Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/391

 snow-covered dome, with the black rock known as Pico del Fraile sticking up on its western ridge.

The peon had been instructed to awaken us at three o'clock in the morning, that we might get well up to the snow-line before the sun rose; but the poor fellow was worn out with cold and fatigue, and when I awoke it was five o'clock, and neither horses nor coffee were ready. The temperature was 48° Fahr. as we started, and the trees sparkling with frost; the sun peered above Malinche,—the solitary mountain that rises from the valley of Puebla,—turning it a fiery red, and bathing the whole Puebla valley in soft rosy mist, then, striking upon the cone of Popocatapetl, made it glisten like a silver dome. It was a glorious spectacle, with the sun's rays rebounding, as it were, from the silver mountain, that towered majestically so far above us into the blue ether. It nerved and braced me for a struggle that I had reason to think would be severe. For two weeks before I started, I had searched Mexico for some companion; but was successful only in developing some of the most disheartening stories of previous experiences, from the few who had ascended the volcano, that ever reached the ears of man. First, I should be robbed in Ameca, then murdered on the road up the mountain, as I passed through the forest; escaping these, I should certainly succumb to the cold at the rancho; or, if not, then I could not miss bursting a blood-vessel as I reached the crater. Of the many who had attempted the ascent few had succeeded, for they either became footsore, or fainted, or bled at the nose, eyes, and ears, or from the lungs, or mangled themselves on the frozen cone. It was a most discouraging prospect; but the trouble was with nearly all who have attempted the ascent, that they were mainly dwellers in cities, who had not often "roughed it," and who looked upon the whole trip as a glorious picnic, and prepared themselves accordingly, with great quantities of eatables and liquor. They, moreover, nearly always carried along their wives and families, and would drag these frail creatures as long as possible, and then have to take them back to the rancho. They told me I must wrap my feet with bundles of rags, to prevent them from sinking in the snow.