SANTA CRUZ DEL QUICHE. 



171 



as we looked through the gratings, we saw lying on the 

 ground, with only a few rags of covering, shivering in 

 the cold. The alcalde provided us with supper, and 

 promised to procure us a guide to the ruins. 



Early in the morning, with a Mestitzo armed with a 

 long basket-hilted sword, who advised us to carry our 

 weapons, as the people were not to be trusted, we set 

 out for the ruins. At a short distance we passed an- 

 other immense barranca, down which, but a few nights 

 before, an Indian, chased by alguazils, either fell or 

 threw himself off into the abyss, fifteen hundred feet 

 deep, and was dashed to pieces. At about a mile from 

 the village we came to a range of elevations, extending 

 to a great distance, and connected by a ditch, which 

 had evidently formed the line of fortifications for the 

 ruined city. They consisted of the remains of stone 

 buildings, probably towers, the stones well cut and laid 

 together, and the mass of rubbish around abounded in 

 flint arrow-heads. Within this line was an elevation, 

 which grew more imposing as we approached, square, 

 with terraces, and having in the centre a tower, in all 

 one hundred and twenty feet high. We ascended by 

 steps to three ranges of terraces, and on the top enter- 

 ed an area enclosed by stone walls, and covered with 

 hard cement, in many places still perfect. Thence we 

 ascended by stone steps to the top of the tower, the 

 whole of which was formerly covered with stucco, and 

 stood as a fortress at the entrance of the great city of 

 Utatlan, the capital of the kingdom of the Quiche In- 

 dians. 



According to Fuentes, the chronicler of the king- 

 dom of Guatimala, the kings of Quiche and Kachiquel 

 were descended from the Toltecan Indians, who, when 

 they came into this country, found it already inhab- 



