Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/118

110 The ceiling is formed by the peculiar American arch, and owing to their construction not much breadth can be got, but great length.

Most of these ruined cities have remained in the silence and obscurity of the wildernesses in which they are immured, ever since the traveller Stephens visited them, more than forty years ago. Kabah, especially, has not had a white visitor, it is said, since that time, until within two years. In June, 1881, this group was visited by the United States Consul, Mr. Louis H. Aymé, his wife, and Mr. Porter C. Bliss, assistant editor of Johnson's Cyclopædia. Mr. Aymé is an enthusiastic explorer, who is indefatigable in his search after objects of interest to the antiquarians of America. Owing to his exertions, there was brought to light an object that had escaped the attention of all previous explorers. It was a rude painting of "a man mounted on horseback." This important discovery was made by Mr. Aymé on June 16th. 1881; and it gives me pleasure to chronicle such a "find" by such a genial gentleman, who was so helpful to me in Yucatan, and who, in company with Mr. Bliss, rode nearly a thousand miles with me, later, in Southern Mexico.

At a later period, Mr. Aymé again visited Kabah, this time in company with the distinguished archaeologist, M. Desiree Charnay, who immediately pronounced it a wonderful discovery, and praised his companion highly. He, M. Charnay, declared it to be "a figure-of a Spanish horseman, with his cuirass, and prancing on a fiery steed": and claimed that his theory—that these ruins have not a great antiquity—was proved completely! Dr. Le Plongeon, however, who claims for the ruined cities of Yucatan that they were hoary with the weight of years when the Parthenon was built, would fain induce us to believe that this picture is a portrait of an ancient worthy named Can, who flourished many centuries agone. In fine, one archaeologist "proves" from the same mural painting, that these ruins are less than one thousand years old, while the other is equally certain they have an antiquity of at least ten thousand years!

Readers of the North American Review for the past few years cannot fail to have noticed that M. Charnay started on his