The Mayas, the Sources of Their History / Dr. Le Plongeon in Yucatan, His Account of Discoveries

From the time when Cortez left the river Tobasco, his mind was fixed upon the attractions of the more distant land of Mexico, and not upon the prosecution of further discoveries upon the Western shores of Yucatan; and until 1524, for a period of more than five years, this peninsula remained unnoticed by the Spaniards. Then Cortez left Mexico, which he had already subjugated, for a journey of discovery to Honduras, and for the purpose of calling to account, for insubordination and usurpation of authority, Cristoval de Olid, whom he had previously sent to that region from Vera Cruz. He received from the princes of Xicalanco and Tobasco maps and charts, giving the natural features of the country, and the limits of the various States. His march lay through the Southern boundaries of the great Mayan empire. Great were the privations of this overland march, which passed through a desolate and uninhabited region, and near the ruins of Palenque, but none of the historians of the expedition take notice of the remains. When Cortez finally arrived at Nito, a town on the border of Honduras, he received tidings of the death of Cristoval de Olid, and that his coming would be hailed with joy by the Spanish troops stationed there, who were now without a leader. From the arrival of Cortez at Nito, the association of his name with the province of Yucatan is at an end, and the further history of that peninsula was developed by those who afterwards undertook the conquest of that country.

Francisco de Montejo was a native of Salamanca, in Spain, of noble descent and considerable wealth. He had been among the first attracted to the new world, and accompanied the expedition of Grijalva to Yucatan in 1518, and that of Cortez in 1519. By Cortez this captain was twice sent to Spain from Mexico, with despatches and presents for the Emperor, Charles V. In the year 1527, Montejo solicited the government of Yucatan, in order to conquer and pacificate that country, and received permission to conquer and people the islands of Yucatan and Cozumel, at his own cost. He was to exercise the office of Governor and Captain General for life, with the title of Adelantado, which latter office at his death should descend to his heirs and successors forever. Montejo disposed of his hereditary property, and with the money thus raised embarked with about four hundred troops, exclusive of sailors, and set sail from Spain for the conquest of Yucatan. Landing at Cozumel, and afterwards at some point on the North-eastern coast of the peninsula, Montejo met with determined resistance from the natives; and a battle took place at Aké, in which one hundred and fifty Spaniards were killed, and nearly all the remainder were wounded, or worn out with fatigue. Fortunately, the Indians did not follow the retreating survivors into their entrenchments, or they would have exterminated the Spaniards. The remnants of this force next appeared at Campeachy, where they established a precarious settlement, and were at last obliged to withdraw, so that in 1535 not a Spaniard remained in Yucatan.

Don Francisco de Montejo, son of the Adelantado, was sent by his father from Tobasco, in 1537, to attempt again the conquest of Yucatan. He made a settlement at Champoton, and after two years of the most disheartening experiences at this place, a better fortune opened to the Spaniards. The veteran Montejo made over to his son all the powers given to him by the Emperor, together with the title of Adelantado; and the new governor established himself at Kimpech in 1540, where he founded a city, calling it San Francisco de Campeachy. From thence an expedition went northward to the Indian town Tihoo, and a settlement was made, which was attacked by an immense body of natives. The small band of Spaniards, a little more than two hundred in all, were successful in holding their ground, and, turning the tide of battle, pursued their retreating foes, and inflicted upon them great slaughter. The Indians were completely routed, and never again rallied for a general battle. The conquerors founded the present city of Mérida on the site of the Indian town, with all legal formalities, in January, 1542.44-*

But though conquered the Indians were not subjugated. They cherished an inveterate hatred of the Spaniards, which manifested itself on every possible occasion, and it required the utmost watchfulness and energy to suppress the insurrections which from time to time broke out; and the complete pacification of Yucatan was not secured before the year 1547.

