Back of this building, or, rather, on the other front, was a thriving tobacco patch, the only thriving thing we saw at Iturbide; and on the border another ancient well, now, as in ages past, furnishing water, and from which the Indian attending the tobacco patch gave us to drink. Beyond were towering mounds and vestiges, indicating the existence of a greater city than any we had yet encountered. In wandering among them Dr. Cabot and myself counted thirty-three, all of which had once held buildings aloft. The field was so open that they were all comparatively easy of access, but the mounds themselves were overgrown. I clambered up them till the work became tiresome and unprofitable; they were all, as the Indians said, puras piedras, pure stones; no buildings were left; all had fallen; and though, perhaps, more than at any other place, happy that it was our fortune to wander among these crumbling memorials of a once powerful and mysterious people, we almost mourned that our lot had not been cast a century sooner, when, as we believed, all these edifices were entire. CHAPTER XI. End of Journey in this Direction.--Lake of Peten.--Probable Existence of Ruins in the Wilderness.--Islands in the Lake of Peten.--Peten Grande.--Mission of two Monks.--Great Idol of the Figure of a Horse.--Broken by the Monks, who in Consequence are obliged to leave the Island.--Second Mission of the Monks.--Sent away by the Indians.--Expedition of Don Martin Ursua.--Arrival at the Island.--Attacked by the Indians, who are defeated.--Don Martin takes Possession of Itza.--Temples and Idols of the Indians.--Destroyed by the Spaniards.--Flight of the Indians into the Wilderness.--Preparations.--Illness of Mr. Catherwood.--Effects of Gambling.--From the Church to the Gaming-table.--How People live at Iturbide.--Departure.--Rancho of Noyaxche.