122 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



but does not fix accurately the location of places 

 which we did not visit. 



At the distance of a league we passed a fine cat- 

 tle hacienda, and at twenty minutes past one reach- 

 ed Timucui, a small village five leagues from Mer- 

 ida. This village consisted of a few Indian huts, 

 built around a large open square, and on one side 

 was a sort of shed for a casa real. It had no church 

 or cura, and already we experienced a difficulty 

 which we did not expect to encounter so soon. 

 The population consisted entirely of Indians, who 

 in general throughout the country speak nothing but 

 the Maya ; there was not a white man in the place, 

 nor any one who could speak in any tongue that we 

 could comprehend. Fortunately, a muleteer from 

 the interior, on his way to Merida, had stopped to 

 bait his mules under the shade of a large tree, and 

 was swinging in a hammock in the casa real. He 

 was surprised at our undertaking alone a journey 

 into the interior, seeing that we were brought to a 

 stand at the first village from the capital ; but, find- 

 ing us somewhat rational in other respects, he as- 

 sisted us in procuring ramon leaves and water for 

 the horses. His life had been passed in driving 

 mules from a region of country called the Sierra, to 

 the capital ; but he had heard strange stories about 

 foreign countries, and, among others, that in El 

 Norte a man could earn a dollar a day by his la- 

 bour ; but he was comforted when he learned that 

 a real in his country was worth more to him than a 



