In Guatemala, Part II [pp. 265-277]

Overland Monthly
of cultivation are of the rudest. The only
means adopted for fertilizing are movable
sheep-pens, which give the ground in many
places the appearance of a huge chess board. Even in the hills the thrift of the
Indian holders of small patches produces
a fair harvest from the most unpromising
soil.
They are a curious race, these Indians.
Their origin is purely speculative and is
surrounded by myth and fable. Some
state that they are the descendants of
Chinese who were driven south in their
junks; and it is a curious fact that the
Chinese make themselves understood,
and in turn understand the natives almost
from the first.
There are few monuments and ruins
from which any archaeological deductions
can be made, and these are situated on or
near the Atlantic Coast. The Indian
population comprised in 1893 (and the
figures have remained practically the
same) nearly a million of the entire population of about 1,300,000 of the republic,
the balance being made up of ladinos (the
mixed race) and foreigners. The number
of creoles, or direct descendants from the
pure Spanish stock, is infinitesimal, and
was greatly reduced by the polivcy of President Rufino Barrios, who was very inimical
to this class. The Indians, who form the
bone and sinew of the country and who are
practically the only agricultural laborers,
are an inferior and servile race. Divided
into numerous tribes and comprising over
thirty idioms (Quiche, Cakehiquel, Pokoman, Pipil, Choste, Alaguilac, Nahault,
Man, Zutohil, Xuixa, Huhulea, Pakomehi,
etc.), they have no tribal organization, no
chief or headman. While native writers
paint in glowing colors the ancient splendors of the race, research does not bear out
the assertions.
Alvarado with three hundred infantry,
one hundred and twenty cavalry, and three
hundred Mexican allies, leaving the City
of Mexico on December 6, 1523, in a few
months practically conquered the entire
country. The few subsequent abortive uprisings were easily quelled and the native
population relapsed into a condition of
drudgery and degradation hardly paralleled in the historv of even Spanish colonization.
Quoting and translating from a recent
writer, "One meets poor, remnants of
modest constructions, in no way to be com pared with the ruins of the Incas or the
Aztecs, or even with those their progenitors, the Toltecs, erected in Mexico prior
to their expulsion by the Aztecs."
Many tribes hold rich lands in common,
and there are many individual Indians
who have acquired considerable property
and money. Except for living in a larger
hut, some additional changes of raiment
for the women, and a few inconsiderable
differences, they are noticeable in no way
from the common herd. Occasionally an
Indian rises to wealth and importance;
but in sueh eases he separates himself entirely from the iraee and unites himself or
his family to the mixed race, of which he
thereafter becomes a part.
The besetting sin of the Indian is
drunkenness. In this condition he is
prone to every excess, though otherwise, as
a rule, hlie is quiet and inoffensive. It is
rare to see a woman of fifteen unmarried,
and the reproductiveness of the race is
enorlnous.
As to the ladinto (a term used to soften
the ever-opprobrious name inestizo), he
was originally the result of clandestine intercourse between the original Spaniard
and the aborigine, and is. of very low
caste. Among them there is no aristocracy, no pride of birth. Comparative
affluence raises tl-hem above their fellows,
iand thence again by increased wealth to
the so-called higher circles. They are the
governing class, and the less said of their
social characteristics the better.
Having, unduly digressed, I now resume the relation of my overland journey.
Passing through the valley adjacent to
Quezaltenango, a sharp rise carried us a
thousand feet up. Hence we skirted the
mountains, obtaining views of valleys and
mountains, dotted with towns, of which
the most prominent object was alwayvs
church, invariably white, and reflecting
the sun's rays from its Moorish dome.
The native population is, if not exactly
religious, intensely bigoted, superstitious,
and outwardly observant of the requirements of the predominant faith. Indian
priests in very unclerical garb conduct the
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