Page:Mexico in 1827 Vol 2.djvu/506

486 weather. The view of the lights belonging to these hovels at night, scattered over the dark sides of the mountain, sometimes peeping forth from a barranca, and at others shining bright upon a little platform, so elevated and inaccessible that you can hardly suppose it to be the abode of any human being, is exceedingly singular. Catorce, however, notwithstanding the difficulties of the approach, is abundantly supplied with provisions; meat, fowls, fruit, and all other necessaries being brought from the Tierra Caliente to the East, as well as from the Table-land; and the competition in the market is so great, that maize, which, during the scarce season of 1826, had often been worth two and a half and three dollars in the plains below, had been sold constantly in the town at two dollars the fanega.

We were lodged in a house belonging to the Catorce Company, situated in the principal street, (La calle del Commercio,) where we met with a most hospitable reception from Mr. Macartney: the house was exceedingly small, but we were infinitely more comfortable in it than we should have been in more spacious quarters, both from his kindness, and because we possessed the advantage of a fireplace, which the severity of the cold rendered a most valuable acquisition. The height of the town of Catorce above the level of the sea, according to the measures taken by Captain Wylde, and given to me by Colonel Grasses, is only 7,760 feet, or 292 feet higher than Mexico; but a difference of four and a half