[III-13] The Licenciado Diego García de Palacio, Oidor (Justice, not Auditor) of the Real Audiencia of Guatemala, in accordance with the duties of his office, traveled extensively in Guatemala and adjoining provinces, embodying the results of his observations on countries and peoples visited in a relation to King Felipe II. of Spain, dated March 8, 1576, which document is preserved in the celebrated Muñoz collection of MSS. It contains a description of the ruins of Copan which exists in print as follows; Palacio, Relacion, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., pp. 37-9; Palacio, Carta dirijida al Rey, Albany, 1860, pp. 88-96, including an English translation by E. G. Squier; Palacios, Description, in Ternaux-Compans, Recueil de Doc., pp. 42-4, which is a somewhat faulty French translation; Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1843, tom. xcvii., pp. 38-40; Squier's Cent. Amer., pp. 242-4; and it is mentioned by Señor J. B. Muñoz in a report on American antiquities, written as early as 1785, of which a translation is given in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, pp. 7-8; Herrera, Hist. Gen., quotes, or rather takes from, Palacio's relation extensively, but omits the portion touching Copan. This first account of the ruins is by no means the worst that has been written. Although naturally incomplete, it is evidently a bona-fide description by an actual visitor, written at a time when the ruins were very nearly in their present condition, and their origin wrapped in mystery, although the stirring events of 1530 were yet comparatively fresh in the memory of the natives. The next account is that in Fuentes y Guzman, Recopilacion Flórida de la Historia del Reino de Guatemala, MS., 1689. This work was never printed, although said to be in preparation for the press in 1856. Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., p. vii. Fuentes' description of Copan was, however, given to the public in 1808, in Juarros, Compendio de la Hist. de la Ciudad de Guatemala, a work translated into English in 1823, under the title of A Statistical and Commercial Hist. of the Kingdom of Guatemala. From Juarros the account is taken by many writers, none, so far as I know, having quoted Fuentes in the original. Where the latter obtained his information is not known. His account is brief, and justly termed by Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, p. 14., 'la description menteuse de Fuentes,' since nothing like the relics therein mentioned have been found in later times. Yet it is possible that the original was mutilated in passing through Juarros' hands. This description, given in full in my text, is repeated more or less fully in Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 131; Warden, Recherches, p. 71; Conder's Mex. Guat., vol. ii., pp. 299-300; Malte-Brun, Précis de la Géog., tom. vi., pp. 470-1; Humboldt, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1827, tom. xxxv., p. 329; Hassel, Mex. Guat., pp. 385-6; Cortés, Adventuras, p. 321, and in many other works mentioned in connection with matter from later sources. Next we have the exploration of Colonel Juan Galindo, an officer in the Central American service, sometime governor of the province of Peten, made in April, 1835. An account of his observations was forwarded to the Société de Géographie of Paris, and published in the Bulletin of that Society, and also in the Literary Gazette of London. A communication on the subject was also published in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., pp. 545-50; and the information furnished to the French Geographical Society was published en résumé in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., pp. 73, 76. Ten drawings accompanied Galindo's report, but have never been published, although the author announced the intention of the Central American government to publish his report in full with plates. He says, 'je suis le seul qui ait examiné les ruines de Copan, et qui en ait fait la relation,' but he knew nothing of Palacio's visit. 'Not being an artist, his account is necessarily unsatisfactory and imperfect, but it is not exaggerated.' Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 132. 