The Prehistoric World or Vanished races Part 38

From this circular reservoir the side of the mountain is cut down so as to form a level grade, just as if a railroad had been made. This grade winds around the surface of the hill for about half a mile, when it stretches out across a valley three-quarters of a mile wide, an elevated embankment from sixty to two hundred feet in height. Reaching the second mountain, the graded way commences again, and is extended about half-way around the mountain, where it extends on another embankment across the plains to a range of mountains, from which the water was obtained.

Ill.u.s.tration of Aqueduct, Tezcocingo.---------

This cut represents the embankment crossing the valley. Along the top of this way was laid the ca.n.a.ls to transport the water, made of an exceedingly hard cement of mortar and fragments of pounded brick. It is estimated that nearly, if not quite, as much labor was expended on this aqueduct as on the Croton aqueduct that supplies New York City.<8> This last statement is probably too strong, but, considering that this work was accomplished by a people dest.i.tute of iron tools, it is seen to be a most extraordinary work. From what we have already learned, this hill was evidently a very important place. On all sides we meet with evidences that the whole of the hill was covered with artificial works of one kind or another. On the side of the hill opposite this reservoir was another recess bordered by seats cut in living rock, and leading to a perpendicular cliff, on which a calendar is said to have been carved, but was destroyed by the natives in later days.<9>

Traces of a spiral road leading up the summit have been observed. In 1824 Bullock (who, however, is not regarded as a very accurate observer) "found the whole mountain had been covered with palaces, temples, baths, hanging-gardens, and so forth." Latrobe, somewhat later, found "fragments of pottery and broken pieces of obsidian knives and arrows; pieces of stucco, shattered terraces, and old walls were thickly dispersed over its whole surface."<10> Mr. Mayer, after speaking of the abundance of broken pottery and Indian arrows, says: "The eminence seems to have been converted from its base to its summit into a pile of terraced gardens."

By one cla.s.s of writers this hill is regarded as the "suburban residence of the luxurious monarchs of Tezcuco,... a pleasure garden upon which were expended the revenues of the state and the ingenuity of its artists."<11> Mr. Bancroft has gathered together the details of this charming story,<12> and tells us that the kings of Mexico had a similar pleasure resort on the Hill of Chapultepec, a few miles west of the city.<13> It is sufficient at present to state that an explanation much simpler and more in accord with our latest scientific information can be given. It is more likely that this hill was the seat of a village Indian community. Its location was naturally strong. The water, brought with so much labor from a distance, furnished a supply for the purpose of irrigation, as well as bodily needs. The terraced sides show that every foot of ground was utilized, and the ruins of the palaces that Mr.

Bullock mentions were the fast-disappearing ruins of their communal buildings. Owing to the cruel raids of the Aztec tribes, this place may have been deserted before the coming of the Spaniards, and thus no mention was made of it.

Ill.u.s.tration of Teotihuacan.-------------------

Still further to the north, about thirty miles from Mexico, is found another extensive field of ruins, which is called Teotihuacan, meaning "City of the G.o.ds." The princ.i.p.al ruins now standing are the two immense pyramids (which are represented in this cut), which the natives call the "House of the Moon" and the "House of the Sun." We will describe the surroundings first. It is unquestioned but that here was a very extensive settlement in early times. When the Nahua tribes entered Mexico they probably found it inhabited. One very recent writer thinks that "nowhere else in America can you find a more imposing ma.s.s of ruins."<14> He estimates that it was "a city upwards of twenty miles in circ.u.mference."

Other writers have also noticed its great extent. According to Thompson, "the ruins cover an area very nearly as large as that of the present City of Mexico, and the streets are as distinctly marked by the ruins of houses."<15> And in another place Mr. Charney tells us "the city was of vast extent; and, without indulging in any stereotyped reflections on the vanity of human greatness, I will say that a more complete effacement is nowhere else to be seen. The whole ground, over a s.p.a.ce five or six miles in diameter, is covered with heaps of ruins, which at first view, make no impression, so complete is their dilapidation."<16>

Of this ma.s.s of ruins we are told but little, beyond the general a.s.sertion that it consists of the ruins of buildings, temples, etc. But very recently M. Charney has uncovered the foundation of one of these houses. He calls it a palace. It was, in all probability, a communal building. It had two wings inclosing a court, and was located on a terraced pyramid. He found, on digging into the terrace in front of the ruins, a great number of sloping walls, covered with cement, containing small compartments, etc. M. Charney can not account for their presence.

