Page:The Story of Mexico.djvu/426

394 The ruins stand in the midst of a gloomy, cheerless landscape, of stunted vegetation, sandy soil, from which project dull gray rocks. No singing birds or even insects frequent the place; the turkey buzzard soars over the lonely tract under a gloomy sky, and dismal silence reigns around the abandoned architecture of a forgotten race. Even the carvings of geometric ornaments, without any human or animal forms, add to the gloom of this solitary spot.

The present generations of Oaxaca have the reputation of being the steady, independent mountaineers of Mexico; like the Swiss, always ready to defend their rights. Among them, Porfirio Diaz has been involved in every contest for his view of the right, since he was old enough to bear arms. He was, like many other of the Mexican generals, intended for the bar, and studied with that object, concluding the usual course in the seminary at Oaxaca; but in 1854 he served a campaign, returning