322 RUINS OF QUEMADA. 



the addition of sloping walls to give it a pyramidal form. It is flat 

 topped, and on the centre of its southern face there appears to have 

 been steps to ascend to its summit. The second is a square altar, 

 its height and base being each about sixteen feet. These buildings 

 are surrounded at no great distance by a strong wall, and at a quar- 

 ter of a mile to the northward, advantage is taken of a precipice to 

 construct another wall of twelve feet in width from its brink. On 

 a small flat space between this and the pyramid are the remains of 

 an open square edifice, to the southward of which are two long 

 mounds of stone, each extending about thirty feet ; and to the north- 

 east is another ruin, having large steps up its side. I should con- 

 ceive the highest wall of the citadel to be three hundred feet above 

 the plain, and the base rock surmounts it by about thirty feet more. 



" The whole place in fact, from its isolated situation, the disposi- 

 tion of its defensive walls, and the favorable figure of the rock must 

 have been impregnable to Indians ; and even European troops would 

 have found great difficulty in ascending those works which we have 

 ventured to name the Citadel. There is no doubt that the greater 

 mass of the nation who once dwelt here must have been established 

 on the plain beneath, since from the summit of the rock we could 

 distinctly trace three straight and very extensive causeways diver- 

 ging from that over which we first passed. The most remarkable 

 of these roads runs south-west for two miles, is forty-six feet in 

 width, and crossing the grand causeway is continued to the foot of 

 the cliff immediately beneath the cave which I have described. Its 

 more distant extreme is terminated by a high and long artificial 

 mound immediately beyond the river toward the hacienda of La 

 Quemada. We could trace the second road south and south-west 

 to a small rancho named Cayotl, about four miles distant, and the 

 third ran south-west by south still farther, ceasing, as the country 

 people informed us, at a mountain six miles distant. All these roads 

 have been slightly raised, were paved with rough stones, still visible 

 in many places above the grass, and were perfectly straight. 



" From the flatness of the fine plain over which they extended, I 

 cannot conceive them to have been constructed as paths, since the 

 people who walked barefoot and used no beasts of burden, must 

 naturally have preferred the smooth earthen foot-ways which pre- 

 sented themselves on every side, to these roughly paved roads. If 

 this be admitted, it is not difficult to suppose that they were the 

 centres of streets whose huts constructed of the same kind of frail 

 materials as those of the present day, must long since have disap- 

 peared. Many places on the plain are thickly strewn with stones 



