eighteen and three quarter cents, being at the rate of a _medio_, or
six and a quarter cents, per league. We gave them a medio extra for
bringing the things up the terrace, and the poor fellows were thankful
and happy.

In the mean time the fire was still burning, and the smoke rushing out.
We set the Indians at work on the terrace with their machetes, and as
the smoke rolled away we directed them to sweep out the apartments. For
brooms they had merely to cut a handful of bushes, and to shovel out
the dirt they had their hands. This over, we had our luggage carried
in, set up our beds in the back sala, and swung our hammocks in the
front. At nightfall the Indians left us, and we were again alone in the
palace of unknown kings.

We had reached the first point of our journey; we were once more at the
ruins of Uxmal. It was nearly two years since we originally set out in
search of American ruins, and more than a year since we were driven
from this place. The freshness and enthusiasm with which we had first
come upon the ruins of an American city had perhaps gone, but our
feelings were not blunted, and all the regret which we had felt in
being obliged to leave was more than counterbalanced by the
satisfaction of returning.

It was in this spirit that, as evening came on, we swung in our
hammocks and puffed away all troubles. The bats, retiring to their
nightly haunt, seemed startled by the blaze of our fire. Owls and other
birds of darkness sent up their discordant cries from the woods, and as
the evening waned we found ourselves debating warmly the great question
of excitement at home, whether M'Leod ought to be hanged or not.

As a measure of precaution, and in order to have the full benefit of a
medical man's company, we began immediately upon a course of preventive
treatment, by way of putting ourselves on the vantage ground against
fever. As we were all in perfect health, Dr. Cabot thought such a
course could not hurt us. This over, we threw more wood upon the pile
and went to bed.

Up to this time our course had been before the wind. Our journey from
Merida had again been a sort of triumphal procession. We had been
passed from hacienda to hacienda, till we fell into the hospitable
hands of Don Simon Peon, and we were now in absolute possession of the
ruins of Uxmal. But very soon we found that we had to encounter
troubles from which neither Don Simon, nor the government, nor
recommendations to the hospitality o