364 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



this well had a higher interest, for it assured us that 

 our visit was not bootless. We saw in it, at the 

 first glance, the work of the same builders with 

 whose labours on the mainland we were now so fa- 

 miliar, being, like the subterranean chambers at Ux- 

 mal, dome shaped, but larger both at the mouth and 

 in the interior. 



This well was shaded by a large cocoanut tree. 

 We hauled up under it one of the hatches, and, sit- 

 ting around it on blocks, had served up the turtle 

 which had been accompKshing its destiny on board 

 the canoa. With our guns resting against the trees, 

 long beards, and canoa costume, we were, perhaps, 

 as piratical-seeming a trio as ever scuttled a ship at 

 sea. In the afternoon we walked over the clear- 

 ing, which was covered with a fine plantation of 

 cotton, worth, as the patron said, several hundred 

 dollars, with the pods open and blowing away, indi- 

 cating that the rancho had been abandoned in haste, 

 without regard to the preservation of property. To- 

 ward evening we strolled for a great distance along 

 the shore, picking up shells, and at night we had a 

 luxurious swing in our hammocks. 



