In five years, with such a population, and only of "His balls were very numerously attended. The an equal number with that which Mexico now has, company was by no means select. In fact I saw I do not hesitate to assert that the mineral and there very few of the ladies belonging to the arisagricultural exports alone would nearly equal all tocracy; but very many others who had no business the exports of any other country of the world. there. This, however, is unavoidable in a revoluThe last time I examined the tables upon that sub- tionary country like Mexico. Every President ject, the whole exports of the produce of British holds his power by no other tenure than the caprice labor was about two hundred and sixty millions of of the army, and he is forced, therefore, to concilidollars per annum. Mexico, in the possession of ate it. If a corporal, who has married the daughter another race, would approach that amount in ten of the washerwoman of the regiment, has risen to years. Recent manifestations of a rabid, I will not the highest station in the army, his wife cannot be say a rapacious, spirit of acquisition of more terri- slighted with safety-and such cases have occurred. tory on the part of our countrymen may well cause "I wish that I could in sincerity say that the a race so inferior in all the elements of power and ladies of Mexico are handsome. They are not, nor greatness to tremble for the tenure by which they yet are they ugly. Their manners, however, are hold this El Dorado. 'Tis not often, with nations perfect; and in the great attributes of the heart, at least, that such temptations are resisted, or that affection, kindness and benevolence in all their danger winks on opportunity.' I trust, however, forms, they have no superiors. They are emithat our maxim will ever be Noble ends by nently graceful in everything but dancing. That worthy means attained,' and that we may remem- does not come by nature,' as we have the authoriber that wealth improperly acquired never ulti-ty of Dogberry that reading and writing do; and mately benefited an individual or a nation." they are rarely taught to dance, and still more rarely practise it. EXTRACTS. 66 "I think that in another, and the most important point in the character of woman, they are very much slandered. I am quite sure that there is no City in Europe of the same size where there is less immorality. Indeed, I cannot see how such a thing is possible. Every house in Mexico has but one outside door, and a porter always at that. The old system of the duenna, and a constant espionage, are observed by every one, and to an extent that would scarcely be believed. I have no doubt, however, that whatever other effects these restraints may have, their moral influence is not a good one. The virtue which they secure is of the sickly nature of hot-house plants, which wither and perish when exposed to the weather. Women, instead of being taught to regard certain acts as impossible to be committed, and therefore not apprehended or guarded against, are brought up with an idea that the temptation of opportunity is one which is never resisted. "I do not think that the ladies of Mexico are generally very well educated. There are, however, some shining exceptions. Mrs. Almonte, the wife of General Almonte, would be regarded as an accomplished lady in any country. The Mexicans, of either sex, are not a reading people. The ladies read very little. Kindness and Courtesy Society of Dinner Parties and Enter tainments-Mexican Ladies wanting in Beauty-Do not dance well-Charity-Routins of daily life-Costliness of Dress-In the streets-Women generally smoke-A day in the Country. "Notwithstanding the general prejudice which existed in Mexico against me when I first went there, I was treated, although somewhat coldly, always and by all classes with the most perfect respect. In this particular the higher classes of all countries are very much alike, but I doubt whether there is any other country where the middling and lower classes are so generally courteous and polite. There is no country where kindness and Courtesy are more certain to meet with a proper return. It may be that three hundred years of vassalage to their Spanish masters may have given the Indian population an habitual deference and respect for a race which they have always regarded as a superior one. No people are by nature more social, none less so in their habits. It is not the fashion to give entertainments of any sort. And what I regarded as a little remarkable, the members of the Mexican cabinet, most of whom were men of fortune and had ample means at hand, not only never gave entertainments, even dinner parties to the members of the diplomatic corps, but never even invited them to "The general routine of female life is to rise their houses when invited to such parties how- late, and spend the larger portion of the day stander by any of the foreign ministers, they never ing in their open windows, which extend to the iled to accept the invitation. With any other floor. It would be a safe bet at any hour of the eople there would be a seeming meanness in this. day between ten and five o'clock, that you would But such was not the case. No people are more in walking the streets see one or more females iberal in the expenditure of money. General Santa Anna had two very large dinner parties whilst I was in Mexico, and two or three balls; but I heard of nothing else of the kind, except at the houses of the foreign ministers. Santa Anna's dinners were altogether elegant, and he presided at them with great dignity and propriety. On such -occasions he was joyous and hilarious. The company, without exception, had the appearance and manners of gentlemen; I sat next to him on these occasions, and his aides-de-camp, who were not seated at the table, would occasionally come to his seat and say some playful thing to him. I was much struck with the style and intercourse between them; marked by an affectionate kindness on his part, and the utmost respect, but at the same time freedom from restraint, on theirs. standing thus at the windows of more than half the houses. At five they ride on the Paseo, and then go to the theatre, where they remain until twelve o'clock, and the next day, and every day in the year, repeat the same routine. In this dolce far niente their whole lives pass away. But I repeat that in many of the qualities of the heart which make women lovely and loved; they have no superiors. "The war of independence was illustrated with many instances of female virtue of a romantic character, one of which I will mention. And I again regret that I have forgotten the name of the noble woman whose virtue and love of country were so severely tested. The lady to whom I refer had two sons, each of whom was in command of a detachment of the patriot army. One of them was made prisoner, and the Spanish general into whose hands he had fallen, sent for his mother and said to her, If you will induce your other son to surrender his army to me, I will spare the life of the one who is my prisoner. Her instant reply was, 'No! I will not purchase the life of one son with the dishonor of another and the ruin of my country.' This fact is historic, and is more true than history generally is. to spend the day at Tacubaya, or some other of the neighboring villages, or at some house in the suburbs of the city, where a dinner is prepared, and a band of music sent out; and the day and a large portion of the night spent in dancing. Never have I seen a more joyous and hilarious people than they are on these occasions. "I shall never forget one of these parties which was given to General Almonte, just before he left "The ladies of Mexico dress with great extrava- Mexico on his mission to this country. It was a gance, and I suppose a greater profusion of pearl genuine, roistering, country frolic. We got into and gold-I will not say more barbaric-than in boats, and with the music playing, were rowed for any other country. I remember that at a ball at some distance by moonlight, in the canal which the President's, Mr. Bocanegra asked me what I terminates in the Lake of Chalco, and then amongst thought of the Mexican ladies; were they as hand-the Chinampas or floating gardens, which are now some as my own countrywomen? I of course nothing more than shaking bogs. The very thin avoided answering the question; I told him, how- stratum of soil which had formed on the water of ever, that they were very graceful, and dressed the lake is made more unsteady, when a small much finer than our ladies. He said he supposed so, and then asked me what I thought the material of the dresses of two ladies which he pointed out had cost; and then told me that he had happened to hear his wife and daughters speaking of them, and that the material of the dresses, blonde, I think, had cost one thousand dollars each. I asked on the same occasion, a friend of mine who was a merchant, what he supposed was the cost of an ornament for the head thickly set with diamonds of the Señora A. G. He told me that he knew very well, for he had imported it for her, and that the price was twenty-five thousand dollars; she wore other diamonds and pearls no doubt of equal value. space of an acre or two is surrounded by a canal. There are now none of the floating gardens described by the conquerors, which were formed by artificial means, and moved about from one part of the lake to another. "The men who are met in the streets, are almost exclusively officers and soldiers of the army, priests and leporos, the latter quite as useful, and much the least burdensome and pernicious of the three classes. The Mexicans of the better classes generally wear cloth cloaks at all seasons of the year, and the Indian blankets; for ornament, I suppose, for the weather is never cold enough to make either necessary. One thing, however, I could never ac"I have said that there are very rarely anything count for, I did not feel uncomfortably cold in a like evening parties, or tertullias; social meetings, linen coat, nor uncomfortably warm with my cloak or calls to spend an evening are quite as unusual, on. All the physical peculiarities of the Indians except among very near relations, and even then of Mexico are precisely the same as those of our the restraint and espionage are not at all relaxed. own Indians; they are, however, much smaller. Persons who have seen each other, and been at- Their appearance is very much the same in all tached for years, often meet at the altar without respects as those of the straggling Indians who are ever having speut half an hour in each other's com- seen about our cities; nothing of the elastic step pany. Ladies of the better classes never walk the and proud bearing of our natives of the forest. streets except on one day in the year, the day before Such a noble looking fellow as the Seminole Chief, Good Friday, I believe it is. But they make the Wild Cat, would create a sensation there; he most of this their saturnalia; on that day all the might possibly get up a pronunciamento-I have no fashionable streets are crowded with them, in their doubt he would attempt it. In a word, I am by no best bibs and tuckers,' and