Benjamin Moore Norman

“ It is also pretty obvious that Chi-Chen, and the other cities of Yucatan, were built by a nation of slaves. All the buildings whose remains are now visible, were evidently constructed to gratify the pride of a single man or set of men. They were monuments raised to the glory of the few at the expense of the thousands. They are not the kind of works that the people join in building of their own freewill. They answer no public purpose or convenience. No nation of freemen would spend their money or their labor in that way. ”

“ Its blackened walls, its spacious halls and corridors, dilapidated casements, its numerous squares and gardens, all going to ruin, presented the same melancholy picture that is to be seen in all the principal towns in the province.
A large portion of the inhabitants are Mestizos, who are orderly and well to do in the world. Their houses, in the borders of the town, are comfortable; and the wide-spreading palm, growing near, gives to them quite a picturesque appearance. They manufacture hats for exportation, and earthenware for home use. ”

“ The Ruins of Zayi are situated in the midst of a succession of beautiful hills, forming around them, on every side, an enchanting landscape.
The principal one is composed of a single structure, an immense pile, facing the south, and standing upon a slight natural elevation. The first foundation is now so broken that its original form cannot be fully determined; but it probably was that of a parallelogram. Its front wall shows the remains of rooms and ceilings, with occasional pillars, which, no doubt, supported the corridors. ”

“ In my walks in the vicinity, extending miles in every direction, I have seen broken walls and mounds, fragments of columns, and carved and sculptured stone, some of which were of as extraordinary dimensions as any that I have noticed, deeply imbedded in the soil, and wholly disconnected with any other structure; though they were, without doubt, the remains of splendid and extensive edifices. ”

“ Such a thing as public opinion is unknown; the masses are too ignorant, and have been too long accustomed to dictation and pupilage, to have any opinion. This is demonstrated by the mere fact of every revolutionary movement having triumphed since their emancipation from the Spanish yoke; which clearly proves, that either there is nothing deserving the name of people, or else that they take no interest in public affairs, but allow themselves to be the playthings of every ambitious demagogue or military leader. ”

“ The Indian women, who preserved some fortune, preferred allying themselves with the conquerors, to partaking the contempt entertained for the Indians. There remained, therefore, of the natives, none but the most indigent, the poor cultivators, mechanics, porters, who were used as beasts of burden—and, above all, the dregs of the people, that crowd of beggars, which marked the imperfection of the social institutions and the feudal yoke, and who, even in the time of Cortez, filled the streets of the great cities of Mexico. ”

“ Amenities of Literature.—We have ever considered the author of these volumes as a literary benefactor, one, who in his own peculiar province has done more to advance the cause of letters than any other writer, by rescuing from oblivion and doing justice to the primitive sons of genius who laid the basis of English literature. ‘The Amenities’ we regard superior to its brothers, ‘The Curiosities’ and ‘The Miscellanies,’ inasmuch that there is more unity in its design, a greater depth of research, and as it were, a kind of history of the minds of authors as well as of their writings. ”

“ Should Yucatan be left to itself, an insurrection among the Indians would be productive of the most awful calamities; and in that case, being entirely isolated, no foreign aid could be looked for to subdue the danger. The glimpse the Indians have just caught of what they may do, and their exertions in the last revolution being rewarded by a diminution in the amount of their onerous religious contributions, may probably stimulate them to make an effort to free themselves from the bondage of the whites. ”

“ Above all, in the ornaments, we must admire the patience of the workmen, and the taste of those ancient people, so rich in monumental wealth. Blue and red are the only colors distinguishable upon the walls. The carvings, which ornament the façades of some of the edifices of Uxmal, deserve the careful attention of artists and savans. When they carefully examine the squares, which compose those beautiful embellishments, they will be convinced that their designers had a profound knowledge of the principles of geometry. ”

“ From our door we could see, on our right, beautiful hills undulating like the ground-swell of the sea; on the left, the Cordilleras, looking down with an air of great complaisance upon the plain beneath. Nature is renewing the fields far as the eye can reach; while in the foreground are the time-defying monuments of other days, garlanded with luxuriant shrubs and flowers, to sustain 176which they had been compelled to give up their own symmetry and beauty. ”

“ They broke their household vessels as unnecessary lumber, extinguished their fires, and walked about like disturbed people, without daring to take any rest, till they knew whether they were to be for ever consigned to the regions of darkness. ”

“ Decay and desolation have overtaken all those institutions of an elder time, which now but serve, like the footsteps upon the shore of a deserted island, to prove the former presence of a more vigorous civilization. The hand of man has rarely interfered to protect these solemn memorials from oblivion. The grounds around them are but little cultivated, and are mostly covered by a thick growth of furze, with an occasional cocoa, orange, or tamarind tree. Here, however, the ramon grows to a great height, and is very valuable, its leaves and branches affording a nutricious food for horses. ”

“ The almost universal curiosity which has manifested itself in every quarter through which public feeling has utterance, concerning the vast and unexplained ruins of our hemisphere, found in Central America and Yucatan, has not been, in modern times at least, excelled by that upon any subject not involving some immediate and practical interest, not even excepting the discoveries of modern antiquarians in Egypt. ”

“ Who shall say that while 208the servile workmen of Cheops or Cephrinus were sacrificing the lives of countless multitudes of men, to prove that the gods were not alone immortal, and to rear for themselves imperishable burial-places, that at the same time, on another continent, thousands of miles from the Egyptian house of bondage, a people of a different race, unknowing and unknown to history, were not laying the foundations of cities and of palaces and of temples, less stupendous perhaps, but no less a wonder and a mystery to succeeding nations? ”

