CHAPTER XII.

Reception at Campeachy—The City—Public Buildings—The Convent—The Market—Charity—An Ancient Custom—Population—The College—Foundations of the City—Subterraneous Caverns—The Suburbs—The Harbor—Climate and Health—Various Ruins—The Author’s Collection of Idols—Dr. Morton on the Archæology of Yucatan—Other Ruins—Reptiles and Insects—A Concealed Nation—The Brothers Camachos.

My reception at Campeachy was extremely gratifying. There is evidently a class of society here which contrasts favorably with any to be found in the other cities of the province. The streets are narrow and irregular; and have a natural pavement of flat stone, which is much broken, and makes an exceedingly rough route for carriages. The buildings have not the clean appearance of those of Merida, owing to the extreme humidity that accompanies the sea winds; but they display more wealth and taste.

The public buildings on the square are of two stories, and tastefully ornamented and painted. The churches, as usual, are the most conspicuous public works. The private houses, generally, are of one-story, and well painted. There are few good two-story houses in the place.

The convent at Campeachy is a huge mass of stoneand mortar; the walls of which bear the marks of the balls from the cannon of the besiegers of 1840, when the government troops fired upon the town. The cannonading was continued for three days, but without doing much execution! The city was obliged, however, to capitulate, for want of ammunition and supplies.

The market is well furnished with fruit, vegetables, and fish, and the customary supplies of meat generally found in similar establishments throughout Mexico; but articles are much dearer here than in other parts of Yucatan. This is owing, probably, to the great influx of strangers. The greater amount of money thrown into circulation has of course a tendency to enhance the value of the necessaries and luxuries of life, here, as elsewhere.

Every Saturday brings from the country to the streets of this city a horde of Indian beggars, who are not to be seen here upon any other day of the week, and to whom alms are liberally distributed by the inhabitants. This is a custom, no doubt, that is handed down from the time of the conquest. The friars were in the habit of giving charity to the poor on the same day.

The city, including the suburbs outside the walls, contains a population of about fifteen thousand. There is an “alamede” outside these walls, which affords a pretty little place for a walk, and there are pleasant drives around in the neighborhood. There is a college in Campeachy similar to that of Merida, with six professors, the highest salary of any one ofwhom is six hundred dollars per annum. There are fifty-five pupils, besides thirteen on the foundation. Like all other literary institutions in this country, it is poorly supported.

The town of Campeachy, built entirely of a calcareous hewn stone, stands upon a foundation of the same substance, which extends throughout the whole peninsula, retreating from the sea-shore with a gradual elevation, until it reaches to the height of five hundred feet, the level of Sierra Alta, near Tecax. This immense rock has doubtless furnished material, before the conquest, for the construction of those stupendous temples, and other magnificent buildings, that now constitute the ruins of this country.

The whole of Campeachy rests upon a subterraneous cavern of the ancient Mayas. It is now difficult to ascertain whether these quarries or galleries, which, according to the traditions of the country, are understood to be immense, served for the abode of the people who executed the work. Nothing reveals the marks of man’s sojournings here; not even the traces of smoke upon the vaults were visible. It is more probable that the greater part of this excavation was used as a depository for their dead. This supposition has been strengthened by the discovery of many openings of seven feet deep by twenty inches in breadth, dug horizontally in the walls of the caverns. These excavations, however, are few; and the galleries have been but little investigated and less understood. Even the inhabitants of the dwellingsabove know scarcely any thing respecting these dark habitations.

These catacombs occasion frequent accidents. “Some time before my arrival,” says Waldeck, “the centre of Moille street caved in. Happily, this gallery did not extend beneath the houses. Arches were erected that brought the street to its original level, by the aid of a French engineer, M. Journot.”

The principal suburbs of Campeachy are San Roman to the south of the town, Guadaloupe and San Francisco to the north. Each of these has its church. The city has three churches and five convents.

At the extremity of the San Roman suburb is the general cemetery, around which is a broken wall and a façade, almost in ruins, feebly protecting it from the observation of passengers. During the prevalence of the cholera, this depository was found insufficient to accommodate the numerous patients, and two others were constructed to meet the emergency. These last were surrounded by palisades, and are situated to the right of the road leading to Lerma. Nor did these suffice; sculls and bones were to be seen in heaps above ground.

