principal seats of the earliest civilization, that of the "Colhuas," was
in this forest-covered region. In their time the whole was cultivated
and filled with inhabitants. Here was a populous and important part of
the Colhuan kingdom of "Xibalba," which, after a long existence, was
broken up by the Toltecs, and which had a relation, in time, to the
Aztec dominion of Montezuma, much like that of the old monarchy of Egypt
to the kingdom of the Ptolemies.

In the time of the Spaniards there was in the forest at Lake Peten a
solitary native town, founded nearly a century previous to their time by
a Maya prince of Itza, who, with a portion of his people, fled from
Yucatan to that lonely region to escape from the disorder and bloodshed
of a civil war. This was the civil war which destroyed Mayapan, and
broke up the Maya kingdom of Yucatan. In 1695, Don Martin Ursua, a
Spanish official, built a road from Yucatan to Lake Peten, captured the
town, and destroyed it. He reported that the builders of this road found
evidence that "wrecks of ancient cities lie buried in this wilderness."
All along the route they discovered vestiges of ruins, and special
mention is made of "remains of edifices on raised terraces, deserted and
overgrown, and apparently very ancient."

CHARACTER OF THE SOUTHERN RUINS.

Should you visit the ruins of one of these mysterious old cities, you
would see scattered over a large area great edifices in different stages
of decay, which were erected on the level summits of low pyramidal
mounds or platforms. The summits of these mounds are usually of
sufficient extent to furnish space for extensive terraces or "grounds,"
as well as room for the buildings. The edifices were built of hewn stone
laid in a mortar of lime and sand, the masonry being admirable, and the
ornamentation, in most cases, very abundant. The pyramid-foundations of
earth were faced with hewn stone, and provided with great stone
stairways. These, we may suppose, were the most important buildings in
the old city. The ordinary dwellings, and all the other less important
structures, must have been made chiefly of wood or some other material,
which had perished entirely long ago and left no trace, for at present
their remains are no more visible than those of the forest leaves which
grew five hundred years ago.

One explorer of Palenque says: "For five days did I wander up and down
among these crumbling monuments of a city which, I hazard little