to the despotic empire exercised by the Church and its desire to make all redound to its glory, as also to the self-glorification of the chief actors in the scene, who were their own historians, and not unwilling to play the part of conquerors of a civilized and warlike nation. The Spaniards, at the time of the Mexican Conquest, had but just emerged from their wars with the Moors or Arabs, a people who had inherited from the East art, wealth, and learning, as well as a poetic and fiery imagination, and a taste for gorgeous display; who had enriched Spain beyond measure, built the Alhambra and embellished Granada, and who in most arts and sciences were superior to their conquerors. The adventurers

who reached Mexico were not willing to assume a secondary position to the heroes of the Moorish wars, they therefore depicted the primitive Indian of the forest in colors of Oriental splendor, and magnified their own exploits to the greatness of those of the Cid.

No blame attaches to Mr. Prescott, who, resting in good faith upon a "weight of authority" which is in reality but a fiction, the work of fraud, bigotry, and vain ambition, transmits to us those splendid fables. That they are fables there can be little doubt; no vestiges of past grandeur appear in those places where the splendid towns described by Cortez and his contemporaries

ANCIENT AMERICAN RUINS.

17 are said to have been situated, and where towns of the same name still stand; no remains of stately palaces, basins carved in solid rock, gardens, and strong walls, are to be found on the site of the fabulous city of Tezcuco; had these wonders existed there must surely have remained some traces; even had the stones been taken to build the present town, they would still be recognizable, but this is built of adobe or dried mud-bricks, and there are no signs of its ever having been otherwise; so with Mexico, so with Tacuba. Furthermore, the Indian of the present day does not recognize or appear to have any knowledge of the ancient ruins in Central America; it is well known that the traditional history of the Indian is handed down with almost as much accuracy as

our own written records, and descends unvaried from father to son; if, therefore, their race had ever reached any thing like the civilization attributed to the Aztecs, some remembrance of its past glories would still be preserved among its descendants.

The fine carving of the ruins in Yucatan and elsewhere in Central America appears to have been executed in the same manner as in Egypt; the tools used in the latter country were, we know, of bronze or copper, hardened by some process unknown to our time; the arrow-heads and hatchets of the Indians.

were of sharpened stone or flint. Is it likely that their race could once have possessed the art of forging and hardening metals to such perfection as the workmanship on the ruins in question denotes, and then become totally ignorant of that art? These ruins appear, indeed, throughout, of Egyptian, Phoenician, or perhaps Asiatic origin, and show signs of great wealth having been expended upon them. Some of the cities are declared to be as large as Thebes. We find among them the Egyptian square column with its carved hieroglyphics. All the ornaments, images, and vessels which have been found, bear the unmistakable Egyptian type, notably the statue found at Palenque, which is inscribed in hieroglyphics at the base, and holds in its hand an indented ornament, supposed by some to be the mural crown of the Phoenician Hercules. The statues and carvings are all colored. Fine specimens of painting are found, showing this unknown people to have been further advanced in this art than in that of sculpture. The flesh-tints are of that peculiar red-brown which the Egyptians always used. Another notable Egyptian feature is the pyramidal form of building. True, the Mexican pyramids are truncated, bearing on their summits palaces or temples, nevertheless, this peculiar style of architecture is common to Egypt and Central America. The pyramid at Copan is almost equal in size at the base to the Great Pyramid, though less perfect in proportion and workmanship; that on which stands the palace at Palenque even bears traces of having been covered with polished stones similar to the casing-stones of the Great Pyramid. The pyramidal gate-ways of Egypt also appear to have existed in America. Specimens are found at Copan. The serpent, which is carved on the tomb of Pharaoh Necho, and which is one of the chief emblems of the Egyptians, forms one of the principal features of adornment in the Nuns' Hall at Uxmal. A copper coin found at Palenque was impressed with the same emblem.

The Spaniards, finding a square stone or altar, on which were beautifully-carved figures of warriors leading captives by the hair, immediately declared this to be a representation of human sacrifice, and termed the altar "the sacrificial stone," as having been consecrated to this loathsome rite. We believe, however, that the Spaniards, themselves under the power of priestcraft, were too ready to give every emblem, statue, or hieroglyphic, a religious meaning, and were too apt to interpret that

ORIGIN OF ANCIENT AMERICAN RUINS.

19 meaning to the detriment of the unfortunate Aztecs. The latter were probably as innocent of the crime of human sacrifice as they were of having erected the stone in question, which is a remnant of the long-extinguished race that first peopled America, raised by them, no doubt, to commemorate their victories. Kenrick describes a similar stone as existing in one of the temples of the Upper Nile, on which appears a king "holding a number of captives by the hair, who stretch their hands out toward him in an attitude of supplication, while he threatens to strike them with a hatchet.”

We might multiply, ad infinitum, the points of resemblance between the ancient ruins of America and those of Egypt, a resemblance which can scarcely be considered accidental, as it comprises the history of the habits, customs, and worship of a people. This resemblance we can record as an incontestable fact, but discoveries have hitherto been too limited to admit of any thing but surmise in accounting for it. The ruins in America are in a more advanced state of decay than those of Egypt-shall we therefore believe that here was the parent race, the birthplace of Egyptian art? that the Asiatic nation which gave civilization to Egypt had previously spread itself eastward to this continent? or shall we rather believe that the Phoenicians, when they flourished at Tartessus or Tarshish (the present Cadiz), trading with, perhaps colonizing, the British Islands, extended their voyages as far as America, and colonized the latter, whose ancient monuments mark the decadence of Egyptian art?

Be this as it may, the Spaniards in 1492, the Northmen five hundred years previously, were not the first to establish a connecting link between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres ; thousands of years before their time, a people had risen, in what is now termed the New World, to a civilization similar if not equal to that of Egypt. This civilization flourished evidently during many hundred years, as the many inland cities of which remains are visible testify. These must have taken centuries to arrive at such dimensions, and prove that inland home commerce existed, sufficient for the support of millions. This, then, was no sea-coast colony of rapid growth and extinction, but a nation that

6 Kenrick, vol. i., p. 8.

In our own day Japanese junks have drifted uncontrolled from the shores of that island to those of Alaska and California. Some such accident may have revealed to the Asiatics the so-called New World, thousands of years ago.

slowly and steadily increased in numbers and wealth, how many thousand years ago we know not; but this we know, that trees more than a thousand years old have been found growing on the ruins in Central America, which could only have commenced growth many years after the buildings had fallen into decay.

How this people became extinct is yet a mystery. Was it some internal war? some fell disease or black death? or, more

likely, did savage tribes overcome and destroy them, as barbarism seems ever to destroy civilization? These are questions yet unanswered. Future discoveries, perhaps, of other ruins, in a better state of preservation, may throw greater light on the subject. All we are able now to do is, to travel amazedly through these ruins. Here, indeed, History, to our eager query, "Who hath builded them?" mumbleth something, but what it is we hear not.