CHIHUAHUA WESTWARD. 161 
for us. But as everything is relative in 
this world, I was soon to look back to the 
despised hotel as the last taste of civili¬ 
zation, and to appreciate it accordingly. 
On reaching Carichic, a town of six or 
seven hundred people, we were told there 
was no such thing as a lodging house for 
us, and that it would be necessary for us to 
camp in the streets or some field, unless 
our Mexican friend could induce the vil¬ 
lage priest to allow us the use of a large 
empty room in one corner of the big 
building he occupied. The loaning or 
renting of a large empty room does not 
seem to be an act of great hospitality, 
nevertheless it was so regarded. The 
Mexican gentleman, when passing back¬ 
ward and forward over the trail between 
his father’s mines and Chihuahua, always 
made his headquarters with the priest or 
