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GEOGRAPHICAL PEOGEESS AND DISCOVERY. 



tral America, and repeated doubtfully by trav- 

 elers, of the existence of descendants of vari- 

 ous warlike tribes who had escaped the Spanish 

 conquerors by fleeing to certain rich valleys 

 encircled by mountains and accessible only 

 through narrow and difficult passes, which they 

 have jealously guarded against the approach of 

 strangers to this day. This forbidden land is, 

 according to rumor, of considerable extent 

 it is said five hundred miles square and lies 

 between Tabasco, Guatemala, Peten, and Yu- 

 catan. Here the remnants of the Chinamaces, 

 the Laucaerones, the Itzaks, and other tribes, 

 still maintaining the league of their forefathers, 

 and allowing no white person to penetrate their 

 stronghold, if the stories of the inhabitants of 

 the neighboring regions are to be accepted, 

 have kept their blood from mixture, and still 

 preserve the customs and mode of living pre- 

 vailing at the time of the conquest, retain the 

 ancient religious observances, and speak the 

 pure Maya language. Dr. Le Plongeon, who 

 has spent several years in examining the ruins 

 of Central America, has satisfied himself, from 

 information received from the people of the 

 adjacent districts, that these accounts are sub- 

 stantially true. The mountain-region possessed 

 by them is called the Tierra de la Guerra. The 

 members of these aboriginal communities are 

 reported to have been more disposed to inter- 

 course of late than formerly, descending some- 

 times to barter tobacco, cacao, and the prod- 

 ucts of their handiwork, for commercial arti- 

 cles, and occasionally hiring out for a season 

 as farm-laborers, though not yet suffering stran- 

 gers to enter their country. Le Plongeon ex- 

 presses the hope that these people may retain 

 the knowledge of the Mexican hieroglyphics, 

 and that the key of these writings will be dis- 

 closed as soon as they can be induced to relax 

 the rigorous exclusiveness which must have 

 served to rescue from oblivion, if not the graph- 

 ic symbols of the ancient Mexicans, many other 

 interesting relics of their lost civilization. On 

 the borders of this interesting region the Brit- 

 ish colonial secretary in Honduras has discov- 

 ered the existence of three ruined cities, and 

 a building containing many mural paintings, 

 which are in the possession of the Santa Cruz 

 Indians. The expedition under Desire Char- 

 nay, equipped by the French Government, and 

 supported at the expense of Pierre Lorillard, 

 of New York, and which is patronized further- 

 more by the United States Government, is com- 

 missioned to systematically and thoroughly ex- 

 plore the ruins of Central America and Mexico, 

 and to take photographs and casts of every 

 relic of the ancient civilization which can be 

 found. Doubtless there are more antiquities 

 yet to be discovered in Oaxaca, Tehuantepec, 

 Guatemala, and Yucatan than have yet been 

 brought to light. Mount Alban, Mitla, Uxmal, 

 Palenque, and the rest of the largest and best 

 known of the ruined cities, have yet to receive 

 a systematic examination, and scores of sites 

 are known to exist which have never been 



viewed by a competent archaaologist. It is 

 more reasonable to expect that the materials 

 collected by Charnay and his assistants will 

 find some Champollion to unriddle the cryp- 

 tography, than that the symbols should be yet 

 understood by the retrograde, savage descend- 

 ants of the Mayas in their mountain eyrie. 

 The Lorillard expedition will endeavor to wring 

 from these shy mountaineers whatever knowl- 

 edge they possess, and will be protected in 

 their excursions in these wild parts by a body 

 of one hundred regular soldiers. 



ARCTIC EXPLORATION. The American Frank- 

 lin search party under Lieutenant Schwatka 

 returned in the bark George and Mary, on 

 September 22d, from a two years' hunt for 

 the log-books and other relics of the Franklin 

 Expedition. During the first ten years alter the 

 loss of the Erebus and Terror, several finely 

 equipped expeditions were sent out to discover 

 the fate of Sir John Franklin and his compan- 

 ions ; but not a trace was seen until in 1859 

 Captain McClintock found clothes and other 

 articles belonging to the lost crews on King 

 William Land, and explored the country for 

 records; but it was May, and everything was 

 covered with snow and ice. In Captain C. F. 

 Hall's two expeditions, 1860-1862, and 1864- 

 1869, many relics were obtained from the Es- 

 quimaux, and the spot was discovered where the 

 band of survivors from the Erebus and Terror 

 made their last camp on their fatal attempt to 

 return to civilization after wintering three years 

 in the regions of perpetual ice. He was only 

 able to examine the southeast extremity of the 

 island. A skeleton was brought away which 

 was identified as that of Lieutenant Le Vesconte 

 of the Erebus. The natives informed him that 

 books and documents had been found. In 1872 

 an American whaling-master, Captain Potter, 

 who lay frozen up twenty-four months in Re- 

 pulse Bay, brought to New York spoons, forks, 

 and knives, engraved with the arms and initials 

 of Sir John Franklin, Captain Crozier, and 

 Fitzjames, which he had obtained from Netchil- 

 lik Esquimaux, who related that a large num- 

 ber of white men had visited their country, 

 which is distant a long way from Repulse Bay ; 

 that they had perished one after another of 

 starvation many years before ; and that the last 

 one surviving had laid away papers and books 

 in a cairn. In 1877 another ice-bound whaler, 

 F. Barry, who had been one of the companion- 

 ions of Potter, brought back a silver spoon 

 with Franklin's crest upon it, and repeated the 

 tale of buried documents, presumed to be the 

 ship's logs and notes of scientific observations. 

 Messrs. Robinson and Brown, owners of this 

 whaling-vessel, determined to fit out an expe- 

 dition to land at Eepulse Bay, provisioned for 

 eighteen months, for a thorough search with the 

 help of the Esquimaux over the whole ground 

 on which the tragic scenes of the Franklin catas- 

 trophe had taken place. The schooner Eothen, 

 commanded by Barry and fitted out for a wluil- 

 ing-cruise, bore the search party to the scene 







