WELLS. 



217 



The rancho of Macoba had been estabhshed but 

 four years. It was situated in the midst of an im- 

 mense forest ; as yet it had been used only for the 

 cukivation of maize, but the cura intended the en- 

 suing year to commence a plantation of sugar. His 

 inducement to estabhsh a rancho at this place was 

 the existence of the ruined buildings, which saved 

 the expense of erecting huts for his criados ; and he 

 was influenced also by the wells and other remains 

 of ancient watering-places. In the immediate vicin- 

 ity of the buildings, without inquiring or seeking for 

 them, we came across four wells, but all filled up with 

 rubbish, and dry. Indeed, so many were known to 

 exist, and the other means of supply were so abund- 

 ant, that Senor Trego was about becoming a part- 

 ner with the cura, under the expectation of clearing 

 out and restoring these ancient reservoirs, furnishing 

 an abundant supply of water, and calling around 

 them a large Indian population. 



In the mean time the cura had constructed two 

 large tanks, or cisterns, one of which was twenty- 

 two feet in diameter, and the same in depth, and 

 the other eighteen. Both these were under a large 

 circular roof, or top platform, covered with cement, 

 and sloping toward the centre, which received the 

 great body of rain-water that fell in the rainy season, 

 and transmitted it into the cisterns, and these fur- 

 nished a supply during the whole of the dry season, 

 as the major domo said, for fifty souls, besides fowls, 

 hogs, and one horse. 



Vol. IL — E e 19 



