The road up the valley was very bad, just huge stones make it very difficult going for the cart and it wasnt until noon that we reached the village of Santa Maria. It is a rutched little place if small mud huts which offered a most displeas- ant place to spend our night. Then who had ridden on ahead met us at the gate of and announced "This is the American Legation". We learned later that some marine officers from the Legation had stayed there several years ago, Probably Capt. Holcomb or Level. The "Amer. Legation" was a most unimpressing place. A mud floor into the largest room was partly covered by a braided quilt and half was a pig sty - other outer portion boasted a very dirty range. There a few bits of paper was on the window and the dust blew through like also a hole of ice. After one drink we started out to find a better place, but inspected every house in the village with a negative results - finally purpose returned to the "Legation". We got the place cleaned out, paper on the windows and spread our mats on the range. It was not quite so