Tramping Through Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras — Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond   By: Harry Alverson Franck (1881-1962)

TRAMPING THROUGH MEXICO, GUATEMALA AND HONDURAS

Being the Random Notes of an Incurable Vagabond

By Harry A. Franck

Author Of "A Vagabond Journey Around The World," "Zone Policeman 88," etc.

Illustrated With Photographs By The Author

To The Mexican Peon With Sincerest Wishes For His Ultimate Emancipation

FOREWORD

This simple story of a journey southward grew up of itself. Planning a comprehensive exploration of South America, I concluded to reach that continent by some less monotonous route than the steamship's track; and herewith is presented the unadorned narrative of what I saw on the way, the day by day experiences in rambling over bad roads and into worse lodging places that infallibly befall all who venture afield south of the Rio Grande. The present account joins up with that of five months on the Canal Zone, already published, clearing the stage for a larger forthcoming volume on South America giving the concrete results of four unbroken years of Latin American travel.

Harry A. Franck. New York, May, 1916.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I INTO THE COOLER SOUTH

II TRAMPING THE BYWAYS

III IN A MEXICAN MINE

IV ROUND ABOUT LAKE CHAPALA

V ON THE TRAIL IN MICHOACÁN

VI TENOCHTITLAN OF TO DAY

VII TROPICAL MEXICO

VIII HURRYING THROUGH GUATEMALA

IX THE UPS AND DOWNS OF HONDURAS

X THE CITY OF THE SILVER HILLS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A street of Puebla, Mexico, and the Soledad Church.

The first glimpse of Mexico. Looking across the Rio Grande at Laredo.

A corner of Monterey from my hotel window.

A peon restaurant in the market place of San Luís Potosí.

A market woman of San Luís Potosí.

Some sold potatoes no larger than nuts.

A policeman and an arriero.

The former home, in Dolores Hidalgo, of the Mexican "Father of his Country".

Rancho del Capulín, where I ended the first day of tramping in Mexico.

View of the city of Guanajuato.

Fellow roadsters in Mexico.

Some of the pigeon holes of Guanajuato's cemetery.

A pulque street stand and one of its clients.

Prisoners washing in the patio of the former "Alóndiga".

Drilling with compressed air drills in a mine "heading".

As each car passed I snatched a sample of its ore.

Working a "heading" by hand.

Peon miners being searched for stolen ore as they leave the mine.

Bricks of gold and silver ready for shipment. Each is worth something like $1250.

In a natural amphitheater of Guanajuato the American miners of the region gather on Sundays for a game of baseball.

Some of the peons under my charge about to leave the mine.

The easiest way to carry a knapsack on a peon's back.

The ore thieves of Peregrina being led away to prison.

One of Mexico's countless "armies".

Vendors of strawberries at the station of Irapuato.

The wall of Guadalajara penitentiary against which prisoners are shot.

The liver shaking stagecoach from Atequisa to Chapala.

Lake Chapala from the estate of Ribero Castellanos.

The head farmer of the estate under an aged fig tree.

A Mexican village.

Making glazed floor tiles on a Mexican estate.

Vast seas of Indian corn stretch to pine clad hills, while around them are guard shacks at frequent intervals.

Interior of a Mexican hut at cooking time.

Fall plowing near Patzcuaro.

Modern transportation along the ancient highway from Tzintzuntzan, the former Tarascan capital.

In the church of ancient Tzintzuntzan is a "Descent from the Cross" ascribed to Titian.

Indians waiting outside the door of the priest's house in Tzintzuntzan.

A corner of Morelia, capital of Michoacán, and its ancient aqueduct.

The spot and hour in which Maximilian was shot, with the chapel since erected by Austria.