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434 pleasant reunion with old friends among the home scenes of our native land, the kind people of Cholula bid us good-bye, and in the gloaming of the evening we rode back to Puebla.



I shall attempt no elaborate description of the Cathedral of Puebla, for several good and sufficient reasons. One is, that no description could give the reader any adequate idea of the vast proportions, great wealth, and exceeding beauty and grandeur of this wonderful temple of the Christian faith, and another is, that so many descriptions have been attempted and resulted in failures, that I have no ambition to follow in the old, beaten track, knowing that I cannot command the language adequate for success.

The Seward party visited the cathedral, and saw all its wonders, from the grand choir, which outside is one mass of gilding and burnished precious metal, and inside a curious mosaic of beautiful woods inlaid with wonderful skill, the great altar, which is built of variegated marbles, alabaster, and other beautiful stones from the State of Puebla, and gold and silver by the cart-load, the great pillars of bluish-grey granite,