Yucatán

“ The peninsula of Yucatan extends over a surface of some eighty thousand square miles, lying in a north-east direction from Laguna de Términos, and jutting out north into the Gulf of Mexico, between the Bay of Campeachy and Honduras. It is about five hundred miles long, and one hundred and sixty broad, and is divided into five departments, eighteen districts, and containing two hundred and thirty-six towns. It is inhabited by something short of half a million of people, the majority of whom are Indians. ”

“ Yucatan, a peninsula in Central America dividing the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea, and one of the few peninsulas of the world that extend northwards; is a flat expanse; has a good climate and a fertile soil, yielding maize, rice, tobacco, indigo, &c.; abounds in forests of valuable wood; forms one of the States of the Mexican Republic; it bears traces of early civilisation in the ruins of temples and other edifices. ”

“ Herrera, perhaps the most reliable of the Spanish historians, says of Yucatan: "The whole country is divided into eighteen districts, and in all of them were so many and such stately Stone Buildings that it was amazing, and the greatest Wonder is, that having no Use of any Metal, they were able to raise such Structures, which seem to have been Temples, for their Houses were always of Timber and thatched. In those Edifices were carved the Figures of naked Men, with Earrings after the Indian manner. Idols of all Sorts, Lions, Pots or Jarrs, &c. ”

“ A Letter from Ursua y Arizmendi to the King of the Spains. "Sire,--Your Majesty having had the graciousness to confer upon me the future possession of the Governorship of the Provinces of Yucatan, in which post I am to succeed Don Roque de Soberanis y Centeno, ... my employment, during the time of my Governorship, is to be the Conversion and Reduction of the innumerable Indians, as well Infidel as Apostate, who are between the said Provinces of Yucatan and those of Guatimala. ”

“ The Indians of Yucatan and the neighboring provinces have been seen in conversation with persons from this district; they, however, appear to know as little of the people of whom I speak as others. Could a friendly intercourse, by any possibility, be established with this surprising country, there is scarcely a doubt that a complete knowledge of the former inhabitants of the immense ruins scattered throughout the provinces would be revealed. That their temples and records remain in safety, and are capable of speaking to posterity, there can scarcely be a question. ”

“ Three centavos is the price of an egg all the year through in Yucatan!
There are no poor Yucatecans. Small wonder: for not only do they lose no opportunity of raking in the shekels, but they openly boast that they never entertain or show hospitality, unless it pays them to do so. We can bear eloquent witness to this, for from end to end of our tour never once was so much as a cup of coffee offered us by a Yucatecan, with the single exception of the semi-official breakfast we earlier described. ”

“ Modern Yucatan finds it hard herself to realize that such events as are described herein have taken place within her borders and within the memory of men still having. During the middle part of the last century, events were taking place in Yucatan that, had they happened in other lands or at other times, would have become subjects of epic poems. But the place of happening was on a distant, ragged edge of the American continent, more unknown, perhaps, to the average American of those times, than is the darkest spot of the Dark Continent to the citizen of today. ”

“ After four hundred years of settlement there is less land tilled in Yucatan to-day than there was in its first century of annexation to Spain. The interior and mountainous district is still a wilderness and exceedingly dangerous for a white man to enter. ”

“ From this time forward the dominion of the Spaniards over the northern and western portions of Yucatan remained undisturbed, but they never succeeded in subduing the natives in the central and eastern part of the province, and the Santa Cruz Indians maintain their independence of the Mexican Government to the present day.
The northern part of Yucatan is little better than a coral-reef raised a few feet above sea-level, covered with a thin coating of earth which supports a scrubby growth not worthy of the name of forest. ”

“ The present population is calculated at twenty thousand, the majority of whom are Indians and half-breeds.
The city was founded in 1542. From the few scattered facts which have been handed down to us by history, we gather that, prior to the Spanish conquest, there existed in Yucatan a people of an origin remote and unknown, who were under the subjection 37of rulers, with fixed principles of law and order; had passed through the ordinary vicissitudes of nations, and finished their career by losing, at once, their liberty and their dominions. ”

“ Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is situated about the twenty-first degree of north latitude, and is elevated some twenty-five feet above the level of the sea. The thermometer ranges at about eighty of Fahrenheit, and the maximum length of the days is nearly thirteen hours. The city was built upon the ruins of an Indian town, which was destroyed by the Spaniards in their superstitious zeal, so madly manifested in the destruction of every thing throughout Mexico that was found belonging to the people whom they had conquered. ”

“ Yucatan is shown to have been for many centuries the home of a people whose advancement equated that of the Aztecs at their palmiest day. Like important discoveries attended the labors of explorers in the North. The entire valley of its great river is known to have been the home of a numerous population, that, from the nature of their remains, we call the Mound-builders. ”

“ Yucatan possesses very few streams and none of importance that are known or explored. On the west of the peninsula, debouching into the Gulf of Mexico, there are the rivers or rivulets of Escatalto, Chen, Champoton;—the San Francisco falls into the Bay of Campeché; in the north there are the Silan, the Cedros, and the Conil ”

“ Mounds, tumuli, pyramidal structures, and ruins of cities, have been seen from the southern extremity of South America even to the western side of the Rocky mountains—from Florida to the western lakes. There is every reason to presume that the interior of Yucatan, and other portions of Mexico, contain remains of even a more striking character 199than those it has been my province to describe. The Ohio valley and its vicinage are supposed to have been covered with more than five thousand villages, the largest of which stood near the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. ”

