1898-99.] | DECIPHERING HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 15} 
CHAPTER VIII. 
ANOTHER RECORD OF THE CACHIQUEL KINGS: 
THE ALTAR AT COPAN. 
There may be many other records of the conquering Ahau Ahpops 
of the Cachiquels, but the only one known to the writer when he wrote 
this chapter, is one familiar by sight to students of American antiqui- 
ties, the hieroglyphic tablet of the altar at Copan. Mr. Baldwin says: 
T@ 
OG 
eB 0 
f(CoBy) ee 
a) ) @ a) Na SY 
gs 6) Olam se 
Inscription on the Copan Altar. 
“ The ruins known as Copan are situated in the extreme western part 
of Honduras, where they are densely covered by the forest. As already 
stated, they were first discovered about forty years after the war of the 
conquest swept through that part of the country, and were at that 
time wholly mysterious to the natives. The monuments seem older 
than those at Palenque, but we have only scant descriptions of them. 
