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

* American Archaeology, Elinburgh liwiew, April 1,
1867. Lonns, Li:Maga.

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 sacrei 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 Palenque, 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 Aztecan 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 in
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 ivilisation 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-
caaLelnilskdys
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neaZoltecas
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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 immenseseas and lands.
They had wrested the territory of Anahuac from
a powerful nation called the Ulmecas or Olmecas,
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 has 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, in
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 ara deposited numerous relics,
in all instances exhibiting traces of their having
been exposed to the action of fire.
" From the Alleghaniea to the Rocky Mountains