Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1906-08-07
A LAND OF WONDERS.
Curious People, Strange Customs and
Unprogressive Methods.

w. n. Allen returned home Wednes-
day evening, after cruise OF several
months in the state of Guerrero, Old
Mexico, which was his second trip to
that country. He left Wausau on
March II last and since that time had
been engaged almost continuously in
supervising survey of lands in the
mountains. He had very hard trip,
though he enjoyed good health, and is
pleased to get back home. When asked
for an interview on his travels Mr..
Allen furnished us with the following:
''The first in order perhaps will be to
give to your readers some facts and
figures in regard to the state of Guer
rero. Many of those facts and figures
will probably be more familiar to a
majority of your readers than they are
to yours truly Guerrero, one of the
states of our neighboring republic,
means warrior" 1t is situated between
sixteen and eighteen degrees north
latitude and its area is about 20,500
square miles, with population of about
100000 people. 1t is divided politically
into fourteen districts, the names of
which would be jaw breakers to an
English speaking person, or as the
Mexicans would say, Gringo, which
is their name for Yankee
'In explanation l might say that a
district corresponds with county of
our state.
''The capital of the state of Guerrero
is Chilpancingo and signifies "a place
of wasps." 1t is also sometimes called
"City of Braves" name given to it in
honor of the memories of Nicolas,
Leonardo and Miguel Bravo, heroes of
the Mexican independence, born at this
place. The first Mexican congress was
held here on September 13, 1918. 1t is
small city, but very attractive and is
situated in very fertile valley on the
banks of the Huacapa river near the
geographical center of the state. 1t has
no railroad facilities and is two days
station. 1t has a population of about
$500. A stage line was opened last
season from Chilpancingo to Balsas,
but on the second trip the stage tipped
over into baranca or, as we would
call it, gully, and the people went
back to the old fashioned way of riding
mules or burros, or going afoot. A
peculiar feature of the city is that
though it has population nearly half
as large as Wausau, still there is only
one vehicle in the place-that being the
governors carriage. A few bicycles
are employed in getting over the terri
tory. Iquala is really the most inn
portant city of the state of Guerrero,
with a population of about $4,000.
Guerrero is really an old, new and
unexplored region, although it has
about 800 miles of coast line on the
Pacific ocean, with Scapulco, noted as
one of the best deep water and safest
harbors on the Pacific coast Balsas
river or Rio del Balsas is one of the larg-
est and most important rivers in Mixico,
and flows into the Pacific ocean. 1t
varies in width from 100 to 600 feet and
has rapid current owing to its uneven
bed, with numberless rifles, and is con-
sequently navigable only for small
boats, and those are of the rudest build
imaginable. They are built like the
Dutchman's ship "Gute Frau" which
sailed as fast sideways as it did end
ways. The Balsas river derives its
name from the word balsa, signifying
raft or float A balsa is about as awk
ward and clumsy a thing as ever foated
on the water, and is intended for the
purpose of crossing or going up and
down stream, but would require an
enormous power to induce it to go up
stream very fast. The foundation of
the raft is made of large gourds, which
after the seeds and pulp have been ex-
tracted and the gourds corked tight,
are very bouyanG. The raft is then
decked over with bamboo poles, lashed
together with the bark of tree. Our
party fioated down the Balsas for two
days on one of their tub boats and hot
days they were. The Balsas valley is
considered about the hottest place in
Mexico. We were on the river on
April FOOLS day, and March and April
are considered the hot months in that
region. Had it not not been for the
fly" of tent which | happened to
have with me, and which we spread
over the boat for an awning, we would
have suffered with the heat terribly.
Alligators abound in the river but we
only saw three and the boys only got
shot at one.
"The white men of our party were
Jas. E. Long, of St. Louis, DIR. Geo.
Champion. of Philadelphia, Maj. Joh2
E. Early, of Mexico City, and myself,
while five poems, as the working class
of Mexico is called, handled our boat.
Any lover of mountain scenery can
have his fancy satisfied by taking trip
down the banks of this river. There
are very few people living along the
stream. We disembarked at place
called Tetela del Rio, and mounting
mules and horses, took the mountain
trails for the interior. After five days
tedious ride. we landed at the top of
Tiopetec mountain, where we camped.
Tiopetec is an Aztec word. meaning
Hill of the Gods. 1t is the slightest point
in the state of Guerrero, being II 500
feet above sea level In this vicinity
are several gold and silver mines.
The ores are carried out on mules
backs to Salsas station, the nearest
railroad point, over trails that would
make one unfamiliar with the country,
dizzy to look at.
From Tiotepec we explored and
made extensive surveys on surround
ing mountains. These mountains are