120 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVi^L. 



over it J all created an interest higher, if possible, than I 

 had ever felt among the ruins of the Old World. After 

 several hours' absence I returned to Mr. Catherwood, 

 and reported upward of fifty objects to be copied. 



I found him not so well pleased as I expected with 

 my report. He was standing with his feet in the mud, 

 and was drawing with his gloves on, to protect his 

 hands from the moschetoes. As we feared, the designs 

 were so intricate and complicated, the subjects so en- 

 tirely new and unintelligible, that he had great diffi- 

 culty in drawing. He had made several attempts, both 

 with the camera lucida and without, but failed to sat- 

 isfy himself or even me, w^ho was less severe in criti- 

 cism. The " idol" seemed to defy his art ; two mon- 

 keys on a tree on one side appeared to be laughing at 

 him, and I felt discouraged and despondent. In fact, 

 I made up my mind, with a pang of regret, that we 

 must abandon the idea of carrying away any materials 

 for antiquarian speculation, and must be content with 

 having seen them ourselves. Of that satisfaction no- 

 thing could deprive us. We returned to the hut with 

 our interest undiminished, but sadly out of heart as to 

 the result of our labours. 



Our luggage had not been able to cross the river, but 

 the blue bag which had caused me so many troubles 

 was recovered. I had offered a dollar reward, and 

 Bartalo, the heir-apparent of the lesseeship of our hut, 

 had passed the day in the river, and found it entangled 

 in a bush upon the bank. His naked body seemed glad 

 of its accidental washing, and the bag, which we sup- 

 posed to contain some of Mr. C.'s drawing materials, 

 being shaken, gave out a pair of old boots, which, how- 

 ever, were at that time worth their weight in gold, be- 

 ing water -proof, and cheered Mr. Catherwood's droop- 



