uins of the same general
character with those at Uxmal.

But Uxmal, it will be seen, is not indicated by the sign of a church.
This I consider evidence that no church was erected there, and that
while the Spaniards were establishing settlements in other Indian
towns, for some reason, now unknown, perhaps on account of its
unhealthiness, at Uxmal they made none. But it will be seen farther,
that Uxmal not only is not indicated by the sign of a church, but is
indicated by one entirely different, of a peculiar and striking
character, which was manifestly never adopted from caprice or without
cause. In my opinion, this sign was intended to represent what would
most clearly distinguish a large place without a church from those in
which churches had been erected, the characteristic ornaments on the
fronts of the aboriginal buildings, as now seen at Uxmal. It is the
same obvious character or symbol which might serve at this day to
indicate on a map a city like Uxmal, and to my mind the conclusion is
irresistible that at the time when the Judge Don Felipe Manriques
arrived _at_ Uxmal and arrived _from_ Uxmal, it was an existing
inhabited aboriginal town. Farther, in the scanty light that we have on
this subject, the slightest incidental circumstance is not to be
disregarded. In each reference to his arrival at or from Uxmal, it is
mentioned that he was accompanied by his interpreter. He would not need
an interpreter if the place was desolate, or if it was a hacienda, or a
Spanish town. He could need an interpreter only when the place was
occupied by the aborigines, whose language he did not understand, and
such, I cannot help believing, was actually the case. I can easily
believe, too, that its depopulation and desolation within the hundred
and forty years preceding the royal grant for the purposes of a
hacienda, were the inevitable consequence of the policy pursued by the
Spaniards in their subjugation of the country. I would remark that
there is no doubt of the authenticity of these documents. They are true
records of events which occurred at that early period of the conquest
To this day the map and act of partition are good evidence in all legal
proceedings affecting the title to lands in that neighbourhood, and I
afterward saw them enrolled as proofs and forming part of the record in
a contested and protracted lawsuit.

I make no apology for dwelling so long upon this ancient map. Perhaps,
however, it will not interest th