VI. ANTIQUITIES OF TABASCO AND CHIAPAS, RUINS OF PALENQUE

VI. ANTIQUITIES OF TABASCO AND CHIAPAS, RUINS OF PALENQUE

GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS -- PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY -- NO RELICS IN TABASCO -- RUINS OF PALENQUE -- EXPLORATION AND BIBLIOGRAPHY -- NAME; NACHAN, CULHUACAN, OTOLUM, XIBALBA -- EXTENT, LOCATION, AND PLAN -- THE PALACE -- THE PYRAMIDAL STRUCTURE -- WALLS, CORRIDORS, AND COURTS -- STUCCO BAS-RELIEFS -- TOWER -- INTERIOR BUILDINGS -- SCULPTURED TABLET -- SUBTERRANEAN GALLERIES -- TEMPLE OF THE THREE TABLETS -- TEMPLE OF THE BEAU RELIEF -- TEMPLE OF THE CROSS -- STATUE -- TEMPLE OF THE SUN -- MISCELLANEOUS RUINS AND RELICS -- RUINS OF OCOCINGO -- WINGED GLOBE -- WOODEN LINTEL -- TERRACED PYRAMID -- MISCELLANEOUS RUINS OF CHIAPAS -- CUSTEPEQUES, XIQUIPILAS, LAGUNA MORA, COPANABASTLA, AND ZITALÁ -- HUEHUETAN -- SAN CRISTÓVAL -- REMAINS ON THE USUMACINTA -- COMPARISON BETWEEN PALENQUE AND THE CITIES OF YUCATAN -- ANTIQUITY OF PALENQUE -- CONCLUSION.

[Sidenote: NO RELICS IN TABASCO.]

The next step, as antiquarian investigation is pushed westward along the continental line, will lead us from the boundaries of Guatemala and Yucatan to the isthmus of Tehuantepec. The included territory, constituting the geographical basis of the present chapter, stretches on the Atlantic shore from the Laguna de Terminos to Laguna de Santa Ana, about one hundred and fifty miles, and on the Pacific a somewhat less distance from the bar of Ayutla to the bar of Tonalá The northern and smaller portion--all in the low and flat tierra caliente--is comprised in the state of Tabasco, with a part of El Carmen, a province belonging politically, I believe, to Yucatan; while in the south--a high and mountainous region, except a very narrow strip along the Pacific border--we have the state of Chiapas, with its south-eastern province of Soconusco, to the political possession of which Guatemala, no less than her neighbor, has always laid claim. Tabasco and Chiapas, like Yucatan, are states of the Mexican Republic, although they are situated in what it is more convenient to term Central America, and in a region treated in a preceding volume of this work as a part of the Maya territory. This chapter will consequently complete the description of southern, or Maya, antiquities, and bring us to the study of Nahua monuments in the north.

Tabasco, a part of the aboriginal Anáhuac Xicalanco, extends inland seventy-five miles on an average throughout its whole length. It is for the most part a low marshy plain--the American tierra caliente par excellence--of the usual tropical fertility, covered with an exuberant growth, but extremely unhealthy to all but natives, except while the winter winds render the navigation of the coast waters dangerous. This tract is traversed by two large rivers, flowing from the hilly country farther inland, the Tabasco and Usumacinta, under several different names, communicating with each other by many branches, and pouring, or rather creeping, into the gulf through many mouths. In the annual season of inundation from June to October, the whole country is involved in a labyrinth of streams and sloughs, and travel by land becomes impossible. The luxuriant tropical vegetation includes a variety of valuable dye-woods, the export of which constitutes the leading industry of the few towns located on the banks of the larger streams. On the immediate coast some large towns and temples were seen by the early voyagers, but I have no information that relics of any kind have been discovered in modern times. It is true that no careful explorations have been made, but the character of the country is not promising, so far as ruined cities and other architectural monuments are concerned. Indeed, it is not improbable that a large part of this region was covered by a body of water similar to the Laguna de Terminos, at a time when the great aboriginal Central American cities, now far inland, were founded. Moreover, as state boundaries are not very accurately laid down in the maps, and as the location of relics by travelers is in many cases vague, it is quite possible that some of the few miscellaneous monuments which I shall describe in this chapter, are really within the limits of Tabasco instead of Chiapas.

As we go southward from the gulf coast, and reach the boundary of Chiapas the face of the country changes rapidly from marshy flat to undulating hills of gradually increasing height toward the Pacific, retaining all the wonderful fertility and density of tropical forest growth without the pestilential malaria and oppressive heat of the plain below. Here is an earthly paradise, the charms of which have been enjoyed with enthusiastic delight by the few lovers of nature who have penetrated its solitudes.[VI-1]

[Sidenote: EXPLORATION OF PALENQUE.]

[Sidenote: BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PALENQUE.]

The natural advantages of this region seem to have been fully appreciated by aboriginal Americans, for here they reared the temples and palaces of one of their grandest cities, or religious centres, which as a ruin under the name of Palenque has become famous throughout the world, as it was doubtless throughout America in the days of its pristine glory many centuries ago. Built on the heights just mentioned, which may be appropriately termed foothills of the lofty sierras beyond, its high places afforded a broad view over the forest-covered plain below to the waters of the gulf. A detailed account of the explorations by which the ruins of this city have been brought to light, and of the numerous books and reports resulting from such explorations, is given in the appended note.[VI-2] About the year 1564 a Dominican missionary, with a few Tzendal natives who had been converted to the true faith by his labors in their behalf, chose what he deemed a suitable location for future evangelical efforts, and founded the little town of Santo Domingo del Palenque, some seventy miles north-east of San Cristóval, the state capital, on a tributary of the Usumacinta, not over twenty miles, perhaps less, from the head of navigation for canoes. Nearly two centuries later a group of magnificent ruins, whose existence had been before utterly unknown, at least to any but natives, was accidentally discovered only a few leagues from the town in the midst of a dense forest. Since their discovery in the middle of the eighteenth century the ruins have been several times carefully explored both by public and private enterprise, and all their prominent features have been clearly brought to the knowledge of the world by means of illustrative plates and descriptive text. Waldeck and Stephens are the best and most complete authorities, but the reports of Antonio del Rio, Guillaume Dupaix, Juan Galindo, and Désiré Charnay afford also much valuable information, especially in connection with the two standard authorities mentioned. After a most careful study of all that has been written on the subject, I shall endeavor to give the reader a clear idea of ruined structures which have given rise to more faithful investigation and absurd speculation than any others on the continent.

[Sidenote: NAME OF THE ANCIENT CITY.]

The aboriginal name of the city represented by this group of ruins is absolutely unknown. Palenque, the name by which it is known, is, as we have seen, simply that of a modern village near by. The word palenque is of Spanish origin and means a stockade or enclosure of palisades. How it came to be applied to the village of Santo Domingo is not explained, but there is not the slightest reason to suppose that it has any connection with the ruins.[VI-3] Sr Ordoñez, already mentioned, applies in his unpublished writings the name Nachan, 'city of the Serpents,' the same as the Aztec Culhuacan, to Palenque, but so far as can be known, without any authority whatever. This name has been adopted without question by several writers, and it is quite common to read of "the ruins of Culhuacan, improperly termed Palenque."[VI-4] The old traditions of the primitive times when Votan's great empire flourished, apply the name Xibalba not only to the empire but to a great city which was its capital. Palenque, as the greatest city of ancient times in this region which has left traces of its existence, may have been identical with Xibalba; the difficulty of disproving the identity is equaled only by that of proving it.[VI-5] The natives, here as elsewhere, have often applied to the city a name which simply indicates its ruined condition, calling it Otolum, 'place of falling stones,' a name also borne by the small stream on which the buildings stand. Waldeck writes it Ototiun, 'stone house,' which he derives from the native words otote and tinnich. Stephens calls the stream Otula. If there were any good reasons for abandoning the designation Palenque, and there certainly are none, Otolum would perhaps be the most appropriate name to take its place.[VI-6] The name Xhembobel-Moyos, from that of another modern village of this region, seems sometimes to have been used by the natives in connection with Palenque; and in a Tzendal manuscript the name Ghocan, 'sculptured serpent,' is said to be used in the same connection; while one author, drawing heavily on his imagination, speaks of the "immense city of Culhuacan or Huehuetlapallan," thus identifying Palenque with the famous city whence the Toltecs started in their traditional migration to Anáhuac.[VI-7] By the Spanish inhabitants and most of the native population of Santo Domingo, the ruins are commonly spoken of as the Casas de Piedra.

[Sidenote: LOCATION OF THE RUINS.]

The structures that have attracted the attention of and been described by all the successive explorers, are generally the same, and in their descriptions less exaggeration is found in the earlier reports than might naturally be expected. In extent, however, the city has gradually dwindled in the successive reports from two hundred buildings stretching over a space of twenty miles, to less than the area of a modern town of humble pretensions. A few scattered mounds or fragments in the surrounding country, which very probably exist, but which have escaped the attention of modern travelers, eager to investigate the more wonderful central structures, are probably the only basis of the statements by the first explorers. The earlier visitors doubtless counted each isolated fragment of hewn stone, or other trace of the antiguos' work, as representing an aboriginal edifice.[VI-8] Doubtless the condition of Palenque has changed materially for the worse since its discovery. The rapidity with which structures of solid stone are destroyed by the growth of a tropical forest, when once the roots have gained a hold, is noted with surprise by every traveler. In the work of destruction, moreover, nature has not been unaided by man, and few visitors have been content to depart without some relic broken from the walls. Del Rio, if we may credit his own words, seems to have attempted a wholesale destruction of the city; he says: "By dint of perseverance I effected all that was necessary to be done, so that ultimately there remained neither a window nor a doorway blocked up, a partition that was not thrown down, nor a room, corridor, court, tower, nor subterranean passage in which excavations were not effected from two to three varas in depth."[VI-9]

Palenque,--for I shall hereafter apply this name exclusively to the ruins,--is situated about six or seven miles[VI-10] south-west of Santo Domingo, and some sixty-five miles north-east of San Cristóval. The topography of the region is not definitely marked out on the maps, and the nomenclature of the streams and mountains is hopelessly confused; but many parallel streams flow north-westward from the hills, and unite to form a branch of the Usumacinta sometimes called the Tulija. The Otolum on which the ruins stand seems to be a tributary from the north of one of the parallel streams. The location is consequently in a small valley high in the foothills, through which runs a mountain stream of small size during the dry season, but becoming a torrent when swollen by the rains.[VI-11]

The present extent of the ruins, their distribution, and their relative size are shown in the accompanying plan, taken with slight changes to be mentioned in their proper place, from Waldeck.[VI-12] The structures that have been described or definitely located by any author are numbered on the plan, the unnumbered ones being heaps of ruins whose existence is mentioned by all, and the exact location of which M. Waldeck in his long stay was able to fix. It will be seen that the buildings all face the cardinal points with a very slight variation. So thick is the forest on the site and over the very buildings that no one of the latter can be seen from its neighbor or from the adjoining hills. M. Morelet, on one occasion, lost his bearings in the immediate vicinity, and although he did not perhaps go a half-mile from the ruins, yet he had the greatest difficulty in returning, and coming from a contrary direction thought at first he had discovered new monuments of antiquity. When the trees are cut down, as they have been several times, only a few years are necessary to restore the forest to its original density, and each explorer has to begin anew the work of clearing.[VI-13]

I begin with the largest of the structures, marked 1 on the plan, and commonly known as the Palace, although of course nothing is known of its original use. From a narrow level on the left bank of the stream rises an artificial elevation of pyramidal form, with quadrangular base measuring about two hundred and sixty by three hundred and ten feet, and something over forty feet in height, with sloping sides and traces of broad central stairways on the east and north.[VI-14] The sides were faced with regular blocks of hewn stone, but this facing has been so broken up and forced out of place by the roots of trees that the original outline is hardly distinguishable. Dupaix, both in text and drawings, divides the pyramid into three sections or stories by two projections of a few feet running horizontally round the sides; he puts a similar projection, or cornice, at the summit, and covers the whole surface of the sides with a polished coating of cement. That this state of things existed at the time of his exploration is possible, although not very probable; yet it is not unlikely that the slopes were originally covered with plaster, or even painted.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF PYRAMIDAL STRUCTURES.]

The material of which the bulk of the mound is composed is not very definitely stated by any visitor. I believe, however, that I have discovered a peculiarity in the construction of this pyramid, which may possibly throw some light on the origin of the pyramidal structure so universal among the civilized nations of the continent. I think that, perhaps with a view to raise this palace or temple above the waters of the stream, four thick walls, possibly more, were built up perpendicularly from the ground to the desired height; then, after the completion of the walls to strengthen them, or during the progress of the work to facilitate the raising of the stones, the interior was filled with earth, and the exterior graded with the same material, the whole being subsequently faced with hewn stone. My reasons for this opinion may be illustrated by the annexed cut. All the authorities by text and plates represent the pyramid with sloping stone-faced sides, much damaged by the trees. Two of them, Stephens and Waldeck, making excavations from the summit at different points, clearly imply that the interior, D, is of earth. The height is given by all the visitors down to Stephens, as from forty to sixty feet. Now Charnay, coming nearly twenty years later, found the eastern side a perpendicular wall, only fifteen feet high, and proves the accuracy of his statement by his photograph, which, as he says, cannot lie. I cannot satisfactorily account for the condition of the structure as found by him, except by supposing that the stone facing, loosened by the trees, had fallen from B to F, and that the earth which filled the sides at EE, had been washed away by the rain, leaving the perpendicular wall at B. We shall see later that it is utterly impossible to fix any definite date for the founding of Palenque; but it is doubtless to be referred to the earliest period of American civilization which has left definite architectural traces; and its claims are perhaps as strong as those of any other to be considered the oldest American city. If this pyramid was the first erected and took its shape as above indicated, its adoption as a type throughout the region penetrated by the religion and civilization of its builders, would be very natural, although the form would afterwards be more readily attained by means of a solid structure. I offer this as a conjectural theory to take its place by the side of many others on the subject, and at the least not more devoid of foundation than several of its companions.[VI-15] It is not improbable that the builders may have taken advantage of a slight natural elevation as a foundation for their work.

[Sidenote: EXTERIOR OF THE PALACE.]

[Sidenote: BAS-RELIEFS OF THE PALACE.]

