. Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan . red to ; which, supposing them tohave been intended for that purpose, would probablynot have been sufficient, however numerous, to sup-ply the wants of so large a population. All the water required for our own use we wereobliged to procure from the hacienda. We felt theinconvenience of this during the whole of our resi-dence at the ruins, and very often, in spite of allour care to keep a supply on hand, we came in, af- A G U A D A S. 249 ier hard work in the sun, and, parched with thirst,were obliged to wait till we could send an
. Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan . red to ; which, supposing them tohave been intended for that purpose, would probablynot have been sufficient, however numerous, to sup-ply the wants of so large a population. All the water required for our own use we wereobliged to procure from the hacienda. We felt theinconvenience of this during the whole of our resi-dence at the ruins, and very often, in spite of allour care to keep a supply on hand, we came in, af- A G U A D A S. 249 ier hard work in the sun, and, parched with thirst,were obliged to wait till we could send an Indianto the hacienda, a distance, going and returning, ofthree miles. Very soon after our arrival our attention and in-quiries were directed particularly to this subject,and we were not long in satisfying ourselves thatthe principal supply had been drawn from aguadas,or ponds, in the neighbourhood. These aguadasare now neglected and overgrown, and perhaps, to acertain extent, are the cause of the unhealthiness olUxmal. The principal of them we saw first from. the top of the House of the Dwarf, bearing west, andperhaps a mile and a half distant. We visited itVol. I.—I i 250 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. under the guidance of the mayoral, with some In-dians to clear the way. The whole interveningspace was overgrown with woods, the ground waslow and muddy, and, as the rains still continued, theaguada was at that time a fine sheet of water. Itwas completely imbosomed among trees, still anddesolate, with tracks of deer on its banks; a fewducks were swimming on its surface, and a king-fisher was sitting on the bough of an overhangingtree, watching for his prey. The mayoral told usthat this aguada was connected with another moreto the south, and that they continued, one after theother, to a great distance ; to use his own expres-sion, which, however, I did not understand literally,there were a hundred of them. The general opinion with regard to these agua-das is the same with that expresse
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