404 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



cienda. The whole establishment was lordly in its ap- 

 pearance. It had fifteen hundred Indian tenants, 

 bound to the master by a sort of feudal tenure, and, 

 as the friends of the master, escorted by a household 

 servant, the whole was ours. 



We had fallen unexpectedly upon a state of things 

 new and peculiar. The peninsula of Yucatan, lying 

 between the bays of Campeachy and Honduras, is a 

 vast plain. Cape Catoche, the northeastern point of 

 the peninsula, is but fifty-one leagues from San Anto- 

 nio, the western extremity of the Island of Cuba, 

 which is supposed at a remote period to have formed 

 part of the American Continent. The soil and atmo- 

 sphere are extremely dry ; along the whole coast, from 

 Campeachy to Cape Catoche, there is not a single stream 

 or spring of fresh water. The interior is equally desti- 

 tute ; and water is the most valuable possession in the 

 country. During the season of rains, from April to the 

 end of October, there is a superabundant supply ; but 

 the scorching sun of the next six months dries up the 

 earth, and unless water were preserved man and beast 

 would perish, and the country be depopulated. All the 

 enterprise and wealth of the landed proprietors, there- 

 fore, are exerted in procuring supplies of water, as with- 

 out it the lands are worth nothing. For this purpose 

 each hacienda has large tanks and reservoirs, construct- 

 ed and kept up at great expense, to supply water for 

 six months to all dependant upon it, and this creates a 

 relation with the Indian population which places the 

 proprietor somewhat in the position of a lord under the 

 old feudal system. 



By the act of independence, the Indians of Mexico, 

 as well as the white population, became free. No man 

 can buy and sell another, whatever may be the colour 