The summit platform of the pyramid supports the Palace, which covers its whole extent save a narrow passage round the edge, and the exterior dimensions of which are about one hundred and eighty by two hundred and twenty-eight feet and thirty feet high.[VI-16] The outer wall, a large portion of which has fallen, was pierced with about forty doorways, which were generally wider than the portions of the wall that separated them, giving the whole the appearance of a portico with wide piers. The doorways are eight and a half feet high and nine feet wide. The tops seem to have been originally flat, but the lintels have in every case fallen and disappeared, having been perhaps of wood; indeed, Charnay claims to have found the marks of one of these wooden lintels composed of two pieces, while Del Rio found a plain rectangular block of stone five by six feet, extending from one of the piers to another. The whole exterior was covered with a coat of hard plaster, and there are some traces of a projecting cornice which surrounded the building above the doorways, pierced at regular intervals with small circular holes, such as I have noticed in Yucatan, conjectured with much reason to have originally held poles which supported a kind of awning. Later visitors have found no part of the roof remaining in place; but Castañeda, who may have found some portion standing, represents it as sloping, plain, and plastered. From the interior construction and from the roofs of other Palenque buildings, it is probable that his drawing gives a correct idea of the Palace in this respect. Dupaix often speaks of the roofs at Palenque as being covered with large stone flags (lajas) carefully joined; other authors are silent respecting the arrangement of the stones in the roofs. Judging from the position of the grand stairway that leads up the side of the pyramid, and from the arrangement of the interior doorways, the chief entrance, or front, of the Palace, was on the east, towards the stream. It is from this side, although not so well preserved as some other portions, that general views have been taken.[VI-17] Of the piers that separated the doorways in this outer wall, only fifteen have been found standing, eight on the east and seven on the west, although their foundations may be readily traced throughout nearly the whole circumference. Each of the remaining piers, and probably of all in their original condition, contained on its external surface a bas-relief in stucco, and these reliefs with their borders occupied the whole space between the doorways. The cuts, fig. 1, 2, and 3, represent three of the best preserved of the reliefs, drawings of six only of them having been published. Most of the designs, like those shown in the cuts, were of human figures in various attitudes, and having a variety of dress, ornaments, and insignia. It will be noticed that the faces are all in profile, and the foreheads invariably flattened. This cranial form was doubtless the highest type of beauty or nobility in the eyes of the ancient artists; and of course the natural inference is that it was artificially produced by methods similar to those employed by the Mayas of more modern times. Yet many have believed that the builders of Palenque or the priests and leaders that directed the work were of a now extinct race, the peculiar natural conformation of whose forehead was artificially imitated by the descendants of their disciples. The many far-fetched explanations of these strange figures, which fertile imaginations have devised, would not, I believe, be instructive to the reader, who will derive more amusement and profit from his own conjectures. The resemblance of the head-dress in fig. 2 to an elephant's trunk is, however, somewhat striking. We may be very sure that these figures placed in so prominent a position on the exterior walls of the grandest edifice in the city, were not merely ornamental and without significance; and it is almost equally certain that the three hieroglyphic signs over the top of each group would, if they could be read, explain their meaning. Some of the piers seem to have been covered entirely with hieroglyphics in stucco, but better preserved specimens of these inscriptions will be shown in connection with other buildings at Palenque. The stucco, or cement, from which the figures are molded, is the same as that with which the whole building was covered, and is nearly as hard as the stone itself. M. Charnay found evidence to convince him that the reliefs were put on after the regular coating of cement had become hardened; Dupaix believes that some of them were molded over a skeleton of small stones, in the same way perhaps as the gigantic faces at Izamal in Yucatan. Traces of color in sheltered portions make it evident that the piers were originally painted.[VI-18]

[Sidenote: PLAN OF THE PALACE.]

Nothing further remains to be said of the exterior of the Palace; let us therefore enter the doorway at the head of the eastern stairway. The main building is found to consist of two corridors, formed by three parallel walls and covered by one roof, which extend entirely round the circumference of the platform, and enclose a quadrangular court measuring about one hundred and fifty by two hundred feet. This court also contains five or six buildings, some of them connected with the main edifice, others separate, which divide the court into four smaller ones. The whole arrangement of buildings and courts is clearly shown in the preceding ground plan. At b, is the chief entrance at the head of the eastern stairway; a, a, a, etc., are the standing piers with stucco bas-reliefs, which have been noticed already; A, A, B, B, etc., are the main corridors; C, D, E, F, G, the smaller enclosed buildings; 1, 2, 3, 4, the courts.[VI-19]

[Sidenote: THE PALACE CORRIDORS.]

Entering at b, we find that the corridors extend uninterruptedly on the east and north, but are divided on the other sides, especially on the south, into compartments. In the inner as in the outer wall doorways are frequent, while the central wall has but few. The corridors are each nine feet wide and twenty feet high, the perpendicular walls being ten feet, and the sides of the ceiling inclining inward from that height until they nearly form an acute angle at the top. The cut represents a section of the two corridors in nearly their true proportions. The walls are from two to three feet thick, and so far as can be determined from the authorities, they are built entirely of hewn blocks of stone, without the interior filling of rubble which I have noticed in the Yucatan ruins. Indeed, with a thickness of three feet or less the use of rubble would have been almost impracticable. Floor, walls, and ceiling are covered with a coating of the same hard cement found on the exterior walls. The cut on the following page is a view from a point somewhat southward from b, and looking northward into the corridor; it gives an excellent idea of the present appearance of this portion of the Palace. The construction of the ceiling, both in the Palace and in other Palenque structures, is by means of the triangular arch of overlapping stones, as in Yucatan. A remarkable difference, however, is that the projecting corners of the blocks, instead of being beveled so as to leave a smooth stone surface, are left, and the smooth surface is obtained by filling the notches with cement.

The doorway through the central wall at c, is eighteen feet high, and its top, instead of being flat like those in the outer wall, takes the form of a trefoil arch; depressions, or niches, of the same trefoil form, extend at regular intervals right and left from the doorway along the inclined face of the ceiling. The last cut gives a clear idea of the doorway and trefoil niches, but the artist who copied it from Catherwood's plate for Morelet's Travels, from which I take it, has erred in representing the niches as continuing downward on the perpendicular wall. Near the top of the perpendicular wall was a line of what seem to have been circular stucco medallions, perhaps portraits, at d, d, d, of the plan, which have for the most part fallen. Small circular holes, apparently left by the decay of beams that once stretched across the arch, occur at regular intervals between the niches of the ceiling. The cut shows a front elevation of the corridor from e of the plan looking eastward, and includes all the peculiarities found in any part of the corridors. The position of the medallions is shown, though they are really on the opposite side of the wall, and the shaded figures on the left of the cut are introduced from other parts of the Palace, to illustrate the different forms of niches which occur in the walls. The niches on the right are in their proper place. The three which are symmetrically placed at each side of this and some other doorways, are from eight to ten inches square, and have a cylinder two inches in diameter fixed upright within each. They would seem to have served in some way to support the doors. The "T" shaped niches are of very frequent occurrence throughout the ruins, and have caused much speculation by reason of their resemblance to the Egyptian tau and to the cross. Some of them extend quite through the walls, and served probably for ventilation and the admission of light. Others of the same shape are of varying depths and of unknown use; they may have been niches for the reception of small idols, or possibly designed to hold the torches which lit up the corridors, since M. Waldeck claims to have found the marks of lamp-black on the tops of some of them.[VI-20] Nothing remains to be said of the corridors of the main building, save that the interior like the exterior surface of the walls bears traces of red paint over the coating of plaster in certain sheltered portions.[VI-21]

[Sidenote: COURT OF THE PALACE.]

Passing through the doorway e we enter the court 1, the dimensions of which are about seventy by eighty feet, its pavement, like that of the other courts, being eight or ten feet below that of the corridors. This pavement is covered to a depth of several feet with débris, which has never been entirely cleared away by any explorer. The court is bounded on the north and east by the walls, or piers, of the inner corridor, and on the south and west by those of the interior buildings C and D. The piers, whose position and number are clearly indicated on the plan, are, except those on the north, yet standing, and each has its stucco bas-relief as on the eastern front. These reliefs are, however, much damaged, and no drawings of them have been made, or, at least, published. Broad stairways of five or six steps lead down to the level of the court pavement, at g, g, g, g, and a narrow stairway, h, affords access through an end door to the building E.[VI-22]

The eastern stairway is thirty feet wide, and on each side of it, at i, i, on a surface about fifteen feet long by eleven feet high, formed by immense stone slabs inclined at about the same angle as the stairway itself, is sculptured in low relief a group of human figures in peculiar attitudes. The northern group is shown in the accompanying cut. Stephens pronounces the attitude of the figures one of pain and trouble. "The design and anatomical proportions of the figures are faulty, but there is a force of expression about them which shows the skill and conceptive power of the artist."[VI-23] Stephens' plate of this side of the court shows remains of stucco ornamentation and also a line of small circular holes over the doorways of the inner corridor. The opposite or western stairway is narrower than the eastern, and at its sides, at j, j, are two colossal human figures sculptured in a hard whitish stone, as shown in the cut, in which, however, the stairway is shown somewhat narrower than its true proportions. Waldeck sees in these figures a male and female whose features are of the Caucasian type. At the sides of the stairway, at k, k, k, stand three figures of smaller dimensions, sculptured on pilasters which occur at regular intervals. On the basement wall between the pilasters are found small squares of hieroglyphics.[VI-24] In the centre of the court Waldeck found some traces of a circular basin.

[Sidenote: COURTS OF THE PALACE.]

The western court, 2, measuring about thirty by eighty feet, has a narrow stairway of three steps at l, leading up to the central building C. At the ends of this stairway, at o, o, are two large blocks similar in position to those at j, j, but their sloping fronts bear no sculptured figures. As in the other court, however, there are some squares of hieroglyphics on the basement walls. The piers round this court, such as remain standing, bear each a stucco bas-relief.[VI-25]

In the southern court, 3, stands the structure known as the Tower, marked G on the plan. Its base is about thirty feet square, and rests like the other buildings on the platform of the pyramid some eight or ten feet above the pavement of the courts. This base is solid, but has niches, or false doorways, on the sides. Above the base two slightly receding stories are still standing, with portions of a third, each with a doorway--whose lintel has fallen--in the centre of each side, and surrounded by two plain cornices. The walls are plain and plastered. The whole structure is of solid masonry, and the fact that large trees have grown from the top, presenting a broad surface to the winter winds, which have not been able to overturn the Tower, shows the remarkable strength of its construction. The height of the standing portion is about fifty feet above the platform of the pyramid. Respecting the interior arrangement of the Tower, I am unable to form a clear idea from the descriptions and drawings of the different visitors, notwithstanding the fact that Waldeck gives an elevation, section, and ground plan of each story. Stephens describes the structure as consisting of a smaller tower within the larger, and a very narrow staircase leading up from story to story. Waldeck deemed the Tower a chef d'œuvre, while to Stephens' eyes it appeared unsatisfactory and uninteresting. Dupaix, without doubt erroneously, represents the doors as surmounted by regular arches with keystones.[VI-26]

Respecting the other interior buildings of the Palace, the construction of which is precisely the same as that of the main corridors, very little remains to be said, especially since their location and division into apartments are shown clearly in the plan. According to Waldeck, the central room of the building D had traces of rich ornamentation in stucco on its walls; and he also claims to have found here an acoustic tube of terra cotta, the mouth of which was concealed by an ornament of the same material, but of this extraordinary relic he gives no description. Stephens found in one of the holes in the ceiling the worm-eaten remains of a wooden pole, about a foot in length, the only piece of wood found in Palenque, and very likely not a part of the original building at all. Except this chamber, the building is mostly in ruins, although, as we have seen, the northern piers remain standing.[VI-27]

The roofs of some of the interior buildings seem to have been somewhat better preserved than those of the main corridors, so that the sloping roof, double cornice, and remains of stucco ornamentation were observable. In the western apartment of the building C, the walls have several, in one place as many as six, distinct coatings of plaster, each hardened and painted before the next was applied. There was also noticed a line of what appeared to be written characters in black, covered by a thin translucent coating.[VI-28]

[Sidenote: SCULPTURED TABLET.]

The building E has the interior walls of its two northern apartments decorated with painted and stucco figures in a very mutilated condition. In the wall of one of them, at the point p, is fixed an elliptical stone tablet, three feet wide and four feet high, the surface of which is covered by the sculptured device shown in the cut. With the exception of the figures in the court 1, already mentioned, this is the only instance of stone-carving in the Palace. It is cut in low relief, and is surrounded by an ornamental border of stucco. A table consisting of a plain rectangular stone slab resting on four blocks which served as legs, stood formerly on the pavement immediately under the sculptured tablet. Tables of varying dimensions, but of like construction, were found in several apartments of the Palace and its subterranean galleries, as shown in the plan at v, v, v. They are called tables, beds, or altars, by different writers. Waldeck says that this one was of green jasper; and Del Rio, that its edges and legs were sculptured, one of the latter having been carried away by him and sent to Spain. The first cut which I have given is taken from Waldeck's drawing. The second cut, representing a portion of the same tablet, taken from Catherwood's plate, for Morelet's Travels, differs slightly in some respects--notably in the ornament suspended from the neck, represented by one artist as a face, and by the other as a cross. Of the subject Mr Stephens says: "The principal figure sits cross-legged on a couch ornamented with two leopards' heads; the attitude is easy, the physiognomy the same as that of the other personages, and the expression calm and benevolent. The figure wears around its neck a necklace of pearls, to which is suspended a small medallion containing a face; perhaps intended as an image of the sun. Like every other subject of sculpture we had seen in the country, the personage had earrings, bracelets on the wrists, and a girdle round the loins. The head-dress differs from most of the others at Palenque in that it wants the plumes of feathers.... The other figure, which seems that of a woman, is sitting cross-legged on the ground, richly dressed, and apparently in the act of making an offering. In this supposed offering is seen a plume of feathers, in which the headdress of the principal person is deficient." Waldeck deems the left-hand figure to be black, and recognizes in the profile an Ethiopian type. Del Rio sees in the subject homage paid to a river god; and Galindo believes the object offered to be a human head. Somebody imagines that the two animal heads are those of the seal.[VI-29]

The stucco ornaments on the walls of the building F seem to have been richer and more numerous than elsewhere, but were found in a very dilapidated condition. In the room q, Stephens found traces of a stone tablet in the wall, and he also gives a sketch of a stucco bas-relief from the side of a doorway, representing a standing human figure in a very damaged state. A peculiar stucco ornament sketched by Castañeda is probably from the same room, and is perhaps identical with what Waldeck describes as a sanctuary with two birds perched on an elephant's head, the latter, however, not appearing in the drawing.[VI-30]

[Sidenote: SUBTERRANEAN GALLERIES.]

Within the pyramid itself, and above the surface of the ground, although frequently spoken of as subterranean, are found apartments, or galleries, with walls of stone plastered but without ornament, of the same form and construction as the corridors above. Such as have been explored are at the south end of the pyramid and for the most part without the line of the Palace walls, with lateral galleries, however, extending under the corridors and affording communication with the upper apartments by means of stairways. The arrangement of the galleries and their entrances is made sufficiently clear by the fine lines at the bottom of the plan, yet perhaps very little is known of their original extent. The southernmost gallery receives a dim light by three holes or windows leading out to the surface of the pyramid; the other galleries are dark and damp, with water running over their pavements in the rainy season. The walls are much fallen and the galleries blocked up at several points. At the south-western corner an opening affords a means of egress near the surface of the ground; but this, as well as the windows mentioned, may be accidental or of modern origin and have formed no part of the original plan. These rooms are variously regarded as sleeping-rooms, dungeons, or sepulchres, according to the temperament of the observer. Whatever their use, they contain several of the low tables mentioned before, one of which is said to have been richly decorated with sculpture. M. Morelet occupied one of these lower rooms during his visit, as being more comfortable than the others, at least in the dry season. The chief entrance to the vaults seems to have been from one of the southern rooms of the building E, at the point r, through an opening in the floor. A narrow stairway by which the descent was made, is divided into two flights by a platform and doorway, surmounting which was the stucco device shown in the cut. Waldeck states that when he found this decoration it was partially covered with stalactites formed by trickling water. His explanation, by which he connects the figures with aboriginal astronomical signs and the division of time, is too long and too extremely conjectural to be repeated here. Stephens noticed this ornament but gives no drawing of it. It was sketched by Castañeda together with another somewhat similar one. Dupaix speaks of two doors in this stairway; Del Rio speaks of several landings, and says that he brought away a fragment of one of the ornamented steps. I suspect the visitors may have confounded this stairway with another at w, concerning which nothing is particularly said. Somewhere in connection with these stairways Dupaix found a tablet of hieroglyphics which he brought away with him, and concerning which he states the remarkable fact that on the reverse side of the tablet, built into the wall, were the same characters painted that were sculptured on the face. Openings through the pavement were found at several points, as in the court 1, and the building C, which led to no regular galleries, but to simple and small excavations in the earth, very likely the work of some early explorer or searcher for hidden treasure.[VI-31]

[Sidenote: THE PALACE RESTORED.]