At some distance from the cemetery is a small battery that the sea washes at high water. About two hundred yards to the right of this is the pest-house, for the accommodation of leprous patients. This establishment is more expensive than useful, as it has been long satisfactorily known that the disease is not contagious. Those unhappily detained prisonersthere are lodged and fed gratuitously, and no labor is exacted from them.

Within less than a mile of this latter building is an hacienda, called Buena Vista; near it is a colossal tree of the mimosa class, which may be seen for more than a league at sea. To the east-north-east of the hacienda is an opening, similar to those above mentioned, that is supposed to lead to the subterraneous caverns. It is concealed from the eye of a careless observer, and is very little known. This, however, is very convenient for smugglers, who resort to it in the night to conceal contraband merchandise, and who are, perhaps, the only persons that make these places, in the bosom of the earth, materially serviceable.

The harbor at Campeachy is shallow, and a vessel which draws more than six feet is obliged to anchor a league from the shore. In spite of this disadvantage, from the superior excellence of the timber, and other causes, a number of vessels are built here, measuring a hundred feet in the keel, which are launched by the aid of ingenious contrivances invented for the purpose.

A theatre has been erected here under the architectural direction of M. Journot, before named. This is one of the most beautiful edifices of the place. The internal decorations, however, will not compare with the handsome exterior.

The climate of this part of the province appears to be healthy. The heat is extreme at noon; but the land breeze in the morning, and the sea breeze in theevening, render the atmosphere, at those periods, most delightful. During the rainy season, which commences about the last of May, and ends in September, intermittent fevers are quite prevalent. These, however, by temperate and regular habits on the part of the inhabitants, and attention to the wearing of flannel, and such garments as are suited to the changes of the weather, and keeping from unnecessary exposure, may, in a great measure, be avoided.

In the neighborhood of Campeachy are many ruins which richly deserve the attention of travellers, but which the time to which my short excursion was limited, would not permit me the gratification of visiting to any extent. Upon a small river near Champoton, some leagues inland, where it enlarges to a very considerable lake, are situated many ruins of a kind of sculpture displaying the finest taste; but the edifices are so buried beneath the water and earth that surround them, that it would require great labor and perseverance to investigate them. Four leagues to the north of Campeachy there exist many tumuli, which cannot be visited during the rainy season without much risk and inconvenience. Three leagues farther north is a little peninsula, called Jaina. Here is situated a very large tumulus, around which have been found a number of small earthen figures, and some flint heads of lances, very finely formed. To the antiquarian and the curious this ruin presents many attractions.

From this tumulus, and other places contiguous to ruins of immense cities, in the vicinity of Campeachy,were procured among the crumbling walls, some skeletons and bones that have evidently been interred for ages, also a collection of idols, fragments, flint spearheads, and axes; besides sundry articles of pottery-ware, well wrought, glazed, and burnt.

These interesting relics are now in the possession of the author. The reader will observe the Engravings of the most important, and those that are in the most perfect state of preservation.

Plates No. I., II., and III., are correct designs of the Idols, which are supposed to have been the household gods of the people who inhabited these regions. They are hollow, and contain balls about the size of a pea, that are supposed to be formed of the ashes of the victims that have been sacrificed to the particular god in which they are deposited.

Plate No. IV. represents fragments composed of the same material as the Idols. Whether these were intended for the same, or ornaments to their vessels, I am unable to decide.

Plate No. V. represents the designs of the pots and vessels of the collection, which were probably used as burners in the performance of religious rites and ceremonies.

Plate No. VI. represents a Turtle, beautifully wrought in a fine hard earthy substance. This figure, by its frequent appearance throughout the ruins of Yucatan, was undoubtedly one of great importance, either from its religious or civil associations. This plate also represents an earthen pan, well wrought, (apparently turned in a lathe,) and glazed, whichwas probably one of their household utensils; also a stone pounder, which was probably used in the same department.

The Idols, which are, so far as I am at present informed, the only ones from Yucatan ever before brought into this country, are unlike any that have been found in other parts of Mexico. I have compared them with those brought from the city of Mexico by Hon. Joel R. Poinsett, and now in the cabinet of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and have been able to discover no analogy between them. This fact gives color for the presumption that the people prepared thesepenatesaccording to their respective tastes, and with little reference to any standard or canon.

