IVes^ American Scientist. ijo 



course, everywhere and also other species of Hga with white flowers. 

 A very remarkable plant is candeia with scarlet flowers; its stem, 

 about two feet hi^h, branches near the base into several other 

 stems running parallel to each other; it is more milky than even 

 liga and emits a htrong, fetid odor. A few buckeyes I have seen 

 north of San Andreas, though they are not so numerous as near 

 Blanco Bay. 



In the last named bay an officer of our vessel made a startling 

 discovery. He went on shore and on his return asked me if I 

 remarked there, not far from the beach, a cubical rock, about 

 seven feet high, covered with some kind of hieroglyphic inscrip- 

 tions. Stating that I did not see it, he handed me a copy of the 

 hieroglyphics and requested me to decipher them, if possible. 

 As we left Blanco Bay early that day, so I had no opportunity to 

 go ashore and investigate the rock. I tried, however, my best to 

 decipher the copy, in which I partly succeeded, though I would 

 not vouch for the correctness of the translation. The words are 

 as follows: 



''Rising sun drives perpetually Iztac Mixcoatl, the spirit of the 

 tornado, which (that is Iztac) strikes with flint and devours four 

 moons; Mixcoatl' s one eye visible in clouds (that I, Mixcoatl, 

 slowly perishes)." 



There are a few things in this inscription which will strike the 

 reader of this as they strike me. First of all, how is it that the 

 name of Iztac-Mixcoatl came to be mentioned on the rock of 

 Lower California? We know that Iztac in the Toltec mythology 

 is the white-cloud serpent, the spirit of the tornado. He created 

 the world and he was overcome by Tezcatlipoca, the spirit of the 

 night. Some of his symbols were the cross and the flint, and 

 both of these symbols are engraved on the rock in Blanco Bay. 



Now, about the four moons. There is a tradition in Mexico 

 that Mixcoatl in his struggle with the sun had devoured four 

 moons, but finally perished in clouds. Now, on the rock I men- 

 tioned we have the same story repeated again. It is, in reality, a 

 very curious coincidence. 



But all this, coincidence or no coincidence, will not explain to 

 us what the Toltecs had to do with Lower California. It will, 

 perhaps, not be explained, but it will give us something to think 

 of We know that in time immemorial the Indian tribes began to 

 invade the valley of Anahuac, coming from some unknown 

 northern(?) country. The Toltecs. Chichimecs and Aztecs and 

 many others were pouring into Mexico from time to time and 

 conquering each other. The Toltecs as they mysteriously came, 

 so mysteriously they perished, leaving behind them the magnifi- 

 cent but broken fragments of their ancient civilization; they prob- 

 ably dispersed in Central America, but where were their original 

 dwelling places is unknown. Perhaps, after all, Lower California 

 was the cradle, the origin of their nation. Maurice Lopatecki- 



