COPAN. 1 3 



which were altogether deserted, but where the long rows of mounds and the hastily- 

 made crosses by the roadside showed the havoc which the disease had caused before the 

 survivors had fled. The Alcalde of Comotan (the nearest Indian town) told me that 

 more than a hundred deaths were reported to him in a week. 



Towards the end of May the heavy thunder-storms and increasing rain warned us to 

 prepare for our return journey. By this time the paper we had brought with us had 

 been turned into large paper-moulds, which needed much care in handling, and the four 

 tons of plaster of Paris into fourteen hundred pieces of " piece-moulding " of various 

 shapes and sizes, with sharp corners and delicate edges, which required the most careful 

 protection against the rough jolting over the mountain-track. I had fortunately taken 

 the precaution of bringing with me from England several hundredweight of tow and a 

 large quantity of wrapping-paper, so that each piece of the plaster-moulds could be well 

 covered with tow and wrapped and tied up in a separate paper parcel. About sixteen 

 of these parcels could be packed into each of the two wooden boxes which a mule 

 carried. The paper-moulds were sown up in waterproof "American cloth" and packed 

 in open crates made of laths of the very light wood of a species of Hibiscus which grew 

 in the neighbourhood ; and these unwieldy but not heavy packages were carried on the 

 backs of Indians safely to the port of Yzabal, where the moulds were repacked in strong 

 wooden cases. 



It seemed to me that all danger of damage or destruction to the moulds might then 

 be considered to be at an end; but such was not the case. The steamer in which I 

 sailed with my treasures from Livingstone broke her shaft whilst crossing the Gulf of 

 Mexico, about ninety miles distant from the north coast of Yucatan, and we drifted 

 about in a helpless condition for some days, until the currents carried us over the edge 

 of the great bank of Yucatan, where we dropped anchor about sixty miles from land in 

 forty-five fathoms of water. Fortunately the weather held fine, and at the end of a 

 week a small steamer hove in sight and came to our assistance, and carried the passengers 

 to New Orleans. On our arrival in port tugs were immediately despatched to succour 

 the disabled vessel ; and as soon as she was safely towed into port I transferred all my 

 cases to a steamer leaving for England. 



When only a few days out this steamer ran aground on one of the numerous reefs 

 near the coast of Florida, and her cargo had to be taken out of her ; but, although my 

 personal baggage was damaged, the moulds fortunately escaped unharmed, and at last 

 arrived safely in England. 



