COMALCALCO.
Description of Comalcalco—Fonda—Manners—Climate—Masks and
Figures—Ruins—El Blasillo—Old Palaces Visited—Bricks and
Bridges—Cemented Roads—Great Pyramid and its Monuments—Palace
Described—Vases and Jicaras—Tecomates—Towers—Bas-reliefs—Small
Pyramids and Temples—Reflexions—Disappearance of Indian
Populations—Return to S. Juan—Don Candido—El Carmen—A Rich
Wood-cutter.
The road from Paraïso to Comalcalco is no road at all, a veritable
“Slough of Despond,” in which our horses sink to the hocks, sometimes
to the girths, but as the natives see nothing to find fault in it,
there is little hope of improvement. The road follows the course of Rio
Seco, ancient Tabasco to our right, and three hours’ march brings us to
Comalcalco, a little modern town situated on an island of the river,
some ninety miles north-west of S. Juan Bautista, and twenty-four, as
a bird flies, from the seaboard. The place, including the outskirts,
numbers some two thousand inhabitants; the streets are straight, the
houses low and built with bricks. The banks of the lagoons are clad
with thick long grass, in which naked urchins and ducks innumerable
seem to luxuriate all day long, alternating with plunges into the
water, puffing at cigars nearly as big as themselves. Comalcalco is the
very Elysium of life for both ducks and urchins.
Our “fonda” is not exactly luxurious, but the civility of the people,
and the excellent cooking of our hostess, a handsome woman of
five-and-twenty, combine to make life bearable. True, our beds are
not water-proof, for the water gets in every time it rains, whilst
the quacking of the ducks awakes us twenty times of a night; but as
this seems to be the normal state of things, as nobody appears to
mind, it behoves us not to be over fastidious in a country in which
things are taken mighty easy. Salt, owing to the excessively damp
climate, is liquid, and served in bottles. The terrible Norte is nearly
as much felt here as in Vera Cruz; it brings invariably persistent
rain, waterspouts, _trebunadas_, and frightful squalls. My camera has
created a _furore_ in this out-of-the-way place, and we are besieged
all day with people wanting their portraits taken, to the delight of
our “tendero”; meanwhile valuable time is spent in explanations and
refusals before we can rid ourselves of these simple, troublesome
people. No sooner, however, did our mission become known, than
everybody was eager to come as guides, and workmen were obtained with
the greatest facility.
The local doctor speaks enthusiastically of the ruins lying some six
miles north-east of this place, and about a mile and a half from the
river. Masks, pottery, idols of the description found at Teotihuacan,
have been brought to light; but what was deemed far more important
by the natives, an inexhaustible mine of baked bricks of every size,
with which the houses of the village have been built, and the main
walk paved. When these excavations first began, statues, stones of
sacrifice (indicative of later times), columns, huge flags, and cement
were unearthed. Unfortunately the whole was destroyed by these ignorant
people.
The ruins consist in groups of pyramids of different dimensions, so
extensive as to cover twenty-four miles, and on this account are called
the “Cordillera” by the natives. A country gentleman tells me that he
has counted over three hundred of these artificial mounds on his own
property, and that they were built with mud and baked bricks.
Besides these ruins others are to be met at Blasillo, situated on the
Toltec march of migration, answering the description given by Bernal
Diaz regarding Tonala. I hear from a montanero, who first discovered
them, that an important Indian city formerly existed there, whose
monuments, like those of Comalcalco, consist of caryatides, columns,
and statues; but in this abominable weather it is utterly impossible to
visit them. This city having the same origin, the same environment with
Comalcalco, must have the same origin; and Toltec migration, Toltec
civilising influence being admitted as well as proved, these two cities
would be among the first built by them after their great migration, for
the simple reason that they stand nearest their point of departure,
as the most distant would mark their later settlements; and this our
investigations will amply demonstrate.
