206 



SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



Coachmakers excel all the other mechanical 

 arts practised in Mexico ; their vehicles are 

 firmly put together, of handsome forms, and 

 well finished : the best painters of the country 

 are employed in their decoration, and the 

 gilding and varnish equal what is done in 

 Europe, from whence the handles and or- 

 namental parts in metal are procured. 



Of coopers I saw none. The skins of 

 hogs, blown up like bladders, being substi- 

 tuted for barrels, and sold through the 

 streets by itinerant venders, whose light load, 

 suspended on each end of a long pole, oc- 

 cupies as much space as a loaded cart. 



Bakers' shops are large establishments, and 

 no where can better bread be had than here ; 

 but I am informed the people who make it 

 are absolutely slaves, and are never permitted 

 to leave the place in which they work, being, 

 to all intents and purposes, prisoners. 



During the late revolution the people in- 



