TESTIMONY OF THE HISTORIANS. 451 



that even if this allegation were true, the argument 

 would be unsound, for it goes to deny that such cit- 

 ies ever existed at all Now there can be no doubt as 

 to the fact of their existence ; and as it is never pre- 

 tended that they were erected since the conquest, 

 they must be allowed to have been standing at that 

 time. Whether erected by the Indians or by races 

 perished and unknown, whether desolate or inhabit- 

 ed, beyond all question the great buildings were 

 there ; if not entire, they must at least have been 

 far more so than they are now ; if desolate, perhaps 

 more calculated to excite wonder than if inhabited ; 

 and in either case the alleged silence of the histo- 

 rian would be equally inexplicable. 



But the allegation is untrue. The old historians 

 are not silent. On the contrary, we have the glow- 

 ing accounts of Cortez and his companions, of sol- 

 diers, priests, and civilians, all concurring in repre- 

 sentations of existing cities, then in the actual use 

 and occupation of the Indians, with buildings and 

 temples, in style and character like those presented 

 in these pages. Indeed, these accounts are so glow- 

 ing that modern historians, at the head of whom 

 stands Robertson, have for that reason thrown dis- 

 credit over them, and ascribed them to a heated im- 

 agination. To my mind, they bear on the face of 

 them the stamp of truth, and it seems strange that 

 they have been deemed worthy of so httle reliance. 

 But Robertson wrote upon the authority of corre- 

 spondents in New Spain, one of whom, long resi- 



