LA MESSA. 



43 



La Messa, situated on a commanding eminence, at the 

 edge of prairie country alluded to, and overlooking, to 

 the south, a deep glen full of wood, and a far-stretching 

 expanse of roundish hills covered with luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion. 



In the absence of more regular places of entertain- 

 ment, the custom of the country authorizes the traveller 

 to make his halt with his retinue at the first farm which 

 may suit his convenience ; and though the hacienda is 

 in general the country residence of a rich and wealthy 

 proprietor, we felt no scruple in dismounting and asking 

 shelter and provender for ourselves and our party. 



And here I have to record one of those strange ren- 

 counters which the Rambler has sometimes to note upon 

 his tablets in utter amazement how they are brought 

 about. 



On riding round the corner of one of the principal 

 buildings, what was my surprise to see my friend Pour- 

 tales folded in the embrace of a huge brawny young 

 Mexican — and yet greater to find, on dismounting, that I 

 was to be honoured with a fraternal squeeze from the 

 same arms, before I could see what face there might 

 possibly be appended to them. I was not long, how- 

 ever, in recognising in the athletic, sunburnt young man, 

 who thus welcomed us to his home, a certain smooth- 

 faced, ungainly stripling, who had been our fellow-pas- 

 senger two years before, in the New York packet, from 

 Havre de Grace to America. He had been sent from 

 Mexico to Paris, to be instructed in the language, litera- 

 ture, and manners of the politest country in Europe; 

 and, at that epoch, having finished his term of education, 

 was returning with his bundle of acquisitions, to en- 

 lighten his benighted countrymen. On shipboard, where 

 he was generally known by a singular sobriquet be- 

 stowed on him by my light-minded companion, namely, 

 " Amiable et execrable Tampico? we had of course made 

 acquaintance. We found that he had learned to eat 

 with a knife and fork, to dress like a civilized man, to 

 talk a little bad French ; to dance, and to play the 

 monkey, which he did a merveille, clumsily aping Pour- 



