bad representative of the valiant Julian, as he was just as much inclined to act the rapacious villain, to get fuddled, and to vapour about his deeds of arms. I believe, however, that he was not quite so cowardly; and would have fought very heroically if he found it absolutely impossible to run away, or save his life by any other means. Jose Maria took the place of Miguel.
All accounts coincided in affording us the perspective of being mercilessly robbed in the course of the following day, either in ascending the mountain, by the bands of Tlalpam, which of course keep a sharp eye upon the parties arriving from the capital—or in the neighbourhood of the Cruz del Marques on the summit, by the band of Toluca, which there finds a convenient lurking-place in the pine forest; or by the band of Cuernavaca, which plies its profession in the broken ground on the steep western slope of the sierra. This was worse than being between hawk and buzzard.
To give you an idea what sort of bargains are made in this country, I may mention that each of our valets had been hired at the rate of eighteen dollars a month, plus four reals a day for their food. Further, we were bound by our contract to allow them at their dismissal at Jalapa, twelve dollars each for their return to the capital, and a horse; or, if they should prefer it, a seat in the stage to Mexico, value thirty dollars. To our arriero we gave eight dollars a day as long as he was in our service.
You might suppose that ordinary cupidity might have been satisfied by such favourable terms; but no, by the assistance of Mr. E., who was an old traveller in this strange country, we detected, at the very outset, a sly contrivance to make us pay for a huge account of tortillas, pulque, Chile, agua ardiente, and so forth, which they demolished daily. This defeat, and our determination to set off before sunrise, soured the temper of our retainers for the first hours of the day; but they seemed subsequently to have made up their minds to smile at
