DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS. 165 



fortune. His education had been neglected ; and 

 for confounding some technical distinctions in the 

 laws of property, he was banished from a hacienda 

 near Merida to the deserts of Uxmal. We were in 

 such straits for want of an interpreter, and, except 

 during the short visit of the mayoral, so entirely des- 

 titute, that we overlooked entirely Bernaldo's moral 

 weakness, withdrew him from the workmen, and led 

 him to the sala of the palace, where, in the course 

 of conveying some instructions to Chaipa Chi, he 

 showed such an interest in the subject that Doctor 

 Cabot immediately undertook to give him a lesson 

 in cookery. In his first essay he was so apt that 

 we forthwith inducted him as ruler over the three 

 stones that composed our kitchen fireplace, with all 

 the privileges and emoluments of sipping and tast- 

 ing, and left Chaipa Chi to bestow all her energies 

 upon the business that her soul loved, the making 

 of tortillas. 



Being now domesticated, I shall introduce the 

 reader without preface to the ruins of Uxmal. In 

 the account of my former visit I endeavoured to give 

 a brief description of these ruins. Hurried away, 

 however, without plans or drawings, it was impos- 

 sible to present any definite idea of their character. 

 The plate opposite represents the plan of this an- 

 cient city, as indicated by the remaining edifices. 

 The ranges were all taken with the compass, and 

 the distances measured, and the dimensions of the 

 buildings and their distances from each other can be 



