FBWKES] MOUNDS NEAR TAMPICO 273 



region, were made for the purpose of adding- new facts bearing on a 

 possible connection " between the temple mounds of Vera Cruz and 

 those mounds of the Mississippi valley that served as foundations for 

 superstructures, religious or secular. The limited space allotted to this 

 article allows only a very general consideration of the subject. In 

 studying the Mexican earth mounds of the second type we find a good 

 example of the conditioning of aboriginal buildings by the material 

 available. Many of the Vera Cruz and Tamaulipas mounds are made 

 of earth alone. Especially is this true in places where stone for the 

 builder was not at hand. The mounds at Cempoalan were constructed 

 of river-worn rubble stones laid in cement or lime because the plain of 

 the Actopan furnished no better building material. At El Tajin, near 

 Papantla, the surfaces of the mounds were faced with cut stones, as 

 shown in the plate. These differences in building material are not 

 evidences of differences in culture. 



In comparisons of the Mexican mounds with those of the Missis- 

 sippi basin the objection has been raised that the former are made 

 of carved stones, while the latter are simple earth mounds. While 

 there is no doubt that in stone working tlie Mexicans reached a higher 

 degree of excellence than anj' other people in North America, we must 

 not lose sight of the fact that there are multitudes of mounds in Vera 

 Cruz and Tamaulipas similar to those of the Mississippi valley' and, 

 like them, wholly destitute of a superficial covering of carved or 

 worked stone. The mounds we are considering are not the work of 

 a race that had vanished before the advent of the Europeans. The}' 

 were probably made by the Huaxtec and were in use when the 

 Spaniards discovered the country. At the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century there was a thriving settlement of Indians at Chila and others 

 on or near the banks of the lagoons north of where Tampico now 

 stands. Still otlier settlements existed along the Panuco and Tamesi 

 livers and their tributaries. 



The inhabitants of these places were hostile to Europeans and 

 vigorously attacked the Spaniards on their first appearance, forcing 

 them to sail away without making a permanent landing. Later expe- 

 ditions were more fortunate; the Indian villages were destroyed and 

 their inhabitants dispersed or killed. Manj' were taken to distant 

 lands, as the West Indies, for slaves; others fled to the mountains, 

 where their descendants still live. 



Apparently the ships of Grijalva did not enter the Panuco river in 

 1518, but, meeting the Huaxtec near Tuxpan, were driven out to sea 

 and proceeded northward, sighting land again at Cabo Rojo. The 



oThis thesis is an old one and has been ably discussed by several authors, all of whom have recog- 

 nized the necessity for additional facts regarding the archeology of Tamaulipas and Texas for satis- 

 factory proof of a cultural resemblance of the mound builders and the peoples of eastern Mexico. 



