112 
PROCEEDINGS OF 
[Sept. 
The following communication from Mr. Brantz Mayer, of Baltic 
timore, appointed, by the Government, Secretary of the United 
States Legation to Mexico, was read. After discussion upon its con¬ 
tents, it was agreed to refer the letter, for answer, to the Corres¬ 
ponding Secretary; the subject to be resumed at a future period when 
the Institution might be better prepared to act upon its interesting 
suggestions and offer. 
Washington, September 11, 1841. 
Francis Markoe, Jr., Esq., 
Corresponding Secretary of the National Institution. 
My Dear Sir : Having recently received from our Government an appointment 
which will connect me with the embassy to Mexico, and oblige me to reside in that 
country perhaps for some time, it has struck me that I may be able to render some 
services to your Institution, by endeavoring to collect objects, either of curiosity or 
scientific value. 
Independently of the natural desire, which, as Americans, we should all possess, 
to gather the perishing records of the people who have inhabited our continent be¬ 
fore the Spanish conquest, there has been a recent stimulant given to our wishes, by 
the valuable work, which is the result of Mr. Stevens’s toilsome travels in Central 
America and part of Mexico. That distinguished gentleman certainly deserves the 
highest admiration from his fellow-citizens, for his laborious exertions ; but, neces¬ 
sarily pressed for time, and frequently worn down by the climate and harassing 
journeys, both he and his able auxiliary, Mr. Catherwood, were enabled to do little 
more than, as it were, remove the dust which had accumulated for ages on a few 
of the forgotten cities and nations of the South. Our curiosity has been but ex¬ 
cited and tantalized, not completely gratified; but the indefatigable travellers have 
the satisfaction of knowing that they have awakened the interest, not only of the 
inhabitants of those very countries, to the riches which they scarcely were aware they 
possessed; but also, that they have created in Europe, and among us, a strong de¬ 
sire to obtain, either some of the monuments themselves, or such casts or copies as 
may be most conveniently transported. 
By this means will the history of these neglected cities, over which the forest 
has been suffered to grow and decay for centuries, be placed within the skilful re¬ 
sources of industrious persons, and we may confidently cherish the hope that Ame¬ 
rican ingenuity, now proverbial throughout the world, will not be withheld from 
the interpretation of the hieroglyphics with which these antiquities are covered, 
and that our country will before long contain Champollions as competent to decy¬ 
pher the story of our own continent, as those who have devoted themselves in Eu¬ 
rope to the interpretation of Egyptian history. 
Your reading has, doubtless, made you familiar with the extent to which Euro¬ 
pean scholars have pushed their inquiries upon this subject, (and with as small be¬ 
ginnings,) and shown you how Sir. J. G. Wilkinson in England, the French savans, 
and Rossellini, under the Tuscan commission, have laid open, not only much of the 
political history of the Egyptian dynasties, but also revealed the arts, manufacto= 
