American Antiquities: Corroborative of the Book of Mormon (5 May 1860)

CORROBORATIVE OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

(Continued from page 239.)

The lower part of the dress bears an unfortunate resemblance to the modern pantaloons; but the figure stands on what we have always considered a hieroglyphic; analogous, again, to the custom in Egypt of recording the name and office of the hero or other person represented. … From the foot of the elevation on which the last-mentioned building stands, their bases almost touching, rises another pyramidal structure, of about the same height, on the top of which is the building marked No. 3. … It has 38 feet front and 58 feet deep, and has three doors. The end piers are ornamented with hieroglyphics in stucco, two large medallions, in handsome compartments, and the intermediate ones with bas-reliefs, also in stucco; in general character similar to those before given. … The interior, again, is divided into two corridors, about nine feet wide each, and paved with stone. … The back corridor is divided into three apartments. In the centre, facing the principal door of entrance, is an enclosed chamber, similar to that which in the last building we have called an oratory or altar. The top of the doorway was gorgeous with stuccoed ornaments; and on the piers at each aide were stone tablets in bas-relief. Within, the chamber was four feet seven inches deep, and nine feet wide. There were no stuccoed ornaments or paintings; but, set in the back wall, was a stone tablet covering the whole width of the chamber, nine feet wide and eight feet high. … The sculpture is perfect, and the characters and figures stand clear and distinct on the stone. Ou each side are rows of hieroglyphics. … The principal personages will be recognised at once as the same who are represented in the tablet of the cross. They wear the same dress; but here both seem to be making offerings. Both personages stand on the backs of human beings, one of whom supports himself by his hands and knees, and the other seems crushed to the ground by the weight. The pier on each tide of the doorway contained a stone tablet, with figures carved in bas-relief. … The two figures stand facing each other. … Over the heads of these mysterious personages are three cabalistic hieroglyphics. … Near this, on the top of another pyramidal structure, was another building, entirely in ruins, which apparently had been shattered and hurled down by an earthquake. … Here were the remains of a cultivated, polished, and peculiar people, who had passed through all the stages incident to the rise and fall of nations, reached their golden age, and perished, entirely unknown. The links which connected them with the human family were severed and lost, and these were the only memorials of their footsteps upon earth. We lived in the ruined palace of their kings; we went up to their desolate temples and fallen altars; and wherever we moved, we saw the evidences of their task, their skill in arts, their wealth, and power."

(From Stephens' “Incidents of Travel in Yucatan,” published in 1842.)

“At a short distance from the hacienda, but invisible on account of the trees, rises the high mound which we had seen three leagues’ distance, from the top of the church at Tekoh, and which is represented in the following engraving. It is sixty feet high, and one hundred feet square at the base; and, like the mounds at Palenque and Uxmal, it is an artificial structure, built up solid from the plain. … Four grand staircases, each twenty-five feet wide, ascended to an esplanade within six feet of the top. This esplanade was six feet in width, and on each side was a smaller staircase leading to the top. These staircases are in a ruinous condition; the steps are almost entirely gone, and we climbed up by means of fallen stones and trees growing out of its sides. … The summit was a plain stone platform, fifteen feet square. It had no structure upon it, nor were there vestiges of any. … The view commanded from the top was a great desolate plain, with here and there another ruined mound rising above the trees. . . Around the base of this mound and throughout the woods, wherever we moved, were strewed sculptured stones. … Besides these, there were other and more curious remains. These were representations of human figures, or of animals, with hideous features and expressions. … The sculpture of these figures was rude, the stones were timeworn, and many were half buried in the earth! . . The mounds were all of the same general character; and the buildings had entirely disappeared on all except one. … It stood on a ruined mound about thirty feet high. What the shape of the mound had been it was difficult to make out, but the building was circular. … The exterior is of plain stone, ten feet high to the top of the lower cornice, and fourteen more to that of the upper one. … The outer wall is five feet thick. … The whole diameter of the building is twenty- five feet. … On the south-west side of the building, and on a terrace projecting from the side of the mound, was a double row of columns, eight feet apart, of which only eight remained. … At some distance from this place, and on the other side of the hacienda, were long ranges of mounds. These had once been buildings, the tops of which had fallen and almost buried the structures. The ruins of Uxmal. … present is that in which we lived, called the Casa del Gobernador. The engraving which forms the frontispiece of this volume represents its front, with the three great terraces on which it stands. This front is 322 feet long. … This building was constructed entirely of stone. Up to the cornice, which runs round it the whole length and on all four of its Bides, the facade presents a smooth surface: above is one solid mass of rich, complicated, and elaborately sculptured ornaments, forming a sort of arabesque. The grandest ornament, which imparts a richness to the whole facade, is over the centre doorway. Around the head of the principal figure are rows of characters. … These characters were hieroglyphics. … The roof is flat, and had been covered with cement; but the whole is now overgrown with grass and bushes. Next to the great building of the Casa del Gobernador, and hardly less extraordinary and imposing in character, are the three great terraces which hold it aloft and give it its grandeur of position; all of them artificial, and built up from the level of the plain. The lowest of these terraces is three feet high, 15 feet broad, and 575 feet long; the second is 20 feet high, 250 feet wide, and 545 feet in length; and the third, on which the building stands, is 19 feet high, 30 feet broad, and 360 feet in front. They were all supported by substantial stone walls. … The platform of this terrace is a noble terra plana, 545 feet long, and 250 feet wide, and, from the remains still visible upon it, once contained structures and ornaments of various kinds. … La Cueva de Maxcanú, or the Cave of Maxcanú, has in that region a marvellous and mystical reputation. It is called by the Indians Satun Sat, which means, in Spanish, El Laberinto or El Perdedero, the Labyrinth, or place in which one may be lost. … The universal belief was that it contained passages without number and without end. … I entered with a candle in one hand and a pistol in the other. … In utter ignorance of the ground, I found myself turning and doubling along these dark and narrow passages, which seemed really to have no end, and justly to entitle the place to its name of El Labyrinto. . .