APPENDIX. 69 



Prescott, " built by one of the races of Yucatan, displayed, doubtless, the same 

 peculiarities of construction as the remains still to be seen in that remarkable 

 peninsula."* The Itzas were permitted to live unmolested and according to 

 aboriginal custom in their chosen retreat until the year 1697, when they were 

 attacked by a force under Don Martin de Ursua, and compelled to submit to 

 Spanish rule. " The conquest," says Stephens, after having given an account of 

 the buildings formerly seen on the island, " took place in March, 1697, and we 

 have the interesting fact, that but about one hundred and forty-five years ago,f 

 within the period of two lives, a city existed occupied by unbaptized Indians, 

 precisely in the same state as before the arrival of the Spaniards, having kues, 

 adoratorios, and temples of the same general character with the great structures 

 now scattered in ruins all over that country. This conclusion cannot be resisted 

 except by denying entirely the credit of all the historical accounts existing on 

 the subject."^ The island, however, is not very large, and hence the city cannot 

 have been extensive. " The Island of Peten itself," says M. Morelet, who visited 

 the locality, " is oval in shape, rising by a gentle slope from the water, and 

 terminating in a platform of calcareous rocks. It is not large ; one may make 

 the cix'cuit of it in a quarter of an hour. Its surface is covered with small 

 stones, which are, doubtless, the remains of ancient edifices." § The town of 

 Flores now occupies the site of the aboriginal buildings. 



In 1869, Dr. C. H. Berendt discovered, not far from the mouth of the 

 Tabasco or Grijalva River, the site of an ancient town, supposed by him to be 

 that of Cintla, where in 1519 a bloody battle was fought between the natives and 

 the Spanish forces under Cortes, then on their way to Mexico. || The ruins were 

 buried in the thick and fever-haunted forests of the marshy coast, and unknown 

 until then to the Indians themselves. " In the course of the excavations which 

 I caused to be made, antiquities of a curious and interesting character were laid 

 bare. Prominent among these ruins, and presenting a peculiar feature of work- 

 manship, are the so-called teocallis, or mounds, which here are built of earth 

 and covered at the top and on the sides with a thick layer of mortar, in imita- 

 tion of stone-work. On one of these mounds I found not only the sides and the 

 platform, but even two flights of stairs constructed of the same apparently 

 fragile, but yet enduring material. One of the latter was perfectly well 

 preserved. I likewise saw clay figures of animals, covered with a similar coating 

 of mortar or plaster, thus imitating sculptured stone, and retaining traces of 

 having been painted in various colors. The reason for this singular use of 



* Prescott: Conquest of Mexico ; vol. iii, p. 291. 



f Mr. Stephens wrote this about 1842. 



i Stephens : Yucatan ; vol. ii, p. 200. 



§ Morelet: Travels etc.; p. 206.— The original says: "On peut en faire le tour en un quart d'heure, sans 



deployer heaucoup d'activite." 



II Bernal Diaz : Historia Verdudera et" : cap. xxxiii, xxxiv, fol. 22 etc. 