We set out for the ruins, following for a time the right bank of the
Rio Seco; then a path across fields, bordered with large yellow and red
flowers. We notice to our right and left thick layers of cement, the
remains of the old Indian road which connected the city with the river.
We cross rivulets formerly spanned by bridges, of which bricks and a
corbel vault are still visible.
On reaching the pyramid, we leave our horses and ascend with some
difficulty the terrace surmounting it; we wander about in semi-darkness
because of the rank vegetation which mantles over it. Our men clear
it of the most obstructive trees, to facilitate its measurement: the
shape of this pyramid is irregular, being 975 feet at the base, by
some ninety-nine feet in height. Our plan gives the various monuments
standing on its vast summit, measuring no less than 292 feet.
[Illustration: PLAN OF GREAT PYRAMID AT COMALCALCO.
No. 1, Tower partly standing. No. 2, Ruined Tower. No. 3,
Palace. No. 4, Portion still standing. Nos. 5 and 6, Pyramids
indicative of Ruins.]
[Illustration: BAYS OF RUINED PALACE, COMALCALCO.]
The principal monument (No. 3) was a great palace, the façade of which
looked east and covered 231 feet, now reduced to a ruinous mass;
fortunately a fragment of some twenty-two feet (No. 4) enables us to
reconstruct the edifice. Our first drawing is a view of the outside,
showing the dilapidated condition of the wall and its brick and mortar
composition; the next a view of the interior, with fragments of thinner
walls which divided the various apartments of the palace, probably
seven or eight in number, of different dimensions, and having the same
characteristics as the monuments at Uxmal and Palenque. It is the
governor’s palace with its double bay of rooms, the slightly concave
vault of Palenque; and if in our section of the palace a greater
obliquity is observable, in the frieze supporting the roof, than in
edifices of the same kind already known, or to be studied subsequently,
this sloping finds here its proper place, and proves the intelligence
of the builder without destroying the similarity of the different
monuments. In fact, we shall see the roof assuming a steeper or less
steep incline, according to the climate; slightly oblique at Palenque
where rain is frequent, it rises in the Yucatan peninsula, where a dry
climate prevails, until it forms a flat roof, resting on perpendicular
walls; whereas at Comalcalco and on the borders of the Gulf, where rain
is incessant, architects increase the slope of the roof to facilitate
the out-flow of the water, the better to preserve their buildings.
[Illustration: SECTION OF RUINS AT COMALCALCO.]
If baked bricks mixed with thick layers of lime and mortar were
substituted for stones, it is because none are to be found in that
alluvial plain. As to the blocks necessary for the construction of
columns, statues, altars, etc., they were brought by river from the
mountains. But these modifications never destroy the typical outline
of the Toltec calli, to be found in the chapter on Tula, and all the
monuments which we shall meet with in our explorations will have the
same type and the same architecture.
But to return. The walls of the palace were without any ornamentation,
save a layer of smooth painted cement; they rose perpendicularly nine
feet to a very projecting cornice, then sloping in a line parallel
to the corbel vault, they terminated in a second cornice less salient
than the first, both serving as frame to a frieze richly decorated, so
far at least as could be ascertained from the fragments strewing the
ground. Above this, towards the centre of the roof, rose a decorated
wall, a peculiarly Toltec device, which existed already in the temples
of the high plateaux, and which we shall observe in most structures,
whether temples or palaces, terra-cotta models of which are to be found
in the Trocadéro.
The building, including the walls, measures some 26 feet, the walls
are 3 feet 9 inches in thickness, the size of the apartments is about
8 feet, and the depth of the vault inside some 23 feet (see Plate).