Hon. Lewis H. Morgan, in an interesting article in the North American Review, entitled “Montezuma’s Dinner,” makes the statement that “American aboriginal history is based upon a misconception of Indian life which has remained substantially unquestioned to the present hour.” He considers that the accounts of Spanish writers were filled with extravagancies, exaggerations and absurdities, and that the grand terminology of the old world, created under despotic and monarchial institutions, was drawn upon to explain the social and political condition of the Indian races. He states, that while “the histories of Spanish America may be trusted in whatever relates to the acts of the Spaniards, and to the acts and personal characteristics of the Indians; in whatever relates to Indian society and government, their social relations and plan of life, they are wholly worthless, because they learned nothing and knew nothing of either.” On the other hand, we are told that “Indian society could be explained as completely, and understood as perfectly, as the civilized society of Europe or America, by finding its exact organization.”45-* Mr. Morgan proposes to accomplish this result by the study of the manners and customs of Indian races whose histories are better known. In the familiar habits of the Iroquois, and their practice as to communism of living, and the construction of their dwellings, Mr. Morgan finds the key to all the palatial edifices encountered by Cortez on his invasion of Mexico: and he wishes to include, also, the magnificent remains in the Mayan territory. He would have us believe, that the highly ornamental stone structures of Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, and Palenque, were but joint tenement houses, which should be studied with attention to the usages of Indian tribes of which we have a more certain record, and not from contemporaneous historical accounts of eye witnesses.

In answer to Mr. Morgan’s line of argument, it may be said, that the agreement of early voyagers and chroniclers, of whom there is so large a number, as to the main facts, is strong evidence that their impressions, as stated, were founded upon what they saw, and not on pictures of the imagination. Moreover, the existing undecyphered manuscripts, together with the hieroglyphical and symbolical inscriptions upon buildings, traced in characters similar to those found in aboriginal manuscripts, prove that there was a literature among the Mayan and Aztec races, which places them in a grade of civilization far above that of communistic Indian tribes of which we have any record. More than all, the manuscript of Bishop Landa, an eye witness of expiring Mayan civilization, with its detailed account of the political and social relations of the Indians of that country, is strong testimony to the correctness of the generally accepted theories regarding their social and political systems. The truthfulness of Bishop Landa’s account is attested by its conformity to other accounts, and to the customs and usages of the Yucatan Indians of to-day, as described by recent travellers. We are obliged to consider the argument of Mr. Morgan insufficient to destroy the common opinions of three centuries and a half, in so far as relates to the Maya Indians.

Mr. Morgan also says that “the Aztecs had no structures comparable with those of Yucatan.” If the only grounds for this statement are, that almost no ruins now remain in that country, and that the early accounts of Spanish writers, of what they themselves saw, are considered, by him, untrustworthy, the weight of probability seems, to the writer of this paper, on the contrary, to lie in quite the other direction. When Cortez left Havana, in 1519, he visited Cozumel, famous for its beautiful temples, and Centla, and certain other towns in Central America, on his way to Mexico. Having thus seen the wonderful structures of Central America, is it not strange, that the historians of that expedition, and Cortez himself, should be filled with wonder and amazement at what they found in Mexico, to a degree that disposed them to give a much more particular account of the Aztec palaces than of Yucatan buildings, if they were inferior to them in point of architecture? Mexico has since that time been more populous than Yucatan, and its ruins have naturally disappeared more rapidly in the construction of modern buildings; but the records of its former civilization exist in the accounts of the discoverers, and in the numerous relics of antiquity contained in the museums of Mexico, and scattered about in the archæological collections of Europe and America. The celebrated calendar stone found buried in the Plaza Mayor of Mexico, and now preserved in that city, demonstrates the astronomical advancement of the Aztecs in an incontrovertible manner, and that monument alone would establish their advanced position.

The observations and conclusions of a traveller and archæologist of large experience, as to the condition of Central America at the time of its discovery and settlement by the Spaniards, are contained in the valuable monograph of Dr. C. Hermann Berendt, the discoverer of the site of ancient Centla, who having made a special study of the antiquities of that country in five expeditions, each of several years duration, is entitled to special consideration as one who knows whereof he speaketh.48-* This writer, while he concedes the insufficiency of consulting the records of Spanish writers alone, thinks that archæology and linguistics will at length furnish us the means of reading these records with positive results, as well as help us to a better understanding of the early history of this continent. He says “Central America was once the centre, or rather the only theatre of a truly American, that is to say, indigenous, development and civilization. It was suggested by Humboldt half a century ago, that more light on this subject is likely to be elicited, through the examination and comparison of what palpably remains of the ancient nations, than from dubious traditions, or a still more precarious speculation. And such palpable remains we have, in their antiquities and in their languages. Thus linguistic science has begun to invade the field of American ethnology: and let it not be forgotten that this science is as little bound, as it is qualified, to perform the whole task alone: archæology must lend a helping hand. We must have museums, in which the plastic remains of the ancient American civilizations, either original, or in faithful imitations, shall, in as large numbers as possible, be collected, and duly grouped and labelled, according to the place and circumstances of their discovery.”

