RUINS OF SAN FRANCISCO. 273 



cept from its vastness and the specimens of sculp- 

 tured stone seen in the village, but beyond doubt it 

 was of the same character as Uxmal, and erected by 

 the same people. Its vicinity to the village had made 

 its destruction more complete. For generations it 

 had served as a mere quarry to furnish the inhabi- 

 tants with building-stone. The present proprietor 

 was then excavating and selling, and he lamented 

 to me that the piedra labrada, or worked stone, was 

 nearly exhausted, and his profit from this source 

 cut off. 



A few words toward identifying these ruins. 

 The plan for reducing Yucatan was to send a 

 small number of Spaniards, who were called veci- 

 nos (the name still used to designate the white pop- 

 ulation), into the Indian towns and villages where it 

 was thought advisable to make settlements. We 

 have clear and authentic accounts of the existence 

 of a large Indian town called Ticul, certainly in 

 the same neighbourhood where the Spanish village 

 of that name now stands. It must have been either 

 on the site now occupied by the latter, or on that 

 occupied by the ruins of San Francisco. Suppo- 

 sing the first supposition to be correct, not a single 

 vestige of the Indian city remains. Now it is in- 

 contestible that the Spaniards found in the Indian 

 towns of Yucatan, mounds, temples, and other large 

 buildings of stone. If those on the hacienda of 

 San Francisco are of older date, and the work of 

 races who have passed away, as vast remains of 



Vol. I.— M m 



