The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1870-12-22
The Ruined Cities of Central America.

Captain Carmichael read, at the recent
meeting of the Geographical Section of
the British Association, a paper Of much
Interest on the ruined cities of Central
America. He said that in his opinion,
formed from personal nvestigation, the
architecture of the aboriginal Indians
of Central America was but q diversified
reproduction of that of Eastern coun-
tries. He then pointed out number of
similarities i'll their architecture, designs,
customs, etc., to nations of the East,
and showed how, as a general rule, it
was very difficult to explore these ruins,
owing TO the hostility of the existing
tribes of Indians.
As regards their antiquity, he assigned
to many of them an earlier foundation
than that accorded to them by Stephens
and Squier, and adduced some very
convincing proofs in support of his
theory. The picture he drew of the
palaces of Quiche in Guatemala fully
bore out the statement Of Torquemada
that they rivalled those of Montezuma !;
and he showed that, if that city-one OF
some eight hundred years standing
was in such perfect state of conserva-
tion some fifty years ago that the padre
OF neighboring Indian village, who
then walked among its streets and
palaces, imagined himself in Spain,
what must be the era of those numerous
cities compared with which Quiche was
modern?
He then pointed out the great length
OF these ruined cities, and added that in
connection with this a r, markable fact
had seemingly been overlooked by most
Central-American writerS-viz., that the
stone buildings whose ruins we now
find extent were used as temples, pala-
ces, and public offices generally, the
poorer inhabitants living in huts of
perishable nature an arrangement
which represented an almost incredible
amount of population. He then ana
lyzed the various elements composing
the architecture of the ruined buildings
and monuments, and gave an interesting
account of the various uses to which the
teocali and tumuli were put by the Toll
tecan and Aztec priests-vIz, for sacri-
fclal and burial purposes, to serve as
beacons, for warlike defences, etc.-and
explained the relations between the
temples and palaces, and offered few
glyphics, a subject to which he has paid
much attention, and for which he is
specially qualified from his isknowledge OF
the Maya or Indian language, showing
that they were chiefly the works of the
Indian priesthood, and, above all, were
intended to inculcate moral and religious
precepts, chronological events being
made quite subservient to them. He
then referred briefly to the round towers
which contained the eStvtas for the sa-
cred fire of Montezuma, in connection
with the worship of the sun, and passed
on to explain the nature and signifi
canoe of the various hideous and awe
inspiring idols to whom the human sac
ritice was offered on the summit of the
teocali, and stated it as his belief that
these idols, as we'll as the planed stones,
were carved with clay or flint instru-
ments, as he had often found flint and
obsidian implements, but in no instance
an instrument of metal.
Referring to the state of decay in
which they were mostly found, he stated
that there were ruins which had never
been visited by the Spaniards at the
time of the conquest, and expressed it as
his opinion that their crumbling and
ruinous condition was mainly brought
about by the earthquakes so prevalent
throughout Central America, in con-
junction, of course, with the action on
them of time and the elements. He
gave most interesting account of a
ruined city in British Honduras, called
Xmul, which he claims to have dis
covered, and concluded by pointing out
the great extent of unknown and un-
travelled districts in Central America,
particularly in Guatemala, as presenting
a fine field for future geographers and
naturalists, and expressed it as his firm
conviction that there existed at the
present day an Indian city-yet to be
the same splendid palaces and temples
as in the days of the Spanish conquest,
whose priests inscribe fresh precepts on
their tablets, and who would then read
to us their now mystical hieroglyphics.
He supported the statement by describ-
ing an exploration he made in the south
ern district of British Honduras, west
ward toward Guatemala, where, after
several days perilous river-navigation
| and farther journey on foot, he discov-
cred in the neighborhood of the Cox
comb Peak the remains of an abandoned
maize-plantation, and saw smoke as
cending from the distant forest, and be-
lieves that the tribe of Indians who oc-
cupy this part of the country, which
was before considered to be uninhabited,
have some connection with the mysteri-
GUS Aztec city he spoke Of,
In the discussion which followed, Cap
tain Carmichael stated that he had re-
Gently returned from California, where
he had heard a Japanese and digger
Indian of Nevada, then brought to-
gether for the first time, converse in
telligibly. This remarkable fact, in
connection with the well-known resem-
blance Of the tribes ON the Amoor River
to our Indians, has very important
bearing on the question of the source
from which America was originally
peopled.