M» OT3&18KIL

No.

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Gift of the
TORRINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

A TRIP TO MEXICO

1849-50.

ARLISS AND TUCKER, PRINTKRS,
PRfTH STREET, SOHO SQUARR.

A TRIP TO MEXICO

RECOLLECTIONS

A TEN-MONTHS' RAMBLE

1849-50.

BY A BARRISTER.

LONDON :
SMITH, ELDEE, AND CO. COKNHILL.
1851.

TO
HIS DEAR MOTHER,
Eljig little Booft
IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
BY HER SON,
THE AUTHOE.
London, Feb. 1851.

PREFACE.
Every one nowadays who only travels from
John-o'-Groats-House to the Lands-End, thinks
it necessary to write a book : and why should
not I who have been all the way to Mexico and
back ? However, I should be sorry to let mine
make its appearance in the world, without a
word of caution as to its contents, and without
some hint as to the reasons why it was under
taken. When I commenced this journey, and even
during its progress, I had not the slightest in
tention of appearing in print, and consequently
I took no notes at all. On my return home,
some members of my own Family, and several

V1U PREFACE.
friends, wishing to have a more detailed account
of my performances than I could give them viva
voce, persuaded me to undertake the task of
book-making. How I have succeeded in this —
to me — very new line, I will leave the public
to decide ; but I would have the aforesaid public
to remember, that the whole of my production,
as I have stated in my title-page, is derived from
recollection, and that, as such, I fear it may be
found to contain mistakes, though I have striven
to keep as clear of them as I could.
In a few instances, when uncertain as to the
spelling of Indian names, the height of moun
tains, or such-like, I have referred to other
works on Mexico; but, except in such cases,
I have not borrowed a single idea or expression
from any one ; and the merits or demerits of
this book are entirely attributable to myself.

PREFACE. IX
From the want of materials, I do not profess
to give a detailed account of any one place I
passed through ; nor to enter, in any way, into
statistics : my intention having been merely to
give a plain, brief, and straightforward account
of what I myself saw, did, and heard, in the
various places that I visited.
If this little book has the luck to find its way
into the hands of the general public, there will,
I fear, be some who may rind my description of
Tepic and my own doings there somewhat
tedious ; but to such I would say : ' Tepic and
my pursuits while in it, are especially interesting
to the friends for whom this book was, in the
first instance, undertaken ; and I could not omit
this part of it without depriving them of all
account of my own proceedings during the
greater part of my residence in Mexico.'

In conclusion, I do hope that, whatever be
the reception of this slight production by the
public, it may, at least, prove interesting to
those who have already traversed the same
ground as myself, and may prove useful to
any who are inclined to follow in my footsteps
hereafter.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. I.— The Voyage Out. page
Farewell Luncheon — Starting — Ship's Fare — A Companion —
Passengers — The Azores — Amusements on Board — Monte —
Bermuda — Two Days' Sight-Seeing — Nassau — Bahama Keys
— Havannah — Quarantine — The Town — Volantes — New Pas
sengers — An Alarm — Mobile Bay and Town — Orizaba — Vera
Cruz — Land . . . . . . .1
CHAP. IL— Vera Cruz to Mexico.
Vera Cruz — Landing — Hospitality — Zopilotes — Mexican Houses
— The Litera — Occupation — Mode of Living — Housetops — De
parture — The Diligence — Escort — Scenery — Plan Del Eio —
Xalapa — Domestic Animals in Mexico — Pulque — Perote —
Puebla — A Robbery — Popocatepetl — Valley of Mexico —
Mexico ..... .35
CHAP. III.— The City of Mexico.
Site — Houses and Streets — Public Buildings — Cathedral — Palace
— Museum — Costumes — Mineria — Convents — The Host —
Amusements — Theatre — Paseo — Club — Chapultepec — Tacu-
baya — Mexicans at Home — Lower Classes — Robbers — Rob
beries — Assassination — Santa Guadalupe — San Agustin . 63
CHAP. IV. — Mexico to Guanaxuato.
Departure — Tula — Arroyo Sarco — Queretaro — Singular Attack
of Eobbers — Cotton Factory — Guanaxuato — Sleeping Quarters —
Hospitality — Mexican Saints' Days — Guanaxuato a Mining Town
— Produce of the Mines — Visit to the Mines — La Luz — Santa
Lucia — Auctions — Rayas Mine — Descent into it — The Work
men — Hacienda de Beneflcio — Preparation of the Ore — Amal
gamation — Reduction . . . . .85
CHAP. V. — Guanaxuato to Tepic
Leon — Lagos — Great Fair of San Juan — Volcon de Colima — Rio
Grande — Guadalaxara — Departure — Escort — Soldiers' Disci
pline — Defunct Robbers ill dressed — Lack of Travelling Con
veniences — Mozos — Barrancas — Climates of Mexico — A French
Family — Last Day's Journey — Mexican Horses — Tepic . . 107

XU CONTENTS.

CHAP. VI.— Tepic. page
Town of Tepic — Site — Houses — Building Materials — Climate and
Weather — Health of the People — Natives — Markets — Fruits —
Water — Washing — Pigs — Cocks — Zopilotes . . . 127
CHAP. VII.— Tepic
Cotton Factory — Hands — Machinery — Prodnce — American Work
men — The Garden — Its Various Produce — Tortoises — Food of
the Natives — Shops — Society — Annual Fair — Education — Reli
gion — Law and Justice ..... 143
CHAP. VIII.— Tepic.
Occupation and Amusements — Theatre — Carnival — Bull-Fights —
Colearing — Horse-Racing — Wild Indians — Manufactures of the
District — Cotton Factory — Sugar Hacienda — Agriculture —
Cattle . . . . . . .160
CHAP. IX.— Tepic
Killing Time — The Laguna — Duck-Shooting — Ducks — Other
Aquatic Birds — Land Birds — Quadrupeds — Insects — Castillon
San Juan Mountain — Gold-Hunting . . . 176
CHAP. X.— San Blas.
Routes from Tepic — Journey — Scenery — Tierra Caliente — Esteros
— San Bias — Bay — Climate — Californian Steamers — Yankees —
Tree Oysters — Fishing — Trade — Onions — Californian Fever — A
Ball — Another Journey — Daybreak in the Forest — Salt-Works
— An Alligator — Farewell to Mexico . . . .196
CHAP. XI. — San Blas to Chagres.
Californian Steamers — Passengers — A Dinner Party — Acapulco —
Crowding and Heat — Panama — Ruins and Revival — Natives —
Across the Isthmus — Bad Mules — Bad Roads — Bad Houses —
but Fine Scenery — Cruces — Down the River Chagres . . 218
CHAP. XII.— Voyage Home.
Chagres — American Steamers — Carthagena — Home Purchases —
Jamaica — Kingston- — Spanish Town — San Domingo — Porto
Rico — St. Thomas — Passengers — Bull — Jumping Overboard —
Fayal — Southampton — Home ..... 240

A THIP TO MEXICO.

CHAP. I.
THE VOYAGE OUT.
FAREWELL-LUNCHEON  STARTING  SHIP'S FARE  A COMPANION 
PASSENGERS  THE AZORES  AMUSEMENTS ON BOARD  MONTE
 BERMUDA  TWO DAYS' SIGHT-SEEING  NASSAU  BAHAMA
KEYS  HAVANN AH  (QUARANTINE  THE TOWN  VOLANTES 
NEW PASSENGERS  AN ALARM — MOBILE BAY AND TOWN 
ORIZABA  VERA CRUZ  LAND.
Towards the close of Autumn, 1849, there
sailed from the good town of Southampton one of
the West India mail-packets, bound for Vera Cruz,
having on board some fifty other passengers
besides myself. We had, of course, all the usual
leave-takings, and, in addition, a splendid luncheon
-which, it appears, is the custom on the departure
of every one of these ships. No doubt the friends
of most of the passengers left them with easier
minds, owing to this precautionary measure, and
thought, judging from present appearances — as did
my own "Fidus Achates" — that, however sick
1

2 STARTING.
and weary of the sea we might he, we should, at
all events, be consoled by the luxurious dinner which
every day awaited us. But, alas, " all is not gold
that glitters;" and we found, in the long run, that
the provision made for creature-comforts on board
our otherwise-well-appointed ship, was far from
being in accordance with the luncheon.
Having received the mails with their attendant
officer, we cast off the warp, and soon found
ourselves fairly outside " The Wight : " the big
ship beginning, in the gentlest possible manner, to
intimate to the landsmen they had better turn-in for
the night. The next morning we were out of sight
of land, with a strong head-wind and heavy sea
running; our breakfast table, of course, was very
scantily attended.
Once for all, let me say a word in favour of our
good ship and pleasant officers. The ship herself
was very large and commodious, with a most worthy
captain, very kind and attentive to passengers, as
were all the officers, without exception. Everything
was, indeed, managed in the most cleanly and
orderly manner, and the only blot in her whole
arrangement was the one alluded to above, — that

A COMPANION. 3
of bad living. Whose the fault was, in this parti
cular, I know not ; but I do think that passengers,
who had paid such high fares as most of us had,
were entitled to better food than, as a general rule,
we got in our steamer.
Our ship was naturally slow, and, being deep at
the commencement of the voyage with coals and
cargo, and the weather bad, made only some three
or four knots an hour for the first two days. The
Company, as far as I have learned, have never bften
famous for fast ships; it is time, however, they
began to think about it, or, before long, our friends
on the other side of the Atlantic will not leave them
a leg to stand on.
Whilst walking the deck with a fellow-passenger,
on the second day after leaving Southampton, and
comparing notes as to our destinations, we unex
pectedly made the discovery that we were both
bound to the same small insignificant town in the
far-west of Mexico ; and a very pleasant discovery
it was on my part. This gentleman had passed
much of his hfe in diplomacy, spoke several lan
guages well, of course Spanish amongst them, and
had had great opportunities of seeing much of the

4 PASSENGERS.
best society in several of the European capitals.
I had the pleasure of travelling with him for many
miles after we left the ship, and a most dehghtful
companion he proved to be. As I may have occa
sion to mention him hereafter, let me at once dignify
him by the style and title of Mr. Joxes, as the last
census informs us that there are even more English
men of that name than of the family of the immortal
"Smith." For the first week after leaving Southampton the
weather continued bad, and the passengers worse :
and, it may be here remarked, that wherever I have
gone I have noticed that foreigners, and especially
those of Spanish origin, are much more affected by
sea-sickness than our own countrymen. Our pas
sengers were very mixed as to nation — English,
French, German, Spanish, Mexican and others of
Spanish origin, American, and one Quadroon — a lady
who, poor thing, found out the difference between
the "Union Jack" and the "Stars and Stripes,"
on her arrival at Mobile. I purposely separate the
Spaniard from the Mexican, &c, as your true
Spaniard of "Old Spain" has a horror of being
mistaken for Mexican, Peruvian, &c. &c.

THE AZORES. 5
On the ninth day we came in sight of the Azores,
and passed through the strait formed by the two
northernmost of them, Corvo and Flores. This
morning, for the first time, the wind became fair,
and the climate seemed to change with it : great
coats were discarded ; and mine was hardly ever
resumed until I repassed the same group of islands
on my return, ten months afterwards. These two
islands have precipitous, rocky shores, but are, appa
rently, well cultivated ; and from the deck plenty of
houses were visible, adorned with the usual quantity
of whitewash, for which Spain and Portugal are so
famous. Some small waterfalls over the face of the
rocks were extremely beautiful.
After passing these islands it was quite curious to
observe the way in which the delicious climate and
smooth sea, into which we had now entered,
worked upon the spirits of the passengers, each in
his own way. The French and German part of the
community broke out into all manner of national
songs, washed down with a goodly allowance of
beer and champagne. The English took to shovel-
board (a species of marine billiards, amusing enough
of the ship rolls handsomely), and a heavy course of

6 MONTE.
study, beguiling the evening with whist, chess,
draughts, &c, whilst the Spaniards, et id genus omne,
established the never-failing Monte. At this they
sat from breakfast to bed-time, merely vacating the
table when it was wanted for dinner and tea. This
Monte, as is probably known to most people, is
the prevaiUng game of the whole Spanish race in
America and the Colonies ; and, played as it ge
nerally is by them, proves to be one of the most
gambUng kind. The manner of it is this : the
dealer, who is also the banker, turns up, from the
bottom of the pack, two cards; on either of these
the player deposits his stake ; the dealer then
shows the next card at the bottom, and if it be of
the same value as either of those turned up, he
receives, I think, two-thirds of the stake on that
one, and the whole of that on the other. If no card
of the same value appears, the cards are then with
drawn one by one, and whichever turns up first,
wins. It is, I fancy, a fair enough game when fairly
played, but with practised hands is open to a deal
of cheating. On board the steamer at first they
played high, the bank being kept by two Spaniards
from Porto Rico, one of whom was a very ill-looking

MONTE. 7
fellow, and, as he himself admitted, a gambler by
profession. We, the majority of the passengers, to
whom this pastime was a novelty, were at first
contented to look on, and see the doubloons change
hands — which, in truth, they did pretty readily.
The banker, however, seeing that with such high
stakes he could only induce a few of his own
countrymen to play, and that these were soon
"cleaned out," reduced his "puesto" to smaller
coin, such as shillings and half-crowns, and at that
price he found plenty of fools among us ; — and a
very pleasant and exciting style of folly it was,
without being a very expensive one. In this plea
sant, easy manner, with a sea like glass, and of the
colour of the lake of Geneva, we passed our time
till the 20th, on the night of which we made the
Ught-house on the highest point of the Bermuda
group, and at day-break the next morning hove to,
off the entrance to St. George's, to send ashore
our mails.
The stopping of the steamer soon brought us all
on deck at about half-past seven on a Sunday morn
ing, and for an hour or more we remained nearly
stationary, waiting for the return of our mail-boat,

8 BERMUDA.
which had entered one end of the strait separating
the Island of St. George's from that of Hamilton, to
the further end of which we had proceeded, to wait
for her. The islands, at first sight, are extremely
beautiful, being nearly all covered with a small
species of cedar, and plentifully studded with
houses. On the return of the boat, we proceeded,
under the direction of our black pilot, to thread our
way through the circuitous channel among the
coral reefs, which led us eventually to the plea
sant little island of Ireland — hardly as big as its
namesake on this side the Atlantic. This very
tortuous channel is the only way of approaching
the dockyard and government buildings, and if the
buoys were taken up it would be almost an impos
sibility for any ships, save those with very expe
rienced pilots, to get in at all. The whole group of
islands is entirely surrounded with reefs, and this
channel is, I believe, the sole access.
At about nine a.m. we entered the harbour, and
made fast to the coal wharf, — not a very easy
undertaking, owing to the narrowness of the en
trance and the immense length of our ship; how
ever, it was done, and to inexperienced eyes well

SIGHT-SEEING. 9
done to boot. Immediately on touching the wharf
we were inundated by crowds of sable beauties,
anxious to obtain all the dirty linen with which we
might be inclined to trust them. Being pretty well
provided on that head, I did not give them any of
my custom, and I heard that some of those who
did, found, on receipt of their clean garments, put
on board of course at the last moment, that the tale
of their articles was very different from that which
they had delivered on arrival.
The captain informed us that he could not leave
before Tuesday morning, so we had two clear days
to see all that was to be seen of the "Mudians."
Many of the passengers proceeded without delay
to Hamilton, which is the capital, and near which
the govneror's residence is situated. Jones, myself,
and one or two others determined to remain where
we were for the present, and to go to Hamilton the
next day. The day was intensely hot, and after
breakfast we rambled away far from the dirt and
din of the coaling operations, into the cedar woods
with which the island is covered. Here, for the
first time, we saw houses with verandahs, covered
with many coloured creepers, and having gardens
1§

10 BERMUDA.
attached full of bananas, papayas, and other tro
pical fruits.
On returning, in the course of the morning, to the
ship, I found that our passengers for St. Thomas,
Barbadoes, and the other West India Islands, were
being transferred to the steamer waiting for them
outside the harbour. I took advantage of one of
these trips, made by the boats, to go also, and on
my return took the bow oar, rather to the amaze
ment of the proper owner thereof. I wanted exer
cise, and I certainly got it ; a sun of something like
1 20° Faht., with a boat Uke a washing-tub, being a
different style of thing to what one is accustomed to
on the banks or rather water of "Cam and Isis."
However, I believe I gave universal satisfaction, and
was of course requested to pay my footing: this I
did, and returned to the ship rather more like a
coal-trimmer than a passenger.
There are some fine government buildings on this
island, the chief of which are the barracks, which
were then occupied by some companies of the
gallant 4 2d.
The process of coaling had been going on all day,
and still continued the next morning, when we

SIGHT-SEEING. U
sallied forth to visit Hamilton. We were four in
number, Jones, myself, and two others. After a
deal of bargaining with some black fishermen, — or,
as the " Mudians " prefer calling themselves, "yel
low people," though in truth they are quite as
far removed from that colour as from light green
or prussian blue, — we embarked in a very dirty
fishing-boat, with a worthy old gentleman and his
two sons, as Charons.
The first visit we paid was to the lighthouse,
which stands upon the highest point of the whole
group of islands, and from which, we had been told,
the view was very beautiful. After a sail of some
five or six miles, during the progress of which some
of our party, uninitiated in boat-sailing, expressed
great fears of arriving in safety, we landed at the
foot of the hill on which it is placed, and having
taken one of our boys as guide, proceeded to the
top. We found a considerable staff of keepers and
people connected with the establishment, and a
soldier's post at the foot of the tower. The edifice
is lofty, and very substantially built, Ughted by
a series of powerful lamps, constructed on some
new principle which, the man informed us, had

12 BERMUDA.
not long been sent out from England. The light is
very strong, as we could testify from our own ex
perience the first time we saw it ; it is visible, they
said, at a distance of thirty miles. After having the
whole process explained, and being put in posses
sion of the fact that so many glasses were broken
every night, and so much oil expended, we adjourned
to the external gallery round the top, and enjoyed
the view to our hearts' content.
From the elevation of this spot you can see
almost the whole of all the islands ; some high land
at the farther end of St. George's alone preventing
one from seeing the sea in every direction. And
yet the view does not look like a marine one. It is,
indeed, at first difficult to believe that one is in the
midst of the Atlantic, and that what land you see is
merely so many island-dots on the face of the ocean.
To my mind it presented the appearance of a very
fine and extensive lake view, and I could almost
fancy that, if the horizon had not been hazy, I
should have seen a belt of land filling up the back
ground. Hamilton and St. George's are the largest
of these islands, and are tolerably well peopled and
cultivated. Arrowroot is extensively grown on

TELEGRAPHING. 13
them ; but, from our present position, only a
very small amount of cultivation was to be seen.
The islands, we were told, are equal to the days of
the year in number, including all, big and little,
even single rocks. How this may be I know not;
but, as the Americans say, there certainly are
" some few."
On descending the tower, our attention was called
to the telegraph at its foot, and for the especial
benefit of which the post of soldiers is maintained.
These telegraphs are scattered over the whole group,
and are used by everybody, for a small charge, as a
means of communication. In the present instance,
for the sum of 2s. 6d., we sent an order to Hamilton
for the master of the hotel there to have a carriage
ready for us to proceed to St. George's. The com
munication is carried on by means of large balls
hoisted in different positions, and each indicating a
different number ; and we were amused by this
grand mode of transmitting our important order.
Having seen what was to be seen, we again em
barked in our frail craft, out of which the hot sun
had brought the odour of dead fish with increased
strength, and pursued our route to Hamilton. These

14 BERMUDA.
Bermudian boats are all of one rig, and sail ad
mirably. I think I have only seen them equalled by
those of Cadiz, which are rigged much on the same
principle. Hamilton " city " is situated upon Hamil
ton Island, on the side of a very pleasant bay, and
having wharves up to the side of the principal street.
The bay itself is studded all round with gentlemen's
houses. The town is poor enough, though evi
dently thought much of by its inhabitants : it would
answer to a good large English village. Some of the
shops are good, and are well supplied with European
novelties. Into one of them we went, and procured
plenty of books for our onward route.
Our order about the carriage had proved futile, as
all the carriages in the town were bespoke, and we
had to give up the pleasure of seeing St. George's,
and what the inhabitants seem to consider of more
importance, a celebrated fish-pond which lay on our
road to the former place. The fish, I believe, in this
natural salt-water pond are "groopers " of immense
size and antiquity, having become tame enough to
eat out of the hand. We rambled about the town for
an hour or so, had lunch or dinner at an hotel, and
returned to Ireland by five o'clock in the afternoon.

FISH. 15
After getting rid of the dust with which I was
plentifully covered, I joined one of the officers be
longing to the ship, and proceeded to the barracks,
where we were engaged to dine at mess. We
passed a very pleasant evening, and found a change
in our diet, not amiss after the usual fare dh board
our A 1 ship. Next morning, early, I started off
for a bath, which I made the most of, although,
from apprehensions of sharks probably groundless,
I did not enjoy it so much as I might have done.
By the time breakfast was over, coaling being
finished, and the steam up, off we went, hardly
waiting to get rid of our last wheelbarrow. Sunset
found us nearly out of sight of land, and we went
to bed, some of us thinking we had seen our first
and last of Bermuda.
Our time between Bermuda and Nassau was
passed in the usual sea -routine manner; rather
more intellectually, if anything, than previously, as
we had brought a good importation of books with
us from Hamilton. However, what we gained in
knowledge we lost in amusement, as our Monte
friends had taken their leave of us at Bermuda, and
no one was found rash enough to put up a table

16 NASSAU.
in their place. Consequently, we ate, read, drank,
smoked, and played whist, without intermission,
until Saturday night, when the captain began to
look anxious, and all and sundry were requested to
rub their eyes and look out for the Nassau Light.
We had experienced fine weather until this time,
but as the night closed in it became thick and squaUy.
First, the men, whose duty it was, climbed up to the
cross-trees, and strained their eyes ; next, all the
officers of the watch ; and, lastly, the captain, girded
with his never-failing glass, ascended himself to the
top-gallant yard ; but all to no purpose — the light
being first discovered, owing to the fog, from the deck.
We ran close in about twelve p.m., and commenced
a regular display of fireworks, firing cannon, and
burning rockets and blue lights, regardless of expense.
The end of all this was to bring out a pilot, who
made his appearance in due season. Then the ship
was conducted into a pleasant berth outside the
harbour, and we lay-to for some hours to discharge
mails and passengers, and take in a fresh supply —
and that was all I saw of Nassau.
On turning out next morning, I found we had left
at four, and were then running over and through

BAHAMA KEYS. 17
the numberless shoals that encumber the Provi
dence channel. The lead was kept going nearly all
day; but towards the afternoon we went off the
principal bank into deep water, the lead finding, if
I remember right, at one cast ten fathoms — at the
next no bottom. We had low, unhealthy-looking
land for some time on our left hand, and the sea
breaking over the coral reefs in every direction. We
passed in the next two days many Ughthouses built
on the reefs which are called "keys" — why or
wherefore I cannot pretend to say : though, from
the names of some of them, they must have been
places well known, I imagine, during the war — as,
for instance, Double-headed-Shot-Key, Gun-Key,
&c. These intricate channels used to be a noted
haunt for pirates ; and, however the idea may be
scouted, I am inclined to believe that there is a
stray bird or so of that genus still to be met with in
these latitudes.
By breakfast time on Tuesday morning we were
in sight of Havannah, having previously passed
an American line-of-battle ship, the " Delaware."
There was a severe " norther" — one of the gales well
known in the gulf — blowing at the time ; and owing

18 HAVANNAH.
to this, the sight of the sea running over the Moro
Castle was grand in the extreme. This castle is
situated on the right of the harbour, or left as you
enter it, on a precipitous rocky cliff many feet above
the sea; but in the present instance the water
seemed to go bodily over it ; and I will answer for
it that the sentry on duty at the top had some
difficulty in cleaning his firelock after he was
reUeved. We lay-to off the harbour for a short time, waiting
for a pilot. This worthy, however, did not seem
inclined to trust himseK outside the bar with such a
sea running, so in we went without him, merely
handing him a rope in passing. The entrance is
very narrow, and so close under the walls of the
Moro Castle that all vessels are hailed, both on
entering and departing. This seems somewhat of
a farce ; and so, I presume, thought our captain.
I happened to be standing near him on our de
parture, and heard him remark to himself, not
perceiving me, when he had answered the sentry's
hail with an inunderstandable growl through his
trumpet, " Well, if you understand that, it is more
than I do." The pilot, on receiving his rope,

QUARANTINE. 19
declined to come on board, and informed us that
we were in quarantine, which announcement acted
as a considerable damper on the spirits of many,
who had been consoUng themselves with the
prospect of eating ices, and going to the opera.
Come on board or not, the pilot did his best to
make himself useful, and to that end stood up in
his boat, towing at the end of some fifty yards of
Une, calling out incessantly, " Port and starboard !"
as if our captain, stationed on the paddle-box, had
either time to attend to him, or the faculty of
hearing at that distance in a gale of wind, if he had
been so inclined.
After passing the narrow entrance we emerged
into the harbour, which is very large, and entirely
land-locked. Our destiny — worse luck ! — led us to
the farther end, away from the town, and we let go
our anchor in the remotest corner, and hoisted that
horrible yellow flag. We were waited upon by the
captain of the port and health-boat immediately,
and were informed that for two days we must
remain where we were, but might land at six o'clock
on the morning of the third. We growled and
grumbled a good deal, but to httle purpose, and

20 HAVANNAH.
made up our minds to pass our imprisonment as
well as might be. The official's boats were, like
the pilot's, very careful of defiling themselves by
touching such an unclean thing as our ship, or
anything connected with her ; and though they did
take ashore some letters for the friends of some of
the passengers, they received them in a pair of tongs
at the end of a long pole, and immediately immersed
them in a bucket of lime and water. Next came
the ceremony of landing the mails, which were all
subjected to the same process, with the addition of
having a chisel driven through every letter, news
paper, and package, previous to its immersion in
the bucket. All went the same road : even well
bound books with gilt edges, produced from the
recesses of the mail-bags, had their silk and calf
maltreated by the merciless chisel. The Spanish
authorities regarded this ceremony, which lasted an
hour or more, with unmoved gravity, whilst it
afforded much amusement to us, who were cranina-
down upon them from the sponson and deck.
The mails gone, we were left to our own unhealthi
ness and reflections, and had leisure to examine the
town and harbour as far as possible with our glasses.

QUARANTINE. 21
The harbour is nearly circular, and very com
modious, a great many vessels lying along the
wharves and at anchor, the prevailing flag being the
"Stars and Stripes," though before our stay was
over, we had another steamer, as big as ourselves,
and a frigate, qualified to hoist the " Union Jack."
The town is built entirely on the north side of the
harbour, and has a peculiar aspect, from its party-
coloured appearance, there being extant a law for
bidding the inhabitants to whitewash their houses,
on account of the glare. Every man, therefore,
exercises his own taste in decoration, though bright
red and pea-green or light-blue seemed to have
rather the preference.
There was already in the harbour, prior to our
arrival, another steamer belonging to the company,
and in the afternoon the homeward-bound ship from
Vera Cruz made her appearance, — some days late,
owing to the severe weather in the Gulf. There
were a few Spanish men-of-war, and a miniature one
lying within stone's throw of us, put there to keep
us in our proper place; though, had we been in
clined to move, I think a cutter of some twenty-five
tons, with two men, a boy, a big dog, and one

22 HAVANNAH.
musket on board, could hardly have fettered us
much. But she was a man-of-war, and fired her
musket at sunset, and hauled down her colours, as
well as a bigger ship.
The next day we were enlivened a little, by
seeing the signal flags working mysteriously on the
castle ; and one on board, a resident in Havan-
nah, learned in the matter, informed us, that it
portended a British frigate ; and in the course of
the afternoon in she came, and, to our great joy,
anchored near us, affording a fresh field for observa
tion, and nearly frightening the ladies into fits when
she saluted. The Spaniards returned the salute
from a brig of war and the castle ; but to our ears,
the sound of their guns was very mild compared
with the frigate's thirty-twos.
At six the next morning, the embargo being taken
off, aU hands rushed ashore, with strict injunctions
from the captain to be on board at eleven, as he
intended to sail, without fail, soon after. I was
fortunate enough to have a passage offered me in
the boat of a gentleman resident in the town, who
took Jones, another Englishman, and myself. He
behaved very kindly to us, furnishing us with some

HA VAN N AH. 23
good cigars — rare things in Havannah ! — and send
ing his brother to show us what was worth seeing.
After concluding our tobacco-purchases, &c, we
proceeded to breakfast ; and then, wishing to kill as
much as possible in a short time, rushed up one
street and down another, till it was time to go on
board. Owing to the norther still blowing, the
usually hot town of Havannah was delightfully
cool, and we rambled about without suffering from
heat. Havannah has a population of 135,000. It is
badly and irregularly built, with narrow streets, and
a decided want of foot-paths. Many of the houses
are fine, and on the whole, it is evidently a thriving
bustling place of business. Save this business-like
air, it is essentially Spanish, even to the odour of
garlic, and other scents with which all Spanish
towns are fiUed. The Plaza de las Armas, or
principal square, is fine, and ornamented by trees,
among which are conspicuous some magnificent
palms ; on one side of this square is the palace, the
governor's residence. The most striking objects to
a stranger are the volantes, a sort of cab, in general
use, both public and private. Volantes have only

24 VOLANTES.
two wheels, and those of immense diameter, with
the body of the carriage protected by a hood let
in between them. The driver rides his own horse,
and the correct thing is to have another servant
behind, on the foot-board. Private vehicles of this
description are most splendid in their appointments,
the harness being covered with an immense quantity
of silver, and the naves of the wheels and other
prominent parts of the carriage, being of the same
material. The livery of the black who rides is
covered with lace, wherever there is room to put it,
and his spurs and stirrups are silver. He wears
immense gaiters, like jack-boots, which terminate
at the ankle, and end above in an immense funnel.
On the bit of black leg between the end of the gaiter
and beginning of the shoe are fixed the magnificent
spurs, many of them worth, I will answer for it, a
hundred dollars a pair. The blacks here are all
slaves, and do not appear as happy and lively as
those in Bermuda ; but I think there is little dif
ference between them in point of good looks.
The wharves were lined with vessels of all nations
and shapes. Some of the schooners were beau
tiful, many mounted guns, and one beauty had

COALING. 25
twelve long brass guns on her upper deck; I
asked if she was a slaver, and was told not — query,
what was she ?
We had some difficulty in finding our steamer, as
she had shifted her berth, in order to finish coaling
more easily. This, by the bye, had been a most
absurd process on the two previous days. The men
navigating the barges which came out to us, were
so afraid of being contaminated with our imaginary
cholera, that when they got within a hundred yards
or so of the ship, all fled into a small boat, and
puUed hastily away, leaving the barge a waif on the
face of the harbour, to be picked up by our men
and brought alongside. Of course an immense deal
of time and labour was lost in these operations, and
our captain grumbled at them most heartily, and no
wonder. The wherries, something between a boat
and a canoe, are all furnished with awnings ; and
into one of these we got, and were rowed alongside,
as the ship fired a gun, blew off her steam, and
showed other signs of impatience. We nearly left
behind two priests and four nuns, passengers for
Vera Cruz, and behaved shamefully to a small
schooner belonging to the Company, which we

2b' NEW PASSENGERS.
promised to tow out to sea — but didn't. I am
afraid, from what I have said of Havannah, that I
may lead my readers to fancy it a poor place, and
one not worth a second visit. Such, however, was
not the impression left on my mind. I have seen
no Spanish town at which I would so soon pass
some time.
A good many passengers had left us at Havannah,
but we had embarked several in their place, who
were, of course, something for the old ones to look
at, and speculate upon, during our first day at sea.
The most prominent of these were the priests and
nuns, mentioned above, who had come from
Yucatan, having been driven out by the people of
colour, and were now bound to Vera Cruz. The
gentlemen were Jesuits, and the ladies a species of
Sisters of Charity, belonging, I was told, to the order
of Nuestra Senora de Loreto. They were very poor,
having brought little or nothing with them but their
lives, and were indebted, I believe, to charity in
Havannah for the means wherewith to proceed to
Vera Cruz. When the purser called upon them for
their fares, these poor people had no money but
silver pesetas, a coin not current anywhere but in

AMERICAN LADIES. 27
Spain or her colonies. These the purser declined
to take ; and it was only owing to the remonstrances
and arguments of our worthy friend Jones that at
last he consented to do so, asseverating vehemently
that he should lose by the transaction. They could
none of them speak a word of English, and the first
day after their arrival, the stewardess came to me
to beg I would go and interpret for them. My
Spanish was not first-class, and I turned her over
to Jones, and thereafter he was the accredited
champion of the fair sisters. We had also an
American colonel, his wife, and her sister, the latter
very pretty ; but these ladies seemed to think that
we common "Britishers" were not good enough
company for them, and I think there was not a
passenger on board who could get two words from
either of them during our passage. For my part, I
at length gave it up as a bad job, but felt a maUcious
pleasure in seeing the pretty maiden eyeing me with
a look of disgust, when I went over from her to
talk to the Quadroon lady, who was sitting directly
opposite, and who, in New Orleans, would be as so
much dirt under the feet of the dainty dame.
The ship's company, as one man, predicted evil

ZO AN ALARM.
from the advent of the Padres; and, accordingly,
the second day at sea, we carried away our jib-boom,
and were occupied all day in getting up a new one.
During this operation, the chief officer fancying, as
men in authority are apt to do, that he could do it
better than any one else, remained perched over the
end of the bows, to the great delight and admiration
of a large shark, who every moment expected him to
drop into his mouth. We had fine weather and a
fair wind, and save one alarm, which brought the
captain on deck one night in a hurry, had nothing
to enliven us, until we made Mobile Point on Sunday
morning. This one alarm was owing to the officer
who had the middle watch, and who was new to the
service and latitude, fancying about two in the morn
ing that he could make out the land; he reported
this to the captain who rushed on deck instanter,
exclaiming " if you can, we shaU be ashore before we
know where we are." We were at that time abreast
of the Florida Light, but many miles distant from it,
and the supposed land turned out to be nothing
more than the smoke and huU of a large steamer,
the " Ohio," on her way from New Orleans to New
York.

