has "no fallen
columns" to examine--"no inscriptions to decypher." We answer the
assertion by pointing to the enigmatical walls of Palenque and Chi Chen
Itza, and to the polished ruins of Cuzco, and the valley of Anahuac.
Researches in this field of observation have just commenced. Bigotry
and lust of conquest, led the early Spanish adventurers to sweep as
with the besom of destruction every object and monument of art which
stood in their way. Cortez razed the walls of ancient Mexico to the
ground as he entered it, and his zealous followers committed to the
flames whatever was light and combustible. This spirit marked the
entire conquest which was carried on under the triple mania of
religious bigotry, the lust of gold, and the unchastened spirit of
national robbery. We have to glean for facts among that which is left.
It is still an interesting field, but it has been hedged up since the
conquest, by the jealous spirit and narrow policy of by far the most
gloomy and non-progressive nation of Europe. Spanish chivalry has been
extolled to the skies, but it has ever been the chivalry of the dark
ages. She has fought for the antiquity of opinion, while she has
guarded the avenue to facts. There are immense districts of Central and
South America, which are yet a perfect terra incognita to the traveller
and the antiquarian.

Entire tribes and nations in the gloomy ranges of the Andes and the
Cordilleras have never submitted to the Spanish yoke, and still enjoy
their original customs and institutions. So far as modern explorations
have been made, the results are, in a high degree, auspicious. Mr.
Stephens has opened vistas in our antiquarian history by his two
exploratory journies, which tend to show how little we yet know of the
ancient epochs of the country, and the field of inquiry is about to be
occupied at various points under the highest advantages. Some of the
figures and devices on the antique walls and temples of equinoctial
America, appear to contain information for a future Young or
Champollion to reveal. Time and scrutiny will do much to lift the veil
of mystery from these ancient ruins, and to form and regulate sound
opinion upon the ancient inhabitants of that quarter, and their state
of arts. There can be no doubt that evidences exist in buried
antiquities which will tend to connect the arts and religion, mythology
and astronomy of the eastern and western hemispheres--to unravel the
difficulties in the way of c