Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/363

Rh civilisations stood to one another has not yet found a generally accepted solution. Working in the light which anthropology, ethnology, archæology, and kindred modern sciences afford, many valuable facts have been recently discovered and the investigations still proceeding, yearly contribute highly specialised knowledge to the sum of what the early Spanish writers amassed but failed to scientifically classify. But with all this, the path through the American historical labyrinth remains a tortuous one: whether the Toltecs preceded the Mayas and brought into Yucatan the high civilisation of which noble remains attest the existence, or whether this civilisation was of Maya origin and afterwards spread towards the north, influencing the Toltecs, are questions on which various opinions are held by modern investigators. I incline to accept the latter theory, but while such learned authorities are still at variance, it were presumption for a mere student of early American history to present conclusions.

In this brief summary of such a large subject, I have sought to furnish the general reader with an intelligible explanation of the origins and history of the civilisation which Cortes beheld when first he visited Mexico.