EXPLORATIONS OP PALENQUE. 13 



Yucatan," he says : — " Malgre quelques imperfections, ce livre restera -toujours 

 un ouvrage do premier orch-e pom- Ics voyagem-s et les savants ; c'est la qu'on 

 trouve pour la premiere fois, avec une fidelite presque photographique, cette 

 serie de monuments dont I'Egypte elle-meme se serait enorgueillie, et a I'authen- 

 ticite desquels M. Charnay est venu, il y a trois ans a peine, apporter avec ses 

 belles photographies le plus eclatant temoignage."="-= My late friend. Dr. Carl 

 Hermann Berendt, who had seen nearly all the sites visited by Stephens, repeat- 

 edly assured rae that, with the explorer's volumes as guides, he had found 

 himself perfectly at home among the ruins described by him. 



Stephens's account of Palenque, which chiefly will be considered in the 

 present case, occupies a considerable portion (pages 289 to 365) of Vol. II of the 

 first-named of his works, and most of the illustrations of that volume rejjresent 

 Palenquean buildings and bas-reliefs. Considering that his actual survey of the 

 ruins, made in May, 1840, occupied only twenty days, which, moreover, were 

 rendered unpleasant by the rainy season, the amount of work done by him and 

 his associate is really astonishing. It should also be borne in mind that, though 

 Waldeck explored the ruins of Palenque several years before Stephens and 

 CatherAvood, the last-named gentlemen published their results at a much earlier 

 day, and consequently could not in any way profit by the labors of their prede- 

 cessor. 



The next visit to Palenque claiming our attention was made by the naturalist, 

 M. Arthur Morelet, who spent in 1846 a fortnight among the ruins, as he states 

 in his " Voyage dans I'Amerique Centrale, File de Cuba et le Yucatan ;" Paris, 

 1857. The more important portion of the work was translated into English by 

 Mrs. M. r. Sqiiier, and appeared as " Travels in Central America, etc.;" New 

 York, 1871. Referring to preceding explorers, M. Morelet attempts no descrip- 

 tion of the ruins ; but his account is of much interest in other respects, as my 

 subsequent quotations will show. 



Lastly, mention must be made of the large atlas of i^hotogTaphic views of 

 Mexican and Yucatec ruins, taken by M. Desii-e Charnay, who visited the 

 western continent in 1857, charged by the French authorities with a mission to 

 explore the ruins of America. His atlas is accompanied by an octavo volume, 

 entitled " Cites et Ruines Americaines ; Mitla, Palenque, Izamal, Chichen-Itza, 

 Uxmal. Recueillies et photographiees par Desire Charnay. Avec un Texte par 

 M. Viollet-le-Duc ; suivi du Voyage et des Documents de I'Auteur." Paris, 

 1863. Among the four photographs obtained by him at Palenque that of the 

 middle tablet of the Group of the Cross is of particular interest in connection 

 .with the subject treated in these.pages, and will be duly considered hereafter. 



* Brasseur de Bourbourg in : Archives de la Commission Scientiiique du Mexique ; Paris, 1865, torn, i, p. 91. 



