Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/35

Rh at night. After fourteen days we came upon another town the Indians call Campeche, and here there seemed to us to be an inner harbor fed by some stream from which we might take fresh water. Of water we stood in need. Our fleet had been manned by poor men, who had not money enough to buy watertight casks, and our supply of water was fast lessening.

When we had now brought our casks on shore, and had filled them, and were about to go back in our small boats, fifty Indians, or so, came up to us. They wore good mantles of cotton cloth, and asked us by friendly signs what our business was. We told them to take on water and then to embark. They signified that we should go with them to their town.

About accepting their invitation we held a consultation, but at length we all agreed to go and to keep well on the watch during our visit. They took us to some buildings of stone and lime, large and well put together, like those we had seen a fortnight before. When we had entered we saw they were temples, and that figures of serpents and evil-looking gods covered the walls; and that some of the idols bore symbols like crosses. At all this—the temples of good appearance, the crosses—we were greatly astonished. But we also saw spots of fresh blood about an altar, and it seemed as though they