302 NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



when at times it died away, a low sigh seemed to breathe along the 

 crumbling battlements; and then it was that the noise of the distant 

 brook rose upon the ear like a wail. 



In the mystery that envelopes everything connected with these ruins — 

 as to when, and why, and by whom, they were erected ; and how, and 

 when, and why, abandoned — there is much food for very interesting 

 speculation. Until that mystery is penetrated so that all these ques- 

 tions can be answered without leaving a doubt, Abo belongs to the 

 region of romance and fancy ; and it will be for the poet and the painter 

 to restore to its original beauty this venerable temple, to rebuild its 

 altars, and to exhibit again unto us its robed priests, its burning cen- 

 sers, its kneeling worshippers. 



Sunday, December 18, 1853. 



It took us until half past nine o'clock this morning to complete our 

 examination of the ruins. We then marched over a rolling and, in 

 places, broken countr^^ twelve miles 760 yards, and in a general direc- 

 tion of N. 12° E. For the whole of this distance the country is covered 

 with groves of cedar and pinon trees. We then came to the Ruins of 

 Quarrd. These appear to be similar to those of Abo, whether regarded 

 with a view to their evident antiquit}^, the skill exhibited in their con- 

 struction, their preservation at the present time, or the material of 

 which they are built. They too are situated upon a small stream of 

 water that soon disappears in the earth. 



The church at Quarra is not so long by thirty feet as that at Abo. 

 We found one room here, probably one of the cloisters attached to the 

 church, which was in a good state of preservation. The beams that 

 supported the roof were blackened by age. They were square and 

 smooth, and supported under each end by shorter pieces of wood carved 

 into regularly curved lines and scrolls, hke similar supports which we 

 had seen at the ends of beams in houses of the better class in Old 

 Mexico. The earth upon the roof was sustained by small straight 

 poles, well finished and laid in herring bone fashion upon these beams. 

 In this room there is also a fire-pkce precisely like those found in the 

 Mexican houses at the present day. 



We had heard that in a stone panel inserted in the front end of the 

 church at Quarra we should find emblazoned the ^/ewr-fZe-Zii, the ancient 

 armorial bearings of France; and many therefore supposed that possi- 

 bly this church had been erected by French Catholics who had come 

 as missionaries across the country from the direction of New Orleans. 

 But we saw no panel, no fleur-de-lis, and no stone of any kind, that 

 bore marks of a chisel or of a hammer. Every piece in the church, in 

 the cloisters, and in the debris of a neighboring village, was in the same 

 rough form which it had when it was broken tj-om the quarry. 



The course from Quarra to the town of Manzana is, W. 35° N. ; the 

 distance is four miles 1,145 yards. We now find ourselves at a very 

 great elevation. The whole country is clad in a winter garb. The 

 high Sierra de las Manzanas, and the towering pyramidal peaks called 

 Las Tetillas, gleam with a depth, it is said, of more than two feet of 

 snow. 



The town of Manzana is situated at the base of the Sierra of that 



