across a country alternately composed of sand and stones, covered with dwarf mimosas, the cactus, and the aloe, to La Hĕdĭōndă, a village seven leagues from Bōcăs, where we breakfasted. From thence to El Vĕnādŏ, another large Pueblo, which we reached at five in the evening, after ten hours travelling, there was not a single object of any interest, with the exception of the hares and rabbits, the number of which was really curious. The inhabitants of El Vĕnādŏ were all in the church upon our arrival, listening to the discourse of a Padre Misionero, whose powerful voice was heard in every corner of the Plaza, rising and falling with that peculiar monotony by which monkish oratory is generally distinguished. We took possession of the empty inn, and, finding the mistress very troublesome upon her return from chapel, we fairly ejected her from her own premises, and secured ourselves from interruption by closing the doors until the following morning, when the payment of her bill without dispute, for the use of her house and stables, reconciled her to her temporary banishment. Sleep, however, or quiet, was out of the question, for every room in the house, and every building near it, were occupied by game-cocks, bred for the Catorce market, and just at that time in training for the great cock-fights in which the miners indulge during the Christmas holidays. About two in the morning, the noise made by these creatures became quite intolerable; and at six, we
