, as _guerillas_,
they are both a formidable and cruel foe. Their power of endurance is
inexhaustible. Fatigue is almost unknown to them, and a scanty meal,
each day, of jerked beef and corn or plantain, is sufficient to sustain
them on the longest marches.

Such are the _rancheros_, who, by discipline, might be rendered the best
light troops in the world. These are the men who form the material of
the Mexican cavalry; and they bear the same relation to the armies of
that republic that the Cossacks do to the Russians;--ever on the
alert,--easily lodged,--capable of supporting fatigue or hunger,--and
untiring in pursuit of an enemy, when even the most trifling plunder is
to be obtained.[10]

* * * * *

Another large and formidable body in Mexico is that of the _Indians_,
amounting, as we have seen, to four millions; whose knowledge of their
governors' language is generally confined to such phrases as will enable
them to buy and sell, or perform the ordinary functions of life.
Formerly they lived, and usually still live, in narrow huts built of
mud, thatched with straw or palm leaves, and which have scarcely the
merit of being picturesque. In these miserable lairs, they nestle with
their families, their domestic animals, and a table or altar on which
they erect a cross or place the figure of a patron saint. Their food is
mostly maize, and their dress corresponds with this grovelling
wretchedness. Five out of every hundred may perhaps possess two suits of
clothes, but their general vesture consists of a large cotton shirt, a
pair of leathern trousers, and a blanket. Even the Indian women, who
elsewhere, like their sex in civilized countries, are always fond of
personal adornment, exhibit no desire to appear decent or to rival each
other in tasteful ornaments when they go abroad. They are as foul and
ill-clad on their festivals at church, as in their hovels at home, so
that few things are more disgusting to a foreigner than to mingle in an
Indian crowd.[11] It is impossible to imagine such a population capable
of becoming landed proprietors; and, consequently, we find them
contented with the annual product of their small fields, amounting,
perhaps, to thirty or fifty _fanegas_ of corn. When they live on the
large estates of Mexican proprietors, they are, in reality, vassals,
although free from the nominal stain of slavery.[12] On these
plantations they are beaten when they commit faults, an