--Situation of the Rancho.--Water.--Ruins of Mankeesh.

[Engraving 31: An Aguada]

The next morning after breakfast we again set out. Senor Trego escorted
us, and, following a broad wagon road made by him for the passage of
the horse and cart, at the distance of a mile and a half we came to a
large aguada, which is represented in the plate opposite. It was
apparently a mere pond, picturesque, and shaded by trees, and having
the surface covered with green water plants, called by the Indians
Xicin-chah, which, instead of being regarded as a blot upon the
picturesque, were prized as tending to preserve the water from
evaporation. Indians were then filling their water jars, and this
aguada was the only watering-place of the rancho. These aguadas had
become to us interesting objects of consideration. Ever since our
arrival in the country, we had been told that they were artificial,
and, like the ruined cities we were visiting, the works of the ancient
inhabitants. At first we had considered these accounts unreliable, and
so nearly approaching the marvellous that we put but little faith in
them; but as we advanced they assumed a more definite character. We
were now in a region where the people were entirely dependant upon the
aguadas; all considered them the works of the antiguos; and we obtained
at length what we had long sought for, certain, precise, and definite
information, which would not admit of question or doubt.

Failing in his attempt to procure water from the well, before referred
to, in the plaza, in 1835 Senor Trego turned his attention to this
aguada. He believed that it had been used by the ancients as a
reservoir, and took advantage of the dry season to make an examination,
which satisfied him that his supposition was correct. For many years it
had been abandoned, and it was then covered three or four feet deep
with mud. At first he was afraid to undertake with much vigour the work
of clearing it out, for the prejudices of the people were against it,
and they feared that, by disturbing the aguada, the scanty supply then
furnished might be cut off. In 1836 he procured a permission from the
government, by great exertions secured the co-operation of all the
ranchos and haciendas for leagues around, and at length fairly
enlisting them all in the task, at one time he had at work fifteen
hundred Indians, with eighty superintendents (major domos). On clearing
out the mud, he found an artificial bottom of large fl