GUATEMALA AND THE HIGHEST NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 223 



nature it is hard to surmise, they flourished greatly in a habitat in which modern races can 

 barely subsist. The theory that the Mayas were different from other races has a good deal 

 to commend it. They certainly were a remarkable people. The only question is how 

 remarkable. The nearest analogue to their achievements is found in the ruins of Indo- 

 China, Ceylon, and Java. In none of these cases, however, was the degree of success (as 

 measured by our formula of achievements divided by opportunities) anything hke so great 

 as among the Mayas. The Asiatic races appear to have been like the Spaniards, invaders 

 who did not develop a new civihzation, but brought their ideas with them from other 

 places where we can still see remains of the parent culture ; moreover, they did not rise to 

 the height of inventing a method of writing, and, in Indo-China at least, they had the 

 advantage of tools of iron. Nevertheless, when their history is finally understood, we 

 shall perhaps ascertain that their civihzation and that of the Mayas arose under similar 

 conditions because of similar causes. This, however, is aside from the question. The 

 important point is that no matter how capable we suppose the ancient Ceylonese, Indo- 

 Chinese, and Javanese to have been, the Mayas were still more capable, for not only were 

 their achievements greater than those of the others, but their opportunities were less. Hence, 

 if we explain the rise of Maya culture solely on the basis of racial character we are forced 

 to assimie that the ancient Mayas were not only almost immeasurably in advance of any 

 race that now lives under a similar environment, but were more competent than any other 

 race that has ever hved permanently in any part of the torrid zone. Indeed, in their 

 achievements in overcoming an adverse environment, we are perhaps obliged to put them 

 on a pinnacle above any other race that has ever lived. 



Without denying that the Mayas were a remarkable people, let us entertain the further 

 hypothesis that in the days of their greatness tropical fevers either had not been introduced 

 into America, or were by no means so virulent as now. This helps us greatly, for it relieves 

 us of the necessity of assuming the Mayas to have possessed a degree of resistance to fevers 

 far in excess of anything known to-day. There are, however, grave objections to this 

 hypothesis. In the first place, it is a pure assumption entirely unsupported by any inde- 

 pendent evidence. In the second place, tropical diseases are numerous, and even malarial 

 fevers are of several kinds. We may readily suppose that one or two diseases may have 

 been introduced into Central America between the time of the Maya civihzation and the 

 Spanish Conquest, but in the entire absence of any evidence it is a rather large assumption 

 to suppose that many diseases were thus introduced and that they were able to work so 

 great a revolution. Thirdly, this hypothesis does not explain why the advancement of 

 civihzation went on so rapidly and for so long in spite of the enervating effects of almost 

 unchanging heat and dampness. Nor does it explain why the Maya civilization reached 

 the coast at only one or two spots. So far as topography is concerned there is nothing to 

 prevent this on either coast. Much of the narrow Pacific plain could be cultivated with 

 ease, even though swamps do cover part of it, and on the Atlantic side the parts of the 

 forest where there are no ruins seem to be no worse than those where they exist. The 

 native inhabitants of this region all appear to have been of Maya stock, even though they 

 may not have belonged to the main branch. Under such circumstances it hardly seems as 

 if so progressive a civilization could have existed many centuries without extending its 

 influence to the coast in British Honduras, unless there had been some preventive such as 

 fever. 



The assumption that in Central America tropical diseases were formerly less abundant 

 or less baneful than now reheves us of the necessity of supposmg that the Mayas, remarkable 

 as they were, possessed a degree of immunity or resistance to disease far in excess of that of 

 other races, but it does not reheve us of other difficulties. Moroever, as it now stands it 

 has the weakness of being a pure assumption with no assignable cause and no independent 

 evidence. If, however, we supplement our assumptions as to the character of the Mayas 



