After proceeding for some distance through a luxuriant
forest we came to what appeared to be the gates of a town. Two large
perpendicular stones rose to the height of fourteen feet above the
ground. These pillars must have been twelve feet through at the base,
and five feet on top, while a still larger stone, some sixteen feet
long and four feet thick, was mortised into the perpendicular columns.
It was difficult to understand how such huge stones could be quarried
and transported inland by a people possessing so few mechanical
appliances as these savages, but to my inquiry regarding this curious
gateway I was answered that the stones had been there as long as any
could remember, having been placed in position by supernatural agency.
At the gate of the city crouched some miserable specimens of humanity:
old men and women, haggard, shrivelled, and naked. These unfortunates,
I afterwards learned, were the aged and infirm, too feeble to perform
their share of the work of the tribe and condemned to remain at the
gateway, dependent for food upon such charity as might be given them.
On entering the town we passed a number of warriors, all fine, athletic
men, dressed in the same style as those who accompanied us, and painted
with stripes of red, yellow, and white pigment.
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