CHAPTER XXVI.

Considering the vast extent of these remains, [i. e. of ancient cities, pyramids and temples] spreading over more than half the continent, and that in Mexico, and South America, after the lapse of an unknown series of ages, they still retain much of ancient grandeur which "Time's effacing fingers" have failed to obliterate. It is certainly no wild flight of the imagination to conjecture that in ancient times, even coeval with the spread of science in the east, empires may have flourished here that would vie in power and extent with the Babylonian, the Median, or the Persian; and cities that might have rivaled Nineveh, and Tyre, and Sidon; for of these empires and these cities, the plains of Asia now exhibit fewer, and even less imposing relics, than are found of the former inhabitants of this country.^[1]

We venture to say that the aboriginal inhabitants of our hemisphere have not till this day received their meed for ancient bravery, nautical skill, and wonderful attainments in geography and in every branch of material advancement and of civilization generally. Ancient prehistoric America was, indeed, a civilized world. * * * * * Proceeding from north to south, we find from distance to distance unmistakable traces of mighty, skilful, and learned nations that had either wholly disappeared from the face of the earth, or had become degenerated and degraded to such an extent as to be irrecognizable at the time of not only the Spanish, but even of the Northman [tenth century] discoveries. * * * * * The Mayas [Central America] were intellectual giants, indeed. The ruins of their vast public works, of their costly edifices, of their sculptures and paintings, and of their finely carved symbolic writings attest the height of a civilization of which we might well be proud today. And yet all these evidences of a glorious past lay buried for long centuries before Columbus' discovery in the virgin forests of Yucatan. Palenque, Uxmal, Copan, and several other ruined cities of Central America are as grand and beautiful monuments on the cemeteries of the New World as are Troy, Babylon, and Thebes on those of the Old; and their antiquity does not seem to be less venerable. They certainly pertain to America's remotest period. They were ruins more than they are now, in the sixteenth century; the native of the neighboring region knew nothing of their origin, and no notice whatever of the existence of such cities appears in the annals of the surrounding civilized nations during the eight or nine centuries preceding the Spanish conquest. Bancroft is even of the opinion that the Maya grandeur was already at its height several centuries before Christ.^[2]

After speaking of various evidences of civilization in America, Nadaillac remarks:

But we need not give any further account of these great discoveries. We must return to the companions of Cortez to tell of the new wonders which awaited them. Even in the most remote districts in the primeval forests covering Chiapas, Guatemala, Honduras, and Yucatan, where, through the dense undergrowth a passage had often to be forced, axe in hand, statues, columns, hieroglyphics, unoccupied villages, abandoned palaces, and stately ruins, rose on every side, mute witnesses of past ages and of vanished races. Everywhere the conquerors were met by tokens, not only of a civilization even more ancient and probably more advanced than that of the races they subjugated, but also of struggles and wars, those scourges of humanity in every race and every clime.^[3]

Continuing further on in his admirable work, the same writer says:

Undoubtedly America bears witness to a venerable past; and without admitting the claims of some recent authors who are of opinion that when Europe was inhabited by wandering savages, whose only weapons were roughly hewn of stone, America was already peopled by men who built cities, raised monuments, and had attained to a high degree of culture, we must admit that their civilization and social organization can only have become what it was by degrees. * * * To erect the monuments of Mexico and Peru, the yet more ancient ones of Central America—the singular resemblance of which, in some particulars, to the temples and palaces of Egypt, strike the archaeologist—must have required skilled labor, a numerous population, and an established priesthood, such as could have developed only during the lapse of centuries. * * * To sum up: multitudes of races and nations have arisen upon the American continent and have disappeared, leaving no trace, but ruins, mounds, a few wrought stones, or fragments of pottery.^[4]

In the New World, mysterious mounds and gigantic earth-works arrest our attention. Here we find deserted mines, and there we can trace the sites of ancient camps and fortifications. The Indians of the prairies seem to be intruders on a fairer civilization. We find here evidences of a teeming population. In the presence of their imposing ruins, we can not think that nomadic savages built them. They give evidences rather of a people having fixed habitations, and seem to imply the possession of a higher civilization than that of the Indians. These questions demand solution; but how shall we solve the problem? Save here and there a deserted camp, or a burial mound, containing perhaps articles of use or adornment, all traces have vanished. Their earth-works and mounds are being rapidly leveled by the plow of modern times, and the scholar of the future can only learn from books of their mysterious builders. In Mexico, and further south, we find the ruins of great cities. To the student of antiquity, these far surpass in interest the ruined cities of the Nile or Euphrates valley. Babylon of old, with its walls, towers, and pleasure resorts, was indeed wonderful. In our own land cities, if not as ancient, yet fallen in more picturesque ruin, reward the labors of the explorer. Uxmal, Copan, and Palenque, invite our attention. Here are hieroglyphics in abundance, but no Rosetta Stone supplies the key by whose aid a Champollion can unravel the mystery.^[5]

Closely enveloped in the dense forests of Chiapas, Guatemala, Yucatan, and Honduras, the ruins of several ancient cities have been discovered, which are far superior in extent and magnificence to any seen in Aztec territory. * * * Most of these cities were abandoned and more or less unknown at the time of the conquest. They bear hieroglyphic inscriptions apparently identical in character; in other respects they resemble each other more than they resemble the Aztec ruins—or even other and apparently later works in Guatemala, and Honduras. All these remains bear evident marks of great antiquity. Their existence and similarity, the occupation of the whole country at some remote period by nations far advanced in civilization, and closely allied in manners and customs, if not in blood and language. Furthermore, the traditions of several of the most advanced nations point to a widespread civilization introduced among a numerous and powerful people by Votan and Zamna, who, or their successors, built the cities referred to, and founded great allied empires in Chiapas, Yucatan, and Guatemala; and moreover, the tradition is confirmed by the universality of one family of languages or dialects spoken among the civilized nations, and among their descendants to this day.^[6]

