Rambles in Yucatan; or, Notes of Travel Through the Peninsula / Including a Visit to the Remarkable Ruins of Chi-Chen, Kabah, Zayi, and Uxmal. 2nd ed

by Benjamin Moore Norman

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, and many 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 their numbers, 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 gentlemen have 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.