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.

The subject of the origin and migrations of the Toltecs has been given much attention. It has been a matter of conjecture whether any of the descendants of the people who built the temples of Palenque, and inscribed upon tablets of stone their hieroglyphic records, are at present living in Central America.

The chief difficulty in attempting to form a decision upon this question, is the uncertainty regarding the distinction to be made between the people belonging to the conquering Quichés and the aboriginal races whom they had reduced to slavery, and who constituted the greater part of the population. It is known that the caciques and other members of the governing families of Utatlan became gradually reduced to the utmost poverty. But there were other chiefs of tribes of Quiché origin who did not resist the Spaniards, and who volunteered to become their allies. Many of these were permitted to hold lands in the neighbourhood of Lake Atitlan, and lived in a prosperous condition until the early part of the eighteenth century, when they disappeared from notice. Possibly, in accordance with Quiché customs, they may have kept apart from those who were mazeguales, and intermarried amongst Indians of the same race as themselves.

The statements of the grandsons of the caciques of Utatlan, as recorded in their manuscripts, with regard to the dates of the arrival of their tribe, the building of the fortresses, and their system of dividing the country they had conquered into separate governments, are undoubtedly entitled to be considered as deserving of attention. They agree in a remarkable manner with what has been since ascertained. It may be inferred from the account of their migrations and the list of their kings or chief caciques, that they had been settled in Guatemala about three or four hundred years before Utatlan was conquered by Alvarado.

During the time that I was crossing the Cordilleras in the region which had been governed by the Quichés, I endeavoured to ascertain if there were any marked differences in the types or characters of the tribes then occupying the land. Near Patinamit I saw several groups of Kachiquels who were of the same race as the Quichés, and I noticed that in many respects they resembled the Dakotas, and in appearance were unlike the ordinary natives. I also observed in the district adjacent to Santa Cruz del Quiché that the Indians holding official positions in the villages were usually of a larger stature than the inferior men and, in their harsh and overbearing manner and features, recalled to mind the chiefs of the North American tribes. I found, however, that it was not possible to form definite conclusions based upon the facts that came within my personal observation. The Quichés are reserved in their intercourse with strangers. Whatever may be their comparative condition of wealth or poverty they all live in the same manner, and seem to be satisfied with the barest necessaries. Near Jacaltenango, when amongst the Mams, I met one of the richest and most influential of the Indians of that tribe. He was living like the meanest of the people, although he was the owner of a prosperous estate. This apparent equality in the habits of life is universal amongst the Indians.

In the sixteenth century, after the conquest, the caciques of the Quichés and Mams who had submitted to the Spaniards were accustomed to maintain a state ceremonial of considerable dignity; and at a later period the Indians who claimed to have held high rank and who were granted lands and privileges lived in a manner suitable to their condition. This comparative distinction has entirely disappeared. With respect to the migrations of the governing classes of the Quichés it is a matter of interest to observe that several of the Indian chiefs who accompanied the Spanish conquerors from Mexico, married the daughters of these Quichés, and said that they did so because they had discovered that they were of the same race as themselves.

In the consideration of subjects relating to the Indians it is necessary to discriminate between the observances of the aboriginal inhabitants and those of the races who were of foreign origin. Thus with respect to the superstitious and extremely devotional inclinations of the natives in Guatemala and Chiapas, it may be assumed that those instincts belong to the race who dwelt in those lands before they were conquered by the Toltecs and Aztecs; but the customs of sacrificing human beings to the gods together with other acts of barbarity were introduced from North America.

The Spaniards considered that the most evident proclivities of the masses of the natives were drunkenness and idolatry. The latter tendency prevailed to an excessive degree. Las Casas states that throughout New Spain the idols were so numerous that they could not be counted. During his journeys he found them in every place and of every kind, in their huts, in the villages, amongst the hills and in the sacred places. The numbers of them, he relates, were infinite. In the sixteenth century the Indians were gradually, but not without difficulty, brought under the control of the Spanish ecclesiastics. The idols were destroyed, and the superstitious practices, especially all those which were connected with the worship of demons, were suppressed.

The national instinct of idolatry still remains. There is in the nature of the aboriginal races a religious fervour which apparently forms an integral part of their character. They are also submissive and inoffensive, and it can be understood how any invading and warlike tribe would, without difficulty, conquer and control people having this mild disposition. It is not surprising that a fierce tribe of North American Indians was able to reduce them into a state of servile obedience. The Toltecs and, afterwards, the Aztecs would undoubtedly have introduced into Mexico the barbarous usages which prevailed amongst the tribes dwelling in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio, and these usages, when grafted upon the vices which existed amongst the natives, may have been the inciting cause of the revolting condition of national demoralisation which was so severely described by Bernal Diaz and other Spanish historians.

The Dominican missionaries in Guatemala observed that the Indians were passionately fond of dancing and singing. The joyousness which originally existed in their nature or temperament has become extinct. The usual tenour of their lives seems to be accompanied by a quiet, subdued melancholy. It is not improbable that, as a consequence of several centuries of Spanish domination, the aboriginal races have sunk into a dull and apathetic state. It is however possible that other influences acted upon the taciturn and wild natures of these tribes.[107] The innate disposition of the natives to worship idols in Guatemala was found to be equally existing with the Mayas in Yucatan, who also had the custom of making pilgrimages to the shrines. It is mentioned by Landa that the pilgrims stopped when passing near any of the deserted or ruined temples, and were accustomed to mutter prayers, and offer incense. This custom was in accordance with the acts of devotion which I saw practised by the Tzendal Indians in Chiapas before the ruined walls of the church at Bachajon.

There are circumstances connected with the domination of the Aztecs, and possibly also with that of their predecessors the Quiché-Toltecs, which require to be noticed. It is unquestionable that slavery would have been the fate of any tribe or race conquered by North American Indians. But the fact of slaves or captives being bought and sold for the purpose of being killed and offered to the gods is extraordinary. Great numbers of the natives were annually sacrificed, and astonishing acts of cannibalism were committed. Whatever may have been the hardships inflicted by the Spaniards upon the Mexican Indians, it is satisfactory to be assured that the discovery of America, and the conquests of Cortes put an end to the most horrible condition of things that has ever been known to have existed in any part of the world.

There are, however, other facts to be taken into consideration. It has been assumed that there was a condition of comparative civilisation amongst the ruling tribes, which seemed to be in such a progressive state as to lead to the conclusion that there were elements of knowledge which might have been so far developed in the course of time as to have brought these Indians into the ranks of civilised nations. With regard to this subject it should be observed that when the Spaniards conquered Central America, the progress that may have been partially made had already ceased. The monasteries at Palenque and in Yucatan had been abandoned. Even when they were flourishing, the knowledge that was taught did not extend to the people. It was confined to the priesthood, the caciques, and the few scholars who were trained for the purpose of interpreting the signs and characters by which information was spread abroad. It was by one of these interpreters that Cortes was made acquainted with the conspiracy that was being organized against him by Guatimozin during the march to Honduras. How or in what manner this comparative intelligence arose suddenly in the land is a problem of the greatest difficulty.

The possibility of a previous condition of civilisation having existed amongst the aboriginal tribes cannot be considered as being within the limits of reasonable conjecture, for there are no vestiges of any stone buildings, sculptures, or of hieroglyphic inscribed characters, used as a means of recording events, except in those regions which are known to have been occupied by the Toltecs or Aztecs. With especial regard to the temples on the mounds at Palenque, it is evident that these and their sculptures and hieroglyphs were the results of a certain degree of architectural knowledge obtained by the Quiché-Toltecs after they had migrated into Mexico.

But admitting that this may have been the case, it becomes extremely difficult to understand how their mechanical skill could have sprung into existence within such a limited period of time. It was found that the Indian progress in their peculiar civilisation was very local. Bishop Landa, writing exclusively about Yucatan, states that all education was under the management of the priests attached to the monasteries. Similar systems appeared to have been followed in other regions which had been under the rule of the Toltecs.[108] The results of the investigations into the subject of the extent and methods which were adopted for the purpose of maintaining knowledge amongst the Indians, confirm the opinion that the literature and civilisation found to have existed in Mexico and Yucatan was exclusively caused by the teaching of the priests.

Explanations of the circumstances under which the priests became acquainted with their sciences were given to the Spaniards by the chief priests attached to the temple of Quetzalcoatl at Cholula and also by certain caciques in Yucatan.

Las Casas relates that when he was making a journey within his diocese, he met one of his missionaries named Francisco Hernandez, who had been for some years living in Yucatan, and had become acquainted with the language. Thinking that this ecclesiastic would be useful for the work of converting the Indians to the faith, he made him his vicar and sent him into the interior to preach amongst the natives. After a lapse of several months he received a letter from the vicar stating that he had been told by one of the principal caciques, that it was known that, anciently, there had arrived in Yucatan twenty strangers. They were dressed in long robes, had sandals upon their feet, and taught religion. It was also mentioned that these men wore long beards,[109] and that they had a leader who was named Cucul-can (Quetzalcoatl).

Las Casas concludes by observing that “Certainly the land and kingdom of Yucatan gives us to understand most especial things, and of the greatest antiquity with regard to the grand, admirable and exquisite styles of ancient edifices, and writings of certain characters which are in no other place. Finally, these are secrets which God only knows. (Finalmente, secretos son estos que sólo Dios los sabe).”[110]

But the most explicit statements with regard to Quetzalcoatl were those which were given by the chief-priests of the temples raised to his memory at Cholula.[111] They affirmed the tradition of the arrival of strangers of a white race and foreign origin coming by sea in vessels from the east. These strangers were said to have taught the Indians to build monasteries, and maintain seminaries for religious instruction. According to Clavigero, they taught certain natives the methods of arranging the divisions of time and the use of the calendar. The priests also showed the Spaniards some ornaments which they said had been worn by the chief of these strangers.

The positive declarations about white people having landed upon the shores of the Mexican Gulf have been carefully investigated. It has been usually considered that they were the result of a myth, or that they were based upon vague traditions relating to events which, if they had any foundation, must have happened at a period exceedingly remote and possibly referred to early migrations from Asia. But it has to be remembered that the facts reported by the caciques and priests invariably related to a period when their tribes were established in Yucatan or Mexico; and the arrival of the strangers was always said to have taken place on the eastern seaboard of those lands. As the Toltecs according to the Indian records were not established there before the sixth century the event, if it occurred, must have happened after that date.

There are also other circumstances connected with this legend which appear, to some extent, to remove it from a mythical character and to place it within the limits of legitimate inquiry and investigation. The Indians who described the events spoke of them in a manner which was not vague, but was clear and decided, and as being within the personal knowledge of their ancestors. They also always gave a description of the monuments of the strangers or of their chief. Thus, in Yucatan, the leader was said to have left that region for the coast of Mexico. At Cholula, it was the tradition that Quetzalcoatl, with several of his companions, went away to the sea shore near Goascoalco, in the direction of Yucatan and never returned. In the regions of the interior of Chiapas and Guatemala, it was stated that in several of the native manuscripts accounts were given of a great leader or chief named Votan who was believed to have arrived in that country with nineteen companions or other chiefs. Votan was supposed to have landed in America near the Laguna de Terminos and to have established his first settlement near Palenque.[112]

The most singular circumstance relating to the worship of Quetzalcoatl is the fact that a cross should have been the chief emblem in the temple especially dedicated to him at Palenque. The fact of this symbol being worshipped by the Indians in the New World may perhaps not be deemed particularly strange, but it has to be taken into consideration that there is no record of any figure in the shape of a cross having been an object of devotion in any part of America, except in the regions that had been occupied by the Toltecs.

When the Spaniards arrived in Yucatan they reported that they saw in the court of a temple at Cozumel a cross made of lime and stone which was worshipped by the natives. There were some doubts about the precise meaning assigned to this image, possibly owing to the difficulties of understanding the Maya language, but it was afterwards ascertained that it represented the god of rain.

The cross on the altar at Palenque is of an entirely different character, and evidently forms the principal part of the emblem representing Quetzalcoatl. How did it come to pass that this exceptional figure of a cross should have been sculptured upon the tablet representing the emblems of the white stranger who, according to the Indian traditions, landed upon their shores, coming from the east in a sacerdotal dress, wearing sandals upon his feet and having red crosses embroidered upon his cape?[113]

It is this coincidence that causes attention to be directed to an endeavour to form some reasonable solution of the problem. It will be observed, upon an examination of the illustration of the tablet of the cross, that the name Quetzalcoatl is represented by the quetzal, the emblematic bird of the Quichés, and by peculiar marks surrounding the cross which are thought to be intended to denote a serpent (coatl) which, as at Uxmal, was probably the Totem of the tribe.[114] But the principal figure placed in the centre of the altar is the cross. This by its shape and position must have been intended to have had an especial significance.

It is related by Gomara that, upon the occasion of the discovery of Yucatan by the expedition under the command of Francisco Hernandez in 1517, the Spaniards observed in the country near Cape Catoche, crosses of brass and wood placed over graves. The unexpected finding of these crosses in an hitherto unknown land attracted the attention of geographers in Spain and, to some extent, led to theories with regard to the possible arrival in Yucatan of the Spanish ecclesiastics who had, according to an ancient legend, fled from Spain when that country was conquered by the Saracens in the eighth century, and were believed to have reached an island in the western parts of the Atlantic ocean called Antilia.

