| contrive any shelter more suitable for their requirements. | | | | [78] I had previously observed when travelling in the Cyrenaica in | | the regions around Cyrene, that the Bedouins could perform a long | | day’s hard work and subsist upon a few handfuls of grains of wheat | | moistened with water. | | | | [79] Dr. Coller was surprised to see me. It was supposed that I was | | the first Englishman who had come to Palenque from the coasts of | | the Pacific, Mr. Stephens, my predecessor being an American. I am | | however under the impression that his companion, Mr. Catherwood, | | was an Englishman. | | | | [80] Dr. Coller’s hut at San Domingo del Palenque was not a Castle | | of Lirias, but probably the lines quoted by Gil Blas were often in | | his mind. Indeed there are many others who, if they saw that | | hamlet as I saw it in the month of March, would concur with him in | | saying: | | | | “Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete. | | Sat me lusistis: ludite nunc alios.” | | | | [81] In the final chapters, xix-xx, will be found the conclusions | | that I have formed with regard to the temple and tablet of the | | cross. | | | | [82] See frontispiece. | | | | [83] The areas occupied by the temples differed considerably in | | their extent. The largest of them which I measured was that of the | | Temple of the Cross. | | | | Its interior dimensions were forty-three feet seven inches long | | by twenty-five feet four inches deep; the outer walls were three | | feet thick. Therefore the ground space covered by the building was | | nearly fifty feet in frontage and a little more than thirty-one | | feet in depth. Its exterior height was about twenty feet. The | | measurements of the temple on the adjoining pyramid were less. | | | | [84] A clear and instructive memoir by Professor Charles Rau, upon | | the subject of the interpretation of the Palenque hieroglyphs, is |