Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-01-17
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER:
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

Svo Ner York ID. appleton i Co.
If in stating the impressions which thee very IN
teresting volumes have left upon our mlpi we con
fess that they have somewhat dlsappoinea u, ie'
not the reader suppose that we deny than tie pos
session Of the highest degree of merit IN the depart
ment to which they belong. 1t is notthe literary
avacrt;on ne the volumes that has dIsaPointea u,
but their subiect-matter; so that, "Iiie ~ ~ y |
- a..,atL;a. chat 40 had personally desiuetaeu,
and which the literary gossppers on thu eve OF ther
appeaance had induced US TO expect, We doubt not
the majority of readers viii find ampe amends IN
the authors entertaining narrative fo the lack OF
those antiouarian researches and scieTitc dsqusl-
tions which have won for him, in eareipubhcatlons,
the highest reputation and authority n all that re-
latcs to the ethnology of the American aborgines
The little with which we are favored II the way OF
antiquities only causes the more TO Wish that Mr.
SouIER had been able to prosecute MS search Tor
,;edras dntigds to still greater extnt. 1t is true
that Central America, as field of original discoye
~. has been, to great degree, foresaled by our
enterprising and adventurous countrynan Mr.. John
+, Stephens; still it cannot be doubted that much
remains, in regions hithertJ unexpiored, to reward
the curiosity Of the traveller and the patient enthu
siasn of the antiquary
1t long the prevalent opinion that all the in
habitants of the New World on its discovery were
IN state of society extrtmely rude as 70 DE uao
qUainted with those arts which the first essays
ment. Dr. Robertson, in his history of America,
dscredtng the dispatches of Cortes and the stories
of the Spanish chropclers, roundy asserts that the
houses of the Aztec Indians were all " mere huts
built Of turf, mud, or the branches Of trees, and
adds, that in all the extent of Spain, as Mexico was
once named, q there is not single monument or
vestige of any building ancient than the con-
quest" The ruins of Palenque, said to have been
fortutously discovered by party of Spaniards in
the year $50 are the first which awakened atten-
tisn to the existence of ancient and unknown cities
IN Central America yet such was the apathy and
indifference with which the intelligence of their dis
covery was received that more than thirty years
elapsed before the King of Spain ordered an explo
ration of the premises The results of this explora
ton were not made public until 1922 In 1905
1906, and 1907 further explorations made by
Captain Dupaix, in the service of the King of SPAIN
the fruits of which published in Paris in the
year 1885. Meantime however, Col. Galindo, act
ing under commission Of the Central American
Government had prosecuted additional researches
not only at Palenque, but at Copan also OF the
sensation produced by the still later discoveries of
Mr.. Stephens at Copan, Santa Cruz del Quche,
Palenque, and Uxmal, we need not speak as they
still fresh in the memory OF every reader What
may be opinion respecting the origin Of the
people who reared these cities or whatever the an
tiquity, whether great or little, which assign TO
these monuments it must at least be conceded
siderable progress in civilization. The extent of
population and the degree of refinement which they
indicate says Mr.. Squier, have naturally led to the
conclusion that many others exist in the same re-
lions the discovery Of which will throw new light
upon the primitive civilization of the New World
But in prosecuting researches here, there are many
difficulties, he adds t. be encountered, which can
be but mperfectly estimated by those not on the
spot The population Of Central America is small
and almost entirely confined to cerain narrow local-
ties the Pacifc slope and the political crcum-
stances of the people, as well as he state of educa-
ton among them, have been such as to afford little
encouragement to archaeological studies Besides,
by far the greater proportion Of the country is in its
primitive state, and covered with dense tangled and
almost impenetrable tropical forests rendering fruit
less all attempts at systematic investigations
The antiquities discovered by Mr. Squer in Mica
ragua, though few, by means devoid of inter
est On his arrival at Leon, among the objects that
very naturally first attracted his attention was a
basatc figure, boldly sculptured, planted at one Of
the corners Of the principal plaza The statue rep
resents man with his hands clasped on his breast
and may now be seen at the Smithsonian Institu-
ton in this city, along with several Others presented
by Mr.. Squier. Having learned that this relic Of
the Indian idolators was originally procured from
Momotombita, an island in Lake Managua, our zeal
antiquary paid visit to that haunt Of the abo-
rginal worshippers, where he discovered other idols
fragments Of pottery, vessels Of stone &C. In Sub
taba, an Indian suburb Of Leon, he procured seve-
raj statues presented to him by his friends the ma
tive Indians, among whom he seems to have been
a decided favorite. Several Of these idols are now
deposited in the museum of the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition. Numerous pturcd rocks were also found
in Nicaragua
On Pensacola, little island on Lake Nicaragua,
almost within cannon-shot Of the old castle of Ora
NADIA, Mr. Squer discovered other pieorns aatigaas,
as the Indians call these idolatrous relics But it
was in the great uninhabited island Of Zapatero,
also situated in Lake Nicaragua that the zeal Of
the explorer was rewarded BY the discovery of the
most singular and numerous monuments here were
found the ruins of ancient teocoHi or Indian tenn
Piles, with stones of sacrifice, on which many HUI
victim had doubtless been offered to the san
culinary dieties, whose uncouth statues were stand
ing in grim array around their forsaken and dilap
dated shrines No less than eighteen or nineteen
monuments Of the old Indian worship arc described
by Mr. Squier in connection with the accompanying
engravings.
In respect TO the monuments discovered here says
the author it is to be observed that 'although the
style Of workmanship is the same throughout, each
figure has marked individuality, such as might
pertain to divinities Of distinct attributes and diff
ferent positions in the ancient Pantheon The
material in every case is black basalt Of great
hardness which, with the best Of modern tools.
can only be cut with difficulty Like those de-