tance we fell in with a stream more annoying than if it had been filled with water, though the water which it carried was sufficient to drench us, since we were not able to pass over it in all cases without going through it. One has to cross this river in the space of a league very nearly fifty times, so that it not only annoyed us by wetting us so much more, but because at each turn we lost the track or footprints which we were following; so that we were delayed enough in passing the said turns of the river.
“After a great storm they say fair weather follows, but the contrary happened to us, since, trusting in the abundance of water, we neither drank, since it was in the morning, nor did we carry it with us, supposing that we should find it at each step, but what happened to us was to meet with a great multitude of very rough ascents and descents, — all hills and very high mountains of limestone, which extended over a space of four leagues, so that, besides the path in itself being so rough, thirst was troublesome enough. We found ourselves in the midst of this anguish when of a sudden we came on a descent as rough and steep as it was long and dangerous; for, though we had no load to carry, we had to make use of the trees so as not to slip, since if we slipped, there was no place to stop till we reached the bottom, where we saw a horrible lime cavern which we supposed would hold water. But it was not so.
Approaching the Itzas. “From the top then of this hill, which I speak of, there was discovered a great range of low hills, of such a kind that it not only appeared another country, since even from the top of the trees we did not discover the land beyond or the part on the other side of this height. We thought that we doubtless were in another new territory and near the Ytza nation, to which we were going. At a distance of half a league from this descent, we came across a great spring of water, which was able with its force to turn many mills, and howsoever great the pleasure was which we felt at seeing it, just as much disgust did the taste of it cause us, since it sprang from the brow of a very high hill or steep rock, but it was all mixed with lime, and was of a lead and sulphur color,