The palace was brightly painted, as may yet be seen in the north
corner, which is of a deep red. The miscellaneous compound to be
met at Tula and Teotihuacan is not observable here, where obsidian
came from a great distance and was accordingly rare; pottery was
consequently replaced by fruit-shells, which had the advantage of
being more durable, cheaper, and lighter. These shells are worked
into a variety of shapes differing in size and value: there are the
_jicaras_, small cups, pure and simple; _tecomates_, large cups;
_atotoniles_, _cubiletes_, _cocos_, etc.; then the _jicara-flor_, or
half-shell cut crosswise; the most prized of all, the _jicara-boton_,
half upper shell; the _jicara-barba_, or shell cut lengthwise. All
these shells are given elegant shapes whilst growing on the tree, and
when dry are ornamented with pretty devices either sunk or in relief. A
calabash having a very large shell is also fashioned into a vase called
_atecomate_ by the Indians, and painted with fast colours of which the
natives alone seem to have the secret.
[Illustration: RUINS OF PALACE.]
But if few fragments were found in comparison with those unearthed on
the high plateaux, I had the good fortune to pick up two bricks covered
with curious sunk designs, most rare, for they were the only two
specimens I could find of the kind. A concentric drawing covers the
first, whilst the second bears the full likeness of a warrior, with
feathers about his head—it is a rude drawing which was done on the soft
clay before it was baked. Both bricks are in the Trocadéro.
Some 35 feet to the south-east of the palace, on a cemented platform
over 26 feet broad by 38 feet long, is a tower (No. 1 in our plan)
which is supported and bound by the roots of large trees surrounding
it. It is oblong in shape, most picturesque, and, save the base,
similar to that at Palenque. This tower has three storeys, of which two
are still standing, and it may be assumed from what remains that the
second storey was divided into four compartments or small rooms, the
dimensions of which are the following: two inner rooms, of 5 feet 7
inches on one side, correspond to other two, and form a kind of outward
passage, having three openings, which are separated by two pillars of 2
feet on one side. The first storey underneath reproduced probably the
same distribution. We penetrated in the only accessible room, measuring
some 8 feet by 5 feet 8 inches.
The ornamentation of this tower must have been gigantic; the fragment
which was found among a heap of rubbish, and which we reproduce, is no
less than 6 feet. The figures or characters seen on the wall, and which
recall Arabic inscriptions, are over 3 feet high, and in strong relief.
This was obtained by applications of freshly-made plaster—a process
belonging to the first epoch, and which we shall meet at Palenque,
Tikal, and particularly Aké and Izamal in the Yucatan peninsula.
Tower No. 2, some 32 feet to the south-east of the palace, is a ruinous
mass, but must have been far more important than the first. Nothing
remains save fragments of walls, so shapeless as to make it difficult
to draw an approximate plan of the building. To the north, however,
a flight of steps in fair preservation allows us to reconstruct the
first storey. The four sides were probably similar, having doors
opening on the stairs by which the terrace was reached, giving access
to four rooms, now underground, of about 8 feet by 6 feet 8 inches. Our
drawing gives the stairs and the entrance to one of the rooms. In this
tower the ornamentation must have been as peculiar as that of No. 1,
as shown by an enormous unbroken fragment of wall lying on the ground,
representing the full-size figure of a man, whose fine proportions are
very remarkable. The upper portion of the body, the fore-arm, and part
of the leg are wanting; of the clothing nothing remains save the girdle
and a bit on the thigh. The statue had presumably no other covering but
the maxtli, as is the case at Palenque in the decoration of the inner
wing of the palace.
[Illustration: ORNAMENTATION OF SOUTH-EAST TOWER, COMALCALCO.]
This tower (No. 2), with its flight of steps and its platform on which
rose the body of the edifice, answers the description of similar
monuments at Cozumel and along the seaboard given by Oviedo and
Grijalva’s chaplain; and both towers and palaces, as also the temples
we shall visit later, must have gleamed on the astonished gaze of the
Spaniards, as did those of the maritime cities in Yucatan. We know
that the first were inhabited at the time of the Conquest; have we
not the right to affirm as much for Comalcalco? And if Comalcalco was
inhabited, what shall be said of Palenque, where we shall find a far
greater number of buildings in better preservation?
[Illustration: REMAINS OF TOWER NO. 2, AND ENTRANCE OF SUBTERRANEOUS
HALL.]
