PETEN, TAYASAL, TIKAL, AND COPAN.
Departure from Peten—The River—The Sierra—Sacluc or
Libertad—Cortez’ Route—Marzillo’s Story—Flores—Ancient
Tayasal—Conquest of Peten—Various Expeditions—The
Town Captured—The Inhabitants Disappear—Monuments
Described—Tikal—Early Explorers—Temples—Bas-reliefs on
Wood—Retrospection—Bifurcation of the Toltec Column at
Tikal—Tikal—Toltecs in Guatemala—Copan—Demolition of
Copan—Quetzalcoatl—Transformation of Stone Altar Bas-reliefs
into Monolith Idols—End of an Art Epoch—Map of Toltec
Migrations.
Peten can be reached from Yalchilan either by going up the Usumacinta,
which a few hours beyond takes the name of Rio de la Pasion, or
through the woods on the abominable old Indian road described by every
traveller. We elect the latter, which, although longer, is easier for
our men, who will have mules to carry the heavy baggage.
About noon we come again upon Pépé Mora, who looks worse than ever; but
far from thinking of leaving his post, he has thoughts of founding a
colony here, and has begun by planting orange-trees and red chermoias.
He gives us a sac of smoked dry boar, we tender our thanks and bid
good-bye to the good old fellow, whom in all probability we shall never
meet again, and about four o’clock in the afternoon reach our first
encampment.
The small river which has been our guiding mark is barely 3 feet deep,
but its banks are so high and steep that our mules will only venture in
after much coaxing, but once in the stream they feel so nice and cool
that they are persuaded with great difficulty to leave it. As for the
Mariposa entrusted with my wardrobe, notes, and plates, she laid down
and completely disappeared all but the head. I thought it was all over
with my documents, and was not able to refrain from a cry of horror; it
was a false alarm, which, however, obliged us to spend the best part
of the night round the fires to dry both clothes and photographs. In
the evening we reached the spot where we had left some of our supplies;
everything was exactly as it had been left, but we could hear nothing
of the wretched horse which had been abandoned.
Next day we took the Peten road, and arrived four days later at Sacluc,
now Libertad, the chief town of Peten, and the last inhabited place
in Guatemala. It is but a wretched village, like all we have seen in
these warm regions; it lacks everything, and we should literally have
starved, but for some clerks, who gave up to us an azotea (flat roof)
and part of their supplies.
Our road led east-south-east up to this point; but now its direction
is north as far as Flores, some thirty miles beyond, which stands on
an islet of the lake of Peten. This road is not far from the Sacpui
lagoon mentioned by Bernal Diaz in his account of Cortez’ expedition
to Honduras, when the Spaniards “_passed a village surrounded by a
great lake of fresh water_. Near it was a river emptying in the lake,
which was used by the Indians to go to the Sacpui lagoon (Chaltuna) and
Tayasal, capital of Peten-Itza.
“The place,” says the veteran soldier, “has white houses and temples
which glitter in the sun and can be seen six miles distant.”[170] It
is clear that Cortez was on the left bank of the only important river
discharging itself in the lake, for he dispatched five Spaniards and
two Indians in a canoe to require the cacique of Tayasal to furnish
him with boats to cross the river. It proves also that the march was
much further south than Palenque, and that Izancanac was not Palenque
and still less Lorillard, as advanced by Maler in the “Bulletin de la
Société Géographique, 2^e trimestre 1884,” page 275. His assertion is
all the more extraordinary that Diaz’ account shows plainly that Cortez
must have gone up the S. Pedro valley to come upon this place, the only
one which corresponds to Diaz’ map and itinerary.
It is too absurd to suppose that Cortez, who was provided with a
mariner’s compass, whose route lay by Tayasal, should have abandoned
the broad level and eastern direction to turn south and encounter the
stupendous difficulties of crossing the abrupt range which divides S.
