Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/418

402 the inconvenience with which the reception of so numerous a party must have been attended anywhere else. The inns mostly contain four or five small rooms opening into the Patio; but in the Haciendas, where the accommodations consist of one large sala, which is the only spare room, it is impossible to attempt a subdivision of apartments; and although we had provided for desperate cases, by carrying with us a large canvass curtain, so contrived as to be easily suspended across a room, and thus, in fact, to make it two, still the number of females rendered it desirable to have recourse to this expedient as seldom as possible.

Mrs. Ward was accompanied by two Mexican maids, who, with the children, occupied a large coach, drawn by eight mules, which I purchased for the purpose, of a gentleman recently arrived from Durango. As we shut up house altogether in the Capital, our whole Mexican establishment attended us, although with some changes of character, in order the better to suit them to our purposes upon the road. For instance, one of the footmen acted as postilion, and, with the coachman, took entire charge of the coach; while a lad who had been employed for some time in the kitchen in Mexico, appeared in the double capacity of mule-driver, and cook; in the first of which occupations he displayed such activity, and flew about so rapidly in pursuit of the scattered animals entrusted to his charge, that he soon acquired from his fellow