There was a peculiarity in the Indian character which was noticeable in all their proceedings. This was the absence of all conversation amongst the numerous spectators. The games, races and processions, the beating of the wooden drums and the continuous sounds of the marimbas went on incessantly, but there was no other noise and no murmur of human voices. The gift of speech with these tribes seems almost unnecessary for the purposes of their lives, and the language of signs would possibly be sufficient for their requirements. The Spaniards in the sixteenth century were astonished by the extraordinary debauchery of the Indians during their festivals. The events which occurred upon these occasions, especially in Yucatan, surprised the soldiers belonging to a nation remarkable for its sobriety. The Indians in Cuba, Hayti, and the islands of the Caribbean sea, and those inhabiting Florida, the valley of the Mississippi, and other parts of North America, had no knowledge of an intoxicating spirit. The origin of the excessive insobriety amongst the Mexican Indians is clearly traceable to the indigenous growth of the Maguey (_Agave Americana_). This aloe grows abundantly in the sterile regions of Central America, and supplies a fluid which, after undergoing certain preparations, is highly alcoholic. At Yajalon, as at Bachajon and Ocosingo, the church was in ruins. There was nothing left of it except the bare walls, marks of the old altars and parts of the chancel. Long grass was growing over the ground of the nave. The convent was also in a ruinous condition and only one side of the quadrangle remained. The interior was overgrown with weeds and grass, and was used as a pasture for the horses belonging to the convent. The Presbitero was eloquent upon the subject of the wrongs suffered by the Catholics in Mexico, and he particularly dwelt upon the harm that had been done to the people in consequence of the decrees which had nationalised the possessions of the church, suppressed the convents and abolished all religious fraternities. He thought that the withdrawal of the monks would have an injurious effect upon the condition of the Indians, and that they would gradually relapse into a state of ignorance and barbarism. Thus the system begun by Bishop Las Casas, and carried on afterwards by monks and priests would come to an end, and all their efforts to advance and benefit the aboriginal tribes be rendered useless and vain.