureless characteristics of the country, and do 
 much to promote the placidity of a tourist on an otherwise tedious journey. 
 When to this is added the knowledge that the desolate, cactus-covered plain 
 ends at the foot of these blue hills that encircle it, and there are only a few hours 
 of this, then every mile is full of interest. Crossing the Rio Salado and coming 
 to the little town of Lampazos, the object of the journey for pleasure begins 
 to be realized. South of the town on the right of the track is a mountain high 
 and so level of crest that it is called La Mesa, the table. Its summit is nearly 
 2,ooo feet above the plain, and along the rugged side of the cliff is a narrow 
 path scarcely wider than is necessary for man and horse, or Indian and burro, 
 to pass from the plain four miles to the summit. On the tip top of La Mesa 
 is a level plain of nearly a hundred thousand acres of woodland and grass, well 
 watered, where once was the home of a band of Cartujanos, an Indian tribe 
 obtaining their name from an ancient Benedictine mission established there 
 some hundreds of years ago ; but the more prosaic history is told in the owner- 
 ship of La Mesa by an Irish-Mexican, a landlord with the wit of his native 
 and the courtesy of his adopted country. 
 
 Proceeding southwesterly, the Mexican National Railroad follows the old 
 highway, that was first an Indian trail, then the highway of the Spanish king, 
 and, later, the line of march of the American armies as they proceeded to the 
 fields of what their greatest general has pronounced the most unholy and 
 unjust war that was ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. This 
 is an up-grade pull to higher altitudes, passing the minor stations of Busta- 
 mente, Villaldama, Palo Blanco and Salinas in tortuous windings through the 
 hills that seem to crowd around and shut off further progress at every turn ; 
 and thus on to the first of those delightful surprises so plentiful in Mexico — a 
 beautiful valley, a level plain of fertile fields and green trees with circling hills, 
 bluer as they are nearer and in the distance fading to a lighter azure, so faint 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 the line that it scarce can be discerned where the mountain ends and sky- 
 begins. 
 
 In such a plain and valley is the beautiful city of Monterey, with its 
 flowering gardens and running springs and streams of limpid water, its 
 quaintly arched bridges in the narrow streets, its plazas and parks, its massive 
 houses and cathedral towers. The plain spreads out to the foot-hills of the 
 Sierra Madres and to the peak called La Silla, where 'tis no strain on the 
 imagination to define the saddle-shaped top that gives its name, or of that 
 other Cerro de las Mitras where the bishop's mitre hangs high in the heavens 
 as if in benediction over a peaceful people. South of the city a smaller hill 
 has an odd-looking structure, that was once the residence of the bishop, and 
 later was a fortress in defense of the city, the capture of which made the 
 entry of the city an easy matter or the alternative of a destructive bombard- 
 ment. Another point of interest and fine view is the Caido Hill, south of the 
 city, reached by carriage road to within a hundred yards of the summit. 
 
 On the border of the plain to the north and west are the famous Hot 
 Springs of Topo Chico, famous long years ago, while of those of Arkansas 
 (that are not superior to these) remained undiscovered, and for centuries 
 under the patronage of the elite of Mexico, even to the august personage of 
 Montezuma's daughter, who, fatigued in the giddy whirl of court life, came to 
 Topo Chico for rest and recreation, returning to the capital as good as new, 
 and was ever afterward. Topo Chico is three miles distant from Monterey, 
 reached by horse-cars from the plaza, the track running through the green 
 fields that lie between the city and the Springs. There are superb baths and 
 a good hotel, all under American management. The waters of the Topo 
 Chico are to become famous in this generation as in so many of the past, and 
 now in these days of fast travel, many will journey thither as soon as 'tis 
 known of the location on a main thoroughfare within six hours of the border, 
 where the climate in December is as it is in June — an advantage not even 
 claimed by any rival. Monterey and Topo Chico must become a summer 
 resort for the people of the great State of Texas, and a winter resort for all the 
 other States. From the Mexican National Railroad station horse-cars lead to 
 the hotels, which are especially good, to all parts of the city and to Topo 
 Chico. This system is under a careful and competent management that is 
 watchful for their comfort and pleasure, as also for the traveler's patronage. 
 Special cars may be hired and run "special," at the pleasure of the party. 
 This is the best way to see the sights of Monterey, as the tracks reach all 
 
1 4 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 points of interest. At Monterey connection is made with the Monterey and 
 Mexican Gulf Railway for Tampico. (See list of side trips under " Other 
 Towns and Tours.") 
 
 Southward from Monterey the scenery begins in earnest, following in the 
 narrow valley of the San Juan, a great deep cut as if hewn from the towering 
 rocks by the hand of Nature for a Titan roadway, now reduced to the uses 
 of the modern railway, whose pigmy trains are little to insignificance as com- 
 pared with the gigantic surrounding rocks, and the cut seems a misfit for even 
 the ponderous locomotives that awaken the echoes as they, toiling, climb 
 the resisting grades. The noisy little Rio San Juan foams and frets, 
 first on this side, then on the other, as the track crosses from one side 
 of the canon to the other to find easier ways to get over the hills. The 
 little hamlet of Garcia, sometimes called Pesqueria, is just below Santa 
 Catarina, both places being objects of excursions by rail and carriage from 
 Monterey. There are two caves at Garcia, and from the left windows of 
 the cars a careful look will find a curious hole through the crest of the moun- 
 tain, as if made by a monster cannon shot. From now on, it is hard to say 
 which side of the car to select. To see it all an observation point on the 
 rear platform is best, or make a round trip and sit on one side one way, and 
 on the other going back ; perhaps this is better, then you can sit still and 
 take it easy. The wildness of scenery grows as the train rolls on through 
 the ever-narrowing canon, and each turn brings some new picture grander 
 and more beautiful than that other just back around the curve, and so it is on 
 the up grade all the time till the train rolls onto the elevated plateau and 
 through the gardens and orchards to the station at Saltillo, the capital of 
 the State of Coahuila, a city celebrated for its good wine and the many and 
 brightly colored zerapes, the pride of the Mexican's wardrobe, prized more 
 highly than the overcoat of the American or the top-coat of the Englishman- 
 To own a zerape of Saltillo is to possess the best and most artistically woven 
 in intricate colors that can be produced with all the factories of Mexico striv- 
 ing to imitate those hand-woven in Saltillo. The climate of Saltillo is fine, 
 but is at its best in summer, and has claims as a resort at all seasons. 
 
 There is an especially fine plaza and a cathedral ; these and the long stone 
 aqueduct which brings the city's water supply from the mountains, the old 
 French fort, the gardens and the orchard, are objects of interest to the tourist. 
 The Mexican National has a good restaurant and hotel at the station, and 
 there are other good hotels in the city, 
 
,6 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 A few miles south of Saltillois the battlefield of Buena Vista, pointed out 
 from the windows on the left-hand side. Still on the up grade and still 
 winding through the mountains, the train reaches the summit at Carncros, 
 where the company has a coaling station. After Carneros the descent to the 
 plain commences, and after reaching it, the track for a hundred and fifty 
 miles is almost without a curve — a splendid track, where the distance might 
 be made in three hours as far as danger of derailment is concerned, for miles 
 and miles it is as straight as an arrow. Just before leaving the hills the 
 village of Gomez Farias is pointed out on the right — once the home cf a noted 
 brigand, and now inhabited by his better-behaved descendants. 
 
 There is a fine grazing country on the plains, notably near La Ventura and 
 El Salado, where may be seen herds of cattle, droves of horses and burros, 
 taking life easy, living only to eat. 
 
 Vanegas is the next station of importance : a railroad is now in operation 
 toward Cedral and Matehuala. At Cedral, thirteen miles distant, are located 
 extensive silver reduction works. Matehuala, fifteen miles beyond, is situated 
 in a productive agricultural country, and is an extremely attractive place. 
 There is a smelter here where is extracted the silver from me ores brought 
 from the La Paz mines, which have produced great quantities of valuable 
 mineral during the last decade. From Vanegas south we skirt the foot-hills 
 of the mountain range, leaving it on the left, and come to the important 
 station of Catorce. The importance does not seem to cluster about the 
 station and force itself on one's observation, and at first glance there is an 
 idea of inquiry as to the use of the elegant stone station at Catorce — a sedi - 
 tious talker about Mexico said he had discovered that when he asked about 
 some of the charming points in Mexico the answer was to the effect that 
 they were somewhere else. While this is not true, one is apt to wonder why 
 Catorce and other places of that ilk are set down as important. See the bur- 
 ros browsing or lazily lying on the shady side of the station or the jacals — 
 their empty pack-saddles were just now under a burden of silver. Look 
 across the plain ; on the east side at the foot of the hills is a little patch of green 
 where there is a village, the resting place of the pack trains of burros, the 
 only means of transportation up the narrow path — that long brown line is the 
 path that leads over hills where no wheels have ever rolled, to a city that has 
 never heard their rumble, to the great mining city o'f Catorce, situated in the 
 range eight miles from the station of the same name, merits more than a 
 passing notice. Silver was discovered here about 1780, and the district at 
 
l8 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 once took rank among the most important in Mexico. Ore of fabulous rich- 
 ness was found, and the records show that for more than thirty years, com- 
 mencing with 1 790, the value of the output amounted to over three million 
 dollars annually. Here are hundreds of mines and miles of shafting and 
 tunneling. The drainage tunnel of one mile alone, the San Augustin, 
 extends into the mountain for more than a mile and a half, and was excavated 
 at a cost of a million and a half of dollars. For its entire length a tramway 
 has been constructed which is operated by mule power. Catorce should be 
 one of the very interesting places in. Mexico to the tourist. Here are found 
 the customs of Mexico in their purity, unaffected by the influence of the 
 stranger. Difficult of access, the town can be only reached by horseback or 
 on foot. Catorce has seldom been visited by any except those making busi- 
 ness trips. The ride up the mountains into the town is something, once 
 accomplished, always to be remembered, partly from its element of personal 
 peril, but more because of the beauty of the landscape encountered at every 
 turn. Glancing down as you near your journey's end, you catch the gleam of 
 the white walls of the town of Los Catorce outlined against the green of the 
 mountain side. Thousands of feet below shimmer the waters of a mountain 
 stream. The shifting coloring of the mountains, as light and shade chase 
 each other over their ragged expanse, the browns and greens of the valley far 
 below, and the hills in the hazy distance, are " beautiful exceedingly." The 
 Real de Catorce is built on the side of a ravine near the top of the range, 
 and has a varying population of from 8,000 to 20,000, as the mines are paying 
 poorly or well. Here are found all varieties of silver ore, from carbonate to 
 refractory ore, assaying $15,000 to the ton. Catorce has a fine cathedral, 
 richly decorated, and a pretty plaza, the only level spot in the place. To use 
 a railroad phrase, it is a combination of a cut and a fill, so that to tumble 
 into it on one side or out on the other would be extremely disastrous. The 
 streets are neatly paved, and run up and down hill, many of them at an 
 angle of forty-five degrees. 
 