What Gomara wrote upon this subject is as follows:—

“In that place there were found crosses of brass and wood over the dead, from whence some argue that many Spaniards had fled to this land when the destruction of Spain was done by the Moors in the time of the King Don Roderick: but I do not believe it; since there are not any in the islands that we have mentioned: in some one of which it is necessary, and also compulsory to touch at, before arriving there.”

Gomara was undoubtedly correct in not believing that these crosses were placed over the graves of Spaniards who had arrived in Yucatan after the defeat and flight of King Roderick. It is not requisite to go back to events that occurred in Spain in the eighth century to account for the existence of crosses on the promontory of Cape Catoche. When Hernandez landed there in 1517, nearly a quarter of a century had elapsed since Columbus had founded his settlements in Cuba and Hispaniola, and during that interval many small expeditions had been organised by Spanish adventurers for the purpose of exploring the coasts in the direction of Honduras and Nicaragua. In pursuing these voyages of discovery their vessels must have frequently passed at no great distance from the eastern shores of Yucatan where, on their return from the south, they would have been baffled by contrary winds and currents. Under such conditions it is not improbable that one of the vessels may have been wrecked or abandoned off Cape Catoche, and that some of the crew perished and were buried by the survivors near the seacoast.

The Spanish legend to which Gomara refers is, with respect to America, chiefly remarkable for its surprising concurrence in date and other circumstances with the Toltec legend of the arrival of strangers wearing cassocks. It is therefore necessary to ascertain if there are sufficient reasons for placing any confidence in statements that appear to be founded upon tradition, and whether the event that was believed to have taken place could have been possible. The tradition did not escape the attention of Washington Irving. In his “Life of Columbus”[115] he states that “It was recorded in an ancient legend, that at the time of the conquest of Spain and Portugal by the Moors, when the inhabitants fled in every direction to escape from slavery, seven bishops, followed by a great number of their people, took shipping, and abandoned themselves to their fate on the high seas. After tossing about for some time, they landed upon an unknown island in the midst of the ocean. Here the bishops burnt the ships to prevent the desertion of their followers, and founded seven cities.”[116]

In the principal maps published during the fifteenth century, before the discovery of America, the island of Antilia was usually given a position in the middle of the western Atlantic, south of the Azores. In the chart of the geographer Toscanelli, which was sent to Columbus, Antilia was placed in the direct track by sea from the Canary islands to Cipango (Japan), the large and prosperous country supposed at that time to be situated in the extreme west, near the eastern limits of Asia. It is evident that Columbus firmly believed in the existence of Antilia, for when he left the Canaries on his outward voyage, he shaped his course for that island and steered due west for about sixteen hundred miles.

Upon reaching the latitude and longitude where he expected to see land, the admiral conferred with his captains, but as nothing had been observed it was thought that the ships must have passed the island. At sunset, the captain of the Pinta hailed the admiral and reported that land was in sight to the south-west. The course of the ships was accordingly altered towards that direction. On the next day it was found that what had been seen was cloudland. The ships resumed their course and proceeded until the landfall was made upon the island of Guanahani.

The belief in the existence of the legendary island was, however, not then dispelled and it is remarkable, as a proof of the opinions of geographers, that in the important map of the world by Ruysch, published in 1508, in which were placed the latest discoveries in the west; Antilia still retained its position.[117]

In the early part of the sixteenth century, several expeditionary fleets were fitted out and sailed across the seas towards the New World. Many islands were seen, but Antilia was not found. Thus when it became known that Yucatan had been discovered and that a cross placed within a stone temple was worshipped by the Indians, and that other crosses had been seen placed over graves, it was surmised that the bishops must have finally reached that distant land.

Such an event may be thought to be improbable, but as, in consequence of the trade-winds, it is not impossible, it is expedient to consider in what manner it might have happened. It has to be assumed that the legend, so far as it relates to Christian fugitives escaping from the tyranny of Mahometan conquerors, may be considered as being within the limits of reasonable historical inquiry. Men deliberately leaving their own country to seek a place of refuge where they would be free to establish their religion, would, before embarking upon unknown seas, take with them supplies of provisions and water, and thus, by proper precautions, secure themselves from the risk of starvation. It is also probable that they were informed by the pilots or other navigators acquainted with the adjacent shores, that there were islands situated beyond the Mauritanian coasts within a distance not too great for them to undertake the voyage with a fair prospect of reaching land.

In the eighth century the Canary Islands had not been discovered by Europeans, but their position was known to the Arabs and Moors and rumours concerning them and their proximity to the coast of Morocco were doubtless familiar to the sea-faring men living near Cadiz. The pilots would, therefore, have shaped a course for the Canaries. They would have expected to reach those islands within eight or ten days. But a slight error in their course would have taken the vessels into the trade-winds and, in that case, they would have been driven across the Atlantic in the direction of Florida, whose coasts might easily have been reached in less than six weeks from the date of the departure from Spain. It is also possible that they may have been chased by some of the armed vessels which had conveyed the Saracens from Mauritania.

It is not, however, necessary to pursue this investigation to any greater length. It is sufficiently clear that if the event, as recorded by tradition, actually happened, there is no difficulty in accepting the conclusion that several of the bishops and their companions may have reached America in safety.[118] Thus the statements of the Indian priests, that white strangers wearing beards and dressed in cassocks had arrived from the East, would be confirmed.

Upon an examination of the laws that govern the direction of the trade-winds in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, it is found that there is a strong easterly wind continuously blowing across the Atlantic towards Florida, Mexico and Yucatan. There is also a strong westerly wind invariably blowing across the North Pacific, over the regions between the fortieth and fiftieth parallels of latitude, from Japan towards the north-west coast of North America. In consequence of this prevailing wind several junks have been driven out of their course and have reached the American seacoasts. In 1833 a junk was wrecked near Vancouver island and several of the crew landed and were received by the Indians. In the previous year a Japanese junk laden with fish arrived at the Sandwich islands. She had been driven across the seas by a violent storm which had caught her off Japan. Four of her men were alive and they were taken to Honolulu.

Taking therefore into consideration the prevalence of trade-winds blowing towards America, and the peculiar conditions of architectural and astronomical intelligence possessed by the Mexican Indians, there are certain inferences which may be accepted. It is not improbable that men belonging to European, Moorish, or Asiatic races arrived in Central America during a period between the sixth and eleventh centuries. There is not sufficient evidence to determine in what manner this may have happened; but after giving due weight to the statements of the Indian priests and caciques, and the traditions of the circumstances under which their knowledge was introduced into Mexico, together with the adoption of monastic institutions, and the systems of education, it is reasonable to conjecture that the comparative civilisation of the Toltecs and Aztecs was originally caused by the influence and instruction of strangers who came to their land in vessels which had crossed the Atlantic.

INDEX.

Abalá, village of, 360–362, 366, 370.

Abenakis Indians, 33.

Acapulco, 179.

Adams, Mr. Charles Francis, 9, 28.

_Adoratorio_, an Indian, 245, 246, 262.

Agassiz, Professor, 12, 13, 23.

Agua, volcano, 181, 182, 194, 196–200.

Aguilar, 397.

Aguinaga, brig, 372–374.

Albatrosses in the South Pacific, 178.

Alcaldes, the, at San Tomas, 212, 213.

Algonquin tribe of Indians, 34, 111, 150, 153.

Alligator totem, 85, 86.

Alligators, 179, 320–322.

Alumni, the, of Harvard, 25–28.

Alvarado, Pedro de, 202, 218, 225–228, 235–237.

Amatitlan, village of, 182.

American Civil War, 9–11.

American politics, 23.

Annapolis, Naval Academy at, 6–8.

Antilia, Island of, 417–419.

Apache Indians, 122.

Ara-po-gai-sik (Day-catcher), 122.

Atitlan, volcano of, 206.

Atwater, Mr., and the Circleville Inclosures, 79–84.

Aztecs, the, 130, 172, 174, 385, 394, 404–406, 422: sacrifices of, 132, 224–226, 345: barbarous custom of, 396–398: obsidian knives used by, 186.

Bachajon, village, of 267, 268, 273.

Baird, Dr., 98.

Baptismal customs, Yucatan Indians, 364–366.

Barrancas (ravines), 205, 216.

Bartlett, Professor, 7, 11.

Bartram, Mr., 322.

Basques, crew of, 372, 373.

Bates, Mr., 321.

Beaver dams, 36–40.

Beech-tree, chief of the Oneidas tribe, 51.

Bisons, herds of, 143.

Boulders, on the Minnesota prairies, 126, 127: Sioux worship of, 169.

Braddock, General, 134.

Bridgman, Laura, 16–18.

Burial customs; of the Dakotas, 173: of the Sacs and Foxes, 174: in Yucatan, 333, 334.

Burial by the Mound Builders, manner, 61–63.

Burial mounds in Illinois, 19: (_see also_ Ohio, &c.).

Burial place of Sioux, 114.

Cabarrus, M. de, 192.

Cahokia earthworks, the, 105–108, 189, 380, 385.

Californian Indians, 20.

Cambridge, Indian collections at, 19–21: Commencement Day at, 27, 28.

Campeachy, 328, 329: gulf of, 327.

Cannibalism, 135, 323–325, 345.

Cape San Lucas, 177.

Cargadores, the, 293, 294.

Carmen, Island of, 326–328.

Carnival, an Indian, 269–272, 277.

Carp, River, 36, 41.

Carr, Professor Lucien, 383.

Carrera, President, 183, 184, 190, 256.

Carver, Captain, 119, 120.

Casa de las Monjas at Uxmal, xiv, xv, 339–343, 347–358.

Casa del Gobernador at Uxmal, 337–343, 347–358.

Castillo, Don Manuel, 255.

Catasaja, 319, 320.

Catherwood, Mr., 294.

Cayugas, tribe, 34, 151, 152, 155, 156, 158.

Cedar Keys, settlement of, 375.

Ceremonies of the Dakotas, 157, 158.

Cerna, President Don Vincente, 191.

Charnay, M. Desiré, xv, 44.

Chase, Chief Justice, 23.

Cherokee Indians, 384.

Cheyenne Indians, 145.

Chiapas, mounds in, 261, 277, 381.

Chimaltenango, 200.

Chilon, 269.

Chippewas, Indians, 44, 47, 49, 111, 127, 131, 135, 150, 153, 173, 174.

Cholula, temple at, 410, 412.

Chontal Indians, 220–224.

Circleville, inclosures at, 79–84, 96–102.

Civil War, troops in the American, 9–11.

Clarke, Capt., of Cedar Keys, 375.

Clavigero, 411.

Clemens, Dr., and the Grave Creek Mound, 58–60.

Coller, Dr., at Palenque, 138, 294–297, 301–303, 316–319.

Columbus and the island of Antilia, 416–419, 421.

Commencement Day at Cambridge, 27, 28.

Comitan, town of, 253, 255.

Comolapa, village of, 200, 201.

Conceptionistas, Convent of the, 371, 372.

Concord, shell heaps at, 21, 28, 29.

Copan, 410, 411: idols at, 264.

Copper mines in Michigan, 35, 43–51.

Corbett, Mr., 192.

Cordilleras, the, 204–205, 278.

Cortes, 228, 314, 323–325, 397, 406.

Cozumel, island of, 346: cross at, 414.

Cruz, Serapio, Indian named, 183, 184, 191, 233.

Cuba, 373.

Cuoq, M., 150.

Curing illness by steam, 174, 175.

Cutler, Rev. Dr., 100.

Dakota Indians, 127, 133, 145, 147–149, 150, 153, 154, 159: human sacrifices of the, 132–134, 171–173, 401: language of, 159, 160: and sun worship, 163, 164: and sickness, 164–165: and lightning, 166: and transmigration, 167–168: fasts of the, 168–169: and serpent worship, 170: burial customs of, 173, 175: curing illness by steam, 174–175: burial mound, 377. (_see also_ Sioux.)

Damariscotta, shell mounds at, 27, 30–33, 376.

Dance, Indian, at Chilon, 269–272.

Dancing, Indians and, 404.

Darwin’s coral theories, 13.

Dauphin, the (Williams), 52, 53.

Davis, Mr., 64.

Dayton’s Bluff, 381.

Debauchery of the Mexican Indians, 272, 403.

Demons, Indian offerings to, 363, 364.

Des Moines River, 138.

Delaware Indians, 94, 134, 385.

Dialect at Ocosingo, 266, 267.

Dialects of the North American Indians, 151–154: of Guatemala Indians, 232.

Diaz, Bernal, 197, 220, 223–227, 323–328, 331–333, 346, 396–398, 404.

Digger Indians, 147, 148.

Dighton, rock at, 33.

Dowding, Captain Herbert, xv.

Dupaix, Captain, 309.

Earthworks in Ohio, ancient Indian, 54–103, 379–385.

Emerson, Mr. Ralph Waldo, 22–26, 28, 29.

Escalanta, Señor, 335.

Esconauba, River, 36.

Escuintla, town of, 181.

Esquipulas, pilgrimage to, 186–188.

Evans, chief Elder of the Shakers, 8, 9.

Faribault, half-breed Indian, 117–119, 161, 164–169, 172, 173.

Fasting of the Dakotas, 159, 160.

Festival, Indian, at Jacaltenango, 243–245.

Festival of San Caralampio, 255.

Fire, Indian method of lighting a, 241, 261.

Flathead Indians, 20.

Florida, 102, 103: Professor Agassiz and, 12, 13: shell mounds in, 14, 21: rivers in, 322: coast of 374–377: Indians in, 376, 377.

