 Section 5 of Travels to Oaxaca by Nicholas Joseph Tiri de Menonville, an anonymous translation from the French. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. In the earliest of my walks I found the convolvulus halapa of Linnae. I gathered as many seeds of it as I was able, pulled up several roots, and had them verified by the drugists of Vera Cruz, who without knowing whence they came pronounced them the real halap. Their opinion, as it conformed with the description of Miller, convinced me of this plant being the true halap of Mexico. I presented seeds of it to the general, and with them a root weighing five and twenty pounds. He caused it to be planted in a box for the purpose of transporting it to Europe, and inquired if it was common in the environs of Vera Cruz. Nothing, however, could equal his surprise when I informed him that if he was anxious for such a measure I could engage to freight the vessel with it that bore his flag from the exclusive produce of the vicinage, such as the idleness, the ignorance of this people, that they give three reals a pound for this root at halapa while they might have it for a quarteto at Vera Cruz if they would but take the pains to collect it. A discovery like this rendered me famous throughout the city. I was looked upon as a most extraordinary character, in thus being able to discover a treasure in the very custody of those who were ignorant of its value. The esteem this gave me was grateful, and the good disposition of the people generally towards me which my discovery occasioned, I endeavored to maintain and augment, not only by the earnestness of my study of nature, which was no irksome task, but also by a species of quackery which I reckoned serviceable towards concealing my definitive projects. Whether in the fields or in the streets I constantly had plants in my hand, and either employed myself in observing them through a magnifying glass or in dissecting them with nicest care, my room was overspread with papers covered with plants, and my tables with vials and boxes containing seeds. This policy indeed was requisite to form an excuse for my customs and the walks I undertook, which else had been looked upon as purely vulgar, for the pride and vanity of the Spaniards was not a little shocked at seeing me journeying on foot every morning the distance of four or five leagues, loaded with a portfolio, and attended merely by a single negro who carried my books, a hatchet, a mattock, and my breakfast. I succeeded even beyond my wishes in conciliating the admiration of every rank, and was known by no other denomination than the French physician. The sailors and soldiers laid in wait for me to ask advice for their complaints. At first, with the best intentions, I prescribed remedies, but when this became irksome to me from their repetition and intemperance, I got rid of them by charging the cause to themselves. The constant disorders to which these folks are subject are a permanent spasm, occasioned and maintained by the practice of smoking tobacco and the brandy and rum which they take without moderation. In consequence, I proscribed the use of these articles and forbade the applicants coming again to me for advice, until after an abstinence of three days. The prescription speedily disgusted them, and they came to me no more. Still, I constantly saw and noticed them pointing me out to their companions with signs of great respect. A number of other persons, tradespeople and individuals of whom I had no knowledge, followed my steps with their eyes and exclaimed with a kind of wonder, do but see that Frenchman why he is going to Medellin on foot. Unhappy people, so corrupted by ease and idleness worthy, that these excursions, delightful to me, appeared to them unsupportable. Nay, to such a pitch is their inertness carried, that their meanest servants cannot go a quarter of a league without requiring a horse, nor enter a wood till cased in leather to preserve their skin from mosquitoes. La Medellin is a hamlet, six leagues from Veracruz, whether it is common to resort in order to bathe in the river of that name. The spot itself has nothing to recommend it but its happy sight, which draws thither many of the inhabitants of Veracruz. The bathing season begins in May, for the houses they are but wretched huts, almost lost in the aspiring grass, and for refreshments scarcely is there a fowl or an egg to be had for money. Here however I passed two days in the most agreeable manner, in company with the general of the fleet and the family of the intendant's lady. But it is time now I should give some idea of Veracruz. This city stands in the Gulf of Mexico on the margin of the sea in a sandy and barren plain. Not the slightest culture embellishes its neighborhood. On the south infectious exhalations from stagnant marshes contribute to render it exceedingly unhealthy. On the north where from the arid sand salt and crystals may constantly be collected is the road to Mexico, which for seven or eight leagues runs parallel to the sea. On the west dunes of sand ejected by the waves obstruct the view of all but the loftiest trees. In proportion as this sand heaped up by winds from the east and north becomes dry, it is again dispersed by the same winds and thrown forward either into the town so as to cover all the houses or further inland. To this circumstance are to be attributed the dunes by which it is surrounded. By raising this sand occasionally obstruct the site and render breathing difficult. Beyond this sandy plain and the mountains by which it is enclosed are woods full of wild beasts and meadows covered with flocks. Veracruz is built in a semi oval form. Its largest diameter along the seashore measures from six to seven hundred fathoms. It is surrounded merely by a wall or parapet six feet high by three broad surrounded by a palisade of iron wood in bad condition. This wall at intervals is flanked by six indifferent bastions or square towers twelve feet high by twenty each side some of them terraced but the rest empty. The wall has neither ditch counter-scarp nor any outward work. On the seashore on the southeast and northwest of the town are two redoubts or rather terraced bastions more regular than the others with a cavalier and a battery of cannon. The entrance into the port is commanded by these bastions. The whole of the houses are of stone. The lime which mixed with sand forms the cement is obtained from mad repose corals drawn up from the bottom of the sea. As for the stone for the houses it is brought from Campeche. Monsieur Abbe Rinal led into error no doubt by the information he received respecting this city describes it as being built of wood. But I have the evidence of my senses for the contrary. And the engineers to whom I showed the passage in his philosophical history assured me that the whole place did not contain a single wooden house. It cannot even be affirmed that such ever was the nature of its structure as I have seen at least twenty houses, mayorazgos, noble estates which devolve in the male line in perpetuity which have lain in ruins for fifty years the whole of the walls of which were of mason's works. I, however, imagine that persons have been induced to commit an error thus gross in their description from noticing the heavy and massive balconies of wood which entirely surround the houses as at the Havana and which principally exciting and engrossing their attention will have caused them to make the statement they have done. The houses are neither built with greater regularity nor are they more elegant than those of the Havana, but the streets are wider and less close. They are straight, perfectly well paved with pebble, level and well kept which contributes to their neatness and gives them better appearance. The only remarkable buildings are the churches. Like those of the Havana they are rich in silver plate as are the houses in porcelain and other furniture from China. In this consists the whole of the luxury of the inhabitants, for they are so temperate that chocolate and sweetmeats constitute almost the whole of their food. Veracruz has three gates, that of La Medellin, that of Orizaba and that of Mexico. Its only inhabitants are a slender garrison, the agents of government, sailors and a certain number of merchants or rather factors for the vanilla, aniseed and cochineal which could not be exported by the galleons, the chief commerce for European goods being transacted at Halapa, iron only accepted, which is taken from Veracruz. This collective population may amount to from six to seven thousand persons, among whom if the governor be accepted, the administrators and the officers belonging to the land or sea service, there are very few you can visit on social terms. The men are, generally speaking, lofty-minded and proud, either from this being the specific character of their nation or owing to their excessive wealth in a country where gold stamps so much value on its possessor. They comprehend trade very well, but here as elsewhere their natural indolence and their rooted habits and superstition render them irremediably averse from labor. Incessantly are they seen with their chaplets and relics on their arms and round their neck, their houses are filled with statues and paintings of saints, and their life is a series of devotional practices. The women live recluse in their apartments above stairs, to avoid being seen by strangers. Though it is by no means difficult to perceive that, but for the restrictions imposed on them by their husbands they would be far more easy of access. Whenever they go abroad it is constantly in a carriage, as I have before notice is the case at the Havana, and as for those who have no carriage they are wrapped up in a large cloak of silk which covers them from head to heel and has merely a small opening on the right to enable them to see their road. Within doors they wear over the shift nothing but a small silk corset laced with a gold or silver cord. The whole art of dressing their hair is confined to braiding it, turning it up, and fastening it on the top of the head. Still, though so simple their dress they wear a gold necklace, bracelets at the wrist of the same metal, and at their ears, pendants of emeralds of greatest value, so true is the observation that fashion and a tasteful luxury is prescribed by no rule. Generally speaking the fair in this city are not handsome, for however rich their dress they show a deficiency of grace and fancy, and under an apparent reserve are strongly inclined to lasciviousness. The only amusements are the Neverea, a sort of coffee-house, whether the gentler sort repair to