 The story of the wheels, or rather, the no- wheels, is a true one, literally, 
 with the single exception in the (was about to say) " carting," but conveying 
 is better, a carriage on burros to the city by a rich mine owner, but was 
 abandoned ; the wheels would roll one w r ay easily enough, but it was difficult 
 to get back to the starting point — and the innovation of wheels at Catorce 
 was not accomplished. The word catorce in Spanish means fourteen. The 
 mines were discovered by a bandit band of fourteen members. 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 
 
 19 
 
 Catorce is the last stop in the Temperate Zone. Before the train reaches 
 the next station, La Maroma, it crosses the Tropic of Cancer and enters 
 the Torrid Zone ; but it is not to be inferred that the weather is to be warmer 
 now, either in summer or winter. The memories of early geography lessons 
 teach of latitude only, not even referring to the altitude of the section. 
 Although within the tropics, it possesses a more delightful climate than any- 
 where in the United States. A pyramid erected by the Mexican National 
 Railroad Company marks the spot where the track crosses the tropical line. 
 
 It may be seen from the windows on 
 the west side of the train. This is an 
 interesting feature in the geography 
 of the line, and is brought more for- 
 
 cibly to the mind of the traveler in that it marks 
 the exact line between two zones that he has 
 been taught differ so radically in climate. 
 
 Leaving the Tropic of Cancer, the route is still 
 across the plain as the arrow flies, passing Los 
 Charcos, the station for another mining town, 
 that of Charcos, where there are some valuable properties, then Venado, where 
 half the journey is accomplished, and Moctezuma, which is quite a village. 
 
 The town or village of Mexico that has not its legend is unworthy of its 
 name. Wherever the train stops, and during the little minutes it stays at the 
 station, a bit of history or legend is hurriedly told, and if the starting bell 
 interrupts the story, the conductor or the train- man will tell the rest. The 
 legends are of history, sacred and profane, not confined to earth, reaching the 
 heavens above and waters beneath it, and from the vast deep the spirits have 
 been called. If you doubt it, evidences a-re shown in the bridge at Monterey, 
 where the Virgin stood and held at bay the invading Americans in '47, or the 
 
20 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 stone sails at Guadalupe that encase the sails and foremast that the sailors 
 carried from Vera Cruz, and erected in front of the Virgin's holiest shrine, as 
 they had vowed to do if she would save them from shipwreck ; the rocks are 
 shown from whence Juan Medina leaped, and the Mexican National cars run 
 over the spot where he fell ; and the famous Titian at Tzintzuntzan, near 
 
 
 To 3 I n A 
 
 PYRAMID AT THE TROPIC OF CANCER. 
 
 Patzcuaro, has its legend as well as authenticated history ; and thus at this 
 station or that, all along the line, some new and unheard-of story is told. 
 
 Bocas, a little village just north of San Luis Potosi, is one of the prettiest 
 in all Mexico, being the first really typical town of beauty reached on the 
 southward trip. The train has been crossing an unbroken plain for a 
 hundred and fifty miles without a curve, and the coming to the green trees 
 of Bocas is in the nature of a first impression, that is reputed as the most 
 lasting. 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 21 
 
 As the train is nearing Bocas, be ready for a look from the windows on 
 the east side of the cars, and very near the track see a most magnificent 
 hacienda, the first really fine and typical hacienda, with its castle-like residence, 
 towered church and group of bells, arched bridge of stone, walled gardens 
 with growing fruits and flowers, and court-yards with frowning parapets built 
 in the old bandit days for protection to the peons and the herds at night. On 
 the other side, in a grove of green trees, is a place 'tis said once belonged to 
 Emperor Maximilian, while another legend says a rich landowner com- 
 menced to build, but ere the house was completed he died and it was turned 
 into a chapel ; it is 
 the white tower of 
 the chapel that is seen 
 above the trees. Be- 
 tween the stream and 
 the track is a mescal 
 distillery, a native rum 
 made from a species of 
 the maguey — a novel 
 feature of which is the 
 primitive water wheel 
 worked by the more 
 primitive and patient 
 ass. At Bocas, no mat- 
 ter which way you are 
 going, lay in your supply of fruits (and mescal if you like it) ; they are good 
 (the fruits are) and fresh from the trees. 
 
 Now the plains are left behind and the climbing of the hills at the southern 
 boundary commenced. There are many twists and turns before the table land 
 is reached where the city is, which, outside of the capital, is second to none 
 in the Republic — the city of San Luis Potosi, almost the only one where 
 the railway station is near the city's centre, as it is here, on one of the main 
 plazas, and within easy walk of the business portion from one of the finest 
 railway stations in this or any other country. On all schedules there is 
 time for a look around; but San Luis is one of the places to stop, as 
 there are good hotels and much to see. The city is laid out at right 
 angles, the streets are marvelously clean, and the houses, required by law to 
 be kept newly painted, are examples of cleanliness that might be emulated 
 
 TABLET OF THE PYRAMID OF THE TROPIC OF CANCER. 
 
22 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 by nations said to have a better reputation than has been unjustly given to 
 Mexico. 
 
 The markets are especially interesting, and the fountains with their pic- 
 turesque crowds of water-carriers and their quaint, primitive wheelbarrows 
 
 ^%- 
 
 \ 
 
 8: 
 
 OLD CHURCH AT BOCAS. 
 
 carrying from one to three earthen jugs that are strapped on these San Luis 
 velocipedes which work with a shove motion in a manner more picturesque 
 than easy. In the plaza is a fine statue of Hidalgo, placed in position on 
 Independence day of '89. An interesting drive is through Paseo del San- 
 tuario de Guadalupe to the church of that name, the one with the two tall 
 towers seen from the cars in approaching the city from the south. The 
 cathedral has a fine clock which sounds the hours, and was the gift of a King 
 of Spain in return for the largest single piece of silver ore ever taken from a 
 mine — the mines of San Pedro, near San Luis. The people are a hospitable, 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 23 
 
 pleasure-loving set, and very kind and courteous to strangers within their 
 gates. 
 
 There are several fine public buildings, notably the Governor's Palace, 
 Palace of Justice, the Cathedral, the churches of Carmen, San Augustin and 
 Merced. The streets are narrow, and, as usual, picturesque ; the plaza is a 
 revelation ; the hotels are much superior to those of most Mexican cities, and 
 
 THE WATER WORKS OF SAN LUIS POTOSI. 
 
 altogether San Luis Potosi is worthy of its enviable reputation. Its business 
 men arc active and progressive. Mining interests have added very materi- 
 ally to its wealth, and, now that it is on direct line of rail communication with 
 
24 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 the outside world, it will, without doubt, attain increased prominence. The 
 railway station is located on the west side of the alameda, or park, so that, 
 contrary to usual custom in this country, the traveler is enabled to take the 
 train almost in the heart of the city. At San Luis Potosi is the crossing of 
 the Mexican Central's Tampico line, reaching to Tampico on the east and 
 Aguas Calientes on the west. 
 
 After leaving the table land we again enter the hills and valleys and 
 canons, where the scenery is wildly picturesque, and as valley after valley is 
 passed, it is apparent that the soil is here extremely productive. The popu- 
 lation becomes more dense and the vegetation increases in luxuriance. Villa 
 Reyes is passed, with the immense hacienda of Jaral, which, during the revo- 
 lution of 1810 furnished a full regiment of cavalry to assist the royalists 
 against the armies of the patriots. This hacienda once controlled 20,000 
 peons. Before arriving at San Felipe we cross a deep barranca spanned by 
 a viaduct noticeable for its height and the engineering skill displayed in its 
 construction. San Felipe is a town of some 6,000 inhabitants, and is situated 
 in the centre of a rich farming country. 
 
 Dolores Hidalgo was given its name in honor of the patriot Hidalgo, the 
 Washington of Mexico, who sounded the watchword of liberty which fired the 
 Mexican heart and aroused the whole country to arms to resist the power of 
 Spain. This is a quaint old town of several thousand inhabitants. It has a 
 fine plaza and interesting churches, and the traveler is shown many relics of 
 the Cura Hidalgo, which are here preserved in the old house which he 
 occupied. 
 
 Turning more to the westward, skirting some high mountains, the road 
 comes to the city of San Miguel de Allende, named for and the birth- 
 place of the patriot Allende. The city is on the east side, about a mile and a 
 half from the station, spread out on the sloping sides of a great hill — one of 
 the most picturesque towns in all Mexico, famous for its baths, where the 
 water gushes from the rocks on the hillside, is conveyed fresh to the baths at 
 a most comfortable temperature ; these ever-running springs, furnishing an 
 abundance of water, run down in sparkling streams and miniature cascades 
 through the most beautiful gardens of fruits and flowers. The plaza is a 
 beautiful one, densely shaded by luxuriant trees, under which the natives 
 in brightly colored costumes, group themselves on market days, when the 
 band plays in the evenings, making pretty pictures fit for a canvas. The 
 hotels face the plaza, and they are good ones, the windows overlooking the 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 25 
 
 novel scene. On one side is the Casa de Loreto ; the modern spires of the 
 chapel being designed by an untutored native, contrast strangely with the 
 
 square and Moorish style of the older 
 After leaving San Miguel the road 
 canon of the Laja. A seat on the right 
 can see the little river far down the 
 other side the high hills, and just at a 
 a jutting point of the mountain across 
 that would seem to be painted on 
 
 buildings beside it. 
 enters the valley and 
 is the best, where you 
 valley and on the 
 turn of the canon, on 
 the valley, is a cross 
 the sky. All along 
 through the valley are 
 little farms with clus- 
 ters of adobe houses ; 
 every hamlet has its 
 quaint little church, 
 tower, bell and all. 
 These are on the 
 
 PARISH CHURCH AT SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE — MEXICAN NATIONAL RAILROAD. 
 