Pedro from upper Usumacinta—a _détour_ of more than ninety miles. In
that case he would have approached the Sacpui lagoon on the southern
and not on the western side, and there would have been no river to
cross. We will give Diaz’ own words:
“The villages towards which we steered were on an islet, near a
fresh-water lake, which could only be reached by canoes. _We walked
round two miles and discovered_ a ford where the water was up to our
waist. Here we got some guides, and when Cortez, through Doña Marina,
asked them to take us to the towns inhabited by bearded men, they
answered that they were quite ready to do so. Five accompanied us;
and the road, broad at first, became very narrow, _owing to a great
river which discharges itself in an estuary not far distant. Here the
Indians entered their boats to go to the town we were bound for, called
Tayasal._”[171]
The cacique himself came forward and conducted Cortez to his island,
who left his wounded horse Marzillo to the care of the Indians. They,
after the general’s departure, offered him divine honours and the
offerings of their idols, but the invalided animal got worse under such
fare and at last died. The affrighted Iztaes raised him a temple and
placed in it his sculptured image, worshipping him under the name of
_Izimin Chac_ (“thunder and lightning”), because, having witnessed some
of the cavaliers shooting deer, they imagined that the flash of their
guns proceeded from the animal.[172] The name _Izimin Chac_ recalls
the pyramid at Izamal called _Papp-hol-Chac_, “house of heads and
lightning.”
Flores, our next stage, is a lovely place built on the site of ancient
Tayasal, beautifully situated on a great lake surrounded by a lofty
range of hills. The Spaniards found the Iztaes, who had come from
Yucatan, established here. All marks of sculpture and architecture have
disappeared; nevertheless, we are able to reconstruct its history and
show that the monuments were not ancient.
When Cortez passed here, the town still numbered among its inhabitants
men who had come with the emigrant column from Yucatan, and this
tradition was current two centuries later. They had preserved the
ancient civilisation of the Toltecs, and used the same characters to
record their history, which were handed down on manuscripts called
“_Analtes_,” exemplified in the Yucatec and Mexican manuscripts.[173]
“Their idols,” says P. Fuensalida, “were like those of the peninsula.”
Such writers as Villa Gutierre Soto Mayor, Cogolludo, and Remesal[174]
mention various expeditions sent to subdue this gallant little people,
which was the last to surrender to Spanish arms.
The expedition from Yucatan was in 1618, two monks taking part in it to
convert the natives. They found at Tayasal the language, the manners,
the customs and architecture of Yucatan before the Conquest, with a
population of 25,000 to 30,000 souls, which would incline us to infer
that the great cities we have visited were larger and contained more
buildings than we thought possible.
“These temples,” says Cogolludo, “raised as usual on pyramids, were
of the same dimensions as the largest churches in Yucatan, and were
capable of holding over 1,000 persons. In one of them stood the Izimin
Chac, Cortez’ horse, which seeing, one of the monks, Padre Juan de
Orbita, filled with indignation, rushed at the idol and broke it with a
huge stone.” But this ill-advised zeal well-nigh caused the destruction
of the troop, which was only saved by the friendly interference of the
cacique.[175]
There followed a second, then a third expedition under Martin Ursua
(1696), who, on his march to Peten, found a place called Rohbeccan, “a
city with edifices filled with idols.”
Tayasal was attacked and taken on the 2nd of March, 1696,[176] when
the survivors of the struggle retired to the inaccessible vastnesses of
the northern islands, their spirit still unbroken.
The more we advance, the clearer it becomes that if numerous towns
were found deserted, it does not prove their antiquity, but rather the
deep, universal hatred of the natives for the conquerors. This city had
twelve temples in 1618, and twenty-one in 1696, so that nine were built
during the seventeenth century; among the latter was the finest of all,
described by Villa Gutierre Soto Mayor in the following words: “The
great temple was entirely built of stones, lofty and square in shape,
_with a fine balcony_ of cut stones, and two ogival vaults, each side
measuring 20 varas” (about 60 feet).[177] This, we think, disposes of
the _prehistoric_ temples scattered in the forests of the peninsula.
This temple, although more finely built, recalls the Castillo at
Chichen, the chief features of which are reproduced here on a larger
scale. Is not this sufficient proof that the monuments were modern,
and not the work of an extinct race? We find Tayasal a descendant, a
daughter of Chichen-Itza, just as Tikal is its ascendant or ancestress;
the latter will give us the key to the chief cause of the Toltec
migrations in Yucatan, and will explain the Toltec influence visible in
the cities of Coban, Copan, and Quirigua.
Tikal is forty miles north-east of Flores, towards the south of the
peninsula. Two explorers have visited it of late; one is the Swiss
Bernouilli, whose labours were interrupted by death, but whose
documents upon Tikal are as priceless as they are interesting. They
consist of twelve pieces of sculptured zapoté wood, which were
appropriated from the temples and are now in the Basle Museum, where
I was permitted to take squeezes of them; many are damaged by the
infiltration of water rather than time, nevertheless, a whole panel has
been made, which we reproduce the better to elucidate our explanations.