Having now given all the information in my possession respecting the Palace, I present in the accompanying cut a restoration of the structure made by a German artist, but which I have taken the liberty to change in several respects. The reader will notice a few points in which the cut does not exactly agree with my description; such as the curved surface of the roofs, the height of the tower and its spire, the width of the western stairway in court 1, etc., yet it may be regarded as giving an excellent idea of what the Palace was in the days when its halls and courts were thronged with the nobility or priesthood of a great people. The view is from the north-east on the bank of the stream, and besides the palace includes the edifice No. 2 of the general plan.[VI-32]

The structure No. 2 shown in the last cut stands a short distance south-west from the Palace, and may be known as the Temple of the Three Tablets. The pyramid supporting it, of the same construction as the former so far as may be judged from outward examination, is said by Stephens to measure one hundred and ten feet on the slope, and seems to have had continuous steps all round its sides, now much displaced by the forest. The cut on the following page presents a view of this temple from the north-east as it appeared at the time of Catherwood's visit, and illustrates very vividly the manner in which the ruins are enveloped in a tropical vegetation.

[Sidenote: TEMPLE OF THE THREE TABLETS.]

The building, which stands on the summit platform but does not like the Palace cover its whole surface, is seventy-six feet long, twenty-five feet wide, and about thirty-five feet high. The front, or northern, elevation is shown in the cuts. Fig. 1 includes the temple with the supporting pyramid, and fig. 2 presents the building on a larger scale. Each of the four central piers on this front has its bas-relief in stucco, while the two lateral piers have each ninety-six small squares of hieroglyphics, also in stucco. The bas-reliefs represent single human figures, standing, and each bearing in its arms an infant, or in one instance some unknown object. They are all very much mutilated, and although drawings have been published, I do not think it necessary to reproduce them. The roof is divided into two sections, sloping at different angles; the lower slope was covered with painted stucco decorations, and had also five square solid projections, one over each doorway. The dividing line between the two slopes marks the height of the apartments in the interior, the upper portion being solid masonry. Along the ridge of the roof was a line of pillars, of stone and mortar, eighteen inches high and twelve inches apart, probably square, although nothing is said of their shape, and surmounted by a layer of projecting flat stones. Similar constructions may possibly have existed originally on some of the Palace roofs, since they would naturally be among the first to fall. Waldeck's plate represents a small platform in front of the doorways, ascended by four lateral stairways. Respecting the two square projections below the piers at the side of the central doorway there is no information except their representation by Catherwood in the cut, fig. 2.

The arrangement of the interior is shown in the accompanying ground plan. The central wall is four or five feet thick, and is pierced by three doorways, which afford access to three apartments in the rear. The front corridor has a small window at each end; Stephens speaks of two slight openings about three inches wide in each of the lateral apartments of the rear; and the plan indicates two similar openings in the central room, although he speaks of them as dark and gloomy. Castañeda's drawing shows only one window at the end; it also represents the building as having a roof like the Palace, and as standing on a natural rocky hill in which some steps are cut, no bas-reliefs or other decorations appearing on the front. The interior walls are perfectly plain, and it is not even definitely stated that they are plastered. In the walls, however, at a, b, and c, of the ground plan, are fixed stone tablets one foot thick, each composed of several blocks, neatly joined and covered with sculptured hieroglyphics. Those in the central wall, at a and b, measure eight by thirteen feet, and contain each two hundred and forty squares of hieroglyphics in a very good state of preservation, while the one hundred and forty squares of the tablet in the rear apartment, three and a half by four feet, are much damaged by trickling water. Drawings of the hieroglyphics have been made by Waldeck and Catherwood only, although other visitors speak of them. I do not copy the drawings here, because, in the absence of any key to their meaning, the specimen which I shall present from another part of the ruins is as useful to the reader as the whole would be. The cut is a longitudinal section of this temple at the central wall, and shows the position of the tablets. Waldeck's drawing represents the two lateral doorways as having flat tops. Brasseur tells us that, according to the statements of the natives, the tablets were used originally for educational purposes. M. Charnay found them still undisturbed in 1859.[VI-33]

[Sidenote: THE BEAU RELIEF.]

Some four hundred yards south of the Palace is a pyramid, only partly artificial if we may credit Dupaix, and rising with a steep slope of one hundred feet from the bank of the stream according to Stephens, on which is a small building, No. 3 of the plan, which we may call, with Waldeck, the Temple of the Beau Relief. This edifice was found by later visitors in an advanced state of ruin, and Catherwood's drawings of it are much less satisfactory than in the case of other Palenque ruins; but both Dupaix and Waldeck found it in a tolerably good state of preservation, and were enabled to sketch and describe its principal features. This temple measured eighteen by twenty feet, apparently fronting the east, and is twenty-five feet high. It presents the peculiarity of an apartment in the pyramid, immediately under the upper rooms. The cut gives ground plans--No. 1 of the upper, and No. 2 of the lower rooms. The stairway which afforded communication between the two, is also shown. Catherwood's drawing, however, represents the upper and lower apartments as alike in everything but height. On the rear, or western, wall, at a, was the Beau Relief in stucco, which gives a name to the temple, the finest specimen of stucco work in America, shown in the accompanying cut. It was sketched by Castañeda and Waldeck, in whose drawings some differences of detail appear. At the time of Stephens' visit only the lower portions remained for study; yet he pronounced this "superior in execution to any other stucco relief in Palenque." At the time of Charnay's visit the last vestige of this beautiful relic had disappeared. Waldeck speaks of a tomb found in connection with this pyramid, which he had no time to explore, having made the discovery just before leaving the ruins.[VI-34]

[Sidenote: TEMPLE OF THE CROSS.]

Standing about one hundred and fifty yards a little south of east from the Palace, and on the opposite bank of the stream Otolum, is the building No. 4 of the plan, known as the Temple of the Cross, standing on a pyramid which measures one hundred and thirty-four feet on the slope. Mr Stephens locates this temple several hundred feet further south than I have placed it on the plan. Charnay describes the pyramid as partly natural but faced with stone. The temple is fifty feet long, thirty-one feet wide, and about forty feet high. The cut shows the front, or southern elevation. The construction of the lower portion is precisely like that of the other buildings which have been described. The two lateral piers were covered with hieroglyphics, and the central ones bore human figures, all in stucco. The lower slope of the roof was also covered with stucco decorations, among which were fragments of a head and two bodies, pronounced by Stephens to approach the Greek models in justness of proportion and symmetry. On the top, the roof formed a platform thirty-five feet long and about three feet wide, which supported the peculiar two-storied structure shown in the preceding cut, fifteen feet and ten inches high. This is a kind of frame, or open lattice, of stone blocks covered with a great variety of stucco ornaments. A layer of projecting flat stones caps the whole, and from the summit, one hundred feet perhaps above the ground, a magnificent view is afforded, which stretches over the whole forest-covered plain to Laguna de Terminos and the Mexican gulf. This superstructure, like some that I have described at Uxmal and elsewhere in Yucatan, would seem to have been added to the temple solely to give it a more imposing appearance. It could hardly have served as an observatory, since there are no facilities for mounting to the summit.[VI-35]

The interior arrangement is made clear by the adjoined plan. Within the central apartment of the rear, or northern, corridor, and directly opposite to the main doorway is an enclosure measuring seven by thirteen feet. From its being mentioned as an enclosure rather than a regular room by Stephens, it would seem probable that it does not reach the full height of the chamber, but has a ceiling, or covering, of its own. At any rate, it receives light only by the doorway. Besides a heavy cornice round the enclosure, the doorway was surmounted by massive and graceful stucco decorations, and at its sides on the exterior were originally two stone tablets bearing each a human figure sculptured in low relief, resembling in their general characteristics the more common stucco designs, but somewhat more elaborately draped and decorated. One of them wears a leopard-skin as a cloak. These tablets were sketched by both Waldeck and Catherwood in the village of Santo Domingo, whither they had been carried and set up in a modern house. Stephens understood them to come from another of the ruins yet to be mentioned, but the evidence indicates strongly that he was misinformed. Both Waldeck and Stephens entered into some negotiations with a view to remove these tablets; at the time of the former's visit the condition of obtaining them was to marry one of the proprietresses; in Stephens' time a purchase of the house in which they stood would suffice. Neither removed them.[VI-36]

[Sidenote: TABLET OF THE CROSS.]

Fixed in the wall at the back of the enclosure, and covering nearly its whole surface, was the tablet of the cross, six feet four inches high, ten feet eight inches wide, and formed of three stones. The central stone, and part of the western, bear the sculptured figures shown in the cut. The rest of the western, and all of the eastern stone, were covered with hieroglyphics. This cut is a photographic reduction of Waldeck's drawing, the accuracy of which is proved by a careful comparison with Charnay's photograph. The subject doubtless possessed a religious signification, and the location of the tablet may be considered a sacred altar, or most holy place, of the ancient Maya or Tzendal priesthood. Two men, probably priests, clad in the robes and insignia of their office, are making an offering to the cross or to a bird perched on its summit. This tablet has been perhaps the most fruitful theme for antiquarian speculation yet discovered in America, but a fictitious importance has doubtless been attached to it by reason of some fancied connection between the sculptured cross and the Christian emblem. All agree respecting the excellence of the sculpture. Of the two priests, Stephens says: "They are well drawn, and in symmetry of proportion are perhaps equal to many that are carved on the walls of the ruined temples in Egypt. Their costume is in a style different from any heretofore given, and the folds would seem to indicate that they were of a soft and pliable texture like cotton." Stephens and other writers discover a possible likeness in the object offered to a new-born child. Of the hieroglyphics which cover the two lateral stones, the cut on the opposite page shows, as a specimen, the upper portion of the western stone, or what may be considered, perhaps, the beginning of the inscription. The large initial character, like an aboriginal capital letter, is a remarkable feature. In Dupaix's time all parts of the tablet were probably in their place, and in good condition, but his artist only sketched, and that somewhat imperfectly, the cross and human figures, omitting the hieroglyphics. Waldeck and Stephens found and sketched the central stone in the forest on the bank of the stream, to which point it had been removed, according to the former, with a view to its removal to the United States, but according to the latter its intended destination had been the village of Santo Domingo. Stephens says he found the eastern stone entirely destroyed, though Charnay speaks of it as still in place nearly twenty years later; why Waldeck made no drawing of it does not appear.[VI-37]

[Sidenote: MAYA HIEROGLYPHICS.]

[Sidenote: THE ONLY STATUE AT PALENQUE.]

This temple is paved with large flags, through which is an opening made by Del Rio and noticed by later visitors. From this place Del Rio took a variety of articles which will be mentioned hereafter. On the southern slope of this pyramid Waldeck found two statues, exactly alike, one of which is represented in the cut on the opposite page, from Catherwood's drawings in Stephens' work. They are ten and one half feet high, of which two and a half feet, not shown in the cut, formed the tenon by which they were imbedded in the ground or in a wall. The figure stands on a hieroglyph which perhaps expresses the name of the individual or god represented. These statues are remarkable as being the only ones ever found in connection with the Palenque ruins; and even these are not statues proper, sculptured 'in the round,' since the back is of rough stone and was very likely imbedded originally in a wall. Waldeck believes they were designed to support a platform before the central doorway. One of them was broken in two pieces. After sketching the best preserved of them, Waldeck turned them face downward that they might escape the eye of parties who might have better facilities than he for removing them; but Catherwood afterwards discovered and sketched the one which remained entire. The resemblance of this figure to some Egyptian statues is remarked by all, though Stephens notes in the lower part of the dress "an unfortunate resemblance to modern pantaloons." The space at the western base of the pyramid where various undescribed ruins are indicated on the plan, is described by Stephens as a level esplanade one hundred and ten feet wide and supported by a stone terrace wall which rises sixty feet on the slope from the bank of the stream.[VI-38]

[Sidenote: TEMPLE OF THE SUN.]

[Sidenote: PECULIAR ROOF STRUCTURES]

At the south-western base of the pyramid of the Cross, and almost in contact with it, rises another of smaller base, but nearly as high, with a still smaller companion on the north, respecting which latter no information is given. These pyramids, Nos. 5 and 6 of the plan, are located by Stephens directly south from the Temple of the Cross, as indicated by the dotted lines. The building No. 5, sometimes called, without any sufficient reason, the Temple of the Sun, is one of the best preserved and most remarkable for variety of ornamentation of all the Palenque structures, but is very similar in most respects to its neighbor of the cross, having the same stuccoed piers and roof. Its front elevation is shown in the cut, from Catherwood. Waldeck's plate differs chiefly in representing the stucco ornaments in a more perfect state; but both are confessedly restorations to a certain extent. Here again we have stucco reliefs of human figures on the central, and hieroglyphics of the same material on the lateral piers. The roof bears a superstructure similar to that already described, composed of a frame of hewn stone blocks, supporting complicated decorations in cement, several of which are modeled to represent human figures looking from openings in the lattice-work. The stone frame-work entirely freed from its ornamentation, is shown in the cut from Waldeck, which presents both a front and end view. Brasseur believes that these roof structures were erected by some people that succeeded the original builders of the temples. It will be remembered that in Yucatan similar superimposed structures were found by Stephens and others, and are for the most part the only ones on which traces of stucco work are observable.

The dimensions of this temple are twenty-eight by thirty-eight feet, and its ground plan, identical with the exception of an additional doorway with that of the Temple of the Cross, is shown in the cut. The central enclosure in the rear, as is clearly shown by the plates and description in this case, has a roof of its own. Its interior dimensions are, nine feet long, five feet wide, and eight feet high. It has on the exterior a double cornice and graceful ornaments, now mostly fallen, over the doorways, while at the sides stood two sculptured reliefs representing human figures, which although broken in many fragments, were sketched by Waldeck. The tablets in the village of Santo Domingo were understood by Stephens to have come from this apartment.

