A WILD COUNTRY. 



273 



CHAPTER XVI. 



A wild Country.— Ascent of a Mountain.— Ride in a Silla. — A precarious Situa- 

 tion. — The Descent.— Rancho of Nopa. — Attacks of Moschetoes. — Approach 

 to Palenque. — Pasture Grounds. — Village of Palenque. — A crusty Official.— A 

 courteous Reception. — Scarcity of Provisions.— Sunday. — Cholera. — Another 

 Countryman.— The Conversion, Apostacy, and Recovery of the Indians.— River 

 Chacamal.— The Caribs.— Ruins of Palenque. 



Early the next morning the sugar party started, and 

 at five minutes before seven we followed, with silla and 

 men, altogether our party swelled to twenty Indians. 



The country through which we were now travelling 

 was as wild as before the Spanish conquest, and with- 

 out a habitation until we reached Palenque. The road 

 was through a forest so overgrown with brush and un- 

 derwood as to be impenetrable, and the branches were 

 trimmed barely high enough to admit a man's travelling 

 under them on foot, so that on the backs of our mules 

 we were constantly obliged to bend our bodies, and 

 even to dismount. In some places, for a great distance 

 around, the woods seemed killed by the heat, the foli- 

 age withered, the leaves dry and crisp, as if burned by 

 the sun ; and a tornado had swept the country, of which 

 no mention was made in the San Pedro papers. 



We met three Indians carrying clubs in their hands, 

 naked except a small piece of cotton cloth around the 

 loins and passing between the legs, one of them, young, 

 tall, and of admirable symmetry of form, looking the 

 freeborn gentleman of the woods. Shortly afterward 

 we passed a stream, where naked Indians were set- 

 ting rude nets for fish, wild and primitive as in the first 

 ages of savage life. 



At twenty minutes past ten we commenced ascending 



Vol. II.— Mm 



