1894 Tuxtepec. Tuxtepec is the place where General Diaz issued his pronunoia- 
Tuxtepec mento leading up to his ultimately successful revolution. 
(Oaxaca) 
* * : » ! • i 
It is an obscure town, far from R.R.’s and other means of connunica- 
* > I* » \ * 1 " f ■ ' « * ‘ ' \ l - i •,* 1 * , r 
tion with the outside world, except fear the small river steamers which 
! > • • » . * . ( ' ‘if 
get up to it during high water of the rainy season. As at Qtatitlan, 
, ’ • , , - . , , 
nearly all of the houses here are built of upright sticks covered with 
, .■ • • '% ;i r 
mud and with sharply pitched double roofs of palm leaves over a frame- 
V. <;)**> I . . ■ - 
• 1 ‘ 1 - ’ ’ < » l • * * 4 / S ' I ' , - * ^ 
V' T r i 
work lashed together with vines. Unglazed windows with heavy wooden 
* £ *•* , * ^ ' _ • * i * t 
shutters to close at night and similar doors are almost universal. The 
place, like most other towns,has very little life, the people living a 
self-centered, dull existence with few or no newspapers, books, or other 
means of keeping in touch with the world. Things of ordinary everyday 
life among more advanced people seem like vague fairy tales to these 
people. 
This is the center of a great extent of fine agricultural country 
where pineapples, bananas, sugar cane, rice, and many other tropical 
products do very well, but as yet little effort is being made to do more 
than produce enough to barely support the scanty population. Throughout 
this region the population is mainly Indian with a small proportion of 
mixed bloods, some Spaniards or their descendants, and a very few for- 
i T ■ . ‘ * 
signers. A few Americans are settling in this region for the purpose of 
coffee growing* The altitude of this place is about 300 feet above sea 
level. 
(During the winter or dry season, it is comparatively healthy, but 
in summer it is very unhealthy. The last of May, 1894, a form of yellow 
fever was common there and many people died from it. The disease was 
accompanied by vomiting and purging in its severe form, and at times 
death came within a few hours. An American I left there came down later 
and said he saw one Indian lie down beside a house in one of the main 
217 
