Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 1.djvu/581

Rh and tough, that it is frequently employed in lieu of iron to make the screws of the cotton presses;) together with iron-wood, hicory, and many other woods admirably adapted for the lathe. The sugar-maple is also very valuable: an auger-hole being bored in its trunk in the spring of the year, a small spout is inserted, and the liquor, which is subsequently evaporated to a consistency, is caught in a vessel. A single tree has been known to yield one hundred and fifty pounds of sugar; the average daily produce being from three to four or six pounds. I found its flavour very pleasant, but do not think it is nearly so sweet as the common sugar. Humboldt's prediction, that carriages would pass from Washington to the city of Mexico, has been verified. North Americans have, in their convenient and light Dearborne, or Jersey waggons, repeatedly passed into the Interior of Mexico from the United States. Roads are very easily made through Texas, as the country is either flat or gently undulating. To clear away the wood costs little trouble; and although the rivers are numerous, being generally narrow and deep, they oppose no obstacles but such as can be easily surmounted. The fact that Mr. Couci, an enterprising Frenchman, with about forty others, nearly all his countrymen, passed through Texas with several large waggons laden with goods, in June 1826, is the best proof of the facility with which every difficulty such as those which are usually met with in a new country, is here overcome. The Dearborne, or Jersey waggon, just mentioned, is admirably calculated for journeys through countries where rivers or other natural impediments may render it necessary that each part be speedily reduced to a small size or weight, so as to be rendered portable. It is taken to pieces with the greatest ease, and a raft formed of a few trunks, or the larger branches of trees, then suffices to convey it across the rivers, or the whole is progressively passed by hand over any other obstacle.

Those who have been settled in Texas a few months, really enjoy more comforts (and these, in addition to the opportunity of realizing a handsome property,) than any peasantry with which I am acquainted. One act of liberality and hospitality-which is constantly practised by all his neighbours towards a new comer, whose character is found unexceptionable, would do