Forest and Stream 
$3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1912. 
VOL. LXX1X.—No. 8. 
127 Franklin St., New York. 
Through Unexplored Guerrero 
By PROF. WILLIAM NIVEN 
Chapter III.—Among the Mound Builders 
B ESIDES the great city, which I have just de¬ 
scribed, there is another section, several 
thousand acres in extent, rather thickly 
covered with small Indian villages of the modern 
tribes, and which is so studded with ancient 
mounds as to give the appearance of being a 
hilly country, when, as a matter of fact, it is 
a rolling mesa, or mountain slope. This section, 
totally different from all the other ruins of pre¬ 
historic Mexico, is the one-time home of the 
mound builders, quite probably a part of the 
mysterious tribe or tribes which left the serpen¬ 
tine mounds in the Ohio Valley and in other 
parts of the United States. 
Outside the northern Republic this one sec¬ 
tion of Guerrero contains the only trace of the 
mound builders found in the New World, and 
is in a much better state of preservation than 
the mounds of the United States. Into this sec¬ 
tion I determined to go on my next trip, and 
having completed my investigation of the ruins 
of Yerbabuena for Mr. Jesup, I struck out again, 
in 1896, for the land of the Misteca, the Amusgo 
and the Tlapaneco tribes, located many miles in 
the jungle-covered mountains southeast of Chil- 
pancingo. 
Horses and supplies were obtained at Iguala, 
on the Cuernavaca division of the National Rail¬ 
ways of Mexico, and Chilpancingo was reached 
after a two days’ ride over the mountains. Here 
we were hospitably received by the new Gover¬ 
nor, Col. Antonio Mesinario, who supplied me 
with an escort of troopers and gave me open 
letters of passage through his State. From here 
we went to Mochitlan, and thence onward to 
Zuechultenango, the first night out from Chil¬ 
pancingo, having spent some time in examining 
the ancient Spanish workings of a once-profit- 
able silver mine. 
The country traversed thus far was com¬ 
posed of well-watered valleys and cultivated 
ridges, every acre, almost, being planted to corn. 
The people were polite and hospitable and were 
curious to know what class of goods we had for 
sale, or if we intended giving a circus, as they 
had seen my tent strapped on one of the mules. 
When told that we were in search of the relics 
of the ancient mound builders, they brought us 
a number of stone beads, stone axes, chisels and 
similar imperishable utensils, but no pottery. In 
addition to this they pointed out a number of 
low and weather worn mounds in the midst of 
their villages, from which they declared great 
treasure had been taken in years past. They 
also added that further on were much larger and 
better preserved mounds, into which no excava¬ 
tions had been made. 
I determined to press on into the heart of 
the mound builders’ country, and next day passed 
Colotlupan, Telpoxtlahuaca and Tlanicuiluluco, 
reaching the town of Pazote late in the after¬ 
noon. There we secured a guide who could 
speak the language of the Tlapanecos, through 
whose country we were passing and who could 
speak little if any Spanish. We arrived at Mant- 
zentla in the evening, and finally were able to 
secure food for ourselves and animals, but the 
Indians were shy and did not seem to appreciate 
our visit, although no open opposition was made 
to our short stay among them. This is a barren, 
cheerless settlement. With the exception of the 
comisaria or combined jail and courthouse, all 
the buildings are round, about twelve feet in 
diameter, built of mud and thatched with wild 
grasses. These structures have no windows, and 
only one door, which is seldom opened; at least, 
we saw none opened during our stay in Mant- 
zentla. All in all this village reminded me much 
of descriptions I had read of the towns of the 
African natives, especially those of sections of 
the dark continent remotely removed from civili¬ 
zation. 
Acatapec was our next stopping place, a 
pueblo of about 500 houses, substantially built of 
stone, but with the same disregard for light and 
ventilation which we had noted at Mantzentla. 
Here we were greeted with the same closed doors 
and the same oppressive silence as at the previ¬ 
ous village, and the guide informed me that we 
were now in the heart of the Tlapaneco coun¬ 
try. There was a Government school here, and 
the teacher informed me that his brightest pupil, 
a full grown man, had been able to learn the 
Spanish alphabet only after three years’ hard 
and continuous study. The people are simple and 
taciturn in demeanor, with formal ceremonials 
for every performance of their daily lives. When 
friends salute, they touch each others’ hands 
without clasping them, and in this manner raise 
them to within a few inches of the lips of one 
HUGE STONE ARTIFACTS FOUND IN GUERRERO BY PROF. NIVEN. 
