THE SIERRA FROM THE GARDEN OF THE HACIENDA.
Just as they rose from the supper-table the bell of the chapel rang for oracion, or evening prayer, which was attended by our friends and all the laborers and everybody else about the establishment. When the service was ended each of the worshippers said "Buenos noches, señor" (good-night, sir) to each of the strangers. Everybody went early to bed, and by nine o'clock the whole place was in the deepest silence. This remark will not apply to all seasons of the year; during the periods of fiestas, or festivals, late hours are generally kept, and early rising is not assiduously practised.
The hammocks of the travellers were slung in a corridor, and the free circulation of air and the coolness of night, together with the fatigues of a long ride over rough roads, insured sound sleep. In the morning chocolate was served before six o'clock, and a little after that hour the carriages were on their way. No direct payment for the hospitality of the hacienda was in order, but indirect compensation was made in the shape of fees to the mayordomo and the servants who had waited upon the strangers.
Soon after leaving the hacienda the road ascended, and Frank ascertained from the driver, who spoke Spanish fairly, that they were climbing the sierra, a hilly ridge hardly worthy the name of mountain, though called so by courtesy. It is the highest ground of Yucatan, and therefore the inhabitants are to be excused for calling it a mountain, as they would otherwise be without one.
From the top of the ridge they looked over a considerable area of country covered with the scrub forest for which the country is noted, and dotted here and there with the ruins of cities, which indicate the existence of a numerous population in previous centuries. Down the other side of the ridge they went at breakneck pace, the cochés being tossed from side to side with such violence that the youths were compelled to hang on with both hands to prevent being thrown out and left by the road-side. Several times the vehicle narrowly escaped overturning; and this, too, close to chasms where an upset would have sent them almost perpendicularly down a hundred feet or so, and reduced vehicle, mules, passengers, and baggage to an average value of fifty cents a bushel. And the curious thing about the whole business was that on reaching level ground the driver reined in his team and proceeded at a more dignified pace.