“ We call this country the new world. It is old! Age after age, and one physical revolution after another, has passed over it, but who shall tell its history?
Priest has concluded that the Carthaginians, Phœnicians, Persians, Hindoos, Chinese, Japanese, Roman, and Greek nations of antiquity, and others, as well as Europeans after their civilization, had more to do with the peopling of the wilds of America than is generally supposed. ”

“ The manner of doing business is simple. Nothing of that stir and bustle is seen that is to be observed in cities and towns of the United States; nor do you find the care-worn and anxious look that is so often to be noticed with us. Speculation, kite-flying, lame ducks, bulls and bears, and all those curses with which large mercantile communities are usually visited, are entirely unknown in the province of Yucatan.
During my stay in the city of Merida, a ball was given at the Governor’s house, apropos of some political event, which I did not esteem of moment enough to remember. ”

“ The Indian, however, performs the menial labor of the country—and there is an appearance of apathy in his looks and actions, which seems to carry with it the signs of a broken, or at least a subdued spirit—resting upon 31him like a melancholy vision, a dreamy remembrance, of better days. For, say what we please of him, he is the humble descendant of a once great and powerful people—the “children of the sun,” who were lords of that soil on which their offspring are now held in humiliating vassalage. ”

“ Numerous other facilities have been added to the otherwise ample resources of this distinguished artist, who will remain with the several members of the Washington family during the winter for the purpose of collecting materials, much of which, it is understood will be exclusive and of great value. In a word, it is the determination of the publishers to produce a work in every respect worthy of the present advanced state of art, and befitting the national tribute to the memory of one whose name is destined to be ever redolent with the incense of a nation’s praise. ”

“ It looks very odd, I had almost said humiliating, to see men sitting upon the public sidewalks, working upon a lady’s dress, and similar articles hanging around the door-ways of their houses, as a sign of the services which they hold themselves competent and ready to render. Manufactories are nowhere to be seen; the clatter of the loom or the noise of the hammer never disturbs the quiet of Merida.
Some idea of the wealth or poverty of a country may be formed from an acquaintance with its currency. Silver is the basis of the circulation of Yucatan, of which the Spanish sixpence is the smallest. ”

“ These mounds and earthen implements indicate a race inferior to the first, which were acquainted with the use of iron.
The third race are the Indians now existing in the western territories. In the profound silence and solitude of these western regions, and above the bones of a buried world, how must a philosophic traveller meditate upon the transitory state of human existence, when the only traces of two races of men are these strange memorials! On this very spot generation after generation has stood, has lived, has warred, grown old, and passed away ”

“ The cloisters, corridors, and squares, are all fast going to pieces; and fragments of them are lying about in every direction. Its spacious halls are now the abode of the poor Indian, who aspires to a portion of the hallowed influence which is reputed to hang around its dilapidated walls. The crumbling turrets and blackened domes are covered with a wild vegetation, and have become a perch for the buzzard, and the hiding-place for loathsome reptiles. ”

“ The occult sciences, poetry, languages, exploded sophisms, &c. are presented to the eager eye in groups wrought with the same vivid, life-like portraiture, with here and there—like the air amid the most complex sounds in music—an acute critical aphorism interspersed ”

“ With the intuitive perception of genius, he unfolds to us the mechanism of each system of ancient philosophy that spent its ephemeral breath in struggling for a supremacy, which, if temporarily attained, was early lost from the want of an innate, self-sustaining, vital principle. ”

“ What an empire, and what works are these, which all bear the same character 344in the cut of the stones, the shape of the doors to their stone buildings, the symmetrical disposal of the niches, and the total absence of exterior ornaments! This uniformity of construction is so great, that all the stations along the high road, called in that country palaces of the Incas, or kings of the Peruvians, appear to have been copied from each other; simplicity, symmetry, and solidity, were the three characters by which the Peruvian edifices were distinguished. ”

“ The Moors were not the proper Africans, as the hair of their heads was long, straight, and shining. They were a different race, and of different manners and attainments. The contour of the faces of the authors of the American city, found sculptured on the stones of its ruins, are in exact correspondence with the forehead and nose of the ancient Moors, the latter of which was remarkable for its aquiline shape, and was a national trait, characteristic of the Moors as well as the Romans. ”

“ Next came the priests, chanting for the saints, and waving the burning incense, followed by drums and fifes in advance of a large image of the Virgin, decked in various colors, interspersed with tinsel ornaments, surmounted with glass vases, in which a lighted candle or a bouquet of flowers was alternately placed. This imposing display was borne upon the shoulders of eight Indians, surrounded by priests. The rear was brought up by a company of soldiers with fixed bayonets; the whole surrounded by an immense crowd, filling up the streets for a great distance. ”

“ In front of the interior space are two churches, in a tolerable state of preservation, built in the old Spanish style of pinnacled roof and arches. On the left, ruins of an immense hall are seen, with its large broken arch, leaving the whole interior, with its painted ceilings, exposed to view. Farther on are crumbling bastions and thick walls, falling, covered with ivy and other vegetation. Squares are filled up with masses of rubbish, and overgrown with trees. ”

“ We will candidly confess that we could never understand why philosophers have been so predisposed to advocate the theory which peoples America from the Eastern hemisphere. We think the supposition that the Red Man is a primitive type of a family of the human race, originally planted in the Western continent, presents the most natural solution of the problem; and that the researches of physiologists, antiquaries, philologists, and philosophers in general, tend irresistibly to this conclusion. ”

“ At three o’clock in the afternoon, there is an almost total suspension of business. The stores, generally, are closed, and the inhabitants betake themselves to their hammocks, to the enjoyment of their favorite siesta, which consists of a nap of an hour or more; an indulgence as indispensable to a Mexican as his cigar. The calesa is the only wheel-carriage that is to be found in the streets. Indian porters take the place of drays, and are seen carrying barrels and bales upon their backs, secured by a plaited rope passed over their foreheads. ”