glittering in diamonds.means sure that in exchanging the peculiar civili"The streets are always, however, swarming zation which existed in the time of Montezuma for with women of the middling and lower classes. that which the Spaniards gave them, that they have The only articles of dress worn by these are a improved the condition of the masses; they have chemise and petticoat, satin slippers, but no stock-lost little of the former but its virtues, and acquired ings, and a rebozo, a long shawl improperly called by our ladies a mantilla. This they wear over the head and wrapped close around the chin, and thrown over the left shoulder. Whatever they may be in private, no people can be more observant of propriety in public; one may walk the streets of Mexico for a year, and he will not see a wanton gesture or look on the part of a female of any description, with the single exception, that if you meet a woman with a fine bust, which they are very apt to have, she finds some occasion to adjust her rebozo, and throws it open for a second. This "The generous and honorable sentiment so well rebozo answers all the purposes of the shawl, bon- expressed by the Englishwoman of Peubla leads net and frock-body. me to remark that my residence in Mexico fur"The women of Mexico, I think, generally nished me more evidences than one, of the powersmoke; it is getting to be regarded as not exactly ful sympathy of race. Even the revengeful charcomme il faut, and therefore they do it privately.acter of the Spaniard yields to it. NotwithstandAs the men generally smoke, they have the advan- ing the recent termination of the fierce and santage which Dean Swift recommends to all who eat onions, to make their sweethearts do so too. "One of the favorite and most pleasant recreations of the Mexicans is what they call un dio de campo, a day in the country. A party is made up little of the latter but its vices. I have already remarked that, although there are no political distinctions amongst the various castes of the population of Mexico, that the social distinctions are very marked. At one of those large assemblies at the President's palace, it is very rare to see a lady whose color indicates any impurity of blood. The same remark is, to a great extent, true of the gentlemen, but there are also a good many exceptions. FRIENDSHIP WITH ENGLISHMEN. guinary civil war which has raged between Mexico and the mother country, no other people are so favorably regarded by the Mexicans as the Spaniards. And I can say with truth that I never met an Englishman there that I did not feel the ful force of "the white skin and the English language" and I had no cause to believe that the same feeling was not entertained towards me by the English gentlemen in Mexico; and why, in God's name, should it be otherwise? I would not sell "for the seas' worth," my share of the glory of my English ancestry, Milton, Shakspeare, and John Hampden, and those noble old barons who met King John at Runnymede; and on the other hand, Englishmen should have a just pride in the prosperity and greatness of our country. In the beautiful language of a highly-gifted and liberalminded Englishman, Mr. Charles Augustus Murray, "whether we view the commercial enterprise of America, or her language, her love of freedom, parochial, legal or civil institutions, she bears indelible marks of her origin; she is and must continue the mighty daughter of a mighty parent, and although emancipated from maternal control, the affinities of race remain unaltered. Her disgrace must dishonor their common ancestry, and her greatness and renown gratify the parental pride of Britain. Accursed be the vile demagogue who would wantonly excite another and fratricidal war between the two greatest and only free countries of the earth!" and other foreigners in that department to reenact the scenes of Texas. I had been consulted whether in the event of a revolution in California, and its successful result in a separation from Mexico, our government would consent to surrender their claims to Oregon, and that Oregon and California should constitute an independent republic. I of course had no authority to answer the question, and I would not have done so if I could. The inhabitants of California are for the most part Indians, a large proportion naked savages, who not only have no sympathies with Mexico but the most decided antipathy. Mexico has no troops there, and the distance of the department prevents any being sent. sent against him. He has once or twice been ordered to deliver up his forts, and his laconic reply has been "Come and take them." Captain Suter, who was one of Bonaparte's officers, and, I believe, is a Swiss, has for many years had an establishment there, and is the real sovereign of the country if any one is, certainly so de facto if not de jure. The government of Mexico has done none of those things, such as settlement, extending her laws, and affording protection, which alone give to a civilized people a right to the country of a savage one. As to all these, the natives of California are as much indebted to any other nation as to Mexico; they only know the governI should not satisfy my own feelings if I were ment of Mexico by the exactions and tribute which not to notice here the circle of English merchants, are levied upon them-it is literally a waif, and who reside in Mexico. I have nowhere met a belongs to the first occupant. Captain Suter has worthier set of gentlemen-enlightened, hospita- two forts in California, and about two thousand ble and generous. I can with great truth say, that persons, natives