Chapter II: Part 2

One point however we think we have come very near deciding, and one which when collecting our notes was constantly in mind, namely: Whether the Mexican bronze was to be viewed as an artificial or a natural product? There was a great doubt concerning this question caused by the first notices respecting the composition of the bronze. The expressions of Cortes and Bernal Diaz were of so condensed a character that we were at a loss how to reduce them to their elementary meaning, and the doubt was not removed when examining apart each of the subsequent writers on the same subject. But when putting their statements together, a certain basis, at least, could be obtained, from which to deduce a settled opinion. From the combined statements we learned that the bronze found among the natives contained a rich basis of copper, which was mixed either with gold, or with silver, or with tin, and we might infer from this variety of admixtures, that the natives manufactured their _laton_ according to a fixed method. But, on the contrary, as the three metals named are always found to be the steady components of Mexican copper ore, we are led to the presumption, that these ores were worked in their unaltered condition, just as nature had produced them. It is not indeed meant to teach thereby, that the native did not appreciate the fact, that copper of a deep red was softer than that of a lighter color. Whenever they had to manufacture a chisel and had a choice between the two qualities, we are certain they would have employed the lighter metal for this purpose. But we hardly believe that they considered the light metal to be a composition of the red colored copper with either silver, gold or tin. This belief would involve a presupposition of metallurgical science in the early Mexicans, that we have not the least knowledge they had ever attained to. On the other hand, however, there is a strong reason for the belief, that they recognized this light metal to be related to the red copper. For if they had thought this bronze or _laton_ to be a separate kind of metal, they would have had a separate name for it, as they had for all the other metals, from the gold down to the tin, and even to the cinnabar. Bronze would have been called _tepuzque_ as was copper, but probably—with the addition descriptive either of color or of hardness.

We were unable to discover one single hint, from which to infer that they possessed the knowledge of hardening copper by dipping the hot metal into water. This is a hypothesis, often noted and spoken of, but which ranges under the efforts made for explaining what we have no positive means to verify or to ascertain.

Though we have gained so little from our researches, this little, however, we hope may incite others to extend their investigations, and thus render the path clearer which we have tried to explore into this field of prehistoric industry. The most substantial proofs and contributions may be expected from our fellow-students in Mexico. They dwell upon the ground which was the scene of this ancient industry. They are also in a continuous contact with a numerous indigenous race, which despite of European attempts to improve their working facilities, still tenaciously cling to their old usages and fashions. Our Museums are overcrowded with Mexican idols, pottery, and flint arrow-heads. One specimen of an ancient tin-borer, one of a copper axe or hoe, or of a bronze chisel would be counted as a very welcome and valuable acquisition.

-----

Footnote 1:

_A. v. Humboldt_, Essai s. 1. Nouv. Espagne, Tome III., Livre 4, Chap.
ii. _W. H. Prescott_, History of the Conquest of Mexico, Book I.,
Chap. 5. _Brasseur de Bourbourg_, Hist. d. Nat. Civ. du Mexique, Livre
III., Chap. 7, pag. 678.

Footnote 2:

_Carta (2da) de relacion_, por _Fernando Cortes_, de la villa Segura
de Frontera desta Nueva España, á 30 de Octubre de 1520 años “donde
hay todos los generos de mercaderias, que en todas las tierras se
hallan, asi de mantenimientos como de vituallas, joyas de oro y de
plata, de plomo, de _laton_, de _cobre_, de _estano_, de piedras, de
huesos, etc.”

Footnote 3:

_Bernal Diaz de Castillo_, Historia verdadera de la conquista de la
Nuevo España, Madrid, 1632, I. Vol., Cap. 92, “y vendian hachas de
laton, y cobre y estaño.” The meaning of this passage is, beyond all
misinterpretation: He saw for sale bronze axes, and besides pieces of
copper and others of tin. The order, in which these three words stand,
conveys a suggestion that we should not wholly ignore. The word
_laton_ (bronze) is followed by _cobre_ (copper) and _estano_ (tin),
the two well known components of bronze. Might not the relative
position of the three words teach that, to them, bronze was the most
important metal and was therefore assigned the first place, mentioning
the copper and tin afterwards as the elements from which the bronze
was made? We might also go farther and inquire how the first metal
came to be recognized by them as bronze. In framing a reply, let us
consider three possible explanations. Let us suppose, first, that they
knew the bronze well enough to recognize it at once. They, further,
may have entertained doubts as to its identity, but finally have been
led to this conclusion by seeing the copper and tin exhibited in the
stalls, together with the bronze. Thirdly, we may also suppose, that
they would desire to obtain more positive confirmation and therefore
have inquired and learned from their native guides that this bronze
was actually a composition of the two other metals before them.
Therefore, considering all these cases, when engaged in composing
their narration, the Spaniards would have remembered the circumstances
connected with the memorable visit to the market, and have enumerated
the metals in the order in which they actually are found; first, the
bronze, the main object of their curiosity, and then the copper and
tin as the key to the puzzle.

We, however, make no defence of this forced and artificial
interpretation of the language, and still less would in this manner
build a premise from which to deduce the final conclusion, that the
natives make bronze from copper and tin. On the contrary, the facts
elicited from our material, as will be seen later, conduct us to very
different conclusions. Still, having been struck by the occurrence of
the three words and their relative positions, we could not dismiss
them altogether, especially as Cortes and Bernal Diaz were
eye-witnesses and were, therefore, of highest authority. Besides, it
is by no means impossible that in the future, instruments of bronze
may actually be discovered and found to be composed of tin and copper.
In such an event our judgment would favor the opinion that Cortes and
his followers were keener observers and investigators than those who
during three and one-half centuries have attempted to ventilate the
question.

For the same position of words, compare also _Gomara_ (_Francisco
Lopez de_), Historia General de las Indias, Ed. Barcia, Cap. 79:
“There is also much featherwork in the market, and gold, silver,
copper, lead, bronze (_laton_) and tin, though these three latter
metals are scarce.” Gomara, it will be noticed, changed somewhat the
position of the words, as compilers often do. He was a secretary to
Cortes, and his work appeared in Zaragoza, 1552–1553, five years after
Cortes’ death.

