zuma's spoons,[1] that we had seldom made a more delicious meal.
We found a very tolerable inn at Aguas Calientes, but were not allowed to remain in it long, the Marquis of Guădălūpĕ, whom we had known in the Capital, having insisted upon our immediate removal to his house, where we passed the whole of the following day.
The conduct of this gentleman may serve as an example to all the great proprietors of New Spain. He possesses fourteen Haciendas, which, in 1813, when they first came into his possession, were in such a state of dilapidation, that the whole income derived from them did not exceed three thousand dollars per annum.
He immediately gave up the capital, and devoted ten years to the personal superintendence of his estates, which have become the most valuable in the whole surrounding country. The reservoirs and farming buildings have been repaired, and the live stock, destroyed during the first years of the Revolution, replaced; so that the Marquis already derives from his possession an income of 75,000 dollars per annum (15,000l.), and looks forward to a considerable increase. His stock of horses and brood mares at Cienega de Mata, and other breeding estates, amounts to eighteen thousand; and in 1826
- ↑ "Las cucharas de Montezuma" is a name frequently given to tortillas, which, from their flexibility, are constantly used as a substitute for a spoon by the lower orders.
