CHAPTER VI
THE COUNTRY PEONS AND THE CITY POOR
A whole book, and a large one, could very profitably be written upon the slavery of Mexico. But important as the subject is, it is not important enough to fill a greater fraction of space in this work than I have allotted to it. Most necessary is it that I dig beneath the surface and reveal the hideous causes which have made and are perpetuating that barbarous institution.
I trust that my exposition of the previous chapters has been lucid enough to leave no question as to the complete partnership of the government in the slavery. In some quarters this slavery has been admitted, but the guilt of the government has been denied. But it is absurd to suppose that the government could be kept in ignorance of a situation in which one-third the entire population of a great state are held as chattels. Moreover, it is well known that hundreds of state and national officials are constantly engaged in rounding up, transporting, selling, guarding and hunting slaves. As I previously pointed out, every gang of enganchados leaving Mexico City or any other city for Valle Nacional or any other slave district are guarded by government rurales, or rural guards, in uniform. These rurales do not act on their own initiative; they are as completely under orders as are the soldiers of the regular army. Without the coercion of their guns and their authority the enganchados would refuse to travel a mile of the journey. A moment's thought is sufficient to convince any unprejudiced mind
109
