The Rambler in Mexico: 1834

Front matter

THE RAMBLER. PAINTED BY L. AND G SEELEY, THAMES DITTOS, SUKAEY. THE RAMBLER IN MEXICO: MDCCCXXXIV. BY CHARLES JOSEPH LATROBE, AUTHOR OF THE ' ALPENSTOCK,' ETC. cœj.t/m, von animum mutant qui trans mare currunt. Hor. Epist PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE : AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON. MDCCCXXXVI. CONTENTS. Letter I.— The Gulf of Mexico. The Goelette Hal cyon. Her passengers and crew. The Bravo. Sunday on board. A calm. The roadstead of Tampico. Prog nostics of coming evil. Morning before a storm. The custom-house boat. The Norte. The Goelette is driven out to sea. The Halcyon returns to her anchoring ground. The Bar. The river Panuco. Arrival at Tampico. A second Norte. Page 1. Letter II. — First hours in New Spain. Description of Tampico. Inhabitants. Character of the Mexican.

The European. The Indian. Military. The Fonda de la Bolza. Pastimes of the inhabitants. Scenery of the environs. The Bluff and the rivers. Juliano. Insect-hunting. A cure of enthusiasm. The Garapatos. A third Norte. Return of the Halcyon. Vexatious detention. Pueblo Viejo. La Mira. La Fuente. The arriero ant. We quit the coast. Tampico Alta. Page 22. Letter III. — Halt at Tampico Alta. Physical geo graphy of New Spain. The Tierras calientes — Tierras templadas and Tierras frias. Description of the party: CONTENTS. VI The masters and servants, Juliano, Miguel, Don Juan Espindola, Don Gaetano. Scenery. La Messa. ' aimable et execrable Tampico.' Osuhuama, an Indian Village. The Rancho. The Indian cabin. The inmates. Curious scene. Indian guile. Santa Catherina. The Hacienda. Chicontepec. A storm.

Miguel, a borracho. Vale of the Sierra Madre. The Cura's seat. The River Canada. Great Defile of the Canada— features of. Splendid scenery. Tlacolula. The Cura. The Mules. Miguel and Juliano. The Monte Penulco. The Tierras templadas. Page 44. Letter IV. — Scenery of the Monte Penulco. The Tierras templadas. Juliano's sickness and defection. Zacualtipan, description of. The Arriero's home. A day's rest. Ruins. An awkward adventure. San Ber nado. The Agave Americana. The Cactus. Singular scenery. Rio Oquilcalco. Rio Grande. The Mountain of San Ammouica. Hacienda Zoquital. Circuit to visit Regla. Puebla Grande de Mittan. Hacienda and Barranca of Regla. The amalgamation-works. Real Del Monte Company. The basaltic rocks. The Cascade. Dangerous nocturnal ascent to Real Del Monte. The Town. Scenery in the vicinity of.

Letter I

To F. B. L. I RESUME my correspondence with you, and here with send you a few sheets containing a chronicle of my vernal rambles in New Spain. The present recital introduces you to the same principal dramatis personæ, and opens, where my last closed, — on board the goelette Halcyon, in the Gulf of Mexico ; somewhere about latitude 28° north, longitude 92° west, or within a hundred miles, more or less, of the tropic of Cancer. It was the fifteenth of January, 1834 ; wind from the eastward, light but steady ; sky serene, and every prospect of a fair and fortunate voyage. The distance from the Balize lighthouse at the entrance of the Mississippi, to the Bar of Tampico, towards which the head of our little vessel was directed, is about six hundred miles. From this date, up to the fourth day at noon, — so favourable were the auspices under which our voyage was continued, always excepting the confined position, sea-sickness, and the bad company on board, — we never B shifted a sail.

