194 RUINS AT PANUCO CHACUACO SAN NICOLAS. 



Panuco, an old town of the Huestecos, which is subject to occa- 

 sional inundation during the rainy season, is the only important set- 

 tlement above Tampico, on the Panuco river, and contains about 

 four thousand inhabitants. It is beautifully seated on the banks of 

 the stream, in the State of Vera Cruz, about thirty leagues from 

 Tampico by water and fifteen by land. In its vicinity, scattered 

 over an area of many miles, are ancient ruins, whose history is not 

 only entirely unknown to the inhabitants, but seems not to excite 

 their interest or curiosity. Mr. Norman could not discover the 

 slightest trace of a tradition on the subject amongst the neighboring 

 people, though he diligently sought it from every reliable source. 

 Several days were employed by him in explorations, and his toil 

 was occasionally rewarded by the discovery of strange and novel 

 objects. Among these was a handsome block or slab, seven feet in 

 length, one foot in thickness, and two and a half in average width. 

 \Jpon its surface was beautifully wrought, in bold relief, the full length 

 figure of a man in a loose robe, with a girdle about his loins, his 

 arms crossed on his breast, his head encased in a close cap or 

 casque somewhat resembling a helmet without the crest, while his 

 feet and ankles were bound with the thongs of sandals. The edges 

 of this block were ornamented with a plain raised border, about an 

 inch and a half square. The figure is that of a tall athletic man of 

 fine proportions, whose features are of the noblest class of the Euro- 

 pean or Caucasian race, and the execution of the sculpture was 

 equal to the very best that the traveller found among the wonderful 

 relics of the country. It was found lying on the side of a ravine, 

 resting upon the dilapidated walls of an ancient sepulchre, of w T hich 

 nothing now remains but a loose pile of hewn stones. It was more 

 than four feet beneath the present surface of the ground, and was 

 brought to light in the course of excavating which revealed a cor- 

 ner of the slab, and the loose adjacent stones that had been bared 

 by the rush of waters in the rainy season, while breaking a new and 

 deep channel to the river. The earth that covered the slab and 

 sepulchre had not been heaped by the hand of man ; but was the 

 natural accumulation of time, and many years must have been re- 

 quisite to bury it so deeply. 



Three leagues south of Panuco, there are other ancient Indian 

 remains which are known as the ruins of Chacuaco, and are repre- 

 sented as covering an area of three square leagues, all of which 

 were comprised within the bounds of a large city ; w T e should 

 mention also the ruins of San Nicolas, five leagues south-west ; and 



