THE COPPER MINES. 385 
cans, particularly those of pure Castilian blood, are 
every where noted for their courteous manners and 
hospitality. All foreign tourists in Mexico say that 
they never tasted good chocolate till they drank it 
here; an assertion in which we fully agreed. It is 
usualiy prepared in families from the cocoa-nut, and 
one accustomed to the Yankee compound of that name 
would hardly recognize it as the same article. The 
same curiosity in regard to our culinary and other 
operations was manifested here as elsewhere by the 
crowds around our tents. The use of the tooth-brush 
was looked upon as something very droll, and the 
taking of a seidlitz powder, a phenomenon in the way 
of drinking which they could not comprehend. We 
were again beset here by would-be purchasers, who 
could hardly be persuaded that we did not come to 
trade. Like the people of the other towns we had 
passed, they were in constant fear of the Apaches, 
and we were told that no one dared venture into the 
Alameda after dark. 
June 3d Set off this morning on our return, in 
advance of the wagons, which required some slight 
repairs. We followed as before the bed of the Sonora 
river, which, in our day’s journey of seventeen miles, 
we crossed and re-crossed fifty-one times. At 12 
o'clock, having struck a pleasant spot where there was 
fine grass, with other necessaries for an encampment, 
we stopped, believing that it would be quite as far as 
the teams could come owing to the difficulties of the 
road. At 5 o'clock the wagons joined us, the mules 
showing great fatigue. : 
_ June 4th. Resumed’ our journey this morning 
