132 VIEWS OF NATURE. 



Mexican civilization. The most important ruins of the 

 peninsula of Yucatan (unfortunately not yet thoroughly 

 measured and drawn by architects) are those of the " Casa 

 del Gobernador " of Uxmal, the Teocallis and vaulted con- 

 structions at Kabah, the ruins of Labnan with its domed 

 pillars, those of Zayi which exhibit columns of an order of 

 architecture nearly approaching the Doric, and those of Chiche 

 with large ornamented pilasters. An old manuscript written 

 in the Maya language by a Christian Indian, which is still in 

 the hands of the " Gefe politico " of Peto, Don Juan Rio Perez, 

 gives the different epochs {Katunes of 52 years) at which the 

 Toltecs settled in different parts of the peninsula. Perez 

 would infer from these data that the architectural remains of 

 Chiche go back as far as the fourth century of our era, 

 whilst those of Uxmal belong to the middle of the tenth 

 century; but the accuracy of these historical deductions is 

 orjen to great doubt.* 



I regard the existence of a former intercourse between 

 the people of Western America and those of Eastern Asia 

 as more than probable, although it is impossible at the 

 present time to say by what route and with which of 

 the tribes of Asia this intercourse was established. A 

 small number of individuals of the cultivated hierarchical 

 castes may perhaps have sufficed to effect great changes in the 

 social condition of Western America. The fabulous accounts 

 formerly current regarding Chinese expeditions to the New 

 Continent refer merely to expeditions to Fusang or Japan. 

 It is, however, possible that Japanese and Sian-Pi may have 

 been driven by storms from the Corea to the American 

 coasts. We know as matters of history that Bonzes and 

 other adventurers navigated the Eastern Chinese seas in 

 search of a remedial agent capable of making man immortal. 

 Thus under Tschin-chi-huang-ti three hundred young couples 

 were dispatched to Japan in the year 209 before our era, 

 who, instead of returning to China, settled on the Island of 

 Nipon.f May not accident have led to similar expeditions to 



* Stephens, Incid. of Travel in Yucatan, vol. i. p. 439, and vol. ii. 

 p. 278. 



f Klaproth, Tableaux historiques de VAfde, 1824, p. 79; Nouveau 

 Journal asiatique, t. x. 1832, p. 335 ; and Humboldt, Examen cri- 

 tique, t. ii. pp. 02 — 67. 