In view of the discoveries further north, we would respectfully suggest that this was, in reality, the lower story of the building, whose flat roof formed the terrace in front of the second story, whose foundation M. Charney so happily discovered. But such suggestions as this are very unsafe to make, and must be supported by further discoveries before they are of any real value.

He found a large number of good-sized rooms, and speaks especially of one hall fifty feet square, in the center of which was six pillars, sloping from the base upwards. They, doubtless, served to support the roof. We regret that we have not been able to see M. Charney's ground plan of this ruin. Of the pyramids themselves we have quite full information. The larger one, that of the sun, is seven hundred and sixty feet square and two hundred and sixteen feet high. It will be seen that these dimensions throw the great mound at Cahokia into the shade. Though the base may not be quite as great, the height of the pyramid is over twice that of the mound. Three terraces are plainly visible. The surface was covered with cement, large slabs of which remain in their place. The moon pyramid is further north.

It is in all respects like that of the sun, but of smaller dimensions, being one hundred and fifty feet high. In early times these pyramids are said to have supported statues, but, if so, they have long since been thrown down. Their surface and the ground around is thickly strewn with fragments of pottery, obsidian knives, and other small relics. Running south from the House of the Moon, and pa.s.sing a little to one side of the House of the Sun, are the remains of a wide, paved road. Its width is stated to be one hundred and thirty feet, and its length about two hundred and fifty rods.<17>

This road suddenly expands in front of the Moon, so as to suggest the idea of a Greek cross. Pieces of cement (with which this road was covered) are still visible in places. It is lined with mounds on either side, and they stand so close together as to resemble continuous embankments in some places. Speculations are abundant as to the object of this graded way. Tradition calls it the "Path of the Dead." Small mounds are very numerous over the surface. They may have been for burial purposes, but sculptured stones are found in them, and specimens of hard cement. This group of ruins is regarded as of very great antiquity.

We can easily see that the growth of the soil formed by the decay and detrition of the stone slabs of the pyramids, temples, and other buildings would be slow, especially as the rainfall is light. But in some localities it is more than three feet thick. In places three separate floors are observed, one over the other, pointing to as many successive occupations of the same sections by men.

About sixty-five miles to the north of Mexico was located Tollan, or Tulla. According to tradition, this was the capital city of the Toltecs, a mysterious people who long preceded the Aztecs. We are told that "extensive ruins remained at the time of the conquest, but very few relics have survived to the present time."<18> M. Charney, whose labors we have referred to at Teotihuacan, succeeded also in making important discoveries here. He tells us that on the site of this ancient capital there is a hill, "about one mile long by half a mile broad, covered with mounds, plateaus, and ruins of all kinds."

He gives us the dimensions of two pyramids, as follows. The first is one hundred and ninety-six feet on each front, and forty-six feet high. The second is one hundred and thirty-one feet square, and thirty-one feet high. Both of these pyramids stood on raised foundations, which M.

Charney calls esplanades. As no other pyramids are mentioned, we are to suppose these are the two princ.i.p.al ones. Perhaps they are also pyramids of the sun and moon. Our chief interest is concerned with the remains of the habitations he discovered here. He says: "I set the men to work at one of the many mounds upon the ridge, and soon found that I had hit upon a group of habitations." A general idea of this group of buildings is given in this pa.s.sage: "The dwellings were united together in groups, and erected on isolated mounds, one in the middle, the others around about, the whole forming a sort of honey-comb, with its cells placed at different elevations."