26 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 slope below the track, affording glimpses of Mexican farm-yard life. The 
 houses are almost hidden by trees and vines, among which are many 
 oranges, lemons and bananas, bright green spots in little fields laid out in 
 squares hedged with what we call the century plant, the maguey, from 
 whence the Mexican gets his pulque. 
 
 Leaving the canon, the country assumes a more tropical aspect, more of 
 what the tourist expects to see — and if there were time and a hotel at the 
 place, would say to stop off at San Juan de las Vegas, a typical Mexican 
 town, primitive in style, where no foreigner has his home, where there are 
 groves of oranges and lemons and bananas, where 
 fruit may be had for the picking, and where the 
 native " lazies " the time away in indolent do-noth- 
 ingness behind the rows of cactus that hedge the 
 streets. This interesting place and the woolen 
 mills of Soria passed, the route is through a fine 
 agricultural country, to Celaya, a city of great 
 beauty in the midst of a fertile country. Here the 
 tourist meets the vender of opals, strawberries (at 
 all seasons) and dulces, a native confection, or 
 rather the vender meets the traveler on all trains, 
 night or day. A word of advice — select your opal, 
 box of strawberries or dulces, but conclude no bar- 
 gains till the engine bell rings and the conductor 
 cries " Vamanos!" Then — have the exact change 
 ready, and probably you will come out all right. 
 At Celaya are many fine old churches, especially Our Lady of Carmen, which 
 contains some frescoes of note and several paintings well worth seeing. 
 Celaya is built on a level plain in the valley of the Laja. It is celebrated for 
 its dulces (sweetmeats), and there are several manufacturers of woolen and 
 cotton fabrics. The baths of Celaya are among its attractions. A tramway 
 extends from the railroad to the plaza in the centre of the town. Here the 
 Mexican National is crossed by the line of the Mexican Central. The prin- 
 cipal hotel is the Golis. Continuing down the valley of the Laja we arrive 
 at Salvatierra, noticeable in the distance from the glittering of its many 
 church domes, which, being covered by a glazed tiling, present a pleasing 
 contrast to the dark green of the many shade trees with which the streets 
 are lined. Salvatierra has a population of 10,000, and is something of a trad- 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 27 
 
 ing centre. There is a large woolen mill which gives it some manufacturing 
 importance. There are several small hotels, the best of which is the Diligen- 
 cias. The line continues from here south through an interesting and very- 
 fertile country, abounding in corn and sugar cane, passing many peculiar- 
 looking Indian villages with their quaint peaked huts. 
 
 From the valley, the "Valley of the Laja," it is a quick ride through a 
 rich country to the valley of the Lerma. reached at Acambaro, and that long- 
 est river in Mexico is crossed just before coming to the station. 
 
 Acambaro is the most self-satisfying town in Mexico. It is delightfully 
 primitive, and the fact that it is an important railway junction point has not 
 lost to it any of its antique quaintness. The town lies off to the westward of 
 the station, and although scarcely half a mile away, is so completely hidden 
 by the trees that only the church towers can be seen peering above them, and 
 showing the white outline against the blue background of the high hills be- 
 yond the town. The lover of the quaint and antique will find much to charm 
 in this old town, only its very quietness seems oppressive, and after a stop of 
 a few hours the tourist is ready to join the entire population and go and see 
 the train come in. Acambaro is the junction of the western division of the 
 Mexican National Railroad, leading to Morelia and Patzcuaro, and the beau- 
 tiful lake region of Mexico, which is described in another part of this book. 
 
 The main line of the National now takes a turn to the southeast, following 
 the valley of the Lerma, sometimes running near its waters and then high 
 above them on the high cliffs of a canon. The best view can be had from the 
 windows on the east side, though in 
 crossing the hills there are so many 
 turns that the same views may be seen 
 from either side — one in particular, a 
 fertile valley far down the hillside with 
 its green fields laid off in squares so 
 regularly that it seems a huge checker- 
 board. In the midst of it is a little vil- 
 lage hidden by the trees, all but the very 
 white tower of the church, which may 
 be seen first from one side of the train and then from the other for more than 
 an hour ; then passing into a great cation and through it on the right bank, in 
 ten minutes comes to the very pretty town of Maravatio, with the usual 
 complement of queer-looking old churches and attractive plazas. Its red-tiled 
 
28 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 houses give it a picturesque appearance. From here on the country is 
 fertile and remarkably attractive to the eye — the broad lying valleys covered 
 
 with bright patches of bril- 
 liantly colored flowers, and 
 the graceful lines of the 
 mountains, all are in marked 
 contrast to the wild and 
 rugged landscape of the 
 north. At Maravatio con- 
 nection is made with the Michoacan & Pacific Railroad under construction to 
 the west coast of Mexico. Skirting the valley of Solis we pass into the moun- 
 tains under a beetling cliff, called by the natives " El Salto de Juan Medina," 
 
 WAITING FOR THE TRAIN. 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 29 
 
 the tradition being that a famous bandit, one Juan Medina, being hotly pursued 
 by the authorities, leaped his horse from the precipice and was dashed in pieces 
 on the rocks below. A steep grade is here surmounted, and the train enters 
 Zopilote Canon, along the precipitous side of which a space just wide 
 enough for the track has been blasted. Above hang great masses of 
 granite, the mountain here rising sheer upward for hundreds of feet; 
 below dashes a rushing stream, which just in advance foams and tumbles 
 over the rocks, forming a waterfall of great beauty. Passing out of the 
 canon we enter the fertile country once more, and reach one of the richest, 
 agricultural regions in all Mexico. The great haciendas, that are almost 
 towns in themselves, are seen on both sides, and in the fields whole regi- 
 ments of peons are plowing ; the plows drawn by steers move more slowly, 
 but with military precision 
 as soldiers in skirmish line, 
 as they are, too, on the 
 skirmish for their daily 
 bread. 
 
 Now a look forward from 
 either side of the cars will 
 soon show the snow-capped 
 crater of the volcano of To- 
 luca, and after passing Flor 
 de Maria and several other 
 less important stations, 
 comes the city of Toluca, 
 on the west side of the track, 
 a very beautiful city on the 
 foot-hills of the volcano. 
 Toluca is the capital of the 
 State of Mexico ; it is one 
 
 WHOA ! 
 
 of the cleanest, most charm- 
 ing and most hospitable cities in the world. Horse-cars run from the station 
 to the plaza, passing the principal hotels, of which there are several excellent 
 cnes in Toluca ; in fact, no tourist has ever left the city but in a happy mood, 
 thanks to the good living, splendid rooms and refreshing baths. The clean, 
 well-paved streets, the quaint portales, the really fine markets, the pretty 
 plaza, and the splendid public buildings are all features of attraction that 
 
3° 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 town and m 
 After leaving 
 almost due east, 
 over there are to - ^ /', 
 surmise, and when he V- 
 how it was ever done. " x 
 chosen, or on the rear \ 
 way, a broad road that i 
 track for some miles, 
 cattle, hundreds of men 
 of burros — the men, women 
 the products of the country 
 the markets of Toluca or even 
 miles away. Just before reach 
 Lerma is crossed near its 
 
 fc 
 
 A 
 
 where once was the great city of 
 gling village. A mile or two further on 
 helper-engine is hooked on, two engines 
 lightest train and three for the heavier 
 to the right for the grandest piece of 
 anywhere in Mexico. The little village \ 
 whose streets are about on a level with the SB 
 In a few moments after the train has 
 closely bended horseshoe curve, it will be a thcu J' , - 
 the village, and on a cliff so precipitous that we * . 
 the roofs of thatches and tiles and the church \ 
 towers that seem as toys from a child's play- ^ 
 box. 
 
 Not all the attraction is at the base of the 
 hill — the grand view includes the whole plain of 
 Toluca, the city with its red-tiled roofs and beyond 
 it the volcano, a magnificent panorama without a 
 
 leave the most pleasant memories. Toluca is 
 
 a good place to buy souvenirs in linen-drawn 
 
 work, pottery, straw sombreros, 
 
 ^^ palmetto baskets and scores of 
 
 other mementos of this delightful 
 
 country. 
 
 the station at Toluca the track runs 
 
 and how the high mountains just 
 
 be surmounted no traveler can 
 
 )j comes to them he still wonders 
 
 A seat on the right is to be 
 
 platform. The King's Iligh- 
 
 once was paved, parallels the 
 
 \, It is crowded with droves of 
 
 II and women, and pack-trains 
 
 if and burros all laden with 
 
 going to or returning from 
 
 the city of Mexico, forty 
 
 ing the hills the river 
 
 waters, and at a point 
 
 Lerma, now only a strag- 
 
 a stop is made and the 
 
 < 
 
 Y 
 
 % 
 
 head 
 
 being required for the 
 ones. Now all hands 
 scenery on the road or 
 near the road 
 railsisOcoYOCAC. 
 I crawled around a 
 sand feet above 
 may look down on 
 
 \ 
 
 k 
 
 
 ABOVE OCOVOCAC. 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 31 
 
 superior in its wonderful scope — not in Mexico, not on the continent, nor, I 
 believe, in the world. 
 
 The two locomotives toil along slowly, so there is time to enjoy the scene 
 always to be remembered, and yet almost impossible to describe. On the 
 first shelf of the Sierra Madres — the " Mother Mountains " of Mexico — after 
 leaving Toluca valley are the mill and fields of Jajalpa ; then continuing the 
 ascent, passing under the old and the new aqueducts of the mills, with here and 
 there a parting glimpse of the valley again, the road comes to Salazar and 
 then to La Cima, which is the summit and where the " helper " is unhooked, 
 as 'tis easy going now. 
 