Forests; in Michigan, 41, 139, 140: near Palenque, 42, 138, 139: of Aracan, 140, 141: between San Pedro and Palenque, 282–284, 290–294, 303.

Forster, Mr. J. H., 45, 46, 51.

Foster, Mr. J. W., 137.

Fort Ancient, on the Little Miami river, 87–96, 190, 202.

Fort Du Quesne, 76, 77.

Fort Hill, 92.

Foxes, Indian tribe, 109, 174.

Franciscan Missionaries in Yucatan, 364–366.

Franklin, Sir John and Lady, 4.

Fuegians similar to the Ute Indians, 148.

Fuego, volcano, 181, 182, 196, 199, 200.

Fuentes, the historian, 236, 237.

Fuller, Margaret, 24.

Gage, Thomas, 195.

Gallatin, Mr. Albert, 130.

Game in the Platte valley, 145.

Garcia y Granados, Colonel, 183, 184.

Gavarrete, Señor, 184–186.

Glacial action near Ishpeming, 50.

Godillo, Don Mariana, 255, 256.

Goitre, Indians suffering with, 242.

_Golden City_, ship, 176, 177, 180.

Gomara, 415, 416.

Grant, President, 5.

Grave Creek Mound, 58–61.

Great Britain, Daniel Webster on, 22.

Great Salt Lake, the, 146.

Great Star, human sacrifice to the 131–134.

Grey, Judge, 27.

Grinnell, Mr. Henry, 4.

Grijalva, 346.

Guatemala, city of, 182, 183: museum at, 184–187: cathedral in, 187: market place, 188: foreign residents in, 192.

Guatimozin, Emperor, 224, 406: execution of, 324, 325.

Gueguetenango, 233–237.

Guerrero, Gonzalo, 397.

Guicola, Padre Andres, 216, 230.

Guides, Indian; Anastasio, 194, 231–233: Bito, 267, 269, 270: Carlos, 234, 235, 240, 241, 248–252: José, 289, 290: Lopez, 259–262, 267: Villafranca, 277, 278, 282–285.

Gurney, Professor, 26.

Hague, Mr., 192, 194.

Hardy, M., 192.

Harris, Mr., 8.

Harvard, the Alumni of, 25.

Haven, Mr., 98.

Henry, Mr. Alexander, 7, 48, 135.

Herbert, Baron, 176, 180, 191, 194.

Hernandez, Padre, 211–214, 409, 415.

Hieroglyphs in temples at Palenque, 307, 315, 389.

Hildreth, Dr., and inclosures at Marietta, 70–75, 99.

Hill, Mr. of S. Pauls’ city, 114.

Hillard, Mr., 13.

Hoar, Judge, 26, 27.

Hockmeyer, Mr. and Mrs., 192.

Hogs, and destruction of rattlesnakes, 144, 145.

Holmes, Mr. Oliver Wendell, 26–28.

Houghton, town of, 44, 45, 47, 50.

Howe, Dr., 25: institution in Boston, 16–18: Mrs. Julia Ward, 22.

How-wan-ni-yu (the Great Spirit), 156–158.

Huitzopotli, 224.

Human sacrifices: of the Pawnees, 131–134, 171–173: of the Dakotas, 171–173: of the Pipil Indians, 220–224: in Yucatan, 332, 333.

Humboldt and the Toltecs, 395.

Hunting grounds of Indians, the U.S. Government and, 122, 123.

Hurons, tribe of Indians, 34, 112.

Huts, Indian construction of, 286, 287.

Idolatry of Indians, 403.

Idols, Indian, 221–223: in Museum at Guatemala, 184–186: at Ocosingo, 263–265: in Yucatan, worship of, 346, 347.

Illinois, burial mound in, 19.

Illinois, Indians, 153.

Inclosures, sacred; near Newark, 64–70: at Marietta, 70–76: at Circleville, 79–84, 96–102.

Indian, battlefield, 49: baptismal customs, 364–366: carnival, an, 269–272, 277: ceremonies in Yucatan, 362–365: cemetery, 84: civilisation in Yucatan, 406–8: collections at Cambridge, 19–21: construction of huts, 286–287: debauchery, 272: dialects, 232: domestic habits, 239–241: earthworks in Ohio, 54–103: education, Judge Williams and, 109–111: farmhouse, an, 209, 210: festival, an, 243–245: idols, 184–186, 221, 245–6: inclosures, _see_ Circleville, Marietta, Newark, &c.: marriage custom in the Sierra Madre, 247: mines round Lake Superior, 35, 36: officials at Abalá, 361, 362: mounds in Ohio, 54–103: pilgrims, 186–188: population in North America, 153: reservations in North America, 34: rebellion in Guatemala, 183, 191: religious devotion, 240, 241, _see also_ Yucatan: skulls, 19, 20: statue at Ocosingo, 264: steam bath, 279: traditions, Ohio earthworks, 94–103: warfare, 112: war customs, 134–5: well, an, 370.

Indians, diversity of languages, 150–154: hunting grounds of, the U S. Government and, 122, 123: shell heaps of, 14, 21, 28–33.

Indians; _see_ Abenakis, Algonquins, Apaches, Californian, Cheyennes, Chippewas, Chontal, Dakotas, Delaware, Flathead, Florida, Foxes, Hurons, Iroquois, Kachiquels, Lacandon, Maya, Mohawks, Natchez, Oaxaca, Oneidas, Onondagas, Pawnees, Pipiles, Quichés, Sacs, Senecas, Shawnees, Shoshones, Sioux, Tzendales, Utes, Winnebagoes, Yucatan, Zambos, &c., &c.

Insurrections of Indians in Guatemala, 183–4, 191.

Iowa, prairies in, 124–127, 129, 137.

Iron mines in Michigan, 35, 45–51.

Iroquois, Indians, 34, 77, 111, 112, 134, 150, 159: battle with the Chippewas, 49: burial mounds of the, 63, 376: traditions and customs of, 151–155: the Grand River, 155, 156.

Ishpeming, village of, 36, 40, 50, 140.

Itzqueye, idol of, 221–223.

Izamal, 393.

Jacaltenango, 235, 243–249, 369, 402.

James, Mr. William D., xiv, 131.

Jesuit Mission at Sault St. Marie, 48.

Jonuta, 322, 326.

Jotána, 260.

Juarez, President, 256–258.

Juarros, the historian, 226, 386, 387, 390, 410.

Kachiquels Indians, 202, 203, 205, 206, 235–237, 401.

Kee-wai-wona Bay, 48, 49.

Kue (altar) at Yucatan, 330–334.

La Antigua Guatemala, 194, 195.

Lacandon Indians, 266, 319.

Ladinos, the, 179, 271, 295, 335.

Laguna de Terminos, 281.

Lake Amatitlan, 195.

Lake Atitlan, 181, 206, 209.

Lake Ontario, mound near, 60.

Lake Pepin, 113.

Lake Simcoe, 139.

Lake Superior, 48, 112: ancient Indian mines round, 35, 36.

La Laguna de Cuyutlan, 178, 326, 328.

Landa, Bishop, work on Yucatan, 343–346, 364, 378, 392, 393, 405, 407.

Languages, diversity of, among Indians, 150–154.

La Oracion, a prayer in Guatemala, 238, 239.

Lapidge, Captain, 176, 179, 180.

Las Casas, Bishop, iii, iv, 247, 273–276, 378, 403, 408, 409, 414.

Las Godinas, 205, 206.

La Vieja Guatemala, 196, 199, 200.

Lenton, 252.

Licignano, Duke de, 192, 193.

Licking Creek, 64, 70.

Little Miami River, the, 87.

Lizana, Father, 394.

Locke, Professor, 87, 92.

Longfellow, Mr., 25, 26.

Lowell, Mr., J. R., 26–28.

Macal, Presbitero Fernando, 270, 277, 285, 381.

Madoc, Prince, 96.

Maguey (aloe), 272, 273.

Maine, shell mounds in, 28–33.

Mams tribe, 234–237, 244, 245, 402.

Mandans, the, 95.

Mankato, 120, 138.

Manzanillo, 178.

Marietta, mounds at, 57, 58: inclosures at, 70–76, 99–101.

Marimba (instrument), 244.

Maoris; curing illness by steam, 175: method of cooking, 326.

Marquette in Michigan, 35.

Martinez, Padre, 195.

Masagua, village, 181.

Maudslay, Mr., 357.

Maximilian, Emperor, execution of, 257–258.

Maya race of Indians, 281, 336, 405.

Mechanics, a triumph of, 26, 27,

Medicine man, the, 164, 165.

Mendota, settlement of, 116, 118, 120, 169.

Merida, 371, 392, 393.

Mestizos, the, 179.

Metternich, Prince, 14.

Mexican antiquities at Cambridge, 20.

Miamisburgh mound, 56–59.

Michigan, beavers in, 36–40: ancient mining pits in, 42–51: early surveys of, 139, 140.

Michol River, 291, 297.

Micla, village of, 220–223.

Military Academy at West Point, 7, 8.

Mines in Michigan, ancient Indian, 35, 36, 42–51.

Minnesota, prairies in, 124–127.

Mississippi River, 108, 109: falls of, 119.

Missouri River, 108, 109.

Mitla, ruins of, 357.

Mixco, ancient mounds near, 189–191, 194, 385.

Mohawks, tribe, 34, 151, 157.

Monastery at Palenque, 297–302, 307–317.

Monks Mound, 106.

Montalban, Doña Aña de, 207.

Montezuma, 411.

Morgan, Mr. Lewis, 103, 159.

Mormons, the, 111, 112.

Mounds and earthworks of Indians in Ohio, 54–103, 379–385: near Mixco, 189–191, 194, 385.

Mounds near St. Paul, 114, 115: near Lake Ontario, 60, _see_ Mixco, Palenque, &c.

Mourning customs of the Sioux, 165, 166.

Múna, 360.

Murray, Hon. C. A., 144.

Muskinghum River, 70.

Natchez Indians, 161, 380.

Nauvoo, 111.

Naval Academy at Annapolis, 6–8.

Naval power, the Atlantic seaboard, and, 30, 31.

Nebraska, 129, 130: plains in, 137.

Negroes in the Southern States, 5: in the American Civil War, 11.

Newark, town of, 61: inclosures at, 64–70, 96–103.

New Zealanders, burial custom of, 175.

Nightingale, a, at Palenque, 301, 303.

Nopá river, 291.

North American Indians, _see_ Indians.

Norwood, Dr. Joseph, 141.

Oaxaca Indians, 292.

Obsidian knives used by Aztecs, 186.

Ocosingo, 259, 263–267, 273.

Ogallalas, tribe of Sioux, 122, 123.

Ohio, ancient Indian mounds and earthworks in 54–103, 384, 385.

Oliphant, Mr. Laurence, 9.

Omaha, prison at, 163.

Oneidas tribe, 34, 151, 155: reservation of the, 51–53.

Onondagas, tribe, 34, 151.

Ontonagon, town of, 44, 46, 48.

Orchids in Guatemala, 210, 211.

Ortiz, Don Pepe, 288–294.

Ottawa Indians, 153.

Pacaya, volcano, 181, 182.

Palacio, Don Garcia de, 219–223.

Palenque, ruins and temples at, 2, 193, 303–307, 350–358, 389, 391–395, 406, 413: arrival at, 294–296: “Palace” or monastery at, 297–302, 307–317, 406: square tower in 300, 301, 312–314: mounds about, 318–320.

Palisada, 326: river, 322.

Panajachel, 207, 208.

Parker, Mr. Frank, 13, 15.

Parkman, Mr. Francis B., 158, 159.

Patinamit, Indian ruins of, 202, 203.

Pawnees, the, 109, 129–136, 147, 163–165, 344.

Pedro, Padre, 207–209.

Pelicans, flocks of, 178.

Penance of Indians, 161–163.

Petz, Rear-Admiral Baron, 176.

Pilgrimage to Esquipulas, 186–188.

Pipiles, Indians, 220–224.

Pintos, the, 179, 180.

Pitcher, General, 7, 8.

Platte, valley of the, 141, 143, 145.

Portsmouth Ohio, Indian entrenchments at, 57, 58.

Pozole, substance called, 292, 293.

Prairie-dog villages, 141–143.

Prairie fires, 125, 126, 136, 137.

Prairies and glacial action, 12.

Prairies in Minnesota and Iowa, 124–129.

Prescott, Mr., 171.

Pyramid of the Dwarf, Uxmal, xv, 340–342, 345.

Pyramidal altars, Yucatan, 330–334.

Quezaltenango, 206, 208, 217, 237.

Quetzalcoatl, god named, 221–223, 310, 348, 391, 409, 412, 413, 414.

Quetzales (birds), 220, 305.

Quichés Indians, 202, 206, 209, 214–5, 230, 387, 389–391, 400–402: religious ceremonies of the, 212, 213, 219: chiefs, 227–8: traditions of, 235–7, _see also_ Utatlan.

Quirigua, idols at, 184: ruins of, 186, 410.

Rae, Dr., 141.

Rain, a fall of, 358, 359.

Rain-makers, 164, 359.

Ransonnet, Baron, 177, 179, 180.

Rattlesnake totem, xiv, 398, 399.

Rattlesnakes, 142, 170.

Rau, Professor Charles, xv., 316, 317, 414.

Red Cloud, a chief of the Sioux, 123.

Religious ceremonies in Yucatan, 362–365, 368–369.

Religious devotion of Indians, 240–241.

Reservation lands for Indians, 34.

Rigdon (Mormon preacher), 111, 112.

