f citizens of the interior, could
afford us protection. Early in the evening a few straggling moschetoes
had given us notice of the existence of these free and independent
citizens of Yucatan; but while we were swinging in our hammocks and the
fire burned brightly, they had not troubled us much. Our heads,
however, were hardly upon our pillows, before the whole population
seemed to know exactly where they could have us, and, dividing into
three swarms, came upon us as if determined to lift us up and eject us
bodily from the premises. The flame and volumes of smoke which had
rolled through the building, in ridding us of the damp, unwholesome
atmosphere, seemed only to have started these torments from their
cracks and crevices, and filled them With thirst for vengeance or for
blood. I spare the reader farther details of our first night at Uxmal,
but we all agreed that another such would drive as forever from the
ruins.

CHAPTER VIII.

Perplexities.--Household Wants.--Indian Mode of boiling
Eggs.--Clearings.--A valuable Addition.--Description of the
Ruins.--Casa del Gobernador.--Hieroglyphics.--Ornaments over the
Doorways.--Ground Plan.--Doorways.--Apartments.--Great Thickness
of the back Wall.--A Breach made in the Wall.--Prints of a Red
Hand.--Sculptured Beam of Hieroglyphics.--Wooden Lintels.--Loss
of Antiquities by the Burning of Mr. Catherwood's
Panorama.--Terraces.--A curious Stone.--Circular Mound.--Discovery
of a Sculptured Monument.--Square Stone Structure.--Sculptured
Heads.--Staircase.--House of the Turtles.

Morning brought with it other perplexities. We had no servant, and
wanted breakfast, and altogether our prospects were not good. We did
not expect to find the hacienda so entirely destitute of persons with
whom we could communicate. The mayoral was the only one who spoke a
word of Spanish, and he had the business of the hacienda to attend to.
He had received special orders from his master to do everything in his
power to serve us, but the power of his master had limits. He could not
make the Indians, who knew only the Maya, speak Spanish. Besides this,
the power of the master was otherwise restricted. In fact, except as
regards certain obligations which they owed, the Indians were their own
masters, and, what was worse for us, their own mistresses, for one of
our greatest wants was a woman to cook, make tortillas, and perform
those numerous domestic offices without w