RUINS OF UXMAL. 



413 



ture of Delmonico's saloon, we sympathized with him 

 cordially. 



In the afternoon, rested and refreshed, we set out for 

 a walk to the ruins. The path led through a noble 

 piece of woods, in which there were many tracks, and 

 our Indian guide lost his way. Mr. C, being unwell, 

 returned to the hacienda. We took another road, and, 

 emerging suddenly from the woods, to my astonish- 

 ment came at once upon a large open field strewed 

 with mounds of ruins, and vast buildings on terraces, 

 and pyramidal structures, grand and in good preserva- 

 tion, richly ornamented, without a bush to obstruct the 

 view, and in picturesque effect almost equal to the ruins 

 of Thebes ; for these, standing on the flat valley of the 

 Nile, and extending on both sides of the river, nowhere 

 burst in one view upon the sight. Such was the report 

 I made to Mr. Catherwood on my return, who, lying in 

 his hammock unwell and out of spirits, told me I was 

 romancing ; but early the next morning we were on the 

 ground, and his comment was that the reality exceeded 

 my description. 



The place of which I am now speaking was beyond 

 all doubt once a large, populous, and highly civilized 

 city, and the reader can nowhere find one word of it 

 on any page of history. "Who built it, why it was lo- 

 cated on that spot, away from water or any of those 

 natural advantages which have determined the sites of 

 cities whose histories are known, what led to its aban- 

 donment and destruction, no man can tell. The only 

 name by which it is known is that of the hacienda on 

 which it stands. In the oldest deed belonging to the 

 Peon family, which goes back a hundred and forty 

 years, the buildings are referred to, in the boundaries 

 of the estate, as Las Casas de Piedra. This is the only 



