RECOLLECTIONS OF A SOJOURN IN MEXICO.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 110, 9 November 1858, Page 3

RECOLLECTIONS OF A SOJOURN IN MEXICO.

A lecture was recently delivered at the Sydney School of Arts, by Mr. Stuart Donaldson, thesubj ject being the past and present condition of I Mexico. j After some introductory remarks, the lecturer said, Mexico, you are no doubt aware, became a possession and a colony of the Spaniards from and after the conquest of Cortes, in the year 1521. It is both by climate and natural productions singularly favored. Situated between the southern part of North America and the country called Guatemala:—the Bay of Campeachy and the Gulf of Tequantepee form the isthmus which is its southern—as the province of Texas (adjoining the American State of Louisiana and Upper California) form 9 its northern boundary. Rich in silver mines—situated for the most part in the tropics— it is capable of producing everything. The great physical peculiarity of the country consists in its position as to the double range or Cordillera ofthe Andes, which spread out into two ridges after passing the isthmus of Panama. The richest and most salubrious part of Mexico is the table land lying between these ranges of mountains, which is elevated from 6500 to 7500 feet above the sea; and this district produces the finest corn and maize in the world. The Cordilleras of the Andes, already alluded to, give rise to the peculiarities of I climate so admirably explained by Humboldt. , The "tierra caliente," or hot country, lying on each side of the mountains, extending on the east side to the Gulf of Mexico ; on the west to the North Pacific Ocean. The " tierra templada," the temperate country, lying on the slope of the mountains, out of the reach ofthe deadly fevers ofthe coast, yet warm to the consti- . tution of an European; and the "tierra fria," — I the cold country, being the elevated table land between the mountains. It is peopled by a nation sprung from the original Mexicans crossed with the Spaniards, and partly by aboriginal Indians,

who have never intermarried. The former, called | properly " Creoles," are of course by far the most numerous, and like the mixed races of AngloSaxons and Normans in England, after the conquest of William—they aro become a distinct race, and are now called Mexicans. It is indeed & noble country in every respect but one, and that is its miserable government. In the year 1810— " the year ten"—" el ano diez,'' as they call it to this day, the Mexicans raised a "grito" for liberty, and attempted to put down the Spanish rule, and set np an independent government. I will not trench upon history to detail the bloodshed and misery of this period, nor to trace the successive good and evil fortune of the Revolutionists. For many years the Spanish power still prevailed, until tlie year 1820, when, during the vice-royalty of Apodaca, the news was received of the Spanish revolution —and the account of the new constitution to which Ferdinand the Seventh was compelled to swear, reached Mexico ; when a second revolution broke out, which terminated in the complete emancipation of the country from the Spanish yoke ; and in the declaration of their independence, which they have never since lost, though they have—unhappy people—miserably mismanaged it. The Spanish viceroy Apodaca, probably influenced secretly by his King, did not wish the new Constitution to be acknowledged in Mexico, and, singularly enough, was thus the first real means of bringing about the second Mexican revolution, for he dismissed one General Armigo (a known friend of the new order of things in Old Spain) from the command of tho army, which he then held between Mexico and Acapulco, and appointed one Colonel Don Agustin Iturbide in his stead. Iturbide, secretly in Apodaca's confidence, was also entrusted with the escort of half a million of dollars.from the capital to Acapulco, for shipment. This was an opportunity not to be lost. The power which the possession _of money gives to the leaders of any military revolution, and which knowledge has ever since been acted up to in all the hundred and one semi-revolutions which have disturbed Mexico for the last forty-six years, was well known by Iturbide. He seized the treasure and published a sort of manifesto in his own name proposing to Apodaca a new form of government and independence of old Spain. This paper was called, and is to this day known in the country as the "Plan de Iguala." The main propositions contained in it are —Ist. Intolerance ancl the Roman Catholic Religion. 2. Independence of New Spain. 3. A limited monarchy, adapted to the peculiarity of the country. 4. 'That Ferdinand the Seventh shall have the offer of the "Imperial crown,"—they began with a grand name —or, if he declined, the younger princes of tlie royal family; or, if all declined, that Mexico should appoint her own emperor. 5, 6, 7, and 8 relate to the duties of a provincial government. 9. That the government shall be supported by an army, to be called the army of the three guarantees, viz.:—lst, the religion, in its present pure state ; 2nd, the independence ; 3rd, the union of Mexicans and Spaniards. 