Footnote 4:

_Bernal Diaz_, Chap. 147.

Footnote 5:

A Vocabulario en la lengua Castellana y Mexicana, por el Rev^n Padre
Fray _Alonso de Molina_: Guardian del Convento de San Antonio de
Tezcuco, de la Orden de los Frayles Menores. México, 1572. This
edition was preceded by a smaller one, 1552, which was the _fourteenth
book_ in the series of those which were printed in Mexico.

Footnote 6:

Let us quote from Bernal Diaz, Chapter 157, without any comment, the
following anecdote concerning the word _tepuzque_. “In the smelting of
gold there was also allowed an eighth of alloy to every ounce to
assist the men in the purchase of the necessaries of life. But we (the
soldiers) derived no advantage from this, but on the contrary, it
proved very prejudicial to us, for the merchants added the same
percentage to the price of their goods and sold for five pesos what
was only worth three, and so this alloy became, as the Indians term
it, tepuzque or copper. This expression became so common among us,
that we added it to the names of the distinguished cavaliers to
express the worth of their character, as, for instance, we used to
say, Señor Don Juan of so much tepuzque.”

Footnote 7:

Those who wish to be more extensively instructed in the Mexican system
of numeration can read: _Leon y Gama_, Descripcion Hist. y Cronol. de
las dos Piedras, Parte II., Appendice II., page 128, Edit. C. M. de
Bustamante, Mexico, 1832. _Clavigero_, Storia antica di Messico,
English translation by Ch. Cullen, London, 1807, Vol. I., Book 4, pag.
410; and an article recently published by _Orozco y Berra_, in Tom.
I., Entrega 6ma of the Anales del Museo Nacional de Mexico, 1879, page
258, which article is the most complete hitherto written on the
subject, and is illustrated by 53 cuts.

Footnote 8:

There is, indeed, one passage in _Herrera (Antonio de)_, Hist. Gen. de
los hechos de los Castellanos, Madrid, 1729, in his introductory
Descripcion de las Indias, §§ Zacatula and Colima, where the working
of copper mines by the indigenous people of these provinces is
mentioned: “There are very abundant copper mines in this district,
more towards the East, and near the port of Santiago. The Indians make
_marvelous vessels_ (_vasos_) of this copper, because it is sweet
(_dulce_). They have, however, still another kind of copper, which is
hard, and which they employed for tilling the ground, instead of using
iron, for they were not acquainted with iron before the Spaniards
entered the kingdom.” As will be seen later, there is no doubt as to
the latter assertion. But we fear the former to be an anachronism and
the manufacturing of _vasos de cobre_ (copper vessels) will have to be
assigned to the epoch after the Conquest, when the art of hammering
was introduced and eagerly accepted and practised by the natives.

Footnote 9:

Carta de Hernan Cortes al Emperador, de la gran ciudad de
Tenochtitlan, desta Nueva España, a 13 dias del mes de Octubre de
1524. Edicion _Gayangos_ (Don Pascual de), Paris, 1866.

Footnote 10:

Tachco, to-day Tasco, at a distance of 25 miles, S. S. W. from the
Capital. A. v. Humboldt visited the memorable spot. See Essay s. l.
Nouv. Espagne, Livre IV., Chap. xi.: “At the west of Tehuilotepec, is
the Cerro de la Campañia, where Cortes began his work of
investigation.”

Footnote 11:

The words of the text are: “Ciertas pieçeçuelas dello, a manera de
moneda muy delgada, y procediendo por mio pezoquiza, halle que en la
dicha provincia y aun en otras, se trataba por moneda.”

Footnote 12:

In Molina’s vocabulary a suggestion can be found for what technical
purposes _tin_ might have been employed. The word _teputzlacopintli_
is translated with cañuto de estaño, para horadar piedras preciosas
(cylinder of tin for perforating precious stones). We may, therefore,
presume that the holes bored through the well known green jade
trinkets, were drilled by the aid of the mentioned cañuto de estaño.

Footnote 13:

This little figure symbolizing gold, recurs only once more in all
those Mexican paintings which we have been able to examine. It stands
in Vol. I., Kingsb. Collection, Cod. Mendoza, page 13, fig. 4, and is
identical with that represented by the engraving. We do not venture
too far in asserting that the symbol on this gold piece represents a
genuine Mexican numeral. It is composed of a cross, having a dot in
each of its quadrants. This cross is the well known symbol of the
number 8000 (_xiquipilli_), and each dot stands for the number 1. We
have thus expressed four times 8000 (nahui xiquipilli) or 32,000.
Here, however, the interpretation ends, so far as it may be based upon
accepted authorities. Whatever else there is to be learned concerning
this number 32,000, found on the gold piece, must be derived by the
confessedly hazardous process of induction.

