MEXICO AND INDIA 203 



but refer you again to Stevens, whose account is most 

 accurate. 



Everybody here is very polite to me, in fact too polite, 

 as the exertion of speaking Spanish and keeping it up 

 any length of time is nearly as tiresome as riding the 

 same time over a very rough road, and when it comes 

 to talking philosophy and religion, as some of the peo- 

 ple here are very fond of doing, and theorizing all round, 

 it 's too much for me. 



Going to Vera Cruz by steamer, he continued by easy 

 stages to the City of Mexico. From there he writes : — 



" I wish I had Charles Norton, or some other classical 

 enthusiast here. I think I could show him exactly how 

 the Roman barbarians, who lived in Pompeii and Hercu- 

 laneum, lived, and they would form a very different idea 

 indeed of that so-called ancient civilization. All the lit- 

 tle shops, especially the drinking saloons, are frescoed, 

 some of them with considerable attempt at art ; and I 

 dare say the shops and bar-rooms of the ancient Romans, 

 of which we admire the mural paintings so vastly, were 

 nothing but the daubs of the sign painters of the day. 

 I wish I had the time and skill to write a picture of the 

 scenes of this Spanish life as you see it here, and com- 

 pare it to the Roman period ; something very good might 

 be made of it. Imagine our friend, Wyeth, in Harvard 

 Square, selling his wares behind a counter with walls 

 ornamented with the sacred history or with views of the 

 Indians and their fights with the Pilgrims, or scenery 

 of the Rocky Mountains ; or Pike 1 receiving his orders 



1 A keeper of a stable formerly frequented by Harvard's jeunesse 

 doree. 



