452 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



dent in that country, and professing to have visited 

 every part of it, says that " at this day there does not 

 remain the smallest vestige of any Indian building, 

 public or private, either in Mexico or any province 

 of New Spain." Robertson's informants w^ere prob- 

 ably foreign merchants resident in the city of Mex- 

 ico, whose travels had been confined to the beaten 

 road, and to places occupied by the Spaniards ; and 

 at that time the white inhabitants were in utter ig- 

 norance of the great cities, desolate and in ruins, 

 that lay buried in the forests. But at this day better 

 information exists ; vast remains have been brought 

 to hght, and the discoveries prove incontestably that 

 those histories which make no mention of these great 

 buildings are imperfect, those which deny their exist- 

 ence are untrue. The graves cry out for the old his- 

 torians, and the mouldering skeletons of cities con- 

 firm Herrera's account of Yucatan, that " there were 

 so many and such stately Stone Buildings that it 

 was Amazing ; and the greatest Wonder was that, 

 having no Use of any Metal, they were able to raise 

 such Structures, which seem to have been Temples, 

 for their Houses were all of Timber, and thatched." 

 And again, he says, that " for the Space of twenty 

 Years there was such Plenty throughout the Country, 

 and the People multiplied so much that Men said 

 the whole Province looked Uke one Town." 



These arguments then — the want of tradition, the 

 degeneracy of the people, and the alleged absence of 

 historical accounts — are not sufficient to disturb my 