take ice-creams, and some imitations of bullfights for the vulgar, unless, indeed, under this denomination be comprised the processions and flagellations of the Holy Week, a period at which I arrived at Vera Cruz. Twenty times during this week was I called to my window by the clinking of chains. What a shocking spectacle presented itself, now a penitent in a woman's dress in a petticoat and body of linen cloth of a slate color, with arms extended and fastened tightly in a horizontal position, his back and shoulders supporting seven old swords such as are used for signs by our armorers and whose points collected in a fluffed pad pressed on the cossacks tailbone, his legs loaded with chains and iron weights, and in this garb marching slowly along through the city and paying his devotional visits to every church. An instant after, this miserable object was succeeded by another mask, likewise in a woman's dress, but in white muslin and naked to the waist, a handkerchief covering the bosom, the legs loaded with chains, but the hands left at liberty. This penitent in the left hand held a crucifix and in the right a rough whip with which at every hundred steps he lacerated his shoulders and back till streams of blood ran from the wounds and crimsoned the petticoat he wore. In the space of a week I reckoned not less than eighty masks of this description. The processions present nothing more attractive. Every chapel has its patron saint modeled in wax of the natural size, but a frightful aspect, which is carried on a litter by eight men who are relieved at intervals. All are dressed in women's apparel, the petticoat, the corset, and the mask of all are similar, that is to say, of linen cloth of a bluish slate color. They hold those exhibitions in such esteem that penitents are to be seen thus accrued all day long, nay, even from the evening before, the next and the following day. Among these processions is one which, on account of the object of it, is deserving of mention. It was instituted on occasion of a fund of six thousand piastres established to portion off annually for poor marriageable girls, but by an abuse too common the lot now falls by means of connivance very often on those in easy circumstances, and at times on children of seven or eight years of age, and while the object of the instituters of this benevolent charity was the solace of misery and the inculcation into these future mothers of children of a spirit of religion and of a modest deportment, the intent of the ceremony appears rather to be the instilling into their minds a taste for expense and a love of frivolity. The chosen parties are conducted to church in superb carriages covered with cloth of gold or silver, trimmed with magnificent lace, and adorned with the richest pearls and diamonds which opulent ladies take pride in lending for the occasion. A squire or a kind of sponsor, one of the most respectable persons in the city, gives the female his hand and leads her as in triumph in the procession which follows the nuptial blessing. During my stay I twice witnessed this celebration, but out of the eight elected I certainly would have refused to have taken seven for servants. Frontingvera Cruz at the distance of four hundred fathoms is an island on which the castle of Saint John de Ulloa is built, the fire of the batteries of which cover and defend the town. This fort, long after its first erection, was strengthened by more regular fortifications. It is a parallelogram composed of four large bastions and three demi-loons, half-moons, with ditches, counterscarp, covered way, palisades, and glacis from the southwest to the southeast, where the island is daily increasing, owing to the accumulation of sand, shells, and madropores. On the south the port forms a sufficient floss, as the ship of the captain of the port is anchored at half cable length from the rampart, which has an elevation of from 35 to 40 feet. Nevertheless to prevent a landing and the approach of boats under cover of the cannon, the whole of the curtain wall, which is bare, as well as of the flanks of the two bastions bearing on the port, are frazzed with stakes of a remarkably hard wood, as black as ebony, which, sharpened and rising a foot and a half out of the water, hinder any vessel approaching within musket shot. Here are three hundred pieces of cannon, carrying balls of from twelve to thirty-six pounds. Still, the place is not impregnable, spite of the reefs which bound it on one side and the fort by which on the other it is defended. And in this opinion I was confirmed by the casual glance of a French engineer, whom I conversed on the subject. For while he supported the contrary, he cast his eyes toward the southeast, where in fact is a landing place of much less length from the fort than the principal one, and off which vessels assailing would not so long be exposed to the fire of the batteries which crown the fort from the southeast to the northwest, and might even anchor under the curtain wall, a vestige of ancient fortifications raised very high, the fire from which would hence be of no avail. A square tower sixty feet high above the rampart, or the bastion of the southeast side, commands the city, the port, the whole road, and the entire vestige, and serves for exhibiting signals which are repeated by the ship of the captain of the port. I ascended this, on the first story is a terrace on which is a battery of four brass twenty-four pounders with a guard house of ten men. On the last story is a sentinel who is relieved every half hour and gives advice of all he observes, and from his account it is verified by the corporal of the guard that the signals are made. At the time I was there there was but one battalion in garrison, with one company of artillery, and about a thousand convicts employed on public works. The port of Veracruz is closed by this castle and the island on which it stands. From forty to sixty ships of war and a hundred merchant ships may anchor here in from four to ten fathoms. The reefs which surround it as far as the island of sacrifices toward the southeast and the northeast break the waves and render it secure against winds blowing from the intervening points. But two winds from the northeast to the west-northwest, the port is exposed, and the north wind, which blows with great violence, frequently drives ships from their moorings and casts them on shore. To this road, however, it is the only one in the Gulf of Mexico that all ships laden with goods for Mexico repair, and hence also is remitted to Europe the precious metals and merchandise rendered in exchange for these extensive countries. Seen from the castle the city presents a very handsome appearance. On the south it has a natural meadow which forms an agreeable promenade except in the rainy season, when it is overflowed by a rivulet which forms a marsh at about a mile from the town, and furnishes the city with water. As however the rivulet is not the produce of a spring, but arises from filtrations from the neighboring dunes which collect and form a marshy pond, the water is neither fresh nor palatable, whence that which is preferred by the inhabitants during the rainy season is kept in cisterns in the castle. But in dry weather, when the water is filtered through a greater depth of sand and consequently more purified, it is conducted to the city by means of a stone aqueduct. Though this rivulet can boast but little depth of water, it nevertheless nourishes caimans, alligators, from seven to eight feet long. I have myself frequently traced their footsteps, and even seen them plunge into the pool, but they are by no means dangerous. Every cruise has but one suburb, which is very small, and lies southeast of the town. It contains two chapels, a bowling green, and some few gardens, but these are in bad cultivation and without any ornaments. The lemon, the palm cabbage, and a few cacao trees are all the productive ones that are seen. A bombax, or cotton tree with red flowers, the azadarach, or bead tree, and pistachio trees, plumaria, with red, white, and yellow blossoms, are the only trees pleasing to the eye. Hence, the city is rendered so dull and sterile of aspect that but for the meadow on the south, which serves as a resort for carriages and the verter of which recreates the eye, veracruz would be one of the most tiresome residences in the universe. Fortunately, nature, so niggered of her boons in the vegetable kingdom, has compensated in the animal by a large display of bounty. The city and surrounding countries swarm with birds whose various plumage and enlivening song at once delight the eye and charm the ear. The streets of veracruz abound in innumerable flocks of magpies of three different species, all of them of a jet black. The smallest is of the same size, as lively and as numerous as our sparrows, but less noisy and less troublesome. The second of the size and color of our blackbird resembles it so much as often to deceive one as to its species. The third, called in our colonies buddhita, is a kind of parrot. These three species of birds are remarkably tame and highly entertaining by their different antics. They never attack the seeds of plants, but prey on insects and the dung of mules, horses, etc. Larger than these three species succeeds the vulture, so well described by Mr. Jacquine. The name of this animal would induce a supposition of its being formidable. It is, however, one of the least daring and most stupid of all the birds of prey, and never pounces on anything alive. It is of the size of a turkey poult and much resembles it by its brown color and bare head covered with a carunculated skin, and it has just sufficient courage to steal and fly away with pieces of meat from kitchens. For this purpose it lays an ambush until nobody is at hand when it scuds, swift, and lightly in at the door or window, snatching up whatever chances to be in its way, and flies out at the opposite openings. Its most assured reliance is, however, on the sewers, the slaughterhouses, and the chance of the country. Occasionally it is seen partaking with dogs when these happen not to be very hungry, the carcass of a mule. The Zopilote, thus the Indians denominate our vulture, is incessantly eating, and when at length full, sleeps by the carrion, nor leaves it till it picks the very bones. I have on a morning seen a dead mule lying in the road, and at night noticed only the skeleton remaining, though on the sand where it laid I could not discern the minutest trace of the footstep of a dog. The carcass consequently must have been devoured by vultures. This bird is so little timid that it will scarcely