CHAPTER V.
At daylight I was anxious to take a peep at our old ground, and was much surprised to find everything going to decay, and infinitely worse than we found them ten years before.
Of the revolution, of which we heard much and expected more, not a trace could be observed; it was a sore subject, and (as it resulted) they were evidently aware of their inability to govern themselves: no one stepped forward to attempt it, and they quietly fell back under the Mexican yoke. Another fate attends this country; their hour is fast approaching; harassed on all sides by Indians, who are now stripping them of their horses, without which their cattle are not to be preserved; pestered by a set of renegado deserters from whalers and merchant ships, who start by dozens, and will eventually form themselves into a bandit gang, and domineer over them; unable, from want of spirit, to protect themselves; they will soon dwindle into insignificance. As a proof of their apathy or help-
