COPAN. ' 



there are many others which prove that here was formerly the seat of a great power and 

 a great population, civilised and considerably advanced in the arts, as is shown in the 

 various figures and building. 



" I endeavoured with all possible care to ascertain from the Indians, through the 

 traditions derived from the ancients *, what people lived here, or what they knew or 

 had heard from their ancestors concerning them. But they had no books relating to 

 their antiquities, nor do I believe that in all this district there is more than one, which 

 I possess. They say that in ancient times there came from Yucatan a great lord who 

 built these edifices, but that at the end of some years he returned to his native country, 

 leaving them entirely deserted. 



" And this is what appears most likely, for tradition says the people of Yucatan in 

 time past conquered the provinces of Uyajalf, Lacandon, Vera Paz, Chiquimula, and 

 Copan ; and it is certain that the Apay language which is spoken here is current and 

 understood in Yucatan and the aforesaid provinces. It appears also that the design of 

 these edifices is like that of those which the Spaniards first discovered in Yucatan and 

 Tobasco, where there were figures of bishops and armed men and crosses. And as such 

 things are found nowhere except in the aforesaid places, it may well be believed that 

 the builders of all were of the same nation." 



This description is such as might have been written by any intelligent visitor 

 within even the last few years. The edifices were evidently in a state of complete ruin, 

 and no mention is made of any roofed buildings or, in fact, of any buildings which 

 could have been used as habitations. It is clear from other parts of this letter that 

 Palacio was a very diligent and careful inquirer into all matters connected with the 

 history and customs of the Indians, yet the very vague story which he was able to 

 gather from the natives in the neighbourhood is no more than they would probably 

 have invented to account for the existence of the ruins, even had all connected tradition 

 died out. 



The MS. of Fuentes y Guzman is preserved in the city of Guatemala. I have 

 looked through a copy which is kept in the University Library in that city, but regret 

 to say that arrangements which I made to have certain passages copied were not carried 

 out, and I am not able to quote them textually. However, I have little hesitation in 

 stating that information given by Fuentes is frequently untrustworthy and his writings 

 of little value. 



Fuentes's description of Copan is so absurd and so directly contradicted by what can 

 still be seen on the spot that it has been long discredited, and is only worth quoting to 

 show where the errors of later writers have had their origin. 



The following is the account of the ruins of Copan given by Juarros in his History 



* " Saber, por la mcmoria derivada de los antiguos, que gente vivio alii, e que saben e oyeron de bus 

 antepasados." 



•j- TJyajal, probably Tyascd, the modern Flores, an island in tbo Lake of Pcten. 



