the coatzacoalcos river.—isthmus of tehuantepec.—tehuantepec railway and ship-canal.—the eads ship-railway.—an idea of cortez.—plans of captain eads.—a railway-carriage with 1200 wheels.—ships carried in tanks.—engineering and other features of the ship-railway.—mahogany trade.—fifteen thousand dollars for three logs.—frontera and tabasco.—ruins of palenque.—lorillard city.—explorations by stephens and charnay.—palace of palenque.—temple of the cross.—temple of lorillard.—remarkable idol.—a region abounding in ruins.—remains of mitla.—pillar of death.

the steamer on which our friends were embarked was a small one engaged in the coasting trade. she drew less than twelve feet of water, and was therefore able to enter the shallow harbors of some of the mexican and central american ports where large vessels cannot go. on the morning after leaving vera cruz she was off the mouth of the coatzacoalcos river, and a little after sunrise she crossed the bar and steamed slowly against the current of that tropical stream.

on the river's bank.

dense forests, broken here and there by clearings, covered the banks of the river, and reminded our young friends of the menam river, in siam, or the me-kong, in cambodia. thirty miles from the mouth of the river brought them to minatitlan, a tumble-down village or town with a few hundred inhabitants, who are chiefly engaged in doing nothing, if one is to judge by appearances. the business of minatitlan is not large, and is chiefly connected with trade in mahogany and other tropical woods.

the river and the town have an international importance, as they are

[pg 424]

on the isthmus of tehuantepec, which has long been under consideration as the route for a canal to connect the atlantic with the pacific. the width of the isthmus from ocean to ocean is 143 miles, but by making use of the rivers on either side the length of a canal would be little, if any, more than 100 miles. the route has been surveyed at different times, notably in 1870, by captain shufeldt of the united states navy, who declared that there was no insurmountable obstacle to the construction of a ship-canal.

recently the mexican government has given to an english company a concession for a railway across the isthmus of tehuantepec. one of the surveyors of this company was a passenger on the steamer with our friends, who fell into conversation with him during dinner, and learned many things of interest. the engineer told them that work was to begin immediately on the railway, and they hoped to have it completed by the end of 1889.

doctor bronson recalled the fact that in 1842 a concession was granted

[pg 425]

to don josé de garay for the tehuantepec railway, but nothing was accomplished, for the simple reason that the money for the work could not be obtained. as soon as the garay concession fell through, the united states government offered $15,000,000 for the right of way across the isthmus of tehuantepec, but the offer was declined. during the california gold excitement a tehuantepec transit line was established. steamers ran between the isthmus and san francisco on the pacific side, and to new york and new orleans on the atlantic. passengers were carried across the neck of land in stage-coaches. the enterprise proved unprofitable, and was abandoned after a few years.

a steamship on a platform car.

what interested frank and fred more than anything else at this point was the suggestion that huge ships might yet be transported across the isthmus, not by canal but on a railway. their new-found friend told them about the project of capt. james b. eads, an enterprising american engineer, and referred them for further information to an article in harper's magazine for november, 1881. with their usual good-fortune they found a copy of the magazine in the hands of the purser of the steamer. aided by it and the points given them by the engineer, together with some from doctor bronson, they wrote the following while the steamer was continuing her voyage from minatitlan.

"any one who thinks the idea of a ship-railway here is a new one is grievously mistaken. it originated with no less a personage than the conqueror cortez, who visited the isthmus, examined the river coatzacoalcos,

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made soundings, and walked across from ocean to ocean, with a view to establishing a portage by which ships could be carried overland for the commerce between spain and the far east of asia.

plane and elevation of terminus.

"cortez reported favorably upon the enterprise, and suggested a broad road carefully graded by which ships could be transported on rollers or wheels from one ocean to the other. it must be remembered that the ships of his day were much smaller than those of the present time, and their transportation a hundred miles overland would not have been a very difficult matter.

tank carriage.

"somehow the spanish government did not favor the proposal sufficiently to authorize the expenditure of the necessary cash. the matter slumbered until 1814, nearly 300 years, when the government consented to the undertaking, but the revolution then going on prevented anything like actual work on the road. the garay railway concession in 1842 was the next project. three canal concessions have since been made to mexicans and one to americans; then came the concession to captain eads for a ship-railway, and last of all is the concession already mentioned for an ordinary railway to be built by an english company.

"we will remark here that if concessions would build railways mexico would have been gridironed with them long before this. it is probable that two or three hundred concessions have been granted in the last ten years, and nine-tenths of them are not likely to go beyond the 'permission to build' which the concession grants.

