Page:The Rambler in Mexico.djvu/40

34 but bushy hill; with the tranquillity reigning in the streets and environs, forms a pleasant contrast to the busy, half European, and more prosaic features of its more prosperous rival. The peninsular position of Tampico, rendered it of necessity subject to a certain degree of monotony. Here there was none; the town was low built and flat roofed, the facades of the houses mostly showing in the faded gayety of their colouring, what they had once been. Many had courts and porticoes, and a group of tasty old houses, of Spanish erection, near the humble church and in the vicinity a group of tall cocoa palms, marked the former seat of government.

Were you inclined for an hour's stroll, that hour carried you up the undulating slope of the hills, amid a wilderness of sweet flowers and shrubs, pausing from time to time to catch a glance of that broad and magnificent picture, of those lakes and rivers with their intermediate woods and plains,glowing in the sunshine, till gaining the crest called La Mira, you might survey the country spread like a map at your feet on one hand, and on the other the deep blue waters of the gulf unfurled to the eastern horizon. Did you seek repose and shade, a foot-way, turning abruptly from the main road of the town against the bosom of the hill, brought you unexpectedly to the Fuenta, a little dell concealing one of the most beautiful and poetic springs in any land. How poetic! how classic! I have often exclaimed, when burying myself under the shade of the trees and luxuriant creepers, which, in untrimmed luxuriance, overhung that romantic paradise of birds, butterflies, and garapatos, and scanning the groups of females gathered round its basin. The source lay concealed underneath a massive shrine of gray stone, to which convenient access was afforded by a descent of a few stone steps, while a long stone reservoir, extending for a dozen feet along the bank of the dell, richly overshadowed by a splendid line of matted creepers from the trees above, served the purpose of a convenient place for washing. Its margin was generally crowded with females of all ages. The groups employed in filling their large earthen jars and bottles, the