The Mayas, the Sources of Their History Part 2

[10-*] _Los tres siglos de la dominacion Espanola en Yucatan._ By Fr.

Diego Lopez de Cogolludo,--Madrid, 1688.--Merida, 1845, Lib. IV., Appendix A.

[11-*] The family of Don Manuel Casares consisted of his wife--a very active and estimable lady,--three sons and six daughters. Of the sons, the two eldest, David and Primitivo, were educated in the United States.

David Casares graduated with honor at Harvard College, and after a three years course at the _Ecole centrale des Arts et Manufactures_, in Paris, he pa.s.sed a creditable examination for his degree. He was first employed, on his return to his own country, as Professor of Mathematics in the College of Minerva, a Jesuit College of Merida, but is now occupied in managing the plantation of his father, who died in 1864.

Primitivo, the second son, studied mechanics and engineering at the scientific school in Cambridge, and employed himself in several machine shops and foundries in Worcester and Lowell, to prepare himself to introduce the use of machinery in his native country. He returned to his home in company with the writer, but died a year after, stricken down by fever, brought on by over-work while superintending the erection of machinery, upon one of the estates in the neighborhood of Merida. Both these men were great favorites in Cambridge and Jamaica Plain, where they resided, and are well remembered for their attractive and interesting qualities. The writer became acquainted with many of the prominent families of Merida and Campeachy, from whom he received hospitable courtesies and attentions; but it would here be out of place to acknowledge personal obligations.

[12-*] _Histoire des nations civilizees du Mexique_, by M. L'Abbe Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg, vol. II., page 578.

[18-*] _Historia de Yucatan._ By Cogolludo. Merida, 1845. Lib. III., cap. VII.

[18-] Ibid. Lib. IV., cap. XII.

[19-*] Travels in Cent. Am., Chiapas and Yucatan. By J. L. Stephens. New York, 1858. vol. II., page 403.

[19-] _Geographia de las Lenguas y Carta Ethnographica de Mexico._ By Manuel Orozco y Berra, Mexico, 1864, p. 100. Ibid. p. 115. _Quadro descriptivo y comparativo de las Lenguas indigenas de Mexico._ By D.

Francisco Pimentel. Mexico, 1865. Tom. 11, p. 36.

[21-*] Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Stephens, vol. II., page 445.

History of the Conquest of Mexico, Prescott, vol. III., page 370.

[21-] Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, vol. I., page 323.

[23-*] Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Stephens, vol. I., page 212.

[23-] _Historia de Yucatan._ Cogolludo. Lib. III., Cap. XI.

[24-*] _Historia de Yucatan._ Cogolludo. Lib. III., Cap. VII.

[25-*] History of the Conquest of Mexico. Prescott, Vol. III., page 294.

[29-*] _Collection des Memoires sur l'Amerique, Recueil des Pieces sur le Mexique trad., par Ternaux-Compans_, p. 307.

[32-*] The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. By Hubert H. Bancroft. San Francisco, 1875. Vol. II., page 780.

[33-*] _Relation des choses de Yucatan._ By Diego de Landa, Paris, 1864, pp. 44, 316.

[34-*] _Historia de Yucatan._ Cogolludo. Lib. VI. Appendix A, 1.

[35-*] Description of an ancient city near Palenque. Page 32.

[35-] Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. Vol. I., page 101.

[36-*] The Native Races of the Pacific States. By Hubert Howe Bancroft.

Vol. II., page 771.

[44-*] _Historia de Yucatan._ Cogolludo. Lib. III, cap. VII.

[45-*] North American Review. Boston, April, 1876. No. 251, page 265.

[48-*] Remarks on the centres of ancient civilization in Central America, and their geographical distribution. Address before the American Geographical Society, by Dr. C. Hermann Berendt. New York, 1876.

DR. LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN.

HIS ACCOUNT OF DISCOVERIES.

DR. LE PLONGEON IN YUCATAN.

THE DISCOVERY OF A STATUE CALLED CHAC-MOOL, AND THE COMMUNICATIONS OF DR. AUGUSTUS LE PLONGEON CONCERNING EXPLORATIONS IN THE YUCATAN PENINSULA.

[Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 25, 1877.]

The most perfect remains of a high degree of early civilization on this continent are to be found in ruins in the central portions of America.

Proofs of the extraordinary advancement of the inhabitants of those regions, in architecture and art, at an early period, are not derived alone or princ.i.p.ally from the accounts of Spanish voyagers and chroniclers, which agree substantially in the statements of their observations, but much more from the well-preserved ruins of numerous beautiful buildings, constructed of stone, many of them ornamented with bas-reliefs and hieroglyphics. In Mexico, about which Spanish historians of the time of Cortez and after, have written with more particularity, the vestiges of the civilization of the 16th or previous centuries have, in a great measure, been obliterated by the more complete and destructive subjugation suffered at the hands of the conquerors, and by the continuous occupation of the acquired provinces. Probably the early constructions of the Mexicans were not generally composed of so durable materials as those of the neighboring peninsula. Without discussing this point, the fact remains that Yucatan, together with much of the territory of Guatemala, Chiapas, and Tabasco, is strewn with ruins of a character which command the admiration and challenge the investigation of antiquaries. Waldeck, Stephens, Charnay, and Bra.s.seur de Bourbourg, have brought these wonders of an extinct civilization to the knowledge of the world. Since their investigations have ceased, and until recently, but little has been done in this field. In 1873, however, Dr.

Augustus Le Plongeon, a native of the island of Jersey, of French parentage, together with his wife, Mrs. Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, an English lady, attracted by the wealth of opportunity offered to them for archaeological study in Yucatan, visited that country, and have been and are still actively engaged in exploring its ruins, photographing and taking plans of the buildings, and in making excavations, which have resulted in securing to the scientific world, a masterpiece of antique sculpture differing essentially from all specimens known to exist of American aboriginal art.

Dr. Le Plongeon is an enthusiast in his chosen career, that of an archaeologist and an explorer. Without the energy and strong imagination he has displayed, he would not, alone and una.s.sisted, have braved the dangers and privations of a prolonged residence in the wilds, surrounded by perils from exposure to a tropical climate, and from the dangerous proximity of hostile savages. All that can be learned of the life of this investigator is, that he was educated at Paris, and in 1849 went to California as an engineer, and there laid out the town of Marysville.

Then he visited Peru, and travelled with Mr. Squire and took photographs of ruins. He came to New York in 1871, with three valuable paintings, which he had procured in Peru, two of them said to be Murillo's, and the other the work of Juan del Castillo, Murillo's first master. A long account of these pictures appears in the "New York Evening Mail" of March 2, 1871. He took them to England in the same year, and is said to have sold them to the British Museum. Since his residence in Yucatan, both the Doctor and Mrs. Le Plongeon have been engaged in archaeological studies and explorations among the ruins of Chichen-Itza, Uxmal, and Ake, and they have also visited other ruins in the eastern part of Yucatan, together with those of the once famous islands of Cozumel and Mugeres, and have there pursued the same system of investigation. They are at present at Belize, British Honduras, where this explorer is awaiting a reply to his appeal, as an American citizen, to our Minister at Mexico for redress for the loss of the statue which he had discovered, and which has been removed by the government to Mexico, without his knowledge or consent, to be there placed in the National Museum. The writer is in possession of many of Dr. Le Plongeon's letters and communications, all of them in English, and very interesting to antiquarian students. It is regretted that the shortness of time since receiving the more important of these doc.u.ments will prevent doing justice to the very elaborate and extended material which is at hand; but it is with the hope that interest and cooperation may be awakened in Dr. Le Plongeon and his labors, that this crude and unsatisfactory statement, and imperfect and hasty reference to his letters, is presented.

