fountain was a league from the rancho to which we were going, and was
the only watering-place for its inhabitants.

At nine o'clock we reached the rancho, which showed the truth of the
Spanish proverb, "La vista del amo engorda el caballo;" "The sight of
the master fattens the horse." The first huts were enclosed by a
well-built stone wall, along which appeared, in various places,
sculptured fragments from the ruins. Beyond was another wall, enclosing
the hut occupied by the master on his visits to the rancho, the
entrance to which was by a gateway formed of two sculptured monuments
of curious design and excellent workmanship, raising high our
expectations in regard to the ruins on this rancho, and sustaining the
accounts we had heard of them.

The proprietor was waiting to receive us, and, having taken possession
of an empty hut, and disposed of our horses, we accompanied him to look
over the rancho. What he regarded as most worth showing was his tobacco
crop, lying in some empty huts to dry, which he contemplated with great
satisfaction, and the well, which he looked at with as much sorrow. It
was three hundred and fifty-four feet deep, and even at this great
depth it was dry.

While we were thus engaged, our baggage carriers arrived with
intelligence that Mr. Catherwood was taken ill, and they had left him
lying in the road. I immediately applied to the proprietor for a coche
and Indians, and he, with great alacrity, undertook to get them ready;
in the mean time I saddled my horse and hastened back to Mr.
Catherwood, whom I found lying on the ground, with Albino by his side,
under the shade of the tree by the fountain, with an ague upon him,
wrapped up in all the coverings he could muster, even to the
saddle-cloths of the horses. While he was in this state, two men came
along, bestriding the same horse, and bringing sheets and ponchas to
make a covering for the coche; then came a straggling line of Indians,
each with a long pole, and withes to lash them together; and it was more
than an hour before the coche was ready. The path was narrow, and lined
on each side with thorn bushes, the spikes of which stuck in the naked
flesh of the Indians as they carried the coche, and they were obliged
to stop frequently and disentangle themselves. On reaching the rancho I
found Doctor Cabot down with a fever. From the excitement and anxiety
of following Mr. Catherwood under the hot sun, and now finding Doctor
Cabot down, a cold