[Illustration: FLORES, LAKE OF PETEN.]
The other traveller is Alfred Maudslay, who made Guatemala the main
field of his interesting and successful labours. We borrow from his
photographs and notes to complete our description. “The buildings at
Tikal are of stone laid in mortar _smoothed over with plaster_ (the
cement epoch at Palenque, Lorillard, and Aké). The walls are generally
3 feet thick; the inner walls rise perpendicularly to a height of 7
feet, then approach each other to form the well-known American vault or
pointed arch. No trace of true vaults are found, for the acute angle of
the arch, and the enormous weight pressing on it, would not allow the
walls to be more than 5 or 6 feet distant from each other; so that the
interior of the palaces presents the appearance of long passages rather
than apartments.” (Exactly what we pointed out at Lorillard.) “The
doors are square at the top and the lintels consist of three or four
pieces of wood. Within the apartments are also pieces of the same wood,
but smaller, and placed across the ceiling 5 feet distant from each
other.”
Some of these small palaces are in a perfect state of preservation, but
by far the greater proportion, the lintels of which have disappeared,
are a ruinous heap. As usual, the edifices are reared on natural
or artificial plateaux, the sides faced with cut stones. The most
important buildings are the temples, which rise on high pyramids, the
sides divided in receding ranges or stones, shown in our plate.
The façade is occupied by a flight of steps leading to the entrance
of the temple, which is narrower than the terrace on which it stands,
whilst the side of the pyramid corresponding to it is on a steeper
slope than the façade and remaining sides. (This we pointed out also at
Palenque and Lorillard.) The pyramid is 184 ft. at the base by 168 ft.;
the staircase is 112 ft. high by 38 ft. wide, giving the pyramid a mean
altitude of 90 ft.; the façade is 41 ft. by 28 ft. long and about 40
ft. high, counting the _decorative wall_ hidden by vegetation.
All these temples are alike; the characteristic feature about them is
the great thickness of the walls, the niches on the sides of the main
apartment, and the gradual narrowing of the edifice from front to rear.
The interior of each consists of two or three narrow passages running
on a parallel line on the sides and abutting on the front corridor,
with large openings and wooden lintels beautifully sculptured. The
inner walls of the temples are higher than those of the palaces, whilst
the vault, also higher, forms a more acute angle. This is owing to the
great decorative wall crowning the edifice, the weight of which would
have been excessive, had not the builder provided for it by thickening
the walls, lengthening the vault, and narrowing the apartment.
“I met no idol, or any object of veneration in these temples,” says
Maudslay: a pardonable error, since he had not yet visited Palenque or
Lorillard, which would have enabled him to see in all those pieces of
sculptured wood representations of religious ceremonies, which replaced
the idols seemingly wanting.
[Illustration: ALTAR PANEL IN THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN OF TIKAL.]
“In the open space or court which stands between the temples, are
several stones of the nature of stelæ or small menhirs; some have their
front occupied by a human profile and hieroglyphics on the sides. On
others, both profiles and hieroglyphics were of very hard cement; the
stone had also been smoothed over with it. In this court are likewise
several circular altars, _facsimiles of those at Copan_. Some are
scattered among the ruins, but they are generally plain, owing probably
to the plaster that composed the figures having fallen, and left the
stone surface bare. Circular openings of about 1 foot 9 inches in
diameter occupy the centre of the square or court, giving access to
circular subterraneous chambers from 6 feet to 10 feet in diameter.
They were cisterns.”[178] Our plate shows one of the temples having
these stones in its court.
On comparing the edifices at Lorillard with this temple, it is seen
that the frieze which surmounts the plain wall at the base must have
had the same kind of cemented figures, whilst the ground plan at Tikal
shows the arrangement of its monuments to have been similar with those
at Lorillard. Thus we find at Tikal a _résumé_ of all that which we
noticed and studied in the various cities we have visited; but here we
have a new feature in the altars, which stand in the open air, whilst
the stelæ recall the votive pillars at Teotihuacan which develop in
monoliths at Copan and Quirigua.
This analogy is plainly seen in our drawing of one of these stelæ,
representing a beautifully sculptured figure, in high relief, with the
usual dress of priests, grandees, and idols. A series of katunes, like
those at Palenque, Lorillard, and Copan, are ranged on the edge of the
stone. Unfortunately this monument is in a very dilapidated condition;
but for the head, which is wanting, it would have been quite as
remarkable as our high relief at Lorillard (see end of chapter).
