32 MEXICAN HISTORY AND ARC HiEOLO'G Y. 



No. 1 was drawn by me from the original in sandstone, which I found in Mexico 

 in 1842, in the fine collection of the Conde del Penasco. Archaeologists who are 

 familiar with the style of images found among Aztec remains, in the Valley of 

 Mexico, as well as with the same class of objects from Yucatan, Tabasco, and else- 

 where in that quarter, will at once observe their difference from the images repre- 

 sented in the plate. Grotesque and hideous as they are, they seem to possess, in 

 the symmetrical arrangement of the designs, and in their originality, many more 

 elements of art than are found in the images of the Aztec or Maya tribes. I have 

 introduced them here for the purpose of hinting that, in all the Zapotec remains of 

 architecture and ornament that have come down to us, we find traces of rather 

 more inventive talent and taste than among the other aboriginal tribes with which 

 we are acquainted. 1 



About a league northeasterly from the ruins of Mitla, Mr. Sawkins visited the 

 remains of the Zapotec fortification which he has represented in Plate No. 4. A 

 steep, isolated hill, about three hundred feet high, with a base nearly a league in 

 extent,* rises in this spot and commands the whole plain. The broad, oval summit, 

 whose greatest diameter is about six hundred feet, is reached with difficulty from 

 all sides except the southern. By this approach, the entrance or gateway is 

 attained in a wall about six feet thick and eighteen high. The plate shows the 

 character of the works, which contain a second or inner wall, as is seen in the 

 rear of the first behind the gateway; while in the interior, are the remains of three 

 edifices, which were probably intended for the barracks of the defenders. Two of 

 these buildings are on the southern side, overlooking the approach by the gateway, 

 while the remaining one is placed towards the east. It seems from the heaps of 

 piled stones, still to be seen by modern travellers, and from the huge masses of 

 isolated rock found by Mr. Sawkins and represented in his sketch, that these were 

 the principal weapons with which the defenders protected themselves against 

 assailants. How the possessors of this ancient fortress supplied themselves with 

 water, on the top of an abrupt, isolated hill of 300 feet elevation, we are not yet 

 informed by any explorers. It is stated by some travellers that several thousand 

 men might have gathered for protection within these walls ; but it may well be 

 doubted whether the structure was ever designed for anything but a temporary 

 refuge in times of extreme danger, when the plain had been invaded and ravaged. 



I have now completed a catalogue of such architectural remains in Mexico as 

 have become known to us, either by personal observation or the reports of travellers. 

 If we proceed southward, beyond Yucatan and Chiapas, and pass throughout the 

 various states of what is geographically known as " Central America," we find, in 

 all of them, innumerable images and vessels, and fewer monumental or architectural 



1 The only other ornamental remains possessing nearly equal claims to symmetrical design, are 

 represented in some Peruvian ruins near Truxillo, South America. See Rivero and Yon Tsclindi. 



