majority left the communities they abandoned poorer by their absence. They were a forceful and adventurous contribution. They did not expect and they did not find the routine sort of life that they left in the better settled north. They did not go to Mexico without hope of great gains, larger gains, at least, than had been possible in the countries from which they came. For this they are not to be blamed—who risks fortune, health, and life in a rough and ill-ordered frontier community unless there be some lodestone of opportunity to draw him from the surroundings among which he was born? They were promised protection, rights such as were guaranteed them at home, in a new land where opportunities were alluring. They accepted the new life, willing to endure its privations, as a return for its opportunities. That they received the sort of protection they were promised and expected can not be maintained. Buffeted by the natural disadvantages of the frontier, their enterprises limited by the ignorance of the laborers upon whom they had to rely, and too often harassed by the local governments whose promises had been their illusion, their lot was not an enviable one. That they made a success of their ventures is evidence of their individual capacity. As the Diaz régime progressed they were given better protection of their rights. They could look forward to a day when life and property could be enjoyed under conditions of safety approaching those of the land they had left. They conferred a great and too often unappreciated boon upon the republic which was their host. The pioneers, by their success, won in spite of repeated disappointments and misfortune, drew
