A MEXICAN'S OPINION OF FREE TRADE. 



37 



trading capital : it rather augmented their profits, 

 by giving them a wider range for the employment 

 of their funds. 



It was intimated to me, shortly after I had 

 landed, that the Guadalaxara and Tepic mer- 

 chants were anxious to establish, for the first 

 time, a direct commercial intercourse with En- 

 gland ; and that the arrival of the Conway had 

 been anxiously looked for, in order that arrange- 

 ments in that view might if possible be entered 

 into. I lost no time, therefore, but set out on the 

 next day for Tepic, in company with an English 

 gentleman, captain of an East India ship, and a 

 young Spaniard from Calcutta. 



The first part of our journey lay across low 

 swamps, covered with brushwood, and enveloped in 

 creeping, aguish-looking mists. In the course of a 

 few hours we began to ascend the hills, where the 

 country was richly wooded, the trees being tied to 

 one another by festoons of innumerable creepers, 

 waving gracefully above the impervious underwood, 

 which concealed the ground from our view, and 

 gave the forest precisely the air of an Indian jungle. 



We passed several villages built of canes, with 

 peaked roofs, rising to twice the height of the 

 walls, thatched with the large leafy branches of 

 the cocoa-nut tree, fastened down by rattans. 

 At the half-way house, in the village of Fonsequa, 

 we fell in with a party of English gentlemen going 

 down to the port. We had all met before in the 

 midst of the turbulent times at Lima, and little 

 expected to encounter one another at the next 

 interview in the depths of a Mexican forest. In 

 the interval, the different members of the com- 

 pany had visited, at very remarkable moments, 

 many of the revolutionised countries ; so that, 

 when we compared notes, the several accounts 

 were interesting and curious in the highest degree. 

 We joined dinners, and sat afterwards for up- 

 wards of three hours talking over old and new 

 adventures ; till, at length, the San Bias party 

 mounted and set off ; while we, not choosing to 

 encounter the sun, looked about for cool places 

 to take our siesta. A great sugar-mill close to 

 us, which had been working all day, and screak- 

 ing in the most frightful manner, now stood 

 still ; the labourers went to sleep under the 

 bushes ; the tired bullocks were dozing stupidly 

 in the sun, crunching, from time to time, some 

 dried Indian corn husks ; all the villagers had 

 disappeared ; everything was perfectly still ; and 

 we soon caught the drowsiness which universally 

 prevailed, and fell asleep in an open shed under 

 an enormous tamarind-tree, whose branches over- 

 shadowed half the village. 



The rest of the journey lay through a thick forest, 

 along wild mountain-paths, by which we gradually 

 ascended so high, that before the evening there was a 

 sensible change in tempei-ature, causing that bound- 

 ing elasticity of spirits which such transitions, accom- 

 panied by change in elevation, invariably produce. 



The mountain scenery, during the latter part 

 of the day, was bright and gorgeous beyond all 

 description ; and the sun had just set when we 

 reached the top of an Alpine knoll, or brow of 

 one of the highest ridges. This spot, which was 

 free from trees, and matted over with a smooth 

 grassy turf, projected so much beyond any ground 

 in the neighbourhood, that it gave us a command- 

 ing view of the whole surrounding country, even 



to the sea. We stood here for some time ad- 

 miring thi3 magnificent scene, and watching the 

 rapid change in colour which the woods under- 

 went, at different elevations, as the sun's rays 

 became fainter and fainter ; till at last all bril- 

 liancy and variety were lost in one cold, grey, 

 unpleasing tint. Presently it became dark for a 

 time, after which a very different landscape arose, 

 and finally settled for the night in broad black 

 shadows and bright fringes, under the gentler 

 influence of the moon. 



While we were admiring the scenery, our 

 people had established themselves in a hut, and 

 were preparing supper, under the direction of 

 a peasant, a tall, copper-coloured, semi-barba- 

 rous native of the forest ; but who, notwithstand- 

 ing his uncivilised appearance, turned out to be 

 a very shrewd fellow, and gave us sufficiently 

 pertinent answers to most of our queries. The 

 young Spaniard of our party, a royalist by birth, 

 and half a Patriot in sentiment, asked him what 

 harm the king had done, that the Mexicans 

 should have thrown him off ? " Why," answered 

 he, " as for the king, his only fault, at least that 

 I know about, was his living too far off. If a 

 king really be good for a country, it appears to 

 me he ought to live in that country, and not two 

 thousand leagues away from it." On asking him 

 what his opinion was of the free trade which 

 people were talking so much about \ " My opinion 

 of free trade," said the mountaineer, " rests on 

 this ; formerly I paid nine dollars for the piece 

 of cloth of which this shirt is made : I now pay 

 two ; that forms my opinion of the free trade." 

 The Spaniard was fairly baffled. 



At daybreak next morning, after travelling 

 over the hills, we came in sight of Tepic, a beau- 

 tiful town, in the midst of a cultivated plain. It 

 seeemed strange to us that there should have 

 existed so large and important a place, of which, 

 until a few weeks before, we had never even 

 heard the name ; a reflection which often arises 

 in the mind of a distant traveller. This city is 

 next in importance to Guadalaxara, the capital 

 of New Galicia, and is built in the regular man- 

 ner of most of the Spanish towns in that country. 

 It lies near the centre of a basin, or valley, 

 formed by an irregular chain of volcanic moun- 

 tains ; and the appearance of the town is ren- 

 dered very lively by rows of trees, gardens, and 

 terraced walks, amongst the houses, all kept green 

 and fresh by the waters of a river which embraces 

 the town on three of its sides. 



In the course of the morning, I had several 

 conferences with the merchants of Tepic, and 

 the agents of others at Guadalaxara. It appeared, 

 that the commercial capitalists of this part of 

 Mexico were desirous of opening a direct com- 

 munication with England ; and, in order to do 

 this safely and effectually, they proposed to remit 

 a considerable quantity of specie to London, in 

 the Conway, for which returns were to be made 

 in English goods, in the manner practised ever 

 since the opening of the trade in Peru, Chili, 

 and Buenos Ayres. After a long discussion I 

 agreed to remain till a certain day, to give time 

 for communications to be held with Guadalax- 

 ara, and with Mexico, it being necessary to obtain 

 permission from the Supreme Government, before 

 any treasure could be exported. Meanwhile, the 