trouble itself to remove from the way of a passenger, but at the same time it is so fearful when caught that it instantly disgorges the contents of its craw, which forms a resource for its enemy, the frigate bird, a species of pelican. The Zopilote is easily taken, rises but to a small height from the ground, and the scent of a piece of meat takes from it all inclination to fly away. If then this bird be pursued, all it relies on for escape is its legs, when it is easily run down. The cooks and children then amuse themselves with it, and after fastening tight round its wing a little bell, a bladder, or a ribbon, release it again. For the Spaniards, more humane than Frenchmen, take no pleasure in destroying life. We know very well that, instead of the flocks which now enliven the air, if there accrues were peopled by the former nation, not a bird in time would be seen. El Tomar Sol, enjoyment of sunshine, so much the delight of Spaniards, appears to be not less grateful to these birds, to witness the seeming pleasure they receive from the presence of the God of Day, they should be seen at sunrise, as at the summit of a tree, or the top of a steeple, they simultaneously, or in succession, extend their wings, and keep in this attitude to receive on every part its warming rays, and again when they rise in air at noon, and skim over the town in swarms, which almost obscure the sky. is seen a species of laurus, or gull, which has the gait and flight of a snipe, but which is scarcely half its size, and of a grayish blue plumage, does a temporal make its appearance, or a shark seek its prey in the port? Instantly, swarms of little fish, smaller than our gudgins, throw themselves out of the water onto the sands. Then does this little gull, after a most amusing spectacle, as it pounces down with the rapidity of lightning from the regions of air, rises again, and repeats this evolution incessantly, for the space of a quarter of an hour, I once had the curiosity to reckon the descents of one of these little birds in the lapse of seven minutes, I counted 80. It is indeed true that its extreme impatience oftentimes causes the loss of its prey, but nothing can be conceived more admirable than its excellent management and dexterity in seizing the fish at the surface of the water without even moistening its wing. The boys in the sea, and the bousebrits of the vessels of the port, are covered with onochautilus, the pelican with a large claw, denominated by Linnae the true pelican, boobies and ducks of every species. Unsure, the rivulets and marshes are inhabited by swarms of spoonbills, four species of storks, as many of divers and coots and snipes more than twice the size of those that are seen in Europe. The meadows are covered with beautiful starlings of a black color with the shoulders and half the wing a blood red. On the bushes and hedges, the male and female heron appear to form three species equally rare in their kind, the male from the splendid hues of its plumage, and the female from the blue mantle, which forms its summer garb and which in winter changes to gray. Here, too, is seen the cardinal as bright and shining a red as that of Louisiana. Its song, not so varied nor so melodious as that of the nightingale, is yet as powerful and as bold. Here a lark of the size and color of the wit-wall, or golden thrush, but more handsomely feathered, and of sweeter song than our European lark. The ramfostos, toucan, whose beak marked with yellow and black, is longer than its body from head to tail. Honeysuckers, or hummingbirds, trochilly, of all colors and of various size, one species of them which soars aloft in air, singing like the rising lark, has its head and belly, which it proudly displays of a scarlet color. In another species, it is of the most splendid azure. In the woods are found a kind of partridge, as large as, and of plumage, much resembling that of our guinea fowl. Another species, no larger than quails, cracks, or oakles, of two species, with crops and crests of the color of wax, as large as turkeys, and truly a royal dish. Green parrots, no larger than sparrows, macaws, amazonian parrots of a green and yellow hue, four kinds of turtle doves, in which class is that species denominated orderlands by the colonists of Santa Domingo. Vast numbers of bulls and cows, almost in a wild state, rove through the forests. A species of rabbit makes these likewise its haunt. It is smaller, but in far greater plenty than with us. Bucks and doves, more than two feet high, are here so common that venison is sold in the markets at only three reales the pound. Tortoises are very numerous. Land crabs, too, as large as a man's head, which leave the forests for the town, penetrate into the houses, and climb into the granaries. Another species is met with so audacious that, when surprised, instead of attempting to escape, raised on two claws, it defends itself with the others. A kind of squirrel, much larger than ours, and perfectly of an ash color, is another inhabitant of the Sylvan kingdom. With iguanas, or lizards, which grow to the prodigious size of two feet in length, by ten inches in breadth, and furnish an exquisite dish for those not affected with venereal complaints. Finally, the sea swarms with fish of most delicious flavor, which are sold almost for nothing in the markets. Such are the riches I remarked in this country, where my stay was limited to but one season, and where, on this account, and owing to the important object of my mission, I was enabled to pursue my remarks to no greater length. Such are the objects it presents so worthy of the curiosity of a naturalist, and so well calculated to render interesting a sojourn at Vera Cruz. Though the general assured me that the country produced rattlesnakes, I met with none, whether my deviations were among the marshes, or whether I strolled through the woods, but everywhere was I pestered with gnats, mosquitos, and chicos, or garapatas. Had I ever than misfortuneed to brush with my clothes, the branch of a tree, or any herbage, I was instantly covered with these insects. The shirt of the Centaur Nessus, that so fatal present of Dayanara to Hercules, had not a prompter or more tormenting effect than the intolerable itching occasion by the bite of this last tribe of insects. They penetrate in an instant through wool and silk, and the Spaniards, in order to preserve themselves from the torture they occasion, are constantly accustomed to clothe themselves in pantaloons of Orizaba leather and boots, and never venture through woods except where they cross the roads they have to pass. What, however, is extraordinary. This species of woodlouse, the garapata, is only found in the neighborhood of the sea, the interior of the country ten leagues inland, being free from its tormenting persecution. These insects at first occasioned me dreadful sufferings. Three or four times on my botanical excursions was I obliged to pull off my breeches and boots and scrape them off me with a knife. On reaching my lodgings I was used to strip and haste and throw all my dress into water, and found full employment during a couple of hours in washing myself and separating with a pen knife these insects from my skin. These are truly the dragon multiplied to infinity, which guards the fruit of the hasperities. I had now been six weeks at Vera Cruz, nor would my stay have seemed so long to me, but for the anxious, the impatient desire I nourished in the innmost recesses of my heart, of penetrating deeper into the country and attaining the end of all my secret prayers. Not all of this delay, however, was thriftless, as a furtherance of my designs I listened to all I heard, and put opportune questions occasionally, as if on a matter of indifference, and merely for the satisfaction of an idle curiosity, and by such means succeeded, without the least indiscretion, informing conception of the measures by which my enterprise might be carried into effect One day, while conversing with Monsieur de Fersen on the subject of the riches of our colonies and the commerce they induced, he inquired of me if we cultivated cochineal. I answered in a careless manner, yes, certainly. What, replied he with astonishment, mingled with vexation strongly depicted in his countenance, do the French then mean to deprive us of this branch of commerce hitherto exclusively our own? Why not, rejoined I, smiling and railing him, do you then fancy yourselves, privileged wholly to monopolize this excellent boon of nature? And in what part of Santa Domingo then is cochineal cultivated? inquired he. At Fond de Negra I boldly answered, for having already deviated from fact, I thought it improper to draw back, and was at that time far from being aware of speaking the real truth, and that the white or wild cochineal did indeed exist at the time at Moll St. Nicholas. But I wished to prepare resources against surprise and mistrust in case of being in the end detected in bringing away the insects. At another time the major of the fleet, who had repeatedly promised to show me the cochineal in the vicinity of Vera Cruz, took me and airing with him along the meadow, and proud of his rare knowledge, pointed at me, and said to me, and proud of his rare knowledge, pointed out to me on a cactus called by the spandits Tunis for the cochineal insect, a sort of caterpillar enveloped in white cotton, which turned out to be merely the worm of the moth which preys on the precious insect, and from which I had so much difficulty in cleaning my nopals. I positively denied that it was the cochineal. And this mistake of my preceptor led me into a direct error. I mean to say a persuasion, opposite to the fact that the insect did not exist in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz, a wrong persuasion which prevented my pursuing my search for it any further here. The major undoubtedly related to Donu Yoha what occurred during our ride, for the next day, while at dinner with the general, he inquired if I had not seen cochineal the day before. I was apprehensive that this question was meant as a snare, and this, the rather, as I fancied, he was observing me as he looked in the glass before, which with his back towards me he was adjusting part of his dress, and assuredly, if such had been the case, he must have seen my confusion. I endeavored, however, as well as I could, to compose my countenance, and answered that what I had seen was not cochineal, but a worm, that worms were without feet, and that the one which had been shown to me was long and cylindrical, whereas either the cochineal must have legs and a body of hemispherical figure, or the works of