RUINS OF SILAN. 



429 



fallen, and the ruins had made the whole a long, con- 

 fused, and undistinguishable mass. The top com- 

 manded an extensive view of a great wooded plain, 

 and near by, rising above the trees, was another 

 mound, which, within a few years, had been crown- 

 ed with an edifice, called, as at Chichen and Tuloom, 

 El Castillo. The padre, a young man, but little over 

 thirty, remembered when this Castillo stood with its 

 doorways open, pillars in them, and corridors around. 

 The sight of these ruins was entirely unexpected ; 

 if they had been all we had met with in the country, 

 we should have gazed upon them with perplexity and 

 wonder; and they possessed unusual interest from the 

 fact that they existed in a place, the name of which 

 was known and familiar to us as that of an exist- 

 ing aboriginal town at the time of the conquest. 



In tracing the disorderly flight of the Spaniards 

 from Chichen Itza, we find them first at Silan, which 

 is described by Herrera as being " Then a fine Tow^n, 

 the Lord whereof was a Youth of the Race of the 

 Cheles, then a Christian, and great Friend to Cap- 

 tain Francis de Montejo, who received and enter- 

 tained them. Tirrok was near Silan ; that and the 

 other Towns along the Coast were subject to the 

 Cheles, who, having been no way disobliged by the 

 Spaniards, did not disturb them, and so they con- 

 tinued some Months, when, seeing no Possibility of 

 being supplied with Men and other Things they 

 wanted, they resolved quite to abandon that Coun- 

 try. In order to it, they were to march to Cam- 



