298 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



M. "Warden, M. Charles Farcy, M. Baradere, and M. 

 De St. Priest. 



Lord Kingsborough's ponderous tomes, so far as re- 

 gards Palenque, are a mere reprint of Dupaix, and the 

 cost of his work is four hundred dollars per copy. Col- 

 onel Galindo's communications to the Geographical 

 Society of Paris are published in the work of Dupaix, 

 and since him Mr. Waldeck, with funds provided by 

 an association in Mexico, had passed two years among 

 the ruins. His drawings, as he states in a work on an- 

 other place, were taken away by the Mexican govern- 

 ment ; but he had retained copies, and before we set 

 out his work on Palenque was announced in Paris. It, 

 however, has never appeared, and in the mean time 

 Dupaix's is the text-book. 



I have two objections to make to this work, not affect- 

 ing Captain Dupaix, who, as his expedition took place 

 thirty-four years since, is not likely to be affected, if he 

 is even living, but his Paris editors. The first is the 

 very depreciating tone in which mention is made of the 

 work of his predecessor Del Rio, and, secondly, this 

 paragraph in the introduction : 



" It must be considered that a government only can 

 execute such undertakings. A traveller relying upon his 

 own resources cannot hope, whatever may be his intre- 

 pidity, to penetrate, and, above all, to live in those dan- 

 gerous solitudes ; and, supposing that he succeeds, it is 

 beyond the power of the most learned and skilful man 

 to explore alone the ruins of a vast city, of which he 

 must not only measure and draw the edifices still ex- 

 isting, but also determine the circumference and exam- 

 ine the remains, dig the soil and explore the subterra- 

 neous constructions. M. Baradere arrived within fifty 

 leagues of Palenque, burning with the desire of going 



