246 
LOS BAGNOS. 
heard in the pauses of the hymn, associated with our recollections of 
the romantic tales of our earliest days. 
An excellent supper of boiled fowls and Spanish wine prepared 
us for our beds. The invalid did not appear at table, blit received 
his fair proportion of our fare in a separate apartment. Having 
been refreshed by a few hours’ sleep, we started soon after midnight 
for the hot baths, and reached them about six o’clock in the 
morning. 
As we approached the shore, now lightened by the rising sun, the 
beauties of the lake opened upon us in great splendour. The village 
of Los Bagnos stands in a recess of the shore, surrounded with conical 
hills rising above each other and clothed with a dark foliage chequered 
with patches of vivid green to their very summits. The same hills 
formed part of a series which winding on our right and left, formed 
one of the boundaries of the lake, and gradually vanished in the dis- 
tance. The sun, as he rose above the hills, shed his rays on the 
glassy surface of the water, and disclosed an expanse resembling a 
sea in extent, and only broken by a beautifully wooded island that 
seemed to rest like a bird upon the waves. 
We landed opposite a small convent in a state of great decay. On 
our left was the native village of bamboo huts raised. On our right 
were, some small round buildings with doomed roofs, enveloped in 
the steam which issued from them. Steam was also rising in 
several places from the woods at their back, and might have been 
supposed the smoke of cottages buried in their shade. 
Impatient to examine the objects around us, we hastened to the 
convent, and after some time awakened and astonished its inmates. 
It was inhabited by one of the native priests, and one or two 
females of rather doubtful relation to the worthy father. Having 
passed through a large lumber room and up a ladder, we entered 
a spacious apartment furnished with a large table and a few old 
chairs, and communicating' at one end with the chapel, and at 
the other with the dormitory of the establishment. From the latter 
came forth, on our entrance, the clerigo, in person and dress so 
