The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-24

they are exceedingly unsatisfactory and were naturally tainted with pre- 1udice.
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 Ruins are numerous all over the region between the Isthmus of Te- huantepec and the boundaries of Qua temala, and every one who goes down there is kept in state of continual astonishment at the size and number of the stone buildings and the high de- gree of architectural merit presented by them. I went about amazed at the skill. the taste, the labor and the in- genuity of the architects who design ed and erected the temples and pal aces and other buildings unnumbered centuries ago. We do not know when these buildings were erected any more than we know who designed them. 1t is impossible fo fix the period. Nor do we know when or why the builders disappeared and how the arts in which they were so proficient came to be lost. At the time of the conquest they had already vanished and their de- scendants were in a state of decad- ence. It is the popular supposition that their disappearance was the re- suit of wars and dissensions among themselves. Possible epidemics may have had something to do with reduc- ing the population. But we have no EGCOTu, <. 10 eVlutnGe IO NuSldlu any theory. This rise and fall of nations since the beginning of time is often difficult to explain except on the gen eral principal that progress Is tho law of nature: that if people do not ad- vance they go backward. and that pe- riods of growth alternate with peri ods of decadence. The rule applies to the prehistoric civilizations of Mexico and other countries of America as well as to those af the old wor1d
 T saw so much in Chiapas and Yucu- tan that ceased to be astonished and no recent discoveries would surprise me. am willing to believe almost any report that may be brought out of the mountains of the Tsthmus and Chiapas concerning the grandeur and magnitude of abandoned cities. temples and pal- aces. I am prepared to accept the re- ports of the t's cutters to whom you have referred. and do not see any req son to reject their stories as untrue or even exaggerated. The woods are full of ruins all through that part of Mexico and the region in which the new dis coveries were made Is practically un- known. There may be more than one city in that locality as grand as Pal endue. The forests are almost impene- trabfe. Nobody ever thinks of search ing them. and the wonderful things that are concealed by them are unknown to people who reside in the immediate neiehborhood.
 'Brassuer. a French archaeoloeist. who was down there not long ago, tells us that the country around the town Of San Cristobal Is filled with ruins and ha predicts that remarkable things will he brought to liRht some day. San Crtstobal was mentioned bv the tin hunters who discovered the aieRed city. as being the nearest town of im- portance. Brassuer refers to several ruins of which he obtained knowledee He mentions the ahoririnal town of Tonala. which you describe in your let Ter rom the Isthmns. and he says tha. If was destroyed hy Alvarado on his march to Guatemala after the conquest oT Mexico. Brnssuer says. '"The shane less ruins are still visible on a hin near the Pacific" which I presume. are The same that you said were visited bv MT Cox manager of the Pan-American Railroad
 Few explorers have ever been in the Valley of the River chianas. where the newly discovered ruins are said to have been found. Stevens and other expior- CTS passed either to the right or the ieet of 1t in following the trails and hence thev overlooked everything that IS concealed In the mighty junEles and forests that cover the valleys and noun tain sides. We have no knowIedee os anything that exists in those jungies except what has come to us by such rumors as you have reported.
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 Palendue Is type of those ruined eities-perhaps the best known and the most thoroughly explored. It Is sit uated in the State of chiapas. on tha northern slops. toward the Gulf of Mex- leo, and at one time undoubtedly wac the capital of large and prosnerous nation, much farther advanced in cfviI- ization than the people who occupy the same territory at the present day. lis period of greatest prosperity ana a6- vancement was many centuries hate.. the coming of the spaniards. PaIen- que was already in ruins when Cortc~ passed near by without even hearine a rumor of 1t. which would have been i'm possible If 1t had been a live city at that time. The ruins were doubtless more or jess familiar to the inhabitants put had become commonnlace to fhar, | and they no longer talked about tba,, or cared for them There Is no IocaI | interest in the ruins of PaIenouo noy, | except so far as the visits of sfran o,ers excite curiosity and. furnish employ ment to the people. They have no trs | ultiohs concerning Palenque. When we taiked about the ruins to the most in. | telligent of the inhabitants oP tbe neishborhood they showed the ufmost l indifference except so far as our own | personal movements were concerna5 Palenque was an ohject of interest for the time being simply because a party of Americans had come down there to explore and wanted 70 employ men ana horses and purchose supplies The un- written records of the past did not ap- peal to them at all.
 ."Palenuue is in the midst of a typi. cal, tropical forest of the most won. derful kind, The growth of veReta- tion is so dense and so rapid that in eight or ten years the ruins are com pletely concealed by 1t. It has been cut away number of times We were there ten years ago, but if you were to go there now you would have to cut your way through the trees and underbrush just as we did.
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 Nobody knows how big Palenoue was at the height of It's grandeur and importance. The city covers a large area-the main buildings onfy are Qualifications, which were most sub- stantially built. and have been able to make the greatest resistance against decay All these are within perhapa half milo square and are types of all the oficial and religious edifiees found in other ruined cities. At the same time. each city and each building has striking individualities which ar- pear Tn the architectural design and decorations. Both would have been en- tirely worthy of the ancient European es of primitive conditions that make comparisons impossible. You cannot compare the ruins of Peru and Mexico v-ftb those of Raaibee nr IMwor ra.L