The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 4, Antiquities / The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 4

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

Copper Mask.

Nicaraguan antiquities, concerning which I have now given all the information in my possession, give rise to but little discussion or visionary speculation. Indeed there is little of the mysterious connected with them, as they do not necessarily carry us farther back into the past than the partially civilized people that occupied the country in the sixteenth century. Not one relic has appeared which may not reasonably be deemed their work, or which requires the agency of an unknown nation of antiquity. Yet supposing Nicaragua to have been long inhabited by a people of only slightly varying stages of civilization, any one of the idols described may have been worshiped thousands of years before the Spanish conquest. The relics are over three hundred years old; nothing in themselves proves them to be less than three thousand. Comparison with more northern relics and history may fix their age within narrower limits.

CHAPTER III.
ANTIQUITIES OF SALVADOR AND HONDURAS. RUINS OF COPAN.

Salvador—Opico Remains—Mounds of Jiboa—Relics of Lake Guijar—Honduras—Guanaja—Wall—Stone Chairs—Roatan—Pottery—Olancho Relics—Mounds of Agalta and Abajo—Hacienda of Labranza—Comayagua—Stone Dog-idol—Terraced Mounds of Calamulla—Tumuli on Rio Chiquinquare—Earthen Vases of Yarumela—Fortified Plateau of Tenampua—Pyramids, Enclosures, and Excavations—Stone Walls—Parallel Mounds—Cliff-Carvings at Aramacina—Copan—History and Bibliography—Palacio, Fuentes, Galindo, Stephens, Daly, Ellery, Hardcastle, Brasseur de Bourbourg—Plan of Ruins Restored—Quarry and Cave—Outside Monuments—Enclosing Walls—The Temple—Courts—Vaults—Pyramid—Idols—Altars—Miscellaneous Relics—Human Remains—Lime—Colossal Heads—Remarkable Altars—General Remarks.

ANTIQUITIES OF SALVADOR.

Following the continent westward from Nicaragua, we have the state of Salvador on the Pacific side, stretching some one hundred and eighty miles from the gulf of Fonseca to the Rio de Paza, the Guatemalan boundary, and extending inland about eighty miles. Here, in the central province of San Vicente, a few miles southward from the capital city of the same name, I find the first well-authenticated instance in our progress northward of the occurrence of ruined edifices. But of these ruins we only know that they are the most imposing monuments in the state, covering nearly two square miles at the foot of the volcano of Opico, and that they consist of "vast terraces, ruins of edifices, and circular and square towers, and subterranean galleries, all built of cut stones. A single carving has been found here, on a block of stone eight feet long by four broad. It is in the true Mexican style, representing probably a prince or great warrior."[III-1] Several mounds, considerable in size and regular in outline, were noted on the plain of Jiboa west of San Vicente; also similar ones near Sonsonato in the south-western portion of the state. In the north-west on the Guatemalan boundary, aboriginal relics are vaguely reported on the islands of Lake Guijar, but of them nothing is known.[III-2] And concerning Salvador monuments nothing further is to be said, although Mr Squier heard of ruins in that state rivaling in extent and interest the famous Copan.[III-3]

On the other side of the continent, reaching also across to the Pacific at the gulf of Fonseca, north of Nicaragua, the Mosquito coast, and Salvador, is the state of Honduras. It extends over three hundred and fifty miles westward along the Atlantic shore, from Cape Gracias á Dios nearly to the narrowest point of the isthmus where America is a second time so nearly cut in twain by the gulfs of Honduras and Dulce. The mountain chains which skirt the valley of the Motagua on the south, known as the sierras of Grita, Espíritu Santo, Merendon, Copan, etc., form the boundary line between Honduras and Guatemala. The northern coast, closely resembling in its general character the Mosquito shore, has preserved along its marshy lagoons, so far as they have been explored, no traces of its early occupants. Yet on the coast islands some relics appear. On that of Guanaja, whence in 1502 Columbus first beheld the continent of North America, is reported a wall of considerable extent, only a few feet high, with three-legged stone chairs fixed at intervals in rude niches or fissures along its sides. Chair-shaped excavations in solid rock occur at several other points on the island, together with rudely molded but fantastically decorated vessels of earthen ware. The Guanaja remains are chiefly found in the vicinity of the Savanna Bight Kay.[III-4] On the neighboring island of Roatan fragments of aboriginal pottery and small stone idols are found scattered through the forest.[III-5]

The eastern interior of Honduras, by reason of its gold mines, has been more extensively explored than the Mosquito region farther south; yet with respect to the departments of Olancho and Tegucigalpa I only find the statement by Mr Wells that "mounds containing specimens of ancient pottery are often met with by the vaqueros while exploring the gloomy depths of the forest, but these seldom survive the destructive curiosity of the natives;" this chiefly in the valleys of Agalta and Abajo, and on the hacienda of Labranza. The pottery takes the form of pans and jars to the number of ten to thirty in each mound; no idols or human remains having been reported.[III-6]

COMAYAGUA RELICS.