428 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



covered unexpectedly the tov^ering memorial of 

 another ruined city, and riding into the plaza, 

 S2iw at one angle, near the w^all of the church, the 

 gigantic mound represented in the plate opposite, 

 the grandest we had seen in the country. Much 

 as we had seen of ruins, the unexpected sight of 

 this added immensely to the interest of our long 

 journeying among the remains of aboriginal gran- 

 deur. Leaving my horse at the casa real, and 

 directing the alcalde to see about getting one for 

 Doctor Cabot, I walked over to the mound. At 

 the base, and inside of the wall of the church, were 

 five large orange trees, loaded with fruit. A group 

 of Indians were engaged in getting stone out of the 

 mound to repair the wall, and a young man was su- 

 perintending them, whom I immediately recognised 

 as the padre. He accompanied me to the top of 

 the mound ; it was one of the largest we had seen, 

 being about fifty feet high and four hundred feet long. 

 There was no building or structure of any kind vis- 

 ible ; whatever had been upon it had fallen or been 

 pulled down. The church, the wall of the yard, 

 and the few stone houses in the village, had been 

 built of materials taken from it. 



In walking along the top we reached a hole, 

 at the bottom of which I discovered the broken 

 arch of a ceiUng, and looked through it into an 

 apartment below. This explained the character of 

 the structure. A building had extended the whole 

 length of the mound, the upper part of which had 