That the population of Central America (and in this term I include Mexico) was at one time very dense, and had attained to a high degree of civilization, higher even than that of Europe in the time of Columbus, there can be no question; and it is also probable, as I have shown, that they originally belonged to the white race.^[7]

Finally, from all we can gather from this momentous subject, we are compelled from the overwhelming amount of evidence to admit that mighty nations, with almost unbounded empire, with various degrees of improvement, have occupied the continent, and that, as in the old world, empire has succeed empire, rising one out of the other, from the jarring interests of the unwieldly and the ferocious mass—so also in this.^[8]

The foregoing is perhaps sufficient for the purpose of establishing the mere fact of the existence of extensive and highly developed civilization in America, especially as many of the quotations on some of the other divisions of the subject will also bear upon this point. I now take up the matter of the chief centers of those old civilizations.

II.

Chief Centers of Ancient American Civilization.

The following is from Baldwin's "Ancient America":

It has been said, not without reason, that the civilization found in Mexico by Spanish conquerors consisted, to a large extent, of "fragments from the wreck that befell the American civilization of antiquity." To find the chief seats and most abundant remains of the most remarkable civilization of this old American race, we must go still farther south into Central America and some of the more southern states of Mexico. Here ruins of many ancient cities have been discovered, cities which must have been deserted and left to decay in ages previous to the beginning of the Aztec supremacy. Most of these ruins were found buried in dense forests, where, at the time of the Spanish conquest, they had been long hidden from observation.^[9]

Marcus Wilson, in speaking of the central location of the ancient American civilization and its probable "radiating points," says:

It is believed that the western shores of this continent, and perhaps both Mexico and Peru—equally distant from the equator, and in regions the most favorable for the increase and the support of human life, were the radiating points of early American civilization; from which, as from the hearts of empire, pulsation after pulsation sent forth their streams of life throughout the whole continent. But the spread of civilization appears to have been restricted, as we might reasonably expect to find it, to those portions of the continent where the rewards of agriculture would support a numerous population. Hence, following the course of the civilization, by the remains it has left us, we find it limited by the barren regions of upper Mexico, and the snows of Canada on the north, and the frosts of Patagonia on the south; and while in Mexico and Peru are found its grandest and most numerous monuments, on the outskirts they dwindle away in numbers and in importance. ^[10]

In the Central American region of the western continent are found ruins of what are pronounced by all scholars to be the highest civilization, and the most ancient in time, of any in the New World. There it arose, flourished, and tottered to its fall. Its Glory had departed, its cities were a desolation, before the coming of the Spaniards. * * * * * The most important ruins are in the modern states of Honduras, Guatemala, Chiapas, and especially Yucatan, the northern portion of this peninsula being literally studded with them. The river Usumacinta, and its numerous tributaries flowing in a northern direction through Chiapas, is regarded as the original home of the civilization whose ruins we are now to describe. From whence the tribes came that first settled in this valley is as yet an unsettled point. We notice that we have here another instance of the influence that fertile river valleys exert upon tribes settling therein. The stories told us of the civilization that flourished in primitive times in the valley of the Euphrates and the Nile are not more wonderful—the ruins perhaps not more impressive—than are the traditions still extant, or the material remains fallen in picturesque ruins, of the civilization that once on a time held sway in the Usumacinta valley.^[11]

Wherever there was a center of civilization, that is, wherever the surroundings favored the development of culture, tribes of different stocks enjoyed it to nearly an equal degree, as in central Mexico and Peru. By them it was distributed, and thus shaded off in all directions.^[12]

A brief description of some of these ruins of Central America cannot fail at this point to be both instructive and interesting. I begin with the description of Copan which, by mutual consent of authorities, we may regard as one of the most famous, as also the most ancient, of American ruins.^[13]

COPAN.

The ruins are situated in the west part of the modern state of Honduras, on the left bank of the Copan river, which empties into the Montague. The name Copan is applied to the ruins because of their vicinity to an adjoining hamlet of that name, so that Copan is not to be regarded as the true name of the ancient city. And now I quote the description from the works of John L. Stephens to whom the world is chiefly indebted for its knowledge of Central American ruins. I omit, however, the references to plans and engravings which occur in his excellent work:

The extent along the river, as ascertained by monuments still found, is more than two miles. There is one monument on the opposite side of the river, at the distance of a mile, on the top of a mountain two thousand feet high. Whether the city ever crossed the river, and extended to that monument, it is impossible to say. I believe not. At the rear is an unexplored forest, in which there may be ruins. There are no remains of palaces or private buildings, and the principal part is that which stands on the bank of the river, and may, perhaps, with propriety be called the Temple.

The temple is an oblong enclosure. The front or river wall extends on a right line north and south six hundred and twenty-four feet, and it is from sixty to ninety feet in height. It is made of cut stones, from three to six feet in length, and a foot and a half in breadth. In many places the stones have been thrown down by bushes growing out of the crevices, and in one place there is a small opening, from which the ruins are sometimes called by the Indians, Las Ventanas, or the windows. The other three sides consist of ranges of steps and pyramidal structures, rising from thirty to one hundred and forty feet in height on the slope. The whole line survey is two thousand eight hundred and sixty-six feet, which, though gigantic and extraordinary for a ruined structure of the aborigines, that the reader's imagination may not mislead him, I consider it necessary to say, is not so large as the base of the great pyramid of Ghizeh. * *

Near the southwest corner of the river wall and the south wall is a recess, which was probably once occupied by a colossal monument fronting the water, no part of which is now visible; probably it has fallen and been broken, and the fragments have been buried or washed away by the floods in the rainy season. Beyond are the ruins of two small pyramidal structures, to the largest of which is attached a wall running along the west bank of the river; this appears to have been one of the principal walls of the city; and between the two pyramids there seems to have been a gateway or principal entrance from the water.

