Departure from Merida.--Map of Yucatan.-Timuciu.--Tekoh.--Human Sculls
and Bones.--Church of Tekoh.--Convent.--A revolting Spectacle.--View
from the Top of the Church.--Cura of Tekoh.--Journey continued.--A
curious Basin.--Telchaquillo.--A subterraneous Well.--An extraordinary
Cave.--Hacienda of Joaquin.--Ruins of Mayapan.--A remarkable
Mound.--Curious sculptured Remains.--Another extraordinary Cave.--A
circular Edifice.--A double Row of Columns.--Ranges of
Mounds.--Arches.--Derivation of the Word Yucatan.--Ancient City of
Mayapan.
On Thursday, the twelfth day of November, we rose for our departure
from Merida. The plan of our route, and all the arrangements for our
journey, were made by our friend Don Simon Peon. Early in the morning
our luggage was sent forward on the backs of mules and Indians, and we
had only to take leave of our friends. Our landlord refused to receive
the four dollars due to him for rent. The pleasure of our society, he
said, was compensation enough, and between friends house-rent was not
to be thought of. We bade him an affectionate farewell, and in all
probability "we ne'er shall see his like again," at least in this
matter of house-rent. We breakfasted for the last time with our
countrymen, including Mr. Fisher and Captain M'Kinley, who had arrived
that morning direct from New-York, at the house of the Dona Micaela,
and, attended by the good wishes of all for our safety and success,
mounted for our journey into the interior.
It was our intention to resume our explorations at Uxmal, the point
where we were interrupted by the illness of Mr. Catherwood. We had
received intelligence, however, of the ruins of Mayapan, an ancient
city which had never been visited, about eight leagues distant from
Merida, and but a few leagues aside from the road, by the haciendas, to
Uxmal. The accounts which we could obtain were meager, and it was
represented as completely in ruins; but, in fulfilment of the purpose
we at that time entertained of going to every place of which we heard
any account whatever, we determined to visit this on our way to Uxmal.
It was for Mayapan, therefore, that we were now setting out.
Our saddles, bridles, holsters, and pistols, being entirely different
from the mountings of horsemen in that country, attracted all eyes as
we rode through the streets. A friend accompanied us beyond the
suburbs, and put us into a straight road, which led, without turning,
to the end of our day's journey. Instead of the ominous warnings we
were accustomed to receive in Central America, his parting words were,
that there was no danger of robbers, or of any other interruptions.
Under these favourable circumstances, in good health and spirits, with
recommendations from the government to its officers in different
sections of the country, and through the newspapers to the hospitality
of citizens in the interior, we set out on our journey. We had before
us a new and unexplored region, in which we might expect to find new
scenes every day. There was but one drawback. We had no servant or
attendant of any kind, our friends having been disappointed in
procuring those which were expected. This, however, did not give us
much uneasiness.
The day was overcast, which saved us from the scorching sun, that
otherwise, at this hour, would have molested us. The road was straight,
level, stony, and uninteresting. On both sides were low, thick woods,
so that there was no view except that of the road before us; and
already, in the beginning of our journey, we felt that, if we were safe
from the confusion and danger which had attended us in Central America,
we had lost, too, the mountains, valleys, volcanoes, rivers, and all
the wild and magnificent scenery that gave a charm to the country in
spite of the difficulties and dangers by which travelling was there
attended.
I would remark that no map of Yucatan at all to be depended on has ever
been published. The Dona Joaquina Peon had one in manuscript, which she
was so kind as to place at our disposal, but with notice that it was
not correct; and, in order to keep a record of our own track from the
time we left Merida until we returned to it, we took the bearings of
the roads, noted the number of hours on each day's journey, and the
pace of our horses, and at some places Mr. Catherwood took an
observation for latitude. From these memoranda our map is prepared. It
is correct so far as regards our route, but does not fix accurately the
location of places which we did not visit.