We can not help being struck with the general resemblance of the descriptions here given and that of the ruins in the vicinity of the River Gila. The general tendency is seen to gather together in cl.u.s.ters, with, probably, the most important house in the center. As to the materials used in this building, we are told "they used clay and mud for the inside of the walls, cement to coat them, dressed stone and brick for casings, bricks and stone for stairways, bricks for pilasters, and wood for roofing the edifice. The houses bad flat roofs, consisting of timbers coated with cement. Of such timbers we find vast quant.i.ties."<19>

Of the arrangements of the rooms, he tells us, "The apartments that have been brought to light comprise a number of chambers, big and little, placed at different heights. We shall have no clear idea of the relation of these different chambers to one another, or of the mode of access to them through the labyrinthine pa.s.sages and the numerous stairways, until the whole edifice has been unearthed."

This was not the only building he discovered. On digging into a mound supposed to be the support of a temple, he discovered it was the ruined foundation of a still grander house. He says, "It is much larger than the other one, stands on a pyramid, and has two wings inclosing a courtyard. The walls are thicker than those of the first habitation, and more strongly built. The apartments, too, are larger, though arranged in a similar fas.h.i.+on." Elsewhere he tells us that this building contained at least forty-three apartments, large and small. We presume very few will now question but what the buildings he here describes are ruined communal buildings, much like the structures in Arizona.

But perhaps the most interesting result of his labors was the proof that these ruins were certainly inhabited after the conquest--for how long a time we can not tell. This is shown by fragments of bones and other articles found in the refuse heaps. The bones were of such animals as the horse, swine, sheep, oxen, etc.--animals introduced into this country by the Spaniards. The fragments of pottery include specimens plainly not of Indian manufacture, such as fragments of porcelain, and that variety of glazed ware known as delf, and lastly, the neck of a gla.s.s bottle. It may be said that these fragments might have been left by a band of Spaniards who occupied the ruins in the early days of the conquest, perhaps long after the Indian owners had left. This is of course possible, but it is just as reasonable to suppose the fragments were left by descendants of the original builders.

Northward from Tulla is a small province, marked on the map Querataro.

From the accounts at our disposal, which are very brief, we gather that this whole section is a tableland split up by ravines of great depths and precipitous sides; consequently one abounding in easily defended positions. It was found that all the projecting points, naturally strong, were rendered still stronger by the presence of ditches, walls, and embankments. Three groups of ruins are mentioned especially, and their location is marked on the map. At Pueblito there was, at an early day, plainly to be seen, the foundation of a large, rectangular building. The walls were built of stone laid in clay.

At Canoas, in the northern part of the State, there is a steep and strongly fortified bill, but particulars in regard to it are very meager. "There are, in all, forty-five defensive works on the hill, including a wall about forty feet in height, and a rectangular platform with an area of five thousand square feet."<20> Ranas, the most northern one of the three sites mentioned, is regarded as the center of population in early times. "A small lake and a perennial spring are supposed to have been the attractions of this locality in the eyes of the people. On all the hills about are still seen vestiges of their monuments."

If we look at the map we will notice that we have gone but a little ways north of the valley of Anahuac. Yet, with the exception of the Gulf-coast, there are but few striking aboriginal ruins in Northern Mexico. At the time of the conquest the whole northern section was the home of tribes not generally considered to be as far advanced as those who lived in the section we have already described, and in regions further south. Yet it is certainly hard to draw the line between the culture of the two people. We are told that, these Northern tribes though styled "dogs," and "barbarians," by the Southern tribes, were yet "tillers of the soil, and lived under systematic forms of government, although not apparently much given to the arts of agriculture and sculpture."

This point is of considerable interest to us, theoretically; for it is a question from whence came the various Nahua tribes. We would naturally think, if they came from the North, we ought to find evidence of their former presence in the various Northern States of Mexico. We must remember, however, that a migrating people are not apt to leave monuments until they reach the end of their migration. Neither has the territory been as carefully explored as it should be. What accounts we can obtain of the remains in this section are certainly very meager. But one place in Sonora do ruins occur, and they have never been examined by competent personages.<21> In Chihuahua occur ruins, evidently the works of the same people as built the separate houses to the west of the Rio Grande, in New Mexico.

