92 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



stripped off our drenched and tattered garments, 

 and wrapped us in an abundance of blankets. We 

 fell into a deep sleep, which lasted all that evening 

 and the greater part of the night, and so much re- 

 freshed us that about an hour before daybreak we 

 were able to resume our march at a slow pace, it is 

 true, and suffering grievously in every part of our 

 bruised and wounded limbs and bodies, at each jolt 

 or rough motion of the mules on which we were 

 clinging, rather than sitting. 



Our path lay over hill and dale, perpetually rising 

 and falling. We soon got out of the district or zone 

 that had been swept by the preceding day's hurri- 

 cane, and after nearly an hour's ride, we paused on 

 the crest of a steep descent, at the foot of which, as 

 our guides informed us, lay the land of promise, the 

 long looked-for rancho. While the muleteers were 

 seeing to the girths of their beasts, and giving the 

 due equilibrium to the baggage, before commencing 

 the downward march, Eowley and I sat upon our 

 mules, wrapped in large Mexican capos, gazing at the 

 morning star as it sank down and grew gradually 

 paler and fainter. Suddenly the eastern sky began 

 to brighten, and a brilliant beam appeared in the 

 west, a point of light no bigger than a star but yet 

 not a star ; it was of a far rosier hue. The next 

 moment a second sparkling spot appeared, near to 

 the first, which now swelled out into a sort of fiery 

 tongue, that seemed to lick round the silvery sum- 



