4 PALENQUE. 



the more immediate neighbourhood of the work, and that in addition to this he 

 would send a company of twenty-five Indians from one of the larger Indian towns in the 

 Sierra. This arrangement filled me with the hope that I should be able to accomplish 

 the work 1 had taken in hand as thoroughly as 1 could desire. 



On the 20th February I was glad to welcome my old friends and companions 

 Gorgonio and Jose Domingo Lopes, who had ridden over from Guatemala to join me. 

 Gorgonio brought his son Caralampio with him, a bright boy of fifteen, who was a 

 useful addition to the party, so that now there was no lack of overseers. 



On the 23rd a company of Indians arrived from the Sierra, and about the same time 

 a contingent came from Las Flayas, and for two or three days there were about fifty 

 men at work. Then the number began to fall off again, and by the 28th we were left 

 without a single labourer. After this the numbers varied from three to sixteen until 

 the 10th March, when again we were left without any labourers. It was most 

 disheartening, for, believing in the Jefe's promises, I had commenced work on rather a 

 large scale, and now it seemed as though much of the work which I looked on as 

 essential would have to be left undone. 



Letters and messages to the Jefe and the other local authorities were of no avail ; 

 they produced only a fresh crop of promises which were again broken. 



It was of little use writing or telegraphing to San Cristobal or Mexico — the former 

 was distant a week's journey, and the nearest telegraph-station at San Juan Bautista 

 was not much nearer. However, in my extremity I did both. A little help dribbled 

 in from Las Playas and Santo Domingo, and at last my importunities at the Jefetura 

 secured the services of twenty Tumbala Indians for a week. 



We ourselves were, of course, not idle during this time. The brothers Lopes worked 

 with indomitable energy at moulding the inscriptions, a work that fell all the heavier on 

 them when there were no labourers to carry up the water from the stream and to cut 

 and stack the large quantity of firewood needed for the drying-fires. The inscriptions 

 in the four detached temples were of the greatest importance, and these were the first 

 to be moulded. This work had occupied us about three weeks, and some of the moulds 

 were dry and had been stored on the scaffolds and shelves which we had put up in the 

 temples for the purpose, and others were in the course of being dried, when a sudden 

 storm burst on us in the night. It would have been most dangerous to have attempted 

 to cross the plazas and climb the pyramids over the loose stones and recently-felled 

 trees on such a night, and we could only trust that the waterproof covers which we 

 had placed over the moulds would afford them sufficient protection. Alas ! the heavy 

 rain continued all the next day, and to move the moulds was impossible, even if any 

 drier places could have been found in which to store them. The unclried moulds 

 which had been left adhering to the sculptured slabs were almost washed away by the 

 continual trickling of the water, and our efforts to protect those which were already dry 

 and stored on the shelves were of little avail. The buildings were sopping wet, the 



