The expedition from Yucatan was in 1618, two monks taking part in it to convert the natives. They found at Tayasal the language, the manners, the customs and architecture of Yucatan before the Conquest, with a population of 25,000 to 30,000 souls, which would incline us to infer that the great cities we have visited were larger and contained more buildings than we thought possible.
“These temples,” says Cogolludo, “raised as usual on pyramids, were of the same dimensions as the largest churches in Yucatan, and were capable of holding over 1,000 persons. In one of them stood the Izimin Chac, Cortez’ horse, which seeing, one of the monks, Padre Juan de Orbita, filled with indignation, rushed at the idol and broke it with a huge stone.” But this ill-advised zeal well-nigh caused the destruction of the troop, which was only saved by the friendly interference of the cacique.[175]
There followed a second, then a third expedition under Martin Ursua (1696), who, on his march to Peten, found a place called Rohbeccan, “a city with edifices filled with idols.”
Tayasal was attacked and taken on the 2nd of March, 1696,[176] when the survivors of the struggle retired to the inaccessible vastnesses of the northern islands, their spirit still unbroken.
The more we advance, the clearer it becomes that if numerous towns were found deserted, it does not prove their antiquity, but rather the deep, universal hatred of the natives for the conquerors. This city had twelve temples in 1618, and twenty-one in 1696, so that nine were built during the seventeenth century; among the latter was the finest of all, described by Villa Gutierre Soto Mayor in the following words: “The great temple was entirely built of stones, lofty and square in shape, with a fine balcony of cut stones, and two ogival vaults, each side measuring 20 varas” (about 60 feet).[177] This, we think, disposes of the prehistoric temples scattered in the forests of the peninsula.
This temple, although more finely built, recalls the Castillo at Chichen, the chief features of which are reproduced here on a larger scale. Is not this sufficient proof that the monuments were modern, and not the work of an extinct race? We find Tayasal a descendant, a daughter of Chichen-Itza, just as Tikal is its ascendant or ancestress; the latter will give us the key to the chief cause of the Toltec migrations in Yucatan, and will explain the Toltec influence visible in the cities of Coban, Copan, and Quirigua.
Tikal is forty miles north-east of Flores, towards the south of the peninsula. Two explorers have visited it of late; one is the Swiss Bernouilli, whose labours were interrupted by death, but whose documents upon Tikal are as priceless as they are interesting. They consist of twelve pieces of sculptured zapoté wood, which were appropriated from the temples and are now in the Basle Museum, where I was permitted to take squeezes of them; many are damaged by the infiltration of water rather than time, nevertheless, a whole panel has been made, which we reproduce the better to elucidate our explanations.
FLORES, LAKE OF PETEN.