Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/426

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410
MEXICO IN 1827

this respect as Mrs. Ward; for it was dreary work getting up, day after day, two hours before sunrise, and sitting for one hour at least in a cold room, wrapped up in a manga or a buffalo-skin, with a poor little sick child to take care of, while all the complicated arrangements of packing and loading were going on. In December we had a hard frost almost every night; and as there was no possibility of getting a fire of any kind within doors, there was little warmth or comfort to be obtained before the sun rose; and though we knew that we should be scorched afterwards, we have often hailed its appearance as a real relief. From the scarcity of rooms, Mrs. Ward, the two children, and the maids, were usually quartered together; Mr. Martin and I slept in another apartment; the rest of the party in a third; while if a fourth could be procured, which was not often the case, it served to hold the canteen and supper apparatus, after which the servants crowded into it for the night, with a saddle and a Sĕrāpĕ[1] each for a bed. The muleteers and Chance, (the terrier, of whom honourable mention has been already made,) were most luxuriously provided for amongst the packsaddles: the coach was confided to the guardianship of a large bull-dog, with whose ferocious looks the natives were much alarmed; while in the interior of the rooms, a white terrier of my own, who accompanied me in all my travels,

  1. The Serape is the woollen blanket (of home manufacture) worn by the lower orders as a "manga" for riding.