Rambles in Yucatan, or, Notes of travel through the peninsula, including a visit to the remarkable ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi, and Uxmal. With numerous illustrations

Preface

TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.

In putting forth the seventh edition of his work, the author feels himself called upon gratefully to acknowledge that kind appreciation of his humble effort, which creates a demand for the new issue. He is fully sensible that the merit lies in his subject, and not in himself, or his manner of presenting it. And this conviction affords him more and truer gratification than could possibly be derived from the ephemeral reputation of a popular tourist, or a successful delineatdr of scenes rarely explored.

The growing interest in the subject of American Antiquities, which has received a fresh impulse from the recent visit to Mexico of so many intelligent observers, connected with our noble army, is a most encouraging omen, and favours the hope that the time

IV PREFACE.

is not distant when there will be something like a national enthusiasm to appeal to in its behalf. It is surely worthy of a place in our sympathies as Americans. Pride of country; characteristic curiosity ; a natural love of the marvellous ; a generous ambition to enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge ; an adventurous spirit of enterprise, that dreads no danger, that shrinks from no hardships, and is not readily discouraged by loss or sacrifice ; — all these solicit our attention to this interesting field of inquiry, and indicate our fitness to enter and explore it.

To us more than to any other nation, it should be interesting to know all that can be known of the continent in which we reside, and of which we form the most important and conspicuous part; to inquire, and if possible, to determine, when and by whom these wonderful works which lie in ruins within and around our borders, were constructed; who were the mysterious races, and whence they came, that occupied and cultivated these wide territories and filled them with monuments of their power, greatness, wisdom, and skill, long before the ancestors of our race came hither. The enigma may baffle, but it should not discourage, inquiry. In some of the most interesting investigations of human science, though the primary object has failed to be realized, a secondary and scarcely inferior one has been reached and

PREFACEo V

established. It may be so in this case. Let us •explore the ground. Let us secure all that can be secured by thorough research and patient inquiry. Let us leave nothing unattempted which reason may command, or even an enthusiastic curiosity suggest. If we do not accomplish all that we desire, we shall, at least, rescue from ulter oblivion and decay the relics that have come down to us. We shall embalm, for posterity, the monuments, if not the names and memories of a departed race.

Previous to the discovery of these ancient ruins, our western continent was known only as the New World. We had no antiquities but our cloud-reaching mountains, our hoary forests, and the animal and vegetable remains imbedded in our soil. While these carry us back to the days of old, to the flood, and the creation, they speak only for themselves, and for the ages that have passed over them. They reveal none of the secrets of man's history, or his works. They address themselves to our notice only as subjects of science, an appendix to the great unwritten volume of natural history. But these ruins are a new revelation, an unsealed volume in the history of our species. They speak not to our curiosity and taste alone, but to our human sympathies, to our social affections, to our family pride. For, like tablets of undeciphered hieroglyphics, or rolls of half-obliterated

Vi PREFACE.

parchment, drawn out from the ruins of some ancestral castle, they are the sole relics of a remote branch of our own family.

It is another omen for good, that, in the selection of agents to represent our government abroad, some reference is now had to the interests of science, as well as those of commerce and our political relations. In this respect the governments of Europe have been long and far in advance of ours. In the appointment of their consuls, charges, &c., men have been selected, who, without neglecting any of the appropriate duties of their station, could, at the same time, subserve the interests of science and literature, by investigating the peculiar institutions and remarkable antiquities of the countries to which they were accredited. So negligent have we been in this respect, hitherto, that the Department at Washington is often indebted to books of travel, and the journals of amateur adventurers, for that information respecting the places where our foreign agents reside, which forms the basis of its official instructions, and which the Department, through the correspondence of its agents, should possess in all its details. While it is not to be suggested that any man should be chosen to represent the country abroad merely on account of his literary taste or reputation, so much regard may always be had to that consideration as to secure along with it

PREFACE. Vll

a faithful devotion to all mercantile and political interests, a due attention to every circumstance in the history, geography, and antiquities of every country where it is important that our government should be represented. It is to be hoped that the principle will be carried out, till our country shall be known everywhere as not less the liberal patron of learning and the arts, than the watchful guardian of a world-wide commerce.

New Yokk, July, 1849.

