The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-29 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 29, 1867.

solitary traditional memorial of themselves or of
their ancestors." In this age of research it is singu-
lar that so little attention has been directed to this
interesting subject. The information obtained
leads to the conviction that the races who have left
behind them these monuments of their civilisation
came from Asia. It is probable that the first settle-
ment of both North and South America proceeded
from the West eastwards. Japan was in all pro-
bability the country that imported into Central
America its civilisation. The remains show that
this civilisation travelled from the "West eastwards,
hardly, if at all, reaching the States of the Atlantic
seaboard. Thus, the early settlement of America
brought Europeans scarcely into contact with these
remains of antiquity. In the New England States
we are not aware that any have been found, though
pyramids, as well as sacred and sacrificial mounds,
abound in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and through-
out the Valley of the Mississippi ; and vast entrenched
camps and colossal fortifications in earth and in stone
are found in Ohio, Illinois, and throughout the Cen-
tral States. While the early settlers in New England
came only in contact with wild Indians and pri-
meval forest, the Spanish adventurers who landed
in Mexico penetrated at once into a region rich in
civilisation. It is a striking fact that the New
England settlers, reared in the comparatively sterile
country that fell to their lot a civilisation which
now challenges comparison with any in the world,
and that the Spanish conquerors swept out of exis-
tence the arts and refinements they found established
on the soil. The fact that the most interesting of
these relics lay beyond the reach of the more
civilised intruders, and have only at a comparatively
late period become known, may account for the
general ignorance of American antiquities. It is
not easy to remove a strong and generally held
opinion, and the man would probably be considered
mad who penetrated into the wildest parts of the
United States to prosecute antiquarian research.
Yet this must be done, soon or the loss to science
may be great. Mr. Leland, in his pamphlet re-
viewed in this and in our previous number, speaks
of the celebrated rocks covered with Indian hiero-
glyphics discovered several years ago in Kansas by
Max Green, who expresses the hope that some one
skilled in archaeological lore will visit this spot.
"There are hundreds of large flat rocks," he says,
" some 20 feet broad, walling an acclivity from the
river course to the south-west. Some of the cha-
racters are like those I have seen on the ledges of
Rio Puerco, and among the head waters of the Gila.
There is nothing modern in their appearance.
They must have been graven there ages ago,

" 'While yet the Greek
Was hewing the Pentelican to forms
Of symmetry, and rearing on its rock
The glittering Parthenon.'
These remains, I believe, are many leagues north of
where any other inscriptions are extant, similar to
those of Uxmal or Palen flue, and this fact may
serve to strengthen the theory of the Cambrian
legend of Azatlan and the Toltec tradition of their
journeying southwards." Mr. Leland says that
there are many of these inscriptions on the rocks of
Kansas, all of which will probably ere long vanish.
"I regretted to hear," he adds, " of a very curious
and attractive, one which has, even within the past
year, been so shamefully defaced as to be at pre-
sent well nigh destroyed. There is reason to be-
lieve that Aztec influences once prevailed among
the tribes of Kansas, and it is possible that these
picture rocks, which are said to differ very much
from the common Indian markings, may con-
firm this theory." It will be seen from the annexed
extract that the Edinburgh reviewer holds the
same opinion that the Aztecas came from the head
waters of the Gila, and as they were a nomadic
tribe, it is more than probable that they penetrated
into Kansas.

The national records of the Aztecas, confirmed in
a great measure by the observations of their con-
querors, establish several most interesting and im-
portant facts in the natural history of civilisation.
When first confronted by the Spaniards they had
been seated in Mexico rather less than one hundred
and fifty years. Towards the close of the 12th cen-
tury of our era they had migrated from a spot tra-
ditionally known as Atzlan, or " the country of
waters," most likely the territory enclosed within the
angle formed by the junction of the Rio Colorado
and the Rio Gila at the head of the Gulf of Cali-
fornia. They did not reach the table land of Ana-
huac, however, until the year 1324. No date in
their history has been better established than this.
We have an indubitable instance, therefore, of a
nomadic horde suddenly suppressing the instincts
of their nature, relinquishing the habits of savage
life, becoming a permanently settled people, develop-
ing a capacity for political organisation, raising
stupendous piles of brick and stone, constructing
and embellishing innumerable cities, cultivating the
arts and sciences, and making such advancement iu
astronomy more particularly, as not only to rival
but to surpass that which was made by the most en-
lightened nations of antiquity in Asia and Europe.
And all these astonishing results are crowded into
the space of a century and a half ! We are left in
no doubt, moreover, whence these extraordinary
people, and the tribes associated with them, derived
much of their civilisation and a knowledge at least
of architecture, facts which are quite as remarkable
as those just mentioned. The Mexican empire was
built on that of the ruin 3 of the Zoltecas, who, in
the 11th century, had been overwhelmed by the suc-
cessive calamities of war, famine, and pestilence.
Like the Aztecas, the Zoltecas had travelled origin-
ally from the north-western parts of the continent;
and, according to the local historians, contemp3-
rary with the first Spanish adventurers, had occu-
pied the vale of Anahuac from the seventh century
of our era.

