68 NEW MEXICAN MAILS. 
irregular and uncertain. Before the Indians 
had obtained such complete possession of the 
highways through the wilderness, the mails be- 
tween these two cities were carried semi- 
monthly; but now they are much less fre- 
quent, being mere expresses, in fact, dispatch- 
ed only when an occasion offers. There are 
other causes, however, besides the dread of 
marauding savages, which render the trans- 
portation of the mails in New Mexico very 
insecure: I mean the dishonesty of those 
employed in superintending them. Persons 
known to be inimical to the post-master, or 
to the ‘powers that be, and wishing to for- 
ward any communication to the South, most 
generally either wait for a private convey- 
ance, or send their letters to a post-office (the 
only one besides that of Santa Fé in all New 
Mexico) some eighty miles on the way; thus 
avoiding an overhauling at the capital. More- 
over, as the post-rider often cakries the key of 
the mail-bag (for want of a sitpply at the dif- 
ferent offices), he not unfrequently permits 
whomsoever will pay him a trifling douceur, 
to examine the correspondence. I was once 
witness to a case of this kind in the Jornada 
del Muerto, where the entire mail was tum- 
bled out upon the grass, that an individual 
might search for letters, for which luxury he 
was charged by the accommodating carrier 
the moderate price of one 
The derecho de consumo (the internal or con- 
sumption duty) is an impost averaging nearly 
twenty per cent. on the United States cost of 
