A STEAMER took us down to Acapulco. It is probably athriving port now. When we were there, a few native huts andtwo or three stone buildings at the edge of the jungleconstituted the 'town.' We bought some horses, and hired twomen - a Mexican and a Yankee - for our ride to the city ofMexico. There was at that time nothing but a mule-track, andno public conveyance of any kind. Nothing could exceed thebeauty of the scenery. Within 160 miles, as the crow flies,one rises up to the city of Mexico some 12,000 feet, withPopocatepetl overhanging it 17,500 feet high. In this shortspace one passes from intense tropical heat and vegetation topines and laurels and the proximity of perpetual snows. Thepath in places winds along the brink of precipitousdeclivities, from the top of which one sees the climaticgradations blending one into another. So narrow are some ofthe mountain paths that a mule laden with ore has often onepanier overhanging the valley a thousand feet below it.

　　Constantly in the long trains of animals descending to thecoast, a slip of the foot or a charge from behind, for theyall come down the steep track with a jolting shuffle, sendsmule and its load over the ledge. We found it very difficultin places to get out of the way in time to let the trainspass. Flocks of parrots and great macaws screeching andflying about added to the novelty of the scene.

　　The villages, inhabited by a cross between the originalIndians and the Spaniards, are about twenty miles apart. Atone of these we always stayed for the night, sleeping ingrass hammocks suspended between the posts of the verandah.

　　The only travellers we fell in with were a party of fourAmericans, returning to the Eastern States from Californiawith the gold they had won there. They had come in oursteamer to Acapulco, and had left it a few hours before wedid. As the villages were so far apart we necessarily had tostop at night in the same one. The second time this happenedthey, having arrived first, had quartered themselves on theAlcalde or principal personage of the place. Our guide tookus to the same house; and although His Worship, who had abetter supply of maize for the horses, and a few morechickens to sell than the other natives, was anxious toaccommodate us, the four Americans, a very rough-looking lotand armed to the teeth, wouldn't hear of it, but peremptorilybade us put up elsewhere. Our own American, who was muchafraid of them, obeyed their commands without more ado. Itmade not the slightest difference to us, for one grasshammock is as soft as another, and the Alcalde's chickenswere as tough as ours.

　　Before the morning start, two of the diggers, rifles in hand,came over to us and plainly told us they objected to ourcompany. Fred, with perfect good humour, assured them we hadno thought of robbing them, and that as the villages were sofar apart we had no choice in the matter. However, as theywished to travel separate from us, if there should be twovillages at all within suitable distances, they could stop atone and we at the other. There the matter rested. But ourguide was more frightened than ever. They were four to two,he argued, for neither he nor the Mexican were armed. Andthere was no saying, etc., etc. . . . In short we had betterstay where we were till they got through. Fred laughed atthe fellow's alarm, and told him he might stop if he liked,but we meant to go on.

　　As usual, when we reached the next stage, the diggers werebefore us; and when our men began to unsaddle at a hut aboutfifty yards from where they were feeding their horses, one ofthem, the biggest blackguard to look at of the lot, andthough the fiercest probably the greatest cur, shouted at usto put the saddles on again and 'get out of that.' He hadwarned us in the morning that they'd had enough of us, and,with a volley of oaths, advised us to be off. Fred, who wasin his shirt-sleeves, listened at first with a look ofsurprise at such cantankerous unreasonableness; but when theruffian fell to swear and threaten, he burst into one of hiscontemptuous guffaws, turned his back and began to feed hishorse with a corncob. Thus insulted, the digger ran into thehut (as I could see) to get his rifle. I snatched up my own,which I had been using every day to practise at the largeiguanas and macaws, and, well protected by my horse, calledout as I covered him, 'This is a d............