170 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



kings of Quiche, and the most sumptuous discovered by 

 the Spaniards in this section of America. It was a site 

 worthy to be the abode of a race of a kings. We 

 passed between two small lakes, rode into the village, 

 passed on, as usual, to the convent, which stood beside 

 the church, and stopped at the foot of a high- flight of 

 stone steps. An old Indian on the platform told us to 

 walk in, and we spurred our mules up the steps, rode 

 through the corridor into a large apartment, and sent 

 the mules down another flight of steps into a yard en- 

 closed by a high stone fence. The convent was the 

 first erected in the country by the Dominican friars, 

 and dated from the time of Alvarado. It was built en- 

 tirely of stone, with massive walls, and corridors, pave- 

 ments, and courtyard strong enough for a fortress ; 

 but most of the apartments were desolate or filled with 

 rubbish ; one was used for sacate, another for corn, and 

 another fitted up as a roosting-place for fowls. The 

 padre had gone to another village, his own apartments 

 were locked, and we were shown into one adjoining, 

 about thirty feet square, and nearly as high, with stone 

 floor and walls, and without a single article in it except 

 a shattered and weather-beaten soldier in one corner, 

 returning from campaigns in Mexico. As we had 

 brought with us nothing but our ponchas, and the nights 

 in that region were very cold, we were unwilling to risk 

 sleeping on the stone floor, and with the padre's Indian 

 servant went to the alcalde, who, on the strength of 

 Carrera's passport, gave us the audience-room of the 

 cabildo, which had at one end a raised platform with a 

 railing, a table, and two long benches with high backs. 

 Adjoining was the prison, being merely an enclosure of 

 four high stone walls, without any roof, and filled with 

 more than the usual number of criminals, some of whom, 



