CHAPTER XVI.
Mounds in the valley of the Usamacinta. — Lacandones. — Catasaja. — Canoe voyage. — Rivers and Lagoons. — Alligators. — Jonuta. — Cortes’s March to Honduras. — Cannibalism. — The Mexican Emperor Guatimozin. — Palisada. — Laguna de Terminos. — Island of Carmen. — Campeachy. — Yucatan. — Pyramidal Altar. — Human sacrifices. — Tzibalché. — Maya Indians. — Arrival at Uxmal.
At San Domingo Dr. Coller showed me a chart which he had drawn of the country around for a distance of twelve miles, exclusive of the neighbourhood of Palenque where the forest prevented him from making a survey. Upon this chart he had placed the positions of eleven mounds that he had discovered. They were situated near the left bank of the Usamacinta. On the slopes of these mounds were loose slabs of worked limestone which he thought must have formed part of houses built on their summits. Some excavations had been made and it was proved that the mounds were not burial places.
I met in the village the proprietor of a small hacienda near Balancan. He told me that in one of his fields there was a large mound forty feet high, which must have had a building upon it, for on the top there were large blocks of squared stone. He wished to know what the mound contained and had therefore dug through it, but he found nothing but a curved grindstone precisely similar in shape and size to those now used by the women in the neighbourhood. In the adjoining land he had found near the surface numerous terra-cotta idols, but he had not seen any human bones. It is a coincidence perhaps of some importance, with reference to the origin of the race once occupying Palenque, that a grindstone was also the only thing found within the mound opened by the orders of Carrera on the plains of Mixco, in that part of Central America which, before the conquest, had been occupied by the Quichés.
San Domingo is occasionally visited by groups of the wild Indians called Lacandones who live isolated amongst the adjacent forests. Dr. Coller told me that during his ten years’ residence, he had seen several of these men enter the village for the purpose of exchanging beans, tobacco and wax for spirits and other goods. They were always dressed in long white cotton frocks which reached nearly to their feet, and they wore their hair loose and very long. They seemed to be of a shy and inoffensive disposition. It is probable that they are of the same tribe as the Indians who live scattered amongst the Cordilleras near Comitan, a few of whom occasionally come down to that town from the forests bringing for barter bags of cocoa beans.
The journey from Palenque to the coast of the Gulf of Mexico had to be made by rivers and lagoons. The embarkation place was at Catasaja, where canoes were to be obtained. After riding eight leagues through forests and savannahs we reached “Las Playas,” where I was welcomed by the Licenciado Vadillo. Catasaja was a flourishing village, prettily situated on the upper waters of a branch of the Usamacinta. It was in an unusually busy state. Preparations were in progress for holding a fair, and celebrating the annual festival of the church. Great numbers of Indians and Ladinos were expected to arrive from the surrounding country, and sheds were being built as shelters for them. In the morning, at an early hour, I found that Señor Vadillo had made all necessary arrangements for my journey, and had secured for me a good canoe manned by trustworthy Indians. With his assistance I was able to sell my mule. The saddle and hammock were retained as I should want them in Yucatan.
In the forenoon the men reported that the boat was ready. After paddling swiftly down the stream for several leagues we entered a channel whose muddy banks were covered with alligators. The river also swarmed with them. Upon several occasions I thought that the canoe was in danger of being capsized by the waves made by the alligators, in consequence, as we approached them, of their habit of slipping off the bank into the river, and I told the Indians to be careful. They said that the canoe was perfectly safe, but that if, by any accident, we should be rolled over there was nothing to be feared, as the alligators never attacked people in the water. I was doubtful about this theory, although it may be correct. It is well known that natives in other parts of the world have been seized by alligators when incautiously going too near them when they were watching for their prey on the banks. But I do not know if there is any evidence to show that they would seize men in the same manner if they were actually floating in the water.[85]
Lower down the river we came to a place where the stream was sluggish. The banks were flat and covered with dense vegetation. Here we saw an extraordinary scene. The water was thick, green, and putrid with animal matter. The surface was covered with the inflated bodies of dead alligators.
