fact that Cortes, when he visited it in 1519, found a
large village there.

Just before the Itzas left Champoton, or perhaps just after, Uxmal was
founded by Ahcuitok Tutul Xiu, who, according to the tradition,
probably came from the west. The lords of this city were destined to
have an important part to play in the history of the Itzas. About the
year 1000 the cities of Uxmal, Chichen, and Mayapan formed a
confederation which has been called the League of Mayapan. After three
or four hundred years of unrest after the disintegration of the Old
Empire a New Empire was about to begin its career.

V. Renaissance or League Period (1000-1200 A.D.). In the Golden Age or
Old Empire the civilization of the Maya race had centered about Lake
Peten, in the extreme south of the peninsula of Yucatan. In the time of
the New Empire the old cities in the south were gradually forgotten and
new ones, quite as remarkable, sprang up in the northern portion of the
peninsula. Three cities probably shared the sovereign power, forming,
by their alliance, the celebrated League of Mayapan. These cities were
Uxmal, ruled by the Xiu family, Mayapan, possibly ruled by the Cocom[5]
family, and Chichen Itza. The latter is, of course, our chief concern;
but as it has been often described we will only say that it may have
had, at one time, as many as one hundred thousand inhabitants and that
the culture that throve there was of a high order.

The political features of the League of Mayapan are difficult to
describe with accuracy. Each of the three great cities had its ruling
family. Below these was an order of personages called _batab_, each of
whom held and ruled a portion of the country. The _batab_ stood in much
the same relation to the ruler of the large city as a medieval baron to
the king. Doubtless each _batab_, ruling from his own city, had a
hierarchy of officers under him. Probably Labna, Kabah, Chacmultun,
Sayil, Hochob, Ake, Tihoo, Acanceh, Tinum, Kewick, and all the other
cities in northern Yucatan were once seats of _batabs_ who were more or
less intimately connected with the ruler of one of the three great
cities. There was ample machinery for the administration of justice,
and crimes were fittingly punished. Such positions as the Halach Uinic
(Real Man, i.e., king) of Mayapan and the office of batab of some
lesser city usually were inherited according to the rules of
primogeniture, but this custom could, for sufficient cause, be se