which has never occurred with
any of the many governors of states in Mexico upon whom I have called--I
had expressed my surprise to a gentleman of wealth and prominence in the
city, at the governor's compelling me to wait for audience. With some
feeling, this gentleman replied, "But, sir, you are fortunate; you are
a stranger, and bring letters from cabinet officials; many of the best
gentlemen in this city have been kept waiting months in order to see
Governor Canton in regard to business of the highest consequence to
themselves and to the public." I will do the governor justice by saying
that he listened with apparent interest to my statement, and that he
gave orders that the letters which I wished, to local authorities,
should be prepared without delay. Thanking him, I withdrew, and by five
o'clock the secretary handed me the desired documents; we had lost four
days. Early the following morning, as no _cargadors_ were at hand, our
little company resolved itself into a band of carriers and we took our
baggage and equipment to the Peto station. The securing of tickets and
the checking of baggage was quite an undertaking, and if the train had
started at the time announced, we should have missed it; however, we
were in good season, and left something less than an hour late. The
country through which we passed was an improvement upon what we had seen
before. The trees were greener, and many flowers were in bloom. From the
train, we saw a group of pyramids at one point, and an isolated pyramid
at another. Some of the indian towns through which we passed, with
curious Maya names, were interesting. So, too, were the vendors at
the station. Hot tamales, "_pura masa_" (pure dough), as Manuel said,
slippery and soapy in feeling and consistency, done up in banana leaves
and carefully tied, seemed to be the favorite goods; far better were
split _tortillas_ with beans inside and cheese outside; beautiful red
bananas and plump smooth yellow ones were offered in quantity. We lost
an hour at the station where trains met, reaching Tekax at eleven. We
walked up to the hot _plaza_, where we found the town offices closed,
and had difficulty in even leaving our stuff with the police. At a
restaurant we had a fair breakfast, for which we paid a peso each
person. As there were no signs of the town officials, we dropped into
the _curato_ to see the priest, to whom we presented the bishop's
letter. He was a Spaniard, who had been in this count