ney.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

My arrival happened on the 13th of June. The garrison had been very much
strengthened, and a block-house was under construction near the estero,
with the expectation of holding the town during the rainy season and bad
weather, in the absence of force afloat. The news of the peace changed
these plans, and preparations were commenced for evacuating the town.

My little post at the Garita had been relieved of its old garrison, and
fallen into strange hands, so I took quarters with my good friend Don
Guillermo and Senor Molinero, where we lounged all day in the cool
patios, under the awnings, smoking away like Turks. Muzatlan was
extremely gay, owing to the yearly festival that takes place on the Olas
Atlas--a curving beach between two bluff promontories facing the ocean.
I am ignorant if there be in the calendar a patron saint devoted to
gamblers, or I should certainly believe that this jubilee was expressly
dedicated to him.

There were a great number of bough and cane-built booths raised on the
sandy promenade, all prettily draped with muslin and other light
fabrics, each having a tasteful display of liquors and fruits, with
little saloons screened off, and facing the sea, for either eating or
gaming: further on were stout upright poles, firmly planted in the
ground, supporting circularly swinging coaches or wooden horses, some
revolving perpendicularly, while others described the horizontal
circuit: beyond were meaner _barracas_ for the lower orders--gaming,
mountebanks, juggling, eating, and maybe a little fighting.

Towards nightfall the population assembled on the Olas Altas, and the
scene became very gay and animated--the monte tables were
thronged--dollars and ounces of gold chinking incessantly--loto banks
playing for prizes of dulces or licores--Indians with figured boards and
dice, making more noise than their _confreres_ in the trade, betting
coppers or fried fish. The cars and horses were filled with delighted
paisanos, who were enjoying the pleasures of city life. At the
fandangos, too! were girls in their gayest dresses, dancing to the
enlivening music of harps and guitars, bursting forth at intervals with
some shrill chaunt or ballad, to relieve their nimble feet, perhaps,
from exertions attending the _jarabie_ or _jota_. It is altogether quite
an attractive spot; and when one is tired of the monte, bowling at
Smithers', or dancing at the fandangos, there is the sparkling