Meztitzos, as brothers, whom he had known from their boyhood, they declared they had beheld it from the sierra on various occasions. Nevertheless, Senor Huertis believed that the young men spoke the truth, while the Cura, probably, did not; and hoping to catch him in his own snare, if such had been laid, asked the guides their terms, which, though high, he agreed to at once, without cavil. They said it would take us eight days to reach the part of the sierra described in the letter, and that we might have to wait on the summit several days more, before the weather would afford a clear view. They would be ready in two days; they had just returned across the mountains from San Antonio de Guista, and needed rest and repairs. There was a frankness and simplicity about these fine fellows which would bear the severest scrutiny, and we could only admit the bare possibility of our being mistaken.

"It took us three days, however, to procure a full supply of the proper kind of provisions for a fortnight's abode in the sky, and on the fourth (May 5th,) we paid our formal respects to the Cura, and started for the ascent-he not forgetting to remind us of the promise to report to him the precise geographical locality of our discovery."

The journal is again blank until May 9th, when the writer says, "Our altitude, by barometer, this morning, is over 6000 feet above the valley which we crossed three days ago; the view of it and its surrounding mountains, sublime with chasms, yet grotesque in outline, and all heavily gilded with the setting sun, is one of the most oppressively gorgeous I ever beheld. The guides inform us that we have but 3000 feet more to ascend, and point to the gigantic pinnacle before us, at the apparent distance of seven or eight leagues; but that, before we can reach it, we have to descend and ascend an immense barranca, (ravine) nearly a thousand feet deep from our present level, and of so difficult a passage that it will cost us several days. The side of the mountain, toward the north west, is perfectly flat and perpendicular for more than half its entire height, as if the prodigious section had been riven down by the sword of San Miguel, and hurled by his foot among the struggling multitude of summits below. So far, the old Padre is accurate in every particular." In a note opposite this extract, written perpendicularly on the margin of the manuscript, the writer says, "The average breadth of the plain on this ridge of the sierra (that is the ridge on which they were then encamped for the night,) is nearly half a mile, and exhibits before us a fine rolling tract as far as we can see. Neither birds, beasts, nor insects,—I would

there were no such barranca!"

On the tenth he says,

on the brink of the abyss-the heaviest crags we can hurl down, return no sound from the bottom."

The next entry in the journal is dated May the 15th.-"Recovered the body of Sebastiano and the load of his mule; his brother is building a cross for his grave, and will not leave it until famished with thirst and hunger. All too exhausted to think of leaving this our first encampment since we descended. Present elevation but little above that of the opposite ridge which we left on the 11th, still, at least 3000 feet to climb." On the 19th,. 4 o'clock P. M., he records, "Myself, Sr. Hammond and Antonio, on the highest summit, an inclined plain of bare rock, of about fifteen acres. The Padre again right. Sr. Huertis and others just discernable, but bravely coming on. Elevation, 9,500 feet. Completely in the clouds, and all the country below invisible. Senor Hammond already bleeding at the nose, and no cigar to stop it." At 10 o'clock, the same night, he writes, "All comfortably asleep but myself and Sr. Hammond, who is going to take the latitude." Then follows, "He finds the latitude 15 degrees and 48 minutes north." Opposite this, in the margin, is written, "The mean result of three observations of different stars. Intend to take the longitude to-morrow." Next day, the 20th, he says, "A bright and most auspicious morning, and all, but poor Antonio, in fine health and feeling. The wind, by compass, N. E., and rolling away a billowy ocean of mist, toward, I suppose, the Bay of Honduras. Antonio says the Pacific will be visible within an hour; (present time not given) more and more of the lower mountains becoming clear every moment. Fancy we already see the Pacific, a faint yellow plain, almost as elevated as ourselves. Can see part of the State of Chiapas pretty distinctly." At 12 o'clock, meridian, he says, "Sr. Hammond is taking the longitude, but finds a difference of several minutes between his excellent watch and chronometer, and fears the latter has been shaken. Both the watch and its owner, however, have been a great deal more shaken, for the chronometer has been all the time in the midst of a thick blanket, and has had no falls. S. Huertis, with the glass, sees whole lines and groups of pyramids, in Chiapas. At 1 o'clock, P.M. he records, "Sr. Hammond reports the longitude, 92 degrees 15

minutes West. Brave Huertis is in ecstacy with some discovery, but will not part with the glass for a moment. No doubt it is the Padre's city, for it is precisely in the direction he indicated. Antonio says he can see it with his naked eye, although less distinctly than heretofore. I can only see a white straight line, like a ledge of limestone rock, on an elevated plain, at least twenty leagues distant, in the midst of a vast amphitheatre of hills, to the north east of our position, toward the State of Yucatan. Still, it is no doubt the place the Padre saw, and it may be a great city."

