The Amateur s Book of 



THE DAHLIA 



CHAPTER I 



HISTORY 



MORE than a century before our Puritan 

 ancestors brought the little Mayflower into 

 muddy Plymouth Bay, a handful of sturdy Span- 

 iards stepped upon the mainland which we now 

 call Yucatan. Adventurers they were, in search 

 of gold and treasures, but prepared, nevertheless, 

 to meet fierce savages and hostile tribes of an 

 unknown wilderness. 



To their great surprise they found that the 

 natives of this promising land were intelligent 

 and in an advanced state of civilization. They 

 were well governed, with a remarkable code of 

 laws. They dwelt in villages, and sometimes 

 in large cities. They were expert metallurgists, 

 agriculturists, and horticulturists. Their art 

 was not crude; the craftsmanship of their gold- 

 smiths exceeded anything which a Spaniard had 



