The Bandolero — Mayne Reid

La Puebla de los Angeles is peculiar, even among the cities of modern Mexico; peculiar in the fact, that two-thirds of its population are composed of priests, pelados, poblanas, pickpockets, and incarones of a bolder type. Perhaps I have been too liberal in allowing a third to the "gente de bueno," or respectable people. There are travellers who have altogether denied their existence; but this may be an exaggeration on the other side. Trusting to my own souvenirs, I think I can remember having met with honest men-and women too-in the City of the Angels. But I shall not be positive about their proportion to the rest of the population. It may be less than a third-certainly it is not more Equally certain is it: that every tenth man you meet in the streets of Puebla is either a priest, or in some way connected with the holy fraternity-and that every tenth woman is far from being an angel Curas in robes of black silk serge, stockings of the finest texture, and "coal-scuttle" hats, full three feet in length; friars of all orders and colours-black and white, blue, brown, and grey-with shaven crowns and sandalled feet, are encountered, not only at every corner, but almost at every step you take. If monks were immaculate, Puebla might deserve the sanctified appellation it has received-the City of the Angels. As it is, the City of the Devils would be a more appropriate title for it