'Had an enquiring mind, but a very superficial Education.' Squier's Pref. to Palacio, Carta, p. 8. Most of Galindo's account is also given with that of Juarros, in Bradford's Amer. Antiq., pp. 96-9; also some information from the same source in Brownell's Ind. Races, p. 52, and in Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., p. 267. In 1839 Messrs Stephens and Catherwood visited Copan. Mr Stephens, as I find by a careful examination of his book, spent thirteen days in his survey, namely, from November 17 to 30; while Mr Catherwood spent the larger part of another month in completing his drawings. The results of their labors appeared in 1841 and 1844 under the titles:—Stephens' Incidents of Travel in Central America, vol. i., pp. 95-160, with twenty-one plates and seven cuts; Catherwood's Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, in folio, with large lithographic plates. Slight descriptions of the ruins, made up chiefly from Stephens, may be found as follows:—Helps' Span. Conq., vol. iii., pp. 54-5; Willson's Amer. Hist., pp. 76-9, with plan and cut; Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., pp. 64-74, 57, with plan and plates; Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., pp. 57-69, 116; Davis' Antiq. Amer., pp. 4-5; Id., (Ed. 1847,) p. 30; Dally, Races Indig., pp. 12-13; Baldwin's Anc. Amer., pp. 111-14, with cut; Wappäus, Geog. u. Stat., p. 308; Tiedemann, Heidelb. Yahrb., 1851, p. 85; Larenaudière, Mex. et Guat., pl. 9-12, the text being from Galindo and Juarros; Reichardt, Cent. Amer., pp. 91-2; Amérique Centrale, Colonization, pt. ii., p. 68; Müller, Amerikanische Urreligionen, pp. 462-4, 483; Macgregor's Progress of Amer., pp. 877-8; Frost's Great Cities of the World, pp. 279-82, with cut. Dr Scherzer in 1856 started to explore Copan, but, owing to the political state of the country at the time, was unable to get nearer than Santa Rosa, where the padre said moreover that recent land-slides had much injured the effect of the ruins. This author gives, however, a brief account made up from Stephens, Galindo, and Juarros. Scherzer's Trav., vol. ii., pp. 41, 86-7, 94-5. Id., Wanderungen, pp. 332, 366, 371. In September, 1856, the Jesuit Padre Cornette is said to have visited the ruins; M. César Daly, at a date not mentioned, prepared on the spot plans and drawings of the different structures which he intended to publish in the Revue Générale de l'Architecture, but whether or not they have ever appeared, I know not; the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg made two visits to Copan in 1863 and 1866; some slight additional information on the subject was communicated by Mr Center, on authority not given, at a meeting of the American Ethnological Society in February, 1860; and Mr Hardcastle, who had spent several weeks in exploring the ruins, furnished some farther notes at a meeting of the same society in April, 1862; and, finally, photographs were made of the ruins by M. Ellerly, director of the Alotepeque silver-mines. But these later explorations have not as yet afforded the public much information, except that the photographs mentioned, when compared by Brasseur de Bourbourg with Catherwood's plates, show the latter as well as Stephens' descriptions to be strictly accurate. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 96, tom. ii., p. 493; Id., Palenqué, pp. 8, 17; Hist. Mag., vol. v., p. 114, vol. vi., p. 154.
[III-14] The only unfavorable criticism of Mr Stephens' work within my knowledge, is that 'the Soul of History is wanting!' 'The Promethean spark by which the flame of historic truth should illuminate his work, and be viewed as a gleaming beacon from afar, to direct wanderers through the dark night of wonders, has found no spot to rest upon and to vivify!' Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., p. 55. And we may thank heaven for the fault when we consider the effects of the said 'Promethean spark' in the work of the immortal Jones.
[III-15] Juarros' Hist. Guat., pp. 56-7. That any such structure as the rocking hammock ever existed here is in the highest degree improbable; yet the padre at Gualan told Stephens that he had seen it, and an Indian had heard it spoken of by his grandfather. Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 144.
[III-16] 'The extent along the river, ascertained by monuments still found, is more than two miles.' 'Beyond the wall of enclosure were walls, terraces, and pyramidal elevations running off into the forest.' Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 133, 139, 146-7. 'Extended along the bank of its river a length of two miles, as evidenced by the remains of its fallen edifices.' 'Mounts of stone, formed by fallen edifices, are found throughout the neighbouring country.' Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., pp. 547, 549-50. 'La carrière ... est à 2000 mètres au nord.' 'Là se trouve beaucoup de bois de sapin pétrifié.' Id., in Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 76. 'The ground, being covered with ruins for many square miles, and much overgrown by a rank vegetation, would require months for a thorough examination.' 'No remains whatever on the opposite side of the river.' Hardcastle, in Hist. Mag., vol. vi., p. 154. 'Les plaines de Chapulco s'étendent entre Copan et le pied des montagnes de Chiquimula. Elles sont couvertes de magnifiques ruines.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. ii., p. 105.
