rvation, and the floor was of hard mortar. Don Simon
and Dr. Cabot were lowered down, and we examined every part thoroughly.

Leaving this, we went on to a third, which was exactly the same, except
that it was a little smaller, being only five yards in diameter.

The fourth was the one which had just been discovered, and which had
excited the curiosity of the mayoral. It was a few feet outside of a
wall which, as Don Simon said, might be traced through the woods,
broken and ruined, until it met and enclosed within its circle the
whole of the principal buildings. The mouth was covered with cement,
and in the throat was a large stone filling it up, which the mayoral,
on discovering it, had thrown in to prevent horses or cattle from
falling through. A rope was passed under the stone, and it was hauled
out. The throat was smaller than any of the others, and hardly large
enough to pass the body of a man. In shape and finish it was exactly
the same as the others, with perhaps a slight shade of difference in
the dimensions. The smallness of this mouth was, to my mind, strong
proof that these subterraneous chambers had never been intended for any
purposes which required men to descend into them. I was really at a
loss how to get out. The Indians had no mechanical help of any kind,
but were obliged to stand over the hole and hoist by dead pull, making,
as I had found before, a jerking, irregular movement. The throat was so
small that there was no play for the arms, to enable me to raise myself
up by the rope, and the stones around the mouth were insecure and
tottering. I was obliged to trust to them, and they involuntarily
knocked my head against the stones, let down upon me a shower of dirt,
and gave me such a severe rasping that I had no disposition at that
time to descend another. In fact, they too were tired out, and it was a
business in which, on our own account at least, it would not do to
overtask them.

We were extremely disappointed in not finding any more vases or relics
of any kind. We could not account for the one found in the chamber
under the terrace, and were obliged to suppose that it had been thrown
in or got there by accident.

These subterraneous chambers are scattered over the whole ground
covered by the ruined city. There was one in the cattle-yard before the
hacienda, and the Indians were constantly discovering them at greater
distances. Dr. Cabot found then continually in his hunting excursions,
and on