being occupied with the variety of wares offered for sale by the small dealers;—when, suddenly, he felt his hat gently lifted from his head. Before he could turn to seize the thief, the rascal was already a dozen yards distant, dodging through the crowd.

Upon another occasion, a Mexican was stopped in broad daylight, in a lonely part of the town, by three men, who demanded his cloak. Of course, he very strongly objected to parting with so valuable an article ; when two of them placed themselves on either side of him, and the third, seizing the garment, immediately disappeared, leaving the victim in the grip of his companions.

His cloak gone, he naturally imagined that the thieves had no further use for him, and attempted to depart. The vagabonds, however, told him to remain patiently where he was, and he would find the result more agreeable than he expected.

In the course of fifteen minutes their accomplice returned, and politely bowing, handed the gentleman a pawnbroker's ticket!

"We wanted thirty dollars, and not the cloak," said the villain; "here is a ticket, with which you may redeem it for that sum; and as the cloak of such a Caballero is unquestionably worth at least a hundred dollars, you may consider yourself as having made seventy by the transaction! Vaya con Dios!”

A third instance of prigging, is worthy the particular attention of the London swell mob; and I question if it has been surpassed in adroitness, for some time past, in that notorious city, where boys are regularly taught the science of thieving, from the simple pilfer of a handkerchief, to the compound abstraction of a gold watch and guard-chain.

A TALE OF A TURKEY.

As a certain learned Judge in Mexico, some time since, walked one morning into Court, he thought he would examine whether he was in time for business; and, feeling for his repeater-found it was not in his pocket. "As usual," said he to a friend who accompanied him, as he passed through the crowd near the door-“As usual, I have again left my watch at home under my pillow."

He went on the bench and thought no more of it. The Court adjourned and he returned home. As soon as he was quietly seated in his parlor, he bethought him of his timepiece, and turning to his wife, requested her to send for it to their chamber.

"But, my dear Judge," said she, "I sent it to you three hours ago!" "Sent it to me, my dear? Certainly not.”

"Unquestionably," replied the lady, "and by the person you sent for it!" "The person I sent for it!" echoed the Judge.

Precisely, my dear, the very person you sent for it! You had not left home more than an hour, when a well-dressed man knocked at the door and asked to see me. He brought one of the very finest turkies I ever saw; and said, that on your way to Court you met an Indian with a number of fowls, and having bought this one, quite a bargain, you had given him a couple of reals to bring it home; with the request that I would have it killed, picked, and put to cool, as you intended to invite your brother judges to a dish of mollé with you to-morrow. And, 'Oh! by the way, Señorita,' said he, 'his Excellency, the Judge, requested me to ask you to give yourself the trouble to go to your chamber and take his watch from under the pillow, where he says he left it, as usual, this morning, and send it to him by me.' And, of course, mi querido, I did so.” "You did?" said the Judge.

Certainly," said the lady.

"Well," replied his Honor, "all I can say to you, my dear, is, that you are as great a goose, as the bird is a turkey. You've been robbed, madam ;—the man was a thief;-I never sent for my watch ;—you've been imposed on ;—and, as a necessary consequence, the confounded watch lost for ever!"

The trick was a cunning one; and after a laugh, and the restoration of the Judge's good-humor by a good dinner, it was resolved actually to have the turkey for to-morrow's dinner, and his Honor's brothers of the bench to enjoy so dear a morsel.

Accordingly, after the adjournment of Court next day, they all repaired to his dwelling, with appetites sharpened by the expectation of a rare repast.

Scarcely had they entered the sala and exchanged the ordinary salutations, when the lady broke forth with congratulations to his Honor upon the recovery of the stolen watch!

"How happy am I," exclaimed she, "that the villain was apprehended!"

"Apprehended!" said the Judge, with surprise.

"Yes; and doubtless convicted, too, by this time," said his wife.

"You are always talking riddles," replied he. "Explain yourself, my dear. I know nothing of thief, watch, or conviction."

"It can't be possible that I have been again deceived," quoth the lady, "but this is the story:

"About one o'clock to-day, a pale, and rather interesting young gentleman, dressed in a seedy suit of black, came to the house in great haste -almost out of breath. He said that he was just from Court;—that he was one of the clerks;-that the great villain who had had the audacity to steal your Honor's watch had just been arrested;-that the evidence was nearly perfect to convict him;-and all that was required to complete it was the turkey,' which must be brought into Court, and for that he had been sent with a porter by your express orders."