[Illustration: TEMPLE AND STELA OF TIKAL (FROM ALFRED MAUDSLAY).]
If we come to details, a first glance will show that the superb
bas-relief on wood in the next page, is a facsimile of the panels to
the rear of the altars at Palenque. The dimensions are almost the same,
6 feet high by 7 feet 6 inches wide: it also represents two figures
in high relief, having the peculiar attributes generally seen on
American sculptures. The hieroglyphics on the sides are admirably well
preserved, and do not betoken a very ancient epoch, for they are just
like those at Palenque, Lorillard, and Copan.
[Illustration: QUETZALCOATL AT COPAN.]
Unlike similar reliefs at Palenque, where the idol formed the central
subject, here it is replaced by a standing human figure, having an
elaborate head-dress with fantastic ornaments and huge feathers,
recalling Tabasco and Yucatan. In his hand is carried a sceptre
topped by a bird’s tail, and the rosette we noticed on the crosses
at Lorillard, whilst his left arm is almost hidden by a shield; he
wears the usual fringed cape, heavy collar, and large medallion; under
this is seen a rich mantle reaching almost to the ground; garters and
buckles are around his legs, and shoes cover his feet. The Buddhic
religious cloak is seen also on the kneeling priest at Lorillard, and
the maniple on the arm is a facsimile of one in the palace at Kabah.
[Illustration: IDOLS OF COPAN (FROM STEPHENS).]
To the right below the inscription are symbolic ornaments, and
towards the lower extremity two superb human profiles. Under the
left inscription is a figure with a monstrous head, sitting on a
stool ornamented with arms, with a back of peculiar shape. Many
of the ornaments on this panel are of unknown signification, but
a large portion is quite familiar and has been already reproduced
by us. The most important figure of all is that to the top of the
bas-relief, above the central figure. It is a mask with protruding
tongue representing the sun, like that of the Mexican calendar and the
central figure over the altar in the Temple of the Sun at Palenque. The
flames on the sides of the mask indicate this plainly. Clearly this
magnificent bas-relief belonged to a temple dedicated to that great
Toltec deity.
We know that the worship of the sun was general with all the American
tribes, and if at Tikal we call him the god of one particular race, it
is owing to the details which surround him; both pyramids, temples,
inscriptions, figures, and emblems particularise him, and give us the
right to connect him with the religion of the Uplands and call him
Toltec.
We have other panels consisting of scattered pieces collected in
various monuments. Some of the inscriptions are in perfect condition,
and furnish important analogies. One is a human profile, like the
sculptured figures on the great monoliths at Copan; another has fine
inscriptions and a characteristic tiger’s head, whilst below is a
figure of the usual type and dress sitting on a throne admirably
carved. These reliefs are in the Trocadéro.
To sum up, Tikal is a town which belongs to the Toltec civilisation,
the march of which we have followed from their first homes to Ocosingo,
Lorillard, and Tikal in Yucatan, where they met, both in the south and
north of Guatemala, the first branch, but Tikal being farthest from
the starting-point must necessarily be younger than the cities already
described; to us, however, it is one of the most important epochs in
this original civilisation, inasmuch as it is an intermediary station,
a place whence the race branched off, a fact which solves questions and
clears up events not hitherto understood.
From Tikal the civilising column advanced towards the north of the
peninsula. Material proofs of this exist in the cities ranged on its
line of march, for instance, Nohbeccan, seen by Ursua, and also
in the historical data, which the reader may see in our chapter on
Chichen-Itza.
The uniform expression of the faces in these bas-reliefs is generally
calm and pleasant, as at Palenque, where we pointed out that after the
almost total extermination of their race, the Toltecs ceased to be a
warlike nation and became missionaries of civilisation, bringing the
population around them into submission by their persuasive preaching,
like the priests of Buddha in India and Java, adopting the language of
their disciples, and building marvellous temples in honour of the gods
they preached. The bas-reliefs at Palenque, Lorillard, and Tikal tell
this story very plainly.
The arrival of the Toltecs in the south of Yucatan is thus placed
beyond a doubt; but the explanation given of the abandonment of Chichen
by its inhabitants is highly unsatisfactory. That exodus, produced
by secondary causes, was determined by the still living tradition
that establishments had been formed by their ancestors in the south
of the peninsula, and that Tikal, which at that time was perhaps
still standing, formed the chief centre. It is more than probable
that the caciques of Chichen had kept up some intercourse with one
of the cradles of their family, and when they set their face in that
direction, it was but an instinctive yearning to return to Peten. To
the same Toltec branch is clue also the colonisation and civilisation
of the north of Guatemala, Tikal being the central point, whence some
directed their march north, whilst others went south.