They may really be said to have been halcyon days. We were then by computation, a little more than forty miles from our port. Towards evening it fell calm ; and, during the succeeding night, the stars, and the moon in her second quarter, glistened upon the deck, as it swam with the heavy dew of the tropics. But that you may better enter into the state of our feelings, and of our anticipations at this juncture, I offer you the following description of our position. The Halcyon was a small, two-masted vessel, of but trifling burden, though, in fact, of far too great a draught for the trade in which it was engaged, as will be seen hereafter. The peculiar details of the rig T spare you ; first, because you would hardly be the wiser for them, and secondly, because I have for gotten them. Our freight below deck consisted of notions, or a mixed cargo of European and American manufacture, suited to the Mexican market.

The hold was gorged to the hatches ; the forward deck encumbered with two large piles of merchandize and lumber, and the cabins, fore and aft, were all filled to a certain extent, much to the discomfort of the live stock on board, under which head our trio, and about forty passengers, — inclusive of a woman and child, and exclusive of half a dozen hands attached to the vessel, — must be comprised. The low after-cabin measured about twelve feet by eight. It was furnished with four confined double berths, each containing a dirty mattrass, a blanket, and, on an average, five hundred cockroaches and other creepers. Half a dozen passengers might have been accommodated with some decency in this den ; nevertheless, as it was, it was devoted to the free use of five and twenty. In brief, the manner in which the vessel was crammed to repletion with live and dead stock, to the exclusion of any chance of ease, was discreditable to the owners and officers of the ship.

But what could we expect from beings such as we now had to deal with ! The day spent at anchor, within the bar of the Mississippi, had given us some foretaste of our position, and of the character of those among whom we were thrown ; and during the succeeding days, we had ample time for closer observation. As to nations and pursuits, there was distinction enough among the forty souls on board : as to character, one term would suffice ; they were rogues all, — ourselves excluded. De Vignes, the captain, was a Provencal, the same, who, if report said true, com manded the Calypso slave-ship, with three hundred slaves on board, which was captured by an English cruiser off Matanzas. Within sight of his port, his evil star prevailed : he was observed and chased, — was obliged to run his ship aground, and only escaped certain hanging, by leaping overboard, and swimming for his life to the shore.

Though a slave-dealer and excessively choleric, he was not without his good points. When not irritated, he might be termed B good-natured, and evinced generous and charitable feelings. He was doubtless an excellent seaman. His general manner, however, gave you the impres sion of his being soured by adversity, and by a constant struggle with misfortune. Among the crew under his command, you might enumerate probably as many nations as individuals ; and nothing could be more amusing than to hear the orders, whenever he was in a bustle, given and responded to in English, Spanish, and French. Among those who were entitled by right of payment, to the same accommodation as ourselves, — with excep tion of the special enjoyment of the berths and cock roaches, which we had timely secured, — there were characters such as would have made the fortune of any of the present herd of tale-weavers for the annuals and magazines.

I cannot linger, however, with either Don Pablo, a fat old Spaniard, full of conceits and odd scraps of songs, going to Mexico to seek his fortune, with a good chance of being hung as a Guachupin ; or Don Garcia, an exiled Mexican officer, of Iturbide's party, repairing secretly thither with reasonable expectation of being discovered and shot ; — or Cortina, the captain who had lost his ship; — or Celes tina, the farceur of the company. Neither can I give you the history of the conjuror on board ; nor describe the boisterous singing and gaming, the impure orgies and impious airs of the mauvais sujels, French, Spanish, German; nor give the history of the fair Creole emigrating from New Orleans, with her squalling child, under the protection of a fat and portly schoolmaster of Tamaulipas, jealous and suspicious of every man on board.

One personage, however, was too striking not to be singled out. A tall athletic figure, with strongly-marked features ; a countenance roughened with the signs of long addiction to a life of passion and adventure ; shabby travel-worn habiliments, and a slouched hat, under which he could, when occasion suited, throw his changeful features into shadows, — indicated the bravo, soi disant Monsieur le Marquis de Maison Bouge, of the ancient and noble bouse of Maison Bouge de Perpignan. According to his own account, he had been born and bred in Louisiana, and had been cheated of some hundred thousand million acres of fat and fertile land in that State, his lawful patrimony. He had been compelled by a stern and uncivil guardian to study civil engineering, and, according to his own testimony, with considerable success.