 Here the altitude is more than ten thousand feet above the sea, though 
 you may have discovered this if altitudes affect you, if not in measured feet, 
 in the short measure of your breathing, and the cool crisp atmosphere. You 
 noticed the mountain stream that flows down the west slope and past Jajalpa, 
 the source of the Lerma, whose waters flow on to the Pacific Ocean — these at 
 the track side now, rushing in a hundred cascades down the canon, go on 
 forever to the valley of Mexico. 
 
 As the seat on the right has been selected for the ascent, it is a good one 
 to keep on the down grade, and there is something to see in every inch of 
 the way, so the wink of darkness made by a short tunnel is begrudged. The 
 towering mountains on one side, the yawning chasm on the other, look wicked 
 enough and command attention near by. But look — look beyond that canon, 
 and beyond the hills on the other side of it — there, still twenty miles away is a 
 shining sheet of silvery waters, a broad spreading plain, hundreds of towers, 
 and beyond them the everlasting hills, and beyond them lifting their hoary 
 heads even to the clouds, and above them two peaks of snow, whiter 
 than the snowiest clouds, and whiter still 'gainst the clear blue sky — is this 
 picture or the other, grander? These are the lakes Texcoco and Xochi- 
 milco, the plain and city of Mexico and the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and 
 Ixtaccihuatl. 
 
 Rolling the descent down, the train runs almost as slowly as it came up 
 the other side— the two powerful brakes keeping it in perfect control. The 
 village over on the hill was once a rendezvous of a bandit band, the church 
 was of their building from the proceeds of their business. Rio Hondo is a 
 wood and water station. Near it on the left of the track is a great meteoric 
 stone as big as a car, called by the natives the " Moon stone," as they believe 
 it fell from that planet. There are some strange hieroglyphics on the stone, 
 
32 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 and it is believed to have a more ancient origin in its graving- than the famous 
 Calendar stone. Next is Dos Rios, and then the factories of Naucalpan, 
 and then rolling down to the level plain, past Tacuba and under the old 
 
 aqueduct into the Colonia station, and the 
 journey to the city of Mexico is ended. 
 
 WESTERN DIVISION. 
 
 Westward from Acambaro runs the 
 division of the Mexican National Railroad 
 which is to make it a Transcontinental 
 line, and when completed will reach the 
 Pacific Ocean at Manza- 
 nillo. In the mean time 
 that completed portion 
 which extends from the 
 main north and south line 
 at Acambaro to Morelia 
 and Patzcuaro affords a 
 most charming ride 
 through a rich country 
 of the more primitive 
 Mexico and through the 
 beautiful lake region. 
 The winding road pas- 
 ses over the hills and val- 
 leys and some stretches of 
 agricultural lands with its fertile 
 farms and great haciendas, and 
 comes suddenly after a sharp 
 curve to the shores of Lake Cuit- 
 seo, and turning to the left skirts 
 the southern shore of the lake, 
 where in the marshes are some old salt works ; following along the western 
 shore the train comes to the little station of Querendaro. The more ad- 
 venturous tourist may leave the train here; not that there is any danger 
 whatever, but there is no hotel, not even a fonda, and provender must be 
 brought along or hunted and fished for. A canoe may be hired from the 
 
 THE CATHEDRAL — CITY OF MORELIA. 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 33 
 
 Indians for a voyage across to the Island of the Burros, one of the many 
 islands of the lake and the only one inhabited. 
 
 The people are a hardy, sturdy race, the men are hunters and fishers, the 
 women have nothing to do but to eat, sleep and grow fat, which they have made 
 a complete success of ; there are some fine specimens of almost Amazonian 
 proportions, the finest Indians in Mexico. The lake abounds in myriads of 
 water-fowl of every description. The fish as taken by the Indians in large 
 hoop nets attached to a long pole, are a small white fish like a minnow, no 
 bigger than your finger. These when dried in the sun are ready for the table, 
 I should say, if there was one on the island. Lake Cuitseo is about forty-five 
 miles long by ten to twelve broad ; the shores on the north and east rise to 
 high peaks, as do most of the islands ; the southern shore is low and marshy ; 
 altogether a beautiful sheet of water. 
 
 Near the landing place of Querendaro there are some hot springs, where 
 the water is hot enough in the streams that flow from them to boil an egg. 
 In scores of places columns of steam are rising from the fissures in the ground, 
 and to walk over or near them is to feel the ground sink under you. 
 
 In a thicket near the track is a most primitive bath. A pit dug in the 
 ground near one of the spring streams is filled with water by damming the 
 little brook, and when full is turned back to its own channel again. It must 
 be a spring of wonderful curing waters. On the trees and bushes, in the 
 ground, everywhere near, there are hundreds and hundreds of crosses, the 
 thank-offerings of those who have bathed and been cured. 
 
 Leaving the lake, the route is still to the westward, and abounding in 
 those beauties of landscape that characterize the road throughout its length. 
 
 The high double-peaked mountain to be seen ahead, first on one side and 
 then the other, is the Cerro de Quinceo, just on the outskirts of Morelia. 
 A look from the windows on the left shows the towers of the cathedral over 
 the top of a barren hill ; on the other is the river, the train running close to 
 its banks, where hundreds of natives are indulging in open-air laundering 
 and bathing. 
 
 Morelia is one of the prettiest cities in all Mexico, and its women enjoy 
 the same flattering reputation. Horse-cars run from the station to the 
 plaza and to the principal hotels, than which there are no better anywhere 
 in the Republic, and they are entirely satisfactory as to rooms, baths and 
 board. The beautiful plaza, the magnificent cathedral, the Paseo de San 
 Pedro, the Causeway of Guadalupe, the Aqueduct, are objects of attraction ; 
 
34 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 
 
 35 
 
 but the hospitality of the people, the beauty of the women, the music and 
 the flowers, all combine to lengthen the stay to the extreme limit of a stop- 
 over ticket. 
 
 If there was nothing else at the end of it, it is worth all the journey to 
 Morelia to see the Cathedral and the great towers thereof, that may be seen 
 from afar off, overtopping the high hills, giving the first glimpse of the city as 
 the train comes up the valley from the east. There is not a finer edifice 
 
 LA VIGA GATE. 
 
 anywhere in Mexico, outside of the capital, than the Cathedral of the See of 
 Michoacan, and the Cathedral of Mexico is not superior except in size. The 
 towers, the great organ, the silver altar rails, vestments and vessels, images 
 and candelabra of fine silver, have not an equal anywhere, though these are 
 only a remnant of what used to be, nearly half a million dollars worth being 
 confiscated by the Government some twenty years ago, though one can hardly 
 miss what has been taken away, or tell where they put it when it was here. 
 The silver font from which Iturbide and Morelos were baptized, is still 
 in use. 
 
 The Cathedral is beautifully situated, with the main front facing the Plaza 
 de los Martires, with the eastern look over the Plaza de la Paz. 
 
36 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 In the Plaza de los M^rtires, which means the plaza of the martyrs, are 
 the most beautiful trees and flowers, and in the midst of them a beautiful 
 pavilion where the band plays in the evening, that famous, magnificent band 
 that was at the New Orleans Exposition, the favorite band of Mexico. And 
 to this plaza comes also the "400" of Morelia to rub elbows with the ragtag 
 and bobtail, when the band begins to play. 
 
 In the afternoons there is music in the beautiful Parque de San Pedro, and 
 the walk thence, not a long one, is through the Calzado de Guadalupe, a 
 paved way, shaded by immense elms, the walkway being in the centre and the 
 drives on either side in front of the residences. The trip can be made on the 
 horse-cars, but there is everything to recommend the most delightful walk, 
 and nothing in favor of the cars. 
 
 After leaving Morelia the road passes near the Cuincho Falls and hot 
 springs on the south side of the track, and after a short run skirts a high bluff 
 and comes to the highest navigable waters on the globe — comes to beautiful 
 Lake Patzcuaro. Patzctjaro is well entitled to its name, which, being 
 interpreted, means to Indian ears a " place of delights," and it means this to 
 anybody who goes there. 
 
 The station is on the lake shore ; a diligence runs to the town, two miles 
 up the hill, and the drive is a most charming one, as the beautiful view grows 
 wider and wider as the hill is ascended, and when at the top, the lake with 
 its islands, the valley with its fields of green and its four dozen towns and 
 villages are included in the scope of vision. The quaint plaza shaded by great 
 trees, surrounded on four sides with heavy columned portales, the market 
 place, the narrow, crooked streets with shrines and crosses in every nook and 
 corner, and the grand view from Los Balcones, at the crest of the Cerro 
 de Calvario, are all most prolific subjects for the tourist's note-book, and in 
 every one will be written that Patzcuaro is indeed a "place of delights." 
 
 There is a little steamer on the lake, the " Mariano Jiminez," which runs 
 from the dock to the northern shores of the lake, making several landings at 
 way-baek towns where there are no railways, and, perhaps, never will be. 
 The object of the voyage on the lake, and in fact of the trip to Patzcuaro, is 
 the famous painting in the old church at the village of Tzintzuntzan, on the 
 east shore of the lake — The Entombment, by Titian, presented to the Bishop 
 of Michoacan by Philip II. of Spain. Many noted writers and artists have 
 made the pilgrimage and returned with the feeling that the trip was amply 
 paid for in the seeing of so celebrated a picture, for which the natives have 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 37 
 
 been offered the most fabulous sums by different persons, but they have 
 uniformly refused. Tzintzuntzan was once the capital of a powerful tribe of 
 
 IN THE VALLEY OF LAJA — MEXICAN NATIONAL RAILROAD. 
 
 Indians, but now only a little hamlet with a grand old church and a great 
 picture. 
 
38 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 The steamer runs irregularly, but need not be depended upon for the trip 
 to Tzintzuntzan. It may be made by canoe, the wide-bottom boats of the 
 Tarascans, or on horseback or burros in three or four hours. 
 
 Patzcuaro and the beautiful lake have all the attributes of a fine health 
 and pleasure resort. In the very near future the American will begin to find 
 out why the Indians call it a place of delights. 
 
 It requires no special arrangements of schedule to take the ride over the 
 western division. There is a fine station at Acambaro, with restaurant and 
 
 THi£ TRANSFER AT LAREDO. 
 
 rooms, which will be reserved for tourists on telegram to the agent of the 
 Mexican National Railroad, of whom excursion tickets to Morelia and Patz- 
 cuaro may be obtained. 
 
