Transcriber's notes:
1. Page scan source:http://www.archive.org/details/incidentstravel37stepgoog
2. Frontispiece (Engraving 1) is from the NYPL Digital Gallery which provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitizedfrom primary sources and printed rarities in the vast collections of The New York Public Library.
Engraving 1: Frontispiece—Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL
IN
YUCATAN.
BY JOHN L. STEPHENS,
AUTHOR OF "INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN EGYPT, ARABIA PETRÆA, ANDTHE
HOLY LAND," "INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN CENTRAL AMERICA," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED BY 120 ENGRAVINGS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS
FOR HENRY BILL.
1848.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843, by
HARPER & BROTHERS,
In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York
CONTENTS
OF
THE FIRST VOLUME.
PREFACE.
In his "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, andYucatan,"the author intimated his intention to make a more thorough explorationof the ruins of the latter country. That intention has since beencarried into effect, and the following pages are the result. Theydescribe, as the author has reason to believe, the most extensivejourney ever made by a stranger in that peninsula, and contain theaccount of visits to forty-four ruined cities, or places in whichremains or vestiges of ancient population were found. The existence ofmost of these ruins was entirely unknown to the residents of thecapital;—but few had ever been visited by white inhabitants;—theywere desolate, and overgrown with trees. For a brief space thestillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again leftto solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them toutter destruction. In a few generations, great edifices, their façadescovered with sculptured ornaments, already cracked and yawning, mustfall, and become mere shapeless mounds. It has been the fortune of theauthor to step between them and the entire destruction to which theyare destined; and it is his hope to snatch from oblivion theseperishing, but still gigantic memorials of a mysterious people. Thedescriptions are accompanied by full illustrations from Daguerreotypeviews and drawings taken on the spot by Mr. Catherwood, and theengravings were executed under his personal superintendence.
CONTENTSOFTHE FIRST VOLUME.
CHAPTER I.
Embarcation.—Fellow-passengers.—A Gale at Sea.—Arrival atSisal.—Orinthological Specimens.—Merida.—Fête of San Cristoval.—TheLottery.—A Scene of Confusion.—Principle of the Game.—Passion forGambling.—A deformed Indian.
CHAPTER II.
Housekeeping.—Description of a Bull-ring.—ABull-fight.—Spectators.—Brutal Torments inflicted on theBulls.—Serious Accidents.—A noble Beast.—An excitingScene.—Victims to Bullfighting.—Danger and Ferocity ofBull-fights.—Effects on moral Character.—Gran