Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/51

Rh, with the additional clause to abstain from all correspondence injurious to the interest of the State of Chihuahua; a proof that my commission as a "spy" still occupied their minds. I received my passport on the evening of

September 11.–The same night I left Chihuahua, the sprightful city, which I had loved at first sight, but had now become disgusted with on account of the unjust treatment from the Mexican authorities and the licentiousness of the cowardly mobocracy. Within two days I was at the place of my exile, in Cosihuiriachi.

Gentle reader, whenever in the course of your life you should feel tempted to pronounce a foreign, jaw-breaking word, or to visit a strange-looking, incomprehensible, awful place, I would recommend to your kind attention Cosihuiriachi, because it includes everything that human imagination may conceive of–a combination of difficulties in words, appearances, and naked reality. Most willingly I would have saved to your eye the trouble of travelling so many times over the whole length of the unpronouncable word, which in old Indian language means, no doubt, a great deal more than we know of; but, as ill-fortune wished me to be confined there for six long months, I must ask you the favor to bear as patiently with the name, as I did (yielding to necessity) with the place itself.

The town of Cosihuiriachi, to come to the point, is about 90 miles west from Chihuahua, in 28° 12′ latitude north. The road to it from Chihuahua is always ascending, very rough and mountainous, and leads to the very heart of the Sierra Madre. The only considerable town on the road is San Isabel, about 35 miles west of Chihuahua. Only a part of the road can be travelled with wagons; pack-mules furnish, therefore, the means of transportation. Steep mountains of igneous rocks rise in all directions, The mountains are generally intersected by small valleys and high plains, fit for agriculture, and more yet for raising of stock; but on account of the Indians, who roam over the country, but few settlements exist. The mountains are principally formed by porphyritic rocks, and covered with oak, cedar, and pine. Travelling west of Chihuahua, one will soon perceive in the western mountain range a prominent point that is seen for a great distance, and may serve as a guide. This high mountain is called the "Bufa," and at its very foot lies the town of Cosihuiriachi. Coming close to it, the road descends for a couple of miles to a narrow ravine, between high, steep, sometimes perpendicular mountains, on both sides; and through the ravine, along a creek, stretches but one street of several hundred mud-built houses, representing the town of our banishment. The seclusionand closeness of the place, together with the poverty and filthiness of the greater part of its inhabitants, make it a very fit place to control prisoners of state and prevent them from being too comfortable. Two Americans, Mr. Phristoe and Mr. Carlysle, happened to live at that time in Cosihuiriachi, engaged in mercantile business; they received their exiled countrymen very hospitably, and extended the same favor to me on my arrival. In their dwelling-house, more commodious than the rest, we all took our lodging while Bill, our colored cook, attended to our board.

The names of the Americans who had been sent from Chihuahua to Cosihuiriachi before me, are the following: Messrs. East, Messervi, Weatherhead, Stevenson, Douglass, and Litzleiter. Our common impression then was, that our banishment could not last longer than one, or at the utmost two months, on account of the most positive news we had of