356 



INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL. 



shut up ; a padre who had been in the United States 

 was sick, and could not receive any one ; my servant's 

 friends all recommended different persons, as if I had 

 the whole town at my disposal ; and principally they 

 urged me to honour with my company the chief of the 

 state. In the midst of this street consultation, I longed 

 for a hotel at a hundred dollars a day, and the govern- 

 ment for paymaster. 'Hezoos, who was all the time in 

 a terrible hurry, after an animated interlude with some 

 of his friends, spurred his mule and hurried me back, 

 crossed a corner of the plaza, turned down a street to 

 the right, stopped opposite a small house, where he dis- 

 mounted, and begging me to do the same, in a mo- 

 ment the saddles were whipped off and carried inside. 

 I was ushered into the house, and seated on a low chair 

 in a small room where a dozen women, friends of 'He- 

 zoos and his wife, were waiting to welcome him to his 

 home. He told me that he did not know where his 

 house was, or that it had an extra room, till he learn- 

 ed it from his friends ; and carrying my luggage into 

 a little dark apartment, said that I could have that to 

 myself, and that he, and his wife, and all his friends 

 would wait upon me, and that I could be more comfort- 

 able than in any house in San Jose. I was excessively 

 tired, having made three days' journey in two, worn 

 out with the worry of searching for a resting-place, and 

 if I had been younger, and had no character to lose, I 

 should not have given myself any farther trouble ; but, 

 unfortunately, the dignity of office might have been 

 touched by remaining in the house of my servant ; and, 

 besides, I could not move without running against a 

 woman ; and, more than all, 'Hezoos threw his arms 

 around any one he chose, and kissed her as much as 

 he pleased. In the midst of my irresolution " la pove- 