PREFACE

To those wlio intend to bestow upon the following pages the honor of a perasal, it may seem almost supererogatory for the author to mention, that it has formed no part of his purpose to prepare a book which should owe its leading interest to its literary merits. His life has been necessarily more devoted to the dissemination of books than to the study of their internal fabrication ; he has had but slender opportunities for the cultivation of letters, and little of the preparation requisite for a task, to the results of which he now solicits the candid consideration of the public.

Circumstance?, however, of which all that is worthy of detail will be found in the following pages, brought under the author's observation a portion of our continent which was strewed with gigantic and monumental ruins of ancient cities, and which, to the several departments of Cosmogony, Archaeology, and Ethnography, appeared in his eyes to be of vast importance. Impressed Vt'ith this conviction, although the author left his country without the remotest intention of making a book upon any subject whatever, or even of seeing the wonderful places he has attempted to describe, yet, with very inadequate scientific qualifications — without instruments, except a knife and compass, and without a companion, save an Indian boy — entirely ignorant of the country and its people — he was enabled to explore many objects of interest and curiosity ; and he has resolved to present the substance of his observations and researches, in as succinct a manner as possible, that those who are competent to avail themselves of his labors may digest and present thera to the public in such a form as will most contribute to the advancement of true science.

4 PREFACE.

It is, therefore, to the facts which it has been the author's privilege to witness and reveal, and not to the garniture of those facts, that he looks, for the interest which he desires to awaken in the minds of his readers, and upon which he relies for his own justification in having for once trespassed ultra crepidam into the charmed circle of literary enterprise. The almost universal curiosity which has manifested itself in every quarter through which public feeling has utterance, concerning the vast and unexplained ruins of our hemisphere, found in Central America and Yucatan, has not been, in modern times at least, excelled by that upon any subject not involving some immediate and practical interest, not even excepting the discoveries of modem antiquarians in Egypt. It is neither the author's duty nor purpose to analyze this movement, or to discern its cause ; it only concerns him to show that he had good reason for presuming that further developments of, and explorations among these mysterious relics of antiquity, could not fail to awaken some portion of that interest which the public mind, in this country at least, has already manifested.

A portion of the ruins which are noticed in detail in the following pages had never been visited, to the author's knowledge, by any modern traveller before his arrival. Others, which had been summarily alluded to, he has portrayed as elaborately and adequately as his circumstances and scientific qualifications would admit ; and, he has no hesitation in saying, far more minutely than they had ever before been described. In corroboration of these remarks, he ventures to call the reader's attention to the chapters which include the ruins of Chi-Chen, of Kabah, Zayi, and Uxmal, of which cities, the last only excepted — to which Mr. Stephens devotes a few sentences near the conclusion of his recent popular work upon this subject — no other published accounts, it is believed, have appeared.

The author avails himself of the present opportunity to make those acknowledgments to the people of Yucatan which could not be incorporated with propriety in the body of his work. He feels himself under grateful obligations for the uniform kindness which he received at their hands ; and he begs to assure those of his American friends who may feel disposed to visit the

PREFACE. O

province of Yucatan, that whatever inconveniences they may experience indirectl)'^ from an unfavorable climate and an unsettled political organization, they may count upon meeting, among the higher ranks of the Yucatecos, a kindliness of feeling and a spontaneity of hospitality vsihich will compare favorably with their experience in any other portion of the globe.

In acknowledging his obligations to the friends who have assisted him in the preparation of these pages, he would be guilty of great injustice did he not tender his most sincere thanks to an American gentleman, who has long resided in Yucatan, to whom he is indebted for most of the facts connected with the • political history of that country, which are embodied in the thirteenth chapter. The long residence of that gentleman in the country, and his evident familiarity with its political history, give the author reason to rely implicitly upon his acquaintance with the subject, as well as upon his fidelity as an historian.

The author regrets that he is not permitted to give the name of the gentleman to whose aid he is indebted for the philological remarks contained in the fourteenth chapter, which he ventures to believe will prove to the scholar and the antiquarian not the least interesting feature of the work.

