Page:Mexico, Aztec, Spanish and Republican, Vol 2.djvu/224

194 Panuco, an old town of the Huestecos, which is subject to occasional inundation during the rainy season, is the only important settlement above Tampico, on the Panuco river, and contains about four thousand inhabitants. It is beautifully seated on the banks of the stream, in the State of Vera Cruz, about thirty leagues from Tampico by water and fifteen by land. In its vicinity, scattered over an area of many miles, are ancient ruins, whose history is not only entirely unknown to the inhabitants, but seems not to excite their interest or curiosity. Mr. Norman could not discover the slightest trace of a tradition on the subject amongst the neighboring people, though he diligently sought it from every reliable source. Several days were employed by him in explorations, and his toil was occasionally rewarded by the discovery of strange and novel objects. Among these was a handsome block or slab, seven feet in length, one foot in thickness, and two and a half in average width. Upon its surface was beautifully wrought, in bold relief, the full length figure of a man in a loose robe, with a girdle about his loins, his arms crossed on his breast, his head encased in a close cap or casque somewhat resembling a helmet without the crest, while his feet and ankles were bound with the thongs of sandals. The edges of this block were ornamented with a plain raised border, about an inch and a half square. The figure is that of a tall athletic man of fine proportions, whose features are of the noblest class of the European or Caucasian race, and the execution of the sculpture was equal to the very best that the traveller found among the wonderful relics of the country. It was found lying on the side of a ravine, resting upon the dilapidated walls of an ancient sepulchre, of which nothing now remains but a loose pile of hewn stones. It was more than four feet beneath the present surface of the ground, and was brought to light in the course of excavating which revealed a corner of the slab, and the loose adjacent stones that had been bared by the rush of waters in the rainy season, while breaking a new and deep channel to the river. The earth that covered the slab and sepulchre had not been heaped by the hand of man; but was the natural accumulation of time, and many years must have been requisite to bury it so deeply.

Three leagues south of Panuco, there are other ancient Indian remains which are known as the ruins of Chacuaco, and are represented as covering an area of three square leagues, all of which were comprised within the bounds of a large city; we should mention also the ruins of San Nicolas, five leagues south-west; and