were the degenerate offshoots from these, may be a question; but the presumption strongly is, that, with the disruption of the ancient Toltican empire, of which Palenque was probably, at one time, the capital, various fragments were thrown off, and driven by force of circumstances into remote districts, where, in the course of time, they developed peculiar characteristics of their

own.

At any rate, the earliest accounts of the Lacandones represent them as a relatively barbarous if not a nomadic race, strongly contrasting with the more advanced and polished nations above enumerated, although, so far as language is concerned, betraying an intimate relationship with them. In Peten, the Itzaes built temples and other edifices, closely resembling those of Yucatan, but less in size and somewhat ruder in construction, such as we might expect to find in the weaker efforts of colony. But in Lacandon we have no account of such structures, in the towns reduced by the Spaniards; nor does it appear that the temples of its people were more remark

able than their private houses, or differed from them except in size.

We are compelled, therefore, to resign the traditions of great cities with white walls of stone, covered over with mysterious symbols, and with steps crowded with the worshippers of a primitive religion, to the poet and romancer, or surrender them as the appropriate property of enterprising exploiters of supposititious Aztec children. The fact of the existence of a frontier people, in the heart of Central America, of the same stock with its most advanced and powerful nations, and with character, habits, religion, and government, little, if at all, changed from what they were at the period of the Discovery, is one sufficiently interesting in itself. It requires none of the " pomp and circumstance" of gorgeous speculation to draw to it the attention of the student and adventurer, who may find here a more interesting and important field of research and investigation than among the desert-snows and icebergs of the poles, or among the sable savages of Ethiopia.

CHAPTER I.

A SAIL-BOAT, swinging idly by its stake among the rushes in the rivermouth, and four row-boats, drawn up the beach, comprised the entire shipping interest of New Bolton; and its imports, as far as could be seen, consisted of one trunk.

"You're goin' to stop here, stranger, I reckon?" said a red-faced man, in a rancous voice, as he sauntered down to the landing, with his hands in his pockets.

“Well, yes,” replied the stranger; "I've come ten or twelve hundred miles for that privilege, and I should like to stop, if there's a hotel, and no objections."

"Jest what I thought, from your looks; and if you'll give me a lift on t'other end of this trunk, I'll take you up there. This is the only 'bus we run now," said the first speaker, goodhumoredly, wiping his forehead, as he put the trunk on the piazza.

The hotel was a roomy log-house, surrounded by large oaks picturesquely scattered over a grassy slope, and commanded a view of the back-country-a prairie, stretching off into the western horizon. On the lake-side was a wide piazza, shady and cool for afternoon reveries. Every thing in and about the house was as sweet and clean as water and whitewash could make it. The stranger stepped up and registered his name "Richard French, Albany" -in a dingy, dog's-eared little book.

"New Bolton is not as large as I expected," said he.

"Well, it's a young place, and hasn't done growin' yet,” replied the landlord. "If the West was all built up and finished, there wouldn't be any West; it would all be East, and you'd have to go further on-China, perhaps ;-and that'd be inconvenient; for you will go

I.

where you can buy vacant lots to speculate on, you know."

"Have you many lawyers here?” inquired Richard.

"Well, yes, a kind o' prairie lawyers are plenty enough about the country; but nobody in it reg'lar at this place, 'thout it's bein' mixed up with most every thing, 'cept catchin' white-fish. You, now, look like a reg'lar," said the landlord.

"Yes," replied Richard, pleased with the compliment, "I am a lawyer by profession, but I think I should have no scruples against indulging in a profitable land speculation."

"No, it won't do to be partic'lar, 'specially when it don't pay," said the landlord. "Besides that, you'll have to take land, if you do any business. I took land for board, and land for horsekeepin', until I got land-poor, and couldn't pay taxes. I don't know what I'd done if it hadn't been for a flock of Dutchmen that stopped here, and gobbled it all up for me. It never gets to be a drug with them fellers. They're always land-hungry. It's a good thing for the West, too; because we work off rough pieces and swamp-lots on to 'em. They call every thing land, where they can touch bottom with a ten-foot pole."

Richard admitted that this was a great country, and walked out. He had been three weeks on his way from the East to this Western shore of Lake Michigan, and now found, in the doves about the barn, the mud-swallows' nests under the eaves, and the cosy martinhouses in the surrounding oaks, such suggestions of peace, and home-like hospitality, that he spent the first six days listening to the birds, watching the gulls dipping their white wings in the lake, watching the sails in the offing, and thinking of Mary Seabray in Chicago.

