CHAPTER XII.

THE LAND OF MONTEZUMA.

DIFFERENT WAYS OF GETTING TO MEXICO

HAVANA

MEXICAN

LADIES-VERA CRUZ-JACK JEBB TAKES THE RAILWAY ROUTE FROM NEW YORK-EVENTS OF THE JOURNEY-THE TOWN OF MEXICO HIS DESTINATION- PICTURESQUE SCENERY IS THE FIRST EUROPEAN IN THESE SIERRAS - SECURES A FAITHFUL BODYGUARD-FRIENDLINESS OF THE WORKMEN-" POVERTY ROW -A DYNAMITE SCARE-DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES AND HOW METAN INGENIOUS OFFICIALA PRIMITIVE STATE OF SOCIETY —

THE SPLENDID CLIMATE -THE PADRE AND HIS SALARY AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO MATRIMONY RELICS OF THE OLD AZTEC

WORSHIP.

THERE are several ways of getting to Mexico. You may go direct from Southampton to Vera Cruz, touching at many of the West Indian islands en route, and sailing smoothly over summer seas, until you begin to feel like a lotos - eater, ever falling asleep in a half dream." When the dream and the voyage are alike over, and you have to awake to everyday life again, it is some time before you can take up your burden exactly

where you laid it down. Or if you want to call at New York on your way, and yet perform the journey by sea, you can get a ship from there taking you past Hatteras-where you will probably meet with "weather"—along the coast of Florida, and so into the calm blue Gulf of Mexico. These ships all touch at Havana; and supposing there is not too much "Yellow Jack" about, you may land to take a look at the pale Cuban beauties, who, in their cool white gowns, seem to be ever sitting at their barred windows, gazing down on the turmoil of a life in which they bear so small a part. With their black eyes and hair, their beautiful teeth and delicate olive complexions, many of them would be lovely could they only be content with their natural charms. But alas they are one and all covered with a thick white powder, which makes their faces into ghastly expressionless masks, only the brilliant eyes and gleaming teeth showing through to tell of the passionate nature beneath.

Leaving Havana, the ship calls at various halfIndian villages scattered along the coast of Mexico, and while she is unloading her cargo the élite of the town crowd on board-usually clad in last year's Paris fashions, except as to their hats, and where those come from no human being has yet discovered.

Huge erections, covered with lace, ribbon, feathers, and flowers, apparently taken up in a bunch and thrown on haphazard, they are a sight to make the simple European gasp for breath! He usually does gasp-with relief-when the ship is on her way again and the visitors all gone; for they each have a theory that they know how to play the piano, and all the time the vessel is in port they make "Napoleon cross the Alps” and “The Maiden pray" unceasingly. Their répertoire is not extensive, and those two horrors of one's school-days usually comprise it. Altogether, in taking this route, the unsophisticated traveller is not sorry when the white walls of Vera Cruz are in sight, and he can land at about the hottest, the dirtiest, and the most forsaken-looking city in the world. After a night spent on a bed composed of a piece of sacking stretched across a bedstead, and in company with a class of mosquitoes whose desire for human society no curtains can thwart, he is only too glad to arise at 5 A.M. to catch the daily train, which, after a day spent in climbing through stupendously magnificent scenery, lands him, 8000 feet above sea-level, in the city of Mexico by evening.

But if time is an object, it is best to go on from New York by rail instead of taking either

of the pleasanter but much slower routes. There are comfortable Pullman cars, on which for the first three days you can get your food. After that the train stops at miserable little stations at odd hours for the refreshment of the passengers, and you may have to eat your breakfast at 5 A.M., with the option of going without and not getting another meal until the train stops again perhaps at 5 P.M.! The road runs for the most part through a perfect Sahara of dust and dreariness; but as the entire journey only takes six days, it is possible to live through it, though you emerge at the other end feeling a shaken, dirty, and aged wreck.

This is the route that Jack Jebb took on his first visit to Mexico in search of that El Dorado

which had eluded him so long. If omens go for anything, he was not likely to find it even now, for the journey was most inauspicious. He had not gone far when he discovered that somehow he had miscalculated his expenses; and not quite midway between New York and Mexico he found himself with only half-a-dozen dollars left, and a draft which was useless anywhere except at his destination. On an American railroad you pay for your ticket before you start, but your bed has to be paid for nightly at $1 a-night,

and your meals at the same price, as you take them. Therefore, Jack was confronted by the stern necessity of going either sleepless or hungry for four days. All things considered, he chose the latter, because after paying for his berth he would still have $2 left, which even at a Western station would buy bread enough to keep him from starvation for four days, while he decidedly quailed from the prospect of sitting bolt-upright for four nights on the chairs which a thoughtful railway directorate provides for day use only. He soon found to his dismay that his choice entailed remaining thirsty also, for the water on the cars was warm and dirty-a sort of concentrated essence of microbes. His means, of course, would not allow of "drinks"; and though not usually deficient in moral courage, he felt incapable of asking for water at an American refreshment counter!especially as the last two days he had to be very careful in his purchase of bread, for even that commodity is dear at a wayside station.

It was the middle of summer, and the sun beating down on the cars all day made them intolerably hot; while the dust outside was so thick that not only was it impossible to open a window, but even with every aperture hermetically closed, the fine choking sand seemed to blow into the train