MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 123, 17 July 1911, Page 2

MEXICO AND ITS PEOPLE.

LECTURE BY PROFESSOR DAVID. Professor David, who visited Mexi co in 1906, in connection with tin .International Geological Congees there, lectured upon that interestinf country before a large audience h the Killara Hall (N.S.W.) recently the proceeds of the lecture to b( handed to Dr Mawson’s Antai’ctic expedition fund. The professor, in the course of ar interesting review of the history ol Mexico, said the population was about 19 millions, of whom lot millions were Indians. Formerly, oVei a hundred dialects were spoken, many of these being quite unintelligible to people a few miles away. Now they all speak Spanish. Probably before the coming of Columbus there were more native Americans in Mexico than in all. the rest of the country. The remarkable feature of the climate was that, although the situaion was tropical, the temperature is a dry, bracing one, due to the fact that practically the whole of the country was a plateau, varying from the Tierra Calierite (3000 ft.) to the Tierra Tcmplada (7000 ft.), above which again towered Popocatepetl (17,540 ft.) But for the nature of the climate the Indian races would not have raised themselves in the scale of civilisation as they had done. The lecturer made a passing reference to the popular drink, known as pulque, made from a native plant. When first manufactured the beverage was not unlike ginger-ale. The Mexicans, however, preferred to allow it to Stand in the sun for a time, when it became a most “pugnacious alcohol,” and as the Mexicans were usually provided with long bowio knives, the results of over-indulgence were often serious. To the credit of ex-President Diaz, it must be said that he endeavoured to discourage the use of this beverage, and to substitute a less “pugnacioiis” one. Diaz had also set his face against bullfights, the national sport of the peo pie, and would never attend what were really brutalising encounters The history of Mexico was ancient and honourable. The tolteos were the first race of special note, and were followed in the control of the country by the more warlike Aztecs, who ruled there when Cortes landed at Vera Cruz in 1519. Fron that time until 1821 Mexico was a Spanish colony. In 1810 the patriot priest Hidalgo headed an insurrection. This tailed, and the leader’s life was forfeit- About ten years later there was another struggle for freedom, this time successful, and the Republic was established in. 1822. Since that time the history of the ‘country had been an eventful one, up to the recent Insurrection and deposition of President Diaz. The relics found at different times, Slid the professor, showed that this ancient people at the time of the Spanish invasion had advanced far in art and architecture, and there was proof that the Toltccs had considerable knowledge of astronomy, some ol their calculations being wonderfully accurate.