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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atli and Teloquitan ; *Cogolludo adopts these various appellations, remarking thatas the country was named after its chief city, it differed ateach successive epoch, being in ancient times Mayapan, but inthe time of the writer Campeche. Ternaux-Compans declaresthat from the fall of Mayapan to the coming of the Spaniards,the country had no general name, but was severally calledafter each province, as district of Choaca, Bakhalal, Cam-peche, etc. ; but there is little doubt that the name ofYucatan, at the coming of Europeans and afterwards, wasMaya. However that may be, we will turn to the monu-ments, which afford a far surer guide whereon to construct ahistory of this country so rich in works of los antiguos. Progreso is a miserable hamlet surrounded by low-lyingswamps ; here the luggage is examined, but in our case onlypio forma, and we are glad to resume our seats and tosteam out of this unhealthy zone, although the country we * Landa, Relacion dc las Cosas de Yucatan, sec. 2. I <
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Yucatan, Merida, and the Mava Ry\cE. 269 traverse, on which nothing grows save brambles and brush-wood, is no less flat or monotonous. We come presently toimmense estates of kenequcn, a kind of agave, having longnarrow leaves, yielding a solid shining thread, which is hardlyknown out of American markets ; patches of verdure, bananas,palm-trees, and maritime pines, betray now and again a privateresidence, while smoking mills show the factories where thehenequen is being prepared ready for exportation. Were it not for the mysterious spirit of los antiguos,which seems to fill the whole country, the landscape to aless enthusiastic explorer must appear dreary and melancholyin the extreme. We pass eminences on our right on whichonce stood noble temples; these remains carry me back tothe time when I first visited these parts, and when these ruinsfixed my resolve to make archaeology the business of my life.Next came a few straggling hamlets ; groups of dark womenin short petticoats, and naked

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