SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



17 



lican generals, St. Anna and Vittoria ; they 

 were on horseback, in splendid military cos- 

 tume, and well mounted, but the troops they 

 were reviewing did not make a very military 

 appearance, being principally recruits, and 

 most of them Indians, or of Indian extraction. 

 At the hour of evening prayer, for the An- 

 gelus Domini, the bell rang, and instantly 

 every person was uncovered, and seemed to 

 join in the supplication. We returned to our 

 hotel, if such it deserved to be called, where 

 we could not even be accommodated with a 

 bed. With some difficulty I procured a kind 

 of bedstead, on the sacking of which a sheet 

 was spread, and over that a small piece of 

 baize : this constituted the whole furniture of 

 the room, which had no window, but merely 

 an opening that communicated with a billiard 

 room, whose noisy visitors were alone suf- 

 ficient to prevent the possibility of repose. On 

 preparing to lie down, I discovered that the 



VOL. I. € 



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