tended the _baile de los
mestizos_--dance of the _mestizos_, where the elite of the little city
was gathered, and the place was crowded. Very little of it was
enough, for while the music and dancing were all right, the heat, the
tobacco-smoke, and the perfume, were overpowering.

To our joy, on Wednesday, the "Hidalgo" appeared, bound for
Coatzacoalcos. All day Thursday we waited for it to unload its cargo,
and on Friday morning, we loaded into a little sail-boat at the wharf,
which we hired for a price far below what the regular steamer would
have charged to take us to our vessel. The luggage had been weighed and
valued, and an imposing bill of lading, and an official document, had
been made out, to prevent our paying duty a third time when we should
reach our port. At 10:30 we were on the "Hidalgo," ready for leaving. It
is the crankiest steamer on the Ward Line, and dirty in the extreme.
The table is incomparably bad. The one redeeming feature is that the
first-class cabins are good, and on the upper deck, where they receive
abundance of fresh air; there were plenty of seats for everyone to sit
upon the deck, a thing which was not true of the "Benito Juarez."
Of other first-class passengers, there were two harmless Yucatecan
gentlemen--one of whom was seasick all the voyage,--and two Americans,
brothers, one from St. Louis, Mo., and the other from Springfield, Ill.
The captain of our vessel was a Norwegian, the first officer was a
Mexican, the chief engineer an American, the purser a low-German, the
chief steward an Oaxaca indian, and the cook a Filipino. Never was I so
glad to reach a resting-place, never so relieved, as when we got our
baggage and our sick man safely on board. As to the latter, he at once
lay down, and, practically, was not on his feet during the voyage. We
had expected to make the run in thirty hours, but were hindered by rough
weather, catching portions of two northers; the second was so bad that,
when almost in sight of our destination, we were forced to put to sea
again, and lost many hours of time and miles of distance. On the morning
of the third day, however, we had dropped anchor, and on looking from
the cabins at five, caught sight of Coatzacoalcos; but it was not the
Coatzacoalcos of 1896. Prodigious changes had taken place. The Pearson
Company, having taken possession of the railroad, had made great
improvements; their pretentious general-offices, located at the wharf,
had recently been