the
pleasantest season of the year on the Mexican plateau.

CHAPTER VI.

Guanajuato.--An Ex-President.--Richest Silver Mine in Mexico.--Reducing
the Ores.--Plenty of Silver.--Open Sewers.--A Venal Priesthood.--A
Big Prison.--The Catholic Church.--Getting Rid of a Prisoner.--The
Frog-Rock.--Idolaters.--A Strawberry Festival at Irapuato.--
Salamanca.--City of Queretaro.--A Fine Old Capital.--Maximilian and
His Fate.--A Charming Plaza.--Mammoth Cotton Factory.--The Maguey
Plant.--Pulque and Other Stimulants.--Beautiful Opals.--Honey Water.
--Ancient Tula.--A Freak of Tropical Weather.

The quaint old city of Guanajuato, capital of the state bearing the same
name,--pronounced Wan-a-wato,--is situated nearly a thousand feet higher
than Silao, two hundred and fifty miles north of the city of Mexico, and
fifteen miles from the main trunk of the Mexican Central Railroad, with
which it is connected by a branch road. It contains between fifty and
sixty thousand inhabitants, and has been a successful mining centre for
over three hundred years. Manuel Gonzales, ex-president of Mexico, is
the governor of the state. This man was the Tweed of Mexico, and one of
the most venal officials ever trusted by the people. He succeeded, on
retiring from the presidency, in taking with him of his ill-gotten
wealth several millions of dollars. The astonishing corruption that
reigned under his fostering care was notorious. In enriching himself
and his ring of adherents, he brought the treasury of the country to the
very verge of bankruptcy. It may be mentioned that this State of
Guanajuato is the most densely populated in the Mexican republic. It has
an area of a trifle over twelve thousand square miles, or it is about
the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut united. The town is reached
through the suburb of Marfil, along the precipitous sides of whose
mountain road large adobe and stone mills are constructed, resembling
feudal castles; while beside the roadbed, broken by sharp acclivities,
the small, muddy, vile-smelling river Guanajuato flows sluggishly along,
bearing silver tailings away from the mills above, and wasting at least
twenty-five per cent, of the precious metal contained in the badly
manipulated ore. Here and there in the river's bed--the stream being
low--scores of natives were seen washing the earth which had been
deposited from the mines, working knee-deep in the mud, and striving to
make at