If we are to believe the priest of Quiché, “he saw at Coban a great
city which filled him with astonishment.” We have heard nothing of such
a place, nor has any other traveller; but if we follow the affiliation,
it is highly probable that Coban was a station of the Tikal-Toltec
branch, which from this point went east, where they founded Copan
and Quirigua in the province of Chiquimula. Copan was standing at the
Conquest, as well as Utatlan, Atitlan, Xelahu, Patinamit, and several
other Guatemalec cities, which were destroyed by Alvarado. Copan was
forced to yield after a desperate struggle to Hernandez de Chaves, one
of his lieutenants (1530), and Juarros tells us that Fuentes visited it
in 1700, when “the Great Circus still remained entire.”
We follow Stephens[179] in the description and illustration of these
monuments, and find that the most remarkable are monolith idols, which
are only the development of the stelæ and monoliths at Tikal, and
that the inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and idols are like those of the
places we have already described, except that they seem to us to belong
to a later period, contrary to Stephens, who assigned an original
civilisation to them. But Stephens began at the wrong end when he made
Copan the first scene of his investigations, and that accounts for his
want of insight in not having perceived that these monuments were the
outcome of an old civilisation. Later, his better informed judgment
enabled him to grapple with the difficulties, and arrive at the truth.
We claim but to be his disciple.
The first drawing is a finely sculptured head, which he calls a king;
but this bearded man, whose head is locked in a huge serpent’s jaw,
whose head-dress consists of wreathed serpents, or a Guatemalec turban,
is a personification of Quetzalcoatl, and though the type is somewhat
changed the attributes are unmistakable.
We have no reliable description of the monuments at Copan; but from
what Stephens says of them, they seem to differ from those we have
explored. Juarros’ description of Santa Cruz del Quiché, Utatlan, and
other Guatemalto-Toltec centres, recalls Mexican cities, which may well
be, since they were situated also on plateaux, and must necessarily
have had a different appearance from those of the warm regions.
The Toltec branch of the Pacific, although influenced by their
surroundings, had preserved the traditions of Anahuac, and reproduced
the buildings and the same mode of living suggested by the resemblance
of their present to that of their former homes. But these two
branches met for the first time at Copan, shown in the mixture of
the two different styles, where the palaces and temples seem to us
Guatemalto-Toltec, whilst the idols are Tzendal-Toltec, and the stone
bas-reliefs of our temples are replaced here and at Quirigua by
enormous monoliths of 12 to 20 feet high by 4 wide and 3 feet thick.
At Kabah, which we think coeval with Copan, we noticed the exaggerated
ornamentation which marks two different epochs; the same thing happened
here, and is a new instance of a general tendency, which may almost
be called a law; nor is it necessary to be an archæologist to affirm
of these monuments, that they are not the beginning but the end of
an art, for here we see monoliths loaded with all the ornaments and
architectural designs which at an earlier epoch had spread over idols,
bas-reliefs, and palaces.
The inscriptions not only retain the ancient characters, in which
faces and human figures were intermingled, but they sometimes entirely
consist of human figures grouped in the most violent postures. This is
not all: the same idol personifies several deities, shown in the first
we reproduce, where the great central figure, having a woman’s head,
emerges from a dragon’s jaw, recalling Quetzalcoatl; whilst the band
which surrounds his loins consists of human figures, ranged over a
wreath of maize, showing the attributes of the Tlaloc at Palenque, and
also of Chalchiuhtlicue and Centeotl, the Mexican Ceres.
[Illustration: MONOLITH IDOL OF COPAN (FROM STEPHENS).]
The decorative designs of these monuments show at a glance their
correlation with the bas-reliefs and monuments introduced earlier in
this work. They generally consist of volutes, and the head of a small
monster offered by one of the figures to a symbolic bird, as in the
cross at Palenque, and a similar figure in the Temple of the Sun; some
of the details belong to Lorillard, whilst others are like the wood
bas-reliefs at Tikal.
[Illustration: GUATEMALTO-TOLTEC ALTAR OF COPAN (STEPHENS).]
[Illustration: OTHER SIDE OF SAME ALTAR.]
But we will yet take another idol, the better to show these analogies.
