for freedom, break and run like escaping convicts. And they are hunted down like convicts.
But the thing that struck me most forcibly during my visit was that the little captain, in the hearing of half a company of men, told us that the soldiers were of the lowest class of Mexicans, were good for nothing, a bad lot, etc., apologizing thus in order to make us understand that in time of war the quality of the army would be much improved. The soldiers heard and failed to look pleasant and I decided right there that the loyalty of the Mexican army stands upon a very flimsy basis—merely fear of death—and that in case of any future rebellion against the dictatorship the army can be counted upon to revolt in a body as soon as the rebellion develops any appreciable strength—that is, enough strength to afford the deserters a fair chance for their lives.
The territory of Quintana Roo has been characterized as one of the "Siberias of Mexico," from the fact that to it, as convict-soldiers, are consigned thousands of political suspects and labor agitators. Sent there ostensibly to fight the Maya Indians, they are treated so harshly that probably not one per cent of them ever see their homes again. I did not succeed in penetrating personally to Quintana Roo, but I have heard accounts of it from so many authentic sources that I have no doubt whatever that my estimate of it is correct. One of these sources of information I shall quote at some, length, a distinguished government physician who for three years was Chief of Sanitary Service with the army in the territory.
"For thirty years," said this man, "there has been an army of from 2,000 to 3,000 men constantly in the field against the Maya Indians. These soldiers are made up almost entirely of political suspects and even many of
