eard distinctly the sound
of the breakers on the opposite shore. To the right a faint track was
perceptible, which soon disappeared altogether; but our guides knew the
direction, and, cutting a way with the machete, we came out upon a
high, rocky, perpendicular cliff, which commanded an immense expanse of
ocean, and against which the waves, roused by the storm of the night
before, were dashing grandly. We followed along the brink of the cliff
and around the edges of great perpendicular chasms, the ground being
bare of trees and covered with a scrubby plant, called the uba, with
gnarled roots, spreading like the branches of a grape-vine. At the
point terminating the island, standing boldly upon the sea, was the
lonely edifice represented in the engraving opposite. Below, rocking on
the waves was a small canoa, with our host then in the act of getting
on board a turtle. It was the wildest and grandest scene we had looked
upon in our whole journey.

The steps which led to the building are in good preservation, and at
the foot is a platform, with the ruins of an altar. The front, on one
side of the doorway, has fallen. When entire it measured twenty-eight
feet, and it is fifteen feet deep. On the top is a cross, probably
erected by the fishermen. The interior is divided into two corridors,
and in the wall of that in front are three small doorways leading to
the inner corridor. The ceiling had the triangular arch, and throughout
the hand of the builders on the mainland could not be mistaken, but on
the walls were writings which seemed strangely familiar in an
aboriginal building. These inscriptions were,

D. Doyle, 1842. A. G. Goodall, 1842.
H. M. Ship Blossom.
11th October, 1811. Corsaire Frances (Chebek) le Vengeur,
Capt. Pierre Liovet;

and wafered on the wall on separate cards were the names of the
officers of the Texan schooners of war San Bernard and San Antonio.

At the distance of a few hundred feet was another building about
fourteen feet square, having four doorways, with steps on three sides,
dilapidated, and almost inaccessible on account of the thickets of
cactus and thorn bushes growing around it.

In the account given by Bernal Dias of the expedition of Cortez, he
says that, after leaving the island of Cozumel, the fleet was separated
by a gale of wind, but the next day all the ships joined company except
one, which, accor