The figure stands square instead of being carved in profile; the
forehead, like that in the Temple of the Sun at Tikal, is less
retreating, whilst the head-dress recalls both Tikal, Yucatan, and
Lorillard. The ornaments are of the usual type, and the petticoat of
the goddess has the diamond design which we saw at Palenque and in the
Uplands. The sides of the idol are covered with a series of characters
like those on the bas-reliefs at Lorillard, Tikal, and Palenque; the
affiliation cannot be controverted.
Again, let us take Stephens’ interesting altar, 6 feet long by 4 feet
high. The top is divided into thirty-six tablets of hieroglyphics;
whilst the sides are sculptured with human figures in profile, seated
cross-legged on a kind of cushion, having a turban or Guatemalec
head-dress, with the cranial deformation much diminished, as in the
idols. These new types, mixed with others familiar to us, are due to
the immigrant Toltec tribes who met after two centuries of wandering,
so that this monument shows both: the figures being Quiché-Toltec or
Guatemalto-Toltec, whilst the symbolical characters are pure Toltec;
the latter, be they near the figure, on his dress, or his seat, give
the names and titles of the beings they serve to decorate.
Palacio recognised the Toltec civilisation at Copan, since in a letter
to Philip II. (1576), “he found these monuments in ruins, but superior
to any edifice of the same nature built by the inhabitants of these
regions.” Their traditions make them attribute these edifices to
_emigrants from Yucatan_, which he thinks probable, “because of the
resemblance between these monuments and those he met in Yucatan and
Tabasco.”[180] Consequently we see at Copan the end of an old art mixed
with another equally old, the combination of which produces a new
manifestation in the American civilisation. It is idle to speculate how
it would have developed had it not been stopped in its inspiration and
destroyed by the arrival of the Spaniards.
We follow Veytia in tracing the migratory movements of the Toltecs from
the north-west as far as Tula: but from this point we mark their march
towards the south after the breaking up of their empire. Torquemada
mentions a sub-division, which fell back on Huaxteca, whilst the main
body coasted the seaboard of the Mexican Gulf, building Blasillo,
where palaces and temples are still standing, and Comalcalco (Centla).
Here they divided; some following the Carmen lagoon entered Yucatan by
Patonchan, of which the chief or reigning family were the Cocomes; Aké,
Izamal, Mayapan, etc., were built by this branch.
[Illustration: ALTAR INSCRIPTION OF COPAN.]
[Illustration: INSCRIPTION OF LORILLARD CITY.]
The others directed their march towards the south and founded Palenque
and Ocosingo, then falling back on the Usumacinta, settled at Lorillard
and the more distant Tikal. Here took place the branching off which we
mentioned above; one division, from which the Tutulxius were descended,
going north, founded Nohbeccan, Iturbide, Labna, Kabah, Uxmal, and
Chichen; whilst the other built Coban, Copan, and Quirigua, where they
met and amalgamated with the branch which had followed the Pacific
coast. The latter, after they had traversed the region inhabited by the
Zapotecs (Oaxaca), tarried at Tehuantepec, then resumed their march
towards Guatemala, where they laid the foundations of Utatlan, Xelahu,
Atitlan, Patinamit, etc., and joined the northern branch at Copan.
[Illustration: STELA OF TIKAL (FROM A. MAUDSLAY).]
As will be seen, this is but a broad outline which leaves out a number
of localities we could name, and many others which we do not know, but
which we hope will be discovered some day. We have also traced in our
map the return march of the Iztas (or Iztaes) from Chichen to Tayasal.
The line in our Map which to the north goes into Huaxteca, shows
the course pursued by the Toltec branch mentioned by Ixtlilxochitl
and Torquemada; and the monuments in that region, which all bear
a resemblance with those of Tabasco and Yucatan, are the works of
the Toltecs just as much as those of the above-mentioned states.
We wish also to point out that the towns in this region, as yet
unexplored, were inhabited and the monuments standing at the time
of the Conquest, and that a few years sufficed to dilapidate and
deface them.
Nicholas de Witt, who visited Huaxteca in 1543, in a letter (1554)
published by Ternaux Campan, says that the region contained great
cities and was more thickly populated than any other, but that
when he visited it, _twenty years_ after the Conquest, it was
deserted and covered with ruins; because some years before, the
Spaniards had basely massacred the inhabitants. They had invited
all the chiefs to a conference in a large wooden house, and burnt
them alive. After this cruel act, the _Huaxtecs abandoned their
town and retired in the woods_.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF AN APARTMENT IN THE GRAND PALACE OF
MITLA-OAXACA.]