at the bliss of being thus transported from place to place, with no effort on his part but what was necessary to lie steadily on his back, light another cigarita, or demolish another pineapple or watermelon, with which we had taken care to furnish ourselves; and, by-the-by, compared to the pineapple? of Jalapa, all others are but turnips. M'Euen was extremely quiet—probably from there being something in the swinging movement of the machine which gave him a foretaste of the coming sorrows of salt water, from which he always suffered grievously. For myself, I admit that novelty had charms for about ten minutes; when I discovered that my litter wanted in length what it had in breadth. It was at once too broad and too short for me; and I had, in consequence, to double myself up, both from necessity, and to steady myself as it swung from side to side. In addition, a found both dust and heat nearly insupportable; during the night especially, when it seemed probable, that I should be quite dissolved before dawn. Then there was the motion—soothing enough when the ground was even, and the mules well behaved, but extremely disquieting when they were not of one mind, or when they stumbled down one of the sudden pitches which are common upon this mountain road. It sometimes appeared inevitable, that I should be shot forth on my feet; at others, that I and the litter should be dragged in twain; and long before we came to a halt, I made up my mind, that, "were it not for the honour of the thing," I would much rather have walked.
This being the state of affairs, it was a great relief to escape from my shell, and take a little rational exercise at Puente del Rey: it is my temper to prefer old names to new ones. The river Antigua, over which this noble causeway and bridge were constructed early in the present century, is formed of the combined waters of two dashing mountain rivers, which issue from their several glens at this point, and intermingle their streams just above the bridge. The whole scene is very striking, from the massive and noble character of the bridge and its approaches, contrasted with the savage character of the
