Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-07-20
THE PHANTOM CITY.
What an Explorer has Discovered I'm Gers
tfai America.

Cenbral hnneFIca tnat III. Desire CharnHy,
the explorer, sent thither by MIR. Loril-
lard, of New York, had discovered the
"Phantom City" of which Stephens
heard, and which one of his informants
claimed to see from lofty mountain
top. 1t was hoped that the discovery
might establish the existence of settle.
ment of the ancient race OF the country
far in the wilderness, and throw much
new light On prehistoric America. In
the North american ReUie,o NJ Charnay
tells what he Saw. He was in the coun-
try OF the Lacandones near the Guate-
rnala border, and was making his way
with difficulty. The natural obstacles
OF the wild country were great, and
besides he was suffering from an attack
OF fever. To his surprise, on reaching
the city, he found an Englishman,
Alfred Maudsley, was ahead of him. He
was only an amateur, however, and
bade III. Charnay regard the conquest
as his own.
Lorillard City, as M. Charnay calls
the place, consists of palaces, temples
and palaces resembling those of Palen-
que, erected on the top of natural ele-
vations which the builders rendered
accessible by esplanades and flights of
steps. There are the same hieroglyph
characters in the inscriptions, and the
some personages and facial types on
bas reliefs. It was Toltec settlement.
The buildings have been greatly dis
figured by time, the plaster and the in
terror decorations having fallen away.
The vaults are convex, concave and
plane, while at Palenque plane sur
faces, and at Comalcalco and Kaboh
concave ones are in the ascendant.
Two walls in one of the two palaces
come together without any keystone,
while each palace has a massive wall
rising above the roof. with oblong
openings like windows.
The great temple is still standing. It
is built on the summit of pyramid 125
feet in height, and faces toward the
river. The wall above the root reminds
one of the edifces in Yucatan de-
scribed by Stephens. In the middle of
the wall once stood an enormous statue,
only fragments of which remain. Among
the bas reliefs of its three portals was
one which exhibits two human beings
of the Palenque type, each holding in
the hand a regular Latin cross with
howered arms. The interior of the
temple consists of long, narrow cor
ridor, with openings in the rear wall
into four oratories or little chapels.
There is a similar chapel at the right
hand end of the corridor, and at the
left hand end is little dwelling room,
probably intended for the use of the
servitor of the temple. In the little
chapel in the middle is platform abo ut
two feet high, on which once stood q
large idol, finely scdlptured. Its frag-
ments now lie on the floor. The natives
offered incense to it until it fell, since
which they have ceased to frequent the
city. To the left of the temple is pal
ace with sleeping places of cement,
doubtless for those who served the tenn.
pie. The great teocali, or perhaps the
fortress, stands in the rear of the temple.
1t is pyramid 200 feet high, and on the
esplanade at its top six palaces formerly
stood, of which the ruins of one re-
main. a. Charnay hardly thinks he has
reached Stephens's phantom City,
The name probably belongs to one dis
covered in Chiapas on the other side of
the mountains. This he was unable to
reach, through sickness and fatigue.
He therefore went to the city of Mex
ico, there to make castings for the
Lorillard museum. He has reached
the opinion, after repeated examina-
tions of the forests, that no argument
for the age of the ruins can be based
on the age of the trees. The conoen-
trio rings grow very fast in the hot and
humid climate, and the hardest wooded
trees rarely live more than 200 years.
Monuments whose age is certainly
known, and which cannot date from q
period anterior to 1880 or 144O, and
were destroyed or abandoned in 1895,
are in the same condition as those of
Palenque or Lorillard City, and the
forest that surrounds and is prey
ing upon them is of tho same
age. The same conclusions have
been set forth more in detail in
some of the authors earlier articles,
and they refute, on apparently good
grounds, the prevalent theory OF the
vast antiquity of Central American civi-
lization. The sculptures also show q