Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1846-06-04
MONTPELIER, THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1916.

do not think that the Mexican men have much
more physical strength than our women. They
are generally of dinnutve stature, wholly unac-
customcd to labor or exercise of any sort and MS n
conclusive proof of their infericry to our Indians.
will mention the fact that frequent incursons are
made lar into the interior of Mexico by maraudlnr
bands oil Comanches, who levy black mail TO an
enormous extent upon the northern provinces of
Mexico. 1t is not unusual for bands of hundred
Comanches thus TO penetrate several hundred miles
INTO Mexico and carry off as many horses, cattle
and captves as they choose there are not less than
five thousand Mexicans at this moment slaves of
Tie Comanches-and of all our western tribes the
Comanches are the most cowardy, the DeIawares
frequently whip them five to one.
The soldiers Of the Mexican army are generally
collected by sending out recruiting detachments
into the mountains, where they hunt the Indians in
their dens and caverns, and bring them in chains
to Mexico; there is scarcely day that droves of
these miserable and more than half naked wretch
es are not seen thus chained together and march,
ing through the street to the barracks where they
are secured and then dressed in uniform made of
linen cloth, or of serge, and are occasionally drill
ed-which drilling consists mainly in teaching
them TO march in column through the Streets
lhelr military binds are good, aud the men learn
to march indifferently well-but only indiferentlv
well they put their feet down as if they were
feeling for the place. and do not step with that iaun
~, erect and graceful air which is so beautiful in
well drilled troops. AS to the wheelings of well
trained troops, like the opening and shutting of a
gate, or the prompt and exact execution of other
eVolutlons, they know nothing about them. There
IS not one in ten OF these soldiers who have ever
seen gun, nor one in hundred who has ever
fired one before lie was brought into the barracks.
IL Is IN TINS way that the ranks of the army are
IllIed up-ln particular emergencies the prisons are
thrown open, which always contain more prisoners
than the army numbers and these felons become
soldiers and some Of them officers. Their arms.
too, are generally worthless English muskets which
nave been condemned and thrown aside, and are
purchased for almost nothing and sold TO the Mex
lean government. Their powder, too. is equally
bad; III the last battle between Santa Anna and
Bustdmene, which lasted the whole day. not one
cannon ball In a thousand reached the enemy-they
generally fell about half way between the opposite
armies
Touching the political liberty in Mexico. and
the national industry there, Mr.. Thompson did not
find anything flatterng, for although there is no le
gained slavery IN the country, there are matters
which are more than tantamount to that wretched
condition. and the little industry that is to be found
among them is exercised under compusion by the
wretched beings who have become amenable TO
such coercion.
The plough i'll universal use is that used two
thousand years ago-nellher more nor less than
wooden wedge, without particle of iron attached
to it, The hoe is wooden staff with an iron snit q
In the end What is still more remarkable. the
animal used in ploughing is the OK; planter. with
twenty thousand horses and mules 10y no means an
unusual number) will only use lis oxen in the
plough. II you ask why this is, the only answer
can give is, that the Spnnard never changes his
habits nor any thing else but his government An
the passion for change which exists in other men,
with HIM Is concentrated in political changes.
more striking proof of the uncomfortable re-
pugnance Of the Mexican to labor cannot be oiven
than the fact that short staple cotton sells there at
from forty to iorty-ive cents per pound while they
have lands and climates as well adapted to its cui-
ture as ours, and these lands dirt cheap: vet they
never made enough for their own consumptop -
The importation of cotton is positively forbidden
by law; but this law is often relaxed bv selling
the privilege to mercantile companies to impon
certain number Of bales. If such prices should be
obtained at home, our home northern people would
discover some plan Of raising it proftaby IN hot
houses.
Z Although the whole road from the city of Vera
Cruz to the city Of Mexico passes through coum-
try ineXpesslbly picturesque and beautiful yet the
Ignorant, idle, and degraded population, the total
absence OF cultivation and Improvement and gem
eral appearance Of wildness and desolation pro-
duced with me feelings partakmg of gloom and
melancholy. NelIher in going nor returning did |
see one human being, man. woman, or chd, en-
gagged at work of any sort. The great mass OF the
population doze out their lives with no higher
thoughts or purposes than the beasts which perish
around them.