Large carrion birds were feeding upon them in the most revolting manner. Their claws were firmly fixed upon the hard skin of the reptiles, and they drove their beaks, like pickaxes, deep down into their entrails and gorged themselves with the decaying flesh. The stench was horrible, and together with the oppressive heat, the foul state of the air and the enormous mosquitoes, made this part of the journey very disgusting.
At sunset we arrived at a place called Jonuta, near the junction of the river Palisada with the river Usamacinta, and the canoe was hauled up on the bank. We could not have been far from the spot where Cortes crossed over on his march to Honduras, one of the most extraordinary military expeditions, through an absolutely unknown country and amongst unknown men, that has ever been successfully accomplished. This part of the march through the forest and across the numerous streams of the estuary of the Usamacinta was especially difficult and laborious, and at one time, the forces were driven to great straits for want of provisions. The events that occurred here are described by Bernal Diaz, who accompanied the troops, and by Cortes in his despatch to the Emperor Charles V. One of these events was so remarkable that it at once arrests the attention.
The Spaniards and their Indian allies had been for several days suffering from famine, and the state of affairs in the camp was becoming serious. It was then discovered that several acts of cannibalism had taken place. “It appeared,” states Bernal Diaz, “that certain Caciques from Mexico had captured two or three of the Indians belonging to the villages that we had passed through, and had brought them hidden amongst their baggage, and on account of the hunger on the road they killed them and roasted them in ovens which were made under the ground with stones, as was their custom in Mexico, and they devoured them, and in the same way they had also secreted the two guides that we had with us who had run away, and they ate them. When Cortes knew what had happened he ordered the Mexican Caciques to be called together and spoke angrily to them, and told them that if such things occurred again he would punish them. The Franciscan friar, who accompanied us, also preached to them many holy and good sayings and after he had concluded his sermon Cortes, as a matter of justice, ordered a Mexican Indian to be burnt on account of the murder of the Indians that they had eaten.”
Cortes in reporting this punishment to the Emperor says,—“I ordered him to be burnt, giving the said Señor to understand the reason for this act of justice. That it was because he had killed an Indian and eaten him; which act was forbidden by your Majesty and that I, in your Royal name, had notified and ordered that it should not be done, and that therefore for having killed and eaten him I ordered him to be burnt.”[86]
Another strange event that took place whilst the troops were in this region, was the tragic fate of Guatimozin, who had succeeded Montezuma as Emperor of Mexico. It is difficult to understand what could have been the object that Cortes had in view when he ordered this monarch to be executed. He may have thought it expedient to destroy, as far as possible, the whole race of caciques throughout New Spain and thus minimise the risk of any organized rebellion. These chiefs ruled with absolute power over the natives, and it is possible that the Spanish authorities deemed it advisable to get rid of them. Hundreds of them were burnt alive at the stake upon the slightest pretexts. After one of the local insurrections the officer who suppressed it reported that he had burnt forty of the rebellious caciques. In a similar manner the leaders in Cuba and Haiti were also destroyed.
In the case of Guatimozin, Cortes considered that he and his cousin, the King of Tlacupa, had been proved guilty of conspiring with other Indians to kill the Spaniards; and he accordingly ordered them to be put to death. The sentence was immediately carried out, and the two Mexican monarchs were hanged upon a tree within sight of the army as it continued its march through the forest.
The positions where these events occurred can only be approximately determined. The wooden bridges which were constructed for the passage of the troops have disappeared. All local records of this famous march have passed away. The villages or pueblos mentioned by the conquerors no longer exist, and their names are forgotten. It is only by the most attentive study that even a presumptive knowledge of the route can be obtained. From the accounts given in the official dispatches and the statements of Bernal Diaz, and also from the fact that Cortes steered a straight course by compass, it may be concluded that the forces must have passed near Jonuta and about twenty-eight miles from the ruins of Palenque.
With respect to the acts of cannibalism it should be observed, in justice to other tribes, that the caciques who devoured the bodies were Mexicans, and there are reasons for believing that before the arrival of the Aztecs cannibalism was unknown in Central America. The method of cooking by baking in ovens which, after the holes had been dug out of the ground, were surrounded and covered by heated stones, are the same as those that were customary with the Maoris in New Zealand, who, after their fights, feasted upon their captured enemies in that manner.
