From Tikal the civilising column advanced towards the north of the peninsula. Material proofs of this exist in the cities ranged on its line of march, for instance, Nohbeccan, seen by Ursua, and also in the historical data, which the reader may see in our chapter on Chichen-Itza.
The uniform expression of the faces in these bas-reliefs is generally calm and pleasant, as at Palenque, where we pointed out that after the almost total extermination of their race, the Toltecs ceased to be a warlike nation and became missionaries of civilisation, bringing the population around them into submission by their persuasive preaching, like the priests of Buddha in India and Java, adopting the language of their disciples, and building marvellous temples in honour of the gods they preached. The bas-reliefs at Palenque, Lorillard, and Tikal tell this story very plainly.
The arrival of the Toltecs in the south of Yucatan is thus placed beyond a doubt; but the explanation given of the abandonment of Chichen by its inhabitants is highly unsatisfactory. That exodus, produced by secondary causes, was determined by the still living tradition that establishments had been formed by their ancestors in the south of the peninsula, and that Tikal, which at that time was perhaps still standing, formed the chief centre. It is more than probable that the caciques of Chichen had kept up some intercourse with one of the cradles of their family, and when they set their face in that direction, it was but an instinctive yearning to return to Peten. To the same Toltec branch is clue also the colonisation and civilisation of the north of Guatemala, Tikal being the central point, whence some directed their march north, whilst others went south.
If we are to believe the priest of Quiché, “he saw at Coban a great city which filled him with astonishment.” We have heard nothing of such a place, nor has any other traveller; but if we follow the affiliation, it is highly probable that Coban was a station of the Tikal-Toltec branch, which from this point went east, where they founded Copan and Quirigua in the province of Chiquimula. Copan was standing at the Conquest, as well as Utatlan, Atitlan, Xelahu, Patinamit, and several other Guatemalec cities, which were destroyed by Alvarado. Copan was forced to yield after a desperate struggle to Hernandez de Chaves, one of his lieutenants (1530), and Juarros tells us that Fuentes visited it in 1700, when “the Great Circus still remained entire.”