Nevertheless, let us try this process and ascertain what the number
32,000 actually refers to. In answering this question it may, perhaps,
fairly be assumed that the number stands in a direct relation to a
certain numerical unity, like that in which hundreds stand to the
tens, 100:1. Such a numerical unity, however, presupposes the
existence of some tangible equivalent, which in Mexican commerce, if
it was not some small piece of metal, would have had some other
conventional representation, either in merchandise or in labor. If
such a unity actually existed it is clear that its value must have
been fixed either by weight or by measure. There is, however, no
positive proof that such a unity, fixed by weight or measure, ever
existed among the Mexicans. Cortes, in the above quoted letter,
pretends that it was impossible for him to detect the use of any
weights or scales, and no writer after him has touched this question
or given any other decision. Respecting measures, there is no direct
testimony at all. But, on the other hand, it is hardly to be imagined
that these people, of whose religious administration and social polity
we have such abundant evidences, should have been deficient to such an
extent in the department of their commercial polity as not to have
found any method by which the proportion between the value of the
precious metal to merchandise in all its forms was to be expressed. We
must guard ourselves against the fallacy that because we are not
acquainted with the method it could not have existed. There are
grounds to believe that Cortes was right in saying that the Mexicans
did not know the use of weights (their vocabulary does not show any
word answering to peso, pesilla, libra, balanza romana), but, we think
they knew perfectly the use of measures (the vocabulary gives about
twenty words for all varieties of this operation); and in regard to a
certain unity of measure employed in gold transactions, there are
indications given by other trustworthy writers that this unity might
be detected in the quills, of conventional length, and probably of
conventional diameter, which quills were filled up with grains of gold
dust, by the color and shades of which they graduated the respective
value. Bernal Diaz, Chapter 92: Antes de salir de la misma plaza,
estaban otros muchos mercaderes, que, segun dixeron, era que tenian a
_vender oro en granos_ como lo sacan de las minas, metido el oro en
unos _canutillos_ delgados de los anserones de tierra (thin goose
quills) e asi blancos porque se pareciese el oro por defuera, y por el
_largor y gordor_ de los canutillos (length and width of the quills)
tenian entre ellos su cuenta (they made up their account) que tantas
mantas o que xiquipiles de cacao salia o qualquier otra cosa a que lo
trocavan.

This point being settled let us next introduce one other, for it will
contribute to strengthen the probability that besides the quill there
existed still a lower unity, that of the grain of gold itself, by
which they counted. For this purpose, let us turn again to the gold
piece represented in the painting. It is round. This reminds us of
what was told by Cortes of the little pieces of _tin_ discovered in
Tachco, which, he said, were used as coins. Likewise, we read in
Bernal Diaz that Motezuma used to pay with pieces of gold when he lost
in playing _patol_ (trictrac) with his Spanish jailors. The word
employed by the author and eye-witness of the game, is “_tejuelo_,”
which, according to Spanish usages and the dictionaries of their
language, signifies: a round piece of metal. The author moreover
informs us of the value of this tejuelo. It was 50 ducats of weight
and must, therefore, have been equivalent to, at least, one hundred
dollars of gold. Since Bernal Diaz in this entire passage wishes to
express his highest esteem for Motezuma on account of the princely
generosity with which he paid even those whom he knew had cheated him,
we may fairly conclude that these tejuelos were not the lowest, but
rather the highest, gold pieces that he had at his disposal. Should we
now remember the number, 32,000, which is the highest found
represented in Mexican pictures (they generally never exceed that of
8000, the _xiquipilli_), it is not at all improbable that the
Motezuma-tejuelo, about 100 dollars worth, might have been equivalent
to 32,000 unities, while this unity may have been one grain of gold.
For if we would divide 100 dollars of gold into 32,000 equal parts, or
still farther divide one gold dollar into 320 equal parts, each part
would represent a very small portion of gold, but still large enough
to be counted separately with the finger. This was the way the
gold-dust was collected on the placeres, not by men but by women and
children. The procedure was primitive, indeed, in the highest degree.
In such a way, however, gold gathering was undoubtedly practised in
the first stage of men’s civilization. If not written in history, yet
the linguistical testimony bears witness to it. We find the expression
“_grain of gold_” to be the common property among the ancient and
modern nations in connection with commerce and the weighing of gold.

Footnote 14:

_Torquemada_ (Fray Juan de) Monarquia Indiana, Madrid, 1613, Vol. II.,
Book 13, Chapter 1. “The goldsmiths did not possess the tools
necessary for hammering metals, but with one stone placed above
another one, they make a flat cup or a plate.” (Pero con una piedra
sobre otra hacian una taza llana y un plato.) _Gomara, l. c._ “They
will cast a platter in a mould with eight corners, and every corner of
several metals, that is to say, the one of gold, the other of silver,
without any kind of solder. They will also cast a little caldron with
loose handles hanging thereto, as we used to cast a bell. They will
also cast in a mould a fish with one scale of silver on its back and
another of gold; they will make a parrot of metal so that his tongue
shall shake and his head move and his wings flutter; they will cast an
ape in a mould so that both hands and feet will stir, and holding a
spindle in his hand, seeming to spin, yea, and an apple in his hand,
as if he would eat it. Our Spaniards were not a little amazed at the
sight of these things, for our goldsmiths are not to be compared to
theirs.” _Bernal Diaz, Chapter_ 91. “I will first mention the
sculptors and the gold and silversmiths, who were clever in working
and smelting gold, and would have astonished the most celebrated of
our Spanish goldsmiths; the number of these were very great and the
most skilful lived at a place called Azcapotzalco, about four leagues
from Mexico.” _Petrus Martyr, Decade VI., Chapter 6_. (A letter
written to Pope Adrian VI.) “The chief noblemen’s houses (in
Nicaragua) compass and inclose the King’s street on every side; in the
middle site whereof one is erected, in which the goldsmiths dwell.
Gold is there molten and forged (?) to be formed into divers jewels,
and is formed into small plates or bars, to be stamped after the
pleasure of its owners and at length is brought into the form and
fashion they desire, and that neatly too.”

Footnote 15:

Lorenzana (Don Franc, Antonia de) Historia de Nueva España, page 378,
Note 2.

Footnote 16:

See _Bernal Diaz_, Chap. 39.

_Petrus Martyr de Angleria_, English edition of Eden, Islands of the
West Indies, page 169: “Circumference of xxviii spans (_spithamarum_
28).”

_Torquemada Mon. Ind._, Lib. IV., Cap. 17.

Three letters, on Cortes’ landing in Yucatan, edited by _Fredric
Muller_, Amsterdam, 1871. (1) Their width being seven spans, (2)
larger than a wagon’s wheel, and made as if beaten out of white iron.
(3) Two wheels, the one of gold and weighing 30,000 castellanos, the
other of silver, weighing 50 mark. These pieces are as large as a
millstone.

