274 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



months, the cacique who had been lord of that 

 country furnishing six thousand Indians. Built 

 upon the ruins of another race, they are now them- 

 selves tottering and going to decay. 



The convent had two stories, with a great corri- 

 dor all round ; but the doors were broken and the 

 windows wide open, rain beat into the rooms, and 

 grass grew on the floor. 



The roof of the church formed a grand prome- 

 nade, commanding an almost boundless view of the 

 great region of country of which it was once the 

 chief place and centre. Far as the eye could reach 

 was visible the great sierra, running from east to 

 west, a dark line along the plain. All the rest was 

 plain, dotted only by small clearings for villages. 

 My guide pointed out and named Tekax, Akil, Ox- 

 cutzcab, Schochnoche, Pustonich, Ticul, Jan, Cha- 

 pap. Mama, Tipika, Teab, the same villages laid 

 down in the ancient map, whose caciques came up, 

 three hundred years before, to settle the boundaries 

 of their lands ; and he told me that, under a clearer 

 atmosphere, more were visible. Some I had visited, 

 and had seen the crumbUng remains of the ancient \ 

 town ; and looking at them from the roof of the 

 church, the old map gave them a vividness, reality, 

 and life, as they had been three hundred years be- 

 fore, more exciting than the wildest speculations in 

 regard to lost and unknown races. The sun went 

 down, and the gloom of night gathered over the 

 great plain, emblematic of the fortunes and the fate 

 of its ancient inhabitants. 



