trenarzh-CNnlitjarufaen

ALTAR-PIECE, TEMPLE OF THE CROSS, PALENQUE.

iii

TRAVELS AMONGST
AMERICAN INDIANS
THEIR ANCIENT EARTHWORKS
AND TEMPLES;

INCLUDING A JOURNEY IN
GUATEMALA, MEXICO AND YUCATAN,
AND A VISIT TO
THE RUINS OF PATINAMIT, UTATLAN, PALENQUE
AND UXMAL.
BY
Vice-Admiral LINDESAY BRINE,
(Member of Council of the Royal Geographical and Hakluyt Societies.)
Author of “The Taeping Rebellion in China; a Narrative of its Rise and Progress.”

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY,
LIMITED,
St. Dunstan’s House,
FETTER LANE, FLEET STREET, E.C.
1894.

iv

london:
Farmer & Sons, Printers, 295, Edgware Road, W.;
and at kensington.

v

PREFACE.


The attention of archæologists and students of the ancient Mexican hieroglyphs has latterly been directed to the mysterious subject of the origin of the astronomical and architectural knowledge that existed in Mexico, Guatemala, and Yucatan before the discovery of America. In the United States researches have also been made for the purpose of establishing, upon a scientific basis, conclusions respecting the tribes who made the extraordinary ramparts and geometrically planned inclosures in Ohio.

It is a remarkable fact that although, since the period when Mexico was conquered by Cortes, an almost uninterrupted series of investigations have taken place into the peculiar conditions of civilization of the Mexican and Central American Indians, nothing satisfactory has yet been ascertained which explains the manner in which that civilization could have arisen amongst those exceptionally instructed races.

Las Casas who, in the sixteenth century, lived for many years amongst the Indians in his diocese of Chiapas and Yucatan and saw several of thevi temples in that region, declared that the land contained a secret. That secret may possibly be discovered if the hieroglyphs and symbolic characters of the Toltecs and Aztecs can be interpreted. But until trustworthy methods of decipherment are determined, all conclusions, in default of other evidence, must necessarily be conjectural.

It was with the vague expectation that I should observe, either amongst the earthworks in the North or in the constructions at Palenque and Uxmal, analogies with the works of other races in Asia or Polynesia, that the travels described in this volume were undertaken. After my arrival in Engl

...

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!


Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!