of what they saw on the
first visits of the Spaniards. The later historians are more explicit,
and speak of Cozumel as a place containing many adoratorios and
temples, as a principal sanctuary and place of pilgrimage, standing to
Yucatan in the same relation as Rome to the Catholic world. Gomarra
describes one temple as being "like a square tower, broad at the base,
having steps on the sides, and at the top a chamber covered with straw,
with four doors or windows, with their breastworks or corridors. In the
hollow, which seems like a chapel, they seat or paint their gods. Such
was that which stood near the seacoast."

By these accounts I had been induced to visit the island of Cozumel;
and an incidental notice in the Modern Traveller, speaking of existing
ruins as remains of Spanish buildings, led me to suspect that their
character had been mistaken, and that they were really vestiges of the
original population; but on the ground we asked ourselves where to look
for them. Amid all the devastations that attended the progress of the
Spaniards in America, none is more complete than that which has swept
over the island of Cozomel. When I resolved to visit it I was not aware
that it was uninhabited; and knowing it to be but thirty miles long, I
supposed that, without much difficulty, a thorough exploration could be
made; but even before landing we saw that it would be impossible to
accomplish this, and idle to make the attempt. The whole island was
overgrown with trees, and, except along the shore or within the
clearing around the hut, it was impossible to move in any direction
without cutting a path. We had only our two sailors, and if we should
cut by the compass through the heart of the island, we might pass
within a few feet of a building without perceiving it. Fortunately,
however, on the borders of the clearing there were vestiges of ancient
population, which, from the directions of Don Vicente Albino, we had no
difficulty in finding. One of them, standing about two hundred feet
distant from the sea, and even now visible above the tops of the trees
to vessels sailing by, is represented in the engraving that follows. It
stands on a terrace, and has steps on all four of its sides. The
building measures sixteen feet square; it had four doors facing the
cardinal points, and, as will be seen by the figure of a man sitting on
the steps, it is very low. The exterior is of plain stone, but was
formerly stuccoed and painted, t