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250 yawning cavity, where I long lay insensible: I felt it rock and tremble fearfully when I recovered, but fortunately it closed not. No other member of my family survived. On the morning of the next day, when the earth had ceased to vibrate, and the storm had spent its strength, I feebly rose from my retreat, and searched with a stricken heart among the ruins and bodies around me. Judge of my feelings at discovering no trace of any one who had been dear to me, and that I was the only human being who had been preserved alive!

"Since that period, I have been desolate and a wanderer. As an alleviation to my misery, I resolved to travel to other countries. I have kept my vow; I have toiled on, in difficulty and destitution, ever northwards, to this place—and here I think my wanderings will soon be ended."

Of the remainder of this poor wayfarer's defence,—how he accounted for having eluded the officers at the city gates, and pleaded guilty to the charge of theft while in want,—I took no notes; nor how the tears fell in torrents from his cheeks in the course of his narrative, insomuch that the administradores