MOBILE BAY. 29
At nine o'clock on Sunday the 4th, we anchored
just inside the two lighthouses which are placed
at the entrance to Mobile Bay. This entrance is
narrow, with a nasty bar ; but the bay opens out
beautifully after you get inside. A small steamer
came alongside immediately, and the mails, passen
gers, and cargo for Mobile, New Orleans, &c, were
transferred to her, the depth of water preventing
large vessels from going up to the town. I expected
to meet a large party of friends here to join us, and>
along with two or three other passengers desirous
of seeing the town, put myself on board the
smaller steamer and we proceeded up the bay.
Mobile is distant nearly thirty miles from the an
chorage ; and owing to the slowness of our wretched
little steamer, we did not get there till three in the
afternoon. The bay is very wide, and wooded on
both sides, though in many places you cannot see
across it. It is formed by the mouth of the Mobile
river, which runs into the upper end, and which
brings down immense quantities of timber, forming
"snags" and "sawyers" all over it. We passed
a great many ships of large tonnage, which could
not get up to Mobile ; to these the cotton is brought

30 A YANKEE CAPTAIN.
down in steamers, several of which, laden with this
article, we met in our upward passage. The little
steamer was high-pressure, and very ricketty in
point of boilers. I was glad to get out of her, and
I think with reason. The engineer of our own ship
gave me afterwards an amusing account of a trip he
had had in a similar craft, the chief features of
which were that they worked at a pressure of a
hundred and thirty pounds to the square inch, and
forgot, or did not care, to blow off their steam when
the vessel stopped, which she did every ten minutes
to repair the engine. The engineer, honest man,
was professionally much shocked, and told me he
never felt so happy in his Ufe as when he once more
got back on board his own ship.
During our upward passage we met the " Cali
fornia," bound for New Orleans, a hurricane-decked
fast boat, and crowded with people. She stopped to
take on board what passengers we had for that place,
and as, perhaps, some of my friends would hke to see
a Yankee captain on Sunday, and compare him with
his brother of a Gravesend steamer, I will here sketch
one in outhne : — Imagine a respectable, sober-look
ing man, dressed in a full suit of black, the waistcoat

MOBILE. 31
satin, his hair half way down his back, a round hat
with much brim, and a pair of gold spectacles on
his nose — and you have the captain of the " Cali
fornia." Our Quadroon lady here left us, and,
shame be it spoken, was not allowed to go into the
cabin, but shoved forward among the pigs and sheep,
in company with other people of colour. Such is
one of their " Almighty Institutions."
I found all my friends at Mobile, and ascertained
that we were to return at eight o'clock in the
evening. Mobile is a large new American town,
with some 70,000 or 80,000 inhabitants, and new
houses springing up like mushrooms in every
direction ; but Americans are so fond of " going
ahead," and doing a great deal in a short time, that
they never do it well; and the town was in as
beastly a state of mud and filth, from want of paving
and sewage, as I should wish to see anywhere. I
went to the principal hotel to look for my friends,
and found an enormous house, with immense long
rooms, at that time fiUed with a tea-table-d'hdte in
full swing. My friends preferred having their meals
in their own apartments, and were made to pay
handsomely for the exclusiveness. On the ground

32 TITLED MEN.
floor was an enormous species of gin-palace, where
the national drinks were served out — I do not know
how many gallons a minute — to the eager crowd of
long-haired expectorating gentlemen awaiting them.
I was prepared to find civiUzation in the Southern
states rather different from what it is in Europe;
but I did not think that one town would furnish
such an exact exemplification of all the monstrosities
mentioned in Martin Chuzzlewhit; but so it is.
We embarked again about eight, on our downward
passage, taking nearly fifty passengers, to join our
ship. We had a most wretched night, and reached
the ship about half-past two in the morning, having
narrowly escaped destruction on a " snag," against
which we ran with a severe shock. I was walking
on the hurricane deck during the night, when the
captain accosted me ^ith the inquiry — " Do you
know to whom all that luggage belongs ?" I replied,
" Yes ; the greater part of it belongs to a friend of
mine, who is on board with his family." Whereupon
the captain remarked, interrogatively, " I guess he
is a very rich man ?" " Possibly," said I. " Is he
one of those titled men?" emphasizing the word
titled with much scorn, added the captain. I told

ORIZABA. 33
him no; whereupon he turned his tobacco, and
appeared easier. The confusion on board our own
ship on arrival was terrific, owing to the number of
applicants for cabins. I had luckily arranged every
thing with the purser before, for my friends, and
after seeing them all snugly stowed, I turned in
myself, well tired.
Next morning found us running through the
discoloured water that comes down from the Mis
sissippi, and tinges the blue sea of the Gulf for
many miles. The weather continued lovely and
wind fair ; nothing occurred to disturb the " even
tenour of our way ;" and on the fourth morning
after leaving Mobile Point, the splendid peak of
Orizaba, a snow-mountain, 17,350 feet above the
sea, and 2000 feet higher than Mont Blanc, was
visible from the deck at sunrise. Some of the
charitable ladies we had on board, assisted by the
indefatigable Jones, got up a subscription for the
poor nuns, and were very successful, though I
forget the amount collected. By a curious coinci
dence I and some others made a collection on board
the same steamer on my return home, for a very
different object, and on a much more melancholy 2 §

34 LAND.
occasion; but that in its right place. About two
o'clock we came in sight of the whole line of coast.
Orizaba had long been hidden among the clouds, and
the most prominent feature among the high land was
now the Cofre de Perote (so caUed from a large
mass of porphyry shaped hke a trunk on the top of
the mountain), which, although 13,415 feet above
the sea, is, from its low latitude, destitute of snow.
By half-past three on the 9th of November we
anchored inside the castle of St. Juan de Ulloa,
and my outward voyage was over.

CHAP. II.
VERA CRUZ TO MEXICO.
VERA CRUZ  LANDING  HOSPITALITY  ZOPILOTES  MEXICAN-
HOUSES  THE LITERA  OCCUPATION  MODE OF LIVING  HOUSE
TOPS  DEPARTURE  THE DILIGENCE  ESCORT  SCENERY  PLAN
DEL RIO  XALAPA  DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN MEXICO  PULO.UE 
PEROTE  PUEBLA  A ROBBERY  POPOCATEPETL  VALLEY OF
MEXICO — MEXICO.
Vera Cruz is sadly destitute of harbour, the
anchorage being a mere roadstead ; it is protected,
however, by the shoals outside, and by the castle of
St. Juan de Ulloa, which stands on a small island
facing the town. The nearest good anchorage is
Sacrificios, some miles to the southward ; and it is
here that men-of-war and large vessels generally he.
The confusion on board immediately on our an
choring was very great, and one ran a risk of
being knocked on the head by the huge iron-bound
portmanteaus which were travelhng in every direc
tion, or being built up in the mound of luggage
intended for Tampico. A gentleman in authority
soon made his appearance and demanded our pass-

36 VERA CRUZ.
ports, though it was quite immaterial whether you
had one or not. Jones, for some reason best known
to himself, would not show his, though he was pro
perly provided, and he landed with impunity along
with the rest of us. The official seemed surprised
at my informing him I was not a " comerciante,"
and seemed to fancy I must have mistaken my own
identity, no one ever coming to Mexico for any
other purpose than that of trade.
I was now under the wing of the gentleman who
had come on board at Mobile, and gave up aU
thought or care of myself or baggage. I received,
however, on landing, a letter recommending me to
the care of a mercantile house in Vera Cruz, who
were also friends of my protector. The captain of
the Port very politely sent his boat (very large and
commodious with a comfortable awning) for us, and
we went ashore in great style, leaving all the baggage
to be taken to the custom-house by the servants.
Our party consisted of four ladies, two children,
and seven gentlemen, among whom I include
Jones and a very pleasant and agreeable Russian
gentleman who had joined us at Mobile. Two
houses were placed at the disposal of our leader,

MEXICAN TRAVELLING 37
one of them being the house to which I had my
letter of recommendation. It was finally settled
that the ladies, children, and one gentleman should
go to one house, whilst the rest of us took up our
abode at the other. Should any of the gentlemen
connected with the latter ever see this, I beg to
thank them most cordially for the attention and
kindness I received from them during my stay
under their hospitable roof.
Travelling in Europe, i. e. in the beaten tracks in
Europe, gives you no notion of what to expect when
you reach a country like Mexico. Here there are
no inns, or next to none, save at the regular stop
ping-places of the Diligences, and consequently it
becomes almost a matter of necessity that hospi
tality should be practised on a liberal scale. For
my own part, while in Mexico, go where I would, I
invariably found the greatest kindness in this re
spect from both Englishmen and Natives ; and I am
sure that any one who has a friend competent to
give him a letter of introduction to a house in the
first town he comes to, need afterwards never be
obliged to take up his abode at an inn in any other,
except from choice. At least such was my case.

38 VERA CRUZ.
The castle of St. Juan de Ulloa might be made a
strong place, and it once was so ; but at present it
is, hke all Mexican institutions, much incUned to
decay, and wants a Uberal supply of men, guns,
and whitewash. We landed at a good enough jetty,
and proceeded to our quarters, through some very
dirty streets, many of the houses on our path bear
ing visible signs of decay. In the first square we
entered were lying some immense pieces of ma
chinery, brought from England and America for
mills and other manufactories in Mexico ; but, from
the badness of roads and supineness of the people,
they had been placed there at their first landing, and
I have httle doubt they are lying there still. Vera
Cruz, on the whole, is a better town than I had
been led to hope, but it does not equal the expecta
tions formed from first seeing it from the sea. It is
fuU of churches, and the towers of these, from the
sea, give it the appearance of a much finer place
than it is in reality. However, many of the streets
are good and tolerably clean, though cleanliness is
certainly not the prevailing feature in Mexico
The town swarms with zopilotes (Turkey buz
zards) and pigs, which are the universal scavengers

ZOPILOTES. 39
throughout the republic, and useful indeed they are.
Every church in Vera Cruz had always half a score
of zopilotes sitting on it, peering into the streets
below ; and did a maid-servant but empty a pail of
dirty water out of a first-floor window, twenty of
these fellows pounced at once into the flood, to look
if there was anything thrown away that would suit
them. Most quick and expeditious are they with their
work, even when the subject operated upon is large.
I have seen a horse give his last gasp at three or
four o'clock in the afternoon, and when I passed the
same way betimes the next morning, nothing was
left but bones, and those disjointed, and flung in
every direction.
Mexican houses are mostly all alike, and I will
describe one, once for all. You enter by a large
doorway, wide enough to admit a carriage, and find
yourself in a large courtyard, or " patio," with the
house built round it. Generally, except in large
towns, there is only one story ; when two, or more,
the family commonly Uve in the first floor, and the
ground story is occupied by warehouses, counting-
houses, &c. Most houses have, in addition, a
court-yard behind, which contains the kitchens and

40 MEXICAN HOUSES.
other offices ; sometimes there is another yard, or
"corral," behind all, which contains the stabling,
and is large enough to accommodate a great many
animals. All houses are flat-roofed, and paved with
a species of plaster over the bricks. This plaster,
in a short time, becomes very hard, and being
polished with rough stones, until it is as smooth as
marble, forms an impervious roof against the rain.
Every house is furnished with immense long hori
zontal pipes or gutters, projecting over the street,
and through which all the rain collected on the roof
is carried off. During the rainy season, or in a good
heavy storm, these pipes are so many small cataracts,
and it is impossible to walk through the streets
without being half-drowned.
I remained in Vera Cruz for four days, and con
sidered myself lucky in getting away so soon; the
Diligence at that time only going every other day,
though now there is a daily one. A certain number
of places had been secured beforehand for our partv
in the first two which were to start after the arrival
of the packet. The ladies and children departed
the day after our arrival, in " literas," for Xalapa,
and some of the gentlemen followed them the same

THE LITERA. 41
evening in the Diligence. The " Utera'' is the most
luxurious mode of travelling I have seen, and I
fancy it must be confined to the neighbourhood of
Vera Cruz, not having noticed it elsewhere in
Mexico. It is merely a sort of four-post bed, plen
tifully furnished with pillows, carried by two mules,
one before and the other behind, in shafts. A
quantity of spare mules are always taken, and by
changing frequently, a good pace is maintained
throughout the journey. In the present instance,
the ladies left about five o'clock on Saturday, and
arrived in Xalapa, distant some eighty miles, by the
middle of the day on Sunday.
During our stay in Vera Cruz the heat was in
tense, and mosquitoes very troublesome, and it was
impossible to stir out with any comfort during the
day. In the evening we used to go and walk in the
Alameda, which is a poor affair, but the only place
fitted for a promenade, the city on all sides being
surrounded by a waste of sand. The theatre was
open, with a tolerably good company ; but it re
quired the constitution of a Vera-Cruzano to stand
the heat. They have also a sort of club, with
papers, journals, .billiards, &c, a pleasant enough

42 YELLOW FEVER.
lounge in the evening, and to which strangers are
introduced by a member.
The season for fever was over when we arrived ;
but I was told that all strangers, sooner or later, get
it ; and lucky is he who gets through with only the
loss of his hair. The most curious thing I heard
touching this complaint was, that a person born in
Vera Cruz, and carried to Europe or elsewhere a
child, without having had the fever, would, on his
return, though he remained away twenty years, be
as free from all likelihood of taking it as the man
who had lived in the midst of the "Vomito " all his
life ; on the other hand, strangers never escape.
One of the luxuries you meet with at Vera Cruz
is a large species of fish (I forget the name), which
is most capital, and which made his appearance
every day for breakfast and dinner, whilst I was
there. Apropos of eating and drinking, I may as
weU mention the manner in which those processes,
so necessary to life, are conducted among the better
classes in Mexico. You are waked about six or
seven by a servant with chocolate, which is beauti
fully prepared, but not equal, I think, to the same
article in Spain. You are then supposed to get up,

MODE OF LIVING. 43
and go about your business till breakfast, generaUy
between ten and eleven. This meal is a good,
honest, early dinner of fish, often soup, and hot
meats of all kinds, tea and coffee being introduced
only into Anglicised houses, the natives always
drinking wine — mostly bad Bourdeaux. Butter is
nearly unknown throughout Mexico ; and one would
miss it much at first, were it not for the training
one has on board the steamer, where the oily, salt
.mass presented you at the table in hot latitudes,
makes one think that none is preferable to such a
substitute. Dinner takes place either at three or
four, and coffee and cigars follow immediately.
There is no other regular meal ; but in most houses,
now, one sees tea a 1' Anglais during the evening.
One day, during our stay at Vera Cruz, I as
cended to the azotea or roof of our house, which
was furnished with a small tower, like most of its
neighbours, and from which I had a most splendid
view: and here I would advise aU traveUers in Mexico
never to omit to chmb the roof of some house
when in a town, as they may be sure to be rewarded
by a fine view, no ridge tiles or other extraneous
matters, such as chimnies, intervening. Vera Cruz

44 THE DILIGENCE.
stands in a sandy desert, on one side the sea, on the
other an immense range of mountains, well wooded,
with the mighty Orizaba in the background.
At length, on Monday evening, the 14th, we bid
adieu to our kind entertainers, and took our seats in
the Diligence. This vehicle holds nine inside and
one beside the coachman. Our party consisted of
Jones, the Russian gentleman, and myself, in one
lot ; four German miners, going to the Real del
Monte mine, one other Englishman, and two servants.
The Diligences throughout Mexico are all the pro
perty of one individual, a Spaniard, and a most spirited
man he is : they are all built in the United States,
and are admirably adapted for the service. The
body of the carriage, in place of having C, eUiptical,
or grasshopper springs, as with us, rests upon two
broad leather straps, fastened before and behind to
wooden projections rising from the bed. They are
very strong, and the whole contrivance admirably
adapted for Mexican roads. All the traveUing car
riages in Mexico are built on the same plan, which I
am told is precisely the same that prevailed in
England, or at least in Scotland, only sixty or
seventy years since. The private carriages are

ESCORT. 45
generally drawn by six or eight horses or mules,
the postboys riding. For town use, however, espe
cially in the city of Mexico, EngUsh or French
carriages supersede all others. The Diligence has
three seats, and three persons sit upon each seat,
those in the middle row having a leather strap for
their backs, moveable for the convenience of the
passengers sitting behind them. The doors are like
ordinary carriage doors in England, and the seats
placed across the vehicle. The rain and dust are
kept out by means of leather curtains, rolled up at
the pleasure of the passenger. The horsing of the
Diligences, and finding lodging and board for the
passengers, are aU in the hands of the proprietor;
and I should imagine he derives a large income from
this source, though the outlay must be enormous.
We started with great pomp and ceremony in
tow of ten mules, and went the first two hundred
yards at a great pace; at the gate of the town,
however, we puUed up, and were requested to pay
for the escort which was to accompany us — a very
necessary precaution in such a country as Mexico.
My friends had no arms with them, and I had left
mine for company's sake in my carpet-bag ; but, on

46 THE JOURNEY.
perceiving next morning that our fellow-passengers,
the Germans, were furnished with rifles, &c, I took
the first opportunity to withdraw my pistols from
their repository. An English resident in Vera Cruz
told me, that during the war the Diligence in which
he was traveUing was robbed between Vera Cruz
and Xalapa by a picket of cavalry in uniform, one
of the passengers being the general in command of
the district ! It is as well to mention, that the
DiUgence wiU only aUow twenty-five pounds of lug
gage for each passenger, and the rest must be sent
by the common " arrieros," or muleteers. This
regulation I found subsequently a dreadful nuisance,
as I subsisted for three months on one carpet-bag,
never beholding my portmanteaus, left at Vera
Cruz on the 9th of November, until the end of
February. Once outside the town we entered the sand and
plodded on for a couple of hours or so at a foof s
pace. Our escort were an original-looking set of
rascals, with the slightest possible resemblance to
soldiers. One of them, just outside the town,
whether from accident or otherwise, fired off his
pistol, and put our armed Germans into a great

MEXICAN ROADS. 47
state of commotion. The escort took their leave of
us at some distance from the town, and used many
words in trying to persuade us that had it not been
for their invaluable presence, not a stiver would
have been remaining in our pockets by that time.
Once out of the sand we got into a kind of lane
with high banks, the whole lit up every here and
there with fireflies ; and so we jogged on until sleep
found some of us out.
When clay broke we found ourselves in the midst
of a sort of jungle, the road which we were travel
ling looking like the bed of a mountain torrent, and
quite as uneasy to travel. This road, in the time
of the Spaniards, was very good, and the traveller
sees many traces of its past goodness in the huge
blocks of stone which have got loosened from their
bed, and are now scattered over it in every direction.
But in regard to Mexican roads generally, let my
readers understand that they are unrivalled in bad
ness in any part of the world which it has been my
luck to see ; and I am sure if any English gentle
man was to request his coachman to drive over any
of the highways which are daily traversed in the re
public, the man would give him warning on the spot.

48 CACTUSES.
During this day's journey we saw very few large
trees; but an infinity of creepers and plants of
every description, the whole covered with most
brilliant flowers. The Cactuses, however, are the
most striking; their height varying from one to
thirty feet: few of them were in flower at that
period. The commonest sorts are the prickly pear,
and one that grows perfectly straight in a hexagonal
form ; of this last, nearly all the hedges are made in
the neighbourhood of the capital. The plants grow
close together and are quite impervious to man or
beast. We saw little cultivation this day, and had pro
ceeded many miles before we met with any at all.
About nine we stopped to breakfast at the Plan
del Rio, a smaU viUage a Uttle on the Xalapa side of
the Puente Nacional. Close to this place are the
ruins of a beautiful bridge which was destroyed
during the late war, by a patriotic Mexican general
who hoped thereby to stop the progress of the
Americans ; but he reckoned without his host, such
a trifling obstacle only detaining the army a quarter
of an hour. Our breakfast was purely Mexican,
and good withal; plenty of eggs, tomatoes, and

DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 49
meat in all manner of shapes and strongly flavoured
with garlic.
In the course of the afternoon, as we advanced,
the country became better cultivated and more popu
lous ; and we passed close to a large Hacienda or
estate belonging to Santa Anna. During the whole
of the day we had been gradually ascending and
getting out of the Tierra Caliente ; and about seven
in the evening we reached Xalapa which is rather
more than 4300 feet above the sea. The scenery
had all along been most beautiful ; a high range of
mountains, the whole way on the left hand, and
Orizaba stiU towering above them all.
Throughout the whole of Mexico the quantity of
domestic animals one sees is prodigious, and this
being our first day in the country, we were much
struck by the novelty. Pigs, dogs, and poultry,
especially turkeys, literaUy swarm. Let the hut be
ever so miserable, or its inhabitants ever so poor,
still there are always enough of these animals about
it, to stock an ordinary village in England. No
puppies are ever drowned, and that fact easily ac
counts for the multiplication of the dogs. No pigs
are ever eaten, and that may or may not account for
3

50 XALAPA.
the number of them : but still they do not die a
natural death, being bred and reared entirely for the
lard they produce. I am quite posed to account for
the number of turkeys, as the natives certainly eat
them, and freely too — and not without reason, for
on table they are much finer than English, and have
a great quantity of fat.
We rejoined the rest of the party, who preceded
us, at Xalapa, or Jalapa, — probably not commonly
known as the town from which jalap was first brought
and named. Jones and I took up our abode with our
friends, who were in a house distinct from the DiU-
gence-Hotel, leaving our Russian friend to stop at
the latter. The diligence did not travel the next
day, and I employed myself in walking about the
town and suburbs. I here saw, for the first time,
some of those beautiful white, bell-shaped flowers,
called Floripundios ; they had a delicious scent, but
were always filled with flies and ants. The bush on
which they grow is of a good size, and all the hedges
of the neighbourhood were filled with it. Jalapa is
prettily situated, and is much esteemed by Mexicans,
on account of its reputed fine cUmate ; but, for my
own part, I found it, during the night, very cold and

PULQUE. 51
damp. The streets are poor, and it is a place of
no importance, except as being the first habitable
town away from the coast.
Before the diligence started the next morning I
made a pUgrimage to the roof of the hotel, and was
rewarded by a most lovely view, having Orizaba for
its chief feature, surrounded by lesser mountains
beautifully wooded. Our party in the diligence was
the same as before, the rest of our friends preferring
to follow us to Mexico by easy stages. Immediately
on leaving the town we began again to ascend, and a
severe pull of some five or six miles brought us to
the top of a steep hill, the view from which, on
looking back, was magnificent. It was, indeed,
though quieter, more extensive and lovelier than
anything I had seen in Switzerland. For some
distance after this ascent the road continued upon
pretty level ground, winding in and out among the
mountains, here covered with pine forests.
We passed through the centre of a district in which
the Maguey, or large American Aloe, is extensively
cultivated for the manufacture of Pulque. Pulque is
the common drink of aU Mexicans, and answers to
our beer, though more intoxicating. All who once

52 PULQUE.
get accustomed to the smell and taste, Uke it much,
and it is even said to become necessary to people,
after they have used it for many years. When the
Republic was first established, many old Spaniards
threatened with expulsion, petitioned the National
Assembly to aUow them to remain in Mexico, the
groundwork of the petition being that they had been
so long accustomed to drink Pulque (not procurable
in Spain), that their lives would be endangered if they
left it off. The manner of making this drink is as fol
lows : When the aloe is just on the point of throw
ing up its huge stem from its coronet of leaves, deep
amidst which its broad basis had been for some time
forming, the farmer or gardener scoops out the whole
pith, leaving the outer rind, and thus making, inside
the circle of leaves, a bowl-like cavity about two feet
deep and eighteen inches wide, according to the size
of the plant. This cavity is soon fiUed with the sap
which should have gone to nourish the stalk, and as it
flows is removed several times daily for some months,
or as long as the tap yields. A portion of this juice
(caUed honey-water, aguamiel) is set apart to fer
ment and act as a sort of leaven or yeast for the rest.
This is caUed Madre-Pulque, the mother of pulque,

ALOES. 53
and when completely prepared (which it is in about a
fortnight), a small portion of it is added to the skins
or tubs containing the fresh aguamiel, and sets it
fermenting in a day or so. A large plant is said to
yield from ten to fifteen pints daily, and this for
months. Others vary the process by putting a small
quantity of mescal into the cavity in the plant to
mix with the sap as it flows in ; and this seems to
answer very well. This process of milking the Aloe
is, as might be expected, a fatal one to the plant, but
before it dies it always throws out shoots which
keep up the stock. The fermentation is usually con
ducted in skins, and as soon as this is over the Pulque
is fit for drinking. To strangers both the taste and
smeU are horrible, something of the style of rotten
eggs ; but one soon gets accustomed to the flavour.
The fresh sap, or aguamiel, is often drunk unpre
pared, but it is too humble a tipple to be generally
patronised. These Aloes are often of immense size. The
common leaves are eight or ten feet in length, more
than a foot in width, and thick in proportion. The
stem often shoots up to twenty or thirty feet or more,
and is as thick as a man's body.

54 PEROTE.
During this day's journey we crossed many
volcanic tracts, among the lava ruins of which
cactuses innumerable were flourishing. Indeed,
throughout Mexico I have remarked that these
plants grow better in similar spots than anywhere
else. Our resting-place, a dull, Uttle town, caUed
Perote, was reached about four o'clock in the after
noon, after a trifling descent into the high table
land plain in which it stands. This Uttle place has
the reputation of being the dullest, coldest, and
most miserable residence of any in Mexico, and I
am not incUned to disagree with those who abuse it.
We had miserable quarters there. I must, however,
bear witness to one thing, in which Perote sur
passes aU the rest of Mexico that I saw, viz. the
goodness of its potatoes. These are here capital,
equal to the best in England, whilst, in general,
throughout Mexico, they are wretched, seldom
bigger than walnuts.
At a short distance from the town there is a
castle, which, within the last ten years, has been a
place of some notoriety, from its having been used
as a prison for a number of Texans, who were taken
prisoners during a most unprovoked raid into

DILIGENCES. 55
Mexico. A General Green, who was one of them,
in a very bad book written by himself, gives a most
melancholy account of their sufferings; and tells
us, among other things, how, at one place, they
were decimated and shot by the Mexicans. They
certainly seem to have undergone a good deal ; but
their attack on Mexico was the most unprovoked
thing according to the General's own showing: and
it struck me, that he and his companions, if in
Europe, under like circumstances, would have been
hung without mercy. Some of those prisoners at
last made their escape, and among them their his
torian. A very pathetic incident is said to have
taken place during this decimation, one brother
voluntarily taking the place of another who had
drawn the fatal bean.
All diligences in Mexico start at about four in
the morning, stopping to breakfast, if the day's
journey is a long one. They are so arranged that
every night two meet at the same stopping-place,
and it is pleasant enough to hear from the passen
gers of the diligence going the other way, what one
may expect the next day on the road. We had
found it very cold during the night; and in the

56 PUEBLA.
early part of the morning we saw ice : it was ex
tremely cold in the diligence. We were now entering
upon the territory subject to robbers, and prepared
our pistols accordingly. We were furnished with
escorts nearly all day, for which a charge of not more
than two rials (a shilUng) from each passenger is de
manded. I would have been sorry to have formed
one of the escort at that price, as they often ran an
imminent risk of being shot by the passengers,
looking as they did very like ladrones in the dusk of
the morning.
We passed through several villages, but none of
any importance; still, during this day's journey,
we saw a good deal of cultivation and plenty
of houses. Much of the route was through a fine
grassy plain, with small conical hiUs scattered over
it in every direction, and appearing at first sight
as if they could be removed at pleasure. Orizaba was
in fuU view on our left hand all day, and very close
to us. Towards the afternoon his two snow-covered
brethren, Popocatepetl (17,715 feet above the sea),
and Iztaccihuatl (15,700), appeared in front and
beyond Puebla, to which we were bound, and which
we reached about four in the afternoon. During

PUEBLA. 57
this day we saw great quantities of the "Arbol del
Peru," growing by the side of the road. This is a
beautiful tree of the acacia tribe, with long, drooping
crimson flowers ; it is a native of Peru, but is now
naturalized in Mexico, and is met with all over the
Republic. Immediately on our arrival in Puebla, we hurried
to the cathedral, but found we were too late, it
being already closed for the day. I was greatly dis
appointed, having heard much of it, and its outside
certainly warranted the expectation of seeing some
thing good within. Puebla (strictly called Puebla
de los Angeles) is a fine large town, containing about
70,000 inhabitants. It is reckoned the third in
Mexico ; though in point of architecture, cleanhness,
good streets, and business-Uke appearance, I am in
clined to give it the first place. The Grand Plaza, on
one side of which stands the cathedral, is very large,
and surrounded on its other three sides by portales
or corridors, full of shops and staUs, tenanted by old
ladies selling dulces (sweetmeats), figures of rags (for
which Puebla is famous), and all manner of nic-nacs.
These dulces of Puebla are much prized, and are,
like those in Guadalaxara, the work of the nuns.
3§

58 PUEBLA.
Jones during the evening, wishing to procure some
made of the sweet potato, we hunted all over the
town for them, but to Uttle purpose ; till, at last, we
were told that if anybody had them, it was an old
lady with a stall, in a doorway of some dirty ruinous
old place. To her, accordingly, we went, and were
furnished with our deUcacies at a great price ; though
I should have as soon thought of applying to the
man who seUs pies at the top of the Haymarket for
a basin of turtle soup. Puebla is a very religious or
fanatic town, and swarms with nuns and friars of aU
descriptions. I was told many of the convents were
worth seeing, but my time would not aUow me to
stop. On returning to our hotel, we were met by the
servant of one of our feUow-passengers in the
steamer, who, coming by the town of Orizaba, had
faUen among thieves ; however, they behaved very
decently to him, and only took the half of what he
possessed; they carried out their principle, so far as
to take two shirts out of four. Luckily, three or
four gold watches of his master's, concealed in his
pockets, were not discovered.
We got a reasonably good dinner at the diligence

SNOW-MOUNTAINS. 59
t able-d'hote, and afterwards took another stroll
about the town. The scene in the Plaza was very
striking ; the whole place being covered with booths
and staUs, belonging to crowds of half-naked
Indians, each having his own fire of pine-wood
chips, blazing like gas, and giving out a most deli
cious odour. The sale of fruits and vegetables of
all kinds appeared very large, and I was much
puzzled with their variety and novelty. I regretted
much not being able to remain a day or two at
Puebla (as our Russian friend did), there being
much in the city and neighbourhood worth visiting.
Not least interesting are the ruins and pyramids of
Cholula, the most sacred of aU Mexican cities in old
Montezuma's time, and where many relics are still
to be seen.
The next morning at four saw us in the diligence
again, and with another in company, in which was
contained the body of the Governor of Puebla —
I mean, of course, alive — owing to which distin
guished honour we were provided with an escort
of regular soldiers all the way to Mexico. As soon
as day broke we saw our two snow-mountains,
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, in front of us, and,

60 LADRONES.
like the mountains in Switzerland, brilliantly illu
minated with the sun's rays long before they reached
us in the valley. These mountains were originally all
volcanoes ; and I believe smoke has been seen issuing
from Orizaba and some ofthe others in modern times.
According to an old Spanish authority I met with in
Mexico, Popocatepetl was an active volcano at the
time of the conquest. I was told that a Frenchman,
repeating the experiment of Cortes's officer, in a
more formal style, had lately established some works
for extracting sulphur, in the very crater of the vol
cano, and that he was reaping large profits from his
speculation. How he managed to get his machinery
up, or his sulphur down, among aU that snow and
ice, to say nothing of roads, I can't think.
We proceeded for some distance through a finely
cultivated plain, having the pyramids of Cholula
visible on our left hand. After passing through one
or two smallish towns, we at length entered a mag
nificent pine forest, called the " Black Forest," the
scene of two-thirds of the highway robberies in
Mexico. The roadside was thickly sprinkled with
crosses, either in memory of those who feU by the
hands of the Ladrones, or of the Ladrones them
selves, who are often executed when caught on the

VALLEY OF MEXICO. 61
spot where the robbery takes place. Our escort
buzzed about among the trees most industriously,
but nothing came of it, and at length we reached
Rio Frio, and breakfasted at twelve o'clock : a good
stretch, I can ieU my friends it is, from half-past
three in the morning till twelve at noon, on one cup
of chocolate. The inn at Rio Frio is kept by a
German, who relieved our wants substantially.
After breakfast we started again ; and a mile or so
more brought us to the top of a steep hill, and
then began the descent into the valley of Mexico.
As we got out of the forest the view at once opened
upon us ; and it is unquestionably one of the finest
sights one will see in a lifetime : an immense valley,
some fifty miles long by upwards of thirty broad, sur
rounded by magnificent mountains, with two large
lakes and several smaller ones, scattered over it.
In Montezuma's time the vallev was nearly all lake ;
but the water has now contracted Aery much, and
but a small specimen remains of what it once was.
We descended very rapidly, and after reaching the
bottom, some thirty miles of flat dusty road brought
us to Mexico. This vallev, fine as it is, has little
cultivation, and appears to produce more snipes and

62 MEXICO.
wild ducks than anything else. One of the lakes
is salt, and we passed a sort of marsh covered with
salt pans. There are several smaU villages through
which the dihgence passes, but we saw nothing
worthy of remark in any of them.
We entered Mexico about six in the evening, by a
wretched street, so bad that a stranger would be
more inclined to fancy himself entering a stable-yard
than the capital of a great nation. A soldier imme
diately joined us, and rode, to my great horror, on
our side of the carriage with his carbine full-cock.
He accompanied us as far as the Plaza, and would
not take his leave until properly feed. I fancied
that this was some custom-house regulation, but
was afterwards credibly informed that were it not
for this protection, such as it is, the dihgence would
be as likely to be robbed, even in the town, as not.
We drove into the dihgence yard and found some
friends awaiting us ; and right glad we were to have
their assistance in placing us in the Hotel Bazaar,
when they left us to get rid of the dust with which
we were covered.