Rio, Captain Antonio del, 300, 308, 309.

Robles, Captain, 249, 252.

Robles, Padre Juan C., 243–249.

Rodriguez, Padre, 201.

Rogers, Commodore, 13.

Romero, Señor Matias, 257.

Roubaud, Father, 135.

Ruins, of Uxmal, 339–358, 389, 394, 395. _see also_ Palenque, &c.

Sacrificial customs at Uxmal, 343–346.

Sacrificial rites of the Aztecs, 224–226.

Sacrifices of the Indians to Volcanoes and Lakes, 208. _see also_ Human.

Sacrificios, island of, 332.

Sacs tribe of Indians, 109, 174.

St. Andres, 250.

St. Clair, Governor, 100.

St. Louis, 108.

St. Martin, village of, 241.

St. Paul, city of, 113–115

Salorzano, Don Remigio, 263–265, 267.

Salt Lake City, 112, 146.

San Caralampio, festival of, 255.

San Carlos, 261.

San Domingo de Palenque. _see_ Palenque.

San José de Guatemala, 180.

San Pedro, 284–288: Indians, 285–288: River, 289.

Santa Cruz del Quiché, 216, 230.

Santorin, island of, 198.

San Tomas, 209, 211, 215.

Sault Ste. Marie, Jesuit Mission at, 48.

Scherzer, Dr., 176, 180, 183, 185.

Scioto River, 76, 77.

Seal rocks, the, 177.

Senecas tribe, 34, 151, 152, 155, 157.

Sequechul, Indian named, 227.

Serpent totems, xiv, 350, 351.

Serpent worship, 398, 399: by the Dakotas, 170.

Seward, Mr., 257–258.

Shakers, the, 8, 9.

Shawnee tribe, 94, 153: burial mounds of, 78.

Shell heaps at Concord, 21.

Shell mounds in Florida, 14, 375, 377: in Maine, 28–33.

Shoshone Indians, 146–148, 174.

Sierra Madre mountains, 238, 246, 247.

Sierras between San Pedro & Palenque, 282–284, 290–294.

Sinigiglia, 253.

Sioux Indians, 131: methods of burial with, 63: an encampment of, 114–116: worship of spirit rocks, 117–119, 169: the Ogallalas tribe of, 122, 123: Red Cloud, chief of the, 123: and sun worship, 162, 163: medicine man, 164, 165: mourning customs, 165–166: and lightning, 166: and transmigration, 167–168: human sacrifice of, 172, 173.

Sioux War, the, 120–122.

Sisal, port of, 372, 373.

Sissiton tribe of Sioux, 172, 173.

Skulls of Indians, 19, 20.

Smith, Mr. James, 134.

Smith, Joseph, founder of Mormonism, 111, 112.

Snowstorm, a violent, 128, 129.

Socoleo, fortress of, 235–237.

Solares, General, 191.

Sololá, 209.

Southern States of America, 5.

Spain and Utatlan, 226–231: and employment of natives as carriers in Mexico, 275.

Spaniards kept in cages by Aztecs, 397.

Spirit rocks, Sioux worship of, 117–119, 169.

Squier, Mr. E. G., 19, 64, 159, 221.

Stansfield, Captain, 142.

Steam bath, an Indian, 279.

Stephens, Mr., 2, 294, 298, 307, 309, 341.

Stone at Dighton, 33.

Stone hammers, 44.

_Stonewall_, S.S., 104, 105.

Succession of forest trees, 139, 140.

Sumner, Mr., 26.

Sun worship, by the Pawnees, 133: by all the Indian tribes in Mississippi valley, 161–164, 261–262.

Sun worshippers, the Natchez tribe, 381.

Superstition, the Pawnees and, 134: the Dakotas and, 170: Yucatan Indians and, 366–369.

Tacara, volcano, 246.

Tallegewi, the, 94, 385.

Tampa, 374, 377, 379.

“Temblor,” a, 246.

Téotihuacan, pyramids of, 395.

Temples at Izamal, 393: at Uxmal, 339–358, 394, 395.

Temple of the Cross, at Palenque, 304–306.

Tepan Guatemala, 202, 206.

Terran, Padre Juan Batista de, 233.

Thomas, Professor Cyrus, 68, 69, 382–384.

Thornton, Mr., 5.

Ticknor, Mr., 13, 14, 22, 25.

Tihoo, 392, 393.

Tlacupa, King of, 325.

Todos Santos, 238–241.

Toltecs, 391, 395, 398, 400–404, 422, _see also_ Aztecs, Tallegwi.

Totems of Indians, 84–86: of the Toltecs, 398, 399.

Trade-winds in the Atlantic, 419, 420: in the Pacific, 421–422.

Traditions, Indian, _re_ Ohio earthworks, 94–103.

Trappists, the, at Cahokia, 106.

Trees, marking forest, as a guide, 42, 43: Professor Locke and age of, 92, 93: absence of, on the Iowa plains, 137–138: succession of forest, 139, 140.

Troops in the American Civil War, 9–11.

Tumbalá, 278–282.

Tuscaroras tribe, 34, 151, 155.

Tzendales, Indians, 270, 271, 276, 281, 405.

Tzibalché, 335, 336, 363.

Usamacinta River, 318–323, 326.

Utatlan, ruins of, 217–220, 312, 401: conquest of, 226–9.

Utes, the, or Digger Indians, 147, 148.

Uxmal, 336–338: ruins of, 339–358, 389: antiquity of temple at, 394, 395.

Vadillo, Señor, 320.

Valdivia, 397.

Vestal the (frigate), 374, 421.

Viatoro, Padre, 202, 204.

Vogdes, General, 10, 11.

Volcanoes in the American Continent, 180, 181, 247, _see also_ Agua, Atitlan, Fuego, Pacaya, Tacara.

Votan, chief, 412, 413.

Washington, 5.

Webster, Daniel, 22.

Well, an Indian, 370.

Welsh speaking Indians, 95, 96.

West Point, Military Academy at, 7, 8.

Whittlesea, Mr., 98.

Williams, Judge, 174: and Indian education, 109–112.

Williams (the Dauphin), 52, 53.

Wilson, Professor Daniel, 60, 62, 159.

Winnebagoes, the, 119–123.

Winona, an Indian maiden, 113.

Woolner, Mr., 357.

Wyman, Professor Jeffries, 14, 19–21, 26, 28.

Wynne, Dr., 192.

Yajalon, 270, 273, 277.

Yaxcabá, curate of, 366–369.

Young, Brigham, 112, 146.

Yucatan, pyramidal altars at, 330–334: Indians in, 336.

Yucatan, Bishop Landa’s work on, 343–346: worship of idols in, 346–347: religious ceremonies in, 362–365: superstition of Indians, 366–368: ruins in, 394: education in, 407–408: discovery of, 415.

Yule, Colonel, 140.

Zambos Indians, 181.

Zurita, Alonzo de, 227.

