1 12 PROCEEDINGS OF [Sept. 



The following communication from Mr. Brantz Mayer, of Bahi- 

 timore, appointed, by the Government, Secretary of the United 

 States Legation to Mexico, was read. After discussion upon its con- 

 teuts, it was agreed to refer the letter, for answer, to the Corres- 

 ponding Secretary ; the subject to be resumed at a future period when 

 the Institution might be better prepared to act upon its interesting 

 sugsrestions and offer. 



Washington, September 11, 1841. 

 Francis Markoe, Jr., Esq., • 



Corresponding Secretary of the National Institution. 



My Dear Sir : Having recently received from our Government an appointment 

 which will connect me with the embassy to Mexico, and oblige me to reside in that 

 country perhaps for some time, it has struck me that I may be able to render soma 

 services to your Institution, by endeavoring to collect objects, either of curiosity or 

 scientific value. 



.Independently of the natural desire, which, as Americans, we should all possess, 

 to gather the perishing records of the people who have inhabited our continent be- 

 fore the Spanish conquest, there has been a recent stimulant given to our wishes, by 

 the valuable work, which is the result of Mr. Stevens's toilsome travels in Central 

 America and part of Mexico. That distinguished gentleman certainly deserves the 

 highest admiration from his fellow-citizens, for his laborious exertions ; but, neces- 

 sarily pressed for time, and frequently worn down by the climate and harassing 

 journeys, both he and his able auxiliary, Mr. Catherwood, were enabled to do little 

 more than, as it were, remove the dust which had accumulated for ages on a few 

 of the forgotten cities and nations of the South. Our curiosity has been but ex- 

 cited and tantalized, not completely gratified ; but the indefatigable travellers have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that they have awakened the interest, not only of the 

 inhabitants of those very countries, to the riches which they scarcely were aware they 

 possessed ; but also, that they have created in Europe, and among us, a strong de. 

 sire to obtain, either some of the monuments themselves, or such casts or copies as 

 may be most conveniently transported. 



By this means will the history of these neglected cities, over which the forest 

 has been suffered to grow and decay for centuries, be placed within the skilful re- 

 sources of industrious persons, and we may confidently cherish the hope that Ame- 

 rican ingenuity, now proverbial throughout the world, will not bo withheld from 

 the interpretation of the hieroglyphics with which theso antiquities are covered, 

 and that our country will before long contain Champollions as competent to decy- 

 phcr the story of our own continent, as those who have devoted themselves in Eu- 

 rope to the interpretation of Egyptian history. 



Your reading has, doubtless, made you familiar with the extent to which Euro- 

 pean scholars have pushed their inquiries upon this subject, (and with as small be- 

 ginnings,) and shown you how Sir J. G. Wilkinson in England, the French sarans, 

 and Rosspllini, under the Tuscan commission, have laid oprn, not only much of the 

 political history of the Egyptian dynasties, but also revealed the arts, manufacto- 



