"At half-past seven we left the village. For a short distance the road was open, but very soon we entered a forest, which continued unbroken to the Ruins, and probably many miles beyond. All the wreck of Empires,--nothing ever spoke so forcibly the world's mutations, as this immense forest shrouding what was once a great city. Once it had been a great highway, thronging with people who were stimulated by the same passions that give impulse to human action now; and they are all gone, their habitation buried, and no traces of them left. Fording this (river Otula) very soon we saw masses of stones, and then a _round sculptured_ stone. We spurred up a sharp ascent of _fragments_, so steep that the mules could barely climb it, to a terrace, so covered, like the whole road, with trees, that it was impossible to make out the form. Continuing on this terrace, we stopped at the foot of the second, and through openings in the trees we saw the front of _a large building_, richly ornamented with _stuccoed_ figures on the _pilasters_, _curious_ and _elegant_; trees growing close against them, and their branches entering the doors; in style and effect unique, extraordinary and mournfully beautiful. We tied our mules to the trees, and ascended _a flight of stone steps_, forced apart, and thrown down by trees, and entered the Palace, ranged for a few moments along the _corridor_, and into the _courtyard_; and after the first gaze of eager curiosity was over, went back to the entrance, and standing in the doorway, fired a _feu de joie_ of four rounds each, being the last charge of our fire-arms. But for this way of giving vent to our satisfaction, we should have made the roof of the old Palace ring with a hurrah! We had reached the end of our long and toilsome journey, and the first glance indemnified us for our toil. For the time, we were in a building erected by the _Aboriginal_ inhabitants; _standing before_ the Europeans knew of the existence of this Continent; and we prepared to take up our abode under its roof--the sole tenants of the Palace of unknown Kings." The reader will excuse the preceding introduction--its graphic style will find its own apology; and though not _descriptive_ of the Ruins, _yet the approach to them_ seems to form a part of this historical Romance of the Wilderness. "As at Copan, it was my business to prepare the different objects for Mr. Catherwood to draw. Many of the stones had to be scrubbed and cleansed; and as it was our object to have the _utmost possible accuracy in the drawings_, in many places scaffolds were to be erected, on which to set up the _camera-lucida_. That the reader may know the character of the objects we had to interest us, I proceed to give a description of the building in which we lived, called the _Palace_. It stands on an _artificial_ elevation of an oblong form _forty feet high, three hundred and ten in front and rear, and two hundred and sixty feet on each side_."