MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY. 15 



Quitting the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and penetrating the old northern 

 territories of New Spain, we find, for the first time in our southern progress, the 

 remains which have become so generally known in Spanish, as the "Casas Geandes," 

 or Large Houses ; all of which are probably ruins of villages and towns occupied 

 by the aboriginal tribes described by Castaneda, in the expedition of Francisco 

 Vasquez de Coronado, in 1541, in search of the rich cities which had been reported 

 to exist in those northern regions. The accounts of Castaneda and of modern 

 travellers, coincide as to the character of architecture, ground-plans, and general 

 purposes of the remains ; and it is here that we see perpendicular walls, another 

 evidence of an improved degree of civilization. The houses were not built of stones, 

 but of adobes, or sun-dried bricks; and, as the natives had no lime, they substituted 

 for it a mixture of earth, coals, and ashes. Some of these houses were four stories 

 high, while their interiors were reached by ladders from the outside, so as to render 

 the external, doorless walls, protections against enemies in the wars which seem to 

 have been almost constantly occurring. The village of Acuco, described by the 

 Spanish writers as lying between Cibola and Tiguex, was built on top of a perpen- 

 dicular rock, which could only be ascended by three hundred steep steps cut in the 

 stone, and clambering eighteen feet more by the aid of simple holes or grooves in 

 the precipice. The tribes are spoken of as agricultural and warlike, nor does it 

 seem that they had advanced further in social progress than by constructions for 

 defence and comfort, of a superior character to those of the tribes beyond the waters 

 of the Rio Grande. The fact is established, by Coronado's expedition, says Mr. 

 Gallatin, that "at the time of the conquest by Cortez, there was, northwardly, at 

 the distance of eight hundred or one thousand miles from the city of Mexico, a 

 collection of Indian tribes in a state of semi-civilization, intermediary between that 

 of the Mexicans and the social state of any other aborigines." 1 



Moving southward, we enter the present actual territory of the Mexican Repub- 

 lic, and encounter the first remarkable architectural remains of antiquity in the 

 State of Zacatecas, on an eminence called the " Cerro de los Eclificios," or Hill of 

 the Buildings, situated about twelve leagues southwest from the city of Zacatecas, 

 about one league north of La Quemada, and in the neighborhood of 22 i° north lati- 

 tude, at an elevation of 7,406 feet above the sea. Clavigero speaks of Chico-mozoc, 

 or Chico-comoc, a sojourning place of the Aztecs in their southward emigration, 

 and inclines to the belief that these remains are the relics of their provisional archi- 

 tecture. A very full account of the ruins is given in Captain Lyons's travels in 

 Mexico, and another in Nebel's "Voyage Pittoresque et Archceologique," in which the 

 walls, squares, pyramids, terraces, roads, pavements, &c, are described and partially 

 delineated. The site of the remains seems to have been the citadel, fortress, or 

 defensive portion of a settlement which was spread out extensively over the adja- 

 cent plain. The northern side of the hill rises by an easy slope from the plain, 

 and is guarded by a double wall and a kind of bastion ; while on the other sides, 



1 See Castaneda, Voyage a Cibola, Paris, 1838. Am. Eth. Soc. Trans., Vol. II, p. Ixxxiii of intro- 

 duction. Mr. Gallatin of course means the "social state of any other" northern "aborigines." See, 

 also, Mr. "Bartlett's Personal Narrative," in relation to the North Mexican remains. 