• • • • • Farmer & Sons, Printers, 295, Edgware Road, W.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | FOOTNOTES: | | | | [1] Many of those who were interested in Arctic research and the | | then unknown fate of Sir John Franklin, will remember the meetings | | at Lady Franklin’s house at Kensington Gore, and how greatly Mr. | | Grinnell’s exertions and enterprise were appreciated. | | | | [2] Mr. Laurence Oliphant, whom I had known in other parts of the | | world, was then living with his community upon the Southern shores | | of Lake Erie. | | | | The last time that I saw him was at a Levée, held in St. James’s | | extreme Palace, in the year 1880, under circumstances which were | | in contrast with his daily life of labour at Brocton. I understood | | that he had come over to England to arrange some business matters | | connected with the affairs of his society. | | | | America is the home of many groups of people endeavouring to carry | | out their various schemes of communistic life. I visited several | | of their settlements and found that their methods of management | | were very different. The prosperity and the harmony of the men and | | women, evidently depended upon their faith in their own strange | | forms of religion. It was also observable that, in all cases, the | | leaders were men of dogmatic character. | | | | [3] The question respecting the proportion of foreigners in the | | armies of the North came under consideration. | | | | It had been supposed that a large number of the troops consisted | | of men of foreign nationalities, but an investigation that had | | been made into the subject has proved that the alien strength of | | the army had been the subject of much exaggeration. | | | | Upon the examination of the numbers it will be seen, however, | | that the composition of the forces deserves attention. Their | | classification was as follows:— | | | | British Americans (volunteers from | | British possessions in N. America) 53,500 | | English 45,000 | | Irish 144,000 | | German 176,800 | | Men of unknown nationality 74,900 | | Negroes (about) 140,000 | | National Americans 1,523,000 | | | | National Americans include all emigrants who in consequence of | | having been five years in the States are entitled to become | | citizens. | | | | [4] Mr. Ticknor preceded Mr. Longfellow at Harvard University as | | Professor of Modern Languages. As an author he is well known by | | his History of Spanish Literature, and the biography of his friend | | Mr. Prescott, the historian. | | | | [5] Then Professor of Anatomy in Harvard College, and Curator of | | the Peabody Museum of Archæology and Ethnology. | | | | [6] Laura Bridgman was born in 1829 so, at the time that I saw her, | | she was forty years old. | | | | [7] In one of the many brilliant speeches made by this orator, the | | following graceful allusion to the mother-country may be mentioned | | here. “Great Britain,” he said, “had dotted over the whole surface | | of the globe with her possessions and military posts, whose | | morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the | | hours, circles the earth daily with one continuous and unbroken | | strain of martial music.” | | | | [8] The geographical conditions of the Atlantic seaboard are so | | favourable for the development of naval power, that it is evident | | that the United States have every possible natural advantage | | placed at their disposal to enable them to become a great maritime | | nation. | | | | There is, however, a difficulty for them to surmount. Serviceable | | American-born men do not readily volunteer to join their ships | | of war, and, consequently, the crews are largely composed of | | foreigners, chiefly of English and German origin. The reasons | | for this disinclination on the part of the Americans to accept | | sea service seem to be caused by the fact that the prospects | | for success in life in other directions are sufficiently good | | to prevent them from seeking an employment in which they would | | be subject to discipline and have to sacrifice their habits of | | independence. It will probably be found expedient, ultimately, to | | adopt a system of entry and training for seamen similar to that | | which has been found to succeed in England. The systems followed | | on the European continent, and which are based upon conscription, | | could find no place amongst a people with whom all service must be | | essentially voluntary. | | | | If the difficulties with regard to men can be overcome, the naval | | strength of the United States may be as great as Congress may | | deem desirable, for, with respect to the capacities of harbours | | and dockyards and the means available for the construction and | | armaments of ships, there is practically no limit to the power of | | fitting out and maintaining large fleets. | | | | [9] In the summer of 1870 I went to the village of Dighton to look | | at the inscribed stone in the river near that place. | | | | Upon my arrival there it was high water and the rock was covered. | | The next day, when the tide was low, I hired a boat, pulled down | | the stream and stopped by its side, which was then fully exposed, | | and examined it with care. It was a boulder formed of hard close | | grained granite. | | | | As the inscription was originally supposed by Danish and other | | antiquarians to have had some relation with the history of the | | arrival of the Northmen upon that coast, I traced the figures and | | rude characters with particular attention. | | | | I have seen rolls of birch bark scratched in the same manner by | | Chippewas, for the purpose of giving information of the movements | | of their hunting parties, and I think that the figures on the | | Dighton stone were meant to represent similar events. As, however, | | the inscriptions are deeply cut, and as it must have taken some | | considerable time to execute them, it may be granted that the | | Indians wished to leave, near the mouth of the river, a permanent | | record which would be intelligible to others. | | | | At many parts of this seaboard the New England tribes, as at | | Damariscotta visited the tidal waters to obtain food. | | | | [10] When afterwards passing through the forests near Palenque, | | in Central America, I observed that whenever the Indians found | | it necessary to quit the track, they immediately broke off small | | branches from the trees, and placed them on the ground over which | | they had trodden. As an additional precaution, they also made | | marks on the trunks with their hatchets. It was thus easy for | | them to get back to the place from which they had started. It is | | however evident, that this plan is only useful in those cases | | where the path is intentionally left. When the path is | | accidentally missed, it is of the greatest importance not to lose | | touch with the spot where you happen to be when your error is | | discovered. This position will necessarily be within a short | | distance by a straight line from the place from which you | | wandered. It has been ascertained that it is the tendency of men | | who have lost their way to unconsciously move in a circle, and | | thus much time may be wasted in trusting to personal judgment. It | | is a good plan to make a series of short tentative marches in | | different directions, in straight lines from your starting point, | | which should be considered as a central position to which you can | | always return if necessary. Such straight lines of direction can | | be made by marking trees, and keeping them as much as possible in | | line with each other. In dense forests a watch is not serviceable, | | as the sun does not penetrate them, and its bearing cannot be | | seen. A compass is useful to a certain extent, but the constant | | deviations that have to be made to avoid obstacles, tend to make | | the line of progress a succession of broken curves, and it becomes | | unsafe to rely upon the accuracy of the direction. Explorers have | | found it desirable to send men occasionally to the tops of the | | tallest trees to observe the nature of the country that is being | | traversed. When Cortes made his celebrated expedition from Mexico | | to Honduras, he maintained a straight march by the use of a ship’s | | compass, but in that case there was no difficulty, for the | | direction was followed by cutting down the trees that were in the | | line of the advance. | | | | [11] See “Report on the Geology and Topography of a portion of the | | Lake Superior Land District,” by I. W. Foster and I. D. Whitney. | | Washington, 1850. | | | | [12] The Jesuit Mission that was placed at Sault Ste. Marie, at | | the entrance of Lake Superior was, during the seventeenth and | | eighteenth centuries, one of the most important and influential | | of the missionary establishments in North America. Many of the | | Fathers who were attached to it had received a good mathematical | | education and were capable of making accurate geographical | | surveys. An excellent plan of Lake Superior and its islands was | | made by them in 1670, and the coast lines and bays were traced | | over a distance exceeding fifteen hundred miles. Amongst the | | distinguished men who worked at the mission were the Fathers | | Jogues, Allouez, Mesnard (who lost his way and perished in the | | forest when travelling across the Kee-wai-wona promontory), | | Dablon, and the well-known and devoted missionary, Jacques | | Marquette. | | | | [13] At Marietta, there still exists an ancient Indian mound or | | tumulus, about thirty feet high. It is situated near the | | south-east limits of the inclosures. When I saw it, it was under | | the care of the local authorities. | | | | [14] Morton’s Crania Americana, pp. 221. | | | | [15] It is known that a communication between the south-western | | extremity of Lake Superior and the Mississippi Valley, existed | | from an early time. When I was at Toronto, Professor Daniel | | Wilson, to whom I was indebted for much information upon subjects | | relating to American archæology, told me that it had been | | ascertained that the copper found in these mounds, was of the same | | character as that in the Lake Superior Mines: so that the question | | of its origin was practically settled. It thus seems probable that | | some of the small lumps of pure copper found in the forests and on | | the shores of the lake, near the Kee-wai-wona promontory, were | | brought into Ohio. | | | | A mound that was opened near Lake Ontario, and whose contents I | | examined, was stated to have been twelve feet high. Within it were | | about twenty skeletons, some coarse pottery, a number of arrow | | heads made of a hard flinty stone and several flat rectangular | | stones, pierced with one or two holes, which had been used as | | breast ornaments, possibly denoting a certain rank. There were | | also stone gouges, some stone axes and many fragments of charred | | wood. This was probably an Iroquois grave. | | | | [16] In the valley of the Mississippi, especially in the northern | | part which had been occupied by the Dakotas, I afterwards saw many | | burial mounds, which, with the exception of the unusually great | | mounds near Miamisburgh and Wheeling, resembled in all respects | | those in Ohio. The methods of burial with the Sioux were evidently | | similar to those of the Mound Builders, with respect to the custom | | of conveying skeletons from considerable distances for the purpose | | of placing them together in one burying heap. | | | | In several of the ancient burial mounds in Ohio, thin flat plates | | or slabs of mica are placed with the skeletons. This shining and | | silvery looking mineral appears to have been greatly valued by | | Indians. When I was on the coast of California, I happened to | | be present when a shell bank was cut open and a section of it | | examined. There was found, piled within it, a confused heap of | | skulls and shells, together with a larger quantity of rough pieces | | of mica. It is remarkable that the use of mica as an ornament | | should have been prevalent over such a wide geographical area | | amongst tribes dwelling so far apart. | | | | [17] I have seen a re-survey of the Newark inclosures made on | | behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, under the direction of | | Professor Cyrus Thomas. The results of this survey are very | | useful. The measurements have evidently been taken with much care. | | With respect to the Octagon, Professor Thomas observes that, “The | | angles at the crossings of the diagonals and diameters at the | | centre O, are so nearly right angles as to be worthy of notice in | | this connection. For instance, the angles at the crossings of the | | diagonals BF and DH, differ but 10´ from true right angles, while | | those at the crossing of the diameters AE and CG differ but 2´.” | | | | As regards the Square he states, that, “This inclosure varies but | | slightly from a true square, the course of the opposite sides in | | one case differing but 31´, and the other but 6´. The greatest | | variation at the corners from a true right angle is 57´.” | | | | The large Circle D is said to have a difference of diameters of | | twenty-six feet, these being respectively 1189 feet and 1163 feet. | | | | The Observatory Circle, which is the inclosure connected with the | | Octagon, was found to have been made with remarkable correctness. | | “The widest divergence between the line of the survey and the | | circumference of the true circle is four feet. It is therefore | | evident that the inclosure approaches in form very nearly an | | absolute circle.” | | | | Professor Thomas also states with reference to the Observatory | | Circle, that the radius is almost an exact multiple of the | | surveyor’s chain. | | | | The geometrical accuracy of the lines of embankments and of the | | inclosed areas in earthworks of such great dimensions, covering | | such large spaces of ground, is not the least strange fact | | concerning these works. | | | | [18] Archæologia Americana, Vol. I. The plan of the Marietta | | Inclosures is a reduction of a part of the survey made in 1837 | | by Mr. Charles Whittlesea, and published by the Smithsonian | | Institution in 1848. | | | | [19] Fort Du Quesne was built about the year 1752. It was | | situated near the spot where is now the town of Pittsburgh. In | | 1731 the Indians who then occupied the lands near Marietta formed | | an alliance with the French, and obtained their assistance in | | protecting them from the attacks of hostile tribes. These were | | probably the Iroquois, who at that period had made a treaty with | | the English, and were their allies during the wars against the | | French in Canada and this part of North America. | | | | [20] Archæologia Americana, Vol. I. | | | | [21] See Plan. | | | | [22] Upon an examination of the map it will be seen that the | | Serpent is placed in the territory west of the Scioto, and that | | the Alligator is east of that river. | | | | The mouth of the serpent is described as being opened wide. This | | peculiarity is observable with the serpent carved upon the walls | | of the Casa de las Monjas at Uxmal. | | | | [23] The valley below the Alligator is in the possession of a race | | of Welsh colonists who emigrated from Wales about the year 1802. | | At that time they did not speak English, and for many years | | refrained from learning that language. | | | | The church services are held in their town of Granville. | | | | These colonists were prosperous and contented. The majority of | | them bore the names of Griffith, Price, Lewis, and others which | | are usual in the seaboard counties of Wales. | | | | The adjacent high lands are called the Welsh hills. | | | | [24] “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,” pp. 19. | | | | [25] Second Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the State of | | Ohio, 1838, pp. 269. | | | | [26] The earthworks thrown up between Gallipoli and the Gulf of | | Saros during the Crimean war in 1854–1855 had the appearance of | | considerable antiquity when I saw them nearly a quarter of a | | century afterwards in 1878. | | | | [27] According to Hakluyt, Madoc “prepared certaine ships with | | men and munition, and sought adventures by seas; sailing West and | | leaving the coast of Ireland so farre North, that he came vnto a | | land vnknowen, where he saw many strange things. | | | | Of the voyage and returne of this Madoc there be many fables | | fained, as the common people do vse in distance of place and | | length of time, rather to augment than to diminish: but sure it is | | there he was.... This Madoc arriving in that Westerne countrey, | | vnto the which he came in the yere 1170, left most of his people | | there, and returning backe for more of his owne nation, | | acquaintance and friends to inhabit that faire and large countrey, | | went thither again with ten sailes, as I find noted by Gutyn Owen. | | | | I am of opinion that the land whereunto he came was some part of | | the West Indies.” | | | | Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. iii, p. 21. | | | | [28] When examining the inclosures near Newark, I had with me | | the plan of the survey of Mr. Atwater, published in 1820 in the | | 1st Volume of the Archæologia Americana. The plan pp. 66 is, in | | its proportions, a reduction that I made of the survey of Mr. | | Whittlesea, but the inclosures are drawn according to the plan of | | Mr. Atwater. | | | | The survey of Mr. Whittlesea is given at pp. 67 “Ancient Monuments | | of the Mississippi Valley.” Some of the smaller earthworks and | | parallels no longer exist, having been probably removed by the | | plough. | | | | With respect to the subject of Archæology in North America, I have | | to thank Dr. Baird, the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, | | for having placed in my hands the valuable and impartial work | | written by Mr. Haven. | | | | [29] See the Journal of Mr. Thaddeus Harris, pp. 54, published in | | Boston in 1805. | | | | [30] Florida was discovered in 1512 by Ponce de Leon, the aged | | governor of Porto Rico, who was then seeking for the Fountain of | | Youth, which, according to the statements of the historian of the | | voyage, was believed to have the power to rejuvenate old men, and | | restore to them the vigour