 Letter the 35th of Life in Mexico. Theater, Port Mentos, Visitors, Houses of Puebla, Fine Arts, Paseo, Don En Ramos, Arispe, Bishop, Cotton Factories, Don Esteban, Antunano, United States Machinery, Accidents, Difficulties, Shipwrecks, Detentions, Wonderful Perseverance, La Costancia Mexicana, Hospital, Prison, El Carmen, Paintings, Painted Floors, Angels, Cathedral, Golden Jewels, A Comedy, Bishop's Palace, Want of Masters, Puebla. You will be surprised when I tell you that, notwithstanding our fatigue, we went to the theater the evening we arrived and sat through a long and tragical performance in the box of Don A.O.H.O., one of the richest citizens of Puebla. Who, hearing of our arrival, instantly came to invite us to his house, where he assured us rooms were prepared for our reception. But being no longer in savage parts where it is necessary to throw yourself on the hospitality of strangers or to sleep in the open air, we declined his kind offer and remained in the inn, which is very tolerable, though we do not see it now in bow as we did last year when we were expected there. The theater is clean and neat, but dull, and we were much more looked at than the actors for few foreigners. Ladies especially remain here for any length of time, and their appearance is somewhat of a novelty. Our toilet occasioned us no small difficulty, now that we were again in polished cities, for you may imagine the condition of our trunks, which two mules had galloped with over ninety leagues of plain and mountain, and which had been opened every night. Such torn gowns, crushed collars, ruined pelarinis. One carpet bag had burst and discharged its contents of combs, brushes, etc., over a baranka, where some day they may be picked up as Indian antiquities, and sent to the museum to be preserved as a proof that Montezuma's wives brushed their hair. However, by dint of a washer-woman and sundry messages to peluqueros, hairdressers, we were enabled to turn out something like Christian travelers. The first night we could not sleep on account of the innumerable ants, attracted probably by a small garden with one or two orange trees in it, into which our room opened. The next morning we had a great many visitors, and though there is, here, a good deal of that provincial pretension one always meets with out of a capital, we found some pleasant people amongst them. The Senora H.O. came in a very handsome carriage with beautiful northern horses, and took us out to see something of the town. Its extreme cleanness after Mexico is remarkable. In that respect it is the Philadelphia of the Republic, with wide streets, well paved, large houses of two stories, very solid and well built, magnificent churches, plenty of water, and with all a dullness which makes one feel as if the houses were rows of convents, and all the people, except beggars and a few businessmen, shut up in performance of a vow. The house of Don A.O. H.O. is, I think, more elegantly furnished than any in Mexico. It is of immense size, and the floor is beautifully painted. One large room is furnished with pale blue satin, another with crimson damask, and there are fine inlaid tables, handsome mirrors, and everything in very good taste. He and his wife are both very young, she not more than nineteen, very delicate and pretty and very fair, and in her dress, neatness and house, she reminds me of a Philadelphian always with exception of her diamonds and pearls. The ladies smoke more, at least more openly than in Mexico, but they have so few amusements they deserve more indulgence. There are eleven convents of nuns in the city, and taking the veil is as common as being married. We dined at the Senora H.O.'s, found her very amiable, and heard a young lady sing, who has a good voice, but complains that there are no music masters in Puebla. The fine arts, however, are not entirely at a standstill here, and in architecture, sculpture and painting, there is a good deal comparatively speaking worthy of notice. There used to be a proverb amongst the Mexicans that, if all men had five senses, the Pueblanos had seven. They are considered very reserved in their manners, a natural consequence of their having actually no society. Formerly, Puebla rivaled Mexico in population and in industry. The plague, which carried off fifty thousand persons, was followed by the pestilence of civil war, and Puebla dwindled down to a very secondary city. But we now hear a great deal of their cotton factories and of the machines, instruments, and workmen brought from Europe here, already giving employment to thirty thousand individuals. In the evening we drove to the new Paseo, a public promenade where none of the public were to be seen, and which will be pretty when the young trees grow. 19. C. N. went out early and returned the visit of the celebrated Don N. Ramos Arispe, now an old man and canon of the cathedral, but formerly deputy in the Spanish Cortes, and the most zealous supporter of the cause of independence. It is said that he owed the great influence which he had over men of a middling character, rather, to his energetic, some say to his domineering disposition, than to genius, that he was clear-headed, active, dexterous, remarkable for discovering hidden springs and secret motives, and always keeping his subordinates zealously employed in his affairs. C. N. also visited the bishop, Signor Vasquez, who obtained from Rome the acknowledgement of independence. We set out after breakfast with several gentlemen who came to take us to the cotton factories, etc. We went, first, to visit the factory established at the mill of Santo Domingo, a little way out of the city and called la Constancia Mexicana, Mexican Constancy. It was the first established in the Republic and deserves its name from the great obstacles that were thrown in the way of its construction, and the numerous difficulties that had to be conquered before it came into effect. In 1831 a junta for the encouragement of public industry was formed, but the obstacles thrown in the way of every proposal were so great that the members all abandoned it in despair, accepting only the senor Don Esteban Antunano, who was determined himself to establish a manufacturer of cotton to give up his commercial relations and to employ his whole fortune in attaining this object. He bought the mill of Santo Domingo for $178,000 and began to build the edifice, employing foreign workmen at exorbitant prices. In this he spent so much of his capital that he was obliged to have records to the Bank of Avio for assistance. The Bank, Avio meaning pecuniary assistance or advance of funds, was established by Don Lucas Alaman and intended as an encouragement to industry. But industry is not of the nature of a hot house plant to be forced by artificial means, and these grants of funds have but created monopolies and consequently added to the general poverty. Machinery, to the amount of 3,840 spindles, was ordered for Antunano from the United States and a loan granted him of $178,000, but of which he never received the whole. Meanwhile his project was sneered at as absurd, impossible, ruinous, but firmly resolved not to abandon his enterprise. He contended himself with living with the strictest economy, himself and his numerous family almost suffering from want and frequently unable to obtain credit for the provisions necessary for their daily use. To hasten the arrival of the machinery he sent an agent to the north to superintendent and to hire workmen but the commercial house to which he was recommended and which at first gave him the sums he required lost their confidence in the agent and redemanded their money so that he was forced to sell his clothes in order to obtain food and lodging. In July 1833 the machinery was embarked at Philadelphia and in August arrived at Veracruz to the care of Senor Paso y Troncoso who never abandoned Antunano in his adversity and even lent him unlimited sums but much delay ensued and a year elapsed before it reached Puebla. Thus after it was all set up the ignorant foreign workmen declared that no good results would ever be obtained, that the machines were bad and the cotton worse. However by the month of January 1833 they began to work in the factory to which was given the name of Mehican Constancy. A mecanist was then sent to the north to procure a collection of new machinery and after extraordinary delays and difficulties he embarked with it at New York in February 1837. He was shipwrecked near Cayo Hueso and with all the machinery he could say returned to the north in the Brig Argos but on his way there he was shipwrecked again and all the machinery lost. He went to Philadelphia to have new machines constructed and in August re-embarked in the Delaware. Incredible as it may seem the Delaware was wrecked of Cayo Alcatrazes and for the third time the machinery was lost, the mecanist saving himself with great difficulty. It seemed as if gods and men had conspired against the cotton spindles yet Antunano persevered. Fresh machinery was ordered and though by another fatality it was detained owing to the blockade of the ports by the French squadron 7000 spindles were landed and speedily put in operation. Others have followed the example of Senor Antunano who has given a decided impulse to industry in Puebla besides a most extraordinary example of perseverance and a determined struggle against what men call bad luck which persons of a feeble character sink under while stronger minds oppose till they conquer it. It was in his carriage we went and he accompanied us all over the building. It is beautifully situated and at a distance has more the air of a summer palace than of a cotton factory. Its order and airiness are delightful and in the middle of the court in front of the building is a large fountain of the purest water. A scotchman who has been there for some time says he has never seen anything to compare with it and he worked six years in the United States. Antunano is unfortunately very deaf and obliged to use an ear trumpet. He seems an excellent man and I trust he may be ultimately successful. We came out covered with cotton as if we had just been unpacked and were next taken to visit a very handsome new prison which they are building in the city but whether it will ever be finished or not is more doubtful. We also visited the Foundling Hospital a large building where there are more children than funds. They were all clean and respectable looking but very poor. Antunano presented them with two hundred dollars as a memorial he said of our visit. C.N. then went to the convent of El Carmen to see the paintings of the life of the Virgin supposed to be original works of Murillo particularly Ascension and Circumcision but which are ill arranged and have suffered greatly from neglect many of them being torn. Indeed in some of them are large holes made by the boys who insisted that the Jewish priest was the devil. There is a descent from the cross which is reckoned a fine painting and it is a pity that these works should be shut up in this old convent where there are about half a dozen old monks and where they serve no purpose useful or ornamental. Where they removed the Mexican Museum and arranged with care they would at least serve as models for those young artists who have not the means of forming their taste by European travel. Zendejas as a painter and Coro as a sculpture both natives of Puebla are celebrated in their respective arts but we have not yet seen any of their works. C.N. also visited the bishop and saw his paintings and library which we hope to do tomorrow and from thence went to the college the rector of which was Atache in Spain to the minister Santa Maria. We dined again in the house of Señor H.O. The manner in which his floors are painted is pretty and curious. It is an imitation of carpets and is very rich in appearance and very cool in reality. A great many of the floors here are painted in this way either upon canvas with oil colors or upon a cement extended upon the bricks of which the floor is made and prepared with glue, lime or clay and soap. Señor H.O. has four young and pretty sisters all nuns in different convents as there are no other schools but these convents the young girls who are sent there become attached to the nuns and prefer remaining with them forever to returning home. After dinner accompanied by Don and Ramos Arispe whom Sien formerly knew intimately in Madrid and by various other ecclesiastics we visited the boast of Puebla the cathedral