At the distance of a league we passed a fine cattle hacienda, and at
twenty minutes past one reached Timucui, a small village five leagues
from Merida. This village consisted of a few Indian huts, built around
a large open square, and on one side was a sort of shed for a casa
real. It had no church or cura, and already we experienced a difficulty
which we did not expect to encounter so soon. The population consisted
entirely of Indians, who in general throughout the country speak
nothing but the Maya; there was not a white man in the place, nor any
one who could speak in any tongue that we could comprehend.
Fortunately, a muleteer from the interior, on his way to Merida, had
stopped to bait his mules under the shade of a large tree, and was
swinging in a hammock in the casa real. He was surprised at our
undertaking alone a journey into the interior, seeing that we were
brought to a stand at the first village from the capital; but, finding
us somewhat rational in other respects, he assisted us in procuring
ramon leaves and water for the horses. His life had been passed in
driving mules from a region of country called the Sierra, to the
capital; but he had heard strange stories about foreign countries, and,
among others, that in El Norte a man could earn a dollar a day by his
labour; but he was comforted when he learned that a real in his country
was worth more to him than a dollar would be in ours; and as he
interpreted to his nearly naked companions, crouching in the shade,
nothing touched them so nearly as the idea of cold and frost, and
spending a great portion of the day's earnings for fuel to keep from
freezing.
At three o'clock we left the hamlet, and at a little after four we saw
the towers of the church of Tekoh. In the suburbs of this village we
passed the campo santo, a large enclosure with high stone walls; over
the gateway of which, and in niches along the top of the wall, was a
row of human skulls. Inside the enclosure, at the farthest extremis,
was a pile of skulls and bones, which, according to a custom of the
Indians observed from time immemorial, had been dug up from the graves
and thrown into this shallow pit, a grim and ghastly charnel-house.
The village consisted of a long, straight street, with houses or huts
almost hidden by foliage, and inhabited exclusively by Indians. We rode
up to the plaza without meeting a single person. At one side of the
plaza, on a high stone platform, stood a gigantic church, with two
lofty towers, and in front and on each side was a broad flight of stone
steps. Crossing the plaza we saw an Indian woman, to whom we uttered
the word _convento_, and, following the direction of her hand, rode up
to the house of the cura. It was in the rear of the church, and
enclosed by a large wall. The gate was closed, but we opened it without
knocking. The convent stood on the same platform with the church, and
had a high flight of stone steps. A number of Indian servants ran out
to the corridor, to stare at such strange-looking persons, and we
understood that the padre was not at home; but we were too well pleased
with the appearance of things to think of going elsewhere. We tied our
horses in the yard, ascended the steps, and strolled through the
corridor of the convent and along the platform of the church,
overlooking the village.
Before the door of the church lay the body of a child on a bier. There
was no coffin, but the body was wrapped in a tinsel dress of paper of
different colours, in which red and gold were predominant; and amid
this finery worms several inches long were issuing from its nostrils,
curling and twisting over its face: a piteous and revolting spectacle,
showing the miserable lot of the children of the poor in these Indian
villages.
In a few minutes the ministro, or assistant of the cura, joined us,
from whom we learned that the cura was preparing to bury this child,
and as soon as it was over, would come to receive us. In the mean time,
under his escort, we ascended to the top of the church.
The ascent was by a large stone staircase within one of the towers. The
top commanded a view of a great plain, covered by an almost boundless
forest, extending on one side to the sea, and on the other to the
sierra which crosses the peninsula of Yucatan, and runs back to the
great traversing range in Guatimala, broken only by a high mound, which
at three leagues' distance towered above the plain, a mourning monument
of the ruins of Mayapan, the capital of the fallen kingdom of Maya.
On our return we found the cura, Don Jose Canuta Vela, waiting to
receive us; he had been notified of our coming, and had expected us the
day before. His curacy consisted of nearly two thousand souls, and,
except his ministro, we did not see a white man among this population.
