328 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



The same melancholy tokens are visible in the 

 private houses. In the principal street stand large 

 buildings, roofless, without w^indows or doors, and 

 vs^ith grass and bushes growing from crevices in the 

 walls ; while here and there, as if in mockery of 

 human pride, a tottering front has blazoned upon it 

 the coat of arms of some proud Castilian, distin- 

 guished among the daring soldiers of the conquest, 

 whose race is now entirely unknown. 



Among these time-shattered buildings stood one 

 in striking contrast, remarkable for its neat, compact, 

 and business-like appearance ; and in that country 

 it seemed a phenomenon. It was a cotton factory 

 belonging to Don Pedro Baranda, the first estab- 

 lished in the Mexican Republic, and for that reason, 

 as emblematic of the dawn of a great manufacturing 

 system, called the " Aurora de la Industria Yucate- 

 ca ;" and, what gave it a greater interest in our 

 eyes, it was under the direction of that young coun- 

 tryman and fellow-citizen, Don Juan Burque, or Mr. 

 John Burke, to whom I before referred as the first 

 stranger who visited the ruins of Chichen. It 

 seemed strange to meet in this unknown, half-Span- 

 ish and half-Indian town a citizen of New- York. 

 It was seven years the day of our arrival since he 

 came to Valladohd. He had almost lost the facili- 

 ty of expressing himself in his native tongue, but in 

 dress, manner, appearance, and feelings he was un- 

 changed, and different from all around him ; and it 

 was gratifying to us to know that throughout that 



