The publication of John L. Stephens "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan" in 1843 represented a great moment in archeological history in describing his explorations of Yucatan and his discovery of the Maya culture. The current two-volume edition is an unabridged republication of the original publication, and this paper presents a review of the work.
Stephens work is a highly detailed description of his explorations of Yucatan and the Mayan ruins he discovered there. It also describes some of the lifestyle, customs, and especially the religious rituals of the Indian peoples he encountered on his expedition. The work is illustrated with detailed drawings and schematic diagrams of the layout of the ruins he and his party discovered. Along with Stephens on his expedition were an ornithologist, Dr. Cabot, and a fellow explorer who had accompanied him on previous explorations, Mr. Catherwood, who made the sketches which have been made into etchings for reproduction in the current edition.
Stephens presumes that the reader is familiar with his previous work on his travels in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, and often skims over details of people and places described in this prior work. The first volume begins with a description of a stormy sea voyage taking the explorers to their point of departure for their expedition - the port of Sisal in north-western Yucatan (1:1-3). Stephens describes their stay at Merida, where they arrived during the festival season, and describes in detail the festival of San Cristoval and the various characters they met there. This is followed by a vivid description of a bullfight and more festivities (1:10-22). He then digresses into the history of Yucatan, again in great detail, describing the Spanish encounters with local Indians during their conquest of the region (1:23-41). Other historical pieces appear throughout the two volumes.
Some of the political aspects of Yucatan are described ...