He was under thirty, born and bred in Merida, and in manners and
attainments apparently out of place in such a position; but his
feelings and sympathies were identified with the people under his
charge. The convent was a great stone building, with walls several feet
thick, and in size corresponded with the church. Being so near Merida,
it was more than ordinarily well supplied with comforts; and, among
other things, the cura had a small collection of books, which, for that
country, constituted quite a library.
He relieved us of all difficulty arising from the want of an
interpreter, and, sending for the Indian alcaldes, made immediate
arrangements to forward our luggage, and to accompany us himself the
next day to the ruins of Mayapan. We had again made a beginning with
the padres, and this beginning, in heartiness of welcome and goodness
of cheer, corresponded with all that we had before received at their
hands. We had the choice of cot or hammock for the night, and at
breakfast a group of Indian musicians were seated under the corridor,
who continued making a noise, which they called la musica, till we
mounted to depart.
The cura accompanied us, mounted on one of the best horses we had seen
in the country; and as it was a rare thing for him to absent himself a
day from his parochial duties, he set out as for a holy-day excursion,
worrying our poor nags, as well as ourselves, to keep up with him.
The road upon which we entered turned off abruptly from the camino
real. This royal road itself, like most of the others which bore that
name, would not be considered, in other countries, as indicating a very
advanced state of internal improvement, but the one into which we now
struck was much rougher and more stony, entirely new, and in some
places still unfinished. It had been but lately opened, and the reason
of its being opened at all illustrates one striking feature in the
character of the Indians. The village to which it leads was under the
pastoral charge of our friendly companion, and was formerly reached by
a road, or rather path, so circuitous and difficult that, on account of
his other duties, he was obliged to give notice that he would be
compelled to give it up. To prevent this calamity, all the Indians, in
a body, turned out and made this new road, being a straight cut through
the woods, two leagues in length.
The padre took a lively interest in the zeal lately awakened for
exploring the antiquities of the country, and told us that this
particular region abounded with traces of the ancient inhabitants. At a
short distance from the camino real we came to a line of fallen stones,
forming what appeared to be the remains of a wall which crossed the
road, and ran off into the forest on both sides, traversing, he said,
the country for a great distance in both directions.
A short distance beyond, we turned off to a large hollow basin
perfectly dry, which he called an aguada, and said it was an artificial
formation, excavated and walled around, and had been used by the
ancients as a reservoir for water. At the time, we did not agree with
him, but considered the basin a natural formation, though, from what we
saw afterward, we are induced to believe that his account may have been
correct.
At ten o'clock we reached the small village of Telchaquillo, containing
a population of six hundred souls, and these, again, were all Indians.
It was they who had made the road we had travelled over, and the church
was under our friend's pastoral charge. We rode to the convent, and
dismounted. Immediately the bell of the church tolled, to give notice
of his arrival, that all who wished to confess or get married, who had
sick to be visited, children to be baptized, or dead to be buried,
might apply to him, and have their wants attended to.
The village consisted entirely of huts, or casas de paja. The church
had been commenced on a large scale, under the direction of a former
cura, who afterward became dissatisfied with the people, and
discontinued the building. One end was covered over, and fitted up
rudely as a chapel; beyond were two high walls, but roofless.
In the square of this little village was a great senote, or
subterraneous well, which supplied all the inhabitants with water. At a
distance the square seemed level and unbroken; but women walking across
it with cantaros or water-jars suddenly disappeared, and others seemed
to rise out of the earth. On a nearer approach, we found a great
orifice or opening in the rocky surface, like the mouth of a cave. The
descent was by irregular steps cut and worn in the rocks. Over head was
an immense rocky roof, and at a distance of perhaps five hundred feet
from the mouth was a large basin or reservoir of water. Directly over
the water the roof was perhaps sixty feet high; and there was an
opening above which threw down a strong body of light. The water had no
current, and its source was a mystery. During the rainy season it rises
a little, but never falls below a certain point, and at all times
it is the only source of supply to the inhabitants. Women, with their
water-jars, were constantly ascending and descending; swallows were
darting through the cave in every direction, and the whole formed a
wild, picturesque, and romantic scene.