It seems to us a settled question. Why should monuments constructed in
the same way, in the same country, amidst the same vegetation, be in
ruins when others are partly standing? Does this prove that they are
of more recent date? The same causes acted on all. Everything points to
their similarity, to their belonging to the same epoch, to their being
the work of the same hand; and if the palaces and temples at Comalcalco
were extant and inhabited at the Conquest (and everything seems to
prove it), the temples and palaces at Palenque must have been in the
same condition.
But the palace and the two towers were not the only monuments on the
terrace of the pyramid. No. 5 and No. 6 indicate the site of other
buildings now completely ruined, whilst the sides were occupied by
small chapels, traces of which are still discernible. The pyramid was
in itself a small village, or rather an immense lordly mansion, having
a palace, temples, houses, and huts for priests and servants. Facing
this pyramid, to the north, hidden by the luxuriant vegetation of a
virgin forest (reproduced in our drawing), are three other pyramids,
of which two rise to the height of some 22 to 26 feet, and the third
from 39 to 45 feet. All were crowned by temples, the walls of which
are still standing. The layers of demolished cement leave uncovered
the body of the wall, in which I notice bricks ranging from 6 in. by
9 by 1 in thickness, and from about 1 ft. 4 in. by 11 by 1 in. thick,
and 1 ft. 11 in. by 1 ft. 8 in. by 1 ft. 2 in. thick. The largest were
used for the corners. Hundreds of other pyramids, every one occupied by
palaces, stretch as far as the seaboard, buried in the depths of the
forest, presenting innumerable monuments to be brought to light, for
which years, numerous workmen, an iron constitution, are required for
the future explorers. I have shown the way—let others follow.
The stupendous ruins, of which we have had but a glimpse, imply an
immense amount of labour, and, as a corollary, a dense population. It
is quite clear that the present Tabasco, with a population of 100,000
inhabitants, could not produce monuments so imposing as those at
Comalcalco, and this is one of the chief objections brought against
the recent date we ascribe to these buildings. But then the question
arises, who built them ages before the Conquest, and what became of
the numerous population which such monuments presuppose? The genius of
the Toltecs which we have studied, the quotations of various authors
relating to their southward migration, point to them as the sole and
true creators of these buildings which we have even now visited, as
also those we shall subsequently explore. They found—facts attest
it—a numerous population, which they civilised, and which under their
peaceful organisation rapidly increased. They had, at the very outset
of their establishment, the cheapest, easiest labour ever known in
these hardy, sober, submissive people, who, as we noticed before, could
live on two tortillas a day, drink nothing but water, carry enormous
loads, or work all day without showing fatigue.
If, then, due regard be had to their numbers, their endurance, and
their frugal habits, if it be remembered that New Mexico was built in
no time by Cortez, the whole city of Tula reconstructed in six years,
most likely by statute-labour when great multitudes were pressed into
service, directed by foremen who gave the final polishing touch to the
work, the number and the bulk of the monuments they have left will not
surprise. That such work could be achieved in a very short time is
shown at Teotihuacan, where the pyramids are but an assemblage of mud
and rude stones kept together by walls faced with coatings of polished
cement.
Furthermore, it is an accepted fact that a high state of civilisation
can only be developed in temperate regions; in torrid zones the heat,
an almost spontaneous growth, the few wants of man, keep him idle and
unfit him for work, and this consideration would, in the absence of any
other proof, still point to the Toltecs as the authors of the degree
of civilisation observable in these regions. As an instance of the
truth of our argument look at India, where a foreign race introduced
and implanted a ready-made civilisation in the invaded country, using
the conquered race for the construction of its buildings. This theory
receives still greater weight when we remember how easily a people
which has received its civilisation through another, falls back into
its original state of barbarism as soon as left to itself; India,
Cambodia, Java, are striking examples.