CHAP. III.
THE CITY OF MEXICO.
SITE  HOUSES AND STREETS  PUBLIC BUILDINGS  CATHEDRAL 
PALACE  MUSEUM  COSTUMES  MINERIA  CONVENTS  THE
HOST  AMUSEMENTS  THEATRE  PASEO  CLUB  CHAPULTEPEC
 TACUBAYA  MEXICANS AT HOME  LOWER CLASSES  ROBBERS
 ROBBERIES  ASSASSINATION  SANTA GUADALUPE  SAN
AUGUSTIN. I remained for three weeks in the city of Mexico,
and had therefore ample time for seeing all that
is interesting in it. The first week Jones and
myself remained at the Hotel Bazaar, a very good
estabUshment, with a French restaurant attached
to it, the whole kept by M. Arago, a brother of the
Parisian astronomer. The last fortnight of my stay
I removed to the house of the friends whom we had
left behind at Xalapa, and who had only then arrived
in Mexico.
Mexico is a large city, with upwards of 150,000
inhabitants. It hes in N. Lat. 19*25, and W. Long.
101°, and has an elevation of 7426 feet above the
sea. It is built on the precise site of the ancient

64 MEXICO.
Tenochtitlan, the capital of Montezuma, cap
tured and destroyed by Cortez, in the year 1521.
The ancient city, as is well known, was surrounded
by the lake which has now retreated about a league
from it. It was only accessible by causeways,
stretching to it in different directions from the
shore, some of them being no less than six miles
in length. These causeways still exist, and con
stitute raised roadways running through the half-
marshy soil that once formed the bottom of the
lake. The modern city retains much of the plan of its
predecessor — the same long, wide, and perfectly
straight streets, the same squares, and the same sites
of the public buildings. As the city was rebuflt by
Cortes, only two years after its destruction, and
while the lake was yet undiminished, the original
canals, bridges, &c, were necessarily retained ; and
the old names are still preserved, though now no
longer pertinent to places on dry land. Thus we
have the " Calle del Puente de " so and so, and such
like names of the streets. The position of the city,
though sadly shorn of the nearer beauties it pre
sented when surrounded by its lake, is stiU mag-

HOUSES AND STREETS. 65
nificent in relation to its surrounding scenery and
prospects. The grand valley in which it is situated,
as formerly stated, is upwards of fifty miles long,
and from thirty to forty broad, and is everywhere
bounded by an unbroken chain of lofty mountains,
girding it and its lakes like a waU, with the majestic
Popocatepetl towering over all. Owing to the
straightness of the streets, some portion of this
mountain boundary is visible from every quarter of
the city, and from the extreme clearness of the
atmosphere, the most distant part of the chain
seems almost as if it abutted on the vista of houses
through which you are looking.
Many of the streets are very good, and most of
them tolerable. Many of the houses are also fine ;
some even splendid. They are mostly three stories
high, and have gaUeries on their fronts ; they are
usually built of brick, or of "adobe," unburnt
brick ; very few are of stone. The house of Cortes,
and many of the original buildings erected at the
restoration, stiU remain.
Still, on the whole, Mexico is not a city to please
a stranger. It is badly paved, abominably dirty,
and rendered disgusting by its hordes of Lazzaroni

66 MEXICO.
(Leperos), said to be the greatest rascals on the face
of the earth.
In the heart of the city is the Grand Square (Plaza
Mayor), perhaps as large as Lincoln's Inn Fields.
On one side of this stands the Cathedral, on another
the Palace. The other two sides are made up of
portales, the same as at Puebla. The Cathedral is a
large handsome church, standing upon exactly the
same spot as stood the chief temple (TeocalU) of the
Astecs before the conquest. Into one side of it is
built an enormous circular stone, about twelve feet
in diameter, covered with hieroglyphics, and purport
ing to be a perpetual calendar used by the original
occupants of the city. Its ancient name is Kellenda,
and it is popularly called Montezuma's watch. This
and the great sacrificial stone of the TeocalU, are
almost the only reUcs that remain of the great nation
that passed away at the coming of the Spaniards.
The Cathedral contains a few good pictures, and
some magnificent railing round the altar, said to be
a compound of gold and silver. Taken as a whole,
however, I should say that the Cathedral of Mexico
is externally inferior to that of Puebla, and is much
disfigured by whitewash, from which that of Puebla

THE PALACE. 67
is free : it is certainly not to be compared, either
externaUy or internally, with most of our cathedral
churches in England. The floor is much spoUed by
being covered with wooden planks, which have be
come very rotten and unsightly.
The Palace, close by, is a splendid bunding and
very large, containing, under one roof, the whole of
the Government offices, as well as the residence of
the President and the chambers of the National
Assembly. These chambers are very poor for such
a purpose. The Palace, being the head quarters
of the Government, has guards mounted at the
different entrances, and a certain degree of state and
formality is kept up. The soldiers on duty, however,
are the most wretched specimens of their class : it
was ludicrous in the extreme to see them drawn up
in line for the purpose of telling off the different
guard, — some with crossbelts, some without, some
with shakos, some with broad-brimmed hats.
The same rule would apply to nearly aU their gar
ments and appointments. There is, however, an
efficient National Guard in Mexico of 4000 men,
400 of whom are foreigners — 300 French and 100
Germans, who are most active in maintaining the
tranquiUity ofthe town.

68 MEXICO.
The Congress, when not sitting in secret session,
is open to the public at large, and I attended its
meetings several times, but with little profit. I
know not whether it was owing to my imperfect
proficiency in Spanish, but I found the debates
excessively duU.
Near the Palace is the Museum, which contains
little of interest, except some old Indian curiosities,
which are in very bad condition, and badly kept.
In the court-yard of this building is a fine eques
trian statue of Charles the Fourth, by a native artist
of the name of Tolsa, which originally occupied the
centre of the Plaza, but which, at the Revolution,
the Republicans having done with kings and queens,
consigned to its present dingy resting-place. Among
the rubbish, in a corner of the same yard, is also de
posited the immense circular sacrificial stone-table of
the great temple, on which the Astecs used to sacri
fice their human victims: this, from its celebrity
and curiosity, is certainly worthy of a better abode.
In a street adjoining the palace is another fine
building, the Mint, the administration of which is
farmed out.
During the latter part of my stay in Mexico, I

DRESS. 69
lived in the best street in the town, the Calle San
Francisco, and had every opportunity of seeing the
public on foot, horseback, and in carriages, to the
best advantage. Ladies and gentlemen in Mexico
dress much the same as in Europe ; though among
the ladies the graceful mantilla of Spain is, in com
mon use, replaced by a horrid shawl, intensely gaudy,
which conceals almost the whole of the face. The
mantilla is worn on great occasions, but invariably
badly put on, and is a very poor imitation of its
sister of Andalusia.
Among the poorer classes, the women have the
whole of the upper part of their figures enveloped
in the reboso, a sort of scarf made in the country
and cleverly put on ; and terminate below in the
most gaudy dresses that can well be imagined.
With aU the ladies, however, gentle and simple,
the chief charm lies in their hands and feet, which
are quite in miniature. Stockings are unknown
among all the poorer classes ; and when a lady
wishes to intimate that she has a friend of con
sideration, she will tell you " tiene medias" — she
has stockings. The hair of all Mexican women is
also very beautiful, and, as they are much given to

70 MEXICO.
washing it, half the female population have always
their locks hanging to dry, down to their waists, in
most luxuriant masses.
The men are wrapped from head to foot, even in
the hottest weather, in the everlasting serape or
blanket, having a hole in the middle for the reception
of the head. Having peeled a native of this outer
skin, you will see him, on a feast-day, dressed in a
jacket generaUy ornamented with sUver buttons, a
silken sash round his waist, and his nether man
inclosed in calzoneros, or what, in England, we
should call overalls, opening from the hip to the
ankle, and closed, when requisite, with silver buttons.
They generaUy keep three or four of these buttons
fastened at top, leaving the rest open aU the way
down, displaying a plenitude of white drawers.
The whole man is surmounted with an immense
broad-brimmed conical black hat, plentifuUy suppUed
with lace on the rim, if the wearer can afford it, and
having, in addition, one or two thick-laced rolls
round the root of the crown ; the whole so stiffened
as to be nearly proof against a sword-cut. The
costume is the same throughout the republic of
Mexico, except that the ladies of Puebla have a

MINERIA. 71
taste a trifle gaudier than the rest of the Mexicanas,
and always prefer a good allowance of scarlet in their
"naguas" (petticoats).
Some of the best houses in the city are situated
in the Calle San Francisco ; and the finest of these is
the palace of the late emperor, Yturbide, some of
whose family still reside in Mexico. But the CoUege
of Mines, or school for instruction in Mining
(Mineria), is the finest building in Mexico, and re
minded me much of that part of the Louvre facing
the Seine ; however, its interior arrangements in the
various class-rooms, museums, &c, are little in
accordance with its outside : it is said to have cost
£120,000. This building was much shaken some
years ago by an earthquake, which caused a sub
sidence of the ground at one end of it, so much so
that there is at this moment nearly five feet difference
in height between the wall at one end of the Patio
and that at the other ; and yet no crack is visible.
My Russian friend and myself ascended the roof, on
which stands an observatory. Its great elevation
commands a splendid view of the city, with its
beautiful surrounding mountains.
Hearing that there was to be a great distribution

72 MEXICO.
of prizes in church, one Sunday, to youths who had
distinguished themselves in some school, I went,
and was rewarded by the sight of the President
Herrera, in full uniform, and all his ministers. The
ceremony was not very imposing, consisting chiefly
in the reading of essays and performance of music ;
but still a novelty worth seeing.
I visited, with a friend, two of the Mexican con
vents, the " San Francisco" and the " Professa."
The former of these is the largest in the town, but
much dilapidated, and dirty in the extreme ; its
patio filthy enough to breed a plague. The pictures
had been all spoilt, and we were actuaUy driven out
by the horrid odours infesting the place. The Pro
fessa is very different; it belongs to an order of
monks, not Jesuits but very analogous to them, and
is said to be the best-conducted, as well as the most
aristocratic establishment of the kind in Mexico.
A great part of this convent is open to the public,
and contains many fine pictures, the whole well kept
and scrupulously clean ; bearing a great contrast to
its brother of San Francisco.
Whilst examining the pictures in this part of the
building, one of the monks, an acquaintance of my

PICTURES. 73
friend, happened to pass, and very pohtely offered to
admit us to a private part of the convent, closed to
the public. This is called the " casa de ejercicios,"
into which divers persons go for a period of nine days,
to repent and do penance. There being no penitents
inhabiting this at the time, we gladly accepted the
monk's offer, and spent two or three hours very
agreeably in examining the pictures. These are, I
beheve, the best in Mexico, and are very beautiful.
They are mostly by an artist named Cabrera. Two
large pictures at the entrance are representations of
purgatory, with a thousand or more distinct figures
in each. They are wonderful works of art, and my
companion told me the impression they always made
upon penitents was very great ; though they were,
in many respects, very ludicrous. I remember one
figure, of the Devil carrying off an unfortunate soul
in a wheelbarrow !
Secluded as this building was, it did not escape
the curiosity of the Americans during their stay in the
city, and few of the pictures have escaped mutilation,
most of them having the eyes of the figures picked
out with bowie-knives. I suppose this was not done
so much out of mere wantonness, as from a sort of
4

74 MEXICO.
religious feeling ; at least, the General Green I have
mentioned before, seems to say that his men very
properly knocked over every cross they met with !
After leaving this sanctuary, we proceeded to the
private chapel, through the kindness of another gen
tleman belonging to the establishment, whom we
met in the " casa de ejercicios." There are a
few beautiful large pictures here, which have escaped
mutilation. Mexico is full of convents and nunneries, though
I was unable to gain admission to one of the latter.
Friars wearing gowns of aU colours are swarming all
day in the streets, and the incessant din of bells is
very unpleasant. The Host is perpetuaUy peram
bulating the town, and to a stranger this ceremony
is the most disagreeable I know. All persons within
sound of the warning bell are expected to kneel, in
the mud or otherwise, as the case may be, and
remain in that posture until the sound dies away,
even if he is two streets off, and does not see the
actual procession at all. On my first arrival I took
alarm at every beU I heard, and many a water-carrier
with his tinkling mule-beU has put me to full flight.
Afterwards I learnt to distinguish the true tone, and,

AMUSEMENTS. ?5
if possible, took refuge in a shop till the cortege had
passed. It is dangerous not to comply with the
custom of kneeling, as I have heard of knives being
used to force people to compliance. I once got
handsomely abused myself, for only taking off my
hat. The chief delights and amusements ofthe Mexicans
of the upper class are the theatre and the Paseo or
carriage promenade. The latter is thronged even-
day, between five and six. with carriages and riders ;
the carriages, many of them, very good, and well-
appointed, but drawn mostly by mules, and, except
on Sundays and feast-days, rendered ridiculous bv
the blackguard aspect of the servants. I have actu-
allv seen a handsome carriage, containing elegantly-
dressed ladies, with a dirty rascal behind wearing
a jacket, and with trousers embellished bv a vast
aperture in the most conspicuous part of them. On
the days I have mentioned, however, aU the servants
come out in livery : but from not knowing how to
put it on or keep it clean, their appearance is not
greatly improved. The Paseo might, with a Uttle
care, be made a pleasant place enough; but to reacli
it. one has to pass some horridly-odoriferous refuse

76 MEXICO.
heaps ; and the drive itself is either drowned in mud
or ankle- deep in dust. The watering part is done
by convicts, whom I have seen chained together by
the half-dozen, sluicing the road with water from
buckets, as if it were the deck of a ship.
In addition to the Paseo, there is a pretty Alameda,
containing many fine trees and shady walks, and
with a large fountain supplied by the aqueduct in
its centre ; but nobody appears to take the slightest
trouble in keeping it in order, and it is generally so
full of drunken leperos that ladies never think of
walking there.
The theatre is large and very neatly decorated, not
so big as either of the Opera houses in London, but as
large as any theatre in Paris : the entrance-hall, how
ever, is very dirty and odoriferous. There are no
private boxes, as in England, closed up with cur
tains ; but though every box is really private, each
circle, from the lowness of the partitions between
them, appears as if entirely open. The fronts of the
boxes are very low, not higher than the knees, and
display the ladies' dresses to the best advantage.
Each proprietor furnishes his own box ; a circum
stance which adds much to the beauty of the house,

OPERA. 77
the furniture being of varied colour and pattern, and
generally* very splendid and luxurious. The pit is
entirely divided into staUs, and the aspect of the
house on benefit or feast-day nights would be very
beautiful from the splendid dresses and jewellery of
the ladies, were it not for the cloud of blue incense
ascending from the pit, where smoking " puros" is
allowed to any extent. Each box has attached to it
a little room where the ladies retire between the acts
to smoke their papelillos. All ladies in Mexico
smoke more or less ; but the younger part of the
community seldom in public. The acting, whilst
I was in Mexico, was good, and once a year they
generaUy manage to get an opera-company from
Havannah. The ladies in Mexico have a very curious method
of acknowledging the presence of their friends, either
in the theatre, paseo, or street, which consists in
shaking the fan shghtly open for a minute or so,
looking at the same time in the direction of the per
son they wish to acknowledge.
The portales in Mexico, hke those of Puebla, are
filled with a multitude of dulce, pulque, toy, and
other stalls, which, from their attractions, always

78 MEXICO.
occasion a great crowd, and make the corridor nearly
impassable. Many of the best shops in the city,
which are almost entirely kept by French or Ger
mans, are situated in these portales ; and round
their windows are always to be seen a crowd of
gaping Indians who have come in from the country
with provisions, and are quite entranced by the
wonders of the capital.
The gentlemen have a club containing newspapers
and other periodicals, and billiards ; it is also a sort
of exchange, a great deal of business being done
there in the course of the day. Some of the Mexican
billiard-players are firstrate, and I think, if brought
over here, would astonish some of the crack English
markers. The game played is the Spanish — viz.,
with wooden pins in the middle of the table.
Simple as it seems to knock these down, two good
players, by judiciously leaving the baUs, will render
this a matter of some difficulty.
In its original state, when surrounded by the lake,
Mexico had, within itself, no water fit to drink,
the lake being brackish. It is still as badly off as in
Montezuma's time; and this necessary article is
now supplied, as it was then, by aqueducts — some

AQUEDUCTS. 79
of them the very same as in the old city. One of
these is brought from Chapultepec, a full league
from the town. This Chapultepec is the pleasantest
spot in the immediate vicinity of the city. There
is a fine fort at it, which ought to have made more
resistance to the Americans than it did. This place
is also famous for some enormous cypresses, by far
the largest trees I ever saw. They are the relics of
a wood which once covered the spot, and are said
to have been of fuU growth in the time of Monte
zuma. The largest is upward of forty feet in cir
cumference. They are all covered with a long grey
lichen, which makes them appear even older and
more venerable than they are.
The road to this place, continued farther, brings
you to a pretty little village called Tacubaya, where
most of the wealthy families in Mexico have country
houses, and where there are some beautiful gardens.
It is a favourite resort for Mexican cockneys on
hohdays ; omnibuses, imported from America, run
ning between it and the town. In company with
some friends, I often went to Tacubaya before break
fast in the cool of the morning.
From the shortness of my stay in it, I saw little

80 MEXICO.
of the polite society of the capital ; but from all
that I heard, I should say it was very good. Some
of the domestic arrangements are however, curious.
One goes, say to pay a morning visit, and in place
of finding a beU-rope with a servant at the end
of it, discovers that it is necessary to mount the
stairs, and explore each room individually, until he
either stumbles upon some servant who can give
him information, or finds the lady or gentleman
whom he came to seek. AU Mexicans — ladies espe
cially — have a wonderful aptitude for sitting in their
bed-rooms ; and it is often necessary for an intimate
acquaintance to walk through half the rooms in the
house, ladies' bed-rooms and all, before he meets
with anybody.
With regard to the poorer classes of the capital,
I was luckily thrown little in their way; but aU
agreed in giving them, generaUy, a very bad cha
racter. Drinking is carried to a great extent;
Catalan brandy and a strong spirit caUed mescal,
made from a species of aloe, but not the maguey,
being nearly as much in request as pulque itself.
There is no regular police in the city, and after dark
it is dangerous to go far without pistols. The only

ROBBERIES. 81
guardians of the night are some watchmen who are
armed with a spear and a lanthorn; the latter they put
in the middle of the street, and then retire to sleep
quietly in some doorway, only waking up now and then
to call the hours, and give a peculiar sort of whistle,
like a boatswain's. An English gentleman, resident
in Mexico, told me that one night returning from a
party, he was attacked in the CaUe San Francisco by
three men, and it was only by producing pistols,
which he always carried, that he got safely home.
A few days after I arrived in the capital, the two
diligences from Vera Cruz and Puebla were robbed
between Rio Frio and Mexico ; the passengers losing
about fifteen hundred doUars. Many of the pas
sengers in the Vera Cruz diligence had come with
us in the steamer, and from one of them I learnt
the manner in which highway robbery is here
managed. In the present instance, the passengers
of the two diligences amounted to eighteen, none of
whom had any arms. The robbers were only ten,
but all armed ; they were on foot by the roadside,
and concealed. When the diligences arrived at the
ambuscade, these fellows jumped up, and requested
the drivers to stop, which they immediately did
4 §

82 MEXICO.
according to a standing order to that effect, in con
sequence of a passenger sitting beside the coachman
having been shot some time before. Some of the
robbers then came to the coach-doors, requesting
the passengers to ahght, and easing each of them of
his watch, money, &c, as he came down the steps
of the carriage. The whole eighteen were then
placed in a line, with their faces to the hedge, and
threatened with instant punishment if they in
any way interfered with the operation of ransacking
the luggage. This was then aU taken down — port
manteaus cut open with knives, and trunks broken
open with hatchets, tiU everything of value had been
extracted. The unlucky passengers were then told
to get their things together as they best could,
replace them in the diligence, and continue their
journey. The drivers looked on during these
operations with utter indifference, and many country
people passed with mules, but took no notice of
what was going on.
Mexican robbers seldom illtreat people unless
resistance is offered, and do not often attack any
party that is likely to offer any. A fortnight or
three weeks before I arrived in Mexico, two dili-

ROBBERIES. 83
gences were robbed at two o'clock in the afternoon,
in the Paseo, and within a stone's throw of twTo
guard-houses ; and an Englishman of my acquaint
ance was once eased of his horse, watch, money,
and valuables, in the Alameda, through the agency
of the lazo, which is a most effective weapon in
experienced hands. Shortly after I left the city
a most worthy old gentleman, a member of the
congress, was found at five in the evening, in a
public hotel, stabbed in his bedroom, and quite
dead, with thirty-nine wounds in different parts of
his body. A stir was made about this murder, as it
happened to a person of importance, but nothing
was heard, at the time, of the murderers, and pro
bably never will be, until one of them confesses on
his death-bed. — From what I have said of the
lower classes, one can form a tolerable idea of their
respectability; I will say, however, that they never
did me any harm, though as I never went out of
any of the main streets at night, 1 never had much
chance of getting into trouble.
I was very sorry that my time did not enable me
to stay for the feast of Santa Guadalupe, the patron
Saint of Mexico, which was celebrated shortly after

84 MONTE.
I left. This feast is the great hoUday of the year in
Mexico, and is attended by aU the people of any
consideration in the town, headed by the President
of the republic and aU his ministers. The shrine of
the Saint is some four or five miles distant from
Mexico, and aU the people go there in procession to
hear mass, the day being kept as a general hoUday
throughout the republic. I was told the ceremony
was very splendid, and much regretted missing it.
In the neighbourhood of Mexico is also another
place I should have much Uked to have seen at the
proper season ; a vUlage caUed San Augustin, and at
which are yearly given a succession of " Fiestas,"
the chief amusements being cock-fighting and gamb
ling, both on a very extensive scale. The Monte is
described as truly wonderful, the principal tables
being heaped with enormous masses of ounces, and
going gradually down to the clacos or copper coin of
the leperos. My friend Jones told me that he once
saw, in the time of Santa Anna, that prince of
gamblers, 60,000 golden ounces on one Monte table,
at which Santa Anna was playing. An ounce or
doubloon is worth sixteen dollars, or about £3. 4s.

CHAP. IV.
MEXICO TO GUANAXUATO.
DEPARTURE  TULA  ARROYO SARCO  O.UERETARO  SINGULAR AT
TACK OF ROBBERS  COTTON FACTORY  GUANAXUATO  SLEEPING
Q.UARTERS— HOSPITALITY  MEXICAN SAINTS' DAYS  GUANAX
UATO A MINING TOWN  PRODUCE OF THE MINES  VISIT TO THE
MINES  LA LUZ  SANTA LUCIA  AUCTIONS  RAYAS MINE  DE
SCENT INTO IT  THE WORKMEN— HACIENDA DE BENEFICIO  PRE
PARATION OF THE ORE  AMALGAMATION — REDUCTION.
On the 5th of December I left the city of Mexico,
to pursue my journey westward. A few evenings
before I started, I was agreeably surprised by meet
ing in the theatre the gentleman whose hospitality
we had enjoyed in Vera Cruz, and finding him
anxious to go as far as Guanaxuato, for the purpose
of seeing the mines, two other gentlemen, one my
Russian friend and the other an American, de
termined on joining the party; Jones preferred
remaining some time longer in Mexico, and I did
not see him again for a month or two. This time

86 ARMED PASSENGERS.
we all carried fire-arms, and presented a most warlike
appearance. One of the secrets of avoiding robbers
in Mexico, is always to take your arms with you
when you get out of the dihgence for breakfast or
otherwise, as there are always some fellows on the
watch to observe the condition and aspect of the
passengers, which being ascertained they gaUop off
to report the result to their comrades who are
stationed on the road in advance.
The diligence was quite full, and nearly all the
passengers, except ourselves, were going to the fair
of St. Juan de los Lagos, to which I shaU come by
and bye. We left the valley of Mexico at its north
western extremity, seeing little in the early part of
the day worthy of observation. By eleven o'clock
we came in sight of a pretty little town caUed Tula,
where we stopped to breakfast. On descending from
the diligence, I think we must here have looked very
like ladrones, especially our Russian friend, who
carried a pistol like a young carbine, under each
arm. Owing to the provident forethought of an
English gentleman in Mexico, we were well found in
wines and spirituous liquors, and they proved very
acceptable ; creature comforts of that kind being

ARROYO SARCO. 87
excessively bad at the diligence halting-places. The
road we travelled this day was a shade better than
usual, more owing, I believe, to the natural state of
the earth's surface than anything else, as our next
day's journey presented us with the worst specimen
I had yet seen.
About six o'clock in the evening we reached
Arroyo Sarco, where we stopped for the night.
Between this place and Tula we had passed through
some beautiful tracts of country, fine large grass
plains, bounded by well-wooded hiUs, and reminding
me much of our own South Downs. There is only
one house at Arroyo Sarco : it was built by the
enterprizing owner of the diligences, whose pro
perty it and the large estates attached to it, are.
It is a fine large brick edifice, tastefully planned, and
not unUke an EngUsh railway station. All the
passengers' comforts are well attended to, and I
think it the best resting-place in the diligence line,
between Vera Cruz and Guadalaxara. It was the
only house in the whole republic in which I ever saw
a fireplace ; and pleasant enough we found the fire
in a cold damp evening, such as that we passed
here.

88 ROBBERY.
We left Arroyo Sarco at four in the morning, and,
after a hot and dusty ride over a most wretched road,
reached Queretaro at four in the afternoon, stopping
to breakfast at St. Juan del Rio, a little town stand
ing in a deep valley, and having one of the worst
reputations of any in Mexico.
A remarkable robbery took place, about three
years ago, whilst a Scotch gentleman and his family
were descending the hill leading into this town, and
the account of which I will here give, as I heard it
from the gentleman's own mouth. The traveUing
party consisted of my informant, his wife, her sister,
a maid-servant, and two or three children. The
only male servant was a lad of fifteen or sixteen,
whose duty consisted in driving the mules of their
carriage. They had an escort of seven soldiers and
plenty of fire-arms in the carriage ; the gentleman
himself carrying a double-barreUed rifle. Whilst
descending this hill, and in full view of the town,
the escort, at that time some distance behind, was
attacked by nine robbers, and after a short fight,
discomfited, leaving on the ground the sergeant in
command, badly wounded, the rest taking to flight.
The master of the family, finding what was going on

ROBBERY. 89
in his rear, left the carriage, giving one pistol to his
wife and another to his boy, with strict injunctions
not to use them except in case of extremity. The
escort being put to flight, the robbers imagined they
had it all their own way, and came down upon the
carriage at an easy trot. However, a buUet from the
rifle of the gallant Scotchman rolled over the leading
man, on which the rest, taking to the bushes and
the road side, opened a fire with their villanous
carbines ; but, luckily, hit nobody. The carriage
still rapidly descending the hill, and approaching the
town, in a short time the second barrel of the rifle
gave out its contents, and a second robber fell. The
remainder then, seeing both the deadly rifle barrels
discharged, made a rush at the carriage, and one
rascal had his hand actually on the carriage door,
when the boy put his pistol to his breast, and shot
him dead. By this time the firing had alarmed the
townspeople who were coming up the hiU to the
rescue, and the robbers, seeing three of their number
dead, and that the odds would soon be against them,
took to flight; and so ended one of the most gallant
little fights I have ever heard of.

