SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



101 



adapted for the purpose, as, independent of 

 its other advantages, any quantity of ma- 

 chinery could be worked by its waters, and 

 the neighbouring woods would furnish an in- 

 exhaustible supply of fuel. 



Sunday being market-day, the town was 

 crowded with Indians, who brought with them 

 great quantities of fruit, and other vegetable 

 productions of the Tierra Caliente; among 

 which were two or three kinds of raw cotton, 

 and a quantity of sugar, in cakes, resembling 

 bees 1 wax. 



At the house of Don Jose Benitas there 

 was a meeting of Indians, to settle a contract 

 for timber for the mine. The contractors, 

 with three alcaldes, or chief magistrates of 

 the villages, known by their silver-headed 

 sticks, came to meet Mr. Wilcox, to arrange 

 this important affair, but it was not done 

 without much serious debating, and many 

 long speeches, which the alcaldes delivered in 

 a most deliberate and solemn manner, 



