as well as the coaches which precede it.

The city of Tehuantepec is most picturesquely located on the eastern shore of the Tehuantepec river, twelve miles from Ventoso bay; in the rear rise the hills, overgrown with perpetual verdure; leading off to the right and left are extensive wooded vallies, interspersed by gardens, orchards, orange-groves, and small fields called "milpas," cultivated by the Indians. Throughout these vallies traverse pleasant roads and paths, lined with flowers, and over-arched with the branches of different kinds of trees, mingled with the bright plumage of the many songsters diffusing a freshness which is perfectly delightful to the traveler. From some locations in the city, the view is surpassingly grand. Looking west, with the winding river, and its beachy shores, with its hundreds of bathers men, women, and children-in the fore-ground; the village of Santa Maria upon the opposite side, with its churches and domes; the dark green valleys, with towering palms skirting the river's banks; then the mountains, covered with eternal verdure, rising one above the other in the back-ground, till they are lost in the distance, or mingle with the blue of the sky; the picture has a charm which one never tires of gazing upon.

The road from here to Ventoso is equal to any turnpike, being level, smooth, hard, and dry, and shaded all the way by the natural growth of the forest; it is thereby rendered doubly attractive to the passenger. The women of this place think nothing of walking to and from

ZAPOTECO WOMEN GOING TO MARKET.

Ventoso upon this road in a day, with a basket of fruit or fish upon their heads.

The climate is everything one could desire, and the health of the place is good; disease is brought on only by imprudence, and the use of bad liquor, in which the natives are prone to indulge too freely. Intemperance and revolutions are fast thinning out the men, whilst the women are on the increase; and out-number them considerably at this time. The population of Tehuantepec is about thirteen thousand, and composed mostly of Zapoteco Indians, a remnant of the once powerful Aztecs, who inhabited this region at the time of the conquest; twothirds of which are women-gentle, inoffensive, docile, and, to all outward appearances, cheerful and happy; but the influences of oppression and priest

craft have made them deplorably igno- | head-dress is indescribable, but, at the rant, superstitious, and blindly fanatical. The women, as a general thing, are good looking and cleanly, and some we might call handsome. Their dress is exceedingly primitive and original; a piece of cotton cloth of their own manufacture, containing about six yards, is confined to the waist, and falls down to the ancles; whilst the breast is covered with a loose, thin piece of calico called huepil. Their

same time, an important part of their attire. The cotton cloth, which they manufacture on small hand-looms, is a very good article of the kind, and on account of the rich dye with which it is colored, is very expensive. The women do all the vending in market-in fact almost all the traffic in the place; and it is not an unfrequent occurrence that you will see the streets full of women, passing and re

passing to and from market, carrying on their heads (upon which they carry every thing,) their purchases, or their wares to sell, to the entire exclusion of men. There seems to have been no interest taken in advancing the civilization of these truly apt people; on the contrary they have been kept back; and it is really to be lamented, that they have retrograded from that progress of civilization which they

had attained under the rule of the Montezumas. If a different race of mankind, with a different religion, had settled among these people, and instituted a beneficent process of culture, how far they might have been advanced in the progress of the age, let those who now witness their degradation judge. Under the guise of friendship to the poor Indian, the priests, who claim to be of the Holy

The market-place on the principal plaza is not the least important feature of Tehuantepec. It is a popular place of resort for women, children, dogs, donkeys, pigs, and loafers. There is nothing particularly interesting about the mar

Catholic Church, keep them in the deepest ignorance, and as subject to their will and commands, as the veriest slave. It is a disgrace to the name of religion that they should wield such power upon any part of this continent; which should be free and enlightened. Their own exam-ket-house itself, which is a long tileples of the basest immorality are enough to make any enlightened Catholic blush for his religion, and in a civilized community would never be tolerated.

