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before-it. The part which was not fortified in' this manner was defend- 

 ed by a perpendicular rock, the top of which was piled with ftones fliap- 

 ed for the fling. It had alfo a parapet, and there was on one fide of 

 the town an impafTable marfh. On entry we found every houfe filled 

 with provifions of whatever kind the country afforded, and a magazine 

 ftocked with arms of all forts, but not a fingle human being. While 

 we were exprefiing our aftonifhment at thefe circumftances, fifteen In- 

 dians came out of the marfli, and addrefling us with great fubmifiion, 

 informed us that they h;id been driven to the confi:rud:ion of this for- 

 trefs, as a laft refource in an unfuccefsful war, in which they had been 

 engaged with forae of their neighbours, whom, as well as I recollect, 

 they called the Lazandones. It feemed to be a warfare of plunder on 

 each fide. The name of this diftridt means in their language a country 

 abounding with game, which it was very well intitled to be called. 

 Two of the Indians attended us from this place, and communicated to 

 Cortes what they knew of the fettlement of the Spaniards. 



We now travelled through a country entirely open, confifting of 

 vaft plains without a tree. The heat of the fun was excefiive, and the 

 deer which fed over this extenfive range of champaign were innumerable, 

 and fo tame as almofl to come to our hands. The horfemen took them 

 after the fhortefl: purfuit, and we had in a very little fpace of time above 

 twenty killed. Afking our guides the reafon of thefe animals not being 

 alarmed at the approach of men, we found that it was owing to a fuper- 

 ftition of the people, who confidered them to be divinities, as they faid 

 that'their gods appeared to them in their forms; and alfo that their idols 

 had commanded that they fhould be neither killed nor frightened. The 

 heat of the weather was now fo great, that a relation of the general's, 

 named Palacios Rubios, loft his horfe by purfuing the game. Purfu- 

 ing our journey by villages where war had left its deftru6tive marks, 

 we met fome Indians on their return from hunting. They had with 

 them a huge lion which they had juft killed, and fome iguanas, a fpe- 

 cies of fmall ferpent, very good to eat. They led us to their town, be- 

 ing obliged to wade up to our middles in a lake of frefli water with 



which 