 THE CITY OF MEXICO. 
 
 The city of Mexico is not all of Mexico, neither is the all of Mexico com- 
 pleted until the city has been seen ; and since Cortez came over the eastern 
 hills that are beyond Texcoco's waters, every tourist or traveler on business 
 bent makes a bee line for the city, nor stops until within its walls. All other 
 places may be visited later, but the capital must have the first call. 
 
 * The fame of this fair city, for it is a fair city, has gone abroad through all 
 the world, and nearly half a thousand years ago the story of its splendor, the 
 glory of its temples, the civilization of its people and their wealth, the pomp 
 and circumstance of its rulers, the beauty of situation and salubrity of climate 
 went across the seas and reached the royal ears of Europe's kings ; and since 
 those old, old days, centuries agone, the famous story went out continually to 
 bring hither in every passing decade, year, month, week and day, pilgrims 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 39 
 
 from every land, for conquest, hope of gain or scientific research, down to 
 these days of pleasure touring and business travel. 
 
 Nor is the story scarcely less famous now. True, it is not expected that 
 tawny princes bedecked with dazzling jewels, on palanquins borne, with 
 attending hosts of vassals and plumed and feathered warriors, will meet the 
 arriving guest in these modern days ; but the same grand old city's there, 
 with its temples not less imposing, its people not less curious, its glorious 
 climate of perpetual spring-time, just the same now as then, and beauty of 
 spreading plain and lake, circled by high hills deeply, darkly blued by a 
 wondrous atmosphere marvelously clear, high hills with camel backs out- 
 lined against the sky, a silent, never-ending caravan led on by two hoary 
 leaders with heads uplifted high above the others and whited by eternal snows. 
 These are there forever, and withal, there, treasured in the city's halls, the 
 evidences in hieroglyphics, graven image, altar and sacrificial stone and 
 wrinkled parchment, faithfully tells of nations passed away and a history 
 that must forever go unwritten. 
 
 As this story brought Cortez across the seas, and other thousands since 
 his time, so the telling of it, and the relics of it, are bringing armies of sight- 
 seers, health and pleasure seekers to the same grand old city of to-day — and 
 those who get there the quickest, with most comfort and scenic attraction, 
 are the passengers of the Mexican National Railroad. (This paragraph is a 
 sudden drop from the soaring flights of fancy, but the cold facts so assert 
 themselves that the pencil takes the tangent businessward irresistibly.) 
 
 Since, then, we are down to the present age, where practical information 
 is the thing, let us have it. It has been told how this short line gets to the 
 capital of the Mexican Republic ; the story has a fitting ending — at Colonia 
 station, near the Paseo de la Reforma, in a most attractive portion of the 
 city, where all trains arrive and depart — a convenient location with con- 
 necting horse-car lines to all parts of the city, and paved streets leading to 
 hotels and points of interest. 
 
 The city of Mexico, with a geographical location within the tropics, and 
 although on a level plain with outlying lakes, is by its altitude of over 7,000 
 feet above the sea, possessed of a climate so delightfully salubrious, so even 
 in temperature, that summer or winter a residence here is always pleasant, 
 and visits to the city may be made at any time from January to January. 
 
 If it is written that the climate is the chief attraction, when you have seen 
 them, you may say that the beauties of the plain and the surrounding hills 
 
40 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 and the volcanic views are a fair rival ; to this may be added the manners and 
 customs of a courteous people, the parks and streets, the old churches and 
 their decorations, pictures, bells and towers, which are more satisfactorily 
 
 seen than described. 
 They can only be enu- 
 merated here as 'tis 
 done on the other 
 pages of this book. 
 
 Historical. 
 
 Cortez landed at 
 Vera Cruz April 21, 
 1 5 19; commenced his 
 march toward the 
 capital August 16, 
 
 and entered Mexico No- 
 vember 8, 1 519; was driven 
 out July 1, 1520, La Noche 
 Triste (Dismal Night). 
 
 Cortez returned and laid 
 siege to Mexico December 
 31, 1520; captured and en- 
 tered the city again August 
 13, 1 521, and Mexico or the 
 province of New Spain re- 
 mained under Spanish rule 
 three hundred years. Dur- 
 ing this time there were 
 viceroys. 
 
 UP HILL AND DOWN IN THE MADRES. 
 
 five governors, two audencias and sixty-two 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 41 
 
 First insurrection against Spanish rule was started September 16, 18 10, by 
 Hidalgo, who was defeated, captured and executed July 31, 181 1. 
 
 After another period of disturbance, Iturbide entered the city of Mexico 
 with his army, and the power of Spain was ended in Mexico September 27, 
 1821. 
 
 Iturbide elected emperor May 19, 1822; forced to resign March 4, 1823, 
 and a decree of banishment was passed against him. After an absence of a 
 year in Europe, he returned to Mexico July 14, 1824; was captured and 
 executed July 19, 1824. 
 
 From the time of banishment of Iturbide to the arrival of Maximilian 
 Mexico had a republican form of government. 
 
 The troops of Napoleon III. occupied the city of Mexico June 9, 1863; 
 Maximilian arrived at city of Mexico June 12, 1864, and was executed June 
 19, 1867. 
 
 Benito Juarez returned to the city of Mexico July 15, 1867, and the 
 republican form of government was again established. And under the lib- 
 eral and progressive policy of President Diaz, Mexico is being rapidly devel- 
 oped, and taking a front rank among the nations of the world. 
 
 Excursion Tickets. 
 
 The Mexican National Railroad, at their ticket and telegraph officer 
 Coliseo street, under San Carlos Hotel, city of Mexico, will sell excursion 
 tickets to holders of American tourist tickets at following rates of fare in 
 Mexican silver : 
 
 Toluca and return $3 00 
 
 Morelia and return 12 00 
 
 Patzcuaro and return 14 00 
 
 San Miguel de Allende and return 1 2 00 
 
 Tickets good for fifteen days. 
 
 Stop-over checks for any of the above-named points issued by conductors. 
 
 Passengers holding through tickets issued in the United States may stop 
 off at Acambaro, where a good restaurant and accommodations may be 
 found, and make the tour of the Western division running through the lake 
 region of Mexico to two of the most interesting cities in the Republic — 
 Morelia and Patzcuaro. Rooms will be reserved in the station hotel at 
 Acambaro if advised of arrival. 
 
42 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 Round-trip tickets from Acambaro to Morelia, $4.00; Patzcuaro, via 
 Morelia, $5.00. 
 
 NOTE. — Round-trip tourist tickets to Mexican points cannot be changed 
 to other returning routes after arrival in Mexico ; routes must be decided 
 when tickets are purchased at starting point. 
 
 Altitudes of Mountain Peaks. 
 
 Popocatepetl, 17,782 feet; Orizaba, 17,356 
 
 feet ; Ixtaccihuatl, 16,060 
 feet; Nevado de Toluca, 
 1 5,000 feet. 
 
 These are all extinct 
 volcanoes with others of 
 their kind throughout 
 the country, not having 
 been in action for cen- 
 turies, though the sul- 
 phur deposits give ample 
 evidence of the hot times 
 in the long ago, when 
 their internal affairs must 
 have interfered with the 
 eternal snows on the 
 external surfaces, also 
 indicating a closer prox- 
 imity to the infernal than 
 was altogether pleasant. 
 
 Other 
 Towns and Tours. 
 
 I believe it was left 
 to the progressive Amer- 
 ican to "do Rome in a day ; " but in this country of magnificent distances 
 such celerity is not possible, nor can the number of days required to do the 
 city of Mexico be quoted here ; but when this greatest of Mexican cities has 
 been gone over, from Chapultepec to Guadalupe, and from Texcoco to Los 
 Remedios, the sightseer tireth not, but looketh about for new fields and other 
 sights to see. 
 
 AQUEDUCT OF JAJALPA. 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 4 3 
 
 The Day Excursions from the capital may be made by rail or horse- 
 cars, and not one of these mentioned here but is sufficient in attraction to 
 repay the trip. 
 
 Tacubaya is the place of summer residence of many prominent people of 
 the city, a lovely suburban village, with many beautiful gardens surrounding 
 some of the finest residences in all Mexico. Tacubaya has been called the 
 Mexican Monte Carlo, as in a small way it is. Horse-cars run from the Plaza 
 Mayor in front of the cathedral, and there is a steam road starting from near 
 the Paseo. 
 
 Guadalupe is a famous name in Mexico, and the shrine of that name, 
 about six miles north of the city, is called the holiest in Mexico. The beauti- 
 ful legends have been written and r.ead in almost every language, and need no 
 repetition here. The churches and the chapels, the famous spring, the ship's 
 foremast and sails incased in stone, the mysterious preservation of the tilma 
 of Juan Diego, with the unfading picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe, are of 
 interest. Horse-cars from the Plaza Mayor every half hour. 
 
 Chapultepec, the Mexican White House, Presidential summer residence 
 and seat of the National Military Academy, is best reached by carriage 
 through the Paseo de la Reforma, though the Tacubaya and San Angel 
 horse-cars, from the Plaza Mayor, pass the gates at the foot of the hill, from 
 whence it is a rather difficult climb to reach the castle. 
 
 Texcoco is beyond the lake of that name, and is the station for the 
 beautiful gardens of the Molino de Flores, the country seat of the ancient 
 family Cervantes. Trains of the Inter-Oceanic Railroad stop at Texcoco, 
 and schedules usually permit the trip to be made going in the morning and 
 return in the evening. Carriages are required between Texcoco and Molino 
 de Flores, as the distance is two leagues. 
 
 Amecameca is a pretty little city, immediately at the foot of the volca- 
 noes of Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl, and is the point of starting for the 
 ascent. The Sacro Monte is an attraction of Amecameca. The railway 
 station is just at the foot of the hill. The legends of the sacred mountain are 
 incentive enough to make its ascent. Trains of the Inter-Oceanic Railroad 
 run conveniently to make the excursion in daylight. 
 
