EXPLORATIONS OF PALENQUE. <Q 



especially with regard to the contours of the human figures. Even the errors in 

 Castaiieda's delineations, which have become obvious by later and more correct 

 representations of the same objects, are reproduced in the plates illustrating the 

 English translation of Del Rio's report. Thus, the totally incorrect position of 

 the glyphs in the Group of the Cross is shown in Del Rio's plate as well as in 

 that of Dupaix, and similar defects, common to both and surely not resulting 

 from accident, can be pointed out. As for Del Rio's descriptions, they certainly 

 have some merit, though they lack the precision and completeness of those of 

 later investigators. The plates not being numbered, the references to them are 

 in many cases obscure, and, indeed, would be unintelligible, if it were not for the 

 surer guidance afforded by more recent publications on Palenque.* 



Of far greater importance were the three expeditions made, pursuant to a 

 royal order, from 1805 to 1808, by William Dupaix, a retired captain of Mexican 

 dragoons, for exploring the antiquities of Mexico. He was accompanied by 

 Luciano Castaiieda, engineer and draughtsman, a secretary, and a militar}^ escort. 

 In the course of his third expedition, in 1807, he reached Palenque, where he 

 was engaged for several months in a thorough examination of the ruins. His 

 manuscript report and drawings were to be sent to Spain ; but the outbreak of 

 the Mexican revolution frustrated this design, and they remained during those 

 troublous times in the custody of Castaiieda, who deposited them in the museum 

 of the city of Mexico. 



In the meantime the Latour-Allard copies of Castaiieda's drawings were 

 re-copied by Augustine Aglio, and published in 1830, in Vol. IV of Lord Kings- 

 borough's " Mexican Antiquities." Thirty-four of the many plates composing 

 this volume relate to Palenque. A copy of the Spanish text of Dupaix's report, 

 obtained by Lord Kingsborough in a manner not explained, api)eared in 1830, 

 as a part of Vol. V of the above-named work, under the title " Viages de Gruil- 

 lelmo Dupaix sobre las Antiguedades Mejicanas," and an English translation of 

 the same, headed "The Monuments of New Spain, by M. Dupaix," was given, 

 in 1831, in the sixth of Kingsborough's magnificent but unwieldy tomes. Thus, 

 the merit of having first laid before the world the results of Dupaix's labors is 

 due to the unexampled zeal of that nobleman, who sacrificed time and fortune 

 in the enterpi-ise of collecting and publishing all existing documents calculated 

 to elucidate the history and arts of ancient Mexico. 



* I know two Grcrman translations of Del Eio's report, namely : " Huebuetlapallan, Amerika's grosse Urstadt 

 in dem Konigreich Guatimala. Neu entdeckt vom Capitain Don Antonio del Rio etc." Mit 17 grosscn 

 Zeichnungen in Steindruck ; Meiningen, 1824 ; and— Von Minutoli : " Beschreibung eincr alten Stadt, die in 

 Guatimala (Neuspanien) unfern Palenque entdeckt worden ist. Nach der cnglischen Uebcrsetzung der 

 spanischen Originalbandschrift des Capitan Don Antonio del Eio etc." Mit 14 lithogr. Tafeln ; Berlin, 1832. 

 According to Mr. Bancroft, a French translation by M. Warden was published by the Societe de Geographic, with 

 a part of the plates, and the original Spanish of Del Kio's report appeared in 1855, in the " Diccionario Univereal 

 de Geografia etc.," torn, viii, pp. 528-33. 

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