Tachyhippodamia

Gentle Reader: The work you are going to peruse is not a voluminous one, neither did I take any pains whatever as to the elegance of the style. I wrote to make myself understood by the unlearned as well as the learned. The price of the work may seem high, on account of the small number of pages it contains: but it must be recollected that it encloses the revelation of a secret that has filled thousands of the wise and unwise with astonishment. I have received, as a gratification, more than two thousand dollars, from several Mexican gentleman, for breaking a single horse, in this manner, in their presence. I shall always feel grateful for the kind and generous reception I every where met with, when travelling through their country. From Louisiana to Mexico—from the Californias to Guatemala—and all over the Mexican states, when I have been travelling, I never asked for lodging without its being immediately granted—I never asked for a meal of victuals and was refused: the proprietor of a private house would feel himself injured, if you should offer him money for receiving you. You may except from this rule some poor Indian, who sometimes will admit of your offer, when you insist on his receiving some trifle; but a wealthy farmer, or one a little at his ease, would spurn the idea of selling his hospitality. I speak of none of their qualities but that of hospitality, which by the by, is a great one, and very much recommended by St. Paul. It is true, I lost nearly twenty thousand dollars, which were deposited in a store, by a revolution: but, in what country is a man’s property safe in revolutionary times?