Page:Life in Mexico vol 1.djvu/207



 Convent of San Joaquin — Mexico in the morning — Tacuba — Carmelite Prior — Convent Garden — Hacienda of Los Morales — El Olivar — A Huacamaya — Humming Birds — Correspondence — Expected Consecration — Visit to the Mineria — Botanic Garden — Arbol de las Manitas — The Museum — Equestrian Statue — Academy of Painting and Sculpture — Disappointment.

this morning we rode to the Convent of San Joaquin, belonging to friars of the CarmeHte order, passing through Tacuba, the ancient Tlacopan, once the capital of a small kingdom, and whose monarch, Tetlepanquetzaltzin, (short and convenient name) Cortes caused to be hanged on a tree for a supposed or real conspiracy. The number of carts, the innumerable Indians loaded like beasts of burthen, their women with baskets of vegetables in their hands and children on their backs, the long strings of arriéros with their loaded mules, the droves of cattle, the flocks of sheep, the herds of pigs, render it a work of some difficulty to make one's way on horseback out of the gates of Mexico at an early hour of the morning, but it must be confessed, that the whole scene is lively and cheerful enough, to make one forget that there is such a thing as care in the world. There is an indifferent, placid smile on every face, and the bright blue sky smiling over them all; dogs bark,