The south wall runs at right angles to the river, beginning with a range of steps about thirty feet high, and each step about eighteen inches square. At the southeast corner is a massive pyramidal structure one hundred and twenty feet high on the slope. On the right are other remains of terraces and pyramidal buildings; and here also was probably a gateway, by a passage about twenty feet wide, into a quadrangular area two hundred and fifty feet square, two sides of which are massive pyramids one hundred and twenty feet high on the slope.

At the foot of these structures, and in different parts of the quadrangular area, are numerous remains of sculpture. At one point is a colossal monument richly sculptured, fallen, and ruined. Behind it fragments of sculpture, thrown from their place by trees, are strewn and lying loose on the side of the pyramid, from the base to the top; and among them our attention was forcibly arrested by rows of death's heads of gigantic proportions, still standing in their places about half way up the side of the pyramid; the effect was extraordinary.

Here follows the description of the gigantic stone monuments or carved images which were doubtless the idols of the ancient inhabitants of Copan. Resuming his general description, Mr. Stephens says:

The whole quadrangle is overgrown with trees, and interspersed with fragments of fine sculpture; particularly on the east side, and at the northwest corner is a narrow passage, which was probably a third gateway. On the right is a confused range of terraces running off into the forest, ornamented with death's heads, some of which are still in position, and others lying about as they have fallen or been thrown down. Turning northward, the range on the left hand continues a high, massive pyramidal structure, with trees growing out of it to the very top. At a short distance is a detached pyramid, tolerably perfect, about fifty feet square and thirty feet high. The range continues for a distance of about four hundred feet, decreasing somewhat in height, and along this there are but few remains of sculpture. The range of structures turn at right angles to the left, and runs to the river, joining the other extremity of the wall, at which we began our survey. The bank was elevated about thirty feet above the river, and had been protected by a wall of stone, most of which had fallen down.

The plan was complicated, and the whole ground, being overgrown with trees, difficult to make out. There was no entire pyramid, but at most, two or three pyramidal sides, and these joined on the terraces or other structures of the same kind. Beyond the wall or enclosure were walls, terraces, and pyramidal elevations running off into the forest, which sometimes confused us. Probably the whole was not erected at the same time, but additions were made and statues erected by different kings, or, perhaps in commemoration of important events in the history of the city. Along the whole line were ranges of steps with pyramidal elevations, probably crowned on the top with buildings or altars now ruined. All these steps of the pyramidal sides were painted and the reader may imagine the effect when the whole country was clear of forest and priest and people were ascending from the outside to the terraces, and thence to the holy places within to pay their adoration in the temple.

Then follows a description of pyramids and stone monuments and altars, together with stone tablets of hieroglyphics which, without the accompanying engravings of Mr. Stephens' work, would be unintelligible. Mr. Stephens visited the stone quarries which supplied the material for this magnificent city, ruins of whose public buildings doubtless alone remain, and if these extensive ruins but mark the site and grandeur of the public buildings, as is most probable, then how extensive indeed must have been the old city whose ruins we call Copan! While at the quarry, some two miles distant from the ruins, Mr. Stephens indulged in the following reflections:

The range lies about two miles north from the river, and runs east and west. At the foot of it we crossed a wild stream. The side of the mountain was overgrown with bushes and trees. The top was bare, and commanded a magnificent view of a dense forest broken only by the winding of the Copan river, and the clearings for the haciendas of Don Gregorio and Don Miguel.^[14] The city was buried in forest and entirely hidden from sight. Imagination peopled the quarry with workmen, and laid bare the city to their view. Here, as the sculptor worked, he turned to the theatre of his glory, as the Greek did to the Acropolis of Athens, and dreamed of immortal fame. Little did he imagine that the time would come when his works would perish, his race be extinct, his city a desolation and abode for reptiles, for strangers to gaze at and wonder by what race it had once been inhabited.

Relative to the antiquity and probable cause of the desertion of Copan, Mr. Stephens writes:

In regard to the age of the desolate city I will not at present offer any conjecture. Some idea might perhaps be formed from the accumulations of earth, and the gigantic trees growing on the top of the ruined structures, but it would be uncertain and unsatisfactory. Nor shall I at this moment offer any conjecture in regard to the people who built it, or to the time when or the means by which it was depopulated, and became a desolation and ruin; whether it fell by the sword, or famine, or pestilence. The trees which shroud it may have sprung from the blood of its slaughtered inhabitants; they may have perished howling with hunger; or pestilence, like the cholera, may have piled its streets with dead, and driven forever the feeble remnants from their homes; of which dire calamities to other cities we have authentic accounts, in eras both prior and subsequent to the discovery of the country by the Spaniards. One thing I believe, that its history is graven on its monuments. No Champollion has yet brought to them the energies of his inquiring mind. Who shall read them?

