LAS PLAYAS. 



369 



fore, the padre gave us a servant as a guide, and at 

 three o'clock we bade him farewell. He was the last 

 padre whom we met, and put a seal upon the kindness 

 we had received from all the padres of that country. 



At five o'clock, by a muddy road, through a pictu- 

 resque country, remarkable only for swarms of butterflies 

 with large yellow wings which filled the air, we reached 

 Las Playas. This village is the head of navigation of the 

 waters that empty in this direction into the Gulf of Mex- 

 ico. The whole of the great plain to the sea is intersect- 

 ed by creeks and rivers, some of them in the summer dry, 

 and on the rising of the waters overflowing their banks. 

 At this season the plain on one side of the village was 

 inundated, and seemed a large lake. The village was 

 a small collection of huts upon what might be called its 

 banks. It consisted of one street or road, grass-grown 

 and still as at Palenque, at the extreme end of which 

 was the church, under the pastoral care of our friend 

 the padre. Our guide, according to the directions of 

 the padre, conducted us to the convent, and engaged the 

 sexton to provide us with supper. The convent was 

 built of upright sticks, with a thatched roof, mud floor, 

 and furnished with three reed bedsteads and a table. 



At this place we were to embark in a canoe, and had 

 sent a courier a day beforehand, with a letter from the 

 prefect to the justitia, to have one ready for us. The 

 justitia was a portly mulatto, well dressed, and very civil, 

 had a canoe of his own, and promised to procure us 

 two bogadores or rowers in the morning. Very soon 

 the moschetoes made alarming demonstrations, and gave 

 us apprehensions of a fearful night. To make a show 

 of resistance, we built a large fire in the middle of the 

 convent. At night the storm came on with a high wind, 

 which made it necessary to close the doors. For two 



Vol. II.— 3 A 



