ow plain, almost as elevated as ourselves.
Can see part of the State of Chiapas pretty distinctly." At 12 o'clock,
meridian, he says, "Sr. Hammond is taking the longitude, but finds a
difference of several minutes between his excellent watch and
chronometer, and fears the latter has been shaken. Both the watch and
its owner, however, have been a great deal more shaken, for the
chronometer has been all the time in the midst of a thick blanket, and
has had no falls. Sr. Huertis, with the glass, sees whole lines and
groups of pyramids, in Chiapas." At 1 o'clock, P. M. he records, "Sr.
Hammond reports the longitude, 92 degrees 15 minutes _west_. Brave
Huertis is in ecstacy with some discovery, but will not part with the
glass for a moment. No doubt it is the Padre's city, for it is precisely
in the direction he indicated. Antonio says he can see it with his naked
eye, although less distinctly than heretofore. I can only see a white
straight line, like a ledge of limestone rock, on an elevated plain, at
least twenty leagues distant, in the midst of a vast amphitheatre of
hills, to the north east of our position, toward the State of Yucatan.
Still, it is no doubt the place the Padre saw, and it may be a great
city."

At 2 o'clock P. M., he says "All doubt is at an end! We have all seen it
through the glass, as distinctly as though it were but a few leagues
off, and it is now clear and bright to the unaided eye. It is
unquestionably a richly monumented city, of vast dimensions, within
lofty parapeted walls, three or four miles square, inclined inward in
the Egyptian style, and its interior domes and turrets have an
emphatically oriental aspect. I should judge it to be not more than
twenty-five leagues from Ocosingo, to the eastward, and nearly in the
same latitude; and this would probably be the best point from which to
reach it, travelling due east, although the course of the river Legartos
seems to lead directly to it. That it is still an inhabited place, is
evident from the domes of its temples, or churches. Christian churches
they cannot be, for such a city would have an Archbishop and be well
known to the civilized world. It must be a Pagan strong-hold that
escaped the conquest by its remote position, and the general retreat,
retirement, and centralizing seclusion of its surrounding population. It
may now be opened to the light of the true faith."

They commenced their descent the same day, and rested at night on the
pl