432 INCIDENTS OP TRAVEL. 



had a fine plaza, with a great church and convent, 

 and a stone casa real, w^ith a broad corridor in front, 

 under which the guarda were swinging in hammocks. 



We were but six leagues from Izamal, at which 

 place, we learned, a fiesta was then going on, and 

 there was to be a ball in the evening ; but we could 

 neither push our horses through, nor procure a ca- 

 lesa, though the road was good for wheel carriages. 



Early in the evening we took to our hammocks, 

 but had hardly lain down, when one of the guarda 

 came to inform us that a caricoche had just arrived 

 from Izamal, and wanted a return freight. We had 

 it brought down to the casa real, and at two o'clock, 

 by a bright moonlight, we started, leaving Dimas to 

 follow with the horses. The caricoche was drawn 

 by three mules, and had in it a bed, on which we 

 reclined at full length. 



At nine o'clock we entered the suburbs of Iza- 

 mal, but fifteen leagues from Merida. The streets 

 had lamps, and were designated by visible objects, 

 as at Merida. Peeping through the curtain, we rode 

 into the plaza, which was alive with people, dressed 

 in clean clothes for the fiesta. There was an un- 

 usual proportion of gentlemen with black hats and 

 canes, and some with military coats, bright and flash- 

 ing to such a degree that we congratulated ourselves 

 upon not having made our entry on horseback. We 

 had on our shooting-clothes, with the mud stains 

 from Punta Arenas, and by computation our beards 

 were of twenty-eight days' growth. In the centre 



