404 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



smaller apartment, containing an enclosed altar five 

 feet long, and three feet six inches deep, for burning 

 copal. The roof had fallen, and trees wove grov^- 

 ing out of the floor. 



Near this is another building, larger than the last, 

 constructed on the same plan, but more ruined. 

 These buildings were all w^ithin about two hundred 

 feet of the steps of the Castillo. We were in the 

 very act of leaving before we discovered them, and 

 but for the accidental attempt of Doctor Cabot to 

 cut through in search of birds, or if he had hap- 

 pened to cut a few yards to the right hand or the 

 left, we should have gone away ignorant of their 

 existence. 



It will be borne in mind that when this city was 

 inhabited and clear of trees, the buildings were all 

 visible from the sea; the Spaniards are known to 

 have sailed along this coast, and the reader will ask 

 if they have given us no accounts of its existence. 

 The narrative of the expedition of Grijalva, taken 

 up at the point at which we left it, after crossing 

 from Cozumel, continues : " We ran along day and 

 night, and the next day toward sunset we saw a 

 bourg, or village, so large that Seville would not 

 have appeared larger or better. We saw there a 

 very high tower. There was upon the bank a 

 crowd of Indians, who carried two standards, which 

 they raised and lowered as signs to us to come and 

 join them. The same day we arrived at a bay, near 

 which was a tower, the highest we had seen. We 



