following day, everything came back
to memory. Even individual trees, projecting rock masses, and little
streams, were precisely as we remembered them from our journey of three
years earlier. We reached Ayutla in the evening a little before sunset.
Riding directly to the municipal house we summoned the town government.
We had not provided ourselves with orders from the _jefe_ of the
district, as Villa Alta, the _jefatura_, lay far out of our course. We
planned to use our general letter from the governor. When the officials
assembled we presented our order and explained it; we told them what we
needed for the night, and arrangements were at once made for supplying
us; we then told the _presidente_ of the work we had before us, and
informed him that, because his town was small, we should ask for only
thirty-five men for measurement, and that these must be ready, early in
the morning, with no trouble to us.

The _presidente_ demurred; he doubted whether the people would come to
be measured; we told him that they would not come, of course, unless he
sent for them. When morning came, although everything had been done for
our comfort, there was no sign of subjects. That no time might be lost,
we took the _presidente_ and three or four other officials, who were
waiting around the house; then, with firmness, we ordered that he should
bring other subjects. The officials were gone for upwards of an hour,
and when they returned, had some ten or twelve men with them. "Ah," said
I, "you have brought these, then, for measurement?" "On the contrary,
sir," said the _presidente_, "this is a committee of the principal men
of the town who have come to tell you that the people do not wish to be
measured." "Ah," said I, "so you are a committee, are you, come to tell
me that you do not wish to be measured?" "Yes." Waiting a moment, I
turned to the officials and asked, "And which one particularly does
not wish to be measured of this committee?" Immediately, a most
conservative-looking individual was pointed out. Addressing him, I said,
"And so you do not wish to be measured?" "No sir," said he, "I will not
be measured." "Very good," said I. "What is your name?" He told us.
I marked it down upon my blank, and wrote out the description of his
person. Then, seizing my measuring rod, I said to him quite sharply,
"Well, well! Take off your hat and sandals. We must lose no time!"
And before he really realized what we were doing, I had taken his
me