scan monks,
standing on an elevation, and giving a character to the plaza that no
other in Yucatan possesses. Two flights of stone steps lead up to it,
and the area upon which they open is probably two hundred feet square;
on three sides is a colonnade, forming a noble promenade, overlooking
the city and the surrounding country to a great distance. This great
elevation was evidently artificial, and not the work of the Spaniards.

At the earliest period of the conquest we have accounts of the large
aboriginal town of Izamal, and, fortunately, in the pious care of the
early monks to record the erection of their church and convent, the
only memorials which, to the exclusive and absorbing spirit of the
times, seemed worth preserving, we have authentic records which
incidentally dispel all uncertainty respecting the origin of these
ancient mounds.

According to the account of the padre Lizana, in the year 1553, at the
second chapter held in the province, the padre Fr. Diego de Landa was
elected guardian of the convent of Izamal, and charged to erect the
building, the monks having lived until that time in houses of straw. He
selected as the place for the foundation one of the cerros, or mounds,
which then existed, "made by hand," and called by the natives
Phapphol-chac, which, says the padre Lizana, "signifies the habitation
or residence of the priests of the gods; this place was selected in
order that the devil might be driven away by the divine presence of
Christ sacrificed, and that the place in which the priests of the idol
lived, and which had been the place of abomination and idolatry, might
become that of sanctification, where the ministers of the true God
should offer sacrifices and adoration due to his Divine Majesty."

This is clear and unmistakeable testimony as to the original use and
occupation of the mound on which the church and convent of Izamal now
stand; and the same account goes on farther, and says: "At another
mound, on which was the idol called Kinick Kakmo, he founded a village
or settlement, calling it San Ildefonzo, and to the other cerro, called
Humpictok, where falls the village of Izamal, he gave for patron San
Antonio de Padua, demolishing the temple which was there; and where was
the idol called Haboc he founded a village called Santa Maria, by which
means he sought to sweep away the memory of so great idolatry."

It is unnecessary to comment upon these accounts. Testimony, never
intended for