all prostrated by illness, we had
returned to Merida, successful beyond our utmost hopes. Our rough work
was all over, and our satisfaction cannot easily be described.

While lingering over the table, we heard the loud ringing of the
porter's bell, followed by landlord and servants running and tumbling
along the corridor, all crying out "La Diligencia," and presently we
heard the tramp of horses and the rattling of the post-coach from
Campeachy, into the court-yard. The passengers came up, and among them
we greeted with lively satisfaction our old friend Mr. Fisher, that
citizen of the world, the last traces of whom we had seen on the
desolate island of Cozumel. Another passenger, whose voice we had heard
rising in English from the court-yard above the jargon of Spanish and
Indian, as if entirely on private account, and indifferent whether it
was understood or not, immediately accosted me as an acquaintance; said
that I had been the cause of his coming to that place, and if he did
not succeed, should come upon me for damages; but I soon learned that I
had nothing to fear. Mr. Clayton had already created, perhaps, a
greater sensation than any stranger who ever visited that country; he
had obtained a hold upon the feelings of the people that no explorers
could ever win, and will be remembered long after we are forgotten. He
had brought from the United States an entire circus company, with
spotted horses, a portable theatre, containing seats for a thousand
persons, riders, clowns, and monkeys, all complete. No such thing had
ever been seen before; it threw far into the shade Daguerreotype and
curing biscos. He had turned Campeachy upside down, and leaving his
company there to soothe the excitement and pick up the pesos, he had
come up to make arrangements for opening in Merida. And this was by no
means Mr. Clayton's first enterprise. He had brought the first giraffes
into the United States from the Cape of Good Hope, and his accounts of
penetrating fifteen hundred miles into the interior of Africa, of his
adventures among the Caffres, of shooting lions, and his high
excitement when, on a fleet horse, he ran down and shot his first
giraffe, made the exploration of ruins seem a rather tame business. He
reached the Cape with four giraffes, but two died after their arrival,
and with the others he embarked for New-York, where he expected to
deliver them over to the parties interested; but from the great care
required in their t