At 2 o'clock P.M. he says, "All doubt is at an end! We have all seen it through the glass, as distinctly as though it were but a few leagues off, and it is now clear and bright to the unaided eye. It is unquestionably a richly monumented city, of vast dimensions, within lofty parapetted walls, three or four miles square, inclined inward in the Egyptian style, and its interior domes and turrets have an emphatically oriental aspect. I should judge it to be not more than twenty-five leagues from Ocosingo, to the eastward, and nearly in the same latitude; and this would probably be the best point from which to reach it, travelling due east, although the course of the river Legartos seems to lead directly to it. That it is still an inhabited place, is evident from the domes of its temples, or churches. Christian churches they cannot be, for such a city would have an archbishop and be well known to the civilized world. It must be a Pagan strong-hold that escaped the conquest by its remote position, and the general retreat, retirement, and centralizing seclusion of its surrounding population. It may now be opened to the light of the true faith."

They commenced their descent the same day, and rested at night on the place of their previous encampment, a narrow shelf of the sierra. Here, on the brink of the terrible ravine, which they had again to encounter, they consulted upon a plan for their future operations; and it was finally agreed that Messrs Huertis and Hammond, with Antonio, and such of the Indian muleteers as could be induced to proceed with the expedition, should follow the bottom of the ravine, in its north-east course, in which, according to Antonio, the river Legartos took its principal supply of water, and remain at a large village, adjacent to its banks,

which they had seen, about five leagues distant; while Senor Velasquez was to retrace their late route, by way of Gueguetenango, to Guezaltenango, where all the surplus arms and amunition had been deposited, and recruit a strong party of Indians, to serve as a guard, in the event of an attack from the people of the unexplored region, whither they were resolutely bound. In the meantime, Antonio was to return home to Gueguetenango, await the return of Velasquez, with his armed party, from Guezaltenango, and conduct them over the mountains to the village on the plains, where Messrs. Huertis and Hammond were to remain until they should arrive. It appears that Senor Velasquez was abundantly supplied with solid funds for the recruiting service, and that Mr. Huertis also furnished Antonio with a liberal sum, in addition to his stipulated pay, wherewith to procure masses for the repose of his unfortunate brother.

Of the adventures of Messrs. Huertis and Hammond, in the long interval prior to the return of Velasquez, we have no account whatever; nor does the journal of the latter contain any remarks relative to his own operations, during the same period. The next date is July the 8th, when we find him safely arrived with "nearly all the men he had engaged," at an Indian village called Aguamasinta, where his anxious companions were overjoyed to receive him, and where "they had obtained inestimable information, regarding the proper arrangement of the final purpose." After this we trace them, by brief memoranda, for a few days, on the devious course of the Legartos, when the journal abruptly and finally closes. The remaining narrative of the expedition was written by Senor Velasquez from memory, after his return to San Salvador, while all the exciting events and scenes which it describes were vividly sustained by the feelings which they originally inspired. As this excessively interesting document will be translated for the public press as soon as the necessary consent of its present proprietor can be obtained, the writer of this pamphlet the less regrets the very limited use of it to which he is now restricted-which is but little more than that of making a mere abridgement and connexion of such inci dents as may serve to explain the origin and possession of those sui generis specimens of humanity, the Aztec brother and sister, now exhibiting to the public, in the United States. From the

introductory paragraphs, we take the liberty to quote the following, without abridgement :

"Our latitude and longitude was now 16° 42 N. and 91° 35′ W; so that the grand amphitheatre of hills, forming threefourths of an oval outline of jagged summits, a few leagues before us, most probably inclosed the mysterious object of our anxious and uncertain labors. The small groups of Indians through which we had passed, in the course of the day, had evidently been startled by sheer astonishment, into a sort of passive and involuntary hospitality, but maintained a stark apprehensive reserve in most of their answers to our questions. They spoke a peculiar dialect of the Maya, which I had never heard before, and had great difficulty in comprehending, although several of the Mayua Indians of our party understood it familiarily and spoke it fluently. From them we learned that they had never seen men of our race before, but that a man of the same race as Senor Hammond, who was of a bright-florid complexion, with light hair and red whiskers, had been sacrificed and eaten by the Macbenachs, or priests of Iximaya, the great city among the hills, about thirty moons ago. Our interpreters stated that the word "Iximaya" meant the "Great Centre," and that "Macbenach" meant "a Great Son of the Sun." I at once resolved to make the most of my time in learning as much as possible of this dialect from these men, because they said it was the tongue spoken by the people of Iximaya and the surrounding region. It appeared to me to be merely a provincial corruption, or local culiarism, of the great body of the Maya language, with which I was already acquainted; and, in the course of the next day's conversation, I found that I could acquire it with much facility."

pe

To this circumstance the writer is probably indebted for his life. In another day, the determined explorers had come within the circuit of the alpine district in which Iximaya is situated, and found it reposing, in massive grandeur, in the centre of a perfectly level plain, about five leagues in diameter, at a distance of scarcely two from the spot they had reached. At the base of all the mountains, rising upon their sides, and extending nearly a mile inward upon the plain, was a dark green forest of colossal trees and florid shrubbery, girding it around; while the even valley itself exhibited large tracts of cultivated fields, fenced in with palisades, and regular, even to monotony, both in size and form. 66 Large herds of deer, cattle, and horses were seen in the openings of the forest, and dispersed over the plain, which was also studded with low flat-roofed dwellings of stone, in small detached clusters, or hamlets. Rich patches of forest, of irregular forms, bordered with gigantic aloes, diversified the landscape