INTERESTING EXPLORATIONS. 



119 



was of my coat, which was a long shooting-frock, with 

 many pockets ; and he said that he could make one 

 just like it except the skirts. He was a tailor by pro- 

 fession, and in the intervals of a great job upon a 

 roundabout jacket, worked with his machete. But he 

 had an inborn taste for the arts. As we passed through 

 the woods, nothing escaped his eye, and he was profes- 

 sionally curious touching the costumes of the sculptured 

 figures. I was struck with the first development of 

 their antiquarian taste. Francisco found the feet and 

 legs of a statue, and Bruno a part of the body to match, 

 and the effect was electric upon both. They searched 

 and raked up the ground with their machetes till they 

 found the shoulders, and set it up entire except the 

 head ; and they were both eager for the possession of 

 instruments with which to dig and find this remaining 

 fragment. 



It is impossible to describe the interest with which t 

 explored these ruins. The ground was entirely new ; 

 there were no guide-books or guides ; the whole was 

 a virgin soil. We could not see ten yards before us, 

 and never knew what we should stumble upon next. 

 At one time we stopped to cut away branches and vines 

 which concealed the face of a monument, and then to 

 dig around and bring to light a fragment, a sculptured 

 corner of which protruded from the earth. I leaned 

 over with breathless anxiety while the Indians worked, 

 and an eye, an ear, a foot, or a hand was disentombed ; 

 and when the machete rang against the chiselled stone, 

 I pushed the Indians away, and cleared out the loose 

 earth with my hands. The beauty of the sculpture, the 

 solemn stillness of the woods, disturbed only by the 

 scrambling of monkeys and the chattering of parrots, 

 the desolation of the city, and the mystery that hung 



