Mexico and its Religion - With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of - the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events - Connected With Places Visited

Robert A. Wilson

Informations

• Publié par: aftoi
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 33
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mexico and its Religion, by Robert A. Wilson
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Mexico and its Religion
With Incidents of Travel in That Country During Parts of
the Years 1851-52-53-54, and Historical Notices of Events
Connected With Places Visited
Author: Robert A. Wilson
Release Date: May 14, 2007 [EBook #21430]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION ***
Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.netSANTA ANNA.
MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION;
WITH
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN THAT COUNTRY
DURING PARTS OF THE YEARS 1851-52-53-
54,
AND
HISTORICAL NOTICES OF EVENTS
CONNECTED WITH PLACES VISITED.By
ROBERT A. WILSON.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1855.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York.
TO
THE AMERICAN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES,
THE FOLLOWING PAGES
Are Respectfully Dedicated.
PREFACE.
The custom of mingling together historical events with the incidents of
travel, of amusement with instruction, is rather a Spanish than American
practice; and in adopting it, I must crave the indulgence of those of my
readers who read only for instruction, as well as of those who read only for
amusement.
The evidence that I have adduced to prove that the yellow fever is not an
American, but an African disease, imported in slave-ships, and periodically
renewed from those cargoes of human rottenness and putrefaction, I hope
will be duly considered.
The picture of inner convent life, and the inimitable gambling scene in theconvent of San Francis, I have not dared to present on my own
responsibility, nor even that of the old English black-letter edition of Friar
Thomas, but I have reproduced it from the expurgated Spanish edition,
which has passed the censors, and must therefore be considered official.
I have presumed to follow the great Las Casas, who called all the
historians of the Conquest of Mexico liars; and though his labored refutation
of their fictions has disappeared, yet, fortunately, the natural evidences of
their untruth still remain. Having before me the surveys and the levels of our
own engineers, I have presumed to doubt that water ever ran up hill, that
navigable canals were ever fed by "back water," that pyramids (teocalli)
could rest on a foundation of soft earth, that a canal twelve feet broad by
twelve feet deep, mostly below the water level, was ever dug by Indians
with their rude implements, that gardens ever floated in mud, or that
brigantines ever sailed in a salt marsh, or even that 100,000 men ever
entered the mud-built city of Mexico by a narrow causeway in the morning,
and after fighting all day returned by the same path at night to their camp, or
that so large a besieging army as 150,000 men could be supported in a
salt-marsh valley, surrounded by high mountains.
In answer to the question why such fables have so long passed for
history, I have the ready answer, that the Inquisition controlled every
printing-office in Spain and her colonies, and its censors took good care
that nothing should be printed against the fair fame of so good a Christian
as Cortéz, who had painted upon his banner an image of the Immaculate
Virgin, and had bestowed upon her a large portion of his robbery; who had
gratified the national taste for holy wars by writing one of the finest of
Spanish romances of history; who had induced the Emperor to overlook his
crime of levying war without a royal license by the bestowal of rich presents
and rich provinces; so that, by the favor of the Emperor and the favor of the
Inquisition, a filibustero, whose atrocities surpassed those of every other on
record, has come down to us as a Christian hero.
The innumerable little things about their Indian mounds force the
conviction on the experienced eye of an American traveler that the Aztecs
were a horde of North American savages, who had precipitated themselves
