ANOTHER MOUND. 



221 



hacienda of Santa Cruz. We descended the sierra, 

 and at the foot of it struck the camino real. 



About an hour before dark, and a league before 

 reaching the village of Opocheque, I saw on the 

 left, near the road, a high mound, with an edifice on 

 its top, which at that distance, as seen through the 

 trees, seemed almost entire. It stood in a corn-field. 

 I was not looking out for anything of the kind, and 

 but for the clearing made for the milpa, I could not 

 have seen it at all. I threw the bridle of my horse 

 to the major domo, and made for it, but it was not 

 very easy of access. The field, according to the 

 fashion of the country, was enclosed by a fence, 

 which consisted of all the brush and briers collected 

 on the clearing, six or eight feet high and as many 

 wide, affording a sufficient barrier against wild cattle. 

 In attempting to cross this, I broke through, sinking' 

 almost to my neck in the middle, and was consid- 

 erably torn by thorns before I got over into the 

 milpa. > 1 : 



The mound stood on one side of the milpa, iso- 

 lated, and of the building upon it, the lower part, to 

 the cornice, w^as -standing. Above the cornice the 

 outer wall had fallen, but the roof remained, and 

 within all was entire. There was no view from 

 the top ; beyond the milpa all was forest, and what 

 lay buried in it I had no means of ascertaining. 

 The place was silent and desolate ; there was no 

 one of whom I could ask any questions. I never 

 heard of these ruins till I saw them from the back 



