MULES ARRIEROS CONDUCTA COACHES WAGONS. 343 



of burthen, or an antiquated clumsy Mexican coach, were the only 

 means of travelling. Of these, the litera, a species of palanquin in 

 which the traveller reclined at ease upon his mattress and cushions, 

 was by far the most comfortable, and the use of this convenient ve- 

 hicle is still continued especially in the warmer parts of the country 

 where exposure to the sun is dangerous, and into which the modern 

 diligence or stage coach has not been introduced from the factories 

 of the United States. In many portions of Mexico, where the 

 transportation has been for centuries carried on by Arrieros 

 with their mules and jackasses, scarcely any thing of the original 

 road remains, while the path that has been so long trodden by the 

 single file Jitajos of these useful beasts has been worn so deeply by 

 their feet in the yielding soil or rock, that the animals themselves 

 are often concealed by the steep sides of the gully. Thousands of 

 sturdy Mexicans have for years been employed as Arrieros in this 

 business of mule-carriage. The " Conducta" is recognized as one 

 of the traditionary, time honored, and almost constitutional institu- 

 tions of the Republic, and it may easily be conceived that with so 

 powerful a body of honest, industrious men opposed to any new 

 scheme of transportation, it will require a long time for the enlight- 

 ened requirements of extended commerce to displace it. The fidelity 

 of this class has been already, elsewhere, alluded to ; and whilst it is 

 personally reliable and responsible, its members are scarcely ever 

 attacked by the bands of robbers infesting the recesses of the moun- 

 tains, and laying in wait for less numerous, resolute or organized 

 way-farers. Millions were, and still are, often entrusted to them 

 with perfect confidence by the government and the people. 



Nevertheless, within the last fifteen years the growing manufac- 

 tures of Mexico required a stouter means of transportation of heavy 

 machinery than the limbs of a mule, and the consequence was that 

 intelligent foreigners availing themselves of this want in the first 

 instance, gradually introduced heavy wagons like those of the Euro- 

 pean roulage system, into which, by degrees, they forced a large por- 

 tion of the bulky commercial freight which was to be borne from the 

 coast into the interior. Simultaneously with this encroachment on the 

 mule, the arriero, and the litera, appeared the American stage coach, 

 built in New York ; and together with the coach and its spirited 

 horses, came the "Yankee driver," whose accommodating and daring 

 character soon made him a favorite with those whose trade he in some 

 measure injured, though it did not serve to protect him or his pas- 

 sengers from the attacks of robbers. The line of diligences or 

 coaches established from Vera Cruz to the capita^ passing through 



