"Thereupon he wrote on a leaf of my friend's note-book something like the following:
"'Dear Gomez,—This party has been thoroughly examined, and we've left them nothing you want. Please allow them to go on without delay.'
HOTEL BY THE WAY-SIDE.
"Then he told them where they would be stopped, and was about to bid them good-by when my friend suggested that he had nothing with which to pay his expenses on the road. Manuel suggested that the travellers ought not to want for anything, and immediately gave them five dollars, which he placed in a neat pocket-book that he had taken from another traveller the day before. They met the other robbers at the place designated, and on presenting the pass were not interfered with in any way. My friend's horse had become lame, and Gomez generously gave him a fresh horse, stolen, no doubt, from somebody else, and turned the lame steed out by the road-side."
Other stories of the same sort were told, and the interview ended with an account of how the American owner of a line of coaches between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, away back in the forties, before the days of the railway, made a bargain with the chief of the brigands commanding the route, by which, in consideration of an annual subsidy, they were not to molest his coaches or passengers. The subsidy was regularly paid, and the brigands faithfully regarded their side of the bargain. When General Scott was advancing from Vera Cruz upon the capital he made a contract with this same American to supply the army with beef; and through the efficient aid of his friends the brigands, he had no difficulty in carrying out his contract. They stole cattle from all the haciendas within a hundred miles of the route and kept him well supplied.
The road from Saltillo to Jaral follows a picturesque valley, and in the forty-two miles between the two places makes a descent of nearly fourteen hundred feet. Consequently there was more down-hill than up, and the diligence went along in fine style. The driver was an accomplished whip, and managed his team admirably. For a part of the way the vehicle was drawn by horses; at the first station mules were substituted, and our friends were unable to say which were the better for the work. The driver explained that he preferred mules for the reason that in case they ran away they would keep to the middle of the road, while horses were apt to shy and turn to one side, thereby endangering the safety of the diligence and its passengers. This difference between horses and mules has been noted by drivers in other parts of the world, and is said to be correct.
The driver had an assistant, whose duty it was to throw stones at the leading animals to encourage them to their work. He was a skilled marksman and rarely missed his aim. Sometimes he threw the missiles while seated on the box at the driver's side, and at others he ran alongside the team or kept near the wheels of the coach. In either case the result was the same, and the conveyance under his manipulations made good progress.
Crosses at several points on the road showed where travellers had been killed by robbers. On all the roads of Mexico these crosses can be seen, and on some routes they are painfully numerous.