ETHNOLOGY. 423 



would be willingly granted. The person recommended by Mr. William- 

 son for making the transcripts (Don Francisco Gavarrete) is fully com- 

 petent for the task as to the works written in the Spauish language. 

 A translation into English seems not advisable. Whoever wants to 

 study the history, ethnology, linguistics, &c, of Spanish-American 

 countries, must, from necessity, understand the Spanish language, and 

 if he does not, he ought to begin by learning it. The work of copying 

 the writings in Indian languages requires a scholar conversant with 

 them and accustomed to decipher the often illegible old manuscripts, 

 or the copies would be worthless. The same may be said with regard 

 to the arduous task of selecting from the unknown contents of those 

 archives such as would be worthy of the trouble and expense of copy- 

 ing; it would require a person familiar with the literature of this spe- 

 cialty, particularly the various Spanish, Mexican, and other printed col- 

 lections of historical documents, to avoid copying writings which already 

 exist in print. 



^Regarding excavations to be made in the neighborhood of the city 

 of Guatemala, I have no opinion to give as to the probability of their 

 success. In the wide valley-plain around the city, and particularly to 

 the west, at the foot of the mountains of Mixco are many small mounds, 

 some of them grouped together, forming lines here, squares there ; and 

 antiquities (principally clay and stone implements) are occasionally 

 found. Some of these mounds may be of a sepulchral character, and in 

 that case they may contain interesting objects of antiquity. There is 

 certainly a great deal of work still to be done in American archaeology, 

 and no part of the continent has so great an interest for the student as 

 the region inhabited by the nations of the Maya-Quiche family, for bear- 

 ing testimony of the highest pre-Columbian civilization of this continent. 

 The distinguishing features of antiquities belonging to this group are 

 far from being satisfactorily established, and any additions to our knowl- 

 edge in this regard would be highly acceptable. But the difficulties in 

 reaching results from partial researches upon a ground which has been 

 inhabited successively by tribes of various nationalities and different 

 degrees of civilization, and, on the other hand, the tendency of the 

 day, by which the prehistoric man of the old world absorbs all the 

 interest and attention of students, even in institutions which are ex- 

 pressly dedicated to American archaeology, are great obstacles in our 

 way, and convince us that the time has not yet come — as certainly it 

 will and must come — for a co-operative and successful working of this 

 branch of American science. If, however, the Smithsonian or any other 

 museum or academy were willing to defray the expenses of digging for 

 antiquities, I think there might be named hundreds of other places in 

 Central America more likely to give returns than the neighborhood of 

 the city of Guatemala. Mr. Osbert Salvin, the ornithologist, dug up 

 one or two of those Mixco mounds not more than a year ago, but, as I 

 am informed, he found nothing therein of antiquarian interest. 



