Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Volume I: Volume 1

"The ground was entirely new; there were no guide-books or guides; the whole was a virgin soil...At one time we stopped to cut away branches and vines which concealed the face of a monument, and then to dig around and bring to light a fragment, a sculptured corner of which protruded from the earth. I leaned over with breathless anxiety while the Indians worked, and an eye, an ear, a foot, or a hand was disentombed."