But it will be asked, What has become of the dense population you
speak about? Where are the millions of men who peopled these regions
at the time of the Conquest? The causes which contributed to their
disappearance are not far to seek. First and foremost, the Spanish
invasion and the consequent destruction of the Mexican empire, which so
deeply disturbed the organisation of all these peoples as to be felt in
the most distant provinces; it was a commotion followed by a profound
discouragement and apathy, which told directly and radically on the
fecundity of the race. Add to this the intense horror felt for the
conquerors—a horror so complete as to cause the natives to abandon the
places occupied by the hated foreigners—a stupor so great as to have
persisted to the present day. Even now Indian villages are abandoned at
the appearance of a Spaniard, and again occupied when he leaves, as was
the case at Tayasal when taken by the Spanish general Martin Ursua. So
much for moral causes.
As to physical causes, historians will tell us they were due to
the unheard-of cruelty of the Spaniards—a cruelty all the more
inconceivable that Mendieta ascribes to the natives a mild, simple,
submissive, patient disposition, in fact all the Christian virtues
so conspicuously absent from their hard taskmasters, who were guilty
towards the poor Indians of daily savage acts which dishonour
humanity, tearing them from their families and sending them to work the
mines in the distant mountains, etc.[87]
Then there were epidemics which swept away vast numbers of Indians:
1st, smallpox in 1521, called by the natives _huey-zahuatl_, “great
leprosy”—half the population succumbed under it; 2nd, measles
(_sarampion_), in 1531, _tepiton-zahuatl_, small leprosy; 3rd,
syphilis; 4th, bloody-flux in 1545, when in Tlascala and Tula 250,000
Indians perished; lastly, the various epidemics of 1564, 1576, 1588,
1595, which carried off over 3,000,000 natives. The same epidemics were
felt _with greater severity_ in Tabasco and Yucatan.[88] Herrera gives
likewise measles, smallpox, bloody-flux, fever, dysentery, as the main
causes of the disappearance of the aborigines;[89] as does Motolinia,
who mentions besides the great famine consequent on the taking of
Mexico; “encomiendas,” and especially the heavy fiscal burdens imposed
on the poor Indians by the Spaniards, burdens which had to be paid
under penalty of being tortured to death.[90] Other authorities might
be adduced to show that the disappearance of the Indians, if unnatural,
is to be explained, it being clear that the great cities, so thickly
populated on the arrival of the Spaniards, were almost entirely
abandoned, whilst the temples and palaces, left to the mercy of the
elements and the ruthless efforts of man, were quickly destroyed. If we
could wonder, it is that under such circumstances they resisted so long.
As structures, American monuments cannot be compared with those
at Cambodia, which belong to nearly the same period, the twelfth
century, and which, notwithstanding their greater and more resisting
proportions, are found in the same dilapidated condition But we
must think of returning to S. Juan; we take leave of our Comalcalcan
friends, leaving our “bogas,” boatmen, to follow with our traps
by water, and meet us at S. Juan, whilst we start on horseback by
a shorter route, skirting Rio Seco on our right, with its islands
clad with a glowing vegetation. On the opposite side fields of
yellow maize, sugar, coffee, and cocoa, indicate the presence of
ranchos and haciendas. We get glimpses of the red, yellow, and green
madrina-berries peeping out of glistening foliage, and towards four
o’clock we knock at a large hacienda, the property of Don Candido
Verao, an amateur antiquarian, glad of an opportunity of showing his
little collection. From him we learn that tumuli or basements of Indian
chapels abound in the neighbourhood, and that many small figures are
found, showing the country to have once been densely populated. Here
we spend a charming evening, and on the morrow we start for El Carmen,
on the left bank of the river Tabasco, belonging to a rich mahogany
contractor, by name Don Policarpio Valenzuela. Thanks to his civility,
we were able to procure canoes and be at S. Juan Bautista the next day.
[Illustration: BAS-RELIEF OF WEST TOWER, COMALCALCO.]
[Illustration: S. DOMINGO DEL PALENQUE.]