Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1841-07-20

enVeIoped. Our guide cleared way with
his machette, and we passed; as it Law
nail buried IN the earth, large fragment
OF stone deliberately sculptured, and came
to the angle of a structure with steps on
the sides, in form and appearance, SO far
as trees would enable us TO make it out
like the sides of pyramid. Diverging
from the base, and working our way
through the thick woods, we came upon a
square stone column, about fourteen feet
nigh and three feet on each side, scu,ptured
IN very bold relief, and on all four of the
sides from The base to the top. The front
was the figure of man curiously and rich
Iy dressed, and the face, evidently por-
TRAIT, solemn, stern, and we'll fitted to ex-
cite terror. The back was of different
design, and unlike any thing we had ever
seen before, the sides were covered with
hieroglyphics. This our guide called an
ldol;' and before il at the distance Of 3
feet, was large block of stone, also sculp-
tured with figures and mathematical devil
ces, which he called On alter. The sight
OF this unexpected monument put at rest
at once and for ever, in our minds, all I'M
certainty In regard to the character Of Am
ercan antiquities, and gave US the assn
rance that the obi ects we were in search
OF were interesting, not only as the re-
mans OF an unknown people, but as works
OF art, proving, like newly discovered his
torcal records that the people who occu-
pied the continent of America were not sa-
wages. With an interest perhaps strong
er than we had ever felt in wandering
among the ruins Of Egypt, we followed
our guide, who sometimes missing his way
with constant and vigorous use of his
machette, conducted US through thick TO-
rest, among half buried fragments to IA
monuments Of the same character and APP
pearance, some with more eloquent de-
signs, and some in workmanship equal to
the finest monuments of the Egyptians; one
displaced from its pedestal by enormous
roots; another locked in the close embrace
Of branches Of trees, and almost lifted out
of the earth; another hurled to the ground,
and bound down by huge vines and creep
ers; and one standing with lis alter before
it, in grove Of trees which grew around
it, seemingly to shade and shroud it as
sacred thing; in the solemn stilnos of the
woods, il seemed a divinity mourning over
a fallen people. The only sounds that dis
turbed the quiet of this buried city were
the noise of monkeys movifg among the
tops OF the trees, and tho cracking of dry
branches broken by their weight. They
moved over our heads in long and swift
professions, forty or fifty at time, some
with little ones wound in their long arms,
walking out to the ends Of boughs, and
holding on with their hind feet or q curl
Of the tail, sprang to branch of the next
tree, and with noise like current Of
wind, passed on into the depths of the TO-
rest. 1t was the first time we had seen
these mockeries Of humanity, and, with
the strange monuments around us, they
seemed like wandering spirits of the de-
parted race, guarding the ruins of their
former habltatlOns.
We returned to the base OF :hc pyram-
dical structure, and ascended by the regu-
lar stone steps, in some places forced apart
by bushes and saplingS, and in others
thrown down by the growth Of large trees,
while some remained entire. In parts
they were ornamentcd with sculptured fl
cures and rows Of deaths heads. Climb
ing over the ruined top, we reached a ter
race overgrown with trees, and, crossing
it, we descended by stone steps to an area
so covered with trees that at first we could
not make out its form, but which, on clear
ing our way with our machete, we ascer-
tanned 10 be a square, and with steps on all
sides almost as perfect as the Roman am
phItheatre. The steps were ornamented
on the south side, about half way up, forced
out Of its place by roots, was "a colossal
head, evidently portrait. We ascended
these steps, and reached broad terrace a
hundred feet high, overlooking the river,
and supported by the wall which we had
seen from the opposite bank. The whole
terrace was covered with trees, and even
at this height from the ground, were two
gigantic Ceibas, or wild cotton trees OF In
dia, about twenty feet in circumference,
extending their half naked roots fifty 10
hundred feet around, binding down the ru-
ms, and shading them with their wide
spreading branches We sat down on the
very edge Of the wall, and strove in vain
to penetrate the mystery by which we were
surrounded. Where were the people that
built this city? 10 the ruined cities OF
Egypt even in the long-lost Petra, the
stranger knows the story Of the people
whose vestiges are around him. America,
says historians, was peopled by savages;
but savages never reared these structures;
savagcs never carved these stones. We
asked the Indians who made them, and
their dull answer was "Quiensabe?" "who
knowsl"
Suicide-James Bell, brother Of John
Bell, Secretary of War, recently commit