ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS OF AMERICA. 189 



at night, guarded by police, that contained palaces, temples, courts 

 of justice, schools of law, medicine, music, and literature, with 

 parks, aqueducts, fountains, and artificial lakes. 



The cities were connected by graded roads, on which were sta- 

 tions and relays of messengers for the rapid transmission of intel- 

 ligence. The population was divided into various castes, includ- 

 ing royalty, nobility, different grades of traders and artisans, and 

 finally slaves. The country was cultivated with much agricult- 

 ural skill, and in the towns were workers in gold, silver, copper, 

 and bronze. Their military organization was thorough and effect- 

 ive, and strategic points were guarded by fortifications, some of 

 which have had no rivals in magnitude in the history of the 

 world. 



This civilization, imposing as it was, at the advent of the Span- 

 iards had passed its golden age, was then in its decadence, and 

 has since, chiefly by the brute force, cruelty, and rapacity of the 

 European invaders, been nearly driven from the earth. 



So much has been written of these two American civilizations 

 that of the mound-builders of the Mississippi Valley, and that 

 of the palace-builders of Central America and their study has 

 been pursued with so much interest and success, that it may seem 

 presumptuous that I should venture to occupy the hour kindly 

 granted me with a theme so broad and already so familiar. But 

 it has happened to me to traverse much of the territory in Central 

 America, Mexico, and the United States where the relics of these 

 bygone races are most abundant, and as the subject has always 

 been one of intense interest to me I have lost no opportunity of 

 gathering by my own observation such information as came within 

 my reach ; hence, it is possible that I may be able to contribute 

 something to what you may have learned of our predecessors in 

 the occupation of this continent, and of the real and original 

 American citizen. 



The Mound-builders. As has already been mentioned, 

 traces of a people more advanced in the arts than the nomadic 

 Indian are spread over the entire valley of the Mississippi and 

 the Lake basin. These have been so fully described that you are 

 familiar with their general character, but few of us have a just 

 idea of their number and magnitude. 



It is estimated (but I fear with little accuracy) that not less 

 than ten thousand monuments of the mound-builders are con- 

 tained within the limits of Ohio, and they are scarcely less numer- 

 ous in the adjacent States of Indiana and Kentucky. In some 

 places, as at Newark and Circleville, they cover square miles of 

 surface, and it is hardly to be doubted that they are the work of 

 a people or peoples not less numerous than the present popu- 

 lation. 



