Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-01-24
FROM Az OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT
New YORK, JANUARY IL, 1852.

again the attention OF your readers to subject at
curious and scientific in its character, notwith
standing the novelty of my communication has been
! forestalled by an earlier correspondent While
saunterng down Broadway not many days ago,
somewhat after the manner of Fdneur, had my
attention arrested at the fine building Of the New
York Society Library" by placard unusually
modest in its typography, the object of which was
to inform the public that an exhibition was being
held in the said building of two Aztec Pigmies,"
purporting to be specimens of pigmy race of the
human species recently discovered in Central Anne
rica by a Senior Pedro Velasquez, of San Salvador
It was not without lurking suspicion of being i'm
posed upon by some such hoax as that palmed upon
the curiosity hunters by Mr. Barnums !" mermaid "
or the "woolly horse +" that | entered the exhbi-
ton room; where, however, all doubts and msgv-
ngswere hushed, ifnot satisfied by the spectacle that
met my eyes of two tiny and copper-colored speci-
mems OF humanity, frisking and capering on an ele
waited platform with agility Of movement and
litheness of limb perfectly surprising in creatures
of such diminutive proportons-the boy being little
two feet in height and the girl little less while
both together weigh only thirty-seven pounds. One
could hardly help fancyng at first that adventurous
traveller had discovered Liput at least colony of
Lputians such those whom that ayorte of child
hood, Capt Lemuel CULVER, describes in his extraord
nary and veracious narrative; and in fact, memoir,
containing account of an expedition into Central Anne
ca, and almost equaing in its detail of romantic adven-
iure the celebrated fiction of the Dean of St. Parcks
was placed in my hands, the purport of which lay be-
fore your readers.
No reader of Mr. Stephenss Incidents of Travel Gen.
trail America, Chiapas and Yucaan has forgotten it is
presumed the animated he gives of series of
conversations he held with intelligent and hospitable
Padre of Santa Cruz del Quiche But the exciting
statement of all the PADRES assurance that from the
4 fopm IF fha ha hal
espied "a large city, spread great space with
res white and gterng in the sum- evidently inhabited
by Indians of the character and in the same social
condition as those of the whole adjoining country at the
time OF discovery and conquest The interest awakened
in his mind by this intelligence is described by Mr. Ste
phens the most thrilling he experienced" One
look at that city, he adds woud be worth ten years
of everyday e fhesrght place isleft where Indians
and city exist as Cortez and Alvarado found them
there living who solve the mystery that hangs
the ruined cities of America who perhaps go
Copan and read the inscriptions on its monument"
Mr. Stephens afterwards proceeds to state the many
corroborating circumstances that incline him to believe
the Padres statement authentic: in than place
the belief expressed that the of the aboriginal in
habitans of Central America is not extinct but still exists
scattered perhaps and retired like Indians into
wldernesses which have never yet been penetrated by
white man. but not lost living their fathers did,
ing the same buildings Of " lime and sone with orna-
ments of sculpture and pasered" large courts" and
lofty towers, with high ranges of steps, and still
ing tablets of stone the mysterious hierogyphs
and still inhabng secluded Cities composed entirely of
unconquered unvsited and unsought aborigines" 1t
is stated that such city, named Iximaya has
tuay been discovered in Central America by three deter
mined explorers, Messrs Huertis Hammond and Velas-
quez and while the imperfect and unauthentcated
tive of their adventures presented the public would
be incredible if had atcsaton Of its truth it yet
becomes not only plausible but seemingly unquestonablc
in the presence of these unique specimens Of species
for whose origin complexion, features size and general
appearance furnish explanation except by re-
ceying the record Of Senior veasquez authentic and
genuine. have not space in this letter describe the
city of Ixmaya, with it's wonders, detailed by its
pued discoverer which, however strange certainly
not more than the pigmy creatures exhibition
in this city, When the three travellers above named had
procured admission in this city, place of residence
assigned them in the vacant wing of spacious and sump
tucus structure which had been appropriated from time
immemoria to the surviving remnant of ancient and
singular order under the Of the priesthood called
Kaanas Forbidden by invoaby sacred laws from inter
marrying with any persons but those Of their CASTE
they had here dwnded down. in the Of centuries
TO few individuals dwarfsh in size and feeble in intel
lect and were kept by the priests act mines
IN ceremonies the AZtec
ship. Mr. Hammond having died Of q wound received in
encounter with the Iximayans and Huertis having
been sacrificed the sangunary detes Of their religion
Senior yelasquez contved escape from the city, and
persuaded priest to accompany him in his fight to
whom it is represented the guardianship Of these two
Kaaads mines, entrusted, and who would not de-
sert them in his fugitive departure from Iimaya but
insisted upon taking them with him.
The priest vaapeor died, however, from the exposure
and prvatOns incident to his journey, leaving Senior
Veasquez with the Aztec children who succeeded in
bringing them safely TO San Salvador his native city
They have since passed into other hands and been brought
to New York, where they have become the objects Of
deep interest not only the curious but Psychologists
and men Of science we'll They are lively, playful
and aectonate and though first unable to artcuate
single sound expressive Of their ideas, either to each
other strangers, they beginning to acquire
few words Of English and manifest considerable ia
cliy the apprehension Of the questions proposed to
them by the inquisitye visitors who flock to them
The boy is supposed be years old and the
girl about ten but Il Is difficult Of course to ascertain
with the precise age Of either. should not
neglect to state that the general features shape Of the
head and sitting posture Of these Aztec pgmes bear
striking likeness the figures that profusey
skcched in the engrayings contained in Stephens Cen
trail America" There who trace likeness be-
tween these children and the proes Of Assyrian faces
contained in Layards "Nineveh" which, IL fancifu
may be confirmation Of the tradition said be prcva
lent in Ixmays which assigns Assyran origin to the