energies to the production of more than a hospitable quantity.

I have already alluded to the extensive fields of the maguey along the line of railway, and on the plains of Apam especially. But these lands are only a part of the square leagues in the valley in which the plant grows, as it does also in many other parts of Mexico. From a smaller plant of the maguey there is also a very strong spirit extracted, called tequila, which resembles the kummel in Norway. I have already spoken of the ropes manufactured from the plant; and such is the strength of the fibre that I was told at one of the haciendas that a strong leaf would resist and throw a horse set galloping with a cord tied to it. For the shareholders in the English line, however, it would be chiefly interesting to know that special pulque trains are run every day; that before twelve o'clock, as a rule, every drop of pulque has been bought up in the city; that the cultivation is continually increasing to meet the increasing consumption, and that even now as much as $1000, or £200 a day, in other words, £73,000 a year, is the item returned for freight on pulque.

It was amusing to hear of some of the well-known grumblings about the railway freights for carrying the pulque. Those whose haciendas are far off are pleased, for they can send their produce more easily to market; those whose haciendas are near don't like the new invasion, because it brings in competitors,

and grudge the freights. This is always one of the results of easy means of communication. The whole agricultural and commercial world of nations has felt, and is still more and more feeling, the countless consequences, direct and indirect, of new veins and arteries being opened by land and sea, nor have the ultimate results yet been imagined. Mother Earth is thus being replenished and subdued by her child, man, whom she seems to have produced to cut and score her surface for his own purposes in the most unfilial manner. But are we consistent in complaining one against another? We carry some of our exalted theories far beyond the realms of actuality, and in the above example we may find a similarity with a thousand others small and great. We theorize about some bright and happy equality that is to exist among us all some day; we can find even unconscious prophecy in the Pollio, and we ingeniously attempt to apply it. Such are we in our dreams; but the appearance of the only material means for the bringing about the reality we anticipate -the unity and fraternity of all-seems productive of sentiments not very intimately connected with harmony of hearts.

Pulque is by no means the only or the chief produce of the San Antonio. All the cereals abound in profusion-wheat, barley, oats, maize, and beans. Cattle, likewise, form a considerable item. All these grow well, as indeed the size of the barns, which are

annually filled, attests. I think the maize in general is even finer than that in São Paulo, which is very fine. Wheat is good; oats and barley I thought rather small. The beans, the eternal dry beans, without whose presence under their charming name, frijoles, no meal could be complete, these are excellent. In Brazil they are called feijão, and there, when compounded with the savoury but somewhat coarse carne secca, of which I saw none here, the dish is a very favourite one under the name of feijoada. I was always very fond of the feijão, and greeted them as frijoles here in Spanish. In Mexico they feed the horses on barley, as they do in Spain, and get all the more work out of them. They are also beginning to use barley for malting; but as yet their beer is very thick and poor. For me it must stand by the side of pulque. These matters must improve. The Americans have brought in their St. Louis beer, and England is meanly represented by no other than the stone-bottle stuff of Tennant. The price of a (so called) pint of these beers stands in a somewhat inverse proportion to their qualities-four reales, or two shillings; sometimes five, or two and sixpence are asked for the small bottles. What are our good brewers about? But I suppose in this, as in all new countries, import duties are enormous. I know they were extremely heavy in Brazil; but there we paid only about two shillings for a whole bottle at the hotels and bars.

Of the Indians, as workmen, I received the best accounts. I missed entirely the grouping of them together, like a sort of small flock, here and there, which you may always observe in a Brazilian fazenda, when they move about under their "feitor," or overseer; but there was quite as much of the apparently instinctive appreciation of the superiority of the white man. Running, as well as walking, they never pass their master, or receive an order from him, without their cap in hand; there pervades that same natural aptness to receive command which is expressed in the well-known phrase, "I say unto one, go and he goeth; and to another, come, and he cometh; and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it." All this goes on without the slightest sign or need of harshness; and the system which prevails in this hacienda may be taken as typical of what goes on elsewhere.

So far as the immediate interests of the masters are concerned, nothing can be more convenient. But in view of the advance of the nation in its intrinsic capacity to govern and improve itself, financially, socially, and intellectually, it must be obvious that all this quiet, unambitious and submissive nature is but illustrative of what has been intimated of these good people that little or no help can be looked for among them. And one other unhappy circumstance must be added also: their minds are, of necessity, of that class in which superstition dominates.

Such were my experiences of the hacienda of San

Antonio, and of the good family Buch. Happier than they are, I need not wish them to be; more hospitable to a guest they cannot be !

The two other haciendas that I visited with Mr. Jackson were both in the neighbourhood of Orizaba; one lying about ten miles beyond that station on the line, and the other lying some miles from it up country. The first is called Las Animas, and is a coffee and cattle estate of considerable extent and capabilities; it belongs to the Señores Don Vivanco and Escandon. The second is called Jasmine, and is a sugar and cattle estate, also of considerable extent and capabilities. This belongs to Señor Don Escandon. On Las Animas there was a young Englishman domiciled, a Mr. Tomblin, who was also engaged in the management. In both these haciendas, it must be understood, there was the same atmosphere of liberty and country hospitality that I have already spoken of; but the Señors were not surrounded with families.

At Las Animas, after breakfasting in the veranda with all nature bright, mild and cheerful around, we mounted our horses and rode through some large coffee plantations. In comparing these with what I remember in Brazil, I noticed that the trees were equally vigorous, but that a great deal of overgrowth was allowed, which is quite unknown there. Even in some places the universally growing plátano, or banana tree, was permitted to almost entirely overshadow the coffee. I had observed the same on pass