"And you gave it to him!"

"Of course I did-who could have doubted him, or resisted the orders of a Judge!"

"Watch-and turkey-both gone-pray, what the devil, madam, are we to do for a dinner ?"

But the lady had taken care of her guests, notwithstanding her simplicity, and the party enjoyed both the joke and their viands.

LETTER XXVIII.

MEXICAN CHARACTER.

I HAVE adverted already in previous letters to the private character and domestic customs of the Mexicans, and confess, that I came to the country with opinions anything but favorable to the morals, tastes, or habits of the people. It was alleged, that they entertained a positive antipathy to foreigners, and that the exclusive system of Spain, under which they were educated, had excited in them a distaste for innovation; an insouciant contentment with the "statu quo;" and, in fact, had created in our New World a sort of China in miniature.

I think it exceedingly reasonable, that the Mexicans should be shy of foreigners. They have been educated in the strict habits of the Catholic creed; they know no language but their own; the customs of their country are different from others; the strangers who visit them are engaged in the eager contests of commercial strife; and, besides being of different religion and language, they are chiefly from those northern nations, whose tastes and feelings have nothing kindred with the impulsive dispositions of the ardent south. In addition to the selfish spirit of gain that pervades the intercourse of these visitors, and gives them no character of permanency or sympathy with the country, they have been accustomed to look down on the Mexicans with contempt for their obsolete habits, without reflecting, that they were not justly censurable for traditional usages which they had no opportunity of improving by comparison with the progress of civilization among other nations.

Yet, treating these people with the frankness of a person accustomed to find himself at home wherever he goes, avoiding the egotism of national prejudices, and meeting them in a spirit of benevolence; I have found them kind, gentle, hospitable, intelligent, benevolent, and brave. Among their better classes, no people see more clearly than they do the vices of an ill-regulated society and the misery of their political condition; but, when rebuked in the presumptuous and austere spirit of arrogant strangers, they repel the rudeness by distance and reserve. The consequence is, that these disturbers of social decency are seldom the chosen friends or inmates of their dwellings. The Mexicans are a proud

and sensitive people; yet, none are more easily subdued by kindness— none more easily won by a ready disposition to mingle in their ranks, and treat them with a due respect for their habitudes and their prejudices.

There may be other reasons, too, why Mexicans have been jealously shy of strangers. It seems impossible for them to get rid of the idea, that European powers are seeking to obtain their wealth and territory, and to reestablish the systems from which they freed themselves by so many years of revolutionary war; nor can they (since the Texan war,) divest themselves of the erroneous notion, that the United States has ever a longing eye on their Capital and country.

There are but few entertainments given in Mexico, in comparison with those of other cities abroad, where a lavish expenditure in viands, lights, and amusements for the few hours of a single evening, are mistaken for the elegancies and refinements of genuine hospitality;-instead, however, of these ostentatious displays, there are frequent reunions at turtulias, where an hour or two are most agreeably spent in friendly intercourse, and the unrestrained flow of pleasant and instructive conversation.

I have already alluded to the extreme of fashionable life, and its disposition for the theatre; and I do not intend to treat again of the propensity of the ultras to living thus constantly in the public eye, without devoting a portion of each day to that domestic intercourse and reunion which make the comfort and beauty of an English or American fireside. I speak, however, of that juste milieu of society, wherein resides the virtue and intellect of a country; and I had an excellent opportunity of judging of the private life of this class during my stay in the Capital.

It was my good fortune to reside for more than half a year in a native family, once rich and titled, but broken in fortunes by the political and commercial vicissitudes of the Republic, and it was there that I constantly witnessed the most beautiful evidences of a filial devotion and parental love, amounting almost to passionate attachment. The lady at the head of the establishment, (as I remarked in a preceding letter,) was a person who had been distinguished for her talents and accomplishments in the days when Mexico was adorned with the splendor of a Spanish court. She would have been considered highly cultivated in any country; her manners were excellent; her bearing graceful and courteous; and a wide circulation in her youth among distinguished men, (both before and during the Revolution,) and a ready talent for imparting her recollections, made her conversation delightful and instructive. Besides this, she possessed a genius for miniature painting and sketching in crayons, rarely attained by a female, and worthy of a distinguished artist. Qualities, like these, brought around her constantly a large and intelligent circle of both sexes. The change of fortune had by no means diminished her estimation in society, and the numbers of fast friends who adhered to