I.
TO QUERETARO.
The Start.—First and last Church in the City.—The Game-cocks.—First Scare.—Guatitlan again.—Barrenness.—Gambling and Tortilla-making.—Descent to Tula.—A Bit of English Landscape.—Tula.—Hunt for a Statue.—A silver Heavens and Earth.—Juelites.—Mountains and a mounting Sun.—Vista Hermosa.—Napola.—A stone Town.—An Interior.—The Stables.—Sombrero Walls.—Eagle Tavern.—Playing with the Children.—Gamboling versus Gambling.—Cazadero, the Bull Prairie.—Hacienda of Palmillas.—Blacksmith Idolatry.—Misterio de la Santissima Trinidad.—'Tother Side up.—Descent into the Valley of San Juan.—Lone yellow Cone.—Longfellow and Homer.—Elysium after much Turmoil.—A Dissertation on Beggars.—A Market Umbrella.—In Perils among Robbers.—The beautiful Valley of San Juan.—Colorado.—A Turner Sunset.—Sight of Queretaro.—The Aqueduct.—The Bed.
Do you want a trip of twenty days and twelve hundred miles in a stage-coach, through charming scenery, the ride made piquant with possible kidnapings, robbings, slaughters, and such like pleasantries? Then come to the office of the Diligence Company, in the Street of Independence, back of the Hotel Iturbide, and get your billet and place. The ticket will cost you ninety-nine dollars. You can deposit another hundred or two if you wish, and receive a bill of credit, on which you can draw every night, where the coach stops, of an administrador, or agent, of the company. This avoids the necessity of carrying much silver about you, and so of tempting overmuch the rapacity of the robbers among whom your journey lies. A few dollars it is desirable to carry with you in order to satisfy them partially for their trouble in stopping and searching you, and to prevent their giving you their pistol because of your refusal to give them your pistoles. If they should rob you of your bill of credit, you can telegraph back the fact, prevent its further use, and get a new one covering the amount then undrawn.
