ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 105 



a brief stop at the mountain hedged city of Orizaba, we left the train 

 at Cordoba, where the Spanish of my traveling companion was most help- 

 ful in securing accommodations at a little Mexican hotel, where we had a 

 really good dinner and comfortable beds. 



In the morning we took an early train over the Vera Cruz and Pacific 

 road for Achotal, its terminus. Although the run is not a long one, 

 it takes from six o'clock in the morning till one the following morning 

 to make it. 



( FICUS BENJAMINA. 



That we were getting into an unsettled country was much more 

 apparent than ever before, the cars being guarded by rurales (the native 

 military police), and the passengers, both Americans and Mexicans, having 

 the free and easy demeanor which characterized the early days of the Far 

 West. The conductors and train hands were Americans, as were many 

 of the passengers, all of whom were going south and most of them 

 interested in rubber planting projects. As was natural, the Americans 



