MORE REVOLUTIONS. 



377 



State of Yucatan, then in revolution against the gov- 

 ernment of Mexico. Our descent of the river had been 

 watched from the bank, and before we landed we were 

 hailed, asked for our passports, and directed to present 

 ourselves immediately to the alcalde. The intimation was 

 peremptory, and we proceeded forthwith to the alcalde. 

 Don Francisco Hebreu was superior to any man I had 

 yet found at the head of a municipality ; in fact, he was 

 chief of the Liberal party in that section of the state, 

 and, like all the other officials in the Mexican provin- 

 ces, received us with the respect due to an official 

 passport of a friendly nation. We were again in the 

 midst of a revolution, but had not the remotest idea 

 what it was about. We were most intimately acquaint- 

 ed with Central American politics, but this was of no 

 more use to us than a knowledge of Texan politics 

 would be to a stranger in the United States. For sev- 

 eral months the names of Morazan and Carrera had 

 rung in our ears like those of our own candidates for the 

 presidency at a contested election; but we had passed 

 the limits of their world, and were obliged to begin anew. 



For eight years the Central party had maintained the 

 ascendancy in Mexico, during which time, as a mark 

 of the sympathy between neighbouring people, the Lib- 

 eral or Democratic party had been ascendant in Cen- 

 tral America. Within the last six months the Central- 

 ists had overturned the Liberals in Central America, 

 and during the same time the Liberalists had almost 

 driven out the Centralists in Mexico. Along the whole 

 coast of the Pacific the Liberals were in arms, waging 

 a strong revolutionary war, and threatening the capital, 

 which they afterward entered, but, after great massacre 

 and bloodshed, were expelled. On the Atlantic side, 

 the states of Tobasco and Yucatan had declared their 



Vol. IL— 3 B 



