Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/522



HE principal town of a broad and fertile valley running-down from Puebla is Tehuacan de las Granadas, noted for the abundance of its grapes and pomegranates. Before the Spaniards conquered Mexico it was one of the most cherished and frequented sanctuaries of the Mexicans, and known as Teohuacan, or dwelling-place of the Miztec gods. Its houses are of stone, in the Spanish style, with grated windows and open courts; its suburbs are pretty gardens surrounded by green fields of alfalfa traversed by vine-bordered lanes. Above the town, a league or so away to the east, is a range of hills, the Cerro Colorado, famous in revolutionary annals as having been held by General Teran, an insurgent chief, for three or four years; a congress, even, was appointed here, and a commission charged by the United States to inquire into the causes of the revolution of 1810, here held interview with that body.

A diligence runs to Puebla daily, but with little patronage, as a narrow-gauge tramway, a government venture, extends south from Esperanza on the Mexican Railway. This tramway is well built and economically managed; the cars are drawn by mules, and connect with the up and down trains of the road from coast to capital. Nearly all the railway lines of Mexico are mainly north of the capital, connecting it with the United States, though in very truth the government is now most anxious to extend its system southward. But no American was found bold enough to undertake such a venture, requiring vast capital and consummate engineering skill for its development, until the right man appeared, finally, in the person of our great and highly-honored Ex-President, General Grant. He has engaged