SAN AUGUSTIN. 



177 



bad representative of the valiant Julian, as he was just 

 as much inclined to act the rapacious villain, to get fud- 

 dled, and to vapour about his deeds of arms. I believe, 

 however, that he was not quite so cowardly ; and would 

 have fought very heroically if he found it absolutely im- 

 possible to run away, or save his life by any other means. 

 Jose Maria took the place of Miguel. 



All accounts coincided in affording us the perspective 

 of being mercilessly robbed in the course of the follow- 

 ing day, either in ascending the mountain, by the bands 

 of Tlalpam, which of course keep a sharp eye upon the 

 parties arriving from the capital — or in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Cruz del Marques on the summit, by the 

 band of Toluca, which there finds a convenient lurking- 

 place in the pine forest ; or by the band of Cuernavaca, 

 which plies its profession in the broken ground on the 

 steep western slope of the sierra. This was worse than 

 being between hawk and buzzard. 



To give you an idea what sort of bargains are made in 

 this country, 1 may mention that each of our valets 

 had been hired at the rate of eighteen dollars a month, 

 plus four reals a day for their food. Further, we were 

 bound by our contract to allow them at their dismissal at 

 Jalapa, twelve dollars each for their return to the capi- 

 tal, and a horse ; or, if they should prefer it, a seat in 

 the stage to Mexico, value thirty dollars. To our arrie- 

 ro we gave eight dollars a day as long as he was in our 

 service. 



You might suppose that ordinary cupidity might have 

 been satisfied by such favourable terms ; but no, by the 

 assistance of Mr. E., who was an old traveller in this 

 strange country, we detected, at the very outset, a sly 

 contrivance to make us pay for a huge account of tortil- 

 las, pulque, Chile, agua ardiente, and so forth, which they 

 demolished daily. This defeat, and our determination 

 to set off before sunrise, soured the temper of our re- 

 tainers for the first hours of the day ; but they seemed 

 subsequently to have made up their minds to smile at 



