water for our horses. The master made us
dismount, sent our horses to an aguada, and had some oranges picked
from the tree, sliced, and sprinkled with sugar, for ourselves. He told
us that his establishment was nothing compared with Senor Trego's, a
league distant, whom, he said, we, of course, knew, and would doubtless
stop with a few days. Not remembering ever to have heard of Senor Trego
before, we had not formed unalterably any such intention, but it was
manifest that all the world, and we in particular, ought to know Senor
Trego; and we concluded that we would do him the honour of a visit as
we passed through. This gentleman had forty criados, or servants,
engaged in making sugar. And, on entering the sugar region, I may
suggest that Yucatan seems to present some advantages for the
cultivation of this necessary; not in the interior, on account of the
expense of transportation, but along the coast, the whole line from
Campeachy to Tobasco being good for that purpose, and within reach of a
foreign market. The advantages are, first, that slave labour is
dispensed with, and, secondly and consequently, no outlay of capital is
necessary for the purchase of slaves. In Cuba or Louisiana the planter
must reckon among his expenses the interest upon the capital invested
in the purchase of slaves, and the cost of maintaining them. In Yucatan
he has to incur no outlay of capital; Indian labour is considered by
those who have examined into the subject in Cuba, as about the same
with that of the negroes; and by furnishing them constant employment,
Indians can be procured in any numbers at a real per day, which is less
than the interest upon the cost of a negro, and less than the expense
of maintaining him if he cost nothing.

Resuming our journey, at the distance of a league we reached another
rancho, which would have been creditable in any country for its
neatness and arrangement. Our road ran through a plaza, or square, with
large seybo trees in the centre, and neat white houses on all the
sides; and before the door of one of them we saw a horse and cart! an
evidence of civilization which we had not seen till that time in the
country. This could be no other than Senor Trego's. We stopped in the
shade, Senor Trego came out of the principal house, told the servants
to take our horses, and said he had been expecting us several days. We
were a little surprised, but, as we were very uncertain about our
chances for a dinner, we said