and Europeans, in his employthe most pleasant hours which I have spent in ment, all of them armed and regularly drilled. I Mexico were in their society, and I shall never have no doubt that his force would be more than a cease to remember them with kindness and re-match for any Mexican force which will ever be spect. I now and then met with a little of the John Bull jealousy of this country, but I playfully told them that I could pardon that-that it was altogether natural, for that the English flag had waved From all the information which I have received, on every sea and continent on the face of the globe, and I have been inquisitive upon the subject, I am and that for the last thousand years it had rarely, well satisfied that there is not on this continent any if ever, been lowered to an equal force, except in country of the same extent as little desirable as conflicts with us, where its fate had always been Oregon, nor any in the world which combines as to come down. I believe that I may say that their many advantages as California. With the excepgreatest objection to me was, that I was rather too tion of the valley of the Wallamette, there is fond of talking of General Jackson and New Or- scarcely any portion of Oregon which is inhabitaleans. There is no single name which an English-ble except for that most worthless of all-a huntman so little likes to hear as that of General Jack-ing population-and the valley of the Wallamette son, and none so grateful to the ears of an Ameri- is of very small extent. In the south the only port can in a foreign land, only excepting that of is at the Columbia river, and that is no port at all, Washington. I do not doubt that it will be known and remembered long after that of every other American who has gone before him, except Washington and Franklin, is swallowed up in the vortex of oblivion. I have been the political opponent of General Jackson, and should be so now upon the same questions. I believe that he committed some very great errors, but that he did all in honor and patriotism. I have at the same time always had a just admiration for his many great qualities and glorious achievements, and I should pity the American who could hear his name mentioned in a foreign land without feeling his pulse beat higher. CALIFORNIA. The California Question-Captain Suter's SettlementValue of the country-Importance to the United States -English influence in Mexico-Annexation of Mexican provinces to the United States-Present relations. I confess that in taking the high ground which I did upon the order expelling our people from California, that I felt some compunctious visitings, for I had been informed that a plot had been arranged and was about being developed by the Americans as the loss of the Peacock, and others of our vessels, has proved. To say nothing of other harbors in California, that of San Francisco is capacious enough for the navies of the world, and its shores are covered with enough timber (a species of the live oak) to build those navies. If man were to ask of God a climate he would ask just such an one as that of California, if he had ever been there. There is no portion of our western country which produces all the grains as well; I have been told by more than one person on whom I entirely relied, that they had known whole fields to produce -a quantity so incredible that I will not state it. The whole face of the country is covered with the finest oats growing wild; sugar, rice and cotton, find there their own congenial climate. Besides all these, the richest mines of gold and silver have been discovered there, and the pearl fisheries have always been sources of the largest profits; and more than these, there are the markets of India and China with nothing intervening but the calm and stormless Pacific ocean. The distance from the head of navigation on the Arkansas and Red rivers to a navigable point of power which their large capital gives them; and, if the feelings of the Mexican people were consulted, or the opinions of their most enlightened men, England is the very last power to which the Mexicans would transfer California, or any other portion of their territory. I am quite sure that they would prefer that it should be an independent the waters of the Gulf of California is not more towards the English is unfriendly. They have a than five or six hundred miles; let that distance be well-grounded jealousy of the great and increasing overcome by a railroad, and what a vista is opened to the prosperity and power of our country. I have no doubt that the time will come when New Orleans will be the greatest city in the world. That period would be incalculably hastened by the measures which I have indicated, which would throw into her lap the vast commerce of China and of India. Great Britain, with that wise and far-power, than to have any connection or depenseeing policy for which she is more remarkable than any other government, has already the practical possession of most of the ports of the Pacific ocean-New Zealand and the Sandwich Islands, and very soon the Society Islands also. We have a commerce in that ocean of more than fifty millions of dollars, and not a single place of refuge for our ships. I will not say what is our policy in regard to California. Perhaps it is that it remain in the hands of a weak power like Mexico, and that all the maritime powers may have the advantage of its ports. But one thing I will say, that it will be worth a war of twenty years to prevent England acquiring it, which I have the best reasons for believing she desires to do, and just as good