TEMPLES OF THE INDIANS. 



371 



in the place, and Indian masons, by whom, under 

 our direction, a very handsome altar was construct- 

 ed, whereon we placed an image of the Holy Virgin ; 

 and the carpenters having made a crucifix, which 

 was erected in a small chapel close to the altar, 

 mass was said by the reverend father Juan Dias, 

 and listened to by the priests, chiefs, and the rest of 

 the natives with great attention." 



These are the accounts given by eyewitnesses of 

 what they saw on the first visits of the Spaniards. 

 The later historians are more explicit, and speak of 

 Cozumel as a place containing many adoratorios 

 and temples, as a principal sanctuary and place of 

 pilgrimage, standing to Yucatan in the same relation 

 as Rome to the Catholic world. Gomarra describes 

 one temple as being "like a square tower, broad 

 at the base, having steps on the sides, and at the 

 top a chamber covered with straw, with four doors 

 or windows, with their breastworks or corridors. In 

 the hollow, which seems like a chapel, they seat 

 or paint their gods. Such was that which stood 

 near the seacoast." 



By these accounts I had been induced to visit 

 the island of Cozumel; and an incidental notice 

 in the Modern Traveller, speaking of existing ruins 

 as remains of Spanish buildings, led me to suspect 

 that their character had been mistaken, and that 

 they were really vestiges of the original population ; 

 but on the ground we asked ourselves where to look 

 for them. Amid all the devastations that attended 