The plan for the study of Mayan and Central American ethnology, as indicated by Dr. Berendt, seems to agree most fully with the views entertained by some of the later writers in the publications of the Société Américaine de France, and may be thus stated in brief. First, The Study of Native Languages. Second, The Study of the Antiquities themselves. Third, The formation of Museums, where materials for archæological research may be brought together, and made accessible and available. From the study of aboriginal American history in this practical way, the most satisfactory results can not fail to be reached.

In this brief hour, it would be impossible to describe and elucidate this interesting subject, if the ability were not wanting; but it may be accepted as a welcome service, that draws the attention of this Society to an important field, which the Société Américaine de France, and other European archæologists, are regarding with increased interest.

DR. LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN.

DR. LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN.

The most perfect remains of a high degree of early civilization on this continent are to be found in ruins in the central portions of America. Proofs of the extraordinary advancement of the inhabitants of those regions, in architecture and art, at an early period, are not derived alone or principally from the accounts of Spanish voyagers and chroniclers, which agree substantially in the statements of their observations, but much more from the well-preserved ruins of numerous beautiful buildings, constructed of stone, many of them ornamented with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics. In Mexico, about which Spanish historians of the time of Cortez and after, have written with more particularity, the vestiges of the civilization of the 16th or previous centuries have, in a great measure, been obliterated by the more complete and destructive subjugation suffered at the hands of the conquerors, and by the continuous occupation of the acquired provinces. Probably the early constructions of the Mexicans were not generally composed of so durable materials as those of the neighboring peninsula. Without discussing this point, the fact remains that Yucatan, together with much of the territory of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Tabasco, is strewn with ruins of a character which command the admiration and challenge the investigation of antiquaries. Waldeck, Stephens, Charnay, and Brasseur de Bourbourg, have brought these wonders of an extinct civilization to the knowledge of the world. Since their investigations have ceased, and until recently, but little has been done in this field. In 1873, however, Dr. Augustus Le Plongeon, a native of the island of Jersey, of French parentage, together with his wife, Mrs. Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, an English lady, attracted by the wealth of opportunity offered to them for archæological study in Yucatan, visited that country, and have been and are still actively engaged in exploring its ruins, photographing and taking plans of the buildings, and in making excavations, which have resulted in securing to the scientific world, a masterpiece of antique sculpture differing essentially from all specimens known to exist of American aboriginal art.

Dr. Le Plongeon is an enthusiast in his chosen career, that of an archæologist and an explorer. Without the energy and strong imagination he has displayed, he would not, alone and unassisted, have braved the dangers and privations of a prolonged residence in the wilds, surrounded by perils from exposure to a tropical climate, and from the dangerous proximity of hostile savages. All that can be learned of the life of this investigator is, that he was educated at Paris, and in 1849 went to California as an engineer, and there laid out the town of Marysville. Then he visited Peru, and travelled with Mr. Squire and took photographs of ruins. He came to New York in 1871, with three valuable paintings, which he had procured in Peru, two of them said to be Murillo’s, and the other the work of Juan del Castillo, Murillo’s first master. A long account of these pictures appears in the “New York Evening Mail” of March 2, 1871. He took them to England in the same year, and is said to have sold them to the British Museum. Since his residence in Yucatan, both the Doctor and Mrs. Le Plongeon have been engaged in archæological studies and explorations among the ruins of Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, and Aké, and they have also visited other ruins in the eastern part of Yucatan, together with those of the once famous islands of Cozumel and Mugeres, and have there pursued the same system of investigation. They are at present at Belize, British Honduras, where this explorer is awaiting a reply to his appeal, as an American citizen, to our Minister at Mexico for redress for the loss of the statue which he had discovered, and which has been removed by the government to Mexico, without his knowledge or consent, to be there placed in the National Museum. The writer is in possession of many of Dr. Le Plongeon’s letters and communications, all of them in English, and very interesting to antiquarian students. It is regretted that the shortness of time since receiving the more important of these documents will prevent doing justice to the very elaborate and extended material which is at hand; but it is with the hope that interest and coöperation may be awakened in Dr. Le Plongeon and his labors, that this crude and unsatisfactory statement, and imperfect and hasty reference to his letters, is presented.

