Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/562

532 We stopped a day at Alamitas, to mend a wheel that had been broken in descending the mountain. We travelled on during the whole of the 29th and 30th, without any sort of accident, although our road was excessively rough: we rested on the 1st of July, at a place called Pletil, a small village pleasantly situated on the banks of a river, five leagues from Alamitas. On the 2nd and 3rd, we performed five leagues, but were delayed considerably the next day by a rivulet which crossed our road, having been obliged to level its sides for the purpose of allowing the carriages to proceed; our distance on this account did not amount to a league. On the 5th, however, we made up for the detention, by going four leagues, which brought us to the village of Apanoche. Here we were stopped by a river, which, during the rainy months, is deep, rapid, and altogether impassable; it was now however fordable for horses, but unless some means could be found to render the stream more shallow, the carriages could not go over. I employed twenty Indians to cut down some large trees that were hanging over the river, allowing them to fall in the strongest part of the current, and by throwing stones on the branches we succeeded in forming a partial dam, which greatly reduced the depth and force of the water. The banks of the river being steep, we were obliged again to use our ropes. We employed about fifty Indians, the chief of whom could speak a little Spanish, and served as an interpreter for the rest. On our lowering a carriage into the river, these men, with six yoke of oxen, would draw it as far across as possible; but to ascend the other side, twenty yoke of oxen, and all the Indians were barely sufficient, so steep were the banks. We succeeded however, by dint of hard labour, in getting all the carriages over on the 7th.

On the 8th we resumed our journey, drove on about two leagues, and stopped for the night. The road rather uneven, but very few stones. During the night the Indians carried off eleven of our bullocks; we soon got news of them however, and easily recovered them. On the 9th we had a very rough piece of road to go over, a good deal of which we were obliged to repair before we could proceed; and we stopped at about a league and a half distance from our place of starting in the morning.