f, that the alcalde Segundo,
who had never visited these ruins, resolved to take advantage of our
presence; and, according to agreement in the village, came down with
crowbars to assist us in breaking into the closed apartments and
discovering the precious hoard. The first sight of these closed-up
doorways gave us a strong desire to make the attempt; but on moving
along we found that the Indians had been beforehand with us. In front
of several were piles of stones, which they had worked out from the
doorways, and under the lintels were holes, through which we were able
to crawl inside; and here we found ourselves in apartments finished
with walls and ceilings like all the others, but filled up (except so
far as they had been emptied by the Indians) with solid masses of
mortar and stone. There were ten of these apartments in all, 220 feet
long and ten feet deep, which being thus filed up, made the whole
building a solid mass; and the strangest feature was that the filling
up of the apartments must have been simultaneous with the erection of
the buildings, for, as the filling-in rose above the tops of the
doorways, the men who performed it never could have entered to their
work through the doors. It must have been done as the walls were built,
and the ceiling must have closed over a solid mass. Why this was so
constructed it was impossible to say, unless the solid mass was
required for the support of the upper terrace and building; and if this
was the case, it would seem to have been much easier to erect a solid
structure at once, without any division into apartments.

The top of this building commanded a grand view, no longer of a dead
plain, but of undulating woodlands. Toward the northwest, crowning the
highest hill, was a lofty mound, covered with trees, which, to our now
practised eyes, it was manifest shrouded a building, either existing or
in ruins. The whole intervening space was thick wood and underbrush,
and the Indians said the mound was inaccessible. I selected three of
the best, and told them that we must reach it; but they really did not
know how to make the attempt, and set out on a continuation of the road
by which we had reached the ruins, and which led us rather from than to
the mound. On the way we met another Indian, who turned back with us,
and a little beyond, taking his range, he cut through the woods to
another path, following which a short distance, he again struck through
the woods, and, all cutt