118 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Ruins of Quirigua.— Visit to them.— Los Amates.— Pyramidal Structure.— A 

 Colossal Head. — An Altar. — A Collection of Monuments. — Statues. — Charac- 

 ter of the Ruins. — A lost City.— Purchasing a ruined City. 



To recur for a moment to Mr. Catherwood, who, 

 during my absence, had not been idle. On reaching 

 Guatimala the first time from Copan, I made it my bu- 

 siness to inquire particularly for ruins. I did not meet 

 a single person who had ever visited those of Copan, and 

 but few who took any interest whatever in the antiqui- 

 ties of the country ; but, fortunately, a few days after 

 my arrival, Don Carlos Meiney, a Jamaica Englishman, 

 long resident in the country, proprietor of a large haci- 

 enda, and extensively engaged in mining operations, 

 made one of his regular business visits to the capital. 

 Besides a thorough acquaintance with all that concerned 

 his own immediate pursuits, this gentleman possessed 

 much general information respecting the country, and a 

 curiosity which circumstances had never permitted him 

 to gratify in regard to antiquities ; and he told me of 

 the ruins of Quirigua, on the Motagua River, near 

 Encuentros, the place at which we slept the second 

 night after crossing the Mico Mountain. He had never 

 seen them, and I hardly believed it possible they could 

 exist, for at that place we had made special inquiries for 

 the ruins of Copan, and were not informed of any oth- 

 ers. I became satisfied, however, that Don Carlos was 

 a man who did not speak at random. They were on 

 the estate of Senor Payes, a gentleman of Guatimala 

 lately deceased. He had heard of them from Senor 



