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Forgotten Legends and Romantic Explorers
Comte de Waldeck
Perhaps there was no more romantic figure to ever explore the secrets of the Yucatan than the Comte de Waldeck.
Born in Vienna in 1766, Jean-Frederic Maximilien, Comte de Waldeck was a man of impressive stature and poise. He had a clear deep voice, a passion for life rarely equaled and if the fountain of youth ever existed he had clearly drunk from its depths. In fact it is said that even in his hundreds he looked no older than seventy.
Count Waldeck was a man who was made of the stuff of legends. By the time he was 50 years old he had traveled the world, had been involved in 42 revolutions and had lived the life of a hundred men. He had sailed with the great explore Francois Levaillant as far as the Cape of Good Hope and explored southern Africa. He had fought in Napoleon Bonaparte’s Italian campaign, took part in the siege of Toulon and fought with Bonaparte’s army in Egypt. He had sailed the Indian Ocean as a Pirate, fought to help Chile achieve independence and escaped death a thousand times.
Count Waldeck was the friend of Emperors, Admirals, Queens, pirates and scoundrels. He had been the friend of Lord Byron, Beau Brummel and Marie Antoinette, whom he visited in prison shortly before her execution.
In addition, he was an excellent artist, having studied under several great masters. His gift for art also extended into a bit of forgery, for which he was brought before Napoleon himself. Prior to passing sentence on Count Waldeck for forgery, Napoleon decided to satisfy his curiosity by asking the Count to copy his famous signature on a folded sheet of paper. Count Waldeck did so and then unfolded the paper to find that he had signed Napoleon’s signature to an order reading “Condemned to three months imprisonment in Vincennes.” So pleased was Napoleon with the signature, however, that he had the Count released within two weeks.
Count Waldeck was nearly sixty years old before he showed any signs of wanting to settle down. It was only then, in 1825 that after marrying for a second time, he took a position as an engineer in a silver mine in western Mexico. But, this was not the life he was born to live. Within two years he left his post and was in Mexico City drawing the antiquities on display in the National Museum.
Still, he dreamed of something else, The Mysterious Yucatan. It had haunted his dreams for more than a decade, since his brief visit to its outskirts in 1819. And so, at the age of 66 he embarked on a jungle expedition into an area of hostile natives, incredibly difficult terrain, heat, mosquitoes and rain, loneliness and death and in 1832 set up camp in the ancient Mayan city of Palenque.
There he took a mistress, a beautiful native woman, set up his home in one of the ancient temples, which to this day is called the temple of the count and for 4 years captured in more than 90 extraordinary drawings, the romance and mystery of a lost world. From there he traveled to other lost cities, Tonina, Mayapan and Uxmal, finally returning to Paris, in 1836.
His travels had convinced him that the Mayan world had its roots in the ancient world and that everywhere there could be seen strong Hebrew and Egyptian influences.
He was never able to forget his time in the Yucatan and for the remainder of his life he would continue to see its mysterious jungle and in his dreams walk through its lost cities.
The remainder of Count Waldeck’s life was every bit as romantic as the first seventy years. At age 72 he published his first book. At age 84 he took a third wife, a young and beautiful girl, but 17 years of age, who would bear him a son. And, death would only catch up with him, when at the age of 110 he tripped and fell in front of a speeding carriage, while trying to cross a street to get a better look a beautiful woman on the other side.
His passion for life is best summed up by his decision in his 90s to take a pension, rather than a very generous lump sum payment. Obviously he intended to live forever.
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