ery season from fevers;
many of them were at that time ill, and the major domo had been obliged
to go away. All this we had been advised of in Merida, and had been
urged to postpone our visit; but as this would have interfered
materially with our plan, and as we had with us a "medico" who could
cure "biscos," we determined to risk it. On the spot, however,
perceiving the dampness of the apartments and the rankness of
vegetation, we felt that we had been imprudent; but it was too late to
draw back, even if we had wished to do so. We agreed that we were
better on this high terrace than at the hacienda, which stood low, and
had around it great tanks of water, mantled with green, and wearing a
very fever-and-aguish aspect. We therefore set to work immediately to
make the best of our condition.

The mayoral left us to take the horses back to the hacienda, and give
directions about the luggage, and we had only a little Indian boy to
help us. Him we employed to clear with his machete a space before the
principal doorway, and in order to change as quickly as possible the
damp, unwholesome atmosphere within, we undertook to kindle a fire
ourselves. For this purpose we made a large collection of leaves and
brush, which we placed in one corner of the back corridor, and, laying
stones at the bottom, built up a pile several feet high, and set fire
to it. The blaze crept through the pile, burning the light combustible
stuff, and went out. We kindled it again, and the result was the same.
Several times we thought we had succeeded, but the dampness of the
place and of the materials baffled our efforts, and extinguished the
flame. We exhausted all our odd scraps of paper and other availables,
and were left with barely a spark of fire to begin anew. The only
combustible we had left was gunpowder, of which we made what the boys
call a squib, by wetting a quantity of it, and this, done up in a ball,
we ignited under the pile. It did not answer fully, but gave us
encouragement, and we made a larger ball of the same, which we ignited
with a slow match. It blew our pile to atoms, and scattered the
materials in all directions. Our ingenuity had now been taxed to the
uttermost, and our resources were exhausted. In extremity we called in
the boy.

He had, in the mean time, been more successful; for, continuing the
work at which we had set him, with characteristic indifference taking
no notice of our endeavours, he had cleared a space of severa