Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/421

Rh travelling-dress; and we ourselves brought up the rear, to pick up stragglers, and to keep the party together. In very bad ground, the order of march was reversed, and we took the lead ourselves, in order to examine the Barrancas, (ravines,) and to ascertain the spot where the carriage could cross with least damage. In this too Hilario was of the greatest use, for he had the eye of a hawk, and having been accustomed to travel with artillery, he had some idea of the powers of wood and iron, and knew that there were some things which it was absolutely impossible for them to bear. His countrymen in general drive over, or through every thing, and look excessively surprised when an unfortunate wheel gives way, (as it usually does,) with a crash, after surviving trials which it would make an English coachmaker's hair stand on end to look at. I could not imagine, at first, to what the toughness of Mexican wheels was due, for they are clumsily put together, and the iron part is composed of separate pieces, instead of forming one compact circle. But then the whole is so bound up with strips of raw hide, which contract in the sun, that it will rather bend than break, and can hardly fall to pieces under any circumstances. It sometimes indeed assumes rather an oval than a circular form, but this fault corrects itself: the projecting parts are