Travels in the interior of Mexico in 1825 - 1828 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829 Excerpt: ...for mercy, which his relentless conqueror refusing to grant, gives, him the coup-de-grace, ending the fight and the misery of the poor brute together. But not always does the hunter come off victorious. From childhood trained up to the desperate occupation, he cannot live, or reflect, as other men do; and few of them die a natural death. When engaged in the chase, no human eye, besides his own, beholds the combat, and if he fall a victim to his temerity, there is no kind friend at hand to close his eyes, or to bear the fatal tidings to his family. When another fight takes place, perhaps in the same spot, which k more happy in its results, the clean-picked bones of the departed hunter are, for the first time, discovered by the more dexterous or more fortunate combatant, whitening in the sun! Yet, callous to this species of danger, which with greedy anxiety he courts, these frequent spectacles of the fate which has befallen a former companion, perhaps a relative or a friend, and which will probably one day be his own, he looks at with indifference; perhaps scorning their want of skill. He coolly proceeds with his work of skinning the fallen bull and collecting his fat, which having done, he either goes in search of fresh adventures-, or returns to his house, where he recounts his deeds to his family, and " fights his bat tles o'er again," to their infinite delight and entertainment. There is no accounting for tastes, and, methinks, this is an extraordinary one. But, like every other which produces a great deal of mental excitement, I make no doubt that it has its delights. But, for my own part, I can fancy no pleasure in being transfixed, or even thrown twenty yards high, by a pair of monstrous horns. The hunter also chases lions as well as bulls; a...