NATIVE INDOLENCE. 89 



day, the operations of washing and dressing chased 

 away the symptoms, and before seven o'clock we were 

 ready to start. At half-past seven we began to lose 

 patience, and despatched a messenger to ascertain the 

 cause of delay. No answer coming, we resolved to 

 go in quest of the promised steeds, and, shouldering 

 the hnpediinenta, proceeded across the stream to the 

 pueblo. We soon discovered that no order had been 

 given the night before, and that the commandant had 

 not yet made his appearance. The messenger had 

 not ventured to awake him, and thought it safest to 

 await events. Having discovered the high-sounding 

 name of the " hotel " where he lodged, I lost no time 

 in proceeding to the double-bedded room shared by 

 our commander with a brother officer, and rousing 

 them both from sleep. Profuse excuses in excellent 

 Spanish, with a promise that not a moment should be 

 lost, were but a poor salve for my growing impatience, 

 though policy required some faint effort at politeness, 

 which had to be maintained through what seemed 

 intolerable and interminable delays, until we at last 

 got under way at ten o'clock. 



It was indeed aggravating to find an excursion, to 

 accomplish which any naturalist would gladly traverse 

 an ocean, maimed and curtailed by the indolence 

 which is the curse of the American Spaniard. One 

 circumstance, indeed, helped to moderate the keen- 

 ness of my disappointment. Rather heavy rain had 

 fallen throughout the night, and the mountains about 

 the head of the valley, previously almost clear of snow, 

 were now covered pretty deep down to the level of 

 about fifteen thousand feet I already judged that it 



