428 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



in that region, be like finding a fountain in the desert, 

 or, more poetically, like finding money. The supply 

 of water would be boundless. Luneros without number 

 might draw from it, and the old city be repeopled with- 

 out any new expense for wells or tanks. 



While I was making the circuit of these ruins, Mr. 

 Catherwood proceeded to the Casa del Gobernador, 

 which title, according to the naming of the Indians, indi- 

 cates the principal building of the old city, the residence 

 of the governor, or royal house. It is the grandest in 

 position, the most stately in architecture and proportions, 

 and the most perfect in preservation of all the struc- 

 tures remaining at Uxmal. 



The plate opposite represents the ground-plan, with 

 the three ranges of terraces on which it stands. The 

 first terrace is six hundred feet long and five feet high. 

 It is walled with cut stone, and on the top is a platform 

 twenty feet broad, from which rises another terrace fif- 

 teen feet high. At the corners this terrace is supported 

 by cut stones, having the faces rounded so as to give a 

 better finish than with sharp angles. The great plat- 

 form above is flat and clear of trees, but abounding in 

 green stumps of the forest but lately cleared away, and 

 now planted, or, rather, from its irregularity, sown with 

 corn, which as yet rose barely a foot from the ground. 

 At the southeast corner of this platform is a row of round 

 pillars eighteen inches in diameter and three or four 

 feet high, extending about one hundred feet along the 

 platform ; and these were the nearest approach to pil- 

 lars or columns that we saw in all our exploration of 

 the ruins of that country. In the middle of the terrace, 

 along an avenue leading to a range of steps, was a bro- 

 ken, round pillar, inclined and falling, with trees grow- 

 ing around it. It was part of our purpose to make an 



