We, therefore, resumed our journey,
and many were the disquisitions and conjectures which passed between me
and the holy father, as to the high degree of civilization which must
have existed among the lost race who had been the architects of such
graceful buildings.
Four days more brought us to the southern shore of the St. Jago lake. We
arrived in good time, dismissed our Indians, and having purchased two
excellent mules, we proceeded on our journey, in company with the
horse-hunters, surrounded by hundreds of their captives, who were loudly
lamenting their destiny, and showed their sense of the injustice of the
whole proceeding by kicking and striking with their fore-feet at
whatever might come within the reach of their hoofs. Notwithstanding the
very unruly conduct of the prisoners, we arrived at Monterey on the
sixth evening.
The reader will discover, as he proceeds, that my adventures are about
to commence from this journey to Monterey; I therefore wish to remind
him that I was at this time not eighteen years old. I had a remembrance
of civilization previous to my arrival among the Indians, and as we
enjoyed every comfort and some luxuries at the settlement, I still had a
remembrance, although vague, of what had passed in Italy and elsewhere.
But I had become an Indian, and until I heard that I was to under-take
this journey, I had recollected the former scenes of my youth only to
despise them.
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