But no one seems to have examined this island, with a truly antiquarian spirit, until it was visited in 1841, by M. Dumanoir, who commanded a French vessel of war which was then anchored at the island. Previous to this time it had been trodden by thousands of idle sailors and landsmen who raked its surface for the Indian relics of pottery and obsidian which lay scattered in every direction; and, consequently there was little of value to be discovered above ground. Accordingly, Monsieur Dumanoir undertook to make suitable excavations, and, in the centre of the islet he discovered various sepulchres, in which the skeletons were found in a state of excellent preservation. Besides this, his trouble was rewarded by the exhumation of large numbers of clay vases, covered with paintings and etchings, together with idols, images, collars, bracelets, arms, teeth of dogs and tigers, and a beautiful urn carved either in white marble or in the alabaster which abounds in the neighborhood of Puebla.
MISANTLA.
About thirty miles from the town of Jalapa, on a ridge of mountains in the canton of Misantla, rises the Cerro or hill of Estillero, near which there is a precipitous mountain on whose narrow strip of table land at the summit, were discovered in 1835, the remains of an extensive ancient city. The site of this town is perfectly isolated. Steep rocks and deep ravines surround the mountain upon which it was built, and beyond these dells and precipices there is a
lofty wall of hills from whose summit the sea in the neighborhood of Nautla is distinctly visible. The table lands upon which the ruins are found is only approachable by the gentler declivities in the direction of the hill of Estillero; and, at all other points, the lonely eminence appears to have been sundered from the surrounding regions by some volcanic convulsion.