You may meet them on the _camino grande_ leading from Vera Cruz to the capital--by either of the routes of Jalapa or Orizava; on that between the capital and the Pacific port of Acapulco; on the northern routes to Queretaro, Guanaxuato, and San Luis Potosi; on the western, to Guadalaxara and Michoacan; in short, everywhere that offers them the chance of stripping a traveller. Not only _may_ you meet them, but _will_, if you make but three successive excursions over any one of the above named highways. You will see the "salteador" on a horse much finer than that you are yourself riding; in a suit of clothes thrice the value of your own-- sparkling with silver studs, and buttons of pearl or gold; his shoulders covered with a _serape_, or perhaps a splendid _manga_ of finest broadcloth--blue, purple, or scarlet. You will see him, and feel him too--if you don't fall upon your face at his stern summons "_A tierra_!" and afterwards deliver up to him every article of value you have been so imprudent as to transport upon your person. Refuse the demand, and you will get the contents of carbine, _escopeta_, or blunderbuss in your body, or it may be a lance-blade intruded into your chest! Yield graceful compliance, and he will as gracefully give you permission to continue your journey--with, perhaps, an apology for having interrupted it! I know it is difficult to believe in such a state of things, in a country called civilised--difficult to you. To me they are but remembrances of many an actual experience. Their existence is easily explained. You will have a clue to it, if you can imagine a land, where, for a period of over fifty years, peace has scarcely ever been known to continue for as many days; where all this time anarchy has been the chronic condition; a land full of disappointed spirits--unsatisfied aspirants to military fame, also _unpaid_; a land of vast lonely plains and stupendous hills, whose shaggy sides form impenetrable fastnesses--where the feeble pursued may bid defiance to the strong pursuer. And such is the land of Anahuac. Even within sight of its grandest cities there are places of concealment--harbours of refuge--alike free to the political patriot, and the outlawed _picaro_. Like other strangers to New Spain, before setting foot upon its shores, I was incredulous about this peculiarity of its social condition. It was too abnormal to be true. I had read and heard tales of its brigandage, and believed them to be tinged with exaggeration. A _diligencia_ stopped every other day, often when accompanied by an escort of dragoons--twenty to fifty in number; the passengers maltreated, at times murdered--and these not always common people, but often officers of rank in the army, representatives of the _Congresa_, senators of the State, and even high dignitaries of the Church! Afterwards I had reason to believe in the wholesale despoliation. I was witness to more than one living illustration of it.