marshal, I saw no hope of ever leaving the beach. None of our English servants were of the slightest use, as, with the exception of mine, who had been four years with me in Spain, they spoke no Spanish; but had they been perfect masters of the language, it would have been of little avail, for neither remonstrances, nor persuasion, nor abuse, produced the least effect upon the lawless set by which we were surrounded. Nothing but the very dregs of the population had remained in Veracruz, and out of these, of course, our muleteers and coachmen were selected. They were almost all blacks, or descendants of blacks, with a mixture of Indian blood, and seemed either never to have known the restraints of civilization, or, at all events, to have lost sight of them amidst the wild scenes of the Revolution: whilst with us, they certainly acknowledged no superior but the Corporal of the escort, whose sword, the flat part of which was applied without scruple to their backs, sometimes accomplished what it was impossible for any other mode of treatment to effect.
On quitting the beach with our whole caravan in marching order, we followed a path, which, after winding for about a league amongst the sand-hills by which Veracruz is surrounded, joined the road to Santa Fé, a village at which, although only three leagues from Veracruz, we had agreed to rendezvous, and pass the night. It was seven in the evening before I reached it, and eleven at night before the carriages appeared. I found them imbedded in the
