22 



TAMPICO. 



merits could permit us to devote to New Spain, and 

 that from circumstances hereafter to be explained, one 

 third of this time was swallowed up on the very thresh- 

 old of the country. 



My next shall introduce you to the Fonda de la Bolza, 

 as our melancholy place of sojourn at Tampico. 



LETTER II. 



It was well that our minds, on landing, were really 

 disposed to contentment, and that we were inclined to 

 overlook minor grievances in our escape from far great- 

 er, otherwise, there were circumstances attending our 

 first debut in this land of delights, teeming, as we sup- 

 posed, with gold and silver, and the richest fruits of the 

 earth, which were certainly far from agreeable, setting 

 aside the causes of trial at which I hinted at the close of 

 my last letter. 



The first thing we experienced, which considerably 

 surprised us on placing foot in the town, was the great 

 difficulty of finding a shelter : and we were in the end 

 fain to put up, all three, with a small room in the second 

 story of a square, ill-built, open, wood barrack, the ground 

 floor of which served as a billiard room and gambling 

 house to the piebald population of Tampico de las Ta- 

 maulipas. 



The second thing which quite horrified us, was the 

 difficulty of procuring food wherewith to satisfy the ap- 

 petites of three able-bodied gentlemen just from sea. 

 Eggs we found were rare, meat was rarer, bread the 

 rarest of all : and, except at certain hours of the day 

 when it was doled forth in most apologetic morsels, 

 could not be had for love and money. 



The third thing in my list, which nearly petrified us, 

 was the cold. Lying under the tropic of Cancer, we 



