Of the American Aborigines. — 9 
_and he arrives at the conclusion, as mafiy ingenuous minds have — 
done before him, that these and the other archxological remains 
of Mexico and Yucatan, “are the works of a people who have 
long since passed away ; and not of the races, or the progenitors 
of the peep who inhabited the country at the nies ‘of the dis- 
covery.” 
With the highest respect for this intelligent tcamilians Tam not 
able to agree with him in his conclusion; but I should not now 
revive my published opinions or contest his, were it not that some 
new light appears to me to have dawned on this very question. 
In the first place, then, we regard the effigy found near Panuco 
as probably Caucasian ; so does Mr. Norman; but instead of re- 
ferring it toa very remote antiquity, or to some European oc- 
cupancy of Mexico long before the Spanish conquest, we will 
venture to suggest, that even if the town of Panuco was itself 
older than that event, (of which indeed we have no doubt, ) it is 
consistent with collateral facts to infer, that the Spaniards may 
have occupied this very town, in common with, or subsequent to, 
the native inhabitants, and have left this sepulchral monument. 
That the Spaniards did sometimes practice this jot occupancy, 
is well known ; and that they have, in some instances, left their 
monuments in pled wherein even tradition had almost lost sight 
of their former sojourn, is susceptible of proof. 
‘Mr. Gregg, in a recent and instructive work on the “Com- 
merce of the Prairies,” states the following particulars, which are 
the more valuable since he had no opinions of his own in refer- 
ence to the American en end. cicrely gives the: facts as 
he found them. 
‘Mr. Gregg describes the ruins called La Gran Quivira, about 
100 miles south of Santa Fé, as larger than the present capital of 
New Mexico. The architecture of this deserted city is of hewn 
stone, and there are the remains of aqueducts eight or ten miles 
in length leading from the neighboring mountains. — These ruins 
“have been supposed to be the remains of a pueblo or aboriginal 
city ;” but he adds that the occurrence of the Spanish coat of 
arms in more than one instance’ sculptured and painted upon the 
houses, prevents the adoption of such an opinion ; and that tra- 
ditional et (an tradition fey) mentions this as a city that 
* Ra lab hae oni tages" ya 203. 
Srconp Senizs, Vol. II, No. earn 1846. 
