Chan-Santa-Cruz. In 1847, this chief
and others refused to acknowledge any longer their allegiance to
the Mexican Government, and seceded, declaring war to the knife to
the white inhabitants of Yucatan. Since that time they have
conquered a portion of that State, and hold peaceful possession of
the best towns. They have destroyed the principal cities of the
east and south. These are now reduced to mere villages with few
inhabitants. The churches in ruins, mostly converted into
fortresses, the houses abandoned by their dwellers, invaded by rank
vegetation, a refuge for bats, owls, and other prowling animals,
are crumbling to the ground every day more and more, no one daring
to make repairs, lest the Indians should burn and destroy them
again. For leagues around the country is deserted. Only a few
venturesome spirits have plucked up heart to establish farms where
the soil is the richest. They cultivate them with armed servants,
so great is their dread of their fierce enemies.

Three miles from Piste, one of the most advanced posts on the
eastern frontier, and beyond the military lines, stand the ruins of
Chichen Itza. There lay buried, since probably 5000 years, that
superb statue, together with other most precious relics, at eight
meters under ground, amidst thick forests, unknown to the whole
world, not only to the modern, but also to the comparatively
ancient, for it has escaped destruction from the hands of the
natives. A people, starting from the vicinity of Palenque, invaded
all the regions west and south of what, in our days, is called the
Yucatan Peninsula, arriving at Bacalar. From that place, following
the coast, they ravaged the eastern part of the country, and at or
about the beginning of the Christian era laid siege to the _cities
of the holy and wise men_ (Itzaes), the seat of a very advanced
civilization, where arts, sciences and religion flourished. After a
weary and protracted defence, and many hard-fought battles, the
beautiful capital fell at last into the power of the invaders.
There, in the impulse of their ignorance, in the heat of their
wrath, they destroyed many objects of art. They vented their rage
most particularly on the effigies and portraits of the ancient
kings and rulers of the vanquished, when and where they could find