given by Jaillandier was eighty leagues from Vera Cruz.[1]
The descent from the capital to the Pacific coast was more gradual than that to Vera Cruz, but at certain seasons presented difficulties which caused more delay and danger. Jaillandier represents the descent from the heights as perilous; and the accounts of both Navarrete and Humboldt prove that for more than a century and a half but little improved facilities for travelling had been effected on this highway. The former thus describes the route: "This road is indeed bad and troublesome; there are mountains that reach up to the clouds, and as uncouth as may be; mighty rivers, and the summer then beginning, high swoln. Bridges there are none, but abundance of musqueto's, or gnats, that sting cruelly.[2] Passing through Cuernavaca and crossing the Rio de las Balsas in the primitive method employed before the conquest,[3] the party arrived at Chilpancingo, at that time a town of four hundred families. Thence they travelled over a mountain range, continually ascending and descending, and reached Acapulco after ten days of fatiguing journey.
Since these travellers crossed Mexico from ocean to
- ↑ In Humboldt's time the road led from the capital to Perote 2,500 feet above sea-level; the descent thence to the ravine of Plan del Rio was very rapid. The latter roads leading to the coast were generally very difficult, and Humboldt called the attention of the government to the necessity of improvement. He includes among these routes 'que j'appelle transversales' those leading from Zacatecas to Nuevo Santander; from Guadalajara to San Bias; from Valladolid to Port Colima, and from Durango to Mazatlan. Essai Polit., ii. 683-4.
- ↑ Churchill's Col. Voy., i. 209.
- ↑ Navarrete crossed this river in a similar manner 60 years before Jaillandier: 'people pass over it on canes, which are supported by only four calabashes they are fastened to; at first it is frightful to see so ridiculous and weak an invention; an Indian lays hold of one end of it, and the passenger being upon it with his mules and furniture, he swims, and draws it over after him.' Ibid. This river is the same as the Mescala, so called by Humboldt, who crossed it in the same manner. He describes it as being nearly as dangerous as the Papagayo, which frequently increased from a width of 65 feet to that of 300, cargo-trains being compelled to wait seven or eight days before being able to cross. An attempt had been made to erect a bridge across it, but the massive piers were washed away before its completion. In 1803 the government appropriated 100,000 pesos to construct a second. Humboldt, Essai Polit., ii. 684-5.
