THE SOUTH AMERICAN SERIES

EDITED BY MARTIN HUME, M.A.

AN IDYLL OF MEXICO: INDIAN CARRIERS, RUINED CHURCH, ANDSNOW-CLAD PEAK OF ORIZABA.

MEXICO

ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN CIVILISATION
HISTORY AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
INDUSTRIES AND GENERAL DEVELOPMENT

C. REGINALD ENOCK, F.R.G.S.

MARTIN HUME, M.A.

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

PREFACE

The purpose of this work is to treat of Mexico as a topographical andpolitical entity, based upon a study of the country from travel andobservation; a method such as has found favour in my book upon Peru.The method of viewing a country as a whole, with its people,topography, and general conditions in natural relation to each other,is one which commands growing acceptance in a busy age. I have beenable to observe much of the actual life and character ofSpanish-American countries from considerable travel therein. BothMexico and Peru ever lured me on as seeming to hold for me some ElDorado, and if I have not reaped gold as the Conquistadores did, thereare nevertheless other matters of satisfaction accruing to thetraveller from his journeys in those splendid territories of mountainand forest.

Mexico, superfluous to say, is not part of South America, although thisbook appears in this series. But it is part of that vastSpanish-speaking New World whose development holds much of interest;and which may occupy a more important part in coming years than isgenerally thought of at present.

CONTENTS