The foregoing is taken from Priest's American Antiquities, and from the same work we extract the following, page 246:
"Ruins of the City of Otolum, discovered in North America.—In a letter of C. S. Rafinesque, whom we have before quoted, to a correspondent in Europe, we find the following: 'Some years ago, the Society of Geography, in Paris, offered a large premium for a voyage to Guatemala, and for a new survey of the antiquities of Yucatan and Chiapa, chiefly those fifteen miles from Palenque.'"
"I have," says this author, "restored to them the true name of Otolum, which is yet the name of the stream running through the ruins. They were surveyed by Captain Del Rio, in 1787, an account of which was published in English, in 1822. This account describes partly the ruins of a stone city, of no less dimensions than seventy-five miles in circuit; length, thirty-two, and breadth twelve miles, full of palaces, monuments, statues, and inscriptions: one of the earliest seats of American civilization; about equal to Thebes of ancient Egypt."
It is stated in the Family Magazine, No. 34, p. 266, for 1833, as follows: "Public attention has been recently excited, respecting the ruins of an ancient city, found in Guatemala. It would seem that these ruins are now being explored, and much curious and valuable matter, in a literary and historical point of view, is anticipated. We deem the present a most auspicious moment, now that the public attention is turned to the subject, to spread its contents before our readers, as an introduction to future discoveries, during the researches now in progress."
The following are some of the particulars, as related by Captain Del Rio, who partially examined them, as above related, in 1787: "From Palenque, the last town northward in the province of Ciudad Real de Chiapa, taking a southwesterly direction, and ascending a ridge of high land, that divides the kingdom of Guatemala from Yucatan, at the distance of six miles, is the little river Micol, whose waters flow in a westerly direction, and unite with the great river Tulijah, which bends its course towards the province of Tobasco. Having passed Micol, the ascent begins, and at half a league, or a mile and a half, the traveler crosses a little stream called Otolum; from this point heaps of stone ruins are discovered, which render the roads very difficult for another half league, when you gain the height whereon the stone houses are situated, being still fourteen in number in one place, some more dilapidated than others, yet still having many of their apartments perfectly discernible. These stand on a rectangular area, three hundred yards in breadth by four hundred and fifty in length, which is a fraction over fifty-six rods wide, and eighty-four rods long, being in the whole circuit, two hundred and eighty rods, which is three fourths of a mile, and a trifle over. This area presents a plain at the base of the highest mountain forming the ridge. In the centre of this plain is situated the largest of the structures which has been, as yet, discovered among these ruins. It stands on a mound, or pyramid, twenty yards high, which is sixty feet, or nearly four rods, in perpendicular altitude, which gives it a lofty and beautiful majesty, as if it were a temple suspended in the sky. This is surrounded by other edifices, namely, five to the northward, four to the southward, one to the southwest, and three to the eastward, fourteen in all.
"In all directions, the fragments of other fallen buildings are seen extending along the mountain, that stretches east and west either way from these buildings, as if it were the great temple of worship, or their government-house, around which they built their city, and where dwelt their kings and officers of state. At this place was found a subterranean stone aqueduct, of great solidity and durability, which in its course passes beneath the largest building."
Let it be understood, this city of Otolum, the ruins of which are so immense, is in North, not South America, in the same latitude with the island of Jamaica, which is about eighteen degrees north of the equator, being on the highest ground between the northern end of the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, where the continent narrows towards the Isthmus of Darien, and is about eight hundred miles south of New Orleans.
The discovery of these ruins, and also of many others, equally wonderful, in the same country, is just commencing to arouse the attention of the schools of Europe, which hitherto have denied that America could boast of her antiquities. But these immense ruins are now being explored under the direction of scientific persons, a history of which, in detail, will, doubtless, be forthcoming in due time; two volumes of which, in manuscript, we are informed, have already been written, and cannot but be received with enthusiasm by Americans.
A gentleman who was living near the town of Cincinnati, in 1826, on the upper level, had occasion to sink a well for his accommodation; he persevered in digging to the depth of eighty feet, without finding water; but still persisting in the attempt, his workmen found themselves obstructed by a substance, which resisted their labor, though evidently not stone. They cleared the surface and sides from the earth bedded around it, when there appeared the stump of a tree, three feet in diameter, and two feet high, which had been cut down with an ax. The blows of the ax were yet visible. It was nearly of the color and apparent character of coal, but had not the friable and fusible quality of that substance. Ten feet below, the water sprang up, and the well is now in constant supply and high repute.
In Morse's Universal Geography, first volume, p. 142, the discovery of the stump is corroborated: "In digging a well in Cincinnati, the stump of a tree was found in a sound state, ninety feet below the surface; and in digging another well, at the same place, another stump was found, at ninety four feet below the surface, which had evident marks of the ax; and on its top there appeared as if some iron tool had been consumed by rust."