212 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and at length fairly enlisting them all in the task, 

 at one time he had at work fifteen hundred Indians, 

 with eighty superintendents (major domos). On 

 clearing out the mud, he found an artificial bottom 

 of large flat stones. These were laid upon each 



other in this form ^ — L J — ^ , and the interstices 



were filled in with clay of red and brown colour, 

 of a different character from any in the neighbour- 

 hood. The stones were many layers deep, and 

 he did not go down to the bottom, lest by some ac- 

 cident the foundation should be injured, and the fault 

 be imputed to him. 



Near the centre, in places which he indicated as 

 we rode along the bank, he discovered four ancient 

 wells. These were five feet in diameter, faced with 

 smooth stone not covered with cement, eight yards 

 deep, and at the time of the discovery were also 

 filled with mud. And, besides these, he found along 

 the margin upward of four hundred casimbas, or pits, 

 being holes into which the water filtered, and which, 

 with the wells, were intended to furnish a supply 

 when the aguada should be dry. 



The whole bottom of the aguada, the wells, and 

 pits, were cleared out ; Seiior Trego portioned off 

 the pits among families, to be preserved and kept in 

 order by them, and the dry basin was then given up 

 to the floods of the rainy season. It so happened 

 that the next year was one of unusual scarcity, and 

 the whole country around was perfectly destitute of 