of early manhood. | | | | An expedition undertaken a few years later, in 1528, by Pamphilo | | de Narvaez had a disastrous termination. Many Spaniards were left | | behind, the majority of whom were probably tortured and killed. | | Others, in accordance with Indian customs, may have been chosen by | | squaws to be their husbands, and would have consequently taken | | part in the conduct of tribal affairs. | | | | It is not unlikely that some of these Spanish adventurers, would | | have taken advantage of any opportunity that may have occurred, to | | proceed into the interior of the new continent. Due consideration | | should also be given to the fact that the French may have assisted | | the Indians in the construction of their forts on the plains, at | | any period between the dates of their first partial occupation of | | Canada in 1541, and the final abandonment of their positions in | | the valley of the Ohio in 1758. | | | | Amongst the various opinions that have been held with respect to | | the Mound Builders, there is one which attributes their origin to | | the northern part of Mexico. | | | | Mr. Lewis Morgan, whose works upon the subject of the Indian races | | have placed him in the position of being a high authority upon all | | matters relating to them, wrote to me a letter upon the question | | of their migrations, in which he observed as follows:—“Any opinion | | as to who were the mound builders must be speculative. It is quite | | probable that they were village Indians from New Mexico, and | | having found the climate too severe for their type of village | | life, retired gradually from the country.” Although it has to be | | admitted that all theories as to the Mound Builders must be | | necessarily indeterminate, yet nothing has been found amongst the | | ornaments or weapons that were placed in their burial mounds, | | which supports the hypothesis that they were different in race or | | intelligence from the tribes that surrounded them. | | | | [31] The school teacher, Miss Maud Osborn, requested me to accept | | this spear head in memory of my visit. | | | | [32] The Missouri joins the Mississippi after having pursued a | | devious course from the Rocky Mountains, for a distance estimated | | to be nearly three thousand miles, of which the greater part is | | navigable at that season of the year when its waters are at their | | highest level. | | | | [33] Nauvoo was once brought into prominent notice in connection | | with the Mormons, as it was here that they built their first great | | temple. | | | | Judge Williams had personally known Joseph Smith, the founder of | | Mormonism, and Rigdon his chief colleague. Joseph Smith, he said, | | was an illiterate man, but, was remarkable for a kind of | | shrewdness combined with great insight into character. | | | | Rigdon, who had been formerly a Baptist preacher, was well | | educated, and was generally employed in obtaining converts and | | explaining to them the meaning of Smith’s visions and the | | doctrines of the new religion. | | | | He described Brigham Young, with whom he was also acquainted, as | | being a person of determined character, with a domineering manner. | | | | When I was at Salt Lake City, in the following December, I had a | | long interview with that able and astute leader of men. | | | | Within twenty years from the time when he conducted the flight | | of the Mormons across the deserts from Nauvoo to Utah, he had | | succeeded in establishing a highly satisfactory condition of | | good order and prosperity throughout the territories under his | | government; and controlled, with unquestioned authority, a | | community consisting of one hundred and forty thousand people. | | | | [34] As I looked at the cliff and the reflection of its shadow in | | the calm smooth waters of the lake, I recalled to mind a similar | | scene viewed from the deck of H.M.S. Racer when passing at sunset | | the promontory of Cape Leucate, in Santa Maura, the classical site | | of Sappho’s leap. There is a special interest attached to the | | fate of Winona, for it proves that Indian girls of Dakota birth | | are capable of higher degrees of sentiment with regard to their | | marriage, than those believed to exist among other tribes. She | | was not permitted for some tribal reason to marry the man she had | | chosen, and preferred death to marriage with the warrior to whom | | she was assigned by the command of her parents. | | | | [35] The accompanying illustration is drawn from a pencil sketch | | made by the author near this spot. | | | | [36] “I was greatly surprised,” states Captain Carver, “at | | beholding an instance of such elevated devotion in so young an | | Indian, and instead of ridiculing the ceremonies attending it, as | | I observed my Catholic servant tacitly did, I looked on the prince | | with a greater degree of respect for these sincere proofs he gave | | of his piety; and I doubt not, but that his offerings and prayers, | | were as acceptable to the universal Parent of mankind, as if they | | had been made with greater pomp, or in a consecrated place.” | | _Travels in North America_, pp. 62. | | | | [37] Archæologia Americana, Vol. II, pp. 128. | | | | [38] In Chapter xvii it will be seen that the Aztecs or Toltecs in | | Yucatan, also, in certain cases, killed the victim by a flight of | | arrows. | | | | [39] One of the best authenticated instances of this custom of | | torturing prisoners was witnessed by a Mr. James Smith who, during | | the time that he was a captive amongst the Delawares, was present | | when the English prisoners taken after General Braddock’s defeat | | were brought into camp by the Indians. | | | | He states that, upon that occasion, about a dozen of the prisoners | | were stripped and tied to stakes, tortured with fire-brands and | | burnt to death. | | | | The ferocity of the Indians towards their captives after battle | | was well known to the British and French commanders, and was one | | of the difficulties that attended their employment as allies. | | There is a subject indirectly connected with these Indian customs | | in war which may here be considered. It is that of cannibalism. | | | | Investigations into this question lead to the conclusion that | | there is no evidence to show that any of the North American tribes | | were in the habit of following this revolting custom except under | | rare circumstances during the prosecution of a serious war. | | | | I only know of two instances, seen and recorded, of Indians | | devouring human flesh. In both cases it is evident that the acts | | were committed in accordance with the usages of hostile tribes | | when engaged in war. | | | | The first case is mentioned in a report made to his superiors, by | | the French missionary, Father Roubaud, who accompanied the Indian | | allies of the French troops during the operations against the | | British forces in 1757. | | | | An English captive, who was believed to have been an officer, was | | cooked and eaten by the Ottawas under circumstances singularly | | repulsive. The Father Roubaud, who was present and witnessed part | | of the proceedings, was horrified by what he saw, and finding that | | he could do nothing to check the tribe in their savage feast was | | forced to withdraw to his tent. | | | | The other instance occurred after the capture of the garrison of | | Michel Mackinac by the Chippewas. Mr. Alexander Henry, the same | | person who, at another time, undertook the mining operations on | | the shores of Lake Superior which are mentioned in a preceding | | chapter, was a captive. He states that one of the white prisoners | | was killed and divided into five parts which were cooked in five | | kettles and then eaten at a special feast. | | | | Mr. Henry was of opinion, from what he observed, that this food | | was taken with repugnance. An Indian told him that what he saw was | | done to inspire the warriors with courage. | | | | [40] When I was at the village of San Domingo del Palenque in | | Central America, Dr. Coller, a resident there, told me he had | | carried out, during several years, a series of investigations to | | ascertain the reasons for the existence of large green savannahs | | in the heart of the adjacent forests. He had formed the conclusion | | that those open spaces were caused by the exceptional character of | | the ground which, he said, differed from that upon which the trees | | grew. The similar openings amongst the forests in Ceylon called | | patenas, are, I believe, also supposed to be the effect of the | | nature or poverty of the land. | | | | It is noticeable that the forests usually skirt or surround | | savannahs in sharp well-defined outlines like an enclosing | | barrier, in the same manner as the meadows, formed by the | | consequences of the action of beavers, occur in Michigan. | | | | [41] After my return to England I happened to discuss this subject | | with Colonel Yule, who had just then completed his work of editing | | the Travels of Marco Polo. He told me that when he was in Burmah, | | Lord Dalhousie, who was at that time Governor-General of India, | | sent him into the interior to visit the forests of Aracan. | | | | He found within them several large clearings, and observed that | | the new growths were of a different character from the old trees | | and were invariably bamboos. He also saw amongst the mountains | | many deciduous trees which were quite bare of leaves whilst their | | branches were covered with brilliantly coloured flowers. | | | | Upon another occasion Dr. Rae, who had passed much of his life in | | the Hudson Bay Territories and became known by his discovery of | | the relics of Sir John Franklin’s expedition, mentioned to me that | | he had frequently seen that when trees had been uprooted, | | raspberry bushes sprang up in their place thus showing that their | | seeds must have been in the ground. Dr. Joseph Norwood, Assistant | | Geologist, in his report of the survey of the region west of Lake | | Superior, undertaken in 1847, states that from facts which had | | come under his observation, he was led to believe that, “if after | | the clearing of the pine forests, the annual fires cease, a growth | | of oak springs up in some places and aspen in others.” (_Owen’s | | Geological Survey_, pp. 296). In British Columbia the ancient | | forest pines are often succeeded by cedars or alders. | | | | [42] The subject of the destruction of snakes is mentioned by Mr. | | Murray, in his “Travels in North America.” | | | | When passing through a ravine in the territories of the Pawnees | | he observed, “I never should have believed it possible that so | | many rattlesnakes could have been assembled together as I saw in | | that ravine. I think there must have been nearly enough to fatten | | a drove of Missouri hogs,” and he adds in a note. “It is well | | known that in the Western States where rattlesnakes are still | | plentiful the hogs kill and eat them; nor is their bite formidable | | to their swinish enemy, on whom its venomous fangs seem to produce | | no effect. It is owing to this well-known fact that families | | resident in those districts conceive that hogs-lard must be a kind | | of antidote to their poison, and frequently use it (I believe | | successfully) as a remedy.” (_Travels in North America, by Hon. | | Charles Augustus Murray, Vol._ ii, _pp._ 42.) | | | | An Englishman who had a large farm in West Virginia, told me that | | the hillsides were cleared of the snakes, which had previously | | infested them, by turning out pigs upon them. | | | | A similar result took place in Minnesota and upon the prairies | | east of the Missouri. | | | | [43] “Etudes Philologiques sur quelques Langues Sauvages de | | L’Amérique,” Montreal, 1866. | | | | [44] In the Encyclopædia Americana (1886), the total Indian | | population is said to be (exclusive of Alaska) 264,369. The | | Dakotas are stated to number thirty-one thousand. | | | | [45] The Council building on the reservation was called the Long | | House, not on account of its size or shape, but in accordance with | | an ancient tradition. | | | | When the separation of the Iroquois took place, it was decided by | | the Council that the expression Long House was to be used as a | | symbol, that the nations were theoretically under one roof, which | | extended over all the lands occupied by them. In pursuance of this | | theory, certain tribes were given particular duties. The Senecas | | had to guard the gates looking towards the sunset, and the Mohawks | | were to watch the approaches to the gates placed in the direction | | of sunrise. | | | | As far as it is possible to form conclusions, with respect to the | | state of the Indian tribes in the sixteenth century, it appears | | that the Iroquois, in consequence of their league, had attained | | to a comparatively advanced state of warlike capacity, and had | | organised methods of conducting a campaign. | | | | They also formed regular alliances, and made treaties which they | | faithfully executed. | | | | In their treatment of captives they were cruel and barbarous, but | | they possessed in the highest degree the qualities of courage and | | endurance. | | | | [46] I should here mention that, when I was at Boston, I was much | | assisted in making investigations into certain characteristics of | | the North American Indians by Mr. Francis Parkman, whose | | researches upon all subjects relating to the condition of the | | aboriginal tribes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, have | | placed him in the first rank of the historians of that period. | | | | Mr. Parkman was personally well acquainted with the Dakotas, | | amongst whom he had dwelt for nearly two years. | | | | He, on several occasions arranged, in the kindest manner, that I | | should meet those who were interested in the native races. Upon | | one of these occasions I met Mr. E. G. Squier, whose original | | surveys of the ancient earthworks in Ohio were published by the | | Smithsonian Institution. | | | | The introductions given to me by Mr. Parkman to the distinguished | | archæologists, Mr. Lewis Morgan and Professor Daniel Wilson, were | | also most useful. | | | | [47] In the prison at Omaha I saw three Pawnees named Blue-Hawk, | | Yellow-Son and Tall-Wolf, who had endeavoured to commit suicide in | | order to avoid being hanged. One of them, I think it was Blue-Hawk | | (Sha-to-ko), had managed to conceal a long piece of hard wood, | | one end of which he had rubbed down to a sharp point. He was | | employed in pushing this through his body, between the ribs, when | | he was observed by the warder and prevented from completing his | | purpose. Another prisoner had removed a brick from the floor and | | was trying to fracture his skull with it. All of them had torn | | away portions of their skin and cut themselves in many places with | | small fragments of glass which they had obtained secretly. The | | warder told me that he had taken every precaution to stop these | | desperate attempts of the Indians to destroy themselves. They | | seemed to be able to bear these self inflicted wounds without | | showing signs of distress. | | | | [48] The supernatural powers attributed to the “medicine men” are | | not worthy of attention, except so far as they illustrate the | | credulity of Indians, and show the influence of certain methods of | | imposture upon them. Their tricks are usually of a kind which are | | perfectly within the capacity of an ordinary juggler. | | | | Their pretension of possessing the power of making rain is however | | a subject of a different nature. | | | | This particular act is chiefly remarkable because there is no form | | of imposture which can be so readily detected. Nevertheless the | | Indian tribes throughout the western parts of North America | | usually have “Rain-makers,” in whose powers they appear to have | | confidence. | | | | I met in California a young Englishman who had been living for | | several months with various tribes near the coast, between British | | Columbia and New Mexico. | | | | He told me that he had been present upon an occasion when a | | successful attempt at rain-making occurred. The event took place | | upon a promontory in the southern part of California. | | | | The tribe wanted rain, and their rain-maker declared that he could | | obtain what was desired. He proceeded to make upon an adjoining | | hill, a large bonfire which was kept well supplied with fuel and | | gave out dense volumes of smoke. The fire was kept burning for | | over twenty-four hours, and then the efforts of the rain-maker | | were rewarded by a good and sufficient fall of rain. Here, as | | elsewhere, the Indians employed fire and smoke as agents for | | producing rain. | | | | [49] See Chapter VI. | | | | [50] The offerings are sometimes made to appease the angry spirit | | dwelling in the serpent. | | | | Occasionally the Dakotas sacrifice a dog to it. | | | | [51] “Indian Tribes of North America.” Vol. IV. pp. 51. | | | | [52] The remaining daughters were alive when I was in Minnesota. | | One of them was married to a man of the tribe. The other was the | | wife of a white man, who, Faribault said, was employed as a | | drummer at Fort Snelling. | | | | [53] With many of the Dakota and Chippewa tribes there existed a | | custom of placing upon the scaffolding a wand which was painted | | red, blue and white. They believed that the spirit of the Indian | | had to cross a river over which was a long log of wood. Upon | | reaching the opposite bank, the spirit met the spirits of his | | enemies. To one of them he would show the red, to another the | | blue, and finally he pointed to the white and then all enmities | | ceased. | | | | [54] The albatrosses in the Southern ocean which, like the | | pelicans, are birds of great size and weight (I have measured some | | which exceeded twelve feet across the wings) maintain for hours an | | equal height above the level of the sea. | | | | In the high latitudes south of the Cape of Good Hope and the | | Crozet Islands there is always a strong gale blowing, and | | consequently by a very slight and imperceptible movement or | | inclination of the wings the albatrosses obtained the necessary | | pressure which enabled them to rise, descend, or maintain their | | hovering position. | | | | In