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670, the Hacienda having been burnt during the Revolution: we, however, fitted up two very tolerable apartments in the corridor with blankets and cloaks, in which, as there was not much wind, we passed the night without discomfort.

Jan. 11.—To Tlăsĕsālcă, ten leagues.

This day's experience effectually convinced us of the folly of taking cross-roads with a carriage. It was our intention to sleep at Cĭpĭmēŏ, another Hacienda, put down in our route as a very feasible distance; but after reaching, about two o'clock, the Hacienda of Chāngĕtīrŏ, we found our farther progress impeded by a succession of inclosures, through which it was necessary to force our way by opening breaches in the thick stone walls large enough to admit the carriage. Fortunately, Mexicans have a great talent for demolition; and the servants, who all went to work con amore, soon opened us a passage; but after continuing the work till six o'clock, during which time we had made our way through six or seven inclosures, we found ourselves at dusk upon the top of a hill immediately above the Pueblo of Tlăsĕsālcă (ten leagues from Cĭpĭmēŏ), where we resolved to pass the night. To reach it was no easy task, as the descent consisted entirely of fragments of rock, over which it seemed impossible that a carriage should find its way unbroken. From this dilemma we were extricated by a Vaquero, who offered to show us a winding path, through which he had once conducted the Insurgent artillery during the