Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-23
Ell DESIERTO.
BURIED TREASURES AND THE
STORY OF 4 ROSARY.
The Wilderness Wherein the Car
meiitc Monks Made Merry
The Ancient Past.

meiitc Monks Made Merry
The Ancient Past.
Especial Correspondence of the REooED-UNIoN.l
ToLUcA, Mexico, January 10, 1886.
About midway between the City of Mex
leo and Toluca is FL Desierto, sometimes
known as La Soledad, the solitary" or
deserted place, which was once the head
quarters of the Carmelites. OF this So
called wilderness that festive friar,
Thomas Gage, wrote in 1925: But more
Northwestward, three Leagues from Mexico,
is the pleasantest Place of all that are about
Mexico, called La Soledad, the solitary
place or Wilderness. Were all like it, to
live in wilderness would be better than to
live in City" Then he goes on to give a
glowing account of the lives of the Holy
Fathers who are supposed to be buried
from the world in the monastery here. The
good Able Clavigero calls Gage, his brother
monk, "a man of lies" but there is rea-
son to believe he told the truth about the
pious creatures who had mortified them
selves by retreating to this wilderness.
Says he: 1t is wonderful to see the strange
devices of fountains of water which are
about the gardens, but much more strange
and wonderful to see the resort of coaches
and Gallants and ladies and gentlemen
from Mexico, thither, to walk and make
merry in those desert pleasures, and
TO SEE THOSE HYPocRITEs,
| Whom they look upon as living Saints,
and so think nothing too good for them to
I L Al tss.+., l.
! None goes TO them but carries some sweet
| meats, or some other dainty dish to nour-
! ish them withal; whose prayers they
| solicit, leaving them great aims of Money
/ for t. cir Masses and above all offering to a
! picture in their church, called Our Lady
| Of Carmel treasures of diamonds, pearls.
! golden chains and crowns, and gowns of
cloth of gold and silver. Before this picture
did hang in my time twenty lamps of
| silver; the least OF them worth hundred
! pounds"
We took balmy day in December for
| the Journey, when the air here was like
| that of northern Junes and a jolly
cavalcade we made, twenty strong, includ
! ing guides and servants, all well mounted
upon donkeys. Notwithstanding the pres
ent disturbed state of the country-owing
to incipient revolutions which are breaking
out here and there all over the body polite
| like bad case of meases-we felt that
there was safety il our numbers, thoughin
many instances the patriotic revolutionists
are but organized bands of robbers. who go
prowling about making demands from
| travellers on the highway and committing
@Sall manner Of atrocities in the name of
liberty. Besides had we not the redoubt-
able Don Jesus Maria Guadalupe Pazos for
our guide and protector, and had he not
| sworn by all the saints and saintesses in
the calendar that not hair of our heads
should be harmed? This guide with the
| singular cognomen is character pecuiiar
to Mexico and though not prepossessing in
appearance, with wild, fiery eyes, tana led
| hair hanging over his swarthy face, slasbed
buckskin brooches and greasy jerkin that
has breasted many storm, he may safely
! be trusted. Somebody was SO impolite as
to express doubts concerning the propriety
! of engaging such a Misunderstanding
creature, whom none of us knew, and who
/ might be in caho0ts with the knights of
| the road, when, with a surprised glance
that his honor should be questioned, he
drew himself up proudly
GAVE HIS BREAST A REsoUNDING wHAcK,
Remarking that he was Jesus Maria
Guadalupe Pazos, per DauehOS amos cdrgidor
| dc To'atcd-todo et nujldo me c0a0ce"-i'' for
many years cargidor in Toluca-ah the
world knows me- 1t frequently happens
! that such as he become the guardians of
the fortunes of The wealthiest men for
months, on toilsome Journeys among the
defiles and mountains of sections remote
from railroads or civilization, having at
command a number of men as ill-iavored
but as trusty as himself. Though a null
titude Of dangers and difficulties are TO be
conlended with, he overcomes them all, is
seldom robbed land himself never robs),
and invariably on the appointed day de
livers the wares or money that has been
intrusted to him safely into the hands of
its owner.
The long ride from Toluca to Ell Deserto
is remarkable for beautiful scenery, espe-
cialy as we near Santa Fe. Setting out
long before sunrise, the morning light was
glorious upon the Nolcan de Toluca, the
dark mountain San Miguel de Tutucuitlal-
pico, the black crags behind which lay our
! destination, and the odorous pine forests
around us. Two miles from FL Desierto,
near the miserable village of Cauiimalpa,
we halted for breakfast beside murmur-
ing stream, and while the ladies made cof-
fee la gypsy and spread the contents OF
our hamper under a tree, Don Jesus was
sent ahead 10 procure fresh fruits or what
ever was edible in the village. Presently
he returned, his honest countenance
shining with sense of duty done, and de-
livered basket of-not luscious oranges
bananas or pomegranates, but queer little
cakes that looked like fiat stones, and corn
husks still wet and steaming from the boil
ing. The latter were
AXALoTLs,
The web-footed, feather-headed water
Lizards. which are esteemed such delicacy
by the Mexican Indians and the cakes
were compounded from the eggs of the
mosquito axayactl, mixed with the insects
themselves crushed into paste. 1t is need
less to say that these It'd bits, in which Don
Jesus had invested all our reals, were left
intact for the second table"
Ell Desierto lies in the midst of " most en-
chanting forest-pine, hemlock, oak and
cedar clothing the hillsides and darkening
the dells for miles around. They are the
grandest trees to be found within the valley
of Mexico-always excepting the magnifi-
cent expresses of Chapultepec. In tact they
are about the only trees, save those planted
in gardens, within the circle of hills that
environ Anahuac; for, after the manner OF
most newcomers, the conquering Spaniards
hewed down the primeval forests of the
beautiful valley, leaving plain and mount
ain bare to he tropic sun. Here the air is
always COO and sweet, and gentle winds
sigh throuul. the pines as If telling tales OF
the departed 1t is reported that ghosts
walk here-Donna Marina, Guatimozin
Montezuma, the good friar Las Casas, and
even Cortez, the invader-apparitions all
seen and sworn to by creduIous neighbors