240 GAME OF CHUZA. 



district, she finally extended her ■wanderings 

 to the capital. She there became a constant 

 attendant on one of those pandemoniums 

 ■where the favorite game of monte was dealt 

 2^0 bono publico. Fortune, at first, did not 

 seem inclined to smile upon her efforts, and 

 for some years she spent her days in lowliness 

 and misery. At last her luck turned, as 

 gamblers would say, and on one occasion she 

 left the bank with a spoil of several hundred 

 dollars ! This enabled her to open a bank of 

 her own, and being favored by a continuous 

 run of good fortune, she gradually rose higher 

 and higher in the scale of afliuence, until she 

 found herself in possession of a very hand- 

 some fortune. In 1842, she sent to the United 

 States some ten thousand dollars to be invest- 

 ed in goods. She still continues her favorite 

 * amusement,' being now considered the most 

 expert ' monte dealer in all Santa Fe. She 

 is openly received in the first circles of sbcie- 

 ty : I doubt, in truth, whether there is 

 be found in the city a lady of more fashiona- 

 ble reputation than tliis same Tules, no-vv 

 known as Seuora DoHa Gertrudes Barcelo. 



Among the multitude of games which seem 

 to constitute the real business of Ufe in Ne^v 

 Mexico, that of chuza evidently presents the 

 most attractions to ladies; and they generally 

 lay very heavy wagers upon the result It ^^ 

 played with little balls, and bears some fain* 

 resemblance to what is called roulette. BuU- 

 baiting and cock-fighting, about which so 

 much has been said by everj' traveller in Mex* 



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