They are said to have been established in New
Mexico from 300 8.C., which we may observe, by
the way, is the earliest assumed date in the annals
of the aboriginal American. The origin of the
Zoltecas is shrouded in mythological fable. It was
traditionally held that their ancestors had migrated
from the distant East, beyond immense seas and lands.
They had wrested the territory of Anahuac from
a powerful nation called the Ulmecas or Olinecas,
who, in their turn, had displaced the Quinames, a
fabulous race of giants. The light of documentary
history just reflects the declining years of the Tol-
tecan dominion, and discloses to our view the pre-
eminent position which they held in the eyes of their
contemporaries, and the favourable influence they
had exercised over them. Of all the ancient Ame-
rican nations of whom tradition or history his pre-
served any notice, these people were by far the most
civilised and ingenious. Humboldt has designated
them the Pelasgi of the Western hemisphere, and
Prescott states that their tribal appellation is syno-
nymous with Architect. The survivors of their race,
when driven from their old habitations, retreated
towards the Isthmus of Panama, and scattered
themselves about Yucatan, Guatemala, and Nica-
ragua, whence their presence may be traced to this
day in the language of the people, and in the num-
berless ruins of once beautiful structures.

This accounts for the silent cities in the tropical
jungles of Guatemala and Nicaragua, but it throws
no light whatever on the sacred and sacrificial
mounds so generally found in so many States of
the Union. " In some instances," observes Mr.
Squier, " they are terraced or have successive
stages; but, whatever their form, whether round,
oval, octangular, square, or oblong, they have
invariably flat or level tops of greater or
less area." They are usually approached by im-
posing graded avenues, and encompassed by ram-
parts of earth, or walls of Cyclopeian masonry.
Some of these temple mounds are upon a truly
gigantic scale. That, for instance, of Cahokia, iu
Illinois, is reported to be 700 feet long, 500 feet
wide at the base, and 90 feet in height ; its solid
contents have been roughly estimated at 20,000,000
cubic feet. An immense tetragonal terrace has
been raised by the side of it which is reached by
means of a talus. This mound is constructed with
as much regularity as any of the teocallis, and was
originally cased with stone (some American
archaeologists maintain with brick), and surmounted
with one or more buildings. The sacrificial mounds
which are peculiar to the New World are much less
imposing structures than the temple mounds. Each
is crowned with a symmetrical altar of burnt clay
or stone, on which are deposited numerous relics,
in all instances exhibiting traces of their having
been exposed to the action of fire.
" From the AUeghanies to tho Rocky Mountable

