that it was strange that such heretics as we, so very ignorant of the Holy Virgin and the saints, should be braver and more skilled in war than they. With their supreme ignorance in most things, I have never yet seen a Mexican officer so ignorant as to doubt that superiority; and the very many with whom I have conversed think it no disparagement to their arms when we allow that they may possibly fight us five to our one.

The marquis has very extensive estates. We were told that he owned some twenty odd haciendas. We travelled several days upon his possessions. The principal income of his estates is in the sale of livestock. At the hacienda Xaral we were informed that he butchered ninety thousand wethers2 per annum. The slaughter-house was pointed out to us: an extensive establishment, with kettles arranged something after the plan of sugar-boilers, into which, after the sheep are butchered, and chopped up bone and flesh together, they are placed, and the tallow extracted. Both the tallow and the residuum form extensive articles of commerce: the former for candles and for other purposes, and the latter, being [190] ready cooked, is generally kept for sale in the shops as an article of food, and much use made of it by the soldiery, it being always ready to be eaten.

The pavement in our prison-room being smooth, we slept soundly until awakened by the bugles at four o'clock. We were now informed that if we wished to ride any farther on our journey, we could have the privilege of hiring our own mules or burros. Up to this time we had been furnished horses, both by order of General Ampudia, and Governor Ortega of New Leon, and such was the order of the governor of San Luis Potosi, who had two days previous furnished us with the horses we rode to this place. We remonstrated with Colonel Terris against this act as violative of our articles of capitulation and the reiterated promises of General Ampudia, but to little effect. Our rations had been reduced by him from fifty to twenty-five cents per day, which, under the rascally imposition of our officers and orderlies, would not have been sufficient to sustain life, had it not been for our excellent friends in Matamoras insisting upon our taking some money to meet such emergencies.

We determined not to submit quietly to any imposition from the commandant, and told him that we would represent his conduct to his master at the capital; and after procuring a mule, upon which our blankets and sheepskins were packed, we were marched out on foot with a file of bayoneted guards upon each hand, under the repeated cry of officer, sergeants, and corporals, of "dos-a-dos," two and two.[191]

March 3d. Our road to-day lay in a southern direction, up the valley in which Xaral is situated, and five leagues brought us to a parallel chain of the Sierra Madre, the mother mountain, under the never-ceasing cry of "delante,"3 forward, of our guards. It was the first day that we were compelled to march on foot - the first day on foot is always the most tiresome - and, having been