Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/46

 blistered; so we turned homeward, vowing that the next time an Indian said a road was bad we would be content to take his word for it.

We arrived at the plantation limping as though we had been on a nine days' tramp, and before we could reach shelter a shower of rain drenched us to the skin. The consequence was a burning fever all night, our torture being increased by hundreds of tiny wood-ticks that had worked their way under our skin. To complete our chagrin, we were assured, by one who had been there, that at Buena Vista there was a building ornamented with hieroglyphics sculptured in stone: we did not decide to try it again.

Our journey back to the village was a delightful contrast to the attempted trip to Buena Vista. We went, on horseback, along the shore, through groves of palm-trees, passing now and then by plantations where luxuriant sugar-cane and many other products showed the wonderful fertility of the soil, and how at the time when this ancient Mecca was frequented by thousands of devout pilgrims, it could, being thoroughly tilled, easily yield abundant nourishment for all.

We then made up a boat party with some of our countrymen who were trying to form a colony there.