228 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



distressing to use them ; and the saddle-horse was no 

 better off. Bobon, in walking barefooted over the stony- 

 road, had bruised the ball of one of his feet so that he 

 was disabled, and that night Juan's enormous supper 

 gave him an indigestion. He was a tremendous feed- 

 er ; on the road nothing eatable was safe. We owed 

 him a spite for pilfering our bread and bringing us 

 down to tortillas, and were not sorry to see him on 

 his back ; but he rolled over the floor of the corridor, 

 crying out uproariously, so as to disturb the whole 

 household, " Voy morir !" " voy morir !" " I am going 

 to die !" "I am going to die !" He was a hard sub- 

 ject to work upon, but we took him in hand strongly, 

 and unloaded him. 



Besides our immediate difficulties, we heard of oth- 

 ers in prospect. In consequence of the throng of emi- 

 grants from Guatimala toward Mexico, no one was ad- 

 mitted into that territory without a passport from Ciu- 

 dad Real, the capital of Chiapas, four or five days' 

 journey from the frontier. The frontier was a long 

 line of river in the midst of a wilderness, and there 

 were two roads, a lower one but little travelled, on ac- 

 count of the difficulty of crossing the rivers, but at that 

 time passable. As we intended, however, at all events, 

 to stop at this place for the purpose of visiting the ruins, 

 we postponed our decision till the next day. 



The next morning Don Joaquim told us of the skel- 

 eton of a colossal animal, supposed to be a mastodon, 

 which had been found in the neighbourhood. Some of 

 the bones had been collected, and were then in the 

 town, and having seen them, we took a guide and 

 walked to the place where they had been discovered, 

 on the borders of the Rio Chinaca, about half a mile 

 distant. At this time the river was low, but the year 



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