ar the foot of
the steps, overgrown by the scrubby wild palm which covers the whole
cliff, is a small altar, with ornaments in stucco, one of which seems
intended to represent a pineapple. These wanted entirely the massive
character of the buildings, and are so slight that they could almost be
pushed over with the foot. They stand in the open air, exposed to
strong easterly winds, and almost to the spray of the sea. It was
impossible to believe that the altar had been abandoned three hundred
years; within that time some guardian eye had watched over it, some
pious hand had repaired it, and long since the arrival of the Spaniards
the Indian had performed before it his idolatrous rites.

[Engraving 66: An Adoratorio]

Under the circumstances attending our visit to it, we found this one of
the most interesting places we had seen in our whole exploration of
ruins; but I am compelled to omit many details deserving of description
and comment, and shall close with one remark. The reader knows the
difficulty we had in reaching this place from the interior. The whole
triangular region from Valladolid to the Bay of Ascension on one side,
and the port of Yalahao on the other, is not traversed by a single
road, and the rancho of Molas is the only settlement along the coast.
It is a region entirely unknown; no white man ever enters it. Ruined
cities no doubt exist, and young Molas told us of a large building many
leagues in the interior, known to an old Indian, covered with paintings
in bright and vivid colours, and the subjects of which were still
perfect. With difficulty we contrived to see this Indian, but he was
extremely uncommunicative; said it was many years since he saw the
building; that he had come upon it in the dry season while hunting, and
should not be able to find it again. It is my belief that within this
region cities like those we have seen in ruins were kept up and
occupied for a long time, perhaps one or two centuries, after the
conquest, and that, down to a comparatively late period, Indians were
living in them, the same as before the discovery of America. In fact, I
conceive it to be not impossible that within this secluded region may
exist at this day, unknown to white men, a living aboriginal city,
occupied by relics of the ancient race, who still worship in the
temples of their fathers.

The reader will, perhaps, think that I have gone far enough. We had now
finished our voyage along the coast, and the en