272 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



were sitting, but so infested with garrapatas that we 

 had to keep brushing them off continually with the 

 bough of a tree. 



This path led us to the hacienda of San Fran- 

 cisco, the property of a gentleman of the village, 

 who had reared the walls of a large building, but 

 had never finished it. There were fine shade trees, 

 and the appearance of the place was rural and pic- 

 turesque, but it was unhealthy. The deep green 

 foliage was impregnated, with the seeds of death. 

 The proprietor never visited it except in the day- 

 time, and the Indians who worked on the milpas 

 returned to the village at night. 



A short distance in the rear of the hacienda were 

 the ruins of another city, desolate and overgrown, 

 having no name except that of the hacienda on 

 which they stand. At this time a great part of the 

 city was completely hidden by the thick foliage of 

 the trees. Near by, however, several mounds were 

 in full sight, dilapidated, and having fragments of 

 walls on the top. We ascended the highest, which 

 commanded a magnificent view of the great wood- 

 ed plain, and at a distance the towers of the church 

 of Ticul rising darkly above. The cura told me 

 that in the dry season, when the trees were bare of 

 foliage, he had counted from this point thirty-six 

 mounds, every one of which had once held aloft a 

 building or temple, and not one now remained en- 

 tire. In the great waste of ruins it was impossible 

 to form any idea of what the place had been, ex- 



