lleys led up between them. Ancient cathedrals and
churches stood gray with age before grass-grown plazas. And in the
outskirts of town were massive masonry ruins of great buildings, convent
and colleges, some of which had never been finished. The immense blocks
lay about the ground in a confusion, covered softly by thousands of
little plants; or soared against the sky in broken arches and corridors.
Vegetation and vines grew in every crevice; and I saw many full-sized
trees rooted in midair. The place was strongly fanciful; and I loved to
linger there. To me the jungle seemed like an insidiously beautiful
creature enveloping thus, little by little, its unsuspecting prey. The
old gray tumbled ruins seemed to be lost in dreams of their ancient
days. And through the arches and the empty corridors open to the sky
breathed a melancholy air from a past so dead and gone and buried and
forgotten that of it remained no echo, no recollection, no knowledge,
nothing but squared and tumbled stones.

To tell the truth I generally had these reflections quite to myself. The
body of the town was much more exciting. The old dilapidated and
picturesque houses had taken on a new and temporary smartness of
modernity--consisting mainly of canvas signs. The main street was of
hotels, eating houses, and assorted hells. It was crowded day and night,
for we found something over a thousand men here awaiting the chance of
transportation. Some had been here a long time, and were broke and
desperate. A number of American gambling joints did a good business.
Native drinking houses abounded. The natives were in general a showy
lot, but too lazy even to do a good job at fleecing the stranger within
their gates. That was therefore undertaken--and most competently--by the
enterprising foreigners of all nations. Foreigners kept two of the three
hotels, as is indicated by their names--Hotel Francaise Fonda Americano,
and the Washington House. Americans ran the gambling joints. French and
Germans, mainly, kept the restaurants.

We stopped over one day at the Fonda Americano; and then realizing that
we were probably in for a long wait, found two rooms in a house off the
main street. These we rented from a native at a fairly reasonable rate.
They were in the second story of a massive stone ruin whose walls had
been patched up with whitewash. The rooms were bare and geometrically
cat-a-cornered and extraordinarily chilly, like vaults; but they gave
out on a c