Captain Don Blas and the Silver Convoy.
CHAPTER I.
Threatened Insurrection in Mexico.—Stealthy Movements of Troops.—General Don Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna.
The day was approaching on which I was to leave Mexico for Vera Cruz, to embark for Europe. For several years before this a Yankee company had established a line of diligences which ran between several of the largest towns; wagons, also, for the conveyance of heavy goods, competed with the picturesque caravans of the arrieros on all the principal roads. Ought I to give up my habit of solitary for no other reason than the quickness of transit between Mexico and Vera Cruz? I must then renounce the hospitality of the venta, so pleasant after a long ride the siesta under the shade of a tree the friendly connection of horse and rider, and all the enlivening contingencies of solitary travel. I must confess that I could not look upon this innovation, due to the foreigner who had brought Vera Cruz within four days' journey of Mexico, without some degree of abhorrence. I felt that, under the influence of more rapid communication, the ancient appearance of Mexico was beginning to alter. I groaned and chafed like an antiquarian who sees rude hands defacing some rare and ancient medal. The establishment of this new kind of conveyance in
