and twenty-eight feet long, and thirty feet deep. The ANALYSIS. sides facing each other are embellished with sculpture; and there remain, on both, the fragments of entwined colossal serpents, which once extended the whole length of the walls.

a.

2

1. Four ranzes of edifices.

page 83.

buildings

7. 'Continuing still farther north, in the same direction, we arrive at an extensive pile of ruins, comprising four great ranges of edifices, placed on the uppermost of three See No. 2 terraces, nineteen feet high. The plan of the buildings is Plan of the quadrangular, with a courtyard in the centre. The en- The entrance trance on the south is by a gateway ten feet eight inches on wide, spanned by a triangular arch. The walls of the 3. Ornamen four buildings, overlooking the courtyard, are ornamented, from one end to the other, with rich and intricate carving, presenting a scene of strange magnificence.

the south.

ted walls.

on the west of the courtyard, with its

tured ser pents.

8. "The building on the western side of the courtyard 4 Building is one hundred and seventy-three feet long, and is distinguished by two colossal entwined serpents, running colossal sculp through and encompassing nearly all the ornaments throughout its whole length. These serpents are sculptured out of small blocks of stone, which are arranged in the wall with great skill and precision. One of the serpents has its monstrous jaws extended, and within them is a human head, the face of which is distinctly visible in the carving. "The whole number of apartments opening upon the courtyard is eighty-eight.

9. "East of, and adjoining the range of buildings just described, is another extensive courtyard; passing through which we arrive at a lofty mound faced with stone, eightyeight feet high, and having a building seventeen feet high on its summit; making, in the whole, a height of one hundred and five feet. This building is called the "House of the Dwarf," and the Indians have a curious legend concerning its erection. It presents the most elegant and tasteful arrangement of ornaments to be seen in Uxmal, but of which no adequate idea can be given but in a large engraving.

10. There are several other extensive buildings at Uxmal; but a sufficient number have been described to give an idea of their general character. They cannot be fully understood without elaborate engravings accompanying the descriptions, for which the reader is again referred to the highly valuable works of Mr. Stephens.

5. Apart

ments.

courtyard,

6. Another mound, and the Divar." See No. 3,

b.

"House of

page 83.

7. Other buildings at

Uxmal.

neous cham

11. Another interesting feature of these ruins, how- 8. Subterra ever, should not be overlooked. Subterraneous chambers "bers in the are scattered over the whole ground covered by this ruined city. They are dome-shaped-from eight to ten feet deep, and from twelve to twenty in diameter, the walls

the ruine.

ANALYSIS. and ceilings being plastered, and the floors of hard mortar. Their only opening is a circular hole at the top, barely large enough to admit a man. The object of these chambers is unknown. Some have supposed them intended as cisterns, or reservoirs; and others, that they were built for granaries, or storehouses.

1. Ruins, south and

Uxmal.

12. 'South and south-east of Uxmal is a large extent of southwest of country which is literally covered with ruins, but few of 3. At Labna. Which have yet been thoroughly explored. At Labna a. See Map, there are several curious structures as extraordinary as those of Uxmal, one of which is represented by the following engraving.

page 74.

BUILDING AT LABNA, 40 feet high, placed on an artificial elevation 45 feet high.

3 Description of the building.

4. Ruins at Kewick

page 74.

13. This building, which stands on an artificial mound, faced with stone, forty-five feet high, rises nearly forty feet above the summit of the mound, making in all a height of more than eighty feet. The building is forty three feet in front, and twenty in depth; and the exterior walls were once covered with colossal figures and ornaments in stucco, most of which are now broken and in fragments. Along the top, standing out on the wall, is a row of death's heads; and underneath are two lines of human figures, of which scattered arms and legs alone remain.

14. At Kewick, a short distance south of Labna, are b. See Map, numerous ancient buildings, now mostly in ruins, but remarkable for the neatness and simplicity of their architecture, and the grandeur of their proportions. An engraving of the principal doorway of one of these build. ings is given on the opposite page.

ANALYSIS.

this Chapter.

1. 'We have now closed our descriptive account of object of American Antiquities, and shall proceed, in the same brief manner, to consider the question of their origin, and the origin of the Indian tribes.

2.

The ruined in Merico, attributed to Yucatan, &c. the aborig

edifices found

With regard to most, if not all, of the ruined structures found in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America; and also in Peru; there appears now but little difficulty in satisfactorily ascribing their origin to the aborigines who were in possession of those countries at the time of their discovery by Europeans. It is known that, at the time 3. of the conquest of Mexico and the adjacent provinces, edifices, similar to those whose ruins have been described, were in the possession and actual occupation of the native inhabitants. Some of these structures already bore the marks of antiquity, while others were evidently of recent construction.