Footnote 17:

_Bernal Diaz, Chap. 92_: “Bronze axes, and copper and tin.” _Petrus
Martyr, Dec. V., Chap. 10_: “Bronze axes and edges, cunningly
tempered.” _Gomara, Chap. 210_: “They also have axes, borers and
chisels of copper mixed with gold, silver or tin.” _Landa Rel. d. l.,
Cosas de Yucatan_, Ed. Brasseur, Paris, 1864, pag. 170, with a cut of
a Yucatecan axe: “They had little axes made of a certain metal, and
shaped as the illustration shows. They fastened them into the top of a
wooden handle, one side serving as a weapon, the other for cutting
wood. They sharpened them by hammering the edge with stones.”
_Torquemada, Mon. Ind., Lib. 13, Cap. 34_: “The carpenters and carvers
worked with copper instruments.” _Herrera, Dec. IV., Lib. 8, Cap. 3_:
“In Honduras (1530) they cleared large mountains, for agricultural
purposes, with axes made of flintstone.”

_Remesal, Hist. d. l. Prov. de Chiapas y Guatemala, 1606_: “They
clear, every year, large mountains of woods, in order to prepare them
for the reception of the seed corn, as is the custom in the whole
province of Vera-paz; and before they got the iron axes they had to
work hard because they felled the trees with copper axes and often
spent an entire day in cutting one single tree, though of inferior
size; and if the tree was larger three and four days, those axes being
very apt to break; and having experienced the strength of iron, they
appreciate all tools made of it, and thus they held our axes and
machetes in great esteem.” _Cogolludo_, _Hist. d. Yucatan, Lib. IV.,
Cap. 3_, mentions axes as an article of trade in Yucatan: “Copper
axes, brought from Mexico, which they exchanged for other
merchandize.” _Documentos ineditos, Madrid, 1864, Vol. I., pag. 470_:
“The Captain, Gil Gonzales de Avila, arrived here in Sto. Domingo
(from Nicaragua) and sends to His Majesty 14,000 pesos de oro and
15,000 pesos, proceeding from axes which they said contained gold, and
6150 pesos de oro proceeding from bells which they also said contained
gold. All this he said he was presented with during his discoveries
which he was making in the Province of the South sea.” _Petrus
Martyr_, _Dec. VI., Chapt. 2 and 3_, states the same fact on the
authority of Gil Gonzales’ treasurer, Cereceda.

Footnote 18:

The absolute absence of mines in Yucatan is a fact that needs no
further corroboration. It might, however, be of interest to hear the
language used by Landa, Rel. d. las cosas de Yucatan: 1. c. § 5 “There
exist many beautiful structures of masonry in Yucatan, all of them
built of stone and showing the finest workmanship, the most
astonishing that ever were discovered in the Indies; and we cannot
wonder at it enough because there is not any class of metal in this
country by which such works could be accomplished.”

Footnote 19:

_Herrera_ (_Dec. III., Lib. 4, Cap. 5_) having the original reports
before his eyes, represents this scene as follows: “Multitudes of
Indians flocked along the ways, astonished to see the beards and the
dressing of the Spaniards. The chief person they met was Dirianjeu,
the warlike cacique, who came attended by five hundred men and
seventeen women, covered with gold plates, all drawn up in order, but
without arms and with ten banners and trumpets, after their fashion.
When they came near, the banners were displayed and the cacique
touched Gonzales’ hand, as did all the five hundred, everyone giving
him a turkey. Yet each of the women gave him twenty axes of gold
(veinte hachas de oro) fourteen carats fine, each weighing eighteen
pesos and some more.” We find in _Oviedo_ (_Gonzalo Fernandez de_),
_Historia gen. y nat. de las Indias_, at the end of Vol. IV., five
folio quarto pages with illustrations referring to the chapter he
wrote on Nicaragua, and we learn from his text that he made the
sketches himself during his sojourn in Nicaragua (1524). They
represent views of the volcano of Masaya, gymnastic sports of the
Indians, a plan of the town of Tecoatega, and three Indian arms, an
_estorica_, a _porra_ and an _alabarda_. Each of the drawings is
provided with a number which correctly corresponds to that written in
the text, except those three drawings of the arms, for which we could
not find the text. Upon closer examination we discovered a suggestion
made (on page 81) that some ancient copyist or editor must have
revised Oviedo’s original manuscript, who was supposed to have dropped
the inscription to which the drawings of the three arms belong,
perhaps, only on account of the illegibility of Oviedo’s handwriting.
On the other hand, we cannot help expressing our doubts as to the fact
that these three kinds of arms should have been in use with the
Nicoyans or Nicaraguans. Notwithstanding we give the cut of the
alabarda, which has the shape of a genuine mediæval battle-axe.

Footnote 20:

Sahagun (Bernardino de), Historia de la N. España, Ed. Carlos M. de
Bustamante, 3 Vol., Mexico, 1830.

Footnote 21:

The following notice of three prehistoric nails is given for what it
is worth. Torquemada, Lib. VI., Cap. 23: Under the reign of
Nezahualpilli of Tezcuco, the statue of the God of Rain, Tlaloc,
having been found to be timeworn and corroded, a new one was made and
located on the mountain of Matlalcueye, the ancient site of this
statue. “When this idol of Tlaloc was replaced by the new one, it
happened that one of its arms broke off. They put it on again and
fastened it with three gold nails. Later, when the new faith was
introduced in their countries, this diabolical image was brought down
from the hills, at the time of the first Bishop Zummaraga, and was
broken to pieces in his presence, but not before removing the three
gold nails spoken of.”

Footnote 22:

Dupaix, Antiquités Mexicaines, Paris, 1834, Vol. II., Planche 26, fig.
75, and text in Vol. I., page 21, No. 75.

Footnote 23:

With our first glance at the picture of _Tepozcolula_ we were induced
to believe that we had found therein a representation of the
instrument which Petrus Martyr called a “_dolabra_,” and Sahagun
“_azuela_.” The translation of the one is, pick or hoe, and of the
other, cooper’s adze. Both of these, therefore, would have been
instruments in which the blade and its edge are at right angles to
their handle, and the management of which requires both hands of the
workman. This supposition is refuted by the picture of the carpenter
(cut 10), who is distinctly seen to hold the piece of wood in the left
and the tool in his right hand.

