200 



ISLE OF SACRIFICIOS. 



The fountain which we have already mentioned is a single female 

 figure in an indecent squatting attitude, nineteen feet high, and cut 

 from the solid rock. The remains of a pipe which conveyed the 

 water to it, are still visible behind the head, and the liquid passed 

 through the body of the gigantic image until it was discharged be- 

 neath into the basin or canal, by which it was carried to the neigh- 

 boring town. The Indian tradition, as recounted by Nebel, states, 

 that the ancient inhabitants of this spot, abandoned it, in conse- 

 quence of the unfertility of the soil and the failure of the streams, 

 and that they took refuge in, or united themselves with the occupants 

 of Papantla. 



ISLAND OF SACRIFICIOS. 

 At the period of the Conquest of Mexico, this small island, which 

 lies a few miles from the present city and port of Vera Cruz, and 

 under whose lee is found the best anchorage on the Eastern Coast 

 for vessels of war, was unquestionably a spot sacred to sacrifice 

 and burial. 



But no one seems to have examined this island, with a truly anti- 

 quarian spirit, until it was visited in 1841, by M. Dumanoir, who 

 commanded a French vessel of war which was then anchored at the 

 island. Previous to this time it had been trodden by thousands of 

 idle sailors and landsmen who raked its surface for the Indian 

 relics of pottery and obsidian which lay scattered in every direc- 

 tion ; and, consequently there was little of value to be discovered 

 above ground. Accordingly, Monsieur Dumanoir undertook to 

 make suitable excavations, and, in the centre of the islet he discov- 

 ered various sepulchres, in which the skeletons were found in a 

 state of excellent preservation. Besides this, his trouble was re- 

 warded by the exhumation of large numbers of clay vases, covered 

 with paintings and etchings, together with idols, images, collars, 

 bracelets, arms, teeth of dogs and tigers, and a beautiful urn carved 

 either in white marble or in the alabaster which abounds in the 

 neighborhood of Puebla. 



MIS ANTL A. 



About thirty miles from the town of Jalapa, on a ridge of moun- 

 tains in the canton of Misantla, rises the Cerro or hill of Estillero, 

 near which there is a precipitous mountain on whose narrow strip 

 of table land at the summit, were discovered in 1835, the remains 

 of an extensive ancient city. The site of this town is perfectly 

 isolated. Steep rocks and deep ravines surround the mountain upon 

 which it was built, and beyond these dells and precipices there is a 