The conspicuous results of Dr. Le Plongeon’s active and successful labors in the archæological field, about which there can be no controversy, are the wonderful statue which he has disinterred at Chichen-Itza, and a series of 137 photographic views of Yucatan ruins, sculptures and hieroglyphics. All of the photographs are similar to those which appear in heliotype, diminished in size, as illustrations of this paper. They consist of portraits of Dr. Le Plongeon and of his wife; 8 photographs of specimen sculpture—among them pictures of men with long beards; 7 photographs of the ruins of Aké, showing the arrangement of so-called Katuns—the Maya method of chronology; 12 photographs of Yucatan Indians; 60 photographs of the ruins of Uxmal; and 48 photographs of the ruins of Chichen-Itza, including twelve views relating to the discovery of a statue called Chac-Mool. These pictures, and the relics found in the excavation from which the statue was exhumed, as well as the discovered statue, are valuable acquisitions, and establish a strong claim to the gratitude of the scientific world. Besides these articles, the original head and feet of a female idol in plaster, from the Island of Mugeres, have been discovered by Dr. Le Plongeon, which have not yet been brought to public notice. Of this antique figure Dr. Le Plongeon says, in a letter to the writer: “Whilst at Mugeres Island I had the good fortune to find the statue of one of the priestesses of the shrine of the Maya Venus, whose ruins stand at the southernmost end of the island, on the very brink of the cliff. It was entire, but the men, not knowing how to handle this object, when first disinterred broke it to pieces. I was only able to save the face and feet. They are full of interest, not only artistically speaking, but also historically, inasmuch as they seem to prove the ancient relations that existed between the people of Mayapan and the inhabitants of the west coast of Africa. The teeth, like those of Chac-Mool, are filed like a saw. This was the custom among persons of high rank in Mayapan, as it is even to-day with some of the African tribes, whilst the sandals are exact representations of those found on the feet of the Guanches, the early inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose mummies are yet occasionally met with in the caves of Teneriffe and the other isles of the group. These relics, I am certain, are the last of high art to be found on the Island of Mugeres. The sea is fast eating the base of the promontory where stands the shrine. Part of it has already fallen into the sea, and in a few years not a stone will remain to indicate the place where stood this altar.”

The photographs relating to the discovery of the statue of Chac-Mool are found in a series of twelve pictures, herewith presented in the plates which follow. It is upon this discovery, as will be seen from his Mexican Memorial, that Dr. Le Plongeon has relied more than upon any other result of his labors, for fame and remuneration. The statue was exhumed, according to the account in the Mexican Memorial, in consequence of interpretations of certain mural tablets and hieroglyphics, which the discoverer and his able coadjutor, Mrs. Le Plongeon, found in the building shown in the pictures 1 and 2 on the opposite page, upon the south-east wall of the so-called Gymnasium,58-* which Dr. Le Plongeon says was erected by the queen of Itza, to the memory of Chac-Mool, her husband. As may be seen from a careful inspection of the picture, the stone building is decorated by a belt of tigers, with an ornament separating them, which may have been the “totem.”

The exact spot whence this statue was exhumed cannot be certainly stated, though among the plates which represent the discovery are two which may reasonably be supposed to exhibit the locality. One of these pictures shows the sculptured slabs which may have decorated the mound where the excavation was made, and which again appear on the side of the opening through which the statue is seen emerging. The slabs are elaborately wrought, and represent, the one a tiger holding something in his paw, and the other a bird of prey, with talons similarly employed.

During the early portion of his residence and explorations at Chichen-Itza, Dr. Le Plongeon was assisted by Government troops, who acted as a guard against hostile Indians—sublivados59-*—as these ruins lie outside the limits of territory considered safe for occupation; and though this protection was soon withdrawn, and the discoverer was obliged to rely solely upon arms furnished to his laborers, still he was not disheartened by the dangers of his undertaking, nor dissuaded by the appeals of his friends from persevering in his labors.

