Identifier: ancientcitiesofn00char (find matches)
Title: The ancient cities of the New World : being travels and explorations in Mexico and Central America from 1857-1882
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Charnay, Désiré, 1828-1915
Subjects: Indians of Mexico Indians of Central America
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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door-ways, some supported by columns, while others are mere openings,as shown in our drawing, which reproduces the north-westside. In this monument and in the second palace are foundfor the first time lintels of stone, nearly all in very goodpreservation. Historians have told us nothing regarding Kabah ;nevertheless we have some guiding landmarks from which toreconstruct its history and that of Uxmal, of which in allprobability it was a close ally, since the two cities He at adistance of five leagues from each other, and were connectedby a plastered road, traces of which are still visible. Consequentlythe same fate must have been common to both. We knowthat a century before the Conquest the lord of Mayapanruled over the whole peninsula, having razed to the groundthe capitals of his vanquished rivals, amongst whom were thecaciques of Uxmal, Kabah, Labna, etc. This king of MayapanIntroduced into the country a force of Mexican soldiers for * Salisbury, The Mayas, p. 25. Worcester, 1877.
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2 C Kabaii and Uxmal. 387 the maintenance of his authority ; * and to ensure the good be-haviour of the caciques he obHged them to reside at his court,where their state of vassalage was made up to them by a Hfeof great pomp, at the expense of the sovereign.t Now as the Aztec independence only dates from the reignof Itzcoatl (1426), their conquests and subsequent power cannotbe earlier than the reign of Montezuma I. (1440); it is obvious,therefore, that they were not in a position to send reinforcementsbefore 1440 to the ruler of Mayapan. This autocracy lasted buta few years ; a coalition of the people of the Sierra was formed,war broke out, the king of Mayapan was vanquished, the citycaptured and sacked, when the hostage caciques returned to theirnative provinces. Landa places this event in 1420, whilstHerrera gives 1460 as the probable date. We think the latterjustifies his chronology, since he writes that seventy yearselapsed between the fall of Mayapan and the coming of theSpaniard

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