of the gods and that when the Spanish conquerors appeared 
upon the scene these groups with the exception of the 
Aztects and Inca had passed the zenith of their cultural 
development. The great Maya cities were abandoned and 
in ruins and the story forgotten by the degenerate genera- 
tions of that people. 
The story of the rise and fall of this civilization 
is recorded in the traces left upon the various occupied 
sites and archeology has the reading of this record as 
one of its greatest and most fascinating undertakings. 
Beginning with the data already accumulated, the visible 
traces of material culture and the history of man in general 
as our guide we ved by conjecture to grasp the subject 
and blaze the way for the researches which are to further 
lift the veil drawn by time and the elements. - It is thus 
we bring every clue to bear and determine the available 
course of research. 