Upon the evening of the day upon which we left Jonuta, we reached Palisada and brought to an end our wearisome canoe voyage down the Usamacinta. At Palisada the logwood, which is obtained in the forests bordering upon the upper parts of the rivers, is gathered together and shipped upon small schooners which carry their cargoes of palo tinto (red wood) to the town of Laguna on the island of Carmen, whence the wood is sent to Europe and other parts of the world.
In one of these little fore-and-aft rigged schooners I embarked and proceeded on my way down the river. In the afternoon we stopped in a place where we could get some shade until sunset. I found a shelter within a hut near the bank. Throughout the night the atmosphere was very oppressive. We slowly made our way by the help of a small boat, manned by our Indian crew, which took us in tow. All of us suffered greatly from the attacks of myriads of mosquitoes. On the following day we arrived at an open sheet of water, called the inner lagoon, where it was perfectly calm and we had to endure on the open and exposed deck, the full strength of the tropical sun. In the evening a strong head wind called “el Norte” sprang up, together with heavy squalls and showers of rain which continued all that night and the whole of the next day. As we could not make any headway we anchored. The sun was very powerful and it was not possible to escape from its influence. The Indians appeared to be much affected by the weather and were in a worn and prostrate condition. I had to endure, equally with them, the alternate exposure to extreme heat and cold driving rain. During the night the wind moderated, and towards the morning we weighed our anchor and proceeded to the entrance of the outer lagoon and waited for daylight. As the sun rose, the wind suddenly shifted, and we sailed rapidly across the bay to the anchorage off the town, arriving there early in the forenoon.
Thus terminated the voyage “par los rios” (by the rivers). The exposure to the sun by day, the attacks of mosquitoes by night, and the sickly condition of the banks of the rivers and lagoons, had combined to make that part of the journey across the continent extremely exhausting.
The long narrow island of Carmen is placed like a natural breakwater, sheltering the bay from the open sea of the Gulf of Campeachy. The earliest notice of it occurs in the Reports of the Spanish expedition under Grijalva in 1518. Bernal Diaz, who was one of those who took part in it, mentions a fact that throws some light upon the religious customs of the Indians. He observes that the fleet after having visited the coasts of Yucatan arrived at this island and remained for several days at anchor in the bay. Many of the officers and men landed, he being amongst the number. After traversing the island it was ascertained that it was not inhabited, but some small temples (adoratorios) were seen. These were made of stone and mortar, and contained many idols made of clay and of wood, some were like figures of gods, others like women, and many seemed to represent serpents. At the present time there are no remains visible of these adoratorios. The fact, however, of their having been erected upon this island is instructive. It tends to prove that temples were placed in positions where there were no inhabitants, and thus, to some extent, supports the theory that certain holy places were set apart for religious purposes, and were not necessarily attached to centres of population.
During the stay of Grijalva’s fleet, a greyhound, belonging to one of the ships, strayed on shore and was lost. The following year, upon the arrival of a second expedition, when the ships anchored, the dog was seen on the beach watching them. Bernal Diaz relates how the dog knew his own ship, and fawned upon the crew when they landed, showing the utmost happiness and affection. How the dog had obtained food and water through such a long period was not known.
Soon after my arrival I was informed that a small schooner called the Rosita was about to sail for Campeachy and that her skipper would take a few passengers. I accordingly made arrangements with him and went on board. I found that the only accommodation was the open hold under the main hatch. Here on the top of the cargo, made smooth and level for the purpose, were placed mats. We embarked two ladies and some Spanish officials and left La Laguna at daylight. The wind was against us and we had to make a long tack towards the Yucatan coast, near Champoton. During the night the wind became more favourable and in the forenoon we sighted the white walls of Campeachy. The cathedral and mediæval fortifications looked very picturesque from the sea as we approached the coast. The Rosita did not draw much water, so we were able to anchor within half a mile of the landing place. I was glad to find in the town a tolerable inn called the Paloma, and a worthy, attentive landlord named Ruiz. The constant exposure and the hardships endured latterly had seriously affected my constitution, and I felt weak and