Lanay and of Pedro Gossa and Hernández, both Spanish naturalists, who had thus described the insect, deserved to be given to the flames. I had scarcely escaped from the peril I have related before I had to encounter another. In the course of dinner, the general of the fleet offered to procure for me from the governor of Mexico the appointment of botanist on board the fleet then equipping at Acapulco for the purpose of making discoveries northwest of California, and to ensure me a salary of $2,000 a year, with, besides, a thousand in hand for my equipment. He dwelt strongly on this proposition, and offered to present me himself to the viceroy of Mexico, to whose court he was about to repair. By accepting this offer I must, necessarily, belong to the sovereign of Spain as a botanist, but I did not suffer myself to be persuaded by the great advantages held out to me from serving my country. The hope of rendering it a service weighed with me more than the seductive offers of Don Ulloa. I, however, returned him unthane thanks, and excused myself without evincing any disdain of the proposal. He again pressed for my acquiescence, when I replied that, having sustained no wrong, having no cause of complaint against the country to which I had the honor to belong, I could not esteem myself justified in abandoning it, and that, being a subject of the King of France, it was not allowable on my part, at least without his permission, to dispose of my services to any other prince. I added moreover that, being unprepared for any such expedition, I could not resolve on creating in my whole family, and especially in a father who felt for me the tenderest solicitude, that uneasiness which would follow the ignorance of what had become of me and where I was. At last, as his solicitations were still continued with much earnestness, I waved the conversation and began some other topic. We spoke of the Paraguay tea, from the description of it given to me, I was unable to comprehend further than it was the leaf of some tree. I asked the Governor in a joking manner, whether the consumption being so very considerable, there was no tax on it when sold, and he answered, laughingly, that it really was in contemplation. After which, solicitous of turning the conversation on Cochinil, he added that it was about to be farmed in Mexico. The very mention of Cochinil startled me, and I was upon my guard. I am unaware whether my refusal had or not engendered any ill will towards me in the general, but some days after he affected to speak of botany in a very slight manner. He could not conceive, he said, how anyone could take the trouble of making collections of plants. For his part, had he the finest herbal in the world, he should think it of no other value than to light fires with. Hurt at an attack so rude, I looked at him with attention, and warmly answered, that from my part I was so unfortunate as to be ignorant of mathematics, of astronomy, and navigation. But that, if perchance, a book treating of those subjects fell into my hands, far from committing it to the flames, I should carefully preserve it for my children, or for some other person who might better than myself be capable of appreciating its value. I could not observe that Dono Yoha felt any ways offended at the firmness of my remark. Nay, I have generally noticed that the Spaniards, though naturally lofty and proud, despise those who have not the hardy-hood of thinking or expressing themselves with becoming boldness and dignity. Still, had I to ascribe to this conversation the afflicting consequence that, though he never gave me occasion for complaint, the general never after seemed to entertain the same esteem for, nor confide in me to the extent I wished, and that for the future I should have to place little reliance on his interest. I felt the uneasiness this assurance occasioned me materially increased upon reflecting on the observation of the captain of the quarter-deck, who one day, dining with the general, in a naive manner, confessed that, when a lieutenant he had been appointed in conjunction with one of his comrades to accompany the abbot, de la Chope, on his journey from Veracruz to Mexico. Apparently as a mark of distinction, but in reality for the purpose of watching his movements and preventing his visiting the works of the Fortress of Pirot in the vicinity of Jalapa, which were then underhand. I drew as a conclusion from this, with greater reason as I had come to the country without a passport from the court, that I also was beleaguered with spies. These, I reckoned, could be no other than my officers of the engineering corps, and under this impression it was not without much disquiet. I observed their noticing everything and ferreting every corner of my apartment. However, reflecting that I had had the prudence of concealing my plan from everybody, and that no papers I had could betray me, I became less alarmed. I even passed my time very pleasantly with my fancied spies, visiting them very frequently, and professed great attachment to, and confidence in them. They told me much respecting the abbot Chope de la Roche. They themselves had made corresponding and simultaneous observations in the province of Sonora at the time of the expedition against the Savages, while the abbot was observing the transit of Venus over the disk of the sun. The arrival of learned men in this dull country is so remarkable that it is traditionally preserved in the memory of everybody, and forms an epoch as noted as the appearance of these celestial bodies they come hitherto observe. A Peruvian Marquis whom I met with at the Havana, never swore by any other name than de la Condamine. Note Charles-Marie de la Condamine, 1701-1774, was a French explorer who spent ten years in South America. Condamine was indeed generally well-beloved, and his departure was seen with sentiments of regret by all the Peruvians. This, by Don Ulloa, was not, however, attributed to any honorable dessert in him. He told me that he was a Jocôse character, much addicted to pleasantry in his conversation, and complementary even to adulation towards the Peruvians, whose friendship and affection he was solicitous of captivating. That at bottom he was a shallow-brained fellow, full of presumption, and ready to sacrifice everything to the Acquirement of Fame. He added that he had the meanness to obtain a classical description for M. Jusot of Quinein, and robbed him thus unfairly of the honor due to him of its discovery. I availed myself of the opportunity a conversation on this head afforded to learn the truth of the relation given by M. de la Condamine of the murder of Sanyerd, respecting which I had always had my doubts. I consequently put many questions on the subject to Don Ulloa, the result of which was as follows. Sanyerd fell in love with a tradesman's daughter, who was under promise of marriage to an Alcalde of the place. He met a return, and even more than a return, to his passion. But, sachety, cooling his warmth, he fancied he could not show his gratitude towards the lady in a better manner than by endeavoring to renew the engagement between her and the Alcalde. Now, in matters of this nature, the Spaniards are to the full, as delicate as the French. The Alcalde turned a deaf ear to all suggestions on that head, and Sanyerd threatened compulsory measures in the era, or else. As ill luck would have it, Sanyerd went to a bullfight, and was seated in his mistress's box. At the instant the spectacle was beginning, and the Alcalde was issuing his orders for all the masks to leave the arena. The father of his Dulcinea, obstinately determining to remain, was greeted with a threshing, and the daughter in the box where she was seated, recognized him by his cries, rung her hands in greatest trepidation and alarm. My God, my God, she screamed out, it is my father they are beating. At these words, another Don Quixote, Sanyerd, jumps into the arena out of the box, and sword in hand, cutting and pushing, attempts to force a passage through the posse of officers. The number of aguaciles increases, and the mob fly to their assistance. Disorder and tumult are at their height, and though the Alcalde issues no other order than for the arrest of Sanyerd, he gets killed in the fray. In this event there is nothing but what is perfectly natural, and what might be expected from the petulance common to Frenchmen and the arrogance of a young surgeon, who intoxicated by a fortunate opening, succeeded by the most happy success, imagine in himself a right to do as he pleased with the Peruvians and injure them in their very homesteads. Don Ulloa further assured me that no one but Monsieur de la Condamine would have instituted the process which followed. He likewise related to me the adventure of the night passed in Pinchincha by Monsieur de la Condamine, who out of Bravado had separated from his party and lost his way, and how he jeered him upon it in the morning on his reaching the rendezvous, drenched with wet, benumbed with cold and dying with hunger. What a fine night this, eh, Monsieur de la Condamine, said he! What a precious page for your journal! On another occasion the conversation turned to the Duchess of Pompadour, with whom he had acquaintance when in France, from the affectionate manner in which he spoke of her. I guess he was indebted to her interference for his advancement at the Spanish court. What, however, to me was far more interesting than all, was his account of the affair of New Orleans. Note, this affair was, then, recent history. In 1762, at the end of the Seven Years War, France ceded Louisiana to Spain, and Donuioa had been appointed governor of the territory. The French colonists rebelled against Duioa, and expelled him and his wife from Louisiana in 1769. His successor, Alejandro O'Reilly, crushed the revolt and executed the ringleaders. Though O'Reilly might appear to me inclined to relate facts in a manner widely different from that used by certain enthusiasts, the unaffected manner in which he described the rude treatment he had to endure, the little animation or vivacity he mingled in his recital, persuaded me that the revolution was no other than, as he assured me, the effect of misconduct and imprudence, and that it was kindled and blown into a flame by the cupidity of the chief administrators of the affairs of the colony. The revenge taken by the Spanish court was not merely a consequence of the representations of Donuioa. It was a merited punishment of what was considered an act of rebellion, and such as in any other nation would probably have been extended to a far greater number of delinquents. The general