MEXICO AND INDIA 201 



very good and quite legible ; make him write often. I 

 wrote him a little note by the last steamer to tell him 

 there were no monkeys here and that he would get liz- 

 ards later in the season, so that they should not freeze 

 on the way. 



I am not sorry to have a couple of days to rest, for 

 my trips to the ruins have been pretty fatiguing. I have 

 made a little over four hundred miles over perfectly 

 infernal roads ; what with starting at daybreak, getting 

 well shaken to pieces, with very poor food, and sleep- 

 ing in hammocks, it is not conducive to comfort. I am 

 beginning to feel that I cannot get along without more 

 nourishing food than I get in the tropics, and I must 

 manage to keep hereafter within more civilized regions, 

 where the food is not simply beans and tortillas and 

 coffee and chocolate and a very occasional egg, with 

 nothing to drink but beer ; fortunately I was warned of 

 this state of things and took with me some claret so that 

 I managed pretty well. But I feel pretty tired and I 

 don't think it 's good for me to live in this way — I lose 

 ground. I have also had signs of my old trouble again, 

 which probably accounts for my being so tired ; if there 

 is any trace of it left when I get to Mexico I shall have 

 to give up my trip in the interior and come home by 

 way of Vera Cruz. What seems to use me up is the 

 shaking of the coaches. I thought I was perfectly strong 

 again, but it seems I must still be careful. 



This last trip to Uxmal has been a most interesting 



one. Mr. C , who was in the class of '56, and who 



has been most kind and attentive to me, came to Ux- 

 mal with me, so that it was very pleasant and not in the 

 least lonely. At one of the haciendas where we passed 

 the night we were joined by his cousin and two more 