90 QUERETARO,
This gentleman told me he had been in the habit
of living among the Comanches in the Sierra
Madre, where one had to " take care of his hair," as
the backwoodsmen say ; and that, in consequence, he
was pretty cool in his operations, knowing, more
over, that when he did shoot at a man, he was most
likely to hit him.
Queretaro is a large town of 40,000 inhabitants,
and during the war, whilst the Americans were in
possession of the city of Mexico, was the head-quar
ters of the Mexican Government. Owing to the
desire of some of my companions to see a large
cotton factory belonging to Mr. Rubio, situated at a
short distance from the town, we were unable to see
much of the latter ; and to the factory we went
accordingly. It is very large and beautifuUy
situated, employing a great number of hands, and
is fitted with all the last European improvements in
machinery. The supply of water is, however, some
what scanty, and to make up for this defect as much
as possible, a wheel of immense diameter (50 feet)
has been brought from England, and was just fixed
in its place as we arrived. This manufactory, I

A BEAUTY. 91
beheve, is one of the largest in the republic ; but
from bad management, and the immense outlay,
has not yet proved by any means a thriving
concern. In addition to the manufacture of cotton
goods, in one part of the buflding carpets are woven,
but indifferent in quality; and this manufacture, I
was told, does not pay at aU.
Among the girls at work in one of the rooms, we
saw one about fifteeen years of age, of pure Indian
blood, of surpassing beauty, with her splendid hair
hanging considerably below her waist, and forcibly
reminding me of one of the American Cooper's
heroines. The damsel was quite aware of her own
perfections, and seemed much to enjoy the admira
tion of us four " Gringos."
On our return to the town, we found it so dark,
that nothing could be seen ; and, for my part, I
regretted our visit to the factory very much ; fac
tories being easily seen by scores in England,
whilst Queretaros are rather more difficult to find.
We dined very badly at the dihgence table d'hote,
the house being kept by a surly, disagreeable fellow,
whose conduct and demeanour one of our party
threatened to report to his master in Mexico ;

92 TOWNS.
but whether he did so or no I am ignorant. After
dinner we went to the theatre, a mere barn, tem
porarily used whilst a new one was buUding, and
in which we had the pleasure of seeing a fine old
Spanish tragedy brutaUy murdered, so that it
became a mere farce.
We left Queretaro, as usual, at four in the morning,
passing through a splendidly-cultivated country the
whole day. The road was good, at least for Mexican
highways, and the vaUey or plain in which we
traveUed, the richest in the repubUc, endless fields of
maize lining the road on both sides. This valley is
named the Bajio.
A good many large towns marked this day' s route :
in the first of these, Celaya, we detained the diligence,
being now the only passengers, whilst we went to
look at some of the churches for which this place is
famous. In Mexico they may be considered very
fine, but present nothing very striking to a foreigner.
We passed, during the day, crowds of people going
to and coming from the fair of St. Juan. At Sala
manca we breakfasted, and well too, if I remember
right. After passing Trapuato, a good large town,
where we changed horses, we reached the verge of

GUANAXUATO. 93
the plain, and entered the Canada, or glen among
the hills, through which flowed a stream of dirty
water coming from the Haciendas de Beneficio, or
works in which the extraction of the silver from the
ore takes place.
Two stages before we reached Guanaxuato, whilst
changing horses, I was much taken by the appear
ance of a little girl, of some seven years old, in a
cottage where we went to procure some water; and I
may as well mention, that throughout Mexico, all the
young children I saw were very pretty and interest
ing, the young ladies being much prettier at that age
than when they get older.
We drove into the diligence yard in Guanaxuato
at about six, and found the town brilliantly illumi
nated, in honour of Santa Guadalupe, who celebrated
her feast the following day. Upon inquiry for quar
ters at the diligence hotel, we found that, owing to
the number of people passing and repassing to and
from the fair of St. Juan, the house was almost fuU,
and we had to put up with a six-bedded room, which
already contained another occupant. I ought to
have mentioned before, that in the whole Une of
diligence stopping-places, with the exception of

94 GUANAXUATO.
Arroyo Sarco, the traveUer may consider himself
very lucky if he can get a single or even a double-
bedded room. Most rooms have, at the least, four
beds, and some as many as six or eight. However,
at Guanaxuato we promised to pay for the bed still
unoccupied, and by great exertion got our other
room-fellow moved elsewhere, so that, at last, we had
the room to ourselves.
After dinner we took a walk in the plaza, on one
side of which stands the hotel, which was fuU of
people, selling all manner of eatables, and all the
houses in the neighbourhood brilhantly illuminated.
During the evening we could think of no better
amusement than giving an unlimited supply of
dulces and such-like matters to the children in the
streets ; but soon finding that this made us some
what too conspicuous, and collected rather too large
a crowd of juvenile expectants, we thought it best
to retire for the night.
The next morning we presented the letters of in
troduction with which we were furnished. One of
our party already knew the gentleman to whom I
was consigned, and who is manager of one of the
English mining companies established here. The

saints' DAYS. 95
American went to the master of the mint, also an
Englishman; and both gentlemen, with the usual
Mexican hospitality, invited us to come to their
houses during our stay. We availed ourselves of
th e ir kind offers, and remained, three in one house
and one in the other during the five days we were
in Guanaxuato. Owing to our first day being a
Saint's day, and the next Sunday, nothing could be
seen of the mines on either.
These Saints' days are a positive nuisance through
out the whole country. I believe they have been
somewhat curtailed in number of late ; but when
one does come, and that is pretty often, good bye
to aU work. The people do nothing but enjoy
themselves and get drunk till the holiday is over.
During the whole Semana Santa or passion-week,
all business is everywhere suspended, and large
establishments, such as factories, worked by natives,
are obliged to be shut up for the period. During
these two days we employed ourselves as weU as
we could, in seeing all that was worth seeing in the
town, as far as externals were concerned. Gua
naxuato is a large place of 70,000 inhabitants, en
tirely inhabited by people who have either a direct

96 GUANAXUATO.
or indirect interest in the silver mines, with which
the district abounds. Though high above the sea, it
is less elevated than Mexico. One of its pecu-
Uarities of construction struck us very agreeably.
In all other Mexican towns I have seen, the streets
are perfectly flat and straight ; in Guanaxuato they
are all up and down hiU, and pleasantly crooked.
This straightness of the streets is very remarkable
in the city of Mexico. Stand in what part of the
town you wiU, you can almost invariably see the
open country at the end of the street.
Guanaxuato is not a clean town, but very busi
ness-like and bustling, having the reputation of
being the most thriving place in the repubUc. The
master of the mint informed me that, owing to the
increasing yield of the mines, more than ten millions
of dollars had been coined there during the previous
year, and that he expected that the coinage of the
present (1850) would reach fifteen. During one of
our two idle days, we paid a visit to the master of a
Hacienda de Beneficio, a couple of miles from the
town, and whom one of our party previously knew.
This was the gentleman whose adventure with the
robbers at St. Juan del Rio, I have mentioned

sight-seeing. 97
before. He was very kind to us, and though his
establishment was not at work, took the trouble
of going aU over it, and explaining the various
processes. On the third day after our arrival we started by
times, to visit the famous mines of La Luz and
Santa Lucia. They are situated among the hiUs, at
five leagues distance from Guanaxuato ; we con
sequently rode to them, our entertainers having
kindly lent us horses. Throughout the whole road,
a mere foot-path Uke those in Switzerland, we met
and passed troops of mules, to the amount of some
thousands, I should think, either bringing the rough
ore from the mines to the Haciendas, or returning
for more. Soon after nine (having started at six)
we reached the town of La Luz, a large place, with
a population of 30,000, but very poor in appear
ance, its inhabitants belonging entirely to the
mining interest. We were very kindly received by
the English manager of the mine of Santa Lucia,
and furnished by him with a capital breakfast. This
done we went to see the various works going on.
Two of my companions descended the shaft; the
remaining one and myself, preferring to go the next
5

98 SCENE IN THE PATIO.
day down Rayas, which, as a work of art, is superior
to Santa Lucia, this latter being quite a new mine
without any extensive underground works and re
markable only for the richness of its ore.
The scene in the Patio of this mine is very strik
ing, about 5,000 people, men, women, and children,
being employed in sorting and breaking the ore in
all directions. The ore, when broken to a proper
size, is sorted into different heaps ; and it is strange
to see how practised the performers are in this
operation, knowing, from merely looking at a piece
of rough ore, whether it ought to belong to this or
that heap. Every week there is an auction in the
Patio, which is conducted in a curious manner ; the
various bidders going up and each whispering to the
auctioneer what he wiU give for such a heap, and the
latter merely calling out the name of the highest
bidder and the price. These weekly auctions in
Santa Lucia produce immense sums, I forget how
much ; but the mere wages paid to the workpeople
amount to 25,000 doUars (£5,000) a week.
The ore is raised from the mine by means of horses
or mules, there not being, I believe, such a thing as
a steam-engine in the district. The natives have a

THE MINES. 99
great repugnance to anything new, and the requisite
fuel could not be had without immense expense.
From Santa Lucia we went to La Luz, which for
merly was the richest mine in Mexico, but is now
entirely eclipsed by the former ; and the quiet de
serted Patio of the one bore a great contrast to the
bustle and life of the other. The workings of these
two mines communicate. We returned to Guana
xuato by the same road which we had come, still pass
ing the torrent of mules with their valuable cargoes.
The next morning, in company with our host, we
went to inspect some of the mines in the neighbour
hood of Guanaxuato, which were under his immediate
jurisdiction. We first went to Rayas, one of the
largest and oldest mines in the republic ; it is Within
a short distance of Guanaxuato, but still unapproach
able by any wheeled vehicle. The mine has two
shafts, at some distance from each other. The first
we looked down was at that time occupied with
huge bags of hide, by which the water coUected at
the bottom is raised from the mine. The shaft itself
is of prodigous size, thirty-four feet in diameter.
The water apparatus is worked by horses or mules,
and must be a dreadfully tedious operation, the labour

100 THE DESCENT.
of five or six animals for ten minutes not sufficing
to raise more than perhaps a hundred gallons.
I should think these bags did not contain more. We
next proceeded to the other shaft, situated on a
different hill, and, I dare say, distant from the first
one a quarter of a mile.
This time we all intended to descend, and miners'
clothes being provided, we prepared ourselves ac
cordingly. This shaft is not so large as its fellow,
but big and deep enough (300 yards) to inspire one
with a good deal of awe and apprehension, espe
cially as we knew, from seeing the descent, the day
before, at Santa Lucia, how such things are managed.
We were furnished with some boys as guides, car
rying candles, and were then tied, boys and aU, on
to the rope, like onions, one above the other, and so
let down. During the descent the boys commenced
singing a chant which sounded very well from the
prodigious echo. After we had reached a certain
depth, the rope, from its length, began to revolve,
and at first we had some difficulty in keeping our
selves from knocking against the sides.
We remained below a considerable time, and
walked a great distance. The heat was intolerable,

THE WORKMEN. 101
and ventilation very bad ; in fact, when we reached
a spot where some fifty men were working, it was
more than flesh and blood could stand, and we were
glad to make our escape to a cooler place. The
workings are very large, but do not display any of
that elaborate architectural skill which so struck me
in the quicksilver mine of Almaden, in Spain, when
I visited it in the spring. The ore of Rayas is, or
was at the time of my visit, very poor, and from
being one of the richest mines in the republic, it is
now become one of the least productive. There are
a few spots in the mine where rich ore is met with,
but it is in very small quantities.
On my remarking the absence of foreign work
men among the actual miners, I was told that they
had been often tried, but never found to answer.
Cornishmen or others brought from England, inva
riably took to drinking, and became so insolent and
unmanageable that no reliance could be placed
upon them, besides being physically unequal to
the work in that climate. Most of the super
intendents of mines are English or Americans, and
aU told me that they would prefer never having any
but natives under their orders.

102 HACIENDA DE BENEFICIO.
On our return to daylight, after a good puri
fication we breakfasted with the resident super
intendent of the mine, and had a look at the Patio.
There were going on exactly the same operations as
we had previously seen at Santa Lucia, but with
fewer people at work. After this we rode to the
Promontorio, a smaU and poor mine, where we
witnessed one of the weekly sales I have men
tioned before. The whole lot only fetched 100
dollars. The country about Guanaxuato is fuU of mines,
but rich as it is underground, it is very barren on
the surface ; no cultivation at aU, and hardly any
wood ; nothing seeming to flourish but the ever
lasting cactus and prickly pear.
After returning to Guanaxuato we visited the
Hacienda de Beneficio, under the immediate super
intendence of our host, and witnessed the whole
process, from the bringing in of rough lumps of ore
on the mules' backs, to the taking out of bright
lumps of silver, ready for the mint. The Hacienda
de Beneficio consists of long rows of buildings sur
rounding a large Patio, paved with stone, and
covered with what, to a stranger, appear heaps of

PREPARATION OF THE ORE. 103
mud, with groups of mules treading it about in all di
rections. AU the power used is suppUed by mules.
First, the ore as it comes from the mines is
put under large stampers of wood shod with iron,
and crushed to the size of a bean. Next, this gravel
is put into a circular tub-Uke reservoir, made of
flat slabs, and paved with small rough stones, placed
close together, and perpendicularly; in this reser
voir are perpetuaUy travelling round and round, two
or three large rough blocks of stone. These, with
the help of water, grind the ore into a thin mud,
quicksilver in small quantities being added to separate
the gold, of which aU the ore contains a smaU por
tion. With the quicksilver it forms an amalgam,
which sticks in the crevices of the rough stones at
the bottom of the tub. This precious mud is next
spread upon the stone floor of the Patio, exposed
to the sun, and, after a couple of days or so, is plen
tifully sprinkled with salt and pounded copper ore.
Lastly, quicksilver is added in large quantities, and
our mud heap is complete. After remaining exposed
to the sun for several days more, the whole being
meanwhile plentifully stirred up by mules, to cause
the necessary combinations of the ores and salt and

104 AMALGAMATION.
the silver and quicksilver, the mass is taken to the
washing tubs, in which work large arms of wood.
Here the greater portion of the dirt is washed away,
and the heavy amalgam of silver and quicksilver
remains at the bottom. The water is then let off
from the tubs, and men with spades get out the
amalgam, which is subjected to a second washing by
hand in large, round wooden bowls. The operators
are most skilful in the management of these bowls,
and get rid of nearly all the remaining rubbish,
retaining the amalgam at the bottom. The amal
gam is next put into a quicksUver bath, or large
brick vat fuU of quicksilver, for the purpose of
taking up any small portions of silver which remain
still unamalgamated. The whole is then filtered
through an immense canvass bag, which aUows the
pure quicksilver to run off, leaving the amalgam
behind, which now comes out in a sort of hardish
paste of the consistency of mortar nearly dry. This
paste is cut into triangular shapes, and put into a sort
of furnace, in order to expel the quicksilver. The
pieces of amalgam are piled in a circle on a copper
plate, having a hole in its centre, communicating with
a vessel of water beneath. Over this pUe is then

AN OLD FRIEND. 105
placed a large iron or copper bell, which is luted to
the plate, and then surrounded by burning charcoal.
The fire is kept up a sufficient length of time to drive
off the quicksilver which condenses and is coUected
in the water below. After this operation, the pure
silver remains, much reduced, of course, in weight,
but of the same size as when put under the bell.
Nothing now remains but to take it to the mint,
and as no pure silver is permitted to be exported
from Guanaxuato, this is always immediately done.
I inquired whether all this dabbling in quicksilver
had not some noxious effect on the operators or the
mules ; but was told not. — During the whole of
these processes a sharp watch is kept upon the
workmen who, as they are aU rogues, wiU steal ore,
quicksUver, amalgam, or anything they can lay their
hands upon. These Haciendas are like mills in
England, seldom having any connection with parti
cular mines, but open to grind anybody's ore for a
consideration. The next day was again a feast-day and nothing
doing. An Englishman resident in the town very
kindly offered to conduct us to the top of one of
the hills overhanging it, and from which we had a
5§

106 DEPARTURE.
splendid view of part of Guanaxuato. From the
conformation of the ground it is impossible to see
all the town at once.
To my great joy on returning from this ride, I
found that an old friend from the west, on his road
to Mexico, had arrived by the dihgence ; and a plea
sant chat over old times occupied the rest of the day.
As we were all going to start at four the next
morning we took leave of our kind hosts over night,
and slept at the dihgence hotel, — five in one room.
My newly-arrived friend and my three travelhng
companions, next morning, took their seats in the
dihgence for Mexico, and I mine, to pursue my
solitary route to Guadalaxara.

CHAP. V.
GUANAXUATO TO TEPIC.
LEON  LAGOS  GREAT FAIR OF SAN JUAN  VOLCAN DE COLIMA
 RIO GRANDE  GUADALAXARA  DEPARTURE  ESCORT  SOL
DIERS' DISCIPLINE  DEFUNCT ROBBERS ILL DRESSED  LACK OF
TRAVELLING CONVENIENCES  MOZOS  BARRANCAS  CLIMATES
OF MEXICO  A FRENCH FAMILY  LAST DAY'S JOURNEY  MEXICAN-
HORSES  TEPIC.
Once out of the hills which surround Gua
naxuato, the country becomes quite flat, fertile,
and well cultivated, and with little picturesque
beauty. The dfligence only contained one other
passenger besides myself. We stopped to breakfast
at a large and dirty town, caUed Leon. This place,
my companion told me, contained 60,000 inha
bitants. I should have guessed it at less ; but it is
a large town. It is celebrated for its iron manufac
ture, being the Birmingham of Mexico. The dili
gence was robbed between Leon and Guanaxuato,
two days before I passed. After leaving Leon, we
crossed a rocky ridge of hiU, upon a wretched road,
and about two o'clock in the afternoon reached

108 LAGOS.
Lagos, the sleeping-place,— the duUest Uttle town I
ever had thev pleasure of spending half a day in.
There is nothing to see, and I think I went to bed
as soon as it was dark, for want of something to do.
The next morning, at four, found us again in the
dUigence, and upon the road leading to San Juan
de los Lagos. The country was throughout hiUy,
but uninteresting, and the road execrable. Whilst
it was still dark, we passed several encampments of
people coming from the fair, and when it became
light met vast crowds in motion. This fair is held
yearly, and is attended by people from aU parts of
the republic ; it corresponds to one of the great
Russian or German fairs, and an immense deal of
business is transacted at it. The scene along the
road, until we reached St. Juan, was very amusing,
every available means of locomotion being made use
of, and the costumes of the traveUers as various as
their means of travelling. Waggons, carriages, carts
drawn by bullocks, and carts drawn by horses, men
and women, singly and in couples, on horseback,
muleback, and donkeyback, by scores, were pouring
along the road, whilst the pedestrians were even
more numerous stiU. In the Mexican repubUc, when

ST. JUAN. 109
a lady and gentleman ride on the same horse, no
extra saddle or piUion is used. The gentleman
politely gives up his saddle to the lady, and takes his
seat behind on the horse's bare back, clasping her
round the waist as she sits sideways, and looking, I
think, to what we would call the wrong side of the
horse. Before we reached the fair I am sure we must
have met and passed from 8000 to 10,000 people.
At eight o'clock in the morning we reached
St. Juan, and had some difficulty in making our
way through the vast crowd swarming in the
streets. The diligence stopped here four hours,
and I had plenty of time to look about me. Rather
expecting to find a friend here, I went in search of
him immediately, but found that he had left for
Guadalaxara. St. Juan stands in a deep valley,
entirely surrounded by hills, and, save at the fair
time, is evidently a place of little importance. The
scene it presented at present reminded me strongly
of the Epsom Downs on the Derby day. I was told
there were no less than 200,000 strangers collected,
most of them, during their stay, living in the car
riage, waggon, or other vehicle, that had brought
them.

110 FAIR OF SAN JUAN.
Among such a collection, of course, thieves, never
scarce articles in Mexico, were pretty plentiful.
The friend I met in Guanaxuato, in passing through
this place two days before, lost three handkerchiefs
in as many hours. A merchant keeping a store
here, told me that out of the 200,000 people sup
posed to be at the fair, about 50,000 had come for
commercial purposes and the rest to steal !
Everything in the known world is to be bought
or sold at this fair. The merchants keep open shop
with small flags having their name and description
of the articles sold with appropriate devices such as
" muy barato " (very cheap) and others of a like
sort, projecting from the doorway. The value of
the merchandise sent is enormous. One gentleman
in the city of Mexico remarked, on my asking if the
fair this year was likely to be good, " I hope so, as I
have 300,000 dollars' worth of goods there." Itine
rant venders of everything fill up the streets, and
the stranger is beset with fifty people at once, all
wanting to sell fifty different things. The com
monest articles are horses, saddles, bridles, spurs,
whips, scrapes, rebosos, lazos, swords, pistols, et id
genus omne. A French restaurateur had established

SAN MIGUEL. Ill
a capital breakfasting-house in the Plaza, and to
him I repaired. GambUng is of course one of the
great amusements at the fair ; the Monte tables
being without number and large sums lost and won.
At twelve o'clock we left St. Juan, the diligence
being now fuU and containing among the passengers
an Englishman bound for Mazatlan. By six o' clock
we reached our stopping-place, San Miguel. The
country is very hiUy between St. Juan and this place,
but with a good deal of fine turf. San Miguel is a
Uttle place, prettily enough situated, but containing
nothing of interest. This evening, for the first time
since I left the Azores, there fell a little rain, but the
shower did not last five minutes.
At the usual hour, I started again for my last day's
journey in the dihgence. This day's advance was,
in point of country, a decided improvement upon
the last one, — the greater part of the way being
through fine plains, bounded on both sides by
abundance of hills. We stopped in the " Tierra
Colorada " or red land, so called from the colour of
the soil, at a roadside hut for breakfast, which was
wretched, and our company was shared by pigs,
poultry, dogs, and any other thing or body that

112 VOLCAN DE COLIMA.
chose to join us. In the early part of the morning
we got a ghmpse of the snow-covered Volcan de
CoUma, situated nearly on the Pacific, and at least
150 miles distant from us as the crow flies. We
passed through one excessively pretty viUage, I think
Zapotitlan, where there appeared to be great cul
tivation of oranges, Umes, bananas, and other fruits :
plenty of which were bought and consumed in the
dihgence. About ten leagues before we reached
Guadalaxara, we passed the Rio Grande or Santiago,
which runs into the Pacific at San Bias. We crossed
it by a fine stone bridge, the river here being of some
considerable size. This, however, is the only river
I saw between the two oceans large enough to in
quire the name of. We reached Guadalaxara about
half-past four, and I found my friend, missed at
St. Juan, waiting for me at the dihgence office.
I arrived in Guadalaxara on a Saturday night, and
now took leave of the diligence, having to pursue
my journey on horseback for the rest of the way,
about 170 mfles. Finding that a gentleman was
going to Tepic, the place of my destination, on
Monday morning, in a carriage, I agreed to accom
pany him part of the way, and immediately set

GUADALAXARA. 113
about procuring horses and servants for the journey.
During the next day, Sunday, I employed myself
in seeing aU I could of Guadalaxara. It is a very
large, and, apparently, a fine town ; but, from nearly
all the houses being built of " adobes," towards the
close of the rainy season, when the whitewash gets
washed off, I was told that the streets present a
very wretched appearance. Guadalaxara has a po
pulation of from 60,000 to 80,000, and is the second
town in Mexico. The Plaza, like those of Puebla
and Mexico, has the cathedral and government
bmldings on one side, and portales on the others.
The cathedral is poor, but the portales very exten
sive, and the shops are good. The Plaza is better
kept than any I had seen ; and, from some trees
growing in it, does not look such a scorching, dried-
up place as those I have before mentioned. In the
city of Mexico there certainly is a row of trees at
one side and in front of the cathedral, but those in
Guadalaxara are planted in the middle of the Plaza,
and look much better.
I dined with a German gentleman to whom I had
a letter of introduction, and afterwards walked in
the Paseo, a fine large drive, preferable, I think, to

114 DEPARTURE.
that of Mexico, and reminding one of the Prado in
Madrid. Guadalaxara has many resident famflies
of distinction, and is, therefore, a fashionable place ;
many good carriages are to be seen in the Paseo,
and the usual splendidly-equipped horsemen. This
town is very rehgiously disposed, and fuU of con
vents. The nuns are celebrated for the manufac
ture of dulces and ornaments, such as flower-vases,
made of a particular kind of clay, and sweetly
scented. They are termed "Jarros." These pro
ductions are all sold, but I do not know what
becomes of the money that is received for them.
I started at seven the next morning, in company
with the gentleman I have before mentioned. We
went eleven leagues in a carriage, and I then left
him to pursue my way on horseback. Our retinue,
with the carriage, was very vast. I don't know
how many horses and servants my companion pos
sessed ; my own share consisted of two riding horses
for my proper person, two servants, each with his
own horse, and one mule to carry my baggage.
About two leagues from the town we were joined
by an escort of fifteen foot soldiers, who were going
to meet a valuable cargo of goods coming up from

soldiers' discipline 115
the coast, and who, for a consideration, gave us the
benefit of their company. The first few leagues
from Guadalaxara are very flat and uninteresting.
About five or ten leagues from the city we were
met by a most wild-looking cavalcade of twenty men
on horseback, aU clothed in ranchero costume, with
leather jackets and calzaneros complete, and car
rying lances adorned with flags. I made sure they
were the identical robbers we were so afraid of, but
they proved to be the servants of my companion,
who had come to protect his precious person. They
were aU fine, wild-looking feUows, and well armed ;
most of them carrying, in addition to their lances,
carbine, sword, and pistol.
In iUustration of the discipline of Mexican regu
lars, let me mention, that this morning, in passing
some cottages, a lot of dogs rushed out and barked
at us furiously, whereupon one of our foot-escort,
without word of command or otherwise, broke his
rank, shot the leading dog dead with his firelock,
and feU in again, the officer in command not even
turning his head to see what the noise meant.
At this time there was somewhere in the neigh
bourhood a band of eighty robbers, led by a man of

116 DEFUNCT ROBBERS.
note in his profession; whence our warlike precau
tions. My German friend in Guadalaxara told me
that the week before, these gentlemen had kept the
road leading from Zacatecas to the fair of St. Juan,
and had eased the fair-goers of 40,000 doUars. We
stopped to breakfast at a place caUed the Venta, of
excessively bad reputation, and where there is always
a post of soldiers. Here we left the flat plain of
Guadalaxara, and plunged into the hiUs, the country
on all sides becoming excessively beautiful.
After breakfast I took leave of my companion,
and mounting my horse turned off from the road
which he was travelUng, into a more direct one for
Tepic. After a ride of six leagues more, we stopped
at a viUanous Uttle place caUed Amachitan, for
the night. Shortly before reaching this, we passed
the skeletons of three ladrones, hanging in chains by
the road side, who had been executed for a daring
robbery committed on this spot two years before,
and were here left as a warning to their companions
still extant. The nearest village is entirely inha
bited by the relations and friends of the suspended
defuncts, and these worthy people, as fast as the
clothes upon_the bones of their kindred are worn

TRAVELLING CONVENIENCES. 117
out, replace them with new — one of the most
curious instances of consanguineous piety I ever
heard of; though it is but fair to add, that they
seemed to want a new suit when I saw them.
In traveUing, as I was now doing, it is necessary
to carry everything with you that you may be likely
to want. I did not know this when I left Guada
laxara, and fancied that by bringing my bed I had
done all that was necessary. I found out, however,
that knives, forks, washhand-basins, &c, were
luxuries unknown on the road, and I was at first put
to some straits for want of such articles. On ar
riving at the Meson, or inn, which only professes to
furnish food for the animals, you ask for a room,
and are shown into a place with four brick or adobe
walls, and containing a few boards placed on a
frame; this is the bed. Possibly there may be a
table, but never any more superfluous furniture.
You ask what can be had for dinner, and, if pos
sible, a fowl is caught and killed, if not you must
put up with eggs, always procurable, tortiUas (maize-
cakes), tomatoes, chiles, and frijoles (beans). There
fore let any of my friends who read this, and may be
disposed to travel in Mexico, carry with them neces-

118 MOZOS.
sary supplies of everything; — chocolate alone ex
cepted, which is always to be had.
It is but justice, however, to say, that the servants
you take with you, or mozos, are the most attentive
fellows in the world, and wiU get you anything that
is to be had in the viUage, even at the sword's
point, if necessary. They perform for their master
of the time being, aU the offices of valet, cham
bermaid, boots, waiter, and groom, and not un-
frequently cook. As a whole, they are most
honest and agreeable people, and if one is lucky,
as I was, to meet with good mozos, they are in
valuable. Thinking, when I left Guadalaxara, that 1 70 miles
on a Mexican saddle would put me hors de combat
for some time, I bought an English one, and rode
very comfortably the entire journey. The chinches
— look that out in the dictionary — annoyed me
dreadfuUy the first night in our beastly Meson, and
I was glad when three in the morning found us in
the saddle again. We rode on in the dark for some
time, passing, as daylight broke, through a large
town caUed Tequila. The country now became
lovely, and continued so all the way to Tepic ; the

BARRANCAS. 119
scenery of this riding-journey being unquestionably
the finest, and the mode thereof the most agreeable,
of all my previous Mexican travel.
Between Tequila and La Madelena, a viUage
where I stopped to breakfast, I crossed a hill com
posed of obsidian, which was lying in heaps in all
directions, proving the volcanic nature of the dis
trict. Of this material Montezuma's Mexicans used
to make their sacrificial knives and other cutting
instruments. I saw during this day a good deal of
cultivation, and the country looked more smihng
and happy generally than any I had before seen in
Mexico. In the afternoon I passed a fine large
Hacienda, called Mochetilti, and by six o'clock in
the evening reached the Plan de Barrancas, situated
in a deep ravine, whence its name. These ravines
or barrancas are found throughout Mexico, and are
very curious. OccasionaUy, on looking on all sides,
you see an apparently vast plain stretching away to
the horizon ; but are surprised, as you proceed, to
find yourself at the edge of a tremendous precipice,
bounding a large cleft in the earth, often a mile or
more wide, filled with enormous trees and even
houses.