Fixed in the rear wall, occupying its whole extent, and receiving light only through the doorway, is the Tablet of the Sun, which measures eight by nine feet and is made of three slabs of stone. In 1842 it was still unbroken and in place, and was considered by Stephens to be the most perfect and interesting monument in Palenque. As in the Tablet of the Cross the sides are covered with squares of hieroglyphics; and in the central portion is an object to which two priests are in the act of making human offerings. This central object is a hideous face, or mask, with protruding tongue, standing on a kind of altar which is supported on the backs of two crouching human figures. Two other stooping men support the priests, who stand on their backs. The name Tablet of the Sun comes from the face with protruding tongue, which was sometimes regarded by the Aztecs as a symbol of the sun;--a very far-fetched derivation for the name.[VI-39]

The stream on whose banks the ruins stand flows for a short distance through an artificial covered stone channel, or aqueduct, about six feet wide, and ten feet high, covered like all the corridors by an arch of overlapping blocks. It extends fifty-seven feet from north to south, and one hundred and sixty feet further south-eastward toward the Temple of the Cross, where the fallen roof blocks up the passage and renders further exploration impracticable. Such is the information obtained from the works of Waldeck and Stephens. The position of this structure is indicated on the plan by the dotted lines numbered 7, although Stephens locates it considerably further north. There is great confusion in the accounts of this so-called aqueduct. Bernasconi included in his report a description and drawing of a vault seven feet wide, twelve feet high, and two hundred and twenty-seven feet long, extending in a curved line from the Palace to the stream. Del Rio speaks of a "subterranean stone aqueduct of great solidity and durability, which passes under the largest building." Dupaix states that a rapid stream, a few paces--Kingsborough's edition has it over a league--west of the ruins, runs through a subterranean aqueduct five and one half feet wide, eleven feet high, and one hundred and sixty-seven feet long, built of stone blocks without mortar. The drawings of this structure, however, in Dupaix and Kingsborough's works do not bear the slightest resemblance to each other, one picturing it as a bridge, and the other as a corridor, or possibly aqueduct, built above the surface of the ground. Galindo tells us that a stream rises two hundred paces east of the Palace and is covered for one hundred paces by a gallery, with traces of buildings, probably baths, extending fifty paces further. Waldeck describes the mouth of a subterranean passage as concealed by a small cataract in the stream. There seems to be little reason to doubt that all these conflicting accounts refer to the same structure. Charnay tells us that the conduit is two mètres high and wide, and that it is covered with immense stones.[VI-40]

Not far from the Temple of the Sun a small building eight feet square was found by Waldeck lifted bodily from the ground by the branches of a large tree.[VI-41] On an eminence north of the Palace, at 9 of the plan, are the foundations of several buildings,--eleven in number, according to Dupaix, in whose time some of the arches were still standing. They extend in a line from east to west, and all front the south.[VI-42] On the summit of a high steep hill, or mountain, the slope of which begins immediately to the east of the Temple of the Cross, are the foundation stones of a building twenty-one feet square, at 8 of the plan. So thick is the forest that from this point none of the ruins below are visible, although the site of the village of Santo Domingo may be seen by climbing a lofty tree.[VI-43]

Two bridges are indefinitely located in the vicinity of Palenque. One of them, said by Dupaix to be north of the Palace, is fifty-six feet long, forty-two feet wide, and eleven feet high, built of large hewn blocks without mortar. The conduit is nine feet wide, having a flat top constructed with a layer of wide blocks, and convex sides, as illustrated in the cut. The second bridge was found on the Tulija River some leagues west of the ruins, and only extends, according to Galindo, partly across the river, which is now about five hundred paces wide at that point.[VI-44] The Abbé Brasseur, during his visit to the ruins in 1871, claims to have discovered an additional temple, that of the Mystic Tree, containing hieroglyphic tablets.[VI-45] Three thousand five hundred paces southward from the last house of Santo Domingo, on a stream supposed to be a branch of the Usumacinta, Waldeck found two pyramids. They are described as having been at the time in a perfect state of preservation, square at the base, pointed at the top, and thirty-one feet high, their sides forming equilateral triangles. Pyramids of this type rarely, if ever, occur in America, and it is unfortunate that the existence of these monuments is not confirmed by other explorers, since without such confirmation it must be considered very doubtful.[VI-46] Seven leagues north from the ruins, Galindo found a circular cistern twenty feet in diameter, two feet high on the outside, and eight feet on the inside, occupied at the time of his visit by alligators.[VI-47] According to Ordoñez, one of Del Rio's companions discovered on the Rio Catasahà, two leagues from Palenque, a subterranean stone structure, which contained large quantities of valuable woods, stored as if for export.[VI-48]

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS RELICS.]

A few miscellaneous relics, found by visitors at different points in connection with the ruins of Palenque, and more or less fully described, remain to be noticed. Del Rio made an excavation under the pavement of the central chamber in the Temple of the Cross, and says: "at about half a yard deep, I found a small round earthen vessel, about one foot in diameter, fitted horizontally with a mixture of lime to another of the same quality and dimensions; these were removed, and the digging being continued, a quarter of a yard beneath, we discovered a circular stone, of rather larger diameter than the first articles, and on removing this from its position, a cylindrical cavity presented itself, about a foot wide and the third of a foot deep, containing a flint lance, two small conical pyramids with the figure of a heart in dark crystallized stone; ... there were also two small earthen jars or ewers with covers containing small stones and a ball of vermilion.... The situation of the subterranean depository coincides with the centre of the oratory, and in each of the inner angles, near the entrance, is a cavity like the one before described," containing two little jars. The same author also speaks of burnt bricks which seem to have been used sparingly.[VI-49] Waldeck, having made a similar excavation in what he calls the temple of the Palace, perhaps the building C, found a gallery containing hewn blocks of stone, and earthen cups and vases with many little earthen balls of different colors. He also speaks of a fine fragment of terra cotta which he found in the court 1 where he also discovered just before leaving Palenque the entrance to other galleries of the pyramid. Waldeck also gives drawings of two images of human form in terra cotta, from Dr Corroy's collection; also a face, or mask, in stucco from the cornice of the Temple of Death, whatever that building may have been.[VI-50] Galindo found stones apparently for grinding maize, similar to the Mexican metate; also artificially shaped pebbles, similar, as he says, to those used by the modern Lacandones but smaller. Both Galindo and Dupaix speak of a circular granite stone, like a mill-stone, six feet in diameter and one foot thick, found on the side or at the foot of the Palace pyramid. Dupaix found at a distance of a league westward from the ruins, a square pillar fourteen feet in circumference, and about the same in height, with two short round pillars standing at its eastern foot. He also speaks of finding many small altars probably used originally for burning copal. One of them, four feet in circumference and sixteen inches high, is represented in the preceding cut.[VI-51] At the sale of a collection of antiquities in London, 1859, two of the objects sold are, erroneously in all probability, mentioned as relics from Palenque; one was "a mask, with open mouth, in hard red stone, the concave surface sculptured with a sitting figure of a Mexican chief, surrounded by various emblems," price thirteen pounds; the other, "a Mexican deity, with grotesque human face sculptured out of a very large and massive piece of greenstone," price twenty-five pounds. Mr Davis talks about "an idol of pure gold about six inches long."[VI-52] The two copper or bronze medals which I have already noticed as probably not authentic relics in my account of Guatemalan antiquities, have been considered by various writers, following Ordoñez without any apparent reason, as belonging to Palenque. The speculations to which they have given rise, and their attempted interpretations are splendid specimens of the trash, pure and simple, which has been written in unlimited quantities about primitive America.[VI-53]

[Sidenote: RUINS OF OCOCINGO.]

Some thirty-five or forty miles southward from Palenque, on another of the parallel streams which unite to form a branch of the Usumacinta, is another important group of ruins, which may be called Ococingo, from the name of a modern village, five or six miles distant toward the west. The same traditions that tell us of Votan's great Maya empire, and of Xibalba, allude also somewhat vaguely to another great capital called Tulhá. Juarros, perhaps following Ordoñez, applied this name to the ruins of Ococingo, and most authors have followed him in this respect. I need not say, however, that the only authority for this use of the name is the traditional existence in the shadowy past, of a Tulhá in this region. The natives call the ruins Tonila, which in the Tzendal tongue signifies 'stone houses.' Notwithstanding the importance of the ruins, very little is known of them. Stephens and Catherwood spent about half a day here just before their visit to Palenque; and Dupaix and Castañeda also visited this point. The accounts by these explorers are about all there is extant on the subject, but they are necessarily brief, and unfortunately neither in text nor drawings do they agree at all with each other. Both Waldeck and Brasseur visited Ococingo, but neither gives any description of the monuments.[VI-54]

[Sidenote: RUINS OF OCOCINGO.]

At the village of Ococingo Stephens noticed two sculptured figures brought from the ruins, which he pronounced "somewhat in the same style as those at Copan." Castañeda also saw and sketched here two tablets, which may be the same. One of them measured forty-five by thirty-six by four inches, was of a grayish stone, and contained a single human figure, whose arms were bound behind the back with what resembles a modern rope. The other measuring thirty-six by twenty-seven inches, was of a yellow stone, and contained a standing and a squatting figure, surrounded by a border in which hieroglyphics appear. On the way from the village, Stephens noticed two well-carved figures lying on the ground; while Dupaix found several of them thrown down and broken, two of which were sketched. One of them represents a human bust with arms crossed on the breast, the lower portion of which seems to be a kind of tenon originally fixed in the ground; the other bears a slight resemblance to the only statue found at Palenque. This statue must have been removed by Dupaix, since it was afterwards seen by Waldeck in Vera Cruz. Both statues had lost their heads.[VI-55]

In the possession of some French citizens of Vera Cruz, Waldeck found a collection of seven or eight terra-cottas of very fine workmanship and very curious form, which had been brought from Ococingo. Two of them are shown in the accompanying cuts.[VI-56] The figure shown in the cut was carved in bas-relief on a hard and polished chalchiuite which was found in this vicinity. The design is represented full-sized, and its resemblance to one of the figures on the stone tablet in the Palace at Palenque will be apparent to the reader. Another similar stone bore the hieroglyphics shown in the preceding cut, which was also given in the second volume of this work as an illustration of the Maya system of writing. M. Warden speaks indefinitely of ancient monuments in this vicinity, in connection with which were stone figures representing warriors of great size.[VI-57]

This brings us to the ruins proper. They are situated a little north of east from the village, at a distance of five or six miles. Dupaix describes them as located on the slope of a hill, on the sides of which are some stone steps, and as consisting of five structures. The central building is nearly square, built of hewn stone, and covered with plaster, without exterior decorations. The drawing represents a double cornice, and a sloping roof, very similar to those of the interior Palace buildings at Palenque. There is only one door, on the west, and two square windows appear on each side. A few rods in front of this building, at the sides of the broad stairway leading up to it, and facing each other, are two other buildings of similar construction, but so small that the roof is pointed, its slopes forming four triangular surfaces. In the rear of the central structure, in positions corresponding to those of the buildings in front but at a greater distance, are two conical mounds of masonry covered with cement. Each is sixty feet high and two hundred feet in diameter, being pointed at the top; indeed, the only specimen of pointed stone pyramids seen by Dupaix in his explorations.[VI-58]

Stephens also describes the ruins, or the principal ones at least, as located "on a high elevation," but the elevation is an immense artificial pyramidal structure, built in five terraces. The surface was originally faced with stone and plastered, but was so broken up in places that Stephens was able to ascend to the third terrace on horseback. On the summit of this terraced hill is a pyramid, high and steep, which supports a stone building measuring thirty-five by fifty feet on the ground, built of hewn stone, and covered with stucco. This is perhaps identical with the central building sketched by Dupaix. The only exterior doorway is in the centre of the front, and is ten feet wide. The ground plan is very similar to those of the temples of the Cross and Sun at Palenque, except that the front corridor is divided by partition walls, while the rear corridor is uninterrupted except by an oblong enclosure, which, as at Palenque, seems to have been a kind of sanctuary. The dimensions of this enclosure are eleven by eighteen feet, and over the doorway on the outside is a stucco ornament which arrested Mr Stephens' attention from its resemblance to the 'winged globe' of the Egyptian temples. A portion which was yet in place was sketched by Catherwood; the rest, which had fallen face downward, was too heavy for four men and a boy to overturn. Waldeck, however, either succeeded in raising the fragments, or, what is more likely, copied the standing part and restored the rest from his imagination, producing the drawing, a part of which is copied in the cut. The lintel of this inner doorway is of zapote-wood, and in perfect preservation. The entrance to this sanctuary was much obstructed by fallen fragments, and the natives, who had never dared to penetrate the mysterious recess, believed the passage to lead by a subterranean course to Palenque. Stephens succeeded in entering the room, and found its walls covered with stucco decorations, including two life-sized human figures and a monkey.

From the top of the first building was seen another of similar plan and construction, but in a more damaged condition. It probably stands on the same terraced foundation, although no definite information is given on this point. Two other buildings supported by pyramids were seen. Stephens also speaks of an open table, probably the former site of the city, protected on all sides by the terraced structures which overlook the country far around. There is also a high narrow causeway, partially artificial, extending from the ruins to a mountain range, and bearing on its summit a mound and the foundations of a building, or tower. Of these ruins Mr Stephens says "there was no place we had seen which gave us such an idea of the vastness of the works erected by the aboriginal inhabitants."[VI-59]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MISCELLANEOUS RUINS.]

I have found no very definite information about the antiquities of Chiapas, except the ruins of Palenque and Ococingo. In a statistical work on Chiapas and Soconusco by Emilio Pineda there are the following brief mentions of scattered monuments: In one of the hills near Comitan is a stone table; and a sun, sculptured in stone, serves as a boundary mark on the frontier. Remains are still visible of the cities which formerly stood in the valleys of Custepeques and Xiquipilas, including remains of giants; also of those at Laguna Mora, five leagues from the left bank of the river Chiapas, between the pueblo of Acalá, and the valley of Custepeques, believed to have been the towns of Tizapetlan and Teotilac, where Cortés hung the Aztec king Guatimozin and others; also those of Copanabastla, where columns are mentioned. There are, besides, some sepulchres of the Tzendal nobles, two of which are especially worthy of note. The first is between the pueblo of Zitalá and the hacienda of Boxtic, twenty-two leagues north-west of San Cristóval. "Its base is a parallelogram formed from a hill cut down on three sides, so that at the entrance one seems to be ascending an inclined plain; but further along is seen an elevation with grades, or terraces, chiefly on the sides which are cut away. On the summit plane is found an enormous cone, built of hewn blocks of slate, whose base is about two hundred varas in circumference. In the centre are the sepulchres, and in some of them human bones. The ascent to them is by steps, and the whole seems like a vast winding stairway, for which reason it is called Bololchun, meaning in the Tzendal tongue a 'coiled snake.' Similar to this, is another at the hacienda of San Gregorio, near the pueblo of Huistan, eight leagues east of the city of San Cristóval; but the latter has no supporting mound, but stands on the level of the ground. Here are two Egyptian pyramids, considering their form and purpose." Walls of masonry are mentioned on the hill of Colmena, four leagues from Ocosucoautla; being nine feet thick, seven feet high, and enclosing a circular space forty-five feet in diameter. There is also a wall on the hill of Petapa, south of Ocosucoautla; but the most notable is that of Santoton, near Teopisca, seven leagues south-west of San Cristóval. Two parallel walls extend a long distance, having at one end a ditch, and at the other a high steep mound; within the walls was a town.[VI-60]

Among the relics found at Huehuetan in Soconusco at the end of the seventeenth century, and publicly destroyed, are said to have been some sculptured stones; and we have a statement that the shapeless ruins of the city itself are still visible on a hill near the Pacific, at the modern town of Tlazoaloyan.[VI-61] The ruins of the aboriginal Tonalá, a town captured by Pedro de Alvarado, are said to be still seen on the banks of a laguna communicating with the sea, near the Tehuantepec frontier. The ancient Ghowel, or Huey Zacatlan, is supposed to have stood on the present site of San Cristóval, where some traces are reported. Dupaix mentions a human head, wearing a kind of helmet, cut from green porphyry. This relic was in the possession of Sr Ordoñez.[VI-62]

Brasseur states that the town of Chiapa de Indios, twelve leagues from San Cristóval, is "full of ruins;" and he thinks that obelisks, on one of which there is a tradition of an old king having inscribed his name, and other ruins like those at Copan and Quirigua will some time be brought to light in the forests about Comitan. Hermosa mentions two stones cut in the form of tongues, nine feet long and two feet wide, at Quixté, the location of which I am unable to find. Galindo speaks of some extraordinary and magnificent ruins in a cave somewhere on the left bank of the Usumacinta near the falls; and somewhat lower down, about three miles from Tenosique, a remarkable monumental stone, with inscribed characters. And finally, among the wonderful pretended discoveries of Leon de Pontelli, were the ruined cities of Ostuta and Copanahuaxtla, southward of Palenque, and in the vicinity of San Bartolomé.[VI-63]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: COMPARISONS.]