At this village we found waiting for us the major domo of the hacienda
of San Joaquin, on which stand the ruins of Mayapan. Leaving the
senote, we mounted and followed him.
At the distance of half a mile he stopped near a great cave that had
lately been discovered, and which, he said had no end. Tying our horses
to the bushes, we turned off to visit it. The major domo cut a path a
short distance into the woods; following which we came to a large
hollow, overgrown with trees, and, descending, entered a great cavern
with a lofty roof, and gigantic passages branching off in different
directions, and running no one knew whither. The cave had been
discovered by the major domo and some vaqueros while in pursuit of
robbers who had stolen a bull; and no robber's cave in romantic story
could equal it in wildness. The major domo said he had entered it with
ten men, and had passed four hours in exploration without finding any
end. The cave, its roof, base, and passages, were an immense fossil
formation. Marine shells were conglomerated together in solid masses,
many of them perfect, showing a geological structure which indicated
that the whole country, or, at least, that portion of it; had been
once, and probably at no very remote period, overflowed by the sea.
We could have passed a day with much satisfaction in rambling through
this cave, but, remaining only a few minutes, and taking away some
curious and interesting specimens, we remounted, and very soon reached
mounds of earth, fragments of sculptured stones, broken walls, and
fallen buildings, indicating that we were once more treading upon the
sepulchre of an aboriginal city.
At eleven o'clock we came to a clearing, in which was situated the
hacienda of San Joaquin. The building was a mere rancho, erected only
for the residence of a mayoral, a person inferior to a major domo; but
there was a fine clearing around it, and the situation was wild and
beautiful. In the cattleyard were noble trees. In the platform of the
well were sculptured stones taken from the ancient buildings; it was
shaded by the spreading branches of a fine ramon or tropical oak, with
a foliage of vivid green; and crowning the top, and apparently growing
out of it, were the long, pale leaves of the cocoanut.
The hacienda, or rather rancho, of San Joaquin, on which the ruins of
Mayapan lie scattered, is ten leagues south from Merida. It forms part
of the great hacienda of Xcanchakan, the property of Don Jose Maria
Meneses, the venerable cura of San Cristoval, formerly provesor of the
Church of Yucatan. We had made the acquaintance of this gentleman at
the house of his friend Senor Rejon, secretary of state, and he had
sent instructions to his major domo, the same who had met us at the
last village, to place at our command all the disposable force of the
hacienda.
The ruins of Mayapan cover a great plain, which was at that time so
overgrown that hardly any object was visible until we were close upon
it, and the undergrowth was so thick that it was difficult to work our
way through it. Our's was the first visit to examine these ruins. For
ages they had been unnoticed, almost unknown, and left to struggle with
rank tropical vegetation; and the major domo, who lived on the
principal hacienda, and had not seen them in twenty-three years, was
more familiar with them than any other person we could find. He told us
that within a circumference of three miles, ruins were found, and that
a strong wall once encompassed the city, the remains of which might
still be traced through the woods.
[Engraving 2. A ruined Mound.]
At a short distance from the hacienda, but invisible on account of the
trees, rises the high mound which we had seen at three leagues'
distance, from the top of the church at Tekoh, and which is represented
in the following engraving. It is sixty feet high, and one hundred feet
square at the base; and, like the mounds at Palenque and Uxmal, it is
an artificial structure, built up solid from the plain. Though seen
from a great distance above the tops of the trees, the whole field was
so overgrown that it was scarcely visible until we reached its foot;
and the mound itself, though retaining the symmetry of its original
proportions, was also so overgrown that it appeared a mere wooded hill,
but peculiar in its regularity of shape. Four grand staircases, each
twenty-five feet wide, ascended to an esplanade within six feet of the
top. This esplanade was six feet in width, and on each side was a
smaller staircase leading to the top. These staircases are in a ruinous
condition; the steps are almost entirely gone, and we climbed up by
means of fallen stones and trees growing out of its sides. As we
ascended, we scared away a cow, for the wild cattle roaming on these
wooded wastes pasture on its sides, and ascend to the top.
