166 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, ^^ST INDIES. 



monuments were pyramidal structures with their upper terrace crowned by- 

 temples or palaces. All have been destroyed, and the materials used in the 

 modern buildings, which are consequently here and there embellished with 

 ancient carvings embedded in the walls. In the outskirts alone are found the 

 remains of pyramids, one of which, till recently occupied by a community of 

 Franciscan friars, covers, wiih its cloisters and gardens, a surface of about five 

 acres ; its picturesque ruins present somewhat the aspect of a citadel. According 

 to ancient Maya usage, some of the streets traversing the city are still indicated 

 at either end by the sculptured image of the symbolic animals, such as the flamingo 

 or hawk, to which the thoroughfare was dedicated. The white terraced houses 

 with their Moorish courts resemble those of Andalusia, but those of the suburbs, 

 surrounded by groves and gardens, are still constructed in the Maya style. They 

 are little houses of stone, or else of plaited bamboo, raised a couple of feet above 

 the street level, with a porch in front which is enclosed by walls on both sides 

 and provided with a continuous bench all round. In the central part of the city 

 is still seen the emblazoned palace built for himself by Mon te jo, founder of the 

 new town, in 1542. 



Thanks to its trade in henequen, or agave fibre, of which from 40,000 to 

 60,000 tons are annually exported, Merida has become the converging-point of 

 several lines which, when completed, will cover the whole peninsula with a net- 

 work of railways. For the present, however, the capital is connected only by a 

 road with its ancient port, the little town of Sisal, at the north-west corner of 

 Yucatan. From this seaport the henequen takes its English name of Sisal hemp, 

 by which it is known in the trade. The price of this valuable fibre has increased 

 sixfold since the middle of the present century. The roadstead of Sisal, being 

 exposed to the dangerous north winds, was abandoned in 1871, when a new 

 " marina " was founded on the coast due north of Merida, with which it is con- 

 nected b}^ a railway 22 miles long. The line is carried over the coast lagoon by 

 a strong embankment. The new town, which repl ices the old Indian village of 

 Tuxnlu, has already justified its name of Fro/jrcso, although the only advantage it 

 enjoys over Sisal is its relative proximity to the capital. To shipping it is equally 

 inaccessible, large vessels having to anchor in an open roadstead from three to six 

 miles from the port. So dangerous is this roadstead that steamers and sailing 

 vessels are always ready to weigh anchor and escape to the high sea ; towards noon 

 every day communication with the shore becomes almost impossible, owing to the 

 violence of the surf under the action of the fierce northern gales. 



Over 50 miles east of Merida, following the windings of the route, and on the 

 verge of the more thickly-peopled districts, stands the ancient city of IzamaJ, 

 so named from Itzmatul (Itzenmatul), " God of the Dew." But this old 

 capital was already in ruins at the time of the conquest, and was regarded only 

 as a holy city to which pilgrims flocked from all parts of the four highways 

 radiating in the directir>n of the cardinal points. Twelve pyramidal or conic 

 mounds, each crowned wàth a temple or palace, rose at that time above the city, 

 but are now merely shapeless piles of refuse visible above the dense foliage of 