  "'Chaos of ruins! who shall trace the void,
  O'er the dim fragments cast a lunar light,
  And say 'here was or is,' where all is doubly night?'"^[15]

PALENQUE

I next call attention to the ruins of Palenque, situated about two hundred and sixty miles northwest from Copan in the modern state of Chiapas in the valley of the Usumacinta river. Our space will not admit of the elaborate and detailed description given of this ancient city by the writers who have visited it, and whose descriptions are usually attended with references to numerous cuts of pyramids, temples, ruined walls, statuary, tablets, etc. I have therefore decided to abridge the description of this city and its chief monuments from the admirable work of Nadaillac:

The monuments of Palenque are justly reckoned amongst the most remarkable in Chiapas.^[16] The town stands in the region watered by the Usumacinta, where settled the first immigrants of whom it has been possible to distinguish traces. The position of Palenque, at the foot of the first buttresses of the mountain chain, on the banks of the little river Otolum, one of the tributaries of the Tulija, was admirably chosen. The streets extended for a length of from six to eight leagues, (from eighteen to twenty-four miles) irregularly following the course of the streams which descend from the mountains and furnish the inhabitants with an abundant supply of water necessary to them. At the present day the ruins rise in solitude, which adds to the effect produced by them. They were long altogether unknown; Cortez, in one of his expeditions, passed within a few miles of Palenque without suspecting its existence; and it was not till 1746, that chance led to its discovery by a cure of the neighborhood. * * * * * *

Among the best preserved ruins may be mentioned the palace, the temple of the three tablets, the temple of the bas-reliefs, the temple of the cross, and the temple of the sun. We keep the names given by various explorers in the absence of better ones. There are others, but of less importance. Dupaix speaks of eleven buildings still standing, and a few years before A. Del Rio mentioned twenty; Waldeck says eighteen, and Maler, who visited the ruins of Palenque in 1877, fixes the number of the temples or palaces at twelve. These contradictions are more apparent than real, and are explained by the different impressions of each traveler, and the divisions he thought it necessary to adopt.

The palace, the most important building of Palenque, rests on a truncated pyramid about forty feet high, the base of which measures from three hundred and ten feet by two hundred and sixty. The inside of this pyramid is of earth; the external faces are covered with large slabs; steps lead up to the principal building, which forms a quadrilateral of two hundred and twenty-eight feet by one hundred and eighty; the walls, which are two or three feet thick, are of rubble, crowned by a frieze framed between two double cornices. Inside as well as outside they are covered with a very fine and durable stucco, painted red or blue, black or white. The principal front faces the east; it includes fourteen entrances about nine feet wide, separated by pilasters ornamented with figures. These figures measure more than six feet high, and are full of movement; while above the head of each are hieroglyphics inlaid in the stucco. * * * * * *

The inside of the palace corresponds with the magnificence of the outside; there are galleries forming a peristyle all around the court; and the rooms are decorated with granite bas-reliefs, grotesque figures, some thirteen feet high. * * * * The expression of the figures speaks well for the skill of the artist; but the execution is weak, suggesting an art in decadence rather than the ruggedness of one in its infancy. These rooms were united by corridors. * * * The architects of Palenque were ignorant of the arch, and their vaults were formed of oversailing courses, one above the other, as in the cyclopean monuments of Greece and Italy. The building is finished off with a tower of three stories, measuring thirty feet square at the base. Here, too, we find symbolical decorations, which are very rich and in a very good state of preservation.

Our author, after excusing himself from mentioning many of the monuments of Palenque, for want of space, says:

We must, however, mention one of them, situated on the other bank of the Otolum, and known under the name of the Temple of the Cross. It rises from a truncated pyramid and forms a quadrilateral with three openings in each face, separated by massive pilasters, some ornamented with hieroglyphics and some ornamented with human figures. The frieze is also covered with human figures, and amongst those still visible Stephens mentions a head and two torsos, which, in their perfection of form, recall Greek art. The openings, all at right angles, lead into an inside gallery communicating with three little rooms. The central one of these rooms contains an altar, which fairly represents an open chest, ornamented with a little frieze with a margin. From the two upper extremities of this frieze springs two wings, recalling the mode of ornamentation so often employed in the pediments of Egyptian monuments.

Above the altar was originally placed the tablet of the cross, which was afterward torn from its position by the hand of a fanatic, who chose to see in it the sacred sign of the Christian faith, miraculously preserved by the ancient inhabitants of the palace. The tablet was taken down and then abandoned, we know not why, in the midst of the forest covering part of the ruins. Here it was that the Americans discovered part of it, took possession of it, and carried it to Washington, where it forms part of the collection of the National Museum. The center represents a cross, resting upon a hideous figure, and surmounted by a grotesque bird. On the right, a figure on foot is offering presents; on the left, another figure, in a stiff attitude seems to be praying to the divinity. The costume of these two persons is unlike any that is now in use; and above their heads we can make out several hieroglyphical characters. A slab on the right is also covered with them. In the present state of knowledge it is impossible to make out whether these inscriptions are prayers to the gods, the history of the country or that of the temple, the name or the dedication of the founders.

At the end of the sanctuary recently discovered near Palenque by Maler, are three slabs of sculptured stone in low relief. On the right and left are hieroglyphics; in the center a cross, surmounted by a head of strange appearance, wearing around the neck a collar with a medallion; above this head is a bird, and on either side are figures exactly like those of the temple of the cross. Evidently this was a hieratic type, from which the artist was not allowed to depart. * * *

We cannot leave the ruins of Palenque without mentioning a statue, remarkable for more than one reason. The calm and smiling expression of the face resembles that of some of the Egyptian statues; the head-dress is a little like that of the Assyrians; there is a necklace around the neck; the figure presses upon its bosom an instrument and rests its left hand upon an ornament, the meaning of both of which it is difficult to imagine. The plinth of the statue has a cartouch with a hieroglyphical inscription, probably giving the name of the god or hero to whom it was dedicated. There is a very distinct resemblance in some of these hieroglyphics to those of Egypt.^[17]

In concluding an extended description of the ruins of Palenque, Bancroft says:

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 human 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 sceptre, or token baton of authority, their apparel is gorgeous; their head-dresses are elaborately arrayed, and decorated with long feathers."^[18] "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." "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 archaeologists. 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 facades 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." "The most remarkable remains of an advanced ancient civilization hitherto discovered on our continent." "Their general characteristics are simplicity, gravity, and solidity."^[19] "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."^[20]

Mr. John L. Stephens, whose comments upon the cities he visited in Central America, are always interesting, remarks of the ruins of Palenque:

