172 MEXICO, 
had fallen during the night, except in the freshness it had imparted to 
the luxuriant vegetation of the valley. 
Before breakfast I sallied forth for a walk over the town. Cuernavaca 
lies on a tongue of land jutting out into the lap of the valley. On its 
western side, a narrow glen has been scooped out by the water which de- 
scends from the mountains, and its sides are thickly covered with the 
richest verdure. To the east, the city again slopes rapidly, and then as 
rapidly rises. I walked down this valley street past the church built by 
Cortez, (an old picturesque edifice, filled with nooks and corners,) where 
they were chanting a morning mass. In the yard of the Palace, or 
Casa Municipal, at the end of the street, a body of dismounted cavalry 
soldiers was going through the sword exercise. From this I went to the 
Plaza in front of it, at present nearly covered with a large wooden am- 
phitheatre, that had been devoted to bull fights during the recent national 
holydays. Around the edges of this edifice, the Indians and small farm- 
ers spread out their mats, covered with fine fruits and vegetables of the 
tierra caliente. I passed up and down a number of the steep and nar 
row streets, bordered with ranges of one-story houses, open and cool, 
and fronted usually with balconies and porches screening them from the 
scorching sun. The softer and gentler appearance of the people, as com- 
pared with those of the Valley of Mexico, struck me forcibly. The whole 
has a Neapolitan air. The gardens are numerous and full of flowers. 
By the street sides, small canals continually pour along the cool and 
clear waters from the mountains. 
At nine o'clock I returned to breakfast, and found it rather better than 
our last night's supper. While this meal was preparing, I strolled out 
into the garden back of the hotel. 
The house once belonged to a convent, and was occupied by monks ; 
but many years since it was purchased by a certain Joseph Laborde, who 
played a bold part in the mine-gambling which once agitated the Mexi- 
cans with its speculative excitement. 
In 1743, Laborde came, as a poor youth, to Mexico, and by a fortunate 
venture in the mine of the Canada del Real de Tapujahua, he gained 
immense wealth. After building a church in Tasco which cost him near 
half a million, he was suddenly reduced to the greatest misery, both by 
unlucky speculations, and the failure of mines from which he had drawn 
an annual revenue of between "two and three hundred thousand marks. 
The Archbishop, however, permitted him to dispose of a golden soleil, en- 
riched with diamonds, which, in his palmy days, he had presented to his 
church at Tasco ; and with the produce of the sale, which amounted to 
nigh one hundred thousand dollars, he returned once more to Zacatecas. 
This district was at that period nearly abandoned as a mining country, 
and produced annually but fifty thousand marks of silver. But Laborde 
immediately undertook the celebrated mine of Quebradilla, and in work- 
ing it, lost again, nearly all his capital. Yet was he not to be deterred. 
