32 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



immediate preparations to descend, reducing our 

 dress as near as possible to that of the Indians. 



Our first movement w^as down a hole by a per- 

 pendicular ladder, at the foot of which we were fair- 

 ly entered into a great cavern. Our guides prece- 

 ded us with bundles of taje lighted for torches, and 

 we came to a second descent almost perpendicular, 

 which we achieved by a ladder laid flat against the 

 rock. Beyond this we moved on a short distance, 

 still following our guides, and still descending, when 

 we saw their torches disappearing, and reached a 

 wild hole, which also we descended by a long rough 

 ladder. At the foot of this the rock was damp and 

 slippery, and there was barely room enough to pass 

 around it, and get upon another ladder down the 

 same hole, now more contracted, and so small that, 

 with the arms akimbo, the elbows almost touched 

 on each side. At this time our Indians were out of 

 sight ; and in total darkness, feeling our way by the 

 rounds of the ladder, we cried out to them, and were 

 answered by distant voices directly underneath. 

 Looking down, we saw their torches like moving 

 balls of fire, apparently at an interminable distance 

 below us. 



At the foot of this ladder there was a rude plat- 

 form as a resting-place, made to enable those as- 

 cending and descending to pass each other. A 

 group of naked Indians, panting and sweating un- 

 der the load of their calabashes, were waiting till 

 we vacated the ladder above ; and even in this wild 



