| sent in charge of the boats to look for fresh water in Guantanomo | | harbour, at a spot which was reputed to have been a favourite | | haunt of pirates in the seventeenth century. | | | | After some search we discovered a small stream, but the entrance | | was defended by such crowds of alligators that we had great | | difficulty in passing through them. If, as was possible, they were | | waiting for the arrival of fish from the upper waters, it may be | | inferred that a comparatively small supply of food suffices for | | their sustenance. | | | | [86] “Cartas de Hernan Cortes,” collected by Don Pascual de | | Gayangos, p. 407. | | | | [87] “Almaizal, a sort of veil or head attire used by the Moorish | | women, made of thin silk, striped of several colours, and shagged | | at the ends, which hangs down on the back.” Baretti’s Dictionary, | | 1807. | | | | [88] See “Landa’s Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan,” edited and | | translated by L’Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. | | | | [89] See chapter vii. | | | | [90] Landa “Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan.” p. 164. | | | | [91] See chapter xi. | | | | [92] The facing stones placed upon the walls of the ruins of Mitla, | | in the Mexican province of Oaxaca, are fitted, or bedded, into the | | mortar and rubble in the same manner as at Uxmal. | | | | At one of the evening conversaziones given by the Royal Society at | | Burlington House, in the spring of 1892, I happened to discuss the | | subject of Palenque and Uxmal with Mr. Woolner, the sculptor. Some | | experiments had previously been carried out in France which had | | proved that with stone chisels it was possible to carve granite, | | limestones, and hard sandstones. | | | | The investigations did not, however, make it clear how it could | | have happened that the Indian sculptors were able to work with |