HISTORY* OF (THE? SITE. 21 
of Fuentes y Guzman, but at the same time succeeded in investing the 
ruins with an even greater charm and mystery, all the more remarkable 
because he told the truth. Although he missed the real significance of much 
that he saw, for example, failing to recognize in the overgrown mounds the 
remains of fallen buildings, and although he was unable to decipher the 
hieroglyphic inscriptions, that discovery being reserved for another genera- 
tion, Stephens acutely gauged the importance of what he saw and left behind 
him a vivid and glowing description of its wonders, which will stimulate 
research in this field for all time. 
After the visit of Stephens there appears to have been no important 
original contribution to the knowledge of the site for nearly 40 years. 
Bancroft, in his Native Races of the Pacific States, gives a description of Copan 
based chiefly on that of Stephens, and in an accompanying bibliography he 
notes the names of several visitors, none of whom, however, seems to have left 
behind any important contribution to the Gterature of the site. 
In 1877 a German engineer, Meye, visited Copan and made drawings 
of a few of the principal sculptures, as well as the map of the site already 
mentioned. ‘These were published with an introductory text by Dr. Julius 
Schmidt, which contains little essential information not already given by 
Stephens and much that might better have been omitted. It lacks the 
interest of Stephens and the accuracy of later writers. Meye’s drawings 
are equally unsatisfactory. Only five of the stele are figured (A, D, N, F, 
and H) and three of the independent altars (U, Q, and T). No one of these 
is complete, and in all cases the faces showing the inscriptions have been 
omitted. Moreover, he has failed signally to catch the spirit of the originals, 
and for all purposes Catherwood’s drawings, although made nearly 40 
years earlier, are far better.’ 
The first intensive study of Copan was made by the English explorer, 
Alfred P. Maudslay, in 1885. Four years earlier, in January 1881, he had 
spent three days at the site, on “a journey of curiosity,” and was so impressed 
with what he saw that he was induced to undertake its scientific investiga- 
tion. His own words clearly set forth the happy chance which resulted in 
the inauguration of this important research, and they are quoted below: 
“‘My first journey through the Central-American forests in search of the ruins 
of ancient Indian towns, during the winter of 1882—83* [1880-1881], was merely 

1Bancroft, 1882, vol. Iv, pp. 78-81. Squier gives but scant notice to Copan, simply stating that important 
aboriginal remains are found there. (Squier, 1858, pp. 241, 242, and 1855, p. 133.) Scherzer was deterred from vis- 
iting the ruins in 1856 by the padre of Santa Rosa, who told him a recent landslip had much injured their appear- 
ance. (Scherzer, 1857, vol. 11, pp. 86, 87, 94,95.) Brasseur de Bourbourg says a French Jesuit, Cornette, visited 
the site in September of the same year (Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1857-1859, vol. 1, p. 96, note 3); and in the same 
work (vol. 11, p. 493, note 2) mentions having seen plans and drawings of Copan and other Maya cities by a French 
architect, M. César Daly, which the latter intended to publish in the Revue Générale de l’Architecture, which does 
not appear to have been done. Bancroft mentions additional slight information given before the American 
Ethnological Society in February 1860 by a Mr. Center, and in April 1862 by a Mr. Hardcastle, the latter based on 
original notes gathered during a sojourn of several weeks at the ruins. Brasseur de Bourbourg himself visited 
Copan twice, once in 1863 and again in 1866, but made only brief allusions to the ruins in his writings (18674, tom. 
ii, pp. 298-311). Finally, in addition to the foregoing, there are a number of second-hand descriptions based 
upon the accounts of Juarros, Galindo, and Stephens, chiefly the last, which contain little or no new information. 
2See Schmidt, 1883. 
8This is probably an error for the winter of 1880-1881, as he states elsewhere, several times, that he first visited 
Copan and Quirigua in January 1881. 
