APPENDIX. 



NOTES ON THE RUINS OF YUCATAN AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 



Pio. 17. 



UESTOKATION OF THE PALACE AND THE TEMPLE OF THE THREE TABLETS AT PALENQUE. 



(After Armin). 



Mr. Stephens is not inclined to ascribe a very high antiquity to the ruins 

 of Yucatan and Centi-al America, which he has so carefully examined and 

 described, and his strong good sense and total abstinence from visionary specula- 

 tions entitle his inferences to the highest regard. He arrives at the conclusion 

 that the buildings in question are not the work of people who have passed away 

 and whose history has become unknown, but that, contrary to all previous spec- 

 ulations, they were constructed by the races who occupied the country at the time 

 of the Spanish invasion, or by their more or less remote ancestors. Yet he 

 admits that some of them may have been in ruins and deserted before the arrival 

 of the European conquerors. He opposes all extravagant notions with regard to 

 the age of the buildings on physical as well as on historical grounds, some of 

 which may with propriety be adduced in this place. The condition of the ruins 

 themselves militates against their high antiquity. " The climate and rank 

 luxuriance of soil are most destructive to all perishable materials. For six 



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