surf at
your feet, where the energies may be revived for a cosy supper with some
fascinating little Mexicanas who are never known to decline a cup of
chocolate and sweetmeats.

The influx of so many strangers from the surrounding country was not
particularly advantageous to the morals of the Mazatlanese community:
petty thieving and pilfering were all the rage. One evening some expert
practitioner contrived to entice a valuable pair of pistols, clothing,
and other articles from my table in the centre of a large apartment, by
introducing a pole and hook through the iron grille of the window; and
the same night my friend Molinero was robbed of his bed-clothes, while
sleeping, by the same enterprising method. Indeed I incline to the
belief that one may have the gold from his molars picked out, if the
mouth chances to be opened, in a crowd of these cunning leperos. My
consolation was, in being aware that they had filched all worth
stealing, and in being indifferent to future depredations.

The first night of my arrival I met our former little housekeeper at the
Olas Altas, surrounded by a group of merry friends: "_Ah! dios!_" she
exclaimed, "but they told me you were never to return--what _diablitos_
those Yankees for telling such fibs. You have been gone just five
_Domingos_"--they count by Sundays,--"and that _loco gringo amigo_ of
yours nearly ruined your horse, and came near breaking his own neck in
the plaza--_gracias a Dios_!" Her breath being by this time exhausted,
we made up a little purse, or _vaca_, and fortune befriending it at the
monte, we sent her home, with enough silver to keep her Cuartel going
for a twelvemonth. Early the next morning she was at my bedside, saying,
_Digame de sus viajes_--tell me your adventures. To be relieved of her
inquisitiveness, and get more sleep, I threw around her pretty throat a
silver image and chain of our lady of Guadalupe which saved me any more
exercises in the Spanish idiom until breakfast. And, by the way,
ignorant people may indulge the idea that the Castilian tongue may
easily be acquired "without a master," but, so far as my individual
experience goes, no study is comparable to its acquisition with a
tutoress, who, with the charms of bright eyes, rosy lips, and clear
natal enunciation, renders the task not only facile, but pleasurable. I
would advise any person who wishes to become proficient in this
beautiful language to pay his homage to some artless, unaffected
se