Major, would be contrary to the general's orders."

"Hang the general's orders! Obey some generals' orders in this army,
and you would do queer things. Bring them all; take my advice. I tell
you, if you don't, our lives may answer for it. Fifty men!"

I was about to depart when the major stopped me with a loud "Hilloa!"

"Why," cried he, "I have lost my senses! Your pardon, Captain! This
unlucky thing has driven me crazy. They must pick upon _me_! What will
you drink? Here's some good brandy; sorry I can't say as much for the
water."

I mixed a glass of brandy and water; the major did the same; and, having
pledged each other, we bade "good night", and separated.

CHAPTER NINE.

SCOUTING IN THE CHAPARRAL.

Between the shores of the Mexican Gulf and the "foot-hills" (_piedmont_)
of the great chain of the Andes lies a strip of low lands. In many
places this belt is nearly a hundred miles in breadth, but generally
less than fifty. It is of a tropical character, termed in the language
of the country _tierra caliente_. It is mostly covered with jungly
forests, in which are found the palm, the tree-ferns, the mahogany and
india-rubber trees, dyewoods, canes, llianas, and many other gigantic
parasites. In the underwood you meet thorny aloes, the "pita" plant,
and wild mezcal; various Cactacese, and flora of singular forms,
scarcely known to the botanist. There are swamps, dark and dank,
overshadowed by the tall cypress, with its pendent streamers of silvery
moss (_Tillandsia usneoides_). From these arise the miasma--the mother
of the dreaded "vomito."

This unhealthy region is but thinly inhabited; but here you meet with
people of the African race, and nowhere else in Mexico. In the towns--
and there are but few--you see the yellow mulatto, and the pretty
quadroon with her black waving hair; but in the spare settlements of the
country you meet with a strange race--the cross of the negro with the
ancient inhabitants of the country--the "zamboes."

Along the coast and in the black country, behind Vera Cruz, you will
find these people living a half-indolent, half-savage life, as small
cultivators, cattle-herds, fishermen, or hunters. In riding through the
forest you may often chance upon such a picture as the following:--

There is an opening in the woods that presents an aspect of careless
cultivation--a mere patch cleared out of the thick jungle--upon which
grow yams, the sweet-potato (_Convolvul