Page:Mexico as it was and as it is.djvu/185



L us return in this letter from the Past to the Present.

The 28th of August was the festival of the, and, accompanied by some friends, I went to an Indian village of that name about nine miles from the city, upon the first rise of the western mountains from the plain of the valley. In passing through the suburb of St. Cosmé, (where many of the pleasantest residences in Mexico are situated, surrounded by tasteful gardens and fountains supplied by the adjacent aqueduct,) the house of M. Mairet, the Swiss Consul, was pointed out to us.

This gentleman was a person of fortune, and lived at St. Cosmé in a tasteful little bachelor establishment, where, according to the custom of this bankless country, he usually kept his money. Most of the dwellings in this quarter are strongly built, and the windows are generally protected by iron bars, so that it would be difficult for robbers to effect an entrance, especially as the occupants usually keep a couple of strong and fierce dogs in the patio and on the azotéa.

One day, however, a coach drove to the front gate about noon, and a man, dressed in the habit of a priest with broad shovel-hat, descended from it accompanied by two others, and stated to the servant who admitted them, that they were exceedingly anxious to procure from Mr. Mairet a skin of parchment, in which article, I believe, he chiefly dealt. As soon as they were admitted within the gate, they locked it, seized the servant, tied him to a pillar, and gagged him. They then proceeded to the house, where they found Mairet alone. They attacked him with knives, cut and wounded him severely, and forced him to disclose the place where be concealed his money. Having got possession of it, and rifled the house of everything valuable, they fled. Poor Mairet died of his wounds; and the robbers (but one of who was discovered, tried and executed,) escaped with ten thousand dollars.

This is one instance only of the crimes that are even yet often committed throughout the Republic.

In the year 1824, during the high times of old-fashioned bigotry in Mexico, a murder of the most appalling character occurred.