98 TRAVELLER'S FARE. 
the camino real or main road. On my ar- 
rival at Zacatecas, I very soon discovered that 
by leaving ‘my bed and board’ behind with 
the wagons, [had doomed myself to no small 
inconvenience and privation. It was with 
the greatest difficulty I could obtain a place to 
lie upon, and clean victuals with which to al- 
lay my hunger. I could get a room, it is true, 
even for a real per day, in one of those great 
barn-like mesones which are to be met'with in 
all these cities, but not one of them was at all 
furnished. There is sometimes, in a corner, 
a raised platform of mud, much resembling a 
common blacksmith’s hearth, which is to sup- 
ply the place of a bedstead, upon which the 
traveller may spread his blankets, if he hap- 
pen to have any. On this occasion I suc- 
ceeded in borrowing one or two of the stage- 
driver who was a Yankee, and so made out 
‘pretty comfortably’ in the sleeping way. 
ese mesones are equally ill-prepared to fur- 
nish food for the traveller, unless he is willing 
to put up with a dish of frijoles and chile gut- 
sado with tortillas, all served up in the most 
filthy manner. I therefore sought out a pub- 
lic fonda kept by an Italian, where I procured 
an excellent supper. Fondas, however, are 
mere restaurants, and consequently without 
accommodations for lodging. 
Strange as the fact may appear, one may tra- 
vel fifteen hundred miles, and perhaps more, 
on the main public highway through Northern 
Mexico, without finding a single tavern with 
general accommodations. This, however,may 
