ng to
Cuantla, descent enough had been made to occasion a material change in
the climate and productions of the soil; but such is the case. In the
morning we left a temperate climate where the cereals and fruits are
those common to the United States, we halted in the evening in a
tropical climate where the orange and banana, the coffee and the
sugar-cane were flourishing. We had been travelling, apparently,
on a plain all day, but in the direction of the flow of water.

Soon after the capture of the City of Mexico an armistice had been
agreed to, designating the limits beyond which troops of the respective
armies were not to go during its continuance. Our party knew nothing
about these limits. As we approached Cuantla bugles sounded the
assembly, and soldiers rushed from the guard-house in the edge of the
town towards us. Our party halted, and I tied a white pocket
handkerchief to a stick and, using it as a flag of truce, proceeded on
to the town. Captains Sibley and Porter followed a few hundred yards
behind. I was detained at the guard-house until a messenger could be
dispatched to the quarters of the commanding general, who authorized
that I should be conducted to him. I had been with the general but a
few minutes when the two officers following announced themselves. The
Mexican general reminded us that it was a violation of the truce for us
to be there. However, as we had no special authority from our own
commanding general, and as we knew nothing about the terms of the truce,
we were permitted to occupy a vacant house outside the guard for the
night, with the promise of a guide to put us on the road to Cuernavaca
the next morning.

Cuernavaca is a town west of Guantla. The country through which we
passed, between these two towns, is tropical in climate and productions
and rich in scenery. At one point, about half-way between the two
places, the road goes over a low pass in the mountains in which there is
a very quaint old town, the inhabitants of which at that day were nearly
all full-blooded Indians. Very few of them even spoke Spanish. The
houses were built of stone and generally only one story high. The
streets were narrow, and had probably been paved before Cortez visited
the country. They had not been graded, but the paving had been done on
the natural surface. We had with us one vehicle, a cart, which was
probably the first wheeled vehicle that had ever passed through that
town.

On a hill