The Aztec Treasure-House

by Thomas A. Janvier

  XI.

  THE SUBMERGED CITY.

  A sweet, warm wind blew in our faces as we set off along the canon; thesun shone joyously upon us, and there was that fresh, tingling qualityin the air that is peculiar to regions high above the level of the sea.In spite of the fact that the way behind us was irrevocably barred, andthat no matter what dangers were ahead of us we had no option but toface them, our spirits were strong within us, and we went blithely onour way. Young, who was in advance, began to whistle "Yankee Doodle";and presently, from the rear of our procession, where Pablo walkedbeside the heavily laden El Sabio, there broke forth a mouth-organaccompaniment to this spirited melody.

  The bed of the canon, through which a little stream ran, fell awaybefore us along a slight down grade; which descent, since we found alsoa good foot-way beside the stream, made walking comparatively easynotwithstanding our heavy back-loads. Now and then our way would bebarred by masses of rock fallen from above, and by whole trees blowndown from their insecure roothold on the rocky cliffs; and twice we cameto steep descents which would have given us trouble had we not broughtalong the ropes wherewith our packs had been bound. Shifting El Sabiodown these places was our hardest task; but with the ropes, and theintelligent part that he took in the performance, we managed itsuccessfully.

  So we went on for half a dozen miles or more through the windings of thecanon, but keeping all the while a sharp lookout ahead--for in the mouthof this end of the canon, supposing it to open as at the other end upona grassy valley, we well enough might come upon an Indian camp. And thatwe had come upon such a camp we felt quite sure when, late in theafternoon, Rayburn signalled us from his advanced position--he havinggone to the head of the line in Young's place--to stand still until heshould reconnoitre a little. Being thus halted, we unslung our riflesand loosed our pistols in their holsters, so that we might be ready incase fighting suddenly should begin; and Rayburn went on around a turnin the canon, and for a while we lost sight of him.

  Presently he returned and signalled us to join him, but to movecautiously. When we came up with him he led us to the bend in the canon,and there a broad view opened to us; for the canon suddenly widenedinto a great valley, that was everywhere, so far as we could see,surrounded by walls of rock almost perpendicular and vastly high. In thebottom of the valley was a broad expanse of delectably greenmeadow-land, broken here and there by groves of trees; and in thevalley's middle part, reaching from side to side of it, was a lovelylake, whereof the blue was flecked by white reflections of certainlittle idly drifting clouds: the sight of all which greenness and fairwater and broad range of sky--after being for so long a season pent upin rocky fastnesses and wandering over brown, sun-baked plains--fairlybrought tears into my eyes because of its fresh and open loveliness. Andin the tender feeling that thus stirred my heart, as I could see in thequick glance that he gave me, Fray Antonio also keenly sympathized; forhis nature was very open at all times to such gentle influences.

  But Rayburn and Young, as was evident from their anxious looks, werethinking only of the dangers which this lovely valley might hold instore for us; for the shore of the lake nearest to us had many housesbuilt upon it, and we could see faintly, for the width of the lake wasnearly two miles, that there were other houses upon its farther shore.Standing hidden behind a rock, Rayburn examined the valley carefullythrough a field-glass for a long while.

  "I must say this place beats me," he said at last, as he put the glassdown from his eyes. "There's no doubt about there being a town downthere; but I can't make out a sign of a single living thing. And whatis still queerer, the houses seem to go right down into the lake. Ifyou'll take the glass, Professor, you'll see that a few of them, on thisside, stand all right on dry ground; and then, farther down the slopingbank, are a lot in the water; and beyond these there seem to be someroofs just showing above the level of the lake. And as far as I can makeout, things are just the same over on the far shore. It looks as if thelake had risen after the town was built."

  As I looked through the glass I saw that what Rayburn had said was true;and I observed with much interest that many of the houses were large,and that all seemed to be well built of stone. Their constructionreminded me of the buildings which M. Charnay examined at Tula, and Iwas eager to get down to them and examine them closely. Young and FrayAntonio took the glass, in turn, and as none of us saw any signs of lifein the valley, we decided to go on. And we were mightily stimulated inthis resolve by finding, just at the end of the canon, where the sharpdescent began, a graving of the King's symbol on the rock, with thearrow pointing directly down the steep path.

  "Here's a walled city, for sure," said Young; "and if this is where th'treasure-house is, we won't raise a row because th' folks have gone offan' left it. Just whoop up that burro of yours, Pablo, an' let's begettin' along. It's a pity we had t' leave th' mules behind. If th'treasure's in silver, we can't get away with much of it with nothin' butEl Sabio t' pack it on."

