HISTORY OF THE SPANISH CONQUEST OF YUCATAN AND OF THE ITZAS

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but as it has been often described we will only say that it may have
had, at one time, as many as one hundred thousand inhabitants and that
the culture that throve there was of a high order.

The political features of the League of Mayapan are difficult to
describe with accuracy. Each of the three great cities had its ruling
family. Below these was an order of personages called _batab_, each of
whom held and ruled a portion of the country. The _batab_ stood in much
the same relation to the ruler of the large city as a medieval baron to
the king. Doubtless each _batab_, ruling from his own city, had a
hierarchy of officers under him. Probably Labna, Kabah, Chacmultun,
Sayil, Hochob, Ake, Tihoo, Acanceh, Tinum, Kewick, and all the other
cities in northern Yucatan were once seats of _batabs_ who were more or
less intimately connected with the ruler of one of the three great
cities. There was ample machinery for the administration of justice,
and crimes were fittingly punished. Such positions as the Halach Uinic
(Real Man, i.e., king) of Mayapan and the office of batab of some