which we did not do when we passed through the city on our arrival last year. To my mind I have never seen anything more noble and magnificent. It is said that the rapid progress of the building was owing to the assistance of two angels who nightly descended in attitudes height so that each morning the astonished workmen found their labor incredibly advanced. The name given to the city Puebla de los Ángeles is said to be owing to this tradition. It is not so large as the cathedral of Mexico but it is more elegant, simpler and in better taste. Sixteen columns of exquisite marble adorned with silver and gold form the tabernacle in Mexico called El Cipres. This native marble called Puebla Marble is brought from the quarries of Tota Mehuacán and Tecalí at two and seven leagues from the city. The floor of the cathedral is of marble, the great screens and high back chairs of richly carved cedar. Everything was opened to show us the tombs where the bishops are buried, the vault where a martyr lies, supposed to have been miraculously preserved for centuries, the gift of a pope to a bishop of Puebla. The figure appears to be of wax enclosing the skeleton of the martyr and has the most angelic countenance I ever beheld. It is loaded with false emeralds and diamonds. We were also shown the jewels which they keep buried in case of a revolution. The costadilla, the gold stand in which they carry the host, is entirely encrusted with large diamonds, pearls, emeralds, amethysts, topazes and rubies. The chalices are equally rich. There are four sets of jewels for the bishop. One of his crosses is of emeralds and diamonds, another of topazes and diamonds with great rings of the same belonging to each. In the evening we went with the M family who have been very civil to us to the theatre where we saw a comedy better acted and more amusing than the tragedy which they murdered two nights before. We went early the next morning to the bishop's palace to see his fine library and collection of paintings where there were a few modern originals and many fine copies of the old masters. We then went with the senora H.O. to return the visits of the ladies who had called on us. The young ladies invariably complained that they have neither music nor drawing nor dancing masters. There is evidently a great deal of musical taste among them and, as in every part of Mexico, town or country, there is a piano, talcual in every house, but most of those who play are self-taught and naturally abandon it very soon for want of instruction or encouragement. We are now going to dine out and in the evening we go to a concert in the theatre given by the senora Cesare and Mr. Wallace as we must rise at three to set off by the diligence I shall write no more from this place. Our next letters will be from Mexico. And of letter the thirty-fifth. Letter the thirty-sixth of Life in Mexico. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Life in Mexico by Francis Calderón de la Barca. Letter the thirty-sixth. Concert, diligence, live Puebla, escort, view from the cathedral towers, black forest, history of the crosses, tales of murder and alarm, report of a skirmish, río frío, law concerning robbers, their moderation, return to Mexico, carneval ball, improvement in dress. Mexico, twenty-fourth. We went to the concert with our friends, the H.O.s. The music was better than the instruments and the senora Cesare looked handsome as she always does besides being beautifully dressed in white with Paris wreaths. We took leave of our friends at the door of the hotel at one in the morning and lay down for two hours in the full expectation of being robbed the following day, a circumstance which has now grown so common that when the diligence from Puebla arrives in safety it excites rather more sensation than when it has been stopped. The governor has ordered us an escort to Mexico to be stationed about every six leagues, but last week the escort itself and even the gallant officer at its head were suspected of being the plunderers. Our chief hope lay in that well-known miraculous knowledge which they possess as to the value of all travellers' luggage, which no doubt not only makes them aware that we are mere pilgrims for pleasure and not fresh arrivals, laden with European commodities but also renders them perfectly familiar with the contents of our well-shaking portmanteaus, so that we trusted that a sarape or two, a few rings and earrings and one or two shawls would not prove sufficient to tempt them. We got into the diligence in the dark, half asleep, having taken all the places but three, which were engaged before we came, some sleepy soldiers on horseback ready to accompany us, and a loaded gun sticking out of each window. Various beggars who are here innumerable already surrounded us, and it is by the way a remarkable circumstance that notwithstanding the amazing numbers of the leperos in Puebla, the churches there are kept scrupulously clean from which Mexico might take a hint with advantage. Puebla is one of the few cities founded by the Spanish colonists instead of being built upon the ruins of former greatness. It was founded in the 16th century on the plains of Acajete in a site occupied only by a few huts belonging to the Cholula Indians. It is surrounded by productive corn estates and the landscape when the light visited our eyes was fertile, though flat. The two finest views of Puebla may be seen from the towers of the cathedral and from an azotea in the street of San Augustine. The landscape is extremely varied and very extensive. To the north we see the mountain of Tulascula, the Matla Cuelletl, better known as the Malinchi, next to it the hill and temple of Guadalupe and the mountain of the Pinar, crowned by its white church. Other churches and convents adorn the slopes of the mountains, the Church of Loreto, the temple of Calvary, etc. The Malinchi is fertile, but these inferior mountains are sterile and bare. To the south lie the great volcanoes and between them we can distinguish the difficult and steep road by which Cortés undertook his first march to Mexico. We also see the city and pyramid of Cholula, the hill of San Nicolas and that of San Juan, where General Bustamante encamped in 1832 when he went out against Santana, near it the farmhouses of Posadas and Savaleta, one celebrated by a battle, the other by a war. To the east, but at a greater distance than the other mountains, rises the peak of Orisava, the star mountain, the side now seen, that which rises over the table-land of Mexico. Its other side descends rapidly to the burning plains of Veracruz and is the first distinguishable land discerned by those who approach these coasts. Even at this distance its snowy summit is seen contrasting with its fertile woods and pleasant villages. It has what mortals rarely possess united, a warm heart with a clear cold head. We were awakened at a Posada by there bringing us some hot coffee and a man with a white night cap on, having poked his head in at the window in defiance of a loaded musket. I concluded he was a lepero and sleepily told him I had nothing for him, in the phrase of the countries to importunate beggars, perdon vi por Dios. Excuse me for God's sake, but he proved to be a gentleman who merely came to put himself on his property at our disposal at that early hour of the morning. When we entered the black forest and passed through the dark pine woods, then the stories of robbers began, just as people at sea seemed to take a particular pleasure in talking of shipwrecks. Every cross had its tale of murder, and by the way, it seems to me, that I work written with Conesans to cause an entitled history of the crosses, though it might not equal the history of the Crusades would be quite as interesting and much more romantic than the Newgate calendar. The difficulty would consist in procuring authentic information concerning them. There were a lady and two gentlemen in the diligence, and the ladies seemed to be very much off fate as to their purport and history. Under one, her own servant was buried and she gave rather a graphic account of his murder. He was sitting outside on the top of the diligence. The party within were numerous but unarmed. Suddenly a number of robbers with masks on came shouting down upon them from amongst the pine trees. They first took aim at the poor mozo and shot him through the heart. He fell, calling in piteous tones to a padre who was in the coach, in treating him to stop and confess him, and groaning out a farewell to his friend the driver. Mortal fear prevailed over charity both in priest and layman, and the coachmen whipping up his horses past at full gallop over the body of the murdered man so that the robbers, being on foot, the remainder of the party escaped. Whilst we were listening to tales of blood and murder, our escort took leave of us supposing that we should meet another immediately, whereas we found that we had arrived at the most dangerous part of the road and that no soldiers were in sight. We certainly made up our minds to an attack this time and got ready our rings and watches not to hide, but to give, for we women kind were clearly of opinion, that in case of an attack it was much better to attempt no defence, our party having only two guns amongst them. There was a diligence some way behind us, full of people and belonging to another line, driven by a Yankee coachman so drunk that he kept his seat with difficulty. And in defiance of all remonstrances. Persisted in driving the coach at a gallop closed by the brink of the great precipice along which the road wound, so that the poor passengers were exposed to a double danger. Suddenly our escort appeared at the top of the hill and the officer riding up excused himself to Sien for the delay which had arisen from there having been engaged in a skirmish with the robbers in that very place. Two he said were taken and he had marched them off to Puebla where they would probably be let off in a few days after a form of trial. Four had escaped and had hid themselves amongst the trees and rocks but could not, according to his calculations, be very far off. However, we were quite reassured by the arrival of the soldiers and the sight of Rio Frio was very reviving. We got a very tolerable dinner from the bordelaise in the forest valley and although the next part of the road is reckoned very insecure, we had no longer any apprehension as besides having an escort the fact that some of the robbers had been taken a few hours before made it very unlikely that they should renew their attempts that day. This pestilence of robbers which infests the republic has never been eradicated. They are in fact the growth of civil war. Sometimes in the guise of insurgents taking an active part in the independence they have independently laid waste the country and robbed all whom they met. As expelors of the Spaniards these armed bands infested the roads between Veracruz and the capital, ruined all commerce and without any particular inquiry into political opinions robbed and murdered in all directions. In 1824 a law was proposed in congress which should subject all armed bands of robbers to military judges in order to shorten proceedings for many of those who had been apprehended and thrown into prison found some opportunity to escape while their trial was pending and many had been imprisoned four or five times for the same offence he had never brought to justice. In this law were included both robbers by profession and those bodies of insurgents who were merely extemporary amateurs. But whatever measures have been taken at different times to eradicate the civil its causes remain and the idle and unprincipled will always take advantage of the disorganized state of the country to obtain by force what they might gain by honest labour. Count Blank says gravely that he cannot imagine why we complain of Mehican robbers when the city of London is full of organized gangs of ruffians whom the laws cannot reach and when English highwaymen and housebreakers are the most celebrated in the world. Moreover that Mehican robbers are never unnecessarily cruel and in fact are very easily moved to compassion. This last assertion may occasionally hold good but their cruelties to travelers are too well known to bear him out in it as a general remark. As a proof of their occasional moderation I may mention that the ladies of the F.A. family at the time of their immigration were travelling from Mexico with a padre when they were met by a