Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1861-06-06
The Ruins of Palenque and Othe,
Monumental helics.

The principal structure remaining among the
ruins of Palenque, stood on great pyramidal
mound of nearly three hundred feet square, and
forty feet high, faced with stone. Upon this
foundation rose the building, covering 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, some
Of them colossal, in various and significant at
titudes, with hieroglyphics near, which, no
doubt, originally explained their meaning
These figures. in facial outline, resemble the
Choctsw and Flathead Indians of our own coun.
try. On the interior walls remain similar rep
reservations, of which some are very striking;
and generally, though disproportioned, they in
dicate considerable conceptiye power aud me-
chsnical skill in the artist. The extensive
floor Of the building is Of cement, as hard as
that seen in the remains of the best Roman
baths and cisterns.
| In this region there exist also other monu-
ments Of great capitals on the Mexican plateau,
which were crowded with inhabitants at the
time of the Spanish conquest. This populous
and comparatively refined city, said by Cortez
to have contained twenty thousand houses with
in its walls, and asmany more in Its environs,
was admitted by the Aztecs to be of high anti
guilty, and to have been founded by the race
which possessed the land before themselves. -
The inhabitants of this town cIcelled in such
arts as working In metals, manufacturing cot
ton and agave cloths, and producing delicate
kind of pottery, said to have rivalled in beauty
that Of Florence. But this capital, so conspicu-
Gus for its refinement and great antiquity,
was even more venerable as the centre 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 Ia
| Ephesians, II, 2, will note a singular signif
csnce in this designstion,) with all It's colossal
paraphernalia of symbolic sculpture and costly
ornament-the mightiest mass, by far, ever
erected by human hands on this continent, and
scarcely surpassed in dimensions by any other
work of man upon the globe.
or this structure, the base was an enormous
truncated pyramid, whose sides faced the car.
dinal points. These sides were much over
thousand feet In length, and the height of the
mound was nearly two hundred feet. On the
summit rose the walls of the sumptuous temple,
to whose shrine, venerated throughout the
land, pilgrims continually resorted from the
fsrthest recesses of the valley. The undying
fires which here shed dreadful glare upon
hecatombs Of human victims, in the time of the
conquest, and flung their radiance far and wide
over the devoted region, may light us to the
reading Of those other monuments Of the primi.
tive race at Palenque, Uxmal, and Copan. And
thus read, those ruins reveal much that may be
relied upon Of that ancient people. Room, in
deed, is scarcely left for doubt, that they be-
longed to the Toltec family, the almost histori-
cal race, which is known to have preceded the
Aztecs, in taking possession of the Mexican
plateau.
An old Mexican annalist, relied upon by Pres.
colt, relates from interpretations derived from
these monuments, and from tradition, that this
early race, the Toltecs, had come from the north
into the pleasant valley before the seventh CEN
tury of our era; that after several centuries
they were pressed upon by successive warlike
tribes, which came, as they had done, from the
northwest; that under this pressure they left
many Of their ancient homes, and migrated to
other lands, yielding the country to the occu-
pancy Of the invaders; and that the Aztecs, as
the last and most powerful of these, succeeded,
about the middle of the fifteenth century, In es.
tablishing that extensive empire which the
Spaniards, within the next hundred years,
found so remarkably consolidated under the
sceptre Of Montezuma.-Rep. w. N. Pen
dleton.