o surrendered at discretion, provided us with chocolate, and,
although the hut was abundantly large for all of us, unexpectedly bade
us good-night, and withdrew to a neighbour's to sleep. If they had
remained, not being worn down by fatigue as we were, and, consequently,
more wakeful, a sad catastrophe might have been prevented. We laid our
birds carefully on a table to dry; during the night a cat entered, and
we were awaked to see the fruits of our hard day's labour dragged along
the floor, and the cat bounding from them, and escaping through a hole
in the side of the hut. It was no consolation to us, but if she had
nine lives, the arsenic used for preserving the birds had probably
taken them all.

[Engraving 68: Immense Mound]

Before daylight the next morning we were again in the saddle. For some
distance back from the port the ground had been washed or overflowed by
the sea, and was a sandy, barren mangrove brake. Beyond commenced the
same broken, stony surface, and before we had proceeded far we
discovered that Doctor Cabot's horse was lame. Not to lose time, I rode
on to procure another, and at eight o'clock reached the village of
Silan. In the suburbs I discovered unexpectedly the towering memorial
of another ruined city, and riding into the plaza, saw at one angle,
near the wall of the church, the gigantic mound represented in the
plate opposite, the grandest we had seen in the country. Much as we had
seen of ruins, the unexpected sight of this added immensely to the
interest of our long journeying among the remains of aboriginal
grandeur. Leaving my horse at the casa real, and directing the alcalde
to see about getting one for Doctor Cabot, I walked over to the mound.
At the base, and inside of the wall of the church, were five large
orange trees, loaded with fruit. A group of Indians were engaged in
getting stone out of the mound to repair the wall, and a young man was
superintending them, whom I immediately recognised as the padre. He
accompanied me to the top of the mound; it was one of the largest we
had seen, being about fifty feet high and four hundred feet long. There
was no building or structure of any kind visible; whatever had been
upon it had fallen or been pulled down. The church, the wall of the
yard, and the few stone houses in the village, had been built of
materials taken from it.

In walking along the top we reached a hole, at the bottom of which I
discovered the broken arch of a ceiling, an