The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-11-19
MIGHTY CITY 1000 A
OF AGE Is DISCOVERED
ne il1'ns OF Qu'rlgua in the Montague Valley in the
central American Junsie--A Look at the Grave
Mounds and Their Contents-Nightv Monuments
OF Solid Stone
tCupyriSht. 1912, hy Frank 6, car
penter)
Los MATE Guatelnal,


Los AMATES, Guatemala.
iIaye you ever heard OF Ouiriyua?
seven hundred ears before Column
has discovered America, when our
ancestors OF northern Europe We're
living IN huts, eating with their FIN
gers and sleeping on straw, 1t was
The most civilized place on the west
ern hemisphere. 1t had it's pyramids
ard its palaces. it's temples and its
novels. 1t had men who understood
line masonry and artists who did won
d"lfui carving. II was the capital IF
q great population, which filled the
valley in which | am vriting--a val
rs which in It's fertility is equal to
that OF the Nile. the Ganges, the Anna
."n or the EongO.
The valley OF the MotaSna-
Today this valley is covered with
tinglc. Palm trees OF a hundred va
fietlcS wave their fanlike caves over
1t. Il ljanaS, from the thickness Of
your finger to that Of your leg. bind
fEc great trees together. Mixed with
the palms are mahoganles and other
hardwoods, 50 that tho vegetation Is
almost impenctrahle. The under
growth is dense and 1t is . good
woodsrnan VINO can cut his way for
two miles through the jungle inside
OF twelve hours. The soil and climate
are such that the clearing of today
becomes o forest within a few years
and plants will shoot up to from a
dozen 10 twenty feet in the course OF
six months.
At the same time the decay of h
vegetation is rapid. Cut it down and
1t rOts so quickly that within 4 few
months the smaller trees have diSap-
appeared. and. by the aid Of the vast
armies Of ants, the larger mes last
\ but a few years. For this reason, all
@sthe woodwork Of that ancient civil
Y cation has long since passed away.
Ii The stonework remains, and within
the past thirty or forty months Amer
lean archeOlOgists have been digging
1t out of the jungle and trying to dis
cover the character OF n people who
lived here a thousand and more years
ago. What they have found and what
They are doing l shall tell you further
on in this letter.
Where the Ruins Lie.
But first let me give the location. ]
doubt whether NAM OF you have ever
heard OF MOtagua river and OK this
great Garden Of Eden known as the
Motagua valley. 1t was we'll fitted
for the home of a great people. II
you remember your history you will
find that the first civilizations have
sprung up in valleys. The soil there
Is rich and the river makes it easy to
CRY the products from one place to
another. The fight for food is nc
hard, and the people have leisure TO
cultivate the gentler arts. Other peo-
pies come TO buy Of their abundance.
Commerce follows and in time civil
zation grows. So the civilization OF
Egypt sprang UP in the valley OF the
Nile; SO that Of Babylon and Ninevef
IN the delta Of the Erphrates, and sc
that Of old India along the banks o.
the GangcS.
Ii was somewhat the same in Cen
:ral America. The continent mere
consists Of a backbone Of mountains
with a narrow strip OF iowlands along
the coast. III Motagua river flow:
OUT Of the mountains In Guatemala
ana 1t has a valley about five mile!
vide running from this backbone 4
the sea. The mountains are SO STU
ated thai they catch the water-ladel
winds Of the Caribbean and give II
heavy rainfall. At the same TIM
they shelter it from the winds &n'
make it a tropical paradise.
The Home Of the MayanS
This paradise was the Garden o
Eden Of his nation q thousand year
ago. It's people We're the Mayans
They the jungle and i've
here no one knows how long, unul u
time they were py III
wilder tribes, II the jungle agar
came into its own.
The exact dates OF these events ar
n 1t was probobly a housa
years ago when the jungle again re
sumed It's sway, and from then unit
now natur has reigned supreme.
Is only during the past century ina
any one has known that q clV>ilzatio
ever existed here. And it is only nov
when 2 railroad has been cut thrOus
to get to the highlands and when tn
American fruit men have begun l
cut down the trees and make the
banana plantations, that any ldea Q
the extent Of that civilization ma
come to be known.
In building the railroad, the Gfaue
cut through a circular Indian noun
as high as a four-story house, and fo
forty miles along the hills on n $40
Of the valley were found graves VIII