In the region of Petapa, a town forty or fifty miles north of Tehuantepec, a stalactite cave is mentioned by Brasseur, on the walls of which figures painted in black are seen, including the imprint of human hands like those on the Yucatan ruins except in color. A labyrinth of caves, with some artificial improvements, is also reported, where the remains of princes and nobles were formerly deposited, and where an arriero claims to have seen over one hundred burial urns, painted and ranged in order round the sides of the cave.[VII-5] Only four leagues from Tehuantepec, near Magdalena, Burgoa speaks of a statue of Wixepecocha, the white-haired reformer and prophet of the Zapotecs, which Brasseur, without naming his authority, states to have been still visible a few years before he wrote.[VII-6] Lafond briefly mentions three pyramids on the isthmus without definitely locating them;—that of Tehuantepec, seventy-two feet high, that of San Cristóval near the former, and that of Altamia in a broad plain.[VII-7] At Laollaga, seven leagues from Tehuantepec in a direction not stated, Arias—very vaguely, as is the custom of Mexican and Central American explorers of local antiquities—describes a group of mounds, some of which are seventy or eighty varas square, built of stones—or stone adobes, as the author calls them—three feet long and half as thick. In connection with these mounds, flint and copper hatchets have been found, together with many anchor-shaped objects of what is spoken of as brass. A cave containing some relics was reported to exist in the same vicinity; and at another point, some fourteen leagues from the city, is a mound seventy-five feet high, on the side of which was discovered a black rock, covered with hieroglyphic characters.[VII-8] At Chihuitlan, a day's journey from the city, a bridge of aboriginal construction, stretches across a stream. The bridge is twelve feet long, six feet wide, and nine feet high above the water, having low parapets guarding the sides. The conduit is nine feet wide, and is formed by two immense stones, which meet in the centre. According to Castañeda's drawing these two stones have curved surfaces, so that the whole approaches in form a regular arch. The whole structure is of the class known as cyclopean, built of large irregular stones, without mortar.[VII-9]
Respecting Tehuantepec antiquities, I have in addition to what has been said only brief mention by Garay of the following reported relics: On a cliff of the Cerro del Venado, is the sculptured figure of a deer, whence comes the name of the hill. Nine miles east of the same hill the Indians pointed out the location of a valley where they said were the remains of a large town of stone buildings. The Cerro de Coscomate, near Zanatepec, is said to have a sculptured image of the sun, with an inscription in unknown characters. And finally, relics have been found on the islands of Monapostiac, Tilema, and Arrianjianbaj; those on the first being in the form of earthen idols, while in the latter were the foundations of an aboriginal town.[VII-10]
At the port of Guatulco, south-west from Tehuantepec on the Oajacan coast, there may yet be seen, if Brasseur's statement is to be credited, traces of the roads and buildings of the ancient city that stood in this locality, and transmitted its name to the modern town. Guatulco was likewise one of the many localities described by the early Catholic writers as containing a wonderful cross, left here probably by Saint Thomas during his sojourn in America. We are not very clearly informed as to the material of this relic, but we know, from the same authorities, that all the powers of darkness could not destroy it, not even the famous Englishman, Sir Francis Drake, who subjected it for three days to the fiercest flames without affecting its condition. Brasseur also tells us that the remains of Tututepec, a great aboriginal south-coast capital, are still to be seen three or four leagues from the sea, between the Rio Verde and Lake Chicahua.[VII-11]
MISCELLANEOUS REMAINS.
Passing now to the interior valleys about the capital city of Oajaca, where the chief remains of aboriginal works are found, I shall mention first a few miscellaneous relics of minor importance, or at least only slightly known to explorers,[VII-12] beginning with the city of Oajaca, where Dupaix found two ancient ornaments of great beauty. The first was a pentagon of polished transparent agate, about two inches in diameter and an inch and a half thick. The surface bore no marks of the instruments by which it was polished, and a hole was bored through the stone presumably for the insertion of a string. The second was a hexagonal piece of black touch-stone, of about the same dimensions, sprinkled with grains of gold or copper, and like the former brilliantly polished. The hole in this stone was bored in the form of a curve, by an unknown process which must have been accompanied by no little difficulty.[VII-13]
At Tlacolula, some twenty miles south-east of Oajaca, Mr Müller reports the opening of a mound twelve feet high and eight feet in diameter at the base. It was simply a heap of earth, and the only artificially wrought objects found in the excavations were an earthen tube two inches in diameter and nearly two feet long, closed at each end with a stone plug, found in a horizontal position somewhat above the natural surface of the ground, and a bowl-shaped ring of the same material lying in a vertical position over the tube near the centre of the mound, but separated from the first relic by a layer of earth.[VII-14] Remains of the ruined fortress of Quíyechapa are said to have been seen by travelers at a point some twenty-five leagues east of Oajaca.[VII-15] At Etla, two leagues northward from the capital, two subterranean tombs were opened, and found to contain what are supposed to have been earthen torch-bearers, or images in distorted human form, with a socket in the head which indicates their former use. Similar images found at Zachila will be noticed later in this chapter. A wooden fac-simile of the tomb is mentioned by Sr Gondra as preserved in the Mexican Museum.[VII-16] At Peñoles, seven leagues from Oajaca, a skull covered and preserved by a coating of limestone was found.[VII-17] On the western boundary of this state, perhaps across the line in Guerrero, at Quilapan, formerly a great city of the Miztecs, an axe cast from red copper was found, one fourth of an inch thick, four inches long, and three and a half inches wide. From a mound opened in the same vicinity some fragments of statues and of pottery were taken.[VII-18] Fossey tells us that conical mounds in great numbers are scattered over the whole country between Oajaca, Zachila, and Cuilapa. The mounds are from fifteen to fifty feet high, and are formed in some cases of simple earth, in others of clay and stones. Human remains are found often in the centre together with stone and earthen figures. Those figures which are molded in human form agree in features with the Zapotec features of modern times. Copper mirrors and hatchets have also been found, according to this author, as well as golden ornaments and necklaces of gilded beads.[VII-19] M. Charnay saw in the second valley of Oajaca as he came from Mexico the ruins of a temple, the building of which was begun by the Spaniards in the time of Cortés, on the site of an aboriginal temple. The ruined walls of the latter were of adobes, and served for scaffolding in the erection of the former, and both ruins now stand together. The whole valley was covered with tumuli, probably tombs, as the author thinks; but the natives would neither help to make excavations nor permit strangers to make them.[VII-20]
In addition to the relics described in the few and unsatisfactory notes of the preceding pages, three important groups of antiquities in central Oajaca remain to be noticed: Monte Alban, Zachila, and Mitla; our information respecting the two former being also far from satisfactory.
RUINS OF MONTE ALBAN.
Monte Alban is located immediately west of the city of Oajaca, or Antequera, at a distance of from half a mile to five miles according to different authorities. These differences in the statements of the distance perhaps result from the fact that some visitors estimate it in an air line, while others include the windings of the road which must be traveled over a mountainous country in order to reach the ruins, which seem to be located on a high hill or on a range of hills overlooking the town. Dupaix and Castañeda visited this place during their second expedition. Juan B. Carriedo made in 1833 a manuscript atlas of plans and drawings of the remains, which has never been published, but which is said to be preserved in the Mexican Museum. José María García explored Monte Alban in 1855, and his report with some drawings was published in the bulletin of the Mexican Geographical Society. Müller, the German traveler, visited the place in 1857 with one Ortega, and published a plan in his work. Finally we have Charnay's description from an exploration in 1858 or 1859, unaccompanied, however, by photographic views.[VII-21]