I have now presented to the reader all that is known of Palenque, and the few other relics of antiquity that have been found in Chiapas. Since the monuments described are nearly all found in one locality, a general résumé seems less necessary than in the chapter on Yucatan antiquities, where the remains of many cities, with numerous variations in detail, were described. Yet a brief consideration of the leading points of resemblance and contrast between the two groups is important. In Palenque, as in Yucatan, we have low, narrow buildings of stone and mortar, standing on the summit platforms of artificial pyramidal elevations faced with masonry. There are no traces of city walls or other fortifications. Galleries are found within the Palace pyramid, and that of the Beau Relief; they were also found in Yucatan at Maxcanú, reported at Izamal, and may very likely exist in other pyramids. The building-material, stone, mortar, and wood, were apparently the same in both groups of ruins, although at Palenque the wood has disappeared. Respecting the form and dimensions of the hewn blocks, our information is less complete than is desirable, especially in the case of Palenque. I believe, however, that no importance can be attached to Galindo's remark that the blocks at Palenque are only two inches thick, and it is probable that the blocks used in both groups are of varying forms and dimensions, as indeed I am informed by a gentleman residing in San Francisco, who visited the ruins in 1860. Mortar, plaster, or stucco was used in greater profusion at Palenque, but there is no reason to suppose that it differed in composition or excellence; the bright-colored paints also, although better preserved in Yucatan, were, so far as can be known, everywhere the same in the Maya ruins.[VI-64]

Interiors here as before consist for the most part of two narrow parallel corridors, with perpendicular walls for half their height, and covered by triangular arches of overlapping blocks of stone. Both walls and ceilings are covered with plaster, and both painted and stucco decorations occur on their surface. Poles originally stretched across from ceiling to ceiling, the poles themselves remaining in Yucatan, and the holes in which they were placed at Palenque. At the sides of many doorways on the interior are simple contrivances for supporting doors or curtains.[VI-65] The Palace, like those of the Yucatan structures which seem to have been intended partially for the residence of priests or lords, is built about an enclosed courtyard, but at Palenque the building is continuous instead of being composed of four separate structures as at Uxmal; and the court, unlike those in Yucatan, contains other structures. The strongest bond connecting Palenque to Uxmal, Kabah, and their sister cities, together with Copan, is the evident identity of the hieroglyphic characters inscribed on their tablets. Respecting this identity all writers are agreed, but the reader, with the specimens given in the preceding pages, will require no other authority on the subject.[VI-66] Both Palenque and Yucatan are also alike remarkable for the comparative absence of idols, statues, implements, and pottery; and, except in the matter of statues, Copan may be classed with them. The human faces sculptured or molded in profile in Yucatan and Chiapas exhibit the same flattened forehead, although the type is much more strongly marked at Palenque. The absence of all warlike subjects is remarkable in the stucco and sculptured figures at Palenque as in all the more ancient remains of Central America.

Together with the resemblances pointed out and others that will occur to the student of this and the preceding chapters, there are also strongly marked contrasts to be noted. In nearly every city of Yucatan there are one or more pyramids on the summits of which no traces of buildings appear, apparently designed for the performance of religious rites in sight of the assembled people, but possibly having served originally to support wooden structures; while at Palenque each pyramid seems to have borne its edifice of stone. The number of buildings apparently intended as temples, in comparison with those which may have served also as residences for priests or rulers, seems much greater at Palenque. Many of the pyramids in Yucatan had broad terraces on their sides; at Palenque none appear, although a terraced elevation has been noticed at Ococingo. Some of the Yucatan pyramids are built of a concrete of rough stones and mortar; some of those at Palenque are chiefly composed of earth, but our information is not sufficiently full on this point to warrant the conclusion that there is any uniform difference in the structure of the pyramids. The sides of the pyramids have in Chiapas no decorations either in stone or stucco, but such decorations in stucco may have existed and have left no trace. Coming now to the superimposed edifices we note that none are found of more than one story at Palenque, while in Yucatan two or three stories are of common occurrence. The walls at Palenque are much thinner, are built entirely of hewn stone, and lack, so far as the authorities go, the filling of rubble found in Yucatan. While the arch of overlapping stones is constructed in precisely the same manner, yet, as I have said, the projecting corners are beveled in Yucatan, while at Palenque a plain surface is produced by the aid of mortar. Doorways in the ruins of Yucatan have for the most part, except at Uxmal, stone lintels; in those of Palenque there is no very positive evidence of their use. In the former the principal exterior entrances have arched tops; in the latter no such structure appears. In the former the roof seems to have been flat, cemented, and plain; in the latter they were sloping, and decorated with stucco. In Yucatan columns occur occasionally both in doorways and elsewhere, but there are no windows; while in Chiapas small windows appear in most buildings, but no columns. Traces of a phallic worship are apparent in the Yucatan sculptured figures; at Palenque no such traces have been pointed out, and there is not among the many tablets or decorations in stucco, a single figure which would be offensive to the most prudish modesty. It is not necessary to speak of the exterior stairways, the isolated arch, the round buildings, the flat wooden roof, and other peculiar edifices which were found in Yucatan and have no counterpart at Palenque. The most marked contrast is in the use of stone and stucco for exterior ornamentation. No stone sculpture is seen on the outer walls of any Palenque building; while in Yucatan, except in superimposed ornamental roof-structures, stucco very rarely appears.[VI-67]

The resemblances in the different groups of ruins in Chiapas, Yucatan, and Honduras, are more than sufficient to prove intimate connection between the builders and artists. The differences pointed out prove just as conclusively that the edifices were not all erected and decorated by the same people, under the same laws and religious control, at the same epoch.

[Sidenote: ANTIQUITY OF PALENQUE.]

And this brings me to the question of the age of Palenque, the date of its foundation and abandonment. It has already been shown that the Yucatan structures were built by the direct ancestors of the Mayas who occupied the peninsula at the time of the conquest; that they were not abandoned wholly until the coming of the Spaniards, although partially so during the two centuries preceding that event; that the reasons adduced for and against the great antiquity of the ruins by different authors, bear almost exclusively on the date of their abandonment rather than that of their erection; and that the latter date, so far as anything can be known of it, depends chiefly on traditional history, which indicates that the cities were built at different dates from the third to the tenth century. It is chiefly by comparison with the ruined cities of Yucatan that the age of Palenque must be determined, since there is no traditional history that relates definitely to this city, and it was doubtless abandoned before the Spaniards came; for it is hardly possible that a great inhabited city could have remained utterly unknown during the conquest of this part of the country, especially as Cortés is known to have passed within thirty miles of its site. In favor of great antiquity for Palenque, the growth of large trees on the ruins, the accumulation of vegetable mold in the courtyards, and the disappearance of all traces of wood, have been considered strong arguments; but they all bear on the date of abandonment rather than of building, as do the rapid crumbling of the ruins since their discovery, the remains of bright-colored paint, the destructiveness of tropical climate and vegetation, and the comparison with some European ruins of known age. The size of trees and accumulation of earth are known to be very uncertain tests of age in this region; indeed the clearings and excavations of the earlier explorers seem to have left few signs visible to those who came a few years later. The utter disappearance of wooden lintels is, however, a very strong argument that Palenque was abandoned some centuries earlier than the cities of the peninsula, where the lintels were found often in perfect preservation, although it cannot be conclusively shown that the same kind of wood was employed. When we add to this the more advanced state of ruin of the Palenque structures, and the utter silence of all later traditions respecting any great city or religious centre in this region, it seems safe to conclude that Palenque was abandoned, or left without repairs, as early as the twelfth or thirteenth century, and possibly earlier.

[Sidenote: FOUNDATION OF PALENQUE.]

Respecting the date when the city was built, we have the resemblances to Yucatan ruins already noticed, which show beyond doubt that it was built--under different conditions, such as religion and government possibly--by a people of the same race and language, and not by an extinct race as has been sometimes imagined. The present deteriorated condition of the natives, and the flattened foreheads of the sculptured figures have been the strongest reasons for believing in an extinct race; but the former has been shown, I believe, in the three preceding volumes of this work to have no weight, and the peculiar cranial conformation may be much more simply and as satisfactorily explained by supposing that in ancient as in modern times the forehead was artificially flattened. Then we have the strong differences noticeable between Uxmal and Palenque, which lead us to conclude that these cities must have been built either at widely different epochs, or by branches of the Maya race which had long been separated, or by branches, which through the influence of foreign tribes lived under greatly modified institutions. It cannot be accurately determined to what extent the last two conditions prevailed, but from what is known of Maya history, and the uniformity of Maya institutions, I am inclined to attribute most of the architectural and sculptural differences noted to the lapse of time, and to allow a difference of a few centuries between the dates of building. I must confess my inability to judge from the degree of art displayed respectively in the peninsular ruins and those of Palenque, which are the older; I will go further, and while in a confessional mood, confess to a shade of skepticism respecting the ability of other writers to form a well-founded judgment in the matter. Authors are, however, unanimous in the opinion that Palenque was founded before any of the cities of Yucatan, an opinion which is supported to a certain extent by traditional history, which represents Votan's empire in Chiapas and Tabasco as preceding chronologically the allied Maya empire in the peninsula. If the Yucatan cities flourished, as I have conjectured, between the third and tenth centuries, Palenque may be conjecturally referred to a period between the first and eighth centuries. I regard the theory that Palenque was built by the Toltecs after their expulsion from Anáhuac in the tenth century as wholly without foundation; and I believe that it would be equally impossible to prove or disprove that the Palace was standing at the birth of Christ. It must be added that Brasseur and some others regard the stucco decorations and especially the peculiar roof-structures as the work of a later people than the original builders, or at least, of a later epoch and grade of culture.[VI-68]

[Sidenote: OLD WORLD RESEMBLANCES.]

Respecting the vague resemblances in the Palenque monuments to old-world ruins, there is very little to be said. The earlier observers were not permitted by their religious faith to doubt that the builders must be connected with some race of the old world; they were, however, allowed to use their judgment to a certain extent in determining which should have the credit, and most of them discovered the strongest similarities to Egyptian antiquities, although Dupaix could find no likeness in the hieroglyphics. Later authorities are not disposed to admit a marked likeness to the monuments of any particular nation of Europe, Asia, or Africa, although finding vague and perhaps accidental similarities to those of many of the older nations. My acquaintance with old-world antiquities is not sufficiently thorough to give any weight to my individual opinion in the matter, and I have no space for the introduction of descriptive text and illustrative plates. I give in a note the opinions of some writers on the subject.[VI-69]

[Sidenote: ART DISPLAYED AT PALENQUE.]

I close my account of Maya antiquities with the following brief quotations respecting Palenque, and the degree of art exhibited in her ruined monuments. "These sculptured figures are not caricatures, but display an ability on the part of the artists to represent the human form in every posture, and with anatomical fidelity. Nor are the people in humble life here delineated. The figures are royal or priestly; some are engaged in offering up sacrifices, or are in an attitude of devotion; many hold a scepter, or other baton of authority; their apparel is gorgeous; their head-dresses are elaborately arrayed, and decorated with long feathers."[VI-70] "Many of the reliefs exhibit the finest and most beautiful outlines, and the neatest combinations, which remind one of the best Indian works of art."[VI-71] "The ruins of Palenque have been perhaps overrated; these remains are fine, doubtless, in their antique rudeness; they breathe out in the midst of their solitude a certain imposing grandeur; but it must be affirmed, without disputing their architectural importance, that they do not justify in their details the enthusiasm of archæologists. The lines which make up the ornamentation are faulty in rectitude; the designs in symmetry; the sculpture in finish; I except, however, the symbolic tablets, the sculpture of which seemed to me very correct." "I admire the bas-reliefs of Palenque on the façades of her old palaces; they interest me, move me, and fill my imagination; but let them be taken to the Louvre, and I see nothing but rude sketches which leave me cold and indifferent."[VI-72] "The most remarkable remains of an advanced ancient civilization hitherto discovered on our continent." "Their general characteristics are simplicity, gravity, and solidity."[VI-73] "While superior in the execution of the details, the Palenque artist was far inferior to the Egyptian in the number and variety of the objects displayed by him."[VI-74]

FOOTNOTES:

[VI-1] The physical features and natural beauties of this region are perhaps more vividly and eloquently described by the French traveler Morelet than by any other visitor. Voyage, tom. i., pp. 245-85; Travels, pp. 65-111. M. Morelet visited Palenque from the Laguna de Terminos, passing up the Usumacinta and its branches, while other visitors approached for the most part from the opposite direction. He gives, moreover, much closer attention to nature in its varied aspects than to artificial monuments of the past. 'L'esprit est frappé par le rêve biblique de l'Éden, et l'œil cherche vainement l'Ève et l'Adam de ce jardin des merveilles: nul être humain n'y planta sa tente; sept lieues durant ces perspectives délicieuses se succèdent, sept lieues de ces magnifiques solitudes que bornent de trois côtés les horizons bleus de la Cordillère.' Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 412. 'La nature toujours prodigue de ses dons, dans ce climat enchanteur, lui assurait en profusion, avec une éternelle fertilité, et une salubrité éprouvée durant une longue suite de siècles, tout ce qu'un sol fécond, sous un ciel admirable, peut fournir spontanément de productions nécessaires à l'entretien et au repos de la vie.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 82.

[VI-2] In 1746, while Padre Antonio de Solis was temporarily residing at Santo Domingo, a part of his curacy, the ruins were accidentally found by his nephews; although Stephens, Cent. Amer., vol. ii., p. 294, gives a report without naming his authority--probably Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. i., p. v., or Juarros, Hist. Guat., p. 18., where the date is given as the middle of the century--which he does not credit, that they were found by a party of Spaniards in 1750. From one of the nephews, Ramon Ordoñez, then a schoolboy at San Cristóval, first heard of the ruins in which he took so deep an interest in later years. In 1773 Ordoñez sent his brother with one Gutierrez de la Torre and others to make explorations, and from their report wrote an account--probably the Memoria relativa à las ruinas de la Ciudad descubierta en las inmediaciones del pueblo de Palenque, a MS. in Brasseur's collection, (Bib. Mex. Guat., p. 113,) from which these facts were gathered--which was forwarded in 1784 to Estacheria, President of the Guatemalan Audiencia Real. President Estacheria, by an order dated Nov. 28, 1784,--Expediente sobre el descubrimiento de una gran ciudad, etc., MS., in the Archives of the Royal Hist. Acad. of Madrid,--instructed José Antonio Calderon, Lieut. Alcalde Mayor of Santo Domingo, to make further explorations. Calderon's report,--Informe de D. J. A. Calderon, etc., translated in substance in Brasseur, Palenqué, Introd., pp. 5-7,--is dated Dec. 15, 1764, so that the survey must have been very actively pushed, to bring to light as was claimed, over 200 ruined edifices in so short a time. Some drawings accompanied this report, but they have never been published. In Jan. 1785 Antonio Bernasconi, royal architect in Guatemala, was ordered to continue the survey, which he did between Feb. 25 and June 13, when he handed in his report, accompanied by drawings never published so far as I know. Bernasconi's report with all those preceding it was sent to Spain, and from the information thus given, J. B. Muñoz, Royal Historiographer, made a report on American antiquities by order of the king.

