£02 SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 



were mounted, and, winding up the sides of 

 the hill, soon reached the hacienda, where we 

 halted a short time, and were early at Xa- 

 lapa, where our report of the cave and its 

 treasures procured us many offers of com- 

 pany to examine it. In two days after, we re- 

 ceived a letter from the good padre, saying 

 that all would be ready on the following day, 

 when we set off, about a dozen in company, 

 and arrived early at Tilotepec, where we met 

 four Indian guides, and our party was in- 

 creased to nearly twenty persons, some of whom 

 carried a plentiful supply of provisions, &c., 

 under the superintendence of our friend Don 

 Juan Hall, as he was here called. On first 

 leaving the town, our route lay through a fer- 

 tile talley for a short mile, when, having 

 passed what was pointed out as a silver mine, 

 we began a steep ascent over a ridge of low 

 hills on a very indifferent road, the higher 

 part of which was cut through the rock, and 