120 CLIMATES OF MEXICO.
I believe I have nowhere mentioned, the distinct
kinds of climate and soil that obtain in Mexico.
They are three : the " Tierra CaUente " or hot
country, which, as its name imports, is low and hot,
its elevation above the sea never extending above
2000 feet; " Tierra Templada," or temperate coun
try embracing an elevation of from 2000 to 5000
feet above the sea; and the " Tierra Fria," which
includes all the high land above 5000 feet. The
sudden transition one meets with in passing from
the tierra templada to the tierra caliente is often
very striking ; a thousand feet, more or less, of
elevation, shows this very sensibly, as in the pre
sent case. At the bottom of the barranca I was
descending, I found a totaUy different climate and
productions, the trees being filled with parrots,
rarely seen in the tierra templada. Fruits of aU
kinds flourish better in these hot lands than else
where, and the city of Mexico is almost entirely sup
plied with these productions from the nearest tierra
caliente, which lies in the neighbourhood Cuerna
vaca, eighteen leagues from Mexico. Throughout
the republic, however, the true tierra caUente is
only found, to any extent, along the coast. On both

BARRANCA. 121
its sides by the Gulf and the Pacific, there is a strip
of this true hot land adjoining the sea, though it is
often wanting on the Pacific side, owing to the
mountains which in many parts of the coast come
down completely to the shore.
The barranca into which I had now entered was
extremely beautiful, and wherever there was room
for cultivation among the rocks, there you found it.
The trees were magnificent, and filled with parrots
and all manner of variegated birds. The Mexicans
have it in contemplation to make a bridge across
this ravine at its narrowest part. This would be
exceedingly useful, as at present all carriage travel
ling is stopped at either side, and to cross it the
carriage must be taken to pieces, and transported
by men on mules. However, money is not forth
coming very rapidly for the undertaking, and they
want somebody like Robert Stephenson to show
them how to set about it.
We had this day done twenty-two leagues, hav
ing rested some two hours in the heat of the day,
between La Madelena and the Plan. I, of course,
felt a little saddle-weary, and slept weU, being this
night free from visitors. By two o'clock the next

122 SANTA ISABEL.
morning we were again in the saddle, and ascending
a fine broad paved road, upon the other side of the
barranca. The cold at this time was very great, and
I found my Scotch plaid, which I told the mozos
was an English serape, very acceptable. A heavy
dew always falls just at daylight, and the grass and
trees become as wet as if after a hard rain.
Just at dawn we passed through the smaU town of
Iztlan, and two leagues more brought us to Agua-
catlan, a large place with a good meson, where we
remained four hours. These two towns Ue in a deep
valley with most lovely wooded hills on either side,
and the country around is exceedingly weU culti
vated and populous.
After a good breakfast and sleep, we started again
at half-past twelve and jogged on tiU evening over a
fine large plain with plenty of cultivation, passing
through several viUages. Just as it was getting
dark we turned sharp to the right among the hills
and pulled up at Santa Isabel, a smaU place consist
ing of a few houses, one of which is the meson :
we had ridden twenty-two or twenty-three leagues
since morning. At the same moment with ourselves,
arrived a caravan containing a French family bound

TEPIC. 123
to California, who had come all the way from Mexico,
and had occupied six weeks on their journey. They
had with them an Irishman acting as charioteer, who
could not speak a word of French ; and as the rest
of the party spoke nothing else, he found, he told
me and as I readily believed, the business rather
a stupid one. These people had engaged the only
room in the meson, and I erected my bed in the
private apartment of the landlord, and had the
honour of passing the night in the society of that
gentleman and his wife, a servant girl, and a lepero
sleeping on a bench. I had a good deal of talk
with the mother of the French family, who was
a weU-educated, respectable woman, but cursed with
a very drunken husband. They were very ignorant
of what lay before them in California, as also of the
means by which they were to get there. Tepic, to
which they were bound, they imagined was a sea
port, whereas it is fifty miles from the sea, and no
road from it by which their waggon could travel.
I heard afterwards that they eventuaUy got to
Mazatlan and embarked from thence.
I started for my last day's journey at three o'clock
the foUowing morning, and a sharp ride of sixteen

124 HORSES.
leagues brought me into Tepic by ten, and in time
for breakfast. Till we reached the valley of Tepic,
which is bare of cultivation, the country is most
beautiful, and Tepic itself, from a distance looks
well, being surrounded by finely-wooded mountains.
I found all my friends well, and was heartily glad to
get to my journey's end.
Mexican horses are the only ones I have seen fit
for travelling such long distances. Their pace is
either a paso (amble) or a jog trot very easy.
They always continue at the same rate, and never
stop. They are very small, but their powers of
endurance are wonderful; witness my last ride of
some forty-five miles on one horse before break
fast — the last ten, I may add, at a gaUop. One of
my mozos was riding an old white horse, which
had brought him all the way from the city of
Mexico; this he had left just fourteen days before,
and only stopped by the way one day, at Guada
laxara, where I found him : the distance is over six
hundred miles. I inquired of this man how far horses
in regular work could go, and he told me twenty
leagues a day, as long as they had a leg to stand
on. I was so pleased with a mare I had ridden that

RIDING. 125
I purchased her, on my arrival, for thirty-five dol
lars. Mexicans never ride mares, and hence the
absurdly smaU price. A good horse costs, on an
average, from eighty to a hundred and fifty dollars.
The equipments of the better sort of riders in
Mexico are always very splendid and much orna
mented with silver. The saddle has a very high
pommel ending in a round head for the fixing of
the lazo, and generally covered with silver, as is
also the cantle at the back. The stirrups are com
monly of wood, with leather flaps to protect the
feet from the sun and dust; they are fixed so far
back in the saddle that, at first, it is very difficult
for a stranger to accommodate himseK to them. The
bridle is covered with plates of silver, and has only
a single rein fastened to the most cruel bit I ever
saw, having an iron ring encircling the horse's lower
jaw. The rider wears enormous spurs, sometimes
silver or even silver gilt, but generally iron inlaid with
silver. They are very blunt and more for show than
for use. The common rancheros wear them of iron,
greatly magnified, and with smaU pieces of the same
metal dangling from the rowels to assist in making
more music.

126 RIDING.
The endurance of Mexican horsemen equals that
of their horses, and is very astonishing. They will
ride almost any distance, and very fast, feeling little
fatigue. The English courier from Mexico to Vera
Cruz, an old gentleman who has been in that capa
city for many years, rides now, and has done ever
since appointed, from Vera Cruz to Mexico (three
hundred miles), and vice versa, in thirty-six hours,
twice a month. Shortly before I reached Tepic, a
mozo was despatched from that town with letters
of importance to Mexico, and returned with his
answer in eight days, the whole distance being little
under 1400 miles. AU Mexicans wear short jackets
on horseback, it being considered, " muy feo," or
not the correct thing at all, to appear in a Mexican
saddle with a long-tailed coat. An American friend
with whom I occasionally rode in Mexico, always
appeared in a surtout, and was an object of much
amusement to the leperos.

CHAP. VI.
TEPIC.
TOWN OF TEPIC  SITE  HOUSES  BUILDING MATERIALS  CLIMATE
AND WEATHER  HEALTH OF THE PEOPLE  NATIVES  MARKETS 
FRUITS  WATER  WASHING  PIGS  COCKS  ZOPILOTES  FOOD
 SHOPS  TRADES.
I arrived at Tepic on the 18th of December,
1849, and remained there tiU the beginning of the
following June. During this time I had plenty of
opportunities of seeing the habits and customs of
the inhabitants, their in-door and out-door amuse
ments and occupations ; and as my readers may
probably like to know what people do in a small,
obscure, out of-the-way town in the RepubUc of
Mexico, I wiU try and inform them to the best of
my recoUection.
And, first, let me give a sketch of the town itself.
Tepic is situated on a plain, but in the vicinity of
mountains. It is about 3000 feet above the sea,
from the nearest point of which it is distant about
fifty miles. It contains only about S000 inha-

128 TEPIC.
bitants, but is a large place for its population, the
individual houses covering so much ground : that in
which I lived during my stay, I dare say covered an
acre and a half, with its patio, stable-yard, and
corral. The streets are most of them tolerable :
I lived in the best in the town, and it was kept
reasonably clean. At one end of this street is
the Plaza, containing the church, court-house or
meeting-place of the ayuntamiento (corporation),
and portales. Fine rows of trees surround this
Plaza, and it has also an old fountain in the
middle. Passing on beyond the church, the ground
slopes away to the river, which is of tolerable size,
and very useful, as I shall show hereafter. One of
the principal streets leads directly from the Plaza
to the Paseo, which is a mere common, without
any distinct drive for carriages like that of Mexico
or Guadalaxara. What drive there is has been
merely worn bare by the constant passage of mules
and vehicles. An English gentleman, many years
a resident of the town, some time ago offered to
improve and lay out this Paseo for the benefit of
all, but his offer was declined.
Tepic is situated nearly on a flat, with the excep-

TEPIC. 129
don of those streets sloping up to the Llano and
down to the river. On the north-west side of the
Paseo is one of those curious barrancas I have
mentioned before ; it is very deep but narrow 'and
crossed by a bridge, and is so httle apparent that,
till within twenty yards of it, a stranger would not
know that such a place existed. On the west side
of the Paseo hes the Alameda, a pretty garden, but
badly kept, and with the railings and gates sadly in
want of repair. Beyond this, again, and just outside
the town is a beautifuUy turfed down caUed the
Llano (the generic name for aU similar plains), the
pleasantest drive in the neighbourhood, and much
used for horse-racing. The Uano is of con
siderable size, it having taken me five minutes,
on a thorough-bred horse at fuU speed, to get round
it. The ground to the westward rises from this,
until you reach the foot of a beautifully-wooded
mountain caUed San Juan, of which more anon.
On the eastern side of the town, and at a distance
from it of a mile or mile and a half, lies an immense
laguna or marshy lake, swarming with wild ducks and
other aquatic birds. This laguna is thought to have
once been the crater of a volcano, being entirely
6§

130 TEPIC.
surrounded by hills, with only a very small open
ing among them at its western extremity. From its
nature, this place is very unhealthy, and many pro
jects have been started for draining it; but nothing
has yet been done. On the north and north-west is
another long range of hiUs, between which and
San Juan a small natural opening is made available
for the roads to San Bias and Mazatlan. On the
south and south-east extends the valley that I had
traversed in coming from Guadalaxara, fiUed up, at
its extremity, by a singular-looking mountain, called
San Guenguey (or some such name), having an
immense isolated rock in the centre of its con
cave top. Some four miles from the town, the
river, in this direction, is crossed by a fine bridge
which has lately been erected at a good deal of
expense. The houses in Tepic are nearly all built of adobes,
a few only of brick, though these two materials are
often mixed in the same building, — a method of
making houses I cannot fancy at aU a good one.
These adobe-built houses have one great advantage
over their brick brethren, viz. that if you wish to build
a new house on the same site as the old one, you

HOUSES. 131
need only knock down your old house, and mash
up all the adobes again with a Uberal supply of
water, till a good stiff mud is formed ; this cut into
squares and dried in the sun, again becomes new
adobes. In the manufacture of these houses no
mortar is used, the kindred mud from which the
adobe is made being used to fiU up interstices. The
waUs of such houses are generally amazingly thick,
occasioning a great loss of space in the interior.
The houses are mostly one-storied, though some
have two stories, and some a sort of half story,
or extra house built upon the top of the cor
ridors of the lower one. Such was the house in
which I Uved ; the doors of all the rooms on the
first floor opening into the open air upon the top of
the corridor. Almost invariably aU the rooms on
the same floor have doors leading from one into the
other, so as to form a continuous suite. There are
no buUdings of either importance or beauty in
Tepic ; but many of the private houses are good.
There is only one church in the town, and that is a
poor affair ; but there are, besides, one or two chapels
belonging to old convents. Only one of these con
vents, La Cruz, is stiU inhabited by monks. It is

132 TEPIC.
situated outside the town, upon one corner of the
llano, and is a place of great resort on Sundays
and feast days.
The houses of the poorer classes, at all the out
skirts, are wretched in the extreme, worse than the
worst huts one sees in Ireland and the highlands of
Scotland. These houses, when not built of adobes,
are made of cane or sticks, and the interstices plas
tered with mud ; they are thatched with long grass.
In the tierra caliente the mud is often omitted, the
canes being placed closer together.
As I was only in Tepic during the dry season, I
cannot speak of its climate generally ; but even in
this its best time, my report is not very favourable.
Nearly all the time I was there we were much
annoyed by a nasty thick, damp fog, that, after sun
set, nearly every night, came roUing up from the
tierra caliente, through the gap between St. Juan
and his neighbour, and spreading itself out over
the whole valley. This fog was often joined by
another that came from the laguna; and, together,
they made the evenings excessively damp and un
pleasant. As the spring and summer advanced,
however, this nuisance abated. Extreme cold is

CLIMATE. 133
very rare in Tepic; nevertheless, whilst I was there
we had five nights of frost, with the thermometer as
low as 30° Fahr., and which sufficed to kill the
leaves of aU the bananas and other tropical trees in
the neighbouring gardens. But even in our winter,
we had to complain much more of heat than cold.
This, during the whole of my stay at Tepic, was
great, but increased considerably during the end of
the spring and beginning of summer. Tlie last three
weeks, I think the thermometer hanging in our corri
dor, and always in the shade, was never less than S5°
at noon. During this time the day and night tempera
ture was more equable ; but from my own experience
I can say, that the great difference of temperature
between night and day is very trying. In the
month of March, when the thermometer at noon
had been 80°, I have seen it down at 41° at
four in the morning, when I was going duck-
shooting. This great coldness of the nights must,
I think, tell on the health of that portion of the
population who, so to speak, never go to bed, but
stretch themselves on the floor in their serapes, on
a mat, or even without one. In our own house
nearly all the servants used to sleep in the open

134 TEPIC.
corridors, with nothing but a mat between them and
the bricks, and no covering but the serape.
During the whole of my stay in Tepic, rain only
fell twice. One day in March we had twenty-four
hours of gentle rain, and on the eve of Good Friday
it poured for eleven hours, our rain-gauge giving
three and a half inches as the quantity that had
fallen. The same evening we witnessed a magnifi
cent lunar rainbow, beautifully defined, and quite as
large as a solar one, but destitute of the prismatic
colours. In the rainy season, which commenced
shortly after I left, the quantity of rain that falls,
and in a short time, is prodigious. A curious proof
of this is afforded by a practice which, I was told,
is in common use in the town. When any accu
mulation of earth or other rubbish has taken place,
as in the case of excavation for a new house, &c,
the whole of the waste earth is placed in heaps in
the centre of one of the streets, trusting to the first
heavy shower for getting rid of it, by sweeping it
into the river.
Partly, no doubt, owing to the great variability of
the temperature, and the effect of its own laguna,
Tepic is by no means a healthy place. Its inhabit-

CLIMATE. 135
ants seldom attain a great age, a man of sixty being
looked upon as a wonder. During the rainy season it
is very subject to low fever and ague, which they call
calentura. I myself was never free from cold or
sore throat during the whole of my stay. My friends,
to be sure, used to attribute this to my going out
with my gun in the blazing heat of the day ; and
this may have been the case, though I think not.
But, at any rate, it was better to do this, and catch
cold, than stay at home in a strange land, see
nothing, and die of ennui. Mexicans have no idea
of walking in the sun ; and I believe half the popu
lation thought me mad when I started off in the
morning, with my gun on my shoulder. But let
them but once try it, and they would not find it so
disagreeable. Their notion of heat is always formed
within the close streets of a whitewashed town ;
whereas, in the country, there is always a dehghtful
breeze, often very strong, and quite sufficient to
keep one perfectly cool and comfortable. In fact,
on the top of San Juan, whilst resting, Castillon, my
cazador, and myself often agreed that it was too
cold for sitting stiU, and so we would get up and
walk.

136 TEPIC.
The bulk of the inhabitants of Tepic are a cross
between the Spaniard and Indian, though there is
more of the latter then the former in their compo
sitions. They are very dark, both men and women,
and of moderate stature. The costume of the
common working people is nothing but a pair of
loose wide drawers, and a shirt made of coarse
cotton, caUed manta, and the universal serape.
All wear sandals. The other sex have a little more
clothing, but not very much. The women have all
beautiful hair, and seem to take great pains in
washing and cultivating it, as you may see them aU
day in the river by scores, with their heads a mass
of soap ; yet they are reaUy hard-working, and far
more industrious than the men, who, unless you
watch them closely, wiU never do more work than
they can help. The better classes have more of the
Spaniard than the Indian in them, and are conse
quently fairer- skinned: aU, however, are dark, and
I think I never saw a damsel with blue eyes and
light hair in Mexico.
The lower orders of Mexicans are excessively
polite, and it is amusing enough to a stranger to
see two apple-women meet in the plaza and pass

MARKET. 137
as many compliments from one to the other as if
they were two old Spanish grandees. They are
much afflicted with parasitic animals, and at every
door in the town were daily to be seen women
hunting the heads of their thriving little progeny.
Children in Mexico until the age of four or five
go as nature made them, and have a greater apti
tude for running to stomach than even the fattest
little pigs.
Every Sunday in Tepic there is a good market,
and people come in, on a Saturday night, bringing
fruits, vegetables, and other saleable matters from
all the country round. There is, besides, a lesser
market always going on, where large quantities of
grain and beans (frijoles) are daily disposed of.
The supply of vegetables is large, and very varied in
quality. I don't know one-half of the names given
them. The most common, however, are the sweet
potato, zapote, and various kinds of pumpkins.
Still, I do not consider Tepic a good place for fruit.
There certainly is plenty of all the common kinds,
but few of those I liked. The best fruits in Mexico,
I think, are the following : — the pine, which one
gets in the tierra caliente in great perfection ; the

138 TEPIC.
chirimoya, a pulpy, juicy fruit, with black seeds
imbedded in its white flesh ; ciruelas, something
between a plum and a cherry, with a stone in the
centre ; and petayas, a species of prickly pear.
Oranges are very plentiful and deUcious. The san-
dia or water melon is also a very pleasant fruit, with
little flavour, but cool, and very refreshing. The
true melon is also in great perfection. Bananas,
limes, quinces, cocoanuts, citrons, and pumpkins of
every species are to be met with out of number. I
must not forget to mention, among the better fruits,
the granadita or water lemon, the fruit of the
passion-flower, filled with seeds like a gooseberry,
and having a very aromatic flavour. But, on the
whole, I think that the fruits of tropical countries, at
least those of Mexico, are too luscious and insipid
to please a European.
The anxiety to get a good place in the Plaza for
the Sunday's market is generaUy so great, that men
and women all take up a position over night, roll
themselves in their serapes and rebosos, and sleep
as soundly as if at home.
Tepic is well supplied with water by the assistance
of mules and water-carriers ; but without these the

WATER. 139
supply of this article, really good, would be very
deficient. One or two aqueducts, coming from the
neighbourhood of San Juan, bring water to the town,
which is afterwards conveyed by pipes into the
different patios that are supplied with fountains.
This water often, from want of attention to the
aqueduct, is so bad and dirty, that it is not fit even
for washing, and is never used for drinking. In the
neighbourhood of the river are several beautiful
pozos or wells, the water of which is delicious, and
from which a constant supply is brought to the
town by carriers at all hours of the day. These
pozos are much used by laundresses and bathers,
there being usually large holes to collect the water
dug just below the springs. One of these I used to
pass nearly every evening, and I never remember
doing so without seeing two or three damsels sitting
in it, rather in undress, washing their hair.
Tepic, on the whole, is a tolerably clean town,
thanks to the pigs and zopilotes. The inhabitants I
cannot say so much for, though they have no right
to be dirty, being always in the water, especially
the women, They are very attentive to washing
their clothes, and it is very amusing to see a man or

140 TEPIC.
woman wrapped in a serape, or a reboso, sitting
patiently by the river side, whilst their apparel is
drying on a bush in the sun. The truth is, that
however much they wash their under garments, the
two articles I have last mentioned never see cold
water, and as they are worn as long as they will hold
together, and used for sleeping in as weU, we
have no difficulty in accounting for the dirt one sees
amongst the poorer classes. A bathing-house, made
of wattles, and thatched, is situated at the river side,
where the stream is tolerably deep. This is divided
into different compartments, and much used by the
better class of inhabitants.
Pigs and dogs swarm in Tepic as elsewhere ;
and these animals are kept in countenance by
fighting cocks, of which almost every house has
one tied by the leg to the door sill. At night the
the uproar all these animals make is dreadful. One
cock begins to crow and all the town joins in chorus ;
one dog begins to bark and all follow. English
cocks I always imagined crow at reasonable hours
of the morning, but their Mexican brethren rather
incline to keep you awake during the night. Like
everything else, however, one soon gets used to it,

ZOPILOTES. 141
and in a week's time I slept as soundly at Tepic as
I should have done in London.
The zopilotes or Turkey buzzards are to be seen,
from morning to night, in hundreds, little black
specks soaring at an immense height in the clear
blue sky, and occasionally collecting over one spot,
wheeling round and round, and lowering by de
grees. This is a clear indication that something-
promising a meal is underneath. One of our horses
required bleeding whilst I was in Tepic, and in half
an hour the sight of the blood in the corral had col
lected hundreds of zopilotes on all the neighbouring
walls and houses. The same attraction was supplied
by skins spread to dry on a housetop. One day,
when out with my gun, I killed a duck at a great
distance, and before I could get to the spot where
he was lying, a zopilote was wheeling about within
a few yards, and seemed almost inclined to dispute
my right to my game. I must not take leave of
these birds withbut saying a word about their king,
as he is caUed in Mexico. He is a much handsomer
bird than themselves, and always alone. When
this king appears, which he seldom does, being a
rather rare bird, aU the common zopilotes leave any

142

TEPIC.

animal they may be engaged upon, and, retiring to a
respectful distance, remain passive spectators until
the king vulture has eaten his fill ; and, on his
taking his departure, they all return to their food.

CHAP VII.
TEPIC.
COTTON FACTORY  HANDS  MACHINERY  PRODUCE  AMERICAN
WORKMEN  THE GARDEN  ITS VARIOUS PRODUCE  TORTOISES 
FOOD OF THE NATIVES  SHOPS  SOCIETY  ANNUAL FAIR  EDU
CATION  RELIGION  LAW AND JUSTICE.
Within a mile of Tepic, at the river side, stands
a cotton manufactory called Jauxa, built and owned
by the English mercantile house established in
Tepic. This manufactory is not very large — not
half the size of that I saw at Queretaro. It is,
however, admirably managed, and is entirely under
the superintendence of American workmen who
are eight or ten in number and have the sole
charge of the different departments. The number
of natives employed in it is about two hundred,
and they work day and night, in two gangs. The
goods manufactured are only of one kind, viz.
a very coarse cotton cloth called manta, of which
as I have before said, all the poorer classes in that
part of Mexico make their clothes.

144 MACHINERY.
The machinery employed is all American. The
power used is water, which is furnished by a lead
from the river, taken off some distance above the
maquina, and of which the supply is always good. In
addition to the manufactory there is a series of work
shops, including smiths', carpenters', machinists',
and a foundry. In such a country as Mexico all
these are necessary for the carrying on of the bust
ness, and admirably managed they all are. All
repairs connected with the machinery are done in
the building, and even new cog-wheels, and simpler
pieces, cast in the foundry. The advantage of such
an establishment to the town is very great. Inde
pendently of the number of natives employed, the
machinists when not engaged about the business of
the maquina, are beset with applicants for assistance :
one fellow wanting his watch mended ; another has
broken the lock of one of his pistols ; a third requires
his pianoforte put in order; a fourth needs new springs
to his carriage. All these different accomphshments
are possessed by one or other of my American
friends, and by no other people in the town ; and
they in general do whatever is required gratui
tously.

MACHINERY. 145
This manufactory has been at work more than ten
years, and from its simple inexpensive style, and
good management, has been a very profitable
concern — more so than any other in Mexico. The
building is brick whitewashed, in a quadrangular
form, and one side abutting on the river. The
rooms are large, and weU ventUated, lighted at
night by lamps of cocoa-nut oil : large vats of this
are kept in the out-buildings, and notwithstanding
the heat of the climate, constantly require a pan of
lighted charcoal floating about to keep them from
freezing. There is a steam-boiler attached to the
factory, used for heating large metal cylinders for
drying the thread after its immersion in size, and
before being woven. I forget the number of looms
always at work, but I should think nearly a hundred.
I know the quantity of stuff made in the mUl is
immense. Every Saturday night the wages are
paid, and everything connected with this opera
tion is conducted as regularly as in England or
the United States. The Americans, and deservedly
too, get high wages, many of them five doUars or
£l. per day. They are all engaged by contract,
and are found houses adjoining the manufactory. 7

146 MANUFACTORY.
During my journey I encountered a great many
of our transatlantic brethren from first to last, but
with none of them could I get on so well, or feel so
much at home, as with the higher orders of American
mechanics. As far as 1 have seen, they are, without
exception, very clever in their particular branches,
very well educated, and much superior, I think, to
men of the same class in England. They have none
of that disagreeable, self-sufficient importance which
I have found to pervade the upper classes of their
countrymen. Many a pleasant hour have I spent
in company with the resident superintendent of the
Tepic maquina, and I would not wish to have a
better companion on a sporting or other excursion.
During the whole of the war, this manufactory
was never stopped for a single day, the Ame
ricans and natives working as weU together as if
no strife was going on between their respective
countries. In proceeding from the town, at about a quarter
of a mile or so from the miU, you get upon a good
road — the best, I take it, in the repubUc — and no
wonder, seeing it was made and is owned by
EngUshmen. The maquina itself occupies an angle

GARDEN. 147
formed by the river, which is here very pretty, and
turbulent like a Scotch trout-stream.
One half of the angle is fiUed up by the maquina
and its buildings, the other by a splendid garden
extending down to the river from which it is sepa
rated by a low waU. This I shall describe some
what at length, as I wish to show to what perfection
a garden can be brought even in Mexico, when
owned and managed by EngUshmen. I do not
beUeve that there is one equal to it in aU the re
public. The grounds are, perhaps, four acres in
extent, and fuU of aU the fruits, vegetables, and
flowers that can be obtained. One main walk runs
from the gate to the river-wall, and is Uned with
bananas on both sides ; and under them is a hedge
of coffee bushes, with their beautiful white flowers.
The coffee grown in this garden is in constant use,
and much approved.
On the left of the central walk is a branch avenue
of orange trees, almost always covered with flowers,
and green and ripe fruit. These oranges are de
licious — some of the best I ever met with. Seats are
disposed along this avenue, which is the pleasantest
lounge in the neighbourhood. The trees are so thick

148 VEGETABLES.
that no sun can penetrate, and they are always fiUed
with an infinity of birds. A walk extends along the
river-waU, and also goes round the garden, and is
lined by some noble trees. One path is hedged by
pomegranates, which are most beautiful when in full
flower. European vegetables here flourish well, with the
exception of potatoes, and we had always a capital
supply from this garden. Peas are never out of
season, and appear on the table every day in the
year. Vines do not thrive, nor do peaches ever
come to much ; stiU both are in the garden, and
they do the best they can with them. Strawberries
were being planted just before I left, and I hope ere
this they have produced a good crop. Apples,
citrons, melons, pines, and other fruits aU do weU.
In one corner of the garden were some magnificent
aloes, one of which was on the point of flowering
when I left. Its stem had shot up to the height of
some forty feet, and was nearly as thick as my body.
I counted thirty-nine branches from which flowers
were to be produced, and several blossoms would
appear on each branch.
One part of the garden, perhaps a quarter of an

TORTOISES. 149
acre, was planted with Guinea grass, and formed a
playground for some enormous tortoises, which are
natives of San Bias and its neighbourhood. There
were six of these fellows, of all sizes, the largest as
big as the one I have seen in the Zoological gardens,
and able to walk, with great ease, carrying at once
myself (10 st. 11 lbs.) and a 12-stone man on his
back. They lived entirely upon the guinea grass,
and appeared very happy and contented. A stream
of water supplying the garden ran through their
playground, and a large hole was scooped out for
them, .in the mud of which they half-buried them
selves the entire day. When the big one was
wanted for inspection, it took all the gardeners in
the place, with crowbars, to rouse him out.
Tepic Uke the rest of Mexico is badly supplied
with good animal food ; beef being almost the only
eatable meat sold ; mutton is a rarity and not good ;
pork is very seldom eaten as I have mentioned
before, pigs being kept almost entirely for lard.
Fish there is none, except a kind of catfish, very
small, caught in the river, and hardly eatable.
Sometimes, but very rarely, a sea fish finds its
way up from San Bias, but in such a hot cli-

150 FOOD.
mate does not often arrive in a state of great per
fection. Poultry and eggs are unlimited in number,
though few good eggs are placed upon the table;
why they should be bad when they are in such
abundance I don't know ; but they are very seldom
quite fresh. Bread is good, but differs much from
what we get in England, and is very inferior to the
same article in Spain ; it is always made in the form
of roUs.
The poorer classes live almost entirely upon tor
tUlas, a kind of cake made of maize, and exactly
resembling the barley scones of Scotland. Frijoles
are also in constant use, and, indeed, without
them, no meal in a Mexican house is ever thought
complete. When meat is used, it is generaUy
hung beef, dried in the sun. AU Mexican dishes
are strongly flavoured with garUc, and plenti-
fuUy strewed with chiles and tomatoes. I myself
do not at aU dislike Mexican cookery. I think it
far better than that in Spain, where everything is
swimming in a sea of rancid oil. Pulque, as I
mentioned before, is the common drink of aU
Mexicans, and in Tepic they make good use of it,
as well as of the mescal. I have seen, I think, more

TRADES. 151
drunken people, on a market or fair day in Tepic,
than one would see, on a hke occasion, in a similar
sized town in England; even women are much
given to drinking, and are frequently to be met
with, very drunk in the streets.
The shops in Tepic are very tolerable, and contain
everything that is in common use among the in
habitants; most of them combine the vending of
various matters. The only deficiency I ever ex
perienced was in good powder and shot ; shooting
as a sport being so little in vogue that the articles
were not often required, and those who did ask for
them seldom knew the difference between good
powder and bad. The honest man, my shooting
attendant CastiUon, who was by trade a sports
man, told me he always made his own shot, by
dropping lead into cold water; and curious-looking
stuff it was. All Mexican dealers, Tepiquenos in
cluded, are not overburthened with modesty in their
demands : you are generally safe in giving one half
of what is asked.
Ordinary trades flourish pretty weU, tailoring,
bootmaking, &c, being aU tolerable. Good carpen
ters, watchmakers, and other artizans for the finer

152 SOCIETY.
branches of trade, are, however, not to be met
with. The society in Tepic is very indifferent, being
made up of only two foreign and one or two native
mercantile estabUshments, a few custom-house offi
cials with their famihes, and shopkeepers resident
in the town. From the small number of respectable
people, aU are upon an equality ; and it is at first
rather puzzUng to an European to buy a pair of
gloves of a man in the morning, at his shop in the
portales, and in the afternoon to find himself sitting
next him at dinner. These smaU matters, however,
one soon gets accustomed to; and those who are
to live permanently in such a country as Mexico,
must throw such minor prejudices overboard alto
gether. Whilst I was in Tepic the annual fair took place,
which lasted a week or more. This was conducted
much like fairs in England. Booths of all sorts
were erected in the Plaza, chiefly for gambling and
drinking, little actual business being done. In the
centre of these booths two immense roundabouts
were established, and during the evening all the
people in the town took the air in these whirligigs.

FAIR. 153
Even the respectable members of the ayuntamiento,
with their wives and daughters, seated themselves
in a revolving box, and journeyed on for half an
hour, without moving a muscle of their faces, or
showing in any way that they enjoyed it. The great
fun of the fair, however, were the lotteries, which
contained everything of household or domestic use,
and were always crowded during the evening with
anxious players. The dancing booths had their
share of the entertainment, and the tinkle of guitars
and rattle of boards were heard all over the Plaza.
The fandango, the only measure danced by the
common people, is a pas de deux, performed by a
lady and gentleman standing opposite each other,
without any very regular style of step, and varied
much at the pleasure of the dancers ; the lady occa
sionaUy dancing round the gentleman, and vice .
versa. The performance generaUy takes place upon
some four feet square of boards, laid upon the
ground, and is continued tUl one or the other
gives in.
The influx of thieves during this fair was known
to be great, and as there was a great deal of money
in my friends' warehouses, we all prepared ourselves
7§

154 RELIGION.
in case of attack : the servants for many nights
sleeping with loaded muskets and bayonets fixed
beside them. Once before, an attack was threatened,
and was only averted by showing a determined
front, though the assailants mustered some 5000,
and were led by a man whom, once before, my host
had saved from being shot ; — a pretty specimen of
Mexican gratitude.
Education, I fancy, is on a rather Umited scale
at Tepic, as I never saw or heard of more than one
school in the town, and the master of that, when
ever he got a chance, was always playing bLUiards.
However, I was much astonished to find that an
honest simple fellow, who 4>ften went out shooting
with me, always carried a sort of poUtical squib in
his hat (he had no pockets), written in verse, and
which he invariably took out to read, whenever I
called a halt.
Religion in Tepic is much thought of, and the
attendance at mass on Sundays is very good. On
the day of Corpus Christi we had a grand pro
cession, the Host being carried entirely round the
Plaza, accompanied by all the priests in the neigh
bourhood, the Ayuntamiento, and all people in

THE HOST. 155
authority. The shops and houses in the Plaza were
all hung with silk and particoloured stuffs ; cruci
fixes and images being plentifuUy dispersed along
the line of the procession. Wherever it became
necessary to leave the shade of the portales, awnings
were spread over the streets, and the roads kept
constantly watered. A grand display of fireworks
took place in the Plaza, and gunpowder was most
lavishly expended. All the natives of course knelt
while the procession was passing ; we heretics, who
were sitting in chairs under one of the portales,
saved our dignity and consciences by turning the
backs of the chairs outwards, and tilting them up
with one knee on the seat. I witnessed a similar pro
cession at Cadiz on that day year, and the contrast
between the two was very great. The Cadiz one was
most splendid, and displayed all the wealth of the
different churches, and the magnificence of the
ladies' jewellery; the streets being entirely Uned
with soldiery ; whereas in Tepic, hardly a score of
weU- dressed people were to be seen, and the crowd
of ragged leperos contrasted greatly with the richly-
dressed natives of Andalusia.
Apropos of the fireworks mentioned above, I

156 PROFESSIONS.
may here remark, that over aU Mexico the people
are very fond of fireworks, and the simplest fandango
or most gorgeous procession is aUke ushered in by
a flight of rockets.
The learned professions are not very flourishing
in Tepic. There are some half dozen doctors, but
some of them I fancy are not very learned in their
art. I only had occasion during my stay to employ
one, and I certainly found him as kind and attentive
as could be desired.
There are few lawyers, and I saw nothing at aU
of them, though the administration of justice in the
whole repubUc is at a very low ebb. Cut a man's
throat or shoot him, if you prefer it, in sight of fifty
people, and if you can pay the judge what he con
siders enough of doUars to outweigh their testimony,
you are sure to be acquitted.
Before I left Tepic my attention was one day
drawn to a ruffianly-looking feUow, holding his
horse at the door of a house, and who, I was
credibly informed, was known to have committed, it
was said, twenty-five murders — at aU events more
than one. He had for some time been the leader of
a band of robbers on the Guadalaxara road, and,

A VILLAIN. 157
whflst exercising his vocation in that quarter, had
most wantonly cut the throats of a lawyer of that
town, of his wife, and two or three children. The
poor man was only going to spend his Sunday
in the country, and had purposely left his purse at
home ; owing to which oversight he and his family
were all kiUed by this villain out of mere spite. By
pursuing this vocation some time the ruffian acquired
a good deal of money, and retiring from public life,
established himself as an honest soapboiler, in the
neighbourhood of Guadalaxara. An unlucky cre
ditor caUed one day, whilst my friend was making
soap, and requesting the settlement of his small
account, was incontinently pitched into the boUer,
and went the way of the "poor workhouse boy."
For one, if not both of these murders, this viUain
was tried, and the crime clearly proved, but he
showed the trying judges cogent reasons why he
was not in a fit state to be shot, and he escaped
accordingly. When I saw him with some others,
nearly as bad as himself, he was about to proceed to
California, where I hope he has been lynched long
ago. If he has not it is not my fault, as I gave
his name and described his appearance and cha-

158 EXECUTION.
racter to some worthy Yankees I subsequently met
in an American steamer, and they promised to bear
him in mind on their return to California.
Justice, however, once in a way, does overtake
some of them. I myself saw one man shot who
had committed seven murders, and had been tried
before; but then he was rich. Alas, in an evil
hour when poor, he chopped up with his axe a
passenger who wished to cross the Rio Santiago
where he was ferryman. His comrade assisted at
the murder, and afterwards turned Queen's, or I
presume they would caU it in Mexico, President's
evidence ; and the ferryman having no ready cash
by him, was convicted. The culprit having passed
the two previous days and nights in what is caUed
capiUa ardiente, having a priest always with him,
was brought down to the common by the river,
and a square being formed of mounted national
guards, he was fastened in a sitting position to
a cross placed against an adobe wall, and shot by
a party of national guards. They fired within ten
paces, and the man died at the first discharge,
though they kept on firing as long as the least
motion was perceptible. Comparatively very few

EXECUTION. 159
people were present at this spectacle, and I saw
one carriage containing ladies, which I thought
would have been better away. Probably the lady
reader may think, I should have staid away too.
If it is any consolation to her, I arrived late and
did not see the unfortunate man until unbound.
from the cross quite dead.