 Pachuca is more of a windy city than Chicago, though not so large. It 
 is a great mining town, located in the mountains nearly a thousand feet 
 higher than the city of Mexico. The city lies in a barranca between two 
 high peaks, so that the breezes blowing down the canon pass over the city 
 
44 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 continuously. The mines and the picturesque location are the attractions. 
 Trains of the Mexican Railroad and Hidalgo Railroad leave the city in the 
 morning and return in the evening. 
 
 Toluca, and ride over the mountains thereto, the magnificence of the 
 scenery of the plain and city of Mexico and the Toluca Valley, are described 
 
 RUINS OF A TOLTEC TEMPLE. 
 
 elsewhere in this book. Trains of the Mexican National are scheduled so 
 the trip may be made in a day, though it is advised to take an afternoon train 
 and return by a morning train. This gives a proper sunlight on the scenery 
 on both slopes of the Sierras that is not surpassed anywhere in the world. 
 
 La Viga Canal and the floating gardens. "Who has not heard of the 
 floating gardens (chinampas) on La Viga Canal, near the city of Mexico, 
 reached by horse-cars from the Plaza Mayor, near the cathedral, to Embar- 
 cadero, and thence by canoe for a few hours or for a day ? The boats are a 
 sort of Mexican edition of a Venetian gondola, broad and flat-bottomed, with 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 45 
 
 scats underneath a canopy in bright colors ; the boats are propelled by a pole 
 in the hands of a dusky gondolier. The excursion is altogether a novel one 
 particularly on Sundays and feast days, and should not be overlooked. 
 Unless you are thoroughly Mexican it is best to make a picnic of it and take 
 your provender along ; but there will come alongside a longer and narrower 
 canoe hewn from the trunk of a single tree. In one end of this quaint craft 
 stands a sv arthy Mexican with a single oar long of handle — in the other a 
 comely woman and often a pretty girl, who will offer for a tlaco or a cuartilla 
 the native sandwich, a tortilla con came or a tortilla con dulce. I offer no 
 advice as to this purchase, but the tortillas of La Viga as I found them were 
 clean and toothsome. 
 
 Santa Anita, on the canal, is a sort of native Coney Island, and is a 
 great resort, bat the charm is in the ride thither, passing under the low-arched 
 bridges, the market boats laden with fruits and flowers, which must stop at 
 the La Viga gate and pay a duty to the city levied on all imports from the 
 country. There are great, long, flat-bottomed passenger packets also pro- 
 pelled by poles going to and from the towns across on the other shores of 
 Texcoco, Xochimilco and Chalco, crowded with men, women and children 
 and dogs starting or returning from a voyage of a day and a night. Any day 
 will do for the La Viga voyage ; but Sunday, or better still, on a feast day, 
 there will be flowers afloat and ashore, and music, music everywhere, of all 
 sorts, from the tinkle of a guitar to blare of a brass band ; gayly dressed men 
 and more gayly dressed women, singing and dancing on the boats or under 
 the trees of the Paseo de La Viga which runs along the canal. 
 
 The floating gardens, it is said, really were entitled to the name, but now 
 are only bits of land with little canals instead of walks through the beds and 
 plots. 
 
 On the banks of La Viga once lived El Senor Don Juan Corona, of most 
 happy memory, revered for deeds of daring and loved for his charity. He was 
 not a soldier or a Sunday-school superintendent ; in life Don Juan was a bull- 
 fighter, and much renowned in his day. 
 
 Ask your gondolier to stop at the hacienda of Don Juan Corona. Enter 
 beneath a hospitable roof and find a house intensely Mexican, shaded by trees 
 and almost hidden by climbing vines and flowers. Every room is a museum 
 in itself, filled with relics of every age and time of Mexico's history, curious 
 objects collected from all over the country, in dozens and scores. 
 
 The collection of bric-a-brac was Don Juan's hobby ; but another and 
 
4 6 
 
 TO URIS TS ' G UIDE 
 
 more philanthropic pleasure of his was the care of children of the poor of La 
 
 Viga, and from 
 
 his savings he 
 
 established a 
 
 school for them, 
 
 where they were 
 
 not only taught 
 
 but clothed and 
 
 fed. He was 
 
 known as the 
 
 "father of the 
 
 destitute. " 
 
 The school 
 
 still exists and 
 
 will be shown 
 
 3 in one of the 
 
 g rooms of the 
 
 ^ hacienda. 
 
 j As you enter, 
 
 « the bright lit— 
 
 a tie beneficia- 
 (-1 
 
 5 nes of Coro- 
 na's bounty 
 rise in saluta- 
 tion. 
 
 The school 
 has not the am- 
 ple means it had 
 in the life of its 
 founder, and any 
 offering made 
 will not only be 
 acceptable, but 
 is a tribute to 
 the memory of 
 a good man. 
 Tula is one of the oldest Toltec foundations in the country, where there 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS. 47 
 
 are some grand old ruins of that ancient race. The casas grandes, as the 
 ruins are called, are intensely interesting to the tourists as well as the student. 
 In the plaza at Tula some curious relics of a prehistoric age may be seen. 
 Take a morning train on the Mexican Central Railroad and return in the 
 evening. 
 
 Tajo de Nochistongo, the great canal that was intended to drain the 
 Mexico Valley, and which cost so many men and so much money, and yet 
 failed of its purpose, may be seen on the trip to Tula. The Mexican Central 
 track runs along the top of the east bank of the canal. 
 
 The Inter-Oceanic Railway is the recently completed line between 
 the city of Mexico and Vera Cruz, running around Lake Texcoco on its 
 southern shore and skirting the foot hills of the great volcanoes, keeps their 
 white caps in view during nearly the entire journey. The road runs through 
 a richly cultivated country, though there is plenty of mountain scenery and 
 canons wild and picturesque ; and the cities and towns are quaint and novel 
 as they are in Mexico. Puebla, one of the prettiest, most interesting and 
 healthy cities, and Jalapa, famed for its quaint location and general beauty, 
 are both on the main line to Vera Cruz. The Morelos division of the Inter- 
 Oceanic runs south from the city of Mexico to Amecameca, Otumba, 
 Cuautla and Yautepec, and under construction to Acapulco. The tour of 
 this line is very interesting, passing as it does from the high table-lands to the 
 tierra caliente down where the sugar cane and coffee grows. The scenery 
 of the descent is very grand, the volcanoes are in view all day long, and the 
 view from Nepantla, stretching leagues and leagues away, is beyond descrip- 
 tion, and is constantly changing as the train rolls from there down to Cuautla. 
 
 The Mexican Railroad is the oldest railroad in Mexico. This line is 
 from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz, passing from one table-land to another, 
 through the famous pulque regions of the plain of Apam to Esperanza, where 
 there is a sheer descent of more than two thousand feet in thirteen miles- 
 The ride down the mountain from Boca del Monte to Maltrata, through the 
 Barranca del Infernillo (the Ravine of the Little Hell), is the chief attraction 
 of the trip, though the scenery thence down to Cordoba is very beautiful. 
 Orizaba and Cordoba are very pretty cities, and well worthy of a stop-over. 
 There are branch lines to Puebla and Jalapa, the former from Apizaco and 
 the latter from Tejeria. On this road and others in this region it is very 
 dusty at all times, and dusters should be provided before making the 
 ourney. 
 
48 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 The Mexican Southern Railway is in operation from Puebla to 
 Tehuacan and Oaxaca, and under construction to Tehuantepec. Track-lay- 
 ing is being rapidly extended, and the country opening up to tourist travel 
 seems to surpass all anticipations in the way. of scenic attraction. The pas- 
 senger equipment of the road is of English manufacture, and surpasses any- 
 thing ever sent out from that country. It is simply superb in appointment 
 and decoration. A ride over the Southern from Puebla to the track end is 
 one of the tourist things to do. 
 
 The Mexican Central Railroad runs a day train north from the 
 city of Mexico as far as Leon, passing in daylight some of the most interest- 
 ing cities and splendid scenery on that line. Leaving the fine station of 
 Buena Vista, the route is across the plain to the northward ; the gradual climb 
 enlarges the view, till, at Huehuetoca, the grand panorama of the plain of 
 Mexico, with its cities and lakes and the surrounding mountains, spreads out 
 in one magnificent picture. This is hardly shut out by an intervening hill, 
 higher than the rest, till there is something else of equal interest — the great 
 Tajo de Nochistongo, the drainage canal mentioned on another page — then 
 the city of Tula, with its ruined city of the Toltecs. 
 
 There is a down grade now to the Cazadero plain, and thence to Quere- 
 taro, a very interesting city, noted in Mexico's modern history as the place of 
 execution of Maximilian and his generals, Miramon and Mejia; noted among 
 tourists as a place of opals. If there be anything in the reputation of that 
 jewel, surely there can be no good fortune in store for Queretaro. But the 
 prosperity of the place tells a different story, which a look from the window 
 as the train approaches the city will prove. The great stone aqueduct that 
 brings water from the mountains to the city and the great Hercules cotton 
 mills, is one of the great works of the country. The train passes under one 
 of the highest arches and through the village of the mills, where there are 
 trees and gardens of the tropical fruit and verdure. Just west of the city, in 
 a stony field on the hillside, to be seen from the cars, is the spot where the 
 last Mexican emperor was executed. 
 
 It is through a fine agricultural country that the line runs now, down 
 into the valley of the Laja, and crosses the Mexican National Railroad at 
 Celaya ; the beautiful towers of the Franciscan group of churches and of 
 Our Lady of Carmen can be seen from the west windows for some miles up 
 and down the line. Celaya is noted for its dukes, a kind of native confection 
 that is very palatable. The duke dealer meets all trains. 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 49 
 
 Irapuato is celebrated for its all-the year-round strawberries ; these are also 
 at the train, 
 whether it is 
 on time or not, 
 as the opals 
 are at Quere- 
 taro and the ■ 
 dukes at Ce- 
 laya. I have 
 heard some 
 one carp at the 
 civilization of 
 the peon of 
 Mexico, but he 
 knows which 
 strawberries to 
 put on the top 
 of the basket. 
 Irapuato is the 
 junction point 
 of the Guada- 
 lajara division 
 with the main 
 line. The road 
 is a fine one 
 through a rich 
 country, pictu- 
 resque to a de- 
 gree, passing 
 many fine ha- 
 ciendas and the 
 cities of Penja- 
 mo, La Piedad 
 and La Barca, 
 running along 
 the river Ler- 
 ma and near to 
 
So TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 beautiful Lake Chapala, comes to Guadalajara, a truly beautiful city, with its 
 fourteen portales, twenty plazas, fourteen bridges, five theatres, twenty-five 
 baths, twenty-three restaurants and twenty-eight hotels — a city that was a city 
 two hundred years before it had a railroad. There are numberless attrac- 
 tions that there is not space here to mention, with interesting excursions to 
 Lake Chapala, the Falls of Juanacatlan, Mexico's Niagara, and a canon 2,000 
 feet deep, all to make the visit to Guadalajara a lengthy and a pleasant one. 
 