10 and 11 relate to the duties of congress. 12. Every inhabitant to be a citizen, be he of what country he may. 13. Secures personal property. 14. Protects the immunities and privileges of the church. 15. Not to remove individuals from their present offices. 16. (see 9th), the three guarantees. 17 to 20. Army and military details. 21. Until new laws be enacted, the Spanish to be in force. 22, 23. Treason to the independence second only to sacrilege. 24. The Congress, or Cortes, to be a constituent assembly, to meet in Mexico, not in Madrid. I have been at the trouble to extract this in a few words from my own notes, and from Captain Hall's volumes, written m 1824, while he was at San Bias, because Iturbide was a remarkable man, and though the first to promulgate and carry out the real independence of Mexico, he fell a sacrifice to the changeableness of these very people, in 1824, when he returned to the country at the request of a very large part}**, after he was first driven out in 1823 by the opposition of the republicans. And this plan "de Iguala," really embodies all the important points about which the Mexicans have been fighting among themselves 1 ever since. At the time Iturbide completely succeeded in winning ail the army to his side, made a compromise with General OTJonajn, who was sent out' to supersede Apodaca, and found himself I within a few months the greatest man in the | country, elected Emperor of Mexico. Unhappily, however, they were not contented with a plan of Government which would have admirably suited them. One Santana (since the most prominent man in the annals of his country) raised a strong party with republican principles, opposed, and ultimately drove Iturbide from the country an exile to Italy in 1823, and the empire of Mexico only held together for this short period ; for, &sl have said, Iturbide was cutoff. He was shot in cold blood at Mafeamoros, on the N.E. coast, immediately after he bad landed in the full confidence that the party who had recalled him would reinstate and support him ; but in this confidence he was misled. From that time till 1832, when I landed in Mexico, revolution after revolution had followed one another, and they were as far from a settled form of government, republican or other, as ever. The only charge which can be brought against Iturbide, whom I could never help regarding as the " King-Kouning-Can-ning-able-Tnan" (as T. Carlyle words it) of his own country and time, was a sort of treachery—in first adhering strictly to.the royalist party against the liberal or independent party of the Revolution of 1810, and then, when opportunity served, and money was in his grasp, turning round and cleverly helping his own ambitious views, as in the Declaration of Iguala in 1820. But still there was an originality iv all this—a talent—an ability to wield the materials at hand to his own purposes, and after all, he accomplished the independence of his fine country from the policy and rule ofthe Spaniards; and if he had faults, he expatiated them all by his cruel death. General Negrito and General Bustamente (the last active in my time as a revolutionary loader) followed in Iturbide's steps at first, and then deserted and helped to betray him. Unfortunately, the whole of the subsequent aU, terations, or attempted alterations in the form of government, have partaken of the continuance of the same falsehood and treason. The treaty of Cordova between Don Ignacio Iturbide, the first chief of the Imperial Mexican Army of the " Three Guarantees" (from -which they name the three colours of their tricolour cockade), and Juan O'Donajn (pronounced O'Donohoo,—rifc is an Irish name, in fact, made Spanish), Lieutenant-General of the armies of Spain, was signed on the 24th August, 1821; and as this treaty was completely repudiated by the Spanish Cortes in Madrid as soon as received, and Ferdinand VII. as well as the Royal Princes declined the proffered imperial crown, this may be fixed as the date of Mexican independence. I need not dwell upon subsequent events further than to repeat what I have said of the constantly-recurring discontents and disturbances in the country. " Federalismo," "_ Centralismo," and other "Gritos," have been given and responded to by some parties. Open to the ambitious schemes of any candidate for power who has happened to have command of the troops, Mexico has been constantly under the ban of civil war, bloodshed, and forced contributions; its trade ancl productions injured and diminished; its people torn by divers opinions ; blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine. " The people,"—" the army,"—and "the religion," alternately held up and cast down ; they have never agreed as to how they would wish to'be ruled. They have, in fact, only united in one thing, and that was the first condition of the Plan de Iguala. They will allow no other form of worship to exist in the country. Poor Mexico! What a lovely country thou miglitest be made, under a firm, honest, and good government. How lost and wretched now! I am led into this digression to explain the state of this fine country when I arrived there in 1832. Having narrated his experiences in Mexico during his two years' residence, Mr. Donaldson foi- j lowed these up with sonio important details as to the silver mines. Giving a graphic account of his descent of one of the principal shafts, he said:— _ Very soon after I got settled at Guanaxuato, I visited, and descended, and explored all the principal mines in the district, of which that of Rayas stands number one. The main shaft of Rayas, which was finished by the United Mexico Mining Company, is a wonder of human perseverance and