the case of pelicans moving rapidly in a perfect calm, the | | method by which they maintain their height in the air is not so | | easily understood. | | | | [55] The foreign residents living in Guatemala, included Mr. | | Corbett, our Chargé d’affaires; M. de Cabarrus, chief of the | | French legation; the Duke and Duchess de Licignano, Dr. Wynne, Mr. | | and Mrs. Hague, Mr. and Mrs. Hockmeyer, and M. Hardy: to all of | | whom I was indebted for much kindness and hospitality. | | | | [56] Author of “A New Survey of the West Indies,” published in 1648. | | | | [57] “Relation of what happened by the Will of God, on Saturday, | | the 10th of September, 1541, two hours after sunset in the town of | | Santiago de Guatimala.” Ternaux-Compans. | | | | [58] Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España escrita | | por el Capitan Bernal Diaz del Castillo, uno de sus | | Conquistadores. | | | | [59] The substances thrown out from craters frequently differ in | | their character. Judging from the composition of the surface of | | portions of the land near the Guatemala volcanoes, especially upon | | the slopes of the barrancas, it is evident that large quantities | | of pozzolana were ejected. One of the latest eruptions that has | | occurred was at the Island of Santorin in the Grecian Archipelago | | in February, 1866. I was present when the new volcano emerged from | | the sea. | | | | The inhabitants of Santorin, upon seeing volumes of steam and | | smoke issuing from the waters of the bay, apprehended some serious | | peril to be imminent. They feared the possibility of their town | | being overwhelmed by an eruption of ashes, and made a request that | | a ship of war should be sent to the spot to render any assistance | | that might be necessary. I immediately went there in the “Racer” | | and remained until all fears of danger had passed away. | | | | The crater of the volcano, afterwards called Aphroessa, rose | | slowly from the surface of the water, and it was possible to | | observe the nature of the interior during the intervals between | | the eruptions. There was no lava or pozzolana, but only large | | cinders which, as they issued from the crater, were thrown into | | the air, and then fell upon the outer slopes, thus gradually | | forming an island. | | | | It was a very remarkable scene; during the day there were heavy | | volumes of smoke and constant rumbling sounds, as the pent up | | forces below the mouth of the crater were gathering strength to | | throw forth the mass of cinders that closed them in. At night the | | glare caused by the reflection of the fire of the interior upon | | the dense clouds immediately overhanging it was very vivid. The | | surface of the surrounding waters was over-spread by running | | tongues of brilliantly coloured flames. The island was composed of | | cinders and ashes, whose porous nature could never permit any | | lodgement of water upon them. I examined several of the craters of | | the extinct volcanoes on the islands adjacent to Aphroessa, and | | there was no instance of any small pond or collection of water | | existing within them. The interior of the Volcan de Agua, possibly | | contained a thick substratum of water-bearing pozzolana. | | | | An account of the volcanoes of Santorin was given by Sir Charles | | Lyell. “Principles of Geology.” Vol. ii, pp. 70. | | | | [60] “History of the Kingdom of Guatemala,” by Don Domingo Juarros, | | translated by J. Baily, Lieutenant R.M., pp. 384. | | | | [61] Bernal Diaz states that “Pá-pa,” was the name given by the | | Indians in Yucatan to their chief-priests. The Spaniards were much | | surprised to find upon their arrival in America, that the Indian | | chief-priests were called by the same name as the Pope of Rome. | | “Kues” were temples or altars. | | | | [62] Quetzales are birds with bright green plumage, having their | | tail feathers of great length, and are found chiefly in the | | highlands of Guatemala. | | | | [63] Palacio’s Report was published for the first time in the | | original Spanish by Mr. E. G. Squier, in 1860. As it is important | | that the author’s meaning should not be misunderstood, I have | | translated it literally, as far as this is possible, considering | | that it is written in the Spanish of the 16th century. | | | | [64] Carved and polished ornaments made of hard stone of green | | colour. | | | | [65] Diaz observes that Guatimozin—who, after the death of | | Montezuma had become the Emperor of the Mexicans—sent the hands | | and feet of the Spaniards that had been sacrificed, together with | | the heads of the horses that had been killed, to the Indian chiefs | | who had formed a league of alliance with Cortes, and sent them | | messages to the effect, that the remaining Spaniards would soon be | | conquered, and that consequently those chiefs should submit to the | | Aztec power and send ambassadors to him. In the meantime, human | | sacrifices took place daily in the great temple, accompanied by | | the dismal sound of the drum, the discordant noises of the shell | | trumpets, and the horrible shouts and yells of the Mexicans. | | During the night large fires were kept burning on the platform, | | and on each night several Spaniards were sacrificed. | | | | These ceremonies lasted for ten days, until all the captives had | | been sacrificed; and during this time the Mexicans made frequent | | and furious attacks upon the troops. Diaz relates, that the Indian | | soldiers told them that they were wretched creatures who would | | soon be all killed, and that their flesh was disagreeable to taste | | and bad to eat. “Vuestras carnes son tan malas para comer.” | | | | The last Spaniard who was sacrificed was Christobal de Guzman. | | | | [66] Bernal Diaz, Historia Verdadera, chap. clii. | | | | [67] First Report of Pedro de Alvarado to Cortes, dated Utatlan, | | 11th April, 1524. | | | | [68] See the 5th letter of Cortes, to the Emperor Charles V. | | | | [69] Small black beans. | | | | [70] Juarros, Baily’s Translation, p. 457. | | | | [71] In Guatemala this prayer is called La Oracion. | | | | This custom is familiar to those who have travelled upon the | | Italian coasts, or who have visited the western parts of Brittany | | near Carnac and in the Morbihan, where the faith of the peasants | | still remains strong. | | | | The Indians living amongst the hills frequently assemble in | | considerable numbers, and, kneeling on the ground, worship outside | | the doors of their churches; and there is a singular resemblance | | in the manner of their devotion to what is to be seen at the | | “Pardons” of the Bretons, where the peasants come from long | | distances, light their candles, and kneel before the church door, | | the line of the worshippers often extending beyond the precincts | | of the churchyard. | | | | [72] A name given by Spanish priests to the ancient temples and | | shrines of the Indians. | | | | [73] Las Casas, who was Bishop of the adjacent diocese of Chiapas | | in the sixteenth century, mentions that it was the custom there | | amongst the lower classes to give a year’s service to the | | parents.—“Pero la gente comun tenía de costumbre de servir in sus | | labores un año al padre de la que por mujer queria, de la manera | | que Jacob sirvio à Laban por sus hijas Rachel y Lya.” This was | | also the custom in Yucatan. | | | | [74] Long capes made of sackcloth. | | | | [75] When I passed through Mexico, the execution of the Emperor | | Maximilian and the unhappy fate of the Empress Carlotta, were | | subjects of discussion. It has often been a matter of surprise, | | that Juarez should have thought it necessary that the sentence of | | the court-martial should be carried out. The French troops, upon | | whom the stability of the empire depended, had been withdrawn, | | and the success of the National party was assured. An act of | | forbearance upon this occasion would have met with approval, and | | have been acknowledged as a wise exercise of superior authority. | | It was however otherwise determined, and the Emperor was shot | | outside the walls of Querétaro. | | | | In the American official book upon Mexican affairs, there is a | | memorandum of the conversation between Mr. Seward, the Foreign | | Secretary, and Señor Matias Romero, the Mexican Minister, at | | Washington. Mr. Seward stated, that England, France and Austria, | | had desired the United States to use their good offices for | | Maximilian, and further observed, that “Mr. Seward does not fear | | any contingency possible in virtue whereof any European power may | | attempt to invade or interfere in future in Mexico, or in any | | other Republican nation on this continent. For this reason he does | | not think that Mexico need fear any attempt at reprisals on the | | part of any European powers, as a consequence of any extreme | | decision which the Mexican Government may take; but at the same | | time, Mr. Seward also believes that a feeling universally | | favourable, conciliatory and friendly towards the Republic of | | Mexico and the other American Republics, would probably be the | | result of the act of clemency and magnanimity, which the United | | States have thought proper to recommend.” | | | | Clemency is not a quality that naturally exists in the mind of a | | North or Central American Indian. | | | | [76] It recalled to my memory an old Spanish picture belonging to | | Dr. Pusey, which always held the principal place upon the walls of | | his library in Christ Church, Oxford. | | | | [77] The method of building their huts varies amongst different | | tribes, but the general principles are much the same. I have | | passed many hours of the day and night within them, and noticed | | their practical convenience in tropical climates; and although, | | according to civilised ideas of comfort, there is much that is | | wanting, yet for the purposes of the simple and solitary lives of | | these shy and inoffensive Indians, it would be difficult to | | contrive any shelter more suitable for their requirements. | | | | [78] I had previously observed when travelling in the Cyrenaica in | | the regions around Cyrene, that the Bedouins could perform a long | | day’s hard work and subsist upon a few handfuls of grains of wheat | | moistened with water. | | | | [79] Dr. Coller was surprised to see me. It was supposed that I was | | the first Englishman who had come to Palenque from the coasts of | | the Pacific, Mr. Stephens, my predecessor being an American. I am | | however under the impression that his companion, Mr. Catherwood, | | was an Englishman. | | | | [80] Dr. Coller’s hut at San Domingo del Palenque was not a Castle | | of Lirias, but probably the lines quoted by Gil Blas were often in | | his mind. Indeed there are many others who, if they saw that | | hamlet as I saw it in the month of March, would concur with him in | | saying: | | | | “Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete. | | Sat me lusistis: ludite nunc alios.” | | | | [81] In the final chapters, xix-xx, will be found the conclusions | | that I have formed with regard to the temple and tablet of the | | cross. | | | | [82] See frontispiece. | | | | [83] The areas occupied by the temples differed considerably in | | their extent. The largest of them which I measured was that of the | | Temple of the Cross. | | | | Its interior dimensions were forty-three feet seven inches long | | by twenty-five feet four inches deep; the outer walls were three | | feet thick. Therefore the ground space covered by the building was | | nearly fifty feet in frontage and a little more than thirty-one | | feet in depth. Its exterior height was about twenty feet. The | | measurements of the temple on the adjoining pyramid were less. | | | | [84] A clear and instructive memoir by Professor Charles Rau, upon | | the subject of the interpretation of the Palenque hieroglyphs, is | | to be found in one of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, | | published in 1879. | | | | Investigations have also been made in England, France and Germany. | | I believe it has been ascertained that a dot means one, a bar | | five, a bar with two dots seven, and two bars represent ten. It | | has also been discovered that the hieroglyphs are to be read from | | left to right, and from the top downwards. If this is correct it | | is a discovery of considerable importance. Upon an examination of | | the illustration in the frontispiece of the Palenque altar tablet | | it will be observed, from the position of the leading groups of | | figures on the left slab, that the heads are probably intended to | | represent the chiefs of the Toltec tribe. | | | | The numerous explorations that have latterly taken place | | throughout Mexico, Guatemala and Yucatan have practically | | determined the positions and extent of all the ancient Indian | | ruins that still exist in those lands. Therefore it is not | | expected that any more discoveries of importance will be made. It | | is however possible that one or more small temples or structures | | may be found hidden among the forests in the line of direction | | between Ocosingo and Flores. | | | | In the United States much attention is being given to the study of | | the Mexican and Maya manuscripts. | | | | It is to be hoped that methods of interpretation will be | | established upon a sound basis, and that the characters written | | upon the codices, and the hieroglyphs graven upon the idols and | | stone tablets will be ultimately deciphered. | | | | [85] Some years after my return to England I had a long | | conversation upon the subject of alligators with Mr. Bates, who | | was then our Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and | | whose knowledge upon all matters concerning the habits of animals | | in tropical lands was very extensive. In his book “The Naturalist | | on the Amazons,” he mentions a case that happened at a place | | called Carcara. | | | | An Indian, one of the crew belonging to a trading canoe, whilst in | | a half-drunken state went down to bathe in the lake and stumbled. | | A pair of gaping jaws seized him round the waist and dragged him | | under water; after a short lapse of time the brute came up to | | breathe and was seen with one leg of the man sticking out from his | | jaws. | | | | Other instances of this kind have been mentioned by naturalists, | | but I do not remember any cases of men being seized when actually | | swimming in the water. Possibly my Indians may have known from | | hearsay or experience the truth of what they stated. | | | | It has been said that alligators, owing to the formation of their | | throats, cannot swallow their prey in the water, but are obliged | | to go to the banks for that purpose. | | | | It was not, however, upon the subject of the danger to men from | | approaching these reptiles that the conversation chiefly turned. | | | | We discussed the question of their food supply. Mr. Bates said | | that they lived upon fish. I observed, with reference to that part | | of the river where I had seen them congregated in such amazing | | numbers, that it was impossible that the supply of food from fish | | alone could be sufficient, and also that in consequence of the | | filthy state of the water no fish could live in it. | | | | Mr. Bates after some consideration said that their food must be | | fish, but he added, that it was probable that they could live in | | an almost torpid condition for long periods. | | | | Mr. Bates felt assured that fish formed the food of alligators. It | | was not possible to feel quite satisfied with this solution of the | | problem, especially under circumstances where alligators abound in | | stagnant lagoons in which fish must necessarily be scarce. | | | | In the unfrequented parts of the estuaries of rivers flowing into | | the Caribbean sea, it can be understood that at certain seasons of | | the year the supply of fish may be great, and we have the | | authority of that careful observer Mr. Bartram, for the statement | | that upon those occasions the numbers of alligators crowding the | | rivers in Florida were astonishing. | | | | In 1853 the “Vestal” happened to be cruising off Cuba, and I was | | sent in charge of the boats to look for fresh water in Guantanomo | | harbour, at a spot which was reputed to have been a favourite | | haunt of pirates in the seventeenth century. | | | | After some search we discovered a small stream, but the entrance | | was defended by such crowds of alligators that we had great | | difficulty in passing through them. If, as was possible, they were | | waiting for the arrival of fish from the upper waters, it may be | | inferred that a comparatively small supply of food suffices for | | their sustenance. | | | | [86] “Cartas de Hernan Cortes,” collected by Don Pascual de | | Gayangos, p. 407. | | | | [87] “Almaizal, a sort of veil or head attire used by the Moorish | | women, made of thin silk, striped of several colours, and shagged | | at the ends, which hangs down on the back.” Baretti’s Dictionary, | | 1807. | | | | [88] See “Landa’s Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan,” edited and | | translated by L’Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. | | | | [89] See chapter vii. | | | | [90] Landa “Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan.” p. 164. | | | | [91] See chapter xi. | | | | [92] The facing stones placed upon the walls of the ruins of Mitla, | | in the Mexican province of Oaxaca, are fitted, or bedded, into the | | mortar and rubble in the same manner as at Uxmal. | | | | At one of the evening conversaziones given by the Royal Society at | | Burlington House, in the spring of 1892, I happened to discuss the | | subject of Palenque and Uxmal with Mr. Woolner, the sculptor. Some | | experiments had previously been carried out in France which had | | proved that with stone chisels it was possible to carve granite, | | limestones, and hard sandstones. | | | | The investigations did not, however, make it clear how it could | | have happened that the Indian sculptors were able to work with | | such facility that they covered their buildings with deeply | | chiselled ornamentation. Mr. Woolner said that he thought it | | probable that the Indians may have been acquainted with some | | strong acids, and that they may have used these to