What we had before our eyes was grand, curious, and remarkable enough. 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. We lived in the ruined palaces of their kings; we went up to their desolate temples and fallen altars; and wherever we moved we saw the evidences of their taste, their skill in arts, their wealth and power. In the midst of desolation and ruin we looked back to the past, cleared away the gloomy forest, and fancied every building perfect, with its terraces and pyramids, its sculptured, and painted ornaments, grand, lofty, and imposing, and overlooking an immense inhabited plain; we called back into life the strange people who gazed at us in sadness from the walls; pictured them, in fanciful costumes and adorned with plumes of feathers, ascending the terraces of the palace and the steps leading to the temples; and often we imagined a scene of unique and gorgeous beauty and magnificence, realizing the creations of Oriental poets, the very spot which fancy would have selected for the "Happy Valley" of Rasselas. In the romance of the world's history nothing ever impressed me more forcibly than the spectacle of this once great and lovely city, overturned, desolate, and lost; discovered by accident, overgrown with trees for miles around, and without even a name to distinguish it. Apart from everything else, it was a mourning witness to the world's mutations:—

* * * * * *

  "'Nations melt
  From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt
  The sunshine for a while, and downward go.'"^[21]

Footnotes

1. History of United States, Marcus Wilson, Book I, American Antiquities, p. 94.

2. History of America Before Columbus, P. De Roo, vol I, pp. 173, 176, 177, 178.

3. Pre-Historic America, pp. 10, 11.

4. Pre-Historic America, pp. 13, 14

5. The Pre-Historic World, or Vanished Races, E. A. Allen, introduction, pp. 23, 24.

6. Native Races, vol. II, pp. 116, 117, Bancroft.

7. Atlantis, (Donnely) p. 349.

8. American Antiquities, Priest, p. 186.

9. Ancient America, (Baldwin) pp. 92, 93.

10. History of the United States, Book I, American Antiquities, pp. 93, 94.

11. The Pre-Historic World, or Vanished Races, by E. A. Allen (1885), pp. 564, 566. I quote this passage upon the location, extent and grandeur of the ancient ruins of Central America with the greater pleasure because Mr. Allen is one of the authors who, as far as possible, discount the extent, greatness and very remote antiquity of the civilization represented by American ruins; though for all this his work is one of the most conscientious and valuable upon the subject.

12. The American Races, Daniel G. Brinton, p. 44.

13. Bancroft, Native Races, p. 81, also pp. 82, 104.

14. Modern plantations near the ruins.

15. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, Stephens (1841), vol. I, ch. 7. Those who would become further acquainted with the ruins of Copan will find elaborate descriptions in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. IV, ch. 3. His foot notes citing various authorities on the subject are especially valuable.

16. And for matter of that in Central America.

17. Pre-Historic America, Nadaillac, ch. 7.

18. Foster's Pre-Historic Races, pp. 338, 339. Klemm, Cultur-Geschichte, tom. 5, pp. 161-3.

19. Morelet, Voyage, tom. 1, pp. 273, 274. Mayer's Mex. Aztec, etc., vol. II, p. 172; Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ. tom. 1, p. 85.

20. Native Races, vol. IV, pp. 364, 365, and notes.

21. Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, John L. Stephens, vol. II, pp. 356, 357.

CHAPTER XXVII.

We have now before us a subject on which the authorities on American Antiquities are most divided, and I shall not attempt in this writing to reconcile them or dispute the position of either class; but after a few quotations from these authorities shall leave the question of the antiquity of American ruins found in Central America and elsewhere as I find it, an open question. "There is nothing in the buildings to indicate the date of their erection—that they were or were not standing at the commencement of the Christian era," says H. H. Bancroft, in speaking of the cities and other monuments of Yucatan—and it is a remark which could with equal propriety be made of nearly all the ruined cities of America. "We may see now, abandoned and uncared for," he continues, "they may have resisted the ravages of the elements for three or four centuries. How many centuries they may have stood guarded and kept in repair by the builders and their descendants, we can only conjecture."^[1] Later, in the same work, our author discusses the question of the age of Palenque and other ruins in the following manner:

I 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 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 Anahuac 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.^[2]

Following this passage, Mr. Bancroft gives a valuable collection of opinions in his notes where he represents M. Violett-le-Duc as expressing the belief that Palenque was built 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." Dupaix he represents as believing that the buildings were reared by a flatheaded race that has become extinct, and who, after writing his narrative, made up his mind that Palenque was antediluvian or at least that a floor had covered it. Lenoir he represents as saying that, according to all voyagers and students, the ruins of Palenque are not less than three thousand years old; while Catlin, a French writer, in a French periodical for March, 1867, he represents as asserting that the ruined cities of Palenque and Uxmal have within themselves the evidence that the ocean has been their bed for thousands of years, but the material is soft limestone and presents no water lines. Foster, the author of Pre-Historic Races (pp. 398-9), is represented as regarding the ruins of Palenque as the work of an extinct race, and then he proceeds with a number of citations for a more modern origin. The valuable notes will be found in Bancroft's Native Races, vol. IV, pp. 262-3.

