The learned Abbé is now no more, but the record of his labors exists in his published works, and in the impulse which he gave to archæological investigations. We receive the first notice of his death from Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft, who pays the following eloquent tribute to his memory: “Brasseur de Bourbourg devoted his life to the study of American primitive history. In actual knowledge pertaining to his chosen subjects, no man ever equalled or approached him. Besides being an indefatigable student, he was an elegant writer. In the last decade of his life, he conceived a new and complicated theory respecting the origin of the American people, or rather the origin of Europeans and Asiatics from America, made known to the world in his ‘Quatre Lettres.’ His attempted translation of the manuscript Troano was made in support of this theory. By reason of the extraordinary nature of the views expressed, and the author’s well-known tendency to build magnificent structures on a slight foundation, his later writings were received, for the most part by critics utterly incompetent to understand them, with a sneer, or what seems to have grieved the writer more, in silence. Now that the great Americanist is dead, while it is not likely that his theories will ever be received, his zeal in the cause of antiquarian science, and the many valuable works from his pen will be better appreciated. It will be long ere another shall undertake, with equal devotion and ability, the well nigh hopeless task.”[32-*]

Among the historical records relating to the aborigines of Spanish America, there is none more valuable than the manuscript of Diego de Landa—Second Bishop of Yucatan, in 1573,—which was discovered and published by M. de Bourbourg. It contains an account of the manners and customs of the Maya Indians, a description of some of their chief towns; and more important than all besides, it furnishes an alphabet, which is the most probable key that is known to us for reading the hieroglyphics which are found upon many of the Yucatan ruins. The alphabet, though imperfect in itself, may at some future time explain, not only the inscriptions, but also the manuscripts of this ancient period. Although an attempt of its discoverer, to make use of the alphabet for interpreting the characters of the manuscript Troano, has failed to satisfy scholars, its study still engages the attention of other learned archæologists and antiquaries.

Bishop Landa gives the following description of Mayan manuscripts or books: “They wrote their books on a large, highly decorated leaf, doubled in folds and enclosed between two boards, and they wrote on both sides in columns corresponding to the folds. The paper they made of the roots of a tree, and gave it a white varnish on which one could write well. This art was known by certain men of high rank, and because of their knowledge of it they were much esteemed, but they did not practice the art in public. This people also used certain characters or letters, with which they wrote in their books of their antiquities and their sciences: and by means of these, and of figures, and by certain signs in their figures, they understood their writings, and made them understood, and taught them. We found among them a great number of books of these letters of theirs, and because they contained nothing which had not superstitions and falsities of the devil, we burned them all; at which they were exceedingly sorrowful and troubled.”[33-*]

In Cogolludo’s Historia de Yucatan, there is an account of a destruction of Indian antiquities by Bishop Landa, called an auto-dä-fē, of which we give a translation: “This Bishop, who has passed for an illustrious saint among the priests of this province, was still an extravagant fanatic, and so hard hearted that he became cruel. One of the heaviest accusations against him, which his apologists could not deny or justify, was the famous auto-dä-fē, in which he proceeded in a most arbitrary and despotic manner. Father Landa destroyed many precious memorials, which to-day might throw a brilliant light over our ancient history, still enveloped in an almost impenetrable chaos until the period of the conquest. Landa saw in books that he could not comprehend, cabalistic signs, and invocations to the devil. From notes in a letter written by the Yucatan Jesuit, Domingo Rodriguez, in 1805, we offer the following enumeration of the articles destroyed and burned.

Other precious curiosities are spoken of, but we have no description of them.”[34-*]

Captain Antonio del Rio gives an account of another destruction of Mayan antiquities, at Huegetan: “The Bishop of Chiapas, Don Francisco Nunez de la Vega, in his Diocesan Constitution, printed at Rome in 1702, says, that the treasure consisted of some large earthen vases of one piece, closed with covers of the same material, on which were represented in stone the figures of the ancient pagans whose names are in the calendar, with some chalchihuitls, which are solid hard stones of a green color, and other superstitious figures, together with historical works of Indian origin. These were taken from a cave and given up, when they were publicly burned in the square Huegetan, on our visit to that province in 1691.”[35-*]

Prescott also mentions the destruction of manuscripts and other works of art in Mexico: “The first Arch-Bishop of Mexico, Don Juan de Zumarraga, a name that should be as immortal as that of Omar, collected these paintings from every quarter, especially from Tescuco, the most cultivated capital of Anahuac, and the great depository of the national archives. He then caused them to be piled up in a mountain heap, as it was called by the Spanish writers themselves, in the market place of Tlatelolco, and reduced them all to ashes.”[35-†]

It is not then to be wondered at, that so few original Mayan manuscripts have escaped and are preserved, when such a spirit of destruction animated the Spanish priests at the time of the conquest. Mr. Hubert Howe Bancroft, whom we are happy to recognize as a member of this Society, in a systematic and exhaustive treatment of the history and present condition of the Indians of the Pacific States, has presented a great amount of valuable information, much of which has never before been offered to the public; and in his wide view, he comprehends important observations on Central American antiquities. He gives this account of existing ancient Maya manuscripts or books. “Of the aboriginal Maya manuscripts, three specimens only, so far as I know, have been preserved. These are the Mexican Manuscript No. 2, of the Imperial Library at Paris; the Dresden Codex, and the Manuscript Troano. Of the first, we only know of its existence, and the similarity of its characters to those of the other two, and of the sculptured tablets. The Dresden Codex is preserved in the Royal Library of Dresden. The Manuscript Troano was found about the year 1865, in Madrid, by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg. Its name comes from that of its possessor in Madrid, Sr. Tro y Ortolano, and nothing whatever is known of its origin. The original is written on a strip of maguey paper, about fourteen feet long, and nine inches wide, the surface of which is covered with a whitish varnish, on which the figures are painted in black, red, blue and brown. It is folded fan-like into thirty-five folds, presenting when shut much the appearance of a modern large octavo volume; The hieroglyphics cover both sides of the paper, and the writing is consequently divided into seventy pages, each about five by nine inches, having been apparently executed after the paper was folded, so that the folding does not interfere with the written matter.”[36-*]

It is probable that early manuscripts, as well as others of less antiquity than the above mentioned, but of great historical importance, yet remain buried among the archives of the many churches and convents of Yucatan; and it is also true that a systematic search for them has never been prosecuted. A thorough examination of ecclesiastical and antiquarian collections in that country, would be a service to the students of archæology which ought not to be longer deferred.