128 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



New Spain. But the furniture and internal 

 decorations of most of the houses ill accord 

 with their external appearances. The closing 

 of the mines, the expulsion of the rich Spanish 

 families, and sixteen years of revolutionary 

 warfare, with all their concomitant miseries, 

 have wrought a melancholy alteration in the 

 fortunes of individuals, and in the general 

 state of the country: of which the capital 

 bears no inconsiderable share. The superb 

 tables, chandeliers, and other articles of fur- 

 niture, of solid silver, the magnificent mirrors 

 and pictures, framed in the same precious 

 metal, have now passed through the mint, 

 and in the shape of dollars are circulating 

 over Europe and Asia ; and families whose 

 incomes have exceeded half a million per 

 annum can now scarcely procure the means 

 of a scanty existence. 



But I hope these calamitous times are nearly 

 at an end, and that the period is fast arriv- 



