each Hacienda there was a large tract of ground covered with Mimosas, and abounding in hares, but without any symptoms of the labour of the agriculturist having been ever employed upon it. I was assured, however, that a great part of this land had only been thrown out of cultivation since the Revolution, when the failure of the mines at Guănăjūātŏ deprived the farmers of their market.
11th. From Zĕlāyă to Ĭrăpŭătŏ, the distance is fourteen leagues. We breakfasted at El Rancho de los Hūāgĕs, about six leagues from Zĕlāyă, and reached Sălămāncă at three in the afternoon. The town, like most of the smaller towns in the Băxīŏ, is half in ruins, but the situation is pretty, and the ground about it rich. A violent storm came on shortly after we had quitted Salamanca, and converted, in a moment, the fine loam over which we were passing, into a mass of mud, through which we ploughed our way with great difficulty. We did not reach Ĭrăpŭătŏ till half-past eight o'clock, although the distance from Salamanca does not exceed five leagues. Our beds had fortunately been kept tolerably dry by their oil-skin covers, but we were glad to take refuge in them immediately, as the Meson afforded no facilities for drying, or even changing our wet clothes, the rooms being entirely lumbered up with the saddles, and other packages which we were forced to shelter there from the rain.
The town of Ĭrăpŭătŏ contains, according to the census of 1825, 16,054 inhabitants; by that of
