_serape_ is an indispensable article, both for use and luxury, for the _lepero_ as well as the _caballero_, and being as much needed by men as the _reboso_, or long cotton shawl, is by the women, it may readily be conceived how great is the consumption of these two articles of domestic manufacture alone. There are between five and six thousand hand looms throughout the several states, and these are continually engaged in the fabrication of _rebosos_ and _serapes_, the latter of which are most exquisitely dyed and woven in tasteful patterns in the neighborhood of Saltillo.[26] [Illustration: INDIAN HUT IN THE TIERRA CALIENTE.] CHAPTER X. THE ARMY AND NAVY OF MEXICO. THE MILITARY IN MEXICO BEFORE AND AFTER THE REVOLUTION--CONFIRMATION OF ARMY--ITS POLITICAL USE.--CHARACTER OF MEXICAN SOLDIERS--RECRUITING--TACTICS--OFFICERS.--DRAMATIC CHARACTER OF ARMY--RECRIMINATIONS.--CONDITION OF THE ARMY AT THE PEACE.--ARMY ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER--MILITARY COLONIES.--CHARACTER OF THE TRIBES.--FORTRESSES--PEROTE--ACAPULCO--SAN JUAN DE ULUA.--REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY--TABULAR VIEW OF MEN AND MATERIEL.--NAVY--EXTENT OF COAST ON BOTH SEAS.--NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT--VESSELS AND OFFICERS.--EXPENSES OF WAR AND NAVY. We have already alluded, in the historical portion of this work to some of the fostering sources of the Mexican army and to the evil results its importance has produced in the country. The colonial forces designed for the maintenance of order and due subjection in New Spain, were chiefly sent from the old world until the wars in Europe required the mother country to hoard its military resources. These foreign stipendiaries for a long time sufficed to secure the loyalty of the emigrants; but as the country grew in importance and numbers, and as the Indians revolted against their task-masters, it became necessary from time to time to call out reinforcements from the colonists; and when foreign invasion was dreaded, these levies, as we have seen, were largely augmented from all parts of the viceroyalty. The idea of military service was, accordingly, not altogether unfamiliar to the Mexican mind when the first insurrectionary movements occurred under the lead of Hidalgo; but when the violent outbreak threatened to degenerate into a war of _castes_, and to array the Indians against all in whose veins circulated Castilian blood, it became the duty of the settlers to cultivate that spirit and discipline which would, at least, preserve them from utter destruction. The succeeding war of independence converted the whole country for eleven years into a camp, and when the strife terminated in success, it was found that a people, whose natural temperament addicted them to military spectacles, had become habituated and enured to a military career.