CHAP. VIII.
TEPIC.
OCCUPATION AND AMUSEMENTS  THEATRE  CARNIVAL  BULL
FIGHTS  COLEARING  HORSE-RACING  WILD INDIANS  MANU
FACTURES OF THE DISTRICT  COTTON FACTORY  SUGAR HACI
ENDA  AGRICULTURE  CATTLE.
The inhabitants of Tepic are nearly all day en
gaged in their various occupations, which always
seemed to me to consist mostly, in the hot part of it,
of sleep, aU window- shutters being carefully closed.
As the day advances towards the afternoon, people
begin to appear in the streets, and in the evening
all the population is out of doors. The Paseo is
fiUed with what carriages there are in the town, and
and those who have none walk in the Alameda ; or
the ladies, if indisposed to walk, bring their chairs
on to the pavement in front of their houses, and sit
there, or in the windows, till it is dark. We always
drove to the Maquina, and spent the pleasant cool
time, between six and seven o'clock, in its delicious

THEATRE. 161
garden. At seven comes the oracion, when the
church-bell rings for a minute or two, during which
all the population take off their hats and say a short
prayer, as they do also at twelve o'clock. The
evening is occupied, when there is no theatre open,
by a tertuha, i. e. an assembly of ladies in one or
other of the houses, where they sit for hours to
gether, generally disposed in a circle, and do nothing
but talk. I am told Mexican ladies are very indus
trious, and all make their own clothes ; how they
conduct themselves in their penetralia I don't know,
but through the windows, always open, I never saw
them occupied with crochet, netting, or any other of
those pleasing nothings that always keep English
ladies' fingers employed, without shutting their
mouths. The gentlemen always passed their even
ing at cards or in the billiard-room, and as far as 1
saw, there seems little domestic intercourse between
the sexes. Of course, in the house where I lived
things were conducted in a more English and
more pleasant style.
During a great part of my stay the theatre was
open; part of the time with a regular company, and
part with equestrian performances. This theatre

162 BULL-FIGHTS.
is very tolerable for so smaU a place as Tepic, but
badly Ughted. The performance on the whole were
very fair, and the house was always crowded on
Sundays and holidays. Smoking goes on every
where, from the dress-circle to the gaUery.
During Easter week, the carnival took place, and a
precious stupid affair it was ; the sole amusement of
the men being to carry about pocketfuls of flour to
rub the faces of every young lady they met, the
young ladies rubbing the gentlemen in return. I had
nothing to do with this amusement, and as no room
is sacred from the intrusion of people bent upon
this sport, I hung out Uberal promises of a good
supply of cold water to any one who molested me.
On Sundays and feast days we generaUy had a
buU-fight; and as, probably, most of my readers,
though they have often heard of, have never seen, one
of these exciting spectacles, I will describe it some
what at length. The Mexican bull-fight is very differ
ent from the Spanish, less cruel, but at the same time
does not produce the same feeling of excitement in
the spectator. In Spain, and above all in lovely
Andalusia, these spectacles are in perfection, being
conducted according to the best principles of the

BULL-FIGHTS. 163
mystery of "Toromachia," which is there considered
a science. The Plaza de Toros is a large circular
buUding, capable of holding an immense number of
spectators, raised in tiers one above the other. The
lowest row is separated from the arena by a strong
barricade of stout planks, with several projections
every here and there, used as retreats for the dis
comfited chuUUos and picadors.
The performance commences by all the actors in
the scene making an obeisance to the alcalde or
mayor, who sits in his official box. This done, the
picadors on horseback, and in Spain prodigiously
padded, having their horses bhndfolded, and armed
with lances having points very short and graduated
according to the season of the year and temper of the
buUs, take up their positions on the left of the door
from which the bull is to issue. The matador and
his assistant chuUUos, gaUy dressed, in Andalusia
and Spain generaUy most splendidly so, scatter
themselves over the plaza, with their capas or cloaks
of various bright colours — red being the most pro
minent. The door is then opened, and the bull
appears. If he is a good bull, he attacks directly
the picador on his immediate left, who, if able, keeps

164 BULL-FIGHTS.
him off at his lance's point. If the bull gets the
mastery, down go horse and man, the former, in
Spain often killed, and always wounded ; if the man,
the bull passes on to attack the next picador. The
horses used are always wretched, those in Spain
even worse than the Mexican. In the latter country
the buUs are very smaU and young, such as in Spain
would be considered novillos or calves ; they have,
moreover, the tips of their horns sawn off, and,
consequently, little damage is ever done to the
horse. In Spain it is very different; I have seen
one buU kiU aU three horses of the three picadors
awaiting him, in as many minutes, and each by a
single stab in the chest. Spanish buUs are never
fought until seven or eight years old, when they are
of prodigious size and power. The buU I allude to
above killed thirteen horses before his career was
over, when he was respited from death by the
unanimous voice of the Plaza.
On a buU-fight day aU ranks are on an equality,
and the whole place resounds with the roar of the
spectators. I have heard the roaring of the Tepic
Plaza at the laguna, considerably over a mile.
The picadors done with, the banderUleros, men

BULL-FIGHTS. 165
with little paper flags and devices, advance, and
affix them to the neck of the buU. In Mexico fire
works are always added, an exceedingly barbarous
addition, and which are never used in Spain, unless
the buU proves a bad one. The fixing these tor
ments is a matter of great nicety, and the performer
is much applauded or hissed, as he succeeds or
fails. The final act of the tragedy is the death of the
buU, which, with a good matador, is almost instan
taneous. The death-blow is administered by a long
sword, planted between the shoulders, which, I
suppose, enters the heart. If a bull bleeds at the
mouth, to any extent, even though he falls dead, it
is considered a regular butchery, and the matador
hissed unmercifully. When a bull will not rush, as
is often the case, the matador piths him with the
point of his sword between and behind the horns,
and at this our Tepic Espada was very dexterous.
I only once saw a bull kiUed dead by the usual
thrust between the shoulders, and that Was the per
formance of the celebrated Chiclanero, in Spain, the
animal falling at his feet, as he withdrew his sword,
as if struck by a cannon shot. The dead buUs and

166 COLEARING.
horses are dragged out of the Plaza by horses gaily
caparisoned with flags, and blindfolded.
In addition to the public buU- fights, aficianados
or amateurs, in Mexico, are very fond of displaying
their dexterity in the buU-ring, and it is really
beautiful to see how some of these fellows, armed
with nothing but their serape, wiU keep a bull in
check for ten minutes, wheeling their horses hither
and thither, like lightning, and presenting nothing
for the attack of the buU but the yielding serape.
The lazo is largely used in all these popular amuse
ments, and the accuracy with which a practised
hand throws this fatal weapon is truly wonderful.
Much amusement and excitement always attends the
amateur theatricals, and friends and foes are ap
plauded and hissed without mercy. Sometimes a
horse is wounded, but seldom a man, though I once
saw one badly hurt at Tepic. The management of
an infuriated buU in any way, always seems to me a'
most desperate undertaking, and after once seeing an
unfortunate wight killed in Spain, I never felt any
desire to take my place among the aficianados.
Another amusement consists in colearing a buU,
riding up to him at full speed, and getting hold of his

INDIANS. 167
tail, placing it between the knee and the saddle of
the performer, when, by a sudden turn of the horse,
the bull finds himself on the ground with aU four
legs in the air.
Horse-racing is another amusement in which the
neighbouring rancheros indulged largely, and many
doUars were lost and won upon this Colorado or
that tordUlo. This sport took place on the Llano
where a good level course of some two hundred
yards was to be met with. Mexican horses never
run farther than this ; they are ridden bare-backed,
the rider encumbered with as little clothing as
possible. They go very fast, but have seldom time
to acquire their fuU speed before the race is won.
I saw several times a few of the original Indians,
who live in the mountains at some distance from
Tepic. They only come once or twice a year to the
haunts of civilized man, and for the sole purpose of
buying salt, with which they cure their skins and
provisions. They are a small, dark race of people,
with most inexpressive countenance. They are fan-
tasticaUy dressed, having bits of different coloured
worsted, ribbons, and feathers stuck in their hats
and on different parts of their attire. The men

168 TRADE AND MANUFACTURE.
wear tight-fitting breeches of buckskin, dressed by
themselves, and very beautifuUy too. From these,
down the outside of the leg, hang an infinity of
strings, each of which is an emblem that the wearer
has a corresponding cow, buUock, or pig at home.
Of course, the more strings a man has attached to
his breeches, the richer he is. In the party there is
always one who speaks a Uttle Spanish, and who
serves as interpreter for his companions ; and a
great deal of argument in their own language
takes place before they can make up their minds
as to what they wiU give for their salt. They carry
bows and arrows, in the use of which they are very
expert, and with which they kill all their game. We
used to amuse ourselves by sticking a fowl up
against a door in the Patio for them to shoot at, the
best shot to receive the animal. The distance was
about thirty yards, and the fowl was always hit with
the first two or three shots. Their arrows are made
of some very hard wood, which stuck into the
door With such force that the point was obliged to
be broken off before they could be extricated. A
few touches with a knife made it aU right and
ready for use again. These aborigines are nearly

BELLA VISTA. 169
extinct, the few stiU remqj&ung disappearing fast.
They are a very inoffensive race, and do not mix
in any way with the rest of the world. I never yet
met with anybody who knew exactly even where
they lived. Like the Red Indians of North America,
in travelhng they always go in single file, even on
the pavement of a town.
Tepic carries on a small import and export trade
through its seaport San Bias, which I will notice by
and by. Its whole internal manufacture consists
of the manta made at the Jauxa factory, and at
another called Bella Vista, some five leagues off; and
of sugar manufactured at a single hacienda called
Puga. We went one day to visit these establish
ments, which are both under the same management
and in the same direction. Bella Vista (the cotton
factory) is a magnificent building, in the Belgian
style, even to the paint, and fitted with Belgian
machinery ; it is much larger than that of Jauxa,
but has not been so profitable to its proprietors,
although the same goods are made here as at the
other. We got a capital breakfast here, and after
wards, in company with the manager, rode on to
Puga, the sugar estate, some two leagues farther.

170 TRADE AND MANUFACTURE.
Within a couple of miles or so of the village and
boiling-houses, we entered the estate, amid fields of
sugar-cane stretching out on all sides. Puga is of
much less elevation than Tepic, but stiU hardly in
the tierra caliente. The soil is a rich red loam, and
the cane appears to flourish capitally. Fine streams
of water intersect the fields in every part, and
small channels conduct this in whatever direction it
may be wanted. The labourers in the fields are all
natives, and I think that in the manufactory itself
there are only three foreigners. The buildings at
Puga were erected at great expense, and are very
splendid. There is a corridor in front of the dwel
ling-house of the resident director which is really
magnificent. I should think it is eighty yards long,
by six or eight wide, and commands a beautiful
view of the tierra caliente in the valley below. The
boiling-houses are all very substantiaUy built, and
provided with a steam-engine which furnishes aU
the power required. The machinery is aU Belgian,
and appears well adapted to its end; especiaUy a
large crushing-mill, which squeezes the canes as flat
as a sheet of paper, and from its being constantly
supplied, keeps up a continued stream of the sweet

PUGA. 171
milky juice flowing into a large reservoir below.
The sugar made on this estate is of very good
quality, and the quantity large.
Attached to the boiling-house is a distillery, in
which a very excellent kind of rum is made from
the waste molasses. I was astonished to hear that
no market could be found for this spirit, it being
so greatly superior to the mescal, or Catalan brandy,
the favourite drinks of the lower classes. I should
think that the impulse the discoveries in California
have given to every branch of trade in the west,
would have some effect in helping to dispose of
this article.
At a distance of a mile and a half from the manu
factory is the most delightful bath I ever saw. The
water is tepid, supplied by a natural spring in the
bottom, and as clear as crystal. The tank contain
ing this spring is about fifteen or twenty feet long
by ten wide and five deep. At one end there is a
sluice-gate over which the water is continually
pouring, at the rate of many hundred gaUons a
minute, and yet the bath is always full, showing the
immense supply from below.
Tobacco is grown somewhat largely at Compos-

17.2 AGRICULTURE.
tela, a town situate about eight or ten leagues to the
south-west. This is brought into Tepic, and made
into cigars in the town. They are certainly very
good, and are, indeed, some of the best home-made
articles in the republic.
The country round produces chiefly maize, some
barley, and a little rice — the latter of an exceedingly
good quality. The part of it in a state of cultivation,
however, bears a small proportion to what is waste
land, or rather pasture-land, sometimes inclosed,
but oftener not. Vast plains, covered with cattle,
horses, and mules, stretch away in the direction of
Guadalaxara, intersected with streams, and well fur
nished with springs of fine water. Most of this
land belongs to some residents in Tepic. Some
of these estates are famous for producing the bulls
exhibited in the Plaza de Toros : they are bred
and reared for the express purpose of the buU-
fights. Agriculture is rather backward here, as indeed
throughout Mexico. The agricultural implements
are exceedingly simple. A plough is merely a
wooden pole with a large peg in it, which makes all
the furrow that is required. From the nature of the

RICE FIELDS 173
climate, draining and all such accessories deemed
necessary to English farming, are unheard of ; the
difficulty generaUy being to get enough water, not
to get rid of it.
The estate on which the rice is grown was a
favourite haunt of mine for the purpose of duck
shooting ; it belongs to the superintendent of the
maquina. Here there was a good supply of water
from a small lake, into the upper end of which ran
a stream of natural warm water issuing from the
ground just above. This water was carried into
the rice fields, in which there were also many large
ponds communicating with one another. When it
was required to inundate the fields, which was done
directly after sowing, these ponds were opened, and
by damming up one ditch and opening another, the
water was taken in the required direction, and
spread over the ground, where it remained until the
rice attained some height.
The waggon used for agricultural purposes is a
large lumbering vehicle, with two enormous solid
wooden wheels, which make the most excruciating
noise I ever Ustened to ; it is made of cane and
drawn by oxen, generally six. They travel of course

174 HORSES AND MULES.
very slow, but draw a great weight. Mules, how
ever, are the staple means for carrying burdens in
Mexico, and few days pass in which the traveUer
will not meet many hundreds.
Breeding horses and mules goes on in the plains
around Tepic to a great extent. There are plenty of
cows in the neighbourhood, but no butter is made,
and the milk is very poor. During the rainy season
I believe a small quantity of butter is procured from
the cows belonging to the maquina, but the chmate
is much against this commodity. These cows are
always wading about in the river below the maquina,
and eat a great quantity of the refuse cotton that
comes down with the stream. Whether it is for the
sake of the oil or the seeds contained in it, I am
ignorant, but I have seen them swallow pounds of
this article. Towards the close of the dry season,
when everything is burnt up, and not a blade of
green grass to be seen for miles, cattle die in hun
dreds. I have seen four or five lying dead in one
morning by the side of the laguna. This lake is
always filled with cattle up to their backs in
water, eating the coarse rough grass with which it
abounds.

XALISCO. 175
Two leagues from the town there is a pretty
little place called XaUsco, the name of the province,
and of which this village was once the capital.
Most of the Tepiquenos have houses in it, and all
move out there during the months of October and
November. Xalisco is situated almost at the foot
of the south-eastern corner of San Juan and is
slightly higher than Tepic. Water is brought from
the mountain by an aqueduct of open wooden
troughs supported on poles, by the removal of one
of which the whole population would be deprived of
water, there being no weUs or springs in the place.
Some four mfles down the river there is a very
fine fall, Uttle known, but equal to many in Swit
zerland. I dare say it is eighty feet high, and the
river at this point is of considerable size.

CHAP. IX.
TEPIC.
KILLING TIME  THE LAGUNA  DUCK-SHOOTING  DUCKS  OTHER
AQUATIC BIRDS  LAND BIRDS  QUADRUPEDS  INSECTS 
CASTILLON  SAN JUAN MOUNTAIN  GOLD-HUNTING.
Having now, I think, said nearly aU there is to
say about Tepic, its environs, and productions, I wiU
try to give my reader some notion of the manner
in which I passed my time among its inhabitants
during my six months' residence. The house in
which I Uved was one of the mercantile houses I
have mentioned above, the whole of the inmates
of which were, more or less, constantly employed in
the counting-house ; consequently, at first, my time
hung rather heavily on my hands. After a week or
so of inaction I took to shooting, and continued
this sport as long as I remained in Mexico.
The laguna, as I have before said, swarmed with
wild ducks of all kinds, and snipes in myriads. I

BIRDS. 177
was very difficult to approach the ducks when in the
laguna itself, and the best sport in the immediate
neighbourhood of the town was afforded by a smaU
stream that ran from the river to the laguna. The
banks of this were high, and it was quite easy under
their shelter to approach the ducks which frequented
it. During these shooting excursions I saw an
immense number of animals, feathered and un-
feathered, that I had only seen before in books, or
in zoological gardens, and which, from their no
velty, absorbed much of my attention. Towards the
close of the dry season the laguna shrunk very
much, and the streams and springs in the neighbour
hood dried up. The ducks, which are said to foUow
the rain, disappeared too in a great measure, and I
had to seek for my sport in drier spots. Whilst the
country was still full of ducks 1 bagged a great many,
and I regret that I am not an ornithologist, to de
scribe the different varieties that came in the way of
my gun.
I remember one day killing no less than six dif
ferent kinds, from a large brown species with red
legs, down to a diminutive blue-winged teal. Many
of them were nearly white, with black heads, and
8§

178 BIRDS.
black tips to their wings. Some had narrow bills and
others broad. The teal were, however, the most
numerous, and I kiUed, from first to last, an im
mense number of these. The natives have Uttle
idea of shooting for sport's sake, and were highly
delighted at seeing me knock them over on the
wing. The common method with them is for a
feUow to strip himself and wade into the laguna,
keeping his head and gun above water. Here he
remains for some time till the ducks are congre
gated pretty thick round him, and then lets fly into
the middle of them. They must have tough skins
— the men, not the ducks — as I one day waded in
myself after a bird I had winged, and I did not
recover my partial immersion for some hours. The
sedgy grass is fiUed with some small stinging insect
which plagued me dreadfully ; for some time I felt
as if I had been sitting in an ants' nest.
Great varieties of other aquatic birds are to be seen
in the neighbourhood of Tepic. Cranes and herons of
all kinds, black, white, and grey, crested, and with
out crest, are common. Pelicans but rarely are seen
in the laguna. One immense bird, called (so CastiUon
told me) a Borigon, is common enough ; it has a

BIRDS. 179
body bigger than a swan, and moderately long legs,
but with almost no neck, and an immense beak pro
jecting from a smaU head, set deep between his
shoulders. This bird is white, and has his wings
edged with black; his legs, head, and beak being
also black. Bitterns are very common, and beautiful
birds they are. Curlews and snipes, great, small,
and jack, abound. These last are absurdly tame ;
they never fly over twenty yards, and dropping in
the open plain, even after being fired at and missed,
feed without any fear of being again molested.
Divers and water-rails frequent all the lakes and
streams in myriads : some of the former are very
graceful and elegant birds. Flamingoes, spoonbiUs,
and birds of that kind, I met with occasionally, but
seldom shot at any, save ducks and snipes. I think
the most curious of the aquatic birds I saw was a
large diver, with a neck almost as long as a swan,
and short legs, which sat in trees by the waterside,
and when frightened took to the water in great haste.
This bird, which, I think, is caUed by Buffon, the
black-bellied Darter, always chose a high and quite
naked tree, and, before starting, moved his neck
backwards and forwards, in a very curious style.

180 STARLINGS.
I often tried to procure a specimen, but ineffectually,
as they were very wary, and their feathers too close
set to admit of a long shot taking effect. A very
pretty little bird, caUed Madrugador, or early-riser,
of a brUliant yellow, was very common ; as were
also kingfishers of aU sizes and colours.
The land birds are as various as the water, and
I was much puzzled to find names for most of them.
The commonest and most domestic is a handsome
black fellow with a magnificent tail, and considerably
larger than an English blackbird, caUed Sanati.
He frequents all houses, and is even more impudent
and self-sufficient than our common sparrow.
StarUngs exist in immense tribes, some entirely
black, others with brilliant yeUow and crimson heads.
I used to observe that these birds always roosted in
the same spot, and retired to rest at the same
time ; till at last, when out with my gun I saw the
starlings coming, I never required to look at my
watch to know that it was also time for me to be
jogging homeward. These flocks, containing im
mense numbers, had been all day scattered over
the plains, picking up the vermin which fell from
the cattle and mules, each of these animals being

HAWKS. 181
always surrounded by some hundreds of these
little birds. They were now returning to their
homes, the main body always preceded and flanked
by detached parties. This army extended often
a quarter of a mile, and occupied two or three
minutes in passing me, casting a distinct shadow
on the ground as they flew. OccasionaUy the
whole body made a sharp curve in their flight,
always an indication that a hawk was looking out
for stragglers.
The most beautiful of all the tierra templada
birds is, I think, the cardinal, which is met with
everywhere ; it is of a bright crimson, and beauti
fully crested. Wild turkeys are also seen among
the mountains not far from Tepic, but I had never
the good luck to faU in with any.
Hawks of aU kinds were very common, and I have
seen eagles, but rarely ; a companion one day kUled
one when out with me. There are some pecuUar
birds of the hawk species called "Bone-crushers,"
large and powerfuUy made, with beautiful red crests
and eyes. These sit motionless upon stones and
trees, never touching the carcase of any animal tUl
the zopUotes have done with it, when they proceed

182 BIRDS.
to remove whatever flesh stiU adheres to the bones,
and get the marrow out of the bones themselves. I
have also seen them attack small birds.
Many of the hawk tribe are most useful, from
their destruction of snakes and other reptiles. I
have often seen one soaring away with a snake a
yard long wriggling in his claws. One of these birds
once dropped his prey at sight of me. I found, on
inspection, that the snake was not dead, but nearly
so, his skull being laid entirely open with a severe
peck. CastiUon told me, one day, that the day
before that, he had seen a hawk attack a snake too
large for him, and that whilst he was carrying him
off in mid air, the snake wreathed himself round the
wings of the hawk or eagle (as my friend caUed him),
and both came to the ground together. Although
this is both an old and a poetical story, I will answer
for it that my friend CastiUon was never in the way
of hearing it, and have no doubt whatever that he
saw what he described.
There are plenty of owls, but one does not often
meet with them in daylight, even in Mexico.
Pigeons and doves of all kinds abound, and when
my ducks and snipes failed me, I had capital sport

LIZARDS. 188
among the former in a thicket by the side of the
laguna. There is a small sort of dove very beau
tiful, and very tame, no bigger than a thrush, of
which numbers used to buUd in the orange trees,
of the maquina garden. They appeared to hve
mostly on the ground and ran very nimbly ; half
a dozen of these little birds made as much noise
in rising as a large covey of partridges. There were
a few quail in the neighbourhood of Tepic, but I
only twice saw any ; those first seen were in a
covey, much blacker on their backs than common
English or Irish quails, and nearly as large as
partridges. I had only my rifle, and did not of
course succeed in bagging any. The next time, I
fell in with a single bird in a field of maize, and
winged him, but he got into such a dreadfully
thick place in a barranca that I was obliged to give
up aU hopes of retrieving him.
Four-legged wild animals are not very plentiful in
the neighbourhood of Tepic, and when I did see a
rare one, I often, from my surprise and admiration,
forgot to fire at it. Owing to this omission, I
one day lost what I imagine to have been a fine
young puma cub, very rare in the tierra templada.

184 ARMADILLOS.
He was of the size of a large cat, with a short tail,
rather black on the back, and with very strong,
thick legs.
Armadillos and iguana lizards are the two com
monest animals, and swarm like rabbits, living hke
them in holes. I was one day walking by the side
of the laguna, soon after my arrival, with my eye on
some ducks quietly swimming about out of shot,
when an armadiUo bolted out of a bush close to me;
I made sure it was a rabbit, and my gun went up to
my shoulder instinctively. On seeing my new friend,
however, I thought that small shot would be thrown
away upon such a mass of scales as I saw leisurely
retreating to its hole, and I did not fire. I killed
one of them afterwards, more out of curiosity than
for the use of the poor beast. It is the heaviest
animal of its size I ever handled. They are easily
tamed when young, and I have seen several in Tepic in
the cottages. The iguana Uzards are so exceedingly
quick in getting to their holes, that you can seldom
get a good look at one. However, I one day came
upon a fellow unexpectedly in a large field, and cut
him off from all retreat. I had a dog with me at the
time, and the poor beast seemed to pay no attention

IGUANAS. 185
to me, but followed the dog with his bright eyes all
round the enclosure. Killing him would have done
me no good, as he would have been neither useful
nor ornamental, so I dropped my gun to have a good
look at him, and to admire his shape and demeanour.
He was at least four feet long from the tip of his
nose to that of his tail, and the whole side of his
back was covered with a crest of spines, which he
appeared to move at pleasure. His head was very
broad, blunt, and exceedingly ugly withal, having a
species of cheek pouches hanging from his jaws.
Though I was standing within a yard of him, the
dog alone engaged his attention, and having at last
seen him safely behind a bush, off bolted my friend,
and gained his hole without molestation. His long
body and short awkward legs did not promise any
great rate of locomotion, but he did go, and as fast
as any hare I ever saw in my life. These beasts are
very harmless, and are occasionally eaten by the
poor people, who consider them a specific in some
disorders. Hares and rabbits are met with in the neigh
bourhood of Tepic, but not in any great numbers.
Lizards of all kinds abound, and the frogs at night

186 FROGS.
in the laguna and other stagnant places, are most
melodious. I remember one night coming home
after dark with my attendant, when these animals
were making a prodigious noise, especiaUy one
patriarchal feUow, who sat on a stone just out of
the water, and appeared to be drowsily hearing the
complaints of his kindred, only waking up now and
then to give a judgment, which he did in the deepest
frog-voice I ever heard. Little water-turtles or
tortoises sit on all the stones, and even in trees,
beside the water. They are similar to the stones in
colour, so that one does not perceive them until
they jump in with a great splash. I one day killed
one with my rifle. On examining him I found he
was provided with an apparatus for closing his
shell, at pleasure, by means of a sort of lid at
either end.
In my excursions I met with a vast number of
insects, quite new to me and apparently very curious,
but of which my utter ignorance of entomology
prevents me giving any account. I will only notice
one or two of those most remarkable and best
known. As the summer advanced scorpions (alacranes)

SCORPINOS. 187
and centipedes made their appearance in consider
able numbers. CastiUon told me one day that
he was once out shooting with a gentleman who
was stung by one of the former, and he had to
bring him home " como un venado " — like a deer.
These scorpions are very plentiful in the tierra
caliente, and we saw quite as much as I liked of
them at Tepic. A servant belonging to our house
was one day stung whilst reaching down a dish
from a shelf in the kitchen ; in a quarter of an hour
the man became insensible, and revived in convul
sions which lasted for some hours, and he did not
recover the use of his tongue for more than twenty.
The remedies used were strong doses of ammonia
and brandy and water ; neither his finger, the part
stung, nor his arm swelled in the least. One day
while playing bilhards, I was informed that a spot
of dirt was upon my white jacket; a kind friend
trying to brush it off was horrified to see the
supposed spot erect a horrid tail and run into my
pocket. I promise you the jacket came off pretty
quickly, and my tailed friend was ejected from his
retreat, and after a good hunt kiUed in the trowsers
of the marker.

188 SCORPIONS.
I had often heard of the wonderful suicide com
mitted by these animals, when inclosed in a circle
of fire ; and when at San Bias, I procured some for
the experiment, but my sport was spoiled by the
master of the house in which I was staying, who, as
soon as my back was turned, clapped them into a
bottle of spirits. However, I have since heard from
eye-witnesses, that it is a fact, that if a scorpion is
put into a circle of burning charcoal, he runs round
the ring, and finding no escape, returns to the
middle, and thrusts his sting into his own head.
They are said often to kill children ; and I myself
have heard, since I left Mexico, that a fine young
colt, the offspring of an old mare of mine, has
been kiUed by the sting of one of these animals.
It is commonly believed that a scorpion, removed to
a country sufficiently elevated, such as the city of
Mexico, which is 4000 feet higher than Tepic, loses
his venom, and his sting becomes harmless, though
the animal is not in any way affected in his health
or appetite.
Centipedes are known to have the same venomous
bite as the sting of the scorpion ; but I never wit
nessed a case of this sort.

