DESCENT TO THE COAST. 



21? 



to be our fellow-voyagers in the packet ; and, as the 

 exact hour of sailing was now known, and our departure 

 from Jalapa in company fixed for the evening of the fol- 

 lowing day, our short stay was fully occupied. In fact, 

 far from being a day of repose, as was advisable, it was 

 one of unremitting alacrity of body and mind. 



To dismiss our retainers, to sell our horses and fur*- 

 niture, to make all the dispositions for final departure 

 from the country, entailed upon us more fatigue than 

 you can perhaps imagine* 



But about noon, somehow or other, all was arranged ! 

 The arriero was on his way back to Perote, with the 

 baggage of a party ascending to the capital. Garcia 

 and Jose Maria, neither of whom had the slightest wish 

 to risk their precious lives by advancing a step farther, 

 were remunerated for their services ; if not to their 

 hearts' content, far beyond their deservings i and,, masters 

 of two of the horses of the train, w 7 ere at liberty to seek 

 other and equally gullible masters. Poor Pinto had to 

 partake the fate of his comrades, and learn to obey 

 another bridle and another spur, and those perhaps non€ 

 of the mildest, being sold for less than the cost of his 

 shoes. When I think that he may have found a hard 

 master, I have sometimes regretted that I did not shoot 

 him with my own hand ; for he had been a noble and 

 fleet horse when young, and one of some renown ; and 

 was still active and generous, notwithstanding his rough 

 coat and wisp of a tail ; and I had insensibly become at- 

 tached to him. We had travelled three months cheerilv 

 together, and gone through many strange scenes; and 

 when I passed my hand over his neck for the last time, 

 I own that I felt a very disagreeaWe tightness about the 

 lower end of the gullet. I love poor dumb beasts. 



Since our first landing in America, Pourtales and my- 

 self had made trial of almost every imaginable mode of 

 travel and locomotion— carriage, coach, gig, sulky, carry- 

 all, and carry nothing, mud waggon, dearborn, horse, 

 mule, steamboat, steam carriage, goelette, shallop, skiff, 

 wooden canoe, bark canoe, raft, rail, tree stump, the 

 back of an Indian, and what not. We were now to 



T 