Prescott, in his treatise on the origin of Mexican civilization, offers the following reflections on the antiquity of American ruins:

It is impossible to contemplate these mysterious monuments of a lost civilization, without a strong feeling of curiosity as to who were their architects, and what is their probable age. The data on which to rest our conjectures of their age, are not very substantial; although some find in them a warrant for an antiquity of thousands of years, coeval with the architecture of Egypt and Hindostan. But the interpretation of hieroglyphics, and the apparent duration of trees, are vague and unsatisfactory. And how far can we derive an argument from the discoloration and dilapidated condition of the ruins, when we find so many structures of the Middle Ages dark and mouldering with decay, while the marbles of the Acropolis, and the gray stone of Paestum, still shine in their primitive splendor? There are, however, undoubted proofs of considerable age to be found there. Trees have shot up in the midst of the buildings, which measure, it is said, more than nine feet in diameter. A still more striking face is the accumulation of vegetable mould in one of the courts, to the depth of nine feet above the pavement. This in our latitude would be decisive of a very great antiquity. But, in the rich soil of Yucatan, and under the ardent sun of the tropics, vegetation bursts forth with irrepressible exuberence, and generations of plants succeed each other without intermission, leaving an accumulation of deposits, that would have perished under the northern winter. Another evidence of their age is afforded by the circumstance, that, in one of the courts of Uxmal, the granite pavement, on which the figures of tortoises were raised in relief, is worn nearly smooth by the feet of the crowds who have passed over it; a curious fact, suggesting inferences both in regard to the age and population of the place. Lastly, we have authority for carrying back the date of many of these ruins to a certain period, since they were found in a deserted, and probably dilapidated state by the first Spaniards who entered the country. Their notices, indeed, are brief and casual, for the old conquerors had little respect for works of art; and it is fortunate for these structures, that they had ceased to be the living temples of the gods, since no merit of architecture, probably, would have availed to save them from the general doom of the monuments of Mexico.^[3]

It is proper, to say, however, that Mr. Prescott declares that some of the remarks in the above paragraph would have been omitted had he enjoyed the benefit of Mr. Stephens' researches when it was originally written. Mr. Stephens, it should be remembered, is among those who grant no great antiquity to the ruins. On this subject, however, I find the fairest treatment in the profound reflections of Mr. Baldwin:

The Mexican and Central American ruins make it certain that in ancient times an important civilization existed in that part of the continent, which must have begun at a remote period in the past. If they have any significance, this must be accepted as an ascertained fact. A large portion of them had been forgotten in the forests, or became mythical and mysterious, long before the arrival of the Spaniards.

In 1520, three hundred and fifty years ago, the forest which so largely covers Yucatan, Guatemala, and Chiapa was growing as it grows now. * * * * How many additional centuries it had existed no one can tell. If its age could be told, it would still be necessary to consider that the ruins hidden in it are much older than the forest, and that the period of civilization they represent closed long before it was established.

In the ages previous to the beginning of this immense forest, the region it covers was the seat of civilization which grew up to a high degree of development, flourished a long time, and finally declined, until its cities were deserted, and its cultivated fields left to the wild influences of nature, it may be safely assumed that both the forest-covered ruins and the forest itself are far older than the Aztec period; but who can tell how much older? Copan, first discovered and described three hundred years ago, was then as strange to the natives dwelling near it as the old Chaldean ruins are to the Arabs who wander over the wasted plains of Lower Mesopotamia. Native tradition had forgotten its history and become silent in regard to it. How long had ruined Copan been in this condition? No one can tell. Manifestly it was forgotten, left buried in the forest without recollection of its history, long before Montezuma's people, the Aztecs, rose to power; and it is easily understood that this old city had an important history previous to that unknown time in the past when war, revolution or some other agency of destruction, put an end to its career and left it to become what it is now.

Moreover, these old ruins, in all cases, show us only the cities last occupied in the period to which they belong. Doubtless others still older preceded them; and, besides, it can be seen that some of the ruined cities which can now be traced were several times renewed by reconstructions. We must consider, also, that building magnificent cities is not the first work of an original civilization. The development was necessarily gradual. Its first period was more or less rude. The art of building and ornamenting such edifices arose slowly. Many ages must have been required to develop such admirable skill in masonry and ornamentation. Therefore the period between the beginning of this mysterious development of civilized life and the first builders who used cut stone laid in mortar and cement, and covered their work with beautifully sculptured ornaments and inscriptions, must have been very long.

We have no measure of the time, no clew to the old dates, nothing whatever, beyond such considerations as I have stated, to warrant even a vague hypothesis. It can be seen clearly that the beginning of this old civilization was much older than the earliest great cities, and, also, that these were much more ancient than the time when any of the later built or reconstructed cities whose relics still exist, were left to decay. If we suppose Palenque to have been deserted some six hundred years previous to the Spanish conquest, this date will carry us back only to the last days of its history as an inhabited city. Beyond it, in the distant past, is a vast period in which the civilization represented by Palenque was developed, made capable of building such cities, and then carried on through the many ages during which cities became numerous, flourished, grew old, and gave place to others, until the long history of Palenque itself began. * * * * * * * *

No well considered theory of these ruins can avoid the conclusion that most of them are very ancient, and that, to find the origin of the civilization they represent, we must go far back into the "deep of antiquity." * * * *

Nevertheless, some of them must be very old. The forest established since the ruin began, the entire disappearance of every thing more perishable than stone, the utter oblivion which veiled their history in the time of Montezuma, and probably long previous to his time, all these facts bear witness to their great antiquity. In many of them, as at Quirigua and Kabah, the stone structures have become masses of debris; and even at Copan, Palenque, and Mitla, only a few of them are sufficiently well preserved to show us what they were in the great days of their history. Meanwhile, keep in mind that the ruined cities did not begin their present condition until the civilization that created them had declined; and, also, that if we could determine exactly the date when they were deserted and left to decay, we should only reach that point in the past where their history as inhabited cities was brought to a close.

