measured, which caused the old monster to leave our quarters without ceremony.

March 11th. Marched ten leagues before we were halted to noon it, and placed in a stable with the horses, mules, and asses. This long march was exceedingly fatiguing, and we suffered badly for water. After much begging, I purchased one medio worth, while the Mexican soldiers were served with large caskfuls in our presence.

In the mean time, the officer of our guard retailed a barrel of pulque to our companions at an unusual high price. The settlement between him and the [202] owner of the pulque explained that he was interested in its sale, and, as a more certain means of making us buy freely, we were kept from water. After the pulque was sold, and just as the march was about to be resumed, we were furnished water.

There is something so inexpressibly mean in this transaction, that a captain, wearing two epaulets, should be guilty of such low thieving, will be difficult of belief in the United States or any honourable service. The moral grade of honour governing the Mexican service may be better estimated from the fact that there were several officers who would borrow from one to five, and in one case as high as ten dollars from us, whose funds they must have presumed to be low, under, in every instance, the most solemn promise that at some place ahead they would return it. In no instance was a shilling ever returned; and though we loaned the money in no expectation that it would be returned, yet these loans were serviceable to us in two respects. The borrower looked upon it as an appeal to his better treatment of us, and it generally had that effect, while the amount loaned to different officers served to designate them. Thus, instead of using our vernacular English upon the hard Spanish names, we would, "for short," call such a one "Sergeant Ten Dollars," "Lieutenant Three Dollars," or "Captain Five Dollars," according to the amounts which they respectively borrowed.

Another characteristic peculiar to the "magnanimous nation" is, that they not only do not wash their [203] faces, but they do not wash the plates in which they serve dinner. The sutler-woman, in bringing round to us for sale large earthen jars of hashed mutton, "chilé," and tortillas, would first serve to their own officers a saucer full generally for a medio, the sixteenth of a dollar, which they would eat with their fingers. There are only a few of the richest people in Mexico who own knives and forks, and the most of them handle them with as little grace as a cornfield negro would a rapier. The tortilla is a cake of bread made of Indian corn, about the thickness of upper leather, and quite as pliant. This cake not only serves the Mexicans as bread, but answers the triple purpose of knife, fork, and spoon: he with surprising dexterity will tear off a piece, and