BarbarousMexico JOHN KENNETH TURNER

IN THE VALLEY OF DEATH 93
machetes or ploughing the broad fields with oxen. And
everywhere we saw guards, armed with long, lithe canes,
with swords and pistols. Just before we crossed the
river for the last time to ride into the town of Valle
Nacional we spoke to an old man with a stump of a
wrist who was working alone near the fence.
"How did you lose your hand?" I asked.
"A cabo (foreman) cut it off with a sword," was the
reply.
Manuel Lagunas, prcsidcnte of Valle Nacional, proved
to be a very amiable fellow, and I almost liked bimuntil
I saw his slaves. His secretary, Miguel Vidal, was
even more amiable, and we four sat for two hours over
our late dinner, thoroughly enjoying ourselves—and talking
about the country. During the entire meal a little
half-negro boy of perhaps eight years stood silent behind
the door, emerging only when his master, needing to be
waited upon, called "Negro!"
"I bought him cheap," said Vidal. "He cost me only
twenty-five csos."
Because of its great beauty Valle Nacional was originally
called "Royal Valley" by the Spaniards, but after
the Independence of Mexico it was rechristened Valle
Nacional. Thirty-five years ago the land belonged to the
Chinanteco Indians, a peaceable tribe among whom it
was divided by President Juarez. \Vhen Diaz came into
power lie failed to make provision for protecting the
Chinantecos against scheming Spaniards, so in a few
years the Indians had drunk a few bottles of inescal and
the Spaniards had gobbled up every foot of their land.
The Valle Nacional Indians now secure their food from
rented patches high p on the mountain sides which are
unfit for tobacco cultivation.
Though the planters raise corn and beans, and some-