Take Copan, for instance. This city may have become a ruin during the time of the Toltecs, which began long before the Christian era and ended some five or six centuries probably before the country was invaded by Cortez. It was built before their time, for the style of writing, and many features of the architecture and ornamentation, show the workmanship of their predecessors, judging by the historical intimation found in the old books and traditions. We may suppose it to have been an old city at the time of the Toltec invasion, although not one of the first cities built by that more ancient and more cultivated people by whom this old American civilization was originated.^[4]

From the foregoing it will be apparent how unsatisfactory are the conclusions respecting the age of America's ruined cities and monuments of antiquity; and since, as Mr. H. H. Bancroft remarks, there is nothing in the ruins themselves by which their age may be determined, it is clear that all the authorities are merely dealing in conjecture concerning them. The value of that conjecture will, of course, depend upon the general breadth of knowledge and judgment of the individual expressing it. This much may be safely claimed, so far as the Book of Mormon is concerned, in the question: there is nothing as to the age of American ruins that contradicts its statements, nor can I conceive of the rising of any circumstance in connection with the age of American ruined cities that would conflict with its claims. If it should turn out eventually that all the monuments of American ruins are of comparatively modern origin, that is, suppose they have arisen within that thousand years preceding the advent of the Spaniards, who came early in the sixteenth century, it could then be claimed that they were the monuments of Lamanite civilization merely; and that the monuments of the Jaredite and Nephite civilization had passed away, or that the monuments of Lamanite civilization were built in the midst of the monuments of the earlier civilizations, and so intermingled as to confuse everything and render classification impossible. If investigation, however, should finally establish the fact that the ruined cities of America are the monuments of very ancient and perhaps of successive civilizations, it would tend in a positive way to establish the truth of the Book of Mormon more clearly, and I now proceed to the consideration of that branch of the subject.

II.

Successive Civilizations.

Scattered over the southern plateaus are heaps of architectural remains and monumental piles. Furthermore, native traditions, both orally transmitted and hieroglyphically recorded by means of legible picture-writings, afford us a tolerably clear view of the civilized nations during a period of several centuries preceding the Spanish conquest, together with passing glances, through momentary clearings in mythologic clouds, at historical epochs much more remote. Here we have as aids to this analysis—aids almost wholly wanting among the so-called savage tribes—antiquities, traditions, history, carrying the student far back into the mysterious New World past; and hence it is that from its simultaneous revelation and eclipse, American civilization would otherwise offer a more limited field for investigation than American savagism, yet by the introduction of this new element the field is widely extended.

Nor have we even yet reached the limits of our resources for the investigation of this New World civilization. In these relics of architecture and literature, of mythology and tradition, there are clear indications of an older and higher type of culture than that brought immediately to the knowledge of the invaders; of a type that had temporarily deteriorated, perhaps through the influence of long-continued and bloody conflicts, civil and foreign, by which the more warlike rather than the more highly cultured nations had been brought into prominence and power. But this anterior and superior civilization, resting largely as it does on vague tradition, and preserved to our knowledge in general allusions rather than in detail, may, like the native condition since the conquest, be utilized to the best advantage here as illustrative of the later and better-known, if somewhat inferior civilization of the sixteenth century, described by the conqueror, the missionary, and the Spanish historian.^[5]

In addition to the "passing glances" through "momentary clearings" in the mythological clouds "at historical epochs much more remote" than those "several centuries preceding the Spanish conquest," there is also the evidence afforded by the different ages in which the cities of America now in ruins were built; the difference being so marked in some instances as to suggest not only different ages for their construction, but their construction by different races. "That a long time must have passed between the erection of Copan and Utatlan,^[6] the civilization of the builders meantime undergoing great modification, involving probably the introduction of new elements from foreign sources, is a theory supported by a careful study of the two classes of ruins.^[7] * * * Then we have the strong differences noticeable between Uxmal^[8] 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 have long been separated; or by branches, which, under the influence of foreign tribes, lived under greatly modified institutions."^[9]

Speaking of the ruins at Quiche, Mr. Stephens says:

The point to which we directed our attention was to discover some resemblance to the ruins of Copan and Quirigua; but we did not find statues, or carved figures, or hieroglyphics, nor could we learn that any had ever been found there. If there had been such evidences we should have considered these ruins the works of the same race of people, but in the absence of such evidences we believed that Copan and Quirigua were cities of another race and of a much older date.^[10]

On this point of distinct eras in American civilization, Baldwin says:

It is a point of no little interest that these old constructions belong to different periods in the past, and represent somewhat different phases of civilization. Uxmal, which is supposed to have been partly inhabited when the Spaniards arrived in the country, is plainly much more modern than Copan or Palenque. This is easily traced in the ruins. Its edifices were finished in a different style, and show fewer inscriptions. Round pillars, somewhat in the Doric style, are found at Uxmal, but none like the square, richly carved pillars, bearing inscriptions, discovered in some of the other ruins. Copan and Palenque, and even Kabah, in Yucatan, may have been very old cities, if not already old ruins, when Uxmal was built. Accepting the reports of explorers as correct, there is evidence in the ruins that Quirigua is older than Copan, and that Copan is older than Palenque. The old monuments in Yucatan represent several distinct epochs in the ancient history of that peninsula. Some of them are kindred to those hidden in the great forest, and reminded us more of Palenque than of Uxmal. Among those described, the most modern, or most of these, are in Yucatan; they belong to the time when the kingdom of the Mayas flourished. Many of the others belong to ages previous to the rise of this kingdom; and in ages still earlier, ages older than the great forest, there were other cities, doubtless, whose remains have perished utterly, or were long ago removed from us in the later constructions.

