CHAPTER XX.

Conjectures respecting the descendants of the tribes who built the Temples. — Knowledge and education of the Caciques and Priests. — Traditions of the arrival of white strangers from the East. — Las Casas. — Quetzal-Coatl. — Crosses found in Yucatan. — Gomara. — Legend of the flight of Spaniards by sea towards the West after the conquest of Spain by the Saracens. — Fabulous island of Antilia. — Columbus on his outward voyage steers for Antilia. — Trade-winds. — Considerations upon the probabilities of vessels being driven across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans towards America 400

INDEX 423

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATES.

PAGE.

ALTAR-PIECE, TEMPLE OF THE CROSS, PALENQUE _Frontispiece_.

BEAVER DAM, LODGE AND POND, NEAR ISHPEMING 36

CHIPPEWA CHIEF (West of Lake Superior) 50

INDIAN MOUNDS, CAHOKIA 108

CHIPPEWA ENCAMPMENT 116

SIOUX ENCAMPMENT 116

SPIRIT ROCK 118

PAWNEE, (SHA-TO-KO) Blue-Hawk 132

PAWNEE WOMAN 136

PRAIRIE AND BOULDERS, NORTH IOWA 142

PRAIRIE DOGS, NEBRASKA 142

INDIAN, SALT LAKE VALLEY, UTAH 146

CHIEFS OF THE OGALLALAS (Dakotas) 174

ANCIENT INDIAN MOUNDS NEAR GUATEMALA 190

CATHEDRAL AND SQUARE, LA ANTIGUA GUATEMALA 196

QUICHÉ INDIAN HOLDING THE OFFICE OF ALGUAZIL 216

BARRANCA, CENTRAL AMERICA 238

INDIAN HUTS 238

INDIAN WOMAN GRINDING CHOCOLATE, (Central America) 288

PALACE OR MONASTERY, PALENQUE (EAST FRONT) 297

†UXMAL 339

†PYRAMID AND TEMPLE OF THE DWARF 340

†AN ANGLE OF THE CASA DE LAS MONJAS 342

†CASA DEL GOBERNADOR 342

†AN ANGLE OF THE CASA DE LAS MONJAS 344

†CASA DE LAS MONJAS 344

SERPENT EMBLEM, CASA DE LAS MONJAS 350

†INTERIOR OF THE CASA DE LAS MONJAS AND ITS ADJOINING PYRAMID AND TEMPLE, UXMAL 352

†QUADRANGLE, CASA DE LAS MONJAS 356

PART OF THE ALTAR-PIECE IN A TEMPLE AT PALENQUE 390

MEXICAN CACIQUE MAKING AN OFFERING 398

MEXICAN CALENDAR STONE 408

MAPS AND PLANS.

LAKE SUPERIOR 35

REGION OF THE MOUND BUILDERS 54

INCLOSURES NEAR NEWARK 66

INCLOSURES AT MARIETTA 71

INCLOSURES AT CIRCLEVILLE 81

FORT ANCIENT 88

OCTAGONAL AND CIRCULAR INCLOSURES, NEWARK 97

ANTILIA (from Ruysch’s Map of the World, 1508) 418

CENTRAL AMERICA AND YUCATAN

UNITED STATES AND MEXICO

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

THE GOLDEN CITY PASSING THE SEAL ROCKS 177

VOLCAN DE AGUA AND VOLCAN DE FUEGO 200

APPROACH TO UTATLAN 227

INDIAN STATUE, OCOSINGO 264

INDIAN STATUE, PALENQUE 311

ENTRANCE TO THE CASA DE LAS MONJAS 348

NOTE.—The illustration of the Serpent Emblem in the Casa de las Monjas is reproduced from a large photograph taken at Uxmal by William D. James, Esq. It will be observed that the details of the sculpture of the rattlesnake are very clearly defined.

The illustrations marked † are from a series of valuable photographs, also taken at Uxmal, by Captain Herbert Dowding, Royal Navy, who placed at my disposal such of them as I considered to be required for the purposes of this work.

I wish to call particular attention to the representation of that part of the Casa de las Monjas where the adjacent Temple of the Dwarf is seen. In comparing the structures with the pyramid, it has to be remembered that the Casa de las Monjas is placed upon a raised platform not less than seventeen feet in height. The Pyramid of the Dwarf is completely detached.

Upon an examination of the frontispiece it will be noticed that the centre stone which, when I saw it lying on the ground at Palenque, was uninjured, is there shown in two portions which are kept in position by iron clamps.

It was accidentally broken when being removed from Palenque to the museum in the City of Mexico.

The left slab, upon which is graven the smaller figure, is from a photograph of a moulding made by M. Desiré Charnay. The right slab is from a photograph of the original stone now placed in the museum at Washington, and which was represented in the Memoir upon the Palenque Tablet written by Professor Rau, and published by the Smithsonian Institution. The photographs of the right and left slabs have been reduced to the size of that of the centre, and thus an exact reproduction of the whole of the Tablet of the Cross has been obtained. The representation in the frontispiece is, approximately, upon the scale of one inch to the foot and is therefore a twelfth of the size of the original tablet when it was in its position within the temple.

The illustrations of Indians are from photographs collected by me during my travels and were selected as being typical of the respective tribes. My small sketch of the entrance to the Casa de las Monjas at Uxmal is drawn to scale, and the character of the Indian horizontal arch is delineated in its architectural proportions.

TRAVELS AMONGST AMERICAN INDIANS: THEIR ANCIENT EARTHWORKS AND TEMPLES.