Fuebla. 131 



extremely glad when we arrived in the city of Paebla at nine 

 o'clock P.M. We alighted in the Hotel de Diligencias, where 

 we were lodged comfortably in a large room with three beds. 

 Jimmy, whose night toilet required no preparations, took at 

 once possession of the best of them, and I followed his exam- 

 ple as fast as possible, for I never was more tired in all my 

 life. 



Next morning Salra reported himself to his general, and re- 

 quested leave of absence for Mexico. He visited General 

 Count Thum, the brother of the Austrian minister, whom he 

 had known in Austria when captain in a regiment of Uhlans. 

 He met here also a former PRissian officer. Count Nostiz, whom 

 we had known in the United States. 



Puebla once rivalled Mexico, and is still the second city of 

 the empire. It is traversed by the river St. Francisco, and the 

 rivers Atoya and Alzezeca flow near it. This abundance of 

 water offers the means of keeping the streets cleaner than is 

 usually the case in Mexican cities. In the middle of each 

 street runs a stone-covered canal, sweeping away all impurities 

 which otherwise would be thrown into the street. 



The city is regularly built ; the streets are all paved and pro- 

 vided with side-walks. There are more than twenty squares, 

 large and small, and an immense number of churches — I be- 

 lieve about seventy, the chapels included. I have never seen 

 a city with so many steeples and towers, which are the more 

 prominent on account of the flat roofs of the houses. There 

 are -also many other very fine buildings, for instance, monas- 

 teries and nunneries, hospitals, and three theatres. 



The principal place of the city is surrounded with wide and 

 lofty portales or arcades, where the Indians exhibit their pro- 

 duce for sale in the daytime, while they sleep there at night, 

 offering the most curious and strange domestic pictures. 



The city had then only seventy thousand inhabitants, for its 

 number had been diminished in former times by epidemics. 

 The eighteenth century was especially fatal in this respect, for 

 the plague appeared three times, and once it came in connec- 

 tion with famine. The civil wars have also diminished its 

 population and done great harm to its industry. It had for- 

 merly highly-reputed manufactories of fine cloth, glass, china, 

 soap, and cutlery, and even now it is in this respect in advance 

 of Mexico. Everything seems in Puebla more orderly and 



