The greater part of the day was occupied in making a survey of the ground plans of the building, as far as it was possible to trace them amongst the accumulations of fallen ruins. Upon the completion of this work, and after having made an examination of the series of small chambers below the corridors, it became evident that the building was erected with the intention of establishing a monastery, similar to those which were described by the historians of the conquest of Mexico as being dedicated to the use of the priests who worshipped and performed ceremonies at the shrines of the god Quetzalcoatl, and who, in addition to those duties, were given the charge of educating the children of the chiefs. They also trained those youths who were intended to become priests.
It is to be regretted that this great structure was called by its first discoverers “The Palace,” and that its purpose was rendered perplexing by theories connected with the dwellings of Kings or Caciques.
According to the investigations of Mr. Stephens, its extreme dimensions were two hundred and twenty-eight feet long, by one hundred and eighty feet wide. The height of the rectangular mound upon which it is placed has been variously estimated. It appears to have been about twenty feet high. Upon the summit of this platform was built with stone and mortar, the various foundations upon which the buildings and galleries of the monastery were erected. The base upon the east front was about ten feet high. The height of the building may be estimated to have been nearly twenty-four feet. Thus it may be concluded that the whole height from the ground to the roof must have been approximately fifty-four feet. The architectural proportions seem to have been well designed.
The interior gave me the impression of being Moorish in its style, especially with respect to the open inner courts, the arrangement of the corridors and the lavish employment of stucco ornamentation, brilliantly coloured. A closer investigation into architectural details left the subject in doubt, but there still remained upon the mind the feeling that in some unintelligible manner, the construction had been directed either by foreigners or by Indians who were partly descended from men of foreign origin. The forms of ancient mosques and of the inner courts and quadrangles of Arabian or Moorish and Spanish public buildings were indistinctly recalled to the memory. It was however to be observed, upon an examination of the methods adopted at Palenque in supporting the weight of the roofs, that the arches (if it is permissible for that term to be applied to straight converging slopes covered with flat coping stones,) are absolutely exceptional and unlike any other arch that is known. I was reminded, to a certain extent, of the ruins of Alatri, near Mycenæ on the plains of Argos, and of an Etruscan tomb near Perugia, but the system employed by the American architects, in placing the cap or terminal cross stones was essentially different.
In the exploration of the ruins our attention was chiefly directed to certain doubtful points, particularly with regard to the chambers which are beneath the corridors, and are entered from the level of the courts. There have been several conjectures respecting the purposes of these cells. I think that it is probable that they were used as dormitories. In some of the chambers there was a low, wide stone table, placed against the wall at the end. These benches were large flat smooth slabs of limestone supported on four stone legs. In height, shape and dimensions they were like the wooden bedsteads used by the Indians at the present time.
There is a square tower in one of the inner courts which must be considered as the most singular structure in Palenque. In position and manner of construction it is abnormal in character. It was probably intended for some special object, after the monastery had been completed. When Captain Del Rio saw this tower, in 1787, he estimated its height to be sixteen yards. In 1870 there were heaps of rubble and fallen stones piled against the base, which made it difficult for me to make exact measurements, but an approximate estimate gave the sides of the square near the base as twenty-three feet, and the height about forty-five feet. The peculiarity about the construction is the fact that it consists of a tower within a tower. The inner structure contains a steep and narrow staircase. Light is obtained through large openings in the sides of the outer tower, and then through smaller openings in the walls of the interior one. The steps appear to have led up to the top. The walls are formed of rough slabs of limestone which had been thickly coated over with cement, portions of which still remained. It was raised to a height which commanded views of the adjacent temples.
Upon my return to the eastern front, I found that the Indians had slung the hammocks in the outer corridor overlooking the forest. A few minutes before sunset we heard the strange and beautiful notes of a solitary bird singing amongst the ruins. The song resembled in its tone that of a thrush. Dr. Coller said that the bird was a kind of nightingale, and that it was only known to live within and around the Palenque temples. The bird sang in a slow, deliberate manner, each of the notes having a short interval of time between them. The song was maintained during the twilight, and ceased as soon as it became dark and the night had begun. It was an evening hymn to the setting sun. The hoarse screams and movements of troops of monkeys then disturbed the precincts. These harsh noises gradually stopped, and as the night advanced the forest became silent. The moon was up and we knew that it was shining brightly above the trees, but we could only see occasionally its faint glimmer. I had expected to hear the croaking of frogs or the sounds of cicadas, the usual accompaniment to a tropical evening, but although there was a running stream of water at the foot of the mound, these familiar sounds were absent.
The brushwood covering the ground was made brilliant by numerous fireflies. The light which shone from these beetles far exceeded anything of that nature that I had seen in other regions, and I took the opportunity of ascertaining the strength of the illuminating power. I sent one of the men into the wood to catch the largest firefly that he could find, and then, after having made the corridor dark by extinguishing our candles, the insect was held about two inches from a blank page of my note book, Dr. Coller watched the experiment. We found that the light was steady and shed a soft clear phosphorescent glow over the paper. The luminous power was sufficient to enable us to read or write with ease over a surface two inches square. After writing a few notes upon what had been done during the day we added:—
“Written by the light of a firefly in the Palace, in the ruins of Palenque, the night of Wednesday, March 10th, 1870, the candle (firefly) held by Dr. Albert Coller. The light about equal to that of a small wax candle and very pure. The light rather greenish.”
“Dr. A. J. Coller.”
Before turning into my hammock I visited the horses tethered at the base of the mound near the stream. They were much worried by flies, mosquitos, and small ticks called garrapátas, which find their way under the skin and cause great irritation. In the corridor, thirty feet above them, we were not troubled with any of these pests, but there were numerous bats. The Indians said that, sometimes, horses were seriously injured by bats biting them above their hoofs.