tuated in
a region where the Maya language is still spoken, substantially as at
the time of the Spanish discovery.[9-*]

Don Manuel Orosco y Berra, says of the Indian inhabitants, "their
revengeful and tenacious character makes of the Mayas an exceptional
people. In the other parts of Mexico the conquerors have imposed their
language upon the conquered, and obliged them gradually to forget their
native language. In Yucatan, on the contrary, they have preserved their
language with such tenacity, that they have succeeded to a certain point
in making their conquerors accept it. Pretending to be ignorant of the
Spanish, although they comprehend it, they never speak but in the Maya
language, obeying only orders made in that language, so that it is
really the dominant language of the peninsula, with the only exception
of a part of the district of Campeachy."[9-[+]]

In Cogolludo's Historia de Yucatan, the similarity of ruins throughout
this territory is thus alluded to: "The incontestable analogy which
exists between the edifices of Palenque and the ruins of Yucatan places
the latter under the same origin, although the visible progress of art
which is apparent assigns different epochs for their construction."[10-*]
So we have numerous authorities for the opinion, that the ruins in Chiapas
and Yucatan were built by the same or by a kindred people, though at
different periods of time, and that the language which prevails among the
Indian population of that region at the present day, is the same which was
used by their ancestors at the time of the conquest.

Captain Dupaix, who visited Yucatan in 1805, wrote a description of the
ruins existing there, which was published in 1834; but it was reserved
for M. Frederic de Waldeck to call the attention of the European world
to the magnificent remains of the Maya country, in his _Voyage
pittoresque et archaeologique dans la province de Yucatan, pendant des
annees 1834-1836_, Folio, with plates, Paris, 1838. This learned
centenarian became a member of the Antiquarian Society in 1839, and his
death was noticed at the last meeting. Following him came the celebrated
Eastern traveller, John L. Stephens, whose interesting account of his
two visits to that country in 1840 and 1841, entitled _Incidents of
travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan_, in two volumes, and
Incidents of travel in Yucatan, in two volumes, is too familiar to
require particular notice at this point. It may not b