Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/264

254 States to study English in our schools; Señorita Olivia Boulay, a fair young Californian, who in three years residence in Mexico, had almost lost the faculty of speaking English, though born in San Francisco; Mr. Brennan, of the projected Tuxpan railroad, and his wife, and others.

From the windows of the residence of Mr. Gibbon at Tacubuya, there is a magnificent view of the Castle or Palace of Chapultepec, and the Molino del Rey, and from the roof, Mrs. Gibbon watched the progress of the battles of Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, Chapultepec, and the running fight down the line of the aqueduct to the Garita del Belan, and the surrender of Mexico. There, too, she often saw Maximilian walking in the gardens of Chapultepec, and all the incidents of the siege of the city by the Republicans under Porfiero Diaz, were familiar to her, as his head-quarters were at Chapultepec.

Mrs. Hammekin speaks English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian, with almost equal fluency, and has an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes relating to the different personages that have figured in Mexico since 1830. Mr. Hammekin is an American by birth, and one of those who achieved the independence of Texas, and was taken prisoner in the unfortunate "Mier Expedition." They live in one part of the extensive house formerly owned and occupied by Gen. Urega, whose complicity in the Empire caused the confiscation of all his property. The grounds are very extensive and have been very fine, but are now neglected and going to decay. Grottoes of lava, a subterranean cave with a well at the bottom said to have been excavated by Montezuma—I wonder what old Monte did not do