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The eyes of the traveler are delighted, on approaching Silao, by the view of far-reaching fields of waving grain, giving full promise of a rich harvest near at hand.
While at Silao a Mexican sand-spout, a visitant which is very liable to appear on the open plains during the dry season, struck in our immediate vicinity, followed by a fierce dust-storm, which lasted for about an hour, darkening the atmosphere to a night-hue for miles around, and covering every exposed article or person with a thick layer of fine sand.
It is a busy, ever-shifting scene presented by the Plaza Mayor of Leon, such as one may look upon only south of the Rio Grande. The paseo is a remarkably fine, tree-embowered avenue, a sort of miniature Champs Elysées, flanked by well-cultivated fields and gardens, forming the beginning of the road which leads to Silao.
The best-cultivated Mexican lands, those which remind the traveller of the most beautiful districts of France and the south of Germany, extend from Silao towards the Villa of Leon: they are in the neighbourhood of the mines of Guanaxuato, which alone furnish a sixth part of all the silver of the New World. On the evening of the 7th of February we took our departure from Caracas.
Local City Scenes. Convicts. Churches. A Mummified Monk. Punishment is Swift and Sure. Hot Springs. Bathing in Public. Caged Songsters. "Antiquities." Delicious Fruits. Market Scenes. San Luis Potosi. The Public Buildings. City of Leon. A Beautiful Plaza. Local Manufactories. Home Industries of Leon. The City of Silao. Defective Agriculture. Objection to Machinery. Fierce Sand Storm.
But here we saw all around us what there is seen only in one direction; for we were on a vastly high, square crest very like that called the Gigante, which the traveller by the Mexican Central Railroad sees to the left as he nears Silao and clouds and mountain peaks rose up about us on every side.
So men, horses, and camels, composing the caravans which cross the desert of Sahara, when struck by a sand-storm, are obliged to throw themselves flat upon the ground, and there remain until it has exhausted its fury. The condition of the soil at Silao may be easily imagined when it is remembered that rain had not fallen here for seven months.
Here we found our friend Doctor Hyde, of Silao, who was nursing Lucius Smith, in what proved to be a final illness. He aided us in finding animals and completing preparations for our journey. We secured a large bay horse for myself, a roan for Ernst, a little mule for baggage.
Here she gets a bill, and further on, another. They shower money upon her. She finishes the collection, and goes a few seats ahead. "Gentlemen, a well-dressed man stole my suitcase in the station at Silao." Her words produce an immediate and certain effect. A well-dressed man, a dude, a tenderfoot, stealing a suitcase! Amazing, phenomenal! It awakens a feeling of universal indignation.
At Irapuato, an unimportant, dingy, dilapidated little town, nineteen miles from Silao, is the junction of the trunk line and a branch road to Guadalajara, which city we shall visit on our return trip northward.
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