192 



THE AMEBIC AN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



His description is close, and, as far as 

 it goes, conveys an adequate impres- 

 sion of what he saw, and it must be 

 admitted he missed but very little. He 

 was the first to describe the hieroglyphic 

 monument (Stele 1) found broken into 

 fragments on the floor of Temple 7, to 

 secure photographs and drawings of 

 which was the es])ocial object of the 

 Carnegie Institution Expedition to 

 Tuloom last winter. 



In 1848, a few years after Stephens' 

 visit, the so-called "War of the Castes" 

 devastated Yucatan. The Maya In- 

 dians, goaded to desperation by three 

 centuries of abuse and misrule, rose 

 against the liacendados, or planters, 

 and drove them from the ])hintations 

 and villages throughout the country 

 into IMerida, the capital of the state. 



After tlie planters had succeeded in 

 quelling this sanguinary revolt, many 

 of the Maya fled eastward into the un- 

 inhabited parts of the peninsula along 

 the east coast, and settled in the region 

 around Tuloom, whither the whites 

 dared not follow them. Here they have 

 maintained themselves in virtual inde- 

 pendence ever since. Even under the 

 iron rule of Diaz, this section of Mex- 

 ico, the territory of Quintana Eoo, was 

 never brought under effectual control 

 by the federal government, and the 

 Mexican garrison maintained at the 

 territorial capital, Santa Cruz de 

 Bravo, was practically in a state of 

 siege. Only large bodies of troops coidd 

 move through the bush with safety, 

 stragglers being slaughtered without 

 mercy. For this reason the ruins of 

 Tuloom have been closed to investiga- 

 tion for the past seventy years, and 

 to this same reason also is doubtless 

 due the atmosphere of mystery and ro- 

 mance which has grown up around the 

 site. 



The Field Columbian Expedition of 

 1895 was deterred from visiting the 

 site, although Mr. William H. Holmes 

 secured several drawings of the prin- 

 cipal temple, from the yacht "Ituna,*" 

 which was put in close to shore for this 

 purpose.^ Indeed, as recently as 1911, 

 the local Mexican authorities at Santa 

 Cruz de Bravo prevented members of 

 the Peabody Museum Central American 

 Expedition for that year from visiting 

 the site, giving as their reason the hos- 

 tile character of the Indians. 



The first scientific expedition to visit 

 Tuloom since Stephens' time was that 

 under Dr. George Howe, of the Pea- 

 body Museum, in 1911. Dr. Howe 

 and his com])anion, ]\Ir. William D. 

 Parmelee, made the journey from Pro- 

 greso, the port of northern Yucatan, to 

 the island of Cozumel, on a Mexican 

 gunboat, and thence by a sailing vessel 

 of small tonnage to Tuloom. He was 

 at the ruins only parts of two days, and 

 then, having seen supposed Indian sig- 

 nals — a fire on shore at night, and dur- 

 ing the day a white flag waved inland in 

 the direction where the Indian village 

 was supposed to lie — his party became 

 convinced that an attack by the Indians 

 was imminent, and made immediate 

 preparations for departure. These hos- 

 tile demonstrations largely prevented 

 Dr. Howe from carrying out an ex- 

 tended study, and with the exception 

 of a few rather inadequate photographs 

 and such hasty observations as he was 

 able to make in the limited time he was 

 there, little was accomplished in fur- 

 thering the general knowledge of the 

 site. 



Dr. Howe's most valuable contribu- 

 tion was the reading of the date on the 



1 William Henry Holmes, Archceological Studies 

 Among the Ancient Cities of Mexico, Field Colum- 

 bian Museum. Publication 8, Anthropological 

 Series, Vol. I. pp. 75-78, figs. 23 and 24. 



