Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/423



NCE in the city of Mexico, we find ourselves at the starting-place and the objective point of nearly all the railways of the republic, from the multitude of which it is somewhat difficult to determine where all are coming from, and where they will find terminal stations.

The growth and development of these great lines has had an important bearing upon the progress of Mexico and the expansion of her commerce,—not to speak of their influence in promoting commercial and social intercourse with the United States,—and without a chapter exclusively devoted to railroads this work would be incomplete. It may, however, be passed over by the general reader, without interrupting the continuity of my narrative of travel.

It was in the year 1837 that the first government decree was issued granting a concession for the building of a railroad, from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz; but the projector was unable to construct any portion of the road, and the grant was declared forfeited. On the 1st of May, 1842, an exclusive privilege was given for establishing a line across the isthmus of Tehuantepec, and on the 31st of the same month Santa Anna, then occupying the chair of the Executive, decreed the re-establishment of an old duty at the customs, called averia, or average, the product of which tax (two per cent additional over and above all import duties) was to be given to promote the building of a railroad inland from Vera Cruz.

This road was commenced, but the first really energetic work looking to the connection of the coast and the table land was in 1857, when Don Antonio Escandon secured the right to