the time of the founding of the village, no
doubt much that is now mysterious in regard to them would have
been cleared away. But for two centuries they were allowed to sleep
undisturbed in the depths of the forest, and in that time the elements
played sad havoc with the buildings, inscriptions, and ornaments. What
are left are not sufficient to impart full information. Imagination is
too apt to supply the details, and these ruins, grand in proportion,
wonderful in location, enwrapt by dense forests, visited by the storms
of tropical lands, are made to do service in setting forth a picture of
society and times which we are afraid has but little real foundation to
rest upon.

The ruins of Palenque are the first which awakened attention to the
existence of ancient ruins in America, and, therefore, it may not
come amiss to state more particularly the circumstances of their first
discovery. The existence of an aboriginal city in this locality was
entirely unknown; there were no traditions even that it had ever
existed. Of course the natives of the modern town of Palenque must have
known of their existence, but no account of them was published. They are
said to have been discovered in 1750 by a party of traveling Spaniards.
This statement Mr. Stephens doubts. The first account was published in
1784. The Spanish authorities finally ordered an exploration. This was
made under the auspices of Captain Del Rio, who arrived on the ground in
1787. His report was locked up in the government archives, and was not
made public until 1822.

The reception of this report illustrates how little interest is taken in
American antiquities. It was scarcely noticed by the _Scientific World._
As Mr. Stephens remarks, "If a like discovery had been made in Italy,
Greece, Egypt, or Asia, within the reach of European travel, it would
have created an interest not inferior to the discovery of Herculaneum,
or Pompeii, or the ruins of Paestum." But, from some cause, so little
notice was taken of this report that in 1831 the explorations of Colonel
Galindo, whose works we have referred to at Copan, was spoken of as a
new discovery. In the meantime another government expedition under the
direction of Captain Dupaix explored these ruins in 1807. Owing to
the wars in Europe and the revolution in Mexico, his report was not
published until 1835. Mr. Stephens visited the ruins in 1840. His
account, profusely illustrated, was the means of making known to a
la