agreed that the vexation of the people at seeing themselves turned over like inanimate beings or animals sold in a market to another master in Louis XV was not without foundation. But then he observed, as governor, what had I to do with this vexation? How could I remedy it? Or how even the king of Spain himself sufficiently chagrined at being obliged to be content with so small a compensation? Circumstances added he alone were to blame, and the hard necessity to which, and to the insistence of a powerful monarch he was obliged to submit, while for the new government it has not after all been either injurious or severe to those by whom it was opposed. I have heard much fault found with Donuioa, but all the subjects of complaint that were alleged against him were charges of familiarity unworthy of his rank and a shabby meanness in his domestic concerns. He has never given room for anyone accusing him of injustice or cruelty, and he was in fact the log of fable his excessive patience made him despised and dismissed. O'Reilly, who succeeded him, was the stork. However much amused by these narratives of the general, I never lost sight of the object I had in view. I frequently visited Don Atenas and Don Lobo to Spanish merchants, but saw them thus often merely for putting myself in the way of hearing matters relating to my plan. This Librivox recording is in the public domain. One day while in company with my French engineer at the house of the latter merchant, I saw him examining certain packages of vanilla. I inquired, as if casually, from what quarter it was obtained, and learnt that it came from Guadalajara, 60 Leagues Distant, or from Oaxaca, the distance of which latter place was a hundred Leagues from Veracruz. Also that it was cultivated by the Indians. They next talked about cochineal. I did not, as may well be conceived, begin this subject, but I profited by what I heard. I learnt that the cochineal from Oaxaca was preferable and yielded a more beautiful color than that from Tlaxcala, or Guadalajara, which made me resolve on choosing Oaxaca for the spot I should prepare to. I had moreover two other reasons equally weighty for this decision. The first, the better opportunity I should have of obtaining the most perfect information respecting the cochineal in a country of where it is largely cultivated. The second, the circumstance of this road being less frequented than that leading to Mexico by Tlaxcala and Guadalajara, and this circumstance affording me a greater facility in avoiding highwaymen and inquisitive eyes. It is a certain matter, in fact, that resolved as I was on the journey, though I should not even obtain my passport, and in spite of all the vice-voices in the world, I ran much less risk of discovery on the road to Oaxaca, on which I should not be suspected than on that of Mexico, the only city worth seeing, that only for which I had sought a passport, and on which I should be sought after the first notice of my departure. Thus, with a resolution, if I should obtain a passport for Mexico to use it merely for Oaxaca, the route to which I had adroitly learned from a Frenchman who had been in the service of the late vice-roy, I waited with impatience an answer to the three memoirs which in succession I had addressed to the vice-roy of Mexico to obtain the so much wished-for passport, even Spaniards themselves, from whatever part of the world they arrive at Veracruz, are not allowed to leave it without a passport from the vice-roy. And I ceased to frequent the House of Donuioa, except to inquire, respecting it. At length, on Wednesday, the 30th May, 1777, he, in a very cool manner before dinner, announced that he had received an answer from Don Buccarelli, in which he plainly signified it was not in his power, as I was a foreigner, to admit of my entering el famoso reino, the famous kingdom, except by special order from the court of Spain. Note, however ungrateful to me the name of this nobleman, I here give it for reasons which it may not be difficult to comprehend. He was called el excelentísimo señor y beato fraile Don Antonio Buccarelli y Ursula de Niente General de los Reinos de Nueva España, vice-roy general of the kingdoms of New Spain. This news affected me far more in reality than I chose to show, and I made a very bad dinner, though without attending to what I did, I devoured a great deal. The general did not fail to inquire what I meant to do. I pretended to be satisfied, and to be determined to demand the necessary passports through the court of France, and wait for them at Vera Cruz, or in case of my being sent out of the country to go myself in search of them. But I had already made up my mind, in case of such an event occurring, as had happened. As Don Ullo had a quarrel with the governor, I naturally concluded that the latter would have no knowledge of the objection raised by the vice-roy, and decided on requesting of him a distinct passport for Orizaba, which was within his jurisdiction, and about forty leagues from Vera Cruz. By means of this passport, to the license in which I meant to give the trifling extension of sixty leagues, I hoped to reach Oaxaca. But hardly to itself did my soul unburden this design, and with much more reason was it then reserved from others. I went in consequence to Mr. Fersen, and concealing from him the refusal I had experienced intimated how impatient I was to reach Mexico, what fixation so much tardiness occasioned me, and how happy it would make me if even I merely obtained permission to to urbanize on the volcanic mountain of Orizaba. He stopped me upon this, and proffered in the handsomest manner himself to solicit the governor for the favor I sought. I flew into his arms, embraced him in the most affectionate manner, and that very evening, as a token of my grateful feelings, sent him certain books which he had manifested a desire to possess. I saw him the next day. He had dined with the governor, and obtained the passport. On Saturday he brought it me in good order. I concealed from him in a great degree the transport I felt, lest he should recognize the great importance I attached to this paper, and be anxious to search into its motive. The next day, Sunday, I passed in preparations for my journey, and dined with the general that he might have no suspicion of my project. Monday I was to have hired horses in order to set off the next morning. The morning of this day, this fatal Monday, I rose in raptures of traitorous joy and gayer than ever before. I repaired to the dwelling of Mr. Fersen for letters of recommendation to Orizaba, breakfasted with him, and returned home to complete the packing of my things. Of a sudden, I perceived a man in a blue coat with a red caucade enter my apartment. He was quite out of breath, and looked wild, sinister, and angry. As soon as he was able to speak, he announced himself as the secretary of the governor, and ordered me to in Spanish, in the name of the king, to give up the passport which the governor had entrusted to Mr. Fersen. These words, which I but too well comprehended, affected me as would have done an electric shock. I alternately became pale and red, and feigned, in order to have time for recollecting myself, that I could not understand what he said. But he so often and so distinctly repeated to me, el papel que el señor gobernador entregó al señor Don Francisco de Fersen, that I thought it vain any longer to turn a deaf ear. Then, all at once, with another turn of features, and assuming a gay and gracious ear, as if I began to comprehend him, I said I was incapable of making any improper use of a kindness I might receive from the governor, and delivered up the papel so much side for by me, begging him at the same time to present my respects with my thanks. I wished, as he seemed much fatigued, to induce the secretary to rest himself. But he begged to be excused, assuring me that he had express orders to make no stoppage anywhere until he had brought back my passport, and not to appear before his master unless he took it with him. I readily conceived from these words that some alarming storm was bursting over my head. But still, using dissimulation, I asked him, apparently with the utmost indifference, what possibly could be the motives of so sudden a change in the sentiments of the governor. He answered that the post that day had brought certain orders from the viceroy concerning me, in virtue of which he verbally notified that I was forbidden, in the king's name, to leave the district of the city of Veracruz. I hastened to Mr. Fersen with such impatience that I almost flew. I saw, I heard nothing, and was unable but hastily, and in half ejaculated words, to relate to him my disastrous adventure, conjuring him at the same time to conduct me to the governor, in order to have this matter elucidated. We repaired to the palace, and found there the governor, for his part perfectly satisfied with recovering his papel, and, repeated to me the forbidance before announced by his secretary of exceeding the limits of the jurisdiction of the city, an injunction he said, which by order of his superiors he was bound to communicate. Mr. Fersen joked with him, observing that, if I had taken his advice, he would have found the bird flown, but afterwards, in a more serious tone, he inquired what possibly could have originated so rigid an injunction. In answer, Don Palacio exhibited to us the letter of the viceroy, written after a deliberation of the Aureancia Real of Mexico, and the conclusion of the Procurator General, grounded among other matters on the apprehension of opening to strangers the secrets of the rich culture of the country. Here my heart panted so violently, that I no longer heard anything but the order for my leaving the country, an order quite the reverse of that I solicited, beginning perro de regresar a su tierra. On this the governor who read the whole with much emphasis, laid still greater stress, reading it even thrice over, and showing me the letter where it was written. In fine he was expressly enjoined to be himself present at my going on board, to draw up a declaration to that effect, and certify the same to the viceroy. He then, speaking for himself, desired I would inform him when I meant to depart, and what ship I meant to sail in. This I promised, after which he took leave of me, making a thousand excuses and professions, and even going the length of calling me hijo mio, or son. But I was not his dupe. On leaving the palace I took a hasty leave of Mr. Furson in the street, and repaired to my lodging, deadly sick at heart. I walked backwards and forwards, now threw myself on a seat, and