Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/115

Rh before the country breathed of peace, and even now thousands of square miles are desolate, and hundreds of towns lie in ruins. By this act of calling in aid from Mexico, Yucatan lost her autonomy, and soon after became one of the confederated states of the republic. Valladolid has never recovered from its terrible injuries; although, from its geographical position, and the vast unoccupied country of which it is the centre, it is destined to become again prosperous and populous.

Lying west from Valladolid, about thirty miles, is the largest, and next to Uxmal the most important, group of ruins in Yucatan, that of Chichen-Itza. The ruined structures occupy an area of about two miles, and a high-road passes near them. They are accurately described in various writings, so that I will not do more than enumerate them here. Of these ruins, the most magnificent pile is the "House of the Nuns," very rich in sculpture, while the "Carcel," or "Tower," is the grandest and most conspicuous object in Chichen. The "Gymnasium" contains great stone rings set in the wall, four feet in diameter, and with a sculptured border of serpents. The hieroglyphic carvings are wonderful and beautiful, and the mural paintings, representting warriors in battle and events in the lives of the various rulers of Chichen, are artistic in execution, and the finest that adorn the walls of any buildings yet discovered. A procession of lynxes, or tigers, adorns the cornice of one building, while sculptured slabs and pillars are scattered profusely over the ground.

This was the ancient capital of the Itzaes, after they had been driven from Itzamal and before they sought seclusion in Peten. Various attempts have been made to reconstruct their history, from the scattered fragments left by tradition and from the mural paintings and hieroglyphs, but as yet with little success. Although Stephens gives an exhaustive description of Chichen, yet Norman claims to be the first visitor from a foreign country to describe it from personal observation. "No marks," he says, "of human footsteps, no signs of previous visitors, were discoverable; nor is there good reason to believe that any person, whose testimony of the past has been given to the world, had