Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-06-04
The Ruins ofPaieAaue and other DrOnu-
mentai ReIfca.

The principal structure remaining among
the ruins of PalenQue, stood on a great pyra-
midal mound Of nearly three hundred feet
square, and forty feet high, faced with stone.
Upon this foundation rose the building,
covering a space Of about two hundred feet
square. The walls Of massive stone laid in
mortar, were carefully adjusted to the points
of the compass; and the entire front was
succeed and painted. On this stucco were
represented human figures, SOM of them
colossal, in various and significant attitudes,
while hieroglyphics near, which, no doubt,
originally explained their meaning. These
figures, in facial outline, resembling the
Choctaw and Flathead Indians Of our W
country. On the interior walls remain
similar representations, Of which some are
very striking; and generally, though dis
proportioned, they Indicate considerable
conceptive power and mechanical skill in
the artist. The extensive floor Of the build
ing H of cement, as hard Bs that seen in the
remains of the best Roman baths and els.
terms.
In this region there exists also other
monuments of great capitals on the Mexican
plateau, which were crowded with inhabit-
ants at the time of the Spanish Conquest.
This populous and comparatively refined city,
said by Cortez to have contained twenty
thousand houses within its walls, and as
many more in its environs, was admitted by
the Aztecs to be OF high antiquity, and to
have been founded by the race which pos.
sesed the land be fore themselves. The in
habitants of this town excelled in such arts
as working in metals, manufacturing cot
ton and sgave cloths, and producing a deli
cate kind of pottery, said to have rivaled in
beauty that of Florence. But this capital
so conspicuous for its refinement, aud its
great antiquity, was even more venerable as
the center Of the old religion of the country.
There stood the vast temple dedicated to the
"God of the air" (the reader who will take
the trouble to turn to Ephesians ii. 2, will
note a singular significance in this dssigna
tionl with all its colossal paraphernalia of
symbolic sculpture and costly ornament
the mightiest mass, by far, ever e8cted by
human hands OF this continent, and scarcely
surpassed in dimensions by any other work
of man upon the globe. of this structure,
the base was en- enormous truncsted
pyramid, whose sides faced the cardinal
points. These sides were much over a thou
sand feet in length, and the hight of the
mound was nearly. TWO hundred feet. On
the summit rose the walls Of the sumptuous
temple, to whose shrine, venerated through
out the land, pilgrims continually resorted
to from the furthest recesses of the valley.
The undying fires which here shed a dread
tul glare upon hecatombs of human victims,
in the time of the conquest, and flung their
radiance far and wide over the devoted re-
gion, may light us to the reading of those
other monuments of the primitive race at
Palenque, Uxmal and Oopan. And thus
read, those ruins reveal much that may be
relied upon of that ancient people. Room
indeed, Is scarcely left for doubt, that they
belonged to the Toltac family, the slmos'
historical race, which is known to have pre-
ceded the Aztecs, in taking possession of the
Mexican plateau. An old Mexican annalist
relied upon by Prescott, relates from inter
pretations derived from these monuments
and from tradition, that this early race, the
Toltecs, had come from the North into tn
pleasant valley, before the seventh centur.
of our era; that after several centuries they
were pressed uponby uccessive wariike tribe
which came, as they had done from tn
northwest, that under this pressure the.
left many of their ancient homes, ant
migrated to other lands, yielding the coun
try to the occupancy Of the invaders; IN
that the Aztecs, rs the last and more power
full Of these, succeeded, about the middle G
the fifteenth century, in establishing ths
extensive empire which the SpaniardS
within the next hundred years, found so re
markably consolidated under the scepter o
MonteZuma.