The Isthmus of Tehuaniepec. 167 



and turned loose to eat grass until sunrise. The time 

 of starting is always at daybreak, and the day's journey is 

 frequently over by one or two o'clock in the afternoon. 

 Mules, especially good riding ones, are more valuable 

 than horses, bringing from §50 to $60, each. The load is 

 usually indigo: the route from Pacific Plains to Miuatilan 

 or Vera Cruz. The muleteering season is from October to 

 March. 



The indigo is often transferred from mules to canoes, at 

 the rivers, and floated down with the current to the sea. 



These canoes are made from the trunk of a mahogany 

 tree, from thirty to fifty feet feet long, and have a burden of 

 from one to two tons. A layer of twigs is put in the bottom 

 of the boat, to keep the indigo dry, and on this layer of twigs 

 the cargo is filled in level to the brim. Planks are then 

 laid down for a gangway, and the whole is covered with 

 large leaves. Drifting with the current, all hands loaf un- 

 der a little palanquin of leaves in the stem, taking turns at 

 the steering oar, or at the paddles, to help the craft through 

 any dangerous rapids. Returning, two or three men pro- 

 pel the boat by planting their poles upon the bottom and 

 walking the whole length of the plank from bow to stern. 

 The other, called the padron, steers, standing up in the 

 stern. In this way, they will make from fifteen to twenty 

 miles per day against a current of four or five miles. The 

 polemen are hired, for the round trip, at fifty cents per day. 

 The expensive part of the outfit is the canoe, which costs 

 from $40 to $50. 



The central portion of the isthmus, containing a belt 

 thirty miles wide, is the finest kind of grazing land. Here 

 are established the ranchos of the richest men in Mexico, 

 some of them owning sixty and seventy thousand head 

 of cattle, and from ten to an hundred square leagues of 

 ground, or about two hundred and fifty to twenty-five hun- 

 dred square miles. One of these grandees has his agents in 