  Pablo did not understand this speech, of course, but he recognized hisown name and the name of El Sabio, and Young's gestures helped out themeaning of his words. Therefore Pablo grinned, and "whooped up" ElSabio; and we all set off briskly down the steep decline.

  Presently we found our way much easier than we had been led to expect byits rough beginning. As we advanced along it there was ample evidencethat the path had been graded and smoothed by the hand of man. Inseveral places it was carried on a terrace supported by a well-laidretaining wall; a deep crevice was spanned by long slabs of stone, soplaced as to form a bridge; and where it turned sharply around a highshoulder of rock, the face of the cliff had been quarried away. Yet thatthis all had been done in a very remote time was shown by the fragmentsof rock which had fallen into it here and there, and which wereblackened by age. "The same fellow who set that statue in place probablywas in charge here," was Rayburn's comment, "and he was a first-rateengineer. I wish I knew how he managed to swing those stone slabs overthat crevice. There's no room there to set up a derrick, and it wouldpuzzle me to set blocks like that without one."

  And Rayburn's admiration for the professional skill of this engineer ofa long past age was still further excited when the path came fairly intothe valley, and thence was carried downward along the gentle slopetowards the lake, by a perfectly even two-per-cent. grade, over a broadway paved smoothly with squared blocks of stone. And Fray Antonio and Iwere much interested in this work also, for we both perceived theidentity of its structure with the paved way that is found on the eastcoast of Yucatan, and that is continued on the island of Cozumel.

  By this paved avenue we entered the city--for, as we presently found, itwas entitled to this more dignified name. The first houses that we cameto were but small buildings enclosing a single room--such as are found,inhabited by working-people, on the outskirts of any Mexican city at thepresent day. They were silent and deserted; but they gave, at firstsight, the impression of being but momentarily abandoned, for thebelongings of their owners still remained in them as though theevery-day affairs of life still went on within their walls. In the firstthat we entered we found an earthen pot still standing on a sort offireplace, and beside the fireplace a little pile of charcoal. There wasa fragment of bone in the pot, and beneath it were some scraps ofcharcoal which remained unconsumed. It was as though cooking had beengoing on here but an hour before. Rayburn even put his hand into theashes to feel if they still were warm. But closer investigation gave usa juster notion of the long lapse of time that must have occurred sinceany fire had burned upon this hearth. In one corner of the room we founda pile of mats, but on touching these they crumbled into fragments inour hands; and the bone in the pot was so dry and so porous that it waslight as cork.

  As in this first house that we examined, so was it in all of them. All,at the first glance, seemed to have been but a moment before deserted;but all had signs about them which showed that they had been abandonedfor a very long time. In one we found a loom--in construction very likethat which the Navajo Indians
use at the present day--on which hung,partly completed, a sheer filament that once had been some sort of heavywoollen cloth. In another, a cotton garment was lying carelessly upon ashelf, as though but a moment before cast aside; yet, as I tried to pickit up, it crumbled between my fingers into a fine powder.

  Of humanity, the only sign that we found anywhere about this grim anddesert place was the dried, shrivelled remnant of a woman that we cameupon in an upper room of one of the larger houses farther on. She waslying upon a bed of mats, partly turned upon her side, and one arm wasstretched out towards an earthen cup that stood just beyond her reachupon the floor. There was strong pathos in the action of the figure, forit told of the keen thirst of fever--of weakness so extreme that theinch or two between the hand and the cup was a gulf impassable--of amoaning struggle after the water so longed for--and then, at last, ofdeath in that utter and desolate loneliness. And what added to theghastliness of it all was that a thin ray of sunlight, coming through acrevice in the wall, struck upon the woman's teeth--whence the lips haddried away--and by its gleaming there made on her face a smile.

  As we came close to the lake, we perceived, as Rayburn already haddiscerned by the aid of the glass, that houses, partially submerged,actually rose from the water, and that houses of which only the roofswere visible were farther on. That this whole valley was the crater ofan extinct volcano was sufficiently evident; and we could only surmisethat in later times some fresh cataclysm of nature had poured suddenlyinto it a vast body of water, and so had submerged the city that hadbeen builded here. Whatever had brought about the catastrophe, itevidently had come with a most appalling suddenness. Everywhere thecondition of the houses showed how hastily they had been abandoned; andthe wild hurry of flight was shown still more clearly in the case of thewoman--whose surroundings gave evidence that she had been a person ofconsequence--deserted in her age or infirmity and left lonely to die.

