failed to
satisfy scholars, its study still engages the attention of other learned
archaeologists and antiquaries.

Bishop Landa gives the following description of Mayan manuscripts or
books: "They wrote their books on a large, highly decorated leaf,
doubled in folds and enclosed between two boards, and they wrote on both
sides in columns corresponding to the folds. The paper they made of the
roots of a tree, and gave it a white varnish on which one could write
well. This art was known by certain men of high rank, and because of
their knowledge of it they were much esteemed, but they did not practice
the art in public. This people also used certain characters or letters,
with which they wrote in their books of their antiquities and their
sciences: and by means of these, and of figures, and by certain signs in
their figures, they understood their writings, and made them understood,
and taught them. We found among them a great number of books of these
letters of theirs, and because they contained nothing which had not
superstitions and falsities of the devil, we burned them all; at which
they were exceedingly sorrowful and troubled."[33-*]

In Cogolludo's Historia de Yucatan, there is an account of a destruction
of Indian antiquities by Bishop Landa, called an auto-dae-f[=e], of which
we give a translation: "This Bishop, who has passed for an illustrious
saint among the priests of this province, was still an extravagant
fanatic, and so hard hearted that he became cruel. One of the heaviest
accusations against him, which his apologists could not deny or justify,
was the famous auto-dae-f[=e], in which he proceeded in a most arbitrary
and despotic manner. Father Landa destroyed many precious memorials,
which to-day might throw a brilliant light over our ancient history,
still enveloped in an almost impenetrable chaos until the period of the
conquest. Landa saw in books that he could not comprehend, cabalistic
signs, and invocations to the devil. From notes in a letter written by
the Yucatan Jesuit, Domingo Rodriguez, in 1805, we offer the following
enumeration of the articles destroyed and burned.

5000 Idols, of distinct forms and dimensions.
13 Great stones, that had served as altars.
22 Small stones, of various forms.
27 Rolls of signs and hieroglyphics, on deer skins.
197 Vases, of all dimensions and figures.

Other precious curiosities are spoken of, but we have no description of
them."[34-*]

C