In accordance with a royal cedula of March 15, 1786, Antonio del Rio was ordered by Estacheria to complete the investigations. With the aid of seventy-nine natives Del Rio proceeded to fall the trees and to clear the site of the ancient city by a general conflagration. His examination lasted from May 18 to June 2, and his report with many drawings was sent to Spain. Copies were, however, retained in Guatemala and Mexico, and one of these copies was in Brasseur's collection under the title of Descripcion del terreno y poblacion antigua, etc. Another copy was found, part in Guatemala and the rest in Mexico, by a Dr M'Quy. It was taken to England, translated, and published by Henry Berthoud, together with a commentary by Paul Felix Cabrera, entitled Teatro Crítico Americano, all under the general title of Description of an Ancient City, etc., London, 1822. The work was illustrated with eighteen lithographic plates, by M. Fréd. Waldeck, ostensibly from Del Rio's drawings; but it is elsewhere stated, Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. i., p. vi., that Del Rio's drawings did not accompany the work at all. If this be true, the published plates must probably have been taken from the Latour-Allard copies of Castañeda's drawings, of which I shall speak presently, and indeed a comparison with Kingsborough's plates shows almost conclusively that such was in some cases at least their origin. Humboldt speaks of the Latour-Allard plate of the cross as differing entirely from that of Del Rio. This difference does not appear in my copies. It is possible that the plates in my copy of Del Rio's work, the only one I have ever seen, are not the ones which originally appeared with the book. A French translation by M. Warden was published by the Société de Géographie, with a part of the plates; and a German translation by J. H. von Minutoli, with an additional commentary by the translator, appeared in Berlin, 1832, as Beschreibung einer alten Stadt, etc. This contained the plates, together with many additional ones illustrating Mexican antiquities from various sources. The German editor says that the whole English edition, except two copies of proof-sheets, was destroyed; but this would seem an error, since the work is often referred to by different writers, and the price paid for the copy consulted by me does not indicate great rarity. Stephens, Cent. Amer., vol. ii., p. 296, speaks of this as 'the first notice in Europe of the discovery of these ruins,'--incorrectly, unless we understand printed notice, and even then it must be noticed that Juarros, Hist. Guat., 1808-18, pp. 18-19, gave a brief account of Palenque. Del Rio, in Brasseur's opinion, was neither artist nor architect, and his exploration was less complete than those of Calderon and Bernasconi, whose reports he probably saw, notwithstanding the greater force at his disposal. 'Sin embargo de sus distinguidas circunstancias, carecia de noticias historiales para lo que pedia la materia, y de actividad para lograr un perfecto descubrimiento.' Registro Yuc., tom. i., p. 320. The original Spanish of Del Rio's report, dated June 24, 1787 (?),--Informe dado par D. Antonio del Rio al brigadier D. José Estacheria, etc.--was published in 1855, in the Diccionario Univ. de Geog. etc., tom. viii., pp. 528-33. See also an extract from the same in Mosaico Mex., tom. ii., pp. 330-4. In Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 76, it is stated that Julio Garrido wrote a work on Palenque about 1805, which was not published. That is all I know of it.

From 1805 to 1808 Capt. Guillaume Dupaix, in company with Luciano Castañeda, draughtsman, and a company of Mexican soldiers, by order of Carlos IV., King of Spain, made three expeditions to explore the antiquities of southern Mexico. Dupaix's MS. report, and 145 drawings by Castañeda, were deposited in the Mexican archives to be sent to Spain; but the revolution breaking out soon after, they were for some years forgotten. Copies of most of the drawings were obtained by M. Latour-Allard of Paris, passed through the hands of Humboldt, who did not publish them, and later into English hands. They were engraved in London, 1823, without any accompanying explanation, and M. Warden reproduced a part of them in a memoire to the French Geographical Society. These are certainly the plates in my copy of Del Rio, and I have but little doubt that they are the only ones that ever accompanied his published work. Bullock, Six Months' Residence in Mex., p. 330, says he copied Castañeda's drawings in Mexico, 1823, but he published none of them. In 1831, copies of the Latour-Allard copies, made by the artist Aglio, were published by Lord Kingsborough, in vol. iv. of his Mexican Antiquities, together with the Spanish text of Dupaix's report, obtained from I know not what source, in vol. v., and a carelessly made English translation of the same in vol. vi. of the same work. In 1828, the original text and drawings were delivered by the Mexican authorities to M. Baradère--at least Sr Icaza, curator of the Mexican Museum, certified them to be the originals; but Sr Gondra, afterwards curator of the same institution, assured Brasseur that these also were only copies,--and were published--the text in Spanish and French--in 1843, in Antiquités Mexicaines. The faithfulness with which the descriptions and drawings of Dupaix and Castañeda were made, has never been called in question; but Castañeda was not a very skilful artist, as is admitted by M. Farcy in his introduction to Antiq. Mex., and many of his faults of perspective were corrected in the plates of that work. M. Farcy states that all previous copies of the plates were very faulty, including those of Kingsborough, although Humboldt, in a letter to M. Latour-Allard, testifies to the accuracy of the latter. A comparison of the two sets of plates shows much difference in the details of a few of them, and those of the official edition are doubtless superior. The French editors, while criticising Kingsborough's plates more severely, as it seems, than they deserve, say nothing whatever of his text; yet both in the Spanish and translation it varies widely from the other, showing numerous omissions and not a few evident blunders. Stephens, seconded by Brasseur, objects to the slighting tone with which Dupaix's editors speak of Del Rio's report; also to their claim that only by government aid can such explorations be carried on. M. Waldeck says, Palenqué, p. vii., that he tried to prevent the publication of the plates in Kingsborough's work on account of their inaccuracy, although how he could at that date pretend to be a judge in the matter does not appear. It is true that Castañeda's drawings are not equal to those of Waldeck and Stephens, but they nevertheless give an excellent idea of the general features of all ruins visited. Morelet says of Dupaix's report: 'Ce document est encore aujourd'hui le plus curieux et le plus intéressant que nous possédons sur les ruines de Palenque.' Voyage, tom. i., p. 268; Travels, p. 90. It was during the third expedition, begun in December, 1807, that Dupaix visited Palenque with a force of natives. His survey lasted several months. The results may be found as follows: Dupaix, 3ème expéd., in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. i., pp. 13-36, tom. iii., pl. xi.-xlvi., with an explanation by M. Lenoir, tom. ii., div. i., pp. 73-81; Kingsborough's Mex. Antiq., vol. v., pp. 294-339, vol. vi., pp. 473-83, vol. iv., pl. xii.-xlv. To economize space I shall refer to these works by the simple names of Dupaix, and Kingsborough, with the number of page or plate; and I shall, moreover, refer directly to Kingsborough only when differences may appear in text or plates.

Dr F. Corroy, a French physician of Tabasco, lived 20 years in the country and made several visits to Palenque, claiming to know more about the ruins than anyone else. An inscription on one of the entrances of the Palace, shown in Waldeck, pl. ix., reads 'François Corroy de tercer viage en estas ruinas los dias 25 de Agosto. Unico historiador de hellos. Con su Esposa y Ija.' He furnished some information from 1829 to 1832 to the French Geographical Society, and speaks of 14 drawings and a MS. history in his possession. Soc. Géog., Bulletin, tom. ix., No. 60, 1828, p. 198; Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 76. Col. Juan Galindo, at one time connected with the British Central American service, also Governor of Peten, and corresponding member of the London Geographical Society, sent much information, with maps, plans, and sketches to the French Société de Géographie. His letter dated April 27, 1831, describing the Palenque ruins, is printed in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., pp. 67-72, also an English translation in the Literary Gazette, No. 769, London, 1831, which was reprinted in the Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. iii., pp. 60-2. Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., p. 142, states that Nebel visited Palenque, and Müller, Urreligionen, p. 459-60, also implies that this traveler explored the ruins; but this is probably erroneous.

On April 12, 1832, M. Fréderic de Waldeck, the most indefatigable and successful explorer of Palenque, arrived at the ruined city, illustrative plates of which he had engraved ten years before for Del Rio's work. This veteran artist--64 years of age at that time, according to Brasseur's statement, Palenqué, p. vi., but 67 if we may credit the current report in the newspapers that he celebrated his 109th birthday in Paris on Dec. 7, 1874, being still hale and hearty--built a cabin among the ruins and spent two whole years in their examination,--Brasseur, Palenqué, p. vi., incorrectly says three years. 'Deux ans de séjour sur les lieux,' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 68, translated 'in a sojourn of twelve years,' Bradford's Amer. Antiq., p. 86,--his expenses being paid by a subscription which was headed by the Mexican Government. More than 200 drawings in water and oil colors were the result of his labors, and these drawings, more fortunate than those made the next year in Yucatan--see p. 145 of this volume--escaped confiscation, although Stephens erroneously states the contrary, and were brought to France. Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. vi. For various reasons Waldeck was unable to publish his proposed work, and over 30 years elapsed before the result of his labors was made public, except through communications dated Aug. 28, and Nov. 1, 1832, sent to the Geographical Society at Paris. Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., p. 142. I shall speak again of his work. Mr Friederichsthal visited Palenque in his Central American travels before 1841, but neither his text nor plates, so far as I know, have ever been published. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, introd., p. 14. See pp. 146-7 of this vol.

In 1840, Messrs Stephens and Catherwood, after their exploration of the antiquities of Honduras and Guatemala, reached Palenque on May 9, remaining until June 4. Such are the dates given by Brasseur,--the only antiquarian except myself who has ever had the hardihood to explore Stephens' writings for dates,--but the actual examination of the ruins lasted only from May 11 to June 1. The results are found in Stephens' Yuc., vol. ii., pp. 280-365, with 31 plates and cuts from Catherwood's drawings; and in Catherwood's Views of Anc. Mon., N. York, 1844, 25 colored lithographs, with text by Mr Stephens. A French translation of Stephens' description of Palenque is given in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, pp. 14-27. Respecting the ability of these explorers, and the faithfulness of their text and drawings, there can be but one opinion. Their work in Chiapas is excelled only by that of the same gentlemen in Yucatan.--See p. 146 of this vol.--Without aid from any government, they accomplished in 20 days, at the height of the rainy season, the most unfavorable for such work, more satisfactory results, as Stephens justly claims, Cent. Amer., vol. ii., p. 299, than any of their predecessors--except Waldeck, whose drawings had not then been published.

An anonymous account of the ruins appeared in 1845 in the Registro Yucateco, tom. i., pp. 318-22. M. Morelet, of whom I have already spoken, spent a fortnight here in 1846. Voyages, tom. i., pp. 264-84; Travels, pp. 64-111, with cuts from other sources. In 1858, M. Désiré Charnay, 'Chargé d'une mission par le ministre d'État, à l'effet d'explorer les ruines américaines,' visited Palenque; but his photographic efforts were less successful here than elsewhere, and of the four views published in his Atlas, only one, that of the tablet of the cross, is of great value in testing the accuracy of preceding artists. His description, however, is interesting and valuable as showing the effects of time on the ruins since Stephens' visit. Charnay, Ruines Amér., Paris, 1863, pp. 411-41, phot. 19-22; Remarks by M. Viollet-le-Duc, pp. 72-3.

In 1860, a commission appointed by the French government examined and reported upon Waldeck's collection, which was found to contain ninety-one drawings relating exclusively to Palenque, and ninety-seven representing objects from other localities. The Palenque drawings were reported to be far superior to any others in existence, a somewhat too decided penchant aux restaurations being the only defect;--a defect, however, which is to a greater or less extent observable in the works of all antiquarians, several of Catherwood's plates being confessedly restorations. In accordance with the report of the commission, the whole collection was purchased, and a sub-commission appointed to select a portion of the plates for publication. It was decided, however, to substitute for M. Waldeck's proposed text some introductory matter to be written by the Abbé Brasseur, a man eminently qualified for the task, although at the time he had never personally visited Palenque. He afterwards, however, passed a part of the month of January, 1871, among the ruins. The work finally appeared in 1866, under the general title Monuments Anciens du Mexique, in large folio, with complicated sub-titles. It is made up as follows:--I. Avant Propos, pp. i.-xxiii., containing a brief notice of some of the writers on American Antiquities, and a complete account of the circumstances which led to the publication of this work; II. Introduction aux Ruines de Palenqué, pp. 1-27, a historical sketch of explorations, with translations of different reports, including that of Stephens nearly in full; III. Recherches sur les Ruines, etc., pp. 29-83, being for the most part speculations on the origin of American civilization, with which I have nothing to do at present; IV. Description des Ruines, etc., by M. Waldeck, pp. i.-viii; V. Fifty-six large lithographic plates, of which Nos. i., v.-xlii., and l., relate to Palenque, including a fine map of Yucatan and Chiapas. I shall refer to the plates simply by the name Waldeck and the number of the plate. By the preceding list of contents it will be seen that this is by far the most important and complete work on the subject ever published. The publishers probably acted wisely in rejecting Waldeck's text as a whole, since his archæological speculations are always more or less absurd; but it would have been better to give his descriptive matter more in full; and fault may be justly found with the confused arrangement of the matter, the constant references to numbers not found in the plates, and with the absence of scales of measurement; the latter, although generally useless in the illustrations of an octavo volume, are always valuable in larger plates. In addition to the preceding standard authorities on Palenque, there are brief accounts, made up from one or more of those mentioned, and which I shall have little or no occasion to refer to in my description, as follows: Baldwin's Anc. Amer., pp. 104-11; Priest's Amer. Antiq., pp. 246-7; Conder's Mex. Guat., vol. ii., pp. 157-69; McCulloh's Researches in Amer., pp. 294-303; Klemm, Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., pp. 160-3; Armin, Das Heutige Mex., pp. 73, 85-91; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 148; Nott and Gliddon's Indig. Races, pp. 184-5; D'Orbigny, Voyage, pp. 354, 356, plate, restoration from Dupaix; Fossey, Mexique, pp. 373, 564-6; same account in Escalera and Llana, Mej. Hist. Descrip., pp. 332-6; Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., pp. 139-44; Bradford's Amer. Antiq., pp. 86-9; Democratic Review, vol. i., p. 38; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 82-94; Davis' Anc. Amer., pp. 4-8; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 464-5; Frost's Pict. Hist., pp. 71-7; Willson's Amer. Hist., pp. 74-6; Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., pp. 69-86, 127; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 462, 498; Mosaico Mex., tom. ii., p. 330, cut, restoration from Dupaix; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., p. 21; Revista Mex., tom. i., p. 498; Buschmann, Ortsnamen, pp. 117-20, 181; Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 180, cut, erroneously said to be a Yucatan altar; Littera, Taschenbuch der Deutschen, in Russland, pp. 54-5; Foreign Quar. Review, vol. xviii., pp. 250-51; Larenaudière, Mex. Guat., pp. 308-20, with plates from Stephens; Norman's Rambles in Yuc., pp. 284-92.

[VI-3] 'Une enceinte de bois et de pallisades.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, p. 32; see also the Spanish dictionaries. 'Tal vez es corrupcion de la palabra (aztec) palanqui, cosa podrida,' Orozco y Berra, Geografía, p. 84. 'Means lists for fighting.' Davis' Anc. Amer., p. 5. I remember also to have seen it stated somewhere that palenque is the name applied to the poles by which boatmen propel their boats on the waters of the tierra caliente.

[VI-4] Humboldt, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xxxv., p. 327; Fossey, Mexique, p. 373; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., p. 464; Juarros, Hist. Guat., p. 19; D'Orbigny, Voyage, p. 354; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 69. Brasseur, however, changed his mind about the name in later works. Palenqué, p. 32. Domenech, Deserts, vol. i., p. 18, calls the name Pachan, probably by a typographical error.

[VI-5] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 111; Id., Popol Vuh, and Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., passim.

