Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/423

Rh horses and mules were cheap, we made new purchases in order to relieve our tired animals, and entered Mexico on our return with fifty-six beasts of different kinds. We often amused ourselves with fancying the sensation which the appearance of our caravan would have excited in Hyde Park, or Longchamps; where the wild horses and mules, and the servants driving them at a gallop with the lassos whirling round their heads,—the guns, and pistols, canteens, and camp-beds, carga-mules, and coach, in size like a Noah's ark, perambulating, by some accident, the land, instead of the waters, with festoons of Tasajo, (dried strips of beef sold by the yard,) and handkerchiefs full of onions and tortillas attached to different parts of it by the servants,—would have formed a curious contrast to the neat chariot and four, with patent lamps and liveried attendants, in which the preparations for a journey in Europe usually consist. Nor would the night-scenes have appeared less singular, with the pack saddles and horse-accoutrements arranged in rows under the corridor; the arms of the servants suspended near them; the horses picketed around, and the muleteers stretched on the ground by the side of a large fire, cooking their mess for the night in a common kettle, or preparing their beds under the coach, which served as a general place of rendezvous. Chăpītă, the Indian nurse, used to superintend the culinary operations of this group; and often have I seen her, before daylight, bending over the fire,