REPORT OF EXPLORATIONS IN CENTRAL AMERICA. 423 



lionest in their dealings, rigorous against criminals among them, and ]>y far the 

 best class of people in citlier the British colony or Peten. They are Catholics, 

 and are proud to show their abomination of the heathen worship of the Cruzes. 

 I have been shown a long memorial, written in the Maya language, containing 

 numerous letters, orders, proclamations, etc. It states their motives why they 

 separated from the Crazes, the principal and repeatedly asserted reason being — 

 "■ Wo are a Christian people."' As to the number of these Indians, the most 

 discordant opinions exist. According to such Belize and frontier traders as are 

 the best judges, the Cruzes do not number less than 10,000 and probal)ly not 

 more than 15,000 warriors, and of these half their number only are miirried. 

 Estimating a family to consist of live souls only on an average, would give for 

 their Avhole number about forty thousand; and the nmnber of the Pacific Indians 

 is considered but little less. Both together occupy about one thousand square 

 miles. 



The main road from the last settlements on the Belize river to Peten leads 

 through immense forests, with very few and inconsiderable elevations of the 

 grouml. The Sierra de Yucatan, which in our maps diversifies this region, does 

 not exist. The general direction of the road is from east to west. At distances 

 from 10 tol5 miles, in places where water, food for mules, and palms for camp 

 building are near at hand, the usual resting places of travellers are situated. We 

 left the main road at one of these places called San Clemente for another shorter 

 road recently opened by the Corregidor of Peten for my convenience. It led to 

 the village of Macanche, on the lake of the same name, and thence to Remate, 

 a deserted hamlet on the eastern end of the northern portion of the Chaltuna, or 

 Peten lake. This lake, it is well known, has almost the shape of a horseshoe. 

 Here we found canoes from Peten aAvaiting our arrival, and were paddled by 

 our carriers in twelve hours along the northern curve of the lake and round the 

 point of Nima to the city of Flores. This is situated on the rocky island of 

 Remedios, in the entrance of the southern portion of the lake, and not more than 

 a mile distant from the southern shore. The valley or depression occupied by 

 this lake and two smaller ones is surrounded on all sides but the southeastern 

 by chains of calcareous hills from 200 to 500 feet high, covered with stately for- 

 ests. A peninsula which, ranning from east to west, divides the northern section 

 of the lake from the southern, is studded with low^ hills, many of them being 

 artificial mounds upon which are scattered the dilapidated remnants of ancient 

 buildings. 



The department of Peten, the largest of the seventeen into which the republic 

 of Guatemala is divided, covers the immense area of from 4,000 to 5,000 square 

 miles, with about 8,000 inhabitants. They live chiefly in the villages in the 

 savanna region to the south and northwestern shore of the lake. The country in 

 its general character is flat, covered with immense forests, and watered by the 

 numerous rivulets which constitute the head waters of the Belize river, the Rio de 

 la Pasion, and the Rio de San Peclro. The Rio de la Pasion divides, in its west- 

 ern course, the departments of Peten and Verapaz, receives the Lacantun river from 

 the mountainous department of Totonicapam, and, breaking through the chain of 

 mountains on the frontier of Tabasco, emerges into that Mexican state called there 

 Usumacinta. Islear the Passion river the land is low, full of swamps and lakes, 

 and subject to annual inundations. The climate is warm bat mild, with remark- 

 ably small daily or annual changes of the thermometer, which ordinarily ranges 

 between 70° and 80°; the lowest and highest observations during more than a 

 year were 62° and 89°. The rainy and dry seasons are the same as in Yucatan 

 and Tabasco, and the season of north winds is here, as also in the interior of 

 these states, marked by mist and drizzly rains. Tlie country is one of the 

 healthiest in the tropics, and the average duration of life longer than in most other 

 countries of the same latitude. The prevailing diseases are intermittent and 

 remittent fevers throughout the year, and dysenteria in summer, but of a mild 



