A DELIGHTFUL BATHING - PLACE. 251 



At the time of our first visit to it, however, this 

 aguada had in our eyes a more direct and personal 

 interest. From the difficulty of procuring water at 

 the ruins, we were obliged to economize in the use of 

 it, while, from the excessive heat and toil of working 

 among the ruins, covered with dust and scratched 

 with briers, there was nothing we longed for so much 

 as the refreshment of a bath, and it was no unimpor- 

 tant part of our business at the aguada to examine 

 whether it would answer as a bathing-place. The 

 result was more satisfactory than we expected. The 

 place was actually inviting. We selected a little cove 

 shaded by a large tree growing almost out of the 

 water, had a convenient space cleared around it, a 

 good path cut all the way through the woods to the 

 terrace of the Casa del Gobernador, and on the first 

 of December we consecrated it by our first bath. 

 The mayoral, shrunken and shattered by fever and 

 ague, stood by protesting against it, and warning us 

 of the consequences ; but we had attained the only 

 thing necessary for our comfort at Uxmal, and in 

 the height of our satisfaction had no apprehensions 

 for the result. 



Up to this time our manner of living at the ruins 

 had been very uniform, and our means abundant. 

 All that was on the hacienda belonging to the mas- 

 ter was ours, as were also the services of the In- 

 dians, so far as he had a right to command them. 

 The property of the master consisted of cattle, hor- 

 ses, mules, and corn, of which only the last could be 