It has been the author's intention upon all occasions to acknowledge his indebtedness to any preceding or cotemporary writer in appropriate modes and places in the text, and he believes that he has seldom failed in his aim ; at the same time, he feels that to Waldeck, a distinguished French traveller, who spent a number of years in Central America and Yucatan, his obligations are -of a character not to be passed over without a special acknowledgment.

The illness of the writer during the time the following pages were passing through the press, must constitute his apology, should inaccuracies be fovmd to disfigure the work.

The Map is intended to show the geographical position of the ruins, and of the towns passed through before aniving at them ; and the Plans to define the relative locations of the structures ; neither of them, however, is laid out with scientific exactness ; it is hoped, ne\ ertheless, they will still be found sufficiently correc* to illustrate the descriptions.

6 PREFACE.

If the public shall find the work now submitted to them possessed of sufficient merit to deserve their regard, or if others shall be induced, by reading it, to extend their researches in a similar direction, or shall, through its aid, eliminate one new ray of light to illumine the dark mystery of its subject, the author will feel amply compensated for the trouble he has taken, and will think himself entitled to indulge the assurance that his life has not been altogether without profit.

New Orleans, November, 1842.

CHAPTER I. Page

Setting Out — Accommodations— Arrival at Sisal — Geographical and Political view of Yucatan — A Christening — Lady Smokers

— OflF for the Interior — Merida — A Feast-day — Christmas Eve

— Christmas Day — Conclusion of a Feast — Holy Unction — Indian Character — Soldiers' Return — Holy Days — Gaming - 13

Chapter II

Description of Merida, Geographical and Historical — The City — Puhlic Squares — The Market — Trade — Habits and Customs

— Health — The Public Buildings — A way to get a Husband — New Year Eve — New Year Day — The City and Environs — A Touch of Music — A Country Seat — Congress of Yucatan — Franciscan Ruins — More Holy-days — Cock-fighting — A DrUI

— The Bishop at Home — The College — Miracles - - 34

CHAPTER HI.

Mechanical Pursuits — The Circulating Medium — A Ball — A Renmant of Franciscans — Signs of Decay in the Suburbs — The Cemetery — The Weather — A Whole Congregation Flogged

— The Wise Men — The Gentlemen — Extra Civilities — The Appearances of Trade — Products of the Soil — Education — Language of the Indians — The Ancient People — W&ldeck's Opinion of them — The Maya Language — The Lord's Prayer in Maya — Grammars of that Dialect — Difficulties in Speaking

it — Traits of the Indian Character ... . - 53

O CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IV. Page

Preparations for the Interior — Outfit, &c. — The Indian Boy — Departure from Merida — Arrival at Tixcoco — Calcachen — A Feast-day — Isamal at a distance — Arrival there — Our Palace — A Procession — Ancient Mounds — The Church — A striking Indian — Wrong Impressions — Tuncax — A Dilemma

— Philosophy of the Road-side — A Dinner — "Visit to a Curate

— A Touch of Comfort — Mail Carrier — Sitax — An Indian Alcalde — Tinum — An Allusion — Valladolid — A Mistake rectified in time 73

Chapter V

Festival of the Purification — A Factory discovered — New Quarters — Appearance of Public Buildings — Church — Singular Display of Taste — Population and Health — The Tovsm — Its Suburbs — Monastic Ruins — Remarkable Sonato — Amusements — The Riband Dance — The Market Place — Cotton — Ancient Ruins — Difficulties of Strangers — A Norther — Kaua

— The Churlish Curate — End of a Feast — The Route — Approach to Chi-Chen — A Glimpse of the Ruins - - - 91

Chapter VI

A Visit to the Ruins — Reflections — Indian Visiters — Detail of the Ruins of Chi-Chen — The Temple — The Pyramid — The Dome — The House of the Caciques — General Ruins — Mounds

— Foundations — Characteristics of the Ruins — Materials and Manner of Building — The Finish — Fresco Paintings - - 108

Chapter VII

An Arrival — Unexpected Honors — Usurpation of Office — Prices of Labor — Indian way of Living — A Sonato — An Incident — Departure — Yacaba — Sonato at Tabi — Arrival at Sotuta — " Las Ruinas" — A Benediction — Cantamayec — Turn Physician — Successful Practice — The Reward of Merit — Route to Teabo — Its Curate — Mani — Arrival at Ticul — Description of Ticul — The Church — Curate — Market-place — Pretty

CONTENTS. y

Page.

