On the evening of the next day, now in the heart of the savage haunts, we were not a little alarmed by the appearance of a large body of horsemen in the distance. [Pg203] They turned out, however, to be _Paseños_, or citizens of the Paso del Norte. They were on their way to Chihuahua with a number of pack-mules laden with apples, pears, grapes, wine, and _aguardiente_--proceeds of their productive orchards and vineyards. It is from El Paso that Chihuahua is chiefly supplied with fruits and {135} liquors, which are transported on mules or in carretas. The fruits, as well fresh as in a dried state, are thus carried to the distant markets. The grapes, carefully dried in the shade, make excellent _pasas_ or raisins, of which large quantities are annually prepared for market by the people of that delightful town of vineyards and orchards, who, to take them altogether, are more sober and industrious than those of any other part of Mexico I have visited; and are happily less infested by the extremes of wealth and poverty. On the 13th, I overtook my wagons a few miles south of El Paso, whence our journey was continued, without any additional casualty, and on the 6th of December we reached Santa Fé, in fine health and spirits. FOOTNOTES: [122] The distance from Chihuahua to Durango is about five hundred miles, and from thence to Aguascalientes it is nearly three hundred--upon the route we travelled, which was very circuitous. All the intermediate country resembles, in its physical features, that lying immediately north of Chihuahua, which has already been described.--GREGG. [123] Jesus-Maria is still a mining town in western Chihuahua, in the heart of a sierra of the same name.--ED. [124] Water has sometimes accumulated so rapidly in this mine as to stop operations for weeks together.--GREGG. [125] The Mexican money table is as follows: 12 _granos_ make 1 _real_; 8 _reales_, 1 _peso_, or dollar. These are the divisions used in computation, but instead of _granos_, the copper coins of Chihuahua and many other places, are the _claco_ or _jola_ (1/8 real) and the _cuartilla_ (1/4 real). The silver coins are the _medio_ (6-1/4 cents), the _real_ (12-1/2 cents), the _peseta_ (2 reales), the _toston_ or half dollar, and the _peso_ or dollar. The gold coins are the _doblon_ or _onza_ (doubloon), with the same subdivisions as the silver dollar, which are also of the same weight. The par value of the doubloon is sixteen dollars; but, as there is no kind of paper currency, gold, as the most convenient remittance, usually commands a high premium--sometimes so high, indeed, that the doubloon is valued in the North at from eighteen to twenty dollars.--GREGG. [126] See Kendall, _Texan Santa Fé Expedition_, ii, pp. 66-73.--ED. [127] For Hidalgo, see our volume xix, p. 176, note 11 (Gregg).--ED. [128] For Guerrero and Iturbide see Pattie's _Narrative_, in our volume xviii, p. 314 (note 130), p. 362 (note 141).--ED.