LOFTY MOUNTAIN RANGE. 



163 



and if we let her go she would be driven out into the 

 lake, and cast ashore, if at all, twenty or thirty miles 

 distant, whence we should have to scramble back over 

 mountains ; and there was a worse danger than this, 

 for in the afternoon the wind always came from the 

 other side, and might drive us back again into the 

 middle of the lake. We saw the people on the shore 

 looking at us, and growing smaller every moment, but 

 they could not help us. In all our difficulties we had 

 none that came upon us so suddenly and unexpectedly, 

 or that seemed more threatening. It was hardly ten 

 minutes since we were standing quietly on the beach, 

 and if the wind had continued five minutes longer I do 

 not know what would have become of us ; but, most 

 fortunately, it lulled. Juan's strength revived ; with a 

 great effort he brought us under cover of the high head- 

 land beyond which the wind first struck us, and in a 

 few minutes we reached the shore. 



We had had enough of the lake ; time was precious, 

 and we determined to set out after dinner and ride four 

 leagues to Solola. We took another mozo, whom the 

 padre recommended as a bobon, or great fool. The first 

 two were at swords' points, and with such a trio there 

 was not much danger of combination. In loading the 

 mules they fell to quarrelling, Bobon taking his share. 

 Ever since we left, Don Saturnino had superintended 

 this operation, and without him everything went wrong. 

 One mule slipped part of its load in the courtyard, and 

 we made but a sorry party for the long journey we had 

 before us. From the village our road lay toward 

 the lake, to the point of the opposite mountain, which 

 shut in the plain of Panachahel. Here we began to as- 

 cend. For a while the path commanded a view of the 

 village and plain ; but by degrees we diverged from it, 