now into my cot, swinging it from one side to the other with such violence as to risk breaking my head against the ceiling. Not the least ray of comfort beamed on my mind. In vain did I exclaim to myself aloud, if possible, that I might listen and become less distracted. In vain did I exclaim, Be calm thou mad man, poor intemperate fool, take pity on thy intellects. Art thou not yet at Vera Cruz, hast thou not reached this distance on thy road, and dost thou not still remain? Oh yes, retorted anguish, but thou art ordered hence and must go, and empty-handed go thy ways. Thy plan of four years standing, even in the very port, now falls to wreck. Four years are lost of the profession thyself selected. That hope of fortune vanishes, so fondly pictured in thy mind. The advances made by thy family, the bounty of thy sovereign, are vain and foolishly gone. Thou failed in an affair undertaken in contradiction to the advice of thy father, thy friends, and everyone. An affair which for four years has subjected thee to nothing but alarms, chagrin, mortification, toil, and dangers of every description. And what a blessed prophet hast thou gained, thou hast rashly pledged thyself to the minister, and what account hast thou to render? Shame, humiliation, ridicule, contempt will be thy lot on every side, thou turnest, and worst of all, thy object will remain unaffected, the spandits exclusively possess their cochineal. Think as thou of this, and dost not die of anguish? What then is grief so little to be feared? Is it so powerless of suffocation? I pass the whole morning a prey to such tormenting reflections, and under the greatest agitation, swallowing three quarts of lemonade, but without the least appetite for food, no, the smallest morsel would certainly have choked me. At length, tired, and overcome by the weight of so much affliction, my mind made a last effort for relief. By dint of perpetual repetition, thou art still at Vera Cruz, the fundamental point of a desperate project presented itself to my ideas. I calculated that as no appointed time was fixed for my departure, and as there was no ship in the port which would sail for three weeks to come, I might, in a fortnight's time, complete a stolen journey. Thou absolutely must, said I to myself, penetrate into the interior, though destitute of passport, must bear away the fleece for which thou hast sailed, despite of all the dragons in the way. Inflamed by this idea, the very apprehension of being unable to realize it threw me into a cold sweat. Gelano la Venne, Bolognese spiritu, frozen veins, boiling spirits. But this beam of light dispersed the former gloom, and brought with it a portion of tranquility. I now thought of nothing but developing my plan and digesting its detail. I walked out in the evening to take an airing, and went to the Nieveria, where I treated my engineers. They complimented me on forgetting so soon the vexation to which I had in the morning been subject. I suffered them to remain in their error, and returned home, where without taking any supper I passed the night in reviewing the plan I had projected in my mind, in retrenching, adding, and changing its minutenay, and calculating on probabilities and accidents. At length I fell asleep, and refreshed after three hours found my spirits less heated, and my head more clear. At daybreak, however, I reflected with some surprise that there was no room left for any alteration in the plan projected the night before, a circumstance arising from my peculiar and constrained position. Malem est concilium quad mutare nequit, says Tacitus. It's a bad plan that admits of no modification. This I repeated to myself, but in vain. I could find no plan better than the hole I had in mind, and no choice left but either to put it in execution, or return unsuccessful. The latter, to me, was more dreadful than death itself, and this at once justified in the eye of reason the evident rashness of the attempt. I rose in the morning rather less content than on the morning before, but sufficiently so to look on the maximum of danger I risked, with a dispassionate eye. I found the worst that could happen to me, in case of arrest, would be to be sent back, tied hand and foot, to Vera Cruz, and there to be imprisoned in the fort, or on board the ship of the general of the port, until my embarkation. In short merely a failure that probably might not take place in my object, which would be the case, however, at certainty if I did not attempt the journey. Everything tended to strengthen me in my last resolves, though I reflected upon many obstacles I should have to encounter. In the first place, nothing less than a miracle, on a road over which so many pikemen were dispersed, for the purpose of arresting deserters and strangers could guard me from being asked by someone or other of them for my passport. In the second place, my dress was not that of a Spaniard, and this inconvenience neither time nor my means allowed of my remedying. This circumstance showed me a foreigner, and exposed me the more to the looks of curiosity. Thirdly, an appendage to the last noticed predicament. I spoke the Spanish language very indifferently. In the fourth place, I was almost entirely ignorant of the road, and it was only by the nearest chance and nicest management I was enabled to learn by what gate I had to leave the town. Finally, it was necessary I should set out on foot, in a climate where I should have much to encounter from the season of the year and the sands through which I had to travel. I must also go unprovided with linen, provision, change of dress and books, and without instruments to reap the possible result of my excursion in increasing our knowledge of natural history. The plan I framed for remedying these inconveniences was as follows. I shall travel on foot, said I to myself, as a botanical physician resident at Vera Cruz, in search of symbols. I shall assume the appearance of taking a walk rather than being on a journey. I shall lodge only in the poorest huts of the Indians, and in places away from the high road, pretending to have lost my way. I shall avoid all towns, hamlets, and villages where possible, and where not, pass through them by night. I shall declare myself a Catalan from the frontiers of France, which will explain the reason for my speaking French well and the Spanish but indifferently. I shall always go neatly dressed, wear some trinkets, jewelry, affect a good-natured and free disposition, and pay liberally for all I take. With all these precautions I must indeed be unlucky if I should be taken for a foreigner or a deserter. In fine, after some little provision against the most urgent wants, for example a broad-brimmed hat, a net for the hair, a rosary, an indispensable article, etc., and after setting aside about 300 gourds in quadruplets, coins, I fixed upon the Friday night following for my departure. In the meantime, I visited my friends and acquaintance, whom I apprised in a loose manner that I meant to pass the remainder of my stay with Madame de Boutillots at Medellin. On the Friday I dined with the General, to whom I related the trick I had played the Governor. It seemed to please him greatly, and he assured me, if I had suddenly made my departure after obtaining the passport, no notice had been taken of the matter. The remainder of the day I passed with the engineers and returned home to reflect a few moments on my undertaking. It was about nine o'clock when, after carefully locking up all my effects, I departed, as if merely to take a walk. I soon reached the rampart, scaled it, and bade a dew to the city. For a long time I travelled briskly along through the sands, under favour of the light afforded by the stars. But a violent wind, effacing all traces of the road, and the sky being over clouded, I found myself wandering, I knew not whither, at the distance of more than a league from the town. Undecided, I went first one way, then another, to the crowing of the cocks, and observed the rising of smoke, but all in vain. Though I had twenty times before travelled over these spots night by enveloping all objects with the same shadowy veil, disfigured the rallying points which otherwise might have struck my memory. I climbed large amounts of sand, some firm, and others movable, until I was utterly exhausted. At length anxiety, combined with fatigue, made me determine on re-entering the city. But now was the embarrassment to find it, for I no longer distinguished its fires. At length I saw one in the distance of three hundred tufts. I ran thither. It was the cabin of a free negro whom I had seen before in my neighbourhood. I told him I had lost my way in returning from Medellin. He directed me on the right road, and I was exceedingly surprised at finding myself a quarter of a league south of the city, while I imagined myself in the west. I immediately scaled the rampart, and returned to my home, terribly fatigued, and still more vexed at my bad beginning. However, after changing my linen, I threw myself into my hammock, and enjoyed a sleep as sweet as it was necessary. The next day, at three in the morning, I left home a second time, and again scaled the ramparts, this time with some risk of breaking my neck, and behold now Don Quixote in the country. End of Section 7. Section 8 of Travels to Oaxaca by Nicholas Joseph Thierry de Menonville, an anonymous translation from the French. This Librevox recording is in the public domain. I used every precaution not to miss the road, but directing my steps too much towards the north, I again strayed from my way, and was lost nearly an hour in the sands, however recognizing in the heavens the ear of corn of the constellation Virgo, and Mars and Saturn, which were already in the east, I directed my steps westward till daybreak. At four I overheard the country people going to market, and, guided by their voice, kept on a parallel with the road, but about a hundred fathoms distant to avoid being seen. At length, by dawn of day, the road, taking through a forest, I was obliged to enter it, but I took the precaution to slacken my pace, as often as I distinguished any Indians, Negroes, or Spaniards. After they had passed, I made up for lost time. At five o'clock I had cleared the forest, and was two leagues and a half from Vera Cruz. Here the road divided, and occasioned a new embarrassment. Perceiving a mule tier with a train of a hundred and twenty mules advancing, I put questions to him with caution, and learned that he came from Oaxaca by the road of Monte Calabasa, which he pointed out to me, observing at the same time that he passed it the day before. After this