HARDY'S TRA.VELS IN MEXICO.*

LITERARY SPECTATOR.

LIEUTENANT HARDY was employed by one of the Pearl Fishery Com- panies to superintend the execution of their plan in the North of Mex ice. In the course of his occupation, he sailed and travelled over a great portion of that country which is least known to Europeans : he even made geographical discoveries, christened new-found islands, and run aground in the Rio Colorado, where in all probability European vessel never run aground before. The narrative of his difficulties in this un- explored part of the Gulf of California, and of his intercourse with the native Indians, is the most novel part of his work, and perhaps the most interesting ; although we must say, that, generally speaking, Lieute- nant Haaoy is a pleasant and unaffected traveller. He despises for- mality, and tells his stories and makes his observations without the fear of criticism before his eyes. As he scribbled his journal, so is it priated ; and we are glad of it—the result is a very considerable mass of agreeable and instructive gossip.

We have had isiany books about Mexico, and there is little difference in the story they tell: the diplomatist is guareled in his expressions, the sailor is free and uses no disguise. But Mr. WARD and Mr. HARDY produce the same ultimate impression, that the Mexicans are as good-for-nothing a race as can exist ; that honesty is unknown to them; that their pride is successful knavery; that their sole end and aim is money, obtained by any means, however base, cruel, or treach- erous; and that consequently they are always in the market, the pro- perty of the best bidder; that in addition to all this, they are filthy, dissolute, ignorant, prejudiced, intriguing, boasting, and cowardly. We shall not occupy ourselves with any development of the proofs of this string of epithets : suffice it that the united testimony of all English writers on that country more or less confirms it. It is a land, however, so different from any that we are familiar with, both by nature and by institutions, that a traveller cannot fail to meet with adventures. Mr. HARDY gives us his own little anecdotes, with sufficient ease and ga- iety to render him a very agreeable companion. In lieu of discussing the political condition of Mexico, which may be at once pronounced as bad as it can be, we prefer following the Lieutenant, and picking up some of the crumbs of observation which fall pretty copiously from his broad table.

The Pearl Fishery Company appear to have had an active and a zealous agent in Mr. HARDY. Not content with the results of his diving operations, he determined upon learning to dive himself, and examine with his own eyes and hands the condition of the bottom of the sea._ It appears that diving in deep water is a painful exploit. Lieu-

* Travels in the Interior of Mexico, in 1825, 1826, 1827, and 1828, by Lieutenant LW. R. Hardy, it; N. Londen, ISM Gotham and Bentley. tenant HARDY suffered, as he descended, so much from acute pain in the ears and the eyes, as he entered the medium gradually increasing in density, that his resolution frequently gave way before the task ; and ceasing to propel himself by the action of his legs, he ascended to the surface. This pain suddenly ceases when the " ears burst," as it is technically called. Mr. HARDY, when suffering great pain at a con- siderable depth, and still continuing to descend, heard a noise in his ears like the report of a pistol: he felt no longer-

any disagreeable sensation, and reached the bottom. When, however, he came up, the nature of the report he had heard became evident ; for he found him- self bleeding profusely at ears, eyes, and mouth. The sensations of the diver are curious : the medhun magnifies—he supposes he has laid hold offa prize in the shape of an oyster—he ascends—it dwindles to something larger than a cockle—his hopes of a pearl disappear. It seems that both the touch and the sight combine to deceive. It. re- quires the exertion of the whole muscular strength of the frame to billy; the feet and legs down to the bottom ; when the diver has suc- ceeded, and lays bold of :snick to keep himself down, he becomes as it

were suspended from the bottom ; and in ease of accidentally losing

his grasp, he actually tumbles upwards. These are, however, trifling difficulties, when compared with the danger arising from sharks and tinter&os. Mr. HARDY and his divers habitually descended when the surface of the water was covered with shark fins, armed simply with a short baton, sharpened at both ends. When attacked by the shark, the diver presents his stick vertically : the shark snaps at it, and thus gees off with his jaws skewered together, while the diver ascends for another weapon. Mr. HARDY tells an amusing story of the hair- breadth escape of a Spanish gentleman who was diving in search of a

supposed rich bed of pearl oysters. Op looking up from the bottom, to see if the coast were clear—which i is the invariable habit of the diver

previous to his ascent—this person beheld a huge tinterchp precisely

over his head, balancing his hods- and opening and shutting his jaws in anticipation of the delicious morsel he was expecting. The diver

moved to another spot, and again looked up : time monster had followed lean, and was again on the svaich. The linterh'o is a much more for- midable antagonist than the slink, because his mouth is so wide that the stick forms but an inellectual weapon. against it. aild is lost in his

expansive jaws. II luckily occurred to the Don,—who, it may be sup- posed, was in peor condition for deliberation, on the point of beirig

suffocated on the one hand, and of being eaten on the othem—that lie had seen near the place a bed of thick reddish sand : he immediately betook himself to it, oral by means of his stick soon troubled the waters to such a degree above him, that he could no longer see his for- midable enemy or he seen by bins : he therefore took the opportunity of swimming off sisd rising at seine distance. He fortunately rose near one of his boats, and was taken,in .rnore (haul than alive.

