one only
excepted--Nature's divine views have been thwarted, her aim set aside,
by the malignity of man. As over the broad world the blight of the
despot is upon thy beauty.

Why are these people crowded together--hived, as it were, in towns and
villages? Herdsmen--one would expect to find them scattered by reason
of their occupation. Besides, a sky continually bright, a genial clime,
a picturesqueness of scene--all seem to invite to rural life; and yet I
have ridden for hours, a succession of lovely landscapes rising before
my eyes, all of them wild, wanting in that one feature which makes the
rural picture perfect--the house, the dwelling of man! Towns there are;
and at long intervals the huge _hacienda_ of the landed lord, walled in
like a fortress; but where are the _ranchos_, the homes of the common
people? True, I have noticed the ruins of many, and that explains the
puzzle. I remember, now that I am on the _frontier_: that for years
past the banks of the Rio Bravo, from its source to the sea, have been
hostile ground--a war-border of fifteen hundred miles in length! Many a
red conflict has occurred--is still occurring--between those Arabs of
the American desert--the _Horse_ Indians--and the pale-faced descendants
of the Spaniard. That is why the ranchos exist only in ruins--that is
why the haciendas are loopholed, and the populace pent up within walls.
The condition of feudal Europe exists in free America, on the banks of
the Rio Bravo del Norte!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nearly a mile off, looking westward, I perceive the sheen of water: it
is a reach of the great river that glances under the setting sun. The
river curves at that point; and the summit of a gentle hill, half
girdled by the stream, is crowned by the low white walls of a hacienda.
Though only one story high, this hacienda appears, from its extent, and
the style of its architecture, to be a noble mansion. Like all of its
class, it is flat-roofed; but the parapet is crenated, and small
ornamental turrets over the angles and the great gateway relieve the
monotony of its outlines. A larger tower, the belfry of a chapel,
appears in the background, the Mexican hacienda is usually provided with
its little _capilla_, for the convenient worship of the peon retainers.
The emblems of religion, such as it is, are thick over the land. The
glimmer of glass behind the iron rejas relieves to some exten