202 SCULPTURp; FROM PALENQUE. [CHAP. XIV. 



In one of the glass cases of the Museum I saw the huge skull 

 of the Megatherium, with the remains of other extinct fossil 

 animals found in Georgia a splendid donation presented by Mr. 

 Hamilton Couper. In another part of the room were objects of 

 antiquarian interest, and among the rest some sculptured stories 

 from the ruins of Palenque, inscribed with the hieroglyphic or 

 picture-writing of the Aborigines, with which Stephen s lively 

 work on Central America, and the admirable illustrations of 

 Catherwood, had made us familiar. The camp-chest of General 

 Washington, his sword, the uniform worn by him when he re 

 signed his commission, and even his stick, have been treasured 

 up as relics in this national repository. If the proposition lately 

 made in the public journals, to purchase Washington s country 

 residence and negro-houses at Mount Vernon, and to keep them 

 forever in the state in which he left them, should be carried 

 into effect, it would not only be a fit act of hero-worship, but in 

 the course of time this farm would become a curious antiquarian 

 monument, showing to after generations the state of agriculture 

 at the period when the Republic was founded, and how the old 

 Virginian planters and their slaves lived in the eighteenth century. 



Before leaving Washington we called, with Mr. Winthrop, at 

 the White House, the residence of the President. A colored 

 servant in livery came to the door, and conducted us to the re 

 ception-room, which is well-proportioned and well-furnished, not 

 in sumptuous style, but without any affectation of republican 

 plainness. We were politely received by Mrs. Polk, her hus 

 band being engaged on public business. I was afterward intro 

 duced to General Scott, to Captain Wilkes, recently returned 

 from his expedition to the South Seas, to Mr. Bancroft, Secretary 

 of the Navy, and called on our minister, Mr. Pakenham, and our 

 old friends, M. and Madame de Gerolt, the Prussian minister and 

 his wife. I also examined a fine collection of fossils belonging to 

 Mr. Markoe, who has taken an active part in founding an insti 

 tution here for the promotion of science arid natural history. The 

 day before our departure I had a long and agreeable conversation 

 with our ex-minister, Mr. Fox, whose sudden and unexpected 

 death happened a few months later. I told him that some En- 



