The next morning, very early, we again broke up our quarters, and our guides led us exactly in the direction they had previously described, and we arrived, without anything happening to us worthy of mention, in front of a morass, which lay at the foot of very high mountains, where we encamped for the night. With break of day we again continued our march, and arrived about the hour of high mass, at a township which lay in the midst of this extensive morass. This town had every appearance of having been recently built, and indeed we found that the houses had only been erected a few days before our arrival. It was surrounded by a double entrenchment, formed of the trunks of large trees, encircled by other huge poles stuck in perpendicularly, The approaches were secured by a deep fosse, and they were protected by a double inclosure of a circular form: one of which was supplied with a regular battlement, small towers and loop-holes; the other was very high and strongly built of large stones, and was likewise provided with a battlement. As the other side was covered by the morass this place might, in every sense of the word, be called a fortress.
When we entered the town we did not meet with a single inhabitant, but were surprised to find in the houses quantities of boiled turkeys and other fowls, dressed according to Indian fashion, with hot peppers and maise cakes, which they call tamales. We were perfectly astonished at this great abundance, and we made all manner of speculations on so extraordinary a sight. Another large building we found filled with bows and arrows and small darts. We now carefully searched the surrounding neighbourhood, but we could nowhere see any maise plantations.
While we were thus looking about us we observed fifteen Indians approaching from the side of the morass, who, on coming up, touched the ground with their hands and kissed it. These were the chiefs of the