ANNOYANCE FROM MOSCHETOES. 159 



ment, by way of putting ourselves on the vantage 

 ground against fever. As we were all in perfect 

 health, Dr. Cabot thought such a course could not 

 hurt us. This over, we threw more wood upon the 

 pile and went to bed. 



Up to this time our course had been before the 

 wind. Our journey from Merida had again been a 

 sort of triumphal procession. We had been passed 

 from hacienda to hacienda, till we fell into the hos- 

 pitable hands of Don Simon Peon, and we were now 

 in absolute possession of the ruins of Uxmal. But 

 very soon we found that we had to encounter trou- 

 bles from which neither Don Simon, nor the gov- 

 ernment, nor recommendations to the hospitality of 

 citizens of the interior, could afford us protection. 

 Early in the evening a few straggling moschetoes 

 had given us notice of the existence of these free 

 and independent citizens of Yucatan ; but while we 

 were swinging in our hammocks and the fire burn- 

 ed brightly, they had not troubled us much* Our 

 heads, however, were hardly upon our pillows, be- 

 fore the whole population seemed to know exactly 

 where they could have us, and, dividing into three 

 swarms, came upon us as if determined to lift us up 

 and eject us bodily from the premises. The flame 

 and volumes of smoke which had rolled through the 

 building, in ridding us of the damp, unwholesome 

 atmosphere, seemed only to have started these tor- 

 ments from their cracks and crevices, and filled them 



