tion, but
nowhere with the same success as on this island. Regularly, after
stripping the shore, we returned in a few hours, and found others
thrown up, pure and fresh from the sea. I was seldom more fatigued than
when I reached the hut.

On the third day, at twelve o'clock, the canoa again hove in sight,
working her way round the point, and in a short time was at her old
anchorage ground. The wind was still so high that the patron was afraid
to remain; we filled our water casks, in an hour were on board, and
left, solitary as we found it, the once populous island of Cozumel. A
hawk mourning over its mate, which we carried away, was the only living
thing that looked upon our departure; but there was no place in our
whole journey that we left with more regret.

From the point at which we left the island, the opposite coast of
Yucatan was dimly visible, and I would remark, that, from our own
observation and from information given to us by others, it is the only
point from which the opposite coast can be seen at all, whence it is a
conclusion almost unquestionable that it was from this same point
Grijalva steered for Yucatan. The wind was high, the sea rough, and a
strong current was sweeping us down toward the point of Cape Catoche.
About an hour before dark we got across the current, and stood up along
the coast, passing three low, square buildings, apparently in a good
state of preservation, but the sea was so rough that we could not land
to examine them. The account of the expedition of Grijalva says, "After
leaving the island of Cozumel we saw three large villages, separated
two miles from each other. They contained a great number of stone
houses, with high towers, and covered with straw." This _must_ have
been the very part of the coast where these villages were seen. The
whole is now covered with forest, but it is not unreasonable to suppose
that the stone buildings visible on the shore are tokens of the buried
towns in the interior. We ran on till after dark, and came to anchor
under a projecting point, behind a reef of rocks. In the edge of the
water was a square enclosure for turtle and on the shore a deserted
fisherman's hut.

At daylight we were again under way. We passed three more square
buildings; but as the coast was rocky we could not land without
endangering the safety of our precious canoa; and far off, on a high
cliff, stood the Castillo of Tuloom, the extreme point at which we were
aiming. At twelv