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396 there is a sort of Table-land, upon which the Hacienda stands; and from this another long and sweeping descent leads to Zitacuaro, through a succession of woods, with occasional openings, so natural, and yet so varied, that you can hardly conceive them not to have been made to ornament some stupendous park. At Zitacuaro, where we arrived on a market-day, we found provisions of all kinds in the greatest abundance, and made a most delicious breakfast, on new milk, the finest wheaten bread, and eggs, with oranges, pines, and sugar-cane, all the produce of the surrounding district. From thence to Ăngăngēŏ, the country assumes a more rugged character, and pine-forests, similar to those about Tlălpŭjāhuă and El Oro, mark the transition from the Tierra Templada below, to the less genial atmosphere of the higher regions.

I arrived in Mexico on the 5th of September, and immediately commenced my preparations for my great journey into the Interior, which did not, however, take place until the beginning of November; all my plans having been deranged by the illness of my eldest little girl, who was very nearly killed by a coup de soleil, which brought on a brain fever, and left us, at one time, very little hope of her surviving. To the skill and unremitting attentions of Doctor Wilson we were indebted for her recovery, but she was long in too weak a state to bear the fatigue of travelling; and as Mrs. Ward had resolved