SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



128 



joyment. I am no judge of such exhibitions 

 myself, but the English friend who accom- 

 panied us, and who is from Lancashire, 

 assured us that the animals were very fine, and 

 one of the inhabitants, in speaking in praise of 

 them, said they were of the true Derby 

 breed ! 



Whilst at dinner we were informed that 

 at a distance of only two leagues was a place 

 called Bano de Montezuma, and that it had 

 formerly been used as a bath by that monarch. 

 A gentleman of the town, Don Trinidad 

 Rosalia, offered to conduct us thither, and 

 in a few minutes we were on horseback : after 

 a smart canter through cultivated grounds, 

 and over a fine plain, bounded by the moun- 

 tains of the Cordilleras, we approached an 

 hacienda and a church* ; here, in some sub- 

 terraneous cavern, I expected to find the bath 



* Every person who builds an haeienda is by law com- 

 pelled to erect a church also. 



