386 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



our abode in a habitation erected by Molas. On 

 leaving the island of Cozumel it was only to this 

 desolate point on the coast that he dared venture. 

 It was a situation that again suited his proscribed 

 life, and having no fear of pursuit from the interior, 

 his energy and industry did not desert him. He 

 again cultivated his milpa, and again laid the keel of 

 a sloop, being the same w^hich we then saw unfin- 

 ished. But, finding himself growing old, in a meas- 

 ure forgotten and afflicted by illness, he ventured to 

 appear in the village of Chemax, on returning from 

 which, as before mentioned, with a single Indian, 

 while yet eight leagues from Tancar he died in the 

 road ; as our informant expressed it, he died like a 

 dog, without aid either human or divine. We had 

 heard so much of Molas, of his long succession of 

 calamities, and of the heavy retribution that had 

 been poured upon his aged head, and we had seen 

 so much of his unbroken energy, that, in spite of the 

 violence and crimes imputed to him, our sympathies 

 were excited; and having heard afterward from other 

 sources the opinion expressed strongly, that during 

 these long years of proscription he was the victim 

 of an iniquitous and unrelenting persecution, I draw 

 a veil over his history. It was but a year since he 

 died, and his two sons were in possession of the ran- 

 cho, both young men, who paid us a visit soon after 

 our arrival. When the old man died the Indian 

 left the body in the road, and came on to the rancho, 

 whence these young men went up and buried it on 



