Travel and description--Mexican cities--Guadalajara--Lake Chapala-- Falls of Juanacatlan--The Pacific slope--Colima--Puebla--Cities of the Great Plateau--Guanajuato--Chihuahua--The Apaches--The _peones_-- Comparison with Americans--_Peon_ labour system--Mode of living--Houses of the _peon_ class--Diet--_Tortillas_ and _frijoles_--Chilli-- _Pulque_--Habits of the _peon_ class--Their religion--The wayside crosses and their tragedies--Ruthless political executions--The fallen cross--Similarity to Bible scenes--_Peon_ superstitions--The ignis fatuus, or _relacion_--Caves and buried treasure--Prehistoric Mexican religion--The Teocallis--Comparison with modern religious systems-- Philosophical considerations. The City of Mexico, typical as it is of Mexican people and their life, by no means embodies or monopolises the whole interest of the country, and the mere tourist who, having paid a flying visit thereto, thinks thereby to gain much idea of the nation as a whole, will naturally fall short in his observations. We must depart thence, and visit the other handsome and interesting centres of Mexico's life and population, and sojourn for a season among her people, and observe something of the "short and simple annals" of her labouring classes. During the several years which it fell to my lot to pass in this interesting land the various phases of Spanish-American life as portrayed in Mexico were often brought vividly before me, and indeed it is only after arduous journeyings in a land of this nature that pictures of its life and topography can be truly portrayed. [Illustration: CITY OF GUADALAJARA: INTERIOR OF THE CATHEDRAL.]