[VI-5] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 111; Id., Popol Vuh, and Ximenez, Hist. Ind. Guat., passim.
[VI-6] 'Je prouve, en effet, dans mon ouvrage sur ces célèbres ruines, que ce sont les débris de la ville d'Ototiun.' Waldeck, Voy. Pitt., p. 111. 'Otolum, c'est à dire Terre des pierres qui s'écroulent. C'est le nom de la petite rivière qui traverse les ruines. M. Waldeck, lisant ce nom de travers, en fait Ototiun, qui ne signifie rien.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 69. 'I have restored to them the true name of Otolum, which is yet the name of the stream running through the ruins.' Raffinesque, quoted in Priest's Amer. Antiq., p. 246.
[VI-7] Brasseur de Bourbourg, Palenqué, p. 32; Baril, Mexique, p. 27.
[VI-8] Calderon gives a list of 206 buildings more or less in ruins. Bernasconi gives the city a circumference of 6 leagues and 1000 varas. Del Rio, Descrip., p. 4, gives the ruins an extent of 7 or 8 leagues from east to west, along the foot of a mountain range, but speaks of only 14 buildings in which traces of rooms were yet visible. According to Galindo the city extends 20 miles on the summit of the chain. Lond. Geog. Soc., vol. iii., p. 60. Waldeck, p. iii., says that the area is less than one square league. Mr Stephens, vol. ii., p. 355, pronounces the site not larger than the Park in New York city.
[VI-9] Descrip., p. 3.
[VI-10] Stephens says eight miles, vol. ii., p. 287; Dupaix, a little over two leagues, p. 14; Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 245, two and a half leagues—Travels, p. 64, two leagues; Charnay, p. 416, twelve kilometres. The maps represent the distance as somewhat less than eight miles.
[VI-11] 'Built on the slope of the hills at the entrance of the steep mountains of the chain of Tumbala,' on the Otolum, which flows into the Michol, and that into the Catasahà, or Chacamal, and that into the Usumacinta three or four leagues from Las Playas, which was formerly the shore of the great lake that covered the plain. 'Les rues suivaient irrégulièrement le cours des ruisseaux qui en descendant, fournissaient en abondance de l'eau à toutes les habitations.' Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., pp. 82-84. 'Mide al suroeste del pueblo dos leguas largas de extension.' Dupaix, p. 14, translated in Kingsborough, vol. vi., p. 473, 'occupied a space of ground seven miles and a half in extent.' 'Au nord-ouest du village indien de Santo Domingo de Palenqué, dans la ci-devant province de Tzendales.' Humboldt, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., tom. xxxv., pp. 327-8. Galindo, Antiq. Mex., tom. i., div. ii., p. 69, describes the location as on the summit of the range, and reached by stairways from the valley below. On a plain eight leagues long, which extends along the foot of the highest mountain chain. Mühlenpfordt, Mejico, tom. ii., p. 21. Petrifactions of marine shells from the ruins preserved in the Mexican Museum. Gondra, in Prescott, Hist. Conq. Mex., tom. iii., p. 6.
[VI-12] Waldeck, pl. vi. Stephens' plan, vol. ii., p. 337, agrees in the main with this but is much less complete. Dupaix, p. 18, found only confused and scattered ruins, and declared it impossible to make a correct plan.
[VI-13] 'Tous les monuments de Palenqué sont orientés aux quatre points cardinaux, avec une variation de 12°.' Waldeck, p. iii. 'Orienté comme toutes les ruines que nous avons visitées.' Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 424. Others, without having made any accurate observations, speak of them as facing the cardinal points. See Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 276, etc., for the experience of that traveler in getting lost near the ruins.
[VI-14] Dimensions from Stephens, vol. ii., p. 310. It is not likely that they are to be regarded as anything more than approximations to the original extent; the state of the pyramid rendering strictly accurate measurements impracticable. The authorities differ considerably. 273 feet long, 60 feet high. Waldeck, p. ii. 1080 feet in circumference, 60 feet high. Dupaix, p. 14. 20 yards high. Del Rio, Descrip., p. 4. 100×70 mètres and not over 15 feet high. Charnay, Ruines Amér., p. 424. Circumference 1080 feet, height 60 feet, steps one foot high. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., tom. i., p. 85. 20 mètres high, area 3840 sq. mètres. Morelet, Voyage, tom. i., p. 267; 20 feet high. Id. Travels, p. 88. Over 340 mètres long. Lafond, Voyages, tom. i., pp. 143-4. Waldeck, p. iii., is the only one who found traces of a northern stairway, and none of the general views show such traces. Charnay, p. 425, thought the eastern stairway was double, being divided by a perpendicular wall. Brasseur, Palenqué, p. 17, in a note to his translation of Stephens, says that author represents a stairway in his plate but does not speak of it in his text—an error, as may be seen on the following page of the translation or on p. 312 of the original. The translation 'qui y montent de la térasse' for 'leading up to it on the terrace' may account for the error.