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366, very materially to affect their own prospects of success, I am still inclined to believe that, if the system hitherto pursued be adhered to, the present year, (1828,) will place the result of the enterprise beyond all doubt.

On the 27th of July I returned from Real del Monte to the Capital, where I arrived after an absence of sixteen days. My party had been unusually numerous, Mr. Ball, Dr. Wilson, and Mr. Carrington, having all accompanied me upon this tour, which was not accomplished without a number of little vicissitudes. There was not a single person in Mexico able to give us a correct idea either of the distance, or of the route to Zĭmăpān, and it was in consequence of this want of information that we found ourselves involved, the second day, in the fatiguing journey to Ītzmĭquīlpăn, which the heat and drought together rendered almost insupportable. From the Hacienda de San Pedro to the river below the town, (a distance of twelve leagues,) we did not cross a single stream of water. One of Mr. Ball's horses, (which left Mexico too fat for travelling) sickened and died in consequence; and one of mine, towards the latter part of the day, was affected by the sun in a very extraordinary manner. He became perfectly mad, and rushed with the utmost fury not only upon the persons who approached him, but upon his companions, amongst whom we tried to drive him loose before us. As a last resource we were forced to lasso him with two lassos,