ilding is twenty-five feet, so that, deducting the double
width of the wall and passage, this centre mass must be nine feet in
thickness. The walls had four or five coats of stucco, and there were
remains of painting, in which red, yellow, blue, and white were
distinctly visible.
On the southwest side of the building, and on a terrace projecting from
the side of the mound, was a double row of columns eight feet apart, of
which only eight remained, though probably, from the fragments around,
there had been more, and, by clearing away the trees, more might have
been found still standing. In our hurried visit to Uxmal, we had seen
objects which we supposed might have been intended for columns, but
were not sure; and though we afterward saw many, we considered these
the first decided columns we had seen. They were two feet and a half in
diameter, and consisted of five round stones, eight or ten inches
thick, laid one upon another. They had no capitals, and what particular
connexion they had with the building did not appear.
So far, although the fragments of sculpture were of the same general
character as at Uxmal, we had not found any edifice sufficiently entire
to enable us to identify that peculiar arch which we had found in all
the ruined buildings of this country; but it was not wanting. At some
distance from this place, and on the other side of the hacienda, were
long ranges of mounds. These had once been buildings, the tops of which
had fallen, and almost buried the structures. At the end was a doorway,
encumbered and half filled with rubbish, crawling through which, we
stood upright in apartments exactly similar to those at Uxmal, with the
arch formed of stones overlapping, and a flat stone covering the top.
The apartments were ruder and narrower, but they were of precisely the
same character with all the others we had seen.
The day was now nearly spent; with the heat and labour we were
exceedingly fatigued, and the Indians insisted that we had seen all the
principal remains. The place was so overgrown with trees that it would
have taken a long time to clear them away, and for the present at least
it was out of the question. Besides, the only result we could promise
ourselves was the bringing to light of fragments and single pieces of
buried sculpture. Of one thing, however, we had no doubt: the ruins of
this city were of the same general character with those at Uxmal,
erected by the same builders, probably of o
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