h in the ruined convent of Merida.

In the account of the conquest of Yucatan by Cogolludo it is stated,
that on the arrival of the Spaniards at the Indian town of Tihoo, on
the site of which, it will be remembered, Merida now stands, they found
many cerros hechos a mano, _i. e._, hills made by hand, or artificial
mounds, and that on one of these mounds the Spaniards encamped.

This mound, it is stated, stood on the ground now occupied by the plaza
major. East of it was another large mound, and the Spaniards laid the
foundation of the city between these two, because, as it is assigned,
the stones in them were a great convenience in building, and economized
the labour of the Indians. These mounds were so large, it is added,
that with the stones the Spaniards built all the edifices in the city,
so that the ground which forms the plaza major remained nearly or quite
level. The buildings erected are specified, and it is added that there
was abundance of material for other edifices which the Spaniards wished
to erect.

Other mounds are mentioned as obstructing the laying out of streets
according to the plan proposed, and there is one circumstance which
bears directly upon this point, and, in my opinion, is conclusive.

In the history of the construction of the Franciscan convent, which was
founded in the year 1547, five years after the arrival of the Spaniards
in Tihoo, it is expressly stated that it was built upon a small
artificial mound, one of the many that were then in the place, on which
mound, it is added, were _some ancient buildings_. Now we must either
suppose that the Spaniards razed these buildings to the ground, and
then constructed this strange arch themselves, which supposition is, I
think, utterly untenable, or that this corridor formed part of the
ancient buildings which, according to the historical account, stood on
this artificial mound, and that for some purpose or other the monks
incorporated it with their convent.

There is but one way to overthrow this latter conclusion, and that is
by contending that these mounds were all ruined, and this building too,
at the time when it was made to form part of the convent; but then we
are reduced to the necessity of supposing that a great town, the fame
of which reached the Spaniards at Campeachy, and which made a desperate
and bloody resistance to their occupation of it, was a mere gathering
of hordes around the ruined buildings of another race; and, besides,