THE 



RAMBLER IN MEXICO. 



LETTER L 



I resume my correspondence with you, and herewith 

 send you a few sheets containing a chronicle of my 

 vernal rambles in New Spain. 



The present recital introduces you to the same prin- 

 cipal dramatis personae, and opens, where my last closed 

 < — on board the goelette Halcyon, in the gulf of Mexico ; 

 somewhere about latitude 28° north, longitude 92° west, 

 or within a hundred miles, more or less, of the tropic of 

 Cancer. It was the fifteenth of January, 1834 ; wind 

 from the eastward, light but steady ; sky serene, and 

 every prospect of a fair and fortunate voyage. The 

 distance from the Balize lighthouse at the entrance of 

 the Mississippi, to the bar of Tampico, towards which 

 the head of our little vessel was directed, is about six 

 hundred miles. 



From this date, up to the fourth day at noon — so fa- 

 vourable were the auspices under which our voyage was 

 continued, always excepting the confined position, sea- 

 sickness, and the bad company on board — we never shifted 

 a sail. They may really be said to have been halcyon 

 days. We were then, by computation, a little more than 

 forty miles from our port. Towards evening it fell 

 calm ; and during the succeeding night, the stars, and the 

 moon in her second quarter, glistened upon the deck, as 

 it swam with the heavy dews of the tropics. 



But that you may better enter into the state of our 



