Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/279



T may have occurred to the reader, by this time, that the great city I have been describing, that cloud-dwelling capital of Mexico, is lacking in population; that its magnificent houses, hotels, and public edifices are tenantless. Yet such is not the case; for at least 280,000 people inhabit there. The reason that I have not before described them particularly is, that I wished to complete each topic as I took it up, to convey to the mind of the reader a distinct and lasting picture.

Before turning our attention to the Mexicans, let me confess that I have many misgivings as to the result. I know that it is the custom to abuse the Mexicans, to affirm that no good thing can, ever did, or ever will, come out of their country. At the outset, let me state that I shall not here indulge in invective. As a traveller who has seen the Mexican in nearly all the existing phases of life, who (coming from a country radically different in its internal life) shared, perhaps, in the customary prejudices against these people, but who has since dispassionately studied them by their works, and through the works of others, I may be permitted to express the belief that my views are substantially correct. But lest I should seem prejudiced, one way or another, I shall mainly present, in the following pages, the opinions of other writers.

Of the ten millions of people comprising the population of Mexico, at least one third are pure Indians, aborigines, indigenous to the soil; one sixth, Europeans and their Creole descendants; and one half. Mestizos, or "mixed" people. According to the latest census (1883), the entire mass of the population is divided as follows:—