"the idea of captain eads was that wherever a canal can be built

[pg 427]

to float a ship a railway may be built to carry one. his theory was laughed at by a great many people, but has been accepted by eminent engineers all over the world who have carefully studied his plans. like every novel scheme, it has met with much opposition, and many objections have been made to it; but they are chiefly by men whose minds are not scientific. it should be borne in mind that the steam-railway, the steam-boat, the ocean steamship, the telegraph, in fact every great enterprise of modern times, has encountered similar opposition, and in some instances has had no support even from scientific minds. doctor bronson says there is fair reason to believe that the ship-railway of captain eads will be in operation before the end of the century, and vessels of five or six thousand tons will safely pass over dry land from one ocean to the other.

section of part of cradle carriage.

scale 1 inch to the foot.

"captain eads proposed to build a line of twelve rails, with a grade of not more than fifty feet to the mile at each end. the line descends into the water, to enable ships to be placed in the cradles in which they are to rest during the transit. the grade of one foot in a hundred, or fifty-two and eight-tenths feet to the mile, would carry the line to a depth of thirty feet in a length of 3000 feet. here the ship, in a landlocked basin, will be floated to a cradle and made fast. the cradle and ship together will be hauled out by means of stationary engines on land, just as ships are hauled upon marine-railways or dry-docks.

"the cradle is an enormous platform car 300 feet long, or it may be a tank of the same length in which a ship can float. in either case it will

[pg 428]

be the width of twelve rails spaced to standard gauge (4 feet 8½ inches), and will have 100 wheels on each rail, or 1200 wheels in all. this will give a pressure of five tons to each wheel, supposing the cradle to be carrying a ship of 4000 tons, which is no more than the burden of the wheel of an ordinary freight car with its load. thus is answered the objection which has been made, and very naturally, about the enormous pressure upon the cars and road-bed. taking the area into consideration, the pressure is no greater than that upon an ordinary railway when a loaded train goes over it.

"the cradle will be drawn along the railway by four locomotives, each of them as powerful as five ordinary freight locomotives of the pennsylvania or other great railway company. of course there can be no curves on the railway, as the cradle can be no more flexible than the ship. all bends on the line will be made at turn-tables; but the nature of the country is such that only two of these, or possibly three, will be needed."

the youths paused at this point to look at the drawings which showed the design for supporting the cradle on its carriage. fred observed that the axle of each wheel was independent, and that there was a pair of springs above each and every wheel. he asked doctor bronson why it was so many springs were needed, as it was evident that with twelve hundred wheels there would be twenty-four hundred springs.

"i suppose," was the reply, "that it is to facilitate the change of the carriage from a level to a grade, or vice versâ. in going from an up grade to a level there would be a greater pressure at the ends than in the centre, and the same would be the case in going from a level to a down grade. the springs are intended to regulate this; the railway is intended to form an upward incline from each end towards the centre, where there will be a level of several miles."

frank asked how fast the train, if train it could be called, was expected to run in making the transit of the isthmus with a ship.

"from eight to ten miles an hour," replied the doctor. "captain eads proposed not to keep a vessel more than twelve hours out of the water, and he thought it quite likely the time might be reduced to ten hours."

then the youths looked at the map and studied out the course of the proposed ship-railway. frank slowly dictated while fred jotted down the names of the places mentioned.

"the bar at the mouth of the river must be dredged out so as to admit ships, which will then find plenty of water up to a point called ceiba bonita, on the uspanapan river, which runs into the coatzacoalcos just below

[pg 429]

[pg 430]

minatitlan. there the ship-railway will begin, and it runs in a straight line to the mountains, where there is a depression only 650 feet high. in fact there are two of these depressions, and either of them may be taken. these are the passes of chivela and tarifa. by the former the railway may run to the town of tehuantepec, and there make a bend by turn-table, and continue to the pacific ocean; and by the latter pass it may go to salinas cruz, which lies on a lagoon, where a harbor must be dredged out."

[pg 431]

"and how much will be the cost of this great work?" one of the youths asked.

"i believe the estimate is seventy-five millions of dollars," was the reply, "including the construction of the railway and its equipment with cradles, tanks, locomotives, and everything else needed for operating the line.

