Where is the guide-book that can tell you half so much of the road-- every turn and winding--every incident that has occurred upon it for the last ten years--murders, suicides, runaway matches, struggles with black bears, and chases of red deer--in short, everything worthy of being recorded? And all this with a thorough disinterestedness--his sole design being to entertain you. No thought of the "tip" which your Old World Jehu expects to receive at parting company. Offer it to _him_, and in all likelihood he will fling it back at your feet! He has not yet been corrupted by the customs of king-loving communities. Meet him in Mexico: for he is there. He had to go with the coaches imported from "Troy"--not the Troy of the Dardanelles, that "Ammon's sons ran proudly round"--but its modern, and more peaceful, namesake in the state of New York. Although under a different name, the _diligencia_ of Mexico is the stage-coach of the States--its driver the same light-hearted happy fellow, with a good word for everybody, and a kindly smile for all the _muchachas_, plain or pretty, he may pass upon his route. Interesting as this man is--and has been for a century in the United States--he is still more interesting upon the stage roads of Mexico. Scarcely a day of his life passes without his being in peril. I do not allude to the reckless pace at which he urges his half-tamed mustangs-- three abreast--down the declivities of the Mexican mountains. These are occurrences of every hour. I speak of the perils that threaten him from the behaviour of the _bandoleros_--by whom he is repeatedly surrounded. Sam Brown's dealings with these gentry were of almost daily occurrence. At all events, there was scarcely a week without his being witness to a scene--not unfrequently having a tragical termination. More than once had he been present at the spilling of blood! The _diligencia_ is usually accompanied by an _escolta_--a troop of _dragones_, or _lanzeros_, ill-armed and equipped; whose tattered uniforms, and feet set shoeless in their stirrups, render them more grotesque than terrible. At times the escort is itself attacked; and a sharp skirmish comes off between troops and bandits--the former not unfrequently fleeing the field, and leaving their _proteges_, the passengers, to be plundered at the discretion of the triumphant _salteadores_. At other times the _escolta_ declines "coming to the scratch"--having taken the precaution just at the critical moment to be riding far in the rear; then galloping up with swaggering demonstration, after the robbers have completed their pillage, and gone away from the ground! Either a strong escort, or none at all, was Sam Brown's sentiment; but his preference was, decidedly, for none at all! In the latter case the _diligencia_ is often permitted to continue its route uninterrupted: the bandits believing, that it carries no passengers worth protecting, and therefore not worth pillaging!