The first object discovered at this place, as will be learned from the Mexican Memorial, was a long stone, half interred among the others, which proved to be the base of a sculptured reclining tiger, of much the same size, proportions and execution as the statue of Chac-Mool, as is apparent from a photograph of the tiger in the general collection. The head, of human form, which was wanting, was afterwards found at some distance, in a pile of carved stones. The next objects that appeared were the bas-reliefs, presumably those pictured in 3, 5, 6 and 8. The mound of stones where the excavation was made was, according to Dr. Le Plongeon, the pedestal that supported the effigy of the tiger. Work was commenced at the top of the heap of stones, which were rudely thrown together, rendering the labor difficult and dangerous. An excavation was made measuring 7 meters in depth, which was protected by a trestle-work, and at this depth a rough calcareous stone urn was secured which contained a little dust, and upon it a coarse earthen cover. This was near the head of the statue, which then appeared. The work of liberating the statue required a deepening of the trench 1 1/2 meters more. A picture in heliotype copied from a series of six photographs, showing the various positions assumed by the figure during the process of excavation, can be consulted upon the second page following. This work of art was raised by Dr. Le Plongeon, with the assistance of his wife and ten Indian laborers, by his own ingenuity, and without other engineering apparatus than he had contrived from the trees and vines, making use also of the bark, from which he constructed ropes. Dr. Le Plongeon, in a private letter to the writer, says, “The statue is carved out of a single block of beautifully white and homogeneous limestone. It is naked, and the peculiar ornament suspended by a ribbon tied on the back of the neck, that is seen on the chest, is the distinctive mark of high rank. This same ornament is seen on the chests of all the personages who were entitled to carry three feathers on their heads. The band that composes the head-dress was formed of pieces of an octagonal shape, joined together, and is fastened by ribbons also on the back of the head. The figure had bracelets and garters of feathers, and the sandals, quite different from those used by the present inhabitants of the country, were tied to the feet and legs, and resemble those found on the mummies of the Guanehes, the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands. There were no ear laps, but square tablets appear in place of the ears, on which are hieroglyphics giving the name, condition, &c., &c., of the personage represented by the statue. It is not an idol, but a true portrait of a man who has lived an earthly life. I have seen him represented in battle, in councils, and in court receptions. I am well acquainted with his life, and the manner of his death. The scientific world owes much to Mrs. Le Plongeon for the restoration of the mural paintings where his history and the customs of his people are portrayed; and where Stephens has been unable to see more than a few figures, she has discovered the history of a people and of their leaders.”

“The name, Chac Mool, or Balam, and the names of his two brothers, Huuncay and Aac, the latter the builder of the ‘House of the Governor’ at Uxmal, are not given by us at random. They are written on the monuments where represented, written in characters just as intelligible to my wife and myself, as this paper is to you in latin letters. Every person represented on these monuments is known to us by name, since either over the head or at the feet, the name is written. We have tracings of the mural paintings as seen on the walls of the inner chamber of the monument raised by the queen of Itza to the memory of her husband, Chac-Mool. Stephens mistook it for a shrine where the winners at the games of ball were wont to make offerings to the presiding idol. In your paper you have copied part of his description of that monument. But the statue of Chac-Mool was not exhumed in it as you assert, but four hundred yards from it, in the midst of the forest. No traveller or writer has ever indicated the place where it lay buried, and it is by deciphering the meaning of some hieroglyphics and mural paintings, that we came to a knowledge of the place. The building with tigers and shields was simply a monument dedicated to his memory.”

It appears that Dr. Le Plongeon, on his arrival in Yucatan, in 1873, first visited Uxmal, where he made explorations and took photographs. He then prepared himself to undertake the more difficult and dangerous visit to Chichen-Itza. While there, the discovery of the statue, Chac-Mool, was made, and it was excavated in the manner described by the discoverer in the last pages of the Mexican Memorial. Dr. Le Plongeon had formed a design of sending the statue and certain bas-reliefs, together with plans and photographs, to the Centennial Exhibition, and had prepared these articles for removal, when a sudden revolution occasioned the disarming of his Indian laborers, who for some time had served for a protection, and all further operations were suspended, as longer residence in that exposed region without arms was sheer madness. It was at that time that Dr. Le Plongeon wrote the following Memorial to the Mexican President, Senor Don Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, which is given nearly entire, as it makes a statement of his claims and wishes, and contains very important information concerning the discovery of the statue, and gives an idea of his method of exploration.

The account here given of experiences resulting in a discovery so surprising, must interest even those sceptical in regard to the progress in art of the American aborigines; and it must also be remembered that, almost without exception, late as well as early travellers in this region have become enthusiastic and imaginative when brought into contact with these monuments of a measureless past,63-*—none of them more so, perhaps, than Brasseur de Bourbourg, whose works nevertheless contain a mine of most valuable information aside from hypotheses.

Accompanying the Memorial, a set of photographs, some of them similar to those copied in heliotype, was sent to Mexico for the information of the President, but the numbers in the last pages of that paper, referring to the special set of photographs, do not correspond to the pictures presented here, as there were no means of verifying the subjects, except from the descriptions.