very good said I to myself, tonight I shall sleep at Calabasa, and sauntering leisurely along till he was out of sight, proceeded on my way. But, when no longer visible to the mule tier, I got on at such a rate that by eleven o'clock I had traveled nine German leagues. I drank a glass of brandy and ate a biscuit, in a tavern by the roadside near the forest. This satisfied me till nine o'clock, when I was parched with thirst. I was walking in a level savannah, thinly screwed with copses of mimosa cornigera, bombacks, saba, and wild fig trees, save where these made their casual appearance, the earth was bare. For we were now at the close of winter, that is to say, of the dry heats which parched all the herbage, and the cottagers had set fire to the dry grass to admit of the young blades pushing after the rain. It was, to me, a spectacle truly pleasing to behold. Already from the plain where I stood, the mountains Alvarado on the south, those of Orizaba on the west, and the Sierra Leona on the northwest, forming a natural rampart, extending the space of a hundred and fifty leagues, and which mountains I trusted soon to surmount. But in the meantime I was dying with heat and thirst. I met two muleteers conducting two hundred and fifty mules. I entreated them to sell me some water. They answered they were not water-sellers, but at the same time one of them unfastened from the pommel of his saddle a bottle full and presented it to me. When I had drunk after this fashion, much at my ease, I pulled out my purse, but flicking the spurs into their mules, the muleteers merely called out, vaya usted con Dios, God be with you. I continued my way. By eleven I found myself as thirsty as ever. I fancied I distinguished a hut. It turned out, however, to be only one of those Mexican ornaments of which on my road I met with several, formed of earth in a pyramidal shape, from thirty-five to forty feet high, on a base of twenty, and bearing a perfect resemblance to our ice houses. I looked round in vain on every side. No habitation was visible nearer than six leagues toward the north. I could not travel thus far out of my road. I felt no fatigue. The road was good, but I was dying with thirst. I imagined I had made a charming discovery, on distinguishing in a thicket a kind of spherical cucumber. It is but insipid, said I to myself, but it is aqueous and refreshing. I ran to the spot, gathered and even bit one. The electric shock is not more sudden of effect. I thought myself poisoned. In this dry and spongy fruit I found a hot and corrosive bitterness, which increased my thirst in the proportion as sulfur and bitumen would the flames of a burning pyre. Foolish botanist then said I to myself, did you then imagine that all small gourds are the same? This will teach you more carefully to study the different species. The size of the fruit equal to that of our melons and its round figure completely deluded me. I therefore sought some other assager of thirst. I saw some fruit of a certain cactus called by the Spaniards tunas. It is a species of opuntia found in Santa Domingo with red fruit. I took two or three of these figs, peeled and ate them. These greatly lessened my thirst when I plucked others and devoured near 30. But failing possibly of peeling them with due care, their burning, cottony covering occasioned my tongue and lips to swell immediately, and I found myself on the point of suffocation. I still continued my journey and met with no one. At times the leaves of trees agitated by zephyrs struck the ear in the manner of distant waterfalls or some murmuring brook. While listening to this pleasing promise the winds stilled into calm. I no longer heard anything and almost resigned myself to despair. In the meantime the god of day already four and twenty degrees above the horizon darted his unsheltered beams upon me a thousand times reflected by the burning plane beneath. I had merely a very light sea breeze at my back before an immense plane 80 leagues deep presented to my view at the extremity nothing but lofty mountains. It seemed as if all nature conspired against me. I thought at one instant I plainly distinguished the roof of a hut. I quickened my steps but after going three quarters of a league in the direction I saw it I found myself in a little thicket where no longer perceiving the object I fancied myself mistaken and for once lost all patience. I halted and looking carefully around a bomb backs to see if there were neither a serpent nor mosquitoes to dread. I laid down under its shade and slept nearly two hours. The sun had now passed its meridian. I rose and sad enough continued my journey. But oh unlooked for happiness. I had scarcely preceded a quarter of a league before I distinctly saw the house I thought I had seen before. It was still about six hundred yards from me, on the summit of a hillock near the river Hamapa, to reach it took but an instant and enchanted with the sight of that beautiful river I would feign have leapt into its waves. I entered the cabin about three in the afternoon. The host was a shepherd. But I conjured as well as the hostess, poor Amor de Dios, to give me drink and food. This they did with all diligence. I drank successively a quart of water, two quarts of milk, and as many of lemonade, and devoured the wing and thigh of a turkey with three fresh laid eggs before I answered the least question. The shepherd asked me if I was a Spaniard, Castiano. I answered I was a physician of Catalonia. I judged as much, said he, from your gate. You Europeans take longer strides than we Creoles. Thus do those who are most nearly connected with nature observe her with keenest eye. As the shepherd seemed to me rather curious and discerning, I paid him, and complaining of a dreadful headache, threw myself on a hurdle made of branches where I fell asleep. Four Reals which I gave my host earned me at least four thousand benedictions. I slept so tranquilly that I did not wake until three the next morning. The morning broke on the world here only at four. Still I did not fail pursuing my journey without taking leave of my hosts for fear of awakening them. I descended the hill and reached the side of the river. At first I was under some embarrassment respecting the means of crossing it, but recollecting that it is but a branch of the same river which flows by Medellin and that it is not deep, I was on the point of undressing myself to wade over, when about twenty fathoms higher up I distinguished a flat bottomed canoe. I jumped into it and seizing a boat hook pushed over in an instant to the other side. In no part did I find more than three feet water, though the river was two hundred yards broad. By jumping on shore I awakened a dog which began to bark and soon after I noticed a negro looking at me over a hedge. I asked him what was the fare of the ferry. A real was his reply. And give it me, said I jokingly, for having done your work for you. He at this was content to receive nothing, though I left him his fare. At this spot I avoided the first danger I had to encounter. The right passage as I learned on my return is lower down, and there a cord to guard is stationed and a picket of pikemen. My ignorance of the right road thus freed me from many interrogatories. After passing this river I had no other to cross for sixteen leagues. I tripped along lightly by narrow but good and easy paths. For the space of six leagues I saw not a single human being, and should willingly have fancied myself for an instant the only one in nature, but for an immense number of rabbits, far from wild that gambled in my pathway. Few deserts are seen equally beautiful. More than half the ground consists of an excellent staple of loamy earth, yellow or black, and well adapted to cultivation, the remainder of savannas. At six in the morning I heard turkeys on my right which made me imagine myself near some dwelling. About seven I saw a dozen of them spring forth from some withered herbage before me, and fly away with a terrible noise. Their flight was so rapid and so long continued that I was satisfied of their being, wild turkeys. A quarter of an hour after, two others ran from the ground about a hundred steps from me, and afterwards three more from my left, circumstances which convinced me of their being an Indian production, or at least of their having become naturalized in the country, and shook off the domestic yoke. By nine in the morning I found myself within reach of what is called a rancho, a sort of canteen. Here I found an old, curious, and impudent negris, but neither bread, nor meat, nor eggs, nor brandy. I was feigned to be content with a dish of hard beans, badly stewed, and a morsel of bread I had brought with me from Vera Cruz. Happy precaution! I made myself some punch with taffia, rum, and afterwards took three hours' rest on a frame of bamboo in the shape of a bedstead. At one in the afternoon I continued my journey. The sky was overcrowded and a brisk wind blew. In the morning I had crossed five arroyos or torrent beds, and in the afternoon passed again twelve others. Nothing can be conceived more fatiguing and unpleasant than these passes, owing to the trunks of trees, blocks of stone, and monstrous pebbles with which they are strewed. I was indeed in a slight degree indemnified by the variety of the plants I found in them. I saw a mimosa perfectly similar in leaf and port to the pomegranate tree, yaka's sixty feet high, ferns of very singular kinds, an arum with an upright but low stem, and a palmated, panatophid leaf, a plant of great beauty, but so large that a root would weigh ten pounds, polyanthus, amaryllus, etc. I found among these torrent beds likewise several wild horses, but very rarely any water. At length I reached Mount Calabasa by five in the evening, much fatigued. The apprehension of losing my way and of not readily finding any other resting place made me determined on halting here. I expected to have found it a village. It was but a rancho or hostel, round which horses, horned, and other cattle were reared, and nothing but maize was sewn, which serves for food as well to the cattle as their guardians. These ranchos are composed of three or four wretched huts. The demand dependent on them is sometimes from ten to twenty-five lead square, in which were about a hundred horses, three or four hundred sheep, and a few hundred cows. This rancho was extensive. The farmer, a Spaniard, or at least of mixed breed, was about sixty years of age, of handsome figure, civil but grave, and of rather, as he seemed to me, a harsh character. I accosted him, an entreated shelter. He granted my request, admonishing