AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES;

OR,

THE NEW WORLD THE OLD,

AND

THE OLD WORLD THE NEW.

BY

JOHN T. C. HEAVISIDE.

"LES

PREMIERS HOMMES N'ECRIVENT QUE SUR LES PIERRES."-Bailly.

โคร

From Copan.-Back of figure at the top left hand side, over mask.

Stephens' Central America, vol. I., p. 150.

LONDON:

TRÜBNER AND COMPANY, 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1868.

221. p. 34,

PREFACE.

THE opinions herein set forth are supported by a few of

the leading arguments drawn from a yet unpublished MS., containing some four hundred illustrations. The

nature of the work, and the expense of its publication,

have decided me, to offer the suggestive questions

it opens out, in the present form.

JOHN T. C. HEAVISIDE.

B 2

AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.

EGYPT.

ON the discovery of the Americas, Montezuma reigned as Emperor of Mexico, surrounded by a highly organised system of priesthood, a magnificent court, and splendid temples, in which were performed severe and terrible ceremonies; the mighty Empire over which he ruled gradually became, as you receded from its centre, less civilised, until on its extreme borders the hunter roamed wild over grounds containing remains even more ancient and remarkable than those upon which the buildings of Mexico were erected; and which astonished the Spaniards as they entered Mexico for the first time.

So in South America. In Peru reigned the Inca, supposed to be the son of the Peruvians' chief god, the Sun: here, as in the north, were magnificent temples, incrusted with gold— bronze implements; a highly organised priesthood; and skirting this empire were hunting tribes hiding in the forests amidst