Known to their possestime of the conquest.

have been in

sion at the

by Cortez

and his com why discred ern writers.

panions;

2. The glowing accounts which Cortez and his com- 4. The ac panions gave of the existence of extensive cities, and counts given magnificent buildings and temples, in the actual use and occusation of the Indians, were so far beyond what could be conceived as the works of "ignorant savages," that modern historians, Robertson among the number, have been inclined to give little credit to their statements.

ited by mod

1. Evidences

those ac

ANALYSIS. 'But the wrecks of a former civilization which now strew the plains of Yucatan and Central America, confirm the in favor of accounts of the early historians; for these buildings, whether desolate or inhabited, were then there, and at least more perfect than they are now; and some of them were described as occupying the same localities where they have since been found.

counts.

2. First discoveries in

3. Herrera's

account of Yucatan.

3. "When the Spaniards first discovered the coast of Yucatan. Yucatan, they observed, along its shores, "villages in which they could distinguish houses of stone that appeared white and lofty at a distance." "Herrera, a Spanish nistorian, says of Yucatan,-"The whole country is divided into eighteen districts; and in all of them were so many and such stately stone buildings that it was amazing; and the greatest wonder is, that having no use of any metal, they were able to raise such structures, which seem to have been temples; for their houses were always of timber, and thatched."

4. The account given

by Bernal

Diaz, of the

natives of

Yucatan.

4. Another writer, Bernal Diaz, who accompanied the expeditions of Cortez, speaks of the Indians of a large town in Yucatan, as being "dressed in cotton mantles,”and of their buildings as being "constructed of lime and stone, with figures of serpents and of idols painted upon the walls." At another place he saw "two buildings of lime and stone, well constructed, each with steps, and an altar placed before certain figures, the representations of the 6. Of the gods of these Indians." "Approaching Mexicc, he says,

5. Of the buildings which he salo there.

country near er Mexico.

7. Of the city

character of

Spanish

toriters.

appearances demonstrated that we had entered a new country; for the temples were very lofty; and, together with the terraced buildings, and the houses of the cacques, being plastered and whitewashed, appeared very well, and resembled some of our towns in Spain."

5. The city of Cholula was said to resemble Valado

of Cholula lid. It "had at that time above a hundred lofty vhite 8. General towers, which were the temples of their idols." The the accounts Spanish historians speak repeatedly of buildings of lime given by the and stone, painted and sculptured ornaments, and plasered walls; idols, courts, strong walls, and lofty temples, with high ranges of steps,-all the work of the Indians, the in9. The con habitants of the country. In all these accounts we easily recognize the ruined edifices which have been recently discovered; and cannot doubt that they owe their orign to the ancestors of the Indians who now reside there-sublued -broken in spirit-and degraded, and still held in a sort of vassalage by the Spanish inhabitants.

clusion arrived at.

10. Supposed common ori

6. "Nor indeed is there any proof that the semi-ȧvil. gin of all the ized inhabitants of Mexico, Yucatan, and Central Aneri, tribes. ca, were a race different from the more savage tribes by

American

which they were surrounded: but, on the contrary, there ANALYSIS. is much evidence in favor of their common origin, and in proof that the present tribes, or at least many of them, are but the dismembered fragments of former nations.

7. The present natives of Yucatan and Central Amer. 1. ica, after a remove of only three centuries from their more civilized ancestors, present no diversities, in their natural capacities, to distinguish them from the race of the common Indian. And if the Mexicans and the Peruvians could have arisen from the savage state, it is not improbable that the present rude tribes may have remained in it; or, if the latter were once more civilized than at present, as they have relapsed into barbarism-so others may have done."

8. The anatomical structure of the skeletons found within the ancient mounds of the United States, does not differ more from that of the present Indians than tribes of the latter, admitted to be of the same race, differ from each other. In the physical appearance of all the American aborigines, embracing the semi-civilized Mexicans, the Peruvians, and the wandering savage tribes, there is a striking uniformity; nor can any distinction of races here be made.

9. 'In their languages there is a general unity of structure, and a great similarity in grammatical forms, which prove their common origin; while the great diversity in the words of the different languages, shows the great antiquity of the period of peopling America. In the generally uniform character of their religious opinions and rites, we discover original unity and an identity of origin; while the diversities here found, likewise indicate the very early period of the separation and dispersion of tribes. "Throughout most of the American tribes have been found traces of the pictorial delineations, and hieroglyphical symbols, by which the Mexicans and the Peruvians communicated ideas, and preserved the memory of events.*

Their simnatural

capacities.

2 Supposed

changes through

which they

may have passed.

3 Anatomical and present physical ap pearances.

structure,

4.

Great antiperiod of peo

quity of the

ica, and the common origin of the aborigines,

languages of 5. By their opinions.

the tribes.

religious

6. By their lineations.

pictorial de

By the sim ilarity of their tradi

tions.

10. "The mythological traditions of the savage tribes, and the semi-civilized nations, have general features of resemblance, generally implying a migration from some other country,-containing distinct allusions to a deluge -and attributing their knowledge of the arts to some fabulous teacher in remote ages. Throughout nearly the whole continent, the dead were buried in a sitting posture; the smoking of tobacco was a prevalent custom, other striking and the calumet, or pipe of peace, was everywhere deemed sacred. And, in fine, the numerous and striking analogies

• See Mexican History, page 562.

8 By their mode of bu

common

rial, and

analogies.