THE TABLET OF THE CROSS. 213 



Pie also states that Prof. Holden gives a cut of the entire tablet, the east 

 portion bearing the signature of C. F. Trill, calls the cut a piece of patchwork 

 and says it forces him to seek the source of Mr. Trill's drawings in the works of 

 ejrlier explorers. 



I can assure Mr. Watson that he need not seek so far for it, and that he has 

 wasted considerable labor in making a list of such early explorers, as he can see 

 the veritable missing east or right stone of the Palenque tablet by traveling to 

 Washington, D. C, where it is safely deposited in the National Museum, also 

 that Prof. Holden did not use in that part of his work the drawings of either ear- 

 lier or later explorers, but had the stone itself under his inspection, with a pho- 

 tograph of it for use in the study. 



Further on Mr. Watson says "other drawings are said to exist in various 

 Spanish, Mexican, and Central American collections; but none, other than those 

 mentioned, have been given to the world in any publication accessible to stu- 

 dents." 



This statement is certainly erroneous, as a very excellent work on the " Pal- 

 enque Tablet," written by Prof. Chas. Rau, was published by the Smithsonian 

 Institution in 1879, i^^ which is given a very fine illustration of the whole tablet 

 as restored, and a photograph of the east or right slab taken from the stone 

 itself. 



To this book I beg to refer Mr. Watson for a full history of the whole tablet 

 and an account of the manner in which the right or east slab reached the Nation- 

 al Museum, where it has been since 1858. I also refer him to the " First Annual 

 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology 1879-80," published at Washington, D. C, 

 1881, in which Prof. Holden gives a very full and lucid account of his labors and 

 the sources from which he obtained the necessary data. I think that before Mr. 

 Watson attempted to criticise work done by such a thorough scholar as Prof. 

 Holden he should have made himself more thoroughly acquainted with the cur- 

 rent literature on the subject. 



THE TABLET OF THE CROSS. 

 prof. otis t. mason, washington, d. c. 



Editor of the Kansas City Review : 



Dear Sir, — A short article in the July number of the Review affords me the 

 opportunity of renewing our acquaintance too long neglected. I have had the 

 pleasure of reading Professor Holden's article in the Cejiiury Magazine; but, if he 

 is correctly and fully reported by Mr. Warren Watson, he has done great injust- 

 ice to the Smithsonian Institution, to Dr. Charles Rau, and to the talented artist 

 Mr. C. F. Trill. 



In 1879, the Smithsonian Institution issued No. 331 of its Contributions to. 

 Knowledge, entitled "The Palenque Tablet in the United States National Mus- 



VI-I4 



