Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/35

Rh and a church. As the shipping port for the vast quantities of Sisal hemp raised in Yucatan, this place is of great importance; and as it has a reputation for health, though very hot, it is much resorted to in summer by people from the interior. It has only one wharf, or jetty, which is provided with wooden cranes, and is over five hundred feet long. There is no harbor here, and all vessels are obliged to anchor far from shore, the steamers at a distance of three miles. This open roadstead is exposed to all the winds that blow, and in the season of "northers" is positively unsafe. The old port of Sisal, some distance farther down the coast, has been abandoned; and as it has no railroad into the interior, it will never more be the place of export for the hemp that bears its name, and which constitutes the wealth of the country.

A railroad connects Progreso with Merida, a distance of twenty-five miles; and though all the iron, equipments, and rolling-stock for that road were brought from England and the United States and landed at the port, they were carted to the interior terminus and the road commenced at that end. At first sight, this will seem one of the foolish undertakings of that unprogressive country; but let us see. The contractor wished to secure at once the benefit of freights, and, as all the hemp came from the interior, it was advisable, apparently, to begin at the end nearest the freight; hence everything was hauled to Merida, and the road begun there. As soon as the first few miles were laid, this wary contractor commenced to haul hemp over his rails by mule power, so far as they went. Again, he got a concession, or grant of money from the government, for every mile of road when finished. The portion nearest Merida was the easiest to build, and all the laborers were there also. Thus, in many ways, did this sagacious man make his enterprise pay him from the very start, until to-day it is considered one of the most profitable railroads in the world. According to the terms of his contract with the government, the owner of the railroad was compelled to carry passengers from port to capital for a certain reasonable sum, when it should be completed. As a consequence, he built to within a mile or two of the coast, and