 Northward from Irapuato, on the main line, Silao is the next station of 
 importance, a pretty little town and the junction of the branch line to the 
 great mining city of Guanajuato, ten miles east — a city set among the 
 mountains, a fortified place on the heights, the foundations of whose build- 
 ings cost more to dig out than the houses that rest on them. The train stops 
 at Marfil ; thence the ride to Guanajuato is four miles up the barranca by 
 horse-cars through the quaintest, crookedest road that ever was, and stops at 
 the prettiest little plaza, that seems only a shelf in the side of the mountain, 
 and on either side the hanging gardens droop their flowers to the waters of a 
 rushing stream below. There is but one Guanajuato in Mexico, and no 
 other city like it. 
 
 • The route of the Central's day train ends at Leon, a great manufacturing 
 city, whose nearly every house is a factory, principally of leathern goods. 
 The city is a pretty one, the streets laid out at right angles, with parks and 
 plazas here and there, a pretty alameda and a causeway leading to a place of 
 suburban resort, which is also the Paseo of Leon. 
 
 The Monterey & Mexican Gulf Railway runs southward from 
 Monterey to Tampico, a city now attracting special attention owing to the 
 important position it has taken as a seaport. It is situated on the eastern 
 coast of Mexico, at the mouth of the Panuco River, surrounded by forests 
 and gardens of tropical plants and fruits. The Monterey & Mexican Gulf 
 Railway has on sale side-trip tickets at special low rates. Apply to their 
 agent at Monterey for full information. Victoria is another city located on 
 the line of the Monterey & Mexican Gulf Railway which is well worth a 
 visit. It is noted for its handsome promenade, lined on either side with 
 stately trees, casting their shadows over the entire promenade and driveway. 
 
 Exchange of Money. 
 
 Passengers having American money can have same exchanged for Mexican 
 currency, to the amount of fifty dollars, at the Mexican National R. R. Ticket 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 5* 
 
 Office in New 
 " greenbacks " 
 or gold, Amer- 
 ican silver not 
 commanding a 
 premium. July 
 1, 1890, a law 
 went into effect 
 establishing 
 the dollars and 
 cents system, 
 but it is well 
 to understand 
 the old way of 
 counting mo- 
 ney. 
 
 On arrival 
 at Laredo, or 
 just before the 
 train reaches 
 that city, an 
 agent of the 
 Mexican Na- 
 tional R. R. 
 comes on 
 board the train. 
 He wears a 
 uniform and 
 has a cap 
 which bears \ 
 the legend 
 "Passengers' 
 Assistant." 
 This gentle- 
 man will assist 
 passengers in 
 every way as 
 
 Laredo, where the highest market price will be paid for 
 
52 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 
 
 
 
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54 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 to tickets, baggage and custom-house regulations. He is a regular agent of 
 the Company and is at the service of its patrons. 
 
 The paper money of Mexico, issued by the Banco Nacional and the Bank 
 of London, Mexico and South America, passes at par, as do the notes of the 
 State banks in the States where issued, but when far away from home are 
 discounted somewhat. The gold coins are seldom seen ; the onza is worth 
 about $16, media onza $8, the pistola %\ t escudo %i, escudilo $i. 
 
 Silver and Copper. 
 
 The silver currency consists of dollars (pesos), 50c, 25c, \i%o.. (reals), 
 6^c. (medios), 10c. and 5c. pieces, cuartillos 3>£c. and ic. coins. The use 
 of reals, medios, cuartillos and tlacos is prohibited, but a knowledge of their 
 values is essential. 
 
 Prices for Carriages. 
 
 Yellow Flag, % hour or less, 25c; 1 hour, 50c. Red Flag, yi hour or less, 
 37c; 1 hour, 75c. Blue Flag, % hour or less, 50c; 1 hour, $1. Green, special 
 rates. Sundays and feast days extra rates are charged. Tin (lags indicating 
 class are displayed on front corner of roof of coach w T hen not engaged. 
 
 Street-car fares vary according to the distance traveled, from 5 to 25 cents. 
 First-class cars are painted yellow, second-class are green. 
 
 Baggage Accommodation. 
 
 After baggage is examined at New Laredo, passengers can on application 
 have baggage wire-sealed and avoid other custom houses en route to the 
 city of Mexico. 
 
 Expressing Baggage in City of Mexico. 
 
 Transfer agent will board the train before arrival at city of Mexico, and 
 will check and deliver baggage to hotels and residences as in the cities of the 
 United States. 
 
 Baggage may be also checked from hotels or residences in city of Mexico 
 to points on the line of Mexican National R. R., or to Laredo, Texas, upon 
 application to C. P. Barrett, City Ticket Agent Mexican National R. R., 
 
56 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 Coliseo street, under San Carlos Hotel ; or to J. H. Christen, proprietor 
 International Transfer Co., No. 402 Calle Gante, near San Francisco street. 
 
 Tourists having curiosities and other small packages can send same safely 
 to their homes through the National Railroad Express office, Ortega street, 
 No. 28. 
 
 Places of Interest. 
 
 National Palace — Present building commenced in 1692; additions 
 have been made since. It occupies the entire eastern side of the Plaza 
 Mayor, with a frontage of 675 feet, contains departments of the Federal 
 Government, Hall of the Ambassadors, with portraits of Hidalgo, Iturbide, 
 Morelos and other persons of note. 
 
 Cathedral — Built upon the site of the great Aztec Temple which the 
 Spaniards destroyed when the city was conquered in 1 521. The first stone of 
 the existing building was laid in 1573. Final dedication, 1667. Completion 
 of the towers, 1791. Entire cost about $2,000,000. The building measures 
 387 feet from north to south, and 177 feet from east to west. Interior height, 
 179 feet. It is built of stone. Towers are 203 feet 6 inches high. 
 
 Flower Market — Glass and iron pavilion in garden west of Cathedral ; 
 best display in early morning. 
 
 Mint — Calle del Apartado ; open from 8 A. M. to 5 P. M. 
 
 National Museum — Open daily, Saturdays excepted, from 10 a. m. to 
 1 2 noon. Aztec Calendar Stone, Sacrificial Stone, Maximilian's Chariot, 
 Montezuma's Shield, etc. 
 
 Academy of Fine Arts, or San Carlos Academy — Open daily, 
 12 M. to 3 P. M. Paintings by native and foreign artists. 
 
 Paseo de la Reforma — Two and one-fifth miles long; laid out by 
 Maximilian; runs from bronze statute of Charles IV. to gates of Chapul- 
 tepec. The Paseo is the daily early morning and late afternoon ride and 
 drive of fashionable Mexico. 
 
 Chapultepec — The Presidential residence and National Military 
 Academy. 
 
 Guadalupe— Holiest shrine in Mexico, old church, stone sails, ceme- 
 tery, Santa Ana's tomb, Grotto Cave, and beautiful view of the city and 
 valley of Mexico. 
 
TO TOLTEC TOWNS, 57 
 
 La Viga Canal — Take La Viga cars to La Viga gate ; thence by canoe 
 to the Chinampas or floating gardens. 
 
 Hacienda of Don Juan Corona— In this house, on the bank of the 
 Viga Canal, can be seen a valuable and rare collection of ancient and modern 
 Mexican curiosities. Don Juan was a retired bull-fighter become philanthro- 
 pist and antiquarian. The hacienda is one of the most interesting places to 
 visit. 
 
 Take street-car from main plaza on street leading to the northeast, ride to 
 La Viga gate, thence by boat, or all the way on the cars. 
 
 Noche Triste Tree — Beneath which Cortez is said to have wept on the 
 night of his disastrous retreat from Mexico, July 1, 1520. 
 
 National Library — Open from 10 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily. 
 
 Churches — Profesa, Santa Teresa, San Fernando and St. Domingo. 
 Protestant — Christ Church (Episcopal) ; service at 11 A, M.- on Sundays. 
 Trinity Church (Methodist) stands next door; service at 10:15 a. M. The 
 " Union Evangelical" has service at 11 A. M. 
 
 In the San Fernando Churchyard is located the tomb of Juarez 
 and that of Generals Miramon and Mejia. 
 
 Monte de Piedad — National pawnbroking establishment. Fine gems, 
 jewelry, etc. 
 
 Alameda — Band plays every Sunday and Thursday forenoon, from 10 
 to 1 o'clock. 
 
 Theatres, Etc. 
 
 Circo-Teatro Orrin— Plazuela Villamil. Capacity, 4,000. 
 
 National Theatre — Vergara street; seating capacity, 3,500. 
 
 Principal Theatre — Coliseo street ; seating capacity, 2,800. 
 
 Arbeu Theatre — San Felipe Neri street ; seating capacity, 700 to 1,000. 
 
 Hidalgo — Cochero street; seating capacity, 700 to 1,000. 
 
 American Hospital — The American Hospital has three large and 
 well-arranged buildings. It is pleasantly situated a short distance outside 
 the city gates on the Tacuba road. 
 
 The nucleus of the fund from which the hospital was built was con- 
 tributed by a party of American tourists, one of their number being taken 
 
58 TOURISTS' GUIDE 
 
 sick en route. Since then, American residents of the city have raised from 
 various sources moneys for the building of the hospital. 
 
 The hospital was opened in 1887, and since that time the American 
 colony has supported it, aided at times with subscriptions of visitors. The 
 expenses of sustaining the hospital are almost entirely dependent on volun- 
 tary contributions. 
 
 Simon Lara, Esq., a retired Spanish-American merchant, has given at 
 different times a total of nearly $25,000. 
 
