San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-21
A WOMAN EXPLORER.
A BRIDE OF 10 PENETRATES THE
FORESTS OF YUCATAN.

Wonderful Story of an Ancient Civiliza-
ton as Related by Mme. Alice Lie
Plongeon-"Atlantis"N Not a Fable-Re-
markabIe Discoveries.
A wonderful career has been that of Mime.
Alice LIE Piongeon, who, as bride of 10,
went from her home in England to share the
dangers Of life tn the forests Of Central
America with her husband, Dr. Augustus LIE
Plongeon, the savant and explorer. Full of
enthusiasm, she came to New York and
sailed away to the little known country of
Yusatan, where her husband had been pre-
vious to his journey to London and bis dis
covery of her exploring the ruins Of Uxmal.
She went there for a few months stay, and
remained for fourteen years In those years,
separated from home and friends and from
the society Of white people, Mime. LIE,
Plongeon studied constantly, learned tol
speak the Spanish and the old Maya LAM
guages, and pondered the ruins Of cities
temples and statues until she became al
deeply learned woman. Prehistoric life wasI
her theme, and she commenced her study
with the mystic beginnings Of Isis and Osiris
and the kingly career of Cav, the first ruler
of the Mayas, whose reign, many, many
years ago. over Mayas ancient Yucatan) is
chronicled in sculpture, hieroglyphics and
bas reliefs innumerabls.
'No one can imagine" said Mime. Plon-
geon, speaking of her life In Yucatan, ''the
dangers that appalled, us as we threaded our
way through jungles and forests almost i'm
penetrable, hungry and cold. and never COM
Portable"
Nine lie Plongeon picked up a series of
photographs of has relief, which she said
were taken from q building unearthed at
Uxmal, which bad LOO rooms, arranged in
pairs, each pair communicating with one
another by doorway. She described the
buildings as having been erected on artificial
terraces, composed Of stones Laid on the top
Of each other, one Of them being similar in
style to the famous hanging gardens" of
Babylon.
~ think the most interesting thing to tell
you is Of the proof we found that Free Ma
soRry existed in prehistoric times" and she
gathered up from a large collection of pho
tographs number that represented the same
Masonic symbols as are now in use. They
were exact counterparts of those familiar to
the order today.
"Will you tell what you purpose doing
with these treasures you have collectedr
Certainly; we are back from Central
America to interest Americans in their own
country and to invite them to examine the
proofs we bring that the oldest civilization
on earth existed in that part of the CONT
nent. My husband is writing book which,
when published, will give a succinct and
complete account of the result of our four
teen years stay in Yucatan and the great
value of the discoveries made by him. We
have fac SMILES of the ancient palaces of the
Mayas, as you see here, with their peculiar
architecture their baS reiefs and curious
sculpture representing the portraits OF their
great men, priests and warriors, their inter-
esting mural paintings and mysterious in
scriptions Tho old stones, buried these
many centuries III the depths of forests only
five or six days distance from New York,
have wondrous story to tell to the world.
Whenever the people of the United States
are ready for the information which can be-
had, the dark veil that covers the dawn of hu-
man civilization will be drawn aside and the
world will bless this country for unraveling
the mystery of the beginnings Of the race on
this planet"
Nine. lie Plongeon spoke earnestly and
with much feeling. Holding up large view
of a great marble building, she said: Look
at the carving on that temple. Is it not
gloriousl All the monuments of Yucatan,"
she continued, "were made by powerful
races, highly civilized since they made use
of a written language and alphabetical
characters that have preceded us thousands
of years. Not only is their own history in
scribed on the faces of their public buildings,
but also their cosmOgoDical traditions. OF
course, it is with a shock that people hear us
say that we bear with us proofs that America
was the cradle of the human race, and that
the countries forming Central America were
the scene of the events described as having
taken place in the Garden of Eden. Pro-
fessor Agassiz, you know, founded his belief
that America was the old world, and not the
new, upon the geological formation of this
continent"
Then you give credence to the theory
that there was such a catastrophe as the sink
ing of Atantisl"
Certainly. That continent existed between
America and the western coast of Africa
and Europe In Maya manuscript still in
existence there is an account of that awful
cataclysm, and these interesting monuments,
with tLsir inscriptions so full of historical
revelations, with the key of their decipher-
nlent known, are able to give us the entire
history of the intellectual development of
the human family. What makes it more de-
lightful, too, is that this history is free from
the myths and fables, creations of untutored
and credulous imaginations or work of crafty
philosophers, which we find in the sacred
books of the Asiatic countries. We have
inherited myths bequeathed to US as revela-
tions from on high, and the origin of which
we did not know until they stood revealed in