The bones and other relics of the persons who had been for a very long time dead, were now nearly decomposed. Being under the impression that these remains might assist in explaining the origin of the early inhabitants, or throw light upon other difficulties in the archæology of Yucatan, I determined to preserve and bring them with me. Immediately upon my arrival in Philadelphia I presented these remains to Dr. Morton, a gentleman who is so well known to the scientific world that it is unnecessary for me to say, that any opinion which he would be led to by their examination would deserve, and receive, the highest consideration from men of science throughout the world. A few days before the present chapter went to press, but too late to notice the fact in a more appropriate place, I had the honor ofreceiving a letter from Dr. Morton, in which he favors me with the result of his examination; an attention for which I am the more grateful, inasmuch as it was accompanied with a permission to make any use of the writer’s remarks which, in my opinion, would be most acceptable to my readers. I have no hesitation in presenting to them all the contents of the above communication which are pertinent to the subject about which we are concerned:—

No. 1.8inLong, 5¼inWide.

No. 2.6½inLong, 3½inWide.5¼inLong, 3¼inWide.5¼inLong, 4⅝inWide.7inLong, 4¼inWide.

No. 3.6inLong, 2½inWide.5inLong, 2¼inWide.5½inLong, 3¾inWide.3¼inLong, 2¾inWide.

No. 4.FRAGMENTS.

No. 54¼inHigh, 4inDiameter.2½inHigh, 3inDiameter.3¼inHigh, 5¼inDiameter.

No. 6.5inLong, 3inWide.9inin diameter, 3inin height.6inin diameter, 7inheight,

“Such is the extremely disintegrated state of some of these bones, and so little animal matter remains in their composition, that I should suppose them to belong to an ancient period in the history of our aboriginal nations; a conjecture which is sustained by the circumstances under which they were found. One of these skeletons is that of a man perhaps twenty-five years of age, with large bones and no trace ofepiphyses. A few fragments of cranial bones are also large and massive; which remark is also applicable to both the upper and lower jaws and the teeth, which latter are singularly perfect. The os calcis, (heel bone,) and other parts of the foot, are of delicate proportions; thus presenting that contrast between the broad head and small hands and feet, which has long been observed as one of the characteristics of our native tribes. Parts of a second skeleton, from the same mound, have belonged to a smaller person; but they are so much broken as to preclude any certain indications of age or sex.

“Of the two remaining skeletons, only a few fragments of the long bones, and others of the hands andfeet, remain. They are much larger than those already mentioned, and have no doubt pertained to individuals above the ordinary stature.

“I am extremely indebted to you for the opportunity you have thus afforded me of examining and comparing these ancient relics of our native Indian race; for, dilapidated as they are, their characters, as far as I can ascertain them, correspond with all the osteological remains of that people which have hitherto come under my observation; and go to confirm the position, that all the American tribes (excepting the Esquimaux, who are obviously of Asiatic origin) are of the same unmixed race. I have examined the sculls (now in my possession) of four hundred individuals, belonging to tribes which have inhabited almost every region of North and South America, including the civilized as well as the savage communities, and I find the same type of organization to pervade and characterize them all.

“I much regret that we have in this country so few sculls of the Mongolian or Polar tribes of northern Asia. These are all-important in deciding the question whether the aboriginal American race is peculiar, and distinct from all others; a position which I have always maintained, and which I think will be verified when the requisite means of comparison are procured.”

At Cape Catoche is an entire city buried beneath the luxurious vegetation, which has not yet attracted much attention from visitors. From this circumstance, probably, some singular results might be thereward of those who have the enterprise to examine these ruins. Near the river Lagartos, and upon its banks, stand two lonely pyramids. Upon the eastern shore of the main land, opposite to the island of Cozumel, there appears a long line of ruined edifices, occupying an extent of ground nearly equal to that over which are spread the ruins of Uxmal.

At point Soliman are other ruins of great interest and little known. On the south side of Espiritu Santo Bay are also very extensive ruins. In following the route leading to Bacalar, one may discover towers, whose summits overtop the surrounding trees.

All the Cordilleras, from Tecax to Muna, is strewed with ruins of towns and isolated monuments. Who shall tell how many myriads of men were required to erect and to people such numerous and stupendous cities!

