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MEXICO. 



terms of it reversed), there are yet too few of them in Mexico to increase the facihties or com- 

 forts of travelers. The natives seldom wander beyond the precincts of their own neighborhood, 

 though there are many inducements to travel. In Mexico nature has been profuse in blessings ; 

 it is a country made up of the beautiful and the grand, and yet it is a service of toil and peril to 

 explore the most frequented parts. It is surrounded by a sickly line of coast, where the gates 

 of death are always open. The malaria that spares the native is fatal to the stranger ; under 

 a beautiful sky, surrounded by the magnificent vegetation of the tropics, the foreigner inhales 

 the airs of fragrance, that are loaded with death. Yet the foreigner explores Mexico, while the 

 native feels no curiosity. The stranger may pass from Vera Cruz to Xalapa, which is elevated 

 to the region of health, and flatter himself that he has escaped the danger, yet the vomito may 

 be in his system, and destroy him in a day. 



It is seldom that a mother country expends much treasure in making roads for a colony ; the 

 relation is too generally that of a stepmother. Nor is it often that a country in the midst of re- 

 volutions, can advance internal improvements. Much, however, was done in this way for 

 Mexico by Spain. Roads were begun and more than half completed, which, when finished, 

 would have rivaled the road of the Slmplon, and whose bridges would be monuments of art in 

 Europe. Where the roads are imperfect, the vehicles for traveling must have more strength 

 than elegance, as safety is to be consulted before luxury or comfort. It is not always, there- 

 fore, that the coaches in Mexico are furnished with springs, as they are of a size to require 8 or 

 10 mules to draw them. They are like houses in New England, that we sometimes see re- 

 moved by great animal power. 



A traveler who goes from the coast to the city of Mexico, even over the most frequented 

 route, must move like an emigrant in our Western States, taking with him his household goods. 

 The inns afford little but shelter, and that of no enviable kind, and he must carry beds, provi- 

 sions, and means for defence. The haciendas are substantial farm-houses, and often with a 

 shop and church annexed ; yet they furnish little but provender for horses and mules ; few of 

 the proprietors will from motives of interest or hospitality minister much to a traveler's comfort 

 and no intelligent wayfarer expects either neatness or comfort. A posada is often but a shed, 

 open like a bird-cage at the sides, and whatever passes within may be seen without ; beds there 

 are none, and he is most fortunate, in a company of travelers, who secures a bench or table to 

 stretch himself upon. In the haciendas, a single large hall only is given to travelers, and here, 

 as in the inns, there can be no altercation for a choice of beds. In the inns, however, there 

 are several small rooms for travelers. The usual price for this shelter is a quarter of a dollar. 

 The Mexicans, however, if of humble pretensions as publicans, are yet excellent traveling ser- 

 vants, faithful, obliging, and of great good-nature. To call them honest, is but to say that they 

 have the national character ; the baggage is often left undefended, under a shed, though the 

 unquiet state of Mexico has been a school to produce robbers, that now infest the broken parts 

 of the country. 



The Mexican horses are also well adapted to traveling ; they are small but spirited. They 

 have a peculiar gait, called paso, and so little is any other in esteem, that to trot is considered 

 as a defect in a horse, and reduces his price two thirds, or to 50 dollars. A good horse will 

 go in this gait 6 miles an hour, and the motion is so gentle, that the rider is hardly moved in 

 his seat. The fore feet are raised high as in a gallop, while the hindmost feet are drawn along 

 the ground. 



The mule, however, is preferable where the roads are steep and rough ; he is more patient, 

 hardy, and sagacious in picking out his way. In roads impassable for wheels, — and in Mexi- 

 co they are not a few, — the mules carry a litter, which is a sort of palanquin, with 2 long 

 poles ; the poles are passed through the saddle of the mules, like the shafts of a carriage, so 

 that 1 mule goes before the other behind the litter. The motion of a litter is very easy. 



In Mexico the whole day's journey is commonly performed at one heat ; the muleteers 

 seldom stop to bait. It is thought to be better for the animals to give them a long time for 

 rest and food ; food they cannot take without water, which it is dangerous to give them in the 

 quantities they require, till the labor of the day is done. In the morning it takes nearly 2 

 hours to finish the preparations for starting. The mules often escape, when they can only be 

 taken with the lasso, or a long rope with a noose, that all Mexican horsemen use dexterously, 

 and generally have attached to the pummel of the saddle. The moment the mule feels the 

 lasso thrown upon him he stands perfectly still, but till then will not suffer himself to be taken 

 In steep places, where the carriage might otherwise lose its balance, the outriders attach the 



