AND VISIT TO CASAS GRANDES. 355 
decided by digging to the foundation, which I had 
not time to do. Several portions of the walls within 
the area, and in particular one midway between the 
most southwardly building and the one to the north, 
had fronts precisely like that on the Gila; their doors 
were similarly placed, and receded towards the top, 
and the same circular openings were seen in the upper 
partition walls. So much of the walls had washed 
away, that I could not trace the cavities where the 
beams were inserted, and hence was unable, as in the 
Gila edifice, to ascertain the number of stories, or how 
the beams were laid. Not a fragment of the wood 
forming the beams or lintels could be discerned. Many 
doorways remained; but the lintels being gone, the 
tops had crumbled away or fallen. 
Although these ruins are alluded to by many of 
the earlier as well as the recent writers on Mexico, I 
have been unable to find in any author an accurate or 
full description of them. I have been particularly de- 
sirous to see some early account, that I might know 
their appearance when first seen by the Spanish colo- 
nists, who traversed this country anterior to the year 
1600. Ribas, one of the earliest writers on the abori- 
ginal tribes, who has given the most minute details of 
the labors of the first missionaries, and the conversion 
of the several tribes of Central and Northern Mexico, 
says nothing of these remains, although he describes 
the nation that occupied the country where they are 
found, their manners, customs, religion, etc. I find, 
however, in Clavigero* a brief account, which that 
* History of Mexico. 8vo. ed. vol. i. p. 151. 
