18 • INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



At three o'clock the next morning we started. In 

 all the tierras calientes it is the custom to travel at 

 night, or, rather, very early in the morning. At eight 

 o'clock we entered the village of Mateares, where we 

 procured some eggs and breakfasted. From this village 

 our road lay directly along the lake, but a few paces 

 from the shore, and shaded by noble trees. Unfortu- 

 nately, we were obliged to turn off to avoid a large 

 rock which had rolled down several months before, and 

 probably blocks up the road still ; this brought us round 

 by the Questa del Relox, so called from a venerable 

 sundial which stands on one side of the road, of a dark 

 gray stone, with an inscription in Castilian, but the 

 characters so worn and indistinct that I could not make 

 them out. It has no history except that it was erected 

 by the conquerors, and it stands as an indication of the 

 works with which the Spaniards began the settlement 

 of the country. 



At half past eleven we left the lake for the last time, 

 and entered an open plain. We rode an hour longer, 

 and reached Nagarotis, a miserable village, its houses 

 built partly of mud, with yards in front, trodden bare 

 by mules, and baked white by the sun. I entered one 

 of the houses for shelter, and found in it a young negro 

 priest on his way to Carthagena, with orders from the 

 Church at Leon. The house was occupied by an old 

 man alone. It had a bedstead with a mat over it, upon 

 which I lay down, glad to rest a while, and to escape 

 the scorching heat. Opposite the bed was a rude frame 

 about six feet high, on the top of which was a sort of 

 babyhouse, with the figure of the Virgin sitting on a 

 chair, and dressed in cheap finery. 



At three we started again. The sun had lost some 

 of its force, the road was wooded, and I observed more 