The summit was a plain stone platform, fifteen feet square. It had no
structure upon it, nor were there vestiges of any. Probably it was the
great mound of sacrifice, on which the priests, in the sight of the
assembled people, cut out the hearts of human victims. The view
commanded from the top was a great desolate plain, with here and there
another ruined mound rising above the trees, and far in the distance
could be discerned the towers of the church at Tekoh.
Around the base of this mound, and throughout the woods, wherever we
moved, were strewed sculptured stones. Most of them were square, carved
on the face, and having a long stone tenon or stem at the back;
doubtless they had been fixed in the wall, so as to form part of some
ornament, or combination of ornaments, in the facade, in all respects
the same as at Uxmal.
[Engraving 3: Sculptured Figures]
Besides these, there were other and more curious remains. These were
representations of human figures, or of animals, with hideous features
and expressions, in producing which the skill of the artist seems to
have been expended. The sculpture of these figures was rude, the stones
were timeworn, and many were half buried in the earth. The following
engraving represents two of them. One is four, and the other three feet
high. The full length seems intended to represent a warrior with a
shield. The arms are broken off, and to my mind they conveyed a lively
idea of the figures or idols which Bernal Dias met with on the coast,
containing hideous faces of demons. Probably, broken and half buried as
they lie, they were once objects of adoration and worship, and now
exist as mute and melancholy memorials of ancient paganism.
At a short distance from the base of the mound was an opening in the
earth, forming another of those extraordinary caves before presented to
the reader. The cura, the major domo, and the Indians called it a
senote, and said that it had supplied the inhabitants of the old city
with water. The entrance was by a broken, yawning mouth, steep, and
requiring some care in the descent. At the first resting-place, the
month opened into an extensive subterraneous chamber, with a high roof,
and passages branching off in every direction. In different places were
remains of fires and the bones of animals, showing that it had at times
been the place of refuge or residence of men. In the entrance of one of
the passages we found a sculptured idol, which excited us with the hope
of discovering some altar or sepulchre, or perhaps mummied figures.
With this hope, we sent the Indians to procure torches; and while Mr.
Catherwood was making some sketches, Doctor Cabot and myself passed an
hour in exploring the recesses of the cave. In many places the roof had
fallen, and the passages were choked up. We followed several of them
with much toil and disappointment, and at length fell into one, low and
narrow, along which it was necessary to crawl on the hands and feet,
and where, from the flame and smoke of the torches, it was desperately
hot. We at length came to a body of water, which, on thrusting the hand
into it, we found to be incrusted with a thin coat of sulphate of lime,
that had formed on the top of the water, but decomposed on being
brought into the air.
Leaving the cave or senote, we continued rambling among the ruins. The
mounds were all of the same general character, and the buildings had
entirely disappeared on all except one; but this was different from any
we had at that time seen, though we afterward found others like it.
[Engraving 4: Circular Edifice]
It stood on a ruined mound about thirty feet high. What the shape of
the mound had been it was difficult to make out, but the building was
circular. The following engraving represents this edifice, with the
mound on which it stands. The exterior is of plain stone, ten feet high
to the top of the lower cornice, and fourteen more to that of the upper
one. The door faces the west, and over it is a lintel of stone. The
outer wall is five feet thick; the door opens into a circular passage
three feet wide, and in the centre is a cylindrical solid mass of
stone, without any doorway or opening of any kind. The whole diameter
of the building is twenty-five feet, so that, deducting the double
width of the wall and passage, this centre mass must be nine feet in
thickness. The walls had four or five coats of stucco, and there were
remains of painting, in which red, yellow, blue, and white were
distinctly visible.
