Page:Romance of History, Mexico.djvu/126

 encircling the trees flung down a tangle of graceful roots.

Here and there were plantations of prickly cactus, to whose leaves clung myriads of the cochineal insects which gave to the Mexicans their richest crimson dye. It was the rainy season, hot and enervating, but as the road wound gradually up-hill a cooler breeze refreshed the weary men. Oaks took the place of palms and orchids, and the liquid amber tree began to show its beautiful foliage. Here in this temperate region the sea-breezes as they cooled on the mountain side brought frequent mist and rain. Resting at a village, the soldiers gazed back at the "tierra caliente," sloping from their feet toward the shining line of the ocean. In the south the mighty Orizaba, the Star Mountain, with its snow-capped peak, glittered in the sunshine. Above them frowned the mountain barrier which they must climb to reach their goal.

On again they marched, always upwards, across the base of the great volcano Cofre de Perote. On all sides yawned fearful chasms and canons with vertical walls two or three thousand feet in depth. Cut to the bone by the bitter wind and storms of sleet and hail, the Spaniards looked in amazement from their bare and arid surroundings down upon the glowing verdure clothing the feet of some dizzy precipice. Even the Europeans suffered from the change of temperature, and the lowland Indians, unprotected by armour or quilted coat, perished in numbers.

Struggling through a narrow pass, they at length emerged on to a fertile plateau, which was found to extend, north and south, for several hundred miles. 100