al resort, the
new citizens appeared daily, until they had become familiarly known to
the greater part of the eighty-five thousand inhabitants of the city.
Huertis, moreover, had formed domestic and social connexions; was the
welcome guest of families of the highest rank, who were fascinated with
the information he afforded them of the external world; had made tacit
converts to liberty of many influential persons; had visited each of
the four grand temples which stood in the centre of the several
quadrangular divisions of the city, and externally conformed to their
idolatrous worship. He had even been admitted into some of the most
sacred mysteries of these temples, while Velasquez, more retired, and
avowedly more scrupulous, was content to receive the knowledge thus
acquired, in long conversations by the sick couch of poor Hammond, now
rapidly declining to the grave.

Mr. Hammond's dreadful wound had but partially healed in the course of
several months; his constitution was exhausted, and he was dying of
remittent fever and debility. His chief regret was that he could not
assist his friend Huertis in his researches and drawings, and determine
the place of the city by astronomical observations which his friends
were unable to take. The day before he died, he was visited by some of
the medical priesthood, who, on seeing numerous light spots upon his
skin, where the preparation with which he had stained it had
disappeared, they pronounced him _a leper_, and ordered that all
intercourse with the building should be suspended. No explanation would
convince them to the contrary, and his death confirmed them in their
opinion. Availing himself of this opportunity, and under the plea that
it was important to their safety, Vaalpeor removed the two orphan
children in his charge to one of the country temples in the plain, and
the idle mules of the strangers were employed to carry tents, couches,
and other bulky requisites for an unprovided rural residence. It may be
added that he included among them much of the baggage of his new
friends, with the greater part of their rifles and ammunition. In the
mean time Huertis, Velasquez, and about half of their party, were
closely confined to the part of the edifice assigned for their
occupation. Their friend Hammond had been interred without the walls, in
a field appropriated to lepers by the civic authorities. Huertis, was
now informed of the plan of escape, but was not ready; he had more