Subsequently he had been taken prisoner by the English, when acting as sentinel in the marshes, at the time of the attack upon New Orleans. Whether his brain and his morals had become unsettled by a knock on the head from the butt end of a musket, which he had received on this occasion, and had not yet digested, I cannot say ; but it was evident that he had never acted like a man of education, breeding, or noble birth since. He had adopted the creed of Sardanapalus ; and at New Orleans, in the Attakapas, at the Havanna, in the Islands and on the Main, had led, for years, a shameless life of sin and crime. As he acquired gold, he spent it in brawls and violence. His person bore the marks of the cutting and stabbing frays in which he had often been an actor, and not unfrequently a victim. Now, pennyless, he was going to Mexico, to make his fortune in some wild speculation, in reference to which he could neither point out the means by which it was to be set on foot, nor the ultimate ends which were to be gained.

When not excited, he was good tempered, and his voice was one of the most musical I ever heard. When conversing, which he did at times most agreeably and well, you could hardly have believed that those bland tones were the production of such a stormy machine ; or that the same lips could pour forth that uncontrolled torrent of impure language, in hot vehemence of rage, when the possessor was under the influence of passion. Never did I see before me an example like that here afforded, of the wakefulness of conscience, while the body slept. He never gave himself up to rest like other men. It seemed that his nerves were never unbraced, and his muscles never in complete repose, — that the bow was never unstrung. The first impulse of his muscular arm on being disturbed, was to place itself in a position to guard the body ; the first expres sion of his lineaments was that of suspicion.

He never seemed to dream of his innocent childhood, but always of the scenes of his mispent and stormy manhood, and they truly were not calculated to lull his slumbers. Thus crowded together and surrounded, it was a blessing to be favoured by wind and weather, and to have a reasonable hope of a speedy termination to our voyage. The meals, which occurred twice a day, were hasty and rude repasts, of which, hunger com pelling, we all partook, standing round the raised roof of the after-cabin ; below decks, it would have been impossible to have assisted at them. Sunday was, of course, in no wise distinguished from ordinary days, by greater propriety of demeanour or calmer temper of mind. We were quite beyond the Sabbath : and the only thing which marked that such a day was entered on the log, was, a quarrel, knife in hand, between the supervisor of provisions and the cook, arising from a claim to the honour of mixing the Sunday's pudding, upon which each insisted.

I forget who gained the victory ultimately, but I remember that the pudding was very badly mixed, and as tough as parchment. The morning of the fifth day after quitting the Balize, as 1 have related, it fell calm. A golden mist hovered over the surface of the sea, and the green colour of its waters betokened our having come upon soundings. The weather, as the day advanced, maintained the same character. Portuguese-men-of-war floated by hundreds about the goelette ; and whenever the white vapours, in which the horizon was swathed, broke in our vicinity, and the sunlight burst upon us, the air was delicious. The state of inaction, however, was disagreeable, and the constant jar of what our captain, in his piebald language, called the pum tackle, as the bark rolled on the swell, not the less so.

We were drifting slowly on the current to the north-ward. As the sun sank, however, the sea breeze filled our sails ; and the mist dispersing, we proceeded to the westward ; and, coming in full view of the low, sandy hills on the beach ; anchored after sunset in about nine fathoms, in the roads of Tampico, directly opposite the Bar at the entrance o the river Panuco, distant about three miles. This was not so much amiss. But our pleasant dreams of a speedy termination of the present state of durance vile, were as yet, far from being realized. The night was clear and starlight, — how bright and brilliant the constellations stood in the heavens, I cannot describe to you. Even after our short voyage, the breath of the land was delicious, and the heavy dull sound of the breakers on the bar that engirdled the land of wonders before us, was music to our ears, as we lay under our blankets stretched upon the roof of the cabin.

We hailed our escape from the arms of winter ; from the marshes, quags, mud, and snow of New Orleans,— its thick and polluted air, where the worshippers of Mammon can alone find delight, to the mountains, the vegetation, the eternal summer of New Spain. Still if I may depict my own feelings, I may confess that there was a weight on my spirit, which, though it could not entirely crush these pleasant hopes and reflections, seemed to prevent their soaring and running riot. I would not shut my eyes to some signs of probable difficulty which all might have noticed ; and I could not prevent certain portents of coming trou bles from depressing my mind. Among the former I may mention the knowledge, that as there was only six or seven feet water on the bar, while our vessel had full ten feet draught, she must consequently be unloaded before she could enter the river.