Like all other foreigners in :\ Tex.'s:0, Mr. Balmy was called upon to assume the character of a physician. Wherever he went his services were insisted upon, and his medicines forced from him. He, how- ever, seems to have laid a decided Icaning to practiee; and to judge by his own account, his mode of tiCai meld was oftener crowncil with success than the efferts of his more regular brethren. Tile diseases he cured and the medicines he used a IV bOt 11 SO extraordinary as to demand professional investi.,ation. lt is true, that South America and Mexico are the garden uf medical plants ; and it would appear that there are numerous powerful awl efficacious vegetable remedies which still remain Lull:slow]: to us, and whose properties ought un- doubtedly to be looked into. The Indians are great simple's, and some tribes in particular are famous for their hereditary skill in herbs. They possess, for instance, more than one cure for hydiophobia. An Indian, \rho is the possessor of one of these remedies, keeps it secret, and makes a comfortable livelihood by the application of it. Ile has been offered two thousand dollars to communicate the manner of piv- paring his remedy : it is applied externally. The other is an mternel medicine, and is composed of a herb which Mr. Hanov conceives to be the same as hellebore. He gives full directions for the use of it. Our medical sailor also applies old substances to new uses : he acci- dentally learned that an infusion of ash-wood had been useful in cases of cough ; in many instances he administered it, and never found it fail. It relieves what are called winter coughs, and all that class of ailments, in a single night. We have understood that a decoction of oak-sawdust is similarly used by persons in England with equal effect, though we are not aware that either oak or ash plants are among the vegetable substances of the pliarmacopeeia. Mr. Haany's most usual medicament is, however, pills of charcoal, taken every half- hour ; he considers it a safe and in almost all eases connected with the stomach a very sure remedy,—as is probable enutu2sil. freni lie nat sire of its composition. The Mexicans are singularly sal:cyst d ious in all matters of medicine: the physician is always asked whether his prescription is to be taken with the ri,,,At hand or the lift, it being imagined that that makes a material difference in its operation : if taken in the left hand, it affects the liver ; if in the right the kidneys. The lookers-on always desire the patient to leave a drop of the medicine for them to take, thinking that it will do them good too in case they should be hereafter affected with the same complaint. They have an odd notion of diseases, sonic of which are imagined to be caused " by wind be- tween the flesh and the blood." Whenever a lady suffers from a pain between the shoulders, and especially in the right shoulder and arm, they invariably attribute it to ph/his-is bronalit on by hard work. It may be observed, that every country has As OWn 1 hemy of disease : with the English all maladies are attributed to the stomach; with the French certain 112177ZOUrS are accused of doing all the mischief; and if these humours are obstinate, they are called fire—it is the fire that creates the disturbance—c'est un feu. In the streets of Mexico, it is necessary to go armed in travelling ; it is not only necessaty to go armed, but to be perpetually on your guard. t the same time, an ordinary portion of courage and resolution puts a traveller upon a footing with a number of the poltroons of this coun- ty. There is a French Marquise, who in spite of her sex travels from

ne end of Mexico to the other, and defies the whole race of robbers.

er reputation is founded on having shot a marauder dead on the oad, and having threatened the Alcalde, who wished to send her to rison for it, with a similar fate. The merchants employ her to con-

ey remittances of money from one town to another. .Mr. HARDY as attacked by a robber on the road, whom he quickly sent about his

usiness : the fellow had the impudence to stop at a short distance, and shout out, that seeing him travel alone and in a careless manner, he wished simply to put him upon his guard. To be plundered is not the only evil on the roads of Mexico ; a man stands a good chance of

either dying of hunger or thirst. Mr. HARDY, when greatly in want of water, once arrived at a deep well ; but there were no means of drawing up the contents of it ; he ingeniously let down his boot, which served tolerably well for a bucket. The priests, who in other poorly- peopled countries are the general entertainers, here seem to be too much occupied with their nieces to attend to the duties of hospitality. One evening, Mr. HARDY greatly in want of a bed, opened the door a cura's house, from whence he had heard the sound of female hatter. A gruff voice demanded "Who is there ?"—" A traveller." —" God speed him on his way then," was the unhospitable reply. On

Aber occasions, the curas, at first unwilling hosts, became civil on

incling their guest armed with a bottle of right cognac. One cura 'mid Mr. HARDY a visit on board his ship, and of course brought his lieces with him. Brandy was plentiful: the cura stripped his cassock,

mid grew obstreperous: in order to go home, he insisted that one of is mistresses should ride double with him : the consequence was,

hat priest, mistress, and horse, all fell together ; the lady broke her lose, the pastor the brandy-bottle which he had brought with him yom on board the vessel. This priest, even in liquor, would not allow ill.. HARDY to be a Christian : when the Englishman quoted Scrip- ure, he called him a Pagan Jew. Mr. HARDY at Lagos met with a eulogizer of water-drinking, whose estimony ought to be inserted in Mr. BASIL MONTAGU'S next edition f his work on that subject : it should be added, that he was also a vater-seller.

