"On one side the combination [of the Sculpture] was in the form of diamonds, simple, chaste, and tasteful: and at the head of the courtyard two gigantic serpents (with their heads broken and fallen) were winding from opposite directions along the whole façade"-[i. e. one thousand feet].

It will be remembered that the Chief Altar at Copan has sculptured on it two serpents: in the Analogies we shall endeavour to read these wily hieroglyphics.

"In front and on a line with the door of the preceding edifice, is another building on a lower foundation of the same general character, called Casa de Tortugas, from the sculptured turtles over the doorway."

That the reader may not be misled, these "turtles" are not as defined in Scripture (i. e. young doves), but the tortoise, the well-known shellfish; and in the splendid illustrations of these Ruins in Waldeck's work (folio, 1838) the tortoise is distinctly given, and without doubt is so meant by Mr. Stephens. There are four of them in a group, their heads approaching to a centre, each tortoise is in a square, and in the two external angles of each square is an Egg. The tortoise and the egg, are both National emblems, and the Nation claiming them will be proved in the Analogies.

"In the front was a broad avenue with a line of ruins on each side, leading beyond the wall to a great mound of ruins: and beyond this a lofty building in the rear. Between the two was a large patio, or courtyard, with corridors on each side, and the ground

of the courtyard sounded hollow. In one place, the surface was broken, and I descended into a large excavation, cemented, which probably had been intended as a granary. [Rather as a water reservoir] At the back of the courtyard, on a high, broken terrace, which it was difficult to climb, was another edifice more ruined than the others, but which from the style of its remains, and its commanding position, overlooking every other building [except the first described] and apparently having been connected with the distant mass of ruins in front, must have been one of the most important in the City, perhaps the principal Temple. The whole presented a scene of barbaric (?) magnificence, utterly confounding all previous notions in regard to the Aboriginal inhabitants of this Country; and calling up emotions which had not been wakened to the same extent by any thing we had yet seen."

"There was one strange circumstance connected with these ruins-viz., no water had ever been discovered, and there was not a single stream, fountain, or well, nearer than the Hacienda, a mile and a half distant. It is supposed that the face of the Country had not changed; and that somewhere under ground must exist great wells, cisterns or reservoirs [perhaps acquaducts] which supplied the former inhabitants of the City with water." * "While I was making

the circuit of these ruins, Mr. Catherwood proceeded to the Casa del Gobernador; it indicates the principal building of the old City, or royal house. (?) It is the grandest in position, the most stately in Architecture

and proportions, and the most perfect in preservation of all the structures remaining at Uxmal."

The same argument brought forward in the last Section, to prove that the chief edifice of Palenque was the Temple, and not the Palace, will apply to this supposed "royal house." As to the phrase "Casa del Gobernador"—or Governor's house,-it is the name by which it is called in the neighbourhood, and can have no bearing upon the true character of the edifice,-but the very superior preservation of the building would point it to be one held Sacred from any rude assault by the people; while its Architecture, importance of its position, and magnitude, at once justify the name of Temple being given to this edifice, and as such we shall view it. Mr. Stephens appears to be so strict a Spar. tan Republican, that every large, or magnificent building in the Ruined Cities, he considers to be a Palace,— he seems to have thought less of mind, than of matter.

"This edifice [Temple] stands on three ranges of terraces. The first terrace is six hundred and forty feet long, and five feet high. It is walled with cut stone, and on the top is a platform twenty feet broad, from which rises another terrace fifteen feet high. At the corners this terrace is supported by cut stones, having the faces rounded so as to give a better finish than with sharp angles. The great platform is flat. At the south-east corner of this platform is a row of ROUND pillars eighteen inches in diameter, and three or four feet high, [i. e. broken pillars] extending about one hundred feet along the platform; and these were the

nearest approach to pillars or columns (circular) that we saw in all our exploration of ruins of that country."

What "nearer approach" was necessary to prove the existence of circular columns, than his own description? Of this hereafter,-again he writes:

"In the middle of the terrace, along an avenue leading to a range of steps, was a broken round pillar, inclined and falling, and with trees growing around it. In the centre of the platform, at a distance of two hundred and five feet from the border in front, is a range of stone steps, more than a hundred feet broad, and thirty-five in number, ascending to a third terrace, fifteen feet above the last, and thirty-five feet from the ground; which being on a naked plain, formed a most commanding position. The erection of these terraces alone was an immense work. On the third terrace, with its principal doorway facing the range of steps, stands the noble structure. [Temple] The façade measures three hundred and twenty feet. Away from the regions of dreadful rains, and the rank growth which smothers the Ruins of Palenque,-it stands with all its walls erect, and almost as perfect as when deserted by the inhabitants. The whole building is of stone, plain up to the moulding that runs along the tops of the doorway, and above filled with the same rich, strange, and elaborate Sculpture; among which is particularly conspicuous, the ornament before referred to, as la grecque."

By a reference to the illustrated folio of Waldeck, it

is found that this ornament is chiefly the meander, or the Grecian square border, used in the embroidery of the mantles and robes of Attica.

"There is no rudeness or barbarity in the design or proportions; on the contrary, the whole wears an air of Architectural symmetry and grandeur; and as the stranger ascends the steps, and casts a bewildered eye along its open and desolate doors, it is hard to believe, that he sees before him the work of a race in whose epitaph, as written by historians,* they are called ignorant of Art, and said to have perished in the rudeness of savage life."

In justice to those historians, it should be stated, that they did not know of these architectural wonders ; for if they did, no excuse can be rendered in extenuation of such an "epitaph" thence has arisen the necessity of a New History of Ancient America; to, at least, the landing of Columbus; and even that will now wear another aspect. Mr. Stephens, in the last sentence quoted, justly reasons upon, and correctly censures the false conclusions of those historians ;-yet a few pages before, he, himself, calls the tout ensemble of the Uxmal Ruins, with all the beautiful Sculpture, and Classical ornaments, " a scene of barbaric magnificence!" He seems afraid to combat with even the assertions of those Historians, whose "epitaph" upon an entire people, was written in ignorance of their works of Art. He says, "it is hard to believe" that

* Dr. Robertson and others,