Further, that where we lay, as well as on the whole shelterless and iron-bound coast to the north and south, no vessel could maintain its ground, should any of the prevailing winds arise. In addition, it was whispered about the vessel, that no inconsiderable quantity of contraband goods were concealed on board, and that a recent change in the custom-house of Tampico, combined with the bad name which the Halcyon had already acquired, would probably bring the vessel and all on board into difficulty, in this semi-barbarous country, where law was but imperfectly understood, and still more imperfectly administered. Moreover, the eyes and ears of some of us onboard, were witnesses of much calculated to throw a yet darker veil over the future. Lovely as the weather had been for some time, the signs of a coming change had gradually thickened upon us.

The deep blue of the southern sky had of late, occasionally, towards evening, been flickered with one or two light vapoury and feathery clouds, B like the tail of a wild horse, or of a comet, seemingly balanced over our heads in the upper regions of the atmosphere. The cessation of the steady breeze, — the fluctuating calm of the preceding day, — the superabundant dews, — and more than all, the restless swell now heaving upon the shore from the depths of the Gulf, had all betokened to the practised eye and long experience of De Vignes, the near approach of a Norte, one of the most dreaded of those violent winds which agitate this land-locked and deceitful sea ; and, while others were dreaming of land, he was evidently thinking of storm and tempest, and was preparing for it accordingly. Our chain cable was fitted with a buoy, and arrangements made to slip it at a moment's warning.

Before he went to his repose, the top-masts and yards were lowered, every sail on board double reefed, and the decks cleared as far as it was possible to clear them. With the approach of morning, driving bodies of cold mist covered us once more, and veiled the land from our view. Hour went after hour, and the evil omens thickened around us ; the sky became blurred with shapeless masses of reddish clouds, and as the sun rose, a broken and discoloured rainbow was seen in the west. Ill-omened arch ! how different from the bow after summer rain, spanning the eastern sky at eventide, which we have learned to hail as full of promise ! About ten o'clock, a.m. the sea breeze dispersed the mists on the smooth but heaving surface of the I THE GULF. 11 waters, but had no power on the sky, which impercep tibly grew of a deeper dun, especially from the zenith to the south east.

Our eyes were anxiously turned to the west, where we could again descry the range of coast, the foam covered line of breakers on the bar, and the tall masts of a number of vessels within it. Six or eight of various burden were seen riding at anchor in the open road stead; either watching, like ourselves, for communica tion with the shore, or, outward bound, for the reception of their cargo. Our glasses were constantly directed to the bar for some indication that the signals for a pilot were observed ; but hours came and went, without the slightest sign of recognition. As the day passed the meridian, however, a black spot was seen among the breakers, and then another, and we soon distinguished two Custom-house boats pulling north and south, to communicate with other ships. When it became evident that neither seemed to consider us as within their beat, the captain resolved to send the shallop with two men to communicate with them.

Two more hours of uncertainty followed, when the boat-men came back, stating that the answer returned by the officers was, that we must come and anchor nearer the shore, before they would board us. Old De Vignes gave a terrific growl on hearing this ; glanced at the thickening sky, aud at the eastern horizon ; and, after a moment's hesitation, gave the necessary orders to obey, and to run the goelette in. The anchor was weighed ; and a momentary exultation was felt by all, as we found ourselves at length riding at anchor again within hail. What then occurred is now like a dream to me ; that a boat should have come aboard of us, and that hardly an individual should have left the goelette, when at this time our fate might have been foreseen by the most heedless on board, seems to me to be perfectly incomprehensible.

