^\)c SavAm's MXor\\\)U) btottcr. 



141 



Correspondence of Ihe New Orleans l"ir«ymie. 

 AGRlCLLTURt; IN .MEXICO. 

 Gen. Taylor's Pleasure Trip. 



Monttrexj, Mvxico, Juhj 10, ]8 17. . 

 I have just leuriicd llj.it a paily is to ^ital■t for 

 l)elow early to-morrow rnoniiiii;, of wljicli oppoi- 

 tniiiiy 1 sliall avail iny.-^cJt' and will oudtavor lo 

 i;ive you ail account of Gen. Taylor's trip to Ala- 

 inaleipii, the planlalioii of 0(M1. Arista. I ap- 

 prized you in my la,<t tliat lie was to make an ex- 

 cursion, and of my intention of making one of 

 the parly. 



It wa.s quite refreshinc to see the old General 

 inoimled on his horse on Wednesday morning', 

 the 7lh insl., surrounded hy llie im.'inliers of liis 

 naff, aliout to leave the nionotony of his camp, 

 to enjiiy himself lor a few days — a ^ralilication 

 he has denied himsidf till now. Geii. Cushini^ 

 and his aid-de-camp accompanied the expedition, 

 escorted hy a <!ozen dragoons. We took the 

 road to Salinas, which lies in a direction a little 

 north of east, aliout twenty miles from Monterey, 

 and passed through the village of San Nicholas 

 de la.s Cagas, a llonrisliin^ litlle (ilace for Mexico, 

 of some considmahle extent, six miles from 

 Monterey. At this lown they raise considerahle 

 corn aii<l vegelahles for the Monterey markei. 

 We left camp at noon and arrived at Salinas 

 ahont 5 o'clock in the afternoon, where the al- 

 calde received the general and [larty with every 

 demonstration of respect, inviterl liim into his 

 court-room, and treated him to figs and unripe 

 water-melons. I do not mean to speak slighliiig- 

 ly of his treat, hecause it was evidently' the hest 

 he had in the shop.' 



Salinas, once a flourisliiiii; town, hut now go- 

 ing tiist to decay, is situated upon the northern 

 hank of the Rio Salinas, a pretty formidahle 

 stream that rises near Parras and emplies iiiio 

 the San Juan. It is very hrackish and hardly 

 driakahle, but it is all the iuhabitauis have to de- 

 pend upon, as they have no wells in the city — 

 carrying out the national trait of the country to 

 •leave well alone.' The town contains ahouf 

 270t) iiihahitants ami a very well conditioned al- 

 calde. Sugar is the principal source of revenue ; 

 hut owing lo the saline (lualities of the water, the 

 sugar is of an inferior quality. A small amount 

 of rice is also raised, hut no more corn than to 

 sulHee lor the consumption of the iiihahitants. 



There are several very thriving little rancheadt- 

 ros on this stream at difiereiil points. I lu^g yon 

 will not attempt to look on the map for this 

 stream, for it has a (lo?,en ditTerent names, and 

 probably is not noted, tlie Mexican custom lieing 

 to give streams a fresh name for every town they 

 pas.s. 



We encamped upon the soullicrn hank of the 

 river for the night, and in the evening some of 

 the pariy attemled a fandango got up for their 

 amusement in the lown. It was the the first I 

 ever jittended, and rather a dull aft'iir, very few 

 senoritas beiiii: presdiit. On the 8lh, by sunrise, 

 we struck our tents, crossed the Salt river and 

 arrived at Mamalequi about r.ouu. 



Arista's haciemla is situated upon or near the 

 Rio I'ecacho, and at the loot of a spur of the Si- 

 erra, in a northeasterly direclion from .Monterey, 

 about twelve miles from S.diuas, and from a dis- 

 tance has quite the appearance of a baronial es- 

 tate. His plantation is a very extensive one, 

 comprising I'uurteen scjuare leagues; hut miles of 

 it are useless, low chapparal, only relieved hy 

 the tall Spanish bayonet plant, wliicli bristles u|i 

 in every direirtion. .Arista purchased the place 

 about four jears ago from a lady residing in the 

 city of Alexico for .'S^J.'j.OOU, and has since expen- 

 ded about 40,000 dill lars in improving it. There 

 is a very fine sugar and saw mill upon it; the 

 motive power of which, is water of course. 

 The dam across the river, forming the mill-pond, 

 is a very fine solid piece of mason work, anil 

 wasestimated in the bill of sale at 14,000 dollars. 

 The estate is managed hy an udministrador, who 

 has under him an overseer. There are about 

 ninety men and hoys, peons, upon the place, and 

 as many women ami iruls, all of whom arc fix- 

 lures lor life, as are all peons in ninety-nine ca- 

 ses out of a hundred, and quite as bad off as 

 slaves ill your section of the country — worse 

 even, as when they heuome past work, their 

 lanillord (?) is not compelled to support iheni, 

 and this duty devolving upon their relative . 

 serves to hind ihem the firmer. 



