HISTORY OF, THE, SILE: 15 
of Guatemala, to Philip II, King of Spain, written at the city of Guatemala 
(now Antigua Guatemala) on March 8, 1576. In this letter Palacio gives 
a description of the ruins which he says were called Copan: 
“Near here, on the road to the city of San Pedro, in the first town within the 
province of Honduras, called Copan, are certain ruins and vestiges of a great popula- 
tion, and of superb edifices, of such skill that it appears they could never have been 
built by a people as rude as the natives of that province.”’! 
This letter clearly establishes the association of the name Copan with 
the group of ruins now known by that name, as early as the first generation 
after the Spanish Conquest, 1524-1576, but does not give any details as 
to its derivation or meaning. 
Fuentes y Guzman, who wrote more than a century later (1689), gives 
the meaning as “bridge”: “The word Copan signifies bridge. Outside this 
city are health-giving waters, and the famous river of the same name 
traverses it.’” 
Gordon suggests the meaning “Capital of Co” on the grounds that 
pan in the Maya language means banner, or, as used in names of cities, it 
was equivalent to capital.* Neither of these etymologies, however, appears 
entirely satisfactory: the first, though possible, is rather far-fetched, and 
the second largely begs the question, since it makes no attempt to translate 
the first half of the name. Indeed, there is considerable doubt as to whether 
the word is of Mayan origin at all. It is well-known that Nahua migrations 
swept down the west coast of Central America as far south as the Peninsula 
of Nicoya, Costa Rica, at a very early date, certainly long prior to the Span- 
ish Conquest; Copan, therefore, may be a Nahua place-name applied to the 
region, long subsequent to the occupation and abandonment of the site now 
known by that name. 
This hypothesis, moreover, has something more substantial in its favor 
than historical possibility. The particle pan in Nahuatl used as a suffix 
1Squier, 1860, pp. 88,91. Some of the earlier historians, Herrera, for example, made use of the contents of 
this letter, but took no notice of the part describing the ruins of Copan. The first to call attention to this im- 
portant early description of the site was Don Juan Bautista Munoz y Ferradis, a Spanish historian, who 
mentions the account in a report of 1785 (Brasseur de Bourbourg, 1866, p. 8). Four English translations of it, 
either in whole or in part, have been published: (1) Squier, 1858, pp. 242, 243, gives only the part describing 
the ruins; (2) Squier, 1860, pp. 88-97, gives the entire Spanish text as well as an English translation; (3) Mauds- 
lay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, pp. 5-7, gives the translation of the part describing the ruins only; (4) Gordon, 
1896, pp. 45-48, gives the Maudslay translation and the corresponding part of the Spanish text. In addition to 
the foregoing English translations it has been published in Spanish in Pacheco, 1866, tom. VI, pp. 37-39; in the 
Gaceta Oficial (of Honduras), tom. 6, numero 91, Nov. 11, 1868, pp. 1-4; in Fernandez, 1881, tom. 1, pp. I-52; 
and in Gordon, 1914; in French in Ternaux Compans, 1840, pp. 42-44; and in Nouce sur le Yucathan, 1843, 
tom. XCVII, pp. 38-40; and in German, Frantzius, 1873, pp. 1-62. 
Garcia de Palacio’s description, it will be found, is accurate and restrained, far more so, indeed, than that of 
Fuentes y Guzman (1689) given in Appendix V. It might almost, as Maudslay happily observes, “have been 
written by any intelligent visitor within even the last few years.’ (Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, <p. 7.) 
In spite of the fact that it has already been so generally and satisfactorily circulated, it has seemed advisable ., 
to republish the Squier-Maudslay translation here, because of the great importance of the account, as being P 
the first contemporary reference to the ruins known. (See Appendix IV.) 
2Fuentes y Guzman, 1689, p. 211. The second and third parts of this work have never been sibik ok See 
Appendix V for his complete account. 
3Gordon, 1899, p. 41. 
