was the only
sculptured beam in Uxmal, and at that time it was the only piece of
carved wood we had seen. We considered it interesting, as indicating a
degree of proficiency in an art of which, in all our previous
explorations, we had not discovered any evidence, except, perhaps, at
Ocosingo, where we had found a beam, not carved, but which had
evidently been reduced to shape by sharp instruments of metal. This
time I determined not to let the precious beam escape me. It was ten
feet long, one foot nine inches broad, and ten inches thick, of Sapote
wood, enormously heavy and unwieldy. To keep the sculptured side from
being chafed and broken, I had it covered with costal or hemp bagging,
and stuffed with dry grass to the thickness of six inches. It left
Uxmal on the shoulders of ten Indians, after many vicissitudes reached
this city uninjured, and was deposited in Mr. Catherwood's Panorama. I
had referred to it as being in the National Museum at Washington,
whither I intended to send it as soon as a collection of large
sculptured stones, which I was obliged to leave behind, should arrive;
but on the burning of that building, in the general conflagration of
Jerusalem and Thebes, this part of Uxmal was consumed, and with it
other beams afterward discovered, much more curious and interesting; as
also the whole collection of vases, figures idols, and other relics
gathered upon this journey. The collecting, packing, and transporting
of these things had given me more trouble and annoyance than any other
circumstance in our journey, and their loss cannot be replaced; for,
being first on the ground, and having all at my choice, I of course
selected only those objects which were most curious and valuable; and
if I were to go over the whole ground again, I could not find others
equal to them. I had the melancholy satisfaction of seeing their ashes
exactly as the fire had left them. We seemed doomed to be in the midst
of ruins; but in all our explorations there was none so touching as
this.

Next to the great building of the Casa del Gobernador, and hardly less
extraordinary and imposing in character, are the three great terraces
which hold it aloft, and give it its grandeur of position; all of them
artificial, and built up from the level of the plain.

The lowest of these terraces is three feet high, fifteen feet broad,
and five hundred and seventy-five feet long; the second is twenty feet
high, two hundred and fifty feet wide,