[VI-6] 'Je prouve, en effet, dans mon ouvrage sur ces célèbres ruines, que ce sont les débris de la ville d'Ototiun.' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 111. 'Otolum, c'est à dire Terre des pierres qui s'écroulent. C'est le nom de la petite rivière qui traverse les ruines. M. Waldeck, lisant ce nom de travers, en fait Ototiun, qui ne signifie rien.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 69. 'I have restored to them the true name of Otolum, which is yet the name of the stream running through the ruins.' Raffinesque, quoted in Priest's Amer. Antiq., p. 246.

[VI-7] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, p. 32; Baril, Mexique, p. 27.

[VI-8] Calderon gives a list of 206 buildings more or less in ruins. Bernasconi gives the city a circumference of 6 leagues and 1000 varas. Del Rio, Descrip., p. 4, gives the ruins an extent of 7 or 8 leagues from east to west, along the foot of a mountain range, but speaks of only 14 buildings in which traces of rooms were yet visible. According to Galindo the city extends 20 miles on the summit of the chain. Lond. Geog. Soc., vol. iii., p. 60. Waldeck, p. iii., says that the area is less than one square league. Mr Stephens, vol. ii., p. 355, pronounces the site not larger than the Park in New York city.

[VI-9] Descrip., p. 3.

[VI-10] Stephens says eight miles, vol. ii., p. 287; Dupaix, a little over two leagues, p. 14; Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 245, two and a half leagues--Travels, p. 64, two leagues; Charnay, p. 416, twelve kilometres. The maps represent the distance as somewhat less than eight miles.

[VI-11] 'Built on the slope of the hills at the entrance of the steep mountains of the chain of Tumbala,' on the Otolum, which flows into the Michol, and that into the Catasahà, or Chacamal, and that into the Usumacinta three or four leagues from Las Playas, which was formerly the shore of the great lake that covered the plain. 'Les rues suivaient irrégulièrement le cours des ruisseaux qui en descendant, fournissaient en abondance de l'eau à toutes les habitations.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 82-84. 'Mide al suroeste del pueblo dos leguas largas de extension.' Dupaix, p. 14, translated in Kingsborough, vol. vi., p. 473, 'occupied a space of ground seven miles and a half in extent.' 'Au nord-ouest du village indien de Santo Domingo de Palenqué, dans la ci-devant province de Tzendales.' Humboldt, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xxxv., pp. 327-8. Galindo, Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 69, describes the location as on the summit of the range, and reached by stairways from the valley below. On a plain eight leagues long, which extends along the foot of the highest mountain chain. Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., p. 21. Petrifactions of marine shells from the ruins preserved in the Mexican Museum. Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., p. 6.

[VI-12] Waldeck, pl. vi. Stephens' plan, vol. ii., p. 337, agrees in the main with this but is much less complete. Dupaix, p. 18, found only confused and scattered ruins, and declared it impossible to make a correct plan.

[VI-13] 'Tous les monuments de Palenqué sont orientés aux quatre points cardinaux, avec une variation de 12°.' Waldeck, p. iii. 'Orienté comme toutes les ruines que nous avons visitées.' Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 424. Others, without having made any accurate observations, speak of them as facing the cardinal points. See Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 276, etc., for the experience of that traveler in getting lost near the ruins.

[VI-14] Dimensions from Stephens, vol. ii., p. 310. It is not likely that they are to be regarded as anything more than approximations to the original extent; the state of the pyramid rendering strictly accurate measurements impracticable. The authorities differ considerably. 273 feet long, 60 feet high. Waldeck, p. ii. 1080 feet in circumference, 60 feet high. Dupaix, p. 14. 20 yards high. Del Rio, Descrip., p. 4. 100×70 mètres and not over 15 feet high. Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 424. Circumference 1080 feet, height 60 feet, steps one foot high. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 85. 20 mètres high, area 3840 sq. mètres. Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 267; 20 feet high. Id. Travels, p. 88. Over 340 mètres long. Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., pp. 143-4. Waldeck, p. iii., is the only one who found traces of a northern stairway, and none of the general views show such traces. Charnay, p. 425, thought the eastern stairway was double, being divided by a perpendicular wall. Brasseur, Palenqué, p. 17, in a note to his translation of Stephens, says that author represents a stairway in his plate but does not speak of it in his text--an error, as may be seen on the following page of the translation or on p. 312 of the original. The translation 'qui y montent de la térasse' for 'leading up to it on the terrace' may account for the error.

[VI-15] Stephens, vol. ii., p. 316; Waldeck, p. vi.; Charnay, p. 425, phot. 22. Dupaix's plate xiii., fig. 20, showing a section of the whole, indicates that the interior may be filled with earth and small stones.

[VI-16] Stephens, vol. ii., p. 310, except the height, which he gives at 25 feet. 144×240×36 feet. Dupaix, p. 15. 324 varas in circumference and 30 varas high. Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 296. 145×240×36 feet. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 86.

[VI-17] Waldeck thinks, on the contrary, that the principal entrance was originally on the north. General views are found in Stephens, vol. ii., p. 309; Dupaix, pl. xii., fig. 19; Kingsborough, pl. xii.; Waldeck, pl. viii.; Charnay, phot. 22. All but the last two are, more or less, restorations, but not--except Castañeda's in a few respects--calculated to mislead. Stephens says that this cut is less accurate than others in his work, and Charnay calls his photograph a failure, although I have already made important use of the latter. Concerning the lintels, see Charnay, p. 427, and Del Rio, Descrip., pp. 9-11. Brasseur, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 86, says the outside doors are 6 feet high. Doorways 4½ to 12 ft high, 1½ to 15 ft wide. Dupaix, p. 15.

[VI-18] Descriptions and drawings of the bas-reliefs. Dupaix, pp. 20, 37, 75-6, pl. xix-xxii. Kingsborough, vol. iv., pl. xxvi., shows one damaged group not given in Antiq. Mex.; Del Rio, Descrip., pp. 9-11, pl. viii., x., xi., xv., xvi. (as they are arranged in my copy--they are not numbered); Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 311, 316-17; Waldeck, p. v., pl. xii., xiii. See Charnay, p. 426, and this vol., p. 246. Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., pp. 274, 282, implies that all the stucco work had disappeared at the time of his visit; and he mentions a shell-fish common in the region which furnishes good lime and was probably used by the ancients. Waldeck concludes that the supposed elephant's head may be that of a tapir, 'quoiqu'il existe parmi ces mêmes ruines des figures de tapir bien plus ressemblantes.' Voy. Pitt., p. 37.

[VI-19] The plan is reduced from Waldeck, pl. vii. Ground plans are also given in Stephens, vol. ii., p. 310, copied in Willson's Amer. Hist., p. 75; Dupaix, pl. xi.; Kingsborough, vol. iv., pl. xiii.; and in Del Rio, Descrip., the latter being only a rough imperfect sketch. It is understood that a large portion of the outer and southern walls have fallen, so that the visitors differ somewhat in their location of doorways and some other unimportant details. Stephens' plan makes the whole number of exterior doorways 50 instead of 40, and many doorways in the fallen walls he does not attempt to locate. I give the preference to Waldeck simply on account of his superior facilities.

[VI-20] Plates illustrating the corridors may be found as follows: Waldeck, pl. ix., view of doorway c from b, showing two of the medallions, one of which is filled up with a portrait in stucco, and is probably a restoration; the view extends through the doorways c and d, across the court to the building C. The same plate gives also a view of the outer corridor lengthwise looking northward. Pl. x. gives an elevation of the east side of the inner corridor, and a section of both corridors. Pl. xi., fig. 1, shows the details of one of the "T" shaped niches. Stephens, vol. ii., p. 313--sketch corresponding to Waldeck's pl. ix., copied in Morelet's Travels, and taken from the latter for my work. Dupaix, pl. xviii., fig. 25, shows the different forms of niches and windows found in the Palace, all of which are given in my cut. 'A double gallery of eighty yards in length, sustained by massive pillars, opened before us.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., pp. 265-6; Travels, p. 87. The square niches with their cylinders are spoken of by Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 71-2, as 'gonds de pierre.' 'Quant aux ouvertures servant de fenêtres, elles sont petites et généralement d'une forme capricieuse, environnées, à l'intérieur des édifices, d'arabesques et de dessins en bas-relief, parfois fort gracieux.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 92. Principal walls 4 feet thick, others less. Dupaix, p. 15.

[VI-21] Paint the same as at Uxmal. Some was taken for analysis, but lost. Probably a mixture in equal parts of carmine and vermilion. Probably extracted from a fungus found on dead trees in this region, and which gives the same color. Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 100-1.

[VI-22] Waldeck is the only authority for this narrow stairway, and his plan for the northern broad stairway.

[VI-23] Dupaix, p. 21, says that the stone is granite, the figures 11 feet high, and the sculpture in high relief. 'Peuplée de simulacres gigantesques à demi voilés par la végétation sauvage.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 266. These figures, with the eastern side of the court, are represented in Dupaix, pl. xxiii-iv., fig. 29; Waldeck, pl. xiv-xvi. (according to a seated native on the steps, each step is at least 2 feet high); Stephens, pp. 314-15; Charnay, phot. xix., xx. My cut is a reduction from Waldeck.

[VI-24] Waldeck, pl. xiv-v.; Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 314-15. One of the small sculptured pilasters in Dupaix, pl. xxv., fig. 32.

[VI-25] The only plate that shows any portion of the court 2, is Waldeck, pl. xviii., a view from the point n looking south-eastward. Two of the reliefs are shown, representing each a human figure sitting cross-legged on a low stool.

[VI-26] Del Rio, p. 11, calls the height 16 yards in four stories, also plate in frontispiece. Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 70, says it is somewhat fallen, but still 100 feet high. Id., in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. iii., p. 61. Dupaix, p. 16, says 75 feet in four stories, and his pl. xv-vi., fig. 22, make it 93 feet in three stories. Kingsborough's text mentions no height, but his plates xvii-xviii., fig. 24, make it 108 feet in four stories. The other authorities mention no height, but from their plates the height would seem not far from 50 feet. See Waldeck, pl. xviii-xix., and all the general views of the Palace. Waldeck, p. iii., severely criticises Dupaix's drawings. 'Une tour de huit étages, dont l'escalier, en plusieurs endroits est soutenu sur des voûtes cintrées.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 86-7. 'En el pátio occidental está la torre de tres cuerpos y medio: en el primero tiene cuatro puertas cerradas, y una que se abrió cuando el desmonte del capitan Rio, y se halló ser un retrete de poco mas de tres cuartas y lumbreras que se abrieron entónces.' Registro Yucateco, tom. i., pp. 319-20. 'Dominée par une tour quadrangulaire, dont il subsistait trois étages, separés l'un de l'autre par autant de corniches.' Morelet, Voy., tom. i., p. 266. 'It would seem to have been used as a modern oriental minaret, from which the priests summoned the people to prayer.' Jones, p. 83.

[VI-27] Waldeck, p. iii. One of the figures in pl. xi. purports to be a cornice of this room, but may probably belong to the outer walls, since no other author speaks of interior cornices. Stephens, vol. ii., p. 315.

[VI-28] Stephens, vol. ii., p. 316; Waldeck, pl. xv., fig. 2, a cross-section of this building, showing a "T" shaped niche in the end wall.

[VI-29] View of the building from the south-west, representing it as a detached structure, in Dupaix, pl. xiv., fig. 21. This author speaks of a peculiar method of construction in this building: 'Su construccion varia algo del primero, pues el miembro que llamaremos arquitrabe es de una hechura muy particular, se forma de unas lajas grandísimas de un grueso proporcionado é inclinadas, formando con la muralla un angulo agudo.' The plate indicates a high steep roof, or rather second story. It also shows a "T" shaped window and two steps on this side. For plates and descriptions of the tablet see Stephens, vol. ii., p. 318; Waldeck, pp. iv., vi., pl. xvii.; Dupaix, pp. 16, 23, pl. xviii., fig. 26, pl. xxvi., fig. 33; Del Rio, p. 13, pl. xv.-xvii.; Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 70. Waldeck's pl. xvi., fig. 3, is a ground plan showing more detail than the general plan; and pl. xi., fig. 3, is a study of the cornices (?) in the interior. The sculptured tablet probably represents Cuculkan, or Quetzalcoatl. Morelet's Travels, p. 97. No doubt the medallion represented a sun, and the table beneath was an altar to the sun. Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 83.

[VI-30] Stephens, vol. ii., p. 319; Dupaix, pl. xxvii., fig. 34; Del Rio, pl. iv.

[VI-31] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 316, 318-19. Plan of galleries in Dupaix, pl. xvii., fig. 24. Stucco ornaments, pl. xxv., fig. 30, 31. Hieroglyphic tablet, pl. xxxix., fig. 41. Description, p. 28. Niche in the wall of the gallery, Waldeck, p. iv., pl. xi., fig. 2. Decoration over doorway (copied above), Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 105, pl. xxii.; also in Del Rio, pl. xiv.

[VI-32] Cut from Armin, Das Heutige Mex., p. 73.

[VI-33] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 339-43, with the cuts which I have given, and also plates of the four stucco reliefs, and the hieroglyphic tablets. Waldeck, pl. xxxiii.-xl., illustrating the same subjects as Catherwood's plates, and giving also a transverse section of the building in pl. xxiii., fig. 4. Waldeck's ground plan represents the building as fronting the north. Dupaix, pp. 24-5, pl. xxviii.-xxxii., including view of north front, ground plan, and the stucco reliefs, which latter M. Lenoir, Antiq. Mex., tom. ii., div. i., p. 78, incorrectly states to be sculptured in stone. Castañeda did not attempt to sketch the hieroglyphics, through want of ability and patience, as Stephens suggests. See Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 424; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 89; Baldwin, Anc. Amer., p. 107; Del Rio, Descrip., p. 16; Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 71. It is to be noticed that Stephens' plan locates this temple nearer the Palace than the one I have copied. Dupaix states the distance to be 200 paces.

[VI-34] Stephens, vol. ii., p. 355, giving view, section, ground plan, and what remained of the Beau Relief. Waldeck, p. iii., pl. xli.-ii., with ground plans, sections, and Beau Relief as given above, and which the artist pronounces 'digne d'être comparée aux plus beaux ouvrages du siécle d'Auguste.' Drawings of the relief also in Dupaix, pl. xxxiii., fig. 37; Del Rio, Descrip., pl. ii.; Kingsborough, pl. xxxvi., fig. 37.

[VI-35] Del Rio, Descrip., p. 17, says this pyramid is one of three which form a triangle, each supporting a square building 11×18 yards. Charnay locates this temple 300 mètres to the right of the Palace. Ruines Amér., p. 417. Waldeck, pl. xx., is a fine view of this temple and its pyramid as seen from the main entrance of the Palace. But according to this plate the structure on the roof is at least 10 feet wide instead of 2 feet 10 inches as Stephens gives it, and narrows slightly towards the top. This plate also shows two "T" shaped windows in the west end. Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 344-8, elevation and ground plan as given in my text from Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 106, and some rough sketches of parts of the interior. Dupaix, pl. xxxv., fig. 39, exterior view and ground plan. The view omits altogether the superstructure and locates the temple on a natural rocky cliff. Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 71, speaks of the top walls as 80 feet from the ground and pierced with square openings.

[VI-36] Waldeck, p. vii., pl. xxiii-iv.; Stephens, vol. ii., p. 352; Dupaix, pp. 24-5, pl. xxxvii-viii.; Galindo, in _Antiq. Mex._, tom. i., div. ii., p. 71.

