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212 CHAPTER XXII.

LAGUNA AND THE RIO USUMACINTA.

December 1890 I crossed the Gulf of Mexico from Vera Cruz to Progreso in one of the Ward Line Steamers, and was then transhipped into a coasting-boat belonging to the same company, which was to take me to Frontera, at the mouth of the Tabasco river, whence I was to find my way up the stream, and inland to the ruins of Palenque. Never did I put to sea with such misgivings: it was still the season of the 'Norte,' the fierce cold wind which sweeps down the Mississippi Valley and across Texas from the frozen lands of the North, and the vessel in which I was embarked was a stern-wheel river-steamer, with seven feet of hull under the water and twenty feet of cabins and flying-deck built up above it! The captain owned to me that he had been very nearly blown over on his last voyage down the coast, and that should he be caught in really bad weather there would be no alternative but to turn the ship's head to the shore and pile her up on the beach. Of course this stern-wheeled barge was provided with all the orthodox certificates from a wise and protecting government, drawn up in beautiful official language, to the effect that she was a vessel properly fitted and equipped to trade between certain ports of the United States and the ports in the Mexican Gulf. When on the third or fourth day out we crossed the bar and anchored off the little town of Laguna, on the Isla del Carmen at the eastern edge of the Tabasco delta, the sky was so threatening, that I deemed discretion the better part of valour, and took all my traps ashore, determining to start up the river from Laguna instead of Frontera; and the captain endorsed my view of the weather by not venturing out of port for three days.

It was now the middle of the wood-shipping season, and Laguna was at its busiest: about twenty-three sailing-vessels—English, American, Swedish, and German—were lying off the town, and one might say roughly that twenty-three mates were feeling very hot and using strong language as the mahogany logs, which had been floated down the great river, were detached from the rafts alongside and hauled on board, and that twenty-three sea-captains were on shore on the spree.

My lodging was in the main street, at the house of a Frenchman, who also kept a sort of restaurant. Here I managed to secure a room to myself; but as one door opened on to the pavement of the street and another into the