Romance of history--Two entrance ways--Vera Cruz--Orizaba--The Great Plateau--Fortress of Ulua--Sierra Madre--Topographical structure--The Gulf coast--Tropical region--Birds, animals, and vegetation of coast zone--_Tierra caliente_--Malaria--Foothills--Romantic scenery--General configuration of Mexico--Climatic zones--Temperate zone--Cold zone--The Cordillera--Snow-capped peaks--Romance of mining--Devout miners-- Subterranean shrines--The great deserts--Sunset on the Great Plateau-- _Coyotes_ and _zopilotes_--Irrigated plantations--Railways--Plateau of Anahuac--The cities of the _mesa central_--Spanish-American civilisation--Romance of Mexican life--Mexican girls, music, and moonlight--The _peones_ and civilisation--American comparisons-- Pleasing traits of the Mexicans--The foreigner in Mexico--Picturesque mining-towns--Wealth of silver--Conditions of travel--Railways-- Invasions--Lerdo's axiom--Roads and horsemen--Strong religious sentiment--Popocatepetl and Ixtaccihuatl--Sun-god of Teotihuacan--City of Mexico--Valley of Mexico--The Sierra Madre--_Divortia aquarum_ of the continent--Volcano of Colima--Forests and ravines--Cuernavaca--The trail of Cortes--Acapulco--Romantic old _haciendas_--Tropic sunset-- Unexplored Guerrero--Perils and pleasures of the trail--Sunset in the Pacific Ocean. CHAPTER II THE DAWN OF MEXICO: TOLTECS AND AZTECS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Lake Texcoco--Valley of Anahuac--Seat of the Aztec civilisation-- Snow-capped peaks--Pyramids of Teotihuacan--Toltecs--The first Aztecs--The eagle, cactus, and serpent--Aztec oracle and wanderings-- Tenochtitlan--Prehistoric American civilisations--Maya, Incas--Quito and Peru--The dawn of history--The Toltec empire--Rise, _regime_, fall--Quetzalcoatl--Otomies--Chichemecas--Nezahualcoyotl--Astlan--The seven tribes and their wanderings--Mexican war-god--The Teocallis-- Human sacrifices--Prehistoric City of Mexico--The Causeways--Aztec arts, kings, and civilisation--Montezuma--Guatemoc--Impressions of the Spaniards--The golden age of Texcoco--Vandalism of Spanish archbishop--The poet-king and his religion--Temple to the Unknown God--Aztecs and Incas compared--The Tlascalans--The Otomies--Cholula-- Mexican tribes--Aztec buildings--Prehistoric art--Origin of American prehistoric civilisation--Biblical analogies--Supposed Asiatic and Egyptian origins--Aboriginal theory. CHAPTER III THE STRANGE CITIES OF EARLY MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37