Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/227

Rh accommodations than the house, which is very small, was calculated to afford. The inn is about eleven leagues from Cūāutmănzīngŏ, and seven from San Nĭcŏlās. The whole intervening space is laid out either in fields of Maize, Frijoles, wheat, and barley, or in Maguey plantations, the value of which increases in proportion to their vicinity to the Capital. The country, as the name denotes, (Los Llanos, the plains, of Āpăn,) is flat and uninteresting. A few great Haciendas are scattered, at intervals, over the plain; but we did not see a tree throughout the whole district. Game we found in abundance, particularly hares, which differ from ours only in colour, having a much larger proportion of white, and being sometimes spotted with a sort of greyish blue.

On our approach to Otūmbă, (Dec. 30,) the appearance of a large species of Peruvian pepper, called El Arbol del Peru, and a little broken ground, announced our vicinity to the mountain-ridge which still separated us from the Valley of Mexico. The Arbol del Peru is, I believe, known in Europe, although at Madrid, where I have seen it, it was a pretty, but diminutive shrub; in Mexico, where it is very common, it attains a considerable size, and is remarkably ornamental, and graceful in its appearance.

Otūmbă, like most of the smaller towns through which we had passed, appeared to have suffered considerably during the Revolution. From its vicinity