Women — Convent — Occupations — Health — Roads — Sugar

Estates — Ruins of Ichmul — Departure — Cross the Cordilleras - 129

CHAPTER Vni.

The Ruins of Kahbah — Those of Zayi — Scattered Ruins — Church at Nohcacab — The Padre — The Town — Departure for Uxmal — Arrival at the Hacienda — Quarters and Arrangements — The Scenery — General Character of the Ruins of Uxmal — The Governor's House — The Nuns' House — The Pyramid — Other Remains — Pyramids, Walls, and Mounds — Reservoir — Moonlight - - - - - - - 148

Chapter IX

Introductory Facts — Ruins of Yucatan and other parts of Mexico — Ruins of North America — Mississippi and Missouri — Look- Out Mountain — Ohio River — Mount Joliet and others — Indian Races — Ledyard — Bradford — Dr. Morton — Diversity of Opinions — Pyramids of Egypt — Speculations — Vassalage — Comparison — Traditions — Embalming — Priesthood — Siamese — Japanese — Astronomy and Mythology - - - 168

Chapter X

Waldeck's Remarks on Uxmal — Ancient Tools — Soil and. Health — Ancient Customs — End of Time — The Coronation of an Emperor — Religious Beliefs — Marriage Ceremony — Infant Baptism — Origin of those Rites — Plorse Worship — Amusements — Markets — Idols^— Candidates for Matrimony — Their Worship Varies — Refinements 183

Chapter XI

Departure from Uxmal — Abala — The Road — The Curate's Hacienda — Arrival atMerida — Hotel de Diligencias — Bishop Preaching — Strange Scenes —Parting with Jose — Departure from Merida — Coach and Passengers — Scenes of the Road — Zibackchen — Accommodations — Arrival at Campeachy - 199

10 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XIL

Page:

Reception at Campeachy — The City — Public Buildings — The Convent — The Market — Charity — An Ancient Custom — Population — The College — Foundations of the City — Subterraneous Caverns — The Suburbs — The Harbor^ Climate and Health — Various Ruins — The Author's Collection of Idols — Dr. Morton on the Archaeology of Yucatan — Other Ruins — Reptiles and Insects — A Concealed Nation — The Brothers Camachos 209

CHAPTER XHL

Political History of Yucatan — The Rochelanos — A Civil Revolution — A Tumultuary Movement in the Interior — Santiago Iman — Attack on Espita — Retreat to San Fernando — Quiet Restored for a Time — Colonel Roquena — Attack on Tizimin

— Return of the Troops — Attack on Valladolid — Capitulation

— Succession of Events — A New Constitution — The New Congress — New Party — Opinions — Physical Incapacity for Independence — The Press of Yucatan . - - - 224

CHAPTER XIV.

Remarks on American Languages in general — Conflicting Opinions of Philologists — Religious Zeal a Stimulus that has produced the Grammars and Vocabularies of the American Languages — Sketch of the Grammar of the Maya Tongue — Concluding Observations respecting its Origin ... 236

Appendix

Tradition of the Mexican Natives respecting their Migration from the North 264

Traits of the Mosaic History found among the Azteca Nations - - 267

Origin of Fire-Worship .......-.- 276

Great Stone Calendar of the Mexicans 277

Scientific Acquirements of Ancient Builders in the West • - • • 280

Predilection of the Ancients to Pyramids 282

The Remains of Cities 284

Ridns of the City of Otolum, discovered in North America - • 284

Ancient Languages of the First Inhabitants of America . • - - 292

LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS,

Pack.

