it may impart to the general reader a portion of the pleasure and useful information which the author realized from an excursion into Aztec Land, full of novel and uninterrupted enjoyment. M. M. B. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Locality and Political Divisions of Aztec Land.--Spanish Historians.--Boundaries.--Climate.--Egyptian Resemblances. --Products of the Country.--Antiquities.--Origin of Races. --Early Civilization.--Pictorial Writings.--Aboriginal Money. --Aztec Religious Sacrifices.--A Voluptuous Court.--Mexican Independence.--European Civilization introduced by Cortez.-- Civil Wars.--The Maximilian Fiasco.--Revival of Mexican Progress.--A Country facing on Two Oceans.--A Native Writer's Statement.--Divorce of Church and State 1 CHAPTER II. Remarkably Fertile Soil.--Valuable Native Woods.--Mexican Flora.-- Coffee and Tobacco.--Mineral Products.--Silver Mines.--Sugar Lands.--Manufactories.--Cortez's Presents to Charles V.--Water Power.--Coal Measures.--Railroads.--Historic Locality.--Social Characteristics.--People divided into Castes.--Peonage.-- Radical Progress.--Education and the Priesthood.--A Threshing Machine.--Social Etiquette.--Political Organization of the Government.--Mexico the Synonym of Barbarism.--Production and Business Handicapped by an Excessive Tariff 23 CHAPTER III. The Route to Mexico.--Via the Mammoth Cave.--Across the Rio Grande.--A Large River.--Piedras Negras.--Characteristic Scene. --A Barren Prairie Land.--Castano, a Native Village.--Adobe Cabins.--Indian Irrigation.--Sparsely Populated Country.-- Interior Haciendas.--Immigration.--City of Saltillo.--Battle of Buena Vista.--City of Monterey.--The Cacti and Yucca-Palm. --Capture by General Taylor.--Mexican Central Railroad.-- Jack-Rabbits.--A Dreary Region.--The Mesquite Bushes.--Lonely Graves 43 CHAPTER IV. Zacatecas.--Sand-Spouts.--Fertile Lands.--A Silver Mining Region. --Alpine Scenery.--Table-Land of Mexico.--An Aged Miner.-- Zacatecas Cathedral.--Church and People.--A Mountain Climb.-- Ownership of the Mines.--Want of Drainage.--A Battlefield.-- Civil War.--Local Market.--Peculiar Scenes.--Native Beauties. --City Tramway Experience.--Town of Guadalupe.--Organized Beggars.--A Noble and Successful Institution.--Market of Guadalupe.--Attractive Senoritas.--Private Gardens 62 CHAPTER V.