54 



SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



Being in this contented state of ignorance, it 

 is not therefore surprising that they viewed 

 with wonder my walking-stick gun, portable 

 chair and table, camera lucida, and other 

 specimens of English ingenuity. Nothing 

 however gave them more pleasure than a 

 volume of the plates of Ackerman's Fashions, 

 which I had carried out with me; it was in 

 prodigious request, and they looked with 

 astonishment at some prints of the public 

 buildings of London. But their wonder was 

 greatly augmented when they were informed 

 of the purposes for which those buildings 

 were designed: we heard them exclaim in 

 amazement to each other, "and yet these 

 people are not Christians," — " what a pity 

 they are not Christians!" But the day, I 

 would feign hope, has at length arrived, 

 when Spanish policy can no longer keep its 

 American subjects in this utter darkness, and 

 when the obscuration of the Mexicans will 



