CHIHUAHUA WESTWARD. 165 
me on that account, as I had been influ¬ 
enced by glowing descriptions of his sup¬ 
posed good qualities. Since the morn¬ 
ing of our start from Chihuahua he had 
been the butt and laughingstock of even 
the slowest of the Mexicans, who had 
heaped all sorts of derisive epithets on 
him for his general stupidity. My only 
hope was that he would blossom out as a 
good cook when he had an opportunity ; 
but here I was doomed to receive the full 
shock of his utter incapacity, and to 
realize that he would only shine resplen- 
dently. as a complete failure on the whole 
journey. Finally I was forced to the 
conclusion that he was palmed off on me 
simply to get him salaried and off the 
the hands of somebody else. Although 
we arrived at Carichic about noon, or 
shortly after, and preparations were be- 
