to close like that of a pocket-book. Unhappily, it was written in the
Maya language, and perfectly unintelligible. The dates, however, showed
that these venerable pages were a record of events which had taken
place within a very few years after the entry of the Spaniards into the
country; and as I pored over them, I was strongly impressed with the
belief that directly, or in some incidental expressions, they contained
matter which might throw some light upon the subject of my
investigations.

Being Sunday, a crowd of curious and lazy lookers-on surrounded the
table, but they could not distract my attention. I found that, though
all could speak the Maya, none could read it. Nevertheless; I continued
to turn over the pages. On the 157th page, in a document which bore the
date of 1557, I saw the word _Vxmal_. Here I stopped, and called upon
the by-standers. The schoolmaster was the only one who could even
attempt to give me any assistance, but he was not familiar with the
Maya as a written tongue, and said that this, having been written
nearly three hundred years before, differed somewhat from that of the
present day, and was more difficult to comprehend. Other places were
referred to in the document, the names of which were familiar to me,
and I observed that the words immediately preceding Vxmal were
different from those preceding the other names. The presumption was
that Uxmal was referred to in some different sense.

In turning to the end of the document I found a sheet of foolscap
paper, which had been secured in the book, but was then loose; and upon
it was a curious map, also dated in 1557, of which Mani was the centre.
Vxmal was laid down upon it, and indicated by a peculiar sign,
different from that of all the other places named. On the back of the
map was endorsed a long instrument of the same date, in which the word
_Vxmal_ again occurred, and which, beyond doubt, contained matter
relating to other places named in the map, and to their condition or
state of being at that time. With the assistance of the schoolmaster I
compared this with the one written in the book, and ascertained that
the latter was a recorded copy of the other.

A few pages beyond was another document, bearing date in 1556, one year
earlier, and in this, again, the word Vxmal appeared. The schoolmaster
was able to give me some general idea of the contents, but he could not
translate with facility nor, as he said, very accurately. The alcal