112 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. VI. 
York), he proceeds: ‘It is proper to add, however, that, considering the 
space now occupied by the ruins as the site of palaces, temples and 
public buildings, and supposing the houses of the inhabitants to have 
been, like those of the Egyptians and the present race of Indians, of 
frail and perishable materials, as at Memphis and Thebes, and to have 
disappeared altogether, the city may have covered an immense extent.’ 
This is a clear case of suggestio falst by Mr. Stephens, who is usually so 
careful and reliable, and, even here, so guarded in his language. He 
had fallen into the mistake of regarding these remains as a city in ruins 
instead of a small Indian pueblo in ruins. But he had furnished a 
general ground plan of all the ruins found of the Palenque pueblo, which 
made it plain that four or five structures upon pyramidal platforms at 
some distance from each other, with the whole space over which they 
were scattered about equal to the Battery, made a poor show for a city. 
The most credulous reader would readily perceive that it was a 
misnomer to call them the ruins of a city ; wherefore the suggestions of 
Mr. Stephens, that, considering the space now occupied by the ruins as 
the site of palaces, temples, and public buildings, and supposing the 
houses of the inhabitants... of frail and perishable materials to have 
disappeared . . . the city say have covered an immense extent. That 
Mr. Stephens himself considered or supposed either to be true may have 
been the case, but it seems hardly supposable, and in either event he is 
responsible for the false colouring thus put upon these ruins, and the 
deceptive inferences drawn from them.” 
In quoting these words of a late highly esteemed correspondent, the 
writer regrets, in one sense, that he cannot homologate them. Mr. 
Morgan sought to unify American Indian architecture, which is an 
impossible task, inasmuch as tribes of very different origin constitute 
the aboriginal population of the continent, and their modes of build- 
ing, like their languages, physical features, customs, and _ traditions, 
exhibit marked and irreconcilable differences. The Mayas of Yucatan 
and the Quiches and Cachiquels of Guatemala had no connection 
of any kind with the Pueblo Indians. Their histories assert that they 
were governed by great monarchs, almost absolute in their sway, a rule 
that continued down to the appearance of the Spanish invaders. 
Elaborate ornamentation and elegantly carved hieroglyphics are no part 
of a common dwelling house; nor, with all his invective against Mr. 
Stephens, has Mr. Morgan succeeded in proving that, even in rough 
outline, the palaces and temples of Palenque were not such. Credible 
history attests that the Mayas, Quiches, and Cachiquels possessed 
palaces and temples as well as kings and priests. No village life could 
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