There are many poisonous reptiles and insects in Yucatan, whose bite is most deadly. The Indians, however, have a ready specific in the various plants which abound here, and which renders them entirely harmless.

There is a district of country situated between Guatemala, Yucatan, and Chiapas that has never yet been subdued. This section is surrounded by mountains, and is said to be inaccessible, except by one way, and that not generally known. No one yet, who has had the boldness to follow the inhabitants to their wild retreat, has ever returned to render an account of their journey. The inhabitants are represented as speaking the Maya and Tchole languages, andmany of them as conversing well in Spanish. From the latter circumstance, they are enabled to visit the nearest cities, sell their tobacco, the principal article they cultivate, and afterwards to return to their retreats. They are constituted of the Lacandrones and other savage tribes; are expert warriors, remarkably athletic, and very cruel. They are worshippers of idols, and their religious ceremonies are said to have undergone little or no change.

Palenque is in the neighborhood of this settlement; and Waldeck, who says he has conversed with some of these people, understood that they had white persons among them—but whether they stay voluntarily, or are detained as prisoners, he has not mentioned. The same nation is spoken of by Mr. Stephens. Their number is estimated at thirty thousand; their secluded mode of life makes it almost impossible to arrive at any thing like correct impressions respecting them. The Indians of Yucatan and the neighboring provinces have been seen in conversation with persons from this district; they, however, appear to know as little of the people of whom I speak as others. Could a friendly intercourse, by any possibility, be established with this surprising country, there is scarcely a doubt that a complete knowledge of the former inhabitants of the immense ruins scattered throughout the provinces would be revealed. That their temples and records remain in safety, and are capable of speaking to posterity, there can scarcely be a question.

I doubt if the above be a true estimate of theirnumbers, since they have been enabled to sustain themselves for ages (no one knows how long) against enemies and intestine wars and dissolution. It would be more reasonable to suppose that they are the outcast Pelasgi of some invading nation, and the remnants of a power that once defended those wasted towns that now lie a huge mass of scattered ruins. The gathered fragments of Palenque, and other conquered places of equal importance, may have concentrated their broken strength within the boundaries of these hills, and, under the strong impulse of desperation, they may have preserved their nationality in defiance of all the force that surrounded them. It may well excite universal astonishment, when the fact becomes known, that there actually exists, within a territory of five hundred miles, a distinct people, that have governed themselves for ages, and that they continue to do so without assistance or protection. It would be a lesson to mankind to ascertain how they have managed their self-governing principles, and how they have preserved the national individuality. Three centuries have transpired since the conquest; and, if neither Yankee nor Irishman have found his way among these Lacandrones before this, it deserves the careful consideration both of the psychologist and the statesman.

I had the pleasure of meeting two padres in Campeachy; and, as this is my first offence of the kind, I hope to be forgiven for mentioning their names—the brothers Camacho. This I do solely with a view of promoting antiquarian research. These gentlemenhave devoted themselves to science and learning; and they are the only ones I encountered during my absence who were enthusiasts in regard to the interesting ruins of Yucatan. They have spent much labor in individual examinations; have sacrificed liberally for the benefit of travellers; and would, if they lived in a more enlightened country, be respected and honored. My visit to their house was an interesting one. They were alone with their cats!—Their apartments presented the appearance of a real curiosity-shop, or a necromancer’s conjuring room, filled up, as they were, with every thing wonderful, and strange, and antique. They were extremely kind; and presented me many interesting antiquities of their country. I left them and their city with regret; they were among the very few whom during my absence I had met with pleasure and parted from with regret.

I must now close this rambling account of my journeying in Yucatan.

I embarked from Campeachy on the eleventh day of April at daylight, on board of a small American schooner bound for New Orleans, where I arrived on the twentieth, after an absence of four months, which I calendar among the most instructive months of my life.

Though my journal terminates here, I trust I shall be pardoned, by a portion of my readers at least, for soliciting their attention to some further particulars connected with the present political condition of Yucatan, and also to a brief criticism of the Maya language, to which allusion has already been made.However imperfect these discussions may be, I trust they may not be found wholly without profit to the very large portion of my countrymen who, like myself, have never before had their attention distinctly called to the consideration of these subjects.

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