Incidents Of Travel In Yucatan

John L. Stephens

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9783849622756
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History

This is the complete edition, Volumes I and II in one single book. This edition also is fully illustrated and contains an introduction about how this book really was written.In his "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, " the author intimated his intention to make a more thorough exploration of the ruins of the latter country. That intention has since been carried into effect, and the following pages are the result. They describe, as the author has reason to believe, the most extensive journey ever made by a stranger in that peninsula, and contain the account of visits to forty-four ruined cities, or places in which remains or vestiges of ancient population were found. The existence of most of these ruins was entirely unknown to the residents of the capital;-but few had ever been visited by white inhabitants;-they were desolate, and overgrown with trees. For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them to utter destruction. In a few generations, great edifices, their façades covered with sculptured ornaments, already cracked and yawning, must fall, and become mere shapeless mounds. It has been the fortune of the author to step between them and the entire destruction to which they are destined; and it is his hope to snatch from oblivion these perishing, but still gigantic memorials of a mysterious people. The descriptions are accompanied by full illustrations from Daguerreotype views and drawings taken on the spot by Mr. Catherwood, and the engravings were executed under his personal superintendence.This edition comes fully illustrated with lots of drawings and maps.

Incidents Of Travel In Yucatan

John L. Stephens

Contents:

Incidents Of Travel In Yucatan – The Story Of The Book

VOLUME I.

PREFACE.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

APPENDIX. VOL. I.

VOLUME II.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XX.

CHAPTER XXI.

CHAPTER XXII.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CHAPTER XXV.

APPENDIX TO VOL. II.

Incidents Of Travel In Yucatan, John Stephens

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Germany

ISBN: 9783849622756

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

[email protected]

Incidents Of Travel In Yucatan – The Story Of The Book

It was hard to imagine, at the time when Mr. Stephens traveled through the region of central America, that anywhere in the world more treasures could be laid out before the discoverer than there. If you have the map nearby try to find the peninsula of Yucatán. It stretches out into the sea of Mexico with Cuba denying half way on a thought line directly to Florida. It is an ideal position, politically and commercially. In the foreground we have the West Indian Archipelago, in the South a big portion of the Western world and in the West the Pacific ocean. Central America connects two halves of the Western Hemisphere, with Yucatán sticking out of his big land mass. You will find nothing similar on the whole globe. At the time when Mr. Stephens traveled this country the main thought of everybody was: why was this not discovered earlier?

Stephens was a lucky man. Central America was not the first part of the world which he traveled extensively. He was sent there as diplomatic representative of the United States and was on his way back to the United States when he found some of the ruins of the aborigines. With every location he visited, he heard of more. With him were Mr. Catherwood, whose task it was to facilitate some drawings, and Dr. Cabot, a renowned physician and ornithologist. The region which they describe in this book is not very large. Its boundaries are two degrees of longitude and a little less than 1° of latitude. The primeval condition of the country limited them to this area. Still Mr. Stephens was able to visit more than 40 places and ruins of cities.

He found huge and extensive buildings that were built on artificial mounds as well as buildings that look like those of ancient Babylon. And he was sure that there was much more to discover when the tropical forest would give way in later times. A lot of his discoveries came to him accidentally. Sometimes the party just went through the forest and stroke a building on its way. On other occasions the talks to Indians gave them indications where to look.

This more or less accidental visit in 1838/1839 was not the only one he undertook there. Another one followed in 1841 and the researches in Yucatán were extended with every stay. The support Stephens got from the local authorities grew and many workers and helpers were put at his disposal. And the rewards came soon. He discovered places like Palenque and Copan and the high excitement behind these discoveries gave him the spirits to constantly fight on for new places.

Stephens brilliantly describes the places he found in this book. Not too many people have wandered over the world and discovered more than he did. This book gives ample proof about his attitude and the efforts he undertook to find places which nobody saw before him.

VOLUME I.

PREFACE.

In his "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan," the author intimated his intention to make a more thorough exploration of the ruins of the latter country. That intention has since been carried into effect, and the following pages are the result. They describe, as the author has reason to believe, the most extensive journey ever made by a stranger in that peninsula, and contain the account of visits to forty-four ruined cities, or places in which remains or vestiges of ancient population were found. The existence of most of these ruins was entirely unknown to the residents of the capital;—but few had ever been visited by white inhabitants;—they were desolate, and overgrown with trees. For a brief space the stillness that reigned around them was broken, and they were again left to solitude and silence. Time and the elements are hastening them to utter destruction. In a few generations, great edifices, their façades covered with sculptured ornaments, already cracked and yawning, must fall, and become mere shapeless mounds. It has been the fortune of the author to step between them and the entire destruction to which they are destined; and it is his hope to snatch from oblivion these perishing, but still gigantic memorials of a mysterious people. The descriptions are accompanied by full illustrations from Daguerreotype views and drawings taken on the spot by Mr. Catherwood, and the engravings were executed under his personal superintendence.

CHAPTER I.

Embarcation.—Fellow-passengers.—A Gale at Sea.—Arrival at Sisal.—Ornithological Specimens.—Merida.—Fête of San Cristoval.—The Lottery.—A Scene of Confusion.—Principle of the Game.—Passion for Gambling.—A deformed Indian.

The reader of my "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan," may remember that the researches of Mr. Catherwood and myself in the last-mentioned country were abruptly terminated by the illness of the former. During our short sojourn in Yucatan, we received vague, but, at the same time, reliable intelligence of the existence of numerous and extensive cities, desolate and in ruins which induced us to believe that the country presented a greater field for antiquarian research and discoveries than any we had yet visited. Under these circumstances, it was a severe hardship that we were compelled to leave it, and our only consolation in doing so was the hope of being able to return, prepared to make a thorough exploration of this unknown and mysterious region. In about a year we found ourselves in a condition to do so; and on Monday, the ninth of October, we put to sea on board the bark Tennessee, Scholefield master, for Sisal, the port from which we had sailed on our return to the United States.

The Tennessee was a down-Easter of two hundred and sixty tons burden, turned out apparently from one of those great factories where ships are built by the mile and chopped off to order, but stout, strong, well manned and equipped.

Her cargo was assorted for the Yucatan market, and consisted of a heavy stratum of iron at the bottom; midway were miscellanies, among which were cotton, muskets, and two hundred barrels of turpentine; and on top, within reach of the hatches, were six hundred kegs of gunpowder.

We had a valuable addition to our party in Dr. Cabot, of Boston, who accompanied us as an amateur, particularly as an ornithologist. Besides him, our only fellow-passenger was Mr. Camerden, who went out as supercargo.

The first morning out we woke with an extraordinary odour of turpentine, giving us apprehensions that a barrel had sprung a leak, which, by means of the cotton, might ...

Table of contents

• Incidents Of Travel In Yucatan – The Story Of The Book
• VOLUME II.