MATACABALLO. 189
The insect most dreaded, rarely met with in
Tepic, but often at Puga and San Bias, is a huge
sort of spider, the body the size of a walnut and the
legs eight or nine inches in length. This animal is
called vinagriUo, from the peculiar vinegar smell
attached to it, and which luckily points out its
whereabout. A bite from this beast is said to be
certain death.
There is an amazing variety of other insects to be
met with, all, no doubt, very curious to a naturalist.
Among them I will only mention two — the " Mata-
caballo," so caUed from the belief that a horse dies
from eating one of them ; and another sort of grub,
whose name I forget, which buries itself in the
ground just before death, and from whose body
always springs a small tree of the same species.
There were several of these plants in Tepic, growing
in flower-pots. The matacaballo has the aspect of
an animated blade of dry grass, with fibrous legs,
and which may be seen to move, after a long inspec
tion, among the mass of fodder spread before a
horse. My amusement with the smooth bore was often
varied by a walk with my rifle in search of deer ; and

190 SAN JUAN.
in the prosecution of this sport I went over a great
deal of country, and became intimately acquainted
with all the mountains in the neighbourhood of
Tepic. My usual plan of proceeding was to start in
company with my worthy cazador, CastiUon, about
daybreak, carrying provisions and water with us.
We made all play in the cool of the morning to
reach the high ground intended for the clay's sport,
before the sun became very powerful; but it was
always nine o'clock before we managed to arrive at
the top of San Juan, when our beat lay in that
direction. This San Juan is a beautifully-wooded mountain,
about 3000 feet above the level of the plain at Tepic ;
it is very steep, and without any regular path to the
top, except in one direction, some distance from the
town. The timber with which it is covered is
almost entirely pine, the dry leaves from which
strew the whole mountain, and are so shppery that
they render the walking extremely bad. I ascended
this mountain four or five times, once on horseback,
with a friend, but only once with any success. The
view from the top, in every direction, is splendid,
and when the day was clear, and the tierra caliente

CASTILLON. 191
below free from fog, the sea at San Bias, distant
fifty miles, was plainly visible. We generally rested
an hour or so during the heat of the day. No water
was to be found in the mountain during the dry sea
son, and we were always obliged to carry it with us.
My companion in these excursions, CastiUon,
was a simple, honest feUow, very dark, and with
a little Spanish blood in his veins. As I mentioned
before, he could read, but was extremely ignorant of
other sublunary accomplishments, especially in mat
ters of geography. During these midday halts we
always had some amusing conversation, though,
with my bad Spanish and his provincial twang, it
was often difficult for us to make each other out.
His ideas of Europe were very limited ; the only
country he had heard of before, in that direction,
being Spain, and he often asked me whether Europe
and England were not both in Spain. However,
we were capital company for each other, and I would
not wish a quieter or more pleasant fellow in a
shooting expedition in strange lands. From his
great knowledge of the mountains, he could pick
out aU the likely spots for deer, and always kept
his eyes on the ground, noticing the shghtest trace

192 CASTILLON.
of his game, even though it were only a broken twig.
The first time I took out my spy-glass, which was a
very good one, CastiUon was as much delighted as
any pure savage could have been, and I could hardly
get it away from him, especiaUy after he thought
that he had made out his wife washing in the river
at the distance of two or three miles. Like all the
poorer Mexicans, who rarely see a clock, he was a
great adept at telling the time of day by a look at
the sun, and I think, in many trials I made of his
proficiency in this respect, he was seldom ten
minutes out in his reckoning.
CastiUon was an excellent walker, a rare character
in Mexico. He was always attired in shirt, drawers,
and sandals. On arriving at stiff ground he took off
the latter, rolled his drawers up entirely, and was
then ready to go through prickly pear bushes, or any
thing else. His skin must have been hke leather,
for he never seemed damaged by thorns that even
penetrated the soles of my shoes. The only day in
which we killed a deer, he carried it, I dare say,
ten miles, and never complained of fatigue. The
fore and hind legs were tied together, and passed
over his forehead, the body of the animal hanging

CASTILLON. 193
down his back. I was often severely bitten whilst
on these mountain excursions by ants and other
insects, especially by one feUow called an arriero —
so CastiUon said — which held on like a buUdog,
and made a great swelling where it fixed. In the
tierra caliente it is dangerous to go into the wood
which is there called the Monte, as it is full of
all manner of insects, chiefly "gueenas" and "gara-
pitos," which burrow in a man's skin, bringing up
a large family in the cavity they make, if not im
mediately extracted.
CastiUon one day took me to see a robber' s cave,
situated on one side of San Juan. This was very
large, with a delightful spring of water bubbling
up at the entrance : it was almost choked up with
heaps of pumice-stone, of which nearly the whole
mountain is composed. I asked him the meaning of
these heaps, and he replied, "Algunos lojos bus-
cando oro Senior" (some fools looking for gold),
which was supposed to have been buried by the
robbers in this repository. This gold or treasure-
hunting is very common everywhere, and I used to
pass a dozen pits in a day, all of which, he said, had
been dug by people in search of hidden treasure.

194 CASTILLON.
One day he told me how a gentleman, from the city
of Mexico, applied to him, as more cognisant of the
mountains than any other Tepiquerio, for informa
tion respecting a large grey stone in San Juan, with
divers signs and crosses upon it. He knew the
stone, and showed it to the gentleman, and was
then dismissed with a good reward, and promise of
another of a different kind if he remained to watch
his employer's proceedings. CastiUon could not tell
me the exact sequel, but he said there was a treasure
found in the neighbourhood of this stone, of 25,000
dollars, which the gentleman and his servants
carried away upon mules. I will leave my readers
to believe that or not, as they like.
These mountains are never frequented by any
body but charcoal burners, and CastiUon used to tell
me I was the only foreigner who had been there ;
but in this he was a little out, as one of my friends
in Tepic once ascended to the top of San Juan. At
the end of the dry season the grass on all the neigh
bouring mountains is set on fire, and at night the
whole country often seems in one continued blaze ;
the strange part of this burning is, that the trees
are never consumed, and seeing that they are all

THE COUNTRY. 195
pine, I thought this very remarkable. I used to
pass acres upon acres of ground which had been
burnt, the trees occasionally scorched, but I never
saw one even killed by the fire that had raged
round them.
Nearly aU the neighbouring hUls, as well as
St. Juan, received some share of my attention in
the way of walking, and I will undertake to say,
that I know the country in the immediate neigh
bourhood of Tepic better than any resident of the
place, save CastiUon, and I was there only six
months.

CHAP. X.
SAN BLAS.
ROUTES FROM TEPIC  JOURNEY  SCENERY  TIERRA CALIENTE —
ESTEROS  SAN BLAS  BAY  CLIMATE  CALIFORNIAN STEAMERS
 YANKEES  TREE OYSTERS  FISHING  TRADE  ONIONS  CALI
FORNIAN FEVER  A BALL  ANOTHER JOURNEY  DAYBREAK IN
THE FOREST  SALT-WORKS  AN ALLIGATOR  FAREWELL TO
MEXICO. I twice visited San Blas before I finaUy left
Tepic; and as my route, the last time, was by a
different road from that I had before gone, I may
as weU say something about my earher journies.
On my first journey, I went in company with a
friend merely to have a look at San Bias, the
Pacific, and a Californian-bound steamer daily ex
pected to arrive ; on the second, to see the same
friend on board the same steamer bound to Cali
fornia, where he still flourishes if not burnt out
in the last fire.
There are three roads from Tepic to San Bias:
one by the mountains and only passable for horses
and mules ; another passable half-way by carriages ;

JOURNEY. 197
and a third more circuitous, which admits carriages
the whole distance. How weU it admits them,
however, may be judged by this : — I remember an
express arriving one night to inform us that a new
English carriage lately landed at San Bias, and
coming to Tepic by this route, had stuck by the
way, owing to some large stones in the middle
of the road, over which the front wheels were
not sufficiently high to lift the body of the vehi
cle. In both my rides to San Bias we did the
distance in one day; although, unless people are
pressed for time, two are generaUy taken : however,
I think it much less fatiguing to ride fast and get
the work over, than to ride slow and be for two
days baked in the sun like a pie. The first time
we started before daylight, and, with fresh horses
awaiting us at the half-way house, where we rested,
reached San Bias at about three in the afternoon.
The next time we did not start till after breakfast,
I think about nine, and did not stop at all on the
road. We at once mounted our fresh horses at
the half-way house, and arrived at San Bias in
considerably under eight hours, much less tired
than the time before. The distance from Tepic

198 JOURNEY.
to San Bias is said to be twenty leagues. I think,
however, by the mountain-road it is not more than
fifty nines. One of my friends once rode before
breakfast the entire distance on the same horse,
in five hours and a half. Imagine a man mounting
his horse in London at five in the morning, and
arriving in Brighton at half-past ten, and you wiU
have some idea of a performance like this in latitude
twenty- two.
The scenery all along this mountain-road is most
beautiful. After leaving Tepic, a couple of miles or
more bring the traveller to the edge of the tierra
templada and he sees the tierra caliente fading away
in the distance below him covered with a thin blue
haze. At first I mistook this for the sea ; the high
land shooting up here and there like so many
islands; and got much laughed at, one morning,
after an early ride, when I declared I had seen the
sea quite plain.
The first few leagues when you begin to descend,
lead through fine cultivated ground, weU suppUed with
water, and broken up in all directions by arroyos
and small barrancas. The first viUage passed is
denominated Alameda, and a very garden the country

JOURNEY. 199
about it certainly is; though whether that is the
reason the village is so called or not I don't know.
On leaving this fine cultivated land you enter a long
plain, lying on the ridge of a steep hill, and affording
beautiful views on either side, the vast bulk of
San Juan filling up the whole background on the
left hand ; whilst far away to the right, appears a
fine range of mountains, remarkable for their peaks
and abrupt angles, lying beyond the Rio Grande.
After passing the first barranca, a weary toil of
half an hour over a wretched road or footpath brings
the traveller into a fine wood of Mexican oak, often
producing acorns worthy of the gallows. My com
panion informed me he once found some wretched
travellers in this wood, who had been robbed, and
were tied to trees, awaiting the advent of some kind
Samaritan. Proceeding over some miles of pleasant
level road, broken by an occasional barranca, we
arrive at Guinamota, the half-way house. A space
has been here cleared in the forest, and half a dozen
houses built, one of which is the inn at which we
found our spare horses; these, after taking a re
freshing drink of lemonade, we immediately mounted,
and pushed on. A mile more brought us to the

200 SCENERY.
top of a tremendous hiU, the view from which is
superb, and the sea for the first time distinctly
visible. This descended, you find yourself at once
in the tierra caliente, with its groups of palms and
its gorgeous green parrots everywhere ; and the mag
nificent pheasant and Uttle variegated humming-bird
constantly in sight, the one perched on some lofty
tree, the other buzzing about among the flowers like
a large bee.
About a league further on, after passing through a
fine wood with prodigious trees, their great roots
projecting into the road on all sides, we reached
the bottom of another short but very steep hill,
having previously crossed two or three beautiful
streams of water, going to supply some fields of
maize which we passed on our right. The road up
this hill is wretched, and would almost puzzle a Swiss
goat; but as Mexican horses always seemed to me
to have much of this animal in their compositions,
we climbed up the ragged stone steps in great style.
Then ensued three or four leagues of a desperately-
hot plain, bare of trees, save a few scattered palms,
but covered with long grass and brilliant flowers,
and, luckily, ending in a famous shady wood. The

SCENERY. 201
road through this was intolerably bad, but the shade
of the trees very refreshing after the baking expe
rienced in the plain just passed. The trees are
very thick and the jungle quite impenetrable, the
whole being so tied together with creepers as to
form almost a solid mass. Wild bananas in full
flower — a beautiful scarlet — were here in hundreds ;
palms of all kinds ; the banyan or wild fig tree, with
its many supplementary arms ; and all the other
splendid productions of tierra caliente. I saw here
also many of those gorgeous blue butterflies which
are nearly as large as the crown of one's hat.
On emerging from this wood, we got into a good
level road, which was many years ago planned and
made by the English resident of Tepic I have before
mentioned. A league or more of this, entirely
built up on piles and brushwood, being through
the middle of a most unwholesome swamp, brings
you to the edge of an estero or arm of the sea,
which seems to forbid farther progress. But the
horses and mules are unloaded ; the traveller and
his servants along with their trappings embark in
a canoe ; the animals led by the mozo take naturally
to the water, and the canoe is paddled across, the
9§

202 ESTEROS.
animals swimming where it is too deep for them to
walk. When they reach land, the saddles are again
put upon their reeking backs, and five minutes more
bring you and them to San Bias and the shores of
the Pacific.
These esteros are much frequented by aUigators,
and I was told that a fine dog, not long before I
passed, and which was following his master in a canoe,
was carried off by one of these animals.
Taken as a whole, San Bias is a miserable place.
Before the revolution it was a town of much import
ance, and the principal seaport of Mexico on the
Pacific ; but its glory has all departed, and gone to
Mazatlan, a hundred miles farther up the coast.
San Bias consists of two towns, or rather the remains
of them. One of these is on the sea-shore, and the
other on a steep little hiU, distant a mile from the
former. The town on the hill was, and still is, the
fashionable part of the place, and is built in the
form of a square, containing a few good houses. On
the west side of this is situated the custom-house
and its warehouses, built on the edge of a precipice,
with a beautiful terrace behind it, commanding a
magnificent view of the coast for miles in either

SAN BLAS. 203
direction. The other habitable houses belong to
officials of the custom-house, and some of the Tepic
merchants. San Bias is much frequented by the Tepiquenos,
who, during the latter part of the dry season, come
down for the sake of sea-bathing ; and the sight of
people riding on the sands, and ladies plunging about
in the water, give, at that time, an air of life to the
place, which, in general, it is sadly in want of.
Mosquitoes and sandflies are here very troublesome,
but much less so on the hill than below. I took up
my quarters, on each visit, at the house of a gentle
man in the lower town, the agent not only of my
mercantile friends and of the captain of the port, but
also the mayor and great man of the town.
San Bias stands in the bight of a deep bay,
beautifuUy wooded, and surrounded with mountains,
my old friend San Juan occupying a rjrominent place
in the landscape. The water at the town is very
bad, and what ships come here always go some
distance down the bay to procure it good. On the
beach stand the ruins of an old arsenal belonging
to the Spanish government, destroyed by fire ; and
plenty of old anchor stocks and other marine relics

204 CLIMATE.
are seen protruding from the sand in all directions.
There are the means for a very fair harbour here, a
a deep channel running up some distance ; and did
the trade of the place warrant the use of a mud-
dredging machine, I have no doubt it might be
made a very good one.
The climate I thought delicious, compared with
that of Tepic. The night and the day were almost
equally hot, but a sea breeze prevaiUng during the
day and a land one at night, keep up a most delight
ful fanning. All tierra caliente fruits are here in
profusion, and our corral boasted some half-a-dozen
cocoanut trees, full of their pleasant nuts. The beach
consists entirely of sand and fragments of sheUs ; no
shingle at all being visible. This is very disagreable
for bathers, but they must put up with it. Some kind
individual had erected a shed of green boughs just
above high-water mark, and here we could undress
without being blistered by the sun. The tempe
rature of the sea was very high, but the pleasure of
bathing was much spoiled by fear of sharks, which
are very plentiful and voracious, especiaUy an ugly
fellow called a shovel-nosed shark, which, I am
told, is rare on other parts of the coast.

STEAMERS. 205
The scene on the arrival of a steamer, either up to
California or down from thence, is most amusing.
These vessels carry the mails, and are very regular
in their arrivals, calling at San Bias once a month,
either way. They are always crowded with passen
gers, and a most curious-looking set of individuals
they are. The steamers stop some four or five
hours, and all the passengers who can find boats,
come pouring ashore, to buy fruits or get "a drink."
The coolness of these fellows surpasses belief. Two
or three times have I been sitting with friends at the
door of our house, on the arrival of one of these
importations, and every time, owing, I presume, to
its being the first habitation in the village, have we
been inundated by these dirty red-shirted gentry,
clamouring for Uquor and other matters, and not
to be persuaded that it was not a public-house,
though bearing, I am sure, no signs of one. The
costume of a gold-digger on his homeward trip is— a
red worsted shirt, very dirty ; no waistcoat, or if one,
of black satin ; a pair of black trousers, very dirty,
thrust inside boots, also very dirty ; and the upper
man crowned with a black hat, very bad; beard,
moustache, and tobacco at discretion. The outward-

206 SAN BLAS.
bound Californian Yankee is a shade cleaner and
neater in his apparel. The arrival of these steamers
must be a capital thing for San Bias, as far as spend
ing money goes, but a dreadful nuisance to the
respectable portion of the inhabitants.
On my second visit to San Bias I remained a
whole week, and had thus time to see something of
the country. The immediate neighbourhood, with
the exception of the hill before mentioned, is aU
marsh, covered by an impenetrable thicket of man
grove and acacia bushes. On the former of these,
curious to relate, are borne that well-known and
favourite fruit the oyster, which is considered to be
in perfection at San Bias. These mangroves over
hang the esteros and their branches drop into the
water; to these during the floodtide the oysters
adhere, and when the water ebbs the branches with
their living burden are left high and dry; so that
a hungry man in a canoe, at the right time of tide,
may gather any quantity of this sort of fruit he
pleases. We used to occupy ourselves chiefly in fishing,
and caught a good many fish. They were all small,
but brilliantly coloured and good eating. On one

FISHING. 207
of these fishing excursions I was made fuUy aware
of the power of the sun. Being without a coat, I
roUed up my shirt sleeve to enable me to handle my
line with more ease. I remained fishing for some
two or three hours, and the next morning found my
arm so swelled and inflamed I could hardly get my
coat on, and it eventually became one large blister.
Turtles are always floating about in these esteros,
but don't seem to me to sleep as much as I thought
they did, as I never had a chance of capturing one.
One day I went for a sail with the captain of a
small schooner lying in the harbour, in his boat,
and we took our way to the mouth of an estero at
some distance from the town. We were in hopes
of shooting some ducks but did not succeed.
However, we met a picnic party numbering aU the
eligible people in San Bias, which I had been
asked to join but declined: they were embarked
in half a dozen large canoes, with men paddling.
Music of a most melancholy cast was going on in
one of these, and I thought it the most distressing
looking case of forced amusement I ever saw.
Neither lady nor gentleman smiled or said anything,
and had I not known that they were really enjoying

208 TRADE.
themselves, I should have imagined they were going
to deposit the ashes of some departed friend on the
little rocky islands at the entrance to the estero.
The only trade at San Bias in the way of exports
was, until lately, the Brazil-wood (dye-wood), which
is found in large quantities in two places a little
farther down the coast, one the bay of Banderas, and
the other Ipala. Both of these belong to merchants
in Tepic, and a great quantity of this valuable wood
is yearly exported to England. Since the Californian
discoveries a flourishing trade in provisions has lately
sprung up between San Bias and San Francisco;
and hardly a week passes that some vessel or other
does not sail from San Bias bound to the latter port
with provisions and passengers. Vegetables and
fruits are the chief articles of export ; but I have also
seen vessels laden with mules, maize, packs of cards,
and fighting-cocks. Onions, however, are the great
thing. For these there is a large demand in CaU-
fornia — the Yankees eating onions as we eat apples —
the neighbourhood of Tepic being one of the few
places on the Mexican coast where these luxuries
can be procured in perfection. When I left San
Bias onions were selling at a doUar and a half per

TRADE.

209

pound in the market of San Francisco. At this
time one of the residents in Tepic bought for
export some seventy thousand of the precious
fruit. For these he paid six dollars a thousand,
and each thousand contained two hundred pounds.
Assuming that he paid a pretty high price for car
riage, and lost many by decay and in other ways,
the reader wiU see that there wiU probably stiU
remain a good per centage for the outlay of money
and risk. I mention this fact merely to show how
money may be made in California without actuaUy
digging for it.
The imports at San Bias are very small, three or
four ships only, arriving every year from Europe
with a general cargo. There is also a small coasting
trade to Mazatlan and the Gulph of Cahfornia.
However, within the last few months, a new branch
of trade, likely to be of great importance, has
sprung up ; quicksilver for the use of the silver
mines, being imported, in large quantities, from the
new and wealthy mine of New Almaden, in Cali
fornia. One arrival, during our stay at Tepic, was
very curious, viz., a smaU schooner of only twenty-
three tons, from New Zealand, bound to California.

210 FEVER.
She had seventeen people, men, women, and chU
dren on board, and put into San Bias, entirely out
of provisions and water, having been four months on
her voyage.
A great deal of silver from the Mexican mines is
exported from San Bias, and taken to England by
our men-of-war. There is not the same regulation
on the coast of the Pacific as at Guanaxuato about
exporting bar silver, the metal being allowed to
leave the country in any shape. The commonest
kind which chiefly comes from small mines in the
neighbourhood of Tepic, is what is called Plata
Piha, that is, small pieces of irregular shape, with
sometimes a little native silver among it.
Gold from California finds its way, in large quan
tities, to San Bias and Tepic, and thence round the
Horn to England. For some time we had a noble
bit of 14£ lbs. weight in our house. The Califor
nian fever has spread over Mexico very extensively,
and from the inhabitants being such a gambling,
mining race generaUy, immense numbers have gone
to the " diggings." Every ship that left San Bias,
whilst I was in Tepic, was crowded with passengers,
though the fares were very high. I saw many of

ARRIVALS. 211
these people return, more or less dilapidated, but all
with some share of the precious metal; and from
their knowledge of mining in all its branches — a
knowledge which seems inherent in a Mexican — I
should imagine that they often got more dust than
the harder-working, strong-limbed Yankee.
On returning from San Bias the second time I
was alone, and rode very fast, accomplishing the
distance in six hours and fifty minutes, only stop
ping a quarter of an hour, to shift my saddle and
drink some lemonade. I was accompanied the first
half of my journey by a capital fellow, the Capitan
del Puerto, a captain in the Mexican navy, but
who had also during the war served in the army,
and been taken prisoner by the Americans. To my
great surprise I found, on arriving at the half-way
house, that the worthy man had no other horse, and
as both ours were beat to a stand stiU, I left him
there, and pursued my journey alone with the fresh
horse I had left waiting for me. The Capitan did
not arrive in Tepic tUl late the next day.
During the latter part of my stay in Tepic, we had
some arrivals from Mexico to enliven us ; and also
Hertz, the great pianist, from California. He had so

212

BALL.

dehghted the wild Yankees in " Sacramento city," as
they caUit, that they had presented him with a chain
made of bits of rough gold, strung together in the
state in which they were found. Hertz gave us
some concerts at Tepic, and we, in return, gave him
a ball, which was admirably conducted and weU
attended. The ladies were aU smartly dressed, with
plenty of jewellery, and made a much better appear
ance than I thought they would have done. The
ball, on the whole, was not much unlike a country
ball in England, with the exception that some of the
gentleman did not pay very strict attention to cos
tume, coming in any-coloured trousers and short
jackets to match.
In the way, or rather ways, I have mentioned in
the preceding chapters, I passed my time with my
kind hosts until the 8th of June, when I set out on
my return homewards. I had before written to
California, to take a passage from thence to Panama,
if requisite ; a very necessary precaution, when the
steamers were so over-crowded. I was accom
panied to San Bias by my friendly host, her
Majesty's consul, and El Capitan, and we were

JOURNEY HOMEWARDS. 213
attended by some ten servants— with a train of five
or six baggage mules — so that we made rather an
imposing cavalcade. This time we went by a dif
ferent road, with the exception of the first four
leagues. Entering on our new route, we turned to
the right, and by five o'clock reached Manuela
the half-way village. The country was much the
same as I described before, but not so pretty as by
the other road. Manuela was not destined to be
our stopping-place, a fine large rancho, a mile or
two farther, belonging to Don Gaetano Madrigal,
being placed at our disposal. We soon reached this,
and did justice to a capital dinner furnished by our
entertainer ; after which, erecting our beds all in one
room, we made the most of the cool breeze of the
tierra caliente, as we swung in our hammocks.
Nothing occurred to disturb the harmony of our re
pose, save the usual wriggling and scuffling of snakes,
lizards, rats, &c, always going on in the thatched
roofs of tierra caliente, and the dropping of a young
rat, quite a baby-rat, nearly into the mouth of my
friend and late host as he lay face uppermost.
We started just at daybreak the next morning,
and a ride of ten leagues on a dead level, and nearly

214 DAYBREAK.
all sand, brought us to San Bias by the middle of the
day. The first half of this road was through a forest
of enormous trees, swarming with parrots, wheehng
and screaming like seagulls. We saw also a great
many pheasants, and shot with a rifle at some, but
unsuccessfully. The pheasant of the tierra caliente
is black with white spots, square-cut tail, crested, a
noble-looking bird, and nearly as big as an English
turkey. Daybreak in a tropical forest is a sight
never forgotten. From the dead silence everything
in five minutes changes to the most active life;
beasts and birds of all kinds, insects, gorgeous
butterflies, aU come out from their beds to enjoy
themselves in the first rays of the sun, and make
the whole forest ring with their various noises.
The parrots of Mexico are mostly green, with yeUow
or red heads, and are admirable talkers, very gentle,
and without the spite of their grey African brethren.
Half-way between the rancho and San Bias we
stopped to inspect some salt-works of which my
host is the proprietor. The salt was stored in an
immense barn, and was of fine quality. During
the rainy season the whole of this plain is under
water, and the salt warehouse standing on a hill

ALLIGATOR. 215
becomes an island, where its keeper, like Robin
son Crusoe, lives alone untU the abatement of the
floods. Whilst stopping here, Her Majesty's Consul
started off with his rifle to have a shot at a vene
rable alligator, which was basking in the sun on the
sand by the side of an estero. The unfortunate
brute had eaten his last dog, and died in two
shots, both of which struck him full in the
back and in the middle of the scales, though I
had always understood these to be impenetrable.
For my especial edification the beast was lazoed and
dragged out of the water, to which he had retreated
on receiving his death-wound. He was ten feet
long, and furnished with a prodigious row of teeth,
with which, in his death agonies, he nearly took off
the leg of one of the mozos. My friend was waited
upon by a deputation of ladies from the nearest
village, who felicitated him upon destroying the
venerable monster who for many months had lived
upon their pet dogs.
A league or so more and we came to the salt
works themselves, passing over a sandy plain, in
many places covered with water, and, where dry,

216 SALT-WORKS.
glittering with a crust of salt. At the proper season,
i. e., the dry one, water from the sea is permitted to
overflow these plains, upon which the sand has been
already loosened and scraped into a sort of soft bed ;
as this evaporates, more water is admitted, and so
they go on, until the sand becomes so impregnated
with salt that it wiU hold no more. It is then
taken to a washing apparatus, and the water in
which the sand is washed comes out a complete
brine, which is then conducted into smaU pans
paved with hard plaster and exposed to the sun.
The salt crystaUises very fast in these, and is then
removed to the warehouses. This manufacture is
an important article of trade, a great quantity of
salt being made every year and sold to all the
country round. I remember my host saying one
evening when it looked threatening — " If it rains
to-night I lose 15,000 dollars' worth of salt;" but it
did not rain, and his salt and doUars were saved.
My last evening in San Bias was distinguished
and concluded by a fandago, got up expressly to
do honour to my friends from Tepic. Two candles
were stuck in posts placed in the middle of the
street, and some planks laid down, whereon the

LEAVING MEXICO. 217
performers danced until they were heartUy tired.
We were accommodated with chairs, and all the
rest of the audience stood round in an admiring
crowd. The next morning the good ship " Oregon " made
her appearance, and I ascertained that a single cabin
was at my disposal — a great luxury, as there was
only two in the ship. My agent in California
luckily found a passenger bound to San Bias, who
occupied this cabin the first half of the journey, and
gave it up to me for the last. My friends saw me
and my traps safe on board, and not without regret
I bade adieu to Mexico and the Tepiquenos.

10

CHAP. XI.
SAN BLAS TO CHAGRES.
CALIFORNIAN STEAMERS  PASSENGERS  A DINNER PARTY 
ACAPULCO  CROWDING AND HEAT  PANAMA  RUINS AND REVI
VAL  NATIVES  ACROSS THE ISTHMUS  BAD MULES  BAD ROADS
 BAD HOUSES  BUT FINE SCENERY  CRUCBS  DOWN THE RIVER
CHAGRES. The " Oregon" is a fine large steamer of over a
thousand tons, built expressly for the Californian
trade, and is one of a line established some time,
and before the discovery of the gold took place.
We had about 260 passengers, a hundred in the
cabin, and the rest forward. They were all much
of the same stamp of persons as I have before
described, and among them, of course, a very
tolerable sprinkling of colonels, captains, judges,
majors and other dignitaries of like kind. Even
the ship's purser was a captain. Not satisfied
with their own honors, divers tried to saddle me
with a warlike title also. The first day at dinner
one of the servants brought me a message to the

STEAMERS. 219
effect that the captain of the ship, a very pleasant
gentlemanly man, an officer in the United States
navy, wished to have the pleasure of taking wine
with Captain F., meaning me.
The first of these steamers I boarded at San Bias
was bound up to California, and I had some con
versation with a gentleman who answered to the
title of colonel, the said officer being dressed in red
worsted shirt with his trousers inside his boots. In
the present instance, I think our mihtary men looked
a Uttle more respectable ; but, with the exception of
some half-dozen, I would not have given much for
the wardrobe of the entire cabin passengers. The
officers of the ship were certainly the most gen
tlemanly men on board, and very pleasant fellows.
The engineer was an Englishman, and told me he
liked the ship and service very much. We had one
luxury on board that ought to be attended to, I
think, in English steamers, viz. a good bath placed
on the sponson, and which was always engaged many
deep. This was farmed out, I presume, to one of
the steerage passengers ; at aU events, it was at
tended to by him. He received half a doUar for
every bath, and as it was always occupied from

220 DINNER PARTY.
morning to night, he must have made a good thing
of it.
The cabin was very bad, dreadfuUy close, and so
dark that the captain always required a light to see
to carve at his end of the table. Owing to the great
number on board, we were divided into two parties,
and each division plunged headlong down to feed at
the first tinkle of the beU, there being no unnecessary
waiting or politeness, but every man for himself,
and some, as it would seem, for two or three. So
quick was the execution, that I have seen some of
my neighbours leave the table almost before I had
swallowed my soup. One huge Kentuckian usually
sat opposite to me, and generaUy preferred dining
without his coat ; he had arms like the sails of a
windmill, and swung them about to some purpose,
sweeping, peU-mell, into his plate, something of
every dish he could reach: he never minded the
incongruity of the different messes — it was all one
to him ; and the fork that was one moment in his
mouth, was, the next, buried in the recesses of a
squash pie, and served as a toothpick when his crav
ings were satisfied. The purser, worthy man, was
in despair to see his food so handled ; and having

PASSENGERS. 221
servants most ignorant of their business, the confu
sion at dinner was immense. The servants were all
passengers working their passage : one of them told
me he had tried a good many things in his life,
but never before the trade of a waiter, and he
would take care he did not try it again in a hurry.
The food itself was not first-rate, but quite as
good as I expected on board such a disorderly
ship, and nearly as good as we got in the English
steamer. The ship was very dirty on deck, and had a nasty
trick of raining ashes from the funnel in clouds,
which rendered every place most filthy. Spitting-
boxes were liberaUy dispersed about, but seldom
used ; consequently it was a difficult matter to find a
clean place to sit down. However, the ship was
fast, the weather lovely, and all were going home ;
so we passed our time pleasantly enough, the pas
sengers, if not very refined in their generation,
being, as far as I saw, very pleasant and amusing
fellows. From some of them I got a good deal of
information about Cahfornia, but having taken no
notes I wiU say nothing about it. We had a large
freight of gold on board, viz., 2,500,000 dollars, and

222 ACAPULCO.
all the passengers had with them more or less, most
of it in the shape of dust.
On the second morning after leaving San Bias we
came in sight of the entrance to Acapulco, and
anchored inside the harbour soon after nine. We
had as yet kept in sight of land all the way, which
was very high and, a Uttle away from the shore, well
wooded, the cliffs in many places rising perpendicu
larly from the sea, and looking very Uke the west
coast of Scotland. The evening before we entered
Acapulco we met the upward-bound steamer, the
" California," and stopped side by side for half an
hour to hold a conversation. The Pacific when
I saw it was always as smooth as glass, and we
had little wind during our voyage; but American
steamers, I apprehend, from being crankly built,
have a wonderful tendency to roll, and whilst we
were exchanging compliments with the California,
both vessels were nearly rolling their paddle-boxes
under. The entrance to Acapulco is weU concealed by
some small islands, and is indeed so difficult to find,
that our captain told me the steamers, if the weather
was at all thick, from not being able to find it, often