Richard had first seen her while he was in a desponding mood, at Detroit, where she came on board the steamer, bringing sunshine and hope to him, and two trunks and a bandbox to the baggage-master. It had been his privilege to console and assure her while the boat was struggling across that windtossed waste of waters, up Lake Huron, and through the Straits of Mackinaw down into stormy Michigan. She had gone on the steamer to Chicago, for a short visit, and would soon return to her home in New Bolton. There had been a subtle fascination about Miss Seabray, from the first moment he saw her; and yet, at times, he felt repelled, as if some malign spirit stood between them.

He had now been six days trying to determine that he cared nothing about her; and Mr. Chinny, a cunning, unscrupulous land-speculator, rich enough to be greedy, seeing him idle, and attracted by his youthful and ingenuous appearance, invited him to play a social game of euchre. Richard's partner in the game was Doctor Blodgett, who had formerly lived in Albany near Richard's uncle, and they had become acquainted. The Doctor was one of the solid men of New Bolton-postmaster, storekeeper, and land-agent-although he intrusted most of his business to a deputy. He was about thirty-five years old—a frank, and, when aroused, a lion-like man. Chinny's partner was Colonel Seabray, a man on the downhill-road of life. He made some vague attempts at the courtly style in manners, and was as much of a gentleman as could be expected, considering the poor quality of the raw materials Nature had furnished. He was naturally weak and untruthful, and artificially worn and torn by evil temptations and too much whiskey.

"Now, to make this thing interesting," said the Colonel, shuffling the cards with great dexterity, "let us play for the drinks."

This included cold water, cigars, herrings, sardines, pickled oysters, and all the liquids, from aqua-fortis, used in trying coin, down through the highly

colored dilutions made use of in trying men.

After the Colonel had gracefully lost five games, and liquidated each time, he turned to Richard, and said,

"The fact is, Mr. French, we have a speculation up, and we feel willing to give you a chance in, if you want it. You have heard of Globe City?

"Heard of it? Why, yes, sir! I heard of it all the way out here," replied Richard.

There was at that moment hanging just over the Colonel's head, a map of Globe City, five feet square, which he had studied for an hour the day after his arrival.

"You say you heard of it all the way out here; they were good reports you heard, I reckon?" said the Colonel, his eyes shining.

"Very good, indeed," replied Richard. "The captain of our boat had some lots on High-street, where he thought of building when he retired. He offered to sell me some lots cheap, but I wouldn't buy without first examining the property."

"Not under any consideration? " asked the Colonel.

"Not under any consideration," repeated Richard; "though I think it is a good place."

"It is the place," said the Colonel, decidedly. "Just look where these two rivers meet now. There is water enough here to drive a hundred run of stones-ain't there, Chinny?"

"Yes, two hundred," replied Chinny, with the air of a man who intended to be moderate; "and four hundred, if you could only use all the water."

deep hole for fish, unless you dug through to China, and got an outlet. Now, Chinny, be modest; throw in three hundred run of stones, and call it one hundred for the present; because there is a good water-power, and that's enough for your purpose, I guess."

"I was going to say," interposed the Colonel, "that it is now a geographical centre, and is bound to be a commercial one too, Globe City is; for wherever water centres, population will. Now, this place is sure to control the milling business for twelve miles each waythat is, sixteen townships-'three hundred and sixty-eight thousand, six hundred and forty acres,'" said he, reading from the margin of the map. "But we

will throw you in three quarters of this, which I call liberal, and say one hundred thousand acres just to make it round numbers. Now, this is the prettiest wheat-country in the world, and will average twenty bushels to the acre; but say one quarter of that, which makes half a million, and all coming to your mill yearly. This, now, at the remarkably low price of ten cents a bushel for grinding, is fifty thousand dollars for the mill alone, each year, clear profit. Well, fifty thousand dollars dropped down in front of a party every year, is enough to make him stagger a little, ain't it? But don't you see that that's only one item? Look at the rise in property. Why, a man wouldn't want more than one block to make him wealthy. Now, then," he continued, sweeping his hand across the map, glancing from the Doctor to Chinny, and fixing his eyes on Richard, "we three gentlemen here are the founders and owners of Globe City; and we propose to give you an equal share in, because we like your style; and, another thing, when a party comes here to identify himself with the interests of the State, we want to give him a start."