Map

Moonlight — Uxmal Ruins — Fkontispiece - - - -

Vignette Title-page --...---

Indians of Yucatan - - - - - - -- 30

The Plantain Tree 33

Yucateco Indian Hut ..-.--- 72

The Road-side 90

Sonato near Valladolid ------- gg

Plan of the Ruins of Chi-Chen ------ 108

The Temple Ill

Ornaments of Buildings - - - - - - - -112

The Dome - ... 118

The Front of the House of the Caciques - - . - 119

Ornaments of Buildings ------- 121

The Agave Americana - - - - - -- -128

Ruins of Zayi .--- 151

Plan of the Ruins of Uxmal - - - - - -155

Facade of the Governor's House ----- 156

The Governor's House -------- 156

Ornaments of Building - - - - - - -158, 159

The Nuns' House 160

The Pigeon Houses 165

Yucatan Coach crossing the Mountains ... - - 199

Plate No. L — Idols - 215

Plate No. II. — Four Idols 215

Plate No. III. — Four Idols 215

Plate No. IV. — Fragments of Idols or Ornaments - - 215

Plate No. v. — Vessels 215

Plate No. VI. — Turtle and Household Utensils ... 215

Vignettes, ice, &c. --.-.-.-.

RAMBLES IN YUCATAN.

Chapter I

Setting Out — Accommodations — Arrival at Sisal — Geographical and Political view of Yucatan — A Christening — Lady Smokers — Off for the Interior — Merida — A Feast-day — Christmas Eve — Christmas Day — Conclusion of a Feast — Holy Unction — Indian Character — Soldiers' Return — Holy Days — Gaming.

The prospect of leaving one's country for a season, affects different people in very different ways. To some, it suggests only the loss of friends, and the want of the conveniences which habit may have made to them the necessaries of life. By their formidable equipments, their groaning trunks, and systematic leave-takings, they intimate a foregone conclusion, that every nation except their own is peopled with Ishmaelites, whose hands are ever raised against the rest of mankind. There is another class, who have faith in man wherever he exists, and who rely upon the permanence of the laws of Nature ; who do not imagine that a man is necessarily a cannibal or a troglodyte because born in a different degree of latitude, nor that water will refuse to run down hill at a foreigner's request. Through their confidence in the uniformity of Nature's laws, they feel

14 SETTING OUT.

it unnecessary to equip themselves for a campaign into chaos when they leave their native land, always presuming every corner of this planet, however remote from the illuminating centres of civilization, to be possessed of some of the elements of existence, such as air, fire, water, &c., which a traveller may spare himself the trouble of bringing from home in his trunk. With the latter class, kind reader, the author of the following notes deserves to be associated. He would require nothing but a valise to contain his outfit for a circumnavigation of the globe, and would include the moon in his circuit, if practi-

> cable, without materially enlarging his equipage, except, perhaps, by some device that would diminish the inconveniences of a rarefied atmosphere. This faith in the future, this trust in the resources which a mind of ordinary intelligence can always command under any sun and in any clime, sustained the writer in his determination, last fall, to visit some of the islands of the West India seas, almost without notice, and with scarcely more preparation than a domestic man would deem essential for an absence from home of a single week. The cork-legged merchant of Rotterdam did not commence his journeyings more unexpectedly to himself, nor less for-

ymidably panoplied against the emergencies of his unfortunate tour. To the writer's unpreparedness, a term which, in such cases, usually signifies freedom from anxiety, he feels indebted for most of the pleasure which this excursion has afforded him ; and he has only cause to regret the want of more elaborate

DEPAETURE. 15

preparation, inasmuch as it may have deprived these pages of a portion of their interest and value.

It was at the conclusion of the long and frightful season of epidemic disease, which caused many a desolated home in New Orleans to be hung with cypress during the summer of the year 1841, and on the 26th day of November, that I embarked from the Crescent city for Havana. My original intention had been, to visit the Windward Islands ; but, not finding the facilities of intercommunication which I had anticipated, and excited by the curiosity of seeing a region of country of which but little is known to citizens of the United States, I was induced to change my contemplated route. Accordingly, after a detention of ten days in Cuba, where I had passed some of the happiest days of my youth, I resolved to embrace the first opportunity that presented itself to run down to the coast of Mexico, I was soon enabled to secure a passage on board of a Spanish brig bound to Sisal, of which I was prompt to avail myself.

Early on the morning of the 9th of December, we slipped by the Moro Castle with a fine breeze, and had but just effected a good offing when the vessel was suddenly hove to, much to our surprise and alarm, and without any apparent reason. Our alarms were soon dispelled, however, by the welcome intelligence, through the cabin-boy, that " breakfast was ready !" Our own countrymen are not indifferent to the "family comforts," and the English relish still less any interruption at their meals ; but with the Span-

16 PASSAGE AND ARRIVAL.

iard eating seems to have risen to the importance of a rehgious ceremony. Heaving to for breakfast, in a Yankee craft, would be looked at with astonishment by an American tar — w^e question if it would not cancel the ship's insurance policy. Every country, however, has its customs, and this is one peculiar to the flag under which we were now sailing. The meal happily ended, the yards were squared awa}', and the brig quietly pursued her course.

