and manner. It is not
likely that at the early epoch at which they are known to have gone to
Ticul, with their small numbers, they would have undertaken to demolish
the whole Indian town, and build their own upon its ruins. The
probability is, that they planted their own village on the border, and
erected their church as an antagonist and rival to the heathen temples;
the monks, with all the imposing ceremonies of the Catholic Church,
battled with the Indian priests; and, gradually overthrowing the power
of the caciques, or putting them to death, they depopulated the old
town, and drew the Indians to their own village. It is my belief that
the ruins on the hacienda of San Francisco are those of the aboriginal
city of Ticul.

[Engraving 17: Ticul vase]

From the great destruction of the buildings, I thought it unprofitable
to attempt any exploration of these ruins, especially considering the
insalubrity of the place and our own crippled state. In the excavations
constantly going on, objects of interest were from time to time
discovered, one of which, a vase, was fortunately only loaned to us to
make a drawing of, or it would have shared the fate of the others, and
been burned up by _that_ fire. The engraving below represents two sides
of the vase; on one side is a border of hieroglyphics, with sunken
lines running to the bottom, and on the other the reader will observe
that the face portrayed bears a strong resemblance to those of the
sculptured and stuccoed figures at Palenque: the headdress, too, is a
plume of feathers, and the hand is held out in the same stiff position.
The vase is four and a half inches high, and five inches in diameter.
It is of admirable workmanship, and realizes the account given by
Herrera of the markets at the Mexican city of Tlascala. "There were
goldsmiths, feather-men, barbers, baths, and _as good earthenware as in
Spain._"

It was not yet considered safe for me to return to Uxmal, and the sight
of these vases induced me to devote a few days to excavating among the
ruins. The cura took upon himself the whole burden of making
arrangements, and early in the morning we were on the ground with
Indians. Amid the great waste of ruins it was difficult to know what to
do or where to begin. In Egypt, the labours of discoverers have given
some light to subsequent explorers, but here all was dark. My great
desire was to discover an ancient sepulchre, which we had sought in
vain among the ruins of