Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/560

530 her off, the woman's husband looking on without being able to render her the least assistance. Colonel Martinez left Esteros on the 31st May with fourteen carriages; I remained behind with two, the wheels of which wanted repair, and it took, me four days to complete them. I was two days without any food beyond what the charity of a traveller passing by afforded me, which consisted of three or four tortillas. On the 5th of June I came up with the other carriages; Martinez having stopped for me at Puerto Chocollo, five leagues from Esteros. The road between Chocollo and Esteros is excellent: about a league from the latter place we entered on a very extensive plain, having all the appearance of being cultivated. We might have almost imagined that we saw the green meadows of England, so high and luxuriant was the grass. Flocks of deer fed by the roadside, and wild turkeys were seen in abundance.

We stopped at Chocollo until the 9th June, and made three more carts, for the purpose of lightening the carriages, hoping by this means to go on faster. The road afterwards became bad, and although not so rugged as to prevent carriages from passing, our drivers were so obstinate and self-willed, that accidents were continually occurring, and three or four days were often consumed without our making any considerable progress.

On the 13th, we were stopped by a river, not on account of its water, which was very little, but by the steepness of its banks and its rocky bed, through which we were obliged to open a road for the carriages to pass. On the 14th we accomplished our task, and, on the 15th, got all the waggons over. We now began to ascend a very steep hill, and stopped about a mile up its side, on a sort of natural terrace, the level of which we found convenient for our carriages. Contrary to our usual custom, we started early on the following morning, and reached the summit of the mountain about four o'clock in the afternoon; where a considerable village, called Coco, is situated, the property of a single individual, by name Quintero. This place is twenty-one leagues from Altamira; and from the salubrity of its climate, it affords a safe retreat to the inhabitants of Tampico, Altamira, and other unhealthy towns on the Coast,