Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1891 — LIKE A HAGGARD ROMANCE. [ARTICLE]

LIKE A HAGGARD ROMANCE.

.'Ydvcntnr.ea of a Miner and Guide in the American Tropica. San Francisco Chronicle. Samuel S. Jackson. who has made and lost a dozen fortunes in Mexican mines, —is at a down-town hotel. Most of the tirrle he is busy, collecting supplies and figuring on a new Guatemalan venture on hand, but on Friday evening, in a discussion With some outfitters as to the best way of getting the goodsjower the ground, he was led,to; describe the country. and_soyiiTcidently, he told the story Of a wonderful city which he visited on his initial trip to the mines. “The first time I star ted for these old mines,” said Jackson, “I had the hardest kind of a time getting a guide who knew the trail. The first man I tit on was a half breed' named Joso. and he fell hopelessly sick with low fever while we were getting our traps together, After waiting nearly two Weeks I was almost ready to .tcust-myse-lf to the villainous-looking rapscallion who dozed about the adobe casita where I put up. —“lf it had not been for fear of losing my tools and instruments-1 believe L would have risked it. But, lucky for mo, one night a full-bloodecTTndian stopped at the casita on his way to the interior, lie was totally unlike the Indians of the country or the native Mexicans, and claimed to have 'come from the forest region about Palenque and to know the country to which I was bound. I snapped him up like a pure color lead. “After leaving Tonala. on the Pacific, we struck straight for the mountains behind, where Roquero,' the Indian, told us lie knew of a road. I tnought it would be an ordinary. trail, but may I never strike another lead if it wasn’t an immense highway paved and hard, but so overgrown with undergrowth that only portions of it cropped out. Roquero told me we should follow this broad highway until we reached the forests with the cities of the ‘robed men,’ where the littjs tribe he came from had gone annually to worship the ‘smoke raising.' “We I?ad worked along this road for twenty days, and I was poking fun at Roquero for what he said of these mysterious, hidden cities, when lie cut me short by saying: ‘lf the Seuor will go with me for three days off this road I will prove all I sav.’ I laughed, of course, and said all right, and we started. Roquero, though, would not let pack-drivers go with us. but sent them into eainp on the road-bed. ; ~ _ FIRST VIEW OF Till'. CITY. “After working through the densest'kind of a forest for something like four days we came to a laguna, j and here Roquero left me for some hours. Far over the waters was the ; other shore, or an island. I could not | tell which at the time, but above the j palms the gleaming white of high pyramids shot up into the sky.—and tall rectangular structures pushed their heads above the foliage. Of course, I was immediately excited. Just as I was beginning to think Roquero had deserted me I heard a paddle, and he shot around a point, in a big dugout. • --» “The lake must have been very broad, for I’m sure it took the Indian at least three hours to paddle over to the island on which. we saw the great and wonderful buildings. Wo landed at a- flight of broad white j stone steps. At the top of them were two huge twin pillars, one hundred feet apart. They made the gateway of a great ■ street leading directly through the city. Roquero took,me up the street. Before me arose edifices whose like I never saw. They were all of hard white stone, of a type both Jewish and Egyptian. -We-didn’t see a soul. Th? Indian, however, told me that the ‘robed men’were all at the temples worshiping, and he took me there. “‘This city be here many long time, Senor,’ said the Indian, ‘I no can tell how long. I think no man tell. Queer men live here. They teach Indian worship great God and burn animal for smoke-rising.’ “We turned from the main street and passed before a mammoth structure. its massive grandeur surpassing anything I had ever read of. Roquero led me up the stone steps and between the giant pillars. The building was a collection of courts' connected by a succession of steps. The outer court, Roquero said, was for the Indians, another for the women, still a third for the men, and vet another for the priesthood, where stood the sacred altar of the ‘sweet smoke-rislDg. ’ — ‘"The court of the Indians was deserted. We keptjan and entered the worshiping _plsce of the women. Thousandkot them were pi'ostrated "on the floor, clad in their loose, shortsleeved robes, their close-fitting caps from which fell long veils profusely ornamented with silver and gold embroidery. At the end of the great court an altar burned, with longrobed priests before it. Only the rising tones of the priests’ voices were heard. The smoke of burnt offering ascended from the altar. CARVINGS AND INSCRIPTIONS. “The pillars about the court were carved on the flat surface with lifesize figures. They were unmistakably the figures of ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians. We were afraid to move. Roquero had never been out of the lower court —it was contrary to lays. There were four entrances to thecourt. Above those on either side were inscriptions carved in the gray stone. They were in Hebrew. I knew something of

that language and I could make out the one on the right: ‘•Melchisedec King of Salem, .Priestof themestbighGod.” On the other entrance I read: '•Without father, without mother, without &» scent. Haring neither beginning nor end of life.” “The congregation began to stir and Roquero and I went outside and stood on the steps. Not many moments passed before knots of people of both sexes begau to appear. The men were long bearded, On their heads were silk kaffiehs, secured by •a cord; their 'dress -was a vest buttoned close to the throat, a long, loose robe with a leather girdle, a richly embroidered loose trousers of light cloth, more like skirts. On their feet were sandals. ’ “The costumes of the women differed ‘little, except In their headdress, wherein they showed their taste "for. gorgeous display in the 'ornamentation of the veil that fell over their shoulders neatly to their feet. The women were very beautiful. “tiome of the men crowded around us and spoke to Roquero in his own tongue; The mah who ippearec: to be the leader gave him some 'ery stern commands. ■~ “‘"‘They say no bring you here. They no like it. They kill us if eorae, ' translated Roquero, . . . They took us down to the dug-out and saw us 'aboard and away, the leader repeating his stern commands to Roquero. While paddling back over the laguna the Indian told me • something of the legend of the people. He said that they had been scattered o ver the land ages-ago, but within the memory of his people they had only been on the island in the laguna. They taught the Indians, as part of their religion, not to make known tlieir existence. The same priest had always been their king: ihelnever died. “We got back to the packers all right, and reached the mines after a sweltering time.”