304 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



in desolate places, the solitary wayfarer through life, 

 serving for " wife, children, and friends." 



At about ten o'clock the Indians arrived with fresh 

 tortillas and milk. Our guide, too, having finished cut- 

 ting up and distributing the hog, was with them. He 

 was the same who had been employed by Mr. Waldeck, 

 and also by Mr. Walker and Captain Caddy, and was 

 recommended by the prefect as the only man acquaint- 

 ed with the ruins. Under his escort we set out for a 

 preliminary survey. Of ourselves, leaving the palace, 

 in any direction, we should not have known which way 

 to direct our steps. 



In regard to the extent of these ruins. Even in this 

 practical age the imagination of man delights in won- 

 ders. The Indians and the people of Palenque say that 

 they cover a space of sixty miles ; in a series of well- 

 written articles in our own country they have been set 

 down as ten times larger than New- York ; and lately I 

 have seen an article in some of the newspapers, refer- 

 ring to our expedition, which represents this city, discov- 

 ered by us, as having been three times as large as Lon- 

 don ! It is not in my nature to discredit any marvellous 

 story. I am slow to disbelieve, and would rather sustain 

 all such inventions ; but it has been my unhappy lot to 

 find marvels fade away as I approached them : even the 

 Dead Sea lost its mysterious charm ; and besides, as a 

 traveller and " writer of a book," I know that if I go 

 wrong, those who come after me will not fail to set me 

 right. Under these considerations, not from any wish 

 of my own, and with many thanks to my friends of the 

 press, I am obliged to say that the Indians and people 

 of Palenque really know nothing of the ruins personally, 

 and the other accounts do not rest upon any sufficient 

 foundation. The whole country for miles around is cov- 



