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At this place more than one passenger has had an involuntary bath and many a piece of luggage lies at the bottom of the sea. On two occasions on which I disembarked here in stormy weather it seemed an even wager that the boat would be swamped before reaching the river mouth. The wall of coral rock girding the coast continues as far as Point Palenque, when it is succeeded by sandy beach.
And she related a most strange tale of destiny of a long, barbarous war, filled with the names of warriors and towns sounding most uncouth to my ears; a war lasting many years, during which the Chichimes for so she named the wild hordes sweeping down upon them from the northward drove their fathers backward from city to city, beginning far away in the kingdom named Talapa, and pillaging clear to the banks of the great river where Palenque reigned.
Dressed stone from the walls at Uxmal, Palenque, and elsewhere in Yucatan and Central America should be proved by applying the square to find whether a level surface and a true angle were formed upon them. It should also be ascertained whether the walls are truly vertical, and also whether they had learned to make a mortar of quicklime and sand.
For two and a half months we struggled on across mountains and rivers and through swamps and forests, till at last we reached a mighty deserted city, that is called Palenque by the Indians of those parts, which has been uninhabited for many generations.
The curious perforated eye-plates of the Xochicalco chief, which he wore apparently to keep arrows and javelins out of his eyes, are part of the equipment of the Aztec warrior in the picture-writings, while Palenque and Copan seemed to afford no instance of them; so that in two peculiarities the remarkable sculpture before us seems to belong rather to Yucatan than to Mexico, and in one to Mexico rather than to Yucatan.
There are indications that this city was old, and that the buildings had been more than once renewed. Brasseur de Bourbourg classes some of the foundations at Mayapan with the oldest seen at Palenque and Copan. This point, however, can not be determined with sufficient accuracy to remove all doubt.
It is remarkable that the heads of many of the figures are surmounted with cross-shaped ornaments similar to the one discovered at Palenque by Mr Stevens. One of these crosses which no doubt had their origin in Babylon, where they are well-known symbols was set up by the Spaniards in the convent-church of Tonala, and there venerated.
Here, as at Palenque, the ornamentation was “rich and abundant.” The ruins, greatly worn by decay, still show that “architecture, sculpture, painting, and all the arts that embellish life had flourished in this overgrown forest.” Some beautifully executed sculptures were found buried in the earth, and there can be no doubt that extensive excavation, if it were possible in that almost invincible forest, would lead to important and valuable discoveries.
An impression has been propagated that Palenque and other pueblos in these regions were surrounded by dense populations living in cheaply constructed tenements.
In one of the open spaces is a tower about thirty feet square, rising three stories. The Palenque structures are quite remarkable, standing upon an artificial eminence about forty feet high, and large enough to accommodate three thousand people living in the fashion of Village Indians.
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