456 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



Spaniards. Its desolation and ruin since are easily ac- 

 counted for. With the arr /val of the Spaniards the 

 v sceptre of the Indians departed. In the city of Mex- 

 ico every house was razed to the ground, and, beyond 

 doubt, throughout the country every gathering-place 

 or stronghold was broken up, the communities scat- 

 tered, their lofty temples thrown down, and their idols 

 burned, the palaces of the caciques ruined, the caciques 

 themselves made bondmen, and, by the same ruthless 

 policy which from time immemorial has been pursued 

 in a conquered country, all the mementoes of their an- 

 cestors and lost independence were destroyed or made 

 odious in their eyes. And, without this, we have au- 

 thentic accounts of great scourges which swept over, and 

 for a time depopulated and desolated, the whole of Yu- 

 catan. 



It perhaps destroys much of the interest that hangs 

 over these ruins to assign to them a modern date ; but 

 we live in an age whose spirit is to discard phantasms 

 and arrive at truth, and the interest lost in one partic- 

 ular is supplied in another scarcely inferior ; for, the 

 nearer we can bring the builders of these cities to our 

 own times, the greater is our chance of knowing all. 

 Throughout the country the convents are rich in manu- 

 scripts and documents written by the early fathers, ca- 

 ciques, and Indians, who very soon acquired the knowl- 

 edge of Spanish and the art of writing. These have 

 never been examined with the slightest reference to this 

 subject ; and I cannot help thinking that some precious 

 memorial is now mouldering in the library of a neigh- 

 bouring convent, which would determine the history of 

 some one of these ruined cities ; moreover, I cannot 

 help believing that the tablets of hieroglyphics will yet 

 be read. No strong curiosity has hitherto been direct- 