I am afraid .Arista does not find agriciilime 

 quite as proliiablo as the prolessioii of arms; for 

 according to the account we received from the 

 overseer, the lyoliis of tl>e estate are little or 

 tiotlmig. The nominal wages of the peons is 

 (roni two to ten dollars per month, hut us they 

 are compelled to purclia.-e every article they 

 consume, and all their clothing, from the pro|Mi"- 

 etor of Ihe estate, every month finds them deep- 

 er in debt. 'I'wo crops of corn are raised, and 

 twenty-four fanfgas of seed is the usual amount 

 planted. The yield is generally one hundred 

 fold, which would make the animal crop •lUW 

 J'anrgns,^ or SliOO bushel.s. Of this but lillle is 

 sold off the estate, as it is the principal article of 

 lood. The crop of beans, w bicli is also one of 

 the 'standby's,' is estimated at SOOyi/iiegas— 2200 

 bushels. There are ahont a thousand head of 

 cattle on the estate, and a few sheep and goats- 

 hut as one beef is generally killed nearly every 

 (lay, the sale off the estate is very small— not 

 mure than twenty-five a year. TheCaue c-rop is 

 as yet small, but more laud is dedicated to its 

 ciiltivalioii every year, and it must soon yield a 

 handsome profit. At present not more tiian 40 

 urohaa (1000 pounds) of sugar are made in the 

 year, but of a good ipialily. A small amount of 

 rice of a fair quality is also raised. By far the 

 greatest source ot' profit is the lumber, some por- 

 tions of this extensive domain being heavily tim- 

 bered Willi pine. The growth of cotton has been 

 attempted, hut without any decided success. 



I he ndinmistrador and overseer came out to 

 meet Geii. Taylor and offer him the hospitalities 

 of the place, and we encamped about half a mile 

 from the main building, under the shade of some 

 pecan trees. The residence of Arista is s|iacious 

 and very strongly built with walls three feet thick, 

 loop-holed for muskets. It is constructed of the 

 large sun-dried brick, stuccoed and whitewashed, 

 and better adapted linr comfort than almost anv 

 house I have been in. These brick, which are 

 about a foot square and fi)nr or five inches thick, 

 are made hy the /leojis for a bit and a \yM'(unreal 

 y mndiit) a hundred — by those of the place lor 

 three bits a hundred. 



I have said that we eiicam|)eil near the main 

 building, and under the cool shade of the pecans 

 we remaiiird tranquil during the rest of the day. 

 The statistical infoiiiiation which I have given, 

 was im|iaited to Gen. Tajlor — who takes the 

 liveliest interest in every tiling pertaiuiug lo 

 agriculture, and is anxious to obtain all the in- 

 formation relalive to the produce of ibe country — 

 by the adniiinstrador. In the evening this limc- 

 tiotiary, who is a young man born on the estate, 

 invited the General and party to a fandango, and 

 much to his satisiiiclion evidently it was accept- 

 ed. As soon as it was quite dark, GeTi. Taylor 

 and Gen. Cnshing and the rest of Ihe suite re- 

 paired to Xhe findango. In the open air, in Iront 

 ol' telle house, three rows of benches were ar- 

 ranged, forming three sides of a sipiare, leaving 

 a large space between, and upon these nere 

 seated the male and female tenantry, the dancing 

 ground being lighted by two torches of split pine 

 wood. Wh' n the affair got well under way 

 there were about sixty female peasants present, 

 all of them as hrowu as berries and very ugly, 

 notwithstanding which they found plenty of part- 

 ners. The music consisted of two violins and 

 a conple of guttar.s, and the musicians played 

 some very pretty tunes too. 



Afier one or two national (fauces, consisting 

 of alternate dancing and discordant, wild sing- 

 ing — the dancing resembling very nincb that pe- 

 culiar to the negroes in the Stales, and the sing 

 ing an Indian cliaimt — a wall/, and quaihiiie 

 were started. I can a.-sure you the scene was 

 not only novel, but wild and picturesque in the 

 extreme. There stood the victorious, war-worn, 

 but hardy old veteran, surrounded by his brave 

 coiiipaurotis in arms who liave stooii the brunt 

 of battle with him, and lliose who hope yet to 

 share new victories under his leadership, gazing 

 Willi a smiling face upon the merry-niHkiug of 

 Arista's teiianiry. A liitle more than a year ago, 

 while Arisia was ruslicaliiig upon this same lia- 

 cieiid.i, he received the notificalion of bis being 

 placed in (*oinniand, and his verv first order on 

 assuming his authority was dated .Mamalequi. 

