CHAPTER I. 



HISTORY OF THE PALENQUE TABLET. 



The collections of the " National Institute for the Promotion of Science," 

 established at Washington about forty years ago, were transferred in 1858 from 

 the United States Patent OflBce to the care of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Among the objects of archceological interest were several fragments composing 

 a large rectangular stone slab covered with glyphic designs in bas-relief, which 

 had been presented to the National Institute by Mr. Charles Russell, consul of 

 the United States at Laguna, on the Island of Carmen, State of Campeche, Mexico. 

 The fragments had been obtained at Palenque, and reached Washington in 

 1842, having been packed in two boxes which arrived in diiferent months of 

 that year. The boxes, it appears, had been forwarded by Messrs. Rowland & 

 Aspinwall, in New York. The National Institute received at the same time a 

 letter fi'om Mr. Russell, dated Laguna, March IStli, 1842, in which he stated he 

 had sent to the National Institute, per ship "Eliza and Susan," fragments of a 

 tablet from the ruins of Palenque, and by the " Gil Bias" other pieces of the same 

 tablet, which made it complete. These scanty facts are taken from the " Third 

 Bulletin of the Proceedings of the National Institute, from February, 1842, to 

 February, 1845." The letter in question is probably lost, as I could not find it 

 among the remaining documents of the National Institute (now in the Smithso- 

 nian Institution), though I made a careful search for it. I regret being unable 

 to communicate any details concerning the removal of the fragments fi-om the 

 celebrated ruins of Palenque. The explorer, Stephens, and his companion, Cath- 

 erwood, the artist, were hospitably entertained by Mv. Russell on their visit to 

 Laguna in 1840. They had just finished their exploration of Palenque, and it 

 is not unlikely that they imparted some of their archaeological enthusiasm to 

 Mr. Russell, who may have visited the ruins and taken away the fragments. 

 This, of course, is merely a surmise ; for it is equally possible that they were 

 removed, perhaps through the consul's instrumentality, by some other person or 

 persons. Mr. Russell was a native of Philadelphia, but had been long absent 

 from the United States at the time of Mr. Stephens's visit. He was married to 

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