to take up our bivouac within a very unsafe distance of one
of the most pestiferous swamps in the whole province. Shortly after we
had fallen asleep, a party of Mexican travellers had arrived, and
established themselves within a few hundred yards of us, but on a
rising ground, where they avoided the mephitic vapours and the
musquittoes which had so tortured Rowley and myself. In the night two
of the women, having ventured a short distance from the encampment,
were surprised by the zambos, or huge man-apes, common in some parts
of Southern Mexico; and finding themselves cut off from their
friends, had fled they knew not whither, fortunately for them taking
the direction of our bivouac. Their screams, our shouts, and the
yellings and diabolical laughter of the zambos, had brought the
Mexicans to our assistance. The monkeys showed no fight after the
first volley; several of then must have been wounded, but only the one
now lying before us had remained upon the field.

The Mexicans we had fallen amongst were on the Tzapoteca, principally
cochineal gatherers, and kinder-hearted people there could not well
be. They seemed to think they never could do enough for us; the women
especially, and more particularly the two whom we had endeavoured to
rescue from the power of the apes. These latter certainly had cause to
be grateful. It made us shudder to think of their fate had they not
met with us. It was the delay caused by our attacking the brutes that
had given the Mexicans time to come up.

Every attention was shown to us. We were fanned with palm leaves,
refreshed with cooling drinks, our wounds carefully dressed and
bandaged, our heated, irritated, musquitto-bitten limbs and faces
washed with balsam and the juice of herbs: more tender and careful
nurses it would be impossible to find. We soon began to feel better,
and were able to sit up and look about us; carefully avoiding,
however, to look at each other, for we could not get reconciled to the
horrible appearance of our swollen, bloody, and disgusting features.
From our position on the rising ground, we had a full view over the
frightful swamp at the entrance of which all our misfortunes had
happened. There it lay, steaming like a great kettle; endless mists
rising from it, out of which appeared here and there the crown of some
mighty tree towering above the banks of vapour. To the left, cliffs
and crags were to be seen which had the appearance of being baseless,
and of s