Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/197

Rh Fifty-five miles from the coast is Cerro Gordo, famous in the annals of the Mexican war,—a narrow pass between very high hills. Regarding the passage of Cerro Gordo, an English traveller reluctantly yields to our troops the following praise: "That ten thousand Americans should have been able to get through the mountain passes, and to reach the capital at all, is an astonishing thing; and after that, their successes in the valley of Mexico follow as a matter of course. They could never have crossed the mountains but for a combination of circumstances."

The road is everywhere commanded; there was no other trail,—hills and mountains on every side; so General Scott had to throw skirmishers along all these ridges before his army could pass. It is a long distance through, and must have been a perilous pass, with just width enough between high cliffs for the road to run. Not far from the narrowest portion, a trail leads off to the left, up to a ridge where cannon are yet found, and behind which Santa Anna lost his leg,—his wooden one. A few tile-covered, tumble-down shanties constitute the hamlet of Cerro Gordo, half a mile farther on.

The land is now of the uplands. Cerro Gordo guards the passage from the hot lowlands to the salubrious temperate region; streams now run by the track, good pasturage commences, and the way is all up hill. Some four miles farther we entered rolling upland pastures, where corn was growing, and a straggling hacienda was visible now and again. Beyond this the ridges are covered with hard woods, corn and sugar-cane grow side by side in the vales, fields of barley are spread invitingly about, and, as we gallop into Jalapa, we cannot but notice the groves of coffee trees by which the houses are surrounded.

At the Hotel Vera-Cruzana, a low building about an open court with fountains and flowers, we obtained good accommodation, at the termination of our ride of nearly twelve hours. Though generally surrounded by clouds of mist, Jalapa possesses a superior situation, with grand mountain views, and the combined vegetation of the high and the low country. Possessing also a temperate climate, it produces, it is said, the prettiest