indian town of San Gabriel de Chila. It was much
larger than we had anticipated and almost purely indian. We walked
through a considerable portion of the town before we reached the plaza,
the church, and the _curato_. Our journey had probably been one of
fifteen miles. All was dark at the _curato_; an indian was sleeping in
the corridor, but he was a traveller and gave us no information on being
awakened. At our third or fourth pounding upon the door, Ernst appeared
at the window; on learning who we were he hastened to let us in. He
reported trouble in the camp; the padre had gone hastily to Oaxaca to
see the archbishop; our telegram had not been received; our letter came
that morning. We found that things were packed ready for removal. A good
supper was soon ready, but while it was being prepared we took a cool
bath, by moonlight, in the trough bath-tub out in the _patio_.

In the morning we heard the full story. Formerly there was here a
priest, who devoted his whole life to this parish, growing old in its
service; in his old age he was pensioned, with sixty pesos monthly from
the parish receipts. The priest who succeeded him, coming something
over three years ago, was a much younger man. During his three years of
service, he was continually grumbling; the work was hard, his health was
bad at Chila, the heat was intolerable; he wished another parish. The
archbishop finally took him at his word; without warning he transferred
him to another parish, and sent our friend, the archaeologist here, in
his place. This did not suit the man relieved; Chila itself was much to
his liking; what he really wanted was to be relieved from the support
of his superannuated predecessor. No sooner was he transferred than he
began to look with longing on his former charge and to make a vigorous
effort to regain it. Accusations were hurried to Oaxaca; the new priest
was pursuing agriculture as a means of profit; he had not paid the dues
to the aged priest; he had himself admitted to parishioners that his
object in coming to Chila was more to study antiquities and natural
history than to preach the gospel. It is claimed that, immediately on
receiving this communication, the archbishop sent a peremptory letter to
the padre demanding an explanation; this letter, Ernst said, never was
delivered, hence no explanation was sent. The prelate acted promptly;
orders were sent to our friend to give up the parish to the former
priest, who appeared on th