EXPLORATIONS OF PALENQUE. 7 



Tumbala Mountains,* which became the metropolis of a large empire. This city 

 was called jSTachan (City of the Serpents) , f and the remains of its buildings are 

 the now much admired ruins of Palenque. X I must abstain from following in 

 this place the further career of Votan, which is narrated, according to the tradi- 

 tion, in the works of Brasseur and Bancroft. 



According to Juarros, the historian of Guatemala, the ruins of Palenque 

 were discovered about 1750 by a party of Spaniards traveling in the Province of 

 Chiapas ;§ but Stephens doubts this account, being rather inclined to believe that 

 the existence of the ruins was revealed by the Indians, who had clearings in 

 different parts of the forest for their corn-fields, or, perhaps, had known them 

 from time immemorial, and caused the neighboring inhabitants to visit them.|l 

 The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg, on the other hand, states that the ruins were 

 accidentally discovered, in 1746, by the young nephews of the Licentiate Antonio 

 de Solis, then residing at Santo Domingo, which formed a part of his diocese."|[ 

 Though the news of this discovery spread through the country, the Guatemalan 

 government paid for a long time no attention to it, either from want of apprecia- 

 tion, or because other matters deemed more important claimed its care. In 1773, 

 however, Ramon de Ordoiiez induced one of his brothers and several other 

 persons to explore the ruins, and their information enabled him to draw up a 

 report, which finally, in 1784, reached Don Jose Estacheria, President of the 

 Guatemalan Audiencia Real. This functionary becoming interested in the 

 subject, instructed in the same year Jose Antonio Calderon, Lieutenant Alcalde 



* Called Cerro del Naranjo on the new map of Yucatan, compiled by Hubbe and Perez, and revised by 

 Berendt (1878). 



f Culhuacan and Huehuetlapallan are other names supposed by some to have been applied to the city. 



% Brasseur de Bourbourg: Histoire des Nations Civilisees etc.; torn, i, p. 08. 



§ "St. Domingo Palenque, a village in the Province of Tzendules, on the borders of the intendaneies of 

 Ciudad Real and Yucatan. It is the head of a curacy; in a mild and salubrious climate, but very thinly 

 inhabited, and now celebrated from having within its jurisdiction the vestiges of a very opulent city, which has 

 been named Ciudad del Palenque ; doubtless, formerly the capital of an empire whose history no longer exists. 

 This metropolis,— like another Herculaneum, not indeed overwhelmed by the torrent of another Vesuvius, but con- 

 cealed for ages in the midst of a vast desert,— remained unknown until the middle of the eighteenth century, when 

 some Spaniards, having penetrated the dreary solitude, found themselves, to their great astonishment, within sight 

 of the remains of what once had been a superb city, of six leagues in circumference; the solidity of its edifices, 

 the stateliness of its palaces, and the magnificence of its public works were not surpassed in importance by its vast 

 extent; temples, altars, deities, sculptures, and monumental stones bear testimony to its great antiquity. The 

 hieroglyphics, symbols, and emblems, which have been discovered in the temples, bear so strong a resemblance to 

 those°of the Egyptians, as to encourage the supposition that a colony of that nation may have founded the city of 

 Palenque, or Culhuacan. The same opinion may be formed respecting that of Tulha, the ruins of which are still 

 to be seen near the village of Ocosingo, in the same district."— Hisifory 0/ the Kingdom of Guatemala etc., by 

 Don Domingo Juarros. Translated by J. Bally; London, 1823, p. 18.-Compendio de la Historia de la Ciu,dad de 

 Guatemala. Escrito por el Br. D. Domingo Juarros; Guatemala, 1808-18, tom. i, p. 14. 



Judging from this description, one would form a very poor opinion of the district in which Palenque is 

 situated." Modern travelers, however, praise its beautiful scenery, especially Morelet and Charnuy. 

 II Stephens: Central America, etc.; vol. ii, p. 294. 

 ^ Brasseur de Bourbourg : Monuments Anciens du Mexique ; Paris, 18(JU, p. 3. 



