AN IMPRESSMENT. 95 
would drive it to the head at a single stroke, 
standing usually at full arm’s length, while 
the assistant held the foot. Thus in less than 
half the time I had ever witnessed the execu- 
tion of a similar job before, they had coi: 
pletely shod more than twenty of the most 
unruly brutes—without once resorting to the 
expedient so usual in such cases, of throw: ng 
the animals upon the ground. 
Just as the process of shoeing my mules 
had been completed, a person who proved to 
be a public officer entered the corral, and 
pointing to the mules, very politely informed 
me that they were wanted by the government 
to transport troops to Zacatecas. “ ‘ They will 
be called for to-morrow afternoon,” he conti- 
nued; “let them not be removed!” Ihad of 
course to bow acquiescence to this impera- 
tive edict, well knowing that all remonstrance 
would be vain; yet fully determined to be a 
considerable distance on the road northward 
before that ‘morrow’ should be very far ad- 
vanced, 
But a new difficulty now presented itself. 
I must procure a guia or passport for my car- 
goof merchandise, with a re. endorser, 
—an additional imposition I was wholly un- 
prepared for, as I was then ignorant of any law 
to that effect being in force, and had not a sin- 
uaintance in the city. Iwas utterly 
at a loss what to do: under any other circum- 
stances I might have left the amount of the 
derecho de consumo in deposit, as others have 
been obliged to do on similar occasions; but 
