340 THE AMEEICAN MIGEATION. 



where its mon;imeiits occur, Chiapas, Griiatemala, and Yucatan,* are inhabited 

 by the family which use the Maya-Quiche dialect, which some suppose to be 

 derived from the Toltecsi But Orozeo y Berra contests this supposition, and 

 justly, because the Quiche, with its two related idioms, the Oachiquel and 

 Zultuhi, belongs to a family of languages wholly different from the Nahoa; and 

 the Maya was limited to the little-known peninsula of Yucatan and some con- 

 tiguous territories. It is impossible to determine the time at which the immi- 

 gration of the Maya tribes commenced, or which of them first appeared in the 

 country. From the multiplicity of the dialects of' tbis group of languages, we 

 are justified in concluding that Mayas and Quiches had, at a very early epoch, 

 separated from one another, the language of the former changing less than that 

 of the latter, who, at a later period, came into contact with the Toltecs, living 

 north of them. Of the primitive population which erected the numerous monu- 

 mentsf of the region in question, history has no further knowledge than that 

 they were the possessors of a civilization far in advance of that of the races 

 which we are inclined to regard, as the aboriginal people of Mexico, though it 

 bore no resemblance to that of the northern Nahoas. 



As the Toltecs, after the fall of their dominion in Mexico, migrated to Giiate- 

 mala and Nicaragua, they probably pressed further south the populations which 

 then occupied those countries, and finally founded in Central America itself 

 several small kingdoms, traces of which are not yet extinct By late and very 

 competent inquirers the hypothesis has been advanced that the surprising con- 

 structions of Central America and Yucatan belong not to so early a period as is 

 commonly assumed, but are the work of later times, perhaps even of the civilized 

 Indian races which inhabited the land at the arrival of the Spaniards, or at least 

 of their immedia:e predecessors. The traveller, Stephens, and the skilful ob- 

 server, Brantz Mayer, have advanced, in support of this view, many weighty 

 and ingenious, considerations ; and I was myself inclined to adopt the opinion 

 that at least the migrating Toltecs, who had already earned so much distinction 

 as architects in their own country, should be regarded as the builders of these 

 remarkable monuments, thus assigning to them an age not more remote than the 

 twelfth century. But a more careful comparison of these remains with those of 

 undoubted Toltec origin, added to the recently ascertained fact that the hiero- 

 glyphic characters found on them bear not the least resemblance to the rest of 

 the picture-writing of Mexico, place it beyond all doubt that these monuments 

 belong to an earlier and, indeed, very ancient epoch.§ The traces of the mi- 



* On the history of Yucatan, see Cogolludo, Historia de V Yucatan, Madrid, 1688, fol. — ; 

 Fancourt, History of Yucatan from its discovery to the close of the 17th century, London, 



t The distinguished archeologist, G. E. Squier, goes so far as to derive the Toltecs from 

 Central America. 



t In Yucatan alone, thanks to the diligent researches of MM. Norman and Stephens, may 

 now be counted the rnins of fifty-four cities. The most remarkable are Uxmal, Chichen- 

 Itza, Maxcanu, Sacbey, Xampon, Sanacte, Chunhuhu, Labpakh, Iturbide, Mayapan, Ticul, 

 Nochacab, Xoch, Kabah, Sabatsche, Labna, Kenick, Izamal, Saccacal, Tekax, Akil, Mani, 

 Macoba, Becanchen, Peto in the interior. Tuiioom, Tancan, and the island Cozumel in the 

 east ; in Chiapas, Palenqu6, Utlatan, Ococingo ; in Guatemala, the ancient ruins of the 

 Quiches in the distiicts of Totonicam and Quesaltenango ; in Honduras, the monolithic 

 pyra;mids of Copan ; and quite in the east of the country, the old city of Olancho. 



§ For the history of Central America recourse may be had to the following writers : Aviles : 

 Historia de Guatemala, 1866. — Felaez : Memoria para la Historia del Antique Reyno de 

 Guatemala, 1852, 3 vols. — Villagutierre : Historia de la Conquista y Rendicion de varias 

 Provinciae del Reyno de Guatemala, Madrid, 1701, fol. ^-r. — Ximenes : Las Historias del 

 Origen de los Indios de esta Provincia de Guatemala, Traducidas dela lengua Qiiiche, Vienna, 

 1857 ; an excellent and most important work of my highly honored benefactor. Dr. C. v, 

 Sclierzer. Oersted, I' A7nerique Centrale, Kopenhague, lo63. — Eeichard: Nicaragua, BrsLun 

 schweig, 1854. — Reichard: Centra America, 1851. — Scherzer: Wanderungen Dusch die Mit 

 telamericanischen Freistaaten, Nicaragua, Honduras, undS. Salvador, Braunschweig, 1857.— 

 Squier: Nicaragua, its People, Scenery, Monuments, New York, 1852, 2 vols. — Squier 

 Notes on Central America, 'New York, 1855. — Squier: The Archeology and Ethnography q, 

 Nicaragua, (Transact. American Ethnol. Society, vol. Ill, 1852.)— Wagner and Scherzer 

 Die Republik Costa Rica, Leipsig, 1856. 



