Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-17
CENTRAL AMERICA.
SOMETHING OF YUCATAN AND
THE YUCATECOS.
"reminiscences of the Early Days on
the PeninsuIa-A Queer Country
and Singular People.

MERIDA, Yucatan, 1888.
Says the ancient author, Herrera, "Ber-
nal Diaz del Castillo is the best that ever
writ of the conquest of Mexico, as having
been an eyewitness to all the principal ac-
lions there and has an air of sincerity"
This bosom friend of Don Cortez, and spe,
cial correspondent of his expedition, wrote
to the Spanish King, IN the year 1917, in
his account Of the alleged discovery Of
Yucatan Z" We sailed at hazard toward
the point of the horizon where the sun
SET"
So we sailed due westward-from Cuba
but not at hazard, and came upon the
same low. sandy coast of the mysterious
peninsula Just $40 years later, with the
spirit of discovery no less strong within US
Despite all their pretensions, the afere-
said handful of greedy adventures were
not the true discoveries of Yucatan. The
stories Of that celebrated band of cut
throats and robbers-under their velvet
banner with its blood-red cross, appropri.
ately embroidered in the midst of red and
blue blazes, above the Latin motto, " Let us
follow the cross and in that sign we shall
conquer must be taken with great deal
of allowance. In all their dark career OF
crime and murder, they seem to have beer
true to nothing but that sign of the bloody
cruclfix and their own greed of gold fol
IN every case they carried the sword and
stake with the Christian emblem, offering
the innocent and wandering natives the
alternative of death or the cross, and Civ.
ing them both.
Right here small scrap Of history NAV
not be amiss, as leading to better under.
standing of this queer country of the
Yltedtecos. The very first Spaniard who
saw an Indian of Yucatan was Ferdinand
Columbus, when lin 1902, being driven by
adverse currents out of his southerly course
he sighted a group of islands off Honduras
and captured huge canoe. The latter is
described as Wide as galley and eighty
feet long, formed of the trunk of a single
tree"
In the middle was an awning of palm
leaves, not unlike those of Venetian gon.
dolas, under which were the women and
children and all their goods. The canoe
was directed by % Indians, who wore cot
ton coverlets and tunics without sleeves,
dyed with various colors and curiously-
worked, and covering for the loins OF
similar material The females wrapped
themselves in large mantles, like the
Moorish women of Grenada. The men
wore long swords, with channels on each
side of the blade, edged with sharp fiints
that cut the body as well as steel. They
mad copper hatchets for chopping wood,
belts of the same material, and crucibles
IN which to melt it. For provisions they
carried such roots and grains as the natives
of Hispanola (Harti) eat, besides sort OF
vine made from maize, and great quaint
ties of Almonds of the kind used for money
by the people of New Spain"
The canoes described so long ago are
precisely like the chaIupqs seen to-day on
the Viga canal, leading from the City OF
Mexico out to the far-famed Floating
Gardens; the dress of the Indians is the
same as that worn in Yucatan at the pres
ent day; and among the poor of Central
America the seeds Of the cacao are still
used for small change
Had the great Admiral only sailed a
little further to the westward, how much
better would it have been for himself and
for the long-sufiering people of all this
section In day or two he would have
reached 1ucatan the discovery of Mex
leo and the other opulent countries of New
Spain would necessarily have followed
the southern ocean would have been dis
closed to him, and the succession of splen-
did discoveries would have shed fresh
glory on his declining years, instead of the
neglect and disappointment into which he
sank.
Writing of this Peninsula, Fred. Oler
says: Easternmost land of Mexico, il
presents the farther front of that ancient
continent that may have once extended to
Cuba and beyond-to Atlantis to Africa.
Without 1t, perhaps, there would have
have been no Gulf Stream; and that warm
river of the sea diverted from our north
ern shores, would have fortified and vivi-
he'd other countries instead. Had it not
stood so boldly out, inviting those reckless
Spaniards to conquest and plumber, Mexico
might have remained till now as the abo-
riginal lulua, and the world of to-day be
enjoying the benefits of its wonderful civil
iZation."
But what Yucatan might have been,
had it been different, or left to the people
who ruled 1t four hundred years ago, we
may better speculate upon after we have
seen it.
Before the conquest, the country now
known as Yucatan was called Maya, and is
still so spoken of by the natives among
themselves, who to this day speak the an
cient Maya language.
Iucatan must have been much more
populous in those early times than at pres
ent; yet, beyond little strip at the north
and spot here and there around the
edges, nobody knows anything definite
about the unconquered tribes who still re-
tain possession of the greater portion OF
the peninsula. Certainly the Mayas of the
old days had more civilization, wealth and
regular industry. They had larger towns
and cities, and were highly skilled in the
arts of civilized life.
In his "Ancient America" Baldwin
tells us that near the ruins of Yucatan are
frequently found the remains of many
hnely-constructed artificial lakes, the bot
toms of which were made of fiat stones
laid in cement, several layers deep. Numer.
Gus traces of a very ancient paved road
have also been found, raised above the
graded level of the ground and made
very smooth. 1t ran north and south, and
probably led to many cities yet undis.
covered in the region now covered by the
unknown wilderness.
In the settled portion of Yusatan, north
of the great forest, the remains of ancient
cities are abundant NJ. Charney states
that he found the country covered with
them from north to south" In the preface
of his work on this peninsular, Stephens
states that he visited forty-four ruined
cities, most of which were unknown to
white men, even to those inhabiting the
country, and in all of them were wonderful
remains
We have not space to dip into history
very deeply. According to Maya chrom-
cies, the downfall of the nation occurred in
the year 1920, when Mayapan, capital OF
the kingdom, was destroyed. For MANY
centuries before that period the peninsular
had been the seat of an important feudal
monarchy, which doubtless arose after the
Toltec overthrow of the very ancient King.
dom of Xibalba. 1t was broken up by q
rebellion of the feudal lords about hun
dred years before the arrival Of the Span
iards
After the conquest "New Spain" was
divided into ten districts, viz: the King
doms of Mexico, Leon and New Galicia
fhs colony Of Nau Ca,,o,Jo- IL