  Young's face wore a melancholy expression as we stood upon the shore ofthe lake, and looked out across it towards the faintly seen westernshore. "If this is th' place we're huntin' for," he said, "I guess ourtreasure stock is pretty badly watered, unless somebody's had th' senset' keep th' treasure dry over on th' other side. We'd better move overthere, I reckon, an' take a look for it, especially as we've got t' gothat way anyhow in order t' get out. There ought t' be some sort of apath around th' lake, between th' edge of th' water and th' cliffs."

  But when we came to examine into this matter we found that there was nopath at all. On each side of the valley the walls of rock rose directlyfrom the water, sharp and sheer.

  "Well," said Rayburn, when we had finished our inspection, "we've gotto get across somehow. I guess we'll have to sail in, the first thingto-morrow morning, and build a raft. These pine-trees down here by thewater will cut easy and float well, and there's some comfort in that,anyway. But what I'm after right now is my supper."

  Pablo already had started a fire, having first unpacked El Sabio, thathe might refresh himself by rolling on the soft, green grass and byeating his fill of it, and Young presently had some ham fried and somecoffee boiled. We had counted upon having fresh meat for supper thatnight, for there was everything in the look of the valley to promisethat we would find game there; but, so far, not a four-footed thing nora bird had we seen, nor even signs of fish in the lake.

  In the morning we got out the axes and went to work at the building ofthe raft; and, notwithstanding what Rayburn had said in regard to theease of cutting them, I must confess that for my part I found thecutting of pine-trees very wearying and painful. My hands were blisteredby it, and the muscles of my back were made extremely sore by it forseveral days. Indeed, the construction of a raft big enough to float usall, and our heavy packs, and El Sabio, was a serious undertaking. Wespent two days and a half over it, and I never in my life was morethankful for anything than I was when at last that wretched raft wasdone. As Young observed, as he regarded our finished work critically,there was no style about it--for it was only a lot of rough logs, ofwhich the upper and lower layers ran fore and aft and the middle layertransversely, the whole bound together by our pack-ropes--but it waslarge enough for our purposes, and it was solid and strong.

  In the late afternoon we carried our belongings on board of it, andPablo succeeded by dint of much entreaty in inducing El Sabio to boardit also, and we pushed off from shore. For driving the clumsy thingforward we had made four rough paddles, which well enough served ourpurposes, for there was no current whatever in the lake and the air wasstill.

  AFLOAT ON THE LAKE]

  As we went onward we discovered how considerable the city was that herelay submerged. Through the perfectly clear water we could see to a greatdepth, and beneath us in every direction were paved streets, lined withhouses well built of stone. Near the centre of the valley the size ofthe houses greatly increased, and the fashion of their building was morestately; and fronting upon a great open square in the very centre of thecity was a building of such extraordinary size that we took it to be thepalace of a king; but here the water was so deep that we could make outbut faintly the looming far below us of its mighty walls. Never have Ibeen more pained than I then was; for in that place I found myself closeto making discoveries of surpassing archaeological value, and yet I wasas completely cut off from them as though they had no existence.

  Just beyond the palace, as we went onward, our raft almost touched theroof of a noble building that stood upon the top of a vast pyramidalmound, the base of which we could see but dimly far down through thewaters of the lake. This, evidently, had been the chief temple of thecity; and as we passed over it and came to its eastern side, we hadghastly and certain proof of the terrible suddenness with which the cityhad been overwhelmed. On the broad terrace before the temple was thesacrificial stone, and upon this dark mass we saw distinctly thegleaming of human bones; and as we peered down into the water weperceived that all the terrace was strewn thickly with human bones also,showing that when the rush of water came many thousands of human beingshad here perished miserably. For a little while, no doubt, all thesurface of the water round about where we were had been dotted thicklywith the bodies of the drowned which had floated upward; and then, oneby one, they had sunk again to the place where death first foundthem--where their flesh wasted away from them until only their gleamingbones remained.

  I pictured to myself the dreadful scene that once had passed, down therebelow us, where now was only the calm serenity of ancient death: thegreat crowd collected to witness the sacrifice, and then the suddencoming of the waters--possibly so quickly that the victim, held down bythe neck-yoke upon the sacrificial stone, was drowned ere there was timeto slay him. This great mound would be the last of all to be covered,and the wretched people gathered there must have seen their citydisappear beneath the waters before death came to them. No doubt theythought themselves safe in that high place, made sacred by the presenceof their gods. And when the water did reach them, what a writhing andstruggling there must have been for a little while; what a crushing ofthe weak by the strong in mad efforts to gain even a moment's safetyupon some higher standing-place! And then, at last, the water rosetriumphant in its swelling majesty over all--and beneath its placidsurface were hid the silenced terrors of all that commotion of mortalagony, whereof the outcome was the peaceful and eternal calm of death.