when I saw that three at least had obtained their deserts. Their long black hair hung over their faces, their clothes were dropping in tatters, and their skeleton bones protruded through the dry and shrunken flesh. The thin pure air of the table-land had prevented decomposition, and the vultures and buzzards had been kept off by the nearness of the bodies to the road. It is said, however, that neither wolves nor vultures will touch a dead Mexican, his flesh being always too highly seasoned by the red pepper he has eaten. A large sign was fastened above this ghastly spectacle, with the words, in large letters, "Asi castiga la ley el ladron y el asesine" (Thus the law punishes the robber and the assassin.)

Towards the middle of the afternoon I reached a military station called La Venta, seven leagues from Guadalajara. Thirty or forty idle soldiers were laughing and playing games in the shade. I rode up to the house, and informed the officer of my loss, mentioning several circumstances by which the robbers might be identified; but the zealous functionary merely shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. A proper distribution of half the soldiers who lay idle in this guardhouse would have sufficed to make the road

perfectly secure. I passed on, with a feeling of indignation against the country and its laws, and hurried my Prieto, now nearly exhausted, over the dusty plain. I had ascended beyond the tropical heats, and, as night drew on, the temperature was fresh almost to chillness. The robbers had taken my cravat and vest, and the cold wind of the mountains blowing upon my bare neck, gave me a violent nervous pain and tooth-ache, which was worse than the loss of my money. Prieto panted and halted with fatigue, for he had already travelled fifty miles; but I was obliged to reach Guadalajara, and by plying a stick in lieu of the abstracted spur, kept him to his pace. At dusk I passed through Sapopa, a small village, containing a splendid monastery, belonging to the monks of the order of Guadaloup. Beyond it, I overtook, in the moonlight, the family of a ranchero, jogging along on their mules and repeating paternosters, whether for protection against robbers or cholera I could not tell. The plain was crossed by deep, water-worn arroyos, over which the road was bridged. An hour and a half of this bleak, ghostly travel, brought me to the suburbs of Guadalajara-greatly to the relief of Prieto, for he began to stagger, and I believe could not have carried me a mile further.

I was riding at random among the dark adobe houses, when an old padre, in black cassock and immense shovel hat, accosted

me,

"Estrangero?" he inquired.
"Padre," said I.

"But," he continued, "do you know that it is very dangerous to be here alone?"

66

Several persons who were passing stopped near us, out of curiosity. "Begone!" said he, what business have you to stop and listen to us?" Then dropping his voice to a whisper, he added-"Guadalajara is full of robbers; you must be careful how you wander about after night; do you know where to go?"

I answered in the negative.

"Then," said he, ," said he, "go to the Meson de la Merced; they are honest people there, and you will be perfectly safe; come with me, and I'll shew you the way."

I followed him for some distance, till we were near the place, when he put me in the care of "Ave Maria Santissima," and left. I found the house without difficulty, and rode into the courtyard. The people, who seemed truly honest, sympathized sincerely for my mishap, and thought it a great marvel that my life had been spared. For myself,

when I lay down on the tiled floor to pass another night of sleepless martyrdom to fleas and the tooth-ache, I involuntarily said, with a slight variation of Touchstone's sage reflection: "Ay, now I am in Guadalajara ; the more fool I; when I was at home, I was in a better place; but travellers must be content."

XIX.

THE TRAPPERS.

THIS was our first camp on the prairie. On our way hither we had joined a party of four hunters or trappers, and in consequence our number was now augmented to seven. We had thrown off the lighter and more costly apparel of the settlements, and were now costumed in the rougher garments worn by the hunters of the Rocky Mountains. This consisted of a frock or hunting shirt, made of dressed buckskin, and ornamented with long and parti-coloured fringes. Our nether garments were of the same material, ornamented in the same manner, and on our feet were mocassins. Round the waist of each was a belt, supporting a brace of pistols and a long knife, the latter in a sheath made of buffalo-hide. A strip of leather passing over our right shoulders, suspended our powder