A Visit to Mexico, by the West India Islands, Yucatan and United States: With Observations and Adventures on the Way, Volume 1Simpkin, Marshall & Company, 1853 - Mexico |
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agreeable Alacranes amusing arrival Avon beautiful Bella Isabel boat breakers brigantine brother Buenos Ayres cabin called Campeachy Captain Hast Captain Sturdee Charles Joseph Latrobe Cofré copies course Cruz dancing deck diligencia dinner England feelings friends Gutierrez handsome Havana Herr Hyde-park Indians island of Perez Iztaccihuatl Jalapa Jamaica ladies land leave letter Lieutenant life-boat litera Liverpool look Madame Madeira Messrs Mexican Mexico miles Molesworth morning mountains mules never night officers packet Padre passage passengers Perote pleasant port present pretty Puebla Puente Nacional quarantine reef road robbers Romero round Royal Mail Steamer sail scarcely scene scenery ship ship's shipwreck shore side Spanish steamer thing Thomas's took town travellers trees valley Vera Cruz vessel village vomito negro voyage walked weather whole wreck young Yucatan Yucatecos
Popular passages
Page 329 - ... promise which was to repay them for all the toil and dangers they had encountered ! "The first impression which struck me on seeing the valley of Mexico was the perfect, almost unnatural, tranquillity of the scene. The valley, which is about sixty miles long by forty in breadth, is on all sides inclosed by mountains, the most elevated of which are on the southern side ; in the distance are the volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, and numerous peaks of different elevation. The lakes of...
Page 326 - But at length we arrived at the heights looking down upon the great valley, celebrated in all parts of the world, with its framework of everlasting mountains, its snowcrowned volcanoes, great lakes, and fertile plains, all surrounding the favoured city of Montezuma, the proudest boast of his conqueror, once of Spain's many diadems the brightest. But the day had overcast, nor is this the most favourable road for entering Mexico. The innumerable spires of the distant city were faintly seen. The volcanoes...
Page 324 - With this description we may compare another by an English officer, who seems to have been equally enraptured with the same view. " From an eminence, (says Captain Lyon,) we came suddenly in sight of the great valley of Mexico, with its beautiful city appearing in the centre, surrounded by diverging shady paseos, bright fields, and picturesque haciendas. The great lake...
Page 298 - On a bright sunny day the scenery round Jalapa is not to be surpassed : mountains bound the horizon, except on one side, where a distant view of the sea adds to the beauty of the scene. Orizaba, with its snow-capped peak, appears so close that one imagines it is within reach ; and rich and evergreen forests clothe the surrounding hills. In the foreground are beautiful gardens, with fruits of every clime — the banana and fig, the orange, cherry, and apple.
Page 324 - ... of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl ; while their snowy summits, brightly glowing beneath the direct rays of the sun, which but partially illumined the plains, gave a delightfully novel appearance to the whole scene before me. I was, however, at this distance, disappointed as to the size of Mexico ; but its lively whiteness and freedom from smoke, the magnitude of the churches, and the extreme regularity of...
Page 292 - There are some old churches, a very old convent of Franciscan monks, and a well-supplied marketplace. Everywhere there are flowers — roses creeping over the old walls, Indian girls making green garlands for the virgin and saints, flowers in the shops, flowers at the windows, but, above all, everywhere one of the most splendid mountain views in the world. The...
Page 329 - ... atmosphere. Yet one thing was wanting. Over the immense expanse there seemed scarce an evidence of life. There were no figures in the picture. It lay torpid in the sunlight, like some deserted region where Nature was again beginning to assert her empire — vast, solitary and melancholy. There were no sails — no steamers on the lakes, no smoke over the villages, rio people at labor in the fields, no horsemen, coaches, or travellers but ourselves.
Page 293 - ... plains, the thick woods of lofty trees clothing the hills and the valleys ; a glimpse of the distant ocean ; the surrounding lanes shaded by fruit trees : aloes, bananas, chirimoyas, mingled with the green liquidambar, the flowering myrtle, and hundreds of plants and shrubs and flowers of every colour and of delicious fragrance, all combine to form one of the most varied and beautiful scenes that the eye can behold. Then Jalapa itself, so old and...
Page 293 - Orizava, tower above all the others, seeming like the colossal guardians of the land. The intervening mountains, the dark cliffs and fertile plains, the thick woods of lofty trees, clothing the hills and...
Page 328 - Spleugen — the view from Rhigi — the " wide and winding Rhine " — -and the prospect from Vesuvius over the lovely bay of Naples, its indolent waves sleeping in the warm sunshine on their purple bed — but none of these scenes compare with the Valley of Mexico. They want some one of the elements of grandeur, all of which are gathered here. Although the highest triumphs of human genius and art may disappoint you, Nature never does. The conceptions of Him who laid the foundations of the mountains,...