280 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



expressed by me, but I consider the discovery of the 

 truth on this subject as far more important than the 

 confirmation of any theory of my own ; and I may 

 add that, in general, it bears out and sustains the 

 views presented in these pages. 



On the afternoon of the 11th of March we bade 

 farewell to Don Pio Perez, and set out for Chichen. 

 Ever since we left home we had had our eyes upon 

 this place. We had become eager to reach it, and 

 the increasing bulk of these volumes warns me that 

 I must not now linger on the road. I shall there- 

 fore barely say that the first night we stopped at 

 the village of Tailixiu, the second at Yaxcaba, and 

 at noon of the third day we reached Piste, about 

 two miles distant from Chichen. We had heard 

 some unpropitious accounts concerning the hospi- 

 tality of the proprietor of the hacienda, and thought 

 it safer not to alarm him by going upon him with 

 appetites sharpened by a hard day's ride, but first to 

 lay the village under a moderate contribution. 



At four o'clock we left Piste, and very soon 

 we saw rising high above the plain the Castillo 

 of Chichen. In half an hour we were among 

 vthe ruins of this ancient city, with all the great 

 buildings in full view, casting prodigious shadows 

 over the plain, and presenting a spectacle which, 

 even after all that we had seen, once more exci- 

 ted in us emotions of wonder. The camino real 

 ran through the midst of them, and the field was so 

 open that, without dismounting, we rode close in 



