Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya

BOOK REVIEW – FIVE STARS

Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya by William Carlsen

This is an overview of truly classic books still in print since 1842. John L. Stephens and Fredrick Catherwood’s travel books are essential reading for all dedicated history buffs. Having read and enjoyed their books several times I took special interest in Jungle of Stone that expanded positive aspects of the authors exceptionally adventuresome lives.

I only found one discrepancy in Carlsen’s book, the depiction of the Mexican Caste War:

What followed was eight years of conflict and fanatical slaughter that came to be known as the “War of the Castes.”

The War of the Castes actually began in 1847 and the continued armed conflict lasted until 1934 making it the longest armed insurgancy in the history of the Americas.

This is a five star book that is very interesting.

EXCERPTS:

Stephens and Catherwood plunged headlong into a region racked by civil war. They endured relentless bouts of tropical fever, close calls, and physical hardships, and emerged to publish two bestsellers: the first works of American archaeology, so enchantingly written and illustrated that they have become classics and remain in print today. In 1839, they found the remains of what would come to be known as the Maya civilization. More than discovering them, they made sense of them, reaching conclusions that defied the conventional thinking of their time and initiated a century and a half of excavations and investigations, which continue today. After publication of their books, the mysterious stone ruins in Central America, the vast, sophisticated road network of the Inca in South America, and the monuments and temples of the Aztecs could no longer be viewed as vestiges of the Lost Tribes of Israel, the ancient seafaring Phoenicians, or the survivors of lost Atlantis. They were understood to be solely indigenous in origin, the products of the imagination, intelligence, and creativity of Native Americans.

The Spanish saw the Indians as pagan savages who indulged in human sacrifice and idolatry. Their culture and all vestiges of their religion were to be obliterated and the people converted to Christianity. Total submission was essential, according to the Spanish priests who accompanied the conquistadors, to save Indians’ souls.

Most scholars now agree that Europe’s discovery of America almost certainly resulted in the greatest demographic calamity in human history.

The next day they were in Mérida, a handsome city of thirty-five thousand residents, with a hotel on the main plaza that reminded them of the comforts of Europe. Stephens was hoping to meet another acquaintance from New York, a Mérida resident named Simon Peon, whom he had encountered the year before at a Fulton Street hotel where Stephens often dined. When Stephens had mentioned that he was soon heading south in search of ruins, Peon invited him to his hacienda, where some ruins were located, the remains of the old city of Uxmal. Stephens and Catherwood went to pay Don Peon a visit and were taken aback to see that the Peon family lived in a mansion that took up nearly half of one side of the central Plaza de Armas. The building had been constructed hundreds of years earlier by Francisco de Montéjo, the Spanish conquistador who subdued most of the Yucatan Peninsula in 1546, after nineteen years of bloody fighting.

The entrance to the residence was one of the most imposing in all of Mexico. It was framed by Corinthian columns and topped by an ornate balcony. The Montéjo coat of arms was set in the wall, flanked on each side by sculptured figures of two giant Spanish soldiers holding pikes and crushing under their feet the heads of four howling Indians.