party of robbers or insurgents who stopped the coach and commenced pillaging. Amongst other articles of value they seized a number of silver dishes. The padre observed to them that as this plate did not belong to the ladies but was lent them by a friend they would be obliged to replace it and requested that one might be left as a pattern. The reasonable creatures instantly returned a dish and cover. Another time having completely stripped an English gentleman and his servant and tied them both to a tree observing that the man appeared particularly distressed at the loss of his master's spurs they politely returned and laid the spurs beside the gentleman. About four o'clock though nearly blinded with dust we once more looked down upon the valley of Mexico and at five during our last change of horses we were met by Don M.L. del C.O. and the English courier Beraza who had written out to meet us and accompanied us on their fine horses as far as the Garita. Here we found our carriage waiting, got in and drove through Mexico dust as we were and wore like as we seemed with guns at the windows. In the Cayesan Francisco the carriage was stopped by Mr. Blank, secretary to the English legation, who invited us to a grand masked and fancy carnival ball to be given on Monday, it being now Saturday. On our return home we found everything in good order, had some difficulty in procuring ball dresses in time. On Sunday we had a number of people to dinner, by chance it being Spanish fashion, to dine at a friend's house without invitation. This evening we go to the ball. Twenty-sixth. The ball was in the theatre and very brilliant, but too many of the first people on these occasions keep their boxes and do not dance, yet it was wonderfully select for so large an assembly. When we arrived we were led upstairs by some of the commissioners, those who had charge of the ball to the ease box whom we found as usual, elegantly dressed, the married ladies of the family with diamonds, the younger ones in white crepe and gold. I had a black silk mask, but finding myself universally recognized, saw no particular advantage in keeping it on, and promptly discarded it. We took a few turns in the ballroom and afterwards returned to the box. There were some capital figures in masks and some beautiful ball dresses, and though there were a number of dominoes and odd figures, I could not help remarking the great improvement in toilette which had taken place since the fancy ball of last year. One or two girls, especially the Señorita M, wore ball dresses which could only have proceeded from the fingers of a Parisian modist. Madame de Blanc dressed as a peasant and with a mask was known everywhere by her small foot and pretty figure. But it is impossible to look on at a ball very long, not mingling with it, without growing tired, and not even the numerous visitors to our box could prevent us from feeling much more sleepy than during many a moonlight ride through the lovely lands of Tierra Caliente. Next night there was a public masked ball, but we did not attend it. We feel much the better for our journey and only hope that some day CN may have leisure sufficient to enable us to take another ride through some other part of the country. This being near Lent we shall have no soirees for six weeks, though balls are occasionally given during that time of fasting. The house has become very comfortable in the way of servants, our housekeeper, a treasure, the coachman and footman, excellent, the cook tolerable, the soldiers rarely tipsy more than once a week and generally only one at a time. The other is decent so that we have nothing to complain of, has established a hen house near the stable, and any old Indian woman who brings her a manojo, several hens tied together, is sure to be received with open arms. One of our first visits on our return was to Takubaya, where we were sorry to find the Countess C.A. very much indisposed, and her courtyard filled with carriages containing visitors making inquiries. I shall now send off my letters by the packet that you may see we are safely re-established in Mexico. And of letter the 36th. Letter the 37th of Life in Mexico. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Life in Mexico by Francis Calderón de la Barca. Letter the 37th. Distinguished Men. Generals Pustamante, Santa Ana and Victoria. Anecdote. Señor Pedraza. Señor Cucheres Estrada. Count Cortina. Señor Corostiza. Don Carlos Pustamante. Mornings in the Alameda. Don Andrés Quintana Roo. Don Lucas Alamán. General Morán. General Almonte. Señor Canedo. Seniors Neri del Barrio. En Casa Flores. Doctor Valentín. Don Francisco Tagli. 8 Revolutions. 27th. Age in his last letter asks what distinguished men we have in Mexico. And with a tone of doubt as to there being very numerous, distinguished in what way? As generals, as statesmen, as men of literature, it seems to me that a country where we have known Pustamante, Santa Ana, General Victoria, Posada, Gomez Pedraza, Cucheres Estrada, Count Cortina. Corostiza. Don Carlos Pustamante. Quintana Roo. General Morán. Don Lucas Alamán. General Monte. Señor Canedo. Don Francisco Tagli. Seniors Neri del Barrio. Seniors Fogoaga. Don Jose Valentín. The Count de Casa Flores, etc., etc., is not so destitute of distinguished men as he supposes. The preceding are, I confess, strung together as they occur to me without order or regularity. Soldiers, statesmen, and literary men, some on one side of politics, some on another, but all men of note and men who have acted or suffered, or been distinguished in one way or another in the revolutions of the last thirty-two years. And there is not one amongst those I have mentioned who, if he were to write merely his personal history, would not by so doing write the history of these civil wars. The three first as principal figures in every revolution are already historical. Pustamante, as an honest man and a brave soldier. Santa Ana, as an acute general, active and aspiring, whose name has a prestige, whether for good or for evil, that no other possesses. General Victoria, a plain uneducated, well-intentioned man, brave and enduring. A passage in his life is well known, which ought to be mentioned as an offset to the doubtful anecdote of the two-headed eagle. When Yaturbide, alone, fallen and a prisoner, was banished from Mexico, and when General Bravo, who had the charge of conducting him to Veracruz, treated him with every species of indignity. Victoria, the sworn foe of the emperor during his prosperity, now, when orders were given him to see Yaturbide embarked, surrounded him with attentions, and loaded him with respectful distinctions, so that Yaturbide himself moved with gratitude. After expressing his warm esteem for the general's consistent contact, presented him with his watch as a memorial of his grateful admiration. As for Don Manuel Gomez Pedraza, he has occupied to distinguish a place in the political occurrences of this country, not to be generally known. An officer in the time of the Spanish government, he was distinguished for his severe discipline and strict moral conduct. In the time of Yaturbide, he was military commander of Huasteca, and supported the emperor who afterwards made him commander-general of Mexico. In 1827 he was minister of war during the presidency of Victoria, and was distinguished for his extraordinary activity, which quality was greatly wanting in that general. In 1828, he and Guerrero were announced as candidates for the presidency, and after a terrible political tempest, Gomez Pedraza was elected. The fermentation that succeeded, the fury of the two parties, the Guerreristas and Pedrazistas, which were mingled with Yaturbidistas, was increased by the arrival of Santa Ana at Perote with 800 men, who, having shut himself up in the fortress, declared for Guerrero and published a manifesto which set forth that general as a hero, and his rival as a hypocrite. Then came the famous revolution of the Accordada, and both Pedraza and Guerrero disappeared. Pedraza left the republic, and after another revolution, hearing that the constitution and laws were re-established, returned to Vera Cruz, but was met by an order which prohibited him from disembarking. He then set sail for the New Orleans. Another change brought him back, and at this present juncture he lives in tranquility, together with his lady, a person of extraordinary talent and learning, daughter of the Licenciado, to his consort, Senor Ascarrate. Such are the disturbed lives passed by the children of the soil. Of Guterres Estrada, now far from his household gods and languishing under unjust persecution, I have already spoken. Count Cortina is a gentleman and his scholar, a man of vast information, and a protector of the fine arts. His conversation is a series of electric sparks, brilliant as an igneous fatus, and bewildering as a willow the wisp. I have seldom heard such eloquence even in trifles, and he writes with as much ease as he speaks. We have seen three clever pieces of his lately showing his versatile genius, one upon earthquakes, one upon the devil, and one upon the holy fathers of the church. The first in the form of a pamphlet addressed to a lady giving a scientific explanation of the causes of this phenomena interspersed with compliments to her boyuchs. The second is a burlesque poem, and the third a grave and learned desertation. Don José Eduardo Gorostiza, though a native of Veracruz, is the son of a Spanish officer, and when very young went to Spain where he was known politically as a liberal. He was distinguished as a writer of theatrical pieces, which have been, and still are, very popular, and those which he merely translated, he had the merit of adapting to the Spanish stage, and castilianizing in grace and wit. One of his pieces which we saw the other evening at the theater, Contigo Pani Sebolla, with the bread and onions, is delightful. Besides occupying a place in the cabinet of Mexico, he has been charged the affairs in Holland and minister at the court of St. James. In conversation he is extremely witty and agreeable, and he has collected some good paintings and valuable books in the course of his European travels. The reputation of Don Carlos Bustamante, Deputy of Oaxaca, is altogether literary. He has made many researches in Mexican antiquities and has published a history of the discovery of America, written by Padre Vega, which was unknown before. Also the gallery of Mexican princes, Tescoco in the last days of its last kings, etc. He lately sent me his mornings in the Alameda, a book intended to teach Mexican young ladies the history of their own country. I have read but a few pages in it, but was struck with the liberality of his remarks in regard to the Spaniards, which, coming from such a source, are so much more valuable and worthy of credit than any that can be made by a foreigner, that I am tempted to translate the passage to which I allude. The Spanish government founded colleges and academies in the reign of the wise Charles III. It established that of fine arts which it enriched with the most beautiful statues which you can still see when you visit it. Their transportation, he says in a note, cost $70,000. He sent excellent workmen and imitated his predecessor Philip II, who sent to Mexico whatever could not find a place in the works of the Escuriel. Of his wisdom we have proofs in those magnificent temples which attract the attention of travelers, such as the Cathedral of México, San Augustín, Santo Domingo of Oaxaca and others. Spain did no more because she could do no more, and Spain gave to this America a constitution which the Mexicans themselves who pride themselves most on their learning are unacquainted with, and whose analysis was formed by the learned Padre Mir in the history of the revolution which he printed in London. A constitution in which our maid manifest the good intentions of the Austrian monarchs, and their earnest desire to render the Indians happy, especially in the case of the great Philip IV, whose autographed law is preserved in which I have read with respect and emotion prohibiting the bad treatment of the Indians. In short, this America, if it were considered in a state of slavery under the Spanish dominion, was at least on a level with the peninsula itself. Read over the frightful list of taxes which oppressed the Spaniards, and compare it with those that opposed upon us, and you will find that theirs is infinitely greater than ours. These truths being granted remark