reasons for believing that she will not do if it cost a war with this country. It is, perhaps, too remote from us to become a member of the Union. It is yet doubtful whether the increase of our territory will have a federal or a centralizing tendency. If the latter, we have too much territory; and I am by no means sure that another sister republic there, with the same language, liberty and laws, will not, upon the whole, be the best for us. If united in one government, the extremities may be so remote as not to receive a proper heat from the centre-so, at least, thought Mr. Jefferson, who was inspired on political questions if mortal man ever was. I am not one of those who have a rabid craving for more territory; on the contrary, I believe that we have enough. I know of no great people who have not been crowded into a small space-the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks, and another people who have exercised a greater influence upon man and his destiny than all others, the Jews; and, in our time, the English. I want no more territory, for we have already too much. If I were to make an exception to this remark, it would be to acquire California. But I should grieve to see that country pass into the hands of England, or any other of the great powers. dence of any sort upon England. The most valuable of the Mexican mines are owned and worked by English companies, and at least twothirds of the specie which is exported goes into the hands of the English. The British government keeps two officers, or agents, in Mexico, with high salaries, to attend to this interest alone. It is with the money thus derived that the English establishments on this continent and in the West Indies are supported. The amount of the specie annually obtained from Mexico is more than half as great as that which is kept at one time in the Bank of England. The stoppage of this supply would very much derange the whole monetary system of England; on this account, it is to be apprehended that in the event of a war between the United States and Mexico, that England would very soon be involved in it. If the coast of Mexico should be blockaded, England will demand that the line of steam-packets to Vera Cruz should be exempted from its operations. These packets, although commercial vessels, possess a sort of quasi government character. This, of course, our government could not concede; and the interruption of the regular supply of the precious metals from Mexico would be most disastrously felt in England. Knowing all this, I was well satisfied that all that we have heard about England stimulating Mexico to declare war against this country was ridiculously absurd. Such a war would injure England more than either of the belligerents. All her interests are opposed to it, unless, indeed, she intended to participate in that war. I have the best reasons for saying, that there is no other power in the world with which England would not prefer to engage in a war; not that she fears us, for England fears no nation, nor combination of nations, as all her history proves; but such a war would be, more than any other, disastrous to her commercial, manufacturing, and all other industrial pursuits. England has no single motive of a war with us. It is not of this country that she is jealous, but of the northern despotisms of Europe, and mainly of Russia, and has been so since the seizure of the fortress of Aczaco, in 1788. And well may England and all Europe tremble under the shadow of that terrible military despotism now holding one Whenever the foreigners in California make the movement of separation, it must succeed. The department of Sonora, not half the distance from Mexico, has been in a state of revolt for the last four years, and the government has been unable to suppress it. The civil war there has been marked by acts of horrible atrocity, which are almost with-eighth of the territory of the globe, and continually out precedent in any country. It is true that they do not eat the flesh of their enemies, but they leave them hanging on the trees to feast the birds of prey. There is scarcely a road in the whole department where such spectacles are not daily exhibited. extending its limits and its power. All the wars of the present century which have weakened other European powers have resulted in the aggrandizement of Russia. The government is not only a despotism, but essentially a military despotism. The studies in which her people are educated are There is a great mistake, I think, in the opinion principally those of war and diplomacy. Russia which is general in this country of the great and the United States are antipodes and antagoascendency of English influence in Mexico. It is nists. The wise and far seeing statesmen of true that Mr. Pakenham had much influence there, England see this and calculate as well they may, which his great worth and frank and honorable upon our sympathy, in a conflict with Russia. Í character will give him anywhere; but my opinion repeat, England wants no war with us, although is, that the general feeling of the Mexicans we may force her into one. "That old and 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF MEXICO. haughty nation proud in arms" will never submit to injustice or insult. But to return from this perhaps uncalled-for digression to the jealousy of England which is felt in Mexico. A leading member of the Mexican cabinet once said to me that he believed that the tendency of things was towards the annexation of Texas to the United States, and that he greatly preferred that result either to the separate