FAILURE OF THE CORN CROP. 289 



servants, of the hacienda, always improvident, had 

 consumed their small stock, and, v^ith no hope from 

 their milpas, with the permission of the master were 

 about moving away to regions where the pressure 

 would be less severe. Our arrival, as the major 

 domo told us, arrested this movement; instead of 

 our being obliged to hunt them up, the poor Indians 

 crowded round the door of our hut, begging em- 

 ployment, and scranibUng for the reale^ 'Jiich Albino 

 distributed among them ; but all the relief we could 

 afford them was of short duration, and it may not 

 be amiss to mention that at the moment of writing 

 the calamity apprehended has come to pass; the 

 ports of Yucatan are thrown open and begging for 

 bread, and that country in which, but a few short 

 months since, we were moving so quietly and expe- 

 riencing continual acts of kindness, is now groaning 

 under famine superadded to the horrors of w^ar. 

 Vol. IL— O o 25 



