EDITOR SUN-MONITOR
Friend “Crit” – Since my return from Mexico I learn that my letters published in the SUN-MONITOR have been read with some interest by many and am thus encouraged to write upon a subject that, to me, appears of the greatest importance to those who are expressing to go to Chamal with the Blalock Mexico colony.  The race and distinguishing characteristics of the “peons,” as they are called, who reside on the Hacienda Chamal and whom, it is understood, were bought by our president, Geo. E. Blalock, of the Hipothuna bank in the city of Mexico, when he bought “the Chamal and all that is on it.”

The peons are a remnant of a once powerful and numerous tribe of Indians, now known as the Huestecos, and are found in large numbers in the mountains and foothills that extend south to Vera Cruz.  On page 26 of “Facts and Figures about Mexico,” which can be obtained from me on application you will find the following testimony about Xilitla, a Mexican paradise, forty-five miles northwest of Valles, a wonderful section.  Speaking of the labor of the mountain paradise, he says:  “The native population is the Huestecus (sic).  These Indians are the remnant of a once numerous tribe.  They are clean, honest and industrious.  No doors are locked in Xilite.  Coffee planters go away and leave guns and all manner of personal property in their houses, but lose nothing.  When it is said the Huestecus (sic) are industrious, the Huestecus (sic) standard of industry must be borne in mind.  Four days here make a week of labor..  The Indian does that four days work for one dollar.  If he were paid two or four dollars he would work only four days.  The dollar is paid in advance – on Sunday.  The payment insures the four days’ work before Saturday night.  If the work is not done the Indian is a defaulter in the light of the local laws.  On Sunday Xilitla has a population of 5,000 but on Monday not 200 Indians are to be found in town.  The others are on the plantations.”  This testimony argues with that of A.R. Blankenship, a Baptist who was a contractor on the railroad from Monterey to Tampico, and is now employing many of these Indians on his large stock ranch, and says that his wife and children sleep with open doors without fear even when he is away from home, and her house-servants are Indians.  Also by the Metodist (sic) presiding elder Ginns and wife, who have been in Mexico twenty years and were frequently met in the city by Geo. E. Blalock and Geo. T. Ingram.  I have been thus lengthy on this subject and I fear that it will be difficult to remove from the mind the idea these are like the Mexicans in Southern Texas and New Mexico.  They are and have been agriculturist, not hunters and warriors, except in defense of home as the French troops learned in 1863, when between three and four thousand were slain on Chamal Hacienda, as the filled well at the west end of the Coral (sic) bears silent testimony, and old men there who took part in the dreadful slaughter that resulted in the capture of the remainder of the French army and their being sent to Tampico unarmed and shipped back to France.  The love of home and family is perhaps stronger in their bosoms than is ours as they have known but one home, while many of us have had several.  The place of our birth and early childhood is cherished in our memory, and that song beginning with –

“I wander’d to the village, Tom, and sat beneath the tree
Upon the schoolhouse playground that sheltered you and me” –

often brings tears from old eyes that seldom weep.  Can we afford to disregard their feelings and claim that we are going there to improve the moral and social condition of our families more than we are to improve our financial condition?  Their title to their homes is similar to that which was recognized by Roger Williams in Rhode Island and William Penn in Pennsylvania; as superior to that granted to them by King Charles of England, as been taught to our children in their school histories and of which none are ignorant.  Some of the older ones may possibly be ignorant of the conquest of Spain and the cruelties of the Spanish soldiers; but all have heard of the old Spanish grants in Texas, New Mexico and California, and understand that they were the rewards given to soldiers and adventurers who aided in the conquests of that country and made peons of the native inhabitants.  Does not our title come through this chain?  That we have a legal title there is not a doubt in my mind.  As Grover Cleveland truly said, “ it is not a theory but a condition that confronts us,” and we have facts to deal with, and our experience in dealing with the slavery question should teach us that we be very careful lest passion, and race prejudice blind us to the rights of these people with whom we have to deal.

I have thus briefly suggested these things that others more able may consider and more fully discuss and elaborate on and that we be able to act justly with this subject.

S.C. TALLEY