the progress which the colonies had made in sciences and arts, and this truth which escaped from the light pen of the censor, Perestín, will be confirmed. Mexico, he says, was a sunflower of Spain. When in her principal universities there were no learned men to fill in mathematical chairs, Mexico could boast of Don Carlos de Siguenza y Congora, when in Madrid there was no one who had written a good epic poem, in Mexico the Bernardo was composed, etc., etc. The next on my list is on Andrés Quintana Roo, the best modern poet of Mexico, a native of Yucatán, and who came to the capital when very young to study law. He is said to possess immense learning and was enthusiastic to fanaticism in the cause of independence, in so much that he and his wife Dona Leona Vicario, who shared in his ardent love of liberty, braved every danger in its cause, suffered imprisonment, escaped from the inquisition, from the hands of robbers, endured every privation so that their history would form a romance. He is now devoted to literature, and though he occasionally launches forth some political pamphlet he is probably weaned of revolutions, and possesses all the calmness of a man whose first years have been spent in excitement and troubles, and who at length finds consolation in study alone, the well of science proving to him the waters of laith, in which he drinks the oblivion of all his past sorrows. And it is very much the case in Mexico at present that the most distinguished men are those who live most retired, those who have played their part on the arena of public life, have seen the intuitility of their efforts in favor of their country, and have now retreated into the bosom of their families where they endeavor to forget public evils in domestic retirement and literary occupation. Amongst these may be reckoned Don Lucas Alamán, who passed many years in Europe, and in 1820 was deputy to the Spanish Cortes. Shortly after his return he became Minister of Foreign Relations, which high office he has filled during various seasons of difficulty. He is a man of learning and has always been a protector of art and science. In conversation he is more reserved, less brilliant, and more minute than Count Cortina, always expressing his opinion with caution, but very ready and able to give information on anything in this country, unconnected with politics. General Morán, now in firm, and long since retired from public service, is universally respected, both as a military man and a gentleman. He is married to a daughter of the late Marquis de Vivanco, general of division, who long held out against the independence and when the colonial system was dissolved would never go further than to desire a prince of royal birth in Mexico. General Morán has been exiled several times and his health has not held out against bodily and mental suffering, but he is ending his days in a tranquil retirement in the midst of his family. Of general Almonten of Señor Canedo, who are figuring in public life in our own day, I have frequently written. Señor Neri del Barrio and the Count de Casa Flores, married to sisters, ladies of high birth, the eldest to count us in her own right, are, as well as their families, all that is most distinguished in Mexico. Señor Faguaga, who is now in bad health, I know only by reputation. He is brother of the Marquilla Vapartado and of the celebrated Don José María Faguaga, with whose family we have the pleasure of being very intimate. C. N. says that he is a man of great taste and a thorough gentleman, and that his house, which is one of the handsomest in Mexico, possesses that ornament so rare in this country. Well-chosen paintings. Don José Valentín, who has figured in the political world and who was curate of Juan Wadla, is one of the kindest and best old men I have ever met with. So severe to himself, so indulgent to others, so simple in worldly matters, so learned in everything else, so sincere, good and charitable. He is a universal favorite with young and old being cheerful, fond of music and of gay conversation, in proportion as he is wise and learned in his observations, and serious in his conversation when the occasion requires it. Doctor Valentín as a neclogistic and padre-leon as a monk are models. As for Don Francisco Tagle, he is a gentleman of the old school and his name figures in all the political events which have taken place since the independence of which he was one of the singers. He is very rich, possessing besides a profitable mage estate near Mexico, enormous property-bounding Texas, and being also the keeper of the Montepio, formerly the house of Cortez, a palace in which he and his family live. He is a man of great learning and information and too distinguished not to have suffered personally in political convulsions. Whether he would choose the same path with his present experience of a Mexican Republic, he is too wise to mention. He and his family are amongst our most intimate friends and with a few exceptions all those whom I have mentioned have been here since our return, which is one of the reasons why their names occur at first to my memory, but there are still many distinguished persons remaining. Nearly all these, at least all who are married, have had the good fortune to unite themselves with women who are either their equals or superiors, if not in education, in goodness, elevation of sentiment, and natural talent. They, as well as every Mexican, whether man or woman, not under forty, have lived under the Spanish government, have seen the revolution of Dolores of eight and ten, with continuations and variations of Morelos, and paralyzation in eighteen nineteen, the revolution of Yaturbire in eighteen twenty-one. The cry of liberty, grito de libertad, given by those generals, Benimeritos de la patria, Santa Ana and Victoria in eighteen twenty-two, the establishment of the federal system in eighteen twenty-four, the horrible revolution of the Accordada, in which Mexico was pillaged in eighteen twenty-eight, the adoption of the central system in eighteen thirty-six and the last revolution of the federalists in eighteen forty. Another is predicted for next month, as if it were an eclipse of the sun. In nineteen years, three forms of government have been tried and two constitutions, the reform of one of which is still pending in the chambers. There is nothing like trying, as the old Peruquer observed when he set out in a little boat to catch the royal yacht, still inside of Scottish shores, with a new wig of his own invention, which he had trusted to have been permitted to present to his most gracious majesty, George IV. End of letter the thirty-seventh. Letter the thirty-eighth of Life in Mexico. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Life in Mexico by Francis Calderon de la Barca. Letter the thirty-eighth. New Minister San Angel Profitable Pulcae State The Village Surrounding Scenery The Indians The Padre The Climate Holy Week in the Country Dramatic Representations Cocoa Huacan The Pharisees Image of the Saviour Music and Dresses Procession Catholicism amongst the Indians Strange Tradition Paul V A New England Village Love of Fireworks Ferdinand VII Military Ball Drape Pro San Angel March 30 It is a long while since our last road, but this week has been employed in moving into the country and making arrangements for the sale of our furniture, in consequence of our having received official news from Spain of the nomination of a new envoy and minister, Panipotentiary to the Republic of Mexico. As on account of the yellow fever at Veracruz, we shall not wish to pass through that city later than May. It is necessary to be in readiness to start when the new minister arrives. On Thursday last we came out to this place within three leagues of Mexico, where Don Francisco Tagli has kindly lent us his unoccupied country-house. As we had an infinity of arrangements to make, much to bring out and much to leave, and on Mexico to see, you will excuse this long silence. Our house in town will live to the guardianship of the housekeeper. The other servants follow us here. This house is very large and has a fine garden and orchard full of fruit, with pretty walks all through it and a sort of underwood of roses and sweet peas. It is a great pulque hacienda and, besides what is sent into Mexico for sale, the court is constantly filled with a half-naked Indians who come to have their haros filled with that inspiring beverage. Then there is Donia Barbara, the guardian of the pulque, a Spanish administrator, a number of good-looking Indian women and babies, a discretion. There is a small chapel, a piazza with handsome pillars going all around the interior courtyard of the house, a billiard table and plenty of good rooms. In front of the house are the magae fields, and the azotea commands a beautiful view of the neighboring villages, San Angel, Cuyahuacan, Miscuaque, etc., with their woods and gardens as well as of the city itself with its lakes and volcanoes. As sea ends of fairs take him to Mexico nearly every day we feel a little lonely in this large house even though perfectly comfortable. And besides the extreme stillness and solitude it is not considered safe for us to walk out alone. Consequently the orchard must bound our wishes. And of course being prohibited from going further we have the greatest desire to do so. In the evening however when our caballeros return we frequently walk down to the village where the English minister has also a house. San Angel is pretty in its own way with its fields of magae, its scattered houses that look like the bodaste of better days, its marketplace, parish church, church of El Carmen, with the monastery and high walled gardens adjoining with its narrow lanes, Indian huts, profusion of pink roses, little bridged avenue and scattered clusters of trees, its houses for temperamento, constitution as they call those where mehican families come to reside in summer with their graded windows and gardens and orchards, and then the distant view of Mexico with the cathedral towers, volcanoes and lofty mountains, scattered churches and long lines of trees. And nearer the pretty villages of Coco Joaquin and Miskwake and everywhere the old church the broken arch, the ancient cross with its faded flower garlands to commemorate a murder or erected as an act of piety all is so characteristic of Mexico that the landscape could belong to no other part of the known world. There is the Indian with his blanket extricating the pulque from the magae the ranchero with her riboso and broad-rimmed hat passing by upon her ass the old lepero in rags sitting basking in the sun upon the stone seat in front of the door the poor Indian woman with matted hair and brown baby hanging behind her refreshing herself by drinking three elacos, half-pence worth of pulque from a haritto little earthen jar the portly and well-looking padre, prior del Carmen the carmelade friar sauntering up the lane at a leisurely pace all the little ragged boys down to the nearest urchin that can hardly lisp dragging off their large well-hold hats with a Buenos dias, padrecito good morning, little father the father replying with a benevolent smile and a slight sound in his throat intended for a benedictity and all that might be dull in any other climate brightened and made light and gay by the purest atmosphere the lowest sky and softest air that ever blew are shown upon a naughty world we are now approaching the holy week once more in Mexico a scene of variety in the streets and of splendor in the churches but in the country of play a sort of melodrama in which the sufferings, death and burial of our savior are represented by living figures in pantomime we have heard a great deal of these representations and are glad to have the opportunity of seeing them in the village of Coyo Joaquin where they are particularly curious besides this our friends the A.S. have a house there for the season and as the city of Cortez's predilection it is classic ground meanwhile for the last few days the country has been overrun with Pharisees Nazarenes, Jews and figures of the savior carried about in procession all this in preparation for the holy week a sort of overture to the drama the first evening we arrived here there was a representation of the Pharisees searching for Christ the Pharisees were very finely dressed either in scarlet stuff in gold or in green and silver with helmets and feathers mounted upon horses which are taught to dance and reared to the sound of music so