ILLUSTRATIONS (29). PEOPLING OF JAPAN. 131 



lands. We saw the ruins of palaces and baths on the sides 

 of the Andes, at an elevation of from 10,230 to 11,510 feet. 

 None but northern tribes migrating from the north towards 

 the equatox could have remained from preference in such a 

 climate. 



(29) p. 12. "The history of the peopling of Japan." 



I believe I have succeeded in showing, in my work on 

 the monuments of the American primitive races,* by an 

 examination of the Mexican and Thibetian-Japanese calen- 

 dars, by a correct determination of the position of the Scansile 

 Pyramids, and by the ancient myths which record four 

 revolutions of the world and the dispersion of mankind 

 after a great deluge, that the western nations of the New 

 Continent maintained relations of intercourse with those of 

 Eastern Asia, long before the arrival of the Spaniards. 

 These observations have derived additional weight, since the 

 appearance of my work, from the facts recently published in 

 England, France, and the United States, regarding the 

 remarkable pieces of sculpture carved in the Indian style, 

 which have been discovered in the ruins of Guatimala and 

 Yucatan.f The ancient architectural remains found in the 

 peninsula of Yucatan testify more than those of Palenque, to 

 an astonishing degree of civilization. They are situated 

 between Valladolid, Merida, and Campeche, chiefly in 

 the western portion of the country. But the monuments 

 on the island of Cozumel, (properly Cuzamil,) east of Yuca- 

 tan, were the first which were seen by the Spaniards in 

 the expedition of Juan de Grijalva in 1518, and in that of 

 Cortes in 1519. Their discovery tended to diffuse throughout 

 Europe an exalted idea of the advanced condition of ancient 



* Vues des CordiUeres et Monuments des peuples indigenes de 

 VAmSrique, 2 tomes. 



t Compare the work of D. Antonio del Eio, entitled Description oj 

 the Ruins of an Ancient City discovered near Palenque, 1822, trans- 

 lated from the orig. manuscr. report by Cabrera, p. 9, tab. 12 14 

 (Rio's researches were made in the year 1787); with Stephens, Incidents 

 of Travel in Yucatan, 1843, vol. i. pp. 391, 429434, and vol. ii. 

 pp. 21, 54, 66, 317, 323; with the magnificent work o Catherwood, 

 Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Qhiapas, and 

 Yucatan, 1844; and lastly with Prescott, The Conquest oj Mexico, 

 vol. iii. Append, p. 360. 



x a 