The crowded state of the vessel was the source of discomfort to all ; our water and our biscuit were both known to be running short, and the signs of the impending tempest could no longer be misunderstood. Yet no one stirred — for why, no one could give a reason but the poor one, that the few who went, must go without baggage ashore, and the impulse seemed to be ' to stick by the stuff.' The boat was after an instant's parley pushed off again with its wild half-savage, pirate-looking crew, who were accompanied by the supercargo of the goelette, after giving the promise, that early next morning all the passengers should be landed, and the discharge of the cargo forthwith commenced. They hoisted the sail— were soon carried to the bar, and disappeared among the huge waves which broke upon it.

The momentary bustle over, we had time to com prehend our position, and it grew more dreary every instant. The wind now blew steadily from the S. E. and the swell rose with it. The sky began to lose its uniform shade, and to jag and rend into shapeless masses of heavy clouds. The man-of-war-bird was seen high up in the atmosphere, breasting the breeze, and scudding out to sea ; while the bands of white pelicans, which we had watched soaring and diving in the roadstead during the morning, quitted their toils and wheeled their heavy flight over the breakers to the sheltered sands and lagoons of the land. It seemed as if all were leaving us and our ill-starred neighbours to their fate. It was evident that the latter had taken the alarm, and were hastily preparing for the coming struggle with the powers of the air and ocean.

One brig partly discharged, which lay about a mile nearer the Bar, trusting probably to the weight of water which was now rolling in upon the land, resolved to attempt the passage, and setting her sails, stood in boldly for the shore. The day must have been near its close, for we had difficulty to descry her motions distinctly in the thickening haze. She was seen to career mid-way among the breakers, when suddenly her change of position and inclination, told us that she had struck. A few minutes of intense anxiety followed. To return was impossible, and if she did not advance, her total loss was unavoidable. We saw her heave and strike heavily three or four times, as the sea rolled in upon her, and had given her up for lost, when providentially a heavier billow than ordinary carried her over the last ridge, and righting, she was in safety.

How we envied her ! As evening darkened the deck, the wind increased, and the captain no longer made a secret of his convic tion, that we should be driven out to sea before morning. There was something like despair painted on the visages of some, when thisbecame known ; and a volley of curses, deep, not loud, answered the announcement. We were not left long in uncertainty, ' The ship to the southward is scudding ! ' said one. ' There goes the brig ! ' exclaimed another. I remember I was in my usual position on deck, near the little tiller ; now and then glancing at the dim form of our nearest neigh bour; or searching into the gloom to windward, striving to penetrate the dusk out of which one spectral foam tipped billow was heaving and passing under us after another, urged by the impulse of a strong but steady wind, — when all of a sudden the goelette received a shock from the opposite quarter which staggered all upon deck, and steadied her completely for the moment. ' El Norte ! ' yelled the mate at my elbow, as a torrent of wind and spray swept over the deck. ' El Norte ! ' echoed Cortina, the shipless captain, ' I lost niyship in the last !' ' El Norte ! ' shouted the bravo, excited by the coming struggle with the elements, for which he had been preparing himself by stripping almost naked, and tying a ragged handkerchief about his head. ' Helm hard down, slip the chain-cable! ' responded the Captain, as he hoisted the jib with his own hands ; and instantly the harsh sound of the iron was heard passing out at the bow.

The vessel began to change her direction, when suddenly she was brought to again with a jerk, and a cry forward announced that the last bolt of the chain refused to pass through the hawse-hole. A cold chissel was procured, and while it was employed to cut the iron bolt, all who were aware of the circumstances were inclined to check their breath. Our position was truly one of no ordinary peril, as the strain upon the forward timber threatened to tear it out of the ship, in which case we must instantly have gone down. At length the bolt was severed, and the vessel, free from all obstacles, whirled round, and began to fly before the wind. Such a wind I had till then, never witnessed. The sea was apparently levelled under us pressure ; and far and near seemed like a carpet of driving snow, from the sleet and foam which was raised and hurried along its surface.

