Journey to the Sky by Jamake Highwater

First published: 1978

Type of plot: Fictionalized biography/travelogue

Time of work: From 1839 to 1840

Locale: Central America and southern Mexico

Principal Characters:

• John Lloyd Stephens, “Meester Estebans,” an American lawyer, diplomat, explorer, and travel writer
• Frederick Catherwood, Stephens’s exploring partner, an English architect and artist
• Colonel Archibald MacDonald, the British administrator of Belize
• Patrick Walker, and
• Lieutenant John Caddy, British explorers, the rivals of Stephens and Catherwood
• Augustin, the faithful servant hired by Stephens and Catherwood
• The Muleteer, the quarrelsome head mule driver hired by Stephens and Catherwood
• Don Gregorio, a rich landowner and the petty dictator of the village of Copan
• Don José Maria Asebedo, the owner of the site of the Copan ruins
• Francisco Morazan, the leader of liberal forces fighting in Central America
• Rafael Carrera, the leader of conservative forces fighting in Central America
• Henry Pawling, an American adventurer who joins the expedition in Mexico

The Novel

The subtitle of Journey to the Sky accurately describes the book: “A Novel About the True Adventures of Two Men in Search of the Lost Maya Kingdom.” The two men are John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, pioneering nineteenth century explorers of the Maya ruins whose writings and drawings, respectively, provided the basis for Highwater’s fictionalized account. Stephens, a disaffected lawyer from a rich New York family, met Catherwood in London, became his friend, and persuaded the British architect to move his business and family to New York. Later, when Stephens decided to go exploring for the Maya, his friend happily signed on as artist. Journey to the Sky, a combination of novel, biography, travelogue, and cultural analysis, concentrates on Stephens and Catherwood’s first expedition.

The two board the Mary Ann in New York on October 3, 1839, and, after a month-long voyage culminating in a horrendous tropical storm, arrive in Belize. There the British colonial administrator, Colonel Archibald MacDonald, entertains them royally, since Stephens is traveling officially as a United States diplomat, appointed by President Martin Van Buren. Behind Stephens’s back, the conniving Briton not only has his eyes on additional American territory but also sends out a rival archaeological expedition, led by Patrick Walker and Lieutenant John Caddy. The stop in Belize, however, has one positive result: Stephens and Catherwood hire Augustin, who proves to be a resourceful and faithful servant despite his cutthroat appearance.

From Belize, Stephens and Catherwood sail to Izabal, Guatemala, to begin their overland expedition. Hiring mules and mule drivers, they cross infamous Mico Mountain, the narrow trail a quagmire fed by frequent heavy rains. Once they are into the wild interior, the head muleteer starts disputing decisions and demanding renegotiation of his contract. Rising early, he and the mule train leave behind Stephens, Catherwood, and Augustin, who, short on supplies, chase the mule train for days. Luckily, they find hospitable villages along the way, but in one village they are captured by a drunken mob. Eventually someone appears who can read their diplomatic credentials, so the mob decides not to shoot them. When they finally catch up with the mule train, the muleteer promises to make amends by leading them to Copan, a large Maya ruin just over the border in Honduras. After circling through the mountains, the muleteer obviously lost, they actually do stumble upon Copan, now a humble Indian village ruled by a dictatorial landowner, Don Gregorio. Don Gregorio takes an instant dislike to Stephens and Catherwood, and the delighted muleteer joins forces with him.

Luckily again, the nearby Maya ruins are owned not by Don Gregorio but by Don José Maria Asebedo, who considers them useless. Though fearing to buck Don Gregorio, Don José finally sells the ruins to Stephens, the foolish Yankee, for fifty dollars. Now, in recovering the monumental Copan ruins, Stephens and Catherwood have to contend only with the jungle, the rain, the mud, the insects, and the heat and humidity. After some of the underbrush is cleared, Catherwood stays on at Copan to make his drawings while Stephens goes off to fulfill his diplomatic mission.

The political tangle in the Central American Federation is as dense as the jungle around Copan: A civil war is taking place. When, after much difficulty, Stephens arrives in Guatemala City, the capital, there is no government in charge to receive him. The capital waits in fear and trembling for Rafael Carrera’s advancing Indian forces, noted for their ignorance and atrocities. Carrera’s conservative rebels fight in defense of religion against the liberal president, Francisco Morazan, who tried to restrict the church’s power. Carrera enters Guatemala City and grants Stephens an audience, but as of yet the twenty-three-year-old illiterate half-breed holds no official capacity. So, even though overcome with malaria, Stephens takes ship for El Salvador in search of Morazan. Unable to find him there, Stephens sails on to Costa Rica, then travels back through Nicaragua and El Salvador to Guatemala. He finally presents his credentials to Morazan, Central America’s best hope, just before the decisive battle, which Morazan loses.

