hete_, which men here regularly carry for clearing the path, cutting
firewood, or protection against animals. They were very happy at
accompanying us for a distance. We soon rose from the low, malarial,
coffee _fincas_ onto a fine mountain, which was the last of its kind
that we saw for many days; it was like the mountains of the Mixes,
with its abundant vegetation of ferns, begonias, and trees loaded with
bromelias and orchids. Our bodyguard kept up with us bravely until we
had made one-half of the ascent, where they fell behind and we saw them
no more. Reaching the summit, we saw before us a distant line of blue,
interrupted here and there by some hill or mountain,--the great Pacific.
From here on, the beauty of the road disappeared. We descended and then
mounted along dry slopes to Santiago Guevea, then hot and dusty. Our
friends of San Miguel really live in Guevea and are at San Miguel only
when the coffee needs attention. From Guevea the road was hard and dry
and dusty to Santa Maria. The mountain mass over which we passed was
a peak, the summit of which was covered with masses of chalcedony of
brilliant colors, which broke into innumerable splinters, which were
lovely to see but hard upon the feet of horses; the surface of this part
also gave out a glare or reflection that was almost intolerable. We
descended over granite which presented typical spheroidal weathering.
We went onward, up and down many little hills, reaching Santa Maria at
noonday. The village sweltered; the air scorched and blistered; there
was no sign of life, save a few naked children playing in the shade or
rolling upon the hot sand. It was so hot and dusty that we hated to
resume our journey and tarried so long that we had to ride after
nightfall before we reached the _rancho_ of Los Cocos, where we lay in
the corridor and all night long heard the grinding of sugar-cane at the
mill close by.

We had just such another hard, hot, and dusty ride the next day,
on through Auyuga and Tlacotepec, where we stopped for noon, until
Tehuantepec, where we arrived at evening.

CHAPTER IV

THROUGH CHIAPAS

(1896)

Tehuantepec is meanly built; it is hot and dusty, and the almost
constant winds drive the dust in clouds through the streets. But its
picturesque market is a redeeming feature. Every morning it is crowded
and presents a brilliant and lively spectacle. All the trade is in the
hands of women, and the Tehuantepec women have the reputatio