It was very ancient, they said—“muy, muy antigua!” Upon the smooth stucco beneath the arch, rudely scratched in the lime, I read, “JUAN PERALTA, _Estranjero_, 173.” This church was built before Hudson floated on the waters of the magnificent river bearing his name; before the Pilgrims knelt on the wintry shores of New England, and before Smith spread the terrors of his arm among the Indians of Virginia. And unless some sacrilegious hand shall level the ancient archway, it will yet stand for centuries to mark the site of aboriginal superstition, and attest the zeal of the Fray Bobadilla, who baptized forty thousand Indians, receiving therefor, if they all “paid up,” one million six hundred thousand grains of cacao. Pious Bobadilla! There are several other ruined and abandoned Christian churches now buried in the forests in the suburbs of Subtiaba, the dwelling-places of the bats and birds, over whose crumbling walls, and around whose falling columns, creep the wild vines, blooming with flowers, and shedding their fragrance above the silent and deserted altars of the Most High. Ruins upon ruins—Christian church and heathen shrine, they have all sunk down together. We returned to Leon to find ourselves covered with “agarrapatas” or wood ticks, with which the forest fairly swarms during the dry season, and which are brushed off upon travellers by the thousand. They penetrate straight to the skin, and bury their heads in the flesh, causing an irritation which drives many people to distraction. When once fastened it is impossible to detach them by force, without leaving the head in the flesh, where it gets along on its own account, apparently a great deal better than when encumbered by the body. The only mode of removing them is with a ball of soft wax, which is rubbed over the body, and to which they adhere. Some are small, hardly visible to the naked eye, others are of the size of flax, and even of melon seeds; but “the smaller the worser.” Next to the fleas they rank as the predominant annoyance of the country. Musquitoes (sancudos), in Leon, the principal towns, and the open parts of the country generally, there are none; but compared with fleas and “agarrapatas,” the snakes, scorpions, “chinches,” “sancudos,” and all the other abominations of tropical climates are mere bagatelle, and scarcely worth the mentioning. [Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF IDOL FROM SUBTIABA, NO. 1.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: IDOL FROM SUBTIABA.—No. 4.] [Illustration: RUINS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF LA MERCED DE SUBTIABA.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XII.