suppose that these great mounds are the remains of the
aboriginal town, or we must believe that another town of the same name
existed in this immediate neighbourhood, of which no trace whatever now
remains.

The reader may remember that we left the port before daylight. As I
stood on the top of the mound, all that I needed to fill up the measure
of my satisfaction was the certainty of a breakfast The padre seemed to
divine my thoughts; he relieved me from all uneasiness, and enabled me
to contemplate with a tranquil mind the sublimity of these remains of a
fallen people. When Doctor Cabot arrived he found a table that
surprised him.

Silan was known to us as the scene of a modern and minor event. Our
ambiguous friend on the island of Mugeres had told us that at this
place Lafitte died and was buried, and I inquired for his grave. The
padre was not in the village at the time, and did not know whether he
was buried in the campo santo or the church, but supposed that, as
Lafitte was a distinguished man, it was in the latter. We went thither,
and examined the graves in the floor, and the padre drew out from amid
some rubbish a cross, with a name on it, which he supposed to be that
of Lafitte, but it was not. The sexton who officiated at the burial was
dead; the padre sent for several of the inhabitants, but a cloud hung
over the memory of the pirate: all knew of his death and burial, but
none knew or cared to tell where he was laid. We had heard, also, that
his widow was living in the place, but this was not true. There was,
however, a negress who had been a servant to the latter, and who, we
were told, spoke English; the cura sent for her, but she was so
intoxicated that she could not make her appearance.

The last of the padre's good offices was procuring a horse for Doctor
Cabot, which the alcalde had not been able to do. It was the last time
we were thrown upon the hospitality of a padre, and in taking leave of
him, I do repent me that in my confidential intercourse with the reader
I have at times let fall what I might better have kept to myself.

At ten o'clock we set out, and at half past twelve reached Temax, two
and a half leagues distant. It had a fine plaza, with a great church
and convent, and a stone casa real, with a broad corridor in front,
under which the guarda were swinging in hammocks.

We were but six leagues from Izamal, at which place, we learned, a
fiesta was then going on, and there was to be a b