Their skins are dark, though not black; their eyes are wild and sparkling; their looks grave and solemn; their hair coarse, long, and crow-black; and, as they walk, their toes turn inward.

Their downcast looks, their attitudes and demeanour, impress you with the conviction that they are those who carry the water and hew the wood of the country.

It is so.

They are the "Indios mansos" (the civilised Indians): slaves, in fact, though freemen by the letter of the law.

They are the "peons", the labourers, the serfs of the land--the descendants of the conquered sons of Anahuac.
Such are the people you find in the _tierra caliente_ of Mexico--in the environs of Vera Cruz.