science. I have seen the Pyramids of Egypt, ascended the highest, and stood on the Breakwater at Plymouth—but I look upon these works as the most extraordinary I ever saw. The shaft forms a hexagon, or six-sided figure, about 30 feet in diameter ; it is upwards of 400 varas perpendicular depth—nearly 1200 feet. The mode of descending a perpendicular shaft in Mexico is curious and peculiar. Instead of having the shafts lined with wood, as in Cornwall and Hungary, or descending by ladders, as at Bolanios, the shafts ofthe Rayas mine are cut through the solid quartz rock—the hardest rock known —and need no support, you descend, if you go by the shaft instead of going down the inclined plane of the lode, which lies at an angle of about 45 degrees, and you may walk down by steps, you descend, I say, by ropes used to bring up the ore in bags or nets. You sit upon a flat piece of mat which comes in front of you with a rope's-end, and this is made fast by a simple and apparently insufficient tie to the main rope, and you are swung off into the perpendicular depth, twisting your leg round the rope below you, and holding on like grim death to the rope above your head, ancl armed with a stick to keep yourself from rubbing against the sides of the shaft. It is a most extraordinary sensation the first time you descend, and not unattended, with danger. Several frightful accidents happened while I was there. I would, if time had permitted, relate you one or two of them; but to render the foregoing intelligible I will just here explain that the i*ope you are upon is unwound from a horse-whim, called a malacate, and one rope conies up as you go down. The mining districts of Mexico deserve a long chapter for themselves, but you know I am, in every scientific particular, anticipated by Baron Humboldt, whose admirable works I would recommend every curious reader to study; and in more general accounts Mr.- Ward has gone over the ground before me. I hazard a few remarks, however, which may be explanatory to such as have neither read the work of the Baron nor the Charge d'Affairs. Silver has been the staple article of produce of this lovely country ever since it was known to Europe, and probably attracted the cupidity of Moctezuma, the powerful barbarian of the North, who conquered the country long before it excited the same • passion in the Spaniards of tlie sixtenth century. It has remained, and 1 fancy always will remain, an enigma, how the native Mexicans first discovered the process of reduction of silver ore. It is, however, an ascertained historical fact, that Cortes found the native princes covered with both gold and silver ornaments, and the country abounding with this valuable metal. Nor is it less extraordinary that the amalgamating process which the Spaniards adopted immediately after the conquest (certainly without any very advanced chemical science) has been in use unimproved and unaltered to this day. I received a sort of explanation ofthe chemical phenomena which accompany this process, and which end in the production of silver, from a Dr. Sullivan, in the year 1842, as we travelled together overland from India; but I never in Mexico heard it chemically accounted for. I would enter upon the subject and explain the process at length—but not at this moment; time does not permit it now*. I am forgetting my more general business, which is with mining. During the administration ofthe Spanish rulers by their successive viceroys, the mines of Mexico, which were principally found in the districts of Guanaxuato, Bolanios, Zacatecas, Durango in the north, and Oaxaca in the south of the country, were continually worked, with various, but generally most successful results. . I have no statistics of the produce—suffice it that Mexico then produced more silver to Europe than all the rest of the world put together; and a great deal of the Mexican silver found its way through England to India and the East. The mines generally belonged to proprietors who were natives of the country bySpanish parents—Mexican Creoles they were, the richest of whom inherited the titles of their fathers, and some were created by the Spanish viceroys ; these titles they in some cases retained even after the final separation from the parent country in the year 1821, and in spite of the republican form of everything, Mexican or American, after their struggles for independence. I remember the old Marquis of Rayas, the proprietor of that magnificent mine close to' Guanaxuato, as a specimen of this class; he