The cabin formed a part of the hold, without berths, bulk-heads, tables, or chairs. Planks were laid down for our accommodation, upon which oui mattresses were distributed, the cargo forming sides which, as the vessel rolled, served to retain us in oui places. There were eight Mexican fellow-passengers, perfect out-and-outers in the way of eating, sleeping, and smoking, which they seemed to consider the ends for which they lived and moved and had their being. The captain proved to be a right good sailor, and his vessel, which was dignified by the name of a packet, shall be suffered to pass without censure, as deserving a better fate than awaited Sodom, in having at least one good man on board in the person of her excellent commander. After eleven days of continually pleasant weather we arrived in sight of the port of Sisal, on the north-west coast of Yucatan, on the 20th of the month; and, as the bills of lading might conscientiously have testified, " in good order and well-conditioned."

This coast presents a line of shore scarcely merging from the ocean, with no distinguishing highland

LANDING. 17

to conduct the mariner to his destined port. The unpretending little town to which our course was directed, at this time, however, very innocently on its own part, loomed up from the horizon to an immense height, and it was not until we had approached very near the land that our false impressions were corrected.

We came to anchor about two miles from the shore, that being as near as it was deemed prudent for vessels of our burden to venture. A felucca, manned by three Indians, now boarded us, for the purpose of receiving the passengers. The place of landing was a long pier-head, loosely put together, composed of spiles and plank, the only one in the harbor where the imports and exports are received and shipped. When once fairly on terra firma, we all started under the escort of our worthy captain for a public house, followed by a retinue of Indians, that gave us for a time at least the consequential appearance of Eastern nabobs. This numerous troop belonged professionally to the class which in our Northern cities besiege the wharves upon the arrival of a steamboat, as hackmen, porters, dock loafers, &c., but injustice to the Indians be it observed, that they are much less clamorous and more civil than their more pretentious brethren of the North.

Early on the morning of our arrival, our baggage was sent to the custom-house ; but the politeness of the gentlemen attached to that establishment made the examination a matter of mere form. This civility is acknowledged with the greater pleasure, in con-

18 GEOGRAPHICAL.

sequence of its having been accorded without solicitation, and contrary to our expectation.

With the permission of my reader I will here step aside, for one moment, from the detail of my ramblings, to say a single word about the geographical and political condition of the country in which I > now found myself a denizen, pledging myself, however, to detain the narrative upon nothing which will not be pertinent to and explanatory of the subsequent pages.

The peninsula of Yucatan extends over a surface of some eighty thousand square miles, lying in a north-east direction from Laguna du Terminos, and jutting out north into the Gulf of Mexico, between the Bay of Campeachy and Honduras. It is about five hundred miles long, and one hundred and sixty broad, and is divided into five departments, eighteen districts, and containing two hundred and thirty-six towns. It is inhabited by something short of half a million of people, the majority of whom are Indians.

The country is almost one entire plain, half of which, to the north, consists of a light soil formed upon solid and broken masses of a white lime and flint rock. The other, the southern half, is a deep rich loam, but much affected by the heavy rains of summer, which present serious obstructions to the exertions of the agriculturist. There are no rivers in the interior. The inhabitants are supplied with water from sonatos, or natural wells, which are liberally distributed throughout the country by the formation of supposed subterraneous rivers.

POLITICAL — SISAL. 19

Yucatan was formerly a part of the Mexican contederacy, but having recently declared her independence, she has her own President and Congress of legislators, elected by a limited class of qualified electors. Various attempts have been made, by menaces and by offers of negotiation on the part of the Mexicans, to reduce the refractory provincials to their allegiance, but hitherto without success. The deficiency of means, and the distracted condition of the Confederacy at home, have doubtless prevented the Mexicans from qualifying their diplomacy with physical force, which is probably the only kind of logic that will be conclusive.