irates that infested the West Indian seas were
wont to seek rest from their hazardous calling. Their names are to
be seen to-day rudely carved on the _sapote_ beams that form the
lintels of the doorways of the antique shrine whose ruins crown the
southernmost point of the island.

It is to this shrine of the Maya Venus that as far down as the
Spanish conquest, pilgrims repaired yearly to offer their prayers
and votive presents to propitiate that divinity. Cogolludo tells us
that it was on her altar that the priest who accompanied the
adventurers who first landed at the island, after destroying the
effigies of the Goddess and of her companions and replacing them by
a picture of the Virgin Mary, celebrated mass for the first time on
those coasts in presence of a throng of astonished natives. They
gave to the island the name of Mugeres (women). I was told that
formerly many of the votive offerings had been disinterred from the
sand in front of the building. The soil at that place is profusely
strewn with fragments of images wrought in clay, representing
portions of the human body. I was myself so fortunate as to fall in
with the head of a priestess, a beautiful piece of workmanship,
moulded according to the most exact proportions of Grecian art. It
had formed part of a brazier that had served to burn perfumes on
the altar near which I found it. I happened to use part of that
vase to hold some live coals, and notwithstanding the many years
that had elapsed since it had last served, a most sweet odor arose
and filled the small building.

I had read in Cogolludo that in olden times, on the main land,
opposite to the island of Mugeres, was the city of _Ekab_. I was
desirous of visiting its ruins, but no one could indicate their
exact position. They did not even know of the name. They spoke of
Meco, of Nisucte, of Kankun, of extensive ruins of buildings in
that place, where they provide themselves with hewn stones. After
much delay I was able to obtain a boat and men. We set sail for
Meco, the nearest place situated on another island close to the
shores of the main land. There I found a ruined edifice surrounded
by a wall forming an inclosure, adorned with rows of small columns.
In the centre of the inclosure an altar. The edifice, composed of
two ro