three charming days in the lovely environs of this town, which is not far from the snow-capped peak of the volcano Orizaba, 17,000 feet in height. The country round Jalapa is a mixture of luxuriant open pasture-land and beautiful woods in which the oaks and liquidambar trees were the most conspicuous and beautiful. We visited an Englishman named Brooks who had a large and very thriving coffee plantation at Cuantepec, about two hours’ ride from Jalapa, and we could not help contrasting the cleanliness and comfort of Mrs. Brooks’ house with the dirty and slovenly state in which most Mexicans, even of the wealthy class, habitu¬ ally live and seem to be quite contented, though noxious insects of many kinds are common and in some parts of the country very numerous. From Jalapa we arranged to ride by a very beautiful hilly route to Orizaba, our baggage being carried by three Indian porters.
The first night we had an introduction to a hacienda belonging to a wealthy Mexican at Tusamapam, where we expected hospitality but found none. If it had not been for the German manager of the sugar factory we might have had to sleep in an Indian hut, as the major domo in the absence of the proprietor was very surly. Eventually, however, we got a bare unfurnished room with a bedstead, and Godman slept in another whence the fighting-cocks of the establishment were turned out for his reception, and where he was able to sling the hammock in which he usually slept in Mexico. After some delay we got a table and an Indian woman cooked us a chicken with rice, an omelette and some frigoles, or black beans cooked in lard, without which no Mexican repast is complete.
Next morning, after inspecting the very extensive sugar factory, where a coarse brown sugar is made, we started in the rain and descended into the barranca of the Rio Grande, where the vegetation was especially beautiful. After crossing the river on a balsa or raft and swimming the horses over, we ascended to some Indian huts, and breakfasted in a shed, after crossing a tributary of the Rio Grande in the same fashion. The scenery and vegetation during the whole day were very beautiful. In the afternoon we reached another Indian village called Pincos, where we expected to get lodged by the proprietor of the village shop, which was little better than a drinking place. As the man could not read the letter we brought to him, we waited till his wife came home, and eventually got a shelter for the night in a newly built hut fourteen feet square, where we managed to pass the night under very different conditions to what one would expect on a well-travelled road in a long settled country.
The scenery of the next day’s journey, however, repaid us for all dis¬ comfort and the flowers and ferns were very varied and beautiful. The snowy peak of Orizaba, constantly visible out of these deep semi-tropical valleys, reminded me somewhat of the Tista valley in Sikkim, though the latter is far more striking and stupendous. At midday we arrived at the much cleaner and pleasanter village of San Bartolo, where, in the village shop or inn, usually combined in one in Mexico, we got an unusually good meal of omelette with green peas and chillies, with chicken and rice to follow, and topped up with rice stewed in milk and sugar. Tortillas made of a black variety of maize, though not pleasant to look at, are good to eat when fresh and hot.
