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APPENDIX. 471 



of the handwriting), " promising all these things with the most 

 satisfactory guarantees. Saving you, sir, from any responsibil- 

 ity, we take it upon ourselves, since we are aware of your bad 

 state of health, and we suppose that you do not know of this fact" 

 (manuscript illegible), " on account of this master operation, 

 or whosoever is concerned in it, make this gentleman pay four 

 or five thousand dollars, to apply them to benevolent works, and 

 to the embellishment of this town, or else let him in no manner 

 take away with him any of the moulds of plaster of Paris he has 

 made and continues making. Indeed, if this treasure is ours, 

 and by right belongs to our town, why should it not be benefited 

 by it? 



" It is an honour to us, sir, to make a demand of this nature, 

 since we have not heard that any offer whatever has been made 

 at all about this undertaking up to this date. Let the visiters of 

 these ruins make moulds, drawings, &c, but let them also con- 

 tribute with sums proportionate to their operations. This is, sir, 

 if we are not mistaken, a business of a great speculation. The 

 persons concerned in this affair are men of importance. There- 

 fore we beg of you most earnestly, and in virtue of our legal 

 right, not to permit the removal of any of the said moulds of 

 plaster of Paris from this town without the said sums being 

 paid, grounded on the great utility that the extractors may de- 

 rive from it, as well as on the aforesaid offer made by Mr. Brown. 



" Santiago Froncoso, 

 " Bartolo Bravo, 

 " Miguel Castillo. 



" Palenque, October 15, 1840." 



" Don Santiago Froncoso having informed the governor that 

 he and two other inhabitants of that town have presented a me- 

 morial before you in regard to the removal of the antiquities of 

 the ruins at Palenque, his excellency consulted the departmental 

 junta on the subject, which junta answered by approving the pe- 

 tition, which copy I send you enclosed, with the decree of his ex- 

 cellency written under it, that you may cause it to be fulfilled. 

 I send you, likewise, two copies of the regulations for passports 

 for the archives of that subprefecture, with the object that the 



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