Page:Notes of the Mexican war 1846-47-48.djvu/552

546 is poured into it. After boiling four or five minutes, it is ready to drink, and better coffee I never tasted. The charge is a malgo, or five cents, a cup; if you drink leche (milk) the price is ten cents. Spirituous liquors are found at almost every rancho. The charges for drinks are the same as for coffee. Boiled rice, green corn and bread of a tolerable quality may be enumerated among the eatables to be obtained on the passage; jerked beef may be obtained also, but it is not fit for a white man to eat, unless he be on the point of starvation. A breakfast can be served up in good style. It consists of omelette, boiled eggs, beefsteak, fried plantains, chopped beef, bread and coffee. Dinner is composed of fowls, game, soup, oranges and bananas. Started for San Angel all right.

Thursday, May 11, 1848.—This morning I visited the guardhouse. Here I saw the Massachusetts Volunteer who killed his wife a few days ago, in the plaza of San Angel; his name is Patrick Duffy. He told me that the officers of his regiment dare not court-martial him, unless they tell the truth and shame the devil. So there must be something behind the biomba (screen) which won't do to bring to light, for fear of hurting somebody high in rank. No doubt there are some very strange circumstances connected with the affair; time will tell the tale.

I saw in last Monday's Weekly Star, for the United States, that the Mexican Government at Queretaro has yielded several points of etiquette which they had previously held to, and one of them the admission into their new capital of an American escort of sixty men with the Commissioners, whom they are looking for to come daily; so things begin to look cheerful. We are watching their action with keen eye, for from there must either come a great deal of glory or sadness. Pray let us have the great hurrah. Also that the City Council of Mexico have appropriated fifty dollars to the San Patricio prisoners, and it calls upon its compatriots to go and do likewise. These men have done some service to the Mexican Government by deserting from our army and joining that of the nemy, and why