Footnote 24:

Dupaix, l. c., Vol. II., Planche 26, fig. 74, and text Vol. I., page
21.

Footnote 25:

Torquemada, Mon. Ind., Lib.—, Chap.—: “They also used certain copper
coins, almost in the shape of a Greek Tau, Τ, its width about three or
four fingers. It was a thin piece of plate of an uncertain size, and
contained much gold.” Clavigero, The History of Mexico, Ed. Ch.
Cullen, London, 1807, Vol. VII., Sect. 36, page 386, evidently copies
the sentence when he says: “Their fourth species of money, which most
resembled coined money, was made of pieces of copper, in the form of a
T, and was employed in purchases of little value.”

THE KATUNES OF MAYA HISTORY.

BY PHILIPP J. J. VALENTINI, PH.D.

[_Translated from the German, by Stephen Salisbury, Jr._]

[From Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society, October 21, 1879.]

NOTE BY THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION.

The Publishing Committee are glad of the opportunity to print another paper from the pen of Professor Valentini. His previous contributions have been favorably received by some of the most competent judges. He is always ingenious and suggestive, taking care to sustain his views by adequate collateral information, and leaving an impression of earnestness and thoroughness, even though the reader should not be able always to see the way through his bold inferences to the important conclusions deduced from them.

It seems apparent that new phases of opinion respecting the position in the world’s history held by the races occupying the central portions of the American Continent may be looked for in the near future. Or rather, perhaps, it may be claimed that vestiges of ancient and independent culture, of revolutions, conquests, and changing dynasties, extending back to a remote period of time, which have hitherto simply excited and bewildered travellers and explorers, bid fair to be subjected to tests and comparisons derived from wider and closer observation, for which the means are accumulating, and from which definite results are anticipated.

It is remarkable how one tidal wave of investigation after another has, at different eras, invaded and receded from these regions, carrying from them more or less of the fragments of their architectural, monumental, and pictorial records—the sources of doubtful and unsatisfactory interpretation. The Spanish chroniclers; the scientists of the period of Humboldt and his contemporaries; the French government and the learned societies of France, uniting their efforts to render effective the honest but undisciplined enthusiasm of Brasseur de Bourbourg; all have experienced a subsidence of interest arising mainly from a want of success in yielding a sufficiently plausible solution of a mysterious subject. The death of Brasseur, the fall of Maximilian, and the political distractions of the French government and people, are not alone the causes of suspended action on the part of the learned bodies of France. They deemed it prudent to discredit the judgment and correctness of their own agent. One at least of Brasseur’s Commission publicly disavowed responsibility for his opinions; and his attempt to interpret the Codex Troano by means of the alphabet of Bishop Landa was pronounced by themselves to be a failure.

How signally the explorations of Del Rio, of Dupaix, of Galindo, and of De Waldeck, failed to make a permanent impression on the public mind! How soon the illustrated narrative of Stephens became in a measure disregarded, and even his reliableness questioned! How completely the nine ponderous folios of Lord Kingsborough’s extensive collection fell dead from the press, until the great work to which he had devoted his life and his entire fortune sold in the market for less than a single useless production of Increase or Cotton Mather! We have seen the elaborate and learned essays of Gallatin upon Mexican civilization slumbering with the long sleep of the Ethnological Society; the Geographical Society cautious about travelling out of the routes of regular expeditions; even the sardonic “Nation,” assumed arbiter in literature, politics, and science, and always ready for caustic criticism, hesitating to venture far beneath the surface of these important inquiries. The ill-fated Berendt has perished in the midst of his unfinished labors; and, lastly, one of the most purely philosophical investigators of Indian habits and history reasons in a direction opposed to the antiquity and extent of aboriginal civilization.

If there is to be a renewal of interest in Mexican archæology, and a revived consciousness of something more to be gained from the relics of culture among the early races of this continent (a meaning in its mystical remains that has not been developed), our Society may claim its share in the re-kindling or fostering of the newly excited impulse. In saying this we do not overlook the preparation which recent studies of the general condition of prehistoric races has created for such investigations; but, in this particular field, it has had the fortune to draw special attention to certain regions and opportunities of research. This has been due to the earnest and liberal exertions of one of its members, who, some years since, passed a winter in Yucatan, and has kept up a correspondence with friends and acquaintances there.[26] He embodied his observations and experiences in a report on behalf of the Council rendered in 1876. He has since endeavored to promote the operations of Dr. and Mrs. Le Plongeon in the actual field, and has assisted in preparing the papers of Professor Valentini for our publications, providing illustrations in all cases when practicable. The Report of the Council in the present number of “Proceedings” is largely devoted to an account, by the writer[27] of a visit to the city of Mexico, and his observations upon the country and its history. More than twelve years ago, in January, 1868, a generous member of the Society[28] had the forethought to establish a department of the library composed of books relating to Spanish America, beginning with the gift of Lord Kingsborough’s mammoth publication, and others, for the specialty of antiquities, and accompanied by a pecuniary foundation for future growth. The importance of a provision for this particular purpose becomes daily more conspicuous as attention is directed to that portion of the continent.

It is gratifying to perceive that such movements, with the greater activity in publishing its “Anales” on the part of the Museo Naçional de México, and the issue of such publications as that of Prof. Rau by the Smithsonian Institution,[29] and the private work of Mr. Short,[30] are not without their influence.

The scheme, which, although not fully matured, we have reason to believe a real one, of sending an expedition to some of the original Mexican provinces for a thorough exploration, at the cost of a wealthy citizen of New York, the results to be printed in the North American Review, may be regarded as one of the fruits of the “_Renaissance_.”

S. F. HAVEN,
_For the Committee_.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

In the ensuing discussion an attempt is made to explain the so-called “Katunes of Maya history.”

