8 EXPLORATIONS OF PALENQUE. 



Mayor of Santo Domingo, to make further explorations, and in 1785, an Italian, 

 Antonio Bernasconi, royal architect in Guatemala, was ordered to continue the 

 survey. Their reports, accompanied by drawings, never published as far as 

 known, remained in manuscript, but were translated, in part at least, into 

 French by Brasseur de Bourbourg, and published in his large work on Palenque 

 ("Monuments Anciens du Mexique"), of which an account will be given on a 

 subsequent page. The manuscripts in question, having been sent to Spain, 

 were used by the royal historiographer, Mufioz, in a report on American antiqui- 

 quities made by order of the king.* 



The first exploration of the ruins which led to a direct, though much 

 retarded, result was that by Captain Antonio del Rio, undertaken in 1787, pur- 

 suant to a royal decree issued May 15th, 1786. His report is dated Palenque, 

 June 24th, 1787, and addressed to Don Jose Estacheria, " Brigadier, Grovernor 

 and Commandant General of the Kingdom of Guatemala, etc." It was sent to 

 Spain, accompanied by many drawings ; but copies having been retained in 

 Mexico and Guatemala, one of them was obtained by a gentleman who had 

 resided many years in the last-named city — a Dr. McQuy — and brought by him 

 to London, where it was translated into English, and printed in 1822 by Henry 

 Berthoud. It forms a small quarto and bears the title : " Description of the 

 Ruins of an Ancient City, discovered near Palenque, in the Kingdom of Guate- 

 mala, in Spanish America; translated from the Original Manuscript Report of 

 Captain Don Antonio del Rio, etc." The title further informs us that the work 

 contains the " Teatro Critico Americano, etc.," by Dr. Paul Felix Cabrera, which 

 is one of the many attempts to show how America was peopled. Though it 

 appears that no drawings accompanied Del Rio's manuscript report from which 

 the English translation was made, the latter is, nevertheless, illustrated by 

 seventeen lithographic plates. These delineations were executed by M. Frederic 

 de Waldeck, after copies of the drawings of Castaiieda, the artist employed by 

 Captain Duj^aix, the succeeding explorer of Palenque. The copies in question, 

 for some time in possession of M. Latour-Allard, of Paris, passed afterward into 

 English hands. In the few copies of Del Rio's work examined by me nearly 

 every plate is marked with the initials F. W. or J. F. W., which stand for 

 " Frederic Waldeck " or " Jean-Frederic Waldeck." One plate, moreover, is 

 signed with his full name. Del Rio's illustrations, as given in the English 

 translation, are substantially those of Dupaix, only somewhat improved, more 



* Bancroft: Native Eacos etc.; vol. iv, p. 289, note. This note extends over several pages and embraces a 

 full account of the explorations by which the ruins of Palenque have been made known, and of the many reports 

 and books resulting from those explorations. Though my information in regard to the latter is derived from 

 original sources, I have taken various details from this excellent resume ; others I obtained from the Abb6 

 Brasscur's "Monuments Anciens du Mexiq\ie," a work containing the most extensive account of Palenque as yet 

 published. It was not within my reach when I commenced this monograph. 