ACAPULCO. 223
passed without caUing. A narrow entrance, with
half a mile or so of a circuitous channel, leads into
a beautiful landlocked harbour, nearly circular, and
surrounded by hiUs covered with vegetation. I
think it is the prettiest as well as safest harbour
I ever was in, and very like Vigo, in the north of
Spain. We remained here nearly two days to coal,
sailing on the evening of the second. Acapulco
itself is a wretched little viUage, worse, if anything,
than San Bias. There is only one good house in
the place that I saw, and that belongs to the
American consul.
The first day I did not go ashore at the town,
only hiring a canoe for the purpose of bathing in a
remote part of the bay. The water was as clear as
crystal, and the bath very delicious ; but that horrid
bugbear, the " shark," spoils all the pleasure one has
in swimming about in the Pacific. The second day
I went to the town with a feUow-passenger, who
told me he had made a capital trip to California from
Valparaiso, and pocketed a good deal of money in
four months. We walked all over the place, and
spent some time, pleasantly swinging in a hammock
belonging to a butcher, under some trees beside

224 ACAPULCO.
his shop. He was wild about going to California,
and I dare say has gone ere this.
One large house at the landing-place is turned
into an American hotel, where all the national
" drinks" are to be met with ; and this place seemed
to be crowded from morning to night. Some half
dozen ships were lying in the harbour, aU bound to
California ; one sailed the same evening as ourselves.
The coal was brought alongside in launches, and
taken on board in sacks, — a tedious process, I fancy,
but far more agreeable to passengers than the method
pursued in the English steamers on the other side,
where everything is smothered in coal-dust during
this operation. Almost all our passengers were
ashore whflst we stayed at Acapulco, and repeated
the process I before mentioned, of walking into any
body's house, and sitting there for any length of
time, regardless of the wishes of the proprietor.
We left Acapulco in the evening, and the next
morning found ourselves out of sight of land, and
saw little of it again until we passed some islands
before entering the gulf of Panama. The heat
during the whole of this voyage was intolerable. I
never saw the thermometer below 92°. The slightest

PANAMA. 225
motion made one perspire so awfully, that active
exercise on board was out of the question. We
passed our time talking, smoking, and chewing ;
those who had books read, but the readers seemed
to be a small proportion. One division of the pas
sengers who had apphed too late for good berths,
were placed in a sort of omnibus under the floor of
the cabin, and this must have been a very black
hole of Calcutta. There was no windsail or venti
lation of any kind, the room being too deep in the
water to admit of opening the scuttles. The un
fortunates condemned to this place used, most of
them, to sleep on deck, which by nine o'clock in
the evening, was so lumbered up with beds, bear
skins, serapes, and men upon them, that moving
was out of the question. In my berth, with a
window always open, the heat was dreadful, and I
was seldom able to sleep owing to this. I suffered
also a good deal from prickly heat which gave me
a great deal of annoyance.
Six days after leaving Acapulco, to the delight of
everybody on board, we came in sight of Panama,
without anything having taken place of note, save
burying a poor feUow who died of dysentery, and
10 §

226 PANAMA.
meeting two more steamers bound to California.
These two made up the total of eight that had been
met by the "Oregon," on her downward passage;
they were all American, and aU crowded with pas
sengers. I own that it does seem strange to me
that England, which has hitherto been foremost in
all matters of enterprise, takes no heed of what is
going on in California and the Pacific generaUy. I
am confident if a line of steamers was to be estab
lished between Panama and California, they would
be found to answer as well, if not better than any
speculation yet set on foot by EngUshmen. Not
withstanding the steamers we had met, carrying
at least 250 passengers each — and that is probably
far below the mark — two thousand persons were
waiting at Panama, when I arrived there, unable to
get on. Some of these told me they had been
there six weeks, having taken through tickets from
New York for steamers on the other side, which had
never arrived to keep their engagements.
American steamers go in crowds round Cape
Horn, often seeming to forget entirely that the
article of coal is necessary to the prosecution of this
voyage, and making no preparations for supplying

coal. 227
this deficiency on the road ; as witness the unfor
tunate " Sarah Sands," which arrived within 200
miles of San Francisco and there stopped for want
of coal. Many of her passengers went overland,
and endured extraordinary hardships, travelling
through forests and countries almost unknown.
Apropos of this, I may state that shortly before I
was at Panama an American firm in the town one
day purchased a cargo of coal, and the same after
noon, before the purchase-money had been paid, in
came a steamer, I think the " Columbus " from New
York, bound for California, entirely out of coal.
She immediately purchased the entire cargo, and
gave the firm 16,000 dollars for their bargain.
The only steamers that have a regular supply of
coal is, or was when I was there, the Howland and
Aspinwall or mail Une ; and, as our captain natu
rally enough said, " we are not going to cut our
own throats by giving them our coal." Merchants
on the Pacific have, moreover, more confidence in
the British than the American flag as far as safety
and dispatch go ; and I am sure, that were some
British steamers established between Panama and
California, we should soon see a great part of the

228 PANAMA.
gold and silver that now comes from California and
ports in Mexico to Panama, from Panama to New
York, and New York to Liverpool, in American
vessels, come by the shorter and more direct route
of Southampton, entirely under the English flag.
At present England is of little or no account in the
northern part of the Pacific, and for one vessel with
her flag are to be seen certainly twenty American.
We reached Panama betimes in the morning, and
all the passengers anxious to get across the isthmus
hurried ashore. A gentleman bound down the coast
to Valparaiso and myself waited till the scuffle was
over, when we put our traps in a boat and landed
in comfort. The town was so full of traveUers that
some difficulty was experienced in getting a bed ;
however we were at last put, three in one room, in
a wretched, dirty house, our apartment certainly not
ten feet square. I had a friend resident in the town
and sallied out immediately to look for him ; being
successful in my search, I bid adieu to my com
panions, and took up my quarters with him as long-
as I staid.
Panama, situated in the Republic of New Grenada,
bears signs of once having been a magnificent town,

PANAMA. 229
ruins of splendid churches being scattered all over
it, and some of the houses stiU presenting a respect
able appearance. The cathedral in the Plaza is a
beautiful old church, but being all in decay now
wears a most melancholy aspect. The town is
surrounded by a waU, but on the side of the sea that
element has eaten large holes through it in several
places ; still there is a fine promenade on the top,
and the view of the bay is very beautiful. A great
quantity of shipping was lying here at the time of
my visit, and the numbers of beautiful islands in
the bay make this one of the prettiest sea views I
ever saw. All these islands, covered with pleasant
verdure, presented a great contrast to Mexico when
I left it, everything there being dried up ; but the
rainy season had begun here sometime, and hence
the greenness.
I remained in Panama for four days, the English
steamer from Chagres not sailing until the 2Sth — and
I arrived on the 20th. There is nothing to see here
except ruins, dirt, and gambhng-tables. The whole
town is Americanised in appearance, almost every
house calhng itself the American, New York, or
some such hotel, and many of them surmounted

230 NATIVES.
with the " stars and stripes." Everything is enor
mously dear, the prices being almost Californian.
I went to look at some of the sleeping-apartments
in the hotels. They were long rooms entirely filled
with beds, placed certainly not six inches from one
another, throughout the whole length of the room ;
and the charge for accommodation, even such as
this, was enormous.
Fever was at this time very prevalent in Pa
nama, and the poorer Americans who could not
afford to pay for decent lodgings were suffering
from it very much. It was very hot during my stay,
and but little rain fell ; mosquitoes, sandflies, &c.
were very troublesome.
The natives of Panama are the most forbidding-
looking people I have met with, and hideously ugly
both men and women. They have a great deal of
African blood in them, mixed with a touch of the
Spaniard and old Indian. They have, however, a
good deal of courage, and are strong-built, active
fellows. Shortly before my arrival, a severe affray
took place between these men and their unwelcome
guests the Yankees, in which the latter were utterly
defeated, with the loss of three killed, despite the

MULKS. 231
rifle, revolver, and bowie-knife, which were liberaUy
used. The environs of the town are flat and covered by
a luxuriant vegetation, from the appearance of which
I am sure the soil must be capital, and might be
turned to much account by the establishment of
market-gardens ; however, there is not such a
thing in New Grenada, and not a vegetable is to be
procured in Panama for love or money, the very
potatoes that are there having been brought from
the United States.
When the day came for my departure, I engaged
two mules to carry my baggage and one for my
especial riding ; the former I started off at six in the
morning, myself following about ten. I calculated
upon easily getting to Cruces that night, and em
barking on the Chagres river next morning. I
reckoned, however, without my host, taking Mexican
mules for my standard. My own animal, after doing
some three or four leagues pretty well, gave in, and
neither the thrashing of myself nor my attendant
could get her out of a walk, and she often came
to a dead stop, remaining in one place till pleased
to go on. In the course of the day I came upon

232 MULES.
two mules covered with mud, standing by the side
of a deep pool of mud and water, and out of which
an immense naked Indian was dragging something
black. I waited to see the haul, and to my great
disgust found it was one of my own portmanteaus,
the other stiU invisible. The mules, it appeared,
being as bad as the road, had capsized themselves
and burden into this delectable place, and of course
required to be unloaded before extrication was
possible. Owing, however, to good waterproof
covers, my goods were little the worse for their
immersion. New-Grenadian mules and muleteers are far below
the Mexican. The mules appear to have little sta
mina, and are so badly loaded and driven, that acci
dents and breakdowns are always happening. I
reached only the half-way house between Panama
and Cruces the first night, the latter part of the
road being most miserable, even worse than any
thing I had seen in Mexico. Here, however, they
were in the thick of the rainy season, whereas in
Mexico whilst I was there we had no rain.
I met an immense quantity of traveUers, and
among them some ladies, who, I believe, were going

ACCOMMODATION. 233
down the coast to Peru or Chili. The greater part
of the Californian-bound Americans travelled on
foot, hiring men or mules to carry their baggage.
Were I to go again at the same season of the year,
I would do the same, being confident I could move
faster on my own legs, on a New Grenadian road
in the rainy season, than on those of a mule.
On applying for a bed at the half-way house, I
was shown a long table, on which aU visitors were
expected to repose side by side, like sausages in a
poulterer's window. On my expressing some doubts
as to the feasibility of this, without a mattress, and
in the company of so many others, my worthy host,
and a jolly fellow he was, pointed out a grass ham
mock swinging in the bar, and this I immediately
appropriated. These hammocks, made at Guyaquil,
in Peru, are most comfortable affairs, the best pos
sible invention for a hot climate, the slightest motion
in them stirring up a dehghtful breeze. Guyaquil
furnishes an immense quantity of these, as weU as
of hats and other matters made of this material, to
all the towns on the Pacific ; and there was not a
single house in Panama, I wiU answer for it, that
had not such a hammock in every room. On the

234 cruces.
present occasion I slept as weU as ever I did in
my life.
I started early the following morning, and reached
Cruces, on the Chagres river, by eleven o'clock.
My mule had broken down so utterly that I ex
changed her for another I procured at a rancho by
the road-side, and for which I had to pay eight
doUars additional. The road was throughout most
horrid ; in many places it was so scooped out by the
water and constant traffic, that it had sunk deep
between high banks. These cuttings were often
very long, and wo betide any unfortunates that
entered at one end, at the same time with a party
bound the other way at the other. There was no
room to pass, and as neither would give in, the
scuffling and swearing among the savage black
fellows conducting the mules was awful. I saw a
fight between the two leading mules of different
parties at one of these meetings. My mule, or the
mule going my way, was laden with large bars of
silver ; the one coming the other way had two im
mense portmanteaus. After a good deal of pushing,
the weight of the cargo told at last ; my mule
getting one of his silver bars under one of the port-

ISTHMUS. 235
manteaus of his antagonist, fairly capsized him upon
his back in the road, and effectually blocked up all
passage for at least an hour. During the fray, and
the efforts made to raise the fallen, there was
nothing for it but smoke and be patient.
All the treasure is sent across the isthmus on
mules and without any escort whatever; the sU
ver being carried openly in great bars, without
even a cloth to hide them. This shows how much
honester or less enterprising the New Grenadians
are than the Mexicans ; but I think, since I passed,
one robbery has been committed on this route.
The whole of the land-road across the isthmus,
is very beautiful, but so buried in forest that Uttle
can be seen of the country. The trees, creepers,
and plants are much the same as I had seen in the
tierra caliente in Mexico, and they were aU now fresh
and green, owing to the heavy rains. Many traces
of the good road made by the successors of Pizarro,
Vasco Nunez, and the Buccaneers, are stiU visible,
but what is left of it is suffered to go to decay.
In two or three places I saw men at work on our
track, and was told by them that they were making
the railroad; but unless more active steps are

236 cruces.
taken, I doubt if it will come to much. In the
whole of the isthmus, as far as I saw, there is
nothing to stop either railroad or canal : the hills
are all inconsiderable; and the easier and cheaper
processes of feUing huge trees and clearing land,
would be agreeable substitutes for the tunnelling
and heavy cutting one sees so often in England.
I hope whatever is done, we shaU have some hand
in, and not let the Americans monopolize everything
in the west ; we shaU certainly reap a good deal of
the profit. The road, such as it is, is at present
of little use to anybody ; and there can be no doubt
that the passage of merchandise across the isthmus
would be doubled and trebled, in a very short time,
if there was any way of taking it.
Cruces is a little village, with plenty of American
hotels. I breakfasted here, with a gentleman to
whom I brought a letter from Panama, and with his
assistance hired a canoe for the descent of the river.
My boatmen were very decent fellows, and the best
specimens of their countrymen I had yet seen. I
embarked about one o'clock, and though it had been
fine hitherto, it began to rain soon after, and con
tinued almost without intermission until I reached

river. 237
the EngUsh steamer. The river, the whole distance,
is most beautiful, with magnificent forests on both
sides, swarming with parrots and other birds. There
are a good many " snags" in its bed, but my boatmen
easily avoided them. These canoes are fitted with
an awning of palm branches, covered with tarpauUng ;
under this sits the traveller, perched on his baggage,
and drifts down with the stream, the canoe-men
seeming to take it easy, as a recompence for the
labour they have in coming up. A few leagues
below Cruces we passed Gorgona, the other and
more usual starting-place for passengers; but the
rain had made the road from Panama to this place
almost impassable. Shortly before dark we paddled
into the side, and made fast to the bank, opposite an
American house of entertainment. There I landed,
and got some tea, eggs, and salt pork. Every four
or five miles the traveUer comes to a spot cleared
in the forest, where the enterprising Yankee has
erected a canvass tent by the side of the river, digni
fied with the name and sign of American hotel.
These places are very useful to the traveller and
profitable to the landlord, so at least the proprietor
of one told me.

238 RIVER.
We had proposed pursuing our route when the
moon rose, which she ought to have done, and did, I
suppose, about nine p.m. However, when I woke at
midnight, after a good snooze under my awning, I
found we were still moored, and the men asleep.
The moon was also obscured, and proceeding was
therefore out of the question. Owing to the rain
above, the river had begun to come down in great
force, and brought trunks of trees, boats adrift, and
all manner of things along with it. I have seen a
Scotch salmon river rise pretty suddenly before now,
but never fifteen feet in one night, as did the Chagres
river when I came down it. It was all in our favour,
however, and we did not grumble, though some un
fortunates going up did most ruefuUy.
We started at daybreak, and vpent down very fast,
meeting upward-bound boats and canoes in crowds.
I am sure, from first to last, I saw a hundred, and
carrying at the very least four passengers a-piece.
These boats, with such a stream against them, made
very little way. They were either poled along the
bank, or dragged along by the branches of trees
hanging in the water; towing was also going on
wherever it was practicable to walk, rowing being

RIVER. 239
of course out of the question. We stopped half an
hour for breakfast at another American hotel, and
shortly afterwards met a steamer bound up the river.
She did not at aU appear fitted for the business, and
had only ascended once before in a flood similar to
the present.
The Chagres river is certainly the most beautiful
I ever saw, and coming down it, stretched at full
length in a canoe, with such lovely scenery on all
sides, is as pleasant a morning's occupation as I
know. I reached the steamer about three o'clock,
and to my delight found her the same in which I
had come out from England. Previously to going
on board we landed for a few minutes at Chagres,
which is nothing but a miserable village, or rather
two, for there is one at each side of the river's
mouth — one American the other native ; they are
both equally bad.
I should think the whole distance across the
isthmus, the way I came, does not exceed seventy
miles, and fifty of it river.

CHAP. XII.
VOYAGE HOME.
CHAGRES  AMERICAN STEAMERS  CARTHAGENA  HOME PUR
CHASES—JAMAICA  KINGSTON  SPANISH TOWN  SAN DOMINGO
 PORTO RICO  ST. THOMAS  PASSENGERS  BULL  JUMPING
OVERBOARD  FAYAL  SOUTHAMPTON  HOME.
I was very glad to find myself once more back on
board the English steamer. Her clean white decks
formed a great contrast to the dirt of aU sorts
that was so liberaUy sprinkled over those of the
" Oregon." I found about twenty passengers
already on board, most of whom had come up the
coast on the other side from Peru and Chili. Two
were from St. Juan de Nicaragua and going to
England officially, to arrange the Nicaraguan treaty
with the foreign-office authorities. They were both
very gentlemanly men and people of note in the
republic of Costa Rica. We remained at anchor
for another day waiting for the mails and specie;
the latter, as already remarked, I had passed on

STEAMERS. 241
the road. Owing to shoal water, the steamers he
off at some distance from the shore. This position
is inconvenient for those who wish to land; but
Chagres holds out no inducement to do so ; and
in other respects this situation is rather an advan
tage, as the ship, at such a distance from land, is
quite free from mosquitoes, and probably less liable
to the fever of the country.
I amused myself part of the time we were at
anchor by fishing with one of the officers belonging
to the ship : we caught a good many of a very pretty
and good-eating fish.
Two American steamers for New York, the
" Georgia" and " Philadelphia," had left just before
I arrived. They had been lying at anchor close
ahead of the English one ; and her officers aU re
marked what I have before mentioned, the peculiar
tendency American ships have to roU : these steam
ers showed this peculiarity strikingly on the present
occasion, whilst the other was as steady as if in
Southampton docks. Many passengers for England
had gone by these steamers. This American route
is decidedly the quickest ; and unless faster EngUsh
ships are put on this Une, it wiU soon be the
11

242 STEAMERS.
only one taken by passengers to and from Peru,
Chili, &c. The Georgia is a very large, fine, fast
ship, and some months before, had landed at one
time the immense number of thirteen hundred
passengers at Chagres, aU bound to CaUfornia.
There were also two or three smaU American steam
ers lying in the river, and employed in carrying
men, tools, and other requisites for the railroad from
one point of the bay to another.
On inspecting my baggage after I came on board,
I found one carpet-bag, which I had flattered myself
was waterproof, ruined with all its contents. The
rain on the river had been such a regular steady
pour that the men were obliged to bale out the
canoe every quarter of an hour, and my unlucky
carpet-bag, sitting in the water the whole time, was
regularly soaked.
We left early on the morning of the 29th, having
taken on board about 1,500,000 dollars' worth
of gold-dust and silver. The entrance to the Cha
gres river is guarded by a picturesque old fort, but
I should think it is not in a very fit state to stand a
siege. For some distance we ran along the coast,
low, but well-wooded, and then stood across the

CARTHAGENA. 243
Gulf of Darien to Carthagena. Time on board
passed as usual, but I never felt more at home or
more comfortable than I did in my large airy cabin
(the same I had when coming out), after the un
wholesome heat and squeezing we had endured on
board that miserable "Oregon." The next after
noon we came in sight of land, so low as at first to
be almost imperceptible; and about four o'clock
entered the splendid harbour of Carthagena by the
" Boca Chica," or little mouth.
This entrance is guarded by two forts, one just
inside the entrance, on one of the large islands
which form the harbour, and the other, seemingly
built in the sea, but in reality upon a reef, which
is partly uncovered at low water. There is a much
finer entrance than this, but it is now impassable.
The Spaniards, during the war, were so afraid of
the English cruizers, that they sunk several vessels
fuU of stones in the " Boca Grande,'' and completely
blocked it up. They would now give their ears to
have them removed, and the old channel restored.
The harbour of Carthagena is enormous, and
formed by several islands, which are so close to
gether that, to a person inside, they appear like

244 PURCHASES.
the mainland. The town is situated some ten or
twelve miles from the Boca Chica, and a winding,
intricate channel, like that at Bermuda, leads you
up to it.
We anchored about six o'clock within half a mile
of the town, and were immediately surrounded by a
host of bumboats, with parrots, monkeys, tiger-cats,
and all manner of wild animals. I got some capital
cocoanuts, and aU made purchase of something or
other. Conch sheUs were brought alongside in
great profusion, and I noticed that this was a
favourite article with the sailors, as weU as a gaudy
sort of matting, very neatly made. Almost every
body on board bought parrots, and for a few days,
until they settled down in their places, the ship was
a perfect Babel. I think about seventy of these
interesting birds still survived when we reached
Southampton. Mine, in company with half a dozen
more, committed suicide: having a taste for me
chanics, they went down below to inspect the engine,
and aU got through the gratings of the floor, and
were drowned in the bilge-water.
I had intended to go ashore for half an hour the
next morning, but was too lazy to do so, and thus

JAMAICA. 245
lost, I fear, the sight of a fine old town. From the
sea, Carthagena looks very well, and has many fine
churches and other large buildings. A picturesque-
looking convent is perched on a hill at the back of
the town, and is considered a place of much sanctity.
Carthagena is, and rightly I fancy, considered the
finest city on the Spanish main — in fact, in this part
of South America.
We took on board here a good deal of gold dust,
which had come down from Bogota, a mining town
among the mountains.
Next morning we left at ten, and reached
Port Royal, Jamaica, on the day after, at sunset.
The weather was fine, but with a fresh breeze and
heavy sea, which acted very powerfully upon some
of the passengers. The captain, admiralty agent,
the other officers, and myself, had it all our own
way at breakfast and dinner the first day, and but a
few stragglers, and those not destined to stop long,
joined our party the second. A strong current was
in our favour, and the old ship astonished herself
and the engineer, who told me he had never, since
he belonged to her, seen her go so fast. The
blue mountains of Jamaica appeared in sight by the
H §

246 KINGSTON.
middle of the second day, and as the sunset gun was
fired from the "Imaum," we ran in and anchored
alongside of her.
The following morning at daylight we steamed up
the harbour to Kingston. The captain told us that
he should not leave for five days, and during this
time nearly all the passengers, myself among them,
went ashore and took lodgings, to get out of the coal-
dust. The island of Jamaica is so well known that
I shaU say little about it. I was, however, much
struck by the want of cultivation in the neighbour
hood of Kingston, and on inquiry was told that all
the sugar estates are situated more in the interior of
the island.
The town of Kingston is large and good, with
plenty of trade, and numbers of well-furnished
shops and warehouses in every street. From not
knowing any one I found it excessively dull, and
was heartily glad to get back to the ship. I was
little prepossessed in favour of the natives, whe
ther black or white; they all united in grumbling
about the state of the island and ruin of trade.
I do not wonder that English residents in Jamaica
are fond of sending home their children for education.

SPANISH TOWN. 247
I never in my life heard such a curious tongue as
the Creole in common use is. I found it easier to
understand a black fellow who spoke this in its
native purity, than the white man who had learned
it from him, and bedizened it with his own additions
and improvements. Imperfect as my knowledge is
of Spanish, I found that language much easier to
understand than such English as is spoken by re
sidents in Jamaica.
On one or two occasions I drove into the country,
and once went by the railroad to Spanish Town, the
seat of government. The Camp or barracks for the
troops in the neighbourhood of Kingston, is a fine
airy place, but only inhabited by the regular West
India regiments. The white troops are not able to
stand the climate, and live at a town or village caUed
Newcastle, among the mountains. Spanish Town is
a miserable place, containing only the governor's
residence, house of assembly, and barracks, worth
mentioning. On Monday I again repaired on board (we had
arrived on the previous Wednesday), and by two
o'clock we were again steaming past Port Royal.
One is much struck with the formidable shoals

248 SAN DOMINGO.
which surround the entrance to this harbour, ap
pearing hardly to leave room for the passage of
ships between them. We ran along the south side
of the island, which is very beautiful, and passed
one fine sugar estate, the only one I saw. As the
sun set, the blue mountains got more indistinct
in the distance, and next morning they had disap
peared from sight altogether.
At Kingston we had taken on board several new
passengers, and among them some ladies and a host
of children. Midday brought us in sight of the
high land of San Domingo, which is said to be 10,000
feet above the sea. We ran close in and coasted
along the shore the whole day, arriving at Jacmel
about two or three o'clock in the morning. Here
we remained only a couple of hours to land and
receive our mails. We took on board one pas
senger who had crossed the country from Port au
Prince ; he described this fine island as, at present,
sadly in want of cultivation and roads. We followed
the shore along, till we came to the extremity of the
island and then turned to the left, by a very dan
gerous channel, with some small islands scattered
about it.

PORTO RICO. 249
The foUowing morning found us in sight of Porto
Rico, the most beautiful by far of all the West India
Islands I have seen. The whole of this day we ran
along the shore within a short distance of the land,
and the whole way the island presented a most
luxuriant appearance — endless estates of sugar-cane
and corn, intermixed with houses and cocoanut
palms. Porto Rico is of course a slave island, and
certainly the two most beautiful and thriving I had
seen, were these two slave islands Cuba and Porto
Rico. By daylight the foUowing morning we entered the
harbour of San Juan, defended by a fort, and with a
capital lighthouse at the entrance. We only re
mained a couple of hours, took on board a great
many passengers, and steamed out again.
The evening before we reached San Juan de
Puerto Rico we experienced a very heavy sea, such
as I never saw before — long roUing sweUs, that
tossed our big ship about as if she had been a cork,
making standing, sitting, or walking almost equaUy
impossible. There was no wind, and we were rather
at a loss to account for this phenomenon; but learned
afterwards that it had been caused by a severe hur-

250 ST. THOMAS.
ricane, which had done much mischief among the
islands, but of which we luckily only experienced
one of the results — this extraordinary commotion of
the sea. The weather, since leaving Jamaica, had
hitherto been beautiful ; but as we approached St.
Thomas's, it became very squally and thick, with
severe rain. The sea was breaking over reefs and
foul ground all about the ship, readily convincing us
that, as the captain afterwards said, we were better
snug at anchor in St. Thomas than outside. We
anchored in that harbour, a very pretty, deep bay,
about five o'clock the same afternoon, and found
another of the Company's vessels coaling alongside
the wharf, outward-bound with the Pacific maUs.
We were much afraid that it would have been
necessary for us to change ships, having heard a
report to that effect at Porto Rico. However, our
captain told us not to despair, as he meant to go
home if possible. Though our old ship was the
slowest of the slow, and her dinners none of the
best, yet aU were so pleased with the other accom
modations, and the kind, obliging manners of the
officers, that not a passenger but would have been
very sorry to have parted company with her. On

PASSENGERS. 251
the morning after we arrived, in came the opposition
ship from Barbadoes and the other islands, evidently
bent upon going home. Our captain immediately
went on board her, and after all the pros and cons
had been discussed, it was determined that we
should remain where we were, and go home in our
own ship, the other passengers being transferred to
us. At this we all rejoiced greatly; not so the other
passengers, who, for the first few days of the voyage,
were perpetuaUy drawing invidious comparisons
between the merits of the two ships.
We remained at St. Thomas's a day and a half,
and coaled an incredible number of tons in that
short time, the whole work being done by black
women, who did work hke horses — one woman at St.
Thomas's being reckoned equal to three men in this
sort of work.
I spent the whole day on shore and enjoyed it very
much. The town is prettily situated on a slope,
well built, entirely surrounded by hills, over which
are scattered many pretty country houses. Thanks
to America, we got plenty of capital ices — a great
luxury, as it was intensely hot; we had also a
capital dinner at a table d'hote in the principal

252 ST. THOMAS.
hotel overlooking the harbour. I saw a great many
vessels come in during the day in distress, having
encountered the hurricane I have before mentioned.
From the number of ships always at St. Thomas
of different nations, the inhabitants are most skilled
in all languages, and I don't know to this day what
is their own. All I addressed spoke English per
fectly, and I heard just as many speak French as
well ; German, Danish, and Spanish all have their
representatives, and it is the most convenient place
for any stranger to stay I have ever met with.
The fine, strapping, light-haired, blue-eyed Danish
garrison formed a great contrast to the pure blacks
to be found here as elsewhere in the West
Indies. I bought a fresh supply of books, and some of the
small nicnacs for which this place is famous, and
went on board about twelve. In an hour we saUed,
leaving under a thundering salute of seventeen guns
from the fort, in honour of a general lately in
command of some of the English islands, and who
went home with us as a passenger. We had only
two guns, and, if disposed, I fancy would have found
it a difficult matter to return the salute, so we

BULL. 253
dipped our ensign, and I dare say the worthy Danes
were quite satisfied.
Our passengers now numbered above eighty :
many of them were ladies, and the ship presented
an appearance of life that had for some time been
wanting. We remained in sight of land all day, but
the next morning none was visible, and we had
taken our last look at the West Indies.
Time on board was kiUed by reading, eating,
playing whist, shovel-board, and buU — a sort of
quoits, in which the ship's officers excelled greatly,
and won the money of the unsuspecting passengers
who used to play with them. The officers, knowing
their superiority, often refused to play ; but we had
some passengers so confident in their own powers,
that nothing would serve them, but play they must,
and were regularly cleaned out accordingly. During
the voyage, once or twice, the ladies and some of
their friends got up a little extempore singing,
and on a fine evening it sounded very pleasant and
agreeable. The second or third day after we left St. Thomas,
just as the bell had rung for luncheon, the whole
ship was disturbed by a dreadful screaming, and on
12

254 JUMPING OVERBOARD.
rushing on deck, we found that a poor woman had
thrown herself overboard, with a child in her arms,
leaving two more poor Uttle things, the eldest about
eight, behind her. The ship was immediately stop
ped and boats lowered ; after about twenty minutes
immersion they were both picked up, but quite
dead, and aU remedies to restore them proved
useless. I was much surprised to see these poor
creatures floating after death, especially the child,
which had hardly any clothes at all upon it ; but it
seemed as buoyant as a cork, rising on the top of
every swell. These unfortunates were both buried
the same evening, and a subscription entered into
among the passengers for the relief of the children
left behind, which by the time the ship arrived at
Southampton amounted to upwards of £60.
We had lovely weather all the way home, and a
fair wind after the first two or three days, and
reached Fayal in the Azores eleven days after leaving
St. Thomas. We arrived off this port at night, and
lay-to tiU morning, when we ran in, procured a sup
ply of fruit, vegetables, flowers, and baskets, took on
board our mails and one passenger, and were off
again.

FAYAL. 255
This passenger, by the bye, was a Jew, and it
being contrary to his creed to eat meat killed by the
ship's butcher, he performed that gentleman's func
tions himself, during the rest of our voyage. One
bullock, three sheep, and an unUmited supply of
poultry died under the hands of this gentleman,
whose time was quite taken up with his novel
avocation. I was told that on board these ships,
this was often the case; and one instance was
mentioned on board that very ship, in which a
stupid steward, imagining that Jews did this for
the mere pleasure of kiUing, informed one that
a pig was to be killed the next morning if he Uked
to officiate.
The manufacture of baskets at this place is very
great, and the whole ship during our stay was
swarming with venders of this pretty ware. Fayal is
a pretty Uttle white-washed town situated at the
bottom of a bay, and having very high land behind
it beautifully cultivated. Immediately opposite
Fayal and across the strait is the island of Pico
with its beautiful mountain-peak rising into the
clouds. The fruits and Vegetables we got here were deli-

256 ARRIVAL HOME.
cious, and I have heard from those who have visited
these islands that a residence in them is very
pleasant and less Anglified than at Madeira.
Six days after we left Fayal we came in sight of
the Start, having seen nothing to amuse us save
a few whales, grampuses, and a host of porpoises.
We were boarded by a pilot who told us of the
death of Sir R. Peel, and other news of the day,
and by ten at night, came to anchor off Cowes,
entering the Southampton docks at five the next
morning. So ended my ten months' ramble, during
which I had traversed between fifteen and sixteen
thousand miles and seen a good deal of life and
manners very different from what one in a similar
time could have seen in Europe.

FINIS.

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