The evidence of repeated reconstructions in some of the cities before they were deserted has been pointed out by explorers. I have quoted what Charnay says of it in his description of Mitla. At Palenque, as at Mitla, the oldest work is the most artistic and admirable. Over this feature of the monuments, and the manifest signs of their difference in age, the attention of investigators lingered in speculation. They find in them a significance which is stated as follows by Brasseur de Bourbourg: "Among the edifices forgotten by time in the forests of Mexico and Central America, we find architectural characteristics so different from each other, that it is impossible to attribute them all to the same people as to believe they were all built at the same epoch." In his view, "the substruction at Mayapan, some of those at Tulha, and a great part of those at Palenque, are among the older remains. These are not the oldest cities whose remains are still visible, but they may have been built, in part, upon the foundation of cities much more ancient. No well considered theory of these ruins can avoid the conclusion that most of them are very ancient, and that, to find the origin of the civilization they represent, we must go far back into the 'deeps of antiquity.'"^[11]

Further on, in speaking of the Aztecs and their civilization, Mr. Baldwin says:

They were less advanced in many things than their predecessors. Their skill in architecture and architectural ornamentation did not enable them to build such cities as Mitla and Palenque, and their "picture writing" was a much ruder form of the graphic art than the phonetic system of the Mayas and Quiches. It does not appear that they ever went so far in literary improvements as to adopt this simpler and more complete system for any purpose whatever. If the country had never, in the previous ages, felt the influence of a higher culture than that of the Aztecs, it would not have now, and never could have had, ruined cities like Mitla, Copan and Palenque. Not only was the system of writing shown by the countless inscriptions quite beyond the attainments of Aztec art, but also the abundant sculptures and the whole system of decoration found in the old ruins.^[12]

"Two distinct classes of ruins appear to have been observed in Central America," says Nadaillac.^[13] And then later, "All the Central American tribes do not seem to have lived in an equally degraded condition before the period of the Mayas. Ruins of considerable extent are met with in Guatemala. These consist of undressed stones similar to those used in the cyclopean buildings of Greece and Syria; but no tradition refers to their origin. They are, however, attributed with some reason to a race driven back by conquest, and superior in culture to the people overcome by the Maya invasion of Central America."^[14]

Nor is it alone in the differences that exist between some of these ancient ruins, proclaiming for them at least erection in different ages, and perhaps by different races, that the idea of successive civilizations in Ancient America is established. In the matter of language no less than in ruins is this fact proclaimed. "Traces are also supposed to have been met with of a more ancient language than the Maya, Nahuac or their derivatives," remarks Nadaillac, in a footnote to page 264 of his Pre-Historic America, and cites Humboldt's Views of the Cordilleras in support of his statement. This, however, is a subject which is too extensive to be considered here.

Closely connected with the subject of successive civilizations is also that of ancient migrations, but that is a matter I shall treat in another chapter, and more especially for another reason than maintaining successive civilizations, as I esteem what is here set down as sufficient proof for the existence of successive civilizations in ancient America.

III.

Peruvian Antiquities.

It will be observed that thus far, in dealing with American antiquities, I have said nothing concerning Peru and the monuments of its civilization. Still, as Book of Mormon peoples inhabited South America as well as North America, some attention should be paid to the monuments of Peruvian civilization. For the general description of South American antiquities I find what Professor Baldwin says to be most acceptable:

The ruins of Ancient Peru are found chiefly on the elevated tablelands of the Andes, between Quito and Lake Titicaca; but they can be traced five hundred miles farther south, to Chili, and throughout the region connecting these high plateaus with the Pacific coast. The great district to which they belong extends north and south about two thousand miles. When the marauding Spaniards arrived in the country, this whole region was the seat of a populous and prosperous empire, complete in its civil organization, supported by an efficient system of industry, and presenting a very notable development of some of the more important arts of civilized life. These ruins differ from those in Mexico and Central America. No inscriptions are found in Peru; there is no longer a "marvelous abundance of decorations;" nothing is seen like the monoliths of Copan, or the bas-reliefs of Palenque. The method of building is different; the Peruvian ruins show us remains of cities, temples, palaces, other edifices of various kinds, fortresses, aqueducts (one of them four hundred and fifty miles long), great roads (extending through the whole length of the empire), and terraces on the sides of mountains. For all these constructions the builders used cut stone laid in mortar or cement, and their work was done admirably, but it is everywhere seen that the masonry, although sometimes ornamented, was generally plain in style and always massive. The antiquities in this region have not been as much explored and described as those north of the isthmus, but their general character is known, and particular descriptions of some of them have been published.^[15]

The chief thing to be noted with reference to South American monuments of ancient civilization is the fact that, if the theory of the first landing of the Nephite colony from Jerusalem was in South America, and within modern Chili—then they are located along the line of supposed Nephite movement from thirty degrees south latitude northward along the western plateau of South America, though it must be confessed that during their movements northward the Nephites were not sufficiently numerous nor did they stay sufficiently long in the southern part of the region now covered with ancient ruins to erect such permanent monuments of civilization as are now to be found there in ruins. In their alleged occupancy of the northern section of the region it is different. There, in the land of Nephi and the land of Anti-Lehi-Nephi—supposed to embrace say the northern part of Peru and Ecuador,—we have reason to believe they stayed a sufficient length of time and were also sufficiently numerous to leave enduring monuments of their sojourn in that country. For the existence of the more southern monuments we must suppose one of two things, or perhaps both of them united, viz.:

First: Lamanites who remained in the far south paid more attention to civilized pursuits than has usually been accredited to them, and the remarks of the Book of Mormon concerning the Lamanites being an idle people, living upon the fruits of the chase, and their marauding excursions into Nephite lands are to be more especially applied to those Lamanites more immediately in contact with the Nephites, while further southward they were pursuing the arts of peace. Or, second: that after the fall of the Nephites at Cumorah there were strong colonies of Lamanites that pushed their way through Central America down into Peru, subdued the inhabitants who had remained there and established themselves as the ruling class, constituting, in fact, the invasion of the Incas, under whom arose the monuments of civilization found in the land by the Spaniards when they invaded it. The difference between the monuments found in Peru and those found in Mexico and Central America arises, in my judgment, from the fact that there was not present in South America the monuments of the great Jaredite civilization to crop up through and become intermingled with the Nephite and Lamanite monuments of civilization.

The whole subject of Book of Mormon peoples being the authors of very ancient Peruvian civilization is full of difficulty.