MESSING AROUND IN MEXICO 



tries. Nature had fashioned the caves, but 

 the living-room ceilings had been done over; 

 they were crudely smoothed off as if by bone 

 instruments perhaps the heads of the short- 

 waist ed inhabitants. So I deemed likely 

 when I stood up in one. 



Not all the isthmus of Lower Calif ornia is a 

 desert such as we were in. Far from it. 

 Much of the land on the Pacific side, and 

 especially that in the northerly section, is like 

 that of our southern California, and with de- 

 velopment would rival in richness the vaunted 

 habitat of the Native Son. Its isolation from 

 the mother country the long, narrow gulf 

 completely separating the two has resulted 

 in a peculiar state of political affairs; it is to 

 all intents and purposes independent. Cantu, 

 the present governor, is a forceful, energetic 

 person. He is popular, and he maintains a 

 considerable army upon steady pay. He and 

 his party, if there is such a thing, make their 

 own laws, levy and collect their own taxes, 

 and thumb their noses at the Carranza govern- 

 ment, daring them to do something about it. 

 Since Mexico lacks a navy, and it is a long, 

 dry walk around the head of the gulf, the bluff 

 holds. 



259 



