376 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



it supplanted. When it was built or why it was 

 abandoned, and, indeed, its very existence, are ut- 

 terly unknown to the inhabitants of New Spain. 

 There is no record or tradition in regard to it, and, 

 doubtless, any attempt at this day to investigate its 

 history would be fruitless. In the obscurity that 

 now envelops it we read a lesson upon the vanity 

 of human expectations, showing the ignorance of 

 the conquerors in regard to the value of the new- 

 ly-discovered countries in America. Benito Pe- 

 rez, a priest who accompanied the expedition of 

 Grijalva, soHcited from the king the bishopric of 

 this island. At the same time, a more distinguished 

 ecclesiastic was asking for that of the island of 

 Cuba. The king advanced the latter to the higher 

 honour of the bishopric of Cozumel, and put off 

 Benito Perez with what was considered the com- 

 paratively insignificant see of Culhua. Cozumel is 

 now a desert, and Culhua, or Mexico, is the rich- 

 est bishopric in New Spain. 



But I have a particular reason for presenting to 

 the reader this ruined church. It is a notion, or, 

 rather, a principle, pervading all the old Spanish 

 writers, that at some early day Christianity had been 

 preached to the Indians, and connected with this is 

 the belief that the cross was found by the first con- 

 querors in the province of Yucatan as a symbol of 

 Christian worship. Prophecies are recorded sup- 

 posed to show a traditionary knowledge of its former 

 existence, and foretelling that from the rising of the 



