PARTING. 



255 



CHAPTER XV. 



Parting.— Sotana.— A Millionaire.— Ocosingo.— Ruins.— Beginning of the Rainy 

 Season.— A Female Guide.— Arrival at the Ruins.— Stone Figures.— Pyrami- 

 dal Structures. — An Arch. — A Stucco Ornament. — A Wooden Lintel. — A cu- 

 rious Cave. — Buildings, &c. — A Causeway. — More Ruins. — Journey to Pa- 

 lenque. — Rio Grande. — Cascades. — Succession of Villages. — A Maniac. — The 

 Yahalon. — Tumbala. — A wild Place. — A Scene of Grandeur and Sublimity. — 

 Indian Carriers. — A steep Mountain. — San Pedro. 



On the first of May, with a bustle and confusion like 

 those of May-day at home, we moved out of Don San- 

 tiago's house, mounted, and bade him farewell. Doubt- 

 less his daily routines have not since been broken by 

 the visit of a countryman, and communication is so dif- 

 ficult that he never hears from home. He charged us 

 with messages to his friend Doctor Coleman, United 

 States consul at Tobasco, who was then dead ; and 

 the reader will perhaps feel for him when I mention that 

 probably a copy of this work, which I intend to send 

 him, will never reach his hands. 



I must pass over the next stage of our journey, which 

 was through a region less mountainous, but not less sol- 

 itary than that we had already traversed. The first af- 

 ternoon we stopped at the hacienda of Sotana, belong- 

 ing to a brother-in-law of Don Santiago, in a soft and 

 lovely valley, with a* chapel attached, and bell that at 

 evening called the Indian workmen, women, and chil- 

 dren to vesper prayers. The next day, at the abode 

 of Padre Solis, a rich old cura, short and broad, living 

 on a fine hacienda, we dined off solid silver dishes, 

 drank out of silver cups, and washed in a silver basin. 

 He had lived at Palenque, talked of Candones or un- 

 baptized Indians, and wanted to buy my macho, prom- 