These ruins have received the same name as those on the Rio Gila--that is, "Casas Grandes," meaning "Great House." This cut represents a view of these ruins. The river valley is here about two miles wide, and is said to be very fertile. Mr. Bartlett thinks there is no richer valley to be found from Texas to California. This valley was once the seat of a considerable population. Mounds are here found in considerable numbers.

Over two thousand are estimated as occurring in a section of country sixty miles long by thirty in width.<22> We wish we knew more about the mounds. They are said to contain pottery, stone axes, and other implements. It is possible, then, that these mounds are ruins of separate houses. At any rate, such are the only kind of ruins noticed in the upper part of this same valley by Mr. Bandelier.

Ill.u.s.tration of Casas Grandes.----------------

The ruins in question are undoubtedly those of a rich and prosperous pueblo. They are so placed as to command a very extensive view. The river valley is cut through a plain, and has precipitous sides about twenty-five feet in height. The ruins in question are found partly in the bottoms and partly on the upper and more sterile plateau. The walls were made of adobe, and in consequence of their long exposure to the elements are very far gone in ruins; so much so that Mr. Bartlett was unable to make out the plan. But enough was seen to show that this was a pueblo much like the structure already described. They properly belong to the Arizona group of ruins.

We are told they face the cardinal points, and consist of fallen and erect walls. The portions still standing are from fifty to sixty feet high, or rather were that height in 1851. It is doubtful whether any thing more than a mound of adobe mud now marks the spot. The walls were highest in the center of the ma.s.s. At the distance of a few miles was a hill said to be fortified. But the descriptions of it are conflicting.

Some represent it as crowned with a stone-built fortress two or three stories high. Others more reasonable, represent it as the site of a watch-tower, or sentry station, and that at regular intervals on the slope of the hill are lines of stone, with heaps of loose stones at their extremities.<23> Probably the same fate overtook the tribes of this valley as did the sedentary tribes of the North. They would not willingly abandon a place so well suited to their needs. The presence of an invading foe, cruel and vindictive, alone accounts for this group of ruins.

In Sinaloa we have no very definite account of ruins. However, Mr.

Bandelier says, the existence of ancient villages in that section is certain, and that from "Sinaloa there are ample evidences of a continuous flow Southward."<24> There are no ruins worth mentioning in any of the other States, excepting Zacatecas, where we find a ruin of great interest. This is at Quemada, in the southern part of the State.

The name is taken from that of a farm in the near neighborhood. The ruins are situated on the top of a hill, which is not only naturally strong, but the approaches to it are fortified. The hill ascends from the plain in a gentle slope for several hundred yards, it then rises quite precipitously for about a hundred and fifty feet. The total height of the hill above the plain is probably not far from eight hundred feet.<25>

At all points where the approach to the top of the hill is not steep enough to form a protection of itself, the brow is guarded by walls of stone. This is especially true of the northern end of the hill. One peculiar feature of this place is the traces of ancient roads, which can still be clearly distinguished crossing each other at various angles on the slope we have mentioned. They can be followed for miles, and are described as being slightly raised and paved with rough stones. In places on the slope, their sides are protected by embankments.

Considerable speculations have been indulged in as to the purposes for which these roads were used. It has been suggested that they were the streets of an ancient city which must once have existed on the plains; and that the fortified hill, with the ruins on its summit, was the citadel, the residence of their rulers, and the location of their temples. But we think a more reasonable view is that all of the city that ever stood in that neighborhood was on the hill summit, and that these streets were for religious purposes, reminding us in this respect of the graded ways and traces of paved streets sometimes met with in the Mississippi Valley. In proof of this view, it is said that many of them, after being followed for a long distance, are found to terminate in a heap of stones, which are evidently the ruins of a regular pyramid.

In opposition to both of these views, it has been suggested that the surrounding plain was low and marshy, and that the object of these causeways was to secure a dry pa.s.sage, which explanation is certainly very reasonable.

