More recently, the reading of Mr. Herbert Bancroft's volume on Amer- 

 ican Antiquities (vol. iv.) had at once recalled to mind what he had read 

 many years ago upon the subject, strongly suggestive of this resemblance, 

 and especially Sir Stamford Raffles' " History of Java." with illustration- 

 ofthejavan monuments. 



Dr. Samuel Ferguson, in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 

 (No. 7, p. 137, 1872), has made a like observation, referring to Gailha- 

 bout's work on Ancient Architecture, and giving a wood-cut of a Javan 

 pyramidal temple from Sir Stamford Raffles' History. Dr. Ferguson gives 

 also from the same work some fanciful drawings of the human head and 

 face resembling somewhat the type of face exhibited in the Central Ameri- 

 can sculptures; and he thinks that these circumstances are " worthy of 

 grave consideration in any system of ethnology dealing with Central Amer- 

 ican origins." He observes, also, that the trunk of the elephant is a 

 ornamental feature in Hindu architecture, and that the head and trunk of 

 the elephant (''distorted and conventionalized" according to the American 

 taste) may be traced in these sculptures of Central America. 



This may very well be doubted. Mr. Bancroft mentions that some 

 writers had expressed that opinion; but the particular examples of it that 

 are given in his work do not seem at all to justify such an inference. The 

 resemblance, in these instances, is certainly so remote, and merely fanci- 

 ful, that it would require a very vivid imagination to discover in them any 

 proof that the artists had ever seen or heard of an elephant. 



Nevertheless, the general resemblance in the character and grade of 

 these monuments may point to a remote connection with Southeastern 

 Asia, not perhaps by way of direct importation of the same style of archi- 

 tecture from Java or Hindustan (however possible that might be in any 

 period), but rather by way of race origin reaching back into that period of 

 geological time when a much greater extent of continent and island existed 

 in the Indian and Southern oceans than has been the case within the re- 

 motest historical period, and when populations kindred in origin to those 

 of Asia may have reached America, and, in course of time, attained to a 

 corresponding stage of progress in art, ideas, and civilization. 



Mr. Herbert Bancroft's discussion of the evidences tends to the conclu- 

 sion that all the Central American monuments may be brought within the 

 second century of the Christian era, while admitting that there are no cer- 

 tain data by which the age can be fixed, and that they may very possibly 

 belong to a much higher antiquity. He infers that some of the ancient 

 cities were still inhabited when the Spaniards first arrived, but his facts 

 hardly warrant such a conclusion. He admits, however, that Palenque 

 had been previously abandoned. It is not easy to believe that the stage 

 of art and progress indicated by these older remains of Central America 

 existed, and was flourishing, contemporaneously with that found existing 

 in Mexico and Peru at the date of the Spanish conquest. There is no cer- 

 tain proof of the fact. And while the ascertained facts would seem to 

 show a much more ancient date for these ruined, forest-covered cities, still 



