[Footnote 1: A very ingenious theft by one of this class was mentioned to me by an American who was present when it took place. At a fair in the interior of the country, two Americans were seated on a bench engaged in conversation, one of them having his hat by his side with his hand upon it for its protection. Talking earnestly he occasionally uplifted his hand from the hat. On his rising from his seat, he was surprised to find in his hand not his own beaver, but an inferior one which had been substituted for it. At an incautious moment he had ceased to guard it; a hat was there when he put down his hand--but it was not his own.] They are superstitious, too, almost to idolatry. I may here include with them the better class of people also. The recent reception of the image of _Nuestra Senora de los Remedios_, (Our Lady of Remedies,) I give as evidence of the justice of this remark. Her history is briefly this. She is a deity of Spanish origin--the more highly esteemed Lady of _Guadalupe_--the patron saint of Mexico, is indigenous. She accompanied the conquerors to the city of _Muteczuma_[2]--was lost in their disastrous retreat on the celebrated _noche triste_--was found some years afterwards, in 1540, seated in a _maguey_, by an Indian, _Juan de Aguila_, who carried her to his dwelling, and fed her with _tortillas_, (Indian corn-cakes,) which were regularly deposited in the chest where she was kept. Suddenly she fled, and was discovered on the spot where her temple now stands--the place to which Cortes retreated on the night of his flight from the city. It is an eminence to the west of Mexico, distant about five miles. [Footnote 2: Cortés, in his Letters, writes the name of the Emperor of Mexico, _Muteczuma_. Humboldt says, I know not on what authority, that _Moteuczoma_ was his name. The English historians always call him Montezuma.] This identical image, they say, still exists--it is about eight inches in height--it is richly decorated. It is believed to possess the power of bringing rain, and of staying the ravages of disease.