Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/425

Rh their independence in 1776, which was acknowledged in 1783. In 1807 the connection between Portugal and Brazil was virtually dissolved, the royal family abandoning Europe, and taking refuge in America. The rising in the Spanish possessions began soon after in Buenos Ayres, Venezuela, and Chili. Mexico revolted in 1810, and secured its independence in 1821. The other states followed at various intervals, Bolivia in 1824 being the last. In 1825 the surrender of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa removed the last vestige of Spanish dominion on the American continent. In 1867 Russia sold her possessions to the United States.  AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES. A large part of what are called the antiquities of America consist only of the architectural and other remains of the aboriginal tribes and nations, which were displaced or subjugated by European conquest and settlement. Such are many of the ruined temples and other edifices of Peru, Central America, and Mexico, as well as most of the ruder monuments of New Mexico, and probably all of those still ruder earthworks and rock sculptures which are found eastward of the Alleghanies. Cartier in Canada, and Smith in Virginia, as well as the pilgrims in New England and the French in western New York, all found the Indians constructing defences, consisting of ditches, embankments, and palisades, the remains of which are still numerous, and which have been variously ascribed to Celtic, Hebrew, and Tartar origins. So too Coronado, who marched into New Mexico as early as 1540, found there in perfect condition and actual use. those singular edifices of fort-like dimensions and numerous stories, which since, abandoned and ruined, under the name of casas grandes, have been claimed as monuments of a supposed migration of the Aztecs from some undefined northern region, or from the frozen wastes of Kamtchatka, beyond the straits of Behring. Cortes in Mexico, Grijalva and Montejo in Yucatan, Alvarado in Guatemala, and Pizarro and his captains in Peru, all found vast and imposing structures, the work of the actual inhabitants, the ruins of which are almost universally confounded with those of more ancient monuments, the earlier works of the same hands or of unknown or extinct peoples. It is certain that Cholula, Uxmal, and Chichen, Quiché and Pachacamac, were all perfect and occupied at the time of the conquest. Hence their remains, however interesting and valuable as illustrating American aboriginal art, can hardly be considered as falling within the denomination of American antiquities. Under this head, in a strict sense, we can only include such monuments as were really regarded as antiquities by the aborigines themselves, concerning the origin of which they were wholly ignorant, or only possessed a traditionary knowledge. Of this character are most of the earthworks and mounds on the terraces of the Mississippi valley, and in the forests bordering on the Mexican gulf. Such also are the ruined pyramids of Teotihuacan and the crumbling edifices of Mitla, in Mexico; the still more elaborate structures and sculptured monoliths of Palenque and Copan; and the vast enigmatical monuments of Tiahuanaco on the southern shore of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia; to say nothing of the bewildering remains of Mansiche or Grand Chimu in northern Peru.—Commencing with our own country, we find