he
acknowledged illegitimate son of my honored Senor Padre. Second, I had
the misfortune to be involved in trouble in the district of Del Doria,
which forced me to flee from that district to escape the _jefe_. But,
sir, my Senor Padre said to me, 'son, I am the _jefe politico_ of
Tulancingo and the governor of the State is Pedro L. Rodriguez; I am his
intimate friend, and we shall succeed in ousting that _jefe_ in Tenango
del Doria who has ordered your arrest.'" He also told us of one time,
when his Senor Padre and an inspector visited that unfortunate district
as an investigating committee, and found the _jefe_ guilty and put him
in jail _incomunicado_. He also told us of the band of Pahuatlan, justly
famous, which made so great an impression in one town it visited,
that it determined to go to Tulancingo to serenade the _jefe_ of that
district, his honored Senor Padre. "And I was invited, sir, not that I
am a musician or know one note from another, but because I am of
the family of the gentleman who was to be honored, and as a mark of
distinguished favor to both members of the family. The band played so
beautifully, that it was not allowed to stop until half-past-eleven at
night, when it retired in great triumph." All this was very interesting,
the first time it was told us, but the natural son remained while we ate
supper, and afterwards, following us to our sleeping-room, kept up the
repetition until two were already in bed and asleep and the others
wished to be, when, finally, we turned him out and locked the door upon
him for the night. We have stated that we paid for four animals to bring
our baggage hither, while but three were actually employed; the animals,
both pack and passenger, started on their journey for Huachinango at
half-past-four in the afternoon, though we had paid both beast and man
two full days' wages.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

Tlacuilotepec is a dependency of Pahuatlan. We started for our day's
trip thither on a good lot of animals, at eight o'clock in the morning,
with two foot _mozos_ for carriers. The journey was delightful. For a
little, we followed a trail down the left-hand bank of a fine ravine.
Nearly at the foot we struck to the left, through a little cut, and were
surprised to find ourselves upon the right-hand slope of another gulf of
immense depth. A few minutes later, we reached the point where the two
streams united. And from there on, for a long time, we followed the
bot