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therefore proceed to examine them, more particularly in such parts as 

 concord with the "Chumayel" regarding the seventeenth century and the 

 occurrence of the great epidemic, and find the following conclusive state- 

 ment in the "Tzimin manuscript" (which I have so named because it 

 proceeds from the Tzimin Indians ( Tzimincah ) , between the folios 16 

 (verso) and 17: — 



"Can ahau u buluc cit katun cu xocol tu Chichen Ytzá u hec katun 

 uloru kuk, ulom Yaxum, ulom Ah Kantenal, ulom xekik tu can uac, 

 ulom kukulcan tu pach ah Ytzaob, tu canten u than katun uale." 



"Spanish version: "En el 4 o ahau (año maya), á la vuelta de un 

 katun (siglo maya) que se cuenta hacia el pozo de Chichenitzá, en el asien- 

 to ó colocación de la piedra katun, llegada de kuk, llegada de Yaxum (per- 

 sonajes mitológicos é históricos que daban su nombre á las épocas), llegada 

 de Kantenal, fué la llegada del vómito negro por cuarta vez, llegada 

 de kukulcan después de los Ytraes, en la cuarta colocación y significado 

 del katun." 



"In English: "In the 4th ahau (year of the Mayas), at the expiration 

 of a katun (their century), which is counted towards the well of Chichen- 

 itzá, at the placing of the stone katan, arrival of Kuk, arrival of Yaxum 

 (mythological and historical characters who gave their names to the 

 epochs), arrival of Kantenal, occurred the arrival of black vomit for 

 the fourth time, arrival of Kukulcan, after the Ytzaes, at the fourth 

 placing and signification of the katun." 



"This statement throws much light on that of the "Chumayel," for, 

 in speaking of the same epidemic corresponding to the year 1648, it says 

 most positively that it was the fourth time that it had visited this country ; 

 and considering that since the discovery in 1517 until the said year 1648, 

 in which the epidemic broke out, it had never been seen by the Spaniards, 

 it must follow that the three previous invasions had occurred before the 

 discovery. 



"So true is this that the same historians whom I have quoted before 

 to prove the constant healthiness of the climate of the Yucatan peninsula, 

 and that in it were not experienced the diseases that occurred in other 

 lands — all are equally agreed in stating that great epidemics had been 

 suffered in Yucatan before the discovery, thereby confirming the words 

 in the "Tzimin manuscript." The Rev. Fray Don Diego de Landa, who, it 

 must be remembered, was a missionary in Yucatan during the first epoch 

 after the discovery, expresses himself in the following terms : — 



"Various calamities experienced in Yucatan in the century before the 

 conquest; hurricane, pestilences, wars, etc. . . . There came over all the 

 land certain pestilential fevers, which lasted twenty-four hours, and after 

 they ceased the patients would swell and break out full of worms, and from 

 this pestilence a great number died and a great part of the crops could not 