Thus we turned our backs on the shore, and drove hour after hour in storm and darkness into the unknown void before us. What appearances were there in the sky I do not know, as our vision was limited to a narrow circle of half a furlong around us, but if the disorder of the clouds answered that of the waves, there must have been awful doings over our heads. The sea, in spite of the tremendous force of the wind which I have alluded to, was not long to be lulled in this unnatural slumber, but began to rise and toss us about in fearful wise ; and yet it was not till we had run under shortened sail for many hours, in a direction which carried us out of all danger of the coast, and we lay to under three-reefed mainsail and trysail, that we felt all the discomfort of our situation. By this time the decks, washed by the sea, had been cleared of all lumber.

The cocks and hens had been drowned in the coops, the boat had been half staved, the binnacle and compass broken, and all the inhabitants forced by the wet and the dullness of the atmosphere, to herd together below deck. Meantime, what between the crowded state of the cabins, the violence of the storm, the shocks received from the strife of waters in which we were involved, the fears and terrors of some, the horrid and blas phemous language uttered by others of the desperadoes about us, the dirt and impurity surrounding us, and the quarrelling and caballing of the crew, our position was truly unenviable. Morning brought no cessation of the tempest. The wind continued to blow with terrific violence, and day light found us riding and rocking among a tumult of billows, whitened by the driving surf, and enveloped by a grey misty cloud of agitated vapour.

The pumps were sounded every half hour. The Halcyon was however sound, and the captain's arrangements well and knowingly made ; and there we rode, while one immense billow after another swelled up like a huge monster out of the mist to windward, advanced topling towards us, with its broad-spread moving slopes marbled by the bands of creamy foam, and after a moment of seeming hesitation whether it should go over or under us, was seen vanishing to leeward. The history of hours thus spent must be passed over. This first day the Halcyon's stomach seemed to be annihilated. Nobody cared for sustenance, and cooking was out of the question. Some hope had been entertained that the storm might lull at sun set, the same hour that it had arisen ; but the evening apparently darkened over us more gloomily than before, and all the live-long night the wild wind and wild waves continued to struggle on the agitated bosom of the Gulf.

Our cabin was a Pandemonium. Towards noon the second day, the wind began to abate, the vapour to disperse, and the clouds to grow more transparent. An imperfect observation taken at twelve o'clock shewed us that we had been driving about one hundred and fifty miles to the S. E. of Tampico. With evening it fell dead calm, while the sea continued to roll mountains high, and the goelette for the following twenty-four hours was tossed about like a cork in a boiling pot. Both bread and water were becoming scarce, and we were put upon an allowance of the latter. After the cessation of the Norte the sky became perfectly clear, and the weather warm, with glorious moonlight nights. The lightness and variableness of the wind, however, had allowed us to make but little way ; the more so, as we were, during the calms, at the mercy of the powerful currents in these seas.

To cut a long story short, you may imagine us on the afternoon of the fifth day from the date of our mishap, once more within sight of land ; and approach ing our anchorage with feelings which you can well conceive, when you recollect the heart-burning we had before experienced, and the hopelessness of a speedy communication with the shore, combined wih the present state of the vessel, the nausea which we could not but feel at our prolonged forced contact with the most god less and abandoned set of human beings I ever was in company with ; and more than all, the fact that the signs of another Norte had been thickening around during the day, and now at the approach of night, were becoming too evident to admit of misinterpretation. Upon one subject we were all agreed this time, that if we left the Halcyon without a rag, we would not lot another opportunity slip through our fingers.

Well, our signal was once more fluttering in the wind, and we came to our old anchoring-ground. One or two of our former neighbours were also seen regaining their port — the greater part were yet missing. With what anxiety we directed our eyes to the bar. An hour went by, even ing with its menace narrowed the horizon ; the wind which had brought us in blew stiffer and stiffer. I had begun to give up my hope, for, without being able to account for it, I had indulged a little, — and had as a duty begun to school myself into resig nation to the will of God, whatever that might be; when two specks were seen in the breakers, aud shortly we saw two boats pulling for us with might and main. The one was a revenue-barge, and the other a cockle shell of a boat belonging to an American brigantine within the bar, whose captain, out of friendship for De Vignes, risked the passage with two sailors, and came to warn him of the bad odour in which the Halcyon stood at Tampico, and the difficulties which would attend his proceedings.