OF THE BUILDERS OF THESE CITIES. 445 



by a stranger, and some of them, perhaps, never look- 

 ed upon by the eyes of a white man. Invohmtarily 

 we tm*n for a moment to the frightful scenes of which 

 this now desolate region must have been the thea- 

 tre ; the scenes of blood, agony, and wo which pre- 

 ceded the desolation or abandonment of these cities. 

 But, leaving the boundless space in which imagina- 

 tion might rove, I confine myself to the considera- 

 tion of facts. If I may be permitted to say so, in 

 the whole history of discoveries there is nothing to 

 be compared with those here presented. They give 

 an entirely new aspect to the great Continent on 

 which we live, and bring up with more force than 

 ever the great question which I once, with some hes- 

 itation, undertook to consider : Who were the build- 

 ers of these American cities 1 



My opinion on this question has been fully and 

 freely expressed, " that they are not the works of 

 people who have passed away, and whose history 

 is lost, but of the same races who inhabited the coun- 

 try at the time of the Spanish conquest, or of some 

 not very distant progenitors." Some were probably 

 in ruins, but in general I believe that they were oc- 

 cupied by the Indians at the time of the Spanish in- 

 vasion. The grounds of this behef are interspersed 

 throughout these pages ; they are interwoven with so 

 many facts and circumstances that I do not recapit- |^ 

 ulate them; and in conclusion I shall only refer brief- 

 ly to those arguments which I consider the strongest 

 that are urged against this belief. 



38 



