WRECKS ON THE BEACH NEAR VERA CRUZ, MEXICO 



And eloquent they are of a form of civilization that spends its energies on internecine war 

 rather than upon the improvement of the lanes of the near-hy sea 



who were poor, but who stifled the voice 

 of nature, probably less at the suggestions 

 of poverty than of a wretched supersti- 

 tion. 



CANNIBALS WITH REFINED TASTES 



The most loathsome part of the story — 

 the manner in which the body of the sac- 

 rificed captive was disposed of — remains 

 yet to be told. It was delivered to the 

 warrior who had taken him in battle, and 

 by him, after being dressed, was served 

 up in an entertainment to his friends. 

 This was not the coarse repast of fam- 

 ished cannibals, but a banquet teeming 

 with delicious beverages and delicate 

 viands, prepared with art and attended 

 by both sexes, who conducted themselves 

 with all the decorum of civilized life. 

 Surely never were refinement and the ex- 

 treme of barbarism brought so closely in 

 contact with each other ! 



Human sacrifices have been practised 

 by many nations, not excepting the most 

 polished nations of antiquity, but never 

 by any on a scale to be compared with 

 those in Anahuac. 



Agriculture in Mexico w^as in the same 

 advanced state as the other arts of social 



life. In few countries, indeed, has it 

 been more respected. It was closely in- 

 terwoven with the civil and religious in- 

 stitutions of the nation. There were pe- 

 culiar deities to preside over it ; the names 

 of the months and of the religious festi- 

 vals had more or less reference to it. 



Among the most important articles of 

 husbandry we may notice the banana. 

 Another celebrated plant w r as the cacao, 

 the fruit of which furnished the choco- 

 late — from the Mexican chocolatl — now 

 so common a beverage throughout Eu- 

 rope. The vanilla, confined to a small 

 district of the seacoast, was used for the 

 same purposes, of flavoring their food 

 and drink, as with us. 



MEAL AND SUGAR FROM MAIZE 



The great staple of the country, as, in- 

 deed, of the American continent, was 

 maize, or Indian corn, which grew freely 

 along the valleys and up the steep sides 

 of the Cordilleras to the high level of the 

 table-land. The Aztecs were as curious 

 in its preparation and as well instructed 

 in its manifold uses as the most expert 

 Xew England housewife. Its gigantic 

 stalks, in these equinoctial regions, af- 



