Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/415

 as I had seen them in abundance in the island of Tobago, near the coast of South America, where they make a noise so much like the distant whistle of a locomotive that I have often jumped from some solitary path, on hearing one suddenly start up, thinking a steam-engine was close behind me.

In directing our steps toward a chapel called Chapultepec, we had to cross a field in which some men were working, and waded through a rich crop of alfalfa. A dog barked at us, but the owner did not "sing out," as a Northern farmer would have done, "What ye doin' in that grass?" He saluted us politely, and kindly pointed out to us the road to take. And so we went on, through lanes bordered by flowering trees, until we reached the chapel, into the tower of which we climbed for a view, and found a stone there with the date año de 1739,—pretty old for the United States, but recent for Mexico. I gave some boys there a centavo each, at which a smile rippled all over them, and when we came to leave, they bade us a most affectionate good by. I remarked that they seemed like very good boys, but my friend the missionary objected, saying that they were muy fanaticos; that the priest was their only god,—El padre es el dios del pueblo; that it was a bad place, where they frequently killed the Protestants,—Ellos mataron los Protestantes. It may have been so, though I saw nothing but peace and good will; or it may be that he, being a Protestant Mexican, is prejudiced. But he said they threatened to kill him, only a year ago, and I suppose I might feel the same, if they had offered to kill me.

My friend risked his life pretty freely, at all events, in going about with me, for there was scarcely a place of interest which we did not visit. On June 2d we set out for the famous, yet little known ruins of Xochicalco, about the locality of which my guide knew as little as myself, yet he confidently engaged to pilot me to the spot.

The road we were following was the famous "Acapulco Trail," leading from that part of the Pacific to the city of Mexico, and which has been worn by the feet of countless mules and burros for three hundred years and over. It is a twelve-days journey from the capital to Acapulco, and one must procure his entire