They bring logs of wood over the mountains by harnessing horses or mules to them, and dragging them with immense labour over the rough ground.

The idea of wheels or rollers has either not occurred to them, or is considered as a pernicious novelty.
It is very striking to see how, while Europeans are bringing the newest machinery and the most advanced arts into the country, there is scarcely any symptom of improvement among the people, who still hold firmly to the wisdom of their ancestors.

An American author, Mayer, quotes a story of a certain people in Italy, as an illustration of the feeling of the Indians in Mexico respecting improvements.

In this district, he says that the peasants loaded their panniers with vegetables on one side, and balanced the opposite pannier by filling it with stones; and when a traveller pointed out the advantage to be gained by loading both panniers with vegetables, he was answered that their forefathers from time immemorial had so carried their produce to market, that they were wise and good men, and that a stranger showed very little understanding or decency who interfered in the established customs of a country.

I need hardly say that the Indians are utterly ignorant; and this of course accounts to a great extent for their obstinate conservatism.
There were several shops round the market-place at Grande, and the brandy-drinking was going on much as at Soquital.