QUEST FOR LOST CITY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4817, 2 March 1925, Page 1

QUEST FOR LOST CITY.

MITCIIELL-ILEDGES IN JUNGLE. A HAZARDOUS UNDERTAKING. Below is a description by Mr F. A.' Mitchell-Hedges, the explorer, of his journey to British Honduras. Mr Mitchell-Hedges. with Dr. Thomas Gann, the authority on the’ Mava civilisation, and Lady Brown, wife of Sir Richmond Brown, hope to penetrate the interior of British Honduras to investigate further the unknown and deadly region in Central America where in the spring of 1923 th°y discovered the ruins of the lost city of Lubaantun, the seat of the Maya people. Without mishap we arrived in Jamaica, the beautiful Blue Mountains, with the little town of Kingston lying at the foot, appearing like pantomime iscenery. We had a great but were only one day in port and then left for Puerto Cortes, in the turbulent Republic of Honduras. We stayed only a few hours and then left fo>- Puerto Barrios, in the Republic jf. Guatemala. • r From Puerto Barrios a railway line runs into the interior to Guatemala City, the capital of .the country. There are, of course, no roads here. We were compelled to remain for four days, so chose an afternoon to wander’ up the railway track, closed in by the solid wall of jungle which comes down on either side to the edge of the line. We had not gone more than a mile before we encountered a boa-con-strictcr, eleven to twelve feet long, stretched basking in the blazing sun between the metals. It was the . last thing in the world we were expecting, and we had nearly (Stepped on it before its loud hiss made us jump back with more haste than dignity. It appealed Quite unconcerned. f A GIANT BEETLE. r We had gone very little when we came across a giant beetle,; five inches in length, which I have preserved and ■shall ultimately bring back to England. After having trekked about four miles, wet through with perspiration (the temperature was more than ninety in the shade), we sat down to rest before returning. Suddenly Lady Brown touched me softly on the arm. I turned round and, squatting, looking at us seemingly in amazement was a large whitefaced monkey. Its inspection finished, it screwed up its face in a horrible grimace and stalked, cat-like, back into the jungle.

It will take us until after Christmas to get in our stores and complete the arrangements for departure on our deep-kea research work and the excavations at the great Maya city we discovered, now known as Lubaantun. What we shall unearth is on the knees of the gods.