and barbarous weapon--the _riata_!"--was recorded by the
French soldiery at that time.

As to foreigners in Mexico at the present time, those most in evidence
are the Spaniards and the Americans of the United States. Spaniards are
continually arriving, and they generally settle down and make good and
useful citizens, and often amass much wealth. They are not, however, of
the upper or cultivated class from Spain, and their manners and
language are far inferior to those of the cultured Mexicans. The
Spaniard of a certain class is possibly the worst-spoken man to be met
with. His speech teems with indecent words and profane oaths, and
whilst he does not mean to use these except as a mere habit, it marks
him out from other races, even from the American with his own peculiar
and constant "god-dam" and other characteristic terms, both profane and
indecent. The most noticeable and objectionable American habit,
however, which is shared by the Mexican and South American to the full,
is that of continually expectorating. The Anglo-American never leaves
it off, whilst, as to the Spanish-American, it is necessary to put up
notices in the churches in some places requesting people "not to spit
in the house of God!" There is a considerable population of Americans
in Mexico, and some of these are of doubtful class and antecedents. But
it would be unjust to pretend that only the Americans have furnished a
doubtful element for Mexico's floating population. The shores of Albion
have furnished a good many examples in the form of "unspeakable"
Scotchmen, Englishmen, and Irishmen, at times. Yet the British name
has, as a rule, been well established throughout Mexico and
Spanish-America, and the American from the United States has often
enjoyed the benefit of a reputation he had not earned, for, to the
native mind, the distinction between the two English-speaking races is
not always apparent at first sight, although it is upon closer
acquaintance.

Whilst there is a growing sense of respect and esteem between the
Mexicans and the Americans, the former have never quite forgotten that
the latter despoiled them of an empire--from their point of view--by
the Texan war, half a century ago or more, and only recently have the
Mexicans come to believe that the big republic to the north no longer
cherishes desires of further annexation of territory. The Americans,
for their part, have given up dubbing the Mexicans as "greasers," and
have acknowledg