rt of antiquaries, who lose their time, and cause others to lose
theirs also, in discussing idle speculations, might follow suit.
History requires facts,--these facts, proofs. These proofs are not
to be found in the few works of the travellers that have hastily
visited the monuments that strew the soil of Central America,
Mexico and Peru, and given of them descriptions more or less
accurate--very often erroneous--with appreciations always affected
by their individual prejudices. The customs and attainments of all
sorts of the nations that have lived on the western continent,
before it was America, must be studied in view of the monuments
they have left; or of the photographs, tracings of mural paintings,
etc., etc., which are as good as the originals themselves. Not even
the writings of the chroniclers of the time of the Spanish conquest
can be implicitly relied upon. The writers on the one hand were in
all cases blinded by their religious fanaticism; in many by their
ignorance; on the other, the people who inhabited the country at
the time of the arrival of the conquerors were not the builders of
the ancient monuments. Many of these were then in ruins and looked
upon by the inhabitants, as they are today, with respect and awe.
True, many of the habits and customs of the ancients, to a certain
extent, existed yet among them; but disfigured, distorted by time,
and the new modes of thinking and living introduced by the
invaders; while, strange to say, the language remained unaltered.
Even today, in many places in Yucatan the descendants of the
Spanish conquerors have forgotten the native tongue of their sires,
and only speak _Maya_, the idiom of the vanquished. Traditions,
religious rites, superstitious practices, dances, were handed down
from generation to generation. But, as the sciences were of old the
privilege of the few, the colleges and temples of learning having
been destroyed at the downfall of Chichen, the knowledge was
imparted by the fathers to their sons, under the seal of the utmost
secrecy. Through the long vista of generations, notwithstanding the
few books that existed at the time of the conquest, and were in
great part destroyed by Bishop Landa and other fanatical monks, the
learning of the _H-Menes_ became adulterated in passing from mouth