h the sod. But
notwithstanding these drawbacks, it was gratifying to the officers who
commanded them, to know, that, even amid the novelty of their position,
they reflected credit on their country, and left an excellent impression
behind them, among the Mexicans themselves.

Many of the officers who had been detailed for service at the Garita,
were eventually obliged, on the score of health, to leave for more
healthy posts; and in the end, Mr. Mitch and myself were the only ones
left. Our quarters were immediately over the men, in a large square
apartment, the ceiling taking the angle of the roof; two balconied
windows faced the sea; another overlooked the port and estero, while a
large, roomy piazza commanded a wide and extensive view of the
surrounding plains, dotted by fields and ranches, with a high wall of
mountains in the back ground. When in the town the heat was almost
insupportable; in our _casa blanca_ it was never in the least degree
oppressive. We always slept under a blanket, in white canvas cots,
swinging from the rafters, curtained off by bunting. Bathing was our
chief delight, and the green waves well nigh broke at the base of the
hill, where we played in the foaming surf for hours each day. We had
breakfast brought from the French hotel in the town, which incident
happened about eleven o'clock, on a table screened off in the piazza.
Coffee we sipped, with a spoonful of cogniac, before the morning's bath,
to drive away the malaria. So we drank light bordeaux with the meal, and
when nice fruit passed the Garita, made a selection, in lieu of the
abolished alcobala.

Ah, dear Mitch, those were pleasant days! And do you ever recall our
pleasant little suppers by night--our cosy confabs--our sage
reflections--quiet moralizings and speculations upon the reverses of
fortune, after an interview with Don Manuel--and our schemes for reform.
Ah, my boy, those bright days have vanished. Then came the afternoon's
_pasear_, with a troop of officers, or the good hospitable merchants of
the port--showy horses, jingling trappings, coursing and capering along
the sea-road;--to the plaza again in time for music, with a bow, or
smile, as the case might be, to some gracefully-robed, tiny-footed dona;
then a few prancing _vueltitas_ to show off, around the square, when we
gave spur for dinner.

Just without the range of our guns was a ranchito, owning for its
mistress a jolly dame, named Madre Maria; it was not for her tha