died in 1834. But this success in their mining operations was sadly damped during the Revolution "del Ano Diez," as the Mexicans always call it; and it never had time to recover till after Iturbide's insurrection in 1821. During that blood-spilling revolution, when every native who could carry arms took them up to drive their oppressors (as they then considered the Spaniards) from their country —the mines were neglected. Their mechanical contrivances for keeping their underground workings clear of water were never very efficient; they knew not the use ofthe steam engine, and all the drainage (excepting in the very few instances in which an adit could be employed) was done by means of large bags or buckets made of whole bullock hides, with a ring for the mouth; which were hoisted up and lowered down alternately—one full, the other empty—by the " malacate" or horse " whim." It will readily be conceived when once this poor machine—never at any time able to do. more than barely keep down the overplus water— was for a long time left unemployed, (while the mining population, like all others, in the general anarchy of those sorrowful times, were exchanging their mining bars for muskets, and their picks and tools for lances and sabres), —the mines became flooded in all their lower levels, and, in some cases perfectly -filled with water even to the surface. After the revolution had subsided, and peace was restored to the country, and the miners began to return to their occupations, it was found wholly impracticable to attempt to clear from water very many of their wealthy pits; and the majority of the mines, especially some of the richest, were abandoned for want of physical or mechanical power; and so they must have remained but for the energy of an English population, and the use of the steam-engine. This was the state of things, more or less, from the year of the Revolution of 1810 until 1822, when the Spanish yoke was finally shaken off. During the plethora of money which was felt in England in 1823,1824, and 1825 —when I believe any scheme, from a renewal of the South Sea Bubble, or the great tulip speculation of the last eentuiy, to the leasing, draining, and working Mexican mines with English labor and means, would have been listened to with avidity—only the grand mining schemes of that day were first broached and entered into by the English public, with an eagerness which, while it ruined thousands, set up Mexico again, and res- ! tored its mines to a producing and profitable state, j There were some superb works begun, some com- j pleted by* the energy of the Spaniards—for your j Spaniard is an enthusiastic gambler, and mining, with its uncertainty and golden hopes comes nearer to gambling than any other national occupation ; and the country only wanted a new power —that was steam—and steam only wanted abundant capital and mechanical skill to put it in operation, and here were the materials for confidence which was not chimerical. But with all the advantages of such an opening for the judicious employment of English money, English mechanism, and English talent, the speculators in mining companies went the wrong way to work. They formed too expensive establishments, they had too short leases of the mines, and though one or two of the companies early in the field, as the "Real del Monte Company," and another or two, as the "Bolanos," executed wonders in a short time, and held out real hopes of immense profits, they expended their profits when made, in forming more extensive works, upon the principle that, if twice ten thousand make a good profit, twice forty thousand will be much better; and they sunk their capital and profits too, in most cases. When the bubble burst, and their errors were discovered, I leave it to any one who lived in 1826 in England, to remember the effect. However, when I arrived in the country, several of these companies had still leases of the mines, having a long time to run, and under good management were still capable of redeeming many of their mistakes, and a good deal of their money. A more economical scale was adopted, and tlie returns more cared for, and in 1832-33,1 saw in thriving and even profitable activity the principal mines of the country. Indeed, excepting Bolanos

and Real del/Monte, all may be said to have been , doing well. In the mean time,.between that date -. and the present, some of the mines have reverted to their original proprietors at the expiring of their leases; some have had indifferent luck—-but upon the whole the country would, have infinitely benefitted by all that had been done for them, by receiving back their mines in a productive state,, drained and improved, together with machinery such as they could never otherwise have possessed, and by a hundred advantages from their long connection with England, had it only been well and firmly governed. Poor people! they have ever been the prey of revolution after involution, and ' I fear never will become a nation in spite of their wonderful natural advantages of soil, climate, situation, and productions! After reading these and. other extracts from liis journal, the