CHAPTER II. 



EXPLORATIONS OF PALENOUE. 



In this cliaiDter I purpose to give, in chronological order, and as succinctly as 

 possible, an account of the principal explorations of the ancient city, comprising 

 all those to which subsequent reference will be made. 



The ruins of Palenque are called after the picturesque village of Santo 

 Domingo del Palenque,* about eight miles distant from them, and situated in the 

 Mexican State of Chiapas, bordering on the Republic of G-uatemala. Indeed, 

 Chiapas formed a province of Guatemala during the period of Spanish su- 

 premacy ; but immediately after the declaration of independence under Iturbide 

 (in 1821), the province became a part of Mexico, in virtue of a vote of its 

 inhabitants. The aboriginal name of the ruined city is not known, f and the early 

 works treating of those parts of America make no mention of the place. Cortes, 

 on his famous expedition to Honduras (1524-1526) , undertaken for the purpose 

 of quelling the defection of his lieutenant, Cristoval de Olid, doubtless passed at 

 no considerable distance from the locality now called Palenque. " If it had been 

 a living city," says Mr. Stephens, " its fame must have reached his ears, and he 

 would probably have turned aside from his road to subdue and plunder it. It 

 seems, therefore, but reasonable to suppose that it was at that time desolate and 

 in ruins, and even the memory of it lost."J Mr. Prescott makes a similar 

 observation: " The army (of Cortes)," he says, "was now at no great distance 

 from the ancient city of Palenque, the subject of so much speculation in our 

 time. The village of Las Tres Cruzes, indeed, situated between twenty and 

 thirty miles from Palenque, is said still to commemorate the passage of the 

 conquerors by the existence of three crosses which they left there. Yet no allu- 



* Founded about the year 1564 by Pedro Laureneio, a Dominican missionary .imong the Tzendal Indians. 

 According to Morelet, it has now a population of six hundred souls, but wtis formerly considered a flourishing 

 town. 



t " The -wotA. palenque is of Spanish origin, and means a stockade or enclosure of palisades. How it camo 

 to be applied to the village of Santo Domingo is not explained, but there is not the slightest re.ison to 

 suppose th.at it has any connection with the TuKn^."— Bancroft : The Native Races of the Pacific States; vol. 

 iv, p. 294. 



t Stephens: Central America, etc., vol. ii, p. 357. 



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