Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/223

Rh plain near Jalapa, is 155 metres less, or 17,377 feet in all. It will be seen that my determination agrees very nearly with that of Mr. Ferrar.

"We remained on the summit about an hour,—planted our national banner and saluted it with three hearty cheers. The day was clear, but the atmosphere thick and smoky, so that we did not enjoy the views we had hoped for; but as we believed ourselves to have been the first who ever looked into the crater, we were amply repaid for our trouble.

"The descent was by no means so difficult as the ascent; a slide on the snow or sand carried us hundreds of feet down a space which had required many weary steps to ascend. About dark we arrived at our encampment, highly delighted with our trip, though much exhausted. All who made the final attempt were more or less affected either with violent headaches, nausea, and vomiting, or bleeding at the nose. The veils which we provided for our journey did good service, but the face, and particularly the lips, of all who reached the summit, became so extremely swollen and cracked as to confine them to their rooms for several days.

"The difficulty of the undertaking had been greatly magnified;—none of our preparations, excepting veils, were necessary. The sand is the most serious obstacle to be overcome, and by taking a more circuitous route from our last encampment, this might have been avoided. All that is required is patience, perseverance and a physical constitution capable of sustaining fatigue."

During the sojourn of Mr. Norman in Mexico, in 1844, as described in his "Rambles by Land and Water," he made an excursion to visit the ancient town of Panuco, where he was received with the greatest kindness and hospitality by the white and half breed inhabitants. His route lay along the banks of the river, and across the prairies: the common road being only a bridle path through the forest which is never travelled but with the greatest caution and watchfulness. Here, as in the State of Tamaulipas, he visited the Indian huts that lay in his way; but it was quite impossible to convihce the credulous children of the wilderness that the acquisition of gold was not the real object of his visit;—and this circumstance may account for the fact that he obtained from them so little information respecting the neighborhood.