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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



side, as it was found, there was no carving ; but the under side, 

 which was hidden in the ground, displayed numerous carvings. 

 Both stones were exhumed. The first was taken to the Royal 

 University ; the second remained for some time where it was 

 found, but was placed in a proper vertical position, so that one 

 could note readily all that was engraved upon it. As soon as I 

 saw it I was filled with delight at having found in it a faithful tes- 

 timonial, which proved what I had written with the cost of so 

 much labor and study in regard to the system of Mexican calen- 

 dars, and against the false hypotheses with which some have con- 

 fused and disfigured their works while pretending to explain the 

 history of the Indians, which things I have demonstrated in my 

 Indian chronology, and have pointed out the most notable errors 

 of former writers in this work. 



As I had been engaged for some time in making examinations 

 of the manuscripts of the Indians in the Mexican idiom, as well as 

 of the narratives of our own Spanish histories, together with the 

 picture-writings in my possession, cited in that work, it was easy 

 for me to comprehend what was the signification of the carvings 

 and figures engraved upon this second stone, bringing to my mind 

 by its means all the images which we find so confused, dispersed 

 and mutilated, in the writings of the Indians themselves, and in no 

 manner explained by Spanish authors. ' And although I succeeded 

 at the cost of great labor in comprehending others which had not 

 previously been brought to my notice, still there remain some of 

 their figures, whose hieroglyphics involve too many allegorical sig- 

 nifications to be entirely interpreted. 



On account of its being exposed to the public and without any 

 care, it was difficult to prevent puerile and rustic people from muti- 

 lating and maltreating it, and injuring the carvings with stones and 

 other instruments much more than it had suffered up to the time 

 of raising it, so that before they should injure it more we could 

 dispose of it in a different manner than at first intended. I caused 

 to be made, under my supervision, an exact copy of it, to be kept 

 in my possession as an original monument of antiquity, and I drew 

 up a few annotations in regard to what the carvings meant. But 

 having communicated them to several persons, curious in such 



