LAKE OF PETEN. 



191 



CHAPTER XL 



End of Journey in this Direction. — ^Lake of Peten. — Probable Ex- 

 istence of Ruins in the Wilderness. — Islands in the Lake of Pe- 

 ten. — Peten Grande. — Mission of two Monks. — Great Idol of the 

 Figure of a Horse. — Broken by the Monks, who in Consequence 

 are obliged to leave the Island. — Second Mission of the Monks. 

 — Sent away by the Indians. — Expedition of Don Martin Ursua. 

 — Arrival at the Island. — Attacked by the Indians, who are de- 

 feated. — Don Martin takes Possession of Itza. — Temples and 

 Idols of the Indians. — Destroyed by the Spaniards. — Flight of 

 the Indians into the Wilderness. — Preparations. — Illness of Mr. 

 Catherwood. — Effects of Gambling. — From the Church to the 

 Gaming-table. — How People Live at Iturbide. — Departure. — 

 Rancho of Noyaxche. 



Our journey in this direction is now ended. We 

 were on the frontier of the inhabited part of Yuca- 

 tan, and within a few leagues of the last village. 

 Beyond was a wilderness, stretching off to the Lake 

 of Peten, and that region of Lacandones, or unbap- 

 tized Indians, in which, according to the suggestion 

 made in my previous volumes, lay that mysterious 

 city never reached by a white man, but still occu- 

 pied by Indians precisely in the same state as before 

 the discovery of America. During my sojourn in Yu- 

 catan, my account of this city was published in one 

 of the Merida papers, and among intelligent persons 

 there was a universal behef that beyond the Lake 

 of Peten there was a region of unconverted Indians 



