Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-06-30

BlLd ldTd. Il CudTlIdDle woman, faithful Wife
and tender mother, prudent and virtuous.
Mortals.
To the Lord direct your prayers for her
A nearby altar is decorated with several
skulls and cross-bones; and in the rear of
the church is a charnel-house. full of
CHASTITY horrors, dug up from rented graves
sometimes before the flesh has fairly de-
cayed- awaiting their turn for cremation.
The convent is an enormous structure.
built entirely Of stone, 400 feet long con-
nected with the church by spacious cor
ridor. The entrance leads under a mag
niticent portico, with high stone pillars.
from which a broad staircase ascends to an
other corridor 20 feetw wide, running through
the whole building. On either side of
this upper corridor-which is paved with
stone and lighted by six enormous domes-
are the cloisters, once occupied by nu-
merous body of Franciscan friars. Most
of the cloisters are now dismantled and I'M
tenanted, few only of the principal ones
being used for shops, offices and lodging
rooms. Doors and windows are broken
and weeds grow out of the floors, and birds
and bats make homes in the walls unchal-
lenged. The old garden, which must once
have been in harmony with the grandeur
of the convent, now shares its fallen for
tunes. High walls and picturesque foun-
talns, parterres of hower-beds still remain.
like ghosts of former beauty. Olives.
LINES, oranges and weeds grow wildly to-
gether, atfording shade for browsing goats
and donkeys.
The convent balcony is on level with
the tops of adjacent houses, and sitting
there in the sleepy sunshine, one seems to
be living in 4 dream. The view spread
out below is vast plain, covered with fiat
rooted, one storied easas, embowereS in
trees and overgrown by Towering creepers.
Except when disturbed by the loud ring
ing of matin and vesper bells, the stiffness
Is broken only by the singing of birds, for
all business and visiting is accomplished
in the early morning, the inhabitants re-
naming quietly indoors the resi- of the
day to avoid the heat. There is enc tiende
grdade or genera store" where mer-
chandise of every description is kept
from muslins to fresh meat, cigars, confec-
tionery, bread, soap,-shoes, hardware, mil
inery ans musical instruments. Since
time ont Of mind Ticul has been famous
for two things-the excellence of lis bull
lights and the beauty of its women. Fl
has a PostOfce department and teiegranb
agency, and Eer convenicnces of Living. pc
NAL climate, good society and pleasant sur
roundings, Tcul is Considered the best
village in Yuea4an, OUTSIDE of Nerds.
Almost in the suburbs are the remains
of an ancient city-and, indeed, the mad
ern town Is largely constructed from that
of the aborigiRes, Cor maTy of its walls and
pavements are made of seDulcheral stones
taken from the ruins, and she fronts of the
houses are ornamepted with heads. vases
and other relics of.aR unkn0gn people. Ts
reach the ruins, You go doxn a long, mar
row street, past adobe cottages shroudes
by cocoaEut and Grange trees. under whose
shade the Indians weave baslmocks and
plat palnleaves into son,breros. their
naked children playing about them: past
the campo santo, in front of which grows
a giant celbo-tree (now 60 wears old,
tanned for Its size throughout the country,
inio narrow path overgrown With bushes
that are covered with Wild flowers and
~ooducks-the haunt of silent birds of
gorgeous plumage, for regularity of
tropical birds Is that, however beamihIl
most of them are songless
This pathway leads to the Hacienda of
San Francisco, owned by citizen of
Ilcul, on which lies the desolated CITY.
Most of it is hidden by thick foliage, but
no less than forty artificial mounds NAV
be counted, everyone of which once held
aioft temple, but which now show moth
ing on top but dilapidated fragments of
walls
In this great waste of ruin, it is impos-
sible to form any idea of what the place
may once have been. Its vecinitv to the
modern village has made its destruction
more complete, because for generations i.