EROMAEC OID OVA OMG ATE AY:

begin.” Arrived at last at the bluff, I separated my party, placing them within
hail of each other, and covering the entire plateau, as well as the hillside.

We worked carefully, traversing the woods in every direction, but without.
result. We crawled through thickets and briers, sweltering in the terrible heat,
pestered with mosquitoes and sand-flies, but meeting with no noxious insects.
The bushes were hung thick with spider-webs, occupied by bad-looking owners,
but we did not encounter,
fortunately, the very poison-
ous ground-spider, whose
sting is death, though it is
abundant there. After some
hours, we all met as by ap-
pointment at the cafiada,
at the head of the lagoon,
and after refreshing our-
selves started again, prob-
ing the woods in every
direction, but without any
reward. The old lady had
worked as hard as any of
the party, and seemed as [| ee Beatie eer kee ricageee ee
little fatigued. They called See ene een

her la Vieja or the old (This pile of stones is probably the remains of “the king’s house,” or gold
? smelting works.)

 

woman. When she saw
that we had exhausted our endeavors, she came to the rescue with a proposition
to invoke the powers that hide in darkness, with which she professed to be
familiar. In order to humor her, I assented, and she led us back to the fort at.
the bluff, and then to the well in the woods, where she halted at the foot of a
tree. Producing from her ragged garments a candle, made by her own hands from
the brown wax of native bees, she lighted it, and commanded us all to keep
silence. Then, carefully protecting the flame from the wind, she mumbled
something over it, watching anxiously the direction of the smoke, and finally
said, pointing east, “Go there; that way is the capilla.” So I started my men
off east, the Vieja with them, ranging toward the hillside. But they soon came
back, exhausted, every one, and cast themselves down upon the sands, beneath
the sea-grapes, where I was awaiting them. Za Vieja was not at all downcast.
at the failure of her incantation; indeed she was exceedingly “chipper,” and
walked home with us through the terrible heat, without showing the least.
fatigue. And so our hunt for the ruins ended.

Having investigated everything around and about the site of Isabella, after a.
week’s residence here I concluded it was time to go. But I was loath to leave
this pleasant place, and at night strolled up the hill, and into the woods, to a