The party which I was with moved south down the valley to the town of Cuantla, some forty miles from Ameca Ameca.  The latter stands on the plain at the foot of Popocatapetl, at an elevation of about eight thousand feet above tide water.  The slope down is gradual as the traveller moves south, but one would not judge that, in going to Cuantla, descent enough had been made to occasion a material change in the climate and productions of the soil; but such is the case.  In the morning we left a temperate climate where the cereals and fruits are those common to the United States, we halted in the evening in a tropical climate where the orange and banana, the coffee and the sugar-cane were flourishing.  We had been travelling, apparently, on a plain all day, but in the direction of the flow of water.

Soon after the capture of the City of Mexico an armistice had been agreed to, designating the limits beyond which troops of the respective armies were not to go during its continuance.  Our party knew nothing about these limits.  As we approached Cuantla bugles sounded the assembly, and soldiers rushed from the guard-house in the edge of the town towards us.  Our party halted, and I tied a white pocket handkerchief to a stick and, using it as a flag of truce, proceeded on to the town.  Captains Sibley and Porter followed a few hundred yards behind.  I was detained at the guard-house until a messenger could be dispatched to the quarters of the commanding general, who authorized that I should be conducted to him.  I had been with the general but a few minutes when the two officers following announced themselves.  The Mexican general reminded us that it was a violation of the truce for us to be there.  However, as we had no special authority from our own commanding general, and as we knew nothing about the terms of the truce, we were permitted to occupy a vacant house outside the guard for the night, with the promise of a guide to put us on the road to Cuernavaca the next morning.

Cuernavaca is a town west of Guantla.  The country through which we passed, between these two towns, is tropical in climate and productions and rich in scenery.  At one point, about half-way between the two places, the road goes over a low pass in the mountains in which there is a very quaint old town, the inhabitants of which at that day were nearly all full-blooded Indians.  Very few of them even spoke Spanish.  The houses were built of stone and generally only one story high.  The streets were narrow, and had probably been paved before Cortez visited the country.  They had not been graded, but the paving had been done on the natural surface.  We had with us one vehicle, a cart, which was probably the first wheeled vehicle that had ever passed through that town.

On a hill overlooking this town stands the tomb of an ancient king; and it was understood that the inhabitants venerated this tomb very highly, as well as the memory of the ruler who was supposed to be buried in it.  We ascended the mountain and surveyed the tomb; but it showed no particular marks of architectural taste, mechanical skill or advanced civilization.  The next day we went into Cuernavaca.