a perpetual succession of vast entrenched camps and
colossal fortifications, in earth and stone, follow the
entire route. Every eminence is defended, as well
as every delta formed by the junction of two
streams. Redoubts and breastworks, ramparts and
circumvallations, mounds of observation and—ana-
chronistic as it seems—casemates (as in the ruins of
Marietta, near the mouth of the Muskingum) attest
equally to the number, the skill, and the industry
of the population which constructed them. The most
perfect and characteristic, as well as the most emi-
nent of these stupendous defences, are to be met
with in the State of Ohio. A brief description of
those in the county of Licking must here suffice :
Between the delta formed by the Newark and the
Racoon there is a perpendicular table-land about 35
feet high, upon which regular fortifications of great
extent are built. On the west side of the platform
is an octangular fort, enclosing a space of about
forty acres, with walls about nine feet in height, and
of equal breadth. This fort was entered by eight
gates about five yards in width, each protected
by a tumulus placed in the interior in front of
the entrances. Two parallel walls lead to another
circular fort; placed south-west of the first, covering
a space of twenty-two acres. Proceeding towards
the south, you see an observatory that commands
almost all the extent upon which these divers con-
-structions are erected. Beneath the observatory a
secret passage leads to the bank of the Racoon.
Farther to the right, is a third fort, also circular, of
about 26 acres, with an interior moat, out of which
the earth was taken to form the walls of the fort,
which are about 25ft. or 30ft. high. Two other
parallel walls, very distant from each other at this
place, run to the north, gradually diminishing their
distance, and terminate at another fort, of quad-
rangular shape, 20 acres in extent. These four
different forts are connected by rather low walls,
and in the centre is a shallow pond covering a super-
, ficies of 150 or 200 acres, which probably afforded
water to the flocks collected within the wide en-
closure. Towers of observation are placed from
distance to distance on the rising points of the
plateau.'
" Two cla.ss^s of objects are equally distributed
over the whole continent, namely, ornaments for the
person, in copper, and various utensils in pottery.
Copper, in its virgin state, obtained from the vicinity
of the Great Lakes, and hammered into the forms
of bracelets, anklets, axes, mauls, &c., appears to
have been in very general use from an early period.
Silver, lead, and iron were also worked, but on a
limited scale ; whilst brass and bronze, the former
in the north, and the latter in the south, were more
extensively employed. A few years ago the corpse
of a warrior was discovered in one of the sepulchral
mounds in the streets of Marietta, Ohio, with the
remains of a baldrick or buckler, composed of
copper overlaid with a thick plate of silver,' lying
across his breast. By his side were several broken
pieces of copper tubing, filled with iron rust'—all,
in fact, that remained of his scabbard and sword.
A piece of iron ore, which had the appearance of
having been vitrified,' was likewise found with them.
In reference to this discovery, Mr. Squier remarks,
These articles have been critically examined, and
it is beyond doubt that the bosses are absolutely
plated, not simply overlaid, with silver' (p. 188).
But we can hardly accept this conclusion. The
effect described was produced more likely by chemi-
cal action ; in other words, the metals had become
partially amalgamated by the lapse of time. The
presence, however, of oxydised steel or iron, as well
as a specimen of vitrified iron ore,' in the same
monument, is a much more interesting and important
fact than the other ; it betokens an advanced know-
ledge of metallurgy in very primitive times—a know-
ledge which must have been lost to succeeding gene-
rations, and long anterior to the age of the conquest.
Iron was then absolutely unknown in the New
World, excepting to one solitary tribe, established
at the mouth of the La Plata, who e arrows and
spears were tipped with it. But of all the abori-
ginal arts that of pottery had attained to the highest
degree of perfection. The t_rra-cotta vases have
been compared in form with the choicest antique
specimens in Europe. Those found in the pueblos
and well-s. of New Mexico still retain,' says the
Abbe Dornenech, a very perfect varnish ; they are
ornamented with brilliant paintings, lines, scallops,
frogs, butterflies, tortoises, and monkeys' heads.'
In the States to the east of the Mississippi they are
assortment
arrow-heads
oi f
almost equally excellent. Yet it has been questioned
wtheeel.aboßriegsiindeses acquaintedawelarrege with the
potter'swhe twhether
cine-
raryhe urns, many of Old World types,
of rock crystal, agate, and silex, copper and stone
axes, hatchets, gouges, and chisels, knives in obsi-
dian, perforated shells—some from the Gulf shores,
and others from the southern coasts of India —the
most ancient of the mounds have also yielded brace-
lets of brass, smooth and polished, rings and tubes
of the same material, various ornaments for the per-
son in silver, pipes of terracotta, slate, and steatite,
rude sculptures in wood, and finer sculptures in
more durable materials, representing tropical qua-
drupeds, birds, fishes, &e."

the deacon's celebrated one-horse shay, these doors
are made as strong in one part as in another, and
the hinges show no signs of weakness. It will
take a fearful earthquake to shake them down.
No good idea can be given to the reader of the
locks and their operation, but a few general remarks
may be of interest. The first door has one of
Dobb's Eureka locks; there is no key-hole for this,
and the outside combination wheel is divided into
the let-ers of the alphabet, the nine units, and
fractions of figures. The combinations which may
be made by this arrangement are endless, and no
one can open the lock, shoving back the bolts,
anless he knows the words, figures, and fractions
which have been used in locking the door.
Even if a person was so fortunate as to get from
Mr. Birdsall the combination, he must have an ex-
tensive acquaintance with the lock to know how to
manipulate it correctly. The second door contains
an Ishain lock, which is altogether different from
Dobb's lock. The third door has L. Gale's Monitor
lock, and the fourth door contains Gale's double
Treasury locks. From one of these doors, after it
has been fastened, a portion of the lock is taken
off, and put under lock and key in some secret
place. Without this it would be useless to attempt
to get into the safe.
The second vault is much larger than the first
one described, but just as difficult to get into. There
are one hundred and twenty cases in this room
where gold can be put and sealed up. At the tim
we looked into the vault there were ninety tons, or
forty-five millions of dollars in gold, stowed in the
room, and twenty millions in paper. The green-
backs, as they are paid into the Treasury, are put
up in packages of one thousand bills each, all of the
same denomination. A package of one dollar bills
contains one thousand dollars ; of five dollar bills,
five thousand dollars; of five hundred dollar bills,
five hundred thousand dollars.
In one small box we were shown six small
packages, each of which contained one million of
dollars. Money is handled i❑ the Treasury building
in a wholesale manner, packing trunks standing
about full of it, large willow baskets on wheel
being used to carry it in, &c. The sight of it be-
comes so common that the clerks employed regard
it with the utmost indifference, handling it as they
would so much brown paper.
The vestibule of the second vault is called the
book vault, and contains the cancelled obligations
of the United States, a ton or two of paymaster's
checks. All these books and checks are carefully
preserved.—New York Gazette.

PARIS EXHIBITION.