Ch. XT.] AXCIEXT CIVILIZATION OF THE INDIANS. 283 



Indians than that which has supplanted it. Who can 

 read the accounts of the populous towns of Mexico and 

 Central America, in the time of Montezuma, with their 

 magnificent buildings and squares ; their gardens, both 

 zoological and botanical ; their markets, attended by 

 merchants from the surrounding countries ; their beauti- 

 ful cloth and feather work, the latter now a lost art ; their 

 cunning artificers in gold and silver ; their astronomical 

 knowledge ; their schools ; their love of order, of cleanli- 

 ness, of decency ; their morality and wonderful patriotism, 

 without feeling that the conquest of Mexico was a 

 deplorable calamity ; that if that ancient civilisation had 

 been saved, it might have been Christianised and purified 

 without being destroyed, and to-day have stood one of 

 the wonders and delights of the world. Its civilisation 

 was self-grown, it was indigenous, it was unique : a few 

 poor remnants of its piety, love of order, and self-govern- 

 ment still remain in remote Indian townships ; but its 

 learning, magnificence, and glory have gone for ever. 



On leaving Totagalpa, we took the road for Yalaguina. 

 About a mile from the first-named town, the contorted 

 schists cropped up again, and were followed, as before, 

 by beds of soft decomposing trap, and these again by 

 thick beds of quartz conglomerate. This succession was 

 repeated two or three times during the day's journey, 

 The trap beds formed, by decomposition, a dark fertile 

 soil. Wherever maize was planted on it, it was thriving 

 greatly. We reached Yalaguina about two o'clock, and 

 pushed on for Palacaguina, four leagues further on, pass- 

 ing for a considerable part of the road along the banks of 

 a small stream by the side of which were some large and 

 fine fields of maize and beans. 



