three cents, one here pays twelve.  The shortest street-car line charges ten cents; and everything else is in proportion.  What the hotel-keeper said, about there being money to pay these frightful prices, was equally true.  We paid cargadors four times, draymen three times, more than we have ever done in any other part of Mexico.  In the restaurants we saw cargadors calling for plates at thirty cents, boot-blacks eating ices at one real, newsboys riding in coaches, and other astonishing sights.  In the plaza, good music is played on Sunday nights, and every one is out in all his finery; fruits, sweetmeats, refreshing drinks, are hawked everywhere, and are much indulged in; under the corridors are little tables, where ices, iced milk and drinks are served.  At the hotel we passed a night of horror, suffering from the heat, dust, ill-placed lights, mosquitoes and other insects.  Leaving my companions I went the following morning to Progreso to attend to the unlucky baggage.  For variety, I took the broad-gauge road, but found little difference in the country through which we passed.  The number of wind-mills was astonishing, and most of them were Chicago aeromotors.  At one station a great crowd of pure indians got off and on the train.  The American consul at Progreso is too much interested in archaeology to be found at his office, but his Mexican vice-consul was present.  To him our difficulty was explained, and on his advice we deposited the forty dollars demanded for duty, and signed various documents of remonstrance, upon which we paid almost four dollars more for stamps.  We were then permitted to take out enough plates for immediate use, leaving the balance in Progreso until we should be ready for our return journey.

Acting on the advice of the vice-consul, we changed quarters in Merida from the Hotel de Mexico, to the Moromuzo, kept by an American who had been many years in the country, and where, though we paid even more for rooms, we had some comfort.  By industrious search, we found a Chinese restaurant, where prices were not high and service quite as good as in the aristocratic place where we had dined before.  The day before we called at the palace, hoping to see the governor, though it was Sunday.  He was out of town, and we were asked to call the following day.  Accordingly, in the afternoon, after returning from Progreso, I repeated my call but was told that the governor had gone out of town again and that I should come the following day.  The third day, again presenting myself at the office, I learned that it was a holiday and that the governor would not be at the palace; the secretary recommended that I try to see him at his house.  To his house I went, and sending in my card and my letters from the Federal authorities was surprised, after having been kept waiting in the corridor, to be informed that the governor would not see me, and that I should call at the palace, the next day, in the afternoon, at two o’clock.  Sending back a polite message that we had waited three whole days to see his excellency, and that our time was limited, my surprise was still greater at receiving the tart reply that he had stated when he would see me.  We spent the balance of day and all the morning of the next, looking about the town.