40 RUINS OF MEN CHE. 



RUINS OF MEN CHE. 



Personal Narrative. 



In the year 1882 I travelled through the forest from Cohan, iu the Alta Vera Paz, to 

 Peten, and thence, on the 14th March, I started in a canoe from the Paso Eeal, in 

 company with Mr. Schulte, the Manager of Messrs. .Jamet and Sastres, Mahogany 

 Cutters, on an expedition down the Eio de la Pasion, my object being to reach the 

 ruins of Menche. I had heard of these ruins from Professor Eockstroh, of the 

 Instituto Nacional in Guatemala, who had visited them the year before, and was, I 

 believe, the first European to write any description of them. At the Paso Real I was 

 fortunately able to secure as guide one of the canoemen who had accompanied 

 Professor Eockstroh on his expedition. 



Three days later I parted company with Mr. Schulte near the mouth of the 

 Eio Lacandon, where he was about to establish a new "Monteria." The banks of 

 the river here begin to lose their monotonous appearance, and, for the first time since 

 leaving the Paso Eeal, we caught sight of some hills in the distance. At mid-day we 

 entered a gorge about a league in length, where the river flows between high rocky 

 and wooded banks, and in some places the stream narrowed to a width of forty feet. 

 The current was not very swift, but the surface of the water moved in great oily- 

 looking swirls which seemed to indicate a great depth. Below the narrows the river 

 widens very considerably and the current becomes much more rapid, and great care 

 had to be taken in guiding the canoes so as to avoid the numerous rocks and snags. 

 This day we travelled about thirty miles below the Boca del Cerro, and then camped 

 for the night. Several times during the day we had seen traces of the " Lacandones," 

 " Jicaques," or " Caiibes," as my men called them (the untamed Indians who inhabit 

 the forests between Chiapas and Peten), and while stopping to examine one of their 

 canoes, which we found hauled up on a sand-spit, its owner, accompanied by a woman 

 and child, came out of the forest to meet us. The man was an uncouth-looking 

 fellow, with sturdy limbs, long black hair, very strongly marked features, prominent 

 nose, thick lips, and complexion about the tint of that of my half-caste canoemen. 

 He was clothed in a single long brown garment of roughly-woven material, which 

 looked like sacking, splashed over with blots of some red dye. The man showed no 

 signs of fear, and readily entered into conversation with one of my men who spoke 

 the Maya language, but the woman kept at a distance and I could not get a good 

 look at her. 



Later in the day we landed to visit a " caribal," or Indian village, which my guide 



