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182 wars; but although the ground rises but little in the intervening space, we found the greatest difficulty in advancing, from the extreme badness of the road, which was in many places a wilderness of sand. The carriage-mules knocked up, and the coachmen mutinied both at El Mănăntĭāl, and at Pāsŏ Ovējăs, two Ranchos, at each of which they seemed determined to pass the night; and although we forced them on, and left a guard with them at last, with strict orders not to allow them to stop, they did not reach the Puente until two in the morning. We arrived ourselves about dusk, with barely light enough to enable us to admire the beautiful scenery by which we were surrounded. The bridge which is thrown over the river Ăntĭgŭa at this place is, like most Spanish works of this description, admirably constructed. The arches are of stone, and the bridge itself communicates with a causeway, which, on the one side, winds down a steep descent, and on the other, forms an elevated road, along which the huts, of which the village of the Puente is composed, are scattered amongst some large trees, at considerable intervals from each other. But it is on looking towards the Veracruz side that you are struck with the picturesque appearance of the bridge, for there you perceive most distinctly the curve in which its peculiarity consists; while the fine masses of rock that command it, and the rapid stream that runs below, forcing a passage over a thousand obstacles,