OF THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 67 



solve, though one on which science and research have already 

 thrown much light. 



Scattered over vast tracts of country, now Httle better than 

 desert wastes, are ruins and remains of great cities and monuments 

 that have been the astonishment of the modern world. They arise 

 and confront us on every hand throughout the countries named — 

 among groves of wild cactus, on the slopes of mountain sides, by 

 the shores of lake and ocean — mute, unspeakably attesting amid a 

 Pandora land of desolation, the grandeur of that lands forgotten 

 past. " Generations after generations have there stood, have lived? 

 have warred, grown old and passed away ; and not only their names, 

 but their nation, their language has perished, and utter oblivion 

 has closed over their once populous abodes." 



At first there might seem a hope of finding a solution to the 

 problem of their identity in the history or records of the races who 

 inhabited Mexico, Central America and Peru, at the date of the 

 Spanish invasion. Turning to these races we find only two divisions 

 who claimed to have been in the country for a great time ; these 

 were the Mayas, of Yucatan, and the Queches, of Guatemala. The 

 former had a tradition claiming that their remote forefathers came 

 from " the land in the East," across the sea, by a passage-way which 

 was opened for them. Their leader was the culture hero "Zamna," 

 the author of their civilization, the teacher of letters, and the god of 

 all benificence to their race. 



The Queches placed their original migration as from a point in 

 the East also, where white and black men lived peaceably together 

 and all spoke the same language. Here they awaited the rising sun, 

 and prayed to the Heart of Heaven. 



This race had a written record called the " Popul Vuh " 

 (Sacred Book), which contained a legend of the destruction of the 

 world by a great deluge, as follows : " Then the waters were 

 agitated by the will of the Heart of Heaven (Hurakan), and a great 

 inundation came upon the heads of all creautures. They were 

 engulfed, and a resinous thickness decended from heaven ; the face 

 of the earth was obscured, and a heavy darkening rain commenced 

 — rain by day. and rain by night. There was heard a great noise 

 above their heads, as if produced by fire. Then were men seen 

 running, pushing each other, filled with despair; they wished to 



