here with palmettos, or cocoanuts, crackling
in the breeze--and looking for all the world like long-legged
trowserless turbaned Turks. The scene was quite exhilarating, and even
my comrade allowed his huge moustache to be parted; but whether owing to
the pure air, and excitement of the ride, or the yet purer brandy from
his _alforgas_, his hitherto taciturn tongue was let loose, and we
became bosom friends on the spot. He had put sufficient in his mouth to
steel away his brains, and not a little to my surprise--though I
expressed none--he shortly proposed to me a capital plan of cheating the
government: that by keeping together--he being empowered to take horses
for nothing--we might charge the full amount, and halve the proceeds. I
readily assented, sealed the bargain by a squeeze that nearly wrenched
him from the saddle, and resolved to cut his fascinating society at the
first convenient opportunity. This gentleman bore the reputation of
being one out of a few honest officers in the Mexican army. However, it
is but justice to state that these little sins of commission are not
regarded in so serious a light as with us; although I could not help
speculating on the beautiful moral attributes possessed by the remainder
of the army. They have a very trite saying, which hits their case
precisely: _Primero jo, pues mi padre_--me first, then daddy.

At about three o'clock we had left the grounds bordering upon the ocean,
for the first step to the temperate terrace. Alighting at a large
rancho, we unceremoniously aroused some sleeping figures--had a mess of
scrambled eggs--thence to horse again. We soon gained the highland, by
bridle-paths skirting along crests of hills and ravines, until daylight
found us ambling from one to the other, in an everlasting up-and-down
route, both tiresome and monotonous. Eight leagues of this work brought
us to the more elevated region of the plateau--a more open country, with
now and then a rancho--cultivated fields--broader roads, and all the
signs of approaching a large town; then in a moment the view opened upon
a broad, lovely plain, framed in by three noble swells of sierras, and
before us lay long lines of buildings and gardens, with a thin stream
winding down the slopes, like a white thread--and this was Tepic.
Leaving my companero at a meson, I swung myself from the saddle, after a
twenty-eight leagues ride, within the spacious _patio_ of an American
gentleman's house, to whom I was regu