"We were at once struck with its expression of serene repose, and its strong resemblance to Egyptian Statues. (!) In height it is ten feet six inches, of which two feet six inches were under ground. The head-dress is lofty and spreading: there are holes in [near] the place of ears, which perhaps were adorned with ear-rings of gold and pearls. Round the neck is a necklace: and pressed against the breast by the right hand, is an instrument apparently with teeth."
In the wood-cut this "instrument with teeth" is no more or less, than part of a muralled crown, and it may have been, therefore, the Statue of the Guardian of the City. The Tyrian Coins have the muralled crown on the head of the obverse profile, which represents Astartē, the tutelary Goddess of the Tyrians and Sidonians.
"The left hand rests on a hieroglyphic, from which descends some symbolical ornament: the figure stands on what we have always considered a hieroglyphic (plinth) analogous again to the custom in Egypt of recording the name and office of the hero, or other person represented."
In the last quotation but one, he distinctly uses the word "resemblance," preceded by that of "strong," to enforce the similitude to the Egyptian; and in the last quotation he says, that the hieroglyphical plinth is "analogous again to the custom of Egypt!" As he has visited, and written of the statues of the Nile, we will not gainsay his judgment even by a suspicion. The statues on the building, surmounting the pyramidal base at Uxmal, (Waldeck's folio) strongly resemble the general character of the Egyptian,—the head-dress and cape especially,—the difference is, that otherwise than the lappet, hood, and cape,—the figure is entirely naked,—whereas the Egyptian statues generally possess the additional costume of the loin-cloth.
"They [the Ruins] are different from the works of any other known people, of a new order, and entirely and absolutely anomalous: they stand alone."
Every people (he argues) and the nations known at the present day, by history, or by ruins, have been searched in order to identify by fac-simile resemblance, but in vain,—though Egypt, we have shewn, claims the bases and many attendant analogies. What Nation then ever existed (possessing navigable means) of whose works by Architecture and Sculpture we have no knowledge?—"That is the question,"—and that answered, it will aid the solving of the mysterious problem around the Ruins. Then here is the answer, without any fear of contradiction or denial. The only nation is the Tyrian!—that name is used in its triple or Phœnician sense, and comprehends Sidon, Tyrus, and Carthage,—not a remnant remains whereby the slightest form can be traced, save the mere foundations of their former greatness! Egypt was the neighbour of the Tyrian, and consequently imparted her knowledge through commercial communion.
The inhabitants of Tyrus from their small locality [i. e. the Island] were essentially a practical people,—they had no space to build idle or useless edifices, like those of Egypt,—they had no captives! The Tyrians were of all people of the ancient world, best adapted to imitate what was of utility and stability,—thence their selecting pyramidal bases, as foundations for their Temples in America, and which have preserved those edifices, and the judgment of the builders, even to this day, through a period of time beyond two thousand years! It also evinced that acuteness and skill, in applying means to ends, for which, as a Nation, they were so renowned. In Section 3, of the Analogies, we will establish from Scriptural History the early Architecture (as to its style) of the ancient Tyrians.
The Ruins in Ancient America (and by that term we mean anterior to the re-discovery by Columbus) do indeed "stand alone:"—a "new order" to the modern eye they may be—but over two thousand years ago, the "order" might have been termed the Egypto-Tyrian:—and reason, research, and analogies of Religious and National Customs, will prove that the name now given to this newly-discovered ancient order is correct;—and that the moderns may not only repeat the term, but, even aid the Science of Architecture, by the application of the rules and principles of utility and solidity, now discovered in the Western Hemisphere!
Our review of his "conclusions" has advanced sufficiently far for our purpose; for it must be evident that a complete refutation of his deductions has been given, and founded upon his own descriptions, and illustrations,—apart from Baron Humboldt's and Waldeck's works, or any humble commentaries of our own. It will naturally be asked—"What could have been the motive of such contradiction, and against himself?" A hidden motive has more than once been hinted at in the foregoing pages. O! love of Country! how inherent is thy power in the human mind!—but, never before was it exerted to the same extent as by our favourite Traveller, as evinced in the motive for rejecting all Nations—except his own, as claimants for the builders of Copan, and her muralled companions of the Western Continent.
Talk of the Dacii, and the Curtius, impaling themselves upon the spears of the enemy, or plunging into a gulph to close it,—why, our devoted Traveller does more than all this—for he survives the shock and fall!