first upon the table-land, and afterward, like the Goths from the table-lands
of Spain, extended their conquests over the expiring civilization of the coast
country; and this idea is confirmed by the fact that the magnificent Toltec
monuments of a remote antiquity, discovered in the tropical forests, were
apparently unknown to the Aztecs. The conquest of Mexico, like our
conquest of California, was in itself a small affair; but both being
immediately followed by extensive discoveries of the precious metals,
Mexico rose as rapidly into opulence as San Francisco has in our day.
The evidence that I have presented of the inexhaustible supplies of silver
in Northern Mexico, near the route of our proposed Pacific Railroad, may be
interesting to legislators. These masses of silver lie as undisturbed by their
present owners as did the Mexican discoveries of gold in California before
the American conquest, from the inertness of the local population, and the
want of facilities of communication with the city of Mexico.
The notion that the Mormons are destined to overrun Mexico is, of
course, only an inference drawn from the exact parallel that exists betweenthe circumstances under which this delusion has arisen and propagated
itself and the history of Mohammedanism from its rise until it overran the
degenerated Christians of the Eastern empire.
From want of space, I have been obliged to omit much valuable original
matter procured for me by officers of government at the palace of Mexico, to
whom, for the kind attention that I have upon all occasions received from
them, I heartily return my most sincere thanks.
R. A. WILSON.
Rochester, September 1st, 1855.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Arrival at Vera Cruz.—Its appearance from the Steamer.—
Getting Ashore.—Within the City.—Throwing Stones at an
Image.—Antiquity of Vera Cruz.—Its Commerce.—The great
Norther of 1852.—A little Steamer rides out the Tempest.—
The Vomito, or Yellow Fever.—Ravages of the Vomito.—
The Vomito brought from Africa in Slave-ships.—A curious
old Book.—Our Monk arrives at Vera Cruz, and what befalls
him there.—Life in a Convent.—A nice young Prior.—Our
Monk finds himself in another World 15
CHAPTER II.
An historical Sketch.—Truth seldom spoken of Santa Anna.
—Santa Anna's early Life.—Causes of the Revolution.—
The Virgin Mary's Approval of King Ferdinand.—The
Inquisition imprisons the Vice-King.—Santa Anna enters the
King's Army.—The plan of Iguala.—The War of the two
Virgins.—Santa Anna pronounces for Independence 30
CHAPTER III.
Incidents of Travel.—The Great Road to the Interior.—
Mexican Diligences.—The Priest was the first Passenger
robbed.—The National Bridge.—A Conducta of Silver.—Our
Monk visits Old Vera Cruz.—They grant to the Indians forty
Years of Indulgence in return for their Hospitality.—The
Artist among Robbers.—Mexican Scholars in the United
States.—Encerro 39
CHAPTER IV.Jalapa.—The extraordinary Beauty and Fertility of this Spot.
—Jalap, Sarsaparilla, Myrtle, Vanilla, Cochineal, and Wood
of Tobasco.—The charming Situation of Jalapa.—Its
Flowers and its Fruits.—Magnificent Views.—The tradition
that Jalapa was Paradise.—A speck of War.—The Marriage
of a Heretic.—A gambling Scene in a Convent 52
CHAPTER V.
The War of the Secret Political Societies of Mexico.—The
Scotch and the York Free-Masons.—Anti-Masons.—Rival
Classes compose Scotch Lodges.—The Yorkinos.—Men
desert from the Scotch to the York Lodges.—Law to
suppress Secret Societies.—The Escocés, or Scotch
Masons, take up arms.—The Battle.—Their total Defeat 68
CHAPTER VI.
Mexico becomes an Empire.—Santa Anna deposes the
Emperor.—He proclaims a Republic.—He pronounces
against the Election of Pedraza, the second President.—His
Situation in the Convent at Oajaca.—He captures the
Spanish Armada.—And is made General of Division 73
CHAPTER VII.
In the Stage and out of the Stage.—Still climbing.—A
moment's View of all the Kingdoms of the World.—Again in
Obscurity.—The Maguey, or Century Plant.—The many
uses of the Maguey.—The intoxicating juice of the Maguey.
—Pulque.—Immense Consumption of Pulque.—City of
Perote.—Castle of San Carlos de Perote.—Starlight upon
the Table-land.—Tequisquita.—"The Bad Land."—A very
old Beggar.—Arrive at Puebla 79
CHAPTER VIII.
Pueblo.—The Miracle of the Angels.—A City of Priests.—
Mari