CHAPTER XXIV.
TUMBALA. S. CRISTOBAL. MITLA.
Return to Tenosiqué—S. Domingo del Palenque Revisited—Departure for S. Cristobal—First Halt—No Tamenes—Setting out alone for Nopa—Bad Roads—No Food—Monkeys—Three Days Waiting at S. Pedro—The Cabildo—Hostile Attitude of the Natives—The Porters Arrive—They make off in the Night—From S. Pedro to Tumbala—Two Nights in the Forest—Tumbala—The Cura—Jajalun—Chilon—Citala—A Dominican Friar—Cankuk—Tenejapa—S. Cristobal—Valley of Chiapas—Bullocks—Tuxtla—Santa Lucia—Marimba—Tehuantepec—Totolapa—Oaxaca—Santa Maria del Tule—Ruins of Mitla.
There is positively nothing new to say about the long, wearisome journey from Copan to Tenosiqué; it is the usual road through forest, with no incidents to mark it from former journeys, which besides we performed in Stephens’ and Maudslay’s company from whom we borrow both descriptions and monuments. We will therefore start from Tenosiqué, where our personal explorations begin.
In order to avoid going by Frontera, which I had visited several times, I returned to Palenque, crossed the Sierra of Chiapas, that I might see S. Cristobal, Tehuantepec, and the various Indian villages which are found along that road new to us.
As it was a long distance, offering many difficulties over almost impassable mountain paths, which at times are almost perpendicular, I dismissed my men and sent Lucian and one of my two servants to wait for us at Mexico, whilst Julian and I, with our arms and photograph apparatus, set out for S. Domingo del Palenque, where I engaged six men to convey our baggage over the Sierra to S. Cristobal.
I had been duly instructed upon the route I was to follow by the alcalde, so that leaving our men to come after us, which we were assured would be done immediately, Julian and I mounted our horses, and we were soon galloping in the direction of the rancho, which we reached towards ten o’clock; here our guide wished to return to Palenque, but I required him to await the arrival of the tamenes, who were not yet in sight, and with whom I could not communicate without his help. But the whole day passed in fruitless expectations, all the more disagreeable that they had all the supplies, and we were reduced to a large ball of posole,[181] not much for empty stomachs, so towards evening the guide went along the river’s banks in search of snails, and we had to content ourselves with them for our supper.
The following day I sauntered in the wood to do something, and found a tortoise of 8 or 10 inches long, having its lower shell furnished at both ends with two appendices, which enabled the fellow to shut himself up and defy all enemies, a true snuff-box tortoise. I thought at first of keeping it; but, alas for human resolve! by noon it was in the pot fast turning into delicious soup.