The final phase of Stephens and Catherwood’s trip is the worst—a grueling journey of several hundred miles from Guatemala City across another mountain range to Palenque, a Maya center in southern Mexico. Henry Pawling, a well-armed American adventurer, joins the expedition as general manager; his help, it turns out, is sorely needed. Stephens suffers from malaria all the way, and at Palenque both he and Catherwood come down with niguas, little parasites that burrow under the toenails and lay their eggs, which then hatch and cause painful swelling and jungle rot. Jungle rot and mold creep throughout the camp as the rainy season descends. Yet the spectacular ruins at Palenque are worth all the trouble, even if Walker and Caddy have already been there and gone (news that they were horribly slaughtered by hostile Indians proves incorrect).

In an epilogue, Highwater wraps up the trip and summarizes Stephens and Catherwood’s second expedition (to the Yucatan Peninsula) and subsequent careers. As might be expected, both men continue to live rather adventurous lives, becoming business speculators in high stakes, traveling about the Continent, and dying with their boots on within about ten years of their search for the Maya.

The Characters

Although Stephens and Catherwood are the main characters of Journey to the Sky, they are not the most interesting. As archaeologists, they are gifted amateurs, nineteenth century gentlemen who have a yen to traipse through the jungle but who say things like “Shocking, shocking!” Instead of worrying about snakes and bandits, they worry about getting their clothes muddy or not getting their meals on time. One reward of the novel is to see them devoured by mosquitoes and niguas while their Indian servants remain untouched.

Stephens and Catherwood, however, are adaptable. By the end of the novel, they have begun to dress and smell like their mule drivers, though they still do not repel mosquitoes. Yet their adaptation only fits them to exercise their sense of Manifest Destiny with greater assurance. They investigate the Palenque ruins despite a Mexican ban on archaeologists; indeed, Stephens plans to buy the Palenque ruins and transport them to New York City. His plans never succeed, though at one time he is willing to marry a local girl to qualify as a purchaser. One thing to his and Catherwood’s credit is their intense interest in the Maya, for whose civilization they helped develop a new appreciation.

More interesting than the explorers are the local people, mostly descendants of the Maya. These people are extraordinarily gentle and hospitable, easily impressed by the strangers, especially when Stephens dons his diplomatic regalia. Yet they also have an extraordinarily vicious side, which comes out when they gain a little power. Prime examples are the tantrum-throwing muleteer and the sullen Don Gregorio. In addition, Stephens and Catherwood meet a succession of petty officials—various alcaldes and army officers—who exercise their authority like great dictators. This psychology of alternating humility and haughtiness (not to mention cruelty) seems to arise from the entrenched pattern of peon-aristocrat relations, which provides only two models.

The two leaders in the civil war both represent unsuccessful efforts to overcome the entrenched social pattern, with tragic consequences for Central America. Francisco Morazan, the enlightened liberal, wants to change the social order but loses. Rafael Carrera leads the upsurging peasant masses, who discover their power in numbers but who, in their ignorance, exercise power like their old masters and are manipulated by the priests. The result is perpetuation of the old order under worse forms. Carrera remains the illiterate, conservative, and brutal dictator of Guatemala for twenty-five years.

Critical Context

Journey to the Sky is entertaining reading, but its factual basis gives it something of a textbook tone. So, too, do the occasional sections of cultural analysis. In its instructive purpose and theme, Journey to the Sky is related to The Primal Mind: Vision and Reality in Indian America (1981), Highwater’s fullest statement on Indian culture.

Although his novel Anpao: An American Indian Odyssey (1977) won the 1978 Newbery Honor Award, Highwater is really better at cultural analysis than at fiction. He has written numerous expositions of American Indian art, music, dance, and ritual. Dealing with the high point of Indian achievement, Journey to the Sky is an important part of Highwater’s overall expression of the Indian point of view.

Bibliography

Highwater, Jamake. Shadow Show: An Autobiographical Insinuation. New York: Alfred van der Marck, 1986. Highwater discusses the cultural conflicts of his American Indian characters, which also have a personal resonance for him. In Shadow Show, he describes the jet-set circles among which he lives at the same time he is writing his works on American Indian culture.

Kirkpatrick, D. L., ed. “Jamake Highwater.” In Twentieth Century Children’s Writers. 3d ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1989. An entry on Highwater draws on personal comments from several autobiographical sources.

Shirley, Carl R. “Jamake Highwater.” In Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, 1985. Detroit: Gale Research, 1986. Provides a comprehensive biography of Highwater that includes commentary on his writings.