“ Thus, man to man, native white against native red, the odds were not unequal. Today Yucatan has rapid trains, telegraph and telephone, well paved streets and all the most advanced ideas of the twentieth century. ”

“ In fact, it did not belong to Mexico till Maximilian's time. He annexed it, and they hold together still. We often strike an unknown rock in our sail through life, and Yucatan was the unexpected shoal on which we first stranded. It happened in this wise:
The City of Merida makes a landing as near as possible to the city after which it is named. This city is twenty miles from the shore, in the peninsula of Yucatan. It has sixty thousand inhabitants, and is the centre of a vast hemp-producing country. This hemp finds a ready market in New York. ”

“ In the forests of Yucatan dwell many Indian families, scattered here and there, forming very small hamlets, in out-of-the-way places, to avoid being taxed or called upon for military service. They of course have few comforts; contenting themselves with corn, black beans, and red pepper.
Having no education they are not troubled by any ambition save that of keeping their liberty, and going through life with as little labor as possible. ”

“ As for me, I felt its chill even under the burning rays of the tropical sun of Yucatan, notwithstanding I am, or ought to be, well inured to them during the four years that my wife and myself are rambling among the ruined cities of the Mayas.
True, I am but a cool searcher of the stupendous monuments of the mighty races that are no more, but have left the history of their passage on earth written on the stones of the palaces of their rulers, upon the temples of their gods. ”

“ To-day I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of several gentlemen of the place, who gave me a most cordial reception; among whom was the President of Yucatan. He is a successful merchant, a plain, unassuming, practical man; apparently, however, not much versed in political intrigues. The people have recently declared themselves independent of Mexico, and the government is now about sending commissioners to the capital of that republic to treat with Santa Ana, offering again to return to the Mexican Confederacy upon certain conditions ”

“ There are two kinds of brigands in Yucatan. There is the honest fellow who cuts your throat without apology or waits behind a tree and puts a bullet into your back at a ten-yard range; and there is the oily-tongued "con permiso" (detestable phrase! ever on Yucatecan lips) rascal who, permission or not, will see to it that your last centavo is his, if he can manage it. At Valladolid, whither we went from Chichen, we made our first serious acquaintance with the latter. One or two pleasant little episodes had occurred at Merida, but they were only in the nature of dress rehearsals. ”

“ The most interesting feature of the day was a group of Indians representing the costumes and dances of the aborigines. The people found in possession of Yucatan, who fought the early Spaniards and were finally subjugated by them, who probably built the cities that have been nothing but ruins for centuries, were the Mayas (pronounced Mý-yahs) , and were sun-worshippers. It has been stated that no traditions regarding them exist among the present inhabitants of Yucatan. ”

“ Its resources are very limited; its capital small; its soil by no means fertile; it possesses neither good roads to any extent, nor a single navigable river; manufactures are almost unknown, and agriculture is in the most neglected state. How then can Yucatan sustain itself alone, or ever figure as an independent nation? ”

“ The scattered ruins of these pueblos in Yucatan at the present time, often consisting of a single large structure, confirms this view.
The tropical region of Yucatan and Central America, then as now, was undoubtedly covered with forests, except the limited clearings around the pueblos, and, apart from these pueblos, substantially uninhabited. Field agriculture was of course unknown, as they bad neither domestic animals nor plows; but the Indians cultivated maize, beans, squashes, pepper, cotton, cacao, and tobacco in garden beds, and exercised some care over certain native fruits ”

“ There are no rivers in Yucatan that flow above ground, and the people are wholly dependent upon the clouds for their supply of water, and upon the rivers that run beneath the surface. The whole province is one vast table of coral rock, beneath which flow large streams, and even rivers. ”

“ Of real savage tribes there are none in Yucatan. After the greater part of the peninsula, cities as well as villages, had been reconquered from the possession of the Indians who had taken them during their insurrection in 1847, which was general, the most tenacious and unruly ones among them settled in the eastern part of the peninsula, where they have built several towns, the principal one being Chan-Santacruz. From these fastnessess they frequently sally forth to attack and even to raze our absolutely defenseless villages. ”

“ On the east coast of Yucatan there are various places, such as Nisucte and Meco, that any traveler may visit, though he must go armed, and keep a sharp look-out for Indians, who may fall upon him at any minute. There can be seen vestiges of ancient cities, all the houses made of stone, but not large enough for people more than three or three and a half feet high to occupy with any comfort. ”

“ The population of Yucatan is about three hundred thousand. The slave-holders' club numbers 250 members, but the vast majority of the lands and the slaves are concentrated in the hands of fifty henequen kings. The slaves number more than one hundred thousand. ”

“ Its eastern side is washed by the Caribbean Sea, and touched by the settlements at Balize; on the south it is bounded by Guatemala; on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and the States of Chiapas and Tabasco, from which it is separated by the river Paicutun that falls into the Lagnua de Terminos. Its northern coast extends from Cape Catoché to the Punta de Piedras, about eighty-six leagues; and the whole area of the State is computed at 3,823 square leagues.
Yucatan possesses very few streams and none of importance that are known or explored. ”

“ 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. ”