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306 on his part, than of the want of courage on that of his adversaries.

On the 4th of March, I quitted Cŏcŏyōc; not without regret, for although the house is bad, nothing can be more striking than the view of Pŏpŏcătēpĕtl from the balcony, where we used to sit, and enjoy the evening breeze, after the fatigue of our morning's ride. A coffee plantation, too, intersected by walks of orange trees, and kept in the nicest order, is always a beautiful object; and to an eye accustomed to the stunted vegetation of the Table-land, the foliage even of the more ordinary trees, in which the Tierra Caliente abounds, must always be a relief.

The ascent towards the Capital commences very abruptly. On the outskirts of the Valley of Cūāūtlă, are two little Ranches, near which most of the bananas are grown with which the Mexican market is supplied. The change from the cane huts of these Indians, buried amongst the leaves of the Platano Arton, to the Pine forests, that occupy the region immediately above, is extremely sudden. Through these you labour on for about eight leagues, in the course of which two or three uninteresting Pueblos are passed, when you commence a very gradual descent into the valley of Mexico, which we entered to the South of the town of Chalco, where we passed the night. It would not have been impossible to reach the Capital the same evening, as the distance did not exceed nine leagues; but our horses had