Produced by Julia Miller, Barbara Kosker and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) By Maturin M. Ballou. AZTEC LAND. A new Book. Crown 8vo, $1.50. THE NEW ELDORADO. A Summer Journey to Alaska. Crown 8vo, $1.50. DUE WEST; or, ROUND THE WORLD IN TEN MONTHS. Crown 8vo, $1.50. DUE SOUTH; or, CUBA PAST AND PRESENT. Crown 8vo, $1.50. UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS; or, TRAVELS IN AUSTRALASIA. Crown 8vo, $1.50. DUE NORTH; or, GLIMPSES OF SCANDINAVIA AND RUSSIA. Crown 8vo, $1.50. GENIUS IN SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. Crown 8vo, $1.50. EDGE-TOOLS OF SPEECH. Selected and edited by Mr. BALLOU. 8vo, $3.50. A TREASURY OF THOUGHT. An Encyclopaedia of Quotations. 8vo, full gilt, $3.50. PEARLS OF THOUGHT. 16mo, full gilt, $1.25. NOTABLE THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN. Crown 8vo, $1.50. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, BOSTON AND NEW YORK. AZTEC LAND BY MATURIN M. BALLOU The dust is old upon my sandal-shoon, And still I am a pilgrim. N. P. WILLIS. [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1890 Copyright, 1890, BY MATURIN M. BALLOU. _All rights reserved._ _The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company PREFACE. Having resolved to visit Mexico, the question first to be considered was how to do so in the most advantageous manner. Repairing to the office of Messrs. Raymond & Whitcomb, in Boston, after a brief consultation with those experienced organizers of travel, the author handed the firm a check for the cost of a round trip to Mexico and back. On the following day he took his seat in a Pullman parlor car in Boston, to occupy the same section until his return from an excursion of ten thousand miles. A select party of ladies and gentlemen came together at the same time in the Fitchburg railroad station, most of whom were strangers to each other, but who were united by the same purpose. The traveler lives, eats, and sleeps in the vestibule train, while _en route_, in which he first embarks, until his return to the starting-point, a dining-car, with reading and writing rooms, also forming a part of the train. All care regarding the routes to be followed, as to hotel accommodations while stopping in large cities, side excursions, and the providing of domestic necessities, are dismissed from his mind. He luxuriates in the pleasure of seeing a strange and beautiful land, without a thought as to the _modus operandi_, or the means by which detail is conquered. In short, he dons Fortunatus's cap, and permits events to develop themselves to his intense delight. Such was the author's experience on the occasion concerning which these wayside views of Mexico were written. It was a holiday journey, but it is hoped that a description of