is an honest, plain, down-looking citizen, lame and tall, somewhat at a
loss for conversation, apparently amiable and good-natured, but certainly
neither courtier nor orator; a man of undeniable bravery, capable of
supporting almost incredible hardships, humane, and who has always proved
himself a sincere lover of what he considered liberty, without ever having
been actuated by ambitious or interested motives.

It is said that his defects were indolence, want of resolution, and too
much reliance on his own knowledge. He is the only Mexican president who
finished as chief magistrate, the term prescribed by the laws. It is
alleged, in proof of his simplicity, though I think it is too absurd to be
true, that having received a despatch with the two-headed eagle on the
seal, he remarked to the astonished envoy who delivered it--"Our arms are
very much alike, only I see that his majesty's eagles have two heads. I
have heard that some of that species exist here, in _tierre caliente_, and
shall have one sent for."

The general is not married, but appears rather desirous of entering the
united state. He strongly recommends us to avoid broken bones by going it
literas, at least as far as Jalapa. Having stumbled about for some time in
search of his cocked-hat, it was handed to him by his aide-de-camp, and he
took leave.

We walked out in the evening to take a look of the environs, with Senor
V---o, the commander of the Jason, and several young ladies of the house.
We walked in the direction of an old church, where it is or was the custom
for young ladies desirous of being married to throw a stone at the saint,
their fortune depending upon the stone's hitting him, so that he is in a
lapidated and dilapidated condition. Such environs! the surrounding houses
black with smoke of powder or with fire--a view of bare red sandhills all