A TOBACCO-PRODUCING HACIENDA: STATE OF VERA CRUZ . . . . . . . . . 213 MEXICAN PEON LIFE: TYPICAL VILLAGE MARKET-PLACE . . . . . . . . . 215 THE PACIFIC COAST ZONE: COCOA-NUT PALMS AT COLIMA . . . . . . . . 230 LIFE AND TRAVEL IN MEXICO: MULES, PEON, AND CACTUS . . . . . . . . 235 NATIVE WOMEN OF TEHUANTEPEC: ORDINARY DRESS AND CHURCH-GOING COSTUMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 THE PACIFIC COAST ZONE: THE PLAZA AND ENVIRONS OF THE CITY OF COLIMA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 MEXICAN ARTIFICIAL HARBOURS ON THE PACIFIC COAST: THE NEW PORT WORKS OF SALINA CRUZ, TERMINUS OF THE TEHUANTEPEC RAILWAY . . . . 306 GENERAL VIEW OF THE CITY OF MONTERREY, STATE OF NUEVO LEON, UPON THE GREAT PLATEAU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311 TYPICAL SIDE STREET IN MEXICAN VILLAGE: THE TOWN OF AMECA AND CLOUD-EFFECT ON POPOCATEPETL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 STATE OF VERA CRUZ: THE BARRANCA OR RAVINE OF MITLAC; VIEW ON THE MEXICAN RAILWAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 (_Far below in the valley is seen the bridge depicted at p. 340._) VERA CRUZ: SHIPPING IN THE NEW HARBOUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324 BRITISH ENGINEERING WORK IN MEXICO: BUILDING A BREAKWATER . . . . 336 THE MITLAC RAVINE: VIEW ON THE MEXICAN RAILWAY . . . . . . . . . . 340 BRIDGES OVER THE ATOYAC RIVER: MEXICAN RAILWAY . . . . . . . . . . 342 THE SEAPORT OF VERA CRUZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 NEW PORT OF SALINA CRUZ, ON THE PACIFIC: THE GREAT DRY DOCK . . . 346 (_See also page 306._) _The Author is indebted for some of the photographs reproduced in this book to The Mexican Financial Agency, Senor Camacho; The Mexican Information Bureau, Senor Barriga; The Mexican Vera Cruz Railway Company, Ltd.; Messrs. S. Pearson and Sons, Ltd.; The London Bank of Mexico and South America, Ltd.; Arthur H. Enock, Esq.; "Modern Mexico"; "Mexico at Chicago," Senor Manuel Caballero; Holmes: Ancient Cities of Mexico; and others._ BIBLIOGRAPHY HISTORY The history of Mexico at the time of the Conquest rests upon an accurate basis; the five letters of Cortes to the Spanish Emperor, Carlos V. These have been recently retranslated into, and published in, English in two excellent volumes: The Letters of Cortes to Charles V. F. C. MacNutt. G. P. Putnam's Sons. London. 1908. The most famous book on the Conquest is that of Prescott, the American historian, and this never loses its charm, although to the traveller who knows the country it may, at times, seem somewhat highly drawn. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. 3 vols. London. 1845. The writers which, after Cortes, were the participators in the Conquest or contemporary therewith, and upon whose writings all other accounts are based, are those of: Bernal Diaz, Author of the Verdadera Historia de la Conquista. 1858. Ixtlilochitl, Aztec historian.