DESCRIPTION OF COPAN BY GALINDO. 595 
there remain no tangible traces whatever. Its destruction must be attributed to 
an horrible convulsion of the world, to plagues, hunger, to a barbarous invasion 
of the extremities of the continent, or perhaps to an uprising of the slaves. The 
colonies, or remains of this primitive civilization, having passed to the eastern 
coast of Asia, prepared the enlightenment of Japan and of China, and this primitive 
civilization, although dispersed, likewise left traces for the second. 
The Chinese, Hindus, Persians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians all were very much 
alike in their character and other characteristics, which indicates a common origin 
which may be looked for in America, and perhaps the Sanskrit language originates 
in this continent. America lapsed into barbarism, and one century after the destruc- 
tion of Rome by the barbarians of the North, there appeared from our northern 
region the Toltecs, bringing with them some enlightenment and a partial civiliza- 
tion, and who settled around Anahuac and founded an empire. Later on the Incas 
of Peru endeavored to revive the old American civilization. 
The Toltecs came imbued with the remembrances of the first epoch of enlight- 
enment which the ancients perhaps left on their journey toward the west. Their 
conquests and the colonies of the Toltecs were extended to Central America; they 
mixed their language and customs with those already existing in these regions and 
formed several states. 
From the analogy of their language, writing, and places where sacrifices were 
made, it is deduced that Copan originated from a Toltec colony, and that its king 
dominated the country extending to the east of that of the Mayas, or Yucatan, 
reaching from the Gulf of Honduras almost to the Pacific Ocean, and comprising 
an area of over 10,000 square miles, at present included in the modern States of 
Guatemala, Honduras, and Salvador. 
Throughout this extent of land the Chorti language was spoken and is still 
spoken, and from these and other data it is inferred that the peoples of Cuagini- 
quilapa, Los Esclavos, Quesaltepeque, San Jacinto, Santa Elena, San Estéban, 
San Juan Ermita or del Rio, Jocotan, Camotan, San José, Chimalapa, Sacapa, and 
San Pablo, in the State of Guatemala, formed a part of this empire. Chiquimula 
and Esquipulas were governed by subordinate princes of the King of Copan. In 
Honduras, Omoa, the mineral district of San Andrés, Sensenti, Ocotepeque, Tipalpa, 
La Brea, and other places were comprised in their dominions. In Salvador the 
same empire comprised Texis, Dulce Nombre, Metapas, Tejutla, and Sitala. 
The large city of Copan, Copante, or Copantli was the capital of the nation 
and residence of the monarch, being situated at 14° 45’ north latitude and 90° 52’ 
west longitude from Greenwich.! This city is built on the right bank of the river 
of the same name, extending along said river a distance of over a mile and a half 
(see map No. 1).2. Hills and mounds of unwrought quarried stones indicate the 
site of the city and of the principal buildings, all of which have fallen. In all that 
place there are found obelisks, some standing and many lying on the ground, 
wrought tables, busts, and several fragments of statuary and earthenware. 
The principal and highest building was the temple (see plan No. 2), built at 
the eastern end of the city and perpendicular to the bank of the river. They used 


1Galindo’s latitude is approximately correct, but his longitude is more than 160 kilometers too far west. A longi- 
tude of go° 52’ west would locate Copan in the western part of Guatemala, not far from Santa Cruz Quiché. See 
age I, note I. 
Ke 2As already noted at the beginning of this Appendix, all the illustrations, maps, and drawings in Galindo’s 
report had been removed therefrom before it came into Gates’s hands in 1918. The writer suspects that the “ten 
drawings well enough executed,” mentioned in Galindo, 1836, p. 268 (see page 19, note 1), and seen by Hamy as 
as late as 1886 in the archives of the Société de Géographie at Paris, are some of the original illustrations of this 
report, or at least duplicates thereof, which Galindo himself sent to France. The numbers, which follow, are 
Galindo’s references to his own illustrations, now unfortunately separated from his report. 
