Vlll PREFACE. 



ing. Never did a people express more surprise 

 and astonishment at any extraordinary event, 

 than the Mexicans did at my first performance on 

 my arrival among them ; and more especially on 

 account of my being a foreigner ; for it is well 

 known that the Mexicans, rich and poor, high and 

 low, pride themselves upon being the best horse- 

 men in the world. And I think there is no for- 

 eigner that ever travelled among them, and ob- 

 served them as I have, but will readily agree in 

 ranking them among the first as to agility, skill 

 and elegance, when mounted upon their beautiful 

 Andalusian steeds. If the Mexican ladies are 

 admired by all foreigners for their natural, easy, 

 unaflTected, genteel carriage — surpassing, if possi- 

 ble, in that respect, the elegant Louisiana ladies 

 — so does the Mexican, when mounted on a fine 

 Xaral steed, equal, if not surpass, any other rider 

 in the world. For this very reason, I was every 

 where received with the greatest cordiality and 

 applause, for no people knew how to appreciate 

 better than they a discovery of so surprising a 

 nature. 



I wish the reader to observe, that in explaining 

 the operation of the secret of gentling a horse, I 

 have always supposed the horse to be one that re- 

 quired the whole secret, in order to be gentled, 



