THE COZUMEL CROSS. 



377 



sun should come a bearded people and white, who 

 should carry aloft the sign of the cross, which their 

 gods could not reach, and from which they should 

 fly away. The same vague idea exists to this day, 

 and, in general, when the padres pay any attention 

 to the antiquities of the country, they are always 

 quick in discovering some real or imaginary resem- 

 blance to the cross. A strong support of this belief 

 is advanced in the " Cozumel Cross" at Merida, 

 found on the island of Cozumel, and in the time of 

 Cogolludo, as at this day, supposed to have been an 

 object of reverence among the Indians before their 

 conversion to Christianity. 



Until the destruction of that edifice it stood on a 

 pedestal in the patio of the Franciscan convent, 

 and, as we were told, from the time when it was 

 placed there, no lightning had ever struck the build- 

 ing, as had often happened before. It is now in the 

 Church of the Mejorada, and in looking for it at 

 that place, Mr. Catherwood and myself were invited 

 into the cell of an octogenarian monk then lying 

 in his hammock, for many years unable to cross the 

 threshold of his door, but in the full exercise of his 

 mental powers, who told us, in a tone which seemed 

 to indicate that he had done what would procure 

 him a remission from many sins, that he had him- 

 self dug it up from among the ruins, and had it set 

 up where it is now seen. It is fixed in the wall of 

 the first altar on the left, and is almost the first ob- 

 ject that arrests the eye of one entering the church. 



Vol. II.— B b b 



