264 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL* 



badness of the roads. Our route lay through an Indian 

 country, in parts of which the Indians bore a notoriously 

 bad character. We had no dragoons, our party of at- 

 tendants was very small, and, in reality, we had not a 

 single man upon whom we could rely ; under which 

 state of things Pawling' s pistols and double-barrelled 

 gun were a matter of some consequence. 



"We left Ocosingo at a quarter past eight. So little 

 impression did any of our attendants make upon me, 

 that I have entirely forgotten every one of them. In- 

 deed, this was the case throughout the journey. In 

 other countries a Greek muleteer, an Arab boatman, or 

 a Bedouin guide was a companion ; here the people 

 had no character, and nothing in which we took any 

 interest except their backs. Each Indian carried, be- 

 sides his burden, a net bag containing his provisions for 

 the road, viz., a few tortillas, and large balls of mashed 

 Indian corn wrapped in leaves. A drinking cup, being 

 half a calabash, he carried sometimes on the crown of 

 his head. At every stream he filled his cup with water, 

 into which he stirred some of his corn, making a sort 

 of cold porridge ; and this throughout the country is 

 the staff of life for the Indian on a journey. In half an 

 hour we passed at some distance on our right large 

 mounds, formerly structures which formed part of the 

 old city. At nine o'clock we crossed the Rio Grande 

 or Huacachahoul, followed some distance on the bank, 

 and passed three cascades spreading over the rocky 

 bed of the river, unique and peculiar in beauty, and 

 probably many more of the same character were break- 

 ing unnoticed and unknown in the wilderness through 

 which it rolled ; but, turning up a rugged mountain, we 

 lost sight of it. The road was broken and mountain- 

 ous. We did not meet a single person, and at three 