"the saving of distance," continued doctor bronson, "for a ship going by the isthmus of tehuantepec instead of cape horn from new york to hong-kong is 8245 miles, and from new orleans to hong-kong 9900 miles. the route from england to the ports of eastern asia and australia is also considerably shortened, and there can be little doubt that the completion and successful operation of the ship-railway would be of great advantage to the commerce of the world."

mahogany hunters.

while at minatitlan the youths saw a vessel loading with mahogany logs for a port in europe, and they naturally made inquiries about the wood and where it was procured. they learned that it grew on marshy ground in the valleys of rivers in southern mexico, honduras, and central america generally, and also in the west india islands, tropical south america, and tropical asia and africa.

"it is," said their informant, "the most valuable of all the tropical trees, as you will see when i tell you the prices at which it is sold. logs fifteen feet long and thirty-eight inches square have been sold for two or three thousand dollars each, and in one instance three logs from one tree brought $15,000."

[pg 432]

frank asked if that was the regular price for the timber or only an exceptional one.

"in these cases it was exceptional," was the reply, "the value depending upon the peculiar 'curl,' or grain of the wood. but the work of getting out the logs is so great that unless high prices were paid for all mahogany the business would be abandoned. the mahogany-cutters search through the forest for trees, and then they build roads, often for many miles, to haul the logs to the banks of the rivers. the logs are usually from ten to sixteen feet long and two to three feet square; the length of the logs will depend upon that of the tree and the number of cuttings that can be made to the best advantage. the largest log i ever heard of was cut in honduras; it was seventeen feet long, fifty-seven inches broad, and sixty-four inches deep; it weighed more than fifteen tons, and was cut into 5421 feet of inch plank. reduced to veneering one-sixteenth of an inch thick, it would have covered very nearly two acres."

fred observed that the logs were square instead of round, and asked why it was.

"there are two reasons for it," was the reply. "the first object is to reduce the weight as much as possible without injury to the wood, and hence the workman 'square' the logs roughly as soon as they have been divided into lengths. in the second place, the squaring makes them less liable to roll while upon the rough carts by which they are brought through the forests to the rivers, where they are floated down to the places of shipment. the cutting and hauling are done in the dry season, and the work is timed so that it will be completed when the rainy season sets in. then the rivers swell and the logs are floated; the system is in many respects analogous to lumbering operations in maine, minnesota, and other northern states of america."

after leaving the coatzacoalcos river, the steamer headed for frontera, at the mouth of the river tabasco, but she did not remain long enough for our friends to go on shore, much to the disappointment of frank and fred. they were consoled by a fellow-passenger, who told them that the place was hot and unhealthy, and they would run the risk of taking the fever by passing no more than a few hours on land. another consideration was that the anchorage was six miles from town, and the fare to the shore was four dollars each way—at least that was what the boatmen demanded.

travelling in tabasco.

the tabasco is a river of considerable size, and navigable for quite a distance inland by small steamers. the capital of the state of tabasco is san juan bautista, about fifty miles from the mouth of the river. by

[pg 433]

continuing up the stream the traveller can reach a point whence an overland journey will bring him to the ruins of palenque, one of the archæological wonders of the western continent.

"we didn't care much for the modern part of tabasco," said fred, "as it would not have been much unlike what we have already seen, but we did want ever and ever so much to go to palenque. we have read the descriptions of the ruins by stephens, who visited them in 1839-40, and by charnay, who went there in 1882. both gentlemen agree that they are wonderful to look at, even from the point of view of an ordinary traveller.

plan of part of the palace at palenque.

"they tell us of a ruined palace 238 feet long by 180 deep, and standing on a mound or platform of earth and stone forty feet high and measuring about 100 feet each way more than the palace does. the palace was built of stone laid in a mortar of lime and sand, and seems to have been covered with stucco in various colors. there is a great quantity of bass-reliefs and hieroglyphics; many of these have been injured by time and the indians, but on the other hand a great number are still

[pg 434]

perfect. nobody can yet tell the exact extent of the city as it was in the time of its glory. a dense forest has grown over the spot, and it would take an army of men to remove the huge trees and clear away the ground.

medallion bass-relief.

"you may ask how old the city is and when it was abandoned. that, as well as the city's extent, is a conundrum. some writers think it was inhabited as late as the time of the conquest. this is the theory of m. charnay; and a traveller who preceded him in 1774 says he discovered 'eighteen palaces, twenty great buildings, and 167 houses in a single week,' which is more than can be found by one person in the same time nowadays. according to the account of the expedition of cortez to honduras, he must have passed quite close to the site of palenque, but his faithful chronicler, bernal diaz, makes no mention of the city, nor is it referred to in the conqueror's reports to the king.

