MUNICIPAL PALACE AND SQUARE, MERIDA.
CHAPTER XV.
YUCATAN, MERIDA, AND THE MAYA RACE.
Early Account of Yucatan—First Explorers: F. Hernandez de Cordova, Juan de Grijalva—Cortez—Railroad—Henequen Estate—Merida—Historical Jottings—Destruction of all the Documents by the Historian Landa—Municipal Palace—Cathedral—The Conqueror’s House—Private Houses—Market Place—Maya Race—Types—Manners and Customs of the Mayas—Deformation and Tattooing—Meztizas—Dwellings—Suburbs.
We will next proceed to the study of the Toltec branch which penetrated the Yucatan peninsula by Patonchan, and from which the reigning family of the Cocomes were descended.
The main harbour on the north-east coast was formerly Sisal, but the requirements of an increasing trade have moved it on to Progreso, where we cast anchor in a gale of wind which obliged us to remain five or six miles outside, to keep clear of the shoals which make this coast dangerous. We land with considerable difficulty at last, and are not sorry to get rid of the unpleasant sensation known as sea-sickness. The peninsula has no rivers and no water, and is of calcareous formation; flat and barren to the north, where the soil is but few inches deep; more hilly and productive towards the centre, because of its older formation; it rises to the south to the Sierra Madre, which runs through Central America.
The direction of Yucatan is from north to south, between the eighth and twelfth degree longitude east of Mexico, and between the eighteenth and twenty-second degree of latitude. The first to mention it is Columbus, who, on July 30th, 1502, finding himself at Pine Island, saw a large barque manned by twenty-four rowers, having a cacique and family on board, dressed in the costume known since as Yucatec; the boat was freighted with cacao, tortillas, and a beverage made of Indian corn, wooden swords with blades of obsidian, copper axes, and cotton tissues as soft as silk, dyed in brilliant hues.