soften the | | stone and make it more workable. | | | | We were looking at some photographs exhibited by Mr. Maudslay, | | who had lately returned from Palenque, and the question of the | | method of carving the outlines of the figures on the stone slabs | | of the courts came under consideration. Mr. Woolner thought that | | the subject was very difficult, but that it was possible that the | | figures had been previously traced and then worked with acid as he | | had already suggested. | | | | [93] When I heard of this Indian practice my thoughts went far away | | from the forests of Palenque. Memories of the Eton playing fields | | were recalled and an old Eton Latin grammar, and the familiar | | line, “Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas regumque | | turres.” With Indians, as with others, the fatal footstep cannot | | be turned aside. | | | | [94] For a description of this ceremony see Landa, chap. xxvi. | | “Manner of baptism in Yucatan. How it was celebrated.” | | | | [95] See “Historia de la Guerra de Castas de Yucatan,” p. 77. | | Merida, 1866. | | | | [96] As the little Aguinaga was timidly seeking for an anchorage, I | | remembered a far different scene in which I had taken part in | | 1853, seventeen years earlier. | | | | The Vestal, a twenty-six gun frigate in which I was then serving, | | had captured three slavers off the north coast of Cuba. One of | | them was a fast sailing vessel called the Venus. She had become | | notorious for her success in evading our cruisers and landing | | large cargoes of slaves. | | | | When we arrived off the mouth of the port of Havannah we formed | | our fleet of prizes into line and passed between the castles in | | triumph: our movements being watched by thousands of the Spanish | | inhabitants as we took up our anchorage in the centre of the | | harbour. | | | | [97] “Work in Mound Exploration of the Bureau of Ethnology,” by | | Cyrus Thomas, Washington, 1887. | | | | [98] “The Mounds of the Mississippi Valley, Historically | | Considered,” by Lucien Carr, Assistant Curator of the Peabody | | Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology, Cambridge, Mass. | | | | [99] See Note, chapter iv., p. 69. | | | | [100] In the sixteenth century, the Cherokees occupied the lands in | | that part of America where the States of North Carolina, Alabama | | and Georgia border upon the State of Tennessee. | | | | [101] See chapter v., p. 94. | | | | [102] Merida now occupies the site of Tihoo. The stones, with which | | were built the pyramids and temples, were used in the construction | | of the new city. | | | | [103] Relation des choses de Yucatan, p. 351. | | | | [104] According to Humboldt, the Toltecs arrived in Anáhuac | | (Mexico) A.D. 648, and reached Tula in 670. The pyramids of | | Téotihuacan, a few leagues north of the modern city of Mexico, | | were built by them. They afterwards raised the great pyramid of | | Cholula, and on its platform built a temple for the worship of | | Quetzalcoatl. From Cholula, colonies of the Toltecs went to | | Tabasco and Yucatan. | | | | The Aztecs arrived in Mexico in 1190, and found there the pyramids | | which they believed to hive been the work of their predecessors | | the Toltecs, who had obtained a knowledge of hieroglyphics and | | of methods of computing time by calendars. The Aztecs founded | | Tenochtitlan (the city of Mexico) in 1325. | | | | [105] The custom of confining captives or slaves in wooden cages | | for the purpose of being prepared for sacrifice, was supposed to | | have been established by the Aztecs about a century after they had | | settled in Mexico. | | | | There is reason to believe that in consequence of their being | | surrounded by enemies and engaged in constant wars, they | | considered it necessary to propitiate the war god in the most | | terrific manner. Thus when the great Teocalli, erected for the | | worship of Huitzil-pochli, was completed, many thousands of | | victims were sacrificed as propitiatory offerings. When colonies | | of the Aztec race were advancing in the direction of Tabasco and | | Yucatan, similar sacrificial ceremonies were performed. | | | | Bernal Diaz saw, in one of the Indian towns that had been captured | | by the Spaniards, three large cages full of prisoners who were | | waiting to be sacrificed. They were fastened by collars to prevent | | their escape. They were taken out of the cages and sent back to | | their own tribes. He elsewhere observes that the Indians devoured | | human flesh after the victims had been sacrificed, in the same way | | as the Spaniards devoured oxen. It is evident that great numbers | | of the aboriginal natives must have been kept in slavery and, in | | time of war, were killed and eaten by the Aztecs. | | | | [106] Bernal Diaz, chapter xxix, and Landa, p. 12. | | | | [107] It was noticed soon after the Spanish conquest that the | | Indians died rapidly from causes of a mental character. They died | | because they did not wish to live. The conditions of slavery they | | were forced to endure had such an effect upon them that they | | gradually lost their strength. After submitting for a time to | | the hardships imposed upon them they appeared to become resigned | | to their fate. Life was a burden. They lost heart and died from | | misery. This was particularly the case in Cuba and Hispaniola. | | | | [108] The Indians in Yucatan, had a chief priest who had a general | | control over all matters relating to the priesthood. He nominated | | the priests to the villages, examined them in their sciences and | | ceremonies, provided them with books and sent them to attend in | | the service of the temples. | | | | According to Landa “they taught the sons of other priests and the | | younger sons of the chiefs that were brought to them for this | | purpose when they were children, if it was observed that they were | | inclined towards this office. The sciences which they taught were | | the computations of the years, months, and days, the festivals and | | ceremonies, the administration of their sacraments, the days and | | times that were fatal, the manner of divinations and prophecies | | and coming events, the remedies for sickness and things concerning | | antiquities, and to read and write with their books, and | | characters with which they wrote and with figures which explained | | the writings.” | | | | In Yucatan, as in Mexico, the calendar was carefully constructed. | | The year consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days and six | | hours. Landa observes that the months were of two kinds. One was | | lunar and was regulated by the movements of the moon. The other | | method of computation was formed by dividing the year into | | eighteen divisions or months, each consisting of twenty days and | | there were five days and six hours over. Of these six hours one | | day was made every four years. For these three hundred and | | sixty-six days they had twenty letters or characters by which they | | were named. (Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan, pp. 42; 202). | | | | Las Casas observes in his Apologética Historia, chapter cxxi, that | | “the year of the Mexican people consisted of three hundred and | | sixty-five days divided into eighteen months and five days. Each | | month was twenty days, and the week was thirteen days of which | | they had constituted a calendar, and for each day of the week, of | | the month and of the year they had its idol with its own name, and | | these names were of men, or of women which they held or had held | | as gods; and thus all the days were filled up with these idols | | and names and figures in the same manner as our breviaries and | | calendars have for each day its saint.” | | | | The illustration of the calendar stone is from a photograph | | taken from the original stone in the city of Mexico. This great | | astronomical record was discovered in the year 1790, buried | | several feet below the surface, in the spot where stood the chief | | pyramid and temple of the Aztecs. It is made from a large mass of | | basalt, and the circular part has a circumference of more than | | thirty-eight feet. It is probably one of the earliest and one of | | the most elaborate of the sculptured works of the Toltecs. It will | | be observed that the points have a singular resemblance to those | | of the mariner’s compass. The head placed in the centre has been | | supposed to represent the Mexican god of the sun. It is possible | | that it may have been intended to represent Quetzalcoatl, the | | traditional teacher and originator of the Mexican knowledge of | | astronomy. | | | | [109] The fact of men wearing beards would be considered | | extraordinary by the American Indians. Landa states that | | “Cucul-can raised several temples, established regulations for the | | maintenance of good order, and then left Yucatan and proceeded | | towards Mexico.” | | | | [110] Apologética Historia, chapter cxxiii. | | | | [111] With respect to the ancient Indian structures it is expedient | | to give a brief consideration to those that were raised at Copan | | and Quirigua. The earliest account of the sculptures existing at | | Copan was given by Palacio in 1576. In his Report to the King of | | Spain he mentions that within the ruins was a stone cross three | | palms high, and beyond it “There was a statue more than four yards | | high, sculptured like a bishop in his pontifical robes with his | | mitre well worked and with rings in his hands.” | | | | After describing other large statues and the ruins overlooking the | | river, Palacio observes, “I enquired with all possible attention | | for any traditions from the ancient people as to what people lived | | here, and if anything was known of their ancestors, and whether | | there were any books concerning these antiquities ... They say | | that anciently there came there a great chief of the province of | | Yucatan who made these edifices, and after several years he went | | back to his country, and left them solitary and unpeopled.... It | | also appears that the style of the said edifices is like what was | | found in other places by the Spaniards who first discovered | | Yucatan and Tabasco, where figures of bishops were seen and armed | | men and crosses, and since such things have not been found in | | other regions it can be believed that those that made them were | | probably of one nation.” (Report of the Licentiate Dr. Don Diego | | Garcia de Palacio to the King of Spain, 1576.) | | | | It is recorded by Juarros that in the year 1700, Fuentes, who | | wrote the Chronicles of Guatemala, stated with respect to Copan, | | that the figures, “both male and female were of very excellent | | sculpture, which then retained the colours they had been enamelled | | with; and what was not less remarkable, the whole of them were | | habited in the Castilian costume.” The same author relates that at | | “a short distance, there was a portal constructed of stone, on the | | columns of which were the figures of men likewise represented in | | Spanish habits, with hose, ruff round the neck, sword, cap, and | | short cloak”.... | | | | “All the circumstances,” observes Juarros, “lead to a belief that | | there must have been some intercourse between the inhabitants of | | the old and new world at very remote periods.” | | | | The information given traditionally by the Indians living at | | Copan, is singularly in accordance with the traditions of the | | priests and caciques in Mexico and Yucatan with respect to the | | arrival of a stranger who commanded temples and pyramids to be | | built and then went away and never returned. | | | | It is remarkable that, in the first interview between Montezuma | | and Cortes, a singular tradition was mentioned by that Emperor. | | Cortes in his second letter (Segunda carta-relacion) dated 30th | | October, 1520, relates that Montezuma spoke to him as follows:—“We | | know from our writings that we received from our ancestors, that I | | and all those who live in this land are not the natives of it. We | | are strangers and came into it from very distant regions. We also | | know that our nation was led here by a chief whose vassals all | | were. He afterwards went back to his native country. Afterwards he | | returned and found that those he had left had married the native | | women (mujeres naturales) and had many children, and had built | | villages where they lived, and when he wished them to proceed with | | him they did not want to go, or even receive him as their chief | | and therefore he went away.” | | | | [112] The author of the Popol Vuh, does not mention the tradition | | about Votan. | | | | [113] Las Casas in commenting upon the subject of the Cozumel | | cross, mentions that it was ten palms high. In the course of | | the extensive explorations carried out by M. Desiré Charnay, in | | 1880–82, a similar stone was discovered at Téotihuacan. It is | | considered to be the emblem of Tlaloc, the god of rain. | | | | [114] Professor Rau in his memoir upon the Palenque tablet, states | | that it is his belief that the Maya language, or a kindred | | dialect, was spoken by the builders of Palenque. | | | | With regard to this subject it has to be observed that when the | | Toltec tribes, or the tribe that built the temples, settled at | | Palenque they had possibly forgotten their own original language, | | which may have been a Pawnee or Dakota dialect. | | | | It would naturally happen after their wives had been taken from | | among the aboriginal race, that the children would speak the | | dialects of their mothers. It has been mentioned by an early | | Spanish writer that the Aztecs, when they settled in Mexico, | | endeavoured to establish their own language, but without success. | | | | [115] Vol. iv., p. 333. | | | | [116] According to Gibbon, the Goths under the command of King | | Roderick, were defeated by the Saracens on the plains of Xeres in | | the neighbourhood of Cadiz, upon July 19–26, A.D. 711. This great | | battle decided the fate of Spain. It was supposed that Roderick | | was drowned in the river but it was not known with certainty what | | became of him as his body was never found. | | | | Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. li. | | | | The subject of the flight of the bishops, was afterwards brought | | into notice by a report of the discovery of the island where they | | had settled. This fabulous report was believed, in the fifteenth | | century, to be true. An historian states that:— | | | | “In this yeare also, 1447, it happened that there came a Portugal | | ship through the Streight of Gibraltar; and being taken with a | | great tempest, was forced to runne westward more than willingly | | the men would, and at last they fell vpon an island which had | | seuen cities, and the people spake the Portugall toong, and they | | demanded if the Moores did yet trouble Spaine, whence they had | | fled for the loss which they had received by the death of the King | | of Spain, Don Roderigo. | | | | The boatswaine of the ship brought home a little of the sand, and | | sold it unto a goldsmith of Lisbon, out of the which he had a good | | quantitie of gold. | | | | Don Pedro, understanding this, being then gouernor of the realme, | | caused all the things thus brought home, and made knowne, to be | | recorded in the house of Justice.” | | | | The Discoveries of the World, by Antonio Galvano. | | | | [117] Antilia appears as a large island in the Atlantic in the rare | | maps of Andreas Bianco (1436) and Bartolomeo Pareto (1454). On | | Martin Behaim’s globe (1492) it is placed about eighteen hundred | | miles west of the Canaries. In the earliest maps published after | | the return of Columbus to Spain, Antilia is placed near the newly | | discovered islands of the West Indies. | | | | The legend upon the accompanying map may be rendered as follows:— | | | | “The island of Antilia was, at some period, discovered by the | | Lusitanians, but the exact time is not known. There have been | | found there in it families who speak Spanish as it was spoken in | | the days of Roderick, who was the last King of Spain in the time | | of the Goths, and they are supposed to have fled to this island | | from the face of the Barbarians who had then invaded Spain. They | | have here one Archbishop with six other Bishops, each of whom has | | his own proper city, hence it is called by many the island of the | | seven cities. The population are strict Christians and abound in | | all this world’s wealth.” | | | | [118] In the first voyage of Columbus the vessels left the Canaries | | on the 6th of September and arrived off Guanahani on the night | | of the 11th of October, having been thirty days at sea. They had | | traversed a distance, according to the Admiral’s journal, of 1,092 | | leagues or 3,276 miles. On the second voyage from the Canaries to | | Dominica they left on the 3rd of October and arrived on the 3rd of | | November. Upon the last voyage, Columbus left Ferro (one of the | | Canary islands) on the 26th of May and reached St. Lucia in the | | West Indies on the 15th of June. This was a quick passage and only | | occupied twenty days. | | | | In the Vestal, a sailing frigate of 26 guns, we left the island | | of Gran Canaria in the year 1852, on the morning of the 27th of | | September, and passed between Antigua and Guadeloupe at noon on | | the 16th of October after a voyage of nineteen days, having sailed | | over a distance of 2,800 miles. During the whole of this time we | | were running before the wind with our studding sails set, steering | | West. A favourable N.E. wind prevails from Florida to Yucatan and | | the Mexican coast. With respect to Columbus’s first voyage it | | should be observed that his landfall at Guanahani was four or five | | days’ sail further west than the islands of Dominica and St. | | Lucia. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Transcriber’s Notes: - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - Redundant title page has been removed. - Blank pages have been removed. - Silently corrected typographical errors. - Spelling and hyphenation variations made consistent. - Page 416: Nicuaragua corrected to Nicaragua. - Anchor added for footnote 111.

End of Project Gutenberg's Travels Amongst American Indians, by Lindesay Brine