nic States of
the Americas--as Mexico and Peru--enjoyed an excellent system of
individual land-tenure, or rather, of free land-use, which gave being
to a strong, independent peasantry; and this, in Peru, still obtains to
a certain degree, due principally to the inaccessibility of the Andine
regions. But in Mexico such a class no longer exists, and the _peon_
lives by sufferance upon the soil which was wrested from his forbears
by the white man, who adopted there the singular land customs of
Europe, which arrogate to the enjoyment of a few the soil which
philosophy points to as belonging to the community.[27] Enormous landed
estates are held in Mexico--indeed, in the State of Chihuahua the
largest single estate in the world exists--and a semi-feudal _regime_
of the land and its inhabitants marks the character of this modern
American civilisation. The population on the soil scarcely reaches
twenty persons to the square mile--principally rural or inhabiting
small towns--and there is ample room, therefore, for expansion. It
must, however, be stated that excellent new land laws have been
promulgated of recent years in the Republic. National lands have been
set aside in vast areas, and any inhabitant of the Republic may
"denounce" or acquire a piece of such land, and retain it by annual
tax-payment at prices varying from two _pesos_--a peso is about two
shillings--in the remote regions, to twenty or thirty _pesos_ per
hectare--equal to 2-1/2 acres--in the more settled States. The Mexican
peasantry is not debarred absolutely from the enjoyment of the land if
he has the knowledge and means to perform the simple requirements
necessary to its acquisition--which generally he has not. I have dealt
in detail with the matters of land acquisition elsewhere in this work,
and with the conditions of life of and the character of the _peon_
class familiarly.

[Footnote 27: In certain regions there are, of course, numerous Indian
squatters and landholders.]

To cast, now, a glance at ethnic conditions, it is sufficient to say
that a wide range of peoples have mingled their blood in the race which
now forms the people of Mexico. No other American nation constitutes so
varied a blending of races. The invading Conquistadores and their
followers from Spain--which itself has formed from the beginning of
history a veritable crucible or mixing-ground of the world's peoples,
languages and creeds--brought Iberian, Roman, Celtic, Semite, Vandal,
G