52 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [mARCH 9, 



habitants of Mexico and Central America, and probably of 

 Peru, had already long been in decadence. This is attested by 

 many facts. Within our own territory, the progenitors of the 

 inhabitants of the Pueblo towns — the Moquis, the Zunis, etc., 

 — were once so numerous, that they seem to have cultivated 

 every inch of arable soil. Around every spring and along 

 every stream their stone-built structures, all in ruins, may be 

 seen, and we have everywhere evidence in theii' cliff dwellings 

 and fortresses that they maintained a constant defensive war- 

 fare against numerous and warlike enemies. These enemies 

 seem hnally to have prevailed and to have driven off or de- 

 stroyed the peaceful agricultural population, except whei-e their 

 towns were perched on high and inaccessible rocks, where the 

 natural defenses of their position afforded a protection that 

 their own courage and prowess did not furnish. 



Accepting the almost inevitaljle conclusion that the peculiar 

 and similar monuments which are scattered over Mexico, Cen- 

 tral America and Peru, are the work of related nations who 

 drew their civilization from a common source, we must admit 

 that for the development of this civilization and for its spread 

 to Chili and Utah, ages must have been required ; still other 

 ages must have passed in its periods of prosperity and decline. 

 That decline began many hundreds of years ago, for I have 

 myself seen towns on the table-lands of our southwestern terri- 

 tories, where even in that dry climate the cedar wood that had 

 been used in their construction, had completely disappeared by 

 decay ; a result that could only have been reached if they were 

 abandoned long before the advent of the Spaniards. 



Hence, in my judgment, those whobave attempted to bring all 

 the history of this western civilization, with its necessary phases of 

 growth, prosperity and decay within a thousand or even two 

 thousand years have been in error, and I am constrained to 

 believe that some of the ancient monuments of the Mississippi 

 Valley, as well as those of Western America, may claim an 

 antiquity equal to that of the oldest known civilizations of the 

 Eastern Hemisphere. 



Of the origin of the ancient civilization of America, I will 

 only say that in my opinion it was indigenous. The cultm-e of 

 the" Mound Builders, rude as it was, evidently owed nothing to 

 a foreign source. Though they were ignorant of the methods 

 of smeltiUjg iron from ore, they worked the mines of copper 



