himecs. They dwelt chiefly in the "dense, dank forests" found
growing on the low alluvion of the Atlantic coast. So far as is known,
their speech had no affinity with that of any other native community.
People of this race constitute a chief element in the mixed population
of the "Mosquito Coast," known as Moscos.

In Yucatan the old inhabitants were Mayas, and people using dialects
related to theirs were numerous in Tabasco, Chiapa, Guatemala, and the
neighboring districts, while all around the country were scattered
communities supposed to be of Toltec origin, as their speech could not
be classed with these dialects nor with that of the Aztecs. The most
reasonable explanation of this condition of the people is that furnished
by the old chronicles and traditions. The country must have been
occupied, during successive periods, by different peoples, who are
represented by these broken communities and unlike groups of language.
When all the native writings still in existence shall have been
translated, and especially when the multitude of inscriptions found in
the ruins shall have been deciphered, we may be able to see in a clearer
light the ruins, the people, and their history.

FOOTNOTES:

[197-*] See Appendix D.

IX.

THE AZTEC CIVILIZATION.

If a clever gleaner of the curious and notable things in literature
should write on the curiosities of historical speculation, he would be
sure to take some account of "A New History of the Conquest of Mexico"
published in Philadelphia in 1859. The special aim of this work is to
deny utterly the civilization of the Aztecs. The author has ability,
earnestness, and knowledge of what has been written on the subject; he
writes with vigor, and with a charming extravagance of dogmatic
assumption, which must be liked for its heartiness, while it fails to
convince those who study it. This writer fully admits the significance
of the old ruins, and maintains that a great civilization formerly
existed in that part of the continent. This he ascribes to the
Phoenicians, while he gives it an extreme antiquity, and thinks the
present ruins have existed as ruins "for thousands of years," explaining
these words to mean that their history "is separated by a cycle of
thousands of years from the civilization of our day." In his view, the
people who constructed the old cities were subjugated and destroyed,
long ages since, "by inroads of northern savages," who were the only
people in