me beforehand that he kept no inn, and had neither bread, nor meat, nor wine, nor brandy. But to what he had I was heartily welcome. I begged of him half a dozen eggs, which I ate with tortillas. These tortillas are cakes made of maize, first boiled in water into which a handful of lime is cast to soften the exterior skin. The skin is afterwards washed off, and the peeled maize is crushed with a cylindrical stone by rolling it over a flat one eighteen inches long by ten broad. After this first process it is kneaded with the hand, and rounded and flattened to the thickness of about four lines. It is then baked on a stone or iron plate, heated for the purpose, and turned that both sides may be properly baked. In two minutes the cake is made. It is always an insipid food, but very stomachic, never causes indigestion, and at no time occasioned me any inconvenience. In a family consisting of two women and five or six men, the former are constantly employed, morning and night, in preparing tortillas. Five or six are requisite for one person at each meal, and they are constantly eaten fresh. My host, who appeared to me to be an old soldier, and who, as I afterwards learnt, was really one of those pikemen whom I so much dreaded, seemed a wily old fox, at least by the questions he put to me. But as I had undoubtedly every resemblance of a physician, he could but give me credit for my tale. Notwithstanding this, he pertinaciously refused me a horse for the next day, for I thought myself now far enough from Vera Cruz to venture this indulgence. I was, however, forced to forgo it. I offered to pay him for his supper, but he refused to take any recompense. Upon this I gave four reels to his wife or mistress, for though he had a number of children, I could not learn from him whether or no he was married. My liberality earned me for the night the enjoyment of an old cloak, which had once been blue, but which from service had become gray. In this I wrapped myself and laid me down on a mat on the floor of a neighbouring penthouse, lean to, but for this kindness I risked to have died of cold, for scarcely had I left the door of the hut before one of those dreadful storms of rain fell, which are termed at Santa Domingo avalanches, and of which the drops are as large and fall with as loud a sound as the most formidable hail stones of Europe. The noise they made was frightful. The rain, driven by the wind, penetrated the branches and leaves which covered the penthouse, and ran through it as from so many spouts. In an instant the whole of the interior was drenched. One would have thought a waterspout had burst over the place. The weather caused me the most mournful reflections in a country intercepted by torrents and rivers. If this storm should only be the precursor of others, how should I be able to travel, especially on my return with the booty I hoped to gain? Could even the best horse in the world carry me safe among the rocks and trees, which are almost always brought down from the ravines from such storms? These reflections were very far from comfortable, but having planned everything for the best, I had no other reliance than on providence. With this conclusion I covered my head with a cloak and enjoyed a profound sleep till four the next morning. The melancholy ideas which had afflicted me the evening before vanished with the shades of night, a clear and serene sky, a cool morning, the prospect of the mountains of Orizaba, from which I was now but twenty leagues distant, their branch which advanced forward about eight leagues like a steep and inaccessible rampart along the whole contour of the plain delighted me and instilled fresh courage in my breast. From Veracruz I constantly advanced southwest, here the mountains in front of the plain having no opening on the west, the road bends several points towards the south. It is worthy of remark that throughout this vast plain the course of the torrents and rivers is from northwest to southeast, and that their beds though in a country so flat as to seem level have considerable depth. This singularity arises no doubt from their descending uniformly from the mountains of Orizaba and from the immense volumes of water proceeding from the melted snow and the hot springs of these mountains having by their weight and impulse gradually excavated the country to a vast distance and thus in the lapse of time worked a slope for themselves which they do not seem to have possessed at an earlier period. Though the rain was dreadfully violent during the night such was the parched state of these sandy cantons that the ground was moistened scarcely two inches below the surface. On this day's journey I found oaks with ovate leaves slightly dentated, a white amaryllis which I brought back with me, a polyanthus whose rasped root is used by the Indians in lieu of soap, three large flocks of sheep, twenty coves of partridges, not so large as coils, and rabbits out of number. I had to pass more over no less than sixteen arroyos. The soil appeared to me generally more fertile and of better staple than that observed the day before. Still it is not the less uncultivated and without inhabitants. By eleven in the morning I had traveled eight leagues without eating and without drinking anything but a little lemonade that I procured of two Indians who were building a hut and who were the only rational beings I met with. I now found myself at the foot of the first chain of mountains but the steep and almost perpendicular declivity before me the projecting rocks of which were discernible through the hanging woods formed only a portion of the obstacles which nature not satisfied with this bulwark had opposed to the entrance into Mexico. In advance of these steeps and at the very foot of them she has formed an enormous fos at the bottom of which runs a river ten fathoms broad of such rapid such violent current that it has dug itself a bed through ten strata of different kinds of stone of eighty feet deep. Over this bed it winds its course like a serpent amid the sands almost without a murmur but foaming and with the rapidity of lightning. On throwing a pebble into the river I judged the depth of it to be fifteen feet when from a wretched bridge made of half-wattened bathons bundles of brushwood by which this river is crossed one looks down on the torrent below the head turns dizzy. At the extremity of this bridge is a rock which commands and covers it in such manner that ten men might keep as many regiments in check. In the rock an angular and zigzag passage is cut through which the road lies and in which no more than two persons can march abreast add to this a few pieces of artillery placed on the summit could dense destroy an entire army venturing to force a passage. Half a league lower down is another river which empties itself into this called the Rio de la Punta or of the Point. This is not so deeply encased as the one it joins. I found at the end of the bridge by which it is passed a Spaniard who received toll as he had neither bread nor wine I resolved on proceeding to dine at San Lorenzo though the distance was full three leagues the toll gatherer warned me de las aguas the coming rain I heeded him not but had caused to repent a heavy shower quickly brought me back and subjected me to his jeers on its ceasing I resumed my road and soon reached some sugar grounds which seemed to me forsaken notwithstanding the buildings were capacious the plantations very extensive and the canes fifteen feet high at length I came to a ravine the bed of a torrent a hundred and fifty fathoms broad and forty feet deep I fancied before me the enormous skeleton of some extinct river if such an expression be permitted the only one I could fancy adequate to depict the gigantic ideas enforced on my imagination by the singular spectacle of the rocks the immense trunks of trees the enormous stones of all colors rounded by long and violent friction which were piled on each other in confusion in the chasm what a horrid spectacle but yet how magnificent how terrible all these masses now motionless and surrounded by deepest silence had earthed been driven with resistless impetuosity had experienced amid the noise of horrid crash and dashing foam an active change of station how mightily powerful then must have been the vast and inconceivable volume of water that thus could have made the sport of weights and bulks like these scarcely though the bed was dry was I unable to pass these obstructions to my way picture to yourself reader this chasm winding vast and deep enclosed on either side by a forest of trees equally lofty still and somber and ask what painter could venture the display of scenes so wild and monstrous oh verney tis thou alone perhaps would not in vain have dared note claude joseph verney an 18th century french painter here it was I saw many pairs of those beautiful parrots of the brazils with pointed tails called arara conges of the amazons with green plumage mixed with the yellow of the john quill and of the size of the guinea parrot and a bird of prey black and white with red feathers round the beak the size of our buzzard a most excellent staple in addition presented me on every side a vegetation equally abundant and varied but alas it was impossible for me to load myself with such a mass of treasure I therefore made the best of my way with my eyes cast down and solicitous almost of avoiding the sight of objects I could not choose but sigh for at length I arrived excessively fatigued at San Lorenzo the end here is for a Spanish in a charming one and to me was truly so the mistress was civil and I was served with diligence I had four fresh eggs a chicken and some excellent bread together with some red wine immediately after I departed resolved on reaching via Cordoba that day but scarcely had I left the churchyard where I had been to examine at leisure its plumeria frangipane with purple rosy and yellow colored flowers and 30 feet high before the rain again began to fall I took shelter under an Indian hut when at the instant a Negro passed me with three horses the same I had seen before at La Punta I did not venture to accost the Negro before the Spaniard but with Indians I was rendered bold by necessity I asked him to let me one of his horses and he agreed to conduct me as far as to his village two leagues beyond but the name of which I forget I jumped on horseback upon this without either boots spur or cloak the Negro in order to shelter me from the rain contrived to cover my head with a mat which hung down before and behind like a Dalmatian mantle never was Robinson Caruso more grotesquely appareled end of section eight