THE DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLE. 335 



The custody and preservation of these wells are 

 an important part of the administration of the vil- 

 lage government. Thirty Indians are elected every 

 year, who are called alcaldes of the wells, and 

 whose business it is to keep them in good order, 

 and the tanks constantly supplied with water. 

 They receive no pay, but are exempted from cer- 

 tain obligations and services, which makes the of- 

 fice desirable ; and no small object of the political 

 struggle through which the village had passed, was 

 to change the alcaldes of the wells. Buried among 

 the ruins of Uxmal, the news of this important elec- 

 tion had not reached us. 



Though practically enduring, in some respects, the 

 appendages of an aristocratic government, the In- 

 dians who carried us on their shoulders, and our 

 loads on their backs, have as good votes as their 

 masters ; and it was painful to have lost the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing the democratic principle in opera- 

 tion among the only true and real native American 

 party ; the spectacle being, as we were told, in the 

 case of the hacienda Indians, one of exceeding im- 

 pressiveness, not to say sublimity. These, being cri- 

 ados, or servants, in debt to their masters and their 

 bodies mortgaged, go up to the village unanimous 

 in opinion and purpose, without partiality or preju- 

 dice, either in favour of or against particular men 

 or measures ; they have no bank questions, nor 

 questions of internal improvement, to consider ; no 

 angry discussions about the talents, private charac- 



