Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/658

650 ear to the wooing of the Gringo. The "dark-eyed señorita," especially in the Border States, is a very different being from the idealized creature of the painter and of the author who writes of the country before he visits it; yet there are some, to be met with at exceedingly long intervals, who are quite attractive. Real beauty few of them have, but nearly all are sweet-tempered and gentle-voiced, while sparkling eyes and milk-white teeth are theirs by right of birth.

The only town of importance beyond Hermosillo is Guaymas, chief port of Sonora, ninety miles distant, on the Gulf of California. The railroad running thither is a splendid piece of work, but wasted on such an ungrateful region as lies between these two points, for in the dry season there is hardly a green thing in sight. Though the rains will start the verdure of vegetation, they cannot change its character, and other than mesquit and cactus there is little variety; but of the latter there are many species, nearly all in bloom, the dry stalks gaudy in yellows and reds. Small animals, like jack-rabbits, are numerous, and skip away awkwardly as the train goes by.

Four miles distant from Guaymas a sea-breeze fans our cheeks, as the road crosses the blue waters of a broad lagoon, over a bridge and causeway five thousand feet in length, and then runs along attractive bays, and among cactus-covered hills. The fine station of the railroad is built on the neck of an isthmus terminating in a rocky promontory, half a mile distant from the town. The company owns all the approaches to the town, all the eligible harbor and coast sites, and has run a spur of the road, a mile or so in length, to a headland, where it has built a wharf, in water deep enough to float the largest steamers. This is done in anticipation of the trade that is to spring up when, a Trans-Pacific line of steamers running to Australia and China, traffic and travel shall take this course across our continent. The port is one of the best on the Mexican coast, being securely land-locked, enclosed on every side by hills, and its shores are a succession of island-dotted bays.

"Guaymas," says one of the numerous writers on Mexico, "is shut in from the Gulf, as well as from the winds, by high