On the southwest side of the building, and on a terrace projecting from
the side of the mound, was a double row of columns eight feet apart, of
which only eight remained, though probably, from the fragments around,
there had been more, and, by clearing away the trees, more might have
been found still standing. In our hurried visit to Uxmal, we had seen
objects which we supposed might have been intended for columns, but
were not sure; and though we afterward saw many, we considered these
the first decided columns we had seen. They were two feet and a half in
diameter, and consisted of five round stones, eight or ten inches
thick, laid one upon another. They had no capitals, and what particular
connexion they had with the building did not appear.
So far, although the fragments of sculpture were of the same general
character as at Uxmal, we had not found any edifice sufficiently entire
to enable us to identify that peculiar arch which we had found in all
the ruined buildings of this country; but it was not wanting. At some
distance from this place, and on the other side of the hacienda, were
long ranges of mounds. These had once been buildings, the tops of which
had fallen, and almost buried the structures. At the end was a doorway,
encumbered and half filled with rubbish, crawling through which, we
stood upright in apartments exactly similar to those at Uxmal, with the
arch formed of stones overlapping, and a flat stone covering the top.
The apartments were ruder and narrower, but they were of precisely the
same character with all the others we had seen.
The day was now nearly spent; with the heat and labour we were
exceedingly fatigued, and the Indians insisted that we had seen all the
principal remains. The place was so overgrown with trees that it would
have taken a long time to clear them away, and for the present at least
it was out of the question. Besides, the only result we could promise
ourselves was the bringing to light of fragments and single pieces of
buried sculpture. Of one thing, however, we had no doubt: the ruins of
this city were of the same general character with those at Uxmal,
erected by the same builders, probably of older date, and suffering
more from the corrosion of the elements, or they had been visited more
harshly by the destroying hand of man.
Fortunately, at this place again we have a ray of historic light.
According to the best accounts, the region of country now called
Yucatan was known to the natives, at the time of the Spanish invasion,
by the name of Maya, and before that time it had never been known by
any other. The name of Yucatan was given to it by the Spaniards. It is
entirely arbitrary and accidental, and its origin is not known with
certainty. It is supposed by some to be derived from the plant known in
the islands by the name of _Yuca_, and _tal_ or _thale_, the heap of
earth in which this plant grows; but more generally it is derived from
certain words supposed to have been spoken by the natives in answer to
a question asked by the Spaniards on their first arrival. The supposed
question is, "What is the name of this country?" or, "How is this
country called!" and the conjectured answer, "I do not understand those
words," or, "I do not understand your words," either of which
expressions, in the language of the natives, has some resemblance in
pronunciation to the word Yucatan. But whatever was its origin, the
natives have never recognised the name, and to this day, among
themselves, they speak of their country only under its ancient name of
Maya. No native ever calls himself a Yucateco, but always a Macegual,
or native of the land of Maya.
One language, called the Maya, extended throughout the whole peninsula;
and though the Spaniards found the country parcelled into different
governments, under various names and having different caciques, hostile
to each other, at an earlier period of its history the whole land of
Maya was united under one head or supreme lord. This great chief or
king had for the seat of his monarchy a very populous city called
Mayapan, and had under him many other lords and caciques, who were
bound to pay him tribute of cotton clothes, fowls, cacao, and gum or
resin for incense; to serve him in wars, and day and night in the
temples of the idols, at festivals and ceremonies. These lords, too,
had under them cities and many vassals. Becoming proud and ambitious,
and unwilling to brook a superior, they rebelled against the power of
the supreme lord, united all their forces, and besieged and destroyed
the city of Mayapan. This destruction took place in the year of our
Lord 1420, about one hundred years, or, according to Herrera, about
seventy years, before the arrival of the Spaniards in Yucatan; and,
according to the computation of the ages of the Indians, two hundred
and seventy years from the foundation of the city. The account of all
the details is confused and indistinct; but the existence of a
principal city called Mayapan, and its destruction by war at about the
time indicated, are mentioned by every historian. This city was
occupied by the same race of people who inhabited the country at the
time of the conquest, and its site is identified as that which has just
been presented to the reader, retaining, through all changes and in its
ruins, its ancient name of Mayapan.