In Search of an Unknown Race — page 103: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

and warehouses containing the manufactured products of the country; the great mint, filled to overflowing with gold bricks and blocks from the mines within a pistol shot of the city; and he explained that silver itself was not regarded as a circulating medium, but was used chiefly as are the baser metals with us. And so the travelers passed, with a successive con- tinuation of novel sights and sounds, along through the outlying suburbs—the cynosure of curious eyes—tili the city gates were reached. Dismounting in obedience to a sign from Quipo, the virl, with a graceful obeisance, turned away. She was followed by the docile beasts of burden, while Van, in- structed by Quipo, Martin acting as interpreter, pre- sented the letter which served as a passport to one of the half-dozen tall, soldierly-looking guards who stood before the great archway. Above the gate the royal insignia were deeply cut in the keystone. Recognizing the imprint of the seal, the soldier, who was dressed in a sleeveless tunic of quilted cotton, and armed with a long copper-tipped lance, pressed the letter to his forehead. Then he returned it to Van with every visible mark of respect, and the guards were motioned back. In a maze of bewildered astonishment and excite- ment, Van passed through the great stone arch, followed by his two companions, and in another moment the three were standing in the well paved street of one of the oldest cities in the world! Yet after all there was little of the marvelous about it. A sluggish tide of humanity in its various phases ebbed through the by no means crowded thoroughfares, EoOmicbdoo (E(0) im