Page:Mexico, California and Arizona - 1900.djvu/182



MY next journey was by lake across Texcoco to the old capital of that name. I had hoped to take El Nezhualcoyotl, which lay in the mud by the Garita of San Lazaro, when I went to make preliminary inquiries. There would have been a certain fitness in approaching the ancient capital in a boat named after the sovereign who made it illustrious; but it was not its day for sailing.

The Nezhualcoyotl was clipper-built, as it were, a long, rusty, gondola-like scow, devoted exclusively to passenger traffic. We took instead a freight-boat of much larger and heavier build, La Ninfa Encantadora, or "the Enchanting Nymph." She would have been called the Mary Ann or Betsy Jane elsewhere, but such is the difference in the tropical imagination.

A cabin sheltered the passengers and some budgets of goods which were done up in the inevitable petates, rush mats, and included two bags of silver. There were a couple of young women going to pasear—take a little vacation-at Texcoco. "It will be triste, of course," they said, "like everything out of Mexico; still, we are going to try it for a while." They offered a part of their lunch, as travelling companions were continually doing wherever I went, and the skipper offered pulque. Two older women, in blue rebosas, sat like statues, hold-