The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 2, July 1898 - April, 1899 Page: 192
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192 Texas Historical Association Quarterly.
fertile, lovely & populated part of the republic, where travellers
may not Journey with safety without an escort of armed men.-
The people of Leon appear very bigoted, no cheerfulness, or socia-
bility, every house appears to be a convent. Their extreme devo-
tion caused me to remark to Don Luis, is it possible that robbers
can exist in the midst of so much piety? Ah! my friend, he re-
plied, this piety is one of the cloaks tainted with corruption, that
we have inherited from the Spaniards, this manifest superstition
is a cloak that we have to shake off before we can make any rapid
progress in improvement.
(21st Deer. 1833) To Lagos 12 Leagues. This town is situated
upon a rivulet, near which are some lakes from which it derives its
name. It is near the foot of the mountain, & here terminates the
Bajio.-The lands in the vicinity are very fertile. The church is
the highest I have seen, of arabic gothic architecture. It contains
a convent of Capuchin nuns, an order more rigid -than any other.-
Don Luis related to me a sad story of a pretty girl that took the veil
when very young.-It appears to me that man must cease to be man,
to approve of these prisons, where the most precious part of the
works of the Almighty are incarcerated.-All the Bajio has just
suffered two great calamities, civil war & the cholera morbus. In
some places one half of the population are said to have died.-The
road from Queretaro is excellent, very level & but few stones except
on a hill this side of Leon.
The fort called Sombrero so renowned in the revolutionary war,
is situated between Leon & Lagos, on a little round hill on the left
of the road.-The fort of San Gregorio may also be seen from
Leon on the left of the road, more distant than the other.
The great obstacle to the improvement of the interior of the
republic, is the want of roads to transport produce to the coast for
exportation. But it appears to me that this obstacle may in a great
measure, be removed, at least so far as regards the Bajio.-I have
already said that the country is level as far as Queretaro, and I
understand that from Queretaro it is not difficult to open a carriage
road to the last navigable point of the river Panuco, which dis-
embogues at Tampico. If this be true, it is clear that the obstacle
is not insurmountable; with capitalists & enterprising men this
obstacle would in a very little time, be removed.-And then the
Bajio, instead of receiving cotton from Texas, would export large
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Texas State Historical Association. The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 2, July 1898 - April, 1899, periodical, 1898/1899; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101011/m1/196/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.