that upon the whole they looked like performers they came on with the music riding up the lanes until they arrived in front of this house the most sensible place here abouts they came to first and where the Indian workmen and servants were all collected to see them they rode about for some time as if in search of Christ until a full length figure of the savior appeared dressed in purple robes carried on a platform by four men and guarded on all sides by soldiers it is singular that after all there is nothing ridiculous in these exhibitions on the contrary something rather terrible the music is good which would hardly be the case in any but a mehican village the dresses are really rich the gold all real and the whole has the effect of confusing the imagination into the belief of its being a true scene the next evening the same procession passed with some additions always accompanied by a crowd of Indians from the villages men, women and children bonfires were made before the door of the Hacienda which were lighted whenever the distant music was heard approaching and all the figures in the procession carried lighted lamps the savior was then led up to the door and all the crowd went up to kiss his feet the figure which is carried about this evening is called our savior of the column and represents a savior tied to a pillar bleeding and crowned with thorns all this must sound very profane but the people are so quiet seem so devout and so much in earnest that it appears much less so than you would believe the cross was planted here in a congenial soil and as in the pagan east the statues of the divinities frequently did no more than change their names from those of heathen gods to those of Christian saints and image worship apparently continued though the mind of the Christian was directed from the being represented to the true and only god who inhabits eternity so here the poor Indian still bows before visible representations of saints and virgins as he did in former days with the monster shapes representing the unseen powers of the air the earth and the water but he it is to be feared lifts his thoughts no higher than the rude image which a rude hand has carved the mysteries of Christianity to affect his untutored mind must be visibly represented to his eyes he kneels before the bleeding image of the savior who died for him before the gracious form of the virgin who intercedes for him but he believes that there are many virgins passing various degrees of miraculous power and different degrees of wealth according to the quality and number of the diamonds and pearls with which they are endowed one even who is the rival of the other one who will bring rain when there is a drought and one to whom it is well to pray in seasons of inundation Mexico owes much of its peculiar beauty to the religious or superstitious feelings of its inhabitants at every step we see a white cross hanging amongst the trees in a solitary path or on the top of some rugged and barren rock a symbol of faith in the desert place and wherever the footsteps of men have rested and some three or four have gathered together there while the ruined huts proclaim the poverty of the inmates the temple of God rises in comparative splendor it is strange yet well authenticated and has given rise to many theories that the symbol of the cross was already known to the Indians before the arrival of Cortez in the island of Cozumel near Yucatan there were several and in Yucatan itself there was a stone cross and there an Indian considered a prophet among his countrymen had declared that a nation bearing the same as a symbol should arrive from a distant country more extraordinary still was a temple dedicated to the Holy Cross by the Toltec Nation in the city of Cholula near to Lansingal also there is a cross engraved on a rock with various characters which the Indians by tradition attribute to the apostle Saint Thomas in Oaxaca also there existed a cross which the Indians from time immemorial had been accustomed to consider as a divine symbol by order of the bishop Cervantes it was placed in a sumptuous chapel in the cathedral information concerning its discovery together with a small cross cut out of its wood was sent to Rome to Paul V on his knees singing the hymn the hyeregis prodoent etc if anyone wishes to try the effect of strong contrast let him come direct from the United States to this country but it is in the villages especially that the contrast is more striking traveling in New England for example we arrive at a small and flourishing village we see four new churches proclaiming four different sects religion suited to all customers these wooden churches are meeting houses are all new all painted white or perhaps a bright red hard buys a tavern with a green paling as clean and as new as the churches and there are also various smart stores and neat dwelling houses all new, all wooden, all clean and all ornamented with the slide creation pillars the whole has a cheerful trim and flourishing aspect houses, churches, stores and taverns all are of a piece and are suited to the present emergency whatever that may be though they will never make fine ruins everything proclaims prosperity equality, consistency the past forgotten, the present all in all in the future taking care of itself no delicate attentions to posterity who can never pay its debts no beggars if a man has even a hole in his coat he must be lately from the emerald isle transport yourself from this new england village to that of blank it matters not which not far from mexico look on this picture and on that the indian huts with their half naked inmates and little gardens full of flowers the huts themselves either built of clay or the half ruined borastes of some stone building at a little distance in hacienda like a deserted palace built of solid masonry with its inner patio surrounded by thick stone pillars with great walls and iron barred windows that might stand a siege here a ruined arch and cross so solidly built that one cannot but wonder how the stones ever crumbled away there rising in the midst of old faithful looking trees the church gray and ancient but strong as if designed for eternity with its saints and versions and martyrs and relics its golden silver and precious stones whose value would buy up all the lots in the new england village the lepero with scarce a rag to cover him kneeling on that marvel pavement leave the enclosure of the church observe the stone wall that bounds the road for more than a mile the fruit trees overtopping it high though it be with their loaded branches this is the convent orchard and that great gothic pile of building that stands in horary majesty surmounted by the lofty mountains whose cloud enveloped the summits tinged by the evening sun rise behind it what could so noble a building be but the monastery perhaps of the caramelites because of its exceeding rich garden and well chosen site for they of all monks are richest in this world's goods also we may see the reverend old prior riding slowly from under the arched gate up the village lanes the Indians coming from their huts to do him lowly references he passes here everything reminds us of the past of the conquering spaniards who seemed to build for eternity impressing each work with their own solid grave and religious character of the triumphs of Catholicism and of the Indians when Cortes first startled them from their repose and stood before them like the fulfillment of a half forgotten prophecy it is the present that seems like a dream a pale reflection of the past all is decaying and growing fainter and men seem trusting to some unknown future which they may never see one government has been abandoned and there is none in its place one revolution follows another yet the remedy is not found let them beware last half a century later they be awakened from their delusion and find the cathedral turned into a meeting house and all painted white the railing melted down the silver transformed into dollars the virgin's jewel sold to the highest bidder the floor washed which would do it no harm and round the whole a nice new wooden pailing freshly done in green and all this performed by some of the artists from the wide awake republic farther north just as I wrote these words a shower of cracker startled me from the profane ideas in which I was indulging and the prancing of the horses of Jews and Pharisees in the crackling of bonfires warned me that it is time to take an evening stroll that the sun down and the air refreshing however as to crackers and rockets the common people enjoy them by day as much as by night it is their favorite method of commemorating any event evil or religious what do you suppose the Mexicans will be doing now said King Ferdinand a Mexican who was the Spanish court shortly after the final success of the revolutionists letting off rockets your majesty answered the Mexican well I wonder what they are doing now in Mexico said the king in the afternoon Terando Cojete's letting off rockets your majesty his majesty chose to repeat the question in the evening what will your countrymen be doing now the same thing your majesty still letting off rockets yesterday we drove into Mexico to see how matters stood in our house and received a number of visitors in our deserted apartments just before we left Mexico for this place three very magnificent AIDS decamp brought us an invitation from general Valencia to attend a ball to be given by him and other officers in the theater to the president on the occasion of his excellencies being declared Benemerito de la patria we did not go as we were setting off for the country but CN being requested as were the other ministers to send the colors of his nation did so and today there is much talk in Mexico besides a paragraph in the newspapers connected with these matters it appears that the drapeau whether by accident or design were improperly placed and these faults in etiquette are not uncommon here the English minister having observed that his drapeau was placed in a subordinate rank and finding that his warnings beforehand on the subject and his representations on seeing it were neglected cut it down and left the ballroom followed by all the English who were there End of letter the 38th letter the 39th of life in Mexico this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Life in Mexico by Francis Calderón de la Barca letter the 39th Holy Thursday at Coyo Joaquin Hernán Cortés his last wishes Padres Camilos Old Church Procession Representation of the taking of Christ Curit Sermon under the trees A religious drama Good Friday Portable Pulpit Heath Booths Religious Procession Simon the Cyrenian Costumes Curit Sermon Second Discourse Funeral Hymn The Pesame to the Virgin Sermon Sweet Kitty Clover Music in Mexico Anecdote On Holy Thursday we went early in the morning to Coyo Joaquin which is almost a continuation of the village of San Angel but there are more trees in it and every house has its garden or at least its inner court filled with orange trees Here after the total destruction of the ancient Tinokitlin Cortés took up his residence for several months Here he founded a convent of nuns and in his testament he desired to be buried in this convent in whatever part of the world I may finish my days The conquerors last wishes in this respect were not held sacred At the time of the conquest Coyo Joaquin together with Takubaya etc stood upon the margin of the lake of Tescuco Most of the houses built within the water upon stakes so that the canoes entered by a low door This was undoubtedly the favorite retreat of Cortés and it is now one of the prettiest villages near Mexico Its church is wonderfully handsome one of the finest village churches we have yet seen One of the prettiest places in the village to an order of monks called the Padres Camilos It consists of a house and garden where the monks go by turns to enjoy the country air Comfortable Padres There is one room looking into the garden and opening into a walk bordered by rose bushes which is such a place for a siesta cool, retired, fragrant A hammock with a mattress on it is slung across the room and here the good Padre with one eye open to the roses and the other closed in inward meditation However its whole merit consists in being cleanly and neatly kept for it is a large empty house and the garden so called is little more than a pasture field with nice gravel walks cut through it bordered with fine rose bushes and beautified by