independence of Texas or any connection or dependence of Texas upon an independent England; that if Texas was power, other departments of Mexico would unite with it either voluntarily or by conquest, and that if there was any connection between Texas and England, that English manufactures and merchandise would be smuggled into Mexico through Texas to the utter ruin of the Mexican manufactures and revenue. all Mexicans towards us, until the revolution in In one of my last interviews with Santa Anna I The northern departments of Mexico contain all mentioned this conversation. He said with great vehemence, that he "would war forever for the the mines, and more of the wealth of the country reconquest of Texas, and that if he died in his than any others; and they all hang very loosely senses his last words should be an exhortation to to the confederacy;-they receive no earthly beneAll the money his countrymen never to abandon the effort to re-fit from the central government, which in truth conquer the country;" and added, "You, sir, they only know in its exactions. know very well that to sign a treaty for the alien-collected from them is expended in the city and ation of Texas would be the same thing as signing elsewhere, and they have not even the satisfaction the death-warrant of Mexico," and went on to say of knowing that it is beneficially or even honestly that "by the same process we would take one used. The security which would be given to after the other of the Mexican provinces until we property, as well as its great enhancement in had them all." I could not, in sincerity, say that value, would be powerful inducements with all the I thought otherwise; but I do not know that the owners of large estates which are now comparaannexation of Texas will hasten that event. That tively valueless. The only obstacle that I know our language and laws are destined to pervade this of to such a consummation, infinitely desirable in continent, I regard as more certain than any other my judgment, to the people of those departments, event which is in the future. Our race has never less so to us, would be in the influence of the yet put its foot upon a soil which it has not only kept but has advanced. I mean not our English ancestors only, but that good Teuton race from which we have both descended. priesthood. They are well aware that such a measure might very soon be fatal, not only to their own supremacy, but that of the Catholic religion also-but they would have on the other hand a There seems to be a wonderful adaptation of the powerful motive in the security which it would English people to the purpose of colonization. give them to their large church property-no The English colony of convicts at New South motive but interest would have any influence Their feelings towards us may be Wales is a more prosperous community than any with the people of Mexico, for they certainly do That the Indian not like us. colony of any other country. race of Mexico must recede before us, is quite as summed up in two words, jealousy and admiration certain as that that is the destiny of our Indians, they are not going to declare war against us, I who in a military point of view, if in no other, are have never doubted for a moment about that. superior to them. I do not know what feelings Public opinion in Mexico, to all practical purposes, towards us in Mexico may have been produced by means the opinion of the army, and the very last recent events, but whatever they may be, they thing in the world which the army desires, is such will not last long; and I believe that the time is a war-nor do I believe that one Mexican in a not at all distant, when all the northern depart-thousand does, however they may vaunt and blusments of Mexico, within a hundred miles of the ter-just as a frightened school-boy whistles as he city, will gladly take refuge under our more stable passes a grave-yard in the night. I have just as institutions from the constant succession of civil little idea they will negotiate now, or until matwars to which that country seems to be destined. ters are adjusted between England and this counThe feeling is becoming a pretty general one try. I doubt whether they will do so even then, amongst the enlightened and patriotic, that they for the government of Mexico owes our citizens as are not prepared for free institutions, and are incapable themselves of maintaining them. There is very great danger that the drama may close there, as it has so often done in other countries, with anarchy ending in despotism-such is the natural swing of the pendulum. The feeling of *Our worst enemy among the sovereigns of Europe is Louis Philippe, the catspaw-king. Every people strug; gling to be free look to the United States for light and aid, and it should be a source of pride to us that every despot regards us with fear and hatred. Well may the treacherous citizen-king exclaim with reference to America, with the fallen archangel to the sun "How! oh sun, I hate thy beams." much money as they could expect to get from us for their quit claim to Texas, and Mexico, therefore, will have no motive to negotiate as long as she is not pressed for these claims; and the restoration of official intercourse is not of the slightest consequence to her. The few Mexicans who would come here, would be in no danger of being oppressed, and nothing would be more convenient to Mexico than that we should have no minister there to trouble the government with complaints. PATRIOTISM OF SANTA ANNA. Another, and a very important one to many Americans in Mexico, was that which prohibited |