Tehuantepec contains sixteen churches, and numerous good and solid buildings, that were erected many years ago by the early Spaniards. There is one church still standing, that was built by the last Cacique of the Zapotecos, in the year 1530; it is yet in good preservation. But they are all becoming much dilapidated; no repairs are ever made, and when a building begins to fall to ruins, the owner retires to a cane hut, somewhere in the suburbs, which is easily constructed, and costs nothing, and where he continues to dream away his days in listless inertness, thinking of nothing as suggestive of caring for the morrow. Will not some kind hand awaken them from this lethargy?

covered shed; but to see from fifteen hundred to two thousand women, mostly seated on the ground, with their different articles to sell before them, dressed in their peculiar fashion, with their snowwhite and curious dresses, with scarcely a man among them, all jabbering at the height of their voices, presents a scene novel in the extreme.

There are several plazas in the place, besides some very pretty flower-gardens in the outskirts, beautiful walks, and drives, too, (if there were any carriages and horses to drive,) leading off in different directions from the city, free from annoying insects or bad air.

About five leagues in a westerly direction from Tehuantepec, and towering far above its neighbors, is Mont Guiéngola, upon whose summit are the ruins of an ancient Aztec city, of which the present generation know nothing. Shortly I shall

RUDE CROSS AND OFFERINGS IN THE WOODS OF TEHUANTEPEO.

visit these ruins, and tell you what I saw | woods; and which, ever gives me the

there.

With my gun, and an Indian boy to carry the game, I ramble about in the

greatest of pleasure and satisfaction. There is so much that is interesting, novel and wonderful in nature about this re

gion, that I never tire of wandering | coroner's jury was summoned, and witnesses

among the primitive forests, some portions of which are scarcely ever trodden by man in these days. The vestiges of ruined cities that I frequently stumble upon, overgrown by the most dense of forests, speak in a sad and voiceless language of a mighty people long since passed away.

The Indians of the present day, who claim to be converted to the Catholic faith, are as singular in their ideas of religion as their forefathers were; their minds are clouded with superstition, and the images which we find in the churches, tend to increase that disposition. I frequently meet with indications of such in the rude and decayed crosses, made of rotten branches of trees, fastened together by withs, and stuck up in some secluded spot in the woods; where, strewn around the foot of these, will be found offerings of different articles of pottery, some broken and dilapidated, withered branches of plantain leaves, flowers, corn-husks, and dried fruit. How long such a state of things will continue in this neglected land remains to be seen; a land, too, for which the beautiful hand of Nature has

(attendants through the sickness of deceased) examined, whose evidence being reduced to writing, clearly showed that deceased died a natural death. The evidence being carefully weighed by the jury they returned the following verdict:

We find, after careful and due investigation of the evidence given in regard to deceased, that the deceased came to his death by the visitation of God.

The Coroner, probably, being of a different opinion, returns the following as the verdict:

but under symptoms of the inflamation of the bowels.

James Edmonson died a natural death;

my heart goes up with a song of praise

To Him who, in mercy, prolonged my days.
Long weeks I've lain on a couch of pain,
And hoped for relief, till hope seemed vain.
Hushed were loved voices, darkened the room,
And swift gathered round me the shades of the

tomb.

done so much. The material is here: re-
sources that have lain for ages be-
neath a climate so pure and so genial to
the happiness of man, cannot remain
much longer in this torpid state; the But a cry went up to our Father, God—
time is drawing near when the veil will" Divine Creator, spare the rod!"
be lifted, and this land awakened from its
dreams "The rose will be made to bloom
where late the wilderness grew "-and
this change must be wrought by the
Americanos del Norte. So says

And He, who hears when mortals pray,
Nor ever turns his ear away,

In answer to "that heart-felt prayer"

From bursting hearts low bending there,
Spake the glad words-"Arise, and live!
New lease of life to thee 1;give."

I breathe once more the free fresh air,
And look on all things bright and fair;
But a still, small voice is whispering to me,
Live for a purpose, CARRIE D.

O ye, who for me poured forth prayer,
When near my Home-yea, almost there-
Pray for me now. Amid life's cares,
Faltering and weak, I need your prayers.

San Francisco, Feb. 15, 1858.