a clear fountain We went to the A's house which is half way between San Angel and Coyo Joaquin the Señor A driving me herself in an open caratea with white frisones Northern horses which compared with the spirited little Mexican steeds look gigantic We went first to see the church which was brilliantly illuminated and ornamented with loads of flowers and fruit especially oranges and thronged with ragged leperos and blanketed Indians We then set off to endeavor if possible to find a place in the crowd who had hurried off to see El Prendimiento the taking of Christ and to hear the curate preach an appropriate sermon in a portable pulpit amongst the trees We made our way through the patient bronzed and blanketed crowd not without sundry misgivings as to the effects of evil communication and at length reached the procession all ranged on the grass under the trees in a pretty and secluded little grove in two long rows fronting each other each person carrying a lamp surmounted by a plume of colored feathers very ingeniously made of colored spun glass They were all dressed in the costume of Pharisees Jews, Romans, etc. The image of the Savior was shortly after carried through on a platform to the sound of music followed by the eleven disciples and was placed in a kind of bower amongst the trees supposed to give a representation of the garden of Gethsemane A portable pulpit covered with shining stuff was carried in and placed beneath a tree just outside of this enclosure and soon after the curate arrived and mounted into his place A number of little ragged boys who had climbed up on the very top most branches of the trees to have a good view were piked down with lances by the Jews notwithstanding their seemingly just remonstrances that they were doing no harm but when the Jews observed in answer to their What are we doing? The Señor Cura will be angry they tumbled down one on the top of the other like ripe apples and then stood watching for the first convenient opportunity of slipping up again The curate began his sermon by an account of the sufferings and persecution of Christ of the causes and effects of his death, of the sinfulness of the Jews, etc. He talked for about half an hour and his sermon was simple enough and adapted to his audience He described the agony of Christ when in the garden to which he often resorted with his disciples and the treachery of Judas who knew the place and who having received a band of men and brave priests and Pharisees come at thither with lanterns and torches and weapons As he went on describing the circumstances minutely one who represented the spy with a horrible mask like a pig's face was seen looking through the trees where the Savior was concealed and shortly after, Judas his face covered with a black crepe and followed by a band of soldiers glided through stealthily said the curate, observe what the traitor does he hath given them a sign saying, whomsoever I shall kiss that same as he, hold him fast He goes, he approaches a sacred person of the Lord here Judas went forward and embraced the Savior it is done, cried the preacher the horrible act of treachery is completed and forthwith he came to Jesus and said, hail master the things that should come upon him went forth and said unto them Whom seek ye? they answered him Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus saith unto them I am he As the curate said these words they all fell prostrate on the ground Mark, cried he the power of the word they came out to take him with swords and with staves but at the sound of the divine word they acknowledged the power of God and fall at his feet but it is only for a moment behold, now they bind him they buffet him, they smite him with the palms of their hands they lead him away to the high priest all this was enacted in succession though sometimes the curate was obliged to repeat the same things several times before they recollected what to do and already in anticipation of the iniquitous sentence behold what is written this alluded to a paper fastened upon a pole which a man held above the heads of the crowd and on which was written Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews condemned to death by Pontius Pilate president of Upper Galilee and now escorted by Judas in the multitude the savior was born through the crowd in the conclusion of the prendimento the curate wound up his discourse by an exhortation to abstain from sin which had been the cause of this awful event I regret to state that at this very moment a man poked his hand into Ace Pocket who turned very sharply round and asked him what he wanted nada, senorito nothing, sir, said he with an innocent smile showing two rows of teeth like an ivory railing but at the same time disappearing pretty swiftly amongst the crowd who now all began to move and to follow the procession the band is striking up a galope in the evening we returned to San Angel and visited the lighted churches there we entered the Parochia parish church the lights were nearly all extinguished and a few alone of the devout were still kneeling before a figure of our savior in chains on good Friday we set off early for Koyo Hwakan the rather afraid of the sun which at present in the middle of the day is insupportable and even by ten o'clock disagreeable the whole enclosure around the church and to a great distance beyond it we entered with people and there were even a few carriages full of well-dressed persons who had come from the different neighboring haciendas amongst others the family of the Marquesa de Vivanco the padre Yaturalde who has some reputation for eloquence was expected to preach three sermons at Koyo Hwakan that day besides one in the village of Misquake we found that one sermon was just concluded by the time we arrived we were carrying down these beams like mold and lead our carriage was open and under every tree was a crowd so there were small hopes of finding shade women were selling fruit and booths with Isis and Chia were erected all down the lane leading from the church at last however a little room was made and seats were placed for us close to the pulpit and under a tree the image of the savior was now carried forwards on a platform to weigh him down and on the same platform was Simon the Cyrenian assisting him to bear the weight the Cyrenian was represented by an old man with hair white as snow dressed in scarlet cloth who in a stooping posture and without once moving his body was carried about for hours in the whole force of the sun the rays pouring down upon his uncovered head for a long while we had believed him to be a wooden figure dressed up he came near he greatly excited our surprise and compassion if he survives this day's work it will be a miracle I can now almost give faith to Blank's assertion that in some of the villages the man who represents Judas actually hangs himself or is hanged upon a tree the savior was dressed in crimson velvet with a crown of thorns and a figure of the virgin in deep mourning was carried after him by Indian women the procession consisted of the same men on horseback as we had seen on foot to the preceding day of the spy, the Pharisees the Jews, the portrayer and the mob some had helmets and feathers and armor some wore wreaths of green and gold leaves one very good-looking man with long curls and a gold crown and a splendid mantle of scarlet and gold was intended for a Roman by his crown he probably meant to personify the Roman Caesar the sermon or rather the discourse of the Padre was very good and appeared to be extemporary he made an address to the virgin who was carried by and led up to the pulpit and another to the savior during which time the audience was breathlessly attentive notwithstanding the crying of children in the barking of dogs it was supposed that they were now leading Christ before the judgment seat of Pilate and the next scene was to be the delivery of the sentence when the curate's discourse was finished the procession went on the Indian women began to sell their nuts and oranges and the band struck up an air in the distance to which when last I heard it to crow's horses were dancing we in a fiery sun which made its way through our mantillas now proceeded to search for a convenient place from which to hear the Padre's next sermon and to see the next scene in the sacred drama the Padre who was walking under the shade of a lilac silk parasol insisted upon resigning it to me the senora blank did not seem to feel the heat at all at last in order to avoid the crowd we got up on the low azotea of a house beside which the pulpit was placed but here the sun was overwhelming the Padre's sermon was really eloquent in some passages but lasted nearly an hour during which time we admired the fortitude of the unhappy sirenian who was performing a sentence of no ordinary kind the sun darted down perpendicularly on the back of his exposed head which he kept bent downwards maintaining the same posture the whole time without flinching or moving before the sermon was over we could stand the heat no longer and went in under cover I felt as if my brains were melted into a hot jelly we emerged upon hearing that the procession was again moving towards the pulpit where it shortly after formed itself into two lines in a few moments a man with a plumed helmet mounted on a fiery horse galloped furiously through the ranks holding a paper on the point of his lens the sentence pronounced by Pontius Pilate arrived at the pulpit he handed it up to the priest who received it with a look of horror opened it tried to read it and threw it on the ground with an air of indignation the messenger galloped back more furiously and he came and his horse bolting at the end of the lines occasioned a laugh amongst the spectators then followed the parting address to the saviour whose bearer now brought him up to the pulpit followed by the mournful figure of the virgin reflections on the event concluded this act we returned in the afternoon to see the descent from the cross which was to be performed within the church the church was crowded and a black curtain hung before the altar and now recapitulated all that had taken place and describe the saviour's parting with his mother at the foot of the cross addressing the virgin who stood in her sable robes not far from the altar and interrupting his sermon to pray for her intercession with her divine son I observed all the women in tears as he described the virgin's grief the torments of the crucifixion the indignities that the saviour had suffered all at once he exclaimed in a loud voice draw back the veil and let us behold him the curtain was drawn and the saviour crucified appeared then the sobs of the women broke forth they clasped their hands beat their breasts and groaned while the soldiers who stood below the cross clashed their swords and one of them struck the body with a lance at the same time the virgin bowed her head as if in grief unfortunately I was near enough to see how this was affected which peep behind the scenes greatly finished the effect then the soldiers mounted a ladder near the crucifix and took down the body to bear it away as it came by the pulpit the priest seized the hands and showed the marks of the nails at the same time breaking out into exclamations of grief the soldiers stood below impatiently clashing their swords the women sobbed violently the procession passed on and we returned to the ace house in the evening the procession of the angels took place figures dressed in silk and gold with silver wings were carried by on platforms with the sound of music the body of the saviour lay in a sort of glass hearse carried by men chanting a dirge and followed by the virgin this procession was really pretty but had an odd unnatural effect amongst the fresh green trees the smell of incense mingling with the fragrance of the flowers and the gaudy silk and gold and plumes of others gilded by the soft setting sun as they flashed along I climbed up an old stone cross near the church and had a good view everything looked gaudy when near but as the procession wound along under their broken arches and through the green lanes and the music came fainter upon the ear and the beating of drums and the tolling of bells and the mournful chant were all blends into one faint and distant harmony the effect was beautiful I thought of the simple service of the Scottish Kirk and of the country people coming out after the sermon with their best Sunday gowns on and their serious intelligent faces