The conspicuous results of Dr. Le Plongeon's active and successful labors in the archaeological field, about which there can be no controversy, are the wonderful statue which he has disinterred at Chichen-Itza, and a series of 137 photographic views of Yucatan ruins, sculptures and hieroglyphics. All of the photographs are similar to those which appear in heliotype, diminished in size, as ill.u.s.trations of this paper. They consist of portraits of Dr. Le Plongeon and of his wife; 8 photographs of specimen sculpture--among them pictures of men with long beards; 7 photographs of the ruins of Ake, showing the arrangement of so-called _Katuns_--the Maya method of chronology; 12 photographs of Yucatan Indians; 60 photographs of the ruins of Uxmal; and 48 photographs of the ruins of Chichen-Itza, including twelve views relating to the discovery of a statue called Chac-Mool. These pictures, and the relics found in the excavation from which the statue was exhumed, as well as the discovered statue, are valuable acquisitions, and establish a strong claim to the grat.i.tude of the scientific world.

Besides these articles, the original head and feet of a female idol in plaster, from the Island of Mugeres, have been discovered by Dr. Le Plongeon, which have not yet been brought to public notice. Of this antique figure Dr. Le Plongeon says, in a letter to the writer: "Whilst at Mugeres Island I had the good fortune to find the statue of one of the priestesses of the shrine of the Maya Venus, whose ruins stand at the southernmost end of the island, on the very brink of the cliff. It was entire, but the men, not knowing how to handle this object, when first disinterred broke it to pieces. I was only able to save the face and feet. They are full of interest, not only artistically speaking, but also historically, inasmuch as they seem to prove the ancient relations that existed between the people of Mayapan and the inhabitants of the west coast of Africa. The teeth, like those of Chac-Mool, are filed like a saw. This was the custom among persons of high rank in Mayapan, as it is even to-day with some of the African tribes, whilst the sandals are exact representations of those found on the feet of the _Guanches_, the early inhabitants of the Canary Islands, whose mummies are yet occasionally met with in the caves of Teneriffe and the other isles of the group. These relics, I am certain, are the last of high art to be found on the Island of Mugeres. The sea is fast eating the base of the promontory where stands the shrine. Part of it has already fallen into the sea, and in a few years not a stone will remain to indicate the place where stood this altar."

The photographs relating to the discovery of the statue of Chac-Mool are found in a series of twelve pictures, herewith presented in the plates which follow. It is upon this discovery, as will be seen from his _Mexican Memorial_, that Dr. Le Plongeon has relied more than upon any other result of his labors, for fame and remuneration. The statue was exhumed, according to the account in the _Mexican Memorial_, in consequence of interpretations of certain mural tablets and hieroglyphics, which the discoverer and his able coadjutor, Mrs. Le Plongeon, found in the building shown in the pictures 1 and 2 on the opposite page, upon the south-east wall of the so-called Gymnasium,[58-*] which Dr. Le Plongeon says was erected by the queen of Itza, to the memory of Chac-Mool, her husband. As may be seen from a careful inspection of the picture, the stone building is decorated by a belt of tigers, with an ornament separating them, which may have been the "totem."

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Decorated Building at Chichen-Itza, Yucatan, and the external appearance of the place whence the Statue was exhumed by Dr.

Augustus Le Plongeon._

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE.

1. Represents the building at the southern extremity of the eastern wall of the so-called Gymnasium described by Stephens--Travels in Yucatan, vol. II., page 308. It is supposed by Dr. Le Plongeon to have been a monument to the chieftain Chac-Mool.

2. This picture shows the upper portion of the same edifice, in which were found "the mural paintings, bas-reliefs and other signs," which gave a clue to the discovery of the statue.

3. Shows probably the locality where the statue was excavated. The same sculptured slabs that appear in picture 8 in the foreground on the right, are seen resting against a mound, in their supposed original position, and serve to indicate the ident.i.ty of the localities. In the rear of the slabs is probably the heap of stones forming the pedestal for the stone figure of a tiger spoken of in the "_Mexican Memorial_."

4. This is probably another view in the immediate neighborhood. Among the scattered debris is the sculptured head of a serpent, with open jaws.

5. Represents the sculptured slabs, which are seen also in pictures 3, 6 and 8. They are of unequal width, but the length and thickness was probably the same in each.

6. Another view of the sculptured slabs. The first shows a bird of prey; this is apparently a tiger. Both of them hold in their grasp objects of a similar character.

NOTE. Several of these pictures are described in the _Mexican Memorial_, but are there differently numbered.]