"At the meson (says Mr. Hardy), I was amused with the conversation of n old water-carrier, whose observations were quite professional. He said, There is nothing like water ; it will cure all complaints but poverty, and cal all wounds but sorrow !' Indeed he assigned both a moral and a physical gooey to this fluid. ' Do you find yourself afflicted in mind, melancholy, or isposed not to hear mass?—drink water, and bathe yourself in the river. ,re you stung by a scorpion ?—hathe the wound with water ; and for the

,ite of a rattlesnake it is equally efficacious. I am sixty-nine years of age, 'rid thirty-five of these I have been a water-carrier ; and during the whole of lat period I have preserved My health by drinking water ! I walk about all Lv inquiring who will buy water for,vakame /a Vergin ! (the Virgin help !) I am now old, and it is necessary to be diligent in scraping together a !Nv reals to buy candles whenever I shall die, for it would be terrible not to

ave candles at one's funeral."

This philosopher then spoke of other matters : he however soon coke out in a new fit of enthusiasm, and exclaimed, "There is no-

ling like water, for the head or -toothache." It is not an unusual ling for men to persuade themselves into a state of enthusiastic love the means by which they get their living. It would be hard to say, the instance of the water-carrier, where the notion of his own in- Test ended and that of the virtue of water began.

We meet with another character in Mr. HARDY'S book (in fact, he )mnds in such materials), which may serve as a pendant to the ater-crier,—a Hermocritus to the other illemocritus ; or better still, e recommend him to the notice of our great farceur MATHEWS.

"An old colonel, who used to be invited with us to dine at Luna's house, id such a propensity to laughter, that having once yielded to its influence, could not restrain himself so long as anything remained to excite it. I cd to make him burst into a horse laugh whenever I chose, only by winking cliculously. Upon one occasion, when a great number of persons were as-

In bled at table, a fancy came across me to try whether a grin and an odd mark would have the same effect upon him in company. It answered mar-

1Iously well. He could not restrain a burst of laughter which rather artled the rest of the party ; to whom, however, I managed to convey a nt, and they immediately entered into the spirit of the joke. Each in his rn told some extraordinary anecdote, or made some odd remark ; at which

e colonel burst out anew, till at last his laughter became quite alarming. ie consequence was, that he did not swallow one mouthful during dinner ;

r no sooner did he attempt to introduce a bit of food into his odd mouth,— hich even then was distorted by a suppressed grin,—than some one made a ighable observation, which again excited the poor man's risible propensity, ■ ci the meat was suffered to return to his plate untastcd. He afterwards mplainetl, that in addition to the loss of his dinner, his sides were quite re with exertion."

• It will be seen that our friend the Lieutenant is somewhat of a hit- orist : his chief fault is being a little too elaborate on that head. any of his descriptions of the Indians and their habits, who flocked out his ship when aground in the mud of the Rio Colorado, are .ry amusing ; more especially his account of the witch or female njurer who took her seat in the Indian council held over the fate of vessel, but who, in spite of her elevated rank and sacred office, was ver so happy as when she was stealing the sailors' dinners, or cheat-

2: the cook of his fare. They seem to excel all other Indians in filth, (Ito be the dirtiest of the human race. The sailors of Mr. HARDY'S ip were not delicate, but after an Indian fist had been among his ans, Jack Tar could no longer relish his dish. On one occasion, sailor who had been absent for a moment found the old witch fum- lig among his plate of hot beans : enraged at the loss of his dinner, threw all she had not eaten in her face : now a civilized person would ye been offended, and gone off in dudgeon—the old woman, how- er, very coolly set to work to pick up that which the angry tar had so rashly wasted. She rejoiced in the wrath which redounded to her advantage. Such is the contrast between the civilized and the savage. The Indians on the Gulf of California are very low in the scale of civilization. The price of a young lady is half a yard of red baize ; of a boy, a figured cotton handkerchief.

We shall end this notice of our friend the pearl-fisher's book, with a recommendation to all those who wish to read a pleasant work, to buy, and to all those who wish to write one, to follow his example of writing without pretension and affectation.