 During tliiit briel' period, he has been var.quislied, 

 disgraced ami stripfied of his command — his 

 vaiuptisher has penetrated to his very household, 



• ind IS eiiterlaineil as an honcred t'liest by his 

 ilepeiidanls. What strange events come to pass! 

 Who can tell w hat the morrow will bring fbrth ? 

 Here let me remark, that a letter was received 

 bom Arista hy his adminislrailor, recentiv, dated 

 "Mexico, .(line 1(J." He did not allude to 'matters 

 transpiring in that quarter at all, his letter being 

 purely a business one, I metilion this ciicum- 

 slauce merely because we had not heard of his 

 whereabouts lor some lime. 



On the morning of the 8tli we took our leave 

 of Arista's hacknda and turned our horses' heads 

 towards Monteri^, but not the .-Mine way that we 

 had come, intending, eu route, to pay a visit to 

 the Villa Heal which is about 12 miles from Wa- 

 maleipii, in a southerly direction. IJelbre arriv- 

 ing at the villa we were met hy the worthy and 

 hospitable [iroprietor El Senor" ihm Jose Maria 

 del Villa Real, who warmly welcomed tlie gen- 

 eral ami expressed great pleasure at the honor 

 of his visit. The only peculiarities I could then 

 discover about the Senor were a redundancy of 

 upright shirt collar and a good deal of cotton 

 umbrella which was not opened ; I al'lerwards 

 discovered that g;intlenianly conrteous liearing 

 and great hospitalily were bis distinguishing 

 trails. His hacienda is very exieiisive and well 

 ordered, as be is always on the spot himself, and 

 a handsome fortune has rewarded his exertion.-). 

 No sooner had all gathered under bis cool roof, 

 than a cart load, liierally a earl load of water and 

 ifiiisk melons, and a larjie bushel basket of most 

 delicious figs, btirstinir open as if from impa- 

 tience to have their lusciousness appreciated, 

 ivere brought in. Need I assure you that they 

 were duly honored and praised .= Alllion^ih quite 

 early in the day, the Seiior insisted that tlie party 

 must take a little lefi-eshment, and in an hour" 

 a long table was rich, and ■.'liiteriiig willi the dis- 

 play of silver plale ; plates" dishes, spoons, forks, 

 salt-cellars, &(•., all silver. The 'little refresb- 

 inenl' consisted of seven courses of well-cooked 

 meat ami fowl, a la Mtxicaiio, also served up in 

 massive silver dishes, and couiimial relays of tor- 

 tillas. Nearly every man had a breast-work of 

 tortillas before him when the repast wa.s conclud- 

 ed. At noon we bid adieu to tlu; extremely lib- 

 eral Don, and started for Camp Taylor. I don't 

 like to destroy tlie idea of the liberalily of the 

 Senor that I have created, but it was saiil that he 

 vvas thrown into a great state of agitation a short 

 time since, by a report ihat General 'I'aylor was 

 to send an expe[iiliou to search bis place for 

 goods taken from the captured wagons, supposed 

 to be concealed there, and tliat he imagined the 

 General had come to confirm ilie report. I arn 

 not disposed to credit the on dit myself, but if 

 true, it may more fully account ' for "the milk in 

 the cocoa nut.' Sixteen miles from the villa the 

 road strikes the .Salinas road, and crosses the 

 Agua Fiia, which, ahhough fiesh, was nearly 

 warm enough to boil an egg. Six miles more 

 ami we were again at Cain|) r.-ijlor, where the 

 party dispersed, all npparenily much gratified 

 with tile excursion. 



When at iMamalequi, the ali'ahle of a small 

 town near Mat in arrived and applied lo General 

 Taylor for a force lo capture a sni;ill hand of 

 robbers headed by iMucho Manini, a one-.-umed 

 robber, long known in this region, who had com- 

 ineiiced sundry ouirages on the Mexicans. For 

 mamfesl reasons, the General declined. 



We have many sketches from our army in 

 ftlexico, of lhat iiileresting country with which 

 intercomiiinnication and (commerce under Spain 

 was totally prohibited, and since the revohitioii 

 creating it a nominal federative republic nearly 

 so. Under old Spain, as in all her colonies of 

 South America, the crime of being caught trad- 

 ing upon the shores of the country was punished 

 hy chains iitid comlemnalion to slavery fiar life ill 

 the mines: when the people burst these bauds of 

 despotism, the condition of trade was somewhat 

 ineliorateii ; but after all, under the rule of her 

 successive military |iretenders, it may be a seri- 

 ous question whether the nation of Mexico has 

 been mncli betlered hy her revolulimis. It is 

 quite certain that the sources of wealth furnished 

 by her fine climate and fruitful soil have become 

 essentially tiilapiJutcd, 



