tales in his various changes of costume, and his whimsical contrivances for banishing ennui; and emulating the sailors in their expeditions to the top-gallant-mast head. After landing, we had lost sight of him. We heard, however, that he had been delivered up by the captain with a regular bill of lading to the Mexican consul at New York, and to his utter dismay and disappointment, not being considered accomplished enough, had been sent to a "finishing academy" in Pennsylvania. Many adventures, and the multitude of strange personages with whom we had come in contact during the rambles of the two past years, had driven him out of our remembrance, till most unexpectedly we found his two long, Indian-shaped arms locked round our necks at La Messa, a brown athletic Mexican, utterly forgetful of all the polite education he had undergone, curbing a wild horse, and hunting a wilder leopard. He seemed to be absorbed in his hunting schemes; and, instead of a collection of books, valued himself upon the number of lion, ounce, and wildcat skins which decorated his apartment. His thin and meager French was richly larded with noble sounding Spanish words and phrases; but we contrived to converse about old and new times.
La Messa, the property of his uncle, to whom he seemed to be considered as future heir, was the centre of a vast estate stretching many leagues on every side.
From the specimen before us, however, nothing could exceed the poor homely style and rough living of these wealthy proprietors at a distance from the capital.
Our evening meal, which we were invited to take with the family, was a sleepy entertainment, in which we tasted nothing but the burning Chile or red pepper with which every dish was seasoned; and that done, we all packed together with Aimable et execrable Tampico into a small apartment, where, fortunately, the cold air of the norte, which was still blowing, prevented us from being at once suffocated by heat, and bitten to madness by the moschetoes.
The following morning, after a loving adieu from our
