e uninteresting to
record the fact, that Mr. Stephens' voyages and explorations in Yucatan
were made after the suggestion and with the advice of Hon. John R.
Bartlett, of Providence, R. I., a member of this Society, who obtained
for this traveller the copy of Waldeck's work which he used in his
journeyings. Desire Charnay, a French traveller, published in 1863 an
account entitled _Cites et Ruines Americaines_, accompanied by a
valuable folio Atlas of plates.

The writer of this report passed the winter of 1861 at Merida, the
capital of the Province of Yucatan, as the guest of Don David Casares,
his classmate, and was received into his father's family with a kindness
and an attentive hospitality which only those who know the warmth and
sincerity of tropical courtesy can appreciate.[11-*] The father, Don
Manuel Casares, was a native of Spain, who had resided in Cuba and in
the United States. He was a gentleman of the old school, who, in the
first part of his life in Yucatan, had devoted himself to teaching, as
principal of a high school in the city of Merida, but was then occupied
in the management of a large plantation, upon which he resided most of
the year, though his family lived in the city. He was possessed of
great energy and much general information, and could speak English with
ease and correctness. Being highly respected in the community, he was a
man of weight and influence, the more in that he kept aloof from all
political cabals, in which respect his conduct was quite exceptional.
The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, in his _Histoire des nations civilizees
du Mexique_, acknowledges the valuable assistance furnished him by Senor
Casares, whom he describes as a learned Yucateco and ancient deputy to
Mexico.[12-*]

Perhaps some of the impressions received, during a five months' visit,
will be pardoned if introduced in this report. Yucatan is a province of
Mexico, very isolated and but little known. It is isolated, from its
geographical position, surrounded as it is on three sides by the waters
of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean; and it is but little
known, because its commerce is insignificant, and its communication with
other countries, and even with Mexico, is infrequent. It has few ports.
Approach to the coast can only be accomplished in lighters or small
boats; while ships are obliged to lie off at anchor, on account of the
shallowness of the water covering the banks of sand, which stretch in
broad be