[III-17] Plan in Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 133, reproduced in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., 1841, tom. xcii., p. 57; and in Willson's Amer. Hist., p. 76. Galindo's drawings also included a plan. By reason of the disagreement between Stephens' plan and text in the matter of dimensions, I have omitted the scale as useless. The southern wall of the enclosure, to accommodate the size of my page, I have placed some two hundred feet north of its true position. Those portions of the temple shaded by cross-lines are the portions still standing according to the survey.
[III-18] The southern wall in one place rises 30 or 40 feet in steps. Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 134. 'One wall eighty feet high and fifty feet thick for half its height, or more, and then sloping like a roof, was formed of stones often six feet by three or four, with mortar in the interstices.' Hardcastle, in Hist. Mag., vol. vi., p. 154. Mr Center 'mentioned a Cyclopean wall ... undescribed in any publication, but reported to him by most credible witnesses, about 800 feet long, 40 feet high, —— feet thick, formed of immense hewn stone.' Hist. Mag., vol. v., p. 114. Stones 'cut into blocks.' Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 549. Before reaching the ruins 'está señal de paredes gruesas.' Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., p. 37.
[III-19] According to Stephens' text, which states that the river or west side is 624 feet, and the whole line of survey, which cannot in this case mean anything but the circumference, is 2866 feet, thus leaving 809 feet each for the northern and southern sides. His plan, and consequently my own, makes the dimensions about 790 feet north and south by 600 east and west, the circuit being thus 2780 feet. 'Not so large as the base of the great Pyramid of Ghizeh.' Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 133. Galindo, Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 547, makes the dimensions 750 feet east and west (He calls it north and south, but on the supposition that the ruins are on the north bank of the river instead of the east) by 600 feet north and south, a circumference of 2700 feet; or if his measurements be understood to be Spanish, their English equivalent would be about 690 by 552 feet, circuit 2484 feet. The same author, Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 76, gives 653 by 524, and 2354 feet; or if French measure be understood, its equivalent is 696 by 588, and 2568 feet. As large as Saint Peter's at Rome. Davis' Antiq. of Amer., pp. 4-5.
[III-20] 'Broad terrace one hundred feet high, overlooking the river, and supported by the wall which we had seen from the opposite bank,' cut showing a view of this wall from across the river. Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 104, 95-6, 139. Same cut in Baldwin's Anc. Amer., p. 112. 'Built perpendicularly from the bank of the river, to a height, as it at present exists, of more than forty yards.' Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 547. 'Una torre ó terrapleno alto, que cae sobre el rio que por allé pasa.' 'Hay una escalera que baja hasta el rio por muchas gradas.' Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., p. 38. 'The city-wall on the river-side, with its raised bank, ... must then have ranged from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty feet in height' in imitation of ancient Tyre, the only city of antiquity with so high a wall on a river-bank. Jones' Hist. Anc. Amer., pp. 63, 161-2.
[III-21] At the south-west corner a recess is mentioned which Mr Stephens believes to have been occupied by some large monument now fallen and washed away. Cent. Amer., vol. i., p. 134.
[III-22] This court may have been Fuentes' circus, although the latter is represented as having been circular. The terrace between it and the river is stated by Stephens to be only 20 feet wide; according to the plan it is at least 50 feet. Stephens' Cent. Amer., vol. i., pp. 142-4, 133, 140. The pavement of the court is 20 yards above the river; the gallery through the terrace is 4 feet high and 2½ feet wide; the vault below the court is 5½ by 10 by 6 feet, its length running north and south with 9° variation of the compass. Galindo, in Amer. Antiq. Soc., Transact., vol. ii., p. 547. 'Una plaza muy bien fecha, con sus gradas á la forma que escriben del Coliseo romano, y por algunas partes tiene ochenta gradas, enlosada, y labrada por cierto en partes de muy buena piedra é con harto primor.' The river-wall 'háse caido y derrumbado un gran pedazo, y en lo caido se descubrieron dos cuevas debajo del dicho edificio,' a statement that may possibly refer to the gallery and vault. Palacio, in Pacheco, Col. Doc. Inéd., tom. vi., pp. 37-8.