He had so far succeeded in giving Richard a start that, for a moment or wo, Globe City and its founders seemed to be dancing about in a mist, he was so overwhelmed by the magnificence of the offer and the Colonel's generosity.

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Very well," said the Colonel, magnanimously; "that will do. We never go over a party's pile, nor higgle, nor do any thing small in these matters. Give us what you've got, and we'll take the balance when you're flush."

"But I should like to see the place," said Richard; "for I determined, when I started West, not to buy a pig in a poke."

"Oh, well; them's town-lots you meant then!" said Chinny, with his sweetest smile. "This ain't no pig in

a poke. You don't buy a four-story concern here, you know. You're comin' in on the ground-floor, don't you see, jest like the rest of us?"

"Now, then," said the Colonel, almost shutting his eyes for mathematical accuracy-"there's one thousand acres at one-twenty-five-twelve hundred and fifty. Surveys, lithographing, travelling expenses, and sundries, twelve hundred and fifty more; so it costs you just six hundred and twenty-five to come in. I guess you don't call that bad for a quarter interest, Mr. French-not when you consider that the city is founded, all ready to your hand. You'll get your share of honor too; for we'll

put you in as an original founder. We'll change the name of this avenue-the longest one in the city. There it is," said he, writing with a pencil, in large letters, "French Avenue."

"If the land don't advance a thousand per cent. in two years,” said Chinny, "I'll eat a gopher. It can't go back on them figgers, that's certain. Land is land; that's one of the satisfactions o' comin' in on the ground-floor. Land is land always; and the hay that this tract grows every year would bring what we ask for the soil, if it was only cut and sold."

"I believe it's a good bargain," said the Doctor. "It lies in a valley, and looks as handsome as a picture.· The great attraction for me is the oak-grove where the Park is located. I don't think that the map does the place justice in that respect, Colonel."

"But we'd rather have a party agreeably disappointed when he comes to see it, you know, Doctor," said the Colonel, raising his eyebrows virtuously.

"Well," said Richard, relying on the Doctor's recommendation, "I'll look at the papers."

"I'm mighty sorry they are at the register's office," said Chinny; "but they are all right. The money you are to pay will be used to settle a small balance due Government. If we hadn't wanted the money bad, to make this very payment, you couldn't have got the quarter interest, on them figgersnot with my consent."

"If you ask any other security than my word of honor that it's all rightwhich no party ever did ask yet," said the Colonel, swelling a little—" I'll give you this certificate for a quarter section out on Plumb's Lake. It's pretty land, and there's a water-power too. I think it is going to be a fortune to some man yet."

"I don't doubt your word, Colonel," said Richard, anxious to propitiate the father of a handsome daughter; "but if it won't make much difference to you, I'll take the certificate."

Richard laid down the money, and the Colonel passed over the certificate,

with a statement, as President of the Globe City Company, showing that Mr. Richard French, party of second part, was entitled to an undivided one-quarter interest in the whole of Globe City, as per map; which would be delivered to him, his heirs or assigns, on payment of two hundred and twenty-five dollars. This was signed with a long back flourish on the final letter, so flaming and exuberant as to suggest ideas of princely wealth.

Fortified with this document from Miss Seabray's father, Richard walked the silent and spacious avenues, and among the straggling houses of New Bolton, with that easy dignity befitting the founder of a city.

He felt that Fortune, instead of being coy or unkind to him, had come and graciously plumped herself down in his lap.

Wherever he went there was buzzing, and always in the same key. The rise in land was enriching all who dealt in it.. A great many poor men had cleared ten thousand dollars each, this very summer, by speculating. He did not see them, but they were about the country somewhere, getting richer every day. The old hive, East, was swarming, and all New Bolton had to do, was to get out with its tin-pans, cow-bells, looking-glasses, and dinner-horns, and "make 'em settle."

The question was how best to start a town, and what seeds to sow that a city might spring up. Some men thought there was nothing like a newspaper to build up a place, while others were quite as sanguine concerning a saw-mill and carpenter's shop. This man insisted that a store was the thing, and that man a stone-quarry; while one toothless old chap, deficient in hair, and greatly gifted in ears, thought a Tunker church was the all-in-all.

It was hard for Old Bob, as he was called, to keep from talking, having no teeth to hold the words in. He was an artesian-well of words, though the fountain-head was not so high as the proprietor supposed. Having talked the white folks out of humor, he had been