Ill.u.s.tration of Quemada.----------

Of the top of the hill, it may be sufficient to state that it is of irregular shape, half a mile in length from north to south, and of varying width, but on an average one thousand feet wide. The approach to the top of the hill was strongly guarded. Although buildings were observed covering the whole top of the hill, yet they were in two princ.i.p.al groups. This cut, though but one of many, will give us very good ideas of all the ruins. It is seen to be an inclosure. It is on a small scale. It was one hundred and fifty feet square. We notice terraces on three sides. These terraces are three feet high by twelve wide, and in the center of each side are steps by which to descend to the square.<26> Each terrace is backed by a wall, portions of which are seen in the engraving. These walls are twenty feet high by eight or nine in thickness. The openings seen in the wall are not properly doors, as they extend to the top of the wall.

This court, encompa.s.sed by terraces, is a peculiar feature. It is different from any thing we know of, either north or south.<27> Courts, surrounded by buildings located on terraces, are common enough, but all accounts of these ruins say nothing of buildings. We remember the inclosures that surrounded the houses cl.u.s.tered in groups on the Rio Gila. We think this comes near to being a development of the same idea.

The low walls of the former inclosure are here quite pretentious pieces of masonry. In some cases two or more of these inclosed courts are joined by openings.

The opening in the wall on the right of the engraving leads into a perfect inclosed square of two hundred feet. In one case a range of pillars was noticed parallel with the walls, and distant twenty-three feet. These are supposed to have supported the roof of the portico, and houses of a rude description might have been ranged along under this roof, which has since completely vanished. Back of this square, but not very well shown on the drawing, rises a precipitous hill. A pyramid is placed in the center of the side towards the hill. It is only nineteen feet high,<28> but is divided into five stages or stories.<29>

This pyramid will serve as an example of numerous other pyramids scattered over the summit of the hill. They are made of stone. The largest one, whose dimensions are given, is fifty feet square, and the same in height. In front of the pyramid, and in the center of the square, are the remains of an altar. In view of the altar and pyramid, within the inclosed square, we may suppose this to have been dedicated to their religion. As if to confirm this belief, is the statement that on the hill to the back of the pyramid are numerous tiers of seats, either broken in the rock or built of rough stone. The people seated on them would be conveniently located as regards both sight and hearing of what transpired there.

From an Indian's point of view, this hill was very strongly fortified.

It would be almost impossible for an enemy to capture the settlement on its summit. The surrounding country was probably fertile, and a large body of Indians could have lodged within the fortified inclosures. It has some peculiar features, which have been pointed out. There is now no water on the hill, but traces of what is supposed to be an aqueduct are observed, as well as several tanks, and at one place a well. There is not an appearance of great antiquity about these ruins, and yet native traditions are silent in regard to them, and but one of the early writers refers to them, and he had not seen them.<30>

West of the central basin the remains are more numerous than to the north, but they are not very striking, and it is scarcely worth our while to stop and examine them. About sixty miles in a south-easterly direction from Mexico is the modern town of Cholula. This has grown at the expense of the ancient city of Cholula, grouped around the famous pyramid of that name. This was the Mexican "Tower of Babel." The traditions in regard to it smack so strongly of outside influence that but little reliance can be placed on them. They are evidently a mixture of native traditions and Biblical stories. Like Teotihuacan and Tulla, this is regarded as a relic of Toltec times. This is but another way of saying that it is older in time than the majority of ruins.

At the time of Cortez's march to Mexico Cholula was a very important place. In his dispatches he says: "The great city of Cholula is situated in a plain, and his twenty thousand householders in the body of the city, besides as many more in the suburbs." He further states that he himself counted the towers of more than four hundred "idol temples."<31>

We must remember that this is a Spanish account, and therefore exaggerated. Still, after making due allowance for the same, it would remain an important aboriginal settlement. We have no reliable data of the population at the time of the conquest. From doc.u.mentary evidence Mr. Bandelier has shown that while Cholula was certainly a populous Indian pueblo, it is a misnomer to call it a city. It was a group of six distinct cl.u.s.ters, gathered around a common market. He estimates that its population may possibly have been thirty thousand.<32> All explorers have mentioned the fertility of the plain in the midst of which this monument is found.