lecturer introduced his hearers to the inner life and manners of the Rancheros ofthe Baxio, but here we will not attempt to follow him, as the whole description, which occupied more than an hour in delivery, was extemporaneous. The hon. gentleman's peroration was at once eloquent and impressive. Let me then, in conclusion, say the only didactic sentences I meant to-night to,utter. I advise all young people who hear me to lose no opportunity of learning everything, and to lose no opportunity of seeing eveiy thing. Of learning in the very many ways in which science and knowledge are offered (nay, poured into your .lap now-a-clays— the accumulated treasures of inherited wisdom lie ;in glittering heaps before you), by reading whenever you can, by listening whenever you can. I know full well that to many members of the Mechanics' Institute much reading is hardly possible, for the imperative claims of duty and the engrossing engagements of daily toil forbid it; but to you is offered, by the generous sympathy and liberal self-devotion of such as Dr. Woolley and others, the privilege of acquiring knowledge by the ear if it be denied to the eye. While I say this, I am fully alive to the great objection raised by the opponents of Mechanics' Institutions, that they only half educate, and while they create no scholars they produce little else but Sciolists. I. am fully alive to the truth of the couplet of the immortal Pope:— . . ; A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, Drink deep, or taste not the Pierrian spring; : For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, : ...,-. While drinking deeply sobers us again. But, with all this, I advise you to avail yourselves ot whatever opportunities you have, even here, and as to-night, to pick up crumbs of knowledge, •or be led by the vibrating of some chord of interest or curiosity, to enquire into a subject which may be brought before you, perhaps for the first time. A single musical note falling on an ear attuned for harmony, may create a Handel, or a Spohr, or a Mendelssohn,—so a word, or an idea uttered in season may rouse the intelligence which slumbers, and create a scholar. With eloquence and with poetry as with music, how true it is? There is in souls a sympathy with sound, And as the mind is pitched the ear is p'.eased . With melting strains or martial—brisk or gay I Some chord in unison with what we hear Is touched within us, and the heart replies. So listen, when yon cannot read, and lose no opportunity of learning—of seeing everything! . I go so far as to say that you should not pass a print shop without looking into the window. What do you see ?—an engraving ofthe battle off Cape La Hogue ! When was it fought ? Who were engaged in it ? A picture of the Pyramids! Where are they? Who. built them? How large? How many hundred years old ? An outline of a statue by Praxiteles! by Phidias, ly Canova, by Westmacott! How elegant, liow graceful!— what a conception in the sculptor! which looks so charming as a picture! Who was Phidias!—who was Praxiteles.? and why do Canova and Westmacott copy the never-dying group or figure which the ancient Greek conceived and executed, and which modern genius cannot improve ? But far more do I say, do not lose one chance of seeing new places. As of a picture or a statue, so of a landscape, of a new city, of a strange and unknown nationality or costume, believe me, the impression made through the beautiful mechanism of the.eye upon the inconceivably delicate tissue of the brain, is in all cases like the photograph or the collodiotype —perfect in its truth —while it may be saidto be almost instant in its educating influence upon the memory. Well, if to see, in that sense, be improving—ten times more so is it to see new countries; their history, their origin, their manners, their language, their laws, their institutions ; go where you can, stay as short a time as you please, but go with your c3 fes open and your mind ready prepared, and you learn a lesson at every glance, and suck in knowledge at eveiy inspiration of the breath. Ido not urge you to travel only for the sake of passing over so many degrees of latitude or longitude, or saying, "I have been in India," " I have been in America," but that, avoiding the nil admirari, you may never see a country without enquiring about it, nor toucl**. on a strange place, however little interesting it may appear at the moment, -without. - bringing away with- you some new knowledge from the impact. And I do not urge only the improvement of the mind by the study of ethnology, interesting as that is, and vast as the realm of inquiry into which that study conducts us; but I urge yon to travel, if you can, and to observe whenever you may—as Omne tiilit punctmn gui miscuit utile dulci —because the intimate knowledge of human nature which you thus acquire fits you, by the larger, the more expanded views which it affords you of all mankind—as one family, to be a better citizen of the world, and, moreover, induces you to look more charitably, more kindly, upon mankind in general, and makes you wiser, and more virtuous, and more good.