For two and
a half months we struggled on across mountains and rivers and through
swamps and forests, till at last we reached a mighty deserted city,
that is called Palenque by the Indians of those parts, which has been
uninhabited for many generations. This city is the most marvellous place
that I have seen in all my travels, though much of it is hidden in
bush, for wherever the traveller wanders there he finds vast palaces of
marble, carven within and without, and sculptured teocallis and the huge
images of grinning gods. Often have I wondered what nation was strong
enough to build such a capital, and who were the kings that dwelt in it.
But these are secrets belonging to the past, and they cannot be answered
till some learned man has found the key to the stone symbols and
writings with which the walls of the buildings are covered over.
In this city I hid with my men, though it was no easy task to persuade
them to take up their habitation among so many ghosts of the departed,
not to speak of the noisome fevers and the wild beasts and snakes that
haunted it, for I had information that the Spaniards would pass through
the swamp that lies between the ruins and the river, and there I hoped
to ambush them. But on the eighth day of my hiding I learned from spies
that Cortes had crossed the great river higher up, and was cutting his
way through the forest, for of swamps he had passed more than enough.
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