1894 
San Miguel 
Albarradas 
The raan I hired in Oaxaca as a packer turns out to he of no use, 
as he knows nothing of the business he has undertaken. The road con¬ 
tinued rough and rocky until just before nightfall when we reached 
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the little village named above. The steep hlllslope on which San 
Miguel is perched is cultivated in seib.11 corn patches and as we passed 
along I was amused by being hailed by the Indians working in the fields 
calling out, "Buenos tardes! Monde se va? n In the village of straggl¬ 
ing adobe houses, thatched with yucca leaves peeled off the trunk in 
bunches by cutting the bark in squares. The houses were set irregularly 
about cm the hillside and connected by irregular trails with numerous 
small trees and bushes forming hedges along their sides. About many of 
the houses were growing a few peach trees yielding unusually good fruit. 
lYe were piloted to one of the houses in the middle of the town evidently 
where the boys we met seemed to think that they had best acc oramodations 
for us. Here we unsaddled and stood about for an hour or more, the 
women claiming that the owner of the house was sway but would be back 
soon. Becoming impatient, I sent for the Presidents of the town and 
showed him my letter from the Governor and told him I wished for some 
place to put my outfit under shelter as it was likely to rain. The 
President© could not read but a young fellow managed to make out the 
import of the letter and then ensued a long discussion as to the 
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necessity of complying with my request (this between the President© and 
the one who read the letter). It then turned out that the unoccupied 
house belonged to a man who had gone away for several days and whose 
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wife was stopping next door. I assured them of my desire to pay for 
any service and house roam. Finally a reluctant consent was given us 
to put our things inside of the miserable dirt floored hovel and we got 
installed at about 9 p.xa. and managed to get something to eat* % worth¬ 
less Indian servant from Oaxaca now complained of being very sore from 
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