[VI-37] Dupaix, pp. 25-6, pl. xxxvi., fig. 40; Waldeck, p. vii., pl. xxi.-ii.; Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 345-7; Charnay, p. 419, phot. xxi., showing only the central stone. 'Upon the top of the cross is seated a sacred bird, which has two strings of beads around its neck, from which is suspended something in the shape of a hand, probably intended to denote the manitas. This curious flower was the production of the tree called by the Mexicans macphalxochitl, or "flower of the hand."' Bradford's Amer. Antiq., p. 89. 'Une grande croix latine, surmontée d'un coq, et portant au milieu une croix plus petite, dont les trois branches supérieures sont ornées d'une fleur de lotus.' Baril, Mex., pp. 28-9. 'Un examen approfondi de cette question m'a conduit à penser avec certitude que la croix n'était, chez les Palenquéens, qu'un signe astronomique.' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 24.

[VI-38] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 344, 349; Waldeck, pl. xxv. 'From the engraving, Egypt, or her Tyrian neighbour, would instantly claim it.' Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 127. Copy of the statue from Stephens, in Squier's Nicaragua, (Ed. 1856,) vol. ii., p. 337.

[VI-39] Waldeck's plate xx. shows the pyramid No. 6 and indicates that his location of it on the plan is correct. Charnay, Ruines Amér., pp. 420-1, places No. 5 'à quelque distance de ce premier (Palace) édifice, presque sur la même ligne.' Waldeck, pl. xxvi., front elevation; pl. xxvii., elevation of central chamber; pl. xxviii., central wall, roof structure (as given above), ground plan, sections; pl. xxix-xxx, Tablet of the Sun; pl. xxxi-ii, lateral stone tablets. Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 351-4, and frontispiece, gives elevation and ground plan as above, and also elevation of central chamber, a view of a corridor, and the Tablet of the Sun. Dupaix, p. 25, pl. xxxiv., fig. 38, describes a two storied building 10 by 19 varas, 12 varas high, standing on a low pyramid, which may probably be identical with this temple.

[VI-40] Stephens, vol. ii., p. 321; Waldeck, p. ii.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, introd., p. 7; Del Rio, Descrip., p. 5; Dupaix, p. 29, pl. xlvi., fig. 48; Kingsborough, vol. v., p. 310, pl. xlv., fig. 45; Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 71; Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 429.

[VI-41] Waldeck, p. ii.

[VI-42] Dupaix, p. 18; Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 424.

[VI-43] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 320-1; Waldeck, p. iii. Plate xx. also gives a view of the mountain from the Palace. A 'monument qui paraîtrait avoir servi de temple et de citadelle, et dont les constructions altières commandaient au loin la contrée jusqu'aux rivages de l'Atlantique.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 84.

[VI-44] Dupaix, p. 28, pl. xliv., fig. 46; Kingsborough, p. 310, pl. xliv., fig. 43. The latter plate does not show any curve in the sides. Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 68; Id., in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. iii., p. 64.

[VI-45] Bibliothèque Mexico-Guatémalienne, p. xxvii.

[VI-46] Waldeck, p. ii.

[VI-47] Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 68.

[VI-48] Ordoñez, MS., in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 92.

[VI-49] Del Rio, Descrip., pp. 18-20.

[VI-50] Waldeck, Palenqué, p. iv., pl. l.; Id., Voy. Pitt., p. 104, pl. xviii., fig. 3.

[VI-51] Galindo, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., pp. 70-2; Dupaix, pp. 28-9, pl. xlii-iii., xlv., fig. 44-5, 47.

[VI-52] Hist. Mag., vol. iii., p. 100, quoted from Athenæum; Davis' Anc. Amer., p. 5.

[VI-53] See this vol. p. 118; Melgar, in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, 2da época, tom. iii., pp. 109-18.

[VI-54] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 255-61; Dupaix, pp. 10-13, pl. viii.-x.; Kingsborough, vol. v., pp. 291-4, vol. vi., pp. 470-2, vol. iv., pl. ix.-x.; Lenoir, in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., pp. 23, 72-3; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 46-7, 104, pl. xix.-xxi.; Id., Palenqué, p. viii., pl. liv.; Brasseur, Palenqué, introd., pp. 2, 14, 15--he writes the name Toninà. Juarros, Hist. Guat., pp. 18-19, mere mention. Other authorities, containing no original information, are as follows: Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., p. 21; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., p. 465; Baril, Mexique, p. 27; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 20; Wappäus, Mex. Guat., p. 147; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 461; Larenaudière, Mex. Guat., p. 320; Morelet's Trav., pp. 97-8; Warden, in Antiq. Mex., tom. ii., p. 71.

[VI-55] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 256, 258; Dupaix, pp. 10-12, pl. viii.-ix., fig. 13-16; Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 46-7.

[VI-56] Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 46, 104, pl. xix-xxi. 'Les figures de terre cuite qu'on trouve de temps à autre dans les champs voisins de ces ruines, sont bien modelées, et d'un style qui révèle un sentiment artistique assez élevé.'

[VI-57] Morelet's Travels, pp. 97-8, cuts probably from Catherwood's drawings. Warden, in Antiq. Mex., tom. ii., p. 71.

[VI-58] Dupaix, pp. 12-13, pl. x., fig. 17.

[VI-59] Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 258-62. Elevation, section, and ground plan, with fragment of the stucco ornament. The latter copied in Brasseur, Palenqué, introd., pp. 14-15. Waldeck, Palenqué, p. viii., pl. liv. 'Dans l'intérieur de ses monuments, un caractère d'architecture assez semblable à celui des doubles galeries de Palenqué; seulement, j'ai remarqué que les combles étaient coniques et à angles saillants, comme des assises renversées.' Id., Voy. Pitt., p. 46. Shows higher degree of art than Palenque. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 88.

[VI-60] Pineda, Descrip. Geog., in Soc. Mex. Geog., Boletin, tom. iii., pp. 346, 406-7.

[VI-61] Pineda, ubi sup.; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 74; Domenech's Deserts, vol. i., p. 21.

[VI-62] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. iv., p. 633, tom. i., p. 75; Wappäus, Mex. Guat., p. 147; Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., p. 20; Dupaix, 3d Exped., p. 8, pl. vii.

[VI-63] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 96; Id., Palenqué, p. 33; Hermosa, Manual Geog., pp. 88-9; Galindo, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. iii., p. 60; Id., in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 68; Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1857, tom. clv., pp. 221-2.

[VI-64] Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 549. The stones that cover the arches in the Palace corridors, are three feet long; those of the court stairways are one and a half feet high and wide. Oxide of iron is mixed with the mortar. 'No es decible la excelencia de este yeso que yo llamo estuco natural, pues no se indaga visiblemente en su composicion ó masa, arena ó mármol molido. A mas de su dureza y finura tiene un blanco hermoso.' Quarries were seen one and a half leagues west of ruins. Dupaix, pp. 15-17, 20. Red, blue, yellow, black, and white, the colors used. Stephens, vol. ii., p. 311.

[VI-65] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 87, following Castañeda, speaks of regular semi-circular arches at Palenque, and states that he has himself seen several such arches in other American ruins. It is very certain that no such arches exist at Palenque. Indeed, Dupaix himself, notwithstanding Castañeda's drawings, says, p. 17, that semi-circular arches were not used, and Lenoir, Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 74, repeats the statement; although the latter on the same page speaks of the 'voûtes cintrées' as appearing among the ruins. Brasseur's statement about arches in other ruins would be more satisfactory if he had seen fit to give further particulars. 'This original mode of construction, which discloses the principle of the arch, was not wanting in grandeur or boldness of design, although the architects did not understand the science of curves, and stopped short, so to speak, on the verge of the discovery.' Morelet's Travels, p. 88; Id., Voyage, tom. i., pp. 265-6.

[VI-66] Hieroglyphics at Palenque are the same as those at Copan and Quirigua, although the intermediate country is now occupied by races of many different languages. Stephens, vol. ii., p. 343; but, as Brasseur says, Palenqué, introd., p. 22, 'Toutes les langues qui se parlent dans les régions existant entre Copan et Palenqué ont la même origine; ... à l'aide du maya et du quiché, je crois qu'on les entendrait toutes, avec quelque travail.' Id., Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 89; Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 102. See also this work, vol. ii., chap, xxiv., vol. iii., Languages, chap. xi.

[VI-67] 'Il serait facile de démontrer, par une comparaison raisonnée des ruines du Yucatan et de celles de Palenque, que les monuments dont elles perpétuent le souvenir avaient un même caractère architectonique; qu'ils étaient ordonnés selon les mêmes principes et construits d'après les mêmes règles de l'art.' Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 270. Brasseur, Palenqué, introd., pp. 20, 24, notes a striking similarity between the arrangement of buildings at Palenque and Yucatan. He also speaks of a remarkable inferiority in the ruins of Palenque, compared to Chichen, Zayi, and Uxmal. Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 88. Viollet-le-Duc, in Charnay, Ruines Amér., pp. 72-3, says the ruins do not resemble those of Yucatan, either in plan, construction, or decoration; and that the face of the priest in the Temple of the Cross is of a different race from the sculptured heads in Yucatan. 'La sculpture ... indique un art plus savant qu'au Yucatan; si les proportions du corps humain sont observées avec plus de soin et d'exactitude, on s'aperçoit que le faire est mou, rond, et qu'il accuse plutôt une période de décadence que l'âpreté des premiers temps d'un art.' Id., p. 74, 'Le caractère de la sculpture à Palenqué est loin d'avoir l'énergie de celle que nous voyons dans des édifices de l'Yucatan.' Id., p. 97. 'A pesar de tanta desnudez, no hemos reparado una postura, un gesto, ó algunas de aquellas del cuerpo, al descubierto que el pudor procura ocultar,' Dupaix, p. 21. Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 72, thinks the tau-shaped figures may have been symbols of the phallic worship. Friederichsthal, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xcii., pp. 300-3, says of the Yucatan ruins that 'elles portent indubitablement des traces d'une identité d'origine avec les ruines de Palenqué,' but remarks a difference in the sculptured and molded heads. Sivers, Mittelamerika, p. 238, says that the stone reliefs of Uxmal belong to a ruder primitive art; and that stucco was used at Palenque for want of suitable stone, and for the same reason greater attention was paid to the stone tablets at the latter ruins. See also Reichardt, Centro-Amerika, pp. 26-9; Prichard's Researches, vol. v., pp. 345-6; Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, p. 197.

[VI-68] M. Viollet-le-Duc, judging from the nature and degree of art displayed in the ruins, concludes that the civilized nations of America were of a mixed race, Turanian or yellow from the north-west, and Aryan or white from the north-east, the former being the larger and the earlier element. Stucco work implies a predominance of Turanian blood in the artists; traces of wooden structures in architecture belong rather to the white races. Therefore he believes that Palenque was built during the continuance of the Empire of Xibalba, probably some centuries before Christ, by a people in which yellow blood predominated, although with some Aryan intermixture; but that the Yucatan cities owe their foundation to the same people at a later epoch and under a much stronger influence of the white races. In Charnay, Ruines Amér., pp. 32, 45, 97, 103, etc. 'Here were the remains of a cultivated, polished, and peculiar people, who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations; reached their golden age, and perished, entirely unknown. The links which connected them with the human family were severed and lost, and these were the only memorials of their footsteps upon earth.' Arguments against an extinct race and Egyptian resemblances. Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 356-7, 436-57. Dupaix believes in a flat-headed race that has become extinct, p. 29. After writing his narrative he made up his mind that Palenque was antediluvian, or at least that a flood had covered it. Lenoir, p. 76. M. Lenoir says that according to all voyagers and students the ruins are not less than 3000 years old. Id., p. 73. 'Catlin, Revue des Deux Mondes, March, 1867, p. 154, asserts that the ruined cities of Palenque and Uxmal have within themselves the evidences that the ocean has been their bed for thousands of years,' but the material is soft limestone and presents no water lines. Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 398-9. The work of an extinct race. Escalera and Llana, Méj. Hist. Descrip., p. 333; Valois, Mexique, p. 197; Wappäus, Mex. Guat., p. 247. Judging by decay since discovery, bright paint, comparison with German ruins, etc., they cannot date back of the Conquest. Sivers, Mittelamerika, pp. 237-47. 'All of them were the Work of the same People, or of Nations of the same Race, dating from a high antiquity, and in blood and language precisely the same Race, ... that was found in Occupation of the Country by the Spaniards, and who still constitute the great Bulk of the Population.' Squier, in Palacio, Carta, pp. 9-10. Copan and Quirigua preceded Palenque and Ococingo as the latter preceded the cities of Yucatan. Ib. 'The sculptures and temples of Central America are the work of the ancestors of the present Indians,' Tylor's Researches, pp. 189, 184. In age the ruins rank as follows: Copan, Utatlan, Uxmal, Mitla, Palenque. Edinburgh Review, July, 1867. 'Una antiguedad no ménos que antediluviana.' Registro Yuc., tom. i., p. 322, 'Approximative calculations, amounting to all but certainty ... would carry its origin as far back as twenty centuries at least.' Dem. Review, vol. i., p. 38. 'Ces ruines étaient déjà fort anciennes avant même que les Toltèques songeassent à quitter Tula.' Fossey, Mexique, p. 566. Founded by the Toltecs after they left Anahuac in the 11th century. They afterwards went to Yucatan. Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., pp. 269-70. Palenque much older than Yucatan according to the Katunes. Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., pp. 22-3, 103. Waldeck found a tree whose rings indicated an age of nearly 2000 years. Id., Palenqué, p. v. 'Il est probable qu'elles appartiennent à la première période de la civilization américaine.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 85, 87, 89. Copan built first, Palenque second, and Uxmal third. Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., pp. 80, 72, 76. Humboldt, Vues, tom. ii., p. 284, thinks it improbable that the foundation of Palenque dates back further than the 13th or 14th century; but he never saw the ruins and does not pretend to have any means of accurately determining their age.

[VI-69] 'Palenqué, dans quelques bas-reliefs, a des intentions assyriennes.' Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. iii. 'The writing of the inscriptions ... has no more relatedness to the Phœnician than to the Chinese writing;' nor is there any resemblance in the architecture. Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 174. Long arguments against any resemblance of the Central American cities to Egyptian monuments. Stephens, vol. ii., pp. 436-57; which Jones, Hist. Anc. Amer., pp. 106-37, labors to refute. No resemblance to Egyptian pyramids, except in being used as sepulchres. Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 186-7. 'The Palenque architecture has little to remind us of the Egyptian, or of the Oriental. It is, indeed, more conformable, in the perpendicular elevation of the walls, the moderate size of the stones, and the general arrangement of the parts, to the European. It must be admitted, however, to have a character of originality peculiar to itself.' Prescott's Mex., vol. iii., pp. 407-8. 'Un bas-relief représentant un enfant consacré à une croix, les têtes singulières à grands nez et à fronts rejetés en arrière, les bottines ou caligulæ à la romaine servant de chaussure; la ressemblance frappante des figures avec les divinités indiennes assises, les jambes croisées, et ces figures un peu roides, mais dessinées dans des proportions exactes, doivent inspirer un vif intérêt à quiconque s'occupe de l'histoire primitive du genre humain.' Humboldt, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xxxv., p. 328. See also Juarros, Hist. Guat., p. 19; Dupaix, p. 32, and elsewhere; Larenaudière, Mex. Guat., pp. 326-9; Scherzer, Quiriguá, p. 11.

[VI-70] Foster's Pre-Hist. Races, pp. 338-9, 302.

[VI-71] Klemm, Cultur-Geschichte, tom. v., pp. 161-3.

[VI-72] Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., pp. 273, 264.

[VI-73] Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. ii., p. 172; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 85.

[VI-74] Prescott's Mex., vol. iii., pp. 408-9.