discussing the merits of their ministers discourse and wandered at the contrasts in the same religion as the evening was cool and pleasant we walked through the fields to the church of La Concepcion where the procession was to pass and sat down on the grass till we were coming as the body was carried by all went on their knees at night commenced the Pesame or condolence to the virgin in the church she stood on her shrine with her head bowed down and the hymns and prayers were all addressed to her while a sermon preached by another cuta was also in her honor I plead guilty to having been too sleepy to take in more than the general tenure of the discourse the musicians seemed to be playing sweet kitty clover with variations if sweet kitty clover is genuine Irish as who can doubt how did these Indians get hold of it did Saint Patrick go round from the Emerald Isle by way of Tipperary but if he had would he not have killed the Alakrans and Chicaclinos and Coralillos and Vinagrios this requires consideration in the Ora Pro-Nobes we were struck with the fineness of the rustic voices the music in this country is a sixth sense it was but a few days before leaving Mexico that sitting alone at the open window enjoying the short twilight I heard a sound of distant music many voices singing in parts and coming gradually nearer it sounded beautiful and exactly in unison with the hour and the scene at first I concluded it to be a religious procession but it was not a hymn the air was gayer when the voices came under the window I went out on the balcony to see to whom they belonged it was the four cats returning from their work to the Angkor Dada guarded by soldiers their chains clanking in measure to the melody and accompanied by some miserable looking women we left the church feeling very tired and sleepy and walked towards the booths where in the midst of flowers and evergreens they were still selling ices and lemonade and chia we sat down to rest cleanest of these leafy powers and then returned to Coyo Joaquin there was no drunkenness or quarrelling or confusion of any sort an occasional hymn rising in the silence of the air or the distant flashing of a hundred lights alone gave notice that the funeral procession of the saviour had not yet halted for the night but there was no noise not even mirth everything was conducted with a sobriety befitting the event that was celebrated that some of the curate's horses were stolen that night is only a proof that bad men were out and took the opportunity of his absence from home to plunder his stables we were told an anecdote concerning Simon the Cyrenian which is not bad a man was taken up in one of the villages as a vagrant and desired by the justice to give an account of himself to explain why he was always wondering about and had no employment the man with the greatest indignation replied no employment I am substitute Cyrenian at Coyo Joaquin in the holy week that is to say he was to be substituted in the Cyrenian's place should anything occur to prevent that individual from representing the character end of letter the 39th letter the 40th of life in Mexico this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org life in Mexico by Francis Calderon de la Barca letter the 40th balloon San Bartolo Indian women a beauty different casts Indians their character etc those of noble race ball of the French ministers shooting party a murder robbery of a farmhouse discomforted Robert Captain the Zambos letters and visitors country life in Mexico 23rd April we went to Mexico yesterday to see a balloon ascent from the Plaza de Toros with an air knot and his daughter French people I believe the scene was really beautiful the Plaza was filled with well dressed people and all the boxes crowded with ladies in full toilet the president was there with his staff and there were two bands of music the day was perfectly brilliant and the streets crowded with handsome carriages many of them open the balloon swayed itself up and down in the midst of the Plaza like a living thing everything seemed ready for the ascent when it was announced that there was a hole in the balloon and that consequently there could be no ascent that day the people bore their disappointment very good humoredly although it was conjectured that the air traveler had merely proposed to himself to get their money without the slightest intention of performing his voyage one amusing circumstance was that some penny-aligned rhymer had written an account of it in verse before hand giving a most grand eloquent account of the ascent of the balloon and when we came out the Plaza was full of men selling these verses which the people were all buying and reading with roars of laughter the first of May being San Felipe there will be a ball at the French ministers to which we shall probably go 25th we have just returned from a ride to San Bartolo an Indian village four leagues from this one large party someone horses someone asses others on mules and one adventurous Jehu driving himself in a four-wheeled carriage with a pair of horses over a road formed of ruts stones, holes and rocks where I will venture to say no carriage ever made its appearance before even the horses and asses got along with difficulty in spite of large straw hats and green veils that burnt the color of red Indians in the middle of the day we find the sun intolerable at present and owing to the badness of the roads we did not reach our destination until twelve or one o'clock San Bartolo is a small scattered Indian village with a church and is remarkable for a beautiful spring of water that jets cold and clear from the hard rock as if Moses had but just smote it for its superb tall pine trees for the good looks and cleanness of the Indian women who are forever washing their long hair in the innumerable clear streamlets formed by the spring and for a view of Mexico which is particularly favorable owing to the thick dark screen of pine wood in the foreground and the distinct view of the Laguna our dinner was carried by Indians who had trotted off with it at Daedon but who had taken the wrong road and did not arrive till long after us we dined under the pine trees by the side of the stream but surrounded by crowds of gaping Indians in too close vicinity to be agreeable some of the young women were remarkably handsome with the most beautiful teeth imaginable laughing and talking in their native tongue at a great rate as they were washing in the brooks some their hair and others their clothes the men looked as dirty as Indians generally do and by no means on a level with these handsome damsels who are so much superior to the common race of Indians near Mexico that one would think they had some intermixture of Spanish blood in their veins a sister of the woman who takes charge of the hacienda where we live is one of the most beautiful creatures I ever beheld large eyes with long dark lashes black hair nearly touching the ground teeth like snow a dark but glowing complexion a superb figure with fine arms and hands and small beautifully formed feet all that is best of Indian and Spanish of dark and bright seems united in her CN says he has seen peasant women in Andalusia in the same style of beauty and quite as handsome she is only nineteen such beauties as these startle one now and then in some remote village she belongs no doubt to the mestizos the descendants of whites and Indians the handsomest race in Mexico you ask if the case in Mexico are distinct there are seven supposed to be so first the gachupinos or Spaniards born in Europe second the crioles that is whites of European family born in America third the mestizos the mulatos descendants of whites and negroes of whom there are few fifth the zambos descendants of negroes and Indians the ugliest race in Mexico sixth the Indians and seventh the remains of the African negroes of pure Indians Humboldt in his day calculated that there existed two millions and a half in new Spain without counting mestizos and they are probably very little altered from the inferior Indians as Cortes found them the principal families perished at the time of the conquest the priests, soul depositories of knowledge were put to death the manuscripts and hieroglyphical paintings were burnt and the remaining Indians fell into that state of ignorance and degradation from which they have never emerged the rich Indian women preferred marrying their Spanish conquerors to allying themselves with the degraded remnant of their countrymen poor artisans, workmen porters, etc. of whom Cortes speaks as filling the streets of the great cities and as being considered little better than beasts of burden nearly naked in tierra caliente dressed pretty much as they now are in the temperate parts of the country and everywhere with nearly the same manners and habits and customs as they now have but especially in the more distant villages where they have little intercourse with the other classes even in their religion Christianity as I observed before seems to be formed with the ruins of their mythology and all these festivities of the church, these fireworks and images and gay dresses harmonize completely with their childish love of show and are in fact their greatest source of delight to buy these they save up all their money and when you give a penny to an Indian child it trots off to buy crackers as another would to buy candy attempts have been made by their curates to persuade them to omit the celebration of certain days and to expend less in the ceremonies of others but the indignation and discontent which such proposals have caused have induced them to desist in their endeavours under an appearance of stupid apathy they veil a great depth of cunning they are grave and gentle and rather sad their appearance when not under the influence of pulque but when they return to their villages in the evening and have taken a drop of comfort their white teeth light up their bronze countenances like lamps and the girls especially make the air ring with their laughter which is very musical I think it is humbled who says that their smile is extremely gentle and the expression of their eyes very severe as they have no fear if it were not for a little moustache which they frequently wear on the upper lip there would be scarcely any difference between the faces of men and women the Indians in and near the capital are according to Humboldt either the descendants of the former labourers or our remains of noble Indian families who disdaining to intermarry with their Spanish conquerors prefer themselves to till the ground which their vassals formerly cultivated for them it is said that these Indians of noble race though to the vulgar eye undistinguishable from their fellows are held in great respect by their inferior countrymen in Cholula particularly there are still kasekes with long Indian names also in Tulascula and though barefoot and ragged they are said to possess great hidden wealth but it is neither in or near the capital that we can see the Indians in their original state it is only by travelling through the provinces that we can accomplish this and should the lateness of the season oblige us to remain here any time after another minister arrives we may probably take a longer journey in some different direction from Tierra Caliente where we may see some tribes of the indigenous Mexicans certainly no visible improvement has taken place in their condition they are quite as poor and quite as ignorant and quite as degraded as they were in 1808 and if they do raise a little grain of their own they are so hardly taxed that the privilege is as not May 2nd we returned from Mexico this morning having gone in to attend the ball given at the French ministers on the day of Louis Philippe it was very pretty and we stayed till it was very late the reception from all our friends whom we have not seen for a month that we are tempted to believe ourselves as much missed in Mexico as they say we are the Senora El and the E.S. were amongst the best dressed Mexican ladies last night the latter in white crepe and diamonds and the other in black blonde over rose color also with diamonds the Senora A. who went with us looked very pretty in a white blonde dress with a small black velvet turban rolled around with large diamonds and pearls there were a great number of small crimson velvet turbans and an amazing number of black blonde dresses there were certainly some very pretty women the core diplomatic went in uniform 7th a Bacelta a