LETTER VII.
LAST DAY'S RIDE TO MEXICO.
Soon after our departure from Puebla,[1] we crossed a small stream spanned by a fine bridge, and commenced ascending by a very gradually inclined plain toward the Sierra Nevada. The mountains on our left are a stupendous range, standing out sharply against the bright blue sky, in the clear early light and pure atmosphere, their lower portions covered with dark pine forests, from which the conic peak of Popocatepetl, with its eternal snow, emerges majestically; while, further north, towers its gigantic rival, Iztaccihautl. Between us and the mountains is the Pyramid of Cholula. As we approach this elevated region, the country becomes well watered, and the plain is just sufficiently inclined for irrigation; the soil rich, the estates extensive, and cultivated with the greatest care. Immense herds of cattle are spread over the fields, and the land, now preparing for the winter crops, is divided into extensive tracts of a thousand acres, along which the furrows are drawn with mathematical accuracy. Among these noble farms a multitude of habitations are scattered, which, inclosing the numerous population necessary for labor, with the requisite chapels, churches, and surrounding offices, gleam out brightly with their white walls from among the dark foliage of the groves, and impress one as favorably as the multitude of tasteful villages that dot the windings of our beautiful Connecticut.
We breakfasted hastily at San Martin, and for the next league our ascent was almost imperceptible. At length we crossed several fine streams, and the road, rising rapidly, struck more into the mountain. There was no longer any sign of cultivation, even in the dells, but the
- ↑ It is not over two or three hundred yards from the gates of Puebla, where most of the robberies of which I afterward heard during my residence in Mexico, occurred. A band of some five, ten, or a dozen men, armed, with their faces covered with crap, usually stood waiting in the early dawn, for the diligence. If there were armed foreigners in the coach, they would look in, consult a moment, and then ride off. If the passengers were unarmed, and the boot of the vehicle looked heavy and tempting, the result was the perfect sacking of the whole company. Their persons were first robbed and partially stripped as they descended from the door: they were then made to be down with their mouths on the ground—and their trunks were rifled. One lady (the present prima donna of the opera in Mexico) lost $8000 in doubloons and jewels, at this very spot— notwithstanding a guard had been promised by the authorities, and paid for. The instances, however, were innumerable and immperdonable, while regiments of cavalry dozed, within a quarter of a mile, in a city almost under Martial Law
While I resided in the Capital, during Santa Anna's vigorous administration, he had some 65 or 70 garrotted. Two or three every week. This for a time struck terror to the band; but I learn that lately they have again taken the road with renewed vigor.
