HOUSE OF THE GOVERNOR. 



429 



excavation in this platform, from the impression that 

 underneath would be found a vault, forming part of the 

 immense reservoirs for supplying the city with water. 



In the centre of the platform, at a distance of two 

 hundred and five feet from the border in front, is a range 

 of stone steps more than a hundred feet broad, and thir- 

 ty-five in number, ascending to a third terrace, fifteen 

 feet above the last, and thirty-five feet from the ground, 

 about equal to the height of the City Hall, which, being 

 elevated on a naked plain, formed a most commanding 

 position. The erection of these terraces alone was an 

 immense work. On this third terrace, with its principal 

 doorway facing the range of steps, stands the noble 

 structure of the Casa del Gobernador. The fagade 

 measures three hundred and twenty feet. Away from 

 the region of dreadful rains, and the rank growth of 

 forest which smothers the ruins of Palenque, it stands 

 with all its walls erect, and almost as perfect as when 

 deserted by its inhabitants. The whole building is of 

 stone, plain up to the moulding that runs along the tops 

 of the doorway, and above filled with the same rich, 

 strange, and elaborate sculpture, among which is par- 

 ticularly conspicuous the ornament before referred to as 

 la grecque. There is no rudeness or barbarity in the de- 

 sign or proportions ; on the contrary, the whole wears 

 an air of architectural symmetry and grandeur ; and as 

 the stranger ascends the steps and casts a bewildered eye 

 along its open and desolate doors, it is hard to believe 

 that he sees before him the work of a race in whose 

 epitaph, as written by historians, they are called igno- 

 rant of art, and said to have perished in the rudeness 

 of savage life. If it stood at this day on its grand artifi- 

 cial terrace in Hyde Park or the Garden of the Tuil- 

 eries, it would form a new order, I do not say equal- 



