e Memory.--Juarez, the
Border Town of Mexico.--City of El Paso, Texas.--Railroad
Interests.--Crossing the Rio Grande.--Greeted by the Stars
and Stripes 343

AZTEC LAND.

CHAPTER I.

Locality and Political Divisions of Aztec Land.--Spanish Historians.--
Boundaries.--Climate.--Egyptian Resemblances.--Products of the
Country.--Antiquities.--Origin of Races.--Early Civilization.--
Pictorial Writings.--Aboriginal Money.--Aztec Religious Sacrifices.
--A Voluptuous Court.--Mexican Independence.--European Civilization
introduced by Cortez.--Civil Wars.--The Maximilian Fiasco.--Revival
of Mexican Progress.--A Country facing on Two Oceans.--A Native
Writer's Statement.--Divorce of Church and State.

Bordering upon the United States on the extreme southwest, for a
distance of more than two thousand miles, is a republic which represents
a civilization possibly as old as that of Egypt; a land, notwithstanding
its proximity to us, of which the average American knows less than he
does of France or Italy, but which rivals them in natural
picturesqueness, and nearly equals them in historic interest.

It is a country which is much misunderstood and almost wholly
misrepresented. It may be called the land of tradition and romance,
whose true story is most poetic and sanguinary. Such is Mexico, with her
twenty-seven independent states, a federal district in which is situated
the national capital, and the territory of Lower California,--a
widespread country, containing in all a population of between ten and
eleven millions. As in the instance of this Union, each state controls
its internal affairs so far as it can do so without conflicting with the
laws of the national government, which are explicitly defined. The
nature of the constitution, adopted in 1857 by the combined states, is
that of a republic pure and simple, thoroughly democratic in its
provisions. The national power resides in the people, from whom emanates
all public authority. The glowing pen of Prescott has rendered us all
familiar with the romantic side of Mexican history, but legitimate
knowledge of her primitive story is, unfortunately, of the most
fragmentary character. Our information concerning the early inhabitants
comes almost solely through the writings of irresponsible monks and
priests who could neither see nor represent anything relative to an
idol