 Hospital de Jesus, in Jesus street, was founded by Cortez before the 
 year 1 594, and endowed by him ; contains the only authentic portrait of Cortez 
 and his letters patent of nobility and land grants from the King of Spain. 
 
 The Penon Baths- -In the valley of Mexico two and one half (2%) 
 miles from the city of Mexico, are situated the celebrated Penon Baths, 
 which have become noted for their curative properties. 
 
 The present building is two stories high and comprises all the modern 
 conveniences. On the ground floor are situated the bath rooms, dining room 
 and billiard parlor, and on the second floor the parlors and dwelling rooms. 
 
 The front of the building is ornamented by a handsome balcony, from 
 which a splendid view may be had of the city of Mexico, the village of Gua- 
 dalupe to the right, and the base of the chain of mountains, surrounding the 
 valley of Mexico, to the left. 
 
 At the rear of the building is another balcony, from which may be seen 
 the eastern part of the valley, and the Grand Causeway lined with trees, and 
 Lake Texcoco with its peaceful waters shimmering beyond. 
 
 Boating, bowling and other healthful games may be indulged in by the 
 visitors. 
 
 These baths are not only recommended to the invalid in search of health, 
 but to tourists making a visit to this most interesting of countries. 
 
 For a pamphlet giving full details pertaining to the medicinal properties of 
 the waters, address El Sr. Director de los Banos del Penon, city of Mexico. 
 
 Mexican Curiosities to be Purchased as Souvenirs for 
 Friends at Home. 
 
 Indian Feather Work — Guest and menu cards, portrait frames, 
 panels, dining-room pictures, landscapes, native figures, Mexican coat of 
 
TO TO L TEC TOWNS. 
 
 59 
 
 arms, Virgin of Guadalupe, etc. Only the most skillful workers are employed, 
 and their work is highly artistic and durable. Prices from 10 cents upward. 
 
 Indian Grass Pictures— Most effective views of the Cathedral, Cha- 
 pultepec, the Paseo, Valley of Mexico, buildings and statues and railroad 
 views, made of colored grasses. The perspective is perfect, and the coloring 
 most artistic. . 
 
 Indian Wax, Clay and Rag Figures— Representing with lifelike 
 accuracy all the types of the country, bull-fights, comic groups, Mexican sad- 
 dles, etc. Prices from 75 cents upward, each. 
 
 Indian baskets, zerapes (hand-woven blankets), grass hammocks and hats, 
 opals, copies of Calendar and Sacrificial stones, guitars of armadillo shell. 
 
 Mexican Onyx— Inkstands, rules, penholders, paper knives, paper 
 weights representing the fruits of the country, cubes, pyramids, etc., blotters, 
 shirt-studs and sleeve-buttons, holy water fonts, table-tops, etc. Prices from 
 25 cents upward. 
 
 Indian Lacquer and Inlaid Wood Work— Plaques, gourds, table- 
 tops, fruits, work-boxes, handkerchief boxes of " linaloe," a beautiful scented 
 wood, coffee-wood sticks with any monogram, small models of guitars inlaid 
 with mother-of-pearl, etc. Prices from 1 5 cents upward. 
 
 Indian Horn Work — Card-trays, bowls, cups and saucers, spoons, forks, 
 ash-trays, etc. Prices from 25 cents upward. 
 
 Indian Pottery — Water bottles, cups, pitchers and vases of the cele- 
 brated Guadalajara ware, curious black vases, pitchers, etc., with figures in 
 relief in the old Aztec style. Prices from 25 cents upward. 
 
 Tortoiseshell Work — Combs, paper-cutters, hairpins, sleeve-buttons, 
 walking-sticks, etc. 
 
 Antiquities— Old mother-of-pearl fans inlaid with gold, Spanish lace 
 mantillas, silk rebozos (hand-woven scarfs), church embroideries, rosaries and 
 silver articles. 
 
6o 
 
 TOURISTS' GUIDE, 
 
 COMPARATIVE DISTANCES. 
 
 New Orleans to City of Mexico via El Paso 
 
 New Orleans to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
 New Orleans to City of Mexico via Laredo 
 
 .2,388 miles. 
 .1,836 miles. 
 .1,570 miles- 
 
 New York to City of Mexico via El Paso 
 New York to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
 New York to City of Mexico via Laredo 
 
 .3,649 miles. 
 .3,210 miles. 
 .2,844 miles. 
 
 Chicago to City of Mexico via El Paso 
 
 Chicago to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
 Chicago to City of Mexico via Laredo 
 
 .2, £66 miles. 
 .2,471 miles. 
 .2,155 miles. 
 
 St. Louis to City of Mexico via El Paso 
 
 St. Louis to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass. 
 St. Louis to City of Mexico via Laredo 
 
 .2,584 miles. 
 .2,189 miles. 
 .1,823 miles. 
 
 Kansas City to City of Mexico via El Paso. . . 
 Kansas City to City of Mexico via Eagle Pass . 
 Kansas City to City of Mexico via Laredo 
 
 .2,398 miles. 
 2,080 miles. 
 
 Showing the Laredo Route 266 miles shorter than the Eagle Pass Route, and from 675 to 800 
 miles shorter than the El Paso Route to the City of Mexico. Only two changes of Sleeping Cars 
 Boston and New York to City of Mexico. 
 
 Distances from Rio Grande Frontier and Altitudes of Principal 
 Points on the Line of the Mexican National Railroad. 
 
 Villaldama 
 
 Topo Chico Hot Springs. 
 
 Monterey 
 
 Saltillo 
 
 Vanegas 
 
 Catorce 
 
 San Luis Potosi , 
 
 Dolores Hidalgo 
 
 San Miguel de Allendc. . . 
 
 Celaya 
 
 Salvatierra 
 
 Acambaro 
 
 Morelia 
 
 Patzcuaro 
 
 Maravatio , 
 
 Toluca 
 
 La Cima 
 
 City of Mexico 
 
 Distance 
 in Miles. 
 
 112 
 167 
 
 170 
 2 37 
 356 
 37i 
 479 
 565 
 587 
 621 
 644 
 664 
 721 
 
 759 
 702 
 
 795 
 817 
 840 
 
 Altitude 
 in Feet. 
 
 1.576 
 1,700 
 1,700 
 5,000 
 5,5oo 
 6,000 
 6,000 
 6,000 
 6,000 
 5.700 
 5.700 
 6, 200 
 6,750 
 6,987 
 6,700 
 8,700 
 10,635 
 7.300 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Acambaro, 
 
 Altitude of Peaks, 
 
 Amusements, 
 
 Baggage, 
 
 Boeas, 
 
 Buena Vista, . 
 
 Carriages, 
 
 Catorce, 
 
 Celaya, 
 
 Colonia Sfation, 
 
 City of Mexico, . 
 
 Curiosities, 
 
 Distances, 
 
 Dolores Hidalgo, 
 
 Exchange of Money, 
 
 Excursion Tickets, 
 
 Express, . 
 
 Guadalupe, 
 
 Hacks, 
 
 Historical, 
 
 Hotels and Restaurants, 
 
 Jajalpa, 
 
 Juan Medina, Leap of, . 
 
 La Cima, 
 1 Laja Valley, 
 
 Lake Patzcuaro, 
 
 Lake Cuitseo, 
 
 La Mesa, 
 
 Lerma River, 
 
 Maravatio, 
 
 Monterey, 
 
 Money, 
 
 Morelia, 
 
 Ocoyocac, 
 
 Other Towns and Tours, 
 
 Passengers' Assistant, 
 
 Patzcuaro, . 
 
 Places of Interest, Cty of Mexico 
 
 Querendaro, 
 
 Saltillo, 
 
 Salvatierra, 
 
 San Felipe, 
 
 San Juan de Las Vegas, 
 
 San Luis Potosi, 
 
 San Miguel de Allende, . 
 
 Sierra Madres, 
 
 Souvenirs, . 
 
 Toluca, 
 
 Topo Chico Hot Springs, 
 
 Tropic of Cancer, 
 
 Tzintzuntzan, 
 
 Valley of Mexico, 
 
 Vanegas, . 
 
 Western Division Mexican National R 
 
 Zopilote Canon, . 
 
 R-, 
 
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 CATOWCEV I 
 
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 TALAACALA" 
 
 A * y^L-frVfe KQh X a 'T 
 
 
The Mexican National R. R. 
 
 OFFERS TO TRAVELERS THE ADVANTAGE OF THE 
 
 ^portest, Quickest and llfeost I icturesque l\ou"h 
 
 AND A RIDE BY DAYLIGHT OVER THE GRAND MOUNTAINS 
 AND ACROSS THE BEAUTIFUL 
 
 VALLEYS OK MEXICO. 
 
 "Ticket ^ Telegraph Office 
 
 CITY OF MEXICO, 
 
 COLISEO STREET, UNDER SAN CARLOS HOTEL. 
 
 Through Railroad Tickets to all parts of the United States, and Pull- 
 man Car Tickets. 
 
 Telegraph Messages received and forwarded from Mexican and United 
 States points. 
 
 Tourists visiting the City of Mexico are cordially invited to make the 
 City Ticket Office {under San Carlos Hotel) their headquarters. Any 
 assistance will be rendered them by the Agent in making their stay 
 pleasant and posting them in regard to points of interest. 
 
 For information, maps, rates, etc., wrhe or apply to 
 
 G. F. WILCOXSON, Gen. East. Agent, 353 Broadway, New York: 
 
 W. E. THURBER, Gen. West. Agent, - 10 Rookery Building, Chicago, III. 
 
 REAU CAMPBELL, Gen. Trav. Agent, 353 Broadway, New York 
 
 J. B. PITHER, Commercial Agent, - Room 408, Houser Building, St. Louis 
 
 \V. B. RYAN, Commercial Agent, - .-._-. Laredo, Texas 
 
 G. T. BADEAU, Commercial Agent, - - - - 45 St. Charles St., New Orleans 
 
 C. P. BARRETT, Ticket Agent, San Carlos Hotel, City of Mexico 
 
 Or any coupon ticket agent in the United States or Canada. 
 
 B. W. THACHER, Gen. Pass. Agent, CITY OF MEXICO. 
 
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