436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION^ 19 34 



ways between Coba and Yaxiina, reported by several recent explorers 

 (Sav'ille, 1930). 



It was not onl}^ in northern Yucatan that roads were found. 

 Father Joseph Delgado traveled from Cahabon to Bacalar. On 

 his way he was caught by " los eneniigos Ingleses," the English 

 pirate and renegade colony entrenched at Belize. They left the 

 pious and pitiful padre in his underwear, and he groped along until 

 he reached the town of Bacalar. Recounting his troubles he men- 

 tions that he : " followed roads through the swamps, which had been 

 built in ancient times, and still were well preserved." (Delgado.) 



The ruins of Palenque lie on a shelf, 300 feet above the alluvial 

 plains of Tabasco. Back of the ruins rise spectacular limestone moun- 

 tains. Below the ruins and parallel to the nearly perpendicular 

 face of the ledge runs the Michol River, from west to east. From 

 the mountains it is fed by a multitude of small streams, running 

 from south to north, and entering the Michol at what is practically 

 a right angle. 



During my more than 3-months' stay at Palenque, in 1923, I made 

 a rough survey of the ruins outside the area so splendidly surveyed in 

 detail by Alfred Maudslay. 



In the heart of the main part of the city is a bridge built in the 

 shape of a " Maya arch " over a stream. During the survey I found 

 several similar bridges, and in some cases I found huge stone but- 

 tresses on either side of a stream, indicating that a bridge of logs 

 once had rested on these buttresses. Locating these bridges from 

 the Michol made it easy to connect them on the gi'ound. Slight 

 excavation revealed the surface of a paved road connecting the 

 bridges. 



Thus we have evidence not only of a network of paved roads, but 

 also of the fact that the highway department of the ancient Mayas 

 built highways, bridged streams, and made swamps trafficable by 

 roads raised above the swamps. 



Trade moved over regular roads, crossing swamps and following 

 mountain passes. The land trade was hauled on slaveback. Water 

 trade was conducted in dug-out canoes, upon the rivers and along 

 the coasts. 



Because along said coast (pi'obably the present Bi-itish Honduras and 

 Honduras) there is an extensive trade in said fruit cacao, which is used as 

 money among the Indians, and whicli is very useful and precious, and richest 

 and most highly estimated merchandise which they have, canoes go from 

 YucatAn loaded with clothing and other goods to Ulua, and from there they 

 return loaded with cacao * * * (Oviedo, 1851, 1853.) 



I think that we can be allowed to state that for the water traffic 

 there was even an established " lighthouse " service, because we read 



