322 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



by the Indians as incense, burned there but a short 

 time before ; an evidence, he says, of some supersti- 

 tion or idolatry recently committed by the Indians 

 of that place. He piously adds, " God help those 

 poor Indians, for the devil deceives them very ea- 

 sily." 



While in Merida I procured from Don Simon 

 Peon the title papers to this estate. They were 

 truly a formidable pile, compared with which the 

 papers in a protracted chancery or ejectment suit 

 would seem a billet-doux, and, unfortunately, a great 

 portion of them was in the Maya language; but 

 there was one folio volume in Spanish, and in this 

 was the first formal conveyance ever made of these 

 lands by the Spanish government. It bears date the 

 twelfth day of May, 1673, and is entitled a testimo- 

 nial of royal favour made to the Regidor Don Lo- 

 renzo de Evia, of four leagues of land (desde los 

 edificios de Uxmal) from the buildings of tJxmal to 

 the south, one to the east, another to the west, and 

 another to the north, for his distinguished merits 

 and services therein expressed. The preamble sets 

 forth that the Regidor Don Lorenzo de Evia, by a 

 writing that he presented to his majesty, made a nar- 

 rative showing that at sixteen leagues from Meri- 

 da, and three from the sierra of the village of Ticul, 

 were certain meadows and places named Uxmal- 

 checaxek, Tzemchan-Cemin-Curea-Kusultzac, Ex- 

 muue-Hixmon-nec, uncultivated and belonging to 

 the crown, which the Indians could not profit by 



