with straggling houses on each side, and were
directed to the house of Don Pedro Baranda, one of the largest and best
in the place. This gentleman had received advices of our intended
visit, and had engaged for us a house. As our luggage did not arrive,
he furnished us with hammocks, and in an hour we were comfortable as in
our house at Merida. About midnight Albino came clattering to the door,
accompanied by only one horse, carrying our hammocks, and bringing the
disastrous intelligence that the horse carrying the Daguerreotype
apparatus had run away, and made a general crash. Hitherto the
apparatus had always been carried by an Indian, but the road from
Chichen was so good that we were not afraid to trust it on horseback.
There was consolation, however, in the thought that we could not lose
what we had already done with its assistance.

The next morning we were in no hurry. From Valladolid it was our
purpose to prosecute our exploration through a region of which less was
known than of any we had yet visited. In our short voyage with Captain
Fensley from the Laguna to Sisal, he had told us of stone buildings on
the coast, near Cape Catoche, which he called old Spanish forts. These
accounts were confirmed by others, and we at length ascertained what we
supposed to be the fact, that in two places on the coast called Tancar
and Tuloom, what were taken for Spanish forts were aboriginal
buildings. Our business at Valladolid was to make arrangements for
reaching them, and at the same time for coasting round Cape Catoche,
and visiting the Island of Cozumel. We had been told that at Valladolid
we should be able to procure all necessary information about the ruins
on the coast; but we could not even learn the way to reach them; and by
the advice of Don Pedro Baranda we determined to remain a few days,
until a person who was expected, and who was familiar with that region,
should arrive.

In the mean time, a few days did not hang heavy on our hands in
Valladolid. The city, which was founded at an early period of the
conquest, contains about fifteen thousand inhabitants, and is
distinguished as the residence of the vicar-general of the church of
Yucatan.

It was built in a style commensurate with the lofty pretensions of the
conquerors, and, like other cities of Spanish America, bears the marks
of ancient grandeur, but is now going to decay. The roads leading to it
and the very streets are overgrown with bushes. The parochial