406 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



outside to the belfry of the church, whither we followed 

 him ; and, turning around with a movement and tone 

 of voice that reminded us of a Mussulman in a minaret 

 calling the faithful to prayers, he called for a coach. 

 The roof of the church, and of the whole pile of build- 

 ings connected, was of stone cemented, firm and strong 

 as a pavement. The sun beat intensely upon it, and for 

 several minutes all was still. At length we saw a sin- 

 gle Indian trotting through the woods toward the haci- 

 enda, then two together, and in a quarter of an hour 

 there were twenty or thirty. These were the horses; 

 the coaches were yet growing on the trees. Six In- 

 dians were selected for each coach, who, with a few 

 minutes' use of the machete, cut a bundle of poles, 

 which they brought up to the corridor to manufacture 

 into coaches. This was done, first, by laying on the 

 ground two poles about as thick as a man's wrist, ten 

 feet long and three feet apart. These were fastened 

 by cross-sticks tied with strings of unspun hemp, about 

 two feet from each end ; grass hammocks were secu- 

 red between the poles, bows bent over them and cov- 

 ered with light matting, and the coaches were made. 

 We placed our ponchas at the head for pillows, crawl- 

 ed inside, and lay down. The Indians took off little 

 cotton shirts covering the breast, and tied them around 

 their petates as hatbands. Four of them raised up 

 each coach, and placed the end of the poles on little 

 cushions on their shoulders. We bade farewell to the 

 major-domo and his wife, and, feet first, descended the 

 steps and set off on a trot, while an Indian followed 

 leading the horses. In the great relief we experienced 

 we forgot our former scruples against making beasts of 

 burden of men. They were not troubled with any sense 

 of indignity or abasement, and the weight was not much. 



