TOXALAPA. 11 
mentioned this to the trooper, and asked him where he put the powder ? 
" There, to be sure," said he, pointing to the pan. " And how do you fire 
it?" "Pshaw," replied the fellow, staggering off — "'tis letter so." He 
was half drunk, and as ridiculous as his weapon. If these are the soldiers 
of Mexico, they hardly rise to the dignity of respectable scare-crows. 
We were soon called lo coach, and mounting our vehicle with better 
spirits for the refreshment and morning air, we shortly entered a rolling 
country, with an occasional ruinous hamlet and plantation. Although 
the scenery was in spots exceedingly romantic, interspersed with upland 
and valley, and covered with a profusion of tropical trees and flowers, 
there was over the whole an air of abandonment which could not fail to 
strike one painfully. In a new country, as a traveller passes by a soli- 
tary bridle-path, over the plains and hills, hidden by the primeval forests 
fresh as they came from Nature's hand, there is matter for agreeable 
reflection, in fancying what the virgin soil will produce in a few years 
when visited by industry and taste. But here. Nature instead of being 
pruned of her luxuriance with judicious care, has been literally sapped 
and exhausted, and made old even in her youth, until she again begins to 
renew her empire among ruins. It is true, that traces of old cultivation 
are yet to be found, and also the remains of a former dense population. 
The sides of the hills, in many places, as in Chili and Peru, are cut into 
terraces; but over those plains and slopes is spread a wild growth of 
mimosas, cactus, and acacias, while a thousand flowering parasite-plants 
trail their gaudy blossoms among the aloes and shrubbery which fill up 
the rents of time and neglect in the dilapidated buildings. It is the picture 
of a beauty, prematurely old, tricked out in all the fanciful finery of 
youth ! 
We wound along among these silent hills until about ten o'clock, when 
a rapid descent brought us to the National Bridge, built by the old Span- 
ish Government, and enjoying then the sounding title of Puente del Rey. 
Changed in name, it has not, however, changed in massive strength, or 
beauty of surrounding scenery. Indeed, the neglect of cultivation, has 
permitted Nature to regain her power, and the features of the scenery are 
therefore more like those of some of the romantic ravines of Italy, where 
the remains of architecture and the luxuriant products of the soil are 
blent in wild and romantic beauty. 
The Puente Nacional spans the river Antigua, which passes over a 
rocky bed in a deep dell of high and perpendicular rocks. The adjacent 
heights of this mountain pass have been strongly fortified during the wars; 
among their fastnesses and defiles the revolutionary generals lay con- 
cealed in Iturbide's time, and finally descended from them to conclude 
the fight in favor of independence. 
At Puente, there is a village containing the usual number of comforta- 
ble cane huts, before which the neighboring Indians had spread out for 
sale their fruits and wares; while the Mexicans (as it was Sunday) were 
amusing themselves by gambling at mont6 for clacos. At the inn a break- 