"m. charnay made explorations through this region, and to the south-east of palenque he visited the ruins of another city; this he named in honor of mr. pierre lorillard, of new york, who had defrayed the expenses of the expedition. he had hoped to be the first explorer of these ruins; but on reaching the spot he found himself preceded by an enterprising englishman, mr. alfred maudsley, of london. the latter generously proposed that the frenchman should name the town, call himself the discoverer, in fact do anything he pleased, since he (maudsley) was only an amateur travelling for pleasure, and not for scientific purposes. charnay

[pg 435]

accepted the offer in so far as the naming of the place was concerned, but he could hardly call himself the discoverer, as it had been previously visited by residents of tenosiqué, the nearest modern town of any consequence, and one of them had described it in writing and by drawings.

idol in temple at lorillard city.

"one of the interesting objects found at lorillard was an idol that has a remarkable resemblance to the idols in the buddhist temples of asiatic countries. it was in a temple that was greatly ruined. there are fifteen or twenty temples and other buildings at lorillard, and it is quite possible that others may be found by a careful examination of the forest. m. charnay pronounced the idol one of the finest ever discovered in tropical america. it represented a figure sitting in the attitude of buddha, with the hands resting on the knees; the head was surmounted by an enormous head-dress intended to represent a cluster of feathers surrounding and rising above a medallion and diadem. the garments worn by the bust are a sort of cape covered with pearls and having a medallion in front and on each side. there are heavy bracelets on the arms, and there is a girdle around the waist with a medallion similar to that which decorates the cape.

"the sacred character of the statue or idol is indicated by the circumstance that all around it, and in fact all through the temple, were many bowls of coarse clay, which were used for burning incense. some of the

[pg 436]

bowls contained copal, which was the substance used for incense, and the walls of the temples were black with the smoke from the offerings.

the cross of palenque.

"a singular feature about these temples, and also those at palenque, is the presence of the cross among the bass-reliefs and hieroglyphics. this circumstance has given rise to the supposition that the temples were built long after the conquest, and that the natives had been converted to christianity; but the most careful students of the subject say that the cross was a symbol of the toltecs long before columbus or cortez was born. the famous sculpture at palenque was in the temple of the same name, and represents a roman cross on the top of which a bird is perched; a man at

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one side presents an offering to the bird, and the spaces beneath the arms of the cross are covered with hieroglyphics that have not been deciphered.

"the whole sculpture on which this cross appears was upon three stones placed side by side in the wall of the temple. one of them is still there, the second is in the smithsonian institution at washington, and the third, which is the central one with the cross upon it, has been taken to las playas, in the state of tabasco.

"the whole country is said to abound with ruins that have never been seen by white men, and some of which are not even known to the indians of to-day. it is certain that this region once contained a dense and highly civilized population, and the ruins that have been explored show that they had a good knowledge of the principles of architecture and sculpture. exactly who they were has not been revealed, but explorers and scientists are slowly penetrating the secret, and in course of time the history of these primitive people will be given to the world.

grand hall at mitla.

"the cities at palenque and lorillard were of toltec origin; the toltecs were in mexico previous to the aztecs, as we have already mentioned, and it is fair to presume that these cities now in crumbling ruins were older than the tenochtitlan which cortez captured from the aztecs. in the state of oajaca are the ruins of mitla, an aztec city, and they are extensive enough to show that a powerful people once lived there.

"the ruins at mitla are in two groups, each consisting of four buildings

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fronting on a square like the plaza of modern times. there is a hall with six columns of stone in the centre, each column being about twelve feet high, and tapering towards the top like a slender sugar-loaf. it is supposed to have formed a central support for the roof that rested at its edges upon the walls, which are parallel to each other. the walls are built of rough stones laid with cement, and they seem to have been covered originally with stucco.

exterior of temple at mitla.

"on the outside the buildings at mitla were built up with blocks of hewn stone, and covered with a mosaic laid in stucco, and composed of stone of different colors. the doors and windows are square, and have lintels of hewn stone, and altogether the buildings had quite a resemblance to those of the ancient egyptians.

"there is a tradition at mitla that vast amounts of treasure are concealed in the temples and surrounding grounds, and the earth has been repeatedly dug over in the search for these things. under one of the temples is a chamber, in which there is an upright column of stone, called the 'pillar of death.' the natives believe that any indian who clasps his arms around this pillar will die in a short time, but white men are not in any such danger."