60 TEAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



becomes a positive and real enjoyment. The heart 

 seems to leap with delight, and the soul to be ele- 

 vated, by the contemplation of those regions of fairy- 

 like magnificence. 



The most celebrated among these favoured provinces 

 is the valley of Oaxaca, in which two mountainous 

 districts, the Mistecca and Tzapoteca, bear off the 

 palm of beauty. It was through this immense val- 

 ley, nearly three hundred leagues in length, and sur- 

 rounded by the highest mountains in Mexico, that 

 we were now journeying. The kind attention of our 

 char ge-d' affaires at the Mexican capital, had procured 

 us every possible facility in travelling through a 

 country, of which the soil was at that time rarely 

 trodden by any but native feet. We had numerous 

 letters to the alcaldes and authorities of the towns 

 and villages which are sparingly sprinkled over the 

 southern provinces of Mexico ; we were to have 

 escorts when necessary ; every assistance, protection, 

 and facility were to be afforded us. But as neither 

 the authorities nor his excellency, Uncle Sam's envoy, 

 could make inns and houses where none existed, it 

 followed that we were often obliged to sleep a la belle 

 etoile, with the sky for a covering. And a right 

 splendid roof it was to our bedchamber, that tropical 

 sky, with its constellations, all new to us northerns, 

 and every star magnified by the effect of the atmo- 

 sphere to an incredible size. Mars and Saturn, 

 Venus and Jupiter, had all disappeared ; the Great 



