Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/82

[ 26 ]. We soon reached the harbor, where many vessels were anchored; and a number of frame houses, with commissaries' stores, groceries, etc., formed a village around it. This was the last place we saw on this side of the gulf, and no doubt the meanest which I have seen during the whole trip. The whole island is but one wide sheet of sand; never a tree or blade of grass has grown here; no other water is found but a brackish, half fresh, half salty liquid, from holes dug into the sand; no other faces are seen but those of stern officials, or of sly speculators, who would as soon go to Kamtschatka if they could make money there. In short, it is an awful place, where nobody would live, but from necessity or for money. Fortunately, our stay was not long. We slept but one night on the sand of the island, and went next day,

On June 10, on board of our ships, the Republic and the Morillo, both sailing vessels, for New Orleans. I embarked with the artillery on board the latter, and we cleared in the afternoon of the same day. After a voyage of seven days, not interrupted by any unusual accident, we arrived safely in New Orleans.

The noise and bustle of a large city confused me, as it were, for a short time; but those impressions from the lonesome prairie and desolate chaparráls were soon overpowered by the enjoyments and luxuries of cultivated life.

Our regiment was discharged and paid in New Orleans; and from a ragged set of boys, they turned at once into "gentlemen." Having finished my own business in New Orleans, I started for St. Louis, my home, and arrived there early in July, to rest awhile from the hardships of the expedition.

After an absence of 14 months, I had travelled from Independence to Reynosa, on the Rio Grande, about 2,200 miles by land, and about 3,100 by water, and had been exposed to many privations, hardships, and dangers; but all of them I underwent, for the scientific purpose of my expedition, with pleasure, except the unjust and arbitrary treatment from the government of the State of Chihuahua, which deprived me for six months of what I always valued the highest, my individual liberty, and prevented me in this way from extending my excursion as far as I at first intended, and of making its results more general and useful.

At the conclusion of my journal, it may not be amiss to add some general remarks in relation to Northern Mexico.

New Mexico and Chihuahua, which I consider here principally, because they fell under my immediate observation, are neither the richest nor the poorest States of Mexico; but both of them have resources that never have been fully developed.

Agriculture, as we have seen, is the least promising branch of industry. The want of more water-courses, and the necessity of irrigation, are the principal causes; but nevertheless, they raise every year more than sufficient for their own consumption; and failure of crops, with starvation of the people, is less common here than in many other countries, because the regular system of irrigation itself prevents it. Besides, there are large tracts of land in the country fit for agriculture, but allowing no isolated settlements on account of the Indians. Another reason, too, why farming