d
steam power are employed as motors in the Hercules Mill. The overshot
wheel used in the former connection is a monster in size, being
forty-six feet in diameter. Such has heretofore been the disturbed
condition of the country that it has been found necessary to organize
and maintain a regular company of soldiers, with ample barracks inside
the walls, to defend the property of the mill; and it has three times
repulsed formidable attacks made upon the well-fortified walls and gates
which surround it.

Catholic churches and priests form, as usual in all Spanish towns, a
prominent feature of the neighborhood; and we are sorry to say that
beggars are very importuning and numerous. It is the same in Spain and
in Italy as it is in Mexico,--where the priests abound, beggars do much
more abound.

In the environs of Queretaro one sees immense plantations devoted to the
growth of the maguey plant, from which the national beverage is
manufactured. Pulque is to the Mexican what claret is to the Frenchman,
or beer to the German, being simply the fermented juice of the aloe. It
is said that it was first discovered here, though its advent is
attributed to many other towns in Mexico; but it is certain that either
the process of manufacture here is superior to that of most other
localities, or the plant grown here possesses peculiar properties, as it
commands the market. When we consider the matter, it is surprising to
recall the number of uses to which the maguey plant is put. Paper is
made from the fibre of the leaves, as well as twine and rope; its thorns
answer for native pins and needles; the roots are used by the Indians in
place of soap; the young sprouts are eaten after being slightly roasted;
while in the dried form the leaves are used both for fuel and for
thatching the native cabins. The maguey plant has been called the
miracle of nature, on account of the large number of articles which are
made from it and the variety of uses to which it is adapted. It may be
added that of all these properties of the agave the early Toltecs were
fully aware, and improved them for their own benefit. We have measured
specimens of the well developed plant, the leaves of which were eight
feet in length, a foot in width, and eight inches in thickness. When the
maguey is about seven or eight years old it is at its best for the
production of the desired liquor, and is tapped for the milk-like sap,
of which it yields from two quarts to a gallon d