Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 2.djvu/65

Rh The custom-house officers in Mexico are quite as insolent as such officials usually are in other countries; with the addition that they are far more open to bribery and corruption, and are not even then to be depended on by their employers.

An amusing custom-house incident was once related to me, as having happened during the occupation of the country by the Spaniards, many years ago.

A party of Spanish merchants were on their way from the city of Mexico to Vera Cruz, with the intention of embarking at that port on a return voyage to Europe. They had been successful in their commercial transactions, and were journeying to the eastward much richer men than, many months before, they had entered the country by the same route. Pleasant images of their cherished Spain, and the friends they had there left behind, thronged upon their minds; and it is not strange, as they proceeded in anticipation of soon returning thither, that lively exclamations and cheery jests—such dignified humour as a Spaniard may be supposed to countenance on joyous occasions—should have been exchanged among them. Animated conversation