The Manuscript which bears this name is written in the Maya language, and its discovery is of comparatively recent date. At its first publication in 1841 it could not fail to attract the attention of all those who were engaged in the study of ancient American history, because it unveiled a portion of the history of Yucatan, which had been till then entirely unknown and seriously missed. At that date only a scanty number of data, loosely described, and referring to an epoch removed from the Spanish conquest of the Peninsula by only a few decades, had appeared as the sole representatives of a long past, in which the builders of the ruined cities undoubtedly must have lived an eventful life, not to be counted by a few generations, but by a long and hardly calculable number of centuries. This vacuum of time the manuscript promised to fill out. Though it did not offer a history conceived in the common acceptation of the word, the brief epitome of events which it presented, began by telling us of the arrival of foreigners from distant lands, who, step by step succeeded in conquering the Maya soil and who were brought into significant connection with the name as well as the fall of cities now lying in ruins over the whole country.

As to the authenticity of the events reported, they have been received by many students with a confidence and faith rarely manifested when discoveries of such importance are brought to light. As to the form in which they were presented, the author seemed to exhibit neither the skill of a professional nor the clumsiness of an occasional forger. If on the one hand the gaps he left betrayed a defective memory, this circumstance should be held rather as an indication of his credibility. The material from which his information was derived, we might add, was extensive, and much of it was probably lost when he gave the account at a later period of his life.

The events communicated being in themselves of the highest interest, rose in importance from the fact that they were arranged in successive epochs. A chance was thereby given to calculate the long space of time that intervened between the arrival of the ancient and of the modern conquerors. This difficult task was attempted by the fortunate discoverer himself, Señor Juan Pio Perez, of Yucatan, accompanied by a learned discussion on ancient Maya chronology. His calculation furnishes the sum of 1392 years, the first initial date to be assigned to the year 144 A. D., and the last to 1536 A. D.

When, some years ago we undertook to examine the argument of Señor Perez we were not at all astonished by the great antiquity of the date he had drawn from the Maya Manuscript. For, nearly at the same time, we had reached similar results in an attempt made to utilize certain records which Ixtlilxochitl (1590), and Veytia (1760), (Kingsborough Collection, Vols. 8 and 9), have left regarding the earliest chronology of the Nahuatl tribes. By adopting a more rational method of computation than these Mexican writers had followed, we were unable to withstand the conclusion, that the Nahuatl people who were immediate territorial neighbors of the Mayas, considered the year 258 A. D. the earliest date of their arrival on and occupancy of the Mexican soil. Thus we had reached in this line of investigation very nearly the same results with the Nahuatl as Señor Perez with the Maya chronology, and the suspicion began to dawn upon us that these two neighboring people might, possibly, have stood in a still closer than a mere territorial connection.

These results, however, were only of a very problematical nature. They were derived from written reports, which, after all, could not be regarded as unquestionable authority. But they received a strong confirmation from a discovery we made later on the so-called Mexican Calendar Stone. In our discussion of this monument we believe that we have given ample proof of the fact, that its principal zone contains a sculptured record, showing a series of numerical symbols, from the computation of which the year 231 A. D. resulted as that which the Nahuatls had accepted as the first date of their national era.

Records presented in stone and compiled by the nation whose history they convey, must always be considered the most authentic evidence of historical truth. Now, were we also so fortunate as to possess some Maya monument, similar to the Mexican Calendar Stone, and were we also able to decipher it, we should thereby have the means for determining whether Maya chronology extended back to an epoch different from that of the Nahuatl, or to one identical with it. That such a monument once existed we have no doubt. That it may still exist, we have no reasonable grounds for denying the possibility. It remains, however, still to be discovered and to be interpreted. But since the fortunate discovery has not yet been made, we must rest satisfied for the present with conclusions derived from extant written records. The only manuscript of this character thus far brought to light, is that said to have been found at Mani,[31] which was translated by Señor Perez from the Maya language, and accompanied by a very valuable chronological interpretation.

Since the close revision we undertook of the latter, brought out very striking coincidences of early Maya dates with those of the Nahuatl, and especially with that indicated on the Calendar Stone, we thought it worth while to reprint the manuscript, to discuss its contents again, and to arrange them under new points of view. Regarded by itself, the manuscript, indeed, might seem of only doubtful value in settling an important chronological question. But the comparison of its earliest date with that of the Nahuatl monument will enhance the value of each of them, because they may be considered as corroborative of each other.

THE MAYA MANUSCRIPT.

_Maya._ _Translation._

Lai u tzolan Katun lukci ti cab ti This is the series of “Katunes” yotoch Nonoual cante anilo Tutul that elapsed from the time of their Xiu ti chikin Zuiua; u luumil u departure from the land and house talelob Tulapan chiconahthan. of Nonoual, in which were the four Tutul Xiu, lying to the west of Zuina, going out of the country of Tulapan.

§1. Cante bin ti Katun lic u §1. Four epochs were spent in ximbalob ca uliob uaye yetel Holon travelling, before they arrived Chantepeuh yetel u cuchulob: ca here with Holonchantepeuh and his hokiob ti petene uaxac Ahau bin yan followers. When they began their cuchi, uac Ahau, can Ahau cabil journey toward this island, it was Ahau, cankal haab catac hunppel the 8th Ahau, and the 6th, 4th and haab; tumen hun piztun oxlahun Ahau 2d were spent in travelling; cuchie ca uliob uay ti petene because in the year of the 13th caukal haab catac hunppel haab tu Ahau they arrived at this island, pakteil yetel cu ximbalob lukci tu making together eighty-one years luumilob ca talob uay ti petene they were travelling, between their Chacnouitan lae, u añoil lae 81. departure from their country and their arrival at this island of Chacnouitan. 81 años. Years 81.

§ 2. Vaxac Ahau, uac Ahau, cabil § 2. The 8th Ahau, the 6th Ahau; in Ajau kuchci Chacnouitan Ahmekat the 2d Ahau arrived Ajmekat Tutul Tutul Xiu hunppel haab minan ti Xiu, and ninety-nine years they hokal haab cuchi yanob Chacnouitan remained in Chacnouitan. lae: lai u habil lae. 99 años. Years 99.

§ 3. Laitun uchci u chicpahal § 3. In this time also took place tzucubte Ziyan-caan lae Bakhalal, the discovery of the province of can Ahau, cabil Ahau, oxlahun Ahau Ziyan-caan or Bacalar, the 4th Ahau oxkal haab cu tepalob Ziyan-caan ca and 2d Ahau, or sixty years, they emob uay lac: lai u haabil cu had ruled in Ziyan-caan when they tepalob Bakhalal chuulte laitun came here. During these years of chicpahci Chichen Itza lae. their government of the province of Bacalar occurred the discovery of Chichen-Itza. 60 años. Years 60.

§ 4. Buluc Ahau, bolon Ahau, uuc § 4. The 11th Ahau, the 9th, 7th, Ahau, ho Ahau ox Ahau, hun Ahau uac 5th, 3d and 1st Ahau, or 120 years, kal haab cu tepalob Chichen Itza ca they ruled in Chichen-Itza, when it paxi Chichen Itza, ca binob cahtal was destroyed, and they emigrated Champutun ti yanhi u yotochob ah to Champoton, where the Itzaes holy Ytzoab kuyen uincob lae. men, had houses. 120 años. Years 120.

§ 5. Vac Ahau, chucuc u luumil § 5. The 6th Ahau they took Chanputun, can Ahau, cabil Ahau, possession of the territory of oxlahun Ahau, buluc Ahau, bolon Champoton; the 4th Ahau, 2d, 13th, Ahau, uuc Ahau, ho Ahau, ox Ahau, 11th, 9th, 7th, 5th, 3d, 1st, 12th, hun Ahau, lahca Ahau, lahun Ajau, 10th and 8th, Champoton was uaxac Ahau, paxci Chanputun, destroyed or abandoned. Two hundred oxlahun kaal haab cu tepalob and sixty years the Itzaes reigned Chanputun tumenel Ytza uincob ca in Champoton, when they returned in talob u tzaclé u yotochob tu caten, search of their homes, and they laix tun u katunil binciob ah lived for several katunes under the Ytzaob yalan che yalan aban yalan uninhabited mountains. ak ti numyaob lae; lai u habil cuchinbal lae. 260 años. Years 260.

§ 6. Vac Ahau, can Ahau, ca kal § 6. The 6th Ahau, 4th Ahau, after haabcatalob u heↄob yotoch tu caten 40 years, they returned to their ca tu zatahob Chakanputun: lay u homes once more and Champoton was habil lae. lost to them. 40 años. Years 40.

§ 7. Lai u katunil cabil Ahau. u § 7. In this Katun of the 2d Ahau, heↄci cab Ajcuitok Tutul Xiu Vxmal. Ajcuitok Tutul Xiu established Cabil Ahau, oxlahun Ahau, buluc himself in Uxmal; the 2d Ahau, the Ahau, bolon Ahau, uuc Ahau, ho 13th, 11th, 9th, 7th, 5th, 3d, 1st, Ahau, ox Ahau, hun Ahau, lahca the 12th and 10th Ahau, equal to Ahau, lahun Ahau, lahun kal haab cu 200 years, they governed in Uxmal, tepalob yetel u halach uinicil with the governors of Chichen Itza Chichen Itza yetel Mayalpan: lay u and of Mayapan. habil lae. 200 años. Years 200.

§ 8. Lai u katunil buluc Ahau, § 8. These are the Katunes 11th, bolon Ahau, uac Ahau, uaxac Ahau, 9th and 6th Ahau (_sic_). In the paxci u halach uinicil Chichen Itza 8th Ahau the governor of tumenel u kebanthan Hunac-eel, ca Chichen-Itza was deposed, because uch ti Chacxib chac Chichen Itza tu he murmured disrespectfully against kebanthan Hunac-eel u halach Hunac-eel. This happened to uinicil Mayalpan ichpac. Cankal Chacxibchac of Chichen-Itza, haab catac lahun piz haab, tu lahun governor of the fortress of tun uaxac Ahau cuchie; lai u haabil Mayapan. Ninety years had elapsed, paxci tumenel Ahzinteyutchan yetel but the 10th year of the 8th Ahau Tzunte-cum, yetel Taxcal, yetel was the year in which he was Pantemit, Xuchu-cuet, yetel overthrown by Ajzinte-yut-chan, Ytzcuat, yetel Kakaltecat lay u with Tzunte-cum, Taxcal, Pantemit, kaba uinicilob: lae muctulob Xuch-ueuet, Ytzcuat and Kakaltecat; ahmayal panob lae. these are the names of the seven Mayalpanes. 90 años. Years 90.

§ 9. Laili u katunil uaxac Ahau, § 9. In the same Katun of the 8th lai ca binob u pâ ah Vlmil Ahau Ahau they attacked Chief Ulmil, in tumenel u uahal-uahob yetel ah consequence of his quarrel with Ytzmal Vlil Ahau; lae oxlahun uuↄ u Ulil, Chief of Yzamal; thirteen katunilob ca paxob tumen Hunac-eel: divisions of troops he had when he tumenel u ↄabal u naatob; uac Ahau was routed by Hunac-eel; in the 6th ca ↄoci: hunkal haab catac can Ahau the war was over, after 34 lahun pizi: lai u habil cu xinbal. years. 34 años. Years 34.

§ 10. Vac Ahau, can Ahau, cabil § 10. In the 6th Ahau, 4th, 2d, Ahau, oxlahun Ahau, buluc Ahau, 13th and 11th Ahau, the fortified chucuc u luumil ich pâ Mayalpan, territory of Mayapan was invaded by tumenel u pach tulum, tumenel the men of Itza, under their Chief multepal ich cab Mayalpan, tumenel Ulmil, because they had walls, and Ytza uinicob yetel ah Vlmil Ahau governed in common the people of lae; can kaal haab catac oxppel Mayalpan; eighty-three years haab: yocol buluc Ahau cuchie paxci elapsed after this event, and at Mayalpan tumenel ahuitzil ↄul, tau the beginning of the 11th Ahau cah Mayalpan. Mayalpan was destroyed by strangers of the Uitzes, Highlanders, as was also Tancaj of Mayalpan. 83 años. Years 83.

§ 11. Vaxac Ahau lay paxci Mayalpan § 11. In the 8th Ahau, Mayalpan was lai u katunil uac Ahau, can Ahau, destroyed; the epochs of the 6th, cabil Ahau, lai haab cu ximbal ca 4th and 2d Ahau elapsed, and at yax mani españoles u yaxilci caa this period the Spaniards for the luumi Yucatan tzucubte lae, oxkal first time arrived, and gave the haab pâaxac ich pâ cuchie. name of Yucatan to this province, sixty years after the destruction of the fortress. 60 años. Years 60.

§ 12. Oxlahun Ahau, buluc Ahau, § 12. The 13th and 11th Ahau, uchci mayacimil ich pâ yetel pestilence and small pox were in nohkakil: oxlahun Ahau cimci the castles. In the 13th Ahau, Ahpula: uacppel haab u binel ma Chief Ajpula died; six years were ↄococ u xocol oxlahun Ahau cuchie, wanting to the completion of the ti yanil u xocol haab ti lakin 13th Ahau; this year was counted cuchie, canil kan cumlahi pop, tu toward the east of the wheel, and holhun Zip catac oxppeli, bolon began on the 4th “Kan.” Ajpula died Ymix u kinil lai cimi Ahpula; on the 18th day of the month Zip, laitun año cu ximbal cuchi lae ca in the 9th Ymix; and that it may be oheltabac lay u xoc numeroil años known in numbers, it was the year lae 1536 años cuchie, oxkal haab 1536, sixty years after the paaxac ich pâ cuchi lae. destruction of the fortress.

§ 13. Laili ma ↄococ u xocol buluc § 13. Before the termination of the Ahau lae lai ulci españoles kul 11th Ahau, the Spaniards arrived, uincob ti lakin u talob ca uliob holy men from the east came with uay tac luumil lae; bolon Ahau them when they reached the land. hoppci cristianoil uchci The 9th Ahau was the commencement caputzihil: laili ichil u katunil of baptism and Christianity; and in lae ulci yax obispo Toroba u kaba, this year was the arrival of Toroba heix año cu ximbal uchie. (Toral), the first bishop. 1544 años. 1544 A. D.

NOTE.—This Manuscript has also an introduction and close, which
Señor Perez has not published, because the dates specified occurred
in the Spanish epoch, and consequently were of no interest to the
Maya student.

HISTORY OF THE MANUSCRIPT.

In the interest of authenticity it is much to be regretted that neither the name of the author, his residence, nor the date when the Manuscript was written, are known to us, and we are also ignorant of other matters of moment; whether the Manuscript is an original or a copy, or how often copied, or by what family or person it may have been preserved before it came into the hands of Don Juan Pio Perez. That Yucatecan gentleman had retired from Mérida, the capital, to the District of Peto, to devote himself to his favorite studies, the ancient language and the history of his nation. The unusual interest that he showed in this direction, united to his influential position as first officer of the district, enabled him to obtain many small manuscript documents known to have been written by the natives in their vernacular language, the Maya, soon after the time of the conquest, which, for the most part, contained historical reminiscences of the time of the supremacy of their ancestors. Among these manuscripts there was a so-called _Chilam Balam Calendar_, which, in the form of an appendix, contained, besides, the outlines of the primitive history of Yucatan. It was, indeed, but a brief epitome of historical events, accompanied by the corresponding dates. But its value consisted in the circumstance that these dates were catalogued according to successive epochs; and it required only slight inspection to disclose the fact that they extended back to a period not very distant from our Christian Era.

This was a discovery to the learned world as welcome as any that could be made. It was unique in its kind. All attempts, thus far, had vainly sought to learn something about the history of the builders of those palaces and temples with whose ruins the peninsula was covered at the date of the arrival of the Spaniards, and which pointed to a long past and to the unceasing activity of a numberless population, which, while it was skilled in the most important branches of art and industry, and familiar with a luxury such as only ancient Asia and India had displayed, was yet governed by a despotic and hierarchical power. The native, when asked whose work the ruins were, would answer nothing but that they owed their origin to men who, in ancient times, had immigrated from far distant countries.

The Manuscript disclosed at once the history of these strange immigrants, showed the progressive march of the conquest, and the contemporaneous foundation of the largest cities then in ruins, and furnished in the Maya language the chronology of each event and its corresponding epoch. By means of his extensive antiquarian knowledge Señor Perez made an exact translation of this Manuscript into Spanish, and afterwards undertook a critical interpretation of its contents, and accompanied the whole with an introductory explanation of the system of ancient Maya chronology.

In the midst of these labors he was surprised by the arrival of the celebrated American traveller and archæologist, John Lloyd Stephens, and was induced to entrust to him a copy of the MSS. and interpretations to be embodied in his work on Yucatan, in order to bring them more fully before the world. His wishes were scrupulously complied with, and the Spanish translation has been rendered into literal English by Mr. Stephens in “Incidents of Travel in Yucatan,” vol. I., Appendix, pages 434–459, and vol. II., Appendix, pages 465–469.

Mr. Albert Gallatin, who, of all American students, has made himself most thoroughly acquainted with what remains of the historical elements of the Nahuatl and Maya people, has brought together the results of his investigations in a lecture published in the “Transactions of the American Ethnological Society,” New York, 1858, vol. I., pages 104–114. The information therein contained attests an entire familiarity with the method pursued by Señor Perez in his commentary, without, indeed, undertaking any severe criticism of it. In our opinion Mr. John L. Stephens and Mr. Gallatin are the only Americans who have recognized Señor Perez’s merits in an unequivocal manner, and have brought them to the knowledge of the world.