A PENKNIFE. 



343 



cured, the discovery of these proves intercourse with 

 the volcanic regions of Mexico. But, besides these, 

 and more interesting and important than all, on the 

 top of these arrow-heads lay a penknife with a horn 

 handle. All these the cura had in his possession, 

 carefully preserved in a bag, which he emptied on 

 a table for our examination ; and, as may be suppo- 

 sed, interesting as the other memorials were, the 

 penknife attracted our particular attention. The 

 horn handle was much decayed, and the iron or 

 steel was worn and rusted. This penknife was nev- 

 er made in the country. How came it in an In- 

 dian sepulchre 1 I answer, when the fabrics of Eu- 

 rope and this country came together, the white man 

 and the red had met. The figures carved on the 

 shells, those little perishable memorials, accidentally 

 disinterred, identify the crumbling bones in that 

 sepulchre with the builders of Chichen, of those mys- 

 terious cities that now lie shrouded in the forest; and 

 those bones were laid in their grave after a penknife 

 had found its way into the country. Speculation 

 and ingenuity may assign other causes, but, in my 

 opinion, the inference is reasonable, if not irresistible, 

 that at the time of the conquest, and afterward, the 

 Indians were actually living in and occupying those 

 very cities on whose great ruins we now gaze with 

 wonder. A penknife — one of the petty presents dis- 

 tributed by the Spaniards — reached the hands of a 

 cacique, who, far removed from the capital, died in 

 his native town, and was buried with the rites and 



