Page:The Story of Mexico.djvu/424



XLII.

PORFIRIO DIAZ.

three years peace reigned in Mexico, and then began another revolution. Towards the end of 1875, rumors of dissatisfaction were afloat; in spite of the present quiet, which seemed solid and durable, distrust reigned, yet no one voice proclaimed the nature of the malady. Early in the next year, a "Plan" was started, one of those fatal propositions for change which have always spread like wildfire through the Mexican community. By midsummer, the Republic was once more plunged in civil war.

Although he had apparently no hand in the "Plan" of Tuxtepec, General Porfirio Diaz appeared at the head of the army of the revolutionists. He had been living quietly in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, but now he emerged to take an active part in the general disturbance.

Porfirio Diaz was born in Oaxaca, on the 15th of September, 1830. This state, the farthest of all the states to the south, and except Chiapas, the limit of the Mexican Republic, has many claims to distinction. Its northern part formed the Márquezado, or grant, given in 1529 to Cortés, with the title of Márqués del Valle de Oaxaca.

The scenery of Oaxaca is of the wildest and