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The rolling stock is scanty & of a very flimsy poor character. Recently a number of fine new engines of heavy class have been rec'd at Coatzocoalcos but it is said they cannot be used until the bridges are strengthened. On the night of May 31st the iron pier at Salina Cruz was crushed & destroyed by a heavy sea. The pier extended out from the shore on the open coast as there is no regular harbor [[?]] In Tehuantepec the Jeffries brothers have a sawmill & furniture factory using native woods & producing some handsome work by the use of native labor alone.

Marraiges [[marriages]] celebrated in Tehuantepec are attended by a great display of fireworks mainly in the daytime judging by those we saw. The city is full of petty thieves who are said to be people from the valley of Oaxaca & soldiers stationed here from other parts of the country. From what I saw afterwards among the nations on the Isthmus I take them to be exceptionally honest as compared with those we have found in most other places. Despite this we had 2 saddles stolen from the hotel yard one night.

May 4th on this date we left Tehuantepec city & proceeded 8 miles down the river to the village of Huilotepec where we were given quarters in the casa municipal by the obliging Presidente & the schoolteacher & secretary arranged to find us.