[IV-41] Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., pp. 65-8, 26. M. Morelet, by reason of sickness, was unable to make any personal explorations in Peten beyond the island. He has preserved, however, some native reports respecting the antiquities of the region. 'On trouve dans tout ce pays des ruines d'anciens édifices, comme dans le Yucathan, et des idoles en pierre.' Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., p. 51. 'Por aquellos montes ay muchos edificios antiguos grandiosos (como lo que oy se ven en Yucathàn) y en ellos muy grandes Idolos de piedra.' Cogolludo, Hist. Yuc., p. 700. 'It is doubtful if any monuments of note exist in the district, except on the islands, or in the immediate neighborhood of the lakes.' Squier's Cent. Amer., pp. 543-5. Mention in Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 295; Humboldt, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1827, tom. xxxv., p. 329. 'Il n'existe dans cette île aucuns vestiges d'idoles ni de temples.' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 69-70. Many relics and remains of idols still to be found on the island. Hassel, Mex. Guat., p. 359; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., p. 470; Morelet's Trav., pp. 240-2; Gondra, in Prescott, Mex., tom. iii., p. 98.
[IV-42] 'Les Indiens, on le sait, se montrent très réservés sur tout ce qui touche à leur ancienne nationalité: quoique ces ruines fussent connues d'un grand nombre d'entre eux, pas un n'avait trahi le secret de leur existence.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., pp. 66-7; Id., Trav., pp. 241-2; Squier, in Hist. Mag., vol. iv., p. 66; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 295.
[IV-43] Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 68; Squier, in Hist. Mag., vol. iv., p. 66. Mr Squier says the tower is 22 feet square at the base, instead of 22 paces as Galindo gives it. He does not state the authority on which his description rests; it seems, however, in other respects to be simply a reproduction of Galindo's account, which is also repeated in Squier's Cent. Amer., pp. 544-5. Slight mention in Morelet, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 66; Id., Trav., p. 240; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 295.
[IV-44] Col. Mendez, whom Gov. Tut preceded at Tikal by a day or two only, visited the ruins as commissioner of the Guatemalan government, to which, after a stay of four days, he made a report. This report, so far as I know, was never published in the original Spanish; but the MS. fell into the hands of Mr Hesse, Prussian envoy to the Central American governments, and was by him translated into German and published with the plates in the Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Erdkunde, 1853, tom. i., pt. iii., pp. 162-8. This translation, without the plates, and with some slight omissions of unimportant details respecting the journey, was also published in Sivers, Mittelamerika, pp. 247-54, 304-8, with notes by Messrs Hesse and Sivers. This is the source of my information. Mendez revisited Tikal in 1852, without obtaining any additional information of value so far as I know. The ruins are mentioned and more or less fully described, always from the same source, in Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 460-2; Buschmann, Ortsnamen, pp. 115-17; Ritter, in Gumprecht, tom. i., p. 3; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., pp. 247, 295.
[IV-45] Hesse, in Sivers, Mittelamerika, pp. 254-5, 308-9; Buschmann, Ortsnamen, pp. 115-16; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 295; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 460.
[IV-46] Henderson's Honduras, pp. 52-3; repeated in Squier's Cent. Amer., pp. 596-7.
[IV-47] Froebel's Cent. Amer., p. 167.
[V-1] 'Le sol de l'Yucatan est encore, aujourd'hui, parsemé d'innombrables ruines, dont la magnificence et l'étendue frappent d'étonnement les voyageurs; de toutes parts, ce ne sont que collines pyramidales, surmontées d'édifices superbes, des villes dont la grandeur éblouit l'imagination, tant elles sont multipliées et se touchent de près, sur les chemins publics: enfin on ne saurait faire un pas sans rencontrer des débris qui attestent à la fois l'immensité de la population antique du Maya et la longue prospérité dont cette contrée jouit sous ses rois.' 'Nulle terre au monde ne présente aujourd'hui un champ si fécond aux recherches de l'archéologue et du voyageur.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., pp. 20, 24. 'A peine y a-t-il dans l'Yucatan une ville, une bourgade, une maison de campagne qui n'offre dans ses constructions des restes de pierres sculptées qui ont été enlevées d'un ancien édifice. On peut compter plus de douze emplacements couverts de vastes ruines.' Friederichsthal, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., pp. 300-1. 'Elle est, pour ainsi dire, jonchée de ruines. Partout, dans cette partie de l'Amérique, la poésie des souvenirs parle à l'imagination.' Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., p. 320.
[V-2] The earliest modern account of Yucatan Antiquities with which I am acquainted is that written by Sr Lorenzo de Zavala, Ambassador of the Mexican Government in France, and published in Antiquités Mexicaines, tom. i., div. ii., pp. 33-5. Sr Zavala visited Uxmal several years before 1834. His communication gives a tolerably good general idea of the ruins, but it is brief, unaccompanied by drawings, and relates only to one city. It is, therefore, of little value when compared with later and more extensive works on the subject, and is mentioned in this note only as being the earliest account extant. Yet long before Zavala's visit, Padre Thomas de Soza, a Franciscan friar of the convent of Mérida, had observed the ruins during his frequent trips through the province, and he gave a slight account of them to Antonio del Rio, who mentioned it in his Descrip. of an Ancient City, pp. 6-8.
M. Frédéric de Waldeck, a French artist, visited Uxmal in 1835 during a short tour in the peninsula, and published the result of his labors in his Voyage Pittoresque et Archéologique dans la Province d'Yucatan, Paris, 1838, large folio, with 22 steel plates and lithographic illustrations. M. de Waldeck became in some way obnoxious to the Mexican Government, which threw some obstacles in his way, and finally confiscated his drawings, of which he had fortunately made copies. Waldeck in his turn abuses the government and the people, and has consequently been unfavorably criticised. His drawings and descriptions, however, tested by the work of later visitors under better auspices, are remarkable for their accuracy so far as they relate to antiquities. The few errors discoverable in his work may be attributed to the difficulty of exploring alone and unaided ruins enveloped in a dense tropical forest. 'Supplied with pecuniary aid by a munificent and learned Irish peer.' (Lord Kingsborough.) Foreign Quar. Rev., vol. xviii., p. 251. 'Waldeck, aumentando ó disminuyendo antojadiza y caprichosamente sus obras, las hace participar, en todos sentidos, de las no muy acreditadas cualidades de verídico, imparcial y concienzudo que aquí le conocieron.' M. F. P., in Registro Yucateco, tom. i., p. 362.