Also between 1441 and 1461, Mayapan was finally ruined in the contentions of the factions, and abandoned at the death of a monarch called by some authors Mochan Xiu; the Tutul Xius then seem to have retired to Mani, which was their capital down to the Conquest.[XIII-42] For twenty years after the final destruction of Mayapan the tribes are said to have remained at peace and independent of each other; but the remaining century, down to 1561, was one of almost continual inter-tribal strife, of which there is no detailed record, but which, with hurricanes, famine, deadly pestilence, and constantly recurring omens and predictions of final disaster, so desolated and depopulated the country, that the Spaniards found the Mayas but a mere wreck of what they once had been, fighting bravely, but not unitedly, against the invaders.[XIII-43]

INDEX.

The Index refers alphabetically to each of the ten or twelve thousand subjects mentioned in the five volumes of the work, with numerous cross-references to and from such headings as are at all confused by reason of variations in orthography or from other causes. In describing aboriginal manners and customs, the tribes are grouped in families, and each family, instead of each tribe, has been described separately; consequently, after each tribal name in the Index is a reference to the pages containing a description of the family to which the tribe belongs; there is also an additional reference to such pages as contain any 'special mention' of the tribe. For example, information is sought about the Ahts. In the Index is found 'Ahts, tribe of Nootkas, i., 175-208; special mention, i., 177, 180-1,' etc. All the matter relating to the Nootka family on pp. 175-208, is supposed to apply to the Ahts as well as to the other tribes of the family, except such differences as may be noted on pp. 177, 180-1, etc. If information is sought respecting the burial rites or any particular custom of the Ahts, a more direct reference to the exact pages will be found under 'Nootkas,' where the matter relating to that family is subdivided. The matter in the last three chapters of vol. v. is referred to in the earlier letters of the Index by chapters instead of pages. No table of abbreviations used is believed to be needed.

FOOTNOTES

[I-1] He affirms (in a work entitled Christian Topography) that, according to the true orthodox system of geography, the earth is a quadrangular plane, extending four hundred days' journey east and west, and exactly half as much north and south; that it is inclosed by mountains, on which the sky rests; that one on the north side, huger than the others, by intercepting the rays of the sun, produces night; and that the plane of the earth is not set exactly horizontally, but with a little inclination from the north: hence the Euphrates, Tigris, and other rivers, running southward, are rapid; but the Nile, having to run up-hill, has necessarily a very slow current.' Draper's Conflict between Religion and Science, p. 65.

[I-2] In answer to the question: 'What was God doing before he made the heaven and the earth? for, if at any particular moment he began to employ himself, that means time, not eternity. In eternity nothing happens—the whole is present.' St Augustine caustically remarks: 'I will not answer this question by saying that he was preparing hell for pryers into his mysteries.'

[I-3] The teachings of the Church were beyond controversy, the decisions of the Church were final; and not only in religion but in legislation and in science 'the pervading principle was a blind unhesitating credulity.' See Buckle's Civilization, vol. i., p. 307. The Bishop of Darien once quoted Plato in the presence of Las Casas. "Plato," Las Casas replied, "was a Gentile, and is now burning in hell, and we are only to make use of his doctrine as far as it is consistent with our holy Faith and Christian customs." Helps' Life of Las Casas, p. 120.

[I-4] As an example of the intolerance displayed by these early writers, and of the bitterness with which they attacked those few thinkers who dared to theorize without letting theological dogmas stand in their way, I translate the following passage from García, who is one of the most comprehensive writers upon the origin of the Americans: 'We would like not even to remember the unworthy opinions of certain veritable blasphemers, more barbarous than the Indians, which do not even deserve the name of opinions, but rather of follies: namely, that, perhaps, the first Indians might have been generated from the earth, or from its putrefaction, aided by the sun's heat, as (Avicena allowing this production to be easy in men) Andres Cisalpino attempted to make credible, giving them less perfection than Empedocles, who said that men had been born like the wild amaranth, if we believe Marcus Varron.... Of the formation of man, though of straw and mud, the people of Yucatan, had light; which nonsense is not inferior to the attempts of those who made men by means of chemistry, or magic (described by Solorcano) giving it to be understood that there may be others besides the descendants of Adam, contrary to the teachings of scripture: for which reason Taurelo feels indignant against Cisalpino, whose attempt would be reprehensible even as a paradox. Not less scandalous was the error of the ignorant Paracelso, according to Reusnero and Kirchero, who left to posterity an account of the creation of two Adams, one in Asia, and another in the West Indies; an inexcusable folly in one who had (though corruptly) information of the Catholic doctrine. Not less erroneous is the opinion of Isaac de La Peyrere, who placed people on the earth before Adam was created, from whom, he said, descended the heathen; from Adam, the Hebrews; which folly was punished with eternal contempt by Felipe Priorio, Juan Bautista Morino, Juan Hilperto, and others, Danhavero giving it the finishing stroke by an epitaph, as Dicterico relates: although some of the parties named state that La Peyrere became repentant and acknowledged his error, and did penance, which the Orientals, from whom he took that absurdity, have not done. These, and others of the same nature, may not be held as opinions, but as evidences of blindness published by men of doubtful faith, wise, in their own esteem, and deceivers of the world, who, with lies and fraud, oppose the divine word, as St Clemens Alexandrinus says, closing their ears to truth, and blindfolding themselves with their vices, for whom contempt is the best reward.' Orígen de los Ind., p. 248. García spent nine years in Peru, devoting himself to the study of three points: the history of the natives before the arrival of the Spaniards, the origin of the natives, and the question as to whether the apostles preached the gospel in America. On his return to Spain, he concluded to write only upon the second topic, leaving the others for a future time.

[I-5] Descent of Man, vol. ii., p. 368.