I9I3.] HIGHEST NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 483 



ments of the Alayas greater than those of the others, but their 

 opportunities were less. Hence, if we explain the rise of Maya 

 culture solely on the basis of racial character we are forced to 

 assume that the ancient Mayas were not only almost immeasurably 

 in advance of any race that now lives under a similar environment, 

 but were far more competent than any other race that has ever 

 lived permanently in any part of the torrid zone. Indeed in their 

 achievements in overcoming an adverse environment, we are perhaps 

 obliged to put them on a pinnacle above any other race that has 

 ever lived. 



Without denying that the Mayas were a remarkable people, let 

 us entertain the further hypothesis that in the days of their great- 

 ness tropical fevers either had not been introduced into America, 

 or were by no means so virulent as now. This helps us greatly, for 

 it relieves us of the necessity of assuming the Mayas to have pos- 

 sessed a degree of resistance to fevers far in excss of anything 

 known to-day. There are, however, grave objections to this hypoth- 

 esis. In the first place it is a pure assumption entirely unsup- 

 ported by any independent evidence. In the second place, tropical 

 diseases are numerous, and even malarial fevers are of several 

 kinds. We may readily suppose that one or two diseases may have 

 been introduced into Central America between the time of the Maya 

 civilization and the Spanish Conquest, but in the entire absence of 

 any evidence it is a rather large assumption to suppose that many 

 diseases were thus introduced and that they were able to work so 

 great a revolution. Thirdly, this hypothesis does not explain why 

 the advancement of civilization went on so rapidly and for so long 

 in spite of the enervating effects of almost unchanging heat and 

 dampness. Nor does it explain why the Maya civilization reached 

 the coast at only one or two spots. So far as topography is con- 

 cerned there is nothing to prevent this on either coast. Much of 

 the narrow Pacific plain could be cultivated with ease even though 

 swamps do cover part of it, and on the Atlantic side the parts of 

 the forest where there are no ruins seem to be no worse than those 

 where they exist. The native inhabitants of this region all appear 

 to have been of Maya stock, even though they may not have be- 