favorite Spanish actor died a few days ago and as Sien took several boxes on the night of a play given for the benefit of his widow we went in to the theater on Saturday last we are now looking out for another house in Mexico for when the rainy season begins we shall find this too far from the city for Sien who is obliged to be there constantly we ventured to take a walk alone yesterday morning through the lanes down to San Angel and Cojo Waken for which piece of imprudence and today it appears the two women had been robbed and ill treated on the road near here so we are too ready to subscribe to the renewal of our sentence of imprisonment in the house and orchard when we have no gentleman with us but it must be confessed that it takes greatly from the charms of a country life not to be able to walk out fearlessly the quietness and stillness of this place is incredible there is actually not a sound in the air not a sight but a very ragged Indian the garden is in great beauty the apricots are ripe and abundant the roses are in full blow and there is a large pomegranate tree at the gate of the orchard which is one mass of Ponsu Blossom it is much warmer in the middle of the day this summer than it was last we spent a pleasant day lately at a great hacienda a few leaks from this belonging to a Spanish millionaire on occasion of a shooting party we went there to breakfast and afterwards set off on horseback sitting sideways on men's saddles to see the sport it would have been very agreeable but for the heat the sportsmen were not very successful saw a flight of rose colored flamingos who sailed high over their heads unhurt killed some very handsome birds called trigeros with beautiful yellow plumage and some ducks the trigeros are considered a delicacy we rode with the administror all around the estate which is very productive and profitable he told us that they sell in Mexico annually $15,000 worth of corn and $10,000 worth of milk sending in this produce and canoes by the canal which passes this way we dismounted from our horses in a green meadow covered with daisies and butter cups which from association I prefer to the tuberoses and pomegranate which now adorn the gardens the senor blank gave us an excellent dinner a la espagnole after which I made an attempt to fire at some birds which shook their tails and flew away in the most contemptuous manner the new secretary of legation senor t and the new attaché senor chi have just arrived in Mexico 10th the baron and madame de blank with their secretary the count de b came out yesterday morning we went out to breakfast and spent the day with us 13th we went out with sien last evening to take a walk when a man rushed by us in a state of great agitation and on going further we met some workmen who told us that an Indian laborer had stabbed a man in the next field and that he had died before a padre could be procured we heard the cries of his wife and children and a crossing the ditch that bordered the field went to see the man he was a master workman or director and had found fault with one of the men for his idleness high words ensued and the laborer, probably the man who had passed us, drew his knife and stabbed him he was lying stone dead with his hand have cut through in his efforts to defend himself a asked an administrador who was standing near what would be done to the guilty man probably nothing, said he we have no judges to punish crime this encounter as you may believe took away from us all inclination to pursue our rambles there is a pretty farmhouse in the village in which we took shelter the other day from a shower of rain the farmers are civil and respectful a superior kind of people with good manners rather above their station the daughters are good looking and the house clean and neat the girls gave me an account of a nocturnal visit which the robbers paid them last winter she showed me the little room where she was alone and asleep when her mother and sister who slept in the chamber joining being awakened by the breaking in of their door sprang out of the window to make their escape and she was left in the house alone she jumped out of bed and bolted the door her room had no other egress and there she held a parley with these night visitors promising to unlock every drawer and closet if they would wait until she put on her clothes and would do her no personal injury the agreement was made and they kept their word they clear the house of every article it contained leaving nothing but the blanket in which the girl had wrapped herself all their clothes household utensils money everything was carried off with astonishing precision and having made her swear not to move till they had time to leave the village the other women who had given the alarm found no one inclined to move in the middle of the night against a party whose numbers their fears had probably magnified the administrator gave us an amusing account this evening of a visit which a band of no less than thirty robbers once ventured to pay the strong and well defended hacienda he was living there alone that is without the family and had just barred and bolted everything for the night but had not yet locked the outer gate looking out from his window into the courtyard by moonlight he saw a band of robbers right up to the door he instantly took his measures and seizing the great keys ran up the little stair that leads to the azotea locking the gate by which he passed and calling to the captain by name for the robbers were headed by a noted chieftain requested to know what he wanted at that hour of the night the captain politely begged him to come downstairs and he would tell him that the agent, strong in the possession of his great keys and well knowing the solidity of the iron barred windows continued his parley in a high tone the captain rode around examined everything with a practice die and found that it would require a regular siege to make good his entry he threatened and treated observed that he would be content with a small sum of money but all in vain there stood the sturdy administrator on the house top the captain on his horse below something like the fox and the crow but the agent with the keys was wiser than the crow and her cheese for no cajoling would induce him to let them out of his grasp and worse than all shooting him would have done them no good and last the captain finding himself entirely outwitted took off his hat politely wished the agent a very good night drew off his men and departed another time being alone he was attacked in broad daylight by two men who came under pretense of buying pulque but having time to get hold of a sword he overpowered one which frightened the other upon which they both began to laugh and assured him it was mere experiment to see what he would do a perfect jest which he pretended to believe but advised them not to try it again as it was too good a joke to be repeated senor blank pointed out to us the other day a well known robber captain who was riding on the high road with a friend he had the worst looking most vulgar and most villainous face I ever saw a low-lived and most unpoetic looking ruffian fat and sallow we saw a horribly ugly man today and were told he was a lobo the name given here to the Zambos who are the most frightful human beings that can be seen La Guerra Rodriguez told us that on any state of hers one woman of that race was in the habit of attending church and that she was so fearfully hideous the priest had been obliged to desire her to remain at home because she distracted the attention of the congregation we spent yesterday at the house of the blank minister at San Angel where he gave us and the blank minister and his family a beautiful breakfast how consistent everything looks in a good English house so handsome without being gaudy the plates so well cleaned June 8th we were sitting under an apple tree the other day trying to tame the fiercest little deer I ever saw who was butting and kicking with all his might when a large packet of letters was brought us the reading of which ensured us an agreeable afternoon we continued to lead a very quiet life here occasionally taking a short ride in the evening and making acquaintance with the neighboring villages the prettiest of which is Tessapan a most rural and leafy spot where there are fine fruit trees plenty of water and good looking peasant girls sometimes we go to San Antonio to see the VO family occasionally to San Augustine where they are preparing for the great FET we are in treaty for a house in Mexico having now given a bold idea of passing through Veracruz this summer we are in hopes of having that of the late Marquesa San Roman who died some time ago but the delays that take place in any transaction connected with a house in Mexico and the difficulty of obtaining a decisive answer are hard trials of patience we generally have a number of visitors from Mexico on Sunday and those who come in carriages may be considered as real friends for they decidedly risk their necks not to mention their carriage springs at a bad bit on the road which the owners who are Indians will not allow anyone to mend for them and will not mend themselves when we reach it we are obliged regularly to get out of the carriage go about a hundred yards on foot and then remain in much anxiety at the top of the hill till we see whether or not the carriage arrives unbroken which it rarely does a few dollars would make it perfectly safe our chief visitors during the week are from the late convent of San Angel the old padre guardian is about eighty each convent has a prior but the padre guardian exercises authority over all the convents of his order as well as over his own there are many excellent houses and fine gardens in San Angel and a number of families from Mexico are now there for the season Takubaya and all the environs are beginning to be occupied and Mexico looks warm and deserted but there are so few incidents in our quiet life among the mages that I shall write no more till we return from San Augustine after the fit if you wish to hear how we pass our time you must know that we generally rise about six and go out into the orchard and stroll about or sit down with a book in a pleasant arbor at the end of one of the walks which is surrounded by rose bushes and has a little stream of water running past it nor do we ever enter the orchard unarmed with a long pole for its entrance is guarded by a flock of angry geese hissing like the many-headed hydra that watched over the golden apples of the Hesperids at eight we breakfast and by nine the sun is already powerful enough to prevent us from leaving the house we therefore sit down to read or write and to occasionally take a game at billards CN generally writes to Mexico but if not goes up to the azotea with a book or writes in his study until four o'clock when we dine after dinner we walk into the village if we have any attendant asquire if not we go to the azotea and see the sunset behind the volcanoes or walk in the garden till it is dark and then sit down in the front of the house and look at the lights in Mexico then we have tea or chocolate and the candles are lighted and the last Indian workman has gone off and the house is barred in and we sit down to read or write or talk or sometimes we play billards by lamp light and then indeed the silence and the solitude make us feel as if the world were completely shut out I never experienced such perfect stillness even the barking of a dog sounds like an event therefore expect no amusing letters from this place for though we are very comfortable there are no incidents to relate the Indians come in the morning to drink pulque which by the way I now think excellent and shall find it very difficult to live without a little child from the village brings us some bouquets of flowers which the Indians have a pretty way of arranging in a pineapple or pyrimidal form the Chinese cook with these little slits of eyes passes by with meat and fruit which he has been buying at the market of Sunning Hill the prior saunters in to see how we are a chance visitor comes on horseback from Mexico with a long sword by his side as if he were going to fight the Saracens and accepting that a padre came last Sunday and said mass to us in the pretty little chapel of the Hacienda which saved us the trouble of going down to the village and moreover took chocolate with us afterwards there has been nothing to vary the usual routine of our country life end of letter the 40th