Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/397

Rh mass every morning, who had been educated in the colleges of Europe and of the United States, I was once making some observations on the bad treatment inflicted on the Indians in the plantations, which, though most Christianlike, was notwithstanding extremely barbarous, when he interrupted me by saying, "Well, they are accustomed to it. Al indio pan y palo ('For the Indian, bread and stick') is the common saying throughout the country."

Alas! for the poor Indian this saying is true only in part, for very little bread falls to his share, but abundance of lashes. Of course, those ill-treated people at times become exasperated—who would not? They kill their overseers. Woe to them then! for they are soon and surely made to remember that there are criminal laws, enacted by congress to punish such as they.

During twelve years that I have dwelt amid the ruined cities of the ancient Mayas, in the depth of the forests of the Yucatan peninsula, I have had occasion to study the character of the Indians as well as the remains of the palaces and temples where, not so very long ago, their ancestors burned copal and incense in honor of their gods. I have found that the Indians, treated kindly, as every intelligent being, human or not human, should be, were generally as good as, if not better than, their white or mestizo countrymen. Of course, there are exceptions; these, however, are rare, and are to be found among those who have been brought up by some white or mestizo master.

With Madame Le Plongeon, I have been altogether in their power for months at a time, in the midst of deep forests, far from any city or village, far from any inhabited place; I have invariably found them respectful, honest, polite, unobtrusive, patient, and brave. I cannot say as much for the mestizos in general; though among them, also, there are honorable excep-