164 
MEXICO. 
huge Spanish spur, to which is attached a small ball of finely-tempered 
steel, that strikes against the long rowels at every tread of the man or 
beast, and rings like a fairy bell, 
MEXICAN SPUR. 
you have a complete picture of a Mexican horseman, equipped at every 
point and ready for the road. If he has to fight, he has his weapons ; if 
to feed, he has his laden mule ; if it rain, he dons his serape and armas 
de agua, and rides secure from storm and wind ; and if he arrives at an 
Indian hut, after a long and toilsome journey, and no bed is ready to re- 
ceive him, he spreads the skins on the earthen floor — his saddle is his pil- 
low, and his blanket a counterpane. He is the compendium of a perfect 
travelling household. 
In this guise were most of us equipped when we mustered in the great 
square — except, that for leathern jackets, we had substituted blue cloth, 
and had strapped our scrapes on the pillions behind us. 
All were punctual to the minute, and the arriero, together with Gomez, 
and Antonio, the two other servants, were sent on to the Garrita, to pass 
our carga mules. Gomez was a stanch, wooden-faced old ti'ooper, who had 
done good service in the troublous times in Mexico ; Ramon, a Spaniard, — 
a thin, hatchet-visaged, boasting, slashing rogue, — who had fought through 
many a guerilla party of the Peninsular war ; and Antonio, a sort of 
weazened supernumerary, with a game leg, a broken nose, a toothless up- 
per gum, a devilish leering eye, and a pepper-and-salt cur as worthless 
as his master, who amused himself during the whole of our journey by 
running bulls, tearing sheep, worrying fowls, and taking twice as much 
exercise as was necessary. 
