202 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



and only as a meanfe of conveying an idea of the 

 multitude of idols and figures thrown down by the 

 Spaniards, that the taking of the island having been 

 at half past eight in the morning, they were occu- 

 pied, with but little intermission, in throwing down, 

 breaking, and burning idols and statues, from that 

 hour until half past hve in the evening, when the 

 drum called them to eat, which, says the historian, 

 was very necessary after so great labour ; and if one 

 day served for destroying the idols, one hundred and 

 forty-five years, in which were erected a fort, church- 

 es, and other buildings that now exist, may well have 

 effected the complete destruction of all the native 

 edifices for idol worship. 



I have asked where are the adoratorios and tem- 

 ples of Peten, and I am here tempted to ask one 

 other question. Where are the Indians whose 

 heads on that day of carnage and terror covered 

 the water from the island to the main ? Where 

 are those unhappy fugitives, and the inhabitants of 

 the other islands and of the territory of Itza 1 

 They fled before the terrible Spaniard, plunged 

 deeper into the wilderness, and are dimly connected 

 in my mind with that mysterious city before referred 

 to ; in fact, it is not difficult for me to believe that 

 in the wild region beyond the Lake of Peten, never 

 yet penetrated by a white man, Indians are now liv- 

 ing as they did before the discovery of America; 

 and it is almost a part of this belief that they are 

 using and occupying adoratorios and temples Uke 



