the edifices on the hacienda.

Besides this there was a great cave, of which I had heard in Merida
from the owner, who said he had never visited it, but wished me to do
so, and he would read my description of it. The major domo was an
intelligent Mestizo, who had been at the cave, and confirmed all the
accounts I had heard of it, of sculptured figures of men and animals,
pillars, and a chapel of rock under the earth. He furnished me with a
vaquero as a guide and a relief horse, and, setting out, a short
distance from the hacienda we turned into a tree-encumbered path, so
difficult to pass through that, before we had gone far, it seemed quite
reasonable in the owner to content himself with reading our description
of this cave, without taking the trouble to see it for himself. The
vaquero was encased in the equipments with which that class ride into
the woods after cattle. His dress was a small, hard, heavy straw hat,
cotton shirt, drawers, and sandals; over his body a thick jacket, or
overall, made of tanned cowhide, with the sleeves reaching below his
hands, and standing out as if made of wood; his saddle had large
leather flaps, which folded back and protected his naked legs, and
leather stirrup flaps to protect his feet. Where he dashed through the
bushes and briers unharmed, my thin blues got caught and torn; but he
knew what garrapatas were, and said with emphasis, "Estos chicos son
muy Demonios." "Those little ones are the very d----l." At the distance
of a league we reached the cave and, tying our hones, descended by a
great chasm to the depth of perhaps two hundred feet, when we found
ourselves under a great shelf of overhanging rock, the cavern being
dark as we advanced, but all at once lighted up from beyond by a
perpendicular orifice, and exhibiting in the background magnificent
stalactites, picturesque blocks and fragments of rock, which, in the
shadows of the background, assumed all manner of fantastic shapes, and,
from their fancied resemblance, had been called the figures of men and
animals, pillars and chapels. I saw at once that there was another
disappointment for me; there were no monuments of art, and had never
been anything artificial; but the cave itself, being large and open,
and lighted in several places by orifices above, was so magnificent
that, notwithstanding the labour and disappointment, I did not regret
my visit. I passed two hours in wandering through it, returned to the
hacienda to dine,