San Domingo del Palenque is placed upon a rising grassy slope studded with fine trees. The church was in ruins and roofless. The population consisted chiefly of Ladinos. The Indians lived in secluded places near the outskirts, where they cultivated their milpas or cornfields. There was a charm about this sunny fertile savannah and the simple habits of life of its inhabitants, which must be attractive to men of sensitive temperaments. The land is fertile, corn is abundant, and cattle, horses and mules wander over the green pastures in freedom.
It was an unusual series of circumstances that had caused Dr. Coller to settle for life in this remote part of the world. He told me that he was a native of Switzerland and was born at Zurich. He was educated in that city but completed his studies at Berlin. Much of his early life was passed in different countries. About ten years before my arrival, he felt a wish to see Palenque and found his way to this region from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Upon reaching the village he was fascinated by its beautiful situation, its repose and its proximity to the ancient ruins in which he felt the strongest interest. He found that the life at San Domingo had an attraction for him which he did not wish to resist, and he decided to make this place his home, and married a native who possessed, in her own right, some land in the neighbourhood.[80]
Dr. Coller was a man of varied and extensive information and an excellent linguist. He had devoted much time, not only to the investigation of the Indian antiquities, but also to the study of the geology and botany of the district, and I was much pleased when he proposed to accompany me to Palenque. It was of the greatest advantage thus to have the benefit of his accurate knowledge of the positions of the mounds and temples.
Palace or Monastery, Palenque. east front.
CHAPTER XV.
Palenque.—The Forest.—The Palace or Monastery.—Night at Palenque.—Brilliancy of the light of the fireflies.—Pyramidal Mounds and Temples.—Tablet of the Cross.—Hieroglyphs.—An Indian Statue.—Antiquity of the Buildings.—The Tower.—Stucco Ornamentation.—Action of the tropical climate upon the Ruins.—Note upon the decipherment of the hieroglyphic characters.
It was a bright tropical morning when we mounted our horses and followed the narrow path leading to Palenque. After riding for a league through woods, savannahs, and cornfields, we reached and crossed the river Michol.
As we approached the ruins, the forest was so thick that we were not able to see anything beyond the track which had been cleared for us by our men. At a distance of about three Spanish leagues from San Domingo, we came to the borders of a small running stream. Dr. Coller stopped and said that at this point we should dismount, as we had arrived at our destination. We then went up a steep slope, on the summit of which I could see dimly, the pillars and ruined roof of the “Palace.”
Our Indians met us at the entrance. They had already cleared the brushwood which had overgrown the quadrangles, and had removed all that interfered with any exploring work that they thought we might wish to carry out. The luxuriance of the vegetation was surprising. In one of